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 Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.(R), Phi Beta Omega Chapter, along with Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.(R), Theta Iota Chapter from West Chester University recently served more than 125 hot meals at the Cecil and Grace Soup Kitchen housed in St. Johns Episcopal Church, 521 Church Street in Norristown for their annual program, November to Remember. The food was prepared by chapter member Mattie Wilkinson and the coordinator of the event was chapter member Cassandre Luberus. The chapter also distributed over 150 hats, scarves, gloves, rain ponchos, and blankets to help the homeless navigate the cold weather. In addition, nutritional snacks were given out in to-go bags along with water bottles. A fun nutritional game, Eat this, Not that was played to inform and promote healthy eating points to the participating consumers. Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. (R) was the first Greek-lettered sorority established and incorporated by African-American college women. The sorority was founded on January 15, 1908, at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Driven by its dedication to service and sisterhood, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. (R), has evolved into a global organization with over 290,000 members in over 1000 +, chapters located in the United States, Canada, Caribbean, US Virgin Islands, Liberia, South Africa, Germany, Korea, Dubai, and Japan. Locally, since 1998, the Phi Beta Omega chapter has served Bucks and Montgomery Counties on behalf of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.(R). The commitment has fostered relationships and partnerships with many other organizations and businesses in the communities we serve. Since our chartering we have provided over $100,000 in scholarships; as well as significant services and programs fulfilling our motto of, Service to all Mankind. NORRISTOWN The Norristown Area School Board held its Nov. 26 meeting at the Central Montgomery Technical High School to coincide with the schools open house for prospective students and their families. Among those in attendance was a contingent of school nurses opposed to a pupil services recommendation to hire a Registered Nurse to replace a retiring Certified School Nurse and to revisit current CSN assignments as part of the restructuring. The motion to approve the recommendation passed by a vote of 6-3. Special Services Director Casey Molitor said the district is currently overstaffed with CSNs and the move which will save the district approximately $60,000 is in accordance with state mandates and guidelines. She said the 11 remaining CSNs would be placed on a rotating schedule to staff the districts 12 school buildings and assured board members that students would continue to receive proper care and coverage with full-time nurses staffing each school daily. The current Pennsylvania Department of Education statute stipulates a certified nurse to student ratio of 1 to 1,500 and the Norristown Area School District currently has around 7,100 students. Certified School Nurses are the only healthcare professionals allowed to perform regularly scheduled health screenings that occur at each school several times per year. I dont want anybody to think this is step one in a mission to get down to what would be five CSNs because we realize we wouldnt be able to get through screenings with just five, said Superintendent Christopher Dormer, noting that administrators sought to exceed mandated staffing levels in a fiscally responsible manner. I simply find this unacceptable, said board member Janet Pearce who joined board member Jamila Winder and board Vice President Matt Rivera in opposing the recommendation. Having worked in the system, there were never enough qualified nurses. I think that our children suffered because of that, Pearce continued, I think its an issue where we shouldnt allow money or the quality of the nurse to interfere with what needs to be done in each building where children become sick every day. You dont know what you dont know, said NASD Certified School Nurse Cathy Schunder. I was actually a staff nurse in this district for 10 years before I became a CSN and it was only through that process that I realized how much more there was to that position above an beyond what I was doing as a staff nurse. Schunder likened the work CSNs perform to case management, citing the elevated volume of unique health needs and services required by many of the districts students and their families. She and other district nurses, some of whom had emergency room experience, described being a CSN in the Norristown Area School District as the toughest job theyd had. I would appreciate if some of them (board members) would come and see our body of work and get a better sense of what our job is because whats being represented to them is not a full representation of our job, Schunder said. In other business, the board unanimously approved the acceptance of a recently submitted 2017/2018 districtwide audit. Board member George Kennedy said the district came out with flying colors but lamented the districts chronic underfunding. Over time the cost of public education has increased while state and federal funding have remained relatively stable. As a result, a larger portion of our budget has been provided by our local tax base, Kennedy said. Approximately 70 percent of our $150 million budget comes from our local tax base Our federal sources are a relatively small amount of our overall funding and our Pennsylvania State Legislature has continued since the 1970s to not allocate the right amount, or an average amount that most states allocate to their public educationThat is billions of dollars that are not being spent on our school district and on every other school district in Pennsylvania and that is not right. We have a hurdle that is creating an increased burden on every taxpayer, added Kennedy, pointing out a decline in residential market values in the district which has led to an increase in property assessment appeals. As a school board member and as a taxpayer, I feel conflicted. I believe in public education. I will fund everything I can for the benefit of our children and all of our students but this burden is becoming onerous. And while Im going to do what I can about our (funding) sources, I would like for every taxpayer to think about contacting their representatives and everybody in the state legislature about reversing this alarming trend. London 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 hearing the first such cross-border event in London since 1933. They want to scrutinize Facebook over its handling of data privacy, most notably involving consultancy Cambridge Analytica's improper use of information from more than 87 million Facebook accounts to manipulate elections. British select committees are used to investigate major issues and have the powerful from CEOs to government officials explain 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. 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." Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. 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. ALBANY The Helderberg Neighborhood Association has joined an Albany council member's opposition to a planned medical tattoo studio opening on New Scotland Avenue. The association's board of directors penned a letter Wednesday to the city's Board of Zoning Appeals supporting Common Council member Judy Doesschate's campaign to block Colour Cosmetic Studio from opening at 372 New Scotland Ave. "We want to make clear. We are pro small business in the neighborhood," the neighborhood association wrote in a Facebook post. "We felt a duty to comment on this to express support for transparency between the city and its neighborhoods, and our concern lies not within the particular business at hand, but with the city upholding its procedures it created for the purpose of strong planning and respecting the opportunity for public participation." The board members echoed many of the arguments Doesschate had given, arguing the described paramedical micropigmentation services shouldn't be considered an office, but a personal or business service, and thus is not allowed in the residential area. The letter was posted to the association's Facebook page early Wednesday. Kathleen Cronin and her daughter, Nora Quinn, earlier this year purchased 372 New Scotland Ave., a former chiropractor's office, to move Colour Cosmetic Studio from its current location on Western Avenue. Albany's planning Commissioner Chris Spencer had determined the proposed use would be similar to an office, and thus allowable under the zoning and previous use of the site. The neighborhood association's board members allege in their letter that the city is misrepresenting the business by designating it an office and skirting the process that would be prompted if it was designated as a personal or business use, which would require a conditional use permit. The proposed use would then come before the Board of Zoning Appeals and allow for the public to weigh in. "Such services have neighborhood-wide impacts exceeding those that residents may have previously or reasonably (expected) from a residential neighborhood, including: public health and safety risks relating to potential exposure to infectious waste; proper disposal of hazardous waste; parking; and other concerns affecting residents quality of life and property values impacts not taken into account under the city's interpretation," the board members wrote. Doesschate, who lives across the street from the proposed site of the studio, submitted an appeal to the city's Board of Zoning Appeals to block the business from opening. She says the studio is a tattoo parlor, not a doctor's office, and thus is prohibited from operating in a residential district. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. All parties were able to share their side to zoning board members Wednesday. The buildings surrounding 372 New Scotland are mostly two-family homes, sandwiched in a three-block stretch by a school and church on one side and restaurants and a bank on the other. Within that stretch, there are retail and medical offices, including the Albany Art Room at the corner of Harris Avenue and New Scotland and Upstate Infectious Diseases Associates at the corner of Pinewood and New Scotland avenues. Doesschate also has filed a notice of claim against the city the precursor to a lawsuit alleging Albany officials are violating her and her neighbors' rights, exposing them to health and safety risks along with possible reductions in property values and emotional harm by allowing the studio to operate at 372 New Scotland. Doesschate claims that she and other residents fear "creeping commercialization" in their residential neighborhood. She said if Colour Cosmetic Studio is permitted to operate, it could possibly open the door to further retail and commercial uses in other residential communities. Jackie Rowen will never forget her mother's reaction when she spotted the small dolphin tattooed on her daughter's hip. "Hitler tattooed the Jews," Rowan's mom yelled at her, shocked and angered by her first tattoo. Years have passed, times have changed, tattoos have become very popular and stylish, and Rowen has gotten more ink but she still receives a similar reaction of disappointment, even disparagement, from some people when they realize that Rowen, a Jewish woman from Schenectady, has tattoos. Tattoos are frowned upon in the Jewish community. But are they prohibited? If so, is that out of respect for Holocaust survivors? Does it have something to do what what's written in the Torah? And if Jews do get a tattoo, are they not allowed to be buried in a Jewish cemetery? KB Goodkin visited the Albany Jewish Community Center Monday night to tackle these common questions with a presentation she calls "Jews with Tattoos." "This is a good opportunity to get together and talk about hot topics in the Jewish community and things that could create further dialog in a space where we can really be quite condemning," said Goodkin, director of community engagement and advancement for the Jewish Federation of Northeastern New York. "I think it's important that we find room for these hard conversations." For starters, tattoos for Jews are prohibited according to halakot, the body of Jewish law and tradition, Goodkin said. But why? Goodkin said many times people think it has something to do with the Holocaust, where Jews were involuntarily marked in concentration camps, but she said the real reason has to do with the issue of idolatry. She cited the Biblical reference in the Book of Leviticus that states, "You shall not make gashes in your flesh for the dead, nor imprint any marks upon you: I am the Lord." Goodkin said that in ancient times it was customary for idol worshipers to tattoo themselves as a sign of commitment to their deity, people or things, which could potentially lead to idolatry. So what actually happens if a Jew gets a tattoo? People from various generations in the audience attending the presentation, from a 12-year-old to folks in their 50s, said they were all told something similar: that if they get a tattoo, they would not be allowed to be buried in a Jewish cemetery. Goodkin said this is a "myth and complete, utter bull cockamamie." "In very rare, very very Orthodox settings that may be true," Goodkin said. While tattoos are prohibited, she compared it to Jews breaking the rules of keeping kosher. "How many of you have ate a bacon cheeseburger or shrimp?" Goodkin asked. Most in the audience raised their hands. "Just like the laws of prohibition of keeping kosher, they cannot keep you from being buried in a Jewish cemetery. It's the same if you have a tattoo," Goodkin said. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. And while tattoos may be prohibited, many Jews don't let that stop them. According to a Pew Research Center report, about 38 percent of young people ages 18 to 29 have at least one tattoo. While there is no organization that tracks exactly how many Jews have a tattoo, Goodkin, who has spent years working with youth, said she has seen it become more common. "It's a way for them to identify," Goodkin said. "Or for them to say I'm proud of who I am." And in some cases, it is a way for them to start an eye-opening conversation. Goodkin flipped through pictures of Jews with tattoos, from the Star of David, an ironic pig with a kosher symbol on it and Hebrew words or letters. One tattoo. on the back of a woman's neck, drew gasps from the audience. It was a replica of the gates of Auschwitz with the words, Arbeit Macht Frei (German for Work Will Set You Free). While Goodkin said she has has seen people visibly upset or offended by this tattoo, she sees the reasoning behind it. "She is saying, as far as I understand it, 'I won't let you forget. I take it upon myself to not just be a reminder, but an educator, about the Holocaust,'" Goodkin said." Many people when they see someone with an interesting tattoo ask what it is and the meaning behind it. Goodkin said she is sure the woman with the image of the Auschwitz death camp also gets that question, which gives her the opportunity to educate people about the Holocaust. Goodkin will host another presentation at the Albany JCC at 7 p.m. Feb. 27, called "Jews, Booze, Tattoos and Other Taboos." "I don't condone and I don't condemn," Goodkin said. "I don't expect to change peoples minds, but I think offering a different perspective is really important." The investigation into Trooper Jeremy J. VanNostrands death on Tuesday is continuing as State Police try to determine what caused a box truck to hit the six-year veteran, forcing his car in to on-coming traffic. State Police are offering counseling through its employee assistance program to troopers who request it as well as VanNostrands family, a State Police spokeswoman said. ALBANY - Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is turning for help on Wednesday to the man he has described as the biggest threat to New York: President Donald J. Trump. The two Queens' natives are scheduled to meet in Washington, D.C., to discuss the new Gateway Tunnel, a $13 billion project that would replace the century-old connection between New York and New Jersey. A deal crafted in 2015 with President Barack Obama's administration to split the price tag between the states and federal government was rejected earlier by Trump, but Cuomo has continued to advocate for the project. The two-term Democratic governor has only had a handful of personal interactions with the GOP president since his election in 2016, as most of their exchanges have come in the form of critical attacks through social media, press releases and interviews. Trump was the recurring theme of Cuomo's recent re-election campaign, which was embodied by his victory speech earlier this month, when he failed to mention Republican nominee Marc Molinaro and instead framed the result as a rebuke of the president. While the governor has faulted the president for a wide array of policies, from immigration to LGBTQ rights, he has been particularly focused on the federal tax changes signed into law by Trump, which limited state and local tax deductions. Cuomo identified that issue as the number one priority for New York's congressional delegation heading into the new legislative session. In August, Trump said Cuomo was having a "meltdown" after the governor's gaffe on the campaign trail, when he said "America was never that great." Earlier that month, while visiting upstate New York, Trump dared Cuomo to challenge him in two years. "Please do it. Please do it," he said. Cuomo, who previously said he plans on completing his third term unless god strikes him dead, reiterated on Tuesday that nothing has changed and he will not seek a Democratic nomination for president in two years. The governor's past envoys to Trump include a visit to Trump Tower in 2017 before the presidential inauguration, where they discussed health care, taxes, housing and construction projects. Cuomo said at the time the meeting wasn't "adversarial." "Basically, the conversation was about both the opportunities for the state of New York and the needs of the state of New York," Cuomo told reporters. Traditionally, New York's governors have been able to find common ground with presidents of the opposite party, according to Lloyd Constantine, a special adviser to former-Gov. Eliot Spitzer. "It's very situational," he said. In the limited instances where President George W. Bush, a Republican, was on the same page with Spitzer, a Democrat, Constantine said party affiliation didn't matter. When they were at odds, he acknowledged things could be a little more antagonistic because of the partisan element. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. But he stressed that past comparisons only go so far. "Spitzer didn't have a president like Trump," Constantine said. Constantine doubts the pair's antagonistic relationship would inform their ability to work together, as he believes that Trump is "transactional" and will do what benefits him in the moment. "He flips back and forth," he said. The president spoke with Cuomo after he sent over video footage last month that detailed the state of the existing tunnel, including broken electrical cables and disintegrating concrete. Transportation experts have advocated for a new tunnel to address congestion and create smoother traffic at one of the country's busiest hubs. "We need the president's administration to move forward," Cuomo told WNYC radio host Brian Lehrer on Tuesday morning. U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, who met with the governor on this issue in July and is expected to take part in Wednesday's meeting, has maintained that New York and New Jersey need to pay for more than half the proposal. David.Lombardo@timesunion.com - 518.454.5427 - @poozer87 ALBANY The state's Joint Commission on Public Ethics will probe allegations that a former chief of staff for state Sen. Simcha Felder groped and sexually harassed a female lobbyist during a campaign fundraiser for Sen. George Amedore. Two people briefed on the case said that JCOPE, which received a referral from the Legislative Ethics Commission to investigate the allegations, is waiting for the conclusion of a related investigation by the Albany County sheriff's department. The accusations were leveled in October against Rodney C. Powis, 48, an attorney from East Greenbush who works at a private law firm in Rensselaer County. Less than a week after the woman's allegations were published in the Times Union, Powis checked into a 30-day alcohol treatment program, according to people familiar with his decision. Payroll records indicate Powis left the Senate payroll at the end of October. A spokeswoman for Felder confirmed he is no longer employed in their office but declined to say whether he had been asked to resign. Powis and his attorney, Karl J. Sleight of Albany, are scheduled to meet with sheriff's investigators and officials from the Albany County district attorney's office this week. Two people briefed on the meeting's agenda said that Powis is expected to provide affidavits from people who attended the October fundraiser and claim they did not witness the abuse described by the alleged victim. Sleight declined to comment on Wednesday. The woman, who is in her mid-30s, said Powis harassed and groped her during an Oct. 11 fundraiser at the Guilderland residence of William F. Lia Jr., 49, a Capital Region businessman whose family owns the Lia Auto Group. Powis was at the event as Felder's representative; dozens of people paid a minimum of $250 to attend the catered fundraiser. The alleged encounter between Powis and the woman unfolded about 90 minutes after Amedore spoke to the gathering. The woman's identity is being withheld by the Times Union because she is an alleged victim of sexual abuse. A Senate source familiar with the matter told the Times Union last month that Amedore notified the secretary of the Senate, Francis W. Patience, after learning of the allegations two days after the fundraiser. Felder, a Brooklyn Democrat who has conferenced with Senate Republicans, issued a statement last month saying Powis had been placed on administrative leave, but would continue to receive his $119,000-a-year salary. "These are serious allegations and were reported immediately," Felder said in the statement. "We are following standard Senate procedure and he has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation. I cannot comment any further at this time." A Senate investigation of the woman's allegations was handled by a private law firm that concluded its work last month without interviewing Powis, who was unavailable due to his enrollment in the treatment program. Those findings, which are not made public under Senate rules, were referred to the Legislative Ethics Commission and then to JCOPE around the same time that Powis left the Senate payroll. The Senate's investigator, a private attorney, had re-interviewed the alleged victim last month and asked her whether the allegations were "politically motivated," according to the woman. It's unclear what prompted that line of questioning. "I have a clearer understanding of why people don't pursue these things," the woman said Wednesday. "Ultimately, what this has done is put the onus on me. ... Am I not to be believed as a victim?" Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. The woman, who had agreed to an interview with the Times Union last month after being contacted by the newspaper, said that Powis began making inappropriate comments to her as she sat at a table with him and two other women. The woman said Powis, who was sitting next to her, inquired about her marital status and allegedly made unsettling comments when he learned that she's a single mother, and that a man she had been talking to at the event was not her husband. "He told me I looked hot," she said. She said that Powis suggested she and another man at the party have sex that night, and that Powis subsequently groped her right breast before one of his hands slid down and touched her buttocks. "Then he announced to the table, 'I just grabbed her boob,'" she said. "I looked across the table to a woman who was with us and I mouthed the word 'help.'" That woman subsequently came to the alleged victim's aid by whisking her away to get some food, she said. Some of those who the woman said may have witnessed the encounter are acquaintances of Powis'. It's unclear if those witnesses have provided the affidavits indicating they did not see any groping or sexual harassment. The woman told police last month that another woman at the event was aware of what was unfolding, and retrieved the alleged victim's purse from where Powis was seated and escorted her out of the event. An Albany County grand jury indicted Thomas Slivienski on two felony counts Wednesday in connection with the death of Johni Dunia in Cohoes earlier this month. Slivienski, 22, was charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon. The indictment alleges that just after 10 p.m. on Nov. 16 on the Mohawk Hudson Bikeway, Slivienski shot Dunia, 17, multiple times. Slivienski will be arraigned on Friday, according to the Albany County District Attorneys office. Dunia was a junior at Albany High School. His funeral is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 1, at the Chapel and Cultural Center at Rensselaer in Troy, according to an obituary published in the Times Union on Sunday. According to his obituary he was born July 13, 2001 in Goma, North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He and his family came to the United States eight years ago, settling in Springfield, Mass., before moving to the Capital Region. A GoFundMe has been set up for Johni Dunia's family to pay for his funeral costs. He is survived by his brother, three sisters, mother, maternal grandmother and paternal grandparents. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Dunia's death is the second homicide in Cohoes this year and only one of nine in the last 30 years, according to FBI data. Police urge anyone with information about the shooting to call detectives at 518-233-2146 or the confidential tip line at 518-233-2161. ALBANY A lawsuit filed Wednesday seeks to dismantle New York's sweeping new lobbying regulations, which are set to go into effect in January. The suit, which was provided to the Times Union, was filed in state Supreme Court in Albany by three petitioners including David Grandeau, the state's former top lobbying enforcement official who is now a top private lobbying compliance attorney. The respondent in the matter is the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics, New York's ethics and lobbying watchdog entity, as well as its commissioners. In April, JCOPE's commissioners appointed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and legislative leaders of both parties unanimously passed the regulations overhauling the rules that cover New York's sprawling lobbying industry. The lawsuit, York Group Associates LLC v. Joint Commission on Public Ethics, argues that JCOPE's commissioners lack the authority under New York law to create the 92 pages of new regulations. The plaintiffs argue those rules would unduly burden lobbyists and their clients, and infringe on their free speech rights. "This is a case about bureaucratic overreach," states the suit. "(JCOPE) does not have the authority to issue comprehensive regulations, let alone regulations that expand and amend the Lobbying Act." The new rules, developed by JCOPE staff over a period of more than two years, are among the most substantial pieces of work produced by the ethics watchdog panel since its creation in 2011. The petitioners want to see the regulations struck down in state Supreme Court, and are seeking an injunction disallowing JCOPE from enforcing them in the interim. The rules were intended to define as lobbyists a class of political consultants that has wielded influence with elected officials through close relationships, without the consultants themselves actually engaging in traditional arm-twisting. While JCOPE's staff have said the new rules largely codify decades of existing state ethics opinions, the regulations were meant to update New York's lobbying rules for the 21st Century, as modern lobbying campaigns emphasize the application of public pressure on lawmakers separate from more traditional person-to-person lobbying. Lobbyists have also recently been at the center of a number of major federal corruption trials in New York and JCOPE has been criticized for not doing more to uncover the wrongdoing. Under the new definitions in the regulations, the parameters of traditional lobbying are expanded: A person's presence at a lobbying meeting or on a lobbying phone call with an elected official, for instance, can trigger the requirement to register as a lobbyist even if that person does not personally ask an elected official to take government action. Using one's relationship simply to set up a lobbying meeting or phone call with an elected official would now count as lobbying, as would introducing a client to an elected official. So would certain types of social media activities meant to influence New York politicians. A major plank of the rules creates more disclosure around so-called "grassroots lobbying," in which well-funded interest groups seek to sway public and elected official opinions through campaign-style lobbying efforts. The rules also include explicit requirement that lobbyists disclose the names of the lawmakers that they lobby. Currently, lobbyists and their clients often simply list "Senate," "Assembly" or "Executive" as the entity that they have lobbied, making it difficult for the public to know who exactly is being influenced. The petitioners' lawsuit singles out that provision for particular criticism, arguing that nowhere in state law is there actually such a requirement to disclose the names of individual officials who are lobbied. The lawsuit also takes aim specifically at the new "grassroots lobbying" rules; JCOPE's broad new definition of the term "lobby day" (a term for the days in which a particular interest group swarms the Capitol for rallies and meetings); and a new, broader requirement that unpaid members of boards of directors register as lobbyists. The lawyer who filed the lawsuit for the complainants is Joshua Seifert, whose Manhattan-based practice has focused on commercial litigation. The plaintiffs include Grandeau, a frequent JCOPE antagonist who has maintained a colorful, critical and often-profane blog on his law firm's website documenting the panel's activities. The petitioners also include the New York City-based lobbying firm York Group Associates, as well as Voters for Animal Rights, a nonprofit that sprung out of the initial well-funded effort in New York City to ban horse carriages in Central Park. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. York Group Associates has previously run into trouble with JCOPE: In August, the firm reached a $2,500 settlement with the watchdog over allegations that its principal, Tiffany Raspberry, had failed to file various required lobbying disclosures. In an interview, Grandeau said that bigger New York lobbying firms were scared away from joining the lawsuit due to fears of retaliation. "I would certainly hope JCOPE would not retaliate, but after watching how JCOPE handles things for seven years, I would say it's not an unreasonable concern," Grandeau said. Grandeau maintains that while JCOPE has the authority under law to write opinions, it has the power to write regulations only in very specific circumstances. The Legislature never passed a law authorizing JCOPE to broadly reinterpret the state's lobbying rules, the lawsuit maintains; instead, the commission's job is primarily to administer and enforce existing laws. Grandeau had previously threatened to file a lawsuit if JCOPE passed the regulations. At a hearing in late 2017, JCOPE Executive Director Seth Agata seemed to backtrack from them, stating that the new regulations were merely "advisory" and would not create "new" possible legal violations if enforced. JCOPE Chairman Michael Rozen, however, clarified at a subsequent meeting that the regulations would indeed have the force and effect of law. At the April 2018 meeting where the regulations were finally approved, JCOPE Commissioner Marvin Jacob raised the question of whether the lobbying regulations would face a legal challenge. Agata responded that no one had made a "well-founded" argument against either the substance of the regulations or JCOPE's ability to issue them. JCOPE spokesman Walter McClure said at the time that JCOPE was empowered to create the rules because New York law says the commission has the sole authority to "administer and enforce" the law. On Wednesday, McClure said the agency does not comment on litigation. In a statement in April, JCOPE chairman Rozen also said the regulations were "an important step in the commission's efforts to ensure public transparency regarding who spends money to influence government, and where and how lobbyists and their clients spend that money." ALBANY The owner of the 2001 stretch Ford Excursion involved in the tragic Schoharie County crash appears to have circumvented the state's inspection process repeatedly after buying the vehicle in 2016, according to state records obtained by the Times Union. The vehicle was required to undergo rigorous inspections overseen by the state Department of Transportation every six months. Instead, the Excursion was improperly inspected by auto centers licensed by the state Department of Motor Vehicles during the two years it was in service for Prestige Limousine. The most recent inspection, according to records, was performed in May by Mavis Discount Tire shop in Saratoga Springs. George Deutsch of Royale Limousine in Albany, who sold the vehicle to Prestige's owner Shahed Hussain in 2016, said the vehicle was a DOT-regulated vehicle, and Hussain should have been aware of its status. "Either way, you can't get into this business and say 'I did not know,'" Deutsch said. "There's no other way to do business." Records obtained by the Times Union show that Hussain's Wilton-based company appears to have bypassed the DOT inspection process for nearly two years after Prestige purchased the vehicle from Royale. The company didn't even try to obtain proper DOT certification, also called operating authority. Over the same period, the limo's registration was repeatedly revoked by the DMV for having its insurance canceled multiple times. It's unclear if the Excursion's registration was still suspended on Oct. 6, when it hurtled into the parking lot of the Apple Barrel Country Store in Schoharie and plunged into a ditch. All 18 people aboard and two bystanders were killed. The limo, carrying a group of 17 friends and family members, had been traveling from Amsterdam to Cooperstown for a birthday celebration at the time of the crash. Hussain, a former FBI informant with a long history of shady business deals, is believed to be in Pakistan. His son Nauman Hussain, who goes by Arslan and was reportedly operating the business at the time of the crash, has been charged with one count of criminally negligent homicide. The State Police and the National Transportation Safety Board are leading the investigation into the crash. Deutsch, who owns one of the Capital Region's largest limo companies, sold Prestige Limousine the stretch 2001 Ford Excursion as well as two stretch Lincoln Town Cars. Under state law, stretch limousines like the 2001 Excursion have to go through rigorous inspections with the state DOT every six months. The process is similar to the one required for school buses. According to records obtained by the Times Union, Prestige circumvented that requirement by going to DMV-licensed inspection stations instead. Those stations are specifically banned from issuing inspection stickers to stretch limos. The DMV has refused to answer questions about where Prestige obtained inspection stickers for the Excursion. "In light of the ongoing criminal investigation ... it would be irresponsible to comment on any information that could compromise the integrity of that investigation," a DMV spokeswoman said in a statement. Records obtained by the Times Union show that on July 22, 2016, the Excursion received a DMV inspection sticker at the Wilton Truck Center off Exit 16 of the Northway. A DOT inspector noted the same DMV inspection sticker on the limo in a March 21, 2018, spot inspection in Wilton that ended with the Excursion being ordered off the road due to bad brakes and other mechanical and paperwork issues. The inspector also noted that Prestige should have been inspected under the DOT's bus program. But less than two months later, the Hussains on May 11 took the Excursion to the Mavis Discount Tire shop on South Broadway in Saratoga Springs, where it passed inspection again, even though stretch limos are not supposed to get such stickers. On Wednesday, the assistant general manager of the Mavis declined to comment on the May inspection and referred questions to the chain's corporate offices. A call to Mavis's headquarters was not returned on Wednesday. The owner of Wilton Truck Center did not return a call seeking comment. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. The DOT inspected the Excursion again on Sept. 4, again ordering the limo off the road. An agency spokesman said in an email Wednesday that DOT "inspected the crash vehicle, placed the vehicle out of service, and affixed a sticker to the windshield ordering that the vehicle not be used. The owner/operator of the vehicle removed this sticker and intentionally violated the law, and as a result, one of the owners has been charged with criminally negligent homicide." The Times Union has asked for the state's inspection records on the Excursion under the Freedom of Information Law, although the DOT has told the newspaper that it is taking longer than usual to fulfill the request "due to a high number of FOIL requests recently received." RELATED STORIES: A lawyer representing Prestige and the Hussains in civil matters related to the case declined comment. Deutsch, the Royale Limousine owner, said that from the time his company purchased the Excursion, he always went through the proper DOT inspection process, and that the limo was safe when his company operated it. "Our records our impeccable," Deutsch said. Deutsch said his company, which is located on Lark Street in downtown Albany, only sold the Excusion when his company was expanding its bus and taxi operations and needed to make space at its garage by selling off older vehicles. Deutsch said that he helped the NTSB get up to speed on limousine companies since the federal agency usually deals with accidents involving planes, trains and buses. "The NTSB has been in our facility for weeks," Deutsch said. "They were kind of in a twilight zone with (understanding) limousines; they were able to see how we operated." NTSB spokesman Eric Weiss declined to comment. "The investigation is ongoing," Weiss said. RAVENA - A Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk High School student was arrested Tuesday for allegedly making a bomb threat at the school, Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple said. During the school dismissal, the 15-year-old boy allegedly told a staff member, "I'm going to blow the school up." The threat was investigated and the teen was located at his home and placed in police custody, Apple said. He was charged with making a terroristic threat, a felony, released to his parents and scheduled to appear at Albany County probation on Wednesday, Apple said. GHENT A sheriff's patrol vehicle was involved in a crash while responding to a shooting in Stockport Sunday evening, 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 accident, said Lt. Wayne Lopez. A 44-year-old larceny suspect who, State Police said, may be armed and dangerous is among the fugitives they hope the public can help them find at part of their Warrant Wednesday initiative. Robert L. Wagner, 44, is wanted by State Police in Machias on charges of grand larceny, weapons possession, menacing and harassment. The charges stem from a Sept. 9, 2018, altercation in the town of Yorkshire. Troopers said Wagner may be armed and should not be approached. Thomas Hough, 22, of Wayland is wanted by State Police in Bath on a charge of unlawful imprisonment that stems from a domestic dispute. Shamieka L. Dicks, 31, is wanted by State Police in Somers on an allegation he possessed a forged document. She was arrested in 2017. Cory M. McClain, 31, is wanted by State Police in Malone on a charge of offering a false instrument. Troopers said he is wanted in town court after a welfare fraud investigation. Kayleigh L. Leitch, 30, is wanted by State Police in Colonie on a charge of driving while ability impaired, a charge that stems from an allegation she was driving under the influence of drugs when her car was stopped by police. Michael C. Wise, 46, is wanted by State Police in Marcy on a bench warrant that accuses him of faling to pay a court fine of $736 for operating a motor vehicle with a suspended suspended license. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Erica R. Teschberg, 37, is wanted by State Police in East Meadow on a charge of driving while intoxicated. She was arrested in June 2010 and a warrant was issued three months later. Gordon R. Monreal, 52, is wanted by State Police in Buffalo on a bench warrant that accuses him of driving while intoxicated June 20, 2016 on the Thruway. William H. Cobb, 59, is wanted by State Police in Oneonta on a conviction for driving with ability impaired by alcohol, troopers said. The warrant was issued in April 2017. ALBANY Outgoing Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan might get to enjoy a few minutes as governor on Wednesday. His possible ascension to the top of the executive branch would be made possible by a provision in the state constitution that says if the governor and lieutenant governor are absent from the state, "the temporary president of the senate shall act as governor." Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has a lunch meeting with President Donald J. Trump today in Washington, D.C., and Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul is spending the morning in Virginia for a National Lieutenant Governors Association conference. An Executive Chamber spokesman acknowledge the possibility of a brief overlap in which both Democrats will be out of New York at the same time. The governor's meeting is scheduled for 12:45 p.m., and his office said he will likely depart New York before noon today. (Probably well before noon, as flight time from the metropolitan area to Washington is roughly 45 minutes and it would be rude for the governor to be stuck in D.C. traffic as the president and his transportation secretary make small talk.) A spokeswoman for Hochul said "she'll be back for a 1 p.m. event" in the Bronx, but didn't address whether her return would be before Cuomo makes his exit. In his eight years as governor, Cuomo has rarely left the state. In those occasions, the reins of power have gone to either Bob Duffy or Hochul. After putting our collective heads together in the newsroom, we couldn't remember a time in recent memory when both had left the state at the same time, thus empowering the senate majority leader (who serves as temporary president of the senate). It's unlikely that Flanagan, if he does get to be governor today, will exercise any of the powers of the office. "The Majority Leader is going to work just as hard today as he does every day for the people of New York," Senate GOP spokesman Scott Reif said when asked how Flanagan would spend a potential stint as governor. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. The last time this issue was a concern was after David Paterson ascended to governor in March 2008 and the lieutenant governor post remained vacant until the 2009 appointment of Richard Ravitch amid the Senate coup crisis. Capitol veterans recall Paterson venturing out of the state in 2008 trips that would have handed executive power to the Senate's Republican leaders Joseph Bruno, who resigned his office in July 2008, and his successor, Dean Skelos. According to 2011 research by the National Emergency Management Association, New York's 1951 Defense Emergency Act lays out the line of succession below governor, lieutenant governor and Senate president as: Assembly speaker, attorney general, comptroller, commissioner of transportation, commissioner of health, "commissioner of commerce," "industrial commissioner," chairman of the Public Service Commission and secretary of state. Times Union reporter Rachel Silberstein contributed to this report. ALBANY - With the Trump administration all but abandoning borrower protections for the $1.5 trillion student loan industry, New York needs to step in and fill the void, according to consumer advocates and financial regulators. While Tuesdays hearing before the Assembly Banking Committee included plenty of now-familiar cries about the deficits of White House oversight, an added twist was that one of the speakers was until August the federal ombudsman assigned to oversee the student loan industry. These borrowers are hurting, said Seth Frotman who resigned as the federal ombudsman in August over what he said was the White Houses hostility toward regulating student loan servicers. A holdover from the Obama administration, Frotman said U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has abandoned the concept of protecting student loan borrowers from incompetent or unscrupulous debt servicers and consultants. I came to Albany today to make one simple point as these committees consider action - to protect borrowers: there is no white knight riding in to save New Yorkers. There is no cavalry on the horizon certainly not in this administration, he said, referring to the one led by President Donald Trump. Frotman and several other speakers urged lawmakers to pass state legislation that would license student loan servicers and create oversight for debt consultants, who he said frequently give out bad consumer advice. Assembly Banking Committee Chairman Kenneth Zebrowski, D-New City, noted that he has previously proposed such legislation, which Gov. Andrew Cuomo also put in this years budget proposal, only to see it die in the state Senate. But now with the Senate under Democratic control, advocates are hopeful a regulatory measure will pass. We are aware of significant problems that New Yorkers face when dealing with student loan providers, said Department of Financial Services Superintendent Maria Vullo, who said she wants the ability to license loan servicers and regulate consultants. Student loans originate with the colleges or universities that students attend and the vast majority are federally backed. But the servicers handle the billing and other administrative functions in paying off the loans. Vullo said these firms and the problems shes seen are not unlike the issues that lenders had with mortgage servicers following the 2008 crash. The difference is that the state has regulatory power over the mortgage companies. Another worry centers on student debt relief companies or consultants that for a fee say they can help borrowers consolidate or work out plans to pay off their loans. There are a lot of problems in this industry, said Vullo, noting that the fees are often quite high and the advice can be bad. We really want to look at the overall practices. The whole student debt field, said Zebrowski, can be very confusing to borrowers. The loan servicing industry was in the news earlier this month when the Associated Press obtained a 2017 federal audit regarding Navient Corp., the nations third largest servicer. The report, which had been under wraps, found that the company steered borrowers into higher cost payment plans. Navient, which denied wrongdoing, has been the target of numerous consumer lawsuits. The federal Department of Education has contended that it doesn't have authority over the firms business tactics. One example of bad advice that borrowers can get deals with forbearance, by which people can get a break from making loan payments, usually for a year. But the interest continues to accrue, meaning that borrowers ultimately face a much higher bill. As New York lawmakers discussed possible regulations, DeVos on Tuesday in Atlanta acknowledged that there is a student debt crisis. Im here to raise a warning flag with American students and American taxpayers," she said at a conference of financial aid professionals. She said outstanding student debt has doubled in six years and about 43 percent of borrowers have shown no progress in paying down their debts. Consumer advocates, though, noted that DeVos didnt talk about tougher regulations and they fear she may push some form of privatization or curtailment of the loans. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Theres no doubt that a lot of student debt is outstanding, with $82 billion owed in New York state, according to Zebrowski who cited a 2016 comptrollers study. In New York, women carry about two-thirds of that debt, Vullo said. Winfield Crigler, executive director of the Student Loan Servicing Alliance, a trade group, said servicers shouldnt be blamed for the debt that originates with the schools. We are in effect the back office processor for the Department of Education, which supports most of the loans, she said. Having individual states set up their own licensing and rules, Crigler said, would lead to a regulatory crazy quilt, made more complicated by the fact that borrowers dont always stay put in one state. Houses dont move but student borrowers do, she said of the analogy between student loan and mortgage servicers. So far, Connecticut, Illinois, Washington and California along with Washington, D.C., have set up regulations for servicers. Crigler said the servicing industry is challenging those regulations in federal courts, contending that state rules are pre-empted by federal regulations. rkarlin@timesunion.com 518 454 5758 @RickKarlinTU This Thursday, November 29, 2018, will be a poignantly proud day for the family and relatives of the late Tom Power, formerly of Clonmel, who will be posthumously honoured by the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, at Aras an Uachtarain with the Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad. The award, recognises the distinguished contribution to Ireland, Irish communities abroad and Irelands international reputation by people living abroad. In the case of the late Tom Power, it is primarily in recognition of the significant role he played in the establishment of the Great Irish Famine Memorial in Sydney, Australia. Born on September 14, 1930 and one of a family of 12 who lived at Horsepasture, Powerstown, Tom found his way to Australia in 1956 and up to the time of his death in December of 2017, made an immense contribution not alone to the Irish community living in Sydney but to the New South Wales capital in general. In tandem with his career in the NSW Department of Corrective Services, Tom gained much recognition for the major influence he fostered in the development of proper educational services for prisoners in an effort to send them back out into their communities better equipped for life. These education programmes also taught skills in the likes of art and pottery, programmes designed to ignite and instil the development of the prisoner into the future. Always a passionate Irishman and fiercely proud of his roots, when President Mary Robinson visited Sydney in the mid 1990s and called for an appropriate recognition of the Irish Famine in Australia, Tom Power rallied to that call from the heart of Ireland. In 1995 a steering committee was formed with Tom as its chairman and four years later their efforts were rewarded with the inauguration on August 28, 1998, by the Governor-General of Australia, Sir William Deane, of the Australian Memorial to the Great Irish Famine at Hyde Park Barracks. From the ideas conception to the eventual delivery of a magnificent monument, Tom and his committee worked tirelessly and selflessly to leave a fitting legacy to the million or so Irish who died in the Gorta Mor and the thousands more who arrived in Australia in that saddest period of our history from 1845-1850. The memorial, which eventually cost in the region of $350,000, is located on Macquarie Street, and is a breathtaking structure that is a testimony to Toms determination and his compassion to his fellow man. Tom pictured with President Mary McAleese and husband Martin who inaugurated the Famine Memorial in Sydney in 1996. Picture: Karen Mork It was a tremendously proud day for Tom Power in 2003 when another President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, visited Sydney, where the son of Horsepasture, Powerstown, gladly gave our countrys first citizen the guided tour of the monument that his vision had foreseen just a few short years earlier. Toms immense contribution to his adopted country of Australia was also recognised in 2014 when he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to the Irish community, particularly through commemoration of the Great Irish Famine. His last visit home was in October 2015 following the death of his twin sister Mary. Tom died on December 28, 2017, leaving behind his wife Trish and sons Rob and John and grandchildren, plus a world of friends in Australia and back in Ireland. At his funeral Mass a rendition of Slievenamon was delivered; Tom was a Tipperaryman first, last and always. His burial took place in Sydney on January 5, 2018. He is also survived by his sisters Kitty OConnor (Killenaule), Sr. Brid (ofm) and Sheila Murphy. He was predeceased by siblings Dick, Joan, Denis, Eamonn, Sean, Billy, Peg and Mary. Toms wife Trish will make the journey from Australia for the occasion and will be joined by her son John, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren, along with other family members for the ceremony at the Aras. In total ten distinguished Irish people coming from the four corners of the globe will be honoured. The world renowned Great Irish Famine Memorial at Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney, Australia. The memorial was inaugurated in 1999 with Clonmel man, the late Tom Power, recognised as one of the main driving forces in its realisation. Picture: Leo Rocker. Monumnent designed by Hossein and Angela Valamanesh, photograph (c) KEEPING THE MEMORIAL ALIVE Since the unveiling of the Sydney Famine Memorial, it was Toms aim to keep the Memorial alive. In order to achieve this the Great Irish Famine Committee Inc (GIFCC) has held an Annual Gathering at the Memorial on the last Sunday in August. Next year will be the 20th Annual Gathering and the committee plans to make it a special event. As well as hosting this yearly event, the committee raises funds to support current refugees to Australia via donations to the Mamre Fund and to Western Sydney University for an annual prize and a scholarship for a female refugee who has come to Australia on an Humanitarian Visa. Hence Toms wish to keep the Memorial alive is being fulfilled. The GIFCC website, maintained with assistance of the Irish Govts Emigrant Support Programme, is a valuable source of information on the original orphan girls brought to Australia. Their Australian descendants, many of whom are on the GIFCC data base, and are active supporters of the GIFCC. Website: www.irishfaminememorial.org Email: contact@irishfaminememorial.org Thanks to: Sydney Living Museums Jennie Rayner, Acting Research Librarian Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection [November 27, 2018] 'This is ONT' video makes its premiere, now available on YouTube ONTARIO, Calif., Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A 90-second video promoting Ontario International Airport's emergence as Southern California's fastest growing aviation gateway had its premiere today before the Ontario International Airport Authority (OIAA). "This Is ONT" can now be seen on YouTube, and will be used to help spread the airport's customer-first message: "At ONT, our mission is to connect people, places and create experiences. We are not all we could be, but every day we are true to our vision of becoming the world's airport of choice by caring for what matters most. You are what matters most. We are listening. ONT is back." About Ontario International Airport Ontario International Airport (ONT) is located in the Inland Empire, approximately 35 miles east of downtown Los Angeles in the center of Southern California. It is a full-service airport with nonstop commercial jet serice to 19 major airports in the U.S., Mexico and Taiwan, and connecting service to many domestic and international destinations. There is an average of 67 daily departures offered by nine air carriers. More information is available at www.flyOntario.com. Follow @flyONT on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram About the Ontario International Airport Authority (OIAA) The OIAA was formed in August 2012 by a Joint Powers Agreement between the City of Ontario and the County of San Bernardino to provide overall direction for the management, operations, development and marketing of ONT for the benefit of the Southern California economy and the residents of the airport's four-county catchment area. OIAA Commissioners are Ontario Mayor Pro-Tem Alan D. Wapner (President), Retired Riverside Mayor Ronald O. Loveridge (Vice President), Ontario Council Member Jim W. Bowman (Secretary), San Bernardino County Supervisor Curt Hagman (Commissioner) and retired business executive Julia Gouw (Commissioner). News Media Contacts: Atif Elkadi, Deputy Executive Director, (858) 361-9319 [email protected] Steve Lambert, (909) 841-7527 [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/this-is-ont-video-makes-its-premiere-now-available-on-youtube-300756401.html SOURCE Ontario International Airport [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] Converge Technology Solutions Reports Third Quarter 2018 Results /NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES/ VANCOUVER and TORONTO, Nov. 27, 2018 /CNW/ - Converge Technology Solutions Corp. ("Converge" or "Company") (TSXV:CTS), a Hybrid IT solutions provider, today reported financial results of Converge Technology Partners Inc. (the operating company) for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018. Financial Highlights Financial results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018 follow. Note that for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2017, the Company was inactive operationally and therefore there are no comparable results. Revenue was $100.0 million for the three months ended September 30, 2018 , down slightly from the three months ended June 30, 2018 of $103.3 million reflecting the expected seasonality in the business. Revenue was $323.1 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2018 . Gross profit for the three months ended September 30, 2018 was $22.6 million , or 22.6% compared to $24.8 million or 24.0% for the three months ended June 30 , 2018. Gross profit for the nine months ended September 30, 2018 was $65.9 million , or 20.4% Adjusted EBITDA loss was $0.2 million for the three months ended September 30, 2018 , compared to adjusted EBITDA income of $5.3 million Adjusted EBITDA income for the nine months ended September 30, 2018 was $10.7 million "Converge has come a long way in a little over a year. At September 30 last year, we had no revenue, no profits, no hybrid IT capability and a very small management team. We have since acquired five companies, invested in new capabilities, and are driving forward with all elements of our strategic plan. We have built the foundation and put the team in place to execute on our acquisition and growth strategy" said Shaun Maine, CEO. "This includes focusing on cross selling opportunities among our acquired companies and growing our cloud focused managed services capabilities as we strive to become a premier North American hybrid IT partner." Mr. Maine also provided commentary on seasonality within the business. "As discussed in our recent business update call, Q1 and Q2 have historically been strongest in our Canadian operations, with Q4 being historically strong for our US acquisitions. We expect that pattern to continue. We also look forward to realizing the benefits of our higher certification levels, such as our recently announced Cisco Gold certification which took effect in August. We expect a particular uptick in Cisco rebate levels in Q3 of 2019 given the ramp up of sales activity that typically occurs leading up to Cisco's year end". During the three months ended September 30, 2018, the Company issued 6,918,756 common shares for total proceeds of $5.5 million, with the funds deposited in escrow until the initial public offering; and 3,331,000 common share warrants were exercised to acquire one common share at an exercise price of $0.50 per common share for total proceeds of $1.7 million. Quarterly Results Materials The Company's outlook is contained in its MD&A for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018, which is available along with the unaudited condensed interim financial statements, at www.convergetp.com and at www.sedar.com. Summary of Consolidated Financial Results (unaudited) (in thousands of dollars) For the three months ended September 30, For the nine months ended September 30, 2018 2017 2018 2017 Revenues $ 100,044 $ - $ 323,105 $ - Cost of sales 77,405 - 257,191 - Gross profit 22,639 - 65,914 - Selling, general and administrative expenses 22,828 15 55,165 17 Income (loss) before the following: (189) (15) 10,749 (17) Depreciation and amortization 2,004 - 4,859 - Finance expense, net 1,608 1 4,998 1 Change in fair value of contingent consideration 190 - 7,633 - Transaction costs acquisitions, including retention bonuses 2,157 - 4,685 - Initial public offering costs 385 - 660 - Other expense 61 - 99 - Net loss before taxes $ (6,594) $ (16) $ (12,185) $ (18) Income tax expense 182 - 1,854 - Net loss (6,776) (16) (14,039) (18) Exchange loss on translation of foreign operations (80) - (222) - Comprehensive loss $ (6,856) $ (16) $ (14,261) $ (18) EBITDA(i) $ (2,982) $ (15) $ (2,328) $ (17) Adjusted EBITDA(i) (189) (15) 10,749 (17) (i) EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are non-IFRS financial measures and do not have any standardized meaning under IFRS. See "Use of Non-IFRS Financial Measures" below. Updates Subsequent to Quarter End On October 11, 2018 , a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company entered in a revolving credit agreement with a Canadian lender to a maximum of $30 million , secured by assets of the Company. Amendments were also made to the existing revolving credit agreements with the subsidiary companies. The Company issued a $5.3 million principal amount secured convertible debenture due October 30, 2020 and bearing interest at 8% per annum to a strategic third party investor. The Company loaned $5.3 million to Essex Holdings, Canada Inc. (" Essex Canada "), in the form of a demand promissory note bearing interest at 10% per annum, the proceeds of which were used by Essex Canada to facilitate the acquisition by its wholly owned subsidiary Essextec Acquisition, LLC of Essex Technology Group, Inc. (" Essextec") and for general working capital purposes. The Company also entered into a management agreement with Essextec, bringing additional revenue as well as new technologies and capabilities to the Converge family. November 7, 2018 , the Company completed the qualifying transaction ("Qualifying Transaction") of the Company pursuant to Policy 2.4 of the TSX Venture Exchange Inc. ("TSX Venture") and was described in the Company's filing statement dated November 1, 2018 (the "Filing Statement") filed on SEDAR at November 7, 2018 , and the Company's now trades under the symbol "CTS" (previously "NWK.P") On, the Company completed the qualifying transaction ("Qualifying Transaction") of the Company pursuant to Policy 2.4 of the TSX Venture Exchange Inc. ("TSX Venture") and was described in the Company's filing statement dated(the "Filing Statement") filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com . The Resulting Issuer changed its name from Norwick Capital Corp. ("Norwick") to Converge Technology Solutions Corp., effective, and the Company's now trades under the symbol "CTS" (previously "NWK.P") 70,458,584 Class A common shares and 7,861,490 common share purchase warrants of Converge were exchanged for 70,458,584 post-consolidation common shares and 7,861,490 post-consolidation common share purchase warrants of Norwick. On November 7, 2018 , concurrently with the completion of the Qualifying Transaction, and in accordance with the terms of the unsecured debentures issued on September 30, 2017 , 3,896,450 additional common shares were issued to the debenture holders . "We accomplished a lot in Q3 and subsequent to quarter end, including the evolution to becoming a public company" continued Mr. Maine. "With our strong team of industry leaders now in place, we look forward to continuing to execute on our plan and reporting on our continued progress in the coming months". Third Quarter Conference Call At 8:30 a.m. eastern on Wednesday, November 28, 2018, the Company will host a conference call featuring management's quarterly remarks and follow-up question and answer period with analysts. The conference call can be accessed live by dialing 1-877-489-7753 five minutes prior to the scheduled start time. A recording of the call will be available and posted on the Company's website. About Converge Converge Technology Solutions Corp. combines innovation accelerators and foundational infrastructure solutions to deliver best-of-breed solutions and services to customers. The Company is building a platform of regionally-focused Hybrid IT solution providers to enhance their ability to provide multi-cloud solutions, blockchain, resiliency, and managed services, enabling Converge to address the business and IT issues that public and private-sector organizations face today. Notice to Reader: Use of Non-IFRS Financial Measures and Forward-Looking Statements Non-IFRS Financial Measures In this news release, management uses certain non-IFRS measures to evaluate the performance of the Company. The term "Adjusted EBITDA" does not have any standardized meaning prescribed within IFRS and therefore may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. Such measures should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS such as net income. Adjusted EBITDA is defined as gross profit less selling, general and administrative expenses, and corresponds to income before income tax, depreciation and amortization, finance expenses, change in fair value of contingent consideration, transaction costs for acquisitions, initial public offering costs and other non-operating expenses. Management believes Adjusted EBITDA is an important indicator as it excludes certain items that are non-cash expenses, items that cannot be influenced by management in the short term and items that do not impact core operating performance, demonstrating the Company's ability to generate liquidity through operating cash flow to fund working capital needs, service outstanding debt and fund future capital expenditures. Adjusted EBITDA is used by some investors and analysts for the purposes of valuing an issuer. The intent of Adjusted EBITDA is to provide additional useful information to investors and analysts and is also used by management as an internal performance measurement. A reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to net income is contained in the MD&A (see "Non-IFRS Financial Measures"). Forward-Looking Information This press release contains certain "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation regarding Converge and its business. Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as "expects", or "does not expect", "is expected" "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", "budget", "scheduled", "forecasts". "estimates", "believes" or intends" or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results "may" or "could, "would", "might" or "will" be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, Converge assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. For a detailed description of the risks and uncertainties facing the Company and its business and affairs, readers should refer to the Company's filing statement dated November 1, 2018 which is available on SEDAR under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com in addition to the unaudited condensed consolidated interim financial statements for the three and nine month periods ended September 30, 2018 together with the corresponding Management's Discussion and Analysis for additional risk factors described under "Risk Management". Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws, unless an exemption from such registration is available. SOURCE Converge Technology Solutions Corp. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] Oriente Raises US$105 million in Initial Funding -- One of the largest initial funding rounds in Fintech globally -- Financing set to develop technology, strategic partnerships, and further regional expansion -- Focused on accelerating financial inclusion for Southeast Asia's underserved and unbanked SINGAPORE and HONG KONG, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Oriente, the Hong Kong-based financial services and technology company committed to unlocking financial inclusion in emerging Asia, announced today that it had completed a US$105 million initial funding round. This included investment from the founders and a group of family offices including members of the Berjaya Group, JG Summit Holdings, Inc., and Sinar Mas. The round ranks as one of the largest initial funding rounds by any startup in Asia, and also for a FinTech company worldwide. The financing is being used to accelerate technology and product development, scale multi-market operations, and power the growth of Oriente's digital solutions into new markets, expanding its reach to millions of new customers in Southeast Asia's fastest-growing economies. Oriente is in prime position to address a clear opportunity: with over 70% of Southeast Asia's 600+ million still unbanked (according to KPMG), an explosion of interest and investment in the digital lending space recently, and more governments pushing for greater financial inclusion through the adoption of digital platforms and new emergent technologies. In just a few months, Oriente invested in and rolled out mobile-first ventures in the Philippines (Cashalo) and Indonesia (Finmas), aimed at delivering fast and convenient access to affordable credit for millions of underserved in the emerging middle class and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). Anyone with a smartphone in these markets can download these apps, apply for a loan, and receive a decision and financing within minutes. These ventures have received an overwhelming response and scaled rapidly in their respective markets, with Cashalo reporting faster customer growth than both Skype and Lufax did in their first six months of operations, and Finmas already on-track to surpass even that. "How Oriente is using data science and technology to unlock the economic potential of millions of people who are undervalued by traditional financial systems is exciting and meaningful," said Mark Tluszcz, CEO of Mangrove Capital Partners and Chairman of Wix. Further adding, "Oriente's world-class management team is already on track to transform the lives of millions of consumers." "Oriente was founded on the principles of inclusion and innovation to open financial access, freedom and opportunity for underserved people and microentrepreneurs, helping them build financial identities and participate in the global economy," said Geoffrey Prentice, co-Founder of Oriente. "Unlocking potential is our mantra, and we are thrilled to have such phenomenal investors and partners who share our commitment to building a future where people everywhere have access to the credit infrastructure and services they deserve." Oriente was founded in 2017 by former Skype co-founder and CSO, Geoffrey Prentice; former founding CTO and COO at LU.com, Hubert Tai (CEO); and founder of BlackPine Private Equity, Lawrence Chu. The company now has over 1200 employees across offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Taipei, Manila, Jakarta, and Ho Chi Minh City. In addition to Prentice, Tai and Chu, Oriente's leadership includes: COO Eric Sun, formerly GM-Corporate Planning at LU.com; CTO Hunglin Tsai, who previously held Senior Technical Director roles at Dangdang Inc and Yahoo Taiwan; Head of Asset Management, Voon San Lai, formerly Deputy CEO and Head of Robo-Advisory for Value Partners Group; VP of Data and Head of Risk, Janny Yao, formerly Senior Director of Big Data and LU.com; and VP of Offline Retail Sales Vlastimil Hrabal, formerly Chief Operating Officer for HomeCredit in Philippines and India. About Oriente Headquartered in Hong Kong, Oriente is the leading financial services and technology company committed to unlocking financial inclusion for underserved communities in emerging Asia. Using cutting-edge technologies including, Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, and data science, Oriente is building solutions that provide real-time credit scoring, digital and O2O lending and other tailored financial services to millions in Southeast Asia's fastest-growing economies. The company has recently rolled out two app-based ventures, Cashalo in the Philippines and Finmas in Indonesia, which are both continuing to see unprecedented growth in user base and transaction volumes since their respective launches. Oriente was founded in 2017 by former Skype co-founder and CSO, Geoffrey Prentice; former founding CTO and COO at LU.com, Hubert Tai (CEO); and founder of BlackPine Private Equity, Lawrence Chu. For more information, please visit www.oriente.com SOURCE Oriente [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] RevX Announces aiCube, an Intelligent Engine for Mobile Advertising & Analytics BANGALORE, November 28, 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 cohort analytics, look-a-like modeling, ad 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 Associate Marketing Manager, RevX [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 27, 2018] 51 Educators Representing Every State and D.C. Each Receive $10,000 as Part of a National Effort to Recognize Inspirational Teaching through the National University System-Sanford Teacher Award In recognition of inspirational teaching nationwide, 51 teachers around the country - representing each state and the District of Columbia - have been named recipients of the first-ever National University System-Sanford Teacher Award. The teachers each receive $10,000 for demonstrating their commitment to creating inspirational and harmonious classrooms that support student development and achievement. The award is in the name of philanthropist T. Denny Sanford, who is committed to supporting inspiring teaching nationwide through PreK-12 programs that are being expanded nationally by the National University System. Each of today's teacher recipients qualify for a chance to be recognized as the national winner of the Sanford Teacher Award, which will be named in early 2019. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005934/en/ Martha Garibay, 52nd Elementary School, Los Angeles CA (News - Alert), Sanford Teacher Award, National University System (Photo: Business Wire) The teachers being named today were selected by a committee of educators through an application process that included nominations and information provided by each teacher to assess how closely they represent characteristics of inspiring teaching, which included: Enthusiasm for teaching; empathy and warmth towards all students; fostering positive relationships with all students; creating a positive learning environment; and recognizing student strengths. Recognizing PreK-12 educators who clearly emulate these qualities allows for further exploration and research into inspirational teaching approaches that can be applied to the wider educational community, as noted in a preliminary report relased today. The qualities identified by the Sanford Teacher Award reflect the mission of education-focused programs that are being expanded nationally through the leadership of the private, nonprofit National University System, which is home to one of the Top Ten largest schools of education in the country. The Sanford Programs, which were developed through the support of Mr. Sanford, include Sanford Harmony, a PreK-6 social-emotional learning program that helps children develop communication and collaboration skills, and the PreK-12 Sanford Inspire program that offers teachers research-based resources and lessons to create inspiring classroom experiences. "The National University System is so pleased to be honoring the vision of philanthropist T. Denny Sanford by recognizing inspiring teachers around the country through the Sanford Teacher Award," said Dr. Michael R. Cunningham, Chancellor of the San Diego-based National University System. "Teachers give so much of themselves to their students, schools and communities, and the Sanford Teacher Award is a way for us to celebrate the contributions of inspiring teachers who encourage children to reach their greatest potential." The Sanford Teacher Award is part of the national expansion efforts of the National University System-based Sanford Programs, which in addition to Sanford Harmony and Sanford Inspire also include a national network of fundraiser training programs anchored by the Sanford Institute of Philanthropy at National University. Mr. Sanford has donated about $130 million toward the National University System in support of the programs' national expansion, an effort that involves the collaboration of universities around the country that share a similar focus and dedication to the professional support of educators and the nonprofit sector. To date, more than 3 million people have been impacted by the three programs. "As a child, I was fortunate to have a few teachers who truly inspired me to learn and succeed. Educators have many similar opportunities to touch children's lives and make meaningful impacts that can last a lifetime," said Mr. Sanford. "As an entrepreneur and philanthropist, I can think of no better return on investment than inspiring students to embrace learning and find their path in life." The teachers being honored today are in addition to five Inaugural Sanford Teacher Award recipients who were identified earlier on in the campaign for representing key qualities being celebrated by the Sanford Teacher Award, and who were involved in raising awareness of the campaign. Both the Inaugural recipients and the teachers announced today qualify for the national title, which adds up to a total award of $50,000 for one of the teachers. About the National University System: Based in San Diego, Calif., the National University System is a network of accredited nonprofit education institutions serving higher education and K-12 students that includes National University, John F. Kennedy University, City University of Seattle, and the Division of Pre-College Programs. It is also home to the Sanford Programs. https://www.nusystem.org/ About the Sanford Programs at the National University System: The National University System is leading the national expansion of the three Sanford Programs, which were established through the generous support of philanthropist T. Denny Sanford to support educators and nonprofits. In addition to the Sanford Institute of Philanthropy, this includes PreK-12 Sanford Inspire, which helps teachers create inspiring classroom environments, and Sanford Harmony, a PreK-6 research-based social-emotional learning program. http://sanfordprograms.org/ View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005934/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] The largest behavior change study on physical activity - based on verified data - shows Vitality incentives combined with Apple Watch lead to significant and sustained increases in activity levels CHICAGO and LONDON, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Financial incentives in Vitality's Shared-Value Insurance model combined with Apple Watch led to a sustained 34% increase in people's physical activity levels, according to the results of a ground-breaking new health behavior study by RAND Europe[1], a leading independent research institute. The study examined the behavior of over 400,000 people in the United Kingdom, United States and South Africa. "This landmark study contributes to a deeper understanding of how people can be incentivized to live fitter and healthier lives," said Discovery Chief Executive and Vitality Founder, Adrian Gore. "The significance for individuals, the insurance industry and wider society is profound." Adrian revealed the findings to business and insurance leaders, academics, and policymakers from around the world at an event in London today, where the UK Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, spoke and the Nobel Prize-winning economist, and author of "Nudge," Richard Thaler, took part in a panel discussion. "For more than 20 years, Vitality has taken a shared-value approach to health improvement by creating interventions that change people's behavior for the better," commented Adrian Gore. "Our innovative use of Apple Watch opens the way to a proper understanding of how people can be incentivized to live fitter and healthier lives and how we are leading the way in transforming how people are insured." The study examined the effect of Vitality Active Rewards with Apple Watch on participants' long-term physical activity levels. The program makes use of a comprehensive behavioral science toolkit, encompassing short and long-term incentives such as loss aversion and pre-commitment. Short-term incentives create a sense of immediacy, with members rewarded on a weekly basis for reaching their weekly goals. For a minimal upfront activation fee, members can reduce their monthly Apple Watch payments to zero by meeting their physical activity goals, including daily exercise and active calorie burn. The two components reinforce each other and create an ecosystem of behaviorchange. STUDY FINDINGS: Participants using Apple Watch saw an average 34% sustained increase in activity 4.8 extra days of activity per month across the United Kingdom , United States and South Africa . , and . Activity increased across the full spectrum of Vitality participants, regardless of health status, age or gender. "At-risk" participants with a high Body Mass Index [BMI], although less likely to take up the benefit, showed greater improvements in activity than other groups, with increases in activity of 200% in the United States , 160% in the United Kingdom , and 109% in South Africa . , 160% in the , and 109% in . South Africa saw the largest increase in high-intensity activity days of 71%, followed by the United States at 52%, and 37% in the United Kingdom . saw the largest increase in high-intensity activity days of 71%, followed by at 52%, and 37% in the . With these sustained increases in activity, Vitality estimates that within a year, participants with Active Rewards with Apple Watch achieved numerous health benefits, including improvements in blood pressure, cholesterol, and cardiorespiratory fitness along with lowered healthcare costs. "Apple Watch has become an essential part of many people's lives, and these results are a tangible example of the way Apple Watch can help users take control of improving their health," said Jeff Williams, Apple's chief operating officer. "Vitality and RAND's results are an exciting indicator of how much more can be achieved." "Our research suggests that incentivizing physical activity can lead to better activity levels and the Vitality Active Rewards with Apple Watch benefit bears that finding out," said Hans Pung, president of RAND Europe. "Given RAND Europe's fact-driven, evidenced-based research and analysis, we are pleased that our work has helped to deepen understanding of what works in designing health and wellness programs." Pung continued, "The rigorous study encompassed large sample sizes over long periods and captured people's activity levels before and after the introduction of incentives linked to Apple Watch, while controlling for population characteristics. It has major implications for health policy around the world." "The RAND research proves small, everyday steps to improve overall health and wellness can be achieved when a life insurance company helps them in their journey by offering an interactive, wearable technology component," said Brooks Tingle, president and CEO, John Hancock Insurance. "This year, we announced all John Hancock policies will come with Vitality, providing wellness benefits to all our customers, and the compelling findings within this study support that decision." To learn more search #behaviourtech and read the full report here: www.rand.org/t/RR2870 About Vitality Vitality is a leading behavior change platform which uses the power of incentives, data and behavioral economics to make people healthier and enhance and protect their lives. Vitality has achieved global scale through successful partnerships with leading insurers and the most forward-thinking employers around the world. More than 8 million people in 19 countries engage in the Vitality program. The Vitality Group is responsible for the global expansion of the Vitality Shared-Value Insurance model using the capabilities of Discovery and its network. Vitality was founded 20 years ago by Discovery Limited a leading financial services company listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. For more information, please visit www.vitalitygroup.com. [1] RAND Europe 2018, Financial incentives and physical activity, Evidence from the Vitality's Apple Watch benefit View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-largest-behavior-change-study-on-physical-activity---based-on-verified-data---shows-vitality-incentives-combined-with-apple-watch-lead-to-significant-and-sustained-increases-in-activity-levels-300756428.html SOURCE Vitality Group [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] Global Air Insulated Switchgear Market 2019-2023| Grid Resiliency to Promote Growth| Technavio The global air insulated switchgear market is expected to post a CAGR of over 7% during the period 2019-2023, according to the latest market research report by Technavio. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005939/en/ Technavio has released a new market research report on the global air insulated switchgear market for the period 2019-2023. (Graphic: Business Wire) A key factor driving the growth of the market is the increase in renewable power generation capacity. To reduce global warming and other environmental pollutions, several countries are adopting methods to generate power from renewable sources. Countries such as China, the US, India, and the EU countries are some of the leading nations that are adopting and implementing methods to generate power from renewable sources. In terms of capacity of generating power from renewable sources, China is leading by accounting for more than 40% of the global increase in renewable power generation capacity between 2011 and 2018. This market research report on the global air insulated switchgear market 2019-2023 also provides an analysis of the most important trends expected to impact the market outlook during the forecast period. 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 grid resiliency as one of the key emerging trends in the global air insulated switchgear market: Global air insulated switchgear market: Grid resiliency The ability to restore the normal working state after disasters or natural calamities is known as the resilience of a grid. For example, countries such as the US have to renovate and upgrade most of its TSB grids after natural disasters like Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria. The US government is improving grid resilience to avoid damages of grids. The adoption of smart grids, hardening grids, increasing distribution generation resources, and integration of loT in power transmission are the four main objectives for grid resilience. "The trend of grid resilience is primarily found in the US. Countries such as China, Japan, India, and other European countries are expected to invest in grid resilience to improve the resilience of power grids. At the event held in San Francisco in September 2018 on grid resilience, attended by participants from China, Australia, and the US, discussions were held on efforts and investments to increase grid resilience in countries such as China, Australia, and the US. An increased number of countries are expected to invest in grid resilience during the forecast period," says a senior analyst at Technavio for research on human machine interface. Global air insulated switchgear market: Segmentation analysis This market research report segments the global air insulated switchgear market by voltage (low voltage AIS, medium voltage AIS, and high voltage AIS) and by geographical regions (APAC, EMEA, and the Americas). APAC led the market in 2018 with a market share of nearly 47%. This region is expected to dominate the market through 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 [email protected]. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005939/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] The Conference Board Launches Research Center for the Gulf Region NEW YORK and KUWAIT CITY, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, The Conference Board expanded its global footprint by launching the Gulf Center for Economics and Business Research. The Center will provide trusted insights primarily in the areas of economics, strategy, finance, and human capital within the Gulf region to enable businesses to anticipate what's ahead, to improve their performance, and better serve society. Businesses operating in the region will make up the Center's membership. In addition to member companies receiving ongoing research and briefings, the Center will include peer networks for a range of business executives. As part of today's launch, The Conference Board will host an event on the Gulf's economic outlook. The organization's summary of the outlook can be viewed here. "The Gulf region is strategically situated between emerging Asia and the European continent, and has immense scope to raise its global competitiveness through diversifying its natural-resources-heavy economy," said Bart van Ark, Executive Vice President and Chief Economist of The Conference Board. "The Conference Board looks forward to pursuing its mission of engaging with businesses in the Gulf and providing them with trusted insights for what's ahead." "From my experience, I believe that in-depth business and economic data is required now more than ever in light of the changing business envronment," said Hisham Al-Razzuqi, Former Chief Executive Officer of the Gulf Investment Corporation and Chairman of the Advisory Board for the Gulf Center for Economics and Business Research. "I believe the Gulf Center will make a significant difference for the business community in Kuwait and the wider Gulf region." The Center has received initial funding from the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences, as part of a three-year incubation grant, and from the Kuwait Banking Association, which will provide financial and practical support. "I would like to acknowledge the great cooperation between all partners for making today's event possible," said Majed Essa AlAjeel, Chairman of the Kuwait Banking Association (KBA). "The Center will operate in accordance with The Conference Board's principles and provide the Gulf Cooperation Council countries with the practical knowledge they need to improve their performance and better serve society. I want to emphasize that we need this kind of focus so that we can help diversify the country's economic development to promote inclusive growth. The participation of KBA in supporting the Center comes from the Kuwaiti banks' commitment to social responsibility through serving the community." "Realizing the centrality of business research for economic growth, and the value of data for day-to-day business decisions, KFAS decided to fund the first three years of the establishment of this Center," said Dr. Adnan Shihab-Eldin, Director General of the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS). "With this funding, KFAS aims to enable a business ecosystem that is informed with the best research and to create capacity-building opportunities for the research community in Kuwait." Like the rest of The Conference Board, the new Center is non-partisan and does not lobby. Prospective companies can learn more about becoming a member of the Center by contacting [email protected]. The media can view a summary of The Conference Board's latest economic outlook for the Gulf region here. About The Conference Board The Conference Board is a member-focused think tank that provides trusted insights for what's ahead. We are a non-partisan, not-for-profit entity holding 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt status in the United States. www.conference-board.org. About The Conference Board Gulf Center for Economics and Business Research The Conference Board Gulf Center for Economics and Business Research is a Kuwait-based research and peer-learning organization. It provides trusted insights primarily in the areas of economics, strategy, finance, and human capital within the Gulf region. Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/624268/The_Conference_Board_Logo.jpg [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] Notice Regarding Establishment of Nomination Committee Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723), a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, today announced that it has resolved at the Meeting of Board of Directors held on November 28, 2018 to establish the Nomination Committee as a voluntary advisory body reporting to the company's Board of Directors. 1. Purpose of Establishment The Nomination Committee is established as a voluntary advisory body reporting to the Board of Directors with the aim to increase accountability to stakeholders and to further validate corporate governance by ensuring objectivity and transparency when deliberating on the nomination or dismissal of internal and external directors and corporate auditors, etc. 2. Roles of Nomination Committee In accordance with the consultation with the Board of Directors, the Nominating Committee will deliberate on matters related to the appointment or dismissal of internal and external directors and corporate auditors, as well as matters concerning the CEO succession plan, and will report these details to the Board of Directors. 3. Committee Members Committee Chairman Jiro Iwasaki (Outside Director of Renesas Electronics Corporation) Committee Member Tetsuya Tsurumaru (Representative Director, Chairman of Renesas Electronics Corporation) Committee Member Tetsuro Toyoda (Outside Director of Renesas Electronics Corporation) The Nomination Committee consists of three members selected by resolution of the Board of Directors, with the majority being outside directors. 4. Date of Establishment November 28, 2018 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. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005931/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] JLL named Asia Pacific Facilities Management Company of the Year by Frost & Sullivan SINGAPORE, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- JLL has been recognized as the Asia Pacific Facilities Management Company of the Year at the annual Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific Best Practices Awards banquet held at the Shangri-La Singapore on November 27, 2018. Janice Wung, Programme Manager, Energy & Environment, Frost & Sullivan, notes that the last year has seen intense competition between global and local facilities management providers for contracts and market share, especially in saturated markets like Singapore and Malaysia. "Technological advances, particularly the ascent of automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and digitalization are transforming the regional facilities management market. Clients are increasingly seeking tailored services and better end-user experiences. Against this backdrop, JLL remains the top facilities management service provider in the region. The company's leadership in innovation, its ability to customize solutions and its brand reputation are unparalleled," she adds. "We are honoured to be named Asia Pacific Facilities Management Company of the Year by Frost &am; Sullivan for a third consecutive time. This award is a testament to the efforts of our team of 14,000 people, together with our partners and our clients who have continued to support us in this journey. The industry is at the crossroads of a major transformation primarily driven by technology disruption and innovation with an ever-increasing focus on human experience. As a firm, JLL is heavily investing in our digital capabilities, which we believe will drive new and improved service delivery models for our clients. It has never been this exciting in the industry for our people, clients and partners," says Susheel Koul, Managing Director, Integrated Facilities Management, JLL Asia Pacific. According to Frost and Sullivan, award recipients 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 emerging trends. The shortlisted companies were judged on a variety of actual market performance indicators including revenue growth; market share and growth in market share, leadership in product innovation, marketing strategy and business development strategy. 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? www.frost.com About JLL JLL (NYSE: JLL) is a leading professional services firm that specializes in real estate and investment management. Our vision is to reimagine the world of real estate, creating rewarding opportunities and amazing spaces where people can achieve their ambitions. In doing so, we will build a better tomorrow for our clients, our people and our communities. JLL is a Fortune 500 company with operations in over 80 countries and a global workforce of 88,000 as of September 30, 2018. JLL is the brand name, and a registered trademark, of Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated. For further information, visit jll.com Vernia Lim Public Relations Manager JLL Asia Pacific T +65 6394 7813 M +65 9691 3912 [email protected] Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/790701/JLL.jpg [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] NM Group Announce European PLS-CADD Training Seminar Coming to Valencia in 2019 KNARESBOROUGH, England, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- NM Group, in association with Power Line Systems (PLS), have announced their second European PLS-CADD, PLS-POLE and TOWER training seminar. This official training event will be held in Valencia, Spain between March 4th and March 8th 2019. The seminar will be led by Paul Richardson (B Eng. hons, CEng, MICE), a highly experienced powerline engineer of over 25 years and long-time proponent of PLS software. Aimed at overhead line design engineers, the training will demonstrate how the class-leading design software can be used for optimising transmission and distribution projects. Course modules include structure desgn, conductor sagging and plan and profile drawings. Paul Richardson, Director of Engineering at NM Group commented, "For regular software users or those who just need to pick it up periodically, training provides the means to be a more effective user. It is a real privilege to be able to work closely with Power Line Systems to design and deliver hands on training to powerline engineers throughout Europe." About Powerline Systems Power Line Systems was founded in 1984 to develop engineering software for the structural and geometric design of electric power lines. Since then PLS has become the world-wide leader in software for overhead transmission and distribution lines with its products PLS-CADD, PLS-POLE, and TOWER. For more information, please contact PLS on the Web at www.powline.com. About NM Group NM Group is a specialist service provider of asset management, survey and mapping solutions to the power sector. Applying a range of remote sensing and geospatial technologies, the company offers a full range of services from data acquisition, engineering and analytics. More information at www.nmgroup.com CONTACT: Tim Hustwayte, +44 (0)1423 206 399, [email protected] [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] OneTrust Incident & Breach Solution Simplifies Response Management for the World's Data Breach Notification Requirements Centrally Manage, Analyse, Investigate, Report and Monitor Incident and Breaches with Intelligent Response Workflows Integrated into the OneTrust Privacy Management Platform LONDON, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- OneTrust, the largest and most widely used dedicated privacy management technology platform with 1,700 customers, including 200 of the Global 2,000, today enhanced the OneTrust Incident & Breach Response solution integrated into the OneTrust Privacy Management Platform. OneTrust Incident & Breach Response enables organisations to centrally manage, analyse, investigate, report and monitor the full incident and breach lifecycle and is powered by Databreachpedia Global Law Engine, an innovative solution that integrates hundreds of region-specific breach notification laws directly into the OneTrust platform. Incident response is a global challenge as personal data-related incidents become more common and breach notification requirements vary across regions. OneTrust Incident & Breach Response helps privacy and security teams manage the full lifecycle of personal data incidents and automatically tailors response workflows based on impacted regions' breach notification laws. Companies can manage breaches and increase accountability by assigning risk owners, setting deadlines and maintaining a complete response audit trail for compliance purposes. The solution can integrate into a company's related applications, such as data loss prevention, threat intelligence, GRC, SIEM and ITSM tools. OneTrust Incident & Breach Response helps organisations intake, analyse, invesigate, report and monitor incidents: Intake incidents through third-party integrations, a self-service portal for employees or directly from the OneTrust portal Analyse via Databreachpedia to understand incidents based on hundreds of built-in global data breach laws and 100+ preconfigured global breach notification assessments Investigate business context leveraging the OneTrust Privacy Management platform and understand what data, vendors, or contracts may be impacted Report and notify to meet compliance requirements with customisable timelines, trackable reporting deadlines, detailed audit trails and exportable notification reports Mitigate and monitor incidents to reduce risks, prioritise responses, assign tasks, track remediation and re-assess efforts The solution is integrated into the OneTrust Privacy Management suite, providing teams a simpler way to bridge their incident and breach response plans into existing privacy efforts such as data mapping and vendor management. "With breach notification laws ranging from 72 hours to more than 30 days, privacy and security teams need a flexible solution to centrally manage response plans across the globe," said Blake Brannon, VP Product, OneTrust. "The OneTrust Incident & Breach Response solution was built with these unique challenges in mind. We researched hundreds of global data breach notification laws and built region-specific requirements right into the platform. Incidents trigger intelligent workflows complete with task owners, deadlines and reminders so privacy professionals can coordinate response plans across the organisation. The solution integrates with existing data mapping and vendor management workflows in OneTrust so teams can leverage these insights to properly respond in the event of an incident or breach. This solution helps privacy and security teams manage the challenge of incident and breach response efforts in an increasingly complex regulatory environment." For additional information, or to request a live OneTrust Privacy Management Software demo, visit OneTrust.com or email [email protected]. About OneTrust OneTrust is the largest and most widely used dedicated privacy management technology platform for compliance with global privacy laws. More than 1,700 customers, including 200 of the Global 2,000, use OneTrust to comply with data privacy regulations across sectors and jurisdictions, including the EU GDPR, ePrivacy (Cookie Law) the California Consumer Privacy Act and more. The comprehensive platform is based on a combination of intelligent scanning, regulator guidance-based questionnaires, automated workflows and developer plugins to automatically generate the record keeping required for an organisation to demonstrate compliance to regulators and auditors. OneTrust is co-headquartered in Atlanta, GA and in London, UK, with additional offices in Bangalore, Melbourne, Munich and Hong Kong. The fast-growing team of privacy and technology experts surpasses 500 employees worldwide. To learn more, visit OneTrust.com. Media Contact: Gabrielle Ferree Public Relations +1 770-294-4668 [email protected] Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/478210/OneTrust_Logo.jpg [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] Westwin Shares Cross-cultural Career Insights with Foreign Students at Hutong School Event SHANGHAI, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Westwin, a leading marketing and consulting firm that focuses on cross-border business, has participated in the panel event "Inside the Mind of Young China: A Young Professionals Panel Discussion", organized by Hutong School, a foreign-owned institute providing Chinese language courses and internships. Two representatives from Westwin, Larry You, Marketing Manager, and Lu Jin, Sales Manager, provided insights into the digital marketing industry and how international students can get involved in the industry. The event was held at Red Cactus, Shanghai. With the aim of helping young, international talents learn more about living and working in China, Hutong School regularly welcomes working professionals to share industry insights, educate students on the intricacies of the Chinese workplace, plan for their academic future, and eliminate any doubts they have when considering starting a career in the region. Hutong School's panel discussion brought together five professionals working in the digital marketing, financial technology, medicine and healthcare fields. Drawing on their experience gained in China and abroad, the panelists shared lessons they had learned while trying to break through cultural and professional barriers and eliminate misunderstandings about China and its corporate culture during their careers. "More than 80% of the 60 foreign students who participated in the event marked it as 'extraordinarily rewarding'. We hope that more international companies like Westwin will be able to offer avice about living and working in China to international students interested in the Chinese market," said Astrid Soetanto, Program Director of Hutong School. "I am glad to be here for the younger generation who are interested in working in China. They come here with questions, and I'm happy to get them answered," said Larry You, Marketing Manager of Westwin. "Having set up offices in China, the U.K., and the U.S., Westwin aims to serve as a bridge between the East and West in the field of digital marketing by understanding and observing both cultures and the way people think." "We can see from the event that more and more overseas youth are interested in the Chinese market. We look forward to having more international talent join us in China," said You. Westwin has a long history of conducting social outreach programs benefiting schools and students. Its predecessor, MSN China, launched a public service event "MSN Rainbow Hope Elementary School" in 2009, the same year as the devastating earthquake shook Sichuan. It was the first public service activity in China to collect donations online, raising RMB 1.24 million (about US$ 179,000) from enterprises. The funds raised were donated to a foundation established to rebuild local schools in Deyang City, Luojiang County, Sichuan Province. "We've been placing great emphasis on social welfare work, and we'll continue to do so," said You. About Hutong School Founded in 2005, Hutong School is the leading foreign-owned Chinese language school in China and provides full immersion programs in Beijing and Shanghai. Hutong School is committed to creating new opportunities for young, talented students by linking them with both Chinese and international companies in China. The school attaches great importance to the quality of its Chinese classes and internships, enabling students to acquire both linguistic and professional knowledge about China. About Westwin Westwin, formerly known as Microsoft Online (MSN China), is a leading marketing consulting firm that focuses on cross-border business. We provide branding strategies and digital marketing solutions to help clients achieve success in China and around the world. Westwin is a certified marketing & advertising partner of Baidu, Tencent WeChat, Sina Weibo and more major digital platforms in China. With years of experience in cross-border business and partnership growth, we are equipped with the knowledge and expertise to take your business to the next level in overseas markets. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/westwin-shares-cross-cultural-career-insights-with-foreign-students-at-hutong-school-event-300756681.html SOURCE Westwin [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] Carhartt Workwear Expands European Presence With Launch Of E-Commerce Site Accessible within all EU countries, Europe's hardworking people will have greater access to Carhartt's premium workwear AMSTERDAM, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Carhartt, America's premium workwear brand since 1889, is expanding access to its durable, functional products for the hardworking men and women of Europe with the launch of its newest e-commerce site. Throughout the European Union (EU), consumers will be able to purchase the brand's iconic men's and women's workwear styles through www.carhartt.com/eu/en-eu. "With the launch of this new e-commerce site, the hardworking people of Europe will now have direct access to Carhartt's premium workwear products," said Albert Foppen, EMEA managing director at Carhartt. "We're very proud to bring the brand American workers have relied on for nearly 130 years to Europe's blue-collar men and women." With a Netherlands-based distribution center, Carhartt's European e-commerce site will service consumers in all 28 EU countries, greatly expanding Carhartt's global reach. The site currently supports English, Dutch, and German languages, with a commitment to add additional languages in the near future. The site is capable of meeting the needs of consumer transactions in Euros (EUR) and Pounds (GBP), and it is optimized for a quality user experience regardless of the device used to shop www.carhartt.com/eu/en-eu. Carhartt first launched its EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) division in 2000 with a European headquarters based in Amsterdam. Before the launch of Carhartt's European e-commerce site, Carhartt's business in Europe was focused on building consumer loyalty through its partners in the workwear distribution channels. Carhartt was established in 1889 in Detroit by Hamilton Carhartt, and today, its headquarters is based in Dearborn, Michigan. With more than 5,100 associates worldwide, Carhartt remains family-owned and managed by the descendants of the company's founder to ensure his mission is carried through in every garment it produces. About Carhartt, Inc. Established in 1889, Carhartt is a global premium workwear brand with a rich heritage of developing rugged products for workers on and off the job. Headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, with more than 5,100 associates worldwide, Carhartt is family-owned and managed by the descendants of the company's founder, Hamilton Carhartt. For more information, visit www.carhartt.com. Contact: Marga Stehmann Erica Salomon Carhartt, Inc. EMEA Carhartt, Inc. +31 (0)20 7150283 (313) 749-6632 [email protected] [email protected] Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/160569/carhartt_logo.jpg [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] Invitation to Electrolux Capital Markets Day 2019, March 27 STOCKHOLM, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --Electrolux has the pleasure of inviting investors, financial analysts and media representatives to its Capital Markets Day in Italy on March 27, 2019. The event will be hosted by Jonas Samuelson, President and CEO, together with parts of the management team. The Capital Markets Day will provide an update on Electrolux strategic execution on driving profitable growth with an in-depth review of Business area Professional Products. The event will showcase how Professional Products fuel profitable growth through full-service offerings within Food, Beverage and Laundry to professional customers world-wide. The day will bring a deeper understanding of the offerings to the professional market, including a visit to a manufacturing and R&D lab. The event is taking place at the largest site of Electrolux Professional products, located in Pordenone, northern Italy, where R&D and manufacturing for food service products are also based. For more information, logistics and registration to the event, please see the invitation attached or visit www.electroluxgroup.com/ir. For further information, please contact: Sophie Arnius, Head of Investor Relations +46-70-590-80-72 Merton Kaplan, Investor Relations Manager, +46-73-885-78-03 This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com http://news.cision.com/electrolux/r/invitation-to-electrolux-capital-markets-day-2019--march-27,c2684440 The following files are available for download: http://mb.cision.com/Main/1853/2684440/953360.pdf PDF http://mb.cision.com/Public/1853/2684440/8db0c99ad311304a.pdf CMD 2019 Invite View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/invitation-to-electrolux-capital-markets-day-2019-march-27-300756687.html SOURCE Electrolux [November 28, 2018] Brandon Frere: 1-Click Purchase, One Less Reason for a Customer to Abandon an Online Shopping Cart PETALUMA, Calif., Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Thanks to the internet and phone apps, shopping for things has become an even greater convenience for both buyer and supplier. So convenient in fact, that now there is a certain standard that a business has to hold up to keep from losing customer interest. Brandon Frere, CEO of several companies and all-around successful entrepreneur, says that online competition is tough because the competition isn't just between other stores but keeping a customer's interest. When Amazon came out with its 1-click ordering button, it was considered a huge game changer. Consumers could then have anything Amazon stocked on its way to their door with one click, which eliminated the small amount of time that it takes for people to look at an item in their cart and potentially decide to not buy it. As of September last year, the patent for the 1-click buy button expired, opening the doors for even more companies to try their hand at making the shopping experience more convenient for its customers. Everyone has at one point or another experienced a site that took too long during the purchasing process and abandoned the purchase entirely. The 1-click button eliminates that problem. Other factors for cart abandonment, like unexpected shipping costs, also bring down purchase completion numbers. If thought about logically, most shipping costs make sense. That doesn't mean people won't decide to not purchase after all because it's more than they want to pay. After they've spent so much time deciding which products to get and have gotten used to the price of all of that stuff together, adding something ese to the mix throws that off. This has prompted several businesses to start offering free shipping, because it both eliminates that ending surprise and may even encourage people to shop there if free shipping is advertised throughout the site. "To buy from a company, a customer has to be convinced that what they're buying will provide value to them. Having them feel they got their money's worth is what gets them to do business with a company in the first place, as well as what gets them to keep coming back, and what gets them to start recommending a company to others," said Frere. Online cart abandonment is almost at 70 percent. Several factors play into that, including sales that weren't likely to go through in the first place because the customer was just browsing. But the largest factor still remains unexpected fees. Understanding that is one big step towards increasing sales because then it is known what needs to be fixed for greater chances of success. "Success won't happen overnight, but businesses are meant to be healthily grown," said Frere. About Brandon Frere Brandon Frere is an entrepreneur and businessman who lives in Sonoma County, California. He has designed and created multiple companies to meet the ever-demanding needs of businesses and consumers alike. His website, www.BrandonFrere.com, is used as a means of communicating many of the lessons, fundamentals and information that he has learned throughout his extensive business and personal endeavors, most recently in advocating on behalf of student loan borrowers nationwide. As experienced during his own student loan repayment, Mr. Frere found out how difficult it can be to work with federally contracted student loan servicers and the repayment programs designed to help borrowers. Through those efforts, he gained an insider's look into the repayment process and the motivations behind the inflating student loan debt bubble. His knowledge of the often confusing landscape of student loan repayment became a vital theme in his future endeavors, and he now uses those experiences to help guide others through the daunting process of applying for available federal repayment and loan forgiveness programs. BrandonFrere.com Related Images image1.png about-to-purchase.jpg About To Purchase Successphoto/Bigstock.com Related Links Brandon Frere website View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/brandon-frere-1-click-purchase-one-less-reason-for-a-customer-to-abandon-an-online-shopping-cart-300756621.html SOURCE Brandon Frere [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] Blockchain-Automobile Collaboration Sending Huge Clean Waves Through Green Automotive Industry in Joint Venture Agreement Between Sino United and InnoTAD Group NEW YORK, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- Sino United Worldwide Consolidated Ltd. (OTC: SUIC) has signed the joint venture agreement with InnoTAD Group Singapore to bring greener automobiles to the world through its green automobile products including the InnoTAD Emission Reducer, iER a patent pending device; and adopt Blockchain technology in the auto industry. InnoTAD iER Innovation product series will tackle vehicle emissions that cause climate change with harmful Carbon dioxide (CO2) and Nitrogen dioxide (NOx), which can cause respiratory problems and premature death among the population. The InnoTAD Emission Reducer, iER Innovation product series is the first of its kind and is a patent pending device; the iER is able to resolve all these issues and can achieve up to 99% reduction of emission pollutants of the vehicles. iER has been vigorously tested since 2015 to achieve better safety, performance and lifetime. It has various TUV certifications on used test vehicles that achieved fuel saving at 39.9%, diesel NOx reduction at 97%, significantly increased power and torque, and reduced engine noise. InnoTAD has since secured exclusive and non-exclusive distributors in USA, China, Middle East, Africa, India, Europe, and some Asian countries in the last few months. InnoTAD is currently working with distributors to secure two big orders of 5,000pc each from government level and big corporates to kick off the aggressive world-wide marketing. SUIC and InnOTAD Group will work vigorously with governments all over the world to utilize Big Data analytics to promote environmental protection in a very efficient way. Of utmost importance is the mitigation of carbon emissions and pollution, and this collaboration with government entities will enhance the capacity of countries to use the once-touted siloed structure of data storage in managing the data ecosystem effectively. Beyond this, SUIC and InnoTADs partnership will subsequently revolutionze the governments with limited capabilities to operate in a system where Big DATA integration is seamless, the sustainability is continuous, and the environmental impact will be highly advantageous. About InnoTAD Group InnoTAD Group is a technology company based in Singapore. It produces products and services that make efficient automobiles through their prprietary technologies. InnoTAD is involved in intensive R&D for series of innovative solutions and the innoTAD Emission Reducer, iER (Fuel Reducer), is a patent pending product, the first of its kind in the world with the capability to effectively improve the automobiles in fuel, noise, power, engine, emission and pollution. Their product the InnoTAD Emission Reducer, iER, is suitable for all types of Petrol, Diesel, CNG/LPG automobiles. It is one of the ready solutions in Emission & Pollutants reduction for used cars as well as new cars! To learn more about InnoTAD and their innovative products, please visit their website: www.innoTAD.com About Sino United Worldwide Consolidated Company The Sino United Worldwide Consolidated Company provides Blockchain services to five sectors including: Logistics & Trade, Vehicle & Transportation, Finance & Coin, and Medical & Healthcare, and a new addition, Fintech. The addition of the Fintech sector to SUICs Blockchain services includes a comprehensive update in which SUIC will build up its own internal capabilities by actively starting a Blockchain training program, developing a 3rd generation Smart Contract Blockchain under the SUIC brand, and using these capabilities to offer a comprehensive ICO consultancy. Shareholders of SUIC will be exposed to the diverse application of blockchain services in various parts of the economy. Additionally, existing and potential customers can benefit from this companys diversified portfolio of technologies and consulting services in the four sectors. As one of the first publicly traded technology companies, SUIC serves as an innovative leader by integrating these five sectors. To learn more, please visit www.sinounitedltd.com. Forward-Looking Statement Certain information set forth herein contains "forward-looking information", including "future oriented financial information" and "financial outlook", under applicable securities laws (collectively referred to herein as forward-looking statements). Except for statements of historical fact, information contained herein constitutes forward-looking statements and includes, but is not limited to, the (i) projected financial performance of the Company; (ii) completion of, and the use of proceeds from, the sale of shares being offered hereunder; (iii) the expected development of the Company's business, projects and joint ventures; (iv) execution of the Company's vision and growth strategy, including with respect to future M&A activity and global growth; (v) sources and availability of third-party financing for the Company's projects; (vi) completion of the Company's projects that are currently underway, in development or otherwise under consideration; (vi) renewal of the Company's current agreements; and (vii) future liquidity, working capital, and capital requirements. Forward-looking statements are provided to allow potential investors the opportunity to understand management's beliefs and opinions in respect of the future so that they may use such beliefs and opinions as one factor in evaluating an investment. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and undue reliance should not be placed on them. Such forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual performance and financial results in future periods to differ materially from any projections of future performance or result expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Although forward-looking statements contained herein are based upon what management of the Company believes are reasonable assumptions, there can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change except as required by applicable securities laws. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Contact: Sino United Worldwide Consolidated New Release Department 718-395-8706 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] $10.5+ Billion Credit Insurance Market to 2025 - Global Analysis and Forecasts by Component, Enterprise Size & Application - ResearchAndMarkets.com The "Credit Insurance Market to 2025 - Global Analysis and Forecasts by Component; Enterprise Size; & Application" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global Credit Insurance market is anticipated accounted to US$ 8.64 Bn in 2017 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 2.9% during the forecast period 2018 - 2025, to account to US$ 10.77 Bn by 2025. Growth in the recent five years is primarily driven by two major factors, unstable macroeconomic factors that are influencing the growth of credit insurance, and improving sales & accounts receivable support benefits to accentuate the demand for credit insurance. Political as well as regulatory disruptions around the world have caused a paradigm shift in the method trade is being carried out globally. Businesses today are driven by higher innovation arising from increasing consumer expectations to stay competitive in the market, whereas the new entrants look to disrupt the traditional businesses and garner market share from incumbent players. This has led to high uncertainties regarding the sustainability of a particular business and therefore, the need to ensure a business for recovering losses in case any has become mandatory for businesses today. Business owners are therefore getting keener on ensuring their businesses and transactions to keep up with the technology development, while also focus on growing the top-line sales along with bolstering the bottom line profitability. Different industry verticals require different coverage of insurance. The insurance premium greatly varies on the political, economic and technological scenario in the countries. Liberalization of the markets, as well as an increase in cross-border shipments across the globe, are the two prime factors that have led to increasing market attractiveness for the credit insurance in the domestic trade as well as international trade arena. The credit insurance market has been segmented on the basis of components into the following segments including products and services. The credit insurance market has been further bifurcated on the basis of enterprise size into small & medium enterprise (SMEs) and large enterprise. Also, the credit insurance market has been segmented based on the application intothe domestic market and the export market. Geographically the credit insurance market is presently dominated by developed regions including, Europe and North America. However, the credit insurance market is expected to be in favor of the Asia Pacific and the Middle East and Africa in the coming years. The developing economies of APAC are experiencing a tremendous growth in their FDIs for various industry verticals. China's policy stimulus for credit insurance, the increased role for export credit insurance and the liberalized export credit market in conjunction with an increasing SME involvement, have been the primary driving factors for the credit insurance market in the Asia Pacific. Growing trade of South East Asian countries with the Western countries of the world provides huge potentials for the credit insurance market to prosper. Key players in the market are in cashing the opportunity to gain maximum benefit from on the opportunities in emerging markets. Key Topics Covered: 1. Introduction 2. Key Takeaways 3. Credit Insurance Market Landscape 3.1 Market Overview 3.2 Market Segmentation 3.3 Pest Analysis 4. Credit Insurance Market - Key Industry Dynamics 4.1 Key Market Drivers 4.1.1 Unstable Macro-Economic Factors Are Influencing the Growth of Credit Insurance 4.1.2 Improving Sales and Accounts Receivable Support Benefits To Accentuate the Demand For Credit Insurance 4.2 Key Market Restraints 4.2.1 Fraudulent Policies and Claims Are Limiting the Market Growth 4.3 Key Market Opportunities 4.3.1 Asia Pacific a Lucrative Region For Credit Insurance Companies 4.4 Future Trends 4.4.1 Simplified Insurance Claiming Procedures 4.4.2 Integration of Technology To Boost the Market Growth 4.5 Impact Analysis of Drivers and Restraints 5. Credit Insurance - Premium Insights 5.1 Credit Insurance Regulatory Framework 5.2 Credit Insurance Risk Analysis 5.2.1 Credit Insurance Political and Commercial Risk: 6. Credit Insurance - Global Market Analysis 6.1 Global Credit Insurance Market Overview 6.2 Global Credit Insurance Market Forecast and Analysis 7. Credit Insurance Market Revenue and Forecasts To 2025 - Component 7.1 Overview 7.2 Global Credit Insurance Market Breakdown, by Components, 2017 & 2025 7.2.1 Products Market 7.2.2 Services Market 8. Credit Insurance Market Revenue and Forecasts To 2025 - Enterprise Size 8.1 Overview 8.2 Global Credit Insurance Market Breakdown, by Enterprise Size, 2017 & 2025 8.3 Small & Medium Enterprise Market 8.4 Large Enterprise Market 9. Credit Insurance Market Revenue and Forecasts To 2025 - Application 9.1 Overview 9.2 Global Credit Insurance Market Breakdown, by Application, 2017 & 2025 9.3 Domestic Market 9.4 Export Market 10. Credit Insurance Market - Geographical Analysis 11. Industry Landscape 11.1 Market Initiative 11.2 Merger and Acquisition 11.3 New Development 12. Competitive Landscape 12.1 Competitive Product Mapping 12.2 Market Positioning - Global Top 5 Players Ranking 13. Credit Insurance Market, Key Company Profiles Euler Hermes Atradius N.V. Coface SA American Internation Group, Inc. Credendo QBE Insurance Group Ltd. Zurich Insurance Group China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation CESCE Export Development Canada For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/p5fjdt/10_5_billion?w=4 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181128005336/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] KAR to Extend International Footprint with Acquisition of CarsOnTheWeb Digital Wholesale Auction Platform to Anchor Company's European Operations and Expansion CARMEL, Ind., Nov. 28, 2018 /CNW/ -- KAR Auction Services, Inc. (NYSE: KAR), a global automotive remarketing and technology services company, announced it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Belgium-based CarsOnTheWeb (COTW). The potential transaction is valued at approximately 91 million euros in cash and up to an additional 65 million euros over a specified period of time contingent on certain terms, conditions and COTW performance. The companies expect to close the transaction the first quarter of 2019 subject to certain required regulatory approvals. COTW is an online auction company serving the wholesale vehicle sector in Continental Europe that seamlessly connects OEMs, fleet owners, wholesalers and dealers. When completed, the acquisition will advance KAR's international strategy and extend its strong North American and UK-based portfolio of physical, online and digital auction marketplaces. KAR also intends to leverage COTW to deploy the company's technology, data analytics and other ancillary service capabilities across Europe. "CarsOnTheWeb is a leading cross-border automotive remarketing platform in Continental Europe, and their addition to our family of companies will instantly anchor KAR in the international marketplace," said Jim Hallett, chairman and CEO of KAR. "CarsOnTheWeb's proven, profitable operating model will bring innovative technology, experienced leadership and an active European customer base to our organization. Upon closing, these highly complementary assets and capabilities will help fuel KAR's continued growth and allow us to deliver more globally integrated solutions to our customers." With sales operations in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain, COTW provides sellers in these countries and buyers in over 50 countries with a wide range of vehicle auction, transportation and related support services. The company's online and mobile tools are available in 19 languages and deliver real-time search, bid, payment and logistics scheduling functionality. COTW also provides comprehensive, VAT-compliant payment, document transfer and post-sale processes supporting the 97 percent of customer transactions that involve cross-border sales. "Cross-border transactions are particularly complex for European remarketers," said Benjamin Skuy, KAR's executive vice president for international markets and strategic initiatives. "CarsOnTheWeb's unique platform and logistics solutions directly address these challenges and have the power to deliver seamless, convenient and connected services on a global scale. By leveraging KAR's broad portfolio of technology, strong industry relationships and existing ADESA UK operations, we can enhance these offerings and develop new opportunities to serve wholesale customers." After the transaction closes, KAR intends to retain COTW's current operating locations, employees and key COTW leadership and management team members. This includes Johan Meyssen, CEO of COTW, who will report directly to Benjamin Skuy. "KAR and their affiliated brands are some of the most recognized and respected names in our industry," said Meyssen. "We look forward to obtaining the necessary regulatory approvals and leveraging the expertise and talents of both companies to drive growth and better serve our customers." KAR Contacts Media Inquiries: Analyst Inquiries: Gene Rodriguez Miller Mike Eliason (317) 343-5243 (317) 249-4559 [email protected] [email protected] About KAR Auction Services KAR Auction Services (NYSE: KAR) provides sellers and buyers across the global wholesale used vehicle industry with innovative, technology-driven remarketing solutions. KAR's unique end-to-end platform supports whole car, salvage, financing, logistics and other ancillary and related services, including the sale of more than 5.5 million units valued at over $40 billion through our auctions. Our integrated physical, online and mobile marketplaces reduce risk, improve transparency and streamline transactions for customers in 120 countries. Headquartered in Carmel, Ind., KAR has approximately 17,500 employees across the United States, Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom. For more information go to www.karauctionservices.com. For the latest KAR news follow us on Twitter @KARspeaks. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/kar-to-extend-international-footprint-with-acquisition-of-carsontheweb-300756730.html SOURCE KAR Auction Services, Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] Carvana to Host Analyst Day on Nov. 29 Carvana Co. (NYSE: CVNA), a leading e-commerce platform for buying, financing and selling used cars, today announced it will host an analyst day on Thursday, Nov. 29, 2018, in Phoenix. Carvana CEO Ernie Garcia will be joined by the senior management team to discuss the company's long-term outlook and Carvana's technology foundation. A live webcast of the event, along with supporting materials, will be accessible from the Investor Relations section of the company's website, https://investors.carvana.com/. What: Carvana Analyst Day When: Thursday, Nov. 29, 2018; 10:30 a.m. EST Webcast: https://investors.carvana.com/events-and-presentations About Carvana (NYSE: CVNA) Founded in 2012 and based in Phoenix, Carvana's (NYSE: CVNA) mission is to change the way people buy cars. By removing the traditional dealership infrastructure and replacing it with technology and exceptional customer service, Carvana offers consumers an intuitive and convenient online car buying and financing platform. Carvana.com enables consumers to quickly and easily shop more than 10,000 vehicles, finance, trade-in or sell their current vehicle to Carvana, sign contracts, and schedule as-soon-as-next-day delivery or pickup at one of Carvana's proprietary automated Car Vending Machines. For further information on Carvana, please visit www.carvana.com, or connect with us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181128005001/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] AdviNOW, Akos and Safeway Introduce Artificial Intelligence-powered Clinic to Phoenix Market with Event on Nov. 29 AdviNOW Medical: WHAT: Grand Opening Event debuting Artificial Intelligence-powered, virtual medical clinics inside Phoenix-area Safeway stores. Mayor Mark Mitchell to host ribbon cutting and make remarks. Welcome remarks by Albertsons Companies' Director of Pharmacy Joe Leyba, PharmD; Akos Founder and CEO Kishlay Anad, MD; and, AdviNOW Medical Founder and CEO James Bates. WHEN: Thursday, November 29, 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. ribbon cutting and tours of the clinic. An open house for Safeway shoppers and visitors curious to see this one-of-a-kind medical clinic will occur from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. WHERE: Tempe Safeway Store, 926 E. Broadway Road, Tempe, Arizona 85282 WHY: Akos, a leader in virtual health solutions, has launched in five Phoenix-area Safeway stores first-of-its-kind, AI-powered medical clinics featuring telehealth and onsite health professionals. This event is an opportunity to experience the technology and witness first-hand how it will transform the way we access personal healthcare forever. We are hosting at the Tempe Safeway store, around the corner from Arizona State University, because ASU students and interns helped to develop the technology. Here's how it works: While sitting in front of a computer screen and a rack of simple-to-use, FDA-approved medical devices, patients are guided by Augmented Reality through self-administered steps to collect data such as weight, temperature, blood pressure, and blood oxygen content, as well as ear, nose and throat images, and chest, lung and abdomen sounds. Follow-up questions are asked until the information necessary for diagnostic decision is collected. The total process typically takes less than 15 minutes. A complete patient work-up is sent electronically to an Akos provider with a breakdown of potential illnesses and treatment options. Through a video consultation, the provider engages with the patient to confirm the AI-collected information, verify the diagnosis, and confirm or modify the treatment plan formulated by the system. Every detail of the encounter is automatically charted and scribed into the electronic medical record. The AI also sends the prescription and/or test orders to the appropriate healthcare partner, e.g. imaging centers, pharmacies, etc., and completes the billing process. In the appropriate timeframe, depending upon the diagnosis, the AI follows up with the patient to check their health status and schedule a follow-up visit, if warranted. ABOUT CITY OF TEMPE Tempe, Arizona makes waves as a technology and business magnet, an inclusive, caring community and a hub for recreation and adventure. Home to Arizona State University, Tempe Town Lake and the famous Mill Avenue, Tempe is located in the center of the Greater Phoenix Meropolitan Area and adjacent to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. Tempe is a diverse, forward-thinking community of 182,000 residents, 200,000 workforce members and 100,000 students. More than 4 million visitors arrive each year to enjoy special events such as the Tempe Festival of the Arts, Ironman Arizona and the Fantasy of Lights holiday boat parade. More details available at www.tempe.gov or follow us Instagram and Twitter (News - Alert), @tempegov. ABOUT ALBERTSONS COMPANIES Albertsons Companies is one of the largest food and drug retailers in the United States, with both a strong local presence and national scale. We operate stores across 35 states and the District of Columbia under 20 well-known banners including Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw's, Acme, Tom Thumb, Randalls, United Supermarkets, Pavilions, Star Market, Haggen and Carrs. Albertsons Companies is committed to helping people across the country live better lives by making a meaningful difference, neighborhood by neighborhood. ABOUT AKOS Developed by a team of leading physicians, Akos launched its revolutionary telehealth platform in 2016. Named "2017 Innovator of the Year" at the Governor's Innovation of Celebration, Akos powers a new type of virtual practice, offering a fully integrated HIPAA-compliant healthcare solution for patients, physicians, employers and medical centers across the United States. By combining smart technology, seamless design, a patient-centric approach, grassroots strategy and the collective power of a preferred provider network, Akos is reinventing the traditional healthcare model one virtual call at a time. Available 24/7, 365 days a year, Akos gives patients unparalleled access to licensed healthcare providers who provide care for a wide range of non-emergent conditions via a smartphone, tablet or desktop - no insurance or membership necessary. For more information or to download our app, visit www.AkosMD.com. For the latest news, health tips and more, follow Akos on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. ABOUT ADVINOW Healthcare has been slow to operationalize technological innovation. How we engage with providers today is not much different than decades ago. This has led to wasteful inefficiencies, persistent poor health outcomes, and out-of-control costs. AdviNOW Medical is changing this paradigm. Winner of the AZBio Fast Lane Award, AdviNOW Medical uses Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality to power a patient-friendly medical station to evolve and improve the healthcare encounter-resulting in reduced overhead, greater patient through-put, billing timeliness and efficiency, and faster value-based, incentivized data collection. The lead investor in AdviNOW Medical is GlobalMed. For more information, visit www.advinow.com. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181128005006/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] Gates Vascular Institute Leverages Canon Medical's Aquilion ONE Technology Stroke Capabilities to Adhere to New AHA / ASA Stroke Guidelines In stroke, time saved on imaging is time gained in the treatment window. The recently updated guidelines from the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association expand the window of time for clinicians to treat stroke. This makes protocols, like Neuro ONE on the AquilionTM ONE / GENESIS Edition CT system from Canon Medical Systems USA, Inc. combined with Vitrea's 4D Neuro Perfusion software, more important than ever. "The Aquilion ONE / GENESIS Edition is enhancing treatment of stroke," said Dr. Ken Snyder, Professor of Neurosurgery, Radiology and Neurology in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo and Gates Vascular Institute. "One of the greatest challenges used to be the ability to effectively treat patients with wake up stroke. The evolution of imaging provided by this technology has given the field the power to appropriately select and treat patients with a mechanical thrombectomy and treat those that were previously deemed untreatable." The Aquilion ONE / GENESIS Edition is capable of imaging the entire brain with a single 640-slice* rotation, covering up to 16 cm. The 4D Neuro Perfusion package from Vital Images evaluates flow and perfusion deficits to help physicians identify affected brain tissue. The scanner's Neuro ONE Protocol allows the acquisition of multiple low-dose volume scans of the entire brain during contrast infusion to provide whole-brain perfusion and whole-brain dynamic vascular analysis in one exam. To round out Cann Medical's stroke capabilities on the Aquilion ONE / GENESIS Edition, its Forward projected model-based Iterative Reconstruction SoluTion (FIRST) MBIR** improves high-contrast spatial resolution and low-contrast detectability in the brain, opening doors for the possibility of seeing early signs of stroke with CT. "The new guidelines reinforce the importance of time when it comes to the diagnosis and treatment of stroke, it's a common theme throughout the guidelines," said Dr. Adnan H. Siddiqui, director, Neurosurgical Stroke Service, Gates Vascular Institute and Vice-Chair and Professor of Neurosurgery in the Jacobs School. "We know the value of time when it comes to mechanical thrombectomies and the importance of advanced diagnostic imaging to improve outcomes in patients who present symptoms beyond six hours. The guidelines fortify what we've been studying and practicing for years." A CT system that can quickly map the brain to help locate the clot is what helps doctors meet the demands of time during these critical moments. The Aquilion ONE / GENESIS Edition makes use of intensive, clinically focused research and innovative technological developments. The system's advanced perfusion maps assist in diagnosis and therapy response verification of stroke. "Every minute counts. Even the smallest delays in the treatment for stroke can result in a significant decrease in quality of life. The Aquilion ONE / GENESIS Edition combined with Vitrea's 4D Neuro Perfusion software is advancing stroke care by transforming clinical confidence and giving providers the ability to diagnose stroke quickly and accurately," said Dominic Smith, senior director, CT, PET/CT, and MR Business Units, Canon (News - Alert) Medical Systems USA, Inc. "Canon Medical's goal is to deliver solutions that meet both the healthcare providers' clinical needs and the American Heart and American Stroke Associations' guidelines which underscore the importance of time." Canon Medical is showcasing its innovative CT technology at this year's Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) annual meeting in Chicago, November 25 - 30, 2018 (Booth #1938, South Level 3). More information available here and booth #1938 during RSNA. About Canon Medical Systems USA, Inc. Canon Medical Systems USA, Inc., headquartered in Tustin, Calif., markets, sells, distributes and services radiology and cardiovascular systems, including CT, MR, ultrasound, X-ray and interventional X-ray equipment. For more information, visit Canon Medical Systems' website at https://us.medical.canon. About Canon Medical Systems Corporation Canon Medical Systems Corporation develops and manufactures diagnostic imaging systems including CT, MRI, ultrasound, X-ray systems and clinical laboratory systems and provides them to around 140 countries and regions around the world, offering technology that provides faster diagnosis and early treatment. Under the slogan "Made for Life" (Made for Partnerships, Made for Patients, Made for You.), Canon Medical Systems is making positive contributions toward hospital management, and provides a range of patient-friendly healthcare systems and services, continuing its long tradition of contributing to healthcare. *With ConeXact **Model-based Iterative Reconstruction Aquilion, Aquilion ONE, Made for Life are trademarks of Canon Medical Systems Corporation. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181128005035/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] HighRadius Announces Minute Maid Park as 2019 Venue for 6th Annual Radiance Order to Cash Innovation Conference HighRadius, a fintech enterprise Software-as-a-Service (SaaS (News - Alert)) company specializing in automating the order to cash process with its Integrated Receivables platform, today announced its Radiance 2019 Order to Cash Innovation Conference to be hosted February 18 - 20, 2019 in Houston, Texas at the Minute Maid Park, home of the 2017 World Champion Houston Astros. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181128005233/en/ HighRadius announces its Radiance (News - Alert) 2019 Order to Cash Innovation Conference. (Graphic: Business Wire) With more than 250 peer-led sessions, Radiance enables technology and finance professionals to learn about the transformational changes that will fundamentally alter the way the order to cash process will work in the enerprise of tomorrow. Attendees will be able to build a customized schedule of peer-led sessions across a variety of tracks, including sessions focused on: ERP Platforms - SAP (News - Alert), Oracle, Infor, NetSuite SAP (News - Alert), Oracle, Infor, NetSuite Finance Management & Leadership in Digital Age - Shared Services, Workforce Management, Team Benchmarking Shared Services, Workforce Management, Team Benchmarking Order to Cash Enabling Technology - AI, Machine Learning, Robotics, Blockchain AI, Machine Learning, Robotics, Blockchain Future of Order to Cash Applications - Credit, Billing, Cash Application, Deductions, Collections Credit, Billing, Cash Application, Deductions, Collections Industry Specific Workshops - CPG, Manufacturing, HiTech, Apparel, Banking Tickets, registration and full agenda available: https://radiance.highradius.com/ About HighRadius Corporation HighRadius is a Fintech enterprise Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company. The HighRadiusTM Integrated Receivables platform reduces cycle times in your order-to-cash process through automation of receivables and payments processes across credit, electronic billing and payment processing, cash application, deductions and collections. Powered by the RivanaTM Artificial Intelligence Engine and FredaTM Virtual Assistant for order-to-cash teams, HighRadius enables teams to leverage machine learning to predict future outcomes and automate routine labor-intensive tasks. The radiusOneTM B2B payment network allows suppliers to digitally connect with buyers, closing the loop from supplier receivable processes to buyer payable processes. HighRadius solutions have a proven track record of optimizing cash flow, reducing days sales outstanding (DSO) and bad debt, and increasing operational efficiency so that companies may achieve strong ROI in just a few months. To learn more, please visit www.highradius.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181128005233/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] The Swedish Migration Agency partners with CGI to improve its immigration services through agile STOCKHOLM, Nov. 28, 2018 /CNW Telbec/ - Migrationsverket (the Swedish Migration Agency) has chosen CGI to supply a team of agile experts to help speed up the development of a wide range of IT solutions that will address key business challenges and improve immigration services. The agency's mission is, among others, to investigate and process applications from individuals who want to settle in Sweden, visit the country, seek protection from persecution or obtain Swedish citizenship. The order value of the four-year agreement is estimated around 140 million SEK (approx.C$20.5 million). Two fundamental issues in society, digitalization and migration, are at the core of the challenges faced by Migrationsverket, which has a great need for capacity and speed in managing its many development projects. Specific projects include developing solutions for automating case and financial compensation management, supporting digital identities for asylum seekers, increasing mobility, and developing an internal digital workplace with an activity-based approach. An important factor for Migrationsverket in selecting a vendor was security. CGI has several delivery centers in Sweden with a long history of working with high-level security requirements within both the private and public sectors. These centers have significant experience in delivering solutions based on security requirements related to personnel, technology, safety, and more. "Supporting fast and efficient systems development based on agile principles is something we've been working on at CGI long before agile got its name," said Par Fors, Senior Vice-President overseeing CGI's operations in Sweden. "In our global delivery center in Ostersund, we specialize in agile development and management, especially with respect to Java and .Net platforms. CGI's major differentiator is its local capabilities, with 30 offices across Sweden, combined with our global delivery network, which enables us to always find the right solution for each client." About CGI Founded in 1976, CGI is among the largest independent IT and business consulting services firms in the world. With 74,000 professionals across the globe, CGI delivers an end-to-end portfolio of capabilities, from IT and business consulting to systems integration, outsourcing services and intellectual property solutions. CGI works with clients through a local relationship model complemented by a global delivery network that helps clients digitally transform their organizations and accelerate results. With annual revenue of C$11.5 billion, CGI shares are listed on the TSX (GIB.A) and the NYSE (GIB). Learn more at cgi.com . Forward-looking information and statements This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities laws and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other applicable United States safe harbours. All such forward-looking information and statements are made and disclosed in reliance upon the safe harbour provisions of applicable Canadian and United States securities laws. Forward-looking information and statements include all information and statements regarding CGI's intentions, plans, expectations, beliefs, objectives, future performance, and strategy, as well as any other information or statements that relate to future events or circumstances and which do not directly and exclusively relate to historical facts. Forward-looking information and statements often but not always use words such as "believe", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "anticipate", "foresee", "plan", "predict", "project", "aim", "seek", "strive", "potential", "continue", "target", "may", "might", "could", "should", and similar expressions and variations thereof. These information and statements are based on our perception of historic trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other assumptions, both general and specific, that we believe are appropriate in the circumstances. Such information and statements are, however, by their very nature, subject to inherent risks and uncertainties, of which many are beyond the control of CGI, and which give rise to the possibility that actual results could differ materially from our expectations expressed in, or implied by, such forward-looking information or forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include but are not restricted to: risks related to the market such as the level of business activity of our clients, which is affected by economic conditions, and our ability to negotiate new contracts; risks related to our industry such as competition and our ability to attract and retain qualified employees, to develop and expand our services, to penetrate new markets, and to protect our intellectual property rights; risks related to our business such as risks associated with our growth strategy, including the integration of new operations, financial and operational risks inherent in worldwide operations, foreign exchange risks, income tax laws, our ability to negotiate favorable contractual terms, to deliver our services and to collect receivables, and the reputational and financial risks attendant to cybersecurity breaches and other incidents; as well as other risks identified or incorporated by reference in this press release, in CGI's annual and quarterly MD&A and in other documents that we make public, including our filings with the Canadian Securities Administrators (on SEDAR at www.sedar.com) and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (on EDGAR at www.sec.gov). Unless otherwise stated, the forward-looking information and statements contained in this press release are made as of the date hereof and CGI disclaims any intention or obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information or forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. While we believe that our assumptions on which these forward-looking information and forward-looking statements are based were reasonable as at the date of this press release, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking information or statements. Furthermore, readers are reminded that forward-looking information and statements are presented for the sole purpose of assisting investors and others in understanding our objectives, strategic priorities and business outlook as well as our anticipated operating environment. Readers are cautioned that such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. Further information on the risks that could cause our actual results to differ significantly from our current expectations may be found in the section titled "Risk Environment" of CGI's annual and quarterly MD&A, which is incorporated by reference in this cautionary statement. We also caution readers that the above-mentioned risks and the risks disclosed in CGI's annual and quarterly MD&A and other documents and filings are not the only ones that could affect us. Additional risks and uncertainties not currently known to us or that we currently deem to be immaterial could also have a material adverse effect on our financial position, financial performance, cash flows, business or reputation. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-swedish-migration-agency-partners-with-cgi-to-improve-its-immigration-services-through-agile-300756433.html SOURCE CGI Group Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] WeDo Technologies Commended by Frost & Sullivan for Capturing the Highest Shares in the CSP Revenue Assurance Market WeDo Technologies is the market share leader in global revenue and financial assurance markets WASHINGTON, Nov. 28. 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Based on its recent analysis of the overall global communications service provider (CSP) revenue assurance market, Frost & Sullivan recognizes WeDo Technologies with the 2018 Global Market Leadership Award. The company established a lead in global market share for both CSP revenue and financial assurance markets by catering to a customer base of more than 200 CSPs. Furthermore, WeDo has reengineered its already successful solutions for the cloud, increasing its potential addressable market and application scope. WeDo's solutions are based on its RAID Risk Management platform, which is available as an on-premises solution as well as a cloud solution. It is comprised of the RAID Revenue Assurance, RAID Fraud Management, and RAID Business Assurance modules. Each of these solutions has clearly defined roles, for instance, Revenue Assurance keeps revenue from being lost; Fraud Management helps reduce unreimbursed costs; and WeDo's other solutions focus on helping CSPs enhance revenue or decrease costs in order to widen margins. "As a modular platform, RAID gives CSPs the flexibility to purchase only the services they require and scale them up as needed. Additionally, Revenue Assurance enables CSPs to reduce revenue leakage, improve margins, and generate more earnings by enriching the customer experience and lowering customer churn," said Brian Cotton, Frost & Sullivan's Global Practice Leader for ICT. "Meanwhile, RAID Fraud Management offers CSPs functionalities such as visibility, automation, flexibility, and scalability to protect dynamic telecom environments against sophisticated fraud threats." The RAID platform presents users with a number of key capabilities, including data collection, extraction, transformation, and load, wherein it garners data from various sources, stores it in a database, and employs complex event processing to analyze it. It also includes a unified validation engine (UVE), which is a collection of software that enables CSPs to explicitly define, analyze, execute, audit, and maintain a variety of business "rules" via graphic modeling. These rules can then be combined with its analytical capabilities, which are supported by machine-learning and artificial intelligence echnologies. "Another notable strategy of the company is its emphasis on user experience, and in line with this vision, it has redesigned RAID's dashboarding and reporting features," noted Cotton. "WeDo's product enhancements, along with greater acceptance of cloud-enabled solutions in both the financial assurance and the overall revenue assurance markets, is expected to entrench the company deeper in the market and position it for greater growth." Each year, Frost & Sullivan bestows this award upon the company that demonstrates excellence in growth and customer value. Attaining loyal customers who became brand advocates allows the company to grow and achieve a market leadership position. By committing to the customer at each stage of the buying cycle and continuing to nurture the relationship, this award recognizes a company's increased market share over time. Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry. About WeDo Technologies Founded in 2001, WeDo Technologies is the global market leader in Revenue Assurance and Fraud Management through Risk Management software solutions. WeDo Technologies provides software and expert consulting to Telecom Operators and Communication Service Providers worldwide. Currently we count with over 200 customers, spread across 108 countries, with a network of 600+ highly-skilled professional experts. Our offices are geographically spread in the US, Europe, Asia-Pacific; Middle East, Africa, Central and South America. WeDo Technologies' software analyzes large quantities of data allowing to monitor, control, manage and optimize processes, ensuring revenue protection and risk mitigation. With over 200 customers - including some of the world's leading blue chip organizations WeDo Technologies has long been recognized as the constant innovator in assuring the success of its customers along a journey of continuous transformation. WeDo Technologies. Know The Unknown. www.wedotechnologies.com Latest news on @WeDoNews About Frost & Sullivan Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants. For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector, and the investment community. Contact us: Start the discussion . Contact: Estefany Ariza P: 210.477.8469 F: 210.348.1003 E: [email protected] Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/788215/Frost_and_Sullivan_We_Do_Technologies_Award_Logo.jpg SOURCE Frost & Sullivan [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] ProtectWise and Recorded Future Launch Integration Partnership DENVER and BOSTON, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- ProtectWiseTM, the leader in Cloud-delivered Network Detection and Response (NDR), and Recorded Future, the leading threat intelligence provider, today announced the rollout of its strategic integration partnership. ProtectWise now integrates rich, relevant, and real-time threat intelligence from Recorded Future with its on-demand platform, The ProtectWise GridTM, to help customers make quick, confident decisions to stop breaches. Through this integration, security analysts and incident responders gain additional context about malicious IPs, domains, and files directly within the user interface of The ProtectWise Grid. Recorded Future delivers real-time threat intelligence, unifying thousands of data points, enabling security operations teams to make fast decisions about threats facing their organization. When it detects an attack, ProtectWise queries Recorded Future for additional information. Users are then presented with external threat intelligence collected and analyzed by Recorded Future, including a risk score and recent references. Users can also pivot from Protectwise over to a Recorded Future Intelligence Card for even more in-depth information. By putting the severity of threats in context, the integration will allow incident responders to pivot from indicators of compromise (IOCs) to validation with Recorded Future to action in seconds. ProtectWise provides analysts with a platform for automated detection of advanced network attacks, an unlimited packet capture retention window, and the ability to intuitively interact with massive volumes of security data through an advanced visual presentation. The ProtectWise Grid transforms how organizations handle complex threats with security delivered entirely from the cloud. Its platform provides customers with an enriched forensic workbench and intuitive workflows across their security stacks. As an inaugural member of Recorded Future Connect, the company's technology partner program, ProtectWise furthers its commitment to aligning with security leaders to make threat investigation and defense faster and more effective. The Recorded Future Connect technology partner program is laser focused on providing intelligence that helps teams make faster, more confident decisions by integrating rich threat intelligence into all cyber security processes. Recorded Future Connect partners represent leading SIEM, incident response, ticketing, link analysis, security infrastructure, security orchestration and automation, vulnerability management, and threat intelligence platform (TIP) solutions. "Our integration with Recorded Future enables security analysts to more rapidly investigate and remediate incidents with confidence," said Ramon Peypoch, Chief Product Officer, ProtectWise. "As an inaugural member of Recorded Future Connect, ProtectWise can increase accessibility to intelligence, visibility, detection, and response." "This integration with ProtectWise arms security professionals with the external intelligence they need to proactively respond to threats with confidence. Together, we're dramatically shrinking the window of opportunity for bad actors by streamlining processes and removing the hurdles of legacy systems." Matt Kodama, vice president of product, Recorded Future. Integration Demonstration Wednesday, December 5: ProtectWise will demonstrate its integration with Recorded Future Wednesday, December 5, at 1 p.m. PT/4 p.m. ET. To register, visit: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/9089120961821706509?source=PR About Recorded Future Recorded Future delivers the only complete threat intelligence solution powered by patented machine learning to lower risk. We empower organizations to reveal unknown threats before they impact business, and enable teams to respond to alerts 10 times faster. To supercharge the efforts of security teams, our technology automatically collects and analyzes intelligence from technical, open web, and dark web sources and aggregates customer-proprietary data. Recorded Future delivers more context than threat feeds, updates in real time so intelligence stays relevant, and centralizes information ready for human analysis, collaboration, and integration with security technologies. 91 percent of the Fortune 100 use Recorded Future. Learn more at www.recordedfuture.com and follow us on Twitter at @RecordedFuture. About ProtectWise ProtectWise provides Cloud-delivered Network Detection & Response (NDR). Organizations can achieve defense-in-depth via advanced analytics in Enterprise, Cloud and Industrial environments with real time and retrospective detections. Full-fidelity packet captures, indexed and retained indefinitely, create a perfect, rapidly searchable network memory. By unifying detections and forensics in an intuitive and immersive visualizer, The ProtectWise Grid delivers unique advantages over current security products. The platform integrates with hundreds of existing security products, features the ease and cost-savings of an on-demand deployment model and enables companies to consolidate multiple, disconnected point products. Founded in April 2013, ProtectWise is based in Denver and led by a team of security and SaaS industry veterans from McAfee, CrowdStrike and Symantec. Register for a free 72-hour test drive of The ProtectWise Grid at https://www.protectwise.com/TestDrive. Media Contacts: MacLean Guthrie ProtectWise [email protected] Rachel Adam Recorded Future [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/protectwise-and-recorded-future-launch-integration-partnership-300756597.html SOURCE ProtectWise [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. The Report Study on the Global Industrial Control for the Process Automation Market 2018 offers an intrinsic and process analysis of the Industrial Control for the Process Automation industry, which helps the company, industry investors, and industry participants with diligent intuition to enable them the world Industrial Control for the Process Automation market For Sample Copy of this Report at https://www.orianresearch.com/request-sample/692279 Scope of the Report: This report focuses on the Industrial Control for Process Automation in global markets, especially in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, types and applications. Industrial Control for Process Automation Industry 2018 Market Research Report is spread across 124 pages and provides exclusive vital statistics, data, information, trends and competitive landscape details in this niche sector. Inquire more or share questions if any before the purchase on Industrial Control for Process Automation Industry report https://www.orianresearch.com/enquiry-before-buying/692279 Report Covers Market Segment by Manufacturers: ABB Schneider Electric Honeywell Siemens Rockwell Automation Omron Emerson GE Market Segment by Type, covers: Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) Distributed Control System (DCS) Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) and Remote Terminal Unit (RTU) Manufacturing Execution System (MES) Human-Machine Interface (HMI) Market Segment by Applications, can be divided into: Electrical Power Oil & Gas Industry Manufacturing Industry Pharmaceutical Chemicals Water and Waste Water Management Order Copy of this Report @ https://www.orianresearch.com/checkout/692279 There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Industrial Control for Process Automation market. Chapter 1: Describe Industrial Control for Process Automation Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, and market driving force. Chapter 2: Analyze the top manufacturers of Location-Based Services (LBS) and Real Time Location Systems (RTLS), with sales, revenue, and price of Location-Based Services (LBS) and Real Time Location Systems (RTLS), in 2015 and 2017. Chapter 3: Display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2015 and 2017. Chapter 4: Show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Location-Based Services (LBS) and Real Time Location Systems (RTLS), for each region, from 2011 to 2017. Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9: Analyze and talked about the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions. Chapter 10 and 11: Show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2011 to 2017. Chapter 12 : In Chapter Eleven Industrial Control for Process Automation market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022. Chapter 13, 14 and 15 : Describe Industrial Control for Process Automation sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, appendix and data source. About Us Orian Research is one of the most comprehensive collections of market intelligence reports on the World Wide Web. Our reports repository boasts of over 500000+ industry and country research reports from over 100 top publishers. We continuously update our repository so as to provide our clients with access to the world's most complete and current database of expert insights on global industries, companies, and products. We also specialize in custom research in situations where our syndicated research offerings do not meet the specific requirements of our esteemed clients. Contact Us: Ruwin Mendez Vice President - Global Sales & Partner Relations Orian Research Consultants US: +1 (415) 830-3727 | UK: +44 020 8144-71-27 Email: info@orianresearch.com Website: www.orianresearch.com/ Follow Us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/13281002/ [November 28, 2018] Bandera Partners Issues Public Letter to Board of Luby's Bandera Partners LLC, a significant shareholder of Luby's Inc. (NYSE: LUB), announced that it has issued a public letter to the company's Board of Directors. The full text of the letter follows. November 27, 2018 Board of Directors Luby's, Inc. 13111 Northwest Freeway Suite 600 Houston, TX 77040 Dear Board of Directors, Bandera Partners ("Bandera") owns 2,619,721 shares of Luby's, Inc. ("Luby's" or the "Company") common stock ("Common Stock") or approximately 8.9% of the Company's outstanding shares. We have owned Common Stock continuously for more than a decade, and we have supported management and the Board of Directors for that entire time. Bandera is precisely the type of long-term shareholder that a well-managed company should want to have. I also have personal and business relationships with members of the Pappas family that run deep, and I view Christopher and Harris Pappas as pillars of their community and honest businesspeople. At the same time, I have a fiduciary responsibility to the investors in my fund, and I'm writing today to tell you that what's happening at Luby's is simply not working. The Fuddruckers and Luby's restaurant concepts do not generate a sufficient return on capital to justify the investments management is making, under your direction and supervision, into the business. The strategy of plowing cash flows back into restaurants works with good concepts like Pappadeaux and Pappasito's, but it has been a failure at Luby's. Capital expenditures since fiscal 2008 have totaled $235 million dollars, about six times the company's current market capitalization. The return on this investment has been dismal, and to pay down the debt you have accumulated in the process, Luby's is liquidating the most valuable asset shareholders own, the company's real estate. Luby's owned real estate portfolio is tremendously valuable. Its appraised value (net of debt) is over $4.00 per share of Common Stock, as compared to its current stock price around $1.40.1 It is brutally painful to watch the Company chisel away at its real estate portfolio to fund low-return investments into the business. Since fiscal 2008, Luby's has sold $88 million of assets. This capital, more than double the current market capitalization, is gone and forever lost to shareholders. Given the futility of recent investments into Luby's and Fuddruckers, has the Board considered a capital allocation strategy that preserves the real estate value and returns capital to the owners of the company, the shareholders? I appreciate that CEO Christopher Pappas reduced his salary to $1, but I also believe the decision to replace the Chief Operating Officer yet maintain him in a lesser role for $350,000 per year, shocked shareholders and could have contributed to the large sell-off of the Common Stock in late October. Shareholders already value Luby's at a huge discount to its liquidation value, probably because they expect the company's book value will continue to deteriorate. Recent events confirm the fears of many shareholders that Luby's is not serious about addressing its bloated corporate expenses. Does the Board have a detailed plan to align Luby's overhead costs with the reality of running a $40 million dollar company? I have tried to reach a mutually agreeable settlement with the company that would give Bandera sufficient seats on the company's Board to help foster positive change. Luby's has hired a very sophisticatedand expensive corporate defense lawyer instead of engaging in substantive negotiations to improve the Board with fresh, independent faces. To date, almost four weeks after I responsibly engaged with the company, Luby's has evaded substantive discussion. CEO Christopher Pappas has not responded to any of my requests to speak, and only one of the Board members I have reached out to has replied. Instead of agreeing to talk with a supportive but frustrated shareholder, the director wrote, "I have forwarded your request to corporate." In my opinion, these are not the actions of a Board of Directors concerned with the interests of the shareholders it is supposed to represent. I tried to settle this matter amicably, and for the good of all shareholders, but you left me no choice but to nominate a slate of highly qualified directors with deep experience in finance, real estate and restaurant operations. You could have embraced them and offered to add at least some of them to the Board, instead of snubbing us, rejecting serious discussion, and forcing us to bring real choice directly to the shareholders. Besides me, our slate includes: Senator Phil Gramm Sen. Gramm was an economics professor at Texas A&M before serving 24 years in the United States Congress. His legislative record includes several famous initiatives to reduce Federal spending including the Gramm-Latta Budget and the Gramm-Rudman Act. Since leaving public service, Sen. Gramm was Vice Chairman of UBS Investment Bank before becoming Vice Chairman of Lone Star Global Acquisitions, a real-estate oriented private equity firm. Stacy Hock Ms. Hock is a highly-accomplished philanthropist, public policy activist, and business owner. She is a Texas gubernatorial appointee as Vice Chair of the Texas Commission on Next Generation Assessment and Accountability. She serves on Lt. Governor Patrick's Education Advisory Council, and servers as Chairman of the Board of Texans for Education Opportunity. Ms. Hock serves on various other public policy, museum and business boards, and previously held management positions in the software industry, including at IBM (News - Alert). She has a degree in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from MIT, and an MBA from the University of Texas. Savneet Singh Mr. Singh is a very well-respected entrepreneur who has launched various finance, software and real estate businesses. He is a Partner at Coventure, an asset manager with funds in lending, venture capital and real estate. Mr. Singh was named to the prestigious Forbes 30 under 30 list, Crains 40 under 40, and the Empact 100 list of top 100 entrepreneurs under 30. Among his directorships, he serves on the board of Par Technology, a $250 million public company that sells POS systems to restaurants and retailers. Brian Wright Mr. Wright was introduced to me by a private equity investor who called him, "The best multi-unit operator I've ever worked with." He is currently CEO of Bertucci's Restaurants, where he has grown EBITDA and turned same-store sales positive. Mr. Wright led a massive restructuring at Bertucci's, closing multiple unprofitable locations, shedding bad leases through a beneficial pre-packaged bankruptcy, and facilitating a sale to new owners. He was previously COO of Au Bon Pain, President of Chevy's, COO of Phoenix Children's Academy, and SVP of Operations at Einstein Noah's Restaurant Group. I understand that Luby's directors control approximately 38% of the outstanding shares of Common Stock. But I believe this is the outside shareholders' last chance to salvage their investment in the company, and I feel a responsibility to take on this difficult battle on their behalf, rather than subject myself and other Luby's shareholders to another year of value destruction. If any of you would like to speak with me about Bandera's slate of Board nominees or any other matters, you can reach me at 212-232-4583. Sincerely, Jeff Gramm Bandera Partners LLC CERTAIN INFORMATION CONCERNING THE PARTICIPANTS Bandera Master Fund L.P. together with the other participants named herein (collectively, "Bandera"), intend to file a preliminary proxy statement and an accompanying proxy card with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC (News - Alert)") to be used to solicit votes for the election of its slate of director nominees at the upcoming 2019 annual meeting of stockholders of Luby's, Inc., a Delaware corporation (the "Company"). BANDERA STRONGLY ADVISES ALL SHAREHOLDERS OF THE COMPANY TO READ THE PROXY STATEMENT AND OTHER PROXY MATERIALS AS THEY BECOME AVAILABLE BECAUSE THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION. SUCH PROXY MATERIALS WILL BE AVAILABLE AT NO CHARGE ON (News - Alert) THE SEC'S WEB SITE AT HTTP://WWW.SEC.GOV. IN ADDITION, THE PARTICIPANTS IN THIS PROXY SOLICITATION WILL PROVIDE COPIES OF THE PROXY STATEMENT WITHOUT CHARGE, WHEN AVAILABLE, UPON REQUEST. REQUESTS FOR COPIES SHOULD BE DIRECTED TO THE PARTICIPANTS' PROXY SOLICITOR. The participants in the solicitation are anticipated to be Bandera Master Fund L.P., a Cayman Islands exempted limited partnership (the "Master Fund"), Bandera Partners LLC, a Delaware limited liability company ("Bandera Partners"), Gregory Bylinsky, Jefferson Gramm, William Philip Gramm, Stacy Hock, Savneet Singh and Brian K. Wright. As of the date hereof, the Master Fund is the direct owner of 2,619,721 shares of common stock of the Company, $0.32 par value ("Common Stock"). Bandera Partners, as the investment manager of the Master Fund, may be deemed the beneficial owner of the 2,508,351 shares owned by the Master Fund. Mr. Bylinsky as the Managing Partner, Managing Director and Portfolio Manager of the Master Fund, may be deemed the beneficial owner of the 2,619,721 shares owned by the Master Fund. Mr. J. Gramm, as the Managing Partner, Managing Director and Portfolio Manager of the Master Fund, may be deemed the beneficial owner of 2,629,721 shares of Common Stock, consisting of (i) 10,000 shares owned directly and (ii) the 2,619,721 shares own by the Master Fund. Except as described herein, no other Participant beneficially owns any Common Stock as of the date hereof. About Bandera Partners Bandera Partners is a value-oriented hedge fund based in New York. 1 Our estimate is based on Texas county appraisal data for Luby's owned real estate. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181128005387/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] Round Hill Capital Enters the U.S. Multifamily Housing Market Through Partnership with Cortland Round Hill Capital ("Round Hill"), a global leading real estate investment, development and asset management firm, today announces that it is partnering with Cortland ("Cortland"), an Atlanta-based, vertically integrated multifamily investment and management firm, around an income and growth strategy to deliver access to the U.S. multifamily housing sector for European and international institutional investors. As part of the strategy, Round Hill has closed on its first investment in the United States, The Exchange at North Haven, a high-quality, 411-unit inner suburban apartment community located in the Brookhaven/Chamblee neighborhoods of Atlanta, GA. This transaction represents the start of an ongoing program of investment in the U.S. to build a significant multifamily housing portfolio, focused on stable, attractive, income-producing assets. Round Hill and Cortland are working in partnership as part of this multifamily housing sector strategy. Investment management will be led by Round Hill, with their long-established international expertise in this area. The community and day-to-day operations of the partnership will be managed by Cortland's first-class local management teams. Round Hill has a successful track record of investing in and operating residential and student accommodation assets across the UK and Europe. The firm has acquired, built and managed over 110,000 residential accommodation and student housing beds in eight European countries. Round Hill's approach incorporates multiple strategies, including acquiring existing assets, developing purpose-built assets, forward-funding and repositioning assets across the UK, Europe and Americas. Commenting on the partnership, Rob Reiskin, Senior Managing Director, Head of Americas said: "Round Hill principals started investing in the U.S. in 2010. Since then, we have been carefully evaluating the U.S. real estate market, building a team and seeking strategic opportunities to partner with best-in-class operators and managers. Accordingly, we are pleased to partner with Cortland and acquire The Exchange and we expect to make further investments throughour strong identified investment pipeline. We believe that recently renovated, suburban residential assets located in select growth areas of Southeastern U.S. cities are an attractive area for investment and we look forward to bringing our significant resources and experience to bear in this market and for the benefit of our partners and investors." Michael Bickford, Founder and CEO of Round Hill Capital commented: "We are proud to offer our European investment partners access to high-quality, defensive investments in multifamily housing across Europe and the USA. This investment represents a strategic first step for Round Hill as we carefully enter the U.S. real estate market and a solid base to expand our investment platform in the select cities in the Americas, which continue to exhibit attractive investment fundamentals and strong future growth drivers." Steven Defrancis, CEO of Cortland said: "Cortland is delighted to be working together with Round Hill to bring this attractive investment opportunity to the European and broader international capital markets. Cortland's fully integrated, product-to-people model creates a level of quality and control that's unmatched in multifamily." About Round Hill Capital: Round Hill Capital is a leading global specialist real estate investment, development and asset management firm. Round Hill Capital has a long and proven reputation for successfully identifying and acquiring high quality real estate investments. Round Hill Capital is a highly focused investor and is experienced in establishing and running first class operating companies, having invested more than 7 billion of capital in real estate assets since its inception in 2002. Round Hill has a successful track record of investing in and operating residential and student accommodation assets across Europe. The Group currently manages circa 65,000 residential units and student housing beds in eight European countries. Round Hill's approach incorporates multiple strategies, such as acquiring existing assets, developing new purpose-built assets, forward-purchasing assets and repositioning assets. Round Hill Capital has an established track record of generating high risk adjusted returns and invests in and asset manages real estate with some of the world's leading institutions and private investors. Further information on Round Hill Capital is available at: www.roundhillcapital.com About Cortland Atlanta-based multifamily real estate company Cortland is a product-to-people, multifamily real estate investment, development, and management company, dedicated to resident-centric, hospitality-driven living experiences. All aspects of Cortland's business are in-house, including construction, design, and property management. Cortland owns and manages 153 apartment communities with more than 50,000 homes in the US with regional offices in Charlotte, Dallas, Denver, Houston, and Orlando. In 2015, the company opened a global materials sourcing office in Shanghai, and in 2017, it expanded its development platform into the UK. Cortland is a National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) Top 50 Owner and Manager and is ranked 7th among Atlanta's "Top 25 Large Workplaces" (2017). For more information, please visit www.cortland.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181128005250/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] Deputy Raises $81M to Revolutionize the U.S. Hourly-Paid Workforce Deputy, the award-winning workforce management software platform, today announced that it closed an $81 million USD Series B funding round to accelerate growth, transform the future of hourly-paid work through new, innovative products and build Australia's finest product and engineering team. The funding is Australia's largest Series B secured to date. The fast-growing startup has more than one million users, and works with businesses like Amazon, Uber, HubSpot and Compass (News - Alert) to empower their hourly-paid workforce. Deputy gives employees and employers simple-to-use software to help with time management, scheduling and other critical workplace operations. To date, Deputy has scheduled 200 million shifts, equating to over 1.2 billion hours of work and facilitated over $30 billion in payroll payments. "At Deputy, we're making the lives of employers easier. Taking away some of the administrative strain and giving them untold hours back to focus on what matters: running their businesses, or spending time with their families," said Deputy's CEO and Co-Founder Ashik Ahmed. "We've had immense success up until now, but we're only just getting started." "There are 2.3 billion hourly-paid workers in the world today, but too many of these are still managing their jobs in archaic ways," continued Ahmed. "The opportunity here is huge: we envisage a day where every single shift being worked is powered by Deputy - and this funding allows us to build the best product and engineering team in the world that helps us get there." Record breaking funding Deputy's Series B funding round was led by Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm IVP, known for its investment in startup successes including, Dropbox (News - Alert), Snap, Slack and Twitter. Alongside IVP, the funding round attracted investments from OpenView, who led Deputy's $25 million Series A round, with Australian VC firms Square Peg Capital and EVP also participating. The deal represents the largest Series B raise in Australian history and brings Deputy's total funding to date to $106 million. "Having the backing and endorsement of IVP is a testament to the work that the entire Deputy team has put in to positively impact the future of work," said Ahmed. "They've backed some ofthe most exciting generational software businesses, and we're delighted to be in such good company." "We're delighted with the investors who have backed Deputy: they're the perfect partners for us, and bring a considerable amount of knowledge and expertise to the table," continued Ahmed. "Not only will their support enable Deputy to scale and expand into new and existing markets, but we'll be able to invest in enhancing our product to make real, tangible efficiency improvements to the way businesses operate globally." "IVP has a long history backing some of the most forward-thinking technology companies, many of which are solving some of the world's biggest problems, and Deputy certainly fits within that criteria," said Eric Liaw, General Partner at IVP, who will join Deputy's board as part of the terms of the deal. The future of work is transforming dramatically. In a trend that started decades ago, businesses and workers around the world are moving toward flexible, hourly-based work. While this offers both businesses and employers greater freedom, the coordination of shifts and schedules presents an increasingly complicated set of pain points for workers and businesses. Existing solutions are antiquated; paper time clocks, whiteboards and spreadsheets are inadequate for an increasingly mobile workforce. Deputy brings a simple and effective technology solution to make work easier for workers and their employers. "What impressed us the most is the quality of Deputy's product," continued Liaw. "We spoke to many happy customers who were crying tears of joy at the benefits of Deputy. Hourly workers were similarly thrilled, they have more flexibility to work as many or as few shifts as they like, with more predictability. Business managers love the improved visibility and reliability, they now cannot imagine going back to the Dark Ages and operating their business without Deputy's suite of tools. We are excited to support Ashik, Steve and team as they work toward their goal of 'Every shift in the world on Deputy.'" An Australian startup success Currently, Deputy has more than 200 employees across Australia, the U.S. and the UK. But that is all about to change. "From a humble team of two in a back office in a southern Sydney suburb a decade ago, our team is now 200 strong," said Ahmed. "With our new partner investors on board, we will be nearly significantly growing our team globally, with the lion's share of head count pegged for building out Australia's biggest and best engineering team as we rapidly continue to onboard leading tech talent from around the world." With customers ranging in size, this new funding round will allow Deputy to scale efficiently and effectively around the globe while simultaneously enhancing its offerings. "We now have over 90,000 businesses globally from small coffee shops in Sydney's suburbs, to behemoths like McDonalds in the U.S.," continued Ahmed. "One of the best things about Deputy is that it can be scaled from small and medium-sized businesses to large enterprise accounts. There's a huge global demand for our platform, particularly as hourly paid employees account for two-thirds of the global workforce." The team at Deputy has built the ultimate employee management tool: simplifying scheduling, timesheets, tasks and workplace communication - helping businesses transform their operations and empower employees to work the way they want. But they're only just getting started. Additional investor comments Paul Bassat, Square Peg Capital: "We have got to know Ashik and the Deputy team over the last few years and have an enormous level of admiration for the way in which they are focused on solving a really important problem for both employers and hourly workers around the world. Deputy holds the potential to become one of the most exciting businesses produced in Australia: locally founded but global in its impact. We are excited to back the business: it is a values led organization which is passionate about being a great place to work and providing great outcomes for its clients." Dan Demmer, Partner, OpenView: "The team at Deputy has continued to impress us since we first started working with them in late 2016. Ashik's vision to run every shift on Deputy is enabled by a constant focus on the customer and an efficient product led go-to-market strategy. With such an ambitious goal, Deputy is sure to have a lasting impact on the way people work. It's an exciting time to be a part of Deputy's journey, and we were delighted to invest again." Deputy is hiring. Click here to see a list of open vacancies. About Deputy Deputy is the ultimate employee management tool, simplifying scheduling, timesheets, tasks and workplace communication, helping businesses to transform operations and empowering employees to work the way they want. Deputy connects businesses and employees seamlessly through technology to make work easier. Deputy is used by more than 90,000 workplaces across 70+ countries each day. Deputy was founded in Australia in 2008 after Steve Shelley asked Ashik Ahmed to develop as a solution to his own business problems. The software soon became Steve's "deputy" in the day-to-day running of the business, and together, Ashik and Steve set out to expand the software's capabilities for other businesses. Today, Deputy has more than 200 employees across global offices in Australia, the UK and the U.S., and has raised in excess of $106 million to date. For more information, visit www.deputy.com, or find us on Twitter, Facebook, the App Store or Google Play. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181128005197/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] Atlas - Smart IMS Launches ConnXWAN SD-WAN Service Powered by 128 Technology 128 Technology, the leader in Session Smart routing, today announced that Atlas - Smart IMS is powering its ConnXWAN service with the 128 Technology Session Smart Router. Atlas has added ConnXWAN to its portfolio of managed services for large service providers, enterprises and small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) across all major industrial groups globally. "We recognize that there is a gap in competitive SD-WAN offerings that simply fail to address and integrate legacy voice solutions into the SD-WAN transformation," said Indrajit Ghosh, Chief Executive Officer, Atlas Smart IMS. "The new Altas-Smart IMS ConnXWAN solution solves this by integrating legacy voice with SD-WAN, giving customers a comprehensive end-to-end enterprise communication solution. 128 Technology's Session Smart Router, coupled with our AVATAR Assure, seamlessly provides an end-to-end communication transformation for our customers. The 128T platform is incredibly flexible and can support many use cases including SD-WAN, network as a service, data center interconnect, multi-cloud and more." Atlas is the latest managed service provider to join the 128 Technology Solution Partner Program, which enables network operators to create new revenue streams by leveraging the innovative Session Smart Router. In addition, Atlas is taking advantage of the ability to offer 128 Technology (News - Alert) software and third-party hardware for zero-touch deployments. "It's clear thathardware-centric models will no longer cut it for businesses which require a smarter network to serve their business needs," said Andy Ory, Chief Executive Officer, 128 Technology. "The decision by Atlas to use 128 Technology for its ConnXWAN service demonstrates that our Session Smart Router is built to meet the rapidly growing needs of today's modern businesses. We welcome Atlas to our rapidly growing partner program and look forward to working with them to meet the needs of our joint customers." To learn more about 128 Technology's 128T Smart Router and Session Smart Technology, visit here. About 128 Technology 128 Technology makes your network do what your business needs, by changing the way networks work. Our professional grade software teaches routers the language of applications and services, letting them understand the requirements of individual services and segments, and adapt the network dynamically to deliver what the business needs, when and where it needs it. We make routers Session Smart, enabling enterprise customers and service providers to create a service-centric fabric that's more simple, agile, and secure, delivering better performance at a lower cost. To learn more about 128 Technology, visit www.128technology.com and follow the company on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. About Atlas Smart IMS Atlas - A Smart IMS company is a leading provider of high-quality, mission-critical unified communications services, focused around enterprise communications, helping organizations with their WAN, UC, Cloud, and IOT transformations. Our ConnX Hosted service provides ConnXWAN as a Service (ConnXWANaaS) and UC as a Service (UCaaS) as an OpEx based, scalable service that helps enterprises to transform their communications voice & data networks over Broadband and LTE (News - Alert). Our 24x7 proactive monitoring is assured by our highly resilient and secure AVATAR platform ensuring mission critical services are always available. Atlas Smart IMS is a global technology solutions company integrating Application Development, Cloud Transformation Services, Managed Services and Professional Services. The company is headquartered in Plainsboro, New Jersey, with offices in India, Singapore, Dubai, and presence in Australia, UK and Canada. For more information visit: https://www.SmartIMS.com or http://www.ASIMS.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181128005030/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] Principal Appoints Schaaf as New Head of Retirement and Income Solutions Renee Schaaf, senior vice president and chief operating officer of Principal International, will become the new president of Retirement and Income Solutions (RIS) effective March 1, 2019. After 27 years with Principal, current president of RIS and chairman of Principal Funds, Nora Everett, announced her intentions to retire at the end of March 2019. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181128005184/en/ Renee Schaaf (Photo: Business Wire) Renee has a long tenure at Principal and has played several key leadership roles across the organization, including roles in RIS. From 2000 to 2008, she held various RIS leadership positions in marketing, strategy, and our midsized retirement plan businesses. She also served as vice president of national accounts in the health division prior to moving to Principal International to lead strategic planning and business devlopment. "Renee is a seasoned executive with a deep understanding of our domestic and international business strategies," said Daniel J. Houston, chairman, president and CEO of Principal. "Her previous experience in RIS and her current work to help our Principal International businesses advance global pension and long-term savings makes her a great fit." Renee's successor in Principal International will be shared in early 2019. For the past four years, Nora has lead our RIS businesses, helping people save enough and have enough in retirement. Nora joined Principal in 1991 as an attorney. She held senior leadership roles within our law department before becoming president of Principal Funds in 2008, and then CEO of Principal Funds in 2010. Nora has also championed our talent development and diversity and inclusion efforts over the years. "Nora's been an instrumental leader in driving business results at Principal," says Houston. "She's played a number of key roles, including leading our U.S. retirement businesses, building a successful mutual fund franchise in Principal Funds, and serving as Deputy General Counsel on our mergers and acquisition team. She's also spent her time and talents giving back through her ongoing involvement in our community relations efforts. We wish her all the best in retirement." About Principal Principal helps people and companies around the world build, protect and advance their financial well-being through retirement, insurance and asset management solutions that fit their lives. Our employees are passionate about helping clients of all income and portfolio sizes achieve their goals - offering innovative ideas, investment expertise and real-life solutions to make financial progress possible. To find out more, visit us at principal.com. Principal, Principal and symbol design and Principal Financial Group are trademarks and service marks of Principal Financial Services, Inc., a member of the Principal Financial Group. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181128005184/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] E&I Cooperative Services Selects Columbia Advisory Group for IT Services DALLAS, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Columbia Advisory Group (CAG) announced today that E&I Cooperative Services (E&I), the largest member-owned, non-profit purchasing cooperative serving the needs of education nationwide, has expanded its portfolio of contracts by adopting a CAG contract for Information Technology services. The contract, which was awarded by Texas A&M University-Commerce in a competitive solicitation process, will help E&I members in higher education and K-12 build, manage, and optimize IT infrastructure and services across their institutions, including hardware, software, cloud, enterprise applications, and more. Specifically, members will be able to access CAG's expert support for application management, cloud services, ERP implementation, Student Information Systems, Learning Management Systems, audio visual design, service desk support, and many other IT services, on a per project or fixed-fee contract basis. "CAG brings exceptional consulting, strategy, data security and IT support services in a way that is flexible and scalable in every area of information technologyand at cost-effective rates," said Keith Fowlkes, Vice President for Technology at E&I. "We are proud to work with a company with such a proven track record in education and many other sectors. They provide excellent full-service IT support to Texas A&M University-Commerce, and we recognized that the contract can significantly benefit many of our member institutions that have similar needs," he concluded. According to Travis Ball, Chief Procurement Officer at Texas A&M University-Commerce, "From Banner and Oracle support to an audio/visual refresh of our student center, CAG has proven to be a dedicated and professional partner in our IT success. We highly recommend the CAG team to any educational institution needing expert support." "With this exciting, new contact addition, we are more equipped than ever to offer our members the IT services and support they need to improve their operations while optimizing spend," said Gary D. Link, Senior Vice President, Contracts at E&I. "Our ultimate goal is to continuously bring value beyond lowered costs, and we are confident that CAG will provide tremendous value to our members." E&I's full contract portfolio can be found here . About E&I E&I Cooperative Services (E&I) is the only member-owned, non-profit purchasing cooperative solely focused on serving education and related facilities. E&I delivers expertise, solutions, and services through a diverse portfolio of competitively solicited contracts and value-added services. By leveraging the knowledge and purchasing power of its nationwide membership, E&I helps higher education and K-12 institutions reduce costs, optimize supply chain efficiencies, and save time on the RFP process. The Cooperative's member-driven competitive solicitation process has been validated by the National Institute of Governmental Purchasing (NIGP) as complying with generally accepted procurement standards. For more information, please visit www.eandi.org. About Columbia Advisory Group Columbia Advisory Group (CAG) is a highly experienced Information Technology (IT) consulting firm. With 100+ years of combined technology experience and business acumen, CAG's team has assessed and helped improve the performance of more than 300 technology organizations and IT departments. By focusing on simple, meaningful and practical solutions combined with straight-forward analysis and recommendations, CAG's team has experience in many regulatory and economic environments with companies and organizations of all sizes. CAG not only offers a deep understanding of IT, but its solutions are software and hardware agnostic. Whether a client is high growth or economically challenged, CAG can adapt to the complexities and nuances of that business. Based in Dallas, Texas, CAG works extensively with clients throughout the U.S. For more information, visit www.columbiaadvisory.com About Texas A&M University-Commerce Founded in 1889, Texas A&M University-Commerce is a member of The Texas A&M University System. Located in Northeast Texas, A&M-Commerce is home to more than 12,000 students, four academic colleges, a thriving graduate school, and more than 140-degree programs. As the region's focal point of higher education, A&M-Commerce offers students facilities ranging from the world-class Keith D. McFarland Science Building and University Planetarium to the Sam Rayburn Student Center, to a fully equipped recreational facility and music hall. The university also has convenient locations in Corsicana, downtown Dallas, Midlothian, McKinney, Mesquite, and Rockwall. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ei-cooperative-services-selects-columbia-advisory-group-for-it-services-300756665.html SOURCE Columbia Advisory Group [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] Closing Skills Gaps is the Urgent Priority for Digital Marketing Leaders DALLAS, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Marketing organizations today are not prepared to embrace digital changes and believe their workforces lack key technology and business skills needed to succeed. This was the key finding in a study released today by the Digital Marketing Institute (DMI), the global standard in digital marketing professional learning and certification. The report, 20/20 Vision: A Marketing Leader's View of Digital's Future , shares insights from a survey of more than 200 executive and senior marketing professionals worldwide about critical challenges and opportunities for marketing teams and businesses in the lead up to 2020. Marketing leaders revealed that as digital technologies continue to evolve, the knowledge and capabilities of employees lags behind, leaving many organizations playing catch up. To address this skill shortage, 82 percent of respondents indicate that their organization needs to invest more in staff training and development to upskill and reskill their marketing teams to remain competitive. This training needs to address not only gaps in technical skills, but also business skills including strategy and planning, analytics, research and leadership. "As digital technologies rapidly transform business, marketers are recognizing the need to invest more resources in training and close skills gaps. There is an urgency to cultivate a talent pool that possesses the skills necessary to help their organizations remain competitive and relevant in the digital economy," said Ken Fitzpatrick, CEO of the Digital Marketing Institute. "To be successful in 2020 and beyond, a culture that promotes professional development, upskilling, and reskilling is going to be ust as important in digitization as emerging technologies, effective strategies and increased budgets." Technology Advancements Create Need for New Skills When marketing leaders look ahead to 2020, more than two thirds of respondents cite app technology and artificial intelligence as the most important emerging technology, followed closely by social customer service and emotional engagement. As organizations embrace these new technologies, there will be a dramatic change in the technical skills required by marketers. While today, leaders responded that the top three most important technical skills for marketers are content marketing, social media and website design and optimization, over the next few years only social media will remain a top priority. By 2020, mobile and marketing automation will take the top two spots as digital marketing priorities evolve. "It is imperative that we invest in and take action on hiring talent that will keep pace with technological change," said Ty Heath, LinkedIn global lead for market education and member of the DMI Global Industry Advisory Council (GIAC). "The incoming wave of marketers aren't fully prepared to find footing in the shifting digital landscape that now exists. We need to move thoughtfully and quickly to meet the transformation in marketing and sales." The full report, 20/20 Vision: A Marketing Leader's View of Digital's Future, is available for download here . DMI is hosting a webinar on Wednesday, Dec. 5, to review this global research and explore the main trends affecting the digital marketing profession now, and in the future. Click here to register, or to listen to a replay of the presentation following the event. DMI recently announced its U.S. expansion with a new office in Dallas to address the industry's education gap for imperative marketing skills. It also announced that HubSpot Academy selected DMI to provide exclusive sales and marketing training content. About Digital Marketing Institute (DMI) DMI is a global digital marketing professional learning and certification body with about 28,000 alumni members and partners in over 100 countries. Founded in Ireland with a U.S. office in Dallas, it is backed by Spectrum Equity, a leading U.S. based growth equity firm. Customers include IBM, Black & Decker, Microsoft, PwC, University of Utah and University of Vermont. DMI's Global Industry Advisory Council, consisting of marketers from Coca-Cola, Facebook, Google, HubSpot, LinkedIn, IBM, IAB, WPP and more, provides input into DMI's certification programs and industry trends. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/closing-skills-gaps-is-the-urgent-priority-for-digital-marketing-leaders-300756695.html SOURCE Digital Marketing Institute [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] MasterPeace LaunchPad to Showcase Cutting-Edge Technology Companies at Demo Day MasterPeace LaunchPad, a technology accelerator that functions inside MasterPeace Solutions Ltd.'s government services business, is designed to bring imaginative and creative ideas to reality, in the form of commercial startup companies. Today, the accelerator announced that their third annual Demo Day will take place on Wednesday, Dec. 5 from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. The event highlights the opportunity for Maryland to leverage its Cyber and Technology talent pool to create new product companies, which will ultimately support the state in diversifying its economic base and create career opportunities for engineers who have previously focused on the Government Contracting sector. A distinguished group of industry influencers will attend the event to celebrate the growth of each MasterPeace LaunchPad company, its founders, and their contributions to the cyber ecosystem. "The local technology talent pool is one of the greatest resources in our region, and frankly a Cyber Center of excellence world-wide; however, most of that talent is focused on Government Services," said Drew Cohen, CEO and President of MasterPeace Solutions. "MasterPeace LaunchPad was specifically created to provide more opportunities for that talent. When our engineers choose to pursue their goal of building a new commercial technology business, LaunchPad provides the necessary support to promote company-creation. Through this program, engineers pool their skills and strengths to bring ideas to life." MasterPeace LaunchPad is helping create the Silicon Valley East ecosystem by providing their engineers with the time and space to build out their businesses and eliminating the need for initial funding. Demo Day will celebrate the engineers' achievements and offer them the chance to stand in front of an engaged audience to deliver a glimpse into tomorrow's technology leaders and solutions. The demonstrations will expose how the local talent is being leveraged and utilized for th continued growth of progressive cybersecurity product businesses in the area. The following companies will demonstrate their cutting-edge technology during the event. Notably, a company operating in stealth, and engaged in a NIST-led consortium to develop the first open source Manufacturer Usage Description (MUD) manager, will be unveiled for the first time: Zuul, an Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) secure device management platform that bridges the gap between operations concerns and IT security to make deploying and maintaining IoT devices easier and more secure. FactChain, The Trusted Transaction Company, makes every transaction trusted by ensuring the identities of the parties, the validity of signatures, and the integrity of the transaction. This lowers the cost of doing business by providing transaction integrity and transparency for documents, records, and other digital content through a public Blockchain Ledger. [Stealth Company], a comprehensive network security solution that brings enterprise class security to home and small business networks. The company uses micro-segmentation, threat signaling, and innovative device identification technologies to block malicious network activity from the external internet and isolate compromise within the network. Uplift, a provider of migration, deployment, and management tools that enable legacy systems to migrate to modern Serverless technologies and realize operational and maintenance cost savings. Uplift accomplishes this without impacting current operations and maintenance processes. Uplift also offers tools for optimizing specific segments of a legacy system, providing automated refactoring to microservice architectures. Cohen, along with notable attendees such as Maryland Lt. Governor, Boyd Rutherford, Ron Gula of Gula Tech Adventures, and Head of Business Development at Maryland Venture Fund, Brian Corbett, will discuss how innovation is critical to bringing new companies and jobs into Howard County. To fulfill the region's much-talked-about potential, Cohen, along with these leaders, see a big opportunity in encouraging these talented workers and engineers to create new companies that are building tomorrow's software products. To receive an invitation to this year's event, please contact us. About MasterPeace Launchpad MasterPeace LaunchPad is a technology accelerator designed to bring imaginative and creative solutions to reality. Our innovation factory provides the platform and processes to combine creative ideas with technical resources, experienced leaders, and a purpose-built, start-up ecosystem to launch new businesses. MasterPeace LaunchPad spurs innovation through the rapid prototyping of ideas, validation with real customers, and development of working products. For more information, please visit: https://www.mplaunchpad.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181128005198/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] Land & Buildings Issues Letter to Hudson's Bay Shareholders Land & Buildings Investment Management, LLC (together with its affiliates, "Land & Buildings") today issued the following letter to shareholders of Hudson's Bay Company (TSX: HBC) ("Hudson's Bay", "HBC" or the "Company"). The full text of the letter follows: Dear Hudson's Bay Shareholders, Land & Buildings, as a long-term significant shareholder of Hudson's Bay, continues to believe that the Company's stock is egregiously undervalued. In our view, there are numerous pathways that Hudson's Bay should be pursuing to unlock shareholder value. Unfortunately, the Company has failed to take the decisive actions necessary to achieve this goal. Currently, Hudson's Bay shares are trading at a fraction of the Company's estimated real estate value of C$31 per share, based on the Company's disclosed third-party valuations of its vast real estate portfolio1 - despite the CEO's statement that Saks Fifth Avenue's performance is "tremendous" on HBC's second quarter conference call, with same store sales up over 6%. In fact, HBC now trades below the value of the C$8.90 in expected proceeds the Company is set to receive solely from asset monetizations that have closed this quarter or are expected to close in the coming months, including: C$4.85 from the sale of the Lord & Taylor flagship location in Manhattan, scheduled to close in January (HBC has already received a US$125 million at risk deposit from the buyer). C$3.40 from the partial sale of HBC's European business, which transactions HBC announced have received all necessary lender and regulatory approvals and are expected to have their first closing this month, with follow on real estat transactions expected to close through early 2019. C$0.65 from a lease modification on a store in Vancouver that closed last month. Over the coming weeks, we intend to speak with shareholders about adding fresh perspectives to the Board and calling a Special Meeting of Shareholders to effect immediate and decisive change on the Board. Importantly, a former HBC executive who has a clear strategy to unlock value would likely be a part of any slate of director candidates Land & Buildings would propose. We believe Hudson's Bay could see its share price double or triple if the Company takes the necessary steps to maximize long-term shareholder value, which include the following: 1) Saks Fifth Avenue: Sell the Saks Fifth Avenue brand to a leading luxury department store company that can leverage the combined operations, and work with the buyer to determine which stores to keep, allowing HBC to liquidate inventory and monetize the remaining Saks real estate. Sell the Saks Fifth Avenue flagship store on 5th Avenue in Manhattan. 2) GALERIA Kaufhof: Sell the remaining 50% interest in the European business to Signa/Karstadt. 3) Lord & Taylor: Sell the Lord & Taylor brand to a mass merchant and liquidate its inventory and real estate. 4) Hudson's Bay: Elect to pursue REIT status for the Canadian real estate and sublease excess space at the Bay department stores in Canada. HBC's Board has an appalling track record, overseeing more than C$2 billion of shareholder value destruction with a 60% share price decline over the last three years2 - all while the Company's department store peers have risen 25% in 2018.3 Meanwhile, the Board granted its Chairman stock and option grants with respect to more than seven million shares in the past year. We believe that change on the Board is urgently needed to ensure that the Board listens to its shareholders and takes the steps needed to truly maximize value for all shareholders. We look forward to speaking with our fellow shareholders regarding the strategic changes and Board refreshment that are much-needed at Hudson's Bay. Sincerely, Jonathan Litt Founder & CIO Land & Buildings Investment Management, LLC __________________________ 1 Hudson's Bay's April 2017 estimate of C$35 per share adjusted for equity issuance to Rhone Capital and sale of Lord & Taylor flagship. All per share figures in letter reflect diluted shares outstanding. 2 Represents total shareholder return of HBC calculated from November 26, 2015 through November 26, 2018. 3 Represents total shareholder return of the Standard and Poor's Department Stores Index calculated from December 31, 2017 through November 26, 2018. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181128005438/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] Speedcast Launches Innovative Fleet Xpress Dual Antenna Solution SYDNEY, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Speedcast International Limited (ASX: SDA), the world's most trusted provider of remote communication and IT solutions, has successfully launched an innovative dual antenna solution for Fleet Xpress customers. The company also announced two unique promotions to celebrate this first-to-market launch of Fleet Xpress dual Ka-Band antenna systems onboard commercial maritime vessels, adventure cruise ships, and offshore supply vessels. With dual Ka-Band antennas installed onboard, Fleet Xpress users experience greater uptime on Ka-Band and have a higher certainty of maximizing throughput at sea. In single Ka-Band antenna installations, the vessel automatically switches between Ka-Band and the L-Band back-up service of FleetBroadband, so in times of blockage customers will utilize the L-Band system for operations. Because of the reduced risk of structural blockage with this new dual antenna configuration, the customer spends less time on FleetBroadband and enjoys a better experience over the high-throughput Ka-Band service. This dual antenna system from Speedcast is available to users in all maritime segments, including commercial maritime and smaller adventure cruise ships, and can be combined with new flexible airtime packages to meet the demands for short-term, high bandwidth options in the energy sector. With the Speedcast dual antenna promotions, Speedcast customers can get a free Cobham 60 cm antenna when they rent or lease a primary 60 cm antenna on Fleet Xpress. Aternatively, customers can choose to receive a 50 percent discount on a Cobham one meter antenna when they rent or lease a primary one meter antenna on Fleet Xpress. "This innovative dual antenna system will have a dramatic impact on the Fleet Xpress user experience," said Athina Vezyri, Executive Vice President, Maritime, Speedcast. "Speedcast continues to see strong demand for Fleet Xpress services with over 600 vessels in backlog and we look forward to working with our customers to increase their service levels with this first-to-market solution. We are already seeing strong early take up on the dual antenna promotion. In addition to the demand in maritime we are targeting the offshore supply vessel market at a time when we expect the energy market to grow." The dual antenna promotion is valid through 31 March 2019, or while supplies last. About Speedcast International Limited Speedcast International Ltd (ASX: SDA) is the largest provider of remote communications and IT services in the world. Speedcast's fully-managed service is delivered via a leading global, multi-access technology, multi-band and multi-orbit network of 70+ satellites and an interconnecting global terrestrial network, bolstered by extensive on-the-ground local support from 40+ countries. This global "network of networks" allows customers to fully rely on the most robust, integrated infrastructure available in the market for their mission critical applications. Speedcast is uniquely positioned as a strategic business partner, tailoring communications, IT and digital solutions to meet unique customer needs and enable business transformation. Speedcast extends its managed services through differentiated technology offerings including cyber-security, crew welfare, content solutions, data and voice applications, and network systems integration services. With a passionate customer focus and a strong safety culture, Speedcast serves more than 2,000 customers in more than 140 countries in sectors such as Maritime, Energy, Mining, Enterprise, Media, Cruise, NGOs and Government. Learn more at www.speedcast.com. Speedcast is a trademark and registered trademark of Speedcast International Limited. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective owners. 2018 Speedcast International Limited. All rights reserved. Contact Information: Toni Lee Rudnicki Vice President, Global Marketing Speedcast International Ltd [email protected] +1-832-668-2634 View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/speedcast-launches-innovative-fleet-xpress-dual-antenna-solution-300756832.html SOURCE Speedcast International Limited [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] EQUITY ALERT: Rosen Law Firm Announces Investigation of Securities Claims Against Tenaris S.A. - TS Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, announces it is investigating potential securities claims on behalf of shareholders of Tenaris S.A. (NYSE: TS) resulting from allegations that Tenaris may have issued materially misleading business information to the investing public. On November 27, 2018, Bloomberg (News - Alert) reported that Tenaris's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Paolo Rocca was indicted for his role in a graft scheme. According to the article, "[t]he judge charged Rocca after the Argentine billionaire testified that one of his company's executives paid an undisclosed amount of cash to government officials in monthly installments from 2009 to 2012." The article stated that "[t]he officials were allegedly working for then-President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's administration to speed up a compensation payment from Venezuela[] . . . for the nationalization of Sidor, a unit that . . . Rocca's group was [ultimately paid] $1.95 billion for[.]" The judge set a $103 million bond and banned Rocca from leaving the country. On this news, Tenaris's stock fell $2.64 per share or nearly 10% to close at $24.36 per share on November 27, 2018. Rosen Law Firm is preparing a class action lawsuit to recover losses suffered by Tenaris investors. If you purchased shares of Tenaris please visit the firm's website at https://www.rosenlegal.com/cases-1459.html to join the class action. You may also contact Phillip Kim or Zachary Halper of Rosen Law Firm toll free at 866-767-3653 or via email 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 or on Facebook (News - Alert): https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm. 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/20181128005455/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] EQUITY ALERT: Rosen Law Firm Announces Investigation of Securities Claims Against Ternium S.A. Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, announces it is investigating potential securities claims on behalf of shareholders of Ternium S.A. (NYSE: TX) resulting from allegations that Ternium may have issued materially misleading business information to the investing public. On November 27, 2018, Bloomberg (News - Alert) reported that Ternium's Chairman Paolo Rocca was indicted for his role in a graft scheme. According to the article, "[t]he judge charged Rocca after the Argentine billionaire testified that one of his company's executives paid an undisclosed amount of cash to government officials in monthly installments from 2009 to 2012." The article stated that "[t]he officials were allegedly working for then-President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's administration to speed up a compensation payment from Venezuela[] for the nationalization of Sidor, a unit that had been seized by Venezuela [and which]. . . Rocca's group was [paid] $1.95 billion for[.]" The judge set a $103 million bond and banned Rocca from leaving the country. On this news, Ternium's stock fell $1.42 per share or nearly 5% to close at $28.02 per share on November 27, 2018. Rosen Law Firm is preparing a class action lawsuit to recover losses suffered by Ternium investors. If you purchased shares of Ternium please visit the firm's website at https://www.rosenlegal.com/cases-1460.html to join the class action. You may also contact Phillip Kim or Zachary Halper of Rosen Law Firm toll free at 866-767-3653 or via email 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 or on Facebook (News - Alert): https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm. 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/20181128005457/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] BRG's Jessica Huebner Honored with AICPA Forensic and Valuation Services Award EMERYVILLE, Calif., Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Global strategic advisory and expert consulting firm BRG is pleased to announce that Associate Director Jessica Huebner received the Forensic and Valuation Services (FVS) Standing Ovation award at the 2018 American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) FVS Conference in Atlanta on November 6. The award recognizes high-achieving CPAs age 40 and younger for their significant contributions in their accounting specialty areas and in their communities. "We are very proud of Jessica's accomplishments. She is an outstanding example of BRG's talented professionals," said BRG Managing Director Julie Nielsen, a leader in the firm's Healthcare practice. <>Huebner specializes in providing dispute resolution and forensic accounting and investigation services to healthcare organizations and their legal counsel. She has more than 10 years of experience with a variety of providers, payers and other healthcare entities, including hospitals, physicians, managed care organizations, health plans, ambulatory surgery centers and medical device manufacturers. Huebner is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA), Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) and Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) and is Certified in Financial Forensics (CFF). About BRG Berkeley Research Group, LLC (BRG) is a global consulting firm that helps leading organizations advance in three key areas: disputes and investigations, corporate finance, and strategy and operations. Headquartered in California with offices around the world, we are an integrated group of experts, industry leaders, academics, data scientists, and professionals working beyond borders and disciplines. We harness our collective expertise to deliver the inspired insights and practical strategies our clients need to stay ahead of what's next. Visit thinkbrg.com to learn more. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/brgs-jessica-huebner-honored-with-aicpa-forensic-and-valuation-services-award-300756337.html SOURCE Berkeley Research Group, LLC [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] Lexmark Recognized with 2019 CSO50 Award for Privacy Initiative LEXINGTON, Ky., Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Lexmark, a global imaging solutions leader, today announced it has been honored with a 2019 CSO50 award from IDG Communications' CSO. The Annual CSO50 Awards recognize 50 organizations for driving innovation in the security field and implementing world-class security strategies and practices. Lexmark was honored for its [email protected] program, which fosters continuous improvement in the treatment of personal data entrusted to Lexmark, through process improvement, employee awareness and culture change. "Ensuring the privacy of our customer, partner and employee data has always been a priority for Lexmark," said Brad Clay, Lexmark senior vice president, CIO and chief compliance officer. "The [email protected] program embodies this priority by structuring our efforts into a best-in-class privacy initiative that looks at privacy holistically--from product and solution design, to our interaction with customers and employees." "Lexmark is proud to be recognized by the CSO and its panel of security and risk management experts for our commitment to privacy," Clay added. "Amid the seemingly constant stream of news-making security breaches, vulnerabilities introduced by new technologies and increased attention from company boards, today's security leaders have their plates more than full," said Amy Bennett, executive editor of CSO. "They and their teams are charged not only with protecting their organization's critical systems and sensitive data, but with driving business results. Our annual CSO50 awards shine a light on projects that enhance an organization's security posture and also deliver measurable ROI. We are pleased to give them the recognition they deserve." Lexmark Data Protection Officer Greg Anderson will accept the award and present the project at the CSO50 Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, in April 2019. Supporting Resources Learn more about Lexmark Full Spectrum Security. Subscribe to the Lexmark News Blog. Follow Lexmark on LinkedIn and Twitter. About the CSO50 Awards Launched in 2013, the CSO50 Awards recognizes 50 organizations for security projects and initiatives that demonstrate outstanding business value. The CSO50 Awards are scored according to a uniform set of criteria by a panel of judges that includes security leaders, industry experts and academics. Awards will be presented at the CSO50 Conference + Awards. About CSO CSO is the premier content and community resource for security decision-makers leading "business risk management" efforts within their organization. For more than a decade, CSO's award-winning website (www.CSOonline.com), executive conferences, strategic marketing solutions and research have equipped security decision-makers to mitigate both IT and corporate/physical risk for their organizations and provided opportunities for security vendors looking to reach this audience. About Lexmark Lexmark creates innovative imaging solutions and technologies that help customers worldwide print, secure and manage information with ease, efficiency and unmatched value. Lexmark and the Lexmark logo are trademarks of Lexmark International, Inc., registered in the U.S. and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lexmark-recognized-with-2019-cso50-award-for-privacy-initiative-300756877.html SOURCE Lexmark [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] Renesas Electronics Introduces 32-Bit RX66T MCU Group Optimized for Motor Control in Industrial, Home Appliance, and Robotics Devices First MCUs Incorporating Third-Generation RXv3 CPU Core Deliver Dramatic Performance Boost for Enhanced System Integration and Superior Motor Fault Prediction in Motor-Control Applications with Embedded AI Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE:6723), a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, today unveiled the RX66T Group of microcontrollers (MCUs) the first members of Renesas flagship 32-bit RX MCU family based on the new third-generation RXv3 CPU core. The new MCUs leverage cutting-edge CPU core technology to achieve substantially improved performance1, as much as 2.5 times better than previous RX family MCUs. Combining the powerful new RXv3 core with the strengths of the current RX62T and RX63T MCUs, the new RX66T MCUs address the real-time performance and enhanced stability required by inverter control. The new MCUs are ideal for use in industrial applications in next-generation smart factory equipment, such as industrial motors, power conditioners and robots, as well as smart home appliances, including air conditioners and washing machines. When operating at 160 MHz, the RX66T MCUs achieve best-in-class performance of 928 CoreMark2, enabling more precise inverter control. The MCUs can control up to four motors simultaneously, making them ideal for conventional motor control and applications requiring multi-axis motor control, such as compact industrial robots and personal robots, which are quickly growing in popularity. In addition, the RX66Ts extra processing capacity allows developers to add programs utilizing embedded AI (e-AI) for motor fault detection. Such programs can detect motor faults and identify fault location in real time based on the motors current or vibration characteristics. Providing this capability offers developers the significant value-add of productivity, safety, and quality. The RX66T MCUs also integrate a 5V power supply that delivers excellent noise tolerance. AI technology is transforming the industrial equipment and home appliance industries, and the emergence of e-AI in these markets will be a catalyst for new innovation at the endpoint, commented Akira Denda, General Manager, IA Solutions Business Division, Industrial Solution Business Unit. The new RX66T MCU Group will help further accelerate the use of intelligent endpoints employing real-time e-AI performance. This trend will drive smarter home appliances and improve production efficiency in smart factories. With more and more devices ranging from robots and power conditioners to washers and dryers joining the Internet of Things, motorized devices in the field will require online firmware updates throughout their life cycles. Applying e-AI for predictive failure diagnostics requires endpoint MCUs to be securely updated with learning results generated in the cloud. The RX66T MCU Group incorporates Renesas Trusted Secure IP (TSIP), which has a track record of CAVP certification3 and provides secure firmware updates and encrypted communication. Renesas is demonstrating the new RX66T MCUs in Booth 130 (Hall 10.1) at SPS IPC Drives, November 27-29, 2018 in Nuremberg, Germany. Key Features of the RX66T MCU Group Supports inverter control with a maximum operating frequency of 160 MHz, 928 CoreMark, on-chip floating point-unit (FPU), and 5V power supply High-speed flash memory with 120 MHz maximum read operation to reduce speed differential with the CPU and realize both high performance and a consistent execution Reduces footprint and component count by generating three-phase complementary pulse width modulation (PWM) output for up to four motors using 112-pin and 144-pin package MCUs, and up to three motors using 64-pin, 80-pin and 100-pin package MCUs Configurations available with 16 KB of error correction code (ECC) SRAM, and up to 128 KB of SRAM with single-cycle access and single-bit error detection (parity checking) for high reliability Ability to generate high-resolution PWM signals with a minimum state change duration of 195 picoseconds (1.6 times better than existing RX products) for power conditioner or digital power supply control applications Renesas Trusted Secure IP (TSIP) provides secure firmware updates and encrypted communication with a track record of CAVP certification Robust Development Environment The Renesas Motor Workbench 2.0 supports 20kHz real-time debugging and adds 10 new functions and an RX66T CPU card for the 24V Motor Control Evaluation Kit are available now. Pricing and Availability The new RX66T Group comprises 80 MCUs with pin counts ranging from 64 to 144 pins and on-chip flash memory sizes of 256 KB to 1024KB. Mass production starts today for the widely used 100-pin package MCU with 256 KB or 512 KB of program flash and 64 KB of SRAM. Other MCU versions will release over time. Pricing for the RX66T MCU Group starts at US$3.25 per unit in 10,000-unit quantities. (Pricing and availability is subject to change without notice.) For more information on the RX66T MCU Group, please visit https://www.renesas.com/products/microcontrollers-microprocessors/rx/rx600/rx66t.html. For more information on Renesas Motor Workbench development support tool, please visit http://www.renesas.com/us/en/software/D3017970.html. For more information on Renesas motor control solutions, please visit https://www.renesas.com/solutions/proposal/motor-control.html. Learn more about Renesas e-AI: https://www.renesas.com/solutions/key-technology/e-ai.html. Notes Performance in CPU operations when running a vector control program created by Renesas was 2.5 times better on the RX66T (160 MHz) compared to earlier products (RX62T/RX63T, 100 MHz). CoreMark: A benchmark test designed specifically for evaluating CPU core performance by the Embedded Microprocessor Benchmark Consortium (EEMBC) of the United States. It consists of a collection of programs written in C that execute data reads and writes, integer calculations, control operations, etc. The score, a numeric value representing performance per unit of operating frequency, was obtained using the CC-RX V3 RX Family C/C++ compiler. CAVP (Cryptographic Algorithm Validation Program) certification: Given by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) of the United States to certify that encryption algorithms are correctly implemented. 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 livesecurely 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) CoreMark is a registered trademark of EEMBC. EEMBC is a registered trademark of the Embedded Microprocessor Benchmark Consortium. All names of products or services mentioned in this press release are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. As a community-building service, TMCnet allows user submitted content which is not always proofed by TMCnet editors. If you feel this entry is of inferior quality or wish to report it for some reason, please forward the URL to "webedit [AT] tmcnet [DOT] com" with your comments. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] Host Analytics Recognized With Best Employer Brand Award 2018 Host Analytics, a leading provider of cloud-based enterprise performance management (EPM) solutions, today announced it was presented a Top 50 Best Employer Brand Award 2018 at the Employer Branding Awards in Hyderabad, India. The regional award, given by the Employer Branding Institute to the top 50 companies in the region and endorsed by the World Human Resource Development Congress, recognizes companies that attract and engage the people needed to deliver profitable growth by creating a positive experience for employees. Winners are selected based on their innovation in recruitment, employee engagement, benefits, diversity, and inclusion. Host Analytics Hyderabad was selected for this prestigious award through a selection process reviewed by top human resources professionals evaluating how companies translate brand attributes into a vision and strategy for engaging employees. They further analyze how companies mesh their human resource strategy with business strategy to cultivate the competencies necessary for building a future-ready organization. Host Analytics is recgnized for its approach to human resources, the innovation in how new employees are recruited, and the commitment to supporting and nourishing its workforce. "This award reinforces the people-focused approach we take at Host Analytics and our commitment to building a world-class, innovative team. Through our emphasis and commitment to our brand, we've attracted and empowered the best professionals in the world, which has directly contributed to the success of the business," said Martin Cooke, Chief People Officer, Host Analytics. At Host Analytics, we always put our people first, from our innovative recruiting strategy to employee engagement and our flexible and generous benefits. We know that, in order to build the best EPM solutions for our customers, we need the best people. This award renews our commitment to our people and we will continue to do everything possible to help them shine. Learn more about career opportunities and Host Analytics here, read the Host Analytics Blog or join the conversation on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook. About Host Analytics Host Analytics is the industry's leading innovator in cloud-based enterprise performance management (EPM) solutions. Companies of all sizes, from $10 million startups to $50 billion multi-nationals, rely on Host Analytics to provide industry leadership in the areas of financial planning, budgeting, modeling, consolidations, and reporting. More than 700 customers in 90 countries including Bose, Boston Red Sox, FitBit, La-Z-Boy, Mayo Clinic, NPR (News - Alert), OpenTable, Peet's Coffee & Tea, Pinterest, Swissport, and Vitamin Shoppe have subscribed to Host Analytics to help them drive revenue and margin growth. Host Analytics is a private company backed by leading venture capitalists and is headquartered in Silicon Valley. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181128005527/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] NetCents Technology Enters into ISO Reseller Agreement with OBANC VANCOUVER, Nov. 28, 2018 /CNW/ - NetCents Technology Inc. ("NetCents" or the "Company") (CSE: NC / Frankfurt: 26N) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a five-year ISO Reseller Agreement with OBANC. OBANC offers their clients a suite of integrated products and services and with over 35 years of experience, OBANC can provide their client base the best in payment processing solutions, security and compliance, and consulting services enabling them to quickly grow and scale. "OBANC is pleased to partner with NetCents to introduce cryptocurrency payments to both new and existing e-commerce customers," stated Wayne Orkin, President of OBANC. "NetCents is a dependable and complimentary company, which OBANC is proud to partner with to assist online merchants with services that help them grow their business and create better buying experiences." Through this agreement, OBANC will resell the NetCents Cryptocurrency Merchant Gateway to their merchant network which includes; B2C and B2B merchant, eCommerce, high risk, alternative payment methods, international processing, check processing, and gift and loyalty services. NetCents will earn a percentage on each crypto-currency transaction which the OBANC client base processes. "With over 30 million in processing volume, OBANC's goal is to empower its clients with the most innovative products and solutions to produce better customer experience, retention, and new client acquisition making cryptocurrency was a natural addition for us. Customers depend on our expertise and solutions to deliver integrated payment processing services, onine marketing, and custom web development that are both reliable and affordable," added Mr. Orkin. Clayton Moore, CEO of NetCents said, "We are looking forward to working with OBANC as they provide NetCents with a unique opportunity. In addition to providing crypto-currency processing to their client base, OBANC has multiple touch points and provides their clients with more than payment processing which could open the door for other opportunities." About OBANC OBANC is a Florida-based payments consulting firm focusing on merchant, web marketing, web development, and consulting services. OBANC has 35 plus years of experience providing businesses with the best payment processing solutions, security and compliance, SEO services, web development, and network consulting. Their partners and solutions are trusted to deliver quality services and the lowest wholesale prices and fees. https://obanc.net/ About NetCents NetCents is a next-generation online payment processing platform, offering consumers and merchants online services for managing electronic payments. The Company is focused on capturing the migration from cash to digital currency by utilizing innovative Blockchain Technology to provide payment solutions that are simple to use, secure and worry-free. NetCents works with its financial partners, mobile operators, exchanges, etc., to streamline the user experience of transacting online. NetCents Technology is registered as a Money Services Business (MSB) with FINTRAC, which ensures our consumer's security and privacy. On Behalf of the Board of Directors NetCents Technology Inc. "Clayton Moore" Clayton Moore, CEO, Founder and Director NetCents Technology Inc. Suite 880, 505 Burrard St (Bentall 1), Vancouver, BC, V7X 1M4 Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information This release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that the Company expects to occur, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include regulatory actions, market prices, and continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates, and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. SOURCE NetCents Technology Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] Wells Fargo Mobile Response Unit Arrives in Chico to Aid Customers Impacted by Wildfires Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) today announced its Mobile Response Unit has arrived in Chico, California, to provide housing recovery assistance as well as help for auto, credit card, personal lines/loan, student loan and small business loan customers in areas impacted by recent wildfires. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181128005570/en/ Wells Fargo (News - Alert) Mobile Response Unit (Photo: Business Wire) The Wells Fargo Mobile Response Unit is stationed at 355 Memorial Way, Chico, California, 95926. Customers can receive in-person assistance from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Pacific time weekdays, and from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Pacific time Saturdays. "Our thoughts are with those customers and communities that have been impacted by the devastating wildfires," said Joanna Padilla-Mitchell, River Valley district manager. "The arrival of our Mobile Response Unit in Chico brings a variety of on-site assistance to help our customers as they begin the recovery process." Wells Fargo's Mobile Response Unit is a 75-foot, heavy-duty commercial "office on wheels" designed to bring valuable information directly to Wells Fargo customers after a disaster. The Mobile Response Unit has private offices and is equipped with computers and cellular data feed with satellite backup. It is powered by self-contained generators. Specialized team members on board are prepared to provide in-person assistance to a variety of customers, including: Home mortgage and home equity customers Auto loan customers Credit card customers Personal line of credit/loan customers Student loan customers Small business loan customers Wells Fargo's deployment of its Mobile Response Unit follows the company's announcement of $1.75 million in donations to supprt wildfire relief efforts, with $225,000 going to the American Red Cross* and the remaining amount to be disbursed to nonprofits located in affected communities. Disaster relief customer assistance information Wells Fargo is committed to providing support to customers and clients affected by the wildfires, including reversing certain fees, such as late fees, for our lending products - including credit cards, auto loans, personal loans and lines of credit - and waiving Wells Fargo fees for customers using non-Wells Fargo ATMs. Customers who want to discuss their financial needs should call 800-TO-WELLS (800-869-3557), available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Wells Fargo Home Mortgage and Home Equity customers can contact Wells Fargo to discuss potential payment and disaster assistance options or access information at Disaster Assistance and Property Damage Support site. Home Mortgage: 888-818-9147, Monday through Friday from 4 a.m. to 8 p.m. Pacific time, and Saturday from 6 a.m. to noon Pacific time. Home Equity: 866-355-1540, Monday through Thursday 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific time, and Friday 5 a.m. to 2 p.m. Pacific time. Auto loan customers can request payment assistance for up to 90 days and discuss available options for the filing of a Guaranteed Asset Protection claim, if applicable. Auto loan customers: 800-289-8004, Monday through Friday 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. Pacific time, and Saturday 6 a.m. to noon Pacific time. Wells Fargo Consumer Lending customers (credit card, retail services, student loans, personal loans and lines of credit) who are affected by the wildfires can request payment assistance and waiving of fees for up to 90 days. Personal loans: 877-269-6056, Monday through Friday 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific time, and Saturday 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Pacific time. Personal lines of credit: 800-946-2626, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Credit cards: Call the number on the back of the card or call Wells Fargo at 800-642-4720 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Education financial services: 800-658-3567, Monday through Friday 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. Pacific time. Wells Fargo Small Business Lending customers who are affected by the wildfires can request a payment deferment and waiver of late fees for up to 90 days on their Small Business Line of Credit, Small Business Credit Card, Commercial Loan, Wells Fargo BusinessLoan Term Loan, Business PrimeLoan, Equipment Express Loan, Commercial Equity Line of Credit, Commercial Real Estate Loan, FastFlex Small Business Loan or FastFlex Small Business Line of Credit. Customers can contact the National Business Banking Center, 800-225-5935, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Retail small business customers impacted by the wildfires are encouraged to call Wells Fargo, 800-225-5935, for more information and to discuss their options. Wells Fargo Insurance Services has also contacted clients in impacted areas to provide support and expertise. Customers in the impacted area who participate in an employer-sponsored 401(k) plan provided by Wells Fargo may be eligible to access their retirement savings. For more information, customers should call 800-728-3123. Customers of Wells Fargo Merchant Services who are in need of assistance with their merchant processing due to the impact of the fires can call 800-451-5817. Affected merchant customers who contact Wells Fargo by Dec. 15 can receive a complimentary mobile card reader that works with a mobile device and will enable their business to accept card payments. The one-time cost for the card reader is waived; however, payment processing costs from using the card reader will still apply, as will cellular service data rates as described by the provider. About Wells Fargo Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a diversified, community-based financial services company with $1.9 trillion in assets. Wells Fargo's vision is to satisfy our customers' financial needs and help them succeed financially. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, investment and mortgage products and services, as well as consumer and commercial finance, through 7,950 locations, 13,000 ATMs, the internet (wellsfargo.com) and mobile banking, and has offices in 37 countries and territories to support customers who conduct business in the global economy. With approximately 262,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in the United States. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 26 on Fortune's 2018 rankings of America's largest corporations. News, insights and perspectives from Wells Fargo are also available at Wells Fargo Stories. * The American Red Cross name, emblem and copyrighted materials are being used with its permission, which in no way constitutes an endorsement, express or implied, of any product, service, company, opinion or political position. The American Red Cross logo is a registered trademark owned by The American National Red Cross. For more information about the American Red Cross, please visit redcross.org. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181128005570/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] Ruark Consulting Releases Fall 2018 Variable Annuity Study Results Ruark Consulting, LLC today released the results of its fall 2018 studies of variable annuity (VA) policyholder behavior. The studies, which examine the factors driving surrender behavior, income/withdrawals, and annuitization, were based on experience from 13.3 million policyholders spanning the period January, 2008 through June, 2018. Twenty-four variable annuity writers participated in the study, comprising $840 billion in account value as of June, 2018. "In this study, we see new evidence of policyholder behavior changing over the course of a contract's lifetime in ways that were not previously evident," said Timothy Paris, Ruark's CEO. "These include contract duration beyond the end of the surrender charge period, sensitivity of income/withdrawal commencement to moneyness levels, effects of systematic withdrawals on persistency, and guaranteed minimum income benefit (GMIB) annuitization decisions; all important factors for VA writers in pricing and managing risks for these products." Study highlights include: Surrender rates have not returned to 2008 levels, even as strong equity markets have boosted account values. This is believed to be due to newer sales with more lifetime income guarantees and strong persistency incentives, retrenched VA product offerings since the 2008 financial crisis, and reduced attractiveness of non-VA investment alternatives. 2016 was an outlier in recent years, with surrender rates materially lower than in preceding and subsequent years. This is believed to be the result of uncertainty surrounding the DOL's proposed Fiduciary Rule and other political factors. Contracts with a lifetime income guarantee have much higher persistecy than otherwise. Also, a contract's prior partial withdrawal history influences its persistency: those who have taken withdrawals at or below the maximum income guarantee surrender at much lower rates. Those that take systematic withdrawals on lifetime income guarantees exhibit a select-and-ultimate effect, with very low surrenders in the first systematic withdrawal year, increasing to more typical levels within a few years. Surrenders exhibit a dynamic relationship to "moneyness" of lifetime income guarantees, whether measured on a nominal basis - account value vs. benefit base - or actuarial basis reflecting longevity and the time value of money. In-the-money contracts surrender at rates about one-third of out-of-the-money contracts. Similarly, we can now see that owners commence income at higher rates when lifetime income guarantees become more in-the-money. We can now see that product design incentives for owners to defer income commencement, commonly for 10 years, have been effective: commencement rates are highest in year 1 and in years 11+, with low commencement rates in between. Overall lifetime income guarantee withdrawal frequencies have continued to increase, and utilization has grown more efficient with more than half at or near the maximum income guarantee. Annuitization rates for contracts with GMIB continue to decline, with lower rates evident for "hybrid" designs that allow partial dollar-for-dollar withdrawals before annuitization. Ruark Consulting, LLC (www.ruark.co), based in Simsbury, CT, is an actuarial consulting firm specializing in principles-based insurance data analytics and risk management. Since 2007, Ruark's industry- and company-level experience studies of the variable annuity and fixed indexed annuity markets have served as the industry benchmarks. Its behavioral analytics engagements range from discrete consulting projects to full-service outsourcing relationships. As a reinsurance broker, Ruark has placed and continues to administer dozens of bespoke treaties totaling over $1.5 billion of reinsurance premium and $30 billion of account value, and also offers reinsurance audit and administration services. Ruark's consultants are frequent speakers at industry events on the topics of longevity, policyholder behavior, product guarantees, and reinsurance. Their work and commentary have appeared in numerous industry publications. Ruark Consulting enjoys an ongoing collaboration with the Goldenson Center for Actuarial Research at the University of Connecticut. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181128005600/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] Canada Invests in First-of-its-Kind Robotic Platform at University of British Columbia VANCOUVER, Nov. 28, 2018 /CNW/ - Canada is committed to the global transition to a low-carbon future. That is why we are investing in the development of new and innovative technologies that will help us fight climate change, boost the economy and create good jobs for Canadians. Canada's Minister of Natural Resources, the Honourable Amarjeet Sohi, today announced an $8-million investment to develop a first-of-its-kind robotic platform called Ada that uses artificial intelligence to accelerate the development process for new materials to improve energy efficiency. Funded through Canada's Energy Innovation Program, the University of British Columbia is building the new platform, which will be capable of designing, performing and learning from experiments. The robotic components for this project are also made in Canada, creating jobs for qualified personnel, increasing economic growth and positioning Canada as a global leader in this rapidly growing technology. Ada is a Canadian-based international collaboration. It supports Canada's commitments to Mission Innovation, a global initiative involving 23 countries that have committed to doubling their clean energy investments. Canada will host the 4th annual Mission Innovation Ministerial, alongside he 10th annual Clean Energy Ministerial in Vancouver, British Columbia, May 2729, 2019. The event will bring together global clean energy leaders to discuss cutting-edge transformations and reinforce international collaboration in the transition to a low-carbon future. Through Generation Energy, Canada's national energy dialogue, Canadians expressed that they want to see Canada continuing to be a leader in the transition to a clean growth economy. Canada will continue to support clean technology projects that create jobs, improve industry competitiveness, cut pollution and act on climate change. Quotes "Canada will continue to work with partner countries, international organizations and the private sector on innovative projects that will boost economic growth and contribute to our climate change commitments. We are proud to support such an exciting, cutting-edge project that will position Canada as a leader in clean energy innovation and will bring us one step closer to the low-carbon future we all want." Amarjeet Sohi Canada's Minister of Natural Resources "Prof. Jason Hein (UBC), Prof. Alan Aspuru-Guzik (University of Toronto), and I are honoured to have had our program selected by Natural Resources Canada as the lead project in Mission Innovation Challenge #6. Our project represents a bold initiative that will accelerate the discovery and development of new clean energy technologies by leveraging cutting-edge robotics equipped with artificial intelligence. We are very excited to be at the forefront of this innovative movement in materials science. We would like to also thank North Robotics, our small business partner, and the University of British Columbia for their support." Curtis P. Berlinguette Professor, University of British Columbia Related Information Autonomous Discovery Accelerator for Materials Innovation CEM10/MI-4 2019 Clean Energy Ministerial and Mission Innovation Ministerial Project Ada North Robotics Follow us on Twitter: @NRCan (http://twitter.com/nrcan) SOURCE Natural Resources Canada [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] 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. [November 28, 2018] Moelis & Company Management to Speak at the Goldman Sachs US Financial Services Conference Moelis & Company (NYSE: MC), a leading global independent investment bank, today announced that Ken Moelis, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, is scheduled to present at the Goldman Sachs US Financial Services Conference on Wednesday, December 5, 2018 at 10:50 a.m. Eastern Time. The presentation and a live audio webcast will be available through the Investor Relations section of the Moelis & Company website at www.moelis.com. For those unable to listen to the live webcast, a replay will be available for one month on the same website following the conference. About Moelis & Company Moelis & Company is a leading global independent investment bank that provides innovative strategic advice and solutions to a diverse client base, including corporations, governments and financial sponsors. The Firm assists its clients in achieving their strategic goals by offering comprehensive integrated financial advisory services across all major industry sectors. Moelis & Company's experienced professionals advise clients on their most critical decisions, including mergers and acquisitions, recapitalizations and restructurings, capital markets transactions, and other corporate finance matters. The Firm serves its clients from 19 geographic locations in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. For further information, please visit: www.moelis.com or follow us on Twitter (News - Alert) @Moelis. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181128005608/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] Alert Logic Leverages the New Amazon Web Services Security Hub to Manage Security Incidents, Remediation, Threat Hunting, and Compliance Alert Logic, the SIEMless Threat Management company, announced today at AWS re:Invent 2018 in Las Vegas, that it is supporting the just-announced AWS Security Hub. Alert Logic's integration is designed to allow AWS Security Hub customers to incorporate verified security incidents from Alert Logic's 24x7 Security Operations Center (SOC) team. These incidents will include expert analysis and remediation guidance for both security and compliance. AWS Security Hub is designed to provide users with a comprehensive view of their high-priority security alerts and compliance status by aggregating, organizing, and prioritizing alerts, or findings, from multiple AWS services, such as Amazon GuardDuty, Amazon Inspector, and Amazon Macie as well as security solutions from the AWS Partner Network (APN). The findings are then visually summarized on integrated dashboards with actionable graphs and tables. "AWS is designed to allow customers to scale and innovate," said Dan Plastina, Vice President, Security Services, Amazon Web Services (News - Alert), Inc. "We have worked with Alert Logic to leverage their technology, threat intelligence, and expertise and provide an added layer of security to the already secure AWS cloud." "AWS Security Hub is designed to help AWS customers quickly aggregate, categorize and prioritize the findings of AWS-native security tools that run natively on AWS," said Chris Noell, Senior Vice President, Engineering at Alert Logic. "We are excited to work with AWS to support AWS Security Hub. AWS Security Hub enhances our existing capabilities to assist customers with their considerations regarding web application security, network vulnerability scanning, log correlation and reporting on AWS." As a Launch APN Partner for AWS Security Hub, Alert Logic's capabilities can be searched for by AWS customers directly in the AWS Security Hub user interface with a direct link to purchase them via the AWS Marketplace if they are not yet an Alert Logic customer. For more information, follow us at @AlertLogic on Twitter and see our blog post. About Alert Logic Alert Logic seamlessly connects an award-winning security platform, cutting-edge threat intelligence, and expert defenders - to provide the best security and peace of mind for businesses 24/7, regardless of their size or technology environment. More than 4,000 organizations rely on Alert Logic SIEMless Threat Management to ensure the right level of security and compliance coverage at a lower total cost than point solutions, SIEM tools, or traditional MSSP outsourcing. Founded in 2002, Alert Logic is headquartered in Houston, Texas, with offices in Austin, Seattle, Dallas, Cardiff, Belfast, London and Cali, Colombia. For more information, visit www.alertlogic.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181128005639/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] A.M. BestTV: Insurers Move to Mitigate Possible Loss of Passporting Rights, Says A.M. Best Senior Director In this episode of A.M.BestTV, Catherine Thomas, senior director of analytics, A.M. Best, said insurers are preparing for the possibility that the United Kingdom will leave the European Union (EU) without securing agreements to protect cross-border insurance relationships. Click on http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=brexit1118 to view the entire program. Thomas explained the significance of passporting in the United Kingdom. "Passporting allows EU insurers to write cross-border business throughout the European Economic Area (EEA)," said Thomas. "When the United Kingdom withdraws from the EU, and at the end of any transition period, it is expected that passporting rights, which currently exist between the United Kingdom and the EEA will cease." Highlighting the impact of the potential loss of passporting, she said, "That will mean that U.K. insurers will no longer be able to issue insurance contracts in the EEA. It is also possible that in the absence of a political solution, they will no longer be able to service existing EEA business through the settlement of payment of claims." While the possibility of losing passporting presents a challenge, Thomas said insurers are putting together contingency plans. "The majority of insurers that are affected by Brexit and rated by A.M. Best are looking to transfer their EEA portfolios from a U.K. insurer into an affiliated EEA insurer under Part VII of the Financial Services and Markets Act." Recent episodes of A.M.BestTV include: Wildfires Likely to Shake Up California's Homeowners Insurance Market, Say A.M. Best Analysts: Jason Hopper, associate director, and David Blades, senior research analyst, both with A.M. Best, said losses from the ongoing wildfires in California will put pressure on homeowners insurers: http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=ambcafires1118. Methodology Revision Led to Changes for 3% of Rated EMEA Insurers, Say A.M. Best Analysts: At the 2018 annual A.M. Best Insurance Market Briefing - Europe in London, Greg Carter (News - Alert), managing director, analytics; Carlos Wong-Fupuy, senior director and Mahesh Mistry, senior director, analytics, discussed the impact of A.M. Best's 2017 rating methodology update: http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=bcrmpanel1118. Latin America Offers Large Potential Market for Microinsurance, Says A.M. Best Senior Managing Director : At the LIMRA-LOMA Latin American Conference, Andrea Keenan, senior managing director, A.M. Best, said while insurers in Latin America don't focus on microinsurance as much as they do in other regions of the world, a large potential audience still exists there that could benefit from the product: http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=keenan1118. : At the LIMRA-LOMA Latin American Conference, Andrea Keenan, senior managing director, A.M. Best, said while insurers in Latin America don't focus on microinsurance as much as they do in other regions of the world, a large potential audience still exists there that could benefit from the product: http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=keenan1118. The Future of Life Insurance: Faster, Smaller, Customized and Multi-Purpose: Attendees at the 2018 LIMRA Annual Conference said ordinary life coverage should have a solid future but will likely be sold in new and innovative ways and in a variety of formats: http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=limra31118. A.M.BestTV covers exclusive A.M. Best and insurance industry information and reports, targeted topics and key developments in the insurance, reinsurance and related sectors daily. Sign up for alerts of episodes at http://www.ambest.com/multimedia/ambtvsignup.html. View A.M.BestTV episodes at http://www.ambest.tv. A.M. Best is a global rating agency and information provider with a unique focus on the insurance industry. Visit www.ambest.com for more information. Copyright 2018 by A.M. Best Company, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181128005693/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] Advantage Capital Invests in Momentum Solar, Supporting Company's Explosive Growth and Strengthening the Clean Energy Economy Advantage Capital today announced a $4.1 million investment in Momentum (News - Alert) Solar, a residential solar company offering solar design, engineering and installation services across New Jersey, New York and five other states. The investment, through the Grow NJ program, supports the company's expansion plans and growth strategy, including the recent move into a new headquarters building in South Plainfield, New Jersey. The move to the new facility, four times the size of its previous location, enables Momentum to maintain its operations in New Jersey and retain hundreds of jobs that may have been relocated outside of the state. The company also plans to create 150 high quality, accessible jobs over the next three years, boosting the state's economy and contributing to New Jersey's focus on clean energy expansion and job creation - a priority for New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, who signed an expansive clean energy bill earlier this year. "I'm thrilled to see the growth in Momentum Solar, which has created hundreds of high quality jobs that strengthen our economy and our state's commitment to adopting clean, renewable energy," said Assemblywoman Nancy Pinkin, a sponsor of the clean energy legislation. "As we continue to take steps to improve and expand New Jersey's renewable energy programs, businesses like Momentum are helping to build a stronger, cleaner and healthier tomorrow for all New Jersey families." Momentum CEO and co-founder Arthur Souritzidis has led the company's transformation from a four-person, garage-based business in 2009 to one of the fastest growing, privately held companies in the U.S. The company landed at #58 out of 5,000 growing businesses, according to Inc., and was also recognized as the #2 energy company nationwide and the top company in New Jersey. It also recently ranked #25 in Deloitte's (News - Alert) TechFast500 list. Momentum ended 2017 with 650 employees and expects to end this year with 1,200. "Our remendous growth is a direct reflection of the work our employees put in every day," said Souritzidis. "We began this company with a simple mission: to enable homeowners to generate cleaner, price-protected power, while bettering the environment. That remains our focus today and we couldn't do it without the support of our 1000-plus employees and our loyal customers. We are thankful for them, as well as our financing partners who share our commitment to creating true impact within the solar community and our home state of New Jersey." Momentum Solar's impact is a bright spot for New Jersey's clean energy economy. Many of the company's anticipated new jobs will be available to those with a high school degree or equivalent, with the majority offering training, an important component in helping to build a larger, stronger clean energy labor force. The company's critical technology and sheer presence are vital to New Jersey's return to prominence in the space. The investment in Momentum was made in connection with the Grow NJ program, a powerful job creation and retention incentive program that strengthens New Jersey's competitive edge in the increasingly global marketplace. "Momentum's growth trajectory and commitment to its community is impressive," said Jim O'Rourke, managing director at Advantage Capital. "Like our other investments through the Grow NJ program, this investment will create a considerable impact, strengthening the local economy through continued job growth and economic development, and pushing the state towards national leadership in the development of clean energy technologies." About Advantage Capital Advantage Capital provides financing to established and emerging companies located in communities underserved by conventional sources of capital. Since 1992, the firm has invested more than $2.6 billion in companies from a diverse array of industry sectors and has helped support more than 48,000 jobs. Learn more at www.advantagecap.com, or via Twitter or LinkedIn. About Momentum Solar Momentum Solar is a top residential solar contractor and Inc. 500 fastest-growing private company that employs over 1,000 people nationwide and with operations in New Jersey, New York, California, Florida, Texas, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. The owner-operated business is committed to providing savings for their customers and helping the environment by providing clean, affordable electricity to qualified homeowners. Momentum Solar manages the entire customer life cycle from enrollment through customized design, engineering, permitting, installation and activation of each system to make the process simple. Advantage Capital is an investment adviser registered under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training. The information in this release is not intended to be an advertisement concerning investment advisory services or an offer to buy or sell securities of any type. The investments and portfolio companies referenced in this release represent only a sample of companies that have received investment capital from Advantage Capital-related entities. For a complete list of such companies, please see our website at advantagecap.com. It should not be assumed that recommendations made in the future will be profitable or will equal the performance of the securities highlighted herein or contained in any other information provided by Advantage Capital. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181128005699/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] Leidos Awarded Department of Commerce Task Order to Provide Cyber Security Services RESTON, Va., Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Leidos (NYSE: LDOS), a FORTUNE 500 science and technology leader, has been awarded a task order by the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to manage cyber and enterprise security operations for the organization. The single award, firm-fixed-price, time and materials task order has a one-year base performance period and four one-year option years with a total value of approximately $100 million if all options are exercised. Leidos cybersecurity experts will build on NOAA's existing cyber methodologies and Leidos' in-depth knowledge of transforming security operations centers to ensure the NOAA Cyber Security Center (NCSC) can continuously conduct enterprise monitoring and situational awareness for network security events against sophisticated attacks across an asset base supporting over 20,000 users. Similarly, Leidos will help the DOC Enterprise Security Operations Center (ESOC) provide department-wide, 24x7, near real-time cybersecurity status information to enable timely decision-making across all Commerce bureaus. "Leidos creates a culture of cyber excellence by implementing critical analysis and a strong network defense that ensures mission resiliency for our customers," said Angie Heise, Leidos Civil Group President. "Cyber is one of our core competencies, and we assembled a team of cybersecurity experts to meet NOAA and DOC's mission requirements. Our Technical Advisory Group to the program has more than 50 years of security experience applying scalable, cost-efficient cyber solutions that protect our customers' most critical data and information." NOAA provides environmental data and information that focuses on conditions of oceans, major waterways, and the atmosphere. To facilitate a mission that reaches from sea to space, NOAA relies on a secure and resilient global network infrastructure. Under the task order, Leidos will meet the operational needs for both the NCSC and the DOC ESOC. This integrative solution will include support services as well as the application of future infrastructure, hardware, software, processes, and procedures that ensure NOAA and DOC maintain comprehensive situational awareness to effectively manage risk through visibility and measurable cybersecurity. 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. Statements in this announcement, other than historical data and information, constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause our actual results, performance, achievements, or industry results to be very different from the results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Some of these factors include, but are not limited to, the risk factors set forth in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended December 29, 2017, and other such filings that Leidos makes with the SEC from time to time. Due to such uncertainties and risks, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. Contact: Melissa Koskovich Erin Tindell (571) 526-6850 (571) 526-6996 [email protected] [email protected] View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/leidos-awarded-department-of-commerce-task-order-to-provide-cyber-security-services-300757219.html SOURCE Leidos [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [November 28, 2018] WEX Converting Chevron and Texaco Business Card Customers WEX Inc. (NYSE: WEX), a pioneer in corporate payments, and Chevron U.S.A. Inc., the company behind two of North America's leading fuel brands, announced they have an agreement to bring high-quality card services to Chevron (News - Alert) and Texaco Business Card customers. WEX and Chevron announced the long-term agreement in December 2016. WEX will now commence bringing new Chevron and Texaco Business Cards into the WEX portfolio of branded programs. Under the agreement, WEX will provide Chevron and Texaco commercial customers a complete range of innovative digital solutions to manage their fleets, including Fleet SmartHub, WEXOnline, Fleet DriverDash and more. Additionally, WEX provides Chevron a comprehensive sales and marketing program, manages card distribution and related payment services for its brands, and supports the efforts of local Chevron and Texaco marketers and retailers through a network of nearly 8,000 branded retail locations in the United States. WEX built and operates a proprietary closed-loop payment network that offers fleets optimal cost controls and helps branded fuel partners grow their customer loyalty. The company now powers commercial and consumer fueling card programs for most major U.S. ful brands, and for all 10 of the Top 10 U.S. convenience store brands by market share, with several signing long-term agreements with WEX in the past 18 months. "We're excited to add the world-recognized Chevron and Texaco brands to the WEX commercial fleet card portfolio," WEX Global Fleet President Scott Phillips said. "The agreement shows the tremendous trust that industry places in WEX, underscores our commitment to growth in the North American fleet market, and offers Chevron and Texaco fleet customers a robust, custom card program developed in long-term partnership with the industry." "Chevron strives to deliver consistently excellent service to the growing number of large fleets and we are excited to work with a company like WEX that shares our values," said Gilson Ribeiro, Chevron's General Manager of Americas Marketing Sales and Service. "We'll be working hard alongside WEX to ensure customers that rely on our cards experience a smooth transition." In 2017, Chevron extended its WEX relationship globally, signing the company to develop, support and manage its fuel card processing portfolio in Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. About WEX Powered by the belief that complex payment systems can be made simple, WEX Inc. (NYSE: WEX) is a leading provider of payment processing and business solutions across a wide spectrum of sectors, including fleet, travel and healthcare. WEX operates in more than 10 countries and in more than 20 currencies through more than 3,500 associates around the world. WEX fleet cards offer 11.5 million vehicles exceptional payment security and control; purchase volume in its travel and corporate solutions segment grew to $30.3 billion in 2017; and the WEX Health financial technology platform helps 300,000 employers and more than 25 million consumers better manage healthcare expenses. For more information, visit www.wexinc.com. About Chevron Chevron Corporation is one of the world's leading integrated energy companies. Through its subsidiaries that conduct business worldwide, the company is involved in virtually every facet of the energy industry. Chevron explores for, produces and transports crude oil and natural gas; refines, markets and distributes transportation fuels and lubricants; manufactures and sells petrochemicals and additives; generates power; and develops and deploys technologies that enhance business value in every aspect of the company's operations. Chevron is based in San Ramon, Calif. More information about Chevron is available at www.chevron.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181128005742/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] The best foldable phones have undergone a shake-up. Now that LG has exited the phone business, taking its dual-screen devices with it, Samsung dominates the foldable phone category. But the latest foldables from Samsung prove that it would be the phone maker turn to even if there was more competition to be found. The latest models from Samsung the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and the Galaxy Z Flip 3 deliver big improvements over their predecessors. We've reviewed both phones, and feel comfortable recommending them as the best foldable phones you can buy right now. Samsung and other phone makers ultimately dream of taking the best foldable phones beyond niche devices and turning them into handsets with mainstream appeal. The lower price of the Galaxy Z Flip 3 could make that happen, as it's the first foldable phone to cost less than $1,000. The addition of S Pen support to the Galaxy Z Fold 3 might make that phone more appealing, too, particularly for fans of the Galaxy Note phablets. Samsung faces some stepped up competition from the Microsoft Surface Duo 2, which also improves upon its predecessor. Meanwhile, rumors continue to circulate that Google has a foldable Pixel in advanced stages of development, though we're unlikely to see that device before 2022 despite rumors to the contrary. So the following handsets remain the best foldable phones you can buy right now. What are the best foldable phones? Now that we've tested both the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3, we think the former is the best option if you want a foldable phone. It's got the more expansive screen and S Pen compatibility that lets you jot down notes and drawings on the 7.6-inch display. The Z Fold 3 also improves on its predecessor with better durability and an under-display camera. For many people, though, the best foldable phone will be the one they can afford. And that's likely to be the Galaxy Z Flip 3, which finally drops the price of foldables below $,1000. Microsoft's new Surface Duo 2 tries to take on Samsung's foldables with a dual-screen approach. And while it's a big improvement on the first Surface Duo, the two-screen approach doesn't quite work for people who just want an expanded screen space which is really the case for foldable phones at this point. The best foldable phones (Image credit: Tom's Guide) 1. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 The best foldable phone overall Specifications Main screen size: 7.6 inches (2208 x 1768) Secondary screen size: 6.2 inches (2268 x 832) CPU: Snapdragon 888 RAM/Storage: 12GB/256GB, 512GB Size, opened: 6.2 x 5 x 0.25 inches Size, closed: 6.2 x 2.6 x 0.56 to 0.62 inches Weight: 9.55 ounces TODAY'S BEST DEALS Prime View at Amazon View at Walmart View at Best Buy Reasons to buy + More durable with water-resistance + Dual 120Hz displays + More multitasking support from apps Reasons to avoid - S Pen isn't included - Still expensive The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 continues to set the standard for foldable phones, addressing some of the criticisms with previous models, while adding welcome new features such as a 120Hz refresh rate for both of its displays. We wish the price would have dropped a little more, but at $1,799, the Galaxy Z Fold 3 has a lower starting price than the Z Fold 2 did when it debuted in 2020. The improved durability of this foldable phone it now has an IPX8 rating for water resistance and a more durable screen will ease the concerns some people may have had about whether the Galaxy Z Fold could stand up to the rigors of daily use. Samsung has also worked with more app makers so that their software is optimized for the Galaxy Z Fold 3s unique 7.6-inch folding display. S Pen support has been added to the Galaxy Z Fold 3, though it remains optional like it is for the Galaxy S21 Ultra. That means you have to pay extra for the S Pen as well as a case to hold the stylus since theres no slot in the phone itself. But the big main display on the Galaxy Z Fold 3 gives you ample space for sketching and writing down notes. If you want the most powerful foldable phone and one of the best productivity-boosting devices overall then the Galaxy Z Fold 3 is a good choice, provided you can deal with the lofty price tag. Read our full Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 review . (Image credit: Tom's Guide) 2. Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 The first affordable foldable phone Specifications Main screen size: 6.7 inches (2640 x 1080) Secondary screen size: 1.9 inches (260 x 512) CPU: Snapdragon 888 RAM/Storage: 8GB/128GB, 256GB Size, opened: 6.5 x 2.8 x 0.27 inches Size, closed: 3.4 x 2.8 x 0.63-0.67 inches Weight: 6.5 ounces TODAY'S BEST DEALS View at Samsung View at Samsung Prime View at Amazon Reasons to buy + More affordable + Enhanced durability + Bigger cover display Reasons to avoid - Short battery life - No telephoto lens Replacing the Galaxy Z Flip 5G, the new Galaxy Z Flip 3 does everything better this time around. Not only is the phone more durable than before, but the cover display is vastly improved. Its larger and shows more information now. The Flip 3s design is more streamlined with squared edges and beautiful color options. It also has some internal upgrades, including the Snapdragon 888 processor. The cameras and battery remain the same, however the Galaxy Z Flip 3 does not have a telephoto lens. At $999, the Flip 3 is the most affordable foldable ever, but it does have its drawbacks. Notably, the battery life isnt great whatsoever. The crease across the middle of the displays remains quite prominent, noticeable when dragging your finger over it or when the light catches it just right. The Galaxy Z Flip 3 is probably the foldable most people will want to pay attention to due to its more affordable starting price. Its a looker and folds up neatly to fit in most pockets. And if you're willing to pay $100 extra, the Galaxy Z Flip 3 Bespoke Edition lets you choose the colors of the front and back panels as well as the phone's frame. Read our full Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 review . (Image credit: Tom's Guide) 3. Microsoft Surface Duo 2 Best dual-screen phone Specifications Main screen size: 8.3 inches (2688x1892) Secondary screen size: 2 5.3-inch panels (1344x1892) CPU: Snapdragon 888 RAM/Storage: 8GB/128GB, 256GB, 512GB Size, opened: 5.7 x 7.3 x 0.21 inches Size, closed: 5.7 x 3.6 x 0.43 inches Weight: 10 ounces TODAY'S BEST DEALS View at Walmart Prime View at Amazon View at Microsoft US Reasons to buy + Big boosts to processor and cameras from the first Surface Duo + Optimized apps take advantage of both screens + Elegant design Reasons to avoid - Costs more than the first Surface Duo - Full-screen experience marred by separate display panels Unlike Samsung's two phones, the Microsoft Surface Duo 2 is not really a foldable device. Instead, it features two separate 5.3-inch panels that open up to give you an 8.3-inch workspace. You can run apps across the two panels, though you'll have to contend with a gap running right down the middle of your app where the screens come together. It's better when using optimized apps where different tasks are relegated to different screens on the Surface Duo. You can also multitask, running two apps on different sides of the device. Microsoft deserves credit for addressing many of the problems with the first Surface Duo in this sequel. The hardware is up-to-date, and the design is as elegant as ever. But the problem with Microsoft's approach is that this really isn't an expanded work surface instead it's two separate 5.3-inch panels that are further squeezed by significant bezels. The Surface Duo 2 represents a better phone before, but it's still not the best big-screen experience out there. Read our full Microsoft Surface Duo 2 review. (Image credit: Motorola) 4. Motorola Razr 5G A foldable blast from the past Specifications Main screen size: 6.2 inches (2142 x 876) Secondary screen size: 2.7 inches (800 x 600) CPU: Snapdragon 765G RAM/Storage: 8GB/256GB Size, opened: 6.7 x 2.9 x 0.31 inches Size closed: 3.6 x 2.9 x 0.63 inches Weight: 6.77 ounces TODAY'S BEST DEALS Prime View at Amazon View at Best Buy Prime View at Amazon Reasons to buy + Quick View display supports gesture controls + 5G-capable Reasons to avoid - Expensive - Won't work with Verizon's mmWave network Motorola is hoping it can pull off the same trick with the Motorola Razr 5G that Samsung did with its Galaxy Z Fold 2 follow-up a lackluster product debut with a more successful sequel. We haven't yet had a chance to review the Motorola Razr 5G, but having tested the original for our Motorola Razr (2019) review , the only direction Motorola can go in is up. The original Razr was a sleek-looking phone that hearkens back to the flip phone designs of yesteryear. But the build quality didn't impress, the camera disappointed, and the phone petered out after just 6 hours on our battery test. Motorola looks to have addressed some of those issues with the 5G version of the Razr, which introduces crucial design changes like a tapered chin, durable hinge and teardrop folded display that keeps the two sides of the phone flush when it's shut. The exterior Quick View screen now supports gesture controls and you can use that screen to do more. A more powerful Snapdragon 765G processor should improve performance while adding 5G connectivity. Will those changes help the Motorola Razr 5G live up to its $1,399 price? We'll know for sure once we test the new version. What to look for in a foldable phone Before you buy a foldable phone, you'll need to consider what that kind of device will be able to do for you that a standard phone can't. Even with the Galaxy Z Flip 3's $999 price, you'll still pay up for foldable phones, so unless you really need the extra screen real estate, you may be better off with a phablet or one of the other best big phones that we've tested. If you do think a foldable phone will help you get more done, though, be sure to pay attention to the device's construction. Early foldable phones like the Galaxy Fold and original Motorola Razr had design quirks that led us to pan those handsets. With the Galaxy Z Fold 2, though, Samsung made some critical changes that made the phone more likely to withstand everyday use. (Even then, it's still not water resistant that feature didn't arrive until the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3.) So research a foldable phone's hinge and just how many times a phone maker says the device will open and close. There are two screens to consider when buying a foldable phone the larger internal display and a secondary screen, usually on the outside of the device. Find out just what you can do with that exterior screen can you run full apps or is it just there for notifications and a few other features? And does the screen support something like Samsung's continuity feature where the app you're using on the cover screen is waiting for you when you open the device? Some foldable phones don't actually fold. The Microsoft Surface Duo 2, for example, is a dual-screen device that opens up to reveal two separate panels. Many of LG's phones took the same approach, though LG has now exited the phone business and taken its foldable devices with it. Apart from size you'll want to make sure a closed foldable phone is something you're comfortable carrying around you're looking at a lot of the same criteria you'd use to judge conventional phones. That includes the processor, cameras and especially the battery life. After all, there are usually multiple screens to keep powered up on a foldable phone. Be aware that foldable phones are a pretty new category in the world of smartphones, and we expect to see a lot of change come to this segment. Even after the August debuts of new versions of the Fold and Flip, Samsung is rumored to be working on a device with a scrollable screen called the Galaxy Scroll . Rumors persist that Google Pixel Fold is not only in development but gearing up for an imminent launch; since it didn't appear with the Pixel 6, we're guessing that phone won't show up until 2022 at the earliest. We also won't see an iPhone Flip in 2021, though the rumor mill insists that work is proceeding on that phone for a future launch. How we test foldable phones We test for the best foldable phones the same way we review any smartphone. We conduct lab tests, including synthetic benchmarks as Geekbench 5 and 3DMark to measure graphics performance. We also run a real-world video transcoding test on each phone using the Adobe Premiere Rush app and time the result. To measure the quality of a phone's display, we perform lab tests to determine the brightness of the panel (in nits), as well as how colorful each screen is (DCI-P3 color gamut). In these cases, higher numbers are better. We also measure the color accuracy of each panel with a Delta-E rating, where lower numbers are better and a score of 0 is perfect. We run a custom battery test in which we have the phone surf the web over cellular with its screen set to 150 nits of brightness. We then time how long it takes the phone to run out of power. For foldable phones, we conduct this test on the phone's main display. We also test the cameras on each foldable phone, taking them out into the field to perform comparative shots, usually with another device that features comparable specs. In some cases, that's a foldable phone or another device in the same price tier. Kansas City is the only U.S. destination among National Geographic's best trips for 2019 National Geographic Traveler names Kansas City a best trip for 2019 - Kansas City Business Journal National Geographic Traveler just published its list of the 28 destinations most exciting destinations for the year ahead, and Kansas City is the only American destination on the list in the city category. Three other U.S. sites made the list for adventure, culture and nature. We linked this one early in the morning and most of the day newsies were dedicated to celebrating this low rent mention from another struggling news outlet.Main title:A bit more detail and the whole article for subscribers: WICHITA, KS (AP) - Kansas is recalling hundreds of vehicle license plates on the streets containing the "JAP" lettering in the wake of complaints that it is an ethnic slur offensive to Japanese Americans. The Kansas Department of Revenue said there are 731 active registrations containing that random letter combination on standard license plates. No compromise or room for debate for this health issue at many Kansas City hospitals. Here's a glimpse at the order and then the explanation: Season Of KCMO Car Theft Thief's quick payday costs thousands to fix: Police record more stolen catalytic converters in 2018 KANSAS CITY, Mo. - An old trend is resurfacing across the Kansas City metro area. The number of catalytic converters reported stolen increased from 2017 to 2018. Police said criminals target the car part because it easy to remove and contains valuable metals such as platinum and rhodium. Kansas City Midweek Forecast First Alert: Wednesday temps to help us thaw It will be mostly cloudy and cold today, but we'll finally get above freezing this afternoon. Look for a high near 39 degrees. Mostly cloudy skies will continue... Rugrat Homebody List Kansas City Closings, Delays | 41 Action News | KSHB-TV A list of weather-related school and business closings and delays. Real Life Kansas City Hero Kansas City man builds community of tiny homes for homeless veterans The Veterans Community Project is located at 8900 Troost Avenue, in an old automobile shop. Across the street is a plot of land where over 50 tiny homes will be built to create a Veterans Village and house homeless veterans across Kansas City. Every one of these homes will offer Veterans a solid, stable life. Helping Hand For Holidays Adopt A Family this holiday season with the Salvation Army KMBC-TV/KCWE-TV is teaming up with the Salvation Army to help support families in need this holiday season. Salvation Army members will be standing by to take your calls and set you up with a family in need. The phone number is 816-760-9314. Phone lines will be open until 10:30 p.m. Kansas City Foodie Redux Classic Cup Cafe on the Plaza to end dinner service in Jan. | The Kansas City Star The Classic Cup Cafe has been a Country Club Plaza staple since opening nearly three decades ago. But in the last few years, customers have favored it more as a breakfast meeting place, and lunch and brunch "break-from-shopping" spot, their bags piled up by their tables. Kansas City Against Spoilers Arrowheadlines: Chiefs need to avoid classic "trap game" against Raiders It's a trap! Chiefs return from bye trying to avoid pitfall in Oakland | ESPN The two Chiefs' defeats in Oakland under coach Andy Reid happened in Thursday night games. This time, the Chiefs won't have the disadvantage of traveling during a short week. The Chiefs haven't played since a Nov. In hottie biz news, also panties . . .Closer to home, these news items are worth a look to start our morning . . .is the song of the day and this is thefor right now . . . American missionary killed on remote island near India trained with ministry in KC Hide Transcript Show Transcript WEBVTT POSSIBLE NEW EVIDENCE. THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY KILLED ON A REMOTE ISLAND OFF THE INDIAN COAST HAS A LOCAL CONNECTION. STEVEN: HE WORKED FOR A MISSIONARY GROUP BASED OUT OF KANSAS CITY. MICHEAL MAHONEY HAS THEIR STORY TONIGHT. MICHAEL: 26-YEAR-OLD JOHN ALLEN CHAU HAD 3 PASSIONS. We talked about this busybody death by arrow on Thanksgiving and now it's news fact . . . Moreover,And generally, social media doesn't have much mercy for the Christian activist who many feel was violating laws and endangering the lives of this group in order to push his unsolicited message . . . Or, call it a tragic response to real life spam.Read more: Have you watched The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift? Well, this parade looked exactly like that; the sole difference being that there were only Lamborghinis dominating the roads. Lamborghini recently unveiled the Aventador SVJ in the Asia-Pacific region, and what followed it could make any enthusiast go weak in the knees. What a Celebration! To celebrate the unveiling, 200 Lamborghinis took over the streets and rolled into Yokohama for a parade. These car owners and VIPs got to see the Aventador SVJ closely after the parade. The VIPs in attendance included Lamborghinis Chairman and CEO, Stefano Domenicali and Italys Ambassador to Japan, Giorgio Starace. It seems like Japan is embracing Lamborghini with arms wide open, as the automaker recently opened its ninth dealership in the Land of The Rising Sun. This Supercar Is Special Talking about the Lamborghini Aventador SVJ, this flagship, track-focused, V-12 supercar was revealed to the world at the Pebble Beach Concours dElegance in Monterey in August this year. Just a month before that, it made a record for being the fastest street-legal production car at the Nurburgring by clocking in at 6:44:97; almost two seconds faster than the Porsche 911 GT2 RS, which had broken the Huracan Performante by five seconds, which itself had broken the Porsche 911 GT3 RS record. Phew, what a banter! What They Had To Say Japan is a very important market for us. I would like to reinforce our gratitude to the long-time patronage of our Japanese customers who have built such strong bonds with the marque. We stay very much in touch with our customers here, and look forward to building on the marques strength with the Japanese market introduction of our new super SUV Urus, which brings an even broader audience into the brand. said Domenicali in a press release on the event. The Ones That Made Their Presence Felt The event was a typical media meet that happens at an unveiling, but well cut to the chase and talk about the cars in the parade. It looks like Japan likes the trending models from the Italian manufacturers stable. There were hordes of Gallardos, Murcielagos, Aventadors, and Huracans; but classic models were conspicuous by their absence. In the name of old models, the Countach and Miura were present, but we didnt spot any Espadas or Diablos. Ended On a Good Note The party capped off with a charity auction to aid victims of various natural disasters that hit in Japan in 2018. Although the automaker did not disclose how much money it raised, it said that all the proceeds will go to the Japan Red Cross Society. Do you think that Lamborghini Day should actually become a thing worldwide? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below. Further Reading Read our full review on the 2019 Lamborghini Aventador SVJ. Read our full review on the 2019 Lamborghini Aventador SVJ 63. Read our full review on the 2018 Lamborghini Aventador S Roadster. Read our full review on the 2015 Lamborghini Aventador Super Veloce. The students at Mountain Sun Community School participated in Trick-Or-Treat for UNICEF this past Halloween. This is the school's eleventh year participating in the program. This year the students collected a record high of $581.08. Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF began 68 years ago as a way to help children still affected by World War II. Since then, millions of children across the United States have gone door to door on Halloween with UNICEF collection boxes, calling out, "Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF!" However, in Brevard most kids Trick-or-Treat in the same neighborhoods - Park Avenue or Maple... Downtown Brevard store owners reported an increase in sales in what some are calling their "best Black Friday ever." Ann Hollingsworth, owner of Main Street, Ltd. on East Main Street, said she was "pleasantly surprised." "When you've been in business for 30 years, it's hard to keep topping, but we did great," she said. "Considering that we are competing against the online stores and big box chains, I feel like my crew and I deserve a pat on the back. With a crew of four that day, it worked, and we were open for 12 hours, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., including the Gallery Walk that night as well. I w... Local officials and the public Wednesday got to see inside the new 60,750-square-foot building off Ecusta Road. (Times photos by Matt McGregor) The Sylvan Valley Industrial Center off Ecusta Road opened to the public Wednesday during a dedication ceremony attended by city and county officials, community stakeholders and citizens. SylvanSport, the local manufacturer of outdoor gear, will occupy 30,000 square feet of the 60,750-square-foot building, leaving the rest available for lease to other manufacturing companies. During the dedication ceremony, Transylvania Economic Alliance Executive Director Josh Hallingse began by thanking and recognizing city and county officials who worked on the project. Alliance board member Mark Too... General Motors announcement that it would be idling four American plants and one in Canada resulting in the loss of 14,000 jobs highlights the intrinsic problem of todays corporate capitalism. The financial interests of shareholders and management are often in direct conflict with the financial interests of employees as indicated by the fact that GMs stock increased nearly 5 percent when the layoffs were announced. Corporations are responsible to their shareholders, and shareholders want to see the value of their shares increase. Even when a company is profitable, shareholders... Episode four of Dynasties, the BBC's latest wildlife production, is expected to boost safari bookings to Zimbabwe (TRAVPR.COM) UK - November 27th, 2018 Zimbabwe has already made Lonely Planet's "Best in Travel" list, and over the course of 2019, safari specialist Acacia Africa expects the country to become a firm favourite on the safari circuit. Hosted by Sir David Attenborough, the BBC One Dynasties series is also sure to pull in a few more Zimbabwe followers before the year is out, episode four, which is scheduled to air on 02 December at 8pm, focusing on the Painted Wolf - Africa's most endangered predator. Arno Delport, Sales & Marketing Manager at Acacia Africa comments, Sir David Attenborough's latest project is compelling viewing for all ages, the production honing in on one animal family each week. This coming Sunday, the broadcaster and naturalist will follow a pack of painted dogs along the banks of the Zambezi and explore the rivalry between Tait the matriarch and her daughter Blacktip, the intense filming bound to influence more travellers to visit Zimbabwe. It's the reason people come to Africa, there's no filter on nature and the authentic safari experience is what draws people back to the continent time and time again." Acacia Africa is launching a 5-day Hwange & Victoria Falls Short Safaris & Trek, the itinerary focusing solely on Zimbabwe, with daily departures available from 02 January 2019. Highlights include, game drives and a guided visit to the Painted Dog Project in Hwange National Park, a tour of the Victoria Falls National Park and a Zambezi Sunset Cruise. From 1,230pp (two sharing) + Safari Pass from 60pp including transport, lodge based accommodation, all highlights, most meals and services of a tour leader/driver. Excludes return flight. Starts Victoria Falls - ends Victoria Falls. From eight years. Arno Delport comments, Record numbers of travellers visited the Victoria Falls back in May, and many people are now looking to sample the country as a stand-alone safari destination, perceptions of the country improving dramatically in 2018. A strong indicator of that change in perception is the increased interest we've received from families. Acacia Africa (020 7706 4700) SATSA membership No. 1931, Atta membership no. 20151, ATOL No. 6499 and ABTA No. W4093 PROTECTED. ### 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) HAMILTON Hamilton Township embraces environmentally friendly policies and has the credentials to prove it. During a Sustainable Jersey luncheon at the recent New Jersey League of Municipalities annual conference, Hamilton Mayor Kelly Yaede officially accepted an accolade bestowing the 40-square-mile township with the organizations bronze level certification. Sustainable Jersey is a nonprofit organization that recognizes participating municipalities that push the envelope in promoting good environmental practices. Municipalities must create a so-called green team and deliver on other environmental priority actions to qualify for a bronze certification. The township still has a ways to go to achieve silver-level certification the highest honor from Sustainable Jersey but Yaede expressed satisfaction with the township receiving the respectable bronze-level accolade. Sustainability and environmentally-friendly efforts are nothing new for our community, but this designation from Sustainable Jersey recognizes the many ways that we continue to protect our local environment, Yaede said Monday in a press statement. I also want to acknowledge, and to publicly thank, the dedicated volunteer members on our Environmental Commission who helped us complete our application that secured this honor. Hamilton Councilman Rick Tighe welcomed the good news. I am glad to see the mayor following the lead of 10 other municipalities in Mercer County who have achieved this level of certification, he said Tuesday in a statement. I look forward to working with the mayor and members of Council to continue to participate in such an important environmental program. Hamilton Township embraces energy efficiency measures at municipal facilities, has a natural resource protection ordinance and is a designated Tree City USA. G Parthasarathy G Parthasarathy former diplomat Ever since the assumption of power by President Trump and his advocacy of a radically new American approach to global policies, chanceries across Europe, Africa and Asia have appeared bewildered about how to deal with the US. Trump has shocked the European allies by threatening a relook at the Trans-Atlantic cooperation, unless European governments contributed more to NATO. He has imposed higher tariffs on selected European exports. In brief, he has replaced American advocacy of globalisation by the America First doctrine. He rejected a global approach to climate change and appeared to be more comfortable dealing with authoritarian strongmen than with liberal democrats, like Frances Macron and Germanys Merkel. Europe itself appears to be headed towards becoming more insular, as UKs Brexit indicates. In Asia, Trump has dealt harshly with Chinas mercantilist trade policies by imposing what could become destabilising tariffs on Chinese exports. Even staunch ally Japan has felt the impact of new American tariffs on its exports. Trump has also withdrawn American participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which aimed to link the US with several Asian economies, in a vast Free Trade Area. India has also felt the heavy hand of Trumps trade policies. New Delhi is now having bilateral negotiations with the US to deal with the challenges it is facing from the Trump administration. Russia is facing the prospect of stringent US sanctions on its exports of petroleum products and arms. Moscow has a partnership with China, despite mutual distrust. Its partnership with China to balance US power does not, however, materially affect Russias close ties with India. Amidst all this volatility in global power equations, Indias most important partner, across its Indian Ocean neighbourhood in the past decade, is Japan. Tokyo has now set aside the serious differences in the years following the 1998 nuclear tests. It has overcome domestic opposition to promote nuclear energy cooperation with India. Both India and Japan have been challenged by Chinese territorial claims and ambitions, together with Chinas quest to become a hegemonic power in Asia. India and Japan are closely cooperating on their relationship with China, including on measures to see that tensions with China do not get out of control. PM Modi and President Xi had met for seven hours over two days at Wuhan in April. They decided that they would issue strategic guidance to their respective militaries to strengthen communication to build trust and understanding, to implement various confidence-building measures, which have already been agreed upon, by the two sides. This meeting led to both militaries taking more measures to avoid tensions across disputed borders, like the prolonged standoff at Doklam. Likewise, PM Abe and President Xi focused on avoiding actions that could escalate tensions across disputed maritime boundaries in the East China Sea, during Abes visit to Beijing in October. China and Japan also agreed to cooperate on maritime rescue missions, to set up a military hotline and commence dialogue between their militaries. There has thus been a measure of congruence in the approach of India and Japan to maintain peace across their respective land and maritime boundaries with China. Japan, unlike India, has significant financial and technological resources to play a major role in developmental projects in Indo-Pacific countries. India is, therefore, working in close cooperation with Japan on economic development projects across the Indian Ocean Region to ensure that countries in the region do not become overly dependent on China. While India has gone ahead with processing defence deals with Russia, Abe has also shown a degree of readiness to settle disputes with Russia over four islands seized by Russia during WWII. In 1956, Japan and the Soviet Union agreed that two of these islands, Habomai and Shikotan, would be returned to Japan something which did not happen because of continuing Cold War rivalries. China has also been bending backwards to cultivate leaders and parties. In Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, China is supporting parties inimical to India. The large amounts of money that China poured in to finance projects patronised by the discredited and authoritarian government of President Abdulla Yameen in the Maldives and the efforts Beijing made to support him for re-election are widely acknowledged. China also rushed to welcome Rajapakse as Sri Lankan PM, immediately after his appointment. This was even before he obtained parliamentary approval, which eventually was not forthcoming. China has alienated significant sections of people in Sri Lanka by this clumsy action. On the other hand, Western powers led by the US and Japan have expressed unhappiness at the hasty removal of the Wickremesinghe government and even froze economic assistance to Sri Lanka. Worried about walking into a debt trap, Myanmar recently cut the size of Chinese investment in the strategic Kyaukpyu port. Economists in Pakistan now openly express unhappiness at what they see as Chinese exploitation in CPEC. Malaysia has rejected Chinese offers of aid for a massive railroad project. Similar sentiments are now being voiced about Chinese aid across Africa and Central Asia. There are indications that the US and the EU will not be averse to taking on China on its debt-trap diplomacy by offering investments on more acceptable terms. This is an opportunity for India to work with Japan, the US and the EU to develop structures for multilateral investments in Asia and Africa to secure military and economic advantage in countries across the Indian Ocean. amansharma@tribunemail.com New Delhi, November 28 The Central Pollution Control Board has come out with a list of nearly six lakh diesel and petrol vehicles that are over 10-year-old and will not be allowed to ply in Haryana. The list gives details of the registration mark series, name of the authority and registration numbers of these vehicles plying in Haryana, including NCR cities of Gurgaon, Sonepat and Bahadurgarh. As many as 2,87,613 petrol vehicles that were older than 15 years have been listed while 3,07,453 diesel vehicles more than 10-years-old have also been named, the CPCB said on its website. In October, the Transport department issued a notice warning that petrol vehicles that are 15-year-old and 10-year-old diesel vehicles plying on the city roads in violation of the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal (NGT) orders will be impounded. In its 2015 order, the NGT had banned the plying of petrol vehicles older than 15 years and diesel vehicles older than 10 years in the national capital region (NCR). It also banned the parking of 15-year-old vehicles in any public area. The Supreme Court endorsed the NGT order and directed that such vehicles be impounded. Earlier, the CPCB has put a list of 3,30,947 diesel vehicles comprising buses, cars, motorcycles and even ambulances which were more than 10-year-old in Delhi that would not be allowed to ply. The pollution watchdog also named 36,73,147 petrol vehicles that were more than 15-year-old. Delhi NCR has been battling alarming levels of pollution for over a month, prompting authorities to take a number of steps to combat pollution. On Wednesday, the overall air quality index of Delhi was recorded at 323, the CPCB said. The Supreme Court-appointed Environment Pollution Control Board had time and again reiterated the need to combat pollution caused by petrol and diesel vehicles which causes 40 per cent of pollution in Delhi NCR. - PTI editorial@tribune.com Bijendra Ahlawat Tribune News Service Faridabad, November 28 In view of complaints of irregularities against a private company that has been hired to dispose of solid waste, the local Municipal Corporation has given it 45 days for improving its performance. The company, Ecogreen Green, a subsidiary of Singapore-listed CJE Group, faces termination of its contract. We served a showcause notice to the company recently. The matter was discussed in the General House meeting of the MC on Monday and it was decided to give 45 days to the company for improving its performance, said Mohammed Shayin, Commissioner, MC. On December 1 last year, Ecogreen Green was given the job of door-to-door collection of waste and disposing it to a waste plant at Bandhwari village. The city churns out 700 tonnes of waste daily. A few months ago, residents complained about the poor work and indiscriminate collection of user charges. In spite of serving notices on company officials, they failed to respond properly, he said, adding that in the House meeting, the company had assured the MC of pulling its socks up, as top . TeIts representatives said the MD and the CEO have been replaced. Ecogreen Energy then MD Rakesh Agarwal and CEO Ankit Agarwal had resigned recently after the showcause notice was issued. Companys Global CEO Charles Zhang, who has taken over as the new MD, has said in a statement that the company would resolve all problems soon. We promise that all issues will be managed to a cent per cent satisfaction within three months, Zhang was quoted in a press release issued by the company. amansharma@tribunemail.com Satya Prakash Tribune News Service New Delhi, November 28 The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Haryana government to disburse Rs 50 lakh to each person whose construction in Kant Enclave, Faridabad, in the Aravali Hills was ordered to be demolished by it for violation of environmental norms and court orders. A Bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur - which had on September 11 ordered the state government to demolish illegal construction that came up in Kant Enclave after August 18, 1992 and ordered compensation for adversely affected persons - said the amount should be disbursed by December 10. Haryana Additional Advocate General Anil Grover pointed out that the court had originally ordered that the burden of Rs 50 lakh compensation amount had to be equally shared by the state government and the builder and that the state can't be asked to pay the entire amount. Haryana Chief Secretary DS Dhesi - who was summoned by the court-appeared before the Bench. According to Haryana government, there were 1,617 plots in Kant Enclave and constructions were there only on 33 plots. Directing the state government to disburse the amount by December 10, the Bench said it would determine the amount to be paid by the builder on December 11, the next date of hearing. In its September 11 order, the top court had directed Haryana Chief Secretary to ensure compliance of its orders "in letter and spirit" by December 31, 2018. On Wednesday, those adversely affected by the demolition order sought time till April 2019 to vacate the land. Their counsel told the Bench that Rs 50 lakh was insufficient as they couldn't even buy two bedroom flats with Rs 50 lakh. They said they were all retired people who didn't have money to pay even rent. In its original order, the top court had directed the builder - R Kant & Co - to give full refund along with 18% annual interest to hundreds of persons who invested in land from date of investment. Applying "the polluter pays principle", it had ordered the builder to deposit Rs 5 crore in the Aravali Rehabilitation Fund within a month. "The rule of law seems to have broken down in Haryana," it had said terming the violations as "quite frightening". The Bench had given liberty to those not satisfied with compensation amount to claim damages from R Kant & Co and Haryana Town & Country Planning Department by filing civil suits. Out of 1,617 plots carved out by R. Kant & Co in Kant Enclave, conveyance deeds had been executed only in respect of 284 residential plots and three commercial plots. On the residential plots, only 33 houses had been constructed and it appeared that not one of them was a single-storey hutment. editorial@tribune.com Dipender Manta Tribune News Service Mandi, November 28 Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said that neighbouring country Pakistan was trying to destabilise India through its terrorist activity since long. Pakistan was providing shelter to terrorists on its soil but India was strong enough to deal with terrorism effectively. The Central minister was here to attend a BJP Panna Pramukh Sammelan held at Paddal Ground Mandi in Himachal Pradesh. Ever since the BJP took charge at the Centre, efforts were being made to eradicate Naxalism and terrorism from India. Earlier around 90 districts of India were affected with Naxalism, but within four and half years, we have reduced it up to nine districts, he said. The Central minister said the Union government was committed to wipe out terrorism and naxalism and it was adopting policy of zero tolerance against terrorism and anti-national activities. Within the next few years the Naxalism will be wiped out from India completely. India is dealing with terrorist activity sternly and armed forces have been asked if one bullet comes from the neighbouring side, then they should use adequate firepower to encounter the enemy. India always favours peace talks but our neigbour is not ready for it, he remarked. Addressing the BJP Panna Paramukh Sammelan, Rajnath Singh said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India was treading the path of progress. The economy was growing rapidly. Currently, it is sixth in the top 10 countries. Targeting the Congress president Rahul Gandhi, the Union Home Minister said that Congress was trying to get vote on the basis of cast and creed. During Congress regime corruption had increased manifold and poor people were made to suffer. Ever since the BJP came in to power at the Centre, the Narendra Modi-led government has taken several initiatives to benefit the common people. Although nationalisation of banks was done way back by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, it is Narendra Modi who ensured that everyone gets access to banks by opening over 35 crore bank accounts in the country, he added. The minister urged the BJP Panna Pramukhs to work hard at grassroots level to win the confidence of voters in favour of the BJP to ensure victory of party candidates in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur also urged the party workers to work hard during the next few months to ensure the victory of BJP candidates in all four Lok Sabha seats in the Lok Sabha elections next year to strengthen the hands of the Prime Minister. BJP state affairs incharge Managal Pandey, national general secretary Ram Lal, senior leaders Shanta Kumar, former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, Mandi MP Ramswaroop Sharma and state BJP president Satpal Singh Satti also spoke on the occasion. uttara@tribuneindia.com New Delhi, November 28 The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed a National Green Tribunal (NGT) direction allowing regularisation of unauthorised structures in Kasauli, a popular tourist destination in Himachal Pradesh, after paying environmental compensation. A Bench of justices MB Lokur, S Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta said that the October 5 direction of the NGT shall be stayed till further orders. It appears to us that direction number 5 (of the NGT) is not in consonance with the directions issued by this court from time to time in the matter. In these circumstances, until further orders the direction number 5 is stayed, the Bench said and posted the matter for hearing in second week of January 2019. The NGT, while hearing a matter related to unauthorised construction in Kasauli, had on October 5 passed a slew of directions, including regularisation of unauthorised structures after payment of environmental compensation. The direction number 5 in the order passed by NGT said: With respect to unauthorized structures where plans have been submitted and construction work with deviation have been completed prior to this judgment and the authorities consider it appropriate to regularize such structures beyond the sanctioned plan.... The same shall not be compounded or regularized without payment of environmental compensation at the rate of Rs.5,000 per sq. ft. for exclusive self-occupied residential buildings and Rs.10,000 per sq. ft. for commercial or residential-cum-commercial buildings. The green panel had said that the compensation amount collected should be utilised for development of environment of the area and should be kept in a separate account. At the outset, senior advocate P S Patwalia, appointed as amicus curiae to assist the court in the matter, said that the direction of the NGT virtually nullifies the decision of the apex court by regularizing unauthorized construction. He also said that the said direction has wide ramifications as it also nullifies the judgment of the Himachal Pradesh High Court. Referring to the status report filed by Himachal Pradesh Government, Patwalia said that an expert committee has said that there were problems of water facilities and Kasauli has already exceeded its carrying capacity. Advocate General Ashok Sharma, appearing for the state government, said that they already have a scheme for water supply in and around Kasuali. The Bench then posted the matter to second week of January. On October 25, the state government had told the apex court that departmental action has been initiated against erring public servants who were posted in Kasauli when unauthorised constructions happened there. The state government had said that preliminary inquiry has been initiated against public servants, who were found to be negligent in performing their duties, and show cause notices were also issued to them. It had informed the court that demolition of unauthorised constructions at several hotels and resorts in Kasauli has also been done and the state was proceeding in accordance with the law for curbing such instances in future. The state had also told the court that illegal constructions would be sealed for one year and if requisite permissions and regularisation are not taken within this period, the unauthorised structures would be demolished. The court had then made it clear that unauthorised floor of a building cannot be regularised. Earlier the state government had informed the court about the status of a case in which on May 1, Assistant Town and Country Planner Shail Bala Sharma, who had gone to supervise the demolition of unauthorised construction at Kasaulis Narayani Guest House, was shot dead allegedly by the owner of the building. The state had said that the accused was in judicial custody. The court had earlier taken cognisance of the Kasauli incident in which Sharma was killed, terming it as very unfortunate and observed that it had happened due to non-implementation of the law. PTI editorial@tribune.com New Delhi, November 28 The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed a National Green Tribunal (NGT) direction allowing the regularisation of unauthorised structures in Kasauli, a popular tourist destination in the state, after paying environmental compensation. A Bench of Justices MB Lokur, S Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta said the October 5 direction of the NGT should be stayed till further orders. It appears to us that direction number 5 (of the NGT) is not in consonance with the directions issued by this court from time to time in the matter. In these circumstances, until further orders the direction number 5 is stayed, the Bench said and posted the matter for hearing in the second week of January next year. The NGT, while hearing a matter related to unauthorised constructions in Kasauli, had on October 5 passed a slew of directions, including the regularisation of unauthorised structures after the payment of environmental compensation. The direction number 5 in the order passed by the NGT said, With respect to unauthorised structures where plans have been submitted and construction work with deviation have been completed prior to this judgment and the authorities consider it appropriate to regularise such structures beyond the sanctioned plan.... The same shall not be compounded or regularised without the payment of environmental compensation at the rate of Rs 5,000 per sq ft for exclusive self-occupied residential buildings and Rs 10,000 per sq ft for commercial or residential-cum-commercial buildings. The green panel had said the compensation amount should be utilised for the development of environment of the area and kept in a separate account. Senior advocate PS Patwalia, appointed as amicus curiae to assist the court in the matter, said the direction of the NGT nullified the decision of the apex court by regularising illegal construction. He said the said direction had wide ramifications as it also nullified the judgment of the High Court. Advocate General Ashok Sharma, appearing for the state government, said they already had a scheme for water supply in and around Kasauli. The Bench then posted the matter to the second week of January. On October 25, the state government had told the apex court that departmental action had been initiated against erring public servants who were posted in Kasauli when unauthorised constructions happened there. PTI editorial@tribune.com Azhar Qadri Tribune News Service Srinagar, November 28 Pakistani militant Naveed Jatt, who was killed in a gunfight in Budgam district on Wednesday, was the face of the Lashkar-e-Toiba in Kashmir and also a key suspect in the killing of prominent journalist Shujaat Bukhari. Affiliated with Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jatt was one of the longest-surviving militant of the group even as he was in police custody for four years before making an escape in February this year. Jatt, who operated under code name Abu Hanzalla, had emerged as the face of the Lashkar-e-Toiba in recent months as he was only high-profile Pakistani origin militant of the group based in south Kashmir. He was suspected by the police to be one of the three gunmen involved in the killing of Shujaat, an editor of a local English newspaper who was shot dead outside his office here in June this year. He (Jatt) was the prime suspect (in Bukharis killing). Had be been caught alive, we would have got more leads, Director General of Police Dilbag Singh told reporters. Police sources said Jatt had infiltrated into the Kashmir valley in 2012 and was immediately put under the command of the Lashkar-e-Toibas then divisional commander Abu Qasim. Initially, Jatt remained active in north Kashmirs Kupwara district before shifting base to south Kashmir where he was arrested from a hideout in Kulgam district in June 2014. After his arrest, the police had said Jatt had confessed to his meeting with Mumbai attacker Ajmal Kasab at the militant groups training camp. Jatt, charged under the attempt to murder and the Arms Act, was initially lodged in the Kathua jail and was shifted to Srinagar Central Jail in 2017. While in detention, Jatt escaped from police custody when he was being taken to a hospital here in February this year. Two policemen who were escorting him to the hospital were shot. Immediately after his escape, Jatt had appeared in pictures with militants operating in south Kashmir, including with a local commander of Hizbul Mujahideen. The module which was instrumental in helping and providing logistics for Jatts escape was immediately busted by the police and several suspects were arrested. Jatt was last seen in a video he shot of himself during early weeks of this month when the Valley received a rare autumnal snowfall. In the video, he speaks about snowfall as he walks in a jungle area somewhere in south Kashmir. During the last nine months, during which security forces carried out a series of high-profile counter-insurgency operations in south Kashmir, Jatt moved around the districts of Kulgam, Shopian and Pulwama and was frequently seen at funerals of other slain militants. rchopra@tribunemail.com Tribune News Service Srinagar, November 28 Two militants, including a senior commander of Lashkar-e-Toiba, Naveed Jatt, were killed in a gunfight in central Kashmirs Budgam district as security forces continue to hammer militant groups with back-to-back counter-insurgency operations. A senior police official said two militants were killed in the gunfight which erupted on Wednesday morning when security forces cordoned off a village in Budgam district where militants were suspected to be hiding. Arms and ammunition have been recovered from the site of the gunfight. The police identified one of the slain militants as Jatt, a senior commander of Lashkar-e-Toiba, who infiltrated into the Kashmir Valley in 2012. Jatt was arrested from a hideout in south Kashmirs Kulgam district in June 2014 but later escaped from custody in February this year when he was being taken to a hospital in Srinagar for medical check-up. Jatt, who operated under the codename Abu Hanzalla, was a key suspect in the assassination of prominent journalist Shujaat Bukhari, who was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on July 14 outside his office in the city here. The killing of Jatt is a significant blow to the Lashkar-e-Toiba which has lost several of its senior commanders in south Kashmir in recent weeks as security forces have launched a series of back-to-back counter-insurgency operations. monicakchauhan@gmail.com Srinagar, November 28 Lashkar-e-Taiba militant Naveed Jatt, who was killed in an encounter on Wednesday, was a Pakistani national, Director General of Police Dilbagh Singh said, adding that they will write to the Union Home ministry to inform Islamabad to take his body. Jatt, who was wanted in connection with the assassination of journalist Shujaat Bukhari and had escaped from custody in February, was killed in an encounter in central Kashmir's Budgam district Wednesday morning. "We'll be writing to the ministry of home affairs to informing Pakistan to take the body," Singh told PTI. He said Naveed Jatt, a Lashkar-e-Taiba militant, had managed to give them the slip in six different encounters but the forces finally managed to pin him down on Wednesday. PTI editorial@tribune.com Dinesh Manhotra Tribune News Service Jammu, November 28 With the decision of the Indian and Pakistan governments to open the Kartarpur corridor, the demand for opening traditional trade routes on the International Border (IB), plugged after the Partition, has gained momentum. Traders and industrialists in the Jammu region have decided to intensify the stir for the opening of the historical Sialkot-Suchetgarh route to start business with Pakistan to boost the economy of the region. The decision of the two governments to open the Kartarpur corridor is a welcome step and it has given a ray of hope to people of Jammu that traditional routes of the IB will also be opened in the coming days, said Rakesh Gupta, president, Chamber of Commerce and Industries (CCI), Jammu, maintaining, Traders and industrialists of the region would be benefitted only if the Sialkot-Suchetgarh route will be opened for trade. Before 1947, the Sialkot-Suchetgarh road was one of the busiest trade routes in the region and there was a train service between Jammu to Sialkot to carry goods and passengers. From Suchetgarh village, which is about 30 km from Jammu city, Sialkot town of Pakistan is just 11 km. Similarly, Lahore is situated 142 km away from Suchetgarh village of Jammu. People of Jammu have cultural similarities with residents of Sialkot and many divided families live on both sides of the IB, Gupta pointed out and said the opening of the route would boost the social, economical and cultural relations between the two neighbouring nations. Many products from Jammu are exported to Pakistan via Dubai. By opening this route, traders of both India and Pakistan would be benefitted, Gupta said. There is no custom duty on the cross-LoC trade, but the list of business is confined only to a few items, he said. If the Suchetgarh-Sialkot route opens on the pattern of the Wagah border, traders from Jammu can do a direct business with their counterparts in Pakistan, he said. Terming the decision of the Pakistan and Indian governments as historic, Surinder Choudhary, senior PDP leader, reiterated the demand for opening more trading points on the IB and the LoC. There is no logic in keeping the Suchetgarh-Sialkot route closed when the Indian and Pakistan governments have decided to open the Kartarpur corridor, he said. Other traditional trade routes such as Jhangar-Mirpur-Kotli in Rajouri and the Skardu-Kargil routes in Kargil should also be opened for business and crossing, he said. The opening of traditional routes on the IB and the LoC will boost tourism in the state in general and the Jammu region in particular, he said. Ladakh too roots for it In a conference held at Kargil, people from all walks of life demanded opening of the Kargil-Skardu and Turtuk-Khapolu routes in the Ladakh region. During the event, it was revealed that there were more than 12,000 divided families living in the Ladakh region. vinaymishra188@gmail.com Pulkit Samrat is known for his passion for food and fitness. The actor now plans to open an eatery in Sri Lanka. Pulkit says, It was simple maths to combine both my passions. People think nutritious fare isnt tasty and thats what we are going to focus on delectable food thats wholesome to the core. We are applying a healthy twist to various platters from our day-to-day lives. We are experimenting with healthy starch-less risottos as well as rajma chawal, butter-less butter chicken and the likes. Pulkit, who was last seen in Fukrey Returns, plans to open this eatery towards the mid of 2019. The actor, who is an animal lover, also plans to donate a portion of the profits to elephant conservation. Ive been shooting with an elephant for my film, Haathi Mere Saathi. During the shoot, I got to know of the various problems they face, he adds. vinaymishra188@gmail.com Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas wedding festivities have begun. A puja was held at Priyankas residence on November 28 before the family took off to Jodhpur. The pre-wedding festivities will begin from today with mehndi and sangeet. Reportedly, Nick and Priyanka will be dancing together during their Sangeet and have rehearsed for the same with choreographer Ganesh Hegde. Now, the latest we hear is that Hollywood star Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock will be attending Nick and Priyankas wedding. Dwayne is a close friend to both PeeCee and Nick. He had earlier said that he was responsible for bringing Priyanka and Nick together. Dwayne has even done movies with both of them. He was Priyankas co-star in Baywatch and with Jonas he has worked in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. Meanwhile, reports suggest that not many celebs from B-town have been invited for the wedding as the couple wants to keep it a private affair. Once the wedding is done, Priyanka has planned for two receptions. One will be in Delhi and the other in Mumbai for her industry friends. However, dates for these are not out yet. monicakchauhan@gmail.com Naveen Garewal Tribune News Service Khammam/Hyderabad, November 28 Once bitter rivals, Congress President Rahul Gandhi and TDP leader and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday shared the dais at their first public meeting here to campaign for 'People's Front' candidates in Telangana's Assembly elections. This is the first time two top leaders of the Congress and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) shared the stage at an election rally since they agreed to work together to form an alliance of non-BJP parties at the national level. In a dramatic shift of TDP's stand towards the Congress, Naidu met Rahul Gandhi this month and they agreed to bury the past and work together to unite opposition parties. The two parties along with the Communist Party of India (CPI) and Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) have formed 'People's Front'. CPI leader S. Sudhakar Reddy, TJS leader M. Kodandaram, former Maoist ideologue and revolutionary balladeer Madiga Reservation Porata Samithi (MRPS) leader Manda Krishna Madiga also shared the dais with Gandhi and Chandrababu Naidu. Congress party's Telangana unit President Uttam Kumar Reddy termed the meeting "historic". However, political observers feel that this could harm the Congress more than it would help as Naidus TDP was against the formation of Telangana state in 2014. In a dramatic shift of TDP's stand towards Congress, Naidu met Rahul Gandhi this month and they agreed to bury the past and work together to unite opposition parties. The Congress is leading the 'grand alliance' in Telangana, which includes the TDP, Communist Party of India (CPI) and Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS). TDP's Telangana unit chief L Ramna and leaders of CPI and TJS shared dais with UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi at a public meeting at Medchal near Hyderabad on Friday. Elections to the 119-member Telangana Assembly are scheduled to be held on December 7. The Congress is contesting 94 seats while TDP has fielded candidates in 13 constituencies. The remaining seats are being contested by CPI and TJS. With IANS rchopra@tribunemail.com Mumbai, November 28 A 12-year-old girl died after she collapsed on stage during a dance competition in suburban Kandivli in Mumbai, police said on Wednesday. Manisha Sharma collapsed in the middle of a performance on Tuesday night, a Kandivli police station official said. She was rushed to a suburban hospital where doctors declared her dead on arrival, he said. The cause of her death would be known after postmortem, the official said. Sharma was a student of Class 7. A case of accidental death had been registered, the official added. PTI rchopra@tribunemail.com New Delhi, November 28 The voter turnout in Mizoram on Wednesday saw a significant dip whereas it went up in Madhya Pradesh, according to the Election Commission. Mizoram recorded 75 per cent voter turnout which was 83.41 per cent in 2013. In the 2008 assembly polls, it was 82.35 per cent, the poll panel said. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the turnout was 61.06 per cent. The EC said in Madhya Pradesh, a record 75 per cent voters turned up at polling stations to exercise their franchise. In 2013, the polling percentage was 72.13 per cent. In Madhya Pradesh, as many as 2,899 candidates, including 1,094 independents, are in the fray for 230 seats, but the main contest is between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The state has 5.04 crore eligible voters. Around 3,00,782 government employees, including 45,904 women, were on poll duty and 65,341 polling stations were set up. Polling was held in all 40 assembly seats in the northeast state. The state had an electorate of 7,70,395, which included 3,94,897 female voters. There were 209 candidates, 15 of them women, in the fray. Of the 1,179 polling booths, 47 were classified critical and as many as vulnerable by the Election Commission. In Mizoram, around 55 per cent of Bru voters in the six relief camps in Tripura came here Wednesday and exercised their franchise at the 15 special polling booths created for them after public outrage over their place of voting. There was an apprehension that voter turnout of Bru refugees would be very less as some of their leaders were initially reluctant to come to Mizoram and were demanding the earlier system of exercising their franchise at the relief camps. PTI amansharma@tribunemail.com Shiv Kumar Tribune News Service Mumbai, November 28 Adani Electricity, the power utility of Gujarat-based industrialist Gautam Adani which took over the Mumbai operations of Anil Ambani's Reliance Energy, is under fire from consumers after a sudden surge in electricity bills. Photo-copies of power bills posted by consumers on social media showed tariffs doubling in some cases in just a few months' time. Since Adani Electricity is now a major power supplier in Mumbai's suburbs, political parties have latched on to the issue. Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena was the first off the block by putting up posters in different parts of Mumbai. The Congress was quick to follow with its Mumbai unit chief Sanjay Nirupam warning of protests if the tariffs were not rolled back. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi's friend Gautam Adani is now here to loot the people of Mumbai," a banner put up by the Congress in different parts of the city read. Adani Electricity has, however, denied that it has raised tariffs. "There has been an undue perception created around Adani Electricity billing by a senior political party leader through various platforms," the company said. Adani went on to say that the power tariffs were decided by the power regulator MERC after a following due process. The company went on to say that bills for the month of September witnessed an increase as its representatives could not read meters in some neighbourhoods due to an agitation by its employees. It further added that higher bills for the month of October because it was one of the hottest months because of which consumers may have had to use air-conditioning. Anil Ambani's Reliance Energy had sold its Mumbai power business to the Adani group for Rs 18,800 crores in cash and other assets in December last year. rchopra@tribunemail.com Satya Prakash Tribune News Service New Delhi, November 28 The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered a CBI probe into 16 more shelter homes abuse cases in Bihar following allegations that the state police was going soft on the accused. The Muzaffarpur shelter home abuse case is already being investigated by the CBI. A three-judge Bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur--which had on Tuesday pulled up the state police for filing soft FIRs in most of these cases--rejected the Nitish Kumar governments request for more time to satisfy it about the progress made in the investigations into these cases. Initially, the CBI said it couldnt take over probe into 16 additional shelter home abuse cases in view of the top courts order in Alok Vermas case restraining the interim CBI chief from taking major policy decisions. But the agency relented after the Bench clarified that it wouldnt apply to the court orders. The Bench--which also included Justice S Abdul Nazeer and Justice Deepak Gupta--ordered that the CBI officers probing these cases couldnt be changed without the top courts permission. The top court had on Tuesday pulled up Bihar Police for their failure to file correct FIRs under stringent provisions of law in shelter home abuse cases and given them 24 hours to add charges under Section 377 (sodomy) of the IPC and the POCSO Act in the FIRs. If we find that there were offences under Section 377 of the IPC and the POCSO Act and you did not register the FIRs we would pass order against the state government, the Bench had said. The petitioner had on Tuesday informed the court that the staff of the shelter home were involved in sexual abuse and physical violence and Bihar Police had been soft on the accused. The offences fell under Section 377 of the IPC and POCSO Act but the state police registered cases under minor charges, the petitioners counsel alleged. 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 the 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 the matter would be looked into with great seriousness. This is seriousness? Every time I read this file, its tragic, the court said. The Muzaffarpur shelter home abuse case which came to light in July was 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 a 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 Vijay Mohan Tribune News Service Chandigarh, November 28 American defence major Boeing is expected to commence the delivery of CH-47 Chinook heavy-lift helicopter to the Indian Air Force in February next year, it is learnt. The helicopters would be shipped to India in a partially disassembled state and would be off-loaded at Okhla port in Gujarat, an IAF officer said. The Americans are setting up facilities near Okhla to re-assemble and test-fly the helicopters before being handed over to the IAF, he added. After acceptance trials, the helicopters will be flown to Chandigarh, which would be their permanent base. Two hangars and a maintenance bay along with associated technical and logistics facilities are to be set up here for the purpose. India had signed a deal with the US in September 2015 for 15 Chinook helicopters, with an option for another four machines, and 22 AH-64 Apache attack helicopters that would be based elsewhere. The fact that the new machines are arriving by sea indicates that the entire fleet would be delivered in one or two consignments, an officer said. The other option was to have the choppers airlifted in heavy freighters like the AN-124, which would have taken multiple sorties spread over days or weeks, he added. The first Chinook airframe manufactured for the IAF made its inaugural flight in the US in July this year. Last month, a team of IAF personnel comprising four pilots and four engineers proceeded to Delaware in the US for conversion training on Chinooks. Chinooks have a payload capacity of about 10 tonne and will provide much-needed fillip to the IAF heavy-lift capability, a role earlier being fulfilled by Soviet origin Mi-26s, also based at Chandigarh. The IAF had four Mi-26, but now is left with just one serviceable machine. Chinooks will lift artillery, vehicles, road construction and engineer equipment as well as troops and supplies to mountainous sectors in North and North-East. Chandigarh is no stranger to Chinook. Three of them belonging to British Royal Air Force had been airlifted here from the UK for onward journey to Nepal for flood relief operations in 2015. After being re-assembled and test-flown, these spent a few days here before being recalled home. 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 monicakchauhan@gmail.com New Delhi, November 28 A 26-year-old man allegedly committed suicide after slitting the throat of his live-in partner in south Delhi's Chhatarpur as he suspected her of infidelity. The deceased man has been identified as Avishek Mondal, police said. A suicide note was found from the spot in which the man mentioned that he suspected his partner of infidelity and was possessive about her. He had also scribbled on walls and mirror about his doubting the woman, a senior police officer said. On Monday evening, a call was received from a woman that the door of her flat on the first floor in Suman colony in Chhatarpur Extension was locked from inside, he said. The caller, Parboni, told the police that she shared the flat with her friend, the officer said. A team of the Mehrauli Police reached the spot. The front door of the flat was broken and a woman was found lying in a pool of blood and Mondal was found hanging from the ceiling fan, Vijay Kumar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (south) said. Both of them were shifted to a hospital where the doctor declared them brought dead, he said. The body of the girl has been handed over to the family members after postmortem, police said. Police said the deceased and Parboni were old friends and hailed from West Bengal. The flat was taken on rent by the three of them a few months ago. The man, a digital marketing executive, was in live-in relationship with the 23-year-old graphic designer. There were frequent quarrels between the two recently, they said. A few weeks before the incident, police learnt, the couple had a fight following which the man moved out of the house. On the day of the incident, Mondal had come back in the morning on the pretext of collecting his belongings, the officer said. Three teams from the Forensic Science Laboratory inspected the crime scene on Monday night and the weapon of offence (knife) was also recovered from the spot. On Tuesday, the teams again visited the spot to inspect a laptop and mobile phones of the deceased. Police said further investigation was underway. PTI uttara@tribuneindia.com Chennai, November 28 The DMK Wednesday called a meeting of its allies and friendly parties here on Thursday to deliberate on the issue of Central Water Commission (CWC) allowing Karnataka to prepare a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the construction of a reservoir at Mekedatu across the Cauvery. A day after DMK president MK Stalin slammed the Centre for the nod, the main opposition party said that the meeting would be held at its party headquarters on Thursday, where it is expected to chalk out a political strategy on the issue. The CWC had recently given its go-ahead to Karnataka for preparing a DPR for a proposed balancing reservoir-cum-drinking water project at Mekedatu. Calling the DMK's initiative a "political drama", Tamil Nadu BJP President Tamilisai Soundararajan said the nod for preparing the DPR did not mean permission for construction of the dam. "The Karnataka government was given permission for preparing the DPR, which is the first step for any project request that a state puts forth," she told reporters here. The DMK is an ally of Congress, which is part of a coalition government in Karnataka. Instead of taking up the issue with them directly, DMK's multi-party meeting on this looks like an eye-wash... a political drama," she said, adding that the saffron party also stood opposed to the project. Stalin had hit out at the AIADMK government as well for what he called the incumbent regime's "negligent" attitude that resulted in the Centre's permission to Karnataka. The leader of the opposition in the assembly had wanted Tamil Nadu government to approach the Supreme Court to obtain a stay for the Centre's permission and Karnataka's efforts for a dam. On Tuesday, Chief Minister K Palaniswami had urged the Centre to withdraw its permission to Karnataka for preparing a DPR for the dam project. Reacting to the Tamil Nadu government's demand, Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy had asserted that the project has to come into effect. PTI rchopra@tribunemail.com New Delhi, November 28 A 92-year-old man was found dead at his residence in southeast Delhis Badarpur on Wednesday, police said, suspecting the role of a domestic help behind the incident. The nonagenarian used to live with his wife, son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren, police said. Police said they suspected the domestic help to be behind the killing as he is absconding. A manhunt had been launched to trace the domestic help, police said, adding further investigation is under way. PTI uttara@tribuneindia.com New Delhi, November 28 The Delhi High Court on Wednesday allowed Central Bureau of Investigation Director Alok Kumar Verma and Joint Director AK Sharma to inspect in the Chief Vigilance Commissioner's office the case file relating to FIR against the agency's Special Director Rakesh Asthana. Justice Najmi Waziri also extended till December 7 its order directing the CBI to maintain status quo regarding proceedings against Asthana, who has sought quashing of the FIR against him in a bribery case. The court permitted Verma to inspect the case file, stated to be in the custody of Central Vigilance Commission, on Thursday at 4:30 pm in the CVC's office where CBI's Superintendent of Police Satish Dagar will be present at the time of inspection. The case files and documents have been sent to the CVC for scrutiny following the Supreme Court's order directing the vigilance body to inquire against Verma. The high court's order came after the counsel for Verma and Sharma orally submitted that they be allowed to inspect the file to "refresh" their memories as there are allegations of mala fide against them in Asthana's petition. Sharma has been asked to go to CVC's office to inspect the case record on Friday. During the hearing, the court allowed the plea of Sharma's counsel that he be allowed to placed in a sealed cover certain incriminating material to maintain the sanctity of the institution. Advocate MA Niyazi, representing Sharma, said the documents are not personal and they are also with the CBI but he just wanted to point out the sensitive material which should be looked into by the court and the agency. The court directed that the documents given by Sharma be kept in sealed cover till further orders. Senior advocates Amrendra Sharan and Dayan Krishnan, appearing for Asthana and CBI Deputy SP Devender Kumar respectively, said Sharma should give the material to the CBI and if reliance is placed on the documents given by him in the court, they should also be allowed to go through the material. The court also granted a week's time to Verma to file his response to the petitions of Asthana and Kumar seeking quashing of FIR against them. Advocate Rahul Sharma, appearing for Verma, said there are allegations of mala fide against him in Asthana's petition and he needs to rebut the averments but did not having access to the case file. CBI's counsel Rajdipa Behura said the case file was not in the possession of the agency and they were with the CVC. Asthana's counsel submitted that the Supreme Court had given in sealed cover the CVC's findings of the probe against Verma on corruption allegations to the CBI chief. To this, Verma's counsel said he was not given the entire case file. The court was hearing separate pleas of Asthana, Kumar and middleman Manoj Prasad seeking quashing of the FIR against them. The high court on October 23 had ordered the CBI to maintain status quo on proceedings against Asthana which was further extended on October 29 till November 1. On November 1, the interim order was extended till November 14 and then to November 28. The October 23 order had made it clear that the agency would not take any coercive step against Asthana. On November 1, both CBI and Asthana had opposed the plea of Additional Superintendent of Police SS Gurm, who has been transferred from Delhi to Jabalpur in the wake of a feud between Verma and Asthana, to be heard in the matter. The CBI in its reply to the pleas of Asthana and DSP Devender Kumar had said allegations against them and others show cognisable offences. Kumar is out on bail at present. The CBI had filed the replies in response to the notice issued to it on the petitions filed by Asthana and Kumar, who was granted bail by the trial court, against the filing of the case. The agency had said it was "handicapped" in its probe against them as the case files and documents have been sent to the CVC for scrutiny following the Supreme Court's order directing the vigilance body to inquire against Verma. Kumar, earlier the investigating officer in a case involving meat exporter Moin Qureshi, was arrested on the allegations of forgery in recording the statement of businessman Sathish Babu Sana who had alleged to have paid bribe to get relief in the case. Crucial SC hearing on Thursday Verma's plea challenging the government's order divesting him of his duties over graft allegations is listed for hearing at the Supreme Court on Thursday. A Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi is likely to consider the response of Verma given in a sealed cover on the findings of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) in the preliminary inquiry against him. The bench is also likely to consider the report of acting CBI Director M Nageswara Rao also filed in a sealed cover in the court with regard to the decisions taken by him from October 23-26. Besides the plea filed by Verma, the court is also likely to hear the PIL filed by NGO Common Cause, which has sought a probe by a special investigation team against CBI officers. PTI harinder@tribunemail.com Naveen S Garewal Tribune News Service Hyderabad, November 28 External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not travel to Pakistan for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit. When we receive an invite, we are not responding to it since Pakistan has not stopped terror activities on Indian soil. There will be no dialogue till Pakistan stops terrorist activity here and we will not participate in SAARC, Swaraj said. She snubbed Islamabad when asked why she did not go to Pakistan for the Kartarpur corridor stone-laying, saying there would be no dialogue till it stopped promoting terror against India. She, however, added that the corridor should not be linked to talks. I personally favour talks for resolution of any problem, but stopping of terrorist activity is a prerequisite. I went to Pakistan to extend a hand of friendship, but it responded with the Uri (attack on security forces) and Pathankot attacks. Terror and talks cannot go together, she asserted. The Foreign Minister said the Kartarpur corridor was a long-pending demand of the Sikhs that was taken up with Pakistan many times. But it was only now that Pakistan had responded positively. Swaraj took a dig at the Congress Government in Punjab, saying while Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh refused the invite by Pakistan (citing attack on Indian soldiers by Pakistan agencies), his junior minister Navjot Sidhu accepted the invitation. There is an inherent contradiction in the Congress stand on the issue. Pakistan Foreign Office Spokesman Mohammad Faisal had yesterday said PM Modi would be invited for the SAARC summit. India had pulled out of the 19th SAARC summit in Islamabad after the terrorist attack on the Uri Army camp in 2016. gspannu7@gmail.com New Delhi, November 28 Amid hectic election campaign home and diplomatic commitments abroad, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will clock hundreds of hours travelling in the next few days, official sources said on Wednesday. After visiting Singapore and Maldives during the Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh campaign, the prime minister Wednesday left for Argentina to attend the G20 summit, in the midst of campaigning for the Rajasthan and Telangana elections, they pointed out. From November 23, Modi has been on the campaign trail every day. Beginning with Mizoram on November 23, the prime minister has campaigned across Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Telangana in the last six days. Wednesday saw him address two election rallies in Rajasthan, in the course of a seven hour journey, involving both plane and chopper. Barely ninety minutes after landing in Delhi, the Prime Minister emplaned for Argentina, a functionary said. The journey from Delhi to Buenos Aires involves two legs of nearly 12 hour duration each, with a short technical halt in Cape Town, South Africa. The total travel time to Buenos Aires is 25 hours, and consequently, the to and fro trips will involve a combined journey time of nearly 50 hours. In between these two trips, the prime minister will be in Buenos Aires for just over 50 hours. This time period includes two nights. In the space of 50 hours, the prime minister has over 25 scheduled engagements. These include the various sessions of the G20 summit, sideline meetings including the BRICS informal meeting, and bilateral meetings with various world leaders. Modi will return to India in the wee hours of December 3 only to take off again within 12 hours to resume his political campaigning in Rajasthan and Telangana for the next two days. On December 3, he will campaign in Jodhpur and Hyderabad. PTI monicakchauhan@gmail.com Kochi, November 28 Activist Rehana Fathima, who had attempted to enter the Ayyappa temple in Sabarimala when it opened for monthly puja last month, was arrested Tuesday for allegedly hurting religious sentiments through her Facebook posts, police said. Fathima (32) was arrested from office in Palarivattom in Kochi, they said. The activist, a BSNL employee, was booked by police in Pathanamthitta on a complaint by Radhakrishna Menon, alleging that some of her Facebook posts hurt religious sentiments. She was booked under IPC Section 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs). She was later taken to Pathanamathitta after her arrest, police said. Meanwhile, a BSNL spokesperson said Fathima was suspended from service in view of the police investigation against her. Considering the protest against her by devotees of Lord Ayyappa and BJP activists, the BSNL had earlier transferred her to the Palarivattom telephone exchange in the city where public contact is not required. A controversy had erupted in Kerala after Fathima made an attempt to enter the Sabarimala temple when it was opened for monthly puja in October following the Supreme Court order allowing entry of women in the age group of 10-50. Anticipating arrest, she had moved the high court seeking anticipatory bail, but it was rejected. Dismissing the plea, the court had directed that police could take appropriate steps in the case. Fathima, who was also part of the 'Kiss of Love' movement in Kochi in 2014 against alleged moral policing, was among the two women who had reached the hilltop on October 19 but had to return before reaching the sanctum sanctorum due to massive protests by Ayyappa devotees. Fathima and Hyderabad-based journalist Kavitha were taken to the hills under heavy police protection. Some young women who tried to enter the temple were targeted by devotees when the temple was opened for six days on October 17 for the first time after the apex court order. On September 28, the Supreme court had lifted the centuries-old ban on the entry of women of menstrual age into the shrine, but a section of devotees is protesting the decision. PTI rchopra@tribunemail.com Washington, November 28 US President Donald Trump will hold a trilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe this week on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Argentina, the White House has said. The trilateral, which would be an expansion of the bilateral meeting between Trump and Abe, is part of the series of meetings Trump would have on the sidelines of the summit in Buenos Aires on November 30 and December 1. 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 Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Briefing reporters ahead of the G-20 Summit, US National Security Adviser John Bolton said on Tuesday that Trump would meet Abe, and then the two leaders would jointly meet Modi. 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. The President will meet President Putin and have a working dinner with President Xi, he said. Modi will also meet Chinese President Xi on the sidelines of the summit. It will be their fourth meeting in last seven months. Modi will also meet UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres; Mauricio Macri, the President of Argentina; Chilean President Sebastian Pinera; and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He will also meet the prime ministers of Spain, Jamaica and the Netherlands and the president of the European Union and European Council. PTI editorial@tribune.com Smita Sharma Tribune News Service New Delhi, November 28 Amid the euphoria of Kartarpur corridors ground-breaking ceremony by Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, India has dismissed his remarks on Kashmir. New Delhi underlined that the corridor opening was a religious issue and must not be given an overarching political context. It is deeply regrettable that the Pakistan PM chose to politicise the pious occasion meant to realise the long-pending demand of Sikhs by making unwarranted reference to J&K, which is an integral and inalienable part of India, said MEA spokesman Raveesh Kumar. During the ceremony in Kartarpur in the presence of his army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, Indian representatives Hardeep Puri, Harsimrat Badal and Punjab Minister Navjot Sidhu, Imran Khan brought up the Kashmir bogey. The only issue between us is Kashmir. All it needs is just two capable leaderships to resolve this issue. Just imagine the potential we have if our relationship gets strong, he said. Pakistan is reminded that it must fulfil its international obligations and take effective action to stop providing shelter and support to cross-border terrorism from territories under its control, Raveesh Kumar said. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in Hyderabad rejected a fresh offer from Pakistan to invite PM Narendra Modi for the SAARC summit to be hosted by Islamabad. Citing the 2016 Uri terror strikes, India reiterated that there was no change in its stated position of talks and terror cannot go together. Its a step towards peace. Barbed wire at borders is a measure by a sovereign state to check illegal crossings. Corridors and gates are for legal peaceful visitors. So is the case for all our neighbours, said the Pakistan army chief. monicakchauhan@gmail.com Amritsar/Chandigarh, November 28 Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri, who represented the Indian government at the groundbreaking ceremony of the Kartarpur corridor in Pakistan, said on Wednesday the corridor was anchored in hope and goodwill but there is need to be conscious of ground realities. Puri, along with Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, crossed over to the neighbouring country through Attari-Wagah land route in Amritsar to attend the ceremony. Puri, the Union Minister of State (independent charge) of Housing and Urban Affairs, told reporters at Attari in Amritsar district before crossing to Pakistan that the long pending demand of the Sikh community has been met. Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan is located across the river Ravi, about four kilometres from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine. 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. The Kartarpur Corridor, which will facilitate the visa-free travel of Indian Sikh pilgrims to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, is expected to be completed within six months. "It is a historic day. Speaking on my own behalf, I regard myself as particularly privileged and blessed to be able to make this pilgrimage. Paying obeisance at the Gurdwara Sahib holds special significance in the life of every Sikh. Not only did the Guru Nanak spent 18 years of his life there, it is his resting place also," he told reporters. Puri, a former diplomat, thanked the Pakistan government for its decision to build the corridor on its side. He said, "This decision is anchored in hope and goodwill, but we have to be acutely conscious of the ground realities. The ground realities are that the two countries, on account of a lot of factors and I don't want to enter into any political discussion here, because of several factors there is distrust, we have felt for very long that we have been at the receiving end of actions of a country, of a state, which should not have allowed certain forces on their territory. But I don't want to touch upon those". Asked if the decision to develop the Kartarpur corridor would mean breaking of ice between the two nations, he said, "You have to be aware of the ground realities. You have to be aware of mistrust which exists. But as the prime minister said, now whether we are able to transform this into something meaningful in terms of people to people contact and breaking of the ice and taking it further, that is something we will have to work on". Expressing hope, he said there is an opportunity here that the demand of the Sikh community has been met, but "we need to operationalise the decision and operationalising the decision, making the corridor operative and to take this process further will require actions by all the stakeholders". He said, "Let us take one step at a time, I don't want to jump the gun. I think we must allow the goodwill, which is the essence of teachings of the guru. I think he was half a century ahead of his time. The kind of teachings he has given, if those teachings can be invoked to resolve our problems, it would be a very proud day for me as a Sikh". On with what hope he was going to Pakistan, Puri said, "I am going with full hope. I am not leading a bilateral discussion, but yes I have been nominated along with Harsimrat Kaur ji to represent the Government of India in this". "We should welcome the fact that both the governments are committed to building the infrastructure on the respective sides of the border. In fact, when I was attending the function at Dera Baba Nanak (Gurdaspur, for foundation stone laying event of Kartarpur corridor on the Indian side), Union minister Nitin Gadkari said that he is hopeful that the corridor (on Indian side) would be completed in four months," Puri said. Puri refuted claims that the Government of India had set the date of November 26 as foundation stone laying function of the Kartarpur corridor only after the Pakistan dispensation announced the date of its groundbreaking ceremony. "Let me place on record that we were doing preparations several months earlier." Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, while talking to reporters at Attari, said it was an emotional moment for her and described as historic the decision to build the Kartarpur corridor. "Today, I am getting to go to a place where the guru spent 18 years of his life. For me, this is an emotional moment, which has come through because of the prayers, millions like me have been saying for 70 years way before I was even born," she said. She expressed hope that millions more like her could now pay obeisance to the Sikh guru, who was there to unite mankind. PTI editorial@tribune.com Varinder Singh Tribune News Service Jalandhar, November 28 Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur Sahib (Pakistan) was reconstructed during the reign of the then Maharaja of Patiala Bhupinder Singh at a cost of Rs 1.35 lakh in the 1920s. As the gurdwara building was in a poor condition, the Maharaja had taken the initiative to rebuild the shrine in the town where Guru Nanak Dev spent the last years of his life. The Pakistani authorities have been displaying a glass case containing a shrapnel of a bomb in the shrines courtyard. A plaque next to it reads that the bomb was dropped by the Indian Air Force during the 1971 war. The shrine, the plaque says, was saved as the bomb had landed in the well on its premises. The Kartarpur corridor was earlier envisaged when Gen Pervez Musharraf was the President of Pakistan. A tender was floated, following which 50 per cent of the road for the corridor was constructed on the Pakistan side. The then Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh had offered a golden palanquin in 2005 after paying obeisance at the gurdwara. In 2017, a Parliamentary Committee led by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor had ruled out the construction of the corridor, citing security issues and India-Pakistan hostilities. Kartarpur Sahib is considered to be the oldest Sikh shrine in the world. Its foundation stone was laid in 1572. Maharaja Ranjit Singh had got its dome gold-plated, besides offering a palanquin. The existing structure, it is learnt, was raised by Lala Shayam Dass in 1911. editorial@tribune.com Our Legal Correspondent Ludhiana, November 28 Former DGP Sumedh Singh Saini today filed an application in a local court, requesting it to hear him before taking a decision on the closure report filed by the Vigilance Bureau in the City Centre case. The VB has already given the clean chit to Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and sought closure of the case. Taking the application on record, Sessions Judge Gurbir Singh asked the state government to file reply on December 7. Saini has sought permission to submit certain information in a sealed cover, which is sensitive for the kind perusal of the court. In his application filed through lawyer Ramandeep Sandhu, Saini has submitted that he headed the Vigilance Bureau from March 2007 to March 2012 as Director (IGP) and as Chief Director (ADGP). He was serving in the bureau at the time when FIR No. 05/2007 was registered in Ludhiana and when the final police report under Section 173(2) CrPC was submitted before the trial court on December 12, 2007. The former DGP submitted that notice be kindly issued to him to make his submissions in order to assist this court for a fair and just adjudication of the case. A contrary view has been taken after an inexplicable delay of 10 years by the VB. The view is contradictory not only to the FIR, but also to a report under Section 173(2) submitted after detailed investigation, he maintained. Ludhiana scam During Capt Amarinder Singhs previous tenure as CM, the City Centre project had been envisaged to develop a multiplex, mall, leisure parks and other commercial establishments with a rooftop helipad on 25 acres in Ludhiana. The Rs 1,144-crore scam had come to light in September 2006. The Vigilance probe had begun, but an FIR was registered in April 2007, after the Akali-BJP alliance came to power. Last year, the VB filed the closure report giving clean chit to the CM and other accused. editorial@tribune.com GS Paul Tribune News Service Amritsar, November 28 Union Ministers Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Singh Puri crossed the Attari-Wagah border to return to India after attending the groundbreaking ceremony of the Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib corridor in Narowal district of Pakistans Punjab today. The corridor will facilitate visa-free travel for Indian Sikh devotees. Harsimrat said it was an emotional moment for her. She brought parshad and handful of mitti (clay) from the place where Guru Nanak Dev spent the later years of his life. She also performed sewa at the holy place. We had no friends or relatives in Pakistan and were never invited by them. We only went to represent our country. I was fortunate to pay obeisance at this historic place for the first time only on the call given by Guru Nanak Dev, she said. She said she had firmly conveyed it to Pakistan that Kashmir would always be the integral part of India. I have told their (Pakistan) media very clearly that Kashmir is a part of India and will stay that way. There is no scope of negotiation on this, she said. Puri said the demand for Kartarpur corridor was raised during Vajpayees visit to Pakistan in 1999. He said former CM Parkash Singh Badal accompanied the delegation then and the issue was raised on an official note. The issue was discussed and passed in Parliament as a part of the Centres plan to celebrate 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev, he said. Meanwhile, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) chief Gobind Singh Longowal appeared ignored during the programme in Pakistan. The dais was not spared for him to speak. Even during the foundation stone laying ceremony, Harsimrat performed the rituals and sprinkled the Golden Temples holy water on the foundation, whereas Longowal stood behind her only to assist with the requisite articles. Similar treatment was meted out to him during the programme held at Dera Baba Nanak. If Berlin Wall can fall, so can mistrust If the Berlin Wall can fall, then the mistrust between two neighbourly countries, India and Pakistan, can also be removed through revisiting the message of peace and love spread by Guru Nanak We have been so close, but so far for 70 years Scores of Sikhs are on this journey for the first time today. I have no relatives here (in Pakistan). I never thought I would be here. Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Union Minister Goodwill gesture, but beware of reality This decision is anchored in hope and goodwill, but we have to be acutely conscious of the ground realities. We have to be aware of mistrust which exists because of several factors. We have felt for very long that we have been at the receiving end of actions of a country, of a state, which should not have allowed certain forces on their territory. Hardeep Singh Puri, Union Minister 2 capable leaders can resolve Kashmir The only issue between us is Kashmir. All it needs is just two capable leaderships to resolve this issue. Just imagine the potential we have if our relationship gets strong. Imran Khan, Pakistan Prime Minister Stop harbouring cross-border terror Pakistan is reminded that it must fulfil its international obligations and take effective and credible action to stop providing shelter and all kind of support to cross-border terrorism from territories under its control. Raveesh Kumar, MEA spokesman Corridor will open doors of hearts The blood-lettting should end, peace should return, mothers should not lose their sons. There has been a lot of bloodshed. I see this corridor as a big possibility. This is going to connect people, open doors of their hearts. It will establish contact. I am thankful to the Indian government and Prime Minister Imran Khan to establish the contact again. Navjot Singh Sidhu, Punjab Cabinet Minister We have requested the Pak govt to allot some land near Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur to build a 100-room inn to facilitate pilgrims. Manjit Singh GK, DSGMC Chief shriaya.dutta@tribuneindia.com San Francisco Google has said it will now power advertising for Disney's collection of brands and properties including Disney, ABC, ESPN, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars across multiple channels, including live streaming and direct-to-consumer content offerings. As part of a global strategic relationship with Google, Disney will bring its entire global digital video and display business onto Google Ad Manager, which will serve as its core ad technology platform, Philipp Schindler, Chief Business Officer at Google, said in a blog post. With the partnership, Disney will be able to serve video ads effortlessly on the web, in mobile apps, streaming through connected TVs and for live events, Schindler said. "Together, we plan to build an advanced video experience for Disney that will transcend devices, platforms, and living rooms to bring the magic of premium video content into people's hearts, minds, and screens everywhere," he added. Schindler said media companies are now reimagining the commercial break as TV is no longer a stationary box anchored to a corner in the living room. While people now expect the same content they love in the living room on every screen, advertisers want to deliver quality ad experiences that are relevant, seamless and measurable across screens, he added. IANS shriaya.dutta@tribuneindia.com New York Researchers have regrown hair strands on damaged skin by stirring crosstalk among skin cells that form the roots of hair. The findings by researchers at the New York University (NYU) School of Medicine in the US better explain why hair does not normally grow on wounded skin. The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, may help in the search for better drugs to restore hair growth. It examined the effect of distinct signalling pathways in damaged skin of laboratory mice. Experiments focused on cells called fibroblasts that secrete collagen, the structural protein most responsible for maintaining the shape and strength of skin and hair. Researchers activated the sonic hedgehog signalling pathway used by cells to communicate with each other. The pathway is known to be very active during the early stages of human growth in the womb, when hair follicles are formed, but is otherwise stalled in wounded skin in healthy adults. Researchers said this possibly explains why hair follicles fail to grow in skin replaced after injury or surgery. "Our results show that stimulating fibroblasts through the sonic hedgehog pathway can trigger hair growth not previously seen in wound healing," said Mayumi Ito, an associate professor at NYU. Regrowing hair on damaged skin is an unmet need in medicine, Ito said, because of the disfigurement suffered by thousands from trauma, burns, and other injuries. However, her more immediate goal, she said, is to signal mature skin to revert back to its embryonic state so that it can grow new hair follicles, not just on wounded skin, but also on people who have gone bald from ageing. Ito said scientists have until now assumed that, as part of the healing process, scarring and collagen buildup in damaged skin were behind its inability to regrow hair. "Now we know that it's a signalling issue in cells that are very active as we develop in the womb, but less so in mature skin cells as we age," she said. Key among the study's findings was that no signs of hair growth were observed in untreated skin, but were observed in treated skin, offering evidence that sonic hedgehog signalling was behind the hair growth, researchers said. To bypass the risk of tumours reported in other experiments that turned on the sonic hedgehog pathway, the team turned on only fibroblasts located just beneath the skin's surface where hair follicle roots (dermal papillae) first appear. Researchers also zeroed in on fibroblasts because the cells are known to help direct some of the biological processes involved in healing. Hair regrowth was observed within four weeks after skin wounding in all treated mice, with hair root and shaft structures starting to appear after nine weeks. PTI harinder@tribunemail.com The annual prize distribution of that highly popular institution, Dyal Singh High School, Lahore, over which Colonel W.T. Wright, Inspector of Schools, Lahore Division, presided was a successful function. The Honble Mr H.J. Maynard, Vice-Chancellor, also graced the occasion. The great popularity of the institution was indicated by the large and distinguished gathering of parents and guardians of boys of all classes and friends of education who mustered strong on the occasion. The programme was of varied character, but as befitting the great hour of victory the poems, songs and recitations all related to the topics uppermost in all minds, the devotion of Indian heroes and warriors to the cause of their King-Emperor. Colonel Wright expressed gratification at the work done by the energetic Headmaster, Lala Raghunath Sahai, BA, and his staff. laxmi@tribune.com Beijing, November 28 A truck carrying hazardous chemicals exploded outside a chemical plant in Chinas northern Hebei province on Wednesday, killing at least 22 persons and leaving as many injured. Its the second major industrial disaster in the country in the past four days. The blast occurred outside the Hebei Shenghua Chemical Industry in Zhangjiakou, Qiaodong district, around 12.40 am, igniting a fire that engulfed nearby vehicles, officials were quoted as saying by thepaper.cn, a Shanghai-based website. An industrial safety official, identified only as Wu, said one of the trucks lined up outside the plant to deliver chemicals had exploded, setting off a chain reaction that engulfed other trucks. Reports and images from the scene indicated that the explosion had set around 50 vehicles ablaze and sent a dark plume of smoke into the sky. The fire had now been contained and a search operation was underway. PTI monicakchauhan@gmail.com HONG KONG, November 28 A Chinese scientist at the centre of an ethical storm over what he claims are the world's first genetically edited babies said on Wednesday he is proud of his work and revealed there was a second "potential" pregnancy as part of the research. He Jiankui, an associate professor at Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China, addressed a packed hall of around 700 people attending the Human Genome Editing Summit at the University of Hong Kong. "For this case, I feel proud. I feel proudest," He said, when challenged by several peers at the conference. Asked whether there were any other edited gene pregnancies as part of his trials, He said there was another "potential" pregnancy and replied "yes" to a follow-up question as to whether it was a "chemical pregnancy", which refers to an early-stage miscarriage. It was unclear whether the pregnancy had ended or not. He, who said his work was self-funded, shrugged off concerns that the research was conducted in secrecy, explaining that he had engaged the scientific community over the past three years. "This study has been submitted to a scientific journal for review," He said. He did not name the journal and said his university was unaware of his study. In videos posted online this week, He said he used a gene-editing technology known as CRISPR-Cas9 to alter the embryonic genes of twin girls born this month. He said gene editing would help protect the girls from infection with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. But scientists and the Chinese government have denounced the work that He said he carried out, and a hospital linked to his research suggested its ethical approval had been forged. The conference moderator, Robin Lovell-Badge, said the summit organisers were unaware of the story until it broke this week. CRISPR-Cas9 is a technology that allows scientists to essentially cut and paste DNA, raising hope of genetic fixes for disease. However, there are concerns about safety and ethics. The Chinese Society for Cell Biology in a statement on Tuesday strongly condemned any application of gene editing on human embryos for reproductive purposes and said that it was against the law and medical ethics of China. More than 100 scientists, most in China, said in an open letter on Tuesday the use of CRISPR-Cas9 technology to edit the genes of human embryos was dangerous and unjustified. "Pandora's box has been opened," they said. Informed consent He, who said he was against gene enhancement, said eight couples were initially enrolled for his study while one dropped out. The criteria required the father to be HIV positive and the mother to be HIV negative. Scientists at the conference pressed He to prove that those taking part in the trial were aware of all the risks involved in the process. He said that all the participants had a "good education background" and went through two rounds of discussions with him and his team. A 23-page English translation of an informed consent form for the potential mother said that the costs of the procedure covered by the team would be up to 280,000 yuan ($40,200) per couple. The consent form mentions multiple risks, but there is little detail on potential complications of the gene-editing process itself, including for the child. It does not mention that such an experiment has never been done before. David Baltimore, President Emeritus and the Robert Andrews Millikan Professor of Biology at the California Institute of Technology, spoke after He's speech, saying it was irresponsible to have proceeded until safety issues were in order. "I don't think it has been a transparent process. Only found out about it after it happened and the children were born," Baltimore said. He Jiankui said his results could be used for millions of people with inherited diseases. He said he would monitor the two newborns for the next 18 years and hoped they would support continued monitoring thereafter. Shenzhen Harmonicare Medical Holdings Limited, named as being involved in He's project in China's clinical trial registry, sought to distance itself by stating the hospital never participated in any operations relating to the gene-edited babies and no related delivery had taken place. In a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Tuesday, the group said preliminary investigations indicated the signatures on the application form circulated on the internet are "suspected to have been forged, and no relevant meeting of the Medical Ethics Committee of the hospital in fact took place". The Guangdong province Health Commission announced on its website on Wednesday that it and Shenzhen city had set up a joint team to investigate the case. Reuters shriaya.dutta@tribuneindia.com San Francisco, November 28 A former Facebook employee on Tuesday went public with a memo saying the company is failing to include black people in its workforce and on the social network. Mark Luckie said that he shared the message with all Facebook employees around the world early this month, shortly before his final day as a strategic partner manager focused on underrepresented voices. "Facebook has a black people problem," Luckie, who is black, said in the memo. "Facebook's disenfranchisement of black people on the platform mirrors the marginalization of its black employees." The California-based social network did not respond to a request for comment. Luckie described black people as among the most engaged demographics on the social network, but maintained that their efforts to create safe havens for conversation on Facebook are being derailed by the platform. Content has been removed and accounts suspended after non-black people report content that doesn't violate Facebook policies as hate speech, according to Luckie. Black employees typically hear colleagues comment, "I didn't know black people worked at Facebook," he contended. He noted that black employees now represent four percent of Facebook's workforce as compared to two percent in 2016. "In some buildings, there are more 'Black Lives Matter' posters than there are actual black people," Luckie said. A Facebook diversity report released in July confirmed the four percent figure and pointed out that the percentage of black employees in business or sales roles grew to eight percent. "But we continue to have challenges recruiting Black and Hispanic employees in technical roles and senior leadership," chief diversity officer Maxine Williams said in the report. Luckie questioned whether the input of Facebook workers hired with an eye toward diversity was being incorporated into projects. He maintained that he had heard stories from other black employees who told of being called hostile or aggressive by colleagues or managers for sharing thoughts the way others do. "Too many black employees can recount stories of being aggressively accosted by campus security beyond what was necessary," Luckie said. "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." A man named Carl Smith replied to Luckie's post on Facebook, saying that his experience as a black man at the company was not universal. "Mr Luckie doesn't speak for all of us here. Ironically, Mark and I started at Facebook on the same day. I'm still here," Smith wrote. "In the office, I often wear pro black t-shirts, Colin Kaepernick Jerseys, or Black Lives Matter shirts to work and I feel completely comfortable doing so because I truly believe I can be my authentic self everyday that I come to work," he said. AFP amansharma@tribunemail.com Jakarta, November 28 A crashed Lion Air jet should have been grounded over a recurrent technical problem before its fatal journey, Indonesian authorities said on Wednesday, as details from the new jet's flight data recorder suggested that pilots struggled to control its anti-stalling system. The preliminary crash report from Indonesia's transport safety agency also took aim at the budget carrier's poor safety culture, but did not pinpoint a cause of the October 29 accident, which killed all 189 people on board. A final report is not likely to be filed until next year. The Boeing 737 MAX vanished from radar about 13 minutes after taking off from Jakarta, slamming into the Java Sea moments after pilots had asked to return to the capital. Investigators said Lion Air kept putting the plane back into service despite repeatedly failing to fix a problem with the airspeed indicator, including on its second-last flight from Bali to Jakarta. "The plane was no longer airworthy and it should not have kept flying," Nurcahyo Utomo, aviation head at the National Transport Safety Committee (NTSC), told reporters. Lion Air's contested the preliminary result and said it was going to seek a written clarification from the NTSC. "We think this statement is not true," President Director Edward Sirait said. "The plane from Denpasar (Bali) was released and it was said (to be) airworthy according to documents and what the technicians have done." "The plane was airworthy," he added. The safety committee's findings will heighten concerns there were problems with key systems in one of the world's newest and most advanced commercial passenger planes. "But we don't know yet whether it's a Boeing or airline issue," said aviation analyst Gerry Soejatman. Investigators have previously 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. The report confirmed that initial finding, saying the plane's data recorder detected an issue with the AoA. It also said the plane's "stick shaker"-which vibrates the aircraft's steering wheel-like control yoke to warn of a system malfunction-was "activated and continued for most of the fight". 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 doomed plane's flight data recorder showed that pilots had repeatedly tried to correct its nose from pointing down, possibly after erroneous data from AoA sensors was fed into a system that automatically adjusts some of its movements. Black box data showed the plane also had an airspeed indicator issue on multiple earlier flights, said investigators, who have yet to locate the cockpit voice recorder on the sea floor. Lion must take steps "to improve the safety culture" and bolster the quality of its flight logs, the transport agency said. "Airlines need to take paperwork seriously," Soejatman said. "That didn't cause the crash, but it can cause other problems in the environment they're working in." Despite a dubious safety record and an avalanche of complaints over shoddy service, the budget carrier's parent Lion Air Group has captured half the domestic market in less than 20 years of operation to become Southeast Asia's biggest airline. Indonesia's aviation safety record has improved since its airlines, including national carrier Garuda, were subject to years-long bans from US and European airspace for safety violations, although it has still recorded 40 fatal accidents over the past 15 years. The report stopped short of making any recommendations to Boeing but the US planemaker has come under fire for possible glitches on the 737 MAX-which entered service just last year. The APA, a US airline pilots' union, said 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. "I am really surprised if Boeing has not shared all the flight performance parameters with pilots, unions, and training organisations," University of Leeds aviation expert Stephen Wright told AFP, adding that "a deliberate omission would have serious legal ramifications". In response to Wednesday's report, Boeing said: "(The company) is taking every measure to fully understand all aspects of this accident, working closely with the US National Transportation Safety Board as technical advisors to support the NTSC as the investigation continues." Several relatives of the crash victims have already filed lawsuits against Boeing, including the family of a young doctor who was to have married his high school sweetheart this month. Authorities have called off the grim task of identifying victims of the crash, with 125 passengers officially recognised after testing on human remains that filled some 200 body bags. - AFP laxmi@tribune.com SINGAPORE: A section of stairs from the Eiffel Tower sold for almost 170,000 euros, auctioneers announced, around three times the pre-sale estimate. More than two dozen wrought-iron steps from the original spiral structure, from between the second and third floors of the Paris landmark, were sold to a Middle East collector. The stairs, which stand 4.3 metres high, date from 1889 when the legendary French engineer Gustave Eiffel built the 324-metre edifice. AFP Billionaire to spend $72 m on journalism institute Sydney: A billionaire philanthropist has vowed to spend at least AU$100 million (US$72 million) to create a journalism institute committed to the pursuit of truth. Judith Neilson said the institute would celebrate and encourage quality journalism in Australia and the world at a time of massive change and challenges for the news media. Journalism doesnt just need critics, it needs champions people and institutions with the resources to help educate, encourage and connect journalists and their audience in pursuit of excellence, she said. AFP Mexico top honour for Trump son-in-law Mexico city: Mexicos outgoing government said it would bestow the countrys top honour for foreigners on Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trumps son-in-law, a decision quickly met with derision by critics on social media. Kushner, who also serves as a senior White House adviser, will be admitted to the Order of the Aztec Eagle because of "his significant contributions" to a new North American trade pact agreed to in August, the government said. Reuters Remembering Gandhi Washington: Indias Ambassador to the US Navtej Sarna speaks during the 150th birth anniversary celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi in Washington on Tuesday. The Indian Embassy organised the event in association with over Indian-American organisations. Speakers, including Congressmen, talked of Gandhis influence around the world. PTI uttara@tribuneindia.com Tribune Web Desk Chandigarh, November 28 A viral video of a Syrian refugee boy being bullied and assaulted at a school in Huddersfield has lead to an outpouring of both condemnation and donations. A crowdfunding page set up soon after the clip went viral has managed to collect more than 30,000 pounds for the boy. The clip shows some boys follow the 15-year-old boy who already has a hand in a cast, drag him and pin him to the ground, and forcing water into his mouth while saying: Ill drown you. Huddersfield Police said the attacker, a 16-year-old of the same school, has been charged with assault. The incident comes in the light of already growing hate crimes in the UK. laxmi@tribune.com Moscow, November 28 Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday accused Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko of orchestrating a naval provocation in the Black Sea at the weekend in order to boost his flagging popularity ratings before an election next year. Russia seized three Ukrainian naval vessels and their crews on Sunday over what it said was their illegal entry into Russian waters, something Ukraine denies. The episode has raised fears in the West of a wider conflict between the two countries and Kiev has since introduced martial law in parts of the country, saying it fears a possible Russian invasion. Some of Ukraine's Western allies have raised the possibility of imposing new sanctions on Russia over the incident, which could deliver a blow to the Russian economy. In his first public comments on the incident, Putin said the Ukrainian vessels had clearly been in the wrong, dismissed the incident as a minor border issue, and accused Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko of having orchestrated the mini crisis in order to boost his dire ratings. It was without doubt a provocation, Putin told a financial forum in Moscow. "It was organised by the President ahead of the elections. The president is in fifth place ratings-wise and therefore had to do something. It was used as a pretext to introduce martial law." Ukraine was successfully using the episode to sell anti-Russian sentiment and the West was ready to forgive Ukrainian politicians their shortcomings because it bought into the narrative Kiev was promoting, said Putin. The Russian leader was speaking after Moscow said it would send more of its advanced S-400 surface-to-air missile systems to Crimea, the Ukrainian region it annexed in 2014, and a Reuters reporter saw a Russian warship deploying nearby as tensions with Ukraine rose. Fallout from the episode risks derailing a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Putin at a G20 summit in Argentina this week. On Tuesday, Trump said he might cancel the meeting, but Putin said on Wednesday he still hoped to meet Trump. Reuters Martial law comes into effect in Kiev 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. 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. What happened to us is worse than Section 34. For the last two to three years we have been Hi, First time to Australia from California. Would love to know if I can drive from Brisbane airport/area to Cairns area and how long /exciting is that ride? We will have a car so are down for any fun stuff (w/in a reasonable distance). Also, I heard it may not be the safest thing to swim in beaches at that time? True? or how high is the possibility of getting bit the jellies? If no beach swimming, where in that region can I swim besides a pool? Is it safe to snorkel then? or enjoy the GBR? Any recommendations on Fun activities for adults/ teenagers (train ride to forest, waterfalls, site seeing? We would love to experience Australia and the people, no need for fancy stuff, malls, etc. There's plenty of that here in Silicon Valley. Any advice is helpful and welcomed. Thanks! Either of the above will work, but with only one night in Halls Gap, you will feel rushed. Ballarat is a good option for a third night. Agree with Sweetbiscuit - Sovereign Hill is brilliant, and as a local I spend a lot of time there. Enough to do to fill 2 whole days. Your ticket covers entry for 2 days as well, so you can visit for a couple of hours in the afternoon when you arrive, and spend the whole of the following day there. Long Island is 120 miles from one end to the other. Perhaps you mean "Long Island City" a neighborhood at its western end with many hotels. And, for the record, the hotels near Central Park are mostly in Midtown. Every hotel on the island of Manhattan has a close-by subway station. I vote for the area east of the Empire State Building, where hotels are reasonable (often under $200) and in a very pleasant residential and business neighborhood. These hotels are Park Avenue South or Lexington Avenue in the 20s and 30s (street numbers). Also Long Island City is even less, often $130; be sure it gets good reviews, be sure it's within 1/3 mile of the subway; don't expect much in the neighborhood itself, just a place to go back to at night. And it's definitely safe; just ask all the Europeans walking with you to the hotels. Finally, remember there is a 14.5% tax on rooms. Edited: 2 years ago Most airlines want you to be there two hours before a domestic flight. The transit route from your hotel to JFK is pretty straightforward - E train from Queens Plaza and transfer to the Airtrain at Sutphin / Archer (Jamaica) I'd allow an hour because it's a bit before rush hour and trains won't be as frequent (and do check for repair work as mentioned above) You can always have breakfast at the airport Subway map If you don't want to drag luggage up/down stairs at Queens Plaza the elevator for that station is on the south side of the intersection and your hotel is on the north side. (Be aware it is busy with traffic 24/7 so be careful if you walk across the intersection. You can exit/enter the station on the north side right by your hotel if you don't mind stairs) Edited: 2 years ago Hello CR fans! We are a family of three, traveling with a pretty "seasoned" 13 year old, who already backpacked through Bolivia and Peru. We will arrive in CR on Dec 9, 2019 and depart on Dec 18. No rental vehicle, using mostly public transport and hostels, etc. We will be glad to put your favourite soda on our list of places to eat at. Please see our itinerary and questions below. Any tips are welcome and much appreciated: Day 1 - arrive in Liberia after a day of sightseeing and a night in Casco Viejo, Panama City. - Public bus from Liberia airport to Liberia and 2 nights at a local hostel Day 2 - visit Tio Leo Coffee farm and perhaps one of the nearby beaches. Is it worth visiting i.e. Playa Panama, Hermosa or Coco if we are going to spend 5 days at Playa Conchal later in the week? Day 3 - visit Rincon de la Vieja. What's the best way to get there from Liberia? Also, we need to be back in Liberia by 2-3pm in order to catch a bus toward Aguas Claras - Afternoon bus from Liberia to Guayabal and stay 2 nights in a treehouse. Day 4 - hike Miravailles Day 5 - return to Liberia in AM and catch a bus to Tamarindo via Huacas, grocery shopping, catch a cab and transfer to our next destination near Playa Conchal. How difficult wil it be to find a cab from Huacas to Playa Conchal? Day 6,7,8,9 - discover the area (Brasilito, night turtle watching at Las Baulas). What else would you recommend we see? Day 10 - morning transfer to Liberia and fly back home. Again, please keep in mind that we won't have a car. Thanks for your help. -:- Message from Tripadvisor staff -:- This topic has been closed to new posts due to inactivity. We hope you'll join the conversation by posting to an open topic or starting a new one. To review the Tripadvisor Forums Posting Guidelines, please follow this link: http://www.tripadvisor.com/pages/forums_posting_guidelines.html We remove posts that do not follow our posting guidelines, and we reserve the right to remove any post for any reason. We as investigators would appeal to the public to identify the drivers or the owners of those motor vehicles. We know people would have been coming back from the beaches or generally going about their business but we believe these drivers may hold information which is vital to keep the investigation moving forward. We may be able to jog their memory and generate more conversations and more information. The list of vehicles includes trucks, cars, motorbikes and even a bus. They were all driving south on the highway between 5.02pm and 5.07pm on Sunday, the 21st of October. Detective Inspector Smith wouldnt elaborate on why police had set such a narrow time period. This is a period of time where we havent been able to speak to the drivers of those motor vehicles. We know those 70 vehicles were on the highway at that time, was all she would tell reporters. The investigator did, however, confirm the offenders car may be among those shown. We cant rule that out," Sonia Smith said. Its possible that if the offender traveled south from Wangetti that they may have traveled through this area." Anyone who recognises the vehicles is asked to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. Each vehicle in the video is numbered and people are asked to quote that reference number when they call. The last police appeal, calling for anyone whod seen anything suspicious in the Lake Placid or Caravonica areas, or whod been approached by strange men at any far north Queensland beach, has resulted in 280 calls to Crime Stoppers. The police searches at Lake Placid and Caravonica have now concluded. - The funds were sourced from China Electric Power Equipment and Technology Company - The project will include construction of transmission lines and sub-stations - Construction of the diesel-powered SGR linking Nairobi and Mombasa cost about KSh 324 billion -The first loan was borrowed from China's Exim Bank in 2014 and is yet to be paid back The government's plan to transform the KSh 324 billion Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) into an electric rail is now in top gear after Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco) secured KSh 25 billion needed for the upgrade. The National Environment Management Authority (Nema) on Monday, November 26, confirmed it had received a proposal from Ketraco seeking environmental approval to set in motion the process of electrifying the railroad. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Kenya to spend another KSh 380 billion Chinese loan on construction of Naivasha-Kisumu SGR Transforming the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) from diesel-powered to electricity-powered is expected to cost KSh 25 billion. The project would take 28 months. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Transport CS Macharia reveals Standard Gauge Railway suffered KSh 10 billion loss in 2017/18 FY TUKO.co.ke on Tuesday established Nema was already collecting public views regarding the multi-billion project that could see Kenya join the league of African countries like Ethiopia and Egypt which already have electric railway. 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, Nema said as quoted by the Standard. The first phase of the Standard Guage Railway (SGR) linking Nairobi and Mombasa cost Kenya an estimated KSh 324 billion.This was a loan from China's Exim Bank. Source: Twitter READ ALSO: Yes, it costs KSh 1 billion every month to run Standard Gauge Railway - DP Ruto The proposed project, Nema noted, will cut across five counties namely Kilifi, Kwale, Taita Taveta, Makueni and Machakos. Once the environmental body gives a nod after conducting an environmental assessment, Ketraco will be free to proceed with construction of the transmission lines and sub-stations. China Electric Power Equipment and Technology Company Limited (CET) had signed a deal with the Kenyan government to provide the KSh 25 billion needed for the SGR upgrade project. READ ALSO: Senator Mutula Kilonzo Junior warns alleged ticketing scam at SGR is adding insult to injury The project is expected to spur growth of factories, businesses and urban centres along the railway line. The design of the SGR allows for addition of a single electric line that will be connected to Ketracos 482 kilometre 400kV Mombasa-Nairobi transmission line, Ketraco said. The project was initially opposed by a section of government officials who argued there was neither enough electricity nor money for it. Transport CS James Macharia in May 2018 told Parliament there was no enough electricity supply in the country to power the SGR. We would require at least 80%t guaranteed supply to consider upgrading SGR to an electric railway, he said then. READ ALSO: Why Standard Gauge Railway Is A Grand Corruption Scheme Kenya currently generates about 2,700 megawatts against national demand of about 1,800 megawatts according to data from the Ministry of Energy. This, TUKO.co.ke understands, includes supply from the recently launched Lake Turkana Wind Power and Garissa Solar Power Plant. The power needed to electrify the 472 kilometre SGR is estimated at more than 1,000 megawatts. 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 - On Tuko TV Source: Tuko - The recruit collapsed during a routine running exercise mandatory during such recruitments - He was rushed to a nearby hospital where he passed on - The KDF recruitment started on Monday, November 19, and is expected to end on Wednesday, December 19 A 23-year-old Kenya Defense Forces recruit died on Tuesday, November 27, in Malindi, Kilifi County, after collapsing on the field during a run. TUKO.co.ke learnt the deceased collapsed at the Alaskan grounds where the recruitment was ongoing and was rushed to Tawfiq Hospital where he passed on. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens. READ ALSO: Ex- TV presenter Anto Neo Soul sparks controversy after simulating sex with fan The sad incident was confirmed by KDF Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Nzioka, one of the top honchos who oversaw the recruitment process. READ ALSO: Ex- TV presenter Anto Neo Soul sparks controversy after simulating sex with fan The KDF recruit died at a nearby hospital. Photo: UGC Source: UGC READ ALSO: Otile Brown flaunts new lady days after Vera Sidika said he's poor in bed He revealed his officers performed first aid to the victim in vain, hence the decision to rush him to Tawfiq Hospital. Our doctors offered first aid and rushed him to Tawfiq as his condition worsened. Unfortunately, the young man passed away upon arriving at the hospital. Nzioka said. The incident was confirmed by a KDF Lieutenant. Photo: UGC Source: UGC However he urged recruits who aim to join the army to ensure that they have sufficient training before exercise to venture into the work of the army. READ ALSO: 16 photos of news anchor Ben Kitili and cute Muslim wife which prove cross-religious marriages work If your aiming at joining forces try and get well prepared, take a lot of practice to avoid such scenario, he said. More than 400 young men turned out in large number for the exercise as lieutenant Nzoki said there will not be taking female recruits in Malindi. The body of the deceased was taken to Star Mortuary. The countrywide KDF recruitment started on Monday, November 19, and is expected to end on Wednesday, December 19. Additional reporting: Onesmus Baraka - Malindi 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 News - His lawyers claimed they had just been informed he had been transfered to Kamiti Maximum Prison - They argued there were issues which had been raised by Irungu regarding torture at the prison - The prosecution said it would investigate the matter and report back to the court - The court also demanded he be admitted at KNH where he is supposed to have a surgery on his arm Embattled TV news anchor Jacque Maribe's lover Joseph Irungu alias Jowie claims he is being tortured at Kamiti Maximum Prison. Irungu, the main suspect in the Monica Kimani murder case, made the allegations as his defence team told the court that they have been informed of his transfer to the prison. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Jacque Maribes detained lover Joseph Irungu claims to have been denied access to KNH Irungu made the allegations as his defence team told the court that they have been informed of his transfer to the Prison. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Boni Khalwale clashes with governor Oparanya's son on Twitter According to the defence team, Irungu is being mistreated and has not been given medical attention for his gunshot wound. We are also told that he was transferred to Kamiti and there are issues that have been raised by Jowi in regards to torture, the lawyers said. In regard to the claims of torture, Prosecutor Catherine Mwaniki said her office would investigate and report back their findings to the court. READ ALSO: Murang'a governor registers new party as Uhuru's succession race hots up Prosecutor Catherine Mwaniki said her office would investigate the torture claims and report back their findings. Source: UGC Irungu's lawyers also indicated that they would make an application for review of bond terms and file an affidavit on the same. The team had earlier filed an application to have Justice Wakiaga recuse himself after he called the accused a woman eater but later withdrew it. TUKO.co.ke earlier reported Irungu also claimed he had been denied access to Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) after he was denied bail. READ ALSO: Two tough punishments that await Nakuru man caught on camera clobbering police officers Jowies lawyers also indicated that they would make an application for review of bond terms Source: Twitter "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. Justice James Wakiaga who Irungu 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. 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 - The MPs claimed the Uhuru-led government has overborrowed and underperformed - They were also of the view Rotich should not have been appointed Treasury boss - The lawmakers were reacting to government's plan to borrow KSh 92 billion additional loans - Kenya's public debt staggered at KSh 5.1 trillion as of November 2018 - The public debt could hit KSh 7 trillion by 2022 when Uhuru's term comes to an end A section of Jubilee party MPs have voiced concerns over the rising national debt after reports emerged the government had secured more loans from foreign lenders. The lawmakers took a swipe at the National Treasury Cabinet Secretary, Henry Rotich, whom they blamed for the burgeoning public debt which stood at KSh 5.1 trillion as of November 2018. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Picha 5 za bintiye marehemu nyota wa Reggae - Lucky Dube - ambaye pia ni mwimbaji mahiri Nominated senator, Isaac Mwaura, said it was wrong to appoint Henry Rotich as the Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury. In his view, Rotich has failed and therefore should be sacked. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Government plans to secure KSh 92 billion additional loans Appearing on Citizen TV on Wednesday, November 28, nominated senator Isaac Mwaura said the President Uhuru Kenyatta-led administration had borrowed too much compared to retired president Mwai Kibaki's government. "When Kibaki left office, we were raising 96% of our revenue and borrowing only 4%, but at the moment, the country is borrowing much more," Mwaura said. The National Treasury has tabled a new 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: Cost of living to go up following introduction of 8% VAT on petroleum products - CBK report The senator was of the view that Rotich contributed to the alarming rise of public debt that the country is struggling with. Mwaura's sentiments were echoed by nominated MP David Ole Sankok who added Uhuru was performing poorly in the finance sector. "I feel the president is underperforming in the finance sector because of the over-borrowing. What is happening at the moment is like borrowing from KCB to pay a loan we have at National Bank. We need to have our priorities right," he said. READ ALSO: Fuel prices will go up but not to KSh 130 per litre - Energy Regulatory Commission TUKO.co.ke understands the two politicians were reacting to a report tabled in Parliament by the exchequer seeking to borrow an additional KSh 92 billion foreign loans, a move that would push the current national debt further upwards. The Treasury indicated in its report that the government had signed a number of deals with foreign lenders to borrow more funds for various projects. 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-Wajir Road. Additionally, the Treasury secured another loan of KSh 3 billion with the African Development Bank (ADB). The exchequer said the loan from the ADB would go towards training youth on better agricultural skills. The biggest of all the new loans 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 loans would be repayable within a period of between 25 to 30 years. Kenyan's national debt is expected to hit KSh 7 trillion by 2022 when Uhuru'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 to over KSh 5 trillion in 2018. Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news. Small Business Ideas for Kenyans With Low Investment - On Tuko TV Source: Tuko.co.ke - Murkomen alleged Kutuny was wanted in US over alleged connection with a drug trafficking syndicate - Kutuny neither admitted nor denied the allegations and simply termed them diversionary tactics - The two were engaged in fiery exchange on live TV over the maize scandal when the FBI probe claims came up - The FBI had listed several prominent Kenyan linked to drug trafficking but names were concealed - The report came after two Akasha brothers, Bakhtash and Ibrahim, pleaded guilty to six drug trafficking charges before a US court - A vocal Rift Valley MP was named to be among those who dealt with the Akasha brothers in the illegal trade Elgeyo Marakwet senator, Kipchumba Murkomen, has alleged Cherangani MP, Joshua Kutuny, could be one of the high profile Kenyan politicians under the radar of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) over drug trafficking. Murkoment strongly suggested the vocal MP was also being investigated by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) over alleged links with the Akasha brothers who are facing trial in the United States after they pleaded guilty to drug trafficking. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Vocal Rift Valley MP added to list of drug trafficking suspects wanted by FBI Elgeyo Marakwet senator, Kipchumba Murkomen, on Tuesday, November 27, alleged Cherangani Member of Parliament, Joshua Kutuny, was under the radar of the FBI and CIA over drug-trafficking. Source: UGC READ ALSO: List of prominent Kenyan personalities on radar of FBI for drug trafficking Appearing on Citizen TV on Tuesday, November 27, the senator went as far as challenging the legislator to prove him wrong or sue him for defamation if he was lying about the FBI and CIA investigations. "I think when the news become public, this nation will know those who have been diversifying. When we are telling farmers to diversify to farm other forms of crops, you would realise that some people have been selling other pharmaceuticals in quotes...in the name of diversifying and making money," Murkomen alleged when asked why he said Kutuny was in trouble. READ ALSO: Ruto sends a warning to druglords and women in Kilifi In reaction to the senator's allegations, the Cherangani lawmaker declined to either deny or confirm he was indeed under any investigation for the alleged 'pharmaceuticals' business. "He (Murkomen) is the one saying...because they are in a corner. They want to hang on everything. I don't want to respond because they introduced even the ICC the other day," he said. The MP termed the allegations as propaganda and tactics meant to divert attention from issues affecting maize farmers and which formed the basis of the Tuesday TV debate. READ ALSO: Kenya's public debt to increase by KSh 2 trillion in next 4 years As was earlier reported by TUKO.co.ke, a number of prominent Kenyan who allegedly colluded with the Akasha family to peddle narcotics, were being investigated by the FBI. The federal bureau is reportedly pursuing 15 high profile Kenyans among them a vocal Rift Valley MP whose name remained concealed. Those found culpable would be extradited to the US to face charges alongside the Akasha brothers, Bakhtash and Ibrahim. READ ALSO: Emgwen MP Alex Kosgey working on Bill seeking to tame government's borrowing appetite The suspects include a Cabinet secretary, two judges, two magistrates, a prosecutor, two serving governors from coast and North Eastern and a former governor from Central Kenya. The list also comprises a former Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister, senior police investigator, serving MP from Mt Kenya, former North Eastern MP, prominent Nairobi businessman and a Mombasa rights activist. Out of the 15 suspects, 10 are perceived as most culpable, having allegedly received bribes and shielded the Akasha family to keep their business alive. Murkomen appeared to suggest Kutuny was the outspoken Rift Valley MP wanted by the FBI to face charges in the US over drug trafficking. 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 - On Tuko TV Source: Tuko Breaking News TV girl Jacque Maribe's lover Joseph Irungu alias Jowie has had his fair share of ups and downs ever since he was named as the main murder suspect following the brutal killing of businesswoman Monica Nyawira Kimani. However, on Tuesday, November 27, it was as clear as day he was not fighting this battle alone after his fiance's mother decided to give him a shoulder to lean on. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: TV anchor Ahmed Bhalo weds sweetheart in colourful Islamic wedding READ ALSO: Picha 5 za bintiye marehemu nyota wa Reggae - Lucky Dube - ambaye pia ni mwimbaji mahiri In a touching photo seen by TUKO.co.ke, Irungu was spotted clutching on Maribe's mum's hands like a little scared child. The TV presenter's mother was receptive and comforted the embattled murder suspect like he was her child. READ ALSO: 17 extremely odd reasons most women use pregnancies to trap men The TV girl just gazed at the pair with her eyes spelling pity and some sort of sadness maybe because she was once in the suspect's position. Her fiance's face appeared to be desperately craving for some love and support as he walked away from the court hearing. The chap was presented to court after claiming that ever since he was arrested in September, 25 2018, he had been living 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 suspect's defence team said. Irungu was denied access to Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) where he was expected to undergo an operation. The suspect through his legal team also argued he was in great pain and required urgent medical attention after claiming he was tortured on numerous occasions back in Kamiti Maximum prison. "Our client has been denied admission at KNH . The family had paid KSh 20,000 for admission as advised by a physician," his lawyers stated. 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. Boyfriend tells girlfriend she is fat and needs to lose some weight| Tuko TV Source: Tuko.co.ke - According to Mukami's granddaughter, her security personnel was recalled back to Nairobi a week ago - Her driver was also asked to abandon the post about a year ago under unclear circumstances - The family is now worried over her security as the widow is scheduled to meet 400 other freedom fighters at her home - Nyandarua county commissioner, however, denied Mukamis security at home was withdrawn The family of late freedom fighter Dedan Kimathis widow has protested following the withdrawal of her security detail. According to the family of Mukami Kimathi, two bodyguards were withdrawn and recalled to Nairobi a week ago leaving the widow without any security. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Bomet police officer nursing injuries after bodaboda rider ran over her Mukami's driver was first disarmed and asked to abandon the post about a year ago under unclear circumstances. Source: Twitter READ ALSO: Touching photo of Jacque Maribe's mum comforting murder suspect Jowie in court emerges Taking to Facebook to air her complaints, Evelyn Kimathi, Mukamis granddaughter and family spokesperson said their grandmother mother, 88, is frustrated. She claimed the withdrawal of her security detail comes days ahead of a planned three day meeting with former freedom fighters at her home. Our mother is now stressed and does not know why her security had been withdrawn at this particular time when freedom fighters plan to meet at her residence over the weekend, said Evelyne. READ ALSO: Controversial Jubilee MP ordered to pay driver KSh 40,000 monthly after firing him "The weekend meeting is not a political meeting as some people perceive. We only want to settle the landless former freedom fighters on a land that we have identified in Laikipia, she added. According to Evelyne, Mukami's driver was first disarmed and asked to abandon the post about a year ago under unclear circumstances. "Removing all her security details in Njabini and a bodyguard in Nairobi that Kibaki gave and left intact, will not deter her spiritual journey," she added. READ ALSO: Higher Education Loans Board goes for guarantors to recover student loans "It will only make it smooth knowing that it is only God who gives protection," Evelyn said. Their efforts to get official communication from the government over the new development has not been fruitful. Kimathi's widow was offered security and two vehicles by the government during former president Mwai Kibakis tenure. READ ALSO: Vote on two-thirds gender rule postponed again due to quorum hitch A permanent home was also built for her in Kinangop. Evelyne said the new development shocked the family. She said Njabini Administration Police commandant had told her the security was withdrawn as there was nothing much to guard at the home. Nyandarua county commissioner Boaz Cherutich denied that Mukamis security at home was withdrawn. 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. Source: Tuko - The young girl went missing after she was sent by her mother to a tea buying centre - The mother tried to look for her the following day but did not find her - Reports indicated she fled with a man from a nearby home whom she eloped with A family in Kebeneti village in Kericho county is appealing to the public to help them trace their 13-year-old daughter who went missing abruptly. Paul Kiprono Kemboi said his daughter, Valentine Cherono Rono, who scored 244 marks in the recently concluded Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exams went missing on Thursday, November 22, after she was sent by her mother. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Breakdown of alarming teenage pregnancy rates in Kenya per county The young girl reportedly went missing after she was sent to the tea buying centre. Photo: UGC Source: UGC READ ALSO: DPP Haji orders investigations on high cases of teenage pregnancies According to Kenya News Agency, Cherono's mother said her daughter was busy during the day helping in tea picking before she left for a tea buying centre at 2pm and never returned. The distraught mother started looking for her daughter at her grandmother's place and neighbouring houses but did not find her. Other villagers and village elders joined the search for the teenager but their efforts bore no fruits. READ ALSO: Siaya father kills 24-year-old man he found with his primary school daughter Later, the mother received information that her daughter had been seen in the company of a man in a nearby house. In a strange twist of events, on arriving at the said house situated some 500 metres from their home, the girl and the alleged young man identified as Shadrack Kibet Yegon were never found as reported. Kemboi who is a father of three said he suspected the young man was behind the disappearance of her daughter. READ ALSO: Kitale man kills daughter who scored 277 marks in KCPE This comes amid calls for parental responsibility in light of the rising cases of teenage pregnancies that have been recorded across the country. The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Haji has ordered for high voltage investigations into the ballooning cases of teenage pregnancies in the country. 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 KNEC chairman declares student pregnancy a pandemic in Kenya| Tuko TV Source: Breaking News - Education CS says Germany is advanced in the TVET sector hence should be emulated - The CS noted the experts would help bolster the sector with the required skills - The government is focusing on certifying more private TVETs to absorb the high number of youths Kenya seems to have perfected the art of importing human resources, with the latest news that the government is contemplating to bring in retired Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET) experts from Germany, months after they brought in Cuban doctors. According to Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohammed, the move will increase the number of qualified people in the institutions with experience and help learners become employable in the industry. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Pilot overshoots destination by 50 Kms after falling asleep in cockpit Education CS Amina Mohammed said Kenya should emulate Germany which is well developed in the TVET sector. Photo: UGC Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Kericho KCPE finalist elopes with man days after receiving results Speaking to TUKO.co.ke, Amina said for long, the country has enjoyed mutual relationship with Germany in various activities and the European country has achieved a lot in the TVET sector hence the desire to emulate it. We have enjoyed good relationship with Germany and every time we have problems, friends have advised us to seek Germany for assistance, personally I have worked with them in various levels of government, she said. Germany has done more in the TVET sector, this is why we ought to emulate it as our role model, we want to take our TVET sector to meet a global image, the CS added. READ ALSO: Police officer gets 12 years in prison for unintentionally killing boda boda passenger Devit Desai, who is in charge of TVETs said the government was working hard to certify the private institutions to help more youths acquire skills. Desai was responding to allegations by the Tatu City Academy management who had accused the ministry over delayed certification which had disadvantaged the learners. READ ALSO: COTU boss Francis Atwoli comes to the aid of Kibera woman burnt by neighbour What we shall do is to make sure all private TVET institutions have infrastructure and facilities ready for certifications, we want competency in our learning institutions," he said. Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Education Belio Kipsang said TVETs had achieved 100% transitions and more has been done to improve their quality. Story by Enock Ndayala 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 KNEC chairman declares student pregnancy a pandemic in Kenya| Tuko TV Source: Tuko.co.ke - The EACC launched a manhunt for the two rogue police officers who escaped arrest - This was after the officers were caught in the act trying to solicit a KSh 1 million bribe - Upon arrest, Kabete based police officers successfully rescued their colleagues It was drama at a Kabete police station as DCI officers staged a dramatic rescue of two of their colleagues who had been nabbed by EACC officers in a botched bribery attempt. According to reports reaching TUKO.co.ke, several gunshots were fired as officers stationed at the Kabete Police station tried to save their colleagues who were caught engaging in corruption. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens Police officers fired warning shots in to scare EACC officers and rescue two of their colleagues Source: Twitter READ ALSO: Picha 5 za bintiye marehemu nyota wa Reggae - Lucky Dube - ambaye pia ni mwimbaji mahiri The DCI officers were initially apprehended by EACC officers after being caught in the act attempting to solicit a KSh 1 million bribe from a foreigner. The arrest of the officers, however, did not augur well with colleagues who literally resorted to their guns in an attempt to scare EACC officers into surrendering the two rogue officers identified as Julius Oguma and Charles Macharia. READ ALSO: MPs unanimously support controversial bill promising rent-free houses, vehicles The officers eventually managed to intimidate their way out of EACC custody after warning shots were fired The EACC have since launched a manhunt for the two officers who escaped custody. They had already received KSh 100,000 treated cash which their counterparts from EACC were to use as evidence in prosecuting the matter. The escaped officers had been handcuffed and so far, Kabete DCI boss is aiding in tracking of his juniors. 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 The Minister in the Ministry of the Finance says the Government expects to collection $100 m Atletico, Dortmund, Porto and Schalke into round of 16 Vital wins for Paris against Liverpool and Spurs versus Inter Barcelona clinch top spot, Napoli gain important victory Final games in these groups on 11 December At a glance Highlights: Napoli 3-1 Crvena zvezda Through to round of 16: Ajax, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona*, Bayern Munchen, Borussia Dortmund, Juventus, Manchester City, Manchester United, Porto*, Real Madrid*, Roma, Schalke *confirmed group winners Can still reach round of 16: Internazionale Milano, Liverpool, Lyon, Napoli, Paris Saint-Germain, Shakhtar Donetsk, Tottenham Hotspur Will transfer to UEFA Europa League round of 32: Benfica, Club Brugge, Valencia Can still finish third (but no higher): CSKA Moskva, Crvena zvezda, Galatasaray, Hoffenheim, Lokomotiv Moskva, Viktoria Plzen Will finish fourth: AEK Athens, Monaco, PSV Eindhoven, Young Boys Highlights: Atletico 2-0 Monaco Atletico Madrid 2-0 Monaco Atletico confirmed progress in the early kick-off and ended the European hopes of Thierry Henry's young Monaco side. Koke struck Atletico's fastest-ever UEFA Champions League goal in the second minute and midway through the first half Antoine Griezmann added another. Monaco improved after the interval but substitute Radamel Falcao, given a hero's welcome by his former fans in Madrid, missed a late penalty following a Stefan Savic hand ball for which he received a second yellow card. Borussia Dortmund 0-0 Club Brugge A point was all Dortmund needed to book their round of 16 spot and that was what they got. The home side had the better of the few available chances while Club Brugge will be heading for the UEFA Europa League round of 32. Highlights: PSV 1-2 Barcelona PSV Eindhoven 1-2 Barcelona Already through before today, Barcelona sealed first place in their group for a 12th year running, and a record 17th year overall, after a 61st-minute goal by Lionel Messi, whose free-kick shortly afterwards was turned in by Gerard Pique. PSV hit the woodwork twice at 0-0 and Luuk de Jong pulled one back late on, but the defeat consigned them to fourth position. Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 Internazionale Milano Christian Eriksen's strike ten minutes from time kept Spurs in the last-16 hunt and lifted them into second, above Inter (who would have been through with a draw) on head-to-head away goals. Harry Winks had rattled the bar in a strong Tottenham performance and they must now secure as many points at Barcelona as Inter do at home to PSV. Highlights: Paris 2-1 Liverpool Paris Saint-Germain 2-1 Liverpool Paris began the night with elimination a possibility, yet instead are now a victory at Crvena zvezda away from the round of 16. Juan Bernat opened the scoring on 13 minutes, then Neymar became the first Brazilian to register 31 UEFA Champions League goals. Just before half-time James Milner reduced arrears from the penalty spot on his 150th Liverpool appearance but Paris held firm and Liverpool have to beat Napoli to have a chance of progress. Napoli 3-1 Crvena zvezda Napoli knew victory would take them through if Paris did not win, and although the result in France did not go their way, the Serie A club still picked up three essential points and ruined Crvena zvezda's round of 16 dream. Marek Hamsik scored in the 11th minute and Dries Mertens added two more either side of half-time before El Fardou Ben Nabouhane cut the deficit. Napoli lead the group but still require a point at Liverpool to rubber-stamp qualification. Highlights: Lokomotiv Moskva 2-0 Galatasaray Lokomotiv Moskva 2-0 Galatasaray Galatasaray's last-16 attempt was curtailed as Lokomotiv got off the mark and closed the gap to their visitors to one point in the race for third. Moments before half-time Grzegorz Krychowiak's shot deflected in off the luckless Ryan Donk, and it was 2-0 on 54 minutes when Vladislav Ignatyev finished off a fine passing move. Porto 3-1 Schalke The earlier result in Moscow ensured both teams in Porto went through before kick-off. Pole position was still at stake, however, and Porto got the win they needed to guarantee seeding in the round of 16 draw. Deft finishes from Eder Militao and Jesus Corona within four second-half minutes set Porto on their way, and despite Nabil Bentaleb's late penalty, Moussa Marega made it 3-1 at the death. Tuesday's results Group E: AEK Athens 0-2 Ajax, Bayern Munchen 5-1 Benfica Group F: Hoffenheim 2-2 Shakhtar Donetsk, Lyon 2-3 Manchester City Group G:CSKA Moskva 1-2 Viktoria Plzen, Roma 0-2 Real Madrid Group H: Manchester United 1-0 Young Boys, Juventus 1-0 Valencia A Russian-controlled court in Simferopol has arrested for two months senior sailor Andriy Oprysko from the Nikopol, a small armored artillery boat seized by Russian law enforcement agencies in the Sea of Azov on November 25, journalist Anton Naumlyuk has said on his Facebook page. "Judge of the Kyivsky District Court of Simferopol Viktor Mozhelyansky has arrested senior sailor from the Nikopol boat Andriy Oprysko for two months," he wrote. Earlier, he wrote that the court had arrested Viktor Varemez from the Yany Kapu tugboat and Serhiy Tsybizov for two months. Tsybizov's lawyer Oksana Zhelezniak said that her client had been charged under Part 3, Article 322 of the Russian Criminal Code (the illegal crossing of the border committed by a group of persons on preliminary collusion). This article foresees up to six years of imprisonment. Tsybizov told the lawyer that he had not been tortured, but "was exposed to psychological pressure to obtain the necessary evidence." He did not admit his guilt, saying he had executed the orders of the superiors. On November 25, Russian border vessels committed aggressive actions against three Ukrainian ships that set sail from the port of Odesa to the port of Mariupol in the Azov Sea. After that, Russian special forces opened fire on the Ukrainian tugboat Yany Kapu, small armored artillery boats Berdiansk and Nikopol in the Kerch Strait and seized them. There were 23 sailors on board the ships, and six of them were wounded. Russia announced its intention to try detained Ukrainian sailors for allegedly illegal crossing of the Russian state border. op Germany will provide EUR 84.8 mln of assistance to Ukraine as part of development cooperation, the Government portal reports. "In Berlin, on November 26-27, 2018, the Ukrainian delegation led by First Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister Maksym Nefyodov participated in the Ukrainian-German intergovernmental negotiations on development cooperation. The delegation included representatives of the Economic Development Ministry, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Finance Ministry, Justice Ministry, Education and Science Ministry, and Ukreximbank, reads the report. Nefyodov thanked the German government for its support. "As is known, Germany is one of the largest donors of international assistance to Ukraine, the volume of which has exceeded EUR 600 million since 2002," reads the report. The delegations of both countries agreed to continue cooperation in such priority areas as democracy, civil society, government and decentralization, energy efficiency, sustainable economic development, overcoming the crisis in eastern Ukraine as a result of the Russian aggression. "The German side confirmed the allocation of EUR 84.8 million of assistance for Ukraine, including EUR 63.6 million - for financial cooperation projects (loans) and EUR 21.2 million - for technical cooperation projects (grants)," the Government portal reports. iy The turnover of agricultural trade between Ukraine and the European Union increased by 5% for the first nine months of this year. In January-September 2018, the turnover of agricultural trade between Ukraine and the European Union increased by 5% compared with the last years figures for the corresponding period and exceeded $6 billion. At the same time, the surplus amounted to $2.2 billion, the National Scientific Center Institute of Agrarian Economics reports. It is noted that six countries the Netherlands, Poland, Italy, Spain, Germany and France remain the largest trading partners of Ukraine in the EU. Belgium makes claims to a prominent place in this ranking, as the volume of mutual trade in agricultural products with Ukraine increased by almost 35%, up to $ 336 million, compared to the same period last year. The total share of these seven countries is about 3/4 of the turnover of mutual trade in agricultural products. According to the National Scientific Center Institute of Agrarian Economics, Ukraines top exports to Europe are grains and oilseeds, sunflower oil and sunflower oil cake. ol Germany will discuss new anti-Russian sanctions with EU partners, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert has said. "The sanctions will be discussed in the circle of European partners," he said at a briefing in Berlin on Wednesday. He recalled that the issue of anti-Russian sanctions that are in place until the end of January 2019 would be resolved in a few weeks. Seibert also said that the German federal government had taken note of critical remarks by Ukraine's Ambassador to Germany Andriy Melnyk, who called for the introduction of new restrictive measures against Russia, including the suspension of the Nord Stream 2 project. The spokesman said that Germany and Europe were interested in preserving Ukraine's role as a transit country in the future and welcome trilateral negotiations held with the EU on this issue. German daily newspaper Die Welt wrote on Wednesday, citing its own sources, that the German side is allegedly blocking the introduction of new sanctions against Russia. op President of Poland Andrzej Duda may soon make a visit to Ukraine amid the crisis situation in the Sea of Azov. Pawel Mucha, Deputy Chief of the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland, expressed this opinion on the air of Polish Radio ZET. If there is such a need... then I would not rule it out, Mucha said, when asked whether President Duda would follow the example of the President of Lithuania and whether he could visit Ukraine in the near future. The official noted that the President of Poland was responding very actively to the situation in Ukraine as evidenced by the telephone conversation between Presidents Duda and Poroshenko on Monday as well as very strong statements made by the President during his visit to Bulgaria on Tuesday. Mucha added that Poland would consistently support Ukraine in the international arena. We do not agree with the annexation of Crimea, the blockade of the Kerch Strait, the Russian incidents in the Sea of Azov, the Deputy Chief of the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland said. He also noted that the Polish side very clearly indicated that Russia must feel the consequences of its actions. Accordingly, the President of Poland declared the possibility of imposition of further sanctions against Russia. ol Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics has called on the Russian Federation to release Ukrainian sailors and their ships that were seized in the Sea of Azov. "I just had phone conversation with my Ukrainian colleague Pavlo Klimkin, reiterated Latvias strong support to Ukraine over Russias aggression in Azov Sea. I call on Russia to release detained Ukrainian sailors and ships, Russia must discontinue blockade of Kerch Strait," Rinkevics posted on Twitter. On November 25, Russian border vessels committed aggressive actions against three Ukrainian ships that set sail from the port of Odesa to the port of Mariupol in the Azov Sea. After that, Russian special forces opened fire on the Ukrainian tugboat Yany Kapu, small armored artillery boats Berdiansk and Nikopol in the Kerch Strait and seized them. They were 24 sailors aboard. First Vice Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Iryna Gerashchenko informed on November 27 that, according to the updated data, four detainees were wounded, one of them in a grave condition. Russia announced its intention to try detained Ukrainian sailors for allegedly illegal crossing of the Russian state border. ol | By Mary T. Phelan The University of Maryland School of Nursing (UMSON) and Howard Community College (HCC) in Columbia, Md., recently signed an agreement of dual admission that will ensure a smooth transition from HCCs Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) program to UMSONs Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program. Through the agreement, students can apply and be admitted to UMSONs BSN program while in HCCs ADN program. Students will receive transfer credits from UMSON for completed coursework at HCC and will be granted special student status to take UMSON courses while still working on their associate degree. The dual admission partnership is a tremendous value to Howard Community College students, allowing them to progress toward their associate degree and begin the process of attaining their baccalaureate degree in nursing, said Georgene Butler, PhD 05, MS 91, BSN 78, CNE, professor and dean of health sciences at HCC. This new educational option will make the path to a bachelors degree more affordable for students and their families. An effort to increase qualified nursing candidates, the agreement is helping further the mission of the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, an initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the AARP to advance comprehensive health care change. The campaign uses as its framework the landmark 2010 Institute of Medicine report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health. Additionally, the partnership program specifically addresses one of the eight goals set forth in the report: to increase the proportion of nurses with a baccalaureate degree to 80 percent by 2020. We are looking forward to beginning this new partnership with Howard Community College. Nursing students living and working in Howard County will be able to seamlessly transition to the program at UMSON to complete their BSN, said Linda Murray, DNP 16, MS 84, CPNP-Ped, assistant professor and director, RN-to-BSN program, UMSON. HCC is the 11th community college in Maryland to partner with UMSON in a dual-admission agreement. To matriculate to UMSONs BSN program, students must graduate with an ADN from Howard and satisfy UMSONs progression criteria. Other community colleges participating in the program include: Anne Arundel Community College Baltimore City Community College Carroll Community College Cecil College Chesapeake College College of Southern Maryland Frederick Community College Harford Community College Montgomery College Prince Georges Community College For further information on UMSON's dual-admission partnerships, please click here. UNHCR Deputy High Commissioner Kelly Clements signs a multi-year funding cooperation agreement with Chief Executive Officer of Silatech, Ms Sabah Ismail Al Haidoos. UNHCR/Susan Hopper UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and Silatech signed today a cooperation agreement aimed at supporting UNHCRs protection and assistance activities for refugees and displaced persons globally. The agreement was signed at UNHCR Headquarters in Geneva in a ceremony attended by Kelly T. Clements, Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees, and Ms. Sabah Ismail Al Haidoos, Chief Executive Officer of Silatech. Spanning a period of five years, the agreement formalizes a commitment by Silatech to support UNHCRs programmes in the area of livelihoods and economic empowerment with a minimum annual contribution of USD 5 million. UNHCR welcomes this commitment by Silatech, whose support of UNHCR programmes is extremely valuable, said Kelly T. Clements. With the number of forcibly displaced persons increasing at an unprecedented level, we count on support from our partners more than ever. We look forward to building on this collaboration with Silatech in addressing global humanitarian and displacement challenges, she added. Ms. Sabah Al Haidoos, noted that: Collaborating with UNHCR will allow us to further invest in programs tailored to connect refugees with employment and livelihood opportunities and empower them in their host communities. She added: Silatech believes that achieving peace and stability starts from combating poverty, unemployment, extremism, and marginalization of young men and women and is committed to enable them to work and achieve their aspirations and potential. For more information, please contact: Amina Zoubairi, Public Information Officer, Email: [email protected] Ayat El Dewary, Senior External Relations Officer, Email: [email protected] About UNHCR: UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, leads international action to protect people forced to flee their homes because of conflict and persecution. We deliver life-saving assistance like shelter, food and water, help safeguard fundamental human rights, and develop solutions that ensure people have a safe place to call home where they can build a better future. We also work to ensure that stateless people are granted a nationality. About Silatech: Silatech is an international social development nonprofit non-government organization, that works on connecting youth wherever they are to jobs, and enable resources for them to establish and sustain successful enterprises. Since its establishment in 2008, Silatech has secured one million jobs for youth through working in coordination with governments and international organizations and in cooperation with its regional and local partners to design and implement programs that uproot disadvantaged and marginalized youth out of poverty and chronic unemployment, thus empowering them to contribute to the socioeconomic development of their countries. The top diplomat also promised "full coordination" on protecting Ukrainian sovereignty. U.S. State Secretary Mike Pompeo has pledged "full assistance, including military assistance," to Ukraine after Sunday's confrontation between Ukraine and Russia, that's according to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. Poroshenko told CNN's Christiane Amanpour that during a recent phone call Pompeo pledged "full coordination" on protecting Ukrainian sovereignty following the clash with Russia. Read alsoReuters: Trump says he does not like Russia-Ukraine situation Asked about the U.S. reaction to the latest developments around the Kerch Strait, Poroshenko noted a clear position voiced by U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley. During an emergency UN Security Council meeting to defuse rising tensions after the confrontation, Haley called the incident "yet another reckless Russian escalation" and demanded that the Kremlin release the sailors captured by Russian coast guards and taken in custody. Also, Poroshenko noted NATO's support of Ukraine in this regard. The businessman is convinced that only by negotiating with people who live in the occupied areas is it possible to regain these territories. A Ukrainian businessman, former head of Dnipropetrovsk region Ihor Kolomoisky, believes that Ukraine could quickly return Donbas, but this could only happen as a result of negotiations. Speaking with the editor-in-chief of Livyi Bereh, Sonya Koshkina, Kolomoisky said he was convinced that only by reaching agreements with the people living in the occupied Donbas was it possible to return seized territories to Ukraine, TSN reports. Ukraine should return Donbas rather quickly. It will be somewhat more difficult with Crimea, but well still return it. Everything depends on our politicians and Putin has nothing to do with it. We must negotiate with the people in Donbas," Kolomoisky said. Read alsoUkraine's Kolomoisky rules out Poroshenko's 2019 election win The businessman believes that Putin does not need Donbas as part of the Russian Federation and it is more beneficial for him to integrate the territory into Ukraine. The idea some people have that Putin is sitting there controlling everything [in Donbas] is ridiculous. Putin doesnt need this load. It would be more beneficial for him to integrate Donbas into Ukraine to destroy it [the country] from the inside. Putin is not the only one who decides on the issue. The only thing he can't allow is [Ukraine] returning Donbass by military means," added Ihor Kolomoisky. Speaking earlier about the incident off the Crimea coast, Trump said he did not like what was happening between Ukraine and Russia. Petro Poroshenko asked U.S. President Donald Trump to convey the message to the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, during their upcoming meeting at a G20 summit in Argentina. "Please, get out of Ukraine, Mr Putin!" Poroshenko asked Trump to tell the Russian president, according to NBC. Earlier, Donald Trump warned he could call off a scheduled meeting with Vladimir Putin after Russia seized three Ukrainian Navy vessels near the Kerch Strait on Sunday. Read alsoPompeo pledges military aid to Ukraine, Poroshenko says If the two presidents actually meet in Argentina, this will be their first encounter since the Helsinki summit in July. Speaking earlier about the incident off the Crimea coast, Trump said he did not like what was happening between Ukraine and Russia. "We do not like what's happening either way. And hopefully it will get straightened out," Trump said. He added that European leaders were working on the situation. "They're not thrilled. We're all working on it together," he said. Poroshenko calls the Black Sea "the point of global security." Petro Poroshenko says he counts on the United States' support against the background of the latest escalation in the Black-Azov seas area. In an interview with NBC, Petro Poroshenko recalled his several meetings with U.S. President Donald Trump, noting his strong feeling that Trump "supports Ukrainian sovereignty, territorial integrity and our fight for freedom and democracy." "In this situation, I count on the United States," Poroshenko said. He recalled his offer for a few NATO warships to be deployed in the Black Sea, which Poroshenko called "the point of global security," not to allow Russia to continue escalating the situation in the region. Read alsoPompeo pledges military aid to Ukraine, Poroshenko says "This is the real purpose of Russia occupation of the sea. And this is the launch of the aggression. This is not just an attack on two Ukrainian light military boats and a tug boat this is aggression on the Azov Sea. Asked whether he thinks the developments could lead to a war, Poroshenko said: "We definitely should be ready for Russian aggression. We're preparing for protecting our country. Martial law does not mean that we attack anybody. We do it just to protect our country." "We're fighting against Russia for our freedom and democracy. We are under attack because we hate the idea of being any longer the part of the Russian empire, the Russian colony. My 45-million nation will return back to the European family," Poroshenko said. Parubiy forwarded the bill to be signed into law by President Poroshenko. Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, Andriy Parubiy has signed the bill on the approval of the presidential decree "On the introduction of martial law in Ukraine." Parubiy forwarded the bill to be signed into law by President Poroshenko., according to the law page on the parliament's website. As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that martial law in 10 regions of Ukraine would be in effect until December 26. The need to introduce martial law in Ukraine is due to the threat of a full-scale war with Russia, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said during an interview with Ukrainian TV channels. We have clear data that this [the attack on Ukrainian Navy boats] is only the beginning, Poroshenko told journalists, according to an UNIAN correspondent. Martial law is a special legal regime providing for the granting of special powers to state authorities necessary to prevent a threat. This is about a temporary restriction on the rights and freedoms of citizens, as well as temporary restriction on the legitimate interests of legal entities. During the martial law regime, military and civilian authorities are given wider powers that allow them to use human and material resources for their needs. The "authorities" means the entire military command from the General Staff to the leadership of individual units, as well as the entire vertical of power from the president and the Cabinet of Ministers to village councils. Decisions can be made both at the central and at the local levels. The Russia-controlled court in the occupied Crimea's Simferopol on Tuesday started handing down rulings on remanding in custody Ukrainian Navy sailors captured by Russians in neutral waters off the Crimea coast. Until January 25, 2019, they will remain in custody. Ironically, the invaders accuse Ukrainians of violating sea borders under Article 322 of the Russian Criminal Code. Therefore, the question now arises of how can we achieve their release and which legal instruments can be applied to protect them. The Russians transported Ukrainian crew specifically to the occupied Crimea, not mainland Russia, to prevent the arrival of Kyiv's official representatives The complexity of the situation is that the Russians transported Ukrainian crew specifically to the occupied Crimea, not mainland Russia, to prevent the arrival of Kyiv's official representatives. The case of Sentsov and other Kremlin political prisoners is quite different, because they were tried in Russia. Therefore, unfortunately, families cannot visit their captured relatives right now as it is not that easy to come to Crimea. There is no access to the captives for representatives of Ukraine's diplomatic institutions, except for the Parliamentary Human Rights Commissioner Liudmyla Denisova (only with the support of international organizations). The only way to reach out to the crew is through their lawyers. Therefore, it remains to rely on the skill of the defenders and expect the presence and pressure on the Russians of international organizations, such as the Red Cross. Besides, Ukraine could employ proven means of international pressure and demand economic sanctions. Russia does not care too much about international pressure, which is clearly seen in the Sentsov case as well as cases of other political prisoners. A state that systematically violates international law and independently sets its own laws that should have been agreed with its neighbors will not listen to third parties It should also be noted that official Kyiv considers captured seamen to be prisoners of war, because there was an unconcealed act of military aggression on the part of Russia that resulted in the capture of Ukrainian navy boats and their crews. Is there any chance of having Ukrainian sailors released in this case? There is a chance, but it is not that great. Russia does not care too much about international pressure, which is clearly seen in the Sentsov case as well as cases of other political prisoners. A state that systematically violates international law and independently sets its own laws that should have been agreed with its neighbors will not listen to third parties. Besides, they have long got used to that "concern" traditionally expressed in the West over their wrongdoings. The UN Security Council could have an impact on the situation, but Russia's veto right will more than obviously be applied. The only way for the UNSC not to recognize Russia's veto right is to recognize it "party to a dispute." That's when Russia "shall refrain from voting at a decision based on Chapter VI and on the basis of paragraph 3 of Article 52," according to Art 27 of the UN Charter. Therefore, the only thing Ukraine has left to do to have the POWs released is to once again unite the international community around the problem of illegal arrest and trial of Ukrainian seamen, since they were captured in the water area, which, according to an international agreement between Ukraine and Russia of 2003, is a water area for free use by both Russia and Ukraine. The fact of Russia's violation of this agreement is more than obvious. It should be understood that legal instruments may still fail, while economic tools of pressure might actually play the required role. Since the military conflict at sea unfolded at NATO borders, this is no longer a "local brawl," but an incident claiming to gain the geopolitical context Another scenario that will make it possible to have Ukrainian sailors released may arise from direct talks between Ukraine and Russia. This could be, for example, the exchange of prisoners of war. However, the success of such a scenario depends on a powerful mediator in the talks. Such mediator could be the United States or Turkey. Since the military conflict at sea unfolded at NATO borders, this is no longer a "local brawl," but an incident claiming to gain the geopolitical context. And, given that it could trigger further escalation and Russia's aggression at sea against Ukraine, neighboring countries may also be affected. After all, Russia never gave up on its plans to gain full control not only in the waters of the Sea of Azov, but also in that of the Black Sea. Taras Semeniuk is an analyst with KyivStratPro The declaration apparently has no words of "condemnation," according to the reporter. Brussels reporter for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Rikard Jozwiak has said the EU declaration on Azov Sea was set to be released later on Wednesday, Nov 28, and that the draft had no concrete calls for sanctions against Russia. "The EU28 declaration on AzovSea and KerchStrait should come out today. No concrete calls for sanctions and apparently no words of condemnation," Jozwiak wrote on Twitter on November 28, 2018. Read alsoKlimkin speaks of Putins plans to "dismember" Ukraine 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 alsoNavy Commander to captured sailors: Brothers!.. Law is on our side Fear is a natural thing 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. 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. According to Art. 95 of the Convention on the Law of the Sea, warships on the high seas have complete immunity from the jurisdiction of any State other than the flag State, the infrastructure ministry recalls. Russia attacked and seized Ukrainian navy boats in the international waters of the Black Sea, outside the line of the state border of Ukraine at sea, which is temporarily beyond Ukraine's control as a result of the occupation of Crimea, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine says. "This is evidenced by the location of the military vessels Berdiansk, Nikopol, and Yany Kapu at the time of the firing and detention by military units of Russian Federation," reads the report published on the ministry's website. According to Art. 95 of the Convention on the Law of the Sea, warships on the high seas have complete immunity from the jurisdiction of any State other than the flag State, the officials recall. Read alsoUkraine intercepts radio comms of Russian coast guards with Command amid attack on Ukraine Navy boats (Transcript) "According to the definition contained in UN General Assembly resolution 3314 of 14 December 1974, an attack by the armed forces of one state on the naval forces or navy of another state is an aggression," the ministry says. "We emphasize that all detained Ukrainian servicemen are protected by the norms of international humanitarian law, in particular the Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, 1949," reads the report. The officials added that those who organized and committed the act of aggression, brazenly violating international humanitarian law, should remember that punishment is inevitable. "The experience of modern international conflicts proves that the 'sword' of justice ultimately gets not only 'pawns' and 'cogs,' but even heads of states," the report concludes. The ambassador even raised the possibility of sending German marines to the region. Ukraine's top diplomat in Germany urged Berlin and other Western states to punish Russia by extending sanctions, banning energy imports and putting the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline on hold after Moscow seized three Ukrainian ships near Crimea. The ambassador even raised the possibility of sending German marines to the region, as reported by Reuters. Several senior European politicians have raised the possibility of new sanctions against Russia after the incident on Sunday, which the West fears could ignite a wider conflict near Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. "Germany must take a clear line... and put (Russian President Vladimir) Putin in his place," ambassador Andrij Melnyk told German radio on Wednesday. "Everything is at stake." Read alsoGermany may impose tougher sanctions against Russia media "The club of sanctions should be wielded quickly.... There should be a complete ban on gas and oil imports from Russia, Nord Stream 2 must be put on ice," he said, adding only such measures could stop Putin's "brutal, hoooligan-like" behavior. Ukraine is already nervous about the prospect of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which increases Europe's reliance on Russian gas, fearing it will lose out on transit revenues. "In military terms, what can you do? Sending German marines to the coast of Crimea... could help stop an escalation. If you are there, Russians have fewer possibilities to act so brutally," he said. Read alsoPoroshenko says he tried to contact Putin after capture of Ukrainian boats in Black Sea "If you don't do anything, you can barely hope that this will come to an end," said Melnyk. So far, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for de-escalation and dialogue. The foreign minister of Austria, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, has said any extension of sanctions imposed on Russia over its actions in Ukraine would depend on further information about the incident and how the two sides behave. The two countries reportedly seek to continue their diplomatic efforts and consider in this context the involvement of the OSCE in the conflict at the Sea of Azov. France and Germany do not support the introduction of new sanctions against the Russian Federation in the wake of the seizure by the Russian side of the Ukrainian naval vessels in the Kerch Strait. According to sources in the EU's diplomatic circles, at a private meeting of the Political and Security Committee (PSC) in Brussels on Tuesday, diplomats from France and Germany said it is now important to take measures to build confidence. Berlin and Paris believe that sanctions are not part of these activities, European Pravda reported, referring to Die Welt. Read alsoWest slow with response to Russian aggression Ukrainian MP Instead, France and Germany want to continue their diplomatic efforts and consider in this context the involvement of the OSCE in the conflict at the Sea of Azov. As UNIAN reported earlier, Brussels reporter for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Rikard Jozwiak has said the EU declaration on Azov Sea was set to be released later on Wednesday, Nov 28, and that the draft had no concrete calls for sanctions against Russia. A NATO naval flotilla in the Black Sea could "pay a friendly visit to Mariupol," Edward Lucas suggests, noting a weak response the West has provided to the latest incident near the Kerch Strait. As Russia has once again pushed the line in Ukraine, Edward Lucas, a Senior Vice President at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), suggested what the West should have done in response. Seen from a modern perspective, the answer to what the world's reaction should have been to Hitler troops attacking Poland in 1939 is clear, the expert says. "It would be absurd to ask both sides to de-escalate the conflict when only one side is escalating it. Nor would it make sense to try to broker an agreement." Read also'Put Putin in his place', Ukrainian ambassador tells Germany media German troops should have been asked to withdraw from Poland; Germany -- pay compensation for damage and injuries; and only then could some negotiations begin. The only real question, from today's standpoint, is what kind of sanctions should be imposed on the Nazi regime in Berlin, and what kind of military assistance could practically be offered to Poland, according to Lucas. This framework is useful in assessing Russia's attack on Ukraine in the Sea of Azov. Blocking the Sea of Azov to Ukrainian ships is part of a bigger Russian plan. One element is to isolate the port of Mariupol, crippling the economy of Ukraine's south-eastern region. It turns up the heat in Ukrainian politics. But more importantly, it is a diplomatic gambit. It tests not Ukraine's resolve, but the West's, Lucas believes. "Here Russia has already enjoyed an easy win," he writes. Although some countries notably Canada responded with pitch-perfect words, straightforwardly condemning Russian aggression, others equivocated. Germany's foreign minister, Heiko Mass, urged both sides to de-escalate. NATO and the European Union also mixed supportive words for Ukraine and criticism of Russia with calls for "restraint and de-escalation" (NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg) and "the utmost restraint" (EU foreign affairs spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic). Read alsoGermany, France against new anti-Russian sanctions media "Most worryingly of all (for us, and most pleasingly for Russia) there was no early response from the United States. (The State Department did issue a routine condemnation of Russian aggression a few days earlier, in a statement marking the Holodomor)," the author said. It may get better. There is talk of more sanctions. In the United States, Congress will have something to say, increasing the pressure on the administration. Russia has to explain itself at the UN Security Council. But this is probably too little, and certainly too late. The lesson is clear for the Kremlin. The West is divided and slow to react. It does not regard Ukraine as an ally. Instead it puts Europe's biggest and bravest victim of Kremlin aggression on the same page as its tormentor. The right response would have combined kinetic, symbolic, and financial measures. A NATO naval flotilla in the Black Sea would pay a friendly visit to Mariupol. Bilateral military assistance to Ukraine would be stepped up. The EU would send its tongue-tied foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, to Kyiv. Western countries would announce a temporary ban on official and business visas for Russians. Countries like Britain would announce forthcoming legislation to restrict the rights of anonymously-owned "shell" companies to buy property or access the financial system. That would signal seriousness. "Russia's ability to escalate and provoke should be no surprise to Western decision makers. Yet we fail the test time after time and the bill is paid by our allies," says Lucas. The European Union says it expects Russia to ensure unhindered and free passage through the Kerch Strait to and from the Sea of Azov. The European Union says it is dismayed at the use of force by Russia against Ukrainian ships near the Kerch Strait on November 25. "The EU expresses its utmost concern about the dangerous increase of tensions in the Azov Sea and Kerch Strait in recent days which has led to the seizure of Ukrainian vessels and their crews by Russia and shots being fired at them, wounding several Ukrainian servicemen. We are dismayed at this use of force by Russia which, against the backdrop of increasing militarisation in the area, is unacceptable," the EU High Representative said in a declaration on behalf of the EU on November 28. The European Union says that it expects Russia to ensure unhindered and free passage through the Kerch Strait to and from the Sea of Azov, in accordance with international law. "We call on all for utmost restraint to de-escalate the situation immediately. In this context, we also call strongly on Russia to release the captured vessels, their crew and equipment unconditionally and without delay," the declaration said. The illegal annexation of the Crimean peninsula by Russia in 2014 remains a direct challenge to international security, with grave implications for the international legal order that protects the unity and sovereignty of all states. "We reconfirm our condemnation of this violation of international law. The construction of the Kerch [Strait] bridge constitutes a further violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity," it said. The European Union also reiterated its full support for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognised borders. "The European Union does not and will not recognise the illegal annexation of the Crimean peninsula by Russia," it said. Read alsoWith Azov escalation, Moscow tests West's response - expert The European Union said it would continue to follow closely the situation and is determined to act appropriately, in close coordination with its international partners. 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. Twenty-four sailors were detained and "courts" in Russian-occupied Crimea ruled that they be detained for two months, pending trial. Activists had stopped four heavy trucks with Russian registration plates outside Odesa by Tuesday noon. Activists in Odesa region have started blocking heavy trucks with Russian registration plates, demanding that Russia free the Ukrainian sailors captured near the Kerch Strait in the Black Sea on November 25. A number of patriotic organizations in Odesa have begun an indefinite protest action under the slogan: "Find a Russian truck to swap for our seamen," NGO Automaidan Odesa told UNIAN. Activists had managed to stop four heavy trucks with Russian registration plates near a police post outside Odesa by Tuesday noon. "We've found four trucks as of now, continue looking for them. Ready or not, here we come, you can't hide," they said on Facebook. The trucks' plates were removed, thus the vehicles were unable to follow the route. Read alsoNavy Commander to captured sailors: Brothers!.. Law is on our side Fear is a natural thing NGO Odesa Maidan Self-Defense is also taking part in the event, calling it the "Hush! Nobody is going anywhere!" flash mob. "Patriotic organizations and movements of Odesa have a flash mob, 'Hush! Nobody is going anywhere!' running. The flash mob implies a completely voluntary halt of trucks with Russian license plates, voluntary transfer of the plates to activists and a long break. Up until the problem with our captive sailors has been solved," the organization said. Activists are calling on all patriots to join the protest action. Later, NGO Automaidan Odesa wrote on Facebook that police officers returned the plates to the trucks. "But police decided that there is no war and let the trucks go," it said in a follow-up post on Tuesday. 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. Twenty-four sailors have been detained. Messages are being disseminated via Facebook and chat messengers, spreading disinformation and calling on Ukrainians to rally against the authorities in defiance of the latest move to introduce the special regime. Ukrainian users of social networks are being exposed to thousands of shared posts, initially launched by Russian trolls to destabilize the country, sow panic, discord, and public discontent against the background of the introduction of martial law. Ukraine has long been a testing ground for various means of propaganda infowars, involving an extended use of social networks and other communication channels, and the latest wave of disinformation is another example of how effective such tools of influence can be when they exploit existing controversies, waging further splits in targeted societies, as was in the case of the U.S. presidential elections. A Ukrainian blogger Andriy Ganus noted that a message with outright false information about martial law aimed at confusing and angering Ukrainians is being shared at a rate of 12,000 reposts per hour, thus reaching out to millions of Ukrainians. The message, which is accompanied with a call for a "maximum repost," claims that the original poster "recently contacted two military units and a lieutenant colonel said, quote, 'martial law has no expiry date, Poroshenko has tricked everyone as there is nothing said in the Constitution about 30 days, so martial law can now be lifted only if there is no threat to Ukraine's integrity, that is, Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk are returned. Also, the Constitution claims that martial law is enforced throughout the country so the statement about its introduction only in several regions is only dust in the face to that the people dont set up a rebellion." Read alsoRussian disinformation on Facebook targeted Ukraine well before 2016 U.S. election - WP The blogger explicitly notes that the message is being spread from an account whose owner directly states that he lives in Russia's Krasnodar. Recognizing the lack of critical thinking among users reposting the message, the blogger underlines that in comment section to the post "there are comments of hundreds of adequate people refuting this information, citing article 7 of the law On the Legal Status of Martial Law: "1. Martial law in the whole territory of Ukraine or in its separate areas ends after its term expires." The same Facebook user from Russia in another posting writes: "Once martial law is introduced, you must all head to Kyiv! The real enemy is there!" Read alsoRussian firm linked to alleged U.S. election meddling sues Facebook media The blogger notes that the mentioned example is just a drop in the ocean of other similar cases where Russia manipulates public opinion through elaborate disinformation techniques. He also recognizes that Russia is skillfully exploiting criticism of the country's leadership, traditional for Ukrainians, using this feature as a springboard for spreading lies. "It's in the genes of all Ukrainians," the blogger says. The Moscow Patriarchate is gradually losing Ukraine. Among other things, this is evidenced by a rather inert reaction to statements of the opponents of the "new unified church" idea namely the Russian Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate in the traditionally more pro-Russian regions - Kharkiv, Zaporizhia, and Odesa. At the same time, pro-Russian priests are taking a far more aggressive stance. The Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which will determine the date when the Unification Council will convene in Ukraine to further be granted Tomos of autocephaly, is being held in Constantinople on Nov 27-29. But today we can already say that the Moscow Patriarchate, which is vehemently resisting the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, is gradually losing its flock, even in the traditionally more pro-Russian regions. Several factors contribute to this. First, this is about a move by the Russian Orthodox Church to sever ties with Constantinople a step far from being perceived as adequate (or Christian). It raised brows of even the most ardent parishioners. Secondly, it's about the behavior of some priests of the UOC-MP, blindly following instructions from Moscow, while actually losing support from their flock in Ukraine. And, thirdly, it's about the traditional passive stance of the population, including the congregation of the UOC-MP, in the above-mentioned regions. However, this does not mean that the corresponding work has halted in these regions toward those loyal to the aggressive appeals of the pro-Russian church and those who attend churches only on big holidays. Non-christian behavior Perhaps residents of Zaporizhia region are shifting away from the Moscow Patriarchate at the fastest pace. As early as last spring, when Zaporizhia-based clerics of the UOC MP traveled to the outskirts of Mariupol, Donetsk region, to "support the fighting spirit of their countrymen" in one of the military units of the National Guard, the officer told the priests that Ukraine defenders of Ukraine did not wish to meet with Moscow priests. Clerics tried to complain but to no avail. It was Father Viktor, a clergyman of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, who told UNIAN this story. At that time, he was a chaplain in that unit. According to him, representatives of various confessions and religious organizations would come to visit the military, and the doors of the unit would always be open to everyone except the Moscow Patriarchate. In the winter of 2018, some of the soldiers who in 2017 refused to meet with the UOC-MP priests were close to making Zaporizhia another hot spot of hostilities... On December 31, 2017, a two-year-old child died in a fatal accident in Zaporizhia. During the funeral, the priest, who was invited to perform a rite of burial, asked if the boy had been baptized. Having learned that he was baptized in the church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, the cleric refused to perform the ceremony, branding the UOC-KP a self-styled church. The grieving mother knelt before him, begging for understanding, but the priest was unshakable as he simply left the funeral. Eventually, a priest of the Kyiv Patriarchate was invited, who conducted a rite of burial... The story caused shock waves across Ukraine. In a matter of hours, a flash mob was organized in social networks: throughout the country, people would bring teddy bears to the temples of the UOC-MP as a reminder of the deceased boy. And everywhere the reaction was the same: the staff collected toys and defiantly threw them away. In Zaporizhia, this provoked a new round of scandal. A Ukrainian soldier and his local volunteer friend brought the toys to one of the churches and, upon seeing a priest's attempt to throw them away, entered into an altercation. Shortly, a group of men arrived at the scene and brutally assaulted the two men. Later it turned out that the attackers were members of the "Orthodox Union Radomir" public organization. Subsequently, these same people would "ensure public order" at the Russian propaganda-inspired "Victory Regiment" march and the anniversary of the end of the Battle of Stalingrad ... Fighting for property, not for flock The story has become a kind of "point of no return" in the confrontation between the clergy and the Zaporizhia public. Local veterans urged their comrades-in-arms neither to respond to violence with violence nor take radical measures. Local police even took under protection the temples of the UOC-MP in the city. But while adequate people were trying to smooth out the conflict and prevent a serious confrontation in the city, the situation was being heated up by Bishop Luka of Zaporizhia and Melitopol (UOC-MP). He would publicly brand the Kyiv Patriarchate "impostors," justifying the move of that priest who refused to perform a service. Luka has to this day remained quite categorical in his statements, especially in matters of Ukraine receiving Tomos of autocephaly: Now global redistribution is underway, a lot is changing ... And now, when Russia began to develop economically, it is very beneficial for someone to crush it, it is advantageous to play against it. This is life without God, says Luka. A Zaporizhia-based religious expert Ilya Bey says that Luka does not limit himself to such statements. According to him, during sermons, he is warning people of the upcoming bloodshed that he says will be a result of obtaining a tomos. The moods of the congregation depends on Luka. Today, he is setting people up to accept the fact that there may be bloodshed, that the "junta" has seized the church, and so on. Recently, the UOC-MP conducted a very manipulative poll, whose results show what ideas are being channeled to parishioners, says Ilya Bey. Thus, according to that fake poll, more than 97% of believers are against any changes, both in canonical status and in ritual matters, as regards the legal status of the church and the language of worship. Ilya Bey does not rule out provocations in Zaporizhia once Ukraine obtains the tomos from Constantinople. It is clear that Luka does not take such decisions, but various provocations may be beneficial to Russia. This may be, for example, explosions in temples. Suppose the community decides not to reunite with the new church and something bad happens Then they will say: Here! This is the revenge of the fierce Banderites! Or, say, if they decide to join the new church, something bad could also happen. They will say: Here! Once you switched to those fierce Banderites, see how it ended? But everything depends only on what decision will be made in Moscow, and how the Russian intelligence services will act as well as ours whether they can foresee and prevent such scenarios, the expert says. However, despite Luka's efforts to convince parishioners that the UOC-MP is united and inviolable, things within its framework are a bit different. According to Bishop Fotiy of Zaporizhia and Melitopol (UOC-KP), to date, part of the Moscow bishops have already announced their intention to join the new United Orthodox Church. There is evidence that some part of the episcopate of the MP in Ukraine declared their will to join the United Church, signing an appeal to the Ecumenical Patriarch for the granting of autocephaly. So far, it is about 10 people, whose names are not disclosed for security reasons... In the future, about a quarter of the episcopate could join the new church, says Fotiy. He also does not rule out an option where parishes subordinate to his Moscow counterpart Luka will also want to join the new United Church. And, in order to avoid this, today, the priests are putting pressure on their flock. "The Zaporizhia Diocese of the MP takes a series of measures to prevent the transition of its communities to the United Local Church. And this is situation in almost all regions. The most common way is to transfer premises from the community to which they belong to the diocesan administration. And this means that even if the community decides to switch to the Unified Church, the UOC-MP will declare: 'Sorry, but the premises are not yours, they are our'." In turn, the local SBU office and local authorities categorically stated that they would not allow any provocations. Officials and law enforcers in Kharkiv region share the same opinion. Such confidence is due to the fact that open conflicts on religious grounds are not traditional for the region. At the same time, it is worth noting that in Kharkiv region, the Moscow Patriarchate has a dominant position most Orthodox religious communities there are part of the UOC-MP. At the same time, the pro-Russian church enjoys support of local authorities. That is why the UOC-MP has the largest and oldest temples, while new ones are being actively built (according to the diocese, in November alone, two new temples were consecrated). In addition, Russian businessman Pavel Fuks (currently living in Ukraine) and Russian Duma Defense and Security committee member Alexander Shishkin (who voted for deployment of Russian troops into Ukraine, actively participated in the construction of new churches. And, at the same time, these projects have always been actively supported by Kharkiv Mayor Hennady Kernes. Moreover, in August 2014, the Kharkiv City Council, at the request of the diocese, awarded both Russians the title Honorary Citizen of Kharkiv for charitable contributions to the construction of temples... Faithful to Russia In early November, the clergy of the Kharkiv Diocese of the UOC-MP held a meeting to attest to their primate (and his position on the autocephaly of the Ukrainian church) Metropolitan Onufriy. In late October, a similar meeting with the same agenda was held in the Odesa Diocese of the UOC-MP. By the way, unlike the Kharkiv authorities, Odesa leaders decided to hold a meeting with Metropolitan of the local UOC MP Agafangel and bishop of the Odesa and Baltiya UOC KP Pavel, with the participation of the head of the SBU in Odessa region, Oleksandr Dovzhenko, local police chief Dmytro Holovin and regional prosecutor Oleh Zhuchenko. Representative of the Regional State Administration told UNIAN that the participants discussed issues of state-church ties, as well as ways of harmonizing interfaith relations... The meeting allowed assuming that, despite the predominance of the MP in the territory of our region (especially in its southern part) and the weakness of all local opponents, there will be no escalation. It seems that 'all levels' aim at maintaining calm in the region. At the same time, a lot depends on the position of the metropolitan, widely known for his obvious focus on Russia, a representative of the Odesa Regional State Administration, who attended the meeting, told UNIAN. Indeed, in certain circles, the authority of Agafangel, 80, (Oleksiy Savvin) is quite large. The cleric once even was a people's deputy of Ukraine (1990-1994), and from 2006 until recently he was a deputy of the Odesa regional council as a member of the pro-Yanukovych Party of Regions. According to one of the Odesa-based religious scholars, at the international festival Faith and Word in late October, the press service of the Odesa diocese won in the nomination Best Facebook profile of a diocese. The award ceremony took place in a resort outside Moscow. Meanwhile, the official YouTube channel of the Zaporizhia diocese is among TOP3 diocesan resources on the territory of the canonical responsibility of the Russian Orthodox Church. Such moments, to a certain extent, are indicative ... Indeed, besides Agafangels position, of great importance is what efforts the Kremlin will take to destabilize Odessa region, which is seen as a certain springboard for provocations that could later spread throughout the country, the scholar notes. According to him, the forms and methods of mobilization of youth the local priests of the MP employ are somewhat alarming. For example, in October, on the territory of the Holy Dormition Monastery, Agafangel blessed members of the Java motorcycle club established at the church (how far is it until something similar to Putin's Night Wolves is created in Odesa?). By the way, the mentioned monastery, located on the Black Sea coast, is the residence of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. The last time Kirill visited the place was in 2010. However, even back then, he declared: May God's blessing protect this holy temple, the Odesa diocese and the whole of Novorossiya ... Even back then, the word Novorossiya alerted local political scientists. As it turned out later, that was for good reason. There was nothing accidental in Kirill's statement after all. In this regard, despite the fact that real Christians oppose violence and aggression, and most parishioners of any denomination are not at all against the emergence of a single church in Ukraine, we should not forget that it's not altruistic priests who influence their congregations. And, given that in the above-mentioned regions of religious communities, the presence of the UOC-MP is many times larger than that of the UOC-KP, local authorities and law enforcers should be on their guard to prevent incitement of hatred after the Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the December Unification Council in Ukraine are held. UNIAN If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter Foreigners and stateless persons are prohibited from entering Ukraine if border guards see legal grounds for travel ban. About 150 foreigners, incl. 80 Russian citizens were refused entry to Ukraine on November 27 alone. "For example, yesterday, about 150 foreigners were not allowed to enter Ukraine. Some of them are potentially illegal migrants. Also, about 80 citizens of the Russian Federation were unable to confirm the purpose of their journey when crossing the border. Some of them had invalid documents for crossing the border. Also [there were] those who illegally visited the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. They were not only denied entry but also were subject to travel ban," head of the State Border Service's media liaison office Andriy Demchenko said on Priamyi TV Channel. Read alsoActivists try to block Russian trucks in Odesa region, demanding release of Ukrainian seamen "The units of the State Border Service of Ukraine are on full alert. We use reserves, all our units have been enlarged and armed. We have also stepped up on-the-spot measures to prevent any incidents," he said. Enhanced border control is in effect; foreign citizens, especially those who may have risk profiles are interviewed. If border guards see legal grounds for travel ban, foreigners and stateless persons are prohibited from entering Ukraine, he said. NATO will continue to monitor the situation. NATO has called on Russia to immediately release the Ukrainian sailors and ships it seized near the Kerch Strait on November 25. "There is no justification for Russia's 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," NATO said in a statement on November 27. "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," NATO said. Read alsoUkraine's Rada proposes maritime states to send warships to Black-Azov seas region NATO reiterates its full support to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders and territorial waters. "We strongly condemn Russia's 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," it said. NATO says it 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 statement said. 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. Twenty-four sailors have been detained. The president says there is clear intelligence that the latest attack on Ukrainian Navy boats near the Kerch Strait "is only the beginning" of something bigger. The need to introduce martial law in Ukraine is due to the threat of a full-scale war with Russia, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said during an interview with Ukrainian TV channels. We have clear data that this [the attack on Ukrainian Navy boats] is only the beginning, Poroshenko told journalists, according to an UNIAN correspondent. "Intelligence has provided a few pieces of evidence," the president added. He showed reporters satellite images of a Russian military base, located 18 kilometers from the border with Ukraine, as of Sep 17, Sep 24, and October. "The number of tanks at the bases located along the Ukraine border has tripled," said Poroshenko. Read alsoNumber of Russian aircraft, ships in occupied Crimea grows by five to ten times in four years Poroshenko As UNIAN reported earlier, on November 26, the Verkhovna Rada approved the presidential decree on imposing for 30 days martial law in several regions of Ukraine. The law stipulates that martial law is introduced in the Vinnytsia, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, and Kherson regions, as well as in the internal waters of the Azov-Kerch water area of Ukraine. On Nov 27, Secretary of the National Security Council of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchinov said that the resolution for which the Verkhovna Rada had voted said the start of martial law was set for 14:00 on Nov 26. At the same time, according to Viktoria Syumar, chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Freedom of Speech and Information Policy, a presidential decree imposing martial law in several regions of Ukraine for 30 days will be published on Nov 28 in the parliamentary gazetted Holos Ukrainy. The Ukrainian Army reported no casualties in the past day. Russian-led forces mounted five attacks on Ukrainian troops in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, in the last 24 hours. "No casualties among Ukrainian troops have been reported in the past day. According to intelligence reports, one occupier was killed," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation said in an update on Facebook as of 07:00 Kyiv time on November 28, 2018. Read alsoUkraine's Joint Forces put on full alert Russian occupation forces opened aimed fire from grenade launchers, heavy machine guns, and small arms at the defenders of the town of Maryinka, and the villages of Krymske, Novhorodske, Vodiane, and Lebedynske. The enemy also employed 82mm mortars against the Ukrainian positions near Vodiane, which is in the Mariupol sector. "Since Wednesday midnight, Russian-led forces haven't attacked the Ukrainian positions yet," the report said. The official statement with details is yet to be released. The Ecumenical Patriarchate has dissolved the Archdiocese of Russian Orthodox Churches in Western Europe. "From informed sources, we learned that the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate gathered today at the Phanar. They have just decided to dissolve the Archdiocese of the Russian Orthodox Churches in Western Europe by repealing the Patriarchal Tomos of 1999," Orthodoxie.com wrote. The official statement with details is yet to be released, the report says. As UNIAN reported earlier, on October 11, following a meeting of the Synod of the Constantinople Patriarchate, a decision was made public that the Ecumenical Patriarchate proceeded to granting autocephaly to the Church of Ukraine. Read alsoTomos for Ukraine: Synod of Ecumenical Patriarchate convenes in Istanbul The letter of the Synod of 1686 was also canceled, thus pulling Ukraine Church from under the jurisdiction of Moscow. Decisions on excommunication of heads of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, Filaret and Makariy, were also lifted. On October 15, the Russian Orthodox Church decided to break the eucharistic communication with the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Without a pardon, the 69-year-old Manafort could spend the rest of his life in prison, experts said. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he has not ruled out granting a pardon to his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, who has pleaded guilty to a range of federal charges from money laundering to unregistered lobbying. "It was never discussed, but I wouldn't take it off the table. Why would I take it off the table?" the president told the New York Post during an Oval Office interview, Reuters reported. Prosecutors for the special counsel investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election said in a court filing on Monday that Manafort had lied to them, breaching 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," Special Counsel Robert Mueller said in the filing. The filing did not give details but promised more as part of a presentencing report. Manafort said in the same filing that he disagreed with the special counsel's assertion that he had lied, but both sides agreed the court should move ahead and sentence him for his crimes. Read alsoPoroshenko's office denies cooperation with Manafort in 2014 Without a pardon, the 69-year-old Manafort could spend the rest of his life in prison, experts said. The breakdown in the plea deal means that Manafort will almost certainly be hit with a harsher sentence both for the crimes he pleaded guilty to in Washington and for his conviction in August in a separate case in Virginia on bank and tax fraud. Manafort was likely facing about 10 years in prison for the eight guilty counts in the Virginia case alone, sentencing experts have said. But the development also raised speculation that Manafort may be seeking to curry favor with Trump or protecting other associates who worked on the campaign. Trump has been vocal in his support for Manafort, lauding him as a "very good person" during the Virginia trial. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Belarus has been invited to join a project to create a Suez corridor, Belarusian Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Belarus to Egypt Sergei Rachkov has said. MINSK, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Nov, 2018 ) :Belarus has been invited to join a project to create a Suez corridor, Belarusian Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Belarus to Egypt Sergei Rachkov has said. "Belarus may join the work on creating a Russian industrial zone," Sergei Rachkov said in an interview with the middle East news agency MENA, BelTA has learned. The ambassador said Belarus supported efforts to prepare a free trade agreement between Egypt and the Eurasian Economic Union. "We hope the negotiations on the draft agreement will begin by the end of the year," said the diplomat. Speaking about bilateral trade, Sergei Rachkov pointed out that Belarus hopes Egypt would lift a number of barriers, which are still present in the bilateral relations including registration of a number of Belarusian companies and their trademarks. "We expect that if Belarusians are allowed to acquire visas upon arrival in the Cairo International Airport, it will invigorate business contacts and cooperation," said the diplomat. (@FahadShabbir) The Russian market, which is very attractive for inward investment, is critical for the UAE state-owned Mubadala sovereign wealth fund, Mubadala CEO Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak said on Wednesday, stressing the importance of its co-investment partnership with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), under which the company had invested over $1.4 billion in Russia. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th November, 2018) The Russian market , which is very attractive for inward investment, is critical for the UAE state-owned Mubadala sovereign wealth fund, Mubadala CEO Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak said on Wednesday, stressing the importance of its co-investment partnership with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), under which the company had invested over $1.4 billion in Russia "Russia is an extremely important market for the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi and Mubadala. Our nations have proudly enjoyed strong and multidimensional relations for many decades. We are strategic partners on regional and global challenges, and our economic, cultural and trade ties continue to deepen at pace ... In this regard, Russia is a critical market for us," the Mubadala CEO said at the VTB Capital's 10th annual "Russia Calling!" Investment Forum. According to the Mubadala CEO, this was reflected by the recent rapid growth of Russian-UAE trade, which increased by over 30 percent in 2017. He added that Mubadala had been gradually strengthening its position in the Russian market, noting the significance of the co-investment partnership with the RDIF for the two parties. "This partnership has gone from strength to strength and has become the platform for our future in Russia. Under this partnership, Mubadala has, in aggregate, invested over $1.4 billion across more than 40 transactions in Russia, achieving double digit IRR [Iinternal Rate of Return] in Dollar terms," he revealed, recalling that the total investment pledged by the company and the UAE government totaled $6 billion. The annual "Russia Calling!" Investment Forum brings together investors, businessmen and policymakers, from all over the world and aims to promote strategic investment in the Russian economy. Vietnam has so far lured foreign investment of 30.8 billion U.S. dollars this year, seeing a year-on-year decline of 6.8 percent, according to its Foreign Investment Agency on Wednesday. HANOI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Nov, 2018 ) :Vietnam has so far lured foreign investment of 30.8 billion U.S. Dollars this year, seeing a year-on-year decline of 6.8 percent, according to its Foreign Investment Agency on Wednesday. Of the 30.8 billion U.S. dollars, nearly 23.2 billion U.S. dollars were registered capital of 2,714 new foreign-invested projects and additional capital of some existing projects, and the remainder was the money foreign investors used to buy shares or contribute capital to Vietnamese firms. Among the total foreign investment of 30.8 billion U.S. dollars in the 11-month period, 46.2 percent was poured into the local processing and manufacturing sector, 21.3 percent in real estate trading, and 10 percent in wholesales and retails, said the agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment. From January to November, realized capital of foreign-invested projects in Vietnam stood at 16.5 billion U.S. dollars, up 3.1 percent on-year, the agency said. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President, Sardar Masood Khan said that India was responsible of instability in South Asian region. MIRPUR (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Nov, 2018 ) : Azad Jammu and Kashmir AJK ) President, Sardar Masood Khan said that India was responsible of instability in South Asian region. The AJK president said this while addressing at the International Defence Exhibition and Seminar (IDEAS-2018) held at Karachi Expo Centre on the topic of "Genesis of Instability in the Country and Region", the AJK President Masood Khan said conflict over Jammu and Kashmir between India and Pakistan remained the major cause of instability in the region, says a statement issued here on Wednesday. He said that India has unleashed three wars in the region. The first war is being fought by the 700,000 Indian occupation troops against the unarmed people of Kashmir, where 100,000 Kashmiris have been killed since 1989. The second war waged by India is in the form of violations of the Line of Control (LOC) and the Working Boundary mainly targeting civilians and the third war is the proxy wars in Balochistan, FATA and Pakistan's urban centres, as well as penetration of Indian operatives into religious places, political entities and civil society, he said. India sustains these proxy wars to punish Pakistan for its stance and endeavours on Kashmir, the AJK president added. He asserted that non-resolution of the Kashmir dispute was a major destabilizing factor in the region and will continue to cast its shadow in the future. President AJK also paid tribute to the Armed Forces of Pakistan for successfully carrying out the Zarb-i-Azb and Rad-ul-Fasaad operations that have dismantled the backbone of terrorists and steered the radicalized and violent extremists towards responsible citizens of the country. He congratulated Chief of the Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa for the spectacular successes of the Army in their multiple missions. The AJK president on the occasion paid homage to the tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians who have laid down their lives in war against terrorism and extremism. To accelerate delivery of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Companys (ADNOC) Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme, the company held a one-day forum with LEGO Education in order to deepen the companys strategic partnership with the organisation and enhance the next generations education in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). ABU DHABI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 28th Nov, 2018) To accelerate delivery of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Companys (ADNOC) Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme, the company held a one-day forum with LEGO Education in order to deepen the companys strategic partnership with the organisation and enhance the next generations education in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Senior leaders from LEGO Education and their partner ATLAB a technology-based learning solutions company visited the ADNOC School in Sas Al Nakhl, where they met with administrators, teachers and students to evaluate the success of ADNOCs LEGO Education programme, assess the effectiveness of classrooms innovative learning studios and identify expansion and enhancement opportunities with the goal of ensuring the programme continues to deliver valuable learning solutions for the year ahead. Speaking at the forum, Reem Al Buainain, Manager of CSR at ADNOC, said, "We place great emphasis on building strong STEM initiatives that enable our youth to develop the skills needed to power their careers while supporting the UAEs economic development plans for Centennial 2071. Our successful partnership with LEGO Education demonstrates our commitment to ensuring that our nations students are well-equipped with the right training, mindset and work ethic to contribute to the future success and prosperity of the UAE." Josh Graham, Region Manager for the middle East, Africa and the Ukraine at LEGO Education, said, "This collaboration continues to equip students at ADNOC Schools with the STEM/STEAM skills needed to pursue 21st century jobs that, in some cases, are yet to exist. Discussing the LEGO Education innovation studios impact on learning with 300 teaching faculty at an ADNOC school campus was a fantastic highlight. In addition the forum helped showcase the positive impact that LEGO Educations resources and ADNOC Schools inspirational teachers have in the daily classroom, by delivering hands-on, playful learning experiences that ignite students natural curiosity and imagination." Dr. Kate Sutton Jones, Principal at the ADNOC Schools Sas Al Nahkl campus, said, "We were honored to host representatives of LEGO Education, ADNOC and ATLAB. Our visitors had the opportunity to view and interact with students using the LEGO Innovation Labs. It was exciting for all of us to see student engagement, demonstrations of their coding and programmeming ability alongside the all-important skills of creativity, collaboration, problem solving and communication. The visit ended with a presentation to faculty members on the future plans of this valuable initiative." In November 2017, ADNOC signed an agreement with ATLAB/Emphor, a strategic partner of LEGO Education, to construct LEGO Education Innovation Studios in all ADNOC Schools, establish creative labs, teacher training, and development programmes, and provide access to LEGO Educations global online collaboration communities. (@rukhshanmir) ABU DHABI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 28th Nov, 2018) The Central Bank of the UAE, CBUAE, and the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus, NBRB, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish an arrangement for sharing of supervisory information and enhancing of cooperation in the area of banking supervision. The Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, was signed by Mohammed Ali bin Zayed, Deputy Governor of CBUAE and Dmitry Lapko, Deputy Chairman of the board of NBRB. The MoU sets out an agreement for the two parties to cooperate closely in the sphere of supervision of banks and other financial institutions operating in both markets and exchange of supervisory information, based on the home/host information sharing in accordance with Basel Core Principles for Effective Banking Supervision. Mohammed Ali said, "We welcome increased cooperation between our two institutions to support the growing financial sector activity between the two countries, with a particular focus on capacity building and exchange of information. Indeed, an increasing level of financial business is already being witnessed with the UAE becoming a vibrant financial centre. Therefore, cooperation between home-host jurisdiction for effective and efficient banking supervision needs to be enhanced. Our two institutions have had a developed association for some time and regular cause for dialogue. The MoU will serve to enhance this relationship." In addition, the two banks have also agreed to collaborate with regard to training and technical assistance to enhance the professional skills of the staff. Other forms of technical assistance concerning banking and financial practices, such as specific technical issues relevant to the responsibilities of both banks, may also be exchanged. (@rukhshanmir) The UAE Government launched four new initiatives in a bid to develop work mechanisms in both the environment and municipality sectors in different regions across the UAE. ABU DHABI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 28th Nov, 2018) The UAE Government launched four new initiatives in a bid to develop work mechanisms in both the environment and municipality sectors in different regions across the UAE. The initiatives aim to promote the National Animal Welfare Plan, increase local agricultural and livestock production, and promote awareness about the concept of climate change and related measures amongst all entities in the UAE. The announcement took place during the Environment and Municipalities Working Group meeting held in line with the UAE Government Annual Meetings in Abu Dhabi. The meeting aimed to mobilise efforts of local and federal entities in the UAE to reduce and anticipate the effects of climate change and achieve the readiness requirements to address them. This can be achieved by adopting procedures and laws to protect the environment, develop agricultural and livestock production, reduce biological hazards and vector-borne diseases. Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of Climate Change and Environment, asserted that the UAE is making significant efforts to curb the impact of climate change and achieve sustainable economic growth, within the framework of the UAE Vision 2021 and the UAE National Plan for Climate Change 2050. These significant instruments developed an integrated national framework to unify efforts and boost cooperation between the public and private sectors, to ultimately serve the interests of the UAE on both the local and international levels. He further commended the efforts of the Working Groups working in the UAE Government Annual Meetings, the largest national meeting of its kind, held under the leadership of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces. He added that the main objective of these meetings is to launch strategies and initiatives that would enhance the UAEs developmental model and foster its march towards the UAE Centennial 2071. Al Zeyoudi pinpointed that the participation of the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment in the meetings, and the related workshops focused on developing various initiatives pertaining to the environment, further enhance the UAEs prominent stature in achieving sustainability in all sectors, promoting climate security, and supporting environment and natural resources preservation. The initiatives included drafting a Federal Law for Climate Change, developing a Smart Early Warning System for Biological Security, setting a National Plan for Enhancing Local Agricultural and Livestock Production, and finding a Unified Framework for Controlling Stray and Predatory Animals. Artificial Intelligence to Combat Agricultural Pests The UAE Government aims to use artificial intelligence, AI, to combat agricultural pests; monitor crops; increase and diversify food production to enhance local food security and reduce dependence on imported food products. It also aims to support local products in markets; develop sustainable agricultural systems; shift towards technology that is suitable to the local environment; and adopt remote sensing techniques for crop growth and livestock monitoring across the UAE. Smart Early Warning System for Biological Security The Smart Early Warning System for Biological Security initiative seeks to develop a nationwide smart e-system that documents reports pertaining to animal diseases, agricultural pests, notifications related to local and imported foods and biological security. This aims to provide a national platform for all community members to report cases of disease outbreaks, agricultural pests or food-related incidents. The platform will include representatives from the Ministry and other relevant entities to follow up on reports about animal diseases, agricultural pests or food-related incidents. It will also unify reporting procedures, accelerate collection and documentation of relevant information and take the appropriate actions related to enforcing or lifting bans. A National Plan for Enhancing Local Agricultural and Livestock Production The UAE Government also launched the National Plan for Enhancing Local Agricultural and Livestock Production initiative in a bid to prepare a unified and accurate database for agricultural and livestock production and unify agricultural and veterinary guidelines. It also aims to enable farmers and livestock breeders to manage agricultural and livestock production in a way that preserves sustainability of natural resources and yield commercial benefits to cover a substantial part of local consumption. Federal Law for Climate Change The Climate Change Federal Law initiative involves drafting a federal law that keeps pace with anticipated climate change challenges and their implications on the social and economic sectors. The law will establish the necessary prerequisites to ensure preparedness, in terms of procedures and regulations. It will cover four key areas, namely; organising and managing greenhouse gas emissions; ensuring climate change adaptation; governance, roles and responsibilities; and mandatory and voluntarily mitigation and adaptation reports. Unified Framework for Controlling Stray and Predatory Animals The Unified Framework for Controlling Stray and Predatory Animals initiative will focus on monitoring and evaluating the status quo; establishing a unified mechanism to control stray animals and predators through public- private coordination; and involving community members to reduce the numbers of such animals and better control them. Work Mechanism Fostering the Spirit of Integration The UAE Government Annual Meetings represent a work mechanism designed to enhance government integration at the federal and local levels and reflect the visions and goals of the UAE wise leadership. The meetings are chaired by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces; and with the participation of Their Highnesses the Crown Princes, and 500 ministers and officials from various local and federal government entities. Consul General (CG) of Thailand in Karachi Thatree Chauvachata said that last year of the bilateral trade volume between Pakistan and Thailand was $ 1.4 billion and there was a big space to increase it with more targeted steps by the two governments. KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Nov, 2018 ) :Consul General (CG) of Thailand in Karachi Thatree Chauvachata said that last year of the bilateral trade volume between Pakistan and Thailand was $ 1.4 billion and there was a big space to increase it with more targeted steps by the two governments. He said this while talking to journalists at a reception hosted in his honour at a hotel here, said a statement on Wednesday. He said that the steps to further enhance bilateral trade including enhanced exchange of information about trade on both sides, more business delegations visits to explore markets for sale and purchase of Thai and Pakistani goods and services. Increase in people-to-people contact was also imperative, he added. Thatree Chauvachata said in 2017 Thai Consulate issued 80,000 visas to Pakistanis and this year 100,000 visas were expected to be issued. The reception was attended by diplomats, representatives of multinational companies, Trade Adviser to Thai Consulate in Karachi Arif Suleman, Commissioner Karachi Iftikhar Ali Shahlwani and elite of the city. The Consul General said Thailand and Pakistan had good diplomatic relations for last 66 years, which were strengthening over the passage of time. He also described Karachi as the city of fun and life and praised the hospitality of Karachiites. The government needs to reduce cost of doing business by softening uncertain tax regime and stringent regulatory framework to allow huge number of SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) operating in the informal sector. LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Nov, 2018 ) :The government needs to reduce cost of doing business by softening uncertain tax regime and stringent regulatory framework to allow huge number of SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) operating in the informal sector. United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Senior Policy Advisor Suleman Ghani stated this in the first session of the second day proceedings of 3rd SME Conference organized by Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) with the assistance of University of Management and Technology (UMT) at Alahmra Hall. Speaking as chief guest Suleman Ghani pointed out that more than 90 per cent of the enterprises were SMEs but as compared to 3.2 million registered SMEs, a much higher number of SMEs were doing business in the informal sector, which were frightened to get registered because of the uneasy business environment in the country. No economy could flourish Without bringing informal sector enterprises into formal sector, he opined and suggested to address this issue on emergent basis to bring a better change in this direction, as the incumbent government had included the SME development in its top priority agenda. Earlier, SMEDA Chief Executive Officer Sher Ayub Khan said that SME sector played a vital role in accelerating economic growth through employment generation and poverty alleviation. Against this backdrop, he added, it was not surprising that SMEs had become a popular topic of academic research. USA, Japan and Malaysia were some examples which promoted universities to play an active role in determining policy direction based on concrete evidence, he said and hoped that SMEDA initiative to partner with UMT would pave a way for promoting industry-academia linkages with other national and international universities. He acknowledged that very useful insights had been gained into the diverse universe of SME sector during the conference, which would be helpful in influencing policy reforms and support the creation of robust and best practice SME ecosystem in Pakistan. Witnessing the great interest of stakeholders in the 3rd SME conference, CEO SMEDA announced to hold the 4th SME Conference in March 2019. Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) Zonal Chairman and Vice President Shafiq Anjum expressed satisfaction over SMEDA initiative to launch SME Conference as an annual feature and hoped that the research obtained through the conference would practically be utilized to formulate conducive policies for SMEs. This is notable that two research tracks and three panel-discussion sessions were held during the first day proceedings on SME Policy Framework, Entrepreneurship & Start-up Ecosystem, and Industry Innovation and Infrastructure, whereas on the second day, two panel discussions along with a research track sessions on Opportunities for SMEs, and Regional Integration in CPEC were conducted. Mariyan Stoyanov, Chief Director of the Directorate of SMEDevelopment, Bulgaria, was also present. (@FahadShabbir) The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has passed an interim order directing two companies, Omni Comm (Pvt.) Limited, and Lucky Gold (Pvt.) Limited, to stop using the trademark of "Pearl Continental" or "PC" hotel till the issuance of the final order by CCP. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Nov, 2018 ) :The Competition Commission of Pakistan CCP ) has passed an interim order directing two companies, Omni Comm (Pvt.) Limited, and Lucky Gold (Pvt.) Limited, to stop using the trademark of "Pearl Continental" or "PC" hotel till the issuance of the final order by CCP Pakistan Services Limited (PSL), a company that owns PC hotel, filed an application under Section 32 of the Competition Act, 2010 seeking interim relief in the matter of prima facie deceptive marketing practices by the two companies using the brand name and logo of PC hotel without any authorization, said a statement issued by CCP here on Wednesday. PSL had filed a formal complaint under the Competition Act that Omni Comm and Lucky Gold were running their hotels under the brand name of "PC Hotel" in Abbottabad and Faisalabad, respectively, without any authorisation, thus not only harming its business interests but also deceiving consumers. Although PSL had granted franchises to the Omni Comm for a four star hotel in Abbottabad and Lucky Gold for a four star hotel in Faisalabad, however, later on it had terminated the agreements due to not fulfilling the minimum requirements prescribed by PSL. Despite termination of the business agreements, the two companies were still using the trade name and logo of PC Hotel at their respective hotels. The CCP's enquiry found that Omni Comm and Lucky Gold were prima facie fraudulently using the brand name and logo of PSL. The CCP issued Show Cause Notices to the two companies. Meanwhile, the PSL filed an application with the CCP seeking an Interim order in the case to prevent further damage to its business and goodwill until the CCP concludes its proceedings. After hearing the parties, the CCP's bench passed an interim order directing Omni Comm (Pvt.) Limited and Lucky Gold (Pvt.) Limited to immediately stop using Pakistan Services Limited trade mark "PC" and "Pearl Continental" for the branding of their hotels anywhere without the authorisation and approval of the complainant until the conclusion of the proceedings and issuance of the final order. The bench directed Omni Comm (Pvt.) Limited and Lucky Gold (Pvt.) Limited to submit a compliance report with the Commission within seven days. In its Order, CCP has recognized that part of any business's identity is the goodwill it has established with consumers, while part of a product's identity is the reputation it has earned for quality and value. In a larger sense, trademarks promote initiative and enterprise worldwide by rewarding the owners of trademarks with recognition and financial profit. Trademark protection also deter unfair competitors, such as counterfeiters, to use similar distinctive signs to market inferior or different products or services. This enables people with skill and enterprise to produce and market goods and services in fair conditions, thereby facilitating international trade. CCP is mandated under the Competition Act to ensure free competition in all spheres of commercial and economic activity, to enhance economic efficiency and to protect consumers from anti-competitive practices including deceptive marketing practices. Counter Terrorism Department of KP police here Wednesday arrested an afghan national collecting 'Bhatta' (extortion) from Charsadda Road. PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Nov, 2018 ) :Counter Terrorism Department of KP police here Wednesday arrested an afghan national collecting 'Bhatta' (extortion) from Charsadda Road. The CTD Official informed that Afghan extortionist Zakir Khan was used to call people in the name of banned outfit for collecting Bhatta. The CTD police seized his SIM and cell phone and shifted him to undisclosed location for interrogation. (@rukhshanmir) An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) Wednesday resuming the hearing of the case pertaining to murder of Barrister Fahad Malik testified two witnesses and summoned for more prosecution witnesses in the next date of hearing. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Nov, 2018 ) :An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) Wednesday resuming the hearing of the case pertaining to murder of Barrister Fahad Malik testified two witnesses and summoned for more prosecution witnesses in the next date of hearing. The court, in its previous hearings, had already testified five witnesses as well as three accused had been indicted including Arshad Mehmood, Nouman Khokhar and Raja Hashim. It is worth mentioning that Section 7 ATA was earlier removed by the ATC judge and transferred the case to lower courts against which the victims' brother Jawad Sohrab challenged the same in Islamabad High Court which restored the 7 ATA in the case and set aside the ATC judgment for dropping terrorism clauses and transferred it back to the ATC. The Shalimar police had booked accused Arshad Mehmood, Nouman Khokhar and at least eight others after Fahad Malik was gunned down near Shalimar Police Station in F-10/3 in the early hours of August 15, 2016. The court adjourned the hearing for a day for producing more case property. State Minister for Climatic Change (MOCC), Ms Zartaj Gul hoped for improvement in Indo-Pak ties with opening of Kartarpur Corridor, as these will likely to be better with Pakistan's gesture. MULTAN, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Nov, 2018 ) :State Minister for Climatic Change (MOCC), Ms Zartaj Gul hoped for improvement in Indo-Pak ties with opening of Kartarpur Corridor , as these will likely to be better with Pakistan 's gesture. Talking to reporters here on Wednesday,Zartaj Gul said that past governments preferred personal relations over national interests as far as relations between both the countries were concerned. She said that Prime Minister Imran Khan was the only gallant Prime Minister, who could speak courageously with other countries heads, adding that he would share his government's 100-day performance on November 29 in detail. The economic woes, the country was facing with, were created by previous government, which should be held responsible for it. Replying a question, Ms Gul stated that the government would honour its pledges made with the masses. To another question, she observed that it was not an easy task to construct 5 million homes.However, she added that the government was devising a strategy for it. The state minster informed that she was delighted that South Punjab was a fertile land, where great brains existed and it was producing potential and talented minds so far. Ms Gul said that government was taking measures to deal with the climatic change issues. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan has warned against any delay in the time tag for completion of Peshawar Rapid Bus Transit. PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Nov, 2018 ) : Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan has warned against any delay in the time tag for completion of Peshawar Rapid Bus Transit. "The whole project should see the light of the day within March. Any delay on the part of both the public sector entity and the contractors would trigger severe punishment," he further warned. He was presiding over a meeting to review and accelerate the pace of work on three reaches of BRT Peshawar along with the feeding routes and overall reconstruction, widening of roads on the main artery along the BRT at Chief Minister Secretariat Peshawar. Provincial Minister Taimoor Salim Jhagra and Provincial Spokesman, Ajmal Khan Wazir, ACS Shahzad Bangash, Head of SSU Sahibzada Saeed, Secretary Transport, Principal Secretary to CM Muhammad Israr, Commissioner Peshawar Shahab Ali Shah, contractors officials of Trans Peshawar Company, consultants and others attended. The Chief Minister was briefed about the physical obstructions in the construction work, the progress made so far and the time tag for construction work on different portions of the Bus Rapid Transit Peshawar. Addressing the meeting,Mahmood Khan directed the participants that it is a project of unique nature having multiple and additional features, therefore, it is the third generation efficient transport project giving one solution to all traffic congestion to the whole of Peshawar. The time tag have already been settled, the import of buses is round the corner, all preparations already completed. He was mindful of the hardships, the people of Peshawar suffered and he was equally aware of the bottlenecks in the project. He said that the government had opted for the international bidding of the project and that was facilitated in order to ensure the unhindered continuation of work and timely completion of the project. Chief Minister directed for round the clock monitoring and supervision of the construction work.He directed to form monitoring and supervisory teams tokeep an open eye on the construction, implementation of his directives andensure the timely completion of this mega project. (@FahadShabbir) National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Wednesday arrested Lahore Parking Company's (LPC) former chief Hafiz Nauman from Lahore High Court (LHC) premises after a division bench dismissed his pre-arrest bail petition in an alleged scam of the company. LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Nov, 2018 ) : National Accountability Bureau NAB ) on Wednesday arrested Lahore Parking Company 's (LPC) former chief Hafiz Nauman from Lahore High Court (LHC) premises after a division bench dismissed his pre-arrest bail petition in an alleged scam of the company The bench, comprising Justice Muhammad Tariq Abbasi and Justice Mirza Viqas Rauf, heard Hafiz Nauman's plea. At the outset of proceedings, Hafiz Nauman, who was on interim bail till November 28, appeared before the bench. NAB's prosecutor submitted that all accused except Hafiz Nauman had been arrested in the case. He submitted that the LPC was bound to develop parking sites on 246 places as per contract with city district government. However, he said, that the company showed only 33 sites functional whereas 132 more parking sites were established on ground but they were shown non-functional in record. There was no record of these sites and money obtained from them were embezzled by the accused, he added. He further argued that the parking contracts were not awarded in accordance with rules and regulations. He contended that the steps caused a loss to national exchequer and pleaded with the court to dismiss pre-arrest bail petition. However, Nauman's counsel Asad Manzoor Butt argued that all allegations levelled against his client were baseless and contended that the NAB did not have any solid evidence against him. He submitted that the NAB had failed to determine any liability against his client in challan (charge-sheet) submitted in the trial court. He submitted that as per contract, it was duty of the city district government to provide space for 246 parking sites but it failed and provided spaces for only 33 sites. He submitted that all contracts were awarded in accordance with rules and regulations. He contended that the NAB initiated unlawful inquiry into parking contracts issued by the company. He pleaded with the court to extend interim bail of his client. However, the bench after hearing arguments dismissed the bail petition. The bench also dismissed post arrest bail petitions of LPC's ex-CEO Taseer Ahmad and Ex-MD Usman Qayyum who had already been arrested by the bureau. Lahore Police Operations Wing have arrested 13850 accused involved in street crime, dacoity, robbery, drug peddling, gambling and other crimes during last 100 days. LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Nov, 2018 ) : Lahore Police Operations Wing have arrested 13850 accused involved in street crime, dacoity, robbery , drug peddling, gambling and other crimes during last 100 days. The police have also recovered 1274 pistols, 79 rifles, 14 kalashankoves, 62 guns, three daggers and 17115 bullets from their procession. Police have recovered 25850 bottles of liquor, 16kg heroin, 571kg charas and 21kg opium from drug peddlers. On secret information, 16 lacs rupees have been recovered from gamblers. As many as 3928 accused have been booked for violation of one wheeling, rental act and sound system act. DIG Operations Lahore Waqas Nazir said that special teams have been constituted for the arrest of hardcore criminals involved in heinous crimes. He further said that special teams are conducting raids in different areas of the city on daily basis to arrest criminals. (@FahadShabbir) KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Nov, 2018 ) :In tandem with various activities on the 2nd day of IDEAS 2018, various dignitaries from Italy, Jordan, Poland, Sri Lanka and Turkey called on Vice Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Kaleem Shaukat, said a press release issued by Directorate of Public Relations of Pakistan Navy. Prominent amongst the visiting dignitaries were Commander Royal Jordanian Naval Forces, Brigadier General Ibrahim Salman Al Naimat Deputy Director and Secretary General of Defence National Armament Italy, Admiral Dario Giacomin Dg Admin Sri Lankan Navy, Rear Admiral KG Paul Director Armament Poland Army, Brig General Karlo Dymonowski Vice President Defence Industries Turkey, Murat Seker and Vice President M/S Leonardo Italy, Maurizio Facchin. During the meetings, matters related to mutual defence collaboration including joint development of platforms, equipment and sensors, training exchange programmes in diverse fields and common maritime challenges were discussed. As a capstone activity in IDEAS-2018, National Centre for Maritime Policy Research (NCMPR) Karachi Chapter of National Institute of Maritime Affairs (NIMA) under the auspices of Pakistan Navy organized a Maritime Conference on the topic "Maritime Security Dynamics and Requirement of Innovative Solutions for Indian Ocean Region". Vice Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Kaleem Shaukat was the chief guest and Brigadier General Ibrahim Salman Al Naimat, Commander of Royal Jordanian Naval Forces as the Guest of Honour in the conference. Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Ali Haider Zaidi also participated in the conference. While addressing on the occasion the minister stated, "We are sitting at the doorstep of a diamond mine, and Pakistan Navy's efforts to enhance awareness in maritime sector are commendable." During the conference, apart from prominent domestic speakers, eminent foreign scholars also dwelled upon myriad of complex military and maritime related challenges and their solutions. Vice Chief of Naval Staff while highlighting the significance of Indian Ocean Region in prevailing milieu, dilated upon the myriad of maritime security challenges being faced by the littoral states. He emphasized that besides, collaboration and information sharing with partner nations, the demands of effective maritime domain awareness also require capability enhancement through technological innovations. Only by utilizing latest technological solutions coupled with apt tactics, we can address evolving maritime security challenges, he added. While highlighting the role of Pakistan Navy in maritime security efforts, Vice Chief of Naval Staff said that Pakistan Navy had remained an active contributor in multinational coalition efforts. Recently, it has also embarked upon a strategic initiative of Regional Maritime Security Patrol to further the objective of regional maritime security. In his address on the occasion, Commander Royal Jordanian Naval Forces expressed that maritime security challenges are complex and inter-connected. The only solution to tackle these challenges lies in greater cooperation and collaboration amongst all stakeholders. He applauded the contents of the papers by the speakers and commended Pakistan Navy for spearheading multilateral maritime engagements to contribute effectively to the overall regional security environment in general; and maritime domain, in particular. Earlier, Vice Admiral (Rtd) Sayid Khawar Ali, DG NIMA delivered the keynote address and enlightened the audience on the importance of conference topic. The conference was attended by high-level civil and military officials, eminent maritime stakeholders and world renowned defence industry entrepreneurs. The Government today said it was optimistic that a majority of MPs would vote to pass the Vote on Account (VoA) as it was a matter of national interest. Minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara said if the VoA had any relevance to the MPs and the MPs were interested in the VoA, they would vote for it irrespective of political differences. The VoA is not a political issue but a matter which affects the entire country. It is about the expenditures of the country. The MPs will vote for it based on the effect the VoA will have on them. If the VoA was defeated, the Government will lose as per the standard, he said at a news briefing held at Prime Ministers Office. He said they will present the VoA to Parliament when the time was right after considering other facts such as the determination of the Supreme Court on Parliament dissolution. Meanwhile, he said they hoped to pass a resolution in Parliament to expunge all Hansard reports which were published since November 14 since the Parliament had been dissolved by the President prior to that day.(Lahiru Pothmulla) The Accountability Court Wednesday provided a questionnaire to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to record his statement under Section 342 in Flagship Investment corruption reference. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Nov, 2018 ) :The Accountability Court Wednesday provided a questionnaire to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to record his statement under Section 342 in Flagship Investment corruption reference. The court had included 62 questions in the list which was shared with the defense side after Khawaja Haris concluded his cross-examining with National Accountability Bureau (NAB)'s Investigation Officer Muhammad Kamran. The NAB would also submit its statement with the court on Thursday regarding the completion of its evidence in Flagship Investment reference against Sharif family members. Accountability Court Judge Arshad Malik resumed hearing on Flagship Investment reference filed by NAB against Sharif family. Former prime minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif also appeared before the court to attend the proceeding. Earlier, Nawaz's counsel Khawaja Haris continued his cross examining with NAB IO Muhammad Kamran, who informed the trial court that the former prime minister didn't mention the certain companies of Hassan Nawaz during his address at floor of the National Assembly. However, the accused collectively talked about the business of his sons in abroad, he said. He said Nawaz Sharif didn't hold any public office during the time of 1999 to 2013. After the defense concluded his cross-examining with NAB IO, the court shared a list of 62 questions with the accused to record his statement in Flagship Investment reference. Meanwhile, the NAB would also record its statement on Thursday regarding thecompletion of evidence in Flagship Investment reference. (@rukhshanmir) Analysts and Indian Journalist on Wednesday hailed the foundation stone laying of the Kartarpur corridor as the "beginning of a new chapter" in India-Pakistan ties and said it would open new chapters of cooperation and trust building between two nations. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Nov, 2018 ) :Analysts and Indian Journalist on Wednesday hailed the foundation stone laying of the Kartarpur corridor as the "beginning of a new chapter" in India-Pakistan ties and said it would open new chapters of cooperation and trust building between two nations. Defense Analyst Lt Gen (Retd) Raza Muhammad Khan, talking to Radio Programme said, opening of Kartarpur border has a great significance for Sikh community living all over the world, adding , the continuation of such gestures is imperative to bridge the gaps between two countries. "We have always desired to normalize the relation between Islamabad and New Delhi however India is habitual of sabotaging peace initiatives taken by Pakistan", he said. Free Lancer-Assistant Editor Time of India Nilofar Suhrawardi adds, opening of Kartarpur border is a very positive and welcoming development for both sides of the border. The relation between India and Pakistan are very complex and such friendly gestures would help in normalizing the ties between two countries, she mentioned. She further said both the country should move forward, stop criticizing and blaming each other. Sincere efforts are required to defuse tensions and improve bilateral relations, said, adding, all regional issues must be resolved through dialogues. Indian Journalist Vinod Dua also lauded said, it is a very appreciable initiative and we all should welcome this friendly gesture taken by the government of Pakistan. The establishments of India and Pakistan have their own interests but a common man of two countries wants to ease and normalize the ties, he highlighted. Opening of Kartarpur border is a great opportunity to thaw the frosty relationship between the two neighbours. The bilateral ties between India and Pakistan have seen many ups and downs in the past, however any goodwill gesture provides an opportunity to bridge the gaps and move forward to sustain peace in the region. He said the establishment must realize that both the countries are facing similar problems and these issues can only be resolved with mutual cooperation and understanding. Kartarpur is a very sacred place for Sikh community and opening of Kartarpur border has great significance for Sikh community, he added. Independent Scholar India Saleem Kidwai said, Kartarpur border is a very welcoming and appreciable development to facilitate Sikh community and improve bilateral ties between India and Pakistan. People to people contacts will help in bridging the gaps and would open new era of cooperation between Islamabad and New Delhi, he added. IR Expert Dr. Farooq Hasnat , the government of Pakistan gave priority to the religious sentiments of Sikh community and took this bold initiative to facilitate the Sikh community to perform religious obligations. Pakistan is most vulnerable country to climatic changes without adding anything to its causes and the government has a plan to plant 10 billion trees across the country as a step to tackle it. MULTAN, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Nov, 2018 ) : Pakistan is most vulnerable country to climatic changes without adding anything to its causes and the government has a plan to plant 10 billion trees across the country as a step to tackle it. State Minster for Climatic Change Zartaj Gul said this while addressing the opening of two-day international conference on "Soil and Crop Health in Changing Climate" at MNSUA, here on Wednesday. She informed, "Pakistan was not making any contribution to climatic change and specially global warming, but we are among most affected people by it." The PTI government planted trees in last tenure and these are now growing and blooming, the minister said, adding, "We are unable to walk in DG Khan, Multan, Faisalabad and Karachi in the morning owing to shortage of trees and land mafia who has captured footpaths." The government will build washrooms in schools and colleges as these are among the basic needs, Gul stated and added, "Cleanliness is part of our faith." She informed that up to 12 small dams could be built in South Punjab as this is dire need of the hour. People did not pay tax to previous governments because they have no trust, the minister said, adding that now they are donating for dams because they believe in Prime Minister Imran Khan as a trustworthy leader. Gul stated that government is taking concrete steps to resolve these issues and is looking forward for Public Private Partnership (PPP) for it because government cannot cope with climatic changes alone. Addressing the conference, Australian Delegate, Dr Sergey Shabala said that salinity would be 21st century problem number one, adding that agriculture would be saline in the century. He disclosed that land desalinization was progressing day by day and 930 million hectare land of the world has already been affected by it. Potassium is very vital for plants. Earlier, in his welcome address, Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University of Agriculture (MNSUA) VC Dr Asif Ali highlighted the on-going projects and gave an overview of the varsity. He appreciated department of Soil and Environmental Sciences for holding a big gathering of environmentalists, agriculturalists, academia and other stakeholders. A large number of students, agriculture based companies and faculty members attended the conference. Later, the minister visited stalls set up by students and Agriculture department. Pakistan China Friendship Group ((PCFG) Wednesday underlined the need to make friendship group more vibrant, focused and result oriented. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Nov, 2018 ) : Pakistan China Friendship Group ((PCFG) Wednesday underlined the need to make friendship group more vibrant, focused and result oriented. The meeting was chaired by Convener of the Friendship Group Deputy Chairman Senate Senator Saleem Mandviwala. Members of the Committee Senators Nouman Wazir Khattak and Mohsin Aziz besides Director General (China), Ministry of Foreign Affairs also attended the meeting. The Friendship Group had also extended special invitation to Chinese Ambassador Yao Jing to brief the group on ways and means to further consolidate the ties between the two countries. Senator Mandviwala observed that friendship group had to play a proactive role in enhanced cooperation between the two sides. He said the Group had to identify some targets and make collective efforts to achieve those goals. "Goal oriented mechanism and approach will be beneficial for Islamabad and Beijing on equal basis and it will help in creating a level playing atmosphere for investors from both sides", he said. The Group also condemned the recent attack on Chinese Consulate in Karachi. Senator Saleem Mandviwala said that the attack was a conspiracy hatched by forces bent upon undermining the friendship between Pakistan and China. He also lauded the sacrifices of the security forces and expressed sympathies with the victim families. The Chinese Ambassador gave a detailed overview of Pakistan and China relationship and said that the Group was highly important as it could provide an opportunity for exchange of thoughts in sharing experiences to further expedite the process of development and explore new avenues for cooperation in trade and business sectors.He said that the visit of the Prime Minister Imran Khan to China had opened a new era of relationship and China was keen to work closely with the new regime in Pakistan.He said that CPEC was an important component of bilateral relations between the two countries and all projects were result of mutual consultation process. (@FahadShabbir) President Dr. Arif Alvi on Wednesday expressed deep appreciation for the Emir of Qatar's decision to import 100,000 workers from Pakistan. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Nov, 2018 ) :President Dr. Arif Alvi on Wednesday expressed deep appreciation for the Emir of Qatar 's decision to import 100,000 workers from The President stated this while talking to Sheikh Falah Bin Jassim Bin Jabor Al-Thani, Member of the Ruling Family of the State of Qatar, who called on him. The Sheikh is on a visit to Pakistan at the invitation of Chairman Senate. The President warmly welcomed the visiting dignitary. He expressed satisfaction on the steady growth of bilateral relations, particularly increasing volume of Pakistan's export to Qatar following the linking of Karachi Port with Hamad Port. Noting the contribution of Pakistani manpower in the progress and development of Qatar, the President offered the services of skilled, semi-skilled and un-skilled Pakistani workers to meet the requirements of Qatari job market. He appreciated Qatar's decision to choose Pakistan for setting up Qatari visa centers, to streamline the recruitment process and assured Qatari dignitary of Pakistan's full cooperation in the matter. Underscoring the importance of leadership level contacts between the two countries, the President looked forward to the next session of Joint Ministerial Commission in Doha early next year. He extended an invitation to Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to visit Pakistan. Sheikh Falah Bin Jassim Bin Jabor Al-Thani thanked the President for meeting. Expressing deep association and affection for Pakistan and its people, the Qatari dignitary informed that Qatar was now importing 140,000 workers from Pakistan. Referring to Port Qasim Coal fire power plant, he observed that the $1.5 billion project was the first joint venture in China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) between Power China and Al Mirqab. He expressed the confidence that the Gwadar port will emerge as a major regional port within 15-20 years. The President conveyed his best wishes and prayers for the health and happiness of the Emir and lasting peace, progress and prosperity of the brotherly people of Qatar. Chairman Senate Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani, Senators Naseebullah Bazai and Ahmed Khan were also present. The German-based Rohde and Schwarz group presented its state-of-the-art secure communications products and systems at the ongoing 10th International Defence Exhibition and Seminar (IDEAS 2018). KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Nov, 2018 ) :The German-based Rohde and Schwarz group presented its state-of-the-art secure communications products and systems at the ongoing 10th International Defence Exhibition and Seminar (IDEAS 2018 ). The company is displaying SCA-compliant software-defined radios with high-data rate waveforms and VoIP-based communications solutions for naval platforms and for air traffic control (ATC). Rohde & Schwarz is the general contractor of the joint radio system of the German armed forces for digitizing land-based operations. Officials of the Munich-based company while briefing media on Wednesday said the gadgets on display include R&S SDxR - Tactical networked radios. The core of this new generation of software-defined radios is an SCA (Software Communications Architecture) 2.2.2 radio platform, which marks a revolutionary change in tactical communications. The SCA radio platform supports standardized, legacy and Rohde & Schwarz proprietary waveforms and makes it easy to port waveforms. The new member of the R&S SDxR family for airborne communications offers advanced command and control (C2) capabilities to achieve information superiority and total situational awareness. The R&S SDAR is the only software defined airborne radio that meets both military and civil safety avionics standards, providing full independence for joint civil-military operations. The R&S SDTR is optimized for use in vehicles, meeting stringent requirements on vibration, size, and weight and power consumption. It features high output power without external amplifiers and integrated cosite filters for interference-free operation. The R&S SDHR is a multi-band hand held radio system that supports up to two voice channels and IP data transmission in parallel. It has been designed for use by dismounted soldiers under harsh field conditions. The R&S HDR (high data rate) waveforms support IP-based applications and can be used to set up robust and secure network topologies. MANET functionality provides access to radio nodes even across networks and beyond topographical restraints. Communications were said to be jam-resistant and tap-proof by means of TRANSEC (very fast frequency hopping) and COMSEC (high-level encryption). R&S NAVICS, Naval integrated communications system R&S NAVICS, also on display at the exhibition was said to be a reliable solution to internal and external communications on all ship classes. It offers innovative IP technology and state-of-the-art user friendliness, while the modern voice terminals with smartphone-like operation provide connections between all designated locations on board, said the officials. The use of IP allows the system to be easily expanded in order to include additional communication services such as video-over-IP/CCTV, broadcast and alarm (BAA) and ship's telephone equipment (STE) subsystems. R&S NAVICS, they said permits integration with wireless headset systems or an on-board wireless communication system (WCS) to allow freedom of movement, e.g. on the bridge, the flight deck and the entire ship. Another important component of the system was said to be R&S VCS-4G, Voice communication system. The IP-based voice communication system, they said was a flexible and cost-effective solution to all voice communications needs for civil ATC, military ATC and air-defence deployments. It was said to meet established requirements for availability, reliability and safety as well as the growing need for dynamic scenarios with network-based sharing and distribution of operational resources. Built on future-ready technology, the R&S VCS-4G ensures protection of investment and provides next-generation ATC features, such as a virtual centre. The R&S VCS-4G enables full-featured radio communication between air traffic controllers and pilots, including specific radio remote control operation if required. Voice services such as intercom, telephony and IP PABX are supported. According to concerned experts the R&S VCS-4G solution follows a modern decentralized approach. Earlier, introducing the Rohde & Schwarz technology group, they said it developed, produced and marketed innovative communications, information and security products for professional users. The group's test and measurement, broadcast and media, aerospace (defence) security, networks and cyber security business fields were said to address many different industry and government-sector market segments. A Shelter Home to provide homeless people accommodation facility would be inaugurated here on Monday as all the arrangements in this regard were being finalized said Chairman Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) Arif Abbasi. RAWALPINDI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Nov, 2018 ) :A Shelter Home to provide homeless people accommodation facility would be inaugurated here on Monday as all the arrangements in this regard were being finalized said Chairman Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) Arif Abbasi. Talking to APP, he said the project is being launched to facilitate the poor and needy people and initially the arrangements were being made for 150 persons in the basement of Raja Bazar Parking Plaza while the facility would be enhanced gradually for 600 to 700 homeless citizens. The project is aimed at restoring the self-respect of those people who spend the night under the open sky, he said adding, it is also aimed at broadening the circle of social responsibility by the state and citizens. To a question, the Chairman informed that the expenditures of the shelter home would be borne through donations by the philanthropists. He further informed that he met with Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday and the PM appreciated efforts being made by RDA to remove encroachments. The Prime Minister directed him to take action in accordance with the law against encroachers and all the encroachments should be removed, he added. The PM also directed that the RDA should be run on modern lines and a public complaint cell should also be activated immediately to provide relief to the citizens,he said. "All out efforts be made to address the issues of the complainants within shortest possible time as such steps would help enhance confidence of the citizens on the public sector institutions." Imran Khan also instructed him to promote merit in RDA and enhance contacts with the citizens and officers of the authority, the chairman added. Arif Abbasi informed that the PM asked him to take notice on the public complaints and resolve them as soon as possible. He said, he thanked the PM and informed that all out efforts would be made to provide relief to the citizens according to the vision of the PM besides best efforts to make the authority a strong institution. FAISALABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th Nov, 2018 ) ::A joint meeting of FCCI (Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry) Standing Committees on Social Security and Employees Old age Benefits Institution (EOBI) held here on Wednesday with committee chairman Shahid Ahmed Sheikh in the chair. Shahid Ahmed Sheikh said that committee has arranged the facility of dialysis for kidney patients in collaboration with Rehman Foundation. Similarly this foundation is also providing medical facilities to children and skin patients. Representative of the Punjab Employees Social Security Institution (PESSI) told that a special social security desk is being established in Allied Hospital to facilitate the patients referred from Social Security Hospital to Allied Hospital for the specialized treatment of secured industrial workers. He told that a medical store in the close vicinity of Allied Hospital will also be nominated very soon so that the patients referred to Allied Hospital could get medicines from this store. Belarus, the only country in Europe still to use capital punishment, has executed two men convicted of six murders, local rights group Viasna said Wednesday, citing relatives. Minsk, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Nov, 2018 ) :Belarus, the only country in Europe still to use capital punishment, has executed two men convicted of six murders, local rights group Viasna said Wednesday, citing relatives. The executions were the first this year in the ex-Soviet country led for over two decades by veteran strongman Alexander Lukashenko. Three others are currently believed to be on death row. Belarusian authorities do not immediately inform relatives of executions and the bodies are not released to families. The European Union and the Council of Europe condemned the death sentences when they were announced. The two men, Igor Gershankov, 37, and Semion Berejnov, 32, were sentenced to death in July last year for murders linked to a real estate scam. The men were found to have posed as estate agents and persuaded elderly homeowners to sell them their apartments at knockdown prices, before killing them. Viasna said it learned of Berejnov's execution from his relatives on Tuesday. Gershankov's mother received confirmation of his death from a court on Wednesday after he stopped sending letters and prison authorities told her he was no longer in jail, the rights group said. The United Nations Human Rights Committee said this month that the death penalty "continues to be imposed and enforced" in Belarus and the country has not complied with its requests for a delay in sentencing or execution in six recent cases. It also condemned the practice of not informing relatives of the date of execution and not allowing them to bury the body as "traumatic" and "inhumane treatment." Belarus reportedly executes prisoners using a shot to the back of the head but the practice is highly secret and there are no official statistics. It executed at least two people last year who were convicted of murder and rape. Neighbouring Russia still has the death penalty but has not used it since 1996. In 2016, the European Union lifted most of the sanctions it had imposed in recent years against Lukashenko and other Belarusians, in a move to encourage progress on human rights. Nearly three quarters of the countries in the world have abolished or ceased to use the death penalty, according to Amnesty International. Canada calls on all parties in the civil unrest in Haiti to cooperate to find a solution to the situation there, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said in a statement on Wednesday. NEW YORK (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th November, 2018) Canada calls on all parties in the civil unrest in Haiti to cooperate to find a solution to the situation there, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said in a statement on Wednesday. "We call on all parties to work toward finding a solution," the statement said. "Canada is very concerned about the recent civil unrest in Haiti and is deeply saddened by the loss of life." Freeland and Bibeau noted that as a long-standing partner of Haiti, Canada would cooperate with local actors to fight corruption, encourage transparency and promote the rule of law in the country. Earlier this month, four Haitian customs officers and two civilians were killed in the town of Malpasse after engaging in an argument. The killings took place as participants in nation-wide protests demand that President Jovenel Moise resign for not having investigated allegations of suspected embezzlement of funds in the Venezuelan PetroCaribe program, which provided Haiti with discounted oil prices. Police said it has arrested some 20 people in the nationwide protests, but protest organizers said 11 people have been killed, 45 wounded and 75 arrested, according to local media. At the Daily Mirror, we believe that climate change is one of the greatest threats that we, as Sri Lankans, will face in the future. Therefore, we intend to provide our readers with local and international content with the objective to educate and inspire. We would also like to learn from our valued readers about any ongoing initiatives in making Sri Lanka a more sustainable nation. We aim to explore sustainable ways of living that have the most positive impact on not just our natural environment, but also for humans and animals. While topics such as global warming, pollution, and inequality are confronting, we believe it's time the media stopped shying away from these issues and became an active participant in finding solutions - and we hope you will join us. Regardless of which part of the world you live in, adverse weather is becoming a commonality, increasingly hindering the day to day lives of many people across the globe. However in Bangladesh, adverse weather, especially in the form of monsoons, wreak havoc on a regular basis. In North Western Bangladesh, children are often affected the most, disrupting their education and endangering health. Children are often forced to brave heavy winds and rains for just a few hours of school, even making them unable to attend school for months at times. Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha, a local non-profit organisation however brings these children a ray of hope in times of difficulty. The organisation was founded by Mohammed Rezwan, an Architect by profession. For Rezwan the need was personal. Even though he was successful in education, he saw many in his hometown deprived of access to education due to the harsh weather during monsoons. With $500 of his own school scholarship money and an old computer, Rezwan set out to help the children of Bangladesh in any way he can. He considered dedicating his life to building schools and hospitals, but soon realized whatever he built would soon be inundated, come monsoons. Rezwan was then struck with the idea of boats, but had nobody to invest in his ambitious project. After four years of hard work to collect funds, Rezwan finally had enough money to build his first floating school. The boat first serves as a school bus, making periodic stops to get children onboard from riverside areas. The boat then docks and the class begins Rezwans floating schools move from door to door to ensure that the education of children is not hampered by the rains. The boat first serves as a school bus, making periodic stops to get children onboard from riverside areas. The boat then docks and the class begins. With three classes conducted each day, the floating school is always busy and full of eager kids. Each school consists of a classroom for 30 students, a laptop, a library full of books and electronic resources. The boat school provides basic primary education up to grade four. Whats more, the organisation has also introduced a unique environment based curriculum that teaches how to protect the environment and conserve water. Today, Rezwans organization runs a fleet of boats acting as libraries, education centers and solar powered workshops. The boats themselves are outfitted with solar panels which power computers, lights and other equipment. What started out as a project to educate children, is today an important service provider to these otherwise cut-off areas in remote Bangladesh. The organisation also runs floating clinics which have doctors and paramedics. Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha has transformed the regions waterways into pathways for education, information and technology giving hope and much needed support to isolated waterside communities. SOURCE: Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha China, currently engaged in a trade war with the United States, is seeking to strengthen its ties with Spain and Portugal as other European Union members are trying to restrict Chinese investments. Madrid, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Nov, 2018 ) :China, currently engaged in a trade war with the United States, is seeking to strengthen its ties with Spain and Portugal as other European Union members are trying to restrict Chinese investments. China's President Xi Jinping began a three day visit to Spain on Tuesday on his way to a meeting of Group of 20 leaders in Argentina, and will stop in neighbouring Portugal on December 4-5 on his return home. "It's a political manoeuvre to maintain ties at a complicated time for China," Angel Sanchez, the director of the Centre for Global Economy and Geopolitics at Spain's ESADE business school, told AFP. The United States has imposed tariffs on more than $250 billion in Chinese goods in an attempt to pressure the country to reverse alleged unfair trade practices and US President Donald Trump this week warned he might impose tariffs on its remaining $267 billion in imports from the Asian giant, including iPhones made in China. European member states, meanwhile, are poised to decide on a European framework for assessing foreign investment wanted by EU heavyweights France and Germany in order to screen acquisitions by foreign companies, mainly Chinese, in strategic sectors such as energy. Paris, Berlin and to a lesser extent Rome are concerned that foreign groups are seeking to pilfer key technologies by buying their companies and have long called for European legislation to filter certain acquisitions. Now is the time for Chinese leaders to make public statements to try and assuage the concerns of EU member states, said Angel Saz Carranza. Rajiv Biswas, Asia Pacific chief economist for IHS Markit, added that "even if the EU agrees some screening process, in the end it's still up to each individual country to decide what they want," Emerging local brands sped up in gaining market share in China over the past three years, underscoring the evolution of the country's booming retail sector, according to industry observers. SHANGHAI, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Nov, 2018 ) :Emerging local brands sped up in gaining market share in China over the past three years, underscoring the evolution of the country's booming retail sector, according to industry observers. China's fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry saw its expansion moderate in the first half of 2018, while posting a two-speed growth trajectory, with personal and home care growing at a much faster rate than food and beverage, according to the latest annual China shopper report from market research firms Kantar Worldpanel and Bain & Company. Sixty-seven percent of the 46 local FMCG emerging brands the report tracked grew at least two times faster than their category average. While representing roughly a 6 percent market share across the 33 categories they are in, these new players delivered nearly 20 percent of the revenue growth from 2015 to 2017 in these categories, the report showed. "We are seeing local emerging brands continue to grow in China and it demonstrates just how unique and fascinating the landscape is, as well as how challenging it is to navigate effectively," said Jason Yu, Managing Director of Kantar Worldpanel Greater China and co-author of the report. Bruno Lannes, a partner in Bain's Greater China Consumer Products practice, said these fledgling companies demonstrate an entrepreneurial mission, innovations focused on Chinese consumers, and more speed and agile operating models, which give them a leg up in taking market share from established global and local brands. The report suggested that incumbents, especially multinationals, need to localize everything from product design to branding to marketing, delegate innovation, marketing, distribution and other decisions affecting their China business to their China teams, and boost their ability to act quickly on market opportunities. The European Court of Human Rights confirmed to Sputnik on Wednesday that a collective action had been filed against Russia on behalf of people whose relatives died when Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashed in eastern Ukraine in 2014.< MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th November, 2018) The European Court of Human Rights confirmed to Sputnik on Wednesday that a collective action had been filed against Russia on behalf of people whose relatives died when Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashed in eastern Ukraine in 2014. "We can now confirm to you receipt by the Court's Registry of the application in question, lodged against Russia on behalf of 95 individuals who claim that they are relatives of persons who died when flight MH17 was downed," the court said in a statement. The Boeing 777 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was brought down near the city of Donetsk by what an international group of investigators said was a Russian-made Buk missile originating with a military brigade stationed in the Russian city of Kursk. Rebels in eastern Ukraine denied having such advanced weaponry. The Russian Foreign Ministry said there was no evidence of Russia's alleged role in the air disaster, which claimed 298 lives. The ministry accused the Dutch-led investigation of bias. The Russian Defense Ministry said the missile that downed Flight MH17 had been in Ukraine's arsenal since 1986. (@FahadShabbir) Abidjan, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th Nov, 2018 ) :Five people were killed and 141 injured during clashes between different ethnic groups in western Ivory Coast, the government said Wednesday. Fighting broke out between the Yacouba and Malinke communities in the town of Zouan-Hounien on November 21, said government spokesman Sidi Toure. The clashes came after the death of a student in circumstances that were still not clear, a police source said. Four people have been detained and an investigation launched, said the spokesman. Two people were killed and many more injured in October last year after a property dispute degenerated into violence, in clashes that led 1,500 people to flee the region. France is going to increase its spending to promote the use of renewable energy from 5 billion euros ($5.6 billion) to 7-8 billion euros per year, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday. PARIS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th November, 2018) France is going to increase its spending to promote the use of renewable energy from Euros ($5.6 billion ) to 7-8 billion euros per year, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday. "Today the [French] state is spending 5 billion euros per year to develop renewable energy ... Under the [adopted] plan, from 7 to 8 billion euros will be allocated annually to [the renewable energy sector]," Macron said during a speech at the Elysee Palace. Macron also announced that France would close 14 of the country's 58 nuclear reactors currently in operation by 2035. The French president's speech came amid nationwide protests over fuel tax hikes, which Macron promised to adjust to the developments in the international oil market. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Abbas Araqchi arrived in Algeria on Wednesday to discuss expansion of bilateral relations between Iran and the African nation. ALGIERS, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Nov, 2018 ) :Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Abbas Araqchi arrived in Algeria on Wednesday to discuss expansion of bilateral relations between Iran and the African nation. Upon his arrival in Algiers, Araqchi told the Islamic Republic news Agency (IRNA) that the trip was in the framework of political talks and consulting regional and international issues. Algeria is Iran's friend, he said, adding that both countries were maintaining close relations based on friendliness and mutual respect. The 7th conference of Iran-Algeria joint committee is slated to be held in Algeria later today. The labourers edge their way across a field of bright purple flowers gathering up the world's most expensive spice, a bounty that makes this dusty corner of Iran a crucial part of global cuisine. Torbate Heydariyeh, Iran, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Nov, 2018 ) :The labourers edge their way across a field of bright purple flowers gathering up the world's most expensive spice, a bounty that makes this dusty corner of Iran a crucial part of global cuisine. The delicate purple leaves of the Crocus sativus plant hold just three or four of the even more delicate red stamen, better known as saffron, that sprouts for just 10 days a year. These tiny filaments are currently selling in local markets for 90 million rials per kilo -- about $700 on Iran's volatile exchanges -- and perhaps four times higher abroad. The government says more than 90 percent of the world's saffron grows from the hard soil in Khorasan province of northeastern Iran -- a figure corroborated by France's specialist institute of agriculture and fishing FranceAgriMer -- eventually finding its way into Spanish paellas, Indian curries, Swedish saffron buns and much more. India is a distant second, followed by Greece, Morocco, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan and Spain, according to a FranceAgriMer report in 2013. The star producer in Iran is the small town of of Torbat-e Heydariyeh, about 700 kilometres (435 miles) east of Teheran -- which accounts for a third of global production, according to FranceAgriMer. But poor marketing means Iran has not always won the credit it deserves as the home of saffron, having mostly exported it wholesale to other countries who label it as their own. "All the cultivation is done here, but the marketing and sales is done elsewhere," local parliament member Saeid Bastani told AFP. "The people of the world should know that all saffron -- of any brand in any market in the world -- is Iranian whether it says Spain, Italy or Switzerland," he added with just a sprinkle of patriotic exaggeration. The government is working with local businesses and farmers to fix the problem. From his swish new factory on the outskirts of Mashhad, Ali Shariati, CEO of Novin Saffron, sends out around 15 tonnes of high-grade saffron to world markets each year and is spearheading "Made in Iran" efforts. It's tricky because the major markets each have their own saffron needs that require specific packaging and branding -- Spain wants powder for paella, Britain likes entire threads for Indian cuisine, Sweden likes tiny capsules for seasonal saffron treats. "We have to keep innovating and adapting so we can compete with the marketing in other countries," said Shariati. Iraq's broken electricity sector is planning a long-awaited overhaul to both meet US pressure to halt Iranian power imports and head off summertime protests over chronic cuts. Baghdad, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Nov, 2018 ) :Iraq's broken electricity sector is planning a long-awaited overhaul to both meet US pressure to halt Iranian power imports and head off summertime protests over chronic cuts. With a freshman at the helm, the electricity ministry is exploring options including revamping stations and lines to cut waste, importing power, and improving bill collection to boost revenues. Baghdad hopes it will generate enough megawatts to feed demand by summer, when cuts can leave millions powerless for up to 20 hours per day. But it also has an earlier deadline to meet. When Washington reimposed sanctions on Tehran in November over the latter's nuclear programme, it granted Iraq a 45-day waiver to produce a roadmap to stop using Iranian electricity and gas. Iraq pipes in up to 28 million cubic metres of Iranian gas daily to feed its stations, and also directly imports up to 1,300 megawatts of Iranian-produced electricity. Now, Baghdad's power ministry has outlined a plan to wean off Iranian electricity within 18 months and resolve some decade-old problems, said spokesman Musab al-Mudarris. "In the coming two weeks, we will submit to the Americans a five-year plan including yearly assessments," he told AFP. If the US approves, it may extend the waiver for "a year or two". "But there are no quick fixes," Mudarris insisted. Iraq sits on 153 billion barrels of proven crude reserves, but it needs higher quality fuel and gas for power turbines. (@FahadShabbir) Terrorists from the Islamic State group (IS, banned in Russia) are planning to use munitions filled with toxic agents to shell the positions of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Syria's Deir ez-Zor province, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th November, 2018) Terrorists from the Islamic State group (IS, banned in Russia ) are planning to use munitions filled with toxic agents to shell the positions of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Syria 's Deir ez-Zor province, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday. According to the ministry, the terrorists have set up production of mortar rounds filled with toxic agents in a hospital located in the settlement of Khashim. The filling of the munitions with toxic agents is carried out by 11 foreign-trained terrorists, who have recently arrived in Syria. "The manufactured chemical munitions are intended to shell the positions of Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which, with the support of the United States, are conducting military operations against terrorists in the area of the city of Hajin in Deir ez-Zor province," the ministry said in a statement. "The shelling of the SDF positions will be carried out by IS terrorists from the area where nearby Syrian pro-government units are deployed in order to provoke massive US airstrikes against those units," the statement said. (@rukhshanmir) Malaysia hopes to promote the identification of the potentials and prospects for green industries and jobs in the ASEAN member countries during its tenure as the chairman of ASEAN labour sector, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said Wednesday. KUALA LUMPUR, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Nov, 2018 ) :Malaysia hopes to promote the identification of the potentials and prospects for green industries and jobs in the ASEAN member countries during its tenure as the chairman of ASEAN labour sector, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said Wednesday. The Prime Minister said Malaysia also hopes to develop corresponding regional policies regarding green industries during the three-year period from this year to 2020. "Let us embark on our journey immediately. Malaysia will do its best to take the labour sector forward by incorporating green jobs and skills into the aegis of our chairmanship," he said in his speech which was read out by Human Resource Minister M Kula Segaran at the opening of the 25th ASEAN Labour Ministers Meeting, here. Dr Mahathir said ASEAN looks forward to working with its dialogue partners China, South Korea and Japan to make meaningful headway for the future of green jobs and skills in the region. He expressed confidence that the ASEAN labour sector will witness significant outcomes in promoting and facilitating the greening of industries as well as jobs and skills. Dr Mahathir said he noted that over the last two years, employment in the green economy across ASEAN has grown by 3. 2 per cent compared to the overall economic growth of five to six per cent, which is almost 1.4 million new green jobs created, as reported in the Development Bank of Singapore Annual Report 2017 on Green Job Opportunities in ASEAN. "In the same vein, we have seen strong growth, particularly in the renewable energy sector such as wind and solar power, as well as the production of equipment and installations for heating and energy saving that subsequently create jobs in the region. "Looking forward, as technology evolves, we can expect an increase in the creation of new green jobs, and stronger growth in current occupations and greening industries," he said. The Prime Minister said the Malaysian government aims to boost the growth of its green technology sector, with a targeted revenue of RM180 billion while creating more than 200,000 green jobs by 2030. In this regard, he said, he is optimistic of the prospects of the sector, stressing that now is the time for the government and workers' and employers' organisations to venture into the promotion of green jobs and skills. He said the greening of the regional economy also demands that the people in the region specialise in the right skills, adapt to changes and seize the new opportunity. By Nishel Fernnado Speaker of Parliament, Karu Jayasuriya asserted that leaders who ensure the rule of law coupled with the right vision, dedication, commitment, discipline is critical for Sri Lanka to reach its full economic potential. What the country needs now is the right vision, dedication, commitment, discipline, ensuring rule of law coupled with right people at the right place, he stressed. Jayasuriya was the chief guest at Best Corporate Citizen Sustainability Award 2018 organised by Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) last Monday. He noted that Sri Lanka has tremendous potential for growth and prosperity, particularly due to its strategic location. However, he pointed out that there are developed cities in the world which have populations above 21 million governed by mayors, not by presidents or prime ministers or speakers. Speaking of the series of events that unfolded in parliament following the political crisis, Jayasuriya said that as the Speaker of Parliament, he had to go through physical attacks, chilli power attacks, threat to life, insults and so much of obstruction for having stood-up for whats right. I consider it was my duty to stand up against all forms of threats to democracy and save it for the generations unborn. You know the value of personal freedom in a civilized country, he said. Commenting on the sustainability initiatives by the private sector business community, Jayasuriya commended the corporates who have taken the initiative to not only do away with community/environment degrading practices, but also to mitigate damage that has already taken place, and enhance the wellbeing of the environment and society. It takes innovative thinking, bold leadership, and dedicated teams to implement responsible practices in day-to-day management processes, which are in line with achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals, he said. He stressed that the private sector contribution is vital to realise the national objectives initiated by the government and invited the private sector to play a greater role in the countrys development process. I encourage the private sector to undertake this responsibility to a greater extent, and align along with national policies. And I hope to see more corporates embracing the SDGs as a core element of their processes, he added. He noted that Sri Lanka at a crucial juncture in its economic journey at this moment as the country is increasingly focusing on its transition to an upper middle-income country by overcoming long-term development challenges. By focusing on rural development and social protection, Sri Lanka aspires to ensure that everyone can enjoy the benefits of development, he said. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, the CEO of the UAE state-owned Mubadala sovereign wealth fund, expressed confidence on Wednesday that the company's investment portfolio in Russia would grow strongly in the coming years and revealed plans to increase investment in the Russian technology sector. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th November, 2018) Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, the CEO of the UAE state-owned Mubadala sovereign wealth fund, expressed confidence on Wednesday that the company 's investment portfolio in Russia would grow strongly in the coming years and revealed plans to increase investment in the Russian technology sector. "The United Arab Emirates and Russia are on an exciting path of shared growth. The ever-expanding ties between our nations are a testament to this. Our investment partnership with the Russian Direct Investment Fund goes from strength to strength, and I am very confident our portfolio will grow significantly in the coming years," the Mubadala CEO stated at VTB Capital's 10th annual "Russia Calling!" Investment Forum. He, in particular, revealed that his company intended to push into Russia's technology sector. "As part of this effort ... we closed our first joint technology investment - an investment in the market-leading digital transportation company, Deliver," the Mubadala CEO revealed. In early October, the Russian Direct Investment Fund said that it had agreed with Mubadala on a joint program to invest in Russian technology companies. As part of this program, the two parties decided to invest in Russia's Deliver, a company that specializes in digitizing cargo transportation services. The annual "Russia Calling!" Investment Forum brings together investors, businessmen and policymakers from all over the world and aims to promote strategic investment in the Russian economy. (@FahadShabbir) The governments of South Korea and Uzbekistan are expanding cooperation to meet a growing demand for Korean language learning in the Central Asian country, officials in Seoul said Wednesday. SEOUL, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Nov, 2018 ) :The governments of South Korea and Uzbekistan are expanding cooperation to meet a growing demand for Korean language learning in the Central Asian country, officials in Seoul said Wednesday. Ministry of Education said it plans to hold a workshop in Tashkent on Wednesday to improve the capabilities of Korean language teachers serving in Uzbekistan and explore ways to advance Korean language teaching methods. At the workshop, Korean teachers serving in Uzbek schools will give a class demonstration by utilizing Korean pop songs and television dramas, ministry officials said. At present, there are nine Korean teachers in Uzbekistan. The officials said the demand for Korean language learning has been rising in Uzbek cities, such as Samarkand, Bukhara and Urgench, as well as in Tashkent in recent years. South Korea's government and Uzbekistan's education ministry jointly published a Korean language textbook for Uzbek high schools during the 2015-2017 period. Thanks to such efforts, more than 11,000 Uzbeks, including 9,300 students from 34 elementary, middle and high schools, and 2,100 students from 13 universities, are now learning Korean as a regular subject. The growth rate is impressive, considering there were only 7,100 Korean learners at 19 Uzbek elementary and secondary schools as of 2014. In September this year, Tashkent State Oriental Studies University established a Korean studies college consisting of Korean language, Korean history and culture, and Korean economic and political science departments. Besides the regular schools and universities, approximately 7,100 Uzbeks are learning Korean at Korean language institutes sponsored by the South Korean government. "Uzbeks' interest in Korean language is developing into their interest in Korea," a ministry official said. "The Seoul government will expand support for the further development of Korean language learning in Uzbekistan." (@FahadShabbir) The number of Russian nationals who have been denied entry into Ukraine after taking a flight from the Belarusian capital of Minsk has risen to 85 since Monday, a spokesman for the Belarus customs authority told Sputnik on Wednesday. MINSK (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th November, 2018) The number of Russian nationals who have been denied entry into Ukraine after taking a flight from the Belarusian capital of Minsk has risen to 85 since Monday, a spokesman for the Belarus customs authority told Sputnik on Wednesday. On Tuesday, the Belarusian customs authority told Sputnik that over 40 Russian citizens flying from Minsk had been denied entry to Ukraine amid the newly declared martial law in the country. "Over the past day, another 38 Russian citizens have been returned [to the Minsk airport] on 'Kiev-Minsk' flights ... Starting from Monday until 10 a. m. [07:00 GMT] today, 85 Russian citizens have already been returned [to Minsk]," Anton Bychkovsky, of the State Customs Committee, said. The official noted that not only have passengers of Belarus' flag carrier Belavia faced such problems, but also those flying with foreign airlines. Rail and road border crossings between the neighboring countries continue to operate as usual, the spokesman added. On Monday, the Ukrainian parliament approved a presidential decree introducing martial law for 30 days in certain regions over to the recent incident in the Black Sea, where three Ukrainian vessels were seized by Russia. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Kinshasa, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th Nov, 2018 ) :The US embassy in Kinshasa will on Thursday be closed to the public for a fourth day following "credible and precise information" about a possible terrorist threat, a month ahead of the Democratic Republic of Congo's presidential election. In a statement on its website, the embassy urged "US citizens in Kinshasa and throughout DR Congo to maintain a high level of vigilance". "The US embassy in Kinshasa will remain closed to the public on Thursday, November 29" due to "credible and precise information on a possible terrorist threat" targeting "US facilities in Kinshasa", it added. On Monday, after the embassy first closed and warned US nationals to keep a low profile, Congolese authorities described its reaction as "useless psychosis". After two years of setbacks, broken promises and delays, the DR Congo last week kicked off the campaign for a crucial election that could alleviate -- or perhaps worsen -- the decades-long crisis. Voters on December 23 will choose a successor to outgoing President Joseph Kabila, who has constitutionally remained in power as caretaker leader even though his second and final elected term ended nearly two years ago. At stake in the vote is the political future of a mineral-rich country that has never known a peaceful transition of power since independence from Belgium in 1960. Eastern DR Congo is ravaged by decades of inter-ethnic bloodshed and militia violence, as well as a deadly Ebola outbreak, testing a large UN peacekeeping mission deployed in the country. The United States has called on the African nation to seize its "historic opportunity" to hold a "credible election" that could ease its humanitarian problems and boost stability. Russia and Argentina have prepared for signing a draft strategic document on partnership in the sphere of peaceful nuclear energy, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov told reporters Wednesday. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th November, 2018) Russia and Argentina have prepared for signing a draft strategic document on partnership in the sphere of peaceful nuclear energy, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov told reporters Wednesday. Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold talks with Argentine President Mauricio Macri during a visit to Buenos Aires to attend the G20 summit. "A strategic document on the Russian-Argentine partnership in the sphere of peaceful nuclear power has been prepared for signing," Ushakov said. He said the power industry was one of the main areas of cooperation between Russia and Argentina. "[Russian state nuclear corporation] Rosatom is ready to assist Argentina in the construction of a nuclear power plant of Russian design [generation three plus], creating production of a complete nuclear fuel cycle," Ushakov said. (@FahadShabbir) ASTANA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th November, 2018) Russia believes that the operation to eliminate remaining terrorist groups will be successfully carried out on the Syrian-Iraqi border and in the eastern Euphrates, Russian Special Presidential Envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentyev said on Wednesday. "A lot of time has passed, we have something to discuss with you ... The situation in Syria is gradually improving, there is a clear trend toward stabilization. The latest information is also very good, government troops completed the elimination of remaining Islamic State [terrorist group, banned in Russia] militants in the province of As-Suwayda. We are absolutely confident that the operation to eliminate the remnants of groups in the eastern Euphrates and the Syrian-Iraqi border will also develop positively," Lavrentyev said at a meeting with the delegation of the Syrian government in Astana. Russian mine clearance specialists have demined over 32 hectares (almost 80 acres) of jungle in the province of Bolikhamsai, located in the middle of Laos, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th November, 2018) Russian mine clearance specialists have demined over 32 hectares (almost 80 acres) of jungle in the province of Bolikhamsai, located in the middle of Laos, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday. "Since the beginning of demining operations in forests in the Khamket district of the Bolikhamsai province, over 32 hectares of land have been cleared of explosives," the ministry said. The Russian mine clearance specialists began their mission in Laos, which is expected to last for five months, on October 15. It is focused on clearing myriads of hard-to-find US bombs that pose a threat to local residents. The United States dropped some 260 million cluster bombs on Laos between 1964 and 1973, at the height of the Vietnam War, according to experts. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 29th November, 2018) As many as four Syrian servicemen were killed in shelling by militants in the province of Latakia over the past 24 hours, the Russian Defense Ministry's Center for Syrian Reconciliation said in a statement on Wednesday. "Over the past 24 hours insurgents attacked Jubb al-Zarour [settlement] in Latakia province and northern and north-western outskirts of Aleppo city. Also, insurgents from Hayyat Tahrir al-Sham terrorist group [former Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist organization, outlawed in Russia] carried out the attack on positions of Syrian Arab Army near Jubb al-Ahmar in Latakia province. Four Syrian servicemen were killed," the statement read. The reconciliation center called on leaders of armed groups operating in the Idlib de-escalation zone to join the reconciliation process. Syria has been in a state of civil war since 2011, with the government forces fighting against numerous opposition groups and terrorist organizations. Russia along with Turkey and Iran are guarantors of the ceasefire regime in Syria. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Madrid, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Nov, 2018 ) :Spain said Wednesday it was in talks with Italy and Malta to try to find a port which would allow a Spanish fishing vessel with 12 migrants on board to dock. Since last Thursday the 13 crew members of the "Nuestra Madre Loreto" have hosted 12 migrants from Niger, Somalia, Sudan, Senegal and Egypt whom they rescued from a rubber dinghy off the coast of Libya. Madrid initially asked Libya to take charge of the migrants since it was the nearest country to the boat, as called for by international law, before turning to its EU partners, the Spanish government said in a statement. "The Spanish government is lobbying the governments of Italy and Malta, whose coasts are closest to the boat, to try to find a quick, alternative and satisfactory solution" to receive them, Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo added in the statement. Due worsening sea conditions, the fishing vessel on Tuesday moved away from the coast of Libya and headed towards the Italian island of Lampedusa, the statement added. The boat's captain, Pascual Dura, told AFP on Tuesday that Italy and Malta had both refused to allow the vessel to dock and unload the migrants while Spain's maritime rescue service only offered to return the migrants to Libya. Dura said the migrants "get very nervous and hysterical" when they "hear the word Libya". "If we go to Libya, we run the risk of a mutiny," he added. Abuse of migrants is widespread in Libya, following the chaos which has reigned since the 2011 ousting of dictator Moamer Kadhafi. Many migrants, intercepted or rescued at sea, find themselves held in detention centres in the country in dire conditions. Shortly after Spain's Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez came to power in June, Spain welcomed the Aquarius charity-run rescue ship and its 630 migrants after Italy and Malta refused to harbour the vessel. Spain also welcomed the Open Arms ship three times but in September Madrid declined to receive the Aquarius again. Instead it negotiated the distribution of the migrants aboard the ship among several other European Union nations. mg/ds/rmb Head of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) Ignazio Cassis said on Wednesday that he had discussed with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov the September spy scandal, noting that the situation has improved since then. GENEVA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th November, 2018) Head of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) Ignazio Cassis said on Wednesday that he had discussed with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov the September spy scandal , noting that the situation has improved since then. "We continued the discussion which started in New York with regard to the activities of [Russian] intelligence agencies in Switzerland. I am glad to note that the situation has significantly improved following our discussions in Moscow [in September]," Cassis said at a joint press conference following talks with Lavrov in Geneva. The diplomat also spoke about the visit of Swiss intelligence chief Jean-Philippe Gaudin to Moscow in early November, describing it as "useful." In September, Swiss and Dutch media reported about two Russians who allegedly intended to spy on the Spiez laboratory near Bern, which analyzes chemical and biological weapons. In late October, the Office of the Swiss Attorney General (OAG) confirmed to Sputnik that it had received authorization from the Federal Department of Justice and Police to prosecute two Russian nationals. The authorization reportedly concerned a case, launched by the OAG in March 2017, concerning two Russian nationals suspected of carrying out a cyberattack against the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), whose main European office is in Switzerland's Lausanne. According to Swiss media reports, the same two individuals were detained in the Netherlands just as they were allegedly headed for the Spiez laboratory. The two suspects were then deported to Russia. The Russian Foreign Ministry has called the allegations "another orchestrated propaganda" campaign. A Facebook executive has admitted that the company made a mistake in not removing a post that incited racial hatred in Sri Lanka, an international hearing on fake news and disinformation in London heard on Tuesday (Nov 27). Mr Richard Allan, Facebook's vice-president of policy solutions, was questioned by Singapore Member of Parliament Edwin Tong over a post, written in Sinhalese in March, which called for the killing of all Muslims. Mr Tong asked if the post breached the social media companys terms of service. Mr Allan agreed it did. It was put up at a time when there were significant tensions between the people of Sri Lanka and Muslims, causing damage to property, deaths even. Riots. Damage to mosques. And eventually it resulted in the Sri Lankan government declaring a state of emergency. Would you agree? Mr Tong said. Mr Allan replied: Yes. Would you agree that in the context of that kind of tensions occurring in Sri Lanka, putting up such a post would invariably travel far, divide those tensions, or stress those tensions even more, and divide the community? asked Mr Tong. Mr Allan replied: Yes, thats high-priority content for us to remove. When Mr Tong asked why Facebook refused to take down the post in question, even after it was highlighted by Sri Lankas communications minister, Mr Allan said it was a simple error" on the part of a Facebook employee. At this point, Mr Tong interjected. He argued it was no mistake and Facebook had replied to a user that the post does not go against its community standards. Mr Allan disagreed. That was a mistake, he said. I just want to be clear that somebody has made a mistake in the review. He also disagreed with Mr Tongs subsequent query on whether this case showed that Facebook cannot be trusted to make the right assessment on what can appear on its platform. We make mistakes serious mistakes; our responsibility is to reduce the number of mistakes, he said. We are investing very heavily in artificial intelligence, where we would precisely create a dictionary of hate speech terms in every language. He added: The best way to resolve this is a dictionary of hate speech terms in Sinhalese, which gets surfaced to a Sinhalese-speaking reviewer, who can make sure that we do the job properly. Mr Tong replied: Mr Allan, in this case, whilst one excuse might be that your users or your reviewers dont understand Sinhalese, when you have the communications minister of Sri Lanka telling you that this is hate speech and to take it down, and you review it, your people review it, and you said hundreds of thousands of people review it, but they dont seem to abide by the same philosophy as you have expressed in your own policies. The post was only stopped from circulating after the Sri Lankan government blocked Facebook. When Mr Tong asked if governments would have to resort to such measures to deal with the issue of deliberate online falsehoods, Mr Allan said Facebook would prefer not to. This is where I think the openness has to be and I hope that you have a constructive relationship with my colleagues in Singapore who work in these issues, said Mr Allan. I want us to be in a position where we share with you the good and the bad, about how we think were doing, in full expectation that you will be pushing us always to be better. To this response, Mr Tong replied: Well we look forward to that, because whats happened, by way of example in Sri Lanka, and there are several others as well, should not be allowed to happen ever. Mr Allan said: No, and as an employee of Facebook I am ashamed that things like this happen and they do and they shouldnt. ON FACEBOOK AND ELECTIONS Mr Tong was joined by two fellow Members of Parliament from Singapore, Mr Pritam Singh and Ms Sun Xueling, at the hearing in London. Mr Singh asked Mr Allan what Facebook was doing to combat the prospect of elections from being tampered with. Mr Allan said that for every significant election, Facebook now creates a war room a task force consisting of specialists whose job is to understand the risks of that election and deploy the necessary tools and technology to deal with those risks. Mr Singh asked if smaller countries would also fall under Facebooks war room concept. In an ideal world, its every election, everywhere, all of the time. Our current resourcing I think allows us to look at all national elections, Mr Allan said. So if theres a national election in Singapore, for example, that would be covered. He added: We had a similar task force around the Latvian election. So we are looking at every election whether the country is big or small, at a national level. And then the question is can we expand that also into regional and local elections. Mr Singh also asked if Facebook would consider working with local election authorities and political party representatives to remove or flag posts that would compromise the political process. We think thats essential. And again I want to repeat the people who decide if an election is free and fair is you, and your authorities, and the political parties, said Mr Allan. So we want to do, whatever is necessary in order for everyone to have the confidence that the election is free and fair - and we cant do that on our own. We can make tools, we can work with you, but ultimately we need to engage with you in order to meet that shared objective that we contribute to positively rather than negatively to the election in your country. Source: CNA/rw(cy) (@ChaudhryMAli88) Three al-Shabab terrorists were killed in a US airstrike in Somalia as part of a government-backed operation to degrade the Islamist militant group, the US Africa Command (AFRICOM) said in a press release on Wednesday. WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th November, 2018) Three al-Shabab terrorists were killed in a US airstrike in Somalia as part of a government-backed operation to degrade the Islamist militant group, the US Africa Command (AFRICOM) said in a press release on Wednesday. "To support the Federal Government of Somalia's efforts to degrade al-Shabaab, US forces conducted an airstrike targeting al-Shabaab militants in the vicinity of Quy Cad near Debatscile, Somalia on November 27, 2018," the release said. "We currently assess this airstrike killed three (3) militants." The US military said no civilians were killed or injured in the airstrike. Al-Shabab, which has sworn allegiance to the Al-Qaeda terrorist group (banned in Russia), emerged in Somalia in 2006 and has been responsible for numerous terror attacks throughout the region. They are known for enforcing a radical version of Sharia law in territories under their control. The US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State (IS, outlawed in Russia) terrorist group in Iraq and Syria carried out 185 strikes last week, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) said in a press release on Wednesday. WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th November, 2018) The US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State (IS, outlawed in Russia terrorist group in Iraq and Syria carried out 185 strikes last week, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) said in a press release on Wednesday. "Nov. 18-24, 2018, CJTF-OIR conducted 185 strikes consisting of 248 engagements in Syria and Iraq," the release said. In Syria, the coalition conducted 173 strikes against IS targets near Hajin. The strikes engaged tactical units and destroyed firing positions, IED factories, staging areas, supply routes, tunnels and bunkers, among other targets, the release said. The coalition conducted 12 strikes against IS in Iraq near six locations, including Wadi Tubal and Mosul. The strikes engaged tactical units and destroyed an underground facility, tunnels, supply routes, weapons caches and a cave, the release said. US-led forces also conducted five strikes in Iraq on November 11, 16 and October 28, that were not previously reported, the release said. The coalition also said it recorded 106 strikes in the middle Euphrates River Valley between November 18 and 24 that did not originate from either the coalition or its partner forces. "CJTF-OIR calls for all uncoordinated fires to cease," it added. The US-led coalition of more than 70 countries is conducting military operations against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. The coalition's operations in Iraq are conducted in cooperation with the Iraqi government, but those in Syria are not authorized by the government of President Bashar Assad or the United Nations Security Council. Washington, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Nov, 2018 ) :The Pentagon warned Russia on Tuesday against interfering with the site of an alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria's regime-held city of Aleppo. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime has accused armed groups of carrying out a "toxic gas" attack Saturday that left dozens of people struggling to breathe and prompted government ally Russia to launch retaliatory air strikes against "terrorist groups." Damascus has formally asked for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to investigate the alleged attack. The Pentagon said Assad may try to interfere with the site of the incident and build a narrative to justify attacking the rebel-held stronghold of Idlib, which is currently protected under a 10-week-old truce deal in northern Syria. "It is essential to ensure that the Syrian regime does not seize on false pretexts to undermine this ceasefire and launch an offensive in Idlib," Pentagon spokesman Commander Sean Robertson said in a statement. "We caution Russia against tampering with another suspected chemical weapons attack site and urge Russia to secure the safety of the OPCW inspectors so these allegations can be investigated in a fair and transparent manner. " Both the Syrian regime and Russia have blamed "terrorist groups" -- a term Damascus uses to mean both rebels and jihadists -- for Saturday's attack. Though it is the regime that has been blamed for most deadly chemical weapon attacks in Syria's seven-year war, official media have recently accused fighters in Idlib of planning a chemical attack. In April, the US, France and Britain launched joint missile strikes on Syrian targets in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack in the town of Douma that left scores of people dead. The Syrian regime blocked international inspectors from accessing the site for several days after the alleged chemical attack. "We urge immediate inspection of the alleged site by international investigators, with freedom to interview all involved and unhindered ability to collect evidence," Robertson said. Colombos fashion elite, VIPs and prominent personalities from business, industry and high society thronged to be the first to witness design visionary Fouzul Hameeds eagerly-awaited Concept 2019 Fashion Show. Held on 24th November 2018 at the Envoy Mansion, the high adrenaline fashion show was a sensory extravaganza as one after another, models took to the ramp, rocking stylish clothing from Fouzul Hameeds 2019 collection, presented under the theme Black. The riveting fashion show was stylishly directed and featured Sri Lankas top male models setting the ramp on fire with the eye-catching menswear collection. Fouzul Hameed continues to uplift menswear fashion in Sri Lanka and every year, his shows have an added element of attraction to raise the bar for the audience. The fashion show drew appreciation for the smart wedding collection for men. Leading up to this sixth edition of the fashion show, a social media campaign invited prospective grooms to enter a competition where the selected lucky winners was privileged to participate for the concept black 2019. The models showcased silhouettes in black and bold colours for formal and occasion wear. Judging by the collection on display, it was evident that Fouzul Hameed wanted to diversify and innovate looks for men to stand out from the crowd at Ceremonial, Western Wedding, National, Indian, Beachwear and Home Coming occasions in trendy and fashionable designs. Commenting on the resounding success of Concept 2019, an exuberant Fouzul Hameed remarked, Unveiling a new collection is always a stressful job, but the joy and appreciation of the audience more than makes up for the hard work leading up to the fashion show! I am humbled by the appreciation shown by the audience at this years Concept 2019. The theme for this year, Black was a challenging one, because the designs had to exude style and a sharp silhouette without becoming monotonous. I have also unveiled an inspired wedding collection for men, which reflects new style ideas for grooms to make an impression on their wedding day. Hameed is a legend in the local mens fashion scene. His vast knowledge and experience in menswear has raised the bar of mens fashion in Sri Lanka. His keen eye for detail has made him a mogul in the local fashion outlook and he is in essence the man behind the brand, embodying the quality and superiority of Hameedia products. With over two decades experience in the mens clothing industry, FH, as he is known in the local fashion sphere, is a US certified menswear image consultant and is currently the Managing Director of Hameedia, the company behind Sri Lankas most respected and preferred menswear brand. Hameedia was established in 1949 and has grown to become a household brand in Sri Lanka. Renowned for high quality custom tailoring and ready-made clothes for gentlemen, the Hameedia multi-brand retail stores house a collection of quality menswear brands including Le Bond, Envoy, Signature, Raymond, Lee and Adidas to name a few. Hameedia also prides itself on offering exceptional standards of service to ensure that clients enjoy a positive and personalized experience at each store. With a network of over 30 outlets across Sri Lanka and a team of over 1000 employees, Hameedia has a strong local presence and has also expanded globally with outlets in the Maldives and Australia. The Catholic Bishops of Kenya are calling on politicians to separate the ongoing debate on a proposed Referendum on Reforms from the politics of the 2022 presidential succession. Festus Tarawalie Vatican City In a statement read at a press conference in Nairobi on Tuesday, Kenyan Bishops urged politicians to restrain themselves and their supporters from incitement, and selfish ambitions, and instead concentrate on constructive dialogue. The Bishops said the current debate on a national referendum on reforms should be structured so that the key issues for review are brought out and discussed openly and soberly to avoid the polarisation that was seen after the country last elections. Kenya must always maintain stability during and after General Elections The Bishops noted that they supported an audit on the implementation of the 2010 republican onstitution and advised that any discussions on the amendments should come from Kenyans. They also warned the public from engaging in debates that may cause dangerous political hatred. We are encouraged that Kenyans are very attentive to the details of the Constitution such as when election campaigns should start and end, the role of the three arms of government, the role of independent Commissions, the right of citizens, among others, they said. The Catholic Church, the Bishops said, is open to any process that guarantees stability during and after General Elections, and a process that promotes the common good of Kenyans. This weeks Tuesdays statement from the Bishops followed the plenary assembly of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) which took place in Isiolo, a town situated 285 Kilometres north of Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya. Kenyan Bishops Pledge to fight Child Abuse Also at the press conference on Tuesday, the Kenyan Catholic Bishops pledged to enforce policies that protect children and minors against all forms of abuse. The Violence and evils committed against minors and vulnerable members of a society is a sign of a morally sick society. As your shepherds, we shall do everything possible to implement policies on child protection and safeguarding of these vulnerable members and require all who work with minors to commit themselves to these policies, they said in the statement read by Archbishop-designate for the Catholic Archdiocese of Kisumu, Phillip Anyolo. The Bishops condemned the recent upsurge in cases of sexual, physical and emotional abuse against minors that have resulted in unplanned pregnancies and in some cases, death. The increased cases of pregnant school girls clearly show that our children are being terribly abused, and we must tackle this problem at all levels of our society, they said. Mahindra & Mahindra, Ideal Group and Lanka IOC officials including Aravinda de Silva (third from left), Lanka IOC Managing Director Shyam Bohra (second from left) and Ideal Motors Director Automotive Chaminda Wanigaratne (fifth from left) at the launch of Mahindra Genuine Oil Maximile in Sri Lanka Pic by Pradeep Pathirana By Nishel Fernando Indias leading auto manufacturer Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd and Sri Lankas Ideal Group (Pvt.) Ltd plan to setup a component manufacturing centre to complement their plans to set up a vehicle assembly plant in Sri Lanka. The two firms entered into a joint venture to set to setup a vehicle assembly plant in Kalutara earlier this year, with an investment of Rs.2.5 billion. The construction of the plant commenced this September. Speaking at an event to mark the relaunch of Mahindra Genuine Oil Maximile in Sri Lanka, Ideal Group (Pvt.) Ltd Deputy Chairman Aravinda de Silva said that leading automobile manufacturing nations such as India, Japan and China entered into manufacturing of motor vehicles with component manufacturing. He also noted that component manufacturing would help to surpass the 35 percent local value addition rate imposed by the government. When we commence the assembly process, we need to have 35 percent local components. We have already identified three areas seats, batteries and tyres. With that we will locally assemble Mahindra vehicles, he said. de Silva also emphasised that Sri Lanka could commence export of these components to regional nations, if the country is able to ink the proposed free trade pacts with Bangladesh and strengthen the existing free trade agreements with India and Pakistan. Im sure this industry could be similar to the garment industry, which has brought a lot of success and foreign exchange to the country over the past several years, he said. He noted that around 70,500 components go into the production of a Mahindra SUV and said Ideal Group plans to gain a considerable market share in most of the components. Meanwhile, Lanka IOC Managing Director Shyam Bohra announced that Lanka IOC would commence blending Mahindra Genuine Oil Maximile in Sri Lanka within two to three months. Mahindra Genuine Oil Maximile was introduced to the Sri Lankan market three months ago as a collaborative effort by Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, Ideal Group (Pvt.) Ltd and Lanka IOC. de Silva revealed that sales of Maximile has reached 90,000 litres during the past three months and said plans are underway to reach 90,000 litres per month in the future. Bohra said that once Lanka IOC commences the blending of Maximile, theres a potential to export the lubricant to regional markets. Ideal Motors Director Automotive Chaminda Wanigaratne said that Ideal Motors has a solid 62,000 customer base in Sri Lanka as the company has sold approximately 62,000 Mahindra vehicles in Sri Lanka since 2009. Maximile products are tailor-made for Mahindra & Mahindra vehicles and also compatible with diesel engines, which are equipped with CRDi engines. Wanigaratne said that as Sri Lanka is shifting to Euro 4 standards and all Euro 4 diesel engines are equipped with CRDi engines, Maximile could attract a significant portion of diesel vehicle owners in the country. Mahindra has an over 50 percent market share in the above one tonne vehicle category in Sri Lanka, while it has a 35 percent market share in the below one tonne vehicle category. File photo of heavily-damaged Armenian Catholic Church of the Martyrs in Syria (AFP or licensors) Pope Francis sends a letter to the Franciscans stationed in Syria, saying the Church sees Jesus suffering in the trials and poverty of the Syrian people. By Devin Watkins In a letter sent to Franciscan friars in Syria, Pope Francis expressed his closeness to the martyred land of Syria. I wish to share in your sufferings and tell you that I am close to you and to the Christian communities which are so tried by the pain experienced in their faith in Christ Jesus. The Popes letter was addressed to Fathers Hanna Jallouf and Louai Bsharat, OFM. Pope Francis reflected on the great suffering, poverty, and pain that Jesus experiences in the Syrian people. It is Jesus! This is a mystery. It is our Christian mystery. In you and in the inhabitants of our beloved Syria, we see Jesus suffering. Martyrdom Pope Francis compared their sufferings to martyrdom. Nothing more than martyrdom can mark the Christians way of participating in humanitys salvation history. He said martyrs advance the Kingdom of God and sow Christians for the future. Calling them the true glory of the Church and our hope, the Holy Father said the witness of martyrs is a warning not to get lost even in the midst of the storm. Not a few times the sea of life has a storm awaiting us, but out of the existential waves we receive an unexpected sign of salvation: Mary, the Mother of the Lord, looking in astonishment and silence at the innocent, crucified Son who fills life and salvation with meaning. Pain into hope Pope Francis assured the Franciscan friars stationed in Syria that he remembers them constantly during Mass and prays that their unspeakable pain may be transformed into divine hope. He then quoted Pauls Letter to the Romans: What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? As it is written: For your sake we are being slain all the day; we are looked upon as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us. Finally, Pope Francis prayed that the Virgin Mary guard the Franciscans in Syria under her Cloak of Grace and that she intercede for them to receive the gift of perseverance. The Geneva Conference on Afghanistan, Nov. 27-28, aims to emphasize the importance of development to securing peace and security. By Robin Gomes The United Nations is garnering support from the international community to help realize the yearning of the Afghan people for peace and security through development in a country laid waste by nearly 4 decades of war and strife. Development, peace, security A high-level 2-day international conference on Afghanistan that concluded at the UN in Geneva on Wednesday, is meant to show solidarity for the war-torn countrys people and help strengthen government efforts to promote development, along with wider peace and security. Speaking to journalists at the start of the Nov. 27-28 Geneva conference on Afghanistan, senior UN official Toby Lanzer, Deputy Special Representative for the UN Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), said that everyone he had met wanted a solution to stop the violence. 2019 will mark the 40th anniversary four decades of instability - in Afghanistan, Lanzer said. For the vast majority of the country, they have grown up knowing conflict and nothing else, so there is a tremendous hunger for peace. I have only met people in Afghanistan who want the violence to end so the United Nations will be doing what it can and offering its support in that regard. Solidarity Our hearts go out to all Afghans who have been affected by conflict, trauma and suffering, said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday in a video message to the Geneva conference. He hoped the event will be able to generate further efforts to achieve the stability for which Afghans have yearned for so long. As the international community, we must come together to enable the success of an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace processand sustain that solidarity once a peace agreement has been reached, Guterres urged. The conference is being attended by Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani, its Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah and numerous foreign ministers, including from Russia, Turkey and the European Union. The meeting noted that progress has been made but said more is needed, especially in areas of security, anti-corruption and the push to launch peace talks with the Taliban. The conference is also taking stock of the Afghan government's use of billions of dollars in foreign aid for education, health care, humanitarian support and needs since 2016. Vietnam HR Awards 2018 honoured the 14 businesses with leading strategic HR models This is the third season of the biennial award, co-organised by the Newspaper of Labour and Social Affairs and Talentnet, endorsed by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA). The award attracted over 200 applications from local and multinational enterprises. With the theme 'Bold Reflection,' the Vietnam HR Awards Ceremony 2018 brought with it a number of remarkable key highlights, including a holistic, straightforward, and valuable series of success stories from leading local and regional businesses, practical lessons about the implementation of HR strategies in Vietnam, as well as honouring and awarding 14 businesses with outstanding strategic HR models. After an arduous six-month period of application, presentation, employee survey, and on-site visit, 14 outstanding businesses were granted a total of 28 awards, including two Best Winning prizes, 24 categories, and two Judges Choices awards. In Group A, Unilever Vietnam has won the Leading HR Strategys Best Winning Company award for its astoundingly effective HR policies. Nguyen Thi Bich Van, CEO of Unilever shared, We are both delighted and honoured to be recognised for the second consecutive time as the Best Winner of the Vietnam HR Awards. This reaffirms our commitment towards our people development as well as lifting up the Vietnamese workforce in general. The awards also highlight the effectiveness of our HR policies as well as training and development strategies which reflect leading practices in the world in order to provide updated knowledge for our staff to grow." Meanwhile, in Group B, Effective HR Practices Best Winning Company award went to Mobile World. The representative of the company shared that, The award is a proof of our restless efforts and commitment for continuous investment in our workforce. We have been focusing on building a unique corporate culture, improving our working environment and HR-related policies so that our employees can enjoy both tangible and intangible benefits at their best." According to Nguyen Thi Ha, Deputy Minister of the MoLISA, Vietnam HR Awards has built and nurtured this connecting bridge between businesses and the community for the past few years, especially with the honourable aim to lift the domestic workforces potential. The progressive, multi-dimensional, and highly analytical views, the valuable inspirations from leading businesses success stories, and the straightforward conversations within the HR community have, and are creating solid touchstones for a blooming fast-paced and agile workforce, in all industries and occupations alike. Tieu Yen Trinh, Talentnet CEO cum vice chairman of the award and member of the judging panel, commented: Through every season, Vietnam HR Awards brings with it a wish to accompany businesses in Vietnam on their journey to self-assess their strengths and limitations in their own HR strategies, while encouraging businesses to learn from each other to optimise their policies to match with business goals." "From a judges point of view, not only were we convinced that businesses are gradually getting more and more skilful in implementation, but we were also impressed by how far these businesses have reached in catching up with international standards. I firmly believe that the winners will be the ones inspiring and influencing other businesses in Vietnam in the effort of lifting the potential of our workforce and sustainable development, she added. Agribank IPO delay sees investors move cautiously, source:VTV.vn Dang Quyet Tien, director of the Corporate Finance Department under the Ministry of Finance (MoF), noted in the ministrys meeting last week that the land appraisal procedure required for Agribanks equitisation is taking longer than expected, leading to the lenders initial public offering (IPO) being stalled from the initial set timeframe of late 2018 or early 2019. The MoF has been working with Hanoi-based Agribank since the start of 2018 to complete the valuation of four million square metres of land under the banks management. This comes as part of the preparation for the lender to be equitised in line with the governments target to reduce state holdings at state-owned commercial banks, which is 100 per cent at Agribank. According to Tien, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) must distinguish between the state assets and those of enterprises so that their values can be fairly assessed to ensure a smooth and fair transition to new owners. As this requires the confirmation of ownership from state and provincial bodies, it is a time-consuming practice and SOEs such as Agribank should be prepared in advance to ensure pre-scheduled equitisation progress. Agribank chairman Trinh Ngoc Khanh previously said that the bank will likely face many difficulties in equitisation progress without elaborating further on what complexities the bank would run into. He did, however, expect the bank to be evaluated on December 31, 2018, with its IPO to occur as soon as 2020. According to Agribanks audited interim financial report, the banks total assets stood at VND1.197 quadrillion ($52.05 billion) as of June 30, up roughly 4 per cent on-year. Its owners equity and chartered capital were on record at VND56.7 trillion ($2.46 billion) and VND30.37 trillion ($1.32 billion), respectively. The lender posted a VND3.04 trillion ($132.26 million) post-tax profit, an increase of 37 per cent on-year. Regarding the overall sluggish state of the SOE divestment progress, with merely 10 per cent being equitised so far, the MoFs Tien raised one of the reasons that goes back to the determination of leaders as well as state representatives at SOEs in deciding the land value or the price of the enterprises in line with the market mechanisms that have caused the delay in the process. The equitisation process itself has not been improved over time, with lack of transparent information provided to investors or the organisation of auctions for the SOE sale, he added. The result would then be those SOEs become less attractive in the eyes of foreign investors or large-scale institutional investors when they carry out an IPO. The MoF will soon publish a list of equitised SOEs that are not listed on the stock exchange, so that investors and shareholders can get updates on the development process and performance of these businesses themselves, said Tien. In August, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue stressed that the government will continue its quest to divest its holdings at state-owned commercial banks, and Agribank is set to hold its IPO in 2019. Other state banks such as BIDV and Vietcombank are working on plans to sell further stakes to domestic and foreign investors. According to DPM Hue, the government will not grant additional licenses in the future for wholly foreign-owned banks in Vietnam, yet it allows foreign banks to buy underperforming local franchises in order to become wholly foreign-owned banks, a move that has caught the attention of investors. The government issued its Decision No.986/QD-TTg dated August 8 to set out a clear pathway for the strategic development of the Vietnamese banking sector for the period of 2018-2025, with a vision to 2030. Barriers still hamper SOEs, illustration photo Decree No.126/2017/ND-CP and Circular No.40/2018/TT-BTC currently oversees the sale process of Vietnams state-owned enterprises (SOEs) for strategic investors. According to these legal documents, a Vietnamese SOE starts the selling process by setting up a list of criteria for potential investors and specifying the amount of shares put on sale. The SOE then submits the equitisation plan to the related authorities for approval and announce the details of the plan in both English and Vietnamese. Twenty days following the announcement, the SOE will then start its selection process via auctions or negotiations. The entire process is expected to be complete within four months. Previously, Decree No.59/2011/ND-CP allowed SOEs to seek strategic partners, either before or after the initial public offering (IPO). However, the latest Decree 126 stated that SOEs can only start the selection process after completing the IPO. When compared to other similar mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions from around the world, it becomes evident that four months is too short a time period for Vietnamese SOEs to find a suitable strategic partner. Inaccessible information Specifically, evaluating the Vietnamese SOEs and conducting the necessary due diligence is impossible for foreign investors to achieve in the incredibly short time frame of four months. Due diligence takes time and is a crucial aspect of any M&A deal in order to understand the financial, legal and operational risks related to the seller. The potential investor also needs adequate time to investigate the SOE in terms of their governance, human resources and documentation standards or conduct field trips. To summarise, due diligence and evaluation, both standardised processes, are taken very seriously by foreign investors. Without sufficient time for due diligence and to assess risk evaluation, these investors cannot justify their interest in a Vietnamese SOE, and they may decline to take part in the share sale. There is also a lack of accessible information that investors can obtain. Prior to 2017, the name of equitising SOEs and the amount of state-owned shares after equitisation were only available after the authorities approved the equitisation plan. This meant that strategic investors were only notified of the amount of shares they could buy after the announcement, which was usually too late. This aspect has improved in recent years. Decision No.58/2016/QD-TTg has provided a list of SOEs up for equitisation between 2016 and 2020, as well as the states expected holding after equitisation. Similarly, Decision No.1232/2017/QD-TTg pointed out the names of SOEs earmarked for further state withdrawals between 2017 and 2020. However, the reality is that foreign investors still find it very difficult to access information about these SOEs, including the proposed timeline, shares available for sale or the terms and conditions of the transactions. This ambiguity has discouraged a number of potential investors from partnering with firms. New barriers emerge Recent regulations have relaxed some of the SOE equitisation rules. For example, strategic investors are now allowed to sell shares three years following their purchase (rather than the previous five years) and the IPO can be conducted following the book building process, which is a more market-based approach. The book building process is expected to match the pricing expectations of the state with the investors. The government has also been divesting from major businesses in different sectors, paving the way for investors to join these industry giants. However, difficulties remain. For example, strategic investors are now required to deposit 20 per cent of the expected purchase value, as specified in the SOE equitisation plan. The cap was previously only 10 per cent. Investors have complained that the 20 per cent deposit is too high for an M&A transaction. Besides, the law states that if there are more than two bidders, both of whom have registered to buy more than the shares available for strategic investors, the deal will instead be conducted via the stock exchange. Auctions on the listed market do not include due diligence, making it very challenging for potential investors. Another problem is the low percentage of shares that strategic investors can buy. According to Decree 126, only SOEs that the state still retains 50 per cent of shares can seek strategic investors. Furthermore, at least 20 per cent of the outstanding shares at an equitising SOE must be sold via public auction. This rule means a strategic investor is unable to hold more than a 30 per cent stake in a Vietnamese SOE. I have talked with various investors from South Korea, who expressed their wishes to have a majority stake in firms or at least a large enough holding that allows them to take part in the decision-making process. This is especially true for companies that operate in the same sector as the SOE in question. Another point to consider is that the global M&A market is dominated by financial investors or investment funds. Financial investments within the Asia Pacific region reached $122.7 billion via 445 transactions in 2017, up by 37.7 per cent from the previous year. However, Decree 126 appears to exclude financial investors, as it states that strategic partners must have turned a profit within the past two years and they must be willing to transfer technology, human resources and corporate governance skills to the Vietnamese SOE. The strategic partner should also provide raw materials and help the SOE to expand its markets. Financial investors consider these terms unsuitable. Tan Hoang Minh Group has poured investment into several projects across Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Photo: Le Toan According to the Ho Chi Minh City Peoples Committee, the long-delayed project requires at least $1.35 billion for land clearance, compensation and infrastructure development, excluding the expenses needed for developing accommodation and other facilities. Nguyen Thanh Phong, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Peoples Committee, said that due to its large stake in the project, a new capable investor must be carefully selected. The committee asked that the Ho Chi Minh City Planning and Investment Department work alongside Tan Hoang Minh to review all proposals and in turn report back to the committee. The groups partners have recently submitted a proposal to the committee to attend the upcoming auction to select the investor in the long-delayed Binh Quoi - Thanh Da project. A source from the Ho Chi Minh Citys Planning and Investment Department said that Tan Hoang Minh is now implementing all preparation works. This includes the project development capacity and financial capacity to participate in the auction and the plan to further develop the project in the future. Tan Hoang Minh is a domestic real estate developer who currently owns a range of luxury projects in both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. However, a couple of projects have been transferred to other investors following a long period of delays. Although the groups website lists four high-end residential projects which are selling for the price raning from VND45 million ($1,950) and VND120 million ($5,220) per square metre, only one of them is currently finished and ready to be put into operation. In a recent case, many buyers of Tan Hoang Minhs project DCapitale in Hanoi refused to pay for their condos claiming that the quality was not high-end as advertised. Many buyers felt that the project was of a lesser quality than expected and not worth the price rise from VND43 to 50 million ($1,869 to $2,173) per sq.m. The dispute is yet to be resolved, with the Hanoi Department of Construction last week teaming up with the group to inspect the project on behalf of the buyers. DCapitale is not the first project by Tan Hoang Minh to prove troublesome. Previously, in 2009, Tan Hoang Minh started the Ds Palais De Louis in Hanoi and announced that the project would be of the utmost luxury with many items being decorated with gold. The project was then sold at the price of VND145 million ($6,300) per sq.m. However the project moved at snails pace and, in 2014, Tan Hoang Minh was forced to return the deposits of 600 buyers because they were unable to complete the project on time. The project was reopened in 2016, this time with the participation of Vingroup. The Binh Quoi - Thanh Da Urban Area project was first awarded to Saigon Construction Company in 2004 as a 426-hectare development in Binh Thanh district, Ho Chi Minh City. In 2010, Bitexco Group acquired the project in cooperation with Dubais Emaar Properties. However, the twists and turns for the project did not end when in 2017, Emaar Properties pulled out of the project, claiming delays to land clearance and compensation issues as its reasons. Bitexco wanted to press on with the completion of the project alone, however, the committee decided to call for new investors. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc met with leaders of state-owned enterprises last week to find solutions to boost their equitisation process Major investors concerns While there is significant interest by strategic investors to participate in the equitisation of various SOEs, investors have concerns: - Clear and transparent process: Investors want comfort that they will be investing time and resources with a strong possibility of closing a transaction. - Access to quality information: To convince investment committees or boards they need the right information on a timely basis. - Ability to participate in management: A key focus of investors is to enhance the value of SOEs as well as reduce risks of investing in a developing country. They would therefore need some form of control over the business. - Rights of strategic investors: Ability to have veto rights on special issues, especially on the business direction of companies. - Valuation expectations: Investors generally base their value of the business on the income approach as this reflects the potential future value of the company. The timing, method and process should be clear and followed throughout. To this day, many investors still hail the $5 billion purchase by ThaiBev for 54 per cent equity of Vietnams largest beer producer Sabeco as a milestone transaction in several significant ways. Initially it had been hard to sell the companys stake, but the sale became feasible eventually. This was because all information of Sabeco was made transparent, which had not been the case beforehand, said Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc at last weeks conference in Hanoi on improving the operational effectiveness of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). However, many SOEs such as Sabeco have failed to be sold over the past few years because their information is not transparent, even as many investors express interest in purchasing stakes in many of them. Nguyen Lan Phuong, partner of Baker & McKenzie (Vietnam) Ltd., told VIR that the sale of Sabeco reflects foreign investor confidence, in particular ThaiBevs confidence, in the beer consumption ability of younger Vietnamese generations and their rising disposable incomes. In the bigger picture, the deal shows two things: foreign investors are committed long term to Vietnams growing market, and the Vietnamese governments prevailing policy is to divest capital in non-core industries. Transparency concerns Hong Sun, vice chairman of the Korea Chamber of Business in Vietnam, told VIR that the Vietnamese government is boosting SOE equitisation, and this reflects the governments strong will and efforts in speeding up economic restructuring. Many South Korean businesses are seeking to purchase stakes from Vietnams big SOEs, but the process proves very difficult because the enterprises that the state wants to divest capital from do not reveal any information, he said. Currently in Vietnam, it is often considered sensitive for an enterprise to reveal information before its stake can be sold, he continued. This has made it difficult to accurately assess the potential mergers and acquisitions (M&A) partner. Thus, SOE equitisation has not met the expectations of the government. Recently, some Indonesian investors sought to buy stakes from major SOEs operating in the sectors of railway, oil and gas, electricity, and agriculture. They have worked with state-run Vietnam Railway Corporation (VRC) about opportunities to buy stakes from it. However, the desired results could not be reached, though VRC was planning to divest some of its subsidiaries. Almost no information about the equitisation of these SOEs is revealed, though we continuously hear that the government wants to divest from the firms, an Indonesian Embassy representative told VIR. Nguyen Viet Ha, managing director of US-backed investment consultant BowerGroupAsia Inc.s Vietnamese office, told VIR that in almost all cases when SOEs are about to begin equitisation, investors cannot access information from these firms. Almost no material about how they operate is provided for investors, and investors are often not allowed to visit their factory. Sluggish progress Last week, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) reported that in the first 11 months of this year, the pace of equitisation remained very slow. Only 12 SOEs were equitised, with total value of over VND29.747 trillion ($1.29 billion), including VND15.413 trillion ($670.1 million) worth of state capital. Meanwhile, the total number of SOEs needing to be completely equitised this year is 85. As of late this month, only 35 out of a total 526 SOEs had their restructuring schemes approved by authorised agencies. The MoF has also announced the names of many major SOEs that failed to complete their divestment plan for 2017 as requested by the state, meaning that delays will affect plans of SOEs this year, and private investors will continue to find it hard to purchase stakes in SOEs. Those named include Vietnam Engine and Agricultural Machinery Corporation, with total value of VND7 trillion ($304.3 million), Vietnam Pharmaceutical Corporation (VND829 billion or $36 million), eight under the Ministry of Construction (VND2.4 trillion or $104.35 million), and 17 under Hanois management (VND526 billion or $22.87 million). The snail-paced divestment and equitisation of many SOEs prevents private businesses, especially foreign ones, from purchasing stakes, meaning that competitiveness will not be able to improve, said Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung. Currently around nine deals between large SOEs and strategic foreign investors have been completed. The largest one is the Sabeco deal, followed by the 2013 deal involving Japans Bank of Tokyo-Misubishi UFJ acquiring 20 per cent of VietinBanks stake for $743 million. The remaining deals have had a small stake sold to foreign investors, such as Carlsbergs 17.08 per cent stake from Habeco, Mizuhos 15 per cent stake from Vietcombank, ANAs 8.77 per cent stake from Vietnam Airlines, HSBCs 18 per cent stake from Bao Viet Insurance, JX Nippon & Energys 10 per cent stake from Petrolimex, and Itochus 5 per cent stake from Vinatex. Momentum for equitisation According to the MoF, results from the operation of SOEs which were equitised in 2015 showed that, compared to the pre-equitisation period, many indexes of these enterprises significantly increased, such as pre-tax profit (49 per cent), contribution to the state budget (27 per cent), charter capital (72 per cent), total assets (39 per cent), revenue (29 per cent), and average income for employees (33 per cent). Vietnam National Seed JSC saw its revenue rise by 20 times, profits by 40 times, total assets by 22 times, and equity by 40 times. Meanwhile, Vinamilk had its revenue augmented 10-fold, contribution to the state budget grow six-fold, and equity climb 13-fold. Andy Ho, chief investment officer of VinaCapital, told VIR that Vietnams equitisation programme has gained momentum, but room for improvement remains. We have long been part of a large chorus calling for movement on the equitisation of SOEs, and we were among the first to call for equitisations to require larger stakes to be sold, thus we are gratified that the law now requires a minimum of 20 per cent. VinaCapital partook in two of the January initial public offering (IPO), particularly in Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical JSC and PV Power. To-do list It is expected that PM Phuc will next week issue a directive on boosting equitisation and divestment at SOEs and enterprises having state capital in the time to come. Responsibility of all individuals and organisations in delaying equitisation, divestment, transaction registration, and listing in the stock market will be specified. All violators will be punished, he stressed. We will radically deal with all SOEs and investment projects with delay and losses. Any ineffective SOEs will face bankruptcy or transfer to investors of other economic sectors. The government will intensify inspections over not only all SOEs and state-funded projects, but also over the heads of these enterprises about how they have obeyed state regulations about equitisation and divestment, as well as performance of their businesses. Periodically, all information about equitisation and divestment must be openly publicised, so that the SOEs performance can be supervised, the prime minister noted. The granting of e-visas is considered a significant breakthrough to develop smart tourism The exemption, which came into force in October, reduces procedures for visitors applying for a visa and is highly appreciated by experts as a factor in attracting foreign tourists to Vietnam. The visa policies reflect the governments determination to reform administrative procedures in the 2016-2020 period. Accordingly, nationals of certain countries and regions may visit Vietnam without the need for a visa. As listed, citizens from Chile can stay in Vietnam for a period of up to 90 days without a visa. Nationals from countries like Cambodia, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand can stay for a maximum of 30 days. Citizens from the Philippines can enjoy a visa-free stay for 21 days, while those from Brunei and Myanmar can stay for 14 days. Citizens from the UK, Spain, Sweden, Belarus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Russia, Japan, and South Korea can stay in the country for a maximum of 15 days. Easier visa application procedures for foreign tourists, as well as visa exemptions for visitors, especially those from the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain have helped attract more tourists from these markets. Western arrivals to Vietnam has soared in recent years, with 720,000 in 2015, 855,000 in 2016, and 1,500,000 in 2017. In the first five months of this year, foreign arrivals to Vietnam surpassed 6.7 million, up 27.6 per cent annually, according to the General Statistics Office. The number of European visitors rose by 11.8 per cent year-on-year, including those from France (13.1 per cent), the UK (9.6 per cent), Germany (8.5 per cent), and Italy (18.3 per cent). According to the World Economic Forums Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2017, Vietnam rose eight places in just one year to 67th in the world. Vietnam is among the countries with the strictest visa policy in Asia. However, the visa exemptions to visitors from 24 countries and territories as well as the e-visa policy, which is now available to people from 46 countries and territories, is a definite step towards alleviating the situation. After two years, the National Assembly agreed to pilot a system to grant electronic visas, known as e-visa, or passport-holders from 46 nations. Since then more than 271,530 foreigners have entered Vietnam with e-visas and revenue from the issuance of e-visa has amounted to VND195 billion ($8.3 million). On November 5, the National Assembly (NA) Standing Committee has voted in favour of the extension of the implementation of Resolution No.30/2016/QH14 on the piloted issuance of e-visas for foreigners entering Vietnam, by two more years, starting from February 1, 2019. Visas are issued within three days an improvement against the current processing time of one week are valid for 30 days, and are available from the website of the Ministry of Public Securitys Vietnam Immigration Department. Payment can be made via bank transfer. This guarantees transparency and convenience, as well as minimises intermediate costs. Notably, letters of guarantee or invitation are no longer required under the new online visa application system. Between February 1, 2017 and October 15, 2018, the Vietnamese immigration authorities have issued 336,932 e-visas to foreigners who mainly travel through international airports, with a few entering Vietnam via border gates and seaports. Minister of Public Security, General To Lam said the government has decided to experiment with granting e-visas to citizens from 46 countries and territories worldwide, enabling them to enter Vietnam through 28 international border gates around the country, including eight airports, 13 border gates and seven seaports. The issuance of the resolution is a sound policy, making positive contributions to global integration, Lam said. Furthermore, Vietnam has not detected any signs of breaching national security or complex issues of social safety and order related to e-visa granting. Many deputies stressed the need to continue piloting the resolution in order to develop tourism, thus contributing to socioeconomic development. Deputy Dinh Cong Sy from the northern mountainous province of Son La suggested adding columns for feedback from foreigners on procedures on the portals. Before the extension was voted on, the NA Committee for National Defence and Security proposed reviewing the risks that allowing foreigners entry to Vietnam using e-visas pose to national security and social safety and order. Deputy Luu Binh Nhuong from Ben Tre province agreed, saying that it would be important to establish whether illegal foreign workers remaining in Vietnam are linked to e-visas. As the review found no linkage between the e-visa policy and crime or illegal foreign workers, the NA could go ahead with the vote. Actually, the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution has bolstered development in all fields of the Vietnamese economy, including smart tourism, with the expectation of an increased number of foreign visitors to Vietnam. D1 street in Ho Chi Minh City's Binh Thanh district at 8 AM on November 26. Source: vnexpress.net Due to the impacts of storm Usagi, the ninth storm to hit Vietnam this year, Ho Chi Minh City has seen heavy rainfalls since Sunday (November 25), causing severe flooding and holding up traffic. Under these circumstances, residents increased the demands for taxi and ride-hailing services. However, even as they are willing to pay twice or three times as much as usual for ride-hailing, thousands complained that they could not get a bike or car because the systems seemed to be disabled. "I could not book a GrabBike, so I changed to GrabCar, which asked for double or even triple the price. In the evening, it took my colleague 2 hours to get a car from District 3 to Binh Thanh district and my boss had to wait until midnight to catch a GrabCar, Thang Dang, a resident in District 3, said. On Monday morning, it was still a struggle for residents to travel due to floods and continuous rains. I could not get any vehicles from Grab or GoViet. Normally, there are a lot of taxis parking down the apartment block, but there was none in this morning. Finally, I saw a taxi dropping down passengers nearby, and caught that one, said Hong Ha, a resident in District 12, who wanted to get a vehicle to District 1 to work at 6:15 in the morning. CEO of FastGo Nguyen Huu Tuat said the company witnessed a three-fold rise in booking demand, but there were not enough drivers willing to take on the weather. VnExpress cited Grab confirming that the service was locally overloaded, We understand that at several times we could not meet the demand of customers. We want to express our sincere apologies to our customers, Grabs representative said, adding that the company is deep grateful to the drivers and offered them a bonus of VND10,000 ($0.4) for each ride on Monday. Food delivery service was in similarly difficult situation, as it could not satisfy customer demand because most delivery personnel took off due to bad weather. Not increasing in price, GrabFoods application was frequently out of service, while a large number of restaurants on the Grab app also refused to receive orders. In the meanwhile, users of Delivery Now could only place orders at restaurants within 4 kilometres and delivery times were excruciatingly slow. Storm Usagi weakened to a tropical depression on Sunday afternoon, but sparked prolonged heavy downpours in Ho Chi Minh City that inundated at least 40 streets. Several flood-prone streets in the city like Huynh Tan Phat, Nguyen Huu Canh, Hong Bang and Thao Dien became virtual swimming pools on Sunday night. We did not allow users to apply promotion codes and even increased delivery price, but demand remains very strong, said the CEO of a food-delivery service operator. On the other hand, traditional taxi companies posted record revenue on Sunday thanks to their fixed service prices. VnExpress quoted Vinasuns deputy general director Nguyen Bao Toan as saying that travel demand by taxi has raised dramatically in Sunday afternoon and evening, and the companys staff had devoted all of their energy to support customers. It is estimated that the companys revenue in Ho Chi Minh City on Sunday alone has increased by three to four times against normal performance. More than 90 per cent of our cars work during peak hours, while the remainder stopped working because the drivers have passed their sales targets and some of our vehicles were damaged by flood water. The company has a garage to repair slightly damaged cars, while the more serious ones will have to wait for the appraisal by the insurance company, said Toan. As of Monday afternoon, taxi and delivery services returned to normal, and the number of customer complaints decreased gradually, apart from some areas that are still flooded or congested. Lycas Gnanam Foundation will distribute aid to the value of Rs 40 mn in flood affected areas of Sri Lanka today (November 28). The foundation will provide flood aid including dry rations, water, tin sheets, childrens uniforms and books dispatching 16 lorries to 9 areas across Sri Lanka including Anuradhapura, Puttlam, Mannar, Kilinochchi, Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Ampara, Mulaitivu and Jaffna. Gnanam Foundation is the philanthropic organization established in 2010 co-founded by Mr. Subaskaran Allirajah and Mrs Prema Subaskaran, named after his mother Gnanambikai Allirajah. The Foundation seeks to empower vulnerable and displaced communities impacted by conflict and climate change to build self-sufficient and sustainable livelihoods through a focus on providing access to healthcare, education, training and housing. The foundation currently operates in Sri Lanka, India, Sudan, Tanzania, Romania, Pakistan and the Philippines. Its work is focused on creating sustainable and self-sufficient communities. The Foundation recently built 150 houses for the underprivileged in Vavuniya and has provided educational support by way of scholarships to children in the northern region. Nguyen Cong Minh Bao, director of sustainable development and communication, received the award from Hoang Quang Phong, vice chairman of the VCCI, and Vo Tuan Nhan, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment On November 22, INSEE Vietnam, was awarded the prestigious CSI 2018 award by The Vietnam Business Council for Sustainable Development in co-ordination with the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour, and the State Securities Commission. The "Programme on Benchmarking and Ranking the Most Sustainable Companies in Vietnam" was first launched in 2016 and this year was also the third consecutive year that INSEE Vietnam was honoured in the 100 most sustainable enterprises in Vietnam. The candidate evaluation process is based on the Corporate Sustainability Index (CSI), which consists of 131 criteria established by experts in the fields of economics, social affairs, labour, and environment. CSI reflects businesses credibility, brand, and capabilities for operational processes, future development potential, as well as perform social and environmental responsibilities, and to attract human resources. By achieving this award, the company once again confirmed their sustainable development commitment through the implementation of its sustainable triple-bottom-line: prosperity, planet, people. In 2017, the company successfully transformed from the Holcim to the INSEE brand. INSEE Vietnam then redefined its ambition to become the No.1 building materials and sustainable construction solutions provider in Vietnam by 2020 by combining sustainability and innovation. With the new brand strategy Build for Life, INSEE Vietnam believes that the world would be a better place if everything we build together can improve quality of life. Besides meeting the investors prosperity expectations, the company also set the highest standard in environmental performance, not only exceeding national requirements but setting a higher bar for all other industrial players. In 2018, the INSEE dust emission is at 14.5 mg/Nm3, down 36 per cent against 2017, and equivalent to 14.5 per cent of the 100 mg/Nm3 allowed limit. Also, CO2 emission level is 388kg/tonne of cement compared to the 700-800 kg/tonne industry average. People are the most important pillar in INSEEs ecosystem. The people aspect of the company is not only limited to the benefits and safety of the employees, but also includes contribution to the society. Holcim and now INSEE are well-known for its strategy with purposeful social investment. In 2017 and 2018 alone, the company has invested almost VND9 billion ($391,304) in 19 projects with over 1.8 million beneficiaries nationwide. The presence of a world-class building materials corporation like INSEE in Vietnam does not only contribute to the socioeconomic development of the country, but also sets higher, more sustainable standards for the build materials sector, and improves living quality for Vietnamese people. Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May (centre) meets with agricultural producers and business representatives as she tours the Royal Welsh Winter Fair at the Royal Welsh Showground in Builth Wells, Powys, in Mid Wales. (Paul ELLIS/AFP/POOL) The British prime minister headed to Wales and Northern Ireland, hours after the US president said it seemed like a "great deal" for the European Union that could block Britain from forging its own trade agreements with the United States. May has two weeks to convince the public and, crucially, a divided parliament, before the Dec 11 vote in the House of Commons that risks ending in a humiliating defeat and sinking the deal. Trump suggested May had made a mistake by signing an agreement that might impede a future trade deal between London and Washington. "Sounds like a great deal for the EU," he said at the White House, adding: "We have to take a look at seriously whether or not the UK is allowed to trade". "As the deal stands, they may not be able to trade with the US and I don't think they want that at all," said the president, who is close to leading Brexiteers in the UK. MAY STRIKES BACK Starting her tour in Builth Wells in central Wales, May insisted Trump had not rained on her parade. "We will have an independent trade policy and we will be able to negotiate trade deals with countries around the rest of the world," May 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. "It will no longer be a decision taken by Brussels." Her spokesman said there were no plans for one-to-one talks between May and Trump at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires this weekend. May on Sunday closed 17 months of complex talks with Brussels by sealing Brexit arrangements with the 27 other EU heads of state and government. But this tortuous chapter on ending Britain's 45-year involvement in the European project was just the beginning of another struggle. May runs a minority Conservative government and opposition parties, as well as many of her own MPs, are against the deal. Some Brexiteers think it keeps Britain shackled to Brussels while pro-EU lawmakers think the terms are worse than staying in the bloc and want a second referendum. Opposition Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn called the deal "an act of national self-harm". May also met resistance in Belfast, where she met the leader of the small Northern Irish party that props up her government. Democratic Unionist Party chief Arlene Foster said the deal created trade barriers between Northern Ireland and mainland Britain, and urged May to find a "third way". May's agreement, "in its current form, is unacceptable and she will not persuade the DUP to support it," Foster said. TV FACE-OFF But May has demonstrated remarkable resilience against all the odds. Although she ducked televised debates during the 2017 snap general election, she challenged Corbyn to a TV contest, nominally planned for December 9. "I am ready to debate it with Jeremy Corbyn because I have got a plan. He hasn't got a plan," May was quoted as saying by The Sun newspaper. 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." Meanwhile in Luxembourg, lawyers for a group of Scottish politicians argued before the top European court that the British parliament should have the unilateral power to halt the countdown to Brexit, set for Mar 29. A Scottish court has referred the case, which hinges on whether London could simply revoke Britain's "Article 50" EU withdrawal process, to the European Court of Justice. The British government argues that the case is a political tactic by pro-EU opponents. 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. Source: AFP/de Tagged Topics nationwide tour Brexit divorce deal The runway at Van Don International Airport. Nguyen Duc Long, chairman of the provincial Peoples Committee, said the move was aimed at attracting more tourists to the northern province on flights to Van Don International Airport, which was expected to open at the end of next month. The current price for entry to Ha Long Bay is from VND200,000 (US$8.7), depending on specific tours, and the ticket for Yen Tu is VND40,000 per adult. Van Don International Airport has been hailed as a driver for growth in Quang Ninh Province, so authorities are focusing on policies to encourage carriers to open flights to and from the airport. Domestic carriers Vietnam Airlines and VietJet both plan to operate flights from the airport. Vietnam Airlines plans to firstly offer daily flights between Van Don and HCM City, while VietJet said that Quang Ninh Province held potential market and the low-cost carrier always wanted to expand its operations. Van Don, developed by the Sun Group, is the first privately-invested airport in Viet Nam. The airport is designed to receive 2.5 million passengers per year in 2020 and five million by 2030. Van Don International Airport is part of the provinces push to improve infrastructure in recent years, besides the development of the Ha Noi-Hai Phong-Ha Long-Van Don-Mong Cai expressways to promote socio-economic development, especially tourism. The province expects to received 12 million tourists this year, up 24 per cent, together with tourism revenue of VND23 trillion (US$1 billion). Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc welcomed his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, photo: VNA During an official visit to Vietnam by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on November 18-19, he and Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc agreed that Vietnam and Russia will expedite key co-operation projects in the sectors of energy, industry, transport, agriculture, IT, digital technology, and e-government. In particular, they stressed both nations strong determination to construct a $350 million nuclear science and technology centre in Vietnam in the near future. Of course, there are a number of projects which we will promote. Today, our friends from Vietnam have issued a permit for the nuclear research centre, and we have just exchanged corresponding documents, or rather, a certificate was issued, PM Medvedev told the press. This is also indicative of the trust-based and very important relations between the two states. In June 2017, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom and Vietnams Ministry of Science and Technology on the construction of the centre in Vietnam. An intergovernmental agreement to build the centre was inked by the two nations in 2011. The centre will be equipped with Russian-designed research reactors, a multipurpose cyclotron, as well as research laboratories, an engineering complex, equipment, and infrastructure to ensure safe operations. Meanwhile, Vietnam and Russia have also pledged to continue boosting oil and gas co-operation, with companies from both nations facilitating the exploration and exploitation of oil and gas in their respective territories. They also committed to expand co-operation to other lucrative sectors such as liquefied natural gas and gas power. There are major projects that take time to implement, including energy projects. As you are aware, we have flagship projects like Vietsovpetro, which is already 35 years old and generates hundreds of millions of dollars for its participants, PM Medvedev said. These are ongoing projects. Moreover, we are considering the possibility of developing new areas and new fields. We discussed all of this today and, in all likelihood, we will implement all of that. Russian Ambassador to Vietnam Konstantin Vnukov told VIR that Russia wants to expand its investment in Vietnam in many sectors. Regarding the energy sector, Russian companies have been operating in Vietnam effectively for a long time. Up to 30 per cent of crude oil and about 25 per cent of gas exploited in Vietnam are exploited by enterprises involving Russian investment, such as companies of Zarubezhneft, Rosneft, and Gazprom, he said. Currently, all of Russias largest oil and gas companies work in Vietnam, while PetroVietnam has operations in Russia. Joint enterprises Vietsovpetro, Rusvietperto and Gaspromviet successfully extract hydrocarbons. For example, Vietsovpetro has already extracted 230 million tonnes of oil. This company accounts for about a third of Vietnams oil production. Another important task for us is to implement the intergovernmental protocol on the establishment in Vietnam of GAZ and KAMAZ automobile-assembling companies. I hope that in the near future, all procedures for the establishment will be completed, and Russian auto firms can operate well in Vietnam, said the ambassador. During this visit, Vietnams largest passion fruit juice producer and exporter Nafoods Group signed a MoU with Russias Voskhod STM. Under the MoU, during 2019-2020, both companies will build a 30-hectare fruit processing plant in Russia. Nafoods chairman Nguyen Manh Hung said that Nafoods will officially open a representative office in Moscow later this year. This MoU not only marks the co-operation between the two companies, but also contributes to bring the Vietnams clean agricultural products to Russian consumers. Currently, Russia has 118 projects in Vietnam, registered at $931 million. Vietnam has 13 projects worth about $3 billion in Russia. Uber hit with UK, Dutch fines for data breach, source: AFP File Photo Hackers compromised customers' personal data from some 57 million riders and drivers worldwide in October and November 2016, but US-based Uber kept it secret until November 2017. Dutch authorities fined Uber 600,000 euros and Britain imposed a 385,000 (435,000 euros) penalty, the two countries said in coordinated statements. Britain's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said hackers stole the names, email addresses and phone numbers of 2.7 million customers in the UK from a cloud-based storage operated by Uber's US parent company. "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," ICO Director of Investigations Steve Eckersley said. "At the time, no steps were taken to inform anyone affected by the breach, or to offer help and support. That left them vulnerable." Around 174,000 customers and drivers were affected in the Netherlands. "The Uber group received the fine because it has not informed the agency and the parties involved within 72 hours of discovering the leak," the Dutch Data Protection Authority said. Uber agreed in September to pay a US$148 million penalty in the United States over the incident, described as the largest fine in a data breach settlement to date. The company with an estimated value of more than US$70 billion has been trying to burnish its reputation after a series of scandals over alleged misconduct and unethical practices. Authorities in Sihanoukville have removed signs from Chinese-owned businesses in the city that misspelled Khmer words. Business owners in the city were told to remove improper signs in March. The move also comes amid rising anti-Chinese sentiment in Cambodia following a spike in Chinese immigration. The crackdown also came after photos of the signs went viral on social media platforms in the past few days. Lim Pheaktrey, a Sihanoukville environment official, said the authorities had removed some 200 signs from shops around the city, saying the business owners had not asked for permission to put up the signs, which violated regulations. Mostly, they did it themselves without asking for permission. If they had asked for permission, there would not be only Chinese language. Now following our province rules, if they want to put on shop signs, they have to go through the cultural office to check the wording or wait for instructions from that office. According to Pheaktrey, local business owners had been resorting to using Google Translate as they did not speak Khmer. He added that no legal action had yet been taken against any of the business owners, as they had not broken the law. There is no law to fine them but we can educate them, tell them to ask for permission to put up the shop signs, instruct them to have a proper translator who can write correct Khmer words. Moreover, we told them to put the Khmer language twice as big as the Chinese language or other foreign languages. In the order in March, authorities instructed businesses that Khmer must be included on all signs with the characters being twice as large as English or other foreign languages. San Chey, country director of NGO Affiliated Network for Social Accountability, said the authorities should take stronger action against those found to be breaking the rules. Cambodian authorities, especially the Sihanoukville court, should use court mechanisms for these offenses. It is a big deal that Chinese people dare to have their shop signs saying China in an independent, sovereign state. And if they do not take stronger action, it will be the same. It even can spread to the other provinces. US institutions continue to make the case to be the first destination for international higher education. But are American institutions losing their edge? We'll hear from recruiters, students and a State Department official about new challenges for schools trying to recruit foreign scholars. Victims of a Zimbabwe government sanctioned army operation that killed more than 20,000 people in the mid-1980s say they want compensation and an apology from President Emmerson Mnangagwas government. As Columbus Mavhunga reports for VOA, President Mnangagwa was the country's security minister at the time. COLOMBO AFP Nov26, 2018 - The Maldives top court overturned a terrorism conviction on Monday against the countrys first democratically elected leader Mohamed Nasheed, who fled into exile after being sentenced to 13 years behind bars. The Supreme Court said Nasheed was wrongfully charged and should not have been convicted in the 2015 trial described by the United Nations as politically motivated. Nasheed went into exile a year later while abroad seeking medical treatment, and was branded a fugitive from justice. President Nasheeds 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. The opposition icon only returned to the Maldives this month after his political rival Abdulla Yameen, who ruled the Maldives with an iron fist for five years, was beaten in a presidential election. The strongman president jailed or exiled most of his opponents but since he departed office political prisoners have been freed and opponents abroad have returned. Voters in Georgia are casting their ballots in a runoff election for the Caucasus country's new president. Wednesday's elections are considered to be the most contested ones in Georgia's recent history. None of the candidates got the required minimum of 50 percent votes in the first round and the two front runners are very close. An independent candidate supported by the ruling Georgian Dream party is running neck-and-neck with the United Opposition bloc candidate. VOA's Zlatica Hoke has more. No media source currently available The URL has been copied to your clipboard The code has been copied to your clipboard. Human rights activists say the alleged illegal detention of a high-profile businessman violates South Sudan laws; Egyptian officials express concern about South Sudans instability; and leaders call on South Sudanese to be educated on womens rights. Afghanistans President, Ashraf Ghani, says his government has formulated a road map for prospective peace negotiations with Taliban insurgents to end the 17-year war in the country. Ghani told an international conference on Afghanistan Wednesday in Geneva all the required bodies and mechanisms have been constituted after intensive national consultations. Ghani pledged that his government is ready to move into the next phase of the Afghan peace process that would seek an agreement in which the Taliban would be included in a democratic and inclusive society. The key principles, he noted, would be that the constitutional rights and obligations of all citizens, specially women, are ensured, armed groups with ties to international terrorist groups are not made part of the process and the constitution is accepted or amendments proposed in compliance with terms of the constitutional. We have formed our 12-person negotiation team comprised of both women and men, and led by presidential chief of staff [Abdul Salam] Rahimi. We have also formed a peace advisory board to input into the negotiation as they happen, Ghani said. Ghani, who plans to seek another term, described the upcoming April presidential elections as key to successful peace negotiations with the Taliban. "The Afghan people need an elected government with a mandate to obtain ratification, implement the peace agreement and lead the societal reconciliation process as implementation will take a minimum of five years," the president said. Ghani spoke days after U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Peace and Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad held a second round of talks with Taliban negotiators, who based in Qatar. Khalilzad launched his mission in September after assuming the position, calling on Ghani's government and the Taliban to appoint their authoritative negotiating teams. Taliban officials have not indicated whether the insurgent group would engage in direct negotiations with the Afghan government and insist they have sought withdrawal of all U.S. and NATO forces from the country in preliminary talks with Khalilzad before participating in an intra-Afghan peace process. The Taliban considers the United States its main adversary and dismisses the government in Kabul as American puppets. After his latest meetings with the Taliban earlier this month, ambassador Khalilzad said that he was cautiously optimistic about achieving an Afghan peace deal. Ghani spoke on a day when Afghan officials back home said clashes between government forces, backed by airstrikes, and the Taliban in the southern Helmand province killed at least 30 civilians, along with 16 insurgents. Women and children were among the civilian casualties. Afghan civilians continue to bear the brunt of the deadly conflict amid United Nations warnings civilian casualties have reached new highs. On Tuesday, a roadside bomb planted by the Taliban killed three U.S. soldiers and wounded three others along with an American contractor near the troubled central eastern city of Ghazni. A U.S. military airstrike Tuesday in Somalia killed three al-Shabab militants, according to the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM). The U.S. conducted numerous strikes in the same region of Qay Ad, near Dabad Shil, in Mudug region on November 19 and 20, killing 50 al-Shabab fighters. Local sources told VOA Somali that the latest strike targeted al-Shabab vehicles. The sources say the vehicles belonged to Abdishakur Mohamed Mire, a junior al-Shabab military commander. There was no confirmation on whether Mire was traveling in one of the vehicles at the time. Africa Command said Tuesday's airstrike did not "injure or kill any civilians." The latest operation brings the number of U.S. strikes in Somalia this year to 36, all of them against al-Shabab. The figure marks the highest number of strikes ever conducted by the U.S. military within a single year in Somalia. The U.S. says strikes are targeting al-Shabab militants, fighting positions, infrastructure and equipment. "U.S. forces, in cooperation with the government of Somalia, are conducting ongoing counterterrorism operations against al-Shabab and ISIS-Somalia to degrade the groups' ability to recruit, train and plot terror attacks in Somalia and the region," U.S. Africa Command told VOA Somali in an emailed message. ISIS is an acronym for Islamic State. Several al-Shabab commanders have been killed in U.S. airstrikes over the years, including former emir Ahmed Abdi Godane on Sept. 1, 2014. Al-Shabab, an affiliate of al-Qaida, is trying to overthrow Somalia's government and turn the country into a strict Islamic state. 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. Border security was expected to be high on the agenda. By Dec. 7, Congress must pass this spending bill, estimated at $312 billion, 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 traveling 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 favor and most Democrats against, Senator Marco Rubio told reporters in a Capitol hallway. "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." House Republicans want $5 billion for Trump's wall, while the Senate wants $1.6 billion 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 of the wall. 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 programs to combat violence and promote the economies of El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Honduras has declined sharply. At the same time, despite Trump's efforts to make immigration more difficult, the number of illegal crossings has risen. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 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. The art of building small wooden boats is being used to help young, at-risk adults turn their lives around. They are serving as apprentices in a boat building program, sponsored by the Alexandria Seaport Foundation in Virginia, to give them the skills, confidence and discipline to change their lives for the better. The apprentices learn their craft at the foundations seaport center, a floating timber chalet, on the banks of the Potomac River in historic Alexandria, Virginia, once a thriving seaport town in colonial America. The year-round program teaches small groups of apprentices from 18-22 years old how to build small wooden sailboats and canoes. Chris Adkins is a friendly 19-year-old from Florida with brown, curly hair. As he saws, hammers and drills, he learns, piece by piece, what it takes to build boats that are beautiful and practical. "It's been fun to learn how to use these tools. I've definitely learned to measure twice and cut once, he said. At the helm of the program is Jimmy Gottfried who had also been an apprentice. "Many of the apprentices in our program have faced many challenges in their lives, such as lack of family support, dropping out of school, having run-ins with the law, he said. And they're looking for a way to gain back the confidence they need to go back out into the workforce." The year-long program pays a small stipend. The apprentices are guided by volunteer mentors like Fred Geiger, who teach them how to build the boats, as well as guide them in their personal lives. "As their self-confidence gets better, then you can address other things, like are you paying your bills? Do you have a bank account? Are you eating right? And what is your living situation?" A number of the apprentices have not finished high school, and the foundation works to help them pass their GED a high school equivalency. Those who do not have adequate math skills receive tutoring from a volunteer. Adkins said he was a good student, but had to drop out of high school to work, due to his family situation. "My mom died when I was 8-years-old by taking her own life, and it is something Ive struggled with to find a way to cope with it. And I haven't had the support from my father who has substance abuse issues, he explained. One reason that I came to the program was because they want to help you. I'm not used to someone wanting to help me, or enthusiastic about it, or believing in me." Apprentice program manager Jay Helinski, who completed the program about a year ago, is a role model for the group. "They know that I'm living proof of what hard work and dedication, and just the willpower to succeed gets you to, he remarked. Now more than halfway through his apprenticeship, Adkins said he feels better about himself. He has passed his high school equivalency and hopes to go to college one day. Right now, I have two part-time jobs, one working in a pizza place, he said. But the apprentice program is giving me the opportunity to really dig deeper into myself and find what I want to do." When the wooden boats are finished, they are sold at a raffle. Adkins said he will be sad to see them go, but knows like life, they are meant to sail onward. "There is so much creativity that goes into making them. They're beautiful on the water. I'm glad they're going to a good home," he said and smiled. More than 400 Ethiopian Migrants stranded in Yemen will be airlifted home this week. This is the first time since 2015 the International Organization for Migration has been given the go-ahead for this operation to resume. The first group of Ethiopian migrants were flown home Monday. By the time this Voluntary Humanitarian Return operation or VHR ends on Thursday, the U.N. Migration Agency will have airlifted 418 migrants from Yemen to Ethiopia. More than a quarter of the passengers are minors. The agencys repatriation program was stalled shortly after Saudi Arabia began its bombing campaign against Houthi rebels in support of the government in March 2015. IOM says the operation was able to resume after the Saudi-led coalition and Ethiopian government gave it permission to access airports. During the past few years, the IOM Voluntary Humanitarian Return operation has assisted many migrants to go home by sea. But agency spokesman Joel Millman notes returning the migrants by plane is a better, safer option. In 2018, IOMs VHR program was able to assist 668 migrants to return to Ethiopia on ships across the Gulf of Aden. However, unstable weather conditions at sea combined with escalated fighting in and around the Al Hudaydah ports posed major operational challenges in previous return operations. Despite the ongoing conflict, poverty and desperation for a better life have caused a steady stream of migrants from the Horn of Africa into Yemen. But upon arrival most of the migrants hoping to find work in the Gulf countries find the borders closed to them. As a consequence, thousands of migrants have become stranded in Yemen in miserable conditions. In 2017, nearly 100,000 migrants reached Yemen. IOM estimates the number of new arrivals will increase to 150,000 by the end of this year. Although Somalis and Eritreans are part of the mix, IOM reports the vast majority of those making the perilous journey to Yemen are Ethiopian nationals. Chinese photographer Lu Guang has gone missing during a visit to China's Xinjiang province. Lu's wife Xu Xiaoli, who is in the United States, set up a Twitter account this week to spread information about the disappearance of the award-winning photojournalist, who covers sensitive issues in China, such as pollution, poverty, and AIDS. Xu said Lu had been missing since Nov. 3 after disappearing during a trip to attend several photography events in China. He was expected to meet a friend in Sichuan on Nov. 5, but failed to appear. Xu says the wife of Lu's host in Xinjiang said he had been taken away by national security agents. A friend of the couple, Chinese artist Wu Yuren, told VOA that Xu considered traveling to China to search for her husband. Wu said he managed to talk Xu into staying in the United States to publicize his disappearance. "We were all very shocked," Wu told VOA's Mandarin service. "Ever since we came to the U.S., it's rare to hear about someone we know disappeared like this." Wu said Lu may have fallen prey to media suppression in China. "He thought he had the experience of dealing with this," Wu said, "But he could not have imagined how bad the situation is now." Xu told Radio Free Asia she has been calling officials in Xinjiang in search of word of her husband, but no one has picked up on the phone numbers published online. Sophie Richardson, China director of Human Rights Watch, told VOA "the Chinese government has a long history of simply taking people whose views it doesn't like, literally off the grid and disappearing them." She continued, "I think every time this happens, authorities diminish their claim that this country is governed by rule of law." The Associated Press cites Chinese officials as confirming that Lu and a fellow photographer were taken away by Xinjiang state security agents. Xinjiang has recently been the subject of international concern, after news reports spread word that China has constructed internment camps there to conduct "re-education" of Muslim Uighurs and other ethnic groups. A representative for Amnesty International, Patrick Poon, told Radio Free Asia that international concern caused by those reports has influenced the Chinese government to try to shut down information coming from the area. Lu is the winner of a number of photojournalism awards, including the World Press Photo, a National Geographic Photography grant, and China's highest domestic photography award. He holds a U.S. "green card" (permission to work in the United States) and in 2005 became the first photographer from China to be invited by the U.S. State Department as a visiting scholar. VOA Mandarin service contributed to this report. Mexico's incoming foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Tuesday that to contain migration pressure in Central America and southern Mexico, an effort on the scale of the Marshall Plan that rebuilt war-ravaged Europe would be needed to develop the region. Mexico is battling to curb the flow of migrants from Central America fleeing violence and poverty, and tensions have risen on the U.S.-Mexico border since the arrival in the last few weeks of a caravan of mostly Hondurans seeking U.S. asylum. Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has pledged to discourage migration through economic development, and wants the United States to contribute to a plan focused on Mexico's poorer south and Central America. Speaking in Mexico City, Ebrard said the solution might not be similar to the Marshall Plan, "but it will be in terms of the scale of the effort that needs to be made," he told reporters. Named after U.S. general and later Secretary of State George Marshall, the Marshall Plan was a massive U.S.-backed effort to rebuild Western Europe after the devastation wrought by World War II. Ebrard, who is due to meet U.S. 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 in southern Mexico during the coming administration, 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 added. The bulk of illegal immigrants caught trying to enter the United States in recent years have set out from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, three of the most violent and impoverished countries in the Americas. U.S. President Donald Trump has been pressuring Mexico to keep the migrants while their asylum claims are processed in the United States. Members of the incoming government have suggested some sort of deal may be possible. Ebrard said Mexico was not thinking of deporting the Central American migrants currently stuck on the U.S. border. "What's to be done? Get ready to assume that some of them are going to be on Mexican soil and in that area during the next few months," he said. A military investigation unit says prison inmates used online sextortion to take more than a half-million dollars from hundreds of American service members. Agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service executed arrest warrants and served summonses Wednesday on a sextortion ring that had preyed on 442 troops from across the United States since 2015. Inmates used social media and online dating sites to pose as women and sent nude pictures to service members, according to the NCIS release. Prisoners would then assume the role of the female's father or another position of authority. The inmate impersonating the authority figure would claim the woman was a juvenile and demand money in exchange for not pursuing charges through law enforcement channels. Military members would then pay, fearful they might lose their careers over possessing what they were being led to believe was child pornography, the NCIS release said. The warrants and summonses are the first phase of Operation Surprise Party, an investigation launched in 2017 by NCIS and other military branch investigators in coordination with North and South Carolina local agencies, the U.S. Attorneys Office, and other agencies. "This despicable targeting of our brave service members will never be tolerated," NCIS Director Andrew Traver said. "We will not allow criminal networks to degrade the readiness of our military force. Authorities are investigating at least 250 additional people who could face potential future prosecution as part of the sextortion scandal. Mankind International Pvt Limited,formerly known as Maritime International Pvt Ltd., celebrated 40 years of operations in both local and overseas, placements, outsourcing and headhunting in Sri Lanka, on the 6th November 2018. Having diversified into various areas in employment the group currently has 8 main subsidiaries, each specializing in their core areas. With a portfolio consisting of many leading banks, multi-nationals, local and international conglomerates, finance institutions and hospitality, Mankind International Pvt Limiteds objective of creating careers is achieved through highly ethical and professional practices. Led by Fayaz Saleem as Chairman and Charmaine Vanderhoeven as Director/CEO, the group as well as the companies under it have had a successful 40 years, behind them. Maritime International Pvt Limited is the oldest of these companies, as well as one of the oldest active foreign recruitment companies, with the license No. 11 under the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment.Specializing in the hospitality trade with most placements made to the Maldives and Seychelles, MILs key characteristic has been the fact that they are proactive and reach out to clients with their years of experience and research based forecasts. Sri Lankan talent and skills mainly lie in the hospitality, construction and accounting fields. We also adopt the strategy of attracting the next generation, by using electronic and digital media to build awareness, stated Savithri Fernando Executive Director of MIL. Executive Search Pvt Ltd. stands out in a competitive business arena working in a truly professional manner that has been refined and perfected over a period of 40 years. ESLis licensed to process overseas placements, with special focus on countries in the Middle East and several countries around the globe.ESLs diversified clientele,comprise of Large Multinational and Conglomerates in sectors such as Banking, Retail, Hospitality, Automotive industry and many more.Executive Director of ESL, R. Muhsin stated, Maintaining high ethical practices in our business has sustained us since 1984, winning us2 star and 4 star awards from the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment.We have expanded our services to source candidates from many parts of the world, such as India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines and reverse recruitment to attract Sri Lankans back to the country. Maritime PlacementsPvt Limited is the arm that concentrates on local placements and is further diversified within, by expanding into Maritime Contractual Solutions, Outsourcing, Transport and Engineering Services, Property Management and Maintenance as well as Allied Cleaning and Maintenance. Specializing in outsourcing, Soraya Saldin Executive Director of MPL believes that outsourcing frees clients from much hassle as they take over the entire HR process from advertising to screening, recruitment, appointment, payroll, EPF, ETF, and all other labour matters. We ensure that both the client and the outsourced staff are treated well, we assist them and guide them. As a result we have often been recommended to new clients by our present ones, she commented. Two companies, within the Mankind Group that carry out Headhunting and Search,namely Appointments of International Management Specialists(AIMS), which is a prime executive search consultancy body in Sri Lanka, and purely focuses on highly skilled senior Management roles for both the local and overseas clients, large national and multinational organizations, and Hunt A Skill Ltd (HAS) focuses on mid-level positions that require headhunting for the local clients, are headed by MsSunethra Hettiarachchi ,Executive Director under the direction of the Chairman MrFayaz Saleem. AIMS, was established with the sole purpose of providing the corporate business houses with a professional headhunting service based on international practices such as research, identifying, interviewing and evaluating suitable professionals for very senior positions. AIMS and Hunt A Skill have provided a professional service to a very wide portfolio of clients from varying industries for the past several years. The stability and success of this operation is largely attributed to strong and genuine relationships with clients, candidates and key corporate decision makers. In addition, AIMS markets resumes of Sri Lankan professionals residing overseas and who wish to return to Sri Lanka, stated Ms Hettiarachchi. The new addition to the Mankind Group is Mankind IT, just 12 months old. Speaking about the latest venture Ferhan Saleem Group Head of Marketing, Business Development and International Relations stated, The information technology industry is at the forefront of transforming and shaping our world, taking it to places that we could never imagine. Mankind IT is combining the recruitment industry with the IT industry, where we concentrate on bridging the gap between the many IT companies in Sri Lanka and the talent that can execute their visions. According to him, the IT professional is unfamiliar to the recruitment industry as the industry they specialize in itself. Understanding that particular mindset and pairing them with the best choice of career is a process that needs to be handled with much responsibility. We also want to encourage IT professionals to remain in Sri Lanka rather than opting to leave the country, he added further. The latest venture of the Mankind Group is HR Solutions (Pvt) Ltd, the training arm, which is currently focused on providing qualitative training programs for clients to develop their most valuable asset - their employees.The vision at HR Solutions (Pvt) Ltd. is to developemerging leaders and to contribute to the corporate sector by bringing out the best in People, through training. With such specialization and diversity covering all areas of employment, Mankind International Pvt Limited is set to embrace change with an understanding of the industries and candidates they work with, setting the stage to continue for many more years. Black box data show Lion Air pilots struggled to maintain control of a Boeing jet as its automatic safety system repeatedly pushed the plane's nose down, according to a draft of a preliminary report by Indonesian authorities investigating last month's deadly crash. The investigators are focusing on whether faulty information from sensors led the plane's system to force the nose down. The new Boeing 737 MAX 8 plunged into the Java Sea on Oct. 29, killing all 189 people on board. Information from the Lion Air jet's flight data recorder was included in a briefing for the Indonesian Parliament. Indonesian authorities were due to release the findings Wednesday but not to draw conclusions from the data they present. Peter Lemme, an expert in aviation and satellite communications and a former Boeing engineer, wrote an analysis of the data on his blog. The MAX aircraft, the latest version of Boeing's popular 737 jetliner, includes an automated system that pushes the nose down if a sensor detects that the nose is pointed so high that the plane could go into an aerodynamic stall. Lemme described "a deadly game of tag'' in which the plane pointed down, the pilots countered by manually aiming the nose higher, only for the sequence to repeat about five seconds later. That happened 26 times, but pilots failed to recognize what was happening and follow the known procedure for countering incorrect activation of the automated safety system, Lemme told The Associated Press. Lemme said he was also troubled that there weren't easy checks to see if sensor information was correct, that the crew of the fatal flight apparently wasn't warned that similar problems had occurred on previous flights, and that the Lion Air jet wasn't fixed after those flights. "Had they fixed the airplane, we would not have had the accident,'' he said. "Every accident is a combination of events, so there is disappointment all around here,'' he said. Boeing spokesman Charles Bickers said the company is "taking every measure to fully understand all aspects of this accident.'' The company said last week that it remains confident in the safety of the 737 MAX and had given airlines around the world two updates to "re-emphasize existing procedures for these situations.'' "We are deeply saddened by the loss of Lion Air Flight 610. We extend our heartfelt condolences and sympathies to the families and loved ones of those onboard. We will analyze any additional information as it becomes available,'' the company said in a statement. Pilots at American Airlines and Southwest Airlines complained this month that they had not been given all information about the new system on the MAX. More than 200 MAX jets have been delivered to airlines around the world. The Indonesian investigation is continuing with help from U.S. regulators and Boeing. Searchers have not found the plane's cockpit voice recorder, which would provide more information about the pilots' actions. Mexico's outgoing government said on Tuesday it would bestow the country's top honor for foreigners on Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law, a decision quickly met with derision by critics on social media. Kushner, who also serves as a senior White House adviser, will be admitted to the Order of the Aztec Eagle because of "his significant contributions" to a new North American trade pact agreed to in August, the government said in a statement. Kushner has often played a key diplomatic role in Trump's administration, meeting with Mexican and other foreign leaders and helping broker the deal to update the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement. Canada joined the pact in late September. The award is expected to be formally presented to Kushner on Thursday by outgoing President Enrique Pena Nieto on the sidelines of the G-20 summit of world leaders in Buenos Aires, Mexican newspaper Reforma reported on Tuesday, citing unidentified government sources. The summit is also where the leaders of Mexico, the United States and Canada are expected to sign the revamped regional trade deal. The honor bestowed on Kushner was a trending topic on Twitter, where it appeared to be mostly criticized by prominent Mexicans. "Giving him the Aztec Eagle reflects a supreme attitude of humiliation and cowardice," Mexican historian Enrique Krauze wrote in one post, noting that Trump called Mexican migrants murderers and rapists during his 2016 presidential campaign. Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal wrote that the decision to honor Kushner was "tremendously shameful." Past Order of the Aztec Eagle honorees include Colombian Nobel literature laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez and former South African President Nelson Mandela. Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will be inaugurated on Saturday after winning a landslide election victory in July. Kushner's wife, Ivanka Trump, is expected to attend the swearing-in along with other U.S. officials, including Vice President Mike Pence. At least 15 Nigerian organizations debuted a collaborative online platform Wednesday to combat fake news ahead of the countrys February elections. The Crosscheck Nigeria blog brings together competing newsrooms to investigate questionable claims, especially on social media. The collaboration was proposed by First Draft, a Harvard University-based project dedicated to fight fake news around the world, in partnership with the International Center for Investigative Reporting in Nigeria. Completed investigations will appear on the site only when at least five of the partners have approved their work. As of Wednesday evening, the site already had two posts one discrediting a story about Russian President Vladimir Putin originating from a fake Al Jazeera Facebook page, and another fact-checking a politician who released photos he falsely claimed depicted the Nigerian military attacking the terror organization Boko Haram. Nigeria often struggles with fake news. One of the most persistent examples is an online rumor that President Muhammadu Buhari, 75, who is running for reelection, died during his lengthy treatment in London for an unspecified illness in 2017. This is part of "Ocean Shock," a Reuters series exploring climate change's impact on sea creatures and the people who depend on them. Norway has built the world's biggest salmon-farming industry. But it wants to go bigger. With their lucrative oil fields now in decline, Norwegians have ambitious plans for aquaculture to power their economy far into the future. Climate change could make those dreams harder to realize. Salmon feed is based on fishmeal, produced by grinding up wild-caught fish. With warming waters and ocean acidification pushing underwater ecosystems to the breaking point, Big Aquaculture is seeking ways to feed fish that aren't hostage to increasingly unpredictable seas. "Feed has a couple of bottlenecks: We're still using marine resources, for example fishmeal and fish oil, to then put into fish. This is not necessarily sustainable in the long term," said Georg Baunach, co-founder of Hatch, an accelerator focused on supporting aquaculture startups. "And that's why we need innovation in feed." Entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and scientists are racing to identify alternatives, turning the Norwegian cities of Bergen and Stavanger into a Silicon Valley of the Sea. Spending on research and development in Norway's aquaculture sector increased by 30 percent to 2.3 billion kroner, or $275 million, between 2013 and 2015, according to official data quoted by Hatch, as startups and research institutes raced to develop disruptive new technologies. The innovators aren't short of ideas. At Norway's biggest oil refinery, a startup called CO2Bio is harnessing greenhouse gases to culture algae that can then be harvested as a sustainable source of fish feed. At the Institute of Marine Research in Bergen, the Aquafly project is investigating whether black soldier flies fed on waste products from the food industry or the seaweed growing off Norway's coast could be another viable feed ingredient. "The insects are also part of this whole circular economy, where instead of throwing away things you would reuse and recycle and upcycle," said Nina Liland, one of the Aquafly researchers. "Potentially you could use food waste from households to produce insects that could be used for fish feeds: That would be an optimal scenario." Various companies are working on projects to recycle more of the vast amounts of waste dumped into the sea by Norway's aquaculture industry into products such as biogas or fertilizer. Researchers are also looking for ways to combat the sea lice parasites that thrive in salmon cages, which are a major brake on the industry's plans to expand. Time may not be on the fish farmers' side. With climate change projected to intensify in the coming decades, the challenge will be to turn promising new ideas into viable projects fast enough to shield their dreams of a prosperous future from the growing turmoil at sea. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan led a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday for a new border crossing with arch rival India, days after New Delhi announced it would support a corridor to facilitate its minority Sikh community to visit one of their holiest sites across the border. The fenced crossing dubbed a corridor of peace will link Indian border city Dera Baba Nanak, to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, the final resting place of Sikhisms founder Guru Nanak in Pakistani Punjab. The Kartarpur corridor is supposed to be completed and opened well ahead of the 550th birth anniversary of the Sikh guru on November 23, 2019. It will provide year round visa-free access to Sikh pilgrims from India after more than seven decades. In a speech after laying the foundation stone, Khan said Pakistan and India have both made mistakes in the past but they now need to work together to improve ties. War is out of question between our two countries, which are equipped with nuclear weapons. It will be really crazy for both of them to even think about going to war, the Pakistani leader warned. Our countries must stop blame game. If France and Germany can leave their bloody past behind why cant India and Pakistan break the shackles of the past." Khan assured Sikh visitors from India that they will find their worship place and surrounding complex a completely developed structure equipped with all facilities and comforts when they visit Pakistan for the 550th birthday celebration of the Sikh guru. India's and Pakistan's independence from Britain in 1947 divided the Punjab province, where Sikhism was born. WATCH: India Pakistan Move to Open Historic Border Crossing for Sikhs The idea to open the corridor has been floated around since the 1980s, never coming to fruition due to the tumultuous relationship between the two nuclear armed South Asian neighbors. The proposal received a fresh impetus in August when Pakistans army chief, Qamar Javed Bajwa, told Indian minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, who was in Pakistan to attend the oath taking ceremony of Khan, Islamabad would be willing to open the corridor. General Bajwa was among the big gathering of guests at the groundbreaking ceremony, including diplomats, Indian journalists, Sikh devotees and a ministerial level delegation representing Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Last week, the Indian cabinet, chaired by Modi, approved the move. On the Indian side 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. Indian Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj Wednesday played down expectations the corridor could lead to the revival of official talks between the two countries. "The moment Pakistan stops terrorist activities in India, the dialogue can start but the dialogue is not connected with only the Kartarpur corridor," Indian media quoted her as telling reporters in Hyderabad ahead of the groundbreaking on the Pakistani side. The Indian external affairs minister had also been invited to attend the ceremony by her Pakistani counterpart, but she expressed her inability to undertake the visit due to prior commitments. Swaraj also requested in a tweet that Islamabad expedite construction of the corridor in order to ensure that our citizens can pay their respects at the Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib using the corridor as soon as possible. Previously, Indian pilgrims had to take a visa and arrive in the Pakistani border city Lahore before taking the 2-3 hour journey to the shrine. The new corridor, which is planned to remain open year round, will cut their journey to a mere 6 kilometers. 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. Impetus for peace Politicians on both sides have hailed the decision as an impetus for peace between the two countries that have fought several wars in their seventy-year existence. In the last few years, violence, including cross border shelling from both sides, has intensified in the disputed Kashmir region that both sides claim. Pakistan Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry called it a victory for the peace lobby in both countries. However, other analysts were less optimistic. I dont think it has any enduring significance apart from being stand alone. I see it as pure symbolism and I dont see it as any change in either countrys basic positions, said Ajai Sahni, the executive director of New Delhi based Institute for Conflict Management. He said the move was an effort by the Indian government to please the Sikh community ahead of next years general elections. Everyone is looking for whatever they can do to get a few extra votes, he said. Days before the ground-breaking ceremony, India complained to Pakistan about not allowing officials from its High Commission access to Indian pilgrims visiting Pakistan for the Guru Nanak birth anniversary. The Indian Foreign Minister released a statement expressing grave concern at the reports of attempts being made during the ongoing visit of the Indian pilgrims to Pakistan, to incite communal disharmony and intolerance and promote secessionist tendencies with the objective of undermining Indias sovereignty and territorial integrity. Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Faisal rejected the charges. India is a habitual alleger and it has become its second nature to blame Pakistan for any negative development, without blinking an eye, he asserted. India blamed Pakistan for supporting a Sikh separatist movement several decades ago and allowing the remaining leadership of that movement to live in Pakistan. The chief minister of Indian Punjab, Amarinder Singh, while welcoming the Kartarpur corridor opening, refused an invitation to attend the ground-breaking ceremony citing Pakistans support for terrorism in Indian Punjab. In the past 18 months we have smashed more than 15 terror modules. We have found Kashmiri terrorists in Punjab. How are we expected to tolerate all this? he told Indian newspaper The Hindu. Ayaz Gul contributed to this report. Nancy Pelosi was nominated by fellow House Democrats to be speaker on Wednesday, but she still faces a showdown vote when the full House convenes in January. Pelosi entered the closed-door caucus election in an unusual position running unopposed despite the clamor by some Democrats for new leadership. Votes were still being counted, but she was assured of victory. WATCH: Pelosi Expresses Confidence She Will Be House Speaker Again Are there dissenters? Yes, the California Democrat told reporters as voting was underway. But I expect to have a powerful vote going forward. Pelosi was nominated as her partys choice for speaker by Rep. Joe Kennedy of Massachusetts, with no fewer than eight colleagues set to second the choice, including Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, the civil rights leader, and three newly elected lawmakers. As House Democrats met in private in the Capitol, they faced a simple yes or no choice on the ballots. A sign of the partys mood emerged early as the House Democrats elected Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York as caucus chairman, elevating the charismatic 48-year-old from the Congressional Black Caucus as a new generation of leaders pushes to the forefront. His slim victory in that race, 123-113, over veteran Rep. Barbara Lee of California, another influential member of the Black Caucus, offered a window into the shifting landscape. Flanked by top progressive leaders, Lee made her pitch during the closed session, drawing on the record number of women, including minority women, who ran for office and are entering the new Congress. The majority, though, went to Jeffries who used his speech to remind Democrats of their core accomplishments from passage of the Civil Rights Act to the Affordable Care Act before pivoting to his vision for the future. Im focused on standing up for everyone white, black, Latino, Asian, Native American every single American deserves us, here in the United States Congress to work, Democrats and Republicans, on their behalf to make their life better, he said afterward. Democrats regrouped for an afternoon session, and voting that includes various caucus positions could stretch on for hours. In a letter to colleagues ahead of voting, Pelosi gave a nod to those clamoring for change. We all agree that history is in a hurry, and we need to accelerate the pace of change in Congress, she wrote, noting the historic class of new first-term lawmakers, the largest since Watergate, who led Democrats to the majority in the midterm election. My responsibility is to recognize the myriad of talent and tools at our disposal to take us in to the future by showcasing the idealism, intellect and imagination of our caucus, she wrote. Pelosis opponents had pledged to usher in a new era for Democrats. But one by one, the powerful California congresswoman picked off the would-be challengers and smoothed skeptics. In the end, there was no one willing, or able, to mount a serious campaign against her bid to reclaim the speakers job, which she held from 2007 to 2011, before the GOP took back the majority. Pelosi still lacks the vote tally shell need in January, when the new Congress convenes, to ascend to the post. You cant beat someone with no one,'' said Rep.-elect Jahana Hayes, D-Conn., who explained in a statement that she came to Washington eager to hear from colleagues and hopeful that many candidates would step up to the plate. But the only person that declared their intentions, spoke to me about their vision and asked me for my vote is Nancy Pelosi. Democrats were poised to return their entire top leadership team, including Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland in the No. 2 spot as majority leader and Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina in the No. 3 spot as whip. They were running unopposed. Plenty of newcomers were set to fill the down-ballot slots Those trying to oust Pelosi say they always knew the internal caucus election would fall in her favor. She only needed a simple majority of Democrats, who have a 233-seat majority, with several races still undecided, to win the nomination. But she'll need 218 votes in January, half the full 435-seat House, which is harder, if all Republicans vote against her, as is likely though she could win with fewer votes if some lawmakers are absent or vote present. Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., played down the significance of Wednesdays caucus vote and said the true fight for House speaker will occur in January. We're not going to make a big play of it, he said. It's Jan. 3. Several factions within the Democratic caucus in the House worked against Pelosi, but they failed to gain ground in recent days. Still, there seem to be more than enough votes to stop Pelosi in January. Some say only with a floor fight in view will new leaders emerge. They say there are plenty of Democrats on the bench who could step up to the job. But Pelosi's ability to stand unopposed Wednesday, despite the threats from within and reams of attack ads against her, showed the staying power of her brand of machine politics. The reality is there is no alternative, said Rep. Brian Higgins, D-N.Y., who had signed on to the letter opposing her but reversed course after Pelosi tapped him to lead his effort to expand Medicare options to those age 50 to 65. She was the female speaker and hopes to return to a role few men have had twice most recently, legendary Speaker Sam Rayburn a half-century ago. Between now and January, Pelosi will work the levers of power by doling out the many committee seat assignments, subcommittee chairmanships and other perks she is able to offer, or withhold, as incentives to win over supporters. The U.S. Senate voted 63-37 Wednesday to move forward legislation seeking an end to U.S. involvement in the Saudi-led war in Yemen. The vote is mostly a signal to the administration because House Republican leaders have not indicated they will take up the measure. The vote was evidence of the widening gulf between the White House and U.S. lawmakers regarding Saudi Arabia, even after two top members of President Donald Trump's national security team provided a classified briefing to the full Senate. Nearly two months after a dissident Saudi journalist was killed at the kingdom's consulate in Turkey, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis urged preservation of Washington's historically close ties to Riyadh, including U.S. support for the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen. That message fell on increasingly deaf ears as senators of both parties blasted the exclusion of CIA Director Gina Haspel from the closed-door encounter. The CIA is widely reported to have concluded that Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the slaying of Jamal Khashoggi, a U.S. resident. "Not having Gina Haspel at this briefing is a cover-up," the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Bob Menendez of New Jersey, told reporters. "It tells me volumes about what really is going on here." "Look, he [Salman] is responsible for this death [of Khashoggi]," said Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican. "The fact that he hasn't come clean, the fact that we haven't forced him to come clean, is creating a problem. And Congress is likely to respond to this." Pompeo said based on all the intelligence he has seen, there is no direct evidence linking the crown prince to Khashoggi's death. He also strongly objected to a pending Senate resolution to halt American backing for Saudi Arabia's actions in Yemen, describing it as "poorly timed" and arguing it would scuttle efforts to end the country's devastating civil war. "Passing a resolution at this point undermines that [peace effort]. It would encourage the Houthis [Yemeni rebels]. It would encourage the Iranians," Pompeo said. In unclassified excerpts released from Pompeo's remarks to the Senate, the secretary of state argued that America's withdrawal from the Yemeni conflict would extend the civil war and make it more deadly. Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Murphy argued the reverse is true. "The fact of the matter is the Houthis don't believe the Americans are an honest broker," Murphy said. "So, by Congress showing that our support for the Saudis is not unconditional, it actually gives reason for the Houthis to come to the [negotiating] table." The senator added, "I don't think the administration won any votes [to oppose the Senate resolution] in that troubled briefing." Even so, some senators who opposed a previous version of the resolution earlier this year signaled they had not changed their minds. "I think the secretaries made a pretty convincing case that, as outrageous as the [Saudi] behavior is, it would be counterproductive to do that [end U.S. involvement in the Yemeni conflict]," Wisconsin Republican Ron Johnson said. "It's a mean, nasty, ugly world out there." Saudi Arabia has denied allegations that Salman played a role in Khashoggi's death, blaming the killing on rogue agents. Trump has echoed Riyadh's denials and said the matter remains an open question. South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a frequent defender of Trump, joined other lawmakers in demanding a briefing by the CIA and threatened to withhold votes on urgent legislation if it doesn't occur. "If that briefing is not given soon, it's going to be hard for me to vote for any [federal] spending bill," Graham told reporters. Russian President Vladimir Putin says Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is responsible for the standoff with Ukrainian naval ships in the Black Sea, contending it is an attempt by Poroshenko to boost his re-election chances next year. In a televised speech Wednesday, Putin accused Poroshenko of orchestrating a provocation by Ukrainian vessels for the sole purpose of winning re-election. Meanwhile, Russias military said it is adding more anti-aircraft missiles to its defense systems in the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula. On Sunday, Russian forces seized three Ukrainian vessels and their crews in the Black Sea. Russia accused the 24 sailors who were manning the ships of illegally entering Russian waters and ignoring warnings from Russian border guards, charges Ukraine has denied. On Tuesday, a court in Crimea ordered 12 of the 24 sailors apprehended to be detained for two months. The rest of the group was scheduled to be in court Wednesday. 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, urged Western allies to impose additional sanctions on Moscow. Poroshenko said martial law will help strengthen Ukraines defense capabilities amid increasing aggression and according to international law, a cold act of aggression by the Russian Federation. He demanded Russia release the Ukrainian sailors and vessels. Putin voiced concern about the decision to impose martial law and told German Chancellor Angela Merkel he hoped Berlin could influence Ukraine to avoid any reckless acts. Putin is to meet this week with U.S. President Donald Trump as leaders from the G-20 group of advanced and emerging economies gather for a summit in Argentina. But in an interview with The Washington Post, Trump said maybe I wont have the meeting. Trump said the decision would depend on his reading of a full report on the situation he was to receive late Tuesday, adding, I dont like that aggression. Kremlin foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said Wednesday the meeting had been scheduled through official channels and that Russia had not received any information about canceling the meeting. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, condemned Russia earlier this week for what she called 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. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed the issue by phone Wednesday. The two leaders expressed deep concern about the incident in the Kerch Strait and the continued detainment of Ukraines vessels and crew members, Sanders said in a statement. They agreed to meet again at G-20 to discuss this concern and other important issues in the bilateral relationship. Sundays 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 U.S. special envoy for Ukraine, Kurt Volker, told reporters in Berlin Wednesday he believes Kyivs account that its ships were operating within global maritime rules. Volker said the Ukrainian vessels were returning to Odessa when the Russian vessels then pursued them and attacked them. Ukrainian officials have released what they maintain is the precise location where its ships were fired upon. Volker said he has not received independent U.S. verification of Ukraines information but believed the data the Ukrainians have provided is quite clear. Russia annexed the 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 denied despite strong evidence to the contrary. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is willing to allow inspectors into the reclusive country's main nuclear complex in Yongbyon, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported on Tuesday, citing a senior diplomatic source. "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," Yonhap quoted the source as saying. The source said Moon passed the message on to U.S. President Donald Trump when the two met during the United Nations General Assembly in New York 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. Asked about reports on Tuesday on North Korean willingness to allow inspectors in and whether there had been new developments, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said she was "not aware of any of that," but Kim had agreed to inspections in a meeting with Pompeo recently. "That's something the secretary and Chairman Kim had agreed to and spoken about when the secretary was in Pyongyang about a month ago or so," Nauert told reporters. "So that's something they agreed to and we look forward to Chairman Kim fulfilling his commitments." It was not clear from her remarks whether Kim had specifically said inspectors could visit the Yongbyon facilities. The United States has stressed the importance of verification as it negotiates with the North about the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Russia's military said Wednesday it is adding more anti-aircraft missiles to its defense systems in the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula. The move comes as Russia and Ukraine are locked in a dispute over a Sunday incident in which Russian forces seized three Ukrainian vessels and their crews in the Black Sea. 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. On Tuesday, a court in Crimea ordered 12 of the 24 apprehended sailors to be detained for two months. The rest of the group was due to appear in court on Wednesday. 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. WATCH: US responds to Russia-Ukraine conflict 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." He demanded Russia release the Ukrainian sailors and vessels. Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed concern about the decision to impose martial law and told German Chancellor Angela Merkel he hoped Germany could influence Ukraine to avoid any "reckless acts." Putin is due to meet this week with U.S. President Donald Trump as leaders from the G-20 nations gather for a summit in Argentina. But in an interview with the Washington Post, Trump said, "Maybe I won't have the meeting." He said the decision would depend on his reading of a full report on the situation he was due to receive late Tuesday, and added, "I don't like that aggression." Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Wednesday that Russia has not received any information about canceling the meeting. Internally displaced Rohingyas are silhouetted along the river bank where their fishing boats are docked, in Thae Chaung IDP camp on the outskirts of Sittwe YANGON (Reuters), NOVEMBER 27, 2018- 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. After nearly a year in detention, a months-long hunger strike, and a deportation order, 40-year-old Mergensana Amar died in U.S. immigration custody this month. He was removed from life support 10 days after he was found unconscious in his cell at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, and seven days after his last glimmer of brain activity. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced Monday that the Russia native died of "anoxic brain injury due to asphyxiation," the agency reported this week. Washington's Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office ruled Amar's death suicide by hanging. Amar was found in his cell on Nov. 15, and was declared brain dead on Nov. 18, according to ICE. He remained on life support until Nov. 24, however ICE has listed his official date of death as Nov. 18. Amar entered the U.S. without proper documentation, according to ICE. He was on a hunger strike from August until Oct. 16, protesting his detention and imminent deportation, scheduled for November. In an October interview during the hunger strike, Amar told local news website CrossCut that he was from Buryatia, Russia, and that he sought asylum after arriving at the southwest port of entry at San Ysidro, California, last December. He told the outlet that skinheads in Russia beat and threatened him, and that he had also been jailed for his activism in favor of Buryatia's independence. VOA has not independently verified these claims. The Russian embassy in Washington, D.C., has not replied to a request for comment made Wednesday on Amar's death. His next of kin has been notified, according to ICE. Amar's death is the 11th in ICE detention this year. An inmate dying in immigration custody is rare the agency detains more than 100,000 people annually. But human rights groups say health care is inadequate in ICE facilities. A report this summer alleged that lack of care can lead to untimely deaths. U.S. congressional lawmakers are pressing Rwanda's government against incarcerating dissident politician Diane Rwigara, who faces up to 22 years in prison after being convicted of inciting insurrection and forgery. Diane Rwigara, a former presidential candidate, is scheduled to be sentenced December 6, along with her mother, Adeline Rwigara. Both women were tried November 7, with the elder Rwigara convicted of insurrection and promoting ethnic hatred. They had been detained by police in October 2017 and jailed for a year but released on bail last month, prior to trial. They remain at home in Kigali, the capital city, under travel restrictions. "Peaceful political expression is not a crime. Running for office is not a crime," the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission a bipartisan congressional caucus named for its co-founder said in a tweet posted earlier Monday. The commission, which defends and promotes human rights internationally, has scheduled a December 4 briefing on Rwanda's treatment of human rights and political prisoners, including the Rwigaras. Diane Rwigara ran for president in 2017, challenging incumbent Paul Kagame, but was disqualified after election officials alleged that some signatures needed for her candidacy had been falsified. In July 2017, the activist started the People Salvation Movement to "encourage Rwandans to hold their government accountable," as she told CNN. She later was arrested on charges of incitement and fraud. Her mother also was arrested for criticizing the government in a WhatsApp exchange with another relative living outside Rwanda. Diane Rwigara denied the charges, saying Kagame was trying to prevent her from speaking out against injustice. In an interview with VOA after her October release, she called for the release of political prisoners and others unjustly detained. Kagame oversaw the central African country's reconciliation after the 1994 genocide, but rights groups have accused him and the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front of increasingly clamping down on dissent. The United States has granted a sanctions exemption requested by South Korea for a survey that could help reconnect railway links between North and South Korea. The sanctions were imposed by the U.N. Security Council. The move comes as nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang hit a snag. A diplomatic source told VOA's Korean Service on Monday the exemption only applies to the survey mission, not the proposed rail-link project itself. "There are sanctions, and if you want to do something, like delivering or selling products or goods that are subject to these sanctions, you need to go for an exemption of these sanctions," the source said. The Security Council approved the exemptions Friday, allowing the two Koreas to jointly conduct a survey on reconnecting their railways. The Security Council placed extensive sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear weapons program in December 2017. The United States proposed the sanctions, which were adopted by a vote of 15 to 0. Seoul and Pyongyang agreed earlier this year to modernize North Korea's railway system and connect it with South Korea's, but U.N. sanctions prohibit such interactions with North Korea. Seoul's plan to conduct the survey with Pyongyang stalled in recent months over concerns that it might violate U.N. sanctions that restricted shipment of goods to North Korea. The exemption for the survey, which Seoul requested, would allow South Korea to send trains, fuel, equipment and other goods associated with the survey across the border to determine the condition of the North Korean railway system. The move by the U.N., which the U.S. agreed to as the permanent member of the Security Council, comes amid a stalemate over denuclearization talks between Washington and Pyongyang. 'Incentivize' North Korea Negotiations over denuclearization hit an impasse when North Korea abruptly called off a meeting planned with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the last minute early this month. Experts said the U.S. agreed to grant the rail survey exemption to encourage North Korea to denuclearize. "It is designed to incentivize North Korea to take concrete steps on denuclearization," said Robert Manning, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. "It suggests the U.S. is looking for low-cost ways to get progress on dismantling North Korean nuclear weapons." Gary Samore, the White House coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction during the Obama administration, said, "The U.N. decision reflects an effort by Washington and Seoul to entice North Korea with promises of future economic benefits if it agrees to take steps to denuclearize." Douglas Paal, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the exemption suggests Washington's approval of Seoul's stance on offering incentives to the North to move toward denuclearization. "It is a nod by the U.S. to Seoul's argument that the North needs to be given something for its gesture so far toward a reduction of tensions," Paal said. Scott Snyder, director of the Program on U.S. Korea Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the move shows that "the U.S. is pragmatically maintaining sanctions while also demonstrating flexibility where necessary or desirable." Manning, however, doubts whether the rail survey exemption would be a sufficient incentive toward denuclearization. "A more productive approach is to offer a larger package of benefits but only as a part of action-for-action negotiations," Manning said. 'Close coordination' Ken Gause, director of the International Affairs Group, believes granting a sanctions exemption will help keep "Pyongyang invested in the engagement process." Gause said "by allowing some sanctions relief, we can begin to gauge how serious North Korea is to make positive movement on its nuclear program." Despite apparent flexibility on sanctions, the U.S. remains guarded. "The United States and (South) Korea are committed to close coordination on our unified response to North Korea," a State Department official said in an email message sent to VOA's Korean Service on Monday. Seoul is waiting for Pyongyang's reply to its proposal for the joint railway survey while it is talking with the United Nations Command (UNC) to prepare for the survey, which is expected to take place later this week. The UNC oversees the activities in the border between the South and the North. The Senate on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to move forward on a resolution ending U.S. military support to the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen. The 63-37 vote meant the Senate could start debating the resolution as early as next week. Many of the lawmakers, from both parties, were concerned not only about the humanitarian calamity caused by the fighting in Yemen but also about President Donald Trump's reluctance to punish the Saudis for the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Saudi-led airstrikes against Houthi rebels include weapons bought from the United States. They have killed thousands of Yemeni civilians, destroyed hospitals and wiped out entire neighborhoods. The U.S. has also provided intelligence to the coalition. Before Wednesday's vote, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis appeared before the Senate to defend U.S. involvement in Yemen. "The suffering in Yemen grieves me, but if the United States was not involved in Yemen, it would be a hell of a lot worse," Pompeo said. Mattis told the senators that "the U.S. is not operationally involved in hostilities in Yemen's civil war or in situations where the threat of hostilities is imminent, other than in counterterrorism operations against AQAP and ISIS" references to the al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and Islamic State terror groups. Civilian casualties Lawmakers have expressed skepticism about the Trump administration's assertion that the coalition has been doing all it can to avoid civilian casualties. "President Trump added measures to improve the coalition's deliberate targeting procedures designed to minimize civilian casualties in this conflict to the greatest extent possible," Mattis said. A Saudi airstrike on a schoolbus bringing children back from a picnic in August killed about 40 children. Investigators said a U.S.-made bomb was used. The coalition called the bombing a "mistake." Pompeo told the senators that a diplomatic mission led by U.N. Special Envoy Martin Griffiths was "gaining steam." "If that diplomacy starts to make breakthroughs, our hopes are high that hostilities will soon stop entirely," he said. Pompeo also said the United States had sent nearly $700 million in food and humanitarian aid to Yemen in the last 14 months. Iranian-backed Houthi rebels seized the Yemeni capital of Sanaa in 2014, sending the government fleeing to exile in Saudi Arabia. It has since relocated to the Yemeni city of Aden. Crucial port Much of the fighting between the rebels and Yemeni and coalition forces is focused in the key port of Hodeida, where nearly all food and emergency aid deliveries are made. The city is in rebel hands, and the Saudis say the Houthis use the port to receive Iranian weapons, a charge Iran denies. The U.N. has said 80 percent of Yemen's population is in desperate need of food, medicine and clean water, and it warns of famine if there is no cease-fire soon. China's new construction on a remote South China Sea reef has soured its relations again with Vietnam, a claimant to the same islet, after a period of calm, and may also draw concern from the Philippines. Satellite imagery shows China recently installed a new platform at the otherwise largely undeveloped Bombay Reef in the Paracel Islands, a chain in the South China Sea, the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative under the U.S. think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies says on its website. The Vietnamese foreign ministry protested this month against Chinas work on Bombay Reef. It demands China immediately halt and not repeat such actionsand make practical contributions to the development of friendship, deputy ministry spokeswoman Nguyen Phuong Tra was quoted saying November 22. China and Vietnam, though Communist neighbors, have stood at odds over territory for centuries most recently rival claims to the sea south of Hong Kong and east of the Gulf of Tonkin. China has effectively controlled the Paracel Islands since the 1970s despite Vietnam's claim to the same chain. The Chinese and the Vietnamese have been sort of in a tug of war over various maritime features, so I think we should see this as the latest in their series of tug of war, said Oh Ei Sun, senior fellow with the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. Chinas latest move Vietnam may worry that China will duplicate its construction work on Bombay Reef at other reefs and islets, further consolidating its control, maritime scholars say. What is unique here is that we've never seen this type of quick, low-impact construction by the Chinese, Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative director Gregory Poling said. The platform, possibly to be used for navigational aid, covers 124 square meters, his think tank says. Bombay Reef is about 9.5 nautical miles (17.6 kilometers) long and three nautical miles wide with a lagoon in the center, according to Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative data. An aging lighthouse was the reefs only structure before the platform was built. China has built military installations and urban infrastructure elsewhere in the Paracels, which it said earlier this year it would open to tourism. Chinese officials are doing all that work to lock in its sovereignty claim, analysts have said. From what we can see here, Chinas done it before and for this to be one move in a bigger chain of actions, I guess well have to see, said Yun Sun, East Asia Program senior associate at the Washington D.C.-based Stimson Center think tank. China probably sees Bombay Reef itself as an enhancement of its development in the Paracel chain, said Jay Batongbacal, a University of the Philippines international maritime affairs professor. Vietnamese agenda Vietnam and China have a history of testing each others patience at sea, especially as each side explores for gas in areas claimed by the other. When relations worsen, they often lower tensions by meeting first at the party-to-party level, then later between officials. Vessels from the two sides clashed because of that dispute in 1974, 1988 and 2014. In 2014 a Chinese offshore oil rig in contested water sparked violent anti-China protests in Vietnam. Sino-Vietnamese relations calmed after China apparently forced the cancellation of a joint undersea fuel exploration project between Vietnam and a Spanish contractor in March. Vietnamese President Nguyen Phu Trong, though not considered pro-China, will use party-to-party as well as state-to-state channels to work with China as needed, said Carl Thayer, professor emeritus with the University of New South Wales in Australia. Trong became president in October. Scarborough Shoal dispute The Philippines may be the next to confront Chinas island expansion if Bombay Reef is an indicator, Poling said. China could apply the platform construction to the often-submerged Scarborough Shoal thats northwest of Manila. It could be replicated elsewhere like Scarborough without the expense and reputational damage of large-scale dredging, he said. Beijing disputes tracts of the broader 3.5 million-square-kilometer South China Sea with the Philippines and two other Southeast Asian states. They all look to the sea as a source of fish, gas, oil and marine shipping lanes. China has tried to get along with the other countries since a 2016 world court ruling negated the legal basis for Beijings claims to the sea. Since then, Beijing has stuck to building up reefs and islets that it already holds rather than taking over new ones. Sino-Philippine relations have shown improvement since then, but China sees Scarborough Shoal as a prime fishery. Other than Scarborough, I dont see any reason why they should occupy a new reef or build a new island anywhere in either the Spratlys or Paracels, Batongbacal said. The seas Spratly chain is disputed by six governments. Its enough what they have. Residents in Seoul discovered how fragile their telecommunications system was this past weekend when a fire disrupted service for millions. The government and the provider vowed to implement changes to avoid a repeat of the event, but the system failure demonstrated a need for greater redundancy and preparation for future natural and technological disasters. The fire affected customers of KT, the nations second largest telecommunications company. They found themselves unable to make calls, access the internet, complete ATM or credit card transactions, and watch television. Local media also reported an elderly woman died when she fell ill and her husband wasnt able to reach emergency services during the service outage. Lee Manjong, chairman of the Korean Association for Terrorism Studies and professor of the department of Law & Police at Howon University, told VOA that while it is nearly impossible to prevent widespread system outages, certain steps can be taken to avoid catastrophic failures. It is necessary to split the public safety net (fire, medical, and police emergency services) and make system backups (redundancies) compulsory, he said. Following the blaze, South Koreas minister of Science and ICT (Information, Communications, and Technology), You Young-min, spoke to the CEOs of South Koreas three major communication companies (SK Telecom, KT, and LG U+) to discuss their backup plans. You said the companies need to swiftly change their contract clauses on compensation issues and also need to come up with plans that would reroute traffic if such accidents, which shouldnt happen again, happen. When asked for specifics on what steps the government planned on taking to prevent a similar event in the future, the ministry declined to offer specifics, stating that responsible parties would prepare fire prevention measures this year and set up a task force to implement recommendations. Local broadcaster MBC also reported that telecommunication companies and the government held a 20-minute virtual natural disaster drill in May to simulate a system outage, but the simulation proved to be ineffective in real-world situations. Interconnected services The Seoul fire and resulting system outage demonstrated how interconnected services are in the 21st century. If a network is down, then it affects other networks such as finance, power, energy, and railway, said Lee. He said there are multiple ways the electronic infrastructure can be paralyzed. This includes physical damage, natural disasters, and cyber attacks. However, Lee notes disruptions caused by cyber incursions are more effective. Cyber attacks are more efficient as they can take place without access to the physical location of the target, he said. According to Lee, this is because the government is able to secure physical sites, so cyber-warriors choose soft targets connected through the Internet. A distributed denial-of-service (DDos) attack could be launched from the Internet and attack telecommunication networks. This type of attack floods a computer network with incoming data packets and overwhelms the system, effectively shutting it down. Lee said such attacks on telecom systems could wreak havoc and paralyze communication. He cautioned that a successful cyber attack on South Koreas technological infrastructure could yield unimaginable damage because of the countrys reliance on networked services. Fire and recovery Saturdays fire struck an underground facility of KT, destroying telephone lines and fiber optic cables, taking about 10 hours to suppress. Seoul authorities rate facilities on a scale from A to D. Buildings rated A, B, or C must have adequate fire prevention systems installed, while those receiving a D rating do not. KTs Ahyeon facility, where the fire took place, was one of 27 D-rated facilities belonging to the company. As such, fire scene investigators found there were no fire detectors or sprinkler system installed at the Ahyeon facility and only a single fire extinguisher present. South Koreas other telecommunication carriers utilize over 800 similar facilities throughout the country, none of which are required to have fire detection equipment or sprinklers installed. Lee said government regulations must be altered to bridge the gaps to ensure that such facilities are required to have redundant services elsewhere in the event of a natural disaster or cyber attack. Estimates are the blaze resulted in about $7 million in property damage. KT has announced it would compensate affected customers by awarding them a free month of service for their inconvenience. KB security expects that amount to total about $27.5 million. In a text message to customers, KT said it was deeply sorry for the inconvenience. We will adopt preventive measures such as safety inspections to avoid a recurrence. Seoul officials told VOA the cause of the fire remains unknown and the investigation to determine its source could last a month. Lee Ju-hyun contributed to this report. Ankara is opening the door to a meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), fueling speculation of a possible improvement in ties that were strained by last month's killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at Riyadh's consulate in Istanbul. Erdogan has blamed the death on unnamed elements of the Saudi Kingdom's leadership. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu claimed the Saudi crown prince requested a meeting with Erdogan on the sidelines of this week's G-20 summit in Buenos Aires. "At this point, there is no reason not to meet the crown prince," Cavusoglu said to reporters Tuesday. Erdogan has not commented on any meeting. Erdogan and the Saudi crown prince are widely seen as regional rivals. Analysts claim Erdogan has skillfully maintained pressure on the crown prince over Khashoggi's disappearance. The Turkish president is at the forefront of demanding justice and holding to account all those responsible for the Saudi reporter's death. Some observers suggest Ankara's apparent readiness to meet Salman could be a sign of a change in policy toward Riyadh. "A meeting between Erdogan and the crown prince, which would also produce a good photo opportunity for the latter, but may lead to a number of questions and concerns over the continued investigation and prosecution of the Saudi journalist," columnist Serkan Demirtas of Hurriyet Daily News wrote Wednesday. "A meeting with the prince would not be a good idea if the Turkish side is not planning to enter a new stage in its ties with the Saudi Kingdom in the post-Khashoggi era," Demirtas added. Khashoggi investigation Turkish police are continuing their investigation into Khashoggi's death. This week, two large Saudi-owned residences in the city of Yalova, an hour's drive from Istanbul, were searched. Local media report the owners have close ties to the crown prince. Despite extensive searches over nearly two months, the journalist's body remains missing. Erdogan's dogged pursuit of Khashoggi's killers and repeated insinuations of the crown prince's involvement fueled speculation he was seeking to oust him from power, or at least significantly diminish his power. However, the robust support by U.S. President Donald Trump for the crown prince is seen as dashing such hopes. Analysts suggest that with international pressure appearing to ease up on Riyadh and the risk of severe economic repercussions for Ankara, now could be the time for Erdogan to cash in on his strategic advantage. "Justice for Khashoggi is threatening to mutate into economic war, which could upset the lucrative trade, tourism and contracting ties at a time when Turkey needs every penny of Arab money," said analyst Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners. "The gains to be made, claiming justice is served, is Turkey has the moral high ground, but economic and political gains are minimal," he added. "Real politics dictates Erdogan just stop short of revealing culpability of bin Salman and settles for political and economic concessions." Any rapprochement by Erdogan with the crown prince would be especially welcomed by Trump, according to observers. Washington has been forced onto the diplomatic back foot on several occasions by Ankara's release of information regarding the death of Khashoggi. "Trump would owe Erdogan a great deal if Erdogan would just stop this investigation before it reaches MBS," Yesilada said. Trump-Erdogan meeting U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton said Trump would meet Erdogan at the G-20 Summit. Ankara has a long wish list of demands from Washington on multiple issues. "Erdogan is going to follow Donald Trump, he is not going to break relations with Saudi Arabia," said international relations professor Huseyin Bagci of Ankara's Middle East Technical University. "Of course, Saudi Arabia will have to pay something, but I do not know what. However, Tayyip Erdogan will use this situation for economic and political advantages for Turkey." Analysts point out that with the Turkish economy facing recession, Ankara could be looking for financial support from Riyadh, as well as a possible lifting or easing of the Saudi embargo on Turkish ally Qatar. On Monday, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani met Erdogan in Istanbul. Up until now, though, the Turkish president has dismissed talks of Saudi concessions as bribery. Erdogan's tough stance over Khashoggi's death has won him rare international plaudits from many of Turkey's western allies, which increasingly have been critical of his rule and the deterioration of human rights in Turkey. Equally, analysts point out that the so-called "Arab Street" is seen as supportive of the Turkish leader's determination to hold Riyadh to account. "Will Erdogan really throw all caution and possibly fat paychecks from Riyadh and political favors from Trump administration to declare all-out war on MBS?" Yesilada asked. "The difficulty in reaching a conclusion in this affair stems from the fact that the three main actors in the drama, namely Messrs. Erdogan, Trump and MBS are not what you and I would call 'rational.'" A Sri Lankan court on Wednesday ordered the detention of the country's top military officer for investigation in connection with the abduction and disappearance of 11 young people, including ethnic minority Tamils, during the country's civil war that ended nine years ago. Fort Magistrate Ranga Dissanayake ordered that Chief of Defense Staff Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne be held until Dec. 5, saying he could obstruct the investigation due to the key post he holds. Wijegunaratne was the former chief of the navy. Wijegunaratne has been accused of giving refuge to former navy Lieutenant Commander Chandana Prasad Hettiarachchi, who is the main suspect in the abduction of the 11 young people in 2008-2009. They are believed to have been murdered while being held for ransom at a naval base. Wijegunaratne is also accused of helping Hettiarachchi evade police. Hettiarachchi was arrested in August, and several other navy troops have also been detained in the alleged scheme to make money. A large number of people were reported missing during the civil war that ended in 2009. Many were abducted by government paramilitary personnel for alleged links to the now-defeated Tamil Tiger rebels. Rebels also abducted civilians as forced conscripts. Many people who gave themselves up to the military in the final stages of the war are also unaccounted for. There is no clear record of the missing from the nearly 26-year conflict. A missing person commission has received 20,000 complaints. Ethnic Tamil leaders have said that more than 4,000 Tamils were reported missing in the war, and the government says most are probably dead. According to U.N. estimates, up to 100,000 people were killed in the war. Many more are feared dead, including up to 40,000 civilians who are believed to have died in the final months of the fighting. Government troops and the Tamil Tiger rebels, who fought for an independent state for ethnic minority Tamils in the island's north and east, are both accused of war crimes. Ambulances have been intentionally and repeatedly targeted in Syria, researchers said Tuesday, calling for more efforts to protect medical workers caught up in the conflict. The research, in the peer-reviewed journal BMJ Global Health, analyzed reports of 243 attacks on ambulances in 2016 and 2017 and found more than half were deliberately targeted. "There is no ambiguity in the results: Ambulances are directly and repeatedly targeted in Syria," Hayes Wong, one of the authors of the report, told Reuters. The attacks studied were mostly in opposition-held enclaves in and around Aleppo, Idlib and Damascus and nearly 90 percent were carried out by Syrian government forces and their Russian allies, the paper said. There have been repeated reports of attacks on medical workers and health care facilities during Syria's eight-year conflict, even though both are protected by international law. Among the most prominent medical workers in Syria are the White Helmet rescue workers. The group, who say they are neutral, have been credited in the West with saving thousands of people in rebel-held areas. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his backers accuse them of acting as propaganda tools and proxies of Islamist-led insurgents. Paramedics on ambulances are particularly vulnerable to attack as they are highly visible and can be targeted as they attend to casualties in the aftermath of an attack, according to the research paper. Almost half the ambulances that were attacked were severely damaged or destroyed, potentially hampering efforts to help casualties, researchers said. The paper also highlighted the use of so-called "double-tap" attacks, where a location is bombed twice within a short period of time, with the aim of striking emergency workers as they respond to the initial attack. The World Health Organization (WHO) said the report highlighted the dangers to health workers in Syria. "WHO reiterates its call to all parties to Syrian conflict to remember their humanity, abide by their legal obligations under international humanitarian law, and respect the sanctity and safety of health facilities and health workers," spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told Reuters. The WHO said 97 health workers were killed in 137 attacks in Syria this year, according to reports collated by its monitoring tool for attacks on health care. It does not collect data on who is responsible. Afghan officials said a suicide bomber detonated a vehicle-borne bomb Wednesday evening outside a British security company's compound in Kabul, making way for a group of armed assailants to storm the facility and spark fierce gunbattles. Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish confirmed the raid on the high-security facility housing the G4S security group. He said at least 10 people had been killed and that rescue workers had moved more than a dozen injured people to a local hospital. He did not discuss the number of assailants. The British company is said to be training Afghan police and providing guards for the British Embassy. The Taliban claimed credit for plotting the bomb-and-gun assault against the robustly fortified compound along a main road in Kabul. The main spokesman of the insurgent group, Zabihullah Mujahid, said the attack began with "a truck bomb." He said the powerful blast "removed all obstacles and cleared the way for multiple" Taliban suicide attackers to enter the base and engage "the enemy." Mujahid claimed Taliban attackers inflicted heavy casualties and said the violence was a reaction to civilian casualties caused by foreign forces in the southern Afghan provinces of Kandahar and Helmand. Earlier in the day, Afghan officials and residents said clashes in Helmand province between the Taliban and government forces backed by foreign airstrikes killed at least 30 civilians and 16 insurgents. Women and children were reportedly among the civilian casualties. Afghan peace team The evening insurgent attack in Kabul came hours after President Ashraf Ghani, speaking in Geneva to an international conference on Afghanistan, announced that he had formed a 12-member team for prospective peace negotiations with the Taliban. Taliban spokesman Mujahid rejected Ghani's assertions, however, that the insurgents were ready to talk to his government. In a statement issued late Wednesday, Mujahid reiterated that the United States, not the Afghan government, had the authority to negotiate the fate of the war. He said the Taliban were fighting the U.S. for starting the conflict and were negotiating a settlement to the conflict with the U.S. because engaging in a peace process with the "puppet" Kabul regime would be "a waste of time." Ghani told the conference in Geneva that his government had formulated "a road map" for peace negotiations with the Taliban. "We have formed our 12-person negotiation team comprised of both women and men and led by presidential chief of staff [Abdul Salam] Rahimi. We have also formed a peace advisory board to [provide] input into the negotiations as they happen," Ghani said. The Afghan president spoke days after U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad held a second round of talks with Taliban negotiators, who are based in Qatar. Khalilzad launched his mission in September, calling on Ghani's government and the Taliban to appoint their "authoritative negotiating teams." Taliban officials insist on securing withdrawal of all U.S. and NATO forces from the country in "preliminary" talks with Khalilzad before they will participate in an intra-Afghan peace process. Roadside blast On Tuesday, a roadside bomb planted by the Taliban killed three U.S. soldiers and wounded three others, along with an American contractor, near the troubled central eastern city of Ghazni. The U.S. military has lost 11 personnel in combat action in Afghanistan this year. Afghan security forces also have suffered unprecedented casualties in recent years, losing nearly 29,000 personnel since 2015. Afghan civilians, meanwhile, continue to bear the brunt of the deadly conflict amid U.N. warnings that civilian casualties have reached new highs. Nestle was the highest ranking F&B company in Business Todays list of Sri Lankas top thirty leading corporates for 2017-2018. The company was recognised for its enduring commitment to the country; enabling growth, providing economic and social opportunities, and enhancing the quality of life of the Sri Lankan people. Business Today has been compiling the Business Today TOP 30 list since 1997 to acknowledge listed business entities that have stood firm and performed with changing tides in the economy. With the assistance of KPMG Sri Lanka, it evaluates company performance recorded during the financial year ending December 31 and March 31, based on available published information. An excerpt from the Business Today Top 30 states: Amidst a difficult year, Nestle Lanka made a commendable progress driven by sustainable growth...The Company invested 8.4 billion rupees in the rural economy, with 3.5 billion rupees paid to farmers for fresh milk and 4.9 billion contributed to the coconut industry for procuring fresh coconuts. Continuing to believe in the long-term prospects of the Sri Lankan market, an investment of five billion rupees was initiated to expand production capacity for dairy and coconut based products. Said Shivani Hegde, Nestle Managing Director: Nestle has been in Sri Lanka for 112 years. We continue to invest because we are committed to supporting the development of this country and believe in its potential. A long-term approach to business has always been part of Nestles DNA. Our business model focuses on integrating sustainable development into our business activities, to create value for both our shareholders and society. We are pleased to receive this recognition for the fourth year running as a salute to our work in enhancing quality of life and contributing to a healthier future for all Sri Lankans. Nestle is the worlds largest food and beverage company. It provides direct employment to approximately 1,000 people in Sri Lanka whilst contributing to the livelihoods of more than 25,000 local farming families. The company is Sri Lankas largest private-sector collector of fresh milk and one of the worlds largest exporters of coconut milk powder. Nestle has received a number of awards and recognitions over the years for its contribution and strong commitment to the country, including Sri Lankas Most Respected F&B Company by LMD. Ex-Soviet Georgia votes in a presidential election runoff on Wednesday that pits a candidate backed by the ruling party who favors a policy balancing ties with Moscow and the West against a rival who advocates a stronger pro-Western line. If the opposition challenger Grigol Vashadze wins, he is likely to use the presidency's limited powers to push a vocal message of integration with the U.S.-led NATO alliance and the European Union sensitive issues in a country that fought a war in 2008 with its neighbour Russia. The ruling party and its candidate in the vote, Salome Zurabishvili, take a more pragmatic line, balancing Georgia's aspirations to move closer to the West with a desire to avoid antagonising the Kremlin. Zurabishvili, a former French career diplomat and Georgia's foreign minister from 2004-2005 who is supported by the ruling Georgian Dream party, received 38.7 percent of the vote in the first round on Oct. 28. That was just one percentage point ahead of Vashadze, who was a foreign minister in 2008-2012 in the resolutely pro-Western government that was in power when the conflict with Russia broke out over a Moscow-backed breakaway territory. Constitutional changes have reduced the authority of the president, and put most levers of power in the hands of the prime minister, a Georgian Dream loyalist. International observers said that the first round of voting had been competitive, but had been held on "an unlevel playing field" with state resources misused, private media biased, and some phoney candidates taking part. The first round result was a setback for Georgian Dream and its founder, billionaire banker Bidzina Ivanishvili. He is Georgia's richest man, and critics say he rules the country from behind the scenes. Zurabishvili's supporters say she would bring international stature to the presidency. But her opponents have criticised her for statements that appeared to blame Georgia for war with Russia in 2008 and remarks about minorities that some see as xenophobic. Zurabishvili cut back her public meetings with voters and media appearances after the first round. WATCH: Georgia election The opposition said there have been attacks on opposition activists during campaigning. One opposition coordinator was stabbed and and a petrol bomb was thrown into the the yard of another activist. The second round will be under close scrutiny, from opposition and international observers, for any sign the ruling party is using its control of the state machinery to help Zurabishvili win. The ruling party has denied any link to attacks on opposition activists, and denied attempting to unfairly influence the outcome of the vote. U.S. President Donald Trump threatened on Tuesday to cut subsidies for General Motors after the largest U.S. automaker said it would halt production at five plants in North America and cut nearly 15,000 jobs. "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 has made boosting auto jobs a key priority during his almost two years in office and has often attacked automakers on Twitter 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 extended earlier declines and were down 3.6 percent after Trump's tweets. GM declined to immediately comment. GM Chief Executive Mary Barra spoke to Trump over the weekend to discuss the cuts and was at the White House on Monday to meet with economic adviser Larry Kudlow. Trump also criticized GM for not closing facilities in Mexico or China. "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!" Trump wrote on Twitter. GM currently builds just one vehicle in China that it exports to the United States the Buick Envision and 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 spokesman Sarah Sanders told reporters 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 has been lobbying Congress, along with Tesla, 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. GM announced Monday 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 Monday it "better" 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. U.S. President Donald Trump says he would "totally be willing" to partially shut down the government next week if he does not get more funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border to thwart Central American migrants from entering the country. The U.S. leader, who almost daily unleashes verbal attacks on migrants trying to cross into the United States, told the Politico news site he is insisting that $5 billion for wall construction be included in measures Congress needs to approve to keep several federal agencies open after their current spending authority expires December 7. Opposition Democrats have said they will approve $1.6 billion for the wall, leaving the two sides far apart. Some Republicans are also opposed to Trump's wall, which he vowed in his 2016 presidential campaign would be paid for by Mexico, although he now wants U.S. taxpayers to foot the bill. "I am firm," Trump said of his $5 billion demand. "I don't do anything ... just for political gain," Trump said. "But I will tell you, politically speaking, that issue is a total winner. People look at the border, they look at the rush to the police, they look at the rock throwers and really hurting three people, three very brave border patrol folks. I think that it's a tremendous issue, but much more importantly, is really needed. So, we have to have border security." Trump was referencing a Sunday confrontation at the border in which migrants hurled rocks at U.S. Border Patrol officers, with agents repelling the crowd with blasts of tear gas. Rodney Scott, the chief Border Patrol agent in San Diego, California, just north of the Mexican border, said agents were not seriously injured. "Their shields and their bulletproof vests actually protected them from the rocks," he said. "We did have a few vehicles that were damaged, some windows and quite a few dents, but none of the agents were seriously injured." Even as Trump voiced his determination to win congressional approval for the $5 billion in initial funding for a wall estimated to cost more than $20 billion, he told The Washington Post in a separate interview that he could find other ways to build the wall or add more security along the border. "I think that's been shown better than ever in the last short period of two weeks that we need a wall," Trump told the newspaper. "I see the Democrats are going to want to do something, because they understand, too. Those pictures are very bad for the Democrats. We're not having a wall because of the Democrats. We need Democrat votes to have a wall." "Now, if we don't get it, will I get it done another way? I might get it done another way," he declared. "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." House Speaker Paul Ryan, leader of the current majority Republican bloc in the House of Representatives, told reporters Wednesday that after the nationwide congressional elections in early November, "hopefully ... Democrats realize that a secure border should not be a Republican thing, it shouldn't be a Democrat thing, it's just good for the country. To actually secure our border. The House is there. We hope the Senate comes with us." He added, "Turn on the TV, you can see we have a problem at the border. So, we want to secure our border. The House Republicans have always wanted to secure the border, the House Republicans have been passing bills to secure our border, and I'd like to think that Democrats would also want to join us in securing the border, especially after the election." Asylum seekers at the Mexican border fleeing violence or persecution are entitled to lodge claims in the United States to obtain sanctuary there, U.N. agencies said in a fresh attempt to shield migrants from tough U.S. immigration policies. U.N. officials have repeatedly urged Washington to ensure asylum seekers are protected, but U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that Mexico should send migrants seeking asylum in the United States back to their home countries. U.S. authorities fired tear gas canisters toward migrants in Mexico near the border crossing separating Tijuana from San Diego, Calif. on Sunday when some rushed through border fencing into the United States. Mexico's foreign ministry presented a diplomatic note to the U.S. government on Monday calling for a "full investigation." After Trump signed an order limiting asylum rights earlier this month, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said the United States must make sure anyone fleeing violence or persecution can get protection "without obstruction." UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch, asked on Tuesday about U.S. forces firing tear gas at migrants, told a Geneva news briefing: "We are following those reports with concern. We are still trying to understand what transpired there." Border management is "a sovereign prerogative of national governments," but border security and international protection for refugees are not mutually exclusive, he said. "It means that any person whose life is at risk in their country of origin must be able to access territory and request asylum in a safe country. And each asylum request should be considered individually. "We have been repeating our call on the U.S. authorities to grant access to the territory and to asylum procedure to those who are fleeing persecution and violence," he said. Sunday's incident was the latest chapter in a saga that has pitted Trump's hard-line immigration policies against thousands of migrants who have made their way north through Mexico from violent and impoverished Central American countries. About 3,500 migrants from the caravans have applied for asylum in Mexico, Baloch said. Seven migrants have died in incidents along the way, Joel Millman of the International Organization for Migration said. "We believe governments have the right to defend their borders and should do so responsibly," he said. "We also think migrants certainly should have the expectation that there be an access that is legal and safe for them to at least seek to cross a border." U.S. senators, many of them still seething over the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, are receiving a closed door briefing Wednesday from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis about last month's murder of the Saudi dissident and U.S. resident at the kingdoms consulate in Turkey. Ahead of the meeting, lawmakers of both parties blasted CIA Director Gina Haspels exclusion from the scheduled classified briefing on Saudi Arabia. I want the CIA I want somebody from the intelligence community to brief the Congress about what the presidents 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 asked. 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 Riyadhs denials and said the matter remains an open question. There are a lot of tough questions that need to be answered [at Wednesdays briefing], Republican Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado said. I would like to know exactly what our intelligence has and who is responsible [for Khashoggis death]. I think we have that information. It would be nice if they shared it with us. We dont accept the explanations given, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Bob Menendez of New Jersey, said. Its 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. Secretary Pompeo says the U.S. doesn't condone Khashoggi's murder but also warned of harming U.S - Saudi ties. "The October murder of Saudi national Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey has heightened the Capitol Hill caterwauling and media pile-on. But degrading U.S.-Saudi ties would be a grave mistake for the national security of the U.S. and its allies," he wrote in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal. Trump and his administration'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. In coming days, the Senate is expected to vote on ending U.S. backing for the Saudi-led coalitions 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], Vermont independent Senator Bernie Sanders, who co-authored the measure, said. There is a growing understanding of the humanitarian disaster [in Yemen]. People are understanding the despotic nature of the Saudi regime. We shouldnt be rewarding regimes that are indiscriminately bombing civilians in Yemen, and Im 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 cant let an ally do anything they want simply because theyre 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 dont want to accept the brutality surrounding the murder. But weve got to maintain a relationship and I anticipate that we will. U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday sanctioned the wife of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and one of his aides under a new executive order allowing Washington to target Nicaraguan officials for a crackdown on anti-government protests. The U.S. Treasury said it had used the new executive order to punish Nicaraguan Vice President Rosario Murillo, Ortega's wife, and an aide it named as Nestor Moncada Lau, accusing them of undermining Nicaragua's democracy. The step will have the effect of freezing any property owned by Murillo and Moncada that falls under U.S. jurisdiction and of barring U.S. individuals, banks and other entities from carrying out any transactions with them. There was no immediate response from the Nicaraguan government for a request for comment on the U.S. action. More than 300 people have been killed and at least 2,000 injured in crackdowns by police and armed groups on protests that began in April over government plans to cut welfare benefits and then escalated into broader opposition to Ortega. U.S. officials said they were trying to influence Ortega, a former Marxist guerilla leader whose response to the protests has been compared to the reign of Anastasio Somoza, the dictator he helped topple in 1979. "It's a message to President Ortega to find an exit strategy and to begin a process for ... free and fair elections," a senior Trump administration official told reporters on condition of anonymity. "It's an opportunity to find some type of solution ... to the crisis that they have created." Ortega, who ruled the country from 1979 to 1990, has held elected office as president since 2007. The current violence comes after years of calm and is the worst since his Sandinista movement battled U.S.-backed "Contra" rebels in the 1980s. Ortega in July rejected the idea of calling a referendum on whether to try to calm opposition against him by holding an early election before the next scheduled presidential election, due in late 2020. In announcing the sanctions, the Treasury accused Murillo of dismantling Nicaragua's democratic institutions and looting its wealth in an effort to consolidate power. It described Moncada as acting as a national security adviser to both Ortega and Murillo. While he does not have an official position in the government, he is believed to have considerable influence over the police. Moncada's involvement in intelligence operations with the Sandinista party stretches back to the early years of the revolution in the 1980s. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday he would "probably" block a renewed effort to bring to a vote a bill to protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The bill, known as the Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act, would make it harder for President Donald Trump to undermine the investigation, which he has called a witch hunt. The measure has already been approved at the committee level with bipartisan support. "I probably would" object to bringing up the bill, McConnell told reporters at the U.S. Capitol, calling a bipartisan effort to force such a vote "a solution in search of a problem" as Trump renewed his Twitter attacks on Mueller and his long-running inquiry. McConnell reiterated that Mueller should be allowed to finish his probe, which is also looking into possible collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign and obstruction of justice. But he said he did not think Trump would try to fire Mueller, adding that lawmakers "have a lot of things to do to try to finish up this year without taking votes on things that are completely irrelevant to outcomes." Moscow denies interfering in the 2016 election, and Trump has denied any collusion occurred. The president blasted Mueller again on Tuesday on Twitter, calling him a "conflicted prosecutor gone rogue" and accusing him of doing "TREMENDOUS damage" to the criminal justice system. Noting the attack, Senator Jeff Flake, a Republican who is retiring from Congress, and Senate Democrats Chris Coons and Cory Booker said on Tuesday they would again seek to bring up the legislation for a vote Wednesday. Flake tried the same step earlier this month, and McConnell stopped the bill from advancing. Flake responded by saying he would try to block judicial nominations pending in the Senate until McConnell lets the Mueller bill go to a floor vote. Before McConnell spoke Tuesday, No. 2 Senate Republican John Cornyn told reporters that Republican leaders were trying to gauge support for the Mueller bill. He suggested it could be brought up for a vote to try to end Flake's tactics. Cornyn added that he opposed the bill, believing it to be unconstitutional. Some Democrats want to put language protecting the Mueller investigation into a spending bill to fund the government that must pass by Dec. 7. Concertina wire had been laid, extra border patrol officers had been deployed to the U.S. Mexico border, and ports of entry, hardened. Yet, none of it stopped the border clash on Sunday when suffocating tear gas was fired by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officials against Central American migrants whose peaceful protest had spiraled out of control. In a briefing with reporters Tuesday, U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials said what happened Sunday was a routine border protection mission against a violent mob of 1,000 people. (The Mexican government puts the number at 500). This group was predominately male and many were throwing projectiles including rocks and concrete at border patrol agents, Tyler Houlton, DHS Press Secretary, told members of the media. But the choking tear gas, known as CS gas, is considered to be a chemical weapon that was outlawed on the battlefield by the United States and other nations in a 1993 agreement. The Chemical Weapons Convention banned the use of chemical weapons in war, and also the production and stockpiling of weapons. Those are chemicals that we normally dont even use in combat anymore. So, this is completely unheard of. And we don't throw these at people that are trying to seek asylum, said Mana Kharrazi, executive director of Iranian Alliances across Borders. However, the use of tear gas is sometimes legal within the confines of the U.S. and may be used by police and federal law enforcement. American Civil Liberties Union Senior Staff Attorney Carl Takel puts an emphasis on 'sometimes.' The constitutional standard for use of tear gas by domestic law enforcement like other uses of force is the Graham v. Connor objective reasonableness standard," he told VOA. "They cannot use tear gas arbitrarily and without warning...and I have difficulty imagining any circumstance in which it would be permissible to target tear gas canisters at unarmed young children. Only an irritant? Reuters photographers captured children and their mothers as they fled from the tear gas. In one photo that has gone viral, Maria Meza races to help her two young barefoot children escape the canisters fired by U.S. authorities. I was sad, scared, and waiting to cry, she told Reuters. Thats when I grabbed my daughters and started running. At that moment I thought I was going to die with them because of the gas. It wasnt right. They know we are human beings, the same as them. It wasnt right they did that to the children. According to reports, Meza fell into the mud before another male migrant pulled her up. San Diego Border Patrol Chief Agent Rodney Scott said on Tuesday U.S. officials do not target women and children. If women and children choose to insert themselves into a violent crowd that is attacking police officers with rocks and bottles, there are going to be unintended consequences. Were doing everything we can to message that at the migrant shelters, Scott said. Scott said border patrol agents are using the least intrusive tools they have. The United States Border Patrol agents will not stand there and get assaulted with rocks and bottles and not respond," he added. "... Again, I want to state that the pepper gas is an irritant, there is no permanent harm, but the easiest way to avoid it is comply with the law, go to the port of entry and then get in line with everybody else." Waiting for asylum On Monday, the Mexican government released a statement saying 98 people were placed on removal proceedings due to violent behavior towards the Mexican federal police at the U.S. Mexico border. On the U.S. side, border patrol agents arrested 42 people who had illegally crossed the border. Of the 42, seven were women and a few were children. Since the arrival of the migrant caravan two weeks about in Tijuana, Mexico, local authorities in both countries have ramped up security. A spokesman for the United Nations International Childrens Emergency Fund, UNICEF, told VOA that as of November 21, 4,731 migrants had arrived in Tijuana. Among them are 862 children. In addition, UNICEF said another 4,000 migrants were on the way to Tijuana. Criminals in the crowd? DHS officials claim that 500 to 600 identified criminals are among the migrants trying to cross into the United States. But on the same call to reporters, officials refused to explain what methods were used to confirm they have these migrants criminal records. News reports have said paid informants were embedded with the migrants. Through intel sources weve identified at least 600 criminals in and around the caravan," Houlton said. "... We cant get into how those methods are conducted. Thats all I can tell you. The people have criminal records that weve identified. Asylum waiting list Those hoping to apply for asylum in the United States are putting their names on a waiting list that reportedly already had 3,000 signatures before the arrival of the caravan in Tijuana. U.S. officials have been processing about 100 claims a day, and the wait time for the recent arrivals is expected to be months. They're coming from countries that are deeply affected by a lot of our policies and affected by conflict and years of struggle. So, they have very valid cases for seeking asylum, Kharrazi said. Under U.S. law, anyone arriving at a port of entry or crossing in between ports of entry is eligible to apply for asylum if they have a fear of returning to their home country. Trump issued a proclamation November 9 that barred anyone from claiming asylum who entered the country illegally. But a federal judge blocked the measure until it can be tried in court December 19. Without offering more details, DHS officials said the vast majority of migrants are coming for economic reasons and not asylum. Wanting to work in the U.S. is not asylum, wanting to be united with family in the U.S. is not asylum, Houlton said. Spend 47 days in the art world with Seen. The monument Gay Liberation by George Segal was installed in Christopher Park in 1992. Photo: Jeff Greenberg/UIG via Getty Images Public art has an impossible job. On Sunday afternoon I asked whoever happened to be in Christopher Park, across from the Stonewall Inn, hallowed site of that famous 1969 riot that is considered to have sparked the modern LGBTQ-rights movement, what they thought of Gay Liberation. Its a low-key sculpture by George Segal of two same-sex couples relaxing two women on a bench, two men, standing cast in bronze and painted white, modeled after Segals friends, and installed in the park in 1992. Two friends, one black, the other white, drinking expensive coffee told me it was nice, especially for people who might not know what happened. An older white guy proclaimed it hideous and that gay people should be much more creative. A young black woman, a strategic adviser to a pharmaceutical company, told me she thought the figures should be more strident, while her friend said he liked the way theyre turning inward toward each other. A white middle-aged gay couple visiting from Dallas said they found it beautiful and emotional, going on to tell me they were also moved by Kinky Boots on Broadway the night before. Finally, a Latinx man from the Bronx, wearing a purple cowboy hat, red pants, and a shaggy goat-fur coat, asked me to take his picture sitting with the sculptures figures. Be sure to get the Guccis, he said, gesturing toward his sneakers. When I asked what he thought about the Segal, he tossed his head and said, Honey, theyre just there! Gay Liberation was commissioned on the tenth anniversary of the riots, which were sparked by a police raid on the club (police harassment of gay clubs was then standard law-enforcement practice). The monument has been controversial since it was commissioned in 1979, though the nature of the criticism has changed over time. Initially fueled by outright homophobia, now the challenge comes from the other direction, by trans artists and activists of color. Building on a conversation around the politics of remembering and representation, a small exhibition at the New Museum, Consciousness-Razing: The Stonewall Re-Memorialization Project, takes up the criticism lodged at the existing monument and aims to propose alternatives. MOTHA and Chris E. Vargas: Consciousness RazingThe Stonewall Re-Memorialization Project, 2018. Exhibition view: New Museum, New York. Photo: Maris Hutchinson / EPW Studio Like Jerusalems Temple Mount, Stonewalls meanings and histories are fiercely contested by several overlapping groups, with an intensity that leaves outsiders scratching their heads. Remember Roland Emmerichs disastrous 2015 Stonewall film, which attracted ire by foregrounding the fictional Danny, a white corn-fed midwestern hunk. Many saw it epitomizing the decades of erasure trans women and people of color have experienced in the histories and representations of the LGBTQ movement. At the time of the films release, Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, who participated in the riots, reflected on what kind of monument shed like to see there: Put a couple of statues of people of color and at least make one of them an overly obnoxious transgender woman, 65, three inch heels, blond/red hair, lashes, beads, feathers and put one of those fine white boys next to her, now that I can handle! Heeding her call, two anonymous activists painted blackface onto the male figures, dressing them in wigs, scarves, and bras. A handwritten sign was propped by their feet: Black and Latina trans women led the riots. Stop Whitewashing. The incident signals a generational shift in the politics of representation and the fractures that the queer community is confronting as Stonewalls 50th anniversary approaches next year. Against this backdrop, conceptual artist Chris E. Vargas organized Consciousness Razing, under the auspices of his semi-fictional institution the Museum of Trans Hirstory and Art, or MOTHA (pronounced like the insect). Vargas started MOTHA in 2013 after observing the rising visibility of trans identities in the media, in what was later dubbed the trans tipping point, which brought mainstream fame to the likes of Laverne Cox, Caitlyn Jenner, and the television show Transparent. The last five years have likewise seen a major push by cultural institutions to populate their programs with events, panels, and exhibitions that include trans artists, which oscillates between feeling corrective and fetishistic or both at the same time. Thus the idea of inventing a trans museum was a sly attempt to understand what was happening and try to help shape it with a bit more nuance. Vargas says he has a complicated relationship with this revisionist hypervisibility, which seems intent on defining and fixing the fluidity that encompasses so many different kinds of experiences under the name trans. But that is what my project is about, he tells me. At its heart, I have to be engaged with institutions because MOTHA is about institutionalizing things, including this identity. The New Museum in particular has been at the forefront of this move with its recent exhibitions Trigger: Gender As Tool and Weapon (2017), and the publication of the major anthology Trap Door: Trans Cultural Production and the Politics of Visibility (2018), both of which included MOTHA. For this exhibition, Vargas invited 12 artists to propose new liberation monuments to replace George Segals. The selection represents an intergenerational mix of racially diverse artists who identify widely across the gender spectrum. Each proposal is displayed as a sketch and text pasted onto the walls, and small maquettes that get physically installed, one at a time, into a 1:7 scale model of the park, on weekly rotation. The pieces include everything from a Plexiglas Trajans column stuffed with lesbian-sloganed T-shirts (Catherine Lord), to a quartet of sheared and silvered Bratz dolls, meant to symbolize a racially ambiguous and gender-fluid every-person, asking you to recognize those whom history has neglected (Martine Gutierrez). MOTHA and Chris E. Vargas: Consciousness RazingThe Stonewall Re-Memorialization Project, 2018. Exhibition view: New Museum, New York. Photo: Maris Hutchinson / EPW Studio Nicki Green, an artist from San Francisco and a longtime MOTHA collaborator, proposes a pile of Stonewall-branded bricks heaped into the park. Passerby would be encouraged to take a brick to use however they see fit, until they disappear. This continues the ceramists work imagining queer riot tools, which includes handmade bottles for Molotov cocktails glazed in delftware designs and narrative depictions of trans history in the manner of ancient Greek pottery. Green previously made work memorializing the anniversary of San Franciscos Comptons Cafeteria riot in 1966, which was led by trans women, sex workers, people of color, and is often cited as one of the beginnings of trans activism. For the project, Green scoured thrift shops, anointing assorted dishes as long-lost relics and affixing commemorative logos on them. As somebody who is invested in material culture, I think about how people would actually touch and interact with them, and how that sort of touch is a legacy-transmitting action. With the Comptons dishes, I was thinking about the action of revolt grabbing whatever is available and hurling things in the air. She is similarly playing with the idea of the mythical Stonewall brick, which may or may not have started the riots. Geo Wyeth, a New Yorker currently living in Rotterdam, proposes a floating graveyard party space, where the muck that has disappeared from our increasingly expensive city streets would be celebrated in an immersive environment. In 20132014, Wyeth made video work called Quartered exploring a relationship to their famous ancestor J. Marion Sims, the father of modern gynecology who refined his experiments on African-American slave women without anesthesia or consent. After much protest, a sculpture of Sims was removed from Central Park earlier this year, giving Wyeth another context to rethink monuments and their role in cultural memory. There was a big debate going on in my family and I was included in an email thread, with a lot of people opposed to its removal, they told me. That was an amazing opportunity to explain why I am for removing it, and try to get them to think from another persons perspective asking, Why are you so invested? What are you investing in? This informs their feelings about the Segal sculpture: Its inaccurate and that inaccuracy is racist that is an omission, one which, misses the rage that has so much to do with life in the world as a queer person. The model park in the exhibition is professionally fabricated, complete with laser-cut detailing on the miniature wrought-iron fence, which contrasts the artists slapdash maquettes that look like a high-school project. (Quick, its due tomorrow!) While checking out Jibz Camerons piece, a series of crude drawings turned into small foam-core signs, one fell off its shelf and onto me. It read, The toilets were overflowing. The staff person who fixed it said the dowels were stuck into blobs of oil-based modeling clay that will never cure. In her text, Cameron (who also goes by the alter ego Dynasty Handbag) outlines an obnoxious fountain with the drawings lining the sides (this would require a statue of some kind, which I am not prepared to decide on. Too much pressure!). Anxiety to propose something as specific as a statute permeates the show, which skews toward abstractions, often bolstered by theoretical rejections of anything as definite as a monument. MOTHA and Chris E. Vargas: Consciousness RazingThe Stonewall Re-Memorialization Project, 2018. Exhibition view: New Museum, New York. Photo: Maris Hutchinson / EPW Studio The conceit of the current MOTHA show isnt new. At the end of 2016, Avram Finkelstein and Hugh Ryan organized a feature for Vice called Ten Queer Reimaginings of New Yorks Gay Liberation Monument. It brought together a similar intergenerational mix of racially diverse artists who identify widely across the gender spectrum, though their prompt was slightly different, creating responses to recontextualize the Segal rather than replace it outright. The results varied from Ken Gonzales-Days proposal to scatter sculptural corpses around the park to Carrie Moyers and Sheila Pepes photo-play satire of todays middle-class lesbian life. Before giving artists this task, Finkelstein had been thinking about how to reframe Gay Liberation for a long time. As a member of the collective that created the iconic Silence=Death poster, he envisioned a counter-monument back when the Segal was first installed. Between the sculptures commission in 1979, and its eventual placement in the park in 1992, AIDS had ravaged New York City and radicalized its queer communities. The white cast figures now seemed like ghosts, elegiac, and to AIDS activists, resigned. Finkelsteins idea was for a kind of ACT UP monument: turning the signature pink triangle from Silence=Death into a pink triangular obelisk. The collective sent letters out to the business owners flanking the park asking if theyd support the intervention there was no interest. MOTHA and Chris E. Vargas: Consciousness RazingThe Stonewall Re-Memorialization Project, 2018. Exhibition view: New Museum, New York. Photo: Maris Hutchinson / EPW Studio Even with its fatal political flaw, its important to recognize the virtues of Segals sculpture. Life casting is an extremely basic way of making an object by creating a mold from a real thing, removing it to leave a hollow negative, and then filling it with new material to create a copy. The results are both direct and indirect simultaneously, linked through an unbroken chain of touches. Segal developed a process of wrapping subjects in strips of plaster-drenched cloth, clinging tightly to the body through their clothes aping the effect of fabrics in Hellenistic marbles without their preternatural grace. With human figures, the life cast displaces the same volume as a body, and we respond to that on a physical level, uncannily, because we know the living original is gone. Bodies change and die, but the cast remains, a record of someone who once was, at a specific point in time. The choice to paint them white further separates these sculptures from the life, even as they bleed seamlessly into the surrounding world sitting or standing in the same place you are, without plinth or barrier. (The bench that curves around the park is also a part of the sculpture.) The choice of color relates to his process of plaster casting, but it also feels haunted, making you think of people who were alive and now arent, observing the bodies of everyone else in the park doing their own thing, and imagining who has been there before. As a further intervention into the rhetoric of monuments, these figures are just living their lives, being together, without doing anything heroic a gentle tableaux you can walk into. It becomes part of your life. In its way this enacts a utopian ideal, where queer people are just in the world like everyone else. Its fascinating to see how often people touch them, which is constantly mostly affectionately, sometimes lewdly, though generally its just a gentle laying on of hands the way the figures do to each other. All of this makes Gay Liberation one of the most effective public art works in New York, and for its clarity and subtlety, one of the best sculptures Segal ever made. Jonathan Kuhn, current director of Art and Antiquities for the city of New York, oversaw the installation a year after starting his new job in 1991. One of the biggest challenges is realizing something in physical form that sustains us, has impact, and is of the stature of the subject being commemorated, he says, None will be perfect. We cannot possibly ask any work of art to convey all the complex emotions we have about a person, place, event, or movement. He tells me about the shifts in perception around it, that by 1992 it was contextualized by AIDS, which was not part of its intention when it was made in 1979; it then seemed to embody the legalization of gay marriage in 2015; after the Orlando nightclub shooting in 2016, it became a shrine, surrounded with flowers, candles, and signs. We assume with any monument that its creation represents a specific moment in time, he says, and its understood that it stays stable, literally, when the world around it changes. As a special subcategory of public art, monuments have a special if doomed task of coalescing publics around them embodying our shared civic values. Of course, in an America as bitterly divided as ours, the idea of a monument to anything, in any form is all but unthinkable. As a point of comparison, take the New York City AIDS Memorial, which opened a short walk up Seventh Avenue from the Stonewall Inn across from what was St. Vincents hospital, which took in the earliest AIDS cases when other hospitals refused. St. Vincents set up the first AIDS ward in the city, and the second in the nation, in 1984, and remained ground zero for the plague its where the angel bursts through the roof in Angels in America. By the time the hospital was demolished in 2010, to make way for very expensive condos, the once inexplicably horrific disease had become largely controllable through drug therapy, and the condo developer agreed to also pay to remake the park as an AIDS memorial, which is a powerful gesture, even as the crisis itself is ongoing. The New York City AIDS Memorial in Greenwich Village adjacent to the former St. Vincents Hospital. Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images For the memorial, the architecture firm Studio AI designed an off-white trellislike canopy of interlinked triangles. The shape is intended as an homage to the Silence=Death image that became an emblem of ACT UP and AIDS activism more broadly. ACT UPs solid pink equilateral reclaimed the Nazi concentration-camp signifier identifying homosexuals. The color itself was specific, consciously punched-up by the collective to be a strong, saturated magenta. The use of triangles in the canopy, which includes several non-equilateral varieties, uncoupled from color, is drained of any symbolic meaning: It feels like tasteful urban furniture, quite the opposite of what the AIDS activists were fighting for, and the methods they deployed so effectively. The same goes for the text engraved on the pavers beneath it, for which artist Jenny Holzer excerpted Walt Whitmans Song of Myself. The choice of poem, however beautiful, is a head-scratcher: Were there no artists or writers affected by the AIDS crisis who could offer a more appropriate text? Nothing by Tim Dlugos or Essex Hemphill or Karen Finley or Audre Lorde was fitting, or more specifically relevant for honoring the creative sectors of New York City decimated by the disease? More problematic is the way the text is arranged in a tight concentric circle, which makes it impossible to sustain reading from one line to the next the result is a visual murmur, a pattern, like the triangles enclosing it. Using a poem should be dictated by the power of those exact words, and made legible for that reason they are being set in stone after all. The entire effect is uninspired, like a Maya Lin knockoff, thinking of her Civil Rights Memorial (1989) or Womens Table (1993), both of which avoid these pitfalls through the precision of language and its relation to form. But it is probably what the condo developers wanted: something vague in a corporate way, nothing too angry, sad, or specific that might disturb property values. Much of the criticism leveled at Segals Gay Liberation relates to his use of figures and using specific people to symbolize an abstraction will always cause trouble. Its undeniable how powerful it would be to see a black trans women just living in the utopian future it imagines. The prevailing discourse around queer representation, however, skews heavily toward the safety of abstraction, and as the New York AIDS Memorial shows, abstraction on its own isnt the promised panacea. What is missing from the rigorous political critique that drives the MOTHA proposals, or the imperatives that produced the NYC AIDS memorial, is an equally rigorous engagement with aesthetic form. Its the problem of art in public art, which is too often disregarded as a luxury we cannot afford, instead of being understood as the essential reality of how any of these interventions materialize, communicate, or make meaning at all. Monuments are one way we anchor the fluidity of our cultural memory, even as our needs for them are always shifting, invalidating, and revising their meanings. In a city like New York, where public space is increasingly dominated by private capital, there is a new urgency to think about how we can represent and remember human life within it. Artists must relentlessly push the boundaries of this conversation, finding new ways to reconcile the broken halves of the illusory promise of public art. Photo: Amanda Edwards/Getty Images Back in September, Bloody Disgusting first reported that Jordan Peele was in talks to produce a new Candyman film, and now MGM and Universal have confirmed that news. The studios announced that Nia DaCosta, director of the indie Western Little Woods starring Tessa Thompson and Lily James, will helm the spiritual sequel to Bernard Roses horror classic from 1992. The original was based on the book The Forbidden by Clive Barker, and the titular Candyman was the son of a slave who was murdered by his lovers father which resulted in him becoming a supernatural killer. The new movie will return to the same Chicago neighborhood setting from the first film, which has since been gentrified. DaCosta will direct a script from Peele and Win Rosenfeld, and Universal will release the new Candyman on June 12, 2020. Responding to a statement made by President Maithripala Sirisena that he will not appoint him as the Prime Minister again; UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday said the President has to offer the post to anyone chosen by Parliament. Mr. Wickremesinghe expressed this sentiment at a public rally in Kalutara last evening. Gone are the days when President was able to hand pick a Prime Minister. It is Parliament which has the power to appoint a Prime Minister under the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, Mr. Wickremesinghe said. We have been following the British tradition since 1948 and had appointed the person who commands a majority in the House as the Prime Minister, Mr. Wickremesinghe said. Former President Chandrika Kumaratunga told me that she will appoint me as Prime Minister in 2001 even though she does not want to do it. This, she said, she will do as I had a majority, he added. He said President Sirisena should have informed him in 2015 itself if he did not want to work with him. President could even have told Minister Rajitha Senaratne if he was not willing to work with me then. He should have at least mentioned it to members of his own party at that time, Mr. Wickremesinghe said. Mr. Wickremesinghe recalled that when President Sirisena asked him whether he was ready to resign after the local government election earlier this year he had told the President that both he and the President should take equal responsibility for the polls defeat and not him alone. The UNP Leader further said he never said he did not want to work with the SLFP after several of them voted in favour of the no-confidence motion against him. UNP Deputy Leader Sajith Premadasa said he is willing to lay down his life for the sake of democracy just like the Speaker who stands up fearlessly for justice. (Yohan Perera) Sterling K. Brown as Randall Pearson. Photo: Ron Batzdorff/NBC This season on NBCs This Is Us, Sterling K. Browns Randall Pearson decided to do what many Americans have done in the past two years: run for public office. Upset with the way long-term city councilman Sol Brown (Rob Morgan) is handling things, Randall decides to campaign for the seat. We wanted something that felt like a natural extension of this mans quest to do good in the world, but we also wanted to do something that was a little bigger in scale [than past seasons] and [that] tapped into some of his grander ambitions to live this great big life, says This is Us co-showrunner and executive producer, Isaac Aptaker. It doesnt hurt, Aptaker says, that were all convinced Sterling would be an amazing politician, so the idea of getting to write those campaign and debate scenes for him was pretty irresistible. (This vision, um, isnt just shared among the shows writers ) Of course, because Randall is Jack Pearsons son and comes with a similarly startling amount of confidence and persuasive charm to balance out his lack of foresight, hes not going in with the best plan. For starters, Randall and his family live in New Jersey specifically, Bergen County in northern New Jersey. However, Randall isnt running there; instead hes hoping to represent an underserved area of Philadelphia. He has sentimental ties to the area: His late biological father, William, (Ron Cephas Jones) lived in an apartment there and Randall recently bought that building. While this is heartwarming, there are geographical limitations that would prevent Randall from being a presence in the Philadelphia community he wants to represent. But the most obvious issue is whether hes even legally able to run. Under the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter, you have to have lived in the district for over a year before the November general election, says Adam Bonin, a campaign finance and elections attorney based in the City of Brotherly Love. With the potential workaround, Aptaker says, Randall is using the building he owns, and Williams apartment which he was paying rent on, to establish residency. But even though Randall told his wife, Beth (Susan Kelechi Watson) that he wanted to buy the apartment building last season and announced his candidacy intentions this October, he and his family still very much live in a different state. Bonin says this is a problem because the law is defined not as where you plant a flag for convenience, but the fixed point to which you always plan to return and that there is a statute that says if youre married, where your spouse lives is presumptively where you live. (Bonin once represented a Pennsylvania Legislature candidate who was thrown off a ballot because it was ruled the toilet was flushed too few times in his claimed residence for him to have actually lived there.) This and other issues, such as the tweaked timing of the citys election cycle in real life, primary elections happen in May and new candidates start their campaigns by gathering signatures of registered voters in the early winter of that year have peeved Philly politicos. But there are other problems with Randalls campaign that are frustrating to them and to their colleagues in other states. We asked for some specifics on what Randall has done wrong (and right!) in his quest to serve the good people of Philadelphias fictional 12th district. 1. Dont go to a church particularly one where your opponent is a regular to drum up support without some research and a game plan. Randall thought his fresh face and charisma would win him at least an entry into Sols voting base when he appeared at his rivals place of worship earlier this season. Big mistake. Huge. Larry Ceisler, a Philadelphia-based PR manager and issues specialist who is known in the citys political community, says that Philly certainly has African-American churches that served as a launching ground for a lot of elected officials, but that isnt as much the case lately. Christian Hanley, a Democratic strategist based in Baltimore, says that the smart move would have been to have someone who was a member of the church invite him as a guest and introduce him to the pastor and the congregation and not just show up because its Sunday. You do that groundwork beforehand. 2. Know all the communities you intend to represent, not just your own. Thanks to the help of his famous actor brother Kevin (Justin Hartley), Randall stumbles upon the districts untapped voting market of Korean immigrants and Korean-Americans something his eventual campaign manager, Jae-Won (Tim Jo) is quick to assess. We also did quite a bit of research to determine the racial and socio-economic makeup of the West Philadelphia we portray on the show, Aptaker says. And Randalls campaign platform was born out of some of the very real issues facing this district. Aptaker says they based their research of Phillys actual fifth district and in an effort to accurately reflect the look and feel of the actual community, they cast extras and day players who looked like those locals and shot some scenes in the city. Bonin, the elections attorney, says this information isnt always easy for council members to find online because of how carefully drawn the districts are. However, that doesnt mean Randall couldnt regularly drive or walk through the district to see its people in action. 3. Rely on your famous brother all you want, but dont expect him to get you elected. Patrick Henning, who is currently director of Californias employment development department but who has worked on everything from presidential to local election campaigns, says its great that Kevin helped Randall get some name recognition when he struck out at the church. But while Henning says that name identification is the most expensive and the most important thing in terms of winning an election, the benefits of Hollywood stardom via Kevins campaigning wouldnt be enough to sway a vote. 4. Photo ops are important. Dont squander them. Speaking of Jae-Won: Listen to the man, Pearsons! Hanley says that the familys decision in the Thanksgiving episode not to piggyback on Sols turkey-gifting extravaganza at a church that was loaded with press and skip out on their own chance for coverage at their event after Jae-Won begged a press contact to come, no less, might have made him quit the campaign. Had they gone to the church as the campaign manager had planned, they would not have only met voters and non-voters there, but through the press they would have been able to communicate to voters who would have been able to learn about them through the next days newspaper or that evenings newscast, Hanley says, adding that leaving early from their own event potentially cost that poor campaign manager a connection. 5. Dont hire your wife as your field director. Especially if she has no experience. Hanley says the field director is in charge of the tedious stuff like figuring out the lay of the land, dividing up the territory among field workers and the volunteers underneath them, and they handle every aspect of making sure that campaign staff of volunteers gets out and knocks on doors and makes phone calls and covers the district on that granular level. They dont, unlike Beth and her hundreds of ideas, handle events like fundraisers and external communication. The reality is that when someone runs for office, it affects the whole family and is a choice they have hopefully made together, says Allie McRaith, a campaign manager in Chicago. She says spouses and kids normally appear in the occasional photo op, but the choice to make her staff is probably an awful choice in real life for their relationship and the rest of the staff. Henning says the whole thing is very, very problematic when you take into account stories like the scandal surrounding Duncan Hunter, the California Republican who was indicted for improperly spending his campaign money. Campaign funds have to be used for a campaign, Henning stresses. Lets say you get pizzas for the campaign. Are you just eating with your wife? It becomes very hard to discern those things Theyre always going to be an advisor to you. But why would you go out of your way to give her a check? 6. Know where to draw the line between your family and your campaign. Incumbent Sol made quite the to-do when Randall showed up at his church without his wife and daughters in tow. In real life, something like that is to be expected, Hanley says, because theres so many events that you literally cannot attend all of them as a candidate, never mind people in the family. Still, he adds, It would have been advisable to bring them to something so family-oriented as a church service. Bonin says that some people really do try to shield their families from the effect of campaigning, but even that could be a big problem for Randall. If anything, though, it highlights the residency issue, he reminds. 7. Be realistic about the limitations of the job This is Us Aptaker says that Randall is running because he realized there were a variety of issues he wanted to address that were well beyond the scope of a landlord. Issues that were more about public safety and city services: about what happens outside the walls of his apartment building but directly impact his residents and their daily quality of life. But if he wins, Randall shouldnt plan a rosy path ahead after the election. Ceisler offers this deflating comment: City council members in Philadelphia can suggest things to get done or they can make a call to expedite things getting done. But a theoretical mayor of the district like hes seen in opponent Sol? That is not really accurate as to how things work here. 8. But keep your heart in the right place. Id vote for Randall for a number of reasons: Because hes in it for the right reasons, hes smart, and he grew up in Pittsburgh and so did I Id even maybe contribute money to him, admits Ceisler, who says Philadelphia (and the rest of the country) could use a little less corruption. Perhaps the events from the soup kitchen debacle will allow Randall some time for self-reflection. As Henning puts it: If what hes going for is to be the best family person possible which is admirable then he should focus and do that. If hes going to run for office, you have to run, you have to campaign, and you have to be out there. Otherwise, youre just going to lose and its not worth your time and its a waste of everybodys effort and money. A tiny cottage in New Market is officially the most requested Airbnb in all of Alabama, and its popularity shows a major component Huntsville and Madison County are lacking when it comes to tourism - destination hotels. These are hotels and resorts that are considered an overall part of the travel experience, not simply a place to stay. The Cottage of Winchester Manor belongs to Bethany and Whitney Dean, a young couple who turned a 350 square foot cottage on their property into a true destination for travelers and those looking for a staycation as well. "We've had people come from all over," Bethany Dean told WAAY 31. " People from Germany, China, and then we get people from Madison and Huntsville who want something unique." Her husband, Whitney, explained some of the features that he believes are driving the incredible demand for the house. "When you walk in here you walk on a 100-years-old floor - in a building rumored to be one of the first post offices in north Alabama, and who knows what else?" Charles Winters with the Huntsville-Madison County Convention and Visitors Bureau said there are currently 6,700 hotel rooms in Madison County with plans to add another 1,000 in the coming years. Those include two hotels which will fill the destination hotel market. One is a Margaritaville resort planned for the new Town Madison development off I-565 in Madison. Founded by Jimmy Buffet, Margaritaville hotels and resorts come with a signature beach theme. They are currently located throughout the southeast and Caribbean. The chain plans to expand into the northeast with a location under construction in New York City. The other hotel is called 106 Jefferson. This is a boutique-style hotel with just 117 rooms. It'll be located in downtown Huntsville and feature upscale dining and a rooftop bar. It is part of a group of specialty hotels owned by Hilton which are spread across the country. They currently operate locations in Birmingham and Mobile. "The addition of new lodging broadens our base and makes it easier to market Huntsville as a destination," said Winters. However, niether hotel is expected to open until 2020. It gives the Deans plenty of time to expand their Airbnb business while simultaneously revitalizing downtown New Market. "We have four main locations. The old greenhouse we've converted. People are pleased to visit and have a unique experience you'd never have at the Hyatt," said Whitney. As for reservations at the The Cottage at Winchester Manor, those hoping to book need to plan ahead. Bethany said the cottage is typically booked up weeks in advance. Former Leader of the House, UNP MP Lakshman Kiriella, in an interview with Daily Mirror, speaks about the current political crisis and the way forward. He says the traditions of the British parliamentary system should be followed in case of ambiguity in our laws governing parliamentary affairs. He says the President should respect the opinion of the UNP parliamentary group in selecting someone as the Prime Minister as present PM Mahinda Rajapaksa does not have a parliamentary majority. Sajith will play an important role. It would be something much more than before We are ready for the polls. In fact, our rank and file has been galvanized by this illegal act Any Prime Minister, chosen without an election, should immediately show his majority We have followed the Standing Orders laid down by Parliament to govern its businesses Q There is a video clip going viral in the internet which shows Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP M. A. Sumanthiran confronting you after a parliamentary vote last week. What happened actually? After conducting the electronic voting, I wanted to ask for a division by name. Otherwise, anybody could accuse us of manipulating the vote electronically to inflate the number of votes. I did it at the behest by leader Ranil Wickremesinghe. But, Mr. Sumanthiran rushed to me and asked otherwise. He said names were appearing already on the scorecard. There is no truth in the allegation that the latter is influencing the political work of the UNP. It is a blatant lie. Q In your view, how will this crisis end? Now, it has been four weeks since Mahinda Rajapaksa had been appointed as Prime Minister. Up to now, he has failed to show the majority in Parliament. He does not have a mandate from the people to be the PM. He was appointed by the President. Then, he should show his parliamentary majority. It is the first thing he should have done. In the 1990s, there was a situation like this in India with four Prime Ministers being appointed in three years. The coalitions crashed there. When a new PM was appointed, he subjected himself to a floor test every time. This is the parliamentary tradition. You have to face the floor test. Unless he does a floor test, this will end up in anarchy. Q What is your advice to sort this out unless the two parties are ready to back down from their respective positions? Under Section 48(2) of the Constitution, if a no confidence motion is carried, the Cabinet and the Prime Minister cease to exist. Thereafter, the President should appoint a Prime Minister who commands the support of the majority members of Parliament. We submitted two no confidence motions. They were passed by Parliament. There are two ways of submitting motions. One is the regular way giving five-day notice. The other way is to suspend the Standing Orders and bring a motion. If Sri Lanka is on the verge of being invaded by a foreign country, we have to discuss it immediately.In emergency situations, you can suspend the Standing Orders. Q Actually, there is no such emergency crisis like the one you mentioned. The government also argued that it should be brought only through the normal procedure. Why didnt you follow the normal procedure giving five days notice? This was such an emergency situation. On November 13, the court issued a Stay Order. The court stayed dissolution of Parliament. Actually, the date fixed for Parliament to meet was November 14. We had only 24 hours. We had to decide soon. Q However, there is no constitutional requirement for the new Prime Minister to subject himself to a floor test on the very first day. How do you counter that argument? There are so many things not mentioned in the Constitution but accepted by tradition. According to the Parliamentary Privileges Act, we are bound by the rules of the British Parliament. Any Prime Minister, chosen without an election, should immediately show his majority. Q They insist on the normal procedure. Are you ready to follow the normal procedure? We have followed the Standing Orders laid down by Parliament to govern its businesses. Once the Speaker certifies something, either the Supreme Court or the President cannot question it. It is wrong for the President to question it. Now the Speaker has certified the two no confidence motions. The only way to nullify is to bring yet another motion and adopt it. We challenged Mahinda Rajapaksa to bring a counter motion if possible. Q But, the President constantly refuses to accept the Speakers position. What is your view? That is wrong. Under the Constitution, the President is responsible to Parliament. He cannot decide on his whims in selecting someone as the Prime Minister. He should respect the will of the UNP group in selecting someone from our side as the Prime Minister. Q What is the alternative to come out of this crisis? First, I told Mahinda Rajapaksa, You are a popular figure. To hang on to power without a majority is a blemish on your reputation. Q There was a suggestion from Mr. Rajapaksa to declare a general election. How prepared are you for it? We are for an election. We are ready for it under a duly constituted government. This is not a duly constituted one. It is a rogue, unlawful government. Q There is a school of thought Parliament cannot meet because of this Stay Order. What is your interpretation of this Stay Order? If the dissolution is stayed, Parliament can meet. That is why we met on November 14. There can be various views. The most accepted one is that Parliament can meet. Under the Constitution, the President is responsible to Parliament. He cannot decide on his whims in selecting someone as the Prime Minister. He should respect the will of the UNP group in selecting someone from our side as the Prime Minister President Sirisena will never give it to Sajith. He is trying to divide our side. The UNP is not his private property. He has openly said that he was not keen on this. He is ready to come through an election. Only after he appointed Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister, he said he had offered premiership to Speaker Karu Jayasuriya and Sajith Premadasa first. He never discussed it with us. Q How ready is the UNP for an election as a party? We are ready for it. In fact, our rank and file has been galvanized by this illegal act. Q Are you ready for any compromise with the other side to pass a resolution asking for an election? There is no compromise. We will not meet the President again. When we met him on November 15, he asked us to bring the same motion the following day.How can we bring it the same day without suspending the Standing Orders? The President accepted the suspension of the Standing Orders the same day. Q There are media reports that MP Sajith Premadasa will be appointed as the Prime Ministerial candidate of the UNP next time. How credible is it? President Sirisena will never give it to Sajith. He is trying to divide our side. The UNP is not his private property. He has openly said that he was not keen on this. He is ready to come through an election. Only after he appointed Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister, he said he had offered premiership to Speaker Karu Jayasuriya and Sajith Premadasa first. He never discussed it with us, though. Q Do you think that the UNP needs a facelift at the next election? Yes, Sajith will play an important role. It would be something much more than before. Q There are reports about a common front being formed by the UNP. How true is it? Yes, we are forming one. Q Will it be registered under the diamond symbol? Yes, it will be registered. The diamond is the most desired symbol. Still, discussions are underway. We are at the initial stage now. The idea is to start a political movement. Q Would you agree to a common candidate? We have not gone that far yet. The alliance will select the leader. Q How soon would it happen? It will happen very soon. We are planning a series of agitation campaigns. I want to tell you another. Secction 52 (3) of the Constitution says the Secretary to a Ministry shall cease to hold office upon the dissolution of the Cabinet of Ministers. Our position is that the Prime Minister and the Cabinet stand dissolved now. The Secretaries cannot hold office now. If they hold office and execute illegal orders, they can be liable. Without a Secretary, there is no room for the implementation of the government policies. Financial regulations say that officials shall be held responsible personally to the government if he directs to perform anything without proper authority. The increased demand for animal feed, chicken and eggs during 2018 has propelled the revenues and profits of Ceylon Grain Elevators PLC, but the countrys largest poultry operator expects some challenging times with the weakening of the rupee and declining consumer purchasing power. The demand for poultry produce largely hinges on the health of the overall economy as growing income levels and tourist arrivals bode well for the livestock industry in general. The producer of Prima Chicken and animal feed under Prima and Farmers Choice brands reported earnings of Rs.233.3 million or Rs.3.89 a share for the JulySeptember quarter (3Q18) compared to earnings of Rs.115.7 million or Rs.1.93 a share for the same period, last year. The revenue rose by a healthy 31 percent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs.4.9 billion. The groups revenue and profitability improved due to increased demand for feed and chicken meat during the quarter under review. Growth in feed sales volume was driven by consistency in feed quality and maintaining strong partnerships with key chicken processors, Ceylon Grain Elevators Executive Director/CEO Cheng Chih Kwong (Primus) said. He however predicted a gloomy future for his group as well as for the industry due to mounting supply and demand side pressures. The group foresees a challenging market situation in the forthcoming quarter as cost of production will increase substantially due to an increase in key raw material prices riding on the severe depreciation of the rupee against the US dollar. Also the group anticipates a lower demand with the declining consumer purchasing power as a result of price hikes on basic consumer staples and inclement weather, Primus noted. The local production of maize, a key raw material in the poultry industry, is of low quality and is in short supply. The governments protectionist policy on maize, which allows only limited imports on special permits, has substantially raised the poultry industry production cost. Meanwhile, Ceylon Grain Elevators subsidiary, Three Acre Farms PLC, which has the market leadership in broiler and day old chicks (DOC) said its after-tax profit doubled to Rs.213.9 million for the three months ended September 30, 2018 on improved demand for layer day old chicks due to the recovery of table egg market and the stable market conditions for broiler DOCs during the period. As at September 30, 2018, Singapores Prima Limited held 45.45 percent stake in Ceylon Grain Elevators. Employees Provident Fund (EPF) also held 8.92 percent stake. Sri Lanka Armys Signal Corps ceremonially begun its International Symposium on Cyber Security -Wave and the two-day long ICT Exhibition at BMICH premises today to coincide with its 75th Anniversary. President Maithripala Sirisena attended the event as the Chief Guest. Pix by Kithsiri de Mel Rome mayor to switch on lights on Netflix-sponsored Christmas tree. Rome's mayor Virginia Raggi will turn on the lights of the city's Christmas tree, sponsored by Netflix, in Piazza Venezia on 8 December. Raggi made the announcement on her Facebook page alongside the tongue-in-cheek comment: "Ladies and Gentlemen #Spelacchio is Back in Roma!" The mayor's little joke was an ironic reference to last year's Christmas tree, an unfortunate specimen ridiculed internationally for its "manginess", earning it the derogatory nickname Spelacchio. This year the capital's 20m-high Italian fir will be decorated with 60,000 LED lights and 500 baubles, at a total cost to Netflix of 376,000. The lights on the Vatican's Christmas tree, a 23m-high fir, will be switched on the day before, on 7 December. REUTERS, 27th NOVEMBER, 2018-The Swiss government aims to clinch a deal with the European Union on a new treaty governing relations in 2019, it said on Tuesday, again pushing back the timetable for an accord that both sides had intended to conclude this year. Prospects for a treaty setting out Switzerlands ties to its biggest trading partner faded last month when four years of talks yielded no breakthrough. The EU wants neutral Switzerland to ease rules that protect high Swiss wages against cross-border competition from skilled labor. Swiss unions are fighting this tooth and nail. The talks have been complicated by Britains separate negotiations on EU divorce terms, with the European Commission loath to be soft on the Swiss for fear of providing ammunition to Brexiteers. The Swiss cabinet is due to address the situation on Friday, with leaders of all four coalition parties expressing scepticism that a deal can emerge this year ahead of elections in both Switzerland and for the European Parliament in 2019. At the Liberty event, she said she decided to make tackling opioid abuse part of her initiative because: Its very important that we educate [the] next generation, and very important we educate them and tell them how dangerous the drugs are and can be. It really can mess you up for the rest of your life. I am here to shine the light and to talk about it. Robbins said that although her group had concerns about amendments that could benefit Pepco inserted late in the legislative process, Tuesdays vote was a victory. No matter what, in a few weeks this bill will become law and D.C. will have one of the strongest climate bills in the country, she said. What D.C. is experiencing is a fairly common problem that jurisdictions across the country are seeing, Reville said. As the topic of education gets drawn into the more general political controversies and nastiness that goes along with the political discourse these days, fewer people are willing to take the slings and arrow that come with these positions. 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 The political equation will be drastically altered depending on the court ruling which is expected to be given on December 7, 2018. Everyone talks about the political crisis that is engulfing the country. Little known is the fact there are internal crises brewing even within the two main political forces, probably as an unintended consequence of the decision by President Maithripala Sirisena on October 26 to form a new Government. The President sacked the Leader of the United National Party (UNP), Ranil Wickremesinghe, from Premiership. On the surface, the UNP looks united in making a frontal attack on the Presidents decision to strip it of Governmental power. However, it is riddled with internal squabbles, and the demand for a leadership change has come to the fore once again. The Presidents action triggered internal issues not only for the UNP, but also for his own United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) If the court rules out dissolution, it would be a different scenario Vulnerable MPs have already been induced by either side This internal feud burst out into the open somewhat when Badulla District MP Harin Fernando lashed out publicly that he was not ready to do politics with the UNP unless it dispensed with its old guard of leaders at the helm of affairs. His criticism drew angry reaction from some members within the party. His sarcastic reference to elderly politicians does not gel with Sri Lanka culture which values respect for age. Alongside, Kurunegala District MP Asok Abeysinghe has taken up a similar position. He, in fact, had talks, with the leaders of the political parties aligned with the UNP to seek the possibility of getting someone other than Wickremesinghe appointed as the Prime Minister. Still, their struggle is only in isolation. That is because the party, along with its allies, has a bigger battle to fight for- to depose the Government using their numerical strength in Parliament. Be that as it may, the present gridlock in governance does not show signs of ending because President Sirisena is adamant that he will not reappoint Wickremesinghe. He pronounced it in clear-cut terms at his meeting with the foreign correspondents last Sunday (November 25). May be, the UNP rebels are trying to exploit this situation to pursue their target for a change in leadership. Anyway, this tussle is a secondary affair for the UNP at present. First, it has to topple the Government which was installed after sacking their leader from the post of Prime Minister. According to sources, the SLPP is insistent that everyone should contest under the Pohottuwa symbol at future elections. Yet, there are those UPFP MPs who do not feel comfortable with it The Presidents action triggered internal issues not only for the UNP, but also for his own United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA). In the immediate aftermath of dissolution of Parliament, over 50 of its MPs obtained the membership of newly formed Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) operating under Pohottuwa or the lotus bud symbol. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa is among the recipients of SLPP membership making it a blow to the UPFA led by President Sirisena. Electorally, it is no doubt that the SLPP holds better sway than the UPFA, as obvious from the outcome of the Local Government Elections which were conducted on February 10, 2018. Now, the two parties are united to form the Government. Also, discussions are in progress to form a common alliance between these two parties. According to inside political sources, the SLPP is insistent that everyone should contest under the Pohottuwa symbol at the upcoming elections. Yet, there are those UPFP MPs who do not feel comfortable with such an electoral alliance. These members such as Gamini Wijith Wijyamuni Zoysa, Duminda Dissanayake, Mahinda Amaraweera and Lasantha Alagiyawanna were identified more with the UPFA. In the event of a SLPP-dominated political alliance, they fear being pushed to the margin electorally. Their fear is also reasonable. Wijeyamuni Zoysa was defeated in fact at the last parliamentary polls in 2015 over his sarcastic criticism of Rajapaksa. Later, President Sirisena nominated him on the National List to Parliament. Dissanayake just scraped through at the election. Under a SLPP-led alliance, they are likely to be in a disadvantageous position, particularly in obtaining preferential votes. Some of these MPs may try to carve a niche working with the SLPP while forging ahead. Likewise, there may be some others who will even switch allegiance even to the UNP to contest elections since they are unable to make their mark in the SLPP. In this manner, the change of Government has affected both the parties in a major way. Parties await SC ruling Both the UNP and the UPFA now await the ruling by the Supreme Court to evolve future political strategies. If the court rules the dissolution of Parliament by the President, all of us will have to go before the people at a General Election casting aside our internal issues at least for the time being. If the court rules out dissolution, it would be a different scenario. The UPFA, in such an eventuality, would renew its efforts to win over crossovers from the other side to ensure the parliamentary majority required to run the Government. But, it is now a difficult task as things have solidified with either side in the political sense. Vulnerable MPs have already been induced by either side. In such a scenario, some UNPers would try to make overtures to the President requesting him to appoint someone as the Prime Minister unless he is willing to give it to Wickremesinghe. The political equation will be drastically altered in this manner depending on the court ruling which is expected to be given on December 7, 2018. Some of these MPs may try to carve a niche working with the SLPP while forging ahead. Likewise, there may be some others who will even switch allegiance even to the UNP to contest elections Presidents sarcastic comments President Sirisena was sarcastic at Tuesdays cabinet meeting when he took up a paper related to the Tourism Ministry. Tourism Minister Vasantha Senanayake was absent as he had returned to the UNP once again. So, a smiling President said sarcastically, The Tourism Minister is missing. He is moving here and there. Nobody knows where he is today, Everybody had a laugh over this comment. The Ministers hurried through the Cabinet meeting and rushed to Parliament on Tuesday (November 27). The Governments parliamentary group also met there. Chief Government Whip Dinesh Gunawardane, at this meeting proposed to be present inside the Chamber at the commencement of the session, to register their protest over the conduct of Speaker Karu Jayasuriya. He said all should leave the Chamber after that. But, most MPs suggested that Parliament should be boycotted totally. The MPs made comments back and forth, and the meeting became a bit noisy. Having listened to all the comments, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa remarked that the majority, by voice, seemed to be in favour of boycotting Parliament. It was a sarcastic reference to the Speaker who declared that the no confidence motion was passed by voice vote. As such, the group roared into laughter over Rajapaksas comments. MP Dalles Alhapperuma suggested that the MPs should not have their meals from the parliamentary canteen for the day as otherwise the UNP would accuse them of having luxurious foods even without attending sessions. Accordingly, they decided to avoid meals from the canteen for the day. A letter sent to students indicated the new cases had been diagnosed over the Thanksgiving holiday, university officials said. In the letter, David McBride, director of the University Health Center, wrote that none of these new cases has required hospitalization to our knowledge. Republican Cheng Tu disagreed with Qi on certain immigration-related issues but said he identified with her background, pro-business platform and moderate approach to solving problems. He switched to the Democratic Party to vote for her in the primary, when she placed second out of nine candidates (the top three finishers easily defeated their Republican rivals in November). Then he promptly switched back. Tassia Lane, 15700 block, 9:48 p.m. Nov. 17. A man was arrested at his apartment after a verbal altercation escalated with a male attending a party at an apartment in the floor above. A 69-year-old Woodbridge man shot the partygoer in the lower body, and was charged with aggravated malicious wounding. The injured man was taken to a hospital and treated for serious injuries. Oops....! We couldn't find that... 404 error Unfortunately the page you were looking for could not be found. It may be temporarily unavailable, moved or no longer exist. Check the URL you entered for any mistakes and try again. Alternatively, search for whatever is missing or take a look around the rest of our site. Ely is one of several same-sex surviving spouses across the country who have been denied social security benefits based on the nine-month requirement, Renn said. He could not estimate how many such cases exist, but said his office has received numerous calls from people in similar situations. He also anticipates more cases could emerge soon, now that spouses like Ely have exhausted all of their administrative options, appealing their cases through the Social Security Administration. I feel we are going through a low period, he said. President Trump didnt start it, Appiah said, referring to Trumps appeal to and embrace of people and policies that have been at minimum inflammatory. But, Appiah said, Trump made it worse. Like his distorted use of the word nationalism, which might have been the root of a shared American identity. Instead, Trump turned it into an appeal to racism. The researchers used data from a large health insurance database to look at children in states with a strict birthday cutoff policy. Then they studied the ADHD diagnoses for children born in August, who became youngest in their classes, compared with those born in September, who became the oldest in their classes. They found that the August children were 34 percent more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than the September children. Moon delivered his apology in a meeting with about a dozen former inmates, most of whom were children when they were locked up at Brothers Home. No one has been held accountable for the hundreds of deaths, rapes and beatings at the facility documented by the Associated Press in 2016. Already, the Trump administration has slapped 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion of imports from China and 10 percent on another $200 billion of goods. The administration has said that it is prepared to let the 10 percent tariff rise to 25 percent on Jan. 1. China has retaliated with tariffs and, presumably, would adopt new anti-American trade barriers. If this doesnt work, Trump threatens tariffs on another $267 billion of Chinese imports. Manafort pleaded guilty this past September on the eve of his trial in federal court in D.C. As part of his plea, he agreed to cooperate with the special counsel and provide truthful information concerning any crimes he either knew about or in which he participated. The plea was seen as potentially the biggest break yet in Muellers investigation of Russian interference with the 2016 election, including the possible involvement of members of the Trump campaign. Manafort had extensive personal ties to Russia and served as Trumps campaign chairman during the critical summer of 2016. He attended the infamous Trump Tower meeting that June between Donald Trump Jr., Trump son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, and Russian individuals promising dirt on Hillary Clinton. Manafort was a guy in the room where it happened if, indeed, anything happened. CIA Director Gina Haspel has listened to the tape, according to U.S. officials. But others, such as Bolton and President Trump himself, have not. Trump said earlier this month that there was no reason for him to hear the recording, which was provided by Turkey and captures Khashoggi being killed by a Saudi hit team moments after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. I have some of the same concerns that some of our conservative some people who are opposed to it have voiced, Sen. John Thune (S.D.), who will assume the partys No. 2 position next year, said in an interview. Among the provisions giving him pause, Thune said, are the lifting of certain mandatory minimums and allowing for early release for some pretty serious offenders. The White House and Senate have been tiptoeing toward a standoff over Saudi Arabia for more than a year, as an increasing number of senators have backed efforts to halt certain arms sales or end other military support for the Saudi-led coalition battling Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen. But the willingness to formally admonish Saudi Arabia grew after Khashoggi, a contributing columnist for The Washington Post, was killed inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul and the Trump administration took what many have seen as only modest steps to pursue accountability. Kyl said this week that he has thought about his future in the Senate but has not decided what he will do. Im not going to discuss it with anybody except the governor, Kyl said Monday. After that, Ill talk about it publicly. He called McSally an obvious potential choice to succeed him but declined to elaborate. Just before Thanksgiving, the administrations top financial regulators the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Departments Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued a joint proposal that would make traditional appraisals unnecessary for many new mortgages originated for less than $400,000. Instead of a formal appraisal, these homes would receive an evaluation by individuals who have no appraisal licenses or certification and would not be subject to current state regulatory oversight requirements that govern appraisers. The evaluators could be an independent bank employee or unnamed third part[ies]. They would, however, have to be competent and possess knowledge of the market, location and type of real property being valued. Last month, Alok Verma, the head of Indias premier investigating agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation, was relieved of his duties in the middle of the night. Modis lieutenants have described the step as unfortunate but necessary, the product of dueling corruption allegations between Verma and his deputy. But opponents say the move undermines the independence of the agency, and the Supreme Court is reviewing the removal. He said Wednesday he was against genome editing for enhancement and that he would conduct the experiment on his own unborn daughter if she were at risk with HIV infection. He said he worked with seven couples and 31 embryos, more than 20 of which were edited. Aside from Lulu and Nana, two apparently healthy girls who have been born, there is another mother in the study in the early stages of pregnancy, he said. We are waiting for our European and American partners. Ukraine sent a really strong signal that society is united, said Oleksiy Ryabchyn, a Ukrainian lawmaker from the opposition Fatherland party. Russia shelled our boats, they captured our people, and they try to blame this on politics. But martial law is about military aggression first. The politics will come later. The SamSam ransomware is not as well-known as WannaCry, a computer virus paired with ransomware that in May 2017 affected more than 300,000 computers in 150 countries. But in some ways, it is more sophisticated. WannaCry, which U.S. officials said was created by North Korea, spread on the open Internet and hit targets indiscriminately. Give me a shameless sociopath over a dissembling fraudster any day, said James M. Trusty, a former chief of the Justice Departments Organized Crime Section now in private practice at Ifrah Law. We would have gang members who would just sit down and without a blink of an eye tell us about murders we had no idea about . . . The other side of the spectrum is you get these well-heeled white-collar defendants who have been rationalizing for a long time. Everything becomes a what is is, where you have to play chess with them every second to get the truth out. Its very important to have Saudi Arabia as an ally, if were going to stay in that part of the world, Trump said. Now, are we going to stay in that part of the world? One reason to is Israel. Oil is becoming less and less of a reason because were producing more oil now than weve ever produced. So, you know, all of a sudden it gets to a point where you dont have to stay there. Sally Rooney, a finalist for the Booker with 'Normal People', published in Spain 'Conversation between friends' "The Brexit threat with lifting barriers and us is putting it all very difficult", warns the irish From Castlebar, in the heart of the catholic and conservative Ireland, Sally Rooney saw it coming that they now call it the "silent revolution"... "The changes began to take shape in the years 90, with the loss of the moral authority of the church by the sex scandals. The society was already on a path, even though the politicians were slow in realizing it. The world took note with referendums from gay marriage and abortion, but what is certain is that Ireland was already a country as 'normal' and european as any other." At the age of 27, with two novels behind their backs -Conversations between friends (Random House) and Normal People (a finalist for the Booker Prize 2018)- Sally Rooney has been erected in a short time in the voice of the new Ireland, in the crest of the wave of the so-called generation post-crash, with authors Claire Kilroy, Colin Barrett, Eimear McBride, Sara Baume, or Lisa McInerney. Anyone would say that the social changes and the economic crisis has been the impetus not only to the literature, also to music, theatre and film-irish, the boom in culture that reminds us of far away at the experienced in Spain at the dawn of the Transition. "all Of a sudden there is a freedom to speak that we didn't have before, coupled with a capacity for self-criticism that did not exist at the time of the 'Celtic Tiger'," says Rooney. "My generation has suffered and has had to wake up. To all this joins that feeling of great change is in the air and that is reflected in the fiction they are writing in the past few years, is very close to the reality. This is the country that I recognize, and I recognize all the days". Sally Rooney directed by the way the literary magazine Stinging Fly, the catapult of many of the new authors, irish, along with publications such as Gorse or Banshee, the more the momentum of independent publishers of new stamp as Tramp Press. Gone are the times, even recent ones, in that authors such as Paul Murray and Kevin Barry were forced to publish in the Uk to be "prophets" in their own island. The promised land is now Ireland, with mention parallel to Northern Ireland, who also lives his moment, "sweet", as personified in the Booker for Anna Burns with a Milkman (a quirky look at the time explosives of the conflict in Ulster) and in the tug-of-literary magazines like The Tangerine "Belfast has also become a cultural hub very attractive in these moments, although the Brexit threat with lifting barriers and us is putting it all very difficult," warns Sally Rooney, who confesses to be "republican" and touch wood "so that you can see in my life the reunification of the island". Another distinguishing feature of the new literary generation is that none seem to feel the temptation to "find a bigger stage", as in the time of James Joyce or Oscar Wilde: "it is Not that Dublin I feel passionate about in a special way, but I think that has everything you can ask for a great city, and more coming from a town like Castlebar. I could have emigrated like so many other young people of my generation in the middle of the crisis, but I decided to stay and now I'm paying the consequences... The rents have been put here by the clouds". "it pisses Me off that they continue to see Yeats as an emblem of irish literature" Of all the "saints" and the literary of his country, there is one that will cause a special antipathy to Sally Rooney: "I have a problem with Yeats. It pisses Me off that we continue to see as an emblem of irish literature... we must Not forget that he wrote marches of fascists, who was an admirer of Mussolini and a proponent of authoritarianism, although he died before seeing the consequences of their dangerous ideology". The "education" of Sally Rooney is more well-grounded in american literature, her specialty his step-by Trinity College. Recognizes Hemingway and Fitzgerald as an early influence, and she confesses to be a fan of Henry James. Despite the fact that the wizards of marketing have hung the band of "the Salinger of generation Snapchat", it does not admit a fondness special for the author of The guardian between the rye. Although there is another american writer, most recent, by those who feel a true devotion: "I was inspired by a lot of Leaving the Atocha station, Ben Lerner. I read it while I was writing my first book and gave me license to incorporate cultural theory and art criticism as something more natural in the novel." Conversations between friends, your business card in Spain, tells of the intricate relationship between a poet with pretensions communists (Frances), her ex-lover and partner university (Bobbi) and the marriage formed by Melissa and Nick, artist and actor for more signs about the quarantine. The bump generational and wealth, materialism, and individualism, the sexual identity or the fragility of relationships are some of the basic themes in a book that rotates and revolves around the dialogues, embedded as an indissoluble part of the text. "I Hate the quotation marks," explains Rooney. "For me, the conversations are the thread of the story, and I can not "separate" from the rest using an artifice. I don't know how to write it in a few years, but I can assure that I will not use quotation marks. I can see myself, yes, using each time less conventional ways". The addition of the "e-mail" as an integral part of the text is another of his hallmarks as a writer: "I Belong to the generation that grew up with electronic messages, even to the younger people, it seems already a half outdated. People communicate today in a very different way to ten or twenty years, and that is the reason to put it in the paper if you do not want to get away from the reality that surrounds you". "Who says that the millennials do not read books?", ask Sally Rooney, with Normal People was several weeks in the top ten of Ireland and the United Kingdom, driven by the young readers packed into their presentations. "If you think about it, the texts fill our lives. The culture is increasingly visual, but people write more than ever. That's why I think that the novel will not die, because it is a genre very resilient. In any case, it is transformed, as is happening with the short stories. There we have the phenomenon of a Cat Person, Kristen Roupenian". In Normal People, soon to be a tv series, Rooney recreates the unlikely love story of Marianne and'connell, neighbors in a small irish village (Sligo) and separated by "externalities" such as the ditransfer of class or family violence. "The two novels began as short stories that were growing," warns the writer irish. "In both cases, the writing began as a "rapture" and then I took some distance for the final edition. Now I approach my third novel, and is costing me the structure, and the characters do not speak to me with the same clarity... And above the noise background from that figured in the list of the Booker. I hope to be in the height". According to the criteria of www.google.com Updated Date: 28 November 2018, 15:40 Learn more Heroic Waterford and Tipperary members of the community who saved lives from drowning will receive recognition at Irish Water Safetys national awards ceremony at the Hibernia Conference Centre, Dublin Castle, on Wednesday. Minister of State at the Department of Rural and Community Development Sean Canney TD will present the Seiko Just in Time Rescue Award to the rescuers in appreciation for saving 36 lives. It is an honour to pay tribute to these courageous recipients. Tragically an average of 127 people drown in Ireland every year and although thats 127 too many, the figure would be even higher but for the dramatic efforts of these individuals who saved others from drowning and the ongoing work of Irish Water Safety volunteers teaching swimming and water rescue skills, Minister Canney said. Long-Service Volunteer Awards will also be presented to 63 volunteers, recognising a combined total of 1,315 years of service teaching swimming, water rescue and survival skills in communities nationwide. The work of Irish Water Safetys volunteers in teaching and assessing lifeguards pays dividends at our waterways every year, reflected in the fact that lifeguards rescued 331 people from drowning this summer, administered first aid on 4,496 occasions and reunited 329 lost children found wandering unsupervised near water. I appeal to all adults to make themselves more aware of the dangers of drowning, continued Minister Canney. It only takes seconds for tragedy to strike and this can so easily be avoided if people learn about the hazards and take personal responsibility for their own safety. I ask that people encourage friends and family to read Irish Water Safetys guidelines so that they have the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to avoid becoming a drowning statistic. The local recipients are as follows: Kelvin Kearns Waterford On September 27, 2017, in Butlerstown, County Waterford, a man was driving along the N25 in treacherous conditions when he suddenly lost control of his car and veered off the road, crashing down a ravine and landing upside down in a deep stream. Kelvin happened to be on route to Kileaden when he saw an unusual site at the side of the road. He pulled into a lay-by and quickly ran to the scene where someone had already called emergency services. He ran back to his car to grab a nail bar in case the door of the car was jammed shut. He jumped in the water and got the car door open. From the passengers side he reached in but couldnt feel anyone in the car. He resurfaced and then went back down into the water and searched the back of the car. Initially he could not see anybody, and then he noticed a man's hand floating in the water he had managed to remove his seatbelt. Kelvin reached over and grabbed hold of the man and pulled him out of the car but he was unable to pull him fully to safety due to the position of the car. He was forced instead to hold him up for as long as it took the emergency services to arrive. The man made a full recovery. Aidan Tattan Waterford On July 11 at the River Suir, near Rice Bridge, County Waterford, a woman was in distress in the water. Aiden came upon the scene and immediately went in search of a ring buoy. Upon retrieving a ring buoy, he entered the water and swam to the woman. He managed to grab hold of her hand and spoke to her in an effort to keep her calm. After approximately 15 minutes, the Waterford river rescue boat arrived and took both Aiden and the woman on board. The woman made a full recovery. Garda Billy Lonergan, Niall Geoghegan and Ronan Dinan Tipperary On May 13 at the Marina in Carrick-on-Suir, Ronan Dinan noticed a person in distress in the water in the River Suir. He got a ring buoy and threw it to the person in distress, who he could not see. He immediately proceeded to climb over high fencing and jumped 8 ft. onto the platform. He reached the man and caught him by his two hands and held onto him for quite a while until emergency services arrived. Niall Geoghegan arrived from the roadside and offered assistance and then both Garda Billy Lonergan and Niall entered the water. Niall reached Ronan and assisted him in pulling the man to safety. Niall started CPR immediately. Both Garda Billy Lonergan and Niall continued CPR until emergency services arrived. Garda Fearghal Bolger and Garda Graham Morrissey Tipperary On August 6, Gardai Bolger and Morrissey arrived to Gashouse Bridge on the River Suir in South Tipperary where a man was in distress in the water. They both tried to remove the male from the water by using a ring buoy but were unsuccessful. Garda Bolger immediately entered the water and held onto the casualty until the arrival of the fire brigade unit. He provided first aid to the person while in the water and, assisted by Garda Morrissey and the fire brigade unit, brought the person to safety. The person made a full recovery. Waterford and Tramore Arch Club was honoured at the annual IPB Pride of Place awards held in Cork City Hall on Saturday evening, November 17. The club finished runners-up in the Creative Wellbeing Initiative-Targeted along with Erris Branch of the Irish Wheelchair Association in County Mayo. The overall winner in this category was the Gary Kelly Cancer Support Centre in County Louth. Club members joined with 800 community heroes from across the country at the awards which are operated in association with peace building charity Co-operation Ireland. The Pride of Place awards, described as the Oscars of the Community Sector, celebrates the often unsung work of community groups that selflessly work to make local neighbourhoods a better place to live in, work in or visit. Organised by Co-operation Ireland and sponsored by IPB Insurance, the Pride of Place awards sees the countrys local authorities, on both sides of the border, nominate outstanding projects that contribute to civic pride. Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Mick Finn said: Cork has a strong tradition of volunteerism and community action and we are delighted to be partners in the Pride of Place competition. The Gala Awards evening is a unique opportunity to celebrate the best in community development and recognises the invaluable efforts of those who glue our communities together." Tom Dowling, Chairperson of Pride of Place, expressed his delight that after 16 years the competition continues to embed itself in the very heart of the Island of Ireland's communities and gives them the opportunity to highlight the proud and amazing achievements of their place directly to the judges. I wish them continued success. Peter Sheridan Chief Executive of Co-operation Ireland said: Pride of Place deserves its position as one of the most prestigious community awards on the island of Ireland and Co-operation Ireland is delighted that it continues to go from strength to strength." From Donegal through Northern Ireland and in counties all the way to Cork, communities have been reaping the rewards of the hard work carried out by the community groups who make Pride of Place what it is. Chairman of IPB Insurance George Jones said: Pride of Place is an important platform as it recognises those who give freely of their time to make where they come from a better place to live and work. It is clear that working together and getting things done increases peoples pride in where they live and in turn helps build vibrant sustainable communities. New Zealand's top intelligence agency has banned controversial Chinese vendor Huawei from supplying equipment for the country's first 5G mobile network. Spark Telecom, formerly New Zealand Telecom, said in a statement to the stock exchange on Wednesday that New Zealand's Government Security Bureau had made the decision to block Huawei from participating in its 5G network based on national security concerns. British intelligence says Huaweis global credibility would be destroyed if it was discovered as having spied. Credit:Photo: Bloomberg "The Director-General has informed Spark today that he considers Sparks proposal to use Huawei 5G equipment in Sparks planned 5G RAN [radio access network] would, if implemented, raise significant national security risks," it said in a statement. [T]his means Spark cannot implement or give effect to its proposal to use Huawei RAN equipment in its planned 5G network." "My mindset with nursing is to basically move wherever I have to to get the maximum experience possible," she said. "I applied for a graduate program outside of the Perth Metro area thinking moving away would increase my chances, but even then it was very tough competition. With these Scotland hospitals, Ill still be given the same, if not more opportunities to help my nursing skills." Ms Pinto said GradConnect, a WA Department of Health initiative aimed at connecting newly qualified nurses with graduate programs, sent information about the opportunity. Graduate competitiveness tied to nursing unemployment According to the WA Department of Health, a total of 1783 nurses applied for the February 2019 GradConnect program, which connects newly qualified nurses and midwives to hospitals in the states circuit. Of those, only 656 secured a position, leaving 1127 nurses and midwives without a graduate program to go through. A Department of Health spokeswoman said those who were unsuccessful would have to apply to private healthcare providers and day-surgery units in order to gain experience. St John of God Health Care group director workforce Rita Maguire. Credit:St John of God Health Care St John of God Health Care workforce group director Rita Maguire said private providers offered only 125 graduate placements to registered and enrolled nurses in two blocks annually. The number of nursing graduates in the healthcare industry reflects the slow-down in the wider economy which has resulted in low workforce turnover as nurses who are in employment choose to stay in work, she said. The latest June 2018 Australian labor market data classified registered nurses and enrolled nurses as "no shortage zones". But the data pointed to a record decade-high 2200 bachelor degrees in nursing intake. A WA registered nurse, who asked not to be named, told WAtoday the data was in line with a growing issue in universities: a sense of 'sausage-churning' of nursing graduates. It has now come to the point where universities are pumping out graduate RNs (registered nurses) when there are limited graduate programs and jobs available, she said. While nursing graduate numbers have skyrocketed, so has the job competition. Registered nurses will on average go up against 20.2 other applicants for Metropolitan WA positions per vacancy and 5.8 applicants in regional WA. And employers will only deem 3.4 candidates for metropolitan WA and 1.8 candidates for regional WA suitable. The vast majority will be classified as unsuitable, with 79 per cent of applicants deemed to have a lack of experience in specific areas like mental health, or a lack of general experience. Edith Cowan Universitys Executive Dean of the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Professor Di Twigg, said graduate students were feeling frustrated on not being able to get jobs in a market that was growing at between 3-4 per cent per year. "Weve gone through two cycles in a boom-bust condition," she said. "A few years ago, we took in an entry of WA grads to strengthen the pipeline but with the economy tightening, there are less job opportunities. "Positions that support new graduates like staff development become less, staff cant take on too many nurses who they cant support. It takes time and energy, if wards feel they are about to bust, they wont take in new nurses. "Its just easier to take in experienced nurses with four to five years of life skills." WA Health Minister Roger Cook has said the recruitment is a collaborative effort between Western Australia and Northeastern Scotland. Credit:AAP Images/Sophie Moore How Grampian could alleviate graduate concerns WA Opposition Leader Mike Nahan said the McGowan Governments funding cuts to public health made it difficult for WA nurses and graduates to secure public work. But Health Minister Roger Cook dismissed that idea, and said NHS Grampians recruitment was a collaboration with the Department of Health Nursing and Midwifery Office that presented an opportunity for "valuable experience". "NHS Grampian is focusing solely on recruiting for graduate nurse positions [it] has approximately 540 vacant positions within its health system," he said. "It is expected that graduate nurses recruited ... will gain valuable experience and the majority are likely to return to WA as more knowledgeable, flexible and agile employees." A Scottish Government spokeswoman said international recruitment efforts like the one targeted at Perth graduates were a "comprehensive approach" to workforce planning. NHS Grampian is currently getting a $350 million fund from the government to balance shortages. Credit:NHS Grampian "Across the country as a whole, NHS Scotland has seen six consecutive years of growth in workforce numbers, with a 5.7 per cent increase in whole time equivalent qualified nurses since 2006," she said. For Scots, the recruitment comes at a time when the government is funding the NHS Grampian at 175 million ($308 million) and employing an increase of more than 800 staff. Karen Booth, President, Australian Primary Healthcare Nurses Association (APNA) says a better pay could help graduate nurses stay. Credit:APNA Australian Primary Healthcare Nurses Association president Karen Booth likened the nursing labor force to a game of musical chairs. "In WA, they get nurses from the UK and they want our nurses from here," she said. "We have 1152 nurses per 100,000 persons in this state its much less than other states. Its in a critical level." Ms Booth said nurses pay should be reconsidered to make it more attractive. Ireland Olson Ireland Olson, daughter of Rick and Shelly Olson, of Kimball, and Melissa Olson of Ephraim, Utah, recently completed her Basic Combat Training and was in the graduating class number 69-18 held at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, on Nov. 16, 2018. The 2016 graduate of Kimball High School, where she graduated with honors, enrolled at Southeast Community College in Beatrice following her high school graduation and began her pursuit of becoming a nurse in the medical field. At the completion of 13 months, she received an LPN degree in nursing in graduation ceremonies held there, graduating with high honors. Ireland's next step was to move to Lincoln, where she planned to enroll in a nursing facility, but after sitting out for a short while, she weighed her future and elected to continue her medical dreams by enlisting in the U.S. Army, which she felt was the best military fit for her future plans. Ireland enlisted in the Army on July 15, 2018 and was sent to Fort Sill, Okla., where she underwent her Basic Combat Training as a member of the Echo Battery, 1st Battalion, 79th Field Artillery, and graduated with high honors at the Nov. 16, 2018 Basic Combat Training Graduation Ceremony attended by her father. Ireland was recognized at the ceremony as an Honor Graduate and was one of 19 to receive this honor, and was named to the top 10 percent of the graduating class. The day after graduating from Basic Training, she was on her way to her next assignment at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, to go into AIT, a 19 week training for becoming a Combat Medic, her next step in continuing in her chosen medical field. At the completion of the 19 weeks she will then be assigned to her next duty station. PFC Olson will be back home in Kimball to spend a few days with family and friends over Christmas. Thomas Giroir / ECB Eastern Connecticut Ballet brings a new look to its classic Nutcracker ballet Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 8 and 9, with new scenery built in New Haven, additional special effects and a setting that celebrates southeastern Connecticuts seafaring past, say officials. Audience members will glimpse tall ships in port, a sea captains Victorian home, lighthouses and other well-known landmarks new scenery that will transform the Garde Arts Centers stage into a wintry day in New London during the 1850s. 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. BRIDGEPORT Police were continuing their investigation into the citys 10th homicide of the year: an Hispanic man in his 20s. Some residents in the area of Park and Laurel avenues said they heard multiple shots fired shortly before 8 p.m. Tuesday. We have some description of the shooter, said Police Chief Armando Perez, who did not name the victim. We dont really know a lot right now, were trying to dig up the pieces. The first police officer to the scene who said there was a party down and an ambulance was needed immediately called in Detective Bureau units and the units sergeant. Victim was shot multiple times, said police spokesman Av Harris. Police at the scene said the victim was taken to Bridgeport Hospital. Several curious neighbors of the area, which is mostly residential, popped out of their front doors looking toward the crime scene that had attracted so many cop cars to their neighborhood. A pair of black sneakers was sitting in one of the lanes of travel on Laurel Avenue near its intersection with Iranistan Avenue. I heard six or seven shots, said one man, who said he was taking a class nearby at a local business. Then we started seeing all the police cars, then we saw the crime scene tape. Police blocked off the intersections of Park and Laurel avenues and Laurel and Iranistan avenues for several hours after the shooting. The citys last homicides were Myoshi Bagley, 41, and David Belle, 28. The two were shot around 11 p.m. on Oct. 31 in the 800 block of Maplewood Avenue. Bagley died that night. Belle died on Nov. 6. Williamson, WV (25661) Today Cloudy with occasional rain during the afternoon. High 51F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%.. Tonight Evening rain followed by a mix of rain and snow showers overnight. Low 34F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precip 100%. A Calgary mining company is holding a public information meeting tonight in Seymourville about a major frac-sand mining project the company hopes to begin building next year. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 28/11/2018 (1093 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A Calgary mining company is holding a public information meeting tonight in Seymourville about a major frac-sand mining project the company hopes to begin building next year. Canadian Premium Sand Inc., which up until earlier this month was called Claim Post Resources Inc., owns 2,130 acres of contiguous quarry sand leases at the site, located about 200 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg. Company materials indicate the so-called Wanipigow Sand Extraction Project has an estimated resource of 600 million tonnes. The company has done a preliminary economic assessment but has not yet submitted materials required for permits. A company official said it has met more than 60 times with various members of communities that would potentially be impacted by the project. Bronwyn Weaver, a spokeswoman for the company, said a number of studies are wrapping over the course of the next few weeks and permit applications will start before the end of the year with the hopes that permits will be in place by next spring. She said water usage, waste-water handling and dust emissions have all been addressed, as well as noise levels, traffic levels, groundwater protection, biodiversity and archeological studies. If and when it is up and running, the project ought to create about 150 jobs and should be able to continue to be productive for 50 years. Documents indicate the project would cost about $93 million to build, and according to the current prices of frac sand, it could generate between $235 million and $940 million per year, depending on how aggressively the sand is mined. Despite the current slump in oil prices, company officials believe the economics of the project work well with general industry demands, which is 300 per cent greater than it was five years ago. Frac sand is now used in most of the one million horizontal oil wells in North America. Canadian Premium Sand officials say the Wanipigow property sand has the right properties for the oil and gas industry high-purity quartz sand with durable, round, uniform grains; high silica purity; durability to resist crushing forces of closing fractures; and low solubility in hot, acidic conditions As well, company officials believe it will have a competitive advantage by being close to markets. It is 1,000 kilometres closer to the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin that includes the Bakken Basin than the Wisconsin sand mines, the source of a lot of the frac-sand supply in North America. Earlier this year, the company raised $13 million and hopes to begin hiring and workforce development training early in 2019. On Monday night, community leadership from Hollow Water First Nation, Seymourville, Aghaming and Manigotagan met with company officials all together for the first time. Industry officials have said environmental concerns are no more or less than other such mineral-extraction projects, but local resident and environmental activist Don Sullivan is working hard to raise issues he believes will be very important to the regional communities. He said, among other things, it will be important that local water resources are protected. He said particulate matter in the air and heavy truck traffic down Highway 59 from cottage country on the east side of Lake Winnipeg are also of particular concern. "Whether you are for it or against it is a moot point," Sullivan said. "What is needed to be done is to have a transparent process that informs communities of not only the benefits but the costs, and up until now, there is not enough transparency." Weaver said although there has not yet been a lot of information made available to the public or to regulators, the information is coming. "We have not yet submitted any of our permit applications," she said. "We have spent our time investing in the relationships we have with the immediate communities. The project will bring great economic opportunities and we are making sure we are planning it appropriately, so that it is good in the long term for the communities." martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca OTTAWA - The federal government is taking immediate steps to remove some regulatory barriers to trade across the country, hoping to persuade provinces to follow its example. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 28/11/2018 (1092 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks with the media before caucus on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Wednesday November 28, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld OTTAWA - The federal government is taking immediate steps to remove some regulatory barriers to trade across the country, hoping to persuade provinces to follow its example. For starters, it is making the national building code available for free, making it easier for the construction industry to access a single, standardized set of rules which the feds hope the provinces will adopt. Until now, downloading the code has cost $350 and provinces have imposed a patchwork of different rules and interpretations on top. Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc says the move was inspired by Australia, which saw $1 billion worth of additional economic activity after getting its state governments to harmonize their building codes and drop the fee for accessing them. "The faster we can get to a national building code, a standardized building code, the better it will be for that whole sector to reduce costs and grow their businesses," LeBlanc said in an interview Wednesday. The move comes as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is preparing to hold a first ministers' meeting next week, at which eliminating interprovincial trade barriers is high on the agenda. "I've been saying to provincial governments that we want to come to the conversation having identified the federal barriers because I don't pretend that they're exclusively provincial," said LeBlanc. LeBlanc said the federal government is focusing on areas where it can act quickly to remove regulatory hurdles that impede trade between provinces and territories and add unnecessary costs to businesses. Besides making the building code free, the government is amending federal energy-efficiency regulations for household appliances, clarifying food labelling rules and modernizing meat inspection regulations. And it is expanding the federal definition of what constitutes vodka to include vodka made from something other than potatoes or grain. The current definition has meant that a Nova Scotia or Manitoba micro-distillery that makes vodka from apples can't label it and sell it in other provinces as vodka. "There are dozens of examples like that that we're trying to eliminate federally, quickly because it gives us I think a better story to tell when we're asking provinces to do their part," LeBlanc said. At next week's first ministers' meeting, he said the federal government will propose movement in other areas, particularly in the trucking industry and food inspection. Trade between provinces and territories accounts for 20 per cent of Canada's economic activity, worth $370 billion a year. LeBlanc said studies by the Bank of Canada and others have estimated that removing interprovincial trade barriers would add up to 2 percentage points to Canada's economic growth rate equivalent to the projected economic benefit of Canada's recently concluded free trade agreement with the European Union. "But we shouldn't kid ourselves," LeBlanc added. "That requires major and significant movement and, frankly, what we're proposing is just a series of initial steps." Barriers to the free flow of booze across provincial borders is probably the most difficult internal trade nut to crack and LeBlanc said the federal government is exploring what it can do to encourage provinces to eliminate those barriers. One option, he said, would be to set up an electronic platform that would facilitate direct-to-consumer online sales of wine, beer and alcohol, while ensuring that each participating province gets its share of tax revenue. "We can't impose that ... but if enough of (the provinces) say, 'You know what, let's try this for three years and see how it would work,' we think it could be part of improving consumer choice." DETROIT - Ford is shuffling workers at several factories so it can make more hot-selling full-size SUVs. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 28/11/2018 (1092 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. DETROIT - Ford is shuffling workers at several factories so it can make more hot-selling full-size SUVs. The company says the moves will increase production of Lincoln Navigators and Ford Expeditions. Navigator sales are up 81 per cent through October, while Expedition sales rose 3.9 per cent. Ford plans to add 500 jobs at the Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville that makes the SUVs. It also will add 500 at a factory in Livonia, Michigan, near Detroit that produces SUV and truck transmissions. Also, about 500 workers at the Louisville Assembly Plant who make the slow-selling Ford Escape small SUV will be diverted to Kentucky Truck to make big SUVs. In addition, about 650 workers at a car factory in Flat Rock, Michigan, near Detroit will move to the transmission plant or other openings. The plant in Flat Rock makes the Ford Mustang sports car and Lincoln Continental full-size car. Ford says the jobs will be filled internally and there won't be layoffs. The announcement comes two days after crosstown rival General Motors announced plans to close five factories and lay off as many as 6,000 blue-collar workers. The move has brought criticism from President Donald Trump and auto unions in the U.S. and Canada. Several hundred of the workers will be moved to truck and SUV factories where jobs are being added. TORONTO - Martinrea International Inc. says it will be forced to close an automotive factory when General Motors winds down production at its Oshawa assembly plant next year in one of the clearest indications of the knock-on effects of the closure on suppliers. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 28/11/2018 (1092 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. The General Motors Canada office in Oshawa, Ont., is photographed on Wednesday, June 20, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tijana Martin TORONTO - Martinrea International Inc. says it will be forced to close an automotive factory when General Motors winds down production at its Oshawa assembly plant next year in one of the clearest indications of the knock-on effects of the closure on suppliers. Rob Wildeboer, executive chairman of manufacturer Martinrea, says the company will have no choice but to end operations at its Ajax, Ont. plant and offer relocation to the 77 people who work there because the site is entirely dependent on GM's Oshawa assembly line. "If they're not making vehicles there then obviously they don't need our assemblies," he said in an interview Wednesday. The closure of the Oshawa plant and the nearly 3,000 jobs that will be lost have raised concerns of ripple effects through the supply chain, with Unifor estimating every job represents seven spin off jobs in the local economy. Parts manufacturers and other suppliers have, however, downplayed the overall impact of the closure thanks to diversification efforts after the global economic downturn that helped lead GM into bankruptcy in 2009. Automotive manufacturer Linamar Corp. said it expects to see minimal to no impact from the closure since most of its GM parts are exported to assembly plants in the U.S. "The impact to GM's total vehicle build is expected to be quite minimal at this point in time meaning we will still be supplying product to the powertrain programs that supply those vehicle platforms at expected volumes," said Linamar CEO Linda Hasenfratz in an emailed statement. Wildeboer said that the Oshawa closure will affect about one per cent of Martinrea's revenue, since the company is internationally diversified. He said the company has also been able to ramp up its headcount at a plant that supplies GM's Cami Ingersoll plant from 200 to 500 but that the Oshawa closing will still affect Martinrea. "This is a hit. It's like two steps forward one step back." Automotive consultant Dennis DesRosiers said he expects many suppliers will pick up other contracts from GM and others to minimize impacts, but that not all will be able to replace the work. "Not all will, there will be an impact. It might be 1,000, 2,000 jobs, I'd be surprised if it was more than that," said DesRosiers. "The ones that are sole-sourced to the plant, you know, who've been living off GM rather than getting out and hustling other business, they're vulnerable." Some smaller operations did see signs of trouble at Oshawa and have been actively looking for alternatives. Mike Prencipe, part-owner and director of Mississauga-based packager TEC Business Solutions, said the company started shifting business away from exposure to the Oshawa plant as GM kept cutting back production. "We planned for it, we kind of said, this is where GM is heading, we're not going to supply to manufacturers that supply GM." He said the move was part of a wider need to stay nimble and adapt, especially after the 2008 recession. "We diversified. Not only did we go to other sectors, other types of packaging, but it forced, in a good way, forced us into the freight business as well." The company is now about 60 per cent reliant on the auto sector, down from 80 or 90 per cent in the past. Despite the Oshawa loss, Prencipe said he still has faith in the automotive sector in Canada. "I think automotive's safe here, I think we're good. There's too much integrated systems here, I don't see any cause for concerns in the short-term or even the mid-range, long-term, I think we're fine." Wildeboer said he also believes Ontario's automotive sector is still largely secure both because the industry is still sizable and investments have kept workforces and factories up to date. "We have some of our most competitive parts plants in the world in Ontario...we have a very good workforce, we have very good equipment, and the latest in manufacturing. And that's how you get competitive." He said higher energy costs and rising minimum wages have put pressure on the province's economy, but that there's still enough production to anchor the industry. "If you're producing a million and a half plus vehicles, I think you've got a good critical mass." Annette Riziki may be one of the latest recipients of the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship, but when she started high school, she faced a challenge familiar to many: gym class. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 27/11/2018 (1093 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Annette Riziki may be one of the latest recipients of the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship, but when she started high school, she faced a challenge familiar to many: gym class. In 2011, Riziki arrived in Winnipeg with her family after fleeing the Democratic Republic of Congo, her war-torn home country. She had to adjust to a whole new world a new neighbourhood, a new school, a new culture but Riziki said socializing with her new classmates, such as choosing teams in phys-ed, was one of the hardest situations to get used to. "I always felt alone," Riziki said. "I had to figure out a way to navigate through the system and make sure that I created my own sense of belonging. I had to define what my sense of belonging meant." Soon, she did. In her last two years at Fort Richmond Collegiate, Riziki joined extracurricular clubs including a girls group that organized African dances at school. The group was diverse the other girls came from countries such as Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda and Rwanda but their shared experience as newcomers to the country connected them. "Wed all come together and create something. We would just put everything together and just dance," Riziki said. It was this sense of community she found with other newcomers that drove the 22-year-old University of Manitoba grad to study the resettlement experiences of refugees. And this week, it paid off when she was announced as one of 11 recipients across Canada of the Rhodes Scholarship for 2019. The opportunity will allow Riziki to learn more about the wide-ranging experiences and challenges immigrants and refugees face, she said. The award is given to young leaders of exceptional intellect and character who are motivated to engage with the worlds challenges. Its valued at more than $90,000 per year and covers all expenses for two to three years of study at the University of Oxford in England. In some instances, it may allow funding for up to four years. Riziki said she hopes the news of her being awarded the scholarship will help shift peoples perceptions of immigrants and refugees. As racist, anti-immigrant sentiment continues to take hold across the globe, she sees a lack of stories showing immigrants and refugees as human. "Right now, when we think of immigration, people are portrayed in a very negative light. We tend to think of (refugees) as traumatized, as people who are always on the move without a home," she said. Riziki hopes her story which began in Congo during what she called "Africas first world war," and eventually led to her winning an esteemed award that has been received by Canadians such as Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and philosopher Charles Taylor will help people understand how diverse immigrant experiences can be. "I think this will definitely change the conversation about everything when it comes to immigrants and their whole resettlement journey," Riziki said. "It just shows that there is potential. And if its harvested well, then something good can come out of it." After completing her studies, Riziki hopes to pursue a career as either a clinical psychologist working with immigrant and minority populations, or as a researcher or professor working on displacement and resettlement issues. Eventually, she hopes to return to Congo and bring modern clinical expertise to help people in her home country, she said. caitlyn.gowriluk@freepress.mb.ca Engage him in a conversation, and it becomes abundantly clear "irrepressible" isn't a strong enough adjective to describe Maxime Bernier. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 27/11/2018 (1093 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Engage him in a conversation, and it becomes abundantly clear "irrepressible" isn't a strong enough adjective to describe Maxime Bernier. The former Quebec Tory is on a national tour to promote the People's Party of Canada, an entity born of his well-publicized disillusionment with Ottawa's big-tent approach to politics. The PPC is, in its current state, a volatile grab-bag of ideas that, depending on your perspective, is either the birth of the first genuinely small-c conservative party in the country's history, or a dangerous stew of extreme ideas tempered with a healthy dose of Canadian understatement. On the eve of a visit to Winnipeg, Bernier giddily claims, in just a few months of existence, the new party has recruited 30,000 founding members, raised nearly a half-million dollars (without benefit of a tax credit) and set up 229 of the 338 riding associations needed to run a candidate in every federal constituency. CP Maxime Bernier says his new party has recruited 30,000 members, raised nearly a half-million dollars and set up 229 of the 338 riding associations needed to run a candidate in every federal constituency. (Patrick Doyle / The Canadian Press files) Political party memberships are notoriously difficult to confirm, and Canadians will likely not know whether those 229 riding associations (including 13 of 14 in Manitoba) are viable until the 2019 federal election. Still, Bernier admits the support he has received as PPC leader to date has exceeded even his expectations. "I think we are making history by building a party so fast," Bernier said Tuesday, in an interview from his Parliament Hill office. "But it's actually easy to build a party when you believe in something." What the Quebec MP (Beauce) believes, and how came to believe it, is a topic of much speculation and analysis. Bernier, 55, is a solid constituency politician, having earned pluralities that are among the biggest in the House of Commons. He is also indefatigable character, a man who seemingly cannot be insulted. He has lustily embraced the moniker "Mad Max," as a key element in his personal brand. Join the PPC, and you gain membership in what the party's website describes as the "Mad Max Club." Bernier continues to deny he is anti-immigrant, despite calling for massive reductions in annual immigration quotas and calling for more of an emphasis on newcomers who will accept and practice Canadian values. Maxime Bernier would like to end all Canadian foreign aid and eliminate government regulation, including supply-side management in the agricultural sector. (Adrian Wyld / The Canadian Press files) "People who don't believe in immigration don't have a place in our party," he said. "But I've also said that people who believe in mass immigration are not welcome in our party." Bernier would like to end all Canadian foreign aid, and spend the money on domestic needs. On climate change, he said he accepts humans may be warming the Earth, but does not believe government has a role to play in curbing carbon emissions. The new party wants to eliminate government regulation including supply-side management in the agricultural sector and allow the free market to grow the country's economy. Past experience would suggest this is not a winning combination of policies. Undeterred, Bernier talks about the huge constituency of Canadians that no longer vote in federal elections. In his world, people want a different option at the ballot box, and if the PPC can be that option, the sky is the limit. Listening to Bernier, the sheer improbability of the challenge he faces trying to establish a new national party is mitigated by one very important factor: he is the politician who does not know how to say die. Consider he was, for a very long time, the black sheep of former prime minister Stephen Harper's cabinet. In 2008, Bernier had to resign his coveted post as foreign affairs minister after it was discovered he left classified government reports at the home of his girlfriend, a woman who had associated with organized-crime figures. Maxime Bernier is a politician who does not know how to say die, even when the odds are stacked against him. (Adrian Wyld / The Canadian Press files) That's a humiliation that would break most politicians. In defiance of his cabinet setback, there he was in 2017, a front-runner in the leadership race to succeed Harper. Despite his past humiliations, his unorthodox platform and lack of currency with the party establishment, Bernier finished a close second to Andrew Scheer. The sting of that near-victory seemed only to stoke the fire. This summer, Bernier (who had held Beauce for the Tories since 2006) finally admitted what many had suspected for a long time: he was setting out on his own to create a true conservative option for voters. Despite the flood of memberships to the Mad Max Club, there are naysayers. Entrepreneur Kevin O'Leary, who supported Bernier in the Tory leadership race, has publicly called upon him to abandon his PPC aspirations. And to date, his most strident supporters include some extreme people with extreme views of life in Canada. Bernier dismisses concerns about some of the company he keeps. "I speak to everybody, because I want to be sure that all people know who we are and what we believe." Bernier cannot help but think of his political future in bold, aspirational terms; he sees nothing but an upward trajectory. However, common sense and basic political calculus suggest the PPC's impact may be limited to hampering Scheer's Conservatives, and handing re-election to the Liberals. Then again, this is a politician who has defied the odds, and forged a career that has lasted much longer than anyone could have imagined. Bernier has already danced on the graves of many of the people who tried to bury him in past skirmishes. A politician with that kind of survival instinct may not necessarily be worthy of fear, but he should never be underestimated. dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca OTTAWA The $540-million project aimed at preventing devastating floods in Manitobas Interlake region seems suddenly gummed up, devolving into finger-pointing, just five months after Ottawa ponied up cash for one of Canadas largest disaster-prevention endeavours. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 27/11/2018 (1093 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. OTTAWA The $540-million project aimed at preventing devastating floods in Manitobas Interlake region seems suddenly gummed up, devolving into finger-pointing, just five months after Ottawa ponied up cash for one of Canadas largest disaster-prevention endeavours. "If this continues, we wont get that outlet built; it will take years," Premier Brian Pallister told reporters Tuesday, marking a fresh clash with the federal Liberals over the Lake St. Martin and Lake Manitoba outlet channels. Meanwhile, communities most in need of those canals claim federal consultations have snubbed their towns, while local reserves are warning the province the project could imperil fish stocks. Tory MP James Bezan (Selkirk-Interlake) said the breakdown started this month when the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) started forming a technical advisory group on the project. He said that could only happen by order of federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna, but McKennas office described it as an arms-length decision. In any case, Pallisters office said more than 70 people are involved in the advisory group, including remote northern communities. On Monday, he cited Nelson House, which sits hundreds of kilometres downstream from Lake Winnipeg. Bezan said the CEAA hasnt invited most of the flood-affected towns that need the channel outlets, nor some of the affected reserves, such as Lake Manitoba First Nation. "It really is strange," Bezan said. He said the channels will affect Lake Winnipegs water levels, but only by increasing the natural flow by a negligible amount. "Its more red tape; its going to slow down the approval processes. And we could be in for another flood in the next couple years." Pallister accused the Liberals of "changing the rules in midstream to broaden the consultation requirements" with less than 60 days of actual consultations being done over the past 12 months, the total timeline Ottawa said to expect for federal reviews. The premier speculated the Liberals were being overly cautious after a federal court ruled in August that Ottawa had botched its consultations on the Trans Mountain pipeline. Pallister had raised a similar concern Monday, while claiming Toronto lawyers were "coming to Manitoba and treating our people as pawns" by offering Interlake communities cash payouts for threatening to delay the projects. The premier refused to name which communities he was talking about. On Tuesday, federal Infrastructure Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne insisted the project is going ahead smoothly. "We believe in the project," Champagne told the Free Press. He noted its the first project the Liberals approved under their Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund, and it was accounted for in their first budget in spring 2016. "This is one of our poster-child projects," he said. "We have shown the level of urgency, the level of commitment in this project and well continue to do so until its completed." Last Friday, the province announced it had commissioned two engineering firms to design and construct the outlets. That news surprised Treaty 2 First Nations, which includes communities that were flooded in 2011. They claimed in a news release contaminants will spread among the linked lakes, imperilling the fish that reserves rely on for food and their livelihoods. The reserves decried a lack of consultation from either level of government, scheduling a Tuesday evening press conference to warn the projects "will cause tremendous damage" to their communities. McKenna would not speak to the project, but said in general her government overhauled consultations by giving Indigenous people and provinces more of a voice. "Weve worked very hard to rebuild trust in how we review major projects," she said. "Its extraordinarily important that we get this right; that we demonstrate that you can protect the environment, but you can also ensure that good projects go ahead in a timely way." McKennas office said it has long expected Manitobas contractors to submit an environment impact assessment next year, which would receive regular scrutiny. Manitoba NDP Leader Wab Kinew said Pallister has only himself to blame for the current situation, because he "rushed" to announce the lake outlet project. After Junes historic funding announcement, numerous local chiefs came forward saying they hadnt been invited to the event. Kinew speculated Tuesday they werent adequately consulted. with files from Larry Kusch dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca The Manitoba NDP is sounding the alarm about a provincial review of the Infrastructure Department, suggesting the government might privatize such services as highway snow-clearing and road-safety inspections. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 27/11/2018 (1093 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. The Manitoba NDP is sounding the alarm about a provincial review of the Infrastructure Department, suggesting the government might privatize such services as highway snow-clearing and road-safety inspections. The concern stems from a government "request for qualifications" to hire a consultant to review the departments "core strategic highway and water-management assets" to "help right-size public ownership, investment and maintenance prioritizations going forward." A ministerial briefing note obtained by the NDP through freedom-of-information legislation says the purpose of the review is to ensure all the departments services are "innovative and sustainable." The departments core services include snow removal on highways, safety inspections on roads and bridges and the enforcement of safety standards for commercial trucking. "This review is very wide in scope," NDP Leader Wab Kinew said. "When you think about travelling around this province, particularly in wintertime or during flood season, do you want to have snow clearing? Do you want to have the people in charge of safety on the highways being delivered by the private sector?" The government announced its review of the delivery of Manitoba Infrastructure services last fall. Infrastructure Minister Ron Schuler said the government wont prejudge the results of the consultation, and "will be open to whatever recommendations are made." "The goal is to deliver better outcomes for Manitobans, while streamlining service delivery to ensure smarter spending and modernizing the way government procures goods and services," the minister said in a statement. "Stakeholder consultation has occurred, as well as consultation with front-line staff. Consultation will continue once a proponent (consultant) has been selected, and the process is ongoing." The government is planning to have a consultant in place by May. The request for qualifications designed to create a shortlist of contenders is part of a two-step procurement process to select that consultant. larry.kusch@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @lrkusch Fishing is a difficult and underappreciated occupation. To be a successful commercial fisher requires skills of reading not only weather patterns, but also currents, the movements of the fish and the vagaries of the economy and policy. We are very fortunate here in Manitoba to have hundreds of professional fishers, who go out on their boats or Bombardiers to catch fresh fish for export markets and the tables of Manitobans. This is not just a livelihood, but a way of life. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 28/11/2018 (1093 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion Fishing is a difficult and underappreciated occupation. To be a successful commercial fisher requires skills of reading not only weather patterns, but also currents, the movements of the fish and the vagaries of the economy and policy. We are very fortunate here in Manitoba to have hundreds of professional fishers, who go out on their boats or Bombardiers to catch fresh fish for export markets and the tables of Manitobans. This is not just a livelihood, but a way of life. As fisheries are complex and dynamic, so is fisheries management. It has to consider not just the ecological aspects of fisheries, but also how fisheries are influenced by social, political and economic factors. On Nov. 14, the Free Press published an article by Scott Forbes on the management of Lake Winnipeg. Forbes cited the Sea Choices report which described Lake Winnipeg as "the worst-managed lake" in the world. Is Lake Winnipeg managed perfectly? No. No lake or other water body in the world can be governed perfectly. In my native country of Iceland, for example, fisheries have been managed by literally following biology and economics textbooks, with devastating social effects on small rural communities. There are simply too many variables in nature to govern fisheries perfectly. Is Lake Winnipeg, then, the worst-managed lake? No. How would one even compare different ecosystems fairly? The statement that Lake Winnipeg is the worst-managed lake in the world only serves to stoke an unwarranted, popular misperception of the lake. More subtly, it also may create demand for the eco-certification industry behind the Sea Choices report, which tries to convince us that it is the only one with the solution. Forbes article gives the impression that fishers are primarily to blame for what he sees as crisis in the fishery of Lake Winnipeg. It is important to recognize, however, that fish stocks vary over time for natural reasons that have little to do with the efforts of commercial and First Nations fishers. Strong classes of fish come and go. We can understand recent changes in walleye availability when we recognize that the famous large 2001-year class of walleye is now in old age. Fishers have also observed that the opening of the emergency channel from Lake St. Martin channel to Lake Winnipeg has changed fish habitat, spawning grounds and movement. They think the channel might further have led to the influx of tullibees and whitefish in the south basin of the lake, thereby increasing the effort needed to catch walleye. Fishers from Norway House, Grand Rapids and other fishing communities in the north basin can attest to how Manitoba Hydros activities over the decades have affected fishing as well. It is unfair to suggest that commercial fishers want to catch "baby" walleye. The fact is, the market dictates that mid-sized walleye are desirable, because their fillets fit best on a plate. That is the size, therefore, that fishers target. Not "baby" walleye. Additionally, to protect big fish (the best spawners), commercial fishers do not use nets larger than a mesh size of 5.25 inches on Lake Winnipeg. Forbes also seems to have forgotten that commercial fishers do not begin the spring fishery until 48 hours after 80 per cent of the walleye have spawned. It is a prevalent, but simplistic, idea that fishers are self-serving individuals who do not have any regard for their environment. Fishers do, in fact, think a lot about their environment and about how Lake Winnipeg should be governed. Fishing in Manitoba is based on innumerable generations interactions with the aquatic ecosystem, a fact sometimes too readily overlooked. If we want to improve management of Lake Winnipeg and other lakes in Manitoba, we must consider the knowledge of the true inland fisheries experts in Manitoba the commercial and First Nations fishers. The budget cuts that Sustainable Development has experienced through the years are unacceptable, and there is a pressing need for the provincial government of Manitoba to reverse them. However, instead of looking for an external solution in the form of eco-certification as a hope to improve management, Manitoba should spend time and money on homegrown solutions. Not only do we need to better include commercial and First Nations fishers in decision-making, we need to cultivate better relationships between fishers (First Nations and other commercial fishers) and the research community in Manitoba. Both groups can learn a lot from each other, and exchange ideas on how to improve our fisheries. The provincial government of Manitoba should facilitate and support such a dialogue. Solmundur Karl Palsson is an anthropologist and PhD candidate in anthropology at University of Manitoba. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 27/11/2018 (1093 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. "I dont believe it." That, painfully but predictably, was the reaction offered Monday by U.S. President Donald Trump when asked about the grim climate-change report released quietly by his government last Friday, the day after his country celebrated Thanksgiving and therefore a day when most Americans are in either a turkey-induced torpor or a Black Friday shopping frenzy in other words, the day of the calendar year on which Americans are least likely to pay even a whit of attention to news reports about government reports. The presidents assessment of the report a non-partisan document whose preparation involved 13 U.S. government agencies and more than 300 leading climate scientists is as unsurprising as his administrations cynical effort to bury it. Employing a time-honoured political strategy for dealing with bad news, the Trump bunch rushed the reports release it was originally scheduled to be unveiled next month in hopes no one would notice. U.S. President Donald Trump's reaction to the grim climate-change report released by his government Friday was predictable. (Alex Brandon / The Associated Press files). Releasing the report last Friday was in keeping with the political tradition known as "taking out the trash," which refers to dropping unpopular or embarrassing announcements late in the news cycle, when media are likely to miss them or give them minimal attention. Within that context, Black Friday is as trashy as trash-takeout days get. Given the extremely troubling contents of the document, however, there were bound to be questions waiting this week when Americas 24-hour news cycle returned to something approaching business as usual. And that set the stage for Mr. Trumps succinct four-word dismissal. The report laid out the immense negative effects that will be suffered by Americans if drastic and immediate actions are not taken to reduce greenhouse gases and limit global warming. And beyond the usual doomsday global-environmental scenarios severe storms, coastal flooding, increased inland droughts, more wildfires and widening bands of heat-damaged landscape the new report also predicts "substantial damages to the U.S. economy, environment, and human health and well-being over the coming decades." Unchecked global warming will cost the U.S. economy hundreds of billions of dollars, the document states, with the agricultural sector being hardest hit. Mr. Trump might not concern himself much with the environment, but he sure does care about money. Its worth noting, however, that Mr. Trump who clearly has no knowledge or interest in the difference between weather and climate tweeted last Thursday about the recent cold snap across much of America, "Brutal and Extended Cold Blast could shatter ALL RECORDS Whatever happened to Global Warming?" Beyond the usual global-environmental scenarios such as severe storms, inland droughts and more wildfires, the report predicts substantial damages to the economy and human health and well-being over the coming decades. (Noah Berger / The Associated Press files) Of course, this is the same Mr. Trump who, as a private citizen, once offered the Twitter-dispersed opinion that "The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive." Its also the same Mr. Trump who, when pandering to rally crowds in rust-belt America, croons his undying love for, and commitment to, "beautiful clean coal" about as oxymoronic a description as was ever created by the juxtaposition of adjectives and nouns. Within two months, politicians in the U.S. and around the world have been presented with two clearly worded warnings first, by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and now in the U.S. governments Fourth National Climate Assessment but Americas commander-in-chief remains resolute in his ignorance. If asked to react to the U.S. presidents doubling down on disbelief, most folks would probably also only need four words to respond: "I completely believe it." American Consumer News, LLC dba MarketBeat 2010-2021. All rights reserved. 326 E 8th St #105, Sioux Falls, SD 57103 | U.S. Based Support Team at [email protected] | (844) 978-6257 MarketBeat does not provide personalized financial advice and does not issue recommendations or offers to buy stock or sell any security. Our Accessibility Statement | Terms of Service | Do Not Sell My Information 2021 Market data provided is at least 10-minutes delayed and hosted by Barchart Solutions. Information is provided 'as-is' and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice, and is delayed. To see all exchange delays and terms of use please see disclaimer. Fundamental company data provided by Zacks Investment Research. There is not enough analysis data for American Premium Water. 3.9 Community Rank Outperform Votes American Premium Water has received 24 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.) Underperform Votes American Premium Water has received 17 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.) 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Previous Next The following companies are subsidiares of Anthem: 1-800 Contacts, AIM Specialty Health, AMERIGROUP Community Care of New Mexico Inc., AMERIGROUP Corporation, AMERIGROUP Maryland Inc., AMERIGROUP New Jersey Inc., AMERIGROUP Ohio Inc., AMERIGROUP Tennessee Inc., AMERIGROUP Texas Inc., AMERIGROUP Washington Inc., AMGP Georgia Managed Care Company Inc., ATH Holding Company LLC, America's 1st Choice of South Carolina Inc., America's Health Management Services Inc., American Imaging Management Inc., Americas 1st Choice, Amerigroup, Amerigroup Delaware Inc., Amerigroup District of Columbia Inc., Amerigroup Health Plan of Louisiana Inc., Amerigroup IPA of New York LLC, Amerigroup Insurance Company, Amerigroup Iowa Inc., Amerigroup Kansas Inc., Amerigroup Mississippi Inc., Amerigroup Oklahoma Inc., Amerigroup Partnership Plan LLC, Amerigroup Pennsylvania Inc., Anthem Blue Cross Life and Health Insurance Company, Anthem Financial Inc., Anthem Health Plans Inc., Anthem Health Plans of Kentucky Inc., Anthem Health Plans of Maine Inc., Anthem Health Plans of New Hampshire Inc., Anthem Health Plans of Virginia Inc., Anthem Holding Corp., Anthem Innovation Israel Ltd., Anthem Insurance Companies Inc., Anthem Kentucky Managed Care Plan Inc., Anthem Life & Disability Insurance Company, Anthem Life Insurance Company, Anthem Partnership Holding Company LLC, Anthem Services Company LLC, Anthem Southeast Inc., Anthem UM Services Inc., Anthem Workers' Compensation LLC, Applied Pathways LLC, Arcus Enterprises Inc., Aspire Health Inc., Aspire Healthcare Corp, Associated Group Inc., Beacon Health Options, Blue Cross Blue Shield Healthcare Plan of Georgia Inc., Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wisconsin, Blue Cross of California, Blue Cross of California Partnership Plan Inc., CareMarket Inc., CareMore Health Plan, CareMore Health Plan of Arizona Inc., CareMore Health Plan of Nevada, CareMore Health Plan of Texas Inc., CareMore Health System, CareMore LLC, Cerulean Companies Inc., Claim Management Services Inc., Community Care Health Plan of Louisiana Inc., Community Care Health Plan of Nevada Inc., Community Insurance Company, Compcare Health Services Insurance Corporation, Crossroads Acquisition Corp., DBG Holdings Inc., DeCare Analytics LLC, DeCare Dental Health International LLC, DeCare Dental Insurance Ireland Ltd., DeCare Dental LLC, DeCare Dental Networks LLC, DeCare Operations Ireland Limited, Delivery Network LLC, Designated Agent Company Inc., EHC Benefits Agency Inc., EasyScripts Cutler Bay LLC, EasyScripts Hialeah LLC, EasyScripts LLC, EasyScripts Westchester LLC, Empire HealthChoice Assurance Inc., Empire HealthChoice HMO Inc., Federal Government Solutions LLC, Freedom Health Inc., Global TPA LLC, Golden West Health Plan Inc., Greater Georgia Life Insurance Company, HEP AP Holdings Inc., HMO Colorado Inc., HMO Missouri Inc., Health Core Inc., Health Management Corporation, Health Ventures Partner L.L.C., HealthKeepers Inc., HealthLink HMO Inc., HealthLink Inc., HealthLink Insurance Company, HealthPlus HP LLC, HealthSun Health Plans, HealthSun Health Plans Inc., HealthSun Holdings LLC, HealthSun Management LLC, HealthSun Physicians Network I LLC, HealthSun Physicians Network LLC, Healthy Alliance Life Insurance Company, Highland Acquisition Holdings LLC, Highland Holdco Inc., Highland Intermediate Holdings LLC, Highland Investor Holdings LLC, Imaging Management Holdings LLC, IngenioRx Inc., Legato Health Technologies LLP, Legato Health Technologies Philippines Inc., Legato Holdings I Inc., Legato Holdings II LLC, Living Complete Technologies Inc., Matthew Thornton Health Plan Inc., Memphis Supportive Care Partnership LLC, Meridian Resource Company LLC, Missouri Care Incorporated, NGS Federal LLC, Nash Holding Company LLC, National Government Services Inc., New England Research Institutes Inc., Optimum Healthcare Inc., Park Square Holdings Inc., Park Square I Inc., Park Square II Inc., Pasteur Medical Bird Road LLC, Pasteur Medical Center LLC, Pasteur Medical Cutler Bay LLC, Pasteur Medical Group LLC, Pasteur Medical Hialeah Gardens LLC, Pasteur Medical Holdings LLC, Pasteur Medical Kendall LLC, Pasteur Medical Management LLC, Pasteur Medical Miami Gardens LLC, Pasteur Medical North Miami Beach LLC, Pasteur Medical Partners LLC, Resolution Health Inc, Resolution Health Inc., RightCHOICE Managed Care Inc., Rocky Mountain Hospital and Medical Service Inc., SellCore Inc., Simply Healthcare Holdings, Simply Healthcare Plans Inc., Southeast Services Inc., State Sponsored DM Services Inc., The Anthem Companies Inc., The Anthem Companies of California Inc., TrustSolutions LLC, UNICARE Health Plan of West Virginia Inc., UNICARE Illinois Services Inc., UNICARE National Services Inc., UniCare Life & Health Insurance Company, UniCare Specialty Services Inc., Valus Inc., WPMI LLC, WellCare of Nebraska Inc., WellPoint Acquisition LLC, WellPoint California Services Inc., WellPoint Dental Services Inc., WellPoint Health Solutions Inc., WellPoint Holding Corp., WellPoint Information Technology Services Inc., WellPoint Insurance Services Inc., WellPoint Military Care Corporation, Wellmax Health Medical Centers LLC, Wellmax Health Physicians Network LLC, and Wisconsin Collaborative Insurance Company. 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 The following companies are subsidiares of Dover: Accelerated Production Systems, Acme Elevator, Advansor A/S, Advansor Dover International (Poland) sp. z o.o, Advansor Germany GmbH, Alfred Fueling Systems Holdco Ltd., Alfred Fueling Systems Inc., Alfred Fueling Systems Intermediate Holdco Ltd., All-Flo Pump Company, Anman LLC, Anthony Equity Holdings Inc., Anthony Holdings Inc., Anthony Inc., Anthony International, Anthony International Foreign Sales Corp., Anthony International Holding Company, Anthony Mexico Holdings LLC, Anthony North Holdco Inc., Anthony Specialty Glass LLC, Anthony TemperBent GP LLC, Auto Glanz Solutions LLC, Automatik Grundstucksverwaltungs GmbH & Co. KG, Automatik Plastics Machinery (Taiwan) Ltd., BSC Filters Limited, Background2 Limited, Belanger, Belanger Inc., Belvac Middle East FZE, Belvac Production Machinery Inc., Blackmer, BlitzRotary GmbH, Butler Engineering and Marketing S.P.A., CDS Visual, CEP Liquidation LLC, CP Formation LLC, CPC Europe Inc., CPI Products Inc., Caldera, Canada Organization & Development LLC, Chief Automotive Technologies (Shanghai) Trading Company Ltd., Chippewa Square Captive Insurance Company, Colder Products Company, Colder Products Company GmbH, Colder Products Company LTD, Cook Compression BV, Cook Compression LLC, Cook Compression Limited, Cook-MFS Inc., DD1 Inc., DDI Properties Inc., DE-STA-CO Benelux B.V., DE-STA-CO FRANCE, DE-STA-CO Shanghai Co. Ltd., DESTACO UK Limited, DFH Corporation, DFS Netherlands B.V., DSR BZ Holdings LLC, Datamax International Corp, De Sta Co (Asia) Company Limited, De-Sta-Co Cylinders Inc., DeStaCo Europe GmbH, Delaware Capital Formation Inc., Delaware Capital Holdings Inc., Dover (China) Investment Co. Ltd., Dover (Schweiz) Holding GmbH, Dover (Shanghai) Industrial Co. Ltd., Dover (Shenzhen) Industrial Equipment Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Dover (Suzhou) Industrial Equipment Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Dover Asia Trading Private Ltd., Dover Australia Holdings Pty Limited, Dover Business Services EMEA Limited, Dover Business Services LLC, Dover Business Services Philippines Corporation, Dover CLP Formation Limited Partnership, Dover CR spol s r.o., Dover Canada Holdings ULC, Dover Canada Operations ULC, Dover Corporation Regional Headquarters, Dover DEI Services Inc., Dover Denmark Holdings ApS, Dover EMEA FZCO, Dover Energy UK Ltd, Dover Engineered Products Segment Inc., Dover Europe Inc., Dover Europe Sarl, Dover Fluids UK Ltd, Dover France Holdings, Dover France Participations, Dover France Technologies, Dover Fueling Solutions Segment Inc., Dover Fueling Solutions UK Limited, Dover Germany GmbH, Dover Global Holdings LLC, Dover Holdings de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Dover Imaging & Identification Segment Inc., Dover India Pvt. Ltd., Dover Intercompany Services UK Limited, Dover International B.V., Dover International Operations Inc., Dover International Ventures Inc., Dover International Ventures Tunisia S.a.r.l., Dover International ithalat ihracat ve Pazarlama Limited Sirketi, Dover Italy Holdings S.r.l., Dover Luxembourg Finance Sarl, Dover Luxembourg Participations Sarl, Dover Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Dover Luxembourg Services Sarl, Dover Operations South Africa (Pty) Ltd, Dover Overseas Ventures Inc., Dover Pumps & Process Solutions Segment Inc., Dover Refrigeration & Food Equipment Segment Inc., Dover Refrigeration & Food Equipment UK Ltd, Dover Resources International de Mexico S. de R.L. C.V., Dover Solutions Colombia SAS, Dover Southeast Asia (Thailand) Ltd., Dover Spain Holdings S.L., Dover UK Pensions Limited, Dover WSCR Holding LLC, Dover WSCR LLC, Dover do Brasil Ltda., Dow-Key Microwave Corporation, Dresser Wayne Data Technology (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Dresser Wayne Fuel Equipment (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., EOA Systems Inc., Ebs-Ray Holdings Pty Ltd, Ebs-Ray Industries Pty. Ltd., Ebs-Ray Pumps Pty. Ltd., Em-tec, Espy, Ettlinger, Ettlinger Kunststoffmaschinen GmbH, Fairbanks Environmental Limited, Fibrelite Composites Limited, Fibresec Holdings Limited, Fibresec Limited, Finder, GAL LLC, GIIER LLC, Gala Industries, Gala Kunststoff-und Kautschukmaschinen GmbH, Guangdong Tokheim LIYUAN Oil Industry Technology Limited Company, Highland Park Insurance Company, Hill PHOENIX Inc., Hill PHOENIX WIC LLC, Hill Phoenix Costa Rica Sociedad De Responsabilidad Limitada, Hill Phoenix El Salvador Limitada de Capital Variable, Hill Phoenix Guatemala Sociedad Anonima, Hill Phoenix Honduras Sociedad Anonima, Hill Phoenix Nicaragua Sociedad Anonima, Hill Phoenix de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Hiltap Fittings Ltd., Hydro Systems Company, Hydro Systems Europe Ltd., Hydronova Australia-NZ Pty Ltd, Industrial Motion Control LLC, Innovative Control Systems, Innovative Control Systems Inc., Inpro/Seal LLC, JK Group, JK Group S.P.A., JK Group USA Inc., K S Boca Inc., K&L Microwave DR Inc., K&L Microwave Inc., KPS (Beijing) Petroleum Equipment Trading Co Ltd., KPS Fueling Solutions Sdn. Bhd., KPS Hong Kong Holding Limited, KPS UK Limited, KS Formation Inc., KS Liquidation Inc., KSLP Liquidation L.P., Kiian Digital (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Knappco LLC, Knowles Electronics, LIQAL, Liquip, Liquip International Pty Limited, MAAG, MARKEM FZ SA, MARKEM-IMAJE Corporation, MIP Holdings Inc., MS Printing Solutions, MS Printing Solutions S.R.L., Maag Automatik GmbH, Maag Automatik Plastics Machinery (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Maag Gala Inc., Maag Italy S.R.L., Maag Pump Systems, Maag Pump Systems (US) Inc., Maag Pump Systems AG, Maag Reduction Inc., Maag Service (Malaysia) Sdn. Bdn., Maag Systems (Thailand) Limited, Marathon Equipment Company (Delaware), Markem Imaje Center of Competencies Spain S.L.U., Markem-Imaje, Markem-Imaje (China) Co. Limited, Markem-Imaje - Unipessoal Lda, Markem-Imaje A/S, Markem-Imaje AB, Markem-Imaje AG, Markem-Imaje AS, Markem-Imaje B.V., Markem-Imaje CSAT GmbH, Markem-Imaje Co. Ltd., Markem-Imaje GmbH, Markem-Imaje Holding, Markem-Imaje Identificacao de Produtos Ltda., Markem-Imaje Inc., Markem-Imaje India Private Limited, Markem-Imaje Industries, Markem-Imaje Industries Limited, Markem-Imaje KK, Markem-Imaje LLC, Markem-Imaje Limited, Markem-Imaje Limited, Markem-Imaje Ltd., Markem-Imaje N.V., Markem-Imaje Oy, Markem-Imaje Philippines Corporation, Markem-Imaje Pty Ltd, Markem-Imaje S.A., Markem-Imaje S.A. de C.V., Markem-Imaje S.r.l., Markem-Imaje SAS, Markem-Imaje Sdn Bhd, Markem-Imaje Singapore Pte. Ltd., Markem-Imaje Spain S.A.U, Markpoint Holding AB, Midland Manufacturing LLC, Mouvex, Northern Lights (Nevada) Inc., Northern Lights Funding LP, Northern Lights Investments LLC, Nova Controls Inc., OK International, OK International (UK) Ltd., OK International Holdings Inc., OK International Inc., OPW Engineered Systems Inc., OPW Fluid Transfer Group Europe B.V., OPW Fluid Transfer Solutions (Jiang Su) Co. Ltd., OPW Fluids Group Inc., OPW France, OPW Fuel Management Systems Inc., OPW Fueling Components (SuZhou) Co. Ltd., OPW Fueling Components LLC, OPW Iberia Sociedad Limitada, OPW Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., OPW Slovakia s.r.o., OPW Sweden AB, Officine Meccaniche Sirio S.R.L., PDQ Manufacturing, PDQ Manufacturing Inc., PISCES by OPW Inc., PSD Codax Holdings Limited, PSD Codax Limited, PSG (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, PSG (Tianjin) Co. Ltd., PSG California LLC, PSG Germany GmbH, Petro Vend Sp. z o.o., Pike Machine Products Inc., Pole/Zero Acquisition Inc., Precision Brasil Equipamentos E Servicos Para Postos De Combustiveis Ltda., Precision Service - Servicos De Manutencao E Instalacao De Postos De Abastecimento De Combustivel Ltda., Production Control Services, Pump Management Services Co. LLC, RAV Equipos Espana S.L., RAV France, Ravaglioli Deutschland GmbH, Ravaglioli S.P.A., Reduction Engineering GmbH, Revod Corporation, Revod Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Revod SAS, Revod Singapore Holdings Pte. Ltd, Revod Sweden AB, Robohand Inc., Rosario, Rosario Handel B.V., Rotary Lift Consolidated (Haimen) Co. Ltd, SE Liquidation LLC, SWEP Germany GmbH, SWEP Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., SWEP North America Inc., SWEP Slovakia s.r.o., SWEP Technology (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Seabiscuit Motorsports Inc., Simmons Sirvey Corporation, So. Cal. Soft-Pak, So. Cal. Soft-Pak Incorporated, Solaris Laser, Solaris Laser S.A., Somero Enterprises, Sound Solutions, Space S.R.L., Spirit, Start Italiana Petrol Cihazlari Sanayi Ticaret Anonim Sirketi, Start Italiana S.R.L., Swep Energy Oy, Swep International A.B., Swep Japan K.K., Sys-Tech Solutions, Sys-Tech Solutions Inc., Systech GB Limited, Systech Shanghai Consulting Company Limited, TQC Quantium Quality S.A. de C.V., TTSI III Inc., TWG Canada Consolidated Inc., TXHI LLC, Tartan Textile Services Inc., The Heil Co., Tokheim Belgium, Tokheim China Company Limited, Tokheim GmbH, Tokheim Group, Tokheim Hengshan Technologies (Guangzhou) Co. Ltd., Tokheim Holding B.V., Tokheim India Private Limited, Tokheim Sofitam Applications, Trans - Logistic Group S.R.L., Triton Systems, Tulsa Winch Inc., UPCO Inc., US Synthetic, Unattended Payment Solutions LLC, Unified Brands, Unified Brands Inc., Val TemperBent Glass L.P., Vectron Frequency Devices (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Vehicle Service Group LLC, Vehicle Service Group UK Limited, Vos Food Store Equipment Ltd., WSCR Corp., Warn Automotive LLC, Warn Industries, Waukesha Bearings, Waukesha Bearings Corporation, Waukesha Bearings Limited, Waukesha Bearings Russia LLC, Wayne Fuel Management UK Ltd., Wayne Fueling Systems, Wayne Fueling Systems (Rus) Limited Liability Company, Wayne Fueling Systems Australia Pty Ltd, Wayne Fueling Systems Canada ULC, Wayne Fueling Systems Deutschland GmbH, Wayne Fueling Systems Italia S.R.L., Wayne Fueling Systems LLC, Wayne Fueling Systems Ltd., Wayne Fueling Systems Sweden AB, Wayne Fueling Systems UK Holdco Ltd., Wayne Industria e Comercio Ltda., WellMark, XanTec Steuerungs- und EDV-Technik GmbH, and em-tec GmbH. Everest Re Group Ltd. is a holding company, which engages in the provision of reinsurance and insurance services. It operates through the following segments: U.S. Reinsurance, International, Bermuda, and Insurance. The U.S. Reinsurance segment writes property and casualty reinsurance and specialty lines of business, including marine, aviation, surety, and accident and health business, on both a treaty and facultative basis, through reinsurance brokers, as well as directly with ceding companies primarily within the U.S. The International segment offers foreign property and casualty reinsurance through Everest Re's branches in Canada and Singapore and through offices in Brazil, Miami, and New Jersey. The Bermuda segment comprises reinsurance and insurance to worldwide property and casualty markets through brokers and directly with ceding companies from its Bermuda office and reinsurance to the United Kingdom and European markets through its UK branch and Ireland Re. The Insurance segment writes property and casualty insurance directly and through brokers, surplus lines brokers, and general agents within the U.S., Canada, and Europe. The company was founded in 1999 and is headquartere Read More 1 hour ago This worker got jobless benefits; Virginia wants them back ABINGDON, Va. (AP) For 26 years, Ernest Ray worked at a company in southwest Virginia that made compressors, in a physically demanding job that involved night shifts on a factory floor. When the plant closed in 2018, Ray applied for and received about $9,000 in unemployment benefits. Three years later, Ray is fighting the Virginia Employment Commission in court as the agency tries to take the money back. Read Article iShares Russell Mid-Cap Growth ETF's stock split before market open on Monday, December 7th 2020. The 2-1 split was announced on Friday, November 6th 2020. The newly created shares were payable to shareholders after the market closes on Friday, December 4th 2020. An investor that had 100 shares of iShares Russell Mid-Cap Growth ETF stock prior to the split would have 200 shares after the split. L3 Technologies, Inc. provides aircraft sustainment, simulation and training, night vision and image intensification equipment, and security and detection systems used on military, homeland security, and commercial platforms in the United States and internationally. It operates in three segments: Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) Systems; Communications and Networked Systems (C&NS); and Electronic Systems. The company offers engineering, modernization and sustainment, space avionics and imaging payload, counter unmanned aircraft systems (CUAS) mission, cyber and electronic warfare, special mission command and control, modeling and simulation, and life cycle support services for ISR, airborne sensor, warrior sensor, space and sensor, aircraft, and intelligence and mission systems, as well as for military aviation services and advanced programs. It also provides network and communication systems, secure communications products, radio frequency components, satellite communication terminals and space, microwave and telemetry products, and secure data links in various business areas, such as broadband communication, naval power, space and power, and maritime sensor systems, as well as in advanced communications. In addition, the company offers components, products, subsystems, and systems, as well as related services to military and commercial customers in various business areas, including commercial aviation solutions, precision engagement systems, link training and simulation, and security and detection systems. It serves the United States (U.S.) Department of Defense and its prime contractors, the U.S. Government intelligence agencies, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, foreign governments, and commercial customers. The company was formerly known as L-3 Communications Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to L3 Technologies, Inc. in December 2016. L3 Technologies, Inc. was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in New York, New York. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Abbott Laboratories: 3A Nutrition (Vietnam) Company Limited, ABON Biopharm (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd., AGA Medical Belgium, AGA Medical Corporation, AGA Medical Holdings Inc., ALR Holdings, AML Medical LLC, APK Advanced Medical Technologies LLC, ATS Bermuda Holdings Limited, ATS Laboratories Inc., Abbott, Abbott (Jiaxing) Nutrition Co. Ltd., Abbott (UK) Finance Limited, Abbott (UK) Holdings Limited, Abbott AG, Abbott Asia Holdings Limited, Abbott Asia Investments Limited, Abbott Australasia Holdings Limited, Abbott Australasia Pty Ltd, Abbott B.V., Abbott Bahamas Overseas Businesses Corporation, Abbott Belgian Investments, Abbott Bermuda Holding Ltd., Abbott Biologicals B.V., Abbott Biologicals LLC, Abbott Bulgaria Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Capital India Limited, Abbott Cardiovascular Inc., Abbott Cardiovascular Systems Inc., Abbott Delaware LLC, Abbott Diabetes Care Inc., Abbott Diabetes Care Limited, Abbott Diabetes Care Sales Corporation, Abbott Diagnostics GmbH, Abbott Diagnostics International Ltd., Abbott Diagnostics Technologies AS, Abbott Doral Investments S.L., Abbott Equity Holdings Unlimited, Abbott Equity Investments LLC, Abbott Established Products Holdings (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Finance Company SA, Abbott Financial Holdings SRL, Abbott France S.A.S., Abbott Fund Tanzania Limited, Abbott Gesellschaft m.b.H., Abbott GmbH & Co. KG, Abbott Health Products LLC, Abbott Healthcare (Puerto Rico) Ltd., Abbott Healthcare B.V., Abbott Healthcare Costa Rica S.A., Abbott Healthcare LLC, Abbott Healthcare Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Healthcare Private Limited, Abbott Healthcare Products B.V., Abbott Healthcare Products Ltd, Abbott Holding (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Holding GmbH, Abbott Holding Subsidiary (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Holding Subsidiary (Gibraltar) Limited Luxembourg S.C.S., Abbott Holdings B.V., Abbott Holdings LLC, Abbott Holdings Limited, Abbott Holdings Poland Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Hungary Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Abbott Iberian Investments (2) Limited, Abbott Iberian Investments Limited, Abbott India Limited, Abbott Informatics Asia Pacific Limited, Abbott Informatics Canada Inc, Abbott Informatics Corporation, Abbott Informatics Europe Limited, Abbott Informatics France, Abbott Informatics Germany GmbH, Abbott Informatics Netherlands B.V., Abbott Informatics Singapore Pte. Limited, Abbott Informatics Spain S.A., Abbott Informatics Technologies Ltd, Abbott International Corporation, Abbott International Enterprises Ltd., Abbott International Holdings Limited, Abbott International LLC, Abbott International Luxembourg S.ar.l., Abbott Investments Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Ireland, Abbott Ireland Financing Designated Activity Company, Abbott Ireland Limited, Abbott Japan Co. Ltd., Abbott Kazakhstan Limited Liability Partnership, Abbott Knoll Investments B.V., Abbott Korea Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Bangladesh) Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Chile) Holdco (Dos) SpA, Abbott Laboratories (Chile) Holdco SpA, Abbott Laboratories (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Abbott Laboratories (Mozambique) Limitada, Abbott Laboratories (Pakistan) Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Philippines), Abbott Laboratories (Puerto Rico) Incorporated, Abbott Laboratories (Singapore) Private Limited, Abbott Laboratories A/S, Abbott Laboratories Argentina Sociedad Anonima, Abbott Laboratories B.V., Abbott Laboratories C.A., Abbott Laboratories Finance B.V., Abbott Laboratories GmbH, Abbott Laboratories Inc., Abbott Laboratories International LLC, Abbott Laboratories Ireland Limited, Abbott Laboratories Limited, Abbott Laboratories Limited - Laboratoires Abbott Limitee, Abbott Laboratories NZ Limited, Abbott Laboratories Pacific Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Poland Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Laboratories Products B.V., Abbott Laboratories Residential Development Fund Inc., Abbott Laboratories S.A., Abbott Laboratories SA, Abbott Laboratories Services Corp., Abbott Laboratories Slovakia s.r.o., Abbott Laboratories South Africa (Pty) Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Trustee Company Limited, Abbott Laboratories Uruguay S.A., Abbott Laboratories Vascular Enterprises, Abbott Laboratories d.o.o., Abbott Laboratories de Chile Limitada, Abbott Laboratories de Colombia S.A., Abbott Laboratories de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Abbott Laboratories druzba za farmacijo in diagnostiko d.o.o., Abbott Laboratories s.r.o., Abbott Laboratories(Hellas) Societe Anonyme, Abbott Laboratorios S.A., Abbott Laboratorios S.A., Abbott Laboratorios del Ecuador Cia. Ltda., Abbott Laboratuarlari Ithalat Ihracat ve Ticaret Ltd.Sti, Abbott Laboratorios Lda, Abbott Laboratorios do Brasil Ltda., Abbott Limited Egypt LLC, Abbott Logistics B.V., Abbott Management GmbH, Abbott Management LLC, Abbott Manufacturing Singapore Private Limited, Abbott Mature Products International Unlimited Company, Abbott Mature Products Management Limited, Abbott Medical (Hong Kong) Limited, Abbott Medical (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Abbott Medical (Portugal) Distribuicao de Produtos Medicos Lda, Abbott Medical (Schweiz) AG, Abbott Medical (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Abbott Medical (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Australia Pty. Ltd., Abbott Medical Austria Ges.m.b.H., Abbott Medical Balkan d.o.o. Beograd (Novi Beograd), Abbott Medical Belgium, Abbott Medical Canada Inc./ Medicale Abbott Canada Inc., Abbott Medical Danmark A/S, Abbott Medical Devices Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Espana S.A., Abbott Medical Estonia OU, Abbott Medical Finland Oy, Abbott Medical France SAS, Abbott Medical GmbH, Abbott Medical Hellas Limited Liability Trading Company, Abbott Medical Ireland Limited, Abbott Medical Italia S.p.A., Abbott Medical Japan Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Korea Limited, Abbott Medical Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Abbott Medical Laboratories LTD, Abbott Medical Nederland B.V., Abbott Medical New Zealand Limited, Abbott Medical Norway AS, Abbott Medical Overseas Cyprus Limited, Abbott Medical Sweden AB, Abbott Medical Taiwan Co., Abbott Medical U.K. Limited, Abbott Medical spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Middle East S.A.R.L., Abbott Molecular Inc., Abbott Morocco SARL, Abbott Nederland C.V., Abbott Nederland Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Netherlands Investments B.V., Abbott Norge AS, Abbott Nutrition Limited, Abbott Nutrition Manufacturing Inc., Abbott Operations Singapore Pte. Ltd., Abbott Operations Uruguay S.R.L., Abbott Overseas Cyprus Limited, Abbott Overseas Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Overseas S.A., Abbott Oy, Abbott Point of Care Canada Limited, Abbott Point of Care Inc., Abbott Poland Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Procurement LLC, Abbott Products (Philippines) Inc., Abbott Products (Spain) S.L., Abbott Products Algerie EURL, Abbott Products B.V., Abbott Products Distribution SAS, Abbott Products Egypt LLC, Abbott Products Limited, Abbott Products Limited Liability Company, Abbott Products Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Products Operations AG, Abbott Products Operations LLC, Abbott Products Romania S.R.L., Abbott Products Tunisie S.A.R.L., Abbott Products Unlimited Company, Abbott Resources Inc., Abbott Resources International Inc., Abbott S.r.l., Abbott Saudi Arabia Trading Company, Abbott Scandinavia Aktiebolag, Abbott Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable, Abbott South Africa Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Strategic Opportunities Limited, Abbott Trading Company Inc., Abbott Universal LLC, Abbott Vascular Devices (2) Limited, Abbott Vascular Devices Limited, Abbott Vascular Inc., Abbott Vascular Instruments Deutschland GmbH, Abbott Vascular International, Abbott Vascular Japan Co. Ltd, Abbott Vascular Limitada, Abbott Vascular Netherlands B.V., Abbott Vascular Solutions Inc., Abbott Ventures Inc., Abbott West Indies Limited, Abbott drustvo sa ogranicenom odgovornoscu za trgovinu i usluge, Advanced Neuromodulation Systems Inc., Alere, Alere (Shanghai) Diagnostics Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Healthcare Management Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Medical Sales Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Technology Co. Ltd., Alere A/S, Alere AB, Alere AS, Alere AS Holdings Limited, Alere BBI Holdings Limited, Alere Bangladesh Limited, Alere China Co. Ltd., Alere Colombia S.A., Alere Connect LLC, Alere Connected Health Limited, Alere Connected Health Ltd., Alere Diagnostics GmbH, Alere DoA Holding GmbH, Alere GmbH, Alere GmbH (Austria), Alere GmbH (Germany), Alere HK Holdings Ltd., Alere Health B.V., Alere Health BVBA, Alere Health Corp., Alere Health Sdn Bhd, Alere Health Services B.V., Alere Healthcare (Pty) Limited, Alere Healthcare Connections Limited, Alere Healthcare Inc., Alere Healthcare Nigeria Limited, Alere Healthcare S.L., Alere Holdco Inc., Alere Holding GmbH, Alere Holdings Bermuda Limited, Alere Holdings Pty Limited, Alere Home Monitoring Inc., Alere Inc., Alere Informatics Inc., Alere International Holding Corp., Alere International Limited, Alere Lda, Alere Limited, Alere Limited (New Zealand), Alere Medical BVBA, Alere Medical Co. Ltd., Alere Medical Pakistan (Private) Limited, Alere Medical Private Limited, Alere North America LLC, Alere Oy Ab, Alere Philippines Inc., Alere Phoenix ACQ Inc., Alere Pte Ltd, Alere S.A., Alere S.r.l., Alere S/A, Alere SAS, Alere San Diego Inc., Alere Scarborough Inc., Alere Spain S.L., Alere Switzerland GmbH, Alere Technologies GmbH, Alere Technologies Holdings Limited, Alere Technologies Limited, Alere Toxicology AB, Alere Toxicology Inc., Alere Toxicology S.r.l., Alere Toxicology Services Inc., Alere Toxicology plc, Alere UK Holdings Limited, Alere UK Subco Limited, Alere ULC, Alere US Holdings LLC, Alere s.r.o., Alisoc Investment & Co, Amedica Biotech Inc., Ameditech Inc., American Generics S.A.S., American Medical Supplies Inc., American Pharmacist Inc., Antares S.A., Apica Cardiovascular Limited, Aquagestion Capacitacion S.A., Aquagestion S.A., Arriva Medical LLC, Arriva Medical Philippines Inc., Arvis Investments Limited, Atlas Farmaceutica S.A., Avee Laboratories Inc., Axis-Shield AD III AS, Axis-Shield AD IV AS, Axis-Shield AS, Axis-Shield Diagnostics Limited, Axis-Shield Ltd., BBI Animal Health Limited, BBI Diagnostics Group 2 Public Limited Company, Banco de Vida S.A., Bioabsorbable Vascular Solutions Inc., Bioalgae S.A., Biohealth LLC, Biosite Incorporated, Bosque Bonito S.A., Branan Medical Corporation, Brandex Europe C.V., British Colloids Limited, CFR Chile S.A., CFR Interamericas EL Salvador Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable, CFR Interamericas Nicaragua Sociedad Anonima, CFR Interamericas Panama S.A., CFR Pharmaceuticals, California Property Holdings III LLC, CardioMEMS LLC, Caripharm Inc., Cephea Valve Technologies, Cephea Valve Technologies Inc., Colibri Medical Aktiebolag, Comercializadora y Distribuidora CFR Interamericas Honduras S.A., Concateno South Limited, Concateno UK Limited, Consorcio Tecnologico en Biomedicina Clinico-Molecular S.A., Continuum Services LLC, Cozart Limited, Dextech S.A., Diagnostik Nord GmbH, Distribuciones Uquifa S.A.S., Domesco Medical Import-Export Joint-Stock Corporation, Duphar International Research B.V., Endocardial Solutions, Epocal (US) Inc, Esprit de Vie S.A., European Chemicals & Co, European Drug Testing Service EDTS AB, European Services S.A., Evalve Inc., Evalve International Inc., FARMINDUSTRIA S.A., Fada Pharma Paraguay Sociedad Anonima, Fadapharma del Ecuador S.A., Farmaceutica Mont Blanc S.L., Farmacologia Em Aquicultura Veterinaria Ltda., Farmacologia en Aquacultura Veterinaria FAV Ecuador S.A., Farmacologia en Aquacultura Veterinaria FAV S.A., Fernwood Investment S.A., First Check Diagnostics LLC, Focus Pharmaceutical S.A.S., Forensics Limited, Forestcreek Overseas S.A., Fournier Pharma Corp., Fournier Pharma GmbH, Fournier Pharmaceuticals Limited, Framed B.V., Gabmed GmbH, Garden Hills LLC, Global Analytical Development LLC, Globapharm & CO LP, Glomed Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Golnorth Investments S.A., Gynocare Limited, Gynopharm Sociedad Anonima, Gynopharm de Centroamerica S.A., Gynopharm de Venezuela C.A., Hi-Tronics Designs Inc., IDEV Technologies Inc., IG Innovations Limited, IMTC Finance B.V., IMTC Holdings B.V., IMTC Technologies Inc., Ibis Biosciences LLC, Igloo Zone Chile S.A., Igloo Zone S.L., Inmobiliaria Naknek S.A.C., Innovacon Inc., Instant Tech Subsidiary Acquisition Inc., Instant Technologies Inc., Instituto de Criopreservacion de Chile S.A., Integrated Vascular Systems Inc., Inverness Canadian Acquisition Corporation, Inverness Medical (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Inverness Medical Innovations Australia Pty Ltd., Inverness Medical Innovations Hong Kong Limited, Inverness Medical Innovations SK LLC, Inverness Medical Investments LLC, Inverness Medical LLC, Inverness Medical Shimla Private Limited, Inversiones K2 SpA, Inversiones Komodo S.R.L., Ionian Technologies LLC, Irvine Biomedical Inc., Kalila Medical, Kangshenyunga S.A., Knoll UK Investments Unlimited, LLC VeroInPharm, Laboratoires Fournier S.A.S., Laboratorio Franco Colombiano Lafrancol S.A.S., Laboratorio Franco Colombiano del Ecuador S.A., Laboratorio Internacional Argentino S.A., Laboratorio Synthesis S.A.S., Laboratorios Lafi Limitada, Laboratorios Naturmedik S.A.S., Laboratorios Pauly Pharmaceutical S.A.S., Laboratorios Recalcine S.A., Laboratorios Transpharm S.A., Laboratory Specialists of America Inc., Lafrancol Dominicana S.A.S., Lafrancol Guatemala S.A. Sociedad Anonima, Lafrancol Internacional S.A.S, Lafrancol Peru S.R.L, Lake Forest Investments LLC, Lightlab Imaging Inc., Limited Liability Company Abbott Laboratories, Limited Liability Company Abbott Ukraine, Limited Liability Company VEROPHARM, Lung Fung Hong (China) Limited, Mansbridge Pharmaceuticals Limited, MediGuide LLC, MediGuide Ltd., Medscreen Holdings Limited, Metropolitana Farmaceutica S.A., Midwest Properties LLC, Murex Argentina S.A., Murex Biotech Limited, Murex Biotech South Africa, Murex Diagnostics Inc., Murex Diagnostics International Inc., Natural Supplement Association LLC, Negocios Denia Sociedad Anonima, Neosalud S.A.C., Nether Pharma N.P. C.V., NeuroTherm LLC, Normann Pharma-Handels GmbH, North Shore Properties Inc., Novamedi S.A., Novasalud.com S.A., Nutravida S.A., OJSC Voronezhkhimpharm, Omnilab Iberia Sociedad Limitada, OptiMedica, Orgenics France SAS, Orgenics International Holdings B.V., Orgenics Ltd., PBM-Selfcare LLC, PDD II LLC, PDD LLC, PT Alere Health, PT. Abbott Indonesia, PT. Abbott Products Indonesia, Pacesetter Inc., Pantech (RF) (PTY) LTD, Pembrooke Occupational Health Inc., Penagos S.A., Pharma International Sociedad Anonima, Pharmaceutical Technologies (Pharmatech) S.A., Pharmatech Boliviana S.A., Polygon Labs S.A., Quality Assured Services Inc., RF Medical Holdings LLC, RTL Holdings Inc., Ramses Business Corp., Recben Xenerics Farmaceutica Limitada, Redwood Toxicology Laboratory Inc., Rich Horizons International Limited, SC VEROPHARM, SJ Medical Mexico S de R.L. de C.V., SJM International Inc., SJM Thunder Holding Company, SPDH Inc., Saboya Enterprises Corporation, Salviac Limited, Scanax AS, Sealing Solutions Inc., Selfcare Technology Inc., Shandong Abbott Dairy Product Co. Ltd., Shanghai Abbott Medical Devices Science and Technology Co. Ltd., Shanghai Abbott Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Shanghai Si Fa Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Sinensix & Co., Spinal Modulation LLC, St. Jude Medical, St. Jude Medical AB, St. Jude Medical ATG Inc., St. Jude Medical Argentina S.A., St. Jude Medical Asia Pacific Holdings GK, St. Jude Medical Atrial Fibrillation Division Inc., St. Jude Medical Brasil Ltda., St. Jude Medical Business Services Inc., St. Jude Medical Cardiology Division Inc., St. Jude Medical Colombia Ltda., St. Jude Medical Coordination Center, St. Jude Medical Costa Rica Limitada, St. Jude Medical Europe Inc., St. Jude Medical Export Ges.m.b.H., St. Jude Medical GVA Sarl, St. Jude Medical Holdings B.V., St. Jude Medical India Private Limited, St. Jude Medical International Holding, St. Jude Medical LLC, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings II, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings NT, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings SMI S.a r.l., St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings TC S.a r.l., St. Jude Medical Mexico Business Services S. de R.L. de C.V., St. Jude Medical Middle East DMCC, St. Jude Medical Operations (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., St. Jude Medical Puerto Rico LLC, St. Jude Medical S.C. Inc., St. Jude Medical Systems AB, St. Jude Medical Turkey Medikal Urunler Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Standard Diagnostics Inc., Standing Stone LLC, Swan-Myers Incorporated, TC1 LLC, Tendyne Holdings Inc., Tendyne Medical Inc., Thoratec Delaware LLC, Thoratec Europe Limited, Thoratec LLC, Thoratec Switzerland GmbH, Tobal Products Incorporated, Topera GmbH in Liquidation, Topera Inc., Tremora S.A., Tuenir S.A., TwistDx, UAB Abbott Laboratories, UAB Abbott Medical Lithuania, Union-Madison Realty Company Inc., Unipath Limited (dba Alere International/aka Cranfield), Unipath Management Limited, Unipath Pension Trustee Limited, Veropharm, Veropharm Limited Liability Partnership, Vida Cell Inversiones S.A., Vida Cell S.A., Vivalsol, W&R Pharma Handels GmbH, Western Pharmaceuticals S.A., X Technologies Inc., Yissum Holding Limited, ZonePerfect Nutrition Company, eScreen Canada ULC, eScreen Inc., ( ), and Abbott Laboratories Baltics. 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 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 The following companies are subsidiares of Procter & Gamble: "Procter & Gamble Services" LLC, "Procter & Gamble" LLC, Agile Pursuits, Agile Pursuits Franchising, Arbora, Arbora & Ausonia, Arborinvest, Billie, Braun (Shanghai) Co., Braun GmbH, Braun-Gillette Immobilien GmbH & Co. KG, Celtic Insurance Company, Compania Procter & Gamble Mexico, Compania Quimica S.A., Corporativo Procter & Gamble, Cosmetic Products Pty. Ltd., Detergent Products B.V., Detergent Products SARL, Detergenti S.A., Eurocos Cosmetic GmbH, FPG Oleochemicals Sdn. Bhd., Fameccanica Data S.p.A., Fameccanica Industria e Comercio Do Brasil LTDA., Fameccanica Machinery (Shanghai) Co., Fater S.p.A., Fountain Square Music Publishing Co., Gillette (China) Ltd., Gillette (Shanghai) Ltd., Gillette Aesop Ltd., Gillette Australia Pty. Ltd., Gillette Canada Holdings, Gillette Commercial Operations North America, Gillette Diversified Operations Pvt. Ltd., Gillette Egypt S.A.E., Gillette Group UK Ltd, Gillette Gruppe Deutschland GmbH & Co. oHG, Gillette Holding Company LLC, Gillette Holding GmbH, Gillette India Limited, Gillette Industries Ltd., Gillette International B.V., Gillette Latin America Holding B.V., Gillette Management LLC, Gillette Nova Scotia Company, Gillette Pakistan Limited, Gillette Poland International Sp. z.o.o., Gillette Poland S.A., Gillette U.K. Limited, Gillette del Uruguay, Giorgio Beverly Hills Inc., Hyginett KFT, Industries Marocaines Modernes SA, LLC "Procter & Gamble Novomoskovsk", LLL "Procter & Gamble Distributorskaya Compania", Laboratorios Vicks, Liberty Street Music Publishing Company, Limited Liability Company 'Procter & Gamble Trading Ukraine', Limited Liability Company with foreign investments Procter & and Gamble Ukraine, MDVIP, MERCK KGAA NPV, Marcvenca Inversiones, Modern Industries Company - Dammam, Modern Products Company - Jeddah, New Chapter, New Chapter Canada Inc., Olay LLC, Oral-B Laboratories, P&G Distribution Morocco SAS, P&G Hair Care Holding, P&G Industrial Peru S.R.L., P&G Innovation Godo Kaisha, P&G Israel M.D.O. Ltd., P&G K.K., P&G Northeast Asia Pte. Ltd., P&G Prestige Godo Kaisha, P&G Prestige Service GmbH, P&G South African Trading (Pty.) Ltd., PGT Health Care (Zhejiang) Limited, PGT Healthcare LLP, PPI ZAO, PT Procter & Gamble Home Products Indonesia, PT Procter & Gamble Operations Indonesia, Phase II Holdings Corporation, Procter & Gamble (Chengdu) Ltd., Procter & Gamble (China) Ltd., Procter & Gamble (China) Sales Co. Ltd., Procter & Gamble (East Africa) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Egypt) Manufacturing Company, Procter & Gamble (Enterprise Fund) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Guangzhou) Consumer Products Co. Ltd., Procter & Gamble (Guangzhou) Enterprise Management Service Company Limited, Procter & Gamble (Guangzhou) Ltd., Procter & Gamble (Health & Beauty Care) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Jiangsu) Ltd. China, Procter & Gamble (L&CP) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Procter & Gamble (Manufacturing) Ireland Limited, Procter & Gamble (Shanghai) International Trade Company Ltd., Procter & Gamble (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Procter & Gamble Acquisition GmbH, Procter & Gamble Administration GmbH, Procter & Gamble Algeria EURL, Procter & Gamble Amazon Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Amiens S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Argentina SRL, Procter & Gamble Asia Pte. Ltd., Procter & Gamble Australia Proprietary Limited, Procter & Gamble Azerbaijan Services LLC, Procter & Gamble Bangladesh Private Ltd., Procter & Gamble Blois S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Brazil Holdings B.V., Procter & Gamble Bulgaria EOOD, Procter & Gamble Business Services Canada Company, Procter & Gamble Canada Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Chile , Procter & Gamble Chile Limitada, Procter & Gamble Colombia Ltda., Procter & Gamble Commercial LLC, Procter & Gamble Commercial de Cuba S.A., Procter & Gamble Czech Republic s.r.o., Procter & Gamble DS Polska Sp. z o.o., Procter & Gamble Danmark ApS, Procter & Gamble Detergent (Beijing) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Deuttschland GmbH, Procter & Gamble Distributing (Philippines) Inc., Procter & Gamble Distributing New Zealand Limited, Procter & Gamble Distribution Company (Europe) BVBA, Procter & Gamble Distribution S.R.L., Procter & Gamble Eastern Europe, Procter & Gamble Ecuador Cia. Ltda., Procter & Gamble Egypt, Procter & Gamble Egypt Distribution, Procter & Gamble Egypt Holding, Procter & Gamble Egypt Supplies, Procter & Gamble Energy Company LLC, Procter & Gamble Espana, Procter & Gamble Europe SA, Procter & Gamble Export Operations SARL, Procter & Gamble Exportadora e Importadora Ltda., Procter & Gamble Exports, Procter & Gamble Fabricacao e Comercio Ltda., Procter & Gamble Far East, Procter & Gamble Finance (U.K.) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Finance Holding Ltd., Procter & Gamble Finance Management S.a.r.l., Procter & Gamble Financial Investments LLP, Procter & Gamble Financial Services Ltd., Procter & Gamble Financial Services S.a.r.l., Procter & Gamble Finland OY, Procter & Gamble France S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Germany GmbH, Procter & Gamble Germany GmbH & Co. Operations oHG, Procter & Gamble GmbH, Procter & Gamble Grundstucks-und Vermogensverwaltungs GmbH & Co. KG, Procter & Gamble Gulf FZE, Procter & Gamble Hair Care, Procter & Gamble Hellas Ltd., Procter & Gamble Holding (Thailand) Limited, Procter & Gamble Holding France S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Holding GmbH, Procter & Gamble Holding S.r.l., Procter & Gamble Holdings (UK) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Home Products Private Limited, Procter & Gamble Hong Kong Limited, Procter & Gamble Hungary Wholesale Trading Partnership (KKT), Procter & Gamble Hygiene & Health Care Limited, Procter & Gamble Inc., Procter & Gamble India Holdings, Procter & Gamble Indochina Limited Company, Procter & Gamble Industrial - 2012 C.A., Procter & Gamble Industrial Colombia Ltda., Procter & Gamble Industrial S.C.A., Procter & Gamble Industrial e Comercial Ltda., Procter & Gamble Interamericas de Costa Rica, Procter & Gamble Interamericas de Guatemala, Procter & Gamble Interamericas de Panama, Procter & Gamble International Operations Pte. Ltd., Procter & Gamble International Operations SA, Procter & Gamble International Operations SA-ROHQ, Procter & Gamble International S.a.r.l., Procter & Gamble Investment Company (UK) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Investment GmbH, Procter & Gamble Italia, Procter & Gamble Japan K.K., Procter & Gamble Kazakhstan Distribution LLP, Procter & Gamble Kazakhstan LLP, Procter & Gamble Korea, Procter & Gamble Korea S&D Co., Procter & Gamble Lanka Private Ltd. Sri Lanka, Procter & Gamble Leasing LLC, Procter & Gamble Levant S.A.L., Procter & Gamble Limited, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing (Thailand) Limited, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing (Tianjin) Co. Ltd., Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Belgium N.V., Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Berlin GmbH, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing GmbH, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Procter & Gamble Manufacturing SA (Pty) Ltd, Procter & Gamble Marketing Romania SRL, Procter & Gamble Marketing and Services doo, Procter & Gamble Maroc SA, Procter & Gamble Mataro, Procter & Gamble Mexico Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Mexico Inc., Procter & Gamble Middle East FZE, Procter & Gamble Nederland B.V., Procter & Gamble Netherlands Investments B.V., Procter & Gamble Netherlands Services B.V., Procter & Gamble Nigeria Limited, Procter & Gamble Nordic, Procter & Gamble Norge AS, Procter & Gamble Operations Polska Sp. z o.o., Procter & Gamble Overseas India B.V., Procter & Gamble Overseas Ltd., Procter & Gamble Pakistan (Private) Limited, Procter & Gamble Partnership LLP, Procter & Gamble Peru S.R.L., Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals France SAS, Procter & Gamble Philippines, Procter & Gamble Polska Sp. z o.o, Procter & Gamble Portugal - Produtos De Consumo, Procter & Gamble Product Supply (U.K.) Limited U.K., Procter & Gamble Production GmbH, Procter & Gamble Productions, Procter & Gamble Productos de Consumo, Procter & Gamble RHD, Procter & Gamble RSC Regional Service Company Ltd., Procter & Gamble Retail Services BVBA, Procter & Gamble S.r.l., Procter & Gamble SA (Pty) Ltd, Procter & Gamble Satis ve Dagitim Ltd. Sti., Procter & Gamble Seine S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Service GmbH, Procter & Gamble Services (Switzerland) SA, Procter & Gamble Services Company N.V., Procter & Gamble Services Ltd., Procter & Gamble Share Incentive Plan Trustee Ltd., Procter & Gamble South America Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Spol. s.r.o. (Ltd.), Procter & Gamble Sports and Social Club Ltd., Procter & Gamble Sverige AB, Procter & Gamble Switzerland SARL, Procter & Gamble Taiwan Limited, Procter & Gamble Taiwan Sales Company Limited, Procter & Gamble Technical Centres Limited, Procter & Gamble Technology (Beijing) Co., Procter & Gamble Trading (Thailand) Limited, Procter & Gamble Tuketim Mallari Sanayii A.S., Procter & Gamble UK, Procter & Gamble UK Group Holdings Ltd, Procter & Gamble UK Parent Company Ltd., Procter & Gamble Universal Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Verwaltungs GmbH, Procter & Gamble Vietnam, Procter & Gamble d.o.o. za trgovinu, Procter & Gamble de Venezuela S.C.A., Procter & Gamble de Venezuela S.R.L., Procter & Gamble do Brasil S/A, Procter & Gamble do Brazil, Procter & Gamble do Nordeste S/A, Procter & Gamble-Rakona s.r.o., Progam Realty & Development Corporation, Redmond Products, Richardson-Vicks Real Estate Inc., Richardson-Vicks do Brasil Quimica e Farmaceutica Ltda, Riverfront Music Publishing Co., Rosemount LLC, SPD Development Company Limited, SPD Swiss Precision Diagnostics GmbH, Scannon S.A.S., Series Acquisition B.V., Shulton, Surfac S.R.L., Sycamore Productions, TAOS - FL, TAOS Retail, Tambrands Inc., Temple Trees Impex & Investment Private Limited, The Art of Shaving - FL, The Dover Wipes Company, The Gillette Company, The Gillette Company LLC, The Gillette co., The Procter & Gamble Distributing LLC, The Procter & Gamble GBS Company, The Procter & Gamble Global Finance Company, The Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Company, The Procter & Gamble Paper Products Company, The Procter & Gamble U.S. Business Services Company, This is L., US CD LLC, Vidal Sassoon (Shanghai) Academy, Vidal Sassoon Co., WEBA Betriebsrenten-Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Walker & Company Brands, and iMFLUX Inc.. Ralph Lauren Corp. engages in the design, marketing, and distribution of premium lifestyle products. The firm offers apparel, accessories, home furnishings, and other licensed product. It operates through the following segments: North America, Europe, and Asia. The North America segment consists of sales of Ralph Lauren branded apparel, accessories, home furnishings, and related products made through the Company's wholesale and retail businesses in the U.S. and Canada, excluding Club Monaco. The Europe segment caters to sales of Ralph Lauren branded apparel, accessories, home furnishings, and related products made through the Company's wholesale and retail businesses in Europe and the Middle East, excluding Club Monaco. The Asia segment covers the sales of Ralph Lauren branded apparel, accessories, home furnishings, and related products made through the Company's wholesale and retail businesses in Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. The company was founded by Ralph Lauren in 1967 and is headquartered in New York, NY. 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. SPDR Nuveen Barclays Short Term Municipal Bond ETF's stock was trading at $49.33 on March 11th, 2020 when COVID-19 (Coronavirus) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, SHM shares have decreased by 0.2% and is now trading at $49.21. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. Taubman Centers pays an annual dividend of $2.70 per share and currently has a dividend yield of 6.28%. TCO has a dividend yield higher than 75% of all dividend-paying stocks, making it a leading dividend payer. The dividend payout ratio of Taubman Centers is 72.78%. This payout ratio is at a healthy, sustainable level, below 75%. Based on EPS estimates, Taubman Centers will have a dividend payout ratio of 97.12% in the coming year. This indicates that Taubman Centers may not be able to sustain their current dividend. View Taubman Centers' dividend history. Nabors Industries Ltd. engages in the provision of platform work over and drilling rigs. It operates through the following segments: U.S. Drilling, Canada Drilling, International Drilling, Drilling Solutions, and Rig Technologies. The U.S. Drilling segment includes land drilling activities in the lower 48 states and Alaska, as well as offshore operations in the Gulf of Mexico. The Canada segment consists of land-based drilling rigs in Canada. The International segment focuses in maintaining a footprint in the oil and gas market, most notably in Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Argentina, Colombia, Kazakhstan, and Venezuela. The Drilling Solutions segment offers drilling technologies, such as patented steering systems and rig instrumentation software systems that enhance drilling performance and wellbore placement. The Rig Technologies segment comprises Canrig, which manufactures and sells top drives, catwalks, wrenches, drawworks, and drilling related equipment, such as robotic systems and downhole tools. The company was founded by Clair Nabors in 1952 and is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda. Read More Valley National Bancorp is a bank holding company, which engages in the provision of retail and commercial banking services. It operates through the following segments: Consumer Lending; Commercial Lending; Investment Management; and Corporate and Other Adjustments. The Consumer Lending segment consists of residential mortgage loans, automobile loans and home equity loans, as well as wealth management and insurance services. The Commercial Lending segment includes the floating rate and adjustable rate commercial and industrial loans as well as fixed rate owner occupied and commercial real estate loans. The Investment Management segment refers to investments in various types of securities and interest-bearing deposits with other banks. The Corporate and Other Adjustments segment represents the income and expense items not directly attributable to a specific segment. The company was founded on November 12, 1982 and is headquartered in New York, NY. Read More American Consumer News, LLC dba MarketBeat 2010-2021. All rights reserved. 326 E 8th St #105, Sioux Falls, SD 57103 | U.S. Based Support Team at contact[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. The following companies are subsidiares of American International Group: AGC Life Insurance Company, AIG APAC HOLDINGS PTE. LTD., AIG Advisors S.r.l., AIG Aerospace Insurance Services Inc., AIG Asia Pacific Insurance Pte. Ltd., AIG Asset Management (Europe) Limited, AIG Asset Management (U.S.) LLC, AIG Assurance Company, AIG Australia Limited, AIG Brazil Holding I LLC, AIG CIS Investments LLC, AIG Canada Holdings Inc., AIG Capital Corporation, AIG Capital Services Inc., AIG Claims Inc., AIG Egypt Insurance Company S.A.E., AIG Employee Services Inc., AIG Europe (Services) Limited, AIG Europe Holdings S.a.rl., AIG Europe S.A., AIG Federal Savings Bank, AIG Financial Products Corp., AIG General Insurance Co. Ltd., AIG Global Asset Management Holdings Corp., AIG Global Real Estate Investment Corp., AIG Global Reinsurance Operations, AIG Holdings Europe Limited, AIG Insurance (Thailand) Public Company Limited, AIG Insurance Company China Limited, AIG Insurance Company JSC, AIG Insurance Company of Canada, AIG Insurance Company-Puerto Rico, AIG Insurance Hong Kong Limited, AIG Insurance Limited, AIG Insurance Management Services Inc., AIG Insurance New Zealand Limited, AIG International Holdings GmbH, AIG Investments UK Limited, AIG Israel Insurance Company Ltd, AIG Japan Holdings Kabushiki Kaisha, AIG Kenya Insurance Company Limited, AIG Korea Inc., AIG Latin America I.I., AIG Latin America Investments S.L., AIG Lebanon SAL, AIG Life Holdings Inc., AIG Life Insurance Company (Switzerland) Ltd, AIG Life Limited, AIG Life South Africa Limited, AIG Life of Bermuda Ltd., AIG MEA Holdings Limited, AIG MEA Limited, AIG Malaysia Insurance Berhad, AIG Markets Inc., AIG Matched Funding Corp., AIG PC Global Services Inc., AIG Philippines Insurance Inc., AIG Property Casualty Company, AIG Property Casualty Inc., AIG Property Casualty International LLC, AIG Property Casualty U.S. Inc., AIG Re-Takaful (L) Berhad, AIG Resseguros Brasil S.A., AIG Seguros Brasil S.A., AIG Seguros Mexico S.A. de C.V., AIG Shared Services Corporation, AIG South Africa Limited, AIG Specialty Insurance Company, AIG Technologies Inc., AIG Travel Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., AIG Travel Assist Inc., AIG Travel Assist Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., AIG Travel EMEA Limited, AIG Travel Inc., AIG Uganda Limited, AIG Vietnam Insurance Company Limited, AIG WarrantyGuard Inc., AIG-FP Pinestead Holdings Corp., AIG-Metropolitana Cia. de Seguros y Reaseguros S.A., AIGGRE EOLA LLC, AIGGRE Europe Real Estate Fund I GP S.a r.l., AIGGRE U.S. Real Estate Fund I GP LLC, AIGGRE U.S. Real Estate Fund I LP, AIGGRE U.S. Real Estate Fund II GP LLC, AIU Insurance Company, AM Holdings LLC, Ageas Protect, AlphaCat Managers Ltd., American General Corporation, American General Life Insurance Company, American Home Assurance Co. Ltd., American Home Assurance Company, American Home Assurance Company Escritorio de Representacao no Brasil Ltda., American International Group Inc., American International Group UK Limited, American International Overseas Association, American International Overseas Limited, American International Realty Corp., American International Reinsurance Company Ltd., American International Underwriters del Ecuador-Holding S.A., American Security Life Insurance Company Limited, Arthur J. Glatfelter Agency Inc., Avondhu Limited, Blackboard Customer Care Insurance Services LLC, Blackboard Insurance Company, Blackboard Services LLC, Blackboard Specialty Insurance Company, Blackboard U.S. Holdings Inc., Chartis Takaful Enaya B.S.C. (c), Commerce and Industry Insurance Company, Crop Risk Services Inc., Eaglestone Reinsurance Company, Ellipse, Fortitude Group Holdings LLC, Fortitude Life & Annuity Solutions Inc., Fortitude Reinsurance Company Ltd., Franklin Life Insurance Company, Fuji Fire and Marine, Glatfelter Insurance Group, Globe and Rutgers Insurance Group, Grand Isle SAC Limited, Granite State Insurance Company, Group Risk Services Limited, Group Risk Technologies Limited, Illinois National Insurance Co., Jefferson Eola Venture LLC, Johannesburg Insurance Holdings (Proprietary) Limited, Laya Healthcare Limited, Lexington Insurance Company, MG Reinsurance Limited, Mt. Mansfield Company Inc., National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh Pa., National Union Fire Insurance Company of Vermont, New Hampshire Insurance Company, PT AIG Insurance Indonesia, Pine Street Real Estate Holdings Corp., Private Joint-Stock Company AIG Ukraine Insurance Company, Risk Specialists Companies Insurance Agency Inc., SA Affordable Housing LLC, SAFG Retirement Services Inc., Service Net Warranty LLC, Stratford Insurance Company, SunAmerica Affordable Housing Partners Inc., SunAmerica Asset Management LLC, Talbot Holdings Ltd., Talbot Underwriting Holdings Ltd., Talbot Underwriting Ltd., Thai CIT Holding Company Limited, The Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania, The United States Life Insurance Company in the City of New York, The Variable Annuity Life Insurance Company, Travel Guard, Travel Guard Group Canada Inc./Groupe Garde Voyage du Canada Inc., Travel Guard Group Inc., Tudor Insurance Company, VALIC Financial Advisors Inc., Valic Retirement Services Company, Validus Holdings, Validus Holdings (UK) Ltd., Validus Holdings Ltd., Validus Reinsurance (Switzerland) Ltd, Validus Reinsurance Ltd., Validus Ventures Ltd., Volunteer Firemen's Insurance Services Inc., Western World Insurance Company, and Western World Insurance Group Inc.. Weatherford International plc, an oilfield service company, provides equipment and services for the drilling, evaluation, completion, production, and intervention of oil and natural gas wells worldwide. The company operates in two segments, Western Hemisphere and Eastern Hemisphere. It offers artificial lift systems, including reciprocating rod, progressing cavity pumping, gas, hydraulic, plunger, and hybrid lift systems, as well as related automation and control systems; pressure pumping and reservoir stimulation services, such as acidizing, fracturing and fluid systems, cementing, and coiled-tubing intervention; and drill stem test tools, and surface well testing and multiphase flow measurement services. The company also provides safety, downhole reservoir monitoring, flow control, and multistage fracturing systems, as well as sand-control technologies, and production and isolation packers; liner hangers to suspend a casing string in high-temperature and high-pressure wells; cementing products, including plugs, float and stage equipment, and torque-and-drag reduction technology for zonal isolation; and pre-job planning and installation services. In addition, it offers directional drilling services, and logging and measurement services while drilling; services related to rotary-steerable systems, high-temperature and high-pressure sensors, drilling reamers, and circulation subs; managed pressure drilling, conventional mud-logging, drilling instrumentation, gas analysis, wellsite consultancy, and open hole and cased-hole logging services; reservoir solutions and software products; and intervention and remediation services. Further, the company provides equipment and drilling tools; tubular handling, management, and connection services; equipment rental services; and onshore contract drilling and related services through a fleet of land drilling and workover rigs. Weatherford International plc was incorporated in 1972 and is headquartered in Baar, Switzerland. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Thermo Fisher Scientific: 236 Perinton Parkway LLC, 27 Forge Parkway LLC, ABR--Affinity BioReagents, ACI Holdings Inc., ARG Services LLC, ASPEX Corporation, Abgene Inc., Abgene Limited, Acoustic Cytometry Systems Inc., AcroMetrix LLC, Acros Organics B.V.B.A., Advanced Biotechnologies Limited, Advanced Scientifics (ASI), Advanced Scientifics Inc., Advanced Scientifics International Inc., Affymetrix Biotech Participacoes Ltda., Affymetrix Biotech Shanghai Ltd, Affymetrix Inc, Affymetrix Japan K.K., Affymetrix Pte Ltd, Affymetrix UK Ltd, Afora S.A.U., Ahura Scientific, Alchematrix Inc., Alchematrix LLC, Alfa Aesar, Alfa Aesar (China) Chemical Co. Ltd., Alfa Aesar (Hong Kong) Limited, Allergon AB, Alphine Mountain Limited, Ambion Inc., Apogent Denmark ApS, Apogent Finance Company, Apogent Holding Company, Apogent Technologies Inc., Apogent Transition Corp., Apogent U.K. Limited, App-Tek International Pty Ltd, Applied Biosystems B.V., Applied Biosystems Finance B.V., Applied Biosystems International Inc., Applied Biosystems LLC, Applied Biosystems Taiwan LLC, Applied Biosystems Trading (Shanghai) Company Ltd., Applied Biosystems de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Applied Scientific Corporation, Avances Cientificos de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Avocado Research Chemicals Limited, B.R.A.H.M.S. Biotech GmbH, B.R.A.H.M.S. GmbH, B.R.A.H.M.S. UK Ltd, BAC BV, BAC IP BV, Barnstead Thermolyne LLC, Beijing Phadia Diagnostics Co Ltd, Bender MedSystems GmbH, BioTrove Corporation, BioTrove International Inc., Bioanalysis Labsystems S.A., Biochemical Sciences LLC, Biolab, BmT GmbH Laborprodukte, Bonsai Tecnologies - Sistemas para Biotecnologia e Industria Unipessoal Lda, Brammer Bio, Bumi-Sans Sendirian Berhad, CAC Limited, CB Diagnostics AB, CB Diagnostics Holding AB, CEPH International Corporation, CHK Holdings Inc., CRS Robotics, CTPS LLC, Capitol Scientific Products Inc., Capitol Vial Inc., Cellomics Inc., CellzDirect Inc., Cenduit GmbH, Cenduit LLC, Cezanne S.A.S., Chase Scientific Glass Inc., Chromacol Limited, Clintrak, Clintrak Clinical Labeling Services LLC, Clintrak Pharmaceutical Services LLC, Cohesive Technologies (UK) Limited, Cohesive Technologies Inc., Columbia Diagnostics Inc., Compendia Bioscience Inc., Comtest Limited, Consolidated Technologies Inc., Consultores Fisher Scientific Chile Ltd, Core Informatics, Core Informatics LLC, Core Informatics UK Ltd., D-finitive Technologies Inc., DCG Systems B.V., DCG Systems C.V., DCG Systems G.K., DCG Systems GmbH, DCG Systems Korea Ltd., DCG Systems LLC, DPI Newco LLC, DSM Pharmaceutical Products Inc., Dharmacon, Diagnostix Ltd., Dionex (China) Analytical Ltd, Dionex (Switzerland) AG, Dionex (UK) Limited, Dionex Austria GmbH, Dionex Benelux B.V., Dionex Brasil Instrumentos Cientificos Ltda, Dionex Canada Ltd., Dionex China Limited, Dionex Corporation, Dionex Denmark A/S, Dionex Holding GmbH, Dionex I LLC, Dionex Pty Ltd., Dionex S.A., Dionex S.p.A., Dionex Singapore Pte Ltd., Dionex Softron GmbH, Dionex Sweden AB, Distribution Solutions International Inc., Doe & Ingalls Investors Inc., Doe & Ingalls Limited, Doe & Ingalls Management LLC, Doe & Ingalls Properties II LLC, Doe & Ingalls Properties LLC, Doe & Ingalls of California Operating LLC, Doe & Ingalls of Florida Operating LLC, Doe & Ingalls of Maryland Operating LLC, Doe & Ingalls of Massachusetts Operating LLC, Doe & Ingalls of North Carolina Operating LLC, Doublecape Holding Limited, Doublecape Limited, Drakeside Real Estate Holding Company LLC, Duke Scientific Corporation, Dynal Biotech Beijing Limited, EGS Gauging Ltd., EGS Gauging Technical Services Company, EP Scientific Products LLC, Ecochem N.V., EnviroEquip Pty Ltd, Epsom Glass Industries Limited, Equibio Limited, Erie Electroverre S.A., Erie Finance Limited, Erie LP Holding LLC, Erie Scientific Company of Puerto Rico, Erie Scientific Hungary Kft, Erie Scientific LLC, Erie U.K. Limited, Erie UK 1 Limited, Erie UK 2 Limited, Erie UK Holding Company, Erie UK Senior Holding Limited, European Laboratory Holdings Limited, Eutech Instruments Europe B.V., Eutech Instruments Pte Ltd., Eutech Instruments Sdn Bhd, Ever Ready Thermometer Co. Inc., FEI Asia Pacific Co. Ltd., FEI Australia Pty Ltd, FEI CPD B.V., FEI Company, FEI Company Japan Ltd., FEI Company of USA (S.E.A.) Pte Ltd., FEI Czech Republic s.r.o., FEI Deutschland GmbH, FEI EFA Inc., FEI EFA International Pte. Ltd., FEI Electron Optics B.V., FEI Electron Optics International B.V., FEI Europe B.V., FEI France SAS, FEI Global Holdings C.V., FEI Hong Kong Company Limited, FEI Houston Inc., FEI Italia Srl, FEI Korea Ltd., FEI Melbourne Pty Ltd., FEI Microscopy Solutions Ltd, FEI Munich GmbH, FEI Norway Holding AS, FEI SAS, FEI Saudi Arabia LLC, FEI Servicos de Nanotecnologia Ltda., FEI Technologies Inc., FEI Technology de Mexico S.A. de C.V., FEI Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., FEI Trondheim AS, FEI UK Ltd., FHP LLC, FRC Holding Inc. V, FS (Barbados) Capital Holdings Ltd., FS Casa Rocas Holdings LLC, FS Mexicana Holdings LLC, FSI Receivables Company LLC, FSII Sweden Holdings AB, FSII Sweden Holdings I AB, FSIR Holdings (UK) Limited, FSIR Holdings (US) Inc., FSUK Holdings Limited, FSWH Company LLC, FSWH II C.V., FSWH International Holdings LLC, Fermentas China Co. Ltd, Fermentas Inc., Fermentas International, Fermentas Sweden AB, Fermentas UK Limited, Fiberlite Centrifuge LLC, Finesse Scientific Equipment (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Finesse Solutions AG, Finesse Solutions Inc., Finnzymes Oy, Fisher Alder S. de R.L. de C.V., Fisher Asia Manufacturing Ventures Inc., Fisher Bermuda Holdings Limited, Fisher BioImage ApS, Fisher BioPharma Services (India) Private Limited, Fisher BioSciences Japan G.K., Fisher BioServices Inc., Fisher Bioblock Holding II SNC, Fisher CLP Holding Limited Partnership, Fisher Canada Holding ULC 1, Fisher Canada Holding ULC 2, Fisher Canada Holding ULC 3, Fisher Canada Limited Partnership, Fisher Chimica BVBA, Fisher Clinical Logistics LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Fisher Clinical Services (Bristol) LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Colombia) LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Korea) Co. Ltd, Fisher Clinical Services (Mexico) LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Peru) LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Fisher Clinical Services Colombia S.A.S., Fisher Clinical Services GmbH, Fisher Clinical Services Inc., Fisher Clinical Services Japan K.K., Fisher Clinical Services Latin America S.R.L., Fisher Clinical Services Limited Liability Company, Fisher Clinical Services Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Fisher Clinical Services Peru S.R.L, Fisher Clinical Services Pte Ltd., Fisher Clinical Services U.K. Limited, Fisher Emergo B.V., Fisher Germany Holdings GmbH, Fisher Hamilton China Inc., Fisher Hamilton Mexico LLC, Fisher Holdings ApS, Fisher Internet Minority Holdings L.L.C., Fisher Laboratory Products Manufacturing (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Fisher Luxembourg Danish Holdings SARL, Fisher Manufacturing (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Fisher Maybridge Holdings Limited, Fisher Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Fisher Scientific (Austria) GmbH, Fisher Scientific (Hong Kong) Limited, Fisher Scientific (M) Sdn Bhd, Fisher Scientific (SEA) Pte. Ltd., Fisher Scientific A/S, Fisher Scientific AG, Fisher Scientific Australia Pty Limited, Fisher Scientific Biotech Line ApS, Fisher Scientific Brazil Inc., Fisher Scientific Central America Inc., Fisher Scientific Chile Inc., Fisher Scientific Colombia Inc., Fisher Scientific Company, Fisher Scientific Company L.L.C., Fisher Scientific Costa Rica Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada, Fisher Scientific Europe Holdings B.V., Fisher Scientific GTF AB, Fisher Scientific Germany Beteiligungs GmbH, Fisher Scientific GmbH, Fisher Scientific Holding Company LLC, Fisher Scientific Holding HK Limited, Fisher Scientific Holding U.K. Limited, Fisher Scientific Holdings (M) Sdn Bhd, Fisher Scientific Holdings (S) Pte Ltd, Fisher Scientific International LLC, Fisher Scientific Investments (Cayman) Ltd., Fisher Scientific Ireland Investments Unlimited, Fisher Scientific Ireland Limited, Fisher Scientific Japan Ltd., Fisher Scientific Jersey Island Limited, Fisher Scientific Korea Ltd, Fisher Scientific Latin America Inc., Fisher Scientific Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Fisher Scientific Mexicana S. de R.L. de C.V., Fisher Scientific Mexico Inc., Fisher Scientific Middle East and Africa Inc., Fisher Scientific Norway AS, Fisher Scientific Operating Company, Fisher Scientific Oxoid Holdings Ltd., Fisher Scientific Oy, Fisher Scientific Pte. Ltd., Fisher Scientific S.A.S., Fisher Scientific S.L., Fisher Scientific SPRL, Fisher Scientific The Hague I B.V., Fisher Scientific The Hague II B.V., Fisher Scientific The Hague III B.V., Fisher Scientific The Hague IV B.V., Fisher Scientific The Hague V B.V., Fisher Scientific U.K. Limited, Fisher Scientific UK Holding Company 2, Fisher Scientific UK Holding Company Limited, Fisher Scientific Unipessoal Lda., Fisher Scientific Venezuela Inc., Fisher Scientific Worldwide (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Fisher Scientific Worldwide Holdings I C.V., Fisher Scientific Worldwide Inc., Fisher Scientific de Mexico S.A., Fisher Scientific of the Netherlands B.V., Fisher Scientific spol. S.r.o, Fisher Servicios Clinicos (Chile) LLC, Fisher Servicios Clinicos Chile Ltda, Fisher WWD Holding L.L.C., Fisher Worldwide Distribution SPV, Fisher Worldwide Gene Distribution SPV, Flux Instruments, Fuji Partnership, G & M Procter Limited, G V Instruments Limited, GV Instruments Canada Ltd., GV Instruments Inc, Gatan Inc, General Scientific Company Sdn Bhd (M), Genomed molekularbiologische und diagnostische Produkte GmbH, Gerhard Menzel B.V. & Co. KG, Gold Cattle Standard Testing Labs Inc., Golden West Indemnity Company Limited, Goring Kerr Detection Limited, Greenville Service Company Inc., HENO GmbH i.L., Hangar 215 Inc., Helmet Securities Limited, Henogen, HighChem, HyClone International Trade (Tianjin) Co. Ltd, Hybaid Limited, I.Q. (BIO) Limited, IDnostics AG, ILS Laboratories Scandinavia AB, Inel Inc., Inel SAS, InnaPhase Inc., InnaPhase Limited, IntegenX, Intrinsic BioProbes Inc., Intrinsic Bioprobes Inc., Invitrogen (Shanghai) Investment Co. Ltd., Invitrogen Argentina SA, Invitrogen BioServices India Private Limited, Invitrogen Europe Limited, Invitrogen Finance Corp., Invitrogen Holdings LLC, Invitrogen Holdings Ltd., Invitrogen Hong Kong Limited, Invitrogen IP Holdings Inc., Invitrogen Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Ion Torrent Systems Inc., Ionalytics Corporation, JSC Thermo Fisher Scientific, Jouan LLC, Jouan Limited, Jouan SA, Kendro Containment & Services Limited, Kendro Laboratory Products Ltd, Kettlebrook Insurance Co. ltd., Keystone Scientific, KonTEM GmbH, Kyle Jordan Investments LLC, LIFE TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION, LTC Tech South Africa PTY Ltd., La-Pha-Pack GmbH, Lab Vision (UK) Limited, Lab Vision Corporation, Lab-Chrom-Pack LLC, Lab-Line Instruments Inc., Labomex MBP S. de R. L. De C.V., Laboratoire Service International - L.S.I, Laboratory Management Systems Inc., Laboratory Specialties Proprietary Ltd., LambTrack Limited, Laser Analytical Systems Inc., Liberty Lane Investment LLC, Liberty Lane Real Estate Holding Company LLC, Life Sciences International (Poland) SP z O.O, Life Sciences International Holdings BV, Life Sciences International LLC, Life Sciences International Limited, Life Technologies AS, Life Technologies Australia PTY Ltd., Life Technologies BPD AB, Life Technologies BPD UK Limited, Life Technologies Brasil Comercio e Industria de Produtos para Biotecnologia Ltda, Life Technologies Chile SpA, Life Technologies Clinical Services Lab Inc., Life Technologies Co. Ltd., Life Technologies Czech Republic s.r.o., Life Technologies DaAn Diagnostic (Guangzhou) Co. Ltd., Life Technologies Europe B.V., Life Technologies Finance Ltd., Life Technologies Finland Oy, Life Technologies GmbH, Life Technologies Holdings PTE Ltd., Life Technologies Inc., Life Technologies International B.V., Life Technologies Japan Ltd., Life Technologies Korea LLC, Life Technologies Limited, Life Technologies Magyarorszag Kft, Life Technologies New Zealand Ltd., Life Technologies Norway Investments US LLC, Life Technologies Polska Sp z.o.o., Life Technologies SA, Life Technologies SAS, Life Technologies s.r.o, Linkage Biosciences Inc., Linkage Biosciences S.a.r.l., Loftus Furnace Company, Lomb Scientific, Lomb Scientific (Aust) Pty Limited, MTI-GlobalStem, Marketbase International Limited, Matrix MicroScience Inc., Matrix MicroScience Ltd., Matrix Technologies Corporation Limited, Matrix Technologies LLC, Maybridge Chemical Company Limited, Maybridge Chemical Holdings Limited, Maybridge Limited, Medical Analysis Systems Inc., Medical Analysis Systems International Inc., Medical Diagnostics Systems Inc., Metavac LLC, Microgenics Corporation, Microgenics Diagnostics Pty Limited, Microgenics GmbH, Microm International GmbH, Microm Laborgerate S.L.U, Molecular BioProducts Inc., Molecular Probes Inc., Molecular Transfer Inc., NAPCO Inc., NERL Diagnostics LLC, NOVODIRECT GmbH Labor- und Industrie- Megerate, Nalge (Europe) Limited, Nalge Nunc International (Monterrey) LLC, Nalge Nunc International Corporation, Nanjing WeiKangLe Trading Industrial Co Ltd, NanoDrop Technologies LLC, National Scientific Company, Navaho Acquisition Corp., Neomarkers Inc., New FS Holdings Inc., NewcoGen PE LLC, Nihon Dynal K.K., Niton Asia Limited, NovaWave Technologies Inc., Nunc A/S, ONIX Systems Inc., OXOID CZ s.r.o., Odyssey Holdings Corporation, Odyssey Luxembourg Holdings S.a r.l., Odyssey Luxembourg IP Holdings 1 S.a r.l., Odyssey Luxembourg IP Holdings 2 S.a r.l., Odyssey Venture Corporation, Omega Data Systems, One Lambda Inc, Onix Holdings Limited, Orme Scientific Limited, Owl Separation Systems LLC, Oxoid (ELY) Limited, Oxoid 2000 Limited, Oxoid AS, Oxoid Australia Pty. Limited, Oxoid Company, Oxoid Deutschland GmbH, Oxoid Holding SAS, Oxoid Holdings Limited, Oxoid Inc., Oxoid International Limited, Oxoid Investments GmbH, Oxoid Limited, Oxoid N.V., Oxoid New Zealand Limited, Oxoid Pension Trustees Limited, Oxoid Senior Holdings Limited, Oxoid UKH LLC, PAX - DSI Acquisition LLC, PE AG, Pacific Rim Far East Industries LLC, Pacific Rim Investment LLC, Panomics L.L.C., Panomics S.R.L., Patheon, Patheon API Inc., Patheon API Manufacturing Inc., Patheon API Services Inc., Patheon Austria GmbH & Co KG, Patheon B.V., Patheon Banner U.S. Holdings Inc., Patheon Biologics (NJ) LLC, Patheon Biologics Australia Pty Ltd, Patheon Biologics B.V., Patheon Biologics LLC, Patheon Calculus Merger LLC, Patheon Cooperatief U.A., Patheon Development Services Inc., Patheon Finance LLC, Patheon France SAS, Patheon Holdings B.V., Patheon Holdings I B.V., Patheon Holdings II B.V., Patheon Holdings SAS, Patheon I B.V., Patheon I Holding GmbH, Patheon Inc., Patheon International AG, Patheon Italia S.p.A., Patheon KK, Patheon Life Science Products International GmbH, Patheon Manufacturing Services LLC, Patheon Pharmaceuticals Inc., Patheon Pharmaceuticals Services Inc., Patheon Puerto Rico Acquisitions Corporation, Patheon Puerto Rico Inc., Patheon Regensburg GmbH, Patheon Softgels B.V., Patheon Softgels Inc., Patheon U.S. Holdings Inc., Patheon U.S. Holdings LLC, Patheon UK Limited, Patheon UK Pension Trustees Limited, Pelican Acquisition Corporation, Perbio Science (Canada) Company, Perbio Science AB, Perbio Science BVBA, Perbio Science France SAS, Perbio Science Inc., Perbio Science International Netherlands B.V., Perbio Science Invest AB, Perbio Science Nederland B.V., Perbio Science Projekt AB, Perbio Science Sweden Holdings AB, Perbio Science Switzerland SA, Perbio Science UK Limited, Phadia AB, Phadia Diagnosticos Ltda, Phadia GmbH, Phadia Holding AB, Phadia International Holdings C.V., Phadia Korea Co. Ltd, Phadia Luxembourg Holdings S.a.r.l., Phadia Malta Holdings Limited, Phadia Oy, Phadia Real Property AB, Phadia Sweden AB, Phadia Taiwan Inc., Phadia US Inc., Phadia s.r.o., Pharmacaps Mexicana SA de CV, Phenom-World B.V., Phenom-World Holding B.V, Phenom-World Innovations B.V., Phinotex, Pierce Biotechnology Inc., Pierce Milwaukee Holding Corp., Pierce Milwaukee Inc., Polychromix, Power Sweden Holdings I AB, Power Sweden Holdings II AB, Power Sweden Holdings III Aktiebolag, Princeton Gamma-Tech Instruments LLC, Princeton Security Technologies, Prionics AG, Prionics Asia Ltd., Prionics Deutschland GmbH, Prionics France SAS, Prionics Italia S.r.l., Prionics Lelystad B.V., Prionics USA Inc., Priority Air Express LLC, Priority Air Express Pte. Ltd., Priority Air Express UK Limited, Priority Air Holdings Corp, Priority Solutions International, Promedica Pty Limited, Proxeon, Proxeon Biosystems ApS, Qiagen, REP GBP I-B Blocker Inc., Raymond A Lamb Limited, Remel Europe Limited, Remel Inc., Richard-Allan Scientific Company, Robbins Scientific LLC, Robocon Labor- und Industrieroboter Gesellschaft m.b.H, Rupprecht and Patashnick, Rupprecht and Patashnick (R&P), Russell pH Limited, S.C.I. du 10 rue Dugay Trouin, SCI Inno 92, STC Bio Manufacturing Inc., Samco Scientific (Monterrey) LLC, Samco Scientific LLC, Saroph Sweden AB, Schantz Road LLC, Seradyn Inc., Shanghai Life Technologies Biotechnology Co. Limited, Shanghai Thermo Fisher (C-I) Trading Co. Ltd, Shanghai Thermo Fisher (S) Trading Co. Ltd, Southern Trials (Pty) Ltd., Specialty (SMI) Inc., Spectra-Physics AB, Spectra-Physics Holdings Limited, Spectra-Physics Holdings USA LLC, Spectronex, Staten Island Cogeneration Corporation, Sterilin Limited, Stokes Bio Ltd., Sweden DIA (Sweden) AB, SwissAnalytic Group GmbH, Systems Manufacturing Corporation, TFLP LLC, TFS Breda B.V., TFS LLC, TFS Singapore HK Limited, TFSL Financing GP LLC, TFSL Senior GP Holdings 2 LLC, TK Partnership, TKA Wasseraufbereitungssysteme, TMOI Inc., TPI Real Estate Holdings LLC, TSP Holdings I LLC, TWX LLC, Technology Design Solutions Pty Ltd, Thermedics Detection de Argentina S.R.L, Thermo Allen Coding Limited, Thermo Asset Management Services Inc., Thermo BioAnalysis LLC, Thermo BioAnalysis Limited, Thermo BioSciences Holdings LLC, Thermo CIDTEC, Thermo CRS Holdings Ltd., Thermo CRS Ltd., Thermo Cambridge Limited, Thermo Cayman Holdings Ltd., Thermo Corporation, Thermo DMA Inc., Thermo Detection de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Thermo Dutch Holdings Limited Partnership, Thermo EGS Gauging LLC, Thermo Eberline Holdings I LLC, Thermo Eberline Holdings II LLC, Thermo Eberline LLC, Thermo Electron (Calgary) Limited, Thermo Electron (Chile) S.p.A., Thermo Electron (Karlsruhe) GmbH, Thermo Electron (Management Services) Limited, Thermo Electron (Proprietary) Limited, Thermo Electron A/S, Thermo Electron Australia Pty Limited, Thermo Electron Export Inc., Thermo Electron Holdings SAS, Thermo Electron Industries, Thermo Electron LED GmbH, Thermo Electron LED S.A.S., Thermo Electron Limited, Thermo Electron Manufacturing Limited, Thermo Electron Metallurgical Services Inc., Thermo Electron North America LLC, Thermo Electron Pension Trust GmbH, Thermo Electron Puerto Rico Inc., Thermo Electron SAS, Thermo Electron Scientific Instruments LLC, Thermo Electron Sweden AB, Thermo Electron Sweden Forvaltning AB, Thermo Electron Weighing & Inspection Limited, Thermo Elemental Limited, Thermo Environmental Instruments LLC, Thermo Fast U.K. Limited, Thermo Finland Holdings LLC, Thermo Finland Holdings MT1 B.V., Thermo Finland Holdings MT2 B.V., Thermo Finnigan LLC, Thermo Finnigan Limited, Thermo Fisher (CN) Luxembourg Holding S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher (CN) Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher (CN) Malta Holdings Limited, Thermo Fisher (CN-I) Luxembourg LLC, Thermo Fisher (CN-II) Luxembourg LLC, Thermo Fisher (Cayman) Holdings I Ltd., Thermo Fisher (Cayman) Holdings II Ltd., Thermo Fisher (Finland Holdings 2) LLC, Thermo Fisher (Finland Holdings) Limited Partnership, Thermo Fisher (Gibraltar) II Limited, Thermo Fisher (Gibraltar) Limited, Thermo Fisher (Heysham) Limited, Thermo Fisher (Kandel) GmbH, Thermo Fisher CHK Holding LLC, Thermo Fisher China Business Trust, Thermo Fisher China Business Trust II, Thermo Fisher Costa Rica Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada, Thermo Fisher Cyprus Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Detection Mexico LLC, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics (Ireland) Limited, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics AB, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics AG, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics AS, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics Aps, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics Austria GmbH, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics B.V., Thermo Fisher Diagnostics GmbH, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics K.K., Thermo Fisher Diagnostics Limited, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics NV, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics S.L.U., Thermo Fisher Diagnostics S.p.A. , Thermo Fisher Diagnostics SAS, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics Sociedade Unipessoal Lda, Thermo Fisher Eurobonds Ltd., Thermo Fisher Financial Services Inc., Thermo Fisher GP LLC, Thermo Fisher German Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Germany B.V., Thermo Fisher India Divestco Private Limited, Thermo Fisher India Holding B.V., Thermo Fisher Insurance Holdings Inc., Thermo Fisher Insurance Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Investments (Cayman) Ltd., Thermo Fisher Israel Ltd., Thermo Fisher Production et Services SAS, Thermo Fisher Project Cyprus LLC, Thermo Fisher Re Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Asheville) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Australia) C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Barbados) Holdings Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Breda) Holding BV, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Bremen) GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific (CN) Limited Partnership, Thermo Fisher Scientific (China) Co. Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific (China) Holding Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific (China-HK) Holding Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific (DE) Holding S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Ecublens) SARL, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Finance I) B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Finance I) S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Finance II) S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Finance III) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Finance III) S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Fuji) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Guangzhou) Co. Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Holding II) B.V. & Co. KG, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Hong Kong) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific (IVGN) B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific (IVGN) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Johannesburg) (Proprietary) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Mexico City) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Milwaukee) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Mississauga) Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Monterrey) S. De R.L. De C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific (NK) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (PN) Austria Holding GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific (PN) UK LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (PN) UK Limited Partnership, Thermo Fisher Scientific (PN-I) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific (PN-II) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific (PN1) UK Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Panama) B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Panama) Dutch LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Praha) s.r.o., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Real Estate 1) GmbH & Co. KG, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Real Estate 1) S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Schweiz) AG, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Shanghai) Instruments Co. Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Shanghai) Management Co. Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Suzhou) Instruments Co. Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific AL-1 LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific AU C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific AU II Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific AU LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific AU Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Africa Proprietary Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific Aquasensors LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Australia Pty Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific B.V.B.A., Thermo Fisher Scientific BHK (I) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific BHK (II) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltics UAB, Thermo Fisher Scientific Beteiligungsverwaltungs GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific Biosciences Corp., Thermo Fisher Scientific Brahms LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Brasil Instrumentos de Processo Ltda., Thermo Fisher Scientific Brasil Servicos de Logistica Ltda, Thermo Fisher Scientific C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Cayman Investments LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Chemicals Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific China (C-I) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific China (S) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific China Holdings I B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific China Holdings II B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific China Holdings III B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific China Holdings IV B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Chromatography Holdings Aps, Thermo Fisher Scientific Chromatography Holdings S.a r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus I C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus I Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus II C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus II Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus III C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus III Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus IV C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus V C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Denmark Senior Holdings ApS, Thermo Fisher Scientific Erie 1 Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Erie Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Erie Financing S.a r.l, Thermo Fisher Scientific Europe GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific FLC B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific FLC Finance C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific FLC II B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific FLC LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific FSIR Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific FSIR Financing S.a.r.l, Thermo Fisher Scientific FSUKHCO Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Falcon Senior Holdings Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific Finance Company BV, Thermo Fisher Scientific GENEART GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific Germany BV & Co. KG, Thermo Fisher Scientific GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific HR Services Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Holdings (Cayman) I, Thermo Fisher Scientific Holdings (Cayman) II , Thermo Fisher Scientific Holdings Europe Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific IT Services GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific India Holding LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific India Pvt Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific Investments (Luxembourg) S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Investments (Malta) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Investments (Sweden) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Investments (Sweden) S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Investments Malta (Sweden Financing) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Invitrogen Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Japan Holdings I B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Japan Holdings II B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Japan Holdings III B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific K.K., Thermo Fisher Scientific Korea Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific LSI Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life CV GP Holdings II LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life CV GP Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Enterprises C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Enterprises GP LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Financing (Cayman), Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Financing C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Financing Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Holdings I C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Holdings II C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Holdings III C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Holdings Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life International GP Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life International Holdings I C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life International Holdings II C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments GP LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments I S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments II S.a r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments III S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments IV S.a.r.l, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments Malta Holding I LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments Malta Holding II LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments Malta I Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments Malta II Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments US Financing I LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments US Financing II LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life NL Holdings GP LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Netherlands Holding C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Senior GP Holdings II LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Senior GP Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Senior Holdings C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Senior Holdings II C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Senior Holdings Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Switzerland Holdings GP LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Tech Korea Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Enterprise Holding Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Investment I LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Investment II LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Investment UK I Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Investment UK II Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Investments Holding LP, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Israel Investment I Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Israel Investment II Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Luxembourg Holding LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Luxembourg Enterprise Holdings S.a r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Luxembourg German Holdings S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Luxembourg Life Technologies UK Holding S.a r.l, Thermo Fisher Scientific Luxembourg Sweden Holdings I S.a r.l, Thermo Fisher Scientific Luxembourg Sweden Holdings II S.a r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Luxembourg Venture Holdings I S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Luxembourg Venture Holdings II S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Thermo Fisher Scientific Malta Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Messtechnik GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific Mexico City S. de R.L. de C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Middle East Holdings Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific Milano Srl, Thermo Fisher Scientific NHK Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific New Zealand Holdings, Thermo Fisher Scientific New Zealand Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Norway Holdings AS, Thermo Fisher Scientific Norway US Investments LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Odyssey Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Odyssey Holdings Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Operating Company LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Oy, Thermo Fisher Scientific PN2 C.V, Thermo Fisher Scientific PN2 LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific PRB LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific PRB Malta Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific PRB S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Panama I Cayman Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific Peru S.R.L., Thermo Fisher Scientific Pte. Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific Re Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific SL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Senior Financing LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Senior Holdings Australia LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific South Africa Proprietary Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific SpA, Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra Malta Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra-Physics Holdings Luxembourg I S.a r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra-Physics Holdings Luxembourg II S.a r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra-Physics Investments Malta Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Switzerland Holdings C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific TR Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Taiwan Co. Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific Vermogensverwaltungs GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific West Palm Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Wissenschaftliche Gerate GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific Worldwide Investments (Cayman), Thermo Fisher Scientific eCommerce Solutions LLC , Thermo Fisher Senior Canada Holdings LLC, Thermo Foundation Inc., Thermo Gamma-Metrics Holdings Pty Ltd., Thermo Gamma-Metrics LLC, Thermo Gamma-Metrics Pty Ltd, Thermo Holding European Operations LLC, Thermo Hypersil Ltd, Thermo Hypersil-Keystone LLC, Thermo Informatics Asia Pacific Pty Ltd., Thermo Instrument Controls de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Thermo Kevex X-Ray LLC, Thermo Keytek LLC, Thermo LabSystems Inc., Thermo LabSystems S.A., Thermo Life Science International Trading (Tianjin) Co. Ltd., Thermo Life Sciences AB, Thermo Luxembourg Holding S.a.r.l., Thermo Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Thermo MF Physics LLC, Thermo Measurement Ltd, Thermo Measuretech Canada Inc., Thermo Neslab LLC, Thermo Nicolet Limited, Thermo Onix Limited, Thermo Optek (Australia) Pty Ltd., Thermo Optek Limited, Thermo Optek S.A., Thermo Orion Inc., Thermo Portable Holdings LLC, Thermo Power Corporation, Thermo Process Instruments GP LLC, Thermo Process Instruments L.P., Thermo Projects Limited, Thermo Quest S.A., Thermo Radiometrie Limited, Thermo Ramsey Italia S.r.l., Thermo Ramsey LLC, Thermo Ramsey S.A., Thermo Re Ltd., Thermo Scientific Microbiology Pte Ltd., Thermo Scientific Microbiology Sdn Bhd, Thermo Scientific Portable Analytical Instruments Inc., Thermo Scientific Services Inc., Thermo Securities Corporation, Thermo Sentron Canada Inc., Thermo Sentron Limited, Thermo Shandon Inc., Thermo Shandon Limited, Thermo Suomi Holding B.V., Thermo TLH (UK) Limited, Thermo TLH L.P., Thermo Trace Pty Ltd., Thermo-Fisher Biochemical Product (Beijing) Co. 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AIDS and HIV Continents and regions Diseases and disorders Eastern Europe Europe Health and medical Immune system disorders Infectious diseases Non-profit and NGO organizations Public health World Health Organization The rate in the East -- 51.1 new cases diagnosed per 100,000 people -- was "disproportionately higher" than in the West, which had a rate of 6.4 new cases per 100,000 people, the report found. Central Europe's rate was 3.2 diagnoses per 100,000 people. Rates were highest in Russia, where 71 new cases were diagnosed per 100,000 people in 2017, followed by Ukraine and Belarus. As a result, the region is not on track to meet the 90-90-90 target by 2020, as set out by WHO and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. The aim is to diagnose 90% of all HIV-positive people, provide antiretroviral therapy for 90% of those diagnosed and achieve viral suppression for 90% of those treated. The target is part of the the Sustainable Development Goal of eliminating HIV in Europe, and worldwide, by 2030. "We are quite far behind achieving those targets, particularly in Eastern Europe and Central Asia," said Dr. Masoud Dara, coordinator of communicable diseases and HIV team lead at WHO Europe. "The significance in this report is that we can see a sharp difference between Eastern Europe and the European Union where the number of HIV infection numbers is dropping." In order to meet the target, new infections would need to decline by 78% by 2020, the report said. Over the past three decades, more than 2.32 million people have been diagnosed with HIV in Europe. According to WHO, 36.9 million people were living with HIV globally in 2017. Africa, where the estimated number of people living with HIV is 25.7 million, was most affected. Improving HIV testing Dara said there were multiple factors behind the HIV rate in Eastern Europe, with the most important one being a lack of prevention. "The most important thing is to make sure that people ... injecting drug users, commercial sex workers and men who have sex with men have good preventative measures in place," Dara said. "For injecting drug users, they need to have clear needle exchange programs. We do not have many of these in Eastern European countries as opposed to Western Europe," he said, adding that early testing for HIV needs to be in place, as well as treatment. "Treatment has proven to be a prevention," he explained, and it helps suppress the virus, preventing people from infecting others. Intravenous drug use and heterosexual contact were the most common ways HIV was transmitted in Europe's eastern region, the report said. Sex between men was most responsible for transmission in the European Union and European Economic Area. In a statement, WHO Regional Director for Europe Zsuzsanna Jakab called on governments to "scale up your response now." The report calls on governments to do this by "tailoring interventions to those most at risk" and to invest in prevention, testing and treatment. Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at University College London (UCL), Sheena McCormack, told CNN that while the report shows there has been "small gains" in Europe, it paints a clear message. "We are not doing enough in the region to control the epidemic in spite of having the necessary tools to do so," McCormack said in an email. "It's not completely clear from the report what the underlying problem is, and therefore how to fix it, but interruption in the drug supply due to the cost of drugs, a lack of task-shifting, and discriminatory laws are all likely to contribute." Everyone is at risk Dr. Anton Pozniak, president of the International AIDS Society, said there needs to be a focus on removing stigma that surrounds HIV diagnosis. "Policies that reduce social marginalisation, stigma and discrimination are needed as are increased funding for prevention and testing," Pozniak said in a statement. "In the East, particularly in Russia, the shift away from progressive policies towards socially conservative legislation is a barrier to implementing HIV prevention and treatment." With heterosexual contact and intravenous drug use among the most commonly reported means of transmission in the East, Dara said, it is important for everyone to realize they could be at risk of infection. "No one should think, 'I won't ever have HIV,' " he said. "That's very important, and we have to make sure that people are coming for tests at all levels." Pozniak reiterated that there could be a shift in who is affected most by HIV in Russia. "People who inject drugs account for the largest proportion of new diagnoses of any key population at 48.8% but heterosexual sex may soon overtake injecting drug use as the main means of HIV transmission," he said. "This is a potential shift from mainly affecting key populations to affecting the general population." UTICA -- The president & CEO of the Central Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired (CABVI) announced Wednesday his plans to retire next year. The CABVI board of directors said President & CEO Rudy D'Amico plans to retire on Aug. 31, 2019. "I've been privileged to lead CABVI to have a role assisting consumers with vision loss achieve countless personal milestones," D'Amico said. During D'Amico's tenure since May 2008, the organization has: Expanded employment services into Onondaga County Added more than 100 employees, bringing total employment to 270 half of whom are blind Opened four base supply centers on military bases in northeastern states Added innovative vision rehabilitation services The search for D'Amico's successor, "will commence soon," according to CABVI Board of Directors Chairman Edward P. Welsh. Welsh said the agency will continue its mission to assist people who are blind or visually impaired to achieve their highest levels of independence. Prior to joining CABVI first as vice president of operations in October 2003, then as president & CEO, D'Amico was a local entrepreneur. He retired from the New York Army National Guard in 1993 at the rank of Major. D'Amico also served on the boards of directors for the following organizations: WALTON, Ind. (WLFI) Two people are dead after they were struck by a vehicle Tuesday night in Walton. Indiana State Police are still looking for the driver. The victims have been identified as 26-year-old Zachary Wines of Walton and 52-year-old Bryan Curry of Valparaiso. Tuesday night around 6:30, officers found the two dead in the roadway on U.S. 35 north of Cass County Road 800 South. This is about seven miles southeast of Logansport. Indiana State Police said the two men were hit by a vehicle driving north. Troopers do not know why the two men were in the roadway. Police found what they believe are the men's vehicles parked on the east side of U.S. 35 with engines running. U.S. 35 was closed for four hours while police were on scene. U.S. 35 is the main road that runs through the town. Walton has a population of a little more than 1,000 people. No description of the vehicle is available at this time. Police are working to gather one based on their investigation at the scene. They also hope that anyone with information on the crash will come forward. You can contact the ISP Peru post at 765-473-6666. LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) -- The Lafayette Kiwanis Club delivered 120 comfort dolls to Riggs Community Health Center Tuesday afternoon. Members meet once a month to sew and stuff the comfort dolls. Some dolls have pattern fabric and others are plain so children can draw on them. The project started in Australia and is a part of Kiwanis International. Past Kiwanis Club President Jim Hopf explains what it's like to drop off the finished product. "It's wonderful to be able to do something," said Hopf. "Kiwanis is all about helping children around the world." This is the club's fourth year making the dolls. They give about 250 dolls to organizations across the community and don't plan on stopping any time soon. We're already back repeating with some organizations, Riggs is one of them," said Hopf. "They've gone through the first batch we gave them and now we are here with 120 more." If you would like to donate to the project, click here. ay Ash, Massachusetts Secretary of Housing and Economic Development, left, presents a check for $1.7 million to the Town of Uxbridge during an announcement ceremony Tuesday. Accepting on behalf of the town, are from left, outgoing state Rep. Kevin Kuros, state Senator Matt Fattman, Jennifer Modica, Town Manager Angie Ellison and Rob DeMarco, a partner with Campanelli Associates Construction Corporation. The Republic of Panama is a Central American nation that spans an area of 29,119 square miles. Human societies have been living within Panama's borders since 2500 BCE. Before the arrival of the Europeans in the region, some communities exerted their influence within Panama such as the Chibchan, the Cueva, and the Chocoan. The most dominant were the Cueva, and they played a huge role in shaping Panama's borders. During the colonial period, Panama was under the control of the Spanish, and they also had an enormous impact on the shape of Panama's borders. In the present-day, the land borders of Panama cover a distance of roughly 427 miles. Panama shares its land boundaries with two nations of Costa Rica and Colombia. Panama-Colombia Border Panama and Colombia are separated by a border of roughly 139 miles long that is situated on the southeastern edge of Panama. There are several towns located on the Panama side of the border with some of the most prominent being Santa Cruz de Cana, Boca de Cupe, and Yavize. The towns that are located on the Colombian side of the border include Jurado, Yarumal, and Monteria. The border between the two nations is one of the most critical international boundaries as it marks the separation between Central America and South America. History of the Panama-Colombia Border The border between Panama and Colombia dates back to the 14th century when both countries were under the control of the Spanish government. The Spanish monarch issued a royal decree that was meant to separate the governorship of Nueva Andalucia from the governorship of Castilla de Oro. The royal decree relied on the River Atrato as the main separating point of the two governorships. After both nations gained their independence, the boundary went through a significant change. Representatives from the Colombian government and the Panama government met in Bogota and signed the Victoria-Velez Treaty which detailed the position of the modern day boundary. In deciding the position of the border, the representatives relied on Colombian law passed in 1855. In the signing of the treaty, the government of Panama was represented by Nicolas Victoria while Jorge Velez represented the Colombian government. The Darien Gap The Darien Gap is one of the best-known features situated along the border between Panama and Colombia. In Panama, the gap is part of the Darien province while in Colombia it is part of the Choco Department. One of the significant features of the Darien Gap is the Darien National Park that extends over close to 90% of the border between the two countries. The Darien Gap is considerably underdeveloped due to the presence of swamplands and forests. The poorly developed infrastructural system makes it difficult for people to cross the gap. Most of the vehicles that cross the gap are considered off-road vehicles. Due to the significance of the Darien National Park, UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site. Issues Along the Border One of the major issues along the border occurred in 2016 after the government of Panama decided to close part of the border due to an overflow of illegal migrants particularly from Africa and Cuba. After the governments of Nicaragua and Costa Rica closed their border, the Panama government decided to prevent Cuban migrants from crossing through their borders. The most immediate effect of the closure was the significant number of migrants being stuck in the city of Turbo. Several of the migrants stuck in the area demanded that the Colombian government take them to Mexico. Panama-Costa Rica Border Panama and Costa Rica are separated by a border of roughly 211 miles long that is situated on the western edge of Panama. There are several towns located on the Panama side of the border with some of the most well-known being Punta Burica, Volcan, and La Concepcion. The border between Panama and Costa Rica was determined in 1941 after representatives from both nations signed the Echandi-Fernandez Treaty of 1941. The government of Costa Rica was represented by Alberto Echandi Montero who at the time was the foreign minister. The Panama government, on the other hand, was represented by Ambassador Ezequiel Fernandez Jaen. The treaty was signed to resolve a border dispute that had affected the relationship between the two nations. Border Dispute with Costa Rica Panama and Costa Rica were involved in a border dispute during the 19th century. At the time, Panama was part of the Republic of New Grenada, and the Republic claimed that its territory included the entirety of the Mosquito Coast. Costa Rica also claimed a section of the region as part of its territory. After Panama separated from the republic, the leaders tried to negotiate the position of the border with the Costa Rican government. Initially, the governments of the two nations signed the Pacheco-de La Guardia Treaty, however, the government of Costa Rica did not ratify the deal primarily due to the influence exerted by American banana companies. American Intervention in the Border Dispute In 1910, representatives from both governments met in Washington and signed the Anderson-Porras Convention. After the convention was signed, the issue was put before Edward Douglas White, who at the time was the president of the Supreme Court of the United States. Douglas White issued a proclamation known as the Judgment White which the Panama government rejected. Attempts by the Costa Rican government to implement the ruling angered the Panama government and led to the Coto War. Another treaty that attempted to resolve the dispute was the Castro-Guizado Protocol of 1928 which was finally rejected by the government of Costa Rica. In 1938, another treaty was proposed, the Zuniga-de la Espriella Treaty, which faced significant opposition from the Costa Rican people. Finally, in 1941, the Echandi-Fernandez Treaty was signed resolving the border dispute. Border Security in Panama The government of Panama has invested vast sums of money in keeping its borders safe. The Panamanian border patrol is one of the agencies that benefited greatly from the increased financing. Panama also cooperates with its neighbors to keep its borders secure. Papua New Guinea is among the unique nations in the world due to the significant cultural diversity within the borders. The country spans an area of roughly 178,700 square miles in Oceania and is made up of several islands as well as a section of land on the island of New Guinea. Archaeological evidence indicates that Papua New Guinea has been home to a variety of communities for more than 40,000 years. Despite the nation's long history, the shape of the border was significantly impacted by events that occurred from 1884. From 1884 to 1975, Papua New Guinea was under the control of three different foreign powers. In the present day, the land border of Papua New Guinea is roughly 512 miles. The country shares its land boundary with only one other country, Indonesia. The country also shares its maritime borders with Australia and Indonesia. Development of Papua New Guinea's borders The borders of the country began taking their present-day shape in the 19th century when part of the country was under the control of the Germans, and the other part was under the control of the British. Germany's control of the area lasted from 1884 to the time when WWI broke out when the Australians took the region under their control. After the war, the League of Nations declared the section that the Germans had ruled a mandate territory and selected Australia to administer. In 1905, the government of the United Kingdom, through an act of parliament, transferred their territory to the Australian government. Even though both sections were now under Australian rule, they were administered differently. The two separate sections were officially combined into one after the First World War, and the unified region was given the name and was known as the Territory of Papua and New Guinea. The Land Border with Indonesia The 512-mile land border separating the two countries is Papua New Guinea's only land border. The land boundary between Papua New Guinea and Indonesia was determined in 1974. The Australian government, who at the time still had control of Papua New Guinea, negotiated the treaty with the Indonesian government. There are several towns situated on the Papuan side of the border with some of the most well-known being Kiunga, Morehead, Green River, and Amanab. Several rivers flow close to the border on the Papua side such as the Sepik River and the Fly River. Lake Murray is also located close to the border on the Papuan side. The Shape of the Border The border between Papua New Guinea and Indonesia has one of the most distinctive shapes in the world. It is relatively straight over most sections except for a portion that curves into Indonesia tracing the path of the Fly River. Before the bend, the boundary follows the same path as the 141st meridian, but after the bend, it follows a path roughly 1.3 miles east of the meridian. The reason for the border having such a distinct shape dates back to the 19th century, in particular, 1893. During this period, the southern region of the country was considered insecure due to constant headhunting. The British negotiated the shape of the boundary to allow them to efficiently patrol the area without having to cross the border into Indonesia's territory regularly. Another factor that contributed to the distinct shape of the border was the presence of British gold diggers. The shoe of the border allowed the gold diggers to travel inland in search of gold. Relationship with Papua New Guinea Due to their proximity, the ties between Papua New Guinea go back several years. Before the establishment of formal borders, individuals regularly crossed from one region into the other. According to one of the leading experts on Papua New Guinea, Leo Suryadinata, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia were involved in several border disputes, and in 1979 they signed a treaty to resolve the conflict. The governments of Papua New Guinea and Indonesia also signed a treaty in 1986, the Treaty of Cooperation, Mutual Respect, and Friendship, in which they agreed to peacefully solve any disputes that may arise. The Refugee Crisis One of the most significant issues between Indonesia and Papua New Guinea is the constant flow of refugees from Indonesia into Papua New Guinea. The refugee crisis was caused by the long-standing dispute between the Indonesian government and the Free Papua Movement. According to an article published in the Le Monde Diplomatique, in 2013, more than 13,000 Indonesians from Papua had fled across the border to Papua New Guinea and were living as refugees. The refugee crisis has strained diplomatic relations between Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. Maritime Border with Australia Australia and Papua New Guinea share a maritime border that is situated in the Coral Sea. The maritime border between Australia and Papua New Guinea was determined by a treaty signed in 1978. Papua New Guinea is the nation closest to Australia, and due to the proximity and shared history, they have a uniquely close relationship. The Relationship with Australia The ties between Australia and Papua New Guinea date back to the period when the nation was under Australia's control. Australia had a significant impact on Papua New Guinea's history and even impacted the shape of its borders. Australia and Papua New Guinea cooperate on some issues such as trade and economic development with Australia lending a helping hand to Papua New Guinea to grow its economy. Despite the close ties between the two countries, Michael Somare, who at the time was the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, was barred from going into Australia due to a strained relationship with John Howard, the Australian Prime Minister. After John Howard lost his reelection bid in 2007 and was replaced with Kevin Rudd, the two worked to repair the relationship between the two countries. The Security of the Papua New Guinea Border The government of Papua New Guinea has invested heavily in safeguarding its border especially due to the insecurity on the Indonesian side. The terrain of the area significantly aids the government in keeping the border safe. Qatar, more formally referred to as the State of Qatar, is a nation located on the western edge of the Asia. The country is relatively small in size, spanning an area of roughly 4,471 square miles, making it the 158th largest country in the world. Qatar is situated on the Qatar Peninsula, which is on the northeastern coast of the larger Arabian Peninsula. Politically, Qatar has been referred as a either a constitutional monarchy or an absolute monarchy. The countrys land border is shared with Saudi Arabia to the south, while the remainder of Qatar is surrounded by the Persian Gulf. Additionally, an arm of the Persian Gulf also separates Qatar from Bahrain. Since Mohammed bin Thani signed a treaty with the British in 1868, the country has been ruled by the house of Thani. In 2017, Qatar had a population of 2.6 million people, 313,000 of which were citizens while the remaining 2.3 million were expatriates. Development of Qatar's Borders The long history of human habitation in Qatar has played a significant role in shaping its borders. One of the most influential population groups in Qatar's history were the Usfurids, who had control of the region for much of the 13th century. Qatar's strategic location and the presence of high-quality pearls made the area attractive, and the Portuguese eventually became the first European colonists to develop interest in the region. The territory fell under control of the Portuguese by 1521, but they were later expelled by the combined forces of the British and Dutch. Qatar would later become controlled by the British until it gained independence in 1971. Before the British granted the Qatari people their independence, the Qatari government proposed that several other Arab states join with it to create the Federation of Arab Emirates. Despite the efforts of several regional leaders, the federation was disbanded, and Qatar became an independent nation with distinct land borders. Saudi Arabia-Qatar Border Qatar's only land border is shared with Saudi Arabia, which approximately 54 miles long. One of the major towns located on the Qatari side of the border is Abu Samra, which had the distinction of being the only land border crossing between Qatar and Saudi Arabia until the Qatari government closed it in 2017. There are several towns located on the Saudi side of the border, the most prominent being Al Salwa and Harad. The Gulf of Salwah also separates Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Historical Border Dispute Between Qatar and Saudi Arabia During the 19th century, Qatar and what would eventually become the modern-day nations of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had a dispute over the Khawr al Udayd region. The conflict stemmed from the fact that Khawr al Udayd was a haven for pirates. One of the most well-known pirates to settle in the region was Jasim bin Jabir, who later settled in the region. The British, whose ships were the primary target of pirates, sent troops to order the Qatari leaders to stop supporting the pirates. Attempts by the British and Abu Dhabi troops to invade the region to curb the piracy resulted in a war against the Qatari troops. Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates were also engaged in a dispute over the Khawr al Udayd region during the 20th century. The dispute was caused by the fact that both the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia wanted the area to serve as part of its border with Qatar. In 1974, it was determined that Khawr al Udayd would border Saudi Arabia, but the issue reemerged again in 2005. Salwa Canal In 2017, the Saudi Arabian government proposed the construction of the Salwa Canal, a 43-mile long waterway that would convert Qatar into an island nation. The Saudi Arabian government attempted to justify the project by claiming it would increase tourism and trade in the area. Reports in Saudi Arabian media indicated that the government hoped the project could be completed in one year. However, another report suggested construction of the canal would be detrimental to the Qatari economy. Political Cooperation Between Saudi Arabia and Qatar The political relationship between Saudi Arabia and Qatar was generally positive up until the past few decades, and during much of the 20th century the government of Qatar followed Saudi Arabia's lead on many issues related to foreign policy and diplomacy. The cooperation between the two nations resulted in the creation of the Gulf Cooperation Council. Qatar's ties to Saudi Arabia are believed to have influenced the country's decision to become involved in certain initiatives, such as joining Saudi Arabia's 2011 intervention in Bahrain, as well as Saudi Arabia's 2015 intervention in Yemen. Saudi Arabia's Role in Internal Qatari Politics Due to the historically close ties between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, several Qatari dissidents fled to Saudi Arabia during the 20th century. During this period, it was also common for the Qatari government to exile its most prominent and influential critics to Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Arabian government would then negotiate a deal between the critics and the Qatari government. Breakdown in the Relationship Between Saudi Arabia and Qatar Many experts believe that a breakdown in the relationship between the two nations can be traced to 1995, when Emir Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani took control of Qatar. Emir Hamad believed that it would be in Qatar's best interests to distance itself from the control of Saudi Arabia. Emir Hamad took certain actions that angered Saudi Arabia, such as establishing the Al Jazeera broadcasting network and establishing formal ties with Israel and Iran. Qatar Diplomatic Crisis The political tensions between Qatar and Saudi Arabia culminated in the 2017 diplomatic crisis. Saudi Arabia, along with several of its allies such as Senegal, the United Arab Emirates, and Mauritania, placed Qatar under an embargo. Some of the reasons cited by Saudi Arabia and its allies included the establishment of ties between Qatar and Iran, as well as what they believed to be Qatar's support for terrorist activities. Border Security in Qatar The government of Qatar has invested heavily in safeguarding its borders, in part due to the tension with the Saudi Arabian government. The border security system used by the Qatari government was provided by Airbus Defence and Space. The Arctic Ocean covers an area of 5,440,000 square miles within the Arctic north polar region, making it the smallest of the world's five oceans. However, although recognized as an ocean by the International Hydrographic Organization, some oceanographers consider it to be a sea rather than an ocean. The Arctic Ocean reaches a depth of 18,050 feet at its deepest point, but has a much shallower average depth of 3,240 feet. The Arctic Ocean is unique in it almost surrounded by North America and Eurasia. Countries with coastlines in the Arctic Ocean are: United States Pilot of a small airplane flies over Arctic Ocean shore and is getting ready to land on the airstrip of the whaling village of Barrow, the north most point of the USA. The United States (US) has coastline on the Arctic Ocean in the state of Alaska. According to the US government, the country's coastline on the Arctic Ocean is approximately 1060 miles long. This coastline with the Arctic is extremely important to the US since it is the site of the country's northernmost point, which is Point Barrow, Alaska. In addition to being the most northerly point in the US, Point Barrow is also significant since it marks the boundary between the Beaufort Sea and the Chukchi Sea, which oceanographers consider as the marginal seas of the Arctic Ocean. Some key places on the American coast of the Arctic Ocean include Prudhoe Bay and the city of Utqiagvik. Prudhoe Bay is important because it is considered the unofficial end of the northern section of the Pan-American Highway, and also attracts tourists, most of whom are looking to observe the tundra. Canada Canada has the most extensive coastline in the world, part of which is situated along the Arctic Ocean. One of the most important towns on the Canadian edge of the Arctic Ocean is Churchill, Manitoba. The town is sometimes referred to as the "Polar Bear Capital of the World" due to the large number of polar bears that travel to the area during autumn. Due to its unique location, Churchill attracts a significant number of eco-tourists every year, which can exceed 10,000 according to some estimates. The polar bears are usually the main tourist attraction. Another important town on Canada's coastline with the Atlantic is Nanisivik, Nunavut, which was built for workers of the Nanisivik Mine. After the zinc-lead mine was closed in 2002, residents abandoned it and the Canadian government transformed it into a naval station. The naval station was established so that the government could enforce its control of the region. Ships stationed at the naval base are expected to have icebreaking capabilities, and the Canadian government is expected to deploy Victoria-class submarines to improve its control of the region. Russia Surfers return after riding the waves of the Arctic ocean in Teriberka, Russia. Russia's coastline on the Arctic Ocean is one of the country's most important coastlines since it covers such an extensive distance. Some of the most important towns along Russia's Arctic coastline include Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, and Labytnangi. Murmansk is a large city along the Arctic Ocean, with an estimated population of 299,148 people in 2014, and was the last city that was established during the era of the Russian Empire. It serves as an important port because it remains relatively ice-free throughout the year due to the warm North Atlantic Current. Murmansk is also known for being the only area in the world with a fleet of icebreakers powered by nuclear energy. It has been proposed that Murmansk become the Russian end of the Arctic Bridge, which would link Russia to the Canadian town of Churchill, Manitoba. Iceland Iceland also has a substantial coastline on the Arctic Ocean. One of the main ports on the Icelandic coastline is the town of Akureyri, which is often referred to as the "Capital of North Iceland." Archaeological evidence indicates that humans have inhabited the area since as early as the 9th century. Currently, the town serves as an important port and fishing center. The port and its harbor is also known for being relatively ice-free throughout the year. Norway The Arctic coastline of Norway at Reine from Reinebringen. Norway's coastline on the Arctic Ocean features several towns such as Hammerfest, Honningsvag, and Vard. Hammerfest is a popular port because its harbor is relatively ice-free throughout the year. The government of Norway considers it as the most northerly town in the nation. Greenland (Denmark) Greenland, which is an autonomous constituent country of Denmark, has a substantial coastline on the Arctic Ocean. One of the most significant cities located on Greenland's Arctic coast is Nuuk, which is both the capital and largest city in Greenland. Nuuk traces its roots to 1728, when Claus Paarss, who was governor of the region, moved the capital to that part of mainland Greenland. The town was initially referred to as Godthab, but later was officially renamed as Nuuk in 1979. Despite its small size, its strategic location close to the Arctic Ocean has caused Nuuk to develop rapidly. Its proximity to the ocean also makes fishing is one of the region's most important industries. A large number of tourists visit the region, and given its prominence, the Nuuk was selected to be the headquarters of the National Tourist Board of Greenland. Territorial Disputes in the Arctic Ocean There have been several disputes surrounding territory in the Arctic Ocean. One of the most prominent disputes occurred between Canada and Denmark and focused on the status of Hans Island, since it is situated at the center of an international strait. Norway and Russia were also involved in a dispute over territory in the Arctic Ocean that lasted nearly 40 years. Read MoreArctic Ocean There are currently 47 island countries in the world. Many of them are small and sparsely populated, though some are large and have very sizeable populations. In fact, there are island countries that rank among the most populous in the world. There are even island countries that are among the most powerful nation-states on Earth. Island countries can be found in every part of the world, in each of the worlds oceans. Contents: Island Countries Of The Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean includes 18 island countries. Only 3 of these countries, however, are in the Atlantic Ocean itself. These are Iceland, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. The other countries are situated in the Caribbean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. There are 13 island countries in the Caribbean and 2 in the Mediterranean. The Atlantic Ocean Proper The three island countries in the Atlantic Ocean - United Kingdom, Ireland, and Iceland. The largest and most populous island country in the Atlantic Ocean is the United Kingdom, which consists of the island of Great Britain and the northern part of Ireland, known as Northern Ireland. The fact that the UK is made up of islands has proven advantageous over the centuries, as no one has successfully invaded what is now the UK since the 11th century Norman Conquest, though many have tried. The UK gave rise to the British Empire, one of the most powerful empires in human history. At its height, the British Empire had territorial possessions in every corner of the world. For this reason, people used to say, The sun never sets on the British Empire. The Coast Guard Cottages & Seven Sisters Chalk Cliffs just outside Eastbourne, Sussex, England, UK. Today, the UK has a population of over 68 million people. It also has the worlds 6th largest economy, and possesses a formidable military force, one of the few in the world with nuclear armaments. The most telling evidence of what kind of influence an island country can have on the world, however, is probably the English language, which is now sometimes known as the universal language, since it is the most popular vernacular of international communication. Iceland and Ireland, the other two island countries in the Atlantic Ocean proper, certainly do not have the clout that the UK has had historically and presently. In fact, for centuries, Ireland was an unwilling part of the British Empire. It gained home rule in 1922, then full independence as a republic in 1949. Today, Ireland is a country of approximately 4.98 million people, with membership in the European Union. A viking village in Iceland. They were among the first settlements in Iceland. It was monks from Ireland who were the first people to settle in what became Iceland. They were followed by the Vikings, whose heritage Icelanders are not shy of boasting about. Iceland is the least populous country in Europe, with around just 343,000 inhabitants. The country is well-known as a geothermal energy powerhouse, because of its volcanic activity. What many people do not know, however, is that the island country is home to the worlds oldest parliament, the Althing, which still serves as Icelands legislature today. The Caribbean Caribbean Island countries map. The 13 countries of the Caribbean are quite small compared to those in the main part of the Atlantic Ocean. The largest of the Caribbean island countries is Cuba, which has a land area of 110,860 sq. km. The country also has a sizeable population of about 11.3 million people, though it is not the most populous country in the region. That distinction goes to Haiti, which has an estimated 11.4 million people living in it. Haiti and the Dominican Republic to its east share the island of Hispaniola, the second largest island in the Caribbean Sea. Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Trinidad and Tobago are the only Caribbean island countries with populations in the millions. The rest of the Caribbeans island countries have populations in the hundreds of thousands at most. The least populous Caribbean island country, St. Kitts and Nevis, has a population of less than 53,000. Nearly 44 million people in total live in the island countries of the Caribbean, which are heavily reliant on tourism to fuel their economies. Read MoreCaribbean Countries The Mediterranean Island countries in the Mediterranean Sea. The Mediterranean Sea has two island countries situated in it, Malta and Cyprus. Both are now members of the EU, though from a geographical perspective, Cyprus is actually part of Asia. Malta has a population just shy of 443,000, while Cyprus has a population of approximately 1.2 million. Malta has a mostly homogenous population, with 95% of its population being of Maltese ancestry. The Maltese language is a Semitic language related to Arabic and Hebrew. Most Cypriots, as the people of Cyprus are called, are of either Greek or Turkish origin, with the former being the majority. In 1974, Turkey invaded Cyprus following a coup staged by Greek nationalists, who were attempting to unite the island with Greece. Turkish forces remain in occupation of the northern part of the island to this day. Island Countries Of The Indian Ocean Indian Ocean map showing the 6 island counties. The Indian Ocean contains 6 island countries: The Seychelles, Comoros, Mauritius, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. Madagascar, located off the west coast of Southern Africa, across the Mozambique Channel, is the largest and most populous island country in the Indian Ocean, as it has a population of more than 28.4 million people, and a total land area of 581,795 sq. km. The Seychelles, which is situated far off the east coast of Eastern Africa, is the smallest and least populated country in the Indian Ocean. Its population is just shy of 99,000, and its total land area is just 460 sq. km. Madagascar and Sri Lanka are large islands, while Mauritius is a small island country. The Seychelles, Comoros, and Maldives are all archipelagos made up of many small islands. Aerial view of the an island in the Mauritius. While Mauritius and the Seychelles are quite stable, the other island countries of the Indian Ocean have had more than a fair share of instability. The Comoros, for example, has had more than twenty coups since independence. Madagascar has also been plagued by coups and military dictatorships. Sri Lanka fought a civil war against the separatist Tamil Tigers for many years, while the Maldives has only been a multiparty democracy since 2005, and has continued to suffer turmoil since then. Island Countries Of The Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is home to 23 island countries. These include large island countries, like Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as small countries located in Oceania. Japan Map of Japan Japan is the lone island country in East Asia. It has a population of roughly 126 million people, making it the second most populous island country on Earth after Indonesia. The Japanese archipelago contains 6,852 islands, the largest of which are Honshu, Hokkaido, Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa. Japan is unique in that unlike other countries in Asia, it has managed to avoid colonial conquest by European powers. In fact, at one time, Japan had quite the empire of its own. Today, however, Japan flexes its power economically. Indeed, the country now has the worlds third largest economy, after China and the U.S. Japanese brands like Toyota, Suzuki, and Sony are household names all over the world. Southeast Asia Map showing the island countries in Southeast Asia and neighboring countries in mainland Asia and Oceania. There are 5 island countries located in Southeast Asia. The largest and most populous is Indonesia, which has a population of approximately 276 million people, making it the most populous island country in the world. Indonesia is also both the largest island country in Southeast Asia and the second largest island country in the world after Australia. In addition, Indonesia is the most populous Muslim country in the world. The country contains a total of 17,508 islands. The largest islands include Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and New Guinea. Indonesia shares Borneo with Malaysia and Brunei, while New Guinea is shared with Papua New Guinea. The country is home to multitudes of different ethno-linguistic groups. In fact, the countrys national motto is, Unity in Diversity. The other large island country in Southeast Asia is the Philippines, which consists of 7,640 islands. The country has a sizeable population of about 111 million. Like Indonesia, the Philippines also has many ethno-linguistic groups, though Tagalog is recognized as the countrys national dialect. The Philippines is the most populous Christian country in Asia, as the overwhelming majority of its people practice Roman Catholicism. The other, smaller island countries of Southeast Asia are Singapore, East Timor, and Brunei. Singapore, though small, is an economic powerhouse, and one of the so-called Asian Tiger economies. Brunei is a sultanate based on the island of Borneo, and is home to Southeast Asias only absolute monarchy. East Timor is the newest country in Southeast Asia, having gained independence in 2002. Read MoreSoutheast Asian Countries Oceania Map showing the island countries of Oceania. Australia, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea are three of Oceanias largest island countries, all of which have populations in the millions. The rest of the regions countries are miniscule in comparison. They consist of many tiny islands, some of which are so small that a slight rise in sea levels could inundate them. These small island states are found in the Oceanian subregions of Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia. They are heavily reliant on imports and economic aid from larger countries because of their small size and very limited resource base. Almost each of the small island states in the South Pacific has their own indigenous language. Some of these countries, like the Federated States of Micronesia, have several indigenous languages. All of the small island countries of the South Pacific have very small populations. Fiji is the most populous with approximately 902,000 people. The least populous of the tiny island countries is Nauru, which has less than 11,000 inhabitants. Read MoreHow Many Countries Are There In Oceania? Three US soldiers were killed in Afghanistan Tuesday when an improvised explosive device tore through their armored vehicle on a roadside in the southeastern province of Ghazni. Another three US soldiers and an American military contractor were wounded. The attack inflicted the highest casualty toll on US forces in 17 months, when, in a so-called insider incident in June 2017, an Afghan National Army soldier opened fire on his ostensible US allies, killing three soldiers. The Taliban claimed credit for that incident as well as the most recent one. Following Tuesdays attack, US helicopters swept in, evacuating the dead and wounded and carrying out intense air strikes on the surrounding area. The US losses in Ghazni follow on the heels of the death three days earlier of Sgt. Leandro Jasso, an Army Ranger who was shot dead in the southwestern province of Nimroz, apparently the victim of friendly fire from an Afghan soldier during a firefight with Al Qaeda elements. The Pentagon issued a statement insisting that There were no indications he was shot intentionally. The two incidents bring the total number of US troops killed this year to 13, many of them victims of insider attacks. They are symptomatic of the continuing deterioration of the US position in Afghanistan. After 17 years of unending war that have claimed the lives of tens if not hundreds of thousands of Afghans, killed nearly 2,400 US troops and cost Washington as much as $2 trillion, the US-backed puppet regime in Kabul has lost control of at least half of the country and is being contested for control over at least 70 percent of Afghan territory. Ghazni, where the three American soldiers died on Tuesday, was the scene of major fighting in August after the Taliban overran the provinces capital of the same name, threatening to cut off Kabul from southern Afghanistan. While US and Afghan forces, backed by heavy bombardments by US warplanes, succeeded in retaking the capital, the Taliban has maintained strongholds throughout the province. Insurgents have continued to operate within the city and, on November 21, they fired a rocket into the center of Ghazni while Gen. Austin Scott Miller, the US military commander in Afghanistan, was visiting the city. Miller was photographed during the visit with a loaded M-4 assault rifle, a highly unusual weapon to be carried by a four-star general. Last month, Miller found himself in the middle of an insider firefight that erupted inside an Afghan military compound in Kandahar, when an Afghan soldier opened fire killing two senior Afghan security officials and wounding the provinces governor. Lack of control by US-backed forces over Ghazni forced the postponement until next year of parliamentary elections held in the rest of the countrys 34 provinces in October. The southwestern province of Nimroz, where the Army Ranger was killed earlier, had previously seen no presence of Al Qaeda. The corrupt and incompetent puppet government the US is attempting to prop up with close to 15,000 troops on the ground and massive air power is widely described as ruling not over Afghanistan, but rather over Kabulstan, and even its grip on the Afghan capital is often tenuous. President Donald Trumps escalation of US troop numbers and lifting of restrictions on US air strikes announced in August of last year has at best created a military stalemate in Afghanistan, but at the cost of a staggering increase in the civilian death toll. According to figures released last July by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, 1,692 civilians were killed during the first six months of 2018. The death toll is the highest recorded by the UN over the last decade since it began keeping figures and is undoubtedly a serious underestimation of the real number killed. The most recent quarter saw a total of 2,467 civilians killed or wounded. The soaring death toll has coincided with a sharp escalation of the US air war. The US Air Force is now flying double the number of sorties and dropping five times the number of bombs and missiles as in mid-2017. The dramatic escalation in air strikes is being carried out in response to mounting reversals on the ground. Afghan security forces are continuing to suffer casualty rates that previous US commanders have described as unsustainable. While the numbers are so discrediting of the US war effort that they have become classified in Washington, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani recently stated that since 2015, nearly 29,000 have been killed. Given previous government estimates of 5,000 killed in 2015 and 7,000 in 2016, this would mean that since the beginning of 2017 nearly 17,000 have died, with at least 25 Afghan soldiers, on average, being killed every day. The US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), whose reports previously included estimates of Afghan casualties but which is now denied the numbers by the Pentagon, stated in the most recent report that From the period of May 1 to the most current data as of October 1, 2018, the average number of casualties the (Afghan forces) suffered is the greatest it has ever been during like periods. Echoing the pessimism expressed in the SIGAR report, the chairman of the US Joint Chief of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, stated at the Halifax International Security Forum earlier this month that the Taliban are not losing. He added, Were a long way from where we could say that were on the right path toward a resolution of the Afghan war. This path is supposedly aimed at utilizing US military might to force the Taliban to the negotiating table to achieve a peaceful settlement with the Afghan puppet regime. Trump appointed Zalmay Khalilzad as special US envoy to Afghanistan for the purpose of brokering a peace deal with the Taliban. Khalilzad was a longtime protege of former US Vice President Dick Cheney and a member of the Project for a New American Century, which advocated US imperialist war against Iraq and in the broader Middle East. Washingtons ambassador to Afghanistan in the wake of the October 2001 US invasion, he was dubbed the American viceroy because of his blatant manipulation of Afghan politics to ensure the elevation to the countrys presidency of the preferred US puppet, Hamid Karzai. Khalilzad has previous experience negotiating with the Taliban, having dealt with the Islamist movement when it constituted the government of Afghanistan and when he was employed as an advisor to the oil giant Unocal, which was seeking a deal to run a natural gas pipeline across the country from the Caspian Basin to Pakistan. Khalilzad reportedly met recently for three days of talks with the Taliban and is attempting to establish a peace process with the aid of Saudi Arabia and the other reactionary oil sheikdoms of the Persian Gulf. These efforts are being carried out in tandemand in conflictwith negotiations that are being promoted by both Russia and China, with the support of Iran. Last week, a five-member delegation from the Taliban attended an international conference in Moscow to discuss Afghan peace proposals. Also participating were representatives of the Afghan High Peace Council as well as officials from India, Iran, China and the former Soviet republics of Central Asia. Washington sent an observer delegation comprised of lower-level functionaries from the US embassy in Moscow. Beijing, meanwhile, is also pursuing negotiations. A trilateral meeting between Pakistani, Chinese and Afghan foreign ministers is reportedly being prepared in Kabul. Washingtons attempt to cow Islamabad into submission through the cutoff of hundreds of millions of dollars in aid has led to a closer alignment of Pakistan with Beijing and Moscow, including in relation to Afghanistan. Washington has no intention of allowing its regional rivals to broker a peace deal at the expense of US imperialist interests in the region. While launched in the name of a war against terrorism, the US intervention in Afghanistan has always been directed at achieving key geostrategic interests, including establishing a US military presence in Central Asia, which includes the vast energy resources of the Caspian Basin. The US occupation of Afghanistan also placed the US military within striking distance of Iran to the west, China to the east and Russia to the north. The central demand of the Taliban is for the withdrawal of all US and allied troops from Afghanistan, something that Washington clearly opposes. The dueling peace processes over Afghanistan reflect the broader geopolitical and strategic rivalries between US imperialism, China, Russia and Iran, which threaten to erupt into global war. As this year draws to a close, WikiLeaks publisher and Australian citizen Julian Assange remains effectively imprisoned inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, denied sunlight and medical care, and blocked from communicating with the outside world. A court document, which surfaced in November, confirms that the US government has filed and sealed criminal charges against Assange, on the basis that his media organisation, WikiLeaks, published leaked information revealing US war crimes and anti-democratic imperialist intrigues. The information vindicates the fight waged by Assange and his defenders against an arrest warrant, issued against him in 2010, obligating him to answer questions over false allegations that he had committed sexual assault in Sweden. The allegations were fabricated in order to provide ammunition for various pro-US layers to discredit Assange and to create the conditions for him to be rendered to a country that could rapidly extradite him to the US. The American ruling elite is determined to make an example of Assange by putting him on trial for espionage or conspiracy, in order to intimidate every journalist and whistleblower. For more than eight years, the persecution of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks has been at the very centre of systematic attempts by the US and allied governments to censor or silence independent and critical media. Google and Facebook are openly collaborating with this agenda, blocking access to alternative sources of information and analysis, on the basis of fraudulent allegations that they amount to fake news. The American, British and Ecuadorian authorities are doing everything they can to force Assange out of the Ecuadorian embassy. If he leaves, the British state will imprison him, while his legal team will be forced to fight in the British courts against an application by the Trump administration to extradite him to the US. The Australian Liberal-National Coalition government, with the full support of the Labor Party, has refused to take any action whatsoever to defend Julian Assange, because the Australian establishment, no less than its American ally, wants to destroy WikiLeaks for the crime of telling the world the truth. The mainstream media, the Greens, the trade unions and the pseudo-left organisations have all abandoned Assanges defence, as they willingly line up with the preparations of the US and Australian establishments for a truly monstrous crime: a military confrontation and potential nuclear war with China, to protect their strategic interests and corporate profits. Millions of workers and young people continue to support both Assange and WikiLeaks. Despite the efforts to blacken his name, he is still rightly viewed as a heroic figure for his defiance of the powers-that-be and his courageous publication of the damning exposures of their criminality. The Sunday December 16 public meeting and Livestream will discuss the Socialist Equality Partys political perspective to mobilise and lead workers and young people in defence of Julian Assange. A section of the June 17 SEP rally in defense of Assange On June 17 this year, the SEP organised a demonstration that was addressed by journalist John Pilger and leading SEP speakers and attended by several hundred people. In February 2019, we will hold further demonstrations, as well as organise immediate protest actions if Assange is forced from the embassy and taken into British custody. The rallies will demand that the Australian government exercise its undeniable diplomatic and legal powers to insist that the British government immediately and unconditionally allow Assange to leave the United Kingdom and return to Australia if he so chooses. The courageous journalist must be provided with a guarantee, by both the Coalition and Labor, that Canberra will categorically reject any US application for Assanges extradition. Secondly, the SEP will place at the centre of its campaign in the forthcoming Australian federal election the demand for Australian government intervention to defend Julian Assange. This demand will form part of the socialist program required to meet the social and democratic rights of the working class as a whole. The December 16 event will take place in the wake of the meetings in Sydney, Melbourne and Wellington, New Zealand to mark the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Fourth International. The International Committee of the Fourth International and its publication, the World Socialist Web Site, are at the forefront of the fight to unite and mobilise the international working class against the persecution of Julian Assange, Internet censorship, and the broader assault on democratic rights and the drive toward war in Australia and throughout the world. We urge all workers, youth and professionals to attend the Fourth International anniversary meetings (details here) and to take part in the December 16 meeting, either by attending the public meeting in Sydney or watching the Facebook Livestream. Online participants will be able to ask questions or make comments via messaging. Meeting details in Sydney: Sunday, December 16, 2:00 p.m. Bankstown Library, Lansdowne Meeting Rooms 1 & 2 80 Rickard Road, Bankstown (cnr of Rickard and Chapel Roads) Tickets: $7/$5 concession Facebook Livestream details: https://www.facebook.com/SocialistEqualityPartyAustralia/ Sunday, December 16, 2:00 p.m., Sydney, Australian Eastern Daylight Time Click here for time zone conversion Facebook Livestream viewing in Melbourne: Sunday, December 16, 2:00 p.m. Carlton Library 667 Rathdowne St, Carlton North Tickets: $5/$3 concession See: The Turnbull government must act to repatriate Australian citizen Julian Assange to Australia Speech by SEP national secretary James Cogan to the June 17, 2018 rally at Sydney Town Hall Bringing Julian Assange Home Speech by John Pilger to the June 17, 2018 rally at Sydney Town Hall Italian filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci died of cancer in Rome on November 26 at the age of 77. He had been confined to a wheelchair for more than a decade after a failed operation on his back. He directed his last film, Me and You, in 2012. We are re-posting below Richard Phillips analysis of Bertoluccis life and career that appeared on the WSWS in August 2012. Bertolucci will be remembered for valuable films he directed in the 1960s and 1970s, including La commare secca (1962English title, The Grim Reaper), Before the Revolution (1964), The Conformist (1970) and 1900 (1976). Those films, with varying degrees of success, reflected opposition to bourgeois society and morals, and directed audiences toward important historical and moral issues. As the analysis below reveals, Bertolucci subsequently suffered a precipitous artistic and intellectual decline. By the time of The Dreamers in 2004, I felt obliged to comment that the film was a terribly poor workat times, almost embarrassing. But the directors descent was not principally a personal matter. Italian cinema has sunk to extraordinary depths in the last several decades. One of the glories of world cinema in the postwar period through the 1960s and perhaps beyond, it fell from remarkable heights. Italian Neorealism, in the first place, presented the world with a number of major works, including Roberto Rossellinis Rome, Open City (1945) and Paisan (1946), Vittorio De Sicas Bicycle Thieves (1948) and Luchino Viscontis The Earth Trembles (1948). Visconti continued his remarkable work in the 1950s and 1960s (Senso, Rocco and His Brothers, The Leopard), to be joined by figures such as Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni and Pier Paolo Pasolini. As much as or probably more than anywhere else, certainly in the advanced capitalist world, Italian filmmaking was identified with leftism, in particular with support for the Communist Party. It is difficult to think of a single right-wing Italian filmmaker in the postwar period, although some considered themselves Christian socialists (left-wing Catholics). As one commentator notes, in Italy, the love affair cinema-Left was mutual and seemed eternal. It was based on convictions and commitment. When the Left parties called, the cinema was present. The deep crisis of Italian filmmaking is incomprehensible apart from the historic betrayals carried out by the Communist PartyWestern Europes largest such party with two million members at one timeand its eventual disintegration, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and the disorientation and shift to the right within a considerable portion of the Italian petty bourgeois left. With the decay and disappearance of the Stalinist milieu, many Italian intellectuals and academics, searching around for other ideological means of sustaining themselves and also justifying their growing wealth and conservatism, shifted toward distrust of History and its forces; cynical suspicion toward politics and ideology; supremacy of the individual, not within history but as a rejection of it. (A Companion to Italian Cinema) Debates about modernism and postmodernism came to the fore. The intellectual crisis created a profound disillusionment with 1980s political and cultural reality. In 1991, [author and screenwriter] Sandro Petraglia, in an article for the left-wing newspaper Il Manifesto, fittingly summarized generational disillusionment with grand political theories by writing out there, there is nothing, or, there is little, and it is very tiring to go out and look for it. The retreat into the domestic sphere in pursuit of individual pleasures, which characterized the 1980s, was reflected in cinema in fragmented modes of production and minimalist aesthetics. The same source continues, The 1980s became the hedonistic decade dedicated to the material world, and it was characterized by an obsession with fitness, career, pop stars, fashion and brands. This was the general atmosphere in which Italian filmmaking declined. Not every artist went in for hedonism and celebrity, of course, some retreated into silence or apathy. Bertolucci and Bellocchio both turned inward to psychoanalysis and Freudianism. As Bellocchio, in a fairly typical remark, commented in a 1999 interview with the WSWS: Those who followed Marx and applied his work left out the unconscious element. They focused only on a material transformation and did not consider the need to change the inner life. According to the Guardian, Bertolucci sighed in 2013 when asked about his youthful idealism: After many, many years, I fell out of love with politics. Its not something I like but its the truth. I lived in a kind of dream of communism, he reflects. Now, communism, he thinks, is extinct. When one door closes, another one opens. Bertolucci, the Guardians recent obituary noted made a successful transition to large-scale Hollywood film-making with 1987s The Last Emperor, which won nine Oscars, including best picture and best director for Bertolucci. However, Bertoluccis decline does not wipe out the contributions he once made. There are piercing and penetrating sequences in the early films. La commare secca, for instance, which is available online, has some very striking images and dialogue. The film is based on a story by Pasolini, and bears traces of that directors unsentimental but compassionate approach to the life of the oppressed and marginalized. David Walsh * * * * * Bernardo Bertoluccis rise and fall By Richard Phillips 18 August 2012 Italian film director Bernardo Bertolucci was the subject of a special retrospective at this years Sydney film festival with screenings of Before the Revolution, The Spiders Stratagem, Last Tango in Paris, 1900, La Luna, The Last Emperor, The Sheltering Sky and The Dreamers. Several of these were new prints restored under the supervision of cinematographer and long-time collaborator Vittorio Storato. The Conformist, the filmmakers most fully realised artistic work, however, was not included because of ongoing legal conflicts between the movies Italian and American distributors. While Bertolucci has been the recipient of much praise, several Oscars and numerous other film awards during his 50-year filmmaking career, the value of his output has been exaggerated. Before the Revolution (1964), The Spiders Stratagem (1970) and The Conformist (1971), which explored aspects of fascist or contemporary Italy, were followed by a series of increasingly ill-conceived and disoriented films. Born in Parma, Italy in 1940, to a left intellectual, middle-class family, Bertolucci began writing poetry and making short 16mm films as a teenager. His father Attilio was a well-known poet, professor and film critic in his own right, and a close friend of Cesare Zavatini, the so-called father of Italian neo-realism. Attilio Bertolucci helped Pier Paolo Pasolini to publish his first novel, and the latter repaid the favour by hiring the precocious Bernardo as assistant director for his ground-breaking feature Accatone (1961). The following year Bertolucci was assigned to direct his first feature, The Grim Reaper, a dark neo-realist story about the sex murder of a prostitute and based on a Pasolini script. Before the Revolution, Bertoluccis next film, is semi-autobiographical and loosely based on Stendhals 1839 novel The Charterhouse of Parma but placed in a contemporary Italian setting. Its central protagonist is Fabrizio, a relatively privileged middle-class youth, grappling with his sexuality, political views and the sudden death (a possible suicide) of his close friend Agostino. Fabrizio (Francesco Barilli) rejects Catholicism, which he says represents every privilege, every surrender, every subjugation, and, under the influence of a father-figure teacher, toys with the idea of becoming a communist. He is unable to reconcile this aspiration, however, with his well-to-do background. Engaged to Clelia (Cristina Pariset), his conservative childhood sweetheart, Fabrizio begins an affair with Gina (Adriana Asti), his seductive but highly-strung older aunt. The affair ends, Fabrizio becomes disillusioned with the local representatives of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) leadership and decides to marry Clelia in what will probably be a passionless relationship. Before the Revolution is a self-assured and relatively honest effort by the then 23-year-old director and uses tight close-ups, jump cuts, pop music soundtrack and other interesting techniques. The film was heavily influenced by French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard, Bertoluccis mentor at this time, and is an interesting creative departure from Italian neo-realist filmmaking conventions. Before the Revolution opens with a quote from eighteenth century French diplomat Talleyrand: He who did not live in the years before the revolution cannot understand what the sweetness of living is. The films main themesreligion, sexuality, communismhowever, are never fully explored. Fabrizio rejects the Stalinist PCI but his reasons are entirely personal and superficial. Nevertheless, Before the Revolution tapped into concerns by workers and sections of the middle class about the PCI. These inchoate sentiments resonated in France where the film was widely praised and won the critics prize at the Cannes Film Festival. A number of critics have argued that Bertolucci anticipated the May-June 1968 general strike in France and the eruption of the Hot Autumn wave of industrial struggles in Italy in 1969-70 that brought millions of workers out of their factories and onto the streets, but the movie has an ironic tone. Like Fabrizio, the possibility of socialist revolution in Italy or France was far from Bertoluccis thoughts. In fact, Bertolucci, like many other leftist intellectuals, was completely rattled by the eruption of the working class. Rather than being repelled by the Stalinists who betrayed these struggles, Bertolucci joined the PCI, claiming that left-wing criticism of the French and Italian Stalinists by students and workers was anti-communist. The Italian Communist Party, he told one film writer, ever more faithfully expresses the reality of the proletariat, and thus of Italian culture. I feel it allows space for the intellectual and serves as a link between him and those aspects of existence which he has often avoided. Bertoluccis response to May 1968, in fact, was part of a stampede to the right by large sections of the so-called left. The yearning for a space for the intellectual for these layers, however, had nothing to do with a turn to the working class or Marxism but a political refuge, from which they could pursue their own middle class interests and personal concerns. As Bertolucci told a Sight and Sound interview in 1971: The most important discovery I made after the events of May 1968 was that I wanted the revolution not to help the poor but for myself I discovered the individual level in political revolution (Gerard, Kline and Sklarew (eds), Bernardo Bertolucci: Interviews, University Press of Mississippi, Jackson, 2000, p. xiii). While Bertolucci is a filmmaker and not a politician, he was clearly influenced by all manner of unhealthy sentiments wafting through sections of the Italian middle class during this period. He never seriously examined the PCIs history or differed with its nationalist and reformist defence of Italian capitalism. Bertolucci became an ardent supporter of PCI leader Enrico Berlinguer and the so-called historical compromise with Christian Democracy. He later praised Berlinguers infamous 1977 accusation that Italian society was dominated by consumerism and agreed with the PCIs loyal parliamentary support for the right-wing Christian Democratic government and its social austerity measures. In 1969, Bertolucci also began intense Freudian psychoanalysis and later declared that The Spiders Stratagem (1970), his next feature, should have named his psychoanalyst in the opening credits. Bertoluccis view that human behaviour was determined by individual psychology and sexuality, and that society can only be understood through an examination of these factors, increasingly came to dominate and have a detrimental impact on his work. The ironic tone of Before the Revolution was even more pronounced in The Spiders Stratagem (1970). Based on Jose Luis Borgess Theme of Traitor and the Hero, the enigmatic story places a question mark over the legitimacy of the Italian anti-fascist resistance. Athos Magnani (Giulio Brogi) is the son of Athos senior, an anti-fascist hero who was murdered in the fictional town of Tara in 1936, by fascist thugs. The son returns to the town three decades later and meets Draifa (Alida Valli), his fathers mistress who wants him to find out who killed the father. He initially rejects her request but begins investigating after discovering numerous unexplained mysteries about his father. The film moves from past to present in dreamlike fashion with Brogi also playing the part of Athos senior. His fathers anti-fascist group planned to assassinate Mussolini during a local performance of Verdis Rigoletto, but the Italian dictators visit is suddenly cancelled after the plot is discovered. Athos junior later finds out that his father had told police about the planned assassination and then concocted a complex plot in which he would be murdered by his own comrades in order to make it look like he was killed by the fascists. As Athos senior explains in one flashback: It is more useful to have a hero than a traitor. Well offer the spectacle of a dramatic death to catch the peoples imagination, he declares, so they will continue to hate, increasingly hate fascism. Athos junior eventually decides to accept the local mythologising of his father, but when he tries to leave Tara discovers that he is trappedthe railway station has no trains and the tracks are overgrown with weeds. Bertolucci claimed The Spiders Stratagem had no underlying political theme, but the films message was obvious: the anti-fascist resistance was a constructed reality that politically entrapped contemporary Italy. Whether conscious of it or not, Bertoluccis film dovetailed rather cynically with the PCIs deliberate mystification of its treacherous role, ensuring that the anti-fascist resistance was disarmed and the Italian ruling class put back into the saddle after WWII. The Conformist, Bertoluccis next film and his most artistically accomplished work, was also set in 1930s fascist Italy. Based on Alberto Moravias book of the same name, the film is a complex non-linear psychological thriller with some striking cinematography by Vittorio Storato. Marcello is a deeply-repressed intellectual from a dysfunctional upper class family. Traumatised by a childhood homosexual encounter, he comes to believe that the only way to overcome his guilt and shame is by total subservience to the ruling fascist regime. Marcello agrees to help set up the assassination of an Italian anti-fascist leader living in Paris, who turns out to be his former university professor. Using his honeymoon as an excuse to visit Paris and the professor, Marcello, however, becomes sexually involved with the anti-fascists young wife with terrible consequences. The film ends in Rome just after Mussolinis fall from power. Bertolucci said that he made The Conformist because he wanted to warn audiences that fascism was still alive and the film certainly has some powerful and chilling moments. The movie, however, is also influenced by figures such as Erich Fromm (Escape from Freedom) and Wilhelm Reich (The Mass Psychology of Fascism), who falsely rooted the growth of fascism, not in the role played by parties and working class leaderships, but in psychological and sexual repression. Last Tango in Paris (1972), Bertoluccis next feature, is a demoralised, voyeuristic story about a sadomasochistic relationship between an American widower (Marlon Brando) and a young Parisian (Maria Schneider). While it was banned in Italy until the mid-1980s, the film was a huge financial success. Bertolucci appeared on the cover of Time magazine and the film was praised by the New York Times as the most powerfully erotic movie ever made. American novelist Norman Mailer stupidly declared that the cry of the fabric [when Brando first seduces Schneider] is the most thrilling sound to be heard in World Culture since the four opening notes of Beethovens Fifth. Pasolini apparently detested the film, declaring it the product of a subculture. It is supposed to portray something new, but it does not. Whats so new about sadism? Forty years on Last Tango in Paris looks silly and self-indulgent and a clear indication that Bertolucci had little interest in exploring any of the pressing issuesartistic and politicalposed in the early 1970s. The revolution, he declared, was about sexual liberation. The financial success of Last Tango ensured that Bertolucci obtained the funding for Novecento or 1900, a big-budget historical epic about two menAlfredo (Robert de Niro), the son of a bourgeois landowner, and Olmo (Gerard Depardieu), the son of a peasantborn on the same day in 1901. Olmo later becomes a socialist and Alfredo a fascist supporter. The movie set out to examine the social and psychological forces that shaped the two mens lives over the next four and a half decades. Bertolucci declared 1900 had not only replicated history but made it more truthful. The original film was over five hours but was later re-edited and released by Paramount in the US in a four-hour version. 1900 contains some effective scenes about the class tensions in Italy and includes a couple of interesting cameos by Burt Lancaster and Sterling Hayden. Overall, it is an ambitious but flawed attempt to explain a highly significant period of Italian history to international audiences. The film was a commercial failure in the US. Interviewed by Roma Giovani, the PCI youth organisations monthly journal, Bertolucci declared that while Italian culture had been massacred by consumerism, things were different in Emilia Romagna. The Italian region and its peasantry, he claimed, had been socialist ever since socialism has existed and communist ever since communism has existed. Bertolucci released La Luna in 1979, a retreat into his preoccupations with personal identity, family relations and controversial sexual behaviour. This was followed by The Last Emperor (1987), a commercially palatable and superficial historical epic about Pu Yi, Chinas last imperial ruler and a series of other banal and artistically empty films during the 1990s, including The Sheltering Sky, set in North Africa, and The Little Buddha, which celebrated Tibetan Buddhism. In 2004 WSWS arts editor David Walsh reviewed The Dreamers, Bertoluccis then latest release and set just before the eruption of the May-June 1968 events in France. Walsh noted: With the emergence of a new mood in the European intelligentsia in the latter half of the 1970s, consumed, according to one commentator, with cynicism, lechery and suicide, Bertolucci also lost his way. All that was weak, insecure, unresolved in his aesthetic and social world-view came to the fore. An objective study of Bertoluccis cinema and the filmmakers ignominious artistic collapse after The Conformist, fully confirms this analysis. Theresa Mays Conservative government faces days of brinksmanship and political infighting ahead of a vote in parliament on the agreement reached with the European Union (EU) over the terms of Britains exit. Parliament will vote December 11, following five days of debate beginning December 4, on the 585-page Brexit deal. It regulates the payment of 39 billion that London must make to the EU coffers after it leaves on March 29, 2019, a backstop procedure for resolving the border issue between the British province of Northern Ireland and EU member Republic of Ireland, the transitional period after Brexit and the future status of EU citizens in the UK and of British citizens in the EU. As it stands, there is no parliamentary arithmetic under which May can get the deal through parliament, given that the main opposition Labour Party (257 MPs) are opposed, along with the Scottish National Party, Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and Green Party, who have 52 MPs combined. The Tories have 315 MPs and their coalition partners, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) have 10, allowing May to rule as a minority government. But 89 Tories are publicly opposed to the deal, according to a Guardian analysis, as well as the DUP, and only the size of the rebellion against the deal is now at issue. May spoke to MPs on Monday in a question and answer session for more than two and a half hours, warning that rejecting the deal would mean going back to square one and further significant uncertainty and division. Her appeal fell on deaf ears. Such are the divisions in the ruling party that it took more than an hour in the debate before a Tory MP spoke in favour of the deal. Backing May was European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who told the BBC Sunday, This is the best deal possible, this is the only deal possible, adding, Im never changing my mind. If MPs voted down the deal, he warned, we would have no deal. Many are speculating that Junckers intransigence will not survive a no vote. In dutifully selling her agreement with the EU, May could either assume or have been told that a likely defeat in a first parliamentary vote and a threatened no deal Brexit will allow her to seek further concessions from Europeaimed at satisfying the DUP and her hard Brexit wing prior to a second vote. Writing for the Huffington Post, Paul Waugh noted that January 21 is the date in the EU Withdrawal Act, by which May has to come forward with a new statement to Parliament if her deal is voted down at first attempt. Brexiteers and Remainers alike are holding onto that deadline as giving them vital wriggle room to get an alternative. The government has set up a new unit in the Cabinet Office dubbed Project Vote, tasked with winning MPs over to Mays deal. Yesterday, May met with MPs in Wales and then travelled to Belfast to meet DUP leaders, as well as the republican party, Sinn Fein. She will then meet MPs in Scotland and spend the following days speaking to MPs in England. The DUP is opposed to any backstop arrangement that keeps Northern Ireland and the UK in an EU Customs Union for an indefinite period and wants a strict time limit placed on any such arrangement. DUP leader Arlene Foster denounced Mays trip as a waste of time. The only way that Mays deal can pass is if she convinces a large number of Labour MPs that her deal, or one with amendments amenable to them, is the only alternative to a chaotic no-deal Brexit. After addressing MPs Monday, May commissioned a separate meeting with Labour MPs in parliament. Sent to address them was her chief of staff Gavin Barwell, Minister for the Cabinet Office, David Lidington, described as the de facto deputy Prime Minister, and another leading Cabinet Office official. Barwell gave a 28-minute presentation to the Labourites and took questions for 30 minutes. Politics Home was leaked a tape of the meeting. It reported that a significant chunk of the presentation was aimed at calming fears about the deals Northern Ireland backstop plan Following the agreement between May and the EU, the Remain wing of the British ruling elite have largely shifted from outright calls to reverse Brexit to demands that the Article 50 legislative timetable, enabling Brexit to take place by March 29 next year, be extended. Speaking Monday to BBCs Radio 4, Blairite Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer said that his priority was preventing a no-deal Brexit and winning agreement to extend Article 50. Starmer said that stopping no deal is something thats going to have to involve the whole of the EU, but I think there would be a very strong push by the majority in parliament against no deal. Starmer confirmed to the pro-EU Observer Sunday that Labour is planning to make amendments to government Brexit bills over the next weeks to prevent a no-deal Brexit. He said that some Tory MPs were prepared to back him in binding votes as they will not countenance the UK crashing out of the EU without an agreement. There is a clear majority in parliament against no deal, and Labour will work across the Commons to prevent no deal. Labour is seeking to claim the mantle of the most responsible party at a time when British imperialism is entering uncharted waters. It is because he is seeking to minimise the crisis that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is opposed to the Blairite moves to rush to a second referendum Peoples Vote, agreeing with May that to do so would reopen dangerous political divisions. Corbyns statements are those of an imperialist statesman in waiting, to the effect that Mays deal represents an unparalleled and unacceptable loss of sovereignty, which Labour will not accept on behalf of our country. In Mondays debate, Corbyn opposed May on the basis that it was not in the national interest for the Prime Minister to plough on when it is clear that this deal does not have the support of either side of this House or the country as a whole. Rather, it was an act of national self-harm, and what was required was a deal based on a comprehensive customs union and a strong single market membership. However, the crisis facing British imperialism cannot be so easily smoothed over given the extraordinary tensions between the major imperialist powers. US President Donald Trump has once again declared his open support for Brexit as a means of furthering his goal of breaking up the EU, which he previously denounced as a German-dominated cartel. The UK/EU deal sounds like a great deal for the EU, he declared, warning, 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 hopefully [May will] be able to do something about that. May tried to play down Trumps damaging comments, stating, without foundation, We will have the ability, outside the European Union, to make those decisions on trade policy for ourselves. It will no longer be a decision being taken by Brussels. As regards the United States, weve already been talking to them about the sort of agreement we could have with them in the future. According to an investigation by the weekly Der Spiegel, the rise to prominence of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) was facilitated by huge financial contributions from 88-year-old billionaire August von Finck. His father, also named August von Finck, financed Adolf Hitler and made a fortune by confiscating Jewish property through the process known as Aryanisation. Der Spiegel concludes that several million euros that flowed into the founding and development of the AfD originate from Fincks business and financial empire. In 2013, Finck was placed 10th on the Forbes list of the richest Germans, with a fortune of $8.2 billion. In order to avoid paying taxes, Finck has lived since 1999 in an old castle situated in Weinfelden, Switzerland. Fincks support did not take the form of public donations, but rather proceeded through middlemen and organisations that masked the real source of the money. For example, an organisation called the Association for the Rule of Law and Civil Liberties funded poster campaigns and free newspapers recommending a vote for the AfD to the tune of at least 10 million. Der Spiegel, which collaborated with the Swiss weekly WOZ in its research, clearly shows the close ties between this association and the director of Fincks financial and property holdings, 74-year-old Ernst Knut Stahl. Finck has been promoting right-wing parties advocating neo-liberal economic policies and opposition to the joint European currency since the 1990s. During that decade, he deposited 4.3 million with the League of Free Citizens, led by the Free Democratic Party (FDP) politician Manfred Brunner. The League was a forerunner of the AfD. In 2003/2004, a group of anonymous entrepreneurs donated 6 million to the Association of Citizens Conventions. Sitting on the executive of the Association at the time was Beatrix von Storch, now a leading figure in the AfD. The largest part of this sum came from Finck. In 2009, the hotel and restaurant group Movenpick, which was owned by Finck, donated 1.1 million to the Free Democratic Party. Shortly thereafter, the FDP pushed through a reduction of the VAT tax in the hotel industry, which benefited Movenpick directly. The Movenpick donation developed into a public scandal. Finck has promoted the AfD from the very start. Two of the founding members of the AfD, Bernd Lucke and Olaf Henkel, admitted to Der Spiegel that they met with Stahl or Finck in person. Hubert Aiwanger, chairman of the Free Voters and now deputy premier of the state of Bavaria, who was allied with Lucke for a short time in 2013, has also confirmed such meetings. A key role was played by Dagmar Metzger, who was the spokeswoman for the AfD after its foundation. Metzger provided the party with money via her agency Wordstatt, while maintaining contact with Finck and Stahl. At a later stage, the AfD covered much of its spending by trading in gold coins. It was supported in this by Fincks company Degussa, whose public relations were handled by Metzger. After the Bundestag at the end of 2015 put a stop to this trading in coins with an alteration to the laws governing party financing, the Association for the Rule of Law and Civil Liberties took over and provided millions to finance AfD campaigns. The Spiegel report concludes that this secret and in part illegal financing played a major role in the ascent of the AfD. Grey or black money is the starting point of most political scandals in the federal republic, the magazine concludes. What is new is that a party like the AfD was able to get started with the help of dubious financing and then move into German parliaments. While such financing is perhaps new for the federal republic, it certainly has its precedents in German history. Fincks father, August von Finck Senior, had already supported the Nazis when they were still far from taking power. He and other industrialists met with Hitler in the middle of 1931 at the Hotel Kaiserhof in Berlin and promised to provide him with 25 million Reichsmark in the event of a left-wing uprising. This sum is equivalent today to about 100 million. At another secret meeting with Hitler on February 20, 1933, Finck and other business leaders provided the newly installed chancellor with 3 million for his upcoming election campaign. August von Finck was one of the most influential business magnates of the Weimar Republic. His father, Wilhelm Finck, co-founded the bank Merck Finck & Co. and numerous other companies, including Allianz Insurance and the Munich Insurance Company. In 1911, Wilhelm Finck was elevated to the Bavarian peerage. August von Fincks support for Hitler paid off. He joined the NSDAP (Nazi Party) in 1933 and held numerous leading posts in business and politics. He benefited from the Aryanisation of Jewish property, and after the Nazi annexation of Austria took over the Jewish bank S. M. v. Rothschild in Vienna. Following the collapse of the Nazi regime, Finck had to withdraw temporarily from some of his executive posts and hand over management of the family bank to a trustee. He was allowed to keep his fortune, however, which had increased in tandem with the crimes of the Nazis. In 1948, he was classified as a fellow traveler of the Nazis. Soon after, he returned to his leading posts. He then concentrated on warding off a planned land reform and increasing his property. Today, the Finck fortune is based mainly on huge real estate properties in Munich, the most expensive city in Germany. The bank Merck Finck & Co was sold in 1990. In addition, August Jr. holds numerous investments in large companies, which he buys and sells off at short intervals. The companies in which he was or remains involved include the Munich Lowenbrau brewery, the Movenpick restaurant chain, the machine manufacturer Von Roll, the armament manufacturer Oerlikon-Buhrle, the construction company Hochtief and numerous others. In 2010, Finck bought the brand name Deutsche Gold und Silberscheideanstalt (Degussa) for 2 million and entered the gold trade, as part of his plan to support the AfD. The name Degussa is closely linked to some of the worst crimes of the Nazi regime. A subsidiary of the company supplied Zyklon B gas for the Nazi extermination camps. Degussa himself melted down the gold extracted from the teeth of the murdered Jews. Now the Finck fortune, a product of the greatest crimes against humanity in history, is once again being used to promote a party that increasingly embraces Nazi politics. This underscores the warning that has long been made by the World Socialist Web Site: Faced with growing social tensions and conflicts between the major powers, the German ruling class is returning to the fascist and militaristic traditions of its past. The revelations about the AfDs financial resources again confirm that this far-right party is not some sort of rank-and-file movement. As the preface to the book Why Are They Back? points out, the emergence of the far right is solely due to the support they receive from political parties, the media, the government and the state apparatusand, one should add, from representatives of the financial aristocracy. In the aftermath of last Saturdays demonstrations in Paris, the French political establishment has unleashed a torrent of political invective against the Yellow Vest protesters on the Champs-Elysees. Ministers, police and the media have vied with each other to denounce workers, professionals and small business people who protested in yellow vests as ultra-left or neo-Nazis. Their propaganda is totally false. It is not yellow vests who demonstrated, but the brown pest [far-right], Minister of Accounts Gerald Darmanin declared, echoing the Interior Minister Christophe Castaner. The latter called the protesters seditious and said they responded to the call by [National Rally President] Marine Le Pen, the neo-fascist leader who neither protested on the Champs-Elysees nor appealed for violence. The police prefect defended his forces brutality by citing the threat of violent ultra-right and ultra-left networks. Marianne denounced a united ultra-right and ultra-left, these fake yellow vests who ransacked the Champs Elysees, while BFM-TVs Ruth Elkrief worried over the influence of a number of parties of the extreme-right and extreme-left on the protests. The reactionary petty-bourgeois pseudo-left reprised the same insults as Darmanin in order to present the Yellow Vest protesters as virulent neo-fascists. Mediapart, which is close to the middle-class New Anticapitalist Party, attacked them for having organized very right-wing demonstrations or even being a little brown. On Saturday, the police carried out mass arrests of what they declared to be the most dangerous among the protesters. Officers combed through video footage from security cameras in Paris and data provided by helicopters that maintained a heavy presence above the city. This weekend, 101 people were placed in custody. In the fantasy world promoted by ministers and journalists, this was done to isolate a kernel of the horde of genocidal anti-Semites and anarchists braying for blood who assaulted the capital on Saturday. What did the police find? In short, nothing. Those placed in custody, in the overwhelming majority, matched the typical profile of a Yellow Vest protester: workers who came to show their hostility to social inequality and the policies of the government of Emmanuel Macron. Le Figaro admitted yesterday: None of those arrested this weekend in Paris at the revolt by the Yellow Vests had outstanding charges, either of the ultra-right or ultra-left Numerous signs and slogans left along the street reference the ultra-left, notably anarchist logos. One must nonetheless look to the evidence: the majority are in fact ordinary angered people emboldened by the anonymity of collective action. They are workers, mechanics, cooks, carpenters, farmers and plumbers, aged between 20 and 30. Among the Yellow Vests who were given immediate trials because they supposedly presented the greatest risk were: a 25-year-old apprentice bus driver, a 40-year-old prison guard who came to protest against the deterioration of the public service, and a single mother who allegedly threw black paint on the police. There is no doubt a danger that, in the absence of a political leadership among the protesters, sections of the bourgeoisie will respond by seeking to place the far-right at the head of the movement. But this would be a head that had nothing in common with the sentiments for equality and the defense of democratic and social rights that animates the overwhelming majority of protesters. The verbal attacks unleashed against the Yellow Vests by ministers and journalists reflect the panic of ruling circles toward a movement of deep social anger over inequality and against Macron, the president of the rich. In the meantime, the media constantly discovers new reasons to promote fears in the population, spreading rumours that among the workers the most bloodthirsty counterrevolutionary forces are strengthening. Is the fleur-de-lys of the French monarchist flag hiding itself behind the fleur-de-lys of the nationalist flag of Brittany? Did Marechal Le Pen, the neo-fascist leader close to extreme-monarchist Action Francaise, go to the Champs-Elysees, and with whom? We are not in possession of any concrete information on this subject. But Marechal Le Pen provided a disheartened testimony on the Yellow Vest protests that is not without interest. After arriving on the Champs-Elysees at 2 p.m. on Saturday, she concluded that the road was occupied by dangerous communists: The movement was totally absorbed by extreme left militants. One could hear the words Death to capitalism! If that is the ultra-right, then things have truly changed. More than 1,500 General Motors autoworkers at the Detroit-Hamtramck Plant in Michigan returned from a Thanksgiving break on Tuesday. It was their first shift since the announcement by GM executives that it intends to close the plant next year. Mondays announcement is part of a global restructuring by the US-based auto giant. More than 14,700 jobs are to be destroyed and seven plants closed, including four in the United States, one in Canada, and another two outside of North America that are yet to be named. Workers came off 10- and 11-hour shifts and expressed their outrage over the announcement and their contempt for the United Autoworkers (UAW), which did not even bother to turn up at the plant to answer workers questions about the closure on the first shift since the announcement. The UAW, which functions as an arm of corporate management for the auto bosses and Wall Street shareholders, has made clear it will do nothing to oppose the onslaught on workers jobs. Workers leaving the GM Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Plant on Tuesday afternoon We have not heard a word from them, said one worker. Sharon, who has been in the paint department for a decade, said, They definitely knew before yesterday. They knew. I thought it was going to be a layoff coming because of rumors going around since June last year. We didnt get a new car model to produce. I didnt think it would be a closure. Another worker commented, With the union and the company it is all hush-hush. Ive been working for 34 years and Ive had to hear about this closure and my layoff from my sister in Florida, said Frank. They didnt even have the decency to tell us they were putting us out of a job. These people, the auto companies and the bureaucrats, they were bailed out by the government. We took concessions. And now what? Whos going to bail the workers out? Wall Street? This is all about corporate greed. They never cared about us, even when they were sweet talking us and selling us the concessions. Sharon said she thought the announcement was some kind of intimidation by the company. The contract is coming up. Theyre saying: if you want the plant to stay open, you have to accept this. My co-workers have been talking and we all think its something like that. Why now? Why at Christmas? This is terrible. But the contract is coming up. The closure would further devastate the Detroit area, already one of the poorest big cities in the country. Ive been here 14 years, said Joyce. Ill be laid off and would have to find something at a different plant. Ive got two daughters. Its been rough these last 13 years. They were minors when I started here so I had to make the decision to work here to take care of my children. Another worker commented that he was laid off from his previous job just five years ago. I have experience to leverage to get a job somewhere else, he said, but the younger workersthey have kids and roots. Its much harder for them to pick up their lives and leave. Sharon has two kids in their 20s who are financially independent, but also has two grandchildren, six and seven years old, whom she cares for in addition to her 70-year-old mother. Its going to be really tough, she said. I need the work and the check every week. Im single. Those workers who are being offered new positions are being told they must accept jobs either in Flint, Michigan, or in Texas. Im going to try to transfer, Sharon said, but they want you to just pick up and go. They dont care about us. They call and offer you a job in Texas and if you turn it down its bye bye. Joyce A number of workers commented on the ruthless actions of corporate management. When you go into GM, behind those doors, its like a whole other city, Joyce said. You have no say in what happens, in what you do. They tell you nothing until the last minute. They tell you its a democratic thing, but its more like a dictatorship. Obama gave them [the auto companies] money to bail them out, said Jesse, who works at the nearby Fiat Chrysler Jefferson North Assembly Plant and spoke to WSWS reporters at a pizza shop across the road from the GM assembly. And what are they doing with the money they received? The grassroots people that are making the parts, that are in the trenches doing the work, and not in the boardroom, youve pulled the rug out from under their table, and now they cant put food on it for their families. The workers cannot put their kids in college or pay for medical. He said there are workers who are diabetic, and you know medical bills for that are astronomical. They [the auto bosses] are just thinking about money, and not with their hearts. Workers are endlessly told that they must sacrifice for the good of the economyin reality, to further inflate the wealth of the rich. Jesse said, Weve got nothing left to sacrifice. So they can have their third home? We dont have vacation homes and multiple cars. Workers have one car we share with our wives or girlfriends, and for taking our kids to school. And youve got women who are single mothers working in auto factories, who cant even pay daycare because theres not enough money. Jesse As for the UAW, Jesse said it has gotten so bad now that the union has basically turned into political senators and congressmen. They promise you something, and then they take it back. Theyve taken a note from these politicians. Sharon commented on the response by President Trump to the General Motors announcement. Trump, the billionaire con-artist, has sought to exploit widespread anger over the big business policies of the Obama administration, inequality and mass layoffs and channel it in a reactionary nationalist direction, blaming foreign workers for the social devastation caused by capitalism. Trump is trying to act like hes helping us and saying its workers in other countries, Sharon said. Im not a fan of his. But I think they want us workers to be against each other in different countries. We should all be united together. South Korea announced last weekend that the UN Security Council had finally granted an exemption from sanctions for its plans to work with North Korea on a joint survey as the first step towards reconnecting rail and road links between the two Koreas severed during the Korean War of 195053. While the US did not use its veto in the UN Security Council to block its ally, the Trump administration is increasingly dissatisfied with moves by South Korean President Moon Jae-in to foster closer relations with North Korea prior to a deal on its denuclearisation. Washington effectively delayed the planned survey in August, and again last month, by declaring that it could violate UN sanctions. Trump is insisting that the US will not lift punitive sanctions on North Korea until it has met his demands for the dismantling of its missile and nuclear arsenals, production facilities and programs. He met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore in June which produced a vaguely-worded, joint statement agreeing to the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula in return for unspecified security guarantees from the US. The US has wound back its joint military exercises with South Korea, and North Korea has halted all missile and nuclear testing. However, after more than five months, talks between the US and North Korea have stalled. Washington has rejected North Korean calls for moves towards a peace treaty to formally end the Korean War and a step-by-step lifting of sanctions in return for moves to denuclearise. A meeting earlier this month between US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his North Korean counterpart Kim Yong-chol was cancelled. Last week a North Korean website criticised the failure of the US to make any concessions. These acts by the US apparently came from a medieval-era way of thinking that only threatening, coercive and barbarian tactics could enhance its negotiating leverage, it stated, adding that such tactics would not work. South Korean President Moon, however, is keen to improve relations and reduce tensions with North Korea, which last year were threatening to engulf the Korean Peninsula in war. Speaking at the UN, Trump belligerently warned that North Korea faced total destruction if it threatened the United States. At a summit in April, Moon and North Korean leader Kim agreed to take practical steps towards reconnecting the rail and road systems of the two countries. South Korea offered to renovate North Koreas rail system and to send a train and engineers across the border to conduct a joint survey, to which North Korea agreed. Re-establishing transport links is just part of the Moon administrations broader plans to economically integrate the economies of the two Koreas. His Democratic Party has long been associated with the so-called Sunshine Policy aimed at transforming North Korea into a cheap labour platform for South Korean conglomerates. Following the weekend announcement of a UN sanctions exemption, shares in South Korean companies linked to rail construction increased sharplyKorea Engineering Consultants and Yooshin Engineering by 30 percent. An IBK Economic Research Institute report this year estimated that the governments plans for economic engagement with North Korea could increase South Koreas GDP by more than 1 percent. Rail, road and pipeline links through North Korea to China, Russia and on to Europe were central to the Sunshine Policy of President Kim Dae-jung. However, US President George Bush sabotaged these plans on assuming office in 2001 when he called for a review of US policy towards North Korea and scuttled the 1994 Agreed Framework to end Pyongyangs ambitions to build nuclear weapons. President Moon has also taken steps to ease military tensions with North Korea at the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) that separates the two Koreas. Agreements were reached during talks in September to dismantle all guard posts and halt live-fire exercises along the DMZ, and disarm and limit the number of troops from both sides in the shared border village of Panmunjom. This month North and South Korea have each demolished 10 guard posts. The Trump administration, however, has expressed its concerns about warming relations between the two Koreas. Last week Secretary of State Pompeo warned South Korea to make sure that peace on the peninsula and the denuclearisation of North Korea arent lagging behind the increase in the amount of inter-relationship between the two Koreas. He was speaking after a joint working group with South Korea to coordinate North Korean policythat is, to ensure that Seoul toes Washingtons line. While the Moon administration has not openly opposed or criticised the Trump administrations hard-line stance towards North Korea, there is frustration in government ranks over US intransigence. As long as this lack of confidence persists, the United States and North Korea will just be going around in a vicious circle, Lee Soo-hyuck, a former South Korean negotiator and government lawmaker, told the Washington Post recently. The Trump administration, however, shows no sign of making any concessions to North Korea. Earlier this month the US military provocatively held small-scale military drills with South Korea involving altogether 500 Marines. Last week, US Defence Secretary James Mattis foreshadowed that the annual joint Foal Eagle war games would proceed next year, albeit reduced in scope so as to keep from being harmful to diplomacy. The Foal Eagle military drills are clearly a rehearsal for war with North Korea. Although delayed this year so as not coincide with the Winter Olympics in South Korea, these war games involved more than 300,000 US and South Korean troops backed by artillery, heavy armour, warships and military aircraft. If the exercises proceed next year, they will certainly provoke an angry response from Pyongyang. While North Korea has frozen its nuclear and missile testing and destroyed the entrances to its nuclear test site, the only step taken by the US has been to wind back its joint military drills. North Korea is desperate for an easing of UN and US sanctions which have blocked much of its trade and crippled its economy. While a second summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim has been mooted, nothing has been announced. Instead, Vice President Mike Pence told NBC News that if Kim is to meet Trump, it is absolutely imperative that he hand over a verifiable plan to disclose nuclear and missile sites, open them for inspection and dismantle them. Such ultimatums threaten a return to extreme tensions on the Korean Peninsula and to destroy South Korean efforts to improve relations with North Korea. The WSWS Autoworker Newsletter is holding an emergency online meeting Wednesday night at 8 p.m. EST/7 p.m. CST to discuss a strategy for Lear, GM, 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. The World Socialist Web Site Autoworker Newsletter calls on Lear auto parts workers in Hammond and Portage, Indiana, to reject the wretched sellout agreement being pushed by the United Auto Workers union in votes from November 29 to December 1. Workers did not courageously vote down virtually the same contract proposal in October in order to have the UAW attempt to ram it down their throats again. The company-union deal, worked out behind the backs of workers, will: Maintain the hated multi-tier system and arbitrary division between just-in-time and sub-assembly workers, Significantly increase healthcare costs, with premiums and deductibles rising by double-digit percentage points over the life of the contract, Maintain the punitive points absence system, with workers deprived of paid sick days, Entail speed-up and greater demands for productivity and efficiency through the new job rotation scheme, with workers employment threatened if they are unable to perform one of the jobs. In addition, the company is offering severance incentives to those with at least eight years at the plant, in an effort to force out older, better-paid workers. While workers have already rejected the contract once based on what they know about it, they should ask themselves: What is the UAW hiding this time? In the previous contract, the union lied about ending the tier system, when it in fact expanded it, while forcing through the elimination of cost-of-living increases (COLA) and pensions. The fight over the contract at Lear is one part of a broader process: the international class struggle, which has sharply intensified in 2018. On the one hand, the corporate owners and financial oligarchs, along with their pliant servants in the trade unions, are seeking to drive workers back to conditions of industrial slavery and daily misery not seen since the 19th century. On the other hand, workers all over the world are looking for a way to take a stand and reverse decades of declining living standards. On Monday, General Motors announced that it would shutter five plants in the US and Canada in 2019, with another two outside North America yet to be revealed. Over 14,000 hourly and salaried workers are set to be cast aside and deprived of their livelihoods. The ruthless move, expected to be followed by similar job cuts at Ford and Fiat Chrysler, is intended to strong-arm workers into accepting even further concessions in the 2019 contract negotiations, which the UAW will do everything to facilitate. Meanwhile, in France, Greece, Iran and other countries, hundreds of thousands of workers in transport, steel, oil refining and other industries have carried out militant strikes and demonstrations in recent weeks, seeking to oppose ever-greater demands for austerity. As in 2014, the contract negotiations at Lear are viewed by the auto companies, the UAW, the two big-business parties and the corporate press as the test case for imposing concessions and slashing costs throughout the auto industry. Lear workers are fighting not just for themselves and their families, but for the entire working class. Lear, which likes to tout its Fortune 500 status while claiming theres no money to meet workers demands, has been raking in record profits based on the sweatshop conditions imposed with the assistance of the UAW. In 2017, the companys net income was over $1.3 billion, with over $20 billion in revenue. The company has lavished millions on executives salaries and stock options, giving former CEO Matthew J. Simoncini nearly $15 million in total compensation in 2017. Current CEO Ray Scott took in over $5 million that year. Workers who attended the unions informative meetings Monday reported widespread disgust after being presented with essentially the same deal they already rejected, with a few added sweeteners. Its literally the same contract over again reworded poorly, a worker at the Portage plant told the WSWS Autoworker Newsletter . In the updated contract packet given to workers, the union included a multi-page section of Commonly Asked Questions and Answers, with the answers to workers criticisms presented straight from the mouth of company management. A worker at the Hammond plant described the anger and desire to fight among workers when they were presented with essentially the same contract, on thicker paper. The meeting was a waste of time. We expected as much. We all let them know this was gonna get voted down again and wed like to strike. Facing an increasingly outraged and hostile membership, UAW Local 2335 has sought to keep workers in the dark in the weeks leading up to the contract vote. At the same time, it has carried out a campaign of lies and intimidation, seeking to block workers from reading or speaking out in the WSWS, and telling workers they have no choice but to accept the companys demands. The UAWs actions at Lear are entirely in line with its conduct over the last 40 years, in which it has carried out countless betrayals of workers struggles, while forging increasingly corrupt and incestuous relationships with the auto bosses. In the present situation, it has proven itself yet again as a department of company management, whose purpose is to suppress struggles and enforce the corporate line. Its officials, whose income and perks place them within the top 5 percent of the population, are completely hostile to the interests of the workers they claim to represent. The WSWS Autoworker Newsletter urges workers to immediately elect rank-and-file factory committees, independent of the corporate-run UAW, to formulate demands which correspond to what workers actually need, not what the union and company management claim Lear can afford. Such demands should include: Abolition of the tier system, with all workers brought up to top pay Immediate 40 percent wage increase and restoration of COLA Restoration of all concessions negotiated away by the corrupt UAW Fully funded pensions and employer-paid health care for active and retired workers Elimination of the punitive point system and introduction of paid sick days No plant closings or layoffs The UAW would have workers believe that nothing can be done to oppose the companys demands, and that a fight is impossible. These are lies. Workers at Lear have powerful class allies: autoworkers at GM, Ford and elsewhere, along with steelworkers, UPS workers, Amazon workers, and others, in the US, Canada, Mexico and internationally, who are all facing a similar fight. It is urgent that Lear workers connect with workers at other plants, and initiate preparations for launching a counteroffensive to fight for good-paying jobs and decent living conditions, including the setting of a strike deadline at Lear. Workers are up against not just one company, but an entire socio-political system, capitalism, which demands that workers submit to ever-greater poverty in order to enrich a tiny minority of oligarchs and social parasites. In order for any of workers rights to be secured, industrial action must combined with the construction of a mass political movement to oppose the two-party dictatorship of Wall Street, and to carry out a frontal assault on the wealth and privileges of the super-rich. Gigantic corporations such as Lear and the Detroit Three auto companies should be placed under democratic and collective ownership, so that workers can control the wealth they create. That is the fight for socialism. The author also recommends: UAW intensifies campaign of intimidation against Indiana Lear workers [26 November 2018] Representatives of Yellow Vest protesters rejected Emmanuel Macrons speech yesterday morning, in which he tried to stop the movement by supposedly addressing the protesters concerns. After long evening meetings with Ecology Minister Francois de Rugy, they announced that they were maintaining calls for another Saturday protest this coming weekend in Paris. After 10 p.m., Eric Drouet and Priscilla Ludosky, founders of some of the initial Facebook groups calling for road blockades against Macrons fuel tax hike that launched the Yellow Vest movement, emerged from the meeting and spoke to reporters. They said they were satisfied neither with Macrons speech nor with their discussion with de Rugy. Drouet, a truck driver, said: The feeling we have today is that there is no real desire to improve peoples lives, thats really the deep feeling we had today. He added that de Rugys comments were very vague in the endhe said he would try to pass the message along and that was basically it. We said what we thought about the presidents statements to the media, that the French people are not convinced or even worse. It is starting to seriously annoy Yellow Vest protesters on the ground. Now protests will go ahead, he added: There will be a rally like last Saturday on Champs-Elysees Avenue. The Yellow Vest protesters want to continue each Saturday on the Champs-Elysees. Drouet rejected accusations that the Yellow Vests would be responsible for violence like at last Saturdays protest, correctly laying the blame on police aggression. He said, It was the firmness of the Interior Ministry that created all the excesses we saw Saturday. The fact of being baton-charged with tear gas by the riot police from 8 a.m. to noon created tensions among the Yellow Vests. There would have been less violence the entire day if police had acted more calmly. The Yellow Vests road blockades and protests are becoming more closely linked with strike action at key workplaces, including Amazon, the ports and the refineries, and directly raising the issue of mass anger in the working class against social inequality and Macrons presidency. De Rugy himself all but acknowledged this in separate comments to the press after his meeting with Drouet and Ludosky. Their demands go far beyond the ecological question and the question of fuel, he said, adding: Of course, we were not there to propose immediate answers. The rejection of the Macron administrations proposals by the protesters and their representatives escalates an unfolding political crisis of European dimensions. After having provocatively ignored the demonstrations for over a week, and launched a violent police assault on Saturdays rally in downtown Paris that failed to stem the rising protests, Macron finally felt compelled to try to defuse the crisis by seeming to answer the protesters demands. A major factor in this decision was no doubt the popularity of the Yellow Vests, amid rising strikes at airlines, ports, oil refineries, logistics, and growing opposition to austerity across Europe. A BVA poll this weekend found that 72 percent of the French population support the Yellow Vests demands for more purchasing power and less social inequality and taxation of working people. Fully 59 percent want the protests to grow. Macrons decision to give a speech on the Yellow Vest movement to a group of businessmen and union officials only made clear, however, that he intends to pursue his right-wing policies and has nothing to offer the protesters. Insisting that he would not change course, but would only offer token symbolic concessions, he pledged to maintain his unpopular fuel tax while continuing with his agenda of endless social cuts, military spending increases and tax handouts to the rich. He declared, The lesson I am drawing from recent days is that one should not change course when that course is correct, but that we must change methods, because my fellow citizens have concluded that this course is being set from above. In fact, both Macrons methods and his political agenda are dictatorial, illegitimate and rejected by the vast majority of French people, as are similar policies in countries across the European Union. His policies of war and relentless social austerity, which he imposes by mobilizing police to beat up opposition, are now encountering the first serious resistance, erupting outside the context of the trade unions and the established political parties. Yellow Vest protesters jeered at Macrons remarks, shouting, Macron stays the course, so do we. Macrons speech made clear that his government has been deeply shaken by the growing opposition among working people and the mobilization of the Yellow Vest protesters. The rest of his speech was a rambling and incoherent mixture of threats, arrogant lecturing of the population, and proposals for how to strangle the Yellow Vests by associating them more closely to Macrons manoeuvres with the trade union bureaucracy. After his riot police units provoked bitter clashes with the Yellow Vest protesters last weekend, Macron warned of a stepped-up crackdown. To any protests where violence takes place, he said, our response will be public order and only public order. Macron arrogantly criticized the demands of the Yellow Vest protesters for lower taxes and greater social spending as being childish and unreasonable: We cannot reduce taxes and have more public services, day care centres, schools, public services So we have to teach people what our system is. He added, We must explain to people what their taxes are spent on If no one does it, everyone will think it is normal for the school to be free or for the state to pay when you arrive at the end of life. In fact, the workers demand for lower taxes and more public services is not a childish demand, but one entailing the expropriation of the capitalist ruling class. The reason taxes on workers are rising while social programmes are being slashed in France and across Europe is that a massive transfer of wealth is underway to the billionaires. Already in 2010, one quarter of Frances national wealth was held by the top 1 percent, and 62 percent by the top 10 percent; today, this distribution is even more radically skewed. After billionaire Bernard Arnault earned over 20 billion over just the last year, social anger against the financial aristocracy and against Macron, the Rothschild banker and president of the rich, is reaching explosive levels. His tax increases, unilateral labour law decrees, railway privatization, cuts to pensions and health care to finance an EU army, and tax cuts for the rich, are the consummate expression of this transfer of wealth to the super-rich. Macron also made a vague proposal for three months of coordination between the businessmen and trade union bureaucrats he was speaking to, his government, and select Yellow Vest protesters to discuss ecological policy. He also called for closing coal and nuclear power plants and for spending more on renewable energy, trying to present his speech as a serious contribution to saving the planet, though he could not explain how these ecological policies would be coordinated with those of other countries. In fact, Macrons arrogant dismissal of popular grievances underscores how not a single problem, including the ecological crisis, can be resolved without expropriating the wealth of the capitalist financial aristocracy in France and around the world. As president of France, however, his speech made clear his orientation: he has heard the growing social anger and, whatever his trepidation, he has resolved to try to trample it underfoot, resorting to naked repression. The continued protests of the Yellow Vests are an initial response pointing to the vast opposition building up broadly in the working class to this policy. The Guardian has stepped up its contemptible role as one of the main media conduits for the persecution of Julian Assange, publishing unsubstantiated and sensationalist allegations that the WikiLeaks publisher met with American political lobbyist, Paul Manafort. One of the two authors of the Guardian article was, predictably, Luke Harding. Harding has penned a stream of material aimed at undermining support for Assange and WikiLeaks and attempting to justify the efforts of the US government to prosecute him for espionage or conspiracy. Assange aptly described an error-filled 2014 book written by Harding about whistleblower Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks as a hack job in the purest sense of the word. The allegation that Assange met with Manafort is another desperate effort to implicate WikiLeaks in the lurid claims of the Democratic Party, US intelligence agencies and much of the media that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 US presidential election to promote the victory of Donald Trump. Manafort was, from the outset, one of the key persons of interest in the investigation headed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Between June and August 2016, he served as the chairman of Trumps election campaign. In October 2017, he was indicted on charges of conspiracy to launder millions of dollars he was allegedly paid for lobbying, until 2014, on behalf of Russian-backed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted in a US-backed political coup the same year. No charges, however, have been laid against Manafort relating to the 2016 election. The Guardian article makes wild assertions that meetings between Manafort and Assange took place in 2013, 2015 and early 2016 in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where the WikiLeaks editor has been confined since he sought political asylum there on June 19, 2012. The article insinuates that the last meeting had some relationship to the publication by WikiLeaks of leaked Democratic Party emails. It baldly asserts that Vladimir Putins spies sent the emails to WikiLeaks in July 2016. The Guardian omits the fact that the only evidence of such a file transfer is an assertion by an erratic and dubious hacker calling himself Guccifer 2.0, whom US agencies and the Mueller investigation subsequently declared to be a front for Russian intelligence. At the time, Assange had already publicly revealed that WikiLeaks had information on the Democratic campaign in June. It began publishing the emails on July 22, 2016. Assange has denied that WikiLeaks received the emails from Russian sources. Craig Murray, a former whistleblower in Britain and defender of WikiLeaks, has stated that he was told the emails were given to the media organisation by disgruntled Democratic Party staffers. Regardless of the source of the emails, it was entirely correct for WikiLeaks to publish them. They revealed the underhanded efforts of the Democratic National Committee to ensure that Hillary Clinton won the partys nomination for president by undermining the campaign of Bernie Sanders. Other Clinton campaign emails, subsequently published by WikiLeaks, documented Clintons sordid relations with Wall Street banks and Gulf state oligarchs, and her desire to wage war on Libya because she believed it would help her gain election as president. The exposure of the Clinton campaign underscored the fact that the so-called choice between the fascistic billionaire real estate speculator Trump, and the right-wing, militarist, anti-working class former senator and secretary of state, was, as Assange himself stated, like having to choose between gonorrhoea or syphilis. As award-winning journalist Chris Hedges wrote this month: Should this information have remained hidden from the American public? You can argue yes, but you cant then call yourself a journalist. Mueller spent months probing allegations that it was one-time Trump associate Roger Stone who had served as a go-between for the Trump campaign, Russia and WikiLeaks. His investigation came up with nothing, so attention was shifted back to Manafort via the Guardian. In its rush to contribute to the vendetta against WikiLeaks, the Guardian has gone to print under conditions where it has no evidence that any meetings between Manafort and Assange ever took place. Manafort issued an immediate rejection of the allegations. He stated: 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. 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. Jennifer Robinson, one of the lawyers representing Julian Assange, told CNN that no such meetings took place. WikiLeaks has launched a GoFundMe appeal to raise funds to sue the Guardian for fabricating a story that Julian Assange had secret meetings with Paul Manafort. It tweeted that it was willing to bet the Guardian a million dollars and its editors head that Manafort never met Assange. Assange is not able to make his own statement, as the Ecuadorian government of President Lenin Moreno cut off his ability to communicate with the outside world on March 28 this year, under pressure from the Trump administration. Ecuador is actively conspiring with Washington to pressure Assange to leave the embassy in London, and preparing to renege on its provision of asylum and evict him if he does not. As soon as Assange is forced from the embassy, he will be seized by British police and imprisoned. An American court document that surfaced this month has confirmed what Assange and his defenders have always suspected: the US Department of Justice has filed and sealed criminal charges against Assange over WikiLeaks publication of leaked information exposing US imperialist war crimes, anti-democratic diplomatic conspiracies and the spying operations of the CIA. The active collaboration of publications like the Guardian in the US effort to prosecute Assange and intimidate all whistleblowers and critical journalists underscores the abandonment of any defence of democratic rights within the privileged upper-middle class layers that once postured as liberals or even lefts. The Guardian nevertheless has the nerve to carry an appeal for donations at the end of all of its articles, declaring that it serves to give a voice to those less heard, challenge the powerful and hold them to account. The surfacing of the US charges against Assange and the renewed stream of media accusations can only be interpreted as part of a coordinated effort to undermine the broad support for Assange and condition public opinion for his detention and extradition to the US to face a show trial. It is urgent that the working class and youth internationally are alerted to this agenda, and that the campaign to defend Assange is intensified. The author also recommends: SEP meeting and livestream on December 16: What next in the fight to free Julian Assange? NASAs InSight mission touched down on the surface of Mars on Monday at approximately 3 p.m. Eastern Time, successfully completing a six-and-a-half month journey of more than 480 million kilometers. InSight, the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport lander, is the first mission to successfully land on Mars since the Curiosity rover in 2011, and the eighth successful landing of an unmanned spacecraft on the planet. It is the beginning of the most extensive geological survey of a celestial body beyond Earth. As of this writing, all of the probes systems are operating as expected. Two initial photos have been sent from the surface of Mars confirming that it is on the ground, its solar panels have been deployed and it is in contact with the fleet of spacecraft orbiting Mars. Its meteorological suite and magnetometer have been deployed while its robotic arm with an attached camera will be deployed in the coming days. The missions primary instrument suite will come online over the next three months. This includes a seismometer to study Marsquakes (tectonic activity on Mars) and a radio science experiment that will calculate the size and rotation of Mars core and mantle. InSight is also slated to drill five meters into the surface, deeper than any previous study, and place heat sensors every ten centimeters to learn about the evolution of heat flow in the planets interior. These instruments are designed to collect data for at least the next two years in order to better understand the internal structure and geology of the Red Planet. This in turn will be incorporated into humanitys more general knowledge of how rocky worlds form, from Earth and the Moon to exoplanets such as those in the Trappist-1 system. All this for a mere $830 million, less than the cost of one of the US militarys nearly two dozen B-2 stealth bombers. InSights design is heavily based on the successful Mars Phoenix Lander, which completed its mission in 2008. They have a similar solar panel and general spacecraft design, though InSight is designed to last more than four times as long as its predecessor. InSight also has cameras similar to Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity, reusing technologies that have both proven robust and provided a large volume of scientific information. Like every mission to Mars, InSight would not have been possible without a high level of meticulously planned international coordination involving hundreds of researchers and engineers. InSights primary instrument for studying the Martian interior, the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure, was developed through the coordinated efforts of engineers in France, Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. Its probe to measure heat flow five meters below Mars surface was made in Germany and Poland, its weather station in Spain and its laser reflector, which will be used for precision longitude, latitude and altitude measurements, in Italy. The experiment which will map the interior structure of Mars and measure its rotation was developed in the United States. Even launching the mission and operating the spacecraft while it was traveling to Mars required the cooperation of scientists in Australia, Spain and the United States. InSight arrived at the Elysium Planitia, a low-lying and massive expanse of ancient Martian lava near the planets equator. While the geology and chemistry of the region are interesting, the site was chosen more for the ease of landing and large amounts of sunlight than its surface features. The solar panels that provide the lander energy for all of its communications equipment and scientific instruments produce 600 to 700 watts on a clear day, less than what a microwave oven uses. Coincidentally, InSight is relatively close to Curiosity, about 600 kilometers north from the rovers position in Gale Crater. Traveling at its maximum speed, it would take Curiosity 3,000 days or just under eight and a half years to reach InSight. They are currently the two closest man-made objects on the surface of Mars. As with all craft that enter orbit and/or land on Mars, InSights final approach to the planet was done automatically. It takes less than seven minutes for the craft to touch down on the surface, but fourteen minutes for signals to be relayed from Mars to Earth and back. As a result of the distance, there could be no human supervision as the lander entered the atmosphere, deployed its parachutes, chose the exact spot to land, fired its landing thrusters and softly touched down. Dozens of operations and thousands of lines of code were pre-programmed into the machinery and memory of the spacecraft and by all accounts they executed perfectly. The landing of InSight was also a test for Mars Cube One (MarCO), a flyby of two miniaturized and inexpensive satellites called CubeSats that were used to relay InSights telemetry to Earth during the spacecrafts entry, descent and landing, as radio signals directly from InSight to Earth were blocked by Mars itself. Normally, this relaying is done using the already existing spacecraft such as NASAs Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter or the European Space Agencys Mars Express. Instead, InSights team used MarCO A and B to test the much smaller and cheaper communications technologies provided by CubeSats, which successfully relayed mission-critical data during the entire process and for eight minutes thereafter. Future deep space missions are now expected to increasingly adopt this technology. CubeSats have been shown to provide an effective and cost-efficient way for spacecraft to relay information to Earth without needing to have previous craft already in orbit around a celestial body or to use the primary missions energy to send information all the way back to Earth while it is entering orbit or landing. They have the potential to both cut mission costs as well as provide a new platform for scientific observations. This latest successful mission to Mars is a welcome demonstration of the power of human foresight and scientific planning, in the face of the promotion of irrationalism and anti-science prejudice by both the political right and the pseudo-left. Some 5,000 people are still unable to return to their homes and are having to survive in hotel rooms and trailers set up in city parks more than two months after the September 13 Columbia Gas explosions in Massachusetts Merrimack Valley. An early-season snow storm on November 15 caused pipes in the trailers to freeze, revealing that the drainage pipes carrying dirty grey water from sinks and showers mix with the pipes supposedly bringing clean water into the trailers. On Thanksgiving, thousands of people received nothing but boxed dinners, while outdoor temperatures dropped below 15 Fahrenheit (-9 Celsius). On Monday morning, Democratic US Senator Edward Markey hosted a hearing at a middle school in South Lawrence. Senator Elizabeth Warren, whom Markey called his partner, New Hampshire Senator Maggie Hassan, US Representatives Nikki Tsongas and Seth Moulton, and Representative-elect Lori Trahan, joined Markey in questioning a panel of state and federal regulators as well as Columbia Gas executives. The word tragedy was thrown around the auditorium by politicians and panel members in an attempt to deny what the September 13 events obviously were: a social crime. Markey and Warrens pretense of holding the executives, Columbia Gas of Massachusetts president Steve Bryant and Joe Hamrock, the president of parent company NiSource, accountable was limited to calling for their resignations and to extracting a vague promise that victims will be made whole financially. Bryant refused to resign, knowing full well the toothless nature of the hearing, while both he and Hamrock said that they might forego their bonuses this year. Lucianny Rondon, whose 18-year-old brother Leonel was killed by an exploding house on September 13, gave sincere and tearful testimony. Hamrock, who rakes in $5 million per year, had the gall to respond that each day he prays that our Lord might comfort you and bring you his peace. Bryant, whose salary is $500,000 per year, touted the claims process that has been frustrating residents for the past two and a half months. Before Thanksgiving, Columbia Gas spokesman Dean Lieberman told the Boston Herald that Hamrock, Bryant, and NiSources chief restoration officer would be working on the holiday, but not serving meals. In other words, they put in a public relation showing but could not be bothered to get their hands dirty in the food tents. On Saturday a World Socialist Web Site reporter attempted to visit the trailers that have been set up on OConnell South Common in Lawrence in order to speak with residents about the conditions they face. A private security guard in an unmarked car refused our reporter entrance using the specious claim that a public park which is housing victims of Columbia Gas profit-driven crime is private property. The trailers are surrounded by chain-linked fencing with security at every corner and banks of blinding flood lights towering over them. At the Monday hearing, Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera said of Columbia Gas: "break it apart, revoke their license, make them sell their business to someone else Columbia Gas should cease to exist. No second chances. However, the root of the problem is the capitalist profit system itself. More than 1,200 National Grid workers have been locked out in Massachusetts since the end of June, and the scabs employed by the company have committed more than 100 safety violations, including one in October that led to a gas shutoff for 300 customers. Executives from Eversource Energy, which provides electric and gas service to parts of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Connecticut, donated more than $12,000 to the reelection campaign of Republican Governor Charlie Baker this year. Baker declared a state of emergency after the Columbia Gas disaster so that he could direct the Department of Public Utilities to hire Eversource to oversee the clean-up. Infrastructure safety across the United States is routinely compromised because federal, state, and local politicians are beholden to the same profit motive that drives companies like Columbia Gas. Richard Kuprewicz, president of Accufacts Inc., testified at the Monday hearing that pressure from lobbyists has led to a lack of public input into federal pipeline safety regulations and to a lack of clear, enforceable language. This corruption has been going on since at least 2011, under the Obama administration. National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Robert Sumwalt also testified at the Monday hearing. On November 14 the NTSB released a Safety Recommendation Report summarizing the inadequacy of the Columbia Gas constructability review prior to beginning the replacement work that led to the September 13 explosions. The report states that constructability reviews are a recognized and generally accepted good engineering practice and are intended to provide an independent and structured review of construction plans and specifications to ensure there are no conflicts, errors, or omissions. The review should be performed by qualified professionals to identify deficiencies and incorporate improvements into the construction documents. In the case of the project at South Union and Salem streets in Lawrence, the NTSB found that Columbia Gas constructability review did not identify the impact on pressure regulation and control because the Meters and Regulation and Land Services departments did not participate. About four years ago Columbia Gas stopped deploying technicians from its Meter and Regulation department to monitor pressure readings on mains that are being depressurized. The NTSB report found that the absence of such a technician at the project slowed the closing of valves, and Columbia Gas offered no explanation for the procedure. The company had moved the monitoring of pressure to a facility in Ohio and did not have the needed staff at the site. NiSources written response to the NTSB report states that the company will continue using remote monitoring devices. An inadequately trained field engineer has been singled out as the potential scapegoat for the Merrimack Valley disaster. However, the NTSB says in its report that interviews of Columbia Gas managers and staff revealed that the company did not conduct separate risk assessments for each construction project. In another example of the primacy of cost-cutting over public safety, most states, including Massachusetts, exempt industrial and public utility companies from requiring a Professional Engineers seal for projects like the one in Lawrence. The NTSB report insists that a PE seal on a plan would illustrate that the plan had been approved by an accredited professional with the requisite skills, knowledge, and experience to provide a comprehensive review. After his Liberal-National Coalition suffered a heavy defeat in last Saturdays election in the state of Victoria, Prime Minister Scott Morrison yesterday brought forward the planned date for the 2019 federal budget by a month to April 2. This is a desperate bid by Morrison to hold onto office until May, the latest possible date for the next election, as his Liberal-National Coalition government tears itself apart in a factional civil war. Following the Victorian electoral debacle, the Coalitions most right-wing elements are intensifying their push to transform it into a Trump-style, far-right movement. They are provoking a deepening rift with the self-titled fiscally conservative, socially progressive supporters of ex-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who was ousted by the right wing in an inner-party coup on August 24. During the weekend, two prominent right-wing figures made public a potential split. Former military general Senator Jim Molan pulled out of a television appearance, declaring he could not bring myself to defend the Liberal Party after being relegated to an unwinnable position on its Senate ticket for the next election. Lower house MP, Craig Kelly, who backed Turnbulls removal, threatened to stand as an independent if he were defeated in a Liberal Party pre-selection ballot. Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott publicly aligned himself with Molan, saying he was nauseated by the Liberal Partys treatment of the ex-general. Another Abbott supporter said Molans demotion was suicidal for the Coalition. The schisms are widening. Supporters of Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, who triggered Turnbulls ouster before losing the subsequent party leadership ballot to Morrison, are openly agitating against the progressives, some of whom publicly blamed the knifing of Turnbull for the Victorian election debacle. Even as Morrison announced the early budget, a Turnbull supporter, Julie Banks, told parliament she would sit as an independent for the rest of the parliamentary term. The Liberal Party has changed, largely due to the actions of the reactionary and regressive right wing, she stated. Banks said she would support the government on votes of no-confidence and financial supply, but Morrisons government now holds just 72 of the 150 votes in the House of Representatives, with Speaker Tony Smith, a Coalition member, making that 73 in the event of a tied vote. The government lost its majority last month when a pro-Turnbull independent won a by-election for Turnbulls former Sydney electorate. Its loss of control over parliament was illustrated on Monday when it voted for a resolution to establish an anti-corruption body rather than be defeated on the floor of the lower house. The public feuding has reached the Coalitions highest echelons. Cabinet Minister Kelly ODwyer told colleagues on Monday the Liberals are regarded as homophobic, anti-women, climate-change deniers thanks to the ideological warriors who hijacked the partys positions on social issues. Former Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who quit that post when Turnbull was axed, demanded that the government strike a deal with the Labor Party to revive the Turnbull governments proposed National Energy Guarantee, which business leaders are backing in order to provide incentives for investors in renewable energy projects. Labor, which has 69 MPs, could bring the government down if it gained the support of seven of the eight so-called crossbench MPs. They now number four independents, a dissident member of the National Party, one from the Greens, one from Bob Katters protectionist, anti-immigrant party and one from the pro-business Centre Alliance. Labor, however, is intent on holding the government together, rather than take office amid widespread public discontent. In fact, it is working closely with the Coalition in a bipartisan partnership to ram four far-reaching pieces of anti-democratic legislation through parliament in the last brief two-week parliamentary session for 2018. Significantly, these laws will allow the government to call out the military to put down domestic unrest, crack open encryption codes, fast-track a new foreign interference register and strip citizenship from anyone convicted of even a minor terrorism-related offence. These bills are part of a barrage of measures in preparation to suppress mounting public hostility to the entire political establishment under deteriorating social conditions and the growing danger of frontline Australian involvement in a catastrophic US war against China or Russia. Because of the chaos and division in the government, elements within the corporate ruling class are moving to back a Labor-led government to stabilise capitalist rule and impose deeper cuts to social spending and living standards. Mondays Australian Financial Review editorial warned: The parties of the Coalition may be on the verge of being pulled apart by the increasing polarisation of Australian politics. The Liberal Party was dissolving into a group of warring ideological sects and ambition-driven factions. Tuesdays editorial in the Australian denounced the governments disunity and self-obsession and noted that Labors policies had the advantage of clarity. This reflects the views of the newspapers proprietor, Rupert Murdoch, who called for Turnbulls removal, regardless of whether it meant Labor regaining office. Two inter-connected driving forces are breaking apart the Coalition and the parliamentary order itself. One is the Trump administrations aggressive trade war and military confrontation with ChinaAustralian capitalisms largest export market. Combined with a gathering downturn in Australias highly-inflated housing market, this could trigger a sharp economic reversal. An economic collapse could fuel an explosive movement in the working class against years of falling real wages, destruction of permanent jobs, cuts to social programs and deteriorating public infrastructure. The elements around Abbott, Dutton and Molan are seeking to either refashion the Coalition, or form a new far-right movement, based in reactionary nationalism and anti-immigrant xenophobia, backed by repressive police-state powers, to be directed against the working class. Morrison claimed his government would produce a surplus budget next April, for the first time since the 2008 global financial breakdown, but would not say which year would be in surplus. Deloitte Access Economics forecasts a $5 billion deficit for 2018-19. But all these calculations are premised on a continuation of an uptick in export commodity prices, which could reverse rapidly if the US-China conflict intensifies. The current global growth cycle may be peaking. Geopolitics have become unstable, and the dangers from that are quite unpredictable, the Australian Financial Review warned yesterday. The financial elites mouthpiece doubted the governments capacity to enforce austerity measures. But does the Morrison government have the guile to sell this message of budget prudence in a volatile political atmosphere? it asked. Divisions in the Coalition are also being fuelled by Washingtons demand for Australia to line up unconditionally behind its aggressive plans to prevent China from challenging the post-World War II hegemony of the US in the Indo-Pacific region. Morrison and his right-wing backers are intent on enforcing that commitment, whereas Turnbull and his supporters, while totally loyal to the US alliance, were hoping to convince Washington to make some accommodation to Chinas rise. As for the Labor Party, its last government signed up in 2011 to the US military, strategic and economic pivot to the region to combat China, and it is totally aligned with Washington, along with the military and intelligence apparatus and most of the corporate ruling class. Yesterday, MPs supporting Mahinda Rajapakse boycotted parliament. Rajapakse was appointed prime minister on October 26 by President Maithripala Sirisena in an unconstitutional political coup, which dismissed Ranil Wickremesinghe as prime minister. Last Friday, parliament resumed after several days of turmoil and angry clashes, in order to elect a select committee on parliamentary business. But Rajapakses supporters walked out of the session when they were unable to secure a majority on the committee. Since his appointment as prime minister, Rajapakse has been unable to win a confidence vote in the parliament, despite strenuous attempts to win over rival MPs with cabinet ministries, ready cash and other perks. Yesterday, MPs from Wickremesinghes United National Party (UNP)-led United National Front, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) used the parliament to hurl demagogic accusations against Rajapakses faction. Apart from journalists, the parliamentary galleries were closed to the public and large numbers of security personnel deployed around the parliament building. The ongoing factional warfare and political crisis has shattered the carefully cultivated image of parliament as an august and democratic assembly, engaging in serious discussion on issues of public interest. Parliament has been revealed as an empty shell and talk shop, which is used to cover up the dictatorial nature of the capitalist state. In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Times on November 25, Sirisena declared: If it is proven that Mr. Rajapakse does not have a majority I believe he will take a decision. He then added, I have no possibility of re-appointing Mr. Wickremesinghe. I will stick to that principle. In other words, Sirisena takes no responsibility for his decision to appoint a prime minister who did not have a parliamentary majority. Moreover, his so-called principle is one that constitutes a violation of the constitution, and of specific amendments that he and Wickremesinghe had previously proposed and adopted. The escalating factional warfare has not only exposed the right-wing turn of the ruling class, but the desperate and reactionary attempts by the pseudo-left organisations and the trade unions to proclaim parliament as the best form of rule. Sirisena is desperately attempting to distance himself from the former unity government, and thus his role in the IMF-dictated attacks on the social conditions and democratic rights of working people. He is now cynically promising to appoint a presidential commission of inquiry into corruption under Wickremesinghes premiership. The Sirisena-Rajapakse faction is placing its hopes on a general election early next year, calculating that, as the so-called caretaker government, it will be able to use state resources, including the police and the military, to secure a parliamentary majority. Rajapakse also expects to use Sinhala-Buddhist extremists to whip up a national security scare campaign, using claims of a resurgence of the Tamil separatist movement. He will also posture as the defender of Colombos military war heroes that slaughtered tens of thousands of civilians in the final months of the islands protracted civil war. This chauvinist campaign will be used to try and divert attention from the Rajapakse governments record of suppressing democratic rights and attacking living standards through price hikes, wage freezes and cuts to social subsidies. Rajapakse told the media that a new government under his leadership would keep state expenditure under strict control. Meanwhile, Wickremesinghe and the UNF are using various judicial and parliamentary manoeuvres to secure government. The UNF has filed several petitions in the Supreme Court, against Sirisenas dissolution of parliament, which are scheduled to be heard in early December. Two additional petitions have been filed in the court of appeal: one opposing the appointment of Rajapakse as prime minister and the other arguing that Rajapakse and his ministers are illegally holding office. Wickremesinghe told a November 24 meeting in Kandy that any government that does not have a majority should resign. They cannot hold on to office like leaches. If they do not resign, even after November 29, when the next vote is taken in parliament, we will have to take to the streets. Wickremesinghe is placing his hopes on support from the US and other world powers, which backed the January 2015 regime-change operation that ousted Rajapakse as president and installed Sirisena. Rajapakse was removed in order to shift Colombos foreign policy away from Beijing and bring it into line with the US-led preparations for war against China. The US and other imperialist powers are closely monitoring Sri Lankan developments and stepping up political pressure on Sirisena. Last week, US Senator Chris Van Hollen wrote to Sirisena expressing deep concern about the political crisis. The actions taken during the last few weeks, Van Hollen declared, put at risk the rule of law and democracy in Sri Lanka. The decision to oust the sitting Prime Minister, suspend the Parliament, attempt to hold snap elections, and reject the votes of Sri Lankas democratically-elected representatives, could also threaten the progress made in strengthening our bilateral relationship. A political comment last week in Sri Lankas Sunday Times reported that some countries are mulling [over whether to] take punitive actions, such as placing sanctions on politicians and their immediate families who were, in their view, directly responsible for alleged violations of the Constitution. Key sections of local big business and industry have voiced their displeasure over the political crisis and Sri Lankas deteriorating economic situation. Last week, the Sri Lanka Association for Software and Services Companies (SLASSCOM), the countrys fifth-largest and highest value-adding exporter, called for a swift and constitutional settlement to the governmental crisis . SLASSCOM Chairman Jeevan Gnanam said the industry body was disappointed to see the current state of indecision. He warned, Unless this is done immediately, Sri Lanka will not be viewed as a compelling or competitive destination to attract foreign investment. Over recent months, more than 100,000 public and private sector workers, including from the plantations, have taken industrial action and held demonstrations demanding the government and other employers increase pay and improve working conditions. On Monday, tens of thousands of upcountry plantation workers took industrial action and protested to demand a minimum wage of 1,000 rupees per day. The strike attracted strong support from workers in other sectors and small shop owners in the area. Working people, however, must understand that serious dangers are posed by the sharp rightward turn by every faction of the ruling class. None of these partiesor their left henchmendefends democracy. Behind all their democratic posturing, Sri Lankas ruling elite is preparing to step up its class war attacks through the establishment of police state forms of rule. The working class must develop new action committees in the workplaces, large estates and neighbourhoods and intervene with its own independent political perspective. Such committees will become critical to the struggle against the profit system, and for a workers and peasants government, based on a socialist and internationalist program. Australias Liberal-National Prime Minister Scott Morrison issued an extraordinary denunciation of high school students protesting over climate change from the floor of the federal parliament on Monday. Morrisons comments were in the lead-up to a national series of high school walk-outs for climate action this Friday, including in Sydney, Melbourne and other capital cities. Protests have already been held involving students in regional and rural areas over the past weeks. The actions have been shared and promoted by thousands of young people on Facebook. Morrison contemptuously declared, during question time in the House of Representatives, that kids should go to school. He stated, We do not support our schools being turned into parliaments What we want is more learning in schools and less activism in schools. The clear message was the young people should keep quiet and that measures should be taken to discourage students from engaging in political action, and to punish those who do. Morrisons comments demonstrated that the Coalition government and the entire ruling establishment are intensely fearful of the entrance of students and youth into political struggle. They are well aware that there is widespread anger among young people over environmental destruction, endless wars, soaring social inequality and a turn to authoritarian and anti-democratic forms of rule. Every opinion poll of young people has demonstrated growing hostility to Labor, the Liberal-Nationals and the entire political set-up. There is also mounting opposition to capitalism, and an attraction to a socialist alternative. A report by the Centre for Independent Studies (CIS), a right-wing think tank, worriedly noted in June that the overwhelming majority of Australian young people have indicated that they favour socialism over capitalism. The parliamentary parties know that their agenda of tax cuts for the wealthy, the destruction of public healthcare and education, an offensive against jobs, wages and conditions, and the ever-closer alignment of Australia with the US-led preparations for war with China, will produce mass opposition. Amid a slowdown of the property market, acute social inequality and mounting poverty, the ruling class is sitting atop a social powder-keg. Throughout the 20th century, and the first two decades of the new millennium, social movements among students and young people have always presaged mass struggles by the working class. Students at the walk-out in Geelong last Friday While they have been small thus far, the character of the high school climate protests has no doubt caused concern within ruling circles. They have been organised independently of the official political parties, including Labor and the Greens, as well as the unions, and inspired by similar protests by students in Scandinavia and throughout Europe. The movement has largely been built through social media, amid an ongoing discussion in ruling circles in Australia, and internationally, on the need to crack down on the dissemination of political information online and the use of the internet to organise the struggles of workers and young people. The issue of climate change, moreover, points to the urgent necessity for the reorganisation of the world economy in the interests of social need, not private profit. A report released this week by the US Global Change Research Program found that the impact of climate change is already being felt and that it is expected to further disrupt many areas of life, exacerbating existing challenges to prosperity posed by aging and deteriorating infrastructure, stressed ecosystems, and economic inequality. The Coalition government is particularly sensitive to growing concern over the environment. It is dominated by climate change skeptics who deny the global consensus of scientists that anthropogenic climate change is a reality, in large part because of the Coalitions close ties to the coal industry. While the federal government has responded to the high school protests with unbridled hostility, Labor, the Greens and environmental groups aligned with them are seeking to kill the incipient movement with kindness. On Tuesday, Labor and the Greens joined to pass a motion through the Senate commending the protests. Their aim is to channel the demonstrations behind the official parliamentary establishment, which has always been the graveyard of social movements. Labor and the Greens posturing on climate change is utterly hypocritical and bogus. Both are parties of the corporate and financial elite, hostile to any measures that would impact on the profitability of big business. The Greens-backed federal Labor government of Julia Gillard did nothing to stem carbon emissions, when it was in office from 20102013. Under its signature carbon tax policy, Australias carbon emissions actually increased. According to Labors own 2012 modelling, if the tax had remained in place from 2012 to 2020, annual national carbon emissions would have grown from 582 million tonnes to 621 million tonnes by 2020. Emissions trading schemes, touted by the Greens, are no less worthless. Where they have been introduced in Europe and elsewhere, they have succeeded only in establishing lucrative opportunities for green businesses and creating new markets based on financial swindling and speculation. The claims of the Greens that they represent an alternative to Labor and the Liberal-Nationals lie in tatters. Wherever they have had the opportunity, at the state or federal level, they have joined big business coalition governments, committed to slashing social spending, driving up corporate profits and making the working class pay for the deepening crisis of the capitalist system. This makes clear that the high school climate change walk-outs can only go forward on the basis of implacable hostility to Labor, the Greens and the entire political establishment. What is required is a new political perspective, oriented towards the mobilisation of the international working class, the revolutionary social force that produces all wealth, and whose objective interests are opposed to the dominance of society by a tiny corporate elite, and the irrational division of the globe into competing capitalist nation-states. Climate change is a product of the private market and is an inherently global issue. It can only be resolved through the abolition of capitalism, and the socialist reorganisation of society by the working class. Under socialism, the vast productive forces and technological capacities developed by the working class would be harnessed to resolve all social problems, including climate change. Trillions of dollars would be allocated to ensuring the rapid reductions in carbon emissions required to halt climate change. The technologies for carrying this out, which already exist, would be developed on the basis of the collaboration of scientists from all over the world. The subordination of scientific work and research to the profit demands of the corporate oligarchy would be ended. This revolutionary, internationalist and socialist perspective will be elaborated at Socialist Equality Party meetings on the 80th anniversary of the Fourth International, the world party of socialist revolution, in Sydney on December 2, and in Melbourne on December 6. 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. 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. 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. JACKSON, Miss. (WTVA) -- A Chickasaw County man has lost his attempt to have his aggravated assault conviction overturned on appeal. Jeffrey Horn 52, is serving a 12 year sentence for shooting a woman he was dating at the time in the leg in 2015. Deputies say Horn was intoxicated at the time of the shooting, but Horn claims he acted in self defense. He was found guilty by a jury during a trial in 2017. Horn appealled claiming one member of the jury should have been removed because they were sleeping during testimony. He also claimed the judge made errors related to jury instructions and whether another juror should have been removed because of a working relationship between the victim and the juror's wife. The Mississippi Court of Appeals denied the claims Tuesday. TUPELO, Miss. (WTVA) - A local plant has made a $10,000 donation to the Autism Center of North Mississippi. Employees of Booneville-based ACCO Brands held fundraisers during November to raise the money. The donation, which was presented Tuesday, will specifically go toward the center's new effort of serving older children. That program, which will start in February, will focus on social, daily living and pre-vocational skills training. 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United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe Russia Deploys Nebo-UM Radar in Western Military District The page you requested is only available to subscribers. 1. If you are a Premium Service subscriber, please log in here to access this story: Log-in : Password : 2. If you are not a subcriber, you can: -- buy access to this page: unlimited access for seven days costs 3.00 EUR + VAT (at 20%) if applicable. Clicking on the "Ok" button below will place the item in your shopping cart and return you to our home page, where you will be able to select additional stories. -- select additional stories and services from our home page and pay for them at the same time. -- see your shopping cart. You can also see the contents of your shopping cart at any time by clicking on the "Order" tab on the navigation bar at the top of any page, or by clicking on the "Your order" light blue link in the top right-hand corner of our home page, immediately under the log-on box. 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. The annual Advent Fair opened again this year from November 23 at St. Stephenss Basilica in Budapest, for the eighth time running, according to a press release sent to the BBJ. The event is considered the fourth most beautiful Christmas fair on the Old Continent according to Europeans, the press release claims. Besides the unique 3D light show projected on the facade of the Basilica, the spectacular and adventurous seasonal meeting point offers a free skating rink, special hand-crafted items, local food and drink specialties until January 1. The fair will also host caterers who offer vegetarian, gluten-free, diabetic, and vegan dishes. The fair is an exceptional opportunity for those seeking to donate and help those in need. Hungarian Interchurch Aid has been a partner of the event for seven years. This year, many activists, diplomats and celebrities have joined a campaign to bake thousands of gingerbread hearts at the fairs bakery to raise funds for charity. In the public poll of European Best Destinations, the Advent Fair at the Basilica was again listed among the top 20 nominees for best destinations (the only Hungarian event to make the list) and might even win a trophy this year, the press release adds. Opening hours: Monday Thursday: 10:00 21:00 Friday Saturday Sunday: 10:00 22:00 Dec 24: 10:00 14:00 Dec 25: 10:00 22:00 Dec 26: 10:00 22:00 Dec 31: 10:00 22:00 Jan 1: 11:00 20:00 More: Advent At Basilica Hungarys strong growth performance in the third quarter suggests that full-year growth will be above expectations, London-based emerging markets economists said. In its new CEEMEA Economic Outlook report, emerging markets analysts at Morgan Stanley said they had upgraded their GDP estimates again, and now see growth at 4.6 percent this year and 3.8 percent in 2019. Our first stab at 2020 sees growth at 3.2 percent. This moderation would leave Hungary still as a comfortable outperformer compared with the euro area, and broadly in line with the CEE region overall, they said. This may not seem remarkable in light of recent performance. However, seasoned watchers will remember how Hungary had been branded as a serial growth underperformer in the pre- and post-crisis years. Since 2014, this has clearly not been the case. Much of this catching up owes to a recovery in domestic demand, mostly household consumption, Morgan Stanleys analysts said. A conservative economist criticizes the credit rating company Moodys for not upgrading Hungarys rating. A left-wing commentator explains Moodys decision with the still high volume of public debt. On Friday, Moodys maintained Hungarys Baa3 debt rating status with a stable outlook. Nepszavas Miklos Bonta explains Moodys decision to keep Hungary at Baa3 with a stable outlook, with the countrys high public debt. The left-wing commentator acknowledges that Hungarian growth is more robust than in most EU countries. But he thinks that Moodys decision reflects fears over the slow down of Hungarian GDP growth, the slow decrease of public debt and the fast increase in private loans. In Figyelo, Csaba Szajlai finds Moodys decision mistaken. The conservative economist claims that Hungarian macroeconomic indicators would justify an upgrade. Economic growth is fast, he writes, public debt is decreasing in-line with the governments own estimates, and the countrys banks do well in stress tests. 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 Singapore-produced films are increasingly being showcased at major international festivals. They have a secret ingredient. Award-winning titles from 2010 breakout Sandcastle through to 2018s A Land Imagined, with 7 Letters, Apprentice, and A Yellow Bird in between, have a common factor. Producer, Fran Borgia. There wasnt just a wave, but more of a continuous current by a bunch of enthusiastic filmmakers whose films now represent us on the world stage, Borgia told Variety. These films are connecting globally because they come from a local, personal, and heartfelt place. We are also seeing increasing regional collaboration, like with Lav Diazs A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery, that helps Southeast Asias positioning. Coupled with governmental support, and the parallel growth in the commercial film industry, this cinema is only bound to get stronger. The story of Borgias journey from Spain to Singapore is a fascinating one. In 2003, he was a third-year film student at Escola Superior de Cinema I Audiovisuals de Calalunya, adjunct to the University of Barcelona, and he had the opportunity to come to Singapore as an exchange student to Ngee Ann Polytechnic?s Film, Sound & Video department. During those first six months, I met some of the people that would become my closest friends and collaborators, including my wife, Boo Junfeng (Apprentice,) Yeo Siew Hua (A Land Imagined,) and K. Rajagopal (A Yellow Bird,) so I decided to come back to stay, says Borgia. In 2004, he set up Akanga Film Asia to produce a new generation of Asian filmmakers. Singapore has been his home ever since. Despite its relatively small size, Singapore has been increasingly been producing globally-feted cinema. Borgia attributes this to a strong pool of storytellers, and the support of the Singapore Film Commission. The increase of well-trained film professionals and generous governmental grants has helped create the right environment for these talented filmmakers to flourish, says Borgia. In turn, Singapore audiences, and the world, are starting to sit up and take notice. Story continues Borgia was also the Singapore line producer on Crazy Rich Asians, a glitzy world from the gritty independent films he typically oversees as a producer. It is always good to work on the other side and see how they do things, says Borgia. It?s interesting that some reviewers have contrasted Yeo Siew Huas A Land Imagined and Crazy Rich Asians. While they are very different productions, I believe a good film is a good film at the end of the day. And every country has many different facets that deserve to be shown. Borgia has several projects in development and two more in pre-production. Singapore-France co-production, City of Small Blessings by Wong Chen-Hsi, was developed at the Torino Film Lab, Cannes Cinefondation lAtelier, and Venice Gap Production Bridge. Singapore/Taiwan/France/Romania co-production, Tomorrow Is A Long Time by Jow Zhi Wei, was developed at the Jerusalem International Film Lab and pitched at the Berlinale Co-Production Market and the Golden Horse Film Promotion Plan. Principal photography on both films will start in 2019. Related stories SGIFF: Yeo Siew Hua Talks 'A Land Imagined' And Looks Ahead to 'Stranger Eyes' India's Theatrical-on-Demand Platforms Set For Asian Expansion Yeo Siew Hua, Nandita Das to Receive APSA Awards Subscribe to Variety Newsletters and Email Alerts! Cinematic Media, a new state-of-the-art post production finishing facility, has launched in Mexico in response to the exponential growth of film and TV production in Mexico and the rest of Latin America. With YouTube Premium, Endemol Shine and Turner Latin America joining Netflix to produce more projects in Mexico and elsewhere in the region, the need for additional post houses has spiked. It joins the likes of Mexico-based Labodigital, which offers post-production services along with DCP duplication and provision to distributors and exhibition services, including screen calibration and quality systems, digital integration, and image and sound for festivals, among others. Focusing exclusively on television and cinema content, Cinematic Media offers dailies, look development, editorial finishing, color grading and other services. Managing director Arturo Sedano, who has overseen post-production for such companies as Netflix, Telemundo, Sony Pictures, Viacom, Lionsgate, HBO and FOX, pointed out that Cinematic Media differs sharply from other post-production facilities in Mexico. This facility was designed to emulate post-production workflows used in Hollywood for episodic television, he noted. We employ the same equipment and infrastructure as top facilities in the U.S. Even the rooms are similar in configuration. We want to be known, not as a great Mexican company, but as a great, global company that just happens to be in Mexico. Resources include a digital intermediate theater with DaVinci Resolve, 4K projection and 7.1 surround sound, four color suites supporting 2K, 4K and HDR, multiple editorial finishing suites, and a Colorfront On-Set Dailies system. The facility also offers look development services to assist productions in creating end-to-end color pipelines, as well as quality control and deliverable services for streaming, broadcast and cinema. Plans to add visual effects services are in the works. Cinematic Media provided finishing services for season two of Netflixs Kate del Castillo-toplined Ingobernable, its first project. Story continues With Cinematic Medias location within Estudios GGM, which has six sound stages, production and editorial office space, grip and lighting resources etc., producers can take projects from concept to the screen from within the site. We can literally walk down a flight of stairs to support a project shooting on one of the stages, said CEO Scot Evans, adding, Proximity is important. We expect many productions to locate their offices and editorial teams here. We can handle six or seven series simultaneously, said Evans. There is a lot of redundancy built into our pipeline, making it incredibly efficient and virtually eliminating downtime. A lot of facilities in Hollywood would be envious of what we have here. Cinematic Media claims to be the first facility in Mexico to feature high-speed connectivity via the private network, Sohonet. This will be used to securely share media with studios, producers and distributors around the world and facilitate remote collaboration among the production and post-production partners. Related stories Where Celebs, Bizzers Got Schooled in Cinema CG Cinema Spins Pact for 'Eden' (EXCLUSIVE) Michael Lynton Joins USC School of Cinematic Arts Board of Councilors Subscribe to Variety Newsletters and Email Alerts! Prince Harry may have felt slightly underdressed during his latest stop on his two-day solo visit to Africa. The 34-year-old royal attended the Circus Zambia on Tuesday, the one-year anniversary of when Harry publicly announced his engagement to Meghan Markle. The organization, a partner of the Queens Commonwealth Trust, was founded to equip young people from vulnerable backgrounds across Lusaka with life skills while providing educational and employment opportunities. Harry reached up to shake hands with two colorfully dressed performers on stilts before smiling for a group photo with Circus Zambia members decked out in face paint and rainbow wigs. Cant get enough of PEOPLEs Royals coverage? Sign up for our newsletter to get the latest updates on Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and more! Prince Harry Prince Harry The royal father-to-be also met members from CAMA the CAMFED alumnae network, another Commonwealth Trust partner at the event. CAMFED tackles poverty and inequality in sub-Saharan Africa through the education of girls and the empowerment of young women, an issue close to his wifes heart and one she will make a central part of her public work. Prince Harry Prince Harry But Meghan wasnt too far from Harrys mind during the outing. He referred to his wife, who is expecting their first child this spring, in his speech. I know my wife, Meghan, had a wonderful meeting with Angeline Murimirwa from your [CAMFED] team this past spring, and sends her very best wishes to you all, he said. RELATED VIDEO: Prince Harry Takes Heartwarming Solo Trip to Africa for Opening of New School in Lesotho The prince also spoke about how the Commonwealth Trust is impacting communities. I also know that for far too long, you and other young leaders have struggled to secure funding, recognition and support despite all the important work youre doing, he said. Too often funders and investors miss what youre doing because they cant find you or see what youre achieving. As a result, opportunities for both parties are lost. Story continues He continued, We established The Queens Commonwealth Trust to be your platform. The place where your voices can be heard, where your work is seen and taken seriously, and your experiences and insight are shared with others to create the maximum impact for what the world really needs right now. RELATED: Meghan Markles Mom, Doria Ragland, Will Not Be Moving to Her Daughters New Royal Home Prince Harry Prince Harry Harry, who has spoken about his love for Africa and has made several visits with the Duchess of Sussex, touched down in Lusaka on Monday 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, sporting 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. Prince Harry On Monday evening, the Duke of Sussex attended a reception celebrating links between the U.K. and Zambia. The prince also headed 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. 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. After long shifts of firefighting, John Vargo often found it difficult to transition from life at the station to family time at home. "From the time I left the station to the time I got home, I was angry," the 20-year firefighter recalled. "If I would come home and there were dishes in the sink, that would upset me because we just left the station clean. ... To be able to turn that light switch on and off was brutally hard. It got to be too much. I actually went into work in May [2017], and I was just done." John Vargo Courtesy The Del Mar resident was not alone. The University of Phoenix found in May 2017 that 85 percent of surveyed first responders had experienced symptoms related to mental health issues. Additionally, one-third of those responders were formally diagnosed with depression or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Half of them had received pre-exposure training, while another half received follow-up care after a traumatic event. Firefighters can see more trauma in one shift than an average person can see in his or her lifetime, Vargo noted. Last year, more firefighters died of suicide than while serving on the line of duty, he noted. Additionally, he said many firefighters, police officers and other public safety officials are afraid to talk about their mental health status because they believe it might affect their careers. Vargo, who retired from an Arizona fire department in July 2017, found solace that year in something he had never considered meditation. "There was just nothing that could make me whole again," he said. "My wife said that I needed to figure this out." He and his wife went on a retreat to the Chopra Center in Carlsbad, where the couple indulged in meditation methods, and Vargo was finally able to experience a clearer mind for the first time in years. Dr. Michelle Kole, a licensed psychologist, said meditation can be beneficial in traumatic situations. "My patients who meditated and my patients who were medicated were having the same experience," she said in a video provided by Vargo. "Basically, what that was, is they had more space between their thoughts and their reactions. They were having some quieting of their mind, which was the goal." Now, Vargo is aiming to help other public safety officials discover meditation to improve their mental health. He launched a nonprofit called Turn In last year, where he offers meditation retreats to first responders free of charge at the Chopra Center in Carlsbad. Turn In held its first retreat with six attendees in August. Turn In participants at a retreat in August Courtesy Vargo noted some reluctance at first from the participants but noted they said they felt better by the end of the retreat. One retired fire chief who attended at the recommendation of his wife left telling Vargo he had a "new path to go down" for the first time since retiring. Kyle, an Arizona firefighter and military veteran who did not disclose his last name, attended the August retreat and found "unlimited options" in regard to resources, experts and tools to deal with stressors. "My big takeaway was just the sense of gratitude I had when I left," he said in a video testimonial for Turn In. "[I learned] how to live a happy life and how to sustain that." Vargo said he believes the methods taught at Turn In are so beneficial to first responders that they should be taught in fire, police and military academies. But there's still a stigma attached to meditation and more work needs to be done, Vargo noted. "A lot of guys are afraid to talk because it might affect their career or get back to the chief," he said. "Confidentiality is a big part of this. We just need to get over the stigma that it's not OK to see what we've seen and not make it right." He said people interested in helping Turn In pursue its mission further and reach more public safety officials can visit www.turnin.life to donate. One hundred percent of donations to Turn In goes toward the nonprofit, Vargo said. Those interested in attending a future retreat can visit the website to learn more. Vargo said he hopes to "heal some of the wounds" for other first responders and help them find benefits in meditation. A former Connecticut teacher accused of having sex with two of her special education students pleaded no contest to the charges against her Monday. Laura Ramos, 32, entered the plea in front of a Bridgeport Superior Court judge to two counts of second-degree sexual assault and one count of violating a protective order, a clerk official tells PEOPLE. In 2017, Ramos was charged with the two counts of second-degree sexual assault after it was revealed she had sex with two of her special education students. Then, while out on bond awaiting trial, she was pulled over by police and found to be driving with one of the victims. She was taken into custody and the charge of violating a protective order was added. RELATED: Married Special Education Teacher Accused of Sexually Assaulting an 18-Year-Old Student: Reports Do you think the state has sufficient evidence that it does expose you to the risk of being convicted? Judge Robert Devlin asked Ramos at her hearing Monday, the Connecticut Post reports. Probably, she responded, according to the paper. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter. When police first interviewed Ramos in June 2017, she denied the allegations against her. The principal of Ramos Central High School in Bridgeport contacted police after another teacher said hed been told by a student that Ramos was allegedly having sex with one of her special education students, according to a police report obtained by PEOPLE. The student told the teacher Ramos had been texting him about her guy, who didnt want to have sex anymore and whom this student believed to be the victim. RELATED: Former Special Education Teacher Allegedly Caught with Victim While Awaiting Sex Assault Trial In a later interview, Ramos admitted to having sex with the 18-year-old student in her car a handful of times from December 2016 until April 2017. Story continues She was terminated from her teaching position following her arrest. While Ramos faced up to 25 years in prison, Judge Devlin said he plans to sentence her to a maximum of 5 years, the Post reports. Edward Gavin, Ramos attorney, told the Post he looked forward to resolving this very difficult case. The court is giving us the opportunity to address an appropriate sentence and we will do so at the sentencing in January, Gavin said, according to the paper. Ramos is free on bond and will be sentenced on Jan. 25, according to the clerk official. Gavin could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Ramos declined to comment as she left the courthouse Monday, the Post reports. US may have 'legitimate basis' to keep mystery Assange case sealed: Judge originally appeared on abcnews.go.com A federal judge weighing whether to unseal an apparent criminal charge against WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange appeared unmoved Tuesday by arguments from a journalism watchdog group that the public has a right to know. Until a person is arrested, the government in my view has a compelling argument to keep the matter under seal, U.S. District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema said at the end of the brief hearing in an Alexandria, Virginia federal court. Brinkema added that there are sound reasons why criminal complaints and arrest warrants are typically under seal until a suspect is arrested such as using the element of surprise to ensure the safety of arresting officers or agents which she called a legitimate basis. PHOTO: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange speaks on the balcony of Ecuadorian embassy on May 19, 2017 in London. (Anadolu Agency/Getty Images, FILE) The revelation of the mystery case against Assange a focus of years of investigation, according to sources was because of a gaffe by a prosecutor working on a separate case with no connection to the WikiLeaks founder or the Russian counterintelligence case. (MORE: Julian Assange, WikiLeaks founder, appears to have 'been charged' in federal court) In court Tuesday, a Justice Department lawyer repeated the governments position that it could not confirm or deny publicly whether Assange has indeed been charged for anything or has even been investigated. But he also argued, either way, providing such confirmation would damage a hypothetical investigation. (MORE: US won't 'confirm or deny' charge against Wikileaks' Assange) The only thing weve admitted is we made a mistake, Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Kromberg told Brinkema, suggesting that details of such matters are best addressed in a judges private chambers. Katie Townsend, a lawyer for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, which brought the lawsuit to unseal the case, said Assanges advisers have long suspected there were secret charges against him for publishing U.S. government secrets. Story continues This confirms that speculation, Townsend said. Any reasons by law enforcement to keep the charge secret were rendered moot by the mistake of revealing his name in the unrelated case, she argued. A prosecutor apparently used the Assange mystery matter as a legal template to write a motion to seal the case of a man accused in an unrelated sex crimes investigation. The prosecutor mistakenly failed to delete Assange in two places in his motion, which was noticed by an academic researcher earlier this month. At a minimum, Mr. Assange knows hes been charged, Townsend said. Kromberg insisted that the Reporters Committee and other journalists who say theyve spoken to confidential government sources who confirmed Assange has been secretly charged with an undisclosed crime were just speculating. Brinkema said Townsend could have additional time to find a previous case of such a disclosure being made before an arrest, granting each side two weeks total to make further arguments before she issues a ruling. PHOTO: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange speaks on the balcony of Ecuadorian embassy on May 19, 2017 in London. (Anadolu Agency/Getty Images, FILE) In preparation for that hearing just outside Washington, Assange's lawyers attempted to visit him in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London over the weekend -- where he has been given political asylum since 2012 -- but they were denied entry, one of Assange's advisers in the U.K. told ABC News. He met with his lawyers on Monday. (MORE: As his isolation intensifies, WikiLeaks' Julian Assange faces possible threat of eviction, extradition) Assange was made a citizen of Ecuador earlier a year ago but a change in government in Quito has resulted in pressure against him from President Lenin Moreno's administration, who wants stronger U.S. ties. From March to October,the world's most famous free speech asylee was denied visitors, phone calls and any internet access by the embassy, which installed spot cell jammers, WikiLeaks sources and a former top Ecuadorian diplomat have told ABC News. They blamed the denial of access on Assanges tweets about the Salisbury nerve agent attack last spring in the U.K. but many sources said the Ecuadorian government is trying to force Assange out of their embassy. In response to the Reporters Committee's motion to unseal charges against Assange, his attorney in Washington, Barry Pollack, last week told ABC News in a statement that the group "makes a compelling argument that the public has a right to know what the charges are now that the cat is three-quarters of the way out of the bag." While arguing for the specific details of the ongoing unrelated case to remain sealed, the prosecution's motion to seal the complaint made mention of "Assange." Assistant U.S. Attorney Kellen Dwyer wrote that "no other procedure is likely to keep confidential the fact that Assange has been charged," referencing the WikiLeaks founder's last name again later in connection to possible evasion or avoidance of arrest and extradition in the matter. Dwyer apparently failed to delete all references to Assange in the document about the unrelated case. Sources close to WikiLeaks say the case may not be related to the probe by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election but add that they do not know what the charges concern. While U.S. officials have declined even anonymously to pull back the curtain on what Assange may have been charged with in Virginia -- where the CIA is headquartered, and where the agency's hacker files were stolen from and later published in 2017 by WikiLeaks as "Vault 7" -- one official told ABC News any charges against Assange are unlikely to be for activities defensible as journalism and protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution. It is inexplicable that the government would file in a public document a claim that Mr. Assange has been charged when no notice has been given to Mr. Assange. The government should not be bringing criminal charges against someone for publishing truthful information," Pollack told ABC News in a statement on Nov. 15. The U.S. government has been investigating WikiLeaks for publishing military secrets and sensitive diplomatic cables since at least 2010. (MORE: Was there a plan to help Julian Assange escape to Russia?) New protocols by Ecuador as of October highlight what an increasingly unwelcome guest Assange has become, because even though he is once again receiving visitors he is forbidden from making political statements . His legal team says Ecuador's president wants political cover for eventually stripping Assange, whom Moreno calls a "hacker," of his Ecuadorian citizenship and asylum. (MORE: Ecuador to Assange: Don't meddle in politics, and take care of your cat) If Assange were to be expelled from the embassy, he could face immediate arrest by British police on an active warrant for "failure to appear" in court while out on bail in London, which is related to a now-closed rape inquiry in Sweden from more than six years ago. That arrest could pave the way for his potential extradition to the United States, his lawyers have said. Los Angeles and New York City are far from the only places we spot stylish women. Meghan Markle showed off a slew of outfits in Australia, Brigitte Macron looked impeccable in Belgium, and Michelle Obama wore power pantsuits on her U.S. book tour. Now, Queen Rania of Jordan is our latest obsession. She has embarked on a royal tour of Japan and packed plenty of chic looks for the trip. Arriving in Tokyo, Queen Rania schooled us in posh airport style: She wore a furry coat with side-stripe trousers, which is equal parts comfortable and stylish. For a meeting with Japan's First Lady, Akie Abe, the queen opted for a black blouse with statement sleeves, a printed midi skirt, and every royal's favorite accessory: the top-handle bag. (By the way, how perfect does the first lady look in her sleek beige dress?) Scroll down to see everything Queen Rania has worn in Japan and shop her looks. Next up, the six trends Kate Middleton never wears anymore. Yaounde (AFP) - At least 29 people were wounded Wednesday when a women bomber blew herself up in a border town in Cameroon's Far North, a region frequently hit by Boko Haram jihadists, security sources said. But a second bomber was shot dead by troops deployed in the town before she could detonate her explosives, the source said. "A suicide bomber blew herself up this morning in Amchide" on the Nigerian border, a regional security source said, speaking on condition of anonymity and giving a toll of 29 wounded. The attack occurred on market day when the town was filling up with early-morning shoppers, a local civil defence group official said. "There were many people hurt, I saw about 20," he said. "After the attack, the market emptied." A once-bustling trade hub, in 2014 Amchide was thrust into the forefront of a major battle between Cameroonian troops and Boko Haram militants who held the nearby Nigerian town of Banki for several months. The violence forced most residents to flee the town, although some have now begun to return. After pushing back Boko Haram, the Cameroonian army dug long trenches around Amchide and even inside the town to foil new incursions by the jihadists, with Wednesday's attack the first in many months. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez may be the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, but that hasn't stopped her from sparring with Washingtons senior establishment. The 29-year-old congresswoman-elect has taken on Republican Senator Lindsey Graham over controversial comments he made earlier this year, in which he said on Fox News that it would be like, terrible if he a DNA test were to indicate he was of Iranian descent. I heard your joke about ethnic DNA preferences last month, Ms Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter in response to Mr Graham, who criticised her earlier in the day for bringing up the Holocaust while discussing the plight of migrants along the US-Mexico border. Perhaps you would enjoy a visit (or revisit) to the Smithsonian Museum of African-American History and Culture. She added, Its a great educational experience. The two outspoken politicians began exchanging tweets earlier in the day, when Mr Graham wrote a recommendation for Ms Ocasio-Cortez to take a tour of the Holocaust Museum in DC. While were recommending museums @LindseyGrahamSC, I heard your joke about ethnic DNA preferences last month. Perhaps you would enjoy a visit (or revisit) to the Smithsonian Museum of African-American History and Culture (@NMAAHC). Its a great educational experience. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) November 27, 2018 The apparent dig was made shortly after the Democratic newcomer wrote that asking to be considered a refugee & applying for status isnt a crime, adding, It wasnt for Jewish families fleeing Germany. Before bringing up his previous remarks about Iranian DNA, Ms Ocasio-Cortez wrote back to him that the point of such a treasured museum is to bring its lessons to present day. Story continues This administration has jailed children and violated human rights, she added. Perhaps we should stop pretending that authoritarianism + violence is a historical event instead of a growing force. Ms Ocasio-Cortez has become one of the most widely-discussed congressional freshmen after unseating 10-term Democratic incumbent Joe Crowley in the 2018 midterm elections, using her social media platforms to document life for elected officials in Washington as well as hit back at her opponents in real-time. The New York progressive has previously exchanged blows with Fox News and conservative journalists who have focused on her clothing and finances. Shes also taken on the establishment within her own party, pushing Nancy Pelosi slated to become the next House speaker to adopt a progressive stance on issues like climate change while attending a sit-in at the California Democrats offices with environmental activists. (Photo: Brie Dyas) When it comes to coffee shop menus, less has become more. Those long lists of drinks, bean varieties, teas, non-caffeinated beverages, sizes and prices are shrinking, and Starbucks is leading the way. The coffee chain known for offering everything that you could possibly want inside of a cup has Marie Kondod its store menus. Upon entering any given Starbucks, youll look above the barista to find a trimmed list of select drinks priced out at the Grande (medium) size and a corresponding calorie count. You might also find a few photos of seasonal beverages or an illustrative breakdown of a new offering. According to a spokesperson for Starbucks, the move to focus only on core and select seasonal beverages was rolled out this past spring in an effort to simplify the ordering experience for our customers. However, it wasnt a complete spring clean. The chain still offers its usual size range (Tall, Grande, Venti) and every drink that used to be featured but youll only see the prices and offerings in the Starbucks app, which now accounts for 14 percent of store transactions. For regulars who could order and pay for a Venti Java Chip Frappuccino in their sleep, the change isnt really going to disrupt their routine. But for the casual customer who visits the Shrewsbury, New Jersey, Starbucks on a November afternoon for a rare treat, they might (understandably) think that their choices are limited to the 12 options listed. The question is: Does this customer even mind having fewer options? I think [a streamlined menu] is easier for customers to understand a super complicated menu can be daunting, said Ashley Rodriguez, online editor for Barista Magazine and a barista in the Bay Area. And just because theres words on a menu, it doesnt mean a customer understands them. For example, a customer may see three sizes and prices listed for a latte, but wont know just how many shots of espresso are in each. Or, someone who has never ventured beyond a standard coffee might not even know what goes into a latte to begin with. In these cases, customers have a bit more clarity with a menu that doesnt list a latte outright. Story continues I see places that have an option for espresso and milk, which means customers can say just how much milk they want, from a splash to a big 20-ounce latte. In this scenario, baristas are encouraged to figure out what a customer actually wants, Rodriguez told HuffPost. If a menu does list a latte, editing out other options keeps questions to a minimum while also giving a barista an opportunity to craft a drink to the customers specifications. A concise menu benefits baristas and customers but also the cafe. The sooner a guest finds their item, the happier they will be, said Gregg Rapp, a menu engineer with 36 years of experience in the field. The guest will buy more items if it is easy to navigate the menu. When they have to search the menu and get confused, the guest will order a default item, an item that is easy and safe. Clearing up menu space also makes room to offer details on specialty beverages that may command higher prices. According to Rapp, this emphasis on a select product has a powerful effect on customers buying habits. The value goes up in the guests mind and the price seems lower with more description, he told HuffPost. So yes, the more description, the more work to get through the menu, but youre helping the guest and building value into the items. Though offering fewer items on the menu could be profitable, this design helps highlight the true specialties of the house instead of the more everyday items a good reason the trend could go beyond cafes. Less choice isnt about serving less, especially in coffee shops, than it is about creating a streamlined experience showcasing what youre best at, said Briana Volk, owner and creative director of the restaurants Little Giant and Portland Hunt + Alpine Club in Portland, Maine. At Little Giant, we have recently taken our burger off the menu as an offering, but still make it and serve it. It creates a conversation between us and our guests which can help us provide a more personal experience, she told HuffPost. Whether youre ordering a burger or a mocha, curated menus may become the new norm. Until then, youll now know why there are a dozen Grande Peppermint Lattes lined up at the bar at Starbucks and why you should consult the Starbucks app if you want to see the options for a hot tea. Related Coverage Here's How The Rest Of The World Drinks Coffee 7 Wonderful Ways Coffee Benefits Your Health Here's Why Fancy Coffee Costs So Much More Also on HuffPost Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. An Argentinian prosecutor has agreed to pursue a case against Saudi Arabias crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, over possible war crimes in Yemen, according to Human Rights Watch. HRW petitioned Argentina's judiciary on Monday to use a clause in its constitution to prosecute Saudi Arabias de facto leader, who arrived in the country to attend the G20 summit in Buenos Aires. Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of HRWs Middle East and North Africa Division, announced on Twitter that a prosecutor has agreed to take up the case, and asked a judge to request information from Yemeni and Saudi authorities regarding alleged war crimes, and had also asked Argentina's foreign ministry whether the crown prince's diplomatic status might allow a legal proceeding to go forward. The Argentine judiciary, by taking steps towards a formal investigation, is sending a clear message that even powerful officials like Mohammed bin Salman are not above the law and will be scrutinised if implicated in grave international crimes," Ms Whitson said in an emailed statement to The Independent. Ms Whitson said the country's chief prosecutor reviewed the HRW complaint and decided to hand it to another prosecutor assigned by lottery. That prosecutor is now referring the case to a judge for investigation that would include the collection of information about the conduct of the Saudi war in Yemen, which has stretched on for nearly four years. Under Argentinian law and Geneva conventions, Prince Mohammed may enjoy immunity and special status that precludes him from prosecution. At the very least, the case against him damages the 33-year-old's attempt to repair his image following the global uproar over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul last month, a murder allegedly linked to security operatives in his inner circle. "A cloud of suspicion will loom over him as he tries to rebuild his shattered reputation at the G20, and world leaders would do well to think twice before posing for pictures next to someone who may come under investigation for war crimes and torture, Ms Whitson said. Story continues At a minimum, it will be an embarrassment for him at a time he is trying to project normalcy, Shibley Telhami, a professor focused on Middle East affairs at the University of Maryland, wrote on Twitter. BREAKING: #Argentina prosecutor proceeds with case against MBS, asks judge to request information from #Yemen & #Saudi governments re alleged crimes, and asks Argentine MFA re MBSs diplomatic status. Sarah Leah Whitson (@sarahleah1) November 28, 2018 This news, as MBS arrived in Argentina for the G20 summit. At a minimum, it will be an embarrassment for him at a time he is trying to project normalcy. https://t.co/5zmdDzf6nu Shibley Telhami (@ShibleyTelhami) November 28, 2018 The crown prince landed in Buenos Aires on Wednesday for the G20 summit from Tunisia, where he was met by protesters who denounced him as a murderer for the killing of Mr Khashoggi and alleged human rights violations in Yemen. The killing of the Washington Post columnist and critic of the crown prince, at Riyadh's consulate in Istanbul nearly two months ago, has strained Saudi Arabia's ties with the West and damaged Prince Mohammed's image abroad. Saudi Arabia has insisted the prince had no prior knowledge of the murder. Vienna (AFP) - Austria on Wednesday finalised the details of welfare cuts aimed at immigrants, in a move criticised by anti-poverty campaigners and church groups. Immigrants whose German-language skills are not up to scratch will see their benefit payments cut under the plan, agreed by the ruling centre-right People's Party (OeVP) and far-right Freedom Party (FPOe). Rules will also be tightened for people judged to be unwilling to work. In last year's election campaigns, both parties promised to get tough on illegal immigration while cutting taxes and bureaucracy and in December they agreed to share power. According to their new plan, the minimum monthly payment will be set at 863 euros ($974). For asylum seekers with poor German or English however, that will be cut to 563 euros. FPOe Social Affairs Minister Beate Hartinger-Klein summed up the aims of the new measures: "First, fairness for Austrians. Foreigners must wait. This is of clear benefit to our citizens." But critics of the government's plans expressed concern that the cuts will push children in particular into poverty. The anti-poverty network, the Armutskonferenz, said that "instead of turning people into beggars, the laws need to be changed so that they fight poverty and don't make people poorer." And the head of the church charity Caritas, Michael Landau, posted on Facebook: "If the government reforms the minimum allowance, my call and request is that child and old-age poverty is not allowed to increase in Austria. "We have to fight poverty, not people affected by poverty." Critics also hit out at the fact that the reforms focused on the migration background of those receiving benefits. The FPOe has argued that migrants who had never worked in Austria or paid into the social system should not be entitled to the same level of benefits as Austrians. However, in a ruling last week on a specific case in the province of Upper Austria, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) said refugees were entitled to social benefits under the same conditions as nationals, irrespective of the duration of validity of their residence permit. The government hopes that the language requirement in the new measures will avoid any claims that it is discriminatory. The reform proposals will now have to be put to parliament in February and March before they can legally come into effect starting from April 1. By Jonathan Pearlman 28 November 2018 SYDNEY, Australia (The Telegraph) Authorities ordered more than 10,000 people to flee from catastrophic wildfires moving across north-east Australia, as heavy rains in the south-east caused flooding that left at least two people dead. In the state of Queensland, a heatwave and strong winds fuelled a massive fire that destroyed homes and led to the evacuation of all 8,000 residents from the town of Gracemere, the first time this has happened in its 150-year history. The fire was threatening the larger town of Rockhampton, which is about five miles away and has about 80,000 residents. The Bureau of Meteorology declared a catastrophic fire danger in the region, the first time such a level has been applied in Queensland. [This is] unprecedented, uncharted, but we have a plan, said Annastacia Palaszczuk, the states premier. []Queensland Fire and Emergency Services said aerial tankers had released water on the blaze near Gracemere and helped to suppress it.However, that cannot operate through the night, and in some of those areas its actually too dangerous to have crews in those areas, said Katarina Carroll, the head of the agency.We have never, ever in this state been in this situation before. [] As the fires continued, residents in Sydney, about 900 miles south, were cleaning up after a violent storm that caused flash flooding and turned roads into rivers. The city centre received a months worth of rain in two hours. []During the two hours of heaviest downpour, parts of the city received as much as six inches of rain. For that intensity and that duration, thats the sort of rainfall youd expect to occur about once every 100 years for that particular site, said Ann Farrell, from the Bureau of Meteorology. [more] Thousands flee catastrophic bushfires in northern Australia as flash floods kill two in Sydney By Eric Leister 28 November 2018 (AccuWeather) Torrential rainfall brought a months worth of rainfall to parts of Sydney in only two hours on Wednesday, resulting in widespread flooding. Meanwhile, bushfires continue to ravage parts of Queensland, where months of drought has turned the region into a tinderbox. These sharp contrasts in the weather are just the latest extreme weather events to affect Australia.Damaging winds, a blinding dust storm and heavy mountain snow have already been recorded earlier this month in eastern Australia.Torrential downpours in Sydney brought the city to a standstill on Wednesday and resulted in at least two deaths, according to the BBC. []Rainfall totaled 50-100 mm (2-4 inches) around the city, with most of the rain falling within a two-hour period.The Australia Bureau of Meteorology reported that it was the wettest November day in Sydney since 1984. []There is a stark contrast in the weather farther north across Queensland. Months of drought have left the region extremely susceptible to wildfires.Strong winds associated with the storm that impacted Sydney and an ongoing heat wave has helped to fuel more than 130 bushfires across the state.The fire danger level in the state has risen to catastrophic for the first time in history and prompted the evacuation of thousands of people, the BBC reported. [more] Sydney flooding, Queensland bushfires continue streak of extreme weather across Australia BEIJING (Reuters) - An award-winning Chinese photographer is missing and may have been detained by state security officers while visiting China's far-flung western Xinjiang region, his wife said. Lu Guang, a three-time World Press Photo award winner, had been invited to take part in photography events in the regional capital, Urumqi, in late October, his wife, Xu Xiaoli, said in online posts. She lost touch with her husband on Nov. 3 while he was travelling alone in the southern city of Kashgar and has not heard from him since, Xu said. She later contacted the wife of the person who invited her husband to Xinjiang and was told both men had been taken away by state security officers, Xu said. The Xinjiang regional government did not immediately respond to a request for comment. At a regular news briefing in Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said he was not aware of the case. "He went to Kashgar alone," Xu, who lives in New York City, told Reuters on Tuesday. "Later, it was both him and the friend who were taken away." Lu's prize-winning work has largely focused on sensitive environmental and social issues in China, including industrial pollution, drug addiction and people living with AIDS. Beijing has faced an outcry from activists, academics, foreign governments and U.N. rights experts over mass detentions and strict surveillance of the ethnic Uighur minority and other Muslim groups in Xinjiang. Chinese authorities routinely deny any ethnic or religious repression in Xinjiang and say its measures are needed to combat the influence of religious extremism. Xu said she had not received any official notice of Lu's detention and had been unable to contact Xinjiang police. "Dec. 4 is our 20th wedding anniversary. He was meant to celebrate with us together," Xu said in an online post. "Ever since I lost touch with him, the days have dragged on like years." (Reporting by Christian Shepherd and Philip Wen; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Darren Schuettler) Jerusalem (AFP) - British International Trade Secretary Liam Fox met Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday as his country prepares to leave the European Union and pursue an independent trade policy. Britain's exports to Israel already grew by 75 percent in the first half of 2018 compared to the same period last year, Fox's office said, citing Israeli official figures. Last year saw more than $9 billion in trade between the two nations, a record high, it said. "And as we leave the European Union and Britain takes up its place as an independent state of (the World Trade Organisation), we want to push our concept of free trade even further," Fox told Netanyahu ahead of their meeting. "In a world where the siren calls of protectionism are rising, two free-trade nations like ours need to make the case for global free trade because trade spreads prosperity." Netanyahu said: "Britain is in fact our largest trade partner in Europe -- one of our most important trading partners in the world -- and we value the friendship." Israel is notably an import market for British cars, while Scotch whiskey sales in Israel have increased by 300 percent since 2012, according to Fox's office. Other leading British exports to Israel have included mineral products and machinery and electrical equipment, as well as chemical industry products, according to the British embassy. British Prime Minister Theresa May is seeking to convince hostile MPs to back her draft deal for future ties with the EU after her country exits the bloc next March. A vote is scheduled for December 11. Fox arrived in Israel on Monday and met with Palestinian prime minister Rami Hamdallah in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday. Eat This, Not That! You pour it out, wear it on your sleeve and love people from the bottom of it. But do you take carewe mean, proper careof your heart?For decades, heart disease has been the No. 1 killer of Americans.The good news: You can make quick, easy changes to your lifestyle to cut your risk, and add years to your life, and it's never too late. Here are the top 50 things you're probably doing that put you in dangerfrom the Eat This, Not That! Health to you, with all our heart. Read onand to ensure your Ukrainian sailors were on Tuesday filmed giving what Kiev said were forced confessions and brought to court after Russia seized their ships off the coast of Crimea in a major escalation of tensions. A court in Crimea ruled on Tuesday that 12 of the 24 captured sailors and security service agents would be kept in confinement for two months, with a decision on the rest expected Wednesday. Moscow has defied Western calls to release the men, who have been accused of violating Russia's borders and face up to six years in prison. At least three of the men are in hospital. State television has broadcast footage from the interrogation of three of the captives, including an officer who, while reading from a screen, said the ships had deliberately ignored Russian requests to stop. The head of the Ukrainian navy said the sailors had been forced to give false testimony, noting that several of the men had relatives in Crimea. Russian ships rammed a tugboat and opened fire on two gunboats that were trying to reach the Ukrainian port of Mariupol through the Kerch Strait on Sunday. A Russian FSB security service officer escorts a detained Ukrainian sailor to a courthouse in Simferopol, Crimea Credit: STR/AFP/Getty Images The Ukrainian security service said Tuesday that a Russian jet had also fired rockets during the incident, seriously injuring one officer. Special forces later boarded the vessels. Russia has claimed the incident was a planned provocation, while Ukraine has called it an act of aggression. Although the Azov Sea is by a 2003 treaty supposed to be shared between Ukraine and Russia, the Kerch Strait connecting it to the Black Sea has been controlled by Moscow since it annexed Crimea in 2014. Russia has been demanding that ships receive permission to pass after it opened a bridge over the strait in May. In a phone call with German chancellor Angela Merkel late on Monday, Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, accused Kiev of creating yet another conflict situation before March's presidential election in Ukraine, according to a Kremlin read-out. Story continues On Tuesday, Russian state media footage showed Bal anti-ship missiles moving from Sevastopol to the Kerch Strait. For over four years, Russia has backed separatists in a conflict in Eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 10,300 people. Tensions have also been rising in the Azov Sea as both sides have detained each other's fishing vessels. But Sunday's incident marked the first time Russia has openly attacked Ukrainian forces. The UK has condemned Russia's destabilising behaviour in the region and its ongoing violation of Ukrainian territorial integrity. At an emergency session of the United Nations on Monday, Russia said the Ukrainian vessels deliberately did not wait for permission to pass through the strait, which was temporarily closed. The passage under the bridge had been blocked with a tanker. But Ukraine said its ships had waited for permission and began withdrawing from the area after they were buzzed by Russian helicopters. Speaking on CNN on Tuesday, president Petro Poroshenko said Russia had concentrated a large number of troops near Ukraine's borders, citing Nato intelligence. Ukraine's parliament had previously agreed to impose martial law after Mr Poroshenko claimed he had information that Russia was planning a ground operation. It had looked as though March's presidential election, in which Mr Poroshenko is trailing in the polls, would be delayed. But following a backlash, the measures were watered down and will be implemented for only one month and only in 10 regions. The incident will likely boost the ratings of both Mr Putin and Mr Poroshenko. Since the annexation of Crimea, Russia has imprisoned several Ukrainians in controversial trials, including Crimean director Oleg Sentsov. In 2016, military pilot Nadiya Savchenko was sentenced to 22 years in prison by a Moscow court after being captured in eastern Ukraine. Within weeks, she was swapped for two Russian soldiers captured in eastern Ukraine. The Lascaux Shaft Scene is though to represent Libra, Capricorn and Taurus - Alistair Coombs Europe's earliest known cave paintings were an ancient zodiac mapping the skies, experts have claimed. New research suggests humans had a sophisticated knowledge of the stars as long as 40,000 years ago, tens of thousands of years earlier than previously thought. And researchers at the universities of Edinburgh and Kent believe the positions of the paintings show they could even keep track of time and the changing seasons by watching how stars slowly move in the sky as the year progresses. The phenomenon, known as precession of the equinoxes, is caused by the gradual shift of Earth's rotational axis. Its discovery was previously credited to the ancient Greeks. Researchers used software to recreate the night sky as it appeared thousands of years ago to map cave paintings to the position of stars in the heaven. They believe the drawings were often placed to mark major events, such as comet strikes. Software showed how constellations appeared thousands of years ago. Capricorn (top left), Taurus (bottom left), Leo (bottom left) and Libra (bottom right) Credit: Martin Sweatman Study leader Dr Martin Sweatman, from the University of Edinburgh, said: Early cave art shows that people had advanced knowledge of the night sky within the last ice age. Intellectually, they were hardly any different to us today. It will probably revolutionise how prehistoric populations are seen. Researchers studied details of Palaeolithic and Neolithic cave art sites in Turkey, Spain, France and Germany. Animal symbol pictures daubed on the walls of the caves were aged by chemically dating the paints and compared it to the ancient skies. The results showed that what looked like abstract depictions of animals could be interpreted as zodiac signs based on constellations as they appeared at the time. The team decoded the well-known Shaft Scene from Lascaux in France, dating from 17,300 years ago, which depicts a prostate man with a birds head, alongside a bison, with a duck and rhino nearby. Although it was once thought to represent a hunting or shamanic scene, the researchers now believe it shows the constellations of Capricorn during the summer solstice, Libra during the spring equinox and Taurus at the autumn equinox. Story continues A nearby picture of a horse represents Leo in the winter solstice, according to researchers. A replica of the vulture stone at Gobekli Tepe, Turkey Credit: Alistair Coombs Writing in Athens Journal of History, the researchers described how an ancient carved stone pillar from Gobekli Tepe in Turkey provided them with their "Rosetta Stone" - the key to unlocking the zodiac code. It was thought to commemorate a devastating meteor impact in North America 11,000 years ago that led to the Younger Dryas Event, a period of sudden climate cooling that triggered a mini-ice age across the northern hemisphere. The authors wrote: "The date carved into the Vulture Stone is interpreted to be 10,950 BC, to within 250 years. This date is written using precession of the equinoxes, with animal symbols representing star constellations corresponding to the four solstices and equinoxes of this year." The world's oldest sculpture, the Lion Man of Hohlenstein-Stadel cave in Germany, an ivory carving almost 40,000 years old, was also found to support the zodiac symbol theory. The work features a dying man and several animals. It may commemorate another comet strike around 15,200 BC, the researchers suggest. Psychologist who testified against Brett Kavanaugh announced her plan after using GoFundMe donations to cover security costs Christine Blasey Ford and her family became the target of death threats after she testified that then-supreme court nominee Brett Kavanaugh tried to rape her. Photograph: Pool/Reuters Dr Christine Blasey Ford, the California psychologist who accused the supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault before his confirmation, emphatically thanked supporters for an outpouring of donations in a new post that explained the shutdown of her GoFundMe page after raising nearly $650,000. Ford and her family became the target of death threats, prompting the launch of a GoFundMe to cover their security costs, seeking $150,000, according to the fundraising page. During testimony before the Senate judiciary committee in September, Ford accused the then supreme court nominee of trying to rape her at a high school party some 30 years ago. Ford claimed Kavanaugh groped and attempted to disrobe her and that he covered her mouth to muffle her screams. Kavanaugh denied the allegations, including in his own testimony shortly after Ford testified, and was ultimately confirmed in a 50 to 48 vote that largely fell along party lines with Republicans supporting the Trump pick despite extensive opposition. In a post to GoFundMe, Ford announced she was closing the page to donations, which totaled $647,610 from 13,969 people over a two-month period. Words are not adequate to thank all of you who supported me since I came forward to tell the Senate that I had been sexually assaulted by Brett Kavanaugh. 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. Because of your support, I feel hopeful that our lives will return to normal, Ford said. Calling the GoFundMe money a godsend, Ford said the donations enabled her family to protect ourselves against frightening threats, including physical protection and security for me and my family, and to enhance the security for our home, as well as temporary housing. Story continues The Fords have finally been able to taper off the security service they had hired on 19 September, Fords post said. With immense gratitude, I am closing this account to further contributions. All funds unused after completion of security expenditures will be donated to organizations that support trauma survivors, Ford explained. I am currently researching organizations where the funds can best be used. We will use this space to let you know when that process is complete. Ford also expressed optimism following the fallout from her Kavanaugh testimony, saying that although coming forward was terrifying, and caused disruption to our lives, I am grateful to have had the opportunity to fulfill my civic duty. Having done so, I am in awe of the many women and men who have written me to share similar life experiences, and now have bravely shared their experience with friends and family, many for the first time, Ford wrote. Runoff race drew national attention after comments from Republican candidate stirred up states complicated racial history Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith won in a special election for Mississippis Senate seat. Photograph: Jonathan Bachman/Reuters Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith won Mississippis special election runoff for the US Senate late on Tuesday, pledging in her victory speech to represent everyone in the state. The reason we won is because Mississippi knows me, and knows my heart, said Hyde-Smith just before 10pm in a Jackson, Mississippi, hotel ballroom. I want everyone to know, no matter who you voted for today, Im going to always represent every Mississippian. By a margin of 55% to 45% with 77% of precincts reporting, she bested Democrat Mike Espy in a closer than expected race that stirred up Mississippis complicated racial history. The runoff drew national attention after Hyde-Smith made a series of racially loaded remarks, most notoriously when she said of a supporter if he invited me to a public hanging, I would be on the front row. The statement provoked controversy in a state that had more lynchings than any other in the country, considering she ran against an African American opponent. Hyde-Smith was initially defensive about the comments and eventually offered an apology to anyone that was offended at the only debate of the runoff. However, she immediately insisted that this comment was twisted and it was turned into a weapon to be used against me. The furor sparked by the comment led to a number of corporate donors to demand refunds of campaign donations to the appointed incumbent. In her speech Hyde-Smith also said she had just spoken with Donald Trump, and thanked him for his help in securing the victory. Trump held two rallies for her in Mississippi on Monday. It was a short speech to a crowd of about 100, with Hyde-Smith taking leave early for an early morning trip to back to Washington DC. Supporters stuck around to chat and shake hands with state Republican officials who mingled in the crowd. Hyde-Smith was appointed to the seat earlier this year after the longtime incumbent Thad Cochran resigned due to ill health. A two-term state agriculture commissioner, the Republican was viewed as the best bet to head off a primary challenger from conservative firebrand Chris McDaniel, a state senator who had almost knocked off Cochran in 2014. McDaniels narrow loss in a primary runoff, after he had received the most votes in the initial round of voting, fueled conservative anger at the Republican establishment and became a rightwing cause celebre for years afterwards. Story continues Hyde-Smith earned vocal support from Donald Trump and McDaniel finished a distant third in the first round of voting with 16.5% of the vote. Hyde-Smith received 41.5% and Espy just behind her at 40.6%. Espy was hoping that the controversy around Hyde-Smiths remarks would lead to a replay of the Alabama special election in 2017 where Democrat Doug Jones won a narrow victory against Roy Moore by wooing Republicans appalled by their partys nominee with moderate rhetoric. However, Hyde-Smiths comments did not have the same electoral impact as the allegations of sexual assault against Moore did in Alabama. Espy also faced his own controversial history. He was handed a 30-count indictment for taking improper gifts as secretary of agriculture under President Bill Clinton. Although the former congressman was acquitted, Hyde-Smith hammered Espy on that as well as his lobbying work for the government of Ivory Coast. Partisan elections in Mississippi divide sharply along racial lines, and forecasters had concluded that to win Tuesdays election, Espy would have needed to secure record turnout among black voters. Numbers were up compared with recent runoff elections, but not enough to turn the tide. Thats not for a lack of effort on the part of volunteers who were out trying to turn out the vote through the final hours that polls remained open. For many, Hyde-Smiths remarks had become an extra motivating factor in a contest steeped in racial overtones. It was a reality check for those of us who think were past some of this racism because were not, said Allytra Perryman a community organizer with the Black Voters Matter Fund, adding that the recent comments by and revelations had built a lot of energy in African-American community. In the southern Mississippi town of DIberville, sitting in the passenger seat of a silver pickup truck outfitted with Espy campaign billboards, Perryman asked resident after resident if they had voted through a microphone. Most nodded or gave a thumbs up, until one seemed to ignore her. She told the driver to slow up. No, no, no, theyre going to have to tell me no to my face, she said. Nearby, outside a polling place in Moss Point, Jennifer Garraway waved and smiled at incoming voters holding a campaign sign for Espy and for a local judge candidate for much of the day on Tuesday. And when she knew the folks driving in which was often she encouraged them to roll down their windows for a chat. She was pleased by the turnout she saw from her post on the side of the road. You cant expect to come out on the winning side if you dont show up and we showed up. Thats whats important. You cant sit on the sidelines and not be a part of this. People have died and put in blood for this, Garraway said. General Motors Co. workers gather for an information meeting at Unifor Union Hall in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, on Monday, Nov. 26, 2018. After churning out cars and trucks for General Motors for more than a century, the town of Oshawa could find itself without a plant as the Detroit-based automaker extends its shift into electric vehicles. Photographer: Cole Burston/Bloomberg via Getty Images General Motors Co.s (GM) plan to shut down its long-serving Oshawa, Ont. plant puts Canadas declining auto industry on notice while dealing a major blow to thousands of workers with narrow odds of finding comparable wages in the future. It shows that every plant in the country has to prove its worth, BMO chief economist Doug Porter told Yahoo Finance Canada in an interview. The reality is, Canada only has eight significant auto plants left. GM announced the closure of its Oshawa assembly plant on Monday, along with four others in the U.S. and three outside of North America. The Oshawa plant has the largest headcount among those slated to close, with 2,973 workers expected to lose their jobs. As many as 14,000 are bracing for pink slips across North America. The layoffs are expected before the end of 2019. Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra has said the move will free up as much as US$6 billion annually to spend on electric vehicle and autonomous driving technology. Meanwhile, the company is pivoting away from full-sized sedans, like the Oshawa-built Chevrolet Impala, to feed growing demand for crossovers, sport utility vehicles and trucks. The move comes amid a protracted decline in Canadian auto production as major manufacturers increasingly turn to lower-wage jurisdictions such as Mexico to build vehicles. GMs Canadian production has tumbled 59 per cent from its peak in 2004. Porter said the scope of GMs announcement on Monday means anything that survived the cut is probably in relatively good shape for some time now. (But) I dont think that means anybody can rest on their laurels, he added. Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association President Flavio Volpe said the Oshawa plant is a main customer for dozens of parts suppliers. Its closure, he said, will risk the loss of as many as 15,000 jobs at those companies. Everybody who survived the great recession has diversified. So they are not single-customer (parts) plants, he told Yahoo Finance Canada. But if you lose your biggest customer without a path to a replacement . . . they (workers) could all be at risk. Story continues Porter said those laid off at the Oshawa plant will struggle to replicate the wages they earned at GM, and expects the absence of the Oshawas long-time largest employer will be a serious setback for the regions economy. Im not hopeful that many of these people can find directly comparable work, he said. I think it will be extremely difficult. This is why this is a big deal. CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC Volpe said the decline of GMs Oshawa plant is the result of the company continually shifting production south of border to help meet volume targets at the companys Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Plant, which is also slated to close as part of Mondays announcement. They bled the product from Oshawa, and now we are in a situation where there isnt a product that underpins the volumes there, he said. Volpe wants to see production shifted Oshawa in order to save the plant. He remains convinced its flex line capability, which allows cars and trucks to be assembled on the same line, could prove valuable as GM shifts focus to more light trucks and electric vehicles. Its unfortunate that they wont allocate new product there. But to be frank, I think the rest of this story is yet to be written, he said. Im cautiously optimistic that they will change their minds. Download the Yahoo Finance app, available for Apple and Android. Geoffrey Hutton was jailed for life with a minimum 30 years for the evil killing. (PA) A greedy cocaine addict who stabbed a debt collector to death because he wanted her money has been jailed for life. Evil Geoffrey Hutton knifed mother-of-three Tina Cantello 30 times at his home in Snaresbrook, north-east London when she came to collect a weekly instalment. A court heard Mrs Cantello had no escape from Hutton, who then stole 60 cash from her handbag having been intent on killing her. Within minutes of the murder he tried to contact his drug dealer, but mistakenly sent the text to Mrs Cantellos phone. Tina Cantello was on her final job of the day when she was attacked on June 8 by Geoffrey Hutton. (Rex) Greedy Geoffrey Hutton murdered Tina Cantello before taking money from her handbag. (PA) Sentencing Hutton at Snaresbrook Crown Court, Mrs Justice Philippa Whipple said Mrs Cantello had a pre-arranged appointment and had done nothing to engender this furious, violent attack. She said: For Tina Cantello, this was totally unexpected, and totally unprovoked. She had just gone about her work with her usual professionalism. She had no time to turn on her recording device on her phone. She had no time to call for help. This was a terrible act of violence on a defenceless woman who did not stand a chance. More than 20 members of Mrs Cantellos family and friends watched as emotionless Hutton was handed a life sentence with a 30-year minimum term on Wednesday. Mrs Cantellos body was discovered around two miles from where she was last seen in Basildon, Essex. (SWNS) Following a two-week trial, a jury of eight women and four men took just over two hours to find Hutton guilty of murder on Tuesday. Mrs Cantello, who worked for a small loans company, visited Hutton at his house at around 5.30pm on June 8. After she failed to return home, her family reported her missing to Essex police. At 5pm on June 9, officers attended the property on Derby Close after a neighbour recognised Mrs Cantellos car from the missing persons appeal. The court heard how Mrs Cantellos largely naked dead body was found upstairs with 30 separate stab wounds and 17 further injuries. Mrs Cantello was described in court as a defenceless woman, who did not stand a chance. (Rex) Hutton, who denied murder and did not give evidence to the court, claimed an unknown man stabbed the victim shortly after she arrived at his home. Mrs Justice Whipple said: I am sure, to the criminal standard, that he killed her because he wanted her money. Story continues He had a cocaine habit and was greedy for more cocaine that day. The judge said the most striking fact of the case was that Hutton contacted his drug dealer within 14 minutes of Mrs Cantello arriving. Hutton, who is deaf and followed the sentencing on a transcript, watched as Mrs Cantellos 22-year-old daughter Amy Johnson read an emotional statement to the court. She said: My life will never be the same again. It breaks my heart that my mum wont be with me when I get married. I miss my mum so much. I miss her voice, her singing, her laugh. My mum leaves a rich legacy and we will remember her forever. Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK Simferopol (AFP) - 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. President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: AP( 2), Getty Images) WASHINGTON The 2020 cycle began less than a month ago, but one of the highest profile Republican politicians up for reelection is already feeling the heat as he finds himself faced with a choice between crossing President Trump or angering some of his Senate colleagues. Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell currently controls the fate of the First Step Act, a bipartisan criminal justice reform push that has the support of Trump but is also vehemently opposed by many Republican senators. McConnell is now in a unique situation, without a clear option to keep everyone in the party happy, and at a time when he is beginning to think about shoring up his base ahead of a coming campaign. McConnell is now looking over his right shoulder, said a Republican source with extensive ties to both the White House and Congress. Its very complicated for Mitch from now on. The First Step Act would reduce mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes, certain low-level offenses and instances where a firearm is used. It also includes incentives for inmates to participate in vocational and rehabilitative programs. The bill was crafted by a uniquely bipartisan coalition including Republicans Rand Paul, the junior senator from McConnells home state of Kentucky, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and Utah Sen. Mike Lee. It is also backed by prominent Democrats like Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker. Proponents argue that it gives judges more leeway in sentencing and allows a more compassionate approach to nonviolent offenders. Trump echoed this rationale and emphasized the bipartisan nature of the legislation when he threw his support behind the First Step Act on Nov. 14 with a public event at the White House. Did I hear the word bipartisan? Did I hear did I hear that word? Trump asked, provoking laughs and applause. Im thrilled to announce my support for this bipartisan bill that will make our communities safer and give former inmates a second chance at life after they have served their time. Story continues Trump also stressed the endorsements the bill has received from some law enforcement organizations, including the Fraternal Order of Police. Despite the bipartisan support for the First Step Act, it remains controversial, particularly among Republicans who advocate taking a hard line on crime. The legislation has also drawn staunch opposition from the National Sheriffs Association, which has argued that it would release dangerous criminals back into our communities without necessary services. In the Senate, Arkansas Republican Tom Cotton has emerged as one of the more outspoken opponents of the legislation, arguing that it could allow some sex offenders to have early release. With Trump on board, the bills backers are increasingly confident it has enough support to pass. However, so far, McConnell has not allowed it to come to the Senate floor for a vote, and First Step Act supporters on both sides of the aisle have accused him of blocking the legislation. A Democratic Senate aide who has been involved in discussions about the First Step Act told Yahoo News that Cotton and his allies have been leaning on McConnell to keep the bill from passing. If McConnell were bringing it to vote he would be facing serious division in his caucus, the aide said. A former McConnell aide added that any kind of softer approach to drug sentencing is a harder sell in Kentucky due to the ongoing opioid crisis. That presents an obstacle to McConnells ability to maintain popularity in his home state as he enters his reelection cycle. The former aide also expressed doubt the Republican Senate conference is solidly behind the bill. McConnell tends to move things along when the conference is united, the former aide said. It is obvious there is not unity in the conference. But appeasing conservative opponents of the legislation would mean crossing Trump, who has a net positive approval rating in Kentucky and wide support among Republicans. After Trump announced his support for the First Step Act, he aimed a tweet at McConnell and Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer urging them to pass the bill and calling it a real chance to do something so badly needed in our country. And Trump has a personal investment in the bill. A White House official said that Jared Kushner, the presidents son-in-law and senior adviser, is leading the Trump administrations effort to pass the legislation. Its passage would be the first major victory for Kushner in Congress. Passing the legislation might also benefit Trumps relationship with the African-American community, giving the president a concrete accomplishment that has long been sought by black leaders. When asked about the status of the First Step Act, Don Stewart, a spokesperson for McConnell, pointed to comments the majority leader made on Tuesday during a news conference about Senate Republicans agenda for the remainder of the year. In those remarks, McConnell indicated he would decide what to do with the bill based on how much support it had among Senate Republicans. Stewart disputed the claim that McConnell is blocking the legislation by preventing it for coming up for a vote. Hes letting his members review and discuss the bill before anybody makes a decision. Its just premature for anybody to block it, Stewart said. However, Stewart also suggested the legislation may not make it to the floor until next year because the Senate currently needs to address the remaining funding bills for the government prior to Dec. 7 to avoid a government shutdown. First Step Act supporters who believe they have enough votes to pass it now are concerned that delaying until the next session would effectively block it, because of the larger Republican majority that was cemented in the midterm elections. The Democratic Senate aide who has been involved in discussions about the legislation said its totally in Trumps power to make McConnell move on the bill now. Trump just has to go to McConnell and say, I need this. Do this if you need anything else from me. Either that, or threaten to go after him and blow him up with the base, the aide explained. The president has hinted he might be willing to lean on the majority leader. On Monday night, Trump participated in a roundtable about the First Step Act as he campaigned in Mississippi. Trump predicted there would be a little celebration in Washington fairly soon about the First Step Act and said there were more than enough votes to pass it. A reporter at the event asked Trump if he would insist that McConnell bring the bill to a vote before the end of the year. At a certain point, well have a talk, Trump said of the majority leader. But if we have the votes, Im sure that well be voting. Read more from Yahoo News: (SALT LAKE CITY) The first and only black Republican woman in Congress delivered a sharp rebuke Monday to President Donald Trump and her partys relationship with African-Americans in her first remarks since her midterm defeat. Mia Love was narrowly defeated by Democrat Ben McAdams for the suburban Salt Lake City House seat. The Associated Press called the race for McAdams on Nov. 20. At a post-Election Day news conference earlier this month, Trump prematurely declared Love the loser, grouping her with other embattled Republican incumbents who failed to fully embrace him in their re-election bids. She gave me no love and she lost, Trump quipped. Speaking to reporters Monday, Love said the presidents comments reflect the GOPs larger failure to fully embrace minority communities, further solidifying their allegiance to Democrats. Because Republicans never take minority communities into their home . and into their hearts, they stay with Democrats and bureaucrats in Washington, because they do take them home, or at least make them feel like they have a home, Love said. Her ouster came as the Congressional Black Caucus swelled to its largest numbers ever and Congress overall became significantly more diverse, adding a record number of women and people of color in the midterm elections. This is a matter of fact, that Republicans lost in this regard, Love said. Trumps comments about Love gave me a clear vision of his world as it is, she said. No real relationships; just convenient transactions. The White House did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. After the 2012 elections, the Republican National Committee said in an autopsy of the race: If we want ethnic minority voters to support Republicans, we have to engage them, and show our sincerity, warning, Unless the RNC gets serious about tackling this problem, we will lose future elections. The midterm elections featured racist rhetoric in several high-profile contests in states including Georgia, Florida, Mississippi and Texas. Trump campaigned in competitive Senate races with a fearful message about dangerous migrant caravan and has raised the specter of voter fraud both tactics that many minorities have found offensive. Story continues Love said Monday she believes conservative policies are the best way to lift people out of poverty, but those messages have a harder time reaching minority voters. The problem is not the policy; its that we are never taken into hearts and homes, she said. Love says her defeat means shes now unleashed to speak her mind. She declined to say if she will run again, or detail plans for the future. She also took a shot at her opponent on Monday, calling McAdams a wolf in sheeps clothing and decrying the horrible criticism of her in the hard-fought race. The McAdams campaign said he appreciated a congratulatory call she placed to him over the weekend and its time to put the election behind us. Vote-counting was drawn out in the razor-thin race, and in the end McAdams defeated Love by fewer than 700 votes. He was well-known in the district as the mayor of Salt Lake County and pitched himself as a moderate who could work with Trump, and is vowing to oppose Nancy Pelosi as House speaker. Love, touted as a rising GOP star when she was elected in 2014, distanced herself from Trump during the race on issues including trade and immigration. The daughter of Haitian immigrants who stood behind her on Monday, Love highlighted times she stood up to the president, like when Trump used an expletive to describe her parents home country. Though Utah is deeply conservative, voters have long been uncomfortable with Trumps brash style and comments about women and minorities. Her district also includes a large part of the suburbs of blue-leaning Salt Lake City. ___ AP writer Errin Haines Whack contributed to this report. Front row, from left: Jahana Hayes, Deb Haaland, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Janet Mills. Middle row, from left: Kristi Noem, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, Sharice Davids, Ilhan Omar. Back row, from left: Veronica Escoba, Sylvia Garcia, Abby Finkenauer, Marsha Blackburn, Kyrsten Sinema. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos, front row, from left: AP, Juan Labreche/AP, AP, Robert F. Bukaty/AP. Middle row, from left: AP, Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via Getty Images, Al Goldis/AP, Charlie Riedel/AP, AP. Back row, from left: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP, Omar Vega/LatinContent/Getty Images, Nicki Kohl/Telegraph Herald via AP, Mark Humphrey/AP, Caitlin OHara/Reuters. Background: J. Scott Applewhite/AP) It was an election of firsts for the U.S. Congress: the first Native American women, the first Muslim women, the first women senators from Tennessee and Arizona. The first woman to represent Iowa, the first African-American to represent Colorado, the first Latinas to represent Texas, the first gay person to represent Kansas and the first black women to represent Massachusetts and Connecticut in the U.S. House of Representatives. The first female governors of Maine and South Dakota. The largest number of women and minorities and LGBTQ candidates to run at one time in American history, and the greatest number elected to serve. What is more striking even than all of those firsts is how few of them based their campaigns on belonging to a previously marginalized group. They were not saying Vote for me because I am an immigrant, said Sayu Bhojwani, of the 54 candidates on state and local ballots on Election Day who were first-generation immigrants. Instead, says Bhojwani, author of People Like Us: The New Wave of Candidates Knocking at Democracys Door and the founder and president of New American Leaders, which prepares first- and second-generation immigrants to run for office, they were saying Because I have this set of experiences, I will be a strong advocate for you in Congress. Its a subtle but important difference, says Kelly Dittmar, an assistant research professor at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. While never a straight line, she says, the path for most underrepresented groups in politics generally goes from seeking the job in spite of being different to seeking the job because you are different to simply seeking the job. Congresswoman Jeannette Rankin, center, is presented with the flag that flew at the House of Representatives during the passage of the suffrage amendment. (Photo: Bettmann/Getty Images) Womens earliest political campaigns, for instance, were like those of Jeannette Rankin of Montana, the first woman elected to Congress, in 1917. Despite being an ardent suffragette and pacifist, she was also determined to be one of the guys. Im no lady, Im a member of Congress, she would respond when colleagues referred to her as the lady from Montana. Fifty-five years later, Patricia Schroeder became the first woman from Colorado in Congress with the slogan She Wins. We Win. chosen, she said back in 1972, because we wanted to make sure they knew I was a female. And this year, while the website for gubernatorial candidate Janet Mills noted briefly that she had been the first and only woman to serve as the attorney general in Maine, it did not mention anywhere that, if elected, she would be that states first female governor. Story continues So-called identity politics basing your pitch to voters on your gender, race, ethnicity or sexual preference has long been controversial, with Republicans accusing Democrats of valuing diversity over experience, while Democrats charge Republicans with valuing a white male status quo above all else. This year both sides arguably ran identity-based campaigns. The reason so many women and members of other underrepresented groups ran in the first place was anger at feeling ignored, injured or insulted by the Trump administration, so their campaigns played out against that backdrop. At the same time, Trump supporters are older, whiter and more male than the nation as a whole, and candidates seeking their votes tended to play to those identities. Of most interest to those who study and strategize campaigns, however, was that so many of these identity appeals were indirect and oblique. Weve moved beyond You should vote for me because I will be the first, Dittmar said. Now its expressed as Here is my life experience, the life experience of a black woman or a transgender woman, and thats the perspective and experience I would bring to the job. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., left, and Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M. (Photo: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Getty Images) That is the message that underrepresented candidates are being advised to give. What we teach the candidates that we train and support is that being LGBT is not why youre running, but it is part of who you are, says Annise Parker, who became the second woman mayor of Houston and the one of the few openly gay mayors of a large U.S. city when she served from 2010 to 2016. Now CEO and president of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund and Leadership Institute, which endorsed 272 LGBT candidates across the country in the midterms, 160 of whom won their races, Parker stresses that You present it as a part of your resume, one piece of what you have to offer. Which is what 29-year-old Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez was trying to convey when she launched her campaign by saying Women like me arent supposed to run for office, and eventually won her bid, becoming the youngest member of the incoming Congress. Its what former MMA fighter Sharice Davids was signaling when she ran a video of herself working out against a punching bag, promising to continue fighting for everyone whos ever been left out or left behind. While owning her identity as a lesbian and Native American, she avoided pointing out that this would make her the first of either group to represent Kansas in Congress. Her Third Congressional District, comprising Kansas City and its suburbs, is over 80 percent white and less than 1 percent Native American. Similarly, Deb Haaland opened her speeches by saying My name is Deb Haaland and Congress has never heard a voice like mine, and successfully campaigned to become the first Native American to represent New Mexico, a state that is roughly 10 percent Native American. In part candidates take this approach because they dont want to be elected merely because We check a box, Haaland said in an interview with Yahoo News. Its not like I just popped up and decided Ill run in order to be the first Native American woman. Ive been working in politics and policy long and hard and I have a lot to contribute. Democratic house candidate Sharice Davids prepares to speak to supporters at a victory party in Olathe, Kan., on Nov. 6, 2018. (Photo: Colin E. Braley/AP) And in part it is because voters fill in what candidates dont need to say directly. Its something that the voters are thinking about, particularly over the past two years, says Christina Bejarano, associate professor of political science at the University of Kansas and author of The Latina Advantage, a book about the growing political strength of Latina candidates. Diverse candidates do not prioritize running solely on their identity, she said. But when they talk about their experiences, their backgrounds, voters fill in the lines and understand that this reflects their identity and they will bring those experiences with them into office. Adds Haaland: There are certain groups of folks that have never had a voice in politics. I didnt campaign directly on that. But it was something that we wanted people to know about our campaign. And people did. _____ Read more from Yahoo News: President Donald Trump went on a retweeting spree Wednesday, sharing posts to his Twitter account that targeted his most prominent critics, including one meme that suggested former President Barack Obama and the Clintons should be thrown in jail for treason. After unleashing yet another attack on special counsel Robert Muellers Russia probe, which he likened to the McCarthy Era of anti-communist hysteria, Trump shared tweets bashing several of his political foes, including the one he most often rants about: Hillary Clinton. One tweet, originally shared by a fan account called The Trump Train, shows the Clintons, Obama and Mueller all behind bars. Alongside them are former FBI Director James Comey, former Attorneys General Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch, and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who Trump appointed himself. Now that Russia collusion is a proven lie, when do the trials for treason begin? the text on the image reads. In reality, Muellers investigation remains active and ongoing. (Photo: Twitter) Muellers investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, and whether the president obstructed justice, has long been an object of Trumps ire. Though Trump has repeatedly called the probe a witch hunt, dozens of people have been indicted in connection with the investigation, including his former national security adviser and several of his 2016 campaign officials. The White House did not respond to HuffPosts request for comment about whether Trump believes Obama and others depicted in the image he shared should be tried for treason. The president has ramped up his Twitter attacks against Mueller this week after the special counsel accused Paul Manafort, Trumps former 2016 campaign manager, of breaking his plea deal by lying to federal investigators. Mueller is a conflicted prosecutor gone rogue, Trump tweeted Tuesday. Rosensteins appointment of Mueller in May 2017, to take over the Russia investigation after Trump fired Comey, drew rare bipartisan praise. Story continues Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, applauded Muellers selection at the time, saying the former FBI director has a strong reputation for independence, and comes with the right credentials for this job. Trump acknowledged the treason meme in an interview Wednesday with the New York Post. When asked why Rosenstein belongs behind bars, Trump replied, He should have never picked a Special Counsel. The president declined to answer a question on whether he intends to fire Rosenstein, according to the Post. The Department of Justice did not respond to HuffPosts request for comment. Trump on Wednesday also shared tweets from the Trump Train account that bashed CNN and called for zero federal assistance for illegals a derogatory term for undocumented immigrants. He also retweeted a fake Twitter account for Vice President Mike Pence that posted Im thankful for every day Hillary Clinton is not President! The account was named The Vice President and used the Twitter handle @MikePenceVP when Trump retweeted it. Later on Wednesday, the account changed its name to VP FAN. (Photo: Twitter) This story has been updated with Trumps comment to the New York Post. Related Coverage President Trump Says He's Too Intelligent To Believe In Climate Change Michael Moore Rips Donald Trump: He 'Doesn't Understand' How General Motors Played Him Mueller Focused On Tip About Roger Stone And WikiLeaks Plans, Document Shows Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. New York (AFP) - The US trial of Mexican drug baron Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman hit a roadblock Tuesday over allegations that his beauty queen wife had access to a banned cell phone and was using it to communicate with her husband. Prosecutors demanded that the judge punish the defense for lending Emma Coronel a telephone, but he accepted explanations that she had used it for translation purposes only and deferred until next week any decision on sanctions. In 15-page and heavily redacted document issued overnight Monday, the US government accused the 29-year-old of using a cell phone to communicate via one of the defense lawyers with her husband, from whom she is banned from any direct contact. Guzman is subjected to the strictest inmate security protocols in the United States, after twice escaping from prison in Mexico and has been held in solitary confinement since being extradited to New York in January 2017. Judge Brian Cogan, who is presiding over the trial, has taken the security precautions so seriously that he prohibited the couple from embracing before opening statements began on November 13. Prosecutors complained that Coronel had access to a phone last week, but on Tuesday the judge ruled that, as she no longer did, the issue of sanctions would be addressed "sometime next week." Lawyers are the only people permitted to take cell phones into the Brooklyn federal court house where 61-year-old Guzman is on trial. Coronel was said to be using the phone while sitting next to a lawyer in the cafeteria. On Monday, lawyers twice objected to the judge and the defense that Coronel -- the mother of Guzman's seven-year-old twin daughters -- had been using a cell phone inside the court house. Prosecutors fear that not only could she be using the device to communicate with her husband, but to film a protected witness whose security they have sought to shield at all costs. Guzman is accused of smuggling drugs into the United States over a quarter of a century, and is likely to spend the rest of his life behind bars in a maximum security US jail if convicted. BERLIN (Reuters) - Europe may need to impose tougher sanctions against Moscow following Russia's seizure of Ukrainian vessels, an ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday. Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko has warned of the "extremely serious" threat of a land invasion after Russia seized three Ukrainian naval ships and took their crew prisoner at the weekend. Norbert Roettgen, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union who chairs the German parliamentary foreign affairs committee, said Russia's behavior was deeply worrying and that tougher sanctions were an option. "So far there are no talks about tougher sanctions but I generally would not rule this out," Roettgen told Deutschlandfunk radio. "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." Merkel has stressed the need for dialogue while the European Union, Britain, France, Poland, Denmark, and Canada all condemned what they called Russian aggression. (Reporting by Tassilo Hummel; Writing by Michael Nienaber; Editing by Andrew Heavens) Abdul Aziz, father of Sabika Sheikh, the Pakistani exchange student killed in a mass shooting at a high school in Texas, consoles other family members. (Photo: Fareed Khan/AP) Days before Sabika Sheikh would have turned 18, her parents filed a lawsuit against the parents of her alleged assailant. Sheikh, who came to the U.S. as an exchange student from Pakistan, was shot dead in May when Dimitrios Pagourtzis allegedly opened fire at Santa Fe High School in Texas. Her parents, Abdul Aziz and Farah Naz, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against Pagourtziss parents. Aziz and Naz believe the suspected shooters parents, Rose Marie Kosmetatos and Antonios Pagourtzis, knew their son was experiencing extreme emotional distress but failed to take basic steps to responsibly store and prevent him from accessing their firearms, a press release from Everytown for Gun Safety, which is representing Sheikhs parents, states. Sheikhs parents filed this lawsuit along with other family members of students killed in the May shooting. They all feel the suspected shooters parents negligently and irresponsibly stored their firearms. The suit also states that the shooters parents failed to respond to and address warning signs that their son posed a risk to others. Sheikh had been in the U.S. for almost a year and was set to return to Pakistan in three weeks when she was fatally shot at Santa Fe High School. She would have celebrated her 18th birthday on Dec. 18. This mass shooting was enabled by the Defendants negligent actions, the lawsuit states. It claims that the younger Pagourtzis exhibited warning signs in the months before the shooting and that his parents noticed this yet did nothing to address it. It points out that after the shooting, his father went on a Greek radio show and revealed that he had been worried about his son for weeks before the shooting, as if I knew something would happen. Any reasonable parent would have ensured that their child, who was exhibiting signs of emotional distress and violent fantasies, did not have access to weapons that he could use to kill others (or himself), the lawsuit argues. Had the Defendants responsibly stored their firearms, [Sheikh] would be alive, along with all of her classmates and teachers. Instead, he allegedly killed eight students and two substitute teachers and injured 13 others. Story continues No other parent should ever have to experience this unbearable grief, Aziz and Naz write in the press release. Sabikas picture is in front of our eyes every single moment and her voice and laughter echo in our ears. For a mother and a father, this trauma and mourning stay until their last breath. Pagourtzis is in custody at Galveston County Jail on murder charges. Everytown for Gun Safety is determined to bring this family some relief. What happened at Santa Fe High School is a tragic reminder of why responsible gun storage is so critical, Molly Thomas-Jensen, counsel for Everytown for Gun Safety, says in the press release. Well do all we can to deliver some measure of justice for Sabikas family and to prevent future tragedies by highlighting the deadly risks of irresponsible gun storage. Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle: Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. Protesters shut down parts of an Alabama highway on Monday in response to the fatal police shooting of a young black man. Led by Carlos Chaverst Jr., president of the activist organization Justice League, the demonstrators halted traffic along Highway 31 by the Riverchase Galleria mall in Birmingham, where an officer from the city of Hoover killed 21-year-old Emantic EJ Bradford Jr. on Thanksgiving night. The group held signs reading Black Lives Matter and chanted No justice, no peace, no racist police! They demanded that police release body camera footage of the shooting. According to Hoover police, body camera video and other available video has been turned over to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) which is now investigating the shooting. Authorities said its up to ALEA to determine whether it would be appropriate to release any video. ALEA told the Telegraph Herald on Monday the results of the investigation will be turned over to the district attorneys office. Police reportedly kept their distance from the protesters and prevented traffic on both ends from entering the highway. Protesters walk the inside of the Riverchase Galleria Mall. They're protesting the shooting death of #emanticbradford.@ShopRiverchase pic.twitter.com/AevYPs4lxY WBHM 90.3 FM (@WBHM) November 24, 2018 The demonstration, the second since the shooting, came shortly after Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato pleaded for patience. We all want answers and we believe with patience and focus the truth will be firmly established, Brocato said in a statement. Hoover police shot Bradford while responding to a shooting that wounded a 12- and 18-year-old at the mall on Nov. 22. Authorities initially identified Bradford as the suspected gunman and said he was shot and killed while brandishing a pistol. Story continues On Nov. 23, police retracted that statement, claiming that while the evidence suggested Bradford did not fire the bullets that injured the victims, he was seen with a firearm. Bradford was fleeing the shooting scene while brandishing a handgun, was engaged, shot and killed by a uniformed Hoover police officer, authorities said, adding that the shooter from the mall is still at large. Hoover police released another statement on Monday in an attempt to clarify their earlier statement: 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. This undated image provided by Emantic Bradford, Sr. shows Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr., 21, posing for a picture at his father's home near Birmingham, Alabama, in his senior year of high school. (Photo: Associated Press) Bradford graduated from a Catholic high school in Birmingham and joined the U.S. Army in 2017. He was administratively separated in August, the Montgomery Advertiser reported. The reason for his separation is unclear. At the time of his death, Bradford reportedly worked full-time and helped support his mother, according to his family. Bradfords father, Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Sr., who spent 25 years working as a correctional officer at the Birmingham Police Department jail, has said his son had a permit to carry a concealed handgun. Authorities have yet to comment on that claim, but the Riverchase Gallerias website notes that firearms and illegal weapons are prohibited on the property. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the Bradford family, held a news conference on Sunday. He claims his firm has spoken with people who witnessed the shooting and said Bradford was trying to wave people away from the shooting. Crump further alleges the officer who shot Bradford did not make any verbal commands before pulling the trigger and failed to provide the young man with medical assistance. He saw a black man with a gun and he made his determination he must be a criminal, Crump told reporters. They concluded their investigation while EJ was on the mall floor, bleeding out, dying. Emantic Bradford Sr. told CBS News his son would have obeyed commands from the police. My son always respected the police and if you would have given a command when you came around that corner, say freeze, drop your weapon, he would have complied with your order, he said. The officer who shot Emantic Bradford Jr. has been placed on administrative leave, pending the outcome of the investigation into the shooting. The officers name has not been released. I just want everybody to understand this: Thanksgiving will never be the same for me because thats the last time I saw my son, the young mans mother, April Pipkins, said during Sundays news conference. My son was a loving, very loving young man. He would give any of you the shirt off his back. And thats true. He loved people, period. He was not a killer. Authorities are asking anyone with information on the identity of the mall shooter to contact Crime Stoppers of Metro Alabama at 205-254-7777. Tipsters can remain anonymous. Send David Lohr an email or follow him on Facebook and Twitter. Related Coverage Alabama Cops Say Man They Killed After Mall Shooting Was 'Likely' Not The Gunman Also on HuffPost Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. Tanisha Anderson: Died Nov. 13, 2014, age 37, Cleveland Yvette Smith: Died Feb. 16, 2014, age 47, Bastrop, Texas Miriam Carey: Died Oct. 3, 2013, age 34, Washington, D.C. U.S. Secret Service and Capitol Police officers fatally shot Miriam Carey in a car chase after she drove her car into a security checkpoint near the White House despite orders to stop. Officers fired multiple shots at Carey, a dental hygienist from Connecticut, hitting her five times. Her 1-year-old daughter, who was also in the car, survived. An autopsy found that Carey was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol, her family's attorney said, and no weapons were found in her car. She had previously been diagnosed with postpartum depression and psychosis. Federal prosecutors said in 2014 that they would not file charges against the officers. Careys family filed a wrongful death lawsuit. The emphasis shouldnt be on why [Miriam was in Washington, D.C.]," sister Valarie Carey told The Washington Post last year. "The emphasis should be [on] what those officers did. Were their actions proper? Shelly Frey: Died Dec. 6, 2012, age 27, Houston Shelly Frey was killed after she and two other women were allegedly caught stealing from a Walmart in 2012, the Houston Chronicle reports. Louis Campbell, an off-duty sheriffs deputy working as a security guard, tried to detain them and then shot into a car in which Frey was a passenger. She was struck twice in the neck. Campbell reportedly told investigators that he opened fire after the driver of the car tried to run him over. Two other women and two children were in the car with Frey. When paramedics arrived, they were unable to revive her. Frey had previously pleaded guilty to stealing shirts and meat from Walmart, according to Houston's KHOU, and was prohibited from entering the store. Her family sued Walmart for wrongful death. Campbell has not faced any charges. Malissa Williams: Died Nov. 29, 2012, age 30, Cleveland Shantel Davis: Died June 14, 2012, age 23, New York City Shantel Davis was fatally shot while driving a car that police claim was stolen. Plainclothes NYPD officers approached her after she allegedly ran multiple red lights and the vehicle crashed. Police say that Davis tried to escape, and that Phil Atkins, a narcotics officer, allegedly tried to shift her car into park as it was moving. His gun fired once, striking Davis in the chest. Davis' family and several groups advocating for police reform have disputed the NYPD's version of events, saying it's not clear whether the car was stolen and, if it was, whether Davis was aware of that. They also claim Davis was trapped behind her airbag when she was shot, not trying to flee the vehicle. Davis had been arrested eight times previously, but she was never convicted of any crimes. She was due in court the day after her death for kidnapping and attempted murder charges, according to The New York Times. She was unarmed when she was shot. Atkins had been sued seven times over the previous decade for various allegations, including undue use of force, according to DNAinfo. "Its been almost four years since Shantels murder and I still have no answers," Natasha Duncan, Davis' sister, told The Huffington Post in May 2016. "This whole time my family has heard nothing about either the criminal or departmental investigation. My sisters case has been sitting on District Attorney [Ken] Thompsons desk since he took office. He ran on a promise of being tough on police brutality, but hes done absolutely nothing to move my sisters case forward." Thompson's office says an investigation into Davis' case is underway and her family should receive the findings soon. We are conducting a fair and thorough review of this case to ensure that all investigative avenues and evidence has been explored," a spokeswoman for Thompson's office told HuffPost. "We expect the investigation to be concluded soon and will inform the family of our findings at that time." This article has been updated to reflect statements from Davis' sister, Thompson's office and a representative of Davis' family, and to clarify that the NYPD's version of events is disputed. Rekia Boyd: Died March 22, 2012, age 22, Chicago Shereese Francis: Died March 15, 2012, age 29, New York City Shereese Francis was killed after family members called authorities seeking help because Francis, who had schizophrenia, had not been taking her medication and appeared to need medical attention. She'd refused to go to a hospital voluntarily. When NYPD officers arrived, the familys wrongful death lawsuit alleges, Francis did not realize they were police, due to her mental illness. When Francis, who was unarmed, tried to leave the room against police orders, they allegedly pursued her, grabbed her and tackled her on a bed. The suit claims four officers put their weight onto Francis back while trying to cuff her, and her sister believes she saw them hitting and using a Taser on Francis until she stopped moving. Francis was pronounced dead at a hospital shortly after the incident. Her cause of death was "compression of trunk during agitated violent behavior (schizophrenia) while prone on bed and attempted restraint by police officers, according to The Village Voice. The lawsuit said the officers overwhelmingly violated NYPD policies on mental illness, in part because the department had failed to provide training on the subject. The city settled with Francis family for $1.1 million. Aiyana Stanley-Jones: Died May 16, 2010, age 7, Detroit Aiyana Stanley-Jones was sleeping on her couch with her grandmother when police conducted a "no knock" raid of their home. Officer Joseph Weekley was first through the door, and after a flash-bang grenade went off, he fired his gun, killing Aiyana. Weekley later testified that the grandmother struck his weapon and caused him to fire, but she denies having been near the gun. Police said the raid was in search of a murder suspect who lived in the second-floor unit of the home. Weekley was charged with involuntary manslaughter and careless discharge of a firearm causing death, but his case was dismissed after two mistrials. He returned to duty as a Detroit police officer in April. Tarika Wilson: Died Jan. 4, 2008, age 26, Lima, Ohio Tarika Wilson was killed when a Lima police SWAT team raided her rental home to arrest her boyfriend on drug charges, according to The New York Times. She had her youngest son, Sincere, in her arms when she was shot by Sgt. Joseph Chavalia. Sincere, who was 14 months old, was shot in the shoulder and hand but survived. Chavalia was acquitted of the misdemeanor charges of negligent homicide and negligent assault. He testified that he felt his life was in danger when he shot Wilson, thinking he'd seen a shadow and heard gunshots nearby. The shots had actually come from officers downstairs, according to the Associated Press. The city settled a wrongful death suit with Wilsons family for $2.5 million in 2011. Alberta Spruill: Died May 16, 2003, age 57, New York City Alberta Spruill also died after police conducted a "no knock" raid at her home in error. Officers broke through her door and threw a concussion grenade while Spruill, a city employee, was getting ready for work. She was briefly handcuffed but released when officers realized they were in the wrong place and that the information they'd been given -- that guns and drugs were being stored in the apartment -- was incorrect. Spruill died of a heart attack at a nearby hospital less than two hours later. The city of New York agreed to pay a $1.6 million settlement to Spruills family. This case for them is not about money. Its about changing procedure, Johnnie Cochran, the lawyer for Spruills sisters, said in 2003. Its about the fact that their sister should not have died in vain. Kendra James: Died May 5, 2003, age 21, Portland, Oregon Portland police Officer Scott McCollister fatally shot Kendra James during a traffic stop. When McCollister pulled over the car in which James was a passenger, he took the driver, Terry Jackson, into custody after seeing he had an outstanding warrant. James moved behind the wheel of the car and tried to drive away, and McCollister tried to stop her by climbing partway into the car and pulling her hair and using pepper spray and a Taser. James put the car into drive and McCollister shot her. He later claimed he'd gotten stuck in the car's doorway and that he'd feared for his life. A grand jury declined to prosecute. McCollister was initially suspended, but the disciplinary action was overturned by an arbitrator. Its been 10 years later, justice has still not [been] served, James mother, Shirley Isadore, said at a 2013 rally marking the anniversary of her daughters death. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. With the possibility of a government shutdown hanging over Congress upcoming holiday break, Senate Democrats now have some leverage on their long-held goal of protecting special counsel Robert Muellers investigation. Its unclear, however, how far theyll go to use it. For now, the fight appears mostly focused on President Donald Trumps demands for funding for a border wall. Lawmakers face a fiscal deadline on Dec. 7, when they must fund seven appropriations bills, or the government will shut down. The bulk of the disagreement so far has been around funding for a border wall: Trump has told GOP leadership that he wants $5 billion, but Republicans need nine Democrats to meet the 60-vote threshold in the Senate. That leaves Democrats with some leverage to insist on a provision to protect Mueller, whose investigation some feel is in danger from Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker, who previously expressed doubt about it as a cable news pundit. We need to come together here in the Senate Democrat and Republican to pass legislation to protect the special counsels investigation, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor Monday. If the Majority Leader refuses to give it the vote that it deserves, Democrats will push to include it in the must-pass spending bill that we must approve in the next few weeks. One bill that would do this the Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act has been lingering in Senate purgatory for months. Introduced by Sen. Chris Coons, Thom Tillis, Lindsey Graham and Corey Booker, it overwhelmingly passed the Judiciary committee in April. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has refused to allow it to come to the floor for a vote, arguing that such protection is unnecessary. But questions about Muellers vulnerability were renewed after former Attorney General Jeff Sessions was fired earlier this month and replaced by Whitaker, who will now oversee it. Once McConnell rebuffed Flakes efforts to force a vote in this context, Flake retaliated by announcing he would refuse to vote for any judicial nominees until he got what he wanted. Story continues Now, it seems that Democrats may follow that lead, but its unclear if they are willing to risk a shutdown over it. Trump has mused that it might be a good time for a shutdown if he doesnt get his requested $5 billion for wall funding. If Democrats wanted to, they could draw a similar line in the sand when it comes to incorporating this bill protecting Mueller, but Schumer hasnt gone that far and neither have his Democratic colleagues. Sen. Patrick Leahy, the top Democrat on the Appropriations committee, deflected when asked if the provision should even be included in the bill, let alone be used as fodder for a shutdown. I think it should just be passed, he said Monday evening. If you had brought it up this afternoon, it would have passed this afternoon. West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, who Republicans will almost certainly need to sign on to the final spending bill, had even stronger language. Im not supporting a shutdown in any way, shape or form, he said. I support Mueller and protecting Mueller. I dont know why the two [protection and a shutdown] have to be put together. There were signs on Tuesday that Republican leadership was rethinking its position and allowing a vote on the floor. Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn floated the possibility Tuesday morning in an interview with radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt, just hours before Sens. Flake, Coons and Cory Booker announced they would try and force a vote by asking for unanimous consent on the floor. But McConnell quashed that possibility Tuesday afternoon, telling reporters he would probably vote to block that move. This is a solution in search of a problem, McConnell said of the bill. The President is not going to fire Robert Mueller. Correction, Nov. 29: The original version of this story misstated the senator who introduced the Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act. It was introduced by Sens. Chris Coons, Thom Tillis, Lindsey Graham and Corey Booker, it was not introduced by Sen. Jeff Flake. Abidjan (AFP) - Five people were killed and 141 injured during clashes between different ethnic groups in western Ivory Coast, the government said Wednesday. Fighting broke out between the Yacouba and Malinke communities in the town of Zouan-Hounien on November 21, said government spokesman Sidi Toure. The clashes came after the death of a student in circumstances that were still not clear, a police source said. Four people have been detained and an investigation launched, said the spokesman. Two people were killed and many more injured in October last year after a property dispute degenerated into violence, in clashes that led 1,500 people to flee the region. Hong Kong (AFP) - The Chinese scientist who claims to have created the world's first genetically-edited babies defended the highly controversial procedure Wednesday, but announced a halt to the trial following an international outcry. He Jiankui told a packed Hong Kong biomedical conference he was "proud" to have successfully altered the DNA of twin girls born to an HIV-positive father, an apparent medical breakthrough. But details of the experiment, which has not been independently verified, triggered an immediate backlash, with experts denouncing He's work as an ethical "mess". "The clinical trial was paused due to the current situation," said He. "For this specific case, I feel proud, actually, I feel proudest." The university professor said the twin girls, born a few weeks ago, had their DNA altered to prevent them from contracting HIV. Eight volunteer couples -- HIV-positive fathers and HIV-negative mothers -- signed up to the trial, with one dropping out before it was paused. He said there had been "another potential pregnancy" involving a second couple, but when questioned further agreed it had been a chemical pregnancy -- a term referring to a very early miscarriage. The experiment has prompted heated debate among scientists over the risks involved. Editing human embryos can create unintended mutations in other areas -- so-called "off-target effects" -- which can have an impact through the lifetime, experts warned. "The volunteers were informed of the risk posed by the existence of one potential off-target and they decided to implant," He said Wednesday, as he was bombarded with questions about the trial. He also said he had personally paid for most of the patients' medical expenses, and that his university in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen had been "unaware of the study's conduct." Southern University of Science and Technology distanced itself from He, saying he had been on unpaid leave since February and had "seriously violated academic ethics". Story continues - 'Backward step' - Organisers of the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing also said they had not known about He's work. Conference moderator Robin Lovell-Badge said He's trial was a "backward step" for the science industry, but described the babies' birth as "momentous" nonetheless. "This is an example of an approach that was not sufficiently careful and cautious and proportionate," he said. "Clearly however... it is a momentous point in history." Summit chair David Baltimore, a Nobel laureate, said there had been "a failure of self-regulation by the scientific community". Antonio Regalado, senior editor for biomedicine for MIT Technology Review -- the publication which first highlighted the trial on Sunday -- said He's talk was "ethically a half-baked mess". He, who was educated at Stanford University, said the twins' DNA was modified using CRISPR, a technique which allows scientists to remove and replace a strand with pinpoint precision. But the co-inventor of CRISPR condemned He's trial as dangerous and unnecessary. "My concern is that this experiment really shouldn't have happened," Feng Zhang told reporters at the conference. "What he has done was not transparent... does not represent science." - 'Resolutely oppose' - Gene editing is a potential fix for heritable diseases but it is extremely controversial because the changes would be passed down to future generations and could eventually affect the entire gene pool. In many countries the editing of human DNA is tightly controlled. He's experiment would be prohibited under Chinese laws and regulations, according to state media CCTV, citing remarks by 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. But former Chinese health ministry official Qiu Renzong said lax regulations in China mean that scientists who break the rules often face no punishment. China's National Health Commission ordered an "immediate investigation", the official Xinhua news agency reported, while the Shenzhen hospital meant to have approved the research denied its involvement. A union of Chinese scientists issued a statement saying it "resolutely opposes so-called scientific researches and biotech applications that violate the spirit of science and ethics," Xinhua said. There is a history of fraud within China's academic community -- including a scandal last year that led to the withdrawal of 100 "compromised" papers. He has not released the identities of the participants of his trial. "It would be really unfortunate... to have the world looking at the first two genome-edited children because think of the pressure that's going to put them under," said Lovell-Badge. But University of Massachusetts Lowell assistant professor Nicholas Evans tweeted: "(D)on't get me wrong, privacy is vital here. But I am concerned that no one is ever going to get to independently corroborate the story." Tbilisi (AFP) - Georgia on Wednesday holds the second round of a knife-edge presidential election seen as a crucial test for the increasingly unpopular ruling party led by a billionaire oligarch. The new head of state will be a largely ceremonial figure, but the vote is seen as a trial run for the contest between businessman Bidzina Ivanishvili's ruling Georgian Dream party and the opposition in more important parliamentary polls set for 2020. Tensions have been high ahead of the vote, with some warning of potential unrest in the pro-Western republic, which has been shaken by civil wars and a 2008 conflict with Russia since gaining its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. In the first round held on October 28, the Georgian Dream-backed candidate, former French ambassador Salome Zurabishvili, failed to take the 50-percent-plus-one-vote needed to win outright. Zurabishvili, 66, took 39 percent of the vote against 38 percent for 60-year-old opposition leader Grigol Vashadze, who is supported by exiled former president Mikheil Saakashvili's United National Movement (UNM) and 10 other groups. Vashadze was narrowly leading in opinion polls ahead of the second round, and was given a major boost with the endorsement of ex-parliament speaker David Bakradze of the European Georgia party. He came third in the first round with nearly 11 percent. A win for Vashadze would drastically change the country's political landscape, signalling a likely end to Georgian Dream's six-year dominance. In a televised statement aired after the first round, Ivanishvili addressed voters, saying he heard their "heartache". "I hear that you are dissatisfied, since your life did not improve," he said, looking pale and almost tearful. In what critics derided as "vote-buying," Ivanishvili promised the government would drastically increase social spending and pledged to spend his own money to write off the bank loans of more than 600,000 individuals. Story continues - 'Oligarch rule' - Tensions have risen after the opposition accused the government of voter intimidation and claimed that ruling party activists had attacked members of Vashadze's campaign staff. Zurabishvili -- who kept a low profile after the first round -- said that she and her children received death threats through text and voice messages from people affiliated with the UNM. In a series of coordinated statements, several senior Georgian Dream lawmakers have even raised the spectre of "civil war" if Vashadze is elected. Vashadze, a career diplomat, has criticised Ivanishvili's "informal oligarch rule" amid growing discontent over the government's failure to tackle poverty. Georgia's richest man, Ivanishvili stepped down as premier in 2013 after a year in office but is still seen as the country's de facto ruler. The vote is Georgia's last direct leadership poll as it transitions to a parliamentary form of governance following a controversial constitutional reform. The inauguration of a new president will pave the way for the new constitution to come into force, making the head of state a largely ceremonial figure. The constitutional change was adopted in September 2017, despite opposition party protests. The outgoing president, Giorgi Margvelashvili, refused to run for a second term, saying he was not interested in the reduced role. Both Vashadze and Zurabishvili have promised to lead Georgia closer to membership in the European Union and NATO. More than 3.5 million people are eligible to vote in the election, which will be monitored by international observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Polls open at 0400 GMT and close at 1600 GMT, with results expected to start being released overnight. Berlin (AFP) - German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz on Wednesday proposed that France give up its permanent seat on the UN Security Council and turn it into an EU seat to allow the bloc to speak with one voice on the global stage. "I realise this will take some convincing in Paris but it would be a bold and smart goal," Scholz said in a wide-ranging Berlin speech on the future of the European Union. To lessen the pain of losing the powerful seat, France could become "the permanent EU ambassador to the United Nations", added Scholz, who is also Germany's vice-chancellor. France has been one of the five permanent Council members since the body was first established in 1945 in the wake of World War II to prevent another large-scale conflict. The permanent members, including Britain, China, Russia and the United States, are the most influential countries in the 193-member United Nations because they hold the right to veto UN resolutions. There have been repeated calls in the past to reform the UN Security Council, with large emerging nations in particular clamouring for a place at the table. In 2010, then-US president Barack Obama voiced support for India's efforts to become a permanent Security Council member. Brazil and Japan have expressed similar ambitions, while African nations have called for two permanent seats to better represent a continent they say has been historically overlooked. - Europe at a crossroads - French President Emmanuel Macron called on lawmakers in the German parliament last month to help create a "stronger, more sovereign Europe". "Europe cannot play its role if it becomes the plaything of great powers and contents itself with a supporting role on the global stage," he said. Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed Macron's speech, saying Europe was "at a crossroads" over its future. In the past, she and Foreign Minister Heiko Maas have both called for individual EU countries' seats on the UNSC to be "europeanised". Story continues When Germany was selected to hold one of the 10 non-permanent seats for two years from January 2019, Maas promised Berlin would "interpret it in a European way." "We want to show that we take the common European seat seriously. Because that remains our aim," he added. Scholz's Wednesday sally was the latest way Germany has sought to dispel accusations it has failed to respond to Macron's ambitious hopes to reform the EU and the euro single currency. While German leaders appear open to deeper cooperation in fields like defence, many have deep reservations about Macron's plans to equip the eurozone with a centrally-managed budget, fearing wealthy countries could end up footing spendthrift neighbours' bills. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said Wednesday that he would not support a new government-funding bill or the confirmation of Republican judicial nominees until the CIA is allowed to brief lawmakers on the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Im not going to blow past this. If that briefing is not given soon, its gonna be hard for me to vote for any spending bill, Graham told reporters on Capitol Hill. Lindsey Graham is saying he wont vote for anything Republican leaders need his vote on (spending bills, judicial nominees) until the CIA gives a briefing about the Khashoggi assessment Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) November 28, 2018 Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense James Mattis gave Congress a classified briefing on Khashoggis assassination at the hands of Saudi agents Wednesday morning, but CIA director Gina Haspel was not present. The briefing came ahead of a scheduled vote on whether to scale back U.S. support for the Saudi proxy war with Iran in Yemen. White House officials reportedly instructed Haspel not to attend the briefing, likely in order to avoid a clash between Haspel, whose agents have determined Khashoggi was killed at the direction of Saudi crown prince Mohammad bin Salman, and White House officials, who have questioned the veracity of the CIAs findings. Following the briefing, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle criticized the administration for not including Haspel and said the meeting was of little value as a result of her absence. I dont think the administration won any votes, won over any troubled Republicans in that briefing, said Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, adding that he was more confident following the briefing that lawmakers would pass the resolution to reduce U.S. military support for Saudi Arabia. President Trump has already expressed a willingness to shut down the government if Democrats refuse to provide $5 billion to fund the construction of his long-promised border wall. The shutdown would take effect next Friday should lawmakers fail to pass a spending bill. By Philip Pullella ROME (Reuters) - A Catholic group close to Pope Francis and representatives of 25 countries on Wednesday appealed to outgoing California Governor Jerry Brown to commute all the state's 742 death sentences before laving office. The Sant' Egidio peace group made the appeal together with the justice ministers of South Africa, Benin, Zimbabwe and Malaysia, and 21 lower-ranking officials from other countries at a conference on the death penalty held in Italy's parliament. Mario Marazziti, a Sant' Egidio leader, asked Brown to "declare a moratorium on all executions and begin the process of commuting the sentences into jail terms before leaving office". Brown, who once trained to be a priest of the Jesuit order, will leave office after completing his current two terms on Jan. 7, when Governor-elect Gavin Newsom is sworn in. A spokesperson for Brown had no comment. There are currently 742 people condemned to die in California, where the last execution took place in 2006. Executions since then have been blocked by legal issues. Sant' Egidio, which has branches in many countries and hundreds of thousands of followers around the world, is in the forefront of efforts to abolish the death penalty and help migrants. It has found great favor with the pope. Last August, the Roman Catholic Church formally changed its teaching to declare the death penalty inadmissible, whatever the circumstance. The 1.2 billion-member Catholic Church had for centuries allowed the death penalty in extreme cases, but the position began to change under Pope John Paul II, who died in 2005. The Vatican has said the change to its universal catechism, a summary of Church teaching, reflected Pope Francis' total opposition to capital punishment. The move was criticized by conservative groups in the United States, who said the Bible allowed the death penalty as a legitimate means of retributive justice. An editorial in the Los Angeles Times last week urged Brown to commute at least the death sentences of those who committed crimes when they were young. The newspaper also urged Newsom to place a new anti-death penalty initiative on a future ballot. Story continues Propositions to end capital punishment were defeated in 2012 2016 in California. Capital punishment is banned in most of Europe, with Belarus the only European country that carried out executions last year, according to Amnesty International. By the end of last year, 106 countries worldwide had banned the death penalty. In 2017, 53 countries issued death sentences and 23 of them executed at least 993 people with most executions in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Pakistan. (Additional reporting by Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento; Editing by Alison Williams) A high school English teacher made a questionable remark in class about police violence against African-Americans. (Photo: Getty Images) An anonymous parent took issue with a comment allegedly made by an English teacher at Pardeeville High School in Wisconsin on Nov. 2 and now the school has hired a private investigator to get to the bottom of it. The teacher reportedly told the class something to the effect: If I were a cop and you were all black, I would shoot you, according to local news station WISC-TV. But the remark was said to have been made in the context of a book the class was reading the popular young adult novel The Hate U Give, in which the protagonist is a 16-year-old black girl who is driven to activism after she witnesses the police shoot her childhood friend. The teacher was apparently drawing a parallel between the way students might be disciplined in school and the way African-Americans can be targets of police violence, according to the Wisconsin News. We did feel that the information we got was worthy of discipline, Pardeeville District Superintendent Gus Knitt told Yahoo Lifestyle. Knitt had previously called the statement a horrible analogy in an interview with WISC-TV. Whether the comment was in context or not, it is a terrible stereotype, especially when I think about (our local law enforcement). They do their job. They enforce the law, and they dont care who it is thats breaking the law, he told Wisconsin News. Although he said the school in no way agrees with what she said, he doesnt see the teachers comment as a racist incident. I know some people are trying to make it a racial issue but we dont view it [that way], and well see what the investigator says, Knitt told WISC-TV. Knitt told Yahoo Lifestyle that a school board meeting was held on Nov. 19 to address the issue and that three parents voiced their concerns. He said there were 24 students in the class, and he called each one personally to let them know about the investigation and find out whether their families wanted to be involved. I have six who want to come in and talk to investigators, he said. He added that the teacher had already apologized to the class herself. Story continues Some parents complained that the book should not have been part of the lesson plan to begin with, as it wasnt part of the curriculum. But Knitt said, thats not the way we do things. He described the curriculum as an overall guideline for learning, but he said teachers are free to introduce books of their choice as supplements. We always give teachers the latitude to bring in materials that will enhance what theyre doing, he said. Was it listed [in the curriculum]? No. But the teacher felt it was enhancing topics they were already dealing with. Knitt says he encourages teachers to assign books the students are excited about reading. We want students to read. We want them exposed to a variety of issues, he told Yahoo Lifestyle, suggesting some of the classics can be a hard sell. I have kids who dont want to read those books. So we ask, Whats the general topic we want to cover, and is there a book we [can choose] that the students might be more interested in?' He says that The Hate U Give has been so popular among Pardeeville High School students that the library cant keep it on the shelves. The school even reached out to libraries in the area, but they couldnt help either. The books are all checked out, and theres a waiting list of 100 people [at the library], he said. We understand how popular this book is. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas spent 50 weeks on the New York Times young adult bestsellers list after its release in February 2017. In October, a film adaptation hit theaters to critical acclaim. It was reportedly heavily influenced by the late rapper Tupac Shakur and the Black Lives Matter movement. Knitt confirmed that the teacher is still teaching the English class and will do so throughout the investigation. Parents had some concerns about the thoroughness of our investigation, so we brought an outside person in, he told Yahoo Lifestyle. That person is reportedly an attorney from the law firm Davis and Kuelthau in Green Bay. Knitt said that in a few weeks, a report will be delivered to him based on the investigators interviews with students and parents, and the school will decide how to follow up. Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle: Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. 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 news 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. A crashed Lion Air jet should have been grounded over a recurrent technical problem before its fatal journey, Indonesian authorities said Wednesday, as details from the new jet's flight data recorder suggested that pilots struggled to control its anti-stalling system. The preliminary crash report from Indonesia's transport safety agency also took aim at the budget carrier's poor safety culture, but did not pinpoint a cause of the October 29 accident, which killed all 189 people on board. A final report is not likely to be filed until next year. The Boeing 737 MAX vanished from radar about 13 minutes after taking off from Jakarta, slamming into the Java Sea moments after pilots had asked to return to the capital. Investigators said Lion Air kept putting the plane back into service despite repeatedly failing to fix a problem with the airspeed indicator, including on its second-last flight from Bali to Jakarta. "The plane was no longer airworthy and it should not have kept flying," Nurcahyo Utomo, aviation head at the National Transport Safety Committee (NTSC), told reporters. Lion Air's contested the preliminary result and said it was going to seek a written clarification from the NTSC. "We think this statement is not true," President Director Edward Sirait said. "The plane from Denpasar (Bali) was released and it was said (to be) airworthy according to documents and what the technicians have done." "The plane was airworthy," he added. The safety committee's findings will heighten concerns there were problems with key systems in one of the world's newest and most advanced commercial passenger planes. "But we don't know yet whether it's a Boeing or airline issue," said aviation analyst Gerry Soejatman. Investigators have previously 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. Story continues The report confirmed that initial finding, saying the plane's data recorder detected an issue with the AoA. It also said the plane's "stick shaker" -- which vibrates the aircraft's steering wheel-like control yoke to warn of a system malfunction -- was "activated and continued for most of the fight". 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 doomed plane's flight data recorder showed that pilots had repeatedly tried to correct its nose from pointing down, possibly after erroneous data from AoA sensors was fed into a system that automatically adjusts some of its movements. - Dubious record - Black box data showed the plane also had an airspeed indicator issue on multiple earlier flights, said investigators, who have yet to locate the cockpit voice recorder on the sea floor. Lion must take steps "to improve the safety culture" and bolster the quality of its flight logs, the transport agency said. "Airlines need to take paperwork seriously," Soejatman said. "That didn't cause the crash, but it can cause other problems in the environment they're working in." Despite a dubious safety record and an avalanche of complaints over shoddy service, the budget carrier's parent Lion Air Group has captured half the domestic market in less than 20 years of operation to become Southeast Asia's biggest airline. Indonesia's aviation safety record has improved since its airlines, including national carrier Garuda, were subject to years-long bans from US and European airspace for safety violations, although it has still recorded 40 fatal accidents over the past 15 years. The report stopped short of making any recommendations to Boeing but the US planemaker has come under fire for possible glitches on the 737 MAX -- which entered service just last year. The APA, a US airline pilots' union, said 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. "I am really surprised if Boeing has not shared all the flight performance parameters with pilots, unions, and training organisations," University of Leeds aviation expert Stephen Wright told AFP, adding that "a deliberate omission would have serious legal ramifications". In response to Wednesday's report, Boeing said: "(The company) is taking every measure to fully understand all aspects of this accident, working closely with the US National Transportation Safety Board as technical advisors to support the NTSC as the investigation continues." Several relatives of the crash victims have already filed lawsuits against Boeing, including the family of a young doctor who was to have married his high school sweetheart this month. Authorities have called off the grim task of identifying victims of the crash, with 125 passengers officially recognised after testing on human remains that filled some 200 body bags. Tehran (AFP) - Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called Wednesday for the country to boost its naval forces as a deterrent against its enemies and hailed the deployment of new ships. "Increase your capabilities and readiness as much as you can so that the enemies of Iran will not dare threaten this great nation," Khamenei said in a meeting with Iran's naval chiefs, quoted on his official website. The Islamic republic was confronted by "a vast lineup of enemies and rivals", he said. Khamenei, quoted in English on his Twitter account, stressed that Iran "has no intention of launching a war against anyone". But the country "should increase our aptitudes so that enemies will fear attacking Iran and threats against Iranian nation will perish". He welcomed the commissioning this week of a destroyer and two submarines, all three manufactured in Iran, as signs of "ever increasing progress". Defence Minister Amir Hatami, quoted by the official news agency IRNA, said two Ghadir-class submarines are to enter service on Thursday and a new destroyer two days later. Iran considers itself the historic guardian of the Gulf and regularly condemns the US deployment of naval and air forces in the strategic waterway. Torbat-e Heydariyeh (Iran) (AFP) - The labourers edge their way across a field of bright purple flowers gathering up the world's most expensive spice, a bounty that makes this dusty corner of Iran a crucial part of global cuisine. The delicate purple leaves of the Crocus sativus plant hold just three or four of the even more delicate red stamen, better known as saffron, that sprouts for just 10 days a year. These tiny filaments are currently selling in local markets for 90 million rials per kilo -- about $700 on Iran's volatile exchanges -- and perhaps four times higher abroad. The government says more than 90 percent of the world's saffron grows from the hard soil in Khorasan province of northeastern Iran -- a figure corroborated by France's specialist institute of agriculture and fishing FranceAgriMer -- eventually finding its way into Spanish paellas, Indian curries, Swedish saffron buns and much more. India is a distant second, followed by Greece, Morocco, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan and Spain, according to a FranceAgriMer report in 2013. The star producer in Iran is the small town of of Torbat-e Heydariyeh, about 700 kilometres (435 miles) east of Tehran -- which accounts for a third of global production, according to FranceAgriMer. But poor marketing means Iran has not always won the credit it deserves as the home of saffron, having mostly exported it wholesale to other countries who label it as their own. "All the cultivation is done here, but the marketing and sales is done elsewhere," local parliament member Saeid Bastani told AFP. "The people of the world should know that all saffron -- of any brand in any market in the world -- is Iranian whether it says Spain, Italy or Switzerland," he added with just a sprinkle of patriotic exaggeration. The government is working with local businesses and farmers to fix the problem. From his swish new factory on the outskirts of Mashhad, Ali Shariati, CEO of Novin Saffron, sends out around 15 tonnes of high-grade saffron to world markets each year and is spearheading "Made in Iran" efforts. Story continues It's tricky because the major markets each have their own saffron needs that require specific packaging and branding -- Spain wants powder for paella, Britain likes entire threads for Indian cuisine, Sweden likes tiny capsules for seasonal saffron treats. "We have to keep innovating and adapting so we can compete with the marketing in other countries," said Shariati. - Drought migration - Other issues are forcing innovation on the industry -- most pressingly, the devastating drought that has hit Iran's dry regions for the past two decades. Saffron plants require much less water than many other crops, but the drought is still causing a migration northwards. "The land being cultivated is gradually moving north, but that means they're moving into wetter regions and that's no good because the quality is better in dry areas," said Amin Rezaee, a farmer in the heart of saffron country -- around two hours' drive south of Mashhad. Like most farmers, he has been sucking water out of the ground to water his land, but now realises he must invest in more sophisticated irrigation systems if he wants it to survive. "It's a problem that people are irrigating in traditional ways. They must start to invest in modern methods," he said. At his factory, Shariati said the problem is easily solvable with better education and support for villagers, which could boost Iran's production from 400 to 1,000 tonnes per year. The biggest issue for farmers, he recognised, was navigating Iran's nightmarish banking sector, which is notoriously reluctant to lend to small businesses. So under a new "fair trade" scheme his firm now organises loans on farmers' behalf, bulk-buys equipment at cheaper prices, and provides education on farming techniques. "We're educating at least 20,000 farmers and we have guaranteed purchases contracts with 4,000," he said. "We want them to deliver more organic saffron and improve their lives at the same time." - 'Salt, pepper, saffron' - The other obstacle is Iran's struggling economy, which has lately seen wild fluctuations in the currency, in part due to US sanctions. "The price of bulbs, fertiliser and labourers have all trebled this year, but the price of saffron has only doubled," said Mohamad Jafari, whose family has been selling saffron in the small town of Torbat-e Heydariyeh for half a century. That is good for exports, but another blow for Iranians hit by soaring prices. Still, most people in the saffron trade remain upbeat. International sales have been boosted in the past five years by increasing interest from China, and foodstuffs are protected from US sanctions -- making it a priority export for the government. "The biggest problem with saffron is that people don't know about saffron," said Shariati. "We want them to think 'salt, pepper, saffron'." JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel said on Tuesday that it and Chad would resume relations, severed in 1972, after the central African country's President Idriss Deby made a surprise visit to Jerusalem this week. After Deby wound up his two-day visit, Israel said in a statement that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would "visit Chad soon and announce, with the Chadian president, the renewal of ties". No date was given. Chad is a Muslim-majority country, and most Muslim or Arab countries do not have formal ties with Israel. Some African countries have kept their distance from Israel since its occupation of the Palestinian territories in the 1967 Middle East war, but the Netanyahu government has been keen to improve relations with the continent. Some Sunni Muslim countries have also drawn closer to Israel in recent years due to shared concerns about the rise of Shi'ite power Iran. Meeting in Jerusalem, Netanyahu and Deby "discussed shared threats and the struggle against terrorism" as well as cooperation in agriculture, solar energy, water security and health, the statement from the Israeli premier's office said. Netanyahu has cited Chad's renewed relationship with his country as an example of how Israel can make diplomatic inroads in Africa and in the Middle East despite its on-going conflict with the Palestinians. (Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Jeffrey Heller and Hugh Lawson) Rome (AFP) - Italy's parliament will have the last word on the UN migration pact, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said Wednesday, so its officials will not attend a conference next month to ratify it. Italy "reserves the right to adhere to this document or not only after the parliament has decided," Conte said. Italian officials would therefore not attend December's UN conference in Marrakesh on the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, where delegates there will formally adopt it. "The migration pact is a document that deals with issues and questions our citizens are concerned by," an Italian government statement said. "For this reason, we think it advisable to task parliament with a debate and the final choice once talks have concluded," it added. The statement came as Italian deputies were expected to adopt a draft immigration law Wednesday backed by Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, head of the far-right League. It would tighten immigration policies, in part by replacing a current two-year humanitarian residency permit obtained by around 25 percent of migrants, with permits of shorter duration. Migrants considered dangerous could also be expelled via a new emergency procedure. Conte's statement on the UN pact was the latest sign that some countries who signed up to the agreement in July after 18 months of talks are now having second thoughts. A week ago, Switzerland said it would postpone its decision on the UN pact owing to opposition from parliamentary committees. Austria, Australia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel, Poland, Slovakia, and the United States have also either publicly disavowed the pact or notified the United Nations that they are withdrawing. The non-binding UN accord lays out 23 objectives to facilitate legal migration as the number of people on the move worldwide has grown to 250 million, or just over three percent of the world's population. Story continues Among its principles are the protection of human rights, including those specific to children, and recognition of national sovereignty. Its objectives include helping countries deal with migration by sharing best practices to improve information and integration. In October, Italy had registered 146,000 migrants on its territory, who could be regrouped in large centres to reduce costs. Rome (AFP) - Italy on Wednesday adopted far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini's tough anti-migrant and security decree, despite fierce criticism from the left. The bill, which makes it easier to expel migrants and limits residency permits, was passed in the lower house of parliament with 396 in favour to 99 against. "I'm happy, it's a memorable day," Salvini told journalists, shrugging off criticism from "left-wingers who think illegal immigration is not a problem". The bill's adoption followed Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's statement distancing Italy from the UN migration pact. Parliament would have the last word on it and Rome would not attend a conference to ratify it, he said. The Senate had already given its green light to Salvini's controversial decree, which the populist government of Salvini's League and Luigi Di Maio's anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) first put forward in September. As well as loosening the criteria to expel migrants, the bill allows migrants to be stripped of Italian citizenship if convicted of terrorism. The government opted for confidence votes to get the bill through both chamber of parliament after M5S members tabled a slew of amendments. The decree also ends two-year "humanitarian protection" residency permits -- a lower level of asylum status based on Italian rather than international law -- that were awarded to 25 percent of asylum seekers last year. Instead, residency permits will be awarded under stricter conditions such as a one-year "special protection" status or a six-month "natural disaster in country of origin" status. A new procedure to fast-track the expulsion of "dangerous" asylum seekers will also be implemented. The Italian Refugee Council has said it is "seriously concerned" by the new law. The United Nations refugee agency has said it does "not provide adequate guarantees, especially for the vulnerable or those with particular needs such as victims of abuse or torture". Story continues - Second thoughts - Conte's statement on the UN pact was the latest sign that some countries who signed up to the agreement in July after 18 months of talks are now having second thoughts. A week ago, Switzerland said it would postpone its decision on the UN pact owing to opposition from parliamentary committees. Austria, Australia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel, Poland, Slovakia, and the United States have also either publicly disavowed the pact or notified the United Nations that they are withdrawing. The non-binding UN accord lays out 23 objectives to facilitate legal migration as the number of people on the move worldwide has grown to 250 million, or just over three percent of the world's population. Among its principles are the protection of human rights, including those specific to children, and recognition of national sovereignty. Its objectives include helping countries deal with migration by sharing best practices to improve information and integration. In October, Italy had registered 146,000 migrants on its territory, who could be regrouped in large centres to reduce costs. Rome (AFP) - Italian anti-terrorism police on Wednesday arrested a Lebanese man suspected of planning a poison attack in the name of the Islamic State jihadist group. The suspect Alhaj Ahmad Amin, who has Palestinian roots, was apprehended for links to international terrorism and is accused of "having joined the terrorist, Islamic pseudo-state, IS," anti-mafia and terrorism chief Federico Cafiero de Raho told reporters. Officials arrested the 28-year-old in Macomer on the island of Sardinia following a tip-off. After an IS member was arrested in Lebanon for plotting to poison the drinking water of the Lebanese army, it emerged he had a cousin in Italy who "had the idea to carry out a similar operation in Europe", police said. Numerous references to IS and the use of poison had been found on the man's smartphone. The streets around the centre of Macomer were blocked off to prevent the suspect from getting away, according to local media reports. He was clapped in handcuffs as he came out of his house and got into his van. Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell addresses supporters during a Labour Party rally. Photo by Jay Shaw Baker/NurPhoto via Getty Images. The Labour party is considering giving customers and employees the right to vote on the pay of executives at Britains 7,000 biggest companies. The move could form part of Labours proposals for legislation on boardroom pay. Shadow chancellor John McDonnell and shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey commissioned a report which proposes an annual vote from stakeholders, including staff and customers, on executive pay packages. Another policy under consideration is to scrap share options for executives, and to ensure that they are paid only in cash. There would also be a ban on golden handshakes, and fines could be imposed on directors of companies that fail to pay the minimum wage. In addition to proposals affecting the remuneration on executives, the report suggests all companies which employ more than 250 staff should publish the names of those paid a salary in excess of 150,000 ($191,900). READ MORE: FTSE 100 set for hesitant recovery in 2019 Labour is preparing a raft of policies ahead of a potential snap election, with the Conservative party struggling to agree a path forward on Theresa Mays Brexit proposal. Jeremy Corbyns party reportedly welcomed the findings of the report, which was produced by a team headed by Sheffield Universitys professor of accountancy and finance, Prem Sikka. It puts forward 20 recommendations which it says are needed to curb undeserved executive pay and also create mechanisms for better distribution of income. It suggests that stakeholders could be given influence over executive pay so that they could exert pressure for better distribution of income and improved quality of service for consumers. On Wednesday, The Guardian reported sources in the party emphasising that not all suggestions included in the report would necessarily be included in any future manifesto. The same sources also suggested that there are five policies which are favoured by both Long-Bailey and McDonnell: Executive pay in large companies to be made public Executive pay to be made exclusively in cash in order to avoid abuse of perks, shares and share options Differences in pay between genders and ethnicities to be made public All stakeholders to be given the ability to propose a salary and bonus cap on executives The salary of executives at large companies to be subject of a binding vote by stakeholders including customers, shareholders and staff The companies affected by the proposed policy would be the largest 7,000 in the UK, which employ 250 more staff, and have more than 10 million employees combined. Story continues Long-Bailey explained her support for the report, saying: Whilst many of our businesses work hard to ensure that rewards and prosperity are fairly shared across their workforce, there continues to exist a pernicious corporate culture in some firms that many across Britain would view as immoral. It cannot be right that in just three working days, the UKs top bosses will have made more money than the typical full-time worker will earn in the entire year. Labour will look closely at the recommendations of this report as we seek to build on our existing policy of tackling pay inequality. The report states that a FTSE 100 chief executive would have expected to earn around 20 times the UK average wage in 1980, but this level has now reached 150 times the average in the current decade. Customers of the companies could be identified by billing records in the case of utility companies, and loyalty schemes run by other businesses. The report argues that consumers in many industries can be identified with certainty and must be empowered to vote on executive pay. This would help to check profiteering, mis-selling of products, poor services and abuses of customers. It went on to claim that low wage growth experienced by staff and dissatisfied customers would be able to mitigate exorbitant pay for executives. The analysis follows a study by the International Labour Organisation released this week which said wage growth in Britain was the poorest of nine developed countries over the past 10 years. MADRID (AP) The Latest on Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Spain ahead of the G-20 summit (all times local): 12:45 p.m. Chinese President Xi Jinping says the international community needs to build consensus to solve growing tensions over trade, in remarks ahead of a high-stakes sit-down with U.S. President Donald Trump this week. In a speech Wednesday to lawmakers in Spain, where Xi is conducting a state visit before attending the G-20 leaders' summit in Argentina, the Chinese leader says the world is facing "instability, uncertainty and hot topics without precedents in our history." Xi said: "I think we are at a crossroads. In economic terms we need to decide if we are going to follow the economic globalization and free market or if we are going to choose unilateralism and protectionism." He then called on the international community to unite to find consensus in order to "defend peace and prosperity in the world." China and the U.S. have leveled over the last year a series of tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of imports from one another. ___ 11:00 a.m. Spain has rolled out the red carpet for visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is seeking global allies amid souring trade clashes with Washington. Xi and King Felipe VI have reviewed Spain's guard of honor at the Royal Palace in the Spanish capital while Chinese First Lady Peng Liyuan and Spanish Queen Letizia observed the ceremony from a podium. Xi is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez later Wednesday and both will preside over the signing of around 20 government and business agreements, including a deal to export on-the-bone legs of Iberian ham to the Chinese market. The Chinese leader follows his two-day visit to Spain by flying to Argentina on Thursday for a G-20 leaders' summit the next day, and visits to Panama and Portugal until Dec. 5. BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) The Latest on the fatal shooting of a black man at an Alabama shopping mall (all times local): 4 p.m. City officials in Alabama say they met with the family of a man killed by a police officer and apologized for inaccurately describing him as the gunman in a Thanksgiving night shooting at a crowded mall. The city of Hoover issued a statement Wednesday saying the mayor, police chief and a city council members met with the family of Emantic "EJ" Bradford, Jr. Bradford was killed by an officer responding to a report of a mall shooting. The statement says city officials offered their condolences and "answered any questions that they could." The statement also says Police Chief Nick Derzis "apologized for an inaccurate public statement in the wake of this tragedy that implied that Mr. Bradford was the suspected shooter." ___ 2 p.m. An Alabama city is canceling its Christmas tree lighting after police shot and killed a black man inside a shopping mall on Thanksgiving. Demonstrators protesting the death of Emantic "EJ" Bradford Jr. had planned a demonstration at the event, which was set for Thursday at City Hall in the Birmingham suburb of Hoover. But a statement from the city says the lighting is being postponed out of respect for the loss of life. The statement says the city is offering thoughts and prayers to Bradford's family and hoping for healing. Police say an officer killed Bradford after seeing him with a gun following a shooting that wounded two people at the mall. Authorities first identified Bradford as the shooter but later said they were wrong. ___ 7:20 a.m. The funeral for a black man shot to death by police inside an Alabama shopping mall will be held in the city auditorium in Birmingham. Services for 21-year-old Emantic "EJ" Bradford Jr. are set for 10 a.m. Saturday at the 5,000-seat Boutwell Auditorium. A family aide announced the arrangements during a vigil Tuesday where the man's parents talked about the pain of him dying in a police shooting in the Birmingham suburb of Hoover. Bradford's mother collapsed as she began speaking about her loss. His father cried as he described missing hearing his son call him "daddy." Police say an officer killed Bradford after seeing him with a gun following a shooting at the mall. Authorities first identified Bradford as the shooter but later said they were wrong. HOOVER, Ala. (AP) The Latest on the shooting of a man at an Alabama mall (all times local): 7:20 p.m. Demonstrators upset with the police shooting of a black man at an Alabama shopping mall are blocking one of the busiest roads in the state. Several dozen protesters holding signs and chanting blocked heavily traveled U.S. 31 at Interstate 459 on Monday night. The site is 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. ___ 5:41 p.m. An Alabama mayor is offering sympathy to relatives of a black man killed by a police officer and pleading for patience as state authorities investigate the shooting. Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato said Monday that everyone wants answers, and that with patience and focus the truth will be established. Hoover police killed 21-year-old Emantic "EJ" Bradford Jr. while responding to a shooting Thanksgiving night at an Alabama mall. They later said, while Bradford had a handgun, he was not the gunman in the shooting. Brocato says he's requesting a meeting with the Bradford family. The shooting sparked protests and calls to release any police body camera video. The mayor says he understands the public's interest in the video. He says all footage has been turned over to the state law enforcement agency. ____ 6:23 a.m. Police in Alabama are promising to be "transparent" after an officer killed a black man when gunfire erupted at a shopping mall. Hoover Police initially described the officer as "heroic" for bringing down Emantic "EJ" Bradford Jr., who was seen carrying a gun after two people were wounded at the Riverchase Galleria mall outside Birmingham Thanksgiving night. Then they retracted the statement, saying it's "unlikely" Bradford fired the shots. Bradford's father said his son had a permit to carry the weapon. Police said Monday that Bradford had a gun in his hand "in the seconds following the gunshots, which instantly heightened the sense of threat to approaching police officers responding to the chaotic scene." Tannourine (Lebanon) (AFP) - High up in Lebanon's mountains, the lifeless grey trunks of dead cedar trees stand stark in the deep green forest, witnesses of the climate change that has ravaged them. Often dubbed "Cedars of God", the tall evergreens hark back millenia and are a source of great pride and a national icon in the small Mediterranean country. The cedar tree, with its majestic horizontal branches, graces the nation's flag and its bank notes. But as temperatures rise, and rain and snowfall decrease, Lebanon's graceful cedars are increasingly under attack by a tiny green grub that feed off the youngest trees. At 1,800 metres altitude, in the natural reserve of Tannourine in the north of Lebanon, ashen tree skeletons jut out of the forest near surviving cedars centuries old. "It's as if a fire had swept through the forest," says Nabil Nemer, a Lebanese specialist in forest insects. In ancient times, huge cedar forests were felled for their timber. Egyptian pharaohs used the wood to make boats, and King Solomon is said to have used cedar to build his temple in Jerusalem. But today's culprits lie underground, just several centimetres (inches) below the tree trunk: bright green, wriggling larvae no larger than a grain of rice. Since the late 1990s, infant cedar sawflies have been eating away at the forest in Tannourine, as well as several other natural reserves in northern Lebanon. "In 2017, 170 trees dried up completely and became dead wood," Nemer says. - 'Disturbed' - Like their food of choice, cedar sawflies have been around for thousands of years. They mate in spring and lay their eggs on the cedar tree trunks, where grubs hatch and feast on cedar needles. In the past, the larvae would then head back into the ground to hibernate for up to three or four years, before emerging again as adult sawflies with wings. But a warming earth has disrupted this cycle, especially in the Mediterranean where "climate change is more intense", according to Wolfgang Cramer, a scientist and member of Mediterranean Experts on Environmental and Climate Change (MedECC). Story continues In a November report, MedECC said future warming in the Mediterranean region was "expected to exceed global rates by 25 percent". As the ground becomes less cold and humid in winter, sawflies are now springing out of the earth every year, and in larger numbers. Their preferred victims are young cedar trees, aged 20 to 100 years old. Temperatures in Tannourine have risen by two degrees Celsius in the past 30 years and there is less snow than before, Nemer says. "With the drought, this larvae has been disturbed," he explains. In 1999, the authorities managed to keep the pest in check by spraying insecticides from a helicopter. But for the past four years, the cedar sawfly population has again been swelling. With chemical pesticides now banned, park authorities have resorted to a more natural, though less efficient treatment: injecting a fungus into the ground to kill the sleeping grubs. The authorities have backed the initiative so far, but it's a mammoth task that needs more funding, man power and laboratories, Nemer says. He says he hopes the state can increase its support, including by creating a nationwide authority to track "forest health". - Race to replenish forests - Forests cover just over a tenth of Lebanon. They are mostly made up of oaks, pines and juniper trees, but also a minority of cedars. As scientists fight to prevent cedar deaths, the government has embarked in a race against time to replenish the country's forests. Since 2012, it has helped plant more than two million new trees of all kinds across the country, agriculture ministry official Chadi Mohanna says. The project is running a little late on a target of 40 million planted trees by 2030, but he is optimistic it will help mitigate climate change. "In the next 20 to 30 years, we'll start to see a change, with more humidity, and several degrees less during heat waves," he says. And civil society is also playing a role. Since 2008, non-governmental organisation Jouzour Lubnan has put 300,000 new trees in the ground. On a recent sunny Sunday, in the rocky natural reserve of Jaj, dozens of scouts gathered to plant cedars, as Jouzour teamed up with the army to mark independence day. Beyond centuries-old trees hugging the mountainside, boys and girls in blue shirts planted 300 saplings just a dozen centimetres high. They protected them with bell-shaped cages and rocks to keep grazing animals at bay. "Cedars have survived millions of years. They can also take on climate change and adapt," said Jouzour co-founder Magda Bou Dagher Kharrat. "We can't lose hope, but we do need to help them." Antananarivo (AFP) - Two former presidents of Madagascar, Andry Rajoelina and Marc Ravalomanana, will face each other in a run-off election next month to decide who will lead the Indian Ocean island nation, the country's top court announced Wednesday. The run-off comes after neither candidate won the 50 percent of votes required for a first-round victory on November 7. Rajoelina got 39.23 percent of votes and Ravalomanana 35.35 percent, according to final results released by the Constitutional Court. "The two candidates cleared to go to the second round are Andry Rajoelina and Marc Ravalomanana," Constitutional Court judge president Jean Eric Rakotoarisoa said. The run-off vote will take place on December 19. It is the first time the bitter rivals are facing each other at the ballot box. Both Ravalomanana, 68, and Rajoelina, 44, were banned from running in the last election in 2013 under international pressure to avoid a repeat of deadly political violence that engulfed the island in 2009. Ravalomanana ruled from 2002 to 2009 until he was ousted in a military-backed coup that installed Rajoelina, who was in power until 2014. Rajoelina's succcessor and the country's immediate past president Hery Rajaonarimampianina was eliminated from the race after he came a distant third with just 8.82 percent of the ballots cast. The court shot down his application to annul the results. Judge Rakotoarisoa cautioned the two hopefuls to "avoid provocations" as they headed into the final stretch of the election in a country which has history of political turmoil. "The people of Madagascar do not need trouble," he said. Extra military patrols were seen on the streets of the capital Antananarivo. - Rivals go head-to-head - Rajoelina, who sat in court on Wednesday, had lodged complaints with the court alleging election officials tampered with software to "inflate" the number of registered voters in the first round in what he labelled "vote manipulation". Story continues He had also accused Ravalomanana of vote buying. The electoral commission rejected the allegations and the court threw out his petition. Last week Ravalomanana withdrew his legal complaints over alleged irregularities in the first round, with his lawyer saying the decision was reached for the sake of "peace and sovereignty of Madagascar". Madagascar, a former French colony, is well known for its vanilla and precious redwood, yet is one of the world's poorest countries, according to World Bank data, with almost four in five people living in grinding poverty. In the largely peaceful campaign to the first round of election, the frontrunners spent huge sums on flashy campaign rallies and helicopters. A total of 36 candidates took part. Shortly after the court session on Wednesday, Rajeolina vowed to appeal to voters whose intentions were up for grabs. "I open my arms, let's work together to save Madagascar. I will do my best to convince the undecided," he told reporters. Ravalomanana's campaign team called those who shunned the ballot box on November 7 "to come and do their duty" in the second round. Turnout in the first round was 54 percent. Antananarivo (AFP) - Two former presidents of Madagascar, Andry Rajoelina and Marc Ravalomanana, will face each other in a run-off election next month to decide who will lead the Indian Ocean island nation, the country's top court announced on Wednesday. The run-off comes after neither candidate won the 50 percent of votes required for a first-round victory on November 7, with Rajoelina on 39.23 percent and Ravalomanana 35.35 percent, according to final results released by the Constitutional Court. The run-off vote is due on December 19. It is the first time the bitter rivals have faced each other at the ballot box. Both Ravalomanana, 68, and Rajoelina, 44, were banned from running in the last election in 2013 under international pressure to avoid a repeat of deadly political violence that engulfed the island in 2009. Ravalomanana ruled from 2002 to 2009 until he was ousted in a military-backed coup that installed Rajoelina, who was in power until 2014. Rajoelina's succcessor and the country's immediate past president Hery Rajaonarimampianina was eliminated from the race after he came a distant third with just 8.82 percent of the ballots cast in November. Rome (AFP) - Italian police launched an investigation Wednesday into the death of an intruder who was shot after breaking into the premises of a man who had reportedly been robbed 38 times. Fredy Pacini, who owns a tyre shop in Monte San Savino in Tuscany, was accused of excessive use of force in self-defence after gunning down a 29-year old Moldovan. Pacini had taken to sleeping in his shop after a series of thefts, and was woken by noise in the early hours of Wednesday. He fired several times at the victim, who was with a second man who managed to escape, police said. "Being a robber is a dangerous job. Am I wrong??? Self-defence is always legitimate!" Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, head of the far-right League, said on Facebook. "My solidarity lies with the Tuscan shopkeeper who was robbed 38 times," he said. His comment sparked a political backlash in Italy, with opponents on the left accusing him of inciting violence. But a hashtag supporting the businessman, #iostoconFredy (#I'mwithFredy), went viral on social networking sites. Mexico City (AFP) - Mexico will bestow its highest honor for foreign nationals on US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner for his role in saving the country's free-trade agreement with the United States and Canada. Kushner, an influential White House adviser, will receive the Order of the Aztec Eagle for shepherding the negotiations to reach a new version of the deal, despite Trump's blistering criticism of the original North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). "Mr Kushner played a fundamental role throughout the process," the Mexican foreign ministry said in a statement. "His involvement was crucial in beginning the renegotiation of NAFTA, avoiding a unilateral exit by the United States, and his constant and efficient involvement was key in reaching a successful conclusion." Trump had threatened to axe the 24-year-old NAFTA, calling it the "worst trade deal ever" and a "rip-off" for American workers. But he ultimately agreed to an updated version, dubbed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Mexican media reported that President Enrique Pena Nieto would bestow the honor on Kushner, 37, during the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina this week, where the leaders of all three countries are expected to sign the new deal. Mexico sends more than 80 percent of its exports to the United States under NAFTA. The foreign ministry called the new deal "a source of stability for the national economy and certainty for millions of Mexican workers." Past recipients of the Order of the Aztec Eagle include U2 frontman Bono, Hollywood director James Cameron and Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Kushner, who is married to Trump's daughter Ivanka, has used back-room diplomacy and a close relationship with Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray to smooth relations between the two neighbors in the face of Trump's sometimes virulent anti-Mexican rhetoric and vows to build a wall on the border. But the relationship may also have landed Kushner in trouble. He lost his top-level security clearance in February, reportedly after multiple foreign governments -- including Mexico's -- sought to take advantage of his business and political vulnerabilities. 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. 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. Story continues 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 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. Amid the tear gas crisis, Mr Trump has continued to demand Congress fund his proposed border wall, running the 2,000 miles of the US-Mexico border, cutting through land in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. 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. 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. Story continues 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. A 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." "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 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. Story continues 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. 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. 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. 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. Ukraine has been offered military assistance by the US amid rising tension with Russia, the country's president Petro Poroshenko has claimed. America's secretary of state Mike Pompeo, had assured him in a phone call that his country, had the "full support, full assistance, including military assistance, full coordination, what we [need] to do to protect Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity, Mr Poroshenko said. Addressing a suggestion that Donald Trump had been slow to back Ukraine over the stand-off, the Ukrainian leader told CNN host Christiane Amanpour, that the president in his speech, also supported Ukrainian territorial integrity and [has] been on our side The US president had earlier said: We do not like whats happening either way. We dont like whats happening, and hopefully it will get straightened out. The Independent has contacted the State Department for comment. Mr Poroshenkos comments came after Russia seized three Ukrainian navy vessels it accused of having ventured into its territory over the weekend. Vessels controlled by Kremlin spy agency, the FSB, fired on the Ukrainian boats, injuring six crew members before they were seized. Kiev and Moscow have each blamed the other for the incident in the Kerch Strait, which links the Black Sea and Azov Sea near the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014. Moscow has been building up infrastructure in the region since then. Russian president Vladimir Putin told German chancellor Angela Merkel by phone that his country was ready to provide more details to bolster its version of events. Moscow says Kiev deliberately provoked it in order to trigger a crisis. Ms Merkel, who later spoke with Mr Poroshenko, called for de-escalation and dialogue. But Mr Poroshenko told CNN that Mr Putin would not speak to him directly. 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. Story continues Russia's presidential spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, criticised the move, saying: "The introduction of martial law could potentially raise the threat of escalation of tensions in the region of conflict." The FSB released video footage of the captured sailors saying they had ignored Russian orders to stop. At least one appeared to be reading from a script, while Ukrainian politicians said the sailors were coerced, rendering their confessions meaningless. The security service said it had information showing the sailors mission had been pre-planned by the Ukrainian government and that two intelligence officers from Ukraines SBU security service had been on board to coordinate the provocation. Russia has already started prosecuting the crew and a court ordered they be held for two months. Additional reporting by agencies By Maki Shiraki OKAZAKI, Japan (Reuters) - A senior executive at Mitsubishi Motors Corp said on Tuesday its alliance with Nissan Motor and Renault SA can survive management upheaval, a day after it fired Carlos Ghosn as chairman citing financial misconduct. The future of the 19-year alliance, one of the biggest automotive groups in the world, has been thrown into doubt after the Nov. 19 arrest and subsequent ousting of Ghosn as chairman of both Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors. Ghosn, 64, is the architect of the alliance and its chairman. He also remains CEO and chairman of Renault. Senior executives of the alliance are due to meet for their regularly scheduled gathering later this week in Amsterdam that sources said would start on Wednesday. Executives are also expected to discuss Ghosn's chairmanship of the alliance, one source at Nissan told Reuters, seeking anonymity because the contents of the meeting are not public. Mitsubishi CEO Osamu Masuko said on Monday he will join the meeting via video conference, while Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa, who remains in Japan, hasn't decided whether he will travel for the meeting, two company sources said. Nissan declined to comment. A major longer-term focus is whether and how the capital alliance structure might evolve, as Ghosn, under pressure from the French government, had pushed for a deeper tie-up, including potentially a full merger between Renault and Nissan, despite strong reservations at Nissan. Renault holds around 43 percent of Nissan, which in turn owns a controlling 34 percent stake in Mitsubishi Motors. Nissan, the biggest partner in the alliance by sales, has a non-voting 15 percent stake in the French partner. Speaking to reporters at a research and development center in Okazaki, central Japan, Mitsubishi Executive Vice President Mitsuhiko Yamashita said that regardless of the shape the alliance takes, the three companies would continue to source more parts together and leverage their ties to develop new technologies. Story continues "I can't say how the three-way partnership might evolve, but as car-making requires more and more new technologies, the days when a single car maker can handle everything on its own are going to disappear," Yamashita, who once served as Nissan's top engineer, said. He said that the alliance would need to work out who would make decisions, and how, without the binding figure of Ghosn, but was confident the partnership was strong enough to withstand the challenge. "Renault and Nissan have a history of nearly 20 years, and we're coming up on two years since Mitsubishi Motors joined," he said. "The foundation on which the cooperation has been built is becoming strong so I have faith that we can work with that." Sealed in 1999 when Nissan was rescued from near-bankruptcy, the Franco-Japanese alliance was enlarged in 2016 to include Mitsubishi and enabled the members to jointly develop products and control costs. Yamashita's remark echoes comments by Saikawa who told staff in a town hall meeting on Monday that the alliance remained important to generate synergies. Saikawa also said that there was an "excessive concentration of power" on Ghosn, and that in future alliance members should communicate better to help preserve their independence. Ghosn is in detention in Tokyo over suspicion of financial misconduct, including alleged understating of his income and personal use of corporate money. He has denied those allegations, public broadcaster NHK has reported. He has not made public comments on those allegations and Reuters could not contact him or his lawyers for comments. FRESH ALLEGATIONS In fresh allegations on Tuesday, Japanese media reported that Ghosn had shifted personal investment losses incurred during the 2008 financial crisis to Nissan to avoid millions of dollars in losses for himself. Citing multiple unnamed sources, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper said that when Ghosn's bank had called for more collateral from the executive, he instead handed the rights over the derivatives trade to Nissan, which effectively shouldered 1.7 billion yen ($15 million) in losses. Japan's Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission (SESC) discovered this incident during that year's routine inspection, the newspaper said. Nissan said it could not comment on the report. An SESC spokesman said the watchdog could not comment on individual cases. ($1 = 113.4900 yen) (Reporting by Maki Shiraki, Chang-Ran Kim, Ritsuko Ando, Kaori Kaneko, Takahiko Wada, Sam Nussey and Norihiko Shirouzu; Writing by Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Miyoung Kim and Muralikumar Anantharaman) Photo credit: New Zealand Department of Conservation From Popular Mechanics Nearly 150 pilot whales were discovered on a remote beach in New Zealand last weekend, having all stranded themselves on the shore for an unknown reason. All of the whales, unfortunately, have died. Its not clear exactly when the animals beached themselves because the coastline in question is part of Stewart Island, a remote island on the southern tip of New Zealand home to only about 350 people. The whales were discovered by a hiker exploring the beach, but by the time they were found most of the animals had already died. The pilot whales that were still alive when they were discovered had to be euthanized, because their condition and the remoteness of the location made saving them impossible. Sadly, the likelihood of being able to successfully re-float the remaining whales was extremely low, said Ren Leppens, operations manager of New Zealands Department of Conservation. The most humane thing to do was to euthanize. Dolphins or whales washing up on the shores of New Zealand isnt new. The Department of Conservation responds to around 85 beaching incidents per year, but typically each incident involves only a single animal. Almost 150 animals at once is much less common. Its not clear why whales and dolphins beach themselves in general, or why nearly 150 pilot whales all decided to beach at the same time last weekend. There are plenty of possible reasons, including navigational failures, weather, or environmental stresses. One of the biggest causes of beaching is noise from human boats. That noise is even driving whales to communicate on different frequencies. ('You Might Also Like',) Maiduguri (Nigeria) (AFP) - Nigeria's Muhammadu Buhari urged troops to show more commitment in fighting Boko Haram despite scores of losses in a recent assault as he visited the northeastern city of Maiduguri on Wednesday. The visit came a day before Buhari heads to NDjamena to hold talks on the Boko Haram conflict with his counterparts from Niger and Chad, his office said. Addressing delegates at an army conference in Maiduguri, the epicentre of the jihadist insurgency, Buhari acknowledged the military had done a lot to secure the volatile region. "There has been a remarkable improvement in the security situation in the northeast since 2015 when this administration came to power and you are part of it," he said. But defeating Boko Haram was "a must-win war," insisted the 75-year-old retired general who will seek a second four-year term in February's elections. "Our troops must not be distracted. They should be committed to the task of eliminating Boko Haram from the face of the earth." The conference had initially been due to take place in Benin City in the south, but it was moved to Maiduguri to honour the soldiers that were killed 10 days ago in an attack on a nearby military base, he said. There has been an upsurge in deadly attacks on both military and civilian targets in recent months, despite government claims the jihadists are on the verge of defeat. 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. In the latest attack on November 18, at least 43 soldiers were killed in Metele, although troops who survived put the death toll at more than 100. Buhari praised the fallen soldiers for their "heroic sacrifices" and pledged work with partners in the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJT) to end the conflict. The MNJT comprising Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Benin was set up to fight the Islamists in Lake Chad. Story continues Nigerian Defence Minister Mansur Dan-Ali said he was in Chad and Niger this week for talks with his counterparts on the Boko Haram issue. "My recent visit to Niger and Chad... was to meet with their defence ministers on how to strengthen the operational capabilities of the MNJT to achieve peace and security of the countries in Lake Chad," he said in Maiduguri. Dan-Ali said the MNJT would address the circumstances that led to the attack in Metele and come up with "new ideas and strategies" to prevent a recurrence. Security analysts say there must be a change of tactics if the fight against the jihadists is to succeed. They believe Nigeria's regional partners are not doing enough to secure their common frontiers against the insurgents. The nine-year Boko Haram jihadist rebellion has claimed more than 27,000 lives and forced at least 1.8 million to flee their homes, sparking a dire humanitarian crisis in the region. Maiduguri (Nigeria) (AFP) - Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari urged troops to show more commitment in fighting Boko Haram despite scores of losses in a recent assault as he visited the key northeastern city of Maiduguri on Wednesday. The visit came a day before Buhari heads to N'Djamena for talks on the conflict with his regional counterparts in a fighting force against the jihadists. Addressing delegates at an army conference in Maiduguri, the epicentre of the jihadist insurgency, Buhari acknowledged the military had done much to secure the volatile region. "There has been a remarkable improvement in the security situation in the northeast since 2015 when this administration came to power and you are part of it," he said. But defeating Boko Haram was "a must-win war," insisted the 75-year-old retired general who will seek a second four-year term in February's elections and who has previously said the Islamist militants were "technically defeated". "Our troops must not be distracted. They should be committed to the task of eliminating Boko Haram from the face of the earth." The conference had initially been due to take place in Benin City in the south, but it was moved to Maiduguri to honour soldiers killed 10 days ago in an attack on a nearby military base, he said. - Increased attacks - There has been an upsurge in deadly attacks on both military and civilian targets in recent months, prompting fears of a resurgence and further attacks as elections approach. AFP has reported at least 17 attempts to overrun army bases since July. Many have been claimed by Boko Haram faction the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). In the latest attack on November 18, at least 43 soldiers were killed in Metele, according to security sources, although troops who survived put the toll at more than 100. IS said it had killed 118 troops in five operations in its self-styled West Africa province -- Nigeria and Chad -- between November 15 and 21, without specifying the exact locations. Story continues After weeks downplaying the attacks, the army on Wednesday acknowledged there had been a "series of attacks by large numbers of Boko Haram terrorists" against soldiers. It said 16 military personnel were killed and 12 injured in attacks on four bases between November 2 and 17 but said the attacks were "successfully repelled". On the attack in Metele, it said 23 Nigerian soldiers troops deployed as part of the MNJTF were killed and 31 others injured. - Regional force - Buhari praised the fallen soldiers for their "heroic sacrifices" and pledged to work with partners in the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) to end the conflict. The MNJTF comprising Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Benin was set up to fight the Islamists in the Lake Chad region at the height of the conflict in 2014. At the time, Boko Haram had captured swathes of territory in northeast Nigeria and also launched cross-border attacks into Niger, Chad and Cameroon, whose borders meet on Lake Chad. Buhari's office said Central African Republic had also been invited to the one-day meeting, which would "review the security situation" in affected areas. It would also "adopt measures to enhance the capacity of the Multinational Joint Task Force to meet the challenges of securing the areas," it said. Nigerian Defence Minister Mansur Dan-Ali flew to Chad and Niger this week for talks on Boko Haram amid concern about the effectiveness of the coalition. - Drones, foreign fighters - Brigadier General Sani Usman, for chief of army staff Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai, said in a statement that Boko Haram had been "systematically downgraded" since 2015. But he added there had been "daring moves" in the last two to three months, including "increased use of drones against our defensive positions and infusion of foreign fighters in their ranks". "These potent threats require us to continually review our operations," he added. Security analysts tracking the conflict have indicated a renewed focus on Nigeria by IS-affiliated groups as well as persistent coordination problems within the MNJTF. Dan-Ali said the task force would address the circumstances leading to the Metele attack and come up with "new ideas and strategies" to prevent a recurrence. Security analysts say there must be a change of tactics if the counter-insurgency is to be successful. The Boko Haram insurgency has killed more than 27,000 since 2009 and some 1.8 million are still homeless, as aid agencies battle a humanitarian crisis in the remote region. Netflix is world leader in streaming services. Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images The head of the UKs media regulator Ofcom has called for a UK Netflix to be established by British public service broadcasters. Sharon White presented her keynote speech How British TV can be Stronger Together at the Outside The Box conference in London on Wednesday. She said in her speech: If the growth of Netflix and Amazon tells us one thing, it is that viewers will flock to single destinations that offer a wide variety of quality content It would make it easier for viewers to access content across a range of devices, with a single login. The Ofcom head called for providers such as the BBC, ITV and Channel Four to work together for a single public offering to aid access to the public. READ MORE: UK government to publish Brexit economic impact analysis White is confident that viewers will flock to single destinations rather than separate portals for each UK pubic provider. She said Netflix spends 6.26bn ($8bn) on content, which is four times the amount spent by UK broadcasters. She also stated that television audiences are holding up in the face of digital competition, but that the average BBC viewer is now aged 60, meaning broadcasters should collaborate both on distribution and productions to reach a wider audience. White said the regulator will inform the government on prominence whether and how private streaming and broadcast companies can push their services ahead of public providers and acknowledges that legislation will be needed. Riyadh (AFP) - Once feted on the world stage, Saudi Arabia's powerful crown prince faces the cold shoulder abroad as he struggles to shrug off the lingering stigma of a critical journalist's murder. Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been on an Arab tour before he attends the Group of 20 summit in Argentina on Friday, where he faces world leaders who have strongly condemned Jamal Khashoggis killing last month in the kingdom's Istanbul consulate. The country's de facto ruler has brushed aside the international pressure, attempting to use the overseas visits -- followed by a whirlwind domestic tour - to shore up his tarnished reputation and reinforce relationships with allies. "The question is who among global leaders will agree to stand with him publicly," said H.A. Hellyer, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and the Royal United Services Institute in London. "I suspect his appearances will be carefully staged to avoid embarrassment." The prince faces the grim prospect of being treated as an "outcast" by some leaders at the two-day G-20 summit, said Bessma Momani, a professor at Canada's University of Waterloo. "Group photos may be unavoidable, but liberal democratic leaders from countries such as Germany and Canada will not want to be seen shaking his hand," Momani said. Former Spanish King Juan Carlos faced scathing domestic criticism over his handshake with the prince in Abu Dhabi, his first stop in a regional tour which also included close allies Bahrain and Egypt as well as Tunisia. An image of the laughter-filled encounter at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last Sunday was dubbed by a conservative Spanish daily as "the photo of shame". But the 33-year-old prince, widely known as MBS, used the regional tour as something of a victory lap after US President Donald Trump -- who has praised Saudi Arabia as a "truly spectacular ally" -- threw his weight behind him. Story continues Trump's emphatic support came despite the Central Intelligence Agency's reported assessment that the prince - who controls all major levers of power in the Saudi government -- was behind the killing. "It should come as no surprise that allies like Trump, China's Xi (Jinping) and Russia's (Vladimir) Putin will have no qualms in signalling that they are absolutely fine to continue doing business with MBS," said Momani. - Frosty reception - But some officials in the prince's entourage are bracing for a frosty reception at the G-20 summit. Ahead of the princes visit, Human Rights Watch urged Argentine prosecutors to consider bringing criminal charges against Prince Mohammed over alleged war crimes in a brutal Saudi-led war in Yemen and his possible complicity in Khashoggis murder. It was unclear whether Argentine prosecutors would act on the request. Trump also faces growing pressure from US lawmakers, some of whom are demanding a probe into his financial ties to determine whether the president has any vested interest in backing the kingdom. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Pentagon chief Jim Mattis were to brief American senators Wednesday on Saudi Arabia amid mounting bipartisan concern about the kingdom. The prince's supporters fear that world leaders could leverage his weakened international position to gain concessions from the kingdom, as it struggles with a slump in oil prices. The prince is expected to meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has kept international pressure mounting on the kingdom by saying the orders for Khashoggi's killing came from "the highest levels" of the Saudi government. "In the event Erdogan meets with MBS on the sidelines of G-20, it will be indicative that some sort of a deal has been reached, which could include Gulf reconciliation and concrete steps on how to wind down the war in Yemen," said Sigurd Neubauer, a Middle East analyst based in Washington. "However, a potential Saudi-Turkish deal is unlikely to shield MBS from US Congressional investigations into the Khashoggi murder." - 'He's here to stay' - In a foretaste of expected acrimony at G-20, the prince faced hundreds of protesters Tuesday during a brief stopover in Tunisia, with many shouting "Go away assassin!" and some clutching red-stained chain saws - a reference to Khashoggi's gruesome murder. The hostility stands in stark contrast to the princes month-long tour of the United States earlier this year, where he received something of a rockstar reception and hobnobbed with business titans such as Disney chief Bob Iger and Apple's Tim Cook. In PR-slicked campaigns, the crown prince had marketed himself as a liberaliser seeking to remake his conservative petro-state, while amassing power to a degree unseen by previous rulers. The global fallout over the killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist critical of the prince, appears to have torpedoed that effort. But it has not so far has threatened to unseat the prince amid his tightening grip on military and security agencies and a ruthless crackdown on political rivals. The prince's supporters say the fact that he stepped out of the kingdom amid a crisis is an indication that he is firmly in control. "The prince is trying to show his domestic and international audience that he's leaving the palace and confident he'll return to control it," said Momani. "He wants to show he's here to stay for decades as the next ruler of Saudi Arabia." Paris (AFP) - Only one road remains open to the vital Yemeni port of Hodeida, which has now been entirely encircled by the Saudi-led military coalition, an aid worker said Wednesday. Fierce clashes have eased off around the Red Sea port but there is intense international concern over its fate as millions of Yemenis remain on the verge of starvation. Yemen's Saudi-backed government had been waging a fierce offensive to retake the city from Iran-backed Huthi rebels. Suze van Meegen of the Norwegian Refugee Council said cutting off the one remaining road to Hodeida would spell disaster for 22 million people relying on imports passing through the port. "As of yesterday, Hodeida has been entirely encircled by troops," van Meegen, an advocacy advisor based in Yemen for 18 months, told reporters on a trip to Paris. The one remaining access road, to the north "is 60 kilometres (40 miles) longer than any other road that we would use to enter the city", making pick-ups harder for aid groups, she said. If it is cut off, there will be "no means by which to get anything to up to 22 million Yemenis that depend on what is coming through that port". Van Meegen said she believed the road would be kept open ahead of peace talks expected to take place in Stockholm in December. But "if there is a negative outcome from those peace talks... and things escalate, the Saudi and Emirate coalition could cut that supply road off within two hours," she warned. Given that about 70 percent of Yemen's imports pass through the port, such a situation would prove disastrous, she said. "Humanitarian aid is not the solution -- we cannot feed 29.3 million people, the entire population of Yemen," van Meegen said. "We need a majority of Yemenis to be able to buy their food, so we can assist the people in the most desperate need." UN agencies say 14 million Yemenis are at risk of starvation. Operations at Hodeida's port have fallen by nearly 50 percent over the past two weeks, the UN said Tuesday. One of Paul Manaforts lawyers regularly briefed President Donald Trumps legal team about his clients conversations with federal investigators as part of special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, The New York Times reported on Tuesday. The Times, citing Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and two other sources familiar with the conversations, said attorney Kevin Downing regularly briefed the presidents legal team about what Manafort had discussed during interviews and what angles of inquiry Mueller was investigating. The alleged conversations happened after Manafort, a former Trump campaign chairman, reached a plea deal with Muellers team and began cooperating with his investigation. The Times notes that the backchannel, which it called highly unusual, may have been part of an effort to score a presidential pardon. Manafort faces charges that could land him in prison for at least 10 years. Downings efforts were not illegal, but have helped fray the often fraught relationship between the special counsels office and the White House. Read The New York Times full story here. In a court filing on Monday, Mueller alleged Manafort violated his plea deal after lying to prosecutors during interviews. The alleged lies were not specified in the filing but would nullify any promises federal prosecutors made to Manafort during the plea deal established two months ago. 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, the filing reads. Manaforts attorneys have denied any wrongdoing on behalf of their client. The charges against Manafort have been thrust into the spotlight once again this week amid the special counsels filing and separate reports that Manafort secretly met with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on multiple occasions. The Guardian on Tuesday said the pair met several times, in 2013, 2015 and around March 2016, although its unclear what they spoke about. Trump hired Manafort at the end of March 2016. Story continues Through a representative, Manafort denied the meetings took place. Separately, The Washington Post on Tuesday reported that conservative author Jerome Corsi told Roger Stone, a longtime adviser to Trump, that WikiLeaks was planning to release damaging information on 2016 Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Corsis email to Stone was sent in August of that year. The special counsels office has been working on a plea negotiation with Corsi, although such talks have reportedly collapsed. The Post notes that the account demonstrates WikiLeaks may play a central role in any case Mueller is building as part of his probe. Trump himself has gone on the attack this week, regularly lambasting the Mueller inquiry on Twitter and in interviews. The Mueller Witch Hunt is a total disgrace, he said in a message on Tuesday, calling the probe a Phony Witch Hunt in another. Mueller and his gang of Angry Dems are only looking at one side, not the other, the president said. 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. The Mueller Witch Hunt is a total disgrace. They are looking at supposedly stolen Crooked Hillary Clinton Emails (even though they dont want to look at the DNC Server), but have no interest in the Emails that Hillary DELETED & acid washed AFTER getting a Congressional Subpoena! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 28, 2018 CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misidentified Mondays court filing from the special counsel as a complaint. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. Manafort, right, with Mr Trump. His third visit reportedly took place just months before WikiLeaks released tens of thousands of emails from Democrats: REUTERS 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. 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. Story continues 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. 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. An Indonesian National Transportation Safety Commission (KNKT) official examines a turbine engine from Lion Air flight JT610 at Tanjung Priok port in Jakarta - REUTERS The Indonesian authorities have concluded that the Lion Air plane that crashed last month killing 189 people was not fit to fly and should have been grounded after recurring technical problems. The Boeing 737 MAX vanished from radar about 13 minutes after taking off from Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, on October 29, slamming into the Java Sea at 450 miles per hour moments after the pilot had asked to return to the airport. Data from the jetliner, presented in preliminary findings by accident investigators on Wednesday, showed the pilots fought to prevent the crash from the moment the plane took off as the 737s nose was repeatedly forced down, apparently by an automatic system receiving incorrect sensor readings. The information from the flight data recorder reveals that the crews successfully battled to raise the nose over two dozen times before finally losing control. The National Transport Safety Committee (KNKT) did not pinpoint a definitive cause of the accident, with a final crash report not likely to be filed until next year. However, it admonished Lion Air, the nations largest budget carrier, for repeatedly putting the plane back into service despite failing to fix a problem with the airspeed indicator in the days leading up to the fatal flight. Its previous flight, on the eve of the crash, was from Denpasar in Bali to Jakarta. The pilots had reported the same problem but had de-activated the anti-stall system and continued to fly manually. During [that] flight, the plane was experiencing a technical problem but the pilot decided to continue, Nurcahyo Utomo, aviation head of the KNKT told reporters. The report outlines the maintenance procedures that were carried out in response. In our opinion, the plane was no longer airworthy and should not have continued, he said, according to the BBC. The report itself does not explicitly spell out that conclusion. Instead it urges the airline to improve its safety culture, including to increase pilots knowledge of emergency procedures, and to better document repair work on its planes. Story continues The initial findings will also heighten concerns there were problems with key systems in one of the world's newest and most advanced commercial passenger planes. Investigators have previously 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 KNKT has retrieved one of the plane's black boxes - the flight data recorder - but is yet to locate the cockpit voice recorder, which will give more details of how the pilots acted to tackle the problem. Indonesia's aviation safety record has improved since its airlines, including national carrier Garuda, were subject to years-long bans from US and European airspace for safety violations, although the country has still recorded 40 fatal accidents over the past 15 years. Lion Airs parent group, which also operates Batik Air and Wings Air, has captured half the domestic market in less than 20 years of operation to become Southeast Asia's biggest airline, but it has been dogged by a dubious safety record and an avalanche of complaints over shoddy service. Last week a searing investigation by the New York Times, based on interviews with dozens of Lion Airs management personnel and flight and ground crew members, as well as investigators and aviation analysts, painted a picture of a carrier that allegedly prioritised growth over safety. Fifteen major safety lapses have been documented in recent years, including a crash that killed 25 people. Government safety investigators alleged that the companys political ties have allowed it to circumvent their recommendations and play down safety fears. BREAKING: Indonesian national transport safety committee says no engineer briefed the pilot of crashed Lion Air flight JT610 of the multiple serious flight problems experienced on previous flights. The onus was on him to read the maintenance log amanda hodge (@hodgeamanda) November 28, 2018 In one incident described by the Times, a government inspector had grounded a plane in the city of Makassar, eastern Indonesia, over problems with its hydraulic system. The airline went over his head to gain permission to fly from officials in Jakarta and the flight took off anyway. But Boeing has also come under fire for possible glitches on the 737 MAX - which entered service just last year. Several relatives of the crash victims have already filed lawsuits against Boeing, including the family of a young doctor who was to have married his high school sweetheart this month. Authorities have called off the grim task of identifying victims of the crash, with 125 passengers officially recognised after testing on human remains that filled some 200 body bags. A 16-year-old has been charged with assault, police said (PA) A 16-year-old boy is to be charged with assault over an attack on a 15-year-old Syrian refugee at a school in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire Police have said. A shocking video of the incident shows the victim, with his arm in a cast, is seen to be dragged to the floor by his neck before his attacker says Ill drown you while forcing water from a bottle into the victims mouth. The boy has been identified as a Syrian refugee named Jamal. In statement West Yorkshire Police said: Regarding the assault on a 15-year-old youth in Almondbury, which featured in a video posted on social media yesterday and has been widely reported in the media, a 16-year-old youth has been interviewed and reported for summons, for an offence of assault. He will appear at Youth Court in due course. The shocking incident took place at Almondbury Community School in Huddersfield (PA) The incident occurred on 25 October this year and has been subject to thorough investigation since it was reported to us the day after. The victim and his family are receiving ongoing support from police and other agencies. The force added: Safeguarding measures have been put in place for the victim and his family. A previous unconnected incident on 7 October, in which the victim suffered a wrist injury, was also fully investigated at the time. Three youths were interviewed. There was no further police action and the matter was referred to the school. According to a GoFundMe page set up to raise money for Jamal, his younger sister has also been a victim of bullying and tried to cut her wrists in the school toilet as a result. Mohammed Tahir, who set up the fundraiser, said: Jamals family are refugees in the UK and they struggle to meet the basic necessities of life. Police say the incident has been thoroughly investigated (PA) We want to raise money for the family to ease their situation and hopefully they can use the funds to help improve their quality of life and to put a smile on their faces. Having left a war torn country, the least they deserve is to live in peace without being harassed. Mr Tahir, whose campaign has raised more than 40,000 at the time of publication, said that he had spoken to Jamal and that he and his family are doing well. Story continues He said: After seeing the video of Jamal being bullied I had an idea of setting up a Go Fund Me page for Jamal and his family. Im overwhelmed by the support that weve received and I cant thank everyone enough for the generous donations they have made. I am working alongside GoFundMe so we can make sure every last penny gets to the family and I want to thank them for their support. Video of assault against one of my constituents absolutely shocking. Have been supporting the family since it was first brought to my attention. Understand from council that the school have taken strong action. Will be following up to ensure all available support is being given! Barry Sheerman (@BarrySheerman) November 27, 2018 The incident is said to have taken place on playing fields at Almondbury Community School in Huddersfield on October 25. Barry Sheerman, MP for the town, said he had been supporting the boy and his family. He tweeted: Video of assault against one of my constituents absolutely shocking. MORE: Sex worker jailed for six years after starting a fire that killed hotel manager one day from retirement MORE: Jeremy Corbyn ready to finally back second Brexit referendum if Theresa Mays deal fails Commons vote Have been supporting the family since it was first brought to my attention. Understand from council that the school have taken strong action. Will be following up to ensure all available support is being given! Superintendent Steve Dodds, of West Yorkshire Police Kirklees District, said: We are investigating a report of a racially-aggravated assault of a 15-year-old boy which occurred on playing fields at Almondbury Community School at about 1pm on October 25. The incident is said to have took place at Almondbury Community School in Huddersfield (Google) A police investigation is underway into the video from a local school. Neither us nor the school condone violence in any form and behaviour like this will not be tolerated Kirklees Council (@KirkleesCouncil) November 27, 2018 A 16-year-old boy has been interviewed by voluntary attendance in connection with the incident and we are continuing to progress the investigation. According to The Sun, the alleged bullys social media page airs his support for far right group Britain First. Kirklees Council said: Neither us nor the school condone violence in any form and behaviour like this will not be tolerated. Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK Washington (AFP) - The US Senate took a defiant stance against President Donald Trump's White House on Wednesday, advancing a measure that would end American military support for the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen. Senators voted 63-37 in favor of the proposal just hours after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis had implored them not to curtail US assistance to the Saudi military, arguing that pulling back would worsen the war. The vote was a striking departure from earlier this year, when the measure failed, and marks a new bipartisan desire in the Senate for Trump's administration to take a harder line on Saudi Arabia. Lawmakers are exasperated with Trump's reaction to the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which has been linked to Riyadh, and by the mounting humanitarian crisis caused by the war in Yemen. "The Saudis have gone off the rails. They've killed more civilians this year than any year prior in the Yemen war," Democratic Senator Chris Murphy told AFP. "They obviously made a giant strategic error in abducting and murdering Jamal Khashoggi. So, a lot has changed in the last few months to get us to this point." Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said he switched his vote in favor of the resolution because CIA Director Gina Haspel did not testify and could not be grilled on whether Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was aware of the plan to kill Khashoggi. "The question for me is whether or not the CIA supports the conclusion, with a high degree of confidence, that the crown prince was complicit in the murder of Mr Khashoggi," Graham told reporters. "I'm not going to be denied the ability to be briefed by the CIA." Both Mattis and Pompeo said that, after carefully reviewing the intelligence, they could find no direct evidence linking Khashoggi's murder to the crown prince, who is also known as MBS. "There is no smoking gun," Mattis told Pentagon reporters, stressing he still believes those responsible should be punished. Story continues "We have not changed, (in) that accountability for the murder is our expectation of everyone involved in the murder." Saudi Arabia has acknowledged the Washington Post columnist, a US resident, was killed inside the kingdom's Istanbul consulate in October but has blamed his death on a "rogue" operation. Trump last week called Saudi Arabia a "steadfast partner" and said it was unclear whether MBS was aware of the plan to kill Khashoggi. He has also cast doubt on the CIA's reported conclusion that MBS was behind the killing. Further debate and votes on the measure are expected next week. Should it ultimately pass the Senate it would have little chance of clearing the House this year. But extended debate could serve as a powerful symbolic step -- and allow lawmakers to address alternative paths in US-Saudi relations. - Peace talks - Peace talks aimed at ending the war in Yemen have been set for early December in Sweden, between Huthi rebels and the UN-recognized government. Mattis and Pompeo worry a move to cut US support to the Saudis ahead of the summit is poorly timed and could embolden Huthis not to negotiate. Senator Murphy, however, said Pompeo and Mattis' testimony may have been counterproductive. "They lost votes this morning," he said. "They just had no good answers for why Gina Haspel wasn't there. They had no plan to end the war in Yemen." The Yemen conflict has triggered the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with the country now on the brink of famine. The UN estimates as many as 10,000 people have died, most of them civilians, since the Saudi-led coalition launched military operations in 2015 in support of embattled Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi's government. US military support for the coalition includes intelligence sharing and training pilots to avoid strikes that risk civilian casualties. The Pentagon had also been conducting air-to-air refueling for coalition aircraft, but this month said it was stopping doing so. Still, a series of high-profile coalition strikes has killed scores of civilians, many of them children, and now many US politicians are balking at America's role in the war. Aside from the motion to pull US military support, some lawmakers want to impose sanctions beyond those that Washington enacted on 17 Saudis allegedly involved in Khashoggi's killing. Events have left administration officials publicly grappling with global realpolitik, saying Saudi Arabia's role in countering Iran is too important for the US to turn its back. "We are seldom free to work with unblemished partners," Mattis told senators. "Long-standing relationships guide but do not blind us. Saudi Arabia, due to geography and the Iranian threat, is fundamental to maintaining regional and Israeli security, and to our interest in Mideast stability." - 'Necessary strategic partner' - The Pentagon chief added that Saudi Arabia is a "necessary strategic partner" and pointed to the US military's training of partner pilots as key in reducing deaths. "While tragedies occur in war, we assess restraint and improved tactical judgment by Arab coalition pilots has reduced the risk of civilian casualties," he said. Pompeo warned lawmakers that ending US backing would lead to a stronger Iran, while reinvigorating both the Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. "Try defending that outcome back home," he said. CONCORD, N.H. (AP) New Hampshire's Supreme Court heard biting criticism of an elite prep school graduate's star-studded legal team Wednesday as his lawyer argued he deserved a new trial following his conviction for using a computer to lure an underage student for sex. Owen Labrie, 23, of Tunbridge, Vermont, was acquitted in 2015 of raping a 15-year-old classmate as part of "Senior Salute," a game of sexual conquest, at St. Paul's School. But he was found guilty of a felony computer charge and several misdemeanor counts of sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child. The computer law says no one shall knowingly use a computer online service "to seduce, solicit, lure, or entice a child" to commit sexual assault. Christopher Johnson, a lawyer for Labrie, argued Wednesday that his trial lawyers were ineffective for a slew of reasons, including failing to mount a defense against the computer charge or effectively communicate that Labrie had no intention of having sex with Chessy Prout when he sent her the messages. The lead trial lawyer, J.W. Carney Jr., is a well-known defense attorney whose clients included the late Boston gangster James "Whitey" Bulger. "A defense attorney obligation is to have a strategy and execute that strategy reasonably," Johnson told the court. "These lawyers, as shown in their post-conviction testimony, recognized the mental state was the place where they wanted to stake their defense. The problem was they totally failed to execute that theory." Two years ago, Prout spoke publicly about the assault for the first time. Prout, now 20, has since become an advocate for sexual assault survivors and co-wrote a memoir, "I Have The Right To: A High School Survivor's Story of Sexual Assault, Justice, and Hope," with Boston Globe journalist Jenn Abelson. The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission, as Prout has done. Story continues Assistant Attorney General Sean Locke told the court that Labrie's trial lawyers did a good job, since their client was found not guilty on the charges of rape that would have carried a prison sentence of 30 years to 60 years. He also argued Labrie's push for a new trial hinges on his presenting the case as if the computer charge was the most important of all of them since he was convicted of the charge, which requires him to register as a sex offender. "The defense counsel focused their argument on the most serious charges and this mirrored what the state did in its argument," Locke said. "In so doing, they didn't provide ineffective counsel, particularly because the defendant was acquitted of the most serious charges he was facing." Several judges appeared to be sympathetic to that argument, questioning whether this was more a complaint about the trial strategy undertaken by Carney focused on the credibility of Prout and Labrie's intentions than his skills as a lawyer. After the trial, Carney asked a judge unsuccessfully to set aside the guilty verdict on the computer charge. He said it never occurred to him that it was an issue worth exploring before the trial. Labrie, who was in court, did not speak to reporters. Neither Chessy Prout nor her family attended the hearing. But Prout's father, Alex Prout, said he hoped "justice prevails." "Our family continues to support our daughter in her journey of healing and seeking justice" Alex Prout said. "She was a victim of a crime and the perpetrator continues to follow his self-proclaimed mantra of deny until you die, never acknowledging his bad act or accepting responsibility for his actions." This is the second time that Labrie has appealed his case to the state Supreme Court. Earlier this month, the court upheld his convictions on the computer charge. The court dismissed arguments by Labrie's lawyers that prosecutors failed to prove intent in his use of the computer and also that the law was meant to be used to target sexual predators and pedophiles combing the internet, not in cases like this. Labrie is also asking that a judge suspend the remainder of his one-year jail sentence. No hearing has been set on that request. Labrie served two months in jail for curfew violations in 2016. His lawyer said he's complied with his bail conditions, which included a stringent curfew. If his sentence is not suspended, Labrie's lawyer wants him to be allowed to attend a work release program or home confinement. He recently found a full-time job. Prosecutors want Labrie to serve the rest of his term. They said they also contacted the victim's family, which objected to the sentence proposal. Moscow (AFP) - 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. Christine Blasey Ford, the psychology professor who became a household name after testifying against then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in September, made a rare public statement thanking her supporters and announcing that she is donating some money intended for her to organizations that support trauma survivors. A GoFundMe page was set up for Ford in September to help defray security costs for Ford, who received numerous threats after coming forward with sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh. In September, Ford gave emotional testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, detailing an alleged attack against her by Kavanaugh and a friend when they were teenagers in the 1980s. Kavanaugh vehemently denied the allegations, was confirmed and is currently serving as a Supreme Court Justice. Ford, a psychology professor at Palo Alto University in California, had to relocate following her testimony and faced multiple threats. Last Wednesday, she offered an update on her life since the testimony and said the donations have helped her and her family lead a normal life. Words are not adequate to thank all of you who supported me since I came forward to tell the Senate that I had been sexually assaulted by Brett Kavanaugh, Ford wrote. Because of your support, I feel hopeful that our lives will return to normal. Ford called the donations a godsend. The original goal was to raise $150,000, but the page has since raised almost $650,000. Ford wrote that the donations have allowed her family to take steps to protect themselves from frightening threats, and enabled them to hire security personnel and to enhance the security systems in their home. Ford said her family had to relocate from California to Washington, D.C. in a home that was loaned to them. Ford said that the security service, which began on Sept. 19, has recently begun to taper off and she will no longer be taking new contributions. Instead, she said she will donate the remaining funds to organizations that support trauma survivors. Story continues With immense gratitude, I am closing this account to further contributions, she wrote. All funds unused after completion of security expenditures will be donated to organizations that support trauma survivors. I am currently researching organizations where the funds can best be used. We will use this space to let you know when that process is complete. Ford said she does not regret coming forward despite the disruption it caused her, and thanked everyone who has supported and shared their personal stories with her. Although coming forward was terrifying, and caused disruption to our lives, I am grateful to have had the opportunity to fulfill my civic duty, she wrote. Having done so, I am in awe of the many women and men who have written me to share similar life experiences, and now have bravely shared their experience with friends and family, many for the first time. I send you my heartfelt love and support. An artists conception shows the Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet. (Boeing Illustration) Right from the start of last months fatal flight of a Lion Air 737 MAX jet from Indonesia, pilots were struggling with an automatic flight control system that had caused problems during a flight the day before, according to a preliminary investigative report. The report based on an analysis of readings from the jets flight data recorder, or black box says the pilots on the Oct. 29 flight fought for 10 minutes to keep the Boeing jets nose from being pushed downward. But they lost the struggle against the automatic system, known as the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System or MCAS. The 737 MAX 8 crashed into the Java Sea, killing all 189 people aboard. Boeing had added the MCAS capability to the 737 MAX as a safeguard to keep the plane from stalling under extreme aerodynamic conditions. Investigators say the system on the Lion Air jet apparently was responding to spurious information from angle-of-attack sensors that measure the air flow over the wings. Read the preliminary report: Indonesian investigators trace what went wrong on Lion Air Flight 610 The pilots repeatedly used manual controls to push up the jets nose, and the automatic system repeatedly sent commands to push it back down, according to the report. In our view, the plane was not airworthy, Reuters quoted Nurcahyo Utomo, an investigator for Indonesias National Transportation Safety Committee, as saying at a news conference in Jakarta on Wednesday (Tuesday night PT). Boeing says the remedy for the angle-of-attack sensor problem is to switch off the automatic anti-stall system, but the Lion Air pilots didnt take that step. One of the sensors had been replaced two days before the crash, on Oct. 27, but the system acted up nevertheless during an Oct. 28 flight, the report says. During that trip, the planes flight crew experienced similar problems with the anti-stall system and switched it off, as recommended. After landing, the pilot made note of the issues. Maintenance workers conducted some corrective procedures and reported that the issues were resolved. Story continues The report raises a number of questions about the anti-stall system, and about Lion Airs maintenance procedures in the days before the crash. Investigators called on Lion Air to improve its safety culture and to tell its pilots to discontinue flights as soon as possible if they encounter conditions that arent airworthy. Another question has to do with the pilots state of mind on the final flight: Why didnt they switch off the automatic control system, as the previous days crew had done? Further clues for answering that last question might have been contained on the 737s cockpit voice recorder, but that black box has not been recovered. Theres been a debate about how much pilots are expected to know about the automatic control system and what to do if it malfunctions. Boeing says the procedure is covered in flight operations manuals for the 737, but some pilots have said they didnt hear about the MCAS or about the potential control issue until after the Lion Air crash. After the reports release, Boeing issued a statement saying that the company was deeply saddened by the loss of Lion Air Flight 610. It expressed condolences to those whose loved ones were lost in the crash. Safety is a core value for everyone at Boeing, and the safety of our airplanes, our customers passengers and their crews is always our top priority, Boeing said in its statement. As our customers and their passengers continue to fly the 737 MAX to hundreds of destinations around the world every day, they have our assurance that the 737 MAX is as safe as any airplane that has ever flown the skies. Boeing said it was taking every measure to fully understand all aspects of this accident, working closely with the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board as technical advisers to support the [Indonesian] NTSC as the investigation continues. This is an updated version of a report originally published at 3:01 p.m. PT Nov. 27. More from GeekWire: U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss. (Photo: Rogelio Solis/AP) JACKSON, Miss . In the last major race of the midterm campaign, Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith claimed victory in Mississippis closely watched Senate runoff election, defeating Democrat Mike Espy after a tense campaign rocked by unsettling reminders of the states dark legacy of racism. Hyde-Smith, a former state senator and state Agriculture secretary, was appointed by Gov. Phil Bryant last spring to fill the seat vacated by ailing Sen. Thad Cochran. Her win Tuesday to serve out the last two years of Cochrans term made history, as she became the first elected female lawmaker to represent the state in Washington. But her path to victory wasnt an easy one, even in this deeply conservative state where no Democrat has won statewide office since 1982. Though Hyde-Smith failed to meet the 50 percent threshold she needed on Nov. 6 to avoid a runoff against Espy, she had been strongly favored to win the election as recently as two weeks ago. But the election was thrown into disarray after a video clip emerged earlier this month that showed Hyde-Smith praising a cattle rancher at a campaign event in Tupelo by saying 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 as punishment or to terrorize. The NAACP counts 581 lynchings in Mississippi between 1882 and 1968, the most of any state. That comment was followed by another campaign-trail remark in which she mused about making it a little more difficult for liberal college kids to vote. A 2014 Facebook photo circulated of her in a Confederate Army hat visiting 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 a similar school. Story continues GOP allies urged Hyde-Smith to quickly apologize, but she hesitated, waiting until her one and only debate with Espy to read from a carefully worded statement in which she expressed contrition to anyone that was offended by my comments. Under fire, she vanished from the campaign trail until this weekend, where she spoke to small crowds and fiercely avoided reporters who sought to question her about her views on race, at one point literally running out a side door to escape the media. On Monday, President Trump flew to the Mississippi for two last-minute rallies in Tupelo and Biloxi, two of the most conservative cities in the state, as part of a GOP effort to make the election less about Hyde-Smith and more about Trump, who won the state by 17 points two years ago and remains popular here. That coincided with a mailer issued by the Mississippi Republican Party that urged the GOP faithful to turn out and vote. It featured a photo of Trump, not Hyde-Smith. Espy, a former congressman who served as President Clintons Agriculture secretary until he was forced out as part of an ethics scandal, was vying to be the first African-American elected to the Senate from Mississippi since Reconstruction. He ran as a moderate, rarely speaking about race until the final days of the campaign amid the outcry over Hyde-Smiths comments, instead running as a unifier who sought to represent everyone. Hoping to replicate the success of Democratic Sen. Doug Jones in neighboring Alabama, Espy awakened a Democratic Party that had been driven into near extinction in Mississippi, driving up turnout among black voters and appealing to moderate whites angry with Trump. But he faced steep odds from the beginning in a state where Republicans make up more than half the voting electorate. Still, he was credited with making the race closer than anyone believed it could be, and Democrats were hopeful he might consider running again in 2020, when the seat comes up for full six-year term. In his concession, Epsy suggested he wasnt done with politics. Tonight is the beginning not the end, the former congressman said. When this many people show up, stand up and speak up, it is not a loss. It is a moment. It is a movement. And we are not going to stop moving our state forward just because of one election. I look forward to finding new ways to do just that. Tuesdays results didnt dramatically change the political makeup of the Senate, where Republicans will now hold a 53-seat majority beginning in January. But GOP officials were worried enough about a potential loss that they dispatched dozens of staffers here in recent days to help boost Hyde-Smiths ground game. The race was called about two hours after polls closed in Mississippi a longer wait than most elections here, adding to the GOP anxiety. Hyde-Smith was ahead by about 10 points, with 80 percent of the vote counted. But a party operative dismissed the closeness of the race. A win is a win is a win, he said. _____ Read more from Yahoo News: The debut of Rivians R1T electric pickup truck got a turbocharge of visibility during its debut on Monday night, thanks to an appearance by pop icon and makeup maven Rihanna. The bad gal graced the event with her presence, holding court at the tony locale, Los Angeles Griffith Observatory (you might remember this locale from a little film known as La La Land). While the debut of a pickup truck ahead of the Los Angeles Auto Show might not seem like an obvious choice for a global superstar to attend, the Rivian electric concept pickup truck is one of the first of its kind. According to USA Today, while the truck is not slated to start production until 2020, it will have a battery strong enough to travel 400 miles in its longest-range version and will be able to to up to 11,000 pounds. And if all that isnt enough to convince you why Rihanna might be a fan of this forthcoming clean energy vehicle, just like the lyrics of her song Shut Up and Drive, the car can do zero to 60 in less than 3 seconds. A survivor of the Rotherham child exploitation scandal has called for a change in the law amid claims that the father of her child, who raped her as a teenager, was invited by a council to play a role in her sons life. Campaigner Sammy Woodhouse spoke out after reports emerged in The Times that Arshid Hussain, who was jailed for 35 years in 2016 after being convicted of 23 child sex offences, was told by Rotherham Council that he could seek visits from the child. Sammy Woodhouse is seeking a change in the law after the father of her child (right) who raped her was granted access to the youngster (Rex) The newspaper said that Hussain, the boys father, was listed as a respondent in a Family Court case involving the boy, and was therefore contacted by the local authority, who promised to keep him informed of all future proceedings. The Times said that, during a hearing last year, Miss Woodhouse was told that the convicted sex offender would be allowed to attend court and make legal representations. The story had initially been anonymised, but Miss Woodhouse revealed on Twitter on Tuesday afternoon that the child involved is her son. The Times: Jailed rapist given chance to see his victims child. Rotherham council have offered convicted rapist access to my son. This is happening all over the UK and must stop! An investigation and change in law is needed. https://t.co/dxSnGt29Is pic.twitter.com/7nJ1jnvJGN Sammy Woodhouse (@sammywoodhouse1) November 27, 2018 In a video which has been viewed over 200,000 times, she said: This story is about myself, about my son, about the man that raped me, and about the fact that Rotherham Council have offered him to apply for parental rights for my child. Arshid Hussain was jailed for 35 years in 2016 after being convicted of 23 child sex offences (South Yorkshire Police) MORE: Family stockpile essential food including quinoa and baked beans in case of no-deal Brexit MORE: Police investigate shocking waterboard attack on Syrian refugee on school playing field Story continues Miss Woodhouse said Hussain had been proved to be a danger to myself and to other children. She added: Ive also been able to prove that he is a direct danger to my son. This is happening all over the country, and it needs to stop. Miss Woodhouse said Hussain had been proved to be a danger to myself and to other children (Twitter) Children are being removed [and] being given to rapists, to murderers. Miss Woodhouse, who told Good Morning Britain that she was mortified after discovering her rapist may be able to visit her child, was one of the key witnesses in South Yorkshire Polices Operation Clover investigation which led to a number of Rotherham men being given lengthy jail sentences in 2016, including Arshid Hussain and his three brothers. She subsequently waived her anonymity and now speaks widely about child sexual exploitation and has written a book about her experiences. The campaigner revealed on Tuesday that she and Louise Haigh, MP for Sheffield Heeley, are calling on the Government to change the 1989 Childrens Act to ensure rapists cant gain access to children conceived through rape and abuse. A Rotherham Council spokesman said that it could not disclose information relating to proceedings hearing in the Family Court (Wikipedia) A Rotherham Council spokesman said that it could not disclose information relating to proceedings hearing in the Family Court, adding: Like all councils we must comply with legal requirements, including Practice Directions, and that would include giving notice of proceedings to parents with or without formal parental responsibility. Often and understandably, cases before the Family Court are emotive and arouse strong feelings amongst those affected. We do understand that the legal requirements can cause upset to those involved and so we welcome a debate around this issue, which applies across England and Wales. A Ministry of Justice statement said: This is obviously a very distressing incident and the relevant departments and local authority will work urgently to understand and address the failings in this case. Local authorities can apply to courts to request permission not to notify parents without parental responsibility about care proceedings, and courts should consider the potential harm to the child and mother when making this decision. An NSPCC spokeswoman added: We need to understand if this is a one-off failure or a system-wide problem that needs to be addressed, so no other survivor and their child have to go through the same trauma. Geneva (AFP) - Russia on Wednesday accused the United States and some European countries of indulging "provocative" action by Ukraine, as tensions mount over Russia's seizure of Ukrainian ships. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, in Geneva for a United Nations conference, was asked about Western sanctions targeting Moscow following Sunday's confrontation in the Kerch Straight. "I think it reflects Washington's tendency to indulge any and all action taken by the Kiev regime, even inciting them to provocative actions," Lavrov told reporters "This is really regrettable," he added, following talks with his Swiss counterpart Ignazio Cassis. "There are plenty of facts which show that Washington and some European capitals are willing to tolerate the whims of the Kiev regime," Lavrov further said. Russian border patrol boats fired on, boarded and seized the three Ukrainian vessels, along with 24 sailors, on Sunday off the coast of Crimea. The Ukrainian vessels -- a tug and two gunboats -- were trying to pass through the Kerch Strait from the Black Sea to the Azov Sea, but were refused access and chased into international waters by 10 Russian vessels. Western governments have rallied behind Kiev in the dispute, accusing Russia of illegally blocking access to the Azov Sea and of taking military action without justification. US President Donald Trump has said he may cancel a long-awaited summit with Putin at the G20 this week as a result of the confrontation. By Andrew Osborn and Anton Zverev MOSCOW/KERCH, Crimea (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday shrugged off a threat from U.S. President Donald Trump to cancel a meeting with him due to Moscow's seizure of three Ukrainian navy ships, and accused Ukraine's president of orchestrating the crisis. Russia seized the Ukrainian vessels and their crews on Sunday near Crimea, the Ukrainian region which Moscow annexed in 2014, over what it said was their illegal entry into Russian waters, which Ukraine denies. The episode has raised fears in the West of a wider conflict between the two countries, and Trump said on Tuesday that he might cancel a planned meeting with Putin at the G20 summit in Argentina later this week as a response to "aggression". Some of Ukraine's Western allies have also raised the possibility of imposing new sanctions on Russia over the episode, which could deliver a blow to the Russian economy. But Putin, in his first public comments on the Black Sea incident, said that the Ukrainian vessels had clearly been in the wrong, dismissed the clash as a minor border issue, and accused Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko of having orchestrated the crisis in order to boost his dire ratings. Putin said he also still hoped to meet Trump at the G20, while the Kremlin said the meeting was still being prepared and Washington had not informed Moscow it was off. "It was without doubt a provocation," Putin told a financial forum in Moscow of the incident. "It was organized by the president ahead of the elections. The president is in fifth place ratings-wise and therefore had to do something. It was used as a pretext to introduce martial law." Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he was saddened by what he asserted was Washington's willingness to encourage Ukraine's "provocation". Putin said the West was willing to forgive Ukrainian politicians because it bought into their anti-Russian narrative. Trump has been briefed on the situation as he considers whether to cancel the Putin meeting but no decision has been made, White House officials said on Wednesday. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Russia's action shows it cannot be counted on to keep its word. "It was obviously a flagrant violation of international law. It was, I think, a cavalier use of a force that injured Ukrainian sailors," he told reporters at the Pentagon. Kiev has introduced martial law in parts of the country, saying it fears a possible Russian invasion. Speaking in northern Ukraine, Poroshenko, who has accused Moscow of naked military aggression, talked up his country's readiness to respond to any future Russian military action. "It's important to keep our powder dry and be ready at any moment to push back the aggressor," said Poroshenko, adding that he had received offers from hundreds of Ukrainian war veterans who said they were ready to return and defend the country. MISSILES FOR CRIMEA The United States and the EU have both imposed sanctions on Russia over its conduct toward Ukraine since 2014, when Moscow seized and annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula after a pro-Russian leader was toppled in Kiev. Moscow later backed pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine in a conflict in which more than 10,000 people have been killed. Major fighting ended with a 2015 ceasefire but deadly exchanges of fire are still frequent. A Kremlin aide said on Wednesday that Putin had rebuffed an initiative from Poroshenko for the two men to speak by phone. Vadim Astafyev, a spokesman for Russia's southern military district, was cited by Russian news agencies as saying that a new battalion of advanced S-400 surface-to-air missiles would be delivered to Crimea soon and become operational by year's end. The deployment is likely to have been long-planned, but the timing of the announcement appeared designed to send a message to Ukraine and the West that Russia is serious about defending what it regards as its own territory and waters. Crimea already hosts three battalions of the anti-aircraft missile systems which have a range of up to 400 km (250 miles) allowing Russia to control large swaths of the skies above the Black Sea. The new missile deployment to Crimea would allow Russia to increase its air defense coverage area. Separately, a Reuters correspondent in Crimea on Wednesday observed a Russian navy minesweeper ship, the Vice-Admiral Zakharin, heading in the direction of the Sea of Azov. The sea is home to major ports of both Russia and Ukraine, and can be reached only through the Russian-controlled Kerch Strait near where Sunday's incident took place. A court in Crimea's capital Simferopol on Wednesday ordered nine of the 24 captured Ukrainian sailors - including senior Ukrainian naval officers and at least one member of Ukraine's SBU intelligence agency - held for a period of two months. The same court ordered the other 15 sailors on Tuesday to be detained for two months pending a possible trial. All of the sailors face jail terms of up to six years if found guilty of what Moscow says was a plot to illegally cross the Russian border by trying to pass through the strait without advance notice and ignoring calls to stop. Ukraine said its ships did nothing wrong and have every right to use the strait without Russian permission. (Reporting by Andrew Osborn and Anton Zverev; Additional reporting by Polina Nikolskaya, Daria Korsunksaya, Tom Balmforth, Polina Ivanova, Vladimir Soldatkin, Katya Golubkova, Gleb Stolyarov and Oksana Kobzeva in Moscow, Pavel Polityuk in Kiev and Stephanie Nebehay, Tom Miles in Geneva, Steve Holland and Idrees Ali in Washington; Writing by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Christian Lowe, Peter Graff and Lisa Shumaker) TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman received a personal welcome Tuesday from Tunisia's president who greeted his guest at the airport after two days of protests in the capital that reflected international concern about the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi, who turns 92 on Thursday, honored the prince with a rare display of high protocol from a salute to the flags to the sound of the national anthems before the two reviewed troops. They then headed to the presidential palace in Carthage, outside Tunis, for closed-door talks, the only scheduled activity during the brief visit by the prince, who was on a tour of Arab countries before heading to the Group of 20 summit in Argentina. The official welcome contrasted with hostile protests by non-governmental representatives and leftist political parties with more than 200 protesters on Tuesday to cries of "Tunisia is not for sale." Some burned a Saudi Arabian flag and others brandished saws. There was no visible hostility during visits to a handful of other countries. A banner showing a doctored image of the prince holding a bone saw hung on the headquarters of the Tunisian journalists union. Turkish officials say Khashoggi's body was dismembered in the Saudi Embassy in Istanbul last month. Saudi authorities have blamed the killing on lower-ranking officials who they say exceeded their authority. A day earlier, about 200 protesters gathered in the same spot to say the crown prince wasn't welcome in this North African nation. A youth activist group that criticizes Saudi limits on women's rights was among those demonstrating Tuesday. "No to Repression of Freedom of Expression" read one sign. "We're here to say no, 1,000 times no to the visit by the criminal bin Salman," said protester Said Arous. Prince Mohammed is not exposed to this kind of protest back home, where he's engaged in a crackdown targeting business leaders, human rights activists and other royals. Story continues Traveling abroad for the first time since the killing, the crown prince is visiting Arab allies before heading to a Group of 20 summit in Argentina this week, where he may face questions about the gruesome slaying. On his tour's first stop, in the United Arab Emirates, the Saudi prince was embraced on the tarmac by Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, a close ally. He also went to neighboring Bahrain, an island nation that functions as a vassal state to Saudi Arabia and to Egypt. Tunisian President Essebsi's office said Tunisia denounces the journalist's killing and wants a full investigation, but doesn't want it to be used to destabilize Saudi Arabia. Asked about the prince's visit, Tunisian government minister Selma Elloumi said he is "welcome" in Tunisia and stressed "historical and fraternal" relations between the countries. But many Tunisians are angry over the killing and suspicions of the prince's involvement. "He is coming to this country to dirty it, and acquire a false legitimacy," Tahar Yahya, of the Tunisian Order of Lawyers said Monday night. "We don't want the money of a regime whose hands are stained with blood." His group tried to seek a court order blocking the prince's visit. The Tunisian journalists' union sent a letter to the president calling it an "attack on the principles" of the 2011 revolution that brought democracy and freedom of expression to Tunisia. Saudi Arabia offered refuge to the autocratic ruler that Tunisians overthrew in 2011, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, and democracy activists have denounced Riyadh's refusal to extradite him. A dozen Tunisian non-governmental organizations issued a joint statement saying the visit is aimed at cleaning up Prince Mohammed's image after the Khashoggi death, and denounced "flagrant violations of human rights and repressive practices against freedom of speech" in Saudi Arabia. The Tunisian journalists' union and a collective of 50 lawyers have filed two legal complaints against the prince for alleged crimes against humanity in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition is fighting Shiite rebels, and repression of freedom of expression. It's unclear whether Tunisian authorities will take action on the complaints. Human Rights Watch has made a similar legal request in Argentina. ___ Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report. WASHINGTON A striking majority of senators voted Wednesday afternoon to move forward a bill ending U.S. support for a Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen, offering the biggest condemnation to date of a three-year policy linked to tens of thousands of deaths, hundreds of alleged war crimes and bitter stateside debate under two presidents. Fourteen Republicans voted with every single Democrat in the chamber to consider a resolution authored by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) that demands the policy be ended within 30 days. Thirty-seven senators, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), voted the other way, to preserve without debate the status quo of American intelligence, logistical and diplomatic assistance for the Saudi campaign. The 63-37 vote represented a huge win for lawmakers and outside groups who had been trying to build support for the anti-war effort since the last time a measure was brought up in March. That resolution failed by a vote of 55-44. Moreover, intense efforts by the Trump administration to defend the policy including a closed-door briefing with senators earlier in the day by Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo backfired, as powerful GOP senators like Bob Corker of Tennessee, the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a top Trump ally, expressed frustration with top officials. I changed my mind because Im pissed, Graham, who had previously opposed the measure, told reporters after the vote. The way the administration has handled Saudi has been unacceptable. The briefing didnt help me today at all. Other senators similarly complained about the failure of CIA director Gina Haspel to appear at the briefing to discuss U.S. intelligence about Saudi authorities roles in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The Senate will now debate the measure on the floor within the next few weeks, and it is likely to face numerous amendments that could water it down. Even if it is ultimately passed, it will not compel an end to the U.S. support for the effort by the Saudis and their partner the United Arab Emirates. Story continues Still, Wednesdays vote was a landmark moment for the increasingly tense debates over who controls matters of war and peace for the U.S. and what to do about the decades-old U.S.-Saudi relationship. Ive been at this for 3 years, and I am blown away by this, Murphy wrote on Twitter. Lee said he was thrilled by the margin of victory on Wednesday. I think that shows people are watching this issue, that theyre concerned, he told HuffPost. I think its significant that were fighting someone elses war a half a world away, a war thats never been authorized by the Congress. Its not just the mere formality of going through the motions of declaring a war, its about when you dont go through that process, the American people never get brought in to the discussion about whether or not to sacrifice in American blood. The Utah conservative said he saw the vote as more a victory for the separation of powers, particularly the role of Congress in declaring war, than a hit against President Donald Trump, noting that it was President Barack Obama who initially approved the Yemen policy. His comment reflected how multiple factors drove this coalition of senators together: Some saw this primarily as a constitutional issue, others chiefly a humanitarian one, and for most, it appeared that the combination, added to frustration over the Khashoggi killing, made the vote inevitable. Outside groups who have been major players in the Capitol Hill fight over whats become the worlds worst humanitarian disaster applauded the senators stand. Its about time, Kate Kizer of the peace group Win Without War wrote on Twitter. She and other advocates for the bill are hopeful for its future prospects. Corker hinted that some Republicans could end up not supporting it in future votes, said Kate Gould of the Friends Committee on National Legislation. But new Democratic unity on the issue 10 voted against the last iteration of the bill and the near-guaranteed support of Lee and ally Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) suggests the legislation enters upcoming procedural battles with at least a simple majority of 51. The US public does not want to be complicit in Yemens humanitarian crisis any longer, Scott Paul of Oxfam America said in a statement reacting to the vote. Today was an important milestone in the fight to end US support for the war in Yemen, and this momentum must continue to save millions of lives that are on the line. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. By Julia Symmes Cobb ABOARD THE USNS COMFORT (Reuters) - Three-year-old Emily is curled in the corner of a bunk bed, under anesthesia. Her Venezuelan mother watches over her, swaying as the hospital ship pitches back and forth off the coast of northern Colombia. Emily's parents spent years in Venezuela trying to get a mass removed from her right eyelid, but shortages of food and medicine forced them to migrate across the border to Colombia to seek treatment, as their nation's healthcare system collapsed. U.S. Navy surgeons completed the procedure in just 30 minutes, suturing the small wound with miniscule stitches aboard the USNS Comfort, a hospital ship making its penultimate stop on a Latin American tour of four countries including Peru, Ecuador and Honduras. "The operation was so important because it affected her face," Emily's mother, Rubileth Parra, 24, said. "We couldn't get her an operation (in Venezuela), so we came here." Emily is one of thousands of patients receiving care during the Comfort's stop near the Caribbean port city of Riohacha. Medical staff on the ship treated more than 5,400 patients during its previous five-day stop in Turbo, a Colombian city near the border with Panama. An estimated 2,500 will be seen in Riohacha. The trip is the ship's fifth visit to Colombia in the past 11 years. Although most patients are Colombians seeking care amid long delays in their oversubscribed healthcare system, some are Venezuelan migrants who have fled an economic crisis across the border, where hunger and preventable disease are soaring. More than 3 million people have left Venezuela in recent years, with about 1 million settling in Colombia. The government has spent millions of dollars in limited public funds to tend to them, including establishing a migrant camp in the capital, Bogota. [nL2N1XV18A] The United Nations this week approved more than $9 million in aid for Venezuela, its first emergency funding to President Nicolas Maduro's socialist government. Maduro blames Venezuela's problems on U.S. sanctions and an "economic war" led by political adversaries. [nL8N1Y15Q8] The Navy does not keep exact numbers on the nationalities of patients, who are pre-screened by local authorities, instead focusing on treating anyone who needs care. When Reuters visited on Tuesday, about one in five patients was Venezuelan. FLOWN BY HELICOPTER Most patients receive care on land in two clinics set up in schools in Riohacha. Those getting operations are flown by helicopter to the ship. Lainer Sivira, 29, was shaken by her first-ever helicopter flight, cradling her 3-year-old son, Enderson, who needs a hernia operation, on her knees. "I'm happy because I would never have the money," said Sivira, a Venezuelan native whose son was born in Colombia. Enderson, boisterous in a striped T-shirt and shorts, was delighted with his high-seas adventure. He smiled broadly when greeted by the interpreter who accompanied the family. Hernia repairs, along with cataract and dental operations, are the most common procedures because patients generally require minimal follow-up care and the operations can have a huge economic impact, allowing once-incapacitated people to return to work. "There's a ripple effect," said Captain Kevin Buckley, who manages the mission's medical care. "We're only here for five days, so we want to make sure we can capture people and make an impact in their lives." In one operating theater, an elderly man was having a hernia in his groin repaired. Three doctors huddled around an incision low on his stomach, sewing a mesh insert into his abdominal wall. His general anesthesia began to wear off as his incision was sutured, but an interpreter was there to reassure him the procedure was nearly finished. Karol Salinas, 26, from Riohacha, was nervous. She was having her impacted upper wisdom teeth extracted via small incisions in her face. "I know they'll have to really slice me open, but I need to get them out," she said. A few minutes later, she was wheeled down to the operating room, flashing a nervous smile as the doors closed behind her. (Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Helen Murphy and Peter Cooney) By Hyonhee Shin SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea plans to buy two Israeli early warning radar systems, it said on Tuesday, as it reinforces air defenses against North Korea despite fast-improving relations. The decision to adopt the two Green Pine Block C radar systems, built by ELTA Systems, a subsidiary of state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, was made at a defense acquisition committee, Seoul's arms procurement agency, DAPA, said. DAPA did not specify the value of the order, but an official at the defense ministry put it at 330 billion won ($292 million), saying the systems would be deployed in the early 2020s. The project is intended to boost South Korea's capabilities to "detect and track ballistic missiles from a long distance at an early stage", DAPA said in a statement. It did not mention North Korea. But South Korea's defense ministry said last December it would buy additional early warning radars after North Korea successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile and declared completion of the "state nuclear force" a month earlier. Reclusive North Korea and the rich, democratic South are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. North Korea has for years pursued nuclear and missile programs in defiance of U.N. sanctions. But the two Koreas moved to defrost their relations this year, clinching a comprehensive military agreement at their summit in September in Pyongyang aimed at defusing military tensions around the heavily fortified border. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump pledged to work toward denuclearization at their landmark June summit in Singapore, but the agreement was short on specifics and negotiations have made little headway since. (Editing by Nick Macfie) Madrid (AFP) - Spain said Wednesday it was in talks with Italy and Malta to try to find a port which would allow a Spanish fishing vessel with 12 migrants on board to dock. Since last Thursday the 13 crew members of the "Nuestra Madre Loreto" have hosted 12 migrants from Niger, Somalia, Sudan, Senegal and Egypt whom they rescued from a rubber dinghy off the coast of Libya. Madrid initially asked Libya to take charge of the migrants since it was the nearest country to the boat, as called for by international law, before turning to its EU partners, the Spanish government said in a statement. "The Spanish government is lobbying the governments of Italy and Malta, whose coasts are closest to the boat, to try to find a quick, alternative and satisfactory solution" to receive them, Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo added in the statement. Due to worsening sea conditions, the fishing vessel on Tuesday moved away from the coast of Libya and headed towards the Italian island of Lampedusa, the statement added. The boat's captain, Pascual Dura, told AFP on Tuesday that Italy and Malta had both refused to allow the vessel to dock and unload the migrants while Spain's maritime rescue service only offered to return the migrants to Libya. Dura said the migrants "get very nervous and hysterical" when they "hear the word Libya". "If we go to Libya, we run the risk of a mutiny," he added. Abuse of migrants is widespread in Libya, following the chaos which has reigned since the 2011 ousting of dictator Moamer Kadhafi. Many migrants, intercepted or rescued at sea, find themselves held in detention centres in the country in dire conditions. Shortly after Spain's Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez came to power in June, Spain welcomed the Aquarius charity-run rescue ship and its 630 migrants after Italy and Malta refused to harbour the vessel. Spain also welcomed the Open Arms ship three times but in September Madrid declined to receive the Aquarius again. Instead it negotiated the distribution of the migrants aboard the ship among several other European Union nations. When U.S. border agents fired tear gas at migrants attempting to cross through a barbed wire fence at the U.S.-Mexico border on Sunday, a single photo became a widely shared symbol of the crisis. The image shows a mother dragging her daughters away from gas canisters shot at them from the American side of the U.S.-Mexico border near Tijuana. The two children are both in diapers. One is barefoot, and her tiny feet look fragile on the grey and rocky ground. Veteran Reuters photographer Kim Kyung-Hoon tells TIME that he had been photographing the caravan, including some of the 5,000 people camped out at the border, for about two weeks when he captured that emotional shot on Nov. 25. At around 10 a.m. Kim was at a shelter in Tijuana when he noticed that many of the migrants were making a move toward the border. He decided to follow them. Kim walked along with about a hundred migrants, including many women and children, as they made their way across a shallow river and up a slope to the border fence. Everything shifted, he says, when he got about 10 feet from the border. He watched as two men crouched beside the fence and tried to dig underneath. One of the men dug with a plastic cup and the other clawed at the ground with his bare hands. Suddenly, Kim says, the U.S. border guards shot canisters of tear gas at the migrants, and the crowd started to run away from the border. Kim captured the chaos with his camera. The Mexican government said in a release that about 500 migrants had attempted to cross the border, though U.S. Customs and Border Protection put the number at 1,000. U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan told the Associated Press that Border Patrols existing policy permits the use of tear gas and other non-lethal methods, but said that the incident will be reviewed. Border patrol arrested 69 migrants who had crossed illegally into California, he said. As the events unfolded, quick, decisive and effective action prevented an extremely dangerous situation, McAleenan said. Story continues Kim does not speak Spanish, but other Reuters photographers were able to catch up with the family in the migrant camp later that day. They learned the children are 5-year-old twin girls, Cheli and Saira Meza, and their mother is Maria Meza. Meza told Reuters that the family is fleeing violence in their home country, Honduras. Meza is also traveling with her three other children, including her 13-year-old daughter, Jamie, who was running behind them in Kims photo. They hope to reunite with her husband, who is in Louisiana. Meza said that she fell to the ground after the canisters were fired, and that a young man had to help her get to her feet. She said that she was shocked that border patrol would fire tear gas at women and children. I thought I was going to die with them because of the gas, she said, according to Reuters. She added, 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. Kim says he often asks migrants why they have left their home countries, and everyone answers the same thing: They are looking for a better life. Kim admits he was surprised to learn that the photo had been shared so widely, but says that he knows it is powerful because it tells a story. He adds that he does not want to tell people how to feel about the photograph, but hopes that it will bring the situation at the border greater attention: I just want to show what is happening here to another part of the world. Tijuana (Mexico) (AFP) - Still stinging from the tear gas that beat back their attempt to breach the US-Mexican border, members of the Central American migrant caravan are starting to lose hope, and in some cases are turning back. The migrants have played all their cards in recent days, after more than a month's trek across Central America and Mexico -- but with little success. Their surprise bid to rush the border en masse on Sunday ended as abruptly as it began, when US Border Patrol agents fired tear gas and rubber bullets to force them back. And attempts to sneak across the border alone or in small groups appear to be largely failing. That leaves the roughly 5,000 migrants in the caravan with a handful of options, equally unappealing to most: wait the months or years it could take to request asylum in the United States; settle in Mexico; or give up and go home. Their desperation is palpable at the improvised shelter where they are staying in Tijuana, across the border from San Diego. Living in crowded conditions, with limited toilets, disease outbreaks and two rations of food a day, many are still shell-shocked from the failed attempt by about 500 migrants to get over the chain-link border fence topped with barbed wire on Sunday. "We thought they were going to kill us. It's going to be hard to get to the other side," said Brayan Casas, a 28-year-old from Honduras, showing the bruises he got when he, his wife and his son joined Sunday's stampede. - Long wait - "They learned their lesson," an employee of Mexico's National Migration Institute told AFP at the shelter, speaking on condition of anonymity. "They've seen they won't be able to cross easily. They're a lot less rebellious today." The migrants are mostly fleeing poverty and violence in Central America's "Northern Triangle" -- El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. US President Donald Trump has however warned of an "invasion" by a group full of "hardened criminals." Story continues Some migrants have tried to sneak into the United States alone, without much success. "I've tried five times already," said Danilo Mejia, 26, a skinny Honduran man in an oversized leather jacket, who says the US Border Patrol sent him back to Mexico each time. "I thought if it was dark they wouldn't see me, but they're real watchdogs." He says he does not have the $10,000 or so he would have to pay a human trafficker, or "coyote," to bring him into the United States. But sneaking in through the desert alone is a perilous strategy. Hundreds of migrants die trying every year, of dehydration, hypothermia or snake bites. Seeking asylum in the United States is not much easier. In Tijuana, the waiting list to enter the US at an official border crossing and apply for asylum currently has more than 5,000 names on it, including caravan members and other migrants who were already in line. And the US is backlogged with asylum cases: requests increased by 2,000 percent in the past five years, and there are currently 700,000 pending. - 'Like animals' - Arlin Gutierrez, 40, traveled here from Honduras with her three young children, and is unsure what to do next. "We'd have to wait more than three months to be called (from the asylum wait-list), and who knows how much longer for our case to be resolved," she said, shaking out her baby's disposable diaper to use it again. "We can't wait for so long, living here like animals." Trump issued an executive order earlier this month barring migrants who sneak across the border from filing asylum claims. That policy has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge. Undaunted, Trump tweeted Saturday that migrants seeking asylum will have to remain in Mexico while their claims are processed -- though Mexico has not publicly agreed to such a plan. Facing a hostile welcome and little hope, a growing number of migrants have decided to turn back. "We're going home defeated, but alive," said Yaison Roca, 29, a Honduran man traveling with his wife and three children who took part in Sunday's border stampede and says the crackdown left his family traumatized. On Monday, a line formed outside a tent set up by the International Organization for Migration where migrants could ask to be sent home voluntarily. More than 80 requested help from the United Nations body that day, up from just a handful in previous days, officials said. In all, 1,700 caravan migrants have asked to be sent home since the caravan set out from San Pedro Sula, Honduras, on October 13, according to officials. Astana (Kazakhstan) (AFP) - Negotiators from Iran, Russia and Turkey met in Kazakhstan's capital Astana on Wednesday for two days of talks aiming to preserve a fragile 10-week-old truce in northern Syria, the Kazakh foreign ministry said. Talks got underway between delegations from the three regional power-brokers as well as the Syrian government and opposition, the ministry said in a statement. In addition to cooling the conflict around the northern province of Idlib -- the last major rebel and jihadist stronghold in Syria -- discussions will focus on creating conditions for the return of refugees and internally displaced people, as well as post-conflict reconstruction, the ministry said. The United Nations will be represented at the negotiations by Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura, according to the statement, in what will likely be his last engagement on the conflict before leaving the post. The 10-week-old Idlib truce deal is in the balance after an alleged chemical attack in the government-held city of Aleppo on Saturday, which has triggered retaliatory raids. The exact circumstances of the attack on three districts of the government-held city remain murky and bitterly disputed. The Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad has blamed fighters in neighbouring Idlib for the attack, which the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said hospitalised 94 people. The incident has put strain on an the already fragile agreement reached in mid-September to fend off a fully-fledged assault on Idlib, which Syria's regime -- backed by Russia and Iran -- has said it is committed to re-taking. More than half of the 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. In September, Russia and rebel backer Turkey agreed to set up a U-shaped buffer zone around Idlib to keep pro-government forces outside the region of some three million. Story continues But on Sunday, Russia said its war planes had carried out their first strikes in the zone since the deal was reached. Moscow said the raids were a response to the shelling of Aleppo by "terrorist groups" operating inside a part the planned demilitarised area held by HTS. The negotiations in Astana, expected to conclude on Thursday, are the eleventh of their kind since Moscow began a diplomatic push in early 2017 that effectively sidelined UN-led negotiations on Syria. The United States has attended some of the Astana rounds as an observer, but US Special Representative for Syria Engagement James Jeffrey said last week that Washington would not attend these talks. Syria's grinding seven-year civil war has killed more than 360,000 people and displaced millions. Troubled former Bank of Uganda Executive Director in charge of Supervision, Justine Bagyenda is reportedly hiding in the Kenyan capital Nairobi. Bagyenda through her lawyer Robert Kirunda, told members of Parliament on Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase) her client had travelled to America for private work. Hon. Sir, the current engagement I am on was planned long before the Governors communication and it is core to my private life, Ms Bagyenda said in her email to Katuntu on November 23. On account of my said engagement and the fact that my air ticket is restricted, I strongly regret my inability to appear before the COSASE on Tuesday November 27, 2018. My schedule date of return is 13th December 2018, she wrote. Stories Continues after ad Last Friday Bagyenda did not appear before the committee, having flown out of the country on Thursday evening ostensibly to attend to private engagements. Ms Bagyenda is a key witness in the on-going probe, having participated in the liquidation of some of the defunct banks which were under her jurisdiction. According to an operative from External Security Organisation based in Nairobi, Bagyenda is in Kenya. Earlier on, Kasilo County legislator, Elijah Okupa had told the house that Bagyenda duped the committee by claiming she was in America but rather she was in the neigbhouring country monitoring the activities of the commission. Contrary to her lawyer that Bagyendas traveled to America, her details obtained by this website at Entebbe International Airport indicate Bagyenda left the country on Nove 22, through Entebbe International Airport destined for Amsterdam. However, upon reaching Amsterdam, Bagyenda then left and flew Mauritius and Mauritius to Nairobi and she is presently in Nairobi where she is monitoring the ongoing probe from. On the same Friday last week, Ms Bagyenda claimed she handed over quarterly progressive reports of defunct Greenland Bank to her successor Dr. Tumubweine Twinemanzi but he denied he ever received such reports during the handover. BoU Governor Emmanuel Mutebile also denied he ever received the reports in his office. Bank of Ugandas Director for Financial Markets Development Coordination, Benedict Sekabira said during the probe last Thursday that he forwarded documents to Bagyenda Greenland Banks loans were sold together with loans of International Credit Bank (ICB) and the Cooperative Bank at Shs8.89 billion, following a 93 percent discount, to mysterious company Nile River Acquisition. Tamera Mowry-Housley made a heartbreaking return to The Real two weeks after her niece, Alaina Housley, was killed during the mass shooting in Thousand Oaks, California. The 18-year-old college freshman was one of 12 people gunned down at the Borderline Bar & Grill near Los Angeles earlier this month. The Sister Sister alum and husband Adam Housley put out the call on social media for information about their missing niece before confirming she was among the victims. Our familys been through a lot, but the interesting thing about grief is that youve gotta find the balance of moving forward and grieving at the same time, Mowry-Housley tearfully explained on the show Monday. Its just been a little over two weeks ... she would want me to be here. And she would want me ... sweet Alaina ... to move forward. I dont like to say move on, because I dont think Ill ever move on with the fact that shes not here with me or with our family, she added. The actress explained that she first met Alaina, her niece from marriage, when Alaina was only 5 years old and thought of her as my sister from my heart. Today in #GirlChatLive: Our girl Tamera is back, and she remembers and honors her beautiful niece Alaina Housley. pic.twitter.com/HeFEn92Bv4 The Real (@TheRealDaytime) November 26, 2018 Tamera-Mowry said she hopes the tragedy is catalyst for change and went on to deliver an emotional plea for gun control to put and end to the epidemic of gun violence in the U.S. Its obvious that we need change when it comes to gun violence, she said. I dont care if I have to knock on the doors of the White House to do it. Alaina was very sweet and loving and kind. She was also a debater. So she would want me to debate that. But also, I believe that it starts from within. Our country, and its sad to say this, but you have to be living underneath a rock to not believe these words, our country is sick, she continued. Its diseased. If it needs healing. It needs healing from within. We are so divided. Story continues Mowry-Housley confirmed on Thursday that Alaina had been laid to rest in Napa, California, a week after the shooting. Today we lay you to rest sweet angel, Tamera wrote on Instagram. Ill miss you forever and your sweet smile. Until we meet again. A foundation, Alainas Voice, has since been created to fund scholarships, support mental health initiatives and generate political action. Each of The Real hosts wore bracelets for the foundation in her honor. I just appreciate the outpouring love and support from everybody, Mowry-Housley added on the show. That sweet 18-year-old girl impacted people in such a positive way, and thats how weve been able to move on. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. By Ben Klayman PLYMOUTH, Mich. (Reuters) - Rivian Automotive plans to debut its all-electric pickup truck at the Los Angeles auto show on Monday, and its founder and chief executive exudes optimism about his desire to do for the U.S. auto industry's most lucrative segment what Tesla did for luxury cars. Not everyone is so sanguine. R.J. Scaringe, Rivian's 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. 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. Rivian's 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 we're talking about here are cars that don't drive particularly well, don't handle particularly well, have fuel economy that's really quite bad," he told reporters at Rivian's headquarters in Plymouth, Michigan, 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. Rivian's truck will offer a payload of 1,760 pounds and a towing capacity of 11,000 pounds - attributes more comparable to the Detroit Three's mid-sized trucks than to best-selling large trucks such as the Ford F-150 or GMC Sierra. That will put Rivian's 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. Tesla's 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" Tesla's 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. Japan's 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 Chrysler's 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, Illinois, 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 Tesla's experience is any guide. Tesla has raised billions of dollars in financing -- including secondary share offerings and bond sales -- as it has struggled to ramp up production. Rivian's financial backers include Saudi auto distributor Abdul Latif Jameel Co (ALJ), Sumitomo Corp of America and Standard Chartered Bank [STANB.UL]. 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 truck's 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 Rivian's 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. (Reporting by Ben Klayman; Additional reporting by Joseph White in Detroit; Editing by Leslie Adler) (Reuters) - A bomb threat at Texas Southern University, one of the largest historically black universities in the United States, triggered an evacuation of the campus on Wednesday, but students were allowed back after a sweep, officials said. The threat to the school in Houston was made in a call to emergency dispatchers, Houston police spokeswoman Jodi Silva said by phone. "It was a generalized bomb threat," Silva said. Thousands of students, including those in dorms, were forced to leave the campus and classes were canceled for Wednesday, Steve Scheffler, a spokesman for the university, said by phone. Police conducted a sweep of the campus and the school was declared safe, with students allowed to return, Scheffler said. Classes at the school, which was founded in 1927, will resume on Thursday, he said. Student Jaylan Jones told Houston television station KTRK that he was at a meeting when a university official took a phone call and came back to tell people to evacuate because of a bomb threat. "I was extremely nervous. I didn't feel comfortable or safe," Jones told the station. Students gathered on the street in front of the campus, according to local media. (Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles and Gabriella Borter in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) Prime minister Theresa May at Queens University Belfast on Tuesday. Pic: PA UK prime minister Theresa May has rejected suggestions from Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Arlene Foster that she had given up before signing her Brexit deal with the European Union. Asked by the BBC whether she had rolled over, May insisted that the UK had resisted many of the European Unions demands, but said that when you negotiate neither side gets 100% of what they want. Implying that May had thrown in the towel too early, Foster said on Tuesday that the prime minister had given up on negotiations and trying to find a better deal. Foster again reiterated her opposition to the deal, saying that the DUP could never accept a document that might tie Northern Ireland into the EU and see it diverge from the rest of the UK. The DUP is opposed to any agreement that could see Northern Ireland more closely aligned with the EUs customs and trade rules. The partys 10 lawmakers prop up Mays government in the House of Commons, and their votes will likely prove crucial to next months vote on the withdrawal agreement. READ MORE: Theresa Mays Brexit deal will cost UK 100bn by 2030 Its opposition comes in spite of wide support among business and farming groups in Northern Ireland for the deal. The Northern Ireland branch of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said last week that it was broadly supportive of the deal, and it also has been endorsed by the Northern Ireland Food and Drink Association, which represents manufacturers, and the Ulster Farmers Union, which is traditionally close to the DUP. May on Tuesday noted that she had been given a clear message by the business community. The overwhelming message I get is this is a deal that does deliver for constituents, she said. Three of Northern Irelands largest business groups, including the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), have also warned that a no-deal Brexit would be deeply damaging and would represent a very bad outcome for businesses, consumers and the economy as a whole. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will meet with the incoming foreign minister of Mexico, Marcelo Ebrard, on Sunday as the two nations work toward a deal to keep asylum seekers in Mexico while their claims are considered, top White House officials said on Tuesday. "They will have a full conversation about all the issues in connection with the border," White House national security adviser John Bolton told reporters at the White House about the planned meeting between Pompeo and Ebrard. That conversation will be followed up with talks on Monday between Ebrard and other Trump administration officials, including the U.S. homeland security chief, aimed at finalizing an agreement, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said. "Those conversations continue," she said when asked how far talks between the two nations had advanced. "We won't have a final decision until the new government actually takes over." Mexican president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador takes office on Saturday. "We expect the new foreign minister from Mexico to meet and sit down with White House administration officials, and the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, and continue and try to finalize those conversations," Sanders said. (Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Writing by Tim Ahmann, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien and Phil Berlowitz) The Trump administration appears to have settled on a strategy for dealing with the dire conclusions in the latest federal climate assessment: just downplay and dismiss the science. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke toed the line on Tuesday. At a Tuesday afternoon briefing, Sanders called the findings radical and based on the most extreme model scenario, which contradicts long-established trends. Its not based on facts. ... Its not data-driven, she claimed about the report. Wed like to see something that is more data-driven. Its based on modeling, which is extremely hard to do when youre talking about the climate. The 1,600-page report, which was issued by 13 federal agencies and authored by more than 300 researchers, is in truth laden with facts and data and sources. There are entire appendices detailing the reports development process and the data available to its authors. And modeling, which is based on past and current climate data, is how scientists make predictions about the future. The climate report was released on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving a move that many saw as the administrations attempt to bury the findings. It concludes that the United States has already warmed on average 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit over the past century, and without drastic emissions reductions, it will warm at least 3 more degrees and perhaps as much as 9 degrees or more by 2100. Earlier on Tuesday, Zinke also claimed that these findings were based on worst-case scenarios. He told KCRA News in Sacramento, California, that the administration is looking at the report and theres some concern within the [U.S. Geological Survey], which he described as our nations top scientific body. It appears and again, were looking at it closely, I have a brief when I get back it appears they took the worst scenarios and they built predictions upon that, he said of the reports authors. It should be more probability. But were looking at it. Story continues Its unclear who, if anyone, at USGS has expressed concern about the report or its findings. The Interior Department and the USGS did not respond to requests for comment. Since the reports release, the White House has worked to minimize the sobering consensus among federal scientists that climate change is driven by human activity, that its already impacting communities across the country and that it will bring on catastrophic effects unless immediate action is taken to rein in greenhouse gas emissions. Over the weekend, a White House spokeswoman said 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. The next assessment, which is due out in 2022, will provide for a more transparent and data-driven process, she said. Katharine Hayhoe, a co-author of the current assessment and director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University, said in a Friday tweet that the White Houses claim is demonstrably false. I wrote the climate scenarios chapter myself so I can confirm it considers ALL scenarios, from those where we go carbon negative before end of century to those where carbon emissions continue to rise, she wrote. Hayhoe tweeted again on Tuesday to set the record straight about a number of statements made since the reports release. Those included the White Houses comments and a claim by Rick Santorum, the failed Republican presidential candidate, that the authors were driven by money. First, a WH spokesperson said the report was based on the most extreme scenario. No: the report considered a very broad range of scenarios, from one where carbon emissions go negative to one where they continue to grow. Source: https://t.co/ibXllAEsxR pic.twitter.com/k6XoeNwGFr Katharine Hayhoe (@KHayhoe) November 27, 2018 Then, Santorum claimed us authors were driven by money. After I picked myself up off the floor laughing, since we received $0 for writing the report, I invited him to watch this entertaining Global Weirding episode. I dont think he did; but you should! https://t.co/rPA74RgIEZ Katharine Hayhoe (@KHayhoe) November 27, 2018 Speaking to reporters outside the White House on Monday, President Donald Trump simply rejected the science. I dont believe it, he said of his administrations report, adding that were the cleanest weve ever been. Finally, the president then said that he didnt believe the report. But climate science isnt a religion: its real, whether we believe in it or not. If our decisions are not based in reality, we are the ones who will suffer the consequences. Katharine Hayhoe (@KHayhoe) November 27, 2018 This article has been updated with comments from Sarah Huckabee Sanders. CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misquoted a remark by Sanders, thereby incorrectly suggesting that she thought the report needed more climate modeling. In fact, she was casting doubt on all climate modeling. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. Manafort faces a lengthy prison sentence - REUTERS The breakdown of a plea deal with former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and reports about alleged contacts he may have had with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange threw a new element of uncertainty into the Trump-Russia investigation on Tuesday Donald Trump's former campaign chairman has been accused of repeatedly lying to prosecutors, undermining his plea deal and potentially depriving the Russia investigation of a star witness. Paul Manafort, Mr Trump's one-time campaign chief, agreed to co-operate with investigators looking at potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in September after being convicted of bank and tax fraud charges. Manafort, the most senior campaign aide to be charged in the investigation to date, has repeatedly met with FBI investigators over the last two months, leading to speculation he could act as a key witness. But on Monday night Robert Mueller, the special counsel leading the probe, accused Manafort of lying to investigators and demanded an immediate sentencing date for the political strategist in a court filing. The filing suggests prosecutors no longer consider Manafort a credible witness that they can call on to testify in the future. Donald Trump has defended his former campaign chief as a 'good man' since his conviction Credit: Reuters In a rare step, Mr Mueller's team said Manafort's "crimes and lies" relieved them of all promises they made in his plea bargain, under the terms of which he cannot withdraw his guilty plea. Manafort's lawyers disputed the claims in the same court filing, arguing he met with investigators on several occasions and provided information "in an effort to live up to his cooperation obligations." However both parties agreed that a judge should set a sentencing date. The former campaign chairman, who has been in solitary confinement in a Virginia jail, is expected to face at least a decade in prison. Story continues All the while, Mr Manafort's lawyers have been briefing Trump's attorneys on what their client has told investigators, an unusual arrangement that could give Mr Trump ammunition in his feud against Mr Mueller. "They share with me the things that pertain to our part of the case," Mr Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, told The Associated Press. Giuliani also said Mr Trump, who has recently stepped up his attacks on Mueller, has been enraged by the treatment of Manafort. Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary, on Tuesday said: "I remain confident in the White House's assertion that the president was involved in no wrong doing, he was not part of any collusion. The things that have to do with Mr Manafort I would refer you to his attorneys to address that." Mrs Sanders also said the president had "no intent" to fire Mr Mueller, despite Mr Trump accusing the special consul of being "a conflicted prosecutor gone rogue" in a tweet. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange Credit: AFP In a separate development, a row broke out on Tuesday over whether Manafort secretly met with Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London months before the US election. According to The Guardian newspaper, Manafort visited Mr Assange, who founded the website WikiLeaks, in 2013, 2015 and in the spring of 2016 - around the time he joined Mr Trump's election campaign. Any such a meeting would no doubt come under investigation by Mr Mueller, since the FBI is already investigating how hundreds of stolen emails from the Democratic National Committee came to be published by WikiLeaks. According to the newspaper, Manafort's alleged meeting with Mr Assange occurred around March 2016 - just months before WikiLeaks published the stolen emails. 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 US intelligence agencies have concluded that the emails were stolen by Russian intelligence officers. Hillary Clinton, Mr Trumps Democratic rival, has previously said the hack contributed to her defeat. Manafort, 69, on Tuesday strongly refuted the claims he met Mr Assange, saying: This story is totally false and deliberately libelous. I have never met Julian Assange or anyone connected to him." Meanwhile Jennifer Robinson, Mr Assange's UK-based legal representative, told CNN "no such meetings took place." WikiLeaks has also hit back at the reports, saying it was willing to bet "a million dollars" that "Manafort never met Assange". Mr Muellers team is known to be investigating potential communication between WikiLeaks and the Trump campaign. Investigators have already interviewed Roger Stone, a long-term ally and political adviser to Mr Trump over his contact with the website. Mr Trump praised the publishing of Democratic National Committee members emails as a candidate, saying I love WikiLeaks but has vehemently denied he colluded with Russia. Last week a court filing released in error appeared to suggest that the US Department of Justice had secretly charged Mr Assange with a criminal offence, but did not state to what offence it relates. NEW YORK (AP) President Donald Trump's 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 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. Story continues 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. Washington (AFP) - President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he will not rule out a highly controversial pardon for his former election campaign chief snared in the Russia collusion investigation. Paul Manafort has pleaded guilty to money laundering and other charges in connection with special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into whether the 2016 Trump election campaign colluded with Russian agents. Trump told the New York Post that he has not discussed issuing a pardon to Manafort "but I wouldn't take it off the table. Why would I take it off the table?" Manafort had been cooperating with Mueller in hopes of a lighter sentence, but the agreement has been torn up after Mueller declared that the former Trump confidant was lying. Manafort now faces imminent sentencing. That has sparked speculation that Manafort may be expecting a presidential pardon -- something that would spark immediate accusations of White House meddling in the scandal and obstruction of justice. Trump has always denied suggestions that he or his campaign got help from the Russians in his shock victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton. But he has intensified his attacks on Mueller in recent days and on Wednesday he accused the prosecutor of pressuring witnesses to lie. "This is our Joe McCarthy era!" Trump declared in a tweet, comparing the probe of his campaign to the notorious anti-communist campaign led by McCarthy in the Senate during the 1950s. Trump claimed that "at least 3 major players are intimating that the Angry Mueller Gang of Dems is viciously telling witnesses to lie about facts & they will get relief." Trump went on to retweet a crudely photoshopped image posted by a fan account called The Trump Train, under a banner headline that read: "NOW THAT RUSSIA COLLUSION IS A PROVEN LIE, WHEN DO THE TRIALS FOR TREASON BEGIN?" Among the dozen figures it showed behind bars were former president Barack Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton and Mueller. Story continues The image also depicted Rod Rosenstein, Trump's own deputy justice chief, who had been overseeing Mueller's probe into Russia's election meddling until being supplanted earlier this month by a new acting attorney general seen as hostile to the special counsel's inquiry. Mueller has kept his investigation under close wraps, but signs are emerging of increasing action behind the scenes, leading to ever greater pressure on Trump. The New York Times reported that Manafort's attorney has been briefing White House lawyers on his client's discussions with federal prosecutors, giving them valuable insights into Mueller's lines of inquiry. Meanwhile, another witness, Jerome Corsi, said this week that Mueller's team was preparing to indict him for lying about an email he sent on August 2, 2016 alerting Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone to upcoming document dumps by WikiLeaks. At key points during the campaign, WikiLeaks released email files hacked from the accounts of the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign chief, John Podesta. 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 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 traveling 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 favor and most Democrats against, Senator Marco Rubio told reporters. "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) WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he may cancel his scheduled meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in Argentina because of Russia's maritime clash with Ukraine. In an interview with the Washington Post, Trump said he was awaiting a "full report" from his national security team Tuesday evening about Russias capture of three Ukrainian naval ships and their crews on Sunday. "That will be very determinative," Trump told the Post. "Maybe I won't have the meeting. Maybe I won't even have the meeting ... I don't like that aggression. I don't want that aggression at all," he said. Trump is due to meet Putin on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, which convenes on Friday and Saturday. The Trump-Putin meeting will cover security issues, arms control, and issues in the Middle East and Ukraine, White House national security John Bolton told reporters. 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. The U.S. State Department urged European nations on Tuesday to do more to assist Ukraine in its standoff with Russia. (Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Tom Brown and James Dalgleish) Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin arrive for a meeting in Helsinki in July 2018: AFP/Getty Donald Trump has suggested he may cancel a planned meeting with Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in response to Russias seizure of three Ukrainian naval ships. The US president said he would make a decision on the sit-down after receiving a full report on the situation from his national security team. Maybe I wont even have the meeting, he told The Washington Post. I dont like that aggression. I dont want that aggression at all. The comments were Mr Trumps strongest criticism of the Kremlin since Russian border forces shot at and seized the Ukrainian vessels in the Black Sea on Sunday. Mr Trump had previously implied both countries were to blame for tensions around the Crimean peninsula, telling reporters on Monday: We do not like whats happening either way. But Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko said the US had pledged to do what we [need] to do to protect Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity, including military assistance. Kiev has since released what it says is the exact location where its vessels were fired on, apparently showing that they were in international waters. The disclosure contradicts Moscows claim that the ships entered its territorial waters. Russian officials have vowed to prosecute the vessels crews for allegedly violating the border and said they do not consider the seamen prisoners of war. Mr Putin on Wednesday accused Ukraine of provocation, claiming Mr Poroshenko wanted to inflame tensions with Russia to boost his waning support ahead of elections next year. He added: I hope I can talk to Trump in Argentina. I hope we can discuss trade barriers. Trump in general has a positive attitude. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that the meeting between Mr Putin and Mr Trump was still on. He told reporters that Russia was aware of the US presidents latest remarks but had not received any other information from our US counterparts. White House aides were also continuing to plan for the talks in Buenos Aires. Story continues The meeting between the two presidents is set to be just one of several high profile foreign policy engagements for Mr Trump on a hectic two-day visit to Argentina. The US leader will have dinner with Chinese president Xi Jinping on Saturday evening, a meeting that could prove pivotal in determining if and how the ongoing trade dispute between their two countries can be resolved. National security adviser John Bolton said Mr Trump would also be meeting German chancellor Angela Merkel, Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, Argentinian president Mauricio Macri, South Koreas Moon Jae-in, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi. White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders described the trip as an opportunity for the president to cement relations with other world leaders and advance a global economic system based on free, fair and reciprocal trade. By Arshad Mohammed WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday sanctioned the wife of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and one of his aides under a new executive order allowing Washington to target Nicaraguan officials for a crackdown on anti-government protests. The U.S. Treasury said it had used the new executive order to punish Nicaraguan Vice President Rosario Murillo, Ortega's wife, and an aide it named as Nestor Moncada Lau, accusing them of undermining Nicaragua's democracy. The step will have the effect of freezing any property owned by Murillo and Moncada Lau that falls under U.S. jurisdiction and of barring U.S. individuals, banks and other entities from carrying out any transactions with them. The Nicaraguan government "emphatically rejects" the U.S. sanctions, it said in a statement released later on Tuesday, without naming either Murillo or Moncada Lau. The statement added that the measures marked a continuation of U.S. "imperial" designs on the small Central American country. More than 300 people have been killed and at least 2,000 injured in crackdowns by police and armed groups on protests that began in April over government plans to cut welfare benefits and then escalated into broader opposition to Ortega. The sanctions, however, may fail to crimp either target's assets due to the lack of a paper trail, said Roberto Cajina, a former advisor to the ministry of defense. "Neither Rosario Murillo or Moncada Lau have investments in their own names. Everything is done through front men," Cajina told Reuters. "This is not an economic blow. It is a political blow." U.S. officials said they were trying to influence Ortega, a former Marxist guerilla leader whose response to the protests has been compared to the reign of Anastasio Somoza, the dictator he helped topple in 1979. "It's a message to President Ortega to find an exit strategy and to begin a process for ... free and fair elections," a senior Trump administration official told reporters on condition of anonymity. "It's an opportunity to find some type of solution ... to the crisis that they have created." Ortega, who ruled the country from 1979 to 1990, has held elected office as president since 2007. The current violence comes after years of calm and is the worst since his Sandinista movement battled U.S.-backed "Contra" rebels in the 1980s. Ortega in July rejected the idea of calling a referendum on whether to try to calm opposition against him by holding an early election before the next scheduled presidential election, due in late 2020. In announcing the sanctions, the U.S. officials accused Murillo of dismantling Nicaragua's democratic institutions and looting its wealth in an effort to consolidate power. It described Moncada Lau as acting as a national security adviser to both Ortega and Murillo. While he does not have an official position in the government, he is believed to have considerable influence over the police. In 1997, he was convicted in Nicaragua of transporting dynamite and having unregistered firearms. Moncada Lau's involvement in intelligence operations with the Sandinista party stretches back to the early years of the revolution in the 1980s. (Additional reporting by Tim Ahmann in Washington and Ismael Lopez in Managua; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, David Gregorio and Richard Chang) By Sarah N. Lynch WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday indicted two Iranians for launching a major cyber attack using ransomware known as "SamSam" and sanctioned two others for helping exchange the ransom payments from Bitcoin digital currency into rials. The 34-month long hacking scheme wreaked havoc on hospitals, schools, companies and government agencies, including the cities of Atlanta, Georgia, and Newark, New Jersey, causing over $30 million in losses to victims and allowing the alleged hackers to collect over $6 million in ransom payments. The deployment of the SamSam ransomware represented some of the highest profile cyber attacks on U.S. soil, including one in 2016 that forced Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital in Los Angeles to turn away patients and one last year that shut down Atlanta courts and much of its city government. The six-count indictment, unsealed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, charges Iran-based Faramarz Shahi Savandi, 34, and Mohammad Mehdi Shah Mansouri, 27 with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit fraud related to computers, and other counts accusing them of intentionally damaging protected computers and illegally transmitting demands related to protected computers. The Treasury Department said it had sanctioned Ali Khorashadizadeh and Mohammad Ghorbaniyan for exchanging digital ransomware payments into rials. Neither Khorashadizadeh nor Ghorbaniyan were named in the indictment, though the indictment appeared to reference their activities. "The allegations in the indictment unsealed today the first of its kind outline an Iran-based international computer hacking and extortion scheme that engaged in 21st-century digital blackmail," said Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski, in announcing the criminal charges on Wednesday. Reuters could not immediately locate the four Iranians named by the U.S. government, and it would likely be difficult to hold them accountable in a federal court because the United States does not have an extradition treaty with Iran. Some cyber security experts said the actions are unlikely to have an impact because of that. "These cases are mostly symbolic," said Leroy Terrelonge, an analyst with cyber intelligence firm Flashpoint. Kimberly Goody, who manages financial crime analysis for cybersecurity firm FireEye, said the SamSam hackers might take a break to modify their operations to make them more difficult to identify and block. "There may be a lull but I would expect them to continue," she said. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, however, said at a press conference that he remains confident the suspects will be apprehended. "American justice has a long arm and we will wait and eventually, we are confident that we will take these perpetrators into custody," he said. According to the Treasury, the SamSam ransomware scheme targeted more than 200 victims. The indictment, however, only named 12 of them. In addition to Atlanta and Newark, other victims cited by the Justice Department included healthcare companies such as Laboratory Corporation of American Holdings and Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, Inc as well as the Colorado Department of Transportation, Medstar Health, the port of San Diego, University of Calgary, Nebraska Orthopedic Hospital, Mercer County Business, Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center and Kansas Heart Hospital. (Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Additional reporting by Lisa Lambert, Makini Brice and Timothy Ahmann in Washington, Jim Finkle in New York and Babak Dehghanpisheh in Geneva; Editing by Susan Thomas and Richard Chang) London (AFP) - Britain's carmaking sector has warned that a no-deal Brexit would be a "catastrophe" for the industry, two weeks ahead of a key parliamentary vote on London's proposed deal with Brussels. Industry body the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) issued its latest gloomy Brexit warning at its annual dinner in London on Tuesday, having backed the failed Remain campaign in the landmark 2016 EU membership referendum. "Leaving without a deal would be catastrophic -- plants will close; jobs will be lost," said SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes. "Leaving is not what we wanted, but we recognise that the withdrawal agreement has been hard-fought and, crucially, delivers a transition period which steps us back from the cliff-edge. "We need a deal now, and we need an ambitious deal for the future that guarantees frictionless trade with our most important market -- nothing else will do, and we urge all parties to remember what's at stake." The industry organisation also published the results from a November survey of its 182 UK-based member organisations. Almost three quarters of those companies believed that a chaotic "no deal" Brexit would damage their business and threaten their future viability. "The results highlight the critical need for a Brexit withdrawal deal and transition to prevent the industry falling off the cliff-edge on March 29 when the UK leaves its largest and closest trading partner, the EU," the SMMT added. More than half of respondents said their operations have already suffered due to Brexit trade uncertainty. A third revealed that they have postponed or cancelled UK investment decisions because of Brexit, while 20 percent had already lost business as a consequence. The SMMT has long blamed ongoing Brexit uncertainty for plunging UK investment, warning about the harmful impact of new, post-Brexit customs controls. UK companies' manufacturing processes are complicated by the need to import raw materials, which have become more expensive due to a sliding pound -- caused in turn by Brexit jitters. The country's car industry employs around 800,000 people and produced 1.59 million cars last year. Some 80 percent of those were exported, mostly to Europe. UK chancellor Philip Hammond. Photo: Ben Stansall: AFP/Getty Images New analysis from the UK government warns that a no-deal Brexit could leave the economy 9.3% smaller in 15 years than it would be if the country remained in the European Union. The analysis also says that the draft Brexit deal agreed by UK prime minister Theresa May and European leaders would still leave British growth 3.9% lower that it otherwise would be over the same period. The figures suggest the UK economy will take an enormous hit under any version of Brexit compared to remaining in the EU. The documents released did not report an exact financial cost to the economy, but experts have put 3.9% lower growth at around 100bn ($128.05bn) by the 2030s which would exceed the UKs contributions to the EU over the same period. The Long-Term Economic Analysis paper published today stated that the government may have to borrow an additional 119bn ($152.4bn) by 2035 in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Borrowing could increase by 26.6bn ($34.06bn) if Theresa May managed to get her own proposed deal through parliament. Forecasted effects on GDP under various Brexit scenarios. Graphic: National Institute for Economic and Social Research The document was produced by departments across government, including the Treasury, the Home Office and departments for exiting the EU, industry, environment and international trade. Chancellor Philip Hammond recently said that all possible Brexit scenarios under consideration will cost the UK economy when compared to remaining in the EU. However, he has defended Mays proposed deal as a way to minimise the harm. Speaking on Radio 4s Today programme, Hammond said that a result of the current proposed deal would lead to a slightly smaller economy over the next 15 years, while in a purely economic sense the UK would be worse off due to complications to trade. He continued: What the Prime Ministers deal does is absolutely minimises those costs, and reduces to an absolute minimum the economic impact of leaving the EU, while delivering the political benefits, in terms of being able to do third-country trade deals, having control of our fishing waters, and the many other issues that will be delivered politically. Story continues The document compares predictions for the deal agreed by the UK cabinet at Chequer s with a Norway-style agreement as part of the European Economic Area (EEA), a Canada-style free trade agreement and leaving the European Union with no deal at all. The report suggests that as all potential outcomes will reduce migration from Europe, national income will be reduced. Even if there is frictionless trade and migration numbers are the same, the UK would see growth 0.6% lower than if it remained within the bloc, according to the analysis. The 9.3% hit to future growth is predicted if there were no net migration at all from the EU. The table forecasts potential effects on UK GDP by various types of Brexit and migration levels. (Table: UK Government) The so-called Chequers deal, close to the proposal agreed by May and other EU leaders, would introduce some friction to trade, with no net migration from the EEA. Growth would be lower by 3.9% over the course of 15 years, compared to anticipated growth if the UK remained tied to the EU. Levels of growth could be between 1.4%, and 4.9% and lower if a deal similar to Canadas free trade arrangement were adopted, assuming net migration remains the same as at current levels. If net migration fell to zero, the cost would be a 6.7% hit to expected growth. The report also warns that the areas hit hardest by no deal or a Canada-style agreement would be the West Midlands, north-east and north-west of England and Northern Ireland. Under the Chequers plan, London will suffer the most. The reduction of GDP per capita under different Brexit scenarios in percentage terms. Graph: NIESR Rain Newton-Smith, CBI Chief Economist, said of the figures: These forecasts paint a bleak picture over the long-term of a no-deal Brexit or a Canada-style deal. It surely puts to bed some of the more far-fetched ideas that a hard-landing Brexit will not seriously hurt the economy. This is about real peoples lives and jobs in the years ahead and its clear to business that while the governments deal is not perfect, it certainly fits the bill in reducing short-term uncertainty and opens up a route to a decent trade deal in the future, he added. Politicians of all parties should speak to businesses in their constituency to hear about the impact a bad Brexit will have on them and their workforce. And the longer a no deal scenario remains possible, the more corrosive the impact on jobs and investment plans. The report comes as May continued her tour of the UK in an attempt to raise support for her deal, which will be voted on by parliament on 11 December. Today she is speaking at a factory near Glasgow, where she will defend the deals potential effects on Scotland. Scotlands first minister Nicola Sturgeon recently released an analysis that she believes demonstrates Scotland will suffer financially under the deal. The Scottish National Party (SNP) joined Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in saying they will vote against the deal in Parliament in December. The prime minister also faces opposition from within her own party, from both its Eurosceptic wing and Remain-supporting Conservatives. The Labour party has also demanded the government release its legal advice on Brexit in full this week. The government has so far refused, saying it will only publish a full reasoned position statement on the withdrawal agreement. One source told the BBC Mays agreement would not allow the UK to unilaterally withdraw from the backstop agreement over Northern Ireland, which Brexiteers fear will leave the country subject to EU legislation indefinitely. Hammond said that advice provided by attorney general Geoffrey Cox would not be made public, saying it would be impossible for the government to function if legal advice was released. Hammond said: No, theres a very important principle here that the government must be able to commission impartial legal advice which absolutely tells it like it is to enable it to shape its decisions, while always complying with its legal obligation in the negotiations. The chancellor continued: It would be impossible for government to function if we create a precedent that the legal advice that the government receives has to be made public. We must have, as every other citizen has, the right to take privileged legal advice which remains private between the lawyer and the client. So the client has the ability to ask the difficult questions, to receive full and frank legal advice, and then to make decision based on that full and frank advice. Buenos Aires (AFP) - G20 leaders, wrestling with the US-China trade war and ascendant populism at their 10th summit this week, face a new crisis following Russia's naval confrontation with Ukraine. In November 2008, countries representing four fifths of the world's economic output came together to forge a collective front against the financial panic then engulfing the West. A decade on, that unity has vanished as US President Donald Trump shreds the consensus underpinning international trade. Other G20 countries such as Brazil, Italy and Mexico have turned to populist leaders, or, in Britain's case, are grappling with a fractious electorate's decision to file for divorce from the European Union. And this year's G20 host Argentina is enduring its own economic crisis, necessitating the deployment of more than 22,000 police against the threat of mass protests when the heads of government convene on Friday and Saturday. "I would say that the G20 has lost a lot of the steam that it once had in the global financial crisis in 2008, 2009," Matthew Goodman, senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said during a briefing previewing the summit. "The last summits have been somewhat disappointing and marked by contention, particularly over trade-related issues. And I would expect that to be the case again." Trump's "America First" stance has already upended other recent world summits such as the G7 and the Asia-Pacific bloc APEC. For the G20 as a whole, Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Faurie told AFP that the summit should stress the importance of trade itself. But given the dysfunction at those other summits, the G20 leaders are expected to stop short of repeating their vows to fight protectionism, which were a founding principle in 2008. Given US objections, analysts also dismiss any notion that the group can replicate its past consensus on the need to confront climate change, just ahead of a UN summit on the planetary threat in Poland. Story continues After imposing a raft of tariffs on Chinese goods and threatening more to come, the US president is due to meet with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping for a working dinner in Buenos Aires. His economic advisor Larry Kudlow told reporters on Tuesday that "the president said there is a good possibility that we can make a deal and he is open to it." But he warned that "if things don't work out in this US-China summit meeting, he will invoke another $267 some odd billion dollars in tariffs." Trump himself told The Wall Street Journal that it was "highly unlikely" that he would accept China's request to defer the next increase scheduled for January 1. The White House confirmed Trump will sit down with President Vladimir Putin for their first face-to-face meeting since a July summit in Finland, when he astonished observers by praising the Russian leader. That bilateral has taken on new urgency after Russian vessels seized three Ukrainian ships near Crimea at the weekend, igniting a storm of protest in Europe. - Dangerous waters - However, Trump told The Washington Post he was waiting for a report on the incident from his national security advisors before making up his mind over whether he would meet Putin. "That will be very determinative. Maybe I won't have the meeting," he said. On Monday, his UN ambassador Nikki Haley condemned such "outlaw actions" by Russia. The exact location of the Ukrainian ships when they were boarded is subject to dispute. Kiev, backed by allies in Western Europe, says they were in international waters in the Sea of Azov. In the G20 context, that parallels controversies pitting Beijing against other nations over the passage of ships through the South China Sea, a vital trading artery. "What's happening in the Sea of Azov is serious," said Francois Heisbourg, special adviser at the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris. "If you start transgressing on the principles of freedom of navigation, that could serve as a precedent around the world. Any country controlling a strait could be tempted to forbid passage." On the trade front, Heisbourg said the question at the G20 was whether Xi will "rear up" against Trump's combative stance, or try to find an accommodation between the world's two largest economies. Analysts are skeptical that Buenos Aires will witness a breakthrough big enough to forestall Trump's threat to toughen the China tariffs in January -- or even if there is, whether it will hold for long. Cui Lei, an expert at the Department for American Studies at Beijing's China Institute of International Studies, said the signs were not promising following the stormy APEC summit and new US accusations of Chinese sharp practice on fronts such as intellectual property rights and technology transfers. "There may be a statement of principles (in Buenos Aires), confirming they will maintain negotiation and communication, but I think it will be difficult to reach a comprehensive agreement, because to do that both sides need to make big concessions," he said. Markets will be watching the G20 for any steps by Saudi Arabia and Russia -- the world's two biggest exporters of crude -- to reverse a recent collapse in oil prices. Such petro-diplomacy would, however, run headlong into Trump's loudly stated desire to keep oil prices low. And Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman can ill afford to alienate the one Western leader who seems to be standing by him following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey last month. United Nations (United States) (AFP) - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday he was ready to meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to advance diplomatic efforts to end the war in Yemen. Guterres will travel later Wednesday to Buenos Aires to attend the G20 summit that will see the prince make a first major appearance on the world stage since the brutal killing of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The UN chief told reporters "there is a chance" that talks on ending the war in Yemen could begin in early December in Sweden and that this was "an extremely important objective." "I am ready to discuss it with the crown prince or with any Saudi official because I believe it is a very important objective at the present moment," said Guterres. The UN chief's readiness to hold talks with the Saudi leader came amid speculation that the 33-year-old prince could be treated as a pariah at the G20 over the Khashoggi murder, which triggered a global outcry. "We are at a very crucial moment in relation to Yemen," said Guterres who added that he had spoken earlier in the day to his UN peace envoy Martin Griffiths. "I believe there is a chance to be able to start effective negotiations in Sweden early in December, but we are not yet there." Griffiths is hoping to bring the Saudi-backed government and the Huthi rebels to Sweden for negotiations that could begin as early as December 3, according to UN diplomats. The war has left millions on the brink of starvation and unleashed what the United Nations has described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Saudi Arabia has faced fresh calls to end the war in Yemen following the murder of Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Guterres, who has called for a thorough and transparent investigation of Khashoggi's murder, said he would not shy away from reiterating his position in a private conversation with the prince. "I have never a problem in saying publicly and privately the same thing," he said. UNITED NATIONS (AP) The United Nations is close to creating conditions for the start of peace talks in Sweden between Yemen's warring parties December but there is no agreement yet, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday. The U.N. chief told reporters this is "a very crucial moment in relation to Yemen." U.N. envoy Martin Griffiths has been engaged in shuttle diplomacy, talking to Yemen's internationally recognized government backed by a Saudi-led coalition and Houthi Shiite rebels who control the capital Sanaa, Guterres said. The current diplomatic initiative is being driven by the increasing threat of famine in Yemen, but also by international outrage over the murder of U.S.-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi on Oct. 2 in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul which has put a spotlight on Saudi Arabia's role in the country's war. Griffiths announced on Nov. 16 that the warring parties had agreed to attend talks. He initially tried to bring the government and Houthis together in early September, but the Houthis didn't show up in Geneva, saying they didn't have guarantees for their safe return. Guterres said Wednesday: "I believe there is a chance to be able to start effective negotiations in Sweden early in December, but we are not yet there." He said starting talks "would be an extremely important objective," and stressed, "If we are able to stop the Yemeni war, we will be stopping the most tragic humanitarian disaster we are facing in today's world." The conflict in Yemen began with the 2014 takeover of the capital of Sanaa by the Iranian-backed Houthis, which toppled the government of Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. The Saudi-led coalition has been fighting the Houthis since 2015. Saudi-led airstrikes have hit schools, hospitals and wedding parties, and the Houthis have fired long-range missiles into Saudi Arabia and targeted vessels in the Red Sea. Tens of thousands of people are believed to have been killed in the war and U.N. food agency chief David Beasley said last week that as many as 12 million of the 28 million Yemenis "are just one step away from famine." Story continues Guterres is heading to the summit of the Group of 20 economic powers in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Friday and Saturday and he told reporters he is ready to discuss peace talks to end the Yemen conflict with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and any other Saudi officials attending the meeting. Guterres has called for an independent and transparent investigation into Khashoggi's murder and when asked whether he would also raise that issue with the crown prince, he said: "I have never a problem in saying publicly and privately the same thing." Meanwhile, members of the U.N. Security Council are still holding consultations on a draft resolution urging Yemen's warring parties to relaunch negotiations to end the conflict and take urgent steps to tackle the humanitarian crisis including by agreeing to a cease-fire around the key port of Hodeida, which is vital to delivering aid and commercial goods. No vote has been scheduled and council diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because talks have been private, said some members want to wait until after a meeting of the warring parties in Sweden. UNITED NATIONS (AP) The U.N. envoy for international migration said Tuesday she's "very disappointed" that some countries are reneging on their support for a global compact to promote safe and orderly migration and reduce human smuggling and trafficking some for "bizarre" reasons. Louise Arbour said in an interview with The Associated Press that it's also "puzzling" because the global compact is not legally binding and after its formal adoption next month "there is not a single country that is obligated to do anything that it doesn't want to." In July, 192 countries unanimously agreed on the first global document to tackle migration after lengthy negotiations on the often contentious issue, with only the United States boycotting. But in recent months, countries including Hungary, Austria, Israel, Poland, Switzerland and Australia have dropped their support and said they won't attend the meeting in Marrakech, Morocco on Dec. 10-11 to formally approve the compact. And reservations have also been expressed in other countries such as Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Arbour said countries now having "second thoughts or misgivings" about the compact negotiated for six months in New York had "extracted concessions from others." Destination countries for migrants, for example, pushed very hard for the return home of migrants if they're no longer legitimately in a foreign country, she said. The former Canadian judge and U.N. human rights commissioner, who will be secretary-general of the Marrakech meeting, said the backtracking on the agreement shows a "disconnect" in some countries between their foreign policies "and some domestic pressures or national concerns that obviously were not being fed into the process." "Many of them have expressed it, in frankly, rather bizarre terms," Arbour said. "Some have said, for instance, we will not sign which is rather strange because there's nothing to sign. It's not a treaty. Others have said we will not come. Others have said we don't endorse the compact." Story continues Nonetheless, Arbour said "we expect a very large participation, an overwhelming participation of U.N. member states" to formally adopt the compact by consensus. But she said she didn't know the number of countries that will attend the meeting, or how many world leaders, though there will definitely be some. Arbour said that unfortunately "migrant" has been a bad word for a long time, "and it's extremely misunderstood." She cited "the unbelievable confusion" between refugees who flee conflict or political persecution and are granted asylum in another country, and migrants "who overwhelmingly follow legal channels to access a country" by obtaining tourist, student or work visas, either for a short term or on a path to citizenship. In the year 2000, 2.7 percent of the world's population were international migrants and "today it's 3.4 percent" and 48 percent of them are women, Arbour said. That means today some 258 million people have left their home country either temporarily or permanently and settled in another country. The remittances migrants send home about 15 percent of their earnings "represents three times the amount of total official development aid that rich countries send to the developing world," Arbour said. She lamented that people overestimate the number of migrants in their countries, and their level of criminality and unemployment, "when the reality is completely different." Arbour strongly refuted the demonization of migrants, and use of the term "illegal migrants." "A lot of people who find themselves in an irregular situation in a country have actually entered perfectly legally," she said, but end up with sometimes serious and sometimes very minor issues regarding legal requirements to remain. Arbour was critical of U.S. President Donald Trump repeatedly railing against migrant caravans from Central America as dangerous groups with criminals, and deploying troops to the U.S.-Mexico border. "It's very difficult to counter a voice that occupies so much space in the media and in public opinion, even when on many aspects it's either very misguided or expresses concerns that are disproportionate regarding the reality of it," she said. "What's happening at the southern U.S. border is what it is 5,000, 7,000, 10,000 people seeking entry in a country of 330 million," Arbour said. "The global compact is about the mobility of hundreds of millions of people many of whom have settled through legal channels in communities. So this is a wrinkle. There are wrinkles in different parts of the system." The global compact recognizes that migration policies are a matter of state sovereignty, for every country to decide, she said. As for countering the bad image of migrants, Arbour said, "it's not a question of trying to completely dismiss the very legitimate concerns that governments have, and that people have about controlling their borders." She said the global compact is also about producing and promoting "a much, much more accurate perception of reality, so that national governments can have policies that make sense." Arbour said the compact calls on countries to share migration data and "to push back on the drivers of migration especially irregular migration" including conflict, poverty and lack of development and climate change. It also focuses on the development of skilled workers, who are needed in richer countries with low population growth, she said. United Nations (United States) (AFP) - The UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria urged the Security Council on Wednesday to press the Syrian government to provide information to families about the fate of those missing or detained during the seven-year war. Following a closed-door informal meeting with council members, the commission chairman said it was crucial to push the government to give a full account after it began in May to release death notifications. "The issues of the detainees and the disappeared should not be dealt after peace, but now is the time to consider this," said Paulo Pinheiro, who heads the commission set up to investigate human rights violations in the war. In May, the military police and army provided for the first time information to government civil registry offices on the deceased, allowing families to finally learn the fate of their loved ones. "The state is beginning to put out that information, but little else," said commission member Hanny Megally. "The families have a right to know what happened, where the bodies are, to get information about them." An international independent body must be given access to all places of detention to confirm who is still alive in detention, he added. The commission hopes council members including Russia, Syria's ally, can encourage the Damascus government to take steps to address demands from the families of lost or missing loved ones. Syria's war has killed more than 360,000 people and displaced millions. UN-led diplomatic efforts to end the war have stalled, but Russia, Iran and Turkey are spearheading a separate drive to stabilize the country. Shyrokyne (Ukraine) (AFP) - Ukrainian soldiers busily dug trenches and stuffed rucksacks with emergency rations and ammunition after an unprecedented state of martial law came into force on Wednesday. "It's better to dig a trench 10 metres long than two metres deep," a 22-year-old soldier, Timokha, joked -- referring to the depth of a grave. The troops are positioned in the ruins of eastern Ukraine's flashpoint village of Shyrokyne around a kilometre from the frontline, facing regular gunfire from Russia-backed separatists in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic. Just 800 metres away is the Sea of Azov, shared between Russia and Ukraine. While trying to reach this strategic location, three Ukrainian navy ships were seized by Russian forces on Sunday in a clash that has sharply worsened relations. Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko has triggered martial law in 10 regions, including areas close to separatist-controlled territory and the Sea of Azov's coast. "We've been digging since early morning, as soon as martial law began," Timokha said. Poroshenko has warned that the country is now facing the threat of "full-scale war" with Russia, even if Russian President Vladimir Putin has played down the "small incident." Though the region has been at war since 2014, for Timokha and his fellow soldiers, martial law means a major build-up in their operation. "Under martial law, we're watching the enemy more closely, we've put up more observation posts," he said. Troops were packing emergency rations and ammunition "so if something comes up, we can counter an attack by the enemy and move in various directions, not be tied to one place," said balaclava-clad Timokha. Yet he was scathing about Poroshenko's move now, saying "they should have brought in martial law when Crimea happened," referring to Moscow's annexation in 2014. Story continues - 'Leave us in peace' - Russian military showed themselves then, but now is just another spike in the hostilities," he said. Behind him on the wall someone had scrawled "Glory to Ukraine" in felt-tip pen. A 21-year-old machine-gunner nicknamed Trotsky stood inside a trench fortified with sandbags. Since the clash at sea, the troops have begun to sense a new threat from the Sea of Azov, rather than the frontline, he said. "It's like we're boxed in, like we're surrounded." No civilians have lived in Shyrokyne since it was devastated by heavy fighting including tank battles in 2015. Streets are strewn with burnt-out cars and children's toys. The soldiers have set up a field kitchen and washing area in the yard of a house, with machine gun ammunition hanging on the gate. In Kiev-controlled Mariuopol, a strategic port town about 20 kilometres (12 miles) to the west, around 100 residents held a rally in support of Ukrainian sailors captured in the clash. Their boats had been heading for Mariuopol from Odessa. "We can't stay silent when our sailors are held prisoner," said the organiser, Galyna Odnorog. "We came to the protest to tell Putin: leave our country in peace." The town's border guards were all out on patrol in the Sea of Azov, only returning to refuel and grab food. Otherwise, the town seemed to be working normally and the Kiev-backed authorities in the region say they have not introduced any changes such as curfews or shutting checkpoints because of martial law. A Ukrainian soldier stationed at Mariupol's commercial port, Sergiy, 26, said simply: "Nothing has changed for us with the introduction of martial law. We're already into our fifth year of war." Chicago (AFP) - US law enforcement agencies on Wednesday searched the offices of a major Catholic archdiocese in Texas, seeking records in a so-called "secret archives" related to a priest charged with sexual abuse. Authorities executed a search warrant at the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, which overseas Catholic churches in the fourth most populous US city of Houston. The raid was related to the criminal case against a priest named Manuel LaRosa-Lopez, who is charged with four counts of indecency with a child, the Montgomery County District Attorney's office said. LaRosa-Lopez is accused of sexually abusing a teenage boy and girl between 1998 and 2001. The archdiocese said it reported both accusations to authorities and "continues to cooperate, as we have since the outset, with this process." It also stressed in a statement that "secret archives" was merely a term indicating "confidential documents kept in a secure manner for the protection of the privacy of individuals not unlike medical records." Authorities have now executed four search warrants in the ongoing investigation, according to the district attorney's office. Previous searches were conducted at two churches and an addiction treatment center in Texas. Assistant District Attorney Tyler Dunman told AFP that investigators believed additional evidence would be found at the archdiocese offices. "We believe there are records and other items here as evidence in our investigation," Dunman said. Investigators were looking for "any evidence -- records, documents, reports, photos, any other item that may be relevant," he said. LaRosa-Lopez was free on bond and expected back in court on January 10. The Catholic Church worldwide is battling an ongoing scandal following abuse revelations in numerous countries, accompanied by charges that church leaders have been slow in delivering an adequate response. Earlier this month, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops urged transparency in sex assault cases following new evidence of the staggering scope of abuse. A Pennsylvania prosecutors' office released a damning report in mid-August on abuses perpetrated over decades by more than 300 priests, affecting over 1,000 children. Polish Catholic bishops last week apologized to children in that country for sexual abuse suffered at the hands of priests and other Church leaders. HONG KONG (AP) A Chinese researcher who claims to have helped make the world's first genetically edited babies says a second pregnancy may be underway. The researcher, He Jiankui of Shenzhen, revealed the pregnancy Wednesday while making his first public comments about his controversial work at an international conference in Hong Kong. He claims to have altered the DNA of twin girls born earlier this month to try to make them resistant to infection with the AIDS virus. Mainstream scientists have condemned the experiment, and universities and government groups are investigating. The second pregnancy is in a very early stage and needs more time to be monitored to see if it will last, He said. Leading scientists said there are now even more reasons to worry, and more questions than answers, after He's talk. The leader of the conference called the experiment "irresponsible" and evidence that the scientific community had failed to regulate itself to prevent premature efforts to alter DNA. Altering DNA before or at the time of conception is highly controversial because the changes can be inherited and might harm other genes. It's banned in some countries including the United States except for lab research. He defended his choice of HIV, rather than a fatal inherited disease, as a test case for gene editing, and insisted the girls could benefit from it. "They need this protection since a vaccine is not available," He said. Scientists weren't buying it. "This is a truly unacceptable development," said Jennifer Doudna, a University of California-Berkeley scientist and one of the inventors of the CRISPR gene-editing tool that He said he used. "I'm grateful that he appeared today, but I don't think that we heard answers. We still need to understand the motivation for this." "I feel more disturbed now," said David Liu of Harvard and MIT's Broad Institute, and inventor of a variation of the gene-editing tool. "It's an appalling example of what not to do about a promising technology that has great potential to benefit society. I hope it never happens again." Story continues There is no independent confirmation of He's claim and he has not yet published in any scientific journal where it would be vetted by experts. At the conference, He failed or refused to answer many questions including who paid for his work, how he ensured that participants understood potential risks and benefits, and why he kept his work secret until after it was done. After He spoke, David Baltimore, a Nobel laureate from the California Institute of Technology and a leader of the conference, said He's work "would still be considered irresponsible" because it did not meet criteria many scientists agreed on several years ago before gene editing could be considered. "I personally don't think that it was medically necessary. The choice of the diseases that we heard discussions about earlier today are much more pressing" than trying to prevent HIV infection this way, he said. If gene editing is ever allowed, many scientists have said it should be reserved to treat and prevent serious inherited disorders with no good alternatives, such as sickle cell anemia and Huntington's disease. HIV is not an appropriate candidate because there are already safe ways to prevent transmission, and if contracted it can be kept under control with medications, researchers said. The case shows "there has been a failure of self-regulation by the scientific community" and said the conference committee would meet and issue a statement on Thursday about the future of the field, Baltimore said. Before He's talk, Dr. George Daley, Harvard Medical School's dean and one of the conference organizers, warned against a backlash to gene editing because of He's experiment. Just because the first case may have been a misstep "should in no way, I think, lead us to stick our heads in the sand and not consider the very, very positive aspects that could come forth by a more responsible pathway," Daley said. "Scientists who go rogue ... it carries a deep, deep cost to the scientific community," Daley said. Shortly after his talk, He canceled a planned appearance in a Thursday session on embryo gene editing, according to the Royal Society, one of the conference organizers. Regulators have been swift to condemn the experiment as unethical and unscientific. The National Health Commission has ordered local officials in Guangdong province to investigate He's actions, and his employer, Southern University of Science and Technology of China, is investigating as well. On Tuesday, Qiu Renzong of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences criticized the decision to let He speak at the conference, saying the claim "should not be on our agenda" until it has been reviewed by independent experts. Whether He violated reproductive medicine laws in China has been unclear; Qui contends that it did, but said, "the problem is, there's no penalty." The U.S. National Institutes of Health said Wednesday there should be international intervention. "Without such limits, the world will face the serious risk of a deluge of similarly ill-considered and unethical projects," the agency said in a statement. Meanwhile, more American scientists said they had contact with He and were aware of or suspected what he was doing. Dr. Matthew Porteus, a genetics researcher at Stanford University, where He did postdoctoral research, said He told him in February that he intended to try human gene editing. Porteus said he discouraged He and told him "that it was irresponsible, that he could risk the entire field of gene editing by doing this in a cavalier fashion." Dr. William Hurlbut, a Stanford ethicist, said he has "spent many hours" talking with He over the last two years about situations where gene editing might be appropriate. "I knew his early work. I knew where he was heading," Hurlbut said. When he saw He four or five weeks ago, He did not say he had tried or achieved pregnancy with edited embryos but "I strongly suspected" it, Hurlbut said. "I disagree with the notion of stepping out of the general consensus of the scientific community," Hurlbut said. If the science is not considered ready or safe enough, "it's going to create misunderstanding, discordance and distrust." Jennifer Doudna and David Liu are paid by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which also supports AP's Health & Science Department. ___ Marilynn Marchione can be followed on Twitter: @MMarchioneAP ___ This Associated Press series was produced in partnership with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Thankful its not Thanksgiving LAST year Thanksgiving last year. It stills feels like a piece of dry turkey stuck somewhere near my heart. Upfront, know it isnt all THAT bad. No... Preparing your Thanksgiving meal safely The Thanksgiving meal is one that people look forward to all year. All the good smells and tastes bring comfort to us on this holiday.... An Early County Thanksgiving The nostalgia of coming home for an Arlington Thanksgiving is steadily building right up to Turkey Day. In homes everywhere tomorrow, the smells, sounds, faces... Mr. Berlin Sims: A great American In the South Alabama town of Bay Minette, just outside Mobile, lived a great man and an American hero. I did not know him.... United Nations (United States) (AFP) - The United States on Tuesday told the UN Security Council that a draft resolution demanding a truce in Yemen should be put on hold until peace talks are held in Sweden in early December. Britain presented the measure last week as the United Nations stepped up its diplomatic efforts to hold talks on ending the war in Yemen. UN envoy Martin Griffiths is hoping to bring the Saudi-backed government and the Huthi rebels to Sweden for negotiations that could begin as early as December 3, according to UN diplomats. During UN negotiations on the British-drafted text, the US mission to the United Nations said "it will be important to take into account the results of the imminent talks in Stockholm which will be a key inflection point in the political process," according to an email message seen by AFP. "We look forward to offering more substantive comments to the draft once we have more information on the outcomes of the upcoming consultations," said the US mission in the message sent on Tuesday to other council members. The proposed resolution -- the first to be discussed by the council on Yemen since 2015 -- would significantly ratchet up pressure on the Saudi-led coalition and the Iran-aligned Huthis to seek a negotiated settlement. - Hodeida truce - The draft resolution calls for an immediate truce in the port city of Hodeida, the main entry point for humanitarian aid and supplies to Yemen, and sets a two-week deadline for the warring sides to remove all barriers to humanitarian aid. Negotiations on the draft began last week and no vote has been scheduled at the Security Council. The United States, which has supported the coalition, last month made a surprise call for a ceasefire and threw its weight behind the UN-led effort to hold peace talks. Saudi Arabia has faced fresh calls to end the war in Yemen following the brutal murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The war has left millions on the brink of starvation and unleashed what the United Nations has described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Story continues Despite global outrage, President Donald Trump last week vowed to stick by Saudi Arabia, throwing a spanner in the works at the United Nations during negotiations on the Yemen draft. UN diplomats said they did not expect a vote this week on the measure due to the US reluctance to push the coalition. The draft resolution calls for a large injection of foreign currency into the economy through the central bank to support the collapsing currency and for salaries of civil servants, teachers and health workers to be paid within one month. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is facing international criticism over the Khashoggi murder and the devastating war in Yemen, is due to join world leaders at the G20 summit in Argentina later this week. 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. 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. You can watch our live stream of the press briefing here. Please allow a moment for the liveblog to load Ethicists and medical experts in the U.S. say that the use of gene editing to make babies resistant to HIV infection is a step too far and could be a step back for genetic science. News broke early Monday morning that Chinese scientist He Jiankui altered the genetic code of two embryos to make them resistant to HIV, and then transferred them to a woman who later gave birth to two girls twin sisters. While his claims have yet to be verified, He says that one baby has two sets of the altered CCR5 gene, which he hopes will prevent HIV from being able to enter her cells if she were to ever come in contact with the virus. The other baby only appears to have one set of altered CCR5 genes, which may not protect her completely from HIV infection but may extend her life if she were to become infected. While He is trying to present his findings as a boon for the HIV community, researchers and bioethicists in the U.S. say the announcement has left them baffled and concerned. HIV researchers are interested in gene editing, but not the way He did it, said Paul Volberding, co-director of the University of California, San Francisco Gladstone Center for AIDS Research. Im very interested in ways that gene editing might be employed in attempting to cure HIV infection, but its use to prevent infection seems seriously misguided, Volberding said. HIV infection can easily be prevented with antiretroviral drugs. And given that treatments and therapies already exist to prevent HIV transmission from parent to child, he finds it very troubling that scientists would put these babies through these untested methods. We dont yet know the risks, and here healthy, uninfected people are being used, Volberding said. Some of these risks include the yet-unknown consequences of permanently altering a gene, which would then get passed on to subsequent generations. For example, The Associated Press, which broke the story, notes that people with abnormal CCR5 genes are more prone to dying from the flu and contracting West Nile Virus. Story continues He Jiankui, the scientist who claims he altered the genes of two embryos to make them more resistant to HIV before transferring them into a woman. (Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS) Globally, the worlds scientists agree that while germline gene editing alterations in gamete cells or embryos that will be passed down to future generations may one day be a part of our society, it would be irresponsible to use it in human beings until techniques have been deemed safe and effective, and until there is a broad societal consensus about how it should be used. These principles were outlined in the worlds first International Summit on Human Gene Editing, held in 2015, and they generally hew to other countries laws on gene editing. In the U.S., Congress banned the use of federal money for experiments in gene editing on human embryos, and the FDA is banned from approving clinical trials that involve the same. Nita Farahany, a bioethicist and director of the Duke Initiative for Science & Society, says that she isnt surprised to learn that a scientist has flouted global conventions to move forward with the gene editing of healthy embryos to create pregnancies and births. However, she, like Volberding, is surprised that HIV is the first application for germline gene editing, given the therapies already available to suppress virus levels and help people live long, healthy lives. You would think the earliest application of CRISPR-cas9 for gene editing would be more fatal genetic variations, Farahany said, referring to the tool that allows scientists to cut out sections of a genome and replace them with something else. Things that cause great physical suffering or death in children, like infantile Tay-Sachs, a severe disease that can cause an infant to eventually lose their sight, hearing, and ability to move before causing their death around ages 4 or 5 years old. In addition to the medical redundancy of Hes experiment, experts also fear that his results might in fact perpetuate stigma against people with HIV, in a country where people already face severe consequences if others discover their HIV status. Ann Mongoven, associate director of Healthcare Ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, notes that the AP story that broke the news raises troubling questions about whether or not scientists leveraged HIV stigma to manipulate the parents into participating in the research. The AP reports that of the seven couples who consented to do the experimental in vitro fertilization with He, all of the men had HIV, but they all had suppressed their levels of the virus with standard HIV medication. This suppression, combined with basic infection control measures like condom use throughout the pregnancy, would have prevented them from transmitting the virus to their partners and unborn children. Still, the article says that they wanted to participate in what He called an AIDS vaccine development program to protect their future children from a similar fate. It is not a given that a child with an HIV-positive parent will one day contract the virus themselves. Theres a real question if whether the fear of AIDS and AIDS stigma became a way of recruiting parents into this research, she said. Mongoven is worried that once news of the twins spreads, it could feed misperception about how HIV is passed on in the first place. There are about a half-million people living with HIV in China. Not The Best First Case Bioethicist Arthur Caplan of New York University School of Medicine says that genetic engineering of human beings is inevitable, and that while there are fears that parents will create designer babies by prioritizing surface-level traits like eye color and height, scientists are primarily interested in the technology for disease prevention and treatment much like Hes experiment. Eventually, he predicts, once gene editing becomes a reliable tool to help prevent disease and other undesirable traits, parents might actually be considered negligent if they chose not to use these tools. There are many cultures in the world, including the U.S., that are highly competitive, market-driven societies where individuals are looking for their children in particular to get an edge and advantage, he said. This idea that were not going to do gene editing when it gets close to enhancement or improvement, I find it silly and head-in-the-sand kind of stuff. Indeed, a recent Pew Survey of about 2,500 Americans finds that 72 percent think gene editing to treat a serious birth defect or disease is an appropriate use of the technology, while 60 percent say its also appropriate to use the technology to reduce the risk of a serious disease that could appear over the course of a lifetime. But until gene editing become safe and standardized, experts are clear about where the boundaries are. The experts we spoke to are profoundly disappointed that Hes experiment was the first to demonstrate CRISPR-cas9s potential to the world. Volberding is excited about the promise that genetic editing holds for HIV but only to cure people who already have the infection, not prevent it in healthy people. Farhany, too, thinks genetic editing holds great promise to alleviate human suffering but only after a substantial body of animal and plant studies have proven it safe and effective. Its too bad that our first use of CRISPR use in humans is so far from the kinds of uses that most scientists would have made for a best first case, Mongoven said. Also on HuffPost Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. Don't Wait It can be very hard to talk about HIV. This is especially true considering the stigma is misinformation connected to the disease. Communicate. Stop. And make sure in any case you are safe. Waiting until you are five minutes into the act of sex and asking is assuming an awful risk. Asking and truly knowing is key. Knowledge Is Power Communication is key. You can have a perfectly normal sexual relationship even if you are HIV positive. Knowing about the virus and protecting yourself and your partner is important. Practice Makes Perfect Condoms are a real thing. Knowing your status and getting treatment if you have a STI or STD mixed with using the condoms you've had within arms reach may save your health. You Love Him (Like Him) Don't You? You shouldn't only love him. You should love yourself. Having HIV/AIDS is a barrier but approaching the possibility of this and other STDS/STIS will protect the person you are with. Having an open and honest conversation about safer sex with the one you love (or like a lot) will go a long way with this epidemic. How Much Do You Know? How much do you know about Pop Culture? How much do you know about HIV/AIDS and its history. It's great you've tested for HIV. Now what? Learn as much as you can. Walking around with accurate information in your mind gives you power to help others and yourself. Lets Not Assume Don't assume that HIV and other STIS/STDS have a face. Many healthy looking people are infected. It can affect the guy next door, the cover girl, it does not have a face. The only sure thing is to test and regularly. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. 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. How to help Camp Hope is in need of blankets, sleeping bags, large sweatshirts or jackets for layering, and any kind of winter clothing. The camp also needs fuel cards to help buy fuel to run the generators, which supply heat and limited power to the tents. Want to donate? You can: Drop off a donation at the camp office at 2300 E. Birch St., which is staffed 24/7. Call the camp hotline at 509-424-1228 and a staff member will come pick the donation up. Mail the donation to the camp office at PO Box 363 Yakima, WA 98907 The camp is also in need of volunteers. For more informations, call 509-426-2929 or email bethtransformyak@gmail.com. It is too bad that Russia's President Vladimir Putin has recently given up on his heart-to-heart talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who can teach the Russian leader a few things about how to rule. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter "I'm only the president, how do you manage to be the prime minister, the foreign affairs minister, the defense minister, the health minister, and the immigrant absorption minister?" Putin would have asked Netanyahu. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky) Netanyahu would have thanked Putin for the compliment. "My enemies say Israel is going through a Putinization process. That's nonsense. Russia is going through a Bibization process. Go and learn," the prime minister would have added. Netanyahu approved Wednesday the appointment of Maj. Gen. Eyal Zamir as IDF deputy chief of staff. Netanyahu's speech during the General Staff meeting photographed well, with Gaza as the top priority on the agenda, rather than a possible war on the northern frontwhich only several days ago was described by the prime minister so vivdlyyou would think it has already begun. I accompanied Zamir during the first months of the Gaza border riots. We've spoken quite a bit. He is a professional, prudent, experienced, and stately IDF officer. Netanyahu harmed him by pushing for his appointment before his time. Zamir's competitor, Maj. Gen. Nitzan Alon, is no less professional, experienced, and stately. Alon is a brilliant man. Unfortunately for him, he served as the GOC Central Command. PM Netanyahu, (L) and Maj. Gen. Eyal Zamir (Photo: GPO) After working to enforce the law in the West Bank, Alon became the settlers' enemy. It is hard to say whether the false propaganda spread by the most radical of settlers tipped the scales against him, or whether Zamir's virtues influenced the final decision. Prime ministers have insisted to hold the defense portfolio even before Netanyahu. They mainly did it to prevent others from assuming the very important post of defense minister to be used as a counterbalance. The classic example for this is Shimon Peres during Yitzhak Rabin's first government. Rabin learned his lesson, and appointed himself as the defense minister during his second government. But this is not Netanyahu's problem at the moment. The defense minister's first task is to stabilize the situation on the Gaza border, and the decisions required to achieve this goal will not be to the liking of the right wing. Netanyahu needs someone to separate between him and the decision-making. After keeping the defense portfolio to himself, during election time, there are two options left: either the required decision will not be taken, or the blame will be placed on the outgoing and incoming chief of staff's shoulders. Outgoing Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot has already been labeled as the nation's enemy. Sooner or later it will happen to incoming chief of staff Aviv Kochavi as well. Outgoing Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot (Photo: Yair Sagi) The good news is that both Eisenkot and Kochavi do not owe their appointment to anyone. Netanyahu's selection process was swift and nonbinding. They were appointed on their own merits. I hope Zamir will think that as well. Eisenkot will conclude his tenure on December 31st. His term as chief of staff was supposed to be extended by a year, but he renounced it willingly, which is another reason to think highly of him. As opposed to outgoing Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikhwho waged a desperate campaign to extend his tenure, as well as against his successorEisenkot asked to shorten his term rather than to prolong it. I think it is safe to say that Eisenkot prevented three bloody military campaigns during his time as chief of staffthe first one being on the northern front, the second in the West Bank and the third in Gaza. He did it through an extensive and bold special forces' activity across the border and far-reaching reforms in the IDF. It is a shame that citations are not given for war prevention. US President Donald Trump is strongly defending the US use of tear gas at the Mexico border to repel a crowd of migrants that included angry rock-throwers and barefoot, crying children. On Tuesday, US authorities lowered the number of arrests during the confrontation to 42 from 69. Rodney Scott, chief of the Border Patrol's San Diego sector, said the initial count included some arrests in Mexico by Mexican authorities who reported 39 arrests. Scott also defended the agents' decisions to fire tear gas into Mexico, saying they were being assaulted by "a hail of rocks." "That has happened before and, if we are rocked, that would happen again tomorrow," he told reporters. Critics denounced the action by border agents as overkill, but Trump kept to a hard line. WASHINGTONUS President Donald Trump cast into doubt a key component of his upcoming trip to an international summit in Argentina as he suggested Tuesday he may cancel his planned sit-down with Russian President Vladimir Putin over Russia's seizure of three Ukrainian naval ships last weekend. In an interview with The Washington Post, Trump said he would be receiving a "full report" from his national security team on Russia's recent actions in eastern Ukraine and the Black Sea. He said he would decide on a course afterward. "Maybe I won't have the meeting," he said. "Maybe I won't even have the meeting." Trump added: "I don't like that aggression. I don't want that aggression at all." The comments were Trump's strongest to date in condemnation of Russia's recent actions in Ukraine, where tensions are flaring. But White House aides were still planning for the Putin meeting after Trump's comments. The meeting between Trump and Putin is set to be just one of several high-profile foreign policy engagements for the US leader on the whirlwind two-day visit to Argentina. Trump is also set meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping over dinner this weekend, in what may be a pivotal session to determining if and how the ongoing trade dispute between their two countries could be resolved. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday "The biggest correction to anti-Semitism is the State of Israel and the IDF." During his visit to the Commando Brigade, Netanyahu added, "Once we were a leaf in the wind, and were slaughtered. Today we have the ability to retaliate. We are overcoming our enemies with extraordinary might and spirit." Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed concerned on Tuesday of a recent CNN poll that found disturbing attitudes in Europe towards Jews. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter "There's old anti-Semitism in Europe that came from the extreme right, and that's still around. But there's also new anti-Semitism that comes from the extreme left and also the radical Islamic pockets in Europe that spew forth these lies and slander about Israel," Netanyahu explained in an interview with CNN's Oren Liebermann. 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. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Photo: AP) "I'm concerned, because I think anti-Semitism is an ancient disease and when it rears its ugly head, it first attacks the Jews, but it never stops with that, and then it sweeps entire societies, as happened obviously in mid-century Europe," Netanyahu said. "First in Germany and then throughout all of Europe and the consequences were horrible." He also expressed concern by the fact a third of Europeans in the poll said they knew just a little or nothing at all about the Holocaust. "I think education is important and I think a strong, forceful position is important," Netanyahu said. The prime minister did take heart from the fact European leaders were taking steps to combat anti-Semitism. "I spoke to (German Chancellor) Merkel, (French President) Macron, (British Prime Minister) May and othersthey're putting up a fight," he said. "I'm seeing this in Eastern Europe. I saw Viktor Orban in Hungaryhe's opened up a center against anti-Semitism. I saw Sebastian Kurz in Austriahe just held a conference against anti-Semitism, and that's encouraging." When asked about Israel's good relations with countries like Poland and Hungary, despite the raging anti-Semitism there, Netanyahu explained that "There are old tendencies that have to be fought, they keep coming back. I'd describe anti-Semitism as like a chronic disease. It can be fatal if you don't challenge it, and it can be contained and reduced if you do. That's what I expect governments and leaders to do, and most of them actually do it." What about those leaders who both use that anti-Semitic imagery and are strong friends of Israel? "I don't think they do," the prime minister argued. "I think ultimately the real issue is, can we tolerate the idea that people say that Israel doesn't have a right to exist, which I think is the ultimate anti-Semitic statement," Netanyahu said. "The majority of the Jewish people are very soon going to be living in Israel. There are over six million Jews now living in Israel. So the new anti-Semites say this: 'We're not against Jews, we're just against the State of Israel.' That's like I would say 'I'm not against French people, I just don't think there should be France. France shouldn't exist.' And so anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, anti-Israeli policesthe idea that the Jewish people don't have the right for a state, that's the ultimate anti-Semitism of today." Shmuel Rosenman, Chairman of March of the Living, said he was not surprised by the poll's findings. In recent years, Europe and the US have both been washed with a strong wave of anti-Semitism; this new poll further supports this notion," he said. "We mustnt bury our heads in the sand, we should all take accountability and teach the lessons learned following the Holocaust. Europe must wake up and take serious steps to eradicate this phenomenon, as so many of its inhabitants hold dangerous and anti-Semitic narratives. "This is why in the last several years March of the Living has increased the number of non-Jewish teenager participants from all across Europe. A body composed of European prime ministers and presidents must be established, so they could fight anti-Semitism, as well implement an organized and thorough Holocaust Studies educational program to prevent such ignorancewhich leads to hate. US President Donald Trump told The Washington Post on Tuesday that Israel is the reason behind US Military's prolonged stay in the Middle East. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter In an interview with the newspaper, Trump addressed the possibility of withdrawing American forces from the Middle East, saying "now, are we going to stay in that part of the world? One reason to is Israel." US President Donald Trump (Photo: AFP) The American presidentwho drew a lot of criticism for failing to visit American troops in combat zonesand announced his intention to visit US troops stationed in the Middle East. "At the right time I will (visit the soldiers)." Since America has started producing its own oil in large quantities, Trump added, oil has become a secondary consideration in Washington's decision to stay in the region. "Oil is becoming less and less of a reason because were producing more oil now than weve ever produced. So, you know, all of a sudden it gets to a point where you dont have to stay there," he explained. Trump in an interview with The Washington Post X Addressing the rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine after the two countries clashed in the Black Sea on Sunday, Trump threatened to cancel his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which was set to take place on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Argentina over the weekend. "I don't like that aggression. I don't like that aggression at all. Absolutely. And by the way, Europe shouldn't like that aggression," he said in reference to Russia's seizure of three Ukrainian ships. "I am getting a report on that tonight, and that will determine what happens at the meeting. Maybe I won't even have the meeting," the US president went on to say. Casting doubt on the CIA's assertion that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman was behind the assassination of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi last month, Trump reiterated his support for the Saudi prince. US President Trump (L) and Russia's President Putin (Photo: AP) "Maybe he did and maybe he didnt. But he denies it. And people around him deny it. And the CIA did not say affirmatively he did it, either, by the way. Im not saying that theyre saying he didnt do it, but they didnt say it affirmatively," he continued. When asked about the government's climate change report, according to which global warming increase natural disasters, Trump replied he doesn't believe climate change is caused by mankind. "One of the problems that a lot of people like myselfwe have very high levels of intelligence, but were not necessarily such believers. You look at our air and our water, and its right now at a record clean," he told the Post. A Dutch carpenter who built his own replica of Noah's Ark has announced plans to sail the 2,500-ton vessel to Israel (though, minus the animals). Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter The ark's builder, Johan Huibers, 60, a devout Christian from the Netherlands, said it looks like the original: "I created a replica true to the original ark described in Genesis." This full-size replica of Noahs Ark, built by Johan Huibers (Photo: EPA) The vessel took over four years to build. Huibers began working on the ark's construction back in 2008, with the help of seven assistants. The cost of its construction was $1.6 million, a sum covered entirely by donations. Huibers says he built the ship according to ancient dimensions detailed in the book of Genesis: "three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits" (Genesis 6). The final product is 125 meters long, 29 meters across, and 23 meters in height. Weighing about 2,500 tons, the boat even contains life-size figures of animals. Currently anchored in the port city of Dordrecht in the Netherlands, the ark instantly became a tourist attraction."We want to tell people about God," the Dutchman, who worked with a team of 50 employees, told AFP during construction. "We wanted to build something that can help explain the Bible in real terms." In an interview with the Jewish news agency JTA, the devout Christian said he intends to sail the ship to Israel. Life-size figures of animals inside the Noahs Ark (Photo: Gettyimages) My preferred destination for the ark is Israel this is a copy of Gods ship. It only makes sense to take it to Gods land," he said, holding a copy of the Bible in Dutch. Since the ship doesnt have an engine, it will have to be towed, the total cost of which is estimated at $1.3 millionbut the designer believes he would be able to raise all of it. I love the county, I love the people. They dont obey, they do what they want, and they drive like mad, shove while waiting in line and dont listen to anyone. Just like me, Huibers quipped. Saudi Arabia has announced Wednesday it will donate $50 million to UNRWA, which is in financial straits following the cancellation of US aid, the director of King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre said at a press conference in Riyadh. Iran should increase its military capability and readiness to ward off enemies, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday in a meeting with Iranian navy commanders, according to Khamenei's official website. "Increase your capability and readiness as much as you can so Iran's enemies will not even dare threaten these great people," Khamenei said. He added, "The Islamic Republic does not intend to start war with anyone." Tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia have increased in recent months as both countries compete for power and influence across the region. The two countries support opposite sides in conflicts in Syria and Yemen and different political factions in Iraq and Lebanon. GOC Home Front Command Maj.-Gen. Tamir Yadai said Wednesday that in 2019 there will be "another, more complex and challenging threat against Israel." "The Middle East has organized differently. There is a possibility of launching military campaigns on both the northern and the southern fronts, since we are aware of coordination attempts," he explained. "During future fighting in Gaza or on the northern front, Tel Aviv residents won't be able to drink their coffee," he quipped. A smear campaign has been launched against Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked to dissuade her from signing off on the extradition of Malka Leifer, a former school principal charged with sexual crimes against children, to Australia. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter Leifer, a former principal of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish school in Melbourne, was charged with 74 sexual offenses she allegedly committed against three sisters. She fled Australia to Israel in 2008 under suspicious circumstances after accusations against her had surfaced, and has been living in the ultra-Orthodox settlement of Emmanuel in the West Bank since. She was arrested in Israel in 2014 and currently awaits the completion of the extradition proceedings. Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Photo: Motti Kimchi) In 2016, a Jerusalem court determined Leifer was unfit to face extradition and trial. In March 2018, a psychiatric evaluation of Leifer found she was fit to face trial, and she has been in detention since. Meanwhile, several interested parties, among them people of means, have come together to thwart the Leifer's extradition, which is led by the Justice Ministry and its Australian counterpart. They hired the services of PR man Ronen Tzur to promote the campaign waged by the Leifer family against what they dub as "the extradition of the 51-year-old grandmother to the Australian authorities." After a long period of discussions, the campaign organizers presented their plan, which included a proposal to use the services of a psychiatrist to highlight the failures in Leifer's treatment and explain she is unfit for extradition. Another proposal was to hire a legal team to file a complaint against the psychiatrists who treated Leifer for medical malpractice. Malka Leifer Another part of the plan focused on Justice Minister Shaked. According to the presentation detailing the plan, dubbed the "Rotten Shaked," Minister Shaked "has a clear agendaevery suspect is presumed innocent until proven guilty... on the condition you're associated with Shaked." Moreover, the presentation specified a "plan of action" against the justice minister: "We will expose Shaked's reprehensible conduct in the Leifer case, and the questionable connection between the minister and people of wealth and power in Australia, as well as the shattering failures of the juridical system." In addition to videos about the "failures of the judicial system," and the story of "Grandmother Malka Leifer," the campaign organizers planned to make the claimunder the title "Cutting the Shaked (almond in Hebrewed.) branch"that the justice minister has close ties to the judges who reviewing Leifer's case, and that they were influenced by her post on Twitter on the matter. As part of the smear campaign, organizers also planned to petition the High Court of Justice (HCJ), claiming that Shaked is blatantly meddling in the legal procedure. Malka Leifer in court (Photo: Shaul Golan) The campaign has yet to be launched, and it is unclear whether it was decided to postpone it or to cancel it altogether. Rosenbaum Communications, a subsidiary of media advisor Ronen Zur, offered the following response to the story: "As part of our work, different ideas are suggested on how to handle a client. Naturally, not all ideas get past the brainstorming stage. Beyond that, our policy is to not comment about our clients, which we will do in this case as well." Shaked's office said in response: "The Justice minister will not be deterred by any systematic, false campaign against her. Minister Shaked will exercise her authority if needed, and has no intention to capitulate to threats. If the court decides Malka Leifer is fit to be extradited to Australia, the minister will not hesitate to act to bring her to justice by extraditing her." Ohad Hertz, who was left disabled after he being stabbed in a terror attack at the Ariel Junction in 2015, confronted his attacker at the latter's court hearing a week and a half ago. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter The military court in the West Bank sentenced Monday the terrorist, Tamer Shawkat Ahmed Khadir, to 17.5 years in prison and ordered him to pay Hertz NIS 30,000 in compensation. At the hearing, ahead of sentencing, Hertz, who suffers from a disability as a result of the attack, chose to speak before the court and address his attacker. Scene of the stabbing attack in Ariel Junction, 2015 (Photo: Ido Erez) "You hurt me, I was hospitalized and was left disabled for life, but the story does not end there, it's just beginning since you tried to take me down, I'm only rising up," Hertz told the terrorist. "On the day of the attack, I was on my way home from a first date with a girl who is now my wife; we have a home and a son. I have completed a master's degree; I work in education and teach love and compassion, exactly the opposite of what you represent. "You wanted to destroy, sow destruction, see blood, and in the end you lost the battle. You coward, you ran away like a rabbit when you were done. Instead of destroying, you helped build. Instead of killing, you gave me a chance to rebuild my life. I am disabled, but alive and happier than ever before," Hertz declared. "My ambition is to heal the world, just the opposite of what you stand for: murder, cruelty, hatred and evil. I beat you! I'm alive, I'm working!" he exclaimed. (Photo: Ido Erez) The attack took place three years ago, when Hertz, a combat paratrooper at the time, was standing at a bus stop at the Ariel Junction. According to the indictment, the terrorist decided to carry out a stabbing attack that same day "with the intention of killing an Israeli citizen with a knife." The terrorist hid the knife in his clothes and proceeded towards Ariel junction, where he noticed Hertz and decided to stab him to death. "The court communicated an important message by ordering the terrorist to pay the victim. This way, the terrorist, whose goal was to commit murder, not only failed to achieve his goal, but was ordered to compensate the victim. The court finally heeded to victims' demands and refrained from granting a reduced sentence to a terrorist, even as part of a plea bargain," said Hertz's attorney. Britain's Foreign Trade Minister Liam Fox met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday to boost trade ties as Britain prepares to exit the European Union (EU). WASHINGTON - The United States imposed "cyber-related" sanctions on two Iranians, according to a notice posted on the US Treasury website on Wednesday. Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox are blocking traffic on Jerusalem streets in protest over the arrest of a draft-dodger at Ben Gurion Airport. Seven protesters were arrested and the light rail is experiencing delays. Over the summer, the sight of blackened earth and ashes where there was once an abundance of natural greenery - until the incendiary kite and balloon terror consumed the fields and vegetation in the Gaza vicinity, was depressing. But nature has its way of rebirth and the recent rainfall has washed away the ashes replacing the depressing black with optimistic green. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter Dozens of millimeters of rain has fallen in recent weeks and have almost completely eliminated the scars of the fires caused by the thousands of fiery kites and balloons launched into Israel by Palestinians in Gaza as part of the their "march of return." Thousands of dunams of agricultural land and nature reserves were destroyed. Drone photos of Be'eri Crater (Photo: Dronimagebank) The locations that suffered the most fire damage were the Be'eri Crater, the Be'eri woodlands, the Kissufim woodlands and Tel Gama, beautiful areas that attract many vacationers. In the Be'eri Crater, for example, more than 80 percent of the land was burnt and the cattle, fed by the grass, were transferred to nearby pens. Gaza region (Photo: Dronimagebank) But now, after the rain, the scorched earth is carpeted with green. Cows can graze again and they roam freely around the area enjoying the grass. The agriculture too is recovering. Thousands of acres of wheat have been planted in recent days in the same fields that were burned last summer. In the Gaza vicinity of the northern Negev, people know that the cease-fires are fragile, but they also note that when the land is soaked in rainwater, there is no chance of a fire, so the Palestinians do not have the option of incendiary balloon terror during this season of the year. Green regrowth (Photo: Dronimagebank) "The forecasts this year predict a harbinger of rain, and this is welcome, certainly in an agricultural area like ours," said Livnat Ganzburg, a tourism coordinator in the Gaza region. The northern Negev is undergoing a big change, from the black of the fires to green vegetation; a drastic and exciting change. The view of burnt expanses has not been pleasant but we always knew that the rain would come and wash away everything and the vegetation will grow again. Burnt agricultural land earlier this year (Photo: Barel Efraim) We are opening a new chapter in our lives and this is the time to call upon the citizens of Israel to come visit this beautiful region, she continued. There were rumors that the fires damaged the blossoming of the anemones, this is not true, and in a few months we expect a spectacular flowering of anemones. We only hope for calm on the security front and lots of rain. Evyatar Kipnis of Kibbutz Be'eri who is in charge of the kibbutz firefighting team said: "The big test will be this coming summer. It is true that now everything is green and beautiful, but every blade of grass that grows is a potential kindling for fires next summer. The Palestinians know this Unfortunately, as long as there is no political solution and everything is stuck, the situation with Gaza will be the same as it was. In the summer we will have black and in the winter we will have green. Meanwhile let us enjoy the green. PARIS/BRUSSELS/VIENNA - France and Germany are to take joint responsibility for an EU-Iran trade mechanism to minimise the risk of US punishment but few now believe it will cover oil sales, heightening fears for the fate of the landmark international nuclear deal with Iran. Diplomats said the French-German gambit is a "safety-in-numbers" tactic to overcome the refusal of individual EU states to host the mechanism to sidestep the risk of being targeted by the revived US sanctions regime against Iran. But with US threats of retribution for sanctions-busting unrelenting, they told Reuters that the goals of the nascent trade mechanism could be scaled back to encompass only less sensitive items such as humanitarian and food products. That may well fall short of what Iran's moderates wish for to fend off anti-Western hardliners demanding Tehran ditch the 2015 nuclear deal which they opposed in the first place. The IDF Southern Command is forming a new brigade that will bring together two co-ed battalions. On Wednesday, the 80th Division, which patrols the Egyptian border, will inaugurate the Paran brigade which will oversee the armys two co-ed battalions, Caracal and Bardalas. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter The objective of the move is to strengthen the two battalions under one brigade commander, Lt. Col. Yitzhak Ben Bassat, and the continuation of their mission to protect the areas along the border with the Sinai Peninsula. Thus, for the first time, the soldiers will have their own brigade commander, similar to other infantry brigades such as Golani, the Paratroopers, Kfir, Nahal and Givaati. Formation of Paran Brigade (Photo: IDF Spokesman) drug smuggling that sometimes develops into gunfire exchanges, mainly on the Egyptian side of the border fence. IDF Caracal fighter One incident took place on Saturday when a vehicle driven by a senior Israeli military officer came under fire from the Egyptian side. There were no casualties. An initial and joint investigation with the Egyptians revealed that the shooter was an Egyptian policeman stationed in the sector. (Photo: IDF Spokesman) "This is a serious and rare incident that has not occurred in the sector for a long time," explained a senior officer in the Southern Command. "The Egyptian forces sustain an average of 10 to 15 deaths a month from ISIS attacks and are under constant fire from the drug cartel... The Egyptian army investigates such incidents in a meticulous manner; it seems that the incident was not intentional. Unit's new emblem tag (Photo: IDF Spokesman) The new brigade troops will wear the desert-camouflage colored beret and receive a new badge with the brigade's emblem, which will operate under the command of the 80th Division commander, Brigadier General Guy Hazut. As part of the organizational change, the reserve battalions of the Sagi Brigade were transferred to the Gaza Division and the Yoav Regional Brigade to the Eilat area. The Bardalas and the Caracal Brigades will continue to carry out operations on the border with Egypt, and from time to time will also be stationed in the West Bank and other areas in order to diversify the nature of the activity. They will also continue to carry out their basic and advanced training, at the Sayarim base of the border defense system. Police have arrested a suspect in the killing of 13-year-old Silvana Tsegai who was beaten to death in south Tel Aviv this week. Warmer climate causing Alaska pollock to spawn earlier, study finds The spawning time of the Alaska pollock - thetarget of the US' biggest fishery - has been affected by climate change and been found that it varied by as much as three weeks over the past three decades in the Gulf of Alaska. The study by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries, using an unprecedented 32-year data series, found clear evidence that the changes were driven by both climate and fishing. Changes in spawn timing have major ecological and management implications, as timing is critical to survival of newly hatched fish because it determines the conditions they encounter. Many marine fish, like pollock, are adapted to spawn in time for offspring to meet the rapid increase of their plankton prey in spring, said the study. If they arrive too early, there may not be enough food; if they arrive too late, the young fish will have less time to grow and will be small compared with their predators and competitors. Lauren Rogers, the NOAA Fisheries biologist who led the study, said, "To effectively monitor and manage pollock populations, managers need to understand what causes changes in spawn timing. With ongoing warming of the world's oceans, we need to know how changing climate conditions interact with other processes, like harvesting, to influence spawning time". Rogers' team therefore investigated how pollock spawn timing has shifted over warm and cool periods and large shifts in age structure in the Gulf of Alaska. Warmer temperatures and older population The researchers were able to test for effects of climate and age structure on both mean spawn timing and duration, and forecast spawn timing under different scenarios of warming and fishing mortality. They determined that climate drives variation in spawn timing of walleye pollock, with warmer temperatures leading to an earlier and longer spawning period. An older spawning population also started spawning earlier and over a longer duration than a population of predominantly young spawners, highlighting the importance of older mothers. When it comes to fishing, harvesting leads to a younger, smaller population over time. In general, increased mortality reduces the mean age of a population, and this effect is strengthened if older individuals are targeted through size selective harvesting. Besides direct effects of harvesting on age structure, fishing may cause evolutionary change by selecting for reproductive maturation at an earlier age or smaller size. "Our models suggest that changes in pollock age structure associated with sustainable fishing can shift the mean spawning date to 7 days later and shorten the spawning season by 9 days compared to an unfished population, independent of climate conditions." Rogers said. By RALPH ANSAMI [email protected] IRONWOOD The Ironwood City Commission will consider marijuana matters again in two weeks after a Monday work session addressed the issue. The five commissioners and city department heads watched a Michigan Municipal League presentation on the marijuana laws and the effects of the recent election, but took no action, nor public comment. It will be an agenda item at the next city commission meeting, however. Recreational marijuana use was approved in Michigan in the mid-term election. Previously, only medical pot use in the state was permitted.... Expert Advice with Simon Pressley 28/11/2018 As someone who had never been to Tasmania until 2013, I've become an unapologetic raving fan of the state for its beauty, food experiences, and (of course) the remarkable turnaround of its economy and property markets. An unemployment rate which was 2.5 percent higher than the national average, zero vision or entrepreneurial spirit, local confidence in the toilet, people leaving the state in droves, and flatline property markets that was Tasmania in 2014. Four years on, all of this has been tipped on its head. It would have to be the best economic success story that Australia has seen for a generation! If ever there was a poster child to show the world how to really maximise opportunities from the phenomenon known as the Asian Century it is Tasmania. Tourism, education, agriculture and advanced manufacturing continue to go from strength to strength. The most recent ABS data shows Tasmania leading Australia in wage growth and second (to Victoria) in retail trade. Visitor volumes and expenditure are completely off the charts. Just outstanding! Right across the state, a range of new and upgraded tourism projects are indicative of Tasmanians transformation. Theres also airport expansions in Hobart and Launceston and unprecedented investment in universities, hospitals and new hotels. Agriculture and beverage products are arguably the highest quality in the world and in extremely high demand. Job vacancies just keep rising. Ive included three charts. The first, wage growth, demonstrates how strong the Tassie economy has become. The second puts the strength of Tassie property markets into context with capital cities. The third chart says it all, as residents from the mainland are increasingly becoming aware of Tassies amazing lifestyle and are relocating to take advantage of affordable housing and employment opportunities. Interstate migration volumes are now the strongest theyve been in 14 years and are likely to get even better. Housing supply has been tight for several years. Much of the increased demand in recent years has been driven by owner-occupiers, not investors. But the popularity of AirBNB has added immense pressure to rental stock, such that Hobarts vacancy rate has been at an all-time Australian capital city record low for about 18 months. Rents have increased by 25 per cent. Building approval volumes have increased but not sufficient enough. Property markets in regional Tasmania have also taken off. Launceston produced 17 per cent price growth over the last 12 months and is currently the strongest market in all of Australia. Burnie and Devonport have now also entered their growth cycles. Vacancy rates are tightening. The states energy is electric! All of this economic success is reflected in strong property markets across the state. Hobarts growth cycle commenced mid-2015 and (so far) equates to a smidge over 60 per cent price growth. Theres a dire shortage of properties for sale, they are still selling within 10 days or less, housing is still affordable, local confidence is high, and theres no sign of over-supply in sight, which is why Propertyology expects 2019 to be another strong year. ...................................................................... Simon Pressley is Head of Property Market Research and Managing Director at Propertyology. Propertyology is a national property market researcher and buyers agency, helping everyday people to invest in strategically-chosen locations all over Australia. The multi-award-winning firms success includes being a finalist in the 2017 Telstra Business Awards and 2018 winner of Buyers Agency of the Year in REIQ Awards For Excellence. Disclaimer: while due care is taken, the viewpoints expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Your Investment Property. The Reserve Bank of Australia has disclosed that $120bn of interest-only (IO) mortgages will be transferred to principal-and-interest (P&I) loans over the next three years. Given that many borrowers would not qualify to refinance under the stricter lending criteria, many could be forced to pay up to 40% more for their loans. Regardless of the potential consequences this directive might bring, Australians are not entirely losing their grip on IO mortgages. In fact, a new study from customer-owned Gateway Bank showed a splitting sentiment on the loan type, with 50% of Australians believing that IO home loans are bad, while the other half perceiving them to be good. The study found that the negative view towards interest-only home loans has increased by 2% year-on-year, echoing recent market movements that imply mortgage holders decision to slowly switch from IO to P&I arrangements early. Gateway Bank said that this reflects the current regulatory environment with the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) holding onto its 30% cap on interest-only lending despite lifting benchmarks on investor loans in April. Paul Thomas, the banks CEO, addressed those on interest-only repayment plans and emphasised their need to finalise their financial strategies as soon as possible to minimise shortfalls in their budget. 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, he said. Earlier this year, RBA also made an announcement on limitations of interest-only lending, in which it estimated that around 30% of all outstanding national mortgage debt will reset from IO to P&I, exponentially hiking the monthly repayments for almost 1.5 million borrowers. Thomas welcomes the repayment increase, inasmuch as it also presents an opportunity for homeowners to begin building equity on their properties. 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, he said. 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. Today Sunny. Gusty winds diminishing during the afternoon. High 76F. Winds N at 20 to 30 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph. Tonight Clear skies. Low 58F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph. Tomorrow Mainly sunny. High 78F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. The Venice Commission is assessing a law on Hungarys migration tax, a government official said on Thursday, because the countrys migration policy is at odds with the majority of related policies in Europe. Representatives of the Prime Ministers Office and the Justice Ministry met on Thursday with a delegation of the Venice Commission and the Council of Europe, in Hungary to assess the law on the special migration tax, state secretary at the Prime Ministers Office Balazs Orban noted. In line with the law in force since August 25, organisations involved in assisting illegal migration are expected to pay 25 % special tax on any funding they receive, Orban said. The Venice Commission is assessing this law despite the Hungarian governments understanding that it is a taxation matter and there is no connection between basic rights and the special tax, he added. Every state has the right to impose taxes on activities that result in costs to society but do not serve societys common aims, he said. The migration wave has resulted in serious costs in Hungary which have been paid by Hungarian taxpayers, totalling nearly 1 billion euros, he added. Orban said the meeting with the Venice Commission delegation had confirmed a difference in opinion between the organisation and Hungary regarding the attitude to migration. Hungary has been put in the corner in international political and legal forums because its migration policy is different from the majority in Europe, he added. Hungary will stand by its position even if the majority of international institutions do not like this, he said, insisting that the state has the right to impose taxes on activities that support migration, he said. No matter what the Venice Commissions final assessment is, the Hungarian government and parliament have the right to hold a different opinion, he said. The final assessment is expected to be approved at the Venice Commission meeting on December 14-15, he added. If you are an employee it is your right to know how much you will be earning and how often. Surprisingly, many Ghanaians know very little about their salary pay slip. Your employer is not doing you a favor by providing a written and detailed statement explaining how you earned your money. When it comes to salary pay slips there are various categories of people. There are those who get their detailed pay slips and understand them. There are those who receive them yet they do not understand what is contained. Lastly, there are those employees who do not receive pay slips and do not know a thing about the same. Luckily for all the above-mentioned groups, this article is about empowering all employees to understand their salary pay slips better. SOURCE: pulse.com.gh Source: Getty Images If you are an employee you might have sometime received a salary that is less than what you expected. When you question the authorities you are informed that there were deductions for this and that. Some individuals leave it at that because the authority has spoken even when not convincing. Such instances can be avoided when you know your rights. Any deductions ought to have been factored in your employment contract and if that is the case you ought to have known about it. Otherwise, you are entitled to demand for timely salary pay slips that come before or when you are getting paid- not later. Sometimes you may know all your rights and can access your payslip in time but then be challenged by things such as abbreviations and terminology. As a result, you need to be well versed with common payment terms and abbreviations. Below is a guide to help you understand your payslip better: READ ALSO: CAGD validation 2018 How can I understand my payslip better? Start with the basics. Naturally, all pay slips tend to use the same terminology. This terminology is actually very important because if you understand it you can easily detect when you are being paid incorrectly. Below are some common pay slip terms you must know: Gross pay: Refers to the total amount of money you have earned before any deductions is made. It is a totality of the basic pay, overtime allowances, extra bonuses, and holiday packages. Refers to the total amount of money you have earned before any deductions is made. It is a totality of the basic pay, overtime allowances, extra bonuses, and holiday packages. Net pay: This is what you earn after all deductions such as tax and insurance have been made. This is what you earn after all deductions such as tax and insurance have been made. Basic pay: This is the fixed pay agreed on by you and your employers minus any bonuses or allowances. This is the fixed pay agreed on by you and your employers minus any bonuses or allowances. PAYE: The abbreviations for Pay As You Earn imply state deductions such as income tax and national insurance. READ ALSO: How to calculate income tax in Ghana 2018 What else can I see on my payslip? Although pay slip formats vary from one company to another, most of the things contained are usually the same. Note that any variations in the format of salary pay slip may be subject to your individual earnings and accrued benefits. Be keen to check the following information on your salary pay slip the next time you get one. Payroll number: T his is the unique number that is used by employers to identify you on the payroll. his is the unique number that is used by employers to identify you on the payroll. Tax period: It is a number on the payslip representing the tax period for that particular pay slip. It is a number on the payslip representing the tax period for that particular pay slip. Tax code: The code gives you the rate at which you are taxed. The code gives you the rate at which you are taxed. National insurance (NI) number: An insurance number is very important for the state because it confirms that you are eligible to work in the country. An insurance number is very important for the state because it confirms that you are eligible to work in the country. Expenses: Remember that work trip for which you used your money? In the expenses section, all the money you are owed will be displayed. Remember that work trip for which you used your money? In the expenses section, all the money you are owed will be displayed. Pensions: If your employer has a pension scheme then this section will display the amount of money being paid towards your pension. If your employer has a pension scheme then this section will display the amount of money being paid towards your pension. Student loan: For those who were granted a student loan for higher education that has to be paid back, this section ought to be of interest to you. It shows how much is being deducted towards your loan repayment. READ ALSO: CAGD pay dates 2018 Salary pay slip sample Check out the salary pay slip sample below: SOURCE: pulse.com.gh Source: Depositphotos In what ways do employers release payslips in Ghana? If you are an employee in Ghana you might want to check your salary payslip online. This can only be possible if you have required credentials such as employee number and the national identification number. However, some employers have not embraced technology, therefore, give hard copies to their employees. If this is the case, visit the finance office and request to be given your employee salary pay slip. The payslip can also be posted or emailed to you if your workstation is far from the headquarters. By now you should be equipped to understand your salary pay slip better. If you still have any problem do not be afraid to seek clarification from your employer. If the response you get is not satisfactory feel at liberty to raise the same with your employee representative or trade union. If it doesnt work out there is always the option of an industrial tribunal. READ ALSO: CAGD pay dates 2018 What is the minimum wage in Ghana 2018? How to calculate income tax in Ghana 2018 Source: Yen.com.gh - Outspoken NPP MP, Kennedy Agyapong, has jabbed President Akufo-Addo over the recent power outages - Agyapong said the government has no excuses for dumsor after being in power for two years - He said government must stop the blame game and fix the problem because it was part of its campaign promises Outspoken Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong, has said the NPP government should stop the excuses and solve the recent power outages that has rocked Ghana. He said the government has been able to stabilize the countrys electricity for the past two years, and so there was no need or excuse to blame the erstwhile Mahama administration. To Kennedy Agyapong, Ghanaians deserve no excuses at all because the government pledge to solve dumsor during the electioneering campaign. READ ALSO: Freed pregnant prisoner jailed for 5 years over GH1200 court fine gives birth to twins He is quoted by a Citinewsroom.com report sighted by YEN.com.gh to have said: To say it is a financial challenge, is no excuse. We have to solve the problem because it was part of our campaign promises, and weve been able to stabilize it for two years, so however we did it, we have to continue to sustain it. There is no excuse for us. Some Ghanaians have lamented over recent power outages in parts of the country especially in Accra within the last few weeks. While critics including members of the NDC claim the outages are as a result of financial challenges being faced by the government, NPP communicators have argued otherwise. They claim the outages have to do with technical challenges which have even been solved. READ ALSO: I have been betrayed by close persons- Anas tells sad story But the Minister of Energy, John Peter Amewu, at a press conference on Monday admitted that financial constraint is partly to blame for the recent power woes. Our major challenge has been the incomplete reverse flow project to flow gas from the West to the East. We had to fast-track it through a by-pass which has been completed, but not connected to the West African Gas Pipeline yet. This is because WAGPA has not come out with the tariff for the reverse flow, and WAPCO will not sign the Gas Transportation Agreement (GTA) without a tariff. WAPCO wants to charge US $3.2 MMBtu, while we want to pay US$1 MMBtu, he explained However, Kennedy Agyapong does not want to have anything doing with the excuses. READ ALSO: Some people are planning to use Fella Makafui for sacrifice Musician claims According to him, the NPP government must do everything possible to stop the return of dumsor to save it and the party from embarrassment. We have to be straightforward, honest and sincere to Ghanaians and tell them that this is the challenge, and we are going to solve it. My question is that, if you criticize NDC in 2016, as politicians and government, we have to line up all the failures of NDC and what we condemned, and take them one by one and solve them. That makes you a better government. But if you also come and the same problem you condemned to win election, you cant solve it, then even the technical people will even say politicians are not to be believed Kennedy Agyapong stressed. READ ALSO: Wild video of Efia Odo and Shatta Wale 'banging' in bed pops up after Moesha exposed her Yenkasa: Some Musicians Share Thoughts on Kuami Eugene's 'Rockstar' Album| #Yencomgh READ ALSO: Stonebwoys wife shower praises on him over AFRIMA award and its hot Have national and human interest issues to discuss? Know someone who is extremely talented and needs recognition? Your stories and photos are always welcome. Get interactive via our Facebook page Source: Yen Newspaper The CEO of Menzgold Ghana Limited, Nana Appiah Mensah, has expressed his disappointment with customers following Tuesdays protests against his company. On Tuesday, 27 November 2018, some angry customers of the gold dealership firm took to the streets to demonstrate against the gold dealership firm. Hundreds of the protestants marched through the principal street of Accra starting from the Obra Spot and ending at the Accra Hearts of Oak Park. READ ALSO: Stonebwoy told us Menzgold was safe Angry clients This follows months of failure on the side of Menzgold to refund their investments to them, despite several assurances. However, responding to this, the Menzgold CEO said he is disappointed that customers will go this length. In a tweet, he said the customers have fallen for the misconceptions and denigrated his name, instead of being resolute. He added that the gold dealership firm will shall do the needful now, insisting God knows we defended our collective cause. Instead of us being resolute, you've fallen for the misconceptions and further denigration of my name & the brand. We shall do the needful now. God knows we defended our collective cause.#Posterity #Hail! Menzgold Global, Nana Appiah Mensah wrote. READ ALSO: Government to support Zongo 'waakye', 'sobolo' businesses Mustapha Hamid Menzgold has been in the news in recent months following disagreements with the Bank of Ghana (BoG) regarding its operations. The latest development is the order from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to have the company shut down its gold trading activities. Consequently, the company has halted its collectibles and all other new businesses related to its gold vault market, albeit temporarily. Meanwhile, the demonstrating customers have pleaded with the government to intervene to get Menzgold to refund their investment. Street Quiz Ghana: What Would Be Your Message to the President Should You Meet Him? | Yen.com.gh READ ALSO: Video: Wife reportedly storms husband's wedding; pours palm oil on 2nd wifes gown Do you have a story to share with us? Inbox us on our Facebook/Instagram page and we could feature your story. Click here to get the latest exciting English Premier League news. Get match highlights, reports, photos & videos all in one place. Source: Yen - The MP for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong, has called on the minister of energy, John Amewu, to tell the truth about Ghana's power crises - He added that he is convinced the issue is as a result of debts owed - The minority in parliament had earlier revealed that the government had failed to pay debts owed to power producers The Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong, has argued that the recent power outages are as a result of financial challenges. Speaking on Adom TVs show, Badwam, he called on the minister of energy, Peter Amewu, to speak the truth about Ghanas current energy crises. Agyapong stated that the power crises is very likely a financial problem, and not one of a technical nature. Minister of Energy, John Peter Amewu Source: Supplied Source: UGC READ ALSO: 18-year-old convict breaks out of prison (Photos) His comments follow earlier remarks by the minority in parliament, with regard to the crises. The minority reportedly accused the government of failing to pay debts owed the power producers, resulting in the power outages. Amewu, together with the personnel from the Electricity Corporation of Ghana (ECG), Volta River Authority (VRA) and the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCO), stated that the claims were untrue. Although he admitted that there still remains debts to be settled, he denied it was the reason for the outages. Agyapong meanwhile opined that the NPP had run out of excuses and could no longer blame the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for the situation. READ ALSO: Number 12 was hot; my next expose' will be fire - Anas 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.com.gh - Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings has opened up about details of coups planned by her husband, former president Jerry John Rawlings - According to her, she knew nothing about the planning and execution of the coups - She added that she was only informed of the coups after they had occurred Former first lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, has disclosed the role she played in some historic events in Ghana Interacting with Paul Adom Otchere on this Good Evening Ghana show, she revealed that she played no role in the coups that were planned. She explained that, in both instances, she was informed only after the acts had been committed. READ ALSO: Kennedy Agyapong drops hot secrets about 'dumsor' in Ghana Historical reports reveal that former president Jerry Rawlings, together with some military men planned a coup on May 15, 1979. It however failed, and another one, executed on June 4, 1979, was successful, and led to the overthrow of General I. K. Acheampong. Narrating the sequence of events as she recalled that she came back home from work to meet her husband with some military friends assembling something. She heeded to their request to prepare a meal for them after which they left the house without giving her a hint of what they had planned to do. After the failed attempt, Rawlings and his charges were arrested and imprisoned. The June 4, 1979 coup happened after some colleagues of Rawlings broke into the prisons and released him. A public broadcast announcing the takeover of leadership was done at Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) to formally indicate a change of government. READ ALSO: Nana Appiah Mensah blasts Menzgold's clients for going on a demonstration 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 - The minister of information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has disclosed that the government is ready to construct 10 harbours in 4 regions - He revealed that the agreement for the project is before parliament - The four regions are Greater Accra, Central, Western and Volta Regions Information available to YEN.com.gh shows that the government is about to construct 10 harbours in four regions of Ghana. This was contained in a statement released by the minister of information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah. Nkrumah said processes are far advanced in achieving this key manifesto pledge of the New Patriotic Party (NPP). READ ALSO: Kennedy Agyapong reveals the main reason behind 'dumsor' in Ghana According to him, cabinet has already approved the commercial and financial agreement for the projects, which is now pending parliamentary approval. The governments vision to transform Ghanas fishing industry is clearly stated in the NPPs 2016 manifesto, under Agriculture and Rural Development on pages 18 and 19. It includes a key pillar that says: Top of the agenda for fisheries will be the programme of building landing sites and storage facilities", he said. He also revealed that a total amount of $235 million has been earmarked for these projects situated in selected areas. He went on to say that one of the harbours will be at Teshie in the Greater Accra Region and one each at Axim and Dixcove, both in the Western Region. He further noted that six of them will be at Elmina, Winneba, Mumford., Senya-Bereku, Fetteh-Gomah and Moree, all in the Central Region. The final, he disclosed, will be at Keta in the Volta Region of Ghana. The project is expected to boost the fishing sector which contributes an estimated 3% to Ghanas Gross Domestic Product (GDP). READ ALSO: Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings reacts to NDC's Mahama-Ezanetor ticket suggestion (Video) 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.com.gh The lady at the centre of the atopa tape of junior pastor of Prophet Emmanuel Badu Kobi of the Glorious Wave Chapel International known as Biblical has been arrested by the Tesano Police. It has been widely reported that the lady deliberately 'set up' Biblical as the man of God was recorded and the video went viral. However, per MyNewsGh.com sighted by YEN.com, the lady has been arrested together with an accomplice following a formal complaint after videos of the naked and bleeding pastor went viral. Osofo Appiah (Photo credit: Ghpage.com) Source: UGC READ ALSO: 7 wild photos of Andre Ayew's wife that will knock you off your feet In the video, Biblical was a given a real beaten as they forced him to strip naked. The lady who allegedly framed the junior pastor ensured her face did not show during the entire episode while she egged the hired men to assault him more. It is believed that Osofo Appiah was invited by the lady (Deborah) to come to her place after she told him she was sick and he should pay her a visit. READ ALSO: Princess Shyngle taunts Michael Essien and D-Black in latest post According to official police records, at Tesano where the two ladies have been given a self-recognizance bail after their statements were taken, the Junior Pastor was invited to the place by the lady who is married and is a friend to the Junior Pastor. Upon his arrival at the place, Osofo Appiah was accosted by three men who are now on the run and who were hiding somewhere in the apartment. They emerged from their hideout and started questioning the pastor on why he responded to her call for a visit when he knew she was alone at the place and her husband was not around. Meanwhile, a social media user has however alleged that a prophet paid the lady who lured the man of God to her room to be beaten to a pulp and threatened with death. READ ALSO: I swallowed a ring for fame and riches - Obomofor reveals In the face of many theories that came out following the trending video, Instagram user, 'Those Called Celebs, shared a photo of the woman believed to have been behind the set up and also claimed that she was paid for it. Biblical has also indicated that since that incident he has not been able to perform well in bed. According to him, after the assault his manhood has been affected. Ghana News Today: Mortuary Workers to Strike / Madina-Adenta Footbridge Demo | Yen.com.gh 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 Popular Adom FM presenter, Kofi Adomah Nwanwani has resigned from the station, YEN.com.gh can report. Kofi Adomah, who has been a regular host of Adom FM's prime time news, 'Kaseibo is Tasty', took to his Facebook page to announce his resignation. In the post, the newscaster thanked his employers and colleagues for his 10 year stay with the Multimedia Group Limited. READ ALSO: Wild photo of Joselyn Dumas kissing Lil Win drops and fans are excited "It has been a decade of a great life changing experience for me especially in my career since I joined the Multimedia Group Limited. Employers and colleagues turned family. I would like to use my humble platform to thank the CEO of Multimedia Group Limited (Kwasi Twum,fondly called, KT) and all my bosses for granting me the opportunity to work in their distinguished organization.This kind gesture will forever remain golden in my heart.To my Colleagues,always remember, I cherish all the moments we shared throughout my 10 year journey and you will always have a special spot in my life. "As for my loyal audience/fans on Adom FM and Adom TV,its been an honour serving you all these years! It is with a heavy heart, I am announcing to you all that,from 1st December,2018,i would no longer be an employee at the Multimedia Group Limited(MGL). It was not an easy decision for me to make but Kofi Adoma Nwanwani has to jump a new hurdle in his Journalism career. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future -John F. Kennedy," he wrote. READ ALSO First wife storms husband's secret wedding; pours palm oil on 2nd wifes gown (Videos) READ ALSO: Musician Kokoveli forced me into a threesome because of a passport - Lady cries (Video) Though the popular newscaster failed to reveal the reason for his sudden resignation, sources at Multimedia Group tell YEN.com.gh that Kofi Adomah had actually sent the resignation about two months ago but had to wait for approval. Earlier, it had been suggested that Kofi Adomah had been forced out because his KOFI TV YouTube channel had been so successful that his managers had wanted to buy but he declined leading to a friction. But later information revealed that Kofi Adomah wanted to leave because of personal engagements like schooling which was taking a toll on him and the company had rather wanted to buy the channel in order to still keep him around. Watch how Kofi confirmed his resignation below: READ ALSO: Rare photo of Princess Shyngle before she turned herself into 'tapoli' pops up and it's wild In one other latest news by YEN.com.gh, young Kumawood actress Maame Yaa Konadu Jackson has declared herself as one of the biggest stars in the Kumawood movie industry. According to Yaa Jackson, she is the second biggest actress in Kumawood, only beaten by star actress Nana Ama McBrown. The 17-year-old made the bold claim while speaking in an interview with Deloris Frimpong Manso a.k.a Delay on the Delay Show. Street Quiz Ghana: What Would Be Your Message to the President Should You Meet Him? | Yen.com.gh: READ ALSO: Wild photos of man said to be the most handsome police officer in Nigeria go viral Share your views on this with us in the comments section below. Do you have a story to share with us? Inbox us on our Facebook/Instagram page and we could feature your story. 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 By WND , Nov. 26, 2018 A senior leader for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in a tweet Sunday called for Israel to be terminated. Irans regime calling Israel a cancerous tumor is like the pot calling the kettle black. All the people of that region will be better off once both murderous regimes are terminated, wrote Hussam Ayloush, the Investigative Project on Terrorism, or IPT, reported. Read More: Join us - become an Elderado today at: LarryElder.com Follow Larry Elder on Follow Larry Elder on Twitter "Like" Larry Elder on Facebook By NY Post , Nov. 27, 2018 AUSTIN, Texas Democrat Beto ORourke said Monday he isnt ruling out a potential 2020 presidential run, walking back earlier pronouncements that he wouldnt seek the White House regardless of the outcome of his Senate campaign in Texas. ORourke, a three-term congressman who lost to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz this month, was asked during a town hall in his native El Paso about whether he was considering a presidential bid. He described vacationing last week with his family something he said he couldnt do for 18-plus months while challenging Cruz. 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 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. By Miami Herald , Nov. 27, 2018 After someone burned a Trump 2020 flag flying outside of his house, Gus Klein says he sees his Burlington, Vermont, neighborhood in a whole new light. It does make me sad, Klein said, according to NECN. Im going to be 58 years old, and Ive never seen something like this before. Ive always lived in this area. 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 Brand workshop to maximise the opportunity of the Irelands Hidden Heartlands regional experience brand Members of the local tourism industry today attended one of three workshops on Failte Irelands newest regional experience brand, Irelands Hidden Heartlands. Taking place throughout the Midlands region over the next week, the Maximising the Opportunity of Irelands Hidden Heartlands workshops aim to demonstrate how tourism businesses can use the regional experience brand to win more business. Local industry heard about: the core message of the Irelands Hidden Heartlands regional experience brand and how to use it how to integrate the brand into their business online presence target markets / segments and how to understand the needs of different markets how to collaborate with other local experiences to enhance their business offering Failte Irelands Head of Irelands Hidden Heartlands, Paddy Mathews, said: The Irelands Hidden Heartlands regional experience brand resonated strongly during research in our target markets and we believe that it can really transform the offering here over the coming years. In order to drive growth in the visitor economy for the benefit of all in the region, it is really important that we are all aligned and using the brand effectively. These brand workshops aim to show local industry how to use the brand as a hook to encourage visitors to stay longer in their local area. The Maximising the Opportunity of Irelands Hidden Heartlands workshops are taking place throughout the region: Slieve Russell Hotel, Ballyconnell, Co. Cavan (28th November), Radisson Hotel, Athlone, Co. Westmeath (4th December) and Abbey Court Hotel, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary (5th December). To find out more, visit www.discoverireland.ie Jump to top ARtGlass, a Richmond, Va.-based wearable augmented reality startup, closed a $1.3m angel funding round. Backers included: Cavalier Angels (University of Virginia alumni), Central Virginia Angels, Charlottesville Angel Network, Trolley Venture Partners, The Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) GAP Funds, and prominent business executives. The company intends to use the funds to bolster its proprietary software platform, enhance intellectual property and scale deployment to additional iconic historic and cultural sites in North America. Co-founded by Greg and Marion Werkheiser, who are also founders of Cultural Heritage Partners, a law, policy and business strategy firm serving the cultural heritage sector globally, and CTO Luigi Percuoco, who previously led IT, marketing and business development projects for IBM, IGT, Fiat, SSB and Gtech, ARtGlass provides augmented reality experiences on smartglasses to cultural and historic sites. More than 750,000 visitors at iconic museums and archaeological sites in Europe have enjoyed ARtGlass tours to date. FinSMEs 28/11/2018 Hyas, a Victoria, BC, Canada-based provider of attribution intelligence solutions for infosec and cybersecurity professionals, raised $2m in debt financing. Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) provided the financial resources. The company intends to use the funds to continue to develop its solutions. Led by Jeff Spencer, COO, Hyas provides attribution intelligence solutions that enable enterprises to analyze clearly-defined threat data, mitigate attacks and track hackers. Its Comox engine already provides Fortune 100 companies with billions of exclusive, proprietary threat indicators. The company also plans to expand its offerings over the next quarter to include Saltspring, a cloud-based tool that provides early warnings of global attacks in real time. Hyas recently secured a $6.7m Series A round led by M12, Microsofts venture fund, with additional funding from Susa Ventures, an early-stage technology fund based in San Francisco. FinSMEs 28/11/2018 Asias answer to Las Vegas shows consistent, if not impressive, growth. Outside investment is welcome in the region, which recently unveiled a record-breaking infrastructure project but can this special administrative region continue to expand? The southern Chinese region has become somewhat of a hotspot in recent years. A $20B investment in the recently opened Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge emphasises the areas importance to the countrys overall economic growth and strategic fiscal plan. Walk around the glitzy casino floors and youll realise that Macau isnt just a millionaires playground like Monte Carlo. Sure, it is the perfect place for the wealthy to party, but look around and youll see that the haves rub shoulders with the have-nots in this peculiar and beguiling town. Whether you arrive by helicopter or transport of a less luxurious fashion, the lure of Macau is felt by thousands of Asians from every walk of life. Gambling is extremely popular with those from this corner of Asia; anyone whos visited a casino anywhere in the world will be able to confirm this truth. In fact, despite Las Vegas being home to 120 more casinos, Macau boasts more than three times the revenue $33.1B versus $10B. And its not just locals that are feeling the buzz. Macau is increasingly welcoming tourists from Europe, North America and Oceania, made aware of the destination thanks to the internet and the sharing of images and experiences through social media. Online, many gambling sites have taken notice, building out their offerings to cater for gamers with similar tastes who cant quite make it to the Asian outpost. Many have tried and failed to get the formula just right, with perhaps British-based Betfair managing to attract the most customers thanks to the wide variety of jackpot slots on offer, which goes to show just how difficult it is to replicate the attraction of Macau in the digital space. Which is why investors continue to look to Macau for investment opportunities. Wynn, MGM and Las Vegas Sands have all placed bets on the region, putting down vast amounts of money that has, in part, helped accelerate the areas growth. Las Vegas Sands is currently the largest investor within the market and is expected to spend an additional $1.1B developing its Macau portfolio. Las Vegas Sands has such a dominant presence in the region that it now comprises 59% of the groups overall revenue. And the bet looks to be paying off. The previous 25 quarters have all shown steady growth within the market, totalling a 29% year-on-year increase in revenue. There are, of course, special considerations to be made when operating in this part of the world. Typhoon Mangkhut, for example, forced the closure of all gambling premises in Macau, which resulted in a 17% decline in month-to-month trading. And the ongoing US-China trade war is not helping matters either, with tourism from North America expected to take a hit as a result. Japan is also about to issue its first casino licenses, which will undoubtedly create increased competition for custom within Southeast Asia. Growth continues in Macau for now, but with environmental and external geopolitical decisions threatening to impact the market, investors pockets arent currently as deep, or as readily dipped into, as they once were. Oriente, a Hong Kong-based financial services and technology company, completed a US$105m initial funding round. Backers included the founders and a group of family offices including members of the Berjaya Group, JG Summit Holdings, Inc., and Sinar Mas. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate technology and product development, scale multi-market operations, and grow its digital solutions into new markets. Founded in 2017 by former Skype co-founder and CSO, Geoffrey Prentice; former founding CTO and COO at LU.com, Hubert Tai (CEO); and founder of BlackPine Private Equity, Lawrence Chu, Oriente leverages Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, and data science to build solutions that provide real-time credit scoring, digital and O2O lending and other tailored financial services to millions in Southeast Asias fastest-growing economies. The company has recently rolled out two app-based ventures, Cashalo in the Philippines and Finmas in Indonesia. Oriente now has over 1200 employees across offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Taipei, Manila, Jakarta, and Ho Chi Minh City. FinSMEs 28/11/2018 Vietnamese culture introduced in Laos (Source: toquoc.vn) In Vientiane, a delegation of female staff from Vietnamese Embassy in Laos and more than 200 Lao and international delegates have attended the tea exchange program between diplomats spouses and female diplomats in Laos and Lao leaders spouses. The annual event was held by the Laos Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Lao Women's Union. The event gathered 30 booths introducing culture with the participation of many countries in Asia such as China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and Timor Leste. The Vietnamese delegation introduced to Lao and international friends artistic photos, cultural publications, souvenirs, gifts to promote cultural specialties, popular tourist destinations as well as Vietnam travel services, especially the Vietnamese Ao dai. On this occasion, many Vietnamese dishes were made and guests invited to try./. Plusgrade, a Montreal, Canada-based provider of revenue solutions to the global travel industry, received a CA$200 equity investment from Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec (CPDQ). The transaction valued Plusgrade at over CA$600 million. In the context of this deal, la Caisse acquired a portion of the shares held by TA Associates, a global growth private equity firm that will continue to be a major shareholder, alongside the management team and other investors. The company intends to use the proceeds to execute its expansion plan, which includes penetrating new international markets and expanding its suite of products. Founded in 2009 by Ken Harris, CEO, Plusgrade provides ancillary revenue and merchandising solutions for the global travel industry to optimize their seat inventory. The company is serving over 70 travel companies, including Air Canada, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines, in more than 50 countries. It is expanding its team across its Montreal headquarters and its New York and Singapore offices. FinSMEs 28/11/2018 Russian Fitness Group (RFG), which manages a large chain of fitness clubs in Russia under the World Class brand, received an investment from the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), Russias sovereign wealth fund, Abu Dhabis Mubadala Investment Company, and other Middle Eastern investment funds. The amount of the deal was not disclosed. The consortium has acquired a 22.5% stake in RFG from VTB Capital and will invest to further develop the company. Together with Russian and foreign shareholders of RFG, the consortium will support its growth in Russia, the CIS and Europe. Led by Olga Sloutsker, Chairman of the Board and President, Russian Fitness Group operates World Class and World Class Lite fitness clubs chains. World Class brand was launched onto the Russian market in 1990. In 1993, the first fitness club was opened in Moscow under the brand name of World Class. Today, World Class is the largest fitness corporation in Russia operating 39 own and 46 franchised clubs in 34 cities of 6 countries. FinSMEs 28/11/2018 The 15th Vietnam International Trade Fair in Ho Chi Minh city Most exhibitors will launch their products at the event with the aim of promoting and seeking partners; thereby, analyzing customer experience and shaping the market demand. There will be 800 booths at Vietnam Expo exhibiting various products from different categories such as electrical equipment-electronics, hi-tech products, spare parts, industrial machines, components, building materials, hardware products and hand tools, food and beverage and more. According to the organizers, with the goal of creating diversified sectors and intensifying connection with domestic and foreign business communities, this year, Belarus as an honorable guess will introduce nearly 60 key exhibitors of the economy. In addition, Vietnam Expo will also welcome more than 80 Korean businesses from Cheongju Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Daejeon Technopark, Incheon Business Information Technopark, SBC Gwangju - Small and Medium Business Corporation, and Chungbuk National University, with leading products and services such as education, household electronics and appliances, cosmetics, processed food, beverages, kitchen utensils, and more. The organizers will also coordinate with industry associations, trade promotion organizations, and domestic and foreign speakers to organize a series of outstanding events such as Vietnam - China Economic Cooperation and Trade Forum 2018; and an international workshop on improving the quality of life and interior decoration with trends and practices from around the world./. . , , . , , , . , 46- , . , , , ... Visitors at Vietnam's stall (Photo: VNA) At the fair, Vietnam had two stalls introducing many kinds of silk, handicraft products and traditional dishes. Over the past years, the Vietnamese Embassy and the Vietnamese community in the Czech Republic have actively participated in international Christmas fairs, contributing significantly to the success of this "charitable diplomacy" activity. International Christmas Fair 2018 continues to attract the participation of thousands of Czech people, representatives of embassies, and foreigners living and working in the country. At the fair, diplomats in their traditional costumes introduced specific products of each country. The delegates and visitors had the opportunity to experience products as well as cultural features of more than 40 countries in the world. Ms. Joosje Brouwer, spouse of the Dutch Ambassador to the Czech Republic and the rotating President of the fair this year, said that this was the most important event of the year for the DSA, and all the members made efforts from the summer to the end of November to prepare for this event. The proceeds from the event will be donated to charity organizations of the Czech Republic. The DSA members are also proud to participate, introduce their unique traditions, and learn and share experiences with each other, while helping those in need. Over the past 20 years, DSA in the Czech Republic has focused connecting different cultures and mobilizing more than CZK66 million for charity projects in the country./. During a routine Congressional oversight meeting today, Federal Trade Commission chairman Joseph Simons agreed to begin an investigation into "loot box" monetization schemes in video games and whether they take advantage of young players. While it's yet unclear how this investigation will play out, the fact that the FTC plans to scrutinize loot boxes is something you should be aware of if you're working on (or planning) a game that uses them. "Given the seriousness of this issue, I think it is time for the FTC to investigate these mechanisms to ensure children are being adequately protected, and to educate parents about potential addiction or other negative impacts of these games," New Hampshire Democratic senator Maggie Hassan told FTC leaders, referencing recent reports that exposing young people to loot boxes in games may be linked to gambling problems later in life. Hassan foreshadowed this request months ago, and it now comes in the wake of multiple countries cracking down on loot box monetization systems, including Belgium, the Netherlands, and South Korea. While game industry stakeholders like the ESRB and the ESA have so far defended loot boxes on the basis that they're not gambling, per se, critics of the practice (including lawmakers in states like Hawaii and Washington) have tended to focus on how predatory they can be, especially when it comes to young players. Combating criminal activity : Strong police presence at Christmas market Bonn Officials say a strong police presence and prevention are the tactics they are using to combat criminal activity at the Bonn Christmas market. The Bonn police chief says there are no concrete threats. Teilen Teilen Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Tweeten Tweeten Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Drucken Despite the crowds, the atmosphere was peaceful and relaxed. This is how Christina Scholle of the city police station referred to as Gabi describes the opening day of the Bonn Christmas Market last Friday. To ensure that it stays like that, Bonn police have once again increased their presence at peak times at the Christmas market. Six uniformed police officers and officers in civilian clothing will be on the lookout for any criminal activity. On Tuesday afternoon while explaining the security concept for this years Christmas market, police chief Ursula Brohl-Sowa said there were no concrete threats. Machine guns would not be used this year in patrolling the market. However, concrete bollards, barriers and vehicles on the access roads are intended to block the way for potential terrorists. Organizer Harald Borchert, deputy head of Bonn citizen services, sent a signal of reassurance, saying people did not need to be afraid at the Christmas market, that there was a good feeling. Even thieves were not much in action in the first three days of the market. Only one case of pickpocketing was reported, and liquor was stolen from a mulled wine stall after it had closed. Theft has gone down significantly Already in the past years, the prevention work of police and the attentiveness of the visitors, contributed to a clear reduction in crimes at the Christmas market. In 2015, there were 74 cases of pickpocketing, and this went down to only 24 cases in 2017. No individual figures are available for the markets in Bad Godesberg and Duisdorf, according to press spokesman Michael Beyer, but the incidences there had also strongly decreased. In 2017, police officers in uniform and in civilian clothes checked a total of 170 people and banned 53 people from the market - mainly well-known pickpockets, according to Beyer. Three people were apprehended because arrest warrants had been issued against them. This year, police will again distribute alarm bells for visitors to put in their hand bags. Joint operations with state police are also planned. In the first couple weekends, police trainees will be on trains between Bonn and Cologne, on the lookout for thieves. Pickpockets are mainly at work at the train stations, with Cologne Central Train Station being the main focus for police. Vietnamese stall at the fair The fair, held annually over the past 19 years, aims to help Greek disadvantaged children. This year's event attracted thousands of Greek and international visitors to over 60 stalls of foreign embassies, businesses and organizations. Joining for the 5th time by the Vietnamese Embassy in Greece, the exhibits provided a unique Vietnamese space, contributing to building a hospitable and friendly image of Vietnam among Greek and international friends. Money collected from selling the Vietnamese products were transferred to The Friends of the Child for assisting Greek disadvantaged children./. 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 SPEED READ: The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in September that cities can't criminalize sleeping outdoors when homeless people have no other choice. The ruling impacts nine Western states and has led some cities to revisit their homeless ordinances and practices. Research shows that anti-homeless laws, like anti-camping ordinances, are expensive and often ineffective. How Philadelphia Is Helping the Homeless A federal ruling from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in September is already having an effect on how communities treat homeless people.Martin v. Boise has beenmaking its way through the courts since 2009. At issue is whether Boise, Idaho's ban against sleeping on the streets -- a so-called anti-camping ordinance that exists in many places across the country -- violates homeless people's Eighth Amendment rights, which protect against cruel and unusual punishment.The court's decision,which directly impacts nine Western states, gives homeless people and advocates reasons to claim both victory and defeat.The victory: "As long as there is no option of sleeping indoors, the government cannot criminalize indigent, homeless people for sleeping outdoors on public property on the false premise they had a choice in the matter," wrote Ninth Circuit Judge Marsha Berzon.The defeat: The court ruled that shelters can turn people away if they dont comply with religious rules or if they have reached capacity.Boise is appealing the ruling and plans to continue as usual in the meantime. "As far as were concerned, the ordinance stands until we hear differently from a final court," Mike Journee, a spokesman for the city, told theStill, homeless rights advocates are cautiously optimistic the case could catalyze cities to finally figure out long-term solutions for chronic homelessness."We want communities to see this as an opportunity, not a limitation. Criminalization of homeless, anyway you look at it, is never a positive step," says Eric Tars, senior attorney for the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty. "From a fiscal standpoint, it costs communities more to cycle these people through law enforcement than actually providing shelter or giving them resources."Research shows that the criminalization of homelessness is expensive and often ineffective. According to a 2018 study by the University of Denver, six Colorado cities spent $5 million enforcing anti-homeless ordinances over a five-year period. "Reducing or eliminating anti-homeless ordinances would achieve governmental goals of reducing ineffective spending," the study found. Similarly, San Francisco spends around $20 million a year enforcing its anti-homeless ordinances.Meanwhile, a 2015 report found that Massachusetts saved taxpayers $9,339 for every homeless person that it helped house instead of penalized.The September ruling has already spurred several cities to act.Modesto, Calif., dedicated a park for homeless people to camp. But the city stresses that this is a temporary solution while it works toward increasing the number of available beds in shelters and that it will continue to enforce its anti-camping ordinance in other areas. Olympia, Wash., called off a sweep of a homeless encampment. San Francisco and Portland, Ore., officials said they will stop prosecuting homeless people violating city sleeping ordinances. And Los Angeles officials said they are working on new guidance regarding encampments.As cities look for long-term solutions to homelessness, Tars says they should avoid taking the easy route of passing more laws against homelessness and instead invest in "upstream" programs, which cost more in the beginning but can end up saving communities more money down the line and in other areas like health care. Upstream solutions include opening up vacant lots to people living out of their cars, and using bond money to create more affordable housing.But, Tars says, these investments can be a tough sell."You get this push from the business community that we need to do something, and we couldnt agree more," he says. "Where we differ, however, is that businesses and others will say to do the quick and easy thing. Whereas when you have more thoughtful approaches, you have to acknowledge those costs up front."Philadelphia isnt impacted by Martin v. Boise, but Tars says cities that are should look to its efforts to combat homelessness as a model, particularly the "Hub of Hope."One of the city's train stations was a de facto place for homeless people to sleep. With the population it wants to help already there, the city converted it into a permanent walk-in resource center where homeless people can shower, do laundry, and receive health, housing and legal aid. The space offers dinner on the weekends and in December will expand evening meals to four times a week. They cannot, however, sleep there anymore.The Hub of Hope sees about 250 people per day, and they saw 80,000 people in 2017, according to David Hollomon, chief of staff for Philadelphias Department of Homeless Services. Law enforcement likes it, says Hollomon, because it gives them a place to redirect homeless people.Meanwhile, Philadelphia has created enough low-barrier housing -- where the only requirement to get a bed is to not be under the influence and to not incite violence -- to clear three out of four of its homeless encampments, redirecting 50 people to some form of shelter and helping 67 get a photo ID ( which is required to receive some government aid ). While this doesn't account for everyone in those encampments, Holloman says not everyone chooses to go to a shelter."Everyone in the city has been clear that were not criminalizing homelessness. We didnt ever want to be perceived as doing that," Holloman says.Tars worries, however, that no matter what cities do, they won't make a significant dent in homelessless until they address the lack of affordable housing throughout the country."[The ruling] gives us a really important tool, but the danger is were not solving the overall affordable housing crisis," he says. "More families are paying a higher share of their income on housing, so my fear is that unsheltered homelessness is just going to continue to grow." SPEED READ: Georgia and New Hampshire will elect a new secretary of state next week. In both races, voting rights and laws have become the biggest issue. If John Barrow beats Trump-endorsed Brad Raffensberger in Georgia, he would be the first Democrat to win a statewide election there in 20 years. Georgia: Voting Rights vs. Voting Integrity The End of Gardner's Long Career in New Hampshire? Bill Gardner is the nation's longest-serving secretary of state, having held the job in New Hampshire since 1976. His reign might come to an end next week.In New Hampshire, the secretary of state is elected by the legislature, which was just taken over by Democrats ready to make a change. Gardner is a Democrat, but he's being challenged by Colin Van Ostern, who was the party's nominee for governor in 2016."Bill has to go to make room for the future," says state Rep. Jan Schmidt.Like other Democrats, Schmidt believes that Gardner has been insufficient in his support of voting rights. Most notably, he was a member of a federal voter fraud commission headed by Vice President Mike Pence and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach that Democrats believe set off on a fishing expedition to find ways to suppress votes.Partisan battling over voting rights is also central to the secretary of state's election in Georgia, where a runoff will be held next Tuesday between Republican Brad Raffensberger and Democrat John Barrow.Georgia has been a flashpoint in the voting wars this year. Former Democratic state Rep. Stacey Abrams, who lost the governor's race, accused her opponent, GOP Secretary of State Brian Kemp, of putting his thumb on the scale as he oversaw an election in which he was a participant. Kemp's office became the target of frequent, often successful lawsuits from groups charging him with unlawfully purging voters from registration lists. Fair Fight Action, a group allied with Abrams, filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday calling for wholesale changes to Georgia's election practices."Before this year's election, people would see the secretary of state as a second-tier constitutional office," says Nse Ufot, executive director of the New Georgia Project, a voter registration group that was founded by Abrams. "Now people see it's truly one of the linchpins of our democracy."Ufot thinks that the Democrats' desire for a "reckoning" after Kemp's management of the office will drive turnout up beyond normal levels next week. Republicans are not dismissing that possibility. But turnout was down by more than 70 percent in early voting on Monday, compared with the start of the final week of early voting for the general election. It ticked up on Tuesday, but the electorate so far has been trending older, whiter and more male than on Nov. 6."Democrats want to make vote suppression an election issue," tweeted Michael McDonald, a voting expert at the University of Florida. "When they have a chance to bring change to one of the worst offending states, their base seems to be taking a pass. Perhaps the issue doesn't resonate with their base as much as they might think."The two contests for secretary of state illustrate that a post once seen as technical and administrative has become a partisan battleground. In Georgia and New Hampshire, as in other states, the secretary of state has other duties aside from overseeing elections, such as business licensing and public records. But disputes about election management have drawn the most attention. (Louisiana will also hold a runoff for secretary of state, on Dec. 8, between Republican Kyle Ardoin and Democrat Gwen Collins-Greensup. Ardoin is the incumbent, having replaced Tom Schedler, who resigned in May over sexual harassment charges. He is favored to beat Collins-Greenup, an attorney, who defeated the Democratic Party's endorsed candidate despite having raised less than $3,000 and buying no advertising.)"The counting of the votes and enforcing voting regulations in closely divided states could be the difference between winning and losing," says Andrew Smith, a pollster at the University of New Hampshire. "I think it was Stalin who said he didn't care if people could vote or not, he just wanted to be able to count the votes."In Georgia, Raffensberger received 49.2 percent of the general election vote, compared with 48.6 percent for Barrow. The runoff was called because neither candidate received a majority of the vote. Libertarian Smythe DuVal, who took 2.2 percent, has endorsed Barrow, who would be the first Democrat to win a statewide election in Georgia in 20 years.There's always a decline in participation for runoffs. What matters is which party sees support drop off the most."The experience here has been that Republicans do a better job of getting back to the polls than Democrats do," says Charles Bullock, a political scientist at the University of Georgia. "Without Stacey Abrams on the ballot, it may be particularly hard to get African-Americans back. That's absolutely critical for Democrats to do well."Ufot says her group is doing everything it can to get Democratic voters fired up for the runoff. After giving people "a Thanksgiving break," she says, her group is back to being "really, really annoying" in knocking on doors, making calls and sending out texts."Runoffs are always tough, but we are going to see elevated turnout for [this] runoff," she says. "They may not be earthshaking, historic numbers, but they are going to be elevated."If Democrats can improve their runoff turnout in any significant way, Barrow may present a strong challenge to Raffensberger, who received a tweeted endorsement from President Trump on Monday.Barrow served in the U.S. House for a decade. His defeat in 2014 was widely noted at the time because he was the last white Democrat to hold a congressional seat in the Deep South."You've got to be concerned about his ability to outperform the average Democrat," says state Sen. Josh McKoon, who ran unsuccessfully for secretary of state in the GOP primary. "Republicans moved his district around so much that he represented a significant portion of eastern Georgia, beyond what a normal congressman would represent."Republicans have attacked Barrow as a "pro-abortion liberal," tarring him by association with former President Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi, the once and presumably future Democratic House speaker. They warn that he won't defend the state's voting laws against legal challenges brought by liberal groups. One attack ad warned that "our elections are at risk if liberal John Barrow wins" and that his policies will lead to "more illegal voting than ever."Barrow, meanwhile, has criticized Raffensberger, a former state representative and CEO of an engineering design company, for compiling outstanding tax liens and has tied him to the GOP's controversial handling of voting issues."When people have learned how many Georgians have been purged from the voter rolls, when they see Georgia's voting machines are old enough to vote themselves, when they learn that Georgia is the only state to turn down money from the federal government to improve election infrastructure, they are blown away," says Ufth, of the New Georgia Project.Kemp, who stepped down as secretary of state two days after the gubernatorial election, faced lawsuits for, among other things, Georgia's "exact match" policy, which tossed out voter registration forms that didn't comport precisely with information in state and federal databases. And Kemp's "use it or lose it" policy led to the removal from the rolls of more than 100,000 registrants who didn't vote in prior elections.Republicans insist on the importance of preserving voting integrity measures."All the things that have been done to make sure we don't have voter fraud in our state will be at risk if John Barrow is elected," says Republican Sen. McKoon.Gardner is also facing complaints about voting rights. Gardner ran into a firestorm of criticism after Kobach questioned the validity of the 2016 race for U.S. Senate in New Hampshire at a commission meeting Gardner hosted in the state, even though Gardner defended the results.But long before the Pence-Kobach commission was established, Gardner testified in favor of policies to place more hurdles in front of people wanting to vote."I was astounded when the only person to speak for many of the bills meant to disenfranchise voters was our secretary of state," says Schmidt, the Democratic state representative. "He was telling the committee in testimony that because of a perception of wrongdoing we needed to pass this restrictive bill."Gardner earned the ire of fellow Democrats this year for supporting a bill establishing a residency requirement for voting. Previously, people only had to be "domiciled," or living, in the state to vote. Now, they have to establish residency, meeting criteria principally concerned with proving they live exclusively in the state.Gardner also supported a law, enacted in 2017, that created stricter residency requirements for out-of-state college students to vote. The New Hampshire Supreme Court gave its blessing to that law with just over a week to go before the election."Democrats are very angry with Gardner because he supported the legislation," says Smith, the University of New Hampshire pollster. "He thought the residency requirement should be in line with other states."Gardner won the job 44 years ago by aligning himself with young Republicans who didn't like an older GOP legislator then angling for the job. If Gardner is to survive, he will need to put together a bipartisan coalition once again. House Democrats held a nonbinding vote earlier this month that went 179 to 23 against Gardner. The story is a little different on the GOP side."Bill Gardner has proven to our state that he can do this job without partisan motivations," Dick Hinch, the House Republican leader, said in a statement. "Republicans in the House will be standing with and voting for a person who has exhibited fairness and decency throughout his career in public service."Gardner has long been a player in presidential politics, maneuvering to maintain New Hampshire's pride of place in holding the first primaries every four years."Protection of the primary is very important to New Hampshire, and he's done a wonderful job of that," says Democratic state Sen. Lou D'Alessandro, who has known Gardner since teaching him civics in the ninth grade.D'Alessandro, who has served in the legislature since 1972, says that newcomers don't appreciate the role Gardner and his office play in serving the needs of understaffed legislators.Still, most Democrats are ready to put someone new in Gardner's slot."If any Democrat thinks the present secretary of state, or his deputy, deserves another term in office following this performance, they are simply not paying attention," Peter Burling, a former state senator and member of the Democratic National Committee, said after the state Supreme Court's ruling on residency requirements. Governments around the nation are working to design the best vaccine policies that keep both their employees and their residents safe. Although the latest data shows a variety of polarizing perspectives, there are clear emerging best practices that leading governments are following to put trust first: creating policies that are flexible and provide a range of options, and being in tune with the needs and sentiments of their employees so that they are able to be dynamic and accommodate the rapidly changing situation. Voting rights activists working with Democrat Stacey Abrams filed a sweeping federal lawsuit Tuesday against Georgia election officials, alleging they "grossly mismanaged" the recent midterm, depriving Georgia citizens -- especially those of color -- of their "fundamental right to vote."The 66-page complaint filed in Atlanta by Fair Fight Action, a nonprofit group set up earlier this month, describes "serious and unconstitutional flaws" in Georgia's election process and calls for large-scale voting reforms, including asking the court to put Georgia election laws under federal court supervision.Abrams lost her bid for Georgia governor to Republican Brian Kemp earlier this month by about 54,700 votes after an acrimonious race in which she dubbed Kemp an "architect of voter suppression."The lawsuit does not list Kemp as a defendant since he resigned from his role as Georgia's secretary of state two days after the election. Instead, it targets Robyn A. Crittenden, who is the state's interim secretary of state, as well as other members of the state election board. Kemp is, however, named repeatedly in the lawsuit."The general election for governor is over, but the citizens and voters of Georgia deserve an election system that they can have confidence in," Lauren Groh-Wargo, Abrams' campaign manager and chief executive of Fair Fight Action, said at a news conference Tuesday outside a federal courthouse in downtown Atlanta.While Abrams is on the board of Fair Fight Action, which filed the suit along with Georgia Care in Action, she is not listed as a plaintiff in the lawsuit.The Nov. 6 election drew historic voter registration and turnout in Georgia, with more than 3.9 million people casting votes. But according to the lawsuit, "decades-long neglect of the elections infrastructure left a system virtually guaranteed to fail.""Time-tested voter suppression tactics further burdened the right to vote," the lawsuit states. "Voters faced a systematic disregard for established rules; a refusal to provide resources adequate to enable a fair voting process; and policies and practices that stifled the votes of the people."A flurry of lawsuits were filed by Abrams' campaign and her allies before and after the election, challenging specific provisions of Georgia voting policy, such as the "exact match" policy that strikes Georgia voters from the rolls if the name on their registration application does not exactly match their name on their government-issued IDs, and the "use it or lose it" policy that removes voters if they have not recently exercised their right to vote.Richard L. Hasen, professor of law and political science at the University of California, Irvine, said the new lawsuit has an unusually broad focus."The strategy is to show that the cumulative effect is severe, even if any one of these things in isolation might seem to be less serious," Hasen said. "The argument is that all of these things work together to deprive people of the right to vote. I think it's a bolder kind of strategy. And they ask for bold relief."The complaint asks the court to declare that Georgia's current elections process violates multiple federal laws, including the fundamental right to vote under the First and 14th amendments, the ban on racial discrimination in voting under the 15th Amendment, and the right to equal protection under the 14th Amendment.Filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, it asks the court to permanently order election officials to block "exact match" and "use it or lose it" policies, replace "insecure and unreliable" voting machines with paper ballots counted by optical scanners, train local officials and adopt and enforce "uniform standards."Notably, it also asks the court to require that Georgia get approval from a federal court before it enacts any changes to its voting laws.The federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 required states with a documented history of voter discrimination, mostly in the Deep South, to pre-clear any changes in their voting laws with the Justice Department or a federal court. However, in 2013, the Supreme Court ruled in Shelby County vs. Holder that the formula used to determine which states must seek federal "pre-clearance" was outdated and that Southern states had been unfairly singled out.Whether the plaintiffs ultimately prevail, Hasen said, depends on what the evidence shows. Even if the plaintiffs can prove intentional discrimination, a court won't necessarily impose pre-clearance.In 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit struck down a stringent 2013 North Carolina voting law, finding that it targeted blacks with "almost surgical precision." Yet the court declined to impose pre-clearance.According to Groh-Wargo, more than 40,000 voters contacted Abrams' campaign hotline to register complaints about voting in the midterm election.Some waited for hours at the polls or arrived at polling stations that had run out of paper ballots or had malfunctioning voting machines. Others did not receive ballots or had their voter registration application rejected."It was a complete breakdown," Angel Poventud, a resident of southwest Atlanta who spent election day assisting voters at the Pittman Park Recreation Center polling station, said earlier this month. The station began the day with only three operational voting machines, forcing voters to wait in line for up to four hours."There weren't enough cards, there weren't enough staff, there weren't enough machines," Poventud said. People left and the majority never came back. So many votes were lost."Kemp, who took office as Georgia's secretary of state in 2010, had since purged 1.4 million inactive registered voters from the rolls. While federal law requires the state to update voter rolls by removing those who have died or moved, Kemp's critics accuse him of unfairly removing many eligible voters, especially minority and low-income Georgians.Kemp has pushed back against the criticisms, noting that he has introduced online voter registration in Georgia and the state has about 1 million more registered voters today than it had in 2010.On Tuesday, Kemp's spokesman declined to comment on the lawsuit."This week, Governor-elect Brian Kemp is meeting with public safety and economic development leaders," Ryan Mahoney said in an email. "He is focused on building a safe and prosperous future for Georgia families."Candice Broce, press secretary for the secretary of state, said, "With a record high of 7 million people on Georgia's voter rolls and unprecedented voter turnout in November's midterm election, it has never been easier to register to vote or make your voice heard at the ballot box in our state."Abrams and Kemp have long clashed over voting rights _ an issue that has become particularly charged as this once staunchly conservative Southern state has become more purple in recent years. Minorities now make up 40 percent of the state's population, up 10 percent from two decades ago.In 2013, when Abrams was minority leader in the Georgia House, she founded the New Georgia Project, a nonprofit with the goal of registering hundreds of thousands of minorities across the state.Those bringing the lawsuit said they hope to ensure that every eligible vote counts in the 2020 elections."Workers cannot afford to stand in line for five or six or more hours because the secretary of state's office didn't feel the need to ensure that counties needed power cords for their voting machines," said Georgia state Sen. Nikema Williams, state director of Georgia Care in Action. "They had jobs to work, families to care for and other responsibilities.""Your ZIP Code, your race, your gender, or your income level should not determine if your vote is counted," she added. (TNS) -- 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 Mandels office. Mandel said in an interview that hed 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 hes 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 treasurers 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 Mandels effort, but was noncommittal about whether hed keep or expand it once he takes over the state treasurers 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 treasurers 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 treasurers office charges for credit card payments.The state programs 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.Its not an earth-shattering idea that you can do this, but its 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 . Theres been a push by Morenos blockchain group, called Blockland," for downtown businesses to accept cryptocurrency ahead of the conference . Morenos 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. Hes 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 hes 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, Ive sort of taken it up as my baby, and wanted to make sure it was built the right way and launched the right (TNS) With assorted brightly colored LEGO blocks along with wheels and tiny motors on tables in front of them, Clay County educators Tuesday confronted the question, "how many principals does it take to build a robotic toy car?"And more importantly, "how will it help their students explore their creativity and critical thinking as well as master the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills necessary for the jobs of the future?"The answer: all 42 Clay school district principals plus Superintendent Addison Davis and senior administrators.They participated in an unique hands-on professional development training session focused on teaching STEM and STEAM which is science, technology, engineering, art and math to students at each grade level from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. They learned how to incorporate coding and robotics instruction into the school day while meeting state education standards.The day-long training was in partnership with Northeast Florida Regional STEM2Hub and LEGO Education. A nonprofit, STEM2Hub offers educational programs and expertise in STEM to Clay and six neighboring counties in the region.A team from LEGO Education, which provides training to teachers and educational specialists nationwide, led the program that featured the popular toy in lessons including basic coding, robotics and computational thinking.Clay is among the first county, if not the first in Florida, to train all its school principals how to be actively engaged in creative, collaborative critical thinking, learning processes. It is important to embed those skills in the lessons taught to students in all subjects, Davis noted."This is about taking a vision and making it come to fruition," Davis said of the initiative designed to benefit students."We continue to talk about how we build and prepare our students for the future and this is the way we do it. We are trying to create greater excitement for learning. We are trying to expose our students to more of a robotic, advanced technology perspective of learning. And this is the way we are going to prepare our students," Davis said.Robotics currently is a popular and innovative extracurricular activity in the district, and some schools also have a robotics class. But more needs to be done, Davis said."What we're trying to do is teach the necessary skill sets internally within the classrooms so we have hands-on activities where kids are really highly engaged in the learning process and are able to become design thinkers, are able to problem solve and be prepared for jobs that don't exist today but will in the future," Davis said.The principals will take what they learn back to their schools. They will pass it on to their teachers, who in turn will incorporate into their classroom lessons for all subjects.said.The goal, Davis said, is to create a mentality where students are creative, collaborative, communicate and critically think."If we get them to do those four elements every single day in their classrooms they will be prepared to compete inside and outside of our classrooms," Davis said.Principal Treasure Pickett of Oakleaf High School and her colleagues Tuesday built their way up from basic LEGO robotics such as a mini-desk fan to more complex projects such as a small battery-operated car and the coding to operate it."It's fun. We're learning," Pickett said with a smile as she carefully pieced together the foundation of a small robot. As a youngster, she played with Lincoln Logs because they didn't have many LEGOs back then, she said.Kids today, she said, are all about LEGOs. That will inspire and help them learn, Pickett said."I think it will bring out creativity and exposing students' creativity," said Pickett, who is the district's 2018 Principal of the Year. Students also will benefit from learning the technology of robotics as well as translate the critical thinking skills required in trouble-shooting and problem solving to other subjects and aspects of their lives.Kathleen Schofield, executive director of STEM2Hub, said similar training will be held in the other school district's in organization's service area. It is funded by a $975,000 state appropriation. State Sen. Aaron Bean, R-Fernandina Beach was instrumental in getting the money for the program, she said."It's to assure all children get access to the skills they will need for the jobs of tomorrow," said Schofield, who previously served as a Clay school district administrator. We are entering the decade of data. Governments daily are collecting tons of data from a wide variety of sources. Much of the data is pigeon-holed into stovepipes of programs that asked for the data and use it for, we hope, utilitarian purpose. However, this data could be put to better use by making it available to a wider spectrum of agencies and the public.Shaun Bierweiler is president at Hortonworks Federal, and vice president of U.S. Public Sector at Hortonworks. He has more than 15 years of experience helping the public sector navigate the intersection of technology and business. He has spent most of the last decade helping agencies leverage big data and enterprise open source solutions to accomplish critical missions. He is a graduate of the University of Florida, and the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business.Bierweiler responded to a series of questions about how data could be put to better use by opening up the availability of the data.Big data challenges are certainly not limited to the government, but they are exaggerated due to the massive amounts of data that agencies at all levels of government currently must collect and store to accomplish their missions.Many of the challenges stem from the variety of data formats and the velocity at which the data is being generated. Difficulties arise not just with querying across data sets, but also with the ability to discover and access a particular piece of information in a timely manner.Adding to the growing data problem are the limitations of the legacy systems many government systems rely on. In many cases, these systems were built for structured data formats, specific use cases, and the assumption of disparate data silos. Government agencies are relying on legacy systems that include data being stored in disparate silos, plaguing them with the inability to access and gain insights across their various data sets.These challenges have a significant impact on an agencys ability to run todays models and algorithms in order to gain the insights needed and expected to prepare for impending and to manage current emergency events.When it comes to emergency management, government agencies have a colossal amount of data ready to be harnessed. Agencies need to be able to gather insights not just from weather events, but also from a diverse range of technologies such as sensors, geolocation events, photographs and social media.Because there is a gargantuan amount of historical data that is constantly growing in real time, its imperative that agencies are able to access all of their data to derive insights that play a direct role in mitigating life-or-death situations. The ability to map all data assets together becomes crucial.The open source community provides an expansive group of companies and developers that are contributing to open source projects that are addressing the tools, interfaces and capabilities to make this data not only accessible, but also powerful. Companies, like Hortonworks, can build upon the innovation of the open source community and make it enterprise-ready and safe for government missions.To address the challenges described above, enterprise open source providers are developing tools like Hadoop to store massive amounts of data and gain actionable intelligence from that data in a quick, seamless manner. By harnessing the benefits of the open source community, providers can tap into a partner network that enables the visualization of data and provides further insights and analytics.Other tools like Apache NiFi enable data in motion and allow agencies to move edge sensor data into their environments for processing. This can be an important tool when it comes to emergency management and response, as it enables agencies to automate the movement of data from disparate data sources, like weather monitoring devices, cameras, sensors and more.The beauty of using an enterprise open source platform in a disaster response setting is that government agencies are supported throughout the entirety of the emergency management life cycle. An enterprise open source solution makes it possible to respond to and recover from disasters in several ways, including using historical data to develop more efficient evacuation strategies and tracking weather events in real time ahead of any unanticipated changes in a storm's pattern.Simply put, cloud data storage has done both. On one hand, the elasticity of the cloud has made it easier to store data, but on the other, it has further compounded the challenge of making data accessible. Without a comprehensive data architecture and data strategy, agencies will find it even more difficult to access their data and reap the benefits of security and critical analytics.However, with the right tools, cloud storage easily becomes one of the most beneficial assets for government agencies. In the early onset of cloud computing, storage was often expensive and out of reach for government agencies especially at the state and local levels. Since then, cloud storage has become much more affordable and quicker to deploy, but having the right technology to enable access and utilization of that data can still appear out of reach.With Hortonworks Data Platform agencies can gain specific access to their data whether it is deployed on the cloud, on-prem, or both and can obtain comprehensive and complete insights into their data, thereby addressing the challenges associated with accessing and empowering the governments data.This is more an issue of policy as opposed to a solely technical challenge. However, once an agency has a policy set in place, it must have the right technology to implement it smartly and securely. To do so, it needs to have governance wrapped around each solution to ensure that each implementation is effective and auditable.At the end of the day, privacy is a question of security, governance and policy. From a technical perspective, its important to have the architecture and solution in place that can support the policy from an automation, security and governance perspective. This is key to advancing the capabilities of real-time data analysis whether the deployment is on-prem or in the cloud.Having all the data on a common set of tools in a centralized location makes your algorithms and automated capabilities even more powerful. Recent research has shown that giving simple algorithms access to more data has a catalyst effect on what your algorithms are capable of achieving. By leveraging Hadoop and a cloud-native solution, data science teams can maximize their efforts against larger sets of data. These larger data sets will drastically improve the accuracy of the organizations algorithms.I would break this into two parts. First, agencies must protect the data in its use. You have to have a consistent implementation of security. This comes from a consistent implementation of perimeter security, governance and authorization controls to protect your data once its centralized into a storage and compute solution, like Hortonworks Data Platform.Second, an agency needs a holistic cybersecurity perspective for overall protection. The same tools that allow agencies to analyze and leverage your data science can be used to protect against cyberattacks. For example, Hortonworks Cybersecurity Platform uses all of the data sources that are generating network activity within and around your network to gain valuable insights from machine learning and ultimately understand what the nefarious actors are already doing on your network. (TNS) Manhattan streets are not keeping up with the rise of e-commerce and home deliveries, according to a report published Monday.The study, published on Cyber Monday by the NYU Rudin Center for Transportation Policy & Management and the research firm 6t, looks at how home deliveries of groceries, meals and other goods have affected how people get around in Manhattan and Paris two distinct but dense and transit-rich cities. One concerning finding was that online shopping didnt lower car use, according to the report, which surveyed more than 2,000 residents in the two cities combined.Its kind of bleak people are still using their cars to go to stores in addition to ordering online, so it seems that theyre consuming more, rather than having online shopping replace in-person shopping, said Sarah Kaufman, the associate director of the Rudin Center.While the report didnt examine how the growth in home deliveries has impacted congestion in Manhattan, Kaufman said its safe to say that more deliveries means more trucks, raising environmental and congestion challenges. Average travel speeds in Manhattan below 60th Street have dropped fairly steadily since 2010, from 9.1 mph to 7.2 mph.On-demand delivery services such as express options from Amazon and the grocery service Fresh Direct have proved problematic for the citys flow of traffic in recent years, according to Polly Trottenberg, the citys Transportation commissioner."Ive complained to Fresh Direct, Trottenberg said at a breakfast forum last month. Ive said, Youre doing all your deliveries at 8 in the morning. Thats the very time of day when you cant be sitting at the curb blocking a lane of traffic.' And Fresh Directs answer is, Thats when our customers want our groceries. We want to serve our customers. Dont you want us to thrive as a business in New York?' "Fresh Direct did not respond to a request for further comment.As the citys population has grown, so has the demand for its limited space on the street and at the curb; Trottenberg said the most common complaint she gets is that theres nowhere to park. Mondays report outlined three ways the city could reduce the impact home deliveries have on traffic congestion and the environment, starting first with a reimaging of the citys use of curb space to prioritize truck deliveries and for-hire vehicles."We can only assume that the increase in package deliveries leads to an increase in delivery vehicles. And the existence of [private vehicle] parking necessitates loading and unloading often happening in traffic, Kaufman said. "Right now were dedicating curb space right in front of building entrances to parking, which is a static use of space and does not comport to the 21st century, actual uses of the curb, which are mostly for deliveries and pick-ups and drop-offs from vehicles," Kaufman said.The report also calls for the city to embrace smaller, energy-efficient options, like motorized, cargo e-bicycles and tricycles that are still illegal to operate in the state, following in the footsteps of places like Portland, Oregon, and Hamburg, Germany.The third and more novel proposal would be to utilize taxis and e-hail companies like Uber and Lyft to make more deliveries.The de Blasio administration has attempted in its own way to address the challenge of truck deliveries. But it has so far experienced little success with its Congestion Action Plan, which critics argue is too meager, and with a program to incentivize overnight deliveries.I loved the idea of off-hour deliveries at first, but the fundamental problem, though, is that not all businesses are open 24 hours. Delivery companies might have a few clients on the block that are open and willing but others that arent, said Ken Thorpe, the CEO of the New York Trucking and Delivery Association. And all that means is that a truck will have to run the route twice once during off-peak and once during on-peak because you cant get every customer to sign on to it.A DOT representative said in a statement that the report offered "valuable" insight into home delivery patterns, but the elimination of parking in front of buildings must be "context sensitive.""As we make the transition from a city curb management policy that focuses on parking to one that is more attentive to the emergent 'pick-up-and-drop-off' economy, we will need to balance competing demands for scarce curb space," the DOT person said.Thorpe endorsed the idea of creating more loading zones, but said that would work only if the city actually kept those lanes clear for trucks. Theyre typically clogged with placarded city vehicles using the areas to park illegally, he said.That would have to come with a no-nonsense approach to those spaces not being taken up by city vehicles' special plaques, he said. City vehicles occupy a lot of the spaces in the most congested areas of the city where trucks have to park.Its a difficult, difficult situation, he said. Theres no room.E-commerce stats among Manhattanites:26% of those surveyed bought a non-food item online at least once a week.56% of those surveyed made an online grocery purchase at least once a month.47% of families with children bought non-food items online at least once a week.37% have paid for same-day deliveries. The delegates and students at the event (Photo: vov.vn) At the dialogue, Vietnamese Ambassador to Thailand Nguyen Hai Bang welcomed the students and highly appreciated the activities of the Vietnamese Student Association in Thailand over the past time. He answered questions of overseas Vietnamese students about citizen protection, connecting activities of overseas Vietnamese students with the Vietnamese community in Thailand. The ambassador stressed that the Vietnamese Students Association must have a real role in connecting students in Thailand to create a playing ground for them to share and help each other in studying and life in the locality. He also proposed that the students should uphold the youths pioneering spirit, making efforts in study, researching and abiding by the local law, and hoped that each student will be an important bridge in cooperation and exchange education and people between Vietnam and Thailand, thereby contributing to promote the Vietnam - Thailand strategic partnership in many fields. At the event, the overseas Vietnamese students had questions answered about legal problems, procedures and responsibility of the embassy in protecting legitimate rights of Vietnamese citizens in general and students in particular during their time abroad. In addition, the overseas Vietnamese students also have the chance to exchange information on scholarship programs in Thailand and connect with Vietnamese lecturers teaching in Thailand to seek scholarships for Vietnamese students and promote scientific research and cooperation between universities./. (TNS) The largest-ever connected vehicle research project is taking place in Marysville.The Ohio Department of Transportation and the city of Marysville announced this week that all of the city's 27 traffic lights will be upgraded with connected technology, along with 1,200 vehicles.Last month, Honda and Marysville debuted "the world's most connected intersection" that links information from the street to a car equipped with certain technology. The system uses audio and visual warnings on a small screen on the windshield to warn drivers of an upcoming risk.The technology is able to alert drivers if a pedestrian is crossing the street, a car is running a red light or an emergency vehicle is approaching."This technology is going to disrupt transportation for the better like we haven't seen since the creation of the interstate system," Jim Barna, executive director of DriveOhio, said in a news release.Transmitters and displays will be placed on 800 government vehicles including those run by the Ohio Department of Transportation, city of Marysville, and local law enforcement and school districts, along with 400 cars owned by volunteers."That's about 10 percent of the traffic here, making it the highest concentration of connected vehicles in the country," Mike Andrako, Marysville public services director, said in a news release. "That's important because it shows us how the technology will work when it's is rolled out to more cars and larger cities across the U.S."The project is a collaboration among Marysville; Honda; and DriveOhio, an ODOT initiative advancing smart mobility technologies throughout the state.Marysville's partnership is part of the 33 Smart Mobility Corridor project, a 35-mile stretch of U.S. Route 33 in central Ohio where the state is investing $15 million to install advanced highway technology. Honda will use 200 connected vehicles for evaluation in the 33 Smart Mobility Corridor and Smart Columbus projects. (TNS) When it comes to setting up a federal privacy standard that overrides state and local privacy laws, New York City just told the Trump administration thanks, but no thanks.In a new filing, New York City like the state of California informed the federal government it will draft and pass its own Internet privacy law regardless of any standards set by Washington, throwing cold water on the feds efforts to arrive at a national consensus for federal tech policy.New Yorks move aligns with an ongoing trend of states and municipalities pushing back against federal policies they believe are inadequate for their residents and tech issues are a prime target.In comments filed with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the city of New York offered its suggestions for a national privacy law, but also highlighted its own efforts to protect consumers privacy.For example, New York has a mayoral-appointed chief privacy officer, has a cybersecurity program for city Wi-Fi networks and is considering passing a bill (Introduction No. 1101-2018) that would eliminate the unrestricted collection and use of New Yorkers personally identifiable information by cable providers.But the crux of New Yorks comments to the NTIA comes at the end, when the city clarifies it will pass its own privacy law no matter what the federal government does.We believe that a flexible, strong, predictable, and harmonized federal framework for consumer privacy can serve as a model for setting baseline consumer privacy protection efforts on the state and local level across the country, especially given the myriad complex and often siloed federal, state, and local laws and regulations governing information privacy, the city states in the filing.New Yorks actions are similar to those of California, which passed its own privacy law, the California Consumer Privacy Act.Californians for Consumer Privacy, a pro-privacy activist group, filed their own comments with the NTIA stating they expect the federal government to pass a similar law and asking the NTIA to ensure that attorneys general have the ability to enforce any federal privacy law at the state level, so as to better protect consumers.At least 35 states introduced or considered more than 265 bills or resolutions related to cybersecurity in 2018, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures . By pushing their own policy standards, states are hoping to influence the direction of federal tech policy, said Paul Nolette, an associate professor of political science at Marquette University.Such influence is especially potent when the leaders are California and New York.[They] can have a national impact just because of the size of their economies, Nolette told. If they have different regulations in place, they extend outside the states borders.For example, he said, the Clean Air Act allowed California to set higher emissions standards, which then forced the auto industry to make cars that fit Californias standard. Because it would have been extremely expensive and impractical to make different cars just for the state of California that satisfied Californias emissions standards, automakers had to operate on Californias standard on a national scale.They cant make cars just for California, so it drives regulation up across the entire industry, Nolette said. It illustrates the issue of having national markets, and how the big players particularly New York and California can really drive national regulation.Handling a patchwork of state laws regulating the tech industry like the auto industry is especially tricky because its very embedded in interstate commerce. Various major tech players like Apple, Amazon, AT&T, Facebook and Google have said they dont want a patchwork of state laws.The sticking points are state preemption and private right of action, Roslyn Layton, a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute told. They dont want to have 50 states of rules and everyone suing on every little thing. So thats a big deal for the big companies. We have a national government for a reason. This is one of the challenges of making these rules, we want to ensure for all Americans a single standard. San Antonio's Chief Innovation Officer Jose De La Cruz has departed the city for a role with the San Antonio Water System (SAWS).This marks an end to a six-year stint doing tech and innovation work with the city that began as a senior performance management specialist in 2012, before becoming an innovation manager briefly in 2016 and then being named innovation officer in March of that same year. De La Cruz will join the drinking water and sewage utility as a program delivery manager Dec. 3, said agency spokesperson Anne Hayden.In his new role, De La Cruz will be tasked with managing an automated meter infrastructure (AMI) initiative, drawing from his tech and innovation experience with the municipal government to develop and conduct a pilot study before implementing the new technology. This marks the second stint for De La Cruz with SAWS, after he served as a customer service supervisor and manager with the organization from 2007 through 2012.Joses experience at both SAWS and the city uniquely qualify him for this new role, Hayden said. [Automated meter infrastructure] will touch many areas both within SAWS and across the city, and will require thoughtful planning and a great deal of coordination to successfully implement the program. We look forward to Jose joining our team.De La Cruz oversaw San Antonios office of innovation in recent years as it began to develop into somewhat of an ascendent entity in the municipal gov tech and innovation field. In his time there, the city built the framework for growing smart city work. De La Cruz also oversaw the creation of CivTechSA , which is essentially a partnership between the city and a local co-working space that aims to bridge the gap between the public sector and startup entrepreneurs. It was somewhat of a local facsimile of the now-international Startup in Residence Program Wider culture change in terms of coordinating with local startups began under De La Cruzs watch as well. In fact, in August the city partnered with local startup Cityflag to launch its new 311SA app When reached via email Tuesday, San Antonio Assistant City Manager Maria Villagomez described De La Cruz as instrumental in building our SmartSA Program, before congratulating him and wishing him luck on his future endeavors. De La Cruz was San Antonios first innovation officer.Brian Dillard, formerly the citys smart city administrator, has been named as the city's interim chief innovation officer. West Virginia turned to its own cybersecurity leader to fill the chief technology officer post.Joshua Spence was appointed by Gov. Jim Justice to fill the seat after the retirement of longtime IT leader John Dunlap, according to a press release from the governor's office. Dunlap was named CTO in January 2017, after serving more than 30 years in state government.Spence had been serving as chief information security officer of West Virginia since 2015. He holds expertise in cybersecurity strategy, incident response, cryptography and risk management.Prior to his service as the state's CISO, Spence served as the cybersecurity manager for the West Virginia Air National Guard. He has maintained his cybersecurity service with the Air National Guard, 130th Airlift Wing.Spence holds a masters degree in information technology from Marshall University in Huntington, W.Va., as well as a number of industry certifications. (TNS) The deadly Camp fire that destroyed the Northern California town of Paradise this month overwhelmed emergency alert and evacuation plans, leaving many residents in harms way without sufficient warning, state officials acknowledged Tuesday at a legislative hearing.Because the Paradise area, where officials say at least 88 people died in the blaze, was known for being prone to wildfires, it has been the subject of extensive planning for warnings and evacuations, said Thom Porter, chief of strategic planning for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. But he said the unusual speed of the Camp fire hindered an adequate evacuation.They are areas where we have had bad fires, Porter said. We know there are road system issues.The Camp fire, he said, outstripped our planning efforts in sheer time.Assemblyman James Gallagher, R-Yuba City, who represents Paradise and the surrounding communities in Butte County, said the fire highlighted serious flaws in the states warning system.In the end, we had people who said they had no notice, he said in a written statement read at the hearing held jointly by Assembly and Senate committees in Carpinteria, close to the area hit by the Thomas fire, which swept through parts of Santa Barbara County nearly a year ago.The state needs to do a better job of getting warnings to residents through cellphones, broadcast outlets and the internet, said experts and legislators including Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, chairwoman of the Joint Legislative Committee on Emergency Management.Jackson said a cellphone warning she received during the Thomas fire did not provide her with essential information about the blazes location. She voiced concern that only 45 of Californias 58 counties have signed on to a wireless emergency alert system that is tied to a federal warning program that transmits communications through cellphones and broadcasters when wildfires start.Their communities are going to be pretty upset if they dont get the kinds of warnings that might be available, Jackson told the emergency planners.Experts said flaws in the current system included the need for more help to warn and evacuate people who are elderly, disabled, do not speak English or who have pets they want to take with them.Sen. Henry Stern, D-Canoga Park, whose Malibu rental home was destroyed by the Woolsey fire, said the urgent question for state officials was how to get the most accurate real-time data out there to the public when a fire hits.There has to be a better way to engage, he said.Stern said the system was still vulnerable to problems including power and cell service being lost in areas hit by fire. He called for the state to provide more resilient power and cell services.Local fire officials, including Santa Barbara County Emergency Manager Brian Uhl, agreed the state needed to develop clear guidelines for when and how emergency alert systems would be used to warn people to leave areas threatened by fire.Under a bill approved by the Legislature in August, new guidelines on coordinating and using emergency warnings must be developed by July 1, 2019. A draft of the guidelines was due next month, but Novembers fires are expected to delay their release.We are very close to being able to push definitive guidelines, said Mitch Medigovich, deputy director of logistics management for the Governors Office of Emergency Services.In San Diego County, only 550,000 of 3.3 million residents have registered their mobile phones to receive emergency warnings, according to Holly Crawford, director of the countys Office of Emergency Services.Getting people to opt into the system has not been as successful as we would like, Jackson said. She wrote legislation recently signed into law that will allow each county to automatically register residents to receive phone and email warnings unless they opt out, but counties are still developing guidelines to implement the opt-out system.Crawford also said targeting of emergency alerts has not been efficient, noting an alert she sent to people in San Diego also went to people in Orange and Riverside counties.There is mass over-alerting in the system, she told the panel, adding that new technology will better target alerts and allow longer messages.Firefighters on the front lines have also faced difficulty in communicating with radio and mobile phones, fire experts said.They said state funding for improving 911 systems is inadequate. A bill championed by Gov. Jerry Brown to impose a new customer fee on phone lines to boost emergency services failed to advance in the Legislature this year.Medigovich told lawmakers those efforts were the victim of partisan politics during the election year. A German GP official says he is not worried about news that The Netherlands could host a F1 race once again. De Telegraaf newspaper reports that talks between Zandvoort and Liberty Media are advanced, and centre around a place on the 2020 calendar. But for Hockenheim, a race in Holland simply means European competition -- particularly when so many Dutch fans now attend the German grand prix to see Max Verstappen. Hockenheim marketing boss Jorn Teske insists he is not worried. "The Hockenheimring is very special and I think many Dutch people will visit both races," he told the Dutch publication Formule 1. And Teske thinks the novelty of a Dutch race will wear off after a year anyway. "In the beginning, many people would go because it is special and the race is returning after so many years," said the Hockenheim official. "But that effect disappears in the long run. Just look at Austria, where the success became less over time." Teske also warned Dutch officials not to rely too heavily on the 'Max Verstappen factor'. "It is dangerous if the success of an event depends on one driver," he said. (GMM) Photo: Burger King The powers that be at Burger King have decided to honor Wisconsin in the only way they know how: with way too much cheese. This week, the fast-food chain debuted the Green Bay Whopper, a normal whopper thats been laden with a whopping eight slices of American cheese. Wisconsin: Grub loves you, and the entire dairy industry, but thats just too much cheese. Currently, the over-cheesed Whopper is only available at six locations in the Green Bay area, where it will be sold until December 2. Of course, you could theoretically walk into any Burger King and ask them to put eight slices of cheese on your burger. The workers will no doubt look back in horror, adding each slice reluctantly, waiting for you to change your mind. The Green Bay Whopper costs $4.49. Technicians work on the filling line for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) rail tanker at the port of Alataw Pass, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 29, 2016. China's petroleum and chemical industry has generated some 712.1 billion yuan in total profit over the first nine months of 2018, up 45.2 percent from the same period of last year. With a total asset of 12.75 trillion yuan, up 6.1 percent over the same period last year, the sector has seen its asset-liability ratio fall by 1.16 percentage points to 54.19 percent. The sector's profit rate climbed up by 1.56 percentage points to 7.43 percent, thanks to the solid improvement in the operation efficiency of petroleum and natural gas exploration business as well as the good development momentum in oil refining and chemical industry. The overall prices of petroleum and natural gas surged by 24.6 percent during the January-September period, while those for chemical raw materials and chemical products jumped by 7.2 percent. The industry's total exports during the same period went up by 22.8 percent to 521.66 billion yuan. The growth rate was 8.6 percentage points higher than the same period of last year. Fixed assets investment in chemical raw materials and chemical manufacturing rose by 1.7 percent, the first increase since the end of January but lower than the 5.4-percent national average growth for industrial investment, according to the figures of the National Bureau of Statistics. (Xinhua/Zhu Xiang) BEIJING, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- China's petroleum and chemical industry has generated some 712.1 billion yuan in total profit over the first nine months, up 45.2 percent from the same period of last year, official data showed. The figure took up 14.3 percent of the total profits generated by domestic industrial enterprises that each has an annual main operation income of more than 20 million yuan, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. With a total asset of 12.75 trillion yuan, up 6.1 percent over the same period last year, the sector has seen its asset-liability ratio fall by 1.16 percentage points to 54.19 percent. The sector's profit rate climbed up by 1.56 percentage points to 7.43 percent, thanks to the solid improvement in the operation efficiency of petroleum and natural gas exploration business as well as the good development momentum in oil refining and chemical industry. The overall prices of petroleum and natural gas surged by 24.6 percent during the January-September period, while those for chemical raw materials and chemical products jumped by 7.2 percent. The industry's total exports during the same period went up by 22.8 percent to 521.66 billion yuan. The growth rate was 8.6 percentage points higher than the same period of last year. Fixed assets investment in chemical raw materials and chemical manufacturing rose by 1.7 percent, the first increase since the end of January but lower than the 5.4-percent national average growth for industrial investment, according to the figures of the National Bureau of Statistics. 12 1 [ Editor: Zhang Zhou ] There is an immigrant residing in every home Yes, you read that right. There is an immigrant residing in every home we know. She is someone you can all identify with she is the daughter-in-law.... "Now, foreigners are getting rich in South Sudan and nationals are getting agitated in some ways and little do they know that even if the foreigners leave those properties to them, they will still not be beneficial to them..." 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. 2 1 [ Editor: Zhang Zhou ] SSCSF Report On Citizen Perceptions Of The Peace Process In South Sudan From October to November 2018, the South Sudan Civil Society Forum (SSCSF), a coalition of more than two hundred South Sudanese civic organizations, surveyed 1,147 people in five locations in South Sudan and a refugee camp in Uganda. JUBA, 28 November 2018 [Gurtong]-The survey was to better understand their views on the peace process and the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan. The report summarizes the main findings and recommendations. Among the report's recommendations is that the signatories, guarantors and supporters of the R-ARCSS should urgently invest in civic engagement efforts in order to raise awareness and generate a sense of ownership over the agreement among citizens. Other findings include the following: Overall, respondents expressed relatively high levels of awareness about the High-Level Revitalization Forum (HLRF), but less than half (43%) thought the R-ARCSS would bring lasting peace. Respondents who felt well informed about the peace process were twice as likely to think that the R-ARCSS would bring lasting peace than those that felt uniformed. Respondents in general, and women and refugees in particular, were mostly uninformed about the governance arrangements provided for in the R-ARCSS. When told that the R-ARCSS increased the number of vice-presidents from two to five and the number of parliamentarians from 440 to 550, nearly two-thirds of respondents said they opposed the decisions. Three-quarters (75%) of respondents said they did not support the decision to create 32 states. Most respondents (57%) said there should be 10 states in South Sudan. Forty percent of respondents said that they or someone in their household knew women and children that had been abducted by armed groups since the conflict began in December 2013. A sizeable majority of respondents (70%) said the decision to impose an arms embargo was the right decision. Respondents across survey locations were sharply divided on whether neighboring countries should deploy troops to provide security in South Sudan. For example, 54 percent of respondents in Bentiu town supported the deployment of Sudanese troops while not a single respondent in Bor supported their deployment. Conversely, 77 percent of respondents in Bor supported the deployment of Ugandan troops while just six percent of respondents in Bentiu supported their deployment. The period leading up to the establishment of the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity (R-TGONU) will be a test of the parties commitment to peace and their ability to make decisions in a deliberate and collective manner. By demonstrating leadership, a spirit of compromise, and a willingness to engage in open dialogue, the parties can demonstrate to their people and the broader international community that they are committed to opening a new page for South Sudan. We hope that the findings in this report can contribute to these efforts. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Background On 12 September 2018, the Transitional Government of National Unity (TGONU), an array of armed and political opposition groups, and other stakeholders signed the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS). From October to November 2018, the South Sudan Civil Society Forum (SSCSF), a coalition of more than 200 South Sudanese civic groups, surveyed 1,147 people in five locations in South Sudan and in a refugee camp in Uganda. The purpose of the survey was to assess citizen perspectives on the peace process and its outcome. This report presents the main findings and recommendations. Awareness and Confidence in the Peace Process Overall, respondents expressed relatively high levels of awareness of the High-Level Revitalization Forum (HLRF). Eighty-three percent of respondents said that they were aware of the HLRF and 91 percent said that they were aware of the signing of R-ARCSS. When asked how well informed they were about the process, respondents were somewhat more equivocal. Fifty-eight percent said they felt well informed and 41 percent said they felt uninformed. Respondents appeared uncertain about the prospects for peace through the R-ARCSS. Less than half (43%) of respondents thought the R-ARCSS would bring lasting peace, 37 percent thought it might bring lasting peace and 17 percent did not think it would not bring lasting peace. A lack of information was strongly correlated with more pessimistic views on prospects for peace. People who felt informed about the peace process were almost twice as likely (54%) to think that the R-ARCSS would bring lasting peace than those that felt uniformed (28%). Major information gaps and more pessimistic attitudes about prospects for peace were apparent among refugees and women. These findings are particularly concerning given the importance of these stakeholder groups to the real and perceived success of the R-ARCSS. Perspectives on Governance Arrangements Respondents overall expressed support for the R-ARCSS approach to power sharing. Sixty-one percent of respondents thought that a transitional government in which power was shared among the various armed groups would help to resolve the conflict. Just 15 percent of refugees, however, thought power sharing would help to resolve the conflict. While a majority of respondents supported power sharing, 59 percent were opposed to the idea of expanding the size of government to accommodate a power sharing arrangement. Overall, a slight majority of respondents (55%) thought that government and opposition leaders would be able to work together in a unity government. Respondents in Torit, Kiryandongo and Wau were considerably less optimistic about the leaders ability to work together. Respondents in general, and women and refugees in particular, were uninformed about the governance arrangements provided for in the R-ARCSS. Fifty-eight percent of respondents said they did not know the number of vice-presidents provided for in the R-ARCSS and 81 percent said they did not know the number of parliamentarians. When informed that the R-ARCSS increased the number of vice-presidents from two to five and the number of parliamentarians from 440 to 550, 65 percent of respondents said they opposed the decision to increase the number of vice-presidents and 62 percent said they opposed the decision to increase the number of parliamentarians. Respondents had a favorable view of the R-ARCSS provisions for increased womens participation in public office. Seventy-nine percent of respondents supported the R-ARCSS requirement to appoint one female vice-president. Three-quarters (75%) of respondents said they did not support the decision to create 32 states. Respondents were more equivocal about the decision to create their home state, though 49 percent of respondents were even opposed to the creation of their home state. Most respondents (57%) said there should be 10 states in South Sudan. More than a third of respondents (35%) admitted that they did not know how the R-ARCSS addresses the issue of the number of states. Another third (34%) thought that the agreement reverted to 10 states. Just 13 percent of respondents mentioned the creation of the Independent Boundaries Commission (IBC). Perspectives on Security Arrangements Ninety percent of respondents said that people who violate the cessation of hostilities agreement should be subject to punitive measures. However, more than a third of respondents (37%) thought the parties had not violated the agreements to cease hostilities since September 2018, despite credible reports of violations from the Ceasefire and Transitional Security Arrangements Monitoring and Verification Mechanism (CTSAMVM) and other independent organizations. A sizeable majority of respondents (77%) said that the parties should release political detainees and prisoners of war (POWs) as required by the R-ARCSS. However, almost a third of respondents (30%) said they did not know whether the parties had released political detainees or POWs or not. A staggering 40 percent of respondents said that they or someone in their household knew women and children that had been abducted by armed groups since the conflict began in December 2013. An overwhelming majority (80%) of those who said they knew someone who had been abducted said that as far as they knew, the abducted person was still in captivity. Eighty-five percent of respondents said they support the demilitarization of civilian areas and 60 percent said they support the deployment of foreign troops to provide security during the transitional period. When asked which countries should provide troops, respondents emphasized the United States (62%), United Kingdom (41%) and Sudan (39%). However, respondents in different survey locations were sharply divided on whether neighboring countries should deploy troops. For example, 54 percent of respondents in Bentiu supported the deployment of Sudanese troops while not a single respondent in Bor supported their deployment. Conversely, 77 percent of respondents in Bor supported the deployment of Ugandan troops while just six percent of respondents in Bentiu supported their deployment. A considerable number of respondents expressed misunderstandings about the arms embargo that the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) placed on South Sudan in July 2018. Thirty-six percent of respondents thought that no arms embargo had been put in place and 17 percent did not know one way or the other. When informed about the arms embargo, a sizeable majority of respondents (70%) said the decision to impose an arms embargo was the right decision. Perspectives on Longer-term Issues Most respondents (69%), including 81 percent of female respondents, said they did not know the length of the transitional period as stipulated in the R-ARCSS. When asked how long they think the transitional period should be, respondents emphasized shorter time periods with 23 percent saying less than a year and just three percent saying five to six years. Forty-nine percent of respondents said that it was likely that there would be large-scale violence during elections and 45 percent said that it was unlikely. Responses varied widely across survey locations with Torit, Wau, Juba and Kiryandongo refugee settlement significantly more likely to think that there would be violence. Less than half (48%) of internally displaced and refugee respondents thought the R-ARCSS would create conditions conducive to their returning home, 11 percent said they did not think it would create conditions conducive to their returning home, and 41 percent said they did not know whether it would or not. When asked when they might return, almost one-third of respondents (32%) answered dont know, 23 percent said within the next year and 22 percent said one to two years. Seventy-six percent of respondents said that South Sudan needs a grassroots healing and dialogue process to bring lasting peace. However, there were considerable information gaps with respect to the National Dialogue, with 45 percent of respondents saying that they had not heard of the initiative. Respondent awareness of the transitional justice mechanisms described in Chapter V of the R-ARCSS reflect a similar knowledge gap. Just 34 percent of respondents said that they had heard of the Hybrid Court for South Sudan (HCSS) and 33 percent of respondents said that they had heard of the Commission for Truth, Reconciliation and Healing (CTRH). However, two-thirds (66%) of respondents who had heard of the proposed institutions said that the government should move more quickly to establish them. Respondents were dissatisfied with how the government has been managing oil revenue. Seventy-seven percent of respondents said the government was managing oil revenue poorly (28%) or very poorly (49%). When asked what should be done with oil revenue, respondents emphasized infrastructure (82%), education (80%) and health (78%). Just 20 percent of respondents said that it should be spent on the military. When asked to list key challenges for the transitional government moving forward, respondents emphasized inter-communal violence (42%), corruption (35%), return and resettlement of displaced populations (30%) and constitutional reform (30%). Conclusion and Recommendations The crisis in South Sudan has reached a potential turning point. While the prospects for sustainable peace through the R-ARCSS remain uncertain, the agreement has offered a glimmer of hope for the first time since the intensification of the conflict in 2016. The period leading to the establishment of the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity (R-TGONU) in mid-2019 will be critical in determining whether the country can set itself back on the path to sustainable peace or whether it will experience a relapse into conflict. Survey findings suggest a number of ways in which the signatories, guarantors and supporters of the R-ARCSS can capitalize on the opportunities that the agreement has presented and overcome the challenges, including the following: Invest in robust civic engagement efforts to raise awareness and foster a sense of ownership over the R-ARCSS among citizens. Better publicize violations of the R-ARCSS and subject those responsible to punitive measures. Immediately release POWs, political detainees and abducted women and children, and provide information on the whereabouts of missing persons. Maintain open channels of communication with individuals and groups who have not signed on to the R-ARCSS. Ensure that the decision from the IBC on the number of states in South Sudan is responsive to citizen views on the issue. Embrace the arms embargo as a tool to facilitate the progressive demilitarization of society in South Sudan. Re-envision the National Dialogue to make it more inclusive and independent. Expedite the establishment of the transitional justice institutions provided for in Chapter V of the R-ARCSS. Subject decisions to deploy troops from neighboring countries in South Sudan to the highest levels of scrutiny. Everyone experiences grief differently. Here are some strategies to process the heartache. On Sept. 23, 2018, Riley Hansona senior and color guard member at El Capitan High School in Merced, Californiawas killed in an automobile accident. Her death was an indescribable loss for her family, the community, El Capitan, the band, and me. Rileys stepmother and I have been best friends since we were 2 years old. When a tragedy occurs, people grieve in various ways. For students, it may be the first time that they are experiencing this kind of anguish. Mental health is a huge part of wellness, and we all experience loss at some point. I asked Rena Staub Fisher, licensed clinical social worker and millennial psychotherapist practicing in Brooklyn, New York, for some strategies to help process grief. When Youre Grieving There is no right way to grieve. Have compassion and patience with yourself in whatever way that your grief manifestswhether with anger, sadness, denial, or all or none of these feelings. There are several stages of grief, and you may go back and forth between the stages. Grief can be physical. People are often surprised by how exhausted and drained they feelsometimes for weeks and even monthsafter losing someone they love. Be kind to your body. If you need to do less than you usually do, that is completely normal. You may find comfort in taking a walk or performing, but if you dont, acknowledge that and honor how youre feeling. Help others help you. Your friends and family are going to want to offer you their support. Communicate your needs clearly during this time. Whether you want company or prefer to be by yourself, let your support system know. When Someone Is Grieving Listen more than you talk. When someone is grieving, he or she can feel sad, confused, overwhelmed, or alone. You may be afraid to reach out because you dont know the right thing to say, but you dont necessarily need to say anything. Simply being there as a source of comfort is often enough. Ask how you can help. Offer concrete ways to assist, like organizing a memorial service, preparing a meal, or picking up homework or notes. Grievers tend to experience diminished energy and often appreciate practical assistance. Grief can last a long time. Understand that it may take weeks, months, even years, before a person starts to feel like himself or herself again. Article dedicated to the memory of Riley Hanson. The print version of this article and an earlier version of this online article incorrectly stated that the writer, Haley Greenwald-Gonella, is best friends with Riley Hansons mother. Haley is actually friends with Rileys stepmother. 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. 3 1 [ Editor: Zhang Zhou ] According to Deputy Minister Nguyen Thi Ha the award not only honours the enterprises with outstanding strategies and manpower policies in Vietnam, but also creates a playground for enterprise community. The awards hope to provide further opportunities for enterprises to exchange information and experiences and create a valuable foundation for the HR sector in Vietnam. "Vietnam HR Awards 2018" has two categories, Outstanding HR Strategies and Effective HR Policies, with awards given to 12 companies in each category (24 total), including two "Best Companies" prizes and two prizes awarded by the Evaluation Council. The outstanding businesses honoured at this years event are Olam Vietnam, Hoan My Medical Corporation, Mobile World, FPT, VietinBank, Techcombank, Novaland, FTV-Nokia Mannufacturing Secvice, Sun Life Vietnam, Nestle Vietnam, FrienslandCampina Vietnam, Unilever Vietnam and Bosch Vietnam. According to the results of the three seasons of "Vietnam HR Awards," the award has created, and continues to create, more and more innovative models of corporate governance in the business community. The award is not only convincing because of the way businesses apply and operate their policies more and more professionally, but also due to the impressive approach of more Vietnamese enterprises to international standards. In addition, honored businesses will be an inspirational and motivating force for other enterprises in Vietnam in their efforts to raise the quality of human resources and sustainable development. 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. Subscribing to our services is a three step process. First you have to create an account and then you have to pick if you want to subscribe to digital and or print. Some people only want to be a digital subscriber to get access online and others want to also receive the print edition. If you are already a print subscriber and want online access, it is free, you simply have to create an online account and then attach your print subscription account number to the online account you create. As an existing print subscriber it is easy to get FREE access to all our online content. When you click get started below it will walk you through creating an online account to attach your print subscription number to. After your account is created it will ask you to either add a subscription for online access or click on the print subscriber button. Click the print subscriber button header and it will open a dropdown, now click on get started. The page will reload and you will be prompted to enter an account number and a zip code. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO USE THE NUMBER OFF OF THE MOST RECENT ISSUE OR ANYTHING AFTER JANUARY 28, 2019 TO GAIN ACCESS! OLD ACCOUNT NUMBERS WILL NOT WORK The account number and zip code are easily available on your most recent issue of the High Plains Journal or Midwest Ag Journal in the address fields as is shown here. Sometimes the account number has extra zero's in front of it, just ignore those. 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. Dennis Krausnick plays King Lear at Shakespeare & Company. Krausnick died Tuesday at the age of 76. (Photo by Kevin Sprague) Shakespeare & Company Founder Krausnick Dies at Age 76 STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. - Dennis Krausnick, 76, of Stockbridge passed away peacefully in his home surrounded by loved ones Tuesday, Nov. 27, after a long battle with cancer. Krausnick was a founding member and the director of actor training at Shakespeare & Company, a leading performance, training and education center located in Lenox, Mass. He was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in July 1942 to the late Leo and Naomi McVeigh Krausnick. He attended local schools and was a 1960 graduate of Scottsbluff High School in Scottsbluff, Neb. A teacher, writer, director and performer, he grew up in rural Nebraska, the sixth of seven children. When he was 19, Krausnick entered the Society of Jesus and was ordained a Jesuit priest in 1973. He received his B.A. in Philosophy and Letters from St. Louis University, and his M.A. in French from McGill University, Toronto. During his time with the Jesuits, he met Kevin G. Coleman, who later became Shakespeare & Companys education director. Their friendship and artistic collaboration lasted over 50 years. In 1976, he was awarded an M.F.A. in acting from New York University. It was at N.Y.U. he met Tina Packer, who had been brought in to direct all the plays in Shakespeare's "War of the Roses" sequence, in which Krausnick played multiple roles. In 1978 Krausnick helped found Shakespeare & Company with Tina and Kristin Linklater. Krausnick became a designated Linklater voice teacher in 1993. After being together for 25 years, Tina and Dennis married in 1998. For more than 40 years, Shakespeare & Company, with vision and guidance from Krausnick, has been a creative force in western Massachusetts. It has enthralled audiences with productions of Shakespeare as well as modern plays. It has brought its distinctive training into the lives of an international array of professional actors, teachers of theater, researchers, directors, and writers, many of whom credit the company's Training Program with life-changing breakthroughs in their work. As a master teacher of text, rhetoric and structure of the verse, Krausnick has provided residencies and workshops for theater companies and university theater departments across the country and around the world. As a teacher, director or guest-artist, he has worked in theater training programs across the country, including NYU, ACT, Boston University, Emerson College, Wake Forest University, Southern Methodist University, University of Washington, MIT, University of Pittsburgh, University of Tennessee, Chapman University, Bradley University and University of South Carolina, University of Louisville, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Prague Shakespeare Company, and the University of Miami. Krausnick was awarded the 2006 Bingham Chair of Humanities by the University of Louisville in recognition of his accomplishments as a Master Teacher of Shakespeare Performance. The Rescue of Israels Future Chief Justice The Fellowship | November 28, 2018 The Mozuraitis and Rakevicius families were simple Christian farmers in Lithuania. But when the Nazis began to murder their Jewish neighbors, the farming families did all they could to save the Jews in the Kovno Ghetto. One of the children they rescued, an eight-year-old boy named Aharon Barak, would go on to make aliyah (immigrate to Israel) and become the Jewish states highest legal figure. The Nazis overtook Kovno, Lithuania, in June of 1941. Two months later, they forced the citys Jews into a ghetto, and began to methodically murder them by the thousands. While all this was going on, Jaroslavas Rakevicius and his family did their best to save as many Jews as possible. Jaroslavas and his sons smuggled Jews out of the ghetto, sneaking them through the forest to their farm that was 60 miles away. The entire operation was very dangerous, and the Rakevicius family turned their home into a fortress, with three different secret shelters, escape routes, and an observation post on the roof. Among the Jewish families saved by the Rakevicius clan were the Meltzes, the Tulishevitzes, the Goldsteins, the Libmans, the Shapirs, and the Briks. Lea Brik and her young son Aharon were among those saved by the Rakevicius family. The mother and son had survived multiple executions carried out by the Nazis, including the Childrens Aktion in March of 1944, when 2,000 youngsters were taken from their homes and murdered. In August of 1944, Nazis searched the Rakevicius home and found a Jewish prayer book. Jaroslavas knew that things were becoming dangerous, so he sent Lea and her son to stay with his friends, Jonas and Ona Mozuraitis, another poor farming family with four children of their own. This new family built two underground bunkers for their Jewish charges, and sheltered them until liberation. After the end of the war, Lea and Aharon returned to their hometown, where they found Zvi, Leas husband and the boys father. In 1947, they made aliyah and changed their name to Barak. Aharon became a lawyer, professor, served as Israels Attorney General, was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1978, and was Chief Justice from 1995 until his retirement in 2006. The Mozuraitis and Rakevicius families were recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem for their heroic actions that saved so many Jewish lives, including one that would help make the Jewish state what it is today. Bibi: IDF Strength Best Answer to Anti-Semitism The Fellowship | November 28, 2018 A group of elite IDF commandos on a nearly two-week drill were paid a visit by Israels acting Defense Minister, who just happens to be Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In light of troubling news regarding anti-Semitism, The Jerusalem Posts Anna Ahronheim reports that Netanyahu told the soldiers, Today we have the strength to respond to hatred and violence against the Jewish people: Israeli Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with elite commando troops Tuesday evening during a major ten day long brigade-level drill and said that Israels military strength was the Jews best answer to antisemitism. Once we were a leaf blown in the wind and anyone could massacre us. Today we have strength to respond, he said while meeting with troops participating in the exercise which simulates a two-front war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. On the eve of Hannukah the spirit of the Maccabees is here you are the Maccabees. We overcome our enemies with extraordinary spirit that I see here, in the IDF and in all of our fighters Speaking at the event, Chairman of the Vietnam-Laos Friendship Association Tran Van Tuy emphasised that the time-honoured friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation relationship between the two countries have continued to be strengthened in recent years. He stated that education is one of the priority areas in the Vietnam-Laos cooperation with many Lao students being sent to study at Vietnamese universities. Tuy expressed his expectation that the Laos students studying in Vietnam would make contributions to Laoss national construction in the future and act as messengers of the Vietnam-Laos friendship, helping to further solidify the bilateral ties. For his part, Lao Ambassador to Vietnam, Thongsavanh Phomvihane, underlined Vietnams assistance to Laoss achievements in national defence and development over the past 43 years. He affirmed that the special relationship between Vietnam and Laos has been built by the antecedent revolutionaries and generations of the two countries people. On the occasion, he thanked the Vietnam-Laos Friendship Organisation for honouring 43 Lao students who have shown excellent academic performance. On the same day, the Ho Chi Minh City Union of Friendship Organisations also hosted a meeting to mark the 43rd anniversary of Lao National Day and express the wish to further cultivate the special Vietnam-Laos relationship. By Finian Cunningham November 27, 2018 "Information Clearing House" - With the US, EU and NATO all bolstering claims of Russian aggression in face of contrary evidence the real danger is that the Kiev regime will be emboldened to carry out more reckless provocations leading to all-out war. It seems indisputable that the three Ukrainian Navy vessels were dispatched last Sunday in order to instigate a security response from Russian maritime border forces. In contrast to normal procedures for passage clearance through the Kerch Strait, the Ukrainian warships refused to communicate with Russian controls and acted menacingly inside Russias Black Sea territorial limits. At a United Nations Security Council emergency meeting on Monday, the US, Britain and France pointedly refused to take on board Russias legal argument for why it felt obliged to detain the Ukrainian boats and 24 crew. The Western powers automatically sided with the version of events claimed by President Petro Poroshenko that the Ukrainian Navy was attacked unlawfully by Russia. US, Europe & NATO Risk All-out War By Backing Unhinged Kiev Regime The US, EU and NATO denounced Russias aggression and demanded that the Ukrainian vessels and crew be repatriated immediately, even though under Russian law there is a case for prosecution. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter It is the Wests refusal to acknowledge facts that is part of the problem. Russia is continually accused of annexing Crimea in 2014 instead of the Western powers recognizing that the Black Sea peninsula voted in a constitutionally held referendum to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation. Crimea was prompted to take that historic step because the US, EU and NATO had only the month before backed an illegal coup in Kiev against the elected Ukrainian government. That coup brought to power the present Kiev regime led by Poroshenko and a parliament dominated by neo-Nazi parties. So, the problem here is a refusal by Western supporters of the dubious Kiev regime to accept the legal, historic reality that Crimea is part of Russias territory. Ships passing through the Kerch Strait between Russias mainland and Crimea are obliged to notify Russian maritime controls of passage. Russia has since reopened the strait to civilian cargo transport following the naval skirmish at the weekend. When the Ukrainian Navy vessels violated legal procedures and entered Russian territorial limits, their action was aggressive, not Russias response. Furthermore, there are already emerging signs that the Ukrainian naval transport was orchestrated for the purpose of inciting an incident. Some of the detained crew members have admitted carrying out orders which they knew would be seen by Russia as provocative. It has also been reported by US government-owned Radio Free Europe that the Ukrainian secret services (SBU) have confirmed that its officers were among the crew on the boats. The vessels were also armed. If the transfer was an innocent passage, why were secret services involved? Recall that Ukrainian secret services have previously been caught staging sabotage operations in Crimea. Another major background factor is the increasing NATO military buildup in eastern Ukraine and the Black Sea. When Russian President Vladimir Putin officially opened the 19km bridge linking Russias mainland with Crimea in May earlier this year, there were calls in US and Ukrainian media for the structure to be sabotaged. Moscow has understandably stepped up security controls around the vital infrastructure, which cost $3.7 billion and is the longest bridge in Europe. In recent months, the US and Britain have ordered increasing military deployment to the region under the guise of training and assistance to the Kiev regime forces. Earlier this year, in July, the NATO alliance held naval drills, Sea Breeze, along with Ukrainian forces in the Black Sea. Thats in spite of the fact that Ukraine is not a member of NATO, although it is aspiring to join the 29-member US-led bloc at some time in the future. It was the following month, in August, that Russia began stepping up its controls and searches of vessels through the Kerch Strait linking the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov. The latter leads to ports under the control of the Kiev regime such as Mariupol, which is adjacent to the breakaway Donetsk Peoples Republic. The DPR and Luhansk Peoples Republic broke away following the coup in Kiev in 2014 and have been under military attack for the past four years despite the so-called Minsk peace treaties. These are more facts that the Western backers of the Kiev regime refuse to deal with. More NATO buildup continued in September with the supply of two gunboats by the US to the Ukrainian Navy for deployment in the Sea of Azov. Pentagon-linked publication Defense One described that supply as part of efforts by Washington and Kiev to develop a mosquito navy in order to skirmish with Russian forces. Only four days before the latest naval clash, Britains Defense Minister Gavin Williamson announced the Royal Navy was to send HMS Echo to patrol with Ukrainian special forces to defend freedom and democracy. Williamson said: As long as Ukraine faces Russian hostilities, the United Kingdom will be a steadfast partner. This is background to the simmering tensions in the Black Sea between Ukraine and Russia. The situation has arisen because of Western interference in Ukraine primarily the coup in Kiev in February 2014. Yet, in all discussions about events since then, the Western powers are in denial of facts and their culpability. The recent militarization of the Black Sea by the NATO alliance is a stark provocation to Russias national security, but again the Western powers bury their collective heads in the sand. Given the reckless indulgence by the US, Europe and NATO of the Kiev regime amid its ongoing violations against the populace in eastern Ukraine, its refusal to abide by the Minsk agreements, and its continual inflammatory and unhinged rhetoric against Russia, it should not be surprising if this same regime feels emboldened to provoke an armed confrontation with Moscow. Arguably, the Kiev regime and its adulation of World War II Nazi collaborators never had any legitimacy in the first place. It continues to demonstrate its lack of legitimacy from the immense social problems in Ukraine of poverty, corruption, human rights violations, neo-Nazi paramilitaries running amok, and now martial law being imposed. It remains to be seen if the recent naval provocation was carried out with the tacit approval of Washington and other NATO powers as a pretext for further militarization against Russia. The initial misplaced condemnations of Russia have subsided to more measured calls from US President Donald Trump and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian for restraint and dialogue. That might suggest Kievs failing President Poroshenko and his security services acted alone to order the naval confrontation as a desperate throw of the dice to escalate NATO and EU support for his shaky regime against Russia. Trumps comments hoping that Kiev and Russia would straighten things out sound like Washington is not behind the provocation and has no desire for a wider conflict. Just as well, because such a development is a gateway to all-out war. Nevertheless, such a catastrophe is always a serious risk when Western powers indulge this unhinged Kiev regime. Finian Cunningham has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in several languages. He is a Masters graduate in Agricultural Chemistry and worked as a scientific editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, England, before pursuing a career in newspaper journalism. He is also a musician and songwriter. For nearly 20 years, he worked as an editor and writer in major news media organisations, including The Mirror, Irish Times and Independent. This article was originally published by " RT " - 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 Medium: In 2013, you wrote a book about your experiences leading the New York Timess legal defense in the Pentagon Papers case , and you prefaced the book with a warning to the public about the dangers of the Justice Department prosecuting WikiLeaks. What was the reaction at the time? James Goodale: When I wrote the book pointing out the dangers to the First Amendment if Assange was prosecuted, I made it my business to see if I could gin up support within the media/press community to stick up for his rights, since his rights would affect everyone elses. I had occasion to speak to many groups in connection with the promotion of my book. Every time I mentioned the fact that establishment press should advocate for Assanges rights, I heard hoots of laughter or people shouting at me that I didnt understand the journalism profession. I was dismayed that I got very few converts in the journalistic community that would take my position that it was necessary to support Assange not for Assange himself, but for the First Amendment. To that point, you dont need to like Assange or you could even actively hate him to support his First Amendment rights and realize the danger prosecution poses to all journalists, or journalists at the New York Times, for example. At the time, the facts concerning Assange with respect to publication of material that he made with the New York Times, Guardian, etc, presented a classic First Amendment case of someone who was very unpopular, disliked, but nonetheless has First Amendment rights. Its classic First Amendment theory that you separate the First Amendment from the personality and the activities and rights of the person youre defending. Right now, we know Assange has been secretly charged by the Justice Department , but we dont know the charges. Do you see any difference in the facts of the last couple of years if you compare the publication of the hacked DNC emails vs. the publication of the Manning files or other publications of classified material as far as First Amendment protections? I see no difference in terms of First Amendment protection in terms of what he published, whether Assange is publishing hacked DNC emails or material leaked to him concerning activities in Iraq and Afghanistan. The information in the DNC emails was certainly embarrassing at the time of an election. The timing is very unfortunate from the Democrats point of view and its obvious why many people were upset. But from the First Amendment point of view, the publication of stolen materials, as long as the publisher did not actively participate in the actual theft, is still protected activity under the Constitution. Does it matter if Assange knew the information was coming from Russia, a foreign government? I also dont think it makes any difference if he knew it came from foreign government. First, I think the mistake everyone is making is that they assume he knew. We dont know what he knew. Its better if he didnt knowbut from a First Amendment point of view, superficially at least, I dont think it makes any difference if he did. Theres speculation on what Assange could be charged with. Theres a possibility that he could be outright charged under the Espionage Act for the act of publishing classified information. Then theres the conspiracy theory that Assange was engaged in a conspiracy with his sources by asking them or soliciting more information from them that the sources may have gathered illegally. Do you find that type of charge would be just as dangerous as a charge for publishing information? I do find that that charge would be just as dangerous. As a matter of fact, a charge against Assange for conspiring with a source is the most dangerous charge that I can think of with respect to the First Amendment in almost all my years representing media organizations. The reason is that one who is gathering/writing/distributing the news, as the law stands now, is free and clear under the First Amendment. If the government is able to say a person who is exempt under the First Amendment then loses that exemption because that person has conspired with a source who is subject to the Espionage Act or other law, then the government has succeeded in applying the standard to all news-gathering. That will mean that the press ability to get newsworthy classified information from government sources will be severely curtailed, because every story that is based on leaked info will theoretically be subject to legal action by the government. It will be up to the person with the information to prove that they got it without violating the Espionage Act. This would be, in my view, the worst thing to happen to the First Amendment almost ever. Ive been on the soapbox for this for over 10 years trying to wake everyone up to the dangers that exist with this approach. Therefore, the stories weve read with respect to governments present action against Assange, its blood-curdling. It appears the government may try to adopt this conspiracy theory to apply to news-gathering. What about the argument that Assange hates the U.S. and was trying to inflict damage in publishing information, essentially targeting his state of mind? Are there dangers to figuring out a state of mind with regards to legality and publishing? Generally speaking, a journalists state of mind is totally irrelevant for deciding whether such journalists have protection under First Amendment. A journalist publishes what he or she publishes, and they should be judged on what they publish rather than what they think. If, in fact, we end up with a system where were looking at the journalists state of mind, that is a huge incursion upon the First Amendment. A journalist, or anybody else, should be free to think about what they want to think about its his or her private business, no one should be judged criminally by inner thoughts, only by what they publish. In the past decade, multiple administrations have significantly increased the use of the Espionage Act to go after the sources of journalists. How does that play into all of this? Within legal and press communities, there used to be a belief that there was no general law that applied to leaks of classified information, and indeed Congress has passed no law. But through the last few decades and particularly the last few years the courts have fashioned such a law through a series of decisions (which, by the way, have never gone to Supreme Court). Theyve therefore created an Official Secrets Act like the type they have in the UK through judicial interpretation. In practice, in the U.S. there has never been an Official Secrets Act that has been passed into law. In fact, one that was somewhat comparable to it two decades ago was vetoed by President Clinton. At the time of the drafting of the Espionage Act in 1917, there were many members of Congress, particularly senators, that were very careful not to create an Official Secrets Act. Yet it is now being used like one all the same. The general issue of press freedom has been in the news quite a bit, mostly around Trumps hostile relationship with reporters. But coverage of the Trump administrations leak investigations havent gotten similar coverage. Should journalists be interpreting leak prosecutions as a direct threat to their own rights? Press coverage of leak prosecutions with respect to under both Obama and Trump has been inferior, terrible, generally not useful. With respect to Obama, it took a long time for everyone to realize what he was doing, and thats the press fault they paid little attention to it at first. With respect to Trump, hes already prosecuted five sources of journalists so far. The news stories on those leakers have been totally inferior, and the punishments given to those leakers has been outrageous. The press has sort of covered them saying well if you leak youll be thrown in jail, and thats that. Thats bad. The second thing that is bad is that many in the press dont seem to realize that every leak case presents jeopardy to them as the leakee to the leak. That should be an incentive to cover these cases more comprehensively. Certainly it should be in the back of every journalists mind as these prosecutions go forward. The journalist community should be vigilant with respect to future prosecutions of sources. And we must remember the just-departed Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, said he would make it a priority to prosecute leaks. But the prosecution of Assange goes a step further. Hes not a source, he is a publisher who received information from sources. The danger to journalists cant be overstated. While the Pentagon Papers Supreme Court case is famous, many people forget after the case was decided, the Nixon Administration convened grand jury to try to indict Neil Sheehan , the New York Times journalist that broke the story. You were the general counsel at the New York Times, and you talk about in your book how you were convinced at the time that he would be indicted. What happened then, and is that episode a good warning for reporters to stay vigilant today? Reporters first responsibility is to cover current events and we cant necessarily expect them to have a full knowledge of the entire history of the First Amendment. However, they should know and they should be aware that following the Pentagon Papers Supreme Court case, Nixon convened a grand jury in Boston to criminally investigate the gathering of the information and the distribution of the Pentagon Papers before they were published. More importantly, the purpose of the grand jury was to indict Neil Sheehan, the reporter who broke the Pentagon Papers story in the New York Times. So when we think of sealed charges of Assange, this is not the first time the government has tried to go down this road. The government tried to do almost exactly the same thing to Sheehan. At the time, I and others involved at the New York Times thought the government was going to succeed. We even drafted press releases for the public, in anticipation of an indictment, which strongly supported Neil Sheehan in his fight. So the idea that theyll never go after us, theyre going after Assange and Assange is not us is belied by the history of the Pentagon Papers. You can just look at Fox News reporter James Rosen a few years ago, where the government said in a leak case that Rosen should be considered a co-conspirator in helping his alleged source violate the Espionage Act. So if you follow the Justice Department carefully, it is consistent. The government, often times, wants to get reporters, and they want to use the cockamemy theory of conspiracy to geth them. So coming back to Assange, the press has got to fight the use any use of a conspiracy prosecution as applied to news-gathering, and not let the government get away with it. In light of the news that there are secret charges against Assange, what do you think journalists should be doing now? If you were to give advice to the journalism and press freedom community, what would it be? My advice to the journalism community is to follow the recent lead of the New York Times and their journalist Charlie Savage. Mr. Savage published one of the great First Amendment expositions Ive seen particularly great under the circumstances where much of the establishment press havent wanted to support Assanges rights. Particularly, Savages article points out reasons why Assanges rights should be supported. The journalistic community should jump on board and support Assange with respect to his exercising his First Amendment rights even if they intensely dislike him personally. Now, if the journalistic community says that there may be other possible facts that make Assange less pure from a First Amendment perspective, thats fair comment, but they dont know that. Until they know that, they ought to support Assanges First Amendment rights, since his rights are also theirs. By Cesar Chelala November 27, 2018 "Information Clearing House" - The numbers are mind-blowing: Since the beginning of the conflict in Yemen, an estimated 85,000 children under five may have died from extreme hunger and disease, according to the last analysis by Save the Children, the international health and human rights organization. Although children are the most affected by the conflict, 14 million people are at risk of famine, according to data compiled by the United Nations. For almost four years, Yemen, the Arab worlds poorest country, has been ravaged by a bloody conflict between Houthi rebels and supporters of Yemens internationally recognized government. In 2015, Saudi Arabia formed a coalition of Arab states to fight the Houthis, which included Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Sudan, and Senegal. These countries have either sent troops to fight on the ground in Yemen or have carried out air attacks. Iran has reportedly sent armaments and military advisers to help the Houthis, thus exacerbating their long-held animosity against the Saudis. In addition to fighting the Houthis in Yemen, the Saudis are backing the rebels fighting against Bashar al-Assads government, while Iran has a strong influence over the Assad regime. In Lebanon, while Iran has shown strong support for Hezbollah, Saudi Arabia supports the Sunni Future Movement, led by Lebanon Prime Minister Saad Hariri. The Yemen war, however, goes beyond a Saudi-Iranian geopolitical or Sunni-Shia conflict. The Houthis demands have been primarily economic and political, trying to take the Yemenis out of a cycle of poverty. The brutal and indiscriminate attacks of the Saudi-led coalition have left a ravaged country, with millions of civilians fighting for survival. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter Fearing for their lives, more than 3 million Yemenis have become internally displaced persons, and almost 300,000 have sought asylum in other countries, including Djibouti and Somalia. Both the internally displaced, as well as those who have left to other countries often lack adequate nutrition and shelter. According to UNICEF, Yemens health care system is on the verge of collapse. Those remaining in the country must cope with the relentless attacks by the coalition, which dont distinguish between civilian and soldiers. In addition, across the country, aid organizations are unable to provide needed assistance. Hospitals have been bombed, provoking tens of deaths both as a result of the attacks and those left without urgent care. Close to 15 million men, women, and children have no access to health care. An outbreak of cholera which started in October 2016 has not yet been controlled. It doesnt help that water infrastructure in Yemen, one of the worlds most water-scarce countries, has been continuously attacked by the Saudi coalition. As a consequence, 8.6 million children in Yemen dont have adequate access to water, sanitation and hygiene services. Since 2015, the escalation of the conflict has only exacerbated this already dire situation, with attacks and military action on and around water infrastructure cutting off even more people from access to safe drinking water, states UNICEF. Last August, a United Nations report on the situation in Yemen sharply criticized all parties in the conflict but placed stronger blame on the Saudi coalitions attacks on Yemeni civilians. Three UN experts said that the Saudi-led coalition routinely failed to consult its own no-strike list of more than 30,000 sites in Yemen, including refugee camps and hospitals. According to the experts report, restrictions that Saudi Arabia has placed on the delivery of aid by sea or air have had such a severe humanitarian impact that such acts, together with the requisite intent, may amount to international crimes. There is something pathetic when looking at some of the most powerful countries in the world: the United States, Great Britain, and France plotting with Saudi Arabias criminal regime to destroy the Houthis resistance movement in Yemen. In the last few weeks, hundreds of airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition in and around Hodeidah have endangered the lives of 150,000 children. These coalition actions violate basic humanitarian rules and the rule of law. The War in Yemen is a massacre, and it is the responsibility of the international community to uphold justice in the face of such tragedy. Dr. Cesar Chelala is an international public health consultant and a winner of several journalism awards 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 November 27, 2018 "Information Clearing House" - The United States has been at war every day since its founding, often covertly and often in several parts of the world at once. As ghastly as that sentence is, it still does not capture the full picture. Indeed, prior to its founding, what would become the United States was engagedas it would continue to be for more than a century followingin internal warfare to piece together its continental territory. Even during the Civil War, both the Union and Confederate armies continued to war against the nations of the Dine and Apache, the Cheyenne and the Dakota, inflicting hideous massacres upon civilians and forcing their relocations. Yet when considering the history of U.S. imperialism and militarism, few historians trace their genesis to this period of internal empire-building. They should. The origin of the United States in settler colonialismas an empire born from the violent acquisition of indigenous lands and the ruthless devaluation of indigenous liveslends the country unique characteristics that matter when considering questions of how to unhitch its future from its violent DNA. The United States is not exceptional in the amount of violence or bloodshed when compared to colonial conquests in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and South America. Elimination of the native is implicit in settler colonialism and colonial projects in which large swaths of land and workforces are sought for commercial exploitation. Extreme violence against noncombatants was a defining characteristic of all European colonialism, often with genocidal results. Rather, what distinguishes the United States is the triumphal mythology attached to that violence and its political uses, even to this day. The post9/11 external and internal U.S. war against Muslims-as-barbarians finds its prefiguration in the savage wars of the American colonies and the early U.S. state against Native Americans. And when there were, in effect, no Native Americans left to fight, the practice of savage wars remained. In the twentieth century, well before the War on Terror, the United States carried out large-scale warfare in the Philippines, Europe, Korea, and Vietnam; prolonged invasions and occupations in Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic; and counterinsurgencies in Colombia and Southern Africa. In all instances, the United States has perceived itself to be pitted in war against savage forces. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter Appropriating the land from its stewards was racialized war from the first British settlement in Jamestown, pitting civilization against savagery. Through this pursuit, the U.S. military gained its unique character as a force with mastery in irregular warfare. In spite of this, most military historians pay little attention to the so-called Indian Wars from 1607 to 1890, as well as the 184648 invasion and occupation of Mexico. Yet it was during the nearly two centuries of British colonization of North America that generations of settlers gained experience as Indian fighters outside any organized military institution. While large, highly regimented regular armies fought over geopolitical goals in Europe, Anglo settlers in North America waged deadly irregular warfare against the continents indigenous nations to seize their land, resources, and roads, driving them westward and eventually forcibly relocating them west of the Mississippi. Even following the founding of the professional U.S. Army in the 1810s, irregular warfare was the method of the U.S. conquest of the Ohio Valley, Great Lakes, Southeast, and Mississippi Valley regions, then west of the Mississippi to the Pacific, including taking half of Mexico. Since that time, irregular methods have been used in tandem with operations of regular armed forces and are, perhaps, what most marks U.S. armed forces as different from other armies of global powers. By the presidency of Andrew Jackson (182937), whose lust for displacing and killing Native Americans was unparalleled, the character of the U.S. armed forces had come, in the national imaginary, to be deeply entangled with the mystique of indigenous nationsas though, in adopting the practices of irregular warfare, U.S. soldiers had become the very thing they were fighting. This persona involved a certain identification with the Native enemy, marking the settler as Native American rather than European. This was part of the sleight of hand by which U.S. Americans came to genuinely believe that they had a rightful claim to the continent: they had fought for it and become its indigenous inhabitants. Irregular military techniques that were perfected while expropriating Native American lands were then applied to fighting the Mexican Republic. At the time of its independence from Spain in 1821, the territory of Mexico included what is now the states of California, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, and Texas. Upon independence, Mexico continued the practice of allowing non-Mexicans to acquire large swaths of land for development under land grants, with the assumption that this would also mean the welcome eradication of indigenous peoples. By 1836 nearly 40,000 Americans, nearly all slavers (and not counting the enslaved), had moved to Mexican Texas. Their ranger militias were a part of the settlement, and in 1835 became formally institutionalized as the Texas Rangers. Their principal state-sponsored task was the eradication of the Comanche nation and all other Native peoples in Texas. Mounted and armed with the new killing machine, the five-shot Colt Paterson revolver, they did so with dedicated precision. Having perfected their art in counterinsurgency operations against Comanches and other Native communities, the Texas Rangers went on to play a significant role in the U.S. invasion of Mexico. As seasoned counterinsurgents, they guided U.S. Army forces deep into Mexico, engaging in the Battle of Monterrey. Rangers also accompanied General Winfield Scotts army and the Marines by sea, landing in Vera Cruz and mounting a siege of Mexicos main commercial port city. They then marched on, leaving a path of civilian corpses and destruction, to occupy Mexico City, where the citizens called them Texas Devils. In defeat and under military occupation, Mexico ceded the northern half of its territory to the United States, and Texas became a state in 1845. Soon after, in 1860, Texas seceded, contributing its Rangers to the Confederate cause. After the Civil War, the Texas Rangers picked up where they had left off, pursuing counterinsurgency against both remaining Native communities and resistant Mexicans. The Marines also trace half of their mythological origins to the invasion of Mexico that nearly completed the continental United States. The opening lyric of the official hymn of the Marine Corps, composed and adopted in 1847, is From the Halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli. Tripoli refers to the First Barbary War of 18015, when the Marines were dispatched to North Africa by President Thomas Jefferson to invade the Berber Nation, shelling the city of Tripoli, taking captives, and blockading key Barbary ports for nearly four years. The Hall of Montezuma, though, refers to the invasion of Mexico: while the U.S. Army occupied what is now California, Arizona, and New Mexico, the Marines invaded by sea and marched to Mexico City, murdering and torturing civilian resisters along the way. So what does it matter, for those of us who strive for peace and justice, that the U.S. military had its start in killing indigenous populations, or that U.S. imperialism has its roots in the expropriation of indigenous lands? It matters because it tells us that the privatization of lands and other forms of human capital are at the core of the U.S. experiment. The militaristic-capitalist powerhouse of the United States derives from real estate (which includes African bodies, as well as appropriated land). It is apt that we once again have a real estate man for president, much like the first president, George Washington, whose fortune came mainly from his success speculating on unceded Indian lands. The U.S. governmental structure is designed to serve private property interests, the primary actors in establishing the United States being slavers and land speculators. That is, the United States was founded as a capitalist empire. This was exceptional in the world and has remained exceptional, though not in a way that benefits humanity. The military was designed to expropriate resources, guarding them against loss, and will continue to do so if left to its own devices under the control of rapacious capitalists. When extreme white nationalists make themselves visibleas they have for the past decade, and now more than ever with a vocal white nationalist presidentthey are dismissed as marginal, rather than being understood as the spiritual descendants of the settlers. White supremacists are not wrong when they claim that they understand something about the American Dream that the rest of us do not, though it is nothing to brag about. Indeed, the origins of the United States are consistent with white nationalist ideology. And this is where those of us who wish for peace and justice must start: with full awareness that we are trying to fundamentally change the nature of the country, which will always be extremely difficult work. Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz is a historian, writer, and professor emeritus in Ethic Studies at California State University. She is author or editor of fifteen books, including This essay is featured in Boston Reviews fall 2018 print issue Evil Empire. Order your copy! This article was originally published by " Boston Review " - 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 Lynda Burstein Brayer November 27, 2018 "Information Clearing House" - Western thinking and intellectual endeavor is very much epitomized by formality, rationality and clear boundaries or limits. These qualities no doubt derive from the Aristotelian philosophical and analytical basis of Western Christendom, in which the Excluded Middle of Aristotelian logic reigns supreme when it comes to the formulation of a thesis or argument. Aristotelian logic posits an absolute binary division between opposites. Its basic formula is an either/or contrast. Truth and falsehood are opposites: there is no half-truth or half-falsehood. This binary division permeates all other fields of quantifiable intellectual endeavor and finds expression in such opposites as good/evil, right/wrong, friend/enemy, legal/illegal, etc. There are obvious benefits to such clarity of thought, and no doubt it is this methodology which has contributed to the scientific achievements of the West. While such sharp divisions cannot always be imposed upon contingent reality because it is situational and circumstantial, rather than absolute, when this principle is violated in the law, the outcome is not only, or merely egregious, it defies ordinary human understanding and contributes to an inaccurate, if not corrupt, view of reality. The Jewish oxymoron as an instrument of overcoming the limits set by Aristotelian logic One of the binary opposites of Aristotelian classification in modern times is the democracy/dictatorship opposition. Democracy is recognized and understood to be of whole cloth, such that there is no such animal as a somewhat democratic state, or a nearly democratic state. A political system is not democratic if all the citizens of the country cannot participate on an equal basis. Either a political system is, or is not, democratic. Jewish genius however, has overcome this opposition with a number of oxymoronic legal definitions. The Jewish state of Israel characterizes itself as a Jewish and democratic state, although the latest law of the Knesset wishes to raise Jewishness above democracy. However, it must be blindingly obvious to anyone not in thrall to the ruling narratives, that when a minority of a population is regarded as hostile, is unwelcome and therefore is never part of a governing coalition, democracy must be a casualty, especially when that minority has been singled out for discriminatory and dispossessory treatment, despite the legal somersaulting of the greatest of Jewish legal minds. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter The designation of Israel as an apartheid state characterized by apartheid- style laws has been accepted by leading jurists and many international organizations. As a former South African I not only know the meaning of the term in its original language of Afrikaans separateness- but saw its effects upon the non-White population. In political practice, separate means unequal. It was only many years after my coming to Israel on aliya as a young Jewish woman and subsequent to obtaining a law degree from the Hebrew University and engaging in legal work for Palestinians, that the resemblance of Israeli legal system to South African apartheid really struck me. In fact I was quoted on the front page of the Haaretz intellectual daily newspaper as making this comparison. The first person to invoke the comparison was Dr. Uri Davis, an Israeli sociologist, who wrote a book called Israel: An Apartheid State. I would like to elaborate on those elements which contribute to making Israel not only an apartheid State, apartheid being confined to the law, but rather the wider sociological cultural phenomena of discrimination in which the legal system is placed. The matrix of the society is based on force, violence, and inhumanity which derive from values of the Jewish religion. The basic values of the Jewish religion as the basis of Israeli culture and politics It can be stated without any fear of contradiction, that the Jewish state of Israel is built upon the principle of separation, which is why the apartheid comparison holds. But it must be understood how and why this is the case as well as the limits of the comparison. It is not an accident, nor a choice based merely upon economic, political or cultural considerations. Rather the principle of separation is at the heart of the Jewish religion itself and Zionism is the political expression of the Jewish religion. Normative Judaism in Israel is Rabbinical Judaism or Talmudic Judaism, which, historically, has been normative for nearly two thousand years. This is the Judaism developed by the Rabbis following the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, or who were then known as the Pharisees. This Judaism is not a biblical religion: rather it is a religion based upon the interpretation of the Torah the relevant parts of the first five books of the Bible from Genesis to Deuteronomy by a succession of Torah interpreters known as rabbis. I would like to stress that the bible is not normative In Judaism, that is, it is not binding nor is it obligatory for Jews: only the Talmudic rulings are binding. It is for this reason that the politically-concocted Judeo-Christian heritage does not hold. Christianity sees the Bible, both Old and New Testaments its standard-setting texts. Not so for Judaism. Judaism and Christianity do not share a parent/child relationship nor an older sibling/younger sibling relationship, as per the politically correct Roman Catholic Church. The first codification of these interpretations was made in 200 CE and consisted of the six-part Mishnah. To this was subsequently added further interpretations; the Gomorrah and later, the Responsa literature all products of Jewish community-acknowledged rabbinical experts of the law. This Judaism held a monopoly which began to be challenged only in the mid-nineteenth century in Germany as a result of the influence of what is called the Enlightenment, the source of the secularism of the West and the secularism of a majority of Western Jews, most of whom, nonetheless, have not broken with Judaisms basic rituals of circumcision, the bar-mitzvah, Jewish divorce and burial. The late Professor of Biblical studies at the Hebrew University, Shemaryahu Talmon, explained in a lecture to Catholic Christian Zionists, that the basic value of Judaism is the principle of separation. He illustrated his point with the binary opposites of sacred and profane, holy and unholy, Shabbat and non-Shabbat or weekdays, and, of course, kashrut, the laws governing pure and impure food and clothing. All of these pairs are exemplars of the underlying opposition of purity and impurity with purity being the ideal state. At that meeting He did not however explicate in detail the source and full effects no doubt in deference to his audience. He left out the most significant binary opposition of Rabbinical Judaism: the Jew/Gentile or Jewish/goy opposition, the consequences of which have always been, and remain, central to Jewish life. Talmon did not explain that the principle of separation derives from kadosh which is translated as holy, but its literal meaning is set aside or separate from. The separation that both exists and is demanded for Jews is the separation from the impure. God is kadosh and His people must be kadosh too. This is the significance of chosenness chosen by God to have the existential quality of purity. The Jew is pure because he possesses a soul nefesh in Hebrew. The purpose of all Jewish ritual is to sustain the state of purity of the Jew. Jews are commanded to do all in their power to avoid being contaminated by what is considered impure. In contrast to Jews, goys or goyim, the latter having the same dictionary meaning as gentium, people, fall into the category of the impure because they are not born with souls and are therefore, existentially separated from God without any possibility of closing the gap. Hence in the Jewish lexicon the term goy has a pejorative meaning while gentium does not. This is the fundamental reason that the Jew is not required to the treat the goy as an equal because, according to Judaism, he is not equal. In fact, the goy is considered as chattel because chattel do not have souls. The goy is therefore not fully human. In this essay I shall only use the term goy for this reason. This existential distinction between the Jew and the goy is reflected in the absence of a Jewish universal moral code, an absence which is not found within either Christianity or Islam. Judaisms moral code is characterized by its particularity: it only binds Jews vis-a-vis Jews, not Jews vis-a-vis goys. The most outstanding exemplar of this system is that a Jew is not bound to save the life of a goy if saving the life requires the use of electricity or travelling in a motor vehicle, such as an ambulance, because such activities are forbidden on the Sabbath as they are considered forms or work, and a Jew may not work on the Sabbath. a Jew may do so for another Jew according to the law known as pikuah nefesh which translates as saving a soul. A Jew not only may break the Sabbath to save a Jewish soul, he is obligated to do so. Pikuah may be translated as to take care of and to oversee, and nefesh means soul: because goys do not have souls, pikuah nefesh cannot be applied. In addition, another exceptional phenomena of the Jewish moral code is that it does also not make truth binding upon the Jew with respect to the goy. There are only two instances where it is recommended that a Jew ought to tell the truth to a goy: when there is a danger to his life, or if it is in the interests of the Jew or the Jewish community. The question may now be asked as to why this information has been placed as a prolegomena to a description and analysis of the laws and practices of the Jewish state. The reason is quite straightforward: everything that I have described does not fall within the written laws passed by the legislative body of Israel, the Knesset, but serves, rather, as the matrix in which the laws are embedded and out of which the laws spring. The Israeli legal system It is this background that serves to explain why Aristotelian logic does not have an exclusive hold on the Israeli legal system and why a formal legal analysis cannot, by definition, grasp the entire experiential reality of the separateness/apartheid of the Jewish state. Once the lives of goys have no more value than chattel, the Jewish Israeli legal system cannot provide value to that which has no value to Jews. The minute a Jewish/goy conflict is encountered, that which is regarded as universal morality does not apply. A personal experience of this nature found expression during a hearing on a petition I submitted to the Supreme Court sitting as the High Court of Justice (Court of Equity concerning Administrative law and practice) requesting the voiding of a sale of Palestinian land by the majority of its owners (the land was not parcellated and therefore owned jointly by all the owners). A Justice in the hearing asked me what was wrong with an affidavit containing a blatant lie concerning the sale of Palestinian land to a Jew in militarily occupied territory, which is forbidden in international law. My response was that the perjury occurred to make the sale kosher at least in Jewish eyes. So the Justice asked what would happen if we just removed the affidavit to which I answered that the sale could not go through. The sale was not voided by the Court. The State of Israel does not recognize the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the protection of Civilians and hors de combat as legally binding upon it, although it is recognized as conventional international law, and not just treaty law, and hence binding upon all states. It is not that the Jewish state denies its conventional status but rather because the preamble refers to High Contracting Parties and the Palestinians are not, or at least were not, a High Contracting Party. This is a perfect instance of Talmudic logic catch on to an irrelevant point and avoid the substance and rationale of the Convention. Therefore the Jewish state denies Palestinians, who are both civilians and hors de combat legal protection whilst living under a brutal military occupation whilst the Jewish appellation of the nature of the military occupation is a benign military occupation one of the many oxymorons of Jewish thinking. Therefore the High Court cannot evoke this Fourth Geneva Convention to protect Palestinians in the militarily occupied territories from the Israeli army and refers instead to humanitarian considerations with respect to Palestinians, but never ever spells them out. But how could humanitarian considerations apply to Palestinians? After all they are goys, and goys have no souls and are therefore like chattel. They dont deserve humanitarian considerations. This term therefore, in this context, is no more than flatus vocis empty air, having no corresponding reality. It is more than interesting to note, in contrast, that while South African apartheid was motivated by cultural concerns, not to say economic and political ones, it was not based upon an understanding that blacks and whites constitute different species of mankind. In fact, the South African government had to legislate criminal laws to prevent miscegenation i.e. the marriage or sexual relationships between people of different races, yet despite the attempts at prohibition, the fact is that as a result of miscegenation, a whole new category of race or color grew up in South Africa numbering in the hundreds of thousands if not millions. The children of such unions were called Coloreds. In contrast to that situation, the marriage ratio of Jew and Arab in Israel is infinitesimal and there are no laws against it. Instead, Israel has preserved the millet system from the Ottomans, millet meaning religious community, according to which people can only marry legally within their own religious group. Naturally this was not considered discriminatory at the time, because secularism had not yet set in. Mixed marriages involving Israeli Jews and goys have to take place abroad or abroad by proxy. But any Jewish woman wanting to divorce a non-Jewish man and remarry a Jew, has to have a Jewish divorce. There are special types of divorces for these cases, when they are applicable. Otherwise if she remarries a Jew without obtaining a Jewish divorce, called a get, her children and their descendents will be Jewish bastards and forbidden to marry within the normal Jewish community for ten generations! The Rabbinate keeps a list of the names of bastards. Amongst the most egregious discriminatory laws are those legislated soon after the establishment of the Jewish state in Palestine. There is a full list of them with comments compiled on the Israeli Arab legal site Adalah and may be accessed by anyone interested. I shall not deal with all of them naturally, but will touch on the most outstanding of them. www.adalah.org/en/law/index?page=4 One of the first and most crucial of such laws for the Jewish state is the Law of Return 1950. This is another oxymoronic manifestation of Jewish genius. This law says that Jews, who were not born in the Jewish state, may return to it because it is their land of birth. The term in Hebrew is moledet the root of which means to be born. What the law does is ignore the fact of birth outside of Israel of a Jew, that is, the de facto status of a foreign-born Jew, while assigning to him a de iure legal right of birth in the Jewish state. The legal right overcomes the fact. This translates into a situation that a Jew not born in the Jewish state may return to his land of birth of Israel where he was not born. An Arab Palestinian refugee, born in Palestine has no right of return to the country of his birth according to the Citizenship Law. One of the mechanisms for the application of this law is the ius sanguinis the law of blood. That is to say, that if you are born to a Jew you have acquired birthrights in Palestine whether you were born there or not. This is what accounts for the free entrance of Diaspora Jews into Israel. The Arabs acquire citizenship in Israel according to the ius soli, that is to say, because they were born in this territory on the soil, so to speak. But these are not inheritable rights. In other words, if a Palestinian Israeli family with Israeli citizenship moves abroad for a few years, any child born abroad has no automatic right of return to Israel, particularly as an adult. This is the law that forbids the return of the 1948 refugees and their descendants. But it must be understood that this law is crucial in order to have a Jewish state in Palestine. You have to keep out Palestinians to keep Israel Jewish. A second crucial law, also from 1950 is the Absentees Property Law concerned the dispossession of Arab private property within the Jewish State. The state invented a new category of persons, who, despite enjoying de iure property rights prior to the creation of the Jewish state, suddenly found themselves deprived of property rights, a status unheard of elsewhere in the world, seeing as the central significance of the scope of property rights is erga omnes rights against anyone encroaching on these property rights. Jewish genius not only managed to by-pass this exclusionary factor but transformed the de iure right into a de facto issue with the wave of a pen contingent upon a factual situation. What the Jewish law created was a new status of a present absentee for the Arab property owner another somersault defying Aristotles Excluded Middle without any difficulty whatsoever. What is a present absentee? Well, first of all only an Arab can be an absentee, an Arab born in Palestine or in the Ottoman Empire before Palestine was extruded from Greater Syria. It never applies to a Jew born in Palestine nor to Jewish immigrant to Palestine nor to Jews who live abroad but who own property in Israel. The absentee of the law, through its labyrinthine twists refers to Arabs who own property in Palestine/Israel but who were absent from their homes, even if for only one day during a period beginning on the 29th November 1947 even before the Jewish state existed. It refers to those people who fled from the war, who were in enemy territory in Palestine and those who were expelled from Palestine itself or were ordered to leave their homes by the Jewish forces. That is to say, even someone who was absent from his home since that date, continuing through the establishment of the Jewish state of Israel, but who managed to remain in the Jewish State of Israel, lost his property rights. The villages in Northern Galilee of Ikrit and Birin are examples of their populations being expelled by the Jewish forces and who were prevented from returning when the war was over. For the purposes of all other laws in Israel, a Palestinian Arab is present in the Jewish state. I estimate that Palestinians have lost more than 90 % of their privately owned land. Since then, the Town Planning Law has been eating away at the rest. The latest laws which have caused stirs abroad concern the downgrading of the Arabic language from being an official language in law but never in practice. And the other law, the National Law posits that the Jewish state of Israel is the homeland of the Jewish nation leaving out all reference to the Palestinian Arab population but I am not sure how it is going to be applicable, particularly as there are other discriminatory pracises to do its business. The Discriminatory administration of non-discriminatory Laws What I would like to bring to the readers attention here is where the repugnant discrimination, humiliation and deprivation are felt on a daily basis. It must be understood that the outcomes of administrative decisions are deliberate and the destruction they wreak is foreseeable. Administrative law, that is to say, those norms governing the actual administration or laws, is based on equity. Included in equity is treating equals equally, justice, fairness, honesty, and using the law for the said purposes of the law itself. These values are included in what is called discretionary power. Discretion is one of the difficult or hard issues in laws because it is a power, yet a power which is exercised contingent upon circumstances and the judgment of the person or persons wielding that power. The greatest danger with discretionary power is that it may veer towards its opposite very quickly which is arbitrary power. It is at this juncture of the law and equity that one finds the intrusion of those norms characteristic of Judaism. Compared to the total number of laws on Israels law books, the actual number of discriminatory laws, or sections of laws, is not very large, although key with respect to certain subjects, such as land use, ownership, disposition and rights to family. Where the real, hard, anti-Arab forces kick in is in the discretionary or arbitrary application of laws which in themselves make no reference at all to either Jew or Arab. The budget of the government is unashamedly discriminatory and funds are not distributed proportionately amongst Jews and Arabs. Naturally there has been an unbroken verbal against this situation, but the Arabs have no power at all to change anything. It is important to take cognizance of the fact that no Jewish government has ever gone into coalition with an Arab party in order to form a majority government. This is, or would be, considered treason, to put it mildly. Therefore they have no way of influencing governmental decisions. Although the Arabs constitute approximately one-fifth i.e. 20.9% of the population, their fraction of the national cake, so to speak, is nowhere near proportional to their numbers. See reliable figures from those compiled by the Adva non-profit organization and http://adva.org/en/ and http://din-online.info/pdf/ms2.pdf from the Mossawa non-profit organization both of them highly reliable sources. An internet search for budgetary discrimination against Arabs in Israel will yield a rich treasure. With the discrimination in the budget as the starting point, and keeping it in mind, I would like to concentrate on other areas where this administrative apartheid is not only apparent, but which has had, and continues to have, disastrous effects upon the Arab population in Israel, not to speak of the Occupied West Bank and Gaza. Arab Land Use Arab land ownership has been exponentially diminished in the Jewish State. The following is an excellent article on how this was achieved but it is not my intention to further explicate this subject. https://mondoweiss.net/2013/03/historical-israeli-planning/ What I shall only deal with the actual use of Arab-owned land because this remains the chief instrument of deprivation financially and socially as well as actual emotional suffering affecting a persons well-being, under Israels apartheid. The prime weapon in this on-going war against Arab Israeli citizens is the Building and Planning Law of 1965. That it is old-fashioned and dates from the time of the British mandate in its approach, utterly undemocratic, top heavy with apparatchiks, has not prevented its usefulness to the Jewish population. Israel has set up new towns all over Israel proper as well as in the Occupied territories with modern, admirable infrastructure and public spaces. I believe that within the Jewish community women and Jewish institutions may have an input. The importance of this law lies in the fact that it is used as the main administrative tool of control over the Arab population. Town Planning is the central and main tool used for urbanization and therefore modernization, industrialization, socialization and economic development. It developed as a result of the industrial revolution, mass production and urbanization of the peasants and it plays a critical role in a countrys development. Israel has settled most nearly all of its Jewish population most of which is of course an immigrant population in cities, towns and what are called development towns crucially located within the country according to perceived needs of Jewish society. In contrast the Arab community has had no town planning in the modern meaning of the word and neither do Arabs have any planning rights. They are also not consulted as to the needs of the communities. The town planners are 90% Jewish with an occasional Arab brought in for appearances sake and their planning is devoted to the inhibition of growth Arab towns or overgrown villages. The Arab towns are actually townships equivalent to the South African black townships. I remember Alexandra township just north of Johannesburg way back when. A township lacks modern planning for modern facilities and modern land disposition: there is no proper infrastructure of any kind: sewage, drainage, electricity, road design, transportation facilities, and no proper land parcellation and zoning! Modern cadastral zoning takes into account current ownership and possibilities of parcellation, allocation of uses of land and can increase building space. As a striking example, on land taken from Arab owners in the Galilee to build a Jewish settlement as part of the judaization of the Galilee building rights on Jewish parcels can range well above 100% as a result of permission to build upwards, while on Arab land in the identical vicinity it was 20%. This is repeated in the entire country. Modern land use builds to height and creates separate private properties within single buildings called condominiums. In Hebrew it is called cooperative housing. Arab land has not been zoned to permit this multiplication of space within the town or village limits. In the township in which I live, the population of which is approximately 30,000, there are not more than five buildings taller than three storeys! No public housing has been erected in any of them, no public facilities have been developed and there are no parks, no proper sidewalks nor parking arrangements. It is all higgledy-piggledy. And this is not because the Arabs do not know how to plan or how to build. In contrast to the South African townships where the housing is often leantos, Arab private housing is built up to the most modern standards and can be exceptionally elaborate with attention to aesthetic details. But the building is at strangulation levels. The main intended effect of the lack of planning is that it is almost impossible to get a building license. So the vast majority of all homes are built without licenses: according to the law they can be destroyed by administrative decision. And many are. Many organizations have spoken up against house demolition but they have not questioned the basic cause of such demolitions. Jewish town planning is based on the principle, according to them, of natural increase. This principle is totally absent from the town planning for Arabs and one could say that its opposite governs town planning considerations: rather than expansion the aim is restriction and constriction. Another outcome of this approach is that there is no distinction between industrial zones and city and residential uses of land. What this means, is that the infrastructure required for certain industries, such as the food canning industry, is absent where an Arab has managed to set up a factory. The lack of sewage facilities leads to land pollution with the intendant fines imposed by the government for breaking the laws. The municipal courts are packed full of Arab scoff law cases about homes built without building permits. The list of cases in the Jerusalem municipal court hardly mentions Jews and when it does, it is for building a verandah without a license or something similarly negligible. On the other hand, new Jewish towns and settlements have been planned and built on Arab land such as to not only dispossess Arab owners, but to literally trespass into actual housing. The land allocated to a Jewish settlement includes huge border land swathes of hundreds of meters which are not necessarily needed or used for building, but the purpose of which is to prevent Arab building. A visit to the town of Sakhnin illustrates this perfectly. The Jewish settlement is built at the top of the hill whilst its border went through the Arab homes living room in which I sat at the bottom of the hill. In another Arab town plan a line was drawn through a plot dividing it with no rhyme or reason. It imposed an almost unbearable burden on the owners of the land, because they could not use the land properly. After eight years there were murmurings of it having been a mistake, just like that, but no change was made to the plan. In a word, every single decision concerning Arab town planning is based on an attempt to make life as difficult and as uncomfortable as possible for Arabs. It also completely arbitrary and therefore there are no logical or coherent arguments that one can use which are persuasive within the system. Outside the system their rationale is obvious, but not within it and there are no officials to whom they may turn for salvation. And this rationale cannot be used in the courts. Another result is that there is no building inspectorate because if there is no town plan permitting building, why do you need inspectors? However a vacuum has not been left: in place of an inspectorate used to enhance living, there is a policing of illegal buildings not for the purposes of safety, efficiency of use, functionality or aesthetics, but rather for the purpose of imposing fines to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars per building. The state sues the person who built illegally, and as a consequence, after a show trial, the owner finds himself having to pay a fine which is about ten or twenty times the size of his monthly earnings. Naturally this is deliberate. Not only shall an Arab man not have his castle, but he shall not have the means to even live comfortably, if not at all lavishly. After one has been present in many of these hearings, they are so transparently evil that it becomes unbearable. I would like to interject my own personal experience in the municipal court of Jerusalem, in my attempt to prevent the demolition of a home built without a license. The judge was an American Jew who had come on aliya to Israel so he and I shared at least the same language barriers, if not the same language. In defense of my client I quoted a South African court decision, S v. Govender, 1982 of the Transvaal Supreme Court, reported as 1986 (3) SA 969 (T)concerning the Urban Areas Act, which determined which areas or towns or neighborhoods were reserved for which racial groups. Govender, an Indian, had moved into a White area in Johannesburg and the State wished to expel him from that area. Justice Goldstone argued that seeing that housing was a basic need of a human being, and that there was no housing available for Govender, it would be unjust to expel him from the only housing he could find. This case marked the beginning of the collapse of the Urban Areas Act. I used this case, mutatis mutandis, in favor of my client, arguing that there was no housing available for him and that as he owned the land upon which he had built, but which had been zoned as open landscape area a designation absent in all Jewish town plans he built his house under duress, which is a mitigating circumstance of the Israeli criminal code, in order to protect his family. If the state wanted to destroy this house, it would have to provide alternative dwelling for my client. Nobody had ever argued this before, and I understand that this was taken up to the Supreme Court behind the scenes, where my argument being dismissed on the grounds that it was not from Israels legal system. Naturally the moral and existential values included in it played no role in the courts decision rejecting my argument. But there was a quite unexpected outcome to this case. I was called into the Justices chambers a short while thereafter and he told me he was leaving the municipal court and going to the family court. When I asked him the reason for this move he looked at me and said How long can a man sign demolition orders for family homes? I wanted to cry and still do, even while writing this. Why? I believe that this Jewish principle of separation, this principle that determines that Jews are not the same species as goys, enforces a psychopathy on its adherents. The justice could not bear what he was doing, so he just ran away. He did not stop and stand up and ask what the hell was going on? What the hell was a state destroying the housing of human beings? Yet he knew that it was wrong. He knew that it was evil. It is for this reason that I believe that Zionism has wrought is the destruction of the Jewish heart. After all, what is touched when we see the suffering of others? Our hearts. And I discovered that this heartlessness was not confined to Arabs. In a labor case, I represented a man of about 63 who was the head of a government hospital kitchen accused of stealing food. The food stolen was the leftovers of chicken soup the bones of which had been through three preparations, together with leftover vegetables on his and others plates. He took this food home for the thirteen cats which his mentally ill wife looked after in her madness. He was a religious Jew and would not consider putting her in a mental home. The reason for the accusation was that someone wanted his job. After I clarified the nature of the food and provided his history, his having been through four camps during the war, and his wife having lived underground in hiding for a couple of years, I burst out into tears, pointing out how grotesque the entire process was in all its aspects. The prosecutor replied by telling me not to be so emotional and my reply to her was that as soon as I no longer felt emotional about human suffering, I would give up the profession of law. I did win the case however, and the judge in the trial always spoke to me fondly when we met in other venues. This hardness of heart finds expression with respect to the marriage of Arabs both Christian and Moslem. There is no overall protection of non-Jewish marriage either in the Jewish state or in the militarily occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza. Israel controls all ports and points of entry and exist into the Palestinian territory east of the River Jordan. The Jewish State treats some non-Jewish marriages as neither sacred nor as the basic building block of society. On the contrary. For twelve years now, marriage between Arabs with Israeli citizenship who live in Israel proper with spouses from either the militarily occupied West Bank and Gaza or even from abroad receive no conjugal rights in the Jewish State of Israel. Therefore an Israeli Arab has no rights to create a family in Israel if his spouse is from Palestinian territories or from abroad. West Bank Arabs are not allowed to bring in spouses from Jordan or elsewhere. In other words, Israel does its best to limit demographic growth of Arabs under its control. The hardships are unbearable in most cases: some couples have to split up, others lose their homes and/or their livelihood, are split off from families etc. etc. The barrier wall built on Palestinian land to protect Israel has split towns, village, families and homes to an egregious extent. It can take up to one or two hours for people to make a one-way trip to the other side of the wall. It is clear therefore that there is a profound cruelty and inhumanity at the basis of the Israeli system and as the one example I gave demonstrated, it is not always confined to Arabs, except in 99% of the cases. What can be observed from this overview of interlocking fields of endeavor, is that the Jewish regime in Palestine has done and continues to deprive Palestinians of many of their rights in law as well as their rights as human beings. Is it unreasonable to suspect that the Jewish regime has not let up in its efforts to ethnically cleanse Palestine of its non-Jewish residents, following the huge success of the Naqba or Catastrophe, as the Arabs call it, in 1948 when 90% of the Arab Palestinian population was expelled from Jewish-controlled Palestine? I have been asked as to what I consider to be the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There will never be a freely-agreed upon political solution unless the Jews admit to their theft and destruction of Palestine which nobody can see happening. But I do see Israel bleeding its Ashkenazi or white population leaving behind a far weaker country with no proper ruling elite. In this case, I do not see how a Jewish State will survive, despite its being a creation of the international banking cartel. The author is an Israeli lawyer who has represented Palestinians in the Israeli courts. She has lived in Israel/Palestine for over fifty years and considers herself political dissident and lives in an Arab township. She writes out of her own experiences. This article was originally published by " The Saker " - 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 Craig Murray November 27, 2018 "Information Clearing House" - The right wing Ecuadorean government of President Moreno continues to churn out its production line of fake documents regarding Julian Assange, and channel them straight to MI6 mouthpiece Luke Harding of the Guardian. Amazingly, more Ecuadorean Government documents have just been discovered for the Guardian, this time spy agency reports detailing visits of Paul Manafort and unspecified Russians to the Embassy. By a wonderful coincidence of timing, this is the day after Mueller announced that Manaforts plea deal was over. The problem with this latest fabrication is that Moreno had already released the visitor logs to the Mueller inquiry. Neither Manafort nor these Russians are in the visitor logs. This is impossible. The visitor logs were not kept by Wikileaks, but by the very strict Ecuadorean security. Nobody was ever admitted without being entered in the logs. The procedure was very thorough. To go in, you had to submit your passport (no other type of document was accepted). A copy of your passport was taken and the passport details entered into the log. Your passport, along with your mobile phone and any other electronic equipment, was retained until you left, along with your bag and coat. I feature in the logs every time I visited. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter There were no exceptions. For an exception to be made for Manafort and the Russians would have had to be a decision of the Government of Ecuador, not of Wikileaks, and that would be so exceptional the reason for it would surely have been noted in the now leaked supposed Ecuadorean intelligence report of the visits. What possible motive would the Ecuadorean government have for facilitating secret unrecorded visits by Paul Manafort? Furthermore it is impossible that the intelligence agency who were in charge of the security would not know the identity of these alleged Russians. Previously Harding and the Guardian have published documents faked by the Moreno government regarding a diplomatic appointment to Russia for Assange of which he had no knowledge. Now they follow this up with more documents aimed to provide fictitious evidence to bolster Muellers pathetically failed attempt to substantiate the story that Russia deprived Hillary of the Presidency. My friend William Binney, probably the worlds greatest expert on electronic surveillance, former Technical Director of the NSA, has stated that it is impossible the DNC servers were hacked, the technical evidence shows it was a download to a directly connected memory stick. I knew the US security services were conducting a fake investigation the moment it became clear that the FBI did not even themselves look at the DNC servers, instead accepting a report from the Clinton linked DNC security consultants Crowdstrike. I would love to believe that the fact Julian has never met Manafort is bound to be established. But I fear that state control of propaganda may be such that this massive Big Lie will come to enter public consciousness in the same way as the non-existent Russian hack of the DNC servers. Assange never met Manafort. The DNC emails were downloaded by an insider. Assange never even considered fleeing to Russia. Those are the facts, and I am in a position to give you a personal assurance of them. I can also assure you that Luke Harding, the Guardian, Washington Post and New York Times have been publishing a stream of deliberate lies, in collusion with the security services. I am not a fan of Donald Trump. But to see the partisans of the defeated candidate (and a particularly obnoxious defeated candidate) manipulate the security services and the media to create an entirely false public perception, in order to attempt to overturn the result of the US Presidential election, is the most astonishing thing I have witnessed in my lifetime. Plainly the government of Ecuador is releasing lies about Assange to curry favour with the security establishment of the USA and UK, and to damage Assanges support prior to expelling him from the Embassy. He will then be extradited from London to the USA on charges of espionage. Assange is not a whistleblower or a spy he is the greatest publisher of his age, and has done more to bring the crimes of governments to light than the mainstream media will ever be motivated to achieve. That supposedly great newspaper titles like the Guardian, New York Times and Washington Post are involved in the spreading of lies to damage Assange, and are seeking his imprisonment for publishing state secrets, is clear evidence that the idea of the liberal media no longer exists in the new plutocratic age. The press are not on the side of the people, they are an instrument of elite control. Craig Murray is an author, broadcaster and human rights activist. He was British Ambassador to Uzbekistan from August 2002 to October 2004 and Rector of the University of Dundee from 2007 to 2010. https://www.craigmurray.org.uk Do you agree or disagree? Post your comment here ==See Also== John Kiriakou : Julian Assange Will Not Get a Fair Trial in The USA Manafort held secret talks with Assange in Ecuadorian embassy, sources say WikiLeaks, Manafort reps reject Guardian report alleging meeting with Assange in 2016 : "@WikiLeaks is willing to bet the Guardian a million dollars and its editor's head that Manafort never met Assange," the group tweeted. The detention and isolation from the world of Julian Assange: They are destroying him slowly. 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 In March I was sued for libel by the chairman of the Campaign Against Anti Semitism (CAA), Gideon Falter, for suggesting that Antisemitism is a business plan. As CAA has explained its objective, the lawsuit was intended both to silence me and to wreck my career. Campaign Against Anti Semitisms web site states that renowned media lawyer Mark Lewis devised a strategy for bringing libel actions which he and Campaign Against Antisemitism have begun to use to force antisemites into either apologising in court, or paying substantial damages. And as CAA boasts in its promotional video, We ensure antisemites face criminal, professional and reputational consequences. And of course, the libel suit didnt manage to silence me. I am at least as prolific and focused as I was before the lawsuit. I am still performing and giving talks around the world, I still publish my writings on a daily basis. In fact, Mark Lewis, the man who devised the strategy intended to silence me, is now defending himself in the disciplinary tribunal for solicitors (https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/media-lawyer-mark-lewis-to-face-sdt-over-social-media-comments/5067741.article) for sending offensive and profane communications. Instead of managing to obliterate my career, Mark Lewis has left his law firm (Seddons) and is moving to Israel. Defending myself against the libel charge has been time consuming and extraordinarily expensive; the costs of defending a libel suit in Britain are insanely extortionate. Last March I was left with no option other than asking for your financial support. I was astounded and deeply touched by your quick and generous response. This allowed me to respond to the claim and confirmed to me that fatigue with the strategies used by organisations like CAA is solid and global. I was reassured that I wasnt alone. The case has now settled but I am left with a huge hole in my pocket. Although I am selling some of my musical instruments and have made other arrangements to try to raise the necessary funds, I remain short about 40.000. Unfortunately, I need additional support. Asking you for money is very upsetting for me but this is an important battle for all of us. I am grateful for any help you can provide, it is heartening to know that you stand with me in support of free speech, and that you will help me manage the consequences of exercising our most important right. Thanks so much Gilad Atzmon Donate Paypal Gilad is currently in dispute with paypal and would rather not use this platform. However, if you insist on using paypal please contact him: giladatzmon(at)mac.com https://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/2018/11/26/gilad-needs-additional-support It is a MRC ministerial level meeting which is held annually by the country holding the MRC Council chairmanship. The event saw the participation of 120 delegates from the four MRC Council state members, including Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, in addition to the MRC Dialogue Partners of China and Myanmar and 25 MRC Development Partners. The meeting was presided over by Vietnamese Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Tran Hong Ha, cum Chairman of the MRC Council for the 2018 tenure. Chairman Ha affirmed that the MRC Council has undertaken its mission towards the socio-economic development of its member countries over the past two decades, through the efforts of its member countries and the support of its Development Partners, Dialogue Partners and other related parties. While the Dialogue Partners have played a vital role in the management of water resources across the Mekong Basin, the Development Partners have provided substantial financial and technical support for the MRC to implement the tasks in the MRC Strategic Plan, the minister said. The 25th meeting of the Mekong River Commission (MRC) Council reviewed the operations of the MRC Council in 2018, put forth plans for 2019, provided a mid-term assessment on the MRC Strategic Plan 2016-2020, and reviewed the progress of the Pak Beng hydropower project. Within the framework of the MRC Council meeting, meetings between the MRC Council and its Development Partners and Dialogue Partners were also held, under which the MRC partners affirmed their willingness to continue their cooperation with the MRC in the future. At the meeting, the European Union pledged to fund EUR4.82 million for the commissions operation in the 2016-2020 period and the German Government pledged to finance EUR4 million to the MRC to promote cross-border partnerships in water resources in the Mekong River basin in the 2019-2021 period. November 27, 2018 "Information Clearing House" - Earlier today, Trump's chief economic advisor Larry Kudlow poured cold water on expectations for an imminent resolution of the US-China trade war when he said that negotiations in the run up to this week's G-20 talks "haven't yielded any progress", and unless something changes, the "administration will move ahead with the next phase of tariffs." "Things have been moving very slowly between the two countries," Kudlow said, adding that it was up to Xi to come up with new ideas to break the deadlock. And, echoing a report from the US Trade Representative published earlier this month, Kudlow said there hasn't been much of a change in China's approach. "We cant find much change in their approach," Kudlow told reporters. "President Xi may have a lot more to say in the bilateral [with Mr Trump], I hope he does by the way, I think we all hope he does...but at the moment, we dont see it." Just a few hours later, a report by Reuters confirmed that Kudlow won't be "seeing it" for a long time, because according to China's ambassador to the US, Cui Tiankai, China is going to this weeks G-20 summit hoping for a deal to ease a damaging trade war with the United States, even as he warned of "dire consequences" if U.S. hardliners - read the trade hawks led by Peter Navarro - try to separate the worlds two largest economies. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter Asked whether he though hardliners in the White House were seeking to separate the closely linked U.S. and Chinese economies, Cui said he did not think it was possible or helpful to do so, but warned that "I dont know if people really realize the possible consequences - the impact, the negative impact - if there is such a decoupling." He followed up the surprisingly strong statement with an even more shocking comment, in which Tiankai went so far as to tacitly hint that the "lessons of history" suggest that if there is no deal, what comes next could be another great depression... and conventional war. "The lessons of history are still there. In the last century, we had two world wars, And in between them, the Great Depression. I dont think anybody should really try to have a repetition of history. These things should never happen again, so people have to act in a responsible way." Still, the Chinese ambassador toned it down a bit in his next commenting: when asked whether he thought the current tensions, which have seen the two sides impose hundreds of billions of dollars of tit-for-tat tariffs on each other, could degenerate into all-out conflict, Cui called the outcome "unimaginable" and that the two countries should do everything to prevent it. Note: he did not rule "all-out conflict" out. Trying to de-escalate the verbal fireworks, Cui then said that China did not want to have a trade war - implying the current state of affairs is all Trump's fault - and sought a negotiated solution to the current impasse stemming from President Trumps demands for far-reaching Chinese concessions to correct a massive trade imbalance. And yet, one appears impossible as neither side is willing to compromise or be the first to concede to the demands of the adversary. In fact, as the Chinese ambassador said, Trump's negotiating position in which Xi Jinping is expected to agree with all US terms, "cannot be accepted." But the key to this solution is a balanced approach to concerns of both sides, Cui said. We cannot accept that one side would put forward a number of demands and the other side just has to satisfy all these things. What is confusing to the Chinese diplomat, is Trump's stubborn inability to compromise. Tiankai said the two leaders had a very good working relationship and personal friendship formed in three previous face-to-face meetings, including two formal summits, and this had been shown by a long phone conversation in early November. So three briefly meetings and a phone call, and this is supposed to make the best of friends... Alas, that's not how the US sees it, with White House insiders saying there remain substantial differences within the Trump administration over how far to push China. As is well-known by now, this division groups on one side anti-China hardliner and trade adviser Peter Navarro, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and those who favor a complete reevaluation of the relationship. While on the other side are the "globalists" led by White House chief economist Larry Kudlow and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, concerned about the harm deepening friction could do to the U.S. economy and markets. Yet even the so-called pragmatic globalists are getting cold feet: Kudlow said on Tuesday that Trump is open to a trade deal with China but is prepared to hike tariffs on Chinese imports if there is no breakthrough on longstanding trade irritants during a planned dinner on Saturday in Buenos Aires with Xi. Worse, he said that talks with China have not yielded any progress yet. Meanwhile, the G-20 summit begins in three days, and with no deal anywhere on the horizon, soon the only chart that matters may be the following - and most important chart of all - forecasting that China will surpass the US in total military spending in just around 20 years... This article was originally published by " Zero Hedge " - 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 It was already dark outside when I shut the blinds and switched off the lights. I picked up my phone and sat on the bed. I couldnt get you off my mind all day and I didnt want to go to bed without playing back memories. Yesterday I was on Whatsapp, playing back all your voice notes and reading our play-work-play chats. Tonight, As I hopped into bed and tried to regulate the air conditioning, I went to Facebook messenger. It was my first time there in almost a year. I wanted to read your messages; our chats, and bring back memories of the early days of our friendship. Everything came rushing back. hey Im presently in London for a few days. Be back on Friday. Will send you a text then to confirm my attendance. Cheers! It was my first message to you on Facebook. And your response, just like the several others Ill receive from that day in August 2007, was quintessential Tosyn. Thanks dear. And glad to finally hear from you. Was wondering if you were a figment of my imagination. LOL. Abeg buy Kilishi come back oh Oh wait, you said Jand right? Drat! I spent last night lost in your messages, our conversations in my inbox, on messenger, and on Whatsapp. Im sorry I couldnt lay my hands on our BBM chats. Im sure theyre archived somewhere and I just didnt do enough to locate them. And the messages brought back memories I cant claim to have been one of your closest friends. I dont even think I was that good a friend. But I could tell from all I read; all I recalled; and all I thought, that I liked you and your work from the first day I read your prose; from the first time I heard a CON.tra.diction song. I remember interviewing you for Encomium Magazine at the eatery on Opebi road. I remember our search for a manager and publicist for your music; and all the times you slid into my DM to say thank you for a mention in my column and well both end up washing each other. See, theres this message from July 9, 2008 I couldnt stop reading. I couldnt. It was our first conversation in four months. Hi madam. Been a while! You just crossed my mind now and I thought to holla. Hows it all going with you? Please have a wondrous day ahead Hey the great Ayeni or Ayeni the great. LOL. Im good. Doing a lot of writing (novels) these days. Hope youre well? Novels? That sounds great. But, whatever happened to CON.tra.diction? I hope you find time for her too soon. God be with you. I thought you would never ask! LOL. As you might have noticed, I do a lot of stuff. And I actually enjoy doing all that stuff to be honest. I always worried how I could find the balance, and of course CON.tra.diction was being ignored majorly. What I am doing now is being my personas. Tosyn is the writer, and the one who likes to party and all that. Hazel is the business one. She runs s.h.a.r.e and SPEECHgirl and These Genes. And then CON.tra.diction is the music persona. I am writing novels so that CON.tra.diction can also write her music and she has been writing so much lately, its really amazing. Then she is going to the studio this month, next month and after that hopefully, will get to work with ID Cabasa, but working with Kaka (Christy Essien Igbokwes son). Have you heard the song they did together? His mom can still SANG! Im telling you. We shot a video that we didnt like so were scrapping it and starting again. The thing is though, she really needs a manager, or someone she can bounce ideas off, and so on cos I really cant do that! LOL. So, with these few words of mine, I hope I have been able to convince you, and not confuse you that CON.tra.diction will not be allowed to die before she has even been born. I was reading and laughing and screaming and laughing all by myself. The short messages, the long ones. The formal conversations, the silly ones. The cold ones, the warm ones. Everything. Then I dosed off. It wasnt long before you showed up. Dreams can be funny-silly. And this one didnt let me leave with any specific details. But from the muted visuals still playing in my head right now, I can tell we had an interesting conversation. Ill tell everyone I saw you again, and we had a great time. And when they ask me where we met, what you said, or what we did, I tell them all I have are images. Afterall dont they say a single photo speaks better than a thousand words? And if anyone asks further Ill ask them to check their Whatsaap, their BBM, SMS, messenger, or DM. There theyll find your voice; and enough memories to last a lifetime. Cant wait to see you again! Love, ATG Juventus ensured they remain at the summit of group H at the ongoing UEFA champions league tournament by beating Valencia 1-0 yesterday at Allianz arena. The Serie A champions have now qualified for the next round of the competition but need a good result in their last group stage match to ensure they finish top of their group and also avoid a strong opponents in the next round of the elite competition. The Spanish side kept things so tight that the Italian champions found it difficult to carve out anything meaningful in the final third until Cristiano Ronaldo popped up with a beautiful assist for Mario Mandzukic in the 59th minute to ensure that the maximum three points stay home. The win yesterday saw Juventus reach the Champions League Last 16 for the fifth consecutive season for the first time in their history and Cristiano Ronaldo also becomes the first ever player to reach 100 cham pionsLeague wins as a result of the victory yesterday. Amasing isnt it??? President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the reduction in the cost of Forms for JAMB UTME, NECO SSCE and the Basic Education Certificate Examination. This announcement was made known by Minister of Education Adamu Adamu on Wednesday, during the weekly Federal Executive Council(FEC) meetings. According to the announcement, with effect from January 2019 the cost of JAMB UTME Form will drop from N5,000 to N3,500. NECO will drop from N11,350, to N9,850. Adamu said President Buhari directed has the Ministry to look into the reduction following the significant improvement in revenues being remitted to the Treasury by the Education Agencies. The Exam Agencies are not meant to be revenue generating bodies, theyre only supposed to cover costs/operating expenses. The sharp increase in remittances by JAMB(from less than N60m in 20102016 to >N15 BILLION in 2017/18) have shown that the fees being charged could be reduced, he said. President Muhammadu Buhari has announced his intention to hold a one-day meeting with the head of state, and government of Chad, Cameroon, Niger, and the Central African Republic. Buhari, who is currently in Maiduguri for the Chief of army staff annual conference, made the revelation via social media on Wednesday evening. The president said he would be using his capacity as Chairman of the Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC), to call for the meeting, intended to look into security situations of areas affected by Boko Haram insurgency. See statement below In my capacity as Chairman of the Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC), I am convening a consultation of Heads of State and Government of the LCBC, for November 29, 2018, in NDjamena, Chad. The objective of the one-day meeting is to review the security situation in areas affected by the Boko Haram insurgency, as well as adopt measures to enhance the capacity of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) to secure the region. I have invited the presidents of the LCBC member countries: Chad, Cameroon, Niger, and the Central African Republic, to attend the meeting. Also invited is the President of the Republic of Benin, which also contributes troops to the MNJTF. President Muhammadu Buhari is currently at Maimalari Cantonment in Maiduguri, for the Chief of Army Staff Annual Conference. The Conference, which was originally scheduled to hold in Benin City, was this week moved to Maiduguri, following the recent attack by Boko Haram in Metele, Borno state, that led to the deaths of many soldiers. President Buhari after declaring the COAS, conference open, headed to a hospital where wounded soldiers are receiving treatments. He wrote: Presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore has revealed that Daura, the home town of President Muhammadu Buhari lacks basic amenities like good roads and electricity. The presidential candidate was in Daura, Katsina state on Sunday, as part of his 100-city tour, which kicked off on November 22, alongside his running mate, Dr. Rabiu Ahmed Rufai. Sowore, in his address advised Nigerians to look beyond tribal and religious sentiments, but vote competence in the forthcoming elections. In his words: This is Daura, the hometown of the President, but as you can see the roads are terrible, there is no electricity, people are poor here, the street lights dont work and people here have welcomed us as you can see. This is why Nigerians should vote capacity and competence, rather than ethnicity and religion. It doesnt matter if the person is your own; if he cannot deliver, he cannot deliver. Sowore has visited The Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Jigawa and Katsina states in his 100-city tour. Senator Dino Melaye has raised the alarm that the Kogi state government is planning to borrow a whooping $500 million without approval of the National Assembly. The Kogi state senator, who dumped the All Progressives Congress, a few months back for the Peoples Democratic Party, made this known on the floor of the Senate on Wednesday. According to Melaye, the Federal Government through the Ministry of Finance is in on the plan to borrow the said sum, having guaranteed and signed along Kogi State Government without recourse to the National Assembly. In his words: Kogi State Government owes about N40 billion local debts for payment of salaries that was never paid. Furthermore, Kogi State Government has approached East-West Capital Corporation of United Arab Emirates owned by one Mr Mahmoud for a loan of $500m. This fresh loan has been christened loan refinancing of the Kogi State local debt in order to avoid coming to the National Assembly for approval. The Federal Government through the Ministry of Finance has guaranteed and signed along Kogi State Government without recourse to the National Assembly. Vanguard Following the failure of the Nigerian port system to accommodate the huge imports through the countrys waters, leading to diversion of cargoes to neighbouring countries, the land border route to Lagos end of the Nigerian market is now host to huge presence of security agencies checkpoints. The Nation The Nigerian Army said its troops repelled Boko Haram insurgents attack in Kukawa Local Government Area of Borno.The army said in its twitter handle that the troops repelled the insurgents attack while attempting to infiltrate Cross-Kauwa in Kukawa at about 8 p.m. on Tuesday.It added that it would provide details on the attack later.Read also:Reps to probe funding of war against Boko HaramTroops of 157 Strike Force Battalion at about 8 p.m. today (Nov. 27) 2018 This Day Some parents and students in Abuja yesterday urged the federal government to speedily intervene and resolve the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). The parents, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, expressed worry over the constant strikes embarked upon by the university lecturers union. Guardian The House of Representatives yesterday ordered an immediate probe into the use of funds appropriated for the war against insurgency in the country.The resolution followed the adoption of motions moved by Mohammed Sani Abdu, Isaac Gyang and Hassan The Sun The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has, as at May, this year, recovered over N527 billion, as well as foreign currencies, through the Whistle Blower Policy. Daily Times NLC chair says its not true Workers in Ekiti State have petitioned the House of Assembly Committee on Public Accounts demanding the probe of alleged. Daily Trust Governor Rochas Okorocha, yesterday, gave a hint that his son-in-law and former Chief of Staff, Uche Nwosu, will vie for the Imo State governorship on the platform of another party. Nwosu, who is also a governorship contender of the APC, and others who did not make it during the recent primary elections, would most likely Leadership The House of Representatives has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to direct the minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed to release outstanding Funds Standing to the Credit of the Judiciary. This is as it said the minister should be compelled to comply with Section 81 (3) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Tribune MEDIA aide to ex-governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State, Lere Olayinka has described as an afterthought Mondays statement credited to incumbent Governor Kayode Fayemi that he would not probe Fayose. Pastor Sam Adeyemi, founder of Daystar Church has advised candidates in the 2019 presidential elections to note that Nigerians no matter, who they are or where they come from, are equal and deserve a basic level of comfort and dignity. The pastor in a few tweets on Wednesday, said equality is the only environment, where democracy truly thrives That a candidate, who doesnt believe in the equality of men, cant facilitate the development under democracy. He wrote; Dear candidate for the 2019 elections in Nigeria. Do you believe that all men are created equal and deserve a basic level of comfort and dignity? That is the belief where democracy really works. If you dont, you cant facilitate development in a democracy. Pastor Adeyemi pointed out also that it would be hard to find a country from the third world, that has moved to the first world by practising the American style democracy. How many countries have moved from the so called 3rd World to the so called 1st World in the last 100 years through American-style democracy? Hard to find. Few that developed had another brand of democracy. Elite in developing nations will not accept equality of all. On the part of the citizens, Adeyemi urged them to be thorough in their choice of who will lead them, for another four years. He asked Nigerians to check through their track records and pick the ones that believe that Nigerians deserve dignity and excellence and not slavery. Under the policy, permanent residents of Vietnams three biggest cities of Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and Da Nang will be eligible for C-3 visas from early December this year. C-3 visa holders can stay in the RoK for up to 30 days, with no restrictions on the number of visits for five years. Deputy PM Dung said the RoKs decision is based on the basis of political trust, strategic partnership, and the sound relationship between the two countries and peoples. The policy provides the conditions to increase exchanges between the two nations peoples, he said, expressing the hope that more people in other localities of Vietnam will be granted long-term visas to the RoK in the time to come. Ambassador Kim underlined the great potential for the RoK and Vietnam to further step up their cooperation, expressing his belief that the strategic partnership between the two countries will be stronger in the future. He affirmed that the new visa policy is a step in the RoK Governments plan to strengthen all-around cooperation with Vietnam. The RoK is the biggest foreign investor in Vietnam with over 7,300 projects in 55 localities and across a variety of sectors. Many leading RoK economic groups have selected Vietnam as a destination for developing regional production centres with connection to global value chains. People-to-people exchange between the two countries has developed strongly over the years, significantly contributing to promoting the bilateral relations. Some Nigerians probably supporters of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, have taken to social media, to react to the visit of President Muhammadu Buhari to Maiduguri, Borno state. The President is currently attending the chief of army staff, COAS Annual Conference 2018 holding at Command Guest House in Maiduguri, which was initially slated to hold in Benin city before it was moved to Maiduguri, following the Boko Haram attack on a military base in Metele village, that left many soldiers dead. Some Nigerians have criticized the Presidents visit to Maiduguri, claiming it is solely for media ops and not because Buhari cares. Some argued that Buhari remained silent after the deadly Metele attack, only to reveal his shock, one week after. There were also those, who attacked the president for not visiting Borno before now but had to wait till election time, to do so. Heres what some Nigerian Twitter users have to say Buhari arrives Maiduguri for a media circus with soldiers imported from another state because the ones on ground are decimated and in miserable condition. A wicked man who cares for nothing beyond himself and being seen as likeable. pic.twitter.com/gpipMZWJFH Ndi Kato Mother/Politician (@YarKafanchan) November 28, 2018 It took @MBuhari a whole week to express "SHOCK" over the killing of over 100 soldiers by Boko Haram and it took the outcry of Nigerians for him to visit Maiduguri. Let him visit Metele #BloodOfSlainedSoldiers Lere Olayinka Aresa 1 (@OlayinkaLere) November 28, 2018 So Boko Haram 8s technically defeated but Buhari is visiting Maiduguri and all the roads are blocked. What are we afraid of? Ibrahim Mamman (@Iro_Mamoud) November 28, 2018 @MBuhari waited for hundreds of our soldiers to be killed by Book Haram, he made merry after they were killed and went about holding political meetings, now he is in Maiduguri to shed crocodile tears.#BloodOfSlainedSoldiers Lere Olayinka Aresa 1 (@OlayinkaLere) November 28, 2018 https://twitter.com/yemi_adebowale/status/1067735409432674309?s=19 This content is from: Japan Japanese businesses are nervous that public pressure could again postpone an increase to the consumption tax rate, further delaying the overhaul of the tax system that they want. Opinion Policies Editorials are longer opinion pieces that are written by a group of community members recruited across campus who address relevant issues on a local, national and international level. Editorials are research-based. The purpose of the Editorial Board is to promote discussion concerning relevant issues in the community while advising on possible solutions. Topics are chosen via relevancy and interests of the members, which are then discussed by the Editorial Board in order to reach a general consensus concerning the topic or issue. Feedback policy If you have a grievance concerning the content or argument of the Editorial Board, please contact either Opinion Editor Peyton Hamel (peyton.hamel@iowastatedaily.com) or the Editorial Board as a whole (editorialboard@iowastatedaily.com). Those wanting to respond to editorials can also submit a letter to the editor through the Iowa State Daily website or by emailing the letter to Opinion Editor Peyton Hamel (peyton.hamel@iowastatedaily.com) or Editor-in-Chief Sage Smith (sage.smith@iowastatedaily.com). Column Policy Columns are hyper-specific to opinion and are written by only columnists employed by the Iowa State Daily. Columnists are unique because they have a specific writing day and only publish on those writing days. Each column undergoes a thorough editing process ensuring the integrity of the writer, and their claim is maintained while remaining research-based and respectful. Columns may be submitted from community members. These are labelled as Guest Columns. These contain similar research-based content and need to be at least 400 words in length. The following requirements should be met: first and last name, email and relation or position to Iowa State. Emails must be tied to the submitted guest column or it will not be accepted or published. Pseudonyms are prohibited and the writer will be banned from submissions. Read our full Opinion Policies here. Updated on 10/7/2020 Apple Pay has officially expanded to its 30th and 31st markets this week. As was first reported on Wednesday by Forbes, Apple Pay is now available in Kazakhstan. Unlike some other markets, the launch in Kazakhstan is supported by multiple banks: ForteBank, Sberbank, Bank CenterCredit, Halyk Bank, Eurasian Bank, and ATFBank. Mastercard and Visa are both supported, technically, but that support may vary bank to bank. According to the initial report, Kazakhstan is one market that has accepted contactless payments in a big way, as other international markets have done for years. As it stands, upwards of 65 percent of card terminals already support this type of payment method, as banks expand NFC capabilities across the country. That should make Apple Pay an easy option for customers with supported iPhones, Macs, iPads, and Apple Watches. Kazakhstans launch market joins Belgium today, which also welcomed Apple Pay this week. In that case, customers in Belgium can find Apple Pay support from BNP Paribas Fortis, along with its subsidiaries, Hello Bank and Fintro. Visa and Mastercard cards are also supported in that region as well. Apple Pay recently launched in Germany, and the mobile payment option is coming soon to Saudi Araia as well. Apple still has a lot of untapped markets to reach, but rolling out in areas where contactless payments are already a big deal certainly makes sense. It may make negotiations with banks easier, too. The company hasnt always had the best of luck expanding its mobile payment option in some regions, after all. Jointly organised by ASEAN member nation embassies in Algeria and the Algerian Institute of Diplomacy and International Relations, the workshop, focused on issues related to the regional cooperation organisation. Themed "Unity, peace, and prosperity, the event attracted delegates from the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; foreign delegations from embassies in the country; students studying national administration, international relations, and political science in Algerian universities; as well as local media. Ambassadors of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam were the main speakers at the event, while an ambassador from the Republic of Korea was the guest speaker. Their presentations mentioned several aspects of ASEAN, such as the process of forming and developing the bloc, mechanisms of cooperation, prospects and challenges, and relations between ASEAN and partners outside the region. The role played by ASEAN in some major regional and international issues, future development strategies of the bloc, and the relations between ASEAN and its major partners, especially with China, were some of the hot topics under debate at the workshop. The East Sea issue was also a topic that attracted the interest of many participants at the event. Bahria College Karsaz Jobs 2018 for Teachers Latest Bahria College Teaching Posts Karachi 2021 Bahria College Karsaz Karachi, Pakistan Navy, Government of Pakistan are requires candidates for the posts of Teacher, General Science Teacher, Maths Teacher, Social Studies Teacher, Art Teacher, Urdu Teacher, English Teacher, History Teacher, Geography Teacher, Therapist. Skills Required Education & Tutoring How to Apply on Bahria College 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. District Education Officer Kurram Parachinar Jobs 2018 Latest District Education Office Posts Karam Agency 2021 Experienced and energetic persons for the posts of Chowkidar, Lab Attendant, Sweeper, Mali, Naib Qasid, Peon, Water Carrier required for the District Education Office in Karam Parachinar FATA. How to Apply on District Education Office 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. District & Session Judge Office Jobs 2018 in Jhang Latest District & Session Judge Office Management Posts Jhang 2021 Qualified and well educated individuals for the posts of Stenographer, Assistant Librarian, Data Entry Operator, Budget Executive, Account Executive, Auditor, Clerk, Computer Hardware Technician, Driver, Cook, Sweeper, Mali, Chowkidar required for the office of District & Session Judge in Jhang Punjab 2018. How to Apply on District & Session Judge Office 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. FPSC CSS Competitive Examination 2019 for BS 17 Latest Federal Public Service Commission FPSC Management Posts Islamabad 2021 Federal Public Service Commission FPSC Islamabad, Government of Pakistan are announced CSS Competitive Examination 2019 for the positions of BS 17 required services in the Federal Government Departments are Commerce & Trade Group, Foreign Service of Pakistan, Information Group, Inland Revenue Service, Military Lands & Cantonments Group, Office Management Group, Pakistan Administrative Service, Pakistan Audit and Accounts Service, Pakistan Customs Service, Police Service of Pakistan, Postal Group, Railways Commercial & Transportation Group. Skills Required Management How to Apply on Federal Public Service Commission FPSC 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 Jobs 2018 in Lahore Latest Pakistan Railways Posts Lahore 2021 Pakistan Railways Headquarters Office Lahore requires the services of experienced, energetic and responsible personnel for the posts of Tracer, Muawan, Khakroob. 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. SAMB 502 Rahim Yar Khan Jobs 2018 for Mess Waiter Latest Pakistan Army Army jobs Posts Rahim Yar Khan 2021 SAMB 502 Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan Army, Government of Pakistan required applications from experienced and committed candidates for the posts of Mess Waiter. How to Apply on Pakistan Army 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. Themed Promoting Green Jobs for Equity and the Inclusive Growth of ASEAN Community, the meeting looked to review activities in the labour sector over the past two years and discussed measures to promote green jobs in the region. Speaking highly of the ASEAN high-level meetings adoption of declarations on jobs and those enhancing labour safety and hygiene, the labour officials underlined that this would help promote green jobs, settle environmental impacts, and build the sustainable economy towards creating more jobs and ensuring social welfare for workers. The documents will serve as a basis for ASEAN members to develop an integrated and equal society, they said. In addition, the ASEAN Consensus on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers, which has already been ratified by ASEAN leaders, was given special attention at the event. The participants lauded efforts made by all ASEAN member states, as well as the working group on compiling the ASEAN Consensus, in building and completing the regional action plan for the 2018-2025 period. They said that this is a vivid illustration of the member nations commitments to realising the consensus, overall contributing to protecting the rights of migrant workers. They also spent time reviewing and approving the ALMMs terms of references and adopted a joint statement. Staff Nurses Jobs 2018 in Saudi Arabia Latest Delta International Recruiting Agency Medical Posts Saudi Arabia 2021 A well progressive and fast growing hospital located in Saudi Arabia is looking for the services from experienced candidates to fill the posts of Staff Nurses. How to Apply on Delta International Recruiting Agency 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. Supply Depo Kharian Cantt Jobs 2018 Latest Station Supply Depo Posts Kharian 2021 Pakistan Army Station Supply Depot requires the services of experienced and responsible personnel for the posts of Upper Division Clerk, UDC, Driver in Kharian Cantt. How to Apply on Station Supply Depo 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. Speaking at the event, head of the delegation of the European Union to Vietnam Bruno Angelet noted that to enhance its energy supply while protecting the environment, Vietnam should pay heed to the role of private investment, rooftop photovoltaic systems, and appropriate reform of the countrys energy structure. Although renewable energies, like solar and wind, have attracted many foreign investors to Vietnam, there is a shortage of legal factors to support business operation in the field, he added. Furthermore, Vietnam needs a practical and comprehensive strategy to gradually reducing its use of charcoal. The EU is willing to help Vietnam switch to clean energy, while ensuring reasonable energy prices for Vietnamese people, as well as the countrys competitiveness, said Angelet. Meanwhile, World Bank (WB) Country Director for Vietnam Ousmane Dione pledged that the WB will provide support for Vietnam to bring sustainable, clean, and trustworthy energy sources with reasonable prices to all citizens, including technical and policy consultation, development assistance, and measures to minimise risks, among others. In response, Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Dang Hoang An affirmed that the country will carry out recommendations delivered at the meeting, in line with building policies and plans for energy development in the time to come. According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Vietnam recorded 40 major policy recommendations submitted by technical working groups of the VEPG. Established in June 2017, the VEPG aims to work towards effective and efficient international support to sustainable energy development in Vietnam, in line with national laws and international agreements of which Vietnam is a member. The groups five prioritised fields include renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy sector reform, energy access, and energy data and statistics. Richard Erickson, centre, donated blood for the first time in his life in the name of his friend, Grant Lalonde, right, who needed almost 200 units of blood when he suffered an aortic aneurysm in April. With the men is Lalonde's wife, Jodee. Katie Bruce scoops Chardonnay grapes from a bin as they are dumped into an auger to start making icewine at Summerhill Pyramid Estate Winery in Kelowna in this 2016 file photo. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form Sebelum Anda bermain, Anda perlu mengetahui apa yang Anda butuhkan untuk masuk ke dalam permainan roulette kasino online ini. Jika Anda sudah mendaftar di situs judi casino online dan sudah memberikan user ID, login terlebih dahulu dan pilih menu live casino yang tertera di situs judi tersebut. 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Ada 36 nomor berbeda dalam permainan populer ini di mana sebuah bola kecil diputar dan dilemparkan ke dalam mesin roulette. Anda harus menebak dari mana bola kecil itu masuk dan di nomor berapa ia berhenti. Ada banyak jenis pilihan angka dari 0-36, dan mereka dihitung secara berbeda. Sebagai agen casino terpercaya, panduan permainan roulette ini juga memberikan informasi tentang jenis pilihan dan nama permainan roulette casino online sebagai berikut: 1. Straight Up: Penempatan angka tunggal dari 0 hingga 36. Contoh perhitungan straight up adalah mengalikan taruhan dengan 35. Ini adalah jenis taruhan tertinggi dalam permainan roulette kasino, jadi 50 dikalikan dengan 35 memberi Anda 1750, mengapa jenis taruhan ini menghasilkan pengembalian yang begitu tinggi? Hal ini karena tidak mudah untuk memenangkan pilihan nomor dengan memilih hanya satu nomor dari banyak. 2. Taruhan split: Jenis taruhan yang ditempatkan pada dua angka atau di antara dua angka yang berbeda. Misalnya, menempatkan di sela-sela angka 9 dan 12 atau 13d dan 14 dihitung sebagai jenis taruhan split. Setiap nomor dapat ditempatkan dalam jenis ini selama nomor tersebut berdekatan dan persis seperti Gambar A dan B. Untuk taruhan ini, jika Anda memenangkan contoh dan mengalikannya dengan 850, Anda akan menerima jumlah taruhan yang dikalikan dengan 17. . 3. Taruhan jalanan: bertaruh dengan 3 angka ke bawah, misalnya 1,2,3 atau 10,11,12. Semua taruhan jalan akan menerima kemenangan dikalikan dengan 11. Misalnya, 50 dikalikan 550. 4. Taruhan sudut: Jenis taruhan di mana empat angka ditempatkan saling berhadapan, seperti 13,14,16,17 atau 19,20,22,23. Semua angka valid karena terdiri dari 4 angka yang diisi seperti kotak dan taruhan dikalikan 8 (misalnya 50 kali 800). 5. Taruhan baris: Atau, Anda dapat mengatakan bahwa ada 6 jenis taruhan yang terdiri dari 2 baris, tetapi 6 poin dengan 2 peregangan, seperti taruhan jalanan. Misalnya, jika Anda memilih angka 7 hingga 12 dan 13 hingga 18, taruhan 50 adalah 5 kali dan kemudian dikalikan dengan 250 kemenangan. 6. Kolom Inner Bet: Jenis taruhan vertikal dengan 12 poin berturut-turut, seperti kolom numerik 1,4,7,10,13,19,22,25,25,28,22,24,34 atau kolom lainnya. Dan jika dia memenangkan kolom, 50 taruhan digandakan dan 100 taruhan. 7. Lusin : Jenis taruhan menempatkan 12 angka tetapi menempatkannya pada kotak berbentuk seperti contoh Kolom A dengan angka 1 sampai 12 dan odds dengan kolom lain untuk dipilih dengan memilih 1 kotak pertama untuk Kolom A. Kalikan dengan 2, 50 taruhan 100. 8. Zero part : Cara bertaruh 0.1,2,3 sama persis seperti di gambar, karena berdekatan dengan angka 0, anda hanya bisa bertaruh 0.1,2,3. Menempatkan taruhan ini mengalikannya dengan 50. hingga 8. 9. Zero Corner: Bertaruh pada angka 0.1,2 atau 0.2,3 adalah dua pilihan karena Anda hanya bertaruh mendekati angka nol. Jenis taruhan ini dikalikan 11 jika taruhan menang. 10. Two Dozen: Jenis taruhan dengan hanya dua pilihan: 1-18 atau 19-36. Jika taruhan Anda adalah 50, itu dikalikan dengan 1 hingga 50 jika Anda menang. 11. Merah atau Hitam: Masukkan taruhan Anda dengan memilih Merah atau Hitam sebagai warna angka yang muncul saat taruhan 50. 12. Genap/Ganjil: Pilih angka yang menghasilkan jumlah jenis taruhan ganjil. ISIS Destroyed Thousands of Assyrian Homes, Ruined 120 Religious Sites in Mosul Iraq's Christians no longer see the Nineveh Plains as the safe heaven they once were, according to the governor of Mosul's former advisor on Christian affairs. ISIS militants captured swathes of Nineveh province in 2014 and obliged its Christian population to convert to Islam, pay a religious tax, or leave Mosul. The majority opted for the third choice, although they didn't escape ISIS rule unharmed. "ISIS militants destroyed thousands of Christian houses in the province of Mosul and ruined 120 churches and Christian shrines," said Durayed Hikmat, who advised the governor of Mosul on Christian affairs for eight years. The renovation of these properties will cost more than 15 billion dinars, Hikmat estimated. "ISIS militants kidnapped more than 100 Christians in the Hamdanya area when they came to Mosul and its surrounding areas -- only 20 of them escaped, 55 were killed, and the fate of 25 more is unknown," Hikmat said. "Some of the Christians who were captured were women," he added. "After ISIS was defeated, we tried to get some information about them. Some of them were sent to Syria and we think they are still there." According to unofficial figures, there were as many as 1.5 million Christians in Iraq in 1980s, mostly living in Baghdad, Mosul, Duhok, Erbil, Kirkuk, and Basra. But their number has been dwindling in recent years owing to consecutive conflicts. Many of them emigrated to Europe and North America. According to these figures, there currently are 250,000 to 300,000 Christians remaining in Iraq -- the majority living in the Kurdistan Region. "Mosul is an important city to Christians where there are many Christian archeological sites. But ISIS destroyed most of them," Hikmat said. "Half of the number of Christian IDPs in the Kurdistan Region have decided not to return to Mosul. They have found jobs here and sent their children to Kurdistan schools," he said. "So far, 16,000 Christian families have returned, mostly returning to Hamdanya. Only 40 families returned to the city of Mosul, who later returned to the Kurdistan Region because of the hardship they faced upon their return," Hikmat added. Many don't believe it is safe to return. "The Hashd al-Shaabi forces on the Nineveh Plains are making trouble for the return of IDPs to their places. They try to turn the people of the area into Shiites, seize the properties of Christian people, change their notaries and sell them. That is why Christians are afraid and don't feel passionate about returning to their places," Hikmat said. He goes as far as to suggest there is a regional plot to cleanse the Middle East of its Christian population. "There has been a regional plot for 10 years against Christians in the Middle East, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt. The life of Christian people is in danger and we have informed the international community of this danger. The US and France especially are making efforts to protect the Christian population in the Middle East," Hikmat said. "Throughout the Middle East, only the Christians living in the Kurdistan Region feel safe," he added. Hashd al-Shaabi has formed a Christian force called the Babilyon regiment on the Nineveh Plains to defend local Christians. The head of the force is a Christian called Rayan Kildani. However, many in the community do not feel the force represents them. 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. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. The funding is expected to benefit farmers growing high-value crops, such as coffee, peppers, grapes, dragon fruit and mangoes, in the five drought-hit provinces of Binh Thuan, Dak Lak, Dak Nong, Khanh Hoa and Ninh Thuan. Under the project, irrigation systems will be upgraded to provide water on demand, while policy measures will also be implemented to help the beneficiary provinces to improve their irrigation management. It will also support the development of improved groundwater and water productivity assessments, in addition to micro-irrigation systems based on the type of crops and farmer demand, the ADB said in a statement. The projects focus on climate resilience, particularly by providing water on-demand to farmers, will help smallholder farmers increase crop yield and boost their incomes, said ADB Senior Natural Resources Economist Sanath Ranawana. Despite roughly 50% of Vietnams arable land area being covered by irrigation, more than half of the irrigation systems remain under capacity due to outdated infrastructure, which affects the productivity of farmers in drought-affected provinces, especially given the effects of climate change. The ADBs assistance is composed of a US$100 million concessional loan and a $300,000 grant from the Climate Change Fund. The ADB will also administer another US$750,000 grant from the Netherlands Trust Fund to support the development of water resource assessments, as well as a water allocation framework, water productivity assessments, and a crop water monitoring platform. * The introduction of martial law in parts of Ukraine may lead to an escalation of tensions in the Ukrainian region of Donbass, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday (November 27). * 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. * The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) on November 27 called for restraint and dialogue to de-escalate the tensions between Ukraine and Russia in the Sea of Azov. * Voting begins in India's north-eastern state of Mizoram and central state of Madhya Pradesh for assembly elections on November 28. There are 230 assembly constituencies in Madhya Pradesh, and Mizoram has 40 assembly seats. * The White House said on November 27 that Vice President Mike Pence would attend the inauguration of Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on December 1. * Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on November 27 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. * The United Nations on November 27 called for more efforts to fight climate change as a new report showed global carbon dioxide emissions rose for the first time in four years. Total annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, including from land-use change, reached a record high of 53.5 Gigatons (Gt) in 2017, an increase of 0.7 Gt compared with 2016. * US President Donald Trump met with House Republican leaders on legislative issues, including border security, at the White House on November 27. * French President Emmanuel Macron on November 27 laid out a long-awaited government update of its ecology roadmap in which he targets to shrink the country's reliance on nuclear energy and pour more cash into renewables to switch to cleaner energy and fight climate change. * 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 US military base within the island prefecture. * Wang Qimin, Chinese Charge d'Affaires in Libya, said Tuesday that the Chinese embassy is willing to reopen in Libya if the security situation allows. * 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. * Heavy rains caused extensive flooding in Sydney on November 28, creating chaos on roads and public transport, with flights being delayed and trees and infrastructure damaged. * Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi said on Tuesday that his country is keen to boost bilateral cooperation with Saudi Arabia. Sisi's remarks came during his meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman who arrived in the North African country late on November 26. * The Greek government on November 27 called on Turkey to hold a "responsible stance" regarding energy issues in the eastern Mediterranean. * The European Union is facing tense negotiations on its next multiannual budget, and the goal to reach the agreement before the next European elections might be challenging to achieve due to various factors including Brexit, Jovita Neliupsiene, Lithuania's ambassador to the EU, said on November 27. * More than 300,000 Afghans have been internally displaced by conflict so far this year, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Afghanistan said Tuesday. South Korea's financial regulator said Wednesday it decided to fine the Seoul branch of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. 7.5 million won (US$6.66 million) for carrying out naked short selling, which is illegal here. It marked the largest fine against a financial institution for violating the rules that ban such short selling in South Korea. Market watchers had expected the Financial Services Commission (FSC) to slap a fine of up to 1 billion won against Goldman Sachs for naked short selling, which was carried out in late May. A short selling transaction was made by Goldman Sachs in late May, but about 1.3 million shares worth some 6 billion won were not delivered for settlement until two days later, according to financial authorities. At that time, Goldman Sachs issued a sell order of stocks worth 40.1 billion won without borrowing the stocks, the FSC said in a statement. Short selling, which is legal in South Korea, refers to the sale of borrowed shares in the hope of making a profit from a price fall by buying the shares back at a lower price. Naked short selling is the practice of short selling without first borrowing shares. (Yonhap) Woori Bank CEO Sohn Tae-seung / Courtesy of Woori Bank By Park Hyong-ki Finance is a field without borders, where capital can invest in and exit assets almost freely and instantly. For banks, it is important to attract long-term institutional investors for stability amid increasing volatility. To grab their attention, not only do chief executives have to show their financial companies are fundamentally strong in numbers, but also they need to be able to speak to investors in their language both casually and professionally. Everyone has a global mindset with a strong desire to be a digital innovator. But only a very few executives can communicate freely when traveling abroad to meet with potential investors in global financial hubs such as New York and Hong Kong, industry sources say. They are: Shinhan Financial Group Chairman & CEO Cho Yong-byoung and Woori Financial Group Chairman Sohn Tae-seung, the only "two true global communicators," industry sources say. Citibank Korea CEO Park Jin-hei is also a fluent English speaker. Between Sohn and Cho, Sohn is the only one who never needs a translator with professional knowledge in finance. He communicates directly with investors at meetings abroad, one of the sources said. Sohn's schedule for investor relations roadshows is going to get packed in 2019 as he is heading both Woori Bank and Woori Financial Group. This is in line with his goal to attract foreign institutional investors and increase their equity ownership in the group. Currently, foreign investors hold a 20 percent stake in the bank, which will transform into Woori Financial Group, with Woori Bank to be the flagship unit early 2019. "It's true. He doesn't ask his IR team to communicate with investors for him, even though his IR employees travel with him overseas," a Woori Bank spokesman said. He noted Woori seeks to increase foreign institutional ownership in the bank to 30 percent, given shares owned by the National Pension Service's 9 percent and the Korea Deposit Insurance Corp.'s 18 percent. A group of financial investors hold a 35 percent stake and employees have 5 percent. Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Cho Yong-byoung By Jhoo Dong-chan Korea Development Bank (KDB) has vowed to carry out intense reform of Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) to normalize the ailing shipping firm's management. KDB is HMM's largest shareholder with a 13.13 percent stake. The decision came after a due diligence submitted by Samil PricewaterhouseCoopers, which claimed HMM could be "capital impaired next year and the bailout requires at least 6 trillion won ($5.32 billion) by 2022." The due diligence also includes HMM's debt, currently estimated at 2.54 trillion won, which is likely to reach 3.32 trillion next year and eventually top 6.66 trillion won by 2022. Taking into account the shipping firm's total assets of 3.02 trillion won, HMM will face capital impairment next year. "KDB has signed an MOU with HMM to improve the firm's competitiveness. The bank will also dispatch a specialist group to help strengthen its governance," KDB said in a press release. HMM became the nation's only shipping operator after Hanjin Shipping, once Korea's largest shipping firm, went bankrupt in 2017. KDB decided not to salvage Hanjin, citing the firm's irresponsible management for nearly a decade and ruinous debts. In a bid to rescue the nation's only remaining shipping firm, the government and the state-run bank decided to inject 800 billion won into HMM to beef up its business by helping it secure large container carriers and increase its stake in Hyundai Pusan New-Port Terminal. However, the injection still falls short of the funds HMM needs to address its cash shortage issue. "The bailout does not automatically lead to strengthening the firm's competitiveness," KDB Chairman Lee Dong-geol said during a media conference earlier this month. "It also needs to improve its management while strengthening its sales to stay afloat." By Park Hyong-ki Goldman Sachs Group in New York / AP-Yonhap 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. South Korean President Moon Jae-in speaks to Korean residents in Prague at Hilton Prague Hotel, Nov. 28. Yonhap By Kim Yoo-chul PRAGUE President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump will hold a summit on the sidelines of this year's G20 summit to be held in Buenos Aires this week, according to Cheong Wa Dae and the White House, Wednesday. Trump will meet Moon right after his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the allies said. The announcement raised expectations that a possible breakthrough in stalled denuclearization talks between Washington and Pyongyang may be achieved. "There will be a summit between Moon and Trump. The exact time and venue for the meeting has not been fixed yet, but it will follow the planned Trump-Xi meeting," chief presidential press secretary Yoon Young-chan said. "The two leaders will have discussions on how to advance the stalled denuclearization talks. Moon also plans to deliver his hopes and expectations for Trump's second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un." Trump said earlier he was hoping to have another summit with Kim "early next year." Yoon declined to comment further on details to be discussed during the summit. Earlier expectations were that Moon would seek a phased and synchronized approach to the North at his planned summits during the G20 session as he hopes to take on the role of a "neutral facilitator" once again to keep the momentum of the denuclearization process alive. Moon pitched a "sanctions-easing" agenda during his recent trip to Europe. The agenda, aimed at inducing the North to accelerate its plans for nuclear disarmament, appears to have opened a long-simmering rift between Seoul and Washington amid the ongoing "maximum pressure" campaign against the North being pursued by the U.S. One Cheong Wa Dae official told The Korea Times the Moon-Trump meeting will take place Dec. 1 (KST) and added Moon is expected to urge Trump to officially declare an end to the Korean War as an "incentive" for North Korea to denuclearize. U.S. President Donald Trump and his daughter Tiffany Trump attend the 96th annual National Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony near the White House in Washington, U.S., Nov. 28, 2018. REUTERS-Yonhap By Jung Hae-myoung Forty-six Yemenis have appealed the Korean government's decision to reject their application for refugee status, the Jeju branch of the Korean Immigration Service said, Tuesday. Their objection came after the Ministry of Justice granted one-year humanitarian stay permits to 362 out of 481 Yemeni asylum seekers on Jeju Island in October, while giving refugee status to none. Twelve among those who received the stay permit and 34 who did not get it filed an appeal against the ministry. Asylum seekers who are rejected can submit an appeal within 30 days for the ministry's re-examination. If the appeal is not accepted, they can file an administrative litigation within 90 days. During the administrative suit proceeding, their stay can be extended every six months. If the legal battle continues to the Supreme Court, they can stay for up to three years. By October, the immigration authorities had screened 481 asylum seekers, allowing humanitarian stay permits to 362. Still 85 people are waiting for their results. Those who receive the permission to stay are allowed to move to other regions and get jobs. Of the 362, 227 left Jeju. They need to undergo the authorities' review every year about whether to extend the permit, which can be revoked when their country's situation improves, or when an individual is found to have a criminal record. By Kim Hyun-bin Former Gwangju Mayor Yoon Jang-hyun, who fell victim to voice phishing by sending 450 million won ($400,000) to a scammer claiming to be former first lady Kwon Yang-sook, is now under investigation over how he got the money. Yoon Jang-hyun 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. >>Full text of Xi's signed article on Spanish newspaper Mun Seok-jin, head of Seodaemun-gu Office, talks about his plans for his district in an interview with The Korea Times at his office, Nov. 19. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul An interview with the head of Seodamun-gu Office By Lee Suh-yoon, Kang Seung-woo Mun Seok-jin, 63, a third-term district head of Seodaemun-gu in northwestern Seoul, has a clear goal for his remaining three and a half years in office: revive the once-bustling neighborhood of Sinchon. "The neighborhood declined due to gentrification 15 years ago, but with the car-free road in front of Yonsei University, it is recovering slowly," Mun said at an interview in his office on Nov. 19. "Unlike Hongdae's clubbing culture, Sinchon now has its own plaza vibe, which is very youthful and dynamic. The number of visitors has jumped thanks to Yonsei-ro." Yonsei-ro is a 500-meter-long street connecting Sinchon Station on Seoul Metro Line 2 with the main gate of Yonsei University. In 2012, Seodaemun-gu Office and Seoul Metropolitan Government closed it off from private vehicles on the weekends, creating an open pedestrian space and a venue for festivals and music performances. The street is now blocked off for pedestrians only from 2 p.m. every Friday to 10 p.m. the following Sunday. "The idea for a car-free Yonsei-ro came when I visited Brazil's Curitiba, or flower street, with Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon," Mun said. "We decided to try it to create a pedestrian plaza that could host various events and attract people to Sinchon." Sinchon, the commercial area in front of Yonsei and Ewha Womans University, is a glaring example of how gentrification can bleed a neighborhood's identity dry, and drain its appeal for visitors. Skyrocketing rent chased out small businesses that had created the area's identity, replacing them with franchises and big brands that one can access anywhere else in Seoul. Mun wants to expand the car-free service to weekdays, fixing the area as the "open-air event hub" of Seoul. People enjoy the annual Sinchon Water Gun Festival in July. / Courtesy of Seodaemun-gu Office By Lee Suh-yoon Starting next year, passengers in Seoul will be able to find cabs for their furry companions, the Seoul Metropolitan Government confirmed last week. A dog enjoys a ride on his seat of a pet taxi run by private drivers. / Yonhap By Lee Suh-yoon Regional governments of Korea and China pledged to cooperate on improving air quality and fighting global warming at the second Meeting of Governors of Provinces and regions between South Korea and China held in Beijing, Tuesday. Though there have been one-on-one cooperative agreements between Korean and Chinese cities before, this is the first time such a pact was made between the representatives of regional governments of each country. "The district governments of the two nations will intensify cooperation on environmental development. Together, they will achieve sustainable development, better air quality, and proper response to global warming in cooperation with each other," the joint declaration read. Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, who attended the meeting, represented seven Korean regional governments. His counterpart Li Xiao Lin, party secretary and chairperson of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, represented 10 regional governments in China, including Beijing. "Korea and China have been longtime neighbors and friends through history, and have cemented a strategic cooperative partnership for 25 years since establishing diplomatic ties," Park said in a speech. "Now municipalities of the countries need to work towards a practical realization of the cooperation, so the relationship can take one step forward." The first conference was held in 2016 in Songdo, Korea, and mainly focused on economic and cultural cooperation. Since establishing diplomatic relations in 1992, Korea and China have initiated over 600 sister city treaties with each other. The next meeting will be held in Korea in 2020. Firefighters conduct rescue operations at the wastewater treatment plant in Busan, Wednesday. Yonhap A toxic gas leak at a wastewater treatment plant left four workers temporarily unconscious on Wednesday, authorities said. A chemical, believed to be hydrogen sulfide, leaked at around 1:08 p.m at the plant in the southern port city of Busan. Seven people, including four workers and two drivers, found at the scene were taken to various hospitals due to gas inhalation. Hydrogen sulfide is a colorless, toxic gas that emits an unpleasant odor. Inhalation of the gas can result in vomiting, dizziness and difficulty in breathing. At one point, four people fell into unconsciousness, but they recovered about an hour after being transported to hospital. Still, the four are known to have difficulty in communicating. Three others are lightly injured. When most of the victims were found lying on the factory's second floor, they were not wearing protective gear, fire officials said. "I reported the accident to fire fighters after hearing screams and someone's request to call the 119 emergency line," a factory official said. "There was an awful gas smell on the second floor." Authorities said that the gas appeared to have leaked due to an unknown chemical reaction when workers poured wastewater transported from another location into a water-collecting tank. Fire officials said they will investigate the exact cause of the accident and look into whether factory workers abided by safety guidelines in handling wastewater. (Yonhap) South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump will meet on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit in Argentina this week, the White House said Tuesday. Moon is among several leaders the U.S. president plans to meet during the two-day summit starting Friday, U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton said at a press briefing. He did not elaborate. (Yonhap) By Kim Bo-eun The Koreas will begin a joint inspection of railway facilities and systems in the North, Friday, after a months-long delay. The inspections are part of a project to connect the railways of the South and North as agreed to at inter-Korean summits this year. A train will run 2,600 kilometers across railways in the North, for 18 days. "The government plans to complete the joint inspection efficiently, in order to check the condition of the North's rail infrastructure and use the data to modernize the system," the unification ministry said. "Actual work on connecting the railways will begin according to progress in the North's denuclearization," it said. Sanctions on Pyongyang bar construction work from beginning. The ministry said the government will continue discussion with the North on holding a groundbreaking ceremony on connecting the railways within the year, as leaders of the Koreas agreed at their third summit. Six South Korean carriages and a locomotive will depart from Dorasan Station at around 8:30 a.m., where an event will be held. The ministers of unification, as well as land, infrastructure and transport, and lawmakers of the ruling and opposition parties will attend the event at Dorasan Station. After arriving at Panmun Station at 9 a.m., a North Korean locomotive will take the six South Korean carriages to the North. The government has yet to be notified by the North how many North Korean carriages will be added to the train. Officials will begin examining the train line along the west coast first. Inspections for the line spanning 400 kilometers from Gaeseong through Pyongyang to Sinuiju will take six days. The train will return to Pyongyang and then head to the east coast. From Anbyon, the train will pick up officials to inspect 800 kilometers of train tracks, which will take another 10 days from Dec. 8 to 17. After inspections are completed, the train will return to Gaeseong, where a South Korean locomotive will take the train back to Seoul. Twenty-eight officials from the South will take part in the inspections, including officials from the unification and land ministries, and of the Korea Railroad Corporation and Korea Rail Network Authority. The team from the North is expected to be similar in size, and represent similar government bodies and institutions. Earlier in 2007, the Koreas conducted an on-site inspection of the train tracks between Kaesong and Sinuiju. The inspections this time will enable officials to check how the facilities and systems have held up over the past decade. It will be the first time a South Korean train will run on North Korea's eastern train line from Mount Geumgang to the Tumen River. The joint inspection of the railway sections in the North is based on agreements reached between President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at their first and third summits in April and September. The Koreas held their first meeting on carrying out the agreement in June. The inspections had initially been planned to take place in July, but were delayed for months, due to issues involving United Nations Security Council (UNSC) sanctions on the North. A recent working group meeting between South Korean and U.S. officials on North Korea agreed to push forward with the plan, and the sanctions issue was cleared as the UNSC granted exemptions. The South will send 50 tons of pest control chemicals to the North today, according to a forestry cooperation agreement, the unification ministry said. The chemicals to control pine tree diseases are not subject to UNSC sanctions on the North, it said. President Moon Jae-in and first lady Kim Jung-sook walk toward a car after arriving at the Vaclav Havel Airport Prague in the Czech Republic for a two-day visit, Wednesday (KST). Yonhap By Kim Yoo-chul PRAGUE President Moon Jae-in asked the Czech Republic Prime Minister Andrej Babis to support a South Korean firm's bid to build a nuclear power plant in the European country, Wednesday (KST). The nuclear project was a key topic at Moon's meeting with Babis, presidential aides said. Moon arrived here early Wednesday en route to Buenos Aires to participate in the G20 summit later this week. "Moon delivered his hope for Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co's (KHNP) bid to win a nuclear reactor deal in the central European country," an aide said on condition of anonymity. Moon previously promised to provide assistance to KHNP as the government has come under pressure to help domestic nuclear reactor suppliers remain internationally competitive in its plan to gradually phase out its nuclear reactors. President Moon Jae-in, right, and first lady Kim Jung-sook pray at St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague, Czech Republic, Wednesday. Yonhap President Moon visits St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague, Czech Republic, Wednesday. Yonhap The Czech Republic is considering lots of options on nuclear energy after the country's main nuclear reactors slowly approach the end of their lifespan. Whether and how to finance their replacement is being discussed by the Czech government and the country's state-owned energy group CEZ. The aide said Moon remained "low-key" on the matter due to growing criticism about his "nuclear reactor sales diplomacy" from politicians in South Korea and the ongoing debate on the specifics of new nuclear reactor projects, here. President Moon speaks to the Czech Republic Prime Minister Andrej Babis during the two countrires' summit at Hilton Prague Hotel, Nov, 28. Yonhap "Once the details of new nuclear projects are fixed, then the Czech government will initiate its bidding process. South Korea is ready to help KHNP; however, it's too early to help the firm," the aide said. Given the huge costs of building new reactors, CEZ's leadership has been reluctant to embark on such a project without state guarantees, as minority shareholders are opposed to the idea of CEZ building new nuclear plants on its own, as they fear it will hit their dividend payments. This will be one of the most expensive decisions facing Babis' government, according to foreign media reports. Building new reactors would cost at least $6 billion. Currently there are six interested companies and consortia on including ones from China, Russia, France and the United States. President Moon greets officials who accompanied the Czech Republic leader ahead of the summit. Yonhap Cheong Wa Dae said Moon and Babis discussed new growth opportunities in emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and the internet of things. Babis was also briefed on the current status of the ongoing denuclearization process and appreciated the South's efforts to promote peace. After the summit with Babis, Moon met with South Koreans living in the Czech Republic to urge them to continue being a bridge between the two countries. Linda Paul, director of the Ocean Law & Policy institute of the Pacific Forum, gives a keynote speech at an international seminar, Nov. 22, themed "Beyond East Asian Maritime Conflict," organized by the Society of Ieodo Research in Jeju. / Korea Times photo by Park Ji-won By Park Ji-won JEJU ISLAND An American lawyer has called on Korea, China and Japan to come up with joint measures to protect marine areas, especially around Ieodo, to deal with climate change. This is also because the submerged rock near Jeju Island is becoming a source of diplomatic tension among the countries, according to Linda M.B. Paul, director of the Ocean Law & Policy institute of the Pacific Forum, a Hawaii-based institution. She spoke to The Korea Times on the sidelines of an international forum hosted last week by the Society of Ieodo Research on Jeju Island. She has been serving as working manager in various channels as a negotiator to tackle sea-related disputes. The rock has been at the center of a dispute between Korea and China since 1996 as it is located in overlapping exclusive economic zones (EEZs) for both countries. Tensions have been intensifying following China's ambition to expand its territory in the region in a battle with the United States for supremacy. Paul said the discussion should be multilateral, not bilateral, because there is "too much distrust" between the countries. Criticizing the present leaders in several countries, such as China's Xi Jinping, U.S.' Donald Trump and Philippines' Rodrigo Duterte for their one-on-one negotiation strategy, she said "it is all going downhill because there is no trust anymore." Introducing a recently submerged island in Hawaii, she emphasized the sea level rise caused by climate change could be everybody's problem and urged countries to start discussions to come up with measures. "We just lost an island last week. It was important because on this particular island was where almost all green sea turtles lay their eggs which means all the eggs were gone. Everything is gone. East Asia has experienced a lot of this lately too." Paul said it is time to introduce a code of conduct. "It is not going to happen right away," she said. "China and ASEAN are already discussing a code of conduct. And there are other models, one would be FAO fisheries' code of conduct. And that took many years. It is not something that happens fast." She stressed the importance of the ocean environment over territorial disputes and suggested making the rock a symbol of maritime protection. "Forget the United States and China have a dispute. It affects everybody. Regarding Ieodo Island, I think I would like to see South Korea consult with other East Asian countries about setting aside Ieodo area as a marine protected area and a particular sensitive sea area." "This has all of that area that has many species, much diversity, much habitat. Even if the seas came up, six feet, it would still have great value." A model of a yurt, a portable round tent used in Kazakhstan, is on view at "Kazakhstan the Cradleland of the 'Golden Man'" exhibition in the National Museum of Korea in central Seoul, Monday. Yonhap By Kwon Mee-yoo Kazakhstan, a Central Asian country and former Soviet republic, is less known in Korea, but is a vast country full of rich cultural heritage on the territory over 26 times larger than South Korea. "Kazakhstan the Cradleland of the 'Golden Man,'" a special exhibition at the National Museum of Korea (NMK), dedicated to the near yet far Central Asian country in collaboration with the National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Bae Ki-dong, director general of NMK, said this exhibition is going to provide the beginning of understanding between the two countries. "Kazakhstan is where the East meets the West and gives a glimpse into how exchanges between different cultures began. This is the first major exhibition introducing Kazakhstani culture and tradition in Korea," Bae said during a press conference, Monday. The exhibit features some 458 pieces from the Kazakhstani flagship museum and is part of its tour around the world, with destinations such as Russia, China, Poland, Japan and Turkey. "Korea and Kazakhstan have been strengthening their relationship thanks to some 100,000 ethnic Koreans in Kazakhstan. We hope this special exhibition is the beginning of future cooperation between the two countries," Abay Satubaldin, deputy director of the National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan, said. The exhibit begins with "Gyerim-ro Dagger," a golden dagger excavated from a tomb in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, dating back to the sixth century Silla Kingdom (BC 57-935). "You might wonder why we started this exhibit from a relic found in Korea, but this dagger is assumed to have come from Central Asia, considering its double-bladed style and the alloy ratio. So this dagger serves as a great example of interchanges between the East and the West, so we brought this dagger to open the exhibition," NMK curator Kang Kun-woo said. Reconstruction of Saka chieftain's clothing in "Kazakhstan the Cradleland of the 'Golden Man'" exhibition / Courtesy of National Museum of Korea According to the World Health Organization, Poland has some of the most air polluted areas on the planet, ranking alongside places with infamously bad air such as Beijing and New Delhi. Poland has some of the most polluted air on the planet. Coal produces around 80 percent of the country's energy, though the government wants to halve this figure by 2050. University of Silesia researchers are testing air quality, taking to the skies of Katowice in a hot-air balloon with measuring equipment. Handout photo taken and released on November 27, 2018 by environmental organization Greenpeace, shows a Greenpeace activist after he climbed a 180 metre-high chimney at Poland's Belchatow coal-fired power plant Belchatow. AFP via Greenpeace POST DOCTORAL RESEARCHER AND COORDINATOR OF AIR MONITORING PROJECT AT UNIVERSITY OF SILESIA, MARIOLA JABLONSKA, SAYING: "The smallest particles enter the respiratory system and they have an impact on our health, so knowing the composition and amount of the pollutants' particles in the air is very important." A 2016 World Health Organization report found that 33 of the 50 most-polluted places in the EU were in Poland, mostly in the country's south. Katowice, which lies at the heart of Poland's coal country, is one of them. The local mayor wants residents to be aware of the relationship between what they use to keep their houses warm and their health. MARCIN KRUPA, MAYOR OF KATOWICE, SAYING: "Everyone has someone who worked in the mines or still works in the mines, so there are certain mining traditions that have been uninterrupted for many, many years. And now breaking this impasse by the necessity of switching to another source of energy is a bit difficult. But through this education, we see that it succeeds. We see it more and more often that a grandchild asks their grandmother or grandfather: 'Why are you burning this, not something else? You see the smoke coming out of chimney and this smoke is bad for us.' And people are becoming more and more aware." In this Nov. 21, 2018 photo a miner passes by a lorry at at the Wujek coal mine in Katowice, in Poland's southern mining region of Silesia. The mining industry has long been a source of pride and employment for generations of Silesians. For decades, its rich seams of hard, black coal were used to heat homes and provide electricity across Poland. AP Earlier this month the government approved regulations that aim to ban the dirtiest coal. But the change will only take effect in 2020. President highlights cooperation, historical connections with Spain President Xi Jinping arrived in Madrid on Tuesday, kicking off the first visit by a Chinese head of state to Spain in 13 years. Upon his arrival in the Spanish capital, Xi said in a written statement that expanding pragmatic cooperation between China and Spain will not only bring benefits to the people of both countries, but also contribute to global peace and prosperity. The president said that he will meet with Spanish leaders and exchange views on bilateral relations and issues of joint concern to both nations to promote the China-Spain comprehensive strategic partnership. In a signed article published on Tuesday in the Spanish newspaper ABC, Xi said a major aim of his trip to Europe and Latin America and his attendance at the G20 Summit in Argentina is to discuss with leaders of major economies ways to strengthen unity of the international community and improve global governance. Xi said he is glad to have Spain, a beautiful country rich in natural resources, as the first stop of his trip. The nine-day trip will also bring him to Argentina, Panama and Portugal. Though geographically far apart, Xi said China and Tarragona in Spain were first connected over 2,000 years ago via the ancient Silk Road, and were drawn to each other's culture. Bilateral relations between the two countries have endured the test of international vicissitudes since diplomatic ties were established 45 years ago, Xi said. China and Spain have always respected and treated each other as equals, and conducted mutually beneficial cooperation to push forward the sound and stable development of their relationship, he added. The past years have been a period of deepening mutual trust, increasingly close contacts and a blending of cultures, he said. The president said he is willing to have extensive contacts with the leaders and people of all circles in Spain during his visit in order to create a better and brighter future for bilateral ties. To this end, he suggested the two countries consolidate the political foundation of their relationship, strengthen alignment of their development strategies, deepen pragmatic cooperation, expand people-to-people exchanges and maintain close cooperation in international affairs. This year marks the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Europe, and deepening this partnership is in line with the common interests of both sides under the current situation, the president said. China hopes and believes that Spain, as China's good friend and good partner in the European Union, will continue to play an active role in pushing forward the sound and stable development of China-Europe relations, he said. Jincheng, a town in northern China's Shanxi province, has made noticeable efforts to improve its environment by curbing its polluting industries, but it hasn't completely cleaned up the mess. Mr. Gao, a local shepherd who tends a flock of sheep blackened by the soot from nearby coal mines and plants that have since closed, said that things have improved in recent years. "Before, it all used to burn and stink. Everything was polluted. It burned and stank." said Gao. Despite efforts to close dozens of local collieries and chemical plants, the city still failed to meet environmental targets set by the central government. The city came short of meeting its target of cutting concentrations of lung-damaging PM2.5 particles by 10 percent last winter, and recorded 1,819 pollution violations, the most of the 28 cities. After it was ranked the worst performer among 28 northern cities forced to impose special pollution measures, its mayor was summoned to Beijing in April to come up with an explanation. While he admitted embarrassment, he told officials that the pollution cuts were hurting the city's economy. Despite obvious measures taken to clean up the city's coal operation, such as putting roofs over polluting coal mines, the legacy of the industry has sunk deeply into the lives of residents. Zhang Haibin, a 44-year old farmer living in a largely abandoned hamlet on the edge of a defunct coal deposit, said that despite the closure of the nearby mines, his house is literally falling apart. "(Closing the mines) was useless. There are cracks everywhere, just like in this house. And this house started getting cracks long ago. This is what opening up a coal mine did to us," he said, pointing to the many cracks that riddle his home. A chimney stands next to an empty road in Jincheng, Shanxi province, China November 12, 2018. Picture taken November 12, 2018. Reuters While surviving mines have benefited from the closure of smaller rivals, coal-dependent businesses - including local truckers - are struggling with higher compliance costs and intense competition. Though less labour-intensive, gas has now emerged as the major bright spot for the city, with its seams rich in coalbed methane (CBM), which has replaced coal as a source of heating for many outlying villages. "We are in that transition mode, and clearly in transition, you have a bit of growing pains, but the transition is irreversible, said Randeep Grewal, chairman of Greka, which has drilled more than 4,500 CBM wells in Jincheng. Beijing has promised a more business-friendly campaign this year, but Jincheng is under greater scrutiny after last year's failures, and leniency is unlikely. Jincheng's coal districts are now in a state of siege as inspectors scour mines, washeries, chemical plants and storage depots for violations. Workers gather at the entrance to a coal washing plant in Jincheng, Shanxi province, China November 13, 2018. Picture taken November 13, 2018. Reuters On Monday (November 19), inspectors discovered 19 firms had failed to follow guidelines to restrict output during a smog outbreak last week, the latest in a series of problems uncovered in Jincheng throughout the year. Ma Jun, a Beijing-based environmental campaigner, said that many cities in Shanxi rank the lowest when it comes to law enforcement because their governments lack the resources to adequately regulate polluters. China has made efforts to cut the share of coal in total energy use, with the figure expected to drop to 58 percent by 2020, down more than 10 percentage points in a decade. It has also already met a 2020 target to cut the amount of carbon dioxide it emits per unit of growth. (Reuters) By Park Yoon-bae It is interesting to read a news story about former U.S. President Jimmy Carter's push for a pullout or reduction of American troops from South Korea in the late 1970s. We Koreans have known relations between Seoul and Washington deteriorated because Carter tried to implement his campaign promise to withdraw U.S. troops from Korea. Let's take a brief look at a transcript of an hour-long conversation between Carter and then South Korean President Park Chung-hee during their meeting in Seoul on June 30, 1979. Last week, Korea's semi-official Yonhap News Agency reported on the content of the transcript found and released by James F. Person, a professor of Korean studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. The transcript confirmed our perception that the two presidents were poles apart over the troop issue, as well as the human rights situation in South Korea then. "I can't promise that we will freeze forces levels," Carter told Park. And he questioned the South's commitment to a hike in its defense budget to counter the North's rapid military buildup. But Park made clear his strong opposition to the withdrawal of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), telling Carter U.S. troops should stay for the time being because the North's military was superior to that of the South. He warned of miscalculation on the part of North Korea. What draws more attention is another White House document detailing Carter's secret drive for a three-way dialogue between the two Koreas and the U.S. to ease tension on the Korean Peninsula, in a bid to create an atmosphere conducive to making good on his troop pullout promise. From the early months of his tenure in 1977, Carter pushed for such a tripartite session, believing an inter-Korean detente could lay the groundwork for eventual troop withdrawal. He even selected Jakarta, Indonesia, as the venue for the planned meeting of senior officials from the three countries. The plan was evident in a note his national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski sent to then Secretary of State Cyrus Vance on Aug. 5, 1977. The note reads: "The President has read your paper concerning possible trilateral discussions between North Korea, South Korea and the United States, and has indicated that you should proceed to implement the suggested steps." But the dialogue plan fell apart as Pyongyang showed no interest. Imagine what would have happened if such talks had taken place and Carter had succeeded in withdrawing U.S. troops from the South, or at least cutting back their numbers. It is, of course, meaningless to dwell too much on such a historical "what if." Yet Carter's troop pullout drive and his human rights diplomacy might have affected the downfall of the dictatorial Park regime one way or another. Park, a general-turned-dictator, seized power by staging a military coup on May 16, 1961. After that, the strongman tightened his grip on power with the ambition to become president-for-life. But about four months after meeting Carter, Park was assassinated by Kim Jae-gyu, then director of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency. There was speculation that Park pressed ahead with a secret program to develop nuclear weapons in preparation for a potential withdrawal of U.S. troops. As he told Carter, Park was well aware the USFK could not stay in Korea forever. This might have allegedly made Park consider a clandestine nuclear program. Now, we Koreans need to think about what role the USFK should play, particularly in case the two Koreas and the U.S. and possibly with China sign a peace treaty after the North dismantles its nuclear arsenal as promised by its leader Kim Jong-un. Some critics argue the U.S. would never remove its forces from the South, to protect its own geopolitical and security interests in the region. They also say the U.S. wants its military presence here more than the host country does. It is true that Washington is using its Asian ally as a strategic outpost to contain a rising China, although President Donald Trump once called South Korea a "free rider" in the bilateral defense alliance. (Actually, South Korea is not a free rider as it shares the cost of stationing 28,000 U.S. troops here. Currently Seoul pays 960 billion won ($850 million), or about half the total cost.) Yet no one can rule out the possibility of a USFK pullout when a lasting peace regime is in place on the peninsula, or when South Korea loses its strategic value. And if we can afford to maintain peace on our own, we have no reason to host foreign troops on our soil. Park Yoon-bae (byb@koreatimes.co.kr) is the chief editorial writer of The Korea Times. By Troy Stangarone About two weeks ago, North Korea tested a new weapons system that state media described as a "newly developed ultramodern tactical weapon." While there is speculation that the test is an attempt to pressure the United States in talks over the dismantlement of North Korea's nuclear weapons, the test also highlights an important question. What will North Korea's military look like after the dismantlement of its nuclear program? While North Korea has been coy about the nature of the test, under Kim Jong-un it has sought to develop more modern weaponry. In recent years, Pyongyang has worked to extend the range of its artillery and develop the capability to launch ballistic missiles from a submarine. It has also sought to move into high tech weaponry with the deployment of drones and robust cyber capabilities. Even with these advances, absent its nuclear deterrent North Korea would likely feel compelled to develop more modern conventional forces to offset the loss of its nuclear capabilities. For much of its existence, North Korea has focused on numerical superiority and asymmetric means to defend against the technologically superior forces of the United States and South Korea to defend the regime. With 1.3 million North Koreans under arms, including 200,000 special forces, North Korea has the world's fourth-largest military. According to South Korea's Ministry of National Defense, the North Korean People's Army also has 4,300 tanks, 1,800 more than South Korea. These forces are augmented with 8,600 artillery pieces and over 5,500 multiple rocket launcher systems, the artillery that threatens Seoul. Despite recent efforts to modernize its equipment, North Korea's conventional forces were underfunded as it pushed to develop its nuclear and missile program. A recent report by the U.S. Department of Defense concluded that North Korea had not kept pace with changes in regional militaries and is largely dependent on legacy systems based on technology from or built in the Soviet Union and China up until the 1970s. While North Korea has sought to develop its own tanks, for example, its most advanced tank, the Pokpung-ho, is believed to only be able to penetrate modern tanks from the flank or the rear. In a frontal assault they would not be able to take on U.S. or South Korean tanks. North Korea's air and naval forces also continue to be made up of aging legacy systems. While North Korea is estimated to have over 800 fighter aircraft, its most recent purchase was Kazakh MiG21s in 1999. To compensate for the deterioration of its air capabilities, North Korea has sought to improve its air defense systems. Similarly, it may seek to offset the disadvantage of its limited naval forces by improving its anti-ship missiles. While North Korea could bring significant force to bear in a conflict, it is clear that its ability to launch or deter an attack without nuclear weapons would be limited. If an agreement is reached to dismantle North Korea's nuclear programs, we should expect Pyongyang to undertake a military modernization to compensate for the loss of its nuclear forces, with China and Russia as potential suppliers of new weapons. This would likely entail a move into more modern weaponry for its ground forces, with upgrades for its air and naval forces as well. North Korea would also likely look to augment it is growing cyber capabilities and usage of drones and other high-tech weaponry. This of course raises the question of proliferation. Free of sanctions and allowed to purchase new military hardware, North Korea's conventional forces would not only grow in strength but have new opportunities to sell its own equipment abroad. As Dr. Bruce Bechtol has recently documented in a new book, "North Korean Military Proliferation in the Middle East and Africa," North Korea even under sanctions has a fairly robust arms trade with Syria, Iran, and countries in Africa. While North Korea could look to become a legitimate low cost, high quality international arms dealer, it cannot be discounted that it would seek to grow its relationship with more questionable states. If North Korea does dismantle its nuclear weapons, a substantial portion of its missiles, and potentially its other weapons of mass destruction, it would be unrealistic to assume that it would be content to defend itself with a military that has a significant disadvantage and risk the Finlandization of the regime's foreign policy. Although no state would be likely to attack North Korea, such an outcome would potentially be internally fatal to the regime's survival. The military agreement from the last inter-Korean summit is one part of the discussion of North Korea's future force posture. However, if the United States, South Korea, and the other powers in the region want the denuclearization process to proceed successfully, reaching an understanding on the future force structure of the North Korean military will likely have to be part of any deal. Troy Stangarone (ts@keia.org) is the senior director of congressional affairs and trade at the Korea Economic Institute. Violence reflects deep distrust in judiciary A disgruntled farmer's firebomb attack Tuesday on the car of Chief Justice Kim Myeong-su is blatantly in defiance of the rule of law. Whatever the reason, such violence cannot and should not be tolerated under any circumstances. The incident took place at 9:05 a.m. when the 74-year-old farmer, identified as Nam, threw a Molotov cocktail at Kim's sedan which was entering the Supreme Court in southern Seoul. One of the back tires of the car caught fire, but security guards immediately extinguished it. Fortunately Kim sustained no injuries. It was shocking to see the footage of the suspect rushing toward the car, lighting the Molotov cocktail and hurling it at the vehicle. In just a second, the tire went up in flames. This attack was the first of its kind targeting the head of the Supreme Court, although there has been a similar case targeting a judge. In 2007, a university professor fired a crossbow at a senior judge of the Seoul High Court. The professor perpetrated the attack out of a grudge that the judge turned down his appeal that his school unfairly refused to renew his employment contract. At that time, the case, called "crossbow terror," surprised the people who believed such a violent act could only be seen in movies. The crossbow attack paled in comparison with Tuesday's incident. Nam told the police he carried out the attack because he lost his court battle against the National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service (NAQS) which refused to reissue the eco-friendly certification for the pig feed he had developed. According to investigators, Nam had been staging a one-man protest in front of the Supreme Court since Sept. 20. Both district and high courts rejected his claim for compensation for the losses allegedly caused by the NAQS. Anyone can protest a court decision. But such protest should be made within legal boundaries. Otherwise, any society could be plunged into chaos and cannot uphold the rule of law one of the most important pillars buttressing democracy. We have to take notice of the violent attack because it occurred amid the public's deep distrust in the judiciary which has come under criticism for abuse of power under the leadership of former Chief Justice Yang Sung-tae. The ongoing investigation is closing in on Yang as he and other senior justices allegedly used trials as bargaining chips in the top court's dealings with the presidential office of former President Park Geun-hye. Now the judiciary should take radical steps to regain the people's trust. It must push for reform to be reborn as the last bulwark of justice. For this, judges and justices ought to make all-out efforts to make rulings in a fair and objective manner. If they fail to do so, they cannot prevent a repetition of the firebombing. More seriously, the nation cannot ensure the rule of law. By Jun Ji-hye The Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Election Commission (NEC) will complete the development of a blockchain-based voting system next month in a bid to raise reliability and security of online voting services, the ministry said Wednesday. The technology fundamentally prevents forgery or falsification of voting results. It also enables candidates and election observers to have access to data, saved on the blockchain system, to check the results with their own eyes, the ministry noted. The ministry will also run trial services, such as surveys, to verify the blockchain-based online voting system. The ministry has been pushing for the project since June in cooperation with the election watchdog. The ministry said the new system will apply blockchain technology in every stage of online voting from voter authentication to verification of voting results. Based on the results of the trial services, the ministry and the NEC will apply the technology to the latter's online voting system, dubbed K-Voting. "We expect the blockchain-based voting system to enhance reliability of voting," said Kim Jeong-won, a ministry official. "The ministry will continue to support the application of blockchain technology to actively utilize it in areas that require reliability." The NEC said it will also give efforts to improve voting services by integrating technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution such as artificial intelligence, big data and internet of things. Blockchain refers to a peer-to-peer network where many people participate to provide computing power for the security of the decentralized system. It has a built-in payment system, well-known examples of which involve bitcoin and Ethereum. 'Made by AI' / Courtesy of Handsome South Korean fashion company Handsome said Wednesday it will release the country's first clothes designed with artificial intelligence technology. Handsome, an affiliate of Hyundai Department Store Group, said it joined forces with Designovel to create new patterns for clothes released under the SJYP brand. Designovel is a startup specializing in AI fashion technology. The fashion company said the first product, dubbed Dino Hood Tee, is printed with an image of a dinosaur and toy blocks designed by Designovel's program, Style AI. The graphic was based on 330,000 images, including characters and logos, provided by Handsome. Style AI utilizes a convolutional neural network, which is an image processing technology to modify patterns. Handsome said it will review whether the AI technology can be applied in other areas of its fashion business. (Yonhap) Kolon Group Chairman Lee Woong-yeul shakes hands with an employee after announcing his resignation at Kolon One&Only Tower in Magok-dong, Seoul, Wednesday. / Courtesy of Kolon Group By Nam Hyun-woo Kolon Group Chairman Lee Woong-yeul will step down as the head of the mid-tier family-controlled conglomerate to pursue a new career, he said Wednesday. His resignation, effective Jan. 1, 2019, is interpreted as the beginning of a generation shift in leadership, as his 35-year-old son gets promoted to the chief operating officer (COO) of the group's flagship Kolon Industries. According to Kolon Group, Lee will resign from all of his posts within the group, including the group chairmanship, board membership and others at holding firm Kolon Corp. and Kolon Industries, effective from Jan. 1. The resignation was unexpected as Lee announced his intention in an unscheduled speech to some 200 employees on Wednesday. Soon after the speech, he sent letters to the entire staff to make his resignation official. "Afterwards, I will not be involved in the management of Kolon, and this year would be the last time I hear Mr. Chairman from you," Lee said in the letter. "I decided to leave Kolon because this could be the last chance for me to have such courage. I will return as young Lee Woong-yeul and become an entrepreneur creating new companies using my experience and expertise." Lee took chairmanship of Kolon in January 1996 and has led the group for more than 20 years, advancing in overseas markets and expanding its textile and chemical-centric portfolio to embrace drug making and new materials. Under his leadership, Kolon TissueGene developed Invossa, a cell and gene therapy which is under phase three of a clinical trial in the U.S. In April, Kolon Industries completed facilities for colorless polyimide film, which will be a key material for foldable displays. However, he said he realized he no longer has a vision to lead the company in the era of future technology. "Though we have pledged innovation in every New Year ceremony, no major changes have been made compared to 10 years ago," Lee said. "This is the right time for me to leave. You (employees) also have to understand now is the time for change." Kolon Industries FnC Division Chief Operating Officer Lee Kyu-ho In this file photo taken on Nov. 8, 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump, and Chinese President Xi Jinping pose at the Forbidden City in Beijing. Chinese Ambassador to Washington Cui Tiankai said China will retaliate "in proportion" if the United States sanctions its top official in the restive region of Xinjiang over alleged human rights abuses. AFP China will retaliate "in proportion" if the United States sanctions its top official in the restive region of Xinjiang over alleged human rights abuses, China's ambassador to the United States said on Tuesday, adding that Beijing's policies in the region are to "re-educate" terrorists. Chinese Ambassador to Washington Cui Tiankai told Reuters in an interview that China's efforts to combat international terrorism are held to a double standard, comparing Chinese actions in Xinjiang to U.S. troops battling Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. "Can you imagine (if) some American officials in charge of the fight against ISIS would be sanctioned?" Cui said, adding "if such actions are taken, we have to retaliate." Cui did not elaborate on specific actions China might take. Beijing has faced an outcry from activists, academics, foreign governments and U.N. rights experts over mass detentions and strict surveillance of the mostly Muslim Uighur minority and other Muslim groups in Xinjiang. In August, a United Nations human rights panel said it had received many credible reports that a million or more Uighurs in China are being held in what resembles a "massive internment camp that is shrouded in secrecy". U.S. officials have said the Trump administration is considering sanctions targeting companies and officials linked to China's crackdown on minority Muslims, including Xinjiang Party Secretary Chen Quanguo, who, as a member of the powerful politburo, is in the upper echelons of China's leadership. Cui said that while the United States was using missiles and drones to kill terrorists, "we are trying to re-educate most of them, trying to turn them into normal persons (who) can go back to normal life," Cui said. "We'll see what will happen. We will do everything in proportion," he said, responding to a question on how China would retaliate to possible U.S. sanctions on Chen. Cui's comments are the strongest response yet to U.S. threats on the issue. Any such U.S. sanctions decision against so senior an official as Chen would be a rare move on human rights grounds by the Trump administration, which is engaged in a trade war with China while also seeking Beijing's help to resolve a standoff over North Korea's nuclear weapons. U.S. sanctions could be imposed under the Global Magnitsky Act, a federal law that allows the U.S. government to target human rights violators around the world with freezes on any U.S. assets, U.S. travel bans, and prohibitions on Americans doing business with them, U.S. officials have said. Chinese authorities routinely deny any ethnic or religious repression in Xinjiang. They say strict security measures ? likened by critics to near martial law conditions, with police checkpoints, the detention centers, and mass DNA collection ? are needed to combat the influence of extremist groups. After initial blanket denials of the detention facilities, officials have said that some citizens guilty of "minor offences" were sent to vocational centers to improve employment opportunities. At a briefing in Washington on Monday, a Uighur woman, Mihrigul Tursun, 29, told reporters she had experienced physical and psychological torture, including electrocution while strapped to a chair, during 10 months in Xinjiang detention centers. Tursun, who wept and shook as a translator read her prepared statement, said her three children were taken from her while she was in detention and that her four-month-old son had died without explanation in government custody. Rejecting Chinese government claims that the detention facilities serve vocational purposes, she said many of the dozens of other women in her cell were "well-educated professionals, such as teachers and doctors." Tursun said she witnessed nine women die during one three-month period she spent in detention, including from sickness after being denied medical treatment. Reuters could not independently verify her account, though numerous former detainees have begun to share similar first-hand details with media. China's embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tursun's statement. Independent assessments of the conditions in Xinjiang are nearly impossible given restrictions on journalists from openly reporting from the region. U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet has called on China to allow monitors in Xinjiang, though Beijing has responded by telling her to respect China's sovereignty. (Reuters) 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. 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 In an industry that's been plagued with inclusivity problems (read: an industry that's kept women and people of color out of high-powered jobs for decades), this week has so far delivered some deserved breaks for three film and television creatives. On Monday, news broke that Amazon Studios signed an exclusive first-look contract with Viola Davis' production company, JuVee Productions. The same day brought word that Domee Shi, the first woman to direct an Oscar-nominated short film (Bao, 2018) is on track to direct her first feature film for Pixar. And the next day, Deadline reported that Ava DuVernay signed a $100 million overall deal with Warner Bros. Television Group. This comes after a year that demonstrated no change when it comes to diversity behind the camera, according to Annenberg Inclusivity Initiative. Researchers at the University of Southern California think tank reported in July that among 2017's top-grossing films, just 7.3 percent of directors, 10.1 percent of writers and 18.2 percent of producers were female. The industry's track record for people of color was even worse: just 5.5 percent of directors were Black or African American last year, and only one among that group was female. Both DuVernay and JuVee Productions released statements about the collaborations via Twitter. We're beyond excited about our new relationship with @AmazonStudios. We share the same vision of creating a vast and rich array of narratives that are inclusive and reflective of our world. -@ViolaDavis & #JuliusTennon https://t.co/eoZLONbzSV JuVee Productions (@JuVeeProds) November 26, 2018 Warner Bros is a terrific partner on matters of visibility + belonging for all kinds + cultures of people, which is our mission at Forward Movement. Couldnt be happier to call Warner Bros TV my production home. Thanks for the love and light, folks. Really appreciated. xo, A. pic.twitter.com/5ndgbJd3qL Ava DuVernay (@ava) November 27, 2018 Maybe, just maybe, things are starting to change. You made it! Congrats, you read the entire story, you gorgeous human. This story was made possible by generous people like you. Independent, local journalism costs $$$$$. And now that LAist is part of KPCC, we rely on that support. So if you aren't already, be one of us! Help us help you live your best life in Southern California. Donate now. Freely accessible local news is vital. Please power our reporters and help keep us independent with a donation today. Start your day with LAist Sign up for the Morning Brief, delivered weekdays. Subscribe Gear up your camera and start composing your Insta caption, because folks, it's expected to rain in Los Angeles this week. A storm started rolling through Washington and Oregon on Monday, making its way down to Northern California on Tuesday. In its wake, a second storm is headed to L.A. on Wednesday evening and into Thursday, and rain may continue into Friday and Saturday. As per usual, expect many a moody, thoughtful photo of water droplets on windows and windshields -- and even more rage-filled cursing of Angelenos' alleged inability to drive during such weather. But while social media battles it out for Most Profound Rain Content, more concerning and serious issues may arise IRL. Rain leads to mudslides and flash flooding, and burn areas could be affected. That means folks who are just recovering from the Woolsey and Hill fires are now looking at the possibility of rain washing away debris. The National Weather Service adds that the Pacific Coast Highway may be at risk for flooding, and that preliminary downfall is expected to total 0.5 to 2 inches. And for those really wondering if L.A. is the only place full of bad drivers in bad weather, newsflash: it's not true. We are staunchly average. You made it! Congrats, you read the entire story, you gorgeous human. This story was made possible by generous people like you. Independent, local journalism costs $$$$$. And now that LAist is part of KPCC, we rely on that support. So if you aren't already, be one of us! Help us help you live your best life in Southern California. 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 Outgoing L.A. County Sheriff Jim McDonnell expressed concern Tuesday that his successor will "backslide" on reforms that were achieved during his tenure, and refused to rule out running for sheriff in the future. In his first public remarks since conceding the election on Monday, McDonnell told a news conference he was "disappointed" that he lost, but added he "couldn't be more proud" of what he'd accomplished over his four-year term. McDonnell hands over power next Monday, when Sheriff-elect Alex Villanueva is sworn in. McDonnell claimed a long list of achievements, including unifying a "fractured" department that was in crisis after the jail violence scandal that ensnared former Sheriff Lee Baca, his undersheriff and more than 20 other sheriff's officials. In a subsequent interview with KPCC, McDonnell said, "we took an organization that was on the rocks, righted the ship, and are going in the right direction, and going at a pretty good clip as well." The sheriff claimed that during his four years heading the department, "we've been able to achieve the kind of change that takes generally 10 years to achieve." The sheriff-elect has said McDonnell was never a reformer, and has promised to purge a lot of the command staff as part of an effort to eliminate corruption at the top. Villanueva also has close ties to the sheriff's deputies union, which fought McDonnell on his efforts to increase transparency and hold deputies more accountable for misconduct. The sheriff expressed concern that his successor will undo changes he's implemented. "My hope is that we continue to move forward in the direction that we've been going," McDonnell said, "and that we don't backslide on any of the reforms, any of the progress that we've made." Asked on KPCC about Villanueva's vow to eliminate the department's two constitutional policing advisors, McDonnell said, "I hope that he takes a deep breath, takes a step back and gives it some time to be able see the value to the organization and to him that that team plays." The advisors, whose positions McDonnell created, are a valuable "barometer" helping him deal with use of force, deputy discipline and other delicate issues, he said. "If you don't have anybody looking at those issues, you're not even going to know there's a problem until it becomes a crisis or a scandal," the sheriff added. McDonnell also urged Villanueva to "take a deep breath again" before carrying out his promise to remove the majority of the command staff, saying it would be "irresponsible" to deal with such weighty personnel issues "in a cavalier manner." "My hope is that he'll realize that the people in those positions are there for a reason," the sheriff said, adding that the department's leaders have decades of experience and "have developed a level of expertise that would be the envy of any organization in the country." McDonnell suggested that once Villanueva is officially responsible "for the outcomes, for the risk management, for the lawsuits and civil actions against the department, for complying with the consent decree that's ongoing, and being judged based on what happened before ... I think that will temper maybe what he intended to do, and what he promised to do in some cases." After telling LAist on Nov. 16 that he planned to remove "the overwhelming majority" of the department's top leaders, Villanueva added, "we'll decide everything on a case-by-case basis. We're not going to just say this is exactly who's going to be coming or going, we have to evaluate everybody." Noting at Tuesday's news conference that Villanueva "made promises during the election to a lot of different, diverse constituencies," McDonnell cautioned his successor that "being sheriff is very different than running for sheriff." Referring to Villanueva, the sheriff said, "I will be a vocal supporter, and when necessary, a vocal critic as well." When asked whether he would consider running for sheriff again, McDonnell said, "I certainly don't feel ... that my work life is over. I feel I have a lot to offer, and I'll keep my options open on that." Among the accomplishments he mentioned, the sheriff said he's installed systems "resulting in a sea change within our jail environment." Incidents involving serious use of force against inmates "were commonplace in the past," he said. "Those are now almost non-existent." McDonnell said deputy shootings dropped sharply during his tenure, from 44 in 2013 to 21 in 2017. The sheriff angered the deputies union by taking steps to make it easier to fire deputies for misconduct, and for trying to give the district attorney a list of 300 names of deputies whose credibility could be called into question in court because of past dishonesty. The union, the Association of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, sued to stop McDonnell from turning over the list, a move Villanueva supported. The case is now before the California Supreme Court. McDonnell said he's made progress dealing with a deputy shortage, which the department says stands at about 500 positions but the union pegs at closer to 1,500. Applications for deputy positions are up 8 percent over last year, he said. The union, which endorsed Villanueva and spent more than $1.3 million to help elect him, says the sheriff did not do nearly enough to hire more deputies. The ongoing shortage has led to significant amounts of mandatory overtime, which the union says has hurt morale. Union President Ron Hernandez said his organization joined a task force McDonnell formed to tackle the shortage. "We were on that task force for about a year and I saw absolutely no changes," he said. "We haven't gained any bodies." While the union said most of the rank-and-file wanted McDonnell out, the sheriff pushed back on that idea Tuesday. The rank and file "by and large are very happy with the direction we've been going," he told KPCC. "I think if you were to talk to the rank and file ... you would get a very different answer" than what's coming from union leadership, "which has been resistant to the reforms that we were trying to implement," said McDonnell. "Change is difficult, change is painful," he said, adding, "reform is change." McDonnell pointed to an increase in the number of mental health teams he's put in the field. He also cited the county's decision to move forward with plans to build a new jail in downtown L.A. designed to better treat inmates with mental health problems. Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Black Lives Matter endorsed Alex Villanueva. LAist regrets the error. 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 creator of absorbent, yellow, porous cartoon icon SpongeBob SquarePants, Stephen Hillenburg, has died of ALS at age 57, according to Nickelodeon. He revealed last year that he had been diagnosed with the neurodegenerative disease. We are sad to share the news of the passing of Stephen Hillenburg, the creator of SpongeBob SquarePants. Today, we are observing a moment of silence to honor his life and work. Nickelodeon (@Nickelodeon) November 27, 2018 "We are incredibly saddened by the news that Steve Hillenburg has passed away following a battle with ALS," Nickelodeon said in a statement. "Steve imbued SpongeBob SquarePants with a unique sense of humor and innocence that has brought joy to generations of kids and families everywhere. 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." He made SpongeBob, Patrick, Squidward, Mr. Krabs and more a part of the lives of generations of young people -- along with adults who love them, and spawning some of the internet's most prevalent memes. Nickelodeon noted that college students were attracted to the show, spawning Saturday-night viewing parties and giving Nickelodeon a whole new demographic. (L to R) Sandy Cheeks, SpongeBob SquarePants, Squidward, Mr. Krabs, Patrick Starfish in Nickelodeon's SpongeBob Squarepants. (Courtesy Nickelodeon) They also pointed out his attention to detail, down to the licensing -- when a frozen food company wanted to put out branded fish sticks, Hillenburg told everyone that his characters weren't cannibals, and the product didn't move forward. While born in Oklahoma, Hillenburg grew up in Anaheim. Hillenburg had a long-running love affair with the sea, enjoying Jacques Cousteau's undersea films as a kid. As he got older, he enjoyed art, but wasn't sure how to apply it -- so he latched on to the more tangible career of marine biology, graduating from Humboldt State with an emphasis on marine resources. Hillenburg was teaching marine biology at the Orange County Marine Institute (now the Ocean Institute) in Dana Point, when he created "Bob the Sponge" in 1984 as part of a comic book he used to teach about tide-pools, The Intertidal Zone. He left teaching and, with an animation boom going on, he decided to follow his passion for the medium and attended CalArts, where he got a graduate degree in experimental animation. He created two short films, Green Beret and Wormholes; you can watch Green Beret here: Joe Murray, creator of Rocko's Modern Life, saw some of Hillenburg's short films and asked him to direct on his show. One of the show's writers came into Hillenburg's office and saw his comic, The Intertidal Zone -- and that moment inspired him to develop SpongeBob SquarePants as a show. The idea: "Hey, what about a nerdy sponge, kind of like an undersea Jerry Lewis," according to Nickelodeon. The show debuted in 1999, and it's run continuously ever since, though there have been some significant gaps between new seasons being created over the years. There were four years between the beginning of season 3 and season 4, as well as between seasons 9 and 10, but SpongeBob movies were produced in those interim periods. Hillenburg left his position as showrunner after the 2004 movie, but returned for 2015's The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, co-writing the story. Hillenburg won two Daytime Emmy Awards and six animation Annie Awards for his work on the show, along with many more nominations. Hillenburg is survived by his wife of 20 years, Karen, along with son Clay, mother Nancy, and brother Brian. The show lives on -- the latest season debuted Nov. 11, and another movie is scheduled for 2020. You can watch the Annie Award-winning episode "It's a SpongeBob Christmas!" here. You made it! Congrats, you read the entire story, you gorgeous human. This story was made possible by generous people like you. Independent, local journalism costs $$$$$. And now that LAist is part of KPCC, we rely on that support. So if you aren't already, be one of us! Help us help you live your best life in Southern California. 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 Sidewalk vendors who sell hot dogs and churros around Los Angeles will be able to get permits after the City Council approved the idea today. A plan to legalize and regulate sidewalk vending has been working its way through City Hall for years. The approval came on a 13-0 vote on Wednesday. Here's what you need to know: Q: What was voted on today? The City Council voted on a plan that will let sidewalk vendors sell food and other items legally and obtain permits. In a nutshell, it will establish rules and regulations for the thousands of street vendors who work all over the city, in compliance with a new state law. Now, there are still some details to iron out. On Tuesday, three council committees recommended moving ahead with a permit system. This is what advocates for the vendors have been supporting. Vendors will eventually be able to pay a fee and get a permit. These fees will be used to help police the program and educate the vendors about the permit system. Vendors will get a steady spot to sell from and will need to follow certain rules. LA City Councilman Curren Price as council gets ready to vote on legal street vending plan: With todays vote we are going to help thousands of micro-entrepreneurs come out of the shadows and become part of LAs formal economy. Leslie Berestein Rojas (@Multi_American) November 28, 2018 Q: It seems we've been talking about street vending regulation for a long time. This permit plan has been in the works for a while, hasn't it? Yes, this particular plan has been under review for five years. Back in 2013, Council members Curren Price and Jose Huizar first introduced this proposal to legalize street vending, and it has been evolving ever since. There have been countless committee meetings, public meetings and rallies on this issue. But the plan really got a push this fall. That's when Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill, S.B. 946, which decriminalized street vending all over the state. That's not to say street vending became legal, but it made it so that vendors are no longer subject to criminal penalties. The idea in part was to keep them off the radar of immigration officials, since many street vendors are immigrants, including those in the country illegally. The city took a similar step last year, before the state acted, but a vendor can still get a citation for selling on the sidewalk, much like a parking ticket. And until the new ordinance kicks in, they can still be cited. However, the approved plan allows for lower citation fees. What's really moved this forward, though, is that the new state bill also calls for cities to come up with a way to regulate street vendors in accordance with the state law, which kicks in this January. If they don't have specific regulations for vendors to follow, they can't cite vendors. So the city was trying to comply with that law by the end of the year. The Los Angeles City Council voted on a plan to allow street vendors to operate legally with permits. (Photo by Ross McLain/flickr via Creative Commons) Q: So how will this permitting work? Here's how it will go: Street vendors would pay for a permit to set up on sidewalks and get a regular spot, with certain restrictions. For example, vendors will have to maintain a set distance from one another, and they can't block the public right-of-way. They would need to obtain health permits from the county -- which, by the way, some already do. There would also be no-vending zones around the city. One example is Hollywood Boulevard. That's where lots of brick-and-mortar merchants have complained about vendors crowding the sidewalks and competing with small businesses. Under the new ordinance, street vendors must stay 500 feet from the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Universal Studios, and the El Pueblo de Los Angeles historical monument near Olvera Street. They'll also have to avoid Dodger Stadium, the Hollywood Bowl, the Staples Center and the L.A. Coliseum during events. Q: Wouldn't businesses have veto power over where street vendors can operate? No, that was once in the proposal, but it proved very contentious. Street taco vendor Dulce Vasquez says shes ready to pay for a permit to sell legally because we are not criminals. LA has just legalized street vending and approved a permit plan. pic.twitter.com/9Iz7kOOyYb Leslie Berestein Rojas (@Multi_American) November 28, 2018 The city had also considered limiting vendors to two on each side of a city block. This is no longer planned. But the city is moving ahead with the restrictions noted above, and also some limitations in parks. For example, street vendors won't be able to set up within a certain distance of a park building, such as a recreation center. Q: If there is a permit system, how much would it cost? And will there be some that don't want to pay? The cost of permits won't be determined for about another year. Vendors attending Wednesday's City Council meeting said they would be glad to pay for one; one said he'd appreciate a flexible pricing system. However, back in the 1990s, there was a failed attempt to create a street vending zone in MacArthur Park. Some paid to operate there - and there were vendors that did not want to pay, and they undercut the ones who did pay, and the whole thing eventually went bust. This is one reason why vendor advocates have pushed for a citywide system. Q: So will I still be able to walk down the street in Silver Lake at night and get a bacon-wrapped hot dog? You should be able to get a bacon-wrapped hot dog. Your favorite vendor may not be in the same spot, but you'll see be able to find someone selling hot dogs. Q: When can we expect the plan to kick in? According to the city attorney's office, enforcement of the new rules can begin after the mayor signs the ordinance and it's published by the city clerk. The mayor has 10 days to sign it. But it might take the city another year to flesh out the planned permit system. UPDATES: 11:15 a.m.: This article was updated with information that the City Council approved the plan. 1:08 p.m.: This article was updated with more details about the approved street vending plan. Nov. 29, 4:45 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details on the no-vending zones and when the sidewalk vending plan kicks in. This article was originally published at 7 a.m. 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. If you attend the La Jolla Theatre Ensembles production of The Lightbulb on Dec. 10 or 11 at the La Jolla Community Center, it wont be your first exposure to writer Stephen Metcalfe. The La Jolla resident also penned the production-draft scripts for in case you dont know, get ready not to believe this Mr. Hollands Opus and, oh yeah, Pretty Woman. The Internet Movie Database lists Metcalfe under script revisions, uncredited for the former film, but contains no mention of the 1990 blockbuster that catapulted Julia Roberts to fame. Metcalfe will get into why later. Right now, hes discussing The Lightbulb, which he describes as a dystopian drawing-room comedy in which the hosts of a dinner party try keeping up appearances while the apocalypse rages outside their dilapidated mansion. They talk about how magnificent the sunset is and they wonder whats causing it, Metcalfe says. Is it the nuclear mishap in New Zealand? The radiation overload in Russia? All these horrible, horrible things have happened. And then, Metcalfe reports, the unexpected guests arrive. Theyre all armed, by the way. Metcalfe discusses his apocalyptic vision in surroundings that couldnt be any more non-apocalyptic. Birdsong fills his Upper Hermosa backyard, as bees and butterflies flit about the flowers behind him. Its satire, he says of the play, because anybody in their right mind would not be behaving and talking the way these people do. Yet its satire that gets serious in a positive way. Metcalfe says he wrote a first draft I dont know how many years ago, but it was only in the last two years that it started taking specific shape. I started hearing the voices in terms of global warming and refugees and melting Antarctica, he says. All of a sudden, it just seemed so oh-my-gosh. The plays his thing Most of Metcalfes past decade was spent fiction-writing. His first novel, The Tragic Age, was published by St. Martins Press in 2014. (The Practical Navigator followed in 2016.) But when I have time, I always focus on these plays, Metcalfe says, so to get a reading of this has me focused on the theater again, which its really fun. According to Metcalfe, he begins every play he writes with its penultimate moment. Its always been the case that the crisis, the climax, of a play is the first thing I see, he says. I dont know why that is, but its kind of nice, because I have seen so many writers who dont know how to finish their work. La Jolla Theatre Ensemble co-founder John Tessmer reports that The Lightbulbs cast is just about locked in and will include Dave Florek, Leigh Akin, Todd Blakesley, Mark Anthony Flynn, Gailee Walker Wells and La Jollan Geoffrey Graeme. Stephen has been wonderful to work with very personable, supportive, open and collaborative, Tessmer says. I look forward to working with him in the next couple weeks, as we get the staged reading performance up and ready. After a fast tally in his head, Metcalfe guesses The Lightbulb to be his 14th play. His first few, staged off-Broadway by the Manhattan Theater Club, included 1982s Strange Snow, which became the 1989 movie Jacknife starring Robert De Niro. In 1985, Jack OBrien, artistic director of The Old Globe in Balboa Park, staged Metcalfes Emily. He followed that up with more Metcalfe: 1988s White Linen, 1990s White Man Dancing, 1995s Pilgrims, and 2004s Loves & Hours. They were great at The Old Globe because they helped me develop plays, Metcalfe remembers. We would read and listen and discuss. Metcalfe said he took meetings with The Old Globe on The Lightbulb, but came away with the sense that theyre a little skeptical about doing a play from somebody who was such a part of it in the 80s and, you know, all that stuff. Metcalfe listens to how his last sentence hangs in the air and elaborates: You know, its a changing world out there in the theater. I think theater culture right now, and rightly so, is on a different sensibility than that of a knucklehead like me. Pretty successful Nobody predicted Pretty Woman would become a hit, by the way, much less the gigantic hit it was. (Its currently enjoying a popular Broadway revival as Pretty Woman: The Musical at the Nederlander Theatre.) It all began with a dark screenplay by J.F. Lawton, called 3000, in which an amoral businessman (Edward) hires a street prostitute (Vivian) for a week in which not a lot of love or comedy ensues. The best way to describe the tone of the screenplay is that it ends with Vivian emptying her suitcases full of all the expensive clothes Edward has bought for her, Metcalfe says, and, screaming and sobbing hysterically in the middle of Hollywood Boulevard, throwing them at his limo as he drives off into the sunset, never to see her again. This was not quite the Touchstone/Disney movie that studio boss Jeffrey Katzenberg saw it as. He was the guy who had the idea of taking this dark, dark screenplay and making it into a romantic comedy, Metcalfe says. I cant imagine anyone but him having that idea. So he hired (director) Garry Marshall and got me involved. Julia Roberts, who had just come off Mystic Pizza and wrapped Steel Magnolias, was already onboard. The male lead was pitched to Harrison Ford, Robert Redford and Sean Connery, whose agents all apparently passed. Metcalfe recalls traveling to New York to help audition Al Pacino, who was in a career slump. Even he passed. Then I heard, Oh, we settled for Richard Gere, Metcalfe recalls, smiling and shaking his head. Nobody knew what this thing would become. Not receiving the official screenwriting credit didnt bother him at the time, Metcalfe says. I was still very close to the theater, and part of me felt that playwrights dont take credit for other peoples work, he says. Also, I was already working on another project at Touchstone and I was very, very busy. Metcalfe accepts the blame for not fighting harder for the credit. In a standard Writers Guild inquiry into which screenwriter performed the most work ending up on screen, Metcalfe wrote on his questionnaire: I think my work speaks for itself. He says that act of hubris haunts him a little bit now because they developed the musical based on the production draft and didnt ask me if I had any ideas. And I suppose if I had gotten credit, who knows how much money I would have made, he adds. But at the end of the day, I did just fine. IF YOU GO: The Lightbulb plays 7 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, Dec. 10-11 at the La Jolla Community Center: 6811 La Jolla Boulevard. No reservations are necessary, $10 suggested donation. After eight years of planning, fundraising, collaborating, working with the City and waiting, the unveiling of the Childrens Pool Plaza (formerly known as the Childrens Pool Walk Beautification Project) is a mere days away: 1-3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 9 at 834 Coast Blvd. Festivities will include a chance to walk the improved sidewalk above Childrens Pool, music by DJ Ron Jones, onsite book check out with La Jolla Library Youth Services librarian Angie Stava, and a photo stand (boy and girl surfers with face space) for picture taking. There will also be ice cream until supplies run out. Ahead of the opening, City of San Diego maintenance crews painted the green gazebo (aka belvedere) at that location, and a plaque recognizing donors was affixed to a rock. Im a little stunned it is actually happening, said Phyllis Minick, project organizer and longtime La Jollan. Its a little project in a small area, but the importance of it is that it will be one link in what will be the remodeling and improvement of the entire downtown La Jolla/Coast Boulevard area. (Other examples include) the Whale View Point projects, some of which are done, and others that are coming; there are some improvements to landscaping at The Cove; and within two years, the City expects to build the new restroom pavilion. This will bring that whole area one of the most-visited sites in San Diego to its best possible outcome. And La Jolla deserves a revival. The Children Pool Plaza project will enhance pedestrian flow, install visitor sitting walls with vegetation, and improve aesthetics on the sidewalk area above La Jollas Childrens Pool beach. The stairs leading to the beach and seawall remain accessible during construction. This is the latest iteration of the project, which has been in process and repeatedly revised since 2010. The scope of work spans: 1) from the top of the stairs leading down to the Childrens Pool and front of the lifeguard tower, where short planters/sitting walls will be installed and filled with drought-tolerant plantings; 2) along the sidewalk heading north, where the landscaping will be removed and concrete will be replaced; 3) on Coast Boulevard, where a crosswalk will be painted (there is currently a pedestrian ramp but no crosswalk); 4) further north on the sidewalk, where additional teardrop-shaped planters/sitting walls will be installed; 5) the gazebo fronting where sitting walls and bike racks will be installed; 6) and up the street, where the white picket fence that lines toward Scripps Park will be extended. Benches at the site will remain. And while the project really started moving in 2010, the idea had been growing since the 1980s. At that time, Minick said: A booklet came out that was an analysis written by a group of architects and engineers in La Jolla it described the segments that make up Coast Boulevard and commented on each one. Of the area above Childrens Pool, Minick recalls it only having one line: neglected and unattractive. So on a sunny Sunday, she walked to the viewing area above Childrens Pool. The sidewalk from the lifeguard station to the belvedere was just 18 inches wide in some places. People were walking in the street, pushing baby strollers, pushing bikes, and cars were pulling in and out. It was so dangerous-looking to me and so overcrowded. That got me started, she said. After some meetings with neighbors to come up with a concept, and collaborating with landscape architect Jim Neri on a design, Minick got the ball rolling for improvements in 2010. Around that time, Neris renderings were approved by the La Jolla Parks & Beaches committee as a private project. (A later Fair Political Practices Commission opinion, issued in 2016, determined it would constitute a conflict-of-interest violation to have a contractor create plans and then bid on the same project. Consequently, Neri was excluded from carrying out the work, and the City took over the responsibility and made the Childrens Pool redevelopment a public-private partnership, with Rick Engineering at the helm.) As the City was preparing to replace the lifeguard tower at Childrens Pool in 2013, one idea was to have the sidewalk replacement done at the same time under the umbrella of previously approved permits. However, the City determined that would not be possible, and work on the Childrens Pool Plaza would have to wait. The tower construction was supposed to take eight months, but faced myriad delays, ranging from issues with materials to a nesting seagull chick to inconsistent design plans, and opened in June 2016. While construction on the lifeguard tower was intermittently underway, the City produced its required environmental documents and identified additional funding for the beautification project. City engineers set construction for June 2017. At the 11th hour, in May 2017, engineers determined the wall that lines the Childrens Pool may be historic, which would affect any improvements, and then there were safety issues to be addressed. The City said it would explore scaled down alternatives to the more elaborate plans originally submitted. To bypass the historical roadblocks, City crews decided to move the scope of work away from the wall in order to proceed. Work began in July and the fencing that surrounds the new viewing area is set to come down in the days leading up to the Dec. 9 party. Despite all the time it has taken, we at La Jolla Parks & Beaches and as individuals who do community projects are so grateful that this has been done and the additional projects are coming to fruition, Minick said, thanking San Diego planner Meredith Dawson for her support on the City side, the local community planning groups that voted to support the project, and La Jollans Patrick Ahern and Joe LaCava for their informal mentorship. Phyllis Minick gets all the credit, she made this happen, opined Neri. She is more than a rock star, she is a force of nature. She has more energy than most 25-year-olds I know. She has unfailingly committed herself to this project all the way though. Even though there were points of discouragement, she got back on her feet and carried right on. I cannot say enough about this woman. Mike Glancy flips through the wooden signs stored on the side of his Bird Rock plumbing office. Theyre painted in the bright acrylic tones of La Jolla Christmases past. I may keep a couple, but theres no room anymore, the 71-year-old says. Its sad. Glancys new landlord has decided to sell 5763 La Jolla Blvd., which means that Erling Rohde Plumbing begun in 1910 by Glancys grandfather, Erling himself must vacate by Friday, Nov. 30. But Glancys only sad for a minute or two before he finds something new to laugh at. Look at this reindeer, he says, beaming a bright smile as he comes across a creepily painted Rudolph standing upright on human legs in a pair of red Speedos. Not everything comes out the way you want it to! Glancy laughs. Glancy's conversation even when the topic is sad is punctuated by frequent fits of self-aware laughter. COREY LEVITAN Glancy who lives in Mira Mesa with his wife of 45 years, Roberta first entered a float in the La Jolla Christmas Parade in 1982. It was a bathtub advertising Erling Rohde Plumbing on the bottom, with his mother and three young daughters performing music up top. My mom was a first-string violinist with the San Diego Symphony for 45 years, Glancy says. (Gail Rohde died in 2011.) So she taught my three daughters violin and they played Jingle Bells together. New marshal in town In recognition of his iconic community status, the La Jolla Christmas Parade has named Glancy its first and only honorary marshal of floatology for its 61st run on Sunday, Dec. 2. Yeah, they made that up for me, Glancy says. Isnt that nice? (Other honorary marshals scheduled to march include civic marshal David Nisleit, community marshal Kristi Pieper, cultural marshal Erika Torri, philanthropic marshal Karin Donaldson, technology marshal Dawn Barry and military marshal Lorin Stuart. The grand marshal will be William J. Kellogg.) Mikes floats are always the most anticipated floats, says parade organizer Ann Kerr Bache. He always has something unusual that the kids, and the adults, look forward to it every year. Glancy flips through the float signs from previous parades he has stored outside his plumbing business. COREY LEVITAN Glancy intends to continue his plumbing business via an office in back of the nail salon next door, and a garage off Pearl Street for storage. He suspects that his daughter and bookkeeper, Maegan, might eventually take over. Nothing is for sure, he says. It all depends on my health. The shaking in his hands has gotten quite noticeable. Glancy suspects Parkinsons Disease that the government refuses to diagnose. Their tests say I dont have it, he says. Otherwise, theyd have to pay me. Glancy served in the Army during the Vietnam War. Discharged in 1970, he never saw combat but was stationed downwind of where, he says, 64,000 gallons of Agent Orange were dumped. End of an era? Lift it over more! Glancy calls out to his employee, Manuel, who guides the surfing Grinches into place on Glancys 2003 Ford Ranger. For the La Jolla Christmas Parades 61st run, Glancy has decided on a best-of montage of his previous floats. The Dr. Seuss characters, from 2000, will join a pelican who protested a 1991 sewage spill in Point Loma and the remnants of a Santas village from 2010. Usually, floats cost me from $500-$1,000 because I have to buy all-new stuff, Glancy says, but this year, Im getting away cheap. Glancy affixes surfing Grinches to the back of the 2003 Ford Ranger that serves as his parade float. COREY LEVITAN Although Glancy wont say for certain that this will be his last float, Erling Rohdes relocation will definitely deprive him, and Bird Rock, of the art gallery he made out of his offices front room in 1992. After the company relocated from 7724 Girard Ave., its home since 1929, Glancy opened Moonglow at the urging of some local artists who noticed all the etched glass he installed on the building. (Glancy inherited it from a business he worked with that did etchings on shower doors.) The artists kept coming in, asking if they could hang their stuff here on consignment, Glancy says, so it became a gallery. Also gone will be the de facto shelter Glancy has operated for years on Erling Rohdes spacious front deck, where as many as four homeless people at a time have been allowed to crash including artist Glenn Chase, who painted many of the float signs. (Fortunately, Chase has since moved into a La Jolla apartment financed by his brother.) Im too nice, Glancy says. My wife tells me that. I think I got that from my grandfather. But theyll get along without me. Theyre tough. Theyll figure it out. Glancy no longer has anywhere to store the old parade float signs stored outside his Bird Rock plumbing office. COREY LEVITAN Glancy says hell list the float signs for free on Craigslist to save them from the Miramar Landfill. Its a shame, he says, but theyre on particle board, and that doesnt last very long outside anyway. Kerr Bache holds out hope that this wont be Glancys last parade.Id rather focus on the positive, she says. Knowing Mike, hell probably figure out a way to continue doing it and be back. Ukrainian martial law may cause escalation of tensions in Donbass: Kremlin The introduction of martial law in parts of Ukraine may lead to an escalation of tensions in the Ukrainian region of Donbass, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday. Peskov also said Ukraine's introduction of martial law in parts of the country has "a special and little camouflaged color" in view of the upcoming presidential election in Ukraine in March 2019. The Ukrainian parliament on Monday passed a bill imposing martial law in certain regions of the country bordering Russia for 30 days from Wednesday. The Donbass region has been troubled by tensions and violence since 2014 amid protests by pro-Russian and anti-government groups. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko initially intended to impose martial law for 60 days, which, according to some analysts, could prevent the country from holding the March election. Tensions have been rising after Russian border guards on Sunday opened fire and seized three Ukrainian naval ships near the Kerch Strait connecting the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, injuring several Ukrainian sailors. Russia's Federal Security Service said that the Ukrainian ships breached the Russian border and conducted dangerous maneuvers despite orders from the Russian side. Peskov said that the incident near the Kerch Strait would not impact the G20 summit in Argentina on Friday and Saturday, during which Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet with his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump. If questions are raised about the Kerch Strait incident during Putin's bilateral meetings, no one should have any doubts that he would give "exhaustive explanations," Peskov said. The Global Compact for Migration (GCM) due to be endorsed at a high level international conference in Marrakesh in December this year, Ambassador A.L.A. Azeez, Sri Lanka Permanent Representative in Geneva said is not the end but the beginning of the real work. He made this remark, addressing the General Debate of the ongoing 109th Session of the IOM Council in Geneva. He urged all countries, especially those which have for decades valued and sustained migration as a source of national economic advancement, to unreservedly endorse the GCM, as it has now left us with an integrated framework for action. Assuring that Sri Lanka, in its national capacity, and both as the Chair of the Abu Dhabi Dialogue (ADD) and the founder member of the Colombo Process (CP) - would endeavour in the best possible way to take the GCM processes forward, he emphasized the importance of the implementation of the Global Compact by all stakeholders. He further said that Sri Lanka looked forward to contributing actively to the discussion on the modalities for follow-up and review of progress in the Global Compact early next year. The GCM, Ambassador Azeez noted, was rooted in achieving SDGs, adding that it was important to look at how effectively implementation of commitments could take place taking into account the respective regional dynamics and priorities. Appreciating Sri Lankas comments and commending its active leadership to the Abu Dhabi Dialogue and useful contributions to the Colombo Process, the two Regional Consultative Processes (RCPs) that oversaw an annual flow of over 2.5 million labour migrants, Director-General of IOM, Mr. Antonio Vitorino stated that addressing the different priorities and dynamics of RCPs like CP and ADD was extremely relevant to understanding how they could be anchored in the pursuit of the Global Compact commitments. DG Vitorino assured that IOM would be ready to support all RCP endeavours. Ambassador Azeez also drew the attention of the IOM Council to the policy measures and programmes derived already in place in Sri Lanka, such as the National Human Rights Action Plan with a dedicated focus on Migrants Rights, the Migrant Health Policy, measures to prevent human trafficking including prevention, protection, prosecution and partnership strategy. He noted with appreciation the excellent cooperation Sri Lanka continued to enjoy with IOM both at Headquarters level and through the IOM County Office in Colombo. The Sri Lanka delegation included Deputy Permanent Representative Mrs. Samantha Jayasuriya and Minister Counsellor Shashika Somaratne. Statement delivered by Ambassador Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to UNO Geneva 27th November 2018 Zhong Zhong, the world's first cloned monkey, had its first birthday on Tuesday. The healthy primate is living with another cloned monkey named Hua Hua at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Neuroscience in the city of Suzhou, according to Shanghai Observer. Two cloned macaques named Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua are held by a nurse at the non-human-primate research facility under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Suzhou, east China's Jiangsu province, Jan. 22, 2018. [Photo: Xinhua/Jin Liwang] Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua are clones created by scientists at the institute using somatic cell nuclear transfer, which was the same technique used to create the world's first cloned animal, Dolly the Sheep. "The purpose of cloning monkeys is to produce animal models that are helpful for medical research and human health", said Sun Qiang, the director of nonhuman primate research at the institute. One of the next major milestones in the research will come in three to four years time, when scientists will learn if the pair have the ability to reproduce. Authorities in China have said they have no plans to allow human cloning following the success of the monkey experiments. John Scalzi burst onto the science fiction scene early in the new millennium with his seminal book Old Mans War a military novel about humanity and identity that depicts a 75-year-old enlisting in exchange for a youthful body. Since then Scalzi, one of The Times critics at large, has become one of the most important voices in science fiction and has won a number of awards for his work. Three years ago he signed a deal with Tor to write 13 books over a 10-year period. The Consuming Fire is one of those books. The second in Scalzis Interdependecy series, which began with The Collapsing Empire, its a space opera: a subgenre of science fiction that is often grand in vision and features adventure, romance and interplanetary battles (Dune and Avatar are good examples). The Consuming Fire is set in a distant future where humanity has escaped the confines of Earth. For millennia there has been a glorious and vast interstellar empire of planets known as the Interdependency. These planets and colonies rely on each other for trade and protection against war. The success of this empire is founded on the ability to travel and trade using an extra-dimensional phenomenon known as the Flow. The Flow links the galaxy and allows ships to travel between stars a trip that would otherwise take centuries at the least in a matter of weeks. Its something that isnt entirely understood and just taken for granted that it will always be there. Advertisement But the Flow is shifting away from established routes with the potential that this vast, interconnected society will break down. The Consuming Fire sees the leader of the Interdependency Emperox Grayland II preparing for this inevitable breakup. Her task is made all the more difficult by factions of the government insisting that the change of the Flow is just a myth. There is a growing fear among those who believe while others see it as a distraction, an opportunity to gain power for themselves. Author John Scalzi (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) Its important to note that you dont have to read the first book to enjoy this one; Scalzi does an impressive job of bringing the story up to speed in the first 20 or so pages. In the beginning was the lie, Chapter 1 begins. The lie was that the prophet Rachela, the founder of the Holy Empire of Interdependent States and Mercantile Guilds, had mystical visions There was no mystical element involved in the so-called prophecies of Rachela at all. The Wu family ginned them up. At stake is this vast empire controlled by the religious organization, a fascinating concept when religion appears to be falling out of favor in the Western world. Its an interesting choice by Scalzi to explore how a religious organization could run a mammoth society of course there is a great deal of corruption, backstabbing and other political games at play and really its the families who are in control. At times it reminded me of one of the great science fiction space operas, Dune. There is a similar sense of scale, not to mention the murky politics and family rivalries. The world-building is breathtaking, its almost impossible not to get drawn into this system of the far future. Scalzi avoids the trap that many science fiction writers fall into that of techno-babble and makes accessible this far future on a distant planet. A large part of that is due to the way he writes a fierce intelligence combining a sharp, at times acerbic, wit. With a fluid style and an incredible imagination, his work often becomes compelling reading. The story itself is as grand as they come the future of the empire and potentially the whole human race is at stake. As you can imagine, people start to really freak out, make grabs for power and otherwise lose control. There is of course a warning here about globalization, how nations rely on each other for trade and getting into trade wars and risk such easy access to goods doesnt help anyone. The big message though is that of belief, and its correlate, denial. Even with clear evidence that the Flow is disintegrating and the route to other planets is becoming impossible, some still deny the existence of this visible change and preach to others that all is well. The denial Scalzi is talking about is a close parallel with climate change, a timely and relevant subject. Despite our planet seeing consistently record-breaking weather over the last few years there are still those out there who refuse to accept what is widely regarded as the facts, what some would see as overwhelming evidence. This is one of the things that makes Scalzi such an important figure in literature, he doesnt go the easy route of just writing a story instead he fills it with important messages. In all this vast space of countless planets, the fact that only one might be capable of supporting humanity really brings the crisis into focus. Jones is a writer and editor of the website sfbook.com. :: The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi (Tor) The Consuming Fire John Scalzi Tor Books: 320 pp., $26.99 On Nov. 29, Mystery Writers of America decided to withdraw the Linda Fairstein Grand Master award. Mystery Writers of America announced the recipients of its 2019 Grand Master Award on Tuesday, but the announcement has been met with more outrage than celebration. The Grand Master Award, presented at the annual Edgar Awards banquet in New York, is one of the most prestigious distinctions in the mystery genre, an honor held by the likes of Stephen King, Walter Mosley and Agatha Christie. Next year, the award will go to Martin Cruz Smith and Linda Fairstein. Id heard of Smith, but not Fairstein. And really, I should have known her name. Not for her internationally bestselling Alexandra Cooper series, but because in her former life working for the Manhattan district attorneys office, she oversaw the prosecution of the Central Park Five. She shouldnt be the toast of a black-tie literary gala she should be notorious. As the head of the Sex Crimes Unit, Fairstein was instrumental in the wrongful conviction of five black teenagers accused of raping a white woman jogger in Central Park in 1989. It was a case that made headlines across the country and captivated television audiences, a story fueled by racial tensions and racist rhetoric. Advertisement Fairstein was personally involved in securing the false confessions that formed the prosecutions entire case. Her conduct was so reprehensible that then-appeals court Judge Vito Titone called her out by name in his dissenting opinion in defendant Yusuf Salaams unsuccessful appeal, which details her calculated efforts to isolate and induce a confession from the then-15-year-old suspect. The Five served six to 13 years in prison before their convictions were vacated following the confession of a serial rapist, confirmed by DNA evidence, in 2002. Fairstein has never apologized or changed her position on their guilt. (Nor has Donald Trump, who in 1989 took out full-page newspaper ads in New York City calling for the return of the death penalty after the teens were arrested.) Only four months ago, in a letter to the editor of the New York Law Journal, Fairstein maintained that the questioning [of the Central Park Five] was respectful, dignified, carried out according to the letter of the law and with sensitivity to the young age of the men. Heres what Mystery Writers of America had to say about Fairsteins legal career, in this cheery news release on Tuesday morning: Linda Fairstein became a sex-crimes prosecutor during a time when sex crimes were almost impossible to prosecute. In her 30-year tenure at the Manhattan DAs Office, she was a pioneer in the war against rape, fighting for historic changes to the criminal justice system and for justice on behalf of victims of the most heinous crimes. Its not like they didnt Google her. They just neglected to mention her most famous case, the one thats become synonymous with prosecutorial overreach and misconduct. Shortly after the announcement, author Attica Locke whose Bluebird, Bluebird won the 2018 Edgar Award for best novel took Mystery Writers of America to task on Twitter, begging the group to reconsider its decision to name Fairstein a Grand Master. .@EdgarAwards As a member and 2018 Edgar winner, I am begging you to reconsider having Linda Fairstein serve as a Grand Master in next years awards ceremony. She is almost singlehandedly responsible for the wrongful incarceration of the Central Park Five. 1/ attica locke (@atticalocke) November 27, 2018 Locke, whose television writing credits include an upcoming Netflix series on the Central Park Five directed by Ava DuVernay, has long been familiar with the case, but didnt realize until recently that Fairstein had reinvented herself as a crime writer, or that so few crime writers seemed to know about her background. I was one of the clueless until I saw Lockes thread, and Ive been entrenched in the mystery world since my first book came out in 2013. Ive attended countless book events and conferences its very likely Ive been in the same room as Fairstein and have been editing the crime section of the Los Angeles Review of Books since 2015. There are certainly big-name authors I dont run across, but I tend to hear the gossip. I knew about Anne Perrys background (see the movie Heavenly Creatures) and that former L.A. prosecutor Marcia Clark was publishing mystery novels. I find it disturbing that I never heard a word about Fairsteins history. Her presence among us should be the scandal of every conference it probably wouldve been earlier if there had been more crime writers of color when the Five were exonerated in 2002. But at some point, her background must have become old news, an uncomfortable thing the larger crime world has been happy to ignore. How many of us have been polite to her on accident because the rest of us were polite to her on purpose? Tacit approval is one thing, of course; the Grand Master Award is another. Mystery Writers of America has made a lot of fuss about diversity over the last few years, and I do believe that the mystery community has made some meaningful strides toward inclusion. But were apparently still at a place where the board of Mystery Writers of America thinks calling the white prosecutor who oversaw the conviction of innocent black boys Grand Master is a good idea. Its also worth noting that the Edgar Awards banquet will take place in April, almost exactly 30 years after the Five were wrongfully arrested and imprisoned. After Lockes thread spread widely, Mystery Writers of America said via Twitter: We are taking seriously the issues raised by @atticalocke . Our Board is going to discuss these concerns as soon as possible and make a further statement soon. It seems as though the blowback has taken the board by surprise. On the one hand, the lack of foresight is breathtaking. But on the other, it sure did look as if everyone was cool with Linda Fairstein for a while there. Mystery Writers of America is now in a tough spot. Many crime writers have already called for the revocation of Fairsteins award. Meanwhile, Fairstein is sparring with Locke on Twitter, and I doubt she or her supporters would be happy to see the organization cave to the pressure. While the mystery writing community has changed somewhat over the last few years, it has long been embarrassingly white and, if not outright conservative, less than progressive in its collective values (hello hero cops and beautiful dead girls). Fairstein has made a name for herself writing legal thrillers about a sex crimes prosecutor who serves justice and saves the day. Shes made enormous profits with these stories, and has been astoundingly successful in shaping her own narrative and retaining the respect of her community. Whatever Mystery Writers of America decides and lets remember that the loss of a reward is not comparable to the loss of freedom this debacle will show our divisions. Fairsteins actions can no longer fly under the radar. We all have to deal with her now. Cha is a novelist, editor and attorney. She has been a member of Mystery Writers of America since 2013. UPDATES: Nov. 30 9:50 a.m.: This essay was with updated with news that Mystery Writers of America withdrew the Grand Master Award for Linda Fairstein. In the 1999 movie Notting Hill, Julia Roberts character, Anna, delivers a memorable line to bookstore owner Will, played by Hugh Grant: Im just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her. Employees of the Notting Hill Bookshop, which served as the inspiration for the travel bookstore in the romantic comedy, are expecting to hear that line frequently in the coming months. The Telegraph reports that the shops owners are anticipating a rush of couples getting engaged in the store in 2019, the 20th anniversary of the film Notting Hill. James Malin, co-owner of the bookstore, said that they already get regular requests from couples who want the shop to be the site of their special moment. We have had several approaches during the past few years and theres other people that we are not aware of, like an American couple we didnt find out about until they returned for their anniversary, he said. We dont always find out they are proposing, but if they want us to do something special, we will. Advertisement The hit film Notting Hill tells the story of the unlikely romance between Anna, a well-known American actress, and Will, who owns a travel bookstore in West London. For the bookstore in the movie, filmmakers re-created the Notting Hill Bookshops interior. At the time the movie was made, Notting Hill specialized in travel literature, but it now features a wider variety of books. Malin told the Telegraph that the shop is a popular destination for movie fans from all over the world. Weve had people from Australia, America, China and Japan, he said. We even had a young Chinese couple who were here on their honeymoon and dressed up again in their wedding outfits to walk around with a professional photographer, and a young Chinese couple who met in our shop and came back six months later to tell us they were still together. While Malin and his staff seem delighted by their stores romantic reputation, not all businesses in the neighborhood are as happy with lovers making the trip to the London neighborhood. In May, the Daily Mail reported that the owners of the Book and Comic Exchange, a store in the Notting Hill neighborhood, grew tired of tourists asking them if they were the bookstore featured in the movie. They posted a sign on their front door that reads, This is not the shop from the rubbish film. So dont ask! We dont know where it is either! The crew at Notting Hill Bookshop, though, is significantly less cranky about their association with the movie. In July, they took to Twitter to celebrate a couple who got engaged in the bookstore: Subaru at long last enters the electrified car market with a plug-in hybrid version of its popular Crosstrek compact crossover. The company has been small enough and its engines clean enough to comply with Californias zero-emission mandates with gasoline-powered engines. But as Subaru becomes more popular and adds models such as the Ascent SUV, which seats seven to eight passengers, it is edging into powertrain electrification. The company surely is concerned that competitors could lure Subarus most eco-conscious customers away as electric-car popularity grows. Subaru plans an all-electric vehicle by 2021. The Crosstrek Hybrid, like all Subarus, is all-wheel drive, appealing to singles and families who enjoy all seasons in the great outdoors. Advertisement The company says the battery has a range of 17 miles, enough for a short daily commute on electric power only. All-electric top speed is 65 mph. The 2.0-liter gasoline engine provides 148 horsepower which doesnt make the vehicle a speed demon but provides enough power for confident passing speeds and hill climbing oomph. The electric-motor drive helps with low-end torque. The hybrid setup, developed with Subaru part-owner Toyota, brings the mileage to what the EPA calls a miles-per-gallon equivalent of 90. The base price is $35,970, with enough hybrid-only exterior and interior accents to set it apart from the pure gasoline Crosstrek. Owners can remotely set climate controls and check battery charging levels. The Crosstrek Hybrid will be sold first in California and other states that match Californias zero-emission requirements, starting at the end of December. russ.mitchell@latimes.com Twitter: @russ1mitchell Heres a surprising counterfactual to the oft-voiced concerns that American corporate boards are too heavily stocked with males: In recent years, major companies have actually been recruiting many more women than men as directors. Thats the conclusion of a recent survey by Shivaram Rajgopal of Columbia Law School and George Fleck, a boardroom recruiter for public companies. They toted up board appointments and resignations between April 1 and Sept. 24 this year. Among companies with more than $5 billion in market capitalization encompassing virtually the entire Fortune 500 list 57 women have been appointed to boards, but only 19 men. Pressure from the media and large institutional investors appears to have largely worked in such companies at addressing the gender imbalance, Rajgopal and Fleck wrote in the Harvard Business Review. According to a database Fleck maintains at his recruitment firm covering the period of April 1 through this week, at those large companies, women have gained a net 107 board seats (that is, appointments net of resignations), while men have lost a net 30 seats. Theres the breaking in part of getting onto boards. ... Then there is the influence part of getting women into leadership positions where real power resides. Advertisement Among newer, smaller companies, however, the news is not so good. Only 51 women have been named to boards of firms that went public from April 1 through Sept. 24, compared to 455 men. Bringing the numbers current, Fleck found that women gained a net 84 seats on newly public companies, while men gained 685. The authors attribute that imbalance to the baked-in reality of the average company staging an initial public offering: Its likely to be heavily funded by the venture capital community, which is widely known to be dominated by men. Since the boards of companies going public will be overstocked with their initial investors, the gender tilt of the venture community will be replicated on the company boards. Business experts generally dont consider that a positive trend for corporate America. Boards with more gender diversity are more innovative, more strategically minded, and generally more effective, Kimberly A. Whitler of the University of Virginia business school and Deborah Henretta, a former Procter & Gamble executive now serving on four public corporate boards, observed in a recent article for the MIT Sloan Management Review. They cited a 2012 study by McKinsey & Co. that found that companies in the top quartile of board diversity saw materially higher returns on shareholder equity and profit margins than those with the least diverse boards. Fleck is optimistic that the over-representation of males on boards of newly public companies will self-correct over time, however. As the investors cash out over the first two years, he told me, well see more diversity on the boards. Corporate America tends to be proactive they see the writing on the wall and they dont want to be regulated, so theyll just do it. From his standpoint, that makes political oversight unnecessary including the law signed by California Gov. Jerry Brown in September requiring all publicly-traded companies with executive headquarters in California to have at least one woman on their board by 2020. The law tightens the mandate starting in 2022, with boards of six or more members required to have at least three female directors. The law was based on a finding that one-fourth of Californias public companies have no female directors at all and that, overall, California corporate boards have less female membership than those in the nation as a whole 15.5% in California, compared to 21.3% of S&P 500 board seats nationwide. That sounds good, but its classic overreach and PR, Fleck said of the California law. The reality is that these changes are taking place in the market. Its also true that leading proxy advisory firms, which help big institutional investors vote on shareholder resolutions, have said that they would advise votes against managements that dont show a commitment to board diversity. That said, Fleck acknowledges that merely placing women in board seats isnt the end-all of diversity. He says women will soon begin moving into positions of real power on boards, starting with chairing the key committees compensation, audit and governance and then deploying that experience to become independent board chairs at companies that have split the chairman and CEO roles, an increasingly common development. Whether these trends are moving quickly enough is subject to debate. Indeed, the gains of women on corporate boards have been slowing, according to Whitler and Henretta. In 2017, they report, the overall number of female corporate directors in the Fortune 500 actually dipped slightly. Like Fleck, they also pointed to the need for women to move faster into power positions on boards. Only 65 of Fortune 500 companies had female board chairs, and in nearly half those companies that was because the female chair also was CEO. As for power positions, only 21% of corporate governance committee chairs were women in 2016, while only 18% of audit committees, 13% of compensation committees and 5% of executive committees were chaired by women. Whitler and Henretta say its much more common to find women chairing soft, secondary committees such as sustainability and corporate relations committees. Theres the breaking in part of getting onto boards, former Xerox Chair and Chief Executive Anne Mulcahy, who has served on the boards of Target (where she chaired the compensation committee) and Johnson & Johnson (where she is lead independent director), told the authors. And then there is the influence part of getting women into leadership positions where real power resides. Its also important to bear in mind that gender is not the end of the diversity story. Most discussions about board membership accept the assumption that a corporate boards purpose is to represent the shareholders interests. But why should that be so, to the exclusion of stakeholders such as employees, communities, customers and suppliers? Thats the point of the Accountable Capitalism Act proposed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass). Warrens measure would require most American public companies to obtain a federal corporate charter and reserve at least 40% of their board seats to directors elected by employees. Warrens initiative underscores the truth about corporate boards in America things are improving, but theres a long way to go. Keep up to date with Michael Hiltzik. Follow @hiltzikm on Twitter, see his Facebook page, or email michael.hiltzik@latimes.com. Return to Michael Hiltziks blog. Labor unions and the worlds largest hotel company have reached agreements to settle strikes in seven places across the country, but labor leaders warn more unrest could be ahead elsewhere as hotel contracts expire in Los Angeles and Orange counties. Strikes that began in October have ended in Oakland, San Diego, San Jose, Boston, Detroit and on the Hawaiian islands of Maui and Oahu, where workers at Marriott International hotels demonstrated for higher wages, increased worker safety and protection against being replaced due to automation. More than 2,500 workers at Marriott hotels in San Francisco are still on strike, and union leaders said contracts are expiring at the end of this month at 25 hotels in Los Angeles and Orange counties, most of them operated by Marriott. Rachel Gumpert, a spokeswoman for Unite Here, the national labor union for hotel workers, said that future strikes arent planned but are an option. Advertisement We think strikes should be a weapon that are used by workers when needed, she said. Marriott International is the worlds largest hotel company, with about 6,700 properties in more than 130 countries, 177,000 employees and revenue of $22 billion in fiscal 2017. In a statement, the company said it has had a longstanding and productive relationship with Unite Here and has always negotiated our collective bargaining agreements in good faith and have always reached fair agreements. In total, about 7,700 workers were on strike last month at Marriott hotels across the country. Among other issues, workers were demanding wages that ensured employees could make ends meet without having to take a second or third job a level of compensation often referred to as a living wage. Gumpert declined to discuss the details of the agreements that settled the strikes in the seven locations except to say that the workers won historic wage increases and other concessions from Marriott. Were extremely pleased with what we were able to achieve, she said, adding that the contract details will be released once the San Francisco strike is settled. The strikes were launched as the tourism industry has enjoyed record spending and visitors. Last year, 77 million international visitors spent a record $251.4 billion on hotels, travel, food and souvenirs in the U.S., a 2% increase over 2016, according to the National Travel and Tourism Office. The strong economy and thriving tourism industry made it easier for Marriott to offer generous concessions to end the labor unrest, Gumpert said. The fact of the matter is that the economy has recovered and wages have not kept up with the economy, she said. But the 25 hotels in Los Angeles and Orange counties at which contracts expire Friday employ about 8,000 workers who are members of Unite Here. Most of the high-end hotels are operated by Marriott, but other hotels with expiring contracts include the Hyatt Andaz in West Hollywood, the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills and Fairmont Miramar in Santa Monica. A Unite Here representative said contract negotiations have already been underway for contracts at those 25 hotels, but workers may be asked to vote whether to launch a strike as early as next month. hugo.martin@latimes.com Twitter: @hugomartin At first glance, the economy of the Inland Empire looks rosy. The vast area encompassing Riverside and San Bernardino counties has added 200,000 jobs since the peak of the recession. Payrolls are swelling at a year-over-year rate of 2.5%, faster than in neighboring Los Angeles County or California overall. The jobless rate is down to 4.1%, and the spectacular growth of the warehouse and transportation industries seems unstoppable, fueled by the regions e-commerce appetite along with the fact that, despite the current trade dispute with China, the port complex of Los Angeles and Long Beach remains the main hub of imports from across Asia. But a report released Tuesday by UC Riversides new Center for Social Innovation, State of Work in the Inland Empire, paints a grim picture of the struggles behind the broad statistics. Advertisement Our region has bounced back in terms of job creation, said Karthick Ramakrishnan, the public policy and political science professor who founded the center this year. But it shouldnt be inevitable that were doomed to low-wage jobs, low benefits and contingent workers. The report, drawing on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and academic studies, found that: Despite lower housing costs in the Inland Empire than in coastal counties, just 4 in 10 jobs pay enough for families to make ends meet. Poverty rates in Riverside (15.3%) and San Bernardino (17.6%) were higher in 2016 than before the Great Recession, and income inequality grew from 2010 to 2016. 350,000 residents commute to jobs outside the region, mainly because of a shortage of well-paying opportunities. Just 151 out of every 1,000 high school freshmen go on to finish a four-year college degree. Compared to employees in the rest of Southern California and statewide, Inland Empire workers have higher rates of poverty and lower earnings, lower percentages with full-time, full-year employment, and lower percentages with employer-provided health insurance, the report says. To be sure, Inland Empires unemployment rate, which hit 14.4% at the depths of the downturn in July 2010, has plummeted. In Riverside, the number of jobs grew by 33% from 2010 to 2017. In San Bernardino, it grew by 29%. Statewide, the rise was 23%. The report traces the economic history of the region, which bled manufacturing jobs as global competition took hold. Kaiser Steel in Fontana once employed more than 9,000 well-paid unionized workers at its steel mill and iron ore mine. Both shut down in 1983. The closure of military bases also took a toll. Over just one two-year span, 1991 to 1993, 32,000 jobs were lost with the shuttering of Norton Air Base and Pomonas guided missile factory and the downsizing of March Air Force Base. Without access to local jobs, a growing number of Inland residents began commuting to jobs in coastal counties, the report says, while increasing numbers of coastal workers moved inland for cheaper housing. This decade, two sectors have accounted for most of the regions job growth. More than 85,000 new jobs a quarter of payroll expansion from 2010 to 2017 are in healthcare. The surge is driven by the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which brought medical insurance to tens of thousands of Inland Empire residents, many of whom work for companies that dont provide it. Moreover, as the baby boom generation has aged, older residents are requiring more care, including by an expanding workforce of home healthcare workers paid through Californias Medi-Cal. Loma Linda University is raising $366 million to build two hospitals: a 373-bed childrens facility and a 16-story adult hospital that will be the tallest building in San Bernardino County. A new UC Riverside School of Medicine graduated its first class in June 2017. With these projects, healthcare will grow middle-class jobs, Ramakrishnan said. The Amazon fulfillment center in San Bernardino on Cyber Monday in 2016. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) The transportation and warehouse sector added 68,000 jobs over the same period, the second-largest number after healthcares. Amazon, with 13 massive warehouses, is now the regions largest single employer, with about 18,000 workers. Facing a labor shortage as unemployment dropped, the company last month raised its base wage to $15 an hour, while cutting workers bonuses and stock plans. But while $15 an hour is higher than the states current minimum wage $11 an hour for large companies, rising to $12 on Jan. 1 it fails to provide what economists call a living wage in the region, according to the report. According to a widely used standard created by MIT to measure local living costs and wages, in an Inland Empire family of four with two working adults, each parent must earn about $18 an hour, or about $37,000 a year, to make ends meet. Only 38% of jobs in the Inland Empire pay $36,000 or more a year, the report says. A case study in the report describes a family in which both parents are Teamsters at a Stater Bros. warehouse in San Bernardino. The mother makes $26 an hour, with a $13 hourly bonus in high productivity periods, along with health insurance, a pension, sick days and four weeks of paid vacation. By contrast, her daughter, who works at Amazon, earns far less with fewer benefits, the study says, and cannot afford Amazons health insurance, which would require premiums amounting to about half her full-time wages. A fifth of all workers in the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metropolitan area belong to unions. Union membership has grown by 26% over the last decade, even as statewide unionization has remained flat. But much of the growth has been among public employees in healthcare, social services and education. Teamsters Local 1932, with 14,500 public sector workers in the region, recently organized 500 early childhood education specialists at San Bernardinos preschool division, raising their wages with a first contract this year. No Amazon employees are unionized, and nonunion workers are struggling to make ends meet, said Ellen Reese, a sociology professor and coauthor of the report. Workers, unions, community organizations and employers need to work together to improve conditions. Improving earnings, benefits and job stability for workers in the Inland Empire would not only help reduce poverty, it would also increase consumer spending and local revenues, creating positive ripple effects for the regional economy, the report concludes. margot.roosevelt@latimes.com Twitter: @margotroosevelt A federal grand jury has indicted two Iranian men on a charge of orchestrating a widespread ransomware cyberattack scheme targeting U.S. cities, hospitals and transportation agencies, including Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center and the Port of San Diego. The indictment charges Faramarz Shahi Savandi, 34, and Mohammad Mehdi Shah Mansouri, 27, with launching cyberattacks using malware known as SamSam to freeze data on computers. The men then demanded payment in the cybercurrency bitcoin to unlock the data, it says. Authorities said Savandi and Mansouri collected more than $6 million in ransom payments and caused $30 million in additional damages in attacks that began in December 2015. Both men reside in Iran and have not been arrested. The allegations in the indictment unsealed today the first of its kind outline an Iran-based international computer hacking and extortion scheme that engaged in 21st century digital blackmail, said Brian Benczkowski, assistant attorney general with the U.S. Justice Department. These defendants allegedly used ransomware to infect the computer networks of municipalities, hospitals and other key public institutions, locking out the computer owners, and then demanded millions of dollars in payments from them. Advertisement Hackers seized control of Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Centers computers in February 2016, locking systems, encrypting files and disrupting hospital administrative functions. The attack forced the hospital to use pen and paper for its record-keeping. To regain the use of the computers, Hollywood Presbyterian paid a ransom of 40 bitcoin, worth about $17,000 at the time. The attack on the Port of San Diego took place just two months ago. The port reported the ransomware attack Sept. 25, and said it limited access to permits and public documents for a few days. Computers that handled administrative functions for the Harbor Police also were affected. The port declined to comment on whether it paid the ransom, and Justice Department officials on Wednesday also declined to identify which victims opted to pay. According to the indictment, the city of Atlanta; the city of Newark, N.J.; the Colorado Department of Transportation; and the University of Calgary in Canada were among the government entities attacked. In addition to Hollywood Presbyterian, healthcare facilities including Kansas Heart Hospital; MedStar Health in Maryland; Nebraska Orthopedic Hospital; and Allscripts Healthcare Solutions in Chicago were victims. Savandi and Mansouri created the first version of SamSam in late 2015 and further refined the ransomware in June and October 2017, according to the indictment. It says the men used sophisticated online reconnaissance to select potential targets and disguised their attacks to appear like legitimate network activity. Freeman writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune. UPDATES: 1:40 p.m.: This article was updated with more information about the attack on Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center. This article was originally published at 12:10 p.m. Facebook Inc. faced a fresh lashing Tuesday from regulators representing Canada, France, Britain and six other countries upset about the social-networking giants inability to stop the spread of misinformation online and protect its users personal data. The series of rebukes delivered in London at a rare joint hearing featuring policymakers from around the world reflected the vast magnitude of growing global unease with Facebooks business practices and mounting frustration with the companys 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. Advertisement Damian Collins, a member of Britains House of Commons who convened and chaired the hearing, lamented a consistent pattern of Facebook failing to disclose key 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 Zuckerbergs place was Richard Allan, Facebooks 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 weve taken. Asked how Zuckerbergs 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. All together, the countries represent more than 446 million people and have grappled firsthand with the real-world consequences of social medias digital ills. Some, including Brazil, have confronted the rapid proliferation of falsehoods around national elections on both Facebooks namesake social network 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. Representatives of the nine countries later signed a set of international Principles of the Law Governing the Internet, signaling even greater scrutiny of Facebook and other social media companies still to come. In the United States, meanwhile, senators held a hearing of their own grilling members of the Federal Trade Commission, the agency thats investigating Facebook for its privacy mishaps. Facebook stock fell 1% on Tuesday to $135 a share. For months, Zuckerberg has resisted testifying in Britain as members of Parliament investigate the spread of misinformation and the role played by political consultancy Cambridge Analytica around Britains vote to withdraw from the European Union. The firm had improperly accessed data on millions of Facebook users, prompting Britains regulators to fine Facebook this year for the security lapse, though the company has said it intends to appeal. But concerns about political manipulation on social media particularly during national elections have gone global. In October, countries including Argentina, Brazil, Canada and Singapore began to add their voices to Britains calls for Zuckerberg to testify. Repeatedly, though, Facebook said its top executive was unable to appear, opting this month to send Allan, a former member of Britains Parliament, in his place. Those lawmakers 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 fight foreign actors, including Russian agents, that seek to manipulate elections. British policymakers took issue with reports about Facebooks political activities to fight back against 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 Facebooks inconsistent approach to hate speech and its ability to trigger real-world violence. One member of the countrys parliament, Edwin Tong, referenced a post that went viral in Sri Lanka that called for killing Muslims. If its 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 companys policies. Adding to Facebooks woes was 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 over policy changes 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 Britains 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. Romm writes for the Washington Post. Jack Ma (File photo) Party not meddling in running of firms: experts The Communist Party of China (CPC) branches inside private companies help enhance corporate management and improve teamwork without meddling in decision-making processes, and concerns over any executive affiliated to the Party reflect a lack of knowledge about how the Party functions at the grass-roots level, experts said on Tuesday. Jack Ma Yun, founder of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, was identified as a Party member on Monday, which sparked heated discussions online. Some media reports said it was an example of how the Party penetrates into every aspect of Chinese business. This is actually not the first time it has been revealed that Ma is a Party member, media reports said. When the Zhejiang Merchants Association was first established in October 2015, Ma was appointed as the first head of the organization and introduced as a Party member. Those who are worried that growing Party branches and committees inside private companies might jeopardize the interests of shareholders or affect decision-making have no basic knowledge about how grass-roots Party cells operate and what their roles really are, Su Wei, a professor at the Party School of the CPC Chongqing Municipal Committee, told the Global Times on Tuesday. "Before the CPC implemented the 'Three Represents' and allowed private entrepreneurs who had met the requirements to join the Party back in 2001, the number of private businessmen who were Party members accounted for a large proportion of the total number of private entrepreneurs. And many had already become Party members even before they started their own business," Su said. It is unknown whether Ma joined the Party before he started Alibaba. The e-commerce firm was contacted by the Global Times but did not comment on this matter by press time on Tuesday. Membership of the Party and corporate management are two unrelated things, Su noted. "The board of shareholders is in charge of decision-making and daily operations, while Party cells are set up to make sure the company's operations are in line with the principles and policies of the CPC," he said. China recently released a trial regulation for Party branches stating that Party cells inside private firms can help guide and supervise enterprises to follow the country's laws and regulations and safeguard the legitimate interests of all parties, according to a document released on Sunday. The cells will also contribute to team building inside companies and boost corporate development, the document showed. "It's crystal clear what role Party branches play in private companies," Su said, noting that Party cells are not established with the aim of replacing management teams or meddling in decision-making processes. Party benefits Alibaba established its Party branch in 2000 and upgraded it to a Party committee in 2008 due to the company's growing number of Party members, according to media reports. Alibaba now has nearly 200 Party branches and about 7,000 Party members. Ma highlighted the importance of Party construction work with younger generations, pledging to explore Party building inside high-tech firms in the new era. Over the past few years, more and more private companies, especially tech start-ups, have set up Party branches and committees to improve management and enhance team building. Some entrepreneurs also admitted that Party members, who are usually hardworking employees, have become role models at workplaces. "We hire graduates every year and some of them are Party members, who usually work hard and are eager to learn, creating a positive work environment," Liu Ren, vice general manager of Dailywin Watch Group, told the Global Times Tuesday. Tech firms such as iFlytek and smartphone maker Xiaomi have been strengthening their Party construction work. "The rapid development of iFlytek is thanks to the correct guidance of the CPC and the hard work of Party comrades, who are also the backbone of our management team," Wu Dehai, Party chief of the CPC committee of the company, told the Global Times in a recent interview. The trial regulation for Party branches said that if there are at least three Party members in an organization, it should set up a Party branch. The private sector is a key part of China's reform and opening-up, and it has been developing with Chinese characteristics, Su noted. "The interests of shareholders of listed private companies do not contradict the core interests of the CPC, as the Party also wants to pursue opening-up and economic growth," he said. It is one of those Los Angeles bus stops for which grim would be a generous description. The eastbound stop of the Metro 76 bus on Valley Boulevard, just east of Soto in Boyle Heights, is more like a monument to urban neglect. There is the setting: a rocky patch of dirt alongside railroad tracks that lead east out of downtown Los Angeles. Then there is the complete lack of amenities: no shelter, no landscaping and no place to sit. Unless you count the fragments of tarmac that someone has thoughtfully arranged into an improvised stool at the base of a commercial billboard nearby. Its the sort of stop you might see on Streetsblogs annual Sorriest Bus Stops competition: Forlorn. Inhospitable. Designed with little regard to anyone who might take a bus. Which is why one Los Angeles artist has taken the matter of bus benches into his own hands. Advertisement Ordinarily the stop for the 76 bus at Valley and Soto has no place to sit other than a stack of tarmac chunks piled under a billboard. (Carolina A. Miranda / Los Angeles Times) On a Sunday afternoon earlier this month, I find him at Valley and Soto, laying out slabs of wood and power tools. He is decked out in a bright waqollo mask typical of the Peruvian Andes (imagine a balaclava with a mustachioed face embroidered on it). The mask is to protect his identity; he prefers to remain anonymous. Over the past 11 months, the artist has surreptitiously installed more than a dozen wood benches around the Eastside, and he has it down to a science: He props a ladder next to the bus sign, slips a handmade wooden bench over the pole and proceeds to screw, hammer and glue it into place. In about 15 minutes, the stop has a brand-new bus bench. This is allegedly the new biotech corridor, he says, gesturing at the neighborhood around us. We are less than half a mile from LAC+USC Medical Center. But they dont care about the health of the people already here. Its like the city has refused to build benches for them. So he builds them instead, depositing them at bus stops in Boyle Heights, El Sereno and downtown. The artist designs some of his benches to wrap around bus stop signs. (Carolina A. Miranda / Los Angeles Times) The artist screws the benches into place. The project was inspired by the discomfort of waiting for buses without a place to rest after a knee injury. (Carolina A. Miranda / Los Angeles Times) The installations were inspired by his encounters with the transit system in the wake of a debilitating knee injury he suffered two years ago. The stop near his Eastside home has no shade and no place to sit. One day, while waiting for the bus, he says he thought to himself, If my knee gets better, Ill build a bus bench. His knee did get better, so he built and placed a bench near his home, as well as near the home of a good friend who had cancer and used public transit to ride to medical appointments. Others have since followed. Some of his benches have become part of the fabric of the city sat on and rained on, captured on Google Street View and even vandalized. Scrawled in tidy handwriting on one bench was, i love it, thank you, punctuated by a small heart. Other benches (particularly those attached to sign poles) have been removed. Some disappear outright, others are broken into pieces and abandoned nearby no easy feat, since the artist anchors them with cinder blocks and uses professional hardware. I work in the art industry as a carpenter, he says. I use specific hardware to attach the benches so you really have to demolish it. A screen grab of Google Street View shows one of the anonymous artists benches in use in Boyle Heights. (Google Street View / Screen grab by Carolina A. Miranda) His greatest frustration is that whoever is removing them is leaving bus riders with no place to sit. Theyre not providing any alternative, he says. The benches and their removal get at one of the more byzantine corners of transit bureaucracy in Los Angeles. It would seem logical that L.A. Metro, the entity that oversees much of L.A.s public transit, would also be the agency that manages street furniture. But it does not. Instead, the allocation and installation of street furniture including benches and shade structures at bus stops fall to a combination of government bureaucracies. Namely, the Bureau of Street Services (part of the Department of Public Works) in combination with a respective citys local government. In the case of Los Angeles, that would be the individual council districts in which a given stop might exist. Also in on the mix are two private contractors Martin Outdoor Media and Outfront / JCDecaux Street Furniture which maintain a small network of benches and shelters, respectively, financed by advertising. Naturally, this means that getting a bench or a shelter installed at a bus stop in the city of Los Angeles requires a frustrating level of red tape. Any street furniture has to first be approved by the Los Angeles City Council. After that, a single bus bench travels through an extensive permitting process, requiring approval from the Department of Public Works, as well as eight eight! other city agencies including the Department of City Planning, the Bureau of Engineering, the Los Angeles Police Department and the Bureau of Street Lighting. Nearby property owners also have a say. It is a process that the advocacy group TransitCenter described as bloated and inefficient in a nationwide report on bus stops issued last month. An anonymous artists bus bench installed near Chinatown in view of L.A. Metros tower headquarters in the distance. (Carolina A. Miranda / Los Angeles Times) An artist-installed bus bench sits before a Buddhist temple on Valley Boulevard. (Carolina A. Miranda / Los Angeles Times) It is so bloated, in fact, that it has even hindered the installation of advertising-driven benches and shelters (from which the city gets a percentage of revenue). The city first contracted with JCDecaux for shelters in 2001. According to the TransitCenter report, as of 2018, only 1,700 of the 2,500 promised shelters have been installed. (As a point of comparison: under a similar program, JCDecaux installed 3,500 shelters in New York City over five years.) But even if all of JCDecauxs shelters were to be installed, it wouldnt begin to solve the street furniture needs of a city transit system with nearly 16,000 bus stops among them, lonelier stops in working-class districts, such as the one on Valley and Soto. Which may explain why a single artist has taken it upon himself to provide Angelenos with a place to rest as they wait for the bus. (He isnt the only artist to take L.A. transportation infrastructure in his own hands: In 2001, Richard Ankrom installed a freeway sign over the 110 to better mark the exit for the northbound 5 Freeway. It remained in place for more than eight years.) The big mystery with the bus benches is trying to figure out why some of them disappear. Not five days after I watched the artist install his bench at Valley and Soto the second one he has installed there it was gone. Was it the city? Was it a random dude with a crowbar? Is there someone with a deep-seated enmity toward public seating reporting them as garbage to 311? The no mans land of bureaucracy that bus stops inhabit has made that difficult to determine. A spokesman for the Department of Public Works said they dont know. The Bureau of Street Services did not return a request for comment. The two outside contractors say they maintain only the street furniture they provide and arent responsible for removing other objects. The Valley/Soto bus stop lies in Councilman Jose Huizars district. But a request for comment on the matter also went unreturned. (That may be because the councilmans office was raided by the FBI earlier this month.) The removals have been disheartening for the artist, who takes great care in fabricating his pieces. But he says it hasnt dissuaded him from making more. I will slowly continue rebuilding the benches that were destroyed, he says, unless the city beats me to it. Bus bench fully installed on Valley Boulevard east of Soto Street at one of the citys more inhospitable bus stops. (Carolina A. Miranda / Los Angeles Times) ALSO In artists freeway prank, form followed function Guadalupe Rosales used Instagram to create an archive of Chicano youth of the 90s now its an art installation The best of times, the worst of times: art in the age of rising white supremacy French street artist Invader heads into the white cube for a solo show and into the streets for a new L.A. invasion Review: Architecture and sculpture in perfect union at the Schindler House Sign up for our weekly Essential Arts & Culture newsletter carolina.miranda@latimes.com | Twitter: @cmonstah Going undercover with the KKK, running circles through a forest, and painting an impressionistic portrait of a post-Impressionism painter: Three cinematographers explain how they got their shots and why they mattered. Chayse Irvin, BlacKkKlansman The scene: Spike Lees celebrated dramedy finds newly hired Colorado Springs police officer Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) going undercover to canvass a black student union gathering where Kwame Ture (Corey Hawkins) is giving a passionate speech about civil rights. Birth of the shot: This scene was a pivotal moment in Stallworths career and what inspires him to start investigating the Ku Klux Klan. Irvin notes, In the film, its depicted like he coincidentally finds an advertisement for the KKK in a newspaper. But its really his kind of black pride that is sparked in this moment, that makes him really energized. Advertisement Ture gave that particular speech in real life and it was shot verbatim. Irvin adds, Whenever youre working on a set when you know the stakes are high like that, the energy amongst all the collaborators is really clicking at a unique level. And you know, I think it got to the heart of Spike and Is collaboration, which was very much almost like a jazz band, where we did a lot of improvising. But in jazz they have this term called in the pocket. When youre kind of in the zone, you know? And thats how it felt on set. Laura Harrier as Patrice and John David Washington as Ron Stallworth in Spike Lees BlacKkKlansman. (David Lee / Focus Features) Making it work: Lee and Irvin decided to use four cameras simultaneously. There was a second unit in a closet at the location shooting portraits of the crowd actors, two were shooting the speech, and Irvin stayed on Stallworth. It was set up like one big event that they were documenting. Lee played music from the 70s beforehand to get the extras portraying the crowd into an energetic mood. I try to light something in a way that, on the set on the day, it feels like anythings possible. Especially for the actors, Irvin says. I dont want them to feel constrained to a certain space if they feel inspired to kind of work outside of that and whatnot. So I essentially lit the space as it would be lit in that kind of setting, so I set up an array of stage lights almost like a horseshoe shape, above the crowd. And then I set up a soft top light, a soft box. I exposed it at a level that just gave enough detail on all the crowd so that you can sense their presence, but it was still dark and naturalistic. You felt the audience, but your focus was on Kwame. FULL COVERAGE: Get the latest on awards season from The Envelope Robbie Ryan, The Favourite The scene: For a story set in the early 18th century, Ryan and director Yorgos Lanthimos decided to film entirely with natural light. This meant using candles for numerous night scenes and gigantic windows during the day for interior scenes. One of the more memorable moments, however, took place during a daytime excursion in the forest where Samuel (Joe Alwyn) and Abigail (Emma Stone) become entangled in a flirtatious chase. Emma Stone in a scene from The Favourite. (Twentieth Century Fox) Birth of the shot: Originally, Stone and Alwyn had rehearsed a choreographed dance where they were just twirling around each other intensely. On set, however, Lanthimos and the actors transformed the moment into something much more comedic. Making it work: Ryan was using a hand-held rig hed never used before, which made things slightly more difficult as he followed the actors around the forest. That was kind of a crazy day, Ryan recalls. It was a poor mans Steadicam because I dont know how to use [one], but I was able to wear a vest that had these kind of exoskeleton arms that housed the gimble with the film camera on it, which gives you a steady, light touch. So I was able to run around after them and that was kind of so bizarre. It was uneasy. I remember that very well. Benoit Delhomme, At Eternitys Gate The scene: Julian Schnabels impressionistic portrait of Vincent van Gogh (Willem Dafoe) is a unique collaboration between filmmaker, cinematographer and actors. At this particular moment in the film, Van Gogh is upset upon hearing news that Gauguin (Oscar Isaac) will soon be leaving him in the South of France to return to Paris. The Dutch artist runs from the church where they were speaking to a nearby cemetery where he has an exhaustive breakdown. Cinematographer Benoit Delhomme on the set of Julian Schnabels At Eternitys Gate. (Lily Gavin) Birth of the shot: This was such a long scene, such a long dialogue scene, and I knew I should film with the hand-held because I wanted this to be really organic and follow Willem everywhere I could, Delhomme says. I thought the scene is so long and I need to have a steady camera operator to shoot the scene too. And so I [hired] a guy I really liked, very good cinema operator, and I told him, when you work with Julian, you need to improvise. You need to show him the shot. And as the shot develops, Julian is going to tell you things and to redirect you. This is what I was doing during the whole shoot. Making it work: Unfortunately, the camera operator left after assessing that the long run behind Dafoe was simply too hard to do, especially as there were only so many takes and Schnabel wanted to shoot it in the magic hour. That left Delhomme to tackle the shot himself. I remember when I was running behind Willem, he was running so fast and I was out of breath and looking at the [hand-held] camera in my hands, I thought, Julian was right because my operating was being quite shaky and emotional, it is adding to the tension of the scene. I felt like a war photographer going to escape a war zone, Delhomme says. And I said to Julian, Do you think my operating is too shaky? He said, No, Benoit, because life is so shaky. You would never be too shaky for that scene. calendar@latimes.com Director Marielle Heller has returned to the scene of the crime: New York Citys Argosy Book Store. To clarify: Not her crime, but the crimes of Lee Israel, an author who forged letters by legendary names and sold them as rarities in bookshops just like this one during the 1990s, and whos the subject of Hellers newest film, Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Scenes from the film were also shot here.) But Heller, who also helmed 2015s The Diary of a Teenage Girl and is about to wrap up her untitled Mr. Rogers film starring Tom Hanks, advises the Envelope: Dont judge a book or any of her protagonists by their covers. Director Marielle Heller is seen at Argosy Book Store in Manhattan, NY. Heller directed Can You Ever Forgive Me? starring Melissa McCarthy as a down on her luck author who turns to forging famous literary letters to earn a buck. (Jennifer S. Altman / For The Times) Advertisement Youre in the final days of shooting your movie about Fred Rogers. Is there a thread between your choices of films? Im surprised that Im making a movie about men because Im always like, I want to make movies about women. And I still do, and I still will but there is something about Mr. Rogers that drew me away. I was thinking theyre each trying to talk about something that people are uncomfortable talking about. How so? With Diary, it was about sex and teenage-hood and what it is to be a young woman; with Lee and Can You Ever Forgive Me? in many ways I feel like its a movie about loneliness and poverty and what it is to be a woman whos forgotten by society. The Mr. Rogers movie talks about your feelings and how uncomfortable we all are about truly talking about our pain. Theyre all movies about human beings trying to navigate through the world theyre not about robots. Writing and directing meant I was more in control of when I get to do things and how I get to do them. Director Marielle Heller Dolly Wells from left, Director Marielle Heller, and Melissa McCarthy on set of the film Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Mary Cybulski / Twentieth Century Fox Film) Lee is a very different sort of character than were used to seeing Melissa McCarthy play. Why was she right for the role? Good comedians tend to be very in touch with [their] humanity. Melissa is somebody who taps into the plight of humanity in a deeper way. She found Lee as sort of endearing as I did and wasnt worried about her coming off the wrong way. Thats what Ive just discovered with actors, if they can approach a role and connect to it, then theyre going to be able to bring their humanity to it. Whereas, if they judge it right off the bat, youre probably in trouble. You acted for years before turning to directing; is performing no longer on your plate? Never say never. It was definitely my first love, and I feel like I will act again in my life. But I wasnt getting parts that I felt were pushing me the way I wanted to be pushed, and I was tired of waiting for somebody else to tell me when I could create art. Writing and directing meant I was more in control of when I get to do things and how I get to do them. And I think Im a bit of a control freak. Director Marielle Heller and Melissa McCarthy on set of the film Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Mary Cybulski / Twentieth Century Fox Film) How much do you identify with your protagonists as youre making any given film? I felt like I was Minnie from Diary, and in many ways I feel that way about Lee too. I connect to both of them not because I see them as somehow hard to love but because I see them as parts of myself. Lee is an artist struggling to be seen. Thats something we can all relate to. With Minnie, nobodys telling her story, nobodys telling our story how it truly feels to be in our skin. We as a society are afraid of teenage girls; were afraid of their sexuality. And truthfully, we are like that about women over 50 too. Its important that we tell their story now. You have a 3-year-old now; does that color how you see the world and the projects you take on? Ive always been someone who is highly emotional and highly sensitive, and having a kid makes you more so because you start to view the world through their eyes. It hurts in so many ways because the world is a tough place. Its also made me have a lot less time for anyone who is less than kind to anyone they work with. You do change the stories you want to tell after you have a kid. You want to do good in the world. Luke Davies: I learned about a possible job that was going, based on the memoirs Beautiful Boy by David Sheff and Tweak by Nic Sheff. When I read the books, I immediately recognized their power and truth. But I was wary, because 10 years after Candy, I wasnt sure if it was a good idea to write another film with drugs at the heart. Then Philip Seymour Hoffman died, and my father wrote me an email mentioning it, and saying, Luke, there are times when this family feels very blessed. He was talking, obliquely, about my own history with addiction. The email shifted everything for me. In Candy, Id never dealt with my own father-son relationship in those years; it was an absence in both the novel and film. And now I thought: OK, the universe is possibly giving you a message. You should go for this job. You should put your heart into it. Felix van Groeningen: The books spoke to me in a visceral way. Davids story in Beautiful Boy: a father doing everything he can to save his son; Nics quest in Tweak, a beautiful boy with a huge internal struggle, raw and authentic. Like so many, I had seen addiction destroy people and families at close range: in my family too it happened, and I realized we hadnt found a way to deal with it. I became fascinated with the idea of adapting the two books into one film. It was going to be a long road, but I had a gut feeling that it could be done, and distinctively. I met Luke in Sydney (we were both, by coincidence, in Australia for a moment), and we felt a shared passion. We sat on Bondi Beach, looking out over the ocean, trying to get a grip on the vastness of the two books. Each one spanned 10 or 15 years. Luke and I both made timelines of the books to sort it out in our heads. Thinking about what the main beats for each character were, and how they intersected. Davies: From very early on, the entire journey became a process of boiling it down. Felix and producer Jeremy Kleiner and I were all in Paris in summer 2014. I bought this long roll of butchers paper, and we tacked it up along the wall. We talked and scribbled for a couple of days. It was like the Unabombers flow chart. Out of that, I wrote a 40-page treatment. I know it was too long and too dense, but it seemed somehow necessary. We needed to see what all the elements were before we started dropping some of them out. My first draft of my first draft was 185 pages. I whittled that down to 125 pages a lot of babies and bathwater being thrown out. I visited Felix in Antwerp. We were always adding, subtracting, adding, subtracting. But a shape was emerging. Van Groeningen: At some point, I felt that we were pushing too much structure onto the authentic story. The repetitive nature of a recovery narrative is also the challenging part of it. How do you keep invested in it, when you sort of know what is coming? Yet we needed to embrace this repetitive nature, and try to find a way to experience it like the characters experienced it rebuilding hope every time (because this was what made it real and truthful). Luke and I spent time together in Los Angeles. How do we get the core of it right in a simple way? How do we balance these two points of view? Continually boiling it down is how it felt indeed. We broke out a giant whiteboard. By now the shape was a little more coherent than on the butchers paper. After that, Luke went off and delivered a second draft. Advertisement Writer Luke Davies co-wrote the screenplay for the film Beautiful Boy. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) Davies: I think linear, with flashbacks was my starting approach. But Felix suggested being bolder and freer with the time jumps. The swirling circularity of Broken Circle Breakdown had been a revelation to me the way it made already haunted subject matter feel even more haunted. So I gave it a try. I think it perfectly suited the material. The central questions remained the same: how to find the emotional rather than the cerebral logic of the film. How to make the two arcs intertwine without glitching, and still get to a single cathartic ending. Interestingly, while we did so much back and forth with the time jumps and time loops as we kept boiling it down, we hit upon the final scene quite early, and it stayed through all the drafts. So we kind of always knew what we were heading towards. Van Groeningen: Once we were confident we were beginning to get David Sheffs mythic journey right, we could get rid of some of the bigger moments and other ballast. Things that had seemed indispensable in earlier drafts now seemed extraneous. We could be more pure and focused. Our loyalty started to be to how memory actually works: in pulses and fragments, sometimes radiant, sometimes ugly. In the books, these were very intense memories. The more we tried to be true to David and Nic Sheffs subjective experiences, the more it seemed that these looping circles were the way to go. And then I shot the film. And then I kept playing with the timelines in the edit too. The boiling-down process continued right to the end. Trying to reveal the emotional center of the story: That you keep showing up for those you love. Even in the worst of circumstances. FULL COVERAGE: Get the latest on awards season from The Envelope calendar@latimes.com Sony is building on its world of animated web-slingers with more stories focused on women and teenagers of color. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse doesnt officially hit theaters for more than two weeks, but the upcoming film has already generated enough positive buzz that Sony Pictures is looking to expand the franchise with a sequel and spinoffs, The Times has confirmed. Out Dec. 14, Into the Spider-Verse follows the adventures of teenage Spider-Man Miles Morales as he teams up with various other Spideys from across the Marvel multiverse, including Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy. The focus on Miles is one of the things that sets Into the Spider-Verse apart from most live-action superhero offerings, which have predominantly focused on white and male characters. Advertisement Co-created by Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli, Miles is the first black and Latino Spider-Man, who made his Marvel comics debut in 2011. The studio is planning to continue exploring Miles story with a Spider-Verse sequel. Among the potential Spider-Verse spinoffs gaining traction at Sony is a Spider-Women film. The success of 2017s Wonder Woman and anticipation for upcoming movies including Captain Marvel (2019) and Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020) have shown there is an audience for superhero stories led by women. So it only makes sense that Sony would tap into the many women with Spider-related powers in the Marvel comics multiverse. Although no official decisions have been made, the Spider-Women film is expected to focus on three generations of female characters with Spidey powers and could potentially include Into the Spider-Verses Spider-Gwen. Bek Smith will write the script. In addition to Gwen, this spinoff could mean fans will get to see animated versions of characters such as Jessica Drew (Spider-Woman), Cindy Moon (Silk), Anya Corazon (Spider-Girl) and May Parker (Spider-Girl) hit the big screen. Spider-Man franchise veteran Amy Pascal will produce the films, and it is also likely that Marvel Studios alum Avi Arad and fellow Spider-Verse producers Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Christina Steinberg will be involved in some capacity. According to reports, Lauren Montgomery, who directed the animated Wonder Woman as well as other direct-to-video animated DC movies, is in talks to direct the Spider-Women spinoff, while Avatar: The Last Airbender and Voltrons Joaquim Dos Santos has been tapped to direct the sequel. Outside the animated Spider-Verse, Sonys live-action Spider-Man franchises next installment will be Spider-Man: Far From Home, scheduled for a July 5 release. tracy.brown@latimes.com Twitter: @tracycbrown Its taken two years for director Joseph Kahns blistering battle-rap satire Bodied to make it to screens a period of aggressive political and cultural upheaval in America thats unexpectedly only made the zeitgeist-skewering comedy more relevant. Bodied debuted last year at the Toronto Film Festival to critical acclaim and hit screens in a limited theatrical release earlier this month. Today it opens on its biggest platform yet: YouTube Premium, where the trailer alone has already garnered millions of views since premiering in October. Like battle rap itself, a lyrical contact sport waged with words in front of jeering and cheering crowds, the R-rated Bodied is an equal-opportunity offender unabashedly lobbing barbs at all comers inside and outside the battle world. But, the cast marvels as they reunite over lunch in Hollywood, oh, the barbs they couldve dropped using the last few years as fodder.... Advertisement Theres been a whole new president since we filmed the movie, notes Disney Channel alum Calum Worthy, who makes a subversive star turn as Adam Merkin, a woke white grad student who becomes an unlikely battle rapper. Rapper Dumbfoundead started his career in the scene, gaining fans and notoriety from legendary battle competitions posted online. He adds to his acting resume in Bodied as Prospek, a battler proudly repping L.A.s Koreatown. Theres like two years of crazy [stuff] we could have put into battle raps! he says. Battle rappers from L.A. to the Bay spit vicious bars at all comers in the Eminem-produced Bodied, streaming this week on YouTube Premium. (Neon) A perfect example is Kanye, adds Jackie Long, the ATL and Idlewild actor who brings impressive layers to Behn Grymm, the veteran who takes Adam under his wing and comes to question the monster hes helped create. Weve got the perfect movie for him right now. Produced by Eminem and written by former battle rapper Alex Larsen, a.k.a. Kid Twist, Bodied begins as naive fanboy Adam drags his skeptical feminist girlfriend Maya (Rory Uphold) to an underground rap battle to research his thesis on the use of the N-word in battle rap. Soon the polite white liberal outsider is parlaying his poetry skills into spitting his own devastating rhymes. Under Grymms tutelage, he becomes a rising star in the minority-dominated space where stereotypical jokes tread a fine line between satire and violence. But with great power comes great responsibility, and the film leaves it up to the viewer to decide if were watching a heros origin story. I was worried that I wouldnt be able to do the world of battle rap justice, says Worthy, who worked closely with Larsen and real battle rappers to cultivate the lyrical rhythm, cadence and confidence of a true battle-rap champ. With a social media following of more than 2 million, many of whom are young fans, even taking on a project like Bodied was a deliberate career choice for Worthy, a former Austin & Ally star whose credits include American Vandal and the upcoming horror comedy Corporate Animals. When I read the script I really wanted to do it because it tackled free speech and cultural appropriation, which even back then were two of the most controversial topics in America and around the world, he says. The idea of doing a movie around that was something I thought the world needed, and now needs even more. Real-life battle rappers Alex Kid Twist Larsen, Dumbfoundead, Dizaster, and Bodied co-star Shoniqua Shandai talk to The Times at the Toronto International Film Festival about confronting race and racism in America in the controversial battle rap Adding authenticity to Bodieds fast-paced dynamism and furious musicality are real-life battle rappers including Dizaster, who plays an intimidating contender dubbed Megaton. It was their energy and support that brought the set to life, says Long, who breathes hidden dimension into the secretive Grymm. I feel like Im in their world and I understand what they go through, Long says. At the end of the day I hope this movie does great things for battle rap. All the -isms that collide in greater society make prime targets for ridicule in Bodied, from the lazy race and gender cliches lesser rappers hurl at Adams inner circle of battlers (including Che Corleone, played by Walter Perez, and Devine Wright, brought to commanding life by a scene-stealing Shoniqua Shandai) to the pretentious faux-progressivism of his grad school cohorts. In Kahns film, words are weapons, and its how you use them, rather than the words themselves, that matters. The battle rap of Bodied becomes an unlikely safe space to deconstruct the fraught wars of discourse that keep America divided today. I think its important to have a conversation about that distinction; otherwise we just get into this place where were just policing each other and it gets so extreme that were not listening to each other, says Kahn. The director jokes that Twitter, where hes been known to spar and spit witticisms, is his own version of battle rap. Hes been surprised to find some of the films most controversial lines land huge laughter from film festival and sneak audiences around the country. I have made, somehow, an extremely racist movie that everyone thinks is not racist, he laughs. Kahn is joking, of course. I made the movie to explore, he says. There are two parts to a filmmaker: You make the movie and you analyze it as you make it, and there is the actual interaction with the public. And one of the things I really wrestled with was, Why do people laugh at racist jokes? Bodied director Joseph Kahn and stars Charlamagne Tha God, Calum Worthy, Jackie Long and Rory Uphold sat down with The Times at the Toronto International Film Festival to discuss the controversial satire set in the world of battle rap, the last s Another thing Ive been thinking about over this past year is the idea of the perfect liberal person who has no stereotypes, no misogyny, no fear of anybody and no sense of any racism whatsoever: That person does not exist, he continues. Perez had worked with Kahn before on the dizzying 2011 horror comedy Detention and knew what he was getting into when the director called about starring in Bodied. I wasnt really caught off guard, says Perez. He described Che Corleone this pompous, full of bravado Nuyorican character from Oakland, and I was like, Alright, cool! Then I read the script and I thought, This is intense. How are people going to react to this? Battle rap is like stand-up comedy, he adds not for the easily offended. I dont have a problem with that, says Dumbfoundead, whose own 2009 battle versus Kid Twist, filled with an onslaught of easy Asian jokes, partly informed the Bodied screenwriters reflexive take. Youre supposed to use everything about a person and have no mercy. I think once you get offended, you lose. If you watch the battle-rap scene now, people are trying to spit more woke battle raps, he laughs uproariously. I saw these two white dudes battle recently about whos more woke. That was the battle! Thats something that also drives me nuts, adds Uphold, whose Maya presents a surprising foil to Adams morally dubious protagonist. This performative aspect now, especially sorry with men, that is a performative wokeness. Dudes, you doth protest too much. I dont need to know about your feminism. Shut up and act. Show me, dont tell me. One dazzling battle scene between Dumbfoundead and Shandai draws out the complexities of how we negotiate identity politics and turns stereotypical Asian, black and female slams on their head. That actual rap was in my audition sides and my agent, this older white man, said, I dont like this. I dont think this is good for you, I dont think this is a good role for women, Shandai recalls. But I was like, You dont get it this is shoving the stereotypes back in their face. Its me actually taking power and saying, I know what you think of me. Do better, she continues. Being able to say all these horrible things that are said to women and black women constantly, and to be empowered and to challenge a man, felt so good. The actors share the same hope for Bodied: Not only to provoke debate over Adams journey into the world of battle rap, but to put hard topics on the table and spark crucial conversations about how he got there and what he ultimately becomes. For me the barometer of success is that after people see this film theyll have discussions like this, says Worthy. [Bodied] doesnt really make a statement, necessarily. Its a platform of questions and at the end of it, people get to decide for themselves. Calum Worthy, director Joseph Kahn and Jackie Long of Bodied. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times) [Bodied] doesnt really make a statement, necessarily. Its a platform of questions and at the end of it, people get to decide for themselves. Calum Worthy Ideally the goal is for like-minded individuals to figure out a way to start communicating about this, says Uphold. The fact that minorities, or people of color, women, LGBTQ, people that arent able-bodied arent all aligned is wild to me. Shandai nods. What I can appreciate in this time is that people are being forced to reveal themselves, she says. Everyones displaying their racism, their ageism, their colorism, their homophobia. Once we can start conversing I think there will be a greater opportunity for change, because now we can see it. Kahn places the intentions of Bodied within our current age of political, social and cultural acrimony, and in a nation divided under President Trump. I have to put it out there: I am a Trump-hating liberal, he declares. One thing Ive realized, he says, is Trump is a battle rapper. He is literally playing the dozens. He is calling out people, making fun of their names, making fun of their races. He is a battle rapper, and the only way to defeat him is to battle rap back. Trying to silence those one disagrees with in the name of political correctness isnt the answer, he adds. Thats where audiences might take cues from the barb-dropping, rhyme-slinging, thick-skinned lyrical warriors of Bodied. We have to debate, Kahn says. The whole world is in a battle rap right now and you cant win a battle rap by just saying, Be quiet. jen.yamato@latimes.com @jenyamato With an unusual air of freshness and consolidation feeling like a newfound strength, the Sundance Film Festival unveiled its 2019 program Wednesday. The festival is banking on launching more than the usual number of discoveries, with sections ranging from the U.S. Dramatic competition to the adventuresome Next to the world cinema competitions dominated by new or emerging filmmakers. Among the higher-profile entries from more established names in the Premieres section are Bart Freundlichs After the Wedding with Julianne Moore and Michelle Williams; Nisha Ganatras Late Night, starring Emma Thompson and Mindy Kaling; The Report, with Adam Driver and Annette Bening; Bert & Berties Troupe Zero, featuring Viola Davis and Allison Janney; and Dan Gilroys Velvet Buzzsaw, a Netflix thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Rene Russo. From a record high of 14,259 submissions including 4,018 feature films 112 features from 33 countries have been selected to screen when the event unfurls in Utah from Jan. 24-Feb. 3. Advertisement At the end of last years festival, there was a prevalent feeling in the industry that it was an off-year, and no films seemed to dominate the conversation around the festivals Park City hub. The festival did launch its share of commercial disappointments including Gus Van Sants biopic, Dont Worry He Wont Get Far On Foot, the social satire Assassination Nation, Paul Danos critically hailed directorial debut Wildlife and dramatic competition prizewinner The Miseducation of Cameron Post. But the 2018 slate also produced multiple box-office winners, from wide-release successes for horror breakout Hereditary and the John Cho-led thriller Searching, to smaller-scaled wins for Sorry To Bother You and Eighth Grade and the startling results of powerhouse documentary trifecta Wont You Be My Neighbor?, RBG and Three Identical Strangers. The 2019 festival will be the first under new director of programming Kim Yutani, a programmer with the festival since 2006, who had also been director of programming and artistic director at LAs Outfest. Yutani noted the learning curve of her new position its been a lot more meetings and sees her work in continuity with the longstanding mission of the festival. Sundance is a place for independent voices and for people who are taking risks and people who are telling stories in a different way thats always what Im looking for, Yutani said in an interview from the LA offices of the Sundance Institute earlier this week. And Im always looking for the voices of people who are not part of the mainstream, she said. So whether that be the women in our program, the people of color, LGBTQ voices, I think that these are all of real interest to me. And to be able to be in this position and to give those voices a platform is an honor. The festival recently announced that it is making its submission and acceptance data transparently available for a research project in partnership with Stacy L. Smith and the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. The festival included more detailed demographic breakdowns of its filmmakers as part of this years announcement. Of the 61 directors of the 56 films playing across four competition categories, 42% are women; 39%, people of color; and 23%, people who identify as LGBTQ. In the 16-film U.S. dramatic competition section, arguably the centerpiece of the festival, 53% of the directors are women; 41%, people of color; and 18%, LGBTQ. I think it is always our goal for gender parity throughout all our sections, said Yutani. So in that way, it is intentional, but also, the work has to hold up on its own. And I think that our U.S. dramatic competition is really strong, the strongest weve had in many years. And so Im happy that it organically worked out that way too. In the U.S. Documentary Competition, which also includes 16 films, 44% of the directors are women, 22% are people of color and 5% identity as LGBT. I always go back to the core that we like films that represent the world we live in, said festival director John Cooper. And the world we live in is diverse theres lots of stories that havent been told; theres lots of cultures in America that havent really been represented yet. I just think they make good stories; theyre just interesting. Geraldine Viswanathan in Hala, about a Muslim teen torn between two cultural identities. (Sundance) Filmmaker Minhal Baigs Hala premieres at the 2019 festival as part of the U.S. dramatic competition. The film stars Blockers breakout Geraldine Viswanathan in the story of a Muslim teen torn between two cultural identities. Its pretty exciting, said Baig of getting into the festival, on the phone in Los Angeles this week while taking a break from her job as a story editor on the animated series Bojack Horseman. Sundance manages to really celebrate the independent spirit of filmmaking, she added. And so Im especially grateful to have my film premiere there, because I went this past January for just two days and it was really just a very different environment. The atmosphere is very much charged with making your own movies and sharing your stories. Theres a different energy there. The U.S. Dramatic competition will also include Jason Orleys Big Time Adolescence, starring Pete Davidson; Lulu Wangs The Farewell, starring Awkwafina; and Alma Harels Honey Boy, written by and starring Shia LaBeouf. Other U.S. competition titles include Joe Talbots The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Justin Chons Ms. Purple, Pippa Biancos Share, Michael Tyburskis The Sound of Silence, and Martha Stephens To the Stars. Playing as part of the Premieres section, Late Night, written by Mindy Kaling, stars Emma Thompson as a TV talk show host who hires her only female staff writer (Kaling) and the two women eke out a friendship. The story is rooted in Kalings own experiences as a fledgling comedy writer. I felt like that was something I would really want to watch, Kaling said, from a parked car in London, where she is shooting a series adaptation of Four Weddings and a Funeral for Hulu. And I think that was a story that Emma really wanted to watch And because the two of us are the storytellers in this movie, we get to tell the story the way that we see it, which we dont get to see a lot. Mindy Kaling in Late Night. (Sundance) Traditionally spotlighting titles with higher profile talent, the Premieres section is where many of the most acquisitions-ready titles appear. Also playing in the section this year is Freundlichs After the Wedding, a gender-swapped remake of the Oscar-nominated 2006 Danish film of the same name directed by Susanne Bier. The new film stars Moore, Williams, Billy Crudup and Abby Quinn. The director was first at Sundance with his 1997 debut feature, The Myth of Fingerprints, which also featured Moore. (The two are now married.). What I really remember is the incredible audiences, said Freundlich, from a parked car on New Yorks Upper West Side a few days ago. In a way, it spoils you because its not necessarily like that in the outside world. Other titles looking to generate buzz in the Premieres section include Joe Berlingers Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, in which Zac Efron plays serial killer Ted Bundy; Jacob Estes sci-fi thriller Relive, starring David Oyelowo, Storm Reid and Brian Tyree Henry; and Chiwetel Ejiofors feature directing debut, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. The breakout success of several of last years documentary premieres is sure to draw even more attention to the festivals perennially stellar nonfiction premieres. This years slate includes docs about or featuring such high profile names as Dr. Ruth, David Crosby, Mike Wallace, Toni Morrison, Miles Davis, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the late Anton Yelchin, as well as docs profiling Harvey Weinstein and Roy Cohn. In the Midnight section, which frequently is home to some of the festivals biggest commercial breakouts including The Blair Witch Project, Saw and Hereditary, titles include Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbes suburban satire Greener Grass; Abe Forsythes Little Monsters, starring Lupita Nyongo; Alexandre O. Philippes documentary Memory The Origins of Alien; JD Dillards Sweetheart and Goodnight Mommy directors Severin Fiala and Veronika Franzs The Lodge. Among the most notable titles in the Spotlight section, which features films that have premiered at other festivals is the North American premiere of Jennifer Kents The Nightingale. Kents previous film, The Babadook, premiered as part of Sundances Midnight section in 2014. For Yutani, this years mix of personal stories, political themes, fresh discoveries and known faces feels just right. Everything has kind of crystallized, we got all the films we wanted, Yutani said. And it felt like all the hard work finally just clearly just paid off this year. Im really proud to just be here, for there to be so many exciting films and filmmakers that people are going to discover. This year, its very exciting. Additional titles and more information on this years lineup can be found on the official Sundance site. SIGN UP for the free Indie Focus movies newsletter Mark.Olsen@latimes.com Follow on Twitter: @IndieFocus What makes a cartoon a legend? Stephen Hillenburg created one, and nearly 20 years after greeting the public, SpongeBob SquarePants is still going strong, from here to Brazil, from Italy to India to Israel, from Poland to Pakistan, just about everywhere. Indeed, the new SpongeBob Christmas special, SpaceBob MerryPants, premiered the night before Hillenburg died on Monday, at 57, from complications of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The show has produced the socks and sneakers, the lunch boxes and backpacks, the mugs and notebooks, the plush and plastic figures that are the lot of any successful kids show. But SpongeBob grew beyond the usual. Only last week, wearing a Santa hat, SpongeBob made his latest appearance as a balloon in the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade. In September, the Tony-nominated SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical ended a nine-month run on Broadway, with songs written by Yolanda Adams, the Flaming Lips, Cyndi Lauper, Panic! At the Disco, They Might Be Giants, Sara Bareilles and David Bowie (who also provided the voice of Lord Royal Highness, the emperor of Atlantis, in the 2007 special Atlantis SquarePantis). A national tour of the musical begins next year. Danny Skinner as Patrick Star, Ethan Slater as SpongeBob SquarePants and Lilli Cooper as Sandy Cheeks in SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical. (Joan Marcus) Advertisement He can (literally) fall to pieces, but he is never pathetic. However dark the night of his soul, the sun always comes up again. There is a SpongeBob roller coaster. A Malaysian fungus, Spongiforma squarepantsii, has been named for him. And for $2,416 a night (excluding holiday pricing) you can stay in a pineapple, something like the one SpongeBob lives in, at the Nickelodeon Hotels & Resorts, Punta Cana, in the Dominican Republic. (It is not underwater. Yet.) Born in Oklahoma, Hillenburg grew up a Californian, raised in Anaheim, snorkeling and diving in the Pacific Ocean. SpongeBob is the product, almost too perfectly, of his twin interests in art and marine biology, his minor and major at Humboldt State University. (Like SpongeBob, he also worked as a fry cook.) The series near roots are in an informational comic about tide pools, The Intertidal Zone, that Hillenburg produced while teaching public education classes after college at the Orange County Marine Institute (renamed the Ocean Institute) in Dana Point. (Early hero Jacques Cousteau is paid homage in the series French narrator.) He planned to return to school to study art, but animation caught his fancy and he enrolled in CalArts, where he studied under Disney and UPA animator Jules Engel, the Experimental Animation programs founder, to whom the first SpongeBob movie is dedicated. Hillenburgs career in animation was long, but not broad. He worked on just a few series, Rockos Modern Life, for which he was hired on the strength of his CalArts thesis film, Wormholes; Rugrats; and SpongeBob, which he created after Rocko ended, taking with him some of the that shows talent (including Tom Kenny, who would play SpongeBob). What makes the series special? What has kept it alive in a field choked with competition? SpongeBob is the product, almost too perfectly, of Hillenburgs twin interests in art and marine biology. Like all the best cartoons, it is made for children and not made for children (which is not to say made not for children). It is at once smart-alecky and sincere. That SpongeBob is ruled by his emotions doesnt make him a figure of fun; its in the resulting chaos that the comedy lives. Like Pee-wee Herman (Hillenburg acknowledged the debt), hes a boy, and hes a man. He lives on his own and holds a job and wears a tie but his square pants are also short pants, and his practical experience of the world, limited. Indeed, he was originally going to be called SpongeBoy, until it turned out the name was trademarked for a mop. A SpongeBob SquarePants balloon at Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City in November 2016. (Alba Vigaray / EPA-EFE/REX) There is the fresh look of the show the Polynesian patterns and aloha shirt palette. The mainstream has had an on-again, off-again romance with Tiki culture over the years, but it had not made its way, in any sustained way, into a cartoon series. And there are sudden visual shifts, with inserted painterly or photographic effects sometimes even a bit of live action dropped in. Characters can turn grotesque with bloodshot eyes and elaborate skin folds that recall the work of comics artist Basil Wolverton, or Rat Fink creator Ed Roth before snapping back again. (The show takes some malicious delight in portraying the ravages of age: Im so old, one passing character says, Ive got hairs growing out of the wrinkles on my liver spots.) At its best, its just a step away from getting deep, or dark. Its a small town comedy, like The Andy Griffith Show or Northern Exposure or certain films by Preston Sturges, fantastic but believable, in its creators words. With a firm sense of place, its compact cast of characters remain true to their essences, interacting in ways that range from friendship to grudging tolerance: Squidward the octopus (Rodger Bumpass), a dyspeptic aesthete who functions as a Mr. Wilson to SpongeBobs inadvertently menacing Dennis but also works with him at the Krusty Krab, run by the penny-pinching but mostly sympathetic Mr. Krabs (Clancy Brown); Patrick the starfish (Bill Fagerbakke), SpongeBobs amiably dim friend and neighbor; Sandy Cheeks (Carolyn Lawrence), a squirrel in diving gear who has decided to live at the bottom of the sea, and does science and karate. Many recurring characters fill out the world of Bikini Bottom a kids rude joke of a name. Squidward, SpongeBob, Patrick, Mr. Krabs and Sandy Cheeks in the SpongeBob SquarePants musical special Atlantis SquarePantis. (Nickelodeon) Above all, there is its hero. When you set out to do a show about a sponge, Hillenburg said once, you cant anticipate this kind of craze. We just try to make ourselves laugh, then ask if its appropriate for children. But its the unlikely choice that makes the deepest impression. There is a spark of madness within SpongeBob that makes him hilarious and relatable; he is sweet but prone to mania and liable to go too far in support of a good cause. His love of his job, and for the krabby patties he fries at the Krusty Krab, borders on lunacy. At the same time, you can feel for him as when his catlike pet snail, Gary, runs away from home after SpongeBob, trying to break a paddle-ball record, forgets to feed him. He can (literally) fall to pieces, but he is never pathetic. However dark the night of his soul, the sun always comes up again. The shows premise, Hillenburg said, is that innocence prevails which I dont think it always does in real life. After directing The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, which he had considered the series finale Nickelodeon, which has earned many billions of dollars from the franchise, had other ideas Hillenburg resigned as showrunner in 2004. It reached to a point, he said, where I felt Id contributed a lot and said what I wanted to say. But he returned to co-write the story of the second theatrical feature, the 2015 Sponge Out of Water and there was talk of him returning to take a more active hand in the series, where he always at least held the title of executive producer. (Whether the show was as good, or any good, without him is a longstanding subject of debate among fans.) He was involved, too, with SpongeBob Comics, which began publishing monthly in 2011. One reads that Hillenburg was fond of surfing, snorkeling, scuba diving and playing music; and also, as the lack of a record substantiates, that he was a private person. He may have had other things to think about besides a next cartoon. (There was a hand-drawn short, Hollywood Blvd, USA, that he took to festivals and screenings, but little else.) But, after all, does it matter how many swings you take when your first hit sails right out of the park and continues to circle the world? ALSO: Stephen Hillenburg, creator of SpongeBob SquarePants, dies at 57 In memory of SpongeBob creator Stephen Hillenburg, an appreciation of the most underrated characters Can Ethan Slater squeeze out a Tony Award from the SpongeBob musical? SpongeBob ventures ashore with mixed results Review: Its a SpongeBob Christmas! adds an extra dimension robert.lloyd@latimes.com Follow Robert Lloyd on Twitter @LATimesTVLloyd Homeland Security officials doubled down on their use of tear gas on migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border and painted the group as large and violent. Officials gave a handful of journalists a tour Tuesday of the San Ysidro port of entry and surrounding areas of the border wall, stopping at points where they said dozens of migrants had climbed the metal barrier and hurled rocks at Border Patrol officers. They said they wanted to provide a front-row look at what played out that day and how loopholes in the nations immigration system have stretched already limited resources. Amid the confrontation Sunday, United States authorities closed the San Ysidro Port of Entry for more than four hours and said 69 migrants, including a handful of women and children, who had managed to cross could face criminal charges. The U.S. Northern Command in recent days has redirected 300 troops to California to help with border security. On the Mexican side, authorities said they arrested 39 migrants and were deporting 98 others linked to the fracas. Meanwhile, migrants who trekked thousands of miles to Tijuana from Central America and didnt participate in the incident said they felt they were being punished for the actions of others. Advertisement U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials estimated that more than 1,000 migrants took part in the clash. San Diego Sector Chief Rodney Scott described a chaotic scene Sunday along 2.6 miles of the border. Just east of the port of entry, in an area he said is a usual flashpoint of activity, a few dozen border patrol officers stood in the shade against the border wall. Scott motioned toward an area of the border gate where four steel pillars were bent at various angles, saying that was the work of migrants violently shaking the gate and trying to push through. Hundreds of people were screaming at border officers, he said. Rocks flew overhead. Nearby, another group broke down a section of barbed wire and left a portion of the fence on the ground, he said. Contractors were later called in to weld the fence back together. When they broke that, they had a breach where they could just walk right through, he said. Migrants started pouring through. Customs and Border Protection officials said that despite the attention paid to photos of women and children, the majority of migrants who participated in the clash were adult men. They added that agents had targeted migrants who threw rocks at them. Agents deployed tear gas and pepper spray projectiles. Canisters hit the fence and exploded, forcing people back. Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles, called the firing of tear gas against women and children despicable. She said the U.S. undoubtedly has the resources to send more asylum officers to speed up processing times at ports of entry. These are human beings who are reaching a point of desperation because their asylum claims are being processed at a snails pace or not at all, she said. But Scott said the decision to use pepper spray and tear gas was necessary. He said officers wouldnt hesitate to use those and other forms of less-lethal force again if warranted. We are using the least intrusive tools that we possibly can, he said during a telephone briefing with officials in Washington. During Sundays clashes, agents arrested 42 migrants who had illegally crossed the border, including a handful of women and children. A Homeland Security spokesman referred questions about whether any of the migrants were charged with a crime to the Justice Department. On Monday, the Department of Defense added an additional 1.5 miles of wire to the border barriers. Hundreds of migrants briefly crossed illegally through a dilapidated wall made of steel landing mats left over from the Vietnam War, Scott said, but were forced back into Mexico. Homeland Security officials have said they identified at least 600 people with criminal records among the caravan, but its unclear how they arrived at that number. Department of Homeland Security Press Secretary Tyler Houlton on Tuesday cited intel sources that could not be publicly released because they are law enforcement sensitive. Robert Perez, deputy commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, said the skirmish Sunday showed that some people who embed themselves into large migrant groups incite violence. We certainly do not want this to be the new normal, he said. All these folks who have made it here did so across what is unquestionably a very perilous journey a journey that is wrought with crime, wrought with danger in and of itself, let alone oftentimes with false promises and hopes that never materialize. After Sundays confrontation, some Central American migrants in the caravan agreed to return home. More than 8,000 migrants remain in Baja California, with 6,800 people in Tijuana alone. Nearly 2,000 others are in Tapachula and Chiapas, near Mexicos border with Guatemala. Customs and Border Protection officials said the processing facility in San Ysidro holds 300 people. A backlog of 2,800 people who were already waiting to make asylum claims at the border before the arrival of the recent caravan means it could be six weeks before any of those migrants are processed. On Tuesday, migrants were seen being patted down by officers at the processing facility. Groups of men and others of women and children walked through the facility with their belongings in backpacks or suitcases. Men stood with their hands against a wall as officers wearing gloves searched them for weapons and rashes. Inside the facility, migrants slept on benches or the floor of holding cells, wrapped in emergency thermal blankets. Scott said those with legitimate asylum claims should still present themselves at crossings as is their right under U.S. law but that migrants who made the trip for economic reasons are not eligible for asylum. We are doing the best we can to get factual information to these migrants about what to expect at the border, he said. Were hoping this calms down and people realize they have been sold a bad bill of goods. Scott, who has worked for Customs and Border Protection for decades, said the scene that unfolded Sunday differed from previous attempts hes seen by groups of migrants attempting to illegally cross the border because of its sheer violence. In the 1990s, he said, agents could talk to people and convince them to stay back without worrying about being hit with rocks. Back then, he said, people didnt demand entry. But that is not the norm, he said. Most people that really truly are trying to immigrate to the United States dont want to make a really, really horrible first impression. This group doesnt seem to care. 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 San Diego County district attorneys office announced Tuesday. Deputy Nicholas Morgan, 27, was charged with two counts of misdemeanor assault without lawful necessity by an officer. Prosecutors allege that Morgan assaulted a man and his father during a May arrest. He faces up to two years in jail if convicted. Deputy Joshua Nahan, 31, is facing one misdemeanor count of assault without lawful necessity by an officer for allegedly assaulting the older man. He faces up to a year in jail if convicted. The two deputies, who are on paid administrative leave, are slated to be arraigned Friday morning in Vista. Advertisement Law enforcement officers hold a position of trust in our community and are required to abide by the rules in the exercise of their powers. Dist. Atty. Summer Stephan said in a statement. 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. Shortly after the charges were formally announced, community advocates gathered at a news conference outside the Vista sheriffs station. Many said they were thankful to see charges filed but wanted to see them brought in other cases in which they allege criminal behavior under color of authority. They feel like this crumb is not enough I am starving, said Yusef Miller with the San Diego office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR. 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 in the head. A neighbor shot the recording. The sister and daughter of the men in the video posted it on social media. There, it quickly picked up steam and garnered media coverage. On Tuesday, the Sheriffs Department issued a statement saying that it learned of the video the day after the arrest and immediately opened an internal investigation, which it said was comprehensive and included reviewing video from the deputies body cameras as well as reports and interviews with everyone involved. The department does not tolerate misconduct of any kind, the Sheriffs Department said. After the arrest, the district attorneys office dropped all charges against the elder Martinez and dismissed a resisting-arrest charge against his son. However, in July, the son pleaded guilty to a domestic violence-related charge and was sentenced to four years of probation. UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy said Tuesday that China supports the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in increasing cooperation with the United Nations. "As a founding member of the SCO, China will continue to work with all parties to carry forward the 'Shanghai Spirit' and implement the outcomes of the Qingdao Summit," said Wu Haitao, China's deputy permanent representative to the UN, at a special event on "Cooperation between the United Nations and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization." "We will support the SCO in increasing cooperation with the United Nations and advancing the purposes and principles of the UN Charter to build a community with a shared future for mankind," Wu noted. The SCO has an important influence on regional and international affairs, said the envoy, noting that over the past 17 years since its inception, guided by the "Shanghai Spirit" of mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, mutual consultation, respect for cultural diversity and aspiration for common development, the SCO member states have continuously increased political mutual trust and cooperation in security, economic and cultural fields. "Through extensive international cooperation, the SCO has achieved positive results in combating terrorism, drug trafficking and organized crime, making important contribution to regional security and shared prosperity," he added. Noting that the SCO has become a comprehensive regional organization with great potential and a coverage of the largest population and landmass, and will play a more active role in regional and international affairs, Wu said that the SCO enjoys cooperation with the UN. While stressing that the "Shanghai Spirit" conforms to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, the envoy said that r cooperation between the SCO and the UN has injected strong impetus in the efforts of the international community to achieve peace, stability and common development. Wu told the event that the SCO and the UN have carried out cooperation of various forms on Afghanistan and other hotspot issues, counter-terrorism, anti-narcotics, education, science and culture, adding that China supports the UN General Assembly in adopting a draft resolution on cooperation between the UN and the SCO. Wu recalled that the 18th meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO was held in June in Qingdao, China. The Qingdao Declaration states clearly that it is important to expand exchanges and cooperation between the SCO and the UN, its specialized agencies and other regional and international organizations, he said. The Los Angeles County subway project that will whisk commuters from the Westside to downtown in less than half an hour will receive $100 million in federal grants next year, the Federal Transit Administration said Wednesday. The federal funds are earmarked for the final leg of the Metropolitan Transportation Authoritys $9-billion project to extend the Purple Line from its terminus in Koreatown to a station near the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs campus, just west of the 405 Freeway. Most of the nine-mile subway extension will run beneath Wilshire Boulevard, which is the busiest transit corridor in Los Angeles County and has one of the highest concentrations of jobs and housing in Southern California. The project is expected to generate 78,000 new daily trips on the countys growing rail system. The Metro Purple Line extension will add nine miles of track and seven stations to L.A.'s growing rail network. (Laura J. Nelson / Los Angeles Times) Advertisement Metro spokesman Dave Sotero said the agency is grateful for the positive and productive working relationship with federal officials. The Purple Line extension is scheduled to open in three phases: from Koreatown through the Miracle Mile by 2023; to Beverly Hills and Century City by 2025; and to Westwood and West L.A. by 2026, two years before Los Angeles hosts the Summer Olympics. Metro has secured $2.75 billion in federal grants and low-interest loans for the first two phases of the project, which are under construction in Mid-Wilshire and Beverly Hills. Metro has requested a similar package, worth about $1.3 billion, for the third and final leg of the project, which has a budget of $3.56 billion. Its not yet at the finish line, K. Jane Williams, the FTAs acting administrator, said in an interview. The full funding deal, she said, will probably come through sometime early next year. Metro is working quickly in an effort to finish the Purple Line well in advance of the 2028 Olympics. This summer, the agencys board hired a contractor and set a $1.37-billion budget for the design and construction of twin subway tunnels that will run beneath the 405 between Century City and West Los Angeles. Until the federal deal is confirmed, Metro is spending some local funds on early work on the project. In September, the agency received confirmation from federal transportation officials that the final phase of the project would still be eligible for a federal funding package even if local funds are already being spent. The remainder of the project will be funded with revenue from Measure R and Measure M, the sales tax increases that county voters approved in 2008 and 2016. laura.nelson@latimes.com For more transportation news, follow @laura_nelson on Twitter. In Los Angeles, they have long been a familiar sight: the vendors who hawk ice cream from pushcarts in Echo Park, sell bottled water to sweaty tourists strolling in Hollywood, and show off their wares under rainbow-y umbrellas in the Fashion District. Now, after years of protests and packed hearings at City Hall, Los Angeles leaders have passed a law to legalize and regulate vending on its sidewalks. The decision Wednesday was the culmination of a long and persistent campaign by vendors, many of them immigrants and Spanish speakers, who erupted in cheers and applause after the unanimous vote at City Hall. Tens of thousands of vendors are estimated to sell food and goods on L.A. sidewalks, a practice that has been illegal yet all but ubiquitous. This means freedom, said Aureliano Santiago, who sells ice cream and hot dogs in MacArthur Park. The police wont pester us anymore. Theyll go after delinquents instead. Advertisement Los Angeles politicians first proposed legalizing and regulating sidewalk vending more than five years ago, but council members sparred over where and how it should be allowed. Brick-and-mortar shops had raised concerns about blocked sidewalks, trash and unfair competition. After President Trump was elected, the council quickly moved to decriminalize vending, fearing that criminal charges could put some vendors at risk of deportation as the federal government cracked down on immigrants living in the country illegally. But sidewalk sellers still could be ticketed and fined for violating the municipal code. L.A. leaders were still working out how to allow vending when a state law forced their hand. Under Senate Bill 946, local governments had to make sure that their rules lined up with new restrictions on how they could regulate vending or lose their ability to enforce those rules beginning in January. That law prohibited cities from limiting where or how vendors could do business or capping the number of vendors allowed unless such restrictions were tied to objective health, safety, or welfare concerns. It also barred cities from requiring sidewalk vendors to get approval from a neighboring business, an idea that L.A. had debated in the past. As the council prepared to vote to legalize vending, City Councilman Bob Blumenfield dubbed it a banner day for the city but complained that the Senate bill ripped away our local control. Under the new rules passed Wednesday, vendors must pick up trash; ensure that people can pass on the sidewalks; and do business at a minimum distance from fire hydrants, driveways, curbs, building entrances and other street features. They must have any business and health permits required by the city, county or state. And if they set up shop next to another vendor, they must leave at least 3 feet of space in between. Those rules will go into effect by January, city officials said. Parks will have their own restrictions: Only two vendors are allowed per park acre, and they cannot operate within 25 feet of each other, or within 100 feet of any park buildings or playgrounds. If a park has an exclusive concession agreement, vendors cannot set up stationary stands there to sell food or merchandise. Los Angeles plans to eventually start handing out permits, which could authorize vendors to set up shop at specific spots, but the city still has to work out the details. Vendors and their advocates have pushed for a permit system, arguing that it will give them more certainty about where they can do business and save them from having to stake out desirable spots early in the morning. In the meantime, vendors will be able to do business legally anywhere that meets the new requirements. For a decade, Edgar Suy said, sidewalk vendors like him were treated like rats. Thats how they treated us the government, the police, the business owners, said Suy, who sells corn and churros in Hollywood and downtown, earning money to support his mother and children in Guatemala. Now we can come out of the shadows. We arent a menace to society. Sidewalk sellers will still be barred from hawking food or goods around busy venues such as the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Universal Studios and El Pueblo de Los Angeles monument. They will also be prohibited near Dodger Stadium and nearby Elysian Park, Hollywood Bowl, Staples Center and the L.A. Coliseum on days when events are being held. In addition, Leimert Plaza Park will be off limits to vendors because commercial activity was prohibited there when the park land was provided to the city, according to the parks department. That frustrates vendors such as Kevin Wharton Price, who has sold red, black and green flags there on Sundays, when a drum circle and vendors draw people to the park. If vending is halted there, it takes away the cultural essence of that area, Wharton Price said. Even in those banned locations, however, vendors can still sell expressive items that are protected under the 1st Amendment, such as art or music made by the seller, officials confirmed. Business groups had pushed for such restrictions, particularly along the Hollywood Walk of Fame, arguing that such areas are too congested to safely accommodate vending. Vendors and their advocates argued that the city should instead pass rules tailored to such areas, and have challenged whether excluding Leimert Park is legal under SB 946. Despite such concerns, the Los Angeles Street Vendor Campaign hailed Wednesdays vote as a monumental victory. Isela Gracian, president of the East Los Angeles Community Corporation, said vendors had been fighting for a decade for legalization, well before politicians signed on. Hundreds of vendors clad in black T-shirts showed up at City Hall for the vote. Grinning politicians, city staffers and vendors lined up for free tamales, taquitos, aguas frescas and churros after a euphoric news conference on the steps of City Hall. When I began this campaign, no one thought it would happen, said Caridad Vasquez, a Boyle Heights vendor who helped kick off the movement, and who was escorted up among council members before the vote to be feted by Councilman Joe Buscaino. This is a triumph. Councilman Curren Price is warmly received by vendors outside City Hall after the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to legalize and regulate sidewalk vending. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) Councilman Curren Price, one of the politicians who first called to legalize vending five years ago, was greeted after the vote by a sea of cheering vendors who hugged him and chanted, Si se pudo! Sweet success after five long years of challenges, right? Price said to the crowd, calling it a win for the American dream. For brick-and-mortar businesses and their advocates, the question is how strictly L.A. will enforce its new rules. The language in the ordinance would mean nothing without enforcement, said Armando Flores, legislative affairs manager for the Valley Industry & Commerce Assn. How are we going to pay for that? Thats a question that still needs to be answered. The Bureau of Street Services has suggested that in addition to escalating fines for scofflaws under the vending rules, the city could enforce other codes that restrict what can be left on sidewalks. City staffers have laid out a proposal to hire 22 more inspectors, plus a handful of administrative staffers to oversee the program, at a cost of nearly $3.6 million. emily.alpert@latimes.com Twitter: @AlpertReyes UPDATES: 2:10 p.m.: This article was updated with additional reaction and background. This article was originally published at 10:25 a.m. In his longshot bid to become Los Angeles County sheriff, Alex Villanueva succeeded by appealing both to a heavily Democratic constituency and the rank-and-file deputies he hoped to lead. But part of his platform hinged on questioning some recent reforms that long have been a wedge between deputies and many progressive groups. As Villanueva prepares to take office next week, there are growing concerns about the future of reforms imposed after a federal investigation found serious wrongdoing by top department officials and a culture of violence against inmates in the jails. On the campaign trail, Villanueva, 55, lamented that deputies were being unfairly treated, criticized the requirements for reporting minor uses of force and suggested metal flashlights be reintroduced so that deputies could defend themselves against jail inmates. Advertisement The sheriff-elect, who retired as a lieutenant in February after three decades with the department, also sharply faulted Sheriff Jim McDonnell for attempting to give local prosecutors the names on a secret list of deputies who have histories of discipline for dishonesty and similar misconduct. On Tuesday, hours after conceding the race, McDonnell expressed hope that the reforms he championed would continue. We went from being that fractured organization to one that is upholding the mandate of fairness, accountability and transparency, he said. Those are hallmarks, those are milestones and points of comparison to be able to look at when you try to judge a department. In his last news conference as Los Angeles County sheriff, Jim McDonnell said Tuesday that he hopes the reforms he implemented will continue. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) Some watchdogs worry that Villanuevas platform could undermine some of the progress made under McDonnell. Before McDonnell won election as sheriff in 2014, the former Long Beach police chief served on a county blue-ribbon commission that called for sweeping reforms of the department to deal with jail abuse and mismanagement. I get really nervous hearing that we should make changes like bringing back Maglite flashlights, which can be a deadly force weapon in the jails, and changing the use-of-force reporting requirements, said Peter Eliasberg, chief counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. Those changes were recommended and put in place to address an extremely serious problem, he said. Serious force against inmates dropped significantly under McDonnell. But Villanueva has said a new kind of jail violence attacks by inmates on deputies needs to be addressed. In 2017, there were 643 assaults on jail employees, up 50% from 2015, when there were 429 assaults, according to department statistics. If we showed the public pictures of deputies assaulted by inmates, what they look like, they would have an entirely different appreciation of what were talking about, Villanueva has said. Danny Leserman, Villanuevas spokesman, said the sheriff-elect is not considering relaxing standards in the jails or rolling back reforms, but rather wants to review the departments policies closely so that they are more efficient while still holding deputies accountable. Villanueva has also said he would expedite the implementation of body cameras for deputies, a project that has dragged for years because of budget concerns. Among other changes Villanueva has proposed is eliminating the jobs of the departments constitutional policing advisors , who were hired by McDonnell to act as internal watchdogs and have counterparts at the Los Angeles Police Department. The advisors have been frequent targets of the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, the union that represents rank-and-file deputies and spent at least $1.32 million supporting Villanueva. Diana Teran, one of the advisors, said she has advocated for policies that would bar deputies from telling federal immigration agents about a persons immigration status and a rule that would disallow deputies who fire their weapons from viewing video footage of the incidents before giving a statement. Teran, a former prosecutor and criminal defense attorney, also supported requirements that internal investigators interview deputies in non-hit shootings within weeks, rather than up to a year after an incident, as was previously happening in the agency. This position is advocating for those people that nobody else would advocate for, the people that are arrested, the people that are incarcerated, she said. Theres no one else inside the department whose sole job is to advocate for the constitutional rights of those individuals. Among her more sweeping projects was recommending that McDonnell give prosecutors the names of deputies with histories of misconduct in their files information that could be subject to disclosure to defendants in criminal cases. That roster, known as the Brady list, became the center of a legal battle between McDonnell and ALADS, which opposes disclosure and went to court to stop it. Villanueva, who says he was the victim of unjust discipline while with the department, has criticized the Brady list as a fake list that often reflects unfair and retaliatory actions against deputies. Hes proposed a truth and reconciliation process to give deputies the chance to seek redress if they feel they were unfairly punished in the past. Its unclear how he will handle the legal fight over the list, a case thats now in front of the state Supreme Court. Robert Bonner, a former federal judge who sits on the Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission, said having constitutional policing advisors is considered a best practice for police agencies across the country. These are people with knowledge and expertise with respect to issues related to excessive and unlawful uses of force. To the extent [Villanueva] thinks he doesnt need that, I hope hell reconsider, Bonner said. maya.lau@latimes.com Twitter: @mayalau In a hotel about 40 miles from Paradise, Bill Krulder and other refugees of the worst fire in California history wait for when they can return to whats left of the town. Krulder sat in the lobby Tuesday with his back to the window. Outside, a steady, light rain pelted the ground. Its a little too late, he said. Way too late, added Joe Sievers, 67, another Paradise resident who found his way to the hotel. Advertisement Residents in this Central Valley community have come to expect rainstorms in October, just as the leaves of the bountiful trees explode in deep burgundy, yellow and orange. They wondered out loud whether the rain showers, if they had arrived on time, would have prevented the deadliest fire in modern California history from ripping through Paradise. Now that the damage is done, they said, the rain is adding another roadblock in their quest to return to some sense of normality. The rain, which helped in last weeks containment of the wildfire, is now keeping Krulder from returning to whats left of his home. He had a hazy picture of his mobile home, with smoke rising from nearby debris. The house is still standing most in his mobile community arent but it looks damaged. Hes worried rainwater will turn the ash into sludge and make it difficult to comb through the wreckage. Its stopping us from going up there, Krulder said. Its delaying FEMA going up there. Right now, its a waiting game for everybody. LIVE UPDATES: The latest on the California wildfires Bill Krulder, left, Joe Sievers, middle, Squire Howell, back right, and Brian Boyd, right, talk in a hotel lobby. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) Over the last few weeks, Krulder and Sievers have made the Best Western hotel home. The two men didnt know each other before the fire, though they lived in the same small town for years and frequented the same haunts. They didnt know 53-year-old Valarie Susnow of Magalia or 56-year-old Brian Boyd of Paradise, who joined them in the lobby Tuesday. But since the Camp fire, they have formed a little community around the waffle maker during breakfast, passing one another in the elevator and lounging in the lobby, where Krulder and Sievers said in unison that they sit to worry. Around the table, they trade escape stories of dodging embers and feelings of guilt. Together, they try to make sense of the tragedy that unites them. They are among thousands of Paradise residents who fled their homes the day the fire started and have not been allowed to go back since. There is growing frustration at the pace of getting people back to see what is left of their properties as well as longer-term shelter plans for those who lost their homes. The first of three storm systems expected in the area dropped a smattering of rain Tuesday. Forecasters predicted about an inch of precipitation, saying the relatively weak system would sputter out by early Wednesday. But a stronger storm will roll in late Wednesday, bringing with it the potential for debris flows and up to 3 inches of rain through Thursday night. The Butte County Emergency Operations Center has prepared for the rain by clearing drainage culverts of debris, said Matt Gates, public information officer for the Paradise Police Department. The California Conservation Corps also has been working on erosion-control measures for mountain slopes filled with fire-damaged pine and chaparral. Ash doesnt absorb water, which complicates things, Gates said. PG&E offers state little explanation about why it didnt shut off power before Paradise wildfire A third storm could bring 2 to 4 inches of rain to the charred region from Friday through Sunday. Its the intensity that can cause debris flows, said Eric Kurth, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. If the rain comes over time, theres some opportunity for it to absorb or gradually run off. When we have rapid runoff, thats when it can bring down entire hillsides. The soil in recently burned areas cannot absorb significant amounts of rainwater, so excessive precipitation can lead to fast-moving flows containing mud, debris and even trees and boulders. The devastation can be deadly and often comes without warning. The rain is also expected to complicate the already challenging search for human remains among the rubble of the Camp fire. Typically, crews scoop fire debris into a screen and sift it, looking for bone or bone fragments, but the ash and rain have mixed to form a clay-like substance, making the task nearly impossible. Officials have had to bring in water and gently wash away the clay to expose potential human remains in the charred mess. Authorities are slowly narrowing the list of the missing, which on Monday night stood at 158, down from nearly 1,000 last week. Officials have found the remains of 88 people. For Paradise survivors, the scale of the loss remains impossible to imagine. Many spent years building homes and lives there. But with much of town including more than 1,400 homes burned, some are not sure what they return to. Sievers said in the 41 years he lived in Paradise, he had turned his home into an oasis in the mountains. He created a mechanics shop where he fixed Subarus and sold them at cost to people living on little. They call me Subaru Joe, he said with a chuckle. He had rows of crops and fruit trees in his backyard. Two years ago, plentiful rains helped him yield 300 pounds of cherries, most of which he donated. This year, dry conditions and a late rain washed away the blossoms and he grew only 50 pounds. The fire took it all: his house, the cars he was fixing up, his harvest. Every square inch of that place had my fingerprints on it, he said. Sitting in the plush lobby chair, Sievers choked back emotion while describing his former life. He said he hasnt allowed himself to break down. Hes thankful for the rain, finally coming to purify the air. And hes grateful for the respite it will give him in trying to sift through the life he lost. Times staff writers Rong-Gong Lin II and Cindy Chang in Paradise, and Hannah Fry and Matt Hamilton in Los Angeles contributed to this report. Voting rights activists working with Democrat Stacey Abrams filed a sweeping federal lawsuit Tuesday against Georgia election officials, alleging they grossly mismanaged the recent midterm, depriving Georgia citizens especially those of color of their fundamental right to vote. The 66-page complaint filed in Atlanta by Fair Fight Action, a nonprofit group set up earlier this month, describes serious and unconstitutional flaws in Georgias election process and calls for large-scale voting reforms, including asking the court to put Georgia election laws under federal court supervision. Abrams lost her bid for Georgia governor to Republican Brian Kemp earlier this month by about 54,700 votes after an acrimonious race in which she dubbed Kemp an architect of voter suppression. The lawsuit does not list Kemp as a defendant since he resigned from his role as Georgias secretary of state two days after the election. Instead, it targets Robyn A. Crittenden, who is the states interim secretary of state, as well as other members of the state election board. Kemp is, however, named repeatedly in the lawsuit. Advertisement The general election for governor is over, but the citizens and voters of Georgia deserve an election system that they can have confidence in, Lauren Groh-Wargo, Abrams campaign manager and chief executive of Fair Fight Action, said at a news conference Tuesday outside a federal courthouse in downtown Atlanta. While Abrams is on the board of Fair Fight Action, which filed the suit along with Georgia Care in Action, she is not listed as a plaintiff in the lawsuit. The Nov. 6 election drew historic voter registration and turnout in Georgia, with more than 3.9 million people casting votes. But according to the lawsuit, decades-long neglect of the elections infrastructure left a system virtually guaranteed to fail. Time-tested voter suppression tactics further burdened the right to vote, the lawsuit states. Voters faced a systematic disregard for established rules; a refusal to provide resources adequate to enable a fair voting process; and policies and practices that stifled the votes of the people. A flurry of lawsuits were filed by Abrams campaign and her allies before and after the election, challenging specific provisions of Georgia voting policy, such as the exact match policy that strikes Georgia voters from the rolls if the name on their registration application does not exactly match their name on their government-issued IDs, and the use it or lose it policy that removes voters if they have not recently exercised their right to vote. Richard L. Hasen, professor of law and political science at UC Irvine, said the new lawsuit has an unusually broad focus. The strategy is to show that the cumulative effect is severe, even if any one of these things in isolation might seem to be less serious, Hasen said. The argument is that all of these things work together to deprive people of the right to vote. I think its a bolder kind of strategy. And they ask for bold relief. The complaint asks the court to declare that Georgias current elections process violates multiple federal laws, including the fundamental right to vote under the First and Fourteenth amendments, the ban on racial discrimination in voting under the Fifteenth Amendment, and the right to equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment. Filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, it asks the court to permanently order election officials to block exact match and use it or lose it policies, replace insecure and unreliable voting machines with paper ballots counted by optical scanners, train local officials and adopt and enforce uniform standards. Notably, it also asks the court to require that Georgia get approval from a federal court before it enacts any changes to its voting laws. The federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 required states with a documented history of voter discrimination, mostly in the Deep South, to pre-clear any changes in their voting laws with the Justice Department or a federal court. However, in 2013, the Supreme Court ruled in Shelby County vs. Holder that the formula used to determine which states must seek federal pre-clearance was outdated and that Southern states had been unfairly singled out. Whether the plaintiffs ultimately prevail, Hasen said, depends on what the evidence shows. Even if the plaintiffs can prove intentional discrimination, a court wont necessarily impose pre-clearance. In 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit struck down a stringent 2013 North Carolina voting law, finding that it targeted African Americans with almost surgical precision. Yet the court declined to impose pre-clearance. According to Groh-Wargo, more than 40,000 voters contacted Abrams campaign hotline to register complaints about voting in the midterm election. Some waited for hours at the polls or arrived at polling stations that had run out of paper ballots or had malfunctioning voting machines. Others did not receive ballots or had their voter registration application rejected. It was a complete breakdown, Angel Poventud, a resident of southwest Atlanta who spent election day assisting voters at the Pittman Park Recreation Center polling station, said earlier this month. The station began the day with only three operational voting machines, forcing voters to wait in line for up to four hours. There werent enough cards, there werent enough staff, there werent enough machines, Poventud said. People left and the majority never came back. So many votes were lost. Kemp, who took office as Georgias secretary of state in 2010, had since purged 1.4 million inactive registered voters from the rolls. While federal law requires the state to update voter rolls by removing those who have died or moved, Kemps critics accuse him of unfairly removing many eligible voters, especially minority and low-income Georgians. Kemp has pushed back against the criticisms, noting that he has introduced online voter registration in Georgia and the state has about 1 million more registered voters today than it had in 2010. On Tuesday, Kemps spokesman declined to comment on the lawsuit. This week, Governor-elect Brian Kemp is meeting with public safety and economic development leaders, Ryan Mahoney said in an email. He is focused on building a safe and prosperous future for Georgia families. Candice Broce, press secretary for the secretary of state, said, With a record high of 7,000,000 people on Georgias voter rolls and unprecedented voter turnout in Novembers midterm election, it has never been easier to register to vote or make your voice heard at the ballot box in our state. Abrams and Kemp have long clashed over voting rights an issue that has become particularly charged as this once staunchly conservative Southern state has become more purple in recent years. Minorities now make up 40% of the states population, up 10% from two decades ago. In 2013, when Abrams was minority leader in the Georgia House, she founded the New Georgia Project, a nonprofit with the goal of registering hundreds of thousands of minorities across the state. Those bringing the lawsuit said they hope to ensure that every eligible vote counts in the 2020 elections. Workers cannot afford to stand in line for five or six or more hours because the secretary of states office didnt feel the need to ensure that counties needed power cords for their voting machines, said Georgia state Sen. Nikema Williams, state director of Georgia Care in Action. They had jobs to work, families to care for and other responsibilities. Your ZIP Code, your race, your gender, or your income level should not determine if your vote is counted, she added. jenny.jarvie@latimes.com Twitter: @jennyjarvie Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. Its Wednesday, Nov. 28, and heres whats happening across California: TOP STORIES In his longshot bid to become Los Angeles County sheriff, Alex Villanueva succeeded by appealing both to a heavily Democratic constituency and the rank-and-file deputies he hoped to lead. But as he prepares to take office next week, there are growing concerns about the future of reforms imposed after a federal investigation found serious wrongdoing by top department officials and a culture of violence against inmates in the jails. On the campaign trail, Villanueva, 55, lamented that deputies were being unfairly treated, criticized the requirements for reporting minor uses of force and suggested metal flashlights be reintroduced so that deputies could defend themselves against jail inmates. Los Angeles Times If Trump closed the border Advertisement 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. So even the threat of a border shutdown as Christmas season picks up could have a catastrophic effect on the California economy, with local business saying this disruption would create a great deal of chaos. Los Angeles Times Plus: Sundays shutdown of the U.S.-Mexico border meant a $5.3-million loss for businesses in the area. New York Times -- Seeking to better explain their side of a clash Sunday at the border, Homeland Security officials Tuesday doubled down on their use of tear gas on migrants and painted the group as large and violent. Los Angeles Times -- 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. Los Angeles Times Schools alone cant solve it In the final installment of a four-part series on childhood poverty, Steve Lopez goes deep on Telfair Elementary in Pacoima, which, like some schools in the state, lacks resources and lags behind the district and state averages in student performance. Even though educators work long hours to provide more support, students may find it harder to break free from poverty. The solution, Lopez writes, will have to come from society as a whole. Los Angeles Times Judith Ayala, 10, and classmates prepare for an experiment in the Do It Yourself Girls program at Telfair Elementary School in Pacoima. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) How Kim and Ye protected their home 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, which say they dont always coordinate with local crews and amount to one more worry as they try to evacuate residents and battle the blaze. Los Angeles Times Plus: The search for Paradise fire victims slows. Some may never be found. Los Angeles Times -- In a motel about 40 miles from Paradise, Bill Krulder and other refugees of the worst fire in California history wait for when they can return to whats left of the town. Los Angeles Times -- 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. San Francisco Chronicle Get the Essential California newsletter L.A. STORIES Borderline update: A former U.S. Marine machine-gunner who opened fire inside a packed Thousand Oaks bar this month stabbed one of his victims in the neck during the rampage that left 12 people dead, authorities revealed Tuesday. The Borderline Bar and Grill was hosting line-dancing lessons for college students as young as 18 on Nov. 7 when the crack of gunfire echoed through the business about 11:20 p.m. Los Angeles Times Roadblock: 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. Los Angeles Times Perspective: We frame Californias history as romantic more than xenophobic. We need to feel the shame. Los Angeles Times POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT Crisis averted: Los Angeles County officials and the labor union representing the countys nurses reached an 11th-hour deal Monday night to avert a strike that was set to begin Tuesday morning. Los Angeles Times Homeless policy: L.A. County is considering universal health standards for homeless shelters. LAist The big picture: Its been decades since Democrats had this much power at the Capitol. Sacramento Bee CRIME AND COURTS Did he do it? 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, according to an FBI timeline made public Tuesday. Los Angeles Times Chain-reaction crash: 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. Los Angeles Times He lost. Now this: A wealthy Republican businessman from San Marino who finished third in the California lieutenant governors race during the June primary is in a legal and financial dispute with a campaign consultant after his failure to make the general election. Los Angeles Times THE ENVIRONMENT A bad grade: California is failing to meet its goals to reduce vehicle travel, imperiling efforts to achieve ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets, according to a state report released Monday. Los Angeles Times CALIFORNIA CULTURE Golden ticket: Netflix is turning Roald Dahl works such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory into animated shows. Los Angeles Times A dream deferred: Pioneering all-female San Francisco rock band Ace of Cups is finally having its moment. Los Angeles Times Plus: The oldies used to be the soundtrack of Southern California. Now there is just one AM station catering to nostalgia for that old LA. L.A. Taco Location, location, location? In a head-spinning mega-deal, Google has paid $1 billion for a huge Mountain View business park, the Bay Areas largest real estate purchase this year. Mercury News Hamilton meets Mary Poppins: The supercalifragilistic Lin-Manuel Miranda. Vanity Fair CALIFORNIA ALMANAC Los Angeles area: Partly cloudy, 67, Wednesday. Rainy, 65, Thursday. San Diego: Partly cloudy, 67, Wednesday. Rainy, 65, Thursday. San Francisco area: Scattered showers, 59, Wednesday. Rainy, 57, Thursday. San Jose: Rainy, 60, Wednesday. Rainy, 58, Thursday. Sacramento: Rainy, 59, Wednesday. Rainy, 56, Thursday. More weather is here. AND FINALLY Todays California memory comes from Tom Davis: My dad fell in love with California during his time in the Army. Immediately after his honorable discharge, he scooped up my mom and me, age 2, from New Jersey, and we relocated in Southern California. In 1954, dad bought our first home for around $9,000 near La Palma and Brookhurst in Anaheim, surrounded by orange groves. Orange wars were common. Among my first memories, with older children or adults, we would cross Manchester, soon to be the Santa Ana Freeway, and go to the dairy. As a 5-year-old it was some fun to watch the cows and see them getting milked, but the big treat was getting a fudgesicle or a popsicle for 5 cents or splurge and get a drumstick or sidewalk sundae for a dime. Anticipation was great that a big amusement park by Walt Disney was opening soon. If you have a memory or story about the Golden State, share it with us. Send us an email to let us know what you love or fondly remember about our state. (Please keep your story to 100 words.) Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints and ideas to Benjamin Oreskes and Shelby Grad. Also follow them on Twitter @boreskes and @shelbygrad. The Supreme Court this week wrestled with a legal brain teaser that has real-world implications: If the police arrest a citizen as an act of retaliation because he exercised his right to free speech, can he sue them even if the arrest was justified on other grounds? The justices should answer in the affirmative. Police exercise enormous discretion in deciding whether to make an arrest, especially for minor offenses such as disorderly conduct or harassment. The fact that an arrest can be justified on independent grounds shouldnt immunize officers whose real motive is to punish someone for exercising the right to free speech or the right not to speak. Russell P. Bartlett was arrested in 2014 at Arctic Man, an extreme ski and snowmobile event in the Hoodoo Mountains in Alaska, and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. Bartlett maintains that what he was really arrested for was refusing to speak to one state trooper who was investigating underage drinking at the event and for criticizing another trooper who was questioning a teenager who was staying at Bartletts campsite. Bartlett said that when he was arrested and handcuffed, the first trooper said, Bet you wish you would have talked to me now. A prosecutor dropped the charges against Bartlett because of the travel expenses a trial would have incurred. Bartlett then sued the two state troopers who arrested him, under a federal law that authorizes damages for violations of any rights, privileges or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Bartlett could pursue his free-speech retaliation claim even if the arrest had been otherwise justified that is, that there was probable cause that a crime had occurred. Advertisement On Monday, a lawyer for the state of Alaska asked the Supreme Court to reverse that ruling and hold that an arrest based on probable cause cant give rise to a civil rights suit. That may sound plausible how could such an arrest also be a violation of the Constitution? But comments by several justices at Mondays argument demonstrated that its not that simple. Justice Elena Kagan, in an exchange with Alaskas lawyer, offered the example of a police officer who decides to arrest for jaywalking somebody wearing a Black Lives Matter T-shirt or, alternatively, a Make America Great Again cap. Kagan added that there are so many laws that people can break that police officers generally look the other way when it comes to enforcing them. The problem, she said, comes when youre saying something that the officer doesnt much like, so he doesnt look the other way. But some justices also seemed concerned about whether a decision in Bartletts favor might encourage a proliferation of lawsuits in situations in which retaliation wasnt the motive for the arrest. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. mentioned a scenario in which police arrive at a scene where two groups of people are shouting at each other and one of them says something insulting to the officer, and that person ends up getting arrested. Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion Justice Stephen G. Breyer suggested that the court could hand down a compromise ruling that would allow lawsuits only in situations in which there was objective evidence that probable cause was a pretext for an arrest. Such evidence could include proof that the person was arrested for conduct that police generally ignored. A higher legal standard could discourage the filing of far-fetched lawsuits. This the second time in two years the court has addressed these issues. Last June it handed down a narrow decision in a case involving a Florida man who claimed that his arrest at a public meeting was the result of a conspiracy by city officials to intimidate a critic. That ruling didnt offer satisfactory answers to the larger question. This time, the court should do so. In a world in which police always acted professionally, it might make sense to assume the fairness of any arrest that can be justified on the grounds of probable cause. In the real world, police sometimes abuse their authority and act with ulterior motives, such as racial animus or a desire to punish someone who dares to express an opinion the officer doesnt agree with. The justices should find a way to allow victims of such overreaching to have their day in court. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinionand Facebook To the editor: The article about the colorism directed at darker-skinned Latinos, whites and Native Americans reflects that racism exists not only among whites. As a Latino of Mexican descent, I have witnessed this baffling behavior. The ugly truth is that many Latinos have internalized the view that light hair and skin tone are inherently preferable. As if such an albatross conferred by birth werent burden enough, the current tone set by a bigoted president emboldens those who view darker-skinned people as second-class humans. Imagine the feeling, while taking a leisurely stroll with your wife and children, of being told to go back to where you came from. For someone like me, whose family has been in California for almost 125 years, such invective is confounding and demoralizing. Latinos need to ask themselves if they contribute, through the behaviors and attitudes described in the article, to a toxic culture where opportunity and well-being are circumscribed by the shade of your skin. Advertisement Agustin Medina, South Pasadena .. To the editor: This is not news this bias has been going on for decades. As a retired teacher who worked in South Los Angeles, I remember a conversation with a group of African American women decades ago. They were all lighter shades and they told me if any of them brought home a dark-shaded man and introduced him to their parents, there would be hell to pay. I remember how shocked I was at the time to hear that. So, its just nonsense to pin these feelings on President Trump or any of his followers. These biases have been present for many years. Jeff Whitfield, Santa Ana Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook To the editor: The lawless behavior exhibited by the asylum seekers who rushed the U.S. border in Tijuana lends support to President Trumps stance on border security. The media have generally portrayed the Border Patrols use of tear gas on a surging crowd consisting of some children and women as heartless. But these childrens parents knowingly put them in harms way. I have heard some commentators say that the crowd in Tijuana consists merely of a few thousand people who could be easily accommodated in the United States. But if we allow a raucous group of migrants to cut in line, we will encourage the formation of more U.S.-bound caravans in the future. There is the issue of badly needed comprehensive immigration reform, but right now an open border cannot be an option for any sovereign nation. Advertisement John T. Chiu, Newport Beach .. To the editor: My grandfather was smuggled out of Germany in 1939 as an unaccompanied minor while his family lost everything their home, their business and ultimately their lives. He arrived in the United Kingdom not speaking English. There was no waiting your turn or waiting in line or doing things the right way. That meant certain death. For families affected by violence, corruption and the lack of regard for human life, our country is again the only hope. Turning away the brave men, women and children, who are as terrified today as my family was 80 years ago, isnt patriotic or moral. I hope those in charge do the American thing and open our doors to those who yearn for freedom. Eric Weinmann, West Hollywood .. To the editor: On the pedestal below Lady Liberty reads historys best hope for freedom: Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door! So many of the oppressed have sought succor and comfort as they came here to start a new life. Now the world as it watches us, is forced to ask itself, Is it all a lie? John Francis Smith, Tarzana Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook To the editor: One letter writer cites President Trumps engagement of North Korea and the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh as home runs, while observing that even a broken clock is correct twice a day. If getting hoodwinked by a murderous dictator and adding a man accused of sexual assault to the Supreme Court are home runs, I shudder to think what might be considered a strikeout. Moreover, Trump isnt an ordinary clock; hes a sundial at night. Ray McKown, Torrance Advertisement .. To the editor: One letter writer mentions Trumps home run with North Korea. What precisely did Trump achieve? What did North Korea agree to do? Susan Guilford, Orange Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook Eastern Patriarchs Meet in Baghdad, United Against Persecution, Extremism and Migration 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 Sako's 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. The 13th Group of 20 (G20) summit is scheduled to be held from Nov. 30 to Dec. 1 in Buenos Aires, Argentina under the theme of building consensus for fair and sustainable development. At a time when global protectionism and unilateralism is on the rise, many are highly anticipating the summit's outcomes concerning major issues such as safeguarding multilateralism and building consensus. Safeguarding multilateralism Various parties have reiterated their position on safeguarding multilateralism ahead of the summit. As a strong supporter of multilateralism and trade liberalization, Argentina firmly believes that only multilateral cooperation can promote the prosperity of world economy, and will unswervingly safeguard the multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organization (WTO) at its core, said Pedro Villagra Delgado, G20 Sherpa of Argentina. Alicia Barcena, executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) pointed out that the 13th G20 summit will be an opportunity to find solutions to such challenges as the surge in protectionism and trade frictions, adding that she expects all G20 members to signal strong support for multilateralism during the summit. Building consensus Broad consensus is a prerequisite of cooperation. At a time when international economy is facing challenges and increasing uncertainties, safeguarding the multilateral coordination mechanism is especially important, said Ronaldo Costa Filho, undersecretary for Economic and Financial Affairs at the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Brazil and Sherpa of Brazil to the G20. Costa explained that Brazil has high expectations for the upcoming summit and hopes to see a consensus reached during the meeting. Marina Larionova, head of the Center for International Institutions Research at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, said she hopes issues including regulation of the international financial market, reform of the global financial system, investment in the construction of infrastructure, and innovative development projects will be examined during the summit and that leaders can reach a consensus. Larionova also said that she expects G20 members to express their joint determination to follow WTO rules and regulations. Expectations of Chinas role As the world's second largest economy, an emerging economy, and a developing country, China has always committed itself to the safeguarding of multilateralism and free trade, while pushing forward with economic globalization that features fairness and sustainability, so its role in this summit is of great significance. China hosted the 11th G20 summit in 2016, in Hangzhou, where the G20 members reached the Hangzhou Consensus, noted Larionova. The fruits of the G20 Hangzhou summit, including Chinas contributions to consolidating the multilateral mechanism under the framework of G20 and advancing the development of multipolarity, were confirmed by various state leaders during the 12th G20 summit in Hamburg, said Larionova, adding that she hopes this consensus will be reaffirmed and continued in Buenos Aires. China is willing to cooperate with other countries and seek common development while pursuing its own progress. Latin American countries have seen this, and hope to strengthen economic and trade ties with China, noted Barcena. Democrat TJ Cox increased his narrow lead over Republican Rep. David Valadao on Wednesday in the countrys last undecided congressional race. After the latest update from Kings County, home to just under a quarter of the registered voters in Californias 21st District, the three-term incumbent from Hanford trailed by 506 votes. At the start of the day, Valadao was behind by 436. A key development in the neck-and-neck contest will come Wednesday afternoon, when Fresno County with a third of the districts registered voters releases another vote count. The tally there has so far been much more evenly divided than in strongly conservative-leaning Kings County. Valadao, 41, has seen his nearly 4,400-vote election night lead slowly evaporate as election officials in the districts four counties tally mail-in and provisional ballots, which tend to lean Democratic. Kings County, the only county in the district with a Republican voter registration advantage, had been a reliable source of votes for Valadao, but Cox took 52% of the votes in Wednesdays update. Advertisement The district also contains parts of Kern and Tulare counties. Should Cox hold on, Democrats would gain their seventh congressional seat in California and 40th nationwide, more than enough to take control when the House reconvenes in January. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee claimed victory in the 21st on Wednesday afternoon, before Fresno County updated its ballot count. The largely rural House district in the Central Valley is one of seven in the state that Republicans won in 2016 even as voters favored Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump. Democrats have already prevailed in the other six, picking up the seats of retiring Republican Reps. Ed Royce and Darrell Issa in Southern California and defeating GOP incumbents Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa, Steve Knight of Palmdale, Jeff Denham of Turlock and Mimi Walters of Laguna Beach. maya.sweedler@latimes.com Twitter: @mayasweedler UPDATES: 1:55 p.m.: This article was updated with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee claiming victory before Fresno County released its latest vote count. 12:25 p.m.: This article was updated with additional description of the 21st Congressional Districts boundaries. This article was originally published at 11:35 a.m. TJ Cox defeated three-term Republican Rep. David Valadao on Wednesday, giving Democrats a gain of seven House seats in California and 40 nationwide the partys strongest midterm showing since the Watergate era in the mid-1970s. Cox clinched his victory more than three weeks after election day, when updated results from Fresno and Kings counties pushed his lead over Valadao to 529 votes. The contest was the countrys last remaining undecided congressional contest. Cox, 55, trailed the GOP lawmaker by nearly 4,400 votes on election night but steadily gained ground as mail-in and other ballots tipped his way. Let this be a message to every Republican, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said in a tweet claiming victory. If you come for Americans livelihoods, we WILL come for your seats. Advertisement The pattern is a familiar one in California, where Republicans tend to vote early and Democrats later; ballots postmarked on election day are counted so long as they are received by election officials within three days. Others were counted once signatures and other details were verified, a process that takes weeks to complete. Valadao has been a perennial Democratic target since his first election in 2012, as the 21st Congressional District leans heavily Democratic in voter registration. But Valadao consistently prevailed, even winning in 2016 when Hillary Clinton carried the district by double digits, thanks to a relentless focus on local issues. The Central Valley district, which roughly parallels Interstate 5 from Fresno to Bakersfield, is heavily rural, and Valadao, who comes from a line of family dairy farmers, made a good fit. But the anti-Trump wave that helped turn traditionally Republican Orange County blue this November also caught up with Valadao, who was relentlessly attacked by Cox for his nearly 100% voting record for the presidents agenda. The run marked Coxs second try for Congress, following an unsuccessful bid in 2006. An engineer by training, he founded two nut-processing companies and serves as president of a local community development organization. Valadao was one of seven California lawmakers representing districts that Clinton carried. Two did not seek reelection and five lost. Democrats flipped the nearby 10th Congressional District as well as seats in northern Los Angeles, Orange and northern San Diego counties. With Valadaos ouster, Republicans will hold just seven of Californias 53 House seats. That is the fewest since 1947, when California had just 23 seats, according to Political Data, a firm that tracks voter trends. The gain of 40 seats nationwide is the most for Democrats since 1974, when the party picked up 49 after President Nixon resigned under threat of impeachment and removal from office for his role in the Watergate corruption scandal. mark.barabak@latimes.com @markzbarabak UPDATES: 3:15 p.m.: This article was updated with Democrats claiming victory. This article was originally published at 2 p.m. Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith defeated Democrat Mike Espy on Tuesday in Mississippis fiercely contested U.S. Senate contest, one of the states most competitive races in decades. Hyde-Smith led by 6.6 percentage points with 99% of precincts reporting late Tuesday. But it was an underwhelming victory for a Republican in this staunchly conservative state that has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1982. The special election runoff became unexpectedly competitive after Hyde-Smith, a 59-year-old cattle rancher who was appointed to the Senate this year after Sen. Thad Cochran resigned for health reasons, drew mounting scrutiny for remarks that were criticized as racist or insensitive. Shortly after the Nov. 6 election, a video emerged in which Hyde-Smith said that if a supporter invited her to a public hanging, she would be in the front row, words that dredged up the states painful legacy of violence against African Americans. According to the Equal Justice Initiative, more than 600 African Americans were lynched in Mississippi from 1877 to 1950, the most documented lynchings of any state in the nation. Advertisement In another recording from the campaign trail, Hyde-Smith told supporters that maybe it was a great idea to make it just a little bit more difficult for liberal folks in those other schools to vote. Some suspected she was referring to students of historically black colleges. A photo also surfaced from Hyde-Smiths Facebook page showing her posing with a Confederate cap and musket at the 2014 opening of a museum dedicated to Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States of America. Hyde-Smith, who previously served as the Mississippi commissioner of agriculture and commerce and a Mississippi state senator, also drew criticism for her handling of the controversy, retreating from the campaign trail and refusing to talk to the media. It was not until a televised debate with Espy last week that Hyde-Smith offered any semblance of an apology. For anyone that was offended by my comments, I certainly apologize, she said, reading from a script. There was no ill will, no intent whatsoever, in my statements. She then accused Democrats of twisting her comment about the hanging, turning it into a weapon to be used against me, a political weapon used for nothing but personal and political gain. I dont know whats in your heart, but we all know what came out of your mouth, Espy replied. As Hyde-Smiths campaign faltered, Democrats hoped to replicate their success in Alabama last December, when Doug Jones defeated Republican Roy Moore in a U.S. Senate special election. Moore, a former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, faced accusations from multiple women that he sexually assaulted or preyed upon them when they were teenagers. As businesses including Walmart and Google asked Hyde-Smith to refund their campaign contributions, Espy claimed Hyde-Smith was bad for business and would only embarrass the state and reinforce negative stereotypes of Mississippi. But many conservative voters across the state seemed not to be bothered by the controversies, questioning why they had elicited such national scrutiny. To win, Espy, 64, a former congressman who served as U.S. agriculture secretary under President Clinton, needed to mobilize a large section of African Americans to the polls, as well as capture about 25% of the white vote. Though Hyde-Smith did not do herself any favors, Espy fundamentally lacked the numbers, said Joseph Weinberg, associate professor of political science at the University of Southern Mississippi. Typically, he said, Republicans have an approximate 20-percentage-point lead over Democrats a pattern born out in the 2016 presidential election when Trump won nearly 58% of the vote compared with Hillary Clintons 40%. This is an incredibly red state, so it was always Cindy Hyde-Smiths race to lose, Weinberg said. We havent had an even nominally competitive federal race between a Democrat and Republican in some 10 or 15 years. Still, he said, a closer finish means a more likely GOP challenge for this seat again in two years and maybe a rematch against Espy. In a statement conceding the race, Espy said: Make no mistake tonight is the beginning, not the end. 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-Smiths win gives the Republicans 53 seats in the Senate to Democrats 47. jenny.jarvie@latimes.com @jennyjarvie UPDATES: 8:50 p.m.: The article was updated with new vote totals. 8:35 p.m.: The article was updated with new vote totals and a statement from Espy. The article was originally published at 8:10 p.m. The acting chief of the Environmental Protection Agency was on stage Wednesday morning, but he wasnt the one defending his own agencys latest findings about the huge economic toll that unchecked climate change will take on the United States. It was his nemesis, California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra, who made that case. The Trump administration continues to disavow the congressionally mandated report by 13 federal agencies that projected dire economic consequences from climate change. The president has given no scientific basis for rejecting the report, but has instead offered his perception that the environment is on the right track. In an interview this week with the Washington Post, Trump described himself as among the people who have very high levels of intelligence, but were not necessarily such believers. Advertisement You look at our air and our water, and its right now at a record clean, he added. The climate change report has further intensified the clash between California and the White House over environmental policy, as the state struggles with the kind of devastating wildfires that have already grown substantially bigger and more intense because of global warming, according to the report. The tension was on full display at an event hosted by the Washington Post on Wednesday morning, when Becerra took the stage as acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler exited it. The majority of that report was written in 2016, and it was at the direction of the previous administration, Wheeler said. It had no political review by this administration. We did not review it. I did not see the report until it was released. Becerra called the climate report a scathing indictment of what this administration is trying to do. I think I have read more of it than they have, and I havent read very much. It is kind of disturbing when they are in charge of trying to protect the nations environment for them not to read a report issued by their own folks, he added. You would hope that driving their policy is the work done by the experts. The reports assessment paints a dire picture of the worsening effects of global warming as nearly every corner of the country grows more at risk from extreme heat, more devastating storms, droughts and wildfires, waning snowpack and other threats to critical infrastructure, air quality, water supplies and vulnerable communities. By centurys end, thousands of additional deaths will occur each year from worsening heat waves and air pollution, crop yields will decline, and coral reefs and sea-ice ecosystems will dwindle, the report forecasts. The economic blow in some sectors would reach hundreds of billions of dollars, substantially reducing the nations gross domestic product, the report said. Wheeler said he accepts that human activity is exacerbating warming, but that he is skeptical of the reports findings. He pointed to the progress the United States has made in reducing emissions. Those scenarios downplay innovation we have already seen in the marketplace, Wheeler said of the report. We have to give credit for that reduction in emissions of gases such as carbon dioxide, which lead to warming. The latest look at the Trump administration and the rest of Washington The comments by Wheeler, whom Trump has nominated to be the permanent EPA chief, conflict with the findings of mainstream climate scientists, who warn the nation must substantially step up its climate action if it is to avoid the costs laid out in the federal report. Almost all of the moves the Trump administration has made on the environment go in the opposite direction. Trump has aggressively worked to dismantle Obama-era policies aimed at curbing emissions. Becerra scoffed that Wheeler was, in part, claiming credit for actions that courts have ordered the administration to take. It is interesting to hear the acting administrator take credit for some of the reductions in CO2 and so forth when theyve been trying to backslide on those requirements, Becerra said, pointing to court action by California and other states that have blunted some of the administrations rollbacks of climate action. It is pretty bold to take credit for losses in court that have required them to move forward and do what they have tried to stop doing. The attorney general bristled, however, at the suggestion that California was acting as the leader of the resistance to Trump in the more than three dozen lawsuits the state has filed to stop administration rollbacks of environmental policies. Several of the policies that the state has challenged would inhibit Californias pursuit of cleaner burning cars, more wind and solar power, and tougher anti-pollution measures and would flout federal law, he said. The state is merely preserving its rights to pursue its own vision, he said. It is not a matter of resisting, Becerra said. It is a matter of doing what we are doing. and as long as we are doing it according to the law, dont get in our way. More stories from Evan Halper evan.halper@latimes.com Twitter: @evanhalper The Supreme Court on Wednesday took up a case from Indiana to settle a question that might seem obvious to some: Does the ban on excessive fines in the Bill of Rights apply to states? The 8th Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishments, also says excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed. But last year, the Indiana Supreme Court upheld the states seizure of a $42,000 Land Rover from a man who made two small drug sales valued at under $400. It rejected his claim that this was excessive and ruled the 8th Amendment did not protect him. That decision ran into sharp skepticism Wednesday from the justices and will almost surely be reversed. Advertisement Justice Neil M. Gorsuch cut off the states attorney before he could launch into his defense and upbraided him for ignoring decades of court history and centuries of English law. Can we get one thing off the table. We all agree the excessive fines clause is incorporated against the states, he said, meaning states and cities must abide by it just as federal officials do. The court struggled over the reach of the Bill of Rights in the 1940s and beyond, he said, but that fight is long settled. Here we are in 2018 still litigating incorporation of the Bill of Rights. Really? Gorsuch said to Indiana state solicitor Thomas Fisher. The states lawyer refused to back down and insisted a states seizure of private property was its business, not a question of federal law. At one point, he said the state would be free to seize luxury cars that were going a few miles over the speed limit. But Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh intervened to agree with Gorsuch. Isnt it just too late in the day to argue that any of the Bill of Rights is not incorporated? he said. By the end of an hour, it was clear that the justices would rule for Tyson Timbs, the Indiana man who lost his Land Rover, and will hold that the U.S. Constitution protected him from an excessive fine. But it is not certain he will ultimately win his case. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said the court would probably send the case back to the Indiana courts to decide whether this forfeiture was indeed excessive and unjust. Wednesdays argument revived a question that has a long history before the high court and divided the justices during the middle decades of the 20th century. The first 10 amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and begin with the words: Congress shall make no law ... The many familiar rights listed include the freedom of speech and the press, the free exercise of religion, the right to bear arms, the right to a jury trial and the freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. But these protections for individuals did not go far. In the early 19th century, the court said these rights applied only to actions of the then-tiny federal government, not to states or local authorities, including police. After the Civil War, the Reconstruction Congress adopted the 14th Amendment to protect individuals from their states. It said, No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States, nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law. The first clause on privileges or immunities has meant surprisingly little, thanks to a peculiar 1873 ruling holding it did not provide any additional protection for individuals. But the second clause became the most important in the Constitution. In a step-by-step process from the 1930s through the 1960s, the Supreme Court decided that nearly all the fundamental rights cited in the Bill of Rights were included or incorporated in the protection for liberty and due process of law in the 14th Amendment. But it has never specifically ruled on the excessive fee clause. In the past, the justices also refused to extend or incorporate the rights to a grand jury indictment in the 5th Amendment and the right to a jury trial in civil cases found in the 7th Amendment. These days, however, most Americans would assume their constitutional rights are the same, whether they encounter a federal agent, a state official or a local police officer. But when Timbs was told his $42,000 Land Rover could be seized by Indiana, he learned that part of the Bill of Rights did not protect him. He had been arrested for two drug sales to police informants that were valued at $385. He contested the states seizure of his car on the grounds it was an excessive fine and grossly disproportionate to his crime. He lost last year in the Indiana Supreme Court. We conclude the excessive fines clause does not bar the state from forfeiting defendants vehicle because the United States Supreme Court has not held the clause applies to the states through the 14th Amendment, wrote Justice Geoffrey Slaughter. His opinion noted the high court had suggested the excessive fines were probably unconstitutional, but had not said so directly. The appeal in Timbs vs. Indiana has united groups across the ideological spectrum from the American Civil Liberties Union to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, all of them urging the court to clearly rule that all parts of the 8th Amendment apply across the country. 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 additional details from the argument. This article was originally published at 9:30 a.m. California Rep. Barbara Lee on Wednesday lost her bid to become the first black woman elected to a House leadership position and the first woman to lead the House Democratic Caucus. By a vote of 123 to 113, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York won the race to lead the caucus for the next two years. Both are members of the Congressional Black Caucus. For the record: An earlier version of this article said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries would be the youngest member of the House Democratic leadership. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, elected to become House assistant Democratic leader, is younger. Several members cast Jeffries, 48, as a promising young leader who could one day become speaker. Lee, 72, said afterward that ageism and sexism were at play in the result. Im a black woman and the institutional barriers are still there, so we just keep fighting, Lee said. Advertisement Jeffries was just elected to a fourth term in Congress and is a co-chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, which helps Democrats develop their messaging. His entry into the race for the fifth-highest leadership post was seen by some as bypassing an unwritten rule that members rack up more experience before seeking one of the coveted jobs. Lee had taken a more traditional path of holding successive leadership positions over more than two decades in Washington. Supporters said Jeffries appealed to members who have been frustrated by how long current House leaders have held power. Jeffries will be one of the youngest members of the House Democratic leadership. In his nominating speech, Rep. Juan Vargas (D-San Diego) likened Jeffries to President Obama, who attended Harvard with Vargas. Hes as eloquent as Barack. He has that special gift, something that Barack has. I call it lightning in a bottle, Vargas said after the vote. This guy could easily be our next speaker, this guy could easily be president of the United States. Hes got the talent. Several Democratic members, including Adam B. Schiff of Burbank and James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, the most senior African American member in the House leadership, refused to say who they voted for in the secret ballot. Clyburn would only call the race, which pitted two members of the Congressional Black Caucus against each other, interesting. Lee said she felt some disappointment only with the institutional barriers that I recognized that were out there during this campaign. Im really disappointed in that, knowing that was an uphill battle. Progressive powerhouse Democracy for America called the results disappointing. Its a real missed opportunity to break a glass ceiling for #BlackWomen on Capitol Hill & have an unabashed progressive champion on the House leadership team, the group said in a tweet. Jeffries downplayed the idea that ageism or sexism might have played a role. I think that it was a friendly contest of ideas, and the members of the House Democratic Caucus worked their will. I look forward to all of us coming together and moving forward on behalf of the American people, he said after the vote. Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough) said there might have also been a bit of resistance to the idea of having the speaker and caucus chair both from California. Rep. Joe Crowley, the current caucus chairman, is from New York, another major source of Democratic power in the House. Clyburn is uncontested to become Democratic whip, and Jeffries election marks the first time that two black men will serve in top leadership positions at the same time. Lee, of Oakland, was first elected to Congress in 1998 after nearly a decade in the California Assembly and Senate. She is a former chairwoman of both the Congressional Black Caucus and the Progressive Caucus. She is most widely known for casting the lone vote against the authorization for use of military force in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Thats why Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont) said she had his vote. I would vote for Barbara for anything, because to me she is the single profile of courage in this Congress, Khanna said. Times Staff Writer Jennifer Haberkorn contributed to this article. The latest from Washington More stories from Sarah D. Wire sarah.wire@latimes.com Follow @sarahdwire on Twitter UPDATES: 11:15 a.m.: This article was updated with comments from Lee, Jeffries and others. 9 a.m.: This article was updated after the vote. This article was originally published at 3 a.m. Fresh off the midterm election, and now gearing up for 2020, both parties are grappling with one of the most confounding spectacles in modern politics: President Trumps free-wheeling rallies. Not Trump. He believes they are so valuable to Republicans that he held two in one night Monday, to help embattled Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith win a surprisingly competitive Senate runoff election in Mississippi on Tuesday. At each, he boasted that his performances in past months filling arenas in other red states, in mid-sized cities and rural outposts had not only preserved but enlarged Republicans Senate majority. He took no blame for the partys overwhelming loss of its House majority. For Republicans, that split result and the partys losses more broadly leaves them conflicted. Some Democrats, however, believe they may have solved part of their riddle: Do the rallies help Republicans more, by mobilizing Trump voters, or do they benefit Democrats, by inciting Trump critics to vote? Their short answer is, it depends on where Trump goes, and how Democrats counter his impact. Advertisement Months before the election, Democrats used a central Ohio House district near Columbus as a political test kitchen. They polled extensively during a one-week period in the dead of summer, before and after a Trump rally for Troy Balderson, a Republican who ultimately held off Democrat Danny OConnor in a close special election there. The insights helped guide Democrats strategy in winning up to 40 additional seats and control of the House this month, and will undoubtedly influence their efforts ahead of November 2020 to build on their gains in state and federal races as well as to compete for the White House. The Ohio polling showed an uptick in enthusiasm among Trumps most loyal supporters after the rally, but no significant effect on the overall standing of each candidate. Democrats, independents and moderates were largely unmoved by the presidents visit. That suggested that in a close race where moderates are the swing votes, Trump is unlikely to help. But in a state or district with a significant majority of Republicans, he can bring home a win for his party, giving it an opportunity to use the temporary burst of enthusiasm to sign up volunteers and encourage early voting, where thats an option, before the excitement fades. Many Democrats are now convinced they can best counter Trumps power to rally his voters with a two-fold strategy. One, they need to give moderate swing voters affirmative reasons to support Democrats, even as Trumps polarizing personality remains the driving force for many other voters who simply want to oppose him and his party. But also, they must broaden their potential paths to victory competing in more states and taking few for granted in the presidential race, while in lower-ballot contests supporting candidates of diverse views to protect against Trumps ability to unexpectedly shake up the political terrain. Interviews with political leaders, consultants and candidates in both parties largely validated the Democrats Ohio analysis. Trump focused almost exclusively on deep-red states where he was able to help his party pick up a net of two Senate seats. He ignored most of the House races, given his unpopularity especially in competitive suburban districts, leaving Democrats not only to win control of the chamber, but also to make significant gains in governors mansions and state houses. People entered the 2018 election with pretty strong views of the president, one way or another, said Bruce Mehlman, a Republican strategist and lobbyist who publishes a widely read political analysis. The rallies didnt change them. But the rallies allowed the president to make the election a referendum on him. That worked in places where Trump is popular. Yet his ability to excite voters who attended rallies or watched them on livestream comes with a downside. His most strident messages spread far beyond the arenas, exacerbating the challenge for his partys most vulnerable candidates, especially among college-educated suburban women and in states with large minority populations. Its obviously not just the rallies, but more broadly the presidents rhetoric, said Rep. Carlos Curbelo, a moderate Miami Republican who lost his election despite his efforts to distance himself from the president figuratively and literally. When Trump held a rally in Florida on Halloween, Curbelo was elsewhere, taking his kids trick-or-treating. When Trump came a second time three days before the election, Curbelo instead visited early-voting sites. Yet it didnt matter whether Trump held rallies in Fort Myers, Fla., or Fort Wayne, Ind., in Curbelos view voters heard the same fear-mongering from the president, he said. Instead of talking about caravans and birthright citizenship, imagine talking about ways for Democrats and Republicans finding a way to work together to secure the border and a future for Dreamers in our country, Curbelo said, referring to people who years ago were brought into the country illegally as children. Utah Republican Rep. Mia Love, the partys first and only black woman in Congress, on Monday delivered an angry rebuke to Trump, whod publicly mocked her for not accepting his embrace. She complained that he has no real relationships, only transactional ones, and that the Republican Party never takes minority communities into their home. Rep. Ryan Costello, a Pennsylvania Republican who chose not to seek reelection after his district was redrawn and favored Democrats, said Trumps rallies nationalized the election around the president more than any midterm contests in recent memory, creating a cult of personality referendum. The Trump-centered election made it nearly impossible for vulnerable Republicans such as Californias Rep. Jeff Denham to talk about water policy that mattered in his Central Valley district or for Rep. Leonard Lance of New Jersey to distinguish himself from the president by emphasizing his differences with Trump on healthcare or taxes. As Costello said: Theres always a sound-bite the next morning and a question about whatever the most ridiculous thing he said is. Are you going to speak out or just try to ignore it? Costello said. When everyone else is talking about it, its hard for you to penetrate the conversation. And it was increasingly a national conversation. Dan Sena, the executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said the party built on the lessons from the Ohio special election in August by using focus groups and extensive polling that measured the enthusiasm of swing voters and people of color in 60 to 70 congressional districts. He said the party wanted to prepare for those moments when Trump would shake the snow globe by making an incendiary comment or introducing a controversial new policy that would steal attention and alter the dynamics of individual races. The biggest takeaway, Sena said, was that Democrats needed to broaden the battlefield and have a variety of paths to a House majority because Trump could redefine which House seats were winnable with a single comment. While Trump often makes news on Twitter or while speaking to reporters, his rapturous rallies tend to bring out his most extreme rhetoric. Rally Trump is peak, over-the-top, demagoguery Trump, said Rob Stutzman, a Republican consultant based in California. Trump largely did succeed in galvanizing his voters. Besides the slight gains in the Senate, Trump helped Republicans hold on to House seats in North Carolina and parts of Florida with high concentrations of conservative and evangelical voters. Trump also helped secure close victories in statewide races in Florida and Georgia, two states he won in 2016. But the same anti-immigration rhetoric that motivated many of those voters helped Democrats pick up seats in places such as California, where millennial voters defied the historical pattern of midterm elections and turned out in larger proportion than they did in 2016, a presidential year. Latino voters 2018 turnout was equal to that election. Thats exactly why we needed the big battlefield, Sena said. Trump, he added, was speaking to the base and he was making sure they got out and participated. Some of these congressional races, there just arent enough Democrats for their candidates to win if Republicans turnout is high. Hillary Clinton followed some of that advice in 2016, trying to make gains in the Sun Belt. But she failed to recognize Trumps popularity in the Midwest, and neglected campaigning in Michigan, Wisconsin and other states Democrats expected to win. This year, Democrats worked hard and made big gains in the upper Midwest. Republicans took solace in winning the Ohio governors race. The challenge for this White House is how do you grow your base? said Mehlman. Rallies are a tactic that excite your base. They dont grow your base. Follow the latest news of the Trump administration on Essential Washington noah.bierman@latimes.com Twitter: @noahbierman Eric Bauman, the powerful chairman of the California Democratic Party, made crude sexual comments and engaged in unwanted touching or physical intimidation in professional settings, 10 party staff members and political activists said in interviews with The Times. When presented with the allegations, Bauman said in a statement Wednesday that he planned to seek treatment for health issues and alcohol use. I deeply regret if my behavior has caused pain to any of the outstanding individuals with whom Ive had the privilege to work. I appreciate the courage it took for these individuals to come forward to tell their stories, Bauman said. In the interest of allowing the CDPs independent investigation to move forward, I do not wish to respond to any of the specific allegations. However, I will use the time I am on leave to immediately seek medical intervention to address serious, ongoing health issues and to begin treatment for what I now realize is an issue with alcohol, he said. Advertisement Leading the California Democratic Party to historic victories has been the honor of a lifetime, and I look forward to continuing this important work upon the conclusion of the investigation and when my health allows, Bauman, 59, said in his statement. The allegations come after a tumultuous week in which Bauman was accused of unspecified misconduct and took a leave of absence. In a letter last week calling for Baumans resignation, Vice Chairman Daraka Larimore-Hall referred only to a clear and escalating pattern of Chairman Baumans horrific and dehumanizing behavior. Bauman, who is gay, is a fixture in California and LGBTQ politics. A former nurse who ascended to the top echelon of the state Democratic Party, Bauman has built a reputation for being brash and boisterous, with a large circle of allies within the party. As chairman, he is the face of the Democratic Party in California and helps guide its campaign efforts, fundraising and policy positions. But the people who spoke to The Times said his familiarity crossed the line into inappropriate conduct over more than a decade, behavior that at times appeared to be tolerated by some in the party. Some of those interviewed spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear it could hurt their careers. Others said they felt conflicting emotions about speaking out, knowing it could harm the party. People just didnt know how to speak up about it, said Allan Acevedo, a political consultant who is active in the youth arm of the party. There was a sense of loyalty. Not just to him, but to any advancement that any LGBT person makes in terms of us having representation at the table. Eight current party staffers said that, while he was serving as chairman, Bauman would regularly make sexually explicit comments in the workplace to men and women, including remarks about sexual acts, his and other staffers genitalia, and being sexually attracted to staff members. One female staffer based in Southern California said Bauman made obscene comments to her at an official dinner in September 2017. The staffer, who describes herself as a masculine-presenting woman, said Bauman, using explicit language, told her that she must have been a gay man in her past life because he wanted to sleep with her. She said he made another remark about men he liked to have sex with. Another party staffer told The Times that the woman discussed the incident with her soon after the event. A gay male party official said that during professional interactions with Bauman, the party chairman inquired about his sex life with his partner. The Times reviewed text messages between the official and Bauman that show Bauman making sexually suggestive remarks. The official also said he witnessed Bauman taunting staff members on multiple occasions about their sexual orientation and their physical appearance. The eight staff members each said they also experienced or witnessed Bauman engaging in unwanted touching, particularly directed toward male staffers. One staffer said that, starting in October and continuing through the November election, he received unwanted attention from Bauman, including touching his back and abdomen, and a prolonged hug in which the chairman groaned. He said Bauman also made sexually charged comments to him in front of colleagues, and whispered into his ear. A current staff member told The Times that Bauman directed physical and verbal attention at the staffer and said the touching and comments appeared to make the staffer uncomfortable. The staffer said he spoke to a supervisor about Baumans behavior, but the supervisor dissuaded him from pressing the issue. In another incident, a harassment complaint was filed against Bauman following a November bus tour in which party officials and staff traveled the state to rally with Democratic candidates. Grace Leekley, 21, a temporary worker in the partys communications department, said she had chosen not to go on the bus, in part because she did not want to be in close quarters with Bauman. She met up with the tour at a Nov. 1 event in Chico and joined the staff for lunch, where she sat next to Kate Earley, 21, who had started about six weeks earlier as the partys digital director. Leekley and Earley said that during the lunch, Bauman shushed the staffers at the table and then asked the women, within earshot of their colleagues, if the two were having an affair. When both women said no, Bauman pressed the issue, they said, telling them he would not mind if they were involved in a sexual relationship so long as it did not affect the workplace. I felt really embarrassed, almost ashamed, and uncomfortable, Leekley said. Im basically bottom-of-the-barrel staff and hes the most powerful man in the party. I didnt feel comfortable saying anything. A party staffer told The Times that he heard Bauman make the comments and said the two women told him afterward they felt deeply uncomfortable. Earley filed a complaint to her supervisor within 30 minutes of the incident and spoke with the human resources department later that day, she said. Her attorney said the complaint remains unresolved. As of the time he took a leave of absence on Monday, Bauman had not seen a formal complaint, according to a source close to the chairman. The state Democratic Partys handbook prohibits harassment, including verbal abuse of a sexual nature, graphic verbal commentaries about an individuals body, sexually degrading words used to describe an individual, and suggestive or obscene letters, notes, or invitations, as well as physical conduct such as assault (unwanted touching), blocking normal movement, or interfering with work directed at an individual because of his or her sex or any other basis. It also has a policy against alcohol use in the workplace or while performing official duties. Leekley, Earley and five other staff members who spoke to The Times all said they witnessed Bauman frequently consuming alcohol during the workday, sometimes as early as midmorning. Just months into his tenure as party chairman last November with the country focused on the #MeToo movement Bauman said the party had a 100% no-tolerance policy on sexual harassment. Nobody should go to work and be in fear, be looking over their shoulder or dodging down the hallway because a bully or harasser is coming, he said at a speaking event. Before taking the helm of the state party, Bauman was Los Angeles County Democratic Party chairman from 2000 to 2017, earning a reputation as a gregarious and intimidating party boss. I am, in appropriate circumstances, very aggressive. But on the natural, because of my Bronx demeanor, I always come off like a tough guy, he said in a 2017 interview with The Times during his campaign for state chair. People come up to me on the street all the time and think I am Joe Pesci. I try to work with that. Bauman moved to Hollywood from New York when he was 18 years old. He would go on to work as a registered nurse, and met his now-husband, also a nurse, at a hospital coffee shop. He then became a union organizer at Los Angeles-area hospitals and became active in the Democratic Party. He joined and later became president of the Los Angeles County Stonewall Democratic Club, a political group that advocates for LGBTQ rights, and from that perch launched his successful campaign to lead the county party. One of Baumans accusers, a Southern California man who is involved with progressive causes, said he was 17 and a high school senior when he met with Bauman, then the county chairman, in 2006 for an informational interview about building a career in politics. The man, who is gay, said he and Bauman were broadly discussing how the experience of LGBTQ people had changed over time. He said Bauman told him in explicit language that, if it were the 1980s, Bauman would take him to the back alley and have sex with him without using protection. A friend of the man told The Times that the man recounted the incident to him in 2017. He was aware I was a high school student. I wasnt in college yet, said the man, who is now in his late 20s. Even if I was 18, even if it happened now, it would be profoundly unacceptable. Acevedo was getting his start in state Democratic politics in 2009 when he first met Bauman. He recalled Bauman hanging around with Acevedo and other young gay men. He said Bauman would make comments about which men he thought were cute and guessed at the preferred sexual roles of those in the group. The young men would make bawdy jokes as well, Acevedo said, and generally seemed to go along with his behavior. Acevedo, now 29, progressed in party politics. In January 2016, while interim chairman of the California Young Democrats, Acevedo and his ex-boyfriend, a party staffer, had dinner with Bauman and his husband, Acevedo said. Acevedo planned to stay over at Baumans house that night and said Bauman made a number of comments that evening about Acevedo having sex at his home. Acevedo said he told Bauman to behave, and teased that he could revoke his endorsement of Bauman for state party chairman. He said Bauman then grabbed the back of his neck in what he described as a vise grip and told Acevedo he knew the endorsement would not be pulled. When Acevedo asked why, he said Bauman squeezed down on his neck and said, Because I would crush you. Acevedo did not respond to Bauman and the night proceeded. When the two men later got into a political argument, Acevedo said he decided to leave. Acevedos boyfriend at the time told The Times that Acevedo told him about a troubling interaction with Bauman within days after it happened. Acevedo said he also considered speaking out publicly in 2017, when Bauman was engaged in a bitter campaign for the state party chairmanship against Bay Area Democratic organizer Kimberly Ellis. The political clash exposed a growing schism between party factions, fed in part by lingering resentment from the 2016 Democratic presidential primary between Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Ellis backers included a large faction of Sanders supporters, while Bauman had the support of many traditional Democratic Party groups who stood with Clinton. Hilary Crosby, a former party official, said Acevedo told her that spring that Bauman had put his hands around Acevedos neck and threatened him. Lori Saldana, a former state assemblywoman, said Acevedo told her that spring that Bauman had generally acted inappropriately with him and other young people involved with the party. Acevedo decided not to go public at the time, in part, he said, because he worried the allegation would be politicized in the midst of a grueling chairs race. But he said he felt guilty for not coming forward. It scared me how I didnt say something sooner and I didnt speak up right away, Acevedo said. He said the incident made him question how much he wanted to be involved in party politics. Just weeks before the vote for a new state Democratic Party leader, Bauman sent out an email to party members strongly denying what he said were unfair, unspecified rumors of misconduct that he called the politics of personal destruction. Last Thursday evening, my phone bank team started hearing from some delegates that they had heard that I have been engaging in inappropriate behavior with 14- and 16-year-old boys, Bauman wrote. When I first heard it, I could not believe it and I brushed it off. Then, we heard it again on Friday and I became really angry. Im a pretty tough guy and I can take the attacks, lies, distortions, and mud that has been slung at me pretty well. But to accuse me of child abuse, especially of this nature, is beyond the pale and 100% unacceptable. Ellis and other party officials immediately denounced the allegations. Bauman went on to win the chairs race by just 57 delegate votes. The job currently pays about $123,000 a year. Larimore-Hall, the partys second vice chair, said the rumors about Bauman during the 2017 race were heavy on homophobia and light on specifics. But when he learned earlier this month about specific allegations involving party staff, he privately encouraged Bauman to resign immediately. When Bauman did not, Larimore-Hall sent a letter calling for his removal the following day. He has since remained in regular contact with some of the accusers to discuss logistics, legal remedies and next steps. The vice chair later told party delegates, [I]t is completely unacceptable for Chairman Bauman to remain in office given these credible, corroborated and utterly heartbreaking allegations. Times staff writer Phil Willon contributed to this report. Coverage of California politics melanie.mason@latimes.com Follow @melmason on Twitter for the latest on California politics. The deadly Camp fire that destroyed the Northern California town of Paradise this month overwhelmed emergency alert and evacuation plans, leaving many residents in harms way without sufficient warning, state officials acknowledged Tuesday at a legislative hearing. Because the Paradise area, where officials say at least 88 people died in the blaze, was known for being prone to wildfires, it has been the subject of extensive planning for warnings and evacuations, said Thom Porter, chief of strategic planning for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. But he said the unusual speed of the Camp fire hindered an adequate evacuation. They are areas where we have had bad fires, Porter said. We know there are road system issues. The Camp fire, he said, outstripped our planning efforts in sheer time. Advertisement Assemblyman James Gallagher (R-Yuba City), who represents Paradise and the surrounding communities in Butte County, said the fire highlighted serious flaws in the states warning system. In the end, we had people who said they had no notice, he said in a written statement read at the hearing held jointly by Assembly and Senate committees in Carpinteria, close to the area hit by the Thomas fire, which swept through parts of Santa Barbara County nearly a year ago. The state needs to do a better job of getting warnings to residents through cellphones, broadcast outlets and the internet, said experts and legislators including Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara), chairwoman of the Joint Legislative Committee on Emergency Management. Jackson said a cellphone warning she received during the Thomas fire did not provide her with essential information about the blazes location. She voiced concern that only 45 of Californias 58 counties have signed on to a wireless emergency alert system that is tied to a federal warning program that transmits communications through cellphones and broadcasters when wildfires start. Their communities are going to be pretty upset if they dont get the kinds of warnings that might be available, Jackson told the emergency planners. Experts said flaws in the current system included the need for more help to warn and evacuate people who are elderly, disabled, do not speak English or who have pets they want to take with them. Sen. Henry Stern (D-Canoga Park), whose Malibu rental home was destroyed by the Woolsey fire, said the urgent question for state officials was how to get the most accurate real-time data out there to the public when a fire hits. There has to be a better way to engage, he said. Stern said the system was still vulnerable to problems including power and cell service being lost in areas hit by fire. He called for the state to provide more resilient power and cell services. Local fire officials, including Santa Barbara County Emergency Manager Brian Uhl, agreed the state needed to develop clear guidelines for when and how emergency alert systems would be used to warn people to leave areas threatened by fire. Under a bill approved by the Legislature in August, new guidelines on coordinating and using emergency warnings must be developed by July 1, 2019. A draft of the guidelines was due next month, but Novembers fires are expected to delay their release. We are very close to being able to push definitive guidelines, said Mitch Medigovich, deputy director of logistics management for the Governors Office of Emergency Services. In San Diego County, only 550,000 of 3.3 million residents have registered their mobile phones to receive emergency warnings, according to Holly Crawford, director of the countys Office of Emergency Services. Getting people to opt into the system has not been as successful as we would like, Jackson said. She wrote legislation recently signed into law that will allow each county to automatically register residents to receive phone and email warnings unless they opt out, but counties are still developing guidelines to implement the opt-out system. Crawford also said targeting of emergency alerts has not been efficient, noting an alert she sent to people in San Diego also went to people in Orange and Riverside counties. There is mass over-alerting in the system, she told the panel, adding that new technology will better target alerts and allow longer messages. Firefighters on the front lines have also faced difficulty in communicating with radio and mobile phones, fire experts said. They said state funding for improving 911 systems is inadequate. A bill championed by Gov. Jerry Brown to impose a new customer fee on phone lines to boost emergency services failed to advance in the Legislature this year. Medigovich told lawmakers those efforts were the victim of partisan politics during the election year. Coverage of California politics patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com Twitter: @mcgreevy99 When the first rays of morning sun bathe downtown Burbank on Easter, Christmas or New Years Day, they illuminate streets that are quiet, peaceful and, for the most part, desolate. The exact opposite is the case during the dawn of Thanksgiving Day. This past week, as celebratory preparations were commencing in homes throughout the city, thousands of Burbankers and visitors from surrounding communities took a few hours of leave from their kitchens and converged for the Burbank Community YMCAs ninth annual Turkey Trot. With Bruce Springsteens Born to Run blaring as the soundtrack, more than 3,000 runners, walkers, strutters and strollers lined up at the starting line at Magnolia Boulevard and Third Street to trot and support the Ys financial-assistance program. The Burbank Community YMCAs ninth annual Turkey Trot hit a new record with more than 3,000 runners participating. (David Laurell / Burbank Leader) This years event, made possible by presenting sponsors, the Cusumano Real Estate Group and the Worth Real Estate Group, saw participants challenge a 5K or 10K double-loop course, measured to USA Track and Field standards. While the 10K was designed for competitive runners, the 5K gave casual runners and walkers the opportunity to take the course at their own pace. The morning also included a non-competitive Kids Run. Its a great way to start your Thanksgiving morning, said Mary Cutone, president and chief executive of the Burbank Community YMCA. Dan Cole and his wife Talia Gibas celebrated their second wedding anniversary by running in this years Turkey Trot. Weve done this four time and theres actually three of us running this year, Gibas said as she revealed the couple will be having a baby in 2019. (David Laurell / Burbank Leader) It feels good for the soul to celebrate gratitude in community with a healthy tradition, [and] all of the proceeds will benefit people who want to stay healthy but cant otherwise afford membership, she added. Along with the presenting sponsors, the turkey days event, which also included a pre-race business expo and Kids Fun Zone, were also made possible by Aldrich Taylor Insurance, the Kiwanis Club of Burbank and Woodbury University. The Burbank YMCA is a nonprofit organization that has been serving the community since 1924, promoting youth development, healthy living and social responsibility. For more information about the Y and its programs, visit burbankymca.org. David Laurell may be reached by email at dlaurell@aol.com or (818) 563-1007. Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to pay state visits to Argentina and Panama from Dec. 2 to 3, which analysts believe will usher China-Latin America ties into a new era and speed up the pace to build a community with a shared future for China and Latin America. The upcoming state visit would be Xis fourth Latin American trip, and also the first one to the region after the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) held last October. China has grown into the second largest trade partner of Latin America, while Latin America has become one of the fastest growing regions for exports to China. Their two-way trade rose 18.8 percent year on year to stand at $257.85 billion in 2017. China has ramped up its foreign direct investment (FDI) in Latin America to more than $300 billion, making the latter its second largest overseas investment destination only after Asia. Data indicate that over 2,000 China-funded companies have invested or established business in the region. China has made important contribution to Latin Americas economic growth, said Carlos Aquino, director of the Economic Research Institute at the National University of San Marcos in Peru, adding that China-Latin America ties are no longer confined to a kind of economic and trade cooperation, but stretched to an all-round partnership covering all fields and reaching all layers. It is precisely the right time for China and Latin America to join efforts to build a community with shared future, Aquino stressed. During the past 3 years, both sides have also conducted fruitful cooperations through the Forum of China and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). The national coordinators would hold meetings each year, and the two sides have established dialogue and cooperation platforms covering more than 10 fields, including political parties, infrastructure, agriculture, scientific innovation. Joint efforts have also been made to beef up collaboration in 13 key fronts like politics, security, trade, investment and finance. The forum also acts as a platform on which both sides enhance cultural exchanges and cement public opinion foundation for closer bilateral ties. Within the framework of the forum, both sides have launched a series of projects like joint laboratory, demonstration farms and media cooperation center, and started cultural exchange year with colorful events. The China-CELAC Forum allows China and Latin America, a pair of innate cooperation partners given their complementary economies, to pursue development with higher quality and set up a closer economic partnership. The platform also helps with the building of an open world economy. China is seeking economic globalization through South-South cooperation based on a principle of mutual benefit and win-win results, said Enrique Dussel Peters, head of the Centre for China-Mexico Studies at National Autonomous University of Mexico. He believed that China, with constant efforts in opening up, will definitely bring more development opportunities to the world including Latin American region. Xi stressed in a congratulatory letter sent to the second ministerial meeting of the China-CELAC Forum in January the great significance of the Belt and Road Initiative, and also called on Latin American countries to actively participate in the construction of B&R. A special declaration on the Belt and Road Initiative was also issued on the meeting, marking a new step for China and Latin America to co-build the Belt and Road. So far, a total of 12 Latin American and Caribbean countries have signed memoranda of understanding on Belt and Road cooperation with China, and their engagement is believed to injected new impetus into their cooperation with China, as well as their development and prosperity. The Belt and Road Initiative definitely provides abundant development opportunities for Latin America, said Argentine Ambassador to China Diego Ramiro Guelar, explaining that with a far-reaching influence, it displays Chinas sense of responsibility as a major country. Argentina-China ties have become a model for emerging markets and developing countries to enhance solidarity and cooperation and seek common development, he added. Co-construction of Belt and Road not only offers development chances for China, but also opportunities of common development for countries and regions along the route, noted Eddie Tapiero, a Panamanian specialist in international relations and author of the book The Silk Road and Panama. Panama is Chinas new partner in Latin America. The two have made a good start in bilateral ties since establishing diplomatic relations one and a half years ago, and pushed ahead all-round cooperation in full swing. Voting, laws, and health solutions were discussed during a conversation about gun violence on Monday led by U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) and state Sen. Anthony Portantino (D-La Canada Flintridge) at Woodbury University. The officials were introduced by Woodbury president David Steele-Figueredo and joined by public health experts Andrea Welsing and Karen Rogers as the group addressed an overflow crowd in the universitys auditorium. At the end of the day, people who are not supportive of common-sense gun-safety legislation just need to be voted out of office, said Schiff, prompting arguably the loudest applause during the event. There is no other political remedy here. Increasingly, I think that is exactly what were going to see happen, he added. Schiff shared his disappointment that gun-control measures were not passed after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. Twenty-eight people were killed, including 20 students. He said he was also taken aback by a young girls response on television shortly after the mass shooting at Santa Fe High School in Texas this past May that left 10 dead. She was asked, Did you ever expect this could happen at your school? Schiff said. Of course, I waited for her to say No and I would have never imagined this would have happened at my school, but her answer was, Yes. Why wouldnt it? Thats where weve come. Rogers, an author and clinical associate professor of pediatrics at the USC Keck School of Medicine, said shes been asked to give talks after several mass shootings, including at the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks earlier this month, at an office party in San Bernardino in 2015, at Sandy Hook and inside a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., in 2012. More than one student has said to me, I look at my peers and I think, are you the one who could bring a gun to my school and shoot everybody? Rogers said. Imagine how that tears at the fabric of community for a child in school? Rogers added that 3 million children are touched by gun violence a year. Ive known countless stories of resilience and recovery, she said. Its been my privilege to witness over and over again the amazing resilience of children and families but at what price? Welsing, director of the injury and violence prevention program for the L.A. County Department of Public Health, said one of gun safetys biggest hurdles is funding. The [Centers for Disease Control] really has minuscule funding to do gun-violence research and that is one of the messages I think I would say in terms of a solution, she said. We really need to focus more and to support efforts to do gun-violence research. Portantino talked about two pieces of legislation he introduced last year. Senate Bill 1100, which raised the age to sell or transfer all firearms from 18 to 21, was signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown on Sept. 28. There are just too many weapons in private hands unnecessarily, Portantino said. However, Senate Bill 1177, which would have restricted firearm sales to one per month, was vetoed by Brown. Im going to bring [this] back next year, said Portantino, hoping to have more luck with incoming Gov. Gavin Newsom. You only have one finger, he said, glancing at his trigger finger. andrew.campa@latimes.com Twitter @campadresports For the third consecutive year, Providence St. Joseph Medical Center received a B grade for this past fall from the Leapfrog Group. While getting high marks is a positive, Dr. Susan Melvin, chief medical officer for St. Joseph, said she and her staff are focused on providing high levels of care every day. Leapfrog, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit that grades hospitals nationwide for their patient safety, releases hospital grades twice a year, once in the spring and again in the fall. It is St. Josephs third B grade since fall 2017, an improvement over the C and D grades the hospital has received in the past a C in the spring of 2016 and D grades in the fall of 2016 and spring of 2017. I think [the Leapfrog grade] reflects on a lot of work and a lot of focus on quality, Melvin said. Id like to think that we would be doing all those things whether we were graded on it or not. Its about delivery and quality care and good experience to the people in the community of Burbank. I feel like we are doing that, she added. According to the Leapfrog survey, Providence St. Joseph performed above average in many areas, including addressing complications during surgeries, safety problems and infections around the surgical site after colon surgery. However, Melvin said she is aware of the areas where the hospital needs work, especially cutting down on infections. Every time a patient developed an infection throughout any point of their stay at the hospital, Melvin and her staff reviewed how it occurred and found ways to minimize or end them from happening in the future. We have been focused on cutting down the number of infections for some time now, she said. With our most current data, which is not reflected in the score, we continue to do very well, she added. Despite bouncing back from the less than stellar grades the hospital received two years ago, Melvin said there is still plenty of work to be done to keep the care at St. Joseph at a high level. She said one of the areas where its more difficult to consistently perform well is the patient experience, which she said has been changing year to year. In medicine, we know that patients that have a good experience in the hospital or in the doctors office have better outcomes when you treat them, Melvin said. Making sure that that experience is as good as we can possibly get it is a primary goal. anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com Twitter: @acocarpio A search of a Huntington Beach mans home Tuesday yielded more than 50 firearms, ammunition and Nazi memorabilia, police said Wednesday. Mitchell Todd, 51, was arrested on suspicion of making criminal threats related to a business dispute about doves that were supposed to be released at a Laguna Beach funeral, police said. Laguna Beach police served a search warrant at the home in the 15000 block of Cambay Lane in Huntington Beach, Laguna police spokesman Jim Cota said. Of the firearms found including handguns, rifles and older-style weapons only 12 were registered to Todd, Cota said. Along with the weapons, police discovered Nazi and Confederate flags and a photo of Adolf Hitler, police said. Police dont have information to tie the suspect to organized hate groups, though they are continuing to investigate, Cota said. Todd raises and releases doves for a living, and authorities found more than 200 of the birds at his home, Cota said. They will be cared for by a family member, police said. The investigation stemmed from a business dispute between the suspect and a Laguna Beach man who contracted with him to fly the birds at his sons funeral earlier this month, police said. The funeral lasted longer than expected and the dove release did not occur, police said. The contract stated that if payment wasnt made and the act wasnt performed, aka the releasing of doves, then there was a $1,000 fee attached or something that was kind of ridiculous, Cota said. When the man didnt pay, he received threats that people were going to come after him and comments that maybe you belong or need to go to where your son went, Cota said. He also received a voicemail that included the sound of sliding the rack of a firearm, Cota said. When the investigation revealed that the suspect had 12 firearms registered to him, we knew we had to move on this quick, Cota said. Todd was booked on suspicion of criminal threats, though authorities also may consider firearms-related charges, said Cota, who noted that Todds home is across from a school. California law prohibits possession of a firearm within 1,000 feet of school grounds. Todd was transferred to a hospital for psychological evaluation, police said. julia.sclafani@latimes.com A San Diego County Superior Court judge issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday blocking a state-approved mobile needle-exchange service from operating as proposed in Costa Mesa and three other Orange County cities. Judge Joel Wohlfeils decision represents a victory for Orange County, the county Flood Control District and the cities of Costa Mesa, Anaheim and Orange, which teamed up in an effort to stop the Orange County Needle Exchange Program. The service also was proposed for Santa Ana, which didnt join the legal fight. In pushing for the injunction, the plaintiffs cited public health and safety concerns and asserted the program would lead to tens of thousands of dirty needles throughout the county, creating a significant public nuisance with serious risk of injury to the countys residents and water quality. We are pleased the court agreed with the citys position regarding the public health hazard the needle exchange would have posed to Costa Mesa, Mayor Sandy Genis said in a statement. This ruling is a victory to all who work, live and play in this city and fortifies our commitment to the highest level of public safety. Councilwoman Katrina Foley, the citys incoming mayor, added that Costa Mesa vigorously fought to ensure the safety of its citizens by not having needles distributed with no accounting for the dangerous needle waste. The exchange used to operate out of the Santa Ana Civic Center, where it was the only one of its kind in the county. But officials there denied its permit in January, citing an increase in the number of discarded syringes in the area. From plaintiffs perspective, the inadequacy of OCNEPs staff to safely recover and dispose of used syringes and sharps waste from all of its participants, as well as the corresponding harm to the communities in which OCNEP distributes the exchange needles, undermines public safety, a goal with which reasonable people agree, Wohlfeil wrote in his decision. Dallas Augustine a board member for the needle exchange said Tuesday afternoon that officials of the nonprofit, volunteer-run program hadnt yet had a chance to discuss the ruling. We are very disappointed in the outcome and believe in the right to safety, health and life for all members of our Orange County community, Augustine wrote in an email. Supporters of such programs say they are intended to help prevent the spread of diseases such as HIV and Hepatitis C by providing clean needles and other supplies to intravenous drug users. Even Wohlfeil noted in his decision that defendants have presented substantial evidence to support the social utility of the program. But Wohlfeil also noted the irony of the precautions OCNEP takes in admonishing its volunteers not to handle the needles and the hazards of needle stick injuries on the one hand and defendants desire to minimize the harm to plaintiffs residents ... who inadvertently encounter syringe litter. The public safety of our residents comes first, Orange County Board of Supervisors Chairman Andrew Do said in a statement. We fought to make sure our sidewalks, parks and libraries did not become hazardous waste sites. ... Drug addicts dump their dirty needles all over our community, putting our kids at risk. The California Department of Public Health approved an application in July to allow the program to distribute needles and other supplies for two years in specified areas of Costa Mesa, Anaheim, Orange and Santa Ana. The Costa Mesa operation would be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesdays and Sundays along West 17th Street between Whittier Avenue and the city boundary with Banning Ranch. Costa Mesa officials have continually contended that the program could attract additional drug users to the community, undermine the recovery of residents in local sober-living homes and pose safety threats to the public or law enforcement. Along with joining the legal fight against the program, the Costa Mesa City Council adopted an urgency ordinance in August prohibiting the establishment or operation of needle exchanges anywhere in the city for 45 days, citing the protection of the public health, safety and welfare. The council later extended that moratorium, which is now in place through Aug. 5. luke.money@latimes.com Twitter @LukeMMoney Applications are being accepted for Glendale Unifieds dual-language immersion programs at the elementary levels as well as for its magnet elementaries for the 2019-20 school year. From Nov. 1 to Jan. 31, students living within and beyond the districts boundaries can enroll in the districts lottery, which will be held Feb. 13. Applications can be found at gusdmagnetandflag.com/apply. There are a total of 754 kindergarten spots available, with 520 slots for the language program and the rest for magnet school applicants, according to Nancy Hong, the districts coordinator for the dual-immersion program, known as Foreign Language Academies of Glendale, or FLAG. The district has 20 elementary schools and, of those schools, nine have a FLAG program, Hong said. Four have magnet distinction, and three of those four magnets have FLAG programs, she added. Students can apply for both FLAG and magnet programs, with up to three choices of either languages or magnet schools available. The district offers seven languages Armenian, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Spanish. Languages that utilize a Latin-based alphabet French, German, Italian and Spanish will be taught 90% in the foreign language and 10% in English, with that rate gradually rising to 50-50 by fifth grade. Non-Latin alphabet languages Armenian, Japanese and Korean maintain a 50-50 ratio each year. The difference is due to the similarity between English and the Latin-based alphabet in reading structure, according to Hong, while Japanese, Korean and Armenian languages deal with completely different alphabets. After a student finishes an elementary FLAG program, they can continue taking foreign language courses at the middle- and high-school levels. If a student is not accepted into a FLAG program in kindergarten, they can reapply in subsequent years, though they must pass language-proficiency standards. FLAG applicants are broken in two pools one group of native foreign-language speakers and the other of English-only speakers, according to Hong. There is a priority system that includes preference for siblings of current students and Glendale Unified residents. Magnet schools are more specialized institutions that encourage theme-based learning. Those schools are Cerritos Elementary, which focuses on coding and computer science, Edison, which offers advanced technology and robots, Franklin Elementary, an international FLAG school, and Keppel Elementary, a visual arts and performing magnet. Clark Magnet High School also offers a lottery system, but will not begin accepting applications until Jan. 12. andrew.campa@latimes.com Twitter @campadresports Heavy rains that hit La Canada the night before Thanksgiving cleared just in time for nearly 1,300 adult and youth runners to enjoy the Community Center of La Canada Flintridges 25th annual Thanksgiving Day Run and Food Drive. Community Center Director Maureen Bond who had to contend last year with a 90-degree heatwave said forecasts of rain may have kept people indoors but did not deter some 1,000 adults and hundreds of children from participating in the organizations silver anniversary event. It was a beautiful day for a run, Bond said Tuesday. We tarped everything the day before, which really saved us. First place among male runners competing in the 5K race was Glendales J.D. Kieffer, who finished in 15 minutes, 49 seconds. Four seconds later San Francisco resident Jason Karbelk secured a second-place win, while Spencer Geck of La Crescenta placed third with a time of 15 minutes, 58 seconds. Newhall resident Grace Graham-Zamudio placed first among female runners, finishing in 17 minutes, 33 seconds. In second place, South Pasadenas Chloe Fata came in at 17 minutes, 48 seconds while La Crescenta resident Emily Vincent placed third with 19 minutes, 14 seconds. La Canada Mayor Terry Walker welcomed the crowd, while Mayor Pro Tem Len Pieroni and his family participated in the race. State Sen. Anthony Portantino (D-La Canada Flintridge) commemorated the events 25th anniversary with a special certificate of recognition, and the Los Angeles County Fire Department thrilled audiences with a helicopter flyover. The food drive, benefiting the Crescenta Valley Sheriffs Stations annual holiday food and toy giveaway, raised a record amount of items and cash donations totaling $2,050. It was a really great event, Bond said. sara.cardine@latimes.com Twitter: @SaraCardine In June 2017, things were looking grim for the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar. A Saudi-led coalition of Arab states had just severed diplomatic and economic ties, imposing a blockade that sent people rushing to the grocery stores to stockpile food. Even the United States, a longtime ally, appeared to have abandoned Qatar when President Trump accused it of supporting terrorism. The oil-rich nation of 2.6 million people braced for the worst as experts warned of a looming humanitarian crisis. Advertisement But the worst never came. Instead, the economy is growing. This month the International Monetary Fund reported that Qatars gross domestic product is on target to grow 2.4% this year, up from 1.6% in 2017. Increased oil prices played a big role, but so did an intensive lobbying effort, a search for new economic opportunities and political maneuvering in the international fallout from the October killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Qatar remains open to business, said Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a Middle East analyst at Rice Universitys Baker Institute. The blockade has been a failure by that outcome. Saudi Arabia had been trying to punish Qatar for allying itself with Iran the Saudis chief rival and trying to exert its independence and influence foreign policy. Soon after Trump became president, Saudi Arabia began playing up Qatars support for Islamist political groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the Ennahda party in Tunisia, to suggest that it was harboring and supporting terrorists. They wanted to shape the thinking of the U.S. administration and create a perception that Qatar was supporting terrorism, Ulrichsen said. On June 5, 2017, Saudi Arabia and its allies, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt, announced the blockade, which they said would not be lifted until Qatar met 13 demands, including shutting down the Doha-based news media site Al Jazeera, scaling back relations with Iran, shutting down the Turkish military base being built in Qatar and severing ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. Saudi Arabia shut its land borders with Qatar, and the other three countries imposed a land, sea and air embargo. Qatar, which denies that it supports terrorism, is home to the largest U.S. military base in the region. Still, Trump sided with Saudi Arabia and called Qatar a funder of terrorism at a very high level even as then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson tried to end the blockade for humanitarian and military reasons. Qatar was no stranger to such a blockade. In 2014, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain withdrew their ambassadors from Qatar for eight months over its alleged support of Islamist groups. The rift caught Qatar by surprise and tainted its international reputation. Not wanting to be caught off guard again, Qatari officials soon began making contingency plans, according to Ulrichsen. They were ready this time. Within two weeks of the new blockade, Qatar had figured out new trade routes through Oman and India. By last fall, Qatar had already opened a new seaport for importing food and other essential supplies. At the same time, it also has begun to establish itself as an international mediator it recently hosted talks between the U.S. government and the Taliban and offer incentives for foreign companies to expand into Qatar. We have seen record numbers of foreign and domestic company registrations, Sheik Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al Thani, the countrys foreign minister, told The Times. Trade with Iran and Turkey also increased, according to Shibley Telhami, a government and politics professor at the University of Maryland. Qataris like to say that they learned how to be more independent, Telhami said. Improving relations with Trump required more stamina. Qatar has spent millions of dollars on a public relations charm offensive, arranging for influential U.S. academics and policymakers to visit Doha, the capital, and meet government and other officials. It took time and resources to replace the blockading states lies with the truth, including inviting delegations to visit Qatar and investigate the blockade for themselves, Al Thani said. Our guests learned that Qatar has been and is a steadfast ally of the United States, committed to combating terrorism and defeating extremism in the region and around the world. The U.S. administration soon began urging Saudi Arabia to resolve the crisis, and in April Trump invited Qatars emir, Sheik Tamim bin Hamad al Thani, to the White House, calling him a a valued partner and longtime friend. The killing of Khashoggi, a dissident who disappeared after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, also gave Qatar some international leverage in its fight with Saudi Arabia. The CIA has concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing, and the international outcry has weakened his standing. Qatar has joined an international chorus calling for the killers to be held accountable. Trump dismissed the CIA conclusion and reaffirmed the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia, but analysts said he now has the power to persuade Saudi Arabia to relax the blockade if he wants to. Now Saudi Arabia owes him, Telhami said. Whether Qatar is a priority for Trump, though, is another story altogether. melissa.etehad@latimes.com Follow me on Twitter @melissaetehad Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said that the recent clash with Ukrainian navy forces in the Black Sea was a provocation organized by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and praised the Russian coast guard for its handling of the confrontation, which saw Russian ships open fire on and seize three Ukrainian vessels and 24 crewmen. Ukraine, however, accused Moscow of being the aggressor and released what it said was the exact location where its ships were fired upon Sunday by Russia, showing that they were in international waters. The Ukrainian flotilla left the Black Sea port of Odessa on Sunday and sailed toward the Kerch Strait a channel flanked by Crimea and the Russian mainland to reach Ukrainian ports in the Sea of Azov on the other side of the passage. Russia insists the boats did not notify traffic authorities of their journey, while Ukraine says Russia was notified in advance. (Los Angeles Times) Advertisement Sundays voyage was not the first time that Ukrainian vessels have sailed from the Black Sea into the Sea of Azov, designated as shared internal waters by Ukraine and Russia by a 2003 treaty that Putin signed himself. On Sept. 23, with tensions already rising in the Kerch Strait as Russia began to impose greater control over passage, a Ukrainian flotilla made the run unimpeded. Putin said the Ukrainian flotilla in September fully complied with agreements and requirements: They announced the composition [of the flotilla], where they were going, and who was going. We provided them with a pilot and calmly led them to their destination in the Sea of Azov. Sundays incident has sparked the sharpest rise in tensions between Ukraine and Russia since Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula from Kiev in 2014, and instigated an ongoing insurgency in eastern Ukraine that has claimed at least 10,000 lives. It also marked the first time that Russia has acknowledged opening fire on Ukrainian military forces, raising fears of a broader war. This was a provocation which was certainly organized by the sitting officials [in Kiev], including the president, Putin said at an investment forum in Moscow. A small incident in the Black Sea, and they implement martial law. Well, it is clear that this was done on the eve of the presidential election. It is an absolutely obvious fact. Putin is not alone in accusing Poroshenko of political posturing. The Ukrainian president has very much styled himself as a wartime leader in the last four years, but his approval ratings have tanked, and he now faces serious challenges from political rivals in the upcoming March elections. One of the three Ukrainian ships seized by the Russian coast guard was docked Sunday in Kerch on the Russia-occupied Crimean peninsula. (Associated Press) Poroshenko on Monday persuaded the Ukrainian parliament to approve his proposal to implement martial law across 10 regions deemed at risk of Russian aggression, citing evidence of a pending Russian offensive. He did not elaborate. Many in Ukraine and abroad criticized the move as a ploy to bolster his faltering approval ratings ahead of presidential elections in March. Before scaling back his proposed martial law plan, observers abroad and opposition circles in Kiev suggested that martial law could be used to postpone the elections and clamp down on press freedoms. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev echoed Putins remarks Wednesday on Twitter, saying that Poroshenko does not stand a chance in the current [electoral] situation and may not even make it into the runoff. This provocation in the Kerch Strait may have been engineered for pushing through specific political decisions that would benefit the incumbent president. Putin spoke at length about Sundays incident, noting that it was little more than a border dispute and that Kiev is now blowing it out of proportion. His remarks came as Moscow announced it would deploy new, cutting-edge S-400 air defense systems to Crimea, and a court sentenced all 24 captive Ukrainian sailors to two months of pretrial detention. Despite calls from Kiev to treat the men as prisoners of war, which would shield them from criminal charges, they will all be subject to charges of violating Russias territorial waters a penalty that carries a maximum sentence of six years. Russia said that two of the men aboard were Ukrainian intelligence officers, a fact later conceded by Kiev. However, Ukraine said they were simply performing counterintelligence duties. A captured Ukrainian sailor speaks in a courtroom in Simferopol in Russia-occupied Crimea on Tuesday. (Associated Press) Ukraine on Wednesday released a map allegedly pinpointing where the men and their boats were fired upon and captured by Russian sailors. The map placed the three boats in international waters. It is not clear if the Ukrainian boats earlier violated Russias claims to waters off the coast of Crimea, which is still recognized internationally as Ukrainian territory. The incident has sparked new waves of condemnations from world leaders of what is viewed by some as just the latest example of Russian aggression against Ukraine, in this case seizing an opportunity to assert itself as the sole owner of the strait. Some leaders in Europe called for imposing deeper sanctions on Moscow But Putin on Wednesday stood by the conduct of his coast guard, saying they did their job in the face of an uncertain foreign military presence in Russian territorial waters. Military vessels entered Russian waters and did not respond, Putin said. How should [the coast guard] have reacted? If they acted differently, they all would have been brought to trial. They carried out their military duty. Bodner is a special correspondent. UPDATES: 1:30 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details about Sundays clash on the Black Sea. 10:15 a.m.: This article was updated with Los Angeles Times staff reporting. This article was originally published at 7:55 a.m Mexicos plan to bestow the countrys highest honor for foreigners on Jared Kushner, son-in-law of President Trump and an advisor, has generated harsh words from critics who called the trade-related move inappropriate. Government officials said Tuesday Kushner would receive the Order of the Aztec Eagle for his significant contributions to a preliminary new trade deal reached in September between the U.S., Mexico and Canada. The deal, to be called U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, would update the North American Free Trade Agreement, which Trump threatened to scrap because he said it unfairly benefited Mexico. Mr. Kushners participation was decisive in the beginning of the process of renegotiating NAFTA, and in preventing the United States unilateral exit from the treaty, the Mexican government said in a statement. The preliminary deal requires approval by legislators in Mexico, Canada and the U.S. Kushner is close with Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Videgaray. Advertisement Outgoing Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto was expected to bestow the honor on Kushner at the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires this week. President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador takes office Saturday. The governments decision to honor an official in the Trump administration stunned many in Mexico, which has endured repeated attacks by Trump since the first day of his presidential campaign. Trump has described Mexican immigrants in the U.S. as rapists and drug dealers, has vowed to make Mexico pay for a costly border wall and has said bluntly of Mexico: They are not our friend, believe me. On Twitter, historian Enrique Krauze called the move to honor Kushner a supreme act of humiliation and cowardice. Fernando Belaunzaran, a Mexican congressman with the left-leaning Party of the Democratic Revolution, said on Twitter that Kushner is the son-in-law and accomplice of a narrow-minded and anti-Mexican racist. He called the honor an indignity. The outrage echoed the widespread anger felt in the summer of 2016, when Pena Nieto invited then-candidate Trump to Mexico. That attempt at dialogue, and other efforts to work with a U.S. president who has insulted Mexico have cost Pena Nieto politically, with polls this year showing that 75% of Mexicans disapprove of the way he has responded to Trump. Pena Nieto leaves office as a series of corruption scandals have plagued him and prominent members of his family. Only 24% of Mexicans approved of the job hes done, according to a recent poll. Past recipients of the Order of the Aztec Eagle include Nelson Mandela, Cesar Chavez and several kings and queens. kate.linthicum@latimes.com Twitter: @katelinthicum Photo taken in a busy street of Madrid shows an advertisement of Alipay, Alibabas third-party mobile and online payment platform. (Peoples Daily/Ye Qi) China and Spain, located at the east and west corners of the Eurasia respectively, have enjoyed inseparable economic ties under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative. Spain is Chinas sixth largest trading partner in the European Union (EU), and China is the largest trading partner of Spain outside the EU. Last year, the trade volume between the two countries reached $30.94 billion, an increase of 7.5 percent year on year. The enhanced China-Spain economic and trade cooperation has strongly boosted economic development of the two countries. Spain, who has long been referred to as the vegetable basket of Europe and ranks second in EU in terms of agricultural land, is the third largest exporter of vegetables and fruits in the world. With high-quality agricultural products, such as pork, olive oil, wine, beer, Spain is undoubtly an important source of Chinas imports of fresh food. I had no idea that our ham could be so popular in China that our booth was crowded by people who are interested. We have every confidence in the Chinese market, and we believe that many companies will benefit from Chinas development, said Daniel de Miguel, international manager of Spanish pork association InterPorc Spain, at the first China International Import Expo (CIIE). The CIIE offered an excellent opportunity for Spanish companies to showcase themselves, he said, adding that the Spanish brands had attached great importance to the Chinese market while pursuing internationalization. Spain was the first European country to confirm its attendance at the first CIIE, said Lyu Fan, Chinese Ambassador to Spain. In January, the China International Import Expo Bureau under the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, jointly held a road show with Spanish Confederation of Employers' Organizations in Madrid, and many Spanish firms signed up for the event at the official website of CIIE immediately after the show, the ambassador disclosed. Comprised of 49 companies, the Spanish team of exhibitors at the first CIIE was fully equipped. Covering an exhibition area of 1,250 square meters, these companies showcased a variety of goods including food, garments, consumer goods, intelligent and high-end equipment, emerging technologies and logistics services. The first CIIE was an important opportunity for Spain to expand exports to China, expressed Enrique Fanjul, former Commercial Counselor of Spain in China, saying that expo increased Spains attention to the Chinese market, and helped Chinese consumers know the high-quality products and services of Spain better. In the Double 11 shopping festival in China, Spain ranked the second, following Russia, among all countries in terms of the number of orders made by foreign consumers via AliExpress, a Chinese e-commerce conglomerate Alibabas online global retail platform. Compared with those of the previous year, the categories of products sold to the Spanish market rose by 250 percent, with hot sellers expanding from luxury fashion brands to furniture, 3C products, and home appliances. Meanwhile, the amount of online shops owned by local people in Spain doubled during the event. Chinese e-commerce platforms have taken root and developed vigorously in Spain, enjoying continuous growth in market share. Today, with over 7.7 million registered users in Spain, AliPress is the biggest cross-border e-commerce platform. The rapid development of Chinese e-commerce platforms in Spain has created more and more opportunities for Spanish products to be exported to Chinese market. Inditex, a Spanish multinational fashion group, has seen an accumulative total of around 10 billion yuan (about $1.44 billion) in volume of business since the opening of flagship stores for its seven brands at Alibabas B-C online shopping website Tmall.com in 2014. In 2016, JD.com, a well-known Chinese e-commerce company, signed a cooperation agreement with Spanish Institute of Foreign Trade (or ICEX), bringing Spanish enterprises selling agricultural products to the online market of China. From 2015 to 2017, Spanish fresh products have created an annual growth of 120 percent in sales at Tmall.com. If a mother in Madrid wants to surprise her children during holidays, she could just place an order with a mobile phone, and then get fine toys delivered from China in a few days, said Juan Pablo Lazaro, vice president of the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations. Chinas e-commerce development was amazing, Lazaro expressed, adding that Chinese e-commerce platforms helped to bring more Spanish products to Chinese market faster, and at the same time madeSpanish consumers buy goods from China and around the globe conveniently. The rapid development of Chinese e-commerce platforms meant huge market and benefits to both Spanish people and Chinese People, said Lazaro. Let me start by first and foremost pointing out that the consolidated draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) which is a database of Indian citizens in Assam and is being prepared under the Supreme Court's watch, is a critical step in resolving one of Assam's longstanding and most complicated problem of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. No politics should be done over it. No credit should be taken by any political party for it and it must be kept completely out of the dirty theatric politics over it because if this is not done then it will become completely embroiled in it and nothing substantial will ever take place actually which will be our nation's biggest misfortune! To be sure, the list which was made public on July 30 has left out the names of over 4 million (40,07,707 to be precise) of the state's 32.9 million residents. But those left out should not panic. Applicants left out of the NRC may be given a personal hearing under a fresh Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) being devised by the Home Ministry. The Registrar-General of India (RGI) and the Home Ministry are exploring several options to provide adequate opportunity to 40 lakh of the 3.9 crore applicants whose names were not included in the final NRC draft published on July 30. Be it noted, RGI Sailesh told media that the SOP would ensure that filing claims and objections was a fair and credible process. He said that, 'There may be many applicants who may not understand the process and the required documentation. So we have to see that every person has the right information and the assistance required. An official said that the circle officers or block development officers would be asked to give personal hearings to applicants even after they had exhausted the option of filing 'claims and objections. While craving for the exclusive indulgence of my esteemed readers, let me inform here that on July 31, a Supreme Court Bench had ordered the government to frame in consultation with State NRC Coordinator Prateek Hajela, a 'fair SOP to deal with the claims and objections of those who did not find their names in the draft NRC. RGI Sailesh revealed that, 'The SOP will also go into the aspects of disposal of claims and objections so that reasonable time and adequate opportunity are given to applicants. The rules say that any person can make an objection against an inclusion and any person whose name is not there can file a claim. Every precaution is being taken to ensure that no bona fide citizen is left out! Still one just fails to comprehend that why some leaders are trying to give it a political twist and are warning of nation getting immersed in 'civil war and 'bloodbath if any action is taken on illegal immigrants! This is what is most deplorable, degrading and dangerous which cannot be justiified under any circumstances! For my esteemed readers exclusive indulgence, it must be also informed here that in a most matured and balanced stand the RGI Sailesh when asked by media if it would be appropriate to call the 40 lakh applicants 'infiltrators, as they were being referred to by some political leaders stated unambiguously that, 'We don't have any nomenclature for them. We have the list of eligible people for inclusion in NRC and the total [number of] applicants in NRC. For us they are applicants. The Home Ministry too commendably had earlier told the Assam government that no action should be initiated by the administration or the police based on the draft NRC. The RGI has been asked to use all means of communication, including websites, toll-free numbers and SMS, to provide information to the public about the draft NRC. Truth be told, while it is not yet clear who will decide the fate of the 4 million applicants who have been left out and have not made it to the final draft of the NRC, the issue of illegal immigrants in Assam has been historically determined by two tribunals. The first is the Foreigners Tribunal (FT) which was set up by the Assam government in 1964 to identify the legal status of suspected foreigners in Assam. There are 100 FTs in Assam as on date. The second is the Illegal Migrants Determination Tribunal, or IM (DT), established in 1985, with special provisions for Assam. It only considered the cases of those who had allegedly entered India after March 25, 1971 and crucially these placed the onus of proving citizenship on the accuser rather than the accused. The IM(DT) Act was subsequently struck down by the Supreme Court as being unconstitutional in 2005. As it turned out, high pendency has severely plagued the working of the two tribunals, according to data from a 2012 white paper issued by the Assam government. Between 1985 and 2012, about 221,000 cases were referred to the two tribunals. During this period, they disposed of only about 97,000 cases. In these, they declared about 55,000 individuals as foreigners, leading to the deportation of 2,442 individuals. Between the two tribunals, the IM (DT) courts have been seen to be far less efficient and also less likely in declaring a person a foreigner. However, they were more likely to effect deportations. The high pendency in the two tribunals has been attributed to the lack of judicial supervision, long vacancies of members and inadequate staff. And now, in Assam, there are 4 million cases to be heard. What all has been disclosed here was effectively highlighted by Arjun Srinivas who is a recipient of the Mint-Hindustan Times-HowIndiaLives Data Fellowship 2018 in Hindustan Times newspaper dated August 9, 2018. Going forward, Zia Haq in this same newspaper and same date further goes on to point out elaborately that, 'The list made public on July 30 has left out the names of over 4 million (40,07,707 to be precise) of the state's 32.9 million residents. Assam has witnessed large-scale migrations from Bangladesh, with which it shares a 267.5-km border. Natives want illegal migrants to be deported. The terms of citizenship in Assam were written into an agreement, the so-called Assam Accord which was signed on August 15, 1985 by the then Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress government with the All Assam Students Union (AASU). It was the culmination of a six-year agitation led by the student body against illegal settlers. According to the pact, anybody who can prove that they or their families were in Assam prior to the midnight of March 24, 1971 would be deemed a citizen. The NRC was not a part of the Assam Accord. It was suggested by the previous Congress government on May 2, 2005 during tripartite talks involving the state government and the AASU in which former PM Manmohan Singh was present. In June 2010, the Tarun Gogoi-led Congress government of Assam started a pilot project in two districts - Barpeta and Chaigaon - to vet citizenship and update the citizens' registry, first compiled manually in 1951, the year of India's first census. The names of many native Assamese like Dhrubojyoti Sharma of Rangia, a central committee member of the Asom Gana Parishad are missing. The aim of publishing the citizens register, a list of all Indian citizens in Assam, on the directions of the apex court is to identify genuine residents. A correct NRC will be a milestone. Residents need two sets of documentation to prove citizenship. The first is to furnish documents in 'List A. This refers to any government-certified document from before 1971, such as names in a similar 1951 citizens register, or a school certificate, birth certificate, land records etc. This is the so-called 'legacy data. Then, they are required to submit documents mentioned under 'List B. Purpose of documents under List B need to clearly link up with those in List A, proving ancestry. Having said this, let us now discuss some pertinent questions on this very vexed issue as also on citizenship in India which is grabbing the eyeballs of not just the people of India but extending all across the globe! This will certainly enable more clarity on this vexed issue which is being unnecessarily politicised by few politicians for serving their own vested political interests. Rahul Tripathi has brilliantly dwelt on the same in The Indian Express dated August 3, 2018. They are as follows: - How is citizenship determined in India? Indian citizenship can be acquired by birth, descent, registration and naturalisation. A person domiciled in India as on November 26, 1949 - the date when the Constituent Assembly adopted the Constitution - autmoatically became a citizen if he or either of his parents was born in India, or if he had been in India for at least five years until that date. For those born in India after the Constitution came into effect, the Citizenship Act, 1955, grants citizenship by birth based on birth dates. Anyone born between January 26, 1950 and July 1, 1987 is a citizen by birth; a person between July 1, 1987 and December 3, 2004 is a citizen by birth if either of his parents is a citizen of India at the time; those born on or after December 3, 2004 is a citizen by birth if both parents are citizens of India at the time, or if one parent is a citizen and the other is not an illegal migrant - defined as a foreigner who entered India without valid documents, or stayed beyond the allowed period. Citizenship by registration can be acquired by persons of Indian origin who have lived in India for 7 years before applying, persons of Indian origin who live in any country outside undivided India, persons marrried to a citizen of India and who have lived in India for 7 years before the application. Any minor child can be registered as a citizen if the government is satisfied that there are special circumstances. Is it possible for a foreigner with no connection to India(marriage, descent etc) to become a citizen of India? This is citizenship by naturalisation. Any foreigner, provided he is not an illegal immigrant, can acquire citizenship, provided he has stayed in India for 12 consecutive months preceding the date of application, and for 11 years out of the preceding 14 years. Is citizenship permanent? Under Section 9(1) of the 1955 Act, a person ceases to be a citizen if he or she voluntarily acquires the citizenship of another country or renounces Indian citizenship. India does not allow dual citizenship. Under Section 10, anyone who has become a citizen of India by naturalisation or by registration due to marriage to an Indian citizen can be deprived of the citizenship by the Home Ministry for certain reasons. How is Assam different? Why a separate National Register of Citizens? This is because of a history of migration. During British rule, Assam was merged with Bengal Presidency for administrative purpose. From 1826 to 1947, the British continuously brought migrant workers to Assam for cheap labor in tea plantations. Two major waves of migration came after British rule - first after Partition, from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), and then in the aftermath of the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971. This eventually led to an agitation during 1979-85, led by the All Assam Students Union. It culminated in the 1985 Assam Accord signed with the Rajiv Gandhi government, under which illegal migrants were to be identified and deported. Clause 6A was inserted in the Citizenship Act with special provisions for Assam. What are those provisions? These take into account two cutoff dates - January 1, 1966 and March 25, 1971. Anyone who was a resident of Assam before the first date is a citizen. Migrants who entered on any day between these two dates, and remained there, would need to register with a Foreigners Tribunal. For 10 years, they would have all rights of a citizen except the right to vote which would be granted at the end of 10 years. Finally, migrants who entered Assam on or after March 25, 1971, are not eligible for citizenship. Is this not the cutoff date for NRC too? Yes. For inclusion, applicants need to prove that they - or their parents, grandparents etc - were citizens before March 25, 1971. Those who could not prove this, as well as their offspring, have been excluded. Assam already has an NRC, prepared in 1951 with 80 lakh citizens, on the basis of that year's Census. In 2003, the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules were amended for updating the NRC in order to identify genuine citizens. What was the mechanism for identifying migrants earlier? When Indira Gandhi was Prime Minister, the government introduced the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) Act, applicable only to Assam. Against the Foreigners Act that was in force elsewhere, the IMDT Act was seen as ineffective as the burden of proof of someone being a foreigner was on the accuser and not on the state or the accused. In 2005, the Supreme Court struck down IMDT Act on a petition filed by Sarbananda Sonowal, then an AGP leader, now Assam Chief Minister and a BJP leader. Before the NRC update, Assam was witnessing protests over the Citizenship Amendment Bill. What was this about? In 2016, the Centre introduced amendments to the Citizenship Act to grant citizenship to religious minorities (mostly Hindus and including other non-Muslims) from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who took shelter in India. The Bill relaxes norms for granting them citizenship by decreasing the residency requirement from 11 years to six years. In Assam, where the agitation was against migrants irrespective of religion, this has led to protests. The Bill is currently pending with a Joint Parliamentary Committee. Is there a similar situation for migrants in any other state? In Arunachal Pradesh, a demand for citizenship to Chakmas has been pending for decades. While the Centre is keen to grant them citizenship, it is being opposed by the state government. In Kashmir, West Pakistan refugees are allowed to vote in national elections but not in Assembly elections. It is heartening to note that amid an intensifying ugly political slugfest over Assam NRC, the Supreme Court on July 31 stated that the exercise for verifying the citizenship of residents of the state will be taken to its logical conclusion, even as it asked the Centre to frame a fair and equitable' standard operating procedure to adjudicate claims for Indian citizenship. A Bench of Supreme Court comprising Justices Ranjan Gogoi and RF Nariman made it plain that the exercise being conducted under the court's aegis identifying alleged aliens residing in Assam will not stop, but nipped the fear of any immediate fallout for those who have not made it to the draft NRC by saying that no coercive steps will be taken against them. NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela told the Apex Court that, 'Of the 40.07 lakh who don't find their name in the list, applications of 37.59 lakh persons have been rejected and those of 2.48 lakh have been put on hold. Truly speaking, Attorney General KK Venugopal said the ministry concerned would prepare a detailed SOP to receive and adjudicate claims and objections of those excluded from the NRC. Venugopal said that, 'Given the magnitude of the human dimension of the problem, it would be appropriate if the SC assured the public against any coercive step on the basis of draft NRC. The Bench said it gives no assurances but passes orders. The Bench said: 'In this regard, the court would like to observe that what has been published being a draft NRC, it cannot be the basis for any action by any authority thus allaying fears among members of the minority community that they could face immediate deportation proceedings. Needless to add, the Bench also said: 'Whatever be the modalities in the SOP, it has to be a fair procedure. Those who have been excluded from the draft NRC must get a fair opportunity. Whatever SOP you (the Centre) want to frame to govern this (claims and objections) must be a fair procedure. Asked about a possible timeline, the AG said that it will depend on the total number of claims and objections received. However, Justices Gogoi and Nariman were firm to take to logical conclusion the long drawn exercise of preparation of draft NRC, credit of which largely goes to the Bench for its untiring monitoring of the process undertaken by a team of thousands of state government officers, led by IIT Delhi electronics graduate-turned IAS officer Hajela since 2013. The first draft NRC was published on December 31, 2017 when 1.9 crore of the 3.29 crore population of Assam was included in it. Simply put, the Bench asked the Centre to place the draft SOP for receiving and adjudicating claims and objections before the court on August 16 for vetting. Making clear its intention to finalise the draft NRC in due course, the Bench said: 'We permit the concerned ministry of the Union government to frame modalities and place it before the court for dealing with claims and objections so as to enable publication of final NRC. On August 16, the court said it would draw up the time schedule for this. Hajela told the court that the draft NRC would be on display at local registrar office from August 7 to permit public to verify their names. He also said that, 'Those who have objections or claims against draft NRC, can file it with supporting documents before local registrar in 30 days from August 30 till September 28. Interestingly enough, the Centre proposes to include Indian citizens who are not from Bangladesh and who moved to Assam from other parts of the country before or after March 24, 1971 in the National Register of Citizens (NRC) if their citizenship is proved beyond reasonable doubt. This is part of the SOP drawn up by the Centre to deal with claims and objections of those who have been left out of the draft NRC which is being prepared on the directions of the Apex Court. The government also suggested that the time for filing claims and objections regarding inclusion of names in the draft NRC be extended from the one month proposed initially to two months. It must be added here that the document pointed out that the Supreme Court in its July 21, 2015 order had said '....Indian citizens including their children and descendants, who may have moved to the State of Assam subsequent to 24thMarch, 1971 would be eligible for inclusion in the NRC on adducing satisfactory proof of residence in any part of the country (outside Assam) as on 24thMarch 1971. The government, however said that in some cases, people have not been able to provide documents to prove their residence in any part of the country. For such people, it proposed to make provisions similar to Rule 4 of the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003 and Clause 3(3) of the Schedule. Accordingly, government submitted that, 'citizens of India who originate from other states in India and who do not have any origin in specified territory (Bangladesh) and have moved to State of Assam prior to 24thMarch 1971 or after will be included in the NRC if the citizenship of such persons is ascertained beyond reasonable doubt to the satisfaction of the authorities disposing of claims and objections. Cases of all such persons whether ordered for inclusion by the authority (disposing claims and objections), or for exclusion, will be examined first by the CRCR (Circle Registrar of Citizen Registration) and then by the DRCR (District Registrar of Citizen Registration). The final decision of inclusion or exclusion will be taken by the DRCR, who will issue a speaking order issued under his deal and signature the SOP stated adding that 'authorities examining the claim and the DRCR will exercise great caution to ensure that no illegal person's name is included taking recourse to the above provisions. Of course, the government also submitted that claims involving children of 14 years who have been left out from the draft NRC and whose parents have included in it 'will be segregated and pre-claim verification undertaken by CRCR to ascertain the shortcomings in linkage documents or any inconsistencies thereof. It said the DRCR concerned will ensure specific hearings for the composite family in respect of these children and oral and written evidences from parents will be available. This 'special consideration was needed, the government said, because adequate documentary evidence may not be available for children below age 14. 'Claims where only married women are involved and have no linkage document other than Gaon Panchayat Secretary Certificate issued prior to August 2015 will be examined separately in accordance with the guidelines issued in its compliance to Hon'ble Supreme Court orders on the verification of Gaon Panchayat Secretary Certificate for married women, it said. In essence, the Local Registrar of Citizen Registration (LRCR) will issue notices for hearing the objections raised to inclusion of any names including to the person against whom the objection raised. To 'ensure fairness and objectivity, the government said, 'it is considered necessary that the officers who have decided the applications at the stage of draft NRC (LRCR) are not the decision-making authority at the stage of disposal of claims and objections. Centre stated that the state had informed that it will be able to make available 1,500 to 2,500 Class I officers for this. The exact requirement will, however, depend on the number of claims and objections that are filed, the SOP said, adding that it was also proposed to appoint senior state government officers as observers to oversee the process of disposal of claims and objections. As things stand, during the hearings, the state, in collaboration with UIDAI, will undertake biometric enrolment of applicants. Once the final NRC is published, those included in it will be given Aadhaar numbers. The SOP also provides a timeline for completing tasks. Accordingly, the period for receiving claims and objections will be from August 30 to October 28. The hearings will start from December 15 onward.It may be recalled here that on July 31, a Bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and RF Nariman while allowing the government to draw up the SOP had said it would approve the same if the procedure adopted was fair, else it would correct it. It must be brought out here that the Registrar General of India (RGI) will not make public the reasons for excluding the names of 40 lakh people from the NRC, the final draft of which was just released. This will certainly give an opportunity to some to raise serious question marks over such secrecy especially those who are not at all happy with this historic move! The only exceptions to this are those who have been marked doubtful' voters by the Election Commission (voting rights of such people and their descendants already stand suspended) and those who have, at any point of time, been referred to Foreigners Tribunals and their descendants. These two categories of people, numbering 2.48 lakh already know that their names would not be included in the draft NRC until their names are cleared by the tribunals. It must also be brought out here that another 1.5 lakh people whose names were part of the draft published in December but have been excluded from the final draft, will be informed about the reason for their exclusion by a letter of information (LOI). These applicants were excluded for one of three reasons - either their names had been erroneously included, they were found to have submitted false claims or panchayat certificates submitted by them were found invalid. NRC State Coordinator Prateek Hajela submitted before the Supreme Court while seeking its permission which was subsequently granted that, 'The LOI will have to be served to the rejected applicants within seven days from the date of publication of the complete draft. The LOI will explicitly state that the applicant has an opportunity to file a claim for inclusion in the NRC. The LOI will also inform the time schedule and place of submission for the claim. The rest of the excluded persons will have to file a fresh application in a prescribed form with the local registrar of citizen's registration between August 7 and September 28 to know the reason for exclusion. RGI Sailesh said that, 'Each of the individuals will be given a letter citing the reason for exclusion. All said and done, it is a herculean task to ensure that innocents are not harassed and illegal immigrants are not spared from being deported to their respective countries from where they entered illegally to India. Similarly all those who burn Indian flags and chant anti-Indian slogans must be deported from all across India! All political parties must refrain from indulging in petty politics as it concerns our national security and there can be no compromise on it! Rajnath Singh who is Union Home Minister very rightly cautioned parties against politicizing it. He said: 'Whatever work is going on in the NRC, is happening under the supervision of the Supreme Court. To say that the government has done it, and it is inhuman and brutal....such allegations are baseless. It is not the right thing to say. Some people are unnecessarily trying to create an atmosphere of fear. I want to assure all that there is no need for any apprehension or fear. Some misinformation is also being spread. Appealing to the House, Rajnath Singh again very rightly said that, 'This is a very sensitive issue. Everyone should lend their support. I want to make it clear....you can express your anger....but let me tell you that the government is not doing anything....everything is being done under the supervision of Supreme Court. Absolutely right! Rajnath also very rightly said that there is no question of any coercive action against anyone while stressing that NRC process is 'being carried out with complete fairness and transparency. He also made it clear that if anyone was not satisfied with the final draft of the NRC, that person would get an opportunity to file claims and objections as per provisions in the law and also approach the Foreigners Tribunal. He also clarified that, 'Only after the disposal of claims and objections, will the final NRC be published. On a concluding note, what is being done in Assam is truly laudable and should be emulated in all parts of India to ensure that illegal immigrants are first identified and then deported back to their native country! If this is not done, it is bound to have disastrous consequences on the unity and integrity of India. Also, all those who stay in India and repeatedly swear by Pakistan or any other foreign country must be first identified and then deported to the country of their choice without wasting anymore time because it goes without saying that, 'You cannot be a Pakistani and an Indian at the same time because India and Pakistan are separate countries since 1947. You cannot claim fundamental rights under the Indian Constitution while believing in Pakistan and burning our flags and Constitution. Same holds true for other countries as well. Those who burn Indian flags, Indian Constitution, insult national anthem and sing Pakistani anthem or anthem of any other country must migrate to their country of choice and if they don't they must be deported at all cost and under all circumstances. Similarly those who stay in India and still attack army vehicles and slap our brave soldiers and throw their helmets in gutter must be deported without showing any leniency of any kind towards them irrespective of their religion, caste, creed or sex! Similarly if a person has no proof of citizenship but swears by India and demonstrates total loyalty for nation by doing exemplary acts of courage and promotes harmony must be rehabilitated in India at all cost and under all circumstances no matter what his/her religion, caste, creed, community or sex is! Join LAWyersClubIndia's network for daily News Updates, Judgment Summaries, Articles, Forum Threads, Online Law Courses, and MUCH MORE!!" Join our Telegram group Join our Whatsapp group "Loved reading this piece by Sanjeev Sirohi Join LAWyersClubIndia's network for daily News Updates, Judgment Summaries, Articles, Forum Threads, Online Law Courses, and MUCH MORE!!" Tags : Others Cars The second edition of the Christofle Yacht Style Awards in 2019 will offer two chapters and 30 categories in total, with two distinct awards nights in both Phuket and Singapore. Nov 27, 2018 | By Joe Lim In only its second edition, the Christofle Yacht Style Awards in 2019 will break new ground by comprising two chapters and 30 categories in total, with two distinct awards nights in Phuket on 9 January and in Singapore on 10 April recognising the best of the yachting industry in Asia and internationally. Cafe Del Mar Phuket on Kamala Beach will host Chapter I focusing on production motor and sailing yachts of the two-part Christofle Yacht Style Awards 2019 on Wednesday 9 January, on the eve of the Thailand Yacht Show & RendezVous. In a spectacular beachside setting, the lavish gala dinner will feature an invitation-only audience of more than 300 VIPs, yacht owners and prospects, and major personalities in the yachting industry, who will celebrate the first major nautical awards of the year. There are even plans for selected yachts to make a special appearance. Chapter II focusing on superyachts, above 30m will be held in Singapore around mid-April 2019. The Christofle Yacht Style Awards were inaugurated in celebration of Yacht Styles 10th anniversary and the inaugural edition of the Phuket RendezVous 2018. Following tremendous success and feedback, the event has grown from 25 to 30 awards across two awards presentations. The awards are designed to showcase excellence and creative flair in the industry both regionally and internationally. Criteria for the yacht categories include innovation, style, build quality, owner experience and a focus on the Asia market. Each winner receives an iconic Mood trophy by title sponsor Christofle, which has embodied French Art de Vivre since 1830 and been associated with the Asia-Pacific yachting scene since 2005. Designer and producer of premium silverware from tableware to home decoration and individual pieces, Christofle remains loyal to the spirit of its founders, who cherished modernity and innovation in creation and production all values celebrated in the Christofle Yacht Style Awards. YACHT STYLE, launched in 2007, is today Asia-Pacifics most respected and influential yacht-focused media. For more information on YACHT STYLE and the CHRISTOFLE YACHT STYLE Awards, please contact: info@lux-inc.com (General) and awards@lux-inc.com (Awards). On the nomination process: john@lux-inc.com On table bookings and sponsorship / exhibiting opportunities: nico@asia-rendezvous.com Visit Christofle for more information. CHAPTER ONE AWARDS: PHUKET, THAILAND (9 JANUARY 2019) BEST ASIA-BUILT MOTOR YACHT (15-24m) BEST ASIA-BUILT MOTOR YACHT (24-30m) BEST MOTOR YACHT IN ASIA (Under 15m) BEST MOTOR YACHT IN ASIA (15-20m) BEST MOTOR YACHT IN ASIA (20-25m) BEST MOTOR YACHT IN ASIA (25-30m) BEST SAILING YACHT IN ASIA BEST MULTIHULL MOTOR YACHT IN ASIA BEST MULTIHULL SAILING YACHT IN ASIA (Under 15m) BEST MULTIHULL SAILING YACHT IN ASIA (Over 15m) BEST ASIA-BASED CHARTER COMPANY (REGIONAL) BEST ASIA-BASED CHARTER COMPANY (INTERNATIONAL) BEST ASIA-BASED CHARTER COMPANY (PHINISI) ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD CHAPTER TWO AWARDS: SINGAPORE (APRIL 2019) BEST ASIA-BUILT MOTOR YACHT (over 30m) BEST ASIA-BUILT SAILING YACHT BEST MOTOR YACHT IN ASIA (30-40m) BEST MOTOR YACHT IN ASIA (over 40m) BEST SAILING YACHT IN ASIA (over 24m) BEST YACHT BUILDER IN ASIA BEST SUPERYACHT BUILDER IN ASIA BEST INTERNATIONAL YACHT BUILDER BEST INTERNATIONAL SUPERYACHT BUILDER BEST ASIA-BASED INTERNATIONAL BROKERAGE BEST ASIA-BASED CHARTER YACHT BEST MARINA IN ASIA BEST WATERFRONT PROPERTY IN ASIA BEST REGATTA IN ASIA BEST GREEN INITIATIVE A technician adjusts a camera at a "little giant" company in Tianjin, which focuses on innovation in digital security equipment.[Photo/Xinhua] The nation's plan to cultivate around 600 small, highly specialized world-market leaders in three years will help it make breakthroughs in core industrial components, experts said on Tuesday. Qu Xianming, an expert with the National Manufacturing Strategy Advisory Committee, which advises the government on plans to upgrade the manufacturing sector, said China lags behind other countries in the field of high-end industrial components. "The plan emphasizes efforts to nurture small and medium-sized enterprises which specialize in one or two products. It can help the country catch up and complement its industrial structure," Qu said. The comments came after the country's top industry regulator, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, issued a document on Monday on the cultivation of 600"little giants", or companies that focus on a market niche and master key technologies with a strong innovation capacity and a big market share. Such SMEs are similar to "hidden champions", a term coined by German author Hermann Simon to describe small, highly specialized world-market leaders in Germany. The ministry said it would select 100 excellent SMEs in 2018 to help them improve innovation capabilities, explore overseas markets, boost corporate management and accelerate digital transformation. The ministry said "little giants" were companies with an annual revenue of 100 to 400 million yuan ($57.6 million), and annual profit growth of at least 10 percent. More importantly, their R&D or innovation staff must account for more than 15 percent of their total workforce. They also have to possess at least five innovation patents related to products, or 15 design patents. Zhao Weidong, a researcher of SMEs at the China Center for Information Industry Development, said the plan is also likely to nurture promising enterprises for the new technology innovation board. China announced plans earlier this month to launch a new trading platform on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, as the government aims to encourage technological development by granting excellent companies easier access to funding. In Vietnam, granted patents can be amended in limited circumstances under provisions found in the Law on Intellectual Property (IP Law). For example, Article 97 of the IP Law gives the patent owner the right, among other things, to request rectification of errors made by the National Office of Intellectual Property (NOIP) in the granted patent. The law is silent regarding the correction of errors made by other parties, such as the patent owner or the local patent agent. However, to ensure the accuracy of a patent, common sense dictates that rectifiable errors should not be limited to those made by the NOIP, but should extend to any other obvious errors. In practice, a patent owner can request the NOIP to correct obvious errors that are not clearly the fault of the NOIP. However, there is no definition in Vietnamese legal documents of what constitutes an "obvious error." A recent case involving a European pharmaceutical company brought this issue to the forefront. Rectification rejected The company in question holds a Vietnamese patent for a compound for the treatment of chest pain, which was granted in 2008. The company is now battling infringing generic products in the Vietnamese market, but faced a temporary setback when it discovered, in the course of litigation, that its patent had an error in the structural formula of the compound, showing a six-membered ring instead of the correct seven-membered ring, although the compound name was written correctly. It is worth noting that the patent originated from a foreign priority document, which was enclosed with the Vietnamese application, in which the correct seven-membered ring and the same compound name were shown. It is likely that the error was introduced during the translation of the patent specification into Vietnamese by a local patent agent. As a result of this error, the company recognised that enforcement efforts could be hindered, as generic producers could argue that they were not technically infringing the patent because the compound in their products was not the same as the patented compound based on the erroneous structure in the granted patent. The company thus proactively petitioned for a rectification of the granted patent, reasoning that the error in the structural formula should have been apparent to a person having ordinary skill in the art, as a six-membered ring in that position was a chemical impossibility. The examiner in charge of the patent certainly should have had the capacity to discover the error before granting the patent, having reviewed the priority document and the corresponding patents issued previously by other patent offices, which all showed the correct seven-membered ring and the same compound name. The NOIP, however, refused to correct the patent, claiming that the error was not obvious. What makes an error obvious? The NOIP's refusal notice referred to some concepts of obvious errors in the case law of the Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO), and also stated that the NOIP considers these concepts to be appropriate. Specifically, the NOIP cited point 4.2 in the case law, that for a correction to be made, it must be established that "it is obvious that an error is in fact present in the document filed with the EPO, the incorrect information having to be objectively recognizable [emphasized in the NOIP's notice] by the skilled person using common general knowledge." The NOIP argued that if the patent owner did not notice the error in more than two years of the patent examination period, or for nearly 10 years thereafter, it could not be considered "obvious". In addition, the same error appeared in other applications and patents of the company related to the compound. While the patent application in question referred to the correct description in the EP patent, the incorrect six-membered ring consistently appeared throughout the summary, description, and claims of the Vietnamese application itself, and the NOIP further asserted that it had no obligation to consider other documents, referring to point 4.2.1 of the case law: "On the other hand, documents even if they were filed together with the European patent application, such as priority documents and the abstract may not be used." Outlook The arguments in the NOIP's refusal notice signal that the NOIP intends to follow the EPO's practice regarding obvious errors and their corrections (though it is debatable that the EPO would have come to the same conclusion in a similar situation). Historically, however, the NOIP's practice has not always been consistent, and it is unclear to what extent patent rectification will be allowed in the future. To ensure their patent rights in Vietnam, applicants would be well advised to review their applications very carefully, and rely only on reputable, experienced Vietnamese IP agents for patent prosecution to avoid unexpected consequences. Hien Thi Thu Vu Loc Xuan Le HAREC Building, 4th Floor 4A Lang Ha Street, Ba Dinh District, Hanoi, Vietnam Tel: +84 4 3772 6688 Fax: +84 4 3772 5568 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 Proposed changes to the Australian Patents Act 1990 have been advanced in recent weeks as Australia looks to address the long-standing perception that its intellectual property arrangements fall short of the required standard. On July 23 2018, IP Australia announced a consultation on proposed legislative amendments included in Schedule 1 to the Intellectual Property Laws Amendment (Productivity Commission Response Part 2 and Other Measures) Bill 2018. The proposed measures include: amending inventive step requirements for Australian patents; introducing an objects clause into the Patents Act 1990; phasing out of the innovation patent system. The decision to implement these measures has already been taken and the consultation concerns the form of the amendment to the Patents Act. Inventive step The draft provision aims to increase the threshold for inventive step by aligning the requirement more closely with that of Article 56 of the European Patent Convention (EPC): "S.7(2) For the purposes of this Act, an invention is taken to involve an inventive step when compared with the prior art base if the invention is not obvious to a person skilled in the relevant art." The Draft Explanatory Memorandum to the proposed legislative changes states that the purpose of adopting wording similar to Article 56 EPC is for the problem-and-solution approach followed by the European Patent Office to become the normal approach adopted by IP Australia for the examination of inventive step. The approach is expected to increase the threshold for inventive step. The statutory requirement for inventive step was amended only a few years ago and time will tell as to whether this further amendment to the statute, if approved, will achieve the desired effect. Objects clause An objects clause is proposed to the Patents Act "to provide additional clarity and guidance to the purpose of the legislation". The proposed objects clause includes the wording: "to provide a patent system in Australia that promotes economic wellbeing through technological innovation and the transfer and dissemination of technology." The Explanatory Memorandum states that the clause is not intended to narrow or change the subject matter eligibility threshold for grant of a patent. Nevertheless, the consultation focused on the use of the word 'technological' in the clause, and it is foreseeable that such a clause may potentially be invoked by anyone seeking to limit the boundaries of what should be considered to be patentable subject matter. Phasing out of innovation patents A long process for phasing out of the innovation patent is proposed. While new applications for innovation patents will no longer be possible following commencement of the legislation, the legislation will not apply to any application for an innovation patent that is filed before the commencement of the legislation or the claims of which have a priority date before the commencement date (e.g. divisional applications or applications converted from a standard to an innovation patent). Innovation patents will therefore be with us until the last of these expires. Next steps The consultation period was completed on August 31 2018. The resulting legislation will likely commence in 2019. Meanwhile, on August 24 2018, royal assent was granted to the Intellectual Property Laws Amendment (Productivity Commission Response Part 1 and Other Measures) Act 2018,the provisions of which underwent a similar public consultation at the end of 2017. The Act, insofar as it relates to the Patents Act, relates mainly to administrative matters and also removes a requirement for patentees to provide the Department of Health with certain data relating to pharmaceutical patents with an extended term. Andrea Ruhrmann FB Rice Level 23, 44 Market St Sydney NSW 2000, Australia Tel: +61 2 8231 1000 Fax: +61 2 8231 1099 contact@fbrice.com.au www.fbrice.com.au The material on this site is for law firms, companies and other IP specialists. It is for information only. Please read our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Notice before using the site. All material subject to strictly enforced copyright laws. 2021 Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC. For help please see our FAQs. Share this article This year marks the 45th anniversary of the establishment of China-Spain diplomatic relations, and the two countries friendship can be seen not only through bilateral trade figures but also through grassroots ties. The China Railway Express that connects the Chinese city of Yiwu and the Spanish capital of Madrid marks the longest train route operated by China. The 13,052-km-long line also travels through the most countries, eight. This famous and fruitful route starts from Yiwu, the home of many made-in-China products. The express, which launched in 2014, transports over 2,000 kinds of Chinese products to Europe and returns with loads of delicacies and cosmetics from Spain. The railway has generated export-import trade volume of over $3.5 billion, and Spains exports to Yiwu have jumped from less than $1.6 million in 2014 to $10.1 million in 2017. Beyond the star train route, cultural ties between China and Spain boasting the worlds second and third largest amount of cultural relics, respectively, have also been continuously strengthened over the years. Some 40,000 Spanish citizens are reportedly learning Chinese, while more than 10,000 Chinese students are pursuing higher education in Spain. Spanish language study has also been included in the curriculum of many Chinese schools, China National Radio reported. On the streets of Madrid, Chinese elements are a common sight, from delicately-designed porcelains to Chinese popular smartphone brand Huawei. Where else can you see Chinese elements in Spain? Share them with us! thumb The Managing IP Corporate Strategy Summit took place on September 12 in London and covered a broad range of issues, including AI, the automotive sector and IP as a cost centre or revenue stream. Strategies to minimise IP risk The keynote address, delivered by Neal Rubin, senior vice-president of operations at RPX, focused on how to minimise IP risk. One of the first points made by Rubin is that the best IP lawyers always understand the fact that IP risk is married to PR risk. When companies embark on litigation, they need to be mindful of how the case will be reported in the press and the ramifications of this reporting on the company's reputation. Another consideration Rubin mentioned is that the way "companies take on risk and resolve risk is based, at least in part, on accounting principles." He went on to say that when assessing the financial impact of a patent infringement claim, a company has to ask whether the expense will come out of the overall accounting of the treasury or whether it will come out of the particular department accused of taking the risk. If the expense is going to be assigned to one particular business unit, it is important to have conversations with the manager of the area, who might ask you to explain the situation to their CEO. Rubin noted that this approach often "drives results". A particular area of focus in Rubin's address was how companies can use data to make decisions about IP. By assessing data from previous years relating to the number of litigations and costs, in-house lawyers can reach a verdict on whether the company's risk is manageable and whether they need to seek insurance or not. Rubin noted that if companies "scrupulously keep all data, they can build an actuarial model around it." He also observed that, by analysing data, companies can obtain a sense of how litigation is likely to play out. He stated that, while figures concerning litigation were previously more shrouded in China, there is now available data from the jurisdiction. Managing business risk The first panel discussion was about the management of business risk. Panel member Mario Bitter, head of IP at Siemens, asserted that installing risk and control systems can help manage IP risk. He also noted that in a big organisation it is essential that everyone in the company knows about the IP department. He stressed that it is imperative that all IP questions end up with the correct people and that all the relevant parties are aware of the rules and procedures that have been set up for managing risk. The panellists mostly worked for companies where IP insurance had not been taken out from external companies, though a few members of the panel stated that their organisations had discussions about this topic and reviewed the issue at intervals. Another point raised during the conversation was ensuring that when engaging with suppliers, designers and other parties, it is clear who owns IP. Prioritising policy and regulation updates The final panel discussion before the morning coffee break was about prioritising policy and regulation updates for the management of your business. Emma Stopford, trade mark counsel, legal and external affairs, at British American Tobacco, commented on the widespread changes affecting branding in the tobacco field. However, she noted that similar rules could start applying to other areas, saying: "The health agenda is making its way into other fields which will have an effect on IP." Some of these potential areas are sugar and alcohol and she therefore commented that those concerned about how these changes could affect IP rights should become involved in lobbying. Adam Williams, director at the International Policy Directorate, UK Intellectual Property Office, shared some tips for practitioners on how to affect the direction and shape of policy and regulation. One key point he made is that "economic evidence plays an important role when it comes to policy." He added that politicians and policy makers take such evidence very seriously. Some of the advice he shared included the following: Ensure you know your counterparts in government in this case, the relevant minister and their team. Think about the best people to do the lobbying. Use senior people when necessary so that they are taken seriously/can give a strategic view. He imparted particular advice for SMEs, encouraging them to use industry associations to help them convey their message and access industry associations' government relations contacts. What are the likely sources of disruption in the markets that you operate in? Dispute resolution, M&A and due diligence After the break, a panel discussed dispute resolution, M&A and due diligence. Mark Hodgin, chief counsel, trade marks at Mondelez International, mentioned the importance during transactions of the IP team being aligned with the deal team. In acquisitions, IP lawyers can play a vital role in a number of different ways. For example, they need to consider the value drivers. Hodgin noted the importance of analysing the strength of brands and their enforceability as well as what activity the company has been taking to protect assets and the prosecution history of the brands. This is an effort to assess the value of the brand before it is acquired. He also observed that in divestitures, companies need to understand how their IP rights are used across brands and products to fully manage the sale process. Richard Vary from Bird & Bird discussed litigation, offering some tips. These included: When companies sue large organisations for patent infringement, they have to make sure that their assertion stands out and will capture the attention of the company. Vary also said: "For every four or five patents you assert you are going to lose on most of them." In order to increase success, he suggested being exceptionally careful on the patents chosen in a patent litigation. He advised counsel to ask patent agents to conduct prior art searches. He also recommended checking that all the formalities for rights have been fulfilled. Counsel should limit patents upfront rather than later on, during proceedings. Companies should select the court carefully according to what they want, for example, to reach trial before your counterparty if they are likely to sue you in response. Choose external counsel wisely and then trust them to run the case in the best way for their local court. Do not assume your way of presenting a case will work in a foreign court. Ensure that multiple press releases are prepared for the possible different outcomes of litigation. Cost centre or revenue stream? The following session debated whether IP is a cost centre or revenue stream. Josue Ortiz, director of ClearViewIP, noted that even if IP is a cost centre, it does not necessarily mean it is a burden for an organisation because some cost centres are indispensable and valuable to companies. Mairi Gibbs, head of operations at Oxford University Innovation, observed that licensing commercialises a university's protected intellectual property. She said that IP transactions are a mechanism to enable university research outputs to have a greater societal impact and have the capacity in some cases to generate significant financial returns. Furthermore, the university is able to use the money from IP transactions as it wishes. She also noted that IP commercialisation can enhance the university's reputation and thus help to attract worldwide talent. The panellists also talked about formal valuation of IP. Charles Clark, director of intellectual property at Centrica, said that valuing IP is very difficult as it changes with business sectors and with time. However, he has been involved in the valuation of IP during the course of his career. He mentioned methods for valuing IP: "If we didn't own the patents that we do own and they belonged to somebody else, how much is that going to cost us to license that technology that's one way of doing it, but there are so many other ways. There needs to be a consistent way of valuing intangibles but at the moment I can't see it." Other panellists were not convinced that formal IP valuation was effective. Impact of artificial intelligence on IP strategy The talk after lunch was about the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on IP strategy. Steve Harris, CTO at Aistemos, talked about how AI can help in the IP world. He said: "AI is particularly suited to making very complex but not strategic decisions." As a result, it can provide answers about, for example, what patents relate to. Erich Spangenberg CEO of IPwe, said that AI tools can reveal who owns a patent, regardless of the name of the subsidiary on the cover of the patent. He stated that prices will fall and everyone will be using this technology in the next few years. He added that this will "massively increase productivity" and informed the audience that the result will be that "people other than IP experts will begin asking about metrics". He later observed that AI will lead to transparency as there will be "so much information sitting on the cover of a patent". Nigel Swycher, CEO of Aistemos, who was moderating the panel stressed the importance of transparency. He said it was essential that the wider world understood this asset class. He also suggested that members of the audience read a paper published by WIPO encompassing the views of various national offices about what AI could do for them. Aistemos recently published an IP Strategy Report, which offered insights into factors that could disrupt IP in a range of industry sectors. Its survey asked about technologies that will cause disruption, with a broad range of technologies given. AI (75.8%) leads, then the Internet of Things (IoT) (44.2%), closely followed by blockchain (42.4%). The report explained: "What is reinforced by the sector studies is how universally applicable these technologies will be. Using AI and machine learning as an example, it has a broad application. For example in fintech, it is being deployed in the back-office (risk assessment) and on the front line interacting with customers. Both automotive and A&D are investing in AI for autonomy on land, air and sea. Other sectors embracing AI include healthcare (the primary focus for IBM Watson), retail (recommendation engine) and social media (face recognition)." New ways to exploit your IP assets The talk before the final coffee break was about new ways to exploit IP assets. Gibbs of Oxford University Innovation noted that establishing new companies is an important strategy for the university, in situations where perhaps such a method is the best opportunity to take a technology to many different marketplaces. She said that such companies operate as licensees and their financial performance is monitored as licensees. Kate Reid, design and engineering legal team head at BBC, talked about the challenges faced by the organisation, such as the ownership of IP in supplier agreements for digital services. IP, IoT and the automotive sector The penultimate panel discussion covered IP, IoT and the automotive sector. Matt Hervey, director of Gowling, raised some interesting points. He observed that it is not only automotive companies that are players in the automotive field. There are a number of new entrants, such as tech companies. He also noted that there is a growing emphasis on copyright in this sphere, which can protect computer programs and AI. Trade secrets are another way to shield AI and have already been litigated in the US. He mentioned the importance of designs and branding in this sector and talked about IP in the context of commercial realities, noting that interoperability is a consideration. He used the example of Tesla, which allowed anyone to use its patents because it wanted to grow the infrastructure of charging stations. He referred to the fact that litigation in the automotive space is expected to rise. Building the IP department of the future The day ended with a panel conversation about building the IP department of the future. One issue raised by the panel was recruitment. Lucy Wojcik from Ocado Group observed that recruitment is a challenge. Calum Smyth, global head of intellectual property at Barclays, commented that upcoming generations are facing a world where they may not earn as much as their parents and so it is possible they feel forced to take a pragmatic view, perhaps considering remuneration a higher priority than before. If true, it will be a continuing challenge for in-house IP counsel to both recruit and retain talent in such an environment. Wojcik stressed the importance of having an integrated culture, where IP is not partitioned off from the rest of the business. 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 The creation of ARIPO and the reasons behind its establishment The African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) is an inter-governmental organisation created by the Lusaka agreement, which was adopted by a diplomatic conference held in Lusaka, Zambia, on December 9 1976. As the preamble of this Agreement states, it was signed by governments that were "aware of the advantages to be derived by them from the effective and continuous exchange of information and the harmonization and co-ordination of their laws, policies and activities in intellectual property matters," and recognised that "the creation of an African regional intellectual property organization for the study and promotion of and co-operation in intellectual property matters in collaboration with the Economic Commission for Africa, the World Intellectual Property Organization and other appropriate organizations would best serve this purpose ()". Currently there are 19 member states (Botswana, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Somalia, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe) and membership is open to the state members of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa or the African Union. The objectives of ARIPO The objectives of ARIPO are well defined in Article III of the Lusaka agreement. They are the following: a) to promote the harmonisation and development of the intellectual property laws, and matters related thereto, appropriate to the needs of its members and of the region as a whole; b) to foster the establishment of a close relationship between its members in matters relating to intellectual property; c) to establish such common services or organs as may be necessary or desirable for the co-ordination, harmonisation and development of the intellectual property activities affecting its members; d) to establish schemes for the training of staff in the administration of intellectual property laws; e) to organise conferences, seminars and other meetings on intellectual property matters; f) to promote the exchange of ideas and experience, research and studies relating to intellectual property matters; g) to promote and evolve a common view and approach of its members on intellectual property matters; h) to assist its members, as appropriate, in the acquisition and development of technology relating to intellectual property matters; i) to promote, in its members, the development of copyright and related rights and ensure that copyright and related rights contribute to the economic, social and cultural development of members and of the region as a whole; and j) to do all such other things as may be necessary or desirable for the achievement of these objectives. It is clear from the above objectives that the common thread running through them is the idea of cooperation. The concept of cooperation plays an important role in the functions of the Organisation. The organisation Article II of the Lusaka agreement lists the organs that form ARIPO: "the Council of Ministers, the Administrative Council, the Secretariat, and such other subsidiary organs as may be established by the Administrative Council in accordance with the provisions of this Agreement." The composition and functions of these organs are then defined. The Council of Ministers (Article VIbis) is composed of ministers of member states and is the supreme body of the Organisation, responsible for, among other tasks, giving "() directions to the Administrative Council or the Secretariat concerning the orientation of the Organization or the development of its activities" (Article VIbis, 3, e)). Article VII provides that the Administrative Council will consist of the heads of offices dealing with the administration of intellectual property in members of the Organisation. To fulfil its tasks of formulating and directing the execution of policy with respect to the activities of the Organisation, the Administrative Council has subsidiary committees for matter such as finance, audit, staff affairs and technical issues. The provisions of Article VIII determine the composition and functions of the Secretariat. The director general of the Secretariat shall be appointed for a fixed term of four years and is the principal executive officer of the Organisation. One of the functions of the director general is to "examine ways in which the objectives of the Organization may be achieved and may act in relation to any particular matter which appears to merit examination either on its own initiative or upon the request of a member of the Organization ()." The protocols In pursuit of the objectives laid down in Article III of the Lusaka agreement, ARIPO adopted four protocols: the Banjul Protocol on Marks within the Framework of the African Regional Industrial Property Organization (ARIPO); the Harare Protocol on Patents and Industrial Designs within the Framework of the African Regional Industrial Property Organization (ARIPO); the Arusha Protocol for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants within the Framework of the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) and the Swakopmund Protocol on the Protection of Traditional Knowledge and Expressions of Folklore within the Framework of the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO). ARIPO is a centralised and highly specialised intellectual property office, in which the applicant has the opportunity to, by way of filing only one application, obtain protection in several territories The Harare Protocol was adopted in the capital of Zimbabwe in December 1982 by the Administrative Council of ARIPO and entered into force in 1984. This Protocol provides that an applicant for a patent or a design registration can designate any one of the Harare Protocol contracting states. For trade marks, there is the Banjul Protocol, adopted in 1993. Just as the Harare Protocol provides for patents and design registrations, the Banjul Protocol allows applicants for a trade mark registration to designate any one of the Banjul Protocol contracting states. Varieties of plants are also the object of a protocol: the Arusha Protocol for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants within the Framework of the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), adopted in Tanzania on July 6 2015. The fourth protocol is the Swakopmund Protocol on the Protection of Traditional Knowledge and Expressions of Folklore, adopted in a diplomatic conference held on August 9 2010, in Namibia. The system of protection of industrial property rights through ARIPO For the purposes of this article, we shall focus our attention on the Harare and the Banjul Protocols, referring to the protection of patents, designs and trade marks, respectively. When analysing how the system for the protection of patents, designs and trade marks in ARIPO operates, it is common to compare it to the Madrid system. For instance, ARIPO functions in a similar way to a receiving office. The national offices are notified of the applications filed through the regional system. These decide if the application can or cannot be effective in that state. In fact, each member state will have the autonomy to decide whether an industrial property right should or should not be valid in its territory. One of the requirements for filing an application in ARIPO is to designate the states in which the protection is intended. In the circumstance that the applicant fails to designate the states in the application, ARIPO (or any receiving national office), will not consider that the protection was intended for all member states of either the Harare of Banjul Protocols. On the contrary, the applicant will be notified to complete the formalities and indicate in which countries the application should be valid. Regarding trade marks, after the application is filed, either directly at ARIPO or at a national office (which then transmits the application to the regional organisation) a formal examination will be conducted by the Organisation, after which national offices have 12 months to proceed with substantial examination and inform ARIPO if the trade mark can or cannot be valid in its territory. The examination by the national office is then followed by the publication of the trade mark application in the Journal of ARIPO, along with a notice in the national journal of each designated member state, for the filing of oppositions from third parties who consider themselves adversely affected by the registration of the trade mark. After the opposition period is over, the trade mark proceeds to registration. The applicant will be able to choose protection from the following signatory members for trade marks: Botswana, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Sao Tome and Principe, Swaziland, Tanzania (Tanganyika), Uganda and Zimbabwe. As for patents, after the application is filed, either directly at ARIPO or at a national office (which is then required to transmit the application to the regional organisation), a formal examination will be conducted by the Organisation. ARIPO will then accept the application and notify the designated states, after which the applicant is required to request substantive examination, then conducted by ARIPO. Six months after the notification to the states of the formal examination, the states may make a written communication that the patent shall have no effect in their territory, either because the invention is not patentable in accordance with the provisions of the Harare Protocol, or, because of the nature of the invention, the patent cannot be registered or granted, or has no effect under the national law of that state. The applicant will be able to designate the following member states in the application for the protection of patents: Botswana, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania (Tanganyika), Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The ARIPO system differs from the system of OAPI (Organisation Africaine de la Propriete Intellectuelle) created in 1977 by the Bangui Agreement which comprises 17 member states (mostly French-speaking countries). This African regional system has one central office (currently located in Yaounde, Cameroon) responsible for the granting of industrial property rights that shall be automatically effective in all its member states. The national states from OAPI do not have national offices nor do they have national laws for ruling on matters and for this reason, the states have no autonomy to unilaterally grant or refuse an industrial property right in their own territory. ARIPO and other international agreements ARIPO is a member of a bundle of international treaties, in which the Paris Convention and the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) are included. The relation between ARIPO and the Paris Convention allows an applicant to seek the protection of industrial property rights through this African regional system claiming priority of the first application filed. On the other hand, as a result of also being a signatory member of the PCT, all ARIPO member states can be designated at the national phase of a PCT International application. Apart from that and on an important note, on October 1 2018, ARIPO, OAPI and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), establishing a tripartite cooperation framework between the Organisations to undertake and provide joint technical assistance programmes to the member states within the scope of their respective cooperation activities and mandates. Article 3 of the MoU determines that the Organisations "() shall enhance cooperation in order to better coordinate and deliver joint programs/projects, which may include, but not limited to, the following: 1. The development of joint activities to address issues of mutual relevance, including coordinating and conducting joint studies on regional and international developments on the IP landscape, organizing joint seminars and workshops to build capacity of stakeholders and address topical IP rights (IPRs) issues, including on management and administration of IPRs; 2. Collaboration in providing technical assistance for development of national IP policies and strategies; skills development for small and medium sized enterprises; access to and utilization of technological and scientific information for innovation; including institutional capacity building for the IP Offices of Member States; 3. The joint programs of work shall specify the respective responsibilities and financial obligations of the Organizations and specify any other sources of funds, as well as staffing responsibilities." ARIPO's digital revolution ARIPO has recently launched a free online database ARIPO Regional IP Database in which it is possible to confirm regional and national IP assets from its member states. The announcement of the launching of the database, a project that began in 2014, was made in Harare, Zimbabwe. It is ARIPO's intention to enhance the efficiency of business processing and other administrative work at ARIPO and its member states, to facilitate the accessibility and use of IP information in the region, as well as to strengthen IT's capacity in its member states. For this reason, any stakeholder now has the opportunity to freely access information which was extremely difficult to obtain up until now and not often free of charge, as interested parties were required to request official searches at national offices. In the words of ARIPO's director general, Mr Fernando dos Santos: "The Regional IP Database is designed to serve multiple purposes, including online provision of published IP data, encouragement of regional trade, IP scientific research, IP rights protection and enforcement in the ARIPO region, as well as sustainable development of IP." Advantages of ARIPO The advantages of filing through ARIPO rather than opting for the national route are easy to enumerate. We shall focus our attention on a few. On the one hand, ARIPO is a centralised and highly specialised intellectual property office, in which the applicant has the opportunity to, by way of filing only one application, obtain protection in several territories. ARIPO is responsible for conducting a formal examination, a situation which relieves immensely backlog of national offices in the member states. Despite the centralisation of some administrative work in ARIPO, it is certain that the member states still have the autonomy to decide whether a trade mark, a patent or a design will be effective in their own territory. This situation differs from other regional agreements in Africa, namely OAPI, in which the states do not have any autonomy when it comes to the decision of granting or refusing an industrial property right in their territory. Moreover, as for patents, stakeholders have the certainty of having specialised staff analysing the patents in contrast to what occurs in some of the member states of ARIPO, which sometimes do not have the necessary means and support to analyse such rights. Finally, filing through ARIPO may be extremely economically advantageous, in contrast to filing directly with national states. In situations where the applicant seeks protection in more than one country of ARIPO, it is indeed certain that opting for ARIPO will be particularly profitable. The future of ARIPO Looking back at the history of ARIPO from 1976 until today, it is more than certain that in order to continue to exist, a lot has been achieved by the Organisation. From our perspective, considering the evolution of the Organisation and the fact that membership is open to the state members of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa or the African Union, it is not a surprise that we will be seeing the integration of more member states in ARIPO, leading to the development of intellectual property in Africa, by permitting the progress of innovation and the economy of a rising continent such as Africa. In light of the fact that ARIPO seeks constantly to be in the vanguard of the protection of intellectual property, consistently accessing fundamental international agreements and being an active participant in new treaties and conferences and constantly providing training seminars on the matter, it is not difficult to say that ARIPO is currently the most important organisation in Africa when it comes to the protection of intellectual property. Ines Monteiro Alves Ines Monteiro Alves is a trade mark and patent attorney in the African department at Inventa International. She has a degree in law and is currently doing a masters degree in intellectual property law. She specialises in all IP matters, including patents, trade marks, copyright and domain names. She may be contacted at ialves@inventa.com. Joao Pereira Cabral Joao Cabral is a patent and trade mark attorney at Inventa International. He specialises in all IP matters, including patents, trade marks, copyright and domain names. He has a masters degree in intellectual property law from Lisbon University School of Law. He may be contacted at jcabral@inventa.com. 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 On September 18 2018, the Seychelles registrar general handed down an important trade mark decision. The case involved an application by a Seychelles company called Intelvision Limited to register the trade mark Intelvision (stylised) in Class 38, and an opposition to that application by the US company Intel Corporation. Intel Corporation alleged a likelihood of confusion with earlier Seychelles trade mark registrations for Intel in Classes 9, 16, 38, 41 and 42, a likelihood of confusion with a well-known international mark, and dilution. It submitted considerable evidence: evidence that it is the largest manufacturer of semi-conductors in the world, and the manufacturer of the processor that appears in most PCs, evidence that it is listed in international surveys of top brands and evidence of trade mark registrations in some 180 countries. The registrar general made some early pronouncements: Intelvision operates in a small and specialist market, being one of only three licensed internet service providers in the Seychelles; computer processors and internet services are not that closely related and the two companies cannot be regarded as competitors; and there was no evidence of actual confusion between the two trade marks, notwithstanding coexistence in the Seychelles since 2004. On the issue of confusing similarity the registrar general quoted this passage from the Canadian case of Ultravite Laboratories Ltd v Whitehalls Laboratories Ltd: "Trade marks may be different from one another and, therefore, not confusing with another when looked at in their totality, even if there are similarities in some of the elements when viewed separately. It is the combination of the elements that constitutes the trade mark and it is the effect of the trade mark as a whole, rather than any particular part in it, that must be considered." Applying this, the registrar general went on to dismiss the opposition, saying that "although there may appear to be some resemblance, the trademarks in issue, when taken as a whole, are by virtue of their non-common features, dissimilar in sound and appearance, ultimately distinguishable to the average consumer." This judgment is likely to attract some criticism. Wayne Meiring 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 Africa House, Castle StreetSt Helier, Jersey JE4 9TWChannel IslandsTel: +44 1534 838000Fax: +44 1534 838001 info@spoor.co.uk 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 In Brazil, the courts, rather than the Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office (BPTO), have the final say about the registration or cancellation of a patent, design or trade mark. In a different way from many common law countries, Brazilian courts are fully competent to review and overrule the registrar's decisions in their entirety. This authority of the courts means that IP holders do not have to settle for an unfavourable decision at the BPTO, whether involving their IP, or third-party cases, and can file judicial appeals seeking a different outcome. The possibility of reviewing a trade mark or patent case in court has become very important in the context of the BPTO being pressured to speed up examination timelines without the need to maintain appropriate quality levels. Inevitably, there is a trade-off between speed and quality. The purpose of this article, however, is to provide insight into Brazil's court system and the legal mechanisms available to challenge the BPTOs decisions effectively. We will therefore give some context to the changes happening within the BPTO, in particular around trade marks, and how this affects the new litigation strategies. Over the last two years, the BPTO has brought down the examination time of trade mark applications to almost 18 months (looking at joining the Madrid Protocol in 2019). Appeals that were waiting eight years for a decision, now take less than 12 months to be decided. The overnight change to the BPTO's pace has resulted in contradictory decisions, a problem that was highlighted by the controversial interpretation given by the BPTO to some aspects of Brazilian IP Law. However, in a different manner to some other common law countries (such as the US and UK), decisions from the registrar are widely challengeable by judicial appeals to the Brazilian courts, which review all aspects of the case, including the technical grounds and arguments argued by the examiners. Appealing to the courts has become so prevalent in Brazil that the Federal Court of Rio de Janeiro (where the BPTO is headquartered) has a group of judges specifically assigned to decide IP cases, both at trial and appellate level. These specialised IP courts handle an average of 500 new appeals involving BPTO decisions, every year. Until very recently, the BPTO was a mandatory party to these proceedings, and as such had to bear the costs of being the losing side. In other words, every time a court reversed a BPTO decision, the registrar was forced to pay legal fees. And the bill started to rack up. There are 500 new lawsuits against the BPTO every year. Statistics independently collected by our firm over the last four years indicate that 49% of the time Brazilian courts side with applicants to overrule the BPTO's decisions. This scenario created an uncomfortable situation for the BPTO, which had its public attorneys actively defend almost all of its challenged decisions, even when wrong, to avoid payment of legal fees. Aware of the increasing number of lawsuits against the BPTO, the Federal Court of Rio de Janeiro recently issued a resolution changing the registrar's role in judicial appeals and making the rule around payment of legal fees more flexible. Firstly, IP judges held that in nullity actions to cancel the grant of a patent, design or trade mark registration the BPTO would only be required to present a defence once the owner of the challenged IP responded to the plaintiffs claims. If the BPTO agrees with the cancellation claim therefore reviewing its decision at the administrative level the registrar will be considered an assistant to the lawsuit, not a co-defendant, and consequently relieved from paying legal fees. When a judicial appeal involves a claim to overrule the rejection of a patent, design or trade mark application, the BPTO will not be allowed to be an assistant, remaining as a mandatory defendant. However, if the registrar decides to agree with the plaintiff's claims therefore reviewing its prior decision to now allow the subject IP to be registered the courts will relieve the BPTO of the payment of legal fees. The change to the BPTO's role may seem a small one at first, however, recent cases decided under this new resolution show the BPTO is more amenable to accept a plaintiffs claims. The BPTO's attitude when confronting these judicial appeals has changed significantly. The BPTO's approach has become more neutral, and its response is no longer driven by fear of paying legal fees, but rather by the need to provide a more critical and technical review of the administrative decision to grant or reject an IP application. In practice, the BPTO agrees more and more with claims brought to court. And this not only considerably increases the chances of success in the judicial appeal itself, but also gives room for a quicker turnaround for litigation. With these recent changes, judicially appealing a decision from the BPTO has been consolidated as a natural continuation of the administrative prosecution of a patent or trade mark. The prospects of success in these judicial appeals are good, and because they do not involve the same complex legal procedures involved in conventional litigation, they are a financially efficient way to give that final push to secure certain IP rights in Brazil. While the BPTO is on the path to improving its examination capabilities, applicants should be aware that challenging a BPTO decision is not frowned upon in Brazil, and that Brazilian courts are friendly to the idea of reviewing administrative decisions. Robert Daniel Shores Rafael Rocha Daniel Legal & IP Strategy Av. Republica do Chile 230, 3rd Floor Centro, Rio de Janeiro 20031-170, Brazil Tel: +55 21 2102 4212 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 The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has launched the ASEAN Patentscope making up-to-date online ASEAN patent data available to patent search firms, patent attorneys and innovators seeking to commercialise their innovations in the ASEAN region. The ASEAN Patentscope project was started by the ASEAN Patent Examination Cooperation (ASPEC) Task Force in 2012 to enhance regional collaboration on research and development (R&D) activities and to encourage technological development among ASEAN countries. For the first time, a regional ASEAN patent database service has been made available to the public. Indonesia has contributed extensively to the project by hosting the regional patent database server. Singapore also played a leadership role to initiate the project through its chairmanship of the ASPEC Task Force. The availability of online patent data brings government services closer to innovators by removing barriers of distance and paper searching to access quality technology resources. The ASEAN Patentscope can be accessed using the link at http://ipsearch.aseanip.org/. The ASEAN Patentscope provides a number of powerful tools and features to assist users. These include bibliographic data search, view of published patent dossier information, search results in a customisable report, and translations into national languages. By simply entering a term or a phrase in English, it is possible to retrieve relevant patent documents, country-level patent filings by technology sector and related patent family information in the region. The move builds on the ongoing ASEAN-WIPO collaboration to leverage WIPO software to support ASEAN innovation. This initiative will enable ASEAN to step up the innovation ladder and encourage innovators in the region to use the patent system for enhanced participation in regional and global business. ASEAN doubled its share of the world's scientific literature from 1.37% (2006) to 2.43% (2015) according to the Asian Scientist (2016) with Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam sharply increasing their output of research papers. WIPO statistics also indicate that patents in ASEAN have increased more than 40% from 2012 to 2016. The ASEAN Patentscope was developed in a framework which is modern and effective and should make a substantial contribution to enhancing access to ASEAN regional patent information. Daniel Collopy 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 152 Beach Road#37-05/06 Gateway EastSingapore 189721Tel: +65 6333 7200Fax: +65 6333 7222 In recent years, advances in technology have created changes in the manner in which consumers interact with copyrighted works. These changes have resulted in a significant increase in copyright infringement online. In response to these changes and the increase in online copyright infringement, Thailand promulgated modifications to the Thai Copyright Act. In addition, the Thai government proposed additional modifications to the Thai Copyright Act. In 2015, two Copyright (Amendment) Acts passed, with two more drafted with likely promulgation in 2019. The two draft Copyright (Amendment) Bills currently under review modify the legal duties and liabilities of internet service providers (ISPs), an issue the earlier 2015 amendments began to address. The draft Bill was approved by the Thai Cabinet on October 16 2018 and examination by the Office of the Council of State will take place before its presentation to the National Legislative Assembly. Prior to the 2015 amendments, the Copyright Act contained no requirements for ISPs to assist copyright holders in protecting their rights against online infringers. In addition, the Copyright Act contained no specific procedures for copyright holders to obtain such assistance from ISPs. These deficiencies in the Copyright Act adversely affected copyright owners, which in turn adversely affected commerce in Thailand. To address the deficiencies in the Thai Copyright Act, the Copyright Act (No. 2) B.E. 2558 (2015) added Section 32/3, giving copyright holders recourse to petition competent courts for injunctions requiring ISPs, through whose services the alleged infringement occurred, to remove infringing content. Upon grant of an injunction, ISPs must remove infringing content, while the copyright holder must initiate a lawsuit against the alleged infringer within the time set by a court. Although Section 32/3 strengthened the position of copyright holders against copyright infringement, Section 32/3 resulted in ISPs categorically refusing to cooperate with copyright owners for takedowns where no court injunctions existed. Further, Section 32/3 requires copyright holders to bring legal actions within the time set by the courts. Where copyright holders fail to bring such actions, the courts remove the injunctions along with the ISP's obligations. In practice, copyright holders face great challenges to filing lawsuits against alleged infringers, because once the ISP has discharged its obligation by taking down or blocking the allegedly infringing content, no effective means exist for copyright holders to investigate the alleged infringement. To summarise, under the current system, takedowns of infringing content only occur after petitioning the courts. As ISPs lack other incentives to assist with stopping copyright infringement, ISPs fail to assist copyright holders. Without the assistance of ISPs, short of court actions, copyright owners seldom succeed in stopping infringement by alleged infringers. Provisions in the draft Copyright Amendment Bill will address this deficiency. The draft Bill proposes replacing Section 32/3 with procedures requiring active participation from ISPs. Under the proposed amendments, copyright holders submit notifications in writing to the relevant ISPs. These notifications will request the ISPs to block access to infringing content. The notifications must set out details as prescribed by law such as the identity of the work infringed and the location of the infringing content. Once the copyright holder submits the notification to an ISP, the ISP must comply with the notification and notify the alleged infringer of the copyright holder's claims. The alleged infringer can submit a response in writing. If the alleged infringer submits a response, the ISP must notify the copyright holder restoration of the alleged infringing content will take place within 15 days of the ISP's receipt of the infringer's response, unless the copyright holder commences a court action against the alleged infringer by that time. The procedural changes in the draft Bill will make it easier for copyright holders to protect against online infringement. This welcome modification reflects Thailand's desire for the Thai Copyright Act to keep pace with the modifications in technology that make it easier for copyright infringement to exist online. We will monitor the draft Bill's progress and provide further updates on all significant developments. Daniel Greif Dhanasun Chumchuay Spruson & Ferguson Nos. 496-502 Amarin Plaza BuildingUnit Nos. 1806-1807, 18th Floor, Ploenchit Road, Lumpini Sub-District, Pathumwan District, Bangkok 10330 Thailand Tel: +66 2 305 6893 mail.asia@spruson.com www.spruson.com 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 Globe in hand 168 The ability to better identify growing markets for the businesss products and services is pushing more patent portfolio managers to implement cross-collaborative strategies. Five corporate lawyers from patent-focused businesses tell Managing IP that they are working to break down silos between IP, commercial, research and development (R&D), and marketing departments to help drive better communication about jurisdictional trends or changes and regional infrastructural developments. In-house sources explain that if they can work with non-IP colleagues to find out where the business will want to be in five to 10 years, they can begin to expand their portfolios in that region and secure competitive advantage for the company. Right place, right time The head of IP at a factory tech manufacturer says his firm attained competitive advantage in the US after its shale gas boom in 2013. We had patents in the US even though no factories that used our technology had emerged in the past 20 years, and we kept them for marketing reasons because we thought a US patent signalled to the market that we were innovative, he explains. That was in 2010, and in 2013 the shale gas boom happened and suddenly we sold seven licences for our technology in two years. He adds that while this particular example was largely down to luck, it emphasised that the business could replicate this success by implementing communication mechanisms between the sales, marketing and IP departments. His company serves plants that are typically built in places where natural gas is cheap. New gas fields are periodically discovered in countries such as Nigeria where they will eventually be exploited, and the companys patent department can use the information gathered by the company to decide whether and how to build a portfolio there and get competitive advantage. Collaborative approaches of this nature can also help IP departments work out where they no longer need protection so they can shed patents and enable cost savings. Opportunity meetings The factory tech head of IP says establishing this connected approach to geographical portfolio management is a matter of setting up meetings with the sales and commercial departments and discussing where the company may need patents in the near future. We have an IP chairing committee that meet once a month or so and everything related to IP is discussed including the strategy for where we should be and where we want to file The IP manager at a digital printing company agrees with this approach, and adds that it is important for her firm to check growing markets and analyse statistics where the printing industry could rapidly grow in the next decade. We have an IP chairing committee that meet once a month or so and everything related to IP is discussed including the strategy for where we should be and where we want to file, she says. That includes representatives from R&D and marketing and the CEO anyone who can provide strategic insight into the business. She adds that different departments also try to ensure that data and presentations are shared to keep the business better informed. The firms marketing department, for example, follows markets and periodically prepares reports for their purposes that is also passed to the IP department. I can use that data and numbers to see the statistics for the emergence of digital printing such as which areas are becoming more digital. The IPR manager for a sandpaper and abrasives manufacturer adds that his company also believes it is important to regularly speak with sales, marketing and commercial to work out where the emerging markets for their products and services are. Patent must be tightly connected to the market and the areas that are or soon will bring in the money, he says. IP should be a part of everything we do, including when we launch products or start up projects in new areas. Follow the competitor Another way departments can work together to enable better geographic patent portfolio management is in monitoring competitors. The vice-president of IP at a semiconductor manufacturer points out that if a competitor suddenly ramps up its presence in a previously unimportant market, that can be a good sign they know something that you do not and that it could be worth filing patents there. He adds that his company has implemented mechanisms to watch competitor activity, such as where they are filing patents or where they are putting their investment, and ensure this knowledge is communicated and analysed between different departments. The IP manager at a digital printing company says her firm similarly monitors competitors so that they can file key patent applications before their competitors and try to understand their motives. She adds that her company already considers blocking competitor access to suppliers with particularly innovative technology by filing patents in that suppliers geographic markets. It could be a supplier that provides something unique that cannot easily be replaced. Our main concern there will be whether that supplier would provide the same tech to our competitors, and we want to be able to hold leverage over them. Where not to be While working with other departments is a good way to identify filing opportunities, it is also a useful means of determining where the business can shed its patents. The business may have filed its patents in a region where the markets did not grow as it expected or where initially strong demand dropped over time and could consider dropping those to save money that could be reinvested in emerging or already strong markets. Perhaps a business decided to take its products to Argentina because it believes demand there is growing. But if that turns out not to be the case, it should get rid of that protection because filing in that region costs as much as several other jurisdictions combined, the IP director at a nutrition technology company points out. He adds that such an assessment requires a strong collaborative culture between departments. You can say, based on the current markets and regions, lets cut these patents because we will not sell anything and neither will our competition This collaboration can also help patent departments identify upcoming downturns in markets or regions. This can be an opportunity to get rid of old patents. The factory tech head of IP explains that his business can predict downturns based on the number of plants that are built in a particular region. If seven are built in one year, for example, it will likely be determined that there is an overcapacity and the market does not need any more. He adds that it takes three years to build these types of factories. If the business has 18-year-old patents, which will only last another two years, and it knows that it is unlikely to sell anything in that time, it can shed those patents and save money. You can say, based on the current markets and regions, lets cut these patents because we will not sell anything and neither will our competition and we will not be able to lock them in three years when things pick up and so there is no point keeping them. The sandpaper IPR manager says his company has a similar strategy, and adds that there is indeed no point keeping patents alive just for fun. The digital printing IP manager points out that this strategy is not currently applicable to emerging industries that are unlikely to experience a downturn any time soon, such as digital printing, but worth keeping in mind for the future. 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 Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the 13th #G20 Summit in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, from November 30 to December 1. As an influential summit that enters its 10th year, a question on the minds of many people is what vitality this years G20 Summit will bring to the world. The G20 summit, widely seen a potent symbol of globalization, has been playing an indispensable role in dealing with financial crises and promoting global economy recovery since 2008. Though economic policies and demands vary among countries, the G20 still serves as a global platform for negotiations and discussions. With the theme of building consensus for fair and sustainable development, the 2018 G20 re-emphasizes that cooperation is more beneficial than confrontation. Pedro Villagra Delgado, an Argentinean official responsible for summit affairs, told Spanish EFE that G20 was established based on the belief that cooperation benefits the world. Alicia Barcena Ibarra, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, pointed out that the G20 presents a good platform for uniting all related parties to handle challenges facing the world. She hopes that through the summit, all parties will reach consensus, reaffirm their insistence on multilateralism and free trade, and unite to prevent risks resulting from rising protectionism. Chen Fengying, a researcher from the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, explained that it is increasingly urgent to reach consensus. All parties concerned, she said, should strengthen their sense of responsibility and increase coordination on macro policies. Nicolas Sarkozy, the former French president, regards the G20 as a new form of global governance for the 21st century, while Jorge Faurie, Argentine Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship, called the group a dialogue mechanism through which nations seek solutions to global issues. Faurie also reiterated that Argentina supports multilateral trade. As the host country of the latest G20, Argentina will try its best to promote common development. Meanwhile, the world also expects more ideas from China at this years G20. Over the past 10 years, China has evolved from being a participator in the G20 to a leader of the G20. China has also been adjusting macro policies, reforming the international financial system, and narrowing the North-South divide. Faurie stated that Argentina has learnt a lot from China in determining topics, deploying security forces, and arranging meetings, as China has played a constructive role in responding to global issues concerning climate change and international trade development. He also hopes that more positive results will yield from Chinas efforts in promoting the G20. The G20 is a leading forum of the worlds major economies that seeks to develop global policies to address pressing challenges. It is made up of the EU and 19 countries, including Argentina, China, Germany, and India. Chinese President Xi Jinpings state visit to Spain is expected to pave a new path for future cooperation and open a new chapter for bilateral relations, according to Spanish statesmen and entrepreneurs. Xis state visit to Spain is scheduled from Nov. 27 to 29, marking a milestone in the history of the two countries bilateral relations. His state visit will be the first to the country by a Chinese head of state in 13 years and also falls on the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between Spain and China. Spain looks forward to Xis visit and hopes it will be used to further explore the potential of bilateral cooperation, said Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell. Strengthening economic and trade ties with China has become a common aspiration of the Spanish business community, said Juan Pablo Lazaro, vice president of the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations. Spain and China are active advocates and defenders of free trade, said Juan Pablo Lazaro, adding that he hopes that enterprises in both countries will use this opportunity to further expand contacts and make more contributions to the two countries economic development. Spain is an important participant of the Belt and Road Initiative and also one of the founders of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Spain is expected to take this opportunity to more actively participate in the construction of the initiative and further tap the potential of bilateral cooperation in trade, tourism, and culture, as well as to expand cooperation in third-party markets such as Latin America and Africa, according to Eugenio Bregolat Obiols, the former Spanish ambassador to China. Spain is among the first EU countries to establish a comprehensive strategic partnership with China. Spain is presently Chinas sixth largest EU trade partner and China is its largest non-EU trade partner. The Women Leaders Global Forum in Reykjavik brings together extraordinary women from around the world. A new index shows theres still much work to be done when it comes to the perception of women in leadership posts. My father was the first feminist I know. Sarah Adwoa Safo beams as she says that. The 37-year-old is Ghanas minister for public procurement. A lawyer by trade, she recounts how her father, a preacher, motivated her early on to speak in front of large audiences in their congregation. I dont know stage fright, she says. She is convinced that it was her father, who laid the foundation for her professional and political success. Opportunities for girls Speaking to DW, she emphasizes how important a good education is for girls. This year, 120,000 additional students are attending senior high schools because they are free of charge in Ghana now, she says. This creates new opportunities for girls as well. Before the fees were waived in Ghana, tuition rates for senior high school ranged from $1,000 to $1,200 (886 to 1,063) per year. For many families that was too much, and if money was tight, oftentimes the boys were given priority when it came to education. Adwoa Safo says that is changing because the only obstacle now for students wanting to attend a secondary school in Ghana is the admissions exam. In our newly approved budget, 60 percent of the money goes to education, the minister says proudly. But she doesnt shy away from the problems either classrooms are overcrowded and teachers often arent sufficiently trained. Marie Louise Coleiro Preca, President of Malta; at the Women Leaders Global Forum, Reykjavik Ghana has been a regional leader in the delivery of education for all, reaching the education Millennium Development Goals well ahead of the 2015 deadline, the UN childrens fund, UNICEF, states. Woman power Adwoa Safo has come to Iceland to present her governments new education initiative but also to cultivate networks. At the Women Leaders Forum in Reykjavik, she is on the podium for a discussion of digitization together with Mari Kiviniemi, Finlands former prime minister and current deputy secretary general of the OECD, as well as Ana Birchall, the deputy prime minister of Romania. Hundreds of women from all around the world who hold top posts in business and politics are taking the opportunity for an intense exchange of ideas. There was so much interest in attending the conference that the event even stopped accepting registrations for a while. Nobody here talks about woman power, but you can sense it everywhere. Reykjavik Index for Leadership However, prejudices against women in leadership positions still persist, according to a new index presented at the Reykjavik conference. Kantar, one of the worlds leading data, insight and consultancy companies, conducted an extensive investigation for the leaders forum looking at the perception of women in leadership roles in G7 countries. The data experts considered 100 points the ideal, signifying that across society, there is complete agreement that women and men are equally suited to leadership in all sectors. But, in fact, the overall score came to just 66 points thats like wanting to drive 100 kilometers (62 miles) per hour but only making it to 66. The results also varied significantly between male and female respondents. The Harpa Congress Centre, Reykjavik, venue for the Women Leaders Global Forum Across the G7, the Reykjavik Index for Leadership is higher for women (67) than it is for men (61), explains Michelle Harrison, Global CEO for Kantar Public. This means that women in the G7 are more likely than men to view men and women as equally suitable for leadership roles. Unexpected outcome for Germany The results for Germany came as a surprise: In Germany, men are more likely to be perpetuating stereotypes about who should lead in professional sectors, Harrison says. The perception in France and the UK was significantly better. So far, there has not been an investigation for Africa , but in the long term, Kantar wants to measure the perception of women and men on all continents. In the meantime, Sarah Adwoa Safo, the government minister from Ghana, continues to build on her networks. In Reykjavik, she met with representatives of the World Bank. Her goal: to secure more support for Ghanas education initiative. Four Reasons Why a US China Trade Deal Isnt Coming This Weekend Stock markets are rallying today on the belief that somehow the US and China will sign a trade deal at the upcoming G-20 meeting. Investors are buying this narrative despite the facts that 1) The Trump administration has already admitted that a deal is highly UN-likely. 2) The Trump administration has also admitted that the next round of tariffs (25%) will hit in January (meaning no deal by then). 3) The US and China have yet to reach ANY kind of remote agreement on anything. Indeed, they dont even appear to be openly negotiating at the moment. 4) Large-scale trade deals that resolve decades-old structural issues between the two largest economies in the world do NOT get resolved by a 1-on-1 face to face meeting that lasts a few hours. If you think Im being overly negative, take a look at the currency markets. The currency markets are the largest, most liquid markets in the world. Collectively they trade $5-$6 trillion PER DAY. As such, these markets are the first to note macro shifts. With that in mind, the $USD has erased the initial drop that occurred when President Trump first started talking about a trade deal. The $USD is now re-challenging the recent highs. Put another way, the currency markets are buying the notion of a trade deal one bit. Let me ask you, whos got a better grip on whats happening in the world the mainstream media or the currency markets? Better yet, which would you rather base an investment decision on the largest, most liquid markets in the world or the mainstream media? Also if stocks really believed a trade deal was coming wouldnt they have at least reclaimed their 200-DMA? The next leg down hits soon. And when it does, were going to new lows. If you are not already preparing for this, NOW is the time to do so. On that note we just published a 21-page investment report titled Stock Market Crash Survival Guide. In it, we outline precisely how the crash will unfold as well as which investments will perform best during a stock market crash. Today is the last day this report will be available to the public. We extended the deadline based on yesterdays sucker rally, but this it IT no more extensions. To pick up yours, swing by: https://www.phoenixcapitalmarketing.com/stockmarketcrash.html Best Regards Graham Summers Phoenix Capital Research http://www.phoenixcapitalmarketing.com Graham also writes Private Wealth Advisory, a monthly investment advisory focusing on the most lucrative investment opportunities the financial markets have to offer. Graham understands the big picture from both a macro-economic and capital in/outflow perspective. He translates his understanding into finding trends and unde74rvalued investment opportunities months before the markets catch on: the Private Wealth Advisory portfolio has outperformed the S&P 500 three of the last five years, including a 7% return in 2008 vs. a 37% loss for the S&P 500. Previously, Graham worked as a Senior Financial Analyst covering global markets for several investment firms in the Mid-Atlantic region. Hes lived and performed research in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and the United States. 2018 Copyright Graham Summers - 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. Graham Summers Archive 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Paris France on Tuesday encouraged Moroccos return to the African Union, deeming that this decision constitutes an important contribution to the growing integration of the African continent. Moroccos return to the African Union would make an important contribution to the growing integration of the African continent, which France is encouraging, French Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Romain Nadal, said at a press briefing. A united Africa is indeed a factor of peace, stability and development for the continent and the rest of the world, he stressed. In a message to the 27th summit of the African Union in Kigali, King Mohammed VI announced Moroccos return to the AU. Our friends have long been asking us to return among them so that Morocco may take its natural place within its institutional family.That time has now come, the Moroccan monarch underlined. With MAP Please follow and like us: 0 (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Join the Conversation. What do you think? Click www.moroccoworldnews.com/ to read the article from its source. ENDOWs Transforming Wyoming Plan outlines several areas where broadband connectivity is critical to Wyomings long term strategy for growth and economic prosperity. The Wyoming Broadband Advisory Council released a Broadband Enhancement Plan in September that sets the path forward for the development of broadband infrastructure across the state. Central to this effort are public-private partnership targeting lower costs, efficiencies created through synergy and accelerated deployment of connectivity into underserved areas. http://www.wyomingbusiness.org/Uploads//wbbp%20final.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1q8-hiYblD6PEQ0J-RG4DIUqy-M6-OhlgoY3YBekuJV62jlo5Fq9w11FM Prosecutors in the Nile Delta governorate of Damietta ordered on Tuesday the detention of a teacher for four days on accusations of bullying pending further investigations, after he reportedly made degrading references to a student's dark skin colour during class. Eighth-grade student Basmala Ali said her Arabic Language teacher left her in tears after he referred to her as "black" in a question for classmates to identify the grammatical inflection in the sentence "Basmala is a black student." The student's mother later filed an official complaint about the incident, prompting the local education department to refer the teacher to an administrative investigation and transfer him to another school. The teacher, Samy Deyab, faces charges of "bullying and deviation from the requirements of job duty," a judicial source told Ahram Online on Wednesday. Deyab has denied in TV comments that he called the girl "black," saying he literally used the expression "dark-skinned," and claimed that he would not mock her complexion since he himself is dark-skinned. The Teachers Syndicate chapter in Damietta has provided legal representation for the accused teacher. Egypt has recently started to take steps in raising public awareness on the negative impact of bullying on children and society. In September, Egypt's National Council for Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM) and the Ministry of Education launched the country's first national anti-bullying campaign, in cooperation with the UN Childrens Fund (UNICEF), to protect children from physical and psychological abuse. The campaign urged children and parents to speak up against bullying in educational and non-educational settings and encouraged them to share their experiences online through the hashtag #IamAgainstBullying. According to recent global data published the UNICEF, more than one in three students aged 13-15 around the world experience bullying. Girls are believed to more likely become victims of psychological forms of bullying, with boys more at risk of physical violence, it said. Search Keywords: Short link: Statewide anti-hazing plan released Audio Article The Ohio Department of Higher Education (ODHE) has launched a statewide plan for preventing hazing at colleges and universities across the state. The plan includes a model anti-hazing policy as well as guidelines for various college and university stakeholders to use in developing and implementing anti-hazing education and training programs.... Morgan County Sheriffs Office Daily Call Reports Audio Article Editors Note: The following are initial incident reports from callers to a Morgan County Sheriffs Office Dispatcher. Any details, charges or situations may have been distorted by the caller, or perhaps may have been found to be different after the officer further investigated the incident. Saturday, July 24, 2021 ... Buckle up every time Audio Article The Ohio State Highway Patrol is reminding everyone to buckle up this upcoming holiday season and continue to do so every day. Since 2016, there have been 2,738 people killed in crashes due to not wearing an available safety belt. Seat belts save lives and reduce the risk of serious... Morgan County Sheriffs Office Daily Call Reports Audio Article Editors Note: The following are initial incident reports from callers to a Morgan County Sheriffs Office Dispatcher. Any details, charges or situations may have been distorted by the caller, or perhaps may have been found to be different after the officer further investigated the incident. Wednesday, July 28, 2021 ... Morgan County Sheriffs Office Daily Call Reports Audio Article Editors Note: The following are initial incident reports from callers to a Morgan County Sheriffs Office Dispatcher. Any details, charges or situations may have been distorted by the caller, or perhaps may have been found to be different after the officer further investigated the incident. Wednesday, July 28, 2021 ... HINDSIGHT 2021 Audio Article 10 Years Ago (2011) Joshua Van Horn was hired on a one-year contract to teach at the newly established Raider Academy. The Morgan Local Board of Education said the Academy was created as an alternative school designed to reduce the number of out-of-school suspensions, reduce the number of dropouts... Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic discussed on Wednesday with Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry boosting cooperation between the two countries, a statement by Shoukry's spokesperson Ahmed Hafez said. Shoukry is on a three-day visit to Serbia to discuss bilateral cooperation with Serbian officials. During the meeting with Vucic, Shoukry expressed Egypt's appreciation for a decision adopted by the two sides to upgrade the level of representation of a higher joint committee between the two countries. The decision reflects the keenness of the two countries to promote cooperation, the spokesman quoted Shoukry as saying. The meeting also discussed means of fighting terrorism, along with the situation in the Middle East. Shoukry also met on Wednesday with Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic. Egypt's foreign minister and the Serbian prime minister discussed cooperation in the agriculture field and a broader framework for joint action. Shoukry and Brnabic also discussed the importance of enhancing cooperation in the field of tourism, as well as the possibility of operating directs flight between Cairo and Belgrade. Egypt - Serbia At a roundtable meeting held with a number of representatives of major Serbian companies and businessmen at the Serbian Business Club, Shoukry invited Serbian companies to invest more in Egypt in various sectors. The spokesman said that Shoukry reviewed during the roundtable meeting tangible steps taken by the Egyptian government to develop the economic infrastructure, noting that the Egyptian market provides promising chances for foreign investors. The minister also highlighted current promising fields for investment in Egypt, especially in energy, the agricultural sector, the development of road networks and the construction of new cities. Egypt - Serbia In a joint press release on Tuesday, Shoukry announced with his Serbian counterpart Ivica Dacic that two memorandums of understanding have been signed. The two MoUs focus on the field of youth and sports, as well as cooperation between the Egyptian Institute for Diplomatic Studies and the Diplomatic Academy of the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Egypt - Serbia Shoukry also announced that both countries have agreed to elevate the joint committee's level to a ministerial one, ushering in a new chapter in bilateral relations, a move which in turn could boost cooperation between Cairo and Belgrade in various fields and serve the two countries' interests, the spokesman said. The next session of the joint Egyptian-Serbian ministerial committee, expected to convene in Cairo soon, will see the inking of other agreements, the spokesman quoted Shoukry as saying. Shoukry's visit comes as the two countries mark the 110th anniversary of the establishment of ties between the two countries, said Hafez. Search Keywords: Short link: U.S. Judge Releases Over 100 Iraqi Assyrians Detained By Immigration Officials 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 tradition's 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 Tuesday's 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. ChurchSalary 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 Tuesday's ruling agreed that Chaldeans risked "persecution, torture, and possibly death if returned to Iraq." Goldsmith criticized the government's 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 hadn't 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. Egyptian naval forces have held joint military drills with their Spanish counterparts in the Mediterranean, according to a statement by the Egyptian Armed Forces on Wednesday. A number of Egyptian naval units, as well as the Spanish RELAMPAGO warship, took part in the joint naval training. The exercises are aimed to coordinate efforts between the forces of the two countries to "face challenges and threats in a way that supports efforts to achieve stability and maritime security in the region," the army added in the statement. Search Keywords: Short link: An escalation of the Sino-American trade conflict could lead to a repeat of the great catastrophes of the 20th century, a Chinese envoy has warned, just as Donald Trump once again threatened to slap China with additional tariffs. Just days before Chinese and American leaders are set to meet on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Argentina, the Chinese envoy to the US issued an ominous warning against further escalation of the trade conflict that could potentially break the symbiosis of the two largest world economies, and entirely cripple global trade. I dont know if people really realize the possible consequences the impact, the negative impact if there is such a decoupling, Ambassador Cui Tiankai told Reuters in an interview, stressing that further escalation could recreate the dire economic conditions that once lead to World War II. Also on rt.com Trade war with US pushes China to sweeten relations with India The lessons of history are still there. In the last century, we had two world wars, and in between them, the Great Depression, the ambassador said. I dont think anybody should really try to have a repetition of history. These things should never happen again, so people have to act in a responsible way. President Donald Trump has repeatedly told reporters that tariffs on an additional $267 billion worth of Chinese goods are ready to go, should Beijing refuse to bow to US demands and stop intellectual property theft. While looking to strike a deal with China, Trump made clear on Monday that he remains firm in his commitment to close the massive trade deficit with China. If Trump decides to impose additional tariffs, the hiked taxes would apply to a total of over $517 billion of Chinese goods. Also on rt.com Chinese investors may turn to Russian market amid escalating trade tensions with US The only deal that would be really acceptable to me other than obviously we have to do something on the theft of intellectual property, right but the only deal would be China has to open up their country to competition from the United States, he told the Wall Street Journal on Monday. They have to open up China to the United States. Otherwise, I dont see a deal being made. The Sino-American trade conflict entered a crucial state stage in September, after tit-for-tat tariff hikes targeting in total some $260 billion of bilaterally traded goods officially came into effect. Over the last two months, the countries have been holding talks, trying to come up with a solution to fix the trade dispute. So far, all such attempts have been futile. Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping are set to meet as early as Friday on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Argentina, and are also expected to have dinner on Saturday. Like this story? Share it with a friend! 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. An Egyptian misdemeanour court sentenced on Wednesday 99 people to one year in prison for participating in violent protests that erupted over the death of a man in police custody in January. The 22-year-old Mohamed Abdel-Hakim, known as Afroto, had died in hospital shortly after being arrested on suspicion of drug dealing. Following his death, more than 40 people were arrested during clashes with police forces that erupted outside the Mokattam police station where he had been briefly detained. Twenty-eight of those convicted today were present in court, and the rest were sentenced in absentia. The defendants, who include Abdel-Hakims family members and friends, faced charges of illegal protesting, torching police vehicles and attempting to storm a police station. The sentences can still be appealed before a higher court. Earlier this month, a criminal court sentenced two policemen to three years and six months in prison over the death. The two men were convicted of beating Abdel-Hakim to death and detaining him without legal grounds. A post-mortem report said the death was caused by "severe laceration of the spleen and abdominal bleeding." Search Keywords: Short link: 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... Love Your Park Day touches down on Summit Meadow Egypt's cabinet approved on Wednesday measures that go in line with the World Health Organization's (WHO) protocol to combat the illicit trade in tobacco products, MENA reported. The objective of the protocol is the elimination of all forms of illicit trade in tobacco. The protocol was developed in response to the growing illegal trade in tobacco products, often across borders. The protocol comprises a full range of measures to combat illicit trade distributed into three categories: preventing illicit trade, promoting law enforcement and providing the legal basis for international cooperation. Meanwhile, Egypt's health ministry, in cooperation with the United Nations, launched on Wednesday the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) 2030 project. The FCTC 2030 project aims to strengthen tobacco control in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) through promoting and supporting governments to accelerate the implementation of the WHO FCTC goals. Head of the Central Department of Environmental Affairs Mayssa Hamza added that the agreement includes 181 countries, including Egypt. In a press conference, WHO representative in Egypt John Gabor said Egypt is one of 15 countries worldwide with heavy tobacco-related illnesses according to the World Health Organizations 2017 standardised estimate of smoking prevalence. The WHO figures show that 43.6 percent of men and 22.8 percent of Egypts population overall are daily tobacco smokers. In 2008, WHO supported the Ministry of Health in taking effective measures to warn people about the dangers of tobacco use, and in 2011 Egypt included health warning images and a toll-free quit line number on all cigarette packs. Tobacco is a major public health concern and a barrier to development around the world. According to WHO, Egypt is a high-burden tobacco-use country implementing several of the best buy (MPOWER) measures to reduce tobacco use, with one measure at the highest level of achievement. Egypt has been a party to the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) since 2005. The project is part of the WHO measures in Egypt as part of raising awareness regionally for more smoke-free environments. The project also aims at providing tools to help monitor tobacco use; encouraging the government of Egypt to sign and implement the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco, and releasing studies highlighting the growing public health and economic costs of tobacco use. Search Keywords: Short link: Negotiators from Iran, Russia and Turkey met in Kazakhstan's capital Astana on Wednesday, the Kazakh foreign ministry said, for two days of talks aiming to preserve a fragile 10-week-old truce in northern Syria. Talks were underway between delegations from the three regional power-brokers as well as the Syrian government and opposition, the ministry said in a statement. In addition to cooling the conflict around the northern province of Idlib -- Syria's last major rebel stronghold -- discussions will focus on creating conditions for the return of refugees and internally displaced people, as well as post-conflict reconstruction, the ministry said. The United Nations will be represented at the negotiations by Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura, according to the statement, in what will likely be his last engagement on the conflict before leaving the post. The 10-week-old Idlib truce deal is in the balance after an alleged chemical attack in the government-held city of Aleppo on Saturday which has triggered retaliatory raids. The exact circumstances of the purported attack on three districts of the government-held city are murky and bitterly disputed. The Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad has blamed fighters in neighbouring Idlib for the attack, which the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said hospitalised 94 people. The incident has put strain on an already fragile agreement reached in mid-September to fend off a fully-fledged assault on Idlib, which Syria's regime -- backed by Russia and Iran -- has said it is committed to re-taking. More than half of the region is controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a powerful alliance led by the members of Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate, who have not commented on the Aleppo attack. In September, Russia and rebel backer Turkey agreed to set up a U-shaped buffer zone around Idlib to keep pro-government forces outside the region of some three million. But on Sunday, Russia said its war planes had carried out their first strikes in the zone since the deal was reached. Moscow said the raids were a response to the shelling of Aleppo by "terrorist groups" operating inside a part the planned demilitarised area held by HTS. The negotiations in Astana were expected to conclude on Thursday and are the eleventh of their kind since Moscow began a diplomatic push in early 2017 that effectively sidelined UN-led negotiations on Syria. The United States has attended some of the Astana rounds as an observer, but Special Representative for Syria Engagement James Jeffrey said last week that Washington would not attend these talks. Syria's grinding seven-year civil war has killed more than 360,000 people and displaced millions. *This story was edited by Ahram Online Search Keywords: Short link: 'Account for monies you have received ... Saudi Arabia pledged $50 million in aid on Wednesday to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), which has been hit by the withdrawal of all US funding, an official said. The announcement was made at a press conference in the Saudi capital by the director of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre, Abdullah al-Rabeea. Search Keywords: Short link: International Bangladesh oppn leader Khaleda Zia barred from elections: Official DHAKA, BANGLADESH, Nov 28 (Agencies) | Publish Date: 11/28/2018 12:11:31 PM IST Bangladeshs imprisoned opposition leader has been barred from contesting next months general election against her arch-rival Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the countrys attorney general said Wednesday. According to AFP, Khaleda Zia is serving 10 years for graft but her supporters, who have appealed the charges, had clung to hopes the 73-year-old would be acquitted before the December 30 poll. But the Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a ruling from a lower court that nobody sentenced to more than two years jail or awaiting appeals could run for election. Zias supporters had unsuccessfully appealed that decision by the High Court on Tuesday. Following this judgement, she cannot take part in the elections, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told AFP on Wednesday. The Bangladesh National Party (BNP), the opposition movement Zia leads from behind bars, had protested the courts ruling as a reflection of the governments wishes. This ruling is not acceptable to us at all. We are aggrieved and are protesting it strongly, said BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir. Zia had hoped to contest three parliamentary seats despite being incarcerated in Dhaka on corruption charges the BNP says were designed to keep her from challenging Hasina. Bangladesh has been led by either Zia or Hasina since the 1990s and the two powerful women have turned from close allies to fierce foes. Just a month from the polls the BNP has not announced an alternative candidate to run against Hasina, who is seeking a third-consecutive term in office. She was elected uncontested in 2014 after the BNP boycotted the ballot, saying it was not free and fair and rigged against Zia. The opposition has demanded Hasina stand down ahead of the election and allow a caretaker government to oversee the country, but the prime minister has refused. The BNP has accused her ruling Awami League party of detaining 5,000 opposition activists ahead of the December poll to cripple the partys grassroots base. Zias son, a potential heir to the BNP throne, was sentenced in absentia to life behind bars in October. He lives in exile in London. It's become a vicious cycle: we keep begging movie studios to do something original, and they keep refusing to learn from their bad choi... By Bloomberg Next to Suneeta Reddys desk in the executive suite of Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd. hangs an icon of Hinduisms many-armed warrior goddess Durga, who Reddy prays to each morning. The deitys presence seems fitting at a company run by four women engineering an aggressive expansion into new territory. About a decade ago, Reddy and her three sisters took over most executive functions at Apollo, Indias largest hospital chain, from their father. They embarked on a multi-year building spree in a bet that Indias economic growth would spread from its metropolises to second-tier cities, where patients are getting richer. But Apollos stock tumbled as the sisters investments weighed on profits. Now, almost 20 billion rupees ($280 million) and four years of construction later, there are signs that strategy is about to pay off. All those hospitals are built. Analysts are predicting that annual earnings are poised to climb for the first time since 2015. Apollos shares have gained about 30 per cent after hitting a four-year low in June, and stock forecasters are more bullish than they have been in a decade. "The four of us recognized there was a demand and supply gap, and we needed to fill it," Reddy, 59, who holds the title of co-managing director, said in an interview this month in the South Indian city of Chennai. "The capacity to pay more will exist." The companys stock climbed as much as 2.5 per cent in Mumbai before trading 1.9 per cent higher at 1,215.70 rupees at 11:51 a.m in Mumbai, reversing three days of declines on a day when the broader Indian market was down. Tackling Hurdles Health-care is becoming one of Indias largest businesses, with the size of the hospital industry projected to more than double to $133 billion over the next four years, according to the governments India Brand Equity Foundation. Most patients pay health costs out of pocket, but incomes are rising and the insurance industry is developing. More Indians could be insured over the coming decades as Prime Minister Narendra Modis government expands a new initiative to provide health insurance for the poorer half of the countrys population. Medical staff help doctor during surgery at an operation theater . (Photo | Bloomberg) Yet, even as Apollos expansion has offered fresh opportunities, its also brought the sisters new challenges. Despite signs that investors are coming around, expenditures from the sisters big build have left the stock and profits well below their peaks, and debt has more than doubled over the past four years. There are other hurdles that have the potential to hamper growth if Apollo doesnt get its formula right. Convincing an internationally trained surgeon to relocate to Mumbai is hard enough, never mind inland to a small city. Also, Apollo found that people in smaller cities arent always willing to pay as much, a hurdle for a model of premium prices for premium care. Competition is also growing with more hospitals jostling for a slice of the market. And Reddy doesnt expect an immediate effect from the Modi governments new insurance program. While Apollo plans to allocate beds for the program, it wont turn a profit on those patients because those facilities are set up to cater to the high end of the market, she said. The company is starting to conduct experiments in lower cost care in suburban Chennai such as paying doctors fixed salaries rather than for individual services and substituting generic drugs for brands. A general ward at Apollo Speciality Hospital. (Photo | Bloomberg) Reddy said Apollo is digging deeper into Indias pool of domestically trained doctors, and developing detailed protocols to ensure smaller centres follow uniform practices. And its become more "flexible" about pricing to establish itself in new communities, she said. She predicts occupancy at newer hospitals will gradually increase to the 70 per cent level seen in established ones. The company also predicts that profit margins at the new hospitals will approach the 20 per cent level from around 6 per cent now. "They seem to be getting their calculations right in terms of their return expectations," Rakesh Nayudu, an equity analyst for Haitong Securities India. "Theyre targeting the right cities." Of the 23 analysts that cover the company, 21 recommend buying the stock. Reddy at a meeting with medical staff. (Photo | Bloomberg) Reddys father Prathap, a doctor, founded Apollo in 1983 after a patient of his died because a cutting-edge treatment wasnt available in India. Apollo now has a market value of $2 billion, annual revenue of $1 billion, internationally-trained doctors, operating theatres with the latest equipment. Patients can choose to recuperate in suites with a living room and two bathrooms. The family still owns 34 per cent of the company. Prathap Reddy remains chairman at age 86, with two of the sisters, Preetha Reddy and Shobana Kamineni, acting as co-vice chairs. Suneeta and Sangita Reddy share the title of managing director, typically the equivalent of the CEO role in corporate India. There are also the tricky questions around succession that will have to be managed. When their father relinquishes his role, the plan is for the eldest sister Preetha to succeed him, though strategy would still be decided by a vote between the four sisters, Suneeta Reddy said. Suneeta Reddy interacts with the hospital staff. (Photo | Bloomberg) Having all four of them on the 10-person board means the company has four times as many women as the average Indian board, and more on average than major companies in the U.S. and U.K. Reddy says their cohesiveness comes down to a clear division of labor that plays to each ones strengths. "Its because were sisters that were able to weave it together," Reddy said. "I think if the chairman had four sons they probably would have created four companies to do it." By PTI NEW DELHI: German company Bosch Home Appliances on Wednesday said it would invest 100 million euros (around Rs 800 crore) over the next 3-4 years in the Indian market. The company said it is expanding its product portfolio in India by providing localised offerings to tap the fast growing home appliances market in the country. "Bosch Home Appliances will invest 100 million euros over the next 3-4 years towards personalising solutions, brand building, strengthening its technology centre, and setting up a robust refrigerator factory to bring its best-in-class German technology in India and magnifying India's role globally," the company said in a statement. According to Bosch, India's household appliances market is expected to grow 14.5 per cent annually from 2018-2022, resulting in a market volume of USD 2,028 million. "In the coming years, Bosch will take its offerings from conventional to digital and transform businesses beyond mobility, by focusing on connectivity and new digital business models for customer value, as well as extending new employment opportunities in the space, it added. The company has already started localised offerings in segments as top-loader washing machine, mixer grinder and microwave oven. By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Delegates of more than 20 countries are expected to participate in the upcoming Logistics Meet Logix India 2019, which will be held from January 31 to February 2, 2019, in New Delhi. The event is aimed at improving logistics cost effectiveness and operational efficiencies for Indias Global Trade.India is now one of the fastest growing economies of the world, and is seeking superior logistics linkages with nations all over the world, Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu said. We are preparing a comprehensive strategy for increasing exports and an Integrated Logistics Policy, which will benefit Indias economy by cutting cost and increasing the speed of cargo movement that will lead to massive job creation, Prabhu further added.It is worthwhile to note that India has one of the highest logistic costs in the world. Ranked 44 in the World Bank Logistics Performance Index 2018, logistics costs in India are 13-15 per cent of the product cost, while the global average is six per cent. Federation of Indian Export Organisations, which is organising the event, will also focus on investment opportunities in infrastructure development, warehouse consolidation, technology integration and IT enablement, and killing of manpower at the three-day meet. On exporters request to ask bankers to open up their purse as a decline in credit was hitting their performance, Prabhu said that he is working with the Finance Ministry and the Prime Ministers Office to sort out the problem. One big challenge for the export sector is the issue of finance. We have taken it up with the Finance Ministry. Once we have more working capital, in the export field you see more benefits The PMO is aware of the problem, Prabhu said. Prabhu also held a meeting with Union Minister Smriti Irani to discuss export promotion strategies for the textile industry, including market diversification, warehousing and issues related to WTO-compliant scheme. The Tunisian governments approval of a new law on gender equality in inheritance is a challenge to the rapprochement between Prime Minister Youssef Chahed and the Islamist Ennahda Party, writes Kamel Abdallah in Tunis The Tunisian government approved a law to amend the countrys Personal Status Code to provide for gender equality in inheritance last Friday at a cabinet meeting attended by Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi who had proposed the law last August. The new law will likely be the focus of heated debate among conservative circles over the coming days as it is debated in parliament before being put to a vote against a backdrop of mounting discontent over economic problems in the country, as seen in the demonstrations organised by the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT) last week. President Beji Caid Essebsi chaired a cabinet meeting on Friday devoted to the examination of two draft laws, the Tunisian presidency announced on 23 November. The first is a presidential initiative supplementing the Personal Status Code, and the second relates to the state of emergency. The cabinet approved the first bill, but decided to examine the draft law on the state of emergency in more depth, notably as regards various guarantees and judicial review before submitting it to a further cabinet meeting, the statement said. The cabinets approval of the law on gender equality in inheritance rights, a precedent for the whole of the Arab world, presents a new challenge to the rapprochement between Tunisian Prime Minister Youssef Chahed and the Islamist Ennahda Party. Ennahda recently gave Chahed a vote of confidence in his newly formed cabinet after months of tension between him and his own party Nidaa Tounes. Conservative and Islamist forces charge that the law on gender equality in inheritance violates a provision of Sharia Law based on an explicit scriptural text. The bill is unlikely to have a smooth passage through parliament, which has been dominated by the Ennahda Party since the schism that caused the secularist Nidaa Tounes Party to lose the majority it won in the 2014 general elections. Because of the shift in parliamentary forces, Chahed had to draw closer to Ennahda in order to retain his premiership and counter his rivals in Nidaa Tounes. One of these is the partys General-Secretary Slim Riahi, who last week charged Chahed with trying to engineer a coup against Essebsi. The cabinets approval of the amendment to the Personal Status Code comes a year before the countrys next general elections in October 2019. Observers see the law as an attempt on the part of Essebsi to win over Tunisias liberal and secularist forces and womens movements ahead of the elections, thereby compensating for losses due to the rift in Nidaa Tounes. The approval of the law also occurred after the general strike called by the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT) after negotiations with the government had failed to secure a wage hike for the countrys civil servants. Attended by hundreds of thousands of people, this was the largest strike the country has seen in five years. More than 3,000 people also responded to the powerful unions call to stage a protest in front of the parliament building in Tunis. The UGTT wants to see salary raises for the countrys 673,000 civil servants equivalent to those granted this year to employees in public-sector companies that range between 15 and 30 Euro ($17 to $34) per month. In remarks to the French news agency AFP, UGTT Deputy Secretary-General Bouali Mbarki said that the wage increases had not been taken into account in the 2019 budget and that the unions demands were linked to an unprecedented rise in prices, a deterioration of citizens purchasing power... and the degradation of daily life. He appealed to the government to find a solution that does not mean taking instructions from the International Monetary Fund and that preserves social stability. He stressed that the union was not negotiating with [IMF managing director] Christine Lagarde but with the head of the Tunisian government, Prime Minister Youssef Chahed. In 2016, the IMF approved a 2.4 billion Euro loan to the Tunisian government, repayable over four years, in exchange for a commitment to implement a package of economic reforms. Since then, Tunisians have been plagued by soaring prices due to the plummeting exchange rate of the dinar, rising taxes and high unemployment rates. In January this year, mounting discontent over the countrys economic straits erupted into widespread rioting. On Saturday, the UGTT took another step to put pressure on the Chahed government, releasing a statement accusing the government of failing to remedy the economic and social deterioration in the country and calling for another general strike to be held on 17 January 2019. The statement reiterated demands for wage increases and stressed the need for the government to rescue the public sector and reform it in a manner that would enable it to play a leading economic and social role. It also urged the Union of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts, another powerful Tunisian labour union, to join the UGTT in the campaign to put pressure on the government in the interest of securing wage increases commensurate to the rising cost of living of both public and private-sector workers. In view of the close relations between Chahed and Ennahda, it would appear that Essebsi and the Nidaa Tounes Party have an interest in pressuring the government to respond to the UGTTs demands. Such pressures would cast Chahed, tipped as a possible Ennahda Party nominee in the next presidential elections, in a poor light among the countrys popular classes. At the same time, his popularity among conservatives and electoral prospects have also been harmed by the passage of the law on gender equality in inheritance, since he is a member of the same party as the president. When Essebsi first proposed the law in August, the advisory shura council of the Ennahda Party issued a statement opposing gender equality in inheritance on the grounds that it conflicted with religious strictures, the constitution and the countrys Personal Status Code. Any new law would jeopardise the stability of the Tunisian family and social customs, it said. Since then, however, the party has issued no further official comments on the bill. This may have inspired presidential political adviser Noureddine ben Tichas confidence that parliament will now pass the bill. Most of the MPs and blocs in the parliament are convinced of the value of this bill and its importance to Tunisian society, he said. *A version of this article appears in print in the 29 November, 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Tunisia moves to gender equality Search Keywords: Short link: Anuradha Shukla By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Persistent demands to provide a lifeline of liquidity to Non Banking Finance Companies (NBFC) has led to an initial assessment of its financial health Reserve Bank of India, in consultation with the Central government, would do the review, sources said.Liquidity concerns of NBFCs has been one of the core issues on which the central bank and Finance Ministry came to a head and the issue is yet again expected to take the centre stage, when RBIs Central Board meets again on December 14. ...The review will be done in consultation with the government. It will help both the RBI and the government to have a ready data on NBFCs and based on that, further roadmaps can be decided, a senior Finance Ministry official said, adding, The purpose of the exercise is that there will be one data with both the government and the RBI, so that it is easier for both of them to take unified decisions. The issue will be discussed in detail when the RBI Board meets next. While the government has been strongly putting its demand with many of the ministers, apart from the Finance Minister himself, citing instances of slowing bank credit stifling economy, RBI has been maintaining silence on the issue. But it has kept a watchful eye on the liquidity situation and said it is ready to take measures when required. In the last one month, the RBI took several steps to address the liquidity issue. On Monday, RBI relaxed hedging rules for external commercial borrowings by infrastructure firms, in addition to some recent measures on tenure. It has also allowed partial credit enhancement facility for NBFCs by banks and incremental credit carved out of the banks liquidity coverage ratio. The move, taken in consultation with the government, was aimed at improving credit flow to the domestic market via local credit and borrowing in foreign currency market. Akhila Damodaran By Express News Service BENGALURU: Equality is mere tokenism, feels Yetnebersh Nigussie, a lawyer and disability rights activist from Ethiopia, who was in the city for the recently-concluded India Inclusion Summit 2018. After all, she has faced a fair share of trials and tribulations after having lost her eye-sight at the age of five. If you say everyone is equal, but youre not treating others equally, then thats the worst form of inequality, says the lawyer, who has taken it upon herself to work at taking equality beyond just a formality. A blessing in disguise, Nigussie says that had she not turned blind, she probably wouldnt have been educated, and instead, been married off just like the other girls in her community. When I turned blind after a bout of sickness, I couldnt fit in to my community anymore, and had to move out. Thats when an Indian Catholic nun, Jessintha Matthew, took me under her wing, and with the support of other nuns, helped me get educated, she says. In addition to her day job, Nigussie also runs Light for the World, an NGO that works for disability and development. We are working for inclusive education one class for all. That is the best way to teach children without disability about the diversity and make the world to care for the cause, she says, pointing out that we are slowly but surely becoming an inclusive society. The disability movement has reached a stage where people have accepted inclusivity in principle and are working towards it. The best way to go forward is to have equal participation from every section of society, says the 2017 joint winner of the Right Livelihood Award, the Alternative Nobel Prize for her work. She shares the honour with Khadija Ismayilova, an Azerbaijani investigative journalist and radio host; Colin Gonsalves, senior advocate of the Supreme Court of India and the founder of Human Rights Law Network (HRLN); and American environmental lawyer Robert Bilott. With a billion friends, Nigussie calls herself a billionnaire. There are a billion people with disability, I have a billion friends, which is priceless, she says. By Express News Service CHENNAI : Following a stubborn opposition from state public prosecutor A Natarajan to the plea of Sarkar director A R Murugadoss to grant him advance bail till he tendered in writing an unconditional apology and an undertaking that he would not indulge in similar activities criticising the welfare schemes of the Tamil Nadu government, the Madras High Court has adjourned the matter by a day to facilitate Murugadosss counsel to reply. Originally, fearing arrest for certain scenes in the film in question, which allegedly depicted burning of the freebies of the State government, Murugadoss had moved the High Court seeking advance bail. When the matter came up on November 9 last, Murugadoss tendered an unconditional apology. His counsel Vivek told the court that the objectionable scenes had been deleted. Granting temporary relief, the judge had orally directed the police not to arrest him till November 27. When the matter came up again on Tuesday, Natarajan requested Justice G K Ilanthiraiyan to obtain an undertaking from Murugadoss to the effect that he would not indulge in similar activities in future in any other film along with an unconditional apology in writing, before granting the relief. Murugadoss counsel Vivek sought time to get instructions. And the judge adjourned the matter by a day. By Express News Service CHENNAI : Dr S Geethalakshmi, Vice-Chancellor, Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University, on Tuesday urged private healthcare providers to work in a more dedicated manner to provide affordable medical facilities to the poor to bridge the disparity available in the health care sector in the state. Speaking at the inaugural session of the 11th edition of TANCARE, a conference organised by FICCI and Tamil Nadu government in association with The New Indian Express to discuss the key issues faced by the healthcare industry, Geethalakshmi expressed concern over the fact that the underprivileged sections in the State are yet to get appropriate healthcare facilities from the non-government hospitals. There are specific guidelines for private hospitals to provide free treatment to certain percentage of the poor and needy persons at the outdoor and indoor facility. But in reality how many hospitals follow and implement it is a worrying question. We need to have a proper regulatory system through which such schemes can be implemented properly in the state, said Geethalakshmi. Medibus Technologies Limited CEO-RT Srirama Raja speaks at the conference as Sr. consultant vascular surgeon at Apollo Hospitals Dr V Balaji, Star Health and Allied Insurance COO Dr S Prakash and Apollo Hospital Enterprises Ltd COO Aravind Sivaramakrishnan look on | P Jawahar Along with looking at the profits, the private hospitals should also concentrate on the ethical values of the profession. I would also urge the non-government hospitals to venture into remote areas to provide quality healthcare to the needy, she added.Delivering the welcome address, chairman of FICCI TNSC, Ar Rm Arun urged the Tamil Nadu government to focus on manufacturing medical devices in the state as it would boost the healthcare industry and immensely benefit the patients also. Dr V Balaji, convener of the healthcare panel of the FICCI TNSC and senior consultant vascular surgeon, Apollo Hospitals, said, Events like TANCARE will foster innovative thinking in our healthcare entrepreneurs and it will create awareness about the latest trends in the healthcare industry among the various stake-holders, said Balaji.On the occasion, different institutions were awarded for the outstanding achievements in the healthcare sector in the state. Apollo Hospitals, Chennai was awarded in the transforming healthcare category while best government hospital award was bagged by TB Hospital, Thoppur. The government Primary Health Centre at Medavakkam was awarded as the best PHC while Cancer Institute, Chennai was awarded for being the best non-profit hospital. The Banyan received the award for the best NGO working in health sector. Alma Siddha Care Multi-Specialty Hospital received award for being the best hospital in the traditional medicine sector. Besides, four special awards were given to four hospitals for providing specialty services. Prashant Fertility Research Centre was awarded in the reproductive medicine category while in the diabetes care category, MV Hospital for Diabetes received the award. Similarly, Parvathy Hospital and Sankara Nethralaya received the awards for orthopedic and ophthalmology respectively. By Express News Service HYDERABAD: The success of the present elections will solely depend on the functioning of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPATs) during the polling, Telangana Additional Chief Electoral Officer, Buddha Prakash Jyothi said. Presiding over a meeting held in connection with the training programme organised on EVMs and VVPATs for district-level master trainers and nodal officers on Tuesday, he asked the polling personnel to ensure increased understanding of the functioning of the EVMs and VVPATs for the local and field level personnel in the districts. National Level Trainer and Karnataka Deputy CEO V Raghavendra acted as a resource person and chief trainer for the camp, which was attended by 210 personnel on poll duty, of which 26 were nodal officers and 128 IT-related staff. Training was given to the personnel on the functioning of the EVMs and VVPATs, properly aligning them, correct pasting of the names of the candidates on the EVMs, etc. By Express News Service KOCHI: The true spirit of Operation Madad could not have been captured better. The ninth edition of the military photo exhibition held at the Ruby Jubilee Hall of the Press Club, Ernakulam, displayed the courageous souls in action during the floods. The exhibition was inaugurated on Monday by Rear Admiral RJ Nadkarni, VSM, Chief of Staff, Southern Naval Command(SNC), in the presence of Hibi Eden MLA. It comprises defence photographs taken by photojournalists of various media houses. The exhibition is a one of its kind in the country and is organised by the Southern Naval Command in association with the Ernakulam Press Club, said Commander Sridhar Warrier, PRO. The photo exhibition is primarily held to promote military photography among photojournalists. But since we are based in Kochi, a lot of entries are from photojournalists based in Kerala, he continued. Held annually, this years exhibition features 90 photographs affiliated with military events. Nevertheless, a majority of the photographs revolve around the most crucial event the military was involved with: The floods that destructed the state in August. Exhibited photographs include the Indian Navy chief visiting a destroyed house, flood victims being airlifted by the Indian Navy soldiers during a rescue operation in Chengannur and people running for their lives across the Cheruthoni bridge. The exhibition will be held at the Press Club until November 28, open to the public from 10 am to 6 pm. The photographs would further be shifted to the Central Square Mall, MG Road and will be available to the public from November 30 to December 2. A panel of judges selected by the headquarters of the Naval Command will be evaluating the photographs in the next two days. Awards for the best three photographs will be presented by the vice-admiral J K Chawla, commanding-in-chief, on December 2 at the mall, Sridhar added. Prasanta Mazumdar By Express News Service GUWAHATI: There is a perception that the Mizoram elections could throw up a fractured mandate this time around. However, the states Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla was confident that his Congress would retain power by getting full majority. We are winning in at least 27 (of the 40) seats. We are going to break the jinx, he asserted. The jinx is that no party in Mizoram was ever voted to power for the third time on the trot. Thanhawla said the Congress would get the votes of the Chakmas apart from the Mizos. He, however, was not sure about the votes of the Brus. We suspect that the BJP had lavishly distributed money to the Bru voters, he said. Opposition Mizo National Front (MNF) president and two-time former Chief Minister, Zoramthanga, was also confident that his party would form the government. We will form the government, primarily because of our performance (as an opposition party) and the Congress governments failures. They (Congress) are selling liquor by going against the wishes of the Church, civil society organisations and the people. Then, there is mismanagement of the financial system and lack of development, Zoramthanga said. Senior citizens Mrs Darrokhumi aged 106 and Upa Rochhinga (108) casting their ballot during Mizoram polls. (Photo | Special Arrangement) He said the MNF would win seats across the state. He predicted that the polls would not throw up a hung House as being speculated. The Zoram Peoples Movement (ZPM), which is a conglomerate of some smaller regional parties, is equally upbeat. Asked if there is a possibility of the ZPM aligning with the MNF post-election, ZPM chief Lalduhawma said, We are forming the government and as such, there is no question of aligning with any party. Meanwhile, a large number of the nearly 12,000 displaced Bru voters, who are lodged in six relief camps in Tripura, were transported to Mizoram by the BJP government in Tripura on Wednesday so that they could participate in voting. They cast their votes in 15 polling stations at a playground at Kahnmun bordering Tripura. The nearest relief camp from the place is located two kilometers away; the farthest being at a distance of 57 km. Volunteers making food arrangements at Kanhmun polling booth. (Photo | Special Arrangement) The Election Commission and the Young Mizo Association, which is a youths organisation in Mizoram, had made arrangements for the refreshment of the Bru voters. Some voters said on camera they dont mind whichever party wins but all that they want is good roads in the state. Prasanta Mazumdar By Express News Service GUWAHATI: Thousands of Bru (Reang) voters travelled a distance on Wednesday to go to Mizoram from Tripura to cast votes. Some 40,000 Brus had fled Mizoram 21 years ago in the wake of their clashes with the Mizos. Ever since then, they have been lodged in six relief camps in Tripura. On Wednesday, the Bru voters were transported to Kahnmun, a small town in Mizoram bordering Tripura, in 140 buses and over 100 small vehicles by the BJP government in Tripura. Upon their arrival, they were greeted by volunteers of the Young Mizo Association (YMA), which is a Mizo organisation from Mizoram, and the Election Commission (EC). They provided the Bru voters with refreshments. The EC had set up 15 polling stations for the displaced Bru voters at a playground in Kahnmun. [MIZORAM POLLS 2018- UPDATES] In the past few elections, the refugees had voted at the relief camps in the presence of election department officials from Mizoram. Ahead of the current election, the Mizoram NGO Coordination Committee, which is a conglomerate of some influential organisations in Mizoram, had demanded that the displaced Brus should be made to cast their votes inside Mizoram and not elsewhere. The YMA was one of the organisations which raised the demand. The nearest relief camp in Tripura from Kahnmun is located 2 km away. The farthest camp lies at a distance of 57 km. Of the over 32,000 refugees lodged in the relief camps, there are 12,014 voters 9,149 of them from Mamit, 1,940 from Kolasib and 925 from Lunglei, all are districts in Mizoram. The Brus are in a large majority in Mamit. The Mizoram Bru Displaced Peoples Coordination Committee (MBDPCC) president Laldingliana said a number of Bru voters made their way back to the relief camps after casting votes. I dont know exactly how many of the Bru voters travelled to Mizoram to cast votes but their number will be to the extent of a few thousand. It looks very unlikely that all of them will be able to cast their votes within the stipulated time. I feel the Election Commission will extend the time of voting to enable each one of them to cast votes, Laldingliana said. By PTI JAIPUR: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath Thursday alleged that the Congress was the mother of "anarchy" and development was not in its DNA. The Congress is a hurdle in the path of development, good governance and nationalism, whereas BJP governments are establishing "Ram Rajya" by providing electricity, homes, LPG connections, better health care services and toilets, he said at an election rally in Rajasthan where polls will be held on December 7. The chief minister also alleged that the opposition party gave riots, terrorism, naxalism to the country and birth to corruption. "The Congress is the mother of anarchy. Development is not in its DNA. It is least bothered about the honour and pride of the country," Adityanath said. Reiterating that the Congress had served "biryani" to terrorists and treated them as their vote bank, he alleged that the party finds and connects with terrorists as well as hold events to honour them. It was during BJP's rule that everyday terrorists were gunned down in Jammu and Kashmir, the chief minister said. One of the BJP's star campaigners for the polls, Adityanath was electioneering for the party in the Amer Assembly constituency here. He alleged that the Congress insults the matrydom of army jawans and praises naxalites and Maoists by calling them revolutionaries. The Congress is doing divisive and caste-based politics. It pushed several Hindi-speaking states, including Rajasthan, into the BIMARU category in its 55 years of rule, the BJP leader said. Mocking Congress president Rahul Gandhi, he claimed that even his party leaders do not trust him and they believe that the party cannot form government under his leadership. The chief minister said Gandhi should show some mercy on the country considering his failure in past elections. P Krishna By Express News Service SIDDIPET: Vanteru Pratap Reddy, the Grand Alliances candidate from Gajwel Assembly constituency, has gained quite a few sympathisers over the past week. The general public seems to believe that searches of Prataps family members and associates properties and his recent altercations with the police are a punishment for his decision to contest against TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao at his stronghold. ALSO READ: Missing Gajwel candidate appears before Hyderabad High Court A few days ago, police searched the house of Vijayanand Reddy, Prataps friend. Searches were also conducted at a water plant operated by Shekhar Reddy, another associate of Pratap. Shekhar Reddy later claimed that officials had seized Rs 49,000 worth cash from his water plant. He said that this money was meant for business transactions, and was in no way going to be used for electioneering or bribing voters. A few days ago, Pratap undertook an amarana nirahara deeksha (fast unto death) at the ROs office, claiming that he was being harassed using official machinery. He collapsed of low blood pressure, after which he was admitted to a hospital in Hyderabad. The biggest incident so far has been at the house of Vijayender Reddy, Prataps son. The news of this brazen midnight attack on an Opposition leader spread quickly in both TDP and Congress, gathered at the house to shout slogans against the policemen, and TRS which was allegedly engineering the searches to hurt Prataps winning chances. Amid the drama, Pratap, angry at his son being dragged into it all, tried to set himself ablaze. In the end, sources say cops found nothing. Whatever the reality may be, the optics have certainly been useful to Pratap Reddy. Hundrers of his supporters could be seen raising slogans against police and election commission. Many of them claim that their leader is being harassed for declaring himself as the candidate against Gajwel giant, TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao. Meanwhile, police on Tuesday held searches at the house of Gajwel-based TRS leader Ambadas based on a complaint filed by Congress leaders. Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of Brazil's president-elect Jair Bolsonaro and one of his top aides, said on Tuesday that his father's government will move the Brazilian embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, following the lead of the United States. "It has been decided", he told reporters in Brasilia. Changing the embassy could strongly affect exports to key Middle Eastern markets for Brazilian beef and poultry producers BRF SA and JBS SA . Search Keywords: Short link: J Deepthi Nandan Reddy By Express News Service HYDERABAD: Launching a scathing attack on the ruling party, AICC president Rahul Gandhi wondered how Rs 17,000 Cr surplus Telangana state ran into debt in the Telangana Rashtra Samithi(TRS) rule while chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao's son and minister KT Rama Rao's income rose by 400 percent. While speaking at a public meeting at Kosgi in Kodangal constituency, Gandhi came down heavily on chief minister KCR and also prime minister Narendra Modi dubbing TRS as Telangana Rashtriya Sangh Pariwar.' It was only on Tuesday that prime minister Modi likened TRS to Congress and called the CM an apprentice of Congress. "Congress gave Telangana to fulfil the dreams of 4 crore Telanganites and provide for 'Neellu Nidhulu Niyamakalu'. But KCR has betrayed Telangana people. KCR pushed a state with Rs 17000 Cr surplus into more than Rs 2 lakh crore debt. There is a Rs 60,000 debt on every person in Telangana. But KCR's son KTR's income rose by 400 per cent," he said, alleging that in the name of redesigning Pranahita Chevella Project alone, "KCR has pocketed Rs 40,000 Cr. Has usurped money even in Mission Bhagiratha and Mission Kakatiya schemes." "Instead of giving jobs to one lakh youth, KCR gave 4 jobs to his family. These four people have looted the future of four crore Telangana people. KCR has looted Telangana for his family, friends and contractors. All the money looted by TRS is people's money. The wind blowing here is Congress wind. Congress wind will put an end to KCR's loot and bring Peoples Front government in Telangana," asserted Rahul Gandhi, cheering up people present at the massive public meeting, as Congress flags flew to the breezy winds. --------TRS is Telangana Rashtriya Sangh Pariwar----- Taking time out to speak on national politics Rahul said that TRS MPs have always supported BJP in the Parliament and TRS stands for Telangana Rashtriya Sangh Pariwar. "While Congress fought against making changes to land acquisition bill in Parliament, TRS supported BJP. On all occasions, TRS has supported BJP. PM Modi is trying to divide India. But KCR is supporting him. TRS is not Telangana Rashtra Samithi but Telangana Rashtriya Sangh Pariwar. Either its TRS or MIM, their only motive is to back PM Modi. Congress will first defeat TRS in Telangana and BJP at Centre in 2019," vowed Rahul. TJS chief Kodandram, who is also an alliance partner in Congress-led Praja Kutami, said that Kodangal has fought like Kodamasimham (lion) in Telangana movement. He alleged that KCR has redesigned irrigation projects only to fill contractors pockets and not to change people's fate. He rued, though Kodangal is near Krishna river, does not get its water. Speaking earlier, TPCC chief Uttam Kumar Reddy expressed confidence that Peoples Front government will be sworn in on December 12. TPCC working president and local boy Revanth Reddy also spoke on the occasion. By Express News Service HYDERABAD: TPCC chief Uttam Kumar Reddy on Tuesday joined the bandwagon of Congress leaders prophesying a barrage of defections to the grand old party from the TRS when Congress chief Rahul Gandhi comes calling on Wednesday. Uttam, who was speaking at the Meet The Press programmer organised by Hyderabad Press Club at Somajiguda, cited the Kalvakuntla familys autocratic ways as the main reason for politicos being miffed with the pink party. KCR has destroyed democratic traditions and usurped the rights and dignity of the people from all sections of Telangana by misusing his power as chief minister, he claimed. ALSO READ: Telangana Congress plans annual report on status of election manifesto While setting up the TRS, KCR lied that his children had settled down in the US. He said he did not want power and only wished to serve the people of Telangana. See what is happening now. KCR, his children KTR and Kavitha and relatives Harish Rao and Santosh Rao are all looting the people. People live in fear of them thanks to their autocratic ways. There is an urgent need to defeat the TRS to protect Telangana. No one is happy with the TRS rule, he claimed. The Congress leader accused ECI CEO Rajat Kumar and the Telangana Police of indirectly supporting the TRS and pointed out that Congress Gajwel candidate, Vanteru Pratap Reddy, who is contesting against caretaker Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, was being harassed. Rs 2,400 crore budget for Muslims He added that the party would set aside `24,000 crore of the States budget for the welfare of Muslims and alleged that the both the TRS and the BJP were working against the interests of the minority community. He also lashed out at the AIMIM for siding with anti-Muslim TRS. When asked if the Congress would seek the MIMs support if required to form the government, Uttam said the Peoples Front comprising the Congress, TDP, TJS and the CPI would get absolute majority and no outside support would be required. By Express News Service HYDERABAD: Over 24 hours after the Bahujan Left Front's (BLF) candidate Chandramukhi Muvvala, the first transwoman to contest in state assembly polls, has been 'missing', her mother Ananthamma(55) on Wednesday appealed to 'kidnappers' to leave her daughter alone so that they will willfully leave the electoral contest. ALSO READ: Telangana elections: Goshamahal transgender candidate Chandramukhi vanishes into thin air Meanwhile BLF state convenor and CPM state secretary Thammineni Veerabhadram said he spoke with DGP M Mahendar Reddy in the morning. According to police, he said, Chandramukhi is suspected to have gone to meet a pontiff in Ananthapur, Andhra Pradesh and that investigation is progressing. Veerabhadram added that BLF has also approached the Election Commission with a complaint that their candidate has been kidnapped. "We are demanding the police department to fully disclose the investigation details," he said. Chandramukhi's mother Ananthamma has also approached the Hyderabad High Court with a Habeas Corpus petition requesting the court to order police department to produce Chandramukhi before the court at the earliest. "Even after 24 hours, there is no information on her. I request kidnappers to leave her alone. We will go somewhere," said a teary-eyed Ananthamma. BLF supporters and transgender rights activists have claimed that police are not investigating the case sincerely. They held a meeting at the CPM office in the city to discuss the matter. Another transgender rights activist, Vyjayanthi Vasanta Mogli, said that Chandramukhi has been winning hearts in Goshamahal assembly constituency where she was set to contest from. "People welcomed her with open hearts during her door-to-door campaigns. She was becoming a threat to her rival candidates. Even the government is not interested in finding her. Or else, how is it possible for a tech-savvy Telangana police to not trace her for so long," said Mogli. R Govinda Reddy, inspector, Banjara Hills, when contacted, said "We have collected CCTV footage from outside Chandramukhi's residence. She has herself walked out of a home Tuesday morning. She is seen as taking an autorickshaw. We are investigating further," Gopinath Rajendran By Express News Service A number of Bigg Boss Tamil contestants have been teaming up for films in recent times. After the success of Pyaar Prema Kadhal that starred Season 1 contestants, Harish Kalyan and Raiza Wilson, we had confirmed recently that Season 2 contestants, Mahat and Aishwarya Dutta, will be teaming up for an untitled film. Its now known that Mahat will also be working on a film with another co-contestant, Yashika Aannand. The film, a horror thriller, will be directed by cousins Magesh and Venkatesh, who go by the name Magven. Speaking about the film, Venkatesh says, Theres an issue we see in our day-to-day life that has been the cause of many deaths and other dire consequences, but the government and people have turned a blind eye towards it. I cant divulge what the issue is, but its something that deserves attention. Usually, in a horror film, there will be a reason behind the death of the character that ends up as the ghost, but our film will be a thriller with a social cause. The untitled film, which will be a Tamil-Kannada bilingual shot in Chennai and Bengaluru, will also star Munishkanth and Ma Ka Pa Anandh. The film will be officially launched today and will go on floors from January. The makers are aiming for a Summer 2019 release. By Online Desk After claiming that he ignored Centre's instructions to install a government led by People's Conference leader Sajad Lone, Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik on Tuesday claimed that he has been facing a 'transfer threat' from Modi government. Malik, who took the state's charge three months ago, said that he might not lose his job but there was no assurance on when he would be shifted from Srinagar, reported NDTV. "As long as I'm here - it's not in my hands - I don't know when I will be transferred from here. I will not lose my job but the threat of transfer is there. As long as I'm here, I assure you people that whenever you call me I will come here to pay my tributes," Mr Malik said at a function to mark the death anniversary of Congress leader Girdhari Lal Dogra. 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 the faulty fax machine. He 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 BJP 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 Omar Abdullah 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 15 days. 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. (With Inputs From PTI) By ANI CHANDIGARH: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader Indresh Kumar has criticised the three-Judge bench of the Supreme Court which had on October 29 adjourned the Ayodhya title suit till January 2019 to fix the date of hearing in the matter. He said that the bench has "delayed" justice and "disrespected" the Constitution. Referring to the Chief Justice of India-led bench's decision to defer hearing on the Ayodhya matter, Indresh at an event here said: "I haven't taken names because 125 crore Indians know their names. The three-judge bench. they delayed, they denied, they disrespected. They have disrespected the Constitution and fundamental rights." Kumar claimed that the Modi government is planning to bring a law on the Ayodhya dispute but has been silent in view of the Model Code of Conduct for the ongoing state assembly polls The top court adjourned the matter which challenged the Allahabad High Court ruling of 2010. The 2010 verdict had divided the disputed land in Ayodhya into three parts for each of the parties -- the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla. RSS, Vishva Hindu Parishad and Shiv Sena had on Sunday organised events at various places in Ayodhya, Nagpur, and Bengaluru highlighting the growing demand for the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya. By PTI NEW DELHI 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 news 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 news 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. By PTI NEW DELHI: India on Wednesday termed Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's reference to Kashmir during the ground breaking ceremony of the Kartarpur corridor "deeply regrettable" and said he chose to politicise a pious moment. The Ministry of External Affairs said Jammu and Kashmir was an "integral and inalienable" part of India. "It is deeply regrettable that the Prime Minister of Pakistan chose to politicise the pious occasion meant to realise the long pending demand of the Sikh community to develop a Kartarpur corridor by making unwarranted reference to Jammu and Kashmir which is an integral and inalienable part of India," the ministry said. ALSO READ: Imran rakes up Kashmir issue at Kartarpur, India reacts sharply It added that Pakistan must fulfil its international obligations and take effective and credible action to stop providing shelter and all kinds of support to cross-border terrorism from territories under its control. Earlier in the day, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said in Hyderabad that there will be no dialogue with Pakistan unless it desists from terrorist activities against India. She also said the Kartarpur corridor initiative -- connecting Sikh faith's founder Guru Nanak Dev's final resting place in Kartarpur to the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India's Gurdaspur district -- was not linked to the dialogue process with Pakistan. ALSO READ: Imran Khan once again extends olive branch to India, says war not an option Her comments came a day after Islamabad said it would invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the SAARC summit. "That invitation has already been given. But we are not responding to it positively. Because, as I said, that unless and until Pakistan stops terrorist activities in India, there will be no dialogue and we will not participate in SAARC," Swaraj said at a press conference. The Pakistan prime minister laid the foundation of the Kartarpur corridor linking two revered gurdwaras on either side of the border at a ceremony attended by India's Union ministers Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Singh Puri as well as Punjab minister Navtoj Singh Sidhu. "I am saying today, that our political leaders, our army, and all other institutions are all on one page. We wish to move forward, we want a civilised relationship. We have just one problem, Kashmir. If man can walk on the moon, what problems are there that we cannot resolve?" Khan asked while addressing the gathering. The much-awaited corridor between Kartarpur in Pakistan and Gurdaspur in India will facilitate visa-free movement of Indian Sikh pilgrims. Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan is located across the river Ravi, about four kilometres from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine. It was established in 1522 by Guru Nanak Dev who is believed to have spent 18 years there. The first gurdwara, Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib, was built here, where Guru Nanak is said to have died. By IANS NEW DELHI: India reacted sharply on Wednesday to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's reference to Kashmir at the Kartarpur Corridor function saying it was "unwarranted" and that he chose to politicise the pious occasion. It also said that Jammu and Kashmir is an inalienable part of India. ALSO READ: Imran Khan once again extends olive branch to India, says war not an option "It is deeply regrettable that the Prime Minister of Pakistan chose to politicise the pious occasion meant to realise the long pending demand of the Sikh community to develop Kartarpur corridor by making unwarranted reference to Jammu and Kashmir which is an integral and inalienable part of India. "Pakistan is reminded that it must fulfil its international obligations and take effective and credible action to stop providing shelter and all kind of support to cross-border terrorism from territories under its control," the spokesperson for the External Affairs Ministry said in response to queries on the issue. By PTI BENGALURU: Former president Pranab Mukherjee Wednesday expressed dissatisfaction over India's economic growth and said the country should have been a five to six trillion US dollar economy. Addressing students of Greenwood High International School on the topic 'Value of education in todays scenario,' Mukherjee said India has the potential to become a global economic power. Replying to a query on how students can contribute to India's journey to become global economic power, Mukherjee said, "India is bound to be a global economic power. Today, as I have mentioned to you, the Indian economy is worth 2.268 trillion US dollar. I am not satisfied. As a former finance minister, I think we should have done much more progress. It should have been five to six trillion US dollar economy." Recalling India's progress from the time when it was not able to even manufacture a fountain pen during the colonial era, Mukherjee said the 71 years of independence and 68 years of planning resulted in India rising to become one of the largest economies. "We are the third military power of the world," he said. Mukherjee highlighted the country's achievements in science and technology besides space research. "We are the only country till today out of 184 members of the United Nations, who succeeded in sending its orbiter to Mars in its very first attempt," Mukherjee said. To a question on how a leader should handle criticism, Mukherjee said, "Criticism is part of life, criticism is not always bad, it is not always negative." Mukherjee also emphasised on access to quality education to all. Despite calls for a boycott, Bahraini authorities announced strong voter participation, though the majority of parliamentary seats and council districts were left undecided in the first round Bahraini authorities announced the results of last weeks parliamentary and local council elections, despite calls by the opposition to boycott and government insistence there was high voter turnout. Minister of Justice, Islamic Affairs, Religious Endowments and Chairman of the National Elections Committee (NEC) Khaled bin Ali Al-Khalifa announced the election results on Monday, the fifth round of elections since constitutional reform in 2002. Al-Khalifa told a news conference that voter turnout reached 70 per cent, which is close to local and international media reports quoting Bahraini officials indicating 67 per cent turnout. This is higher than previous elections reported by pro-Manama Arab newspapers of a little more than 50 per cent, after Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society called for an election boycott. Nonetheless, voter participation is less than the first elections after the 2002 reforms, and 2006 and 2010 elections. Al-Khalifa said only nine parliamentary districts were decided in the first round, which means there will be runoffs in 31 districts next week. Only five local council seats were decided, while 25 others will be in runoffs. According to NEC figures, there were 506 candidates including 137 running for local council seats, with an unprecedented 41 female candidates. The government expects higher participation compared to 2014s 53 per cent with an opposition boycott. Some 365,000 registered voters could vote at 56 polling stations to elect 40 members of parliament, a legislative body with limited powers, while the king appoints 40 members to the Shura Council. Important legislation is passed in a joint session of both chambers which means it is difficult for the opposition to take control of the legislative process. The most seats held by the opposition was in 2006 after Al-Wefaq, representing the Shia opposition, won 20 parliamentary seats, along with a few other members. This means the opposition bloc never made up one third of the two chambers combined. According to reports by the BBC and Reuters, the majority of the population are Shias (Twelvers), while the Royal Family is Sunni. Bahrain dabbled early in parliamentary life after independence from Britain in the 1970s, but the late prince Eissa bin Salman Al-Khalifa dissolved parliament in the mid-1970s after which there was no legislative body. In the mid-1990s, this small Gulf island was rocked by protests which resulted in the government and opposition sitting together and drafting a new constitution in 2002. Since then, all parliamentary sessions finished their terms and incumbent King Hamad bin Eissa did not dissolve parliament, even after the events at Pearl Roundabout during the Arab Spring revolutions. Bahraini protests did not stop in 2011 and intermittently flare up, but the king never dissolved parliament. The government often accuses the opposition of having overseas backing, either Iran since the Islamic Revolution which overthrew Shah Mohamed Reza Pahlavi in 1979, or more recently Qatar after the quartet boycott of Doha which includes Bahrain. Manama accuses Tehran of fanning strife and tensions between Sunnis and Shias in Bahrain, and called on voters to cast their ballots to defeat the Iranian plot. Bahrain said in October that several candidates were threatened on social media by Iran to drop out of the elections. Ali Salman, the leader of Al-Wefaq, was found guilty of spying for Qatar and Sheikh Eissa Qassem, the groups godfather, was stripped of his Bahraini citizenship. Al-Wefaq and the leftist National Democratic Action Society (Waad) called for an election boycott after they were both dissolved by the government. Earlier, Minister of Interior Rashed bin Abdullah Al-Khalifa urged citizens to ignore rumours and only listen to news from trusted sources. The ministry tweeted: Text messages telling you your name is deleted and not to go vote are false. Journalists and opinion writers described calls for boycott as historic betrayal of the responsibility we are shouldering because a boycott will give the corrupt an opportunity to take control of the political scene in our country and in our region, according to Youssef Hamed, a writer in Al-Watan newspaper. Said Al-Hamad wrote in Al-Ayam newspaper: I will not boycott and I will never side with those who revolted against Bahrain and hijacked the capital while waiting for the foreigners. Boycotters say the government is the one that resorted to foreigners to suppress demands for creating a constitutional monarchy, in reference to Saudi Arabia. In the late 1960s, Bahrainis voted for an Arab and independent Bahrain when Iran wanted to annex the island, which defeated Tehrans plan. Today, parliament is a cornerstone that cannot be denied Bahrainis no matter the number of seats held by the opposition or loyalists. It is equally divided among Shia and Sunni districts, even in the view of candidates in the runoffs. Many in the local media believe that no matter the limits on parliamentary powers, they are perpetually increasing at every political crossroads. That is important. Omar Al-Hassan, director of the Gulf Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, praised the elections, describing them as the most honest in the region. *A version of this article appears in print in the 29 November, 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Bahrain: Elections go to runoffs Search Keywords: Short link: By PTI MUMBAI: 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. By PTI BENGALURU: 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 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. By Online Desk Eighty Commandos of the National Security Guard (NSG), India's elite counter-terrorism force, have now approached the Union Home Ministry as they have been spending 'Forced Holiday' for six months in Jammu and Kashmir. As per an NDTV report, the commandos, who did not take part in any single counter-terror operation in the state for the past six months, have now urged the MHA to clarify their role. The contingent has been reduced to a team of trainers for the paramilitary forces and the state police. They are currently stationed at a BSF campus in Humhama near Srinagar airport. The NSG was sent to the terror-hit state in May on the directions of National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval after security forces started losing men in high-risk operations, mostly neutralizing holed-up terrorists in densely populated localities. "It is the prerogative of a state which force they want to use in any operation, but it was on request of the state that we stationed a small unit of the NSG commandos in Srinagar. The idea was to reduce the response time (during terror attacks)," said the NSG Director General Sudeep Lakhtakia following his visit to the state where he met Governor Satya Pal Malik and police chief Dilbagh Singh. Thousands of personnel from Army and five other paramilitary forces are currently operating in the state. "There are no clear guidelines for us and we have been camping in Humhama campus for over six months now," said a senior NSG officer. Between January and November this year, the state has witnessed 450 terror incidents, an all-time highest figure. At least two terror-related incidents are reported everyday on an average, mostly in Srinagar and South Kashmir. The forces, however, have neutralised 230 militants while losing 85 of their men. "There is a thick presence of security forces on the ground. There is no immediate need to add yet another force," said a senior home ministry official. By Express News Service NEW DELHI: In a setback for the Nitish Kumar government, the Supreme Court on Wednesday put the CBI in charge of investigating all cases of child sexual abuse at 17 shelter homes in Bihar. Rejecting the Bihar governments request for more time to show progress in the investigation, a bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur said, What are we supposed to do if the state does nothing? Just keep asking for status reports? Sorry. READ HERE: SC pulls up Bihar government n Muzaffarpur, the CBI is already investigating allegations of sexual assault on several children. Wednesdays order will enable it to probe 16 additional shelter homes, which were indicted in a social audit report by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. The bench asked the CBI to take over the probe from the Bihar police and submit its first status report by January 31. It also said no CBI officer probing the shelter home cases shall be transferred without permission from the court. The CBIs lawyer was initially hesitant to take over the probe, saying the agency may not be able to proceed as another bench of the Supreme Court had restrained the interim CBI director from taking major policy decisions. The bench told the lawyer to get instructions afresh since this probe had nothing to do with the restraining order. Five minutes later, the CBI lawyer said the agency was willing to take over the probe. The CBIs counsel also said they would file a chargesheet in the Muzaffarpur case by December 7. By PTI SRINAGAR: LeT terrorist Naveed Jhutt, who was killed in an encounter on Wednesday, was a Pakistani national, Director General of Police Dilbagh Singh said, adding that they will write to the Union Home ministry to inform Islamabad to take his body. Jhutt, who was wanted in connection with the assassination of journalist Shujaat Bukhari and had escaped from custody in February, was killed in an encounter in central Kashmir's Budgam district Wednesday morning. "We'll be writing to the ministry of home affairs to informing Pakistan to take the body," Singh told PTI. He said Jhutt, a Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist, had managed to give them the slip in six different encounters but the forces finally managed to pin him down on Wednesday. Kanu Sarda By Express News Service NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday emphasised the use of technology for gathering evidence in criminal cases, while upholding the conviction of 70 of the 89 persons who were each awarded a five-year jail term by a trial court for rioting and burning houses during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Justice R K Gauba, in his 79-page ruling, said, "The manner of prosecution of the case at hand would undoubtedly go down in the judicial history of this country as an example of criminal law process that must never be emulated. From this perspective, and in the expectation that those at the helm draw lessons from here, one hopes that this case is never forgotten." ALSO READ | 1984 anti-Sikh riots: Delhi HC upholds trial court convictions in 1984 case The court suggested and expressed hope that the legislature would consider enacting a special law to deal with such crimes effectively and quickly, and also suggested reforms, such as amending the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952, and the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, to entrust such bodies with the responsibility of taking note of cognisable offences committed in communal riots, investigating through special investigating teams under their control, and overseeing prosecution through special public prosecutor(s) engaged by them. "The law on the subject of communal riots cannot be a complete answer to the challenge unless it also establishes special courts with suitable amendments to the general criminal law procedure as indeed the rules of evidence," the high court suggested. It also said that since the media was the fourth pillar of democracy, press reports supported by photographic material and video footage may be utilised as evidence in trials of criminal cases arising from communal riots. "It is indeed a matter of lament that there has been no meaningful thought spared till date to usher in reforms in the judicial process to effectively deal with cases of communal riots which are engineered, more often than not, by those who have clout or influence- of various kind," the order reads. Manish Anand By Express News Service NEW DELHI: With heart in socialist traditions, but political career lately in saffron stable, Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik appears steeped in ideological contradictions, as he purportedly wondered in Jammu on Wednesday if he wouldn't be transferred soon to another state. "I don't know how long I'm here. I may not be stripped of position, but I don't know how long I would stay in current assignment," Malik said in Jammu. His associates noted that Malik still carries the socialist "flamboyance" and so he wouldn't be bending his back to save his chair. Malik in a viral video clip on the social media purportedly was heard saying in Jammu that he didn't know how long he would stay in his current assignment. Apparently picked by Union Minister for Home Affairs Rajnath Singh for the tricky role of the J&K Governor vacated by long serving bureaucrat N N Vohra, Malik was seen the right choice to break ice in the Kashmir valley and give a fillip to Centre's hope to cut down on alienation among the youth. Socialist politicians have arguably demonstrated the art to make swift adjustments, sometimes contradicting themselves, to suit expectations, and the BJP leaders claimed that Malik could well steer the state to the prospects of Assembly elections along with the Lok Sabha polls next year. In Gwalior, he sought to salvage his image by asserting that had he been indeed a "Yes Man" of the Centre he would have sworn in Sajjad Lone as the chief minister of the state. "Malik in his youth took political plunge in the shadow of Ram Manohar Lohiya and Raj Narain. Afterwards, he came close to former Prime Minister Charan Singh. For three and a half decades, Malik idolised Abdullah, swore by Article 370, only to take the saffron robe in 2004 when he contested on BJP ticket against Ajit Singh of the RLD in 2004. He's caught in a moral dilemma currently," said a senior socialist politician with parallel political trajectory in the western Uttar Pradesh. Malik has tasted all political waters of the country. "As part of the socialist movement, Malik plunged in the JP (Jai Prakash Narayan) movement, joined ranks with former Prime Minister V P Singh, went to Samajwadi Party, and even spent time in the Congress. With stint in the BJP, Malik has left no political space untouched," said another contemporary politician of the J &K Governor. All socialists, including Malik, looked upon "Lion of Kashmir" Sheikh Abdullah as a hero since he spent maximum years in jails, besides swearing in on Article 370 as a moral commitment, said a long time associate of Jammu and Kashmir, who added that the J&K Governor is now torn between his heart and mind. By PTI BENGALURU: Ambassador of France to India Alexandre Ziegler Wednesday said there was no 'scandal' associated with the Rafale deal. Pointing out at the 'cooperation' and 'trust' shared between both India and France, he asked people to look at the facts. "What scandal? Just look at the facts, not at the tweets, that's my only recommendation. There is no scandal at all," Ziegler said in response to a question on whether the alleged Rafale scandal has made any dent in the partnership that France has with India. ALSO READ | Mr Modi personally increased benchmark price of Rafale jets by 3 billion euros: Rahul Gandhi Speaking to reporters here on the sidelines of the launch of French Tech Community here, he said, "Look at the track record, look at the trust that has been built between our two countries in aeronautics. Look at their commitment for Make in India, which is impressive. Fifty per cent offset is very unique, look at the major procurement." To a question about political comments regarding HAL losing potential jobs because of the Rafale deal, Ziegler questioned whether HAL has made any comments about losing jobs. "Did they tell you that they have lost jobs? I dont know what potential jobs are, he said, as he pointed out that there is a 50 per cent offset clause in the Rafale contract, which is about four billion Euros or about Rs 30,000 crore that is going to be invested in Make in India. "That's huge (amount) and there will be room for hundreds of companies, including HAL, which has had a very fruitful historical cooperation with French companies," he added. The Ambassador also noted that all major French companies would be participating in Aero India, scheduled for February 20-24 in Bengaluru. "Our companies will be there. I cant tell you how many, but all our major companies will be there,"Ziegler said. Stating that almost all major French players have been investing in India for years now, he said, "we have had long cooperation with India. Companies like Airbus, Thales, Dassault have been sourcing in this country. Transfer of technology has been happening for decades." ALSO READ | Rahul Gandhi challenges PM Modi to 15 minutes debate over Rafale deal It's very very "historical cooperation" between India and France, he said, adding that we have not waited Make in India to be launched. "Our companies have been making in India for decades now. Transfer of technology has been happening." he said. The Congress has accused the government of forcing Dassault Aviation to make Reliance Defence its offset partner for the Rs 58,000 crore deal to purchase 36 Rafale jets. The party has alleged that the government was helping the Anil Ambani group get a contract worth Rs 30,000 crore from the deal. However, the Reliance Group has said that Dassault Aviation's investment in Reliance Airport Developers Limited has no link with the Rafale fighter jet deal, and has accused Congress of resorting to "blatant lies" for political gains. Avay Shukla By These last few weeks have had a bizarre quality to them, almost a Kafkaesque experience, with doses of Lewis Carroll, Ian Fleming, John Le Carre and George Orwell thrown in. The two high profile cases with the Supreme CourtRafale and CBIare testing the patience of both the court and the citizens of a country waiting with bated breath for some Daniels to finally come to judgment. Rafale is clearly headed nowhere, and will soon be lost in the cumulonimbus clouds of defence secrecy, Official Secrets Act, technicalities over weaponry, and the residual blame game over Bofors. We will have no closure till the sonic boom heralding the arrival of the first of the 36 planes next year. The CBI case, however, is much closer to our hearts because these are the guys who can walk into your house tomorrow and arrest you for having doodled on a file 15 years ago. And so we want to, and are fully entitled to, know exactly what is happening in that famous cage inhabited by sleuths owing allegiance to all kinds of political and dubious entities. The CBI at the moment most resembles a Mafia organisation, with different groups reporting to their own capos, keeping surveillance over each other, accusing each other of criminal wrongdoing and promoting a new model of organisational bonding. India has not seen this kind of internecine bloodletting since the time of the Mughals, and so we want to know more of this synthesis of Mughal-e-Azam and Godfather. And we dont want the courts to play spoilsport with our right to know. On November 20, the court took umbrage at media reports revealing the gist of the charges made by Manish Sinha, DIG in the CBI, against a minister and many senior officers, alleging bribery and interference in sensitive cases. It was also livid at the leaking of Alok Vermas reply to the CVCs show-cause notice to him. So angry was the chief justice that he refused to allow any lawyer to speak and abruptly adjourned the case without assigning a reason. With all due respect and deference, one cannot agree with this line of action. In the first place, its almost a month since Verma was removed unceremoniously in a midnight coup: he immediately filed a petition in the SC against this. Prima facie, this was clearly illegal; it violated the amended provision of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act and an SC order. He could have been divested of his position only by the collegium of the PM, CJI and Leader of the Opposition. A month later and there is still no decision on his petition, and one month of his remaining tenure of three months has already been lopped off. Instead, the court has busied itself with tangential matters such as the charges against him and his replies to them. The petitioner has been put in the dock! These could surely have been examined after settling the legality of his removal. The government appears to be slowly achieving through the back door what it should not have been allowed to do through the front. The developments of November 20 culminating in the CJIs outburst, You dont deserve a hearing, are even more disappointing as they are further extending what SC advocate Gautam Bhatia in a brilliant article in another paper calls the jurisprudence of the sealed cover. His piece was penned in the context of the Rafale case but is equally pertinent here, because the court is insisting on the same confidentiality here. He points out that the sealed cover is being resorted to time and again by the courtRafale, NRC case, Judge Loya case and now the CBI case. He is critical of this process because it is a court-driven opaque and secret process. Why lower a curtain of secrecy over the CBI case? Here is a premier organisation investigating the most important economic and criminal cases, its seniormost officers are at war with each other, its politicisation nearly complete, its functionaries appearing to indulge in large-scale corruption. Why should the public not be told about this dangerous state of affairs, all being carried out on the taxpayers money? Surely we are entitled to be told what the charges against various CBI officers are, and what their responses are? Why should we not be informed of the names of bureaucrats and politicians named by Sinha in his petition? The CBIs reputation is more important than the reputations of a few individuals. This is not a matter that concerns the judiciary alone; the ordinary citizen is even more concerned because it is he who votes for that politician, pays the salaries of these bureaucrats, and has to deal with these policemen on a daily basis. Unlike the Rafale imbroglio, there are no questions of defence strategy, external relations or security of the nation involved here. The jurisprudence of the sealed cover is a deviation from the settled principles of law. It imposes an opacity in what should be a transparent process; it confers a protection on the state and its minions which can only embolden them; it infantilises the public (Bhatias apt phrase) because it assumes they are not mature or intelligent enough to make up their own minds. It smacks of a big brother mindset premised on the belief that only an instrumentality of the state can be trusted with sensitive information. It also betrays a contradiction in the courts own stand: once it admits a petition it acknowledges that some public interest is involved in it, how then can it deny relevant information on the case to the same public?The right of the citizen to know what the government and its agencies are doing has to be paramount in a democracy. The courts are an instrumentality to enforce this right, not to deny it. 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. Senior members of President Donald Trump's Cabinet urged U.S. senators on Wednesday not to downgrade ties with Saudi Arabia over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, saying it would be a mistake for national security and would not push Saudis in a better direction at home. After repeated calls from members of Congress for a strong U.S. response, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis briefed the Senate behind closed doors about Saudi Arabia and the Oct. 2 murder of Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, and on the civil war in Yemen. "The October murder of Saudi national Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey has heightened the Capitol Hill caterwauling and media pile-on. But degrading U.S.-Saudi ties would be a grave mistake for the national security of the U.S. and its allies," Pompeo wrote in a blog post released shortly before the briefing. Trump last week vowed to remain a "steadfast partner" of Saudi Arabia and said it was not clear whether the prince knew about the plan to kill Khashoggi. Those comments further angered members of the U.S. Congress, including some of Trump's fellow Republicans, who have demanded an investigation of potential involvement by the crown prince. Gulf Arab states have been battling in Yemen since 2015 to restore a government driven out by the Houthis, Shia Muslim fighters that Yemen's neighbours view as agents of Iran. The war has killed more than 10,000 people and created the world's most urgent humanitarian emergency. Pompeo said the United States would provide an additional $131 million for food aide in Yemen. In his remarks, which were released as the meeting with lawmakers began, Mattis said pulling back U.S. military support in Yemen and stopping weapons sales to important partners would be misguided. "Our security interests cannot be dismissed, even as we seek accountability for what President (Donald) Trump described as the "unacceptable and horrible crime" of Jamal Khashoggi's murder, a crime which "our country does not condone," Mattis said in his prepared remarks. Pompeo made the case that the Saudis are too important an ally to lose, citing the country's help to contain Iran in the region, secure democracy in Iraq and fight the Islamic State and other militant groups. "The kingdom is a powerful force for stability in the Middle East," he wrote. "Saudi Arabia, like the U.S. - and unlike these critics - recognizes the immense threat the Islamic Republic of Iran poses to the world." In his prepared remarks, also released as the briefing took place, Pompeo said stopping refueling and other support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen "would do immense damage" to the interests of the United States and its allies and partners in the Middle East. The conflict is seen as a proxy war between Saudia Arabia and Iran. "The first mission is to assist the Saudis and the Emiratis in their fight against Iranian-backed Houthi fighters. This conflict isn't optional for Saudi Arabia, and abandoning it puts American interests at risk too," Pompeo said. The Senate is due to hold a procedural vote later on Wednesday on a measure that would end U.S. support for the conflict in Yemen. Search Keywords: Short link: IYR Krishna Rao By It is more than four years since Andhra Pradesh was reorganised leading to the creation of the State of Telangana and leaving the balance region as the residuary State of Andhra Pradesh. The bifurcation was against the popular sentiment in the Andhra region and to placate the public opinion there, a number of promises were incorporated in the Reorganisation Act and also announced as part of the statement of the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the floor of Parliament. It may be worthwhile to take a look at what is promised and what is implemented and the balance that needs to be fulfilled by the Government of India in this regard. In this article, I will deal with making good the revenue deficit gap as envisaged in Section 46 of the Act and the statement of Prime Minister on the floor of Parliament. It is Section 46 of the Act, which provides for the Central government to make a reference to the 14th Finance Commission to make an award to both the new States. Accordingly, the reference was made to the 14th Finance Commission and having examined the impact of the division, they determined Telangana to be a revenue surplus State and did not recommend any revenue deficit grants, but made a recommendation of `21,113 crore for a five-year period between 2015-2020 to Andhra Pradesh. In fact, other than the North Eastern states, Andhra Pradesh was the only State to get revenue deficit grants for all the five years of the 14th Finance Commission award. This was a generous dispensation given to put the finances of the State on a sound footing, provided the government was prudent and careful with reference to its expenditure. That still left a revenue gap for the year 2014-15 since the 14th Finance Commission award is from 2015 to 2020. Though this also finds a mention in Section 46, it was further elaborated in the statements of the then Prime Minister on the floor of the Parliament. The former Prime Minister said the resource gap that may arise in the successor State of Andhra Pradesh in the very first year, especially during the period between the appointed date and the award of the Finance Commission, would be compensated in the Union Budget for 2014-15. Even before the division of the State, the Governor of Andhra Pradesh made an assessment that this deficit is likely to be around `16,000 crore. But contrary to the estimates made by the Governor, revenues were buoyant and expenditure was under control and by December 2014, it was evident that deficit may not cross `3,000 to `4,000 crore. It was only from January that the State government started booking expenditure on different electoral promises and was able to boost up the revenue deficit to `16,078 crore with a confidence not based on reality that they would be able to realise it from the Government of India. When, accordingly, proposals were sent to the Government of India, they scrutinised them and were willing to make good normal deficit consequent to bifurcation of the State, but not incurred on fulfilment of electoral promises since that can lead to such demands from other States as well. The normal deficit after excluding expenditure incurred on the electoral promises was assessed at `4,117 crore. They also put forward an alternative stating that since the 14th Finance Commission for 2015-16 normatively assessed deficit of the State at `6,609 crore, they were willing to consider that as the base and release proportionately for the 10 months from June 2014 till the end of the financial year. The State government was unrelenting in its demand to make good the total `16,078 crore, which the Government of India was not willing to accept. Finally, when one Sudhakar Reddy filed a case in the Supreme Court regarding implementation of the promises made at the time of the division of the State, the Government of India has gone on record stating that under this head what is due to the State government is only `4,117 crore. As could be seen, the State government tried to make the Government of India pay for its electoral promises, but without success. This, in fact, is the difference between the perception and reality with reference to making good the revenue deficit gap for Andhra Pradesh post division. There are other sections dealing with promises about establishment of educational institutions, infrastructure projects and grant for the backward areas, which Ill be dealing with in another article. (The author is former Chief Secretary and member of the BJP) By Express News Service VIJAYAWADA: Maoists triggered a landmine targeting police combing party in an interior village of G Madugula Mandal of Visakhapatnam under the Andhra Odisha Border (AOB) region. Though there were no casualties in the blast, a tribal man passing near the explosion place suffered minor injuries. Soon after the blast, police and Maoists were engaged in an exchange of fire. According to information reaching here, Maoists planted the landmine targeting the under construction police outpost at interior Nurmathi village, some 40 km from G Madugula mandal headquarters. Around 9 pm, a police combing party reached the place and seeing the police, the Maoists tried to flee. Police chased the Maoists for some distance and as they reached the place where the landmine was planted, it was triggered but the police personnel escaped unhurt. Police opened fire on the fleeing Maoists which was retaliated by the latter. The exchange of fire is on till last reports came in. Police officials suspect that the Maoists triggered the landmine to stop the construction of the police outpost. Additional reinforcements are rushed to the remote area, district police officials said. The AOB and Visakhapatnam agency was witnessing an uneasy calm since the gunning down of TDP MLA Kideri Sarveswara Rao and former MLA Siveri Soma in September at Dumbriguda. By Express News Service BENGALURU/CHENNAI: Locked in a confrontation with Tamil Nadu over utilisation of Cauvery waters, Karnataka heaved a sigh of relief on Tuesday with the Central Water Commission (CWC) clearing the feasibility report of Mekedatu project in the Cauvery basin that would cater to the drinking water needs of Bengaluru for the decades ahead. Karnataka has appealed to Tamil Nadu not to raise any objections for the project and assured that Karnataka was ready to clear its apprehensions. According to the Feasibility report of the Karnataka government, the Rs 5,912cr project includes a balancing reservoir with a storage capacity of 66tmcft at Mekedatu in Kanakapura taluk of Ramanagaram district, about 90km from Bengaluru. It will have provision to generate about 400MW of power, apart from meeting the drinking water needs of Bengaluru, Ramanagaram and other towns. The reservoir will store only excess water after releasing Tamil Nadus share during copious rains, which otherwise will drain into Bay of Bengal. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday to instruct the CWC to withdraw the permission given to Karnataka as it was in violation of the Cauvery Tribunal final award. The proposal for the reservoir is not just for drinking water... but also to increase the extent of irrigation, which is in violation of the Tribunal Award, the letter said. Water Resources Minister D K Shivakumar said, The project is meant for only drinking water purpose. There will not be any impact on the water to be released to TN. Shivakumar stated that Karnataka was ready to hold talks with Tamil Nadu to clear their apprehensions about the project. He hailed it as a major victory for the sustained efforts of the coalition government to implement the project. Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy had recently met PM Modi and Union Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari and tried to convince them that the project would not harm the interests of Tamil Nadu. The CM had also written repeatedly to Gadkari in this regard, Shivakumar pointed out. The project is seen as a must have in the state to meet the future drinking water needs of Bengaluru, which is growing at a rapid rate into a global hub of IT, BT, Artificial Intelligence and Aviation. Bengaluru had an allocation of about 19tmcft for its drinking water and other domestic purposes by the Cauvery River Water Disputes Tribunal. The Supreme Court had in February this year upheld Karnatakas request for a higher allocation for the metro city and allocated an additional 4.20 tmcft. Project useful for both states According to former law minister T B Jayachandra, who had pursued the project vigorously in the previous Siddaramaiah government, the project will utilise the excess water that is available after ensuring the release of Tamil Nadus share of 192tmcft of water annually during the years of copious monsoons. We will not draw even a drop of Tamil Nadus share of water. The proposed reservoir will store only the excess water that flows down the KRS reservoir during the years of good monsoon. Historically 30tmcft to 260tmcft of excess water has flowed to Tamil Nadu during bountiful monsoon years. We will utilise this excess water, Jayachandra explained. The project will be beneficial for both the states as it will help more regulated use of water during excess monsoon years when the flow becomes erratic and huge quantum of water flows to the ocean without being used by either states, Jayachandra said. George Poikayil By Express News Service KASARGOD: Last month, when the Kerala Public Service Commission (PSC) declared the examination results for the posts of high school assistant (Social Studies), Mansoor Ali K had come ninth across the state. He immediately wrote to the commission to delete his name from the rank list. For Ali, the examination was a lesson to achieve a greater goal. He cleared 51 out of the 61 PSC examinations he wrote since 2010. The results of the rest of the examinations were yet to come, he said. Meet Mansoor Ali, the special superintendent of Kasargod Sub-Jail. Just 31 years old. The man who fittingly claims to know the pulse of the PSC. He is a well-regarded guide on social media and runs two Facebook pages, PSC Thriller and You Too Can Become An LDC, which have more than one lakh avid followers. The two pages routinely update their followers with everything related to PSC from notifications and qualifications to question papers and codes to crack them. His grip over the PSC examination is so strong that the commission is accused of lifting questions from his Facebook pages. For an LDC examination held in 2017, 70 of the 100 questions that came were available on my Facebook page, said the soft-spoken jailer. From jobs that require a basic qualification of class VII to secretariat assistant and jailor and sub-inspector, Ali has cracked all the examinations. Ali, who has a masters in history, cleared the first PSC test in 2010, soon after completing BEd. He joined the Kerala Polices India Reserve Battalion, raised to fight insurgency. But five months into the training in Thrissur, I quit promising myself never to wear khaki, he said. But in five years, he is back donning the khaki again. Maybe god has some other plans for me, he said. Ali came second in the jailors test in 2015. The first rank holder did not take up the job, and Ali joined as the senior-most cadet in his batch. With age on his side, he can rise up to the rank of deputy inspector general in the department. But his heart lies in teaching. My dream is to teach history in college. But after I cleared the NET (National Eligibility Test) in 2013, the PSC has not yet called for assistant professors post in the subject, he said. I am waiting, said Ali, a native of Edathanattukara, on the border of Palakkad and Malappuram. Rigorous practice After his shift ends in the prison, Ali returns to his apartment in Vidyanagar and starts working on question papers and uploads them on his Facebook pages. You can find more than 7,000 solved question papers on the pages. And I upload questions which have a high probability to be asked in the examinations. I know the pulse of the PSC, he said. His followers attest to it. I had almost given up on PSC (when I found you), Harikrishnan M Pai, a physics graduate from Thrissur, wrote on the Facebook page. Tough childhood Alis father, Mohammed Kutty, died when he was 10 years old, and mother, Ayesha K, died when he was 17. He was raised by his elder brothers, who are much older than him. Aboobacker K , 52, and Abdulla K, 48, are lower primary school teachers. Right from the time I developed memory, both were teachers. When I grew up I too wanted to get a job. Given a choice, a teacher, he said. He started writing PSC examinations at the age of 18 years. I cleared the constable examination without much preparation. Thats when I realised I can crack any PSC examination with a little effort. And then it became a craze, he said. Score card of Mansoor Ali K Ajay Kanth By Express News Service KOCHI: Throwing up a big challenge to enforcement agencies, women from Kerala, who had gone with their family members to Afghanistan and Yemen, allegedly to join Islamic State (IS) in Syria, have started to return to Kerala. A woman has already reached Kasargod where she approached the police two weeks ago complaining that her husband, who was still camping in Yemen, refused to allow her to take her two children when she decided to head back home. The Intelligence Bureau (IB) and National Investigation Agency (NIA) were analysing the development as there were inputs that a large number of women and minors who have been part of the groups camping in different regions of Afghanistan, Yemen and Syria are returning to their homes after the fall of IS in its strongholds. ALSO READ | Intel agencies on alert as Islamic State modules in Kerala switch to Wickr app While male members of the group are reluctant to return, females and children are heading back to their home countries. The UK and the US have upped the surveillance in the wake of a few women making attempts to return to Britain, said a senior intelligence officer. Kasargod District Police Chief in-charge K M Tomy confirmed receiving the complaint from the woman seeking support to get her two children from her husbands custody. We spoke to women in detail and have taken up the matter with higher-ups, he said. Refusing to divulge more details about the woman, intelligence officers said they had done debriefing of the woman. Usually, none is allowed to leave the group. But in the womans case, her husband allowed her to return. As per our initial assessment, the group in which the woman belonged to was camping in Yemen. They claimed that they were in Yemen for religious studies, officers said. ALSO READ | Names of more Keralites who joined IS in Syria emerge in NIA document The agencies are keeping close watch as a study report of International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, Kings College London found that 4,761 (13 per cent) of 41,490 foreign citizens who became affiliated with IS in Iraq and Syria between April 2013 and June 2018 were women. The report said 850 British citizens became affiliated with IS in Iraq and Syria, which included 145 women and 50 minors. Another officer said We can expect more women and minors reaching back after living in IS strongholds. It was in June 2018 that 11 people, including six children and three women from Kasargod, were reported missing by one of the father of a woman in the group. Though one of the members in the group claimed that they had left for Yemen for religious studies, there were no further information about them. Earlier in July 2016, 13 people from Kasargod and eight from Palakkad were reported missing under similar circumstances but were later traced to an Islamic State (IS) group in Afghanistan. Study report to agencies aid The agencies are keeping close watch as a study report of International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, Kings College London found that 4,761 (13 per cent) of 41,490 foreign citizens who became affiliated with IS in Iraq and Syria between April 2013 and June 2018 were women. By PTI THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Congress-led UDF Opposition Wednesday lambasted the ruling CPI(M) over restrictions imposed by police at Sabarimala, even as Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said it was to ensure a smooth pilgrimage for "real" devotees. Armed with placards and banners, the Opposition members tried to interrupt the proceedings of the House as soon as it met and demanded the withdrawal of the prohibitory orders invoked in and around Sabarimala 'Sannidhanam', the temple complex. Some members even tried to climb Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan's podium and argued with him, demanding scrapping of the Question Hour to take up the adjournment motion over Sabarimala, considering the gravity of the subject. As the protest continued, the speaker stopped the proceedings for around an hour before the beginning of the 'Zero' hour (members can, with prior notice to the Speaker, raise issues of importance during this time). Justifying the police restrictions at the Ayyappa temple, Vijayan said the CPI(M)-led LDF government had no agenda to destroy the faith of devotees. He said the Sangh Parivar forces were trying to implement a "pre-planned agenda" at the Lord Ayyappa shrine to check the real devotees there and the government could not give perpetrators of violence a free hand. Dismissing the charge that the Left government had shown "hastiness" in implementing the Supreme Court verdict permitting entry of women of menstrual age into the shrine, Vijayan said that as a responsible and law-abiding government, it had no way other than implementing the order. "A small group, in the guise of devotees, had tried to prevent real pilgrims and unleash violence in the name of belief. It is the responsibility of police to check the recurrence of violence," the chief minister said. The government cannot allow Sabarimala to be turned into a centre of violence, he said, adding that police actions were not against devotees, but to protect and help them. "All steps, taken by the police and the government, including the imposition of prohibitory orders, are in accordance with the law. The restrictions at the shrine were inevitable to ensure smooth darshan for real devotees and cannot be withdrawn in the present circumstance of possible threats," Vijayan said. Due to the effective intervention of police, no violent incidents occurred at Sabarimala after it was opened for the Mandalam-Makaravilakku festival on November 16, he said. The chief minister also alleged that the stand taken by the Congress-led UDF on the Sabarimala issue amounted to "supporting and promoting" those who tried to run riot at the Ayyappa shrine. Seeking notice for the adjournment motion, former Devaswom (temple administration) minister and Congress legislator V S Sivakumar said it was "police raj" at Sabarimala and it would destroy one of the rare pilgrim centres known for its secular traditions. Police were chasing away devotees and not allowing them to perform rituals like "neyyabhishekam" (ghee offering), he said. Besides the restrictions, lack of adequate toilets, rest rooms and dearth of safe drinking water also were causing hardships to the devotees. "This government is trying to impose the stand of atheists on believers and destroy the Lord Ayyappa temple. Otherwise, why did not you go for a review petition against the September 28 (supreme court) verdict?" Sivakumar asked. He also accused Vijayan of allegedly highlighting the actions of the BJP in the Sabarimala issue to destroy the Congress party. When the speaker denied permission for the motion, the Opposition trooped into the well of the House and raised slogans. As they did not heed his repeated requests to return to their seats, he took up other businesses and adjourned the House for the day. Meanwhile, Kerala Jana Paksham leader P C George and lone BJP MLA O Rajagopal, who had decided to cooperate on the Sabarimala issue in the House, came wearing black clothes as a mark of solidarity with Ayyappa devotees who are opposing the government's decision to implement the apex court order. The hill shrine has been witnessing protests by devotees and right-wing groups on the matter. By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: UDF convenor Benny Behanan has said the government has declared section 144 in Sabarimala to cover up its failures in providing basic facilities there. He was speaking to reporters after the UDF meeting here on Tuesday. The UDF leader said no basic facility is in place in Sabarimala and there is total chaos and as the government wants to cover this up, it has gone for section 144 to create a fear psychosis among the devotees so that they dont go to the hill shrine. Behanan said that during the recent fact-finding visit of the UDF team, several discrepancies were found and even the flood wastes were not removed. He demanded the immediate lifting of section 144 and to facilitate a smooth darshan for pilgrims. The senior Congress leader said even policemen had narrated their woes to the UDF team and mentioned that for 100 policemen there is a single toilet and this is creating problems. Behanan said the maximum number of devotees who reached the Sabarimala sannidhanam during this season on a single day was 40,000 which is less than a quarter of what was seen during the last pilgrim season. The senior leader said the government had deliberately created a fear psychosis using police force and the UDF will go for strong agitations within and outside the Assembly. He called upon the police to register a case against P K Sasi MLA and conduct the legal process as the party commission itself has found that the MLA has conducted wrongdoing on the women in the alleged sexual advance case and suspended him from the primary membership of the party for six months. Behanan said the Higher Education Minister K T Jaleel should immediately resign on nepotism charges. Police duty-bound to maintain law and order: HC Kochi: The court said there is no excess or any undesirable activities on the part of any person coming for pilgrimage. The police are duty-bound to maintain law and order without crossing the borders and within the four walls of law. The conduct of namajapam or chanting of saranamanthram by a group of devotees does not amount to any protest or any unlawful activities or instigating others to indulge in unlawful activities. Justifying the reasonable restrictions, the court permitted chanting of saranamanthra and namajapam during the pilgrimage. In an affidavit, the state police chief stated that the nadapandal had repeatedly been taken over by protesters of certain outfits, including a large number of women. There were concerted attempts by the groups to take over control of nadapandal. The court held that the nadapandal was constructed as a resting place for pilgrims. Children, women, ailing people and senior citizens should be allowed to take rest at nadapanthal. There is a chance for the crowd to mobilise at nadapanthal whenever young women come for darshan. The court ordered to segregate pilgrims coming for darshan and the pilgrims at nadapanthal. HC flayed police for issuing unnecessary orders Kochi: Coming down heavily on the police for issuing several orders curtailing the rights of pilgrims, High Court has asked the state police chief, who gave power to the police controller to issue orders. When Advocate General C P Sudhakaraprasad completed his argument in the cases related to police high-handedness, the court handed over three orders issued by the police to AG after opening the temple for the festival. The orders include a direction to the Travancore Devaswom Board to close down all rooms and hand over the keys to the police on November 16. After verification, AG replied that the orders were withdrawn on the same day itself. The High Court condemned the action of a senior police officer deployed at Nilakkal for blocking a sitting judge of HC during his Sabarimala pilgrimage. The court said that it was a misbehavior on the part of the officer and the court knows how to deal it. The Devaswom Bench said that it was about to take suo motu case in this regard making that police officer a respondent. The judge concerned said the officer broke down in tears as he apologised. Later the court decided not to precipitate the issue and avoided the proceedings. Thats the magnanimity of the High Court, observed the Bench. Karnataka MLA, MP seek removal of prohibitory order Sabarimala: Karnataka pilgrim team, headed by Central Bengaluru MP P C Mohanan and former Law Minister S Sureshkumar MLA, has sought immediate lifting of prohibitory orders imposed at Sannidhanam, Pampa and Nilackal. P C Mohanan and S Suereshkumar told reporters here on Tuesday that the pilgrims were coming to Lord Ayyappa temple in groups, hence the restrictions would prevent the pilgrims in coming here to worship. Devaswom seeks removal of barricades at Lower Thirumuttom Sabarimala: Devaswom authorities have sought the immediate removal of the barricades at Lower Thirumuttom for ensuring the free movement of pilgrims to prasadam counters and depositing money in the Valiyakanikka near the staff gate on the northeast side of the temple. The removal of barricades was raised by devaswom executive officer D Sudheesh Kumar on Monday at the joint meeting of various government departments and Sannidhanam special police officer. The issue was brought to the attention of the joint meeting following a steep fall in revenue from the sale of prasadam with the barricades making it difficult for pilgrims to reach out to the other side of the Lower thirumuttom where the prasadam counters are located. The manufacture of appam prasadam came to a standstill as there are 2 lakh packets of buffer stock and the sale of the prasadam has been poor. The daily production of aravana prasadam which has also seen a fall in sales, was brought down to only 30,000 containers a day, as against the capacity of 2 lakh containers. The production was brought down as there is buffer stock of 26 lakh containers. Observers to bring back normalcy in Sabarimala Kochi: In the wake of severe criticism against tight policing in Sannidhanam allegedly causing hardship to devotees, the Kerala High Court on Tuesday appointed a panel of observers, that includes two retired judges of the Kerala High Court and a police officer in the rank of DGP to suggest the ways and means and to have an overall view to bring back normalcy in Sabarimala. Justice P R Raman, ombudsman, Travancore and Cochin Devaswom Boards, Justice S Sirijagan, chairman, High-Power Committee on the Sabarimala master plan, and DGP Hemachandran, head of Fire and Rescue Services Department, are the panel members. The observers shall oversee that no excesses are committed by the police. The Sabarimala Special Commissioner shall coordinate things and bring all aspects before the team of observers appointed for the management of the festival during the current season, held the court. Speaker denies permission for private Bill on Sabarimala TPuram: Attempts by the Congress to bring in a legislation before the Assembly to overcome the Supreme Court verdict allowing women of all ages to Sabarimala temple, has been thwarted. Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan denied permission for Kovalam MLA M Vincent to present a private Bill seeking special religious denomination status for Ayyappa devotees, terming it anti-constitutional. Vincent proposed to declare the devotees as a special denomination. SV KRISHNA CHAITANYA By Express News Service CHENNAI: In a setback to the Tamil Nadu government, the three-member independent committee appointed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to probe closure of Sterlite copper smelter unit at Thoothukudi, has called the government orders unsustainable and unjust and favoured reopening of the plant. The panel submitted the report to the NGT on November 20. The report came up before the tribunal on Wednesday. The NGT bench, headed by its Chairman Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, read out the operative part of the report during the hearing, according to which the committee said: The impugned orders of the State government cannot be sustained as it is against the principles of natural justice. No notice or opportunity of hearing was given to the appellant. The grounds mentioned in the impugned orders are not that grievous to justify permanent closure of the factory. Other issues raised also do not justify the closure of the factory even if the appellant was found to be violating the condition as/norms/directions. The committee has listed 25 conditions to be imposed upon Sterlite by the NGT, if it opines the Sterlite unit should recommence production. While, Sterlite Copper CEO P Ramnath accepted the report and said the companys stand had been vindicated, the TN government questioned the panels locus standi and termed the report lopsided. Shambu Kallolikar, Chairman, Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board and principal secretary, Environment, said the panel had overstepped its scope of inquiry and had no authority to pass judgemental views. "NGT had asked the committee to go into the material produced by the parties on the issue of environmental compliance as well as impact on inhabitants, but instead the committee seems to have taken it upon itself to decide the case," Kallolikar said. In fact, Sterlite's petition challenging government orders before the NGT is not maintainable, he said. "The GO directing permanent closure by the State government cannot be challenged in the NGT. It is a policy decision which we have taken and the pollution board has absolute authority to close down an industry which is found polluting and violating the norms under Air and Water Acts. Government decisions can be challenged only in the High Court or Supreme Court," he said, adding that the maintainability issue would be reiterated by State counsel on December 7, when the case will be coming up for final hearing. "We will knock on the doors of the Supreme Court again, if need be," he said. One of the intervenors Fatima Babu said: "It was ironical that the committee did not make any finding on pollution, hazardous waste mismanagement and greenbelt and other legal violations by Sterlite." The NGT has sent the soft copy of the committee's report to the counsel for Sterlite, State government, TNPCB and Central Pollution Control Board by e-mail. Justice Goel refused to give the report to interveners and said they were at liberty only to assist the State counsel. The NGT will hear arguments on the committee's report on December 7 and pronounce its orders. However, the Supreme Court has also directed NGT to rule on the issues of maintainability raised by TNPCB and Tamil Nadu government. Sterlite smells victory "We, as a company, have always been environmentally conscious in every aspect of our operations and have followed all the regulations laid down by law. The NGT committee has followed due process to independently investigate and hear both sides of the argument. They have submitted their report to the NGT and the operative paragraphs of the report were read out in the open court which mentioned that the orders passed by the TN government are against the principles of natural justice. As a company, we have always been concerned about the well-being of our employees, the villages in and around our plant, our stakeholders and the people of Thoothukudi and shall always remain committed to the same. We hope that the verdict will now be given soon for life to come back to normalcy for the 25,000 families impacted by the closure. We thank all stakeholders and the people of Thoothukudi for their continued support," said Ramnath in a statement. FACT FILE: 1. April 9: TNPCB rejects Sterlite's application for Consent to Operate under Air and Water Acts 2. May 22: Movement for closure for Sterlite factory turns violent on 100th day of the protest, 13 people die in police firing 3. May 23: GO passed directing TNPCB to disconnect electricity and water supply to the unit 4. May 28: The government orders sealing and permanent closure of the unit citing public interest 5. Sterlite factory in Thoothukudi closed since March 27 6. NGT to hold final hearing in the case on December 7 7. State government may approach Supreme Court, if NGT orders reopening of the factory. Key recommendations of expert committee: 1. Sterlite should be directed to monitor groundwater quality, including heavy metals such as Arsenic, Cadmium, Silver, Copper, Fluoride, etc. in and around the factory premises and nearby villages once a month and such reports should be furnished to TNPCB. The sample to be taken from groundwater to be given to TNPCB must be taken in the presence of one TNPCB official. 2. Sampling of effluent/emission and solid waste should also be done by a monitoring group to be constituted by TNPCB comprising a representative of District Collector, an official of TNPCB, NGOs and academicians. 3. Copper slag dumped at all the 11 sites, including the Uppar River should be removed. If copper slag has been used for landfill purposes, then the excess amount of the slag over and above the level of ground to be removed and the landfill should be compacted with one feet of soil, so that the copper slag is not blown away by the strong winds. 4. The dead stock of copper slag and gypsum lying in the dump yard inside the factory premises which has solidified should be removed in a time-bound manner. Further, the company should ensure that the generation and disposal of copper slag and gypsum is maintained in the ratio of 1:1 and that the Company at best can retain 10 days generation of both in its dump yard. 5. The Tamil Nadu government/ TNPCB should collect data from their primary health centres and government hospitals to monitor the various ailments that are being complained of by people living in and around the factory premises. 6. Irrespective of the norms, stack height in any case be increased in order to remove the ambiguity and the grievance of inhabitants of Thoothukudi with regard to emission of Sulpur Dioxide. Till the stack height is increased, production of copper as well as sulphuric acid should be restricted/reduced to match the existing stack height. 7. All the monitoring data, compliance reports of CTE/CTO/EC and environmental statement should be uploaded on the company's website. 8. TNPCB should be directed to commission "Regional Environmental Impact Assessment Study" in and around Thoothukudi district by engaging a reputed national agency. By Express News Service CHENNAI : Various political parties of the State have slammed the Union government for giving the approval to Karnataka government for the pre-feasibility report (PFR) for constructing a dam on the Cauvery river at Mekedatu. MK Stalin, president of DMK, condemned the BJP-led Union governments approval for the PFR for constructing a dam on Cauvery at Mekadatu at the cost of Rs 5912 crore. Stalin elaborated the permission would affect the drinking water needs and cultivation activities of the State to a large extent. Several resolutions have been adopted in the State assembly for urging not to give any permission to Karnataka, that were sent to the Union government. But, it did not consider the same, he said. CWC conditions for preparing DPR Views of other co-basin States would be taken into consideration, while preparing the DPR so that interstate issues can be resolves amicably As the main objective of this project as stated in PFR is to implement the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal (CWDT) award as modified by the SC, acceptance of Cauvery Water Management Authority would be a pre-requisite for consideration of the DPR by the Advisory Committee of Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation DPR in due consultation with Central Electricity Authority By PTI WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump will hold a trilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe this week on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Argentina, the White House has said. The trilateral, which would be an expansion of the bilateral meeting between Trump and Abe, is part of the series of meetings Trump would have on the sidelines of the summit in Buenos Aires on November 30 and December 1. 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 Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Briefing reporters ahead of the G-20 Summit, US National Security Advisor John Bolton said on Tuesday that Trump will meet with Abe, and then the two leaders will meet jointly with Modi. ALSO READ | 2+2 meeting ends with boost for defence, trade but sanctions elude agreement 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. "The president will meet with President Putin and have a working dinner with President Xi," he said. Modi will also meet Chinese President Xi on the sidelines of the summit. It would be their fourth meeting in last seven months. Modi will also meet UN 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 the European Union and European Council. Battle scenes from the Champs-Elysees were flashed around the world last weekend, when gangs of trouble-makers smashed up shops and other buildings and fought pitched battles with the police in Paris They had latched themselves onto a peaceful demonstration against the policies of French President Emmanuel Macron organised by the so-called gilets jaunes, or yellow jackets, apparently in order to cause maximum disruption. In stunning scenes last Saturday that saw French police battling rioters who had apparently arrived in Paris with the intention of hijacking a peaceful demonstration, much of the Champs-Elysees became impassible to visitors during the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. Shop and office workers were prevented from going about their business by the rioters, who kept them imprisoned inside for hours as they tore up paving stones, erected ad hoc barricades, lit fires and smashed up cars and vehicles. Paris Police Chief Michel Delpuech was quoted as saying that the security forces had used some 5,000 canisters of teargas to quell the riots, or more than one a minute, while the local fire services had put out 100 fires. The police arrested 103 people, including minors and 45 have been charged with public-order offences and are still in custody. 31 people were injured in the clashes, including seven members of the police. French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner, talking to the media on Sunday, said seditious elements and ultra-right hooligans had hijacked the peaceful protest and sparked the violence. In a speech at the Elysee Palace on Tuesday morning, Macron said unacceptable violence had taken place at Saturdays demonstration, but that it was important not to confuse the hooligans with the demonstration they had hijacked, which carried an important message of social alarm at the rising cost of living. The gilets jaunes movement, named after the yellow jackets worn by the demonstrators, has reacted particularly to threatened increases in the cost of fuel, but has also broadened to take in widespread dissatisfaction with Macrons government. Macron himself is now trailing in the polls and accused of being out of touch with much of the population and governing the country in the interests of the rich. The gilets jaunes have no official leaders or organisation, and protesters reportedly contact each other through social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. Over recent weeks, wildcat protests have broken out across France featuring individuals wearing the yellow jackets, often blocking roads or public buildings and presenting formidable difficulties to the police. According to French officials, more than 106,000 gilets jaunes protested across France on Saturday, including on the Champs-Elysees in Paris, or about half the number in demonstrations the previous week in which two people died. There have been reports that further protests are planned in Paris on 1 December, though these have not been confirmed. According to the French newspaper Le Monde, the 8,000 people who had ignored official advice and turned up at the demonstration on the Champs-Elysees last Saturday had mostly not been members of extremist groups and had not taken part in the rioting. However, they had refused to follow official instructions to hold the demonstration on the nearby Champs de Mars near the Eiffel Tower, describing this as a trap designed to make them easier to control. Most of the demonstrators were simply ordinary people, members of the middle classes, often demonstrating for the first time, and they had been caught unawares both by the hijacking of their demonstration by violent groups and by the out of proportion reaction of the security forces, the paper said. All the gilets jaunes spoken to by Le Monde accused the riot police of reacting prematurely and disproportionally to the demonstration, it commented. This had made the situation worse, they said Many dreamt of a new taking of the Bastille [the event that sparked the French Revolution in 1789] or of the events of May 1968 [that eventually brought down the government of former French president Charles de Gaulle]. Many of the slogans unfurled at Saturdays demonstration were directed at Macron personally, who has seen his popularity slip to historic lows in France over recent months, apparently as a result of economic policies that have been claimed do most to benefit the better-off. Most opinion polls now give Macron approval ratings of between 21 and 34 per cent, a remarkable decline compared to earlier ratings of up to 62 per cent when he won the French presidential elections in a contest with extreme-right Front National leader Marine Le Pen in May 2017. Macron said of the gilets jaunes demonstrations on Sunday that there was a need to provide an economic, social and cultural response to the demands of the middle and working classes who may feel they are not benefitting from Frances social and economic model. Asked whether the discontent in France could be compared to that which had led to the British vote to leave the European Union two years ago, he said there was a need to provide perspectives to the popular and middle classes who might feel themselves to have been left behind by globalisation. *A version of this article appears in print in the 29 November, 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Paris is burning Search Keywords: Short link: By PTI KARTARPUR: The following is the chronology of events leading up to the foundation laying for the corridor linking Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan's Kartarpur to Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India's Gurdaspur district to facilitate visa-free movement of Indian Sikh pilgrims: 1522: The first Gurdwara, Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib, was established by the first Sikh Guru where Guru Nanak Dev is said to have died. February 1999: The Kartarpur Sahib corridor was proposed by the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee when he took a bus ride to Lahore during a peace initiative with Pakistan. 2000: Pakistan agrees to allow Sikh pilgrims from India to visit the shrine visa-free (and without passport) by constructing a bridge from the India side of the border to the shrine. ALSO READ: Pakistan Prime Minister lays foundation stone for Kartarpur corridor August 2018: Punjab minister Navjot Sidhu attends Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's swearing-in ceremony. August 2018: Upon his return from Islamabad, Sidhu says that Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa informed him that the Pakistan government would open the Dera Baba Nanak (Kartarpur) corridor on Guru Nanak's 550th birth anniversary. November 22: Indian Cabinet approves the Kartarpur corridor from Dera Baba Nanak to the Pakistan border. November 26: Vice President Venkaiah Naidu lays the foundation stone of the Dera Baba Nanak - Kartarpur Sahib Corridor (up to the International Border) at an event at Mann village of Gurdaspur district of Punjab. November 28: Prime Minister Imran Khan lays the foundation stone of the 4-km corridor which is expected to be completed by next year. By Online Desk John Allen Chau was a 27-year-old traveller from the United States whose Instagram account is filled with pictures shot in exotic locations, a witness to his adventurous life. His much-anticipated visit to the North Sentinel island turned out to be fatal. The 60,000-year-old indigenous tribe is among the last 'uncontacted' people in the world and have made it very clear that they do not want any form of contact. After Chau's death story became viral, funny but dark reviews of the island were posted on Google Maps. The island now has more than 3000 reviews and is rated 4.6. Here are some of the reviews that tickled our funny bone: By PTI WASHINGTON: Senators who have grown increasingly uneasy with the US response to Saudi Arabia after the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi are set to grill top administration officials Wednesday at a closed-door briefing that could determine how far Congress goes in punishing the longtime Middle East ally. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says "some kind of response" is needed from the United States for the Saudis' role in the gruesome death. While President Donald Trump has equivocated over who is to blame, the Senate is considering a vote as soon as this week to halt US involvement in the Saudi-led war in Yemen. "What obviously happened, as basically certified by the CIA, is completely abhorrent to everything the United States holds dear and stands for in the world," McConnell said Tuesday. "We're discussing what the appropriate response would be." ALSO READ | Khashoggi killing: Turkey searches villa of 'close' Saudi prince associate Much will depend on what senators hear from Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Administration officials were able to stall a Senate effort earlier this year against the Saudi-backed conflict in Yemen. But senators are outraged over the administration's response to Khashoggi's killing, and they're particularly upset that no one from the intelligence community is attending Wednesday's briefing. Sen.Joe Manchin of West Virginia, one of 10 Democrats who declined to join the earlier effort against the Saudis, said Tuesday he was reconsidering his position. "Things changed," Manchin said. "The whole thing with Khashoggi is very much concerning. It's not who we are as a country. It's not who we should have as allies and not condemn that." The top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, will likely be in favor of the Yemen resolution, and another key member of the panel, Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said he was "inclined" to support it now if it came up for a vote. Senators are getting hammered by outside groups running ads and lobbying them for action. "What I would argue to the administration is that somehow or another there's got to be a price to pay for what has happened," said Sen.Bob Corker, R-Tenn., the chairman of the committee. "My sense is, unless something happens, where they share what it is they're going to do to deal with this injustice that has occurred my sense is that people are going to vote to get on the bill." The resolution from Sens.Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, fell just six votes short of passage earlier this year. ALSO READ | 'Maybe he did, maybe he didn't': Donald Trump says CIA has not found Saudi prince culpable in Khashoggi murder It drew a mix of Democrats and Republicans who have grown uneasy with US involvement in the Saudi-led campaign against the Houthis, the Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen, in war that human rights advocates say is indiscriminately bombing civilians and wreaking havoc on the country. That was long before the Oct.2 death of Khashoggi, the U.S.-educated journalist who was publicly critical of the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. Khashoggi was killed in what U.S. officials have described as an elaborate plot at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, which he had visited for marriage paperwork. While U.S. intelligence officials have concluded the crown prince must have at least known of the plot, the CIA's findings have not been made public. Trump has said it may never be known who was responsible for the killing and in public comments and a long and unusual statement last week the president reinforced the United States' long-standing alliance with the Saudis. Trump has praised a pending arms deal with the kingdom that he says will provide the U.S. with jobs and lucrative payments, though some outside assessments say the economic benefits are exaggerated. Several GOP senators, including key allies Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Rand Paul of Kentucky, have publicly questioned Trump's handling of the situation. Paul is trying to block the arms sale. ALSO READ | France imposes sanctions against 18 Saudis over Jamal Khashoggi murder "If you don't draw the line here, where do you draw the line?" Graham asked reporters Tuesday. He, too, supports blocking the arms sale and said giving the crown prince "a pass on murdering a critic doesn't make the world a safer place. " The resolution needs just a simple majority to advance, but a vote is not certain this week. It could launch a process for amending the bill that could play out for days in the Senate. Kate Kizer, policy director at the advocacy group Win Without War, said the pressure on the senators "is working. " On a conference call with reporters, Sarah Margon, the Washington director at Human Rights Watch, said Khashoggi's death "brought home the brutality" of the Saudi regime, and that's putting pressure on Congress to act. By PTI LONDON: The India-Britain partnership will remain strong irrespective of the direction the ongoing Brexit negotiations take, India's new High Commissioner to the UK, Ruchi Ghanshayam, has said. In one of her first addresses on the bilateral partnership since taking charge at the Indian High Commission in London last week, Ghanshayam told a gathering organised by the Indian Professionals Forum (IPF) at Chatham House that it was important that familiarity does not lead to complacency in the relationship. "The India-UK partnership is very old, it has stood the test of time and whatever happens to this Brexit process, whichever way it turns out, I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that India and the UK will remain important partners," she said in her keynote address on the topic of 'Indo-UK Collaboration: Opportunities and Challenges'. ALSO READ | No better deal available on Brexit, UK PM May tells MPs The UK is set to exit the European Union on March 29, 2019. Lawmakers will debate Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal in Parliament on December 11. "The relationship is both special and deep. One of our greatest strengths is familiarity with one another. But the risk of familiarity is that we must guard against complacency. We must remain conscious of the need not to be complacent," the Indian envoy said. The IPF, a non-profit think tank for Indian diaspora-related policy advocacy and a members' club launched last year, followed up the keynote address with a focus on the prospects of India-UK collaboration in the health care sector. ALSO READ | Theresa May heads to Brussels to defend Brexit deal as Spain threatens to boycott summit "We see considerable potential in the area of health, with some parallels being drawn between the Ayushman Bharat programme and the UK's National Health Service (NHS). We want to reflect on how India and the UK can collaborate on health care policy and provision," said IPF founder and president Mohan Kaul. A range of panellists from the sector highlighted areas such as affordability, availability and accessibility as the focal points of the collaboration. By PTI WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday defended America's increasingly contentious support for Saudi Arabia in the Yemen war, warning lawmakers the brutal conflict would worsen without US involvement. Pompeo was due to speak to the Senate alongside Defence Secretary Jim Mattis to discuss US support for the Saudi-led coalition that is fighting Iran-backed Huthi rebels, ahead of a possible vote on reducing military backing to the Saudis. ALSO READ | 85,000 children may have died of hunger in Yemen owing to war "The suffering in Yemen grieves me, but if the United States of America was not involved in Yemen, it would be a hell of a lot worse," said Pompeo in prepared remarks. "Abandoning Yemen would do immense damage to US national security interests and those of our Middle Eastern allies and partners. Ending US military support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, which includes intelligence and target sharing, would actually lead to more deaths," Pompeo added. "The Saudi-led coalition would not have the benefit of our advice and training on targeting, so more civilians would die," Pompeo said. Yemen's terrorist groups would enjoy safer havens. And he warned lawmakers that a US drawdown would lead to a stronger Iran while reinvigorating both the Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. "Try defending that outcome back home," he said. Pompeo and Mattis were expected to be grilled on Yemen's humanitarian crisis, as well as the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Some US lawmakers have called for a strong US response to Khashoggi's murder, including blocking arms sales and imposing sanctions beyond those that Washington slapped on 17 Saudis allegedly involved in the killing. ALSO READ | Top Yemen rebel calls for halt to military operations ahead of peace talks On Twitter, Pompeo announced that the US would be spending an additional USD 131 million in food assistance and again took a swipe at Iran. "Iran's regime has no interest in easing Yemeni suffering; the mullahs don't even care for ordinary Iranians. Saudi Arabia has invested billions to relieve suffering in #Yemen. Iran has invested zero," he wrote on Twitter. Champaign, IL (61820) Today Cloudy with occasional light rain...mainly in the morning. Morning high of 47F with temps falling to near freezing. Winds NW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Higher wind gusts possible.. Tonight Clear skies. Low 19F. Winds NW at 10 to 20 mph. 'You have to give yourself a chance. But most of all, you have to believe in yourself' The knives are out for Mays Brexit deal, with a plan-B urgently needed, writes Manal Lotfy in London In 38 minutes and after 524 days of negotiations, the EUs 27 heads of state and government ratified the British exit agreement from the European Union after 45 years of membership. It was a defining moment for the UK and the EU. No wonder the general mood was one of sadness and anticipation. This is only the beginning of long, complex and potentially very toxic negotiations. Lets face it, the withdrawal agreement a 585-page document that will form the basis of a legally binding treaty and the very vague political declaration, on page 26, on the future relationship (and not legally binding) was always going to pass the European Council. The withdrawal deal guarantees the UK will pay a divorce bill of 39 billion to the EU. Early in the talks, David Davis, former Brexit secretary, told European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker that there was nothing in the EUs treaties to suggest that the British government owed any money. Juncker responded that Britain would have to come good on the spending commitments it made as a member state. That is a victory for the EU. Besides the divorce bill, the deal also includes the much-abhorred concept among Theresa Mays critics that is the backstop as a solution to the Irish border if the UK and the EU did not reach a final deal on future relationships and the UK were to leave without a deal. According to the EU, the backstop is an insurance policy that could be used if, and only if, future trade talks fail to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland. The backstop means the whole of the UK will remain in the EU customs union, while Northern Ireland will have to follow single market rules. Brexit supporters despise the backstop, fearing it will leave the UK handcuffed to EU rules. Also, suspicious EU countries fear the plan could benefit the UK, so insisted in the deal that the UK should respect EU social and environmental rules to avoid undercutting their companies. May signed to that obligation. The deal also safeguards the rights for more than three million EU citizens in the UK, and over one million UK nationals in EU countries to stay and continue their current activities in the place in which they have made their homes. May had sought to limit the scope of the deal to those who arrived in the UK before 29 March 2019, but failed to convince EU leaders. So, all those arriving to live in the UK at any point up until the end of the transition period, which could last until the end of 2022 should it be extended, will enjoy the rights that EU nationals have today to make Britain their home, to live, work and study. Walking Into A Trip? In reality, the withdrawal deal is too good for the EU to refuse. It is not only very good for the EU in dealing with exiting issues, but it is also very good in influencing difficult talks about future relationships. It gives EU countries all the cards needed to shape future relationships according to their interests. And the backstop is the most important card of all. If any EU country, such as France or Spain, is not happy with the final deal, they could veto the deal and Britain would be forced to stay in a limbo transitional phase for decades. This is a nightmarish scenario for Brexiteers and Remainers alike. French President Emmanuel Macron did not take long to remind May of her predicament. Hours after the ratification of the exit deal, he said that the UK will be trapped in a customs union after Brexit unless Downing Street offers European fishermen full access to British waters during coming trade negotiations. We as 27 have a clear position on fair competition, on fish, on the subject of the EUs regulatory autonomy, and that forms part of our lines for future relationship talks, Macron said. It is a lever, because it is in our mutual interest to have this future relationship. I cant imagine that the desire of Theresa May or her supporters is to remain for the long term in a customs union, but to define a proper future relationship which resolves this problem. He added: We will concentrate our efforts in order to obtain access to the British waters before the end of the transition period. And, of course, all of our fishermen will be protected. His statement was a very clear message: agree to what we want, or we will veto the final deal and the UK will be forced to stay indefinitely in the backstop customs union envisioned in the withdrawal agreement. Downing Street hit back at the threat of the French president to trigger the customs backstop if the UK does not swiftly agree to allow European Union boats to fish in British waters. The prime ministers official spokesman said such a threat, if carried out, would amount to a breach of good faith under the withdrawal agreement and the UK would immediately refer the situation to independent arbitration. If the EU were not willing to engage in a genuine negotiation to replace the backstop with the future relationship or alternative arrangements, for example, if it had closed its mind from the outset to the UK position on fisheries, that would put it in breach of its duty of good faith under the agreement, and we can refer this to independent arbitration, the spokesman said at a briefing for journalists. However, May has been accused by her critics of falling for a European Union trap to keep Britain locked in a customs union with the bloc, warning that France and Spain could use fishing rights and Gibraltar to force the UK into submission to their demands or facing being ruled by the EU from outside. In her statement in front of the House of Commons, May was criticised harshly for the backstop submission. Even an old ally like ex-Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon turned against her. He said he cannot support the exit deal as it stands, calling it worst of all worlds, emphasising that the deal is doomed and must be renegotiated. Asked whether May should stay on as Tory leader if the deal was rejected by MPs on 11 December, he said it was up to my colleagues. His remarks come after research published by the London School of Economics, Kings College and the Institute for Fiscal Studies suggests Mays Brexit deal could leave the economy as much as 5.5 per cent smaller in a decades time than it would be if the UK stayed in the EU. The study warns that the cost to public finances could be as much as 1.8 per cent of GDP. It blamed the imposition of new trade barriers and a fall in immigration. Another study by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, commissioned by the Peoples Vote, which supports a second referendum, said GDP would be 3.9 per cent lower by 2030 and the governments Brexit deal will leave the UK 100 billion worse off per year than if it had remained in the EU. This is the equivalent of losing the economic output of Wales or the City of London, it said. May was facing enough challenges internally and from the EU when the US president interfered and made the situation worst. Donald Trump has suggested Mays Brexit agreement could threaten a US-UK trade deal. He told reporters the withdrawal agreement sounds like a great deal for the EU and meant the UK might not be able to trade with the US. Speaking outside the White House, Trump said: 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 said Trumps comments were not unexpected and negotiations on a trade deal with the US were always going to be challenging. The United States is a tough negotiator, he told BBC Radio 4. President Trumps always said very plainly I put America first. Well, Id expect the British prime minister to put British interests first. Mays warning to her government and to the Commons back my deal or risk more division does not seem to be working. Labour, the Lib Dems, the SNP, the DUP and many Tory MPs have said they will vote against her Brexit deal. So, winning the Commons vote on 11 December looks like an impossible task for Mrs May. What Are The Alternatives? Stop Brexit. That is the worst nightmare for the Brexiteers and the ultimate goal for the Remainers. If the deal fails in the Commons, some will try to stop Article 50, and stop Brexit. However, constitutionally and politically this is very complex and unprecedented. It is very difficult to see a majority in parliament move to stop Brexit based on the collapse of the deal. Also, it is not clear if the ability to call off Article 50 rests solely in the United Kingdoms hands. Early elections. If the withdrawal agreement were to be defeated in the Commons on 11 December, the Labour Party will put down a motion of no confidence in the hope of triggering an early election. However, that would require Conservative MPs to be willing to vote for an early election and that is unlikely as there is good chance the public will punish the ruling party for its divisions and shambolic Brexit deal. So, prospects for an early election are slim. A Second referendum. This is another problematic option. However, it is not off the table. If you look at parliament, it is almost impossible for it to agree on anything Mays Brexit deal, Canada-style deal or Norway deal. The only thing MPs will never vote for is No deal, as it could be catastrophic for the UK economy. In this equation, a second referendum cannot be ruled out. If politicians cannot agree, it is fair to bring the issue back to the people. Exiting without a deal. Some Brexiteers argue for that, emphasising the UK can trade with the EU on the basis of World Trade Organisation rules, and that would be fine. Few would agree with them, especially in business and finance. So, this is a very unlikely scenario to materialise. Finally, any of these scenarios will be bad news for May. If her deal collapses in the Commons, her legitimacy will collapse with it. *A version of this article appears in print in the 29 November, 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: The Brexit deal is doomed Search Keywords: Short link: Where is Fort Washington? Where is Fort Washington? That is the question Daniel Elliott and his associates, Rita Elliott, Kathy Mulchrone, and high school volunteer Rachael Walters, are trying to answer. Funded by a... Tignall store robbed at gunpoint; no leads yet This past Monday, on November 15, around 7-7:30 p.m., Wilkes County Sheriffs Deputies responded to a 911 call at Fast Trip number two in Tignall. According to the Sheriffs Office,... Wilkes County Emergency services conduct fire evacuation drill Wills Memorial Hospital, the Wilkes County Fire Department, Wilkes County EMS, and the Sheriffs Office participated in an emergency preparedness drill on November 17. Over 75 civilians were on hand... Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung (right), Secretary for Constitutional & Mainland Affairs Patrick Nip (left), and other officials depart for Fuzhou by high-speed train. Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung led a Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government delegation to Fujian today. Delegation members travelled to Fuzhou by high-speed train from the Hong Kong West Kowloon Station. Mr Cheung told the media it was the first time HKSAR government officials have used the Express Rail Link for duty visits. He said passengers can travel to 10 destinations in Fujian by high-speed rail, which makes travelling between Hong Kong and the province very convenient. Mr Cheung will co-chair the Third Plenary Session of the Hong Kong/Fujian Co-operation Conference in Fuzhou on November 28, with Fujian's Vice-Governor. He said the meeting aims to strengthen mutual co-operation in business, financial and cultural areas. The two places will sign three co-operation deals on the Belt & Road Initiative, innovation and technology, and youth internship. While in Fujian, the delegation will meet Fujian Provincial Government and Xiamen Municipal Government officials, and visit Wuyishan to explore youth co-operation between the two places. The delegation will also meet Hong Kong people working, doing business and studying in Fujian. Mr Cheung (second left) and Secretary for Constitutional & Mainland Affairs Patrick Nip (third left) tour Wuyi University facilities. Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung (left) and Fujian Vice-Governor Guo Ningning sign the meeting notes of the Third Hong Kong-Fujian Co-operation Conference. Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung and Fujian Vice-Governor Guo Ningning co-chaired the Third Hong Kong-Fujian Co-operation Conference in Fuzhou today. The two governments reached consensus on enhancing co-operation in areas such as supporting community exchanges and official contacts between the two places. Both sides agreed to join forces in the development of the Belt & Road Initiative, and promote co-operation in science and technology. They will also continue to promote the Fujian summer internship programme for Hong Kong students and conduct exchange activities for young people of the two places. Speaking to the media, Mr Cheung described the meeting as a success, noting that the two sides have signed agreements of co-operation on innovation and technology, the Belt & Road Initiative and youth development. He said the Hong Kong Science Park will collaborate with its Fujian counterpart on I&T co-operation. He added that the Wuyishan internship programme would enable Hong Kong youths to learn more about the nations heritage work. This morning, Mr Cheung also met CPC Fujian Provincial Committee Secretary Yu Weiguo and Fujian Province Governor Tang Dengjie. He then visited Wuyi University and a Hong Kong enterprise engaged in the tea business. Mr Cheung will continue his visit in Xiamen tomorrow. MDC Alliance youths received training in Zambia and South Africa to rise against the Government in the event that they lost the July 30 harmonised elections, the Commission of Inquiry into the violence that rocked Harare on August 1 heard yesterday. Six people died following the violent demonstration while property worth hundreds of thousands of dollars was destroyed. Presenting her evidence to the Commission, Ms Linda Masarira, the spokesperson of the MDC-T led by Ms Thokozani Khupe also accused the MDC Alliance leadership of inciting their supporters to engage in violence in the run up to the elections. It would be naive for anyone to think that the MDC Alliance do not have radical and militant youths who trained under the civil society banner which are stakeholders of the MDC Alliance, she said. I can speak with confidence and evidence that there are two groups who were trained to lead protest though it is said that they were trained to uprise in a non-violent manner which is contrary to the actions that prevailed on August 1. The MDC Alliance believes the Government can be persuaded to a government of national unity or to accede to certain demands from the illegal demonstrations that they did coupled with the ongoing demonisation of Zimbabwe. We have an opposition that believes in hate speech and insults, terrorising of women and the suffering of the masses to woo protest votes. Ms Masarira urged the Commission not to be hoodwinked by the eloquence of the partys leadership. MDC Alliance is a party full of highly intolerant people, who think they are the Alpha and Omega of Zimbabwe politics, Ms Masarira said. The eloquence of their leaders in preaching peace is not practised. It is hypocrisy. It is unfortunate that we live in an era where the name of God is taken in vain and there is no instant justice. People dare to lie under oath professionally misrepresenting themselves but the truth cannot be hidden. Earlier Zanu-PF secretary for Administration Cde Obert Mpofu who also appeared before the Commission said it was clear that the violent demonstration had been planned. I feel that from a well informed view that there were snipers that had been planted around Harare and some buildings. Somebody created a scene and directed that there be some firing to paint Government in bad light, Cde Mpofu said. He said he observed the protestors from his office at the Zanu-PF headquarters chanting MDC Alliance slogans with some wearing the partys regalia. The demonstration had its source, the way the people gathered points to logistical support. These people were not marching from nowhere they were coming from the partys (MDC Alliance) headquarters. Cde Mpofu, who was then the Home Affairs Minister said he had called Mr Chamisa urging him to contain his supporters to no avail. I have a recording of the phone conversation I had with him (Mr Chamisa). He said minister let me look into it and I will come back to you but he never came back, Cde Mpofu said. He added that the utterances by the MDC Alliance leaders before the elections were meant to incite their supporters to tarnish the countrys electoral processes. The Commission is being chaired by former South African President, Kgalema Motlanthe and its report will be made public. Herald NASA Rocket Is Now On Its Way to Dimorphos The use of tear gas against migrant children and parents along the US border with Mexico raises the questions of just how far Donald Trump will go Mexicos Foreign Ministry presented a diplomatic note to the US government Monday calling for a full investigation into what it described as non-lethal weapons directed towards Mexican territory Sunday, a statement from the ministry said US authorities shot tear gas canisters towards migrants in Mexico Sunday near the border crossing separating the Mexican city of Tijuana from San Diego, California, after some of them attempted to cross into the United States. US President Donald Trump suggested Monday that some adults had grabbed children at the Southwestern border to better their chances of entering the US while confronting federal agents during an incident Sunday that resulted in the use of tear gas. Trump speaking at a roundtable event in Biloxi, Mississippi described what he called grabbers (migrants who grab children and think theyll have a certain status by having a child). He alluded to the people with children in the group as possibly not being their parents. In some cases, you know, theyre not the parents, the president said. These are people, they call em grabbers. They grab a child because they think theyll 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. When asked for evidence of his claim by reporters, Trump demurred. Its a term thats used because, as you know, many people, its a very violent, horrible thing, that they feel they have an advantage when theyre with a young child, and they call them grabbers, he said. In a statement Monday night, US Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said some members of the group are using women and children as human shields. The caravan members are predominately male. 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, Nielsen said. They are being put at risk by the caravan organisers, as we saw at the Mexico-Guatemala border. This is putting vulnerable people in harms way. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said that the Border Patrol chief on the scene said he had seen women and children standing in front of a group that was throwing rocks. He saw people throwing rocks right next to women and children, McAleenan said. They did that, actually, behind members of the media as well. I have seen video of a scene where rock throwers are hiding behind camera people taking photographs of them while they are throwing the rocks. So, it was a really dynamic, challenging situation that our agents tried to resolve as safely as possible and were really successful overall. A group of migrants between 500 and 1,000, according to various estimates tried to enter the US illegally Sunday by breaching the border fence east of the San Ysidro border crossing near Tijuana, Mexico, according to McAleenan. McAleenan said Customs and Border Protection (CBP) had to respond with force after men in the crowd began throwing rocks at the agents. Teargas was used to repel the crowd. Trump said at the roundtable that the teargas fired on migrants at the US-Mexico border was very safe. Asked how he felt when he saw images of children and parents being tear-gassed, the president said his first thought was, Why are they there? He had falsely said earlier Monday that we dont use it on children after being asked if it was acceptable to use teargas on children. He said the substance was a very minor form of the teargas and described it as very safe. He asked: Why is a parent running up into an area where they know the teargas is forming? And theyre running up with a child? One photo that was widely used in newspapers and on social media was that of Honduran mother Maria Meza, 35, grabbing the thin arms of her two five-year-old twin daughters Cheili and Saira as they frantically run from a teargas canister spewing fumes. Cheili is seen in diapers, Saira barefoot, while their mother wears a t-shirt showing the smiling sisters from the Disney hit Frozen. Mesas 13-year-old daughter, Jamie, is behind her mother in the photo, also running away from the approaching gas. On Sunday, CBP used a form of teargas called 2-chlorobenzylidene malononitrile, or CS. Thats the teargas the agency has used since 2010, during President Barack Obamas administration. Sundays incident was the first confrontation between Customs and Border Protection and the thousands of migrants who had been walking towards Tijuana for weeks and had begun arriving in the border city. The incident led federal authorities to close the San Ysidro crossing, near San Diego, for several hours Sunday. In a statement, a Customs and Border Protection spokesperson said the group had ignored law enforcement agencies in Mexico and assaulted US officers. Over 1,000 individuals who were part of the so-called caravan attempted to cross illegally into the US by breaching sections of the fence and using vehicle lanes in and near the San Ysidro Port of Entry, the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. This group ignored law enforcement agencies in Mexico and assaulted US Federal Officers and Agents assigned to respond to the situation in San Diego. As a response to the assaults and to defuse this dangerous situation, trained CBP personnel employed less-lethal devices to stop the actions of assaultive individuals attempting to break into the US. The spokesperson added: CBP has been preparing for weeks for events like the one on Sunday. We have seen the use of violence by members of this so-called caravan who have attacked law enforcement personnel in Guatemala, Mexico and now the US. CBP will consider using all approved and available resources to protect travellers, caravan members and our agents and officers. CBP takes Sundays employment of use-of-force very seriously. CBP reviews and evaluates all uses of force incidents to ensure compliance with policy. Trump added that he wouldnt hesitate to close the US border and keep it closed if violence continues. We would close it and well keep it closed if we have a problem. And well keep it closed for a long time, he said. Asked what would prompt the closure, the president said: Violence. If they do a charge. Because with a closed border, its very easy to stop. *A version of this article appears in print in the 29 November, 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Trump downplays border incident Search Keywords: Short link: (Newser) An eye-popping story out of Northern England, where the Times of London reports a convicted rapist was contacted by the Rotherham Council while incarcerated and invited to seek out visits with the son he fathered through rape. The child's mother was 15 when she became pregnant by Arshid Hussain, and the Sun explains the origins of what one official calls an "appallingly insensitive" move: The boy, now a teen, reportedly has needs beyond his mother's capacity, and so a case was brought to family court regarding placing him elsewhere. The law requires the local authority handling such cases to alert all "respondents," a category that includes those "with or without formal parental responsibility" for the child. story continues below Though Hussain was listed in court documents as not having such responsibility, he was listed as a "respondent" all the same and alerted by the local authority of what was happening. The boy's mother, Sammy Woodhouse, tells the BBC she was devastated upon learning about the situation. She took to Twitter Tuesday to decry the situation and to change the law "to ensure that rapists can't gain access to children conceived through rape and abuse." She was one of nine Rotherham girls that factored into the 43-year-old's 2016 conviction; he was given a 35-year sentence. The Times reports Hussain opted not to seek a role in the boy's case, but Woodhouse wants an investigation of the matter all the same: "This is happening to people all over the country. It's wrong and it's got to stop." (Many US states allow rapists to seek custody of children conceived during a sexual assault.) (Newser) Mississippi failed to deliver the Democrats an Alabama-style upset in the last race of the 2018 midterms. Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith defeated Democrat Mike Espy and will serve the remaining two years of Sen. Thad Cochran's term. She is the first woman elected to Congress from Mississippi, the Clarion-Ledger reports. If Espy had won, he would have been the first African American the state had elected to Congress since 1874, and the first Democratic senator elected in the state since 1982. The victory in the runoff gives Republicans control of 53 out of 100 seats in the Senate. Hyde-Smith had been widely expected to win, though the GOP had to pump funds into the state as the race narrowed in its final weeks. story continues below Hyde-Smith stuck to a strategy of appealing to President Trump's core votersand was rewarded for it, ABC reports. The president appeared at two of her rallies Monday night and she personally thanked him at her victory party Tuesday. "Mr. President, and I just talked to him so I know he's watching, thank you so much for everything," she said. The victory follows a divisive campaign that led to several corporate donors asking Hyde-Smith to return their donations, the AP reports. Hyde-Smith was recorded joking about attending a public hanging, and talking about making it "just a little more difficult" for "liberal folks" to vote. (She accused Espy of using the hanging remarks as a "weapon.") (Newser) The Chinese researcher who has rattled the scientific world with his claim that he created the world's first genetically edited babies spoke publicly for the first time Wednesday, and he made a revelation, though an unclear one at that. While speaking at the Human Genome Editing Summit in Hong Kong, He Jiankui was asked if his trials included other pregnancies like that which resulted in the birth of twins Lulu and Nana, whose DNA he claims to have altered to make them resistant to HIV. The answer was yes, but it's murky: The AP reports he said the pregnancy was in its early weeks and therefore unclear if it will last. Reuters describes He as calling it a "potential" pregnancy but then answering in the affirmative when asked if it was a "chemical pregnancy," which means an early miscarriage. Reuters reports the status of the pregnancy is unclear. story continues below "I feel proudest," He said of his work. The BBC reports that He said seven couplesin each case the father was HIV-positivevoluntarily agreed to participate in his trial, and that he zeroed in on HIV, rather than a fatal inherited disease, because no vaccine exists for it. But a bioethicist points out to NPR that the twins' risk of inheriting HIV was next to nil because the mother was not infected. An ethics expert was one of many condemning the choice: "This experiment exposes healthy normal children to risks of gene editing for no real necessary benefit." The DNA changes are inheritable: As NPR puts it, "a mistake could introduce a new disease that could be passed down for generations." Officials in China's Guangdong province, as well as He's employer, Southern University of Science and Technology of China, are investigating. (Read more genetics stories.) (Newser) Former President Obama got in a dig at the Trump administration at a Rice University gala on Tuesday without even mentioning the president's name. Obama's 50-minute interview with former Secretary of State James A. Baker IIIthe namesake of the nonpartisan Baker Institute for Public Policy, which was honored for its 25th anniversary"carried an anti-Trump tone" despite almost no mention of the man, per the Houston Chronicle. Obama broached the subject toward the end of the conversation moderated by presidential historian Jon Meacham, however, after Baker said he was most proud not to have been indicted while serving under three presidents. "Not only did I not get indicted, nobody in my administration got indicted," Obama told the crowd of more than 1,000 invited guests, per the Chronicle and KPRC. story continues below "It was the only administration in modern history that that can be said about probably because the people who joined us were there for the right reasons," Obama continued. Again without naming him, the 44th president also referenced Trump's ideology"a nationalism that's not pride in country but hatred for somebody on the other side of the border," per the Guardianthough the conversation mostly centered on political partisanship and the media. "What you increasingly have is a media environment in which if you are a Fox News viewer, you have an entirely different reality than if you are a New York Times reader," Obama said. "It means the bases of each party have become more ideological." "The responsible center in American politics has disappeared," Baker agreed. (Obama was lately spotted bagging potatoes at a Chicago food bank.) (Newser) Enrique Pena Nieto's final "major" act as president will apparently involve Jared Kushner, and it's one the Guardian describes as having "stunned the country": The Hill reports that before handing over power to incoming president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Saturday, Pena Nieto will bestow Mexico's highest honor for foreigners on Kushner for his work on renegotiating NAFTA. The ceremony in which Kushner will receive the Order of the Aztec Eagle will take place Thursday during the G20 summit, putting him in a club that includes Walt Disney, Queen Elizabeth, Nelson Mandela, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Bill and Melinda Gates. story continues below Per a government statement, "Kushner's participation was a determinant factor ... and his constant and effective involvement was key in achieving a successful close of negotiations." Other Mexicans were far less effusive about Kushner and the Trump administration. Reuters quotes Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal as calling the move "tremendously shameful," while Mexican historian Enrique Krauze wrote that "giving him the Aztec Eagle reflects a supreme attitude of humiliation and cowardice." The Guardian has this from a Mexican professor: "It's the final kick in the crotch for Mexicans." (Trump mentioned the G20 in a wide-ranging interview with the Washington Post.) (Newser) For seven months, Hassan Al Kontar documented his life inside Kuala Lumpur International Airport, where the Syrian refugee was held in limbo after arriving on March 7. Finally, Al Kontar and his 20,000 Twitter followers will get a change of scenery. "For today, I am in Taiwan International Airport. For tomorrow, I will be reaching my final destination: Vancouver, Canada," the 37-year-old says in a video shared Monday. Lawyer Andrew Brouwer confirms the news to NBC News, explaining Al Kontar arrived around midnight Monday in the Great White North, where he's been granted asylum and permanent residency. story continues below The CBC shares a heartwarming video of his arrival. It was a "hard, long journey," Al Kontar says in his own video. Denied entry to Malaysia, he'd refused to return to Syria for fear he'd be arrested for refusing to join the military. Moved to a detention center after his arrest last month in a "forbidden" airport zone, Al Kontar kept an eye on Canada, which approved an expedited asylum application. "We are completely relieved by the outcome," says Brouwer. Requesting prayers for people "in refugee camps and detention camps all over the world," Al Kontar promises to keep followers updated on his new life. (Read more Syrian refugees stories.) (Newser) New York magazine film critic David Edelstein has been booted as a contributor to NPR's Fresh Air after an ill-advised joke made in the wake of director Bernardo Bertolucci's death. Edelstein posted a still shot of the rape scene from Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris that he captioned, "Even grief is better with butter." The scene from the 1972 film garnered new attention (and disgust) in recent years, when it came to light that Maria Schneider was not warned about the stick of butter Marlon Brando's character uses as lubricant to sodomize Schneider's character in the film. (Schneider did reportedly know about the scene itself, which does not depict an actual rape.) Actress Martha Plimpton shared a screenshot of Edelstein's post (which he ultimately deleted) on Twitter, calling for Edelstein to be fired "immediately." story continues below NPR quickly agreed, USA Today reports. "The post is offensive and unacceptable, especially given actress Maria Schneider's experience during the filming," NPR said in a statement. "The post does not meet the standards that we expect from Fresh Air contributors, or from journalists associated with WHYY or NPR. We appreciate the apology David posted, but we have decided to end Fresh Air's association with him, and have informed David accordingly." That apology, released by New York on Edelstein's behalf, claims that the film critic was unaware of the scene's controversial backstory and that he now realizes his post was "in poor taste." HuffPost rounds up horrified reactions to Edelstein's post on social media, where many others are calling for him to lose his job. "It's a wonder how these privileged white men keep these plum positions," writes one. (Louis CK made a joke about rape whistles in his controversial return.) (Newser) In the wake of General Motors' restructuring and layoffs, President Trump has followed up his threat to slash GM subsidies with a suggestion of new auto tariffs. If the 25% US tariff on small truck imports was also applied to imported cars, "many more cars would be built here and G.M. would not be closing their plants in Ohio, Michigan & Maryland," Trump tweeted Wednesday. "The President has great power on this issue - Because of the G.M. event, it is being studied now!" he added. Per Reuters, the US tariff on cars and SUVs imported from outside North America and South Korea is currently 2.5%. Forbes reports it will be increased dramatically "unless concessions from the EU are negotiated before the end of next week." (There was a "surprise" among GM's six discontinued cars.) The exhibitions - the Cites millenaires and Le Crac des Chevaliers - draw attention to the destruction that is threatening the heritage of the Arab world The destruction of the cultural heritage of the Arab world has been almost unparalleled in recent years. Half the Old City of Mosul in Iraq and a third of the Old City of Aleppo in Syria now lie in rubble, and terrorist groups have damaged or destroyed heritage sites such as Palmyra in Syria and various ancient and more modern sites in northern Iraq. Air strikes have damaged sites in Syria and Yemen, and looting and illegal smuggling continue across the region. In some countries the extent of the damage cannot be known with certainty because of civil conflicts. In others it has been possible to gather evidence of the destruction through expert missions or remote surveillance by drones or satellites. While this information cannot necessarily help efforts to end the conflicts, it can raise awareness among the national and international public of the stakes involved. Two current exhibitions in Paris are contributing to efforts to draw attention to the destruction of the Arab worlds cultural heritage as a result of the conflicts that have raged across the region over the past decade or more. While this destruction pales in comparison to the human costs of these conflicts, with thousands killed and millions displaced in the conflicts in Syria and Yemen alone, it should be recognised as one of the effects of these wars. When the conflicts eventually come to an end, the full scale of the destruction will be plain for all to see. Some are already likening the devastation to that which took place in Europe during World War II. Cites millenaires The first exhibition, Cites millenaires, is at the Institut du Monde arabe on the left bank of the Seine in Paris and looks at what has happened to four major heritage sites during the past decade or so of conflict in the Arab world. These sites the Old City of Mosul in Northern Iraq, the Old City of Aleppo in Syria, the Hellenistic site of Palmyra in Syria, and the Roman ruins of Leptis Magna in Libya have been largely inaccessible to outside visits over recent years, though this situation has now changed, allowing archaeologists and others to pick over the ruins. Subtitled a Virtual journey from Palmyra to Mosul, the Cites millenaires exhibition uses cutting-edge digital technology to present the sites in the form of giant 3D projections that seem to immerse the visitor in images of startling size and scale. Writing in the catalogue accompanying the exhibition, curator Aurelie Clemente-Ruiz reminds readers of the extent of the destruction that took place in Mosul and Aleppo between 2012-2014 and 2016-2017 when these cities were either occupied by terrorist groups, like Mosul, or caught up in ongoing civil war. Also writing in the exhibition catalogue, Yves Ubelmann of the French digital start-up ICONEM explains how the spectacular 3D images of the ruined sites that make up the exhibition were obtained. In the case of Mosul, he says, the company worked with UN cultural body UNESCO and the Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq in 2015 to launch drone flights over the Old City of Mosul, then occupied by the Islamic State group, in order to gather information on the site. This was before most of the destruction took place in the battle to retake the city in 2016-2017, and it was only in February 2017 that an ICONEM team, supported by UNESCO, was able physically to visit Mosul. At first sight, the city seemed to have been completely destroyed, Ubelmann writes. Since the whole area had been mined, it was only by examining images taken by drone that we were able to survey areas inaccessible by land discovering that the demolished areas [shown up on satellite images on each side of the river] did not include the whole of the Old City, which still included some ancient monuments, inaccessible to visits and invisible to satellite imagery, that had in fact been preserved. Something similar took place at the Syrian heritage site of Palmyra and in the Northern Syrian city of Aleppo, where ICONEM was able to gather digital imagery after the destruction of 2015-2016. In the case of Aleppo, this reached 100 per cent of the Old City in the areas north and south of the Citadel, according to French specialist Jean-Claude David writing in the exhibition catalogue. The jewellery souq, the carpet souq, the ancient souq of Al-Manadil, and the ancient auction souq, perhaps reminiscent of the Khan Al-Khalili bazaar area in Cairo, were all destroyed, he writes. The other souqs were burned down. Most of this destruction was as a result of aerial bombardment during the ongoing Syrian civil war, and David paints a bleak picture of what has been lost. In addition to much of the historic urban fabric, monuments such as the 13th-century minaret of the Umayyad Mosque have been destroyed, as well as 16th and 17th-century Ottoman mosques and public buildings. The question now arises, David writes, of how much of this heritage can be salvaged or restored. Some small-scale restoration projects are apparently underway, but what will happen to the vast popular areas to the east, north, south and south-west [of the Old City], which have been very largely destroyed? Le Crac des Chevaliers Crac des Chevaliers Elsewhere in Paris at the citys architecture museum, the Cite de larchitecture, a smaller exhibition looks at the history and present fortunes of the Crac des Chevaliers, another important Syrian heritage site that has been damaged in the current civil war. Built by the Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem from 1142 to 1271 CE with further constructions by the Mamelukes in the late 13th century and beyond, the Crac des Chevaliers is one of the best-preserved Crusader Castles in Syria and bears witness to the now long-forgotten mini-states set up by the European Crusaders in this part of the Levant in the mediaeval period. The Castle was used as a fortress by the countrys Mameluke rulers until the Ottoman conquest in 1517, after which it was allowed to fall into disrepair. It was only in 1859 that it was rediscovered and photographed by European visitors, though it had to wait until the 1920s and after Syria had passed under French colonial control for large-scale restoration work to begin. In 1931, the Castle was a star exhibit at the Souvenirs du temps des Croisades (Memories of the Crusades) exhibition in Paris, and in 1933 it was officially acquired by the French government. The exhibition, entitled Le Crac des Chevaliers, chroniques dun reve de pierre (a dream in stone), contains fascinating original documents relating particularly to the Castles rediscovery and restoration, including many early photographs. It also contains the original deed, written on parchment, by which Raymond II, count of Tripoli, ceded the site to the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem in 1142. Writing in the catalogue accompanying the exhibition, a set of mostly French specialists recount the history and present condition of the Castle. One particularly interesting chapter, by researcher Stefan Winter, tells of how the Castle, Hisn Al-Akrad in Arabic, or Qalaat Al-Hisn, was almost completely forgotten during the centuries of Ottoman rule, until by the early 19th century the empires Syrian provinces had become little more than toys in the hands of local governors and rural chiefs. This situation had scarcely improved by the time the British Palestine Exploration Fund began surveying the area in the 1860s, or when it was visited first by the British archaeologist Gertrude Bell in 1905 and then by T E Lawrence, of Lawrence of Arabia fame, in 1909 for his academic work on the Crusader Castles. Today, the threat is of destruction as much as of neglect, and the Castle was damaged in air strikes in 2013 and 2014 during the present Syrian civil war. While exhibitions of this type reach a limited audience, they may still have an important role to play in bringing together cutting-edge work and serving as focal points for heritage specialists as well as for the wider public. This is perhaps particularly the case for the Cites millenaires exhibition at the Institut du Monde arabe, which also hosted a colloquium on Arab heritage in danger on 11 October. Leading figures from many of the sites concerned presented their thoughts on the present condition of the built heritage of the Arab world. While the news was bad overall, there were some brighter points holding out hopes for the future. According to Ezzeddin Ahmed Omar Fagi, director of the site of Leptis Magna in Libya, for example, the site has thus far been preserved from destruction despite the difficult conditions in contemporary Libya. The news was less encouraging from Yemen and Iraq, however, with Marylene Barret-Audouin, formerly of the French embassy in Yemen, and Jeremie Schiettecatte, a French expert on Pre-Islamic Arabia, painting a depressing picture of the scale of the recent losses in Yemen, most of it as a result of air strikes in the current civil war. Similarly, while Faisal Jaber, director of the independent Gilgamesh Centre for Antiquities and Heritage Protection in Mosul, gave a remarkable account of the work of his Centre throughout the period of the Islamic State occupation of the city, he was not able to disguise the enormous destruction of the cultural heritage that has taken place in northern Iraq in recent years. Cites millenaires, voyage virtuel de Palmyre a Mossoul, Institut du Monde arabe, Paris, until 10 February 2019; Le Crac des Chevaliers, chroniques dun reve de pierre, Cite de larchitecture, Paris, until 14 January 2019. * A version of this article appears in print in the 22 November 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Exhibiting the heritage crisis For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture Search Keywords: Short link: (Newser) Breweries across the US are joining forces to raise money for those affected by the deadliest, most destructive wildfire in California history. More than 1,000 beermakers will brew batches of Resilience Butte County Proud IPA, with 100% of the proceeds going to Camp Fire relief efforts, USA Today reports. The fundraiser is being spearheaded by Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., which is headquartered in Chico, Calif., an area that was threatened by the Camp Fire, which burned more than 153,000 acres, destroyed some 19,000 buildings, and killed at least 85 people in Butte County earlier this month. Sierra Nevada brewed its batch of Resilience IPA on Tuesday, founder Ken Grossman said in a statement, and the brewer will make it available in late December. story continues below We know that the rebuilding process will take time, but were in this for the long haul, Grossman says. Our hope is to get Resilience IPA in taprooms all over the country to create a solid start for our communitys future. (Check out participating breweries here.) While the Camp Fire, which was fully contained as of Sunday, left the Sierra Nevada brewery unscathed, it did destroy the homes of 15% of the companys employees, KRCR reports. Initially, the brewer was hoping to get 500 other breweries on board to make Resilience IPA, spokesman Robin Gregory says, adding that they have been absolutely blown away by the response. Overall, the company expects the effort to produce about 8.6 million pints. Resilience is described as a classic West Coast-style IPA (heres the recipe for homebrewers). (This man handed out $1,000 checks to Camp Fire victims.) (Newser) Tom Apruzzi does Christmas BIG. Per the Bridgewater Courier News, the Old Bridge, New Jersey, man's holiday display contains 300,000 lights, synchronized music, and starts going up in October. The scene can draw as many as 1,000 people a night from as far away as New York and Pennsylvania. Neighbors aren't fans of those crowds: They say the 24-foot-wide road becomes clogged with parked cars on both sides and pedestrians in the middle, which critics call a dangerous situation. NJ.com reports that in years past, an auxiliary police group would man the scene free of charge. The town now says that's not enough: Mayor Owen Henry says Apruzzi needs to fork over $2,000 per night to pay for police officers, moveable light posts, and fuel. Apruzzi says those lights are going up Dec. 1 come hell or high water. story continues below "We're not gonna listen to what the police have to say," he said. "It is my First Amendment rights, it has to do with my religion." (He's Catholic.) A GoFundMe campaign has been started on his behalf and seeks $75,000 to cover the town's fees, but Apruzzi says that the amount raised won't affect his plans (and at $1,600 raised as of this writing, he has a ways to go). Chief of Police William Volkert says he'll have cops present even if Apruzzi doesn't foot the bill, and the mayor insisted Wednesday that he isn't planning to shut the light show down if Apruzzi doesn't pay. But things have gotten a little crazy: One of Apruzzi's windows was shot with a BB gun, and he has pondered moving to a "Christmas-light friendly" town. The GoFundMe page notes the display is a 15-year tradition in the town: "Residents will tell you that they were brought to the Apruzzi house as kids and now bring their own kids to witness the amazing display." (A zombie nativity has also caused drama.) (Newser) The Supreme Court left little doubt Wednesday that it would rule that the Constitution's ban on excessive fines applies to the states, an outcome that could help an Indiana man recover the $40,000 Land Rover police seized when they arrested him for selling about $400 worth of heroin. A decision in favor of 37-year-old Tyson Timbs, of Marion, Indiana, also could buttress efforts to limit the confiscation by local law enforcement of property belonging to someone suspected of a crime. The court has formally held that most of the Bill of Rights applies to states as well as the federal government, but it has not done so on the Eighth Amendment's excessive-fines ban. More from the AP: Justice Neil Gorsuch was incredulous that Indiana Solicitor General Thomas Fisher was urging the justices to rule that states should not be held to the same standard. "Here we are in 2018 still litigating incorporation of the Bill of Rights. Really? Come on, general," Gorsuch said to Fisher, using the term for holding that constitutional provisions apply to the states. story continues below Justice Stephen Breyer said under Fisher's reading police could take the case of a driver caught going 5mph above the speed limit. "Anyone who speeds has to forfeit the Bugatti, Mercedes, or special Ferrari, or even jalopy," Breyer said. Fisher agreed. It was unclear whether the justices also would rule to give Timbs his Land Rover back or allow Indiana courts to decide that issue. Some justices seemed willing to take that additional step. The story of how Timbs ended up in the Supreme Court began with steel-toed boots he bought for work in a truck factory. The boots hurt his feet, but he couldn't immediately afford the insoles he was told to buy. A doctor wrote a prescription for hydrocodone. Before long, Timbs was hooked on heroin. A more than $70,000 life insurance payout he received after his father's death seemed a blessing, but it wasn't, he said. "A drug addict shouldn't have a whole lot of money," said Timbs, who used some of the money to buy the Land Rover. Timbs' criminal sentence included no prison time, a year of house arrest and five years on probation. A decision in Tyson Timbs and a 2012 Land Rover LR2 v. Indiana, 17-1091, is expected by June. (Read more US Supreme Court stories.) His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa has stressed that the world is currently facing increasing challenges that pose a threat to security and stability, calling on the International Community to draw lessons from the experiences of the past. HRH Premier said that wars and conflicts have left nothing but destruction and devastation, and they are the first obstacle to peoples unity and life in love and peace. Peace is sought by everyone, and the ultimate goal of all those who raise the motto of coexistence, diversity, and acceptance of the other, he said, affirming that Bahrain always extends its hand to those whose goals are to achieve the Good, security and stability for humanity. HRH Premier emphasized that Bahrain is an internationally-recognized land of co-existence, tranquility, as well as intellectual and cultural diversity. The Prime Minister made the statements while receiving, at the Gudaibiya Palace yesterday, heads and representatives of a number of institutions, associations, and civil society organizations, from European, Asian and African countries, that are interested in promoting peace, co-existence, and dialogue among cultures and peoples. HRH Premier welcomed the visit of the advocates of peace to the kingdom, noting that it is a good opportunity for them to be informed closely about the love, coexistence, and peace that prevail across the Bahraini society. The Prime Minister stressed the importance of such visits and meetings in enhancing rapprochement, dialogue, and exchange of visions vis-avis everything that would support global peace. We share the vision on the need to work together for the sake of spreading peace as a central value for realizing the aspirations of nations and peoples for a more peaceful life, the Premier said while addressing members of the delegation. Every human being has the right to live in peace and in a climate of stability that stimulates development and nation-building. Development and modernization are key to peoples prosperity, he added. The High Court of Appeals considered the appeals lodged by two convicts involved in deliberately and premeditatedly murdering the imam of Bin Shida Mosque, rejected their appeals and upheld the sentence issued by the High Criminal Court, Chief Prosecutor of Muharraq Governorate, Hussain Khamis, said. The Public Prosecution had referred both defendants on charges of deliberate, premeditated murder, desecrating and concealing the victims body. The jury unanimously agreed on issuing the death sentence against the first and one year in jail and deportation against the second defendant for his role in concealing the body and failure to report the crime. Both convicts appealed to the High Appeals Court which considered the case and issued the foregoing ruling. According to court documents, Bahraini imam Abduljaleel Hamood went missing in the early hours of August 5 after he performed the Al-Fajr prayer (dawn prayer). Police was notified about his absence by his family after they lost contact with him, while search efforts went at full swing as his photos and missing information went viral on a social media platform. Putting an end to the mystery, the Ministry of Interior announced on its official Twitter account that Hamoods body was found cut into pieces inside plastic bags in Al Mazra area near the scrapyard in Askar. A 35-year-old Asian man was later arrested in connection with his murder. The suspect was working as a prayer reciter at the same mosque. Its believed that the suspect committed the crime following differences that arose after the victim reported the 35-year-old Bangladeshi man to the Ministry of Justice for illegal trading of visas. The United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) for the Gulf States, in co-operation with Bahrain Women Union and Lulu Hypermarket, launched the Orange Campaign on Sunday at Al Ramli Mall in AAli. The campaign, which reflects the global call against the elimination of all forms of violence against women, lasts for 16 days (until December 10). It is being held under the theme #Hear Me Too and comes as joint efforts to shift the culture and end violence against women and girls. The event included kids stations that offered avenues for drawing, painting, storytelling. Adding charm to the event caricaturist Salah Abu Idrees drew live cartoons. Badriya Al Marzook, the Bahrain Women Union president stressed that women must speak out to combat violence in real life. Violence against women should not be tolerated and actions must be taken in these cases courageously and without hesitation,she added. Zoukaa Sallam, on behalf of UNIC Manama, said, I would first thank Bahrain Women Union and Ramli Mall to giving us the opportunity to spread awareness. Violence against women and girls remains a pervasive problem worldwide. To end that, the General Assembly issued resolution 48/104, laying the foundation for the road towards a world free of gender-based violence, paving the path towards eradicating violence against women and girls worldwide, said Ms. Sallam. In this context, the General Assembly officially designated 25 November in 1999 as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and in doing so, inviting governments, international organizations as well as NGOs to join and organise activities designed to raise public awareness of the issue every year on that date. Moreover, on Friday, UNIC Manama and Bahrain Women Union shall be organizing an event in which there will be several activities and it will take place in Amwaj, the Lagoon from 5 pm to 10 pm in the evening. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, issued a statement, which said, Violence against women and girls is a global pandemic. It is a moral affront to all women and girls, a mark of shame on all our societies and a major obstacle to inclusive, equitable and sustainable development. Violence can take many forms, domestic attacks to trafficking, from sexual violence in conflict to child marriage, genital mutilation and femicide. It harms the individual and has far-reaching consequences for families and society. This is also a deeply political issue. Violence against women is tied to broader issues of power and control in our societies. Islamic banking industry has experienced a fragmented growth pattern in recent times and has failed to live up to the expectation from the Central Bank of Bahrain, its Governor said yesterday. Describing the industrys progress towards Maqasid-eShariah (objectives of Shariah) as being painfully slow, CBB governor Rasheed Al Maraj, said that the Islamic finance sector needs to take steps to ensure a thriving industry. He was speaking to an audience present at the World Islamic Banking Conference held at Art Rotana yesterday. Hundreds of delegates people from around the world attended the conference. Islamic finance is no longer an infant industry. Next year will be the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the first Islamic bank in Bahrain. Islamic finance has achieved size, scale, market share and customer attention in many markets around the world including Bahrain. But success is always a function of what you have achieved as compared to your expectations. And here, I have to concede that my expectations from the Islamic finance industry have not been met fully. The progress towards Maqasid-e-Shariah remains painfully slow, which in my opinion should have been the single most important indicator of real success, he said. With this backdrop, the economic slowdown as a result of lower oil prices since 2015 provides us an opportune time to do two things. One, consolidate and plug any gaps that we may have overlooked during the rapid growth period. Two, reflect on what is needed next to usher in a new era of fast-paced growth. I will focus on the latter during my speech today, he added. 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. Bahrain has made substantial progress towards achieving both its ambitious Economic Vision 2030 targets, an in-depth report into the Kingdoms economy revealed yesterday. The Bahrain Human Development Report, released by the Bahrain Centre for Strategic, International and Energy Studies (Derasat) in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), highlighted the Kingdoms success in diversifying its economy and in recognizing the importance of environmental concerns. The report noted that the Kingdoms progress towards its own 2030 targets, first set out in 2008, has been achieved while incorporating the global targets laid down in the UN Sustainable Development Goals of 2015. Dr. Shaikh Abdulla bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, Chairman of Derasat, said: The authors of the report should be commended for their highly detailed analysis of the Bahraini economy. Their findings are also welcome as they validate the many years of hard work from across the public and private sectors to deliver a more successful and inclusive economy for the people of Bahrain. The reports authors emphasized two areas crucial to the success of the Bahrain economy: diversification and sustainability. The diversification of the economy has gathered pace as government-instigated reforms have encouraged the growth of sectors such as finance, technology, and logistics. Addressing environmental issues ensures the highest possible living standards for future generations. Achim Steiner, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, said: Bahrain is a nation that enjoys very high levels of human development and yet like many other countries also faces challenges across the development spectrum. Bahrains economic vision 2030 already demonstrates a commitment to addressing those challenges and my hope is that this Human Development Report becomes an important touchstone for informing policymakers and partners alike in Bahrain. Bahrain has always been at the forefront of change in the region, from being the first to discover oil in the GCC to establishing the regions first banking system. The Kingdom is now home to the biggest Islamic Finance industry in the region and has significantly pivoted away from being an oil-led economy. The broad base of the Bahrain economy is now reflected in the fact that the oil and gas sector represents only 18.4 percent of the economy. Financial services contribute 16.7pc of GDP and manufacturing 14.5pc. The success of Bahrains financial sector was a recurring theme in the report, as the Kingdom is now home to nearly 400 financial institutions, and the regions first and biggest FinTech incubator, FinTech Bay. The establishment of an excellent ICT infrastructure was also recognized as a key enabler of success across the broader economy. Aragoz is the most popular and one of the oldest characters in the Egyptian art of puppetry The Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage at UNESCO has endorsed Egypt's proposal to register the popular puppet and one of the oldest theatrical forms in the country Aragoz shows on the organisation's List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The decision was taken unanimously during the 13th session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, which kicked off on 26 November and is set to run until 1 December. The committee meetings are tackling files connected with safeguarding intangible cultural heritage and registering cultural elements on its various lists. Egyptian ambassador to France and permanent representative to UNESCO Ehab Badawy told MENA on Tuesday that the move comes within the framework of the joint efforts of the Egyptian ministries of foreign affairs and culture. Badawy highlighted the importance of the Convention for Safeguarding the Intangible Cultural Heritage, confirming the great importance that Egypt attaches to this convention given the countrys rich intangible heritage. Egypt has previously managed to register its El-Sirah El-Hilaliyyah epic and Tahteeb (stick dancing) on the UNESCO intangible lists, Badawy noted. During the discussions, Egypt pointed out that Aragoz is an old form of Egyptian theatre using traditional hand puppets. Performances are highly popular events where puppeteers remain hidden inside a small portable stage while an assistant interacts with the puppets and crowd. Aragoz takes its name from the main puppet, whose distinctive voice is created with a voice modifier. The art used to be performed by troupes who moved from one folk celebration to another across Egypt. For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture Search Keywords: Short link: Japanese messaging app provider LINE is teaming up with Mizuho Financial Group to launch a bank. It will not have any outlets and specialize only in providing services for smartphone users. LINE has more than 70 million users in Japan. The firm has been trying to step up its ability to offer payments via smartphone. Company officials hope the tie up with Mizuho will allow it to provide these services and more. Meanwhile, Mizuho hopes to acquire new customers by working with LINE, which has a large user base of young people. Both companies are also looking at offering loan services. - NHK Mummies with anthropoid painted cartonnage have been unearthed in Dahshour Necropolis, about 40 kilometres south of the Giza Plateau During excavation work in the area to the northeastern side of King Amenemhat IIs tomb in the Dahshour necropolis in Giza, an Egyptian archaeological mission has stumbled upon eight graves from the Late Period. Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, explains that the graves contain limestone sarcophagi with mummies inside, three of which are in very good conservation condition. The mummies are covered in cartonnage adorned with paintings of the faces of the deceased. The cartonnage is painted in blue, brown and green. Waziri said that the mummies have been taken to store galleries for restoration and suggested that they could be put on display at the newly established museum in Sharm El-Sheikh or Hurgada. Dahshur is a royal ancient Egyptian necropolis that houses the Bent and Red pyramids of the fourth dynasty king Sneferu, as well as the black pyramid of Amenemhat III, among other royal pyramids. mummy mummy Search Keywords: Short link: The Coalition of aggrieved Support Groups numbering over 145, on Tuesday, formally withdrew their support for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and pledging their support and loyalty to president Muhammadu Buhari for the 2019 presidential election.Speaking during event to mark the official joining of the campaign for President Buharis re-election bid, Coordinator of the Groups, Bello Osaretin, said that they wanted to be part of the Next Level movement.While promising to mobilise their members to give President Buhari six million votes, the Groups coordinator said: We the members of aggrieved Atiku Support Groups Coalition, warehousing more than 145 aggrieved support groups across Nigeria, unanimously agreed to denounce membership of Atiku Presidential Campaign Office and as well withdraws total supports for Atiku Abubakars presidential ambition nationwide with immediate effect and direct all affiliate bodies to do same forthwith.Our decision to quit the Atiku project was occasioned by the total neglect and disregards for the sanctity of support groups existence, acknowledgment and recognition of groups contributions coupled with nepotic deployment to favour some selected support groups with ethnic affinity, administrative recklessness in management of support groups goodwill, rebarbative use of derogatory lingos such as mere volunteers and nuisance to ascribed support groups instrumental for Atiku to defeat eleven co-contestants in PDP Presidential Convention and the use of coercive force, such as thugs and political touts to unleash mayhem on support groups that we are disgruntled to the injustice prevalent in APCO.However, after the emergence of the Atiku as Presidential Candidate in Port-Harcourt, the victory party was relocated to Dubai, where emporia em emporium was hatched and cabals that never laboured were the first to sit at the tea party, meanwhile the support groups that labored through thick and thin were neglected, abandoned, used and dumped, confirming the usual parlance of monkey day work baboon dey Chep which has been the usual style of PDP as a political party.It is a common knowledge to state thus, though not trying to make common sense but rational thinking that it is not all that are common that makes sense, therefore, support groups who were neglected and treated with disdain has the right and privilege to migrate to places Where they will be treated with royalty.Our decision to quit Atikus presidential project is informed and inspired by the outcome of wide consultations and engagements embark upon over the past few months as it were clearly observable that the Nigerian people are not interested in restarting Nigeria, knowing fully well that Nigeria is working and are ready to move enmasse to the NEXT LEVEL of economic prosperity, socio-cultural reintegration and political stability.We are proud to state that Nigerians are at home with the current achievements of President Buhari and cannot afford to return to the old days of political darkness and jabberwocky, where looters of our common patrimony were been celebrated and given front seats in social functions, instead of languishing in jail.Similarly, the Nigerian people cant afford political nomads and people delinquent in leadership panache and content to govern Nigeria again. Nigeria is already moving forward and in save hands with President Buhari in the drivers seat, he said.To this end, we as members of aggrieved Atiku Support Groups nationwide do hereby pledge our unalloyed loyalty and allegiance to Buhari and promise to mobilize and give six million votes to him, he added. The presidential candidate of the Accord Party, Isaac Ositelu, has asked the Federal Government to immediately declare a state of emergency in the nations security architecture.This, he said, has become necessary following the spate of killings by insurgents in parts of the country.In a statement made available to journalists on Wednesday, Ositelu said it was unfortunate that each time the military claimed to have technically defeated the insurgents, the group usually responded with a bigger damage.He said there should be an immediate end to the killings of Nigerians.It is unacceptable the way our people are being killed on a regular basis.No nation should stand aloof and watch with trepidation the deliberate and consistent carnage in our land, he said.Ositelu said it was demeaning to the image of the country how military bases were being attacked by Boko Haram fighters.The presidential candidate promised to make military institutions fortresses that are impenetrable to armed gangs if elected President.He said with the killings of military operatives and Nigerians, particularly, in the Northern states, his government would probe all defence and security budgets and expenditure from 1999 to 2018.He noted that if the capital votes and releases to the military had been efficiently executed in the last 19 years, there was no way the Nigerian military would continue to come under violent attacks by the marauders and insurgent groups.He added that that clear cut performance metrics would be used in defining the tenure of his security chiefs once the mantle of leadership is handed over to him.Military commanders who failed to meet up to their deliverables, he said, would be asked to give way to a more robust leadership that is result-oriented.Ositelu said the Nigerian military which had won international accolades across Africa and other parts of the globe had no business being decimated by insurgent militants.Aside from providing the most modern equipment and training facilities for a combat-ready army, the candidate said welfare of the rank and file of the military would be top notch for his administration.According to him, the impunity with which political leaders, the bureaucracy and military hierarchy siphon the funds meant for military equipment and welfare of the soldiers will be a thing of the past as those found culpable would be dealt with according to the laws of the land.He said that budgets for military and security operations would be streamlined for results.He added, Never again will the Office of the National Security Adviser get more budgetary provisions than the sum allocated to the entire defence sector as witnessed in the recent past.My government will also try to address the ideological angle to the issue of insurgency by working with the stakeholders including clerics, traditional rulers and the civilian joint task force to nip such ideas in the bud in the future. Lai Mohammed, minister of information, says the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has recovered N540 billion through the... Lai Mohammed, minister of information, says the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has recovered N540 billion through the federal governments whistleblowing policy. According to Segun Adeyemi, media aide to the minister, Mohammed said this while speaking at the 71st general assembly of the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON) in Port Harcourt, Rivers state. The minister who was represented by Sunny Adejoh Baba, director of public relations and protocol in the ministry, said the media should align itself with programmes of the government aimed at ridding the country of corruption. 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. 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 the government is committed to ensuring that the media carries out its role as watch dogs. 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, Mohammed said. President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba, says that the Federal Government was operating on denial over ... President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba, says that the Federal Government was operating on denial over the new minimum wage. Wabba pointed out that private sectors wer actually cooperating with the labour unions on the proposed new wage than the government. Wabba stated this in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State on Tuesday during the opening session of the 2018 meeting of the joint national public service negotiating council. He stressed that private sectors pay their workers higher than those in public service. He said: Private sectors have actually displaced the public sector in industrial relation and collective bargaining role model, our experiences during the negotiations for the new minimum wage showed that the employers in the private sectors are more forthcoming and forthright, moving negotiation forward to mutual acceptable figure, while government continues to live in denial and even stop the conclusion for the negotiation. Private employers remain willing to sustain industrial relation harmony by supporting positions that will ensure that workers get appreciable wages increase, while government continues to politicize our agreement, devoid of genuine interest. Olisa Metuh, a former spokesman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), says his bank accounts have been frozen by the Economic and Fin... Olisa Metuh, a former spokesman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), says his bank accounts have been frozen by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). He is facing a seven-count of criminal breach of trust and money laundering to the tune of N400 million. At the Abuja federal high court on Tuesday, Metuh said he could no longer feed his family because of the restriction placed on his account by the anti-graft agency. He said he does not know how he would cater for his family and also lacked means to buy Panadol. They seized all my accounts in every bank in this country. As I am dont have money to buy Panadol or water to drink, he said. They have alleged in this case that N400m was stolen. Why would they not limit it to that amount? I dont know how I am going to feed my family? I dont have access to any money at all. I am ready to end this case and submit myself to the judgment of this court. I am in total shock as I am here talking to you. Okon Abang, the judge, asked Onyechi Ikpeazu, Metuhs counsel, to discuss the issue with Sylvanus Tahir, prosecution lawyer. Plans are ongoing to bring Nigerian medical professionals abroad to provide volunteer health services in Nigeria, President Muhammad... Plans are ongoing to bring Nigerian medical professionals abroad to provide volunteer health services in Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari has said. Buhari revealed this on Wednesday at the ongoing Nigeria Diaspora Investment Summit 2018 at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. The summit, with the theme: Activating Diaspora Investments for a Diversified Economy, is aimed at attracting investments into the emerging diversified Nigerian economy. The event was organised by the office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and the Diaspora, in collaboration with Nigeria Diaspora Alumni Network (NiDAN). The Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) outlines options for the Diaspora to invest in Nigeria through such mechanisms as our National Social Housing Programme, and our Foreign Currency Bonds. The Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) outlines options for the Diaspora to invest in Nigeria through such mechanisms as our National Social Housing Programme, and our Foreign Currency Bonds. In 2017, we launched Nigerias first-ever Diaspora Bond, we also launched our first-ever Sukuk and Green Bonds, all of which are investment opportunities for you. We will shortly be issuing a second Sukuk Bond, and there will also be subsequent Green Bonds available for you to invest in. The ERGP also outlines a Plan for a Diaspora Medical Assistance Programme that will encourage Nigerian medical professionals abroad to provide volunteer health services here in Nigeria. These initiatives and many more will be driven to implementation by the newly-established Diaspora Commission, working hand in hand with other government agencies, the private sector and the Diaspora community. Represented by the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, Buhari said that the Federal Government would support whatever would facilitate the mobilisation of investments and talents into Nigeria. Senator representing Kano Central, Dr. Rabiu Kwankwaso says he was aware of the video which showed Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano ... Senator representing Kano Central, Dr. Rabiu Kwankwaso says he was aware of the video which showed Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State allegedly receiving money from some contractors. He, however, said he did everything possible to stop the release to the public but to no avail. Kwankwaso, a former governor of Kano State, stated this on a live programme on Aminchi FM in Kano. Senator Kwankwaso said he pleaded with the Publisher of the online newspaper, Daily Nigerian, which released the video, but noted that they refused to heed his plea. According to him, I was aware of the video clips before they were released to the public and I pleaded that they should not be released, but they didnt listen to me. I am not happy that the video clips were made public because it is an embarrassment to the state and its people, including myself. Ganduje has since been the subject of several videos, which showed him receiving wads of US dollars from persons believed to be contractors. At least six of such videos have been published since the first clip was released on October 11 The governor, however, denied collecting money from any contractor, describing it as a calculated attempt to impugn his person. He later sued the online newspaper for N3 billion, despite earlier intervention by the House of Assembly that he should not do so. Oby Ezekwesili, the presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), has named Ganiyu Galadima as her running ma... Oby Ezekwesili, the presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), has named Ganiyu Galadima as her running mate for the 2019 elections. She revealed this while speaking at Kwara Hotel, Ilorin, Kwara state on Wednesday, stating that he was the kind of grassroot politician she needs to lift 80 million people out of poverty. Galadima, who is the national chairman of the ACPN, contested the 2015 presidential election, where he garnered 40,311 votes to clinch the fourth position. He was only behind the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Muhammadu Buhari; Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Goodluck Jonathan; and Adebayo Ayeni of the African Peoples Alliance. Speaking about her choice of a grassroot politician, Ezekwesili said Galadima will teach her to be a consummate politician. I am very delighted that my vice-presidential candidate, my colleague, the one that will embark on this very important fight for Naija, are you ready to fight for Naija? That I have a rugged grassroot fighter as the person who will supplement the things that I know. He will teach me how to be a consummate politician. Alhaji Abdulganiyu Galadima is definitely known for the work he has done at the grassroot level. As someone who started a strong career in local government, he is the kind of person I need, for us to lift 80 million people out of poverty. If we need competence, we can buy it; if we need capacity, we can buy it, but there is one thing we cannot buy, and that is character. For me, this gentleman represents that character. President Muhammadu Burhari on Wednesday reiterated his commitment to improve the welfare of Nigerian Army to enable them discharge thei... President Muhammadu Burhari on Wednesday reiterated his commitment to improve the welfare of Nigerian Army to enable them discharge their constitutional mandate of protecting the nations territorial integrity. Buhari gave the assurance while addressing troops at Maimalari Cantonment, Maiduguri. He said the troops were always on his mind, adding that he had always woken up thinking about them and the conditions they operated. He said the troops were always on his mind, adding that he had always woken up thinking about them and the conditions they operated. I will support you to play your constitutional role of defending the integrity of the country from both internal and external forces. This is the oath you have taken just as I took an oath as the President and Commander-In-Chief. I assure you that I go to bed and always wake up thinking about you and the conditions under which you operate. Please, maintain your loyalty and defend the country. Whatever happens, a military no matter how equipped or how well led, without discipline is no use to the country, he said. While commending the troops over their gallantry and sacrifices, Buhari urged them to increase their commitment in engaging the outlaw Boko Haram insurgents, without further delay. He said plans were on to adopt a new enhanced salary structure for the military in recognition of their contributions to security, social and economic development of the country. The president also visited injured troops on admission at the Military Medical Centre. Maimalari Barracks, Maiduguri. James Zogby reflects on events in 1988 that underlined that perseverance is the best way to face down adversaries Last week, after reading my column, The Struggle to Advocate for Palestinians Has Never Been Easy, a reader did a bit of research, found, and then sent me an article I had written 30 years ago. Because this three-decades old piece tells an important story, I have included it below, followed by a bit of background. Must an Arab American Pass a Pro-Israel Litmus Test, The Los Angeles Times, 10/6/1988 When Ruth Ann Skaff, an Arab-American community activist and Democrat from Houston, was appointed to the Democratic National Committee after the convention in Atlanta, Arab Americans were overjoyed. Skaffs appointment signalled at last the Democratic Partys willingness to welcome us as an ethnic constituency. But this taste of inclusion is rapidly turning bitter for those who dare to hold opinions not shared by some others in the party. For years Arab Americans have worked, to no avail, to meet with the national party leadership and be recognised as a constituent group. Our community still remembers the hurt when the Mondale campaign returned contributions made by Arab-American Democrats in 1984. This year, working hard for Jesse Jackson, we won a record number of delegate and standing-committee slots to the Democratic convention. As a result of these efforts, and with Jacksons strong support, Skaff was appointed to the national committee. Then the storm broke. No sooner was her appointment announced than a Texas DNC leader expressed concern and regret over Skaffs inclusion in the 400-member committee. More recently, five Republican members of Congress challenged presidential candidate Michael S Dukakis to dismiss Skaff and two black DNC appointees Los Angeles City Councilman Robert Farrell and the Reverend Willie Barrow, executive director of Operation PUSH in Chicago for their anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian views. The Democratic leadership should have immediately exposed this Republican attack for what it was a desperate and dangerous attempt to shift to the Democrats the spectre of anti-Semitism that had arisen in their own campaign when it was discovered that some former supporters of the Nazis held positions on a Bush election committee. Instead, the Democratic Party took the bait. Some Democratic members of Congress went so far as to join in the call for the dismissal of Skaff, Farrell and Barrow, while all that party chairman Paul G Kirk could offer was a reaffirmation of his partys solid support for the state of Israel and its unwavering intolerance of bigotry and anti-Semitism. Why the controversy? We are told that Skaff is disliked because of her views on the Middle East. Skaff has been critical of Israels invasion into Lebanon and Israels policies in the West Bank and Gaza. She supports the Palestinians right to self-determination, including their right to choose their own leadership. She has also publicly stated that she supports security for the state of Israel. These views, according to a Gallup poll of March, 1988, are shared by a plurality of American citizens. Again, why the controversy? Is it because Skaff, whose grandparents were from Lebanon, is an Arab American? Some leaders in the Jewish community have told us no. And yet we feel that this must be the case. Skaff is deeply committed to a broad range of concerns, including immigrant rights, an end to ethnic stereotyping, Middle East peace and reform in Lebanon and security and justice for Palestinians. Her commitment to these issues is related to her ethnicity. Yet there are many other Americans who share these same concerns. Would her concerns be an issue if not for her ethnic origin? I think not. No one should be required to pass a litmus test on areas of US foreign policy in order to participate in domestic politics. In particular, it strikes me as somewhat credulous to expect that Skaff would express support for Israeli policies at a time when those policies have resulted in such hardship and suffering for the people of her ancestry in the Middle East. Such a test would be, by definition, exclusionary to any Arab American. That such a litmus test links support for Palestinian rights with anti-Semitism is also patently unfair; nowhere in Skaffs personal life is there any shred of evidence of her holding such views. Even suggesting such a loyalty test not only silences national debate on the Middle East, which is what its advocates clearly intend. It also denies to Arab Americans the opportunity to gain access to the political process where their other concerns can also be addressed. The real litmus test should be the ability of both parties to include representatives of the Arab-American community and to allow free and open debate on issues of concern to all Americans. Arab Americans have come of age. We refuse to accept the limiting definition of ourselves as merely the other side of the Arab-Israeli conflict. We are not a faction but a constituency, and we demand inclusion in this instance, our rightful place in the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party should welcome into its ranks Ruth Ann Skaff and the constituency that she represents, and it should defend, even encourage, her right to debate all issues of concern to that constituency. The fundamental principles of our democracy guarantee these rights to all citizens. It seems so logical. Right? So, why is the storm still brewing? The reason for the storm was that at the 1988 Democratic Convention, led by Jesse Jacksons presidential campaign, we had introduced and then debated from the podium of the convention an amendment to the partys platform calling for mutual recognition, territorial compromise, and self-determination for both Israelis and Palestinians. It should not have been controversial, but it was. I had been warned by party leaders. They said, If you even mention the P-word (meaning, Palestine) in the convention, you will destroy the Democratic Party. We not only had a vigorous public debate, we also had a floor demonstration of over 1,000 delegates calling for justice for Palestinians. The reaction was near hysteria and Skaff, Farrell and Barrow, who had all been Jesse Jackson delegates, bore the brunt of this hysteria. Republicans sought to use the Palestine debate against the Democratic Party. And, instead of defending us and the importance of open debate, the Democratic Party leadership cowered. The partys 1988 nominee, Michael Dukakis, went so far as to reject our communitys endorsement. This episode marked the end of Arab American exclusion from the national party. At the end of 1988, when Ron Brown, Jesse Jacksons campaign manager, became the chair of the Democratic Party, he publicly welcomed the community into the party, speaking at our events (ignoring pressure to shun us), and including Arab Americans in party affairs. When Bill Clinton became president in January of 1993, even more doors were opened. As I have noted, even with these opportunities, we face renewed challenges to fully engage and raise our voices demanding justice for Palestinians with efforts underway to criminalise legitimate criticism of Israel and support for Palestinian human rights. What we have learned from past experience is that with a strategy grounded in hard work, persistence, reasoned discourse and the support of allies, we can face down our adversaries and prevail. * The writer is president of the Arab-American Institute. *A version of this article appears in print in the 29 November, 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Watershed in the struggle to advocate Palestinian rights Search Keywords: Short link: President Muhammadu Buhari, in his capacity as Chairman of the Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Lake Chad Basin Commission is to convene a consultation of Heads of State and Government of the LCBC .Mr Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, in a statement in Abuja, said the meeting of the Heads of State and Government of the LCBC would take place in NDjamena, Chad, on Thursday.According to the statement, the one-day meeting will review the security situation in the areas affected by Boko Haram insurgency.He said it would also adopt measures to enhance the capacity of the Multinational Joint Task Force to meet the challenges of securing the areas.The presidents of the LCBC member countries of Chad, Cameroon, Niger, and the Central African Republic have been invited to attend the meeting.The President of Benin Republic, a troops-contributing country, has also been invited to attend.The MNJTF and the national operations of the affected countries have appreciably degraded the capacity of Boko Haram terrorists, although the insurgents still retain the capacity to attack isolated targets in desperate search for supplies, the statement added. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed the national wage bill into law, bringing the national minimum wage to 3,500 Rands ... South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed the national wage bill into law, bringing the national minimum wage to 3,500 Rands or N91,225 per month. As per hourly pay, the Act fixed the countrys minimum wage at $1.45 (N527) for every 60 minutes of human labour. The president, who signed the bill into law on Monday, said the law was aimed at reducing inequality in the country, and advance living wage with the second biggest economy on the continent. The National Minimum Wage Act sets South Africas first national minimum wage at R20 an hour equivalent to R3 500 per month, depending on the number of hours worked, a statement from the office of the president read. The Presidents signing of the new law comes four years, to the month, after the National Economic Development and Labour Council (NEDLAC) first began deliberations on the protection of low-paid workers, fair and effective competition in the labour market, and the challenges of labour instability, caused by violent strikes and the duration of strikes and wage inequality. While national minimum wage will not end income inequality, it provides a firm and unassailable foundation, which is agreed to by all social partners, from which to advance the struggle for a living wage. The law, which will improve the pay of over six million workers in the country, is expected to take effect from on a date to be announced by the president. This is coming at a time when the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) are demanding a raise in Nigerias minimum wage from N18,000 to N30,000 per month. The federal government has expressed its readiness to meet NLCs demands, which pales in comparison to what South Africans will now earn, but state governors are still at variance with the federal government. Adekunle Odofin, a detective with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on Tuesday told the federal high court sitting ... Adekunle Odofin, a detective with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on Tuesday told the federal high court sitting in Abuja, that two people who made crucial statements during the investigation into the alleged fraud case involving Murtala Nyako, a former governor of Adamawa state, died mysteriously. Odofin told the court that the two deceased were very vital to the prosecution of the case. Nyako is being prosecuted by the commission, alongside his son, Abdul-Aziz Nyako, Abubakar Aliyu and Zulkifikk Abba, on a 37-count charge of criminal conspiracy, stealing, abuse of office and money laundering to the tune of N29 billion. Five companies that allegedly served as conduit pipes for the illegal diversion of the funds Blue Opal Limited, Sebore Farms & Extension Limited, Pagoda Fortunes Limited, Tower Assets Management Limited and Crust Energy Limited, were equally charged before the court as the 5th to 9th defendants. Odofin told the court that one Mohammad Maj Iro, who was the general manager of Zenith Bank Plc and the account officer of 200 accounts belonging to the state, died after making crucial statements at the time of filing the case in the court. The detective told the court that the commission also extended invitations to one Dalhatu Abdulmalik, cousin to Nyako and the director of Ameak Investment Limited, who also died after giving his own statement. The detective said Maj Iro pulled out over N800 million from the states account and credited it to Crust Energy Limited, the 9th defendant in the case, while taking orders from Nyako. The behaviour of these accounts, showed how money was being withdrawn in multiple of Ten Million Naira on different dates, running into billions of naira, by late Mohammad Maj Irom, Odofin said. The question is, why did Maj Iro withdraw money from Adamawa state account, without being a staff of the state government? Investigations revealed that memos were originated from permanent secretaries of the SSD, Mohammed Ibrahim Jidado and that of the SSG, Emmanuel Ibrahim. Having generated these memos, same were forwarded to SSG for transmission to the number one citizen of the state, the governor. Upon the approval of these memos, same came back to the SSG. Having received these cheques, Maj Iro, being a seasoned banker, pulled out these monies from the two accounts (SSD and SSG) and he starts crediting various individuals and corporate accounts, most especially, without the knowledge of the account owners. Maj Iro credited Zenith Bank accounts of the 5th to the 9th defendants (Blue Opal Limited, Sebore Farms & Extension Limited, Pagoda Fortunes Limited, Tower Assets Management Limited and Crust Energy Limited), out of the money he pulled out from Adamawa State account. Part of the money Maj Iro transferred to Tower Asset Management Limited, the sum of N678,000,000 (Six Hundred And Seventy Eight Million Naira) was transferred to Crust Energy on different dates. Maj Iro also transferred N160, 000,000 out of the money to a company called Maxion Option Limited. Statements made by Maj Iro at the commission were tendered and admitted in evidence by the court. The Nigerian Police, Tuesday, assured President Muhammadu Buhari that the force would re-double its efforts in the fight against crimes in the country.In a statement issued by the Public relations officer of the force, Ag DCP Jimoh Moshood, the Inspector General of Police, IGP Ibrahim K. Idris, opined that every personnel would be more committed to guaranteeing adequate security nationwide.IGP directs that the entire personnel of the Force must re-double their efforts, be more dedicated and committed to duty to reduce crimes and criminalities in the Country to the barest and reciprocate the Presidents good gesture and concern for the Force, as to whom much is given, much is expected.His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, President, Federal Republic of Nigeria has graciously approved Rank Salary Structure Adjustment for Police Personnel with effect from 1st of November, 2018.The President, Federal Republic of Nigeria assures that his administration will continue to give attention to the welfare and operational needs of the Nigeria Police Force with a view to restoring the Force primacy and lead role in internal security framework of the Country. The President hopes that this gesture will increase the performance index of the Police and strengthen Nigerias Internal Security system.His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, observed that the more efficient the Police is, the more confident the Government and Citizens will be. The President congratulated the Inspector General of Police and Police Management Team on the success recorded against criminals taxing people and stopping them from their farms. we are expecting more from you, the President told the Police.The Inspector General of Police, IGP Ibrahim K. Idris, NPM, mni, assured the President, Federal Republic of Nigeria that the Nigeria Police Force will redouble its efforts to guarantee adequate security nationwide and also ensure secure environment for free, fair and credible elections throughout the Country in the forthcoming 2019 General Elections.The Inspector General of Police has therefore directed that the entire personnel of the Force must re-double their efforts, be more dedicated and committed to duty to reduce crimes and criminalities in the Country to the barest and reciprocate the Presidents good gesture to the Force, as to whom much is given, much is expected.The Force therefore will not tolerate any lapses, dereliction of duty and other unprofessional conducts from any officer in the discharge of their official responsibilities. Commissioners of Police and their supervisory Assistant Inspector Generals of Police are to educate their Personnel on the newly approved Rank Salary Structure Adjustment.Training and Seminar have been held for Officers in charge of the Mechanized Salary Section, Police Accountants and Auditors attached to all Police Formations across the Country on the modalities for implementation of the newly approved Rank Salary Structure Adjustment.The renewed commitment of the Nigeria Police Force to reduce crimes and criminalities in the Country remain unequivocal and unwavering. President Muhammadu Buhari has told soldiers that the war against Boko Haram is a must win. The president said this on Wednesday... President Muhammadu Buhari has told soldiers that the war against Boko Haram is a must win. The president said this on Wednesday while delivering the keynote address at the 2018 edition of the the chief of army staff annual conference (COAS) in Maiduguri, Borno state. Buhari had cancelled a private visit to Daura, his hometown in Katsina state, to attend the conference which was earlier scheduled to hold in Benin, Edo state capital. He said his government would do everything within its powers to support the army, disclosing thathe is making efforts to improve the entitlements of soldiers. He encouraged the soldiers to keep up the good work and shun distraction. I must commend the leadership of the Nigerian army in moving the venue of this conference to Maiduguri, Buhari said. Our officers and soldiers who are fighting terrorism in the north-east deserve all the attention our countrys leadership can demonstrate to them. As president of the country, I am determined to ensure that every citizen feels safe and secure in all parts of the country. I am of course aware that in the recent months and in the recent days, there have been some operational losses in the northern part of Borno state. I know that you are doing your best to reverse this trend and I want to assure you that no effort will be spared in providing the necessary support you require to complete the task. we remain committed to ending the crisis in the north east and making the entire area safe for all. I urge you all to keep up the good work. It is a must win war. I want to encourage our troops not to be distracted but remain focused and committed to the task of eliminating Boko Haram from the surface of the earth. I want to assure you, that as your commander in chief, I will do everything within my power to continue empowering you by providing all the necessary equipment for you to prevail on the field. I also want you to be aware that I am currently looking at measures to improve your entitlements and welfare generally. I therefore wish to reiterate that leaders of all strata of our society including the armed forces must embrace the wind of change that is blowing across the country for good. While many eyes are set on the upcoming opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, Tahrir Squares Egyptian Museum is undergoing an exciting revamp To mark the 116th anniversary of the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square, the Ministry of Antiquities organised what, to me, was a landmark event that serves to demarcate the dividing line between this venerable establishments over a century-long past and its future as a truly modern museum, employing the latest techniques to display a unique collection of antiquities that can be seen nowhere else. We are speaking of a rebirth of a major historic museum. For some time, news of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), due to open in 2020, overshadowed the old museum and the question of its fate. GEM will be the largest museum in the world. It will house an incredibly huge collection of items, unavailable elsewhere and that will include the 3,500-piece Tutankhamen exhibit which has enthralled the world since its discovery in 1922 by the British archaeologist Howard Carter. But what will become of the old museum in Downtown Cairo? Who will visit it after GEM opens? I imagine that precisely such thoughts had occurred to former minister of culture Farouk Hosni who authored the idea of GEM. He once told me that he thought of dedicating the old museum to the Tutankhamen collection and GEM to the rest. However, he soon changed his mind, thinking it would not be right to deprive GEM of one of the most important collections of antiquities of ancient Egypt. So, since it is precisely the collection from the reign of the child king, King Tut, whose historical importance pales next to Khufu (Cheops), Ramses II, Hatshepsut, Ahmose and Akhenaten, that will be missing from the old museum, our energetic Minister of Antiquities Khaled El-Enani decided to dedicate the old museum to a unique collection of its own: the treasures of the nobles Yuya and Tuya, the parents of Queen Tiye, the wife of Amenhotep III and mother of Akhenaten. As appears from the collection, the noble couple were important in their own right in their times. They were buried in the Valley of the Kings alongside the major pharaohs of ancient Egypt. Their tomb was discovered in 1904. At the time, a team of British archaeologists were working on a couple of tombs from the reign of Ramses III and one of them, James E Quibell, drew attention to a mound of ruins that had emerged between the two tombs in the course of the digging. After clearing away some more sand, he discovered the tomb of Yuya and Tuya. It had been robbed a couple of times in remote antiquity, but it had since been resealed, buried beneath debris and forgotten until the early 20th century. The collection contains two gold masks, one of Yuya and the other of Tuya, that remind us of the famous mask of Tutankhamen. They were made of gilded cartonnage and inlaid with precious stones. It also features Yuyas war chariot, which reminds us of the gilded chariot of King Tut, as well as the splendid funerary furniture gilded chairs, beds and jewellery boxes, all inlaid with precious stones, ivory and ebony and alabaster and coloured limestone jars and other vessels. Of particular importance in the collection are the mummies of Yuya and Tuya which, much to the discoverers amazement, were found in excellent condition. They had been untouched by the grave-robbers who would generally claw open mummies in the search for any hidden pieces of gold or precious stones. Also found intact, in addition to the gilded masks, were the outer and inner coffins of the noble couple, the canopic jars that stored their viscera, and an array of small ushabti figurines. One of the most splendid artefacts to be exhibited for the first time is the Yuya papyrus. Restored and pieced together by the museums experts, it is 20 metres long the longest papyrus ever to be displayed in Egypt. The real value of the Yuya and Tuya collection resides in the beauty, delicacy and fine craftsmanship of its 214 pieces. These artefacts are among the finest items produced during the 18th Dynasty which is famed for its immense progress in the realms of politics, architecture and the arts. Many of these items had remained in storage in the basement of the museum for decades since the discovery of the Tutankhamen treasures, which occupied the main exhibit hall on the second floor. This large space has now been turned over to the new Yuya and Tuya collection. In a sense, therefore, GEM has liberated a large number of artefacts that had been kept in hiding in the Egyptian Museums storerooms and that will be displayed to the public for the first time, either in the new museum or in the old. Otherwise put, the creation of GEM will breathe new life into the old museum which had become more of an antiquities warehouse than a properly organised museum using modern display methods to showcase its acquisitions. Just to illustrate, in Berlin the bust of Nefertiti has a room to herself, enabling it to shine in all its glory. Such a luxury would never be possible in the Egyptian Museum with its 120,000 pieces, which make it the largest collection of Egyptian antiquities in the world. The opening of GEM, therefore, will mark the rebirth of the museum founded by Auguste Mariette, the first director of antiquities in Egypt, in 1858 and officially inaugurated in 1902 in order to, as he said, safeguard the antiquities of Egypt from plunder and destruction. The museum, indeed, performed this function. It preserved these treasures and became a storehouse for them. But now that thousands of items have been transferred to GEM, the display methods in the old museum can change. Development works towards this end are currently in progress with the energetic collaboration of some of the most important museums in the world, such as the British Museum, the Louvre and antiquities museums in Berlin, Leiden and Turin. T his enables us to look forward to the new opening of the modernised old museum as much as we are looking forward to the opening of GEM. *A version of this article appears in print in the 29 November, 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Egyptian Museum reborn Search Keywords: Short link: For most people being overweight creates huge complications from health to looks. The worst thing about it is having to... Natural baby rearing practices have seen a surge in popularity in recent years, and these trends have helped many families... Gold chains for men are uniquely designed, preserving in mind the durability. The excellent gold chain for men that are... While marathon running is specifically an athletic endeavor, it is also a very publicized sport, where your picture could get... I Agree This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy Weak growth of G20 international merchandise trade in third quarter of 2018 Download the entire news release (including graphs and tables PDF) 28/11/2018 - G20 international merchandise trade, seasonally adjusted and expressed in current US dollars, grew marginally in the third quarter of 2018, on the back of rising oil prices, with G20 exports rising by 0.3% and imports by 0.7%, following the minor contractions in the second quarter of 2018. Excluding large oil exporters, such as Russia and Saudi Arabia, G20 trade was flat suggesting that the steady expansion seen over the last two years may have stalled as recent protectionist measures begin to bite. In the United States, exports contracted by 1.7%. Although exports grew in China (by 2.4%) partly reflecting the exceptional sale of an oil platform to Brazil, which helped push up Brazilian imports by 18.0% this only partially offset the significant contraction of Chinese exports (down 4.9%) in the previous quarter. Exports also contracted in the European Union as a whole (minus 0.8%), for the second straight quarter, and in Australia (minus 2.0%), Japan (minus 2.0%), South Africa (minus 0.8%), Turkey (minus 0.6%) and India (minus 0.3%). Import growth remained weak in most countries, but picked up in large oil-importing countries such as China (4.1%) and India (4.1%), as well as Indonesia (4.9%). Imports decreased significantly in Turkey (minus 14.1%) and Argentina (minus 8.0%), in large part reflecting the continuing depreciation of these countries currencies against the US dollar (minus 36% for the Argentine peso and minus 30% for the Turkish lira), as well as in Saudi Arabia (minus 10.6%). Imports also contracted in Australia (minus 5.2%), Russia (minus 5.2%), Canada (minus 1.4%), Korea (minus 0.9%) and the European Union as a whole (minus 0.5%). 28/11/2018 - The OECD, UN Environment and World Bank Group today called on leaders of G20 countries to do more to enable a radical shift of investment into low-carbon, climate-resilient infrastructure as a way to limit the impact of climate change. Delivering a new report, Financing Climate Futures: Rethinking Infrastructure, to the G20 at its Summit in Buenos Aires, the three International Organisations said governments need to adopt a more transformative agenda on low-carbon, climate-resilient investments if they are to meet the Paris Agreement goal of cutting CO 2 emissions to net zero in the second half of the century and build resilience to climate change. Financing Climate Futures responds to an invitation from the 2017 G20 Hamburg Climate and Energy Action Plan to the three Organisations to document public and private activities for making financial flows consistent with the Paris goals. It follows the 2017 OECD report Investing in Climate, Investing in Growth, an input to the G20 German presidency which laid out the economic case that climate action and growth can go hand in hand provided that strong climate policies are packaged with fiscal and structural reforms. The Financing Climate Futures initiative aims to help countries move beyond an incremental approach to financing low-emission, resilient infrastructure towards the transformational agenda needed for decisive climate action. The initiative is supported by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety of Germany. Investing in low-carbon, climate-resilient infrastructure is vital for the future of the planet, and it can also drive economic growth, said Gabriela Ramos, OECD Chief of Staff and G20 Sherpa. The infrastructure challenge creates incentives for reforms that can deliver better performance on both counts. We are losing time though if we want to deliver we need to move much faster and achieve a systemic shift of trillions of dollars in green investment. Noting that energy, transport, buildings and water infrastructure contribute over 60% of greenhouse gas emissions, the report lays out six ways to bring public and private financial flows in line with the Paris goals, in particular in infrastructure finance. These include better planning and foresight, integrating climate concerns into all budgetary decisions and leveraging public procurement into low-emission, resilient infrastructure. Financing Climate Futures outlines key actions to drive low-carbon investment: Plan sustainable and resilient infrastructure for a low-emission and resilient future Unleash innovation to accelerate the transition to low-emissions technologies, business models and services Ensure fiscal sustainability for a low-emission, resilient future Reset the financial system in line with long-term climate risks and opportunities Rethink development finance for climate Empower city governments to build low-emission and resilient urban societies Investment in sustainable infrastructure can boost economic growth The report says that scaling-up public and private investments in low-emission and sustainable infrastructure is critical to increase resilience and avoid further carbon lock-in. OECD analysis in Investing in Climate, Investing in Growth showed that shifting infrastructure investment into low-carbon options, combined with structural reforms, could increase global GDP by as much as 5% by 2050, while cutting emissions. That includes the effects of lower risks of damage from extreme weather events. The cost of shifting from brown to green infrastructure would be more than offset by fuel savings. According to the OECD, governments spend half a trillion dollars a year subsidising oil, coal or gas and are not making enough use of public spending as a lever to decarbonise economies by investing in low-emissions infrastructure and innovation. Power plants under construction or in planning will lead to a near doubling of emissions from power generation, while incentives to shift to green energy and infrastructure, and disincentives to emit in all sectors, remain weak. We cannot ignore the new reality of powerful weather events that threaten jobs, homes, food security and other critical areas of our lives, said Kristalina Georgieva, Chief Executive Officer of the World Bank. The infrastructure that is built today must be ready to cope with tomorrows changing climate. We need the right incentives and regulations to urgently accelerate funding to these projects. Change is happening, but too slowly The final report of the UN Environment Inquiry into the Design of a Sustainable Financial System, released in April, found that progress on reforming the global financial system over the last four years has started to deliver financing for sustainability and set up the next wave of action. Sustainability is becoming part of routine practice within financial institutions and regulatory bodies, green bond issuance grew from US$11 billion in 2013 to US$155 billion in 2017, and the number and range of policy measures to advance sustainable finance increased from 139 in 2013 to 300 by 2017. However, much more needs to be done, particularly in infrastructure. With only 12 years to head off the worst impacts of climate change, we need rapid reform of our economies and societies, including a switch to low-carbon infrastructure, said Joyce Msuya, Acting Executive Director of UN Environment. The G20s economic power and political influence will be crucial to unlocking the investment we need to make this switch. Read the report About the OECD Working with over 100 countries, the OECD is a global policy forum that promotes policies to improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world. OECD press contact: OECD Media Officer Catherine Bremer, +33 1 45 24 80 97, catherine.bremer@oecd.org. About UN Environment UN Environment is the leading global voice on the environment. It provides leadership and encourages partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations. UN Environment works with governments, the private sector, civil society and with other UN entities and international organizations across the world. UN Environment press contact: Keith Weller, Head of News and Media, +254 (0) 742 98 38 82, keith.weller[at]un.org. About the World Bank Group The World Bank Group is one of the world's largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries. It comprises five closely associated institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA), which together form the World Bank; the International Finance Corporation (IFC); the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA); and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). Each institution plays a distinct role in the mission to fight poverty and improve living standards for people in the developing world. For more information, please visit www.worldbank.org, www.miga.org, and www.ifc.org. World Bank press contact: Uwi Basaninyenzi, Senior Communications Officer, +1 (202) 458-2353, unbasaninyenzi@worldbankgroup.org. 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. Unifor Members Approve Mill and Woodlands Four-Year Collective Agreements with Domtar Unifor's Eastern Canada Pulp and Paper Pattern group includes 15,000 forestry members across Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces. Nov. 20, 2018 (Press Release) - More than 500 Unifor members (on Nov. 19) in the Dryden-based Domtar Pulp Mill and Woodlands operations have voted overwhelmingly in favour of new four-year collective agreements. "Unifor has made it a priority to raise and equalize standards in the pulp and paper sector," said Unifor National President Jerry Dias. "I'm pleased to say that both of these contracts achieve the Eastern Canada Pulp and Paper Pattern established by our union in April." [On the night of Nov. 19], 230 maintenance, production and office employees from Unifor Local 105 at the Dryden Pulp Mill voted 87 per cent in favour of their new deal while 275 wood harvesting, trucking and chipping employees from Unifor Local 324 voted in favour by a 94 per cent margin. "These contracts contain some of the largest monetary increases in the sector in almost two decades," said George Smith, Unifor Local 324 President. "As indicated by the strong ratification results, our members were extremely pleased with the solid gains secured in these new collective agreements." Top pay at Woodlands will increase to $40.60/hour with top pulp mill pay reaching almost $46/hour by the final year of the two deals. "These agreements provide long term stability for Domtar, but most importantly, they achieve key language improvements and significant monetary gains for over 500 Unifor members in Dryden and Ear Falls," said Stephen Boon, Unifor National Representative. Key Terms of New Domtar Mill and Woodlands Contracts 4 year term September 1, 2018 to August 31, 2022 2%, 2%, 2.5%, 2.5% annual wage increases $.40 per hour additional wage increase for operations and production employees $1.25 per hour in additional pay for skilled trades over term Up to $2.70 per hour in additional wage adjustments for some pulp mill operators Increased commuting pay at Woodlands, with up to an additional $1000 per year for drivers New Remembrance Day statutory holiday for all woodlands employees 1% employer contribution to Woodlands pension plan in final year of deal Mill retirees will receive a .2% pension indexation adjustment in 2021 Increases in vacation entitlement, dental, life insurance, disability, vision, and bereavement leave Improved seniority, overtime and health and safety language in Woodlands operations New 2 cent per hour employer contribution to Unifor Canadian Community Fund Unifor's Eastern Canada Pulp and Paper Pattern group includes 15,000 forestry members across Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces. Unifor is Canada's largest union in the private sector, representing 315,000 workers in every major area of the economy. The union advocates for all working people and their rights, fights for equality and social justice in Canada and abroad, and strives to create progressive change for a better future. SOURCE: Unifor Appearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee and televised across the country, Dr. Christine Blasey-Ford summoned incredible amounts of courage to recount her harrowing story of sexual assault. Opening herself up to scrutiny from an entire nation, Blasey-Ford sacrificed her and her family's own privacy and safety. Saying before the committee this past September, they had been "the target of constant harassment and death threats." Having to move homes at least on four separate occasions since initially coming forward. And while Kavanaugh now sits atop the bench of the Supreme Court, Blasey-Ford has still not been able to return to her own home in the months since testifying. Having to pay for a security detail, hotel rooms, and not being able to resume her teaching position at Palo Alto University following continued death threats, Blasey-Ford set up a GoFundMe to help cover costs and make ends meet. Related | Why Sexual Assault Survivors Work So Hard to Prove Themselves Now after two months, Blasey-Ford, who had been keeping an understandably low-profile, has announced that her GoFundMe has raised nearly $650,000. "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," she writes in a new update. "Because of your support, I feel hopeful that our lives will return to normal." Having raised over four times the original goal, Blasey-Ford closed the page off to new donations and also announced that the rest of the remaining money would be donated to organizations that support trauma survivors. Demonstrating grace and aplomb, Blasey-Ford along with her community of supporters have managed to not only cope with a demoralizing situation but turn it into a force for positive change. "Although coming forward was terrifying, and caused disruption to our lives, I am grateful to have had the opportunity to fulfill my civic duty," Blasey-Ford reflects. "Having done so, I am in awe of the many women and men who have written me to share similar life experiences, and now have bravely shared their experience with friends and family, many for the first time. I send you my heartfelt love and support." Photo via Getty When I went public with revelations that Cambridge Analytica had harvested 87 million profiles using an app that Facebook had authorized, Facebook's first reaction was to immediately ban me not only from Facebook but also from all the other companies that Facebook owns. That means I couldn't even go on Instagram. All the apps that used Facebook authentication just showed errors so my Tinder, Uber and countless other apps stopped working. Within a day of coming out as "the first Millennial whistleblower," I was deleted from the Internet. One week later, my ban was debated in the British Parliament. The UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport said that, "Of all the different things that have surprised me and shocked me in this revelation, the decision by Facebook to take down the whistleblower's Facebook account, and the removal of their WhatsApp account and the Instagram account, was the most surprising." He went on to call the ban "outrageous" because it revealed the unrestrained power technology companies have over users when a person's entire online presence can be so abruptly eliminated from existence. There is no due process or check on this power, and Facebook's decision to ban whistleblowers raises a serious question for our society. "ISIS is a digital-first brand." What happens to our democracy when tech companies can delete people at will who dissent, scrutinize or speak out? Facebook's actions against me also show the serious consequences of Silicon Valley's rush to consolidate the ownership of different platforms. This unchecked monopoly on digital space presents a serious risk to people's rights. We need to think carefully about what we are letting Silicon Valley create. Every year, people are buying more and more Internet-enabled devices and appliances. Soon the so-called "Internet of Things" will become the norm in our households. Algorithms will be driving our cars and organizing our lives. People are just starting to put first-generation AI into their homes, like Amazon's Alexa or Google Home. Now even Facebook has come out with an AI-enabled smart home device called "Portal" complete with cameras connected to their ad network. What a future we have to look forward to when Facebook watches you eat breakfast and babysit your kids. These devices are just the first step toward the eventual integration of cyberspace with our temporal physical space. We are creating a future where our homes will think about us. Where our cars and offices think about us. Where our streets and buildings have motivations and intentions. These ambient AI systems will be joined into interconnected information networks omnipresent, watching, seeking to influence and optimize us and yet remain invisible to us. It's beyond creepy; it sounds almost divine. What will it mean to be human when for the first time in history we will be living in spaces that think about us and for us? With the emergence of AI, it will be the first time that being a human means that we aren't the ones mastering our environment our environment may come to master us. You are becoming an object of optimization, and this should make everyone pause. Throughout human history, only a few industries relied on transforming people into products the slave trade, the sex trade and the organ trade. We are now at the precipice of adding a fourth industry to this list the data trade. It will be human trafficking of our data selves, where your identity and your behavior is a product. "We are living in the aftermath of the detonation of a cyber WMD." Silicon Valley uses language to obfuscate and hide what they do. Surveillance networks are called "communities," the used are "users," server facilities are "clouds," addictive design is called "user experience" and people's identities are profiled from "data exhaust" or "digital breadcrumbs" as if human behavior itself is simply a worthless waste product. The civil rights movement was fought to de-segregate society, but under the auspices of "personalization," algorithms are beginning to re-segregate society into echo chambers and cognitive monocultures. This system is becoming a regime that has the power to record, modify and commodify human behavior a modern-day manifestation of the panopticon. Behavior becomes a resource. Reality itself is continuously and infinitely tweaked as computers learn to manipulate peoples' behaviors to generate the most amount of profit. Being human is being disrupted. Companies like Facebook see "cyberspace" as a lawless frontier, much in the same way early colonists saw America as a new empty territory open for the taking, as what colonists called the Terra Nova. At first contact, there were Indigenous cultures who thought Europeans were divine messengers with their new technologies like steel, gunpowder and tall ships. Today we lionize and impart start-up founders with the same godlike status their apps and algorithms are the new steel and gunpowder. But as Indigenous people quickly learned, these were no gods but merely conquerors and empires seeking to exploit new resources. In the 21st century, programs like Facebook's "Free Basics" serve to help Facebook capture entire peoples and monopolize a mining operation but instead of gold or oil, data is the sought-after resource. But the problem is that data cannot be uncoupled from your identity and your humanity. Just as they did in old colonial wars, today's superpowers are fighting over controlling this Terra Nova and its people and resources. What happened in the US elections with Russian interference was the beginning of a new form of warfare. And this new warfare has birthed new types of weapons of mass destruction weapons able to cause widespread and enduring devastation. Those who are fighting with these new informational weapons systems have the ability to en masse impact citizens, cities and entire societies. The effects will play out and endure over generations just look at the chaos caused by election of Donald Trump or the Brexit referendum. To me, we are living in the aftermath of the detonation of a cyber WMD. We protect our borders at land, sea and air with dedicated public agencies. We do not leave this critical public service to private companies or land owners. We should protect our digital spaces with the same level of care. As I testified to the US Senate, the security of communities online is one of the most pressing national security issues in the 21st century. This is not an emerging problem on the horizon. This is not a niche issue. This is a problem today, in the here and now, affecting the literal billions of people globally who use social media. Our civil defense agencies need a clearer understanding of the rules of engagement for informational attacks. If Russia had dropped propaganda leaflets by airplane over Florida or Michigan, that would universally be condemned as a hostile act. We'd shoot down the plane. But this is exactly what is happening online. We must address these issues before disinformation and information warfare become pervasive in cyberspace. We also need to understand that some of the biggest threats to our society incubate online. ISIS is not just a terrorist organization ISIS is a digital-first brand. They spread their propaganda online. They organize online. They recruit online. And yet the American military still acts like boys with toys buying new tanks and missile systems, not hiring programmers and data scientists. But would the military ever hire someone like me? A guy with a nose ring and neon-colored hair, who comes in late and sashays around the office whenever he feels like? No. And frankly, I don't know a single programmer who would pass their drug test. So the military loses out on a lot of talent, and our cyber defense suffers due to a lack of human diversity. Data is becoming our generation's electricity. It is powerful, it is useful and it can be dangerous. And just like the electricity that surrounds us, we cannot escape data. Honestly, what job can you get if you refuse to use Google, Facebook or LinkedIn? Can you really have a social life without your mobile phone? Without Instagram and WhatsApp? These are not real choices people have. To live in modern society, people have to use these platforms. Online platforms' terms and conditions present us with a false choice, because using the Internet is no longer a choice. We cannot opt out of the 21st century. So let's stop pretending like people have a real choice when they click "accept." We need to stop with the false dichotomy between our privacy rights and living in a modern digitized society. "Within a day of coming out as the 'first Millennial whistleblower,' I was deleted from the Internet." This is why we need to end the Wild West of cyberspace. Without regulation, the Internet, data and AI systems can and will be misused. We cannot keep relying on the promises, apologies or good intentions of tech companies to protect citizens. They have failed too many times to deserve our trust. The Internet is a vital public utility like electricity, water and roads. So let's treat it like one and regulate it like one. We need to stop talking about these platforms as if they are a service. Social media is not a service it is an architecture. And it is an architecture that we do not have a choice but to use. We do not let people "opt in" to buildings with faulty wiring that lack fire exits. That would be unsafe and no "terms and conditions" pasted on a door would let any architect get away with building dangerous spaces. So why should the engineering and architecture of software and online platforms be any different? We need a new social contract for the Internet get rid of these platforms' policies and replace them all with a single set of Universal Terms and Conditions based on principles that put people first. And although the Internet does not exist within a single jurisdiction, we have international treaties on the most random things, like what happens to lost luggage on international flights (it's called the Montreal Convention). Surely we can come up with some kind of framework for something that is fundamentally important to the functioning of our collective species. There is a culture in Silicon Valley that treats ethics as secondary to innovation. This needs to stop. Doctors, lawyers, accountants, teachers and many other professions are required to comply with a statutory code of ethics. If physical engineers and architects have to comply with professional standards, why not software engineers and database architects? The people designing the Internet need to start considering the impact their experiments may have on the future of our society. And when they don't, there should be consequences just as a doctor or lawyer cannot act unethically without running the risk of losing their licenses to practice. But ultimately, change will have to start with these tech companies. Facebook's mantra is famously "Move fast and break things." But at what cost? We should not move fast into this new frontier if it means we break our society in the process. Iranian Doctors Protest Outside Parliament, Demand Hospitalization of Detained Colleague 11/28/18 By Michael Lipin and Ramin Haghjoo, VOA A group of Iranian doctors has staged a protest outside Iran's 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. Farhad Meysami 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 Iran's 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 Tehran's Evin Prison. In one photo of Monday's 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 colleague's 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 Meysami's 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 Meysami's 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 Meysami's 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 nation's compulsory hijab law this year. This article originated in VOA's Persian Service. About the author: Michael Lipin covers international news for VOA on the web, radio and TV, specializing in the Middle East and East Asia Pacific. Follow him on Twitter @Michael_Lipin Iran, EU reiterate resolve to abide by JCPOA despite US exit 11/28/18 Source: Press TV Iran and the European Union have once again stressed their resolve to keep the 2015 nuclear deal alive despite the unilateral US withdrawal from the international accord. .@FedericaMog met today in Brussels with Ali Akbar Salehi, Vice-President of Iran and Head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI), in the margins of the third EU-Iran High-level Seminar on International Nuclear Cooperation #IranDeal #JCPOA https://t.co/n6iaI58T6l pic.twitter.com/dxKVB60lY3 European External Action Service - EEAS (@eu_eeas) November 27, 2018 In a meeting in Brussels on Tuesday, Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi and the EU's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherin, agreed on the need for staying committed to the landmark agreement, according to a press release by the European External Action Service (EEAS). "They re-affirmed their commitment to the continued full and effective implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and took stock of the latest developments in this regard," read the press release. "They equally expressed their determination to preserve the nuclear agreement as a matter of respecting international agreements and a key pillar for the European and regional security," it added. During the meeting, which was held on the sidelines of the third EU-Iran High-level Seminar on International Nuclear Cooperation, Mogherini pointed to the continued cooperation between Brussels and Tehran concerning civil nuclear activities. Back in May, US President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the JCPOA despite objections from the other signatories to the nuclear deal. Since then, Washington has imposed "toughest ever" sanctions against Iran. It has also warned of severe penalties for the companies that evade the bans and engage in business with Iran. The Trump administration had further vowed to reduce Tehran's oil revenue to zero, but it went back on its pledge and gave waivers to almost all major customers of the country. However, the European parties to the JCPOA have vowed all-out efforts to save the agreement and protect their firms in the face of American bans. They are now working to set up the so-called Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) in a bid to circumvent the US sanctions against Iran and facilitate non-dollar trade with Tehran, Prior to the meeting, the Iranian nuclear chief welcomed an EU plan to establish the SPV, but only if the payment mechanism system could preserve Iran's oil sales. Salehi, however, warned that Iran's patience is running out as there has been no "tangible results" yet on the EU's economic promises Russia urges JCPOA parties to save deal Separately on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow and Paris share "common positions" on the Iran nuclear deal, calling on the remaining signatories to the accord to preserve it. He made the remarks after a meeting with his French counterpart, Jean-Yves Le Drian in Paris. "We want the remaining parties to the plan, including Iran and the three European nations (the UK, Germany and France), to stick to their liabilities under this major document and elaborate measures that will make it possible to keep the deal afloat after the United States' unilateral withdrawal," he said. Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has said government will protect the deposit of depositors in licensed financial institutions in the process of sanitising the financial system. Dr Bawumia said this in his keynote address at the 22nd Annual National Banking Conference of the Chartered Institute of Bankers, Ghana, in Accra on Tuesday, 27 November 2018. In the process of sanitising the banking sector, we have to be very cognisant of the fact that we have to protect depositors of the licensed financial institutions, he stated adding that The sanitisation of the financial system cannot be at the expense of depositors because we need the confidence of the depositors to maintain the stability of the system. Governor of the central bank, Dr Ernest Addison, has said many banks are close to meeting the Bank of Ghana's GHS400 million Minimum Capital Requirement (MCR) as the 31 December 2018 deadline approaches. Dr Addison also said the BoG is monitoring the savings and loans as well as the microfinance sphere to mop up the distressed institutions in the sector with the help of the Ministry of Finance. Ahead of the deadline, seven local banks have already gone under. They include UT Bank and Capital Bank, which were taken over by the state-owned GCB Bank in August 2017. In August 2018, five other struggling local banks: The Beige Bank, The Royal Bank, The Construction Bank, uniBank and Sovereign Bank, were all put together to form the all-new state-owned Consolidated Bank Ghana (CBG). 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 Chartered Institute of Bankers (Ghana), the professional body for banks and financial institutions in Ghana, on Tuesday, 27th November, 2018, honoured Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, Vice President of the Republic, at the 22nd National Banking Conference in Accra. The award was in recognition of the special role Vice President Bawumia played in the development of the Institute, his contributions toward transforming the banking sector and for his overall performance in the financial landscape of Ghana. Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia was made a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers in 2007. The citation accompanying the plaque, which was handed over to Vice President Bawumia by the President of CIB-Ghana, Rev. Mrs. Patricia Sappor reads: This Special Award is presented to His Excellency Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, FCIB, Vice President of Ghana, for your significant contribution to the banking industry. For distinguishing yourself as a Chartered Banker, in your role as Senior Economist and consequently, as Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana in June 2006. "For your many achievements, including being part of the team that designed and implemented the successful redenomination of the cedis, for playing a significant role in the design and implementation of policy initiatives such as the abolition of the secondary reserve requirements and the opening up of the banking sector to competition, developing a strategy for accessing the international capital markets with a debut US$ 750 million, which was four times oversubscribed. "The recent launch of the Mobile Money Interoperability System in Ghana, and as a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers (Ghana), for bringing honour to the profession by assuming the high office of the Vice President of the Republic of Ghana." Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia expressed his appreciation to the executives and members of the Chartered Institute of Bankers (Ghana) for the honour done him. Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has said government is proud to have at least solved Ghanas energy problem which collapsed many business during former President Mahamas tenure. He urged Ghanaians to appreciate governments effort to have solved the situation which was a major burden to the countrys economy. Do not forget what Dumsor caused this country some years ago. In less than two years, the NPP government has solved the situation. There is a change now, Mr Ofori-Atta said during his presentation of the 2019 Budget and Economic Policy to parliament in accordance with Article 179 of the 1992 constitution. Ghana's power supply became erratic in early 2001. There was reduced generation capacity, due to a significant drop in water levels at the Akosombo Dam. The term (Dumsor) gain prominence in August 2012, when the Mahama led government told Ghanaians that a ship's anchor cut the West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP), forcing gas turbines to shut down for lack of fuel. Since 2012, load shedding became a regular experience, and the country plunged into a major power crisis - The situation in recent times has been resolved. Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/ Twitter: @Washman5/ Instagram: Ambrose_wash 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 Reports reaching Peacefmonline indicates that the Asantefuohene of Asanteman Association in New York, Nana Tieku Acheampong, has been summoned before the Supreme Court of the State of New York. This follows his refusal to relinquish power after serving two consecutive terms of four years each as the Asantefuohene of New York City, Peacefmonline understands. The docket with case number 101566/18 has been scheduled to be heard before His Lordship Judge Franc Perry on November 29, 2018. The refusal of Nana Tieku Acheampong to step down after his tenure and give room to others to contest for the stool, as has been the practice, incurred the wrath of five elders of the Association, to seek redress at the New York Supreme Court. The plaintiffs are Nana Osei Tutu, Susanna Osei, Kofi Nyantakyi, Helen Peprah Mensah, and Fredua Agyeman; all members of the Association. Reliable information received reveals the constitution of the Asanteman Association stipulates that "no one can seek re-election or an extension of his term after serving two consecutive terms". The plaintiffs averred in their suit that Nana Tieku Acheampong obviously wants to be an exception without amending the constitution. The Constitution of Asanteman Association of New York article VII Section (1) (K) clearly states that the outgoing Asantefuohene shall NOT be eligible to seek for the same office again after the second term. "This is a blatant disrespect of the carefully laid-out terms of the constitution that he swore to uphold eight years ago when he first ascended to the stool," the plaintiffs opined. It would be recalled that during the recent annual Ashanti Day festivities in Denver, Colorado on September 2, 2018, the plaintiffs appealed to his Majesty, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, through his Special Envoy to the United States, Nana Adusei Atwenewaa Ampem, the Paramount Chief of Tepa Traditional Area, to intervene in this matter. Some of the royals advised Nana Tieku Acheampong to abort the decision to extend his mandate in order to ensure harmony within the association. At that meeting, Nana Adusei Atwenewa Ampim 1, is reported to have openly stated that "a leader who does not leave office when his tenure ends risks being forced out and being disgraced." Nana Tieku Acheampong's arrogant posture is even said to have infuriated Hon Simon Osei Mensah, the visiting Ashanti Regional Minister, who allegedly stormed out of the meeting saying: "It is not prudent for you to hold the Asanteman Association to your whims and caprices, your style of leadership is bringing shame and confusion which does not augur well for the Association. Abuse of Power??? Nana Tieku Acheampong's tenure as Asantefuohene is reportedly been fraught with gross abuse of power and arrogance. He is accused of unilaterally taking decisions to dethrone two Queenmothers (Ahemaa) and two Krontihenes. The plaintiffs further aver that his stubbornness to cede power has deprived the association the chance to conduct elections and select new leaders to steer the affairs of the Association. The plaintiffs are therefore requesting the Supreme Court to place an injunction on his access to the accounts of the association, including but not limited to, funds of the association and the Association's investments thereof, regardless of the location. Extension of Mandate Nana Tieku Acheampong is said to have requested that his tenure be extended for three more years, but the constitution of the association does not provide for any such extensions. The constitution stipulates the duties of the Council of Elders of Asanteman Association in New York at Article XVI, Section 2 as follows: "(a) The Council of Elders of Asanteman Association in New York shall counsel the Asantefuohene and the Asantefuohemaa on all cultural and traditional matters; (b)the Council of Elders of Asanteman Association in New York shall assist to resolve any conflicts that ensue between the Asantefuohene, Asantehemaa, the Executive Member (s); (c) the Council of Elders of Asanteman Association in New York shall make recommendations to the Executive Members on matters deemed important to the administration of the Asanteman Association of New York." The Constitution of Asanteman Association of New York Article VII Section (1) (K) clearly states that the outgoing Asantefuohene shall NOT be eligible to seek for the same office again after the second term, According to the plaintiffs, becoming Asantefuohene "is not by blood line as he (Nana Tieku Acheampong) wants the public to believe. "It is elective for no more than eight years." Source: Prince Osei Bonsu/[email protected]/Peacefmonline 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 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. President Buhari 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. Already, the advanced teams of the president, who left Abuja for Katsina and Benin on Sunday, had been asked to return. The cancellation of the trips would also enable the president to continue his ongoing meetings and consultations with relevant security and community intelligence personnel 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. 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 use the opportunity of the COAS conference to address the Nigerian soldiers at the battlefields to further boost their morale. Source: vanguard 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 Details continue to emerge on the controversial 100,000 bags of Cocoa Nti Granular Fertilizer purchased by the current management of the Ghana Cocoa Board, this year, using a forged scientific report generated by a soil scientist at the Cocoa Research Institute (CRIG) by name Dr. Alfred Arthur. According to proceeding from the Opuni trial, the fertilizers were bought for US$3.150 million and not US$3.5 million. A company called Agriculture Manufacturing Group (AMG) was awarded the multimillion dollar contract under sole sourcing by the current COCOBOD management led by Joseph BoaheneAidoo in May, this year. It was also revealed that there are two conflicting scientific reports on Cocoa Nti fertilizer done by the same Dr. Alfred Arthur, which are two years apart. While the first one was done in 2013, but submitted in 2016, the second report which eventually led to the US$3.150 million contract was made in 2018. Interestingly, the 2016 scientific report, was found to have been forged by Dr. Arthur, leading to his suspension from CRIG for an unethical conduct, after an investigation by a team of his superior officers established that he had traveled to Morocco on a private trip with the suppliers of Cocoa Nti fertilizer; Agriculture Manufacturing Group (AMG) to visit the manufacturers of the fertilizer in 2013. AMG, has sometimes been known as Enepa Venture. It was previously based in Kumasi Despite a ban slapped on Dr. Arthur not to test any fertilizer at CRIG following the probe, the new management team both at COCOBOD and CRIG, lifted the ban and recalled him to the research institution in 2017, and handed him the same Cocoa Nti fertilizer to test, and submit his second scientific report approving the product for purchase by COCOBOD. Dr. Arthur, who was answering questions under cross examination in the trial of Dr. Stephen Opuni former Chief Executive Officer of the COCOBOD and Alhaji Seidu Agongo owner of Agricult Ghana Limited, on Monday, confirmed his two scientific reports and also made some shocking admissions. The scientist acknowledged the two reports he did and admitted they had conflicting testing site and were signed by two different officers at CRIG. While, the 2016 report was rightly signed by the then Executive Director of CRIG, Dr. G.J. Anim-Kwapong, the 2018 scientific report was signed by a junior officer by name; Winifred Kumi, who had identified himself as a Research Scientist. This was in spite of the fact that, Dr. Franklin Manu Amoah, had at the time been recalled from retirement to head CRIG. It is unclear, why he did not sign the report as expected. It once again came up that, aside Dr. Amoah, Dr. Yaw Adu-Ampomah and Dr. William Mensah, who were also on retirement, were recalled to COCOBOD to take up key decision-making positions, as a Deputy CEO in charge of Agronomy and Quality Control, a Deputy CEO of Finance and Administration, respectively. During a previous cross-examination by Dr. Opunis lawyer, Samuel Cudjoe, it was shown that Dr. Arthur, was suspended by CRIG in 2017 for presenting the forged scientific report in 2016 recommending the use of Cocoa Nti fertilizer to COCOBOD, claiming he had tested the chemical in 2013, although samples of the said fertilizer were presented for testing to CRIG by COCOBOD in 2016. Benson Nutsupkui on Monday, said the returned retirees, were also made members of the Akufo-Addo transitional team on COCOBOD during the transitional period after the 2016 elections. This, he asked Dr. Arthur, if it was just not convenient that he was also recalled to the soil science division of CRIG, after his suspension. The former Ghana Bar Association (GBA) President, further asked Dr. Arthur, if he was aware that all the officers were members of the transitional team, he responded that all the mentioned retired officers were recalled back to COCOBOD, but he was not aware of they being members of the transition team. Dr. Arthur, who is state's second prosecution witness in the Opuni-Agongo fertiliser trial, also told the Accra High Court that Lithovit Folia Fertilizer, which is the subject of the trial was fully tested on cocoa seedlings in December 2013. According to Dr Arthur, he was assigned a specific role by lead scientist at the time, Mr A.A. Afrifa, which was fully completed awaiting test on mature trees. Dr. Arthur also told the court presided over by Justice C.Y. Hornyenuga that Lithovit Folia Fertilizer, was at the time used as standard for testing on seedlings since its performance was already known. Dr. Arthur, said the Division did not re-evaluate fertilizers, agro-chemicals and spraying machines in the 2016 crop season but this was discounted by Mr Nutsukpui, who insisted that there was re-evaluation on fertilizers, including Lithovit, and report was submitted to the Executive Director, Dr. Anim-Kwapong, but in response Dr. Arthur said, he hadnt seen the said report. The witness said in 2015 crop season, certificates were approved without any re-evaluation of the fertilizers, agro-chemicals and spraying machines, but again Alhaji Agongos lawyer, rebutted that saying there were bills submitted by CRIG to suppliers to prove that re-evaluation was done in the 2015-2016 season. Mr Nutsukpui also pointed out that there was a letter from CRIG, confirming that the re-evaluation report was handed over to COCOBOD by an executive director of the research institute but Dr. Arthur said My Lord, I have not sighted that report and I do not know when in 2016, the re-evaluation was done. On whether all correspondence to COCOBOD were signed by the Executive Director and the Deputies, the witness said not exactly correct, because not all correspondence required the signature of these personalities in question, adding after a report has been vetted by the Committee for Testing Chemicals and Machinery, it becomes a property of CRIG. When asked, whether based on his report a certificate was issued to Agriculture Manufacturing Group on Cocoa Nti fertilizer in 2018, but the witness said if the report was approved by COCOBOD definitely, a certificate would be issued to cover the product. Asked, who assigned the 2016 study on Cocoa Nti to him, the witness responded by saying, it was usually done by the Head of the Division. It was pointed out to Dr. Arthur who had claimed Lithovit was a powdery substance that Mr A.A Afrifa, whom he had confirmed as assigning him Lithovit Fertilizer to work on, was the one who later demanded powered formed of the fertilizer after a liquid one was handed. Alhaji Agongo and Agricult Ghana Company Limited, had always maintained that Lithovit was liquid, and Mr Afrifa is also said to have written in his police statements that the Lithovit he received from COCOBOD and worked on, was in a liquid form. It was also suggested to Dr. Arthur that in all his eight statement to the police and Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO), testimony before the Adu-Ampomah Committee and the arbitration proceedings, he never mentioned that Mr Afrifa had told him that Dr. Opuni, wanted him to shorten the trial on Lithovit and had over the report to COCOBOD, and that this new claim in court, was an embellishment. There was a standoff between Mr Nutsukpui towards the end of the proceeding when a Chief State Attorney, Evelyn Keelson, suggested that he had smuggled a document into the case, as the document shown the witness, bearing his name and signature, had no letter head of CRIG, but this was resolved when the judge brought out his pile of documents and the said document was found among the documents submitted to the accused persons and the court by the Attorney-Generals Department. Justice Honyenugah, an Appeal Court Judge, sitting as an additional High Court Judge, adjourned the case to Monday, December 3, for Mr Nutsukpui to continue his cross-examination of the witness. Dr. Opuni, businessman Seidu Agongo and Agricult Ghana Company Limited, are facing 27 charges of willfully causing financial loss of GHS217million to the state, through three separate fertilizer supply contracts between 2014 and 2016. The contracts were GHS43.1million (2013/2014 cocoa farming season), GHS75.3million (2014/2015 cocoa farming season) and GHS98.9million (2015/2016 cocoa farming season) totaling GHS217million through sole-sourcing, the state claimed, adding that procurement procedures for sole-sourcing were not followed. According to the charges, the consignments of Lithovit Foliar were produced locally, contrary to an agreement between COCOBOD and Agricult Ghana Company Limited that it be sourced from Germany. Also, the Attorney General claims the fertilizers were manufactured without registration, thereby, flouting the Plants and Fertilizer Act 2010. Source: 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 President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo Monday said Ghana should take inspiration from the agricultural might of its neighbours and exploit the country's incredible agricultural potential as it journeys to prosperity. He said Ghana's agricultural production statistics paled in comparison to its western neighbour, Cote d'Ivoire, which had a lesser population compared to Ghana. Cote d'Ivoire rakes in annually some 16 billion dollars from agriculture alone, whereas Ghana accrues a meagre two billion dollars annually from the sector. President Akufo-Addo made the call when the National Farmers and Fishermen Award Winners Association of Ghana called on him at the Jubilee House in Accra. The association was there to apprise the President on its working and challenges, and to lay before him a number of request, including roping commercial farmers unto the flagship Planting for Food Programme and extend the same considerations to small holder farmers. The President reiterated his administration's resolve to put in the needed investment to make agriculture a game changer in the country's drive for progress and prosperity and a Ghana beyond aid. He stressed that to offset the low accruals from agricultural production, there was the need for cooperation and active participation of all players in the agricultural sector to take it to the apex. President Akufo-Addo said it was important that farmer associations in the country organised themselves into a coherent and unified body to enable them to benefit from the economics of scale and improve production, which would make the sector the man driver of Ghana's economy. "We take agriculture seriously...it has great potential for the economic fortunes of this country. That is why we have to see agriculture as a game changer. The Association also appealed to the government to consider waiving taxes on fertiliser to enable fertilizer dealers to reduce their prices on the open market. Commenting on their concerns, the President said it was important for government to build synergies and to broaden the scope to support commercial farmers to drive the agricultural revolution in the country. He assured that government would consider the suggestion to reduce taxes on fertiliser imports, and find a solution to agricultural financing in the country. 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 Former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, on Monday, 26 November 2018 launched her book titled: It Takes a Woman, which talks about her political life. The book also tells the story of Mrs Rawlings' political journey as a first lady, her advocacy for women empowerment and founding of the National Democratic Party (NDP). Speaking at the launch of the book, Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, said: When I read the title of the book, It Takes A Woman, I initially thought it was a bit provocative but the more I think about it, the more I realise that: yeah, it is true. The role and contribution of women in our society have historically been underestimated but in truth, it really is an enormous contribution. Mrs Rawlings was the First Lady of Ghana from 4 June 1979 to 24 September 1979 and 31 December 1981 to 7 January 2001. 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 Outspoken Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong, has charged the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), to stop the excuses and solve the recent erratic power outages in the country. He said the Akufo-Addo government has been able to stabilize the countrys electricity for the past two years, and thus has no excuse to blame the Mahama administration. To say it is a financial challenge, is no excuse. We have to solve the problem because it was part of our campaign promises, and weve been able to stabilize it for two years, so however we did it, we have to continue to sustain it. There is no excuse for ushe insisted. Some Ghanaians are livid over recent power outages in parts of the country especially in Accra within the last few weeks. Whereas critics including members of the opposition National Democratic Congress claim the outages have everything to do with financial challenges, government communicators argue otherwise. To them, the outages have to do with technical challenges which they claim have been solved. But the Minister of Energy at a press conference on Monday conceded that financial constraint is partly to blame for the recent woes. Our major challenge has been the incomplete reverse flow project to flow gas from the West to the East. We had to fast-track it through a by-pass which has been completed, but not connected to the West African Gas Pipeline yet. This is because WAGPA has not come out with the tariff for the reverse flow, and WAPCO will not sign the Gas Transportation Agreement (GTA) without a tariff. WAPCO wants to charge US $3.2 MMBtu, whilst we want to pay US$1 MMBtu. Speaking on Adom TV, Kennedy Agyapong said the NPP government must do everything possible to stop the return of dumsor to save them from embarrassment. We have to be straightforward, honest and sincere to Ghanaians and tell them that this is the challenge, and we are going to solve it. My question is that, if you criticize NDC in 2016, as politicians and government, we have to line up all the failures of NDC and what we condemned, and take them one by one and solve them. That makes you a better government. But if you also come and the same problem you condemned to win election, you cant solve it, then even the technical people will even say politicians are not to be believed he added. The Executive Director of the Africa Center for Energy Policy, ACEP, Ben Boakye, has explained that the countrys current energy challenges resulting in a frequent power outage is due to the sectors high indebtedness. Speaking on Citi TVs Point of View, Ben Boakye indicated that, the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) was the most indebted agency within the sector with a debt of almost Ghc1 billion as of July 2018. We have to address the fundamental cause. The power sector is on steroids because we havent stopped creating the debts. If you check ECGs operation for 2018, documents Ive sighted showed that first quarter of 2018, they made a loss of almost Ghc1 billion. If they are making losses, they are not able to pay. and if they are unable to pay then the generator will have to call on the one who owns the contract that is government and government will have to get money come and pay. So if we dont solve that problem then well have to use our taxes at a point to pay the generators. Source: Citi News Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Former President John Dramani Mahama has called on members and supporters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to discard the notion that some constituencies, especially in the Ashanti Region, are strongholds of the New Patriotic Party (NPP). Addressing delegates of the Bantama constituency at Bantama in the Ashanti Region, as part of his flagbearership campaign tour of the region, Mahama said Ghanaians now look out for a government that will make their lives better and not just love for certain political parties or traditions. He further said despite the lofty promises of the NPP during their days in opposition, they have saddled Ghanaians with untold hardships after nearly two years in government. Touching on number of people who have been laid off as a result of the governments harsh economic policies, Mr. Mahama noted that it is unlikely that those who have lost their jobs will still rally behind the NPP after the government has facilitated the collapse of their businesses and employment. So, we should discard the notion that some places are strongholds of the NPP and therefore we cannot win those places. What the voter is looking for is the party that will govern the country properly and give them a good standard of living, as the previous NDC government was doing, he said. Mr. Mahama was of the view that with hard work, unity and determination, the NDC will be able to win more votes in the Ashanti Region in the next general elections. He has therefore charged members of the party, especially the constituency and branch executives, to help unite the party for victory in the 2020 elections. Mr Mahama said, when elected, he will work hard to provide jobs and reduce the high cost of living in the country. He has also promised to help constituencies own their offices, compile a database of the human resource capacity of NDC members as well as roll out a mentorship programme for the youth of the party. The recent NDC executive elections that took place in Accra saw delegates voting against all the Voltarians who contested for front line positions in the party. Many have said this would cause the NDC to lose votes in the Volta region which happens to be the partys stronghold. If the former president Mahamas claim that no party has a stronghold is anything to go by then he does not see the Volta region as their stronghold as well. 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 Nigerian movie icon, Omotola Jalade Ekeinde, has disclosed that rap star; Sarkodie, is her favorite Ghanaian artiste. According to the movie personality, she has been in love with Ghanaian music for a long time. When she was asked which Ghanaian artiste is her favorite, she immediately replied, Sarkodie. The actress revealed this during an interview with GHone TV at the just ended All Africa Music Awards 2018 (AFRIMA) which came off in Ghana over the weekend. I do follow Ghanaian music and actually my favorite Ghanaian artiste is Sarkodie, she said Source: Today 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 physicians Peter Entwistle, Jacob Bellingan and Madia Smallwood made a presentation to Oliver council in December voicing their concerns over issues in the emergency department at South Okanagan General Hospital. Entwistle, the former Chief of Staff at the hospital, warned the ER might be closed permanently unless a solution is found to retain more physicians and offer better pay. James Sears, editor in chief of "Your Ward News," is seen outside Ontario court in Toronto on Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018. Sears is charged with willfully promoting hatred of women and Jews. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Colin Perkel Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations Chief Bobby Cameron speaks to media in Battleford, Sask., Friday, February 9, 2018. The chief representing First Nations in Saskatchewan says new proposed trespass legislation leaves the door open for many altercations. Bobby Cameron says there was no consultation with the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations for the legislation. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Liam Richards By Wang Jiangang BEIJING, Nov. 28 (ChinaMil) -- H.E. Ambassador Wu Haitao, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) to the United Nations (UN), called on Russia and Ukraine to exercise restraint to avoid further escalation of tensions, and to properly address relevant issues through dialogue and consultation on November 26, 2018. The ambassador said at the emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on the Ukrainian issue held on Monday that China has noticed the altercation between Russian and Ukrainian naval ships in waters near the Kerch Strait, adding that China is concerned with the tension arising thereof. The ambassador also said that China has consistently adhered to an objective and just position on the Ukrainian crisis, namely respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries including Ukraine, and opposing any external forces interfering in Ukraines internal affairs. Chinese side always believes that military solution will get nowhere, and dialogue and negotiation are the only way to end the crisis. The international community must adhere to the diplomatic efforts to promote a political solution to the Ukrainian crisis. The discussions in the UN Security Council should help to effectively alleviate tensions in relevant regions and play a constructive role in achieving a political solution. The Chinese ambassador emphasized that all the relevant parties should earnestly implement the new Minsk Agreement, adhere to the general direction of political settlement, seek a comprehensive solution to the Ukrainian crisis through dialogue and consultation, promote Ukraines peace, stability and development, and push forward the harmonious coexistence of all nationalities living in Ukrainian, and the peaceful coexistence of Ukraine and countries in the region. China will continue to play a constructive role in the political settlement of the Ukrainian crisis. Later that year, the Curiosity team shared their initial, exciting science results at the December meeting of the American Geophysical Union. At the same meeting, the associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate John Grunsfeld used the opportunity to announce Mars 2020, a flagship-class rover that would take the first step in returning samples from Mars to Earth. That announcement, in 2012, was the last time NASA committed to a new Mars mission. InSight's landing provides a rare opportunity for NASA: a Mars success has briefly captured popular and political attention. Stunning pictures of a new Martian landscape have made it to the pages of major news outlets. Millions of people watched its landing around the world. And in perhaps their first time agreeing on anything, President Trump and the New York Times Editorial Board both sang InSight's praises. As the President's budget proposal for fiscal year 2020 is being finalized, now is the time for NASA to secure a new commitment for the next step at the Red Planet: Mars sample return. Recall that InSight is a "small" planetary mission compared to the technical and scientific challenges of Mars Sample Return. No other nation has yet achieved a successful landing on Mars, much less attempted to return samples. A clear political commitment now would send an unmistakable signal that the United States intends to continue its leadership at Mars. Why now? Simple: InSight's Landing Was a Reminder of the Popularity of Exploring Mars More than 3.6 million people watched the landing on JPL's YouTube stream alone, with millions more following around the world, including the Vice President. President Trump highlighted the landing at a rally later that night. The New York Times used the opportunity to make the case for planetary exploration in its Editorial section. Mars Sample Return Is a High Priority of the Scientific Community The current National Academies decadal survey report on planetary sciencethe gold standard for scientific consensus in space sciencesdeclared that: "the highest priority missions for Mars in the coming decade are the elements of the Mars sample return campaign." It recommended that NASA pursue the first step of such a campaign as the highest priority flagship mission in this decade. Mars 2020 is that first step. The rover will launch in 2020 and will begin collecting samples for Earth return in 2021. Now that the first step is happening, the second must be taken. Mars Sample Return Is Ready To Go PARLIAMENT Officials from Bank of Uganda and MPs on the Committee of Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) were treated to a dramatic episode when Juliet Adikot, the bodyguard to former Bank of Uganda (BoU) Executive Director for Supervision, Justine Bagyenda protested her appearance before the Committee saying, Parliament has no powers to summon her. Adikot had been summoned by COSASE to provide responses to the role she played when the Bank of Uganda CCTV cameras captured her carrying suspicious bags out of the Central Bank in total breach of the Banks security. However, when asked to take oath, Adikot first protested doing so, citing the Police Standing Orders she said bar her from appearing before any Committee or courts of law without the authorisation of the Inspector General of Police. Abdu Katuntu said: The reason why we require you is that you were captured on CCTV carrying bags which didnt go through the security system and a team of MPs went and viewed those CCTVs; we are going to have a conversation with you about your actions. You are going to tell the Committee what happened, why you bypassed the security system, if you know the contents of the bags, what did you carry out? However, Adikot who chose to introduce herself as the Aide to Bagyenda pleaded not to say anything, to which Katuntu obliged on condition she first takes oath. Adikot explained: According to our Police Standing Orders, I am not supposed to appear before any Committee or Court without the authorization of the IGP. Her statement angered MPs, and Mr. Katuntu was quick to fire back stating, You are going to say everything. There is only one law in this country which is superior, that is the Constitution. Your standing orders are subject to the constitution. If you read the constitution, I refer you to Article 90, your standing orders are inferior. If anybody ever charges you, this Committee takes full responsibility. Adikot will now appear before a select Committee led by Francis Takirwa (UPDF Representative), Andrew Aja (Kabale Municipality), Nathan Itungo (Kashari County) and Betty Muzanira (Rukungiri Woman) who will question other BoU officials, Charles Omoro, Job Turyahebwa (Bagyenda driver) and Beatrice Kyambadde Security Assistant who manned security around the department when the bags left the Bank. Katuntu told Adikot never to use Police Standing Orders to escape from responsibility after stealing items from the Central Bank. The actions of you carrying the bags were personal, the person seen carrying those bags is you, not Bagyenda. You are going to tell us what you carried, why you bypassed the security system. We want to know what luggage you carried, you dont need permission from Bagyenda, you are going to take full responsibility of what you carried out of the bank, Katuntu said. On Tuesday BoU admitted that Ms Bagyenda had stolen bags of documents from the Bank, ahead of her appearance before MPs last week. Related A former Florida police chief will serve three years in prison for a department conspiracy to frame people for crimes they did not commit. A federal judge in Miami handed out the sentence Tuesday against ex-Biscayne Park chief Raimundo Atesiano, 53, who pleaded guilty to ordering officers to falsely arrest three people for unsolved burglaries, the Associated Press reports. Three former officers have also pleaded guilty in the case, which centered around Atesiano's efforts to improve the department's crime-solving rate. The Miami-Dade County village has a population of 3,000. South Salt Lake officer David Romrell was killed Saturday when he was intentionally struck with a vehicle, police say. (Photo: South Salt Lake PD) The family of Felix Calata, the man who police say ran over South Salt Lake officer David Romrell Saturday, has posted an open letter on Facebook to Romrell's widow. Romrell died from injuries he sustained from being hit while responding to a burglary. Calata was killed by police at the scene, KUTV reports. The letter partially reads: "An open letter to Mrs. Romrell, from the ex brother and sister in law of the man who killed your husband Saturday night we went to bed just as any other night, when suddenly the shrieks, screams and cries of our sister tore through our peaceful home. Felix, is dead! She screamed! We didnt know the details yet of what had happened but we knew Felix, had been on a downward spiral for a long time now. We knew he wasnt the same person who started dating my sister, 12 years ago who was romantic and funny. After many run ins with the law and let downs, my sister decided to leave her husband and take their two children away to Texas so theyd be safe. She hasnt heard from him in months and when she got that phone call in the middle of the night her heart broke for her children, Only 6 and 10 years old. In contrast, soon after we heard about your husband. A good man who has served his country. Who was badly injured and fighting for his life. Immediately, our whole familys energy focused on your husband and your family. We prayed for his life. That God may spare him from this senseless act. It was to no avail and your husband, a man who had a brand new baby at home, Who, went into work that day just as he did any other day, never came back. My name is Manuel Alejandro Lopez and David Romrell is my brother in arms. I, too am a Marine veteran and it hurt me to see a brother fall in such a way. Without meaning to politicize this ordeal, we want to reach out and let you know, we are with you. We know what Felix, did was inexcusable. His mental illness took over and we never got him back. Felixs, kids are here in the room as I write this and they are also, innocent lives that have forever been changed. We want you and your baby to know, our sister and our family will make sure to raise them, knowing that your husband, was the good guy! Your husband, died a HERO! Our niece and nephew dont have to know the horrendous things their father has done but they WILL honor your husband. We are all heartbroken by this and we are hurting too. If there is anything you may need from us to help you find peace, please reach out. Your precious baby doesnt deserve to be left without a father. We are very sorry for your loss. As this Thanksgiving weekend wraps up, we hope everyone remains thankful for their families, for our police force and our military!" EU tables new plan to fight for climate neutrality by 2050 The European Commission announced on Wednesday its intention to achieve a climate neutral economy 2050. The EU executive has adopted a strategic long-term vision for a prosperous, modern, competitive and climate neutral economy by 2050 - A Clean Planet for all. The Commission has studied eight different pathways. They all include a wide range of technological and organisational options to reduce emissions. Some pathways focus on specific technologies or options, others focus more on demand-side measures, such as promoting energy efficiency or circular economy. Member states can choose between these pathways, ranging from business-as-usual emission cuts to net-zero options. The strategy shows how Europe can lead the way to climate neutrality by investing into realistic technological solutions, empowering citizens, and aligning action in key areas such as industrial policy, finance, or research - while ensuring social fairness for a just transition," the EC said in a statement Following the invitation by the European Council in March 2018, the Commission's vision for a climate-neutral future covers nearly all EU policies and is in line with the Paris Agreement objective to keep temperature increase to well below 2C, and pursue efforts to keep it to 1.5C. For the EU to lead the world towards climate neutrality means achieving it by 2050.In the strategy , obtained by EURACTIV, EU capitals will have a choice of eight different scenarios that range from business-as-usual emission cuts to net-zero options. The Paris Agreement obligates its signatories to finalise long-term plans by the beginning of 2020.But EU Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy Miguel Arias Canete told EURACTIV that climate neutrality by 2050 is of course the preferred option. Its feasible and its necessary. We have all the tools to be ambitious."Canete added that in the months ahead, these scenarios must be studied in detail, so that we achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 in the most cost-effective way". As far as the Spanish Commissioner is concerned, that rules out all but two of the proposed scenarios.In March 2018, the European Council tasked Canete and his services with drafting a long-term strategy. Now Commission officials will eagerly await an initial verdict on their efforts at the end-of-year summit on 13 December.But two lower level council of ministers meetings, scheduled for after the big summit, could set the future trajectory of the strategy, as energy and environment chiefs meet separately on 19 and 20 December, respectively.Poland infamously vetoed the Commissions previous attempt to draft a long-term climate policy path in 2011 and then again in 2012, and the lack of targets in this edition is a response to that failure.The EUs current overall emissions reduction goal for 2030 is 40% compared with 1990 levels but the Commission has used 45% as its working baseline for the scenarios, insisting that new rules mean the bloc will de facto" hit that target.MEPs have already advocated for that target to increase to 55% and many environmental groups want the net-zero goal moved up to 2040 instead.Commission modelling shows that net-zero emissions would mean estimated benefits of up to 2% of GDP by 2050 compared to the baseline". EU GDP is expected to double from the 1990 level by mid-century, which means extra cash of around EUR 400 billion.Moreover, those figures do not factor in savings made through reducing climate damages like flooding, heatwaves and droughts. The European Environment Agency calculated that over EUR 400 bn was lost between 1980 and 2016.In a business-as-usual scenario, the Joint Research Centre found in a 2018 study that 3 degrees Celsius of warming would cut GDP by EUR 240 bn. That estimate drops to EUR 79 bn with 2 degrees.The JRC report also offers a suggestion as to why the Commission did not factor in climate damages, warning that the estimates could also offer a misleading perspective of the EU climate damages because the list of considered climate impacts is incomplete", citing known-knowns, known-unknowns and unknown-unknowns".Its research also highlighted the stark difference between Northern and Southern Europe under the high-warming scenario". Countries like Greece, Italy and Spain could see GDP slashed by over 8%, while northern nations would lose around 1%. BEIJING, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping's signed article titled "Joining Hands for New Splendor in the New Era" published Tuesday on Spanish newspaper ABC ahead of his visit has drawn warm responses in the European country, raising high expectations for more vigorous development of the China-Spain relations. Spanish media and scholars hail the visit as a new historic development opportunity, and believe that the Chinese president has charted the course in his signed article for development of the two countries' relations. "China sees in Spain a good partner along the course of development, and China hopes to bring out the best the two economies could offer each other and make good use of existing cooperation mechanisms," Xi said in the article. "We need to synergize the Belt and Road Initiative and Spain's 'Strategic Vision for Spain in Asia' and the 'Mediterranean Corridor', and actively explore cooperation in third markets for win-win cooperation in broader areas," he said. Spain's most read newspaper El Pais wrote that during the first state visit to Spain by a Chinese president in 13 years, the two countries seek for closer bilateral ties in various fields such as politics, economy and culture. The upcoming signing of a series of bilateral economic and trade agreements will boost exports of Spain's agricultural products into the Chinese market, and create favorable conditions for the two countries to explore cooperation in third markets, said El Pais. The Belt and Road Initiative provides plenty of opportunities for cooperation between the Chinese and Spanish companies, and the Chinese president's visit will drive more Spanish products like grapes and pork products into the Chinese market, Spanish Minister for Industry, Commerce and Tourism Reyes Maroto was quoted as saying by Expansion, a key economic newspaper in Spain. ABC also published articles regarding Xi's visit, saying that President Xi's visit to Spain will open up a new page for bilateral relations and the enhancement of mutual understanding, and the Belt and Road Initiative has rejuvenated the ancient commercial road, from which Spain should not detach itself. Spanish newspaper El Confidencial expects that President Xi's visit could yield more concrete fruits in bilateral cooperation, so that the Spanish public could feel the positive influences brought by the results. Alberto Rubio, director of Spanish newspaper The Diplomat, said that undoubtedly China is a partner of great significance for Spain, adding that there is huge potential for bilateral cooperation, and there are still many fields to explore in this relationship. Xi also said in the article that a major task of the trip this time "is to engage with leaders of host countries and major economies in discussions on ways to enhance unity among the international community, improve global governance, develop partnerships, and deepen friendship and cooperation for peace, stability, development and prosperity of the world." Xulio Rios, director of Spain's Observatory of Chinese Politics, said Xi's article is of huge realistic significance and noble ambitions. Xi quoted Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega Gasset in his article as saying that "one can only make progress when he thinks big, and move forward when he looks far." Rios said Xi's quotes aim to remind us that the China-Spain relationship not only has a long history, but also boasts huge potentials for healthy development, and that both countries should seize the valuable opportunity to deepen bilateral ties. Jose Luis Barcelo, director of Spanish online newspaper El Mundo Financiero, said the world looks forward to knowing more about China and Xi's trip has offered more opportunities for China to establish political, commercial and cultural relations with the rest of the world, and has opened a window of hope to create a multipolar world on the basis of equality and mutual benefit. 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 Queens Together On Thursday November 18, Queens Together and volunteers helped 1,000 families in Astoria, LIC, Woodside, Jackson Heights, Sunnyside, Corona, East Elmhurst, Jamaica, Rosedale, Far Rockaway,... Mets Turkey Giveaway The Amazin Mets Foundation donated 5,000 turkeys to those in need in advance of Thanksgiving. Pitcher Tylor Megill, Mr. & Mrs. Met and members of... Rebuilding Median By LaGuardia Kicking off construction of a project to rebuild and beautify the Ditmars Blvd medians between 78th Street and the airport (82nd Street), a press conference... 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." Global trade tensions are putting at risk commitments by the Group of 20 leading economies to keep markets open, European Union delegates to the G20 said, pledging to help reform World Trade Organization rules to resolve the strains. G20 leaders meet on Friday and Saturday in Buenos Aires with the escalating trade dispute between the United States and China likely to top the agenda. The chairman of EU leaders' meetings Donald Tusk and the head of the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, Jean-Claude Juncker will represent the 28-nation bloc at the summit. "The outlook ahead of the summit is rather bleak. The rules-based international order is under increasing strain and global trade tensions remain unresolved, thereby negatively affecting the global economic outlook," Tusk and Juncker said. "We, therefore, want to focus our attention on convincing our partners that there is no better alternative than a coordinated multilateral cooperation," they said in a letter to other EU leaders. The United States and China have been imposing tariffs on each other's goods in a dispute over market access, forced technology transfer, intellectual property rights and state subsidies to certain sectors that distort competition. The EU, Canada and Japan are also involved because of U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum products imposed by Washington earlier this year. TOLOnews.com, November 23, 2018 Nov. 23, 2018: Residents from province protest the killing of three civilians in an operation carried out by foreign and Afghan forces. (Photo: TOLOnews.com) Nov. 23, 2018: Residents from province protest the killing of three civilians in an operation carried out by foreign and Afghan forces. (Photo: TOLOnews.com) Some residents of Parwan province, in the center of Afghanistan, closed the Kabul-Mazar highway to traffic early on Friday morning to protest against a military operation carried out by Afghan and foreign forces in Jabal Saraj district in the province. The residents claimed that three civilians have lost their lives in the military operation. The military operation was carried out in Bain-e-Bagh Ha area in the district, the residents said. Meanwhile, provincial police chief Mohammad Mahfooz Walizada told TOLOnews that the military operation was carried out by Afghan Special Force and foreign troops in Bain-e-Bagh Ha area without coordination with the police headquarters. He said three civilians have lost their lives in the military operation. Walizada said the military operation was carried out to target a group leader of illegal armed men named Wazir, but according to him, the forces targeted another area instead of their main target which inflicted casualties to civilians. Photos shared on social media from the province show a destroyed house which residents claim has been targeted by the Afghan and foreign forces during the operation. Security officials in Kabul have not commented on the report so far. A Resolute Support spokesman, Debra Richardson, said in a statement that neither Resolute Support nor US forces have conducted operations in Parwan over the past three days. 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 UN action aimed at investigating this mass internment system and closing the camps," it said. Safran (SAF.PA,0IU8.L,SAFRF.PK), a French high- company, announced that its shareholders at a meeting approved the merger of Zodiac Aerospace with 99.88% voting in favor. With the approval at meetings respectively of Zodiac Aerospace and Safran shareholders, all the conditions precedent have been satisfied. Therefore, the merger will complete on December 1, 2018. Philippe Petitcolin, Safran's CEO, said, "This merger, which follows our acquiring control of Zodiac Aerospace in the first quarter of 2018, will ensure a simplified and streamlined structure for the group, cost savings and better efficiency, notably to meet the expectations of our customers." All the resolutions submitted to the shareholders' vote were approved at the November 27th meeting. Shareholders also approved a new authorization allowing Safran to repurchase its own shares with a price not to exceed 140 euros per share. Further, the Board of Directors of Safran acknowledged the resignation of the Director representing the French State, Lucie Muniesa, who has been called to other responsibilities. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News Dialogue with North Korea looks in danger of drying up after Pyongyang pulled out of high-level talks with the U.S. and South Korea cannot persuade leader Kim Jong-un to visit Seoul. A diplomatic source said, "President Moon Jae-in is worried about the recent impasse with North Korea" and voiced these concerns over tea with his aides before leaving on his current overseas trip. Cheong Wa Dae had hoped that U.S.-North Korea dialogue would resume once the UN Security Council gave South Korea the green light last week to survey sections of the North's railroads that are to be repaired and connected with the South. South Korea and the U.S. had already decided to scale down the annual Foal Eagle joint military exercises next spring in an apparent attempt to appease North Korea. But Pyongyang remains silent. "It was Cheong Wa Dae that guaranteed North Korea's 'genuine intention' to scrap its nuclear weapons and the government said that to convince the U.S. to allow the surveys of the North's railroads," a government source here said. "The longer North Korea takes to return to the negotiating table, the heavier South Korea's responsibility becomes." Cheong Wa Dae admitted Monday that Kim is unlikely to visit Seoul this year. Oil prices held steady on Wednesday despite news of a North Sea production outage and expectations for an output cut at an upcoming OPEC meeting to counter an emerging glut. Global benchmark Brent crude was down about 0.1 percent at $60.37 per barrel, giving up earlier gains. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were virtually unchanged at $51.56 per barrel. The Buzzard oilfield in the U.K. North Sea, which pumps about 150,000 barrels per day (bpd), has closed temporarily for repairs after the discovery of pipe corrosion, media reports quoted sources as saying. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will meet at its headquarters in Vienna, Austria, on Dec. 6 to discuss output policy amid concerns that record output by Saudi Arabia may exacerbate a supply glut. Oil prices failed to retain early gains as concerns over high inventory levels overshadowed expectations for the production cut. The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a crude oil inventory build of 3.5 million barrels for the week ending November 23. Distillate stockpiles rose by 1.2 million barrels, but gasoline supplies declined by 2.6 million barrels. The EIA inventories report is expected to show a build of 0.7 million barrels in crude supplies. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Market Analysis Swedish retail sales decreased modestly in October, after solid gains in the previous two months, defying expectations for further increase, preliminary data from Statistics Sweden showed on Wednesday. Retail sales decreased a working-day adjusted 0.1 percent year-on-year, after a 2.3 percent gain in September. In August, sales grew 2.1 percent after a modest 0.1 percent fall in July. Economists had forecast a 0.2 percent sales growth for October. Sales of consumables excluding sales from the state-owned liquor stores, fell 1 percent, while sales of durables grew 0.4 percent. Compared to the previous month, retail sales decreased a seasonally adjusted 1.1 percent in October, which was the first fall in four months. Economists had expected a 0.3 percent gain. 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. German energy generation and energy trading company Uniper, a subsidiary of E.ON SE (EONGY.PK), said it requested that the French government officially clarify its timetable for phasing out coal and provide specific proposals for a structural resolution of the issue with the affected companies. Uniper noted that the statements released yesterday by the government as part of the multi-year energy planning process (Programmation pluriannuelle de l'?nergie"; PPE) fall far short of providing a sound basis for decisions. The early closure of all remaining coal-fired power plants in France, to be completed no later than the end of 2021, as reiterated in the PPE, instead jeopardizes existing supply obligations, facilities and several hundreds of jobs at Uniper alone. Moreover, it will drive one of the last remaining private, non-French competitors to the state-owned Electricit? de France (EdF) out of the market. Owing to the announcement by the French government that it plans on closing all coal-fired power plants in the country by the end of 2021, Uniper said it has for the last several months submitted its business activities in France to a strategic review. Since the summer break, there have been numerous protests against the French government as well as strikes at company sites, which have adversely affected power production. In addition to Uniper, only the Electricit? de France (EdF), the majority state-owned energy producer that operates the bulk of French nuclear power plants, is affected by the early withdrawal from coal-fired power generationin France. In addition, Uniper is one of the last remaining foreign, privately-held competitors in the French energy market. Uniper is involved in the generation of electricity and in sales through its business unit Uniper France. The Company employs some 500 people and has a plant output capacity of nearly 2300 megawatts (MW), 1200 MW of which is generated by coal. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News After moving sharply higher early in the session, shares of Alaska Air Group Inc. (ALK) continue to see significant strength in afternoon trading on Wednesday. Alaska Air is currently up by 4.5 percent. The advance extends a recent upward trend by Alaska Air, which reached its best intraday level in over ten months earlier in the session. The early rally by Alaska Air came after Goldman Sachs added the airline to its "Conviction Buy List." Goldman Sachs pointed to several positive factors for Alaska Air, including a favorable 2019 cost outlook. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News The New Zealander insurer that illegally sent the National Bank of Samoa nearly T$30 million has been put into liquidation by the New Zealand Reserve Bank. A court affidavit from March this year revealed C.B.L Insurance deposited approximately T$30 million to the National Bank of Samoa (N.B.S), where deputy chairman and 19.5 per cent shareholder of C.B.L Alistair Hutchison was a director, up until March. That $30 million (12.5) eventually made it to one of C.B.Ls major creditors, AlphaGroup in Denmark (currently in liquidation) which is an act of money laundering called layering. The Central Bank of Samoa has a strict no tolerance policy towards money laundering. Governor Maiava Atalina Emma Ainuu-Enari said CBS was not aware of any allegations, however. In any case, any person(s)/company proven guilty of a money laundering offence must be dealt with in accordance with the provisions of the Money Laundering Prevention Act 2007, said Maiava in a written response to questions. If N.B.S is accused of money laundering, Maiava said it would be obligated under the law to report this to CBS Financial Intelligence Unit. From a regulatory perspective, we continue to remind financial institutions to be vigilant in identifying as well as reporting money laundering related transactions. The National Bank of Samoa no longer lists Alistair Hutchison as a director, and declined to comment on the matter when contacted by this newspaper. The court decision to liquidate follows over 12 months of the Reserve Bank chasing C.B.L Insurance for failing to meet solvency conditions, breaching directives and misreporting to the regulator on an ongoing basis, according to news site interest.co.nz. In August 2017, it appointed McGrathNicol, an advisory firm, to investigate CBLs financial position. CBLs shares on the NZX and ASX were suspended in February and the company was put in voluntary administration, and last week, the insurers repeated failures to be honest about its state of business led to its liquidation. According to the Reserve Bank lawyer, Nathan Gedye QC, the money was incorrectly reported under C.B.L Insurances solvency claims, an issue with a consistent pattern. The bank's view is that based on Mr Atkin's evidence, the information provided to the bank was dishonestly incorrect and that there is a consistent pattern to it over the years 2013 to 2017 and it's important for liquidators with all of their powers to investigate as far as they are permitted to do so by law and make recoveries as required by law, Mr Gedye said. In an affidavit to the court made by Toby Fiennes of the Reserve Bank, C.B.L Insurance paid overseas recipients approximately NZ$55 million 8th and 20th of February, despite being told not to by the Reserve Bank in both verbal and written instructions. Between 1903 and 1913, nearly 4000 Chinese were brought to Samoa as indentured labourers to work on European owned plantations. Their stories are shared in a new exhibition at the Museum of Samoa for at least the next three months, thanks to guest curator and granddaughter of one of those labourers, Ronna Lee. Photographs, news articles, legislation and contracts will all feature in the exhibition that Ms Lee says she began working on nearly 20 years ago. Ms Lee said she was first inspired to look into her identity and the history behind it when she was a child in New Zealand. I was constantly being asked what am I, and I had never really thought to ask myself what am I, she said. So from the early 2000s, she embarked on a search to learn, and found unpacking the history of her Chinese ancestry was a little more complicated than her Samoan side. What she did find was that her grandfather, Asamu Sing Chao Lei Sam (Li Jing Sen) had travelled to Samoa from Guangzhou along with at least 300 other labourers to work a backbreaking contract for as little as US$2.40 per month. He had never told her this himself, of course. But learning about Chinese in Samoa reminded her of his characteristics, Ms Lee said. He was a very hard worker, he saved a lot, he fixed everything himself if he could. I remember he worked really hard, he was an only child but he had fifteen children, and there was always food around. Indentured labourers were slaves by another name, Ms Lee learned. When slavery was abolished in Africa, the British government were met with a shortage of labour. The indentured labourers, referred to by the British as coolies were offered three year contracts with stringent conditions they would eventually speak up against. They worked six days a week for at least nine hours a day, and had their pay docked if they fell ill, or disobeyed their boss, said Ms Lee. Labourers were forbidden to leave the plantations they worked on, and they were flogged. Learning about her grandfathers history was an emotional process for Ms Lee. She said learning about his living conditions and treatment under both German and New Zealand administrations, and even some village councils was saddening. I imagine getting into my grandfathers head and begin to think wow, out of these conditions he was able to build something and make something of himself, and provide for his family, she said. I sit back and look at successful Samoan Chinese families and think this is the legacy they left. They may not have been able to tell their story but their legacy of resilience, the tenacious nature of the Chinese Samoan to be successful and to better themselves, you know? Knowing this history is an important part of honouring the impact Chinese migration had on Samoan society, Ms Lee said. Its not just that the decendants of these Chinese have had a profound impact on the economic and social development of Samoa, they have also had a huge influence in the food that we have, like pork buns or keke puaa, keke saina, there is so much. Unfolding their story and talking about it can also put a lot of things into context, she said. The Chinese captioning in the exhibition was done by Madam Tong Xin, and the printing was funding by the Embassy of China in Samoa. *Facts about the Chinese indentured labourers were sourced in part from Ronna Lee, and in part from a presentation by Tuatagaloa Aumua Ming Leung Wai from 2015. Australian Police have charged a man who yelled abuse and threw meat and eggs while Prime Minister Dr Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi was speaking at a Brisbane church hall, reports Australian Associated Press. The 41-year-old is accused of interrupting a meeting at St Maximilian Kolbe Catholic Parish, in Marsden, on November 14, where he yelled abuse and threw food before fleeing. The Prime Minister was speaking at the official launching of a Brisbane-Apia service, a spokesman for the Samoan government says. "He was there to launch the inaugural first flight," the spokesman said. The Prime Ministers safety was never threatened, he said. The Riverview man will appear in Beenleigh Magistrates Court on December 10 charged with committing public nuisance. ANKARA, Turkey (AP) Ignoring widespread criticism, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday again showed excerpts of a video taken by the attacker who killed 50 people in mosques in New Zealand, to denounce what he called rising hatred and prejudice against Islam. Speaking at a campaign rally in the northern town of Eregli, Erdogan also criticized New Zealand and Australia for sending troops to Turkey in the World War I Gallipoli campaign, claiming their motive was anti-Islam-oriented. He called on New Zealand to amend its laws to ensure that the attacker is severely punished. "What business did you have here? We had no issues with you, why did you come all the way over here?" Erdogan said. "The only reason: we're Muslim, and they're Christian." Erdogan told supporters: "If New Zealand fails to hold the attacker accountable, one way or another we will hold him to account." Since the weekend, the Turkish leader has been using clips of the Christchurch attack to denounce Islamophobia during campaign rallies, as he tries to stoke nationalist and religious sentiments ahead of March 31 local elections. The video, which was blurred but had clear sounds of automatic gunfire, has been shown to thousands of people at the rallies and aired live on Turkish television, despite efforts by New Zealand to halt its spread. The video prompted widespread condemnation. Facebook said it removed 1.5 million versions of the video in the first 24 hours after the attack. Turkey's main opposition party has also criticized Erdogan for showing the clip "for the sake of (winning) three or five votes" at the elections. New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said Monday he told his Turkish counterpart the video doesn't represent New Zealand. Peters is due in Turkey later this week to attend a meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Istanbul as an observer. The New Zealand Embassy in Ankara also said Peters had raised the issue with a Turkish delegation in New Zealand. It said the embassy in Ankara and as well as other embassies worldwide had requested that media outlets not show the footage. In inflammatory comments on Monday, Erdogan suggested that anyone who comes to Turkey with anti-Muslim sentiments would be sent back in coffins, "like their grandfathers were" during the Gallipoli campaign. He made the comments in Canakkale province, northwestern Turkey which is home to the historic battlefields, on the anniversary of a World War I Turkish naval victory. Hundreds of New Zealanders and Australians travel to Canakkale each year for Anzac Day on April 25, to mark the start of the battle of Gallipoli and to commemorate the dead. A $1 million tala lawsuit against the Ministry of Police is now underway. The complainant Suitupe Misa is suing the Police for unlawful arrest and detention in relation to an incident in 2015, when he was arrested at gunpoint in public by a contingent of armed police officers. Appearing before Supreme Court Justice Vui Clarence Nelson, the complainant was represented by Seuamuli Sarona Ponifasio with Sefo Ainuu acting for the Attorney Generals Office. Seuamuli and Misas list of witnesses who were subpoenaed included former Assistant Police Commissioners Afamasaga Michael Soonalole and Leiataua Fata Aviga. The hearing is scheduled to run for three days. Misa was the first witness to testify and amongst issues raised by the prosecution, Ainuu put it to him thatin his claim before the Courton whether he (Misa) questioned the legal basis of an order by then Police Minister Sala Fata Pinati, for the police to carry guns. But Seuamuli objected to her colleagues line of questioning directed at her client. If I may interrupt, this is a legal matter and should be addressed during legal submissions. I dont see how the witness can comprehend. Justice Nelson then ordered Ainuu to rephrase his question. The prosecutor put it to Misa (who is a former police officer) that upon receiving any complaint, the Police are supposed to investigate. In this particular case, the Police received a tip that of remarks that threatened the safety then Minister of Police, Commissioner of Police and other government officials. This was the report submitted to the Commissioner, is it fair to say in your experience as a police officer, that upon receiving the report, the Commissioner must act immediately, Ainuu said. However, Justice Vui intervened and disallowed the counsels line of questioning. He (Misa) was never a commissioner of police, he is not the commissioner of police and hes an ex-police officer and the second problem with your question why I cant allow it, is that if the commissioner of police is going to come and say that: you should put that to him. The hearing continues. The Russian ship Partizan, which has been blacklisted by the U.S., docked in Busan port in September, data from the Busan maritime police revealed Monday confirmed. The Partizan, owned by Russian shipping company Gudzon, entered Busan port and stayed for about four hours for refueling on Sept. 12 even though the U.S. blacklisted it in August for illegally supplying oil to North Korea through ship-to-ship transfers in violation of UN Security Council sanctions. A Busan port official said, "At the time, a major oil company provided the ship with engine and generator fuel at market rates. I believe the government failed to inform us that the Partizan had been blacklisted." The oil company that refueled the Partizan could face U.S. sanctions if it knew that it was a blacklisted ship. The Sevastopol, another ship owned by Gudzon, also sought to refuel in Busan, but Korean oil companies refused, leaving it marooned for more than a month, according to Radio Free Asia on Tuesday. Gudzon's vice president told RFA that GS Caltex and Hyundai Oilbank refused to provide fuel and added that he "understands" their fear of being sanctioned by Washington. When the ship arrived in Busan in late September, the government investigated possible sanctions violations but did not find any wrongdoing and allowed it to leave early last month. For more than 10 years, Usoalii Soke Toleafoa never knew that his designs and business could be protected from copycats. Usoalii is part of a three-day sub-regional multi-stakeholder practical workshop on intellectual property, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions at the Sheraton Aggie Greys Resort and Bungalows. Speaking to the Samoa Observer yesterday, the father of five from Lalomalava, Savaii said he was excited to be part of the event because it helped him learn about intellectual property and how to protect his designs. Usually, his designs are products of his imagination, and most times they depended on the needs of his customers. I do printing and I also create my own designs. I print lavalavas, ies, t-shirts. I have been designing for more than 10 years, doing my own stuff at home, he said. There were no workshops or trainings for us like this before, and now I know its better for me to protect my design and my business. Usoalii said in many cases in the past, people have been stealing his designs and making it their own, but he never did anything about it. If I do my designs on my lavalavas, someone will copy that one. Like pumas, most people copy pumas to do on their lavalavas, but I have my own designs and someone used it, and I never knew there was an idea to protect those kinds of things. I dont know how many times my designs have been stolen, but if I create my own design, then I would find them in other stores with the same design a few weeks later. I think maybe someone tried to copy my design. I dont care about that now. So I think, after this meeting I will get a license for my business to protect my designs because they express my thoughts. Usoalii said he usually sells his product for $15 tala, but once he gets a license for his business, he will double or triple his earnings. "When I was at the School of Fine Arts, the principal wanted me to attend a local competition by UNESCO, then I was awarded for that design, but I get nothing from that. And there was the arts festival in Samoa called the Talamesina, so I won that with my design. But I get nothing. The 45-year-old is also a photographer and has been for more than five years. He said designing is now his side job apart, but his photography skills has enhanced his design ideas. I take wedding, birthday, funeral, passport size photos. I really like the environment, sometimes when I go out, I take photos of flowers, and try to combine those photos and draw it, and do my own design from that one, Usoalii said. Moving forward, Usoalii plans to grow his business with new ideas and innovations, and especially registering to protect his products. Money is at the heart of improving internet capacity in the Pacific, according to Huawei director and transformation officer David Morrison, in Samoa this week for the Asia Pacific Telecommunity Forum. The 11th A.P.T forum on policy and regulations in the Pacific, held at the T.A.T.T.E convention centre is intended to provide a platform for Pacific nations to discuss communication and I.C.T issues and solutions. One of those issues is high capacity internet like 4G, 4.5G and even 5G. Mr Morrison said deploying infrastructure to support it is easy, but its the cost that is prohibitive. In a country like Samoa, they could have 4G access on both islands tomorrow, if they wanted to, its just can they afford to do it and who is then going to do the deployment? Digicel, Bluesky, and the Electrical Power Corporations are all viable options for deployment, said Mr Morrison, and the private sector or another government could step up to foot the bill. Huawei or the Chinese banks could probably do the funding, but there would probably be caveats, as youve probably been reading in the papers, he said. But telecommunications companies hold countries to ransom, Mr Morrison said, by keeping their customers on 2G and 3G networks with no investment in improving services. There is a monopoly by certain telcos in some of the Pacific Islands and I think thats an issue, he said. Regulations like making demands on telecoms on their connection milestones and penalising them for not meeting those demands can help speed up the process of getting a country like Samoa connected to faster internet. I can see that the telcos have too much of a hold on the environment here and that means theyre not thinking outside the square enough, and they dont need to because the population doesnt know any better, and the legislation and regulation doesnt know any better either, Mr Morrison said. Telecoms should cut off their 2G and 3G networks to make space for 4G, instead of milking the cow, he continued. The telcos are making the maximum amount of money out of their legacy technology rather than investing in new technology. They are inhibiting the economy of the country. Thats the bottom line. Mr Morrison stressed not every telecom is intentional in this choice, some just dont know the potential. But on a government level, not knowing exactly why graduating to a 4G network is worthwhile is also holding some countries back. Mr Morrison said sometimes, people need to be taught why they need a certain product, and 4G exemplifies that. Telenor, a Norwegian telecommunications company learned that lesson in Asia and the Middle East. For example, one of the major exports in Bangladesh are workers in construction. Telenor realised that in order to promote 4G within the Middle East they needed to somehow incentivise the local workers to use 4G rather than 2G or 3G, so they promoted video calling back to their families in Bangladesh. A better network doesnt just mean more profit making products for the telecoms, Mr Morrison said. Mobile money and connecting international business are just some of the ways internet contributes to economic development of a country as a whole. If I want to bring the population forward, I do need to consider education and access to the internet to make that happen. 2G and 3G just arent good enough to do that, he said. Mr Morrison believes it might be a case of a population not knowing it needs an improvement, but teaching people to embrace a certain quality of connection is essential to economic and social development. The Lober and Soliai family recently gathered to celebrate the marriage of Taotasi Archie Soliai and Cherith Lober after years of courting. The nuptials were held at the Return to Paradise, in the resorts newly opened marble wedding chapel. Taotasi, who has been single for many years, finally decided to tie the knot with the love of his life Cherit Lober. The bridegroom, a former member of parliament for the American Samoa Legislature, was the former general manager of G.H.C. Reid & Company Ltda position that his wife Cherith now holds. Taotasi, who now works for the StarKist Samoa, told the Samoa Observer that Cherith is his match in every way and they are sharing their special day with family, friends and their son Harlem. A strong advocate of cancer in the U.S. territory where they reside, Taotasi said he is thankful they tied the knot at the favorite beach in Lefaga Matautu. He said their relationship is unique and made reference to a scripture passage: 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. New Zealander Arron Miller is not exactly your typical tourist as he works at the Motootua Hospital in Apia. It is his first week in the country, and as a medical student he is in Samoa to learn as much as he can from the internship, before returning to New Zealand after six weeks. And while the life of a medical student can have its challenges, he tries to make use of pockets of leisure time he has to discover more of Samoa. I have been to Piula cave and I went to Manono last weekend. Ive also been to Togitogina and been to Fagaloa Bay, he said. Arron is currently staying at the Tatiana Motel in Motootua and he thinks highly of the place. Im staying at Tatianas Motel in Motootua, its a good spot for me. It has a pool and everything and its cheap and they serve breakfast every morning. His first impressionssince his arrival in Samoaare that the people are lovely and friendly, which makes it comfortable for a foreigner like him. But the large number of dogs he passes on the street are a concern, as sometimes they also become a menace. Sometimes you dont know if you should go pass them or not because sometimes they just lie there and sometimes they get up and chase you, he said. Another challenge is the experiencing of walking into a village or onto a beach and being unsure if he would be welcomed there. Sometimes it is hard to know whether or not youre allowed to go to a beach at a village like when youre arrive. You dont know if youre allow to park the car there, or wait for someone to come, which makes it hard sometimes and a bit awkward to go travelling and doing things outside of a tourist scope, he added. But Arron is taking on the challenges in his stride and intends to make the most of his experiences in Samoa. What about his job as a medical intern at the hospital? He acknowledges that Motootua has its challenges and is different from the hospitals back home. Nevertheless, he is keen to explore more of the island. Fake news, social media, cyber security, internet connectivity, data breaches, online safety and artificial intelligence! There must have been plenty to talk about at the 11th Asia Pacific Telecommunity Policy and Regulation Forum, which concludes in Apia today, after three-days of discussions by 70-80 participants. Even global telecommunications heavies such as the Commonwealth Telecommunication Organisation, International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and social media giant Facebook confirmed their participation, perhaps confirming the significance of the information superhighway, and how it promises to change lives for the better. Samoan Regulator, Auelua-Fonoti, said she was pleased that Samoa is hosting the conference and looked forward to the outcomes. As the Regulator, I am pleased to see this Forum being hosted by Samoa, and look forward to the positive outcomes that will result from the discussions and workshop next week, she said. The conference is facilitated through collaboration between the Asia Pacific Telecommunity, Internet Society, Asia-Pacific Network Information Center and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. The three-day conference will conclude today with a e-application workshop organised by the ITU and the Pacific Islands Telecommunication Union in partnership with the Asia Pacific Telecommunity. We also look forward to the conference outcomes, as the use of telecommunications infrastructure is critical for Samoa Observer, just like other media organisations in the region. The use of emails, social media platforms such as Facebook, blogs, websites and online publishing platforms has revolutionise work ethic in newsrooms in the region and somewhat refined news gathering practices. But it has also added extra layers in the news gathering process and increased competition and rivalry between the different media services and organisations. Which is why I note the irony in the statement by the Chairman of Policy and Regulation Forum for the Pacific, Charles Punaha, when he discussed some of the issues that would be deliberated on during the three-day conference. Speaking to Samoa Observer, Mr. Punaha said the region continues to experience challenges relating to cyber security. An example is in Papua New Guinea, a lot of fake news has been communicated through social media, and in the process they are defamatory, and people are not accountable for such actions. In terms of privacy issues nowadays, of course, there is a big data being hosted by the social media and there is no guarantee that the privacy of the citizens is being protected, he said. Mr. Punaha was speaking in his capacity as Chairman of Policy and Regulation Forum for the Pacific, as well as the C.E.O for the National Information and Communications Technology Authority (N.I.C.T.A) in P.N.G. Perhaps it is time for him to get his organisation to fund an independent study in the Pacific Islands largest social media market (outside Australia and New Zealand), which would define fake news as well as identify the basis for its rapid use and spread in a democracy like P.N.G. I am sure other Pacific Island states like Samoa and even Fiji would be interested in the findings of such an independent studyshould Mr. Punaha and his colleagues agree to go down that path. It is time bureaucrats and technocrats in the Pacific Islands create and make policy decisions using evidence-based research. Using fake news as a justification to strangle free speech and ultimately press freedom can be seen from a mile away. Mr. Punaha has been using that argument for a couple of years now, and to sell it to Pacific Island peersin the hope that they would embrace it and set it up based on the P.N.G modelis misleading as it is bound to fail and will only create a misinformed and disempowered population in what is supposed to be thriving democracies. Thankfully, the discussions at the 11th Asia Pacific Telecommunity Policy and Regulation Forum, have not all been bad and detrimental to our democracies. And we note the appeal by the Commonwealth Telecommunication Organisation for an internet complaints body to be set up by the Samoan Government. Acting secretary general and director of the I.C.T development department Gisa Fuatai Purcell said consumers, especially young girls, should have a government body to turn to when the cyber safety, privacy and data breaches occur. In other commonwealth countries, they have set up a security centre or Netsafe centre within the office of the regulator, she explained. It could be an expensive project, but worthwhile, she said. To do it properly, you would need a call centre and that costs a lot of money. You need a building, you need all the equipment. The appeal is logical and would be a step in the right direction, due to the increasing use of smartphones by our young people and the proliferation of internet accessibility in Samoa and other Pacific Island nations. It is time to protect the most vulnerable in the communities before it is too late. What do you think? Have a wonderful Thursday and God bless Samoa. Year 13 student Glenis Ah Far Williams has done it again at the L.D.S. Church College Pesegashe is the 2018 valedictorian. She has attended the college for the last six years and last year she was the top student overall for Year 12. There was silence when deputy principal Brother Elisara talked about the Year 13 awards, and the students broke into a roar when he announced Glenis as the valedictorian for this year. Proud parents Rosann Ah Far Williams and Efi Williams followed relatives and friends down the isle to place a candy lei on her. Her grandmother Neta Latwer Wulf was on hand to witness the occasion and hugged her granddaughter with tears of joy. Speaking to Samoa Observer, Glenis she said the biggest challenge she faced in school was the increasing workload brought on by assignments. But through prayer she was able to prioritise her work, and manage her studies to get the desired results. While she is not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she said being a student at Pesega ensured there was positive influence throughout her education, especially her spiritual growth. I would like to thank my whole family who have supported my education, all of my tutors who helped throughout this year and last year and especially my parents for all they continue to do for me, she said. I would like to dedicate these awards to our Heavenly Father because he has always been there and he been at the center of my education. Glenis will present her valedictorian speech tomorrow for the Year 13 College Graduates of 2018. There needs to be a space for complaints about the internet in Samoa and other island nations, according to a representative of the Commonwealth Telecommunication Organisation. Acting secretary general and director of the I.C.T development department Gisa Fuatai Purcell said consumers, especially young girls, should have a government body to turn to when the cyber safety, privacy and data breaches occur. During the Asia Pacific Telecommunity forum this week, a series of speakers gave presentations on cybersecurity and data protection for consumers. While internet operators and internet service providers need to take their responsibilities to consumers seriously, policy makers and governments should be active in this area too, Mrs Purcell said. In other commonwealth countries, they have set up a security centre or Netsafe centre within the office of the regulator, she explained. It could be an expensive project, but worthwhile, she said. To do it properly, you would need a call centre and that costs a lot of money. You need a building, you need all the equipment. But because we are small islands, its the same as other small commonwealth countries. A centre within the office of the regular would be the way to go. Mrs Purcell said Netsafe in New Zealand, for example, employs just eight staff to manage over four million people. Samoa would need just three or four, because while the population is small, the queries will be many, I can guarantee that, she said. Australias assistant secretary for communications and the arts, Richard Bullock, presented a detailed explanation of Australias eSafety policy. Mrs Purcell said their model is one that could be easily applied in Samoa, and Netsafe is one to look at too. I believe in not reinventing the wheel, she said. While Australias model is one of a separate eSafety commission, and the population is larger and more scattered, their internet issues are the same. Small island countries can adopt all or some of it that is relevant to their size. Most of the [eSafety policies] are good for Samoa, she said. Currently, people in Samoa with complaints or concerns about the internet have been travelling to New Zealand to have their voice heard by Netsafe and for action to be taken, she said. People need somewhere to seek help, but there doesnt appear to be anywhere in the Pacific islands to do that. When Mrs Purcell asked the delegates to say by a show of hands which countries have a national body for internet complaints, only Australia said they did. But now, people have come up to me to say thank you for saying that, thats food for thought, Mrs Purcell said. Internet providers, internet operators, governments and the consumers themselves are all responsible for a safe and secure internet. The discussion on securing citizens and their data online was the focus of an afternoon panel event at the Asia Pacific Telecommunity forum, held over the week at T.A.T.T.E. Representatives of the private sector, the Australian government and the Internet Society Asia Pacific bureau gathered to discuss their opinions on where responsibility lies. Naveed Haq from the Internet Society said with growing internet usage connecting our devices, and powering our homes, consumers must be watchful of growing risks. Internet of Things devices already outnumber the global population, and by 2020 they will be 2.5x the global population, he said. Internet of Things, or IoT, refers to the way computers, and therefore the internet has been embedded into everyday devices, like our cars, refrigerators, home security systems and of course, our phones. Mr Haq said while we might be happy our devices can think for us, we have to be careful of the broader implications. More connection to the web means more risk of corruption from spam, malware or viruses. Data is a great organisational asset, he said, but it can also be a burden. Of course, Samoa is not quite ready to launch into smart homes running on the internet of things without a 5G network, said panel moderator Gisa Fuatai Purcell. But security will continue to be a challenge. Rita Eteuati is the operations manager of Computer Systems Limited (C.S.L), one of Samoas five internet service providers. She said once upon a time, ISPs could turn away from providing security, by claiming their role was only to provide the internet service. Today, as gatekeepers of the internet, Ms Eteuati recognises that is no longer true. The internet and mobile phones have brought benefits to the Pacific community, she said. But at the same time, the same technology requires increased and constantly changing security measures to protect from harmful intrusions than can affect businesses, communities and children Digicels chief executive officer Farid Mohammed said his company complies with all local regulations and laws because of a desire to protect all consumers. We care deeply about the welfare of our customers, Mr Mohammed said. Not only that, but as an investor in Samoa, it makes sense to care about the people and prosperity of the nation, he said. While Digicel has made every effort and is compliant with Samoan regulations and law, websites like social media and streaming services which do collect consumer data are not regulated and often operate beyond the reach of the law. We are licensed, and so if we do something that breaches that license, well face consequences, Mr Mohammed explained. In this part of the world, laws and regulatory frameworks have not kept pace with development of social media and over-the-top operators. The Samoa Airport Authority has gone ahead to clear land for the extension of the Faleolo International Airports runway, despite families still residing in the project site. Families are living on Satapuala land which has been earmarked for the runway extension project. But Satapuala village mayor, Vaili Mimita, told Samoa Observer that they have been given another three weeks to relocate. And the clearing of the land will not come to a halt, because these families continue to remain as trespassers on Government property, he added. The families refusal to move off the land has put them at odds with the Samoa Trust Estate Corporation (S.T.E.C) and lead to a deadlock between the parties for over eight months. S.T.E.C Chief Executive Officer, Patea Loli M. Setefano, has not responded to emails sent by this newspaper seeking his comments on the matter. In June this year, attempts by four Satapuala families to get the Government to pay their relocation costs, were turned down. Tuaato Tauvala'au Salausa, a member of one of the affected families, says they are not moving unless the Government paid them $1 million. But that demand was flatly refused by Prime Minister Tuilaepa Dr Sailele Malielegaoi, who in turn threatened to take them to court to trespassing on State land. Its been 35 years since the Government and Satapuala Village Council signed an agreement for the exchange of land, Tuilaepa said back then. Recently members of a family confronted contractors who were working on a fence, according Vaili, but the matter has been resolved. But thats been settled now and the families are aware they need to move from the location in three weeks, so the Airport can proceed with the fencing off of the property. There is no more dispute and the families understand they have land allocated for them, he added. This newspaper visited the affected families at the contested land area but they refused to comment. The Centre for Samoan Studies at the National University of Samoa has announced the winners of the 2018 Centre for Samoan Studies Film Challenge. The winners were announced at a private screening in Apia on Monday night. Six films were submitted for review, which were produced and videoed by a number of NUS and nursing students. Each film was judged on a criteria set by the Centre and were required to meet this years theme of focusing on gender issues. First place went to a film titled Violence Project which was produced by Ben Percival and Elvina Tuiletufuga. Film titled Equalwhich was another production by Ben and Elvinacame second with third place going to the titles Nofotane Boss at work and Nofotane at Home. They were produced by Saunimaa Ma Fulu Aiolupotea and Abraham Fatupaito. Australian High Commissioner to Samoa, Sara Moriarty, said the entries were of high standard and she was impressed with the storylines. I would like to acknowledge the high standard of all the entries. I was thoroughly impressed by the story lines, as well as the direction and production of the film clipsthere was a high level of technical competence and some very powerful gender content and film techniques. Todays presentation of films is perfectly timed, coming just a day after International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. As you will know, today is the second day of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, which is currently being observed nationally throughout Samoa and across the globe, she said. Focusing on the benefits of having a gender-equal world, the diplomat said girls can reach their full potential free of violence, which is a core priority in Australias foreign policy and development partnerships. The Australian Government is proud to support initiatives such as this film competition through the Pacific Media Assistance Scheme - a regional media development program that aims to facilitate discourse across government, business and civil society, via Pacific media, she added. Students were invited in July to submit expressions of interest to participate in a video and film-creation workshop, which were run by Australian ABC journalist and filmmaker Catherine Marciniak in September and October this year. The Australian government-funded Pacific Media Assistance Scheme (PACMAS) funded the workshops and Catherines participation. The public are invited to attend the public screenings of the films this Friday 30 November 2018 at NUS, Room D201, from 6:00pm to 8:00pm. U.S. bomber missions over the Korean Peninsula were halted at the request of the South Korean government, a U.S. Air Force chief said Monday. Gen. Charles Brown, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Air Forces, told Pentagon reporters on Monday. "U.S. bombers are no longer conducting flights over South Korea after Seoul asked for such missions to be paused," according to AFP. A military officer here confirmed that no U.S. bombers have flown to Korea since late November last year. Earlier, military authorities here denied the reports. Then-Defense Minister Song Young-moo in March told the visiting commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet in March, "The U.S. doesn't need to send strategic assets to Korea." But the ministry claimed Song had been joking. He has since lost his job. In May, the U.S. military planned a joint drill with South Korea and send B-52 strategic bombers but changed its mind and only conducted a scaled-down drill on its own because of Seoul's concern that it could heighten tensions on the Korean Peninsula, the Wall Street Journal reported. But the ministry denied that report too. The controversy behind the Governments decision to tax church ministers has been a topical issue this year. Recently, Minister of Revenue, Tialavea Tionisio Hunt, confirmed that eight church ministers of the Congregational Christian Church of Samoa (C.C.C.S.) have been charged for not filing their tax returns and more will be charged in the coming weeks. Reporter Soli Wilson talks to members of the public to get their views on the issue. Kasandra Laufili, 36, Saleimoa In my opinion on this matter, the Government has already passed the law therefore we must all abide to it. One of the reasons why is because once they retire from the villages they served in, they are entitled to pension just like everyone else. Where is the pension from? The Government. Yes, pastors have never paid taxes but there will always be changes. Each generation comes with their changes. Nothing stays the same. Although the Government should depend their taxes on many factors, like the number of people in each church and how often they give, because some churches give weekly while some give fortnightly. Vitale Muaimalae, 42, Vaiusu Weve always said that the pastors are the messengers of God and believed that they deserve our respect, just like how we respect God. This is why I strongly disagree with the charging of pastors because of this tax issue. The pastors main job is saving spirits and guiding the people on the righteous path. Without them, who else will be guiding our people? We should stick to what weve been doing since the beginning. No taxes for the pastors. Tasi Funai, 30, Fausaga In my opinion, no one is above the law. We should abide by Government laws just like how we abide by Gods commandments. I feel for the pastors but nothing can be done now that the law has already been passed with penalties already in place. I think the pastors should obey the Governments tax laws as a way for them to contribute to our economy. Leoo Mailei Amosa, 66, Satapuala I strongly believe that this is very inappropriate due to the fact that the people the Government is charging are pastors. A pastors duty is to deliver the word of life and messages of God to the people of Samoa. This fact alone makes the Governments actions wrong in my own opinion, because the pastors are not in the villages to look for money, but rather serve the peoples spiritual lives. Telesia Poleta, 40, Faleasiu I disagree with this law taxing pastors. Pastors shouldnt be taxed as they are the Lords servants. In my own opinion, this is very unfitting especially as the servants of God, they shouldnt be taxed. These are the people who are out in the villages conveying the messages of God and promoting peace. The money they get from their alofa is a contribution out of the peoples love for their pastor. Pati Olene, 41, Nuu-fou This matter is such a broad matter and so many people are unhappy about it. But I heard someone say that if the pastors dont pay taxes, then they arent contributing to the economy of Samoa and this is something I agree with completely. I dont agree with the tax idea completely, but since some of the pastors already agreed, I guess all the pastors should be involved also. This matter should really be dealt with properly, because its getting ugly with these charges pressed on the pastors. BERLIN (AP) The European Union's executive branch proposed Wednesday that the bloc should cut its emissions of greenhouse gases to net zero by 2050, a measure that scientists say needs to be adopted worldwide in order to avoid catastrophic global warming. The European Commission is the first major economy to set its sights on achieving climate neutrality in the next three decades. But the plan, which was announced days before a global climate summit being held in Poland, is far more ambitious than the national targets set so far by many of the EU's 28 member nations. The EU's climate chief, Miguel Arias Canete, cited a recent scientific report that warned of deadly consequences for many species on Earth from rising temperatures. "This has been a real wake-up call," Arias Canete told reporters in Brussels. "And today we are responding to this call." Experts say ending the use of fossil fuels a process known as decarbonization is one of the most important measures needed to achieve the 2015 Paris climate accord's goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century. Net zero emissions mean that any greenhouse gases emitted need to be soaked up by forest growth or new technologies that can remove carbon from the atmosphere. Arias Canete said the tools to achieve this target already exist. "We are not inventing the wheel," he said. Still, he noted that considerable investment will be needed to shift Europe's economy away from fossil fuels and this needs to be done in a socially acceptable way. The Commission's proposal , which was welcomed by environmental groups, isn't binding. But it adds pressure on EU nations that have resisted setting tighter goals for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Germany, Europe's biggest economy, is expected to miss its goals for 2020 and Chancellor Angela Merkel has objected to raising the nation's emissions reduction target for 2030 from 40 percent to 45 percent. Germany's development minister, Gerd Mueller, sought Wednesday to shift the attention onto his country's efforts to help poor nations achieve their climate goals, noting that their potential future emissions could far outstrip reductions achieved in Europe. Berlin is doubling its funding for the Green Climate Fund to 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion) to boost environment-friendly measures in developing countries. WASHINGTON (AP) The Kremlin said Wednesday it still expects a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump to go ahead as planned despite a suggestion from Trump that it could be canceled. Trump, in an interview with The Washington Post on Tuesday, said he might cancel the sit-down with Putin in Argentina following Russia's seizure of three Ukrainian naval ships last weekend. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday that the meeting is on and that Russia has not received "any other information from our U.S. counterparts." Putin's foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, noted that the meeting, which is set for Saturday, has been prepared through official channels and Moscow expects Washington to notify it of any changes in the same way. "This meeting is necessary for both sides," Ushakov said. "It's important in view of the developing situation in the world." The long-simmering conflict between Russia and Ukraine burst into the open on Sunday, when Russian border guards fired on three Ukrainian vessels and seized the ships and the crew. In a phone call Wednesday, Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed their concern about the incident, said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. She said the two will further discuss it later this week during the Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Trump said he would be receiving a "full report" from his national security team on Russia's recent actions in eastern Ukraine and the Black Sea. He said he would decide on a course afterward. "Maybe I won't have the meeting," he said. "Maybe I won't even have the meeting." Trump added: "I don't like that aggression. I don't want that aggression at all." The comments were Trump's strongest to date in condemnation of Russia's recent actions in Ukraine, where tensions are flaring. But White House aides were still planning for the Putin meeting after Trump's comments. Ushakov, Putin's aide, said the naval encounter between Russia and Ukraine likely will be on the agenda of the planned meeting, which will start with the two presidents meeting privately before being joined by senior officials. He said the Kremlin expects that the talks will touch on nuclear arms control, noting that it's particularly important to discuss them in view of the U.S. intention to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. "It's extremely important to prevent an uncontrollable and senseless arms race," he said. Ushakov said the two presidents also are to discuss regional crises, including the situation in Syria, the Iranian nuclear deal and North Korea. The meeting between Trump and Putin is set to be just one of several high-profile foreign-policy engagements for the U.S. leader on the whirlwind two-day visit to Argentina. Trump also is set to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping over dinner, in what may be a pivotal session to determining if and how the ongoing trade dispute between their countries could be resolved. The White House on Tuesday warned Xi against trying to wait out Trump in the ongoing talks, suggesting the Chinese economy was not as resilient to a trade war as the U.S. economy. The warning from Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, came ahead of the two leaders' high-stakes sit-down on Saturday evening. Over the last year, the two countries have levied a series of tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of imports from each other, with the latest round of U.S. duties set to go into force in the new year. Xi said on Wednesday the international community needs to build consensus to solve the conflict between free trade and protectionism. In a speech to lawmakers in Spain, where he is conducting a state visit before attending the summit in Argentina, he said the world is facing "instability, uncertainty and hot topics without precedents in our history." "I think we are at a crossroads," Xi said. "In economic terms we need to decide if we are going to follow the economic globalization and free market or if we are going to choose unilateralism and protectionism." National security adviser John Bolton said Trump will also be meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Argentine President Mauricio Macri, South Korea's Moon Jae-in and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Sanders called the trip an opportunity for the president to cement relations with other world leaders and advance a global economic system based on "free, fair and reciprocal trade." The Trump-Xi meeting would be the first since the two countries began hitting each other with import taxes earlier this year. The United States targeted $250 billion in Chinese products, and Beijing lashed back by slapping tariffs on $110 billion worth of U.S. goods. The two sides have been in negotiations for months, but Kudlow described them as being stalemated until just a few weeks ago. Kudlow said the administration has been "extremely disappointed" by China's engagement in trade talks but the meeting between Trump and Xi on the sidelines of the G-20 summit could be a game-changer. "Perhaps we can break through in Buenos Aires or not," he said. Kudlow added that if the U.S. doesn't get "satisfactory" responses to its trade positions more tariffs will be imposed. He said Trump is "not going away." "I hope they understand that," he said. China's foreign ministry has said a recent phone conversation between Xi and Trump about trade and other issues was "extremely positive." Bankrupt Sears Holding Company wants a white knight to swoop in and save the brand by purchasing 505 owned and leased Sears and Kmart locations, including four in San Diego County. The company said last week in a bankruptcy filing that it hopes to keep the following local stores alive: The 150,380 square-foot Sears at The Shoppes at Carlsbad, the 160,000 square-foot Sears at Westfield North County in Escondido, the 226,827 square-foot Sears at 565 Broadway in Chula Vista and the 43,494 square-foot Kmart at 1855 Main Street in Ramona. The stores are said to be part of a profit-generating group of locations that could thrive if Sears can successfully reorganize. While Sears would like a single buyer to keep the lights on at these stores, it must also consider partial bids, according to bankruptcy court documents. That leaves the fate of most of its venues and the workers who staff them in the lurch. Sears first filed for bankruptcy protection on Oct. 15, identifying 142 unprofitable stores that would close near the end of the year. None of those locations are in San Diego. Another 46 venues, named before the filing, are on track for closure this month. Advertisement Now, the company is soliciting bids for its scaled-down portfolio of stores and additional company-owned businesses, including its parts and home services divisions. Former Sears CEO Edward Lampert, who resigned his post when the firm filed for bankruptcy, is expected to bid on the entire portfolio through his privately held hedge fund ESL Investments, which also holds the largest stake in Sears. ESL owns 49.7 percent of outstanding stock. It is also Sears largest creditor with over $2.6 billion in claims, according to filings. The Lampert move is seen by critics as a way to avoid paying some of its debts while lining the pockets of the Sears executive. This outcome merely prolongs the inevitable final failure of the business as the company has never had, does not have, and never will have, a viable operating strategy, said Mark Cohen, director of retail studies at Columbia Business School and the former CEO of Sears Canada. A collation of Sears unsecured creditors meaning lenders who are at risk of not recouping funds have balked at the proposed sale to Lamperts hedge fund. The groups initial objection cited a months-long bidding process that would cost Sears $125 million per month, forcing the company to borrow against its wholly owned assets. Accordingly, unsecured creditors will bear the entire cost of pursuing (the sale), the group, known as the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, said in a preliminary objection filed earlier this month with New Yorks bankruptcy court. The committee believes a full shutdown and sell-off would generate more cash to repay debts. In contrast, a sale to ESL for continued operation would allow Lampert to continue to strip whatever assets are left of the company if it emerges from bankruptcy, Cohen said. Creditors would have to rely on the value of this new company to recover their claims, he said. Many creditors appear to prefer that the company be promptly liquidated through Chapter 7 to ensure that they do receive a more likely recovery. While bankruptcy proceedings are almost always highly combative, the Sears case is unusual because Lampert is both a principal shareholder and a principal creditor, he added. Lampert has also been criticized for his role in the 2015 sale of Sears stake in more than 250 properties to Seritage Growth Properties for $2.7 billion. The real estate investment trust, or REIT, chaired by Lampert, was formed to make the transaction. It is currently working to convert empty Sears boxes into future goldmines. The REIT, for instance, co-owns the 12-acre, former Sears parcel at Westfield UTC. It is building The Collection at UTC as a mixed-used development with Equinox already signed on as a tenant. Seritage has also said it will redevelop the Sears store and auto center in El Cajon. It expects to complete the transformation of the 242,700 square-foot parcel by the third quarter of next year. Tenants for that project include Ashley Furniture, Bobs Discount Furniture, Burlington Stores, and additional retail and restaurants. In addition, Seritage owns the property still occupied by Sears in Chula Vista and Kmart in Ramona. The two locations are included in the 500-plus block of stores that Sears would like to see remain in operation. Sears will accept bids for the collection of stores through Dec. 28. A sale hearing is scheduled for Feb. 1, 2019. Business jennifer.vangrove@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1840 Twitter: @jbruin One of downtown San Diegos biggest developers has backed out of a project that would have turned the former Central Library into a 42-story apartment tower. Canada-based Bosa Development has been a golden child for city planners in recent years, developing major condo towers and is building the tallest residential building in San Diego history. Its plan for the former Central Library at 820 E St. easily got an exclusive negotiation agreement in September from Civic San Diego, downtowns planning agency. But, the company said the building cost more than expected. Basically, we looked into it and there was a lot more cost associated with it then what we thought, said Nat Bosa, president of the company on Tuesday. We didnt want to waste anyones time. Advertisement Bosa declined to get into specifics, but had previously told the San Diego Union-Tribune the increasing cost of steel was driving up the costs of projects by millions of dollars. In communication with Civic staff, the company said construction costs appeared to be escalating out of control and was concerned about the general development climate. The cost of steel has risen dramatically since the Trump administration announced tariffs in March on nations importing to the United States. Automaker GM, which has said the increased cost of steel and aluminum cut into profits, recently announced it would idle five North American plants and lay off 14,000 workers. Bosas planned tower may have faced some criticism going forward. While the Civic San Diego board largely approved of the project because it would greatly add to the citys need for more housing, board director Stephen Russell opposed the project because he felt it did not preserve the history of the library, built in 1954. Russell argued the Bosa project would mainly just keep the facade of the library. He called the plan a hollowing out of the building. There was a chance it could face more opposition. It still needed City Council approval as Bosa had yet to purchase the city-owned asset. The Civic staff is now recommending the board Wednesday accept a proposal from Dallas-based Lincoln Property Company that calls for rehabilitating the building mainly for office space. The three-story proposal would not include housing, which may cause some board members to balk. In September, some board members said there were already several large office projects downtown such as Horton Plaza and what the city really needs is more housing. However, the staff report for Wednesdays meeting says Lincoln plans to develop other adjacent properties on the block that will include either rental or for-sale housing. But, it unlikely will reach the same level as Bosas plan for 392 rental apartments (including 30 subsidized units for low-income renters). Its unclear what all the factors were that led to Bosa pulling out. Real estate analyst Gary London said developers, in general, are facing high labor and hard costs that have not caught up with current market conditions. He said rent increases are starting to slow, making it likely gains will not be as big the next year. Bosa is already constructing a 45-story rental tower with 296 apartments on Broadway. Were at a market transition point right now, London said. The prospect for revenue at apartment projects is, at best, a stabilization of rental rates or perhaps some prospective reduction in the next couple of years. The city left the 75,000-square-foot library building in September 2013 when it moved to the new Central Library on Park Boulevard across from Petco Park. The first effort to get proposals for the site, focused on technology and innovation uses, received only underwhelming responses, said Civic San Diego staff. In late 2017, the agency instead issued new proposals that were more broad and allowed for a sale of the land, instead of a lease. Business phillip.molnar@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1891 Twitter: @phillipmolnar ALSO San Diegos new single-family homes are pricey, modern and in short supply Tijuana condo craze continues in to 2018 Last years housing market broke records A federal grand jury has indicted two Iranian men for orchestrating a widespread ransomware cyberattack scheme that targeted U.S. cities, hospitals and transportation agencies, including the Port of San Diego. The indictment charges Faramarz Shahi Savandi, 34, and Mohammad Mehdi Shah Mansouri, 27, with launching cyberattacks using malware known as SamSam to freeze data on computers. The men then demanded payment in cybercurrency known as bitcoin to unlock the data. Authorities said Savandi and Mansouri collected more than $6 million in ransom and caused $30 million in damages in attacks that began in early 2016. Both men reside in Iran and have not been arrested. The allegations in the indictment unsealed today the first of its kind outline an Iran-based international computer hacking and extortion scheme that engaged in 21st-century digital blackmail, said Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski in a statement. Advertisement The Port of San Diego reported a ransomware attack on Sept. 25. The malware limited access to permits and public documents for several days. Computers that handled administrative functions for the Harbor Police also were affected. The port refused to pay the ransom demand, said spokeswoman Tanya Castaneda. It did not permanently lose its data. The port had followed prior FBI guidance with the implementation of strong security practices, including a backup system for electronic information, which enabled us to recover data and not pay the ransom, she said. When the attack occurred, the port was in the process of upgrading its information technology infrastructure but improvements were not fully implemented. It is unclear whether full deployment would have prevented the attack, said Castaneda. While we are a commercial port, we have the additional special designation of Strategic Port for the U.S. Department of Defense, she said. Clearly, the Port of San Diego was seen as a high-value target. The port oversees 34 miles of San Diego Bay waterfront property. It plays a key role in public safety with the Harbor Police and the operation of cargo and cruise terminals. It houses 800 businesses, including shipbuilder General Dynamics-NASSCO. We applaud the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI for conducting this complex and sophisticated investigation, said Randa Coniglio, chief executive of the port, in a statement. We are very pleased to see these enforcement efforts against international computer hacking and extortion scammers. According to the indictment, Atlanta, Newark, the Colorado Department of Transportation and the University of Calgary were among the public entities attacked. In addition, six health care facilities were targets -- Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles; Kansas Heart Hospital; MedStar Health in Maryland; Nebraska Orthopedic Hospital; Allscripts Healthcare Solutions in Chicago; and LabCorp of America, a North Carolina clinical lab network operator. This is a new type of cybercriminal. Money is not their sole objective, said Craig Carpenito, U.S. Attorney in New Jersey who is prosecuting the case. They are seeking to harm our institutions and critical infrastructure. In all, prosecutors say there were 200 victims across 10 states. Savandi and Mansouri allegedly focused on municipalities and hospitals where losing data would cripple operations boosting their leverage to extort money. The indictment provides a look into how cybercriminals operate. The men created the first version of the SamSam ransomware in late 2015 and regularly improved it to maximize damage, according to the indictment. In Atlanta, the malware attack last spring shut down city services, including courts, online bill pay and computer systems for city workers. The ransom demand reportedly was around $50,000. The city spent about $2.7 million on computer security services after the attack. Savandi and Mansouri conducted extensive online reconnaissance to select targets, according to the indictment. Once the malware was launched, it encrypted data and then delivered a note demanding bitcoin to receive a decryption key. The note typically threatened to permanently delete the de-coder key after seven days. The men created web pages on the anonymous Tor network to communicate with victims. They even sought to reassure victims that the decryption key worked. Check our site. You can upload 2 encrypted files and we will decrypt your files as a demo, according to one ransom note attached to the indictment. The charges were filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in New Jersey. They include conspiracy to commit computer fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, intentional damage to a protected computer and transmitting a demand to extort money. We want to get the word out that every sector of our economy is a potential target of malicious cyberactivity, said Benczkowski, the assistant attorney general. The events described in this indictment highlight the need for businesses, healthcare institutions, universities, and other entities to emphasize cybersecurity, increase threat awareness, and harden their computer networks. Business mike.freeman@sduniontribune.com; Twitter:@TechDiego 760-529-4973 In the fall of 2017, San Diego startup Comhear raised about $1 million on crowdfunding websites for its YARRA 3DX beam-forming audio sound bar. But Comhears Kickstarter and Indiegogo backers have yet to receive their speakers, which were supposed to start shipping in March. Now some of the more than 1,800 people who placed orders are concerned that the $299 to $399 they pledged may end up being a loss. A handful of Comhears Kickstarter backers have contacted the Union-Tribune about the delayed orders. The newspaper wrote an article on the Comhears $12 million recapitalization in June 2017. Advertisement The promised YARRA sound bars are overdue by a year, wrote one Kickstarter backer from South Carolina. Are these folks still in business or did they steal $1 million? They do not update us customers or their Facebook page. In a phone interview on Tuesday, Comhear Chief Executive Gerry Chastelet said the company has experienced various delays in getting the sound bars produced. It is a brand new, very complex product, he said. A product of the complexity of the YARRA 3DX you cannot build simply with the amount of money raised in crowdfunding. Comhear is seeking to raise additional capital to finish production and fund other business initiatives, said Chastelet. We have raised money in the past, and I am currently actively looking at raising another $4 million to $5 million, he said. Obviously we are doing everything possible to honor the commitments as soon as we can. Crowdfunding has always been risky for backers. While startups pledge to make their best efforts to deliver what they promise, there are no guarantees. Backers assume the risk of failure. Founded in 2013, Comhear developed technology that delivers highly directional audio from a single, compact sound bar. Instead of flooding a room with sound, the companys technology created at UC San Diego -- directs beams to create a surround-sound field so it appears as if sound is moving around a users head. The technology won awards including a 2017 Consumer Electronics Show Innovation Award, an Alfie from the LA Audio Show and a Most Innovative Product designation from San Diego startup accelerator Connect. Chastelet declined to say when crowdfunding backers might begin to receive their sound bars. But delivery is likely contingent on the company raising additional funds. We appreciate their patience and the support we have gotten from our backers, said Chastelet. It is foremost on my mind to get the product out to them, Business mike.freeman@sduniontribune.com; Twitter:@TechDiego 760-529-4973 Sure, Hamilton gets all the glory when it comes to shows that mix music with American politics. But remember, Alexander Hamilton never did become president. Which leaves 45 guys (last we checked, anyway) just waiting to serve as fodder for a hail-to-the-chief stage piece. Tonight, San Diego gets that show, as the New York-based actor-writer Elle MacPherson brings her solo cabaret endeavor Happy Birthday Mr. President to Martinis Above Fourth in Hillcrest. When last we saw her (just a week or so ago), MacPherson was scaling Himalayan peaks in the play 8000M, which had a brief run here with Golden Shards Productions under the direction of Alice Cash. Advertisement Now, Cash again directs MacPherson in this one-night-only ode to the Oval Office. The shows music ranges from Sondheim to Kander & Ebb to, no lie, Radiohead (were going to guess the bands fine 2003 album Hail to the Thief maybe figures in here somehow). While 8000M was pretty serious drama, MacPherson has a witty social-media presence, so expect more than a little fun with your history lessons in this one. Ellie MacPherson in Happy Birthday Mr. President When: 8 p.m. today (Nov. 27); doors open at 6 p.m. Where: Martinis Above Fourth Table + Stage, 3940 Fourth Ave. (second floor), Hillcrest Tickets: $20 reserved seating; $20 per person food/drink minimum Phone: (619) 400-4500 Online: ma4sd.com. jim.hebert@sduniontribune.com Twitter: @jimhebert November 28, 1978 The San Diego Union The San Diego Union-Tribune will mark its 150th anniversary in 2018 by presenting a significant front page from the archives each day throughout the year. Tuesday, November 28, 1978 In 1978, San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to a major public office in the United States, were shot to death inside City Hall by disgruntled former supervisor Dan White. A conservative, White had been the only one of 11 supervisors to vote against a gay civil-rights ordinance backed by Milk. Here are the first few paragraphs of the story: By George Condon Jr., San Diego Union Staff Writer SAN FRANCISCO Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk were shot and killed yesterday morning in their city hall offices in a fatal climax to a political disagreement with a former San Francisco supervisor. Dan White, a 32-year-old ex-policeman who had been trying to get Moscone to appoint him to the vacant supervisors seat he resigned only 17 days ago, surrendered to police here 30 minutes after the shooting and was charged with two counts of murder. The shots that felled Moscone and Milk plunged this city already reeling from bizarre events surrounding the San Francisco-based Peoples Temple into a fitful, self-analytical, almost frightened mood that was evident in the calls of persons on radio talk shows, the faces of the mourners who milled about city hall and the nervousness of the security guards who seemed to be everywhere. The shooting came only 30 minutes before Moscone was to announce that he was not appointing White to his 8th District seat on the Board of Supervisors, the legislative body for both the city and county of San Francisco. The vacancy was created Nov. 10 when White resigned his seat after only 10 months on the board and complained he could not support his family on the $9,600 annual salary. White reconsidered his position only five days later and tried to withdraw his resignation but was unable to stop the forces he had set in motion. Stymied in legal efforts to stop Moscone from appointing anyone else and feeling double-crossed by the mayor, an agitated White came to city hall at 10:45 a.m. to see Moscone, who had just concluded meeting with some of Whites supporters, according to Mel Wax, Moscones press secretary. Moscone, after laughingly rejecting the suggestion that a member of his staff join him during the confrontation with White, led the disgruntled former supervisor into the mayors back office, a small, comfortable den-like room, for the fateful meeting. Within five minutes, three shots rang out. The 49-year-old mayor, struck twice in the head and once in the arm, fell fatally wounded. View anniversary front pages online at sandiegouniontribune.com/150-years. For more from the Union-Tribune digital archives, go to newslibrary.com/sites/sdub. Searching is free, with registration. A fee is required to view full stories. "Some politicians are trying to abolish the asylum laws, but they need to be able to explain why they are trying to do that," Jung told the Chosun Ilbo last week. "Politicians need to think about what kind of relationship future generations will form with other countries and should not make such narrow-minded choices and be so insular." Actor Jung Woo-sung, who has been a goodwill ambassador for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees since 2014, has spoken out for continuing to accept refugees in Korea. Korea has taken in a minute number of refugees compared to many other countries even if North Korean defectors are included. Yet recently the main opposition Liberty Korea Party formed a committee opposing asylum rights after 500 Yemenis entered Jeju Island on a visa waiver and applied for refugee status. There have been a series of rallies in downtown Seoul on weekends opposing Korea's policy of welcoming refugees. Jung spoke to the Chosun Ilbo by telephone from the tiny African nation of Djibouti, where he met with Yemeni refugees. "The situation facing refugees is no different from the painful past of our own people," he said. "Many people died during the Korean War, including many innocent people. I understand the perplexity and concerns over many refugees arriving on Jeju out of nowhere, but the refugees I met up close are just like us and they only suffer from war or other extreme circumstances." Some of the Yemenis were eventually granted temporary permission to stay but were not recognized as refugees despite the civil war and famine devastating their country. Jung urged Koreans to reflect on their xenophobia. "Our country is not a military or economic powerhouse by global standards," he said. "I don't want to imagine Korea facing a crisis, but we too could end up requiring the help of the international community, and if we keep that in mind we shouldnt be so hostile to refugees." "I think my role is to try and change these negative views toward refugees into positive ones," he added. A 24-year-old woman was arrested in connection with an assault on a McDonalds manager in a dispute over ketchup. Mayra Berenice Gallo of Santa Ana was arrested at an undisclosed residence Tuesday, according to a statement from the Santa Ana Police Department. Gallo ordered food at the drive-through of the restaurant at 1439 N. Bristol St. about 11 p.m. Oct. 27 and got upset about ketchup packets, Santa Ana Police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said. She didnt get her ketchup or enough ketchup so she takes it on herself to go through the employee entrance and confronts the manager and the manager says, Hey, you have to go outside,'' and then the beating erupted, Bertagna said. Advertisement The suspect pummeled the manager until a man walked into the restaurant, intervenes and takes the [suspect] out of there,' Bertagna said. Gallo was booked into Santa Ana jail on an assault warrant. An ex-felon was sentenced Tuesday to 27 years to life in prison for possessing a gun on the night last year that an off-duty sheriffs deputy and a passerby were shot in the Gaslamp Quarter. Deputy Jason Philpot was shot twice, in the chest and arm, in a struggle over the handgun with Ray Pitoau. A San Diego Superior Court judge imposed the maximum sentence on Pitoau and also said he can be tried a third time on additional charges that jurors deadlocked over in two prior trials. Deputy District Attorney Michael Reilly argued in favor of the long prison term for Pitoau, 38, calling him a career criminal and a poster child for the three-strikes law. Advertisement That state law allows a judge to impose a considerably longer prison sentence on someone with previous serious felony convictions. Pitoau has arrests for crimes including carjacking, assault, residential burglary and a road-rage incident. Reilly told the judge Pitoau has spent only 4 years out of custody since 1998. Judge Melinda Lasater agreed that Pitoau has continued to commit crimes for years and has an issue with being violent. Pitoau was accused of pulling a gun on Joshua Philpot on Aug. 7, 2017, when the two exchanged heated words on the street. Philpot and his two brothers had just gotten out of a Metallica concert at Petco Park and were drinking at one or two bars afterward. When Jason Philpot saw the gun aimed at his brother, he ran toward Pitoau and grabbed for the weapon. He was shot in the struggle and one round or shrapnel wounded a visitor from Hawaii, according to prosecutors A jury in July convicted Pitoau of being a felon in possession of a gun, possessing a loaded gun in public and carrying a concealed gun in public. Jurors were deadlocked on three counts of assault with a deadly weapon on the deputy, his brother and the bystander. A second trial on those remaining three charges was held in October with a new jury, but that panel also deadlocked and a mistrial was declared. At the end of the second trial, San Diego Superior Court Judge Melinda Lasater said she wanted a month to decide whether prosecutors should get a third chance to try Pitoau. On Tuesday, Reilly said another trial is justified because a witness who had eluded law enforcement for a year had been arrested and now could be ordered to testify. The prosecutor said the witness, Emory Zinga, told defense and prosecution investigators that he and Pitoau were hanging out in the Gaslamp Quarter when he heard a commotion, then gunshots. He said he did not carry a gun that night and did not hand it to Pitoau, contradicting the defendants testimony in both trials, according to Reilly. Deputy Public Defender Jessica Marshall argued that Zingas potential testimony would not likely secure a conviction at a third trial. She asked the judge to not add prison time for Pitoaus two prior strike convictions of robbery and burglary, saying 27 to life was too stiff a penalty for his current gun-possession convictions. pauline.repard@sduniontribune.com Twitter: @pdrepard A San Diego man who tossed more than four pounds of cocaine from his BMW while fleeing police in September pleaded guilty to federal drug and weapon charges Tuesday in a San Diego courtroom. Dwight Wayne Jordan, a 60-year-old convicted felon, faces at least 10 years in prison on the charges. As part of his plea agreement, he admitted to possessing cocaine base, cocaine and heroin, with the intent to distribute the drugs. He also pleaded guilty to illegal possession of 11 firearms, including semiautomatic pistols, rifles, at least two .357 Magnum revolvers as well as regular and sawed-off shotguns. According to the plea agreement, Jordan admitted that on Sept. 8, he was the driver and lone occupant of a BMW X3 traveling on state Route 94 near Market Street when a San Diego police officer attempted to conduct a traffic stop. Advertisement Although Jordan initially yielded, as the officer exited his vehicle, Jordan accelerated and attempted to flee, running two red lights, prosecutors said. While attempting to evade the officer, Jordan threw a bag from the window of his SUV that was subsequently recovered by police and found to contain more than four pounds of cocaine. San Diego police officers also discovered more than $6,900 of drug money in his SUV the night he was arrested, according to court documents. Ten days later, as part of the investigation into Jordans suspected drug trafficking, San Diego police teamed with agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to serve search warrants at Jordans San Diego residence and business. Those raids turned up the 11 illegal weapons, nearly nine more pounds of drugs and another $36,499 in cash that Jordan has since admitted was drug trafficking proceeds, prosecutors said. As part of his plea, Jordan agreed to forfeit the weapons, the cash and a 2013 Porsche Cayenne in which agents found some of the drug money hidden. City News Service contributed to this report. Twitter: @Alex_Riggins (619) 293-1710 alex.riggins@sduniontribune.com A nurse practitioner pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court in San Diego to taking part in a kickback scheme that used San Diego County Marines to defraud the militarys health insurance provider out of more than $65 million. Candace Michelle Craven, 52, became the fourth of seven defendants charged in the scheme to plead guilty when she admitted to conducting sham telemedicine evaluations that resulted in the issuance of pricey prescriptions through the TRICARE system to patients she never saw or examined in person. Craven and the other six San Diego defendants, including a physician and two chiropractors, were among more than 600 people charged across the United States as part of a nationwide health care fraud investigation that identified more than $2 billion in false billings. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the national takedown in June. The investigation focused on schemes to bill Medicare, Medicaid and other public and private insurance providers for treatments that were medically unnecessary and often were not provided to the patient at all. In some cases, the defendants billed insurance providers for medically unnecessary prescription drugs and other medications that were either never purchased or not distributed to any patient. Advertisement According to Cravens guilty plea, a team of people worked to recruit and pay Marines, primarily from the San Diego area, and their dependents, to obtain specialty medications that would be paid for by TRICARE. Craven an employee of Choice MD, a Tennessee medical clinic spoke with the TRICARE beneficiaries by telephone and recommended that they be prescribed the personalized medications, even though she had not examined the patients in person, according to prosecutors. The prescriptions were then signed by doctors employed by Choice MD and sent directly to pharmacies controlled by co-conspirators who, in turn, filled the orders and billed TRICARE at exorbitant prices, court documents state. Between December 2014 and May 9, 2015 the day TRICARE stopped reimbursing for customized, or compounded, medications physicians working for Choice MD signed 4,442 prescriptions and their co-conspirators billed TRICARE more than $65.6 million for them. Josh Morgan, a former Marine from San Diego, pleaded guilty in April to health-care fraud for his role in recruiting TRICARE beneficiaries to fraudulently obtain compounded drugs. The doctors who signed the prescriptions, Carl Lindblad and Suzy Vergot, pleaded guilty to the same charge. Ashley and Jimmy Collins, owners of Choice MD, and CFK Inc., owner of a co-conspirator pharmacy, were indicted in March for allegedly taking part in the fraud. Their case remains pending. Craven will face a maximum punishment of 10 years in prison and extensive fines at her sentencing hearing, scheduled for Feb. 8. Staff writer Alex Riggins contributed to this report. Twitter: @Alex_Riggins (619) 293-1710 alex.riggins@sduniontribune.com Top air quality officials in California currently have no way to fully assess whether regions from San Diego to Sacramento are on track to meet 2020 targets for reining in greenhouse gases associated with daily driving. Thats according to a highly anticipated report from the California Air Resources Board released Monday which found that statewide driving has skyrocketed following the recession through 2016. However, the review lacked the key component of local accountability that the Legislature aimed for when it mandated the report last year. Specifically, lawmakers called for the review to track progress on Senate Bill 375, a landmark 2008 deal to curb climate emissions, largely by promoting regional planning of denser development along transit lines. Advertisement What this shows is that we are not doing our job to protect our quality of life, said Nicole Capretz, executive director of the San Diego-based Climate Action Campaign. We have been tiptoeing around these hard conversations and trying to appease everyone, but we cant afford to do that anymore. Air board officials said that while they tracked the key metric of vehicle miles traveled, or VMT, available statewide through fuel sales, that same information wasnt available regionally. Without that, officials said there was no consistent way to extrapolate greenhouse gas emissions from driving for each region. Theres no unifying way to bring it all together and say Youre at this particular performance metric, said Nicole Dolney, chief of the air boards transportation planning branch. Our hope was that we would have VMT data that we could rely on, but it wasnt there. That will likely take significant pressure off Californias 18 regional metropolitan planning organizations, most notably the states big four: San Diego Association of Governments, Southern California Association of Governments, Sacramento Area Council of Governments and Metropolitan Transportation Commission, which serves nine Bay Area counties. The air board has mandated that such planning organizations collectively cut per-capita emissions by 10 percent by 2020 and 18 percent by 2035. The targets use a 2005 benchmark. While the state was on track to hit that target roughly a decade ago, driving has dramatically increased, erasing all gains since roughly 2006. The air board has set individual targets for planning organizations to create regional accountability. For example, SANDAG had been required to slash per-capita emissions 15 percent by 2020. SANDAG officials said that their own assessment of driving trends has showed the region is on track to meet the short-term goal. But in October, agency staff told its 21-member board of elected officials they would have to dramatically expand the regions transit network to meet the states target for 2035. Some board members seemed responsive. Many have continued to aggressively advocate for freeway expansions in their jurisdictions, while a few have explicitly dismissed the need for public transit. With the air boards next progress report is not slated until 2022, its unclear how much pressure regional agencies, such as SANDAG, will now feel to pump up spending on transit or incentive programs that limit driving. SANDAG board chair and Del Mar Councilman Terry Sinnott has said that complying with the states targets was a top priority. He did not respond to a request for comment for this story. The air boards efforts to limit driving are intended to help meet Californias overall goals of reducing greenhouse gases 40 percent by 2030. The state announced earlier this year that it was years ahead of schedule on this benchmark, thanks largely to the low-carbon fuel standard and renewable-energy requirements on electric utilities. However, limiting emissions from driving is now emerging as a major obstacle in the states ambitious plan to fight climate change. Twitter: @jemersmith Phone: (619) 293-2234 Email: joshua.smith@sduniontribune.com Flu vaccination across San Diego County is off to a smashing start this year. Through last week, local health providers reported giving 655,823 doses, nearly 30 percent more than had been administered by the same week last year. According to county records, nearly 150,000 more people across the region have gotten their flu shots so far this year than did in the same period last year. In just a few months, local health care workers have already given 85 percent as many vaccines as they gave during the entire 2017-2018 flu season, which contributed to the deaths of 342 people in San Diego County. So far this season, there have only been two deaths, half the number seen last season through the third full week of November, according to the countys latest weekly influenza snapshot report, which shows that case rates, flu-related emergency department activity and related hospitalizations are within expected ranges. Advertisement But its early, noted Dr. Sayone Thihalolipavan, the countys deputy public health officer. Generally, he noted, flu seasons dont really get going until after Christmas. At the moment, its still moving along as expected, but last year, everyone will recall that we had a huge surge of cases in the last week of the calendar year. All we really know at the moment is that its still early, Thihalolipavan said. As to the surge in vaccination that the region has seen this time around? That trend, the health officer said, probably has to do with the severe toll the flu caused last year and with the huge amount of attention that so many deaths received in the media. I think maybe people are trying to be proactive, which we appreciate, Thihalolipavan said. We hope the most vulnerable populations, especially, are getting vaccinated this year. Those older than age 65, the very young and those with certain medical conditions are at the top of the vaccination priority list. Beyond vaccination, simple measures such as staying home when youre sick, covering your cough and, above all else, regularly washing your hands, are tried-and-true methods to keep the flu at bay. And, for those who were part of this years vaccination surge, its best not to get too cocky. There is still plenty of work to do, the deputy health officer noted. While these are encouraging statistics, there are 3.3 million people in this county, and millions could still be vaccinated, Thihalolipavan. He also noted that the local vaccination rate is probably between 200,000 and 250,000 higher than the number listed in the countys report due to the fact that flu inoculation is nearly universal among active-duty military and is also significant among VA San Diego patrons, but neither federal agency uses the countys electronic vaccination registry. There are also likely additional vaccinations performed by retail pharmacies. While most do use the registry, it is not yet universal. Of course the vaccine itself presents a significant obstacle to reaching a larger percentage of the general population. Some just dislike needles and many more are turned off by the flu vaccines effectiveness, which ranges from 40 percent to 60 percent depending on the specific flu strains in circulation each year and how much those strains mutate after global health agencies select the viral variants that will end up in the vaccine. However, public health departments are quick to note that, even if it does not keep you from getting sick, studies have shown that the vaccine still significantly reduces the severity of illness, decreasing the probability of hospitalization and death. Last years season was predominately type H3N2 of the influenza virus against which last years vaccine was only about 16 percent effective across all age groups, according to a November presentation from the CDC. H1N1, another perennial flu threat, was much better targeted with an effectiveness estimate of 58 percent. Health Playlist On Now Video: Why aren't Americans getting flu shots? 0:37 On Now Video: Leaders urge public to help extinguish hepatitis outbreak On Now San Diego starts cleansing sidewalks, streets to combat hepatitis A On Now Video: Scripps to shutter its hospice service On Now Video: Scripps La Jolla hospitals nab top local spot in annual hospital rankings On Now Video: Does a parent's Alzheimer's doom their children? On Now Video: Vaccine can prevent human papillomavirus, which can cause cancer 0:31 On Now 23 local doctors have already faced state discipline in 2017 0:48 On Now EpiPen recall expands On Now Kids can add years to your life paul.sisson@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1850 Twitter: @paulsisson North Park business leaders saved the communitys annual holiday parade from cancellation on Wednesday with a last-minute pledge of $10,000, preventing the end of a 55-year tradition that will take place this Saturday as scheduled. The move came one day after parade organizer Victoria House announced this years event would be called off due to loss of monetary support from traditional sponsors. North Park Main Street, a local merchants group, agreed at an emergency meeting on Wednesday morning to take over the parade, provide the necessary money and hope to get reimbursed by donations. Community leaders then began scrambling to let participants and residents know the parade is back on. Officially called the North Park Toyland Parade and Festival, its scheduled for 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on University Avenue between Utah and Iowa streets. Advertisement We found out yesterday that the former sponsors ran out of resources last minute for this parade and so we stepped in to make sure that this long-standing tradition in North Park didnt go away, said Angela Landsberg, executive director of North Park Main Street. Its 100 percent were moving forward with it, she said. Im having the faith that the funds are going to come in. Were a community that makes things happen, so Im not worried about that. Landsberg said there are plans to launch a gofundme.com site to raise some of the money. Tuesdays cancellation announcement created an uproar in the community, she said. This parade is a big part of North Parks history, Landsberg said. In some senses its very main street and traditional, and in some ways its edgy like North Park is. So its really a combination of things that makes it so unique. The event typically includes school groups, drag queens, bikers and all the other populations that inhabit North Park, plus marching bands, low riders and Santa Claus on a fire engine. Landsberg said shes focused now on letting everyone know the parade is on for this year and that the cancellation announcement was premature. Thats our biggest challenge, she said. Another hurdle is contacting all of the participants. Landsberg said shes scrambling to get email addresses for those who participated in previous years and those who have already paid money for this years event. Im doing a bunch of detective work out there, she said. The first sign of trouble was a Monday night email from Victoria House, a nonprofit focused on family violence shelters and services, alerting community leaders they badly needed money or the parade could be in jeopardy. On Tuesday, Victoria House announced on Facebook that the parade was canceled for this year, but would resume in 2019. Due to circumstances beyond our control, it is with a heavy heart that the North Park Toyland Parade will be cancelled this year, the post reads. After much contemplation, the board has decided it is best to cancel the Parade this year. We will re-group and resume the Parade for next year. Parades must pay fees for city permits and reimburse the city for police presence at the event, which includes closing roads and re-directing traffic. Victoria House officials couldnt be reached for comment. Calls to their North Park office on 30th Street went unanswered on Wednesday. david.garrick@sduniontribune.com (619) 269-8906 Twitter:@UTDavidGarrick A jury acquitted a man of one charge and deadlocked on others Wednesday in a double-murder case of a father and son shot at a Golden Hill bus stop seven years ago. Jurors found Marlon Johnson, 41, not guilty of first-degree murder of Darryl Hunter, 49. They deadlocked 10 to 2 in favor of conviction on all the other charges, including those involving the death of Hunters son, Keith Butler, 30, on Jan. 9, 2011. Deputy District Attorney Valerie Summers said she will try Johnson a third time unless the judge agrees to a defense request to dismiss the case. Advertisement San Diego Superior Court Judge Runston Maino said he was not inclined to dismiss the remaining charges, but would announce his decision on Friday. In two trials, Summers asked jurors to find Johnson guilty of first-or second-degree murder, with a special circumstance of committing multiple murders and allegations he used a gun. He also was charged with shooting into an inhabited vehicle, wounding the driver. Johnson did not face the death penalty, but would get a life sentence without the possibility of parole if convicted of the most serious charges and allegations. Johnsons first trial ended in a mistrial in July, with jurors deadlocked 8 to 4 in favor of conviction. The second trial lasted a little more than two weeks and jurors deliberated about 10 hours over the course of several days. They told the judge on Tuesday they were deadlocked on all but one charge. Deputy Public Defender Kevin Haughton immediately asked for dismissal of the remaining charges, while Summers asked the judge to order further deliberations by the jury. Maino had the jury deliberate a little more on Tuesday. When they came back on Wednesday, the foreman assured the judge that they would remain deadlocked. The judge advised Johnson to consider a plea deal, such as to voluntary manslaughter, with a sentence that would allow him to one day walk out of prison a free man. Mr. Johnson, I believe its more likely that youd be convicted in a new trial, Maino told the defendant. If convicted, youll never be a free man again; youll spend the rest of your life in prison. The night leading up to the shooting, Butler and Hunter had been visiting the younger mans girlfriend for about an hour. When Hunter left, his son accompanied him to a bus stop at 30th and C streets. The two men and a passing motorist were hit with gunfire 20 minutes later, about 8:30 p.m. Butler ran back to his girlfriends apartment, told her to call 911, then collapsed. He and Hunter later died at a hospital. In the ensuing chaos, witnesses gave police different descriptions of the shooter and described different getaway vehicles. Johnson was identified early on as a suspect, but San Diego police homicide investigators said they didnt have enough evidence to arrest him at the time. Then in 2016, they announced new evidence against Johnson. He was arrested in Arkansas and brought to San Diego to face trial. Summers presented evidence that Johnsons DNA was on cigarette butts found near where a white Monte Carlo had been parked until the shooting, when it was seen speeding away. She said cellphone tower records showed his phone was in the area that night. A witness testified that right after the shooting, Johnson told her he got into it with two guys who tried to rob him. Haughton told jurors no one identified Johnson as the shooter and that the physical evidence linked him only to the scene, not the crime. pauline.repard@sduniontribune Twitter: @pdrepard San Diego police searched but were unable to find a transient who reportedly fired a gun at two people along the San Diego River in Grantville on Wednesday morning. A man was briefly detained by officers around 10:15 a.m., but was released when police determined he was not involved, said San Diego police officer Billy Hernandez. The incident began shortly after 9 a.m. when a man called 911 to report that a transient had fired a gun at him and a friend near the river, near San Diego Mission Road and Caminito Yucatan. The victim said they were not hit and they ran to a safe location, Hernandez said. Advertisement A man who said his name was Tyler told OnScene TV that he and a friend had planned to go fishing in the river and came across a paddle boat from Santee Lakes. After pulling the boat to the shore using sticks, they were starting to climb into the boat when a transient started to yell and threaten them. We got this guy cussing at us, telling us hes going to kill us, and he pulls out what I want to say is a 45 millimeter black military handgun, cocks it and aims it right at us and (shot) at our feet, he said. We just turned around and started running. Tyler said the man fired into the water about three feet from them after telling them that we should get off his boat, that he was going to kill us. Police patrol units and a police helicopter converged on the area and searched the area for more than an hour. The suspect was described as white or Hispanic, in his late 20s or early 30s, between 5 feet 10 and 6 feet tall, with a medium build and facial hair. He was last seen wearing a black shirt and beige pants. After determining the man who had been detained was not involved, officers broke down their perimeter and ended the search, Hernandez said. Twitter: @karenkucher (619) 293-1350 karen.kucher@sduniontribune.com UPDATES: 11:45 a.m: This article was updated with additional details. 10:55 a.m.: This article was updated with additional details. 10:20 a.m.: This article was updated with additional details. This article was originally published at 10:05 a.m. Two masked gunmen held up a cellphone store in Lemon Grove on Tuesday, firing one shot during the robbery and forcing employees and customers into a backroom while they raided the business, authorities said. The brazen heist occurred about 12:20 p.m. at the AT&T store near where Federal Boulevard turns into Broadway, just south of an exit ramp from eastbound state Route 94, sheriffs Sgt. Jacob Klepach said. Both bandits wore masks and carried semi-automatic handguns as they ordered everyone in the store into a back room, according to Klepach. One shot was fired during the robbery, but no one was injured, the sergeant said in a statement. Advertisement A white Mitsubishi Galant driven by a third man was waiting for the robbers when they fled the store, Klepach said. The sedan was last seen headed toward SR-94, and only vague descriptions of the men were initially available. Anyone with information about the robbery was urged to call San Diego County Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477. Tipsters could be eligible for a reward up to $1,000 for information leading to an arrest in the case. Twitter: @Alex_Riggins (619) 293-1710 alex.riggins@sduniontribune.com Belt, Road spurs business links From:ChinaDaily | 2018-11-28 06:39 China and Spain will further enrich business ties in areas including high-end manufacturing, renewable energy sources, tourism and other service sectors over the long run thanks to developments brought about by the Belt and Road Initiative, officials and experts said. As both economies are proficient in exporting goods and providing services, China and Spain have been strong supporters of the multilateral trade system and investment growth and oppose trade protectionism, said Yu Jianlong, secretary-general of the China Chamber of International Commerce. "They have been defending external openness as a tool for progress, job creation and global economic recovery since 2008," he said. Trade between China and Spain amounted to $30.94 billion in 2017. China exports mainly raw materials, computers, telecommunications equipment, trucks, plastic and rubber products, textiles, garments and household appliances to Spain. Spain's shipments to China include agricultural products, chemical goods, water treatment and medical equipment, minerals, mechanical equipment, transport materials, fossil fuels and tobacco. The China-Europe cargo train from Yiwu, Zhejiang province, to Madrid has become an important bridge of Eurasian connectivity and one of the first outcomes of the Belt and Road Initiative, said Wei Jianguo, vice-chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges. "The initiative will generate a healthy impact on the regional economy and cultural exchanges related to the routes and provide more space for bilateral cooperation," he said. "To pursue high-quality development, both sides should further explore the potential for cooperation in fields such as high-tech agriculture, biomedicine, aviation and aerospace." About 15,000 Spanish companies export goods to China and over 600 of them, including Inditex, Santander Central Hispano and Repsol, have invested in the country in sectors such as energy, automotive, financial services, industrial technology, agricultural products and consumer goods. China is Spain's main trade and economic partner in Asia. Spain, as one of the eurozone's main economies, has become an attractive destination for China because of the opportunities it offers, as well as a developed platform for many countries and regions to boost the growth of the Belt and Road Initiative. Zhu Feng, dean of the Institute of International Relations of Nanjing University, said that for Spanish companies, the initiative offers a lucrative economic opportunity. Spain has been a supporter of the initiative since its initial participation. The country aims to act as one of the regional trading hubs between partner countries and regions committed to the initiative. "Moreover, the initiative will expand export markets for Spanish companies and offer opportunities to bid on construction projects in many parts of global markets," Zhu said. Those who knew local activist Mel Shapiro affectionately describe him as a cantankerous, gruff gadfly whose tenacious, fierce opposition to public corruption changed San Diego City Hall for the better. Shapiros sharp mind and his relentless, single-minded pursuit of public information, fairness and plain-dealing in local government earned him the respect of many across San Diegos political landscape, Shapiros friends and acquaintances told the San Diego Union-Tribune on Tuesday. He was kind of like the anchor of the people who were upset about the corruption at City Hall, said John McNab, another overseer of local government who knew Shapiro well. His legacy wasnt fighting for more transparency as much as he didnt like the hoteliers in town and how they were calling all the shots on all the development. Shapiro, who friends said had been ill for many months, died Monday in San Diego. He was 91. Advertisement Assemblyman Todd Gloria, D-San Diego, said in a statement that he was proud to count the University Heights activist among his constituents, and to have watched him in action at City Hall. San Diego lost a respected watchdog and great man in Mel Shapiro, Gloria said. No matter the issue, if Mel was involved, you knew it was something serious and that his only motivation was the public good. ... Without question, Mel changed city hall and city government for the good and that is his legacy. A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Shapiro made his living as a Wall Street accountant and investor before losing interest in high finance. After building his personal nest egg, Shapiro gave up the financial chase at 40 years of age. He retired and moved to San Diego in 1968. By the 1980s, he grew frustrated seeing more and more seniors on fixed incomes being priced out of their rental apartments. His concern sparked an interest in housing that would continue for the rest of his life. In 1987, he uncovered evidence that led to the firing of the Housing Commissioner at the time, Ben Montijo, according to a biography published this week on the website for the San Diego chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Shapiro invested tens of thousands of dollars of his own money in uphill battles he waged against policies he believed were harmful to the public trust, his friends told the Union-Tribune this week. He also was a frequent speaker at City Council meetings, said former San Diego City Councilwoman Donna Frye. He would come to make public comment, Frye said. He was not staying home and he was not going to be quiet. While most of Shapiros public advocacy took shape behind the scenes in City Hall and the court system, the community noticed his work and recognized it. In 2012, The San Diego Society of Professional Journalists honored Shapiro with its Sunshine Award for achievements in government transparency, according to the organizations website. He was also honored for his watchdog work in a city proclamation. Shapiro accepted the award in the office of the City of San Diego City Clerk, where he spent so much time collecting and inspecting public records. McNab, the civic activist who knew Shapiro, said his friend stood out among other activists, if only for his stubborn refusal to give up on losing battles when a cause he valued was at stake. He was above the rest of us because of his consistency and his efforts to make a difference, he said. When it came to caring about the people and how San Diego developed, theres absolutely nobody who sacrificed as much time and effort. Shapiro was an only child, one of his friends said Tuesday. He did not marry or have children. Another friend said a memorial was in the planning process. morgan.cook@sduniontribune.com Federal law enforcement officials said Tuesday that agents will continue to use tear gas or a less lethal force at the U.S.-Mexico border if they are attacked again by rocks or other means. They also said U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers did not target women and children during an incident Sunday afternoon, but if migrants huddling in Tijuana choose to insert themselves into a violent crowd thats attacking officers with rocks and bottles, they will be subject to retaliation. We are using the least intrusive tools that we possibly can, U.S. Customs and Border Protection San Diego Sector Chief Rodney Scott said during a press briefing in Washington D.C. The easiest way to avoid it is to comply with the law, go to the port of entry. 1 / 18 U.S. Border Patrol deploy CS gas on migrants refusing to step away from the Concertina wire set up along the U.S. Mexico border near San Ysidro. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 2 / 18 One man makes a stand as U.S. Border Patrol deploy CS 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) 3 / 18 Migrants with the Central American caravan breach police line set up by the Mexico Federal Police, then access to the flood channel where they crossed to the north side of the flood channel. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 4 / 18 U.S. Border Patrol gives instructions to migrants near the U.S. Mexico border to step away. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 5 / 18 Migrants make it across the flood channel on Sunday and up to the bollard fence in San Ysidro. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 6 / 18 U.S. Border Patrol deploy CS gas on migrants refusing to step away from the Concertina wire set up along the U.S. Mexico border near San Ysidro. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 7 / 18 Migrants with the Central American migrant caravan breach the police line set up by the Mexico Federal Police and then access the flood channel where they crossed to the north side gaining access to the bollard fence behind the outlet shopping center in San Ysidro. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 8 / 18 Migrants left the temporary shelter set up at the Benito Juarez to take part in protest march heading for the U.S. Mexico border on Sunday. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 9 / 18 Migrants with the Central American migrant caravan breach the police line set up by the Mexico Federal Police and then accessed the flood channel where they crossed to the north side gaining access to the bollard fence behind the outlet shopping center in San Ysidro. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 10 / 18 Migrants with the Central American caravan breach police line set up by the Mexico Federal Police, then try to access the San Ysidro Port of Entry. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 11 / 18 Migrants make it across the flood channel on Sunday after the group breached the police line in Tijuana. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 12 / 18 U.S. Border Patrol prepare to deploy CS gas on migrants refusing to step away from the Concertina wire set up along the U.S. Mexico border. Earlier migrants from the Central America migrant caravan held a protest and eventually broke through the police line which led to access to the U.S. Mexico border fence in San Ysidro. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 13 / 18 U.S. Border Patrol observes migrants on the U.S. Mexico border near San Ysidro. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 14 / 18 U.S. Border Patrol deploy CS gas on migrants refusing to step away from the Concertina wire set up along the U.S. Mexico border. Earlier migrants from the Central America migrant caravan held a protest and eventually broke through the police line which led to access to the U.S. Mexico border fence in San Ysidro. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 15 / 18 U.S. Border Patrol looks on at migrants near the U.S. Mexico border near San Ysidro. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 16 / 18 Migrants with the Central American migrant caravan earlier breached the police line set up by the Mexico Federal Police and then accessed the flood channel where they crossed to the north side gaining access to the bollard fence behind the outlet shopping center in San Ysidro. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 17 / 18 Migrants with the Central American caravan breach the police line set up by the Mexico Federal Police and then access the flood channel where they crossed to the north side gaining access to the bollard fence behind the outlet shopping center in San Ysidro. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 18 / 18 Migrants with the Central American caravan breach police line set up by the Mexico Federal Police, then try to access the San Ysidro Port of Entry. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) Advertisement U.S. border agents deployed multiple canisters of what has now been identified as CS gas or tear gas Sunday when crowds of Central Americans seeking asylum in the United States rushed a portion of the border fence between San Diego and Tijuana. Scott noted that CS gas is an irritant that does not cause permanent effects. White clouds of gas helped repel the onrushing migrants, but photographs of anguished women and children desperate to escape the fumes sparked outrage across the country. Firing tear gas at men, women and children seeking asylum is a human rights violation, Mary Meg McCarthy of the National Immigrant Justice Center said in a statement. NIJC urges Americans to call members of Congress and demand they speak out to oppose this unconscionable act of force by the U.S. Government. Scott, who was at the border crossing during the melee on Sunday, described a chaotic scene where agents faced off against a group of at least 50 migrants, mostly men, pelting them with a hail of rocks and surging the fence. My agents responded to an immediate and direct threat to their safety, Scott said, adding, We tried as best we could to target the instigators but these were large, moving crowds and it was difficult. Scott said the gas would not cause permanent damage to those who were exposed. I inhaled a significant amount of it on my own that day just by being in the area, he said. But Cristina Barrios, who traveled with the Central American caravan from Guatemala to Tijuana with her 12-year-old daughter in search of work and personal safety, was in a group of 10 or 12 people when U.S. officers began shooting canisters across the border. One of the cans landed by her feet, and her daughter remains traumatized from the exposure. We fear for children, Barrios said in Spanish. The girl since yesterday does not stop vomiting, she has diarrhea, part of her body is splashed with rashes. Advocacy groups said the U.S. government should not be using tear gas on people seeking help. This is an unacceptable escalation of violence against people who are seeking asylum, said Hiram Soto of Alliance San Diego, a community organization that promotes equality and social justice. People forget that these are folks who want to turn themselves in. Clara Long, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, said governments may only use chemical agents in specific circumstances. Under human rights laws, the lodestar is: Was it necessary and was it proportionate? she said. The Department of Homeland Security has a responsibility to ensure that its use of force is proportionate and necessary. Long said U.S. officials may have had another reason to deploy the gas. Part of their interest here is to stop people from putting even a foot on U.S. soil, where their right to seek asylum attaches, she said. Sunday was not the first time U.S. border agents deployed tear gas to confront migrants attempting to enter the country illegally. Five years ago, on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, a group of 100 or so migrants approached a lone U.S. Border Patrol agent stationed just northwest of the San Ysidro border crossing. As the crowd advanced, some throwing rocks and bottles, more agents arrived and fired several rounds of pepper spray. While attacks on Border Patrol agents are not uncommon, the agents showed great restraint when faced with the dangers of this unusually large group and fortunately no one was seriously injured, Border Patrol sector chief Paul Beeson said at the time. U.S. officials have downplayed the effect of the tear gas in the wake of the incident Sunday. President Trump himself called the gas very safe and a very minor form of the gas. Yet the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the international group established to implement the Chemical Weapons Conventions adopted by almost 200 countries in the 1990s, classifies pepper spray and tear gas as chemical agents that can cause serious health effects. According to the organization, both are riot-control agents that can be dispersed in liquid or aerosol spray. They are typically absorbed through the lungs, skin and eyes, causing tears, coughing and irritation to eyes, nose, mouth and skin. It can also restrict airways. The U.S. Transportation Security Administration banned pepper spray from airplane flights because of the danger it presents to the public when dispersed in controlled environments, like an airplane. In the late 1980s, an investigation by the U.S. General Accounting Office found the improper use of tear gas could result in fatalities when used in enclosed spaces or aimed directly into crowds, although the medical evidence was inconclusive. When tear gas is used properly, the risk of death diminishes significantly, the 1989 report stated. Following the use of tear gas Sunday, U.S. border agents apprehended 42 migrants who illegally crossed the border, including a handful of women and children, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Hundreds more made it through a dilapidated fence but were forced back into Mexico, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security reported. A spokesman referred questions about whether any of the migrants were charged with a crime to the Justice Department. After Sundays confrontation, some Central American migrants in the caravan agreed to return home. Scott, the Customs and Border Protection San Diego sector chief, said he hopes more do so in the coming days so the situation on the border stabilizes. People with legitimate asylum claims should still present themselves at crossings as is their right under U.S. law Scott said, but economic migrants who have been led to believe they can force their way into the country should know that is not possible. We are doing the best we can to get factual information to these migrants about what to expect at the border, Scott said. Were hoping this calms down and people realize they have been sold a bad bill of goods. There are about 8,000 Central American migrants in the Mexican state of Baja California Norte; roughly 6,800 in Tijuana and 1,200 in Mexicali, according to state numbers. On the press call, Scott said that about 8,000 migrants remained in Tijuana and 2,000 were in Mexicali. Homeland Security officials have said they identified at least 600 criminals among the caravan, but its not clear what information thats based on. Department of Homeland Security Press Secretary Tyler Houlton on Tuesday cited intelligence sources that could not be publicly released. Staff writer Sandra Dibble and Los Angeles Times reporter Molly Hennessy-Fiske contributed to this report. jeff.mcdonald@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1708 @sdutMcDonald The troubled Espola Road utility line undergrounding project has hit more snags. Work on the projects first phase, the construction of a 6-foot-wide western-side pedestrian pathway from Mountain Road to Willow Ranch Road, has fallen significantly behind schedule with the discovery of underground obstacles such as previously-unknown private pipelines, said City Manager Tina White. In some cases, the discoveries are requiring the preparation of revised construction documents, she said. We understand. People are frustrated and they dont see any work, White said. We knew some of this was going to come up. Its a funky area. Employees of the pathways contractor, Just Construction, have found pipes coming through footings of existing walls, private irrigation lines and water meters that are in the way, White said. Meanwhile, the start of construction by a San Diego Gas & Electric Co.-selected undergrounding contractor, which White said the city was expecting several months ago, is now planned for some time in January. The delay is being attributed to the selected contractor completing projects elsewhere before starting in Poway, she said. The utility has told the city it will begin work at the southern end of the project area, which extends from Mountain Road to Northcrest Lane. These new developments follow a disclosure in June that the consultant hired to prepare plans skipped a few details which were not caught by a former city employee. As a result, some of the needed retaining walls and materials estimates had to be changed, adding about $877,000 to the projects cost. The money came from the $5.1 million projects contingency account. The pathway work has also caused morning commute traffic snarls. There are two parts to the undergrounding project. The first undergrounding district will encompass 2,000 lineal feet. It will cost $1.9 million and will be paid for through the citys allocation of 20A fees collected by SDG&E. The second undergrounding district involves 2,200 lineal feet and will cost about $2.6 million. It will be paid for through general fund reserves. White said the city made its payment to SDG&E in May. Construction was supposed to start last year, but the project got snagged due to delays in multi-utility company planning and in the city acquiring needed construction easements, according to city officials. SDG&E, AT&T and Cox Communications are involved in project. Once the work begins, it is now projected to take 15 months to complete. Delays in the construction of the pathway have generated complaints to City Hall, White said, especially from drivers coping with backups. They are understandably frustrated, she said. As to the residents living along Espola Road, the city manager said most have been delightful to work with and very understanding. Email: editor@pomeradonews.com San Diegos delegation in the California Assembly may gain one more Democratic member yet. After leading by more than 7,000 votes the day after the election, incumbent Republican Assemblyman Brian Maienschein has seen his lead over Democrat Sunday Gover plummet to just 864 votes following an update in the vote count this week. The latest update marked the largest single gain for Gover since counting began, and puts her within striking distance to unseat the three-term incumbent. There are 47,000 ballots still uncounted countywide an unknown amount of which reside in the 77th District. Advertisement Neither Maienschein nor Gover responded to requests for comment on Tuesday. Given how close the race is and the unknown amount ballots outstanding specifically in District 77, it appears increasingly likely that the winner will not be known until results are certified by the registrar of voters next week. Even after certification, a recount may be possible. Any voter can request a recount within five days of certification, which would occur at the requesters own personal expense if it does not change the outcome of the race. Although Gover made a sizable leap in the most recent update, it remains unclear if there are enough outstanding ballots for her to surpass the incumbent. But she has been catching up steadily. Gover gained hundreds of votes on Maeinschein in.most every additional count since Election Day, although Maienscheins lead did ioncrease by 12 votes following one update some two weeks ago. Possibly working in Govers favor is the fact that many of the outstanding ballots countywide are provisional ballots, which tend to favor Democrats. However, it is unknown how many provisional ballots were cast in the north San Diego district. If Gover eventually prevails over Maienschein, it will be another boon for Democrats in a year in which Republicans have had difficulty winning support across the state. Californians chose Democrats for at least 45 of the states 53 congressional seats with one race outstanding. And in the state legislature, Democrats are on pace to control 29 of 40 Senate seats, and at least 60 of 80 Assembly seats. The next update to the count is scheduled Friday. San Diego County Registrar of Voters Michael Vu said the office will certify election results on Dec. 6. Re Border crisis needs thoughtful response (Nov. 27): Since Tuesdays U-T used both Steve Breens political cartoon and the editorial to shine a light on the use of tear gas to halt the progress of migrants trying to storm the border, it would have been appropriate to read that using tear gas is not unprecedented even though the Democrats criticized the federal agents for using this resource. What would have been appropriate is if either Breen or the editorial author had pointed out, according to Homeland Services data listed in the Washington Times, the Obama administration had used tear gas at the border for this same reason 26 times in 2012; 27 times in 2013; and 3 times in 2016. Unless you want to appear as a totally liberal news source, a little balance in reporting would be appreciated. Elaine Holloway Advertisement El Cajon Breens biased tear gas cartoon elicits criticism Steve Breens cartoon (Editorial page, Nov. 27) alleging tear gas use against a small portion of the migrant caravan is extreme to centrist Americans is ludicrous, knowing these young men initiated violence against the Border Patrol, and in all likeliness used children as human shields. Eye-witness reports overwhelmingly confirm women, children and families are a very small minority of the caravan, that young, single adult men are the vast majority, about 90 percent. There are many confirmed reports of abuse of women and children by these young men throughout the trek and violent attacks consistently initiated against Mexican law enforcement, besides American. Breens outrage should be against lawless billionaires who financed the human trafficking of these caravans as pawns to try to overwhelm the borders of our sovereign nation, but care neither about their safety and well-being nor the rule of law. Bob Chang Chula Vista 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. Chinese Gene-edited babies cast doubt By:Zheng Qian | From:english.eastday.com | 2018-11-28 09:18 Scientists and bioethics experts reacted with shock, anger and alarm Monday to a Chinese researcher's claim of the world's first genetically edited babies. A video posted on YouTube by university professor He Jiankui said the twin girls, born a few weeks ago, had had their DNA altered to prevent them from contracting HIV. According to He, the twins DNA was modified using CRISPR, a technique which allows scientists to remove and replace a DNA strand with pinpoint precision. However, once the achievement was announced, it generated a barrage of criticism. 'Highly treatable' Dr Dusko Ilic, an expert in stem cell science at King's College London argues that HIV is highly treatable and that if the infection is kept under control with drugs, then there is almost no risk of the parents passing it on to the baby anyway. Too risky Prof Julian Savulescu, an expert in ethics at the University of Oxford, said,"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 experiment exposes healthy normal children to risks of gene editing for no real necessary benefit." Scientists say baby gene editing may one day be justifiable, but that more checks and measures are needed before allowing it. While leading scientists feel the procedure is negligent, members of the public largely see gene editing as positive. A research team at Sun Yat-sen University in south Chinas Guangdong province released the first domestic comparative report on gene editorial cognition for the general public and HIV carriers. Sixty percent of respondents were positive about the use of gene editing technology. According to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in the United States in April 2018 for 2,537 American adults, 60% of Americans support genetic editing of unborn babies, arguing that genetic editing is effective in reducing the risk of serious illness. Up to now, several organizations, including a hospital, linked to the claim have denied any involvement in the event. The Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen said it had been unaware of the research project and will now launch an investigation. Chinas National Health Commission has also ordered an immediate investigation into the case. According to He Jiankui's plan, 18-year-long follow-up visits will be carried out for further observation and testing. New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 11/27/2018 -- A new market assessment report on Automotive Piston market provides a comprehensive overview of Automotive Piston industry for the forecast period 2018 - 2025. The analytical study is proposed to provide immense clarity on the market size, share and growth rate across different regions. The profound knowledge and extensive examination of the trends from the yesteryear and future aims at offering the stakeholders, product owners, and marketing personnel a competitive edge over others operating in the Automotive Piston market for the forecast period, 2018 - 2025. Scope of the Report: This industry assessment for the forecast period, 2018 - 2025 incorporates projections pertaining to the investment feasibility, gross margin, profits, consumption volume, production capability and major market vendors. Likewise, statistics associated with the competitive landscape, shifting consumer behaviour and spending power is showcased and well-explained with the help of treasured resources such as charts, graphs and graphic images, which can be easily incorporated in the business or corporate presentations. Request for Sample Copy of Automotive Piston Market Report @ https://www.marketexpertz.com/sample-enquiry-form/11909 Estimating the potential size of the Automotive Piston industry Industry experts conducting the study further estimate the potential of the Automotive Piston industry. Such information is important for firms looking to launch an innovative service or product on the market. Industry experts have measured the total volume of the given market. Researchers have calculated the industry in terms of sales by the competitors and end-user customers. Data on the entire size of the Automotive Piston market for a particular product or a service for the forecast period, 2018 to 2025 covered in the report makes it valuable. This information reveals the upper limit of the Automotive Piston industry for a specific product or service. Exploring growth rate over a period Business owners looking to scale up their business can refer this report that contains data regarding the rise in sales within a given consumer base for the forecast period, 2018 to 2025. Product owners can use this information along with the driving factors such as demographics and revenue generated from other products discussed in the report to get a better analysis of their products and services. Besides, the research analysts have compared the market growth rate with the product sales to enable business owners to determine the success or failure of a specific product or service. Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report covers: - Rheinmetall Automotive - Wiseco - MAHLE Group - Federal-Mogul Corporation - Aisin Seiki - KS Kolbenschmidt US - TIK Piston Taiwan - Menon Piston Market Segment On the basis of Product, Report covers: - Automotive Aluminum Piston - Automotive Steel Piston Buy Automotive Piston Market Report@ https://www.marketexpertz.com/checkout-form/11909 Market Segment On the basis of Application, Report covers: - Passenger Cars - Commercial Vehicles Subject matter experts conducting the study also take a closer look at the products at their development stage and in the pipeline to help business owners conclude on the business strategies that can lower their cost and promise great returns or profits. Strong emphasis on new launches, acquisition and mergers, collaboration, import and export status and supply chain management empowers the business evangelists, manufacturers and business owners build a robust strategy when it comes to making an investment. Grow with the trend The Automotive Piston helps product owners learn how certain trends will shape the growth of the Automotive Piston industry over a long term. The study closely looks at the historical price pattern of various products and services and empowers entrepreneurs to form the right opinion about the future trends. Accordingly, business owners will be able to decide their course of action and make a wise decision. The research provides answers to the following key questions: - What is the estimated growth rate and market share and size of the Automotive Piston market for the forecast period 2018 - 2025? - What are the driving forces in the Automotive Piston market for the forecast period 2018 - 2025? - Who are the prominent market players and how have they gained a competitive edge over other competitors? - What are the market trends influencing the progress of the Automotive Piston industry worldwide? - What are the major challenges and threats restricting the progress of the industry? - What opportunities does the market hold for the prominent market players? There are 16 Chapters to deeply display the Automotive Piston market. Chapter 1 covers the Automotive Piston Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force; Chapter 2 talks about the top manufacturers and analyses their sales, revenue and pricing decisions for the duration 2018 and 2025; Chapter 3 displays the competitive nature of the market by discussing the competition among the top manufacturers. It dissects the market using sales, revenue and market share data for 2018 and 2025; Chapter 4, shows the global market by regions and the proportionate size of each market region based on sales, revenue and market share of Automotive Piston, for the period 2018- 2025; Continue Read More @ https://www.marketexpertz.com/industry-overview/automotive-piston-market About MarketExpertz Planning to invest in market intelligence products or offerings on the web? Then marketexpertz has just the thing for you - reports from over 500 prominent publishers and updates on our collection daily to empower companies and individuals catch-up with the vital insights on industries operating across different geography, trends, share, size and growth rate. There's more to what we offer to our customers. With marketexpertz you have the choice to tap into the specialized services without any additional charges. Contact Us: John Watson Head of Business Development Market Expertz | Web: www.marketexpertz.com Direct Line: +1-800-819-3052 E-mail: sales@marketexpertz.com News: https://www.marketexpertz.com/market-news San Francisco, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 11/28/2018 -- Customer Information System Market: Overview Customer information and billing system is at the core of most organizations, however for the electric utility sector, changes in the market condition, the emergence of distributed channels, and smart grid advancements, and in addition efficiency in energy and deregulation, have joined to put more strains on heritage systems. Moreover, utilities' rising requirements for powerful customer commitment and the need for integration of digital platform with CIS for example, web-based interfaces, cell phones, utilities, and social media is experiencing a flood of demands regarding customer information system (CIS). Request Sample Copy of the Report @ https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=4227 Customer information system assist the utility segment to improve the effectiveness of gas, electric, and water. The CIS segment comprises of revenue produced from independent CIS-as-a-service (Pay-as-you-go) and CIS standalone modality. Utility sellers either deliver independent CIS software or buy in for the CIS-as-a-service as per their prerequisites. CIS solutions assist players by overseeing a huge number of customers' records and bills each month. It streamlines and robotizes manual tasks of the firms to increase the effectiveness and decrease human errors with the help of automation. Customer Information System Market: Trends & Opportunities The major factors responsible for the demand in global customer information system market are initiatives taken for smart cities, overall utility consumption, and advent of cloud technology and IOT. CIS usage administrations help companies for the effective execution of CIS by monitoring the usage designs given by specialists. These main service providers additionally deal with design and documentation analysis, communication plans, deployment, and development. Usage administrations guarantee the joining of customer information into the new CIS system reliably. CIS sellers furnish these services either with the assistance of in-house benefit group or outsider merchants. Customer Information System Market: Market Potential TMG Consulting today reported it has gone into a tie-up with Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW) to instruct the utility through its choice regarding their substitution customer information and charging system (CIS). Request TOC of the Report @ https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=4227 As a major part of the treaty, TMG Consulting will support PGW, the biggest municipally-possessed gas utility in the U.S., with the obtainment of a mobile workforce management (MWM) system, customer information system (CIS), an advanced customer self-benefit portal, and the associated system integrator. The new CIS arrangement will supplant PGW's legacy. Customer Information System Market: Regional Outlook The customer information system market for new CISs has not developed especially in past years. It may not develop with its full pace in coming years in the mature regions for example, North America and Western Europe. Utility main concerns are, in various cases risk-averseness and restricted among administration is high. The Americas is the leading market for CIS solutions and dynamic region regarding adoption of technology. The Americas includes Latin America and North America. North America represents the most astounding market share in the CIS market. North American nations have been broadly executing CIS, because of the increasing utilization of energy, government activities, and network modernizations venture. Customer Information System Market: Competitive Landscape Major palyers in the global customer information system market are SAP (Germany), Oracle (US), Itineris (Belgium), Fluentgrid (India), Hansen (Australia), Open International (US), Milestone Utility Services (US), Gentrack (New Zealand), Cayenta (British Columbia), Engineering (Lazio), Advanced Utility Systems (Canada), Indra (Spain), NorthStar Utilities (Canada), Ferranti (Belgium), Vertexone (US), Wipro (India), IBM (US), Agility CIS (New Zealand), ATS (US), Avertra (US), Cogsdale (Canada), EG (Denmark), FATHOM (US), Hydro-Comp (Cyprus), and efluid (France). Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @ https://www.tmrresearch.com/customer-information-system-market About TMR Research TMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in today's supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients' conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends. Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 11/27/2018 -- Summary Latest Report "Tourism Board Marketing Index", measures the marketing efforts of 100 tourism boards around the world. The Tourism Board Marketing Index provides an insight into the individual marketing performance of different tourist boards. To compile the rankings, a host of direct and indirect indicators are taken into consideration such as the effectiveness of marketing to attract tourists, the ratio of social media followers to international arrivals and the quality of the design of tourism boards' webpages. The report includes both regional and global rankings that assist stakeholders in the industry to rate the effectiveness of different marketing strategies. Get a Sample PDF at: https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1350237 Scope - The tourist board of New Zealand is ranked first in the world in terms of marketing performance, followed by the one of the United Aarab Emirates and Mauritius. - Ten out of the top 25 ranking tourist boards in the world are European. Reasons to buy - The report is an effective tool for policymakers and businesses to assess the performance of the marketing campaigns of tourist boards across the globe. - The index breaks down the marketing performance of tourist boards into different factors, providing an insight into potential areas of improvement. - Both the regional and global rankings allow for cross-country comparisons, enabling the reader to identify the best-practices in the field, and hence strengthen or alternate their marketing efforts accordingly. Table of Contents Methodology World Outlook Global Top 25 Ranking Asia-Pacific Europe Middle East & Africa The Americas Successful Marketing Campaigns Disclaimer Get Complete TOC With Tables and Figures @ https://www.researchmoz.us/tourism-board-marketing-index-report.html/toc About ResearchMoz ResearchMoz is the world's fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMoz's service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators. Contact Us: Mr. Nachiket Albany NY - 12207 United States Tel: +1-518-621-2074 Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free) Email: sales@researchmoz.us Kathmandu, November 28 Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi are arriving in Kathmandu on Thursday on their official visits to Nepal. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs says both are coming at the invitation of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli. The Ministry says both of the guests will pay courtesy calls on President Bidya Devi Bhandari and hold bilateral meetings with Prime Minister Oli. Likewise, Foreign Affairs Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali will hold separate meetings with them. Both the guests are coming to Nepal for the first time. The leaders are scheduled to return to their home countries on Friday. Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 11/28/2018 -- Shockwave lithotripsy is a non-invasive procedure of breaking kidney stones that are too large to pass through the urinary tract. The procedure is also known as extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy. This procedure is used for treating stones in the ureter as well the bladder. The device used for this treatment is known as lithotripter. In shockwave lithotripsy, a series of shockwaves is subjected to the targeted stones. Stones are first detected by fluoroscopy or the ultrasound method. The lithotripter then generates shockwaves outside the body, which are passed through the body until they hit stones in the kidneys or the urinary tract. As a result of an impact of these shockwaves, pulverization of stones takes place. Large stones are thus broken down into smaller pieces that can easily pass through the urinary tract and are removed from the body through urine. Generally, 30 to 60 minutes are required for completion of this medical procedure. Report Overview @ https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/lithotripters-market.html Shockwave lithotripsy was introduced in the early 1980s and since then, it has revolutionized the treatment of kidney stones. Major surgeries are no longer required for the treatment of kidney stones. Kidney stones can be treated with this non-invasive technique using a lithotripter. This procedure has several advantages over traditional surgical procedures including better surgical outcomes, less scaring, reduced chances of infection, and minimized procedure time. Moreover, this procedure is cost-effective and thus, people from developing countries are able to afford it. This, in turn, results in the rise in sales of lithotripters. These advantages promote growth of the global lithotripters market. Increasing incidence of urolithiasis is one of the key drivers for the global lithotripters market. Urolithiasis is a very common urological disorder with high incidence rate in developing countries in Asia Pacific. Several factors such as low consumption of water, weight loss surgeries, lack of exercise, digestive system diseases, and increase in salt intake can cause urolithiasis. Also, low procedure cost and rise in the use of shockwave lithotripsy procedures are likely to fuel the global lithotripters market during the forecast period. However, the procedure is not useful to treat all kinds of kidney stones and certain complications associated with the procedure may restrain the market. Request Brochure @ https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=32324 The global lithotripters market has been segmented based on product and region. In terms of product, the market has been categorized into extracorporeal shockwave lithotripters (ESWL) and intracorporeal shockwave lithotripters (ISWL). The ESWL segment is expected to dominate the market during the forecast period. Technological advancements in lithotripsy have boosted the global lithotripters market. Currently, third-generation lithotripters with advanced technologies are being manufactured for achieving more efficacy of the procedure. In terms of geography, the global lithotripters market has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America dominates the global market due to developed infrastructure and scientific and technological advancements in the region. APAC is a highly lucrative market for lithotripters, owing to high prevalence of kidney stones and improved health care services in the region. Government initiatives for the development of health care infrastructure in the region enable people in Asia Pacific to gain access to advanced techniques such as MI procedures. Countries in Eastern Europe such as Hungary and Poland and countries in Latin America such as Mexico and Brazil are also projected to offer opportunities for growth of the lithotripters market during the forecast period. Request for TOC @ https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=T&rep_id=32324 Key players in the global lithotripters market include Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc., Allengers, KARL STORZ GmbH & Co. KG, Cook Medical, Boston Scientific Corporation, and Convergent Laser Technologies. About Transparency Market Research Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMR's experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge. Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMR's syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement. Contact 90 State Street, Suite 700 Albany, NY 12207 Tel: +1-518-618-1030 USA Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453 Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.com Website: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 11/27/2018 -- Global consumption of sodium metal will grow at a sluggish CAGR of 3.3% through 2024, according to Persistence Market Research's report entitled, "Sodium Metal Market: Global Industry Analysis and Forecast, 2016 - 2024." In 2016, over 98,400 MT sodium metal was consumed globally, and it is estimated to surpass 127,400 MT by 2024. The sluggish demand for sodium metal is attributed to hazardous effects of highly reactive sodium element. Challenges with handling and storage of sodium metal will continue to negatively impact the growth of the market. Further, limited availability of sodium metal on account of fewer players has resulted into introduction and use of alternatives, such as magnesium for use in industrial applications. Request Report Sample@ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/14854 Key players in this market are concentrating on expansion of their production capacities and making long-term contacts with end-use industries, especially in near proximity, to incur growth opportunities. Manufacturers are also focusing on introduction to new grades of application-specific sodium metal. Inner Mongolia Lantai Industrial Co. Ltd. held the highest volume market share in 2015. Other leading players in the global sodium metal market include Wanji Holdings Group Limited, Shandong Moris Tech Co. Ltd., and MSSA S.A.S. In terms of volume, chemical synthesis application of sodium metal held 70.4% share of the market in 2016; by 2024, this is expected to reach nearly 72%. Sodium metal is also used in the production of dyes, and it is projected that this application segment will grow at 4.7% CAGR in terms of volume through 2024. The weakness in demand will be offset to a certain extent by applications in chemical synthesis and textile industry. APAC is projected to be the most lucrative region for the global sodium metal market followed by North America and Europe. Asia Pacific forms a hub for textile industries owing to the ever-growing population and demand for a wide range of textiles, resulting in steady demand for sodium metal. Over 53,690 MT of sodium metal was consumed in APAC in 2016. The North America sodium metal market was around US$ 60 Mn in 2016, and it is expected to reach around US$ 80 Mn by 2024. Consumption of sodium metal in Europe, pegged at over 19,700 MT in 2016, is expected to surpass 24,200 MT by 2024. Visit For TOC@ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/methodology/14854 Key Market Drivers and Trends The demand for denim clothing has witnessed a robust growth in the recent past resulting in higher demand for sodium metal for textiles and apparels Sodium metal forms a key constituent in the manufacturing of indigo dyes Steady growth in global biodiesel production is one of the primary driving factors as sodium methylate is widely used as a catalyst for large-scale biodiesel production Application of sodium metal as a reductant in metals manufacturing and refining Global sodium market is characterized by competitive oligopoly, wherein few manufacturers hold major shares in the overall market supply Deep in the Ecuadorian Amazon, a newly-identified species of the parasitoid wasp genus Zatypota transforms Anelosimus eximius, one of only about 25 species of social spiders worldwide, into a zombie-like drone that abandons its colony to do the wasps bidding. Wasps manipulating the behavior of spiders has been observed before, but not at a level as complex as this, said University of British Columbia researcher Philippe Fernandez-Fournier. Not only is this wasp targeting a social species of spider but its making it leave its colony, which it rarely does. Fernandez-Fournier was in Ecuador studying different kinds of parasites that live in the nests of a species of social spider called Anelosimus eximius. These spiders are notable for living together in large colonies, cooperating on prey capture, sharing parental duties and rarely straying from their basket-shaped nests. When the scientist noticed that some of the spiders were infected with a parasitic larva and spotted them wandering a foot or two away from their colonies to spin enclosed webs of densely spun silk and bits of foliage, he was puzzled. Intrigued, he carefully took a few of the structures, known as cocoon webs back to his lab to see what would emerge from the depths. To his surprise, it was a parasitoid wasp species of the Zatypota genus. These wasps are very elegant looking and graceful. But then they do the most brutal thing, said Samantha Straus, PhD student at the University of British Columbia. Using data gathered in Ecuador, the researchers began to piece together the life cycle of the wasp and its parasitic relationship to the spider. What we found was equal parts fascinating and horrifying: after an adult female wasp lays an egg on the abdomen of a spider, the larva hatches and attaches itself to its hapless arachnid host, they said. It then presumably feeds on the spiders blood-like hemolymph, growing larger and slowly taking over its body. The now zombified spider exits the colony and spins a cocoon for the larva before patiently waiting to be killed and consumed. After feasting on the spider, the larva enters its protected cocoon, emerging fully formed nine to eleven days later. In other similar instances of parasitism, wasps are known to target solitary species of spiders like orb weavers and manipulate them into behaviors that are within their normal repertoire. The wasp completely hijacks the spiders behavior and brain and makes it do something it would never do, like leave its nest and spinning a completely different structure. Thats very dangerous for these tiny spiders, Straus said. Its not known how the wasps do this, the team believes it may be caused by an injection of hormones that make the spider think its in a different life-stage or cause it to disperse from the colony. We think the wasps are targeting these social spiders because it provides a large, stable host colony and food source, Straus said. We also found that the larger the spider colony, the more likely it was that these wasps would target it. The discovery is described in a paper published in the journal Ecological Entomology. _____ Philippe Fernandez-Fournier et al. Behavioural modification of a social spider by a parasitoid wasp. Ecological Entomology, published online November 4, 2018; doi: 10.1111/een.12698 For a long time it was believed that a giant rhinoceros called Elasmotherium sibericum went extinct around 200,000 years ago well before the Quaternary megafaunal extinction event, which saw the end of the woolly mammoth, Irish elk and saber-toothed cat. Now improved dating of fossils suggests that the species survived in Eastern Europe and Central Asia until at least 39,000 years ago, overlapping in time with the existence of early modern humans. Today there are just five surviving rhinoceros species, although in the past there have been as many as 250 species at different times. Weighing up to 3.5 tons, Elasmotherium sibericum also known as the Siberian unicorn, due to its extraordinary single horn was undoubtedly one of the most impressive. It has long been assumed that this ancient creature went extinct well before the Ice Age. However, a new study challenges the date of this species demise. This megafaunal extinction event didnt really get going until about 40,000 years ago, said study senior author Professor Adrian Lister, a researcher in the Department of Earth Sciences at the Natural History Museum, London, UK. So Elasmotherium sibericum with its apparent extinction date of 100,000 years ago or more has not been considered as part of that same event. We dated a few specimens and to our surprise they came in at less than 40,000 years old. The radiocarbon dating results show that Elasmotherium sibericum survived until at least 39,000 years ago, and possibly as late as 35,000 years ago. Further study revealed more about the giant rhinoceros biology and possible behavior. Professor Lister and co-authors studied the stable isotope ratios in the species teeth, which involved looking at the levels of different carbon and nitrogen isotopes and then comparing them to different plants, allowing them to determine what the animals were eating. The results confirm that Elasmotherium sibericum was most likely grazing on tough, dry grasses. Elasmotherium sibericums final days were shared with early modern humans and Neanderthals, the researchers said. It is, however, unlikely that the presence of humans was the cause of extinction. Instead it is more probable that dramatic fluctuations in climate during this time period, coupled with the specialized grazing lifestyle and the rhinos naturally low population numbers pushed the species to the edge. The researchers were also able to extract DNA from some of the fossil. This helped to settle a debate about where Elasmotherium sibericum, along with all other members of the genus Elasmotherium, fit on the rhino evolutionary tree. The ancient group split from the modern group of rhinos roughly 43 million years ago making Elasmotherium sibericum the last species of a highly distinctive and ancient linage, the study authors said. The research appears in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution. _____ Pavel Kosintsev et al. Evolution and extinction of the giant rhinoceros Elasmotherium sibiricum sheds light on late Quaternary megafaunal extinctions. Nature Ecology & Evolution, published online November 26, 2018; doi: 10.1038/s41559-018-0722-0 Kathmandu, November 28 One of the two chairpersons of ruling Nepal Communist Party, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, has expressed his frustration over the party leaderships failure to hold regular meetings of various key committees on time. When 22 leaders of the party, who have been demanding timely meetings to settle various pending issues related to the unification of former UML and Maoist Centre, requested Dahal to take the initiative to meet the demand, the former prime minister said things were not going on as he had expected. During the meeting held on Tuesday, Dahal looked apparently dissatisfied, according to an attendee of the meeting. Your demands and complaints are genuine. The next meeting will discuss these issues, Dahal told the leaders, But, the meeting has not been held, maybe because the prime minister busy. Earlier, the meeting of the party Secretariat called for Monday was postponed for Tuesday. It could not take place yesterday as well. Sources say the meeting has been rescheduled for 4 pm today. But, it is not certain yet. Major Nepali and English broadsheet dailies published from Kathmandu on Wednesday have given the top priority to the governments announcement of new social security plan announced by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Tuesday. Many newspapers have also published reports about comments made by stakeholders including representatives of employers and workers about the new plan. Meanwhile, the government is preparing to introduce a new law to regulate the sale and use of alcohol. Kantipur and The Himalayan Times have published lead stories on the issue, claiming it will propose strict provisions and see a protest from businesses. The inclusion of Deepak Raj Joshee among nominees for the new Chief Justice has also received significant attention from major broadsheet dailies published from Kathmandu today. Important Govt prepares to control sale and use of liquor The new law will allow hotels, lodges, bars and restaurants to sell and serve liquor from 5 pm to 10 pm only whereas the government will ban the use of alcohols at all kinds of public events and gatherings, Kantipur reports. The Himalayan Times adds that the law will allow only two liquor stores in a municipal ward whereas liquor producers will be barred from advertising their products in media or through hoarding boards and posters. The Ministry of Home Affairs has already submitted the draft of executive order to the Cabinet for approval, Kantipur informs. Foreign dignitaries arrival likely to throw Kathmandu traffic management into shambles The Himalayan Times informs in a four column story that Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and Myanmars State Counsellor and Minister of Foreign Affairs Aung San Suu Kyi will arrive on an official goodwill visit to Nepal on Thursday. Meanwhile, the visit is likely to affect the capitals traffic management to ensure security to the VVIP guests. Therefore, the government has urged motorists of the Kathmandu Valley to adopt odd-even rule from Thursday to Sunday, according to newspaper reports. Chief Justice candidates were named without meeting Whereas all the newspapers have reported that Justice Deepak Raj Joshee, who was earlier rejected for the position of Chief Justice, was also featured on the list of candidates forwarded by the Judicial Council, Republica reports that the names were forwarded without holding a meeting of the Council. The newspaper informs that the Council could not hold meeting as Law Minister Bhanu Bhakta Dhakal said he would not take part in any of the meetings attended by Joshee. Joshee is an ex officio member of the Council as the seniormost justice at the apex court. Ignored Province 3 CM gets Australian support for planning Annapurna Post reports in a snippet that Province 3 Chief Minister Dor Mani Poudel has made a deal with an Australian agency to receive financial support to prepare the provincial governments periodic plan. But, the problem is the donor agency has not made any coordination with the federal government. The report informs that the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Australia is extending support to the provincial government through Asia Foundation. More than 500 CCTVs to be installed in Kathmandu The Metropolitan Police Commissioners Office in association with local governments of the Kathmandu Valley is preparing to install more than 500 CCTVs at major hubs of the valley, reports Naya Patrika in a snippet. With the move, the police unit is trying to make sure that high-tech means are adopted for the security arrangement in the capital. PM wants to give wider mandate to NID The Kathmandu Post reports in a three column story that a new law being drafted by the Prime Ministers Office is likely to give a wider mandate to the National Intelligence Department. Acting on the will of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, the government had recently brought the department under the Office of the Prime Minister from the Ministry of Home Affairs. Now, the law proposes that the intelligence chief report directed to the PM and the chief secretary on a regular basis, according to the report. Interesting Nepal and Cambodia prepare to sign aviation deal Abhiyan reports in a brief story that Nepal is preparing to sign an agreement with Cambodia to operate flights between the two countries. Quoting officials of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, the report claims the deal is likely during the visit of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen beginning tomorrow. Cambodias aviation minister is also accompanying the Prime Minister, according to sources. Until recently, the habits and habitats of the Bengal florican remained a mystery: males were easily seen in their seasonally flooded grassland habitat during the breeding season but effectively disappeared for half the year. Researchers in India and Nepal combined field surveys, satellite telemetry and remote sensing to model the distribution and assess the critically endangered birds movements, survival and home ranges. After years of not knowing the birds non-breeding whereabouts, the study found that Bengal floricans leave their protected, seasonally flooded breeding areas in favour of unprotected low-intensity agricultural fields and other upland grasslands during their non-breeding season. As dawn peeks through the morning mist on an early spring day in Nepals Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve, a duck-sized bird flaps its wings and throws itself into the air as if it were jumping on a trampoline. The critically endangered Bengal florican, known for the signature display of its males during the breeding season, can be spotted inside protected grasslands in Nepal and India from early spring until the monsoon sets in around June or July. After that, they vanish. Until recently, the habits and habitat of the Bengal florican (Houbaropsis bengalensis) here in the Indian subcontinent remained a mystery, even for those who knew the bird.I roamed the national parks for decades, but even I did not know where the Bengal floricans went after June/July, said Narendra Man Babu Pradhan, former warden of Chitwan National Park in Nepal and co-author of a recent study of the birds in India and Nepal. When its not a resbreeding season, he says, the birds effectively disappear. The Bengal florican, a type of bustard, is a mysterious species in several ways. It occurs in two separate regions: one subspecies (H.b. blandini) lives in Cambodias seasonally flooded Tonle Sap region, and the other (H.b. bengalensis) lives in the alluvial grasslands of southern Nepal and northern India, called the Terai. Individuals of the more extensively studied Cambodian subspecies leave their flooded breeding habitat during the non-breeding season for grassy and lightly wooded areas. But the grasslands of the Terai dont flood for long periods during the monsoon. So why do the South Asian Bengal floricans leave the protected areas when it starts to rain? The global Bengal florican population now stands at fewer than 1,000 individuals, and its elusive movements have hindered conservation managers understanding of its distribution and ability to develop appropriate conservation solutions. A group of scientists from India and Nepal, with support from the U.K.-government-funded Darwin Initiative, began studying the floricans movements in 2012. We used a combination of field surveys, satellite telemetry and remote sensing to model the distribution and assess the movements, survival and home ranges, said Rohit Jha, the studys lead author. Jha and his colleagues captured 11 floricans, from four protected areas in Nepal and one in India, to fit the birds with Argos Doppler tags. These tags send periodic location signals to polar-orbiting satellites. They also conducted field surveys in both countries and used the results to develop distribution models to identify possible new populations. Surveying swaths of tall grasslands where Bengal tigers roam was risky. For that, we had to climb trees or get on watchtowers, Jha said. But crouching tigers and hidden rhinos were not their main obstacles in tracking the floricans. The main challenge we faced was in capturing the birds, Pradhan said. The researchers consulted Ali Hussain, a legendary Indian bird trapper. Ali Hussain was successful in capturing the birds in a short time using his indigenous traps, and we could [then] tag the birds, Jha said. Tracking seasonal movements Argos satellites collect data transmitted by each tag and measure the frequency of the signals they receive. The satellites relay the data and signal frequency, which changes as the satellite approaches or moves away from a tag, to processing centres. There, computers calculate the tagged birds locations by measuring the Doppler shifts the change in the receiving frequency of the signals, which is accurate to within 150 meters (492 feet). The location estimates from tags are less accurate than those made by GPS units, Jha said, but the tags are lighter than GPS units, enabling birds to carry them without hindering flight. The tags, powered by solar panels, carried three sensors: one each to record temperature, battery voltage, and movement. Fortunately, Bengal floricans are relatively heavy the average weight of birds caught was 1.4 kilograms [3.1 pounds], Jha said. A rule of thumb says that the tag should weigh less than 4 percent of the body weight. Our tags were 30 grams [roughly 1 ounce] well below the 4 percent, he added. The researchers, who sighted the birds repeatedly, found that even with the tags the birds moved and foraged freely. We also made optimum use of the battery so that we could keep receiving data from the tagged birds for a long period of time, as the area we worked in receives adequate sunlight throughout the year, Jha said. The researchers programmed the tags to remain active for 10 hours and then switch off for 24 hours. The approach helped us conserve the batteries and provide enough time for recharging the solar panel, Jha said. Some of the tags are still running into their fifth year. The species distribution models suggested that while the floricans distribution is fragmented in the western Terai, sizeable undiscovered populations might exist in eastern parts of the species range, particularly along the Brahmaputra River. The models also suggested that some areas become unsuitable after breeding season, which may force the birds to leave protected areas. The tagged birds told a similar story. We found out that after breeding, the tagged birds left their breeding sites inside protected areas, Jha said, and moved up to 80 kilometres [50 miles] into landscapes characterized by relatively low-intensity agriculture along rivers with lower-than-average human population densities. Many birds spent more than six months away from their breeding grounds. Why do Bengal floricans leave protected areas after breeding? Ornithologist Hem Sagar Baral, who has followed the research, said Bengal floricans thrive on semi-natural grasslands, created and maintained by various factors. It prefers to live on grassland that does not get to grow tall, Baral said. Grass inside protected areas in the region is cut or set on fire just ahead of the monsoon. This coincides with the breeding season of the bird, and that is when they come to the protected areas, Baral added. But as the monsoon sets in, the grass grows tall again, and the protected areas become unsuitable for Bengal floricans. In the past, the grasslands supported large herbivores that grazed on the grass and created suitable habitats for the floricans. We have seen in protected areas of the subcontinent that the number of large herbivores is not even near the historical numbers, Baral said. People used to venture into the grasslands to get fodder for their cattle, and that would also maintain the habitat of the birds, Baral said. But such activities are not allowed inside protected areas now. Bengal floricans find suitably short grassland near the protected areas on riverbanks and in agricultural areas, which puts them at risk. In certain parts of the region, bustards are considered game birds and are eaten by humans, Pradhan said. Do the birds travel to Cambodia? No. There was a hypothesis, Jha said, that during the non-breeding season, the birds migrate to Cambodia. But this study conclusively proves otherwise. What surprised the researchers was how site-faithful the tagged birds were. We found that the male birds would return to not only the same area, but also near the same spot where they were displaying during previous breeding seasons, said co-author Jyotendra Jyu Thakuri, who coordinated the study in Nepal. In fact, floricans from Pilibhit Tiger Reserve in India and Shuklaphanta National Park in Nepal that shared non-breeding habitat repeatedly returned to their own reserves during the breeding season, Pradhan said. The site-faithfulness makes the birds movements very predictable for poachers and predators, he added, and maybe this is one of the reasons they are declining in number. The key finding from the study was that Bengal floricans use habitats outside of protected areas, Baral said. However, we cannot say that all Bengal floricans leave protected areas, he added, the sample size of the study is not adequate. Baral said the study was a somber reminder that only a handful of Bengal floricans remain and that we might lose them soon if action is not taken to conserve them. The Nepalese government has formulated a Bengal Florican Conservation Action Plan (2016-2020) to maintain a healthy and viable population of the birds by increasing the area of high-quality habitat and applying a better understanding of its ecology to reduce threats, Thakuri said. But since the plans completion in 2016, little has been done to save the Bengal floricans, Baral said. He added that enough studies had been carried out, and now was the time to act, and act fast, to save the birds Plus, Edge will operate its first full Europe seasonfocused on the Eastern Mediterranean, and the line will return to Turkey and offer a first mini-season from Lisbon. Celebrity will visit more ports in Europe than ever90 in 27 countries. Celebrity Apex Celebrity Apex will sail five cruises from Southampton to destinations including the Norwegian Fjords and the northern coasts of Spain and Portugal. A new 10-night 'Capital Cities Cruise' takes in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Oslo and LeHavre (for Paris). After this Northern Europe mini season, Celebrity Apex will spend the rest of its inaugural summer sailing seven- to 12-night itineraries. These include Western Mediterranean voyages from Barcelona and Civitavecchia to a variety of ports such as Naples, Livorno, Monte Carlo, Cannes, Palma De Mallorca, Valencia, Ibiza, Toulon and Nice. The ship will also make special visits to Lisbon and Valletta. Lisbon mini-season, new ports Two of the ships will have been reimagined as part of the $500m Celebrity Revolution. As well, Celebrity will operate its first mini season from Lisbon and country-immersive sailings focused on Greece and Italy. New ports include Trieste and Portland. Back by popular demand, the brand is also returning to Oslo, Agadir (Morocco) and Kusadasi (Turkey). Edge in the Eastern Mediterranean Celebrity Edge will join sister Celebrity Apex in the Mediterranean but focused on the eastern region and the Adriatic. On 10- and 11-night itineraries, Celebrity Edge will take travelers to Trieste for a two-day stay, providing the opportunity to explore Trieste and nearby Venice. Celebrity Edge will also visit the Amalfi Coast, Malta and the Greek Islands. Celebrity Silhouette from Southampton After completing its Celebrity Revolution upgrade, Celebrity Silhouette will operate seven- to 14-night sailings from Southampton to destinations including Iceland and Ireland with overnights in Dublin and Reykjavik. Celebrity Silhouette will additionally offer the new 10-night 'Capital Cities Cruise.' Celebrity Constellation's in-depth Greece and Italy Celebrity Constellation, which also will be updated as part of the Celebrity Revolution, will operate the new country-immersive sailings. These nine- or 10-night itineraries feature stops almost exclusively in one countryItaly or Greece. Italy destinations include Venice, Naples, Portofino, Livorno and Civitavecchia, while stops in Greece include Katakolon, Mykonos, Crete, Santorini, Corfu and Piraeus (Athens). As well, Celebrity Constellation will sail in the Adriatic with visits to Dubrovnik and Split, Croatia; Kotor, Montenegro; and Koper, Slovenia. Celebrity Reflection returns to Northern Europe Celebrity Reflection will offer three Iceland and Ireland itineraries round-trip Dublin. A new 10-night Ireland, England and Scotland cruise will include a first-time visit to Portland. Celebrity Reflection will also sail round-trip Amsterdam on 12-night itineraries to Scandinavia, Russia and the British Isles. From Civitavecchia, the ship will visit Israel and Kusadasi. Celebrity Infinity from Lisbon Celebrity Infinity returns to the Mediterranean with a mini season of sailings from Lisbon to ports on the Iberian Peninsula on the way to Barcelona, including Valencia, Malaga and La Coruna, Spain, and Porto, Portugal. Moroccowhich Celebrity hasn't visited since 2016has also been added to Celebrity Infinitys trans-Atlantic crossing. Home Just In Kathmandu police arrest three with one kg gold Kathmandu, November 28 A police team on Tuesday night arrested three persons in possession of one kilogram undeclared gold from Balkhu of Kathmandu. The team deployed from the Metropolitan Police Sector of Balkhu arrested them in front of local Royal Guest House at around 11 pm yesterday. SSP Puja Singh, spokesperson at the Metropolitan Police Range in Kathmandu, informs that Gopal BK (28), Sanjaya Kumar Tiruwa (27) and Shiva Kumar (27) were arrested after police recovered the precious metal on their vehicle (Ba 10 Cha 8992). Police also seized an electric scale, a pair of scissors and Rs 3.665 cash from their possession. Police say further investigation is underway. Press Release November 28, 2018 Transcript of interview of Senate President Vicente Sotto III On the 2019 budget Q: Are you going to meet with Secretary Diokno? SP Sotto: I think there is a scheduled hearing. It's going to be held in my office. Q: What's the agenda? SP Sotto: Ang pagkakaalam ko, it's the timetable. I think it's the request of the DBM or the Executive Department, is if we can hasten the deliberations and the passage because if our timetable is followed, I'm guessing, ang dinig ko lang is baka daw there are apprehensions na pagka ang timetable namin ang nasunod, which is January 27 ang bicameral conference ratification, there will be less than a week before the campaign period starts or a little over a week before the campaign period starts, and therefore all public works projects or other projects of the government will have to be stopped until after the elections. Another delay of five months yan. That is their apprehension, so we might be looking for a solution later. Q: Posible po na ngayong taon tatapusin ninyo ang budget? SP Sotto: Hindi kaya talaga. Siguro kailangang humanap kami ng paraan kung paano yung mga importanteng dapat mga kilos ng gobyerno ay hindi mapigil because of the campaign period. Q: Ano ang nakikita ninyong solution? SP Sotto: Wala pa. Ako personally wala pa but I am ready to listen to them although there is this joint resolution by both Houses of Congress which the House of Representative passed already na kami hindi pa, at yung resolution pa lang na nakafile sa Senate ngayon, we might be able to debate on it later, yung extension of the MOOE and capital outlay of the 2018 budget. Q: Hanggang kailan? SP Sotto: Hanggang next year so baka posibleng yun ang maka-offset nuong mga hindi mai-dedeliver agad because of the campaign period. Continuation lang yun nung 2018 pero I don't know the intricacies of whether would be legal or not, so we will have to listen to the DBM later. Tomorrow we will meet with the Department of Finance also. Q: Posibleng tingnan ninyo kung pwedeng mas mapa-aga pa yung inyong legislative calendar sa approval ng budget? SP Sotto: Ang hirap, kasi right now the five vice-chairmen are finishing their committee reports which will all be submitted on or before December 1 as agreed upon in the caucus. Pagkatapos nun, December 3, 4 yung pagrereport-out ng Committee on Finance as a whole and then sponsorship. Ibig sabihin niyan, 5, and then we already extend to 6 and 7, by December 5, we start at 10AM up to finish, so that could well end up into the wee hours of the morning or baka 12 midnight, 5, 6, 7, interpolations, I don't think it can be finished by the seventh unless by some stroke of luck ay swertehin kami at natapos namin. Then again, pasok yung susunod na week, 10, 11, 12, morning and afternoon din, even if we are finished with the interpolations by the seventh, 10, 11, 12, period of amendments, there is no time to finish the bicam. Even if we finish by the seventh, period of amendments and second reading and third reading, magbi-bicam. December 12 break na ang both Houses of Congress. Even if we extend for another week hindi (unclear) ang bicam na. Talagang during the break ang bicam pero the way it is now, pagbalik namin ng January 14, doon pa lang yung approval ng period of amendments tsaka second and third reading, and then bicam. Q: Yung special session, out of consideration? SP Sotto: Malabo yun kasi it will go into the Christmas week, the holidays itself. Hindi gagawin ng Presidente yun, hindi tatawag ng special session. Q: Are you open to lifting the ban during the campaign period? SP Sotto: We'll discuss it later if it's a possibility. I don't know if we can do that legally. Q: Ang ipa-prioritize ninyo approval ng resolution na nag-eextend sa paggamit ng 2018 budget? SP Sotto: Oo. Yun malamang mapagusapan na mamaya, mapasa na namin kaagad mamaya. Q: Paano yun, ang covered buong (unclear). SP Sotto: May I also remind you, the reason that we would want it extended, and on a personal note, sa akin, the budget of the National Disaster risk Reduction Management Council (NDRRMC) is there, it has to be extended. Katatapos pa lang ng bidding nung mga ibang mga kailangan doon sa Marawi, di ba? Pag napigil yan ng December 31 2018, maraming mabibitin so yung resolution namin extending the MOOE and CO or the budget of 2018, that will cover the problem of (unclear). Q: Pero sir ang coverage niya, buong 2018na MOOE and capital outlay? SP Sotto: Oo, yung mga natitira na hindi pa nagagamit. Q: Initially amenable po doon ang Executive? SP Sotto: Palagay ko because I am sure the House of Representatives consulted with the Executive Department. On Justice Bersamin possibly being the next Chief Justice SP Sotto: Wala kaming say doon. Q: Inannounce na daw. SP Sotto: Inannounce na ba? I think all the nominees are very good. Excellent nominees. So pwedeng pikit-mata ang pinipili ng President doon dahil lahat ng nominee talagang magagaling. Q: Pero hindi yung seniority hindi narecognize? SP Sotto: I don't know about that. It could have been the reason, it could be something else. On GMA saying that she does not like inquiries in aid of legislation. SP Sotto: It is part of the work of the Senate. The Senate, contrary to the perspective of the House of Representatives, the Senate works by the committee or works through the committees. Through committees kung magtrabaho ang Senate. Yung plenary kung tutuusin, ministerial, yung committee work ang importante. In the committee, the hearings can be inquiries, it can be mere hearings of the contents of the different bills, ganun lang. Maluwag ang elbow room namin diyan. Q: Pag tinanggal yun, parang clipping of the powers of Congress? SP Sotto: Oo. Hindi pwede yun. Kahit saang parliament sa mundo, hindi pwedeng pigilan yun. On the President saying he wants to form a death squad. SP Sotto: I don't know his reason for that. I'd rather not comment. Press Release November 28, 2018 Senate ratifies bicam report on Corporation Code amendments The Senate today ratified the bicameral conference committee report on the bill amending the Corporation Code to help improve the country's business climate and make it more friendly to foreign and local investors and entrepreneurs alike. The bicameral report on the reconciled version of Senate Bill No. 1280 and House Bill No. 8374 was unanimously adopted by the Senate, two days after the bicameral committee had approved their report on the bill last November 26, 2018. "The enactment of this landmark legislation is not only timely but is also necessary considering the fact that we are lagging behind our neighbors in terms of ease of doing business. This measure will vastly improve the regulatory environment for setting up a business in our country," said Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, the principal sponsor and author of the bill. With the help of the bill, he added, "the country will be able to catch up with its neighboring countries." According to Drilon, the bill will introduce reforms to the decades-old Corporation Code to "remove the barriers hindering the entry of both small and large enterprises into the market." He said that the old law poses difficulties to attracting businesses, due to "numerous and stringent incorporation and regulatory requirements that discourage investors and Filipino entrepreneurs to enter the local market." Drilon said the bill pushes for amendments that will help improve the ease of doing business in the country through strengthened and simplified corporate governance standards, which includes allowing one-person corporations, removing the minimum capital requirement and providing for perpetual existence of corporations. He explained that allowing one-person corporations would end the practice by local business owners and investors of naming their household members as incorporators "simply to comply with the stringent requirement of the law." The bill will also allow a one-person corporation to better avail of loans and grants, to help address the current business environment "where it is hard for corporations and individual businesses to avail loans." He said that the bill also removed the requirement for minimum capitalization, "in keeping with the trend worldwide and to further remove barriers to business entry." The bill will mandate that existing and future corporations are deemed to have perpetual lives, he added. Drilon said the bill likewise calls for the protection of minority stockholders by requiring, among others, corporations vested with public interest to have independent directors. "In delegating this function to the SEC, the bicameral committee provides a standard to guide the agency in determining which corporations are vested with public interest," Drilon said. Among other reforms in the reconciled version of the bill are provisions that seek to permit the electronic filing of reportorial requirements and attendance in meetings via remote communication or in absentia, among others - "practices that were not recognized in the old law." Press Release November 28, 2018 Statement of Senator Trillanes on Duterte's plan to create a death squad: Duterte has three objectives in issuing that statement. First, he wants to strike fear again in the hearts and minds of the Filipinos by forewarning that there would be another round of killings. He is doing this because he feels that he is losing his grip on power and that fear is his only way to keep people in check. Second, Duterte wants to deceive the ICC into believing that since it is only now that he is planning to create a death squad therefore, he is not responsible for the death squads going around killing thousands of Filipinos all over the country the past 2 and a half years. Third, Duterte wants to divert the attention of the media and the public from the mysterious MOUs entered into with China; the questionable awarding of the telco to a Duterte crony; and the 11bn peso shabu shipment issue. But, at this point in his Administration, the public is already impatient and won't be intimidated anymore. They are demanding results based on his campaign promise of a better life. As to the ICC, obviously such deceptive tactics by Duterte won't work. Villanueva: Senate ratification of Corporation Code amendments to attract more investors, jobs in PH We welcome the ratification of the bicameral conference committee report on the amendments to the Corporation Code. The immediate passage of this bill into law is a concrete step towards attracting more investors to our country, thereby creating more jobs for Filipinos, by allowing the establishment of one-person corporations, providing for perpetual existence of corporations, and removing the minimum capital requirement under the current law, among others. The amendments to the Corporation Code will also complement the objectives of the Ease of Doing Business Law or Republic Act No. 11032 which we supported in the Senate. We are positive that this will result in further improving the country's ranking in the Ease of Doing Business Survey by the World Bank. As member of the bicameral conference committee, I am certain that this landmark legislation will certainly match the standards of our neighboring countries, make our economy more competitive and foster a business-friendly environment. Welcome to Shakesville, a progressive feminist blog about politics, culture, social justice, cute things, and all that is in between. Please note that the commenting policy and the Feminism 101 section, conveniently linked at the top of the page, are required reading before commenting. Mobile telecommunications operator 2degrees says the decision to ban Huawei from involvement in the roll-out of the country's 5G network for national security reasons "will be a real disappointment for competition". The Government Communications Security Bureau announced today that it had assessed the use of the Chinese company's equipment in the 5G network after an approach from Spark New Zealand and had "informed Spark that a significant network security risk was identified". The decision means New Zealand is lining up with two of its allies in the Five Eyes global signals spy network, the United States and Australia, in effectively banning the use of Huawei equipment in the roll-out of the next generation of high-speed, mobile telecommunications known as 5G. In a statement to the NZX, Spark said the director-general of the GCSB had informed the company that its proposal to use Huawei 5G equipment in its Sparks planned 5G Radio Access Network - part of its cell tower infrastructure - would raise "significant national security risks". "This means Spark cannot implement or give effect to its proposal to use Huawei RAN equipment in its planned 5G network" under the terms of the Telecommunications (Interception Capability and Security) Act 2013. A 2degrees spokesman said it was seeking clarification from the GCSB as to whether that meant it also couldn't use Huawei gear. "Our comments on the importance of multiple vendors to deliver price competitiveness still stand, so if this announcement has a similar impact on 2degrees it will be a real disappointment for competition," the spokesman said. "2degrees is, however, committed to building a 5G network." Just last week, Huawei sought to demonstrate its willingness to stay out of 'core' elements of the 5G network, as it had done in the 4G network, where it only supplies cellsite technology. In concert with Spark, it deployed a ground-breaking experimental 5G network that used equipment from US-owned Cisco in the core of the network and Huawei equipment in the RAN services. The opposition to use of Huawei and other Chinese vendors' equipment has long been assumed to reflect a mixture of genuine concerns about pressure to spy for the Chinese government that such companies could face, and a desire by non-Chinese equipment vendors to knock Huawei out of competition. Huawei equipment is regarded by Spark as being cheaper and working better than that available from other vendors. Spark has announced plans to get its 5G network up and running in July 2020, in time for the next America's Cup challenge in Auckland in 2021. A critical part of that process is for the government to announce its timetable for auctioning the radio spectrum the network will need to run on. Announcements are due early next year. Spark said it had not yet had an opportunity to review the detailed reasoning behind the director-generals decision. "Following our review, Spark will consider what further steps, if any, it will take", the company said. It was confident it would not affect plans to launch its 5G network by July 1, 2020, subject to spectrum allocation. Multi-national telco Vodafone, New Zealand's other mobile provider, does not use Huawei equipment in its global operations. While Huawei equipment was acceptable in the 4G network, there had been speculation that it would not be allowed to participate in 5G because the 'core' elements of the super-fast network will be much more decentralised than in the 4G network, making them more susceptible to potential infiltration. Spark shares were trading at $4.16 before the announcement. They ended the day unchanged at $4.12. (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 Orion Health shareholders should take advantage of the companys buyback offer and get out with whatever money they can, according to an analyst who covers the stock. Stephen Ridgewell, deputy head of institutional research at Craigs Investment Partners, told BusinessDesk the first half 2019 results announced this morning were somewhat meaningless given the company has sold 75 percent of the only profitable part of the company, its Rhapsody health data integration product. On Oct. 31, the company announced Rhapsody was being sold to UK private equity company Hg (formerly Mercury) for $205 million. Hg was also taking a stake in the population health management unit, leaving Orion owning only its hospitals division outright. The problem is that the remaining two parts of Orions business, hospitals and population health management, are struggling, Ridgewell said. Population health revenue declined 8 percent to $49.2 million in the six months ended Sept. 30, but contributed a smaller loss of $17.8 million to the group than a year earlier. Revenue at the hospitals unit increased 8 percent to $5.1m, but the loss of $3.3 million, widened from $830,000 a year earlier. There would have to be a very substantial improvement in operating performance for those businesses to be sustainable, Ridgewell said. Orion chair Andrew Ferrier, a former CEO of Fonterra, said the company was focusing on getting the two remaining businesses to be operating cashflow neutral as soon as we possibly can. But pushed on specifics, he wasnt clear on a timeframe. We are hoping to be as close to cashflow breakeven in the second half as we can, he said, adding the company was still working through the 2020 cashflow numbers. Ferrier said he believed there was enough cash to fund the two units through to profitability. However, Ridgewell strongly urged shareholders to take the buyback option. He said the health data integration company had presented Orions first-half position in the best possible light at todays presentation. But the reality is [founder and CEO] Ian McCrae and the board have overseen a substantial reduction in shareholder value since the IPO in 2014. With the company failing to spell out how it intends to fund the ongoing operating losses if these segments continue to perform below management expectations, or a clear growth pathway, we see little value in Orions remaining businesses aside from its residual 25 percent shareholding in Rhapsody. However, even this may need to be sold within the next 12-18 months to fund ongoing losses from the remaining segments, unless performance substantially improves. The Orion Health board has a history since listing in 2014 of failing to meet its financial projections. Ferrier gave more details about the buyback, narrowing the estimated range to $1.20-$1.25 a share, and saying the exact buyback price should be set within the next week. Payments will start in December. The outlook wasnt always so grim for Orion Health, which began life as a startup making IT products used by health providers to get systems talking to each other - whether it be patient records, hospital data or drug information. International sales were strong - it still sells 90 percent of its products overseas. But since its IPO, financial performance has been woeful. The share price tanked from a peak of more than $6 in 2014, to 67 cents earlier this year, before sneaking back above $1 in July. The buyback price is only a small improvement on the $1.17 the shares are trading at today. This time last year, in the notes to the accounts for the six months ended Sept. 30, 2017, Orion's auditors PwC talked about a material uncertainty that may cast significant doubt about the groups ability to continue as a going concern. Today, the results talked about the company as a going concern. But the directors acknowledged the uncertainty and risks associated with ongoing performance at the population health and hospitals units. (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 The Reserve Bank is sending a strong signal to the life insurance industry that broker commissions are way out of whack with international comparisons. The central banks latest six-monthly Financial Stability Report contains a chart showing that commissions on life insurance policies in New Zealand are a whopping 20.4 percent of gross premium revenue. The country charging the next highest commissions is Mexico at a much lower 12.8 percent. Countries New Zealand would prefer to be compared with range from Denmark at just 0.2 percent, Germany at 6 percent, the United States at 6.6 percent and Australia at 9.2 percent. Its an exciting chart, Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr told journalists at the media briefing on the latest report. We put it there specifically because sunlight is a good disinfectant, Orr said. We cant micro-manage this industry but it has some real specific issues. Another problem in the life insurance industry the Financial Markets Authority has been targeting is the practice of agents churning clients from one policy to another just to generate additional commissions and often to the detriment of the client. An FMA study of 11 life insurance companies published in July found only about 2 percent of sales of life and other related policies are actually new and that the rest are simply replacing existing policies. The central bank and the Financial Markets Authority are set to report on their review of the insurance sectors conduct and culture in January. (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 Newly-ASX-listed Straker Translations says its on track to achieve its full-year prospectus forecasts, after two European acquisitions and strong organic growth in the first half. But it hasnt yet got itself into the black. Straker uses cloud technology to farm out translation work around the world, from its base in Auckland. It listed on the Australian stock exchange in October, raising $20 million. The company lifted translation revenue to $12 million for the six months ended September, up almost 40 percent from $8.6 million for the same period in 2017, chairman Phil Norman said. Norman, formerly chair of online accounting company Xero, joined Straker in September, just before the ASX float. Xero is another Kiwi company listed only on the Australian exchange. Norman said the translation company cut its losses to $220,000 for the half, as against $1.06 million the year before, and it was in the black when it came down to ebitda. On an adjusted ebitda basis, the company generated a profit of $110,000 for the first half, a significant improvement on the adjusted ebitda loss of $786,000 for the same period last year, Norman said. On a pro-forma basis, revenues for the first half were $13.4 million versus the prospectus forecast for the year ending March 31 of $24.9 million. The company remains on track to achieve the year-end pro-forma revenue forecast, Norman said. During the half, Straker bought translation operations in Spain and German, each with annual revenues around $3.2 million. Bringing them onto the Straker RAY translation platform would allow the company to leverage customer relationships and grow revenue, Norman said. Meanwhile, the company is looking at other acquisition opportunities in Europe and the US, he said. Straker was founded in 1999 by Merryn and Grant Straker. Grant spent six years as a British army paratrooper before returning to New Zealand and forming the translation company. Straker Translations listed on October 22 at A$1.51 a share and the price rose to A$A1.76 on the first day. The stock lost 0.7 percent after todays result to A$1.49, fractionally below the listing price. (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 Home Just In Nepali Congress statute amendment: Koirala consults his camp before CWC meeting Kathmandu, November 28 As the main opposition Nepali Congress is preparing to finalise the party statute amendment proposal to table at the mahasamiti meeting, the faction opposing party President Sher Bahadur Deuba has held its meeting on Wednesday. The party has called the meeting of its Central Working Committee for Thursday. The meeting is expected to finalise the draft proposal prepared by a panel. One day before that, General Secretary Shashanka Koirala called influential leaders Ram Chandra Paudel and Krishna Prasad Sitaula among others for a meeting so that they could present their voice unitedly tomorrow. Just on Monday, another leader of the camp, Sujata Koirala had hosted some youth leaders of party at her house for a lunch meeting. As the party is heading towards the mahasamiti meeting, both factions of the party have expedited their preparations to draft the party statute as they wish. The mahasamiti meeting has been scheduled for mid-December. Home Just In Two killed, six hurt in Dailekh jeep accident Kathmandu, November 28 Two persons were killed while six others were critically injured after a jeep met with an accident in Thatikadh Rural Municipality of Dailekh district in Karnali Province. The jeep (Bhe 1 Cha 2207) heading to Bahakot of Thatikadh Rural Municipality from Surkhet district veered off the road at around 8 am on Wednesday. Rajendra Bahadur Shahi, 47, and Nirmal Bam, 30, of the same rural municipality. Details of the injured persons are awaited. Meanwhile, a vehicle knocked down a 19-year-old boy in Teku of Kathmandu this morning. The yet-to-be-identified vehicle hit Jiban Singh, from Kanchanpur district and currently living in Kiritpur in Kathmandu, at around 4 am today. He died on the way to Bir Hospital after the accident occurred in front of Kanak Petrol Pump near Teku Bridge, the police said. RSS 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. : 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. "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 Ahmedabad. 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. China seeks allies in Spain and Portugal despite EU reservations Madrid, Nov 28 (AFP) Nov 28, 2018 China, currently engaged in a trade war with the United States, is seeking to strengthen its ties with Spain and Portugal as other European Union members are trying to restrict Chinese investments. China's President Xi Jinping began a three day visit to Spain on Tuesday on his way to a meeting of Group of 20 leaders in Argentina, and will stop in neighbouring Portugal on December 4-5 on his return home. "It's a political manoeuvre to maintain ties at a complicated time for China," Angel Sanchez, the director of the Centre for Global Economy and Geopolitics at Spain's ESADE Business School, told AFP. The United States has imposed tariffs on more than $250 billion in Chinese goods in an attempt to pressure the country to reverse alleged unfair trade practices and US President Donald Trump this week warned he might impose tariffs on its remaining $267 billion in imports from the Asian giant, including iPhones made in China. European member states, meanwhile, are poised to decide on a European framework for assessing foreign investment wanted by EU heavyweights France and Germany in order to screen acquisitions by foreign companies, mainly Chinese, in strategic sectors such as energy. Paris, Berlin and to a lesser extent Rome are concerned that foreign groups are seeking to pilfer key technologies by buying their companies and have long called for European legislation to filter certain acquisitions. Now is the time for Chinese leaders to make public statements to try and assuage the concerns of EU member states, said Angel Saz Carranza. Rajiv Biswas, Asia Pacific chief economist for IHS Markit, added that "even if the EU agrees some screening process, in the end it's still up to each individual country to decide what they want," - 'Weak underbelly' - By focusing on Spain and Portugal, China is looking for the "weak underbelly for Chinese investment in Europe and consolidate" the assets already acquired in the two countries despite reservations of other European Union member states, the president of Paris-based think tank Asia Centre, Jean-Francois Di Meglio, told AFP. "Chinese investments in absolute figures are greater in Britain and in Germany, but as a percentage of GDP, they are greater in Spain and Portugal," said Di Meglio. Beijing has since 2016 felt "great doubts" regarding the EU, which teamed up with the United States to deny it market economy status, said Di Meglio. Britain's planned exit from the bloc fuelled its doubts about the bloc and China now favours bilateral ties with European nations, he added. China for example boosted its ports and terminals business network last year with the purchase by Chinese shipping group OSCO Shipping Holdings of a 51 percent stake in Spanish container terminal operator Noatum Port, which operates container ports in Valencia and Bilbao. - No 'Silk Road' agreement - Portugal, one of western Europe's poorest countries, was especially open to Chinese investment after the 2008 global financial crisis sent its economy into a tailspin. Chinese investment accounted for 3.6 percent of Portugal's GDP between 2010 and 2016, the highest level in the EU after Finland, according to ESADE figures. The Chinese government owns a 28 percent stake in Portuguese utility EDP, the country's largest firm, Via China Three Gorges and China's state-owned international investment company CNIC. Spanish exports to China increased last year by 28 percent to reach 5.7 billion euros ($6.4 billion) and Madrid hopes Xi's visit will open the Chinese market further for Spanish products such as grapes and its treasured "jamon" cured ham. But Madrid, however, has said it will not sign on during his visit to China's ambitious "One Belt, One Road" initiative that seeks to better link Asia and Europe. The multi-billion-dollar so-called "Silk Road" initiative, unveiled by Xi in 2013, aims to link the continents through a network of ports, railways, roads and industrial parks. 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. Aside from economic issues, Xi wrote in a column published in Spanish daily newspaper ABC that "China will enhance dialogue and communication with Spain in international and multilateral organisations such as the United Nations, the World Trade Organization and the G20." clw/ds/pmr/ecl MARKIT EDP - ENERGIAS DE PORTUGAL Award-winning photojournalist detained in China: wife Beijing, Nov 28 (AFP) Nov 28, 2018 A Chinese award-winning photojournalist vanished in the restive northwest region of Xinjiang earlier this month after he was reportedly detained by security agents, his wife said. The wife of Lu Guang said she lost contact with him on the night of November 3 when he was in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, a heavily policed region where authorities are accused of running a network of internment camps. Lu, who lives in the United States, was visiting the region as a tourist and to teach and interact with local photographers, Xu Xiaoli said from New York, where she resides. "I haven't heard anything new," Xu told AFP. "He had never been to Xinjiang before." The US embassy in Beijing said in a statement to AFP that it was "deeply concerned about reports of the detention of photojournalist Lu Guang by Chinese security officials". "We strongly condemn China's worsening abuse of human rights," it said. "We continue to call on China to allow all individuals to express their views without fear of retribution and for journalists to do their jobs without interference," the statement said. Lu's 25-year career as a photographer has produced many award-winning photos which delve into the dark side of China's economic development and societal changes, documenting industrial pollution, worker abuse, AIDS-plagued villages, and the illegal export of African timber to China. A World Press Photo awards winner, Lu had planned to travel from Xinjiang to southwestern Sichuan province on November 5 and rendezvous with a friend, who was unable to reach him, his wife said in a statement posted on Twitter. She later heard through a friend that Lu had been held by state security and then taken to the city of Kashgar, a report which she said was confirmed to her by authorities in Lu's hometown city of Yongkang, Zhejiang province. "I'm extremely worried, and hoping for his safe return home as soon as possible!" Xu said in her Twitter statement. Yongkang police told AFP they were unaware of the situation and calls to Xinjiang's propaganda department went unanswered. Someone who picked up the phone at the police department in Kashgar hung up after hearing the call was from AFP. Xinjiang, home to the mainly Muslim Uighur minority, has undergone a security crackdown prompted by clashes that have killed hundreds in recent years. Up to a million Uighurs and other Turkic-speaking minority groups have been placed in political re-education camps in the region, according estimates cited by a United Nations panel. Foreign journalists travelling to the region are frequently detained and followed by police to prevent and obstruct reporting on the internment camps and treatment of Uighurs. The US embassy said Washington remains "deeply alarmed by the Chinese government's crackdown in Xinjiang" and is "committed to promoting accountability for those who commit human rights violations and abuses, including by considering targeted measures against Xinjiang officials." China, Spain pledge 'more balanced' trade ties Madrid, Nov 28 (AFP) Nov 28, 2018 China and Spain on Wednesday pledged to re-balance trade ties during President Xi Jinping's state visit, as Madrid complains of a "chronic deficit" with Beijing. 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 the Spanish foreign ministry. "Both sides agree to increase economic openness and boost commercial exchanges in such manner that these will be more balanced and extend to new sectors," the two countries said in a joint statement. Some 600 Spanish firms are present in China, mainly small companies, although multinationals such as Telefonica, Zara-owner Inditex and major banks like Santander and BBVA also operate in the country. The two countries also agreed to boost cooperation between Chinese and Spanish scientists in the field of advanced materials, as Beijing shifts its economy towards competitive, high-end industries. Examples of such materials include scratch-resistant glass for smartphone screens or composites used in planes that make them lighter and more fuel efficient. They also agreed to further open up the lucrative Chinese market to Spanish grapes and its treasured "jamon" cured ham, which is very popular in the Asian country. Prior to Xi's visit, Spain had said it would not sign on to China's ambitious "One Belt, One Road" initiative that seeks to better link Asia and Europe through a network of ports, railways, roads and industrial parks. 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. Spain has justified its refusal to sign on by saying it prefers to work with the European Union which in September presented its own plans to develop a parallel network of infrastructure to connect it to Asia. In the joint statement, both countries highlighted the importance of China's initiative. They said they would work to "identify synergies" between the Chinese and EU plans in terms of punctual business and investment projects. mbx/pmr/jh TELEFONICA INDITEX - ZARA New Zealand says Huawei ban not because it's Chinese Wellington, Nov 28 (AFP) Nov 28, 2018 New Zealand denied Thursday that telecommunications giant Huawei was banned from a 5G network rollout because it is Chinese, saying the problem it faced was a technological one. Wellington also dismissed suggestions its intelligence services came under pressure from allies in the "Five Eyes" spy network to bar Huawei amid fears about cybersecurity and its potential links to Beijing. "It's not about the country, it's not even particularly about the company, it's about the technology that is proposed," Andrew Little, minister for the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) intelligence agency, told national radio. "I can say with considerable confidence that there's been no representations made to the GCSB from Australia, from the United States, from anywhere, about how it should go about making its decision." New Zealand's largest carrier Spark said Wednesday that the GCSB had rejected a plan to use Huawei technology in its next-generation 5G network, citing "significant national security risks". China -- New Zealand's largest trading partner in a relationship worth NZ$26 billion (US$18 billion) annually -- expressed "deep concern" over the ban. The two nations have a free-trade agreement and China's foreign ministry said it hoped "New Zealand will offer a level playing field for Chinese enterprises operating in New Zealand". Huawei's founder, Ren Zhengfei, is a former engineer in China's People's Liberation Army and this has led to concerns of close links with the Chinese military and government, which Huawei has consistently denied. Little refused to outline the security threat Spark's plan posed, saying only that "there is a risk with the use of that technology", but details were classified. He said the GCSB considered a range of factors when making its decision. "We know that telecommunications networks, like other infrastructure, are now points of vulnerability worldwide for incursion, cyber-attacks and what have you," he said. "So in this day and age, we've got to make sure everything is done to protect our country from those risks." Little insisted Huawei did not face an outright ban, saying Spark had the option of approaching the GCSB to see if there were ways to reduce the security risks. 5G or fifth-generation wireless communication offers super-fast connections that promise the ability to download a full-length feature film in less than a second. It is seen as the key to delivering new technologies such as driverless cars and remote surgical procedures. US lawmakers have expressed concerns about Huawei's potential for espionage and The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Washington was urging its allies to exclude it from 5G rollouts. Australia banned Huawei and another Chinese firm ZTE from participating in its 5G network in August. The other members of the "Five Eyes" intelligence-sharing group are Canada and the UK. ns/dm/qan System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28: 29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951 /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fe1522578)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe1525ff0)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fe1522578)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1305 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 958 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe1525ff0)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fe150e298)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1303 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 436 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe1525ff0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe1525ff0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fdfe0c9d0)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fe15044e0)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fe15044e0)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28:
29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951 /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fe0737050)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe05f5c30)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fe0737050)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1305 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 958 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe05f5c30)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fe05ed6e8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1303 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 436 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe05f5c30)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe05f5c30)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fdfe0b868)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fe06f5600)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fe06f5600)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28:
29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951 /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fe1041cd8)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe10545d0)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fe1041cd8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1305 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 958 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe10545d0)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fe0813dc0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1303 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 436 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe10545d0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe10545d0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fdfe0bf20)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fe1049c70)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fe1049c70)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28:
29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951 /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fe07e3e10)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe0660630)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fe07e3e10)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1305 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 958 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe0660630)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fe07b2090)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1303 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 436 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe0660630)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe0660630)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe02c5ec0)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fe06bdf68)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fe06bdf68)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28:
29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951 /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fe0fda0e8)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe0fd98f0)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fe0fda0e8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1305 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 958 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe0fd98f0)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fe0fd33e0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1303 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 436 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe0fd98f0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe0fd98f0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe072ecc0)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fe100b0b8)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fe100b0b8)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28:
29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951 /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fe02f5808)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe01fd160)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fe02f5808)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1305 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 958 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe01fd160)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fe0334e68)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1303 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 436 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe01fd160)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe01fd160)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fdfe0ba00)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fdfe07db8)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fdfe07db8)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 By Catherine Sas, Q.C. Special to The Post Since the introduction of Canadas Express Entry selection system for skilled workers immigrating to Canada, it is necessary for a prospective applicant to register an online profile including such information as their ECA, an approved language test such as a CELPIP, IELTS or TEF, which sets out your CLB scores, and a reference letter from your previous employers confirming your work experience in accordance with the NOC code for your job description. Based upon this information you will receive a CRS score and if your score is high enough you will receive an ITA for permanent residence to Canada. If you are perplexed by the above alphabet soup of a description for Canadas Express Entry system of immigration to Canada, then you are not alone. Introduced on January 1, 2015, Express Entry has completely transformed the way that individuals can become permanent residents and in order to navigate this new system, you need to become familiar with the terminology. The starting point for submitting an Express Entry profile is to have three things: confirmation of your foreign education, an approved language test, and a detailed reference letter confirming your foreign and/or Canadian work experience. Lets examine each of these things individually. To confirm that your foreign education is equivalent to a Canadian diploma or degree, you will need to get an Educational Credential Assessment (ECA). To confirm your language proficiency in English or French you will need to have an approved language test. For English you will need to have a CELPIP test or an IELTS test. For French you need to obtain a TEF result. Your IELTS and TEF test results will need to be converted to the Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) standards in order to be able to determine the points that you will score for each of the four language proficiencies: reading, writing, speaking and listening. To confirm your previous work experience you will need to have a reference letter from your previous employers for up to the past ten years which confirms your job description and duties in accordance with the National Occupational Classification (NOC). The NOC classification system sets out the minimum educational requirements and specific duties for each job description and your reference letters need to confirm that you have performed a majority of the duties as described in the NOC description for your occupation In addition, your reference letter must confirm the duration of your employment, that it was full time and the number of hours per week that you have worked while employed. Once your profile is registered under the Express Entry system with this information, you will receive a Comprehensive Ranking Score (CRS) setting out the points that you have earned for your qualifications. Depending upon your CRS score, you may be given an Invitation to Apply (ITA). Without an ITA you cannot apply for permanent residence. Express Entry draws for 2018 have provided ITAs for CRS scores in the range of 440 to 460 CRS points. Navigating Canadas Express Entry immigration selection system requires learning all the relevant terminology. Fortunately, these terms and processes are all set out on the Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) website. You will want to familiarize yourself with the various steps of the process in order to maximize your chances of qualifying for permanent residence to Canada. Catherine Sas, Q.C. has over 25 years of legal experience. She provides a full range of immigration services and is a leading immigration practitioner (Lexpert, Whos Who Legal, Best Lawyers in Canada). Go to canadian-visa-lawyer.com or email [email protected]. Russian hackers bilked firms out of tens of millions of dollars Washington, Nov 28 (AFP) Nov 28, 2018 Eight people, most of them Russian, have been indicted in US court for mounting complex fake advertising schemes that caused companies to lose tens of millions of dollars. In one scheme, dubbed "Methbot" and launched in 2014, the accused internet swindlers rented more than 1,900 computer servers located in commercial datacenters in several US cities, and would use them to simulate humans viewing ads on webpages they had fabricated, US prosecutors said. They said the botnet-based ad network was thus able to falsify billions of ad views and forced businesses to pay more than $7 million for ads that had never in fact been viewed by true, human internet users. A separate, more lucrative scheme that began in 2015 saw two of the accused operate a fake advertising network for another fraudulent digital ad scheme. They used a network of 1.7 million malware-infected computers to falsify billions of ad views, which cost businesses more than $29 million for ads also not seen by human internet users, court papers show. Russian nationals Aleksandr Zhukov, Boris Timokhin, Mikhail Andreev (who is also Ukrainian), Denis Avdeev, Dmitry Novikov and Aleksandr Isaev, along with Sergey Ovsyannikov and Yevgeniy Timchenko of Kazakhstan were named in a 13-count indictment unsealed Tuesday in federal court in New York. They were indicted on charges that include wire fraud, computer intrusion, aggravated identity theft and money laundering. Ovsyannikov, Zhukov and Timchenko were arrested abroad in recent weeks, while the other accused are at large. "As alleged, these individuals built complex, fraudulent digital advertising infrastructure for the express purpose of misleading and defrauding companies who believed they were acting in good faith, and costing them millions of dollars," FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William Sweeney said in a statement. "This kind of exploitation undermines confidence in the system, on the part of both companies and their customers." In June, the US imposed sanctions on five Russian companies and three individuals accused of having conducted hacking operations on behalf of Russia. US warns Russia over Syrian site of alleged chemical attack Washington, Nov 27 (AFP) Nov 27, 2018 The Pentagon warned Russia on Tuesday against interfering with the site of an alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria's regime-held city of Aleppo. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime has accused armed groups of carrying out a "toxic gas" attack Saturday that left dozens of people struggling to breathe and prompted government ally Russia to launch retaliatory air strikes against "terrorist groups." Damascus has formally asked for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to investigate the alleged attack. The Pentagon said Assad may try to interfere with the site of the incident and build a narrative to justify attacking the rebel-held stronghold of Idlib, which is currently protected under a 10-week-old truce deal in northern Syria. "It is essential to ensure that the Syrian regime does not seize on false pretexts to undermine this ceasefire and launch an offensive in Idlib," Pentagon spokesman Commander Sean Robertson said in a statement. "We caution Russia against tampering with another suspected chemical weapons attack site and urge Russia to secure the safety of the OPCW inspectors so these allegations can be investigated in a fair and transparent manner." Both the Syrian regime and Russia have blamed "terrorist groups" -- a term Damascus uses to mean both rebels and jihadists -- for Saturday's attack. Though it is the regime that has been blamed for most deadly chemical weapon attacks in Syria's seven-year war, official media have recently accused fighters in Idlib of planning a chemical attack. In April, the US, France and Britain launched joint missile strikes on Syrian targets in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack in the town of Douma that left scores of people dead. The Syrian regime blocked international inspectors from accessing the site for several days after the alleged chemical attack. "We urge immediate inspection of the alleged site by international investigators, with freedom to interview all involved and unhindered ability to collect evidence," Robertson said. US intel chief to brief NATO on US withdrawal from INF treaty Washington, Nov 27 (AFP) Nov 27, 2018 US Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said Tuesday that he is heading to Europe to explain to allies Washington's decision to pull out of a major nuclear weapons treaty because of Russian violations. Coats told reporters that he will meet NATO defense and intelligence officials in Brussels this week to discuss President Donald Trump's decision in October to withdraw from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), a move that has fueled fears of a dangerous arms race. "The intelligence community assesses Russia has flight-tested, produced, and deployed cruise missiles with a range capability that are prohibited by the treaty," Coats said. "Russia has shown no sign that it is willing to acknowledge its violation, let alone return to full and verifiable compliance." Coats said he would explain the threat to Europe from Russia's furtive development of its new 9M729 ground-based missile system, which Washington says has a reach that exceeds the INF limit of 500 kilometers (300 miles). "Russia continues to press forward and as of late 2018 has fielded multiple battalions of 9M729 missiles, which pose a direct conventional and nuclear threat against most of Europe and parts of Asia," Coats said. The Trump administration has yet to pinpoint a date for its official withdrawal from the treaty, leaving room for a possible fix that would likely also have to involve China, which was not a party to the INF. "Number one, they would have to admit that they cheated," Coats said of Russia. "Number two, they would have to acknowledge that they would then take actions to get us back on an even keel, so that (Russia) didn't retain that strategic advantage" from the new missile program. "We need full verifiable elimination of all missiles that fall in this category, if we're going to go forward," he said. Russia to deploy new S-400 missiles in Crimea Moscow, Nov 28 (AFP) Nov 28, 2018 Moscow will soon deploy more of its advanced S-400 air defence systems in Russian-annexed Crimea, a military official said Wednesday amid rising tensions with Ukraine. The RIA Novosti news agency reported it would be in place by the end of the year, joining three other S-400 systems already on the peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. "In the near future, a new anti-aircraft system will take up combat duty to protect the airspace of the Russian Federation," Colonel Vadim Astafiyev of Russia's southern military district told news agency Interfax. He told the news agency the new S-400 system for Crimea had undergone successful testing and was ready to be deployed. Sources in Russian security services had said in September that a fourth system would be deployed in Crimea near Dzhankoy, a town close to Ukrainian-controlled territory. Wednesday's announcement came with Moscow and Kiev embroiled in their biggest crisis in years, after Russian border patrol boats seized three Ukrainian naval vessels off the coast of Crimea on Sunday. The S-400 "Triumph" is Russia's latest and most advanced anti-aircraft and missile defence system. NATO investigating reports of civilian casualties in air strike Kabul, Nov 28 (AFP) Nov 28, 2018 NATO is investigating an air strike in southeast Afghanistan that might have killed civilians, it said Wednesday, as unverified reports circulated claiming women and children were killed and wounded in the bombardment. The strike reportedly occurred during a firefight between Afghan special forces working with US advisors and Taliban insurgents late Tuesday in restive Helmand province. NATO said air support was requested by security forces on the ground as the militants deployed heavy weapons and retreated into a nearby compound. "After the strike, there were secondary explosions, we assess from explosives inside the compound," NATO said in a statement. "The ground force was unaware of any civilians in or around the compound; they only knew that the Taliban was using the building as a fighting position," the statement continued. "The Taliban continue to use civilians, especially children, as a protective measure," it added. Afghan officials have offered varying unconfirmed numbers over how many civilians might have been killed or wounded by the strike, with one official saying the toll was at least 18 dead. "Last night, following ground fighting in Garmsir district, foreign forces bombed some Taliban positions killing many of them. Unfortunately, we also have reports of some civilian casualties as result of the air strikes," said Omar Zhwak, the Helmand governor's spokesman. Ataullah Afghan, the head of Helmand provincial council, said women and children were among the dead. Ordinary Afghans have borne the brunt of the 17-year war, which is on track to be deadlier than Syria in 2018. Civilians continue to face "extreme levels of harm", a recent UN report said, with 8,050 people killed or wounded in the January to September period this year. Violence has intensified in the past year as US and Afghan forces step up ground and air offensives against Taliban and IS insurgents. The Taliban has also increased 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. str-emh-lab-ds/st/mtp French judges reject bid to reopen Rwanda genocide case Paris, Nov 28 (AFP) Nov 28, 2018 French judges have rejected a bid by survivors of Rwanda's genocide to reopen an investigation into claims that French troops were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people they had promised to rescue. A source close to the case said Wednesday that three war crimes judges had on November 22 dismissed the bid to reopen an investigation that symbolises deep wounds between Rwanda and France over the 1994 slaughter. Six survivors, backed by human rights groups and other plaintiffs, had launched a legal case in 2005 accusing French soldiers of abandoning Tutsi civilians in Bisesero, western Rwanda, in June 1994. The probe was shut down in July as no one had been charged during 13 years of investigation. The survivors say French soldiers had promised to rescue terrified Tutsis hiding in the hills of Bisesero at the height of the killing on June 27, 1994. The troops arrived only three days later -- after hundreds of people had been massacred by genocidal allies of the Hutu government which had been backed by Paris for years. Their deaths came nearly three months into the 100-day killing spree that left an estimated 800,000 people dead, most of them members of the Tutsi ethnic minority. In October, the plaintiffs' lawyers filed a request urging investigators to take further action despite the case being closed, including seeking testimony from soldiers and journalists who were nearby on June 27, 1994. But the judges ruled that further enquiry would "not be useful to ascertain the truth, nor reasonable given how long proceedings have been underway". Patrick Baudouin, a lawyer for the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights, said the plaintiffs intended to appeal the latest decision. France's support for the ethnic Hutu forces which carried out most of the slaughter has been a source of deep acrimony in its relations with Rwanda ever since the genocide. France has admitted mistakes but denied Rwandan accusations of complicity in the mass killings. Syria talks on fragile Idlib truce begin in Kazakhstan Astana, Kazakhstan, Nov 28 (AFP) Nov 28, 2018 Negotiators from Iran, Russia and Turkey met in Kazakhstan's capital Astana on Wednesday for two days of talks aiming to preserve a fragile 10-week-old truce in northern Syria, the Kazakh foreign ministry said. Talks got underway between delegations from the three regional power-brokers as well as the Syrian government and opposition, the ministry said in a statement. In addition to cooling the conflict around the northern province of Idlib -- the last major rebel and jihadist stronghold in Syria -- discussions will focus on creating conditions for the return of refugees and internally displaced people, as well as post-conflict reconstruction, the ministry said. The United Nations will be represented at the negotiations by Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura, according to the statement, in what will likely be his last engagement on the conflict before leaving the post. The 10-week-old Idlib truce deal is in the balance after an alleged chemical attack in the government-held city of Aleppo on Saturday, which has triggered retaliatory raids. The exact circumstances of the attack on three districts of the government-held city remain murky and bitterly disputed. The Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad has blamed fighters in neighbouring Idlib for the attack, which the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said hospitalised 94 people. The incident has put strain on an the already fragile agreement reached in mid-September to fend off a fully-fledged assault on Idlib, which Syria's regime -- backed by Russia and Iran -- has said it is committed to re-taking. More than half of the 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. In September, Russia and rebel backer Turkey agreed to set up a U-shaped buffer zone around Idlib to keep pro-government forces outside the region of some three million. But on Sunday, Russia said its war planes had carried out their first strikes in the zone since the deal was reached. Moscow said the raids were a response to the shelling of Aleppo by "terrorist groups" operating inside a part the planned demilitarised area held by HTS. The negotiations in Astana, expected to conclude on Thursday, are the eleventh of their kind since Moscow began a diplomatic push in early 2017 that effectively sidelined UN-led negotiations on Syria. The United States has attended some of the Astana rounds as an observer, but US Special Representative for Syria Engagement James Jeffrey said last week that Washington would not attend these talks. Syria's grinding seven-year civil war has killed more than 360,000 people and displaced millions. War no option for India and Pakistan, says Imran Khan Katarpur, Pakistan, Nov 28 (AFP) Nov 28, 2018 War is not an option for nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan, Prime Minister Imran Khan said Wednesday, adding that "friendship" was the only alternative. The Pakistani leader was speaking at a ceremony breaking ground on a secure corridor for Sikhs in India to visit a shrine to their religion's founder in eastern Pakistan. The opening, aimed at strengthening ties between the bitter neighbours, came just days after India marked the 10-year anniversary of the Mumbai terror attacks which left 166 people dead and were carried out by a militant group based in Pakistan. "We must bury the past," Khan told Indian and Pakistani officials as well as several thousand Sikhs at the ceremony in Kartarpur, where the mausoleum is located. "Both our countries have atomic weapons. There can't be war... what alternative is there but friendship?" "If India takes one step, we will take two," he added, repeating a message from one of his first speeches as Pakistan's new leader earlier this year. The project inaugurated by Khan Wednesday will see a secure corridor and bridge built between the two countries, leading directly to the grave of Sikhism's founder Guru Nanak, just four kilometres (two miles) from the Indian border. Upon completion of the work, scheduled for November 2019, Indian Sikhs will be able to access the site without first having to apply for a Pakistani visa. New Delhi had long been asking Islamabad for such a corridor. But realisation of the project was prevented by years of diplomatic cold between two countries that have fought three wars since the partition of the Indian sub-continent in 1947. The "peace corridor" is "a message of love and fraternity", said Shah Mehmood Qureshi, the Pakistani foreign minister, adding he saw it as "a precious opportunity between the two countries". Navjot Singh Sidhu, a minister from India's Punjab province, called the project a "miracle". The ceremony was also attended by two Indian federal ministers, Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Singh Puri -- both Sikhs. On Monday, India marked the Mumbai attacks with ceremonies at sites across the city that became battlegrounds in the 2008 violence, which dealt a critical blow to relations between the neighbours. US bombers no longer flying over Korean peninsula: US general Washington (AFP) Nov 26, 2018 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 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 ... read more Reviewed by Philip J. Ivanhoe ( November 28, 2018, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka Guardian) This volume aims at answering important questions about the historical sources of Zhu Xis philosophical system; it includes a wealth of information about earlier, Buddhist philosophical writings and makes clear how some of these appear to have informed and influenced the development of Zhus philosophical system. I will very briefly describe the contents of the volume, highlighting some of the ways in which the various chapters fill out our understanding of how Chinese Buddhist philosophy provided sources and context for the development of Zhus thought. I then will consider what the volume aims to and does achieve. The volume begins with an Introduction that is a substantial scholarly contribution in itself. The editor, John Makeham, describes and illustrates both the aims and methods of the collection and notes that while, united in their belief in the importance of tracing the Buddhist roots of Zhu Xis philosophy, the contributors do not always speak in a single voice about the nature or extent of these historical influences or the process by which some of them came to be incorporated into Zhu Xis philosophy. Makeham also presents clear and succinct synopses of the five chapters that follow. In chapter one, John Jorgensen explores the ways in which teachings about the radiant Buddha-nature of the tathagatagarbha tradition of Buddhism informed and inspired Zhu Xis ideas about the radiance of human nature (pp. 39-40). He begins with a helpful description of some core Chan doctrines that offered much of the historical context of Zhu Xis interactions with Buddhism and then proceeds to provide an extensive and meticulous account of the ideas, images, and metaphors used to convey the central teachings of the tathagatagarbha tradition. A characteristic theme of this literature and one that Jorgensen shows influenced Zhus thinking in a number of ways is the powerful radiance of the Buddha-nature. Jorgensen examines not only the nature of such radiance but also issues such as who can perceive it, what it can illuminate, and how it can become obscured. Such teachings held profound implications for the possibility of enlightenment in Buddhism and subsequently, Jorgensen argues, for the possibility of sage-hood in Zhu Xis neo-Confucian philosophy. This chapter is a treasury of primary textual sources and makes a strong case for the structural similarity between important aspects of Zhus views about human nature and earlier Buddhist beliefs about Buddha-nature.In the second contribution, Zhu Xis Critique of Buddhism: Selfishness, Salvation, and Self-Cultivation, Justin Tiwald seeks to refocus long-standing interests, which appear in later Confucian writings on Zhu Xi, about how well Zhu understood Buddhism or how fair he was in his criticisms of Buddhist teachings. Such questions recommend themselves to those who know that Zhu studied Buddhism deeply, extensively, and throughout much of the first third of his life and yet he often seems to get Buddhist teachings wrong, straw-mans them, or offers rather flat-footed criticisms. Tiwald contends that this impression is at least partly the result of the mistaken assumption that Zhu intended to represent accurately Buddhist ideas when advancing most of his major criticisms. Instead, Tiwald argues, we should see that Zhu was more interested in the views that Buddhist theories and practices presupposed . . . (and) in the shape that Buddhist doctrines took when put to the test by practitioners (p. 123). In other words, Zhus criticisms were based primarily upon what he saw as the implausible and unappealing assumptions and implications of Buddhist teachings rather than on accurate representations and analyses of their doctrines. One example of his concern with the implications of Buddhist teachings is Zhus oft-repeated charge that Buddhism leads its practitioners to ever-greater selfishness because its ultimate aim of salvation points them away from care for the world. This criticism has deeper significance for neo-Confucians because of their belief that the only way to develop greater care for the world is to devote oneself to extending the natural empathy and sympathetic concern we feel for other people, creatures, and things. So, while ostensibly dedicated to great compassion, Buddhists lack the practical means to develop genuine care. Moreover, the faith they express for their tradition, which masks their underlying desire for personal salvation, reveals that, their belief is insincere, thereby lacking in the crucial element sincerity or integrity (cheng ) that makes true virtue possible (p. 130). In chapter three, Buddhism and Zhu Xis Epistemology of Discernment, Stephen C. Angle describes three representative Chinese Buddhist approaches to epistemology that may well have influenced Zhu Xis thinking on how one comes to genuine knowledge. While Angle recognizes that such sources almost certainly influenced the structure as well as the content of Zhu Xis teachings about epistemology, he insists that we must not overlook the important differences that exist between his views and these earlier Buddhist precedents. Succinctly stated, his view is that, Zhu Xis epistemology does not co-opt the Chan Buddhist structure . . . while getting some of its underlying shape from the shared discourse, [it] has quite distinct concerns and goals (p. 157). One of the most original and revealing features of Angles analysis is his lapidary account of the interaction between the Buddhist and Confucian traditions. Rather than drawing straight lines between texts or ideas, he argues that we need to look at and overlay four major factors or forces that shaped this interaction: (1) philosophical developments within Chinese Buddhism, (2) the emergence of a shared Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist discourse in the late Tang, (3) the role Cheng Yi and two of his students played in the Confucian rapprochement with Buddhism, and (4) Zhu Xis personal experience with Buddhism. When we do this, we come to see an increasingly complex, multifaceted, and subtly inflected picture. Angle concludes by comparing Zhus epistemological views with earlier Buddhist precedents in regard to five issues: the underlying structure of knowing, the need to cultivate the self in order to understand, the relationships between different types and levels of knowing, the extent to which knowledge is innate, and the role of faith in the process of knowing. Brook A. Ziporyn contributes chapter four, The Ti-Yong Model and Its Discontents: Models of Ambiguous Priority in Chinese Buddhism and Zhu Xis Neo-Confucianism. Ti and yong are philosophical terms of art found in early, pre-Buddhist Chinese texts. Commonly translated substance and function they often mean something like what a thing is in itself or its inherent reality and how it naturally functions, responds, or behaves in the world. One classic example of ti and yong, found in the Platform Sutra, is a lighted lamp and its light; neo-Confucians often invoked these paired terms to convey the idea that human nature in itself (ti) naturally functions (yong) or manifests itself through practice of the virtues. Ziporyn leaves the terms un-translated; he is primarily interested in different models consisting of the pair in Chinese Buddhism and Zhu Xis philosophy. He describes three such models: the first is found in some pre-Buddhist texts as well as Huayan Buddhism and has two forms the classic ti-yong model and a radicalized version; the second is found in Tiantai Buddhism, and the third in Zhu Xis neo-Confucianism. All three models represent fundamental metaphysical views that involve distinctive conceptions of the relation between one and many, between prior and posterior, between foundational and derivative, between formless and formed, between unperceived and perceived, between indeterminate and determinate, between center and periphery (p. 193). As can be seen from the above quote, the ti-yong model purportedly does a lot of heavy lifting across these different traditions and schools; there is no doubt that the terms were important for both Buddhists and Zhu Xi, as well as for other Chinese thinkers Daoist and Confucian who predated as well as followed those discussed in this chapter. Ziporyn presents a very dense and detailed account of the ti-yong model in Huayan and Tiantai Buddhism and argues that Zhu Xi appropriated and modified such views and used them, for example, to develop his distinctive teachings about the ways in which pattern-principle (li ) does or does not pre-exist qi. In Ziporyns opinion, Zhu Xis case lies interestingly right between the two Buddhist cases (p. 236). Ziporyn presents valuable translations of the texts that form the basis of his argument and a great deal of interpretive explanation and analysis as well. At times, it is not altogether clear how the textual evidence and interpretation fit together. For example, throughout the section on Zhu Xis version of the ti-yong model, Ziporyn insists that Zhu Xi appeals to Centrality, a concept that we are told is synonymous with the actual effectivity (sic) of the Li that stands above and within all manifest existence (also Taiji) (p. 236). Once understood, this may be a useful way to describe aspects of Zhu Xis teachings, but the manner in which it is presented may lead readers to believe that Ziporyn is referring to a specific term found in Zhu Xis writings. Now, there are terms that one could reasonably translate as centrality such as , but that does not appear to be what Ziporyn has in mind. In the two passages that follow his introduction, which are presented as supporting his interpretation of Centrality, neither the word nor anything equivalent appears. This is puzzling since the argument is that this is one of the key notions that Zhu picked up from Tiantai Buddhism; one expects to be shown the textual trail leading from the Buddhist sources to Zhu Xis corpus but none is provided. In the fifth and final chapter, Monism and the Problem of Ignorance and Badness in Chinese Buddhism and Zhu Xis Neo-Confucianism, John Makeham describes a constellation of ideas derived from the late 6th century Buddhist work, the Treatise on Giving Rise to Faith in the Great Vehicle, that became a shared resource for East Asian philosophers and religious theorists over the course of centuries and continue to do so even today (p. 277). Makehams central focus is to show that while the Treatise explicitly advocates ontological monism, it does not sufficiently defend such a view; moreover, the text leaves itself open to and in certain respects encourages an alternative, dualist point of view. This vulnerability is especially acute in regard to its explanation of the origin of ignorance, which, given its overall philosophy, amounts to an account of how badness, evil and suffering arise (p. 278). Briefly put, the text maintains that the intrinsic reality (ti ) of the mind is perfectly pure, devoid of any conceptual overlay that might distort or defile it, and the source of everything. At the same time, it holds that ignorance prevents most sentient creatures from realizing the inherent purity of the mind. Their explanation of the origin of badness seems to introduce a fundamental dualism between the mind and ignorance, purity and defilement into their official monism. Zhu Xis philosophy reflects much of the structure of the shared resource that Makeham presents. He believed in the goodness of human nature and drew upon several of the Buddhist precedents described in developing his philosophical system, within which the intrinsic reality (ti ) of the nature was perfectly pure pattern (li ) and badness arose only because of the obscuration and impediment introduced by qi . He too advocated a monistic ontology of pattern and traced the origin of badness to a foreign influence that interferes with its natural function (yong ). It seems that in doing so, like his Buddhist predecessors, he too was haunted by a creeping dualism that undermines his official, monistic ontology, but Makeham maintains that Zhu avoids repeating the Buddhist mistake by developing, a monistic ontology in which the conditions that make badness possible are not associated with pattern but rather are associated with qi, but with the crucial stipulation that there can be no pattern without qi (p. 334). No serious scholar denies that Buddhist themes and ideas can be found throughout Zhu Xis philosophy and not just as objects of criticisms; Zhu clearly incorporated various Buddhist ideas and metaphors directly into his system and developed his own versions of some of these as well. Moreover, he and every other neo-Confucian adopts a characteristically Buddhist style of argument, for example by developing complex metaphysical arguments concerning deep and enduring conceptions of oneness between the self and the world that ground comprehensive ethics of care. While there is agreement about the existence of Buddhist influences of various kinds in Zhus thought there is less consensus on which elements of his thought find clear precedents in Buddhism, why these elements are there, or how they function as features of his thought. Some believe the presence of such elements is more accidental than purposeful.[1] Some believe they represent strategic borrowings by Zhu Xi designed to fend off or coopt parts of the competing Buddhist tradition. Most of the contributors to this volume see the Buddhist elements in Zhus thought as the intentional repurposing of Buddhist ideas to construct or support his own philosophical system. In my view, all of these explanations have some merit but account for different parts of Zhus philosophy. Versions of the first explanation often seem more plausible when we are trying to understand the fundamental orientation or style of neo-Confucians like Zhu, things like his conception of what it is to do philosophy, that were shared among Chinese intellectuals of his age. The latter view, characteristic of most of the contributors to this volume, often is right when what is under consideration is a specific concept or idea. Aside from these considerations, there remain questions about what the richer and more complete account of Buddhist influence that the volume works to provide adds to our understanding of Zhu Xis philosophy. The editor and a number of the contributors endorse what I shall call a strict historical-causal thesis: the idea that a fairly complete and accurate picture of the Buddhist roots of Zhus thought is necessary in order to understand what his philosophy has to say. Echoing ideas one finds among neo-Confucians, they hold that the roots may be hidden, but until one ferrets them out one cannot truly grasp what the branches of Zhu Xis system are saying. In the Introduction we are told that an accurate understanding of key aspects of Zhus philosophy can be achieved only by understanding the Buddhist contributions to the development of these and related concepts and to the theoretical debates that informed that development over the course of centuries (p. 34). This strikes me as much too strong a claim (the good news, though, is that it is not in any way required to support the value of the work under review). It is implausible to say that we cannot understand Zhus philosophy without understanding the influence of Buddhism, and in fact we might understand it less well if we approach his philosophy too firmly committed (dare I say attached) to such a belief. We dont want to be like the man with a hammer in his hand to whom everything looks like a nail (more on this below). It is, though, correct and important to say that a sophisticated appreciation of Buddhist philosophy can facilitate grasping Zhus thought, particularly in regard to some of his specific criticisms of Buddhist doctrine, and, what is different, can give us a more accurate and complete historical account of its development. The problems here concern the nature and value of doing history of philosophy or more broadly, intellectual history. The strong claim advanced by several contributors to this volume is that history is necessary for understanding philosophical ideas. In addition to posing possible dangers, like the one described above, this view runs into a regress problem, which I shall touch upon below; it also seems to rely upon a mistaken epistemological commitment: that historical accounts are the only way to appreciate philosophical claims. Among the problems that plague such a view is that it appears to assume there is only one way to arrive at a particular philosophical belief, that unless we pass through a particular historical process we cant arrive at certain kinds of philosophical beliefs. This is untenable. It is like someone who discovers that a distant culture wears pants with two legs just as we do and concludes from this that there must have been contact and influence between the two cultures. Sometimes the explanation for similar ideas, arguments, or practices lies in some feature of human nature in the example of pants, physiology or in the efficacy of some particularly successful response to a shared challenge creatures like us face in the world. The strict historical-causal thesis leads some of the contributors at times to an insufficiently nuanced view of how ideas and language in general and metaphors in particular work. For example, a number of contributors note the importance of the mirror as a metaphor for neo-Confucians like Zhu. They rightly point out that he picks up his particular version of the mirror metaphor roughly as representing the pure mind obscured by adventitious impurities most immediately from Chinese Buddhist sources like the Platform Sutra. This is surely right, but because they are excessively intent on tracing all such ideas back to Buddhist sources, they discount how important earlier Chinese precedents are: not only for neo-Confucian uses of the metaphor of the mind-as-mirror but also of course for Chinese Buddhist examples as well. None of the contributors points out that the metaphor of the mind-as-mirror is rarely found in Indian Buddhist sources, seems to have developed largely in China, and with distinctively Chinese characteristics.[2] Some do note that there are precedents in very early Daoist and Confucian texts such as the Zhuangzi and Xunzi but discount the importance of such examples. Zhuangzi uses the mind-as-mirror metaphor to convey how human beings naturally know and respond well to the world before they become defiled by overly self-centered desires. It is true, as one contributor points out (pp. 53-54n77), that Zhuangzi does not draw the precise analogy of corrupted human nature being like a mirror defiled by dust, but this is largely irrelevant to the core features of the metaphor, which is that human beings in their original state are pure, function properly, and only go astray by allowing their original nature and minds to be corrupted by something foreign to them. Moreover, contrary to what is claimed, Zhuangzi and other Daoists argued at length that one must work to undo the bad influences and return to ones original state by engaging in a distinctive process of cultivation. Returning to an original pure state is one of the most characteristic features of early Daoism and this idea played a major role in the development of certain strains of Chinese Buddhism. Such early Daoists offer a clear example of a recovery model of self-cultivation, and this model and the metaphor were taken up and developed by later Chinese thinkers, first Buddhists and then neo-Confucians.[3] The point here is that the development of Chinese philosophy is a complex story of mutual influence, inspiration, argument, and development. The influence doesnt just run from Chinese Buddhism to neo-Confucianism; we must sometimes put down that hammer, so that we can see and appreciate greater complexity. This example also illustrates the point made earlier about how historical understanding can enrich our understanding of the development of philosophy but is not necessary for grasping later philosophical views. A careful reader can easily understand Buddhist or neo-Confucian ideas about the mind-as-mirror without knowing the earlier Daoist precedents. If we needed to understand all the precedents for and the particular trajectory leading up to a particular philosophical (or scientific) idea before we could understand the idea, understanding would not be possible. This volume contains a wealth of information about early Buddhist philosophy and how it often influenced, in ways both dramatic and subtle, Zhu Xis philosophy. It succeeds in making the case for rather extensive influence and widespread intentional appropriation, providing evidence and argument that is often compelling. At times, some of the contributors claim too much by insisting that we must grasp these Buddhist sources of Zhus philosophy in order to understand and appreciate what he is trying to say, but there is no need to rely on such a claim in order to establish the great value of all that the volume achieves. Like many great thinkers, Zhu Xi not only argued against but borrowed from, coopted, and repurposed competing traditions of thought just as thinkers in those traditions among them Buddhism argued against, borrowed from, coopted, and repurposed the competition of their and earlier times. Also like them, Zhu began the task of philosophizing within a particular historical and cultural context in which certain ideas, orientations, problems, and styles constituted a shared paradigm for thinking. Understanding the context and precedents of Zhu Xis philosophy can often help us grasp the points he makes, and it adds new dimensions to our appreciation of all that he accomplished and how it came to be. This volume makes an unprecedented contribution to such understanding. [1] Peter Bol is criticized for holding a version of this view (p. 34), though, as I note below, if we mean by this that such ideas were just in the air, part of a shared discourse, and just how Chinese intellectuals of this period thought about themselves and the world, in at least some cases such a view has considerable merit. [2] For the history and significance of the mind-as-mirror metaphor that makes clear its distinctively Chinese origin and character, see Paul Demievilles essay, The Mirror of the Mind, tr. Neal Donner, in Peter N. Gregory, ed., Sudden and Gradual: Approaches to Enlightenment in Chinese Thought, (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1987): 13-40. (Originally published as Le Miroir Spirituel, Sinologica 1.2 [1947]: 112-137) and Harold H. Oshima, A Metaphorical Analysis of the Concept of Mind in Chuang-Tzu, in Victor H. Mair, ed., Experimental Essays on Chuang-tzu (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1983): 63-84. [3] Xunzi, almost certainly borrowing from Zhuangzi, uses the metaphor of the mind as placid water that reflects the true state of affairs when its surface is not disturbed by the wind. Here we see a clear precedent for later images of the surface of a mirror obscured by adventitious dust, though Xunzi, unlike Zhuangzi or the Buddhists, thinks the mirror-like mind only allows one to begin to understand and respond to the world. Unlike them, he endorses a reformation model of self-cultivation. On the distinction between recovery and reformation models of self cultivation, see Philip J. Ivanhoe, Confucian Moral Self Cultivation, rev. ed. (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 2000). The country has gone through a transformation since 1991 and is now one of the worlds most vibrant young democracies by Anwar A Khan ( November 27, 2018, Dhaka, Sri Lanka Guardian) Bangladesh will go to the National Polls on 30 December 2018, so political parties; ambitious businessmen and ambitious politicians are already maneuvering for position. The countrys election is driven by race and religion; identity politics played a big role in the outcome. It remains to be seen if identity politics will play as big a role in the election. However, despite secular political parties, various hardline conservative Islamic trading groups are also mobilised with great effect during the election. The country, however, has gone through a transformation since 1991 and is now one of the worlds most vibrant young democracies. Bangladeshs economic growth is thrilling in effect and will likely remain so. The country is growing fast enough to get there and has not changed one thing that holds it back: its institutions. Many young people are out of work and they lack the skills to compete in a globalised economy. However, the legacy of weak institutions remains and with identity politics at play, the pendulum has the potential to swing back. 2018 polls will likely mark a test in tolerance for Bangladesh and whether it can maintain its secular moderate democracy into the future. We wish that the new government to be emerged after the elections does not face the difficult task of enacting the reforms necessary for full democratisation and returning back to the spirit of 1972 constitution. In any case, the precedent has been set in the country: Changing the national government through elections under the constitutional framework will now be possible. Moreover, this election would mean important changes for governance, society and many more areas. But the political complexities call into question how radical this change will actually be. The new government to be installed after the voting has to promise some reforms but the question remains as to whether these go far enough to address the degree to which minorities have been marginalised. If not, this support could waver in the long term. The real test will be whether the incoming administration can begin to bridge this gap It is not yet clear how radical the new governments reform agenda will be. If anything, there is a risk that changes will not go far enough to tackle some of the countrys deep structural and societal inequalities. But with a mandate to move away from the policies of the past, and there is now an exciting opportunity for meaningful change in the country. We have not heard the Election Communiques from the major political parties as yet. And that is very significant to hear from them to enable the voters for their right choice of candidates and the political party. In the context of present political scenario, the most distressing part of the opposition political alliance under the leadership of Dr. Kamal Hossain, one time a very close yokefellow of Bangladeshs Founding Father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and other key leaders of National Oikya Front veteran freedom fighters who fought valiantly in 1971 to liberate the soil of Bangladesh from the occupation Pakistani military force have now further ceded to the feet of anti-Bangladesh liberation forces and their mango-twigs. The new government to be installed after the National Elections will face many challenges. Many governmental bodies need new and firm guarantees of its independence and competence. Official bodies that regulate elections, fight corruption and cope with crime require foolproof insulation from political meddling. The minorities need strong support before and after the voting to find their way into the countrys mainstream from marginalisation. They have to be freed from harassment, even persecution, by an overblown religious bureaucracy that also victimises moderate Muslims. A country that lost large portions of political freedom because of their past misdeeds will confront a heavy agenda of revitalisation and removing the scars of bad smells of anti-Bangladesh liberation force from their skins. Many problems are urgent, and short-term remedies need to be initiated and translated into realities. Personnel of doubtful probity have to be removed from important commissions. A clean-up of the government will be a dire emergency needed one. The new government has to be quick to act when it comes to tarnished officials, and it has to promise to repeal oppressive laws, if any. Systemic reforms will be harder. Creating real independence for institutional bodies that need to be free of partisan meddling is more challenging. That will require borrowing of techniques developed elsewhere. At the very least, durable institutions depend on deliberate decisions that are made ceremoniously, are well recorded, and are widely agreed, so that any violation will be immediately obvious. The Bangladeshs Constitution is decidedly democratic and contains clear guarantees of religious freedom for people of all religions. Still, the most urgent parts of a democracy agenda non-discrimination and freedom of thought may be hard to secure rapidly or fully given the constellation of forces sitting in Bangladeshs Parliament. Most major political parties and candidates organised partisan poll watchers to deploy to polling stations on Election Day. Participation rates in the voting will have increased if automation in full for voting is implemented sooner reverting a downward trend that was hindering democracy. The confidence of the public in the result and the use of technology would help to enable people all over the country and even those living overseas to make their voices heard. The count of the vote counting machines is to be found coincide with the manual count of the time in the random manual audit conducted by an appropriate authority. The result of the audit strongly to be validated the accuracy of the automated election system. The result should be as impressive as almost perfect. Given the challenges involved in observing the move to electronic technologies, greater capacity building and coordination among the groups would produce a more effective observation of the elections. In past, IT groups and traditional election observation groups did not coordinate their resources well enough to take advantage of each others strengths, knowledge and networks. Citizen observation groups, particularly those who lacked IT capacity in the past did not sufficiently refine their monitoring methodologies to take into account the new technologies of the past elections. In many cases, they did not have the specific expertise to anticipate where problems could occur. Without official access to many aspects of the process, the groups often had to rely on access to contacts and relationships to gain access to information on ECs decisions and processes (insider information), rather than formal opportunities to observe such processes. Finally, several groups noted they should have better trained observers on understanding the new technology and its vulnerabilities. Most major political parties and candidates organised partisan poll watchers to deploy to polling stations on Election Day. Parties in Bangladesh have done this for many years under the manual election system, so the switch to electronic counting technologies has presented a challenge. As in previous elections, parties and candidates tended to field poll watchers in locations where they had a stronger ground presence and where they were most concerned about fraud. For decades, the phenomenon of the opposition coalition has gained growing traction and interest in Bangladesh. There should have been a broad and impressive coalition, bringing together many well-known faces and politicians who have electoral support outside of traditional opposition strongholds based on the true spirit that we achieved in 1971 through our glorious liberation war. But for every opposition alliance Bangladesh has seen, there have been several more that have crumbled after early optimism or fallen flat at the ballot box. One crucial indicator of whether an opposition coalition will succeed is how polarised the political landscape is. This can determine the degree to which parties are able to join forces coherently and without undermining their own reputation and principles. There are tricky questions. But in many ways, they are just the start. Even once these dilemmas are resolved; there is still the ultimate question of whether even a perfectly-coherent and functional opposition coalition has much chance of winning. Bringing together a range of opposition parties is the first step in defeating the ruling party, not the final blow. On this front, the prospects for the opposition in Bangladesh do not look particularly rosy. AL remains the most organised political party with the largest organisational reach. If it could make it work, a broad coalition would bolster its ranks and could give it further appeal. But there remain serious concerns in the opposition including poor strategic thinking, complacency, a tendency towards authoritarianism, internal fractionalisation and registering their names with the ant-Bangladesh liberation camp. Those of us, who are now sexagenarian or close to septuagenarian, can hark back those of days of our glorified Liberation War of 1971 to attain Bangladesh and many extolled movements during the pre-independence days which eventually culminated our war with the savage Pakistani rulers to acquire an independent and sovereign state for us; for our people. And that will remain ever fresh in our minds and hearts while we go for voting. In fact, Dr. Kamal Hossain and his present buddies are now under the fullest control of anti-Bangladesh liberation force and their brutal confederates. It is also miserable that Dr. Kamals compadres will now vote for the forthcoming national elections under the symbol of Sheaf of Paddy which belongs to the election symbol of anti-Bangladesh liberation force. Dr. Kamal Hossain is a solitary wolf here! He is a flunkey of the genus of haws comprising the harriers here! Dr. Kamal Hossain and Dr. B. Chowdhury were hand and glove with each other for a very long time. But being impish in character, he has not bothered to throw away Dr. B. Chowdhury momently from his alliance metier. With the passage of time and when the voting date comes closer, more ugly and cruel pictures of them will uprise, as some political analysts in Bangladesh believe. The parliamentary form of government is in existence in Bangladesh and the premier has to be an elected persona. Dr. Kamal will not contest in the upcoming national polls. So, if the regime changes through ballots under any circumstances, he will be lost away from the political scene or thrown away into the outfall at a far-off grime place by his own compadres. Even if he is made president of the country, he will have no power to plug any ill actions of his buddies as per our present constitution. In fact, Dr. Kamal has been put into the present showcase of political panorama by the obnoxious nexus of the disdainful CIA-ISI outfit in collusion with the anti-Bangladesh liberation force to play funky punts at their hands for serving their savage and ugly interests only, not for Bangladesh and its people. So, Dr. Kamal led coalition is not a fine line, at all. As a matter of fact, it will be a dingy line for Bangladesh to further rapine it with more ferocities to foster taking back the country into the stopped dead state of Pakistani amours which we buried in 1971 through our glorious liberation war. So, the people of Bangladesh should be very careful about them so that this flunky group cant do any further colossal damage to the spirits of our glorified Liberation War of 1971! -The End- The writer is a senior citizen of Bangladesh, writes on politics, political and human-centred figures, current and international affairs. by Alaina B. Teplitz ( November 28, 2018, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) I had a chance to meet you all briefly, and of course youre experiencing a selection of what American farmers and food producers have to offer. Were looking not just to give you a taste, but also hopefully to tantalize you to want more of the items that you will be tasting tonight. American farmers and food companies strive to send the highest quality products to Sri Lanka and the world, and I want to encourage Sri Lankan grocers and hoteliers and restauranteurs to sample this selection and be thinking about buying it tomorrow. American products are here for you and your customers and I think you will find that they will serve you well. I know certainly, you will be happy after eating them. And while the United States I think is known generally for our high-tech software products, advanced manufacturing of airplanes, electric cars, we were actually founded as an agricultural country. Agriculture-related industries continue to play a very significant role in the American economy. In 2016, American farms and food manufacturers employed over four million workers in the United States and grew or produced over $135 billion worth of food, feed and beverage exports to the world. Because of this, Americans and the world enjoy a food supply that is abundant, affordable, and among the worlds safest, thanks in large part to the efficiency and productivity of Americas farms and manufacturers. So Im very proud to note that we are the worlds top exporter of food and agricultural products and want to ensure that our food export relationship is strong with Sri Lanka. Agricultural products here accounted for $134 million out of the total of $336 million in exports from the United States to Sri Lanka in 2017. Wed like to see that number rise. Whether its fresh fruits, cheese, or other dairy products, or soybean or other grains that feed Sri Lankas agricultural industry, the average Sri Lankan has more options than ever to try American agriculture and food products. The U.S. is still Sri Lankas single largest export market and both Sri Lankan farmers and U.S. consumers benefit from our two-way trade. In 2017, Sri Lanka exported $195 million dollars worth of agricultural products to the U.S., enabling U.S. consumers to enjoy Sri Lankas world-renowned teas, spices, nuts, and tropical oils. Thats what I call a win/win relationship. So without further ado, I dont want to keep you from the chef and from enjoying the cuisine, but I encourage you to think about the opportunities here tonight and spend some time getting to know our sponsors and the products that they can supply. (Article based on the remarks by the author as the newly appointed US Ambassador to Colombo and Maldives at the at U.S. Food Promotion Event) 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. Malaga. The Global Head of Schools at Cambridge Assessment English, Guy Chapman, was in Malaga last week to help congratulate a local English language school, Miss Mendez, for its ten years of achieving high grades in exams. Accompanied by Jonathan Baum, director of Exams Andalucia, Chapman joined the school's director Lucia Mendez and around 170 teachers, friends and students at the celebration at the Terraza Gourmet in El Corte Ingles. Chapman explained that last year 30,000 students took Cambridge English examinations in eastern Andalucia (Malaga, Granada, Jaen and Almeria), but added that he has "a very special interest" in Miss Mendez, whose director, he said had successfully applied the advice he gave her when she was starting out ten years ago. Lucia Mendez pointed out that hers was a small school but this year all the 50 students who sat Cambridge exams passed with merit or distinction. Computer-based centre Also in Malaga last week, Guy Chapman and Jonathan Baum visited the city's first computer-based Cambridge exam facility. Nep English School's new centre, its fourth in the city, meets all the technical requirements to allow students to take the Cambridge exams using a computer rather than the traditional pen and paper, explained the school's director Paqui Nunez. The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said the deploying additional troops to the provinces of Samar, Negros Oriental and Occidental and the Bicol region to suppress lawless violence is not a prelude to a creeping martial law in the country. Its to ensure that our people are safe, our communities are safe and our countryman can freely go about their lives and experience a better life), AFP Spokesman Brig. Gen. Edgard Arevalo said in a press briefing at Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City. Proclamation No. 55 issued by President Duterte on September 4, 2016 declared a state of national emergency on account of lawless violence in Mindanao and called out the Armed Forces and the Philippine National Police (PNP) to suppress any and all forms of lawless violence in Mindanao in response to the 2016 Davao City bombing. Arevalo said MO 32 is not for any other reason but only to ensure that we are doing our job as a government in our capacity as Armed Forces. In a statement, Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said, The Palace views with concern the growing number of sporadic acts of violence that have recently occurred in various areas of the country, particularly in Samar, Negros Oriental, Negros Occidental, and the Bicol Region, which have been committed by lawless groups. Among the acts of lawlessness reported in Negros Oriental, Panelo said were the torching of heavy equipment in Manjuyod, strafing of the house of the barangay chairman, attack of police detachments, and the killing of a police chief in separate occasions in Guihulngan. In Negros Occidental, Panelo enumerated the lawless incidents, namely the attack against the 62nd Infantry Battalion while conducting clearing and combat operations in preparation for the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections in Kabankalan and the massacre of nine farmers in Sagay. Panelo, meantime, assured that the military and police have been reminded to respect and give due regard to the rights of persons in the latest peace and order campaign. Vancouver Archbishop J. Michael Miller is urging his multicultural flock to think about new ways to embrace Christmas this year. In particular, he encouraged local Catholic parishes to embrace the Filipino communitys beautiful gift of Simbang Gabi. That centuries-old tradition includes celebrating nine Masses before dawn for nine days in honour of Our Lady and in anticipation of Christmas Dec. 15-23. It is my hope that Simbang Gabi will be embraced by the faithful beyond the Filipino community as a fitting way of preparing for Christmas, Archbishop Miller wrote in a letter to pastors, according to BC Catholic News. Celebrating Mass for nine consecutive days during Advent has been a tradition in the Philippines since the 17th century. It has been popular in the Greater Vancouver area for at least a decade and a half. It is keeping our tradition and history in the Church in the Philippines alive, said Homer Reyes, who immigrated to Canada 15 years ago. The historic tradition is well established at his parish, Our Lady of Good Counsel. When the Surrey church first hosted Simbang Gabi 14 years ago, Reyes said hundreds of Filipinos came out. Its been increasing in popularity since; he said more than 1,000 people participated last year, filling the pews and sending organizers scrambling to find extra seating. Thats despite the fact they usually hold the celebration at 4:30 a.m. The purpose was to evangelize the farmer, who wakes up early and starts work, said Reyes. We started to adapt the tradition here. In the modern world, it is to expand the devotion to Mary, who is bringing the Messiah, called Emmanuel. It may be a sacrifice to get to church so early, but its one many in his community are willing to make. Reyes has noticed an increasing number of non-Filipino parishioners at Simbang Gabi, including those who attend the churchs Indo-Canadian, Laotian, Polish, and Spanish Masses. Thats good news for Filipinos, according to Mike Guia of Holy Trinity Parish in North Vancouver. It is a very gratifying, fulfilling thing for us Filipinos to be sharing our traditions, he said. Holy Trinity annually has a modest turnout for Simbang Gabi, welcoming 100-200 people to the early morning Masses. A couple hundred more will turn up if the novena Mass falls on a weekend or Christmas Eve. Weve seen, every year, more and more people from other races, said Guia. As a result, Holy Trinity now hosts the celebration in English and Tagalog. At least half a dozen parishes host Simbang Gabi: Our Lady of Good Counsel and Holy Trinity, as well as Immaculate Conception Parish (Delta), St. Patricks (Vancouver), St. Marys (Vancouver), and St. Matthews (Surrey). Over the years, some communities have hosted all nine Masses, while others have jumped from church to church each day. Advent tends to be a solemn occasion in the local Church, but not so for many Filipino Catholics. Simbang Gabi events often include skits, music, and a big community meal. Priests wear white robes instead of the traditionally solemn purple. We know for a fact that Mary has a son called the Messiah, said Reyes. We should be rejoicing! This is good news. There were 837,130 Filipinos living in the country as of 2016, according to Statistics Canada, nearly a fifth residing in B.C. Many tend to be committed Catholics, which can pose a challenge to them when they immigrate to a foreign, secular country with unfamiliar customs like Canada, said Deacon Greg Barcelon, head of the archdioceses Filipino Ministry. There is a very big pastoral concern there, that we provide something for them that they can connect with, he said. Earlier this year, Deacon Barcelon released guidelines on celebrating Simbang Gabi for priests who have never done so before. Our goal is to get these Filipinos who are not coming to church to come and integrate themselves and participate in our parishes. If we can do that, our Mass attendance will grow and we will help them maintain their faith in this very tough environment in Canada. Archbishop Miller also sees Simbang Gabi as an evangelization tool. It is an opportunity to welcome many non-practising Filipinos back to the Church and provides a much-appreciated and familiar liturgical celebration for the older members of the Filipino community, he wrote in his letter. He urged any parish with Filipino members to host the traditional pre-Christmas novena this year. Those who promise to do so will be recognized at Holy Rosary Cathedral Dec. 14, one day before Filipinos across the globe begin to celebrate the pre-dawn Masses once again. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Tanita D. Rahmani (The Jakarta Post) Cambridge Wed, November 28, 2018 15:55 1093 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e4b9d6 3 Opinion Australia,Jerusalem,Indonesia,bilateral-relations,Palestine,Israel,international-relations Free The initial anticipation to sign the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement between Indonesia and Australia recently dwindled as Scott Morrison, Australias Prime Minister, announced on Nov. 12 that theres no rush to sign the deal. The shift came after multiple strong condemnations from Indonesia on Morrisons flag to relocate its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Given Indonesias forbearing disposition in its international affairs, its censure meant only serious. Indeed, support for the Palestinian struggle for statehood has been one of Indonesias most emblematic foreign policies for years, and keeping Jerusalem to its special international status is part and parcel to that support. The Palestinians themselves, at least after the 1967 war, consider the city as its future capital city. Thats why in light of the United States embassy relocation from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem last May, not only did dozens of Palestinians themselves fall into martyrdom, the Palestinian authorities also brought its first ever case against the US before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in September. There are many reasons why Indonesia may be infuriated by Canberras unprecedented plan. Australias recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital may have been upsetting because of that emotional connection that many Indonesian have with the Old City. Or perhaps Indonesia wants to reciprocate to Palestinians, among the first to recognize and support Indonesia in our early days of statehood. Or perhaps Indonesia believes in the cause of independence for Palestinians, owing to the historical anti-colonial movement that Indonesias forefather led in Bandung in 1955. Or perhaps it is because of all of them. As Australias closest neighbor and one of its most strategic ally, it is understandable to constitute this move as an act of betrayal against a dear friend. But beyond these valid reasons, what makes Australias announcement disturbing is because unlike recognition from small states like Guatemala, which followed the US in moving its embassy, recognition from a country like Australia, if carried out, is impactful enough to create irreversible ramification to Palestine. Even when Australia has never been and probably cannot be a key player in the Israel-Palestine peace talks. Statehood does not rest on mere existence. A diplomatic mission is the currency to obtain that status. Where ones mission is established validates the territorial boundaries of a state and recognizes the functioning government; they are the formal recognition that an entity needs to enjoy the privileges of becoming a state. Yet, how many missions does one need to ascend to that status? Indonesia, along with 136 other countries, has recognized the state of Palestine. The city of Ramallah and Jerusalem are home to over 40 foreign consulates to Palestine, and the Palestinian authority has opened 98 embassies abroad and sends missions to various international fora. Yet its status remains inchoate. Apparently recognition from developed, western, and virtuous states has, unfortunately but ultimately, become considerable capital for a states successful establishment. In the past, Kosovos independence and statehood were not challenged by the ICJ because more than 90 states recognized Kosovo, including the US and United Kingdom. On the other hand, entities claiming independence -- such as South Ossetia and Abkhazia from Georgia -- have never fully been admitted as a state due to the very limited number of recognition and the fact that no powerful states have recognized them, save for Russia, which has not really enjoyed the association of being a virtuous state, for whatever reason. Thats why Australias recognition matters for the two-state solution that it earlier claimed to commit itself to. Sweden became the first major European country to recognize the Palestinian state in 2014. However, its move has not inspired enough courage or will among other major European states to follow, although many of them have had missions and deployed representatives in Ramallah. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trumps move to relocate its embassy for Israel to Jerusalem has been difficult to block. This is despite the United Nations Security Council resolutions No. 242 and 338 that affirm that Jerusalem belongs to neither the Israeli nor the Palestinians until negotiations have been concluded, and although the principle not to recognize a disputed territory exists under international law. In fact, Australia is itself the proof why its future recognition matters. While no other European countries have laid out their plan to follow the US, PM Morrison has nevertheless. As a politically and economically powerful country which still enjoys relatively good reputation in its global affairs, Australias acknowledgment of Jerusalem can further spur other powerful countries to enjoin its course of action. It leaves Palestine in further jeopardy if the shared narrative is that an embassy relocation would end the protracted conflict between Israel and Palestine, as claimed by both Trump and Morrison. As Norman Finkelstein, a renowned scholar and activist on the Israeli-Palestine conflict, once wrote, there is a huge power that lies in the court of public opinion. While Indonesias recognition of another state may not be as impactful as that of the US or Australia, nor are we a key player in the Middle East peace process, the very act of persistent condemnation counts as a useful capital that helps create public opinion; opinions that may have just managed to upend the plan of the big and powerful. *** The author is a political and policy researcher at Indonesia In-Depth, a podcast on Indonesian issues. As a student researcher at Cambridge Palestine Trek, she conducted a research trip to Palestine with several other selected students from the University of Cambridge. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Endy M. Bayuni (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, November 28, 2018 10:05 1093 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e3ab0d 1 Opinion Indonesia,business,government,Jokowi,politics,Soeharto,president Free 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. Government in a democratic Indonesia has inevitably become more pro-business. Successive administrations in post-Soeharto Indonesia have all been pro-business. It is more a question of how close they are to the business world. Joko Jokowi Widodo, Indonesias seventh president, is the countrys first with a business background. The owner of a small furniture business, however, was elected in 2014 by virtue of his proven leadership and managerial skills in leading the Surakarta mayoralty from 2005 to 2012 and the Jakarta special capital region from 2012 to 2014. His deputy, Jusuf Kalla, comes from the business world and began his political career in the Golkar Party, historically the most pro-business party going back to the Soeharto years. Kalla, who also served as vice president to Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono from 2004 to 2009, built the Kalla family business empire from his home province in South Sulawesi. The Jokowi-Kalla election in 2014 showed voters have no qualms about businesspeople running for political office. Bidding for his reelection in April, Jokowi chose Islamic scholar Maruf Amin as VP candidate. His lone challenger, former Army general Prabowo Subianto, picked self-made billionaire Sandiaga Uno as running mate. The intrusion of business into government in Indonesia has gone far deeper in the two decades since Soehartos departure. More and more regional governments are now headed by businessmen. Businesspeople outnumber people from a non-business background in eight of the 10 political parties in the current House of Representatives. The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the National Awakening Party (PKB) are the two exceptions. If Soeharto in the past preferred military men as ministers, Cabinets are now filled more and more by business types. In Jokowis Cabinet, at least five come from the business world. There is nothing illegal about the marriage between business and the government. Jokowi used his business knowledge to demand cuts in red tape, including at seaports, which he said was slowing down businesses. Through his insistence, Indonesia improved its ranking in the World Banks annual Ease of Doing Business index from the 104th to the 73rd position between 2014 and 2019. But the presence of more businesspeople in the executive and legislative branches of the government raises the question of possible conflicting interests and unethical practices when they use their positions to affect laws and policies that favor their businesses. Ironically, the potential for collusion between government and business has grown and widened in a democratic Indonesia. Soeharto was forced from power in 1998 precisely because rampant corruption virtually bankrupted the country. Little has changed since then, in spite of the anti-KKN (which stands for corruption, collusion and nepotism) campaign proclaimed by successive elected presidents. Soeharto was more subtle, whereby the collusion was confined to a few chosen tycoons, the most prominent of which was Sudono Salim, founder of the Salim Group. This small group was later joined by Soehartos grownup children, in the 1990s. These groups enjoyed concessions, privileges and lucrative contracts that allowed them to build their business empires. The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), set up in 2004, may have netted hundreds of big-time corrupt officials, but it seems to have kept collusion and nepotism practices untouched. The marriage between business and government is not problematic, as long as there is transparency. More problematic are the illicit relationships that escape detection. The English word adultery hardly describes this relationship, since in the context of the world where the word comes from, it is something that seems to be socially acceptable. The Indonesian word perselingkuhan, on the other hand, not only carries an immoral connotation, but since it is widely practiced nevertheless and people turn a blind eye, it connotes hypocrisy. There are few winners and many losers in this perselingkuhan. It leads to unfair competition, protectionism for a few players, space for rent-seekers and for long chains of middlemen controlling trade, farmers being squeezed for their products and consumers made to pay higher prices, and a tata niaga, or a trade system that encourages or protects cartel practices. Next time we elect another pro-business government, we should be more critical and ask the question, whose business exactly? Business mixing with politics has become a fact of life in Indonesian democracy. We hope people are smart enough to know who they are voting for in every election. If its any consolation, Indonesia is not the only one with this problem. The worlds oldest democracy has a hotel mogul as president. *** The writer is senior editor of The Jakarta Post. This article is based on his Nov. 8 panel presentation at the Public Lecture Corporate Political Activities in Emerging Countries held in Jakarta by Airlangga University and the Indonesian chapter of the Institute of Chartered Accountants England and Wales. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Inforial (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta, Indonesia Wed, November 28, 2018 14:36 1093 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877ea48be 4 Inforial Free Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita has expressed optimism about Indonesias ability to enter the Algerian market and other non-traditional markets as Indonesian products were in high demand during one-on-one business matching at the Indonesia-Algeria Business Forum in Algiers on Nov. 21. At the event, 13 Indonesian companies sold their products to roughly 250 businesspeople from Algeria, Jordan, France, Tunisia, Turkey, Senegal and the Ivory Coast. Among the products were furniture, interior products, instant noodles, palm oil, car tires and jewelry, all of which posted potential trade of Rp 166 billion (US$11 million). . (Courtesy of Ministry of Trade/.) Im certain that we can improve our bilateral trade significantly if we seek positive and continual involvement of officials and businesspeople of the two countries, Enggartiasto said during the opening of the business forum. Enggartiasto was also encouraging cooperation and trade among Algerian and Indonesian businesspeople. African nations, he added, would always be the priority for greater cooperation and closer collaboration with Indonesia. "The Indonesian government hopes for strong support from the businesspeople to improve the bilateral trade and investment to a higher level, Enggartiasto added. Algeria, located in a strategic location, is a potential target market for Indonesian products. The non-traditional market could also serve as a means for Indonesia to enter even larger markets. Algeria is located in the intersection of three regions: Europe, the Middle East and Africa. That is among the many reasons why were bringing business delegates to Algeria. We want to partner up with Algeria to make the most of the strategic location of this country, Enggartiasto explained. Last month, Enggartiasto continued, the Trade Ministry held the biggest trade exhibition in Indonesia, Trade Expo Indonesia (TEI), in which 34 buyers from Algeria came and made a total of US$9.5 million worth of transactions. Popular Indonesian products among Algerian buyers were raw palm oil, coffee, furniture, cosmetics and herbs and spices. . (Courtesy of Ministry of Trade/.) The Trade Ministrys director general of national export development, Arlinda, added that the trade mission program was particularly effective in export trade penetration. The trade mission becomes a way of accelerating trade because Indonesian business players can directly meet their potential partners, Arlinda said. From the trade aspect, Indonesia exported $206.9 million in non-oil goods to Algeria in 2017. Meanwhile, Algeria exported oil and gas commodities to Indonesia for $312.8 million. The number, however, is still relatively small compared to the real potential of the two countries. Indonesias main export products to Algeria include palm oil, coffee, tuna, electronic devices and coconut oil. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Alex Whiting (Reuters) Rome, Italy Wed, November 28, 2018 07:04 1093 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e2ed8c 2 Art & Culture Europe,heritage,disaster,Venice,Spain,research,UNESCO-World-Heritage-Site Free From the floating city of Venice to prehistoric rock carvings in Spain, Europe's cultural heritage is vulnerable to floods, quakes and wildfires, and requires better protection to preserve it for future generations, officials and researchers said. Earlier this month, storms in Italy destroyed 14 million trees, caused damage of at least 1 billion euros ($1.14 billion) in the northern Veneto region, and severely flooded Venice. The storms were a reminder of the "impact of climate change and extreme weather events which we are seeing unfortunately everywhere in Europe now", said Mami Mizutori, head of the U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR). Over the last 20 years, Italy, France and Germany featured in the top 10 countries worldwide for economic losses caused by disasters, she told a UNISDR conference in Rome this month. The storms have also brought into sharp focus how to protect the rich culture of Venice from rising sea levels and extreme weather events, said Mizutori. Venice is one of several Mediterranean UNESCO World Heritage sites threatened by coastal erosion and flooding as oceans creep higher, said a study published in the journal Nature last month. Flood barriers now under construction should protect the city from rising sea levels up to the year 2100, it noted. Meanwhile, locals plan to avoid further damage to St Marks Basilica by using movable flood barriers and improving its rainwater drainage system, said Pierpaolo Campostrini, managing director of CORILA, a consortium researching the Venice lagoon. Venice also needs to invest more in protecting buildings from lightning strikes, which are becoming more frequent as temperatures rise with global warming, he said. Culture is fragile, he added - and preserving it is important not just for tourism or to protect valuable artifacts, but because of the spiritual connection it offers people. If you break the link between the community and the artifacts, you break something very precious, and society can become really fragmented, said Campostrini, who is also on the board that looks after St Marks Basilica. Read also: Europe's largest wooden building awaits salvation off Istanbul Art under fire Relatively simple interventions can do much to protect historic buildings and monuments from natural threats, officials and academics said at the UNISDR forum in late November. But that requires planning and making local people aware of the risks their heritage faces, the experts said. Spains Castilla y Leon region is home to prehistoric rock carvings that are vulnerable to damage from wildfires. The question is not will a forest fire happen, but are we ready to face such a situation? said Cristina Escudero Remirez, coordinator of the regions Risk Management Unit for Cultural Heritage. Given a dwindling and aging population in its rural areas, and limited finances to protect cultural heritage, the region has devised low-cost measures to safeguard its 18,000 year-old art, Remirez said. The land around the carvings is kept clear of vegetation, so that a wildfire will not touch the stones or will pass over them rapidly. And firefighters are warned not to pour water directly onto the stones, to prevent them from cracking, Remirez said. In Frances Loire Valley, local authorities have been advising owners of the areas magnificent Renaissance castles on the risks they face from flooding. Most damage can be avoided with things that are not costly - mostly through good organisation, said Jean Claude Eude, director general of the Loire River Basin Authority. Chateau owners should work out what measures to take, but need to understand which parts of the buildings are threatened and how, Eude said. That way they can plan to move tapestries and precious paintings to safety in a flood, or raise electrics above expected flood levels, for example. Read also: Venice to clamp down on tourists' behavior Cultural ties In the aftermath of a disaster, decisions need to be taken fast to protect buildings and artifacts. To minimize damage, it is fundamental to act quickly to secure the heritage thats been affected, said Gianluca Vacca, undersecretary for Italys ministry of cultural heritage. When a powerful earthquake struck central Italy in August 2016, killing 300 people and destroying homes and churches, cultural heritage experts attended the first emergency planning meeting just 30 minutes after the tremor. Damaged buildings were covered to protect their contents from snow, precious objects moved to shelters, and buildings shored up against aftershocks. In all, some 15,000 books and 22,000 objects were recovered, said Mauro Dolce, director of Italys Civil Protection Agency. Historic buildings like churches and town halls can be retrofitted to make them more resistant to earthquakes. But they cannot be made as safe as modern buildings without major alterations such as putting in reinforced concrete or steel, said Dolce. We have to find a balance, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Sometimes people prefer to stick with their cultural home rather than doing the safest thing, CORILAs Campostrini said. After the 2016 earthquake, for example, inhabitants of the affected region chose not to move to a less risky place. They recognized themselves in the environment, in the landscape where they were born, Campostrini said. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Kim Arin (The Korea Herald/Asia News Network) Seoul Wed, November 28, 2018 23:01 1092 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e58c36 2 Entertainment BTS,brand-ambassador,Hyundai,K-pop,#KPop Free Hyundai Motors announced Tuesday that its new flagship SUV model Palisade will debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show with BTS members as brand ambassadors. The boy band is featured in the video that will introduce the vehicle at the annual auto show, which runs Friday to Dec. 9 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The South Korean carmaker will broadcast its demonstration at the auto show live on its official Facebook account Thursday from 8:55 to 9:20 p.m. Read also: BTS tops brand value among K-pop acts for September We decided that BTS would be most qualified to lead the introduction of Palisade, a completely new type of sport utility vehicle that will march into the international full-sized SUV market early next year, said a representative from Hyundai. Five meters in length, Palisade will be Hyundais biggest SUV, with three-row seating available in two options -- a seven- or eight-seater. It comes with a 3.8-liter gasoline engine or 2.2-liter diesel engine with an eight-speed automatic gearbox. Topics : This article appeared on The Korea Herald newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Catherine Lai (Agence France-Presse) Hong Kong, China Wed, November 28, 2018 17:06 1093 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e503da 2 Science & Tech transplant,cloning,gene-editing,research,Science,China,ethics Free 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. Read also: China scientist claims world's first gene-edited babies 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. 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". Read also: Gene editing tool may raise cancer risk in cells, scientists warn 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." Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Marcel Thee (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, November 28, 2018 09:15 1093 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e34c02 4 Art & Culture theater,performing-arts,contemporary-art,jakarta,art-exhibition,Gong-ex-Machina Free Two masters of their craft will collaborate on a conceptual theater of sound experience at the Jakarta Playhouse (GKJ) on Nov. 29 to 30. Famed Japanese sound designer Yasuhiro Morinaga will work alongside influential theater artist Yudi Ahmad Tajudin on Gong Ex Machina, a theatrical presentation featuring 3D soundscapes that will burst out of every corner of the theater hall, ostensibly creating an experience that will provoke every sense in each audience members body. Japanese sound engineer Tetsushi Hirai will be responsible for the technical aspects of the sound production. The event is coproduced by Teater Garasi. The title Gong Ex Machina is a clear reference to the concept of deus ex machina (god in the machine), which in this case harkens to Morinagas research on the background of the gong in various Southeast Asian cultures. Morinaga, in his studies, concluded that in some of these cultures, the gong had been used as a medium to communicate with supernatural entities, including deceased loved ones, various gods, or God himself. This all-encompassing experience will indeed put more focus on sound than the usual theatrical experience. After all, Morinaga is known for his unique approach to sound, having worked as a sound designer for a variety of projects, including films, documentaries, dances, art installations and performances. He also runs Concrete, an independent record label that specializes in found sounds, field recordings, and ethnocentric music from lesser-known parts of the world. Concrete has released recordings from Kalimantan, Yogyakarta and Sulawesi, among other parts of Southeast Asia. In interviews, Morinaga himself has said that his deep interest in Indonesia is particularly due to the archipelagic line that crosses from Japan to here. Morinagas sound pieces in films have been screened in a notable number of international film festivals such as the Berlinale, Pusan, PIFF and TokyoFimex, and music and art festivals such as the Sonorities Contemporary Music Festival and the Sound Image Sound Festivals. Morinagas collaborative partner, Yudi, is one of the founding members of Teater Garasi, a well-respected artist collective from Yogyakarta. He has worked on a number of acclaimed theater-based shows, which include operas, dance performances, classical dramas, a variety of performance arts and interpretative ethnocentric shows. In 2014, the Education and Culture Ministry gave Yudi an Art award, while three years prior, he received a fellowship from the Asian Cultural Council to study the New York theatre scene from 2011 to 2012. Some of Yudis notable directorial works include Das Gauklermarchen (The Jugglers Tale) by Michael Ende in Shizuoka, Japan, and Yang Fana adalah Waktu. Kita Abadi (Time is Transient. We Are Eternal), which was billed as a performance on the memory and [history of] violence in post 98 Indonesia at the Goethe Institut Jakarta two years ago. The two met in 2013 in Tokyo, when they were both involved in a contemporary dance show curated by choreographer Akiko Kitamura. For some reason, since that fall season meeting, we both feel like we clicked. He said I like the way you look at things, man, Yudi said about Morinaga, adding that the Japanese sound designer was very open and direct in communicating ideas. Yudi felt an immediate connection with Morinaga, whose work he describes as presenting the complexity of imagination within the field of music and audio in a wide way and with strong foundational thinking. The two continued meeting in the following years, especially as Morinagas research into Southeast Asias gong culture brought him back to Indonesia often. By 2016, Morinaga was working alongside two Indonesian creative minds, Gunawan Maryanto and Juan Arminandi, on a gong-centric show called Marginal Gongs at the Spiral Hall in Tokyo. There, he told Yudi that the next one, I want to collaborate with you. The collaboration between Yudi and Morinaga has gifted them both many new ideas and perspectives. Yudi says Morinagas approach has taught him new concepts in sound and its relationship with imagination, particularly in how one influences the other. He says these ideas in acousmatic sound has enriched him as a director. Yudi adds that due to the reliance on sound, his direction cannot rely on the usual methods of dialogue or structures. As such, there are a lot of unexpected elements that pop out during the production and the show itself; things that even he, as director, did not foresee occurring. He said unexpected quality was something completely new to him and that was exciting. In Gong Ex Machina, we expand and process everything from the choreography, visualization, gestures and actors expressions mostly though [Morinagas] sound composition. This is of course a completely new experience that I hope will also result in a completely new experience for the audience, Yudi said. __________________________ Gong ex Machina is supported by the Japan Foundation-Asia Center, Education and Culture Ministry, Bakti Budaya Djarum Foundation and Lijiang. Tickets are Rp 250,000 (US$17) for Class 1, Rp 150,000 for Class 2 and Rp 50,000 for balcony seats. Tickets can be purchased at loket.com Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, November 28, 2018 07:34 1093 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e2f97c 1 City Bekasi,theft,gold,money,store Free A group of people who allegedly stole Rp 2 billion (US$158,765 ) and 1.2 kilograms of gold from a building materials store in Bekasi, West Java, were arrested in Purbalingga, Central Java, on Monday. The theft took place at Sinar Agung on Jl. Buwek in Sumber Jaya village, Tambun Selatan. Four perpetrators have been detained, were still chasing the other two, Bekasi Police crime unit chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Rizal Marito said on Tuesday as quoted by wartakota.tribunnews.com. The theft took place when the shop owner had left to go to his hometown. They allegedly entered the store by climbing a tree beside the store building and jumping onto its second floor. They allegedly broke into the store and stole money and jewellery that were kept in a cupboard. The victim [the shop owner] filed a report [to the police], which we followed up with an investigation. We discovered that they had fled to Purwokerto and Purbalingga [in Central Java], Rizal said. We were suspicious about how the thieves knew where the valuables were hidden, and then found out that the victims helper was involved in the act, he added. The thieves are charged under Article 363 of the Criminal Code, which carries a maximum sentence of seven years in prison. (vla) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, November 28, 2018 16:02 1093 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e4d0c3 1 City jakarta,city-budget,Jakarta-council,Budget-Committee Free The Jakarta Council budget committee (Banggar) has agreed to set the 2019 draft city budget at Rp 89 trillion (US$6.13 million), after it was estimated that there would be a Rp 16 trillion deficit. During a meeting on budget priorities (KUA-PPAS) in June, the council had agreed to set the draft budget at Rp 87 billion, and later the figure ballooned to Rp 103 trillion. Finally, there wont be a deficit anymore, Jakarta Council deputy speaker Triwisaksana said at the committee meeting on Tuesday, tempo.co reported. Previously, city secretary Saefullah said there could be a decrease in the city budget for 2019 as there were a lot of new proposals that were previously not included in the 2019 city working plan (RKPD), the total budget of which was Rp 6.7 trillion. One such proposal was a Rp 3 trillion plan for city-owned developer PT Pembangunan Sarana Jaya to construct apartment buildings in eight locations. The council and the administration have cut some of the program proposals that were previously not included in the working plan, although other proposals were agreed upon by the committee because of their urgency, such as the MRT's phase II construction, which is estimated to cost Rp 217 billion. Another recent addition is the construction of BMW Stadium in North Jakarta. The project will receive an additional capital injection of Rp 500 billion, bringing its total budget to Rp 900 billion. Triwisaksana said the city administration and the council would agree to the draft budget by signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Wednesday. (ami) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Seoul Wed, November 28, 2018 09:35 1093 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e392f4 1 World ASEAN,ASEAN-Train,South-Korea,multilateralism,diplomacy,#ASEAN Free The ASEAN-Korean Center (AKC) will organize an ASEAN Train trip in 2019 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of South Koreas relationship with ASEAN as well as the AKCs 10th anniversary. The AKCs secretary-general, Lee Hyuk, told visiting ASEAN journalists that during the celebration it would invite dozens of people from ASEAN member states to the country so that South Koreans could have an understanding of how the relationship between ASEAN and their country have developed over the past 30 years. ASEAN will showcase traditional and modern performances that could be the highlight of next years event, he said on Monday. Jang Yeunju, the AKCs information and data unit head, said South Korean embassies in ASEAN member states would select 30 people from each country. We havent decided on the criteria yet but we are trying to include as many people as possible including people with disabilities, she said. Jang said the 300 ASEAN citizens would meet up with 100 South Koreans during the train trip with stops in major cities such as Busan, Pyeongchang and Yeosu, where they will have performances, exhibitions, and concerts during the trip planned for September 2019. This article was originally published in The Jakarta Post's print edition on Nov. 28, 2018, with the title "Around the region: ASEAN Train trip to highlight summit". Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin A. Muh. Ibnu Aqil (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, November 28, 2018 12:58 1093 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e427ed 1 City Ciliwung-river,water,quality,Environment-and-Forestry-Ministry Free The Ciliwung River, the main river in the capital, has improved in terms of water quality, according to Environment and Forestry Ministry research into 221 spots in the river. The ministrys pollution and environmental damage control director general, Karliansyah, said the water quality had improved since research was conducted in 2017, and shrimp, an animal that required clean water, were found to be alive and well in the river. Even if shrimp are found in the river, other biota must be alive there as well. This is the proof of the communitys hard work, without it, this would not be possible, Karliansyah said on Sunday in a written statement during an event called Ciliwung Day. The event was held by the Clean Ciliwung Movement (GCB) to encourage residents to help clean up the river. GCB head Peni Susanti said this year's event was held at the GCB headquarters in Karet Tengsin, Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, with activities such as the launch of the Sahabat Sungai GCB movement, a hydroponic vegetable harvesting party, a river cruise, a water filtration demonstration and a local waste management equipment demonstration. The event was also attended by officials from the Public Works and Housing Ministry, the Jakarta administration, Jakarta-owned companies, the Ciliwung Care Community and other stakeholders. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Nurul Fitri Ramadhani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, November 28, 2018 09:21 1093 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e34e2a 1 Politics Djarot-Saiful-Hidayat,basuki-tjahaja-purnama,ahok,#ahok,Indonesian-politics,PDI-P,PSI,political-party Free Former Jakarta governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama has not ruled out making a political comeback after serving his prison sentence for blasphemy in January, about three months before the April legislative and presidential elections, according to his former deputy governor and close ally Djarot Saiful Hidayat. The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician claimed that Ahok had told him he might return to politics and join Djarots party. [Ahok] said, If I return to politics, I will certainly join the PDI-P, said Djarot, who decided to run for a seat at the House of Representatives after losing the North Sumatra gubernatorial election, as quoted by Antara on Monday. Djarot had recently spoken to Ahok at the latters cell at the Mobile Brigade Command (Mako Brimob) detention center in, Depok, West Java. During his visit, Djarot claimed that Ahok had also called on his supporters to vote for the PDI-P in the legislative election and for President Joko Jokowi Widodo and his running mate, Maruf Amin, in the presidential race. Neither Ahok nor his sister, Fifi Lety Indra, has confirmed Djarots claims. Fifi told The Jakarta Post that Ahok had yet to decide whether he would return to politics after his release. He may return to Indonesian politics or he may not. We will hear [his decision] after he is released. Whatever it is, we will support him, Fifi said. A number of politicians from other parties that backed Ahoks reelection bid in 2017 said they believed Ahok would not quit politics, but they doubted Djarots claims that the outspoken politician had called on his supporters to vote for PDI-P. We will believe it if Ahok says it himself publicly. Djarots claims are meant to boost [the PDI-Ps] popularity in the election, said Hanura Party executive Benny Rhamdani. Ahok belongs to all parties, not only one or two. Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) leader Grace Natalie said Ahok had yet to decide whether to join the PDI-P or other parties, suggesting that it was possible he would end up joining her political party instead. The PSI is a major supporter of Ahok and led by former members of the Ahok-Djarot campaign team during the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election, such as secretary-general Raja Juli Antoni and party executive Sunny Tanuwidjaja. If Ahok wants to join us, of course well accept him, Grace said, adding that Ahok was an inspiration to her party. Ahok was a Golkar Party politician before defecting to the Gerindra Party, which backed his bid in the 2012 Jakarta gubernatorial election with then-PDI-P politician and Surakarta mayor Joko Jokowi Widodo. He left Gerindra not long after Jokowi was elected Jakarta governor and decided to challenge Gerindra Party leader Prabowo Subianto in the 2014 presidential election and won, leaving his gubernatorial post to Ahok. Ahoks blasphemy trial played a major role in his defeat in the 2017 Jakarta election. His conviction has been widely condemned as politically motivated and has hardened his staunch supporters, who believed he was a victim of a sectarian politics. This article was originally published in The Jakarta Post's print edition on Nov. 28, 2018, with the title "Djarot hints Ahok may return to politics". Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, November 28, 2018 18:23 1092 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e552a7 1 City commuter-line,fallen-tree,Manggarai-railway-station,jatinegara Free Commuter line train operations at Jatinegara and Manggarai stations were hindered Wednesday afternoon because of a fallen tree on the tracks between the two stations, causing delays and passenger buildup at the stations. At Jatinegara Station, East Jakarta at 3:20 p.m., four commuter trains were unable to depart from the station, and passengers, particularly those heading to Bekasi, West Java could not depart as well. I want to leave the station and take a bus but I dont understand [the routes]. I have to wait in this train, a commuter, Nindya, said on Wednesday, tribunnews.com reported. Commuter line operator PT Kereta Commuter Indonesia (KCI) spokeswoman Eva Chairunnisa apologized for the inconvenience, saying that the error happened because a tree fell on the railways between Jatinegara and Manggarai on Wednesday noon. Because a tree fell onto the overhead power lines at the site, trains from Jatinegara to Manggarai and vice versa cannot pass yet, Eva said in a written statement. She said PT KCI and PT Kereta Api Indonesia operational region 1 were onsite to handle the situation. She warned that there would be lines of trains departing and arriving at the affected stations. We advised commuters to not force themselves if a train car is full and to always watch for their safety and security, Eva said. For commuters that cannot wait until the maintenance is finished, PT KCI advises you to use other means of transportation, she added. (ami) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Marchio Irfan Gorbiano (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, November 28 2018 President Joko Jokowi Widodo has said he would rather have an administration with fewer regulations so the country could better deal with fresh challenges brought on by global uncertainty. He made the statement during the Bank Indonesia (BI) annual meeting on Tuesday, which was attended by economists as well as representatives of the banking industry and private sector. The President pointed out that in todays fast-changing world, the government needed to make swift policy decisions and should, therefore, not be encumbered by too many regulations. 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 Jung Hawon (Agence France-Presse) Seoul, South Korea Wed, November 28, 2018 14:42 1093 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e49d46 2 World #SouthKorea,#religion,Christian,Iran,convert,asylum Free When hundreds of Yemenis arrived in South Korea seeking asylum after fleeing their war-torn country, opponents decried their Muslim religion and none of their applications were approved. But an Iranian teenager who converted to Christianity has been granted refugee status. Religious belief is widespread in South Korea, where crosses dot the skylines of cities and towns and, according to government figures, more than a quarter of the population describe themselves as Christians. But the country is also ethnically homogenous and unwelcoming towards immigrants, and the decision in the Iranian's favour -- a marked contrast to the norm -- came only after a campaign by his classmates in Seoul. The boy, who can only be identified by his adopted Christian name Antonio out of concerns for his safety, came to the South in 2010 as a seven-year-old with his businessman father. Two years later, he became a Roman Catholic, and his father followed suit in 2015. But their conversions infuriated relatives in Iran, where apostasy by a Muslim can be punishable by death. The pair sought religious asylum in their new abode, but the South grants refugee status to only a tiny fraction of those who apply. The world's 11th-biggest economy accepted just 708 refugees from 2000 to 2017 -- a mere 3.5 percent of total requests, one of the lowest rates in the world and far below the OECD average of 25 percent. Immigration authorities in Seoul rejected Antonio's asylum bid, arguing that he was too young to have religious faith, a decision upheld in May by the Supreme Court. - 'Ray of hope' - With Antonio facing the prospect of deportation to an uncertain fate, his classmates stepped in, launching a petition on the presidential website, describing his faith as sincere and saying he was still going to church. A final chance to re-apply for asylum, they said, was "like a ray of hope from heaven". With a GDP per capita of $30,000, they asked: "Could South Korea not embrace this one single soul?" The petition was eventually signed by more than 30,000 people. Around 50 students accompanied Antonio when he returned to the immigration office and they staged a sit-in for hours as summer temperatures approached 40 degrees Celsius. Many wore surgical masks to conceal their identities with an anti-migrant outcry in full effect in South Korea after some 500 Yemenis arrived on the tourist island of Jeju earlier this year, taking advantage of its visa-free status to seek asylum. Only around four percent of the South's population are foreigners, mostly from China and Southeast Asia, and discrimination against them is widespread. Many opponents of the Yemenis' applications cited their Muslim religion and nearly 70,000 people -- a record -- signed another presidential website petition urging the tightening of what are already some of the world's toughest refugee laws. Social media commentators described the students as "brainwashed" and labelled them "crazy Muslim supporters". "People threw all kinds of slurs and insults at us and our parents online, and some of us were a bit scared," said Antonio's classmate Choi Hyun-joon, who staged a protest in front of the presidential Blue House. - 'Not our problem?' - Critics complained to the school and city authorities, saying the establishment should remain neutral, said teacher Oh Heun-Rok. "The very essence of education is to protect the dignity of humankind, and humanitarianism is a part of that," he told AFP. Immigration authorities granted Antonio refugee status last month, two days after the Yemenis were turned down. Both Antonio and his father declined to speak to AFP about the decision, not wanting to prejudice a forthcoming Supreme Court ruling on the father's own asylum application. Kim Yeon-ju, an activist at the Seoul-based Refugee Rights Centre, told AFP refugees generally get little support from South Korea's civic society, while a handful of Christians "may be a bit more willing to help." "So Christian refugees may have better access to the services provided by these faith-based activists," she said, but it remains "very limited". The unusual, high-profile campaign by Antonio's friends may have played a role in the decision on his application, she added. During the drive, Antonio also met with Seoul's cardinal, Andrew Yeom Soo-jung, who vowed "all possible measures by the church" to help him, and wrote a prayer urging authorities to give his case "special attention and consideration". With Antonio's asylum approved, his classmates hope their efforts could encourage greater social tolerance toward refugees. There was "no political or religious repression" in South Korea, they said in a statement, but asked: "Does that mean that we should just shut ourselves up, saying, 'Refugees are not our problem... Don't soil our home'?" Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, November 28 2018 Mohamad Taufik, the head of Gerindras Jakarta chapter, has criticized the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) for hesitating to screen its deputy governor candidates. The two parties, which backed Anies Baswedan and Sandiaga Uno during the gubernatorial election last year, had agreed to screen candidates before submitting their names to the City Council. Sandiaga resigned to run as vice-presidential candidate with Gerindras leader and presidential candidate 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 [the party] anyway, Taufik said as quoted by kompas.com on Monday. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, November 28, 2018 09:59 1093 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e3a110 1 Business digital-economy,Southeast-Asia,Indonesia,economy,economic-growth,Google,temasek Free A new study has found that Indonesias digital economy is poised to become the largest in Southeast Asia as its market value triples to US$100 billion by 2025 from $27 billion in 2018, promising more jobs and more consumer choices for an emerging tech-savvy generation. The annual e-Conomy Southeast Asia study, conducted by American tech giant Google and Singaporean holding company Temasek, says the growth will be spurred by four key digital services, namely e-commerce, with a contribution of 53 percent, online travel (25 percent), ride-hailing services (14 percent) and online media (8 percent). We see that these sectors have grown big and they will continue to grow in the coming years, said Google Indonesia managing director Randy Jusuf during a press conference on the study on Tuesday. Google head of strategy and insights Samuele Saini noted that the growth might be slightly higher than predicted because the study did not include emerging digital businesses such as those related to finance, health and education. He said a lack of data on these businesses meant the study was unable to make reliable predictions. A proliferation of digital services, particularly in e-commerce, diversifies product and service choices available for Indonesias 150 million smartphone users the largest number in the region especially for users located in more remote areas. Similarly, homegrown e-commerce platforms Tokopedia and Bukalapak have launched advertisements highlighting their expansive logistics networks that can bring everything from electric guitars to rice cookers to even the remotest kampung home. Googles report, which is available on Thinkwithgoogle.com, says the digital economy will also increase employment opportunities as the average Southeast Asian internet-based company will increase staff by 10 percent each year. A 2018 McKinsey report supports Googles finding as it estimates that the digital economy could produce 3.7 million new jobs in Indonesia by 2025. In addition to employment, Googles report says the growth of transportation-facilitated digital services such as Grab and Go-Jek, which operate in food delivery, ride-sharing and logistics may triple partner jobs to 12 million region-wide in 2025 from 4 million this year. However, even if Indonesias digital economy grows to the estimated $100 billion by 2025, it will contribute only 4 percent to a government target of $2.5 trillion in gross domestic product in the same year. The contribution remains smaller than that in developed countries such as the United States at 6.5 percent or China (33 percent). Nevertheless, Temasek portfolio strategy and risk group joint head Rohit Sipahimalani said during an interview with CNBC last week that he was confident Southeast Asia could narrow the gap very rapidly over the years to come. Weve seen everything in the ecosystem slowly beginning to come together and thats going to make all the difference, he said. Sipahimalani was referring to six factors funding, internet connection, consumer trust, digital talent, logistics and payment methods that limit digital economic growth, according to last years e-Conomy report. Randy said at Tuesdays conference that Indonesia had made significant progress with the first three factors, thanks to rising investor confidence, government infrastructure programs and effective marketing campaigns. However, there remained room for improvement in terms of the availability of digital talent, logistics and payment methods, he said. The government, for its part, promised to continue its infrastructure programs and to focus next years development policy on building human resources. In regard to payment, Googles report says that internet-based companies need to either partner or consolidate with other companies to increase the integration of payment services in an otherwise heavily fragmented payment landscape. (nor) This article was originally published in The Jakarta Post's print edition on Nov. 28, 2018, with the title "RIs digital economy to dominate SE Asia by 2025". Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, November 28, 2018 12:25 1093 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e40f17 4 Business Jakarta-inner-city-toll-road,West-Jakarta,East-Jakarta,syndicated-loan Free Toll road developer PT Jakarta Tollroad Development (JTD) has announced that it has received a Rp 13.7 trillion (US$943.35 million) syndicated loan involving 29 banks to construct a 30-kilometer elevated inner city toll road in the capital. The joint mandated lead arrangers (JMLA) of the syndicated loan are state-owned lender PT Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI), city-owned lender PT Bank DKI, private lender PT Bank Mega, private lender PT Bank Central Asia (BCA) and state-owned lender PT Bank Mandiri and its subsidiary, PT Bank Syariah Mandiri. The total investment for Phase I of the Jakarta inner city toll road will connect Semanan in West Jakarta and Pulau Gebang in East Jakarta, costing a total of Rp 21 trillion. JDT finance director Reynaldi Hermasyah said that the loan was for a 15 year term. The coupon rate is 11 percent during the construction and 10.35 percent during the operation, Reynaldi said in Jakarta on Tuesday as quoted by kontan.co.id. JDT president director Frans Sunito said that the company had started to develop Segment A of the project from Pulo Gebang to Kelapa Gading in North Jakarta by using the companys internal fund. Phase I of the Jakarta inner city toll road consists of three segments Segment A from from Pulo Gebang to Kelapa Gading; Segment B from Semanan to Grogol in West Java and Segment C from Grogol to Kelapa Gading. Segment A of the project, which has been under construction since January, is expected to be completed in the second half of 2019. The whole elevated toll road project is scheduled to begin operations in 2021. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Japan News/Asia News Network) Tokyo, Japan Wed, November 28, 2018 10:01 1093 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e3a39a 2 Business #Japan,#AviationSafety,Japan-Airlines,co-pilot,probe,drinking Free The transport ministry on Tuesday conducted an on-site inspection of Japan Airlines flight operation office at Haneda Airport, Tokyo, over the arrest of a JAL copilot by British police for excessive drinking. The inspection, authorized under the Civil Aeronautics Law, was the first such measure taken by the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry in this case. The copilot was arrested last month after he was found to have a breath alcohol level exceeding the British legal limit for a pilot. He was about to board a Haneda-bound flight departing from London. Seven officials from the ministrys Civil Aviation Bureau entered the JAL office around 10 a.m. on Tuesday. According to the ministry, the inspection will continue until Thursday to examine such matters as whether the substance of the report JAL submitted to the ministry after the arrest was correct. Their inspection will include questioning two JAL captains who were initially scheduled to board a flight with the copilot and checking the facts of how the pre-flight breath test was conducted. Transport minister Keiichi Ishii said Tuesday at a press conference following a Cabinet meeting, The ministry will gain information and analyze it so as to strictly supervise the company and enforce preventive measures to be steadily implemented. The ministry will also conduct on-site inspections for All Nippon Airways and others from Wednesday. In response to the inspection, JAL said, We will thoroughly cooperate and sincerely deal with it Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Marchio Irfan Gorbiano (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, November 28, 2018 09:06 1093 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e34379 1 Business Jokowi,bank-indonesia,Gathering,deregulation Free President Joko Jokowi Widodo once again warned ministers and local government leaders on Tuesday not to excessively issue regulations. With global changes happening so rapidly, we need policies that allow us to make quick decisions, not issue more regulations, Jokowi said in Jakarta during Bank Indonesias (BI) annual gathering. Jokowi expressed his desire to have a government that can swiftly tackle challenges like startup companies, which have been able to experience accelerated growth despite a lack of clear regulations. There are a lot of what they would call companies without rules. I also want [a] government without many rules, Jokowi said. He went on to say that too many regulations would hinder the governments response to the latest developments. Jokowi, who is seeking reelection next year, reiterated his commitment to developing Indonesias human resources in a scale similar to the massive infrastructure development carried out during his administration while hoping that large-scale human development would give birth to reformists in all levels of the government. We hope that the training that we will provide in large-scale will give birth to reformists leaders in villages, subdistricts, cities and in the national [level], he said. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Jon Afrizal and Ivany Atina Arbi (The Jakarta Post) Jambi and Jakarta Wed, November 28, 2018 18:19 1092 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e54310 1 National environment,electricity,Jambi,PLTU,PLTGU,palm-oil,biomass Free Residents in four neighborhood units in the Payo Selincah subdistrict in Jambi City, Jambi, have lived for almost a decade with the hazardous impacts of three nearby power plants that have helped electrify Sumatra. Three power plants one fired by diesel (PLTD), one by gas (PLTG) and a third by biomass (PLTU) have surrounded neighborhood units (RT) 23, 24, 25, 26 in the eastern part of the provinces capital city and contributed electricity to the third largest island in the country. A resident of RT 25, Usmiyati, said they have complained about the plants operations to the citys mayor and Jambis governor for years. But until now, we have yet to get feedback from the authorities, she told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday. Usmiyati said that none of the power plants were built with the locals in mind. She claimed that they had inhabited the area since the 1960s, while the PLTD only came in 1980, followed by the PLTG in 2010 and the PLTU in 2012. The PLTU burns shells of palm fruits, waste from palm oil production, to produce electricity. The negative impacts of the plants operations have been experienced by the residents since 2013. Trucks weighing more than 10 tons that carry palm fruit shells for the PLTU have gone back and forth on roads near the residential areas since then damaging the roads and causing dust to fly into the air. Residents also complained that the dark smog emitted from the power plant chimneys has caused respiratory problems. The trucks make loud noise. To make it worse, dust fills the air, Usmiyati said. She said the private company that operates the PLTU has promised to limit the trucks operational hours, but the promise has not been kept. The PLTG, which uses machines that cause strong constant tremors in the area, has damaged nearby residents houses. At least 20 houses close to the PLTG have suffered light damage, like cracks in walls. Another 20 houses had to be relocated because of damage. Another resident, Udin, urged the operators of the three power plants to buy their lands because they were no longer comfortable living in the area surrounded by such "destructive" plants. The residents had asked them to pay Rp 40 million (US$2,753) for every 100 square meter of land, but the operators offered a lower price of Rp 25 million per 100 sqm. Its such an outrageous offer, Udin said. Ahmadi, the supervisor of the Jambi branch of the state-owned electricity company PLN, which receives and manages the power from the plants, said PLN had disbursed some money to compensate for any damage caused to local houses. We have paid out some Rp 150 million for repairing houses, he said, adding that nine houses in RT 24 were repaired in August last year. In relation to the health impacts, Ahmadi claimed the company had made maximum efforts to operate the plants in accordance with the quality standards of the Environment and Forestry Ministry. The ministry, he said, has issued a "Proper Biru" certificate for the Jambi operations, which means they comply with environmental standards. The Jambi Environmental Agency has inspected the air quality around the power plants and found that it is still healthy for people. University of Indonesia environmental expert Gabriel Andari Kristanto said separately on Wednesday that the plants, particularly the PLTD, produced hazardous air pollutants like nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), nitrogen oxide (N 2 O), sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ) and small particles that could lead to respiratory problems. The release of such chemical compounds into the air, which is a result of the power plants operations, does affect human respiratory systems and causes coughing, Andari said, adding that SO 2 combined with water vapor could also cause irritation to the skin. The expert urged the power plant operators to properly use adequate air pollution controls to prevent a worsening smog that would harm residents. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Nurul Fitri Ramadhani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, November 28, 2018 12:56 1093 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e417fb 1 Politics 2019-elections,2019-presidential-election,Prabowo-Subianto-Sandiaga-Uno,Prabowo-Subianto Free Presidential contender Prabowo Subianto said on Tuesday that Indonesia, which has a majority moderate Muslim population, was a role model for democracy, expressing hope the upcoming presidential could be carried out peacefully. As the only challenger to incumbent President Joko Jokowi Widodo in the April poll, the Gerindra Party chairman said Indonesia could learn from Malaysia and South Africa that had successfully held peaceful elections. I want to be very open. In a peaceful transfer of power, Indonesian people will be heard and our democracy will be proven to be successful, Prabowo said in his speech during The World 2019 Gala Dinner held by The Economist in Singapore on Tuesday evening. He also said that the majority of Muslims in Indonesia were moderate and had grown tired of being associated with radicalism, adding that it was important for a leader to educate people and clerics so they would not lose their way and become radicalized. The responsibility of a leader is to teach, he said. Prabowo pledged that if he was elected president, one of his main priorities would be to establish a clean government. If I am elected, my biggest goal will be to create a rational and modern bureaucracy, a clean democracy, a clean governance. That will lead to a good atmosphere for investment, he said. He claimed that today, many foreigners preferred to live in Singapore because the country offered a good and mature legal system and bureaucracy. Theres legal certainty [for people in Singapore]. Thats why many people feel comfortable living in Singapore. I think these [a good legal system and bureaucracy] are what Indonesia need, Prabowo said. Indonesias upcoming presidential election, which will be held on April 17, will see a rematch between Prabowo and Jokowi, who also competed for the country's top post in the 2014 election. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Japan News/Asia News Network) Tokyo, Japan Wed, November 28, 2018 08:08 1093 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e3076c 2 World #Japan,#automotive,Nissan,Carlos-Ghosn,prosecutors,payment Free Monday marked one week since the arrest of Carlos Ghosn, then chairman of Nissan Motor Co. In addition to the suspicions that led to his arrest that Ghosn, 64, understated his executive remuneration on the firms securities reports by about 5 billion allegations of wrongdoing involving Nissan funds have emerged one after another. To what extent the special investigation squad of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office will be able to determine the truth of the entire situation has now become a focus of attention. Eyes on the memorandums As evidence in its case, the special investigation squad is giving particular weight to memorandums that were allegedly written every year and shared only among a limited number of people, including Ghosn. According to sources, the alleged understating was triggered by the introduction in 2010 of a system that requires executives who earn 100 million or more in annual remuneration to disclose such information as their names and the amount they earn in company securities reports. Ghosn had received about 2 billion annually at least from around the mid-2000s, and is said to have been concerned that disclosing such a high salary would bring criticism from domestic and foreign stockholders, among others. Ghosn allegedly directed his closest aide, 62-year-old Greg Kelly, a former representative director of Nissan, to limit his pay to about 1 billion. At the same time, a memorandum was written each year stating that Ghosn would receive the remaining about 1 billion after he stepped down as a Nissan executive. To make sure the remaining money would be paid, the memorandums stated the amount of each years remuneration and the fact that the money would be paid later. The Financial Instruments and Exchange Law stipulates that even if executive remuneration is to be paid at a later date, the future remuneration must be stated in reports for the fiscal year in which the amount is finalized. The special investigation squad arrested Ghosn and Kelly on suspicion of violating the law on Nov. 19, alleging that they conspired to understate Ghosns remuneration by about 5 billion over the period from the business year ending in March 2011 to the business year ending in March 2015. The point at which they created a memorandum confirming the unpaid amount and arranged to receive the money after stepping down when there would no longer be an obligation to report it provided proof of the under-reporting, a senior prosecutor said. If nothing else, it is unnatural for an executives pay to drop from about 2 billion to nearly half that just as a disclosure system begins. The special investigation squad sees the process itself of arranging for half of the remuneration to be paid later as proof of the intent behind the alleged crime. Room for debate In response to the special investigation squads questioning, Ghosn has admitted to this process but asserted that it had not been definitely decided that the money to be paid later would actually be paid. The post-retirement pay had not been set aside within Nissan and was scheduled to be paid from the companys accumulated profits after Ghosn retired. As for the payment method, it is said that adding it to consulting fees was considered but a final decision had not been made. Masayoshi Ishida, a professor at Kwansei Gakuin University who is well versed in the Financial Instruments and Exchange Law, said: If uncertainty remains regarding the surety of the moneys receipt, such as future decision-making being required by the company, there is room for debate as to whether this constitutes a crime. Even if prosecutors can prove false entries on the reports, hurdles remain. This is the first case to deal with the understating of executive remuneration under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Law. To be able to claim that this was serious enough to constitute a crime, the special investigation squad will also have to prove that the false listing of executive remuneration is an important matter that would sway the judgment of stockholders. Crime of procedure? Three allegations of wrongdoing have emerged involving Ghosn, including the understating of his executive remuneration. Another is the alleged private use of investment funds. Zi-A Capital, a subsidiary established by Nissan Motor in the Netherlands for investment purposes, spent a total of about 2.1 billion in company funds to purchase and refurbish luxury homes in Brazil and Lebanon, but relatives of Ghosn are said to have used the properties. The remaining allegation, of the wrongful use of company expenditures, includes Nissans formation of an advisory contract with Ghosns older sister that earned her about $100,000 annually. It has also been discovered that Ghosn had Nissan buy and rent luxury condominiums around the world, and cover such expenses as yacht club membership for Ghosn and travel costs for his family. There are some who view the false entries on Nissan Motors securities reports as merely a crime of procedure. The penalty mandated by law is a maximum of 10 years of imprisonment, a maximum fine of 10 million or both. The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office has emphasized: The disclosure of information to stockholders is extremely important. The punishment is heavy; this is not a crime of procedure. Whether the remaining allegations of wrongdoing can be prosecuted under the Companies Law as such substantive crimes as aggravated breach of trust and embezzlement in the course of business will be a focus of attention in the future Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, November 28, 2018 11:48 1093 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e3ef52 1 City tree,jakarta,compensation,Forestry-Agency Free Jakarta residents who are injured or suffer material loses from falling trees can request compensation from the citys Forestry Agency. To be compensated, they are required to take a picture of the incident and report it to the police. Submit the pictures and the police report [to the agency], Jakarta Forestry Agency acting head Susi Marsitawati said on Tuesday, as quoted by kompas.com. The amount of compensation will depend on the severity of the injury or damage to vehicles or property. There have been three [victims of falling trees that have requested compensation from the agency] including a car owner hit by a falling tree in Central Jakarta, she said. Last week, trees in several spots in Central Jakarta and East Jakarta reportedly fell during heavy rains, damaging Transjakarta buses, taxis, cars, motorcycles and buildings. Furthermore, the agency will assess around six million trees across the city. Starting next year, we will assess [the condition of] 6 million trees in Jakarta, Susi said. If [the tree is] frail, we will replace it with a new one. We will measure [the tree] with a tool called USG trees, she said, adding that the agency had anticipated the potential for falling trees this year by tree topping. (sau) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ramadani Saputra (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, November 28 2018 The end of the badminton tournament season is fast approaching and Indonesias top shuttlers are setting their sights on the 2018 Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour Finals, which will be held in Guangzhou, China, from Dec. 12 to 16. Guangzhou has replaced Dubai, which had hosted the event for the last four years. The worlds top eight players will be competing for a US$1.5 million purse. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, November 28, 2018 16:34 1093 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e4edea 1 City tidal-floods,North-Jakarta,embankment Free As many as 1,600 sacks of sands have been stacked along the edges of the Kaliadem dock in North Jakarta to anticipate tidal floods coming from the sea. North Jakarta Water Resources Agency head Santo said the sacks were put where the embankment of the dock has been damaged and where rising tidewater could find entry. We hold it off using the sand bags. We installed them on the leaky spots in Kaliadem. We also closed the spots that affected the streets, Santo said on Wednesday, kompas.com reported. He said the sacks were installed last week when a tidal flood hit the area. He said that the sacks would remain there in case of more flooding. As anticipation, we kept them in there. We are worried because tidal floods cannot be predicted, Santo said. He said that a water pump and dozens of the agencys officers would also be enlisted if there was a tidal flood in the area. He added that some of water has receded from the floods that affected several areas of North Jakarta in the past week. (ami/rai) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Kallum Pickering (The Jakarta Post) London Wed, November 28 2018 Seldom has British politics been so fraught. This coming Sunday, Nov. 25, the United Kingdom and the European Union want to formally agree the Brexit withdrawal agreement and a declaration on their future relations. Thereafter, the deal will arrive in the UK Parliament for debate and ratification. All potential scenarios a deal, no deal and no Brexit are still possible. As the Brexit legislation is brought to the House of Commons and debated, a lot of the publics attention will be drawn to procedural technicalities and their implications. Because the UK has no codified constitution, and instead relies on a collection of key documents and precedents, the scope for different interpretations of the rules can be wide even among constitutional experts. The patchwork nature of the UK system means some procedures can be complicated and arcane. This can be disorientating. However, there is one significant upside. More than that of most places, the UK constitutional framework offers significant flexibility. The ultimate deciding factor could be whether the faction within the Conservative parliamentary party that is either pro-EU or wants a soft Brexit is willing to use all available parliamentary procedures, including the threat of bringing down the government, to prevent a hard Brexit. For a hard-Brexit scenario to materialize, a majority of the House of Commons which is pro-EU or at least in favor of a soft Brexit would have to be complicit in it. For that reason, the risk of a hard Brexit is not very high. The more likely outcome is that the path to an eventual deal will be messier than once hoped. British Prime Minister Theresa May has tried to frame the upcoming vote as being a choice between a deal or no deal. But this is not the case. Although parliament cannot dictate government policy when it comes to Brexit, the House of Commons will have several opportunities to influence the outcome of Brexit if Mays deal fails on the first pass. There are four potential scenarios if May does not manage to get her deal through Parliament. The pro-EU/moderate majority in the Conservative Party has the power to frustrate a hard Brexit. First, the UK stumbles into a hard Brexit. It is conceivable that Mays government stays in office, but does not obtain a majority to enact any necessary Brexit legislation. This would be a very unusual situation in British politics, which places a lot of weight on strong government. However, it is not impossible. It would happen if hardline Remainers and moderates in the Conservative Party (plus the DUP) worked together to keep the government in power, but did not provide the necessary majority to pass other Brexit-related legislation, including to manage a hard Brexit. Such a situation of intractable parliamentary gridlock is the worst-case scenario. Amid a constitutional crisis, the UK could end up leaving the EU without a deal. Second, the pro-EU parliamentary majority takes over. The pro-EU/moderate majority in the Conservative Party has the power to frustrate a hard Brexit if it acts early enough. Chances are that, if parliament failed to pass Mays deal, almost all opposition MPs would vote against the government on any of its subsequent Brexit plans. This would strengthen the hand of the pro-EU faction of the Conservative Party. Just as the hardline Brexiteers can thwart Mays current deal by not backing it in parliament, the Remainers would have the chance to thwart a hard Brexit by voting against the government in motions of confidence unless the government took steps to avoid a hard Brexit. Given that we will know by Jan. 21, 2019 or shortly thereafter whether the UK may be heading for a hard Brexit, pro-EU Conservatives will have around 10 weeks to force the government to seek out terms with the EU to prevent a hard Brexit, or else bring down the May government. This could involve the UK materially softening its position with respect to future UK-EU trade i.e., full membership of the customs union for the whole UK a position which a cross-party majority in Parliament would probably support. Third, Conservatives go for a second referendum. Although there is some momentum behind the idea of a second referendum within the Conservative ranks, it remains an unlikely scenario. The divisions within the Conservative Party on the European question run deep. Because a second referendum would risk splitting the party in two, a majority of Tory MPs remain strongly against it. It would take an extreme scenario before a significant number, let alone a majority, of Tories were to see a second referendum as a viable way out. Even then, some hardline Brexiteers determined to drive the UK to a hard Brexit may still be able to obstruct parliament in backing a second vote. Most opposition MPs, upon recognizing the Conservatives fate, would probably not back a second referendum but demand early elections first which may then be followed by a second referendum. The most likely scenario for a second referendum would be following snap elections that ended in a Labor-led coalition with the very pro-EU Liberal Democrats or Scottish National Party (SNP). Fourth, fresh elections. Snap elections would further raise the level of uncertainty. Currently, the Conservatives and Labor are roughly neck and neck in the polls. Chances are that Labor as well as the Liberal Democrats and UKIP would gain support if the Conservative government fell apart. A Labor government or a Labor-led coalition would go for a softer Brexit. If Labor won an outright majority, its leaders would probably sign the whole of the UK up to the customs union, with the promise of full regulatory alignment in goods. If they had to rely on the strongly pro-EU Liberal Democrats or SNP for a working majority, either party would likely try to force Labor to either soften its stance to a Norway-style agreement with the EU (goods and services) or go for a second referendum. If a general election was called before Brexit happened, we would expect a cross-party effort by pro-EU MPs to strike some deal with the EU to avoid a hard Brexit. It is not obvious how this would happen. Without any clarity about what the UK would sign up to, the EU may find it difficult to agree some mechanism to prevent a hard Brexit simply to give the UK more time to sort out its affairs. ___________________ 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 Paul Handley (Agence France-Presse) Washington, United States Wed, November 28, 2018 18:06 1092 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e52fa4 2 World #USA,#Russia,DonaldTrump,attack,Russia,probe,Robert-Mueller Free 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. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Stevie Emilia (The Jakarta Post) Singapore Thu, November 29 2018 Cargo by Sopheap Pich (Courtesy of the National Gallery Singapore) A newly opened exhibition examines the Minimalist art movement and its Asia-West interaction. It is the first exhibition of its kind in Southeast Asia. Minimalism: Space. Light. Object. marks the first exhibition of Minimalist art in Southeast Asia. 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) Manila, Philippines Wed, November 28, 2018 16:17 1093 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e4e4a5 2 SE Asia #SoutheastAsia,#Philippine,duterte,death,squad,plan,communist-rebel Free Rights groups raised fears Wednesday after Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced plans to create a "death squad" targeting suspected communist rebels, saying it would worsen the "calamity" triggered by his deadly drug war. The Philippines' 50-year fight against communist militants, one of Asia's oldest insurgencies, long pre-dates his anti-narcotics crackdown that has killed thousands and drawn international censure. Duterte, like previous governments, initially held peace talks with the communists but shelved negotiations last year over deadly attacks against soldiers and police. In a speech Tuesday night, he took aim at the communist rebels' hit squads known as "sparrow units". "What I lack is my own sparrow. That is where they (communists) have an edge... So I will create my own sparrow, Duterte Death Squad against the sparrow," the president said. "I will match their talent also for assassinating people," he added. Philippine Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said Wednesday his team would study the plan "very closely. Who will compose it, who will supervise it, who will be the targets," adding there was "great danger of abuse". Since negotiations with the rebels broke down, Duterte also formally designated the Communist Party of the Philippines and its 3,800-member armed wing the New People's Army (NPA) as terrorist organisations. The low-level, simmering insurgency has claimed 30,000 lives by the government's count. The founder of the Communist Party, Jose Maria Sison, said on Wednesday that "sparrow units" only existed in the 1970s and 1980s at the height of the insurgency. "He is inventing so many sparrow units to justify his own death squads which are illegal," Sison told ABS-CBN television. The president's announcement drew immediate concerns from campaigners, who said the death squad would worsen the already lethal environment encouraged by the drug war. Police say they have killed nearly 5,000 alleged users and pushers, while rights groups say the toll is at least triple that and could amount to crimes against humanity. "His (Duterte's) statement is a declaration of open season against rebels, leftists, civilians, and critics of the government," Human Rights Watch said in a statement. "This new policy will only worsen the ongoing drug war-fueled human rights calamity in the Philippines." Amnesty International also expressed alarm, citing the practice of labelling government critics as communist rebels or sympathisers. "What is scary is that anyone can be a target," the group's human rights officer Wilnor Papa told AFP. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ganug Nugroho Adi (The Jakarta Post) Surakarta, Central Java Wed, November 28, 2018 17:35 1093 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877e5216a 1 News Kadin,surakarta,parade,tourism Free Hundreds of Indonesian businesspeople participated in a kirab budaya (cultural parade) in the city of Surakarta, Central Java, on Tuesday to coincide with the national leadership meeting of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin). The parade traveled through Jl. Slamet Riyadi and the Gladag traffic circle, spanning approximately 5 kilometers. The event also introduced Surakarta as a cultural city, as well as a meetings, incentives, conferencing and exhibitions (MICE) destination. Starting with a line of decorative cars of unique shapes, the parade included puppets and decor of Jatayu birds and cruise ships with passengers dressed as puppet characters. House of Representatives Speaker Bambang Soesatyo, Kadin chairman Rosan Roeslani and other Kadin officials were also involved. At least 50 horse-drawn carriages carried meeting participants. "This parade is to celebrate Surakarta's tourism potential. Almost all traditional arts and traditional attire are featured in this procession," Surakarta Kadin head Gareng Haryanto said. Read also: Where to dine like a royal in Yogyakarta, Surakarta Starting at 3 p.m., the parade featured costumes from across the archipelago, including from Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara regions and Papua. The Surakarta contingent displayed a procession of traditional market traders, Solo Batik Carnival, cultural arts studios, Surakarta Palace and Mangkunegaran Temple. Reog Ponorogo art attractions, Topeng Ireng art and Balinese Leak also enlivened the carnival. The Kadin national meeting is a three-day event that kicked-off on Monday. In addition to the cultural procession, the event was also enlivened by Batikvaganza, a batik exhibition that featured the latest batik creations from various regions. The event also featured 57 booths of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) supported by Kadin, including a number of textile producers and large batik manufacturers such as including PT Sritex, Batik Danar Hadi, Batik Semar, Batik Riana Kesuma, Batik Mayaratna and Mustika Ratu. (liz/kes) It is rare for an anglophone theatre company in Quebec to reach the 50-year anniversary mark, let alone do so by producing programs exclusively for young audiences, but that is what Youtheatre has accomplished. Today it is a nationally recognized TYA (Theatre for Young Audiences) company dedicated to commissioning, developing and producing new Canadian work for children aged six to 16. The first production of this milestone year, The Kissing Game, opens to the general public Nov. 28 at the Theatre Rouge du Conservatoire (4750 Henri-Julien Ave.). Subsequent presentations of the play in that venue are only open to school groups, followed by a school tour in December. This anniversary also coincides with Artistic Director Michel Lefebvres 25th year in his post. He subsequently changed the mandate of the company in 1994 to incorporate this new vision and Youtheatre has since created over 30 new plays for young audiences. The fact that I have been here for 25 years and Youtheatre is celebrating 50 makes me very proud, Lefebvre said. We are unique in what we do; we do not seek out classic plays like Alice in Wonderland and Charlottes Web. We look for writers to come up with original scripts relative to the world we live in now. For me a theatre company must support the voices of Canadian playwrights. Besides The Kissing Game, Lefebvre notes that Youtheatre has commissioned another new Canadian play that it will present next March called Crossing the Ocean. The Kissing Game is an urban fantasy for teens that explores love, betrayal, friendship, and identity. Crossing the Ocean integrates new media and more primitive technologies to inspire a sense of wonder at the power of human connection. It was in development for more than two years by Rhiannon Collett, who undertakes a one-woman, 50-minute show. She is the real deal, Lefebvre says. Youtheatre remains the only theatre company in Quebec that commissions new work in both official languages. Most of our work starts in English, Lefebvre says. When we realize that something will speak loudly and clearly enough, we translate and reach out to the French language school network. Founded in 1968 by Wayne and Doreen Fines, Youtheatre productions have been performed to over two million young people throughout Quebec and Canada. For every production Youtheatre produces a study guide to offer pre- and post-show activities related to the themes addressed in the play. It can serve as a tool to help prepare teachers and students for the play they are about to see. It also contains follow-up activities to help students engage in a conversation that transcends the stage. We are not the only organization to do this, but I like to think that ours go a little further than others, says Lefebvre. As his role as the Official Opposition Critic for Relations with English-Speaking Quebecers, Jacques-Cartier MNA Greg Kelleys focus will be fighting for the rights of Anglophones in keeping the concept of school boards intact as well as recruiting more English speakers for the governments civil service. 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. Spartans advance to final four The second time was the charm for the Spartans (4-7, 2-2), who picked up a 21-20 win over Bulloch Academy in take two of the Backyard Battle. The win catapulted Edmund Burke into the final four of the Georgia Independent School Association (GISA) AA state playoffs. I thought the kids... Lady Spartans start season with win The Lady Spartans got their basketball season off to a good start with a win last Tuesday, defeating Alleluia Community 50-41. We played well in spurts on defense and did a good job at times of putting ball pressure on their guards, said head coach Daniel Hannah. We will need... Bears leash Bulldogs, advance to 2nd round The Burke County Bears made short work of the Mary Persons Bulldogs last Friday in The Bear Den with a convincing win of 48-21. With that victory, Burke County advances to the second round of the Georgia High School Association (GHSA) playoffs for the first time since 2018. The Bears... BEARS CHOSEN FOR ALL REGION TEAM Several Burke County players were chosen to represent the Region 4-AAAAll Region Team. Honorees are selected by the Region 4 coaches. Offense RB Eldrick Tiger Williams OL Keith Moss Defense DL Devin Watkins DL Ivan Arroyo LB Khyron Fields DB Jaedon Middleton Honorable Mentions... The Greek national meteorological services (EMY) issued an extraordinary weather warning for the next two days, according to protothema.gr The weather across the country is expected to sharply deteriorate, with the principal phenomena including strong easterly winds, a precipitous drop in temperatures and snow in the mountainous areas of the mainland. In particular: From the afternoon of Wednesday (28-11-2018) the forecast predicts: a. Stormy northeastern winds between 7 to 8 intensity, later in the evening reaching 9 Beaufort locally in the Thracian and the northern Aegean regions. b. Snowfall will be recorded in the mountains of Epirus, Macedonia, Thrace and at night in the mountains of Thessaly and Central Sterea, which will gradually intensify. For Thursday (29-11-2018) the forecast predicts: a. Stormy northerly winds will blow across the country, with winds in the Aegean expected to reach 9 and possibly locally the 10 Beaufort. b. Snow, topically heavy, will fall locally in the mountainous and semi-mountainous regions of Macedonia, Thrace, Thessaly, central and eastern Sterea, Evia, central and eastern Peloponnese. Early morning snowfall will also occur in the mountains of western Greece. RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: Pvasiliadis License: CC-BY-SA An aid package of around $50 billion pledged to 10 countries in the Middle East and Africa by the higher-rated countries in the Gulf has been examined by S&P Global Ratings in a new report. The report titled "How Middle Eastern And African Sovereigns Benefit From Gulf Financial Support" published on RatingsDirect also compares this years aid packages past donor support from GCC countries. Historically, funding from higher-rated GCC countries (Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar) has supported a smaller group of strategic allies. Recent pledges to a broader group of countries reflect a more active foreign policy and evolving geopolitical priorities. "In our experience, the actual disbursement of aid from the GCC is not always consistent, fully disbursed, or large enough to alleviate financial pressures for the recipient countries," said S&P Global Ratings analyst Zahabia Gupta. "We anticipate that GCC sovereigns will likely prioritize funding to key regional partners in the context of volatile oil prices, weaker GCC net asset positions, and their respective domestic agendas of diversifying their economies away from hydrocarbons." S&P Global Ratings expects that further support from the GCC countries in the event of financial stress would be forthcoming for Bahrain, Oman, and Jordan. This expectation offers additional support for the ratings on these three sovereigns. There continue to be strong political and economic ties among GCC sovereigns (barring the dispute with Qatar). More importantly, S&P Global Ratings said that GCC countries will strive to prevent contagion effects from pressure on the currency pegs of Bahrain or Oman and spillovers of social and sectarian tensions. Strong support from the US is also expected for Jordan. "We note that the funding mix of recent donor pledges is more debt-like," said Gupta. "Budget grants, the most fungible form of aid, are becoming less prevalent. Deposits in the central bank and other forms of conditional aid are increasingly the norm." TradeArabia News Service Dubai-based developer Emaar Properties has announced that its wholly-owned hospitality and leisure business subsidiary, Emaar Hospitality Group, has signed definitive documentation with Abu Dhabi National Hotels (ADNH) to divest its entire economic interest in a portfolio of five hotels in Dubai. The sold assets include Address Dubai Mall, Address Boulevard, Address Dubai Marina, Vida Downtown and Manzil Downtown, together with about 1,000 hotel rooms, said a statement from Emaar. As part of the transaction, ADNH will enter into long-term management agreements with Emaar Hospitality Group to continue operating the assets under its Address Hotels + Resorts and Vida Hotels and Resorts brands. However, both Emaar and ADNH have announced that the deal was subject to meeting various conditions and is likely to be completed by next month or early 2019. Commenting on the deal, Emaar Properties chairman Mohamed Alabbar said: "Our hospitality business has recorded robust growth since its inception in 2007 and moving to an asset-light model will enable the business to unlock its true potential." Founded in 2007, Emaar Hospitality Group is the leading manager of a diversified portfolio of hospitality assets under the Address, Vida and Manzil brands, serviced residences, leisure clubs, restaurants and spas, said the top official. The company seeks to disrupt the market with innovative solutions, inspired by modern global travellers and consumers. Emaar Hospitality Group is also the official hotel and hospitality partner of Expo 2020 Dubai. Emaar Properties had previously announced that its net profits and revenues had grown tremendously in the first nine months on the back of the initial public offering (IPO) of Emaar Development and foreign exchange movements, he added. ADNH Vice Chairman Sheikh Ahmed Mohammed Sultan Suroor Al Dhaheri said: "This transaction will strengthen our presence in Dubai and will help expand our current luxury portfolio of hospitality assets including the Ritz Carlton Abu Dhabi Grand Canal, The Park Hyatt in Saadiyat Island and Sofitel JBR in addition to our upper and upscale properties such as Le Meridien, Sheraton and the two Hiltons in the Abu Dhabi Emirate (currently under re-branding to Radisson Blu)." ADNH, he stated, also holds stakes in resort properties in Morocco and Egypt. Founded in 1976, ADNH is the pioneer of the hospitality industry in the UAE, encompassing hotels, restaurants, destination management services, catering, transportation and retail. It owns, develops and manages hotels across the country, and operates a variety of first-class food and beverage concepts. Other companies under the ADNH include Al Ghazal Transport, High Spirits, Sunshine Travel & Tours and ADNH Compass. "With a legacy of over four decades, we are constantly exploring ways to grow and increase value to our shareholders. We are confident that the partnership between ADNH and Emaar Hospitality Group will help drive both companies in their next phase of growth," he added.-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 GAC, a global provider of integrated shipping, logistics and marine services, is supporting the Dubai-based syndicate Row4Oceans attempt to complete an endurance-testing journey from Dakar in Senegal to Paramaribo in Suriname, whilst spreading an important marine preservation message. Row4Ocean is the initiative of Patrick Bol, syndicate owner and skipper rower of the high-tech trimaran Year of Zayed, in collaboration with global trade enabler DP World, said a statement. Bol will lead a team consisting of Andrew Ruinoff, Lewis Knollman and Matt Wilds as they row 2300 Nautical Miles across the Atlantic. Through the challenge and along the way, they will raise awareness about ocean pollution by collecting daily water samples and sending them for analysis back in Dubai, it said. They will also quietly attempt to break four world records: the first multihull to row across the Trade Winds 2 route continent to continent; the first to cross the Atlantic under 27 days; the fastest Atlantic crossing with an average speed over 3.7 knots; and most consecutive days rowed over 100 nautical miles a day, it added. When asked about some of the dangers they might face during the crossing, Bol noted the unknown weather, perils of the sea, collisions with floating logs, objects and fishing nets and also whale and shark encounters and locust swarms near the African coast. GAC is providing freight services for the boats journey from Dubai, where it was built, to the starting point at Dakar. After the Year of Zayed's trans-Atlantic journey, GAC will again be at hand to provide logistics services for the journey back to Dubai. Stuart Bowie, GAC Group vice president commercial, said: The oceans and seas are GACs lifeblood, so we are always looking for ways to promote the preservation of the marine environment. Thats why we are very keen to support Row4Ocean who aim both to do well and do good. We wish Patrick and his team all the best in their voyage, he added. The Year of Zayed left Jebel Ali Port earlier this month and is due to arrive at Dakar on December 4. After customs clearance, unloading and trimaran assembly works, the rowing team will set off to cross the Atlantic on 14 December, due to arrive in Paramaribo on January 7, after rowing an average of 14 hours a day, it stated. TradeArabia News Service Aubin, the chemical solutions provider to the energy industry, has established a manufacturing capability in Saudi Arabia to enhance product delivery and support to the local and international oil and gas markets. The move provides Aubin with both liquid and powder blending manufacturing capabilities in the kingdom for the first time. It will maximise IKTVA (In Kingdom Total Value Add) product content and enhance the companys local credentials whilst supporting larger regional and international service companies in the provision of locally manufactured products. This new offering will complement Aubins capabilities in the UAE, as the company looks to further increase its manufacturing presence in other Middle Eastern countries. Aubin director Ray Stirton said: This builds on our commitment to focus on improved service delivery and value creation for our Middle East customers and follows on from the establishment of our UAE entity in 2014. While we have been supplying our chemical solutions to the Saudi Arabian market for more than 25 years, the opening of a manufacturing capability here will really enhance our presence, support the IKTVA 2021 vision and enable us to respond much more quickly to customer requests. It will also provide a significant benefit to the major international service companies who currently have to import chemical products into the Kingdom, and strengthen our links locally through stringent checks on our local content levels. Industrial developments in Saudi Arabia and a growing acceptance of the benefits of chemical solutions over mechanical alternatives in well services, have led to an increased demand for Aubins stimulation and cementing solutions, particularly its acid matrix stimulation systems. The main driver for establishing a manufacturing capability in Saudi Arabia was to enhance our ongoing commitment to exceed customer requirements, but we are also excited by the potential for market growth. We are currently adding to our sales team to maximise our growth ambitions here, said Stirton. The Middle East is a very strong market for Aubin. We have a manufacturing capability in the UAE, we now have one in Saudi Arabia and we have plans for more manufacturing centres in the region to support the local and international oil and gas industries. - TradeArabia News Service Leme Lighting, an award-winning lighting company in the UAE, has entered into a strategic partnership with British energy and data harvesting firm Pavegen to launch its smart flooring technology and expertise in the UAE. Pavegen is a pioneer of an interactive flooring technology which converts the kinetic energy of footfall into off-grid electricity, data and rewards. Each step on Pavegen generates two to four joules of electricity or up to seven watts of power per person as they move across a walkway. Pavegen walkways also contain low-power bluetooth beacons which connect to smartphone apps, rewarding people for their steps and generating permission-based customer analytics. The company has delivered over 200 installations around the world and is looking to build on its portfolio of permanent installations which include prestige mixed-use developments, retail sites, schools and transport hubs. The Leme Lighting signed the deal with the UK group on the sidelines of the Big 5 construction expo in Dubai. As per the Pavegen and Leme Lighting plan, the British groups bespoke smart flooring solutions will integrate off-grid energy production with Leme Lightings sustainable lighting solutions in the UAE and beyond. Laurence Kemball-Cook, founder and CEO, Pavegen said: :"We believe in putting people at the heart of smart city infrastructure. Our highly engaging flooring solution converts the energy from human movement to power local applications including LED lighting, sensors and data capture and transmission and were installing in locations such as airports, hospitals, corporate headquarters, retail sites and schools." "Leme Lighting has the know-how and network to help us expand our offering and scale our operations across the Mena region and were excited about the opportunities we can develop together," he noted. Leme Group CEO Sanuj Kohli said: "Our partnership with Pavegen aims to drive the evolution of the alternative energy solutions in line with the ambitions of the UAE National Agenda 2021. Alternative energy has been a game changer in many markets around the world." "As a complement to solar or wind power, Pavegen uses human footfall to generate energy for offices, transport hubs, and generally, anywhere people can walk," noted Kohli. An award-winning lighting company in the UAE, Leme Lighting has a 100,000-sq-ft facility in which it designs and develops sustainable outdoor lighting products for global markets. "Leme Lighting has long advocated the use of energy-efficient, sustainable technology, and is committed to forming strategic partnerships with smart technology pioneers in order to contribute positively to the Middle Easts growing energy ecosystem," he added.-TradeArabia News Service Procter & Gamble (P&G), LuLu Hypermarkets and Dar Al Attaa in Oman have come together to launch a unique and far-reaching in-store campaign that will benefit thousands of children and promote a love of reading. The campaign, which is running from November 20 to December 5, will give LuLu Hypermarkets shoppers the opportunity to contribute to and promote reading throughout the entire country. For every selected P&G brand purchased during the 16-day campaign throughout LuLu Hypermarkets in cities including Muscat, Salalah and Sohar, P&G will donate the cost of a book to Dar Al Attaa. Through this campaign, P&G aims to contribute by providing a sound basis for lifelong learning to children. For every promoted product of Always, Ariel, Downy, Febreze, Gillette, Head & Shoulders, Herbal Essences, Olay, Oral B, Pampers, Pantene, Tide and Venus brands, P&G will donate the cost of one book to Dar Al Attaa. In 2007, Dar Al Attaa Association launched the Let's Read Campaign aiming to reintroduce the love of reading to children. The initiative has contributed significantly to promoting higher literacy rates throughout children all over Oman. We are extremely excited about this concept which we are certain will give our shoppers the chance to play a role in making children love reading, said Shabeer K A, regional director Lulu Hypermarkets Oman. The idea is simple yet powerful. Reading is key to the development of young minds. - TradeArabia News Service Visitors to the Czech Republic from Saudi Arabia grew by over 21 per cent in the first half of 2018 as compared to the corresponding period last year. A joint statement released by the Czech Tourist Authority (CzechTourism) and the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Riyadh, said that the increasing affinity of Saudi travellers to the Czech Republic has been on an upswing during the last three years and cumulatively the country has received over 62,000 visitors from the Kingdom during this period. Jaromir Janev, charge daffaires a. i. of the Czech Embassy in Riyadh, said: Travellers from Saudi Arabia are one of the longest staying visitors and we look at the increasing number of expatriate and national travellers from the Kingdom, the largest state among the Gulf countries, as an endorsement and testimony to the appeal of the Czech Republic as a preferred European destination not only for Spa treatments and medical tourism but also for leisure time activities. According to CzechTourism, who recently concluded an exclusive Discover Central Europe Middle East Road Show across several Gulf countries this November, the average length of stay of a Saudi traveller ranged between 6.2 to 7.7 days, which on an average is one of the longest when compared to other global visitors. The aim of the road shows was to highlight the multifaceted attractions of the country and highlight it as a unique destination of rich historical and contemporary diversity. The roadshows held across the Gulf countries, which consisted of B2B presentations and workshops was a joint promotional initiative of four Central European national tourist organisations of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. Monika Palatkova, managing director of Czech Tourist Authority CzechTourism said: We believe there is tremendous untapped potential in the Kingdom for us to woo more travellers, including family tourists, to visit the Czech Republic and enjoy the unique and distinctive experiences the country has to offer. The Czech Republic offers visitors a ubiquitous diversity of experiences from natural landscapes and architectural splendour to adventure and more. Palatkova added: 2017 was a particularly significant growth year with the cumulative annual length of stay of Saudi visitors at 128,561 days, the highest among Gulf travellers to the Czech Republic. Consecutively in the last three years the annual length of stay rankings for travellers from Saudi Arabia has stood at over 100 days. Arzan Khambatta, head of Tourism Representations at VFS Global, which represents CzechTourism in GCC markets said: The Czech Republic is increasingly becoming a global travel hotspot. We are looking at targeting families, millennials and luxury-oriented mature travellers. The travel from Saudi Arabia to the Central European country is set to boom from all indicators. He also said that over the last three years, the number of visitors from the Kingdom has been consecutively growing at an average rate of over 17 to 19 per cent and the potential for a further rise was evident from the increasing number of inquiries CzechTourism continues to receive from the Kingdom. TradeArabia News Service Oman Air, the national carrier of the Sultanate, has officially opened a new state-of-the-art Crew Reporting Centre at its hub in Muscat. The purpose-built crew terminal, is one of the most advanced of its kind in the region, and is fitted with cutting-edge baggage handling systems, electronic check-in kiosks and security and customs scanning equipment. Serving the burgeoning requirements of flight crews and Oman Air Operations Team, the Crew Reporting Centre eliminates the need to access the Departure Terminal at the airport. The airline will provide user-friendly technology and convenience for its 691 pilots and approximately 1,757 cabin crew during the check-in and briefing processes prior to boarding their flights. Operating crews will be provided with up-to-date flight information such as flight plans, weather reports, destination information, service protocol and passenger data, for review in dedicated briefing areas within the premises. Abdulaziz Al Raisi, Oman Airs chief executive officer, said: We are extremely proud to open this spectacular facility, which has been designed and built to provide our operating crew with the latest technological advances and the utmost convenience. Providing Oman Air with a much-needed facility as it caters to the increasing demand for air travel in the region, this Centre will allow us to pursue further opportunities for growth. The Crew Reporting Centre will allow us to meet the challenges of an ever-transforming business and to meet the phenomenal growth of both Oman Air and Oman well into the future. This is particularly important in the period following the opening of the new Passenger Terminal in Muscat International Airport. Located adjacent to the New Passenger Terminal at Muscat International Airport, the new RO7.6 million ($19.7 million) investment built on approximately 25,000 sq m will also host several Oman Air operational offices as well as a duty free, coffee shop, rest areas and banking facilities, among others. TradeArabia News Service ESMA's Periodic Auction Review Gets Positive Response Market participants have welcomed the European Securities and Markets Authoritys call for evidence on periodic auctions for equities, as the data gathered can then be used to influence policy. Ben Stephens, head of EMEA business development at agency broker Instinet, told Markets Media: There are 22 questions in the consultation. This is not a half-hearted review and Esma have done their homework. Last week Esma released its call for evidence on periodic auctions which last for very short periods of time during the trading day and are triggered by market participants, rather than the venue. Steven Maijoor, chair of Esma, said in a statement: Using this evidence, we will assess whether they can be used to circumvent the double volume caps and other pre-trade transparency requirements under MiFID II. If Esma comes to the conclusion that frequent batch auction systems violate the spirit and the rules of MiFID II, we will develop appropriate policy responses." MiFID II, the regulations which went live in the European Union at the start of this year, aimed to encourage trading on lit venues by introducing double volume caps on trading in dark pools. However, large-in-scale trading above a specified size has a waiver and the market share for electronic blocks and periodic auctions, a dark pool alternative, have grown. Periodic auctions are different from end of day auctions as they may only last for milliseconds. In contrast while traditional auctions can last several minutes and they are scheduled by the trading venue. Periodic auctions can be triggered by collecting trading interest throughout the day and starting a call period every time a pair of opposing orders can be matched. Based on those offers an algorithm determines a single uncrossing price which maximises the volume of instruments which can be executed at that price. Another frequent approach is to trigger an auction as soon as one order has been submitted. Stephens added: In periodic auctions there is less pre-trade transparency. In addition, if they are crossing at the midpoint then they are taking price formation away from lit venues. He gave the example of the end of day auction at the London Stock Exchange. In this case LSE gives information such as whether there are more than buyers than sellers and where the price is expected to form. In addition, there have to be more than two sides for an auction to take place. However, Stephens continued that there is a place for both end of day and intraday auctions. There are about 29,000 equities in Europe which are not liquid for which auctions work well, he said. Esma acknowledged that the success of frequent batch auctions may also be driven by other factors such as investors trying to reduce the impact of factors such as speed and latency. The growth in volumes may also be partly attributable to activity that had previously been over the counter before MiFID II went live. The regulator also said it was aware that trading under frequent batch auctions only constitutes a small part of total trading volume. However, Esma added: We have observed that the trend for frequent batch auction trading seems to be in a large extent driven by instruments that have been suspended under the double volume caps. Responses 1 2 next For more information on related topics, visit the following channels: Hi, my name is Scott C. Waring and I wrote a few books and am currently a ESL School Owner in Taiwan. I have had my own UFO sighting up close and personal, but that's how it works right? A non believer becomes a believer when they experience their first sighting. You witnessed it, your perceptual field changes, so now you need to share it. I created this site to help the UFO community get a little bit organized. I noticed that there was a lot of chaos when searching for UFO sighting reports, so I hope this site helps. I wanted to support those eyewitnesses who have tried to tell others about what they have seen, yet were laughed at by even closest of friends. More and more each day the governments of the world leak bits and pieces of UFO information to the public. They have a trickle down theory in hopes of slowly getting citizens use to the idea that we are not alone in universe and never have been. The truth is being leaked drop by drop until one day we look around and find ourselves neck high in it. The discovery of alien species in existence is the most monumental scientific event in human history, suppression of that information is a crime against humanity. About me: I live in Taiwan. I OWN MY OWN ENGLISH SCHOOL, AND ONCE HAD 5 SCHOOLS. Am Former USAF at SAC base (flight line). Age: 42 Educ: BA in Elem ed. Masters in Counseling ed. I had two UFO sightings, (30+bus size orbs) in military and in 2012 personally saw the UFO over Taipei 101 building on New Years Day (and recored it). As prepared for delivery. Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Colleagues I am very honored to join you for the opening of the 2018 Global South-South Development Expo and would like to thank the team of the UN Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC), which UNDP has proudly hosted since 1974, for convening this very important forum. With the adoption of the 2030 Agenda, we have witnessed an unprecedented level of political commitment and leadership to address complex and intractable development challenges, including persistent poverty and inequalities, climate change, rapid urbanization, and lack of inclusive growth. Addressing these challenges and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires a fundamental shift in the way we articulate and manage our international cooperation framework. We need to evolve our instruments, from traditional grant aid to broad-based partnerships as recognized in Goal 17. In this context, South-South cooperation is playing a growing role, whereby countries of the South work collaboratively, sharing innovation, knowledge, expertise, technologies and financial resources. Developing countries have proven, time and again, their abilities to catalyze support among countries that share similar development contexts, challenges, and offer cost-effective solutions. These efforts need to be harnessed and scaled-up, in a complementary manner to North-South Cooperation, so that they can spur transformational change. In the coming days we will all have an opportunity to take stock of some of the experiences to illustrate examples of how Southern solutions are leveraged to leave no one behind. This Expo is also a particularly timely opportunity to refine our collective thinking on the transformational potential of South-South Cooperation before the upcoming fortieth anniversary of the adoption of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action (BAPA+40 Conference, in March 2019). We at UNDP look to BAPA+40 as instrumental to explicitly and increasingly connect South-South Cooperation to Agenda 2030. UNDP has long been at the forefront of these efforts at the country level, strengthening exchanges of knowledge, technology innovation and development solutions. The ongoing reforms of the UN development system have given UNDP an unprecedented opportunity to transform itself for a new age of development, serving as the support platform of the UN development system and providing an integrator function to countries in support of their efforts to implement the 2030 Agenda. South-South Cooperation is a cornerstone element of our contemporary approach to development. Our expanding global network of collaborating Country Offices, programmes and policy centers enables us to look at development as a systemic and complex response to multiple factors. As an integrator, we place this network at the service of governments and the UN development system at large to translate global and regional knowledge of solutions that can be rapidly expanded and made available very much in the spirit of South-South Cooperation. For example, I am pleased to announce that by the end of 2019 we will have rolled out a network of up to 60 country-based accelerator labs to utilize new methods and approaches to scaling up SDG implementation and enhance countries capacities to achieve them. In conclusion, let us reiterate, as proud hosts of the UN Office for South-South Cooperation, our unreserved commitment to furthering the South-South Cooperation agenda, to continuing to host the UN Office for South-South Cooperation, and to the BAPA+40 process: we are convinced of the intrinsic and instrumental value of the 2019 Conference for UNDP, and for the rest of the UN System. We count on the many representatives of the Global South here today to seize this unique opportunity to capture and infuse knowledge where knowledge is needed to make a difference. Thank you. Bangladesh Army delegation off to India Dhaka, Nov 27 (UNI) A 50-member delegation of Bangladesh Army is now on a six-day tour to India in continuation of high-level defence cooperation between Armed Forces of Bangladesh and India, a statement from Indian High Commission in Dhaka on Tuesday said. Twenty five mid-level officers of Bangladesh Army, each accompanied by their spouse, are now visiting India. In continuation of high level defence cooperation between the Armed Forces of Bangladesh and India, the delegation will stay in India from November 26 to December 2. 25 Nov 2021 | 3:16 PM Moscow, Nov 25 (UNI/Sputnik) The Kremlin rejects all allegations of Russias involvement in presumed acoustic attacks against US diplomats that are been referred to as the "Havana Syndrome," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday, adding that CIA Director William Burns did not raise this issue in Moscow. Chinese embassy to return to Libya if security situation allows: envoy TRIPOLI, Nov 28 (Xinhua) Wang Qimin, Chinese Charge d'Affaires in Libya, said Tuesday that the Chinese embassy is willing to reopen in Libya if the security situation allows. The Chinese envoy made the remarks while meeting with Khalid al-Meshri, head of Libya's Higher Council of State. Wang also stressed China's willingness to cooperate with the UN envoy to Libya, looking forward to resuming suspended projects, starting new projects, especially in infrastructure and investment sectors. Human rights defender claims threat to his life, NHRC directs TN DGP to order probe 25 Nov 2021 | 4:19 PM Chennai, Nov 25 (UNI) The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) today directed the Tamil Nadu Director General of Police to order a probe by a senior rank police officer into the complaint of a human rights defender Dr S K Saamy, who is facing death threats. see more.. CI killed, his driver hurt as unidentified vehicle hits their vehicle in AP 25 Nov 2021 | 2:46 PM Visakhapatnam, Nov 25 (UNI) A Circle Inspector was killed and his driver injured when the vehicle in which they were travelling was hit by an unidentified vehicle at Yendada, on the outskirts of the city early on Thursday. see more.. Withdraw proposed Banking laws (Amendments) Bill 2021 : Raja requests PM 25 Nov 2021 | 2:42 PM Hyderabad, Nov 25 (UNI) Communist Party of India (CPI) General Secretary D Raja on Thursday requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to withdraw the proposed Banking Laws (Amendments) Bill 2021 in the interest of common people and nation. see more.. Aim is make TN USD one trillion economy by 2030 : Thennarasu 25 Nov 2021 | 2:24 PM Chennai, Nov 25 (UNI) Industries Minister Thangam Thennarasu today the aspiration of the Tamil Nadu government is to make the state a one trillion USD economy by 2030. see more.. India will help Gabon fulfil its objective to become emerging economy by 2025: Prabhu New Delhi, Nov 28 (UNI) Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu said on Wednesday that India attaches lot of importance to its relations with Gabon and it will give all assistance to the African country so that it can fulfil its objective to become an emerging economy by 2025. Welcoming Gabon Foreign Minister Regis Immongault, who called on him here, Mr Prabhu said it was possible for the two countries to work together in sectors like logistics, infrastructure, energy, water, agriculture, services and tourism. He informed the visiting Foreign Minister that bilateral trade between India and Gabon was currently valued at USD 440.47 million and was yet to realise its full potential. ''Both sides will have to work together to improve bilateral trade in the coming years,'' he said. At present, Indian companies are already operating in wood, plywood, mining and fisheries sectors. The Gabonese Foreign Minister said that his country was looking for stronger involvement of BRICS countries in the development of different sectors in Gabon. Gabon has shown interest in entering into a Bilateral Investment Treaty with India. India has also urged the African country to avail the offer of Lines of Credit (LoC) for developmental projects. As a member of the International Solar Alliance, Gabon is also eligible to avail LoC for solar projects. India also suggested that Gabon may give a complete list of minerals for Indian industries to consider investing in for mining projects. Gabon has the sixth largest reserves of Manganese in the world. It is one of the four countries in the world with high grade reserves along with South Africa, Australia and Brazil. It is the fourth largest producer, globally, of manganese ore with 11 per cent share in global production after South Africa (26per cent), China (17per cent) and Australia (15per cent). With large reserves yet to exploited, the Gabonese side is keen to develop this sector. Manganese Ore India Ltd (MOIL) team visited Gabon in July 2018 to explore possibilities of joint collaboration with Gabonese mining companies. Gabon is also making efforts to attract investment from India in construction of railway lines in key mining clusters in Gabon. A feasibility study was conducted by RITES for one of the proposed lines. Both India and Gabon have agreed to send business delegations to look at opportunities for trade and investments, according to an official statement here. UNI RSA ADG 1823 Banning Cryptocurrencies will Encourage Non-State Players: BACC 25 Nov 2021 | 4:14 PM Kolkata, Nov 25 (UNI) The Blockchain and Crypto Assets Council (BACC), of IAMAI, in a statement released to the media, said that a blanket ban on cryptocurrencies will encourage non-state players thereby leading to more unlawful usage of such currencies. see more.. Adani Solar partners with KSL Cleantech 25 Nov 2021 | 3:59 PM Kolkata, Nov 25 (UNI) Adani Solar, the Adani Groups solar manufacturing and EPC arm, announced the launch of its retail distribution business for Indias eastern and northeastern states with KSL Cleantech Ltd as the official channel partner for the two regions. Adani Solar has now extended its reach to more than 1,000 towns for the distribution of solar panels in India. see more.. Honda 2 Wheelers India celebrates 7th Anniversary of its Traffic Training Park 25 Nov 2021 | 3:26 PM Kolkata, Nov 25 (UNI) Instilling positive awareness on road safety and safe driving habits in the city, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. (HMSI) and Delhi Traffic Policecelebrated 7th anniversary of the Traffic Training Park at Baba Kharak Singh Marg, Connaught Place, New Delhi in the august presence of Umesh Bhardwaj, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Road Safety Cell, Delhi Traffic Police. see more.. Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning & Biometric Security Technology to be Drivers of Digital Transformation in 2022 and Beyond: IEEE 25 Nov 2021 | 3:21 PM Kolkata, Nov 25 (UNI) IEEE, the technical professional organization committed to advancing technology for humanity, on Thursday concluded its virtual roundtable focused on The Next Big Thing in Technology, the top technologies that will have a massive impact in 2022 and beyond. see more.. Kolkatans to get a slice of Maya civilsation at the Book Fair Kolkata, Nov 28(UNI) The 43rd International Kolkata Book Fair would have "The Heart of the Mayan World - Guatemala" (Corazon del Mundo Maya Guatemala) as its focal theme. Tridib Chatterjee, general secretary of the guild, which is the organiser of the International Kolkata Book Fair, said in a press conference here that Guatemala was selected as the theme country to bring forth to the people the Central American nation's rich cultural heritage, history and its ancient Mayan civilisation which continues to amaze the world. Speaking about his country, Ambassador of Guatemala in India Giovanni Castillo said the International Kolkata Book Fair would be an excellent opportunity for the visitors to know about his county, which otherwise would have remained unknown to many, owing to its geographical distance from India. Ladakh delegation meets J&K Guv, seeks UT status Jammu, Nov 28 (UNI) Ladakh Buddhist Association led by its president Tsewang Thinles on Wednesday met Governor Satya Pal Malik here at the Raj Bhavan. P T Kunzang, Vice-President of the Association also joined the delegation. Mr Thinles on behalf of the Association ,submitted a Memorandum of Demands including granting of Union Territory status with Legislature to Ladakh; inclusion of Bhoti language in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution of India; establishment of a Police Range and a Univesity for Ladakh region; legal protection to the business interests of local population; funds for refurbishment of Chokhang Vihara in Ladakh; creation of a minority commission cell and implementation of the Anti-Conversion Law to safeguard the interests of minorities in the State. Morocco foils over 76,000 illegal immigration attempts in 2018 RABAT, Nov 28 (Xinhua)The Moroccan authorities have thwarted over 76,000 illegal immigration attempts since the beginning of 2018, a Moroccan official said Tuesday in Rabat. Speaking at a parliamentary session, Moroccan Minister Delegate to the Minister of the Interior, Noureddine Boutayeb, said a total of 174 trafficking networks have been busted so far this year. Earlier official statistics showed 68,000 attempts were foiled and 122 trafficking networks were dismantled in the first nine months of 2018. Norway's former minister charged with sexual assault against asylum seekers:report Oslo, Nov 28 (Xinhua) Norway's former fisheries minister ,Svein Ludvigsen has been charged with abusing his position to acquire sexual intercourse with three male asylum seekers, public broadcaster NRK reported on Wednesday. Ludvigsen, 72, was Norway's Minister of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs from 2001 to 2005 and was County Governor of Troms from 2006 to 2014. The violations occurred during the period when Ludvigsen was the county governor in Troms and happened at the county hall in the Arctic city of Tromso and at various hotels in Oslo, the report said. Pompeo, Ecuadorian ministers reaffirm commitment to expand cooperation WASHINGTON, Nov 28 (Xinhua) US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and visiting Ecuadorian foreign Minister and finance Minister reaffirmed commitment to expand bilateral cooperation, the US 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 US-Ecuador Trade and Investment Council. Pompeo confirmed US support for Ecuador's efforts in strengthening democratic institutions and President Lenin Moreno's commitment to democratic reforms, according to the statement. Six al-Shabab militants killed during Army fight in Somalia Mogadishu, Nov 28 (UNI) Six al-Shabab militants were killed and several others injured in separate incidents in Hiraan region of central Somalia during a fighting between Somali National Army (SNA) and the militants, officials on Wednesday said. Abdirahim Takow, Deputy Governor of Hiraan region for security affairs told reporters that four of the militants were killed, while two others died in a blast of landmine which they were planting at the airport in Bula-burte town in the region. He added that an African Union soldier from Djiboutian contingent was killed in the bomb blast inside the airport on Tuesday. US Treasury sanctions Nicaraguan vice president, key advisor over response to protests WASHINGTON, Nov 28 (Xinhua) US 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. UW Geology Professor Researches Oceanic Crust as Part of International Project UW Associate Professor Mike Cheadle holds a core sample from the Samail Ophiolite, a large slab of oceanic crust that was pushed on top of the continental crust in Oman in the Middle East. Cheadle is participating in the Oman Drilling Project, the goal of which is to learn more about oceanic crust and Earths mantle. (Eiichi Takazawa, Niigata University, Japan, Photo) Space is vast and mysterious, and the majority of it is unexplored. So are the oceans on Earth: While they cover most of the surface, what goes on underneath them is mostly unknown. University of Wyoming geology and geophysics Associate Professor Mike Cheadle is working to contribute to the knowledge of what happens within the oceans with his research on oceanic crust and Earths mantle. Oceans cover 71 percent of the earths surface, but we dont actually know much about what goes on beneath them, because its so hard to get there, Cheadle says. One way to circumvent the difficulties of accessing the sea floor is to study ophiolites -- portions of oceanic crust that have been geologically pushed on top of the continental crust. Cheadle is a participant in the Oman Drilling Project, the goal of which is to learn more about oceanic crust and Earths mantle by drilling samples of rocks from the Samail Ophiolite. More than 200 scientists worldwide have contributed to the project. The best place in the world where youve got a piece of ocean crust -- that was once below miles of water that has been geologically pushed up on the continent -- is in a country called Oman in the Middle East, Cheadle says. We can find fewer good examples in places like Oregon and in California, but it turns out Oman is literally the biggest piece of ocean crust thats been pushed up on the continents in the world. The scientific drill ship Chikyu was where Cheadle and other scientists examined the Samail Ophiolite samples. (Mike Cheadle Photo) After samples were drilled and collected from Oman, they were transported to the scientific drill ship Chikyu for examination. Cheadle was one of 30 scientists involved in describing and cataloguing the samples. Now, he is studying those samples using more in-depth techniques to learn how oceanic crust forms. We can do various geological techniques to look at things like chemistry, and we cut things into thin sections that you can look at under the microscope to spend time trying to understand how its all working, Cheadle says. The findings from Oman are just one part of Cheadles overall research regarding oceanic crust, but he believes they will contribute to understanding not only that formation, but also other geological questions, such as what the boundary between the crust and the Earths mantle is like. Cheadle will discuss his work with the Oman Drilling Project in a session at the American Geophysical Unions fall meeting Dec. 10-14 in Washington, D.C. Russian missiles are a danger - the alarm was sounded by the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, in an interview with Maurizio Caprara published in the Corriere della Sera, three days before the incident in the Sea of Azov which added fuel to the already incandescent tension with Russia [1]. There are no new missiles in Europe. But there are Russian missiles, yes , began Stoltenberg, ignoring two facts. First : as from March 2020, the United States will begin to deploy in Italy, Germany, Belgium, and Holland (where B-61 nuclear bombs are already based), and probably also in other European countries, the first nuclear bomb with precision guidance in their arsenal, the B61-12. Its function is primarily anti-Russian. This new bomb is designed with penetrating capacity, enabling it to explode underground in order to destroy the central command bunkers with its first strike. How would the United States react if Russia deployed nuclear bombs in Mexico, right next to their territory? Since Italy and the other countries, violating the non-proliferation Treaty, are allowing the USA to use its bases, as well as its pilots and planes, for the deployment of nuclear weapons, Europe will be exposed to a greater risk as the first line of the growing confrontation with Russia. Second : a new US missile system was installed in Romania in 2016, and another similar system is currently being built in Poland. The same missile system is installed on four warships which, based by the US Navy in the Spanish port of Rota, sail the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea close to Russian territory. The land-based installations, like the ships, are equipped with Lockheed Martin Mk41 vertical launchers, which as specified by the manufacturer himself are able to launch missiles for all missions : either SM-3s as defence against ballistic missiles, or long-range Tomahawks to attack land-based objectives . The latter can also be loaded with a nuclear warhead. Since it is unable to check which missiles are actually loaded into the launchers parked at the frontier with Russia, Moscow supposes that there are also nuclear attack missiles, in violation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which forbids the installation of intermediate- and short-range missiles on land bases. On the contrary, Stoltenberg accuses Russia of violating the INF Treaty, and sends out a warning : We can not allow the Treaties to be violated without punishment . In 2014, the Obama administration accused Russia, without providing the slightest proof, of having tested a Cruise missile (SSC-8) from a category forbidden by the Treaty, announcing that the United States are considering the deployment of land-based missiles in Europe , in other words, the abandon of the INF Treaty. This plan, supported by the European allies of NATO, was confirmed by the Trump administration : in the fiscal year of 2018, Congress authorised the financing of a programme of research and development for a Cruise missile to be launched from a mobile platform. Nuclear missiles of the Euromissile type, deployed by the USA in Europe during the 1980s and eliminated by the INF Treaty, are capable of hitting Russia, while similar nuclear missiles deployed in Russia can hit Europe but not the USA. Stoltenberg himself, referring to the SSC-8s that Russia had deployed on its own territory, declared that they are capable of reaching most of Europe, but not the United States . This is how the United States defends Europe. And in this grotesque affirmation by Stoltenberg, who attributes to Russia the highly perilous idea of limited nuclear conflict , he warns : All atomic weapons are dangerous, but those which can lower the threshold for use are especially so . This is exactly the warning sounded by US military and scientific experts about the B61-12s which are on the verge of being deployed in Europe : Low-powered, more accurate nuclear weapons increase the temptation of using them, even to using them first instead of as a riposte . Why is the Corriere della Sera not going to interview them ? Minister Cortes to launch International Conference on Bat Research and Conservation The Gibraltar National Museum will be hosting a major international conference focusing on bat research and conservation in the Iberian Peninsula. The conference is co-organised with SECEMU, which is a non-profit organisation that has been active in bat research and conservation in Spain since 1989. It has recently opened up to accept members from Portugal and Gibraltar with the intention of creating a pan-Iberian association. In this light, the association held its last biennial conference in Vairao, Portugal in 2016 which attracted almost 100 delegates from Spain, Portugal and Gibraltar with a common goal: an interest in bats and the unique characteristics of the Iberian populations. Delegates included researchers, ecologists, conservationists, managers and students not only from Iberia but also from across Europe and North Africa. This last conference was the first SECEMU event to have been held outside Spain in an Iberian context and it is now followed by the event being held in Gibraltar. The Hon. John Cortes MP MBE JP will be launching this years conference at 15:00 on Friday 7th December at the University of Gibraltar. With over 100 delegates from 12 different countries already signed up, the Gibraltar conference will be a great forum for communication and learning for all involved and that it will continue to open doors for collaboration on bat research and conservation projects within and between Iberian countries and beyond. Ecologist Dr Rodrigo Medellin of the National Autonomous University of Mexico will be the keynote speaker for this event which will take the form of a free public lecture within the conference proceedings at the University of Gibraltar. Dr Medellin is a big name in wildlife conservation, particularly in the field of bats, jaguars, bighorn sheep and ocelots among others. He works at the Institute of Ecology of the National Autonomous University of Mexico and has worked for the American Museum of Natural History and been an ambassador for the International Union for Conservation of Nature. He was recently featured in a BBC Natural World documentary entitled The Bat Man of Mexico which was narrated by Sir David Attenborough and told the story of Dr Medellins life-long work protecting bats across Mexico. The documentary trailer is available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p020tnx3 Dr Medellins public lecture entitled Ecosystem services provided by bats: What and how to value, will take place at 18:30 on Friday 7th December at the University of Gibraltar. This lecture is free but pre-booking is essential via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Conference registration is also free for residents of Gibraltar on presentation of a valid ID Card. Register online here: http://secemu.org/en/registration-vii-secemu-meeting For more information contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Or call the Gibraltar National Museum on +350 200 74289 Operation DEMETER IV targeted illegal transboundary movements of waste. A total of 75 Customs administrations participated in the joint global operation, the biggest Customs operation targeting illegal trafficking of waste to date, which yielded over 326,133 tonnes and 54,782 pieces of different types of waste. The most frequently seized commodities included mineral slag (283,671.925 tonnes), plastics (9,816.018 tonnes), e-waste (245.277 tonnes and 14,826 pieces), waste rubber (1,032.970 tonnes), municipal waste (518.420 tonnes), clothes (5,371.804 tonnes), paper (25.705 tonnes), batteries (62.226 tonnes), and metal scraps (8,212.226 tonnes). A total of 214 seizures were reported, comprising 199 cases involving waste. The largest seizure was a shipment of smelting slag (approximately 180,000 tonnes) from Spain, intercepted by China Customs. Operation DEMETER IV, initiated by China Customs and coordinated by the Regional Intelligence Liaison Office for the Asia/Pacific region (RILO A/P) and the World Customs Organization (WCO), was supported by the Secretariat of the Basel Convention and its Regional Centre in Beijing (China), INTERPOL, EUROPOL, the European Union Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law (IMPEL), and UN Environment's Asia and the Pacific Office. Throughout the operation, conducted between 4 June and 8 July 2018, Customs officers shared intelligence and applied risk assessment, profiling and targeting techniques to identify and control high-risk consignments shipped on all routes and via all means of transport. Over the past three decades, waste primarily generated by developed countries has ended up in the territories of developing countries, largely in Southeast Asia and West Africa. This increases pressure on developing countries to process growing numbers of waste shipments. Under the Basel Convention, which regulates transboundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal, Parties have the right to prohibit the import of waste. In addition, they may not export waste without the prior consent of the States of import. On 1 January 2018, China, the worlds biggest importer of waste, introduced an import ban on 24 types of solid waste. As a result of this ban, Chinas neighbours and certain African countries have increasingly found themselves targeted by shippers of illegal waste. If hazardous waste is shipped without the prior consent of the States of import, this is regarded as illegal and the States of export are required to take the waste back or dispose of it in an environmentally sound manner, under the terms of the Basel Convention. Illegal waste trafficking is a little-known, lucrative business with devastating consequences for human health and the environment. Operation DEMETER IV once again demonstrates the commitment of the WCO and the international Customs community to tackle illegal trafficking and protect public health by enhancing cooperation and law enforcement, said the WCO Secretary General, Kunio Mikuriya. The RILO A/P, based in Seoul (Republic of Korea), hosted the Operational Coordination Unit (OCU) and played an important role during Operation DEMETER IV, acting as a focal point for information exchange. Eight RILOs took part in the operation. Participants relied on the CENcomm, the WCOs secure and encrypted communication tool, to exchange crucial intelligence and information and coordinate their operational activities during the course of this global enforcement initiative. The WCO Deputy Secretary General, Ricardo Trevino, represented the Organization at the debriefing on Operation DEMETER IV, held on 20 November 2018 in Shanghai (China) and attended by over 150 representatives from 53 WCO Members and 11 international organizations. During the debriefing, Mr. Ni Yuefeng, Minister of the General Administration of China Customs, referred to the operation as a major success in terms of international collaboration. He went on to say that "China Customs will continue to work with international organizations and other Member countries and regions to construct a prosperous, clean and beautiful world together". During the debriefing, China Customs proposed that Member Customs administrations establish a long-term mechanism for global cooperation, aimed at monitoring transboundary movements of solid waste and combating related smuggling activities. Following the debriefing, a WCO workshop was held at the Organizations Regional Training Centre in Shanghai, from 21 to 23 November 2018, to hold further discussions on environmental crime issues. The DEMETER concept will be pursued and plans are already being made for a similar operation in 2019. Advertisement By Mike Cooper, West Kentucky Star Staff Nov. 27, 2018 | PADUCAH By Mike Cooper, West Kentucky Star Staff Nov. 27, 2018 | 04:49 PM | PADUCAH The Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development announced a new state grant for West Kentucky region entrepreneurship, Tuesday afternoon at Sprocket, Inc. in Paducah. Cabinet director Brian Mefford revealed the grant of $428,684 annually to establish a regional hub to attract and cultivate more innovative entrepreneurs and startup businesses in western Kentucky. The Murray State University Center for Telecommunications Systems Management is a partner in the effort. Its director, Dr. Michael Ramage, stressed four components: regional collaboration, supporting local efforts, providing entrepreneurial services, and growing the tech sector. Regional partners from Hopkinsville, Madisonville, Henderson and Paducah were also present for the announcement, as well as several entrepreneurs from across the region that participate in the effort. Partners will provide businesses and entrepreneurs services including business planning, investor-financing readiness evaluations, software development vetting, and advising on the incorporation process, tax and permitting obligations, IP protections and partnership agreements. Paducah Mayor Brandi Harless called this an "exciting day" as she pointed out that this initiative is something she spent much time working on before becoming mayor. The statewide development of these Regional Innovation for Startups and Entrepreneurs (RISE) hubs are part of KY Innovations 120-county effort to modernize Kentuckys support for high-tech, high-growth-potential businesses. Mefford said that in coming weeks the office plans to invest more than $4.9 million in regional efforts, more than doubling funding to the offices of the former Kentucky Innovation Network. Email To : Multiple e-mail addresses must be separated with a comma character(maximum 200 characters) Email To is required. Your Full Name: (optional) Your Email Address: Your Email Address is required. Calvert City Jingle All the Way 5k and Fun Run set for December 4 By West Kentucky Star Staff Jan. 04, 2019 | 02:16 PM | PADUCAH A Ledbetter man was arrested Thursday after an investigation into burglaries at three Paducah businesses.On December 21, the McCracken County Sheriff's Department asked for the public's help identifying a man in surveillance photos from Pur Bliss on December 2. Burglaries or attempted burglaries had been reported at Pur Bliss and three other businesses in the strip mall at 3226 North Friendship Road.Detectives with the Sheriff's Department say they were eventually able to determine that 42-year-old Derek Hasselbrink had been in the area that day, and was responsible for three burglaries and one attempted burglary.Detectives say Hasselbrink was arrested Thursday by the Livingston County Sheriff's Department on a warrant for three counts of burglary 3rd degree. He was taken to McCracken County Jail.The Sheriff's Department says more charges are possible in this case. On the Net: Advertisement By Tim Brockwell Nov. 28, 2018 | MARSHALL COUNTY By Tim Brockwell Nov. 28, 2018 | 10:06 AM | MARSHALL COUNTY A Marshall County Schools official has responded to accusations of witness tampering made by attorneys representing accused Marshall County High School shooter Gabe Parker. Defense attorneys filed a motion on November 21 in Marshall Circuit Court saying that some witnesses have refused to speak with them due to interference by the Marshall County School Board and its agents. It goes on to say that some parents and teachers told the defense team they got advice from attorneys representing the school system, and some parents and students said they were told by teachers to avoid speaking with the defense team. Superintendent Trent Lovett spoke to West Kentucky Star Wednesday, saying that no one from the school district has ever told anyone that they could not speak with defense attorneys in the case. He did say that some teachers had contacted him after receiving letters from a company called "Mitigation Matters" in reference to the case, and that he advised them that they were not legally required to speak with anyone unless ordered by subpoena. "No one from our school district has ever told anyone they could not talk to anybody. We've told them they don't have to unless they're subpoenaed, which is the law." Lovett said. Lovett said that after being contacted by several teachers, some of whom had not had any contact with Parker for years, the school district's attorney Michael Owsley drafted a letter to the company asking them to stop trying to contact school employees. "The attorney did write a letter to Mitigation Matters that just said, you know, basically cease and desist. These people don't want to talk, leave them alone. That is the first time we found out that it had anything to do with the defense at all. We had no idea who they were representing, or if they were even representing anybody." He said. A judge will hear arguments regarding the tampering allegations at a Friday hearing, along with two other motions from the defense. The second motion asks for a ruling on multiple requests from the defense for download information from Parker's cell phone. Defense attorneys say Kentucky State Police have not complied, citing privacy concerns. The third motion asks the court to order a counselor to release records from family counselling sessions attended by Parker and a family member, both of whom have given permission to release their information. By West Kentucky Star Staff Nov. 28, 2018 | 10:21 AM | SALEM A Livingston County man is facing drug and other charges following a hit and run incident Tuesday night. The Livingston County Sheriff's Office says a resident of Butler Road told deputies that someone ran off the road into his yard and struck both of his vehicles, totaling both of them. An investigation revealed that the driver of the vehicle was 49-year-old Chris A. Fitzgerald, of Salem. Fitzgerald was arrested without incident Tuesday night at his home on Harris Circle. He's charged with leaving the scene of an accident, no liability insurance, criminal mischief, possession of methamphetamine and possession of marijuana. He was lodged in the McCracken County Regional Jail. By The Associated Press Nov. 27, 2018 | 10:19 PM | FRANKFORT Kentucky's chief health official has downplayed concerns that thousands of people will lose Medicaid coverage now that the federal government has re-approved new eligibility rules. Last week, the Trump administration gave Kentucky permission to require some of Kentucky's Medicaid population to have a job, go to school or volunteer to keep their Medicaid coverage. Similar rules in Arkansas led to more than 12,000 people losing coverage in the first three months of implementation. But Kentucky Health and Family Services Secretary Adam Meier noted the new rules have many exemptions, including for pregnant women, full-time students, primary caregivers of children and the elderly and victims of domestic violence. He also noted Kentucky's improving economy means the state's expanded Medicaid program has shrunk by about 41,000 people this year. China Africa bonds China not interested in being a new colonial power but seeks to develop win-win partnerships in Africa. Chinas Ambassador to South Africa Lin Songtian has lashed back at critics who paint China as the new colonial power draining Africa of its resources and trapping governments with unaffordable megaprojects. Some people and countries in the West are fearful to see China supporting Africa to achieve independence politically and economically. As a result, they will never cease fabricating stories of so-called Chinese neo-colonialism, debt trap or lack of investment transparency, he said. Songtian was a panellist at a conference which sought to unpack the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), an inter-regional connectivity drive by the Chinese government involving infrastructure development and investments in countries in Europe, Asia and Africa to link China and the world via maritime and terrestrial trade corridors. Hosted by the Wits Journalism China Africa Reporting Project, the conference also focused on how South Africa can connect with the BRI bringing with it the much desired job creation, interconnectivity in the region and trade. To date, 113 countries and 29 international organisations have signed the BRI cooperation documents with China. Read Songtian's speech. The general view among panellists was that China has good intentions and can help to unlock Africa's potential. China is Africa's best development partner according to Wits International Relations Professor Garth Shelton. China has experience in large scale projects and has managed to uplift millions of its citizens out of poverty, Shelton. Parliamentary House Chairperson of Committees, Oversight and ICT Cedrick Frolick held the same view citiing the long history between China and Africa. The BRI presented Africa, South Africa with a chance to strenghen people to people contact. Frolick advied that South Africa needs to draw lesson from Ethopia and Kenya who are already reaping the benefits of the BRI. Ecological and environmental issues must be considered before South Africa undertakes any BRI projects, advised Frolick. In his opening remarks Wits Vice-Chancellor upheld the view that was nothing sinister about China wanting an interest in its investment. "All countries have an agenda". "Why shouldn't China advance its own agenda if it is putting billions out into world. We need to ensure there's a coincidence in interest between Africa's agenda and China's," Habib. The rise and role of China in development should be welcomed because history has taught us that "in a world with a single superpower, the developing world tends to lose out", said Habib. 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 MP speaks up for Hightown sub-postmaster in Parliament This article is old - Published: Wednesday, Nov 28th, 2018 Wrexhams MP has spoken in the House of Commons about the plight of a popular sub-postmaster, accusing the UK Government of restricting his attempts to grow his business. Ian Lucas said it was wrong to deny Avi Bungar, who runs Hightown Post Office, the ability to offer certain services while at the same time allowing many Crown branches such as Wrexhams town centre outlet to be franchised out to WHSmith stores offering a full range of services. Mr Lucas, who has also renewed calls for better disabled access to the Hope Street branch, said it was a classic case of the UK Government favouring big business over smaller, local ones like Mr Bungars. Speaking during business questions last week, he said: Restrictive practices are preventing my constituent, Mr Avi Bungar, from providing various post office services because he runs a sub-post office. Why are the Government giving big business, WHSmith, a sweetheart deal and preferential Crown Post Office terms, and preventing sub-postmasters from having the same? Small Business Minister, Kelly Tolhurst MP, replied by saying the franchising arrangement is part of a long-term sustainability programme aimed at providing longer hours and better locations. However, speaking outside the Chamber, Mr Lucas described the answer as inadequate and called for sub-postmasters like Mr Bungar whom he visited recently to be given the same terms as Crown branches. Wrexhams town centre branch relocated from Henblas Street to first-floor premises in the WHSmith store on Hope Street in 2016. From February 19 next year, the running of the branch will transfer from the Post Office to WHSmith as part of a franchising deal which involves branches across the country taken over by the retailer. Mr Lucas complained in 2016 on behalf of disabled constituents about what he believes is the poor access to the new Post Office, where entry is via either stairs or a small service lift at the back of the store. However, the MPs protests were ignored and the relocation went ahead. Mr Lucas contacted the Post Office again recently about the situation but Stuart Taylor, external relations manager for the Post Office Ltd, replied saying staff had not been aware of any complaints from customers in relation to access at the new premises. The lift was of adequate size, Mr Taylor added. But Mr Lucas said Mr Taylors response was at odds with what he hears from speaking to his constituents. He added: I am still of the belief that access to Wrexhams main town centre Post Office branch especially for disabled or elderly people should be a lot better. Unlike the Hope Street shop, Avi Bungars business runs from the ground floor and has excellent disabled access. I know he is not allowed to deal with passports because the Post Office refused him the terms to do so when I asked. I oppose the privatisation of Wrexham Post Office but, if it happens, we must have fair competition between all businesses, not a sweetheart deal for an ailing big business which unfairly discriminates against a popular small business like Avis. If you have any views on access to Wrexham Post Office, contact Mr Lucas on ian.lucas.mp@parliament.uk or call 01978 355743. Refinitiv say the proposals are appropriate as they confirm over 300 jobs lost in Wrexham This article is old - Published: Wednesday, Nov 28th, 2018 It has been confirmed over 300 jobs will be lost in Wrexham, with the end of the consultancy period triggering deployment of a Welsh Government support programme. In October the company announced over 300 jobs could be lost at the Wrexham site, with a redundancy consultation announced. Yesterday the company wrote to staff following the conclusion of a consultation period to confirm the outcome. The former Financial & Risk business division of Thomson Reuters, rebranded to Refinitiv following a strategic partnership transaction with a private equity fund earlier this year, operates from Redwither Tower. Back on 10th October the company proposed moving operational roles from Wrexham to other locations including Gdynia and Bangalore and to move some technology roles to Nottingham or another European location plus make other roles redundant. The company told workers yesterday: After very careful consideration of the responses, the Company has concluded that the proposals are appropriate and has decided to go ahead with them. This means that all roles in Wrexham are to be made redundant. One affected worker told us today: Its been a rather stressful process for staff, moral is at an all time low and with Christmas coming up many people are worried about finding work in the new year particularly in the local job market. Economy Secretary Ken Skates said: It is deeply disappointing to hear that, following the consultation period, Refinitiv has decided to press ahead with its closure plans, with the loss of 300 jobs here in Wales. Our focus is now unwavering in helping those facing redundancy find alternative employment. My department has for some time been working with contacts and key support partners making preparations for this eventuality, and our comprehensive ReAct programme will now be deployed. This is an extremely difficult and uncertain time for all workers at Refinitiv and I can give them my absolute commitment that Welsh Government will continue to do everything possible to help this skilled workforce find alternative employment. Several of the workers affected had been in touch to note there had not been any visible action despite promises from Welsh Government of support, it has however been explained that until the consultation period concluded, they were unable to provide any direct support for the employees. Welsh Government officials have been in discussions with the companys employee assistance contractor Right Management to align its support with that available from Welsh Government, Wrexham Council and other partner organisations. Local MP Ian Lucas has said, While this news may not be a surprise, it is still desperately disappointing. Clearly, the decision to move the jobs in Wrexham elsewhere was made before any real consultation took place and it is a disgrace that companies can treat loyal workers in this way. I welcome the commitment from Welsh Government to help this skilled and professional workforce find alternative employment. We are told Wrexham Council, who own Redwither Tower and have offices there alongside Refinitiv, will be working closely with the Welsh Government officials in their support for workers in what has been described as a Task Force approach in providing assistance. Raffensperger finished the November 6 election with 49 percent of the vote, leading Barrow by just 16,278 votes out of 3.8 million cast. The race requires a runoff because neither candidate surpassed 50 percent. HAVANA, Fla. (WTXL) - A local police department is warning citizens about a new scam targeting Hurricane Michael survivors on Facebook. The Havana Police Department is warning residents about a scam that has been circulating the area recently. They say they've received reports of citizen being contacted by scammers through Facebook. The scammers tell the victims that they have qualified for a grant that will remove hurricane debris from their property. The caller then requires the victim to pay for the travel expenses up front and requests that the money be sent through Walmart MoneyGram or something similar. Police ask that residents be wary of anyone offering services on social media. If you have any questions or concerns, you are asked to call the Havana Police Department at 850-539-2800. GRADY COUNTY, Ga. (WTXL) - Some South Georgia voters will return to their regular polling location for this runoff election. Voters in Cario's 5th precinct will cast their votes at the Grady County Agri-Center on December 4th. This polling place caught attention earlier in the month after the NAACP said it was weighing possible legal action against Grady County. The group questioned whether adequate notice was given to voters that the location had changed before the general election on November 6th. Grady County election officials say updated precinct information will be mailed to voters before the December runoff. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 23:00:42|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close PARIS, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday laid out a long-awaited government update of its ecology roadmap in which he targets to shrink the country's reliance on nuclear energy and pour more cash into renewables to switch to cleaner energy and fight climate change. In a televised speech, Macron pledged to reduce the country's share of nuclear energy in power production to 50 percent by 2035 from 75 percent today, a decade later than an initial timetable set by his predecessor, Francois Hollande and which was maintained by the centrist government. Eyeing fewer nuclear energy reactors in 10 year's time, he said 14 of the state-owned utility EDF's 58 nuclear energy reactors would be closed by 2035, with the two reactors at the Fessenheim, the country's oldest plant, stopped by the summer of 2020. The government's energy transition scheme also included the closure of four to six reactors before 2030, two in 2027-28 and possibly two in 2025-26 "if security of supply is ensured and if our European neighbors accelerate their energy transition," Macron told the gathering. Meanwhile, he ruled out a policy to phase out nuclear power entirely. "I immediately set a rule for EDF: no complete closure of the sites. To reduce the nuclear part is not to give up nuclear power. It remains a promising way for reliable, low-carbon, low-cost energy," he stressed. "I was not elected on a promise to exit nuclear power but to reduce the share of nuclear in our energy mix to 50 percent," he said, adding that he was adopting "a pragmatic approach ... which takes into account security of supply." Launching "Make our planet great again" campaign shortly after his won power in 2017, Macron warned that "climate situation creates an emergency situation... The longer we wait, the more painful the effects will be." "Everyone has to play his role... We must go out of fossil fuels. We must in 30 years move from a France where 75 percent of the consumed energy is from fossil origin to a France where the energy will be carbon-free in 2050," he said. In order to turn words to deeds, the French president pledged to increase the state's financial aid to further promote renewables'output, to between 7 and 8 billion euros (7.92 and 9 billion U.S. dollars) per year from 5 billion currently. Furthermore, he announced the closure of France's four remaining coal-fired power plants by 2022. "If we achieve these goals, we will realize a big step in the climate fight. But to continue to move, to heat, we must be able to produce alternative energy and this is the goal of this PEP (Multiannual Energy Program)," he said.( 1 euro = 1.132 U.S. dollar) Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-27 23:55:57|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close BELGRADE, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Serb-majority municipalities in Kosovo decided on Tuesday to quit all communication with authorities in Pristina in the light of new tariffs, which they see as a "breach of human and economic rights of Serbs". In their joint declaration, mayors of North Mitrovica, Leposavic, Zubin Potok and Zvecan stated that the suspension of the local administration comes as a result of the recent decision by Pristina authorities to impose 100 percent tariffs on goods from Serbia as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Serbia's public broadcaster RTS reports. "Administration and municipal services will not function, while local assemblies will not meet. This will remain in force until the complete withdrawal of all discriminatory measures of Pristina," Dejan Ugresic, speaker of the North Mitrovica Assembly, read the declaration in front of journalists. Mayor of North Mitrovica Goran Rakic said that the 100 percent tariffs on Serbian goods endanger the right to life, medical treatment, public information, and survival as well as the ability of Serbs to keep living at their homes. Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Serbia rejects it and considers Kosovo its own province. Since 2013 Serbia and Pristina authorities have been seeking to normalize their relations under the provisions of the Brussels agreement, in a dialogue mediated by the European Union. Both Serbia and its province are the signatories of the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA), but at the beginning of this month local government for the first time introduced 10 percent tariffs for products (excluding international brands) coming from Serbia and BiH - two countries in the region that refuse to recognize self-proclaimed Kosovo. On Nov. 21, the Prime Minister Ramus Haradinaj of the provincial government revealed that the government decided to increase tariffs to 100 percent. He explained the measures with the need to "strengthen the domestic production, statehood and economy". But the Serbian population in North Mitrovica protested against the decision. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 00:16:07|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close BERLIN, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- The attitude of Germans towards their country's traditionally close ties with the United States has deteriorated significantly, survey findings published on Tuesday by the Hamburg-based Koerber Foundation show. Citing representative surveys conducted by the Kantar Public Institute and Pew Research Center for its annual "The Berlin Pulse" report on foreign policy attitudes, the foundation highlighted that transatlantic relations appeared to be "freezing over" in 2018. In the course of just one year, the share of respondents who indicated that Germany should cooperate less with the United States rose from 34 percent to 47 percent, while nearly three quarters rated the state of the transatlantic relations as either very bad or somewhat bad (73 percent) and urged Berlin to shape its foreign policy more independent of Washington (72 percent). Commenting on the survey results, Nora Mueller, executive director of international affairs at the Koerber Foundation, said that Germans were "clearly becoming ever more estranged from their most important partner outside of Europe." Notably, relations with the United States under President Donald Trump were identified in the report as the greatest external challenge facing Germany by 28 percent of respondents, an apparent increase compared with the 19 percent in 2017. As such, it was ranked just behind the issue of refugees and migration policy. Since his election, President Trump has repeatedly criticized Germany's high and long-standing trade surpluses with the rest of the world and urged Berlin to commit more funding to its own defense. At least with regards to the latter point, Germans increasingly appear to share Trump's view. The share of respondents calling for higher defense spending rose from 32 percent to 43 percent between 2017 and 2018. While there's a growing desire among respondents for a distanced relationship with the U.S., the report also found a large majority of Germans are keen to sever their currently close ties with the United Kingdom after Brexit. Only 31 percent said that Britain should remain a privileged and special partner to the European Union after it departs the bloc, compared to 65 percent who did not want it to be treated any differently from other non-EU third countries. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 00:21:08|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close 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 00:26:10|Editor: mym Video Player Close Bulgarian President Rumen Radev (R) shakes hands with Polish President Andrzej Duda after a joint press conference in Sofia, Bulgaria, Nov. 27, 2018. Rumen Radev and Andrzej Duda here on Tuesday called for the de-escalation of Russia-Ukraine tensions. (Xinhua/Wang Xinran) SOFIA, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Bulgarian President Rumen Radev and his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda here on Tuesday called for the de-escalation of Russia-Ukraine tensions. According to Radev, in this situation the two sides needed to show restraint and the fastest possible de-escalation through dialogues, without the use of force. "For us as neighboring countries in this region it is extremely important to prevent further escalation of tension," Radev said. Duda also said that there was no doubt that the return to a condition of de-escalation of tension in the Sea of Azov was needed. This situation was unacceptable, and he hoped the tension would be de-escalated in the near future, Duda said. 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. 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 00:31:11|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close KAMPALA, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Uganda government on Tuesday declared one day of national mourning for dozens of people who died in the weekend boat accident on Lake Victoria. Moses Ali, Uganda's First Deputy Prime Minister, told Parliament that Friday will be observed as a mourning day for the people who perished after a boat capsized on Saturday near Mutima Island in the central district of Mukono. "I extend government's condolences to the bereaved families and declare Nov. 30 a mourning day for the deceased," said Moses Ali. Ugandan legislators on Tuesday paid tribute to over 30 people who drowned after their boat capsized, with some blaming the government for failure to inspect the worthiness of the vessel. At least some 35 bodies have been retrieved and 27 people rescued from the Saturday accident, according to the military. The boat reportedly carried more than 120 weekend revelers, beyond its capacity of 100 from Port bell Luzira in the capital Kampala headed to Mutima Island on Lake Victoria, according to a local media report. Boat accidents on Ugandan lakes are common due to overloading and strong winds. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 00:51:18|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close MADRID, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- 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. 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. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 00:51:19|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close BRATISLAVA, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Slovak Central bank (NBS) governor Jozef Makuch said on Tuesday that he'll quit his post in March next year. 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. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 01:01:23|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close SHANGHAI, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Shanghai municipal government and Chinese tech giant Baidu signed a strategic cooperation agreement Tuesday to develop artificial intelligence (AI) industry in the city. According to the agreement, a Baidu innovation center will be built to make Shanghai a major AI development center. Baidu will also help Shanghai in building smart city. Shanghai has talent from home and abroad and is open to the world, which provides a conducive environment for the company's future development, said Robin Li, chairman and CEO of Baidu. "Baidu will increase its research and development investment, land more new modes, applications and products in Shanghai so as to make bigger contributions to the AI industry development and mega-city management in Shanghai," he said. According to an AI industry development plan issued last year, Shanghai aims to build about 10 AI innovation platforms, and 10 leading AI innovation companies by 2020, when the city's AI industry will be worth more than 100 billion yuan (about 14.4 billion U.S. dollars). Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 01:41:31|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close OSLO, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Based on new research published Tuesday by the Norwegian Consumer Council, seven European consumer groups filed complaints against Google with their national authorities, accusing the U.S. technology company of manipulating users into constant tracking. The new research showed Google's deceptive design and misleading information result in users accepting to be constantly tracked, the Norwegian Consumer Council said in a statement. Google tracks users through "Location History" and "Web & App Activity", which are settings integrated into all Google accounts, and users don't have straightforward information about what this effectively entails, according to the research. The consumer organizations of Norway, the Netherlands, Greece, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Poland and Sweden have participating in the action to file complaints with their data protection authorities. "Google is processing incredibly detailed and extensive personal data without proper legal grounds, and the data has been acquired through manipulation techniques," said Gro Mette Moen, acting head of the unit of digital services in the Norwegian Consumer Council. She said the scale in which Google tracks the location of its users breaches the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union (EU), which has also come into force in non-EU Norway. "Users have not given free, specific, informed and unambiguous consent to the collection and use of location data, particularly considering the scale of tracking going on," Moen said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 01:46:32|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close BEIJING, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- A life science union under the China Association for Science and Technology said Tuesday it "resolutely opposes so-called scientific researches and biotech applications that violate the spirit of science and ethics." The Chinese Union of Life Science Societies, with 22 national-level societies as its members, said in a statement that the case of the claimed "genetically edited babies" breached ethics and morality as well as related regulations. He Jiankui, a Chinese researcher in Shenzhen, Guangdong, claimed Monday that the world's first genetically edited babies were born earlier in November, of whom a gene called CCR5 was eliminated to render them resistant to future infection with the AIDS virus. The case has severely disturbed the order of scientific research and seriously damaged China's international reputation in the life science field, said the statement. The careful use of gene editing technology is a matter that concerns the health and long-term well-being of mankind, the statement said, adding that China has released moral code and clinical research regulations regarding research and application of stem cells technology in 2003 and 2015, respectively. The union said the scientific and technological circles of China would, as always, stick to scientific and academic ethics and related international rules, and promote social development and human progress through innovative scientific research. PERMITLESS CONCEALED CARRY CAN HAPPEN---RIGHT NOW There is a season for everything. A time to pass HB-746, while a Governors veto can still be overridden, is upon us. . . Senate Leaderships Past Inaction In recent months, North Carolinas Republican senate leadership disappointed us with their inaction. The Future Looks Freer Fortunately, today is a new daythe past is the past. Rather than lamenting Senator Bergers and Rabons past missteps, its time we offer solutions for a brighter future, and we at GRNC see Permitless Concealed Carry headed this way. In recent months, North Carolinas Republican senate leadership disappointed us with their inaction. Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Bergers ostensibly pro-Second Amendment party had the numbers necessary to override a governors veto. To pass HB-746 (Permitless Concealed Carry and more), the NC Senate certainly had the support of the people. In fact, North Carolina gun owners, and other pro-civil rights citizens, were not only supportive of the bill, they downright demanded it. Yet, Senator Berger and Senate Rules Committee Chair, Senator Bill Rabon , didnt deliver. They decided not to shepherd this excellent pro-gun bill through the NC Senate (it has already passed the NC House).Fortunately, today is a new daythe past is the past. Rather than lamenting Senator Bergers and Rabons past missteps, its time we offer solutions for a brighter future, and we at GRNC see Permitless Concealed Carry headed this way. At this point in time, until January, Republicans still maintain a veto-proof majority in the NC Senate, just as they do in the NC House. Any perceived impediments to making HB-746 the law in our state are just that: perceivedbut not real. At this moment, no obstruction is solid, and none can stand in the way of HB-746. Only Republican leaders themselves can stop it . Of course, the clock is ticking Senators Berger and Rabon must act now to make this happen Preparing for Future Victories Should Senator Berger, Rabon and other senate leaders once again fail to act, it would only be another demonstration of the behavior that caused the loss of their veto-proof majorities (starting in January). Becoming squishy on gun rights, inaction and half-measuresthese are the things that cause voters to sit home on Election Day, and this surely influenced the lackluster election results. Bold action, adhering to campaign rhetoric, and sweeping advances of the peoples rightsthese are the things that victories are made of, and we can only hope that Senator Berger and others have learned this lesson, and have already started preparing for future victories. ( Hint : passing HB-746 would be a good start). Demand the NC Senate Pass HB-746 Below, youll find information about how you can urge senate leader Phil Berger to act fast, pass HB-746 and then override the governors likely veto. There is no reason this cant be done, and it absolutely should be. The only politicians who can stop HB-746 are NC Senate Republicans Immediate Action Required! PHONE NC SENATE PRO TEM PHIL BERGER : Use this number, (919) 733-5708, and the short text provided below to leave a message with staff (or on voice-mail). Suggested phone message: Hello, my name is ____________, and I am calling to insist that Senator Berger utilize the veto-proof majority that Republicans still maintain in order to pass the omnibus gun bill, HB-746, and then override the governors likely veto. In the recent past, senate leadership disappointed voters on this bill, and on gun rights in general. However, Mr. Berger and other leaders now have a golden opportunity to make up for this and stand for gun rights. Of course, the clock is ticking on the supermajorities, so please tell Mr. Berger to act now, pass HB-746, and override the Governors likely veto. Thank you. EMAIL NC SENATE PRO TEM PHIL BERGER : Use the email address and the copy/paste text provided below, under Deliver This Message, to send a strong message about advancing our civil rights at every possible turn. DELIVER THIS MESSAGE Email to: Phil.Berger@ncleg.net Suggested Subject: " Pass HB-746 While You Still Can " Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 02:56:54|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close DOHA, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Qatar Airways is planning to expand its operations in Iran with the launch of a new twice-weekly direct service to Isfahan International Airport starting from February 2019, said local media on Tuesday. The Qatar Airways' fourth route to Iran, which includes two-times-a-week service, is in addition to the airline's existing flights to Tehran, Shiraz and Mashad, Qatar-based English newspaper Gulf Times reported. "With its incredible, age-old architecture and bustling traditional bazaars, we are thrilled to announce Isfahan as Qatar Airways' fourth-service gateway into Iran,'' said Akbar al-Baker, the airline's group chief executive. Al-baker also said that the latest launches would be further evidence of Qatar Airways' commitment to Iran. He added that the expansion of their network would boost the market to provide greater connectivity to both business and leisure passengers alike. The Qatari announcement came despite the U.S. decision which has been announced earlier this month that it would impose sanctions on any American or foreign company that continues to do business with Iran, prompting some major airlines to stop flights to Iran. Bilateral ties between Iran and Qatar have significantly increased, particularly since the Gulf crisis began on June 5, when four Arab countries severed diplomatic and transport links with Qatar. Iran also became a major supplier of Qatar's needs for food. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 03:52:06|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close MADRID, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi discussed the upcoming Group of 20 (G20) summit and climate change with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian by phone on Tuesday. Wang is accompanying Chinese President Xi Jinping on a state visit to Spain. Wang said that Xi will meet with French President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the G20 Buenos Aires summit, which will be of great significance to advancing China-France relations for the next stage. "China is willing to strengthen strategic coordination with the French side to help ensure that the G20 summit can produce positive outcomes," Wang said. For his part, Le Drian said that Macron is looking forward to meeting with Xi in Buenos Aires. As tackling climate change is one of the important topics for this year's G20 summit, the two sides should make joint efforts to push the G20 members to speak with one voice in this regard at the summit and inject fresh impetus into securing the success of the 24th Conference of the Parties (COP24) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which is scheduled to be held in Poland in December, Le Drian said. Wang stressed that it is quite necessary for China and France, as comprehensive strategic partners, to strengthen strategic communication on major international issues, including the agenda of the G20 summit. Noting that climate change is a common challenge facing the international community and bears on the future of human development, Wang said that China appreciates the positive role France has played in tackling climate change and stands ready to work with the French side to send out positive signals during the G20 summit and jointly push for the success of the COP24 to the UNFCCC. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 04:02:12|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MOGADISHU, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Somali army on Tuesday killed three al-Shabab militants and injured several others during a fierce fighting with the insurgents at Oronto in Hiraan region of central Somalia, officials said. Farah Koshin, Somali National Army (SNA) Commander, said the fighting broke out after the militants attempted to ambush the forces who had just left Beledweyne town to Mahas town in Hiraan region. "Somali National Army killed three al-Shabab militants, injured several others and recovered weapons. The terrorist fighters attempted to ambush the army travelling to Mahas town, but they were repulsed and three of them killed," Koshin said. He did not say whether there were some casualties on SNA soldiers. The militant group's media affiliated website said their fighters conducted an ambush attack against SNA near Mahas town in Hiraan region, but did not state the number of casualties. Somali and African Union peacekeeping mission forces have intensified security in Beledweyne town and its environs following the visit by officials from Hirshabelle State and the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) in the town. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 05:02:32|Editor: mym Video Player Close U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton speaks at a press briefing at the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, on Nov. 27, 2018. John Bolton said on Tuesday that U.S. President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman are not expected to hold a formal bilateral meeting during the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Argentina. (Xinhua/Ting Shen) WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- U.S. National security adviser John Bolton said on Tuesday that U.S. President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman are not expected to hold a formal bilateral meeting during the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Argentina. In a press briefing at the White House, Bolton, when asked to confirm whether Trump will meet with the Saudi leader, said that Trump's "bilateral schedule is full to overflowing at this point." 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, Russia as well as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Trump's meeting with Abe "will transform at some point during that meeting into a trilateral meeting" with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bolton added. Also at the press briefing, 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 U.S.-Saudi leaders' meeting, Sanders said she would not rule out any interaction, adding that Trump will also meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The Guardian reported earlier on Tuesday that the White House is preventing the CIA director, Gina Haspel, or any other intelligence official, from briefing the Senate on the death of a Saudi journalist and The Washington Post columnist, Jamal Khashoggi. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary James Mattis were due to give a briefing on the U.S.-Saudi relations to the Senate on Wednesday, ahead of a vote that could possibly cut off U.S. support for Riyadh's military operation in Yemen. U.S. media reported earlier that the briefing would also focus on the Saudi role in the death of Khashoggi, and whether to impose further sanctions on the kingdom. Khashoggi has been missing since he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. The Saudi authorities said Khashoggi died in a "brawl" in its consulate. After releasing the results of its initial investigation, the Saudi Public Prosecution announced that 18 Saudis were arrested for their alleged connections with the killing. The U.S. Congress has urged a thorough investigation into the murder of Khashoggi, and threatened to take more actions against Saudi Arabia if those responsible were not held accountable. However, the Trump administration has been reluctant to further punish the Saudi government, citing alliance significance and Saudi Arabia's purchase of U.S. military equipment. The U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on 17 individuals over their alleged roles in the killing of Khashoggi earlier this month, following U.S. State Department's decision in late October to revoke 21 Saudi suspects' visas. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 06:42:56|Editor: Yamei Video Player Close By Eric J. Lyman ROME, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Italy has agreed to compromise, just slightly, in its budget standoff with the European Commission, setting off a sigh of relief on financial markets and making analysts wonder if a government that had repeatedly bragged about resisting orders from Brussels would pay a political price for changing tack. For more than a month, the Italian government under Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte locked horns with the European Commission over a 2019 draft budget plan that would include a deficit equivalent to 2.4 percent of gross domestic product. The Conte government said it needed the high deficit to keep electoral promises aimed at sparking economic growth, while commissioners said Italy needed to pay down the country's massive public deficit. On Monday, a spokesman for the Conte government said it "would not focus on decimal points" in the budget plan, while the Italian media reported Tuesday a revised plan which would include 3.6 billion euros (4.1 billion U.S. dollars) less in spending, reducing the deficit to 2.2 percent of gross domestic product. The difference is relatively small. Before the installation of the Conte government, Italy had planned on a 0.8 percent budget deficit for next year, just a third of the actual 2019 budget draft. But Italy's apparent willingness to compromise boosted markets Tuesday. The yield on Italy's ten-year government bonds, for example, pulled back to 3.29 percent, their lowest level in a month and the biggest one-day drop in nearly three months. Lower bond yields reflect increased investor confidence, while also lowering the government's cost for borrowing money. What is unclear is what the political implications of the latest moves. "From the start, the government said it would not bow to European Union bureaucrats and now they seem to have agreed to do just that," said Alessandro Franzi, author of a book on Matteo Salvini, deputy prime minister and head of the League, one of the two political parties supporting the Conte government. Franzi told Xinhua he believed government officials would manage to turn the developments into an advantage ahead of elections for the European Parliament in May 2019. "The League and the Five-Star Movement (the other party supporting Conte) can say, 'We tried to keep our promises but the European Union wouldn't let us: give us support in May and we can be stronger,'" Franzi explained. The long-term problem, Franzi said, would come if the government failed to deliver concrete results next year. Alessandro Amadori, vice-president and head of qualitative research for think tank Piepoli Institute, told Xinhua that he thought the Conte government's feud with the European Commission was a big factor behind the recent drop in support for government policies. "Up to a certain point, Italians like their government to stand up to commissioners in Europe," Amadori said. "But opinions start to change once it has an impact on people's wallets." Amadori noted that private savings among Italians is six times larger than the country's gross domestic product, and that much of that savings is in the form of government bonds. "As bond yields rose it started to erode the value of private savings," he said. But Amadori agreed with Franzi that it was too early to determine the political fallout from the latest moves. "I don't think there will be a political problem because of this on its own," Amadori said. "But if the economy remains weak and employment levels continue to suffer, that could cause problems," he added. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 07:08:00|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close Italian government representative Fabrizio Nicoletti addresses the 28th TWAS general meeting in Trieste, Italy, Nov. 27, 2018. Scientists from developing and developed countries met here on Tuesday to kick off the 28th general meeting of TWAS aiming to support sustainable prosperity through research, education, policy and diplomacy. (Xinhua/Chen Zhanjie) by Chen Zhanjie TRIESTE, Italy, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Scientists from developing and developed countries met here on Tuesday to kick off the 28th general meeting of the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) aiming to support sustainable prosperity through research, education, policy and diplomacy. addressing the opening ceremony, TWAS President Bai Chunli stressed the importance of partnerships to the future success of the global science academy founded in 1983 with Trieste, Italy as its base. Bai said since he took the TWAS presidency in 2013, the Academy has extended its membership to eight new countries, increasing its members to 104 countries and territories; it has established a number of new prizes and has over 1,000 young scientists studying for their PhDs at TWAS partner institutions in the developing world. "The unique virtue of TWAS is that it gathers thousands of elite researchers into one community. Our Fellows and Young Affiliates, our PhD fellows and research grant awardees -- they are in their labs or in the field every day ...they are central to the success of our Academy," Bai, also president of Chinese Academy of Science, told the conference. Bai thanked more than 70 partner organizations which have contributed to the success of TWAS. "Whatever we have achieved in our history, and whatever we will achieve in the future -- it is the result of cooperation, working together with many partners toward a shared vision of scientific excellence in the developing world." Bai said a new generation of researchers is needed to address the challenges and to help the developing countries to realise their potential. "It is important that we advance science. But we must always remember that when we work together, with creativity and commitment, we can feed people, and bring them light, and cure diseases. As scientists working together, we can help to provide a life of dignity for all people, everywhere," he said. Bai announced that Mohamed H.A. Hassan from Sudan has been elected as the new president of TWAS, assuming TWAS presidency in January 2019. More than 300 scientists and officials from about 60 countries and territories attended the meeting. Also present were Minister Fabrizio Nicoletti, representing the Italian government, and Flavia Schlegel, assistant director-general for natural sciences at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). TWAS was founded by a distinguished group of scientists from the developing world, under the leadership of Abdus Salam, the Pakistani physicist and Nobel laureate. They shared a belief that developing nations, by building strength in science and engineering, could build the knowledge and skill to address such challenges as hunger, disease and poverty. Initially, TWAS had 42 elected fellows -- nine of them Nobel laureates. Today, TWAS has 1,222 elected Fellows in more than 90 countries and territories, 14 of them are Nobel laureates. About 85 percent come from developing nations, and the rest are scientists and engineers from the developed world whose work has had a significant impact in the South. The 28th general meeting of TWAS will close on Nov. 29. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 07:33:11|Editor: ZD Video Player Close Displaced people march back home through the Abu al-Duhur crossing between rebel-held areas and government-controlled ones in the countryside of Idlib province in northwestern Syria, on Nov. 27, 2018. 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. (Xinhua) Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 08:23:15|Editor: mym Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Trump administration said Tuesday that it would appeal a federal judge's order halting a presidential proclamation that prevents certain immigrants from seeking asylum. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 09:38:28|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Trump administration said Tuesday that it would appeal a federal judge's order halting a presidential proclamation that prevents certain immigrants from seeking asylum. The U.S. Department of Justice filed a notice Tuesday that indicated it will appeal the order to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. It also asked the judge to stay his order pending the appeal. Earlier this month, Judge Jon Tigar of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California sided with opponents of President Donald Trump's measure prohibiting immigrants who cross the southern border illegally from claiming asylum. In response, Trump lashed out at the 9th Circuit as biased and dismissed Tigar, an appointee of Trump's predecessor, as an "Obama judge," prompting a rebuke from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who said the federal judiciary doesn't have "Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges." Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 10:13:39|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close YANGON, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- The front wheel of a training aircraft of the Myanmar National Airlines has collapsed while touching the tarmac at the Mawlamyine Airport in southeastern Mon state during landing, according to local Information and Public Relations Department Wednesday. All the pilots and crew on board the aircraft escaped injury in the accident, which took place on Tuesday morning, the first of its kind at Myanmar airport. The XY AMB aircraft took off from the Yangon International Airport at 8:47 a.m. local time and landed at the Mawlamyine Airport at 9:20 a.m. local time. According to the airport manager, five pilots and four cabin crew were on board the aircraft. The dreadful halls of Glast Heim are opening soon in an upcoming update for Ragnarok X: Next Generation! Dont forget to invite your friends to return and explore the new Glast Heim version! Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 10:28:42|Editor: ZD Video Player Close KATHMANDU, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Nepal's banks are facing difficulty in extending more loans to the enterprises seeking credits as the Nepali banking system is facing liquidity crunch in recent weeks, officials of Nepali commercial banks said. Due to excessive lending compared to deposit collection during the early months of the current fiscal year 2018-19 that began in mid-July, the banking system is currently facing the liquidity crunch, according to bankers. This has prevented many banks from making further lending as per demands for the credits. "There is a lot of demand for loans due to boost in business confidence as Nepal has a stable government after the three-tier elections in 2017," Sunil K.C., chief executive officer of NMB Bank told Xinhua on Monday. "But, we are facing difficulty to lend to the enterprises as per their demands due to lack of adequate fund." This has forced his bank to delay providing loans to a number of borrowers, according to him. Such situation arose due to excessive lending in the first quarter of the current fiscal year. Since mid-July, deposits in the commercial banks grew by 3.78 percent while lending surged by 7.7 percent, according to Nepal Bankers' Association, the grouping of Nepal's commercial banks. This led to the credit expansion close to the regulatory limit set by the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), the central bank of the Himalayan country. According to NRB, the banks should maintain the ratio of core capital combined with credit to deposit (CCD) at 80 percent. Currently, CCD ratio stands at 78 percent leaving the gap of just two percent for further lending, according to NRB. "It means, if a large-scale withdrawal of deposit takes place, the banks will no longer be in the position to lend further," Ashoke Rana, chief executive officer of Himalayan Bank, a leading commercial bank of Nepal, told Xinhua on Monday. According to him, it has been difficult for the banks to lend to the big borrowers in time. "It takes time to arrange fund for big borrowers," he said. His bank has concentrated on providing loans to the highly prioritized areas, he added. Nepali bankers said that the country's economy could be affected if the banks continue to face liquidity crunch in the days to come. The Nepali government has targeted an economic growth of eight percent for the current fiscal year. A senior NRB official told Xinhua that the liquidity crunch could affect the economy. "But, the extent of impact would depend on whether credits have been extended to the productive sector," Nara Bahadur Thapa, executive director of NRB said. In order to support growth, Nepal's central bank took the strategy of making more funds to the banks to lend, allowing the banks even to borrow loans from foreign or international financial institutions. As per the NRB directive, the banks can borrow up to 50 percent of their core capital from foreign creditors. The NMB Bank borrowed 15 million U.S. dollars from International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, recently. "We have also initiated the process of borrowing another 15 million U.S. dollars from a British financial institution. Once we get this fund from abroad, it will help ease liquidity in our bank," K.C. told Xinhua. Besides borrowing from abroad, bankers said that the liquidity situation would be eased once the Nepali government's spending picks up in the upcoming months and then money would come to the banking system from the government's treasury. Usually, liquidity eases in the banking system during the final months of the fiscal year due to high government spending. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 10:38:46|Editor: Yamei Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump met with House Republican leaders on legislative issues, including border security, at the White House on Tuesday. A White House statement said the president welcomed the newly-elected House Republican leadership and they discussed "the great need for border security at this crucial time," among other things. The meeting came amid a tense situation along the U.S. southern border with Mexico, where border officials fired tear gas on hundreds of migrants who sought to enter the United States on Sunday. The U.S. president and the White House have defended the use of tear gas but the action has drawn sharp criticism from the Democrats. U.S. news outlets said Trump and the House Republicans were also talking about a spending plan that includes funding for the president's long-promised border wall with Mexico, a centerpiece of his 2016 campaign. Trump has said that he wants 5 billion U.S. dollars for the wall and that it could be a "good time" for a shutdown if he doesn't receive the funding he seeks. The federal government is set to run out of funding at midnight on Dec. 7. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said the White House meeting is "very productive," adding that the president "is very solid with where he wants to go and what he needs to have a secure border." McCarthy was elected earlier this month as the House minority leader, the top Republican in the lower chamber of the new Congress starting January after the Republicans lost its House majority in the mid-term elections. The White House said that issues including the California wildfire, farm bill, prison reform, budget for the next fiscal year and General Motors' decision to cut jobs and shut down factories in North America were also discussed during the meeting. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 10:43:46|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Trump administration said Tuesday that it would appeal a federal judge's order halting a presidential proclamation that prevents certain immigrants from seeking asylum. The U.S. Department of Justice filed a notice Tuesday that indicated it will appeal the order to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. It also asked the judge to stay his order pending the appeal. Earlier this month, Judge Jon Tigar of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California sided with opponents of President Donald Trump's measure prohibiting immigrants who cross the southern border illegally from claiming asylum. In response, Trump lashed out at the 9th Circuit as biased and dismissed Tigar, an appointee of Trump's predecessor, as an "Obama judge," prompting a rebuke from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who said the federal judiciary doesn't have "Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges." The U.S. Supreme Court may end up deciding the asylum case. Trump issued the proclamation earlier this month to address caravans of Central American migrants approaching the U.S.-Mexico border, which he's claimed are a national security threat, stating that only people who enter the country at official checkpoints can apply for asylum. The Central Americans, many claiming they were fleeing from persecution, poverty and violence in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, were making their way towards the U.S. border. Several thousands of migrants, including women and children, have arrived in Mexican border city of Tijuana. The situation has been tense along the border, where U.S. border officials fired tear gas on hundreds of migrants who sought to enter the United States near the southern border with Mexico on Sunday. The chaos started as a peaceful demonstration to appeal for the U.S. authorities to speed processing for those already in Tijuana. Trump and the White House have defended the use of tear gas but the action has drawn sharp criticism. According to U.S. laws, asylum is intended for those fleeing their countries of origin because they have suffered persecution or fear that they will be persecuted if they are forced to go back. It is a federal crime to cross the U.S.-Mexico border between ports of entry, but that does not typically preclude one from requesting asylum. Tigar said 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." Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 10:48:47|Editor: Yamei Video Player Close SYDNEY, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- The disease-induced decline of the Tasmanian devil, the top scavenger in the Australian island state, is having severe repercussions for the broader ecosystem such as allowing carcasses to pile up and invasive feral cats to possibly thrive, according to A latest research. The Tasmanian devil population, which has been devastated by the Devil Facial Tumour Disease, plays a very important structuring role in the ecosystem as a major predator and scavenger, the University of Tasmania said in a statement about its study on Wednesday. The researchers analyzed the ecosystems in northern Tasmania and found that the carnivorous marsupials consumed significantly less carcasses in areas hit by the disease, increasing the food supply for smaller scavengers including feral cats, forest ravens and spotted-tailed quolls. Although smaller carnivores increased their feeding on carcasses, they were found to be much less effective at scavenging than the devils, reported the researchers. As a result, carcasses persisted in the environment nearly three times longer in areas with Tasmanian devils with the facial disease, potentially harboring other diseases in wildlife and livestock, they said. "We expected common scavengers such as ravens to scavenge more in areas with fewer devils, but we didn't know what to expect with feral cats, because they are thought to prefer feeding on prey they kill themselves," said university researcher Calum Cunningham, who led the report on the findings published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B academic journal. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 11:13:54|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close KATHMANDU, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Chairman of the National Assembly of Nepal Ganesh Timalsina has stressed the need for further promoting ties between Nepal's Federal Parliament and China's National People's Congress (NPC). Timalsina made the remarks on Tuesday during his meeting with Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Yu Hong, the chairman's secretariat said. "There is the need for further promoting ties between the two legislatures in coming days through various ways including exchange of visits," a press release issued by the chairman's secretariat quoted Timalsina as saying. "As a close neighbor, Nepal expects China's continuous support to its efforts in achieving the political stability and prosperity as earlier," Timalsina said. Ambassador Yu said China has been always supporting Nepal in many ways and China's NPC is ready to strengthen its ties with Nepal's Federal Parliament. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 11:49:02|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close SYDNEY, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- With farmers on Australia's east coast experiencing some of the worst drought conditions on record, the high price of feed has forced many producers to sell down their sheep and cattle stocks. But while the production of other some animals is slowing, there appears to be a sharp surge in interest when it comes to farming goats. "We are seeing quite a rise in the number of inquiries around goat farming and this is happening because of the high prices and producers are seeing for goat meat," project manager for the goat industry Julie Petty from Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) told Xinhua on Wednesday. "We have got an increasing demand and a shortening of supply so there are a lot of opportunities and more and more people are realizing there is a growing industry here," the project manager said. With prices above five Australian dollars (3.6 U.S. dollars) per kilo of carcass weight, Julie said the export focused on goat meat market to Australia and New Zealand was worth over 257 million Australian dollars (186 million U.S. dollars) to the domestic economy in 2017. "Last year around 88 percent of all goat meat was exported, predominantly to the U.S., but domestically we are seeing an increase in demand and inquiries, so it is looking really promising from a producer's perspective," Julie said. Julie said that one of the major things that Aussie farmers on the east coast are attracted to is the positive effect goats can have of pastoral land. "Goats can be really good for the environment if they are stocked appropriately and well managed. A lot of producers will use them as wooly weed control to clean up the environment and get rid of pest plant species," Julie added. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 11:59:05|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close Chinese Vice Premier Liu He (L) meets with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, Germany, Nov. 26, 2018. Liu He, who is visiting Germany from Sunday to Wednesday, has said that China is willing to work with Germany to promote bilateral cooperation in finance, trade and investment. (Xinhua/Shan Yuqi) HAMBURG, Germany, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, who is visiting Germany from Sunday to Wednesday, has said that China is willing to work with Germany to promote bilateral cooperation in finance, trade and investment. Liu made the remarks during the visit, in which he met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and delivered a keynote speech at the closing ceremony of the 8th Hamburg Summit themed "China meets Europe." Liu conveyed to Merkel a message from Chinese President Xi Jinping, in which Xi noted that China and Germany are all-around strategic partners and bilateral cooperation in various fields has enjoyed a sound momentum of development. China highly values the development of China-Germany ties and is willing to cooperate closely with Germany to enrich the strategic connotations of bilateral cooperation and strive to promote global economic governance, safeguard multilateralism and free trade, and build an open global economy, the message read. Liu said China is willing to work with Germany to implement the important consensuses reached by leaders of the two countries. Merkel said Germany attaches great importance to the development of bilateral relations and is interested in participating in the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative. Germany always welcomes and actively supports Chinese investors, she added. Merkel said that amid global uncertainties, Germany is ready to maintain communication with China on the world trade situation. In his keynote speech, Liu introduced China's current economic situation and development prospects. He stressed that the year 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening-up, and a series of major measures to further open up are being implemented expeditiously. Liu noted that China and the European Union (EU) are both staunch supporters of free trade rules as well as the multilateral system and share enormous common interests. The two sides should understand and accommodate each other, deepen cooperation, join hands to confront challenges so as to jointly build a community with a shared future for mankind and achieve lasting peace and common prosperity across the globe, said Liu. During his visit, Liu also held talks with German Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, and met with German Minister of Economic Affairs and Energy Peter Altmaier, German Chancellor's economic advisor Lars-Hendrik Roeller, First Mayor of Hamburg Peter Tschentscher, and EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 12:09:07|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close SINGAPORE, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Singapore's Minister for Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing suggested on Wednesday that upholding and updating rules-based trading system in dealing with the globalization, according to a document released by the Ministry of Trade and Industry. The minister offered the suggestion at the Straits Times Global Outlook 2019 event. He said Singapore has to keep working with like-minded countries to uphold and update the global open, rules-based trading system, while taking into account the changing realities for the rules to keep pace with the times. "We need to evolve new rules for the digital economy that will underpin future trade, financial and data flows," Chan added. According to the minister, globalization not only benefits the world economy by creating unprecedented growth rates and accelerating creative cycles for products and services, but also hastened the adjustments necessary in every society. Thus, he offered six suggestions for Singapore to enable the people and businesses to benefit from globalization while managing the inevitable challenges that come with it. Besides, Chan suggested that Singapore diversifies the trade partnerships and portfolio to expand and deepen its outreach to various markets. The island country invests in next-generation infrastructure including the new infrastructure for data, finance and professional services, he added. He also suggested Singapore grows new industries including the digital economy, sustainability urban and energy solutions, precision medicine and precision farming and the country equips workers with new skills ahead of time via compulsory education and continuing education. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 12:24:09|Editor: ZD Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to deprive automaker General Motors (GM) of "all subsidies," one day after the company announced plans to lay off workers and close factories in North America and beyond. "Very disappointed with General Motors and their CEO, Mary Barra, for closing plants in Ohio, Michigan and Maryland," Trump tweeted. "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." U.S. media assumed that the president was probably referring to the 7,500- U.S.-dollar tax breaks the U.S. federal government grants to consumers buying electric vehicles. CNN cited people familiar with the matter as saying the company was unaware of other federal incentives it is receiving beyond that. Ending the subsidy, however, will require the passage of a new law in Congress. GM announced on Monday that it would slash over 14,000 jobs and effectively close five assembly and propulsion plants in the United States and Canada in 2019, a reorganization plan Barra said would continue to make the company "highly agile, resilient and profitable." In addition to a previously announced factory closure in South Korea, GM said it would also cease operations of another two unspecified plants outside North America by the end of 2019. Combined, the company estimated that the measures will save as much as 6 billion U.S. dollars. If carried out, Trump's threat would deal a blow to one of the company's strategy priorities. "Resources allocated to electric and autonomous vehicle programs will double in the next two years," GM said in Monday's statement. GM, whose two models currently qualify for the federal tax subsidy for electric and hybrid cars, have joined other automakers in lobbying Congress to lift a 200,000-vehicle limit beyond which the tax break will gradually phase out. As of the third quarter of 2018, the company has less than 4,000 vehicles to produce to reach the threshold. GM issued a separate statement Tuesday defending its commitment to U.S. manufacturing sector. "GM is committed to maintaining a strong manufacturing presence in the U.S., as evidenced by our more than 22-billion-dollar investments in U.S. operations since 2009." "Yesterday's announcements support our ability to invest for future growth and position the company for long-term success and maintain and grow American jobs," it added. Top White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow talked with Barra in a pre-arranged meeting on Monday, but GM declined to comment on it. At a White House press briefing Tuesday, before Trump sent the tweet, Kudlow mentioned the electric vehicle credit. "We are going to be looking at certain subsidies regarding electric cars and others, whether they should apply or not. I can't say anything final about that, but we're looking into it," Kudlow said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 12:29:10|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan pose for a photo with Spain's King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia in Madrid, Spain, Nov. 27, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Xueren) MADRID, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Spanish King Felipe VI here on Tuesday to cement friendship and strengthen cooperation between the two countries. This state visit is the first of its kind to Europe since his re-election as Chinese president in March and also the first leg of his Europe and Latin America trip, Xi said, expressing hope that the visit will consolidate friendship, uplift cooperation and ensure long-term stability of bilateral ties. Xi arrived in Madrid in the afternoon, which kicked off his three-day visit to Spain at the invitation of King Felipe VI. During his nine-day tour to Europe and Latin America, Xi will also pay state visits to Argentina, Panama and Portugal and attend the Group of 20 summit in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires. At the meeting held at Zarzuela Palace, Xi said since the two countries established a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2005, China and Spain have been improving the bilateral ties, strengthening political mutual trust, expanding cooperation and maintaining closer people-to-people exchanges. "The Sino-Spanish ties are at the best period in history. I am fully confident in the future of the bilateral relationship," Xi said. The Chinese president stressed that China stands ready to work with Spain to support each other on issues concerning each other's core interests and major concerns. "The two sides should intensify cooperation in such areas as economy, trade, tourism, and third-party markets within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, so as to bring the Sino-Spanish comprehensive strategic partnership to a new high in the new era and better benefit the two peoples," Xi said. China would like to see that Europe will continue to advance the integration process and hopes that Spain will keep playing a positive role in promoting the development of the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and the European Union (EU), Xi added. For his part, King Felipe VI said this year marks the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries and the 40th anniversary of the first visit to China by former King Juan Carlos I. Spain values the friendly exchanges and cooperation with China, he said. Since they forged diplomatic ties, the two countries have extended consistent respect and support for each other on issues concerning their core interests, he said. With joint efforts, the two sides have witnessed progress in the development of the comprehensive strategic partnership, King Felipe VI said. Spain is willing to maintain close contacts with China, enhance pragmatic cooperation, strengthen communication and coordination in multilateral affairs, and actively push for deeper EU-China relations, he added. TORONTO, Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Datametrex AI Limited (the Company or Datametrex) (TSXV: DM, FSE: D4G) announces its 2018 third quarter financial results. During the three month period ended September 30, 2018 the Company recognized revenue of $0.6 million versus $nil in the prior quarter, and 2018 year to date revenue of $3.6 million versus $0.1 million in 2017, an increase of 3,524% over the same period. The Company decided to write down its crypto assets in Ronin Blockchain for $12.9 million. This is a non-cash item and under IFRS, the Company will have the ability to reverse impairment losses if and when the crypto market and environment improves and the value of the assets increases. This was not an easy decision as we remain bullish on the long-term viability of the crypto markets and continue to maintain our small-scale mining infrastructure. However, given the current market environment in the crypto mining sector, we felt this was the responsible action to take. Datametrex is now in a position to focus all of its efforts and capital on its core business of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning solutions. We recently announced product updates for our AI solutions along with the creation of a new division called Canntop AI to focus exclusively on the Cannabis sector, said Andrew Ryu, CEO and Chairman of the Company. The filings, along with additional information regarding the Company, will be available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com . Financial Highlights The following table summarizes revenue, net loss, EBITDA* and Adjusted EBITDA* for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018 and September 30, 2017: Three months ended September 30, Nine months ended September 30, 2018 $ 2017 $ 2018 $ 2017 $ Revenue 589,648 - 3,642,856 100,517 Net loss (15,236,076 ) (1,153,173 ) (18,165,683 ) (2,612,929 ) EBITDA* (14,350,712 ) (1,151,484 ) (15,709,824 ) (2,609,684 ) Adjusted EBITDA* (1,422,731 ) (833,934 ) (1,565,323 ) (1,509,056 ) Adjusted EBITDA per share* (0.007 ) (0.011 ) (0.008 ) (0.026 ) To date, the Company has achieved several significant milestones: Successfully spun out its associate company, Graph Blockchain Inc. (CSE: GBLC), which it founded in late 2017 with an initial investment of $200,000. Completed a significant upgrade to its AI solutions to allow for the identification and extraction of disinformation spread through social media. Incorporated Canntop AI Limited with the goal of bringing the powerful tools of Nexalogy AI to the Cannabis sector. Restructuring Ronin Executive The Company announces the entering into of a settlement agreement in connection with the departure of Mr. Darcy Taylor, a former President of Ronin Blockchain Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company. Pursuant to the terms of the settlement, Datametrex will, among other things: (i) engage Mr. Taylor as a consultant pursuant to an independent consulting agreement; (ii) issue to Mr. Taylor 1,500,000 common shares in the capital of the Company (Common Shares) at a deemed price per share equal to the prevailing market price of the Common Shares on the date of issuance, and (iii) grant Mr. Taylor 500,000 stock options pursuant to the Companys stock option plan. Each option will vest immediately and be exercisable for one Common Share at an exercise price equal to $0.20 per share for a period of 12 months from the date of issuance. The issuance of the Common Shares is subject to approval by the TSX Venture Exchange. Corporate Update The Company announces that Mr. Pankaj Varma has resigned effective November 26, 2018 as a member of the Board of Directors so that he may focus his efforts on other professional duties. The Board of Directors would like to thank Mr. Varma for his contribution over the past few months and wishes him well in his future endeavours. Datametrex and the Board are currently evaluating alternatives with respect to appointing an additional independent director in due course. About Datametrex AI Limited Datametrex AI Limited is a technology focused company with exposure to Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning through its wholly owned subsidiary, Nexalogy ( www.nexalogy.com ) and Implementing Blockchain technology for secure Data Transfers through its investee company, Graph Blockchain ( www.graphblockchain.com ). Additional information on Datametrex is available at: www.datametrex.com To stay informed about Datametrex, please join our Investor Group on 8020 Connect http://bit.ly/2fPUNwF for all upcoming news releases, articles comments and questions. For further information, please contact: Jeffrey Stevens President & COO Phone: (647) 400-8494 Email: jstevens@datametrex.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. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA* Management believes that EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are effective measures for analyzing the performance of the Company. The term EBITDA refers to earnings before deducting interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. The Company calculates Adjusted EBITDA as earnings before deducting interest and accretion, taxes, depreciation and amortization, impairment charges, listing expense, other reverse take-over fees, acquisition related costs, and share based compensation. EBITDA, EBITDA per share, Adjusted EBITDA, and Adjusted EBITDA per share are non-GAAP measures. The Company believes that Adjusted EBITDA is useful additional information to management, the Board and investors as it provides an indication of the operational results generated by its business activities prior to taking into consideration how those activities are financed and taxed and also prior to taking into consideration asset depreciation and amortization and it excludes items that could affect the comparability of our operational results and could potentially alter the trends analysis in business performance. Excluding these items does not necessarily imply they are non-recurring, infrequent or unusual. Adjusted EBITDA is also used by some investors and analysts for the purpose of valuing a company. Investors are cautioned that Adjusted EBITDA should not be construed as an alternative to operating earnings or net earnings determined in accordance with IFRS as an indicator of the Companys financial performance or as a measure of the Companys liquidity and cash flows. Adjusted EBITDA does not take into account the impact of working capital changes, capital expenditures, debt principal reductions and other sources and uses of cash, which are disclosed in the consolidated statements of cash flows. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements contained herein that are not clearly historical in nature may constitute forward-looking information. In some cases, forward-looking information can be identified by words or phrases such as "may", "will", "expect", "likely", "should", "would", "plan", "anticipate", "intend", "potential", "proposed", "estimate", "believe" or the negative of these terms, or other similar words, expressions and grammatical variations thereof, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" happen, or by discussions of strategy. The forward-looking information contained in this press release, includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to: a future change in the treatment of the reported impairment losses if and when the crypto market improves and the value of the assets increases, our outlook on the long-term viability of the crypto mark, our strategy and operations and the proposed issuance of securities to a former Ronin executive. Forward-looking information is based upon certain material assumptions that were applied in drawing a conclusion or making a forecast or projection, including management's perceptions of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other considerations that are believed to be appropriate in the circumstances. While we consider these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available to management, there is no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. By their nature, forward-looking information is subject to inherent risks and uncertainties that may be general or specific and which give rise to the possibility that expectations, forecasts, predictions, projections or conclusions will not prove to be accurate, that assumptions may not be correct and that objectives, strategic goals and priorities will not be achieved. A variety of factors, including known and unknown risks, many of which are beyond our control, could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking information in this press release. Such factors include, without limitation, those discussed in the Company's current MD&A and Annual Information Form, both of which have been filed on SEDAR and can be accessed at www.sedar.com . Readers are cautioned to consider these and other factors, uncertainties and potential events carefully and not to put undue reliance on forward-looking information. The forward-looking information contained herein is made as of the date of this press release and is based on the beliefs, estimates, expectations and opinions of management on the date such forward-looking information is made. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, estimates or opinions, future events or results or otherwise or to explain any material difference between subsequent actual events and such forward-looking information, except as required by applicable law. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 13:24:20|Editor: Yamei Video Player Close SEOUL, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Rate for bank loan to households in South Korea rose last month on the expected policy rate hike, central bank data showed Wednesday. The annualized rate for fresh bank loan to households averaged 3.64 percent in October, up 0.02 percentage points from the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). It ended the third consecutive month of decline through September amid the rising expectations for the BOK's rate increase in November. The BOK was slated to hold its rate-setting meeting Friday. According to a Korea Financial Investment Association survey of 200 fixed-income experts, 79 percent predicted a rate hike this month. Rate for mortgage loan gained 0.02 percentage points over the month to 3.31 percent in October, with the rate for credit loan picking up 0.06 percentage points to 4.45 percent. Rate for bank loan to companies added 0.03 percentage points to 3.65 percent in the cited period. The rate for big corporations jumped 0.21 percentage points to 3.42 percent, but the figure for loan to small companies shed 0.04 percentage points to 3.84 percent due to the government's support policy. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 13:34:22|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close MADRID, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Madrid's National Auditorium on Tuesday night held a concert on the Belt and Road (B&R) with the aim of strengthening cultural dialogues between Spain and China. The concert, entitled "Belt and Road," included performances of both Chinese and Spanish artists. The Andres Segovia Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Pablo Mielgo, performed the music. Chinese soprano Bing Bing Wang, mezzo-soprano Huiling Zhu and tenor Warren Mok also joined the concert, performing a selection of traditional Chinese songs and works by Mozart, Puccini, Bizet and Verdi, along with Spanish soprano Alicia Amor. The International Press Club said in a press communique that these pieces looked "to strengthen the dialogue and understanding between people and to promote cultural exchange between two countries (China and Spain) through music." "We want to provoke people to think more deeply about the meeting between different civilizations in order to help us reach harmony and understanding and to move away from words which talk of exclusion and barriers," said the not-for-profit ONUART Foundation, which organized the event with the Chinese Public Diplomacy & Culture Exchange Center. This year marks the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Spain. China is now Spain's largest trading partner outside the European Union (EU), while Spain is the sixth biggest trading partner of China within the EU. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 13:34:22|Editor: Yamei Video Player Close SEOUL, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's childbirth posted the lowest September figure, fueling worry about a so-called demographic cliff, a government report showed Wednesday. The number of newborn babies was 26,100 in September, down 4,000, or 13.3 percent, from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea. It was the lowest September figure since the statistical agency began compiling the data in 1981, marking the first double-digit decline this year. The number of newborns kept falling for 34 months in a row. In the July-September quarter, the childbirth stood merely at 80,400, the lowest since the data began to be compiled. It was down 9,200, or 10.3 percent, from a year earlier. The total fertility rate, or the number of babies that a woman is forecast to have during her lifetime, slipped to 0.95 in the third quarter from 1.05 in the previous quarter. South Korea is reportedly required to keep the fertility rate at 2.1 to maintain the current population. The continued fall in childbirth boosted concerns about the demographic cliff, which refers to a sudden drop in the heads of household eventually leading to a consumption cliff. According to the statistical agency's estimate, the number of South Korean population was forecast to begin sliding from 2028. The percentage of the working-age population, aged 15-64, to the total started to reduce in 2017, after peaking at 73.4 percent in the previous year. The low birthrate has been a headache for the South Korean economy as it leads to the lower workforce amid the fast-aging population, which would drag down the economy's growth potential and increase welfare costs. The slumping childbirth was attributable to the social trend of delayed marriage and the falling number of women who are of childbearing age. The number of marriage retreated 5.6 percent over the year to 53,800 in the third quarter, the lowest since the data began to be compiled in 1981. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 13:44:23|Editor: Yamei Video Player Close by Xinhua writers Gu Zhenqiu, Sun Xiaoling LONDON, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- "China can play a very big part" in the Group of 20 (G20) leading world economies, Cambridge University professor Alan Barrell told Xinhua in a recent interview. Barrell spoke highly of China's role in ensuring the success of the G20 summit in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou two years ago. As this year's summit is due to take place in Argentina later this week, he expected a more significant role of China this time in pushing forward globalization. With economic globalization suffering setbacks and free trade under assault, the upcoming G20 summit, themed "Building Consensus for Fair and Sustainable Development," has attracted worldwide attention. The summit will focus on issues like global economy, trade and investment, sustainable development, infrastructure and climate change. Argentine President Mauricio Macri has said that as host, his country will continue the consensus and results achieved at the Hangzhou summit. Barrell lauded China's consistency and determination in pursuing common development and advancing globalization. "I don't think protectionism is the answer to global trade," said the professor, who is also an entrepreneur in residence at the Center for Entrepreneurial Learning, Cambridge Judge Business School. He questioned the anti-globalization actions taken by some other countries, which he said are "going a very wrong direction" and "in a way closing the door and stopping the trade." "Protectionism eventually brings bad things ... It always shows to be bad in the long run," he said. "Trade wars are never won." Speaking of Chinese President Xi Jinping's speech at the recent China International Import Expo in Shanghai, Barrell said it demonstrated China's resolve to further open up and push for more balanced global trade, because "China is not only exporting, but also welcoming imports." The Belt and Road Initiative, proposed by Xi and aimed at promoting win-win cooperation and common development along the ancient Silk Road trade routes and beyond, "is a very big manifestation for opening up," he added. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 14:09:29|Editor: Yamei Video Player Close BEIJING, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- China's Ministry of Education has vowed to rectify problems of preschool education including community kindergartens, unlicensed kindergartens, or those driven by excessive profit-seeking or putting too much study pressure on kids. "Kindergartens established by communities will be transformed into public ones or affordable private ones," Lyu Yugang, an elementary education official with the ministry, said Wednesday. Lyu made the remarks at a press conference in Jinan, east China's Shandong Province where he elaborated on a preschool education reform directive released earlier this month. Lyu said the authorities will inspect unlicensed kindergartens, certify those that are qualified and suspend or close those that fail to meet safety or hygiene standards. "Excessive profit-seeking in establishing or operating kindergartens will be strictly curbed," Lyu said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 14:09:30|Editor: Yamei Video Player Close BEIJING, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- China's central government has dispensed in advance part of its 2019 poverty alleviation fund to local governments, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said Tuesday. The poverty alleviation fund already allocated to 28 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities totaled 90.98 billion yuan (about 13 billion U.S. dollars), accounting for 86 percent recorded last year, according to the MOF. Some 12 billion yuan of the fund will be used to support areas in deep poverty, including Tibet, Xinjiang, and parts of Sichuan, Yunnan, and Gansu provinces. The ministry also delegated its power to review and approve the use of poverty alleviation funds to county governments, stressing funds should not be used for any projects or tasks unrelated to poverty reduction. In 2015, the Chinese government set a goal of eradicating absolute poverty by 2020. As of October 2018, China has seen 153 counties officially removed from the country's list of impoverished areas, with the documented people in absolute poverty accounting for less than 3 percent of local population. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 14:39:34|Editor: Yamei Video Player Close SEOUL, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) agreed on Wednesday to conduct a joint inspection on railways across the border from Nov. 30, according to Yonhap news agency report. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 14:49:36|Editor: Yamei Video Player Close SYDNEY, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Authorities in Australia have ordered the immediate evacuation of thousands of residents and dozens of schools, after a massive wildfire broke through containment lines in central Queensland State on Wednesday. "If you have children with you, you need to think really hard about not losing a house, but losing the people you care most about," Queensland Deputy Police Commissioner Bob Gee warned. "People will burn to death. Their normal approaches probably won't work if this situation develops the way it is predicted to develop." "It is no different to a Category five cyclone coming through your door. Leave now," he urged. Despite the tireless efforts of fire crew, eight water-bombing aircraft and teams of extra firefighters flown in from other states, the catastrophic conditions which have seen temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius and wind gusts of 50 km per hour, have made battling the 138 separate blazes along the Queensland coast virtually impossible. While wildfires are burning from Cairns in the north to the Gold Coast in the south, it's the area in the middle of the 1,800 km stretch near the townships of Deepwater, Baffle Creek, Oyster Creek, Rules Beach and Rockhampton which is causing the most concern for emergency services. "This is something we don't want to overstate, but they're comparing this to the conditions in the Waroona fires in Western Australia, which completely wiped out a town a few years ago, and also to the recent California fires," Queensland Rural Fire Services Central Region Manager Brian Smith told the Australian Associated Press. So far, the wildfires have already burnt through more than 20,000 hectares of bushland, and that figure is expected to rise significantly higher after today. Although it's not clear how many homes have been lost, authorities fear there will be a significant amount of damage to properties across much of the state. While no fatalities have been reported at this stage, QLD Fire and Emergency Services Minister Craig Crawford said, "These are the kind of days where people could lose their lives." Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 15:59:50|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close BEIJING, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Pu Bo, former vice governor of southwest China's Guizhou Province, has been arrested on suspicion of bribery, the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) announced Wednesday. The National Supervisory Commission has finished an investigation of Pu's case and handed it to the procuratorial organ for review and prosecution. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 16:09:53|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close BEIJING, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Feng Xinzhu, former vice governor of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, has been indicted on a charge of taking bribes, the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) announced Wednesday. According to the SPP's statement, upon designation of the SPP, a procuratorate in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province has filed the case in the Hangzhou Municipal Intermediate People's Court. Feng was accused of taking advantage of his posts and using his power and status to seek benefits for others, and accepting "especially huge amounts of money and gifts," the SPP said. The SPP said prosecutors had informed the defendant of his litigation rights, questioned him, and listened to the defense counsel's arguments. 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. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sunshine Agri-Tech Inc. (TSX VENTURE: SAI) ("Sunshine Agri-Tech" or the "Company") announces that the Company has entered into agreements to sell off its equity interests in two of its subsidiaries in China, Changchun Grain Bio-Tech Co., Ltd. (Changchun Grain) and Changchun Sunshine Bio-Feed Co., Ltd. (Changchun Sunshine). Changchun Grain Changchun Grain is 51% owned by Dalian Sunshine Agri-Tech Inc. (Dalian Sunshine), which is another 100% owned subsidiary of the Company. Changchun Grain currently operates the Companys livestock feed production and distribution business. Dalian Sunshine entered into an agreement to sell its 21% equity interest in Changchun Grain to Dalian Anhe Investment Management Centre (Limited Partnership) (Anhe) for RMB2,100,000, which is approximately $402,299 (calculated on the exchange rate of RMB5.22 for $1 CAD). Anhe is the holder of the other 49% of Changchun Grain and after it acquires the 21% equity interest in Changchun Grain from Dalian Sunshine, it will own 70% equity interest in Changchun Grain. Dalian Sunshine entered into another agreement to sell its remaining 30% equity interest in Changchun Grain to Nongpaike Bio-Tech (Dalian) Co., Ltd. (Nongpaike) for RMB1,600,000, which is approximately $306,513. Because the sale of 51% equity interest in Changchun Grain will be a disposition of more than 50% of the Companys undertaking, the Company will be obtaining written consents from its shareholders in accordance of Policy 5.3 of the TSX Venture Exchange. In relation to obtaining written consents, the Company engaged Evans & Evans, Inc. to provide a valuation of Changchun Grain. The Comprehensive Valuation Report prepared by Evans & Evans, Inc. concluded that the fair market value of Changchun Grain was in the range of $960,000 to $1,140,000 as at August 31, 2018. Accordingly, the Companys 51% equity interest in Changchun Grain has a fair market value in the range of $489,600 to $581,400. The total proceeds to be received by the Company for the sale of 51% equity interest in Changchun Grain from Anhe and Nongpaike will be approximately $708,812, exceeding the range of fair market value of $489,600 to $581,400. Changchun Sunshine Changchun Sunshine is 100% owned by Dalian Sunshine. After Changchun Sunshine sold its operating business assets, including formulas for concentrated feeds and mix feeds as well as customers and market information to Changchun Grain in 2017, Changchun Sunshine currently only holds a land use right for 16,971 square meters located in the Changchun Economic Development Zone, which expires in 2060. Dalian Sunshine entered into an agreement to sell its 100% of Changchun Sunshine to Jilin Province Wister Environmental Protection Science and Technology Co., Ltd. (Jilin Wister) for RMB 8,200,000, which is approximately $1,570,881. All of Anhe, Nongpaike and Jilin Wister are not Non-Arms Length Parties of the Company. The transactions described in this news release are subject to approval of the Companys shareholders pursuant to Policy 5.3 of the TSX Venture Exchange and are also subject to final acceptance by the TSX Venture Exchange. About Sunshine Agri-Tech Inc.: Sunshine Agri-Tech Inc. (TSX VENTURE:SAI) is a public company listed on the TSX Venture exchange. The Company is currently engaged in the research, development, production and sales of bio-feed, microbial feed additives and related products that aim to improve the health and performance of animals. The Company's products include microbial feed additives. The Company is based in the city of Dalian in the Peoples Republic of China. On Behalf of the Board of Directors SUNSHINE AGRI-TECH INC. Baojun Zhang, PhD Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. CONTACT INFORMATION Sunshine Agri-Tech Inc. Xiaozhu Pang Chief Financial Officer Tel: 778.865.2296 Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 16:14:54|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close DHAKA, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Jailed Bangladeshi ex-Prime Minister Khaleda Zia suffered a fresh blow Wednesday as the country's apex court upheld a ban for convicts from running in the general elections slated for Dec. 30. A seven-member bench of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain upheld Tuesday's High Court order that ruled anyone jailed for more than two years cannot contest elections. Additional Attorney General Murad Reza told journalists that following the apex court order, no convicts including Zia will be able to contest the upcoming elections. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's ruling Bangladesh Awami League party leaders said the release of Zia from jail is a matter of court's decision. The country's major opposition alliance led by ex-Prime Minister Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has already decided to contest the parliamentary polls next month. BNP has been demanding the immediate release of all political prisoners including BNP chairwoman Zia, who has been in jail since February in a corruption case. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 16:39:58|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close MANILA, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- The congressional Commission on Appointments (CA) confirmed on Wednesday the appointment of Teodoro Locsin as Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary of the Philippines. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte appointed Locsin as the country's head diplomat last month after former Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano resigned to seek a seat in the House of Representatives. Locsin, 69, served as the Philippines' Permanent Representative to the United Nations before his appointment as DFA chief. Panfilo Lacson, chairman of the CA foreign affairs committee, said Locsin "has distinguished himself with the credentials and qualifications befitting someone who should be at the helm of the Department of Foreign Affairs - irrepressible, articulate, very independent-minded and extraordinarily prolific in writing." "In his short stint as ambassador, he has effectively made his mark within the high-brow milieu of the international community of nations," Lacson added. Philippine Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo welcomed the confirmation of Locsin's appointment. "With this confirmation, Secretary Locsin would be able to lead the DFA in supporting the president chart an independent foreign policy course while pro-actively looking after the welfare, protection, and well-being of millions of overseas Filipino workers around the world," Panelo said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 17:00:04|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close JAKARTA, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Pilot of Indonesia's Lion Air flight JT 610 was struggling to control the plane with faulty airspeed sensors and sent an urgent message to air traffic controllers before the crash that killed all 189 people on board, a preliminary report said on Wednesday. The investigators from the National Transport Safety Committee (NTSC) examining the cause of the brand new Boeing 737 Max-8 jet recommended Lion Air improve its safety culture. The report found that the pilot told air traffic controllers that the aircraft encountered a flight control problem shortly before it dove into waters off western Indonesia on Oct. 29, investigator of the NTSC Nurcahyato Utomo said. "The captain sent an urgency message to the air traffic controllers that they are in a failure situation," he said. The message was sent after the copilot complained that it was difficult to follow the instruction of "aircraft nose down" from the screen in the cockpit, said Nurcahyanto. Just before the complaint, the pilot found out that the left speed indicator had a problem with a 20-degree difference from the right one after he compared with a standby instrument, the investigator said. That confirmed the previous statement that the plane had a problem with the angle of attack (AOA) and speed indicator sensors. However, the NTSC has not yet unveiled the definitive cause of the crash in Tanjung Karawang waters of West Java province, saying that it will keep searching for another black box, the cockpit voice recorder of the plane. The report said that Lion Air has to ensure the operations manuals are complied "in a bid to improve the safety culture and to enable the pilot to make right decision to continue the flight," according to the investigator. The Lion Air plane plunged into the sea 13 minutes after took off from the Jakarta international airport on a scheduled one-hour flight to Pangkal Pinang of Bangka Island on Oct. 29. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 17:05:05|Editor: Xiang Bo Video Player Close SUVA, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Fijian government has collected a total of 250 million Fijian dollars (about 117 million U.S. dollars) so far from the Service Turnover Tax (STT) and Environment and Climate Adaptation Levy (ECAL). Newly appointed Fijian Tourism Minister Premila Kumar said in the Parliament on Wednesday that this particular fund was directed towards climate adaptation programs, so that the island nation's tourism sector was sustainable. The Minister said that she planned to increase investments, growth of the Fijian economy and create more jobs for youths and she would continue building on what her predecessors have done. Fiji's ECAL is a tax on prescribed services, items and income. ECAL helps fund critical work across Fiji to protect the natural environment, reduce carbon footprint, and adapt the island nation's economy, communities and infrastructure to the worsening impacts of climate change. Fiji is a nation on the frontlines of climate change and has been experiencing stronger and more frequent cyclones. Rising sea levels are forcing some Fijian communities to relocate, and changing weather patterns pose a serious threat to food security. Tourists spending time and paying ECAL in Fiji will help the Fijian government secure Fiji's future by boosting resilience to these devastating climate impacts across a broad front. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 17:25:12|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close QINSHUI, Shanxi, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- China launched a new dark sky site to preserve the starry night above Qinshui County, in the northern province of Shanxi, on Tuesday. It is the fourth of its kind established in the country. The new China Conservation Area for Dark and Starry Sky based in Taihang Honggu National Forest possesses a unique quality of starry nights and a nocturnal environment, said Han Hailiang, deputy head of Qinshui County, at the launch. Seeing the clear starry night as a rare resource, Qinshui will work to promote, protect, and take advantage of it, in hopes of becoming qualified as a new destination for stargazers and nature lovers from all over the world, he said. Qinshui looks forward to becoming the first certified International Dark Sky Park by the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) in China, while insisting on the preservation of the natural environment to be the top priority followed by public education and eco-tourism development, he added. Ngari and Nagqu in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region and Yeludang, in the eastern province of Jiangsu, were the first conservation areas before Qinshui joined the club. Ngari is believed by experts to be the third most ideal stargazing site after Chile's Atacama Desert and Hawaii's Mauna Kea. A dark sky reserve is a designated land specifically protected for its scientific, natural, educational, cultural heritage as well as public enjoyment, given the hazards that excessive lighting has been producing, explained Ren Xiaodong, China's dark-sky reserve promotor. Increased energy consumption, disrupted ecosystem and wildlife, and harmed human health, among other concerns on safety and crimes, have been the consequences of artificial lighting going overboard, said an expert with the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) and the IDA's China branch. Surrounded by three major mountain ranges of Taihang, Taiyue, and Zhongtiao, the national forest park covers 2,032 hectares and is protected from light pollution that overpowers the darkness at night, said Ding Jianbin, director of the park administration. It is home to a nearly intact biodiversity, with more than 1,270 native plants and 347 animal species - including the endangered North-Chinese leopard - inhabiting the ancient temperate deciduous forest, he said. As of mid-2018, a total of 64 International Dark Sky Parks have been certified by the IDA, while the two dark sky reserves in Nagqu and Ngari have been officially recognized as World Dark Sky Protected Areas by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Qinshui looks to promote the forest park's bio-richness and all-natural environment in developing eco-tourism, health services including forest therapy, rehabilitation, recreation and related industries in the building of an ecological civilization. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 17:30:13|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close YANGON, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- A Myanmar military unit defused a home-made bomb discovered in a market in Yangon on Wednesday, the police said. A diesel bottle filled with small pieces of nails and connected with wire was found by shop employees plugged at a tailoring shop in the Insein market, a local township police told Xinhua. The home-made bomb was assumed to have been placed during the market's close hours and the bomb could explode when it was switched on without knowledge, the police said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 17:30:13|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close by Keren Setton JERUSALEM, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Two months after the accidental downing of a Russian plane by the Syrian air defense system targeting an Israeli fighter jet, relations between Israel and Russia remain strained. The incident, which resulted in the death of 15 Russian servicemen, occurred during an Israeli airstrike against targets in Syria. For nearly two years, it is estimated that Israel has carried out hundreds of attacks against what it says are Iranian targets in Syria, most of them unconfirmed by Israel. Iran, Israel's arch-foe, has increased its presence in Syria in recent years, and is believed to have thousands of operatives in the country in an effort to help along the regime of President Bashar Assad. For Israel, Iranian presence so close to its northern border poses a major threat to the Jewish state. While the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) regretted the September downing incident, a statement by the IDF on Twitter held the Assad regime, "whose military shot down the Russian plane," fully responsible for the incident. As a rare admission of Israeli action inside Syria, this statement testified to the understanding that this incident could serve as a potential game-changer. Russian President Vladimir Putin initially adopted a conciliatory attitude in the immediate aftermath of the incident, despite harsher response from defense officials in Moscow. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had boasted of his close relationship with Putin, is now feeling the freezing temperature from the Russian leader. Israeli media reported that Netanyahu's office has been trying to schedule a meeting with Putin after the incident, but to no avail. Two weeks ago, the two leaders held a hasty meeting at the sideline of the Armistice Day commemoration events in Paris, but it was hardly what Netanyahu had hoped for. Nevertheless, it appears that Israel has significantly reduced its activity over Syrian airspace since the incident, as what local media anonymously quoted defense officials as saying on several occasions. "Putin has not granted the formal meeting that Netanyahu repeatedly said was about to occur. The Israeli airstrikes are not going on at anywhere near the frequency as they did previously," said Gideon Remez, a researcher of the Truman Institute at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. "Either Israel has found other ways to combat Iranian forces in Syria or Israel has simply acquiesced to it, for the time being, without risking an all-out clash with the Russian forces in Syria," Remez explained. Since 2015, Russia has been heavily involved in the Syrian civil war, working to consolidate Assad's hold on the country. Thousands of Russian military personnel have been sent to the soil. Russia and Israel have established a deconfliction system meant to prevent such incidents in the crowded airspace in Syria, as the long-existing status quo, which allows for Israeli airstrikes against Iranian targets, was based on the mutual interests. In addition, the verbal agreements between Putin and Netanyahu also included a Russian guarantee to not supply the Syrian army with the more sophisticated S-300 air defense system, as such system would hamper the freedom of movement of the Israeli air force in Syrian airspace, according to Dina Lisnyansky of the Political Studies Department at the Bar Ilan University. However, the convergence of Israeli-Russian interests is now gone, and the downing of the Russian plane became the perfect excuse for Russia to supply the system to Assad's army. In fact, Iran now shares more common ground with Russia than Israel. "If Israel takes poke at Iran now, it will not be in Syria," Remez said. "The risk is enormous. This will not happen in the foreseeable future." Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 17:40:16|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close Wang Xiaohui, executive deputy head of the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), also vice director of the Policy Research Office of the CPC Central Committee, speaks at the Sino-Portugal readers' seminar on the book "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" in Lisbon, Portugal, Nov. 26, 2018. (Xinhua/Zhang Liyun) LISBON, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- A readers' seminar on the book "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" has been held here just days before Chinese President Xi Jinping's scheduled state visit to Portugal. The book expounds the "China Road" toward modernization, the "China Value" centered on the people and China's approach to pushing for human development, said Wang Xiaohui, executive deputy head of the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC). The work provides an authoritative version to help the international audience better understand Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, the CPC and China, said Wang, who is also vice director of the Policy Research Office of the CPC Central Committee. Cai Run, Chinese ambassador to Portugal, said that Xi's book can further promote people's understanding of China's development philosophy and path as well as its internal and external polices, thus enabling people to understand China in a comprehensive, objective and reasonable way. President Xi's book is indispensable for the comprehensive understanding of policies relating to China's society, economy, culture and diplomacy, said Jose Lamalho, president of the Portugal-China League of Multicentury Friendship. The part of Xi's book on building a community with a shared future for mankind is very enlightening, said Maria Teresa Cid, co-director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Lisbon. All the countries and peoples should understand and respect each other and resolve differences through dialogue and consultation in order to build a better world, she added. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 17:55:25|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- At least 12 militants have been killed over the past 24 hours in the southern Kandahar, Zabul, Helmand and Uruzgan provinces, an army spokesman in the southern region, Ahmad Sadeq Eisa, said Wednesday. According to the official, four more militants have been injured in Afghan forces' crackdown against Taliban hideouts in the said provinces over the period. Taliban militants who are active in the southern region including the restive Kandahar province haven't commented yet. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 18:15:33|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close BEIJING, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration should "make a profound self-criticism and get back to the right path of peaceful development of cross-Strait relations," a Chinese mainland spokesperson said Wednesday. "The DPP should face the strong aspiration of Taiwan residents for sharing the benefits of the peaceful development across the Taiwan Strait, and improving the island's economy and people's wellbeing," said Ma Xiaoguang, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, at a press conference. "The DPP should get back to the political foundation of the 1992 Consensus and to the right path of the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations. "Since it took power, the DPP administration has unilaterally undermined the political foundation of the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations, supported and connived at attempts for 'Taiwanese independence' in various forms, obstructed and restricted people-to-people exchanges across the Strait. "It has also sought foreign intervention in cross-Strait affairs, repeatedly made remarks fraught with the 'two Chinas' separatist fallacy and confrontational thinking. "Such acts aggravated hostility between Taiwan and the mainland, brought cross-Strait relations to a grave and complex situation, and seriously harmed the interests of Taiwanese compatriots. "The way out for the DPP and its administration only lies in abandoning separatist attempts at 'Taiwanese independence' and accepting the 1992 Consensus." TORONTO, Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Emerita Resources Corp. (TSX-V: EMO) (the Company or Emerita) announces its intention to seek the necessary approvals to consolidate its common shares. The Company has called a special meeting of common shareholders (the Meeting) for Wednesday, December 19, 2018 at 10:00 a.m. (Toronto time). The Meeting will be held at the Companys head office at 65 Queen Street West, 8th floor boardroom, Toronto, Ontario M5H 2M5. Emerita shareholders will be asked to consider and approve a share consolidation (the Consolidation) on the basis of one new common share of the Company (each, a New Share) for up to every five existing common shares of the Company (each, an Existing Share), or such lower number of Existing Shares as may be determined by the Board of Directors of Emerita and as may be required to obtain approval of the Consolidation from the TSX Venture Exchange. The principal effects of the Consolidation will be that the number of Shares of the Company issued and outstanding will be reduced from 142,095,829 Existing Shares as of the date hereof to approximately 28,419,165 New Shares, assuming a consolidation ratio of 5 to 1. The expected benefits of the Consolidation include improved trading liquidity from lower transaction costs, great investor interest as well as reduced future dilution from the ability to raise additional capital at a higher price per Share. Additional benefits of the Consolidation, as well as the procedure for implementing the Consolidation and the full text resolution approving the Consolidation may be found in the Companys management information circular dated November 21, 2018 (the Circular) that is being mailed to shareholders and may be found under the Companys profile on SEDAR. The Consolidation remains subject to shareholder approval and acceptance by the TSX Venture Exchange. About Emerita Resources Corp. Emerita is a natural resource company engaged in the acquisition, exploration and development of mineral properties in Europe, with a primary focus on exploring its properties in Spain. The Companys corporate office and technical teams are based in Sevilla, Spain with an administrative office in Toronto, Canada. For further information, contact: Helia Bento +1 416 309 4293 (Toronto) Joaquin Merino +34 (628) 1754 66 (Spain) info@emeritaresources.com Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Information This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, without limitation, statements regarding the impact of the Consolidation and the Companys future plans. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as plans, expects or does not expect, is expected, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates or does not anticipate, or believes, or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward- looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Emerita, as the case may be, to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to: general business, economic, competitive, geopolitical and social uncertainties; the actual results of current exploration activities; risks associated with operation in foreign jurisdictions; ability to successfully integrate the purchased properties; foreign operations risks; and other risks inherent in the mining industry. Although Emerita has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Emerita does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 18:15:33|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close ISTANBUL, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- At least five workers were trapped in the rubble on Wednesday when a concrete block fell 30 meters high during the construction of a highway in Turkey's northwestern province of Kocaeli, the broadcaster NTV reported. The incident happened in the district of Gebze, as the workers were working on the construction of an elevated highway known as the North Marmara Highway, NTV said. The workers fell on the ground along with the concrete block following its sudden collapse, the broadcaster said, noting the rescue teams are trying to reach the workers under the debris. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 18:50:39|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close GHAZNI, Afghanistan, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Up to 26 militants have been killed and more than 20 others injured as ground troops, backed by air force, targeted Taliban hideouts in the eastern Ghazni province, an army statement said Wednesday. The government forces, according to the statement, have been targeting Taliban hideouts in Andar, Gilan, Qarabagh districts as well as in villages outside the provincial capital the Ghazni city since Tuesday and so far 26 insurgents have been confirmed dead and 22 others injured. A large number of the arms and ammunition of the militants have also been destroyed, the statement added. Taliban militants are yet to make comment on the offensive. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 18:55:39|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close Presidential candidate Andry Rajoelina waits for the final results of the first round of vote in Antananarivo, Madagascar, Nov. 28, 2018. Madagascar's two former presidents, Andry Rajoelina and Marc Ravalomanana, will contest in a presidential run-off vote next month, the country's High Constitutional Court (HCC) announced on Wednesday. (Xinhua/Sitraka) ANTANANARIVO, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Madagascar's two former presidents, Andry Rajoelina and Marc Ravalomanana, will contest in a presidential run-off vote next month, the country's High Constitutional Court (HCC) announced on Wednesday. "The two candidates eligible to run in the second round of the election of the President of the Republic are: Mr. Andry Nirina Rajoelina and Mr. Marc Ravalomanana," said HCC President Jean Eric Rakotoarisoa while announcing the final results of the first round vote. Rajoelina said he was ready for the second round vote scheduled for Dec. 19, and asked the Independent National Election Commission (INEC) to improve its credibility by improving the organization of the vote and the treatment of the results. Ravalomanana made his point through his spokesperson Hanitra Razafimanantsoa, saying "We are ready for the second tour and ask the INEC to improve its manners of working." Ravalomanana, 69, was elected president from 2002 to 2009, while Rajoelina, 44, was president of transition from 2009 to 2013. The electoral campaign for the second round will begin on Dec. 3 for 15 days. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 19:05:41|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close BEIJING, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Ministry of Transport (MOT) Wednesday said the "hitch" service of Didi Chuxing, China's largest mobile ride-hailing platform, would remain offline until correcting safety hazards. The requirement came after an in-house joint inspection by 10 departments in September of eight major players in the ride-hailing industry, including Didi, for safety loopholes and problems concerning the safety of passengers. The inspectors found several safety risks in the hitch service, including the risks of leaking passenger private information and irregular operations of fund clearing, the MOT told a media briefing. The inspection group also found illegal operations of Didi's mobile ride-hailing service since a large number of autos in use and drivers employed by the company were unqualified. "Didi's management loopholes were also exposed in the inspection such as inadequate assessment of drivers' professional qualification and background information, posting threat to public safety," the ministry said. Besides suspending the hitch service, the inspectors also called for punishment of Didi executives by local administrators and required the company to stop illegal advertisements. China unveiled its first nationwide regulations for ride-hailing services in July 2016, granting legal status to the industry. The toughened supervision came after the deaths of two passengers this year, both of whom were using Didi Chuxing app to hail autos and were murdered by their hitch drivers. The other seven ride-hailing platforms were also urged to correct irregularities regarding qualification of drivers and cars, fund clearing and safety management. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 19:10:41|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close by Pankaj Yadav NEW DELHI, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Delhi plans to have at least 25 percent of its total vehicles electric-run by 2023. The local government is learnt to have drafted an e-vehicle policy offering a slew of incentives, and subsidies for making e-vehicles attractive for customers, and also building a charging-infrastructure in the city. This would help in reducing air pollution, that has been plaguing the Indian capital for a while. On Tuesday the air quality was recorded as "very poor." According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the overall air quality index (AQI) recorded in the Indian capital stood at 316, which falls in "very poor" category. The Delhi government mulls over not charging the road-tax, registration fee and the parking fee from those buying e-vehicles, and also install a battery charging point after every three kilometers Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot reportedly said the policy recognises that a new approach is required to kick-start electric vehicle adoption in Delhi and seeks to put in place several measures that address the key hurdles. About 30 percent of particulate pollution in winter is caused by vehicles. Rapid adoption of zero-emission electric vehicles is, therefore, of great importance. Raising the infrastructure for the e-vehicles, particularly the charging stations, would be a tough task. To meet this challenge, the draft policy offers a 100-percent subsidy on the installation of the first 10,000 charging points at the residential and non-residential buildings. The draft policy said building bye-laws will be amended to ensure both home and work place parking becomes e-vehicle-ready through mandatory installation of charging conduits. Meanwhile, the country's leading car manufacturing company Maruti Suzuki has also geared up to begin testing electric car. The company has plans to launch e-vehicle by 2020. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 19:10:41|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close Beijing, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese mainland welcomes exchanges and cooperation with Kaohsiung and other cities and counties in Taiwan, a mainland spokesperson said Wednesday. Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, made the remarks at a press conference in response to Kaohsiung mayor-elect Han Kuo-yu's comments about recognizing the 1992 Consensus. Noting that the 1992 Consensus is the political foundation of the peaceful growth of the cross-Strait relations, Ma said city-to-city exchanges and cooperation should be based on a correct understanding on the nature of the cross-Strait relations and the nature of such exchanges. Ma said people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait should further promote mutual visits, deepen business cooperation and strengthen exchanges in various fields. Responding to questions about a city forum between Shanghai and Taipei, which will be held in late December, Ma said the forum has been held annually since 2010 and serves as an important platform for exchanges between the two cities and people across the Strait. Ma said he hoped the forum will further deepen exchanges in various fields between the two cities and promote the interests and wellbeing of people across the Strait. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 19:50:48|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close WELLINGTON, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand marked the 125th anniversary of women voting for the first time in this country, and celebrated the progress made for women, Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter said on Wednesday. "Today we remember Nov. 28 125 years ago, when women went to the polling booths for the first time," Genter said in a statement, adding this day in 1893 was a turning point for women as they took power into their hands. Now the majority of New Zealand women registered as voters and a very high proportion voted, the minister said. "Those women knew voting was the way to get the changes they wanted for themselves, their families and communities," she said, adding this year's suffrage celebrations have created significant opportunities to drive progress towards gender equality in New Zealand. Communities nationwide have organized events to showcase and celebrate women in their communities, to encourage more progress on issues such as the gender pay gap, and to create better futures for the next generation, according to the minister. The Suffrage 125 Community Fund has supported 42 projects across New Zealand with 300,000-NZ dollar (203,937-U.S. dollar) funding. The fund received more than 240 applications for this funding, which shows the demand for activities which benefit women and girls in New Zealand, Genter said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 19:50:48|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close ADDIS ABABA, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- The African Development Bank (AfDB) and the African Union (AU) on Wednesday commended African countries as they are becoming more open to each other. Reiterating that still more works to be done, the two pan-African institutions have hailed the achievements in the year 2018 as "a landmark chapter in Africa's regional integration efforts." Findings of the 3rd edition of the Africa Visa Openness Index Report 2018 published by the AfDB and the AU indicated that on average, African countries are becoming more open to each other, according to an AU statement on Wednesday. The launch of the African Continental Free Trade Area and the Single African Air Transport Market are major milestones in the creation of a regulatory environment that promotes air connectivity and makes it faster, less expensive and easier for Africans to travel within Africa, the report notes. The top 20 most visa-open countries continue to improve their average score, reflecting the countries' more liberal visa policies. In addition, 43 countries improved or maintained their score. Benin made the most progress in opening up its borders to African travelers, moving from 27th place in the 2017 edition to 1st place in the 2018 report. Zimbabwe also broke into the top 20 with the introduction of a visa-on-arrival policy for SADC (Southern Africa Development Community) members. Overall, when compared to 2017, Africans do not need a visa to travel to 25 percent of other African countries (up from 22 percent); can get visas on arrival in 24 percent of other African countries (same as last year); and need visas to travel to 51 percent of other African countries (down from 54 percent). "Regional integration and trade based upon the free movement of persons, goods, services and capital is at the core of the business of the African Development Bank," Akinwumi A. Adesina, the AfDB Group President, noted. However, the president underlined the fact that Africans still require visas to travel to just over half of other African countries shows that more progress is needed to realize free movement of people continent-wide. "As infrastructure expands across Africa, and tangible trade and investment opportunities are put on the table, Africans will need to travel with greater ease. Solutions such as the African passport, visa-free regional blocs, multi-year visas, or visa-on-arrival schemes should continue to be promoted." "Looking at the recent development this year, such as the announcement by Ethiopia, Africa's diplomatic capital, on the establishment of a visa-on-arrival regime for all African passport holders, Africa is indeed on an upward trajectory towards seamless borders and the free movement of its people. Commendable work has also gone into the actual roll-out of the African passport to the citizenry," Kwesi Quartey, Deputy Chairperson of the AU Commission, said. The Visa Openness Index assesses the progress African countries have realized in relaxing their visa regimes. The report aims to show at a glance which countries are facilitating travel for citizens of other African countries and how; whether they allow people to travel to their country without a visa; if travelers can get a visa on arrival in the country; or if visitors need to get a visa before travel, according to the African Union (AU). Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 20:20:59|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close HONG KONG, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong's Financial Services Development Council (FSDC) on Wednesday set out key recommendations for fostering the development of an Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) ecosystem in China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. "ESG investment has become a mainstream investment area which many developed economies strive to seize through a combination of incentives and regulations," FSDC chairman Laurence Li said when releasing the ESG Strategy for Hong Kong report. "An optimal balance between the two is not easy to achieve but there is a need for Hong Kong to take this into serious consideration in order not to be left behind." The report recommends the government take the leadership role in encouraging public funds' support for ESG integration. It suggests the Securities and Futures Commission strengthen the emphasis on ESG through upgrading the Principles of Responsible Ownership to at least "comply or explain." It also advises the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong to strengthen the emphasis on ESG for both listing applicants and listed companies. The FSDC was established in 2013 in response to the financial services industry's call for a high-level government advisory body to support the sustained development of the industry. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 20:26:01|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close HARARE, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa has agreed to have his salary and that of other senior government officials cut by 5 percent, finance minister Mthuli Ncube said Wednesday. He said the move by the president would set a good example to the nation on the need to take austerity measures that will help revive the country's ailing economy. "President Emmerson Mnangagwa is leading from the front on this issue of cost containment. He decided that he will cut his own salary by 5 percent, and the vice presidents are also doing the same. We as ministers and deputy ministers we did the same, permanents secretaries up to principal directors and head of parastatals, the state owned enterprises also did the same," said Ncube. "So there is leadership from the front on this issue of cost containment and that sets the tone for the cost containment issue around the government wage bill," Ncube said at a post-budget press conference. The salary cut would also be extended to senior executives of all public enterprises and state institutions such as universities and statutory commissions. Ncube announced in his 2019 budget statement last Thursday that the salaries of the president, his deputies, ministers, and other senior government officials will be slashed by 5 percent with effect from January 2019 as part of broader measures by the government to reduce government expenditure which has resulted in unsustainable budget deficits that are choking the economy. Wages in the civil service take up to 90 percent of Zimbabwe's national budget, leaving little for investment in critical public infrastructure such as roads, power stations and health facilities. In the budget statement, Ncube said several austerity measures would be undertaken to bring down the civil service wage bill to sustainable levels to stimulate economic growth. With effect from January 2019, government will weed out ghost workers in the civil service through introduction of bio-metric registration for all civil servants and will reduce the country's foreign missions, among other cost-cutting measures. Bonus payments to civil servants for 2018 will also be based on basic rather than gross salaries. Implementation of these measures, Ncube said, would yield significant annual savings, which would be channeled to critical areas of health, education and infrastructure. He told the media that the 2019 budget tried to allocate more resources towards infrastructure development, noting that at least 1.3 billion U.S. dollars had been set aside in 2019, up from 800 million dollars in 2018. LONDON, Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- Commercial deployment of 5G has become a very real future. How LTE networks will develop, networks that have served us for almost a decade, is a hot topic in the communications industry. At the All Business Connected @ LTE Summit of the Global Mobile Broadband Forum 2018, some 150 operator delegates gathered together to discuss, and to try to reach a general consensus on, issues of common concern in the industry. They all agreed, "In the upcoming 10 years, LTE networks will still be a cash cow for operators. LTE network capabilities will continue to improve, driven by traffic growth and all-business innovations. LTE will become an all-business foundation network in the 5G era." I. LTE Users and Traffic Continue to Increase, Stimulating LTE Network Capability Enhancement. Over ten years of rapid development, LTE has overtaken 2G and 3G as the most popular wireless communications technology. 715 LTE networks have been deployed for commercial use, serving 78% of the global population, with 3.2 billion users. In the next ten years, LTE will maintain strong growth. 1. The 2G and 3G networks will gradually be phased out, with nearly 2 billion 2G and 3G users migrated to the LTE networks. GSMA Intelligence estimated that the number of LTE users will increase by 2.3 billion by 2025. The number of LTE IoT users will also increase by 2 billion by 2025, as 900 million 2G and 3G IoT users will be migrated to LTE. 2. Network traffic continues to grow rapidly. According to Analysis Mason, the global average handset data traffic per user per month (DOU) has reached 2.7 GB, and this figure will increase over the next few years at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 50%. Despite the advent of 5G commercial use, LTE will still be the main bearer for this ever-growing traffic. It is predicted that by 2021, 5G will carry only 1.5% of the total traffic, and about 80% of the traffic will be provided by LTE networks. 3. With the rollout of new services such as ultra-HD video, virtual reality (VR), and mobile gaming, users have higher experience requirements. Currently, the user experienced data rate of major operators around the world has reached 20 Mbps. In the not too distant future, a data rate of 50 Mbps anytime anywhere with zero wait time will become a basic requirement. 4. LTE serves huge number of users and provides most of the traffic and services. It is still the main revenue source for operators. Strategy Analytics forecast shows that by 2022, LTE will contribute to 80% of operators' mobile communication revenue. Based on these facts, LTE will continue to be the main focus of operators' investment in the future. LTE coverage and capacity will be further improved, making it a foundation network carrying a full range of services in the 5G era. II. LTE Enters a New Stage of Connecting the Old and New. The Target Network in the 5G Era Is LTE Evolution + NR. What will the relationship between LTE and 2G, 3G, and 5G be in the future? What will the target network be like in the 5G era? Veni Shone, President of Huawei LTE Product Line, said, "In the past, the evolution of mobile communications technologies was a process of replacing old-generation technologies with new ones. After 3G emerged, 2G standards stopped evolving. This is quite different in the 5G era, where LTE will have to evolve in line with 5G NR over a long period of time in terms of standards, industries, and ecosystems. The target network in the 5G era is LTE Evolution + NR." The advent of 5G has unveiled a new chapter for LTE evolution. LTE will gradually incorporate 2G and 3G and become an all-business foundation network in the 5G era. LTE will also continue to enhance its capabilities and collaborate with NR in the 5G era. 1. LTE Will Replace 2G and 3G as the Foundation Network in the 5G Era. Currently, 2G, 3G, and LTE networks coexist. Their operating expense (OPEX) accounts for more than 60% of the total cost operation (TCO) for operators. After 5G is put into commercial use, if all of the four types of networks are deployed for a single operator, the OPEX will be even higher. To improve operational efficiency, 2G and 3G networks will be gradually shut down with the voice, data, and IoT services being migrated to LTE networks, which feature better spectral efficiency. Network simplification is the way of future. Dozens of operators, such as AT&T in the US, Vodafone in Australia, and TELUS/Bell in Canada, have shut down their 2G networks. Most other operators have released network shutdown plans. The years from 2020 to 2025 will witness large-scale shutdown of 2G and 3G networks. In the 5G era, LTE will replace the 2G and 3G networks as the foundation network. The ultimate target network will be LTE Evolution + NR. 2. LTE Will Co-Exist with NR, and Continue to Evolve in Parallel with NR. In June 2018, 3GPP Release 15, the first version of 5G NR standards, was frozen, marking a milestone in the communications history. In Release 15, LTE air interface is comprehensively enhanced, capable of supporting E-UTRA-NR Dual Connectivity (EN-DC) and LTE connection to 5G Next Generation Core (NGC). This allows LTE to evolve together with NR, both of which will be integral parts of the 5G era. LTE will evolve in the following aspects: 1. More spectrum resources will be aggregated to provide a higher throughput. 2. Downlink 1024QAM, uplink 256QAM, and Massive MIMO in TM9 will be supported to achieve higher spectral efficiency. 3. Short transmission time interval (short TTI) will be introduced to reduce the latency. 4. The bearer capabilities of NB-IoT and eMTC will be further enhanced to substitute 2G or 3G IoT. 5. LTE will be deeply integrated with the NR architecture to serve as the anchor for NR and support EN-DC and connection to 5G NGC. The continuous evolution of LTE helps operators reuse investments in LTE to quickly enable 5G services. In addition, the potential of LTE networks will be fully unleashed to cope with the increasing traffic demands. III. Zero Fallback, Zero Wait, and Zero Copper Are LTE Network Construction Strategies for the New Era. How do we construct LTE networks in this new phase? Mr. Shone provided a brief answer: zero fallback with expanded coverage, zero wait time for better experience, and zero copper for home broadband (HBB) services. Zero fallback refers to expansion of the foundation LTE network coverage so that it is the same as that of 2G and 3G networks. With expanded coverage, LTE data, VoLTE, and IoT services will always be provided by the LTE network. Users will no longer fall back to 2G or 3G networks. The enhanced coverage also lays a foundation for 2G and 3G users to be migrated to LTE networks. Currently, LTE coverage is not as good as that of 2G networks. Insufficient coverage causes LTE users to fall back to the 2G or 3G networks, resulting in significant user experience changes. It also leads to congestion on the 2G and 3G networks and makes it difficult to release spectrum used by 2G and 3G. To achieve zero fallback, operators can refarm low frequency bands, fill coverage holes, and take other measures to ensure wider coverage in rural areas and deeper coverage in urban areas. In this way, the 2G and 3G spectrum resources can be released for constructing a simplified target network, an LTE + NR network. Zero wait means that mainstream services, such as HD video and web browsing, can be accessed without any perceivable delay, providing 5G-like user experience. Zero wait time ensures optimal LTE user experience and makes new services (such as VR and cloud gaming) possible. In addition, user experience will not deteriorate after 5G users leave the coverage area and fall back to the LTE network. To realize zero wait time, the LTE network capacity needs to be further improved to avoid user experience deterioration caused by network congestion. The target data rate for experience-based LTE networks should be increased to 50 Mbps to narrow the gap with the 5G NR, which aims to provide 100 Mbps. "Zero fallback with 50 Mbps" will become the standard for constructing experience-based LTE networks in the next phase. Zero copper means the replacement of low-speed copper lines with LTE wireless to the x (WTTx) for existing HBB services and the rapid WTTx deployment for new HBB services. In Europe, Latin America, and other places, the copper-line-based HBB data rate is low, and reconstruction required to increase data rates is difficult. This has become a major factor affecting the Internet access experience of HBB users. In addition, 66.3% of the households around the world still have no access to the Internet due to the lack of ICT infrastructure in certain countries and regions, especially in developing and underdeveloped countries. WTTx is easy to install and can be deployed rapidly. WTTx data rates can be easily increased for a smooth upgrade to 5G. It has become the first choice for last mile HBB access. WTTx is viewed as the main national broadband technology and is granted the same policy support as fixed broadband (FBB) in countries such as France, Greece, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Mongolia. WTTx services are growing fast in regions outside China. They have been deployed in 230 networks worldwide, serving 75 million people. Ovum predicted that the number of HBB users would reach 350 million by 2020. IV. Huawei Launched SuperBAND, Smart Massive MIMO, 4T6S, and 8T8R Evo Solutions to Continuously Enhance the Foundation Network. LTE, the foundation network in the 5G era, faces pressure from the growth in MBB traffic and from 2G and 3G user migration. To help operators cope with the challenges of providing enough capacity, Huawei launched four advanced solutions at the All Business Connected @ LTE Summit of the Global Mobile Broadband Forum 2018: SuperBAND, Smart Massive MIMO, 4T6S, and 8T8R Evo. These four solutions are built on traditional multi-band, multi-antenna, and multi-sector capacity expansion solutions. They use artificial intelligence (AI), sector splitting, joint scheduling of sectors, and additional technologies to enable efficient collaboration between bands, beams, and sectors. User experienced data rate is therefore, significantly improved. The SuperBAND design was inspired by 5G large-bandwidth technology. 5G supports continuous bandwidth of more than 100 MHz and provides ultra-high peak data rates. As more and more 2G and 3G spectrum is refarmed, LTE networks will be deployed on a large number of bands. The SuperBAND solution uses 5G large-bandwidth and AI technologies to intelligently coordinate the scheduling between frequency bands and neighboring cells. This allows the full use of spectrum resources and provides a user experience similar to 5G. According to test results, eight-carrier-based SuperBAND technology can provide a peak rate of 3 Gbps, improving user experience by up to 50% and spectral efficiency by 58%. Smart Massive MIMO uses AI technology for adaptive network optimization in different coverage and user distribution scenarios, greatly improving the efficiency and user experience. In addition, antenna information sensor units (AISUs) are used to provide the most reliable engineering parameters for network planning and optimization. This reduces the workload of subsequent site adjustment and O&M, and lays a solid foundation for the long-term evolution towards smart networks. The 4T6S solution uses high-power dual-band 4T4R integrated RRUs and ultra-wideband multi-beam antennas to implement multi-band sector splitting on the 1.82.6 GHz band. It can achieve 1.7~2.0 fold capacity gains over 2T3S, In terms of software, the solution uses inter-sector coordinated scheduling technology. Which reduces the interface and improve the user experience between 2 split sectors. With the 8T8R Evo solution, high-power 8T8R TDD RRUs and Huawei's innovative software-defined multi-sector technology extend traditional three-sector 8T8R to six- and 12-sector 8T8R. The network capacity is 2.02.2 times higher than that of traditional TDD 4T4R networks, significantly reducing the single-bit cost of the LTE network. The preceding four solutions leverage existing spectrum and site resources of operators to further explore LTE network potential and assist operators in building a foundation network in the 5G era. Conclusion: Focus on 5G-Oriented Evolution, Expand and Enhance the Foundation Network to Prepare for the Future. According to GSMA Intelligence, by 2025, the total number of LTE users will be four times that of 5G users. For operators in many parts of the world, LTE is and will be the foundation for the next 10 years at least. The maturing 5G industry has pushed operators to put 5G construction high on the agenda. However, 5G construction is not merely the construction of NR networks. The target network structure in the future should be considered from a higher perspective. A solid foundation can help operators thrive in the competitions in the coming 5G era. Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 20:36:04|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close People participate in a march during the strike of the private sector in Athens, Greece, on Nov. 28, 2018. A new 24-hour nationwide anti-austerity strike called by the General Confederation of Employees of Greece (GSEE), the country's umbrella labor union for the private sector, hit the country on Wednesday. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos) ATHENS, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- A new 24-hour nationwide anti-austerity strike called by the General Confederation of Employees of Greece (GSEE), the country's umbrella labor union for the private sector, hit the country on Wednesday. Strikers who marched in the center of Athens chanted slogans demanding an end to tax hikes, increases in pensions, as well as the restoration of collective wage agreements and the monthly minimum wage to the pre-crisis level from the current 580 euros (655 U.S. dollars) to 751 euros (848 dollars). "Enough is enough. Workers' needs should come first," read banners waved by protesters during the rally. The strike caused traffic jams in the capital city and thus disrupted public transportation. Metro, tram and many buses ceased operations the whole day, and ferries remained docked at ports. Wednesday's labor action follows a 24-hour strike organized by the umbrella trade union of the public sector ADEDY earlier this month, and a long series of strikes and protests staged in the past eight years of the Greek debt crisis with similar demands. Following Greece's formal exit from the bailout era this August, after eight years of harsh policies aimed at achieving fiscal adjustment and reforming the ailing economy, the government has pledged gradual implementation of relief measures to heal the wounds of the crisis without jeopardizing economic growth. However, labor unions argued that the pace will be too slow, and more needs to be done to allow some breathing space for the average Greek households and businesses that have lost up to 40 percent of their incomes during the crisis, according to official estimates. According to a GSEE press statement, it will take a decade to restore the monthly minimum salary to the pre-crisis level under the government's planning. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 20:36:05|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close JUBA, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- At least 2,297 cases of rape and sexual violence against civilians were recorded in conflict-torn South Sudan in 2017 alone, a senior government official has said. Gender, Child and Social Welfare minister Awut Deng Achuil said many of the reported cases of gender-based violence (GBV) occurred in areas worst-hit by the country's five-year old civil war. "According to the gender-based violence information management system, in 2017 alone, 2,297 cases of GBV survivors were reported and 13 percent of the reported cases were rape and the rest sexual assaults," Achuil said Tuesday at a ceremony marking the launch of 16 days of activism against GBV. Achuil said the figures could be much higher because many sexual abuse victims across the country suffer in silence and perpetrators often escape unpunished. "These cases are just a tip of the iceberg. Let us all work together to end GBV against women and girls," she added. Civil society activist Chandiru Josephine said sexual violence against women remains a major problem in South Sudan and urged authorities to do more and end it. "Gender based violence is real issue, it is not a rumour, not a story, it is happening to both men and women. I urge the government to ensure that violence against women is ended," Chandiru said. South Sudan descended into civil war in late 2013, and the conflict has created one of the worst refugee crisis in Africa as some four million South Sudanese are displaced internally and externally, according to United Nations estimates. A latest report by the United Nations Commission of Human Rights accuses the warring parties in South Sudan of using sexual violence and maiming as a tool of war. Moustapha Soumare, deputy chief of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) urged the South Sudanese authorities to integrate protection of women's rights into the recently signed peace agreement and also tackle issues of impunity. "South Sudan has experienced various forms of violence against women and girls and many of these are perpetuated in full view of family and community members, therefore impacting on the ability of women and girls to a life free of violence," Soumare said. "Protection of women should be central to peace building. Let us stand together and end all forms of violence against women in the world and South Sudan." he added. File photo shows laborers work at Huajian factory, south of Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, July 19, 2017. (Xinhua/Michael Tewelde) ADDIS ABABA, Nov. 28 (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. File photo shows an Ethiopian employee working for China Communications Construction Corporation (CCCC) is awarded for his outstanding performance, in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, Oct. 13, 2018. (Xinhua/Michael Tewelde) 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. File photo shows locals attend the launch of the new smartphone "Tecno Spark" in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Sept. 16, 2017. (Xinhua/Michael Tewelde) 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 20:51:10|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close ISLAMABAD, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday laid the foundation stone at the ground breaking ceremony of a corridor along the country's border with India in a move to facilitate Indian Sikh pilgrims across the border. The Kartarpur Corridor links Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur in Pakistan's Punjab province, the final resting place of Sikh faith's founder Guru Nanak, and the international border with India. Hundreds of Sikh pilgrims also attended the function and some participants welcomed the opening of the corridor which will enable them to visit the religious site without visa. Khan was joined by Pakistan army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, Islamabad-based diplomats and senior officials. Indian Minister of Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Junior Minister for Urban Development Hardeep Singh Puri attended the opening ceremony. Experts believe the opening of the corridor could decrease tensions between the two neighbors and have positive impact on bilateral relations. India had postponed dialogue with Pakistan in April 2016 after an attack on an Indian airbase in January which New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based militants. Pakistani Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry earlier termed the opening of the corridor as a "victory of peace" and said the decision will encourage the voices of reason on both sides of the border. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 20:51:11|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close ISLAMABAD, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Police in Pakistan's northwest Mardan district on Wednesday arrested 25 miscreants, recovering arms, ammunition and narcotics from their custody, local reports said. A heavy contingent of the law enforcers conducted operation in some suspected areas of the district, following public complaint of surge in crimes, the Independent News Pakistan reported. Police said that the arrested miscreants, including drug peddlers and street criminals, have been shifted to a local police station for further probe. Identities of the criminals have not been revealed yet. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 20:56:13|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close ISTANBUL, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Three workers were killed and another injured on Wednesday when a concrete block fell 30 meters high and trapped them during the construction of a highway in Turkey's northwestern province of Kocaeli, local media reported. Initial press reports put the number of trapped workers at five, but the governor's office later said four workers were stuck underneath the rubble. The incident happened in the district of Gebze, where the workers were working on the construction of an elevated highway known as the North Marmara Highway, the broadcaster NTV said. The workers fell on the ground along with the concrete block following its sudden collapse, the broadcaster said. The authorities have launched an investigation into the incident, it added. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 20:56:14|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close NAIROBI, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Three years ago when he wanted to buy four 50MW solar security lamps, Albert Kyalo, a homeowner living in Kitengela, found the costs so exorbitant that he gave up. Last Friday, however, Kyalo was a happy man after buying two security lights at pocket-friendly prices that he never thought he would. "I had even given up on solar lighting but I passed by an electronic shop in the suburb, and saw one of the lights on display. When I inquired about the price, they were less than half of what I had been told three years ago," he recounted on Tuesday. Then, Kyalo had been asked to part with 20,000 shillings (196 U.S. dollars) for each of the lamps that come with a small solar panel. Last week, however, the home-owner bought the gadgets at an equivalent of 93 dollars each, less than half of what he had been asked to pay in 2016. "I bought the made-in-China lights, which come with a remote control, a sensor, an inbuilt battery and a small solar panel. I fitted them on my house at the weekend and would buy two more next month," he said. Kyalo is among an increasing number of Kenyans who are turning to affordable solar lights to cut power costs or deal with blackouts. And they have the perfect solar solutions in the products made in China, which are pocket-friendly, innovative and easy-to-install. The Chinese-made products are slowly taking over the Kenyan solar market, thanks to their affordability. From standalone solar panels, to torches, bulbs, radios, TVs and security lights, the products are readily available across the east African nation, including in market centers in villages. "I sell an 8MW solar floodlight at 48 dollars, a 50MW light from 93 dollars to 117 dollars and 100MW at 196 dollars. All these products are made in China and myself I source them directly from the manufacturer," said Calvin Nderitu, a dealer in Luthuli Avenue in Nairobi, on Tuesday. Since he sources directly from manufacturers, Nderitu said he offers his customers a one-year warranty and can replace lights or battery. "I give a one-year warranty, so in case the gadget has a problem during the period, you can return it back, I give you another one as I follow up with the manufacturer," said Nderitu. The businessman also sells indoor solar lighting solutions, ones that come with a battery, a torch, a small solar panel and three bulbs, at 34 dollars each. "One of the bulbs you put in the sitting room, the other in the bedroom and the other in the kitchen or children's room. You can see how the wires are longer to ensure that the lights can serve you better," Nderitu said as he sold this writer the gadget. In the building where his shop is located, there are three other shops that sell solar-power and electrical gadgets, mostly imported from China. Things are not any different on the other streets across the road and suburbs in Nairobi, where electrical gadget shops are thriving, thanks to Chinese imports. By buying the solar-powered security lights, Kyalo said, he was hoping to save up to 24.5 dollars in power bills a month. "The last two months I paid an electricity bill of 60 dollars, which was a sharp rise from the previous months. I followed up with the utility company and I was told it was the security lights. This is the reason I thought of the solar lamps after the three years only to find things are good," he said. Latest data from Kenya National Bureau of Statistics showed that electricity costs have risen in Kenya considerably, with families that were consuming 100KWh now parting with 24.5 dollars, up from 19.6 dollars, while those consuming 50KWh are now paying 9.8 dollars, up from 6.6 dollars. Besides homes, other facilities embracing solar to cut costs are hotels, office blocks, schools, churches and health centers. Ernest Manuyo, a business management lecturer at Pioneer Institute in Nairobi, noted that Kenya's location across the equator gives it a great opportunity to develop a vibrant solar energy sector, as prices of solar-power harvesting products decline. According to Manuyo, the use of solar energy, hindered in the past by costs, is now growing, with homes and hotels leading in its use for lighting, heating and drying. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 21:34:32|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close A farmer fertilizes flowers at a flower planting cooperatives in Gu'an County, north China's Hebei Province, Nov. 28, 2018. Gu'an County has encouraged local farmers to develop flower planting to promote economic development in recent years. (Xinhua/Men Congshuo) Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 21:46:28|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (L) meets with Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell in Madrid, Spain, Nov. 27, 2018. Wang is accompanying Chinese President Xi Jinping on a state visit to Spain. (Xinhua/Huang Jingwen) MADRID, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell here Tuesday, with both sides pledging to deepen bilateral cooperation. Wang is accompanying Chinese President Xi Jinping on a state visit to Spain. Xi arrived here Tuesday for the first visit by a Chinese head of state to the European country in 13 years. During the meeting, Wang said that the bilateral relations have grown steadily since China and Spain established diplomatic ties 45 years ago. President Xi's historic visit to Spain will inject strong impetus into the bilateral relations, Wang said. He said that China stands ready to work with the Spanish side to deepen cooperation on the Belt and Road Initiative and in various other areas, increase people-to-people and cultural exchanges, strengthen coordination and cooperation within the frameworks of the United Nations, the Group of 20 (G20) and the World Trade Organization, jointly safeguard multilateralism and free trade system, and promote the sound and steady development of the China-Europe relations. For his part, Borrell said that President Xi's visit is very important and will become a new starting point in the bilateral ties. China is Spain's most important cooperation partner in Asia, and the two countries have kept powerful political, economic and cultural links, he said. The Spanish government highly values the relationship with China, and is willing to participate in the Belt and Road Initiative, expand bilateral trade, and increase two-way investment, thus facilitating bilateral practical cooperation, he said. The Spanish side supports multilateralism and free trade, and stands ready to play a positive role in the European Union in developing the Europe-China relations, he added. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 22:01:32|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close DAMASCUS, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- The 11th round of the Syrian talks in Astana kicked off on Wednesday, focusing on forming a constitutional committee to discuss Syria's constitution and the situation of the demilitarized zone in Idlib Province in northern Syria. This around of talks has brought together Russia, Turkey and Iran, the guarantor states of the talks, as well as the UN Special Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura, and delegations from both the government and opposition, the al-Watan newspaper reported. Issues of the constitutional committee and the situation in Idlib are the hot topics in Syria's more than seven-year war. In Idlib, the continuing daily fights have made a mockery of the demilitarized zone deal reached by Turkey and Russia in September, despite its acknowledged contribution to less tension in the province and surrounding areas. According to the deal, the extremist groups, including those affiliated with the al-Qaida, should withdraw their arms and fighters from the designated zone. However, media reports said the remaining rebels there are still amassing forces and preparing for a possible wide-scale confrontation with the government forces. State news agency SANA said on Tuesday that the army had foiled several infiltration attempts by the rebels toward military positions in the northwestern countryside of Hama Province near Idlib. Meanwhile, the government accused rebels of using chlorine gas in the attack on the northern city of Aleppo on Saturday, which led to suffocation of 107 civilians. Damascus now aims for a possible confrontation with the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the umbrella group of the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, as this force, the strongest among rebel groups in Idlib, is spearheading the opposition to the demilitarized zone deal. Turkey is the power responsible for pushing the rebels to commit to the plan as it enjoys big clout among them. State-run al-Thawra newspaper said on Wednesday that the new round of talks in Astana puts Turkey and the rebels back in front of a new test to prove their seriousness in reaching a political solution after the rebels' violations. Observers in Damascus believe the guarantor states in the Astana talks are expected to discuss ways to enhance the demilitarized zone deal, which could mean a limited military operation against the rebels refusing to follow the deal. Forming a constitutional committee is another pressing issue, which Russia has been trying to pull off by the end of the year. In his remarks on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov voiced hope that a breakthrough could be made during the two-day Astana talks regarding the formation of the constitutional committee, which will be tasked with crafting a constitution for postwar Syria. The aim remains for the UN to issue invitations by mid-December and convene the first meeting of the constitutional committee before Dec. 31, de Mistura told the UN Security Council. The UN envoy was supposed to step down by the end of November. But he has decided to stay for another month and make a final push for the constitutional committee. As for the Syrian government, Damascus has made it clear that the constitution is a sovereign matter that should be discussed among Syrians without foreign interference amid speculations that the leaders in the Astana talks will work to reach a middle ground acceptable for all parties. HELSINKI, Finland, Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Voleo Inc. (Voleo, the Company), a mobile-first investment platform company and its executive team, have arrived in Helsinki, Finland for a four-day intensive Co-alignment Week to create and present a pilot proposal to OP Financial Group (OP) Finlands largest financial services group, seeking start-ups and scale-ups to partner with and create new and innovative wealth management solutions to its almost 5 million customers in Finland. Voleo was chosen out of 200 companies as one of the Top 10 Wealthtech candidates to present its platform for the opportunity to partner with OP Financial Groups innovation unit OP Lab. Successful candidates will be invited to join the OP Partnership Program, that includes a three-month long Co-creation Phase where each start-up will receive grants for developing a minimum viable product and co-create with OP to ultimately launch a product together on the Finnish market. During Co-alignment Week, each of the selected companies will participate in advisor meetings, pilot workshops, and networking events with representatives from OP and its program partners Accenture LLP, CGI Group Inc., and Siili Solutions Plc. Voleo believes in the power of collaboration and the advantages that group decision making brings to investment decisions. To take its solution international, the Company has developed a new concept for teams and social groups that come together to share ideas while controlling their own investment accounts, and will be presenting this for the first time to a panel of experts this week. About OP Financial Group and the OP Partnership Program For over 110 years, OP Financial Group has been building Finnish society to enhance national prosperity. As Finlands largest financial services group, OP transforms the traditional finance services provider to a customer-centric services provider with financial services at the core. OP Financial Group Financial has three business segments: banking, non-life insurance and wealth management. The OP Partnership Program is a four-month intensive period for collaboration and three Co-creation Phases with pilot workshops, advisor meetings and networking. For start-ups and scaleups, the OP Partnership Program is a great pathway to the Finnish/Nordic market with a forward-looking partner that has extensive experience. About Voleo Inc. Voleo is a Canadian mobile-focused fintech application company on a mission to make investing social through enhancing connectivity, transparency, convenience, and collaboration among investors. Voleo's equity trading platform operates on mobile applications available on iOS and Android smartphone devices plus companion web app. Voleo has increased retail investor participation in the stock market by breaking down barriers to entry, facilitating trust and improving financial literacy. For more information on Voleo, please visit our website at https://ir.myvoleo.com . ON BEHALF OF THE VOLEO BOARD Thomas Beattie Chief Executive Officer Voleo Inc. is part of the King & Bay group of companies. King & Bay is a merchant bank that specializes in identifying, funding, developing and supporting growth opportunities in the technology, resource, aviation, and sectors. For further information regarding this press release, please contact: Voleo Inc. Thomas Beattie, Chief Executive Officer T: +16047806136 E: thomas@myvoleo.com https://ir.myvoleo.com Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information Certain statements contained in this release constitute forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively referred to herein as "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Such forward-looking statements relate to future events or Voleo Incs (the Company) future performance and the integration of cryptocurrency trading. All statements other than statements of historical fact may be forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "budget", "plan", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "forecast", "may", "will", "project", "predict", "potential", "targeting", "intend", "could", "might", "should", "believe" and similar expressions. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. Voleo believes the expectations reflected in those forward-looking statements are reasonable but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such forward-looking statements included in this release should not be unduly relied upon. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this release, or as of the date specified in the documents incorporated by reference into this release, as the case may be. In particular, this release contains forward-looking statements pertaining, but not limited to: expectations as to future operations of the Company, future market trends, growth opportunities, the Companys go to market strategy, the expected operations and performance of the Companys business, impact of governmental regulation, anticipated revenues, expected user growth, expected operating costs, general administrative costs, costs of services and other costs and expenses, and the timing of key development milestones. With respect to forward-looking statements contained in this release, the Company has made assumptions regarding, among other thing: the accuracy, reliability and applicability of the Companys business model; the timely receipt of governmental approvals, including the receipt of approval from regulators in Canada and the United States; the timely commencement of operations by the Company and the success of such operations; the ability of the Company to implement its business plan as intended; the legislative and regulatory environments of the jurisdictions where the Company will carry on business or have operations; the impact of competition; and the availability of financing to execute the business plan. The Company has included the above summary of assumptions and risks related to forward-looking statements provided in this release in order to provide investors with a more complete perspective on the Companys current and future operations and such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing lists of factors are not exhaustive and it would be unreasonable to rely on any such forward-looking statements and information as creating any legal rights, that the statements and information are not guarantees and may involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, and that actual results may differ (and may differ materially) and objectives and strategies may differ or change from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements or information as a result of various factors. The forward-looking statements contained in this release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company is not under any duty and do not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements after the date of this release or to conform such statements to actual results or to changes in the Companys expectations and the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 22:26:39|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close BUENOS AIRES, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Argentina will help strengthen the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries, said Chinese Ambassador to Argentina Yang Wanming. Xi will pay a state visit to Argentina and attend the 13th Group of 20 (G20) summit in Buenos Aires during his Europe and Latin America trip from Nov. 27 to Dec. 5, which also takes him to Spain, Panama and Portugal. The visit is a big event in the development of the China-Argentina and China-Latin America relations, which will also have a great impact on global economic governance, Yang said. He said that in recent years, China's relations with Argentina and Latin America have witnessed a rapid development and yielded fruitful results in bilateral and multilateral cooperation in various fields. The China-Latin America and China-Argentina friendships hold a special place in the hearts of the peoples of the countries concerned, Yang added. Argentina is a major Latin American country and an important emerging market. Since the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries 46 years ago, bilateral relations have developed rapidly, Yang said. This will be Xi's first visit to Latin America after the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in October 2017 and his second state visit to Argentina, Yang said. According to the ambassador, Xi will hold talks with his Argentine counterpart Mauricio Macri, make new strategic plans for the development of bilateral relations, promote pragmatic cooperation and exchange views on international and regional issues of common concern. The two sides will also explore how to further strengthen cooperation within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative and jointly promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, Yang said. Yang also said that during Xi's visit, the two sides will issue a joint statement and sign a joint action plan between the two governments, as well as a number of cooperation agreements in such fields as economy, trade, finance and public security. It is believed that Xi's visit will provide a new direction for the two countries to strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields in the future, which will surely become a new milestone in the development of bilateral relations, said Yang. When talking about the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Yang said that the G20 is a major forum on international economic cooperation. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the G20 summit mechanism, which is of great significance for the Buenos Aires summit to be held in this context, he said. China attaches great importance to the G20 mechanism and firmly supports Argentina in hosting the summit, Yang said. A crowd of Central American migrants, mostly from Honduras, stretch their hands to get food offered by volunteers outside a shelter in Tijuana, Baja California State, Mexico, near the U.S.-Mexico border fence on Nov. 24, 2018. (Xinhua/AFP) WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Trump administration said Tuesday that it would appeal a federal judge's order halting a presidential proclamation that prevents certain immigrants from seeking asylum. The U.S. Department of Justice filed a notice Tuesday that indicated it will appeal the order to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. It also asked the judge to stay his order pending the appeal. Earlier this month, Judge Jon Tigar of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California sided with opponents of President Donald Trump's measure prohibiting immigrants who cross the southern border illegally from claiming asylum. In response, Trump lashed out at the 9th Circuit as biased and dismissed Tigar, an appointee of Trump's predecessor, as an "Obama judge," prompting a rebuke from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who said the federal judiciary doesn't have "Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges." The U.S. Supreme Court may end up deciding the asylum case. Trump issued the proclamation earlier this month to address caravans of Central American migrants approaching the U.S.-Mexico border, which he's claimed are a national security threat, stating that only people who enter the country at official checkpoints can apply for asylum. The Central Americans, many claiming they were fleeing from persecution, poverty and violence in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, were making their way towards the U.S. border. Several thousands of migrants, including women and children, have arrived in Mexican border city of Tijuana. The situation has been tense along the border, where U.S. border officials fired tear gas on hundreds of migrants who sought to enter the United States near the southern border with Mexico on Sunday. The chaos started as a peaceful demonstration to appeal for the U.S. authorities to speed processing for those already in Tijuana. Trump and the White House have defended the use of tear gas but the action has drawn sharp criticism. According to U.S. laws, asylum is intended for those fleeing their countries of origin because they have suffered persecution or fear that they will be persecuted if they are forced to go back. It is a federal crime to cross the U.S.-Mexico border between ports of entry, but that does not typically preclude one from requesting asylum. Tigar said 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." Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 22:41:46|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close KIEV, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed the legislation on imposing the martial law in border regions over tensions with Russia around the Kerch Strait, the presidential press service said on Wednesday. The martial law starts at 9 a.m. local time (0700 GMT) Wednesday and will be effective for thirty days till Dec. 26. According to local media, the martial law stipulates partial mobilization of troops, curfew, a ban on demonstrations, restrictions on freedom of movement, control over the media activities, and seizure of property for the needs of the Defense Ministry among other measures. The legislation, which was approved by the parliament on Monday, said the special regime will be imposed in ten regions bordering Russia and 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. Poroshenko emphasized that "martial law does not mean the declaration of war," but a step towards strengthening Ukraine's defense. On Sunday, the Ukrainian Navy said that Russian forces opened fire and seized three Ukrainian ships near the Kerch Strait that 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 for them to retreat. 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. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 22:46:49|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close CAPE TOWN, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- South Africa views the upcoming G20 Summit as an opportunity to advance global governance reforms and reorient the international developmental agenda, the Presidency said on Wednesday. South Africa also takes the summit as a platform from which to promote and strengthen interests of the African continent and of the South, the Presidency said before President Cyril Ramaphosa leaves for Buenos Aires, Argentina to take part in the summit that will take place between November 30 and December 1. In the course of this working visit, Ramaphosa will hold bilateral meetings with various heads of states to strengthen and deepen relations with partner countries, presidential spokesperson Khusela Diko said. The president will present South Africa as an attractive investment destination and trade partner, said Diko. Argentina assumed the G20 Presidency in November 2017, with a focus throughout this year-long term on "building consensus for fair and sustainable development." This theme resonates well with Ramaphosa's emphasis on the importance of consensus and collaboration in South Africa's efforts to build an inclusive and sustainable economy and advance social cohesion, Diko said. The G20 was formed in 1999 with the aim of bringing stability to the global financial system, promoting long-term sustainable growth and strengthening global financial governance. However, it has since expanded its agenda beyond economic and financial issues to encompass geopolitical matters and issues of peace and security, global governance, environment and international terrorism. The G20, which consists of the leading developed and developing economies, accounts for 85 percent of global economic output, 75 percent of international trade and 66 percent of the world's population. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 22:56:52|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close COLOMBO, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- A Sri Lankan court on Wednesday ordered the detention of one of the country's highest military officers in a probe into the abduction and disappearance of 11 youth during the country's civil war against Tamil Tiger rebels, local media reported. The Fort Magistrate's Court ordered the detention of Chief of Defense Staff Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne until Dec. 5 after he surrendered to the court earlier in the day. Wijegunaratne has been accused of giving refuge to a former navy Lieutenant Commander who is believed to be the main suspect in the abduction of the 11 youth from 2008 to 2009 at the final stages of the country's civil conflict between the government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels. Police believe the 11 victims were murdered while in the illegal custody of the navy. Their bodies were never found. The former navy Lieutenant commander who is the main suspect was arrested in August. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 23:01:54|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close Berlin, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- German Interior minister Horst Seehofer on Wednesday urged the Islamic religious community in the country to begin cutting its ties with foreign donors. Speaking at the opening of the German Islam Conference (DIK) in Berlin, Seehofer said that local mosques should become more independent in their organization and funding, as well as the training of preachers. While no detailed information was provided as to how to accomplish such a shift to greater autonomy, he announced that existing government assistance for the integration project of mosques would be expanded. "Muslim naturally have the same rights and obligations as everybody else here in Germany," he said. Earlier this year, the federal government cut public funding for the Turkish Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB) by 80 percent due to concerns over its close affiliation with Turkish president and inadequate transparency in the use of money from German taxpayers. The DIK conference was previously mainly used by the federal government as a forum for dialogue with a small number of large Islamic associations which represent Muslims in Germany. In 2018, by contrast, the interior minister has also invited a range of theologists, activists and scientists whose views are known to clash with those of the largely conservative associations in some regards. "The line-up is more colorful this time, I like that," Seyran Ates, founder of the liberal Ibn-Rushd-Goethe mosque in Berlin, commented on the change. Nevertheless, the Green party questioned on Wednesday whether Seehofer was the right person to reform the DIK. "It must be feared that a lot of debating time will be required just to smoothen out the atmospheric disturbances," Greens parliamentary faction leader Katrin Goering-Eckardt told the German press agency (DPA) with a view to controversial comments made earlier by the interior minister about the Islamic religion. Speaking to the newspaper BILD, Seehofer back in March argued that "Islam is not a part of Germany." He added at the time that Muslims living in the country "obviously do belong to Germany", however, this could not mean that Germans would have to sacrifice their "typical national traditions and mores" out of a "false sense of tolerance." The comments sparked a heated debate and were rejected by the Green party amongst others. Nevertheless, Goering-Eckardt seemed to side with Seehofer on in his attempt to limit the dependence of German mosques on foreign donors by supporting a tougher line against the Turkish DITIB association. The Greens leader criticized DITIB as an association which did not accept the "fundamental constitutional principles" of German society. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 23:11:56|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close MOSCOW, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that the Kerch Strait incident was a provocative attempt by Ukraine and its president to escalate tensions with Moscow to add pressure on his political rivals. "As for the incident in the Black Sea, it was a provocation organized by the incumbent authorities and, I think, by the incumbent president, ahead of the presidential elections in Ukraine next March," Putin told an annual investment forum. On Sunday, three Ukrainian naval ships attempting to sail through the Kerch Strait from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov were attacked and seized by Russian forces, which claimed that the ships violated the Russian border. The Ukrainian Navy said that it had informed Russia in advance of the passage of its vessels through the strait, while Russia said it had received no such report and the ships ignored multiple warnings by the Russian border guards. The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) confirmed on Monday that Ukrainian Navy's "provocative" actions were devised by Kiev and coordinated by two officers of the Security Service of Ukraine. Putin accused Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko of making noises in the region to boost his declining popularity ratings before an election next year. "It has nothing to do with attempts to settle the relations between Russia and Ukraine. It is a game of aggravation. It is an unscrupulous game inside the country with the aim to crush political opponents," Putin said. Following the conflict, the Ukrainian parliament on Monday supported a bill imposing a martial law in certain regions bordering Russia for 30 days. Putin said it was unreasonable for Kiev to introduce martial law over a "minor border incident" in the Black Sea, considering that no martial law was imposed even when the Ukrainian civil war broke out in 2014. 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 and the strait. Moscow rejected 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, which was rejected by Kiev and Western countries. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 23:16:57|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close ISTANBUL, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Turkish police on Wednesday captured at least 40 people in the western province of Izmir over their alleged links to a group accused of orchestrating a coup bid in 2016, local media reported. The Chief Public Prosecutor's Office in Izmir ordered the detention of 71 suspects, including former soldiers, former military students, teachers and imams of the network led by U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, according to the private Ihlas news agency. The operations are continuing throughout the city of Izmir to catch the remaining suspects, said the report. Earlier in the day, prosecutors in Istanbul ordered the detention of 33 military personnel in 19 provinces over suspected links to the Gulen movement. The Turkish government blames Gulen and his network for being behind the failed coup in July 2016, in which 250 people were killed. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 23:22:00|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close GENEVA, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Wednesday called for a political settlement in Afghanistan as his Swiss counterpart Ignazio Cassis offered Switzerland to play a peace-broking role between warring factions. In a speech made at the Ministerial Conference on Afghanistan in Geneva, Lavrov said, "We are still deeply concerned by the deterioration of the military and political situation in the country. We believe that the Afghan crisis can be settled only by political means." He said, "A broad intra-Afghan dialogue with the participation of the government, the Taliban movement, and the whole spectrum of political and social forces is needed." Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said in a speech his government has formed a negotiating team to work on a peace agreement with the Taliban. "We seek a peace agreement in which the Afghan Taliban would be included in a democratic and inclusive society," Ghani told the conference. Cassis also spoke on the second day of the Geneva conference on Afghanistan to assess progress since a pledging conference was held in Brussels in 2016 and to measure results against the 15.2 billion U.S. dollars committed by the international community for Afghanistan in 2016. "After 17 years of war that produced only losers, the time has come for dialogue. The time has come for a political solution. Switzerland is ready to host any round of talks if requested," said Cassis. Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed and wounded in Afghanistan since the war started in 2001 in a conflict involving Afghanistan government forces and the Taliban. Cassis also pointed out that more than two and a half million people have been forced to flee the country. "What people in Afghanistan need most of all today is peace," said Cassis. Relentless, high-casualty attacks in Afghanistan are beating down Afghans' morale, the President of the the International Committee of the Red Cross, Peter Maurer said. "If peace and prosperity are to make the jump from a Geneva conference room rallying cry to real life in Afghanistan, there must be a real commitment on all sides to not attack civilians, including health workers," said Maurer. He said civilian casualties in this country have risen for eight years in a row, with violence in 2018 killing a record number of ordinary citizens - 1,692 - in the first six months. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 23:22:00|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close SINGAPORE,Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Singapore Media Festival (SMF) 2018 kicked off here Wednesday with the Southeast Asian premiere of the 29th Singapore International Film Festival's opening film Cities of Last Things. The festival is comprised of five events, namely the Asia TV Forum and Market, ScreenSingapore, the Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF), SMF Ignite and the newly-created Asian Academy Creative Awards. Hosted by Singapore's Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), SMF brings together talents from the global film, television and digital media industries to celebrate the best of Asian storytelling and provide a valuable platform for Asian talents from the region to network and collaborate. Robert Gilby, chairman of the SMF Advisory Board, said "With Singapore's vibrant and robust infocomm and media ecosystem, the Singapore Media Festival is well-positioned to nurture, elevate and celebrate Asian storytelling. The Festival offers the region a proven platform to connect with like-minded industry players, discover rising talents and harness new opportunities." Following the introduction of the Country-of-Focus program last year which highlights one country's rich stories, talents and achievements, SGIFF chooses the Philippines as its Country-of-Focus this year, by presenting a selection of films from the country over the next 11 days. Industry insiders will also discuss the country's filming industry development. In order to cultivate young talents, IMDA's Singapore Film Commission, in cooperation with the Singapore International Film Festival, will be co-hosting the ASEAN-ROK Film Leaders Incubator (FLY) 2018 for the first time, where aspiring ASEAN and South Korean filmmakers will be provided with co-production and collaboration opportunities under the mentorship of famed Asian filmmakers. SMF Ignite, which is scheduled for Dec. 5 with the theme of "The Convergence of Big Data, AI and Storytelling," will explore how data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning could aid storytelling. SMF runs into its fifth edition this year and will last until Dec. 9. English Lithuanian Siauliu Bankas AB, company code 112025254, address Tilzes st. 149, LT-76348 Siauliai. On 27 November 2018, Siauliu Bankas AB received a notification from the Bank of Lithuania stating that the Board of the Bank of Lithuania decided to recognize Siauliu Bankas AB as a systematically important institution and set out 1.0% capital buffer of other systematically important institutions. The buffer will come into force from 31 December 2020. Until this date Siauliu bankas AB will keep applying a previously determined buffer of 0.5%. Buffer is calculated from total risk-weighted exposures at the highest level of national consolidation of other systemically important institutions. Deputy Chief Executive Officer Donatas Savickas provides the additional information and is available on tel. +370 41 595602. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 23:37:05|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close TEHRAN, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Iran and the European Union (EU) have renewed their resolve to keep the Iranian 2015 nuclear deal alive despite the unilateral U.S. withdrawal from the international accord in May, Press TV reported on Wednesday. The EU's Foreign Policy Chief, Federica Mogherini, met the Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Ali Akbar Salehi, in Brussels on Tuesday. During their meeting on the sidelines of the third EU-Iran High-level Seminar on International Nuclear Cooperation, Mogherini and Salehi re-affirmed their commitment to the full and effective implementation of the nuclear deal and took stock of the latest developments in this regard, the report said. "They also equally expressed their determination to preserve the nuclear agreement as a matter of respecting international agreements and a key pillar for the European and regional security," according to Press TV. Besides, Mogherini pointed to the continued cooperation between Brussels and Tehran concerning civil nuclear activities. On Tuesday, Salehi criticized EU for what he called "no tangible results yet" from the EU's economic promises to preserve Iran's interests under the deal. A clearing house, known as Special Purpose Vehicle, which designed to allow European companies to bypass the U.S. sanctions, is due to be set up by the EU within the next few months, according to the western media. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 23:42:06|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close MOSCOW, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday called on the United States to stop imposing unilateral sanctions and seek common ground with its partners. "It seems to me that we need to achieve a positive result for ourselves, not trying to harm the partners, but trying to find joint areas of activity in order to work together more effectively," Putin said at the Russia Calling investment forum. When the Russian president was asked to comment on a possible advice Russia could offer to the United States, he said that "everyone will only lose" from unilateral and politically motivated measures and his advice is "to abandon this policy and to seek common ground." The relations between Russia and the United States have been on the rocks because the two countries do not see eye to eye on a slew of international affairs such as the Iran nuclear issue, Crimea as well as the suspicious poisoning of a retired Russia spy. The ongoing confrontation between Russia and Ukraine near the Kerch Strait that separates the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov has made the situation worse. While Putin said he would advice his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump to stop unilateral actions during their planned meeting in Argentina on the sidelines of the G20 summit this week, Trump threatened Tuesday that he would consider cancelling the meeting because of Russia's use of military force in the Kerch Strait. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 23:42:07|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close GUANGZHOU, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- China Southern Airlines and American Airlines have signed agreements to further expand the codeshare and other major business cooperations, announced China Southern Airlines Wednesday. The expanding code sharing and other cooperation such as the launch of reciprocal frequent flyer benefits marked a major step of both airlines in extending the China-U.S. air route network, said China Southern Airlines. "Through sharing resources, our cooperation is market- and passenger-oriented and based on a win-win relationship," said Zhang Lin, assistant president of China Southern Air Holding Company Limited. According to the agreement, the codeshare cooperation will cover both airlines' all trunk air routes among China and the United States. During peak seasons, it is expected that both airlines will provide around 64 sharecode flights on trunk air routes per week. The expanded codeshare is expected to be launched in early 2019. "We are very pleased with the progress we have made so far in our newly formed relationship with the largest airline in Asia," said Robert Isom, president of American Airlines. "With the opening of Beijing Daxing International Airport in 2019 and the ability to cooperate fully with China Southern Airlines, we are incredibly excited about the airline's future in the Chinese market," he added. The two airlines will also launch reciprocal frequent flyer benefits and lounge access next year. The Guangzhou-based China Southern Airlines is the country's largest carrier with a fleet of more than 800 aircraft, ranking first in Asia and third worldwide. It operates more than 3,000 daily flights to 224 destinations around the world. The Fort Worth-headquartered American Airlines is a major airline of the United States. It is a founding member of the Oneworld alliance, whose members serve more than 1,000 destinations with about 14,250 daily flights around the world. China is the major impetus of the global civil aviation market. It is forecast to become the world's largest aviation market by the mid-2020s, said the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in its latest market forecast. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 23:47:09|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close BEIRUT, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon's Parliament Speaker, Nabih Berri, said on Wednesday the country cannot go on anymore without a government, the National News Agency reported. "We should accelerate the formation of a cabinet in a bid to address all economic and social issues," he said in a weekly meeting with lawmakers in Ain El-Tineh. "The country can no longer tolerate this situation, and everyone must shoulder their responsibilities and work for the formation of a national unity government," he added. Berri emphasized the need to tackle economic challenges in the country which remain a top concern due to their heavy repercussions on the financial, social and living conditions. Lebanon has been struggling to form a government since Saad Hariri was designated Prime Minister in May. The formation of government has been facing various hurdles, mainly the differences among parties over the representations in the new government. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 23:47:11|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close PHNOM PENH, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Lkhon Khol, a Cambodian masked dance-theater, was inscribed on the UNESCO's prestigious list of intangible cultural heritage in need of urgent safeguarding on Wednesday, said a statement from Cambodia's Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts. The inscription was made during the 13th session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in Port Louis, Mauritius, the statement said. "The decision of the UNESCO-Intergovernmental Committee is a new national pride that was born of the government's efforts under the wise leadership of Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen, who always gives high priority to the nation's cultural heritage," it said. Hun Sen also posted a message on his official Facebook page, expressing his congratulation for the listing. Cambodia filed its document to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for the registration of Lkhon Khol Wat Svay Andet, better known as Lkhon Khon, in March 2017. Lkhon Khol Wat Svay Andet is practised in one community surrounding a Buddhist monastery, Wat Svay Andet, located about 10 km east of Phnom Penh on the Mekong River, and is performed by men wearing masks to the accompaniment of a traditional orchestra and melodious recitation, according to the document. The specific aim is to propitiate the Neak Ta (guardian spirits of a place and its people), thereby protecting and bringing prosperity to the community, its lands and harvest, it said. The document added that when Lkhon Khol is performed, spirit mediums are present and facilitate interactions between the Neak Ta, performers and villagers. When the spirits are satisfied with the performance, villagers are blessed by them; otherwise, the dancers stop, the music continues, and the audience falls silent and carefully listens to the spirits, it said. Lkhon Khol is performed for ritual purposes, mostly linked to the cycle of rice farming and the needs of farming communities, the document said, adding that the practice is transmitted orally within the community. To date, the Southeast Asian nation has three tangible cultural properties and five intangible cultural heritages listed on the UNESCO's world heritage list. The listed tangible cultural properties include the Angkor Archeological Park, Preah Vihear Temple, and Sambor Prei Kuk Archeological Site, while the listed intangible cultural heritages are the Royal Ballet, Sbek Thom or Khmer Shadow Puppetry, tug-of-war game, Chapei Dang Veng, a long-necked, two-stringed lute, and Lkhon Khol. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 23:52:12|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close MADRID, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- The number of people making international trips during the first nine months of 2018 rose by five percent year-on-year, according to figures published by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) on Wednesday. In a press statement, the UNWTO explained that the figures are "in line with its growth forecast of 4 to 5 percent for the year." It calculated that January to September saw a total of 1,083 million international travelers, which is 56 million more compared with the same period of 2017. The organization said that every region in the world enjoyed "robust growth" in international tourist numbers, with "Asia and the Pacific" leading -- with a 7 percent rise in the number of international travelers compared with 2017. Asia's impressive performance was followed by Europe and the Middle East (6 percent), Africa (5 percent) and the Americas, 3 percent growth. As well as greater numbers of international tourists, spending also increased significantly during the first nine months of the year, with China seeing a 21 percent improvement in tourism earnings, it said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 23:57:13|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close KAMPALA, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Uganda military on Wednesday said talks between Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) over joint military operations against the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) scheduled for this weekend have been postponed to allow for more consultations. Brig. Richard Karemire, Uganda's military spokesperson, told Xinhua in a telephone interview that the planned Saturday bilateral meeting between authorities in Kampala and Kinshasa on conducting joint operations against the ADF who recently killed UN peacekeepers and DRC soldiers have been postponed. "The meeting is still being planned. It has been rescheduled to another date to be announced soon," said Karemire. ADF is a Ugandan rebel group hiding in eastern DRC where it is causing mayhem. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-28 23:57:14|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close MINSK, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Belarusian army plans to put into service another Russia's set of Tor-M2 air defense missile systems by the end of the year, the Belarusian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday. Russia's arms manufacturer Almaz-Antey has already conducted an inspection of the complexes. The ministry said it will be the fifth Tor-M2 battery. Each battery consists of four complexes. Tor-M2 is an all-weather missile system designed by Almaz-Antey. It provides air and missile defense at a range of up to 15 km and an altitude of 10 km. It was adopted by the Ground Forces' air defense of Belarus in 2015. A four-battery set protects the airspace of Belarus. It also provides physical protection for the nuclear power plant. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 00:02:15|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close KIEV, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed the situation in the Sea of Azov during a phone conversation, Poroshenko's press service said on Wednesday. During the talks, Poroshenko informed Erdogan about the tensions between Ukraine and Russia in the Sea of Azov and the introduction of martial law in Ukraine. The Ukrainian president also asked for the Turkish leader's assistance in releasing Ukrainian sailors and ships captured by Russia during the standoff. Erdogan condemned the escalation of the tensions in the region and said that the Turkish side would raise the issue at the G20 summit, which will be held from Nov. 30 to Dec.1 in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. Tensions have been rising after Russian border guards on Sunday opened fire and seized three Ukrainian naval ships near the Kerch Strait connecting the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, injuring several Ukrainian sailors. Russia's Federal Security Service said that the Ukrainian ships breached the Russian border and conducted dangerous maneuvers despite orders from the Russian side. Poroshenko has signed a decree to impose martial law on 10 Ukrainian regions till Dec. 26. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 00:02:18|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close Wang Yang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), attends the opening meeting of the fourth session of the Standing Committee of the 13th CPPCC National Committee in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 28, 2018. (Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan) BEIJING, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Members of the Standing Committee of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) convened in Beijing Wednesday to study the instructions of Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, on improving the work of the CPPCC. Wang Yang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the CPPCC National Committee, attended the opening session of the two-day meeting. The meeting, which was the fourth of the Standing Committee of the 13th CPPCC National Committee, was the CPPCC National Committee's first to center on improving its own construction in the new century and was an important approach to thoroughly study and implement Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and the spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress, said the attendees. The country's political advisors should focus their thinking and action on the spirit of Xi's instructions and concentrate on their missions in order to further improve the work of the CPPCC and greet the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the CPPCC with great spirit and solid conduct in work, according to the meeting. The meeting also heard explanations about a revised draft of the general rules of the special committees of the CPPCC National Committee, a revised draft of a guideline on the CPPCC National Committee's proposals, and drafts on personnel issues. Enditem 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(R) gives unlimited access to the largest Art Market resource in the world: a library of 126 million images or prints of artworks from the year 1700 to the present day, along with comments by Artprice's art historians. 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 Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 00:07:19|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close BAGHDAD, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi authorities continued removing concrete walls surrounding Baghdad's Green Zone on Wednesday for a partial reopening of the heavily fortified enclave as a sign of returning normality. Chief of Staff of Baghdad Operations Command (BOC), Hamid al-Lami, told Xinhua that BOC "has begun removing concrete blocks for five days surrounding part of the Green Zone, also known as International Zone, in accordance with directives by Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi. "Until today, we have lifted 200 concrete blocks, and we will continue the work until we remove the 1,700 concrete blocks within the area under our responsibility," Lami told Xinhua at the scene. Another week will be needed to finish removing the blocks in his area, he said. The specific date for the partial reopening of the zone, which had been blocked since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, will be decided by the prime minister. Deputy Commander of BOC, Mohammed Sabri, told Xinhua that BOC is also "redeploying its forces and taking appropriate security measures to protect the main part of the Green Zone from any possible violation." Earlier, Mahdi confirmed that he is determined to open the zone after the completion of all security and administrative procedures to ensure appropriate protection for the zone and the diplomatic missions inside. The heavily fortified Green Zone is housing the main offices of the Iraqi government and many foreign embassies, including the one of the United States. The roughly 10-square-km zone is located on the west bank of the Tigris River, which bisects the Iraqi capital. The Green Zone has been frequently targeted by insurgents' mortar and rocket attacks. However, the security situation in Baghdad has been dramatically improved after Iraqi security forces fully defeated the extremist IS militants across the country late in 2017. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 00:07:20|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close MOGADISHU, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Six al-Shabab militants were killed and several others injured in separate incidents in Hiraan region of central Somalia during a fighting between Somali National Army (SNA) and the militants, officials said Wednesday. Abdirahim Takow, Deputy Governor of Hiraan region for security affairs told reporters that four of the militants were killed early Wednesday while two others died in a blast of landmine which they were planting at the airport in Bula-burte town in the region. "Six al-Shabab militants were killed in two separate incidents here in Hiraan region. SNA soldiers killed four al-Shabab militants at an area about 80km to Beletweyne town and the two others died in a landmine blast overnight at the airport of Bula-burte town in the same region," said Takow. He added that an African Union soldier from Djiboutian contingent was killed in the bomb blast inside the airport on Tuesday. The militants claimed responsibility of the killing of the AU soldier and wounding another one from the Djiboutian contingent on Tuesday, but it did not comment on Wednesday's clashes with SNA forces. The terrorist group has stepped up its attacks in the central region of Somalia after being flushed out from the capital Mogadishu. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 00:12:22|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close KIGALI, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Rwandan trade minister on Wednesday urged Rwandan producers to ensure quality of products to sustain the Made-in-Rwanda campaign, as this year's Made-in-Rwanda Exhibition kicked off. The 4th edition of the exhibition running from Nov. 28 to Dec.4 is held in Rwandan capital city Kigali, which attracts about 450 exhibitors from various sectors including ICT, Agro-business, textile industries, construction and manufacturing. It is co-organized by the Private Sector Federation of Rwanda and Rwandan Ministry of Trade and Industry to promote locally made products so as to uplift local industries. Exhibitors were given stands for free this year in an attempt to encourage more local producers to showcase their products and services. Soraya Hakuziyaremye, Minister of Trade and Industry, on the exhibition called on Rwandans to embrace consumption of locally made products. She also urged producers to ensure value addition to products and produce quality products that can compete on local and global markets. The Made-in-Rwanda policy is designed to help boost local industrial contribution to the economic growth while promoting the brand of locally made products at the global stage, which will reduce the country's burden of relying on imports. Since 2015 when Made-in-Rwanda campaign was launched, Rwanda's total export receipts increased from 559 million U.S. dollars in 2015 to 944 million dollars in 2017, while total imports decreased by 4 percent from 1.85 billion dollars in 2015 to 1.77 billion dollars in 2017, according to the minister. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 00:12:22|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close WAJIR, Kenya, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Somali militant group, al-Shabab on Wednesday released two Kenyans whom they had kidnapped last week from a village in Wajir County in the northeast region. Mohamed Birik, Northeastern regional commissioner confirmed the release of the two camel herders following successful negotiations between two clans in Somalia. The two were abducted on Nov. 22. Birik said the herders arrived safely in Khorof Kharar, noting that the government has stepped up security in border towns to avert cross-border incursions by al-Shabab militants. "We have deployed more security personnel on the border areas to prevent a similar incident. Patrols have been enhanced at large," said the government administrator. Residents said the herders were abducted after they resisted to pay zakat (Islamic tax or offering) to the militant group that had come to Konton town in the area. According to the residents, the militants had been roaming in the area for at least two days before kidnapping the herders and crossing with them into Somalia. The unknown number of militants, who accused the herders of grazing animals at the Somali border, also took away six camels belonging to the herders. According to local officials, the incident prompted elders from Degodia-Fai that reside in Wajir to visit the Marehan elders in Somalia to negotiate for the release of the two who were abducted along the Kenyan border while grazing their animals. The elders managed to secure the release of the victims after five days of negotiations but did no secure the release of their camels. Birik called on the residents to be vigilant and always share information with security agencies to help flush out the al-Qaeda allied terrorist group. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 00:17:24|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close SANAA, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian satellite provider Nilesat on Wednesday stopped Yemen's Houthi rebel channel al-Masirah TV from the satellite stream, Houthi spokesman said in a statement. "The Nilesat company suspended al-Masirah transmission on Wednesday morning," said Mohammed Abdulsalam, the chairman of al-Masirah network board and the head of Houthi representatives to the upcoming UN-brokered peace talks in Sweden. "The removal of al-Masirah TV from the satellite stream was a result of Saudi-U.S.-France pressures on Nilesat," he said. "The move proves the channel's effective role in revealing the U.S.-backed Saudi-led coalition's war crimes against the Yemeni people," he was quoted as saying by Houthi-controlled Saba news agency. The channel is the main Arabic-language mouthpiece of the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. Its main offices are located in Yemen's capital Sanaa and Lebanon's capital Beirut. There was no comment yet from Nilesat. Saudi Arabia is leading an Arab military coalition that intervened in Yemen in 2015 to support the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after the Houthi rebels forced him into exile and seized much of the country's north, including the capital Sanaa. The four-year-long war has killed more than 10,000 people, mostly civilians, displaced 3 million others and pushed the country to the brink of famine. The UN Special Envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, left Sanaa on Saturday after a visit, during which the rebels pledged to attend the upcoming peace talks in Sweden. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 00:22:25|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close The introduction video of China's Lum medicinal bathing of Sowa Rigpa is being shown to delegates at the 13th session of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in Port Louis, Mauritius, Nov. 28, 2018. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) inscribed on Wednesday China's Lum medicinal bathing of Sowa Rigpa on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. (Xinhua/Brahms) LHASA, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Padma Yangdron, director of the Tibetan Medicine Hospital of Tibet Autonomous Region, is thrilled that Tibetan medicinal bathing is now a UNESCO intangible cultural heritage. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) inscribed on Wednesday China's Lum medicinal bathing of Sowa Rigpa on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, at a convention held in Port Louis, capital of the Republic of Mauritius. "The successful inscription of Sowa Rigpa allows more people in the world to be aware of Tibetan medicine, accept it and hopefully benefit from it," Padma Yangdron said. In Tibetan, "Lum" indicates the traditional knowledge and practices of bathing in natural hot springs, herbal water or steam to adjust the balance of mind and body, to ensure health and treat illnesses. Sowa Rigpa, the Tibetan name of the medicinal practice, literally meaning the knowledge of recuperating, was originated on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau with an average altitude of 4,000 meters above the sea level. The traditional Tibetan medicine prescriptions of treating illness with herbs and minerals date back 2,500 years. In ancient times, Tibetan practitioners (known as Manpa in Tibet) collected animals, plants and ore to use as ingredients to cure diseases. Tibet's traditional Karma Dulpa Festival (bathing festival), which takes place in the seventh or eighth month of the Tibetan calendar, is a week-long event highlighting the traditional culture including the medicinal practice as well as Thangka painting, carving and epic poetry chanting. Most places in Tibet are high and cold year round. As a result, rheumatic diseases are very common among local farmers and herders. Medicinal bathing and the unique environment are inseparable. Drolma, a doctor with the hospital, said medicinal bathing has curing effects for dozens of illness including rheumatic diseases, neurogenic diseases, arthritis, skin diseases and gynecological diseases. Two newly-built three-story buildings in the hospital will be used for medicinal bathing therapy soon. Migdrol, 53, is a national-level intangible cultural heritage inheritor of Sowa Rigpa. He said he inherited the practice from his father, a prestigious Manpa in Shannan, Tibet. The Tibetan areas in Tibet Autonomous Region and Qinghai Province have preserved the inheritance mode from master to apprentice to sustain the practice. Migdrol said he has passed on the practice to six of his disciples. "We will sustain and develop the patrimony left by our ancestors," he said. China now has 20 institutes for training Tibetan medicine practitioners. The Traditional Tibet Medicine School is China's only specialized institute of learning on the practice. There are 1,600 students on campus. Migyur Tsomo, an associate professor at the school, said the traditional Tibetan medicine has become more and more recognized by the international community. The classic book on Tibetan medicine, the Four Volumes of Medicine, has been included as China's national file and literature heritage this May. "Tibetan medicine is an important part of Tibetan culture and Tibetan people's daily life, as well as traditional Chinese culture. My hospital will adhere to the UN conventions and work for the protection and development of traditional Tibetan medicine," Padma Yangdron said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 00:27:26|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close LONDON, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Britain's new fleet of warplane F-35B Lightning jets have passed a significant milestone by conducting their first exercise with U.S. and French Air Force fighter jets, the Royal Air Force said Wednesday. The 617 Squadron jets joined over 40 other aircraft from the RAF, the United States Air Force (USAF) and the French Air Force on Exercise Point Blank, taking to the skies over East Anglia and the North Sea. "The exercise was a first both for the F35s and the French Air Force, and gave an opportunity for the three air forces to work together in a peer to peer scenario," said an RAF spokesman. The exercise also aimed to improve the operational capability within the established tri lateral framework of RAF, USAF, French Air Force cooperation. Air Commodore Jez Attridge, the RAF's Joint Force Air Component Commander said: "The first point of an air force is to be able to defend the country so you have to recognise the threats out there." The United States Air Force and French Air Force jets have been operating for the exercise, from the RAF base at Lakenheath, home of the U.S. Air Force's 48th Fighter Wing. The RAF also deployed simulated air defense systems to test the pilots during the exercise. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 00:42:31|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close ADDIS ABABA, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Wednesday reiterated Africa's common position in support of the major agendas of the upcoming G20 summit, which is scheduled to be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from Nov. 30 to Dec. 1. Noting that Africa's bright future extends beyond the continent, Ahmed said that "Africa needs to take the extent and quality of its cooperation to deepen global partnerships," according to a statement issued by the Ethiopian Prime Minister's Office on Wednesday. Ahmed made the remarks as 19 leaders of the world's biggest economies and a representative of the European Union (EU) are set to meet on Friday and Saturday in Buenos Aries as part of the G20 summit. Reiterating Africa's readiness to work with G20 member countries, Ahmed also said that the G20 Compact with Africa (CwA) "will play a significant role in accelerating our continental development objectives and move us beyond the focus on unemployment and migration towards a New Horizon of Hope." The CwA primary aims to increase attractiveness of private investment through substantial improvements of the macro, business and financing frameworks. As a demand-driven initiative open to all African countries, the CwA, launched in 2017, has so far been joined by 11 African countries, including Ethiopia. "My administration wants to convey its support to the agenda centered on the future of work, infrastructure, gender and a sustainable food future," the premier said. Noting that this year's G20 summit takes place at a time where global leaders need to reaffirm the commitment to designing solutions and pursuing a more inclusive growth, Ahmed stressed that "we need to work towards creating a just and equitable society." "We see the Compact with Africa as a unique opportunity for supporting targeted FDI from G20 countries and beyond. We are looking forward to attracting more investment through this platform and our commitment to collaborate with G20 remains very strong," he added. Ahmed also expressed his hope that "the G20 summit will make important progress in putting Africa's growth agenda central to its final outcomes." Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 00:47:34|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close BEIJING, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping's signed article titled "Joining Hands for New Splendor in the New Era" published Tuesday on Spanish newspaper ABC ahead of his visit has drawn warm responses in the European country, raising high expectations for more vigorous development of the China-Spain relations. Spanish media and scholars hail the visit as a new historic development opportunity, and believe that the Chinese president has charted the course in his signed article for development of the two countries' relations. "China sees in Spain a good partner along the course of development, and China hopes to bring out the best the two economies could offer each other and make good use of existing cooperation mechanisms," Xi said in the article. "We need to synergize the Belt and Road Initiative and Spain's 'Strategic Vision for Spain in Asia' and the 'Mediterranean Corridor', and actively explore cooperation in third markets for win-win cooperation in broader areas," he said. Spain's most read newspaper El Pais wrote that during the first state visit to Spain by a Chinese president in 13 years, the two countries seek for closer bilateral ties in various fields such as politics, economy and culture. The upcoming signing of a series of bilateral economic and trade agreements will boost exports of Spain's agricultural products into the Chinese market, and create favorable conditions for the two countries to explore cooperation in third markets, said El Pais. The Belt and Road Initiative provides plenty of opportunities for cooperation between the Chinese and Spanish companies, and the Chinese president's visit will drive more Spanish products like grapes and pork products into the Chinese market, Spanish Minister for Industry, Commerce and Tourism Reyes Maroto was quoted as saying by Expansion, a key economic newspaper in Spain. ABC also published articles regarding Xi's visit, saying that President Xi's visit to Spain will open up a new page for bilateral relations and the enhancement of mutual understanding, and the Belt and Road Initiative has rejuvenated the ancient commercial road, from which Spain should not detach itself. Spanish newspaper El Confidencial expects that President Xi's visit could yield more concrete fruits in bilateral cooperation, so that the Spanish public could feel the positive influences brought by the results. Alberto Rubio, director of Spanish newspaper The Diplomat, said that undoubtedly China is a partner of great significance for Spain, adding that there is huge potential for bilateral cooperation, and there are still many fields to explore in this relationship. Xi also said in the article that a major task of the trip this time "is to engage with leaders of host countries and major economies in discussions on ways to enhance unity among the international community, improve global governance, develop partnerships, and deepen friendship and cooperation for peace, stability, development and prosperity of the world." Xulio Rios, director of Spain's Observatory of Chinese Politics, said Xi's article is of huge realistic significance and noble ambitions. Xi quoted Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega Gasset in his article as saying that "one can only make progress when he thinks big, and move forward when he looks far." Rios said Xi's quotes aim to remind us that the China-Spain relationship not only has a long history, but also boasts huge potentials for healthy development, and that both countries should seize the valuable opportunity to deepen bilateral ties. Jose Luis Barcelo, director of Spanish online newspaper El Mundo Financiero, said the world looks forward to knowing more about China and Xi's trip has offered more opportunities for China to establish political, commercial and cultural relations with the rest of the world, and has opened a window of hope to create a multipolar world on the basis of equality and mutual benefit. (Xinhua correspondents Chen Yao, Xi Yue in Beijing, and Wang Xiaojun, Feng Junwei, Tian Dongdong in Madrid also contributed to the report.) Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 00:52:35|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close OSLO, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Norway's former fisheries minister Svein Ludvigsen has been charged with abusing his position to acquire sexual intercourse with three male asylum seekers, public broadcaster NRK reported Wednesday. Ludvigsen, 72, was Norway's Minister of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs from 2001 to 2005 and was County Governor of Troms from 2006 to 2014. The violations occurred during the period when Ludvigsen was the county governor in Troms and happened at the county hall in the Arctic city of Tromso and at various hotels in Oslo, the report said. According to the report, Ludvigsen used his position to mislead the men that he could provide them with housing and residence permit in Norway. States lawyer Tor Borge Nordmo said at a press conference in Tromso on Wednesday morning that the case will probably be scheduled sometime before summer 2019. Ludvigsen had previously been arrested on Jan. 3, 2018 and charged with exploiting his position to acquire sexual intercourse with one man. He had been detained for five weeks, and after release the charge against him was extended to violation against three men, NRK reported. Ludvigsen has rejected all the allegations in the indictment and claimed that he is innocent. GENEVA, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Gunvor Group, one of the largest global physical energy commodities traders, has completed a human rights review with respected human rights and management consultant twentyfifty in order to establish a practical path for integrating the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (the UNGPs). Gunvors review anticipates upcoming guidance by the Swiss government for how commodities traders should adopt the UNGPs, which set out the duties of governments to protect people against human rights abuses by business, and for businesses to identify and address their impacts on human rights. Gunvor is the first physical energy trader to move ahead with integrating such principles into its business. As a global physical energy trader and industrial asset owner, Gunvor has a responsibility to uphold human rights and serve as a good corporate citizen, said Gunvor Group CEO Torbjorn Tornqvist. We have been working with twentyfifty to identify how best to apply the UNGPs to our business, in line with the upcoming guidance from the Swiss federal government. In fact, in many areas, weve already taken action. Gunvor has begun to apply the UNGPs to its operations, including in practice, training and updated contractual terms. In 2017, Gunvor conducted a gap analysis of its business against the UNGPs, often known as the Ruggie principles after their author. During the last year, twentyfifty has conducted an independent review of Gunvors activities, including: Gunvors internal gap analysis against the UNGPs Gunvors approach to counterparty due diligence (transaction analysis) Identification and management of human impacts at Gunvors industrial assets twentyfifty identified Gunvors existing good practices in the areas of health, safety, environment, human rights and community (HSEC) and counterparty due diligence, along with further opportunities to integrate human rights due diligence into investment appraisal and monitoring. Gunvor is now compiling a long-term plan based on twentyfiftys review to further integrate the UNGPs into its global businesses. Physical commodities trading is an extraordinarily complex industry when it comes to human rights topics, given the myriad of transaction types and wide range of business relationships, says Luke Wilde, CEO of twentyfifty. We are enjoying working with Gunvor to rise to the challenge of turning the theory of human rights due diligence into practical action in the energy trading sector. The Swiss guidance for the commodities trading industry will be launched at the UN Forum in Geneva on November 28, 2018. Gunvor has contributed its experience into the development of the guidance, which was led by the Institute for Human Rights and Business, with representatives from Swiss authorities, Swiss NGOs, and the private sector. About twentyfifty Founded in 2004, twentyfifty ltd. is a business consultancy with offices in the UK, Germany and Switzerland and operating globally. It guides its clients in identifying and addressing their impacts on human rights, and leading change that serves the business and society. It has an extensive portfolio of blue chip clients in the extractives, food and agriculture and technology and science sectors. About Gunvor Group Gunvor Group is one of the worlds largest independent commodities trading houses by turnover, creating logistics solutions that safely and efficiently move physical energy from where it is sourced and stored to where it is demanded most. With strategic investments in industrial infrastructurerefineries, pipelines, storage, terminals, mining and upstreamGunvor further generates sustainable value across the global supply chain for its customers. More information can be found at www.GunvorGroup.com or @Gunvor. Recent News: Contact Seth Thomas Pietras stp@gunvorgroup.com +41 79 870 6290 Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 00:52:35|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close DAR ES SALAAM, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- A senior Tanzanian official on Wednesday described the Chinese-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as a vehicle towards the industrialization drive of the east African nation. "When it comes to the Belt and Road Initiative I see it as a development strategy involving infrastructure development and investments in various areas," said Stella Manyanya, the Deputy Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment. She said the BRI was striving to improve investments and trade facilitation, removing barriers for the creation of a sound business environment. Manyanya was speaking at the Conference on Belt and Road Initiative and China-Tanzania Industrialization Cooperation jointly organized by the Chinese embassy in Tanzania and Tanzania's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation among other partners in Dar es Salaam. Manyanya said most of the recently completed Chinese construction of buildings, roads, bridges and other projects in Tanzania bore the symbol of Chinese expertise, skills and hard work. "I trust that, in the process, Tanzanians have gained profoundly in expertise, experience and industrial discipline," she told the one-day conference at the Julius Nyerere International Convention Center. Humphrey Moshi, the Director of the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of Dar es Salaam, said BRI is a platform for scaling up the cooperation aimed at provision of basic infrastructure, regional development connectivity and industrialization. The professor of economics said the road to achieving an industrial economy in Tanzania was on track in terms of policies, strategies and measures. "We are seeing railways being built, roads, ports, airports and human development reforms," said Moshi. Stephen Bainous Kargbo, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) Representative to Tanzania, Mauritius and the East African Community (EAC), said the BRI was one key area of cooperation between UNIDO and China, in particular through UNIDO's promotion of cross-border investment among countries participating in the initiative. "We strongly believe that the Belt and Road Initiative stands to become one of the largest and most effective platforms for international cooperation of the century," he added. Wang Ke, Chinese Ambassador to Tanzania, said Tanzania as one of Africa's fastest growing economies has also made industrialization an important policy objective. "Ever since his assuming office, President Magufuli has made industrialization the fundamental approach and the focus of his governance to achieve the vision of becoming a middle-income country by 2025," said Wang. The Chinese envoy added: "The positive changes that have taken place in Tanzania are visible to us all...and we are confident that with this momentum, the development of industrialization in Tanzania will have broad prospects." Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 00:57:37|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close HAIKOU, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- The popular Chinese resort island of Hainan Province will further relax limits on offshore duty-free shopping from next month. The new policy will increase the annual tax-free shopping quota for travelers, according to the Ministry of Finance (MOF) Wednesday. Effective December 1, the quota will be raised to 30,000 yuan (about 4,300 U.S. dollars) per year from the current 16,000 yuan, without limits on the number of purchases, said a joint statement from the MOF and China's customs and taxation authorities. Some home medical devices will be added to the duty-free list, including hearing aids and breathing machines. The new policy allows not only travelers but also locals to buy duty-free products worth up to 30,000 yuan, said Wang Huiping, director of the provincial finance department, at a news conference to further explain the policy. After the implementation of the new policy, the local residents of Hainan Province will also enjoy the same offshore tax-free quota as travelers. Currently, the locals are allowed to buy duty-free items in Hainan once a year, and the purchase cannot be more than 8,000 yuan. Meanwhile, Hainan will open two more tax-free shops in the cities of Haikou and Qionghai, in addition to the current two duty-free shops, according to Wang. Wang said travelers who leave the island by ship are also expected to enjoy the new policy in the future. "The new change will help bring more luxury products to the Chinese market and convenience for visitors," Wang said, adding that it will attract more visitors to the island and boost the development of the service industry. Relevant government departments and companies in Hainan are now preparing for the implementation of the new policy, according to Wang. "To facilitate the implementation of the new policy, our shop has built pick-up locations for duty-free goods at the island's two ports, upgraded our information system and improved personnel training," said Su Yi, vice manager of Sanya Duty Free Shop, owned by China Duty Free Group. "The sales system in our store and our online retailer platform have both been upgraded to cope with the new policy," said Lei Qing, vice manager of Haikou Meilan Airport Duty Free Shop, owned by Hainan Provincial Duty Free Co. Ltd. "We are also attempting to bring in more home medical devices to meet travelers' demands." The duty-free shopping policy was implemented in April 2011 and has been improved since with broader coverage and fewer restrictions. Duty-free sales in Hainan jumped 24.1 percent year-on-year in the first half of the year, to 5.29 billion yuan. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 00:57:37|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close KAMPALA, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- A group of 30 Chinese entrepreneurs on Wednesday concluded their three-day trip to Uganda to look for business opportunities. Uganda has held several Chinese investment forums with the aim of persuading the Asian country that it is among the best investment destinations in Africa. Uganda Investment Authority (UIA), a state agency charged with investment promotion, said on Tuesday that its 2016-21 strategic plan places a lot of emphasis on collaboration with China in the development of industrial parks and the setting up of science, technology and innovation parks. "Uganda aims to graduate to middle-income status by 2020 and first-class economy by 2040. In order to attain this target, the government is committed to providing the enabling environment for business because Uganda strives to make this a private sector-led economy," UIA acting executive director Basil Ajer told the visiting delegation. "The economy is well regulated and highly liberalized with all sectors open for investment. The incentive regime is structurally included in the country's tax law, which makes it non-discriminatory and accessible to both domestic and foreign investments, " he said. He said China has ranked among the top two sources of Uganda's foreign direct investment since 2011 and that up to 1.2 billion U.S. dollars' worth of Chinese investments have been licensed, translating to 45,000 jobs. "There is still a lot that can be achieved if both countries directed their energies in areas of mutual interest," he added. Speaking at the business forum, Lyu Xinhua, chairman of the Council for Promoting South-South Cooperation (CPSSC), said from their brief stay, members of the delegation have observed that Uganda's investment climate, legal frameworks, affordable labor and infrastructure makes the country more attractive to Chinese investors. "I have got the feedback from the (Chinese) companies and they are all expressing satisfaction with Uganda's current investment situation," he said. He said the CPSSC is going to work with Uganda's embassy in Beijing and the Chinese embassy in Kampala to explore possibilities where Chinese enterprises will invest in Uganda. "We will be leading (Chinese) companies to Uganda to investigate possible business opportunities and potential projects that they can invest in," Lyu said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 00:57:40|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close LUSAKA, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Zambian government said on Wednesday that it will seek to strengthen laws on gender-based violence cases as part of efforts to ensure successful fight against the vice. Minister of Gender Elizabeth Phiri said despite various interventions put in place to fight the vice, the country was not making any progress in tackling the problem with an increase in reported cases. She told reporters during a press briefing that one of the factors hindering the fight against the vice was the decision by some women to withdraw cases. She said the government wanted the law to be strengthened so that gender-based violence cases become non-bailable and that the law should ensure that such cases are not withdrawn once reported to relevant authorities. According to her, women were withdrawing the cases because some women are financially dependent on men and would not want their men who are bread winners to be sent to jail. The ministry, she said, was working tirelessly with other stakeholders to sensitize society on the dangers of gender-based violence and to empower women economically. "We are extremely concerned as government; we still seem not to be winning the battle and we need to work hard with all stakeholders. Generally, the cases have been on the rise and this means that the issue of gender-based violence especially for women is still very serious," she said. On Monday, November 26, stakeholders launched 16 days of gender activism in order to raise awareness of gender-based violence cases in the southern African nation. Figures released by the police showed that the number of gender-based violence cases increased to 6,114 during the third quarter of 2018 ,from 5,096 recorded during the same period last year. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 01:02:41|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday praised the developing countries' contribution to the global growth as the UN prepares for a major conference on South-South cooperation. In his opening remarks at the Global South-South Development Expo 2018, Guterres said the Southern countries have contributed to more than half of all global growth in recent years. The UN chief also noted intra-South trade accounts for more than one quarter of all world trade, and that foreign direct investment (FDI) outflows from the South represent one-third of global FDI flows. Remittances from migrant workers to low- and middle-income countries reached 466 billion U.S. dollars last year, helping to lift millions of families out of poverty, he said. "Innovative forms of Southern-led knowledge sharing, technology transfer, emergency response and livelihood recovery are transforming lives," he said, adding that "new financial institutions have helped generate infrastructure and sustainable development projects around the world." At the same time, the secretary-general noted development gains have been uneven and incomplete, citing over 700 million people still unable to meet basic needs. To address the problem, Guterres said the expo is about "harnessing the power and potential of the South for the common good" and "sharing homegrown Southern solutions for sustainable development." Organized by the UN Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) in collaboration with UN agencies and other partners, the annual three-day expo which is being held at UN Headquarters runs till Friday. About 50 institutional partners representing UN member states, private sectors and regional organizations and about 800 delegates from over 120 member states are attending the expo, according to UNOSSC Director Jorge Chediek. The expo is a step in the run-up to the Second High-level UN Conference on South-South Cooperation to be held in Argentina in March 2019, where the Buenos Aires Plan of Action was adopted 40 years ago to declare that incorporating South-South cooperation is a mandate for the UN system. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 01:02:41|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close LUSAKA, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Zambian government has voted in the affirmative on the maintenance of a moratorium oo the death penalty at the United Nations (UN), a senior government official said on Wednesday. Minister of Justice Given Lubinda said President Edgar Lungu directed the country's embassy in the United States (US) to vote in the affirmative after having abstained from voting on the moratorium for years. The Zambian minister, in remarks delivered ahead of a conference on the 10th anniversary of the campaign against the death penalty in Rome, said the decision to vote in the affirmative was made in 2016 but has just been actualized, according to a press release. According to him, despite the death penalty still being upheld in the country's constitution, no Zambian leader has signed it since 1998 when late President Frederick Chiluba appended the execution of a prisoner. The decision not to sign death penalties has earned Zambia the reputation as an abolitionist in implementing the death penalty, he added. However, he said unlike other laws that could easily be amended, the death penalty was part of the bill of rights that could only be amended through a referendum. Lubinda said incumbent President Lungu has commuted more death penalties to life imprisonment than any other leader in the country. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 01:02:41|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close ANKARA, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday made a phone call over bilateral relations and recent maritime tensions between Russia and Ukraine, the Turkish Presidency said. In his call with Trump, Erdogan shared details of his earlier phone calls separately with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, during which he expressed expectations that the recent confrontation in Black Sea can be resolved via diplomacy and dialogue. Erdogan and Trump also discussed bilateral ties and agreed to meet on the sidelines of G20 summit in Argentina this weekend, state-run Anadolu News Agency reported, citing anonymous sources. On Sunday, Ukraine accused that Russian forces fired on and seized three Ukrainian navy ships near the Kerch Strait. Moscow says the three ships breached the Russian border and conducted dangerous maneuvers in spite of orders of accompanying vessels from the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and Russia's Black Sea Fleet. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 01:02:41|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close NAIROBI, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- The world's first ever blue economy summit ended in Nairobi on Wednesday with more than 10,000 participants from 170 countries signing a pact to help advance sustainable exploitation of oceans and other marine resources to achieve sustainable development. Kenya hosted the three-day blue economy conference in the Kenyan capital Nairobi that was attended by more than 10 Heads of State and Government drawn mainly from Africa as well as ministers, industry executive and scientists. President Uhuru Kenyatta in his closing remarks said it covered a new milestone in global quest to revitalize growth of blue economy in order to secure a green, peaceful and prosperous future. "The conference will be remembered for highlighting the great potential of our marine resources and moving forward, we have all committed to harness the potential of our lakes, rivers and oceans to grow our economies and expand job opportunities," Kenyatta said. He said that the blue economy conference revitalized political goodwill that is required to anchor sustainable use of oceans and inland water resources to boost food security, cross-border trade and climate resilience. "We are committed to strengthen political leadership, promote sharing of knowledge and information on threats to marine life," said Kenyatta adding that scientific research is key to boost management of marine resources. The pact urges governments and industries to act on ocean pollution, promote smart shipping and sustainable fisheries in order to create vibrant blue economies. Jonathan Wilkinson, Canadian minister of Fisheries and Oceans said the Nairobi blue economy summit rekindled conversation on viable utilization of the marine ecosystem to advance green and inclusive growth. Several countries and multilateral lenders pledged financial and technical assistance at the end of the blue economy summit to promote marine protection, plastics and waste management, maritime safety and climate change adaptation to ensure that water based economic activities are an integral part of the sustainability agenda. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 01:02:41|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close KABUL, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- An assailant was killed and 11 people were wounded after a massive suicide car bomb blast struck outside a security forces' training center in the eastern side of Kabul on Wednesday, police said. "The car bomb explosion occurred outside a training camp named G4S in Pul-e-Charkhi area, Police District 9 roughly at 6:30 p.m. The attacker was killed after he detonated the car bomb and 11 people mostly civilians were wounded," Basir Mujahid, a Kabul police spokesman, told Xinhua. The facility, which provides training for Afghan forces by foreign trainers, and several nearby houses were damaged. Further details about the incident are still forthcoming amid the absence of any official statement. Taliban militant group has claimed responsibility for the blast. The capital city has been hit by series of terror attacks over the past couple of years. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 01:07:43|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close KATHMANDU, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Six people were killed and three others injured in two separate road accidents in western Nepal on Wednesday, police said. Five people were killed when a jeep skidded off the highway and fell some 200 meters down at Thatikadh Rural Municipality in Dailekh district of western Nepal, the Nepali Police Headquarters said here in a press statement. The ill-fated jeep was en route to Surkhet district from Dailekh when it met with an accident. Three others, critically injured, have been receiving treatment in local hospital, police said. In another incident, one person was killed when an uncontrolled motorbike met with an accident at Simta Rural Municipality in Surkhet district of western Nepal on Wednesday afternoon. The Nepal Police Headquarters said that the police have launched probe into the two road accidents. Over-speed, drunk-driving and ill maintained roads and vehicles are said to be major causes of frequent road accidents in the Himalayan country. English Latvian Riga, 2018-11-28 11:05 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Earlier today, November 28, AS HansaMatrix organized its Investor Conference Online Webinar. During the webinar the Chairman of the Management Board of AS HansaMatrix Ilmars Osmanis and Member of the Management Board, CFO Maris Macijevskis analyzed the financial results of 2018 Q3 and 9 months period and informed about recent activities of the Company. The webinar presentation is available in the attachment. The recorded AS HansaMatrix webinar is available at: https://bit.ly/2KDABJv Maris Macijevskis, CFA Management Board Member, Finance director Phone: (+371) 6780 0002 E-mail: invest@hansamatrix.com http://www.hansamatrix.com About JSC HansaMatrix HansaMatrix is a fast-growing, high-technology company offering product design, industrialization and complete manufacturing services in data networking, Internet of Things, industrial segments and other services to high added value business segments. In addition to complete manufacturing services of OEM products, the company offers an ODM business model to both start-up and established companies that seek product development partnerships. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 01:12:44|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close NAIROBI, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Securing Africa's abundant marine resources from emerging threats like illegal fishing, piracy and dumping of toxic waste is key to hastening growth of the continent's nascent blue economy, experts said on Wednesday in Nairobi. The security experts, who spoke at a side event on maritime safety during an international meeting on blue economy, said that African countries that are endowed with vast coastlines should intensify vigilance against man-made and environmental threats. Raychelle Omamo, Kenya's cabinet secretary for defense, said there is a consensus among African nations on the need to strengthen their maritime security as they embark on revitalizing the key blue economy pillars that include fisheries, tourism and shipping. "We are convinced that securing our oceans and other marine resources is critical to the growth of blue economy. Safety in our sea lines will facilitate cross-border trade and mineral exploration," Omamo said. She urged harmonization of policies, capacity-building, knowledge and information sharing to boost safety of oceans and mangrove forests that are key to food security, climate resilience and job creation in Africa. "Coordination of our coast guards is critical to secure our marine resources and pave way for the blue economy to take off," Omamo said, adding that Kenya's recently launched coast guard marked a milestone in the country's quest to become a blue-economy hub. Michelle Stallone, a maritime security expert, said that a motivated coast guard is key to combating illegal fishing and plunder of mangrove forests that are a threat to growth of blue economy in sub-Saharan Africa. "Safety in the oceans will enable governments and local communities carry out fishing and seabed mining that will support the next phase of industrialization in Africa," Stallone said. Daya Bragante, a blue economy specialist at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, said robust collaboration among governments, industries and local communities is key to strengthening protection of Africa's marine ecosystem amid threats linked to population pressure, over-exploitation and climate change. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 01:17:46|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close TEHRAN, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Iranian police seized more than 12 tons of various kinds of illicit drugs across the country over the past week, the deputy commander of Anti-Drug Headquarters announced on Wednesday. The total amount of the captured illicit drugs was 12,676 kg, with the opium comprising 80 percent of the total, Assadollah Hadinejad was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency. Hashish, morphine, heroine and crystal meth were also among the captured drugs, he said. Iran has long suffered from drug trafficking, as it is at the crossroad of international drug smuggling from Afghanistan, the world's top opium producer, to Europe. Over the past decades, Iran's eastern and southeastern borders had seen clashes between Iranian security forces and armed drug smugglers. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 01:27:49|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close BEIJING, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Premier Li Keqiang heard work reports on improving China's business environment to align with advanced international standards at the State Council executive meeting on Wednesday. It was decided at the meeting that China will carry out evaluation of its business climate by measuring it against international standards. The Chinese government places high importance on deepening the reform of government functions and enhancing the business environment. Premier Li Keqiang pointed out that the business environment is like the soil nourishing corporate development and reflects market competitiveness. It is hence crucial to foster a world-class business environment that is market-driven, law-based and up to international standards. The government's relentless efforts in recent years to streamline administration, enhance compliance oversight and provide better services have brought notable improvement in China's business climate. The World Bank's recent report of Doing Business 2019 ranked China number 46, up by 32 spots from 2017. "With continued reform of government functions, our business environment has visibly improved in recent years, and its global ranking has continuously moved up," Li said, "As many as 18,000 new market entities are now registered on an average day, up from several thousand a few years back. This would not be possible without an enabling business climate. " The Wednesday meeting stressed the importance of bettering the business environment for promoting high-quality development. Efforts will be made to better align with advanced international standards, tackle areas of major weakness and vigorously pursue reform and opening-up. "To foster a more enabling business environment, the primary task is to widen market access, and secondly to properly exercise supervision and oversight," Li said, " The government should leave no regulatory gaps and conduct even-handed oversight, abolish any arbitrary practices in fee collection or inspection, avoid unwarranted interference in business operations and continuously narrow the gap with world-class business environments." "Based on the concerns expressed by market entities, we should apply international standards in the context of China's marketplace to truly reflect the actual conditions on the ground." he said. The meeting agreed to set up a system for evaluating the business environment in China that is comparable internationally, aligned with World Bank standards and reflects Chinese features. The assessing criteria shall cover areas of immediate concern to market entities, such as ease of opening a business, construction licensing, access to electricity and credit, paying taxes, filing for bankruptcy, and the protection of intellectual property rights. The evaluation will be carried out across the country in due course. Local authorities and departments will be encouraged to come up with more solid measures for bettering the business climate. The aim is to deliver tangible benefits to enterprises and maintain China's status as a popular destination for investment from home and abroad. "Countries around the world are working to upgrade their business environment, as this is crucial for attracting investment, boosting market vitality and stimulating public creativity," Li said, "Our efforts so far still fall short in some respects. We must make sustained efforts to enhance our business climate as an important means for managing the complex external environment and promoting high-quality development." The meeting urged faster extension nationwide of practices proven effective at local levels in facilitating business operations. In particular, efforts in cutting reviewing requirements, simplifying permitting procedures and lowering costs must be intensified. Enterprises will be supported in participating in the policy-making process related to the business environment and channels of communication between business and government will be smoothed to make government policies better targeted and more effective, and foster a business environment that is market-driven, law-based and up to international standards. "Improving the business environment is a comprehensive endeavor with great significance," Li said, "Our successful practices so far, especially in the free trade zones, must be fully drawn upon to help us develop a full-fledged and sound evaluation system. A more enabling business climate will generate sustained impetus for the development of market entities." Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 01:32:51|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close GAZA, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Islamic Hamas movement announced on Wednesday that its Politburo Chief, Ismail Haniyeh, has received an official invitation from Russia to visit Moscow soon. Haniyeh's office said in a press statement that the Foreign Ministry of Russia invited Haniyeh to visit Moscow soon. The statement didn't specify the time of the visit. The statement said that the invitation was handed by Haydar Rashid, the diplomatic representative of Russia in Ramallah, during a meeting with Haniyeh held at his office in Gaza earlier Wednesday. The Russian diplomat said that his country is exerting efforts on all levels to support the Palestinian cause, according to Hamas statement. Russia is having ties with Hamas movement and had repeatedly received several Hamas delegations in Moscow, although Hamas was listed by the United States and Europe as terrorists. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 01:37:53|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close GAZA, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Egypt has recently resumed its sponsorship of Palestinian reconciliation amidst many threats towards the new rounds of talks, according to Palestinian observers. Observers believed the lack of active will and the internal differences are the decisive factors of the continuing stalemate of reconciliation and its possible failure again. In recent days, Egypt has hosted two delegations from both Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party and Islamic Hamas movement, which rules the Gaza Strip, in an effort to promote reconciliation. Several agreements on Palestinian national reconciliation have been reached under the sponsorship of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt in the past years, but none of them has resulted in a tangible breakthrough to end the division that has begun since Hamas seized the Gaza Strip in 2007 after routing forces loyal to Abbas. "Egypt is once again struggling to move ahead with the Palestinian reconciliation file despite all the frustrations and lack of practical response to the previous agreements," Gaza-based political observer Hani Habib told Xinhua. Habib stressed that the Egyptian efforts give hope again to end the internal split, but the result of the efforts is strongly associated with the response from both sides to these efforts. He referred to the words at the Cairo talks about Egypt's crystallization of a new reconciliation paper in which it tries to partially meet the requirements of both sides of the crisis. The Palestinian expert pointed out that the Egyptian paper that is being circulated in the media, is important as it has specified in detail a timetable for the implementation of each item and each stage. "This will ensure that both parties will implement what has been agreed upon, which better insures the transition to the subsequent stage with both parties," Habib old Xinhua. While Fatah and Hamas refused to confirm Cairo's offer of a new reconciliation draft, media outlets said that the Egyptian proposal is based on enabling the Ramallah-based national consensus government to operate in Gaza, and then the parties can consult over forming a government of national unity. Last October, Hamas and Fatah signed an Egyptian-sponsored reconciliation pact in Cairo to heal their prolonged rift. Under the deal, Hamas should fully hand over its power in Gaza to the Ramallah-based consensus government in last December. But the differences between the two sides forced a delay in the implementation of the deal until further notice. Rajab Abu Serrya, a political expert from Ramallah, said the internal Palestinian division has continued despite the many agreements, understandings and mediation reached. "Reaching a true reconciliation agreement needs a true national will especially in the face of the unprecedented challenges facing the Palestinian cause," Abu Serrya told Xinhua. He added that Fatah and Hamas need to reconsider their regional relations, so there will be a horizon for achieving reconciliation. The Palestinian consensus government complains that it has not received full authority in Gaza, based on the Egyptian-sponsored agreement, accusing Hamas of blocking its work in the territory. Hamas, on the other hand, accuses the government of Rami al-Hamdallah of deliberately putting obstacles to prevent its full control over Gaza in order to thwart the reconciliation efforts and increase the suffering of Gaza's people. Gaza has been placed under a tight Israeli blockade since Hamas seized the territory in 2007. The blockade has pushed Gaza's 2 million population deeper into poverty with unprecedented high unemployment rates. In the recent nine years, Israel and Hamas have been engaged in three major wars that claimed the lives of thousands of Palestinians and Israelis. The UN has warned many times of the danger of another war in the Gaza Strip given the frequent violence on the border with Israel as well as the deteriorating economic conditions in the coastal enclave. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 01:42:54|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close The railway network is closed due to the strike of the private sector in Athens, Greece, on Nov. 28, 2018. A new 24-hour nationwide anti-austerity strike called by the General Confederation of Employees of Greece (GSEE), the country's umbrella labor union for the private sector, hit the country on Wednesday. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos) ATHENS, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of people queued for hours at bus stops in the Greek capital of Athens on Wednesday, as more others were left stranded in cars due to the suspension of public transport services amid a 24-hour general strike across Greece. Ferries also remained docked, as seamen participated in the walkout called by the General Confederation of Employees of Greece (GSEE), the country's umbrella labor union for the private sector, which represents half of the country's working force. Labor unionists warned that the anti-austerity protests would continue, which means that the suffering of Greek commuters would go on. Rania and Rosa, two migrants who are living and working in Greece for years, were among those who waited for two hours at a bus stop in the center of Athens to squeeze in a bus to get to work. "I came here at 8:30 a.m. and I am still waiting for the A2 bus. None has appeared... I am trying to get to work," Rania told Xinhua. "I am here out in the street for two hours. What am I going to do with my job?... I really need this work," Rosa added, expressing her frustration. Despite the big inconvenience caused by the strike, commuters voiced support to the labor mobilization, as they can also feel the pinch of the prolonged austerity. Thousands of strikers marched peacefully from two central squares of the Greek capital to the parliament, asking for tax cuts and pensions and salaries increases. Protestors demanded a viable social insurance system, measures to effectively address unemployment, and respect of the fundamental right to live in dignity, according to the slogans chanted. "We resist," they shouted, demanding the restoration of collective wage agreements and the monthly minimum wage to the pre-crisis level from the current 580 euros (655 U.S. dollars) to 751 euros (848 dollars). "We are on strike today against the government's policies which are against workers, since they are a continuation of the bailout measures... This mockery must end. If we indeed have exited the bailout programs, they should prove it," Dimitris Vassos, President of the labor union of employees in the Hellenic Aerospace Industry, told Xinhua during the rally. Following Greece's formal exit from the bailout era this August after eight years of harsh policies to afloat the debt-laden country's ailing economy, the Left-led government has pledged gradual implementation of relief measures to heal the wounds of the debt crisis without jeopardizing economic growth. However, labor unions argued that the pace would be too slow, and more needs to be done immediately to allow some breathing space for the average Greek households and businesses that have lost, according to official estimates, up to 40 percent of their incomes during the crisis. Retirees for example have seen their pensions being slashed a dozen times since 2010. "Pensioners in particular demand from the state to give us our money back. Employees demand good labor conditions and wages. We will continue our struggle to the end," Antonis Birbilis, Secretary of the Pensioners' Union of former Hellenic Telecommunications Organization (OTE) employees, told Xinhua. Wednesday's labor action follows a 24-hour strike organized by the umbrella trade union of the public sector ADEDY earlier this November, and a long series of strikes and protests staged in the past eight years of the Greek debt crisis with similar demands. Over 20,000 protests were held across Greece during the first six years of the crisis, according to official statistics released by the Greek Police. Half of the rallies were staged in Athens. Tens of thousands of people flooded the streets several times, but in many cases fewer than 1,000 people participated in the demonstrations, according to the official data. In recent years the wave of rallies has receded, but still labor unions warn that strikes and demonstrations will go on until people win the war against austerity. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 02:43:11|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close PARIS, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- French shares edged up on Wednesday, with the benchmark Paris CAC 40 up 0.09 percent, or 27.68 points, to close at 4,983.24 points. Among the 40 selected large companies, 21 gained in the day. Dassault Systemes, a French Engineering Software company, advanced 3.41 percent, the top gainers of the blue chips. French luxury goods holding company Hermes rose 1.70 percent, followed by Cap Gemini, a global leader in consulting, technology and outsourcing services, which gained 1.22 percent. Oil and gas firm Technipfmc went down by 2.48 percent, the top loser of the blue chips. French aeronautic giant Safran lost 1.94 percent. French automotive supplier Valeo edged down 1.77 percent. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 03:28:21|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close KIGALI, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- A Rwandan journalist working for the BBC has been arrested over terror charges, Rwanda Investigation Bureau said Wednesday. Phocas Ndayizera was arrested last Wednesday in Nyamirambo sector, a suburb of Rwandan capital city, where he had gone to receive "explosives," spokesman of the Investigation Bureau Modeste Mbabazi told a media briefing in Kigali, adding that the journalist is being investigated on terror crimes. The journalist was arrested along with another person who had delivered the explosives to him, Mbabazi said. The journalist working for for BBC Kinyarwanda service denied the allegations while talking to media, adding that he is yet to know the charges against him. Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency in 2014 suspended the broadcasts of BBC Radio programs in national Kinyarwanda language "forever" in the country over allegations of genocide denial and revisionism in its controversial documentary entitled "Rwanda: The untold story." Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 04:08:33|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close CHICAGO, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Boeing Company has pledged to support technically the ongoing investigation of the crash of Indonesia's Lion Air flight 610, after an preliminary report issued on Wednesday indicated faulty sensors on the Boeing 737 MAX 8 plane. The brand new aircraft plunged into the Java Sea 13 minutes after taking off from Jakarta international airport on Oct. 29, killing all 189 people on board. "Boeing is taking every measure to fully understand all aspects of this accident, working closely with the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board as technical advisors to support the NTSC as the investigation continues," the Chicago-based aircraft maker said in a statement. Earlier Wednesday, Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC) released a preliminary report, showing that the Lion Air pilots tried to control the aircraft as its automatic safety system repeatedly pushed the plane's nose down shortly after take-off. NTSC investigator Nurcahyato Utomo said that the captain sent an urgency message to air traffic controllers that they were in a "failure situation," when the pilots struggled to bring the plane's nose up but an automated anti-stall system was pushing it down. The two-month old plane reportedly had issues with the "angle of attack" (AOA) and speed indicator sensors during its previous flights. However, the NTSC has not yet unveiled the definitive cause of the crash, adding that it will keep searching for another black box, the cockpit voice recorder, which can reveal the final discussion between the pilots. The NTSC also recommended that Lion Air improve its safety culture. Earlier this month, Boeing reportedly issued a safety bulletin to airlines, directing flight crews to "existing flight crew procedure" on how they should respond to erroneous data for the sensor which monitors aircraft's AOA. Boeing insisted in its statement that passengers "have our assurance that the 737 MAX is as safe as any airplane that has ever flown the skies." Central American migrants, mostly from Honduras, remain at a shelter in Tijuana, Baja California State, Mexico, near the U.S.-Mexico border fence on Nov. 24, 2018. (Xinhua/AFP) WASHINGTON, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said he would "totally be willing" to shut down the federal government if Congress doesn't approve the 5 billion U.S. dollars he's demanding for building a wall along the nation's southern border with Mexico. In an interview with Politico released Wednesday, Trump said the funding would only cover the physical border, adding that "the number is larger for border security." Trump has been pressuring congressional leaders to approve the funding for the border wall, a centerpiece of his presidential campaign in 2016, ahead of a deadline in December that could see a partial government shutdown. U.S. lawmakers agreed earlier this year to fund most of the federal government in 2019, but funding for the Department of Homeland Security, Justice Department, State Department and other federal agencies is set to expire on Dec. 7. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters on Tuesday that Democrats' position remains at 1.6 billion dollars for border security measures, as earmarked by a bipartisan Senate bill in July. "If there's any shutdown, it's on President Trump's back," Schumer said. "Stick to the 1.6 billion." Trump met with the newly-elected House Republican leadership on legislative issues, including border security, at the White House on Tuesday. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said the president "is very solid with where he wants to go and what he needs to have a secure border." In an interview with The Washington Post published Tuesday, Trump, however, indicated that he had a backup plan if the funding fell through. "Now, if we don't 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," he told the newspaper. The situation has been tense along the U.S.-Mexico border, where U.S. border officials fired tear gas on hundreds of migrants who sought to enter the United States near the southern border with Mexico on Sunday. The chaos started as a peaceful demonstration to appeal for the U.S. authorities to speed up processing asylum claims by Central American migrants, caravans of whom have arrived in Mexican border city of Tijuana after weeks of traveling. Trump and the White House have defended the use of tear gas but the action has drawn sharp criticism. TORONTO, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Troilus Gold Corp. (TSX: TLG) (OTCQB: CHXMF) (Troilus or the Company) is pleased to announce it has entered into a purchase and sale agreement with Emgold Mining Corporation (Emgold), pursuant to which it will acquire the Troilus North Project (the Project). As consideration for the acquisition of the Project (the Acquisition), the Company will issue 3,750,000 common shares (the Offered Shares) and pay C$250,000 in cash. The acquisition of Troilus North adds a significant strategic land position and focuses our 2019 exploration drilling on extending the J Zone to the Northeast, said Michael Timmins, SVP Corporate Development at Troilus. Our new multi-million ounce resource, several mineralized outcrops, positive channel sampling and high-grade boulder occurrences help define what amounts to over 10km of surface mineralization (Table 1). Upon closing of the Acquisition, which is expected to occur on or about December 5, 2018, Troilus will issue 3,750,000 common shares to Emgold and forgive a C$250,000 bridge loan previously advanced. Closing of the Acquisition remains subject to various closing conditions, including final approval of the TSX. The Offered Shares shall be subject to a four-month statutory hold period from the date of closing. For a period of two-years from the date of closing, Troilus will have a Right of First Refusal (ROFR) pursuant to which Troilus shall have the opportunity to find a buyer at equal or superior terms in the event Emgold wishes to dispose of the Offered Shares (the ROFR Period). During the ROFR Period, provided Emgold holds no less than 5% of Troilus issued and outstanding shares, Emgold shall have a participation right whereby Emgold shall have the right to maintain its proportional interest in Troilus, subject to certain conditions. Table 1 - Mineral Resource Estimate Summary Effective as of November 19, 2018 Tonnage Au Cu AuEq Contained Contained Contained Classification (Mt) (g/t) (%) (g/t) Gold Copper AuEq (Moz) (Mlb) (Moz) Total Open Pit and Underground Indicated 121.7 0.87 0.086 1.00 3.40 231.8 3.92 Inferred 36.1 0.88 0.083 1.01 1.02 66.2 1.17 Total Open Pit Indicated 97.5 0.76 0.078 0.88 2.37 167.0 2.7 Inferred 21.7 0.60 0.062 0.69 0.42 29.7 0.5 Total Open Pit Z87 Indicated 56.6 0.83 0.096 0.98 1.51 119.4 1.8 Inferred 12.1 0.58 0.066 0.68 0.23 17.5 0.3 Total Open Pit J4-J5 Indicated 40.8 0.66 0.053 0.74 0.86 47.6 1.0 Inferred 9.6 0.61 0.058 0.70 0.19 12.2 0.2 Total Underground Indicated 24.2 1.32 0.121 1.50 1.02 64.8 1.2 Inferred 14.4 1.31 0.115 1.49 0.61 36.5 0.7 Notes: CIM definitions were followed for Mineral Resources. Open pit Mineral Resources were estimated at a cut-off grade of 0.3 g/t AuEq and were constrained by a Whittle pit shell. Underground Mineral Resources were estimated at a cut-off grade of 0.9 g/t AuEq. Mineral Resources were estimated using long-term metal prices of US$1,400 per ounce gold and US$3.25 per pound copper; and an exchange rate of US$1.00 = C$1.25. AuEq = Au Grade + 1.546 * Cu grade A recovery of 83% was used for gold and 92% for copper. Figures have been rounded to the appropriate level of precision for the reporting of Mineral Resources. Due to rounding, some columns or rows may not compute exactly as shown. Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The estimate of Mineral Resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-political, marketing, or other relevant issues. The Troilus North Project is a 11,300 hectare property comprised of 209 mineral claims and lies to the Northeast of the Troilus mine (Fig 1). Figure 1: The Resultant Troilus Land Position http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/662d2bc2-8f38-46e4-aa03-5a1a83c96da8 Geophysical work and associated outcrop mapping show a general trend that hosts the Troilus Mine, continues along Parker pluton (granite) to the Northeast and through most of the Troilus North property. Recent mapping and data compilation show that mineralized zones at the J Zone are in line and continue on to Troilus North (Fig 2). Due to its size and lack of exploration investment, the Troilus North land package remains open for discovery, specifically along a magnetic low trend which can be followed over 4.5km from the J Zone to the high-grade boulders outlined by Inmet in the 1980s (>10g/t Au), and over 10km along Northeast trend (Fig 3). A portion of the 2019 exploration spending will be directed towards activities at Troilus North. The integration of historical information, plans for surface mapping and sampling as well as target prioritization for future diamond drilling have already commenced. Figure 2: Geologic trend showing extension from J4 Open Pit to high grade boulders discovered by Inmet in the 1980s http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e3f4617b-79c8-42aa-91e4-3c8f77602bba Figure 3: Airborne magnetics showing distinct magnetic low associated with mineralization at Troilus, and the trend along Parker Pluton http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/34716621-b7f7-48b5-8f37-273c0cbb6bb7 About Troilus Gold Corp. Troilus is a Toronto-based, Quebec focused, advanced stage exploration and early-development company focused on the mineral expansion and potential mine re-start of the former gold and copper Troilus mine. The 16,000-hectare Troilus and Troilus North property is located Northeast of the Val-dOr mining district, within the Frotet-Evans Greenstone Belt in Quebec, Canada. From 1997 to 2010, Inmet Mining Corporation operated the Troilus project as an open-pit mine, producing more than 2,000,000 ounces of gold and nearly 70,000 tonnes of copper. Qualified Person The technical and scientific information in this press release has been reviewed and approved by Bruno Perron, P.Eng., Senior Technical Manager, who is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Perron is an employee of Troilus and is not independent of the Company under National Instrument 43-101. For more information: Spyros Karellas Communications Manager +1 (416) 433-5696 spyros.karellas@troilusgold.com Cautionary statements This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the impact of the Acquisition on the Company, the timing of closing of the Acquisition and the receipt of required approvals , drill results and mineral resources estimate on the Company, the projected economics of the project, and the Companys understanding of the project; statements with respect to the development potential and timetable of the project; the estimation of mineral resources; realization of mineral resource estimates; the timing and amount of estimated future exploration; costs of future activities; capital and operating expenditures; success of exploration activities; government regulation of mining operations; and environmental risks. Generally, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as plans, expects or does not expect, is expected, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates or does not anticipate, or believes, or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Troilus to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including but not limited to: there being no assurance that the exploration program will result in expanded mineral resources; ;risks and uncertainties inherent to mineral resource estimates; receipt of necessary approvals; general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; future prices of mineral prices; accidents, labour disputes and shortages; environmental and other risks of the mining industry, including without limitation, risks and uncertainties discussed in the Technical Report and other continuous disclosure documents of the Company available under the Companys profile at www.sedar.com . Although Troilus has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. 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. Troilus does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 04:43:42|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close Photo taken on Nov. 28, 2018 shows the general view of the Geneva Conference on Afghanistan at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. A top Afghan security official said that a conference that ended here Wednesday has put a renewed focus on a peace process owned and led by those in the country, and now it is up to Taliban to come forward and play a constructive role. (Xinhua/POOL/Salvatore Di Nolfi) GENEVA, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- A top Afghan security official said that a conference that ended here Wednesday has put a renewed focus on a peace process owned and led by those in the country, and now it is up to Taliban to come forward and play a constructive role. "We see the stars lining up for peace at his point," said Hamdullah Mohib, national security adviser of Afghanistan, at a press conference here after the two-day Conference on Afghanistan in Geneva, adding that "the ball is in the Taliban's court." Afghan President Ashraf Ghani was to have addressed the press conference but canceled at the last minute following a lethal bombing said to have taken place in Afghanistan's eastern Ghazni province on earlier Wednesday. Mohib said such attacks only "bolster" the striving for peace. The Geneva Conference on Afghanistan, co-hosted by Afghanistan and the United Nations, was attended by delegations from 61 countries and 35 international organizations, representatives of civil society, the private sector and the media. It issued a communique at the end saying, "Participants call on all concerned to seize this opportunity for an Afghan-owned and led peace process as the only viable path to satisfy the citizens' desire for an end to conflict, sustained and broad-based economic growth, and a more prosperous tomorrow." UN Secretary-General's special representative Tadamichi Yamamoto said the gathering was likely the first international meeting on Afghanistan when issues of "peace have been taken up with such weight." Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Wednesday called for a political settlement in Afghanistan as his Swiss counterpart Ignazio Cassis offered Switzerland to play a peace-broking role between warring factions. In a conference speech, Lavrov said, "We believe that the Afghan crisis can be settled only by political means." He said, "A broad intra-Afghan dialogue with the participation of the government, the Taliban movement, and the whole spectrum of political and social forces is needed." Afghan President Ghani said in a speech his government has formed a negotiating team to work on a peace agreement with the Taliban. "We seek a peace agreement in which the Afghan Taliban would be included in a democratic and inclusive society," Ghani told the conference. Swiss Foreign Minister Cassis also spoke on the second day of the conference to assess progress since a pledging conference was held in Brussels in 2016 and to measure results against the 15.2 billion U.S. dollars committed by the international community for Afghanistan in 2016. "After 17 years of war that produced only losers, the time has come for dialogue. The time has come for a political solution. Switzerland is ready to host any round of talks if requested," said Cassis. Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed and wounded in Afghanistan since the war started in 2001. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 05:03:47|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) meets with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in Madrid, Spain, Nov. 28, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Xueren) MADRID, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- China and Spain agreed on Wednesday to build on the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties to jointly promote the development of the relationship and deliver more benefit to the two peoples. The consensus was reached at a meeting between visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. Xi said he was very glad to visit Spain for the first time after his re-election as Chinese president in March. Since the establishment of China-Spain diplomatic ties, bilateral relationship has withstood changes in the international landscape and enjoyed a healthy and stable development, he said, noting that the friendship has stayed as strong as ever. Praising Sanchez's endeavor to develop bilateral relations and his support for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Xi said China always cherishes the traditional friendship with Spain and highly values Spain's important role in international affairs. China is willing to "work with Spain to enrich the content of China-Spain comprehensive strategic partnership, uplift the level of cooperation in various fields," so as to set an example for different civilizations to communicate and learn from each other and for countries with different social systems to achieve win-win cooperation. Xi stressed that the two sides should strengthen the "guiding and driving" role of high-level exchanges in the development of ties, cement exchanges and cooperation between the two government departments and legislative bodies, deepen political mutual trust, and continue to extend mutual support and understanding on issues concerning each other's core interests and major concerns, so as to forge ahead the steady development of bilateral ties. "There are multiple advantages including historical and geographic factors for China and Spain to conduct cooperation on the BRI," said Xi, calling for greater synergy between the BRI and Spain's "Strategic Vision for Spain in Asia" and the "Mediterranean Corridor", closer economy and trade contacts, and more cooperation in such areas as ports, shipping, aviation, new energy vehicles, finance. Xi also called on the two sides to optimize technology and innovation cooperation, deepen people-to-people exchanges, and strengthen exchanges and cooperation in culture, local areas, tourism, journalism, medical care, cultural heritage protection, and sports. China stands ready to maintain communication and coordination with Spain on improving international governance, tackling climate change and other global and regional hot issues, Xi added. "China supports the integration process in Europe. China and Europe should support each other and strengthen collaboration in jointly safeguarding global order and promoting global governance," said Xi. "We are willing to seek greater synergy between the BRI and Europe's development strategies, jointly advance Eurasian interconnection and promote development and prosperity of the Eurasian continent,"said Xi, expecting the Spanish side to play a positive role in this regard and safeguard the correct direction for the development of China-Europe relations. For his part, Sanchez said that Xi's visit is of great historic significance and will open a new era for Spain-China relations, as it is the first visit by a Chinese head of state to Spain in 13 years and coincides with the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries. Hailing the "satisfactory" development of bilateral ties, Sanchez said Spain and China have become important trading partners, with increasingly closer cultural and educational exchanges. The Chinese in Spain have also made positive contributions to Spain's development and the friendship between the two countries. Under the new situation, Spain stands ready to increase political mutual trust and expand exchanges and cooperation with China. And Spain will actively take part in the construction of the Belt and Road, which is of historic significance, said Sanchez. Sanchez said that Spain firmly supports multilateralism and has similar positions with China in international affairs, expressing the will to closely communicate and coordinate with China, in order to promote the healthy and stable development of Europe-China relations. After the talks, the two leaders watched the signing of a number of bilateral cooperation documents in areas including culture, economy, people's livelihood, advanced materials, telecommunications, third-party markets cooperation, education and finance. The two sides also issued a joint statement on strengthening comprehensive strategic partnership in the new era. Before the talks, Xi was welcomed by King Felipe VI with a grand ceremony at Plaza de la Armeria next to the royal palace. The Chinese president was also conferred with a golden key to the city of Madrid by Mayor Manuela Carmena at a presentation ceremony held in Madrid City Hall. Noting that her citizens have been fond of the Chinese Spring Festival and recognizing the close ties between Madrid and China, Carmena said she looked forward to more cooperation between the Spanish capital and China. Xi said that Madrid became a friendship city of Beijing back in 1985 which injected vigor into every field of cooperation between the two countries. Delighted to accept the golden key, he said it will carry forward the close friendship between China and Spain and hoped the doors of mutual exchanges will open even wider. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 05:13:48|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close RABAT, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Moroccan Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that Gabon's President Ali Bongo Ondimba will receive treatment in a hospital in Morocco's capital Rabat. According to a statement from the ministry, "this decision comes in accordance with the desire of President Ali Bongo in an agreement with the constitutional institutions of the Republic of Gabon, in line with the opinion of doctors' treating." Bongo was hospitalized in Saudi Arabia last month after suffering a stroke. In a post on her Facebook page, his wife Sylvia Bongo said that her husband's health had improved significantly and that he would travel to Rabat to continue treatment. The Moroccan Foreign Ministry concluded that Morocco and Gabon have strong relations of friendship and solidarity based on the deep and historical ties of brotherhood between the peoples and leaders of the two countries. Bongo has been president of Gabon since 2009. He was re-elected in 2016. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 05:43:54|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close SANAA, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's Houthi rebels fired a salvo of ballistic missiles toward a military airport in southern Saudi border region of Najran on Wednesday, the Shiite rebels said in a statement. "The Badr-1-P ballistic missiles targeted the Saudi airport and the pilots' residency in Bir Askar area on Wednesday night," according to the statement carried by the rebel-controlled Saba news agency. The statement said the missiles hit the target accurately. There was no comment yet from Saudi Arabia. The attack was the first since the rebels announced halt of ballistic missile attack against Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on Nov. 18 as a "show of good faith" to support ongoing peace efforts by the United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths. The fresh military escalation came hours after the rebel al-Masirah TV channel was blocked by Egyptian satellite provider Nilesat company, in which the rebels blamed Saudi Arabia, the United States and France of being behind the pressures on Nilesat to remove the channel from the satellite stream. Saudi Arabia is leading an Arab military coalition that intervened in Yemen in 2015 to support the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after the Houthi rebels forced him into exile and seized much of the country's north, including the capital Sanaa. The four-year-long war has killed more than 10,000 people, mostly civilians, displaced three million others and pushed the country to the brink of famine. Griffiths left Sanaa on Saturday after a visit, during which the rebels pledged to attend the upcoming peace talks in Sweden. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 05:48:57|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close NAIROBI, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Kenya on Wednesday urged East African Community (EAC) member states to deploy information technology (IT)-enabled procurement systems in order to curb corruption. Henry Rotich, cabinet secretary for the National Treasury and Planning, told a regional finance forum in Nairobi that corruption must be eliminated in order to restore public confidence and ensure fair competition. "Adoption of e-procurement will go a long way in strengthening public procurement systems within the region, with a view to curbing corruption," said Rotich when he officially opened the East African Procurement conference in Nairobi. "Moreover, the EAC member states are signatories to the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) in which one of the resolutions is for the countries to implement measures aimed at combating corruption, particularly in public procurement," he added. The three-day forum is discussing key issues affecting the transformation and modernization of the public procurement systems; forging a common front among EAC member states on the value of public procurement for the promotion of good governance; professionalization of procurement practice through legal mechanisms; and sustaining public procurement reforms in the national procurement systems. Rotich said that public procurement is a major economic activity which generates significant financial flows in the economy. "As a consequence, public procurement has become one of the most vulnerable areas to corruption, fraud and bribery," he added. The Kenyan official noted that a good procurement system is vital to effective public expenditure management and to the delivery of services to citizens on time, at the most reasonable cost, and with the best quality. He observed that sound public procurement policies and practices are among the essential elements of good governance. According to Rotich, current best practice in public procurement adopts the operating principles of value for money, transparency and accountability, in an environment using an integrated financial management information system that incorporates the principles of output management. "The success of the procurement system depends on a clear articulation and understanding of what the legal and regulatory framework seeks to achieve. We must also continue to invest in the capacity of public sector systems, workers and management to ensure our public services are efficient, effective and professional," Rotich said. Maurice Juma, director-general of the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority, said that African countries are slowly moving toward e-procurement, with Rwanda being the first one to do so, and many having migrated to the Integrated Financial Management Information System. "For us to improve public procurement, we will need to strengthen the capacity of the agencies involved and deploy robust information communication technology (ICT) systems to seal all the loopholes that might provide fertile breeding grounds for corruption," Juma added. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 06:04:03|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close HELSINKI, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- A latest Finnish opinion poll indicates that Finnish public opinion increasingly shares the country's policy preference that underlines security networking without a formal membership in NATO. In a survey released on Wednesday by the pro-business think tank EVA, the public backing for joining NATO has continued declining. The support level was now 23 percent, a drop from 25 percent in 2017 and 27 percent in 2016. 46 percent were opposed and 31 percent did not take a stand. While the support levels for joining NATO remained under 15 percent in the early 2010s, there was an increase after the Crimean crisis in 2014. Although Finland is not a member of NATO, it has a wide array of partnership agreements both with NATO and the member countries. In the poll, 47 percent of Finns agreed that the U.S. is an important companion. Heikki Patomaki, professor of international politics at the Helsinki University, said that the enhanced companionship is probably a better solution for both NATO and Finland. Talking to newspaper Kansan Uutiset, he noted that Finland is already so deeply involved in NATO military structures that the actual membership is not essential. Patomaki assessed that the present situation also matches the Russian interests. "Russia can consider Finland to some extent a non-aligned country," Patomaki said. He wondered, though, how close to NATO Finland can go without a formal membership. Mika Aaltola, program director of the Finnish Institute for International Affairs, said that as an actual NATO member Finland would assume a larger collective role in the neighborhood of Russia. In that situation, Finland could face counter measures such as troop deployment closer to Finland. Patomaki noted that Finnish President Sauli Niinisto has adopted a balancing statesman's role and has slowed down the process towards a possible membership. Patomaki admitted that he did not expect a "turnaround". The polls reflect remarkable level of backing for NATO among conservative voters. When combined with political convictions, the support for joining NATO is largest among the conservative National Coalition Party voters and the Swedish Party voters, at around 55 percent. Finland became a NATO partner for peace in 1994, a member of the NATO Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council in 1997, and an Enhanced Opportunities Partner in 2014. Also in 2014, Finland signed a host country agreement for troops with NATO. These have been followed by several bilateral agreements with the U.S. and other NATO countries. Finland cooperates closely with Sweden that is not in NATO either. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 06:09:03|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close GABORONE, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Corruption is the most universally known impediment to socio-economic development of Africa, Botswana's President Mokgweetsi Masisi said Wednesday. Officially opening the ongoing seventh edition of the African Union (AU) high level dialogue on democracy, human rights and governance in Gaborone, Botswana's capital city, Masisi said political instability is impeding the much-needed economic progress on the African continent. "Corruption is the most universally known impediment to socio-economic development," said Masisi during the event that brought together pioneers and stalwarts of democracy, human rights and governance under one roof. He said it is common knowledge that most of the conflicts in Africa remain etched in the competition for resources and access to state power to accumulate personal wealth illegally. In addition, Masisi said the lack of due regard for basic human rights of their respective citizens by many African governments also continues to ferment tensions resulting in the perpetuation of such conflicts. "The situation breeds corruption and political instability which impede the much-needed economic progress on the continent," he said at the event held under the theme: Winning the fight against corruption: A sustainable path to Africa's transformation. The 30th Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the AU that was held in Jan. 2018 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia declared 2018 as the Africa Anti-Corruption Year. It remains the biggest threat to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as adopted by members of the United Nations (UN) in 2015. Speaking at the same event, Nonofo Molefhi, Botswana's minister of presidential affairs, governance and public administration, said there is need for more platforms to ensure that the message about corruption and its consequences are well understood. "Africa must speak with one voice on the fight against the scourge of corruption," said Molefhi. Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-29 06:44:13|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close ROME, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- The absence of the Morandi Bridge is costing the port city of Genoa and Italy's wealthy industrial Northwest region 784 million euros a year (891 million U.S. dollars) in lost gross domestic product (GDP), Confindustria industrialists association said in a report on Wednesday. The Morandi Bridge was a vital piece of infrastructure built in the 1960s that linked Genoa's busy industrial port with the rest of the city, the region, and Europe. It fell apart on a busy day in mid-August, sending dozens of men, women and children hurtling to their deaths. Over 200 families were displaced from their homes below the bridge and 100s of local businesses were devastated, causing direct and indirect damages of 422 million euros in the immediate wake of the collapse, the city of Genoa said in a statement. Genoa Mayor Marco Bucci, who was named Commissioner for the Reconstruction of the Morandi Bridge by the government in October, said in a November 15 statement that the city will be getting "1.1 billion euros overall" in public funds, and that "I want to see the (new) bridge by Christmas 2019". According to the joint Confindustria-Genoa Chamber of Commerce study out Wednesday, the absence of the bridge will cause estimated losses of 178 million euros a year in added value for the port and its logistical activities, plus 117 million in losses for the tourist sector and 54 million in losses to industrial activities. In addition, with every year that goes by without a new bridge, Genoa residents will shell out 64 million euros annually in extra commuting costs, while the city will suffer a 27-million-euro reduction in consumer spending, Confindustria analysts said. The report came as private highway operator Autostrade per l'Italia (Highways for Italy) CEO Giovanni Castellucci was questioned by Genoa prosecutors as part of a criminal case in which a total of 21 executives, managers, and engineers are under investigation connected with the deadly Morandi Bridge collapse. In televised comments to reporters on his way out of the court, Castellucci said he will step down as Autostrade CEO as part of a "process that began before this tragedy", implying that the two are not related. Meanwhile Bucci and his team are assessing bids for the Morandi Bridge reconstruction after a tender offer that expired on Nov. 26. Among them is a bid by Italian infrastructure construction giant Salini Impregilo and Fincantieri shipbuilders based on a design by Italian arch-star Renzo Piano, and a competing bid from Italy's Cimolai, who specialize in metal bridges and other infrastructure, with a design from Spanish arch-star Santiago Calatrava. Demolition of the remains of the bridge has been scheduled to commence on Dec. 15, Bucci has said. TORONTO, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kerr Mines Inc. ( TSX: KER , OTC: KERMF, FRA: 7AZ1) (Kerr or the Company) announces that it has closed a non-brokered private placement raising gross proceeds of $2,973,517 (the Offering). The Offering, previously announced on November 9, 2018, targeted proceeds of $2.5 million, which was oversubscribed. Furthermore, the Company has closed the US$2 million (CDN $2.7 million) senior secured convertible note financing with Sprott Private Resource Lending (Collector) LP previously announced on November 6, 2018 (the Note). The proceeds of the financing shall be utilized to commence a resource expansion program, complete permit modifications and conclude metallurgical test-work along with general and corporate working capital. We have taken another very important step forward in the execution of our strategy and development plans for the Copperstone Mine. This financing will allow the Company to commence a resource expansion program and complete key elements of progressing the Copperstone Mine back into production, stated Claudio Ciavarella, Kerrs Chief Executive Officer. As a show of confidence in the extensive work that our team has achieved to date and the belief in our project, the entire Board and our VP Projects have participated in this financing, concluded Ciavarella. Private Placement The Company completed the Offering consisting of 21,239,409 units of the Company (the Units) at a price of CDN$0.14 per Unit for total gross proceeds of CDN$2,973,517. Each Unit consists of one common share of the Company (a Common Share) and one Common Share purchase warrant (a Warrant). Each Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one Common Share at a price of CDN$0.21 per Common Share until November 27, 2020 provided that if, at any time the Common Shares trade on a stock exchange at a volume weighted average trading price of CDN$0.30, or greater, per Common Share for a period of 20 consecutive trading days, the Company may accelerate the expiry date of the Warrants by giving notice to the holders thereof and in such case the Warrants will expire on the 30th day after the date on which such notice is given by the Company. In connection with the Offering the Company did not incur any finders fees. All securities issued pursuant to the Offering shall be subject to a hold period of four months from the date of closing. Insiders of the Company subscribed for the following Units under the Offering, Insider Number of Units Fahad Al Tamimi, Chairman of the Board 3,571,429 Claudio Ciavarella, CEO 2,142,860 Martin Kostuik, President 376,728 Peter Damouni, Director 428,571 James McVicar, Director 178,571 Ayman Arekat, Director 100,000 Dave Thomas, VP Projects 48,285 Total 6,846,444 The issuance and sale of Units under the Offering to insiders of the Company constituted related party transactions within the meaning of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 (MI 61-101). The Company is relying on the exemptions from the valuation and minority shareholder 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 participation in the Offering by each insider does not exceed 25% of the market capitalization of the Company, as determined in accordance with MI 61-101. The Company did not file a material change report in respect of the related party transaction at least 21 days before the closing of the Offering, which the Company deems reasonable in the circumstances so as to be able to avail itself of the proceeds of the Offering in an expeditious manner. The Note The US$2 million (CDN$2.7 million) Note, Phase 1 of the Sprott project financing facility, will bear interest at a rate of 9% per annum payable semi-annually and matures on May 31, 2020. The Note is convertible into Common Shares at any time prior to maturity at a conversion price of CDN$0.16 per share. The Company can redeem the Note at any time by paying the outstanding principal amount in cash, or with the agreement of the holder, in Common Shares of the Company, together with interest payable to maturity. In connection with the Note, the Company issued to Sprott one million common share purchase warrants (the Sprott Warrants). Each Sprott Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one Common Share at a price of CDN$0.15 until November 27, 2021. The expiry of the Sprott Warrants can be accelerated at the Companys election if the trading price of the common shares is higher than 2.5 times the exercise price for 30 consecutive trading days. About Kerr Mines Inc. Kerr Mines is an Emerging American Gold Producer currently advancing the 100% owned, fully permitted past-producing Copperston e Mine project to production. Copperstone is a high-grade gold project located along a detachment fault mineral belt in mining-friendly Arizona. This gold project in Arizona demonstrates tremendous exploration potential targeting multi-million ounce prospects within a 4,775 hectare (11,800 acres) land package. About Sprott Inc. Sprott is an alternative asset manager and a global leader in precious metal and real asset investments. Through its subsidiaries in Canada, the US and Asia, the company is dedicated to providing investors with best-in-class investment strategies that include Exchange Listed Products, Alternative Asset Management and Private Resource Investments. The company also operates Merchant Banking and Brokerage businesses in both Canada and the US. Sprott is based in Toronto with offices in New York, Carlsbad and Vancouver and its common shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol (TSX:SII). For more information, please visit www.sprottinc.com . PDF Version of 43-101 technical report available: http://kerrmines.com/wp-content/uploads/KerrCopperstone_PFS_43-101.pdf YouTube: Copperstone Gold Mine KER:TSX 3 min. Investor Tour Video For further information contact: Claudio Ciavarella Chief Executive Officer cciavarella@kerrmines.com 416-855-9305 Amenzi de 30.000 de lei, in Timis, celor care nu au purtat masca sau nu au respectat carantina Doi timisoreni care ar fi trebuit sa fie in carantina, insa au fost prinsi de politisti pe-afara, au primit amenzi de cate 3.000 de lei. In total, in cadrul actiunii desfasurate miercuri, 24 noiembrie, pentru [citeste mai departe] Wind energy secures a quarter of national electric production; Romania exports approx. 600 mw Wind turbines accounted for 23.5 percent of total national production on Wednesday morning at 11.30 am, being ranked first among the top electricity sources, while country exports approached 600 MW, according to data on the state of national energy system state, posted in real time on the Transelectrica website. At that time, wind power generation in the wind turbines was 2,242 MW. The coal takes the second place in the ranking of production resources with 22.2 percent (2,129 MW) and, while hydrocarbons are ranked third with 20.8 percent (1,990 MW). Moreover, the national Citeste articolul mai departe pe stiripesurse.ro Sursa articol: stiripesurse.ro Stiri pe aceeasi tema - Romania's national electricity consumption was 5.6pct higher in the first nine months of the year, compared to the same period last year, reaching 41.4 TWh, according to a statement from the National Institute of Statistics (INS), agerpres reports. The consumption of the population increased the - The markets for the following day, spot, in Romania and Bulgaria, have been coupled, the first delivery day being Thursday, October 28, according to a press release sent by Transelectrica to AGERPRES on Wednesday. The new successful coupling is the result of the cooperation between the Designated - The energy generated by the nuclear plant in Cernavoda ensured a third of the production of electricity at the national level, on Sunday morning, according to data regarding the state of the national energy system, posted in real-time by the Transelectrica website. Thus, at 10:00 hrs, the - Black Sea Oil & Gas (BSOG) has completed the installation of the Ana natural gas production platform, approximately 120 kilometers off the Black Sea, in waters with a 70-meter depth, the company announced in a press release sent to AGERPRES on Wednesday. The Ana natural gas production platform - Carbunele era, duminica dimineata, principala sursa de generare a energiei electrice, acoperind 27% din productia totala la nivel national, potrivit datelor privind starea sistemului energetic national in timp real, postate pe site-ul Transelectrica. - The Google Pay application is also available in Romania starting Wednesday, September 8, according to Economedia.ro. So far, the service was available only through payment applications of partners, banks or electronic payment operators. Android phone users in Romania can now use the Google Pay app to - Romania's National COVID-19 Vaccination Coordination Committee (CNCAV) on Wednesday issued a strong condemnation of actions that affect the conduct of the COVID-19 mass vaccination in the country, insisting that vaccination is a medical act that must be carried out in a favorable and safe environment, - Energia nucleara este, duminica dimineata, principala sursa de productie in Romania, asigurand o treime din total, desi, de regula, acopera 18-20%, cu ambele reactoare de la Cernavoda la capacitate maxima, arata datele privind starea sistemului energetic national, prezentate in timp real pe site-ul Seth Frotman, the former student loan watchdog at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is launching a new nonprofit, the Student Borrower Protection Center, with two other former colleagues to advocate for students and take on the nation's bureaucratic student-loan complex. A student borrower defaults on a college loan every 28 seconds, an event with potential devastating economic consequences for individuals, the Inquirer reported earlier this month. American student debtors now owe $1.5 trillion to private banks and the federal government through the Department of Education. These debts are growing faster than auto loans, mortgages, and credit card balances. Pennsylvania students graduate with some of the highest debt in the nation, according to multiple private research reports. And two of the largest student loan servicers, Navient and the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, are based in Delaware and Pennsylvania, respectively. "What became abundantly clear at the [CFPB], particularly over the last three years, is that we are in the midst of a student debt crisis," Frotman said. "There was no desire. There was no effort. There was no plan to help student loan borrowers who were struggling. The only way to continue do this work was to leave the federal government." Frotman, 40, quit the federal regulatory agency in August to protest Trump administration policies he believed aligned the regulatory agency with the industry rather than 44 million debt-ridden student borrowers. The two additional former CFPB officials who are launching the Washington-based Student Borrower Protection Center with Frotman are Mike Pierce, a deputy assistant director, and Bonnie Latreille, a policy analyst. They specialized in student loans oversight. Frotman said he expects to "engage the front lines of the student debt crisis" by talking with lawmakers in state capitals he spoke at a hearing in Albany, N.Y., on Tuesday about a student loan oversight bill and law-enforcement officials. Frotman said he expects broad financial support from foundations and a network of researchers and fellows as part of the group. The CFPB hasn't replaced Frotman since his departure as student loan ombudsman, the CFPB confirmed, but per Congress's instructions, there is an inter-agency process for filling the role that is underway. Persis Yu, the director of the student borrower project at the National Consumer Law Center, said that Frotman and his team leveraged their access inside CFPB to analyze and publicize the breadth of the student loan crisis, bringing attention to the problems at Navient and other servicers. Navient shares dropped last week after an ongoing government audit found deceptive practices at the company that may have resulted in tens of thousands of students opting into higher-cost loans. The results of the audit, reported by the Associated Press, implied that the nation's third-largest student loan servicing company appeared to boost profits by steering some borrowers into higher-cost plans without discussing options that would have been less expensive over the longer term. The company has denied wrongdoing, and the stock price has recovered somewhat to trade at around $11.25 a share. Navient is currently battling lawsuits in Pennsylvania and other state courts, where multiple Attorneys General accused the company of misleading practices. The AP received a copy of the audit from the office of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), a frequent critic of Navient and current U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. "Navient's brazen insistence that it has acted appropriately, even when they knew there was evidence proving that it had not, is pretty astonishing," said the Roosevelt Institute fellow Julie Margetta Morgan. "But I think it just speaks to their level of certainty in the Department of Education's willingness to protect servicers at all costs." On Tuesday, in a conference with the Education Department's Student Aid division in Georgia, DeVos told attendees that "when the federal government loans more taxpayer money, schools raise their rates," adding that federal student aid "accounts for 80 percent of the actual tuition and fee revenue received by the schools." DeVos said that the federal government considers 43 percent of all student loans to be "in distress" and that "the parade of programs, repayment options and complex rules serves no one well." So we've made it past Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, and Giving Tuesday, but if you are like me, you still have the bulk of your holiday shopping to do. It should go without saying that you ought to check out annual Made in Philadelphia Holiday Market in Dilworth Park and the Christmas Village in LOVE Park. But sometimes you have to make a beeline to specialty stores for those on your list with specific tastes. Here are my merry picks. Side note: If you live in the 'burbs and are worried about trekking into the city, you can get most of my finds online. For the home decorator Egan Rittenhouse 210 W. Rittenhouse Sq. 215-433-1632 Instagram: www.instagram.com/eganrh Website: www.eganrittenhouse.com This year, Egan Rittenhouse in the lobby of the Rittenhouse Hotel is a winter wonderland complete with sparkling Popsicles, unicorns, ceramic kitties dressed in their holiday finest, and snow globes galore. Owner Kate Egan went to town with Glitterville, the crafty home decor company helmed by whimsical Tennessee artist Stephen Brown. But if you aren't interested in holiday-only themed gifts, no worries. There are everyday luxe items like curvy Middle Kingdom vases and plant-based Rodin oils that are the ultimate in face, hair, and skin moisturizing. If you aren't sure what to take to the in-laws' swanky holiday party, try an Egan Rittenhouse floral arrangement; they are as lovely as they are rustic. >> READ MORE: Best women's boutiques in Philadelphia For the book lover Shakespeare & Co. 1632 Walnut St. 215-486-2106 Instagram: www.instagram.com/shakespeareandco.rittenhouse Website: shakespeareandcompany.com The vibe of Center City's newest bookstore, Shakespeare & Co., is the best kind of cozy. But to be a great bookstore, not only does the vibe have to be sublime, the books have to be, too. And they are. Think John Grisham's The Reckoning, Michelle Obama's Becoming, Tana French's The Witch Elm, and Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas (oh, how I love that one) But there is even more gift-centered fabulosity. Behind the cafe is the Shakespeare & Co. Espresso Book Machine that prints bookstore-quality paperbacks for you on demand. That means your favorite copy of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol or your grandmother's best recipes can be bound into a real book for about $15. For the spirit maker Art in the Age 116 N. Third St. 215-922-2600 Instagram: www.instagram.com/artintheage Website: www.artintheage.com Once upon a time, Art in the Age was a co-op offering indie menswear like Brooklyn Circus. But experiential shopping trumps clothing. Add a craft cocktail and you have a winner. That said, the Old City specialty shop that, to my chagrin, has the most spankin' bar area is now the go-to place for novelty alcohol. Those who know booze will likely enjoy one of Art in the Age's six varietals: three cordials and three infusions that owner Steven Grasse distills at Tamworth Distilling in New Hampshire. Other gifts for the persnickety lush in your life include vintage glassware for about $10 a vessel and make-your-own cocktail kits that average $135 a pop but that might just be worth it as each box contains the artisan ingredients and tools to make, for example, your favorite whiskey drinks, from old-fashioneds to mint juleps. For the bauble wearer Moon + Arrow 754 S. Fourth St. 215-469-1448 Instagram: www.instagram.com/shopmoonandarrow/ Website: www.moonandarrow.com/ Moon + Arrow follows several karmically sound rules of business. Items must be fair trade, eco-friendly is a nonnegotiable, and, most important, everything is made by an artisan. Owner and jeweler Chelsea Pearce is most proud of the Moon + Arrow private-label pieces. The dainty baubles all under $100 are fashioned from brass, sterling, and gold fill and include hoop earrings, all manner of bangles, and just-for-the-holidays zodiac necklaces. Cloudy bottles of essential oil-based perfumes line Moon + Arrow's shelves, too. Candles from local chandlers like the Malvern brand Zoet Bathlatier are among the biggest sellers at this time of year because, after all, who doesn't love a candle? For your cool dude Lapstone & Hammer 1106 Chestnut St. 215-592-9166 Instagram: www.instagram.com/lapstoneandhammer/ Website: www.lapstoneandhammer.com/ Sure, Lapstone & Hammer owner Brian Nadav carries classic footwear brands: Nike, Puma, Asics, Vans, and Converse. But that's not the reason to flock there for the sneaker geek in your life. It's all about those brands' limited-edition sneaks: Triple White Nikes, Golf Le Fleur Chuck Taylors in burlap, and Emory Jones Pumas. Three years old, Lapstone & Hammer is a direct, albeit cooler descendant Philly urbanwear vendor O.G. City Blue. In addition to the tennis shoes, Lapstone + Hammer focuses on chic menswear and is the exclusive retailer of Visvim, Rhude, John Elliot, and rising star Pittsburgh designer John Geiger. For your empowered woman The Sable Collective 3133 N. 22nd St. 267-666-0126 Website: www.facebook.com/Thesablecollective Instagram: www.instagram.com/thesablecollective Those of us searching for the ideal gift to help loved ones set (and keep) New Year's intentions should swing through the Sable Collective, half of Syreeta Scott's North Philadelphia natural hair salon, Duafe, In this spiritual, funky, and magical space, one can find sage and Palo Santo, journals and gemstones, candles and a swanky selection of note cards that express love, awe, and encouragement. And let's not forget the rack of vintage clothing that was good enough for your mama (or your mama's mama) and that is special enough for you. For the yogi Rebel 8020 Germantown Ave. 215-242-9642 Website: rebelyogastudio.com/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/rebelyogastudio/ Yogis need lots of things: tanks that don't rise mid-handstand, durable leggings that fit like a second skin for splits, water bottles and bracelets to focus on when the warrior pose gets too hard. Not only can you take classes at Sue Pinto's yoga studio, Rebel, in Chestnut Hill, you can also shop popular-on-the-mat labels like Spiritual Gangster, Alo, Koral, Strut This, and Splits 59. Whether stocking stuffers or under-the-tree treasures, these gifts are packed with good vibes. For the made-in-Philly diehards Steel Pony 758 S. Fourth St. 215-467-6065 Website: steelpony.com Instagram: www.instagram.com/steelponystyle All the clothing and accessories in Joanne Litz and Dennis Wolk's 1,000-square-foot Queen Village boutique is made on the premises. That means the tie-dyed dresses and tunics (most of which have pockets, yeah!) and leather accessories (think handbags, knapsacks, book covers) are fashioned right in front of you. Prices are fair to middling, ranging from $28 for a silk scarf to upward of $789 for a roomy leather satchel. Litz also turns crystals into statement jewelry that starts at $35. Trying on the handmade capes, sweaters, and shrugs was like wrapping myself in a hug, and, in all honesty, aren't hugs the best presents ever? For the writer who loves Philly Paper on Pine 115 S. 13th St. 215-625-0100 Instagram: www.instagram.com/paperonpine/ Website: www.paperonpine.com/ Whether it's a Deck the Hall and Oates, a Rocky-themed Christmas card, the famous Philadelphia LOVE logo printed on a canvas tote, or a stemless wineglass, Paper on Pine owner Cindy McDonnell is all about the Philly swag. But if Philadelphia is not your thing and we can't imagine why it wouldn't be there's a host of new-wave feminist and socially conscious knick-knacks for the rebel in your life. Think Ruth Bader Ginsburg mugs and Frida Khalo calendars. For the foodie Olive with a Twist At Olive with a Twist, olive oil is more than just olive oil, pate is fresh, and cheeses are exotic (have you ever heard of coconut-infused Gouda? Well, I hadn't either). One of the new outposts in the new and improved Bourse Food Hall, co-owners Brian Terry and Chris Robinson's mix of yummy presents also includes bacon marmalade, truffle balsamic oils, and gourmet potato chips one even has the nerve to be flavored with Iberian ham. Ranging in price from $10 to $25, these gifts are just what you need for the office Secret Santa. Azir Harris, 17, was shot and likely paralyzed in Philadelphia on Feb. 15, 2018. Read more It wasn't like Troy Harris to ignore messages, thought Michelle Lyu. Especially now. Harris, a longtime beloved cook at Penn's kosher dining hall, had joined with another cook, as well as Lyu and a couple of other students, to put a food truck on the streets. They were just months from firing up the grill. His sudden silence made no sense. And then, as Lyu biked by Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, they spotted each other. "Man, my son got shot," Harris told Lyu. It was the cruelest of ironies, Lyu said. The vegetarian food truck that Harris, 43, had worked so hard to launch was meant to get at-risk teens off the streets by giving them jobs. Much like the job at Penn Hillel's Falk Dining Commons, where Harris has worked for 17 years, did for him as he watched friends die or end up in jail. He was 15 when he watched his friend, gunned down, take his last breath. "Now the Grim Reaper is knocking on my door," he said. Around dinnertime one night in February, his youngest son, Azir, was walking to a store near their home at the Wilson Park housing development in South Philadelphia with two friends to grab something to eat. Gunfire rang out. They were all struck. Azir, 17, got it the worst, hit five times and left indefinitely in a wheelchair. I'm guessing most people reading this column didn't hear much, if anything, about it. A headline tersely read: "Police: 3 Teens Hospitalized Following Triple Shooting." That would be because the Philly teen had the unfortunate timing of being shot the day after the Parkland school shooting, and despite all the talk of mass shootings, gun violence in cities like Philly is still mostly overlooked. Mass shootings move people. They inspire movements. Everyday shootings mostly get a "meh." Since the beginning of the year, there have been about 300 shootings in Philly. Many victims, like Harris, survive. But they face a long, painful, and expensive road they're left to navigate, out of sight and out of mind. Unlike after Parkland, there are no collective calls for change, no celebrities lining up to help the victims. For Harris and his wife, Debra, 41, who works full time at a rehabilitative nursing home, that means juggling full-time jobs, caring for their five other children ages 17 to 24, while watching their medical bills pile up, even with health insurance. Lyu, a Wharton junior, struggled to find a way to help. She and another student visited Harris and his family at the hospital, where they sat vigil while Azir lay unconscious for three weeks. Debra, trying to shake the tightness in her chest that took hold the moment someone called to tell her that Azir had been shot. Troy, reliving the moment when he fell to his knees at the hospital. "My soul left me." Lyu called it "heart-wrenching" as we visited Azir and his parents the other day at Magee Rehabilitation Hospital, where he's expecting at least another month of treatments after bullets ripped through his legs, back, and a lung during the drive-by shooting. She looked at Azir, sitting in his wheelchair. "Azir, the way he looked at you " Her eyes filled with tears as she turned to Troy. "I could see the pain in your eyes, Troy. I could see the suffering, definitely. It was a very, very sobering sight to see." Until she created a fund-raiser to help with the medical expenses, Lyu concedes she had weaved an uncomplicated story in her mind of how the situation would get resolved. "I'd very, very conveniently imagined that everything would work out for the Harris family," she said. "I'm a Penn student, I'm obviously a privileged person. I have racial privilege. I have socio-economic privilege. I have academic privilege. It's so easy for someone like me to imagine that everything will work out." Now here she was, face to face with the deep disparities that coexist in our city every day. A loved and devoted cook, who fought to improve working conditions and increase wages in the dining hall where he always warmly welcomed the students, was in crisis. The incident shook loose truths she was no longer willing to deny, that she readily acknowledges might make some of her peers defensive, even ashamed. She's grateful that people have contributed so readily to the fund-raiser (https://www.youcaring.com/azirharris-1150323) the fund is slowly but steadily nearing its goal. But that's not enough for Lyu, who fears that once they reach the $20,000 goal, people will retreat to their bubbles, and will think, "That's it. The problem goes away. They just need a little bit of money." "We need to bridge this disconnect," she says before putting out a call to action as much to herself as to her Penn community. "Privilege is a gift. Use it." 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. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Forward-thinking organizations around the globe understand the strategic value of sustainability. A company that sees sustainability as a priority can better anticipate and react to a range of external factors such as economic, environmental and regulatory changes. In addition, the brand reputation benefits within the context of the social contract are invaluable. Canadian-based Legend Power Systems Inc. (TSX-V: LPS) is a global leader in voltage management technology. The Legend Power Systems team works with clients across Canada and the U.S., using their groundbreaking SmartGATE technology an intelligent system that provides a complete power management solution for a building. A recent example of a clients success in this area is Greater Moncton Romeo LeBlanc International Airport (YQM). Working with Legends channel sales partner, Haven Consultants International, installation of the SmartGATE resulted in the airport having a projected savings of 150,000 kWh per year and reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 45 metric tons annually. In addition, YQM is expected to save more than $180,000 in energy costs during the SmartGATE first 10 years of operation. YQMs installation of a SmartGATE is the first by an airport and represents Legends entry to an entirely new and potentially significant sales vertical. YQM is an active environmental leader within the community of 100+ international airports across North America. The recently installed SmartGATE helped the airport achieve Airport Carbon Accreditation Level 2 Reduction in May 2018. It is one of only four Canadian airports to attain this a major feat in environmental best practice. YQM is proud of its environmental achievements and works hard to identify innovative energy savings solutions, states Vincent Martin, Director of Operations at YQM. Legends SmartGATE, a single energy management solution which has reduced our kWh usage by 3.8% (based on initial M&V), was an obvious choice and has become a valuable piece in our energy management strategy. Said Randy Buchamer, CEO at Legend Power Systems: YQM is a great example of a customer in a new market vertical achieving measurable impact after installing the SmartGATE. We continually see small, medium and large organizations turning to us for help in decreasing their environmental footprint and to save money. With a continuing track record of success, more companies are looking at Legends proven solution. About Greater Moncton Romeo LeBlanc International Airport (YQM) YQM is a progressive airport and the leading airport in the central Maritimes. 24/7/365 everyone associated with the airport strives to provide superior air service to passengers travelling all over the world and to the global cargo industry safe, convenient, efficient, bilingual and businesslike. YQM also strives to maximize its contribution to local and regional economic and community development it currently drives over $665 million of economic activity annually, making it one of the top private-sector economic contributors to New Brunswicks economy. YQM is a member of Vantage Airport Group. About Haven Consultants International Haven Consultants International is a leading engineering consultancy firm. Originally operating in the UK, we have established operations in North America to offer our experience in the energy efficiency market. Through many years working at the cutting edge of European efficiency initiatives we have developed unrivalled experience dealing with some of the worlds more advanced technologies in this field, specifically Conservation Voltage Reduction (CVR), where we have been instrumental in nationwide rollouts with major multinational corporations. About Legend Power Systems Inc. Legend Power Systems Inc. ( www.legendpower.com ) is a global leader in voltage management technology. They help buildings use less energy by eliminating overvoltage an inherent challenge associated with power grids around the world. Legends industry-proven SmartGATE enables their clients to use dynamic power management for an entire building. Their proprietary and patented system reduces total energy consumption and power costs, while also maximizing the life of electrical equipment. This results in a more energy-efficient building, which helps to reduce its environmental impact. Their unique solution is a key contributor to both corporate sustainability efforts and the meeting of utility energy efficiency targets. For further information, please contact: Steve Vanry, CFO + 1 604 671 9522 svanry@legendpower.com Sean Peasgood, Investor Relations + 1 647 503 1054 sean@sophiccapital.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Statements This Press Release may contain statements which constitute forward-looking information, including statements regarding the plans, intentions, beliefs and current expectations of the Company, its directors, or its officers with respect to the future business activities and operating performance of the Company. The words may, would, could, will, intend, plan, anticipate, believe, estimate, expect and similar expressions, as they relate to the Company, or its management, are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future business activities or performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and that the Companys future business activities may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. Such risks, uncertainties and factors are described in the periodic filings with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities, including the Companys quarterly and annual Managements Discussion & Analysis, which may be viewed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Although the Company has attempted to identify important risks, uncertainties and factors which could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be others that cause results not be as anticipated, estimated or intended. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements other than as may be required by applicable law. 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. Read more As a drug crisis has moved Kensington to the center of a debate on how best to treat addiction, we've largely failed to see the connection to the crisis taking place on America's southern border. Right now in the heart of Kensington, a throng of homeless heroin addicts is gathered beneath a bridge on Emerald Street, where nearby drug dealers linger and a community helplessly watches. Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, America's southern border is embroiled in a battle pitting homeless migrants against border guards with guns and tear gas. The two problems seem worlds apart, but they are intricately connected. That's because much of the heroin and fentanyl that is killing addicts in Philadelphia comes in through America's borders. Yet America's political focus is on stopping the influx of brown immigrants rather than stopping the flow of drugs. Our social focus is on enabling addicts to continue using rather than helping them to end their drug dependence. In short, our priorities are dangerously misplaced, and in the end it could cost us dearly. In order to understand just how hopelessly intertwined our drug crisis and our border issues are, one must first understand that neither problem happened overnight. They are both grounded in the historical morass of race and class in America, and, because they took years to emerge from the ashes of our troubled past, neither problem will go away overnight. The tensions on America's southern border stretch back to a time when nearly all of what we now know as the American Southwest was part of Mexico. Texas fought and won a war for independence from Mexico in 1836, making Texas a separate republic, and, when the U.S. officially annexed Texas in 1845, war broke out, and America prevailed. In 1848, the U.S. acquired parts of Arizona, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Nevada as part of a peace deal. In exchange, the U.S. made a token payment of $15 million. Many of the Mexican citizens who lived on those lands remained, but their differences in race, ethnicity, and language were always a sticking point for white America. They remain a source of tension today. What we now see on the U.S. southern border is a study in irony. South and Central Americans who now seek to cross into the U.S. are actually returning to the land of their ancestors. But their bid to escape from poverty and violence has been met with open hostility. Children in diapers have been tear-gassed. Families have been separated. People returning to the land they once held have been characterized as murderous invaders. In truth, the migrants are the least of our problems at the border. Our true problem is the drug trafficking that has helped to turn American cities and towns into places where death waits in needles. Fentanyl a synthetic drug that is 50 times more potent than heroin is being shipped to America from China. The drug plays a role in thousands of overdoses in places such as Kensington and beyond. Heroin produced in the poppy fields of Afghanistan where America has spent $1 trillion fighting a seemingly endless war still makes its way into the U.S. Tunnels from Mexico allow drug cartels to endlessly ship drugs across our border. And in Colombia, narcotics traffickers use ships and even rudimentary submarines to ship drugs to the U.S. There has been more attention on the problem of addiction since it was revealed that nearly 80 percent of those who died from drug overdoses in 2016 were white. And while I'm disappointed no, angered that it took that kind of information to make fighting addiction a priority, I'm concerned about our reaction to that news. Some in the medical and activist community have begun advocating for the use of supervised injection sites places where people can shoot drugs in the presence of medical personnel to avoid overdoses. I disagree with that method. As a recovering addict who is 22 years clean, it's my assertion that we should be trying to get people off drugs, not helping them to continue to use a substance that deteriorates their brain and plunges them further into addiction. If we truly care about the homeless drug addicts living under the bridge in Kensington, we must realize that our border fight is not against the homeless migrants making their way here from Central America. Our fight at the border must be about stopping the flow of drugs that are killing thousands of Americans. Our fight at home must be about helping people not to shoot drugs. If we can win those battles against the enemy that is addiction, perhaps one day we'll finally win the war. Solomon Jones is the author of 10 books. Listen to him weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon on Praise 107.9 FM. sj@solomonjones.com. @solomonjones1 U.S. President Donald Trump, left, and Russia's President Vladimir Putin give a joint news conference following their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, on July 16, 2018. (Mikhail Metzel/Tass/Abaca Press/TNS) Read more President Trump's biggest test at the G-20 meeting in Buenos Aires this weekend was supposed to be his tariff faceoff with China's Xi Jinping. Instead, he confronts an in-your-face challenge from Vladimir Putin, the Russian leader, whom he never criticizes directly. Putin's open military move against Ukraine just before the G-20 an attack on three Ukrainian ships in violation of laws of the sea is a direct insult to the U.S. president. It is a signal the Russian leader thinks Trump is a patsy, willing to swallow Russian aggression and Putin's lies. It's not clear whether the two presidents will meet. (Trump equivocated on Tuesday, but the Kremlin said on Wednesday that a meeting was still scheduled.) One thing is clear: Unless the president challenges Putin directly on the Ukraine attack, the world (including China) will take notice. And Putin will know he has a green light for further aggression against Ukraine, the Baltics, and elsewhere. "It is time for the United States to show leadership and impose costs for open Russian aggression," says the Atlantic Council's John Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. "This is the first time that Russia used its military openly [in Europe], and we can't let it stand without risking further use of Russian military force." The latest attack traces back to Russia's invasion and annexation of Crimea in 2014, and its later war on eastern Ukraine via local proxy militias helped by Russian troops. Putin denied there were Russian troops in Crimea until his denials became visibly ridiculous. He still denies Russia's continued military involvement in eastern Ukraine (just as he denies Moscow's cyber meddling in U.S. elections). Until now, Western sanctions seemed to have prevented overt Russian military attacks on Ukraine. But this week's aggression at sea is a perfect example of how Russia is trying to wreck the Ukrainian economy and bring the Kiev government to heel. Russian warships fired on and seized three Ukrainian military vessels that were traveling from the Black Sea through the Kerch Strait into the Sea of Azov, a triangular inland body of water bounded by Ukraine, the Crimean peninsula, and Russia. A 2003 treaty between Moscow and Kiev gives both countries free access to the Sea of Azov and to the Kerch Strait, which links the Azov and Black seas. But the Kremlin wants to totally control the strait, which runs alongside Crimea. The Russians also want to gain full control over the Sea of Azov, which would allow Moscow to control maritime shipping from Ukraine's two main industrial ports. The fact that Moscow's actions violate international law on freedom of the seas doesn't seem to bother the Kremlin (Moscow denies it). Beijing, which is challenging Washington and Tokyo over freedom of navigation in the South and East China Seas, must be watching with interest. "The Russians are doing this to see how Ukraine and the West will respond," says Stanford University's Steven Pifer, another former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. "If the response is weak, they will be encouraged to do more." Not surprisingly, Trump's response has been weak. Although the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, slammed Russian aggression, Trump's first response was to blame both sides, saying, "We don't like what's happening either way." "They were gloating in Moscow," says Pifer. "They see there is a big disconnect between Trump and Haley." The president later expressed some second thoughts about "that [Russian] aggression" but segued immediately into a slam at Germany and NATO for not paying enough for their defense. If Trump wanted to stand firm, he would spell out the cost of Russia's military aggression directly to Putin. If the Russian leader denied all, Washington and European nations could increase their naval presence in the Black Sea, or ban port calls from Russian ships based there or in Sea of Azov ports. New sanctions could be considered. Or Washington could bolster Ukraine's defenses by sending surface-to-ship missiles. (Trump deserves credit for green-lighting antitank missiles for Ukraine, but more is needed now.) However, if past is prologue, there is little reason to expect a firm Trump stance with Putin especially as the Mueller investigation heats up. Who can forget the president's shameful rollover at the Helsinki summit, when he stood beside Putin and said he believed the Russian's denials of election meddling? So responsibility for standing up to Putin may rest with the incoming Democratic majority in the House who will no doubt find strong support from many in the GOP. "What Russia is doing in Ukraine will be a major area where we focus," says Rep. Brendan Boyle (D., Pa.), a member of the House Foreign Relations Committee, "especially because this president has completely laid down in front of this Russian president." You'd think a U.S. president especially one who touts his own brilliance would understand the risk of kowtowing to Putin. You'd think he would grasp the message this weakness sends to China. Perhaps light will dawn as Trump flies to Argentina. If not, when it comes to Russia, it's up to Congress to defend America's foreign-policy values and interests and to clarify that Putin's aggression is not cost-free. New Philadelphia school board members Leticia Egea-Hinton, left, and Christopher McGinley in a new conference room in the board offices. Read more For years, they languished in a storage facility, relics from a bygone era. But the stained-glass windows that hung at the old Philadelphia School District building at 21st and Benjamin Franklin Parkway were gorgeous, colorful city scenes that were wasted out of the public eye, said Christopher McGinley, a member of the new school board and de facto district historian. McGinley's parents were both district educators, and he worked as a teacher and administrator in the system for years before becoming a superintendent in the Philadelphia suburbs and then a School Reform Commission member. So as part of a $500,000 renovation to the Board of Education offices inside district headquarters on North Broad Street, the windows were hauled out of storage, cleaned, repaired, and hung. Take it as a sign, McGinley said, of the way the new board means to do business. "I'm really committed to that artwork being seen by students and citizens," said McGinley, who added that he "really wanted there to be connections to the old board building." One of the first things visitors see in the physically revamped, former SRC space is a brand-new meeting room: a long table at the front, with dozens of chairs set up for the public. Most committee meetings will be held there; so will a meet-and-greet after the first Board of Education meeting, set for Monday, July 9. "This is certainly sending the message that it's something new," said Leticia Egea-Hinton, another board member. One thing board members have heard loud and clear in the months since their appointment by Mayor Kenney is that the public wants a break from the SRC and its complicated history; they want more accessibility and transparency. Egea-Hinton and McGinley said the new committee structure the board will form on Monday should help with that. "The committees will give people a place to have discussions, to have more informal dialogue," said McGinley. "We are very interested in hearing from parents, people in the community," said Egea-Hinton. The hope is that people do not hear about important matters first at board action meetings, that issues are raised early, that members of the public feel comfortable coming to committee meetings some of which will be held in city neighborhoods to air their concerns and ask questions. As for the board's physical space, that's a new look, too. In the past, each of the five SRC members had his or her own office; as the transition rolled out, the board had to grapple with how it would situate four new officials. Instead of building new, individual offices for the nine board members, it went for an open-plan space, with tables and chairs grouped to encourage collaboration, a meeting room, and even nine lockers for members to store things. "It's less of that rigid, traditional office," said Egea-Hinton. "It's a very 21st-century look." It's a departure, too, from the old board days, when each member had his or her own office in the ornate old building. The windows, according to a history compiled in 1987 by the district's Meredith School, were made by the old Columbia Art Glass Co. in 1929 for an exhibition room in the district building. They were never hung, for reasons that are not clear. In 1984, a district employee discovered the panels in their original crates in a district warehouse. They were "slightly damaged and very dirty, but with minor repairs, they look like new." The panels bright blues, greens, and yellows, with touches of red, depicting the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Schuylkill and the Waterworks, as well as the Acropolis in Athens were exhibited at the Philadelphia Flower Show in 1987, then in the foyer directly behind the board room at the old district headquarters. Officials said the cost of restoring the windows themselves was $5,000 the glass is original, but the wood around the windows needed replacement. The rest of the board office renovation budget went to construction and expenses associated with equipping the meeting room with technology necessary to broadcast meetings digitally. The money came from the SRC's budget through the district's general operating fund, the officials said. McGinley underscored the symbolism of the stained glass, though. A treasure trove of art was abruptly removed from district schools more than a decade ago after officials decided the works paintings, antiques, and artifacts were too valuable to be hanging unsecured. Most have been kept in an undisclosed location since then, though some notable paintings were exhibited last year at the Michener Museum in Doylestown. The stained-glass panels were added in the early 2000s, when the district's central office moved to 440 N. Broad St. Some works are not worth much financially but have sentimental value; those should be back in schools. Others might not make sense in schools but should still be seen, McGinley said. "We want to see those pieces returned as quickly as possible," he said. "Students should have access to them. It's part of our heritage." Cheerleader Najah Thomas, a senior, leaps as confetti falls to mark the dedication for a new mural at South Philadelphia High School. Read more Cheerleaders leaped into the air amid the pop and shower of confetti cannons outside South Philadelphia High on Wednesday. The mayor looked on, clapping. Students kept looking up at the reason they had gathered in the bitter cold: The new mural that told their school's story colorful, complex, proud. "That's me up there," said Rakim Perry, a South Philadelphia senior who has been involved in the project since its inception in 2016. He smiled at Parts Per Million, the giant mural highlighting the school's diversity, which took its inspiration from math, science, and geography. Southern, as it's known, is an imposing building that takes up an entire city block, South Broad between Snyder and Jackson. Parts of the plain, tan brick facade had been decorated with a mural in years past, but the scenes a young woman holding an artist's palette, a young man reading had been neglected, chipped, and faded. It seemed like a marker from another time. When the new Mural Arts Philadelphia partnership began a few years back, school principal Kimlime Chek-Taylor told artist Ben Volta that she wanted something welcoming for her building, something that told the story of a school where dozens of languages are spoken. "It's such a big, complex place," said Volta. "It felt like it needed a lot of love, a little bit of color." Volta first began his work in an algebra classroom with no plan other than to listen to students' thoughts and to help them build something. Students, both longtime Philadelphia residents and English-language learners, worked once a week with Volta and their teachers to dream up a project that would express the school's international energy in languages everyone understood: science and math. Even kids who felt tentative about their science and math abilities were suddenly engaged once art entered the picture, Volta said. "Lightbulbs went off," he said. Project-based learning is in vogue now, but the work done at Southern is the real deal, said Jane Golden, executive director of Mural Arts Philadelphia. "This was about open-ended questions, collaboration, critical thinking, about giving students a voice. It was about encouraging reflection and revision, encouraging young people to be courageous and fearless," Golden said. "You're seeing something bigger than yourself evolve." At first, the students connected coordinates. Eventually, they created shapes, drew fractals and spirals, DNA sequences, and satellite orbits. The finished product combines all of these things and incorporates 27 flags, representing each of the languages spoken by Southern students. Students were involved from start to finish, from ideas to painting. "This new mural is an incredible example of many different academic disciplines coming together to create something beautiful," Mayor Kenney said at the mural dedication ceremony Wednesday. "Parts Per Million shows us that we're all connected." The mural stretches over the entire front of the building, even underlaying the letters that spell out the school's name. To Chek-Taylor, the new piece of public art is "bright, lovely that's what high school should be about, a place that says, 'I want to be here.' " Janelle Harper, Southern's community schools coordinator and a point person for the project, said the mural is key to telling the community what the school is now. Almost a decade ago, Southern made international headlines when it exploded in racial violence, with dozens of immigrant students assaulted in a daylong series of attacks on Dec. 3, 2009. Southern still struggles academically, but it has made major strides in climate, becoming one of the city's first community schools a hub with extra supports and a decided sense of welcome for its 500-plus students, 89 percent of whom live below the poverty line and 20 percent of whom are learning English. "To me, this just gives the building a new lift," said Harper. Golden, whose organization works with 2,000 young people annually and is now working on large-scale mural projects at Kensington High and the U School, remembers vividly when Mural Arts began working in Philadelphia schools. "I remember thinking, 'These kids go to school in places that look like prisons, that look like barracks,' " said Golden. "Our kids deserve to be in beautiful learning environments, and it has so much power if kids can see their thoughts and ideas on a large scale, permanently." A Camden man who authorities said was part of a major drug trafficking ring was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in federal prison. Karim "Chicky" Johnson, 39, pleaded guilty in federal court in Camden in May to conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute cocaine, and admitted that he sold crack cocaine and furanyl fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, near the 1700 block of Filmore Street in Camden. U.S. District Judge Renee Marie Bumb also sentenced Johnson to eight years of supervised release and 300 hours of community service. Johnson is one of 11 people arrested since June 2017 following an investigation into drug trafficking by the FBI, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. The investigation included telephone wiretaps, surveillance, informants, cooperating witnesses and more than 20 controlled drug purchases, according to the U.S. Attorney's office. In addition to Johnson, four of those arrested have since pleaded guilty. THE PARENTS: Ana Calderon, 34, and Matthew Bledsoe, 34, of Fairmount THE CHILD: Mateo Bledsoe Calderon, born April 4, 2018 A MOMENT OF CULTURE CLASH: In the U.S., new parents often hesitate to expose their newborns to crowds. But the morning after Mateo was born, more than two dozen relatives crowded the hospital room in Madrid, hugging and kissing the baby and chattering in boisterous Spanish. She spoke her native Spanish, and she spoke ballet tendu, arabesque, battement jete. But she couldn't understand what the gregarious American dancer was saying when he chatted and laughed with others in the Zurich Ballet. "I saw Matthew always talking with everyone, and I thought: I wish I could understand him," Ana remembers. He thought she was shy, or uninterested, or maybe his jokes were falling flat. Finally, at a party, the rooms crammed with people, Ana made the first verbal gambit. "We were both giving each other these googly eyes," Matthew says. "And she said, 'Obviously, we're feeling something here.' " He was about to leave Zurich to dance in Spain, then to manage a ballet company in Germany. They traveled back and forth to see each other on weekends. Finally, both landed in Spain to be part of the brand-new Barcelona Ballet. "Matthew asked me to marry him many times. But I thought, 'Not yet. We have time,' " Ana says. Then, abruptly, his every-other-month proposals stopped. They were dancing in Merida, in a spectacular old Roman theater, when Matthew proffered a ring he'd fashioned from a sequin pinched off Ana's costume. This time, she said yes. But at lunch afterward with her parents, she kept flashing Matthew "don't say anything" signals. When she did share the news with her parents, they were not overjoyed. "They wanted a Spaniard with a nice office job, not a Texan who is a dancer and didn't go to college," Matthew says. But Ana trusted that they'd warm to the idea; sure enough, her mother called the next day with thoughts about wedding attire, music, and flowers. Their 2010 wedding, in a small town near Madrid, was a six-hour extravaganza with a DJ and a live band, a flamenco group, Ana's large extended family, Matthew's mother and older brother, his father in a cowboy hat, his 80-something grandmother on her first trip out of the United States. Matthew wanted kids right away. But Ana lobbied to wait: there was always another role she yearned to dance. "For a ballet dancer, pregnancy is very hard it's a lot of months of not working 100 percent. Then, recovery. And then you have a baby. I would say, 'Next year, maybe.' But the next year there would be a ballet that was important to me." When government funding for the arts withered in Spain, the pair decided to take a leap and try New York, trading their four-bedroom apartment in the mountains for a micro-efficiency on the Upper East Side. It took Ana six disheartening months to get her green card; meanwhile, Matthew was traveling the world to book tours for dance groups. Once Ana could work legally, she joined the Houston Ballet; again, they lived long-distance, two-and-a-half years of criss-crossing the country until, finally, she landed with the Pennsylvania Ballet in 2015. At least they were on the same coast. And they were over 30. They got pregnant on the first try, and Ana discovered she liked the challenge of dancing with a changing body. "Dancers use their core, but my core was not there any more. My balance was different. It was like discovering myself again with a different body." Last November, she performed at the Merriam, dancing in a multitoned unitard in a world premiere called It goes that way, with music by Laurie Anderson. A reviewer commented, "Calderon's pregnant belly was apparent, and it was refreshing to see a pregnant dancer featured like this." Ana was 36 weeks pregnant she and Matthew had just moved into a house in Fairmount when she got a phone call from her brother: their father had suffered a severe heart attack. They flew to Spain immediately. Ana's father died the next day. Although they'd planned to deliver at Pennsylvania Hospital, it suddenly made sense to stay. Spain boasts national health care, and Ana's whole family was there for support. They were all still in shock from her father's passing, and Ana didn't want her mother to be alone in the house. Mateo made them wait. He arrived a week overdue, after four days of irregular contractions, an induction, and a 12-hour labor that left Ana despite the stamina she'd gained from dancing so exhausted she could barely lift her arms to hold the infant. Matthew was startled, then pleased, that the baby looked like him. "That first night in the hospital, I had a little bit of a panic. It was just the two of us and this baby: Oh, now what? What have we gotten ourselves into?" It helped that Mateo was a calm infant who slept well, nursed hungrily, and weathered plane trips to London at one month, to Texas at two months, and finally home to Philadelphia at four months with tranquillity. Ana is back in the studio; she performed for the first time post-partum in last month's Romeo and Juliet. Matthew's work as an artist manager takes him all over the world: Peru, San Francisco, Russia. An au pair helps, and when Matthew is in Philadelphia, he can be with Mateo on the nights when Ana performs. It's not easy, they say. But neither is ballet, or living apart sometimes multiple time zones apart for most of their relationship. "I never considered not to keep dancing [after pregnancy]," Ana says. "I never thought it would be bad for the baby. I think it was the opposite: I was so healthy, and with so much energy, and I think the music was good for him." Ana avoids taking Mateo to the studio or the theater an infant is a distraction, and they're there to work. On the few occasions when she has, the other dancers got excited: It's rare to have an infant in their midst. But Mateo just takes in the lights, the colors, the music he's heard since being in utero. He's peaceful, and at home. Seth Williams' former campaign manager will soon be joining the disgraced former district attorney in prison. Billy Miller son of the late William R. Miller IV, a legend in Philadelphia political circles was sentenced Tuesday to five months on tax-evasion charges. The younger Miller, a Glenside resident, pleaded guilty this year to concealing more than $390,000 from the IRS that he earned working on campaigns including Williams' between 2010 and 2014. Miller's graft came to light in 2016 as part of the bribery and corruption investigation into Williams, who is now a year into his five-year stint at a federal prison in West Virginia. Prosecutors also alleged that Miller helped Williams steal more than $4,000 in campaign contributions in 2010 that the city's top prosecutor later spent on himself. Miller's introduction to Philadelphia Democratic politics started in his childhood. His father, who died in 2016, was the man behind the campaigns of some of the highest-profile elected officeholders in the city, including W. Wilson Goode Sr., the city's first black mayor, and State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams during his run against Mayor Kenney in 2015. Williams was one of the younger Miller's highest-profile clients, but the city's politically influential electricians' union, led by John "Johnny Doc" Dougherty, often retained his consulting services as well. In addition to imposing the prison term, U.S. District Judge Joel Slomsky ordered Miller to serve three years' probation upon his release, to complete 200 hours of community service, and to pay more than $94,000 in back taxes. FILE PHOTO Ken Smukler, a political strategist for U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, speaks with the media outside the federal courthouse in Philadelpha on Oct. 25, 2017. Read more In full-throated and often combative court testimony Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Bob Brady's top political adviser denied that he flouted federal campaign-finance laws to win elections and declared government claims to the contrary to be "absurd." Ken Smukler balked when asked whether he ever believed as prosecutors have contended that $90,000 he helped funnel to a Brady rival in 2012 was an illegal campaign contribution. "Never," he said. "I did not, and nobody who knows campaigns and politics would, either." He bristled at government assertions that he broke laws to raise money to reimburse contributions that were spent improperly by Democratic House candidate Marjorie Margolies in 2014. "Who's the victim?" he asked. "Who here committed a crime?" And before his impassioned five hours on the witness stand concluded Tuesday, Smukler teared up in frustration, recalling the day last year FBI agents showed up at his door. "I really thought that if I didn't cooperate," he said, "that they would put me in handcuffs." Smukler's pugnacious performance during which he often pounded his finger into the witness stand or jabbed it into the air to emphasize a point could determine whether a federal jury acquits or convicts him in the next several days on charges including violations of campaign-finance law and making false statements to authorities. In three weeks of trial, prosecutors have repeatedly accused Smukler, 58, of Villanova, of helping to cover up Brady's $90,000 payoff in 2012 to primary challenger Jimmie Moore by falsely claiming the money was meant to purchase a poll and to hire one of Moore's campaign staffers. He also stands accused of facilitating illegal contributions to Margolies' 2014 primary run, to hide her improper spending of money restricted for use in the general election. But as he bounded toward the witness stand Tuesday in front of a full federal courtroom in Philadelphia, it was clear he had been itching for his opportunity to respond. "If you called the [Federal Elections Commission] and made this argument, they would find it absurd," he said at one point, referring to the government's theory of the case. "They would say, 'What are you talking about?' " Smukler's animated demeanor would have been instantly recognizable to those who have tangled with him on the campaign trail at any point in his three-decade career as one of the city's most prominent operatives in Democratic circles. A self-described "failed lawyer," he got his start in campaign politics at the side of former Philadelphia Mayor Wilson Goode. He helped elect Margolies in her first run for Congress in 1992. And after meeting Brady in 2006, he has overseen political messaging and strategy for the congressman ever since. It was in that capacity, Smukler said Tuesday, that Brady approached him in 2012 to help implement an agreement he had cemented with Moore, buying his exit from their primary race that year. "He hands me a list [of Moore's campaign debts] and says we need to take care of Jimmie Moore," Smukler said. Quoting Brady, he added: "Ninety thousand, that's what I want to do with Jimmie Moore." Smukler told jurors it was Brady's idea to pay $65,000 for the poll Moore commissioned. But he said the transaction was not concocted to circumvent limits on what one campaign could legally donate to another. Smukler insisted it was a legitimate purchase of something valuable to Brady's campaign the ability to lock down potentially damaging field research that could hinder future reelection bids. More important, he insisted, it was entirely legal. "The value to Brady had nothing to do with Jimmie Moore," Smukler said Tuesday. "It was the opposition research that Jimmie Moore had pulled on Bob Brady and built into the poll that [Brady] wanted to protect." Smukler just as eagerly challenged other allegations lodged against him during the trial. He insisted he wasn't the one who allowed Moore's former campaign manager, Carolyn Cavaness, to take $25,000 of Brady campaign money in a no-show job she was granted as part of the deal between the congressman and Moore. In fact, Smukler said Tuesday, when he pushed for the woman to be placed on the payroll of another Brady consultant, he suggested they find her a job to do. "She's an African American reverend woman," Smukler said, recalling what he told another Brady campaign adviser. "Have her go into the African American areas of the district to community events and say she's working for Brady." As for his involvement in the Margolies campaign, Smukler admitted that her camp had improperly spent money earmarked for the general election in an effort to win the 2014 primary contest eventually won by U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle. But he scoffed at the government notion that he illegally raised funds later to hide that fact. His concern, Smukler told jurors Tuesday, was having enough cash on hand to repay general election donors who were legally entitled to refunds, after Margolies lost the primary race. "They are trying to get me to admit that I committed some crime by refunding people back their money," he said. Still, nothing Tuesday appeared to stoke Smukler's considerable ire more than his belief that he had been mistreated by the Justice Department. Prosecutor Richard Pilger's attempts to cross-examine him quickly descended into a stalemate with the lawyer asking the same questions repeatedly and Smukler refusing to back down or change his answers. And given the opportunity by his own attorney, Brian McMonagle, to describe a five-hour interview he gave FBI agents last year, Smukler became emotional. "I've got my wife and child in the next room, and I have FBI agents telling me I'm lying and I can go to jail. Think about that for a moment," he said, stabbing his finger into the witness stand. Pilger shot up from his chair to object. "I agree," Smukler shot back. "It was objectionable!" The trial is scheduled to continue Wednesday before U.S. District Judge Jan E. DuBois. Police raid the Occupy Ice encampment outside of a Philadelphia ICE office on 8th and Cherry in Center City on Thursday, July 5, 2018. Protesters are calling for the closure of the detention center in Berks County and an end to local collaboration with federal immigration officials. Police raided their camp at about 1 p.m. Thursday afternoon. Read more The independent watchdog commission that reviewed how Philadelphia Police handled this past summer's Occupy ICE protests says officers gave demonstrators "ample time" to relocate before clearing the site, but suggests the department should more clearly mark areas off-limits to protesters, and use social media more frequently to communicate during active events. In a 21-page report released Wednesday, the Police Advisory Commission stopped short of recommending widespread policy changes in the wake of the days-long demonstration, which attracted national attention after officers raided an encampment at Eighth and Filbert Streets on July 5. Police also cited several protesters who had gathered to show their opposition to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The commission's review said police could have created "consistent boundaries" earlier in the demonstration to prevent the crowd and the eventual encampment from growing to block sidewalks and the loading dock of a neighboring building. Some protesters had criticized police for giving insufficient warning before coming in with bicycles to break up the camp, but the commission said officers "gave ample time to Occupy ICE demonstrators to relocate," and that their decision to use bikes was "a purposeful improvement from the use of military-style gear," that other departments have used to quell protests. One protester, Anlin Wang, filed a federal lawsuit alleging that an unspecified number of Philadelphia officers used excessive force against him during the clash. The suit is pending, according to court records. The commission also said the department could better use social media during such situations "to communicate commands and provide information to protesters and the public at large," particularly because many protesters are active on social media. It also recommended trying to communicate more with protest leaders when seeking to deliver commands to a group of demonstrators. In a letter included with the report, Police Commissioner Richard Ross asked for a meeting with the advisory commission's executive director, Hans Menos, to discuss its findings. A police spokesman said Wednesday that the department had no further comment. Councilman Allan Domb talks with Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown after a hearing on a bill Wednesday, which would require an LLCs to disclose it backers in order to get rental licenses in the city. Domb voted against the bill which Brown introduced. Read more Rose Correa thought she knew the name of her landlord: ABC Capital. A representative from ABC Capital took her on a walk-through of the North Philadelphia apartment, and her checks were all made out to ABC Capital. So when notices from the Water Department arrived, addressed to SAAT Investments, she assumed it was a mistake. That is until her water was shut off. The previous tenant owed thousands of dollars she was being billed for. It turned out SAAT Investments is a limited liability corporation set up by ABC Capital, which manages more than 1,000 apartments around the city. "It was crazy," Correa said. "I'd never heard of them before, and they're getting my money, and no one is keeping their promises" to fix things. LLC-owned rentals are perfectly legal and growing nationwide. But a bill being considered in Philadelphia City Council would require the people behind those corporations to disclose their identities. If passed, the legislation could make it easier for Philadelphia to track down negligent landlords, as well as provide an overall sense of who is buying property. Critics say the measure could dissuade development, run up against privacy laws, and put property owners in a dangerous position should an unhappy tenant want to retaliate. The bill, introduced by Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown, would require property owners with at least a 24 percent share in a property to provide their names and mailing addresses when applying for a residential or commercial rental license. If no owner has that big a share, then the four owners with the highest stakes would need to be named. "The result of these hidden identities means the city cannot adequately fix blight," Brown said at a Council hearing Wednesday. "We as leaders are unable to answer basic questions about our own housing market." In Correa's case, she, her boyfriend, and their 16-month-old son had to move to an apartment in Southwest Philadelphia last year after complaints about water leaking through the roof, a broken door, and a sewage explosion at the apartment in North Philadelphia. "There was no way for my clients to contact the actual owners of the homes," said George Donnelly, an attorney with the Public Interest Law Center who is representing Correa in a lawsuit against ABC Capital. He said the bill would give a clearer picture of the real estate landscape. "I think the people of Philadelphia have a right to know who's buying up houses in the city and where those folks are from. If you are confident enough in Philadelphia to do business here, you should be proud enough of your business practices to put your name on it." ABC did not return requests for comment. The company's website says it manages more than 1,300 properties in the city and was the largest Philadelphia cash buyer in 2015. LLCs are used widely in real estate to spread the financial burden of a development among multiple buyers without putting any one at risk. For a fee, ABC Capital sets up the LLCs, allowing home buyers to remain anonymous and collect rent without having to manage the properties. Victor Pinckney, senior vice president of HAPCO, the Homeowners Association of Philadelphia, said the law would discourage property owners from providing needed housing. Pinckney said the bill unfairly targets property owners and puts landlords at risk of harm by jilted tenants. "It's dangerous. We have sheriffs and police officers who do evictions for a reason," he said. A similar bill was proposed in Washington, D.C., this summer. At the national level, federal agencies like the IRS have pushed for more transparent owner disclosure for years to go after criminal offenses such as money laundering or tax evasion, said Lisa R. Jacobs, a partner at the DLAPiper law firm. Brown's bill is part of a package intended to protect children from lead paint, which is most often found in rental properties. To enforce those laws, the city needs to know how to find property owners, Brown said. At Wednesday's hearing, the city's Department of Licenses and Inspections spoke in favor of the bill, saying it would cut down on the time its spends tracking down owners. Tenants-rights lawyers also spoke in favor of the bill. The five-member committee considering the bill voted 4-1 to advance it to Council. Councilman Allan Domb, who owns hundreds of properties around the city, voted against it. He didn't see his vote as a conflict of interest as a property owner. "The property I own, the LLC has my name on it," Domb said. "It says ADR, Allan Domb Real Estate, and I manage it myself." Domb said he would support the bill if amended to require disclosure of one primary owner instead of all major owners. "There are many people who invest, whether it's real estate or other things, who wouldn't want to be in the public eye." CALGARY, Alberta, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On Thursday, Nov. 29, the Fraser Institute will release a new study on the oil and gas sector. The 2018 Global Petroleum Survey ranks energy-producing jurisdictions all over the worldincluding Canadian provinces and U.S. statesbased on investment attractiveness, and spotlights to what extent government policy deters oil and gas investment. A news release with additional information will be issued via GlobeNewswire on Thursday, Nov. 29 at 5:00 a.m. Eastern. MEDIA CONTACT: Kenneth P. Green, Resident Scholar and Research Chair, energy and natural resource studies Fraser Institute Ashley Stedman, Senior Policy Analyst Fraser Institute To arrange media interviews or for more information, please contact: Bryn Weese, Senior Media Relations Specialist, Fraser Institute (604) 688-0221 Ext. 589 bryn.weese@fraserinstitute.org Follow the Fraser Institute on Twitter | Become a fan on Facebook Atlantic City Mayor Frank Gilliam leaving City Hall on November 13, 2018, two days after being involved in a fight outside a casino nightclub. Read more Atlantic City Mayor Frank Gilliam and Councilman Jeffree Fauntleroy II will not face criminal charges stemming from a Nov. 11 fight outside the Haven nightclub at the Golden Nugget casino, the Cape May County Prosecutor's Office said Wednesday. The two elected officials will still face a Dec. 11 Municipal Court hearing on citizens' complaints filed by three employees of the Haven nightclub, the prosecutor said. "Cape May County Prosecutor Jeffrey H. Sutherland announces the Cape May County Prosecutor's office will not be pursuing any criminal charges regarding the altercation that took place outside of the Golden Nugget Casino between Atlantic City Mayor, Frank Gilliam, Atlantic City Councilman, Jeffree Fauntleroy II and certain employees of the Haven Nightclub," the prosecutor said in a short news release. The matter was ordered transferred out of Atlantic County by New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal. Late Wednesday, the state Attorney General's Office released security footage from the Golden Nugget that shows the fight erupting in the valet area shortly after the men exited Haven nightclub. The silent video shows the mayor, wearing a cap, first arguing with two men, as a woman attempts to restrain him. Around the 4-minute mark, the mayor can be seen running after the men alongside a row of cars and throwing punches in their direction. Fauntleroy can be seen throwing one man to the ground. Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver, who has authority over the city under a state takeover, has called the allegations "troubling," but said she would await the outcome of any criminal proceedings before weighing in. Jim Johnson, the special counsel appointed to oversee the takeover under Gov. Murphy, said via a text message that the administration "has decided to wait until the end of the criminal process before commencing an administrative review." "The allegations are very troubling and you can expect the State to continue to look at the facts and weigh in after the criminal complaints are adjudicated in municipal court," Johnson said. A similar statement was issued from Oliver later in the day. Complaints filed by citizens are typically handled in the same way as a disorderly persons summons signed by a police officer. The brawl took place at 2:30 a.m. in the valet parking area outside Golden Nugget, following a dispute inside the casino. Faunteroy said in an interview that the two men were leaving the club when they were followed out by employees, which resulted in the altercation and complaints. Gilliam was reported to have "swung and missed" during the brawl. Lt. Kevin Fair said Gilliam did not have his police detail with him at the time of the altercation. An Open Public Records request filed with Atlantic City as to whether he or Fauntleroy were driving the city-issued SUV assigned to the mayor was pending. Gwen Lewis, chairperson of the Atlantic City Democratic Committee, which has called for its fellow Democratic elected officials to step aside from their posts and forfeit their salaries pending the outcome of the case, said she was "very upset" and "disappointed" with the decision. The committee has called for the state to intervene. "If it were anyone else, they would have been charged for their behavior," she said. "It's unprofessional and it's conduct unbecoming of a public official. They should be held accountable just as any other citizen. "The conduct is outrageous," she added. George Hill Correctional Facility, located in Thornton, Delaware County, is the subject of political backlash as some county leaders are pushing for more transparency in how it's overseen. Read more The two Democrats on the Delaware County Council on Wednesday unsuccessfully sought to remake the board that oversees the county's embattled prison. In a last-minute addition to the council's meeting agenda that took their Republican colleagues by surprise, Councilmen Brian Zidek and Kevin Madden proposed to expand the prison board, saying that would increase transparency and accountability to the public. The measure was introduced against the backdrop of growing dissension surrounding the George W. Hill Correctional Facility, the only privately run facility in Pennsylvania, and one that has been beset in recent years by reports of chronic staff shortages and inmate deaths. "This is not about whether to have a private prison," Zidek said in calling for more oversight. "We have an unelected body making decisions on how $50 million in taxpayer dollars is spent." He said the current five-member prison board has not been responsive to the council and its questions about the prison. The larger board he and Madden envision, they said, was authorized by an obscure 2009 amendment to the nearly 200-year-old statute that governs how prisons in Pennsylvania are run. The Democrats' proposal was defeated 3-2 by the Republicans on the council. Before the vote, Council Chairman John McBlain said he took exception to "the subjective statements" about the prison by Zidek and Madden, adding that "the light of facts" usually causes those statements "to fail." He did not elaborate on what the two had said that was incorrect. The two other Republicans, Colleen Morrone and Michael Culp, complained that the Democrats proposed the measure without discussing it with them beforehand, and said they were not prepared to consider it. The 1839 state statute that officials have said still applies to Delaware County calls for a board of five prison inspectors, three appointed by judges and two by the county council. Zidek and Madden pointed to a 2009 amendment to the statute that grants the county council the ability to establish a larger oversight board that would include the county's chief executive, two judges, the county sheriff, the county controller, the county council chairman, and three members of the public. Under the current arrangement, the board has autonomy not granted to other county departments, most notably not having to seek council approval for contracts more than $25,000, according to the two Democrats. "We've handed the checkbook to this five-person board," Madden said, adding that the "county and its taxpayers are completely left out of the conversation." The current board is composed of Thomas Danzi, Edward Lawlor, and James Shields, appointed by county judges to terms ending in January, county records show. The two other members, William Clinger III and John Hosier, were appointed by the county council to terms that expired in May. There was no indication in county records that they'd been formally reappointed, but both continue to serve on the board. All five board members have come under rising political pressure in recent months by a growing number of grassroots protesters, organized by the Delaware County Coalition for Prison Reform. Coalition members have packed the once sparsely attended prison board meetings and pushed for them to be held in a more accessible location. The meetings are now held inside the prison, requiring attendees to pass through security. Until recently, the board did not record its meetings. That changed after Christine Reuther, the chair of the Nether Providence Democratic Committee and a former county council candidate working on behalf of the reform coalition, contended that the lack of such recordings violated the state's Sunshine Act. At Wednesday's meeting, Reuther urged the county council to adopt the Democrats' proposal and put in place an expanded prison board. "As county council you have the authority to opt in to a more modern prison board structure," she said. " For the last eight years, you've had the ability." Zidek and Madden, for their part, underscored the timeliness of the resolution: The county's contract with the GEO Group, the firm running George W. Hill, ends on Dec. 31, and there are currently no provisions for extending that contract. The county has put out a request for proposals from companies to compete to take over GEO's contract, but officials have provided little insight into its progress. That process runs parallel to an economic impact study to determine whether it would be more cost-effective to keep the prison privately run. That study, commissioned in May, was supposed to be completed in eight weeks but has yet to be delivered to the council. Aaron Joseph Taylor, 18, of Pottstown, was charged with murdering and robbing 38-year-old Sylvia Williams at her Pottstown home on Nov. 18, 2018. Read more A pair of teens have been charged in the slaying of a 38-year-old Pottstown woman during a botched robbery attempt inside her home a little over a week ago, authorities said Tuesday. Aaron Joseph Taylor, 18, and Camren Williams, 17, both of Pottstown, were arrested Monday by Pottstown police in the death of Sylvia Williams from a gunshot wound to the head, the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office said. Taylor was charged with second- and third-degree murder, robbery, conspiracy, and other crimes, authorities said. Camren Williams was charged with robbery and conspiracy. Williams, according to a criminal complaint filed in the case, told detectives he and Taylor had targeted Williams' home because they believed it belonged to a "big drug dealer." On Nov. 18, officials said, the teens pushed into Williams' home on North Washington Street around 6:30 p.m., while a maintenance worker was changing the lock on the front door. One of them pointed a gun at the repairman and told him to stay put, then forced him into the kitchen, according to the complaint. Williams and her boyfriend, Aries Rumley Sr., 36, were in a bedroom upstairs when they heard yelling. He headed downstairs to see what was going on, and soon saw an armed and masked man. He returned to the second-floor bedroom and shut the door, holding it tight with his feet. The robbers followed him upstairs, tried to force the door, and then fired. The criminal complaint says Rumley heard one shot, "then noticed Sylvia Williams was not moving and was bleeding from her head." The complaint further states that Williams later told police that he saw Taylor fire. The teens, who did not take anything from Sylvia Williams' house, fled in a light-colored Honda sedan registered to Camren Williams' girlfriend, an 18-year-old from Reading. She was not charged. Authorities suspect the Honda was used in other armed robberies around Pottstown, although they did not say whether either Taylor or Williams had been charged in those crimes. The Williamses are not related. Taylor was denied bail when arraigned Tuesday. Williams was sent to the Montgomery County Correctional Facility after he was unable to post $99,000 bail. Wagontown Volunteer Fire Company engineer Sohn Stark, right, watches as firefighter Nick Sheplock, left, aims his hose at a small brush fire during a training exercise at the Chester County Public Safety Training Campus in Coatesville, Pa., on Saturday, May 5, 2018. Aardvark Video Works owner Mike Fanaro, center, films the exercise. Fanaro's company was hired by Communication Solutions Group, a public relations firm working with the Chester County Fire Chiefs Association, to produce television and movie theater commercials to help recruit volunteer firefighters. Read more Pennsylvania needs to provide funding and incentives and take other actions to fight a worsening "public safety crisis" resulting from a dramatic decline in volunteer firefighters during the last 40 years in the state and nationally according to a report released Wednesday. About 300,000 people volunteered as firefighters in Pennsylvania in the 1970s, but that number has dwindled to fewer than 38,000, due in part to more time demands, an aging population, and societal shifts, said the commission of Pennsylvania lawmakers, municipal officials, and emergency service professionals that produced the report. Underscoring the dimensions of the crisis, the updated figures were even more discouraging than those state fire officials cited last year when, working with old data, they calculated the number at about 70,000. More than 90 percent of the state's roughly 2,400 fire companies are volunteer. State fire officials estimate that volunteer firefighters save Pennsylvania communities about $10 billion annually. Volunteer agencies have turned to hiring full- or part-time staff to fill the volunteer gap. Meanwhile, the number of calls to which firefighters respond has increased with more medical, hazardous-material, false-alarm, and faulty smoke-detector calls, but communities have fewer trained personnel whether volunteer or staff available to respond. >>READ MORE: Alarming situation: Volunteer fire companies fight shortage "crisis" To bolster the ranks of emergency services, the state should centralize its fragmented fire services; encourage emergency responders to consolidate; and offer more tax credits, education credits, and other incentives to attract and retain volunteers, the report says. "I've never been one to cry wolf. Never in my life. And I'm saying we are in a crisis," said State Sen. Randy Vulakovich (R., Allegheny), cochair of the commission and chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee. "While individually these recommendations won't solve all the problems, together they can help preserve these two groups of first responders that are there when we are at our most vulnerable." The report cited the need for "resources, funds, and legislative change" to improve public safety. Its authors want local fire and emergency medical services companies to use the report to lobby municipal officials for financial and staffing support. State Rep. Steve Barrar (R., Chester/Delaware), cochair of the commission and chair of the House Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee, called the report "our playbook going into the next legislative session." The 39 commission members included fire and emergency medical services groups, municipal organizations, the majority and minority chairmen of the Senate's and House's emergency preparedness committees, and the acting state fire commissioner. The effort marked the first time in members' memories that fire and EMS and volunteer and career first responders came together to produce a shared report on the future of emergency services. The chairs of the Senate's emergency preparedness committee had called for the report, which originally was due June 30 but was granted a five-month extension. Meanwhile, fire departments across the region and the country have turned to marketing campaigns, recruitment centers, billboards, commercials in movie theaters, and mailers to attract volunteers. Wednesday's report follows up on a 2004 assessment from another state commission, which identified the same issues as similar efforts in the '70s, '80s, and 2000s. "The delay or failure to take appropriate action has continued to extend and expand the challenges facing Pennsylvania emergency services," the report released Wednesday said. The decentralized nature of fire service in Pennsylvania is part of the problem. Recruiting and retaining volunteers have been local responsibilities, but the report's authors said the commonwealth must share them. The report recommends that the Office of the State Fire Commissioner stand on its own and report directly to the governor, instead of being attached to the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency. The state would task the office with providing technical assistance to fire departments and collecting data on the state of fire protection. Members of the commission said even getting an up-to-date figure of the number of volunteer firefighters in the state was a challenge. The nearly 100 recommendations for local agencies and the state include: Create a single statewide recruiting tool and website. Partner with the Department of Education to offer high school and college credit to volunteers and work with community colleges and state universities to offer free tuition to firefighters and emergency medical professionals. Remove regulatory and other barriers to encourage emergency service agencies to combine into regional companies. Provide free background checks through the Pennsylvania State Police or local police. Partner with colleges to provide housing for students who volunteer and explore offering college loan forgiveness. Set for the first time minimum firefighter training standards, which fire companies can adjust for urban, suburban, and rural environments. Fund basic fire and emergency medical technician training. Consider tax or other financial incentives for employers that allow employees to leave work for scheduled emergency services training. Lawmakers introduced more than a dozen bills to support firefighters and EMS agencies this legislative session. Of those, one bill compensating EMS agencies for services even if they don't transport anyone to a hospital made it to the governor's desk and will become law. Legislators plan to reintroduce the others. Commission members hope to meet periodically to check progress and adjust recommendations if circumstances change. "In the past it has always been 'Here's the work, and let's hope it takes a hold,' " said Beau Crowding, Chester County's deputy director for fire services and commission member. Neil Vaughn, president of the Chester County Fire Chiefs Association, said Wednesday's report outlines the support that the state's fire service needs. "Now," he said, "we just have to make sure [it's] being followed through." In his interview with The Washington Post's Philip Rucker and Josh Dawsey on Nov. 27, President Trump made a number of false or misleading claims, including many that we have fact-checked previously. Here's a quick round-up, with statements listed in the order he made them. Some comments made by the president during the interview are unclear and may be subject to additional fact checks. "We're not having a wall because of the Democrats. We need Democrat votes to have a wall." Trump needs 60 votes in the Senate, meaning he needs all Republicans and at least nine Democrats, to clear the way for a filibuster-proof bill that funds the border wall. The Secure and Succeed Act would do just that. Sponsored by Sen. Chuck Grassley R-Iowa, and backed by the White House, the bill would provide $25 billion for the wall, among other measures. But the president's claim that Democrats are blocking the wall makes sense only if all 51 Republicans are on board. They're not. Grassley's bill failed 39 to 60 in the Senate in February. It got 36 of 51 GOP votes and three Democratic votes, far short of passage. Three other immigration proposals, backed by broader mixes of Republicans and Democrats, each got more than 50 votes. "We almost had a deal [with Democrats], and then the judge ruled shockingly in favor of Obama's signature, when even Obama said what he's doing is not legal. Essentially, he said, it's not going to hold up. But when the judge ruled, all of a sudden it was like, that's the end of that deal. But we were very close to having a deal $25 billion for a wall and various other things on the border. And DACA." Trump claims he almost struck a deal with Democrats to extend the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and fund the border wall with $25 billion. But the deal fell through, he says, because a judge ruled to uphold DACA in the middle of negotiations. These comments are confusing and wrong in several ways. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., met with Trump in early September 2017 and then announced they had a tentative deal that extended DACA but did not fund the border wall, although they did agree to include some form of border security measures. Trump took a beating from his right-wing supporters after that announcement, and days later tweeted that there was no deal with Pelosi and Schumer. No judge had ruled to uphold DACA in the interim. Meanwhile, Obama never said his executive order on DACA was illegal. His administration argued in court that the order was "a lawful exercise of the enforcement discretion that Congress delegated to the executive branch in the Immigration and Nationality Act, which charges the executive with 'the administration and enforcement' of the country's immigration laws," as the ACLU put it. "You look at our air and our water and it's right now at a record clean." This is false. The 1970 Clean Air Act, and its amendments in 1990, has certainly made a difference in keeping the air in the United States cleaner than in countries such as China and India. But "record clean"? Nope. U.S. carbon emissions have declined, but they are only the lowest since 1996, according to the World Bank. Emissions were lower before then. In fact, it was nearly two times lower in 1960. "If you go back and if you look at articles, they talked about global freezing, they talked about at some point the planets could have freeze to death, then it's going to die of heat exhaustion." Trump appears to be referring to some speculative journalism a half century ago.There had been a period of cold winters in the early 1970s, and so some reporters put two and two together and came up with five. The Washington Post, for instance, published a 1970 article titled, "Colder Winters Held Dawn of New Ice Age." It warned: "Get a good grip on your long johns, cold weather haters-the worst may be yet to come." Time magazine in 1974 titled an article "Another Ice Age?" and said "climatological Cassandras are becoming increasingly apprehensive, for the weather aberrations they are studying may be the harbinger of another ice age." And Newsweek, in 1975, ran an article titled "The Cooling World," which said: "Meteorologists disagree about the cause and extent of the cooling trend. . .. But they are almost unanimous in the view that the trend will reduce agricultural productivity for the rest of the century." (There is even a fake Time Magazine cover floating around the internet, which purports to be a 1977 cover displaying a lone penguin underneath this headline: "How to Survive the Coming Ice Age: 51 things you can do to make a difference." But this is actually a photoshopped version of a Time cover from 2007, titled "The Global Warming Survival Guide.") In any case, the science was still unsettled at the time, which allowed reporters to pick and choose the angle to emphasize. In 2008, several scientists decided to go back and review the peer-reviewed literature at the time. Despite the media coverage highlighted by Trump, it turns out that peer-reviewed articles on global cooling were in a distinct minority compared to those concerned with global warming. "The survey identified only seven articles indicating cooling compared to 42 indicating warming. Those seven cooling articles garnered just 12 percent of the citations," the researchers reported. In fact, in 2006, Newsweek admitted it had been "spectacularly wrong" in publishing its article. Yet the bad journalism of the 1970s is still cited today by climate skeptics such as Trump, even though the science affirming the impact of human activity on climate change now is widely accepted. "The fire in California, where I was, if you looked at the floor, the floor of the fire they have trees that were fallen, they did no forest management, no forest maintenance, and you can light you can take a match like this and light a tree trunk when that thing is laying there for more than 14 or 15 months. And it's a massive problem in California. You go to other places where they have denser trees it's more dense, where the trees are more flammable they don't have forest fires like this, because they maintain. And it was very interesting, I was watching the firemen and they're raking brush you know the tumbleweed and brush and all this stuff that's growing underneath. It's on fire and they're raking it working so hard, and they're raking all this stuff. If that was raked in the beginning, there'd be nothing to catch on fire. It's very interesting to see. A lot of the trees, they took tremendous burn at the bottom, but they didn't catch on fire. The bottom is all burned but they didn't catch on fire because they sucked the water, they're wet. You need forest management, and they don't have it." This is not what Smokey the Bear meant when he said "only you can prevent forest fires." Experts say the most recent wildfires besetting California were not sparked by forest management problems such as an overpopulation of trees or a lack of raking. (Trump previously said the president of Finland once told him they avoid forest fires by raking the ground, but the Finnish president denied saying this.) "The ones in Southern California are burning in chaparral, so it's not a forest management issue at all," LeRoy Westerling, a climate and fire researcher at the University of California at Merced, told us in a previous fact-check. "The fire in Northern California didn't start in forest; it started in other types of vegetation, from what I read. . . . There, you're talking about what kind of vegetation people manage on their homes on private properties." Some California forests appear to have many more trees per acre than what is considered healthy, according to an expert cited by the San Francisco Chronicle. But more than half of the state's forested land is managed by the federal government. The U.S. Forest Service says the "rising costs of fighting fires has led [it] to regularly raid its $600 million budget for forest management," according to the Sacramento Bee. The scientific consensus is that climate change is the big driver of these intensifying wildfires, although other factors such as forest management play a (smaller) role. Trump is not convinced that global warming is an issue, despite an overwhelming scientific consensus and reports from his own administration. A 2016 study of western U.S. forests published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found "human-caused climate change caused over half of the documented increases in fuel aridity since the 1970s and doubled the cumulative forest fire area since 1984." "We estimate that human-caused climate change contributed to an additional 4.2 million ha [hectares] of forest fire area during 1984-2015, nearly doubling the forest fire area expected in its absence," authors John T. Abatzoglou and A. Park Williams wrote. "Natural climate variability will continue to alternate between modulating and compounding anthropogenic increases in fuel aridity, but anthropogenic climate change has emerged as a driver of increased forest fire activity and should continue to do so while fuels are not limiting." "We lose $800 billion a year with trade." The United States does not "lose" money on trade deficits.The trade deficit just means Americans are buying more products other countries than foreigners are buying from the United States, not that they are somehow stealing U.S. money. Trade deficits are also affected by macroeconomic factors, such as the relative strength of currencies, economic growth rates, and savings and investment rates. By passing a large deficit-financed tax cut, Trump has made it harder to reduce trade deficits, if that were even important. Trump's figure is also inflated. The U.S. had a $552 billion trade deficit in 2017, when goods and services are counted. But Trump only counts trade in goods, thus inflating the total. The trade deficit has widened in 2018, according to the Commerce Department. Virtually every mainstream economist would argue that it is far more important to focus on overall trade and investment between nations. If overall trade increases between nations, people in each country generally gain, no matter the size of the trade deficit. "We have $52-a-barrel oil right now and I called them about three months ago, before this whole thing happened with Khashoggi, and I let him have it about oil. We were up to $82 probably two and a half months ago we were up to $82 a barrel and it was going up to $100 and that would've been like a massive tax increase and I didn't want that. And I called them and they let the oil start flowing and we're at $52." Trump may have called the Saudi king to complain about oil prices. But the plunge from about $80 started in mid-October after reports of slowing demand. The Saudi government has indicated it will join other OPEC producers in cutting production in order to boost prices, as the current level strains its budget. OPEC in July decided to increase production and the Saudis were slow to follow. But now the oil cartel plans to cut production in an effort to get the price of oil up again. "We have an ally that's investing billions and billions of dollars in our country. They could very easily invest $110 billion, $450 billion overall over a period of time, fairly short period of time. $110 billion in military. Russia and China would love to have those orders and they'll get them if we don't." We have repeatedly explained that these numbers are a fantasy. We had earlier documented that the commercial agreements announced after Trump's 2017 trip to the kingdom were mostly smoke and mirrors, with many of the purported deals aimed at creating jobs in Saudi Arabia, not the United States. At the time, Trump claimed they were worth $350 billion, but without explanation the figure has grown to $450 billion. As for the $110 billion in military sales, according to a confidential 2017 document of all of the military sales agreements reviewed by The Fact Checker, most of the items on Trump's $110 billion list did not have delivery dates or were scheduled for 2022 or beyond. There appeared to be few, if any, signed contracts. Rather, many of the announcements were MOIs memorandums of intent. There were six specific items, adding up to $28 billion, but all had been previously notified to Congress by the Obama administration. Moreover, the Saudis have been clear that they expect to impose a 50 percent localization rule. In other words, only half of the $110 billion, if the deals were actually inked, would be spent in the United States. "Germany shouldn't like that aggression. You know they're paying 1 percent, and they're supposed to be paying much more than 1 percent. . . .They're absolutely not doing enough. Germany? Absolutely not. Many of those countries are not doing enough toward NATO. They should be spending much more money." There are two types of funding for NATO: direct funding and indirect funding. Direct funding, for military-related operations, maintenance and headquarters activity, is based on gross national income the total domestic and foreign output claimed by residents of a country and adjusted regularly. With the largest economy in NATO, the United States pays the largest share about 22 percent. Germany is second, with about 15 percent. A significant portion of the U.S. share is operating the Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AWACS) fleet operations, according to the Congressional Research Service. The U.S. share of the actual military budget is negotiated each year, but largely based on the cost-sharing formula, and amounts to less than $500 million a year, according to Defense Department documents. But Trump is really talking about indirect funding. Since 2006, each NATO member has had a guideline of spending at least 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on defense spending. At a 2014 summit, responding to Russian aggression in Ukraine, NATO members pledged to meet that guideline by 2024. In 2017, only five of the 28 members exceed the guideline with the United States leading the way at 3.5 percent. The other members that exceed the guideline are Greece, Estonia, Britain and Latvia, but the perceived threat from Russia has prompted other nations to bolster their defense spending. It's important to remember that the United States is a world power with global responsibilities, including in Asia. Iceland, which spends the smallest percent of its GDP on defense, does not even have a standing army. Germany spends 1.24 percent of its GDP on defense but the somewhat arbitrary measure penalizes countries with strong economies. Greece manages to meet its 2 percent commitment mainly because its economy is weak. The warehouses are coming and with them, presumably, the jobs. After years of trailing behind Lehigh Valley's distribution center boom, Philadelphia, it seems, has finally arrived. Developers are so sure of demand that they're acquiring land and building warehouses even before securing tenants, the Inquirer and Daily News' Jacob Adelman reported Monday, calling this kind of speculative development "a practice virtually unheard of in the city until recently." One major reason developers are betting on Philadelphia? Workers. In the Lehigh Valley, workers (and land) are in short supply. "We almost don't have enough people with low skills to fill all the need in the fulfillment industry," Don Cunningham, president and CEO of the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation, told Bloomberg earlier this year. It's a challenge that distribution centers all over the country are facing, especially now, when unemployment is at its lowest rate in decades. Blog posts abound about how to attract and retain warehouse workers: Wages, they say, for one. (See: Amazon raising its minimum wage to $15 an hour.) Flexibility is another. The motorcycle-gear retailer RevZilla, for example, launched an Uber-like, "flex" staffing program this year geared toward students and parents who can't work full time. But some strategies speak to a darker side of warehouse work, with corporate blog posts suggesting that you can't get away with not offering paid time off, and that air-conditioning is a nice perk "Sometimes employees will work for less wage to work in a comfortable environment," advises a blog for a commercial real estate firm. In addition, Jeremy Davidson of the supply chain services firm Fortna says companies are decking out their fulfillment centers: Under Armour built a fitness facility in its new distribution center right outside of Nashville in 2015. Others have food trucks on-site or reimburse families for child care. Companies have to show off what makes their warehouse an appealing place to work, "down to the bathrooms," Davidson said. "Are there a lot of them? Are they clean?" The standards, he said, have been raised. "Pay for performance" culture also has become more common: Workers get a bonus if they complete tasks within a certain time frame or if they don't make many mistakes. One fulfillment center company's blog recommends offering more than monetary perks: good parking spaces, preferred shifts, and products are all good options, it says. (Amazon, for its part, cut its incentive program when it raised its minimum wage.) Increased competition for warehouse labor may have driven up wages and standards, but some say these jobs are still exploitative and abusive, especially for temp workers. "Temps don't get benefits. They don't get sick days or vacations. They're not paid a living wage," Mark Meinster, executive director of the Chicago-based Warehouse Workers for Justice, said at a meeting in May to discuss the impact of warehouse development in the city. In 2012, Mother Jones reporter Mac McClelland wrote about her experience as "a warehouse wage slave" at an unidentified fulfillment center. Workers continue to speak up about poor working conditions. Multiple women working at a Verizon distribution center in Memphis had miscarriages after their employers rejected their requests for "light duty," a recent New York Times investigation found. On Black Friday, thousands of Amazon warehouse workers in Europe once again went on strike. As the city touts warehouse work as a way to lift Philadelphians out of poverty, it raises a question that's becoming a refrain in certain advocacy circles: Are all jobs created equal? It's one reason that cities across the country, Philadelphia included, are increasingly mandating workplace laws around such issues as minimum wage and predictable scheduling. Until recently Jalil Frazier, a young father who was shot and paralyzed after he protected three children during a robbery in January, had been confined to the first floor of his Philadelphia rowhouse. Read more Here in this very newsletter, we far too often must report on the mass shootings and gun violence plaguing our communities. But when the press coverage ends, the victims left behind, the survivors of these shootings, become the hidden toll of the epidemic and face new realities we rarely see. My colleagues David Gambacorta and Helen Ubinas have dug deep into the stories of these invisible victims for a truly important read this morning. Elsewhere in the news, Paul Manafort is making headlines again for his unraveling plea deal in the Russia probe and the U.S. government is being sued by a woman whose daughter died in Philadelphia after they were both detained by ICE. Reading this online? Sign up here to get this newsletter delivered to your inbox every morning. Aubrey Nagle (@aubsn, morningnewsletter@philly.com) READ MORE: Shot and Forgotten: Shooting victims face lifelong disabilities, financial burdens Whether in the form of mass shootings endlessly covered by national media or inner city violence that attracts only glancing attention, the price of America's gun violence epidemic is staggering. Between 2006 and 2014, patients suffering from gunshot wounds incurred $6.6 billion in hospital costs nationwide and in Philadelphia survivors face an average of $46,632 in medical costs. Beyond hospital bills, shooting survivors often shoulder lifelong financial burdens and disabilities and struggle to find help. In the eyes of the public, they become the invisible victims. READ MORE: Manafort allegations throw new uncertainty into Russia probe A report from the Guardian released Tuesday alleges former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort met secretly with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in March 2016, the same month he joined the Trump campaign. Manafort's plea deal with special counsel Robert Mueller also unraveled this week after prosecutors say he repeatedly lied to investigators, an allegation Manafort denies. Both events throw new elements of uncertainty into the Trump-Russia investigation currently underway. READ MORE: US sued for $60 million after infant in detention later died in Philadelphia Yazmin Juarez, the mother of one-year-old Mariee who died in Philadelphia six weeks after being released from the nation's largest family detention center, has filed a legal claim seeking $60 million from the U.S. government for the child's death. Juarez's lawyers said Mariee developed a respiratory illness while she and her mother were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Meanwhile, at the U.S.-Mexico border, critics are denouncing the use of tear gas to repel a crowd of migrants that included crying children on Sunday. President Trump defended the use of tear gas Monday, calling it "very safe." What you need to know today Through Your Eyes | #OurPhilly The view could be worse, right @stylephilly? Tag your Instagram posts or tweets with #OurPhilly and we'll pick our favorite each day to feature in this newsletter and give you a shout out! Thats Interesting Opinions "These protections in the law make complete sense. Yet the bill before Council would change this law to create loopholes which criminals can use to avoid speedy removal from a home. " Philadelphia City Councilman At-Large David Oh on a bill which could alter an anti-squatters bill he introduced earlier this year. After The Guardian dropped a report Tuesday alleging President Trump's 2016 campaign manager Paul Manafort held secret meetings with Wikileaks' Julian Assange, columnist Will Bunch asks if it could be the beginning of the end for Trump. A petition that claims Kendall Jenner is to blame for Ben Simmons' and the Sixers' performance on the court stems from a sexist tradition of blaming women for men's actions, writes reporter Katie McInerney. What were reading Your Daily Dose of | The Anti-Yelp Philly's latest dining sensation is a members-only club that creates $50 six-course meals at some of the city's best eateries and gives chefs the feedback they want. Mayor Kenney and City Council can't avoid responsibility for Councilman Kenyatta Johnson steering city-owned land to a friendly speculator, who pocketed a $165,000 profit by flipping properties months after purchasing them from the city in transactions that broke city rules designed to protect taxpayers' interests in publicly owned properties. The Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority, whose board is appointed by the mayor, ignored its own rules, and Council approved the deal. Both acted without concern for the public good. For decades, the 10 district Council members have controlled city-land transfers and zoning variances, under a practice known as "Councilmanic prerogative." Their leverage comes from the tradition of letting district Council members introduce a legally required ordinance to transfer public property in their districts. But any member of Council can sponsor the bills. The practice persists because the seven at-large members and administrations go along with it. In this transaction, Johnson's long-time friend, Felton Hayman, had Johnson shepherd three properties through Philly's city bureaucracy, one that's so tangled that it's easy to hide sleazy deals like this. In August, Hayman bought three properties in the booming Point Breeze for the bargain price of $101,000. So far, he has sold two at a $165,000 profit. He retains ownership of a third. The three properties were owned by the taxpayers and any sale should have passed the test of whether the property would benefit the public such as putting some money in the city's coffers. But that didn't matter in August and it didn't matter in 2016, when Johnson helped Hayman buy city-owned land. In that transaction, Hayman promised to build affordable housing. But his houses sold for as much as $415,000. That's not affordable. This time, he and Johnson didn't even pretend they were being altruistic. Staff writers Mark Fazlollah and William Bender reported that the city never should have let Hayman buy the properties. The city's rules require competitive bidding when there is an expression of interest from other potential buyers. But PRA staff dismissed its failure to recognize other potential buyers as a clerical error, an excuse that wouldn't get a second grader out of homework. The city also based its price on outdated assessments even though the city is supposed to sell properties at fair market value. And, the city let Hayman skip out on signing an Economic Opportunity Plan, which guarantees that he would award some of the construction work to minorities, women, or people with disabilities. This deal wasn't about helping economically disadvantaged people. It was about Johnson helping his buddy improve his own economic well-being. The lack of oversight is abysmal. The mayor and Council should end the archaic and unfair practice of Councilmanic prerogative. Inspector General Amy Kurland should also get on the case and release her full findings to the public. The FBI has already asked for documents on this deal. But this practice also requires a major policy change. Council President Darrell Clarke should make it his prerogative to speak up about how he's going to change the system. Shijiazhuang: A blast near a chemical plant in Zhangjiakou city, in north China`s Hebei province, has killed 22 and injured 22 others early Wednesday morning, local authorities said. The blast occurred near Hebei Shenghua Chemical Industry Co Ltd. in Zhangjiakou at around 0:40 AM local time. Fire caused by the blast has engulfed 38 trucks and 12 vehicles, according to the sources from Zhangjiakou city government, Xinhua news agency reported. The injured have been rushed to hospitals. Further investigation is underway. Highlights Significant new high-grade gold intersections from Ndongo East include: 3m @ 29.3 g/t Au from 45m in NDDD036 3m @ 4.1 g/t Au from 122m in NDDD037 Previous high-grade gold intersections from Ndongo East included: 9m @ 23.3 g/t Au from 60m in NDRC248* 7m @ 4.4 g/t Au from 14m in NDRC216* 6m @ 12.6 g/t Au from 2m in NDRC275* Gold mineralisation demonstrated over a strike length of approximately 1.2km at Ndongo East; RC drilling has encountered multiple intercepts of near-surface mineralisation; Further assay results expected from four diamond holes completed along the NE-SW structure that hosts high-grade gold discovered to date; Diamond drilling is ongoing and will continue to evaluate the strike and depth extension of the Ndongo East mineralised system; Multiple additional parallel mineralised structures striking NE-SW remain to be evaluated by drilling and provide high priority drill targets; Prospectivity of the area is greatly enhanced due to its proximity to the prolific Nangodi Shear Zone which is known to host major economic gold mineralisation including the historic Nangodi Gold Mine. * Refer to press releases dated 16 July 2018 and 29 August 2018 on Ndongo East TORONTO, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Advanced West African gold developer, Cardinal Resources Limited (ASX/TSX: CDV) (Cardinal or the Company) is pleased to announce that first drilling results following the recent wet season have commenced strongly, hitting further high-grade and shallow gold mineralisation at the new Ndongo East discovery reported in mid-2018. Importantly, the Ndongo Prospecting License is located only ~24 km north of the Companys Namdini Gold Project for which Cardinal declared a Maiden Probable Ore Reserve of 4.76Moz on the 18th of September 2018 (Figure 1). On 16 July and 29 August 2018, Cardinal reported several intersections of high-grade gold at its new Ndongo East discovery within the Ndongo Prospecting License and has now intersected further high-grade gold in recently completed diamond drilling of this exciting high-grade gold target. Drilling has recently re-commenced following the wet season and is planned to steadily ramp up as ground conditions improve and current drilling results are interpreted. Currently, Cardinal has one diamond rig continuing to evaluate Ndongo East. Best intercepts in the two new holes reported today include: 3m @ 29.3 g/t Au from 45m in NDDD036 3m @ 4.1 g/t Au from 122m in NDDD037 Cardinals Chief Executive Officer / Managing Director, Archie Koimtsidis commented: The Ndongo East discovery is particularly encouraging with the initial 450m strike length of strong, shallow gold mineralisation still open along strike and at depth (Figure 3). Beyond this initial mineralised zone, a further 750m of gold mineralisation has been intersected along strike, which currently extends overall gold mineralisation of the Ndongo East discovery to approximately 1.2km (Figure 2). We are increasingly encouraged at how Ndongo East is evolving, with the potential to add further high-grade gold ounces to our Maiden Probable Ore Reserve of 4.76Moz within the Namdini Gold Project located 24km to the south. The Ndongo East prospect lies within a larger target area of approximately 7km in length that has yet to be drill tested. We have now recommenced drilling after the 2018 wet season with further results pending. Figure 1: Cardinals Three Large Scale Tenements comprising the Bolgatanga and Namdini Projects http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/56cabddb-288d-4d58-acd9-3477838aad16 Figure 2: Ndongo East Prospect with RC and DD drill locations on ground magnetic image showing NE-SW mineralised structures open along strike. http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/be675397-0b3f-4c5d-9c98-0e25b695e55b Figure 3: Ndongo East Prospect Section B-B http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/51131e6e-1749-419d-b17b-4ea6b1b81a5a Ndongo Prospecting License The Ndongo Prospecting License covers an area of 295 km2 and is considered highly prospective for the discovery of economic gold mineralisation associated with the prolific Nangodi Shear Zone, a splay fault off the main regional-scale Bole-Bolgatanga Shear. Elsewhere, the Nangodi Shear Zone is spatially related to no fewer than four gold discoveries, including the Companys Namdini Gold Project with a 4.76Moz Probable Reserve, the Shaanxi Gold Mine, the historic Nangodi Gold Mine and the 2.1 Moz Youga Gold Mine in Burkina Faso, adjacent to the Ghanaian border. In addition, there are numerous historic shallow artisanal workings along many parts of this shear zone ~15 to 20 km north of the Namdini Gold Project (Figure 1). Ndongo East Prospect The Ndongo East Prospect is located within NE-SW trending Birimian metavolcanics and metasediments. Gold mineralisation is developed mostly along diorite-granodiorite contact zones where competency contrasts create brittle fracturing allowing the ingress and precipitation of gold mineralising fluids (Figures 2 and 3). The mineralised horizons contain variable chlorite-silica-carbonate-sericite alteration with sulphides (mainly pyrite with very minor arsenopyrite). Previously announced drilling intersected higher-grade mineralised structures concentrated in the northern portion of the shear zone, over a 450m strike length with coincident gold-in-soil and geophysical targets. Subsequent RC drilling along fence lines further to the southwest along strike and at depth to test for mineralisation has proven encouraging with further high-grade intercepts within the mineralised structures. This indicates that the mineralised system is open along a NE-SW strike and at depth with multiple mineralised intersections. The furthest drill fence to the southwest intersected 2m at 27.0 g/t Au from 10m downhole in NDRC247 which suggests a strike potential up to 1.2km of mineralised structures. (refer to Cardinals ASX/TSX Press Release 29 August 2018 Cardinal Extends Ndongo East Discovery Strike Length). Additional diamond drilling is continuing at Ndongo East to test the strike and depth extents of the mineralised system and to evaluate the structural components of the various lithological units. Drill holes for this release are detailed in Schedule 1, Tables 1 and 2 below. ABOUT CARDINAL Cardinal Resources Limited (ASX/TSX: CDV) is a West African goldfocused exploration and development Company that holds interests in tenements within Ghana, West Africa. The Company is focused on the development of the Namdini Project with a Maiden Ore Reserve of 4.76Moz and is now advancing the feasibility study. Exploration programmes are also underway at the Companys Bolgatanga (Northern Ghana) and Subranum (Southern Ghana) Projects. Cardinal confirms that it is not aware of any new information or data that materially affects the information included in its announcement of the Maiden Ore Reserve of 18 September 2018. All material assumptions and technical parameters underpinning this estimate continue to apply and have not materially changed. For further information contact: Archie Koimtsidis Alec Rowlands CEO / MD IR / Corp Dev Cardinal Resources Limited Cardinal Resources Limited P: +61 8 6558 0573 P: +1 647 256 1922 Bettina Filippone Peta Baldwin / Andrew Rowell Renmark Financial Communications Inc Cannings Purple E: bfilippone@renmarkfinancial.com E: pbaldwin@canningspurple.com.au P: +1 416 644 2020 or +1 514 939 3989 P: +61 455 081 008 (PB) / +61 400 466 226 (AR) Competent Persons / Qualified Persons Statement The information in this press release is based on information prepared by Mr. Paul Abbott, a full-time employee of Cardinal Resources, who is a member of the Geological Society of South Africa. Mr. Abbott has sufficient experience which is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and the activity which he is undertaking to qualify as a Competent Person, as defined in the 2012 Edition of the Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves. The information in this press release has been compiled and reviewed by Mr. Richard Bray, a Registered Professional Geologist with the Australian Institute of Geoscientists and Mr. Ekow Taylor, a Chartered Professional Geologist with the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Mr. Bray and Mr. Taylor have more than five years experience relevant to the styles of mineralisation and type of deposits under consideration and to the activity which is being undertaken to qualify as a Competent Person, as defined in the 2012 Edition of the Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves and as a Qualified Person as defined by the NI43-101 instrument. Mr. Bray and Mr. Taylor are full-time employees of Cardinal and hold equity securities in the Company. Mr. Bray and Mr. Taylor have consented to the inclusion of the matters in this report based on the information in the form and context in which it appears. Disclaimer This ASX / TSX press release has been prepared by Cardinal Resources Limited (ABN: 56 147 325 620) (Cardinal or the Company). Neither the ASX or the TSX, nor their regulation service providers accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release. This press release contains summary information about Cardinal, its subsidiaries and their activities, which is current as at the date of this press release. The information in this press release is of a general nature and does not purport to be complete nor does it contain all the information, which a prospective investor may require in evaluating a possible investment in Cardinal. By its very nature exploration for minerals is a highrisk business and is not suitable for certain investors. Cardinals securities are speculative. Potential investors should consult their stockbroker or financial advisor. There are a number of risks, both specific to Cardinal and of a general nature which may affect the future operating and financial performance of Cardinal and the value of an investment in Cardinal including but not limited to economic conditions, stock market fluctuations, gold price movements, regional infrastructure constraints, timing of approvals from relevant authorities, regulatory risks, operational risks and reliance on key personnel and foreign currency fluctuations. Except for statutory liability which cannot be excluded and subject to applicable law, each of Cardinals officers, employees and advisors expressly disclaim any responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of the material contained in this press release and excludes all liability whatsoever (including in negligence) for any loss or damage which may be suffered by any person as a consequence of any information in this Announcement or any error or omission here from. Except as required by applicable law, the Company is under no obligation to update any person regarding any inaccuracy, omission or change in information in this press release or any other information made available to a person nor any obligation to furnish the person with any further information. Recipients of this press release should make their own independent assessment and determination as to the Companys prospects, its business, assets and liabilities as well as the matters covered in this press release. Forwardlooking statements Certain statements contained in this press release, including information as to the future financial or operating performance of Cardinal and its projects may also include statements which are forwardlooking statements that may include, amongst other things, statements regarding targets, anticipated timing of the feasibility study (FS) on the Namdini project, estimates and assumptions in respect of mineral resources and anticipated grades and recovery rates, production and prices, recovery costs and results, capital expenditures and are or may be based on assumptions and estimates related to future technical, economic, market, political, social and other conditions. These forward looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by Cardinal, are inherently subject to significant technical, business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and contingencies and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from estimated or anticipated events or results reflected in such forwardlooking statements. Cardinal disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly or release any revisions to any forwardlooking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, circumstances or results or otherwise after todays date or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, other than required by the Corporations Act and ASX and TSX Listing Rules. The words believe, expect, anticipate, indicate, contemplate, target, plan, intends, continue, budget, estimate, may, will, schedule and similar expressions identify forwardlooking statements. All forwardlooking statements made in this press release are qualified by the foregoing cautionary statements. Investors are cautioned that forwardlooking statements are not guarantees of future performance and accordingly investors are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forwardlooking statements due to the inherent uncertainty therein. SCHEDULE 1 NDONGO LICENSE AREA DRILL RESULTS Hole ID Depth (m) Dip () Azimuth () Grid ID mEast mNorth mRL NDDD036 111.3 -60 122 UTM WGS84 Zone 30 North 758,193 1,201,939 220 NDDD037 150.1 -60 122 UTM WGS84 Zone 30 North 758,109 1,201,994 217 Table 1: Meta-Data Listing of Drill Holes Hole ID mFrom mTo mWidth Au g/t NDDD036 45 48 3 29.3 NDDD036 76 77 1 1.8 NDDD037 75 76 1 0.6 NDDD037 122 125 3 4.1 Table 2: Summary of Individual Intercepts Notes: Samples are analyzed for Au (SGS Lab FAA505 method) which is a 50g fire assay fusion with AAS instrument finish. Grid coordinates are in WGS84 Zone 30 North. The intercepts were calculated, using a greater than 0.5 g/t Au cut-off, which approximates the cut-off for Reasonable Prospects of Eventual Economic Extraction (RPEEE) as per the Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves (JORC Code) 2012 and the Canadian Institute of Mining (CIM) 2010 guidelines, and internal dilution of no more than 3m at <0.5g/t Au. APPENDIX 1 JORC CODE 2012 EDITION TABLE 1 REPORTING OF EXPLORATION RESULTS Section 1 Sampling Technique and Data Criteria JORC Code Explanation Commentary Sampling techniques Nature and quality of sampling (e.g. cut channels, random chips, or specific specialised industry standard measurement tools appropriate to the minerals under investigation, such as down hole gamma sondes, or handheld XRF instruments, etc.). These examples should not be taken as limiting the broad meaning of sampling. Reverse Circulation (RC) drill samples are collected by using downhole sampling hammers with nominal 127 to 140mm diameters. Samples are collected through a cyclone and immediately weighed to determine recoveries; the entire sample is then split by a three-tier riffle splitter. Two samples (~2.5-3.0 kg) are collected, one for the lab, the other a duplicate stored at the Bolgatanga sample shed. Diamond sampling is by half-core samples of HQ core size. Include reference to measures taken to ensure sample representivity and the appropriate calibration of any measurement tools or systems used. Sampling is guided by Cardinal Resources protocols and Quality Control procedures as per industry standard. To ensure representative sampling: 1m RC samples are collected from a cyclone, passing them through a 3-tier riffle splitter, and taking duplicate samples every 20th sample. 1m length HQ core samples are taken through the various lithological units. Aspects of the determination of mineralisation that are Material to the Public Report. In cases where industry standard work has been done this would be relatively simple (e.g. reverse circulation drilling was used to obtain 1 m samples from which 3 kg was pulverised to produce a 30 g charge for fire assay). In other cases, more explanation may be required, such as where there is coarse gold that has inherent sampling problems. Unusual commodities or mineralisation types (e.g. submarine nodules) may warrant disclosure of detailed information. The determination of mineralisation is based on observed alterations and lithological differences. RC samples are crushed to -2mm, then a <1kg split sample is pulverised via LM2 Ring Pulveriser to a nominal 85% passing -75m. Diamond drill samples are crushed to -2mm, and a <1kg split sample is then pulverised via LM2 to a nominal 85% passing -75m. A 200 g sub-sample is taken from the pulverised material for analysis. A 50 g charge weight is fused with litharge-based flux, cupelled and the prill dissolved in aqua regia. The gold tenor is then determined by AAS. Drilling techniques Drill type (e.g. core, reverse circulation, openhole hammer, rotary air blast, auger, Bangka, sonic, etc.) and details (e.g. core diameter, triple or standard tube, depth of diamond tails, face-sampling bit or other type, whether core is oriented and if so, by what method, etc.). Reverse circulation drilling uses sampling hammer of nominal 127 to 140mm diameter. Diamond core drilling is completed with core size of HQ with a standard tube. Triple tube is used in saprolite at the tops of the hole. Core is orientated using digital Reflex ACT II RD orientation tool. Drill holes are inclined at -45 to -60 angles for optimal zone intersection. All drill collars are surveyed using Trimble R8 RTK GPS with downhole surveying every 30m using Reflex digital surveying instruments. Drill sample recovery Method of recording and assessing core and chip sample recoveries and results assessed. Diamond core recovery is logged and captured into the database. The Method of recording chip and core sample recoveries was to enter the relevant data on a hand-held Motion F5te Tablet PC using a set of standard templates supplied by Maxwell Geoservices, Perth (Maxwell). Reverse circulation sampling is good. RC chips are logged, weighed and captured to the database. RC sample recoveries are assessed by weighing 1m samples from the cyclone on a scale in the field and comparing with the theoretical volume contained in a 1m x 140mm diameter hole to calculate an estimated percentage sample recovery. Core recovered from each drill run is measured and compared with the drill run length drilled to calculate an estimated percentage core recovery. For core drilling overall recoveries are excellent, weighted average recovery greater than 98%. Measures taken to maximise sample recovery and ensure representative nature of the samples. Measures taken include the use of bigger HQ core size diamond drilling to maximise recovery, having a geologist onsite to examine core and core metres marked and orientated to check against the drillers blocks and ensuring that all core loss is taken into account. At the reverse circulation rig, sampling systems are routinely cleaned to minimise the opportunity for contamination and drilling methods are focused on sample quality. The measures taken to maximize RC sample recovery are through a cyclone and a 3-tier riffle splitter. Each 1m sample is passed twice through the splitter before sampling to ensure maximum homogenisation of each sample and to collect an unbiased representative sample to be assayed. The reverse circulation rigs have auxiliary compressors and boosters to help maintain dry samples. Where wet samples are encountered, the reverse circulation drilling is discontinued. Whether a relationship exists between sample recovery and grade and whether sample bias may have occurred due to preferential loss/gain of fine/coarse material. No relationship is seen to exist between sample recovery and grade, and no sample bias has occurred due to preferential loss/gain of any fine/coarse material due to the acceptable sample recoveries obtained by the drilling methods employed. Logging Whether core and chip samples have been geologically and geotechnically logged to a level of detail to support appropriate Mineral Resource estimation, mining studies and metallurgical studies. All drill holes are fully logged. The lithology, alteration and geotechnical characteristics of core are logged directly to a digital format on a Field Toughbook laptop logging system following procedures and using Cardinal geologic codes. Data is imported into Cardinals central database after validation in LogChief. All geological logging is to a level of detail to support future Mineral Resource estimation. Whether logging is qualitative or quantitative in nature. Core (or costean, channel, etc.) photography. Logging is both quantitative and qualitative. Both RC chips in trays and HQ core are photographed both in dry and wet form. The total length and percentage of the relevant intersections logged. All drill holes are logged in full and to the total length of each drill hole. Sub-sampling techniques and sample preparation If core, whether cut or sawn and whether quarter, half or all core taken. Orientation of core is completed for all diamond holes and all are marked prior to sampling. Longitudinally cut half core samples are produced using a Core Saw with diamond impregnated blades. Samples are weighed and recorded. If non-core, whether riffled, tube sampled, rotary split, etc. and whether sampled wet or dry. RC samples are split using a three-tier riffle splitter. The majority of RC samples are dry. On occasions that wet samples are encountered, they are dried prior to splitting with a riffle splitter. For all sample types, the nature, quality and appropriateness of the sample preparation technique. RC drill samples are sorted and dried in an oven for eight hours and weighed. They are then crushed to -2mm using a RSD Boyd crusher and a <1.0kg split is taken. The reject sample is retained in the original bag and stored. The split is pulverised in a LM2 to a nominal 85% passing 75m and a 200g sub-sample is used for analysis. Drill core samples are sorted, dried at 105C for 4 hours and weighed. Samples are crushed to a nominal -2mm and then split to <1.0kg. The reject sample is retained in the original bag and stored. The split is pulverised in a LM2 to a nominal 85% passing 75m and approximately 200g sub-sample of the pulverised material is used for assay. All preparation equipment is flushed with barren material prior to commencement of the job. Quality control procedures adopted for all sub-sampling stages to maximise representivity of samples. Cardinal Resources has protocols that cover the sample preparation at the laboratories and the collection and assessment of data to ensure that accurate steps are used in producing representative samples for the analytical process. Key performance indices include: Contamination index of 95% (that is at least 95% of blanks pass); failures can only be attributed to probable minor laboratory contamination. Crushed Size index of 95% passing 2 mm (1:50 sample screened). Grind Size index of 85% passing 75 microns (minimum 1:50 sample screened). Check Samples returning at worst 20% precision at 90th percentile and bias of 5% or better. Crusher and pulveriser are flushed with barren material at the start of every batch. Measures taken to ensure that the sampling is representative of the in-situ material collected, including for instance results for field duplicate/secondhalf sampling. Measures taken to ensure that the RC sampling is representative of the in-situ material collected are to take field duplicate samples every 20th sample. Approximately 3kg samples from the splitter are retained from each sample and stored at the companys secured premises for possible reassay. Measures taken to ensure that the core sampling is representative is to sample half core at 1m intervals irrespective of lithologies due to the similarities in grade of the main lithologies. Results of field duplicates for RC samples and Check Samples for both RC and DD samples are all evaluated to ensure that the results of each assay batch are acceptable. Whether sample sizes are appropriate to the grain size of the material being sampled. Sample sizes are considered appropriate to the grain size. Quality of Assay data and laboratory tests The nature, quality and appropriateness of the assaying and laboratory procedures used and whether the technique is considered partial or total. All samples are analysed for gold by lead collection fire assay of a 50 g charge with AAS finish; the assay charge is fused with the litharge-based flux, cupelled and prill dissolved in aqua regia and gold tenor determined by flame AAS. The analytical method is considered appropriate for the mineralisation style and is of industry standards. The quality of the Fire Assaying and laboratory procedures are considered to be entirely appropriate for the rock samples submitted. For geophysical tools, spectrometers, handheld XRF instruments, etc., the parameters used in determining the analysis including instrument make and model, reading times, calibrations factors applied and their derivation, etc. No hand-held geophysical tools are used. Nature of quality control procedures adopted (e.g. standards, blanks, duplicates, external laboratory checks) and whether acceptable levels of accuracy (i.e. lack of bias) and precision have been established. Sample preparation checks for pulp fineness are carried out by the laboratory as part of their internal procedures to ensure the grind size of 85% passing 75m is being attained. Laboratories QAQC involves the use of internal lab standards using certified reference material (CRM) and blanks. Cardinals QAQC protocol is considered industry standard with CRMs submitted on a regular basis with routine samples. The CRMs having a range of values and blanks are inserted in the ratio of 1:20. Duplicates are taken at the riffle splitter every 20th sample. No duplicate samples are taken from core samples. Pulps are submitted to a secondary laboratory for checks on accuracy and precision of the primary laboratory. Coarse rejects are submitted back to the primary laboratory to assess the adequacy of the sub-sampling process. Verification of sampling and assaying The verification of significant intersections by either independent or alternative company personnel. Significant intersections have been verified by alternative company personnel. The use of twinned holes. None of the drill holes in this report are twinned. Documentation of primary data, data entry procedures, data verification, data storage (physical and electronic) protocols. Primary data are captured on field tough book laptops using LogChief Software. The software has validation routines and data is then imported onto a secure central database. Discuss any adjustment to assay data. The primary data is always kept and is never replaced by adjusted or interpreted data. Location of data points Accuracy and quality of surveys used to locate drill holes (collar and downhole surveys), trenches, mine workings and other locations used in Mineral Resource estimation. RC drill hole collar coordinates are surveyed using handheld Garmin GPSmap 62s GPS within 3m accuracy. All drill collars are accurately surveyed using Trimble R8 RTK GPS system within 10mm of accuracy (X, Y, Z). Coordinates are based on three control stations established at Namdini by Sahara Mining Services. Downhole survey on RC drill holes is completed by using Reflex Ez-Shot survey instrument at regular 30 m intervals. Specification of the grid system used. Coordinate and azimuth are reported in UTM WGS84 Zone 30 North. Quality and adequacy of topographic control. Topographic control at Ndongo was supplied by Southern Geoscience Consultants (Perth) using satellite imagery. Data spacing and distribution Data spacing for reporting of Exploration Results. The RC drilling was carried out on variably spaced fence lines (30m to 775m apart) with hole spacing of 50m along lines testing mineralisation to a vertical depth of approximately 200m and covering a strike length of 1.25km The DD drilling was carried out on a spacing of 100m along fence lines testing mineralisation to a vertical depth of approximately 100m and to confirm the mineralisation intersected by the previous RC drilling. Whether the data spacing and distribution is sufficient to establish the degree of geological and grade continuity appropriate for the Mineral Resource and Ore Reserve estimation procedure(s) and classifications applied. Exploration is at the early stage, and as such drill data spacing and distribution are insufficient to establish geological and grade continuity that are appropriate for reporting Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves. Orientation of data in relation to geological structure Whether sample compositing has been applied. No sample compositing has been applied. Whether the orientation of sampling achieves unbiased sampling of possible structures and the extent to which this is known, considering the deposit type. Drillholes are orientated to achieve intersection angles as close to perpendicular to the mineralisation as practicable based on ground magnetic modelling data and previous RC drilling. Some sampling bias may occur. Systematic geological mapping and structural information from the current diamond drilling are required to determine the true orientation of dips and structures of the mineralisation. If the relationship between the drilling orientation and the orientation of key mineralised structures is considered to have introduced a sampling bias, this should be assessed and reported if material. No significant orientation-based sampling bias is known at this time. Sample security The measures taken to ensure sample security. An independent Ghanaian security contractor is used to ensure sample security. The drilling contractor is accountable for drill core and RC chip production at the drill site. Final delivery from the drill site to the laydown area within the core yard is managed by Cardinal. The core yard technicians, field technicians and Geologists ensure the core and chips are logged, prepared and stored under security until collected for delivery to the laboratory. At the time of sample collection, a sign-off process between Cardinal and the laboratory delivery truck driver ensures that samples and paperwork correspond. The samples are then transported to the laboratory where they are receipted against the dispatch documents. The assay laboratories are responsible for the samples from the time of collection from Cardinal until final results are returned and checked by Cardinal Geologists. Sample pulps and coarse rejects are retained by the laboratories and are shipped back to Cardinal after final results are returned where they are stored under security. Audits or reviews The results of any audits or reviews of sampling techniques and data. Sampling techniques are of industry standards. Data is audited by Maxwell Geoservices (Perth), who have not made any other recommendations. Section 2 Reporting of Exploration Results (Criteria listed in section 1 will also apply to this section where relevant) BHOPAL/AIZAWL: Polling is currently underway in Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram in the single-phase of crucial assembly elections on Wednesday, billed as the ''semi-final'' ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, in the two states where the two main political parties - BJP and Congress - are hoping to unseat each other and seize power.. Madhya Pradesh In Madhya Pradesh, polling will be held to elect a 230-member assembly on Wednesday. Nearly 1.80 lakh security personnel have been 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. 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 state has nearly 5.04 crore eligible voters. Polling will be held from 8 AM to 5 PM in 227 seats, while in three assembly segments in the Naxal-affected Balaghat district - Lanji, Paraswada and Baihar - voting time will be from 7 AM to 3 PM. According to State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) VL Kantha Rao Rao, nearly 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. 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 in 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. Mizoram After high-octane campaigning, assembly elections in Mizoram will take place on Wednesday with as many as 209 candidates in fray for the 40-member Mizoram Legislative Assembly. The state will be witnessing a single-phase election and results will be declared on December 11. The Congress party, which has been in power in Mizoram since 2008, is eyeing a third consecutive term in the state. In the previous election in 2013, Congress had fielded 40 candidates while it won 34 seats, whereas Mizo National Front (MNF) secured only five seats after contesting 31 seats. Mizoram People`s Conference (MPC) had contested on eight seats but it managed to bag only one. Both Congress and MNF are contesting on all 40 constituencies this time, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is fighting in 39 seats. Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla is contesting from two seats - Serchhip and Champhai South. In Serchhip, Thanhawla will be contesting against Zoram People`s Movement`s (ZPM) chief ministerial candidate Lalduhoma, Mizo National Front (MNF) nominee C Lalramzauva and People`s Representation for Identity and Status of Mizoram (PRISM) party chief Vanlalruata among others. In the Champhai South, the incumbent Chief Minister would contest against MNF`s TJ Lalnuntluanga and ZPM`s C Lalremliana. BHOPAL: Polling is currently underway to elect a 230-member assembly in Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday, where the ruling BJP and opposition Congress are fighting for supremacy. Polling began at 8 AM and will conclude at PM on 227 seats, while in three assembly segments - Lanji, Paraswada and Baihar - in the Naxal-affected Balaghat district, voting began at 7 AM and will continue till 3 PM amid unprecedented security arrangements put in place by poll panel. 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. 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. According to state's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) VL Kantha Rao nearly 1.80 lakh security personnel have been deployed on duty to ensure peaceful polling in the state. Rao said around 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. "Special measures have been taken for sensitive booths. Web-casting will be held from 6,500 polling stations, while videography will be carried out at 4,600 booths," Rao 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. 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. INDORE: A day ahead of Wednesday's crucial Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan chose to take a break from his hectic campaigning schedule and went to a popular eatery to spend some quality time with family members in Indore. The veteran BJP leader, who is seeking a fourth term in office as the chief minister, also later shared some pictures on Twitter in which he can be seen enjoying his time with his family on Tuesday. ' ' pic.twitter.com/C77oFQlGrk ShivrajSingh Chouhan (@ChouhanShivraj) November 27, 2018 The Chief Minister, who is popular as 'Mamaji' in Madhya Pradesh, also interacted with a group of enthusiastic supporters who assembled to see him at the 'Indian Coffee House' here. In the pictures, the MP CM can be seen enjoying a coffee along with his wife Sadhana and son Kartikey at the popular eatery located in TT Nagar. According to media reports, the CM's family ordered sambar-vada and coffee and spent over an hour there. "They visited the coffee house in the evening and spent more than an hour. Like common people, they chatted and laughed and enjoyed hot 'vada-sambar' and steaming coffee," manager of the coffee house Kumaran was quoted as saying by PTI. The Chief Minister later paid a bill of Rs 300. As the news of MP CM's presence at the eatery spread, media persons and supporters rushed to the spot. Talking to reporters later, Chouhan said that he was extremely confident that the BJP would come to power for the fourth consecutive time. Just like this time, even on the eve of the 2013 Assembly polls, Chouhan had visited the famous New Market area in the state capital with his family to feast on 'pani puri', one of his acquaintances said. The polling of 230-member Madhya Pradesh ended on Wednesday evening with a voter percentage of 74.61 till 6 pm, poll officials said. The voting began at 8 am and continued till 5 pm in 227 seats, while in three assembly segments in the Naxal-affected Balaghat district - Lanji, Paraswada and Baihar - voting timings are from 7 am to 3 pm. Around 1,145 EVMs and 1,545 Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines were replaced after complaints of technical snags, MP's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) VL Kantha Rao said. Following complaints of malfunctioning of EVMs, senior Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia demanded that the Election Commission make up for the time wasted in replacing faulty EVMs by extending the polling time in the booths concerned. About 2.5 per cent (polling) machines were replaced, Rao said, adding this percentage was around two per cent in other states where elections were held recently. Three employees died due to "health reasons" while performing poll duty in Dhar, Indore and Guna districts, he said. At Gadhpura village in Bhind district, a person was injured in violence but it was not poll-related, he said. The incident happened "far from the booth" and was related to enmity between two groups, he added. 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 state has nearly 5.04 crore eligible voters. This high-stakes electoral battle will witness the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) eyeing a fourth straight term and Opposition Congress fighting for a comeback. The outcome of this Assembly elections could prove as a precursor to the Lok Sabha 2019 elections. Results will be declared on December 11. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who is the Bharatiya Janata Party's candidate from Budhni seat, and his wife Sadhana Singh cast their votes at his native village Jait, which is part of his Assembly constituency. Over three lakh government employees, including nearly 45,000 women, are on poll duty across the state. Asked about reports that some EVMs were found in a hotel, Rao said, "We have got the information that a sector officer in Shujalpur was staying in a hotel along with ballot machines. On getting information, the officers reached the hotel and seized the machine. The officer concerned was removed (from poll duty) and the polling team was sent along with a new sector officer." "There were several complaints that EVMs at many places malfunctioned. We asked requested the Election Commission that voting time in these polling booths should be extended to compensate for the delay," Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia said in the afternoon, while polling was on. The Guna MP said the Election Commission should compensate for time wasted in replacing the EVMs by extending polling time in those booths. "Several reports are coming from across the state that EVMs are not working. This has been affecting the polling. Long queues are being witnessed in the city. EC should immediately take decision. The EVMs should be changed," state Congress chief Kamal Nath tweeted when voting was in progress. Responding to the demand, CEC OP Rawat had said in Delhi that there are provisions for the extension of time and local officers (in Madhya Pradesh) can take the call on the matter. Kamal Nath cast his vote in Chhindwara district while Scindia, the party's state campaign committee chief, exercised his franchise in Gwalior. The battle of ballots in Madhya Pradesh is just months ahead of the Lok Sabha polls slated in the first half of 2019. Altogether 2,899 candidates were in the fray. The state has 5.04 crore eligible voters. Also, 3,00,782 government employees, including 45,904 women, were on poll duty and 65,341 polling stations were set up. (With PTI Inputs) Hyderabad: A 32-year-old transwoman activist, who is contesting the December 7 Telangana Assembly elections, has allegedly gone missing on 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 said. 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. NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court, which on Tuesday rapped the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar for selective action against those accused of sexual abuse at shelter home case across the state including Muzaffarpur, may order a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as it resumes hearing on Wednesday. The top court had 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 across the state and showed an inclination for a CBI 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 SA 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 CBI 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. 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 CBI 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 we make every shelter home 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. 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. (With Agency inputs) Mumbai: The sparring promoters of Yes Bank 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. Sources close to Rana Kapoor Tuesday evening claimed that 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 Bombay High Court. 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 Bombay High Court 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, Yes Bank 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 Yes Bank counter lost 2.55 percent to settle at Rs 183.15 on the BSE 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 Shikha Sharma 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. NEW DELHI: In a significant development, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday upheld the conviction of at least 88 people in connection with 1984 anti-Sikh riots case. New agency ANI reported that the Delhi High court has upheld the conviction of 88 people by the trial court in connection with 1984 anti-Sikh riots in East Delhi's Trilokpuri area. Delhi High court upholds the conviction of 88 people by the trial court in connection with 1984 anti-Sikh riots in East Delhi's Trilokpuri area. pic.twitter.com/gEEDJbLUnr ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 As many as 2,800 Sikhs were killed in the violence, 2,100 of whom hailed from Delhi. On November 20, a trial court in Delhi had awarded death sentence to Yashpal Singh and life imprisonment to Naresh Sherawat, both convicted in one of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots cases. The duo was convicted for killing two members of the Sikh community. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) had sought the death penalty for the two convicts. According to the SIT, their act was a part of a genocide against members of a particular community and fell under the rarest of rare category of cases. They were convicted of killing Hardev Singh and Avtar Singh in Mahipalpur area of South Delhi during the riots. Their conviction is the first in the anti-Sikh riots cases reopened by the SIT, which was set up in 2015. Notably, the Delhi Police had closed the case in 1994 for want of evidence. Social Justice and Special Assistance Department of the Maharashtra government has declared multiple scholarships open for the students having domicile of Maharashtra. Post-Matric Scholarship & Other Educational Facilities to SBC students 2018, Maharashtra This scholarship opportunity is given to students of special backward class who have a family income of less than Rs 1lakh per annum and have cleared class 10. Rs 150-450 per month will be given to the day scholars and Rs 90-190 per month to hostellers. Pre-Matric Scholarship (Unclean Occupation), Maharashtra 2018 Students of class 1-10 whose parents are involved in occupations like tanning, scavenging, sweeping and flaying are given this scholarship. Under this scholarship, Rs 700 per month for ten-month is given to students of class 3 to 10 with an ad hoc grant of Rs 1000 per annum to hostellers. To the day scholars, Rs 110 per month for ten months will be given to students of class 1-10 with ad hoc grant of Rs 750 per annum. Rajarshi Shahu Maharaj Scholarship, Maharashtra 2018 To provide financial support to 100 scheduled caste students holding domicile of Maharashtra, the Government of Maharashtra has proposed this scholarship for the underprivileged students who have an annual income not more than Rs 4.5 lakh. They will be backed monetarily with Rs 10,000 per annum for books, notebooks and other educational instruments. Tuition fees and Examination fees to VJNT/SBC students 2018, Maharashtra Candidates of VJNT or SBC category from any recognised high school can apply for this scholarship. The applying candidate must not be receiving any other scholarship. Under this call, tuition and related examination fee will be covered. Vocational Training for VJNT and SBC candidates, Maharashtra 2018 To create self-employment for the students of VJNT and SBC from Maharashtra, this scholarship is for the vocational training from any government ITI to undergo short duration training courses. The selected scholar will receive training fee of Rs 400-2400 per course paid directly to the concerned ITI. Upon completion of the course, a tool kit of Rs 1000 will be given through the concerned ITI institute. Courtesy: https://www.buddy4study. com A huge quantity of human skeletal remains has been recovered from the railway junction in Bihars Chhapra and one person arrested in this connection, police said on Tuesday. Deputy Superintendent of Police (Railway) Tanveer Ahmed said the recovery was made on Monday from Sanjay Prasad (29), a resident of East Champaran district, who was caught by a GRP team at Chhapra Junction. Altogether 16 human skulls and 34 other skeletal remains were recovered from the possession of Prasad, besides some Bhutanese currency, ATM cards of various countries and a foreign SIM, Ahmed said. During interrogation, Prasad revealed that he had brought these skeletal remains from Ballia in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh and was on his way to Bhutan via Jalpaiguri in the adjoining West Bengal, the Deputy SP said. Apparently, Prasad was part of a gang which supplied human skeletons to occultists in the Himalayan Kingom. He has been sent to jail while further investigation were on to trace his accomplices, he added. TORONTO and OTTAWA, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Internet of Things Inc. (TSX- V: ITT) (OTC: INOTF) (FRANKFURT: 71T) (IoT Inc. or the Company) a strategic investor and operator of emerging technology companies with innovative IoT, AI and Blockchain solutions, is pleased to announce that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Weather Telematics Inc. (WTX Inc. or Weather Telematics) has entered into an agreement with the Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association (APMA) to showcase its innovative road safety data and predictive weather analytics technology in the APMAs Demo Zone demonstration vehicles. The Autonomous Vehicle Innovation Network (AVIN)/APMA Demo Zone project located in Stratford, Ontario, is designed as a showcase for leading Ontario-based companies in connected and autonomous vehicles, including QNX (subsidiary of BlackBerry), Weather Telematics and others. WTX Inc. will be installing its AI/Machine-Learning-based road risk platform in the Demo Zone vehicles to assist drivers with identifying current and predicted road conditions (dry, wet, snowy and icy) and road weather hazards surrounding the vehicle (hydroplaning, low visibility, wind, hail and lightning strikes). The new APMA Demo Zone rolling vehicle demonstration will have the Weather Telematics data and platform integrated with the QNX platform to provide the driver and vehicle with essential safety information to mitigate the risk of weather-related road hazards. The vehicles are scheduled for deployment over the next month. "We are honored to be selected as one of the premier Canadian automotive technologies to be showcased in the new APMA Demo Zone rolling demo vehicle, said Bob Moran, CEO of Weather Telematics. Our success in developing advanced AI-based systems for vehicle safety and navigation is a direct result of our longstanding relationship and successful collaboration with the Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association. We look forward to further collaboration with the APMA in bringing autonomous vehicles to Canadians, while managing the risks of extreme seasonal road conditions." About APMA APMA is Canada's national association representing OEM producers of parts, equipment, tools, supplies and services for the worldwide automotive industry. The Association was founded in 1952 and its members account for ninety percent, directly or indirectly of independent parts production in Canada. In 2017, automotive parts shipments were over $35 billion and the industry employment level was over 96,000 people. APMA's fundamental objective is to promote the O.E. automotive supply manufacturing industry both domestically and internationally. The Association provides important representation to both Federal and Provincial Governments, supports regional government initiatives and creates and executes global marketing initiatives in order to develop trade and business opportunities for the membership. To learn more, visit: www.apma.ca www.apmatec.ca www.avinhub.ca About Weather Telematics Inc. Founded in 2010, Weather Telematics Inc. is a Canadian-based, IoT data science company offering road safety data products for industrial, government and consumer markets. Weather Telematics uses a proprietary vehicle-mounted mobile IoT sensor network and AI machine learning system to generate real-time and predictive road weather conditions, road hazard risk alert notifications and dynamic routing applications. The Weather Telematics platform mitigates weather risk, reduces traffic congestion and makes connected and autonomous navigation safer in all types of road conditions. To learn more, visit: www.weathertelematics.com Follow Weather Telematics on: Twitter: https://twitter.com/weathertx About Internet of Things Inc. Internet of Things Inc. is a strategic investor and operator of emerging technology companies with innovative technology solutions. The Company creates value through its portfolio companies expertise in IoT, AI and Blockchain solutions, by turning data into actionable intelligence to drive more efficiency into organizations. The Company owns Weather Telematics Inc. and has a joint venture partnership, New Hope IoT Intl Inc., with New Hope Data Technology Co. Ltd. Follow Internet of Things Inc. on: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InternetofThingsInc/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/iotintl LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/internet-of-things-inc- For further information, contact: Internet of Things Inc. Kim Nguyen, Director of Corporate Communications Tel: (416) 792-9088 Email: knguyen@iotintl.com To learn more, visit: www.iotintl.com Cautionary and Forward-Looking Statements Statements contained in this news release, which are not historical facts, are forward-looking statements that involve risk, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. 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. All forward-looking statements included in this news release are based on information available to the Company on the date hereof. Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results of the Company to differ materially from the conclusion, forecast or projection stated in such forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and other factors include, but are not limited to factors referenced in the Companys other continuous disclosure filings, which are available at sedar.com . Readers should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable securities laws. NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE BJP President Amit Shah Wednesday attacked Telangana's TRS government and the Congress on Monday over 'minority appeasement', claiming the Congress party's poll manifesto for the state assembly polls largely focused on the welfare of Muslims. Addressing an election rally here, Shah said the TRS dispensations decision to raise Muslim quotas in government jobs and state-run educational institutions to 12 per cent resulted in blocking of a proposal for hiking reservations for tribals. He said the K Chandrasekhar Rao government also talked about separate IT corridors for religious minorities. Quoting a national TV news channel, the BJP president said it leaked the Congress manifesto that envisaged quotas for minorities in government contracts. "And if you are not from minority community, you will not get contracts. Under a special package Rs 20 lakh will be given for education of students of minority communities. Congress will build separate hospitals for them and give free electricity to mosques and churches and not temples". "Urdu teachers quota will be decided, and if you do not know Urdu, you cannot become a teacher in Telangana, Shah said, citing the TV channels report, and calling the Congress manifesto unconstitutional. He further said that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, "in the remote control run government", had also said that the first right on the nation's resources was for minorities, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that the poor should have the first right over them. The Congress manifesto, which was released yesterday, however, promised free power supply for all temples, mosques, churches and other places of worship. It envisaged judicial power for Wakf Board and a sub-plan for religious minorities. It also spoke about releasing funds for repair of temples,mosques and churches by introducing a proper system. In his speech, Shah wanted to know if the grand alliance led by the Congress, and caretaker chief minister Rao can 'liberate' Telangana from AIMIM of Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, a vocal critic of the BJP. "This Rahul Baba, who is touring Telangana, can he liberate you from MIM? Can his allies TJS and CPI? Will they liberate you from the MIM? Can KCR liberate you from MIM?" Shah asked the audience. "It is only the BJP under Modiji that Telangana can develop with pride and self-respect," he said. He alleged the KCR government does not celebrate September 17, the day the princely state of Hyderabad merged with the Indian union in 1948, as Telangana Liberation Day out of fear of the Owaisis. Shah promised Telangana Liberation Day will be celebrated in every village if the BJP was voted to power. The BJP chief said he would have needed a passport to visit Adilabad had legendary Gond leader Komaram Bheem not revolted against the Nizams rule. Bheem was martyred in 1940 while fighting against the Nizam for forest rights of native people. He alleged that KCR (as Rao is popularly known as) destroyed Telangana, during his regime and the debt has gone up by about Rs two lakh crore and accused him of not developing the state and failing in fulfilling promises. Shah wanted to know why KCRs promises of building an airstrip in Adilabad, construction of 18 new lakes, town hall and two bedroom houses for poor were not fulfilled. He claimed while funds under Pradhanmantri Aawas Yojana were not properly utilised in Telangana, in BJP-ruled Maharashtra over one lakh houses were built under PMAY and handed over to the beneficiaries. Of the Rs 80 crore Rao had promised to spend for tribal welfare, his government did not have an account of spending even Rs eight crore, he claimed. The BJP leader said Rao chose to keep Telangana out of the Ayushman Bharat scheme as he 'feared' it would further boost Prime Minister Narendra Modis popularity. Over 3.5 lakh people benefited from the scheme in the last two months, but the poor of Telangana were left out, he said. He said that after BJP government is formed in Telangana a cement factory would be opened in Adilabad. The party would stop illegal felling of trees and make Telangana a green state. Cotton would be purchased at Minimum Support Price by the government, he said. Shah accused Rao of not honouring his promise of making a Dalit the chief minister of Telangana and wanted to know if he would project a dalit or tribal as chief ministerial candidate of the TRS. "I know he will not do that because he wants to elevate his son and daughter, he said "Out of fear of Modiji's popularity and intention to settle his family members, KCR has imposed this election (decision to advance polls) on people of Telangana," he said. Once a BJP government is formed in Telangana,a state-level policy to give slum dwellers pucca houses would be implemented. Addressing a rally in Nalgonda, Shah claimed there is no difference between the Congress and TRS - both parties have no faith in internal democracy and both indulge in the politics of appeasement, he said. On AIMIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi's recent remark that whoever became the chief minister of Telangana or undivided Andhra Pradesh would have to bow before his party, Shah urged voters to elect a BJP government in Telangana. "This KCR and Congress have knelt(down) before the Majlis (AIMIM). You install a BJP government as it is only the BJP which can protect Telanganas pride and ensure respect for the state." Shah and senior state BJP leaders also took part in road shows in Amberpet and Musheerabad constituencies of Hyderabad. NEW DELHI: The Centre on Wednesday informed the Supreme Court that a cybercrime portal has been launched and over 1.06 lakhs persons have visited the website till Wednesday. Indicating the actions taken by the Ministry of Home Affairs in compliance with the apex court's directions, the Centre told the court that nodal officer and one level above officers have been nominated by all the states and the Union Territories for redressing grievances raised by the citizens. "All India awareness campaign on radio for promoting use of cybercrime reporting portal and other cybercrime against women and children will start from first week of December," the government told a bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and U U Lalit. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the bench that they had held meetings with intermediaries on November 11 and November 26 and a standard operating procedure (SoP) for handling complaint has been finalised by taking their inputs into consideration. "Draft agreement has been sent to the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) on November 19 this year to access cyber tipline reports regarding missing and exploited children. Their reply is awaited," he said. Mehta told the court that there were certain actions which were required to be taken by the intermediaries like setting up pro-active monitoring tools for auto-deletion of unlawful content by deploying artificial intelligence based tools. He said intermediaries have to take actions regarding "deployment of trusted flaggers for identifying and deletion of unlawful content" and "setting up of 24X7 mechanism for dealing with requisitions of law enforcement agencies". Mehta said that beside this, intermediaries have to appoint India based contact officer and escalation officers and should have "prompt disposal of requisitions of law enforcement agencies to remove unlawful contents". The bench has posted the matter for further hearing on December 6. The apex court had earlier fixed November 15 as deadline for the Centre to finalise a SoP for a cyber portal to handle complaints regarding child pornography, child sexual abuse, rapes and obscene content on the Internet. The court was hearing a matter following a letter sent in 2015 to then Chief Justice of India H L Dattu by Hyderabad-based NGO Prajwala, along with two rape videos in a pen-drive. The court had on its own taken cognisance of the letter and asked the CBI to launch a probe to apprehend the culprits. The NGO's letter had also mooted the idea of maintaining a national sex offenders' register which should contain details of persons convicted for offences like eve-teasing, stalking, molestation and other sexual assaults. India has rejected the 'invite' extended by Pakistan for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit which is due to be held in Islamabad. Sources say that India is unlikely to change its stance on the issue and has said that it will not attend the summit in Pakistan. Confirming the development, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj reiterated that terror and talks cannot go hand in hand. "For many years the Indian Government has been asking for this (Kartarpur) corridor, only now Pakistan responded positively. It doesnt mean the bilateral dialogue will start because of this, terror and talks cant go together," the Minister said. In 2016, the SAARC summit was the summit was called off in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on an Army camp in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir on 18 September. After the attack, India had said it could not take part in the summit due to "prevailing circumstances". Nineteen Indian soldiers died in the attack. Even Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan had also declined to participate in the Islamabad meet. However, amid Indian ministers travelling to attend the Kartarpur corridor ground-breaking ceremony in Pakistan, their Foreign Office Spokesman Dr Mohammad Faisal had on Tuesday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be invited to the country for the SAARC summit. Faisal recalled that PM Imran Khan in his first address had said that if India took one step forward, Pakistan would take two. 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 PM Modi. Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday ruled out resumption of talks with Pakistan, saying the agreement of the issue of Kartarpur corridor is not connected with the dialogue process between the two countries. In a stern message to Pakistan, the External Affairs Minister said that talks can be resumed the moment terror activities in and against India are stopped. Addressing mediapersons, Sushma said, Bilateral dialogue and Kartarpur corridor are two different things. I am very happy that for the last 20 years, rather many years, government of India has been asking for this Kartarpur corridor. And for the first time, Pakistan has responded positively to this. But this does not mean that the bilateral dialogue will start only on this. On the bilateral dialogue we always say terror and talks cant go together. The moment Pakistan stops terrorist activities in India, the dialogue can start, the External Affairs Minister added. #WATCH For many years the Indian Government had been asking for this (#Kartarpur) corridor, only now Pakistan responded positively. It doesnt mean the bilateral dialogue will start because of this, terror & talks cant go together. : EAM Sushma Swaraj pic.twitter.com/iSPFRbyQI1 ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 The remark by the foreign minister comes on a day when two Union ministers, HS Puri and Harsimrat Kaur Badal, have gone to Pakistan to attend the ground-breaking ceremony of the Kartarpur corridor by countrys Prime Minister Imran Khan. Before leaving for Pakistan, HS Puri told mediapersons expressed his gratitude to the Pakistani government over Kartarpur corridor, pointing that it had been a long-standing demand of the members of the Sikh community. On Wednesday, India also ruled out the possibility of the government accepting an invitation from Pakistan for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit, slated to be held in Islamabad. The SAARC summit was called off in 2016 when India decided to not take part in the same in the aftermath of the Uri attack. The terrorist attack on the Army camp in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir on September 18 had claimed lives of at least 19 soldiers. SRINAGAR: Two terrorists, including Lashkar-e-Toiba commander Naveed Jatt, has been killed in the joint operation of security forces and local police in the Budgam encounter. Jatt, wanted for the assassination of Shujaat Bukhari, fled from police custody earlier this year. An exchange of fire broke out between terrorists and security forces in Chathergam village of Jammu and Kashmir`s Budgam district in the wee hours of Wednesday. "This week was great, those involved in killing of innocent people in Kulgam, Pulwama and Shopian belt were neutralized. As per ground verification, top Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Naveed Jatt was one of the two terrorists killed today," Jammu and Kashmir DGP Dilbagh Singh. On Tuesday, two terrorists were shot dead and one jawan succumbed to injuries in an encounter in Kulgam. "The bodies of the slain terrorists were recovered from the encounter site; the identities and affiliations are still being ascertained," a statement from the security forces read. 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. On November 25, six terrorists were shot dead by security personnel in Kapran Batagund area during a gun battle in Shopian district. With agency inputs SRINAGAR: Top Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist Mohammad Naveed Jatt, wanted for the assassination of Kashmiri journalist Shujaat Bukhari, was shot down in a joint operation of security forces and local police on Wednesday. Authorities are yet to confirm this fact. An exchange of fire broke out between terrorists and security forces in Chathergam village of Jammu and Kashmir`s Budgam district in the wee hours of Wednesday. According to the latest report, some terrorists are still hiding in a house in the area. Combing operations are on. Jatt, who fled from police custody earlier this year, was involved in several cases of attack on the security forces and civilians in Kashmir. He was spotted at the funeral of a terrorist in Shopian in August this year. A resident of Multan in Pakistan, Jatt was arrested in June 2014 at Yaripora in Kulgam. On February 6, he pulled off a dramatic escape from Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) hospital in Srinagar after his associates shot dead two policemen who were accompanying him for medical checkup. "This week was great, those involved in killing of innocent people in Kulgam, Pulwama and Shopian belt were neutralized. As per ground verification, top Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Naveed Jatt was one of the two terrorists killed today," said state DGP Dilbagh Singh. Last week, another Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist accused of assassinating senior Kashmiri journalist Shujaat Bukhari - Azad Ahmad Malik - was shot down in Anantnag encounter. Malik was one of the six terrorists killed in the encounter that broke out between terrorists and security forces in Sekipora area of Bijbhera in South Kashmir's Anantnag district in the wee hours of Friday. Indian Army`s 3 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) and state police jointly conducted the operation. The other five terrorists neutralised in the encounter were identified as Unais Shafi, Shahid Bashir, Basit Ishtiyaq, Aqib Najar and Firdous Najar. Bukhari, the editor-in-chief of local daily Rising Kashmir, was killed on June 14 by three men outside his office at press enclave in Srinagar. Two of his personal security officers were also killed in the attack. Hours after the sensational killing, police had released CCTV grabs of the three attackers, who were riding a motorcycle. While one of the attackers was wearing a helmet, the other had worn a mask. State police later released the names and pictures of four people Malik, Muzaffar Ahmad, Naveed Jutt and Sajad Gul as the accused in the Bukhari's assassination. Malik, Ahmad and Jutt were identified as LeT terrorists while gunman Sajad Gul was a Kashmiri based in Pakistan. Mumbai: Actress Daisy Shah has been summoned by the Mumbai Police to record her statement in connection with the Tanushree Dutta's harassment allegations against veteran actor Nana Patekar. Tanushree has accused Nana Patekar of misbehaving and sexually harassing her on the sets of 'Horn Ok Pleasss' in 2008 while shooting for a special dance number for the movie. She filed an FIR against Patekar at Mumbai's Oshiwara police station. The notice mentioned that during the shooting of the song from the film 'Horn Ok Pleassss', actress Daisy Shah was present on the sets. Daisy was then working as an assistant choreographer under Ganesh Acharya. Dutta also alleged that when she refused to shoot for the song, Patekar and the film's producer summoned goons to the set who threatened her and damaged her car. Earlier, when Daisy was asked to comment on the issue, she told News18, "I was just an assistant choreographer who knew nothing about what all was happening. I have nothing to say about it. My job over there was only to teach steps. I wasnt the part of the internal conversation of what was happening and not happening. I was just like a random person who was shooting on that film." Adding more, she said, "I wasnt only concentrating on one artiste; there were 30 other dancers on set. I wasnt even in the position where I could even speak or I had to even notice anything because I was so busy with my own work. My all sympathies are with Tanushree but I swear I know nothing about it." On the other hand, Patekar has dismissed all the allegations against him and as a retort, slapped Dutta with a legal notice and demanded a written apology from her. His lawyer Aniket Nikam told news agency ANI, "All allegations against him (Nana Patekar) are false and far from the truth". Patekar also claimed that Dutta had not made any accusations against him in 2008, when the alleged incident took place. New Delhi: The queen of controversies, Rakhi Sawant is all set to tie the knot with an equally controversial figure Deepak Kalal, who shot to fame on social media after his videos in Kashmir got viral. The motor-mouth actress took to Instagram and shared the wedding invite with fans. As per the invite, Rakhi and Kalal are set to marry on December 31, 2018, in Los Angeles. The couple will tie the knot at 6.55 pm. No other detail has been mentioned on the card yet. Check out here: Ever since Rakhi shared the wedding invite, the card has gone viral on social media. It has already got 17, 610 likes in mere 4 hours. In fact, Deepak too has shared the wedding news with his fans on Instagram. Rakhi was recently in news for her controversial statements regarding an actress who accused a senior film actor with sexual harassment charges. Looks like it is indeed a wedding season in Bollywood. Keep reading this space for more details on Rakhi Sawant and Deepak Kalal's wedding! New Delhi: After sporting his famous rugged look for several years, actor Shahid Kapoor has finally bid goodbye to it. Shahid has gone competely clean-shaven for his upcoming film 'Kabir Singh' which is the Hindi remake of Kannada blockbuster 'Arjun Reddy'. On Tuesday, Shahid was snapped with his wife Mira Rajput as they stepped out to attend the birthday celebration of Bosco Martis. And we were completely bowled by the actor's latest look, which took us back to the time. Do not believe us? Take a look at his photos from the last night in which he reminds us of the days from his debut film 'Ishq Vishq'. (Photo courtesy: Yogen Shah) Shahid was clad in a black tee and pants and walked hand-in-hand at the bash with his dearest wifey. Earlier, the actor took to Instagram to share his new look with his fans and we can't help but wonder where is the actor's beard! Nonetheless, Shahid looks stunning as ever and the internet seems to be in love with his no beard look. Speaking of 'Kabir Singh', the film is being helmed by Sandeep Vanga, who also directed the original 2017 Telugu blockbuster. It is slated to hit the screens on June 21, 2019. Las Vegas: As tech companies the world over face an acute crunch of skilled workforce in the field of Cloud computing, retail giant Amazon's Cloud arm, Amazon Web Services (AWS), has decided to go beyond providing training and certification to now help students grab relevant openings in Cloud. According to Teresa Carlson, Vice President, Worldwide Public Sector at AWS, the time is ripe to connect skilled students with employers via "AWS Educate" a global initiative to provide students and educators with the resources needed to accelerate Cloud-related learning. "There are hundreds of thousands of job openings in Cloud computing today. 'AWS Educate' will now help students communicate with over 30 potential employers including Amazon. "With this, AWS Educate goes beyond just training and certification to connect skilled students with the employers and fill the skill gap in Cloud-based technologies," Carlson told a select gathering at the flagship "AWS ReInvent 2018" event here. Another tool called "Interview Accelerator" in "AWS Educate" will help candidates advance through the job application process faster, she informed. Globally, over 1,500 institutions and more than 10,000 educators have joined "AWS Educate" to accelerate their journey towards helping the young generation acquire Cloud skills. The beauty of "AWS Educate" is that students, while receiving hands-on training and access to content prepared by some of the top computer science institutions from across the world, also get free Cloud credits into their accounts. "AWS Educate" has nearly 30 career pathways to choose from which essentially belong to four big job families Big data and analytics, Cloud architecture, system/engineering support and software/web development. The move to connect skilled students with the right employers is going to help thousands of "AWS Educate" participants in India, at a time when the country is also facing a huge skill gap in emerging technologies. IT industry's apex body Nasscom in July highlighted that around 1.4 lakh jobs remain vacant in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data Analytics segment across various sectors in India, out of the total demand of 5.1 lakh employees in the country. The Andhra government this month launched a Cloud-based initiative with AWS, where it will skill 60,000 students across the state's over 300 engineering and non-engineering colleges by 2020. As part of a pilot programme in 2017, the Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC) rolled out the "AWS Educate" programme to engineering colleges in the state, and enrolled more than 10,000 students into various "Cloud Career Pathways". The "Cloud Career Pathway" framework enables students to put their Cloud knowledge to use across 12 self-paced pathways aligned to labour market trends and workforce needs. Albany, New York, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to a new research report by Transparency Market Research (TMR), the global advanced materials market is highly concentrated with only one player, 3M, capturing most of the global market. In 2015, the company acquired nearly 70% of the overall market and is expected to continue holding bigger chunk of the market in the years to come. The wide product range and proprietary technologies, the company use for product development, are the main factor behind the dominance of 3M over the market. The market, however, is all set to witness a revolution as a number of players are making huge investments to develop advanced materials in order to match up the modern needs of industries across the world, states the research report. According to the research report, the global market for advanced materials is expected to rise at a CAGR of 10.40% during the period from 2016 to 2024. The opportunity in this market, which was worth US$42.76 bn in 2015 is anticipated to rise to US$102.48 bn by the end of the period of the forecast. Request A Sample of Global Advanced Materials Market: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=7307 Boom in Aviation and Electrical and Electronics Industries to Drive Growth The global market for advanced materials is anticipated to gain significant momentum in the near future, thanks to the boom in the aviation and the electrical and electronics industries, says a TMR analyst. Since advance materials deliver better performance, durability, and strength, their demand in these sectors has been increasing substantially, leading to remarkable growth in this market. The extensive research and development activities to equip these materials with high endurance to handle the amount of abrasion, fatigue, and stiffness, is also projected to support the growth of this market in the years to come. Request For Multiple Chapters: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=MC&rep_id=7307 On the other hand, wide price difference between advanced materials and conventional materials may limit the uptake of the former, which is likely to disturb the growth trajectory of this market over the next few years, states the market report. North America to Lead Global Advanced Materials Market A geographical assessment of the global advanced materials market has also been offered in this research report. According to it, North America, the Middle East and Africa, Europe, Latin America, and Asia Pacific are the main geographical segments of this market. Rising at a CAGR of 9.0% CAGR between 2016 and 2024, North America is expect to dominate the global market. However, the North America market for advanced materials is anticipated to mature soon, giving the markets in Asia Pacific and the Middle East and Africa a chance to proliferate in the near future, notes the market study. Browse Press Release: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/pressrelease/advanced-materials-market.htm The review is based on a report by Transparency Market Research (TMR), titled Advanced Materials Market (Product - Ceramics, Glasses, Polymers, Composites, and Metals & Alloys; Application - Medical Devices, Automotive, Aerospace, Electricals & Electronics, Industrial, and Power) - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2016 2024. The global advanced materials market has been segmented as follows: By Product Ceramics Glasses Polymers Composites Metals & Alloys By Application Medical devices Automotive Aerospace Electricals & Electronics Industrial Power Others Browse Chemicals and Materials Market Research Reports: Browse Popular Research Reports by TMR: Synthetic Leather Market: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/synthetic-leather-market.html Aluminum Market: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/aluminum-market.html Lithium Ion Cell and Battery Pack Market: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/lithium-ion-cell-battery-pack-market.html About Us Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge. Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement. Contact Rohit Bhisey Transparency Market Research State Tower, 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany NY - 12207 United States Tel: +1-518-618-1030 USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453 Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.com Website: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com KARTARPUR: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday said if Punjab Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu contests elections in Pakistan, he will win. He also ridiculed the criticism that Sidhu faced for his visit to Pakistan in August. "I heard there was a lot of criticism of Sidhu when he went back after my oath-taking ceremony. I don't know why was he criticised. He was just talking about peace and brotherhood. He can come and contest election here in Pakistan's Punjab, he'll win," Khan said while speaking at the ground-breaking ceremony of the Kararpur corridor in Pakistan. #WATCH Pakistan PM Imran Khan: I don't know why was Sidhu criticised (in India). He was just talking about peace. He can come and contest election here in Pakistan, he'll win. I hope we don't have to wait for Sidhu to become Indian PM for everlasting friendship b/w our nations. pic.twitter.com/yPdWCJDYAr ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 Khan also added that Pakistan wants to mend ties with India. "If India takes one step forward then we will take two steps forward toward friendship. I the prime minister, my political party, the rest of our political parties, our army, all our institutions are all on one page. We want to move forward," Khan said. (Read full report here) The fondness that Imran Khan showed was not one-sided as his 'friend' Sidhu also heaped praises for the Pakistan Prime Minister. In his inimitable style, Sidhu took to poetry to express his gratitude to Imran for giving his nod to the Kartarpur Corridor. "Mera yaar, dildaar, Imran Khan," he said adding that his "big hearted" friend has kept his promise and ended 70 years of wait for the corridor. "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," he said ahead of the ceremony. He added that there had been enough bad blood and that the corridor would be a major opportunity to open the doors of the hearts of the people. "Violence must stop and peace should return to the region," he said. Sidhu said that if the borders between both countries opened, it would be possible to transport goods to different parts of Pakistan and even others countries. "This is my hope, this is my dream ... While there is blood in my veins, I will continue to thank both governments," he said. "My father used to tell me that Punjab Mail went till Lahore, I believe that it can go further till Peshawar, till Afghanistan," he said. A number of state bodies and organizations that provide basic needs for the life of Ukrainians have commented on how martial law would affect the work of various spheres On the evening of November 26, the Verkhovna Rada approved the presidential decree On the introduction of martial law in Ukraine. Martial law is introduced in 10 regions of Ukraine, located along the Russian, Moldovan (part of unrecognized Transnistria) border and the coast of the Black and Azov Seas Vinnytsia, Odesa, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Zaporizhia, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Sumy, Chernihiv regions. The period of martial law was reduced to 30 days and the presidential election was scheduled for March 31, 2019. Ukraine prepares for martial law in regions, builds anti-tank ditches and checkpoints. In Vinnytisia region, the mobilization reserve is being established and immediate reserve forces are being notified. Zaporizhia region which has more than 200 km of the Azov coast has done since 2014: stepping-up, checkpoints. Mykolaiv region lives and usual stating that as the border area, they are always ready. The region holds local drills, have guidelines and both the servicemen and the community of Mykolaiv take it calmly and adequately. Its been 2 years since Kherson region has established our system of territorial defense. The region was the first one in Ukraine to do so. Kherson is constantly carrying out exercises. A month the region completed a large-scale training in the entire area. A number of state bodies and organizations that provide basic needs for the life of Ukrainians have commented on how martial law would affect the work of various spheres. What does martial law mean and what it provides from the legal point of view? Banking The military situation will not affect the work of banks in Ukraine, said Head of the National Bank (NBU), Yakiv Smoliy. The decisions will not in any way affect the work of the banking system, bank branches and offices will work as usual, and decisions will not affect the work of the banks, he noted. According to Smoliy, the banking system is ready for uninterrupted operation in the new conditions. At the same time, the NBU asked the banks to fill ATMs with money. Privatbank and Oschadbank The press services of these state financial institutions explained that the operation of banks has not changed after announcing the military situation. The branches and electronic services of Privatbank work and will work as usual, said Petro Krumhanzl, chairman of the banks board. Oschadbank operates normally in all regions of Ukraine. There are no restrictions regarding the conduct of operations or changes in the opening hours. The bank ensures the stable operation of its electronic services, uninterrupted payments, collection and replenishment of the ATM and terminal networks, the bank's press service informed. Salaries and social benefits Deputy Prime Minister Pavlo Rozenko said that social benefits and salaries will be charged on time. "All social payments, benefits, pensions, salaries, and other payments will be made on time, in full and without restrictions," Rozenko assured. Insurance payments The Social Security Fund promises that all types of material support, insurance payments, medical, and social services will be provided uninterruptedly and in full. Healthcare Acting Health Minister Uliana Suprun said that in a state of martial law, local residents of the respective regions will receive medical care without changes. Moreover, certain medical institutions will provide the necessary and highly specialized medical aid to the Ukrainian military. Education The Ministry of Education and Science said that the usual work of educational institutions will not be disrupted. This can happen only if required by the safety of children and the protection of the state. Education Minister Lilia Hrynevych stressed that no changes regarding access control in institutions, the schedule of their work, etc., are yet to be expected. Nutrition The Ministry of Agrarian Policy assured that there are no threats and risks for the lack of food for Ukrainians, living in the martial law zone. The supply of basic foodstuffs significantly exceeds the forecasted demand, and most of the areas in which the martial law is introduced do not suffer from the lack of food goods, the first deputy minister said. Mobile connection Three of the largest Ukrainian mobile operators Kyivstar, Vodafone Ukraine, and lifecell are also ready for stable operating during the martial law regime. Infrastructure All Ukrainian stations, airports, railway stations, and ports are heavily guarded. In addition, a special mode of operation of railway transport is introduced, which provides for the carrying capacity of the railway network and the corresponding rolling stock for defense needs in the main areas determined by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Train traffic Ukrzaliznytsia state railways intends to provide the train schedule "along with all non-prohibited routes" in wartime conditions. In the event of a change in the logistics of the carriage of goods by sea, in particular, in the Azov region, Ukrzaliznytsia is ready for the reorientation of cargo to the other ports. Airport service Boryspil airport is convinced that martial law will not affect the mobility of the population. The press services of other Ukrainian airports also declare operation in normal mode. Air traffic The press service of the company Ukraine International Airlines stated that currently, the document approved by the Parliament does not impose any restrictions on economic activities throughout Ukraine. Accordingly, the air communication to/from and within Ukraine is carried out in a regular mode, the report said. Post office Ukrposhta state postal company is working and will continue to do so in a regular mode: the conditions for paying pensions and sending mail correspondence will not change. "Customers will continue to receive services in full. We will not change the prices for services. The working schedule is not changed too," the state company notes. Economy The introduction of martial law now does not impose restrictions on economic activities, business entities, and citizens can carry out financial operations in the usual way, the Ministry of Economic Development stated. Cooperation with the IMF IMF press service states that the institution has experience of cooperation with countries, where such decisions have been made, therefore they are convinced that the martial rule would not affect relations with Ukraine. Power industry State Ukrenergo Company is ready to work in the military law regime. "The company has taken all the necessary measures to ensure reliable operation of the United Energy System of Ukraine to switch to the operating mode under martial law," the press service said. In turn, Ukrtransnafta is ready to ensure uninterrupted supply of oil to the refineries of Ukraine and the European Union under martial law. Defense Ukroboronprom, an association of multi-product enterprises in various sectors of the defense industry of Ukraine, is switching to a special mode in 10 regions. It includes a possible change in the schedule of its work, production activities and the implementation of tasks related to the functioning of the state system of civil protection. 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. 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. According to Muzhenko, the scheduled transfer began on November 24. During the transfer, they received a message which said that the passage zone in Kerch Strait was closing. Later, the Ukrainian vessels received a message that they had to move to the waiting area, where the order of the passage under the Kerch Bridge would be defined. The Russian side opened fire, captured the Ukrainian vessels. Six military men out of 23, who were on the vessels, got injured during confrontations. It is specified that Don border guard cruiser rammed the Ukrainian armored artillery boat. 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. Read the original text at 112.ua. Ukrainian sailor, captured by Russian FSB in Crimea Reuters 'I'm fine, don't worry. Love, kisses to all of you', reads the note by Serhiy Tsybizov, one of the Ukrainian sailors captured by Russian special services in Kerch Strait. The serviceman sent his family a brief message, using the aid of his lawyer Oksana Zheleznyak, as Krym.Realii news agency reported. According to the news agency, Tsybizov claimed to be innocent and reported pressure by Russian special services. 'Tsybizov told the lawyer that they did not torture him, but 'applied pressure to make him testify'. He never admitted his guilt and said he obeyed his command's orders', the reporter wrote. As is known, the Ukrainian Parliament passed the bill, which confirmed the presidential decree on imposing the martial law in Ukraine. This is due to the crisis in Azov Sea, where Russian naval group attacked and captured three Ukrainian vessels along with the crew. Earlier, Poroshenko had an interview with reporters of three Ukrainian TV channels; in it, he said that 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. 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. 82 mm mines hit Vodyane, Donetsk region; none of the Ukrainian soldiers were wounded or killed in action Open source Over the past 24 hours, pro-Kremlin militants attacked Ukrainian positions in Donbas five times. The respective message appeared on the Joint Forces Operation HQ. The enemy used a wide range of weaponry, including small arms, grenade launchers, heavy machineguns and 82 mm mortars. Mines hit Vodyane, Donetsk region; the attacks were observed in Krymske, Novhorodske, Mariinka, Vodyane and Lebedynske. None of the Ukrainian soldiers were wounded or killed in action. 'Since the beginning of the day, the enemy did not open fire', the HQ summarized. 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. Some twenty years ago no one would believe that Turkey would become a gas hub and the largest transit country for Russian gas to Europe Effective public management works miracles: countries that have never claimed the role of gas hubs become one. Some twenty years ago no one would believe that Turkey would become a gas hub and the largest transit country for Russian gas to Europe. Then the positions of the Ukrainian gas-transport system (GTS) looked so unshakable, taking into consideration its high carrying capacity and a system of underground storage of natural gas, which constituted one-third of European active volumes. Although gas money in Ukrainian is beneficial for several oligarchic groups, and these schemes give nothing to the state or to the ordinary people, except for a short period of relatively cheap energy prices which was bought by the political concessions, such as recognition of the Sea of Azov as the internal waters of Ukraine and the Russian Federation and cheap transit. But if in Turkey, state management makes such hub magic, our elites generate no less fantastic anti-magic in Ukraine, which can be considered as a unique example of economic anti-utopia. We are literally drowning, despite our unique competitive advantages and strong GTS. Losing such a transit potential and turning a hub country into a dead-end zone requires remarkable managerial talent or remarkable greed. In 2017, gas consumption in Turkey reached its maximum historical level, exceeding 53 billion cubic meters, having increased by 16% over the year. This trend will continue to continue, because, due to climate change and the reduction of water reserves, the capacity of hydropower in the country is reduced, and the gas should be burned in order to generate electricity. In terms of supply diversification, approximately 25 billion cubic meters come from in the Russian Federation. The other supplies come from Azerbaijan and Iran. In addition, Turkey has established deliveries of liquefied gas from Algeria and Nigeria. Next year, in addition to the Blue Stream, Turkey will receive another "stream" TurkStream. The construction of two lines of the TurkStream is estimated at 7 billion euros, the total throughput of this GTS will be over 30 billion cubic meters per year. According to forecasts of Gazprom, the full completion of the construction of the Turkish Stream will take place in 2019, when the onshore part of the gas pipeline will be put into operation. The sea transit section was completed in advance (literally recently) and was solemnly "accepted" by the heads of the Russian Federation and Turkey. According to Gazprom estimates, the capacity of the first line of TurkStream will be used to supply gas to the Turkish market, and the second will serve a mechanism for the transit of gas to Southern Europe: Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, and Italy. In addition, the current Blue Stream will meet the needs of Turkey. Initially, the Russians considered the construction of the South Stream project, which was supposed to open the route for Russian gas supplies from Anapa (RF) to Varna (Bulgaria) and further to the Balkans and the countries of Central Europe. But the southern bypass route was much less successful than the northern one. It should be launched in 2014, however, the war in Ukraine, as well as the annexation of Crimea, became the marker that crossed the Russian plans. The freezing of the South Stream was a Brussels political advance concerning Kyiv, despite the moans of the Bulgarians in Sofia. In addition, the EU took Gazprom for the gills of the Third Energy Package, which provides for the separation of the functions of transit and sale of gas. But all the bypass gas pipelines of the Russian Federation are building practically for their money. Gazprom is trying to omit this regulatory zugzwang by creating conditionally affiliated trading structures registered in European countries. But with this scheme did not work with the Turks. Erdogan offered the Russians his political protectorate and guarantees that the Turkish version of the reincarnated South Stream would not be blocked even if the situation in Ukraine exacerbated. The Turkish leader demanded not only to give him a new GTS in exchange but also to provide an exclusive supply of Russian gas to the EU market in terms of surplus transit. In this transit model, Gazprom only supplies gas to the EU border, and the Europeans determine the method and mechanism of gas intake from the new GTS (jointly with the Turkish side). Thus, the Russian Federation fulfills (albeit very specifically) the requirements of the Third Energy Package, and Turkey receives ideal initial technical conditions for creating a gas hub with a capacity of tens of billions of cubic meters. In the future, of course. For Moscow, this transit scheme is good because, on the one hand, with the development of southern bypass main gas transit routes, it actually bled the Ukrainian gas transport system, and on the other, it receives a transit partner, Ankara, which can say no to Washingtons sanctions. Thus, while the Ukrainian authorities were hushed by the Turkish side and its all-around support in the form of non-recognition of the annexation of Crimea and despite the fact that Tomos was handed over in Istanbul, the Turks were busy with more prosaic issues. Namely, how to take from Kyiv an annual $ 1 billion transit margin and to destroy the potential for developing a gas hub in Ukraine. Let us add the prospects for launching a new Caspian gas route, the so-called Southern Gas Corridor from Azerbaijans Shah Deniz field, and the scheme of the gas hub in Turkey will be finalized. After all, after the completion of the construction of the South European gas pipeline TANAP, the EU countries will be able to receive an additional 10 billion cubic meters of Caspian gas and taking into account the prospects for expanding the capacity of this alternative direction - up to 30 billion cubic meters. Although everything seems to be obvious and natural here. Russians and Europeans are treating Turkey as an opportunity for additional earnings or hedging the energy risks of their countries, and we are still concerned about the more saintly aspects of our identification, hoping that our GTS will load itself with the help of the Holy Spirit. Ukrainian authorities rely on the repetition of the miracle in Cana of Galilee and wait for our GTS to be filled with gas by itself. And while other countries are building pragmatic strategies of personal well-being and often at the expense of their neighbors, Ukraine is more and more immersed in the surreal world. 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 respective law that upholds the President's decision is pending his signature and that of the Parliamentary Speaker Parubiy; the parliamentary outlet still has not yet published the law Uriadovy Kurier, the official outlet of the Ukrainian Cabinet published the presidential decree No.392, which activates the decision of the National Security and Defense Council in Ukraine about the 30-days-long martial law in Ukraine. The Council's updated decision stipulates that the martial law in Ukraine will last from 2 p.m. November 26 till 2 p.m. December 26, 2018. Earlier the order, which introduces the updated decision of the National Security and Defense Council on the imposing of the martial law, was published by the press service of the President of Ukraine. The updated decision states that martial law is imposed in Ukraine starting at 14:00, November 26 for 30 days until December 26, 2018. Earlier, 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. 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. Several Ukrainian sailors were wounded and captured. Mike Pompeo, the U.S. Secretary of the State promised military assistance for Ukraine so that it could boost the defenses amidst the spell of Russian aggression in the Kerch Strait. President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko said this in his interview with CNN. 'Ukraines President Poroshenko tells me that during a phone call with Mike Pompeo, the U.S. Secretary of State pledged full assistance, including military assistance, to protect Ukrainian sovereignty', CNN's Christiane Amanpour wrote on Twitter. As is known, the Ukrainian Parliament passed the bill, which confirmed the presidential decree on imposing the martial law in Ukraine. This is due to the crisis in Azov Sea, where Russian naval group attacked and captured three Ukrainian vessels along with the crew. Earlier, Poroshenko had an interview with reporters of three Ukrainian TV channels; in it, he said that 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. 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. The Minister noted that the actions of the Russian side demonstrating purposeful escalation of the situation in the Sea of Azov and the destabilization of the region Ukrainian port of Mariupol and Berdyansk in the Sea of Azov are blocked by Russia for the entry and exit of vessels, totally 35 vessels blocked. Minister of Infrastructure Volodymyr Omelyan claimed this on Facebook. As of the evening, November 28, 2018, Ukrainian ports of Mariupol and Berdyansk in the Sea of Azov are effectively frozen by the Russian Federation for the entry and exit of vessels, the Minister said. According to intelligence, 18 vessels are pending to enter the Sea of Azov: four head to Berdyansk port, 14 to Mariupol port. Three vessels cant leave the Berdyansk port and six the port of Mariupol. Another eight vessels are moored in ports. Totally, 35 vessels are blocked. The movement is carried out only in the direction of the Russian ports in the Azov. It means that Russia has blocked the Ukrainian ports in the Sea of Azov, Omelyan claimed. The Minister noted that the actions of the Russian side demonstrating purposeful escalation of the situation in the Sea of Azov and the destabilization of the region. Their objective obvious - blocking the work of Ukrainian ports in the waters of the Sea of Azov and the gradual ousting of Ukraine from our legal territories, enshrined in international law, the Minister noted. Reportedly, Kyiv District Court of occupied Simferopol arrested all Ukrainian sailors for two months. 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. The White House stated about busy schedule of president for meeting at the summit and its scenes President of the U.S. Donald Trump and President of Russia Vladimir Putin will hold a bilateral meeting at G-20 summit on November 29-30 in Buenos Aires as Reuters reported. That meeting will cover security issues, arms control, and issues in the Middle East and Ukraine, Trumps national security John Bolton said. Besides, Trump plans to meet the leaders of Argentina, China, Germany, South Korea, Turkey, Japan and India. Trump refused to meet with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia due to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Earlier Trump stated that the U.S. and its European partners were not satisfied with the worsening of the relationships between Ukraine and Russia in Azov Sea. 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. 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 were 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. 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. Related video: In an appeal to the Tribunal, the Foreign Ministry noted violations by Russia of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea in the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has informed the Arbitration Tribunal, which considers the dispute between Ukraine and Russia on the seizure of three Ukrainian ships and servicemen of the Ukrainian Navy by Russian security forces. The press office of the Ministry reported. In an appeal to the Tribunal, the Foreign Ministry noted violations by Russia of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea in the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait. Ukraine noticed the continuing Ukraine drew attention to the ongoing discriminatory prosecution of Ukrainian and foreign ships that plan to go through the Kerch Strait to Mariupol, Berdyansk and other Ukrainian ports, reads the message. The Foreign Ministry noted that through the Arbitration Tribunal using all available legal means, it intends to appeal against the recent actions of the Russian Federation at the sea, - purposeful escalation of the conflict in the Kerch Strait, creating obstacles for shipping, unjustifiably long stops of ships going to Ukrainian ports in the Sea of Azov. Reportedly, Kyiv District Court of occupied Simferopol arrested all Ukrainian sailors for two months. 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. FORT LAUDERDALE, FL, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE SanSal Wellness Holdings, Inc. (SanSal Wellness or the Company) (OTCQB: SSWH), a vertically-integrated agribusiness focused on producing full spectrum natural phytocannabinoid-rich industrial hemp extracts, is pleased to announce an expansion of the production line at its 140-acre farm and manufacturing facilities in Pueblo, Colorado. Production line capacity is expected to increase fivefold (5x) following the upgrades. The Company anticipates that the equipment installation and improvements will be completed by end of December. Alexander M. Salgado, CEO and co-founder of SanSal Wellness, commented, Building and maintaining SanSals reputation as a trusted industry leader and valued production partner is essential to the companys continued success. Our latest investments into newer faster machinery at our Colorado facility will significantly increase our overall production line speed and capacity. These upgrades will enable us to quickly deliver both high quality and high volume to meet demand from our own Veritas Farms brand, retailers, white label distributors, and wholesale customers. Mr. Salgado concluded, This additional production speed and capacity will also allow us to launch many potential new products and formulations from our growing development pipeline. We anticipate that SanSal Wellness and the Veritas Farms brand will continue to build momentum for the remainder of 2018 and start 2019 year on our strongest footing ever. SanSal Wellness and Veritas Farms brand full spectrum hemp extract products include vegan capsules, tinctures, formulations for sublingual applications and infused edibles, lotions, salves, vape oils and pre-filled vape cartridges, and oral syringes in a variety of size formats and flavors. All SanSal Wellness and Veritas Farms brand products are third-party laboratory tested for strength and purity. For additional information and product purchase, visit www.sansalwellness.com and www.theveritasfarms.com . About SanSal Wellness Holdings, Inc. SanSal Wellness Holdings, Inc. (OTCQB: SSWH) is focused on producing superior quality, whole-plant, broad spectrum phytocannabinoid-rich hemp oils and extracts. SanSal Wellness currently operates a 140-acre farm and production facilities in Pueblo, Colorado, and is registered with the Colorado Department of Agriculture to grow industrial hemp. SanSal Wellness sells products under its Veritas Farms brand and also manufactures private label products for a number of leading distributors and retailers. The Company files periodic reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which can be viewed at www.sec.gov . SanSal Wellness Holdings, Inc. - IR/Media Contact Toll-Free: (888) 549-7888 E-mail: investors@sansalwellness.com Cautionary Language Concerning Forward-Looking Statements This SanSal Wellness Holdings, Inc. press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, including those with respect to the Companys mission statement and growth strategy, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company's management believes that such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot guarantee that such expectations are, or will be, correct. These forward-looking statements involve many risks and uncertainties, which could cause the Companys future results to differ materially from those anticipated. Potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, general economic conditions and conditions affecting the industries in which the Company operates; the uncertainty of regulatory requirements and approvals; and the ability to obtain necessary financing on acceptable terms or at all. Additional information regarding the factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements is available in the Companys filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company assumes no obligation to update any of the information contained or referenced in this press release. Open source Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine demands the release of Ukrainian sailors, the crewmembers of the Ukrainian boats Berdyansk, Nikopol, and Yana Kapu captured by Russia in the waters of the Black Sea in the evening on November 25, reads the message of the Ministry. It is noted that the relevant note of protest was directed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia on November 27. On November 27, 2018, another note of protest of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia in connection with unlawful acts performed by Russia against the servicemen of the Ukrainian Navy who were captured in a military prison as a result of another act of armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine in the territorial waters and the exclusive economic zone of our state in the Black Sea. The Russian side has been updated with a categorical demand to immediately release the captured citizens of Ukraine from custody and ensure their safe return to their homeland, reads the claim. The Ukrainian side has once again demanded Russia to ensure urgently and fully all the legal rights of the captured citizens of Ukraine, provided for by the Geneva Convention of August 12, 1949 on the treatment of prisoners of war, as well as the admission of the representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross to them. Reportedly, Kyiv District Court of occupied Simferopol arrested all Ukrainian sailors for two months. 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. Ukrainian leader prepares Ukraine to the war with Russia, says Konstantin Kosachev, head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Council of the Russian Federation Konstantin Kosachev, Russian diplomat Kommersant Russia has no intentions of going to war with Ukraine. Konstantin Kosachev, head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Council of the Russian Federation said so as quoted by Interfax news agency. 'President of Ukraine, with his masochistic pleasure, gets Ukraine ready to the war with Russia, which our country never considered at any stage; and it does not consider it in any perspective in relations against neighboring Ukraine', he said. Earlier, President Petro Poroshenko stressed that 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. According to the U.S. Special Representative to Ukraine, its attempts to get control over sea waters is a big concern Open source U.S. Special Representative to Ukraine Kurt Volker stated that Russia intended to have sole control over the access to the Ukrainian ports, as Ukrinform reported. I think, this is the question of access to Mariupol for Ukrainians. Russia claims a unilateral right to control this access, this is the problem. It doesnt mean that Russia will perform another attack on the land, Volker said answering the question whether Russia would take another shot to create a land corridor to Crimea. Volker noted that he would be surprised if Russians would take this step. The attempts to control sea waters cause enough concern. The representative of the State Department reminded that the U.S. and partners do not recognize Crimeas annexation as they do not recognize that these waters belong to Russia solely. Russia has to respect and obligate the agreement of 2003, he said. Volker added that he regards the extension of the current negotiations format pointless, despite the recent events. Washington supports German and French sides for their leading role, they are working hard in the Normandy format. Neither Germany nor France is the problem of this format. It is Russia, which is not ready to get this talks seriously. 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 these servicemen. Related video: Open source Heather Nauert, the U.S. State Department official representative, called Europe for giving more support to Ukraine and for introducing anti-Russian sanctions in full, as she said at the briefing. We would like the European allies to support Ukraine. The U.S. took a strong position on supporting Ukraine, we would like the other countries to do the same, she said. Nauert also stated that it is Washingtons interest to encourage the states to support each other, so that not only the U.S. are carrying the burden, are not dealing with this alone. Many of the European countries imposed anti-Russian sanctions due to Crimea and Ukraine. As the experts told me, not all the sanction were imposed in full, she said. Earlier, the U.S. State Department condemned Russias attack the Ukrainian sailors in Azov Sea. At the same time, the institution urged Poroshenko and Putin to participate in the settlement of the situation directly. Related video: The U.S. state Alabama recognized Holodomor as a genocide of the Ukrainian nation, as the U.S. Embassy to Ukraine reported on Facebook. Alabama state recognized Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine as a genocide, the message says. Therefore, Alabama became the 21st state to recognize Holodomor as a genocide of the Ukrainian nation. Earlier the U.S. expressed solidarity with Ukraine on the occasion of the 85th anniversary of Holodomor, the press office of the U.S. Department of State reported. This month we join Ukrainians around the world in marking the 85th anniversary of the Holodomor, when millions of innocent Ukrainians were deliberately starved to death by the regime of Josef Stalin. The Soviet Unions barbaric seizure of Ukrainian land and crops was undertaken with the deliberate political goal of subjugating the Ukrainian people and nation. This catastrophic man-made famine was one of the most atrocious acts of the twentieth century and a brutal reminder of the crimes of communism, reads the message. Commander of small armored artillery boat Berdyansk of the Naval Forces of Ukraine, Senior Lieutenant Roman Mokriak refused to answer the questions of the officers of Russias FSB and confess in the crimes, which he did not commit as Dumskaya reported. He is a good officer, and a brave person. He flipped the security officers off. The Crimean occupation court arrested Roman, the Crimean human rights activists said. Earlier the so-called Kyiv District Court of Simferopol has begun to choose the restrictive measure for the Ukrainian sailors detained in the evening of November 25 in Kerch Strait. It is reported about the arrest of Serhiy Tsybizov and Viktor Varemez. They are arrested for two months until January 25, 2019. 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 were 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. 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 these military. Related video: Russian special services are accused of planning, preparation, outbreak, and holding of the aggressive actions of the war, attempted crime and intentional homicide Conflict in Sea of Azov TASS Eight Russian law enforcers and border guards of Russia's FSB, who attacked the Ukrainian sailors were notified about suspicion, as Andriy Lysenko, spokesperson of the Prosecutor Generals Office (GPU) reported on Facebook. On November 27, 2018, the prosecutors of the Security Service of Ukraine in Odesa region and military prosecutors of the Military Prosecutors Office of South region of Ukraine notified the following soldiers of the Border Guard Service of the FSB and Armed Forces of the Russian Federation who attacked the Ukrainian sailors about the suspicion according to the signs of the crimes such as planning, preparation, outbreak, and holding of the aggressive actions of the war, attempted crime and intentional homicide, he noted. Besides, Lysenko specified the soldiers notified about suspicion: Head of the Border Department of Russias FSB in Sevastopol and Counter Admiral Stankevich S.; Deputy Head of the Border Department of Russias FSB, Head of Coast Guard Department and Vice-admiral Medvedev G.; Head of Command and Control Service of Russias FSB in Sevastopol, including patrol boats Izumrud and Don and Captain 1st rank Romashkin G.; Deputy Head of the Office, Head of Command and Control Service of Russias FSB and Captain 1st rank Shein A.; Head of Command and Control Service of Russias FSB in Kerch and Captain 2nd rank Shatokhin A.; Commander of Border Escort Ship Don and Captain 2nd rank Saliaev A.; Commander of Escort Ship Izumrud and Captain 3rd rank Shipitsyn A.; Commander of Small Anti-Submarine Warfare Suzdalets and Captain 3rd rank Scherbakov S. 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. 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 were 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. 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. Related video: Besides, it is supposed that the joint statement of the EU member states would not contain any severe condemnation of Russia's actions Open source The EU declaration on the situation in Azov Sea is to be published today, on November 28it does not contain any specific calls for anti-Russian sanctions, as Rikard Jozwiak reported on Twitter. The EU28 declaration on #AzovSea & #KerchStrait should come out today. No concrete calls for sanctions and apparently no words of condemnation. #Russia #Ukraine #Crimea Rikard Jozwiak (@RikardJozwiak) November 28, 2018 Earlier, Radio Liberty correspondent stated that the EU states were working on a common statement on Azov Sea and Kerch Strait. EU28 working on a common statement on #AzovSea & #KerchStrait. around 6-7 EU member states would consider further sanctions on #Russia but if it happens it is likely to be a long process (as always). #Ukraine #Crimea Rikard Jozwiak (@RikardJozwiak) November 27, 2018 Earlier, Russia attacked ship group of Ukraines Navy in Kerch Strait and captured its crew (23 servicemen). Ukraine regarded such actions as an open military aggression and initiated the imposition of the martial law, and asked EU and the U.S. for help. Related video: A preventive measure in the form of detention until January 25, 2019 was elected for them Kyiv District Court of Simferopol arrested another nine Ukrainian sailors until January 25, 2019, who were detained by Russian border officers, the sentence should have been announced today. Reporter from Radio Liberty Anton Naumliuk reported this on Facebook. Captain Denys Hrytsenko from Berdyansk ship, Commander Oleh Melnychuk from Yana Kapu and Senior Lieutenant Bohdan Nebylytsia from Nikopol armored artillery boat are those who were arrested today. Russias Federal Security Service initiated a criminal proceeding for illegal border crossing. Edem Smedliaiev, lawyer of arrested captain Oleh Melnychuk claimed that he managed to talk to Oleh for several minutes. They allowed appealing the decision of the court. Oleh said that he was not allowed to communicate with his relatives, he was only able to call his father, with whom he exchanged literally several words. The lawyer informed that Oleh used the services of a translator from Russian into Ukrainian during the hearing. He has also claimed in the court that he pleads not guilty, believes that he is not involved in this case and ready to defend his innocence anywhere, including in the courts, the lawyer said. Edem Smedliaiev noted that there is no detailed information regarding the other sailors yet. He stressed that the first thing they need right now is clothes. 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. The law and order approved by it begin to act from the day of the official publication The law #2630-VII on the approval of the order of the president on the imposing of martial law in some regions for 30 days since 14:00, November 26 was published at Holos Ukrayiny. The law approved the presidential order on the imposing of military law for 30 days in Vinnytsia, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Kherson regions and internal waters of Azov and Kerch waters. The law and order approved by it begin to act from the day of the official publication. 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. 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. On November 28, the Uriadovy Kurier, the official outlet of the Ukrainian Cabinet published the presidential decree No.392, which activates the decision of the National Security and Defense Council in Ukraine about the 30-days-long martial law in Ukraine. Related video: CHICAGO, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) has chosen BenchPrep to deliver a new suite of digital study aids for the Multistate Bar Exam (MBE), Multistate Essay Examination (MEE), Multistate Performance Test (MPT), and Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE). By utilizing BenchPreps learning management platform to deliver study aids for its exams, NCBE will be able to offer a robust, high-quality experience that candidates can obtain from participating law schools or purchase directly from NCBE. Study aids will incorporate simulated MBEs and MPREs, practice questions, essays, and performance tests to improve learning and exam performance. The learning solution that BenchPrep has developed will help NCBE deliver an enhanced suite of study aids for applicants to the bar, said Judith Gundersen, NCBE President & CEO. Offering these new study aids through BenchPrep will help candidates benefit from premium study aid products at an affordable price. BenchPreps comprehensive learning platform helps education and training organizations improve and accelerate learner success by streamlining content management, instructional design, educator tools, analytics dashboards, and reporting into one all-encompassing solution. Learners get the flexibility to access learning materials anytime, anywhere, across all devices. By incorporating gamification, microlearning, and data-driven personalization in its learning platform, BenchPrep makes learning engaging, efficient, and effective. We are thrilled to begin this new strategic alignment and look forward to helping thousands of law school students get ready for the next phase of their legal careers, said Ashish Rangnekar, CEO of BenchPrep. This partnership with NCBE is core to our mission to enable the worlds leading education, training, and testing companies to deliver best-in-class online learning, assessment, and practice programs. BenchPrep and NCBE will be launching NCBEs revamped study aids for applicants to use in time for the February 2019 bar exam and the March 2019 MPRE. About NCBE The National Conference of Bar Examiners is a not-for-profit corporation that develops the licensing tests used by most states for admission to the bar. NCBE also provides psychometric consulting, research, and data forensics services to jurisdictions. NCBE stakeholders and constituents include state Supreme Courts, state bar admission agencies, attorneys, and law schools. About BenchPrep Based in Chicago, BenchPrep enables the world's leading education and training companies to deliver best-in-class digital learning programs. BenchPrep is the only comprehensive learner success platform on the market and is recognized as an expert in learner success globally. The companys innovative enterprise SaaS solution is transforming the professional education space, with many of the largest credentialing bodies, associations, and training companies in the world now delivering learning programs through BenchPrep. Customers include ACT, Becker Professional Education, AAMC, CFA Institute, CompTIA, GMAC, Institute for Supply Management, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, ProLiteracy, HR Certification Institute, Richardson Sales Training, Hobsons, McGraw Hill Education, OnCourse Learning, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. More than 4 million learners have used BenchPreps platform to attain academic and professional success. To discover more about BenchPrep, please visit www.benchprep.com . Media Contact: Jon Aderson Director of Marketing BenchPrep 312-650-5135 jon@benchprep.com A video accompanying this announcement is available at: http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/3878823f-a598-4420-897d-c86d93b7a652 Earlier the order, which introduced the updated decision of the National Security and Defense Council on the imposing of the martial law in Ukraine, was published on the website of the president Martial law was imposed in ten regions of Ukraine from 14:00, November 26 for 30 days as National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) reported. In accordance with the Law of Ukraine On the approval of the Order of the President of Ukraine "On imposing of the martial law in Ukraine" (#9338) adopted by the parliament on November 26, martial law is imposed in Vinnytsia, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Odesa, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson region as well as in the inland waters of Azov and Kerch waters from 14:00, November 26 until 14:00, December 26, 2018, the message said. Earlier the order, which introduces the updated decision of the National Security and Defense Council on the imposing of the martial law, was published by the press service of the President of Ukraine. The updated decision states that martial law is imposed in Ukraine starting at 14:00, November 26 for 30 days until December 26, 2018. On November 27, Uryadovy Kuryer (national daily newspaper published by the executive branch of Ukraine) official published the first decision of the NSDC on the imposing of the martial law for 60 days approved by the president. This publication was called a mistake. It is expected that the updated and adopted by the parliament law will be published by Uryadovy Kuryer on November 28. 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. 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. 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 EU Delegation emphasized that it follows closely the development of the situation in Ukraine Open source The imposing of martial law should not influence the allocation of the macro-financial aid to Ukraine by the European Union as Ukrainian News reported citing the EU Delegation. Basing on the information on martial law that we have, its imposing should not influence the allocation of the macro-financial aid, the press service noted. Besides, the EU Delegation emphasized that it follows closely the development of the situation in Ukraine. On November 16, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has signed a law which ratifies the Memorandum of understanding between Ukraine and European Union and Credit Agreement between Ukraine, the National Bank and EU on the receiving of the macro-financial aid in the sum of one billion euro. The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has adopted the draft law #0203, which ratifies the Memorandum on mutual understanding between Ukraine and the European Union, and the Credit Agreement between Ukraine, the National Bank and the EU on the receiving of the macro-financial aid in the sum of one billion Euros on November 8. On November 28, the Uriadovy Kurier, the official outlet of the Ukrainian Cabinet published the presidential decree No.392, which activates the decision of the National Security and Defense Council in Ukraine about the 30-days-long martial law in Ukraine. The Council's updated decision stipulates that the martial law in Ukraine will last from 2 p.m. November 26 till 2 p.m. December 26, 2018. Related video: According to Poroshenko, the issue, which countries can provide such vessels can be discussed but it should be the NATO countries Poroshenko, NSDC urgent session, Kyiv, November 2018 mediarnbo One of the possible variants of the support of Ukraine in the current situation in waters of the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea is the sending of a few vessels of NATO to the Black Sea. Petro Poroshenko, the President of Ukraine made such statement as the presidential press service reported. The sending of a few NATO vessels can be one of the possible variants of the support of Ukraine as the target is the global security, he noted. According to Poroshenko, the issue, which countries can provide such vessels can be discussed but it should be the NATO countries to not allow Russia anymore to act aggressively. Answering the question whether he expects that U.S. President Donald Trump will deliver the position on Ukraine to Russian President Vladimir Putin at G20 summit, Poroshenko noted that he has two versions. The first one is the Normandy Format, Minsk Agreements, de-escalation of the situation in the Sea of Azov, de-occupation of Crimea and many others. But it can be said shorter: Mr. Putin, get away from Ukraine, Poroshenko said. He also reminded about the previous meetings with U.S. President and emphasized that he got the strong position on the support of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. Poroshenko added for last that the imposing of the martial law in a few regions of Ukraine tool place for the defense, the country does not intend to resort to military actions against anyone. 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. 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. On November 28, the Uriadovy Kurier, the official outlet of the Ukrainian Cabinet published the presidential decree No.392, which activates the decision of the National Security and Defense Council in Ukraine about the 30-days-long martial law in Ukraine. It was also reported that President of the U.S. Donald Trump and President of Russia Vladimir Putin will hold a bilateral meeting at G-20 summit on November 29-30 in Buenos Aires. Related video: Martial law is imposed in Ukraine starting at 14:00, November 26 for 30 days until December 26, 2018 The order, which introduces the updated decision of the National Security and Defense Council on the imposing of the martial law, was published by the press service of the President of Ukraine. The updated decision states that martial law is imposed in Ukraine starting at 14:00, November 26 for 30 days until December 26, 2018. On November 27, Uryadovy Kuryer published the first decision of the NSDC on the imposing of the martial law for 60 days approved by the president. This publication was called a mistake. 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. 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. 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 text of the order provides the imposing of the martial law from 14:00, on November 26 and it does not include the mentioning of particular regions where the law should act The order of the president on the imposing of the martial law for 60 days from November 26 was published in Uryadovy Kuryer, a national daily newspaper published by the executive branch of Ukraine. According to part two, Article 190 of the regulation of the Verkhovna Rada, the proper order of the president of Ukraine comes into force as it is approved by the Verkhovna Rada and immediately announced through the mass media or published by another way. 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. 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. Poroshenko signed an order on the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine to impose a martial law in Ukraine. 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 Russian side does not admit the representatives of Ukraine to the wounded prisoners of war in Kerch and only unverified information on their current state of health is present. Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights made such statement as 112 Ukraine reported. The other day I have begun the negotiations with Missis Moskalkova (the Russian ombudswoman, - 112.international) to admit Lord Klyment to our wounded sailors, who are at the first Kerch hospital named after Pirohov. He arrived there and was told that they cannot consider his request now and sent him to Simferopol. In Simferopol, the Main Department of FSB told him that today each Ukrainian prisoner of war will be assigned to the prosecutors of the FSB and each prosecutor will make a decision on the admission of the person to the prisoner on his ownWe still work with the Red Cross; we think it can get to our prisoners and see the real state of affairs, she noted. The ombudswoman added that she possess only unverified information on the current state of health of the sailors in Kerch. They are in the hospital; they had surgeries. Only three out of 24 are wounded. One of them is in the serious condition. Now, according to Russia, his life is not endangered. But we need to check, we try to do it, she emphasized. According to Denisova, the restrictive measure is chosen for 15 sailors detained by Russia. It will be chosen for nine sailors on November 28. Now the Crimeans gather warm clothes, food. Moreover, all people who stay with them in the remand center share tea, coffee, other goods with them to support our sailors, she added. Earlier Lyudmyla Denisova claimed that she met the representatives of the families of the Ukrainian sailors captured in the result of the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine in Kerch Strait. Denisova appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) about the denial of access by Russia for the provision of the humanitarian aid to the captives and discussed the strengthening of the defense of the rights of the sailors and their families with First Vice Speaker Iryna Gerashchenko, representatives of the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of ukraine, Foreign Ministry, Ministry of Temporarily Occupied Territories, leadership of Mejlis and human right activists. Earlier the so-called Kyiv District Court of Simferopol has begun to choose the restrictive measure for the Ukrainian sailors detained in the evening of November 25 in Kerch Strait. It is reported about the arrest of Serhiy Tsybizov and Viktor Varemez. They are arrested for two months until January 25, 2019. 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 were 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. 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 these military. Related video: Berdyansk, Nikopol and Yany Kapu ships in Kerch port kerch.fm The so-called Kyiv District Court of Simferopol has begun to choose the restrictive measure for the Ukrainian sailors detained in the evening of November 25 in Kerch Strait as journalist Anton Naumlyuk reported on Facebook. It is reported about the arrest of Serhiy Tsybizov and Viktor Varemez. They are arrested for two months until January 25, 2019. Earlier Naumlyuk reported that on November 27, the judges will choose the restrictive measure for 12 sailors. The cases of the rest of them will be considered tomorrow on November 28. The restrictive measure for the wounded sailors will be chosen in Kerch, medical military unit. 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 were 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. 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 these military. Related video: He assured President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko in this action during the phone conversation of the act of the Russian aggression against Ukraine in waters of Kerch Strait President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan will raise the Ukrainian issue during the G20 summit in Argentina. He assured President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko in this action during the phone conversation of the act of the Russian aggression against Ukraine in waters of Kerch Strait as the press service of the Ukrainian president reported. President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko held the phone conversation with President of Turkey Recep Tayyip ErdoganHe informed about the daring act of aggression of Russia against Ukraine in the waters of Kerch Strait and actions of Ukraine in response, particularly, the imposing of martial lawHe urged the President of Turkey to strengthen pressure on Russia for the release of the Ukrainian sailors and ships, the message said. It is also reported that in his turn, Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the escalation and aggressive actions of the Russian Federation against Ukraine. The parties agreed that the President of Turkey will raise the Ukrainian issue in Buenos Aires at G20 summit, the message 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 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. 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. On November 28, the Uriadovy Kurier, the official outlet of the Ukrainian Cabinet published the presidential decree No.392, which activates the decision of the National Security and Defense Council in Ukraine about the 30-days-long martial law in Ukraine. It was also reported that President of the U.S. Donald Trump and President of Russia Vladimir Putin will hold a bilateral meeting at G-20 summit on November 29-30 in Buenos Aires. Related video: Roman Truba, the Director of the bureau, stated that his employers Open source Ukraines Government approved the launch of State Investigation Bureau. The relevant decision was made on November 28, 112 Ukraine reported. Therefore, the State Investigation Bureau will start working. We wish them success and maximum credit from the society, Volodymyr Groysman, Ukraines Prime Minister stated. Roman Truba, the Director of the bureau, stated that around 500 officers of the institution started working on November 27. They have even opened first criminal cases. We realize the responsibility the Bureau had, and we promise not to let down the leadership of the state and the Ukrainian nation, he stressed. Earlier, on November 22, President Poroshenko signed a decree appointing Roman Truba the Director of State Investigation Bureau, which was to start working on November 20, 2017, but it did not. She told about the assistance and defense, which can be provided by the bodies of state power to the captives and their families Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Lyudmyla Denisova claimed that she met the representatives of the families of the Ukrainian sailors captured in the result of the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine in Kerch Strait as she reported on Facebook. The representative of the Naval Forces assured that all payments to the prisoners of war provided by a law will be assessed in the full volume and paid to their families, she said. Denisova appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) about the denial of access by Russia for the provision of the humanitarian aid to the captives and discussed the strengthening of the defense of the rights of the sailors and their families with First Vice Speaker Iryna Gerashchenko, representatives of the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of ukraine, Foreign Ministry, Ministry of Temporarily Occupied Territories, leadership of Mejlis and human right activists. According to her, they agreed with the representatives of the families to constantly communicate and inform each other on the current situation. The ombudswoman assured that she is ready to go to the detention places of the Ukrainian sailors at any time. Earlier the so-called Kyiv District Court of Simferopol has begun to choose the restrictive measure for the Ukrainian sailorsdetained in the evening of November 25 in Kerch Strait. It is reported about the arrest of Serhiy Tsybizov and Viktor Varemez. They are arrested for two months until January 25, 2019. 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 were 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. 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 these military. Related video: ENDEAVOUR TO WEBCAST ITS INVESTOR DAY View News Release in PDF Toronto, November 28, 2018 - Endeavour Mining (TSX:EDV)(OTCQX:EDVMF) is hosting its 2018 Investor Day in Toronto today. The event is being webcast and will start at noon Eastern Time (ET) and is expected to conclude at 5p.m. ET. The event can be viewed at the following link: http://cdn.digitalservices.online/EndeavourMining/ A playback will also be available on our website. All presentations are available for download here. CONTACT INFORMATION Martino De Ciccio VP - Strategy & Investor Relations +44 203 640 8665 mdeciccio@endeavourmining.com Brunswick Group LLP in London Carole Cable, Partner +44 7974 982 458 ccable@brunswickgroup.com ABOUT ENDEAVOUR MINING CORPORATION Endeavour Mining is a TSX listed intermediate African gold producer with a solid track record of operational excellence, project development and exploration in the highly prospective Birimian greenstone belt in West Africa. Endeavour is focused on offering both near-term and long-term growth opportunities with its project pipeline and its exploration strategy, while generating immediate cash flow from its operations. Endeavour operates 5 mines across Cote d'Ivoire (Agbaou and Ity), Burkina Faso (Hounde, Karma), and Mali (Tabakoto) which are expected to produce 670-720koz in 2018 at an AISC of $840-890/oz. Endeavour's high-quality development projects (recently commissioned Hounde, Ity CIL and Kalana) have the combined potential to deliver an additional 600koz per year at an AISC well below $700/oz between 2018 and 2020. In addition, its exploration program aims to discover 10-15Moz of gold between 2017 and 2021 which represents more than twice the reserve depletion during the period. For more information, please visit www.endeavourmining.com. Corporate Office: 5 Young St, Kensington, London W8 5EH, UK This news release contains "forward-looking statements" including but not limited to, statements with respect to Endeavour's plans and operating performance, the estimation of mineral reserves and resources, the timing and amount of estimated future production, costs of future production, future capital expenditures, and the success of exploration activities. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "expects", "expected", "budgeted", "forecasts", and "anticipates". Forward-looking statements, while based on management's best estimates and assumptions, are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including but not limited to: risks related to the successful integration of acquisitions; risks related to international operations; risks related to general economic conditions and credit availability, actual results of current exploration activities, unanticipated reclamation expenses; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; fluctuations in prices of metals including gold; fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates, increases in market prices of mining consumables, possible variations in ore reserves, grade or recovery rates; failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; accidents, labour disputes, title disputes, claims and limitations on insurance coverage and other risks of the mining industry; delays in the completion of development or construction activities, changes in national and local government regulation of mining operations, tax rules and regulations, and political and economic developments in countries in which Endeavour operates. Although Endeavour has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. 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. Please refer to Endeavour's most recent Annual Information Form filed under its profile at www.sedar.com for further information respecting the risks affecting Endeavour and its business. AISC, all-in sustaining costs at the mine level, cash costs, operating EBITDA, all-in sustaining margin, free cash flow, net free cash flow, free cash flow per share, net debt, and adjusted earnings are non-GAAP financial performance measures with no standard meaning under IFRS, further discussed in the section Non-GAAP Measures in the most recently filed Management Discussion and Analysis. The situation in the shopping mall is tense nashkiev.ua Far-right group captures Ocean Plaza shopping mall, Kyiv, November 28 nashkiev.ua Far-right group captures Ocean Plaza shopping mall, Kyiv, November 28 On Wednesday, November 28, far-right group Sokil has entered Kyiv shopping mall Ocean Plaza. For now, 200 people in black clothes with the flags of their organization are inside the mall, as Vesti reported. We take Ocean Plaza under our control, the protesters stated. The nationalists demand the closing of the shopping mall, which, according to them, belongs to the Russian businessmen. We demand to stop funding terrorism and murdering the Ukrainian soldiers by the means which are taken from Ukraine through this shopping mall, they say. Far-right group captures Kyiv shopping mall Ocean Plaza, Novemeber 28, 2018 kiev.informator.ua Get the Russian business out of Ukraine! the nationalists yell. At around 12:30 pm, a few dozens of law enforcers arrived to the shopping mall. The police officers surrounded the protesters, then, they started leaving the mall. For now, there are lots of protesters inside. Yesterday, on November 28, Ocean Plaza shopping mall was surrounded with tires, walls were painted, the main entrance glued over. Related video: Open source Washington will continue supporting Ukraine and urges European states to take measures, in particular, to refuse from the construction of the Russian gas pipeline Nord Stream 2, as Heather Nauert, the Spokesperson of U.S. State Department, said at the briefing. Commenting the recent escalation in Azov Sea, Nauert stated that the U.S. intends to conduct additional negotiations with the European partners soon. Now, one of the things I think youll be seeing in the days and weeks ahead are additional conversations that the U.S. government is having with our European allies. And one of the things that we would like to see take place is our European allies doing more to assist Ukraine, she said. The United States government has taken a very strong position in their support, in support of Ukraine. We would like other countries to do more as well. That is something thats enshrined in our National Security Strategy, encouraging other countries to help one another around the world so that the United States isnt completely I dont want to say shouldering the burden, but so the United States isnt handling these issues chiefly alone, Nauert stressed, explaining the position of the State Department. In particular, she noted that the European authorities might enhance sanctions against Russian for aggression in Crimea and Donbas. Besides, she said that no all of the sanctions are implemented for now in full. Nord Stream 2 will be one of the topics at the negotiations. Nord Stream 2 is snaking through many of these countries, and I think thats a question European countries have to ask themselves: Is Nord Stream 2 something that they want to continue with, because it helps the Russian government, and is that the kind of support that they want to provide the Russian government with, continuing to back Nord Stream 2 at this time? she said. The construction of the Nord Stream-2 became a topic, which recently was discussed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin. In a joint press statement before the talks, Merkel claimed that Ukraine should remain the participant in the gas transit process to Europe after the launch of the Nord Stream-2. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine claimed that the Police is the right place to address in such cases People should appeal law enforcement agencies in case people in military uniform engaged in arbitrariness in Ukraine during martial law. Deputy Head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces Rodion Tymoshenko claimed this during the briefing, reports 112 Ukraine. Today, I have been asked a question, why do the representatives of the city administration in Mariupol and Berdyansk are in a camouflage suit in downtown. I gave a task to local chief enlistment officers to check the information, they reported that no one is in a suit. It means that someone is engaged in such work and giving people false information. If someone in the camouflage suit came to take away a cow or a car remember, you always have police. Address the police, such bad people have to be arrested, Tymoshenko claimed. Earlier the order, which introduces the updated decision of the National Security and Defense Council on the imposing of the martial law, was published by the press service of the President of Ukraine. The updated decision states that martial law is imposed in Ukraine starting at 14:00, November 26 for 30 days until December 26, 2018. On November 27, Uryadovy Kuryer (national daily newspaper published by the executive branch of Ukraine) official published the first decision of the NSDC on the imposing of the martial law for 60 days approved by the president. This publication was called a mistake. It is expected that the updated and adopted by the parliament law will be published by Uryadovy Kuryer on November 28. 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. 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 counsel; it stipulates that the Ukrainian Parliament should consider the option to impose the martial law in Ukraine. The Verkhovna Rada adopted the draft law approving as a whole a presidential decree on the imposition of martial law in Ukraine. The states only accredited cannabis courses comes to Albuquerque with a day of learning, in addition to a health fair. Plant a Seed Cannabis Education Tour 2018 Interested in joining the cannabis industry or enhancing your education in the ever-changing cannabis field? We are bringing the states only AMA-1 Accredited cannabis courses to all physicians and nurses in Albuquerque, New Mexico! We also welcome industry professionals as well as the general public, who can earn their ECS Cannacian Level 1 Certification. Can-na-cian KanSHn Noun Clinicians and Counselors who are trained in cannabis therapy: an endocannabinoid caregiver having direct contact with and responsibility for medical patients. All courses are CME/CNE accredited for physicians by the American Academy of Family Physicians: 1. Our Endocannabinoid System 2. Doctor/Patient Communications 3. Hemp vs. Medical Cannabis Oil 4. Targeted Dosing and Delivery Enroll from August 17th through September 21st at the Early Bird rate of only $75.00! Tickets will then be $99.00 until November 25th. You will receive either New Mexico CME or CNE credit, or a Certificate of Completion for your Level 1 Cannacian courses. Mark your calendars now for November 28, 2018. Make sure you are educated by the best! Come enjoy a day of learning, in addition to a Health Fair that will be FREE to the general public. Dublin, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Europe Stretchable Electronics Market By Component (Electroactive Polymers, Stretchable Conductors, Stretchable Batteries, Stretchable Circuits & Photovoltaics), By Application, By Country, Competition Forecast & Opportunities, 2017-2023" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Europe stretchable electronics market is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 89% by 2023 Anticipated growth in the market can be attributed to increasing adoption of smart wearable, rising investments in development of touch sensitive e-skin and availability of stretchable conductive ink in the region. Presence of companies, such as tacterion and IMEC, in addition to growing popularity of stretchable sensors for healthcare application, is expected to positively influence the region's stretchable electronics market in the coming years. Europe Stretchable Electronics Market 2017 - 2023 discusses the following aspects of Stretchable Electronics market in Europe: Stretchable Electronics Market Size, Share & Forecast Segmental Analysis - By Component (Electroactive Polymers, Stretchable Conductors, Stretchable Batteries, Stretchable Circuits & Photovoltaics), By Application (Consumer Products, Healthcare, Textile, Automotive & Others), By Country (Germany, United Kingdom, France, Belgium & Rest of Europe) Competitive Analysis Changing Market Trends & Emerging Opportunities Why You Should Buy This Report? To gain an in-depth understanding of Stretchable Electronics in Europe To identify the on-going trends and anticipated growth in the next five years To help industry consultants, Stretchable Electronics 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 stretchable electronics market are Tacterion GmbH Du Pont de Nemours International SARL FINELINE Ltd. WISE Srl Bainisha cvba Express Circuits Group Ltd IMEC VZW LEAP Technology ApS Key Topics Covered: 1. Product Overview 2. Research Methodology 3. Analyst View 4. Europe Stretchable Electronics Market Outlook 4.1. Market Size & Forecast 4.1.1. By Value 4.2. Market Share & Forecast 4.2.1. By Component (Electroactive Polymers (EAPs), Stretchable Conductors, Stretchable Batteries, Stretchable Circuits & Photovoltaics) 4.2.2. By Application (Consumer Products, Healthcare, Textile, Automotive & Others) 4.2.3. By Country (Germany, United Kingdom, France, Belgium & Rest of Europe) 5. Market Dynamics 5.1. Impact Analysis 5.2. Drivers 5.3. Challenges 6. Market Trends & Developments 7. Competitive Landscape 7.1. Competition Outlook 7.2. Company Profiles 8. Strategic Recommendations For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/3qxtb3/europe?w=12 Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. English Danish Nrresundby, 28 November 2018 Announcement no. 15/2018 RTX A/S Annual General Meeting is held on Thursday 24 January 2019 at 3.00 pm at the companys address Strmmen 6, 9400 Nrresundby. Items to be included in the agenda must reach the company in writing by Wednesday 12 December 2018. Yours sincerely, RTX A/S PETER RPKE CEO Enquiries and further information: CEO Peter Rpke, tel +45 96 32 23 00 RTXs homepage: www.rtx.dk 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. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- When Hootsuite was born back in November of 2008, four-year-old Facebook had 100 million users (2.27 billion today) and new kid on the block Twitter had just 6 million (336 million today). The world was without Instagram (more than 1 billion users today) as it wouldnt exist for another two years, and Snapchat (300+ million users today) wouldnt come on the scene for another three. In this burgeoning world of social media, Hootsuite Founder and CEO Ryan Holmes saw a need. Holmes and partners owned digital advertising agency Invoke where many of their clients were looking for a way to manage their new social media accounts. Now, 10 years later, Hootsuite is celebrating a decade of innovation and customer success as the leader in social media management. The truth was we started Hootsuite as a way to scratch our own itch, said Holmes, Hootsuite founder and CEO. At the time we were running social media accounts for a lot of brands, and it was a struggle to keep track of all the log-ins across all of their accounts. We thought there must be a better way, and when we discovered there wasnt, we built it. Seven Invoke employees were pulled from their agency teams to work on the project, and Hootsuite was launched November 28, 2008 as a free, cloud-based tool for desktop users to manage all their social accounts from a single dashboard. In short order, the free tool went viral. In 2009 Hootsuite went mobile and launched the first Hootsuite App for iPhone. By 2010 Hootsuite had a million customers. When we started, we never predicted social media would become the most powerful communication and marketing tool in the world, said Holmes. We never anticipated Hootsuite would be so passionately embraced. We just believed in what we were doing and kept innovating - first to solve the challenges we were experiencing, then to help solve our customers needs. Fast forward to today and more than 3 billion people regularly use some form of social media. Hootsuite now serves everyone from the individual social enthusiast to the largest of global enterprise customers. Far from its humble beginnings, Hootsuite is trusted by more than 17 million customers and employees at more than 80% of the Fortune 1000. The company employs 1,000 owls who serve its growing global customer base from 14 offices around the world. Hootsuite now offers customers close to 250 integrations and applications, including certified Alliance partnerships with Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google, and Pinterest making it the largest ecosystem of any social media management platform in the world. The company recently held a series of events titled The Future of Social to discuss where social is headed over the next 10 years. Held in New York, San Francisco, London, Mexico City, Sydney, Singapore and Toronto, audiences heard how the customer experience will be led by the customer and informed by artificial intelligence, content will be personalized and authentic, advertising will be value driven and consent based and data will be intelligent, integrating both EQ & IQ social knowledge across organizations. The Future of Social event is now available for viewing online here . The past decade has been an exceptional ride, said Holmes. Weve been fueled by our customers and their success, and we cant wait to invent the future of social with our customers over the next decade. For a further look as to whats in store for the future of social, Hootsuites 2019 Social Trends will be released December 5th. More Information: About Hootsuite Hootsuite is the leading social media management platform, trusted by more than 17 million customers and employees at more than 80 percent of the Fortune 1000. Hootsuite's unparalleled expertise, customer insights at scale, and collaborative ecosystem empower organizations large and small to strategically grow their brand, business, and customer relationships with social. To learn more, visit www.hootsuite.com . Contact: Samantha Falk, @samantha_falk Corporate Communications media@hootsuite.com Dublin, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "North America Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Market By Type (Tubular and Planar), By Application (Stationary, Transportation, and Portable), By Country (USA, Canada and Mexico), Competition Forecast and Opportunities, 2013-2023" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. North America solid oxide fuel cells market is projected to grow at a CAGR of more than 13% by 2023 The growth in the market is led by rising demand for non-conventional sources of electricity generation. Rising investments by the US Department of Energy for the development of solid oxide fuel cell technology in North America are expected to positively influence the market in the coming years. Moreover, growing inclination towards SOFC systems in North America for its commercialization is further expected to boost the region's SOFC market during the forecast period. North America Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Market, 2013 - 2023 discusses the following aspects of solid oxide fuel cells market in North America: Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Market Size, Share & Forecast Segmental Analysis - By Type (Tubular & Planar), By Application (Stationary, Transportation, & Portable), By Country (Japan, South Korea, China, India, Australia, & Others) Competitive Analysis Changing Market Trends & Emerging Opportunities Why You Should Buy This Report? To gain an in-depth understanding of solid oxide fuel cells in North America To identify the on-going trends and anticipated growth in the next five years To help industry consultants, solid oxide fuel cells distributor, 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 Few of the major players operating in North America solid oxide fuel cells market include Bloom Energy Doosan Fuel Cell America, Inc. LG Fuel Cell Systems Inc. Fuel Cell Energy Atrex Energy Key Topics Covered: 1. Product Overview 2. Research Methodology 3. Analyst View 4. Global SOFC Market Outlook 4.1. Market Size & Forecast 4.1.1. By Value 4.1.2. By Power Generation 5. North America SOFC Market Outlook 5.1. Market Size & Forecast 5.1.1. By Value 5.1.2. By Power Generation 5.2. Market Share & Forecast 5.2.1. By Type (Planar, Tubular) 5.2.2. By Application (Stationary, Portable & Transportation) 5.2.3. By Country 5.3. Market Attractiveness Index 5.3.1. By Country 6. North America Countries SOFC Market Outlook 6.1. USA SOFC Market Outlook 6.2. Canada SOFC Market Outlook 6.3. Mexico SOFC Market Outlook 7. Market Dynamics 8. Market Trends & Developments 9. Competitive Landscape 9.1. Bloom Energy 9.2. Doosan Fuel Cell America, Inc. 9.3. LG Fuel Cell Systems Inc. 9.4. Fuel Cell Energy 9.5. Atrex Energy 10. Strategic Recommendations For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/drgbl6/north_america?w=12 Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. TORONTO and NUCLA, Colo., Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Western Uranium & Vanadium Corp. (CSE: WUC) (OTCQX: WSTRF) (Western or the Company) wishes to provide an update regarding its announced re-opening of the Sunday Mine Complex (SMC) to address shareholder questions with respect to Westerns ore processing. Western is commencing this program with the goals of further defining its large vanadium resource and monetizing that resource. Western is in discussions with a number of large offshore companies who have the existing facilities to recover the vanadium contained in the SMC ore. The worldwide shortage of vanadium is impacting many companies around the world and thus making offtake agreements available for ore production. Initially ore will be shipped to existing offshore processing facilities with a longer term plan to build facilities in the United States. Once the SMC is opened, ore samples will be sent to the various interested parties for testing in their facilities. After testing, Western will negotiate offtake agreements to base load commercial production from the SMC. As Western advances with its plans for re-opening of the SMC and is able to report on the timing of preparations, anticipated start dates and other milestones, Western will provide shareholders and investors with further updates. In conjunction with the recent name change which reflects the increased importance of vanadium for the Company and the revised strategic approach to initiating production, Western has made updates to its website and corporate presentation. Further, a replay of George Glasiers Silver & Gold Summit 2018 presentation has been uploaded to the media section of Westerns website. Please visit the Company website located at www.western-uranium.com for these updates. About Western Uranium & Vanadium Corp. Western Uranium & Vanadium Corp. is a Colorado based uranium and vanadium conventional mining company focused on low cost near-term production of uranium and vanadium in the western United States, and development and application of ablation mining technology. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information: Certain information contained in this news release constitutes forward-looking information or a forward-looking statement within the meaning of applicable securities laws (collectively, forward-looking statements). Statements of that nature include statements relating to, or that are dependent upon: the Companys expectations, estimates and projections regarding exploration and production plans and results; the timing of planned activities; whether the Company can raise any additional funds required to implement its plans; whether regulatory or analogous requirements can be satisfied to permit planned activities; and more generally to the Companys business, and the economic and political environment applicable to its operations, assets and plans. All such forward-looking statements are subject to important risk factors and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Companys ability to control or predict. Please refer to the Companys most recent Managements Discussion and Analysis, as well as its other filings at www.sec.gov and/or www.sedar.com , for a more detailed review of those risk factors. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the Companys forward-looking statements, and that these statements are made as of the date hereof. While the Company may do so, it does not undertake any obligation to update these forward-looking statements at any particular time, except as and to the extent required under applicable laws and regulations. FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: George Glasier President and CEO 970-864-2125 gglasier@western-uranium.com Robert Klein Chief Financial Officer 908-872-7686 rklein@western-uranium.com Palm Coast, FL, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- RushNet, Inc. (OTC Pink: RSHN) announces it has reached the final stages of negotiations with various licensed cannabis grow operations with multiple locations in Colorado and in California with combined revenue exceeding $62 million. Due to the sensitivity of these talks, further details will be revealed as each acquisition is consummated. Dr. Richard E Goulding, Chairman of the Board and Chief Medical Officer of RushNet, stated, Implementing our synergistic acquisition model, these acquisitions are an important step for us to become a substantial player in the cannabis sector. We are exploring opportunities available to us to aggressively expand the size of our operations and are looking at multiple acquisition targets we hope to announce soon. Those opportunities include not just the grow operations, but also processing, product integration, disease control and retail sales. The acquisitions enable the acquired entities to enhance their profits given the vertical integration offered by RushNet and XYZ Hemp Inc. (formerly Gold River Production Services, Inc. (GRPS)). RushNet will also continue to report on its progress in the Joint Ventures developing the Nano CBD Delivery System with Dr. Stuart Miller of XYZ Hemp Inc., and others. RushNet will soon report on its progress with GreatRateFreight, Inc., its recently acquired trucking logistics company and its business pursuits. RushNet, Inc. is an edibles and beverage based company with stand-alone products, including most enhanced with CBD. Currently, we have developed 12 Products that will take advantage of the organic grow, pristine mineral water enhancement and organic CBD. Safe Harbor Statement: This release includes 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. Such statements include any that may predict, forecast, indicate, or imply future results, performance or achievements, and may contain the words estimate, project, intend, forecast, anticipate, plan, planning, expect, believe, likely, should, could, would, may or similar words or expressions. Such statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause the companys actual results and financial position to differ materially from those in such statements, which involve risks and uncertainties, including those relating to the Companys ability to grow. Actual results may differ materially from those predicted and any reported should not be considered an indication of future performance. Potential risks and uncertainties include the Companys operating history and resources, economic, competitive, and equity market conditions. Stock Exchange Notice Date: 28 November 2018 GC Rieber Shipping ASA: Rights issue resolved by the Extraordinary General Meeting NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION OR RELEASE, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, TO U.S. NEWS WIRE SERVICES, OR IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES, CANADA, AUSTRALIA, THE HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA, SOUTH AFRICA OR JAPAN OR ANY OTHER JURISDICTION IN WHICH THE DISTRIBUTION OR RELEASE WOULD BE UNLAWFUL. OTHER RESTRICTIONS ARE APPLICABLE. PLEASE SEE THE IMPORTANT NOTICE AT THE END OF THE PRESS RELEASE. An Extraordinary General Meeting of the shareholders of GC Rieber Shipping ASA (the "Company") was held today, 28 November 2018 at 14:00 hours (CET). The Extraordinary General Meeting resolved the proposed rights issue (the "Rights Issue") of 28,941,177 new shares in the Company at a subscription price of NOK 8.50 per share as announced on 6 November 2018. The minutes of the Extraordinary General Meeting are attached hereto. The further terms and conditions for the Rights Issue will be detailed in a prospectus (the "Prospectus") to be published following approval of such Prospectus by the Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority, expected to be on or about 29 November 2018. For further information, please contact: CEO Einar Ytredal, phone: +47 975 20 184 CFO ystein Kvale, phone: +47 479 02 919 About GC Rieber Shipping: GC Rieber Shipping's business within offshore/shipping includes ownership in specialized vessels, high quality marine ship management and project development within the segments subsea, ice/support and marine seismic. The group has a specialized competence in offshore operations in harsh environments as well as design, development and maritime operation of offshore vessels. GC Rieber Shipping currently operates 11 and has direct and indirect ownership in 23 advanced special purpose vessels for defined markets within the subsea, ice/support and marine seismic segments. The company has its headquarter and a ship management office in Bergen, and an additional ship management company in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (Russia). The Company is listed on Oslo Brs with ticker RISH. Further information is available on the company's website www.gcrieber-shipping.com. IMPORTANT INFORMATION This communication may not be published, distributed or transmitted in or into the United States, Canada, Australia or Japan. These materials do not constitute or form a part of any offer or solicitation to purchase or subscribe for securities of the Company in the United States, Norway or any other jurisdiction. The securities of the Company may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an exemption from registration under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"). The securities of the Company have not been, and will not be, registered under the U.S. Securities Act. Any sale in the United States of the securities mentioned in this communication will be made solely to "qualified institutional buyers" as defined in Rule 144A under the U.S. Securities Act and to "major U.S. institutional investors" under SEC Rule 15a-6 to the United States Exchange Act of 1934. No public offering of the securities will be made in the United States. In any EEA Member State that has implemented the Prospectus Directive, this communication is only addressed to and is only directed at qualified investors in that Member State within the meaning of the Prospectus Directive, i.e., only to investors who can receive the offer without an approved prospectus in such EEA Member State. The expression "Prospectus Directive" means Directive 2003/71/EC (and amendments thereto, including Directive 2010/73/EU, to the extent implemented in any relevant Member State) and includes any relevant implementing measure in the relevant Member State. In the United Kingdom, this communication is only addressed to and is only directed at Qualified Investors who (i) are investment professionals falling within Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (as amended) (the "Order") or (ii) are persons falling within Article 49(2)(a) to (d) of the Order (high net worth companies, unincorporated associations, etc.) (all such persons together being referred to as "Relevant Persons"). These materials are directed only at Relevant Persons and must not be acted on or relied on by persons who are not Relevant Persons. Any investment or investment activity to which this announcement relates is available only to Relevant Persons and will be engaged in only with Relevant Persons. Persons distributing this communication must satisfy themselves that it is lawful to do so. Matters discussed in this announcement may constitute forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and may be identified by words such as "anticipate", "believe", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "intends", "may", "should", "will" and similar expressions. The forward-looking statements in this release are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions. Although the Company believes that these assumptions were reasonable when made, these assumptions are inherently subject to significant known and unknown risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other important factors which are difficult or impossible to predict and are beyond its control. Such risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other important factors could cause actual events to differ materially from the expectations expressed or implied in this release by such forward-looking statements. The information, opinions and forward-looking statements contained in this announcement speak only as at its date, and are subject to change without notice. This announcement is made by and, and is the responsibility of, the Company. SpareBank 1 Markets AS (the "Manager") is acting exclusively for the Company and no one else and will not be responsible to anyone other than the Company for providing the protections afforded to their respective clients, or for advice in relation to the contents of this announcement or any of the matters referred to herein. Neither the Manager nor any of its affiliates makes any representation as to the accuracy or completeness of this announcement and none of them accepts any responsibility for the contents of this announcement or any matters referred to herein. This announcement is for information purposes only and is not to be relied upon in substitution for the exercise of independent judgment. It is not intended as investment advice and under no circumstances is it to be used or considered as an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities or a recommendation to buy or sell any securities of the Company. Neither the Manager nor any of its affiliates accepts any liability arising from the use of this announcement. Each of the Company, the Manager and their respective affiliates expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to update, review or revise any statement contained in this announcement whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise. This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5 -12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act. LOS ANGELES, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Alo House Recovery Centers , a state-licensed, Joint Commission accredited, and LegitScript-certified, residential treatment center based in Malibu, California, with multiple locations in Los Angeles , was devastated by the recent wildfires that ravaged Malibu and southern California. Fortunately, Alo House had a plan for such a natural disaster and while multiple Alo locations were lost in the fire, today, Alo House Recovery Centers is open and fully operational with newly added detox and residential facilities in Mar Vista (Los Angeles), as well as their existing outpatient and sober living homes in Silver Lake (Los Angeles). Alo Houses current mission is simple, be of service to all those in need and volunteer their resources and clinical experts to anyone struggling with the tragedy and its aftermath. Alos leadership immediately implemented Alo Recovery Outreach Teams to take healing solutions to those in need and provide emotional reprieve to anyone struggling. From traveling to stranded families and citizens who need a clinical expert and support group to process the tragedy, to taking patients displaced from other facilities that need uninterrupted care, the Alo Recovery Outreach Teams have made their priority those struggling to find hope. Launching November 29th and every Thursday thereafter, Alo House is opening their doors to members of the community struggling to process the recent tragedies that have shaken California. Alos grief and loss support group will be free to those in need on Thursday nights from 6 to 7pm at their business and outpatient offices located at 28955 Pacific Coast Highway, Suite 200, Malibu, CA 90265. We want to express our unending gratitude to the first responders, volunteers, and fearless neighbors who continue to bravely and selflessly work to contain these devastating fires, support people in need across our city, and do whatever it takes to overcome this tragedy. While we did lose some structures, others were spared thanks to the brave first responders and will be up and running in Malibu when the utilities are restored, says Evan Haines , Co-founder of Alo House. Our hearts go out to all the families that have experienced unimaginable loss throughout this ordeal; human resilience is remarkable, but we must all continue to show up for those in our community that need it most and our Alo House family will do whatever it takes to help the community heal, which made the decision to provide free groups and dispatch recovery outreach teams an absolute honor. Whether youre a patient in need of critical care, or a family struggling to process the enormity of the situation, our team is here to help. Alo House Recovery Centers rehabilitation philosophy has become the industry benchmark, and is defined by providing non-judgmental, loving support, in an ultra-high-quality clinical facility. Since its Co-founding in 2010 by leading addiction treatment expert, Bob Forrest , Alo House has been a leader in non-12-step and dual diagnosis addiction treatment, and has emerged as a vocal leader for critical ethics reform throughout the industry. If you know someone displaced by fire, in need of holistic dual-diagnosis drug and alcohol treatment, or would like to know more about our grief and loss support group, call (888) 466-8340 or contact Alo House online . For more information, visit https://alorecovery.com. About Alo House Recovery Centers Alo House Recovery Centers is an award winning, state-licensed, Joint Commission accredited, LegitScript-certified, residential treatment center based in Malibu, California, with multiple locations throughout Los Angeles. Alo House Recovery Centers rehabilitation philosophy and Compassionate Care Model have become industry benchmarks, and are practiced by Alos highly-experienced, inter-disciplinary team of caring professionals with over 675 years of collective experience in the fields of behavioral health and addiction. The Alo House Recovery Centers program is designed to provide patients and families with a complete, evidence-based, continuum of care from detoxification through inpatient and outpatient treatment, and continuing beyond transitional living. Since its Co-founding in 2010 by leading addiction treatment expert Bob Forrest, Alo House has been a leader in non-12-step and dual diagnosis addiction treatment, and has emerged as a vocal leader for critical ethics reform throughout the industry. CALGARY, Alberta, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Canadas oil and natural gas industry has an important opportunity to enhance its relationship with Indigenous peoples by working to support the broader reconciliation process and Indigenous self-determination, according to Toward a Shared Future: Canadas Indigenous Peoples and the Oil and Natural Gas Industry, the latest in a series of economic reports released by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP). Canada is home to tremendous natural resources but the oil and natural gas industry faces a number of challenges that not only affect its level of investment and competitiveness, but the economic future of many of Canadas Indigenous communities. In its report, CAPP examines its evolving relationship with Indigenous peoples and the role it can play in economic reconciliation. The oil and natural gas industry considers natural resource development linked to the broader Canadian reconciliation process. Responsible resource development supports reconciliation and Indigenous self-determination by supporting the growth of sustainable Indigenous economies. In its report, CAPP recommends the federal government (and provincial governments where appropriate) take action by: Focusing on initiatives that will produce positive, tangible results for Indigenous communities by resolving long-standing reconciliation issues; Recognizing the advantages the oil and natural gas industry provides in support of Indigenous self-determination and reconciliation through economic opportunities; and, Greater collaboration with Indigenous peoples and industry on education and skills development training. The full report can be found here . The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers quotes: Tim McMillan, president and CEO Indigenous peoples are often seen as being widely opposed to oil and natural gas development thats simply not the case. There are many Indigenous communities who have built, and continue to build, a prosperous economic future by working with industry. We encourage the government to recognize that responsible resource development supports the growth of Indigenous economies, and provides real, tangible contributions to overall reconciliation and Indigenous self-determination. The Canadian oil and natural gas industry faces a number of fiscal, economic and policy barriers affecting investment in Canada. These challenges not only create obstacles for industry but could also impact the economic future of many Indigenous communities. Kainaiwa Resources quotes: Clayton Blood, general manager The Blood Tribe created Kainaiwa Resources because we needed to be more involved in how our land is used. We have been very successful working with industry and partnering with companies we trust. Running Deer Resources quotes: Jamie Saulnier, president and CEO Many Indigenous communities want to build business relationships and participate in the oil and natural gas industry. There is a real opportunity to share the benefits of employment and economic stability. Supporting Information: Between 2015 and 2016, oil sands operators invested more than $3.3 billion on procurement and worked with 399 Indigenous businesses in 66 Alberta communities. Despite the economic downturn that started in 2014, the proportion of activity with Indigenous businesses as a proportion of total capital expenditures has grown by 2.5 per cent. According to Petroleum Labour Market Information (PetroLLMI), in 2016 about six per cent of the oil and natural gas industrys workforce identified as Indigenous, double the Canadian workforce average. Six per cent of apprenticeships in Canada are Indigenous people working in industry-related trades. A recent report by the Montreal Economic Institute estimates the average wage for First Nations members working in oil and natural gas extraction in 2016 was nearly $150,000 annually and more than $200,000 annually for those working on natural gas pipelines. In 2016, CAPP published a discussion paper on the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) consistent with Canadian law, and we support that model going forward. The paper can be found here . Before Northern Gateway was cancelled by the federal government, the Alberta Equity Partners representing 31 Indigenous communities secured $2 billion in long-term economic, business and education opportunities with Enbridge, and a 33-per-cent ownership in the pipeline. Between 2015 and 2016, oil sands operators provided $40.79 million for consultation capacity funding to Indigenous communities. The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) represents companies, large and small, that explore for, develop and produce natural gas and oil throughout Canada. CAPPs member companies produce about 80 per cent of Canadas natural gas and oil. CAPP's associate members provide a wide range of services that support the upstream oil and natural gas industry. Together CAPP's members and associate members are an important part of a national industry with revenues from oil and natural gas production of about $110 billion a year. CAPPs mission, on behalf of the Canadian upstream oil and natural gas industry, is to advocate for and enable economic competitiveness and safe, environmentally and socially responsible performance. For media availability and additional information: Award crowns the business impact of an academic venture Scientific Beta is pleased to announce that it has won the prestigious Risk Award for "Indexing Firm of the Year 2019" at the annual awards ceremony held at the Brewery in London on November 27. The Risk Awards are the longest-running and most prestigious awards for firms and individuals involved in the global derivatives markets and in risk management. Accepting the prize, Scientific Beta CEO, Professor Noel Amenc, said, "It is particularly pleasing for Scientific Beta to be recognised for its work in the area of risk management for smart beta indices, because this is something that we have always prioritised in the development of our indices. Our view is that investors have a fiduciary responsibility to manage risk and our role and duty is to provide them with appropriate risk diversification and non-factor risk-control mechanisms such as our market-beta-adjustment and sector-neutral options. We think that the search for smart beta outperformance should not sacrifice the sound risk management of such strategies and it is probably this sound risk management that allows an index or a factor or alternative weighting strategy to be qualified as 'smart'." Scientific Beta launched six years ago with the missions of maximising the impact of EDHEC Business School's academic research in the indexing space. The organisation started with 12 people; now it has 50 and is hiring more. Scientific Betas assets under replication were USD 34bn at the end of June and are projected to exceed USD 40bn by the end of the year. This business impact of an academic venture has no equivalent. EDHEC Business School, whose finance courses are regularly ranked among the best in the world in the international rankings, has been able to mobilise researchers to go beyond education and allow fast adoption of the results of its research in the area of smart beta and factor investing. About ERI Scientific Beta As part of its policy of transferring know-how to the industry, EDHEC-Risk Institute has set up ERI Scientific Beta. ERI Scientific Beta is an original initiative which aims to favour the adoption of the latest advances in smart beta design and implementation by the whole investment industry. Its academic origin provides the foundation for its strategy: offer, in the best economic conditions possible, the smart beta solutions that are most proven scientifically with full transparency of both the methods and the associated risks. Find out more by following ERI Scientific Beta on Twitter (https://twitter.com/ScientificBeta), LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/scientific-beta) and YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRL91F-LvhLPc9M9OD7LQgA). ERI Scientific Beta, 1 George Street, #15-02, Singapore 049145. Web: www.scientificbeta.com, E-mail: contact@scientificbeta.com. Attachment Washington, D.C., Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A new book, edited and authored by experts from the American Institutes for Research (AIR) and their colleagues, presents comprehensive strategies and tools to help create strong conditions for learning in schools that can lead to excellent and equitable student outcomes. Creating Safe, Equitable, and Engaging Schools: A Comprehensive, Evidence-Based Approach to Supporting Students builds upon the best knowledge on the science of learning and development and aligns it with the collective wisdom of leading education researchers and practitioners. The book seeks to help educators and school leaders make sense of the myriad evidence-based frameworks, resources and tools that are available. The book was edited by AIR Managing Director Deborah Moroney, AIR Vice President Sandra Williamson, and AIR Vice President and Institute Fellow David Osher, who also authored or co-authored each chapter. There are 35 researchers and practitioners who authored or co-authored chapters in the book, including 30 from AIR. The authors write that fostering safe, engaging and equitable school environments that facilitate robust learning for every student requires the active participation of the entire school community, including educators, school leadership, policy makers, parents and guardians, and students. We have reviewed research on the science of learning and development and on successful practices from every state regarding how to create conditions that help students grow, learn, and thrive, Dr. Osher said. As the national conversations about equity, learning and school safety continue, we designed this book to help those in the field better understand the evidence about what works and provided clear recommendations for putting this evidence into action. The book uses a multipronged approach to help educators and leaders Build the readiness and capacity of their staff to lead and implement their work with passion, enthusiasm and efficiency; Select and implement strategies and interventions that can work in their particular settings to support equity with excellence Mobilize the strengths of all school stakeholders; Implement strong foundational supports and personalized interventions that address diverse student and educator needs; and Monitor implementation efforts using improvement science strategies. Creating Safe, Equitable, and Engaging Schools: A Comprehensive, Evidence-Based Approach to Supporting Students is available from Harvard Education Press and other online booksellers. Explore additional information and resources on this topic on AIRs website. About AIR Established in 1946, with headquarters in Washington, D.C., the American Institutes for Research (AIR) is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization that conducts behavioral and social science research and delivers technical assistance both domestically and internationally in the areas of education, health and the workforce. For more information, visit www.air.org. Calgary, Alberta , Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Delta Hotels by Marriott Calgary Downtown proudly unveils a new look following its recent renovation and redesign. Upon completion, the renovation provides a best-in-class experience for Delta Hotels, including redesigned guestrooms, all-new function space, redesigned lobby and entry, and the opening of Shoe & Canoe Public House and the Elite Pantry at the renovated Downtown Calgary hotel . Renovations of the hotels rooms include a modern new design and extra-large rain shower heads with handheld shower wands. The redesigned ballroom is the perfect spot to host a holiday party or social event. Re-opening as the Glacier Ballroom, the Calgary event space features natural light from its floor-to-ceiling windows that creates an airy and spacious atmosphere for events of all types. The redesigned hotel lobby and entry feature a next-generation front reception with mobile check-in and a Lobby Ambassador to greet you on arrival. The hotels new gym is also open and boasts the latest in cardio and strength training equipment, including a Stretching Room and Core Fitness CrossFit equipment. Stop by the Elite Pantry, the first in Canada, showcasing fresh, upscale grab-and-go food and snack items, available exclusively to Elite members, 24 hours a day. Shoe & Canoe Public House is now also open for breakfast, lunch, dinner and late-night drinks. This approachable public house is inspired by western Canadas best pints, spirits and provisions and features a casual, laid-back atmosphere that channels David Thompsons adventurous spirit and individuality. For more information, or to plan your stay at the downtown Calgary hotel , call +1 403-266-1980. About Delta Hotels Calgary Downtown Experience the best of the city at Delta Hotels by Marriott Calgary Downtown. Our hotel is located in the heart of downtown Calgary, Alberta, and is directly connected to the Plus +15 Skyway network. Following its recent transformation, the hotel boasts newly-redesigned rooms, a dynamic destination restaurant and bar, a modern gym, as well as stylish meeting and event space. During your stay at our hotel, we hope you'll take time to visit our destinations top attractions nearby, such as Calgary Tower, Calgary Zoo and TELUS Spark. Riverwalk Calgary, Sien Lok Park and Calgary International Airport are minutes away. Feel the pulse of the city at our downtown Calgary hotel. # # # Attachments 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. Dublin, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Europe Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Market By Type (Tubular & Planar), By Application (Stationary, Transportation, & Portable), By Country (Germany, United Kingdom, France, India, Russia, Italy & Others), Competition Forecast and Opportunities, 2013-2023" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Europe solid oxide fuel cells market is projected to grow at a CAGR of more than 15% by 2023 Growth in the market can be attributed to rising focus on research & development for making electricity generation economical coupled with growing demand for energy efficient power generation among different end users. Additionally, various public-private partnerships have been undertaken to promote the use of solid oxide fuel cells, which is further expected to positively influence Europe SOFC market during the forecast period. Europe Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Market, 2013 - 2023 discusses the following aspects of solid oxide fuel cells market in Europe: Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Market Size, Share & Forecast Segmental Analysis - By Type (Tubular & Planar), By Application (Stationary, Transportation, & Portable), By Country (Japan, South Korea, China, India, Australia, & Others) Competitive Analysis Changing Market Trends & Emerging Opportunities Why You Should Buy This Report? To gain an in-depth understanding of solid oxide fuel cells in Europe To identify the on-going trends and anticipated growth in the next five years To help industry consultants, solid oxide fuel cells distributor, 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 Few of the major players operating in Europe solid oxide fuel cells market include: LG Fuel Cell Systems Inc. Fuel Cell Energy SOLIDpower Group Hexis AG Key Topics Covered: 1. Product Overview 2. Research Methodology 3. Analyst View 4. Global SOFC Market Outlook 4.1. Market Size & Forecast 4.1.1. By Value 4.1.2. By Power Generation 5. Europe SOFC Market Outlook 5.1. Market Size & Forecast 5.1.1. By Value 5.1.2. By Power Generation 5.2. Market Share & Forecast 5.2.1. By Type (Planar, Tubular) 5.2.2. By Application (Stationary, Portable & Transportation) 5.2.3. By Country 5.3. Market Attractiveness Index 5.3.1. By Country 6. Europe Countries SOFC Market Outlook 6.1. Germany SOFC Market Outlook 6.2. United Kingdom SOFC Market Outlook 6.3. France SOFC Market Outlook 6.4. Russia SOFC Market Outlook 6.5. Italy SOFC Market Outlook 7. Market Dynamics 8. Market Trends & Developments 9. Competitive Landscape 10. Strategic Recommendations For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/ksz2hm/europe_solid?w=12 Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. Dublin, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Europe Ultra High-Performance (UHP) Tire Market By Vehicle Type (Passenger Car and Two-wheeler), By Tire Type (Summer & All Season and Winter), By Demand Category (OEM and Replacement), By Country, Competition Forecast & Opportunities, 2013-2023" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Europe UHP tire market is projected to grow to $ 15.7 billion by 2023 Anticipated growth in the market can be attributed to growing sales of premium vehicles across Europe. Moreover, adoption of UHP tires is increasing as UHP tires offer high traction ratings, due to which, they deliver better performance on road as compared to other tires. Additionally, with continuing growth in SUV and CUV vehicle segments across Europe, demand for UHP tires is further expected to increase as these vehicles are usually equipped with engines that have higher horse power. Europe Ultra High-Performance (UHP) Tire Market, 2013 - 2023 discusses the following aspects of Ultra High-Performance (UHP) Tire market in Europe: Ultra High-Performance (UHP) Tire Market Size, Share & Forecast Segmental Analysis - By Vehicle Type (Passenger Car and Two-wheeler), By Tire Type (Summer & All Season and Winter), By Demand Category (OEM and Replacement), By Country Competitive Analysis Changing Market Trends & Emerging Opportunities Why You Should Buy This Report? To gain an in-depth understanding of Ultra High-Performance (UHP) Tire in Europe To identify the on-going trends and anticipated growth in the next five years To help industry consultants, Ultra High-Performance (UHP) Tire 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 top players in Europe UHP Tire industry are: Michelin Bridgestone Corporation The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company Continental AG Hankook Tire Co., Ltd. Pirelli & C. S. p. A. The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd Kumho Tire Co., Inc. Toyo Tire & Rubber Co. Ltd Cooper Tire & Rubber Company Key Topics Covered: 1. Product Overview 2. Research Methodology 3. Analyst View 4. Europe Ultra High-Performance (UHP) Tire Market Outlook 4.1. Market Size & Forecast 4.1.1. By Value & Volume 4.2. Market Share & Forecast 4.2.1. By Vehicle Type (Passenger Car, Two-Wheeler) 4.2.2. By Tire Type (Summer & All-Season and Winter) 4.2.3. By Demand Category (OEM & Replacement) 4.2.4. By Country 4.3. By Market Attractiveness Index (By Vehicle Type) 4.4. By Market Attractiveness Index (By Tire Type) 4.5. By Market Attractiveness Index (By Demand Category) 4.6. By Market Attractiveness Index (By Country) 4.7. Europe: Country Analysis 4.7.1. Germany UHP Tire Market Outlook 4.7.2. United Kingdom UHP Tire Market Outlook 4.7.3. France UHP Tire Market Outlook 4.7.4. Italy UHP Tire Market Outlook 4.7.5. Russia UHP Tire Market Outlook 4.7.6. Spain UHP Tire Market Outlook 4.7.7. Turkey UHP Tire Market Outlook 4.7.8. Poland UHP Tire Market Outlook 4.7.9. Hungary UHP Tire Market Outlook 5. Market Dynamics 5.1. Drivers 5.2. Challenges 6. Market Trends & Developments 7. Price Point Analysis 8. SWOT Analysis 9. Competitive Landscape 10. Strategic Recommendations For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/39hs5f/europe_ultra?w=12 Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. WEST KELOWNA, British Columbia, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Colorado Resources Ltd. (Colorado or the Company) (TSXV CXO) announces that it has resolved all outstanding matters that were in dispute with Mr. Travis, the Companys former Chief Executive Officer, and his company and has entered into a settlement agreement (the "Agreement") with respect to the final settlement of all matters. The Company wishes Mr. Travis, who remains a significant shareholder of Colorado, all the best in his future endeavors. About Colorado Colorado Resources Ltd. is currently engaged in the business of mineral exploration for the purpose of acquiring and advancing mineral properties located in the Golden Triangle British Columbia. The Companys main exploration projects within British Columbia include KSP, North ROK, Kingpin and Kinaskan-Castle ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF COLORADO RESOURCES LTD. Robert Shaw Robert Shaw President and Chief Executive Officer For more information, please contact: Colorado Resources Ltd. Robert Shaw, President & CEO or Terese Gieselman, CFO & Secretary T: (250) 768-1511 F: (250) 768-0849 TF (855) 768-1511 W: www.coloradoresources.com Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this news release, constitute "forward-looking information" as such term is used in applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking information is based on plans, expectations and estimates of management at the date the information is provided and is subject to certain factors and assumptions, including: that the Company's financial condition and development plans do not change as a result of unforeseen events, that the Company obtains required regulatory approvals, that the Company continues to maintain a good relationship with the local project communities. Forward-looking information is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause plans, estimates and actual results to vary materially from those projected in such forward-looking information. Factors that could cause the forward-looking information in this news release to change or to be inaccurate include, but are not limited to, the risk that any of the assumptions referred to prove not to be valid or reliable, which could result in delays, or cessation in planned work, that the Company's financial condition and development plans change, delays in regulatory approval, risks associated with the interpretation of data, the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits, the possibility that results will not be consistent with the Company's expectations, as well as the other risks and uncertainties applicable to mineral exploration and development activities and to the Company as set forth in the Company's Managements Discussion and Analysis reports filed under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com. There can be no assurance that any forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, the reader should not place any undue reliance on forward-looking information or statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information or statements, other than as required by applicable law. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. English Spanish LOS ANGELES, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Grupo Salinas, a group of dynamic, fast-growing and technologically advanced companies, deeply committed to the modernization of the countries where they operate, announced today that a group of 19 women successfully completed the HOPE Binational Fellowship Program created by Grupo Salinas in partnership with Hispanas Organized for Political Equality and The Aspen Institute Mexico. The HOPE Binational Fellowship is an executive leadership program for outstanding Latina professionals who, through increased competence in national and global economic security issues, are in a position to make urgent and long-lasting improvements in their communities. The first part of the program was held in Washington, DC, in July, at the Woodrow Wilson Center and AIPAC. The participants travelled to Mexico from November 13th-19th to complete the second part of their program, which included a media training at TV Aztecas headquarters provided by adn40 Director, Luciano Pascoe, and Director of Centro de Formacion de Actores para la Television, Raul Quintanilla; followed by an interesting analysis about culture in Mexico and the United States by Sergio Vela, Director of Arte & Cultura Grupo Salinas. We are building bridges, not walls, but more importantly we are preparing and connecting leaders to foster understanding and prosperity, said Ricardo Salinas, Chairman and Founder of Grupo Salinas. Empowering this cohort of fellows by strengthening their abilities and growing their network, will potentialize their success. The second day of sessions included conversations with political analysts, and experts such as Ricardo Raphael, journalist and writer; Duncan Wood, Director of the Mexican Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; Luz Maria de la Mora, Managing Director and Founder, LMM Consulting; and Ana Maria Salazar, International Law and National Security Expert on Latin America. My experience as a HOPE Binational Fellow was transformational, mentioned Eve Rodriguez Montoya, President and CEO of Rodriguez Media Communications. We were exposed to insightful leaders, powerful speakers, and impactful content. I am thankful to HOPE and Grupo Salinas for creating the framework that will allow us to collectively make a lasting mark. After the sessions, they travelled to Puebla to attend La Ciudad de las Ideas 2018, a festival of brilliant minds sponsored by Ricardo Salinas and Grupo Salinas with the participation of over 60 speakers, from scientists to opinion leaders. At this unique event they were exposed to artistic and cultural activities that included short films, artistic interventions and music throughout the festival. The speakers at La Ciudad de las Ideas were captivating and powerful, commented Yvonne Gutierrez, Executive Director, Planned Parenthood Texas Votes. For more information about the HOPE Binational Fellowship and its first class, please visit: www.latinas.org About Grupo Salinas Grupo Salinas (www.gruposalinas.com) is a group of dynamic, fast growing, and technologically advanced companies focused on creating: economic value through market innovation and goods and services that improve standards of living; social value, to create social capabilities to improve communities; and environmental value, by reducing the negative impact of business activities. Created by Mexican entrepreneur Ricardo B. Salinas (www.ricardosalinas.com), Grupo Salinas operates as a management development and decision forum for the top leaders of member companies. These companies include: TV Azteca (www.TVazteca.com; www.irtvazteca.com), Grupo Elektra (www.grupoelektra.com.mx), Banco Azteca (www.bancoazteca.com.mx), Advance America (www.advanceamerica.net), Afore Azteca (www.aforeazteca.com.mx), Seguros Azteca (www.segurosazteca.com.mx), Punto Casa de Bolsa (www.puntocasadebolsa.mx), Totalplay (www.totalplay.com.mx) and Totalplay Empresarial (http://totalplayempresarial.com.mx). TV Azteca and Grupo Elektra trade on the Mexican Stock Exchange and are part of its Sustainability Index. Each of the Grupo Salinas companies operates independently, with its own management, board of directors and shareholders. Grupo Salinas has no equity holdings. The group of companies share a common vision, values and strategies for achieving rapid growth, superior results and world-class performance. Press Relations: Luciano Pascoe, +52 (55) 1720 1313 ext. 36553, lpascoe@gruposalinas.com.mx Daniel McCosh, +52 (55) 1720-0059, dmccosh@gruposalinas.com About Hispanas Organized for Political Equality (HOPE) HOPE is a non-profit, nonpartisan organization committed to ensuring political and economic parity for Latinas through leadership, advocacy, and education to benefit all communities and the status of women. HOPEs Education activities include: Latina History Day Conference, Latina Action Day Conference, Young Professionals Summit and HOPE Leadership Programs. Media Contact: Maya Gomez-OCadiz | mocadiz@latinas.org | 213-286-2061 Program Contact: Helen Iris Torres | htorres@latinas.org | 213-622-0549 Photos accompanying this announcement are available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/54b9952a-77b0-4f4b-ab90-004abd640e03 http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e693eca8-dbac-4435-98f6-02f80fff8d4c "The growth of hemp-derived CBD products is accelerating rapidly and Freedom Leaf, with its strong suite of brands, is an upcoming contender" Las Vegas, NV, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- Freedom Leaf Inc (OTCQB: FRLF) , (the Company), parent company of leading CBD health and wellness brands Leafceuticals , Irie CBD and Hempology , announced today that Merida Capital Partners (Merida) Senior Partner David Goldburg has been named Chairman of Freedom Leafs Board of Directors. This announcement follows a recent Merida equity investment of $3,000,000 in the Company. Mr. Goldburg replaces Paul F. Pelosi Jr., who leaves the Board to devote more time to his other business endeavors. Mr. Goldburg has specialized in credit investing for the past 25 years, having managed investment portfolios at leading Wall Street firms and hedge funds. Prior to joining Merida in 2017, Mr. Goldburg established the New York office of Silver Rock Financial, the Milken family office. Mr. Goldburg also served as a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs, overseeing a billion dollar proprietary investment portfolio. The growth of hemp-derived CBD products is accelerating rapidly and Freedom Leaf, with its strong suite of brands, including the recently announced Hemp2o acquisition, is well positioned for this tremendous opportunity in consumer markets, said Mr. Goldburg. I look forward to helping Freedom Leaf become a leading hemp-derived CBD product supplier while Merida continues to identify strategic acquisitions that will fuel the Companys growth trajectory. Clifford J Perry, CEO, noted: Freedom Leaf thanks Mr. Pelosi Jr for his leadership on areas of corporate governance. We are excited about the expanding role Mr. Goldburg and Merida will play as we accelerate our growth and continue to expand our global vertically-integrated hemp platform with a focus on health and wellness products for the consumer. The Company also announced the promotion of Laurence Ruhe, currently the Companys Controller, to Chief Financial Officer. Ruhe replaces Richard Groberg, who will remain on the Companys Board and also serve on the Boards newly-formed Finance Committee. Mr. Ruhe joined Freedom Leaf in July with over 30 years of finance experience, most recently as SVP of Global Finance at BMM International, a leading provider of testing services to the gaming industry with offices in ten countries. Mr. Ruhe held senior finance positions at Progressive Gaming and Konami Gaming focusing on internal controls and SOX implementation. Mr. Ruhe also worked in international banking, including positions at Wells Fargo, Deutsche Bank, and Banca CRT. The Company also announced today its acquisition of the assets of Accuvape, Inc. ( www.accuvape.net ), which manufactures and sells personal vaporizer devices and accessories under the health and wellness category. The company was founded in 2013 as a vaporizer and small electronics company to fill the growing needs of the emerging vape market. Accuvape distributes its four vape models in all 50 states, Canada, the UK and EU and has Midwest and West Coast distribution centers with hundreds of retailers that carry its products. Accuvape has received numerous product awards and its proprietary V. Stick AV is the only adjustable voltage battery with no buttons. Hilary Dulany, Accuvapes founder who will continue to manage the company, commented: Accuvape has set the standard for personal vaporizers offering new, easy vaporizing options that wont break the bank or disappoint. We are known as the go-to brand for no hassle enjoyment by both new market entrants and experts alike. As part of the Freedom Leaf family, we will be able to roll out product more quickly and expand our national footprint. About Freedom Leaf Freedom Leaf Inc. ( OTCQB: FRLF ), is a global, vertically-integrated clean health company producing and selling a diverse range of premium full spectrum hemp-derived CBD products used by healthcare professionals and consumers. The company currently offers professional grade solutions, over-the-counter consumer health and wellness products and a pet line under the Leafceutical, IrieCBD, and Hempology brands. Once the previously announced Hemp2o acquisition is closed, the Company will offer hemp-infused beverages at leading retail locations throughout the country. Freedom Leaf, Inc. does not handle, grow, sell, or dispense marijuana or related products. All of our European activities are in full compliance with relevant EU laws. Investor relations information can be found on the FreedomLeafInc.com company website. About Merida Capital Partners Merida Capital Partners is a private equity firm targeting fundamental growth drivers which accelerate the rapid development of the cannabis industry. Our motto, Responsible Investing in the Emerging Cannabis Industry, highlights our focus on cultivation technologies, products and services associated with the evolution of cannabis as an agricultural product, a natural plant-based medicine, a constituent in pharmaceutical formulations and a recreational consumer product. For more information, please visit www.meridacap.com or follow us on twitter @meridacap . Safe Harbor Statement Statements in this press release that are not strictly historical 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. These forward-looking statements generally can be identified by phrases such as Freedom Leaf, Inc. or its management "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "foresees," "forecasts," "estimates" or other words or phrases of similar import. Similarly, statements herein that describe the Company's business strategy, outlook, objectives, plans, intentions or goals also are forward-looking statements. All such forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to differences include the uncertainty regarding viability and market acceptance of the Company's products and services, changes in relationships with third parties, and other factors described in the Company's most recent periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K dated June 30, 2016 and quarterly report on Form 10-Q dated September 30, 2018. English French MONTREAL, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cogeco Inc. (TSX: CGO) and Cogeco Communications Inc. (TSX: CCA) plan to release their financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2019, ending November 30, 2018, on Thursday, January 10, 2019, after market closing. The companies will hold a conference call on Friday, January 11, 2019 at 9:30 a.m. (Eastern Time) to discuss their financial and operating results. The conference call will be followed by the Annual Shareholders Meetings at 11:30 a.m. at the Centre Mont-Royal in Montreal, Quebec (2200 Mansfield Street). A live audio webcast will be available on Cogecos web site at http://corpo.cogeco.com/cca/en/investors/investor-relations/ . The webcast will be available on Cogecos website for a three-month period. Members of the financial community will be able to access the conference call and ask questions. Media representatives may attend as listeners only. Please use the following dial-in number to have access to the conference call 5 to 10 minutes before the start of the conference: Canada/USA Access Number: 1-877-291-4570 International Access Number: 1-647-788-4919 In order to join this conference, participants are required to provide the operator with the name of the company hosting the call, that is, Cogeco Inc. or Cogeco Communications Inc. SOURCE: Patrice Ouimet Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Cogeco Inc. and Cogeco Communications Inc. Tel.: 514-764-4700 INFORMATION: Marie-Helene Labrie Senior Vice President, Public Affairs and Communications Cogeco Inc. and Cogeco Communications Inc. Tel.: 514-764-4700 MCLEAN, Va., Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Freddie Mac (OTCQB: FMCC) announced today it has closed a Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) Fund with Boston Financial Investment Management (Boston Financial) and initiated its first investment within the fund. The closing marks Freddie Macs third LIHTC fund since re-entering the market in September, and the first fund managed by Boston Financial. The LIHTC program is responsible for financing the vast majority of affordable rental housing across the United States. The Freddie Mac-Boston Financial fund will invest in the creation and preservation of affordable homes across the country. It will focus on transactions in areas that have been underserved over the past decade, such as rural communities, 4 percent LIHTC financing and developments that provide intensive supportive services for their residents. The fund will provide as much as $100 million in targeted affordable housing investments, with more investments possible as additional transactions are closed. Today Freddie Mac and Boston Financial also announced the first affordable housing transaction financed through that fund, a $5.5 million LIHTC equity investment for the rehabilitation of Riverwood Village Apartments a Section 8 family property in Russellville, Arkansas. Riverwood consists of 72 units within eight, two-story walk-ups originally built in 1976. The scope of work includes full exterior and interior renovations, including but not limited to installation of energy efficient windows, HVAC system upgrades, new energy efficient lighting, new flooring, and kitchen and bathroom replacements. Several community amenities will be upgraded or added as well, including a new playground, community rooms, a fitness center, a business center, and library and laundry rooms. Six of the units will be converted to be handicap accessible. We are pleased to be joining with Boston Financial Investment Management on a LIHTC syndicator fund that will be instrumental in creating and preserving affordable rental housing across the country, said David Leopold, vice president of Targeted Affordable Sales & Investments at Freddie Mac. The first investment through the fund will provide for a full renovation of Riverwood Village in Russellville, Arkansas. The 72 affordable housing units at Riverwood Village were built more than 40 years ago and are in serious need of rehabilitation. The investment we are making will substantially improve the quality of life for the families that call Riverwood Village home. Freddie Mac partnered with Boston Financial because of its deep expertise with the LIHTC program and commitment to serving communities in need through proprietary LIHTC funds. The preservation and rehabilitation of Riverwood Village will have a tremendous positive impact on the families that live there as well as the surrounding community of Russellville, Arkansas, said Sarah Laubinger, executive vice president of Boston Financial. We are honored to be one of Freddie Macs select LIHTC syndicator partners and look forward to working together to further our shared mission of bringing safe, quality and affordable housing to communities across the country. More than 19 million households across the country are cost-burdened, meaning they pay more than 30 percent of their income for housing. Eleven million are severely cost-burdened, paying more than 50 percent of their income for housing. Freddie Mac and Boston Financial are proud to be working together to address this vast and growing need through the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. Freddie Mac makes home possible for millions of families and individuals by providing mortgage capital to lenders. Since our creation by Congress in 1970, we've made housing more accessible and affordable for homebuyers and renters in communities nationwide. We are building a better housing finance system for homebuyers, renters, lenders, investors and taxpayers. Learn more at FreddieMac.com , @FreddieMac and Freddie Mac's blog . Since 1969, Boston Financial has focused on providing exceptional client service to its partners and has built one of the most experienced management teams in the affordable housing industry. To date, Boston Financial has raised and managed over $11 billion of lowincome housing and historic tax credit equity investments, comprising 2,400 properties and 220,000 units, making it one of the largest and most successful firms in the industry. Boston Financial is a wholly owned subsidiary of ORIX Corporation USA, a diversified financial services company headquartered in Dallas, TX with more than 1000 employees in 30 offices across the U.S. and Brazil. Known for providing innovative capital solutions to clients, ORIX USA has over $10 billion of assets and manages an additional $63 billion on behalf of clients. Its parent company, ORIX Corporation, is a Tokyobased international financial services company which has operations in 38 countries and regions and over 32,000 employees. With a market capitalization of $18 billion, ORIX Corporation is traded on both the Tokyo and New York Stock Exchanges. For more information on the ORIX family of companies, please visit www.ORIX.com. Contact: 14:31 | Lima, Nov. 28. "Global volatility has not translated into lower growth rates (for Peru). On the contrary, the growth rate is expected to rise to 3.9% this year and post a similar figure next year," the official affirmed. "This is mainly due to the recovery of the U.S. economy and plenty of European ones, which experienced some problems a couple of years ago, and this is despite the slight slowdown in China's GDP growth," he added. In any case the minister continued Peru grows at annual rates close to 4% , and the Government "works really hard" to achieve this level of expansion. say "We understand that part of the boost to reach 4% has to do with public investment . We are making utmost efforts to achieve the forecast of the Multiannual Macroeconomic Framework, that is toan annual growth rate of 14%," he explained. ?? 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 #Presupuesto2019 El proyecto de presupuesto publico para el ano 2019 esta orientado al cumplimiento de los siguientes compromisos: pic.twitter.com/TlER9g8VH0 Friedman's speech is scheduled for 6:30 PM. He will address challenges and opportunities of global transformation for middle-income countries like Peru. The 65-year-old is the author of best sellers and a New York Times columnist . He has won the Pulitzer Prize three times (1983, 1988, and 2002) and El Mundo's Columnist Prize in 2018. Gutter Viper A neighborly good turn was the father of invention. by Jan Schlain From the November, 2018 issue "I said to Jeff, 'We should invent something,'" James Ashton-Miller recalls. Ashton-Miller, a U-M research professor in mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering, and Jeff Terrell, an ear, nose, and throat surgeon at Michigan Medicine, live two doors apart on Iroquois. Walking their dogs together, they'd noticed that their octogenarian neighbor Charlie Wyse was climbing tall ladders to clean his gutters. Wyse was still "very capable, keeping up his property," Ashton-Miller says--but it looked to them as though he could use a way to clean his second-story gutters from the ground. "There was no good tool out there," says Terrell, so they invented one. After going through fifty-five iterations, they perfected a leaf blower attachment they call the Gutter Viper. "James is an incredible engineer, so he's been handling the design, trouble-shooting, and filling orders," Terrell says. Terrell's been handling the photography, website, and marketing. The Gutter Viper sells for $110 on their website, vipertoolcompany.com, and for $120 on Amazon. They developed and patented it at their own expense. They've sold only about 300 so far, so the Gutter Viper is not yet profitable--but it's not really about making money. "We are very passionate about preventing injuries," says Terrell. "I take care of people who fall, and James's work is all about safety." They've already made things safer for their neighbor. "To keep Charlie on the ground," Terrell says, "we have offered him free gutter cleaning for the rest of his life." [Originally published in November, 2018.] EXCERPT The Plutonium Files America's Secret Medical Experiments in the Cold War By EILEEN WELSOME Dial Books Read the Review The Acid Taste of Plutonium The accident occurred on August 1, 1944, a morning like any other in Los Alamos: hot, dry, the sky an indigo bowl over the sprawl of wooden buildings and barbed-wire fences that constituted the core of the Manhattan Project. At seven thousand feet, the New Mexico air smelled of sun, pines, a trace of frost. Occasionally the scent of dust spiraled up from the desert, where temperatures hovered around 100 degrees. In twelve months, two atomic bombs would be dropped on Japan, and the secret work being carried out in the wooden buildings would be revealed to the world. On the morning of the accident, the atomic bomb had progressed far beyond mathematical theories but was still an unproven weapon. Plutonium, a silvery metal discovered about four years earlier, was one of the key elements that would transform the theories into a fireball. In Room D-119, a cheerful young chemist named Don Mastick was standing over a sink chatting with his laboratory partner, Arthur Wahl, a chemist not much older than himself and one of the four scientists from the University of California at Berkeley who had discovered plutonium. Mastick was just twenty-three years old, a "bushy-tailed kid," as he would later describe himself, with short blond hair and an alert, friendly face. He had been one of Berkeley's most promising chemistry graduates and was just about to enlist in the Navy when J. Robert Oppenheimer approached him and asked if he would like to join the scientific team being assembled in Los Alamos, the most secret site in the vast network of laboratories and factories established to build the bomb. Oppenheimer, a brilliant theoretical physicist, was already a legend on the Berkeley campus, and Mastick was thrilled at the idea of working with him. When he arrived in Los Alamos in the spring of 1943, Oppenheimer had designated him the lab's ultra microchemist. Working with amounts of plutonium that were too small to be seen with the naked eye, he studied the chemical reactions of the new material under a microscope. His glass test tubes were no bigger than sewing needles and his measuring instruments looked like a child's toys. Even his laboratory was small: a claustrophobic box at the end of a hallway, ten feet wide and twelve feet long. In Mastick's hand that day was a small vial containing ten milligrams of plutoniuman amount so small it would have fit on the head of a pin. But it was far more plutonium than Los Alamos had had to work with only a year before. In fact, the radioactive material was still so scarce that a special crew had been assembled whose only job was to recover the material from accidents and completed experiments and then repurify it through chemical processes so it could be used again. The crew developed a flow chart to help separate plutonium from every other element in the Periodic Table. "They were prepared to tear up the floor and extract the plutonium, if necessary. They would even dissolve a bicycle. I mean, plutonium [was] so valuable that they went to great extremes to recover everything," physician Louis Hempelmann recalled decades later. Inevitably some of the radioactive molecules seeped out into the laboratory, spread by a starched sleeve, the scuff of boots, even the dust that blew in from the desert. Nervous and preoccupied with their efforts to construct a workable bomb, Oppenheimer and his colleagues viewed the spreading contamination with consternation. Their concerns were twofold: They didn't want to lose any material, and they were just beginning to understand its potential hazards. Joseph Kennedy, another member of the Berkeley team who had discovered plutonium, acknowledged that it was "not pleasant" to think that unaccounted-for plutonium was floating around the lab. On the day of this particular accidentwhich would be the most serious of any thus farit was not the lost plutonium that would be the problem. It was the plutonium in Mastick's vial. A purplish-color liquid that gave off an eerie, animallike warmth when concentrated in larger amounts, the plutonium in the vial had undergone an unanticipated transformation overnight. Some of the liquid had been converted into gas and was pushing against the walls of the bottle. Other molecules were tunneling into the sides of the glass itself. Unaware of the small bomb he was holding, Mastick snapped the slender neck of the vial. It made a small, popping sound in the quiet laboratory. Instantly the material spewed out of the bottle and onto the wall in front of him. Some of the solution ricocheted back into his mouth, flooding his lips and tongue with a metallic taste. Not overly alarmed, Mastick replaced the vial in its wooden container. Then he trotted across the hard-packed ground of the technical area to knock on the door of Dr. Hempelmann's first-aid station. He had just swallowed a significant amount of the world's supply of plutonium. "I could taste the acid so I knew perfectly well I had a little bit of plutonium in my mouth," he said in an interview in 1995. Louis Hempelmann's office was just a few minutes' walk from D Building, where Mastick worked. With its "deluge shower baths" and clothes-changing rooms, D Building was one of the most elaborately ventilated and costly structures at Los Alamos. Except for the forest of metal pipes protruding from the roof, it looked no different from the other green clapboard structures in the technical area. Hempelmann was the medical doctor in charge of protecting technical personnel on the bomb project from "unusual hazards," and he reported directly to J. Robert Oppenheimer. With his long, narrow face and wide jaw, Hempelmann wasn't handsome, but there was something refined and pleasing about his appearance. He was the son and grandson of doctors and a fine physician in his own right, although he was known to grow queasy at the sight of blood. ("Louie did his first sternal puncture on me and he almost fainted. He's one of those doctors that can't stand the sight of bloodhe should have been a psychologist or something," said Harold Agnew, one in a line of laboratory directors who succeeded Oppenheimer.) Taking great pains to keep his long face expressionless, Hempelmann listened to Mastick's account of what had happened and then left the room for a moment in order to make a frantic phone call to Colonel Stafford Warren, the affable medical director of the Manhattan Project. Hempelmann often turned to Warren, who was nearly two decades older, for advice and reassurance. In his late forties when he was commissioned as an Army colonel, Warren was a big man, well over six feet tall, who exuded a breezy confidence. Unlike many of the scientists on the bomb project, who refused to join the armed forces and chafed under military control, Warren loved being in the Army. He liked the rough feel of his starched uniform, the silver eagles on his collar, the .45 revolver tucked in a holster on his belt. Speaking on a secure telephone line from his office at the Manhattan Project's headquarters in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Warren tried to calm Hempelmann down. He thought about the accident for a moment and then suggested that the young doctor try using a mouthwash and expectorant to remove the plutonium from the chemist's mouth. Hempelmann hung up and hurried back to the examining room where he prepared two mixtures. The first was a sodium citrate solution that would chemically combine with the plutonium in Mastick's mouth to form a soluble liquid; the second was a bicarbonate rinse that would render the material insoluble again. Mastick swished the solutions around in his mouth and then spit them into a beaker. The first mouthful contained almost one-half microgram of plutonium. A microgram of plutonium, which is a millionth of a gram, was considered in 1945 to be the maximum amount of plutonium that could be retained in the human body without causing harm. Eleven more times at fifteen-minute intervals Mastick swished the two solutions around in his mouth and then spit them into the beaker. After the accident, Mastick's breath was so hot that he could stand six feet away and blow the needles on the radiation monitors off scale. His urine contained detectable plutonium for many years. In one of several interviews Mastick said that he was undoubtedly still excreting "a few atoms" of plutonium but had suffered no ill effects. When the mouth washings finally were finished, Hempelmann ordered the young man to lie down on a cot. Then he pumped out his stomach several times. Carefully he transferred the stomach liquids into a tall beaker. The plutonium would have to be chemically separated from the organic matter in Mastick's stomach and mouth so it could be reused in future experiments. No scientist at the lab had ever undertaken such a task. Hempelmann gave the young chemist a couple of breakfast waffles for his empty stomach and some Sippy alkaline powders to be taken during the day. Then he turned and handed him the four-liter beaker of murky liquid. Go, he said, retrieve the plutonium. Mastick returned to his lab with the beaker and opened his textbooks. It took a "little rapid-fire research," as he put it, to figure out how to separate the plutonium from the organic matter. But he didn't flinch from the task, despite the ordeal he had just been through. "Since I was the plutonium chemist at that point, I was the logical choice to recover it." From Mastick's perspective, the mood in which all these events took place was calm, deliberate, and "almost humorous." But other people did not feel nearly so relaxed about what had occurred. The day after the accident, Hempelmann sat down and wrote Stafford Warren a thank-you note. "I was sorry to bother you but was anxious to have your help and moral support. In retrospect, I think that the chances of the fellow's having swallowed a dangerous amount of material are slight." Hempelmann told Warren that he believed about ten micrograms of plutonium had entered Mastick's mouth. The mouth washings had removed all but one microgram, an infinitesimal but nevertheless hazardous amount. More important, Hempelmann thought the chemist had not inhaled any plutonium. At that time scientists knew that plutonium was extremely hazardous if it was breathed in and deposited in lung tissue. But they also were discovering that the radioactive material was not readily absorbed through the gastrointestinal tract and that it could not penetrate beyond the outer layer of human skin. Thus, most of the microgram of plutonium in Mastick's mouth undoubtedly would have passed through his digestive system and out of his body without being absorbed. A catastrophe had been avoided, but the accident was a vivid reminder of the invisible dangers that scientists and workers were confronted with at "Site Y," the code name for Los Alamos. The responsibilities seemed overwhelming to Hempelmann, who was only twenty-nine years old and a neophyte when it came to understanding radiation. He had been working with radioactive materials for three years. As for plutonium, he had only about six months of hands-on experience. "There were all sorts of problems," he admitted years later, "which I just couldn't handle because of limited experience." YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. The United Kingdoms Home Department, the countrys interior ministry, has confirmed on November 27 that a new UK-France Coordination and Information Centre has opened in Calais as part of the ongoing co-operation between the UK and France to tackle criminality at the border. The centre will see Border Force working closely alongside Police Aux Frontieres as part of a 24/7 operation to: assist with preventing illegal attempts to cross the shared border; exchange real-time intelligence between UK and French agencies to combat cross-border criminality; work on the prevention of threats to public order on cross-border infrastructure; provide analysis of cross-Channel traffic flows, the Home Department said in a press release. Importantly, it will also help with the identification, prosecution and dismantling of the organised crime groups currently behind illegal migration attempts by small boats across the Channel, it added. The new centre is a key part of the Sandhurst Treaty, a bilateral agreement between the UK and France which reinforces the commitment of both sides to work together on border security issues. Under the Treaty, the UK has invested an additional 44.5 million to protect the shared border. The UK Home Secretary, Sajid Javid said: The opening of this coordination centre is a key milestone in our delivery of the commitments set out in the Sandhurst Treaty. It will allow the UK and France to work even closer in the fight to tackle illegal activity at the border and the crime networks who are putting the lives of vulnerable people at risk. Law enforcement partners including Immigration Enforcement, the National Crime Agency and Kent Police and their French counterparts will also form part of the coordination effort, working alongside Border Force and Police Aux Frontieres. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. Acting Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan on November 28 will meet with the parents of Karen Ghazaryan who is currently in the Azerbaijani captivity, reports Armenpress. Today I will meet with the parents of Karen Ghazaryan in the municipality. My spouse has visited them two times. Azerbaijan has made a semi-official offer to exchange three Azerbaijani citizens in Artsakh with the three Armenians who are in Azerbaijan. But two of these Azerbaijani citizens are imprisoned in Artsakh, the one for 20 years and the other to life imprisonment because they have killed citizens of Artsakh. And now the question is the following: whether the relatives of those killed will agree that Artsakh returns the murderers of their kids to Azerbaijan. Its clear that Azerbaijan will declare new Ramil Safarovs from these murderers. Do we want to bear the political and practical consequences of this? A man accidentally crossed the border from Turkey, and we sent him back to his country without any preconditions. It would be logical if they returned Karen in the same way. We dealt and are dealing with the issue of Karen also in accordance with the agreement reached in Dushanbe. Its a simple, humanitarian issue, and we will make all efforts to solve this issue, Pashinyan said during the election campaign of My Step alliance in Noyemberyan town. Pashinyan said there is a version that Karen has been kidnapped from his own home. People are concerned and worried about the level of defense at the border. There is a suspicion that Karen was kidnapped from his own home, but there are no proofs yet. I will definitely discuss this issue with the representatives of our Armed Forces. We will take actions if necessary, he said. On July 15, 2018 the Azerbaijani defense ministry announced that it pushed back, with the formulation of the Azerbaijani media, a sabotage group of the Armenian Armed Forces in the direction of Qazax region, and one of the group members was taken captive. Immediately after this statement Armenias defense ministry announced that that person is Karen Ghazaryan, a resident of Berdavan village of Armenias Tavush province, who faces mental problems, doesnt serve and has never served in the Armenian Armed Forces. Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan BURLINGTON, Ontario, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- With the holidays upon us, PetSmart, the largest pet specialty retailer, has plenty of ways for pet parents to include their pets in this years holiday festivities. With PetSmarts huge selection of holiday toys, treats and stocking stuffers, pet parents are sure to find the perfect way to celebrate the holidays with their pets. This years holiday toy collection features quirky favourites and classic characters sure to please all pets. Toys and decor that offer a nod to classic fan-favourites like holiday trees , snowman squeakers and Santa Claus flatties will have tails wagging. For cats, a catnip-filled toy featuring tutu wearing mice are playful gift ideas, along with holiday ball cat toys . Pet parents can also give the gift of comfort this holiday season with cuddler beds featuring seasonal designs for cats and dogs. For the pets that prefer cozying up by the fire, PetSmart also offers a holiday blanket and moose toy duo. PetSmart is also here to help families incorporate small pets into the celebration. Get guinea pigs party-ready with cute costumes like Santa , an elf and even an angel . Make fish tanks more festive with a gingerbread house ornament or a floating Santa . Holiday-inspired treats are a fun way to spoil pets over the holidays. PetSmarts Pet Holiday cookie assortments feature delicious flavour combinations like apple cinnamon and peppermint . Pets can also countdown Santas arrival with advent calendars from Bosco and Roxys and Nutrience . From ugly sweaters to rustic apparel and accessories, PetSmart offers plenty of options to get pets photo-ready for the holidays. The holiday reindeer sweater is a PetSmart fan-favourite featuring a hip reindeer in glasses that is also available for small pets . No one can resist a cute pup in antlers , which makes this lightweight headpiece perfect for those holiday photos. For pets that dont like a lot of fuss, collars and accessories offer an easy way to style your pet. Dogs will look dapper sporting a plaid holiday tie or the red holiday package bow collar . The holidays are the perfect time to get dogs (and cats!) looking and smelling great before guests arrive. Because cold weather has arrived, extra-hydrating treatments like the Coconut Spaw package will help alleviate dryness and bring back moisture and shine to their coats. Free Photos with Santa in Stores Santa Claus is coming to PetSmart! Pet parents and families across Canada are invited to attend the free Santa Claus events taking place over two weekends in December. Photos with Santa Claus Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 8-9 and Dec. 15-16 12 4 p.m. local time PetSmart is hosting two weekends of Santa Claus photo events at all of its stores nationwide. This annual event gives pet parents the opportunity to have their pets photo taken with Santa. At the event, pet parents will receive a free digital photo from PetSmart and can snap photos with their own device. For more holiday gift ideas, browse PetSmarts Holiday Shop or visit www.petsmart.ca . About PetSmart In Canada, PetSmart, Inc. is the largest specialty pet retailer of services and solutions for the lifetime needs of pets. At PetSmart, we love pets, and we believe pets make us better people. Every day with every connection, PetSmarts passionate associates help bring pet parents closer to their pets so they, together, can live more fulfilled lives. This vision impacts everything we do for our customers, the way we support our associates and how we give back to our communities. PetSmart employs approximately 4,300 associates and operates more than 130 pet stores in Canada, as well as eight in-store PetSmart PetsHotel dog and cat boarding facilities. The retailer provides a broad range of competitively priced pet food and products, as well as services such as dog training, pet grooming, pet boarding, PetSmart Doggie Day Camp and pet adoption. PetSmart and PetSmart Charities of Canada work with more than 200 animal welfare organizations to bring adoptable pets into stores so they have the best chance possible of finding a forever home. Through this in-store adoption program and other signature events, PetSmart has facilitated more than 260,000 adoptions, more than any other brick-and-mortar organization. Find PetSmart on Facebook: facebook.com/PetSmartCanada See PetSmart on Instagram: @PetSmart Follow PetSmart on Twitter: @PetSmart See PetSmart on YouTube: www.YouTube.com/PetSmart PetSmart homepage: http://www.petsmart.ca Contact: Stephan Petar Golin for PetSmart Canada spetar@golin.com 416-483-6225 ext. 3441 A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e54acbed-b7df-4b8c-8222-45f35f6501b9 YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. Armenias delegation led by deputy minister of justice Vigen Kocharyan on November 27 participated in the EU Eastern Partnership Platform meeting on the Rule of Law in Brussels, the justice ministry told Armenpress. The delegation includes deputy prosecutor general Davit Melkonyan and head of the international cooperation department at the justice ministry Tigran Grigoryan. The justice reforms in the Eastern Partnership countries and the prospects of the EUs support to them were discussed during the meeting. The Armenian delegation introduced the judicial reform programs in Armenia, in particular the existing issues and the actions taken in the prosecution sector. The meeting touched upon the independence, quality and effectiveness of justice. The EU representatives reaffirmed their readiness to support the development of judicial reform program in Armenia and its effective implementation. Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. Armenian President Armen Sarkissian, who is in Germany on an official visit, on November 28 had a luncheon with the heads of several leading German companies that operate in Armenia or are interested in cooperating with Armenia, the Presidential Office told Armenpress. The meeting has been organized by the Armenian Embassy in Germany, OWC publishing house, the Eastern Committee of the German economy and the Eastern Europe: The Union of Small and Medium Entrepreneurs. The meeting in particular was attended by the heads of Zeppelin, Siemens, SAP, Nokia, Schneider Group, Airbus Group and other companies. President Sarkissian said a number of companies with the German capital are successfully operating in different sectors of Armenias economy and expressed confidence that there is a great potential to expand these sectors and deepen the mutual cooperation. The President said the 21st century is an era of rapid changes, adding that Armenia is a right country because its in the right place at a right time. Its the right time as we live in the 21st century. Its an era where everything changes quite rapidly. Its not a secret that I have completed my book recently which is called The Quantum Behavior of Global Risks. By saying quantum I dont mean that the rules of quantum mechanics can be applied. Quantum supposes that that behavior is no longer the classical one. In the 21st century the changes are dynamic, drastic and dramatic. The measures, which enable to manage and describe the risks in the 21st century, are also not the classical ones and will not be. From this perspective its the high time for Armenia, the President said. Armen Sarkissian said Armenia has been in the crossroads of civilizations for thousands of years. This crossroad today can become a bridge as today Armenia is the only country that is a member of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), which means that the country has a market worth over 200 million, rather than 3 million, which includes Central Asia, Russia. In addition, Armenia has also signed deep and comprehensive agreement with the EU, and we want to deepen the relations with this structure. In other words, Armenia is the only country that has deep relations both with the East and the West. Our country is in the right place, Armen Sarkissian said. The President introduced the businessmen on key directions of Armenias economy, the investment attractiveness and business environment, the competitive advantages on running a business in Armenia. Armenia is an interesting place to make an investment. The country has a great potential in different sectors, starting from agriculture up to light industry, banking sector and information technologies, he said. At the meeting the heads of the companies operating in Armenia briefed their ongoing programs, as well as the opportunities to expand them. The President proposed the remaining businessmen of the meeting to visit Armenia to observe and discuss the mutually beneficial cooperation prospects. Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. A number of criminal cases on illicit enrichment, false asset declaration and money laundering committed by ex-government officials are under investigation at the Special Investigative Service (SIS), SIS director Sasun Khachatryan told reporters today. He said theyve sent 20 investigative inquiries to other countries for discovering offshore assets of the suspects. As of this moment, material damages totaling 139,000,000 drams have been recovered under the criminal cases, he said, adding that 14,685,000 dollars, 221,000 Euros and 219,300,000 drams have been frozen. He added that more than 300 units of real estate assets are also frozen. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. Former President Robert Kocharyans attorney Hayk Alumyan argues that the judge presiding over the court hearing of the complaint filed against the 2nd Presidents earlier release from pre-trial detention has been selected unlawfully. We were notified that a draw took place in the Court of Appeals, during which the judge for the case for selected. The law doesnt envisage a draw, as such, he told reporters outside the courtroom. We requested for the judge to present us the record of this draw. Under the legislation, any action within the framework of a criminal case must be sealed materially. An action cannot be done without being recorded anywhere. The judge said that this kind of a record doesnt exist. He presented another clarification, by saying that a draw took place, but that he doesnt know if the president of the court took into consideration the result of the draw or any other standard when tasking him the case, Alumyan said. Alumyan says that this argument of the judge caused greater uncertainty for them. He said theyve requested the acting president of the court to provide them with the record. Theyve also requested to be provided with the standards that have been applied while selecting this particular judge. The acting president of the court wrote that a draw has taken place but that there is no record. In addition, he wrote that the judge was chosen randomly, and based on the workload of judges. According to paragraph 1, article 6 of the European Convention [Human Rights], anyone is entitled to a trial by a tribunal established by law. In any case, when the composition of the court is created, it must be done based on law. And we showed the court that the procedure that has been used in the given case doesnt exist in law, Alumyan said. He said that the prosecution was neutral on the issue, and the examiner said that this judge shouldnt examine the case. If the case has started with breach of law, we dont expect the outcome to be lawful. We decided to file a peremptory challenge against the judge. We want the case to be tried by the composition that will be selected in accordance with law, Alumyan said. The decision about the motion of the challenge will be published today at 17:00. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. A Congolese man has used a fake passport to enter Armenia, police said. According to a press release of the national police, Nibu Hewe, a citizen of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has used a fake identity and illegally entered Armenia through Zvartnots airport by using the name Mike Njibu Muela. According to police, the man got rid of the fake passport while already in Armenia, and then applied to the migration service with his birth certificate and was granted a status of an asylum seeker. Based on intelligence reports, police detained the man on November 12. A criminal investigation is underway. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. Caretaker Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan has held a meeting with World Bank Armenia Country Manager Sylvie Bossoutrot and her delegation, Avinyans office said. Caretaker Minister of Economic Development and Investments Tigran Khachatryan and Caretaker Minister of Transportation, Communication and Information Technologies Hakob Arshakyan were also in attendance. During the meeting Avinyan attached importance to cooperation with the World Bank aimed at economic development and increase of competitiveness, as well as attraction of investments. Thanking for the reception, Bossoutrot said that the World Bank welcomes the governments commitment for carrying out ambitious reforms and ensuring economic progress, and that they will be the Armenian governments partner and supporter in this issue. She added that the World Bank will soon discuss the 2019-2022 cooperation framework with Armenia, one of the pillars of which will be encouraging exports. The implementation process of the World Banks Trade Promotion and Quality Infrastructures project was discussed. The project is aimed at strengthening and empowering the governments capacities in encouraging exports, attracting investments and rendering quality management services. The sides concurred that the project should contribute to increasing the competitiveness of Armenian-made products in foreign markets, as well as to strengthening PPP. Avinyan mentioned that as a result of midterm revision of the project the high-tech sector should get greater attention. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. Alexander Sargsyan, the brother of the 3rd President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, has expressed readiness to return to the state budget the 30 million USD on one of his bank accounts, ARMENPRESS acting Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan said in Ijevan city during the pre-electoral campaign. We gave talked numerous times about the fact that Serzh Sargsyans brother Alexander Sargsyan possesses 30 million USD on one of his bank accounts. Following my speech Serzh Sargsyans brother had made an announcement that he is ready to provide at least some part of that sum for some purposes. And now I have been told that he recently expressed readiness to return the entire 30 million USD to the state budget, he said. Pashinyan emphasized that the returned sums must first of all be spent for army needs. Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. The creation of transitional justice tools will be an important function of the new parliament to be formed as a result of the early parliamentary elections, ARMENPRESS reports acting Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan said in Ijevan city during the pre-electoral campaign. At the moment different criminal cases are initiated that are about nearly 64 billion AMD. During this period there are some concerns about why the process of return does not take place quickly. These sums will be returned after the legal procedures are over. This is a very slow process and it is also for making this process faster that we speak about transitional justice in our pre-election program. This means that in many occasions such cases can and have to find some other solutions, Pashinyan said, adding that one of the key tasks of the new parliament has to be the creation of the transitional justice tools. Pashinyan divides crimes into two parts bloody and non-bloody. My approach is that bloody crimes should never be pardoned. We cannot return the person who has been killed. AN irreversible loss has been inflicted. But if money has been stolen, we can still return that money, the acting PM said. Nikol Pashinyan also emphasized that the goal of the transitional justice is not sending people to prisons, but returning what has been stolen from the people. Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan Downer viewed the Pacific too much through an aid lens. In his Financial Review article, he defends successive Australian governments against the accusation that they haven't taken the Pacific seriously enough by referring to our large Pacific aid programs. Instead, the Liberals gave rich-country backpackers generous visa incentives to work on farms, meaning that today, even though there is now a Pacific seasonal farm labour program, most of Australia's fruit is picked by the young people of distant rich countries, rather than the young people of our poor neighbours. CANBERRA - In a recent opinion piece, former foreign minister Alexander Downer commends the opportunities now available to Pacific islanders to work in Australia. But, when he was minister, Downer publicly opposed the introduction of a Pacific farm labour program. But that has been precisely the problem. We have been too slow to promote integration with the Pacific through non-aid instruments. Yes, AusAID was committed to the Pacific, but it carried little clout with the rest of government. From that perspective, the absorption of AusAID into the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has been a huge positive, because DFAT has taken up the cause of the Pacific. Having both more clout with the rest of government, and being more sceptical of the value of aid, DFAT has been more successful at introducing non-aid instruments for the Pacific. And of course now it can play the China card, which gets everyone's attention. This, combined with strong ministerial championing, explains the recent progress on Pacific labour mobility, and, just in the last few weeks, visa simplification. And what of our aid to the Pacific? Has it really been as well designed as Downer claims? The former foreign minister might have changed his tune on labour mobility (and on the Solomon Islands intervention he earlier publicly opposed and now defends), but he is nothing but consistent in his views on development and aid. The two-part argument in his article that "good governance is the key to economic development" and therefore that aid should focus on training constitutes what could be called the Downerist approach to aid. The first argument is as orthodox as it is correct. But the second is as naive as it is wrong. If training and advising (together, technical assistance) could fix problems of governance, the Pacific would be the best governed region in the world. But poor governance is not due to an absence of skills. It has its roots in dysfunctional politics, like the way politicians get elected, and their tolerance for corruption. Aid is notoriously uninfluential when it comes to influencing domestic politics. It is not just that technical assistance is so often a waste of aid. It can do actual harm. There is a workshop culture in the Pacific, with key officials so very often out of their office often out of the country on training programs or international gatherings. Aid, especially Australian aid, must take a large chunk of the blame for this. The continuing focus of the aid program on fixing governance through technical assistance is as much part of Downer's legacy in the Pacific as is our slow and late start on Pacific labour mobility. "Governance" became the leading aid sector under Downer's reign. To its credit, Labor gave greater prominence to education. But Bishop cut education hard and, for all her rhetoric about the private sector, restored governance to the dominant position it held under her Liberal predecessor. An effective aid program needs to accept the uneasy truth that donors have little influence over what, as Downer correctly says, really matters for development: the strength of domestic institutions. Of course, we should try to make a difference where we can, and no one would argue for a technical-assistance-free aid program. But, as a first approximation, we should do things that make sense given the current state of a recipient's institutions. China doesn't always get it right, but one thing that makes its aid so attractive is precisely the pragmatism that it displays, which stands in stark contrast to the hubris we often show with our grand and patently unconvincing plans to strengthen institutions and crackdown on corruption. Whatever one thinks of China's spreading influence, there is reason to hope that it is reducing Downer's residual influence on our Pacific and aid policy. First, our desire to remain relevant is reducing the extent we view the Pacific through an aid prism rather than looking for alternative and more effective tools, such as labour mobility. And, second, the perception that China is winning the aid popularity contest may mean that we start taking a more pragmatic and less Downerist approach to our aid program. Professor Stephen Howes is director of the Development Policy Centre at the ANU's Crawford School of Public Policy The US military posts hundreds of photos and videos every day from missions around the world. Business Insider selected some of the most compelling images taken in 2018 from across the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard. The US has the world's most powerful military. It also has a small army of talented photographers who showcase the military's missions and training every day. At home and around the world, the American armed forces defend US national interests, as well as global peace and security. US troops often put themselves in harm's way in service to the nation, from fighting Taliban forces in Afghanistan to waging war against ISIS militants in Iraq and Syria, and sometimes they make the ultimate sacrifice. Business Insider selected 27 photos from the US military in 2018 that you won't want to miss. A U.S. Army combat medic assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C., readies his equipment before embarking on his final evaluation lane while competing for the Expert Field Medical Badge on Nov. 6, 2018. Source: US Army A southern black racer snake slithers across the rifle barrel held by junior Army National Guard sniper Pfc. William Snyder as he practices woodland stalking in a camouflaged ghillie suit at Eglin Air Force Base on April 7, 2018. Source: Department of Defence Army combat engineers assigned to the 2nd Armoured Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division blast through a concrete wall during demolition training at Fort Hood, Texas on July 17, 2018. Source: Department of Defence Paratroopers assigned to Army Alaskas 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division descend toward Malemute Drop Zone at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, July 17, 2018. Source: Department of Defence A Navy MH-60S Seahawk fires flares during an air power demonstration over the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt in the Pacific Ocean on May 3, 2018. Airmen assigned to the 82nd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron and deployed in support of humanitarian aid and contingency operations in the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa area of responsibility perform a military free fall jump in Djibouti, April 17, 2018. Story continues Marine Corps Cpls. Matthew Teutsch and Brett Norman participate in hand-to-hand and close quarters combat training at Camp Pendleton, California on Oct. 2, 2018. Spidey, a Marine Corps military working dog, waits with his handler during a live-fire exercise on the flight deck of the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima in the Mediterranean Sea on March 4, 2018. A Coast Guard C-27J Spartan crew, assigned to Coast Guard Air Station Sacramento, flies over San Francisco, California, during area of responsibility familiarization training, Monday on Feb. 6, 2018. The aircraft is outfitted with weather radar and communications equipment capable of supporting transport and other Coast Guard missions. Air Force pararescuemen assigned to the 83rd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron work with members of Army Task Force Brawler, flying the CH-47F Chinook, during exfiltration after the completion of a training exercise at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan on March 14, 2018. Source: US Air Force A U.S. Army Task Force Brawler CH-47F Chinook flight engineer sits on the ramp while conducting a training exercise with a Guardian Angel team assigned to the 83rd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan on March 26, 2018. Source: US Air Force A U.S. Air Force F-15D Eagle flies above the Mariana Islands in support of exercise Valiant Shield on Sept. 18, 2018. Source: US Air Force Airman Amanda Danforth, 96th Security Forces Squadron, watches the horizon during an alarm phase of a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive training exercise at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida on Feb. 1, 2018. Source: US Air Force A U.S. Coast Guard Station Honolulu 45-foot Response Boat Medium crew responds to a sinking charter boat off Ewa Beach, Hawaii on Oct. 28, 2018. Source: U.S. Coast Guard District 14 Hawaii Pacific Sailors assigned to the Los Angeles-class submarine USS Olympia dive in during the Rim of the Pacific exercises in August 2018. Marines with 3rd Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division fire an M777 Howitzer at known targets during training at Mount Bundey Training Area, Australia on August 9, 2018. Source: US Marine Corps Marines with Black Sea Rotational Force 18.1 fire an 81mm mortar system during Exercise Platinum Eagle 18 at Babadag Training Area, Romania on Sept. 5, 2018. Hospital Corpsman Jacob Adam drinks cobra blood at jungle survival training during Exercise Cobra Gold 2018 at Camp Ban Chan Khrem in the Kingdom of Thailand on Feb. 17, 2018. Sailors assigned to aircraft carrier USS Nimitz and Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Momsen practice firefighting skills and techniques by battling a simulated fire at the Bremerton International Emergency Services Training Center on Mar. 22, 2018. A formation of F-35 Lightning II stealth fighters from the 388th and 419th Fighter Wings stationed at Hill Air Force Base perform aerial maneuvers as part of a combat power exercise over Utah Test and Training Range on Nov. 19, 2018. U.S. Army Paratroopers assigned to the 173rd Brigade Support Battalion, 173rd Airborne Brigade, descend onto Juliet Drop Zone in Pordenone, Italy during an airborne operation from a US Air Force 86th Air Wing C-130 Hercules aircraft Jan. 18, 2018. Source: US Army Soldiers push through smoke from a grenade during the ground tactical movement portion of the Operation Bowie Strike training exercise in Zhegoc, Kosovo on Jan. 19, 2018. The aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman transits the Strait of Gibraltar on June 28, 2018. Gunners Mate 2nd Class Michael DeCesare, assigned to Coastal Riverine Squadron (CRS) 4, fires an M2 machine gun aboard a Mark VI patrol boat during a crew served weapons qualification in the Philippine Sea on April 12, 2018. Marines with Maritime Raid Force, 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, swim underwater during dive training in Aqaba, Jordan, July 8, 2018. The Thunderbirds Delta formation performs a Pass in Review while flying past the Freedom Tower in New York on Sept. 17, 2018. Source: US Air Force Coast Guard Cutter Cypress is equipped for navigation operations, as well as search and rescue, law enforcement, homeland security, pollution response, and domestic icebreaking missions. LAS VEGAS, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW) previewed two new offeringsVMware Cloud on AWS Outposts and VMware Cloud Foundation for Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) that will run on AWS Outposts, enabling customers to build and deploy in customer data centers in an as a service model with rich, enterprise-class capabilities. Both solutions will leverage AWS Outposts, new fully managed and configurable compute and storage racks built with Amazon Web Services (AWS) hardware that allow customers to run compute and storage on-premises, while seamlessly connecting to the rest of AWSs broad array of services in the cloud. Together these offerings will enable customers with a consistent infrastructure and operational experience across all VMware and AWS cloud environments. VMwares vision is to provide customers with consistency of infrastructure, operations and developer experience, enabling them to build and run any application wherever the business requires. This empowers them to maximize the value of their IT investments and achieve better business outcomes, said Mark Lohmeyer, senior vice president and general manager, Cloud Platform Business Unit, VMware. As part of our broader hybrid cloud strategy to deliver Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC) infrastructure as an end-to-end service across the data center, cloud, and the edge, on industry-leading hardware, we are pleased to extend our collaboration with AWS and the value we can deliver our joint customers." VMware Cloud on AWS has seen great momentum since we introduced it together in 2017, and this marks another step forward in our collaboration to enable customers to run VMware Cloud on AWS locally on AWS Outposts, said Sandy Carter, vice president, EC2 Enterprise Workloads, Amazon Web Services. Customers have been telling us that they want an extension of their VMware Cloud on AWS environments on-premises, using the same hardware, the same interfaces, the same APIs, and the same instant access to the latest AWS capabilities the minute they become available, without having to manage hardware or software. With AWS Outposts, we are delivering a seamless, integrated hybrid experience. Driving Consistency from Data Center to Cloud to Edge The public cloud brings numerous benefits that help customers accelerate their digital transformations, including the elimination of the operational overhead of managing infrastructure; access to innovative cloud services for application development, deployment and management; an OPEX financial model that can eliminate hefty upfront financial investments; and the ability to consume infrastructure in a self-service manner and scale environments elastically. VMware Cloud on AWS delivers these customer benefits today and takes them a step further with the operational consistency, familiarity and enterprise-robustness of proven VMware technologies in the AWS Cloud. Many applications, however, must reside on-premises due to requirements such as latency, data gravity and ownership models, and therefore have historically been excluded from offering these public cloud benefits. VMware recently announced Project Dimension, now in Beta, to extend VMware Cloud to deliver SDDC infrastructure as-a-service to on-premise locations, including data center and edge environments. Now, VMware and AWS are partnering to enable SDDC infrastructure as-a-service on AWS Outposts. VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts will bring consistent hyperscale cloud infrastructure and innovative services to the data center in a jointly engineered solution that can eliminate the customer burden of managing on-premises hardware. VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts will be a fully-managed VMware SDDC as a service powered by VMware Cloud Foundation that includes a comprehensive set of software-defined services for compute, storage, networking, security, and cloud management running on AWS Outposts in customers data centers or co-location facilities. VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts will support virtual machine-, container-, and Kubernetes-based applications across the hybrid cloud. It leverages the same software stack, control plane, APIs, and managed service as VMware Cloud on AWS and will be sold, provisioned, operated, and supported by VMware or one of its partners. Bringing VMwares Proven Enterprise Capabilities to All Native Amazon Environments Today, customers can purchase a wide variety of VMware solutions that help drive consistency of networking, security, and operations in Amazon EC2 environments, including VMware NSX, VMware CloudHealth, VMware vRealize Cloud Management Platform and Wavefront by VMware. VMware Cloud Foundation for EC2 will be a new integrated solution that combines these capabilities and others with existing VMware data center integrations, and extends them across all Amazon EC2 environments, including Amazon EC2 running on Outposts. Natively built for all EC2 workloads, VMware Cloud Foundation for EC2 will help unify critical areas of networking, security, cloud management, data protection and application development across EC2 environments, and enable customers leverage proven data center technologies as they move native AWS environments to on-premises data center. With VMware Cloud Foundation for Amazon EC2, customers will be able to seamlessly connect and better secure all Amazon EC2 workloads with NSX and VMware AppDefense, and gain full visibility and insights into network traffic with VMware vRealize Network Insight. The solution will include VMwares cloud automation, management and operations services to enable customers to analyze and manage cloud cost, usage, security and application performance, streamline application delivery, and better control risks across cloud environments. Cloud Foundation for Amazon EC2 will enable customers to leverage existing investments and tools to unify backup and disaster recovery for both vSphere and Amazon EC2 workloads in the cloud and on native AWS Outposts. Finally, VMware Cloud Foundation for Amazon EC2 will extend VMwares Kubernetes services across Amazon EC2 on-premises and cloud environments, enabling customers to have a common application development platform across on-premises and public cloud environments with access to rich VMware, AWS, and partner services. Availability Both VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts and VMware Cloud Foundation for EC2 are expected to be available in 2H calendar year 2019. Additional Resources About VMware VMware software powers the worlds complex digital infrastructure. The companys compute, cloud, mobility, networking and security offerings provide a dynamic and efficient digital foundation to over 500,000 customers globally, aided by an ecosystem of 75,000 partners. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, this year VMware celebrates twenty years of breakthrough innovation benefiting business and society. For more information, please visit https://www.vmware.com/company.html . VMware, VMware Cloud, Cloud Foundation, NSX, CloudHealth, vRealize, vRealize Cloud Management Platform, Wavefront, AppDefense, and Network Insight are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and other jurisdictions. Media Contacts: Roger T. Fortier VMware Global Communications Mobile: 408-348-1569 rfortier@vmware.com Sierra Dowling H+K Strategies for VMware Phone: (415) 856-5178 sierra.dowling@hkstrategies.com Earlier this month, a Canadian woman took to Twitter to share the harassing messages a man on Tinder sent to her after she rejected him on the app. The 20-year-old woman named Julia says she swiped left on the man, but then he messaged her on Instagram. The unnamed man criticised Julia for being too picky on the dating app, which allows users to swipe right to match with people they are attracted to, and left on people they are not interested in meeting. A man who was rejected by a woman on Tinder went so far as to track her down on Instagram and criticise her for swiping left on him. Thanks to a new feature that allows users of the dating app to sync their Instagram accounts to their Tinder profiles, users aren't as anonymous anymore. It was that feature that allowed the disgruntled user to reach out to 20-year-old Julia, a retail worker from Ontario, Canada. In a post on Twitter on November 17, Julia shared screenshots that he started harassing her with more than a dozen messages on Instagram, saying she had no right to turn him down because using the app means she's looking to date. Despite her repeated demands to stop messaging her, the unnamed man continued to inundate her inbox, writing that she was being "irrational": "You have no reason to say no. You are ON A DATING SITE. "You obviously want to meet new people. "But instead of a real man, you're doing to choose some f---boy child. Than [sic] wonder what's wrong with guys. It's bull----." Julia responded by telling the man "leave me alone" and said he was being "forceful and creepy." Tinder message 1 and 2 10.56.36 AM "How am I creepy? Lol," he responded. "Girls like you are why guys are such a--holes. So if a guy has ever been mean hurtful or an a--hole to you, just remember this conversation." Read more: Tinder is slowly rolling out a Bumble-like feature where women have to make the first move before men can message them Story continues He added that the "f---ed up thing is, if we met in person, you would love me haha", and "It's your loss" before concluding: "Why are you even alive? What's the point if you're just going to spread misery and negativity? What a waste..." After the last message, Julia blocked him. Tinder message 3 and 4 She told INSIDER that she's been using Tinder "on and off" for about a year, and that she's gotten "weird messages" from men she hasn't matched with before, but "nothing like this." After the incident, she says she immediately unlinked her Instagram account from her Tinder profile. She says the harassment has left her "a little afraid" and that she's more cautious now leaving work at night in the dark. "I want every man who reads those messages and is disturbed, or uncomfortable by them in any way to take a look into their personal lives and make sure they don't allow their friends or other men [in] their lives to treat women poorly," Julia said. She continued: "I think a very big part of men acting like this towards women is that they know no one will say anything to them about it, and they won't be held accountable, and I want that to change." While she reported the harasser to Instagram, she says she wasn't able to report him to Tinder because his profile had no personal details or even his name, age, or a photo of him. The man's Instagram profile appears to have since been taken down or deleted. Tinder did not immediately respond to INSIDER's request for comment. Just days after a major clash between Russia and Ukraine, the Russian military has announced plans to send more S-400 surface-to-air missile systems into Crimea. Russian ships rammed a Ukrainian tugboat and fired on two Ukrainian gunboats in the Sea of Azov on Sunday, causing tensions between Russia and Ukraine to reach levels not seen since Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014. Ukraine described the latest incident as evidence of Russian aggression, with the Ukrainian president saying his country faced a threat of "full-scale war" with Russia. The Russian military on Wednesday announced plans to deploy advanced antiaircraft missiles to the Crimean Peninsula amid rising tensions between Moscow and Kiev. A division of S-400 Triumph surface-to-air missiles will be sent to Crimea for "combat duty," the state-backed Tass news agency reported Wednesday, citing information provided by the Southern Military District's press service. "In the near future, the new system will enter combat duty to defend Russia's airspace, replacing the previous air defence system," a representative told the official news agency. Sputnik News, another Russian media outlet owned by the Russian government, indicated that this would be the fourth S-400 air-defence battalion the country deployed to Crimea. The S-400 surface-to-air missile system is one of the world's most advanced air-defence systems, able to target aircraft, missiles, and even ground targets. A column of what appeared to be anti-ship missile systems was spotted on a highway headed toward the Crimean city of Kerch on Tuesday, the Russian state-funded television network RT reported. News of missile deployments to Crimea come just a couple of days after a serious naval clash between Russia and Ukraine on Sunday in the Sea of Azov, which is shared territorial waters under a 2003 treaty signed by the two countries. During Sunday's confrontation, Russian vessels rammed a Ukrainian tugboat and opened fire on two other ships before seizing the boats and taking their crew members into custody. Story continues Russia asserts that the ships, which were travelling to the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol from Odessa by way of the Kerch Strait, failed to request authorization and engaged in dangerous maneuvers. Moscow has yet to provide evidence to support these claims. Ukraine argues that the incident was evidence of Russian aggression and released a video from aboard one of the Russian ships that Ukrainian authorities intercepted. In the video, the Russian sailors can be heard shouting "crush him" as the Russian vessel rams the Ukrainian tugboat. Read more: Shocking video shows the exact moment a suspected Russian ship rams a Ukrainian boat during a tense naval clash Two dozen Ukrainian sailors are being held in detention. Half of that group will be held for at least two months, with the whole facing up to six years in prison, according to news reports. Read more: Ukrainian sailors captured during clashes with Russia made bizarre video confessions broadcast on Russian state TV NATO has condemned Russia's actions. The US mission to the United Nations said Russia had committed "an arrogant act that the international community must condemn and will never accept." "I don't want anyone to think this is fun and games. Ukraine is under threat of full-scale war with Russia," Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Tuesday, adding that the number of Russian units stationed along the border had "grown dramatically." Ukraine has declared martial law in some regions that began taking effect Wednesday. Read more: Parts of Ukraine are now under martial law, giving authorities sweeping powers to ban protest, seize property, and lock up foreigners While Prince Harry has been visiting dignitaries in Zambia in the name of his grandmother, the Queen, Meghan Markle is reported to be resting up at home. And while it was believed that the 37-year-old Duchess of Sussexs mother, Doria Ragland, was keeping her company, sources now claim thats not the case at all. Reports swirled that Meghan was enjoying time with her mum after she pulled out of the trip due to concerns about the zika virus, however, its believed Doria is still in L.A. While reports swirled that Meghan was enjoying time with her mum after she pulled out of Prince Harrys South Africa trip due to concerns about the zika virus, its believed Doria is still in L.A. Photo: Getty Images Contrary to reports that Doria Ragland is in the UK with Duchess Meghan (while Prince Harry visits Zambia), sources confirm that she is actually in Los Angeles. Omid Scobie (@scobie) November 27, 2018 Contrary to reports that Doria Ragland is in the UK with Duchess Meghan (while Prince Harry visits Zambia), sources confirm that she is actually in Los Angeles, royal commentator for The ABC, Omid Scobie, said on Twitter. Prince Harry flew out of the UK on Saturday night to begin his two-day trip and it was claimed Meghan was advised to avoid foreign trips that risked exposing her to the Zika virus. As far as those on the ground in Zambia were concerned both Meghan and Harry were going. But Meghan is exhausted and, understandably, expressed serious concerns about travelling to a country with even the smallest Zika threat, an insider told The Sun. Doria, who was the only member of Meghan Markles family to attend her wedding to Prince Harry on May 19th, uses the Private Suite terminal at Heathrow Airport, meaning its nearly impossible for photographers to know when she touches down in London. Photo: Getty Images In the end it was agreed Harry would go it alone and Meghan could rest-up and spend some quality time with Doria, who is down in the UK visiting. Doria, who was the only member of Meghan Markles family to attend her wedding to Prince Harry on May 19th, uses the Private Suite terminal at Heathrow Airport, meaning its nearly impossible for photographers to know when she touches down in London. However, while its being claimed Doria decided to skip a trip to the UK while Harry was away, its highly likely that the yoga instructor is simply waiting for Christmas to visit the royal newlyweds. Story continues Its believed the Queen has invited Doria to join the royal family for their annual Christmas dinner spread at Sandringham. Last week, Royal expert and editor of Majesty magazine Ingrid Seward, told Grazia that the Queen has a very bizarre tradition at Sandringham, which would leave any guest feeling awkward. The 92-year-old Monarch reportedly makes everyone around the table weigh themselves before and after they dig into their Christmas Day dinner. 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. Nearly 100 Rohingya Muslims were forced back to Myanmar's Rakhine state after being detained at sea en route to Malaysia, police said Wednesday, stirring fears of a fresh refugee boat crisis. Three vessels carrying fleeing Rohingya have now been seized and returned to Rakhine over the past two weeks, as the monsoon season gives way to more favourable, if still treacherous, sailing conditions. All on board the third boat were being returned to camps around the capital Sittwe in the central part of the state, where more than 120,000 people have been confined since intercommunal violence in 2012. A photo in local media showed the group huddled on the deck in the baking sun, a scene reminiscent of the boat crisis in 2015 that saw countless Rohingya abandoned by smugglers in the Andaman Sea after authorities shut down trafficking routes. They were headed for Malaysia when stopped by navy officers on Sunday night off the southern town of Dawei, Police Major Min Lwin told AFP. "They were all sent back to Sittwe on a navy boat last night," he said, adding that the group, two thirds of whom were under the age of 18, would arrive on Thursday or Friday. The plight of Rohingya Muslims languishing in the central part of the state has been overshadowed by last year's mass exodus of more than 720,000 Rohingya from northern Rakhine. Those refugees fled over the border into Bangladesh to escape a brutal military crackdown. UN investigators want Myanmar's top generals to be prosecuted for genocide over the crackdown, but Myanmar says it was defending itself against Rohingya militants. Around 10 boats, carrying a total of several hundred people, have left the camps in central Rakhine since mid-October, said Arakan Project director Chris Lewa, whose group monitors abuses against the Rohingya. "I'm worried about Bangladesh. The border guards say they won't let people leave but if people do then the numbers would be much bigger," she said. Desperation in the refugee camps across the border is also growing. A repatriation deal has stalled, with Rohingya refusing to go home until their safety and rights are secured. The stateless minority are denied citizenship in Myanmar and face severe restrictions on movement as well as a lack of access to work, healthcare and schools in what Amnesty International says amounts to apartheid. One camp leader told AFP under the condition of anonymity that they try to explain to people about the dangers of leaving by boat but many are simply too desperate to listen. "We are losing hope," he said. "Nothing has changed in the last six years." More than 120,000 Rohingya have been confined to camps in central Rakhine like this one at Thet Kel Pyin since intercommunal violence in 2012 Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani on Wednesday announced a 12-person team for prospective peace talks with the Taliban, as his government pledged unwavering commitment to resolve the conflict despite persistent bloodshed. The Afghan government, Western diplomats and United Nations officials have in recent weeks raised hopes of finally reaching a deal to end the Taliban's 17-year insurgency. Such optimism has been tempered by continuing attacks, including a massive blast outside a British security company's compound in Kabul late Wednesday -- claimed by the Taliban -- which killed at least 10 people. The latest violence came just hours after Ghani told an international conference in Geneva that his government had formed a 12-person negotiating team, comprised of both men and women, to talk peace with the Taliban. It will be led Ghani's chief of staff, Abdul Salam Rahimi, a former humanitarian worker and ex-deputy Afghan finance minister who is considered one of the president's closest aides. US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who met with the Taliban in Qatar earlier this month, had been pushing Ghani to announce a negotiating team. The president also laid out what he termed a "roadmap" for the talks and four principles that he said must form the backbone of any agreement. They include respecting Afghanistan's constitution and the total rejection of interference in domestic affairs by foreign "terrorist" and criminal groups. "We seek a peace agreement in which the Afghan Taliban would be included in a democratic and inclusive society," Ghani said. - 'Stars lining up' - Addressing reporters at the end of the conference that saw major donors pledge sustained commitment to the Kabul government, Afghanistan's national security advisor Hamdullah Mohib said Wednesday's bomb blast would not deter from the peace push. "Events like this bolster our resolve for peace," he said. "We have put our step forward," he added. "The ball is now in the court of the Taliban." Kabul has offered to meet face-to-face with the Taliban without preconditions, but the insurgents have not yet committed to direct negotiations. Asked why he was confident negotiations were possible despite the violence and the Taliban's lack of public commitment, Mohib claimed the militants were facing renewed pressure to talk, including from foreign backers. "We see the stars lining up for peace at this point." Civil society activists in Geneva for the conference voiced concern that in pursuing a deal the Kabul government might give ground on women's rights to the Taliban, a group notorious for its oppressive treatment of women. Ghani's government has won praise for trying to redress extreme gender gaps in Afghanistan and the president assured diplomats that he would not compromise on women's rights to strike a deal. - Rare opportunity - In a message read to the conference from UN chief Antonio Guterres, deputy under-secretary general Rosemary A. DiCarlo said: "We may have a rare opportunity to move to direct peace talks between the Afghan Government and the Taliban." "We must not miss it." European Union foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini told the conference the bloc believed "it is time for concrete talks about peace to begin". The EU was prepared to act as the "guarantor" of the negotiations, she added. Ghani said earlier this month it was "not a question of if, but when" an agreement would be reached with the Taliban. Khalilzad has said he is "cautiously optimistic" for an end to the conflict. Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani, at a conference in Geneva, has formed a team for prospective peace talks with the Taliban UN chief Antonio Guterres has said that the latest chance to reach peace in Afghanistan must not be missed Prospective Sydney homebuyers will know all too well how hard finding a cheap property is so its no surprise an apartment selling for less than $200,000 is raising a few eyebrows. Located in the trendy inner city suburb of Surry Hills, the studio is selling for just $185,000 making it the cheapest listed apartment in Central Sydney. But if youre looking for something with housemates, you might want to reconsider. The apartment measures in at just 12 square metres and its fair to say it needs a bit of love. Situated near Taylor Square, real estate agent Bresic Whitney describes the cosy property as an ideal city crash pad with a rough and raw detail that is ready to renovate. The bargain-priced unit is located near Taylor Square on Bourke Street. Image: Bresic Whitney The unit features two north facing windows. Image: Bresic Whitney The unit features a small bathroom and kitchenette. Image: Bresic Whitney North facing with two bright sash windows, the unit features a small bathroom and kitchenette. However, the laundry is shared. Untouched, it awaits a clever transformation to maximise its functionality and footprint, the listing reads. Given the median property price for a one bedroom unit in Surry Hills is currently $730,000, the Bourke Street property is not expected to stay on the market for long. Seems like a bargain, one social media user wrote. Needs some work but a good flipper, another wrote. Britain will be economically worse off in any scenario outside the EU, the government said Wednesday, as the Bank of England warned that a no-deal Brexit would trigger a financial crisis. The government's plans for post-Brexit ties with the European Union would still cost the economy around 3.9 percent of gross domestic product over 15 years, a government report found. Finance minister Philip Hammond said the departure deal agreed Sunday between Britain and the EU was the optimum way to minimise the cost of leaving the bloc. The report comes as Prime Minister Theresa May took the divorce deal to a sceptical Scotland, where the fishing industry is concerned about EU access to British waters. May has less than a fortnight to convince hostile MPs to back the deal in a December 11 vote and avoid plunging Brexit into chaos, four months from Britain's March 29 departure date. The report does not exactly model for the deal struck with Brussels, the outlines of which remain vague. But it found that a reduction in EU immigration would cost the economy more than the current free movement rules. However it leaves the bloc Britain's GDP will taper, even accounting for the new trade deals it will be able to sign, including with the United States. But May told lawmakers in parliament: "This analysis does not show that we will be poorer in the future than we are today... "It shows we will be better off with this deal." Opposition to the deal struck with EU leaders earlier this month has raised concern about the possibility of Britain crashing out of the EU with no agreement. The Bank of England on Wednesday said such a scenario would trigger a financial crisis in which the pound would plunge by 25 percent and house prices would fall by 30 percent. "Our job is not to hope for the best but to prepare for the worst," Bank of England governor Mark Carney told reporters. - Struggle for consensus - Labour main opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn told May should "accept the reality" that parliament would not back the deal. "It's not hard to be the best deal, if it's the only deal," he said. "By definition, it's also the worst deal." Hammond insisted that the economy was not the only consideration and controlling Britain's borders, money and laws also had value. "We have to look not only at the economy but the need to heal a fractured nation," the chancellor said. "There will be a cost to leaving the EU because there will be impediments to our trade. What the prime minister's deal does is absolutely minimise these costs," he told BBC radio. May runs a minority Conservative government and opposition parties, as well as many of her own MPs, are against the deal. Some Brexiteers think it keeps Britain shackled too closely to Brussels, while pro-EU lawmakers think the terms are worse than staying in the bloc and want a second referendum. Jacob Rees-Mogg, a Brexit backer who is waging a Conservative leadership challenge to May, accused the central bank of trying to "create panic". An online Survation poll of 1,030 adults for the Daily Mail newspaper found that 37 percent supported the deal -- up 10 percent on November 15 -- and 35 percent opposed it, down 14 percent. Some 41 percent wanted MPs to vote for the deal and 38 percent wanted them to vote it down, in the survey conducted Tuesday. - Fishing for support - If MPs do reject it, Hammond said the government would "consider very carefully how to proceed" through "uncharted political territory", by studying which MPs voted which way. Having spent Tuesday campaigning in Wales and Northern Ireland, May used her visit to Scotland to emphasise that Britain would leave the EU's Common Fisheries Policy after a transition period scheduled to end in December 2020. "At long last, we will be 'an independent coastal state' again -- taking back full sovereign control over our waters, and free to decide for ourselves who we allow to fish in our waters," May said. Scottish fishermen are furious they will have to continue obeying EU rules during the transition period, including much-despised quotas and allowing European vessels access to British waters. Hammond's Treasury ministry said that over the next 15 years, Britain would take an economic hit from leaving the EU in any circumstances Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May leaves her 10 Downing Street office in London. Britain's Brexit secretary Stephen Barclay leaves Downing Street in London. A man thought to be dead has walked through the door of his family home two months after his funeral. Aigali Supugaliev, 63, was reported missing from his village of Tomarly in Kazakhstan on July 9. Two months later a DNA test on a decomposed corpse discovered close to his home found a 99.92 per cent likelihood that this was Mr Supugaliev the maximum probability such a test can give. Finger nail clippings were reportedly used to identify him. A death certificate was issued and his brother Esengali organised a funeral. The family also held a wake. He was buried in a Muslim ceremony. Aigali Supugaliev of Kazakhstan with his tomb stone. Source: East2West News/ Australscope However, two months later Mr Supugaliev arrived at his family home. The 63-year-old explained that he had been offered a job working on a distant farm and had decided to take the four-month post, not thinking to inform his relatives. When Aigali came home alive and healthy, my daughter Saule, seeing her dead uncle, almost collapsed with a heart attack, Esengali said. The DNA analysis had confirmed this was my brother. Esengali said the family had believed the DNA results and conducted the funeral and memorial rites for the man they thought was his brother. The family are now wondering who they buried. Source: Getty Images (File pic) Who have we buried? Maybe his relatives are looking for this person, he said. Mr Supugalievs sister-in-law Aiman said the family are going to prosecute the experts who gave such a DNA result. The scientist who carried out the test Akmaral Zhubatyrova said its impossible to completely identify a dead person based on the results of a DNA examination. We should not forget about the remaining 0.08 per cent, he said. Australscope Chile on Wednesday enacted a gender identity law that will allow people over 14 to change their name and gender on official identity documents. President Sebastian Pinera said the new law, approved by parliament in September following five years of debate, would end "discrimination" in an already "highly prejudiced society." "All people are equal, in dignity, rights, and therefore should be the architects of their own lives," added the center-right president. While transgender people over 18 will be able to change their gender at a registry office, those between 14 and 18 will need to obtain permission from parents or guardians. "Today we're taking a historic leap that will improve the quality of life for the trans population," said Rolando Jimenez, leader of the Integration and Homosexual Liberation Movement (Movilh). "A basic right, that of identity, is being recognized. It's a right that most of us have from birth but which is taken from the trans population at birth." However, Jimenez believes the law should go further to include children younger than 14, adding that it's an "obvious violation of human rights that we hope will be corrected." The gender identity law gained traction in the country following the international success of a 2017 Chilean film, "A Fantastic Woman," starring the transgender actress Daniela Vega. Chilean deputies for the Frente Amplio party, celebrating in September with a giant fake Chilean Identity card reading "My identity, my right", after voting a gender identity law that allows the change of name and sex in public records from the age of 14: it was signed into law Wednesday by President Sebastian Pinera Ivory Coast became the latest country to ask France to return works of art Wednesday, days after Paris said it was willing to hand back artefacts looted from Africa. The authorities will ask France to return around a hundred works of art, government spokesman and Communications Minister Sidi Toure announced following a cabinet meeting. "Ivory Coast has drawn up a list of about a hundred masterpieces," said Toure. That list will be passed on to the panel of experts appointed by the French government to consider such requests, he added. The move by the authorities in Abidjan came after the French presidency announced last Friday that it would restore to Benin 26 works of art plundered by troops in 1892. That decision was in line with the recommendations of a report last week by French experts that recommended a change in the law and the return of museum artefacts to Africa. Former French colony Senegal on Tuesday called on France to return all works of art taken from its country. Calls have been growing in Africa for the restitution of artworks, but current French law strictly forbids the government from ceding state property, even in well-documented cases of pillaging. The French experts' report, a copy of which has been seen by AFP, calls for new laws that would allow the return of thousands of African artefacts taken during the colonial period to nations that request them. Some of the Ivorian works art, like those to be returned to Benin, are currently kept in the Quai Branly museum in Paris. French President Emmanuel Macron called on other European countries to consider their position on the issue, including Belgium, Britain and Germany. Ivory Coast authorities will ask France to return around a hundred works of art SAN DIEGO, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) today presented the Lifetime Achievement Award to Richard L. Schafer, who for 60 years has devoted his career to the conservation and sustainability of water supply and irrigation water distribution in Californias Central San Joaquin Valley. ACWAs Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes individuals who have made a remarkable and lasting contribution to California water. For much of his career, Schafer has served as an industry leading water resources expert in the San Joaquin Valley and surrounding regions on a variety of water rights related issues. His work has focused on advancing regional and State water projects and influencing California water and agricultural policy. Dicks contributions to California water and the San Joaquin Valley over the past 60 years make him highly worthy of this award, said Brent Hastey, President of the ACWA Board of Directors. His keen interest in water resources issues and his influence on state water policy have not only benefited the lives and livelihoods of San Joaquin Valley residents, but of all Californians. The award was presented during the 2018 ACWA Fall Conference & Exhibition in San Diego, where nearly 2,000 water professionals are gathered through Friday for programs and panel discussions on Californias critical water issues. Schafers leadership in the Valley includes serving as Chairman of the San Joaquin Valley Agricultural Water Committee for the last 38 years and as Chairman of the Mid-Valley Water Authoritys Advisory and Negotiating Committees for the last 36 years. He actively participates on numerous other water boards and coordinates the Tulare Basin Water Quality Coalition and the Tule Subbasin Technical Advisory Committee. Schafer recently helped spearhead the effort to enlarge Success Reservoir in Tulare County, which will double flood protection for the City of Porterville and downstream farms and communities, as well as provide additional water storage for agriculture water rights holders. He previously served on ACWAs State Legislative and Groundwater Committees, and from 1961 to 2017, he attended 111 consecutive ACWA conferences, a feat that may never be matched again. In addition to his business and public service accomplishments, Schafer proudly served his country in the Pacific Theater during World War II. More information about ACWAs awards programs is located at www.acwa.com/about/awards . ACWA is a statewide association of public agencies whose more than 450 members are responsible for about 90% of the water delivered in California. For more information, visit www.acwa.com. Detectives have released video which could help solve the mystery surrounding the death of far-north Queensland woman Toyah Cordingley. Police have launched a renewed appeal to catch the person responsible. The 24-year-olds body was discovered in sand dunes at Wangetti Beach, north of Cairns last month. Toyah Cordingley was walking her dog along the beach when she was murdered. Source: Facebook There are 70 drivers whom police believe may hold key information in the case. On Wednesday, they released CCTV from the Captain Cook Highway on October 21, during a five-minute time window from 5.02pm to 5.07pm the afternoon when the young pharmacy worker was killed. Detectives want to hear from anyone who spots their vehicle in the footage. Detectives want to hear from anyone who spots their vehicle in the CCTV footage, taken from the Captain Cook Highway on October 21 between 5.02 and 5.07pm. Source: 7 News It may only take one more small piece of information in order for us to be able to identify the offender, Detective Inspector Sonia Smith said. Detectives believe it is possible the killer may have been captured in the CCTV footage. Anybody with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or lodge a report online. More than 8000 residents of the Queensland town of Gracemere have been forced to evacuate as a bushfire bears down on homes in unprecedented, catastrophic fire conditions. Roads were gridlocked as the residents fled to Rockhampton on Wednesday afternoon as firefighters worked to protect homes and contain the blaze. The large fire was sparked shortly before 3pm and raced towards Gracemere, just south of Rockhampton, prompting a mandatory evacuation order. Queensland State Disaster Coordinator Deputy Commissioner Bob Gee told people to leave immediately. Residents of Gracemere in central Queensland have been urged to leave as a sudden wildfire bears down on homes in catastrophic fire conditions. Source: Instagram, Twitter The best advice is I wouldnt pack anything, just pick up the kids and head towards the Rockhampton Showgrounds, you will be safe, there will be plenty of people to look after you, he said. If it was me, I would go right now. Straight away. People were told to make for the Rockhampton showgrounds around 14km away, where an evacuation centre has been set up. It is unclear when they can return. More horrific vision coming in from Deepwater in Central Queensland. These fires are catastrophic. Truly scary. #QLDFires @abcbrisbane pic.twitter.com/y0el1Ounqw Allyson Horn (@allysonhorn) November 28, 2018 But by early evening, Queensland Fire and Emergency Services predictive services inspector Andrew Sturgess was saying firefighters were starting to get on top of the fire at Gracemere. Story continues Queenslands fire conditions on Wednesday were catastrophic, the first time they had ever been escalated to that level. There may be some temporary relief on Thursday, with conditions expected to ease overnight, although the heatwave is expected to continue until next Tuesday. We are not out of the woods. There is a big fire risk across the state, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said. Heavy traffic remains at a stand-still as central Queensland residents try to evacuate. Source: Munday Barber / Facebook Despite the extreme danger at Gracemere, some residents have not left and some businesses are still trading in the Central Queensland community. One of them is Gracemere BP petrol station, which remained open as people fleeing the fire called in for petrol and supplies. BP staffer Trulie Lynch said the people she had seen were very stressed. People have the kids and they have the family pets, but we arent going anywhere. Well only go when we are told we have to, Ms Lynch said. She was still there at 8pm. Almost 140 fires are raging across the state, including a massive firestorm bushfire in the Deepwater region which has sparked mass evacuations. French judges have rejected a bid by survivors of Rwanda's genocide to reopen an investigation into claims that French troops were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people they had promised to rescue. A source close to the case said Wednesday that three war crimes judges had on November 22 dismissed the bid to reopen an investigation that symbolises deep wounds between Rwanda and France over the 1994 slaughter. Six survivors, backed by human rights groups and other plaintiffs, had launched a legal case in 2005 accusing French soldiers of abandoning Tutsi civilians in Bisesero, western Rwanda, in June 1994. The probe was shut down in July as no one had been charged during 13 years of investigation. The survivors say French soldiers had promised to rescue terrified Tutsis hiding in the hills of Bisesero at the height of the killing on June 27, 1994. The troops arrived only three days later -- after hundreds of people had been massacred by genocidal allies of the Hutu government which had been backed by Paris for years. Their deaths came nearly three months into the 100-day killing spree that left an estimated 800,000 people dead, most of them members of the Tutsi ethnic minority. In October, the plaintiffs' lawyers filed a request urging investigators to take further action despite the case being closed, including seeking testimony from soldiers and journalists who were nearby on June 27, 1994. But the judges ruled that further enquiry would "not be useful to ascertain the truth, nor reasonable given how long proceedings have been underway". Patrick Baudouin, a lawyer for the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights, said the plaintiffs intended to appeal the latest decision. France's support for the ethnic Hutu forces which carried out most of the slaughter has been a source of deep acrimony in its relations with Rwanda ever since the genocide. France has admitted mistakes but denied Rwandan accusations of complicity in the mass killings. A young man stands next to a sign for a health center in Bisesero, western Rwanda, where survivors say French soldiers had promised to rescue terrified Tutsis hiding in the hills at the height of the killing in June 1994 The Chinese scientist who claims to have created the world's first genetically-edited babies defended the highly controversial procedure Wednesday, but announced a halt to the trial following an international outcry. He Jiankui told a packed Hong Kong biomedical conference he was "proud" to have successfully altered the DNA of twin girls born to an HIV-positive father, an apparent medical breakthrough. But details of the experiment, which has not been independently verified, triggered an immediate backlash, with experts denouncing He's work as an ethical "mess". "The clinical trial was paused due to the current situation," said He. "For this specific case, I feel proud, actually, I feel proudest." The university professor said the twin girls, born a few weeks ago, had their DNA altered to prevent them from contracting HIV. Eight volunteer couples -- HIV-positive fathers and HIV-negative mothers -- signed up to the trial, with one dropping out before it was paused. He said there had been "another potential pregnancy" involving a second couple, but when questioned further agreed it had been a chemical pregnancy -- a term referring to a very early miscarriage. The experiment has prompted heated debate among scientists over the risks involved. Editing human embryos can create unintended mutations in other areas -- so-called "off-target effects" -- which can have an impact through the lifetime, experts warned. "The volunteers were informed of the risk posed by the existence of one potential off-target and they decided to implant," He said Wednesday, as he was bombarded with questions about the trial. He also said he had personally paid for most of the patients' medical expenses, and that his university in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen had been "unaware of the study's conduct." Southern University of Science and Technology distanced itself from He, saying he had been on unpaid leave since February and had "seriously violated academic ethics". - 'Backward step' - Organisers of the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing also said they had not known about He's work. Conference moderator Robin Lovell-Badge said He's trial was a "backward step" for the science industry, but described the babies' birth as "momentous" nonetheless. "This is an example of an approach that was not sufficiently careful and cautious and proportionate," he said. "Clearly however... it is a momentous point in history." Summit chair David Baltimore, a Nobel laureate, said there had been "a failure of self-regulation by the scientific community". Antonio Regalado, senior editor for biomedicine for MIT Technology Review -- the publication which first highlighted the trial on Sunday -- said He's talk was "ethically a half-baked mess". He, who was educated at Stanford University, said the twins' DNA was modified using CRISPR, a technique which allows scientists to remove and replace a strand with pinpoint precision. But the co-inventor of CRISPR condemned He's trial as dangerous and unnecessary. "My concern is that this experiment really shouldn't have happened," Feng Zhang told reporters at the conference. "What he has done was not transparent... does not represent science." - 'Resolutely oppose' - Gene editing is a potential fix for heritable diseases but it is extremely controversial because the changes would be passed down to future generations and could eventually affect the entire gene pool. In many countries the editing of human DNA is tightly controlled. He's experiment would be prohibited under Chinese laws and regulations, according to state media CCTV, citing remarks by 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. But former Chinese health ministry official Qiu Renzong said lax regulations in China mean that scientists who break the rules often face no punishment. China's National Health Commission ordered an "immediate investigation", the official Xinhua news agency reported, while the Shenzhen hospital meant to have approved the research denied its involvement. A union of Chinese scientists issued a statement saying it "resolutely opposes so-called scientific researches and biotech applications that violate the spirit of science and ethics," Xinhua said. There is a history of fraud within China's academic community -- including a scandal last year that led to the withdrawal of 100 "compromised" papers. He has not released the identities of the participants of his trial. "It would be really unfortunate... to have the world looking at the first two genome-edited children because think of the pressure that's going to put them under," said Lovell-Badge. But University of Massachusetts Lowell assistant professor Nicholas Evans tweeted: "(D)on't get me wrong, privacy is vital here. But I am concerned that no one is ever going to get to independently corroborate the story." He Jiankui defended his work in front of a packed Hong Kong biomedical conference He Jiankui defended his work in front of a packed Hong Kong biomedical conference He Jiankui said the twins' DNA was modified using CRISPR, a technique which allows scientists to remove and replace a strand with pinpoint precision Gene editing is controversial because the changes would be passed down to future generations Georgia on Wednesday holds the second round of a knife-edge presidential election seen as a crucial test for the increasingly unpopular ruling party led by a billionaire oligarch. The new head of state will be a largely ceremonial figure, but the vote is seen as a trial run for the contest between businessman Bidzina Ivanishvili's ruling Georgian Dream party and the opposition in more important parliamentary polls set for 2020. Tensions have been high ahead of the vote, with some warning of potential unrest in the pro-Western republic, which has been shaken by civil wars and a 2008 conflict with Russia since gaining its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. In the first round held on October 28, the Georgian Dream-backed candidate, former French ambassador Salome Zurabishvili, failed to take the 50-percent-plus-one-vote needed to win outright. Zurabishvili, 66, took 39 percent of the vote against 38 percent for 60-year-old opposition leader Grigol Vashadze, who is supported by exiled former president Mikheil Saakashvili's United National Movement (UNM) and 10 other groups. Vashadze was narrowly leading in opinion polls ahead of the second round, and was given a major boost with the endorsement of ex-parliament speaker David Bakradze of the European Georgia party. He came third in the first round with nearly 11 percent. A win for Vashadze would drastically change the country's political landscape, signalling a likely end to Georgian Dream's six-year dominance. In a televised statement aired after the first round, Ivanishvili addressed voters, saying he heard their "heartache". "I hear that you are dissatisfied, since your life did not improve," he said, looking pale and almost tearful. In what critics derided as "vote-buying," Ivanishvili promised the government would drastically increase social spending and pledged to spend his own money to write off the bank loans of more than 600,000 individuals. - 'Oligarch rule' - Tensions have risen after the opposition accused the government of voter intimidation and claimed that ruling party activists had attacked members of Vashadze's campaign staff. Zurabishvili -- who kept a low profile after the first round -- said that she and her children received death threats through text and voice messages from people affiliated with the UNM. In a series of coordinated statements, several senior Georgian Dream lawmakers have even raised the spectre of "civil war" if Vashadze is elected. Vashadze, a career diplomat, has criticised Ivanishvili's "informal oligarch rule" amid growing discontent over the government's failure to tackle poverty. Georgia's richest man, Ivanishvili stepped down as premier in 2013 after a year in office but is still seen as the country's de facto ruler. The vote is Georgia's last direct leadership poll as it transitions to a parliamentary form of governance following a controversial constitutional reform. The inauguration of a new president will pave the way for the new constitution to come into force, making the head of state a largely ceremonial figure. The constitutional change was adopted in September 2017, despite opposition party protests. The outgoing president, Giorgi Margvelashvili, refused to run for a second term, saying he was not interested in the reduced role. Both Vashadze and Zurabishvili have promised to lead Georgia closer to membership in the European Union and NATO. More than 3.5 million people are eligible to vote in the election, which will be monitored by international observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Polls open at 0400 GMT and close at 1600 GMT, with results expected to start being released overnight. Georgian Dream-backed candidate Salome Zurabishvili failed win outright in the first round Grigol Vashadze was narrowly leading in opinion polls ahead of the second round Georgia's ruling party candidate Salome Zurabishvili was on the verge of winning a hotly contested presidential vote, nearly complete results showed Thursday, as the opposition called for protests over alleged fraud. Former French diplomat Zurabishvili was on 59.61 percent of the vote after Wednesday's second round, the central election commission said, following completed counts from 98.41 percent of polling stations. Her rival Grigol Vashadze, from an alliance of 11 opposition parties led by exiled ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili's United National Movement (UNM), had 40.39 percent of the vote, the commission said. Western powers are closely watching the vote, seen as a test for the democratic credentials of the Caucasus nation as it seeks EU and NATO membership. Although the new head of state will have a largely ceremonial role, the vote is considered a trial run for the contest between Ivanishvili's party and the opposition in more important parliamentary polls set for 2020. Turnout was 56.23 percent when the presidential polls closed at 8:00 pm (1600 GMT) on Wednesday. Earlier, an exit poll by US firm Edison Research suggested that Zurabishvili, who is backed by billionaire tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream party, had won 55 percent of the vote against 45 percent for Vashadze. After the exit poll results were announced, Saakashvili immediately claimed "mass electoral fraud", in a statement to the pro-opposition Rustavi-2 television channel. "The oligarch has stamped out Georgian democracy and the institutions of elections," he said, referring to Ivanishvili. "I urge Georgians to defend our freedom, democracy and the law. I call on you to start mass peaceful rallies and demand snap parliamentary polls." Tensions increased ahead of the second round as the opposition accused the government of voter intimidation and claimed that ruling party activists had attacked members of Vashadze's campaign staff. Zurabishvili in turn said she and her children had received death threats through text and voice messages from people affiliated with the UNM. Rights groups have also accused government officials of vote-buying on a "widespread" and "unprecedented" scale, an allegation rejected by Georgian Dream party leadership. The Georgian Prosecutor General's office said it launched an investigation into the allegations. - Daughter of refugees - Zurabishvili, a 66-year-old independent lawmaker, is the daughter of refugees who fled Georgia in 1921 for Paris after the country's annexation by the Red Army. Her career in France's foreign service culminated in a posting to Tbilisi, where then-president Saakashvili appointed her foreign minister. But Zurabishvili quickly made enemies among the parliamentary majority, with MPs and some senior diplomats accusing her of arrogance and impulsiveness. When she was sacked after a year in the job, thousands took to the streets of the capital to protest her dismissal. "The outcome of the vote will determine not only who won the election, but also mark either progress or (a) setback for Georgia's young democracy," political analyst Gela Vasadze told AFP. Both candidates have promised to lead Georgia closer to the West, but analysts say they have different approaches to pursuing that goal. "Their records as ex-foreign ministers show that Vashadze is more closely associated with Washington, while ... Zurabishvili is clearly more EU-orientated," Vasadze said. Vashadze's election would also likely irritate Russia, which fought a bitter war with Georgia during the presidency of his ally Saakashvili. "For the Kremlin, a UNM candidate's win is like a red rag to a bull and may lead to increased tensions between the two countries," said analyst Gia Nodia. - 'Oligarch rule' - Vashadze, a 60-year-old career diplomat, has criticised Ivanishvili's "informal oligarch rule" amid growing discontent over the government's failure to tackle poverty. Ivanishvili, Georgia's richest man, stepped down as premier in 2013 after a year in office but is still seen as the country's de facto ruler. The vote is Georgia's last direct leadership poll as it transitions to a parliamentary form of governance. The first round on October 28 saw Zurabishvili take 39 percent of the vote, against 38 for Vashadze. More than 3.5 million people were eligible to vote in the election monitored by international observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Former Georgian foreign minister and France's ambassador to Tbilisi in the early 2000s, French-born Salome Zurabishvili is supported by the ruling Georgia Dream party Georgians vote in the capital Tbilisi in an election seen as a trial run for crucial parliamentary polls in 2020 When hundreds of Yemenis arrived in South Korea seeking asylum after fleeing their war-torn country, opponents decried their Muslim religion and none of their applications were approved. But an Iranian teenager who converted to Christianity has been granted refugee status. Religious belief is widespread in South Korea, where crosses dot the skylines of cities and towns and, according to government figures, more than a quarter of the population describe themselves as Christians. But the country is also ethnically homogenous and unwelcoming towards immigrants, and the decision in the Iranian's favour -- a marked contrast to the norm -- came only after a campaign by his classmates in Seoul. The boy, who can only be identified by his adopted Christian name Antonio out of concerns for his safety, came to the South in 2010 as a seven-year-old with his businessman father. Two years later, he became a Roman Catholic, and his father followed suit in 2015. But their conversions infuriated relatives in Iran, where apostasy by a Muslim can be punishable by death. The pair sought religious asylum in their new abode, but the South grants refugee status to only a tiny fraction of those who apply. The world's 11th-biggest economy accepted just 708 refugees from 2000 to 2017 -- a mere 3.5 percent of total requests, one of the lowest rates in the world and far below the OECD average of 25 percent. Immigration authorities in Seoul rejected Antonio's asylum bid, arguing that he was too young to have religious faith, a decision upheld in May by the Supreme Court. - 'Ray of hope' - With Antonio facing the prospect of deportation to an uncertain fate, his classmates stepped in, launching a petition on the presidential website, describing his faith as sincere and saying he was still going to church. A final chance to re-apply for asylum, they said, was "like a ray of hope from heaven". With a GDP per capita of $30,000, they asked: "Could South Korea not embrace this one single soul?" The petition was eventually signed by more than 30,000 people. Around 50 students accompanied Antonio when he returned to the immigration office and they staged a sit-in for hours as summer temperatures approached 40 degrees Celsius. Many wore surgical masks to conceal their identities with an anti-migrant outcry in full effect in South Korea after some 500 Yemenis arrived on the tourist island of Jeju earlier this year, taking advantage of its visa-free status to seek asylum. Only around four percent of the South's population are foreigners, mostly from China and Southeast Asia, and discrimination against them is widespread. Many opponents of the Yemenis' applications cited their Muslim religion and nearly 70,000 people -- a record -- signed another presidential website petition urging the tightening of what are already some of the world's toughest refugee laws. Social media commentators described the students as "brainwashed" and labelled them "crazy Muslim supporters". "People threw all kinds of slurs and insults at us and our parents online, and some of us were a bit scared," said Antonio's classmate Choi Hyun-joon, who staged a protest in front of the presidential Blue House. - 'Not our problem?' - Critics complained to the school and city authorities, saying the establishment should remain neutral, said teacher Oh Heun-Rok. "The very essence of education is to protect the dignity of humankind, and humanitarianism is a part of that," he told AFP. Immigration authorities granted Antonio refugee status last month, two days after the Yemenis were turned down. Both Antonio and his father declined to speak to AFP about the decision, not wanting to prejudice a forthcoming Supreme Court ruling on the father's own asylum application. Kim Yeon-ju, an activist at the Seoul-based Refugee Rights Centre, told AFP refugees generally get little support from South Korea's civic society, while a handful of Christians "may be a bit more willing to help." "So Christian refugees may have better access to the services provided by these faith-based activists," she said, but it remains "very limited". The unusual, high-profile campaign by Antonio's friends may have played a role in the decision on his application, she added. During the drive, Antonio also met with Seoul's cardinal, Andrew Yeom Soo-jung, who vowed "all possible measures by the church" to help him, and wrote a prayer urging authorities to give his case "special attention and consideration". With Antonio's asylum approved, his classmates hope their efforts could encourage greater social tolerance toward refugees. There was "no political or religious repression" in South Korea, they said in a statement, but asked: "Does that mean that we should just shut ourselves up, saying, 'Refugees are not our problem... Don't soil our home'?" The classmates of an Iranian teenager who converted to Christianity and faced deportation to an uncertain fate in Iran petitioned authorities to let him stay in South Korea Discrimination against foreigners is widespread and earlier this year protests erupted after some 500 Yemenis arrived on the tourist island of Jeju seeking asylum 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. Boulder, CO, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Naropa University received the Advancing the Gap Year Movement award at the Gap Year Associations annual convention. The recognition and award was given for Naropas unique offering of LeapYear + Naropa, one of the only partnershipsand certainly the most uniqueto integrate a gap year experience into a four-yearrather than five-yearundergraduate degree path. Every year, the Gap Year Association awards individuals and organizations that have accomplished outstanding achievements in the gap year community worldwide. Categories for recognition include excellence in research, advancing the gap year movement, expanding accessibility, innovation, and lifetime achievement. Naropa University was recognized with the award at the most recent ceremonies, held in November, 2018, in Orlando, Florida. Naropa received this honor as a result of the recent purchase of the LeapYear program, the unique and comprehensive gap year program that offers a full year of college credit to students ages 17-23 who seek an alternative to traditional education. Specifically, the Boulder based, Buddhist-inspired university was recognized for being the first college to run and operate their own gap year experience. The Gap Year Association noted, Many other colleges have run gap year offerings, but outsourced that programming to other providers. Naropa represents an advancement in how colleges relate to gap years and gap year students. The purchase was an important step in the evolution of education in America, as it makes Naropa the first American institution of higher learning that has integrated the experiential and developmental benefits of a gap year into a four-year undergraduate journey. With the addition of the LeapYear program, Naropa has expanded funding options for all students seeking structured experiential and international learning options in their first year of college. LeapYear, which integrates three months of group travel and service, a three-month internship, and inner-focused US-based retreats, gives students the opportunity to discover a personally relevant context for their own higher education path, early in their college career. Other unique aspects of the program include formal rites of passage for a conscious transition into adulthood and an emphasis on living in community throughout the year. The program may also be attended by non-credit students, or students looking to complete high school in an alternative way. Naropa University has long been committed to offering experiential learning together with mindfulness and compassion training to a diverse student body, said Naropa President Charles G. Lief, when the purchase was announced last June. LeapYear shares our mission and we are delighted that the founders have entrusted their wonderful program to us. We are also excited that LeapYear students will now start their program in Colorado and have access to Naropas exceptional faculty throughout their learning journey. #### About The Gap Year Association: Founded in 2012, the Gap Year Association is a 501(c)3 nonprofit accreditation and standards-setting organization for gap years that is recognized as such by the US Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission. The mission of the association is To maximize the potential of young adults, through accessible and meaningful gap year opportunities. The Association collaboratively pioneers research on its outcomes, as well as serves as an information and advocacy hub for university admissions personnel and educational counselors. About Naropa University: Located in Boulder, Colorado, Naropa University is a private, liberal arts institution offering undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Naropa University is a leader in contemplative education, an approach to learning and teaching that integrates Eastern wisdom traditions and traditional Western scholarship. Naropa University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. Attachments Six Greenpeace activists scaled a massive chimney at Poland's Belchatow coal-fired power plant on Tuesday and will remain there overnight, as one of Europe's largest polluters gears up to host the COP24 climate summit. The protesting climbers "have the appropriate equipment to spend the night in difficult conditions," Greenpeace said in a statement. In total nine activists from around the world scaled the 180-metre (560-foot) tower as part of a Greenpeace campaign aimed at phasing out coal use. "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. "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." Maciej Szczepaniuk, 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 programme 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 global warming is on track to surpass three degrees by 2100 and urge governments to do more than first planned to rein it in. One of the Greenpeace activists who climbed a 180 metre-high chimney at Poland's Belchatow coal-fired power plant At least 10 people were killed after a massive blast outside a British security company's compound in Kabul late Wednesday, officials said, with the attack claimed by the Taliban in the latest violence to target the Afghan capital. The interior ministry and police both said the blast had been a car bomb targeting a compound which houses G4S, a private British security company, in east Kabul. "We can confirm that there has been an incident at one of our locations in Kabul. The situation is ongoing and we are coordinating with the Afghan authorities to bring it to a conclusion," a G4S spokesman told AFP in London. Afghan authorities also said they were conducting a clearing operation at the site. "10 dead, 19 wounded have been evacuated from site," health ministry spokesman Wahid Majroh told AFP, without giving the victims' nationalities. Interior Ministry deputy spokesman Nasrat Rahimi confirmed the toll but warned it could yet change. Earlier, sources had said the blast was followed by gunfire. Rahimi said no gunfire had been heard for some time, however. According to its website, G4S provides security for the UK Foreign Office in Kabul. The attack was claimed by the Taliban in a tweet. It came just hours after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani announced the formation of a team for prospective peace talks with the militant group, as the United Nations renewed calls for direct negotiations between Kabul and the insurgents. The Afghan government, Western diplomats and UN officials have in recent weeks raised hopes of finally reaching a deal to end the 17-year war. At an international conference on Afghanistan in Geneva, Ghani said the 12-person negotiating team includes both men and women and will be led by his chief of staff Abdul Salam Rahimi. Rahimi, a former humanitarian worker and ex-deputy Afghan finance minister, is considered one of Ghani's closest aides. - Wave of violence - Wednesday's assault on G4S is the second high-profile attack claimed by the Taliban on foreigners in as many days. On Tuesday, three US soldiers were killed in a blast near Ghazni city in central Afghanistan that was also claimed by the militant group. The attacks follow a wave of bloody violence across the war-torn country in recent weeks that has killed hundreds of people as militants step up their attacks. Earlier Wednesday, NATO said it was investigating an airstrike in southeastern Afghanistan that might have killed civilians, with unverified reports of women and children among the dead. On November 20, at least 55 people were killed when a bomber blew himself up in the middle of a banquet hall in one of the deadliest attacks in Afghanistan this year. The violence comes as the Taliban intensify pressure on Afghan security forces, even as the international community ramps up efforts towards talks. US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has expressed hopes that a peace deal to end the war could be struck before the Afghan presidential election, scheduled for April. His comments underscore an apparent increasing sense of urgency in the White House and among American diplomats for a peace deal to be done quickly. Militants have stepped up attacks in Afghanistan even as peace talks have progressed A crashed Lion Air jet should have been grounded over a recurrent technical problem before its fatal journey, Indonesian authorities said Wednesday, as details from the new jet's flight data recorder suggested that pilots struggled to control its anti-stalling system. The preliminary crash report from Indonesia's transport safety agency also took aim at the budget carrier's poor safety culture, but did not pinpoint a cause of the October 29 accident, which killed all 189 people on board. A final report is not likely to be filed until next year. The Boeing 737 MAX vanished from radar about 13 minutes after taking off from Jakarta, slamming into the Java Sea moments after pilots had asked to return to the capital. Investigators said Lion Air kept putting the plane back into service despite repeatedly failing to fix a problem with the airspeed indicator, including on its second-last flight from Bali to Jakarta. "The plane was no longer airworthy and it should not have kept flying," Nurcahyo Utomo, aviation head at the National Transport Safety Committee (NTSC), told reporters. Lion Air's contested the preliminary result and said it was going to seek a written clarification from the NTSC. "We think this statement is not true," President Director Edward Sirait said. "The plane from Denpasar (Bali) was released and it was said (to be) airworthy according to documents and what the technicians have done." "The plane was airworthy," he added. The safety committee's findings will heighten concerns there were problems with key systems in one of the world's newest and most advanced commercial passenger planes. "But we don't know yet whether it's a Boeing or airline issue," said aviation analyst Gerry Soejatman. Investigators have previously 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. The report confirmed that initial finding, saying the plane's data recorder detected an issue with the AoA. It also said the plane's "stick shaker" -- which vibrates the aircraft's steering wheel-like control yoke to warn of a system malfunction -- was "activated and continued for most of the fight". 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 doomed plane's flight data recorder showed that pilots had repeatedly tried to correct its nose from pointing down, possibly after erroneous data from AoA sensors was fed into a system that automatically adjusts some of its movements. - Dubious record - Black box data showed the plane also had an airspeed indicator issue on multiple earlier flights, said investigators, who have yet to locate the cockpit voice recorder on the sea floor. Lion must take steps "to improve the safety culture" and bolster the quality of its flight logs, the transport agency said. "Airlines need to take paperwork seriously," Soejatman said. "That didn't cause the crash, but it can cause other problems in the environment they're working in." Despite a dubious safety record and an avalanche of complaints over shoddy service, the budget carrier's parent Lion Air Group has captured half the domestic market in less than 20 years of operation to become Southeast Asia's biggest airline. Indonesia's aviation safety record has improved since its airlines, including national carrier Garuda, were subject to years-long bans from US and European airspace for safety violations, although it has still recorded 40 fatal accidents over the past 15 years. The report stopped short of making any recommendations to Boeing but the US planemaker has come under fire for possible glitches on the 737 MAX -- which entered service just last year. The APA, a US airline pilots' union, said 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. "I am really surprised if Boeing has not shared all the flight performance parameters with pilots, unions, and training organisations," University of Leeds aviation expert Stephen Wright told AFP, adding that "a deliberate omission would have serious legal ramifications". In response to Wednesday's report, Boeing said: "(The company) is taking every measure to fully understand all aspects of this accident, working closely with the US National Transportation Safety Board as technical advisors to support the NTSC as the investigation continues." Several relatives of the crash victims have already filed lawsuits against Boeing, including the family of a young doctor who was to have married his high school sweetheart this month. Authorities have called off the grim task of identifying victims of the crash, with 125 passengers officially recognised after testing on human remains that filled some 200 body bags. The ill-fated Lion Air 737 MAX plunged into the Java Sea less than half an hour after taking off Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Commission chastised Lion Air over its safety culture Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Commission chastised Lion Air over its safety culture The labourers edge their way across a field of bright purple flowers gathering up the world's most expensive spice, a bounty that makes this dusty corner of Iran a crucial part of global cuisine. The delicate purple leaves of the Crocus sativus plant hold just three or four of the even more delicate red stamen, better known as saffron, that sprouts for just 10 days a year. These tiny filaments are currently selling in local markets for 90 million rials per kilo -- about $700 on Iran's volatile exchanges -- and perhaps four times higher abroad. The government says more than 90 percent of the world's saffron grows from the hard soil in Khorasan province of northeastern Iran -- a figure corroborated by France's specialist institute of agriculture and fishing FranceAgriMer -- eventually finding its way into Spanish paellas, Indian curries, Swedish saffron buns and much more. India is a distant second, followed by Greece, Morocco, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan and Spain, according to a FranceAgriMer report in 2013. The star producer in Iran is the small town of of Torbat-e Heydariyeh, about 700 kilometres (435 miles) east of Tehran -- which accounts for a third of global production, according to FranceAgriMer. But poor marketing means Iran has not always won the credit it deserves as the home of saffron, having mostly exported it wholesale to other countries who label it as their own. "All the cultivation is done here, but the marketing and sales is done elsewhere," local parliament member Saeid Bastani told AFP. "The people of the world should know that all saffron -- of any brand in any market in the world -- is Iranian whether it says Spain, Italy or Switzerland," he added with just a sprinkle of patriotic exaggeration. The government is working with local businesses and farmers to fix the problem. From his swish new factory on the outskirts of Mashhad, Ali Shariati, CEO of Novin Saffron, sends out around 15 tonnes of high-grade saffron to world markets each year and is spearheading "Made in Iran" efforts. It's tricky because the major markets each have their own saffron needs that require specific packaging and branding -- Spain wants powder for paella, Britain likes entire threads for Indian cuisine, Sweden likes tiny capsules for seasonal saffron treats. "We have to keep innovating and adapting so we can compete with the marketing in other countries," said Shariati. - Drought migration - Other issues are forcing innovation on the industry -- most pressingly, the devastating drought that has hit Iran's dry regions for the past two decades. Saffron plants require much less water than many other crops, but the drought is still causing a migration northwards. "The land being cultivated is gradually moving north, but that means they're moving into wetter regions and that's no good because the quality is better in dry areas," said Amin Rezaee, a farmer in the heart of saffron country -- around two hours' drive south of Mashhad. Like most farmers, he has been sucking water out of the ground to water his land, but now realises he must invest in more sophisticated irrigation systems if he wants it to survive. "It's a problem that people are irrigating in traditional ways. They must start to invest in modern methods," he said. At his factory, Shariati said the problem is easily solvable with better education and support for villagers, which could boost Iran's production from 400 to 1,000 tonnes per year. The biggest issue for farmers, he recognised, was navigating Iran's nightmarish banking sector, which is notoriously reluctant to lend to small businesses. So under a new "fair trade" scheme his firm now organises loans on farmers' behalf, bulk-buys equipment at cheaper prices, and provides education on farming techniques. "We're educating at least 20,000 farmers and we have guaranteed purchases contracts with 4,000," he said. "We want them to deliver more organic saffron and improve their lives at the same time." - 'Salt, pepper, saffron' - The other obstacle is Iran's struggling economy, which has lately seen wild fluctuations in the currency, in part due to US sanctions. "The price of bulbs, fertiliser and labourers have all trebled this year, but the price of saffron has only doubled," said Mohamad Jafari, whose family has been selling saffron in the small town of Torbat-e Heydariyeh for half a century. That is good for exports, but another blow for Iranians hit by soaring prices. Still, most people in the saffron trade remain upbeat. International sales have been boosted in the past five years by increasing interest from China, and foodstuffs are protected from US sanctions -- making it a priority export for the government. "The biggest problem with saffron is that people don't know about saffron," said Shariati. "We want them to think 'salt, pepper, saffron'." Iran produces more than 90 percent of the world's saffron Poor marketing means Iran has not always won the credit it deserves as the home of saffron Major markets each have their own saffron needs that require specific packaging and branding Iranians buy saffron at a shop in Khorasan province The head of Iran's Novin Saffron factory Ali Shariati shows a box of saffron packed for export Italy's parliament will have the last word on the UN migration pact, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said Wednesday, so its officials will not attend a conference next month to ratify it. Italy "reserves the right to adhere to this document or not only after the parliament has decided," Conte said. Italian officials would therefore not attend December's UN conference in Marrakesh on the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, where delegates there will formally adopt it. "The migration pact is a document that deals with issues and questions our citizens are concerned by," an Italian government statement said. "For this reason, we think it advisable to task parliament with a debate and the final choice once talks have concluded," it added. The statement came as Italian deputies were expected to adopt a draft immigration law Wednesday backed by Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, head of the far-right League. It would tighten immigration policies, in part by replacing a current two-year humanitarian residency permit obtained by around 25 percent of migrants, with permits of shorter duration. Migrants considered dangerous could also be expelled via a new emergency procedure. Conte's statement on the UN pact was the latest sign that some countries who signed up to the agreement in July after 18 months of talks are now having second thoughts. A week ago, Switzerland said it would postpone its decision on the UN pact owing to opposition from parliamentary committees. Austria, Australia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel, Poland, Slovakia, and the United States have also either publicly disavowed the pact or notified the United Nations that they are withdrawing. The non-binding UN accord lays out 23 objectives to facilitate legal migration as the number of people on the move worldwide has grown to 250 million, or just over three percent of the world's population. Among its principles are the protection of human rights, including those specific to children, and recognition of national sovereignty. Its objectives include helping countries deal with migration by sharing best practices to improve information and integration. In October, Italy had registered 146,000 migrants on its territory, who could be regrouped in large centres to reduce costs. Italy's parliament is to have the last word on a UN migration pact that at least nine other countries have already rejected Italy on Wednesday adopted far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini's tough anti-migrant and security decree, despite fierce criticism from the left. The bill, which makes it easier to expel migrants and limits residency permits, was passed in the lower house of parliament with 396 in favour to 99 against. "I'm happy, it's a memorable day," Salvini told journalists, shrugging off criticism from "left-wingers who think illegal immigration is not a problem". The bill's adoption followed Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's statement distancing Italy from the UN migration pact. Parliament would have the last word on it and Rome would not attend a conference to ratify it, he said. The Senate had already given its green light to Salvini's controversial decree, which the populist government of Salvini's League and Luigi Di Maio's anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) first put forward in September. As well as loosening the criteria to expel migrants, the bill allows migrants to be stripped of Italian citizenship if convicted of terrorism. The government opted for confidence votes to get the bill through both chamber of parliament after M5S members tabled a slew of amendments. The decree also ends two-year "humanitarian protection" residency permits -- a lower level of asylum status based on Italian rather than international law -- that were awarded to 25 percent of asylum seekers last year. Instead, residency permits will be awarded under stricter conditions such as a one-year "special protection" status or a six-month "natural disaster in country of origin" status. A new procedure to fast-track the expulsion of "dangerous" asylum seekers will also be implemented. The Italian Refugee Council has said it is "seriously concerned" by the new law. The United Nations refugee agency has said it does "not provide adequate guarantees, especially for the vulnerable or those with particular needs such as victims of abuse or torture". - Second thoughts - Conte's statement on the UN pact was the latest sign that some countries who signed up to the agreement in July after 18 months of talks are now having second thoughts. A week ago, Switzerland said it would postpone its decision on the UN pact owing to opposition from parliamentary committees. Austria, Australia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel, Poland, Slovakia, and the United States have also either publicly disavowed the pact or notified the United Nations that they are withdrawing. The non-binding UN accord lays out 23 objectives to facilitate legal migration as the number of people on the move worldwide has grown to 250 million, or just over three percent of the world's population. Among its principles are the protection of human rights, including those specific to children, and recognition of national sovereignty. Its objectives include helping countries deal with migration by sharing best practices to improve information and integration. In October, Italy had registered 146,000 migrants on its territory, who could be regrouped in large centres to reduce costs. Italy has adopted far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini's (pictured November 26, 2018) bill, which makes it easier to expel migrants and limits residency permits Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, pictured November 25, 2018, gave a statement distancing Italy from the UN migration pact, the latest sign that some countries who signed up to the agreement are having second thoughts 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". 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." Kosovo Serbs take part in a protest in the northern town of Mitrovica on November 27, 2018, following Kosovo's move to slap Serbian imports with a 100 percent tariff An elderly couple have been left thousands of dollars out of pocket and stranded after being kicked off a cruise ship in South Korea. American man William Coates and his wife booked a 14-day Holland America Line cruise through Japan, South Korea and China on the Westerdam cruise ship last month. It was a trip the couple had been planning for a long time, Mr Coates told consumer rights group Elliott Advocacy. They boarded the cruise at Yokohama in Japan but were told they would be removed from the ship at Busan in South Korea due to a simple oversight made when booking their trip. The Coates had not obtained the necessary visas required to enter China when making their booking but claim they had not been made aware of the requirement at the time. American man William Coates and his wife had booked a 14-day Holland America Line cruise through Japan, South Korea and China on the Westerdam cruise ship, pictured. Source: File/Getty The couple were literally left on the dock and made to pay an additional $3320 for an airfare home, according to Elliott Advocacy. Holland America said its staff had tried to arrange emergency visas for the pair at Busan, even suggesting the couple could stay on board during all Chinese ports included in the tour itinerary. But Chinese authorities rejected both options. Getting thrown off the ship was a most embarrassing and difficult experience, Mr Coates told Elliott Advocacy. Holland America should have alerted us to our missing travel visa and the stringent requirements. No-one did. We think that something this serious would be part of the travel professionals responsibility. The couple were left stranded on the dock in the South Korean port city of Busan, pictured. Source: File/Getty But Holland America stated it had a clause in the itinerary documentation that it was the guests sole responsibility to obtain and have available when necessary the appropriate valid travel documents. All guests are advised to check with their travel agent or the appropriate government authority to determine the necessary documents, the cruise ship company said. The company also stated it had sent two text alerts about the visas but the couple said they had been travelling for several months without computer access. Story continues An application for a full-tour refund has been rejected, leaving the travellers about $12,000 out of pocket. Instead, they offered a refund on the unused return airfare. To enter mainland China, Australians need a current passport as well as a valid visa. Source: File/Getty Coates plight is an unfortunate study of what happens if you dont carefully review your cruise itinerary before embarkation, lawyer Michelle Couch-Friedman writes on Elliott Advocacys website. Its always the travellers responsibility to know and possess all required documentation. If you dont, you may find yourself in an unfamiliar, far-off land with the comfort of your cabin sailing away without you. To enter mainland China, Australians need a current passport as well as a valid visa. More information is available on the Embassy of the Peoples Republic of China in Australia website. LAS VEGAS, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tenable, Inc. , the Cyber Exposure company, today announced that it has integrated with AWS Security Hub, a new offering from Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS). Todays news follows the earlier announcement that Tenable.io is also available for purchase on AWS Marketplace, allowing customers to seamlessly discover and assess cloud infrastructure assets for vulnerabilities to more effectively manage and reduce cyber risk across public cloud environments. AWS Security Hub is designed to provide users with a comprehensive view of their high-priority security alerts and compliance status by aggregating, organizing, and prioritizing alerts, or findings, from multiple AWS services, such as Amazon GuardDuty, Amazon Inspector, and Amazon Macie as well as security solutions from other AWS Partner Network (APN) members. The findings are then visually summarized on integrated dashboards with actionable graphs and tables. Todays announcement builds on Tenables existing integrations with AWS. The AWS Connector for Tenable.io is designed to automatically and continuously discover and track asset changes in AWS cloud environments to ensure all instances are known and assessed for exposure with every change. With the life of cloud workloads commonly measured in hours, the AWS Connector solves a key challenge of achieving accurate visibility into cyber risk by creating a consolidated view of all cloud-based assets within Tenable.io. This empowers security teams to manage Cyber Exposure across the entire modern attack surface with a complete picture. As a cloud-first company, were taking a 360-degree approach to cloud environments. We secure cloud infrastructure, we built Tenable.io on the cloud, for the cloud, and we are committed to helping our customers easily purchase and deploy Tenable.io to discover and assess their cloud environments, said Ray Komar, vice president of Technical Alliances, Tenable. In todays digital economy, critical workloads are moving to the cloud at a record pace, and our customers demand holistic visibility into their cyber risk. Were committed to helping our customers move to and adopt the cloud with ease. Tenable.io is a core component of the Tenable Cyber Exposure platform, which uniquely provides the breadth of visibility into cyber risk across IT, cloud, IoT and OT environments and the depth of analytics to measure and communicate cyber risk in business terms to make better strategic decisions. Tenable.io has won a number of industry awards in 2018, including Best Vulnerability Management Solution at the 2018 SC Awards Europe, Best Security Software and Most Innovative Security Product from the Info Security Product Guide's 2018 Global Excellence Awards. Tenable.ios availability on AWS Marketplace helps customers quickly adopt Tenable.io through a consolidated purchasing platform and integration with their existing AWS accounts and contracts. Customers can simply pre-pay for Tenable.io based on expected usage and with flexible 12-, 24- or 36-month contracts. These purchases then appear on their regular AWS bill as part of their normal billing cycle. For more information: See Tenable.io in action at AWS re:Invent 2018 in Las Vegas at booth 1710 Meet with Tenable experts at their kiosk in the AWS Marketplace & Service Catalog (MPSC) Experience Purchase Tenable.io on the AWS Marketplace About Tenable Tenable, Inc. is the Cyber Exposure company. Over 24,000 organizations around the globe rely on Tenable to understand and reduce cyber risk. As the creator of Nessus, Tenable extended its expertise in vulnerabilities to deliver the worlds first platform to see and secure any digital asset on any computing platform. Tenable customers include more than 50 percent of the Fortune 500, more than 25 percent of the Global 2000 and large government agencies. Learn more at www.tenable.com. Two former presidents of Madagascar, Andry Rajoelina and Marc Ravalomanana, will face each other in a run-off election next month to decide who will lead the Indian Ocean island nation, the country's top court announced on Wednesday. The run-off comes after neither candidate won the 50 percent of votes required for a first-round victory on November 7, with Rajoelina on 39.23 percent and Ravalomanana 35.35 percent, according to final results released by the Constitutional Court. "The two candidates cleared to go to the second round are Andry Rajoelina and Marc Ravalomanana," Constitutional Court judge president Jean Eric Rakotoarisoa said. The run-off vote is due on December 19. It is the first time the bitter rivals will have faced each other at the ballot box. Both Ravalomanana, 68, and Rajoelina, 44, were banned from running in the last election in 2013 under international pressure to avoid a repeat of deadly political violence that engulfed the island in 2009. Ravalomanana ruled from 2002 to 2009 until he was ousted in a military-backed coup that installed Rajoelina, who was in power until 2014. Rajoelina's succcessor and the country's immediate past president Hery Rajaonarimampianina was eliminated from the race after he came a distant third with just 8.82 percent of the ballots cast in November. The court shot down his application to annul the results. Judge Rakotoarisoa cautioned the two hopefuls to "avoid provocations" as they head to the final stretch of the election in a country which has history of political turmoil. "The people of Madagascar do not need trouble," he said, warning that there should be no vote rigging. Rajoelina, who sat in court on Wednesday, had lodged complaints with the court alleging that election officials tampered with software to "inflate" the number of registered voters in the first round in what he labelled "vote manipulation". He had also accused Ravalomanana of vote buying. The electoral commission rejected the allegations and the court threw out his petition. Last week Ravalomanana withdrew his legal complaints over alleged irregularities in the first round, with his lawyer saying the decision was reached for the sake of "peace and sovereignty of Madagascar". Madagascar is well known for its vanilla and precious redwood, yet is one of the world's poorest countries, according to World Bank data, with almost four in five people living in grinding poverty. In the largely peaceful campaign to the first round of election, the frontrunners spent huge sums on flashy campaign rallies and helicopters, with 36 candidates in all. Shortly after the court session on Wednesday, Rajeolina vowed to appeal to undecided voters. "I open my arms, let's work together to save Madagascar. "I will do my best to convince the undecided," he told reporters. The former French colony off the southeastern coast of Africa also has a long history of political instability and coups. Combination file picture of former Madagascar presidents Marc Ravalomanana (left) and Andry Rajoelina (right) who face each other in a run-off vote December 19 Two former presidents of Madagascar, Andry Rajoelina and Marc Ravalomanana, will face each other in a run-off election next month to decide who will lead the Indian Ocean island nation, the country's top court announced on Wednesday. The run-off comes after neither candidate won the 50 percent of votes required for a first-round victory on November 7, with Rajoelina on 39.23 percent and Ravalomanana 35.35 percent, according to final results released by the Constitutional Court. The run-off vote is due on December 19. It is the first time the bitter rivals have faced each other at the ballot box. Both Ravalomanana, 68, and Rajoelina, 44, were banned from running in the last election in 2013 under international pressure to avoid a repeat of deadly political violence that engulfed the island in 2009. Ravalomanana ruled from 2002 to 2009 until he was ousted in a military-backed coup that installed Rajoelina, who was in power until 2014. Rajoelina's succcessor and the country's immediate past president Hery Rajaonarimampianina was eliminated from the race after he came a distant third with just 8.82 percent of the ballots cast in November. Combination file picture of former Madagascar presidents Marc Ravalomanana (left) and Andry Rajoelina (right) who face each other in a run-off vote December 19 The sleepy Mauritanian village of Ouad Initi is about to get a makeover: a bigger school, a health centre, and more running water. All part of internationally-backed efforts to win over hearts and minds and stop the spread of jihadism. A lean, wrinkled man in sky-blue robes, the village chief, with several curious children at his heels, emerges to greet a posse of visitors -- European Union workers out on a reconnaissance mission. Remote villages like Ouad Initi, near the border with Mali, have long been neglected by authorities, making them easier prey for jihadists and other armed groups that have proliferated in Africa's Sahel region. Now they are at the heart of a push to win over grassroots support in Mauritania with authorities ramping up both security operations and infrastructure development to stop the spread of extremism. "What is boosting confidence and stopping Al-Qaeda recruiting is continuity in governance," a senior Mauritanian official told AFP. The European Union has earmarked 13 million euros ($14.7 million) of aid to boost Mauritania's development and security at the same time. "This type of joint civilian-military action is pioneering for the EU," said Francois-Xavier Pons, the project's head of mission. "We know very well that development allows for progress on the security front, encouraging people's loyalty to the state." The vulnerability of remote villages is also a major concern for the five nations of Africa's fledgeling G5 Sahel anti-jihadist force, which groups Mauritania with four others along the Sahara's southern rim: Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad. The five, which have been battling jihadists from Boko Haram and the Islamic State group, will seek funding for 40 projects in border areas at a conference in Mauritania's capital Nouakchott on December 6. - Preventing a rural exodus - Villagers in Ouad Initi, where cows and camels graze among rudimentary houses dotting a rocky landscape, have already provided valuable intelligence in the fight against extremism. In 2010 they warned officials that suspected militants had been passing through the area on their way to Nema, capital of the southeastern region. This led authorities to a plot to attack a barracks in Nema, which on Wednesday was to host celebrations for Mauritania's national day. Infrastructure workers on the ground say strengthening the farming economy is key to preventing a rural exodus which would make such territory an easier target for jihadists. "There is a clear link between the difficulties affecting farming and the development of illegal activities such as jihadism locally," said Abder Benderdouche, who works on agricultural projects. Agriculture is the regional economy's lifeblood, he stressed, and encouraging it will help make remote areas more secure. "Areas in the Sahara and Sahel hold the region's meat reserves. That's worth its weight in gold," Benderdouche said. - Camel-back missions - Heavily-hit by jihadist attacks and the kidnapping of foreigners during the 2000s, Mauritania has been waging major efforts to improve security in recent years. It has sought to strengthen its army while boosting aid to remote areas where the state's grip had grown shaky, especially on the border with Mali. Last week, President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz said efforts to engage with "young people who were lost" had stopped "waves of Mauritanians" leaving to join jihadist groups. The military's Nomad Group (GN), which includes camel-back units, is a prime example of the two-pronged approach fusing security operations with infrastructure development. The GN has been growing in clout with support from the EU, which is set to buy 250 more camels for the force. "Where the state doesn't have any infrastructure in remote and isolated areas, we're coming to help in terms of sanitation and education," said GN commander, Colonel Abderrahamane El Khalil. "My men can help to dig a well, but they're also there to collect information, thanks to their proximity to the population." On camel-back, GN members can travel up to 70 kilometres (43 miles) a day, roaming villages for up to four weeks at a time. The construction of a G5 outpost 25 kilometres from the Malian border, meanwhile, will also be accompanied by measures to boost the economy and win locals' trust. In Nbeikit Lehouache, two hours into the desert from Nema by road and dirt track, cash from the project will allow for a mobile hospital that will treat locals as well as G5 troops. "Here, a box of paracetamol is welcomed with joy. Imagine a hospital capable of performing operations," said Pons. Villages like Ouad Initi are at the centre of a push to win hearts and minds in remote Mauritania Farming and animal husbandry are crucial to the local economy on Mauritania's border with Mali Mauritania is waging a two-pronged approach to boost security while building trust among local communities Mexico will bestow its highest honor for foreign nationals on US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner for his role in saving the country's free-trade agreement with the United States and Canada. Kushner, an influential White House adviser, will receive the Order of the Aztec Eagle for shepherding the negotiations to reach a new version of the deal, despite Trump's blistering criticism of the original North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). "Mr Kushner played a fundamental role throughout the process," the Mexican foreign ministry said in a statement. "His involvement was crucial in beginning the renegotiation of NAFTA, avoiding a unilateral exit by the United States, and his constant and efficient involvement was key in reaching a successful conclusion." Trump had threatened to axe the 24-year-old NAFTA, calling it the "worst trade deal ever" and a "rip-off" for American workers. But he ultimately agreed to an updated version, dubbed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Mexican media reported that President Enrique Pena Nieto would bestow the honor on Kushner, 37, during the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina this week, where the leaders of all three countries are expected to sign the new deal. Mexico sends more than 80 percent of its exports to the United States under NAFTA. The foreign ministry called the new deal "a source of stability for the national economy and certainty for millions of Mexican workers." Past recipients of the Order of the Aztec Eagle include U2 frontman Bono, Hollywood director James Cameron and Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Kushner, who is married to Trump's daughter Ivanka, has used back-room diplomacy and a close relationship with Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray to smooth relations between the two neighbors in the face of Trump's sometimes virulent anti-Mexican rhetoric and vows to build a wall on the border. But the relationship may also have landed Kushner in trouble. He lost his top-level security clearance in February, reportedly after multiple foreign governments -- including Mexico's -- sought to take advantage of his business and political vulnerabilities. White House senior advisor Jared Kushner is set to receive Mexico's highest honor for his role in shepherding negotiations to reach a new version of the North American free trade deal North Korea is urging UN Security Council members to block a US bid to hold a meeting on Pyongyang's human rights record, saying it would run counter to recent peace moves. North Korean Ambassador Kim Song expressed "deep surprise and regret" that the council would "swim against the current trend" by holding the meeting tentatively requested for December 10, according to a letter sent to the council and seen by AFP on Tuesday. If it goes ahead, it would be the fifth time that the council has held the annual meeting to discuss human rights violations in North Korea as a threat to international peace and security. The United States has, every year since 2014, garnered the nine votes needed at the council to hold the meeting, despite opposition from China. Every year, China has requested a procedural vote in an attempt to block the meeting, arguing that human rights should be discussed at the Geneva-based Human Rights Council and not at the Security Council. The North Korean ambassador wrote that the meeting would "stoke confrontation, instead of encouraging and promoting the ongoing positive developments." He accused the United States of "conspiring to invite" UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet to address the council to report on rights abuses in North Korea. A historic summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un opened up dialogue on denuclearization of the Korean peninsula between the two countries after months of military threats. A second summit is expected to be held next year, but North Korea has taken few concrete steps to abandon its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The Security Council has slapped a series of tough economic sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear tests and missile firings. The United States maintains that the UN sanctions will remain in place until North Korea has fully scrapped its weapons programs. A landmark 2014 report by a UN Commission of Inquiry documented human rights abuses on an appalling scale in North Korea, describing a vast network of prison camps where detainees are subjected to torture, starvation and summary executions. The report accused leader Kim of atrocities and concluded that he could be prosecuted for crimes against humanity. North Korea has rejected the report as a fabrication based on testimony from dissidents who have betrayed their country. The discussion over rights abuses in North Korea come as China and Russia are pushing the council to ease sanctions on Pyongyang to encourage progress in talks on denuclearization. The United States has, every year since 2014, garnered the nine votes needed at the United Nations Security Council to hold a meeting on Pyongyang's human rights record Residents of the small Queensland fishing community of Rules Beach who are refusing to evacuate have been told by frustrated police they could burn to death when a massive bushfire reaches the area. More than 1000 people had already left their homes near the Deepwater fire, south of Agnes Water on the states central coast, as of Wednesday morning. But many others are ignoring pleas to flee to safety and some residents are in the direct path of the inferno, even after police banged on their doors on Tuesday night. Around 50 properties in the area have residents who are refusing to leave, which is frustrating authorities. A blaze burns west of Mackay in North Queensland on Tuesday night. Source: 7 News Deputy Police Commissioner Bob Gee said officers were doing a final sweep of the area, but after that residents would be on their own. If you have children with you, you need to think really hard about not losing a house, but losing the people you care most about, Mr Gee said. People will burn to death. Their normal approaches probably wont work if this situation develops the way it is predicted to develop. It is no different to a Category 5 cyclone coming through your door. The beach may not be a safe option. Leave now. Residents of Rules Beach, you must evacuate now. The window for you to leave is closing fast. If the fire reaches the containment lines, even if you are on the beach, the wind conditions are so dangerous we will not be able to send people to rescue you. https://t.co/TZtSgGgytT Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) November 27, 2018 We are expecting a firestorm There are concerns Hills Road Bridge, which is the only land bridge connecting the area, will be destroyed in the fire, cutting off any chance of escape for locals who remain. Fire and Emergency Services Minister Craig Crawford said the conditions in the area reminded him of the Ash Wednesday fires in Victoria which he experienced first-hand as a firefighter. Story continues Im sure that some people have probably got very good and elaborate systems of pumps and dams and systems and they believe that Ill be OK and I know what Im doing and Ive done this before, Mr Crawford said. Today is not one of those days. Today is different. We are expecting a firestorm. The firestorm would likely create dead man zones which would be impossible to survive, even in a car. Fires continue to burn around Wide Bay and Central Queensland. Source: Queensland Ambulance Service More than 80 fires are burning across the state, but the Deepwater fire and another at Dalrymple, west of Mackay, are of the most concern. QFES Commissioner Katarina Carroll said it was incredibly frustrating to have to continually urge residents to leave a clearly dangerous situation. We predicted that the circumstances and conditions today were going to be horrific, Ms Carroll said. Ive got to say, Im getting a little bit frustrated about delivering the message constantly to leave now. So I implore once more, that you leave now. Interstate crews arrived on Tuesday to help fight the inferno in central Queensland thats destroyed homes and burnt through at least 20,000 hectares of bush and farmland since Saturday. Eight aircraft, including a massive water-bombing plane, which can dump 15,000 litres at a time, are also fighting the fire. Crews from South Australia were expected to arrive on Wednesday, with more from around Australia to arrive later this week. Heatstroke can kill Queensland Health has warned residents to prepare for the extreme conditions currently facing the state as areas reached as high as 40 degrees before midday Wednesday. Proserpine in the Whitsundays hit a sweltering 41C before 11am while in the Central Highlands, Rolleston Airport nearly hit 50. Queenslands acting chief health officer Dr Sonya Bennett said a much larger proportion of the sunshine state is facing extreme heat where records are being broken. Heat can be very severe and a severe health risk for everybody in general when we see these temperatures but particularly the young, the elderly and those with chronic conditions, she said. Smoke billowing from fires in Central Queensland. Source: Queensland Ambulance Service Dr Bennett advised people to drink cool water and find shade. Queensland Ambulance Service clinical director Tony Hucker added heatstroke can kill. We need to think about it and give it its due attention throughout the day, Mr Hucker said. Mr Hucker said QAS responded to about 20-30 heat-related cases on Monday, but its hard to tell as many patients visited have chronic illnesses and become unwell in severe heat. A dust storm at Charlevilles Central Warrego Race Club in Queenslands southwest. Source: QAS QAS shared photos of a dust storm occurring at Charlevilles Central Warrego Race Club in Queenslands southwest. Dr Bennett said anyone with respiratory problems should follow similar procedures to dealing with severe heat: seek shelter and stay indoors where possible. For those who are asthmatics, make sure youre following your management plan taking your preventer and taking any relief as required, she added. With AAP The 86-year-old American actress Rita Moreno, who won an Oscar in the original film version of "West Side Story," is being cast in Steven Spielberg's hotly anticipated remake. Her publicist announced that Moreno, who played Anita the first time around, will this time play the role of Valentina -- a reconceived version of a corner store owner. She will also get an executive producing credit. Back in May, the Puerto Rican-born actress confessed that she was anxiously awaiting the Spielberg remake, which has advertised for Latino actors in all the main roles -- not the case for the 1961 original. "I am very curious to see what he does with it. I am nervous about it. Listen, we did very cliched things in 'West Side Story' but I am sure he's going to avoid that because times have changed," she told AFP. "From our earliest discussions, we wanted to include Rita Moreno in our production," said Spielberg in a statement sent by Moreno's publicist. "Her Anita is one of the greatest musical performances ever filmed, and a personal favorite of mine," he added. "We feel beyond fortunate that Rita will bring her extraordinary gifts as an actress, as well as her deep understanding of 'West Side Story' to this production as an executive producer." The original film of Leonard Bernstein's musical -- Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" reimagined in the world of warring New York gangs -- won 10 Oscars and captivated a generation on the cusp of huge societal change. In the original movie, the Puerto Rican character Maria was played by the late Natalie Wood, and Bernardo by George Chakiris, the son of Greek immigrants. "Never in my wildest dreams did I see myself revisiting this seminal work," said Moreno in Tuesday's statement. "To be asked by Steven Spielberg to participate is simply thrilling!" "West Side Story" pits warring gangs, the Sharks and the Jets, against each other in Manhattan's Lincoln Square on the Upper West Side. Today, the neighborhood is most famous as the site of the Lincoln Center, America's premier performing arts venue where the Metropolitan Opera House opened in 1966 and where apartments today can fetch millions of dollars. Rita Moreno Moreno, who played Anita in the original film version of "West Side Story," will this time play the role of Valentina -- a reconceived version of a corner store owner FOREST HILL, Md., Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Event software company, CadmiumCD, celebrates an award-winning 2018. This year CadmiumCD received many accolades for its innovative development of the Conference Harvester Logistics Module, which automates resource allocation and room scheduling for organizers of medium-to-large sized conferences. Convene Best In Show Michelle Russell, Editor In Chief for PCMA Convene, said, Convene presents its annual Best in Show list, this year highlighting top venues and innovations and celebrating excellence in the industry. Since 2015 CadmiumCD has consistently earned a place on PCMA Convenes Best in Show list for various new developments and innovations. This year Conference Harvester Logistics, alongside eventScribe Boost , won Most Innovative Event Technology. See the full list here . IAEE Art of the Show The Art of the Show Competition gives us the opportunity to witness the innovation and growth of the industry because many shows across various industry sectors are represented, noted IAEE President and CEO David DuBois, CMP, CAE, FASAE, CTA. The entries we received reflect a healthy industry that is successfully navigating the latest technologies available and really connecting with its target audiences. CadmiumCDs work on Conference Harvester Logistics involved much collaboration between independent research agencies, association meeting planners, and CadmiumCD staff. This due diligence and the resulting product, which filled a very real need for medium-to-large sized conferences, landed CadmiumCD as winner of Most Innovative Use of Technology for its work with American Library Association to test and implement the Logistics Module. Explore the winners gallery here . IBTM Tech Watch Although there have been other session/logistic scheduling products available for some time, CadmiumCD differentiates in offering a broad range of other event management tools, commented Corbin Ball, Chair of the IBTM Technology Watch Judging Committee. The trend is toward more comprehensive logistics management tools becoming available for events. CadmiumCD was included on the 2018 shortlist for the IBTM Tech Watch Award, which announces one final winner each year after a pitch competition and peoples choice voting ceremony during IBTM World in Barcelona, Spain. View the complete list of finalists here . Event Technology Awards The awards are now in their sixth year and will once again recognise the achievements of companies delivering digital and technological solutions to the events industry, said Adam Parry, founder of the Event Technology Awards. Kizzy Allott, Business Manager at Event Industry News, said, Making the shortlist is an achievement in itself. This year, CadmiumCD is a finalist at the Event Technology Awards for the fourth consecutive year , and received accolades in the following categories: Best New Technology Product Best Event Management Platform Best Conference Technology CadmiumCD received recognition in these categories for its contributions to the industry with the Conference Harvester Logistics Module . The complete shortlist is available here . Want to find out more about the buzz? Conference Harvester Logistics is an award-winning product because of the hard work and consideration CadmiumCD took to build a solution for a real industry need. Over a year of research, development, and testing has led to a product that automates tedious tasks and helps meeting planners bring their events together. Learn more about this revolutionary new product here. About CadmiumCD CadmiumCD is an event software company with more than 15 years of experience providing on-demand content management solutions that streamline the workflow for Meeting Planners, Exhibition Organizers, Education Directors, and Attendees. More than 3,500 meeting professionals worldwide trust CadmiumCDs award-winning software. Its software platform makes it easy to collect, manage and share content to all event stakeholders through its modules: Call for Abstracts, Speaker & Exhibitor Data Management, Digital Content Publication, Audio Recordings, Digital Poster Galleries, Online Itinerary Planners, Interactive Floor Plans, Native Event Apps, and Post-Conference Evaluations. For more information about CadmiumCD, visit www.CadmiumCD.com . Michael Doane Email: michael@cadmiumcd.com Russia on Wednesday accused the United States and some European countries of indulging "provocative" action by Ukraine, as tensions mount over Russia's seizure of Ukrainian ships. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, in Geneva for a United Nations conference, was asked about Western sanctions targeting Moscow following Sunday's confrontation in the Kerch Straight. "I think it reflects Washington's tendency to indulge any and all action taken by the Kiev regime, even inciting them to provocative actions," Lavrov told reporters "This is really regrettable," he added, following talks with his Swiss counterpart Ignazio Cassis. "There are plenty of facts which show that Washington and some European capitals are willing to tolerate the whims of the Kiev regime," Lavrov further said. Russian border patrol boats fired on, boarded and seized the three Ukrainian vessels, along with 24 sailors, on Sunday off the coast of Crimea. The Ukrainian vessels -- a tug and two gunboats -- were trying to pass through the Kerch Strait from the Black Sea to the Azov Sea, but were refused access and chased into international waters by 10 Russian vessels. Western governments have rallied behind Kiev in the dispute, accusing Russia of illegally blocking access to the Azov Sea and of taking military action without justification. US President Donald Trump has said he may cancel a long-awaited summit with Putin at the G20 this week as a result of the confrontation. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he thinks the Western sanctions against Moscow reflect Washington's "tendency to indulge any and all actions taken by the Kieve regime, even inciting them to provocative actions" Spain said Wednesday it was in talks with Italy and Malta to try to find a port which would allow a Spanish fishing vessel with 12 migrants on board to dock. Since last Thursday the 13 crew members of the "Nuestra Madre Loreto" have hosted 12 migrants from Niger, Somalia, Sudan, Senegal and Egypt whom they rescued from a rubber dinghy off the coast of Libya. Madrid initially asked Libya to take charge of the migrants since it was the nearest country to the boat, as called for by international law, before turning to its EU partners, the Spanish government said in a statement. "The Spanish government is lobbying the governments of Italy and Malta, whose coasts are closest to the boat, to try to find a quick, alternative and satisfactory solution" to receive them, Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo added in the statement. Due to worsening sea conditions, the fishing vessel on Tuesday moved away from the coast of Libya and headed towards the Italian island of Lampedusa, the statement added. The boat's captain, Pascual Dura, told AFP on Tuesday that Italy and Malta had both refused to allow the vessel to dock and unload the migrants while Spain's maritime rescue service only offered to return the migrants to Libya. Dura said the migrants "get very nervous and hysterical" when they "hear the word Libya". "If we go to Libya, we run the risk of a mutiny," he added. Abuse of migrants is widespread in Libya, following the chaos which has reigned since the 2011 ousting of dictator Moamer Kadhafi. Many migrants, intercepted or rescued at sea, find themselves held in detention centres in the country in dire conditions. Shortly after Spain's Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez came to power in June, Spain welcomed the Aquarius charity-run rescue ship and its 630 migrants after Italy and Malta refused to harbour the vessel. Spain also welcomed the Open Arms ship three times but in September Madrid declined to receive the Aquarius again. Instead it negotiated the distribution of the migrants aboard the ship among several other European Union nations. The 13 crew members of a Spanish fishing boat have hosted 12 migrants from Niger, Somalia, Sudan, Senegal and Egypt whom they rescued from a rubber dinghy off the coast of Libya Still stinging from the tear gas that beat back their attempt to breach the US-Mexican border, members of the Central American migrant caravan are starting to lose hope, and in some cases are turning back. The migrants have played all their cards in recent days, after more than a month's trek across Central America and Mexico -- but with little success. Their surprise bid to rush the border en masse on Sunday ended as abruptly as it began, when US Border Patrol agents fired tear gas and rubber bullets to force them back. And attempts to sneak across the border alone or in small groups appear to be largely failing. That leaves the roughly 5,000 migrants in the caravan with a handful of options, equally unappealing to most: wait the months or years it could take to request asylum in the United States; settle in Mexico; or give up and go home. Their desperation is palpable at the improvised shelter where they are staying in Tijuana, across the border from San Diego. Living in crowded conditions, with limited toilets, disease outbreaks and two rations of food a day, many are still shell-shocked from the failed attempt by about 500 migrants to get over the chain-link border fence topped with barbed wire on Sunday. "We thought they were going to kill us. It's going to be hard to get to the other side," said Brayan Casas, a 28-year-old from Honduras, showing the bruises he got when he, his wife and his son joined Sunday's stampede. - Long wait - "They learned their lesson," an employee of Mexico's National Migration Institute told AFP at the shelter, speaking on condition of anonymity. "They've seen they won't be able to cross easily. They're a lot less rebellious today." The migrants are mostly fleeing poverty and violence in Central America's "Northern Triangle" -- El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. US President Donald Trump has however warned of an "invasion" by a group full of "hardened criminals." Some migrants have tried to sneak into the United States alone, without much success. "I've tried five times already," said Danilo Mejia, 26, a skinny Honduran man in an oversized leather jacket, who says the US Border Patrol sent him back to Mexico each time. "I thought if it was dark they wouldn't see me, but they're real watchdogs." He says he does not have the $10,000 or so he would have to pay a human trafficker, or "coyote," to bring him into the United States. But sneaking in through the desert alone is a perilous strategy. Hundreds of migrants die trying every year, of dehydration, hypothermia or snake bites. Seeking asylum in the United States is not much easier. In Tijuana, the waiting list to enter the US at an official border crossing and apply for asylum currently has more than 5,000 names on it, including caravan members and other migrants who were already in line. And the US is backlogged with asylum cases: requests increased by 2,000 percent in the past five years, and there are currently 700,000 pending. - 'Like animals' - Arlin Gutierrez, 40, traveled here from Honduras with her three young children, and is unsure what to do next. "We'd have to wait more than three months to be called (from the asylum wait-list), and who knows how much longer for our case to be resolved," she said, shaking out her baby's disposable diaper to use it again. "We can't wait for so long, living here like animals." Trump issued an executive order earlier this month barring migrants who sneak across the border from filing asylum claims. That policy has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge. Undaunted, Trump tweeted Saturday that migrants seeking asylum will have to remain in Mexico while their claims are processed -- though Mexico has not publicly agreed to such a plan. Facing a hostile welcome and little hope, a growing number of migrants have decided to turn back. "We're going home defeated, but alive," said Yaison Roca, 29, a Honduran man traveling with his wife and three children who took part in Sunday's border stampede and says the crackdown left his family traumatized. On Monday, a line formed outside a tent set up by the International Organization for Migration where migrants could ask to be sent home voluntarily. More than 80 requested help from the United Nations body that day, up from just a handful in previous days, officials said. In all, 1,700 caravan migrants have asked to be sent home since the caravan set out from San Pedro Sula, Honduras, on October 13, according to officials. Migrants have played all their cards in recent days, after more than a month's trek across Central America and Mexico -- but with little success The migrants are mostly fleeing poverty and violence in Central America's "Northern Triangle" -- El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras US President Donald Trump issued an executive order barring migrants who sneak across the border from filing asylum claims -- a policy that has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge The global hunt for a US fugitive, wanted by the FBI over a fatal hit-run smash in California, has ended in Adelaide. After more than a year on the run, 33-year-old Andrea Chan Reyes was found allegedly hiding out in the northern suburbs and is now facing extradition. Father of four Augustin Rodriguez was knocked off his bike and left for dead in a shocking hit-run near Los Angeles after his body was dragged more than 250 metres. After more than a year on the run, 33-year-old Andrea Chan Reyes was found allegedly hiding out in the northern suburbs and is now facing extradition. Source: 7 News Witnesses reported seeing a woman allegedly fleeing the scene in a Lexus. Shes a monster, the victims niece Angelica Miller said. I think that if she would have stopped my uncle might still be alive. Father of four Augustin Rodriguez was knocked off his bike and left for dead in a shocking hit-run near Los Angeles. Source: 7News The FBI soon revealed their prime suspect, but by then they say she had already fled to Asia. After a 14-month worldwide search, agents tracked her down, more than 13,000 kilometres away in Adelaide. She was arrested at Paralowie in April during a raid on the home she shared with her new boyfriend. Chan Reyes has spent the past seven months inside Adelaide Womens Prison, where she will remain for the time being. US authorities are working desperately to have her extradited to face justice in California. Her case returns to court next month. The United States on Tuesday told the UN Security Council that a draft resolution demanding a truce in Yemen should be put on hold until peace talks are held in Sweden in early December. Britain presented the measure last week as the United Nations stepped up its diplomatic efforts to hold talks on ending the war in Yemen. UN envoy Martin Griffiths is hoping to bring the Saudi-backed government and the Huthi rebels to Sweden for negotiations that could begin as early as December 3, according to UN diplomats. During UN negotiations on the British-drafted text, the US mission to the United Nations said "it will be important to take into account the results of the imminent talks in Stockholm which will be a key inflection point in the political process," according to an email message seen by AFP. "We look forward to offering more substantive comments to the draft once we have more information on the outcomes of the upcoming consultations," said the US mission in the message sent on Tuesday to other council members. The proposed resolution -- the first to be discussed by the council on Yemen since 2015 -- would significantly ratchet up pressure on the Saudi-led coalition and the Iran-aligned Huthis to seek a negotiated settlement. - Hodeida truce - The draft resolution calls for an immediate truce in the port city of Hodeida, the main entry point for humanitarian aid and supplies to Yemen, and sets a two-week deadline for the warring sides to remove all barriers to humanitarian aid. Negotiations on the draft began last week and no vote has been scheduled at the Security Council. The United States, which has supported the coalition, last month made a surprise call for a ceasefire and threw its weight behind the UN-led effort to hold peace talks. Saudi Arabia has faced fresh calls to end the war in Yemen following the brutal murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The war has left millions on the brink of starvation and unleashed what the United Nations has described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Despite global outrage, President Donald Trump last week vowed to stick by Saudi Arabia, throwing a spanner in the works at the United Nations during negotiations on the Yemen draft. UN diplomats said they did not expect a vote this week on the measure due to the US reluctance to push the coalition. The draft resolution calls for a large injection of foreign currency into the economy through the central bank to support the collapsing currency and for salaries of civil servants, teachers and health workers to be paid within one month. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is facing international criticism over the Khashoggi murder and the devastating war in Yemen, is due to join world leaders at the G20 summit in Argentina later this week. A draft UN resolution calls for an immediate truce in the port city of Hodeida, the main entry point for humanitarian aid and supplies to Yemen, and sets a two-week deadline for the warring sides to remove all barriers to humanitarian aid Vegan activists have struck again, this time at a Brazilian steakhouse where they played sounds of animals being slaughtered from portable speakers. The group, made of up about 20 protestors from Direct Action Everywhere, rushed the restaurant in the English city of Brighton on Sunday evening, local news site Brighton and Hove Independent reported. Footage uploaded to their Facebook page shows the group positioned around the restaurant and chanting at patrons. Source: Facebook/ DXE Brighton Waving banners, the activists can be heard chanting its not food, its violence to diners before subjecting them to the noises of slaughtered animals. Despite their orders for diners to down their forks, their protest was instead met with ridicule and jeers from the bemused crowd. After one female activist addresses the diners with a speech, the group made their way outside and chanted: What do we want? Animal liberation! When do we want it? Now. Protestors held signs and chanted at bemused diners. Source: Facebook/ DxE Brighton Police were called to the protest however no arrests were made with officers allowing the group to continue with their right to peaceful protest. A DxE Brighton spokesperson told the news site we can no longer ignore the suffering and pain we cause. Animal exploitation has become so normalised it goes virtually unnoticed but we are paying attention. People and businesses should not be able to enjoy the product or profit of animal suffering. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday defended America's increasingly contentious support for Saudi Arabia in the Yemen war, warning lawmakers the brutal conflict would worsen without US involvement. Pompeo was due to speak to the Senate alongside Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to discuss US support for the Saudi-led coalition that is fighting Iran-backed Huthi rebels, ahead of a possible vote on reducing military backing to the Saudis. "The suffering in Yemen grieves me, but if the United States of America was not involved in Yemen, it would be a hell of a lot worse," said Pompeo in prepared remarks. "Abandoning Yemen would do immense damage to US national security interests and those of our Middle Eastern allies and partners." Ending US military support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, which includes intelligence and target sharing, would actually lead to more deaths, Pompeo added. "The Saudi-led coalition would not have the benefit of our advice and training on targeting, so more civilians would die," Pompeo said. "Yemen's terrorist groups would enjoy safer havens." And he warned lawmakers that a US drawdown would lead to a stronger Iran while reinvigorating both the Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. "Try defending that outcome back home," he said. Pompeo and Mattis were expected to be grilled on Yemen's humanitarian crisis, as well as the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Some US lawmakers have called for a strong US response to Khashoggi's murder, including blocking arms sales and imposing sanctions beyond those that Washington slapped on 17 Saudis allegedly involved in the killing. On Twitter, Pompeo announced that the US would be spending an additional $131 million in food assistance and again took a swipe at Iran. "Iran's regime has no interest in easing Yemeni suffering; the mullahs don't even care for ordinary Iranians. Saudi Arabia has invested billions to relieve suffering in #Yemen. Iran has invested zero," he wrote on Twitter. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was to speak to the Senate alongside Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to discuss US support for the Saudi-led coalition that is fighting Iran-backed Huthi rebels in Yemen A Syracuse-area woman has been arrested for allegedly altering and filing false receipts for rental cars she used as a state employee. Sonya Miller, 47, of Camillus, has been charged following an investigation by the state inspector general's office. Miller, an Employee Assistance Program coordinator with the state Office of Children and Family Services, is accused of falsifying mileage data and the pickup and drop-off times on rental car company receipts. She would often rent vehicles to meet with state Office of Children and Family Services employees in the central New York and Finger Lakes regions. In an interview with an investigator, Miller admitted to altering and submitting false car rental receipts for her state job. "I've been doing it forever so it's almost habit, where it's obviously not allowed to be done," she told them. Miller was arrested Tuesday by the New York State Police. She was arraigned on two counts of second-degree forgery and two counts of first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, both felonies. According to a news release, the charges against Miller stem from two dates in May and June. "This defendant's alleged routine fabrications were an affront to the public trust and a corrupt distortion of routine time and mileage records," state Inspector General Catherine Leahy Scott said in a statement. "Her contemptuous excuses only furthered her culpability and I will remain steadfast in pursuing anyone who criminally exploits their responsibilities as a public servant." Miller has been released pending her appearance Monday, Dec. 3, in Syracuse City Court. The Onondaga County District Attorney's office is prosecuting the case. Love 1 Funny 2 Wow 1 Sad 1 Angry 3 AUBURN Families in need were once again given boxes full of Christmas gifts Monday by volu MONACO, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Navios Maritime Holdings Inc. ("the Company") (NYSE: NM), today announced that the Companys 2018 annual meeting of stockholders will be held at 10:00 a.m., Monaco time, on December 21, 2018, at the Companys offices at Le Montaigne Bloc B, 7 Avenue de Grande Bretagne, Monaco. The Companys Board of Directors requested that the stockholders approve a 1-for-10 reverse stock split of the Companys common stock (the Reverse Stock Split) to achieve compliance with the closing bid price requirements in the NYSEs continued listing standards. Stockholders owning the Companys common stock on November 28, 2018 will be entitled to vote at the annual meeting. The affirmative vote of a majority of the Companys issued and outstanding common stock is required to affect the Reverse Stock Split. Abstentions and broker non-votes will be treated as votes against the proposal. If the Reverse Stock Split is approved, (1) every ten pre-split shares of common stock outstanding will become one share of common stock, and (2) fractional shares otherwise issued will be paid in cash at a price equal to (a) the fraction (to which the stockholder would otherwise be entitled) multiplied by (b) the average NYSE closing price per share of our common stock for the five (5) consecutive trading days before the effective date of the Reverse Stock Split. For more detailed information, please see the Companys notice of annual meeting and proxy statement to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on the Companys Current Report on Form 6-K on or about November 30, 2018. About Navios Maritime Holdings Inc. Navios Maritime Holdings Inc. (NYSE: NM) is a global, vertically integrated seaborne shipping and logistics company focused on the transport and transshipment of dry bulk commodities including iron ore, coal and grain. For more information about Navios Holdings please visit our website: www.navios.com . Forward Looking Statements - Safe Harbor This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements herein other than statements of historical fact, including statements regarding business and industry prospects or future results of operations or financial position should be considered forward-looking. These forward looking statements are based on Navios Holdings current expectations and observations. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include, but are not limited to uncertainty relating to global trade, including prices of seaborne commodities and continuing issues related to seaborne volume and ton miles, our continued ability to enter into long-term time charters, our ability to maximize the use of our vessels, expected demand in the dry cargo shipping sector in general and the demand for our Panamax, Capesize and Ultra Handymax vessels in particular, fluctuations in charter rates for dry cargo carriers vessels, the aging of our fleet and resultant increases in operations costs, the loss of any customer or charter or vessel, the financial condition of our customers, changes in the availability and costs of funding due to conditions in the bank market, capital markets and other factors, increases in costs and expenses, including but not limited to: crew wages, insurance, provisions, port expenses, lube oil, bunkers, repairs, maintenance, and general and administrative expenses, the expected cost of, and our ability to comply with, governmental regulations and maritime self-regulatory organization standards, as well as standard regulations imposed by our charterers applicable to our business, general domestic and international political conditions, competitive factors in the market in which Navios Holdings operates, the value of our publicly traded subsidiaries, our ability to effectuate a reverse stock split of our common stock to regain compliance with New York Stock Exchange minimum share price requirements and risks associated with operations outside the United States. Other factors that could cause our actual results to differ from our current expectations and observations include, but are not limited to, those discussed under Part I, Item 3D Risk Factors in Navios Holdings Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2017. All forward-looking statements made in this press release speak only as of the date of this document. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Its not just a trifecta. Its a "Democratic Super Trifecta! And, it hasnt happened in New York state government since 1913.* When the state Legislature convenes in Albany this January, it will likely consist of a Senate with 40 Democrats and 23 Republicans, and an Assembly with 107 Democrats and 43 Republicans.** These large majorities are well beyond the total votes needed to control all legislative activity in both houses. Combine this with a governor that has a D" after his name, and Democrats have the opportunity of a lifetime to show what they can do with near-total control of state government. Its worth noting that the last Democratic super trifecta didnt go so well, especially for Democratic Gov. William Plain Bill Sulzer. Turns out he wasnt much of a team player and butted heads with Tammany Hall, the Democratic political machine of the day. Its a complicated story that involves Democratic rivals including newly elected Speaker Al Smith and Sen. Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the remnants of Teddy Roosevelts progressive Bull Moose Party. The short of it is that Democrats impeached Plain Bill and forced him out of office. Not too long after, Republicans regained control of the state Senate, and it would be more than a century before the next Democratic super trifecta. Fast forward to 2019: Democrats will take over the reins of New York state government once again. Ironically, it was the election of a former New York Democrat to the U.S. Presidency that helped make this all possible. His 2016 election woke up thousands of sleepy Democratic voters and turned them into progressive activists overnight. They started paying attention to state government and they took crash courses in civics. They organized, marched, knocked on doors, hosted fundraisers, and put enormous pressure on Democratic party leaders to get their act together and start winning. It was impressive and they deserve enormous credit for this recent Democratic sweep. Dont expect these activists to go away. They worked hard for this win and they rightfully expect to see results. They want the Democratic class of 2019 to focus on big progressive issues like healthcare for all. They want early voting and fair elections. They want environmental protection laws to be strengthened and public schools to be properly funded. They have big hopes for this Democratic super trifecta, and see it as a path to resolving the housing crisis, ending mass incarceration, and much more. Its a long list with some notably expensive items, like fixing the subway. Governor Cuomo is certainly no stranger to this list. He has, after all, been governor since 2011, and Senate Republicans had the votes to block everything on that list during his entire tenure. But oh how things have changed! When Democrats swarm Albany this January, the Republicans wont be able to block progress on anything. Lately, reporters have been asking Andrew Cuomo the same question that reporters surely asked Plain Bill back in 1913: Governor, how are you going to deal with all these Democrats? Its a serious question. Its no secret that Governor Cuomos commitment to the Democratic team has been questionable over the years. He only recently began embracing party unity and offering tangible support to some Democratic candidates. Traditionally, hes triangulated with the Democratic majority in the Assembly and the Republican majority in the Senate to avoid passing things that cost a lot of money (e.g., health care and fixing the subway). The Republican Senate majority had also been a reliable foil to passage of legislation that makes it easier for people to vote (e.g., early voting) and that makes it easier for people to run for office (e.g., campaign finance reform). But those days are gone. Democrats are riding a wave into Albany that is powered by an organized and committed progressive base that expects them to get big things done. Saying that its too hard or its too expensive is not going to play well with the base or the historic number of first term legislators they just helped elect. Things like protecting womens reproductive rights, gun safety and some version of election reform are likely to pass early on without much resistance. But watch out when they get into issues that require new funding streams. Thats when each leg of this new trifecta will be tested. Will the newly empowered Democrats follow Governor Cuomos lead and avoid the fiscal headache of finding ways to fund the progressive agenda that they ran on? Or, will they stand firm with their supporters and threaten to send the governor packing if he refuses to play along with the team? The ghost of old Plain Bill is waiting to see. * The 1913 Legislature had a Senate with 33 Democrats, 16 Republicans, 2 Other. The Assembly had 104 Democrats, 42 Republicans, 4 Other. Democratic majorities of this magnitude have not simultaneously existed in both houses with a Democratic Governor since then. The 2019 Legislature is on track to break this historic majority record for Democrats. ** As of date of writing, some 2018 election results are still unofficial. Terry Gipson is a former Democratic New York state senator and a professor in the communications department at SUNY New Paltz. You can follow him @TerryGipsonNY or visit TerryGipsonNY.com. Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 John Katko may have had six points more when the votes were counted on Election Day, but Dana Balter won. She campaigned with integrity, decency and brilliance. Dana went from someone publicly unknown to someone who had elderly women jumping up and down with excitement as I finished my last canvas for her in an old age home on Election Day. Meanwhile Katko openly and intentionally ran a smear campaign against Dana and continued to run his commercials after they were exposed as false. He plainly decided that winning the election was more important than running with principle and integrity. Despite this, although he first won his seat by 20 points in 2014 and by 22 points in 2016, he was barely able to hang on against someone who was not a publicly known figure a year ago. Katko may make the trip to Washington for the next two years, but his party won't be in power, and neither will he. And it's my prediction (without any inside knowledge of her plans) that come January 2020, Congresswoman Dana Balter will be making the trip instead. Jonah Minkoff-Zern Syracuse Love 0 Funny 16 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 4 Muffin Break is to focus its store openings on the Midlands and South of England next year. The companys estates head, Joshua Nixon, confirmed the plans for the retail bakery chain as it prepared to unveil its 11th outlet of the year in Bexleyheath, Kent tomorrow (Thursday 29 November). The 70-cover store, which will create 15 full- and part-time jobs, will give away golden tickets which can be exchanged for free coffees and muffins among other prizes to the first 25 customers through the door. We are excited to open our final Muffin Break site of 2018 in Bexleyheath concluding a strong year of new store growth, Nixon said ahead of the opening of the premises. Our beautifully designed cafe bakeries have been well received by customers and landlords alike and we are looking forward to continue baking the success of 2018 into 2019 and beyond. Despite the regular uncertain media reports on UK retail, we are continuing to unlock towns and cities across the UK, securing competitive deals with landlords across the board and operating successful stores. He added that the brands 2019 expansion strategy would be focused on the Midlands and the south of England, as well as major shopping centres across the UK. Muffin Break sells freshly baked muffins, cakes and cookies, alongside various savoury options including soups, sandwiches and wraps. It also stocks a variety of special blend coffees made from 100% Arabica beans. CAPE CORAL, Fla, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Legacy Education Alliance, Inc. (OTCQB: LEAI) ( www.legacyeducationalliance.com ), a leading international provider of practical, high-quality, and value-based educational training on the topics of personal finance, entrepreneurship, real estate, and financial markets investing strategies, announced that on Wednesday November 21, 2018, it attended an American Chamber of Commerce Thanksgiving lunch in Hong Kong in support of families touched by autism. Attending the event on behalf of LEAI was Anthony C. Humpage, its CEO who was joined by Professor Yuk-Fai Fong from the Hong Kong University of Science & technology as well as Winky So, Deputy Director- General at Trade & industry Department, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government. Legacy is proud to be a member of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong - one of the largest American Chambers outside the U.S., the largest international chamber in Hong Kong and the most dynamic and influential international business organization in the Asia-Pacific region. Annually we support the Chambers Thanksgiving lunch which both recognizes the contribution of the SARs government officials and offers support to a worthy charity. Legacy is part of the Hong Kong community and we enjoy participating in it. said Anthony Humpage, Legacy Education Alliances CEO. About Legacy Education Alliance Inc. Legacy Education Alliance, Inc. ( http://www.legacyeducationalliance.com ), is a leading international provider of practical, high-quality, and value-based educational training on the topics of personal finance, entrepreneurship, real estate, and financial markets investing strategies and techniques. Legacy Education Alliance was founded in 1996, today we are a global company with approximately 200 employees that has cumulatively served more than two million students from more than 150 countries and territories over the course of our operating history. We offer our training through a variety of brands including Rich Dad Education; Rich Dad Stock Education; Making Money from Property with Martin RobertsTM; Brick Buy BrickTM; Building Wealth; Robbie Fowler Property AcademyTM; Women in WealthTM; Perform in PropertyTM, Teach Me to TradeTM, and Trade Up Investor EducationTM. For more information, please visit our website at www.legacyeducationalliance.com . 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 (the "Exchange Act") (which Sections were adopted as part of the Private Securities Litigation Reform. Act of 1995). Statements preceded by, followed by or that otherwise include the words believe, anticipate, estimate, expect, intend, plan, project, prospects, outlook, and similar words or expressions, or future or conditional verbs such as will, should, would, may, and could are generally forward-looking in nature and not historical facts. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any anticipated results, performance or achievements. The Company disclaims any intention to, and undertakes no obligation to, revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, a future event, or otherwise. For additional risks and uncertainties that could impact the Companys forward-looking statements, please see the Companys Annual Report on Form 10-K (including but not limited to the discussion under Risk Factors therein) filed with the SEC on April 2, 2018 and which may be viewed at http://www.sec.gov . The Rev. Dr. Anthony Spearman, president of the N.C. NAACP, speaks at a Nov. 27 Moral Day of Protest rally in Raleigh. At left is the Rev. Nancy Petty of Pullen Memorial Baptist Church. (CJ photo by Don Carrington) Lawmakers are developing rules for the freshly passed voter ID constitutional amendment. But nobody believes the law will take effect without a pitched court battle.One voting law expert has a suggestion.Hans von Spakovsky told Carolina Journal on Monday, Nov. 26.Von Spakovsky, senior legal fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Heritage Foundation, and a former member of the Federal Elections Commission, has been a critic of state Attorney General Josh Stein's refusal to defend a previous voter ID law. Von Spakovsky thinks the law was constitutional, and supports other voter integrity actions.von Spakovsky said.Von Spakovsky said.Greg Wallace, a constitutional law professor at Campbell Law School, told CJ Monday. Rules for provisional voting, and an easy method to obtain voter identification should be part of the package.said Wallace.He thinks a lawsuit will be filed challenging whatever is passed.Wallace said. He thinks the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals would find some reason to strike down any voter ID law, even if it's tailored as narrowly as the Indiana law.Wallace said the liberal-leaning 4th Circuit could disregard precedent, wagering the Supreme Court is tired of taking up voter ID challenges. Should the justices fail to act, Wallace said, they would undermine public confidence in judicial integrity.He thinks opponents of voter ID will file lawsuits in both state and federal courts.Because Democrats now have a 5-2 majority on the state Supreme Court, voter ID opponents might have a better chance to prevail, Wallace said. If the state Supreme Court strikes down a voter ID law under some provision of the N.C. Constitution which doesn't conflict with federal statutes or the U.S. Constitution, the U.S. Supreme Court couldn't review North Carolina's ruling.Republicans lost their veto-proof majorities in both legislative chambers in the Nov. 6 election in which voters approved the voter ID constitutional amendment. There is a chance Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, a voter ID opponent, could veto the enabling legislation, and there wouldn't be enough votes for an override, Wallace said.Because a voter ID mandate is part of the state constitution, something eventually must become law. State Sen. Mike Woodard, D-Durham, and Sen. Ben Clark, D-Hoke, worked through Monday night on a voter ID bill they planned to submit today.Woodard told CJ Monday.Woodard hopes Democrats and Republicans can reach compromise.Woodard said.He thinks there is ample opportunity to find common ground, and hopes the process doesn't become a partisan fight. He said voters not only passed the voter ID amendment, but also they stripped Republicans of their supermajorities, signaling they want heavy-handed partisanship to end.Working together on voter ID would set a good tone for the 2019 long session, he said.Even if the General Assembly enacts a compromise measure, Woodard thinks a legal challenge by civil rights and other advocacy groups is inevitable. The NAACP and ACLU have a history of filing such lawsuits, he said.Woodard said.Attempts to get comment from House Minority Leader Darren Jackson, D-Wake, weren't successful. State Treasurer Dale Folwell wants the U.S. Department of Justice to require all North Carolina hospitals to be transparent in their pricing and recover excessive charges hospitals made to the State Health Plan. He said the N.C. Healthcare Association, which represents hospitals, wants the General Assembly to derail his cost-cutting reforms.Folwell made those claims Monday, Nov. 26, in a press release alleging "illegal activity" by hospitals. He is calling on the U.S. and N.C. Departments of Justice to recoup what could be hundreds of millions of dollars in overpayments.Folwell is embroiled in tense negotiations with the state's major health care organizations as he attempts to stabilize spending on the State Health Plan, which costs more than state appropriations cover.Folwell said the recent settlement of a civil antitrust lawsuit filed by the U.S. and N.C. Justice Departments against Atrium Health, formerly known as Carolinas Healthcare System, exposed costly practices for consumers, including shielding them from information about high-quality, cost-effective coverage.Folwell said.He expressed deep frustration earlier this year after a public records request made to UNC Health Care resulted in a heavily redacted copy of the State Health Plan's contract and fee schedule with BCBSNC. Blue Cross is the third-party administrator for the plan, and negotiates pricing for the plan's 727,000 public employee members, dependents, and retirees.UNC Health Care delivered 100 pages of documents with all the prices blotted out. The state-owned hospital said pricing information with BCBSNC is confidential. Folwell poked the providers in a satirical press release that redacted some portions.Folwell said in Monday's release.To reduce medical costs and increase price transparency for State Health Plan members, Folwell announced in early October a new reimbursement strategy. It would use pricing based on a percentage higher than published government rates, with an average 77 percent profit.Monday's press release said the hospital associationand plans to ask the General Assembly to stop any moves toward transparency and lower costs.The release cited an Oct. 24 N.C. Healthcare Association statement that said, in part,said Bill D'Elia, spokesman for Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham. A request for comment from House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, went unanswered.N.C. Healthcare Association Vice President Julie Henry said she had just received Folwell's press release and wasn't prepared to answer questions.Henry said. She said she doesn't know why BCBSNC doesn't provide the plan the information Folwell seeks.If the hospital association stops the reforms, then premiums, copays, and deductibles for plan members likely will increase, Monday's release stated. A projected $300 million in savings to taxpayers and $65 million in savings to plan members won't occur. That could affect the long-term viability of the plan.Folwell said.Folwell said after his legal team reviews the settlement, he will submit it to the U.S. DOJ.Folwell said. The Senate Finance Committee has approved Senate Bill 820 , which would raise the amount of corporate handouts to large companies considering moving their headquarters to North Carolina.The committee voted Tuesday, Nov. 27, to raise the cap on the Job Development Investment Grant Program from $6,500 per job to $16,000.The discretionary JDIG grants are based on requirements a company create a certain number of jobs in a set amount of time. Benefits from the program must outweigh grant costs. If those and other criteria are not met, the state has clawback provision to recoup the costs.Finance Committee Chairman Jerry Tillman, R-Randolph, said raising the cap would help the N.C. Department of Commerce recruit "big boys with deep pockets who are out there looking" to relocate corporate headquarters. They would bring jobs paying $300,000 to $400,000.Tillman said several large companies are considering moving their corporate headquarters to Wake and Mecklenburg counties, with the potential to create several thousand jobs. The effort is an attempt to catch up to South Carolina, which has similar programs, and is beating North Carolina to the draw in landing corporate headquarters, he said.Jon Sanders, director of regulatory studies at the John Locke Foundation, was critical of the move.Sanders said.It's no secret to what makes North Carolina a good place to start, relocate, or expand a business, he said. That is low tax and regulatory burdens.Sanders said.Sanders said.Sen. Paul Newton, R-Cabarrus, told committee members that raising the incentives was vital, according to the Commerce Department. The cap, set in 2002, prevented the state from landing some companies, he said.to ensure it gets its money back, and more, Newton said. Aside from jobs and increased tax revenue, other benefits would flow to the local community by spreading the cost of essential infrastructure among more payers.A JDIG grant is calculated as a percentage of the personal income tax withholdings of eligible positions for a period of years, according to a fiscal note attached to the bill. The grant amount in a conventional award may not exceed 75 percent of the personal income tax withholdings of eligible created positions.Fiscal Research staff member Madison Lahey said the estimated impact of the increased cap to the state would be $1.2 million in fiscal 2020/21. It would be $2.3 million the next year, and $3.6 million the following year.The JDIG program has a total cap of $35 million, of which $20 million is earmarked for Wake and Mecklenburg counties, and $5 million for Tier 1 counties, which include the state's 40 most distressed. Lawmakers raised that cap by $15 million last year.Sen. Joel Ford, D-Mecklenburg, asked whether there were requirements for the relocating companies to hire locally in filling their jobs.Tillman said there are no such mandates, but is confident the firms would tap into the local employment pool. On November 6, an amendment to the North Carolina constitution requiring voters to present a photo identification for voting in person (the "Voter ID" amendment) passed with 55 percent support. In all its prior elections, North Carolina voters were not obligated to show any form of identification at all when they showed up to vote, which seems impossible given the many instances of voter irregularity, the numbers that don't make sense, the highly questionable votes that continue to roll in even after the election, the persistent appearance of impropriety in several of the counties in NC, the many instances of reported voter fraud by poll workers and other eyewitnesses, the instances of actual verified voter fraud uncovered by the NC Voter Integrity Project, the refusal of the state Board of Elections to prosecute the instances of fraud, and the inconsistencies (pointing to a scheme of voter fraud) unearthed by Major Dave Goetze when he analyzed all the numbers of voters versus recorded votes,The adoption of a photo ID requirement to vote finally brings North Carolina into alignment with the great majority of other states who have voter identification requirements. Thirty-four states already require some sort of identification for voting in person. Of those, 17 states require a photo ID.A voter ID must be viewed as a common sense requirement because many Western democracies, in fact, require voter ID in some form.North Carolina recognized the need for a photo ID to vote, to address the claims and the opportunity for voter fraud and to address the general lack of trust and confidence in the integrity of its elections, and had already passed a valid Voter ID law back in 2013 (HB 589, which was the initial bill that originated in the NC House; it was amended in the Senate and then enacted as SL 2013-381).. It was to take effect in 2016, in time for the presidential election. But African-American activist groups, like the NC chapter of the NAACP, protested strongly against it and challenged it in court, alleging the law to be a "blatant attempt to disenfranchise voters of color." The Federal District Court for the Middle District of NC found no discriminatory intent, but on appeal to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, the 3-judge panel agreed with the petitioners (challengers) and on July 29, 2016, it struct down NC's Voter ID law. [The opinion can be accessed at: http://www.ca4.uscourts.gov/Opinions/Published/161468.P.pdf ] The NC state legislature appealed to the US Supreme Court the following May, but the high court refused to grant review. It denied review, not on the merits, and not on the valid issue at hand, but based on a procedural inconsistency. Pat McCrory filed the petition for review but lost his Governor's seat in 2016 to Roy Cooper, thus making the challenge by the legislature invalid. In the Court's response to the NC legislature, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote: "Given the blizzard of filings over who is and who is not authorized to seek review in this Court under North Carolina law, it is important to recall our frequent admonition that 'the denial of a writ of certiorari imports no expression of opinion upon the merits of the case.'" Again, in denying to hear the case, the Supreme Court was not ruling on whether the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' three-judge panel was correct or not in its assessment of the North Carolina law.After the crushing blow by the activist 4th Circuit, the NC legislature was left to figure out another way to deliver to the NC citizens a Photo ID voter law, a law which was top on their list of demands in sending a Republican majority to Raleigh. A constitutional amendment was the likely solution. It was not a legislature-driven initiative but rather one voted upon by the people themselves. It would be their direct voice.And they made it known at the ballot box. Again, 55% of North Carolinians voted in favor of the amendment.The language of the Photo ID amendment, per House Bill 1092 (H.B. 1092), states:And that is where the amendment stands right now - waiting for the statute outlining North Carolina's voting laws to be amended to include new language giving life to the amendment and setting forth the specifics regarding the photo ID requirement to vote. Yesterday, a legislative committee in charge of the draft legislation held an open hearing, to hear from interested persons and parties regarding the strictness of the photo requirement.The intent of the amendment would suggest that voters want a strict photo ID voter law. Why do I say this? Considering the intense fight by Democrats and groups representing blacks to oppose and challenge a common-sense Voter ID law (it wasn't even a strict one) and the intense media opposition campaign by the liberal-controlled media and by the Democrats (with George Soros providing much of the funding) to the Voter ID amendment, it seems obvious that the reason they were (and have been) so intently opposed to any type of voter ID is because they don't want honest elections. Only a strict photo ID requirement can effectively thwart any of their plans to engage in voter manipulation or fraud.NC Representatives Michele Presnell (R-Yancey) and John Sauls (R-Lee), both primary sponsors of H.B. 1092, believe the amendment is vital to block election fraud. As Rep. Presnell explained:And Rep. Sauls added:Republicans have a narrow window between now and January to pass legislation under their veto-proof majority. Although Republicans were able to maintain control of both chambers of the state legislature, they failed to preserve the three-fifths supermajority requirement in the North Carolina House and Senate. This is especially critical since the sitting governor, Roy Cooper, is a Democrat.Last week, Republican leaders in the NC General Assembly drafted a strict Voter ID bill that describes what forms of photo ID would be allowed. That bill would require persons to show one of the following forms of photo identification when they show up to vote: A North Carolina driver's license; a U.S. passport; a military ID and veteran ID; tribal IDs; other forms of photo ID issued by the North Carolina Department of Transportation; and a voter ID card issued by each county's board of elections office. But an issue came up as to whether student ID cards should be included as an acceptable form of identification. Legislators were inclined to include student identification cards issued by the public university system, but not by private colleges and universities. And so a revised bill was submitted, by Rep. David Lewis (R-Harnett), which included two additional forms of acceptable identification - new voter photo ID cards issued for free by county boards and student IDs issued by the University of North Carolina system's 17 schools. It is this latest draft bill (v. 09) that was the focus of attention at yesterday's public hearing.That draft bill is a strict Photo ID type of Voter ID bill. That is, it is restrictive in terms of what forms of ID would be allowed. Should Beaufort County elected officials demand that every alleged incident of Child Rape be investigated in Beaufort County? Yes, without fail, irrespective of the parties involved; this heinous crime must be investigated, and the truth be known, and responsible parties prosecuted. The migrant caravan the left-leaning media has been gushing over finally reached the U.S.-Mexico border on Sunday, and things got violent.Migrants threw rocks and projectiles at border patrol, and one San Diego agent said the group, which is made up of mostly men, used women and children as human shields. Naturally, violent tried to downplay the violence and turn it against President Donald Trump, lambasting the use of tear gas against the caravan, even though the Obama administration did the same thing.On Monday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen released a statement in an attempt to explain what the migrant caravan actually is and dispel some myths being reported by the media. Nielsen laid out six points relating to the caravan, its makeup, and its purpose, adding additional points about how the Trump administration is responding.Nielsen called the violence seen on Sundayand said it had been attacking border police in Mexico and other Central American countries.Nielsen wrote.Nielsen said the current caravanwith upwards of 8,500 members currently in Tijuana and Mexicali. She also noted reports of other caravans making their way to the border.The media has been claiming the caravan is full of abused women and children fleeing violence and seeking asylum (despite an actual asylum-seeking process already existing). As Nielsen notes, this isn't accurate.Nielson wrote.Nielsen said most of the migrants are seeking jobs or looking to reunite with family in the U.S., which are not grounds for asylum and have their own legal process to follow. Also, these migrants have refused to seek protection in Mexico or with a United Nations refugee agency.Despite media reports of women and children seeking asylum, the caravan is made up of mostly men. When an MSNBC anchor tried to tee up a reporter to confirm the caravan was full of women and children, the reporter admitted that it was mostly made up of men.Nielsen said the backgrounds of the caravan members could not be confirmed, which poses a risk to U.S. safety. She also said that the DHS has confirmed the presence of criminals.Nielsen said.She also said 100 caravan members have been arrested in Mexico for crimes in that country.Granted, that's 600 out of 8,500 and counting, but to pretend the caravan is full of abused women and children fleeing violence is just wrong.Nielsen praised border patrol agents for their response to the violence on Sunday.Nielsen wrote.She added that parents should not put children in danger by trying to illegally cross into the U.S.Keep in mind that these are the administration's talking points, but reports from on the ground and government agencies contradict the picture painted by the left-leaning media. And for those concerned with accepting an administration's claims, just remember how uncritically the media accepted everything the Obama administration said. English French ROUYN-NORANDA, Quebec, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Explor Resources Inc. (Explor or the "Corporation") (TSX-V: EXS, OTCQB: EXSFF, FSE & BE: E1H1) announces that it has renewed at new conditions the $1,200,000 convertible debentures issued on July 5, 2016 that expired on July 5, 2018 (the Placement). The Corporation also issued a new convertible debenture for an amount of $100,000. The Placement now consists of an amount of 1,300 units at a price of $1,000 per unit (the Units), each Unit consisting of a capital amount of $1,000 of convertible debentures (the Debentures) and of 10,000 common share purchase warrants of the Corporation (the Warrants). The one-year term Debentures bear interest at an annual rate of 8% and will be secured by a security on the Corporations Timmins Porcupine West Property. Each holder of Debentures will be entitled to convert the principal amount of the Debentures in common shares of the Corporation, at a price of $0.05 per share. Each Warrant included in a Unit will allow the subscriber to purchase one common share of the Corporation at an exercise price of $0.10 for a period of one year ending November 28, 2019. Therefore, the Corporation will reserve an aggregate number of 26,000,000 common shares of its capital stock in the event of the conversion of the full principal amount of the Debentures and an aggregate number of 13,000,000 of its capital stock in the event of the exercise of all the Warrants. One insider of the Corporation has subscribed for 46% of the Placement and would hold approximately 14% of the outstanding common shares of the Corporation after the Placement, taking into consideration the conversion of the Debentures and exercise of the Warrants. The Debentures and any shares that may be issued on conversion of the Debentures, as well as the shares that could be issued on exercise of the Warrants are subject to a hold period of four months and one day, expiring March 29, 2019. The Placement is subject to the final approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. Explor Resources Inc. is a publicly listed company trading on the TSX Venture (EXS), on the OTCQB (EXSFF) and on the Frankfurt and Berlin Stock Exchanges (E1H1). This Press Release was prepared by Explor. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the Policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) has reviewed or accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. About Explor Resources Inc. Explor Resources Inc. is a Canadian-based natural resources company with mineral holdings in Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick. Explor is currently focused on exploration in the Abitibi Greenstone Belt. The belt is found in both provinces of Ontario and Quebec with approximately 33% in Ontario and 67% in Quebec. The Belt has produced in excess of 180,000,000 ounces of gold and 450,000,000 tonnes of cu-zn ore over the last 100 years. The Corporation was continued under the laws of Alberta in 1986 and has had its main office in Quebec since 2006. Explor Resources Flagship project is the Timmins Porcupine West (TPW) Project located in the Porcupine mining camp, in the Province of Ontario. The TPW mineral resource (Press Release dated August 27, 2013) includes the following: Open Pit Mineral Resources at a 0.30 g/t Au cut-off grade are as follows: Indicated: 213,000 oz (4,283,000 tonnes at 1.55 g/t Au) Inferred: 77,000 oz (1,140,000 tonnes at 2.09 g/t Au) Underground Mineral Resources at a 1.70 g/t Au cut-off grade are as follows: Indicated: 396,000 oz (4,420,000 tonnes at 2.79 g/t Au) Inferred: 393,000 oz (5,185,000 tonnes at 2.36 g/t Au) This document may contain forward-looking statements relating to Explors operations or to the environment in which it operates. Such statements are based on operations, estimates, forecasts and projections. They are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict and may be beyond Explors control. A number of important factors could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements, including those set forth in other public filling. In addition, such statements relate to the date on which they are made. Consequently, undue reliance should not be placed on such forward-looking statements. Explor disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, save and except as may be required by applicable securities laws. For further information please contact: 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. According to documents obtained by the Canadian Press, the Canadian government has been warning against investing in technology served up by state-owned companies as it's highly likely that the hardware could be used as a conduit for corporate espionage. From The Globe & Mail: The RCMP organized two workshops last March one in Calgary, the other in Toronto to raise awareness about threats to critical systems, including espionage and foreign interference, cyberattacks, terrorism and sabotage, newly disclosed documents show. Canadian Security Intelligence Service materials prepared for the workshops advise that "non-likeminded countries," state-owned enterprises and affiliated companies are engaged in a global pursuit of technology and know-how driven by economic and military ambitions. The papers surrounding the RCMP and CSIS' warnings were heavily redacted: there's no mention of any specific countries that want to take a peek at what Canuck corporations have to offer. However, we've still got a good idea about some of what they were talking about. According to The Canadian Press, the document had a chunk of text in it pulled from a US government report that China and other competing countries have been swiping "hundreds of billions of dollars" worth of intellectual property every year. Additionally, back in 2016, CSIS warned Canadians that maybe allowing Huawei Technologies to have any part in the building of Canada's 5G telecommunications network might be a really bad idea. According to a number of intelligence sources, Huawei's ties to the Chinese government run deep. It's fun to be reminded that billion dollar concerns like tech and oil companies have just as much to worry about with phishing, sloppy security practices and other digital hazards as everyone else. This feels like as good a time as any to remind you that reading Electronic Frontier Foundation's primer on digital surveillance self-defense is a great first step towards hardening your digital world's security, no involvement from the Mounties required. Image via Pixabay "A lawyer for Paul Manafort, the president's onetime campaign chairman, repeatedly briefed President Trump's lawyers on his client's discussions with federal investigators after Mr. Manafort agreed to cooperate with the special counsel." There it is. Attorneys for Donald Trump are said to have been briefed on what Paul Manafort told federal investigators, which further ratcheted up tensions with special counsel Robert Mueller, reports the New York Times this evening. Michael Schmidt, Sharon LaFraniere and Maggie Haberman report: A lawyer for Paul Manafort, the president's onetime campaign chairman, repeatedly briefed President Trump's lawyers on his client's discussions with federal investigators after Mr. Manafort agreed to cooperate with the special counsel, according to one of Mr. Trump's lawyers and two other people familiar with the conversations. The arrangement was highly unusual and inflamed tensions with Mr. Mueller's office when prosecutors discovered it after Mr. Manafort began cooperating two months ago, the people said. Some legal experts speculated that it was a bid by Mr. Manafort for a presidential pardon even as he worked with the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, in hopes of a lighter sentence. Rudolph W. Giuliani, one of the president's personal lawyers, acknowledged the arrangement on Tuesday and defended it as a source of valuable insights into the special counsel's inquiry and where it was headed. Such information could help shape a legal defense strategy, and it also appeared to give Mr. Trump and his legal advisers ammunition in their public relations campaign against the special counsel's office. For example, Mr. Giuliani said, Mr. Manafort's lawyer Kevin M. Downing told him that prosecutors hammered away at whether the president knew about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting where Russians promised to deliver damaging information on Hillary Clinton to his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. The president has long denied knowing about the meeting in advance. "He wants Manafort to incriminate Trump," Mr. Giuliani declared of Mr. Mueller. While Mr. Downing's discussions with the president's team violated no laws, they helped contribute to a deteriorating relationship between lawyers for Mr. Manafort and Mr. Mueller's prosecutors, who accused Mr. Manafort of holding out on them despite his pledge to assist them in any matter they deemed relevant, according to the people. That conflict spilled into public view on Monday when the prosecutors took the rare step of declaring that Mr. Manafort had breached his plea agreement by lying to them about a variety of subjects. Mr. Manafort's lawyers insisted that their client had been truthful but acknowledged that the two sides were at an impasse. Mr. Manafort will now face sentencing on two conspiracy charges and eight counts of financial fraud crimes that could put him behind bars for at least 10 years. No comment from Downing. Read the entire report here. Well this seems to undercut the idea that Manafort ever meant to truly cooperate with Mueller: His attorney kept briefing Trump's lawyers.https://t.co/1W4m5FwdHy Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) November 28, 2018 2/ Before a defendant pleads guilty, his interests typically align with other people who are under investigation. In this investigation, before Manafort pleaded guilty, his interests were roughly aligned with Trump's because both of them are under investigation. Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) November 28, 2018 3/ Once Manafort pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with Mueller, his interests shifted. Typically cooperators / flippers are viewed as part of the prosecution team. They are trying to help the prosecution by providing information and potential testimony. Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) November 28, 2018 4/ It is common for attorneys representing subjects of an investigation to enter into what is called a "joint defense agreement." That is a way that lawyers for different people under investigation agree to exchange information and keep that information privileged. Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) November 28, 2018 Third Quarter Highlights Revenue of $3.8 million with gross margin of 56% Year to date revenue of $13.4 million, up over 30% year over year Initial operations and revenue from the Extraction Facility (as defined below) Closed $23 million bought deal financing (the Offering) VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sunniva Inc. (Sunniva, the Company, we, our or us) (CSE:SNN) (OTCQB:SNNVF), a North American provider of cannabis products and services, today released its financial and operational results and managements discussion and analysis for the three and nine months for the third quarter of 2018 ended September 30, 2018. All figures are reported in Canadian dollars ($) unless otherwise stated. Sunnivas financial statements are prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards. We continue to make progress towards completion of Phase 1, the first 325,000 square feet, of our purpose built, high-technology cannabis greenhouse in Cathedral City, California. While we have remained committed to advancing our operations in order to play a leadership role in the California cannabis market as we launch our first Sunniva branded products in the first quarter of 2019, we have maintained solid performance of our existing operations with $3.8 million in revenue and gross margins of 56% in the third quarter. We have now generated year to date revenue of $13.4 million, a 30 percent increase over this same period last year, said Anthony Holler, Chief Executive Officer of Sunniva. With our strategic assets in place in California, we are now in a position to accelerate our revenue growth by advancing upon our upstream vertical opportunities. We will soon demonstrate our ability to become one of the lowest cost operators producing pesticide-free, premium quality cannabis products, and achieving true vertical integration by: leveraging our purpose built, large-scale, high technology cGMP designed greenhouse in Cathedral City (the Sunniva California Campus); accelerating production within our licensed volatile and non-volatile extraction facility in Cathedral City, California (the Extraction Facility); producing and stockpiling inventory for Sunniva-branded product launches commencing Q1 2019; completing the pending acquisition of LTYR Logistics, LLC (LTYR) for state-wide distribution of Sunniva-branded products; aggressively pursuing dispensary retail expansion throughout California; and integrating our additions to the California management team to facilitate growth and revenues in 2019. Dr. Holler continued, In Canada, we concluded our formal engagement with Canaccord Genuity Corp. to conduct a thorough examination of the Canadian cannabis market to define Sunnivas strategy for our Canadian operations. We can confirm the Company intends to spin-out its Canadian assets (the Spin-Out) into a separate Canadian entity (Spinco). Our Canadian assets include Natural Health Services Ltd. (NHS), which owns our seven physician-based medical clinics throughout Canada and Sunniva Medical Inc. (SMI), which is our licensed producer applicant and owns the 126-acre parcel of land in Okanagan Falls, British Columbia, the site for a large-scale, purpose-built cGMP designed greenhouse (the Sunniva Canada Campus). Financial Highlights Three and Nine Months Ended September 30, 2018 Consolidated Financial Highlights expressed in 000s of CDN$, except per share amounts Three Months Ended September 30, 2018 2017 Change Revenue 3,739 4,562 (823 ) Cost of Goods Sold 1,634 2,834 (1,200 ) Gross Margin 2,105 1,728 377 Selling, General and Administrative 6,420 5,089 1,331 Share-based Payments 2,303 3,311 (1,008 ) Amortization Expense 751 660 91 Loss from Operations (7,369 ) (7,332 ) (37 ) Net Loss (6,781 ) (6,247 ) (534 ) Basic Loss Per Share $ (0.21 ) $ (0.25 ) $ 0.04 Weighted Average Number of Shares 32,042,054 25,374,940 6,667,114 Total Number of Shares Outstanding 32,054,215 26,623,016 5,431,199 Nine Months Ended September 30, 2018 2017 Change Revenue 13,372 10,215 3,157 Cost of Goods Sold 6,386 6,036 350 Gross Margin 6,986 4,179 2,807 Selling, General and Administrative 16,933 9,830 7,103 Share-based Payments 6,408 3,311 3,097 Amortization Expense 2,171 1,792 379 Loss from Operations (18,526 ) (10,754 ) (7,772 ) Net Loss (17,961 ) (17,953 ) (8 ) Basic Loss Per Share $ (0.59 ) $ (0.72 ) $ 0.13 Weighted Average Number of Shares 30,386,117 25,101,369 5,284,748 Total Number of Shares Outstanding 32,054,215 26,623,016 5,431,199 Results of Operations Three Months Ended September 30, 2018 For the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018, the Company generated $3.7 million and $13.4 million in revenue, respectively. NHS contributed $2.5 million and $8.4 million, Full-Scale Distributors, LLC (FSD) contributed $1.1 million and $4.9 million, and CP Logistics, LLC contributed $0.1 million over these same periods. Net loss for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018 was $6.8 million and $18.0 million as compared to $6.3 million and $18.0 million during the three and nine months ended September 30, 2017. The key components contributing to the change in net loss from the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018 compared to the prior comparative periods comprise the following: Revenue decreased by $0.8 million during the three months ended September 30, 2018 and increased by $3.2 million during the nine months ended September 30, 2018 as compared to the respective comparative periods. NHS revenue decreased by $0.7 million during the three months ended September 30, 2018 due to a decline in the number of prescriptions written over the comparative period; however, NHS revenue increased by $1.0 million during the nine months ended September 30, 2018 due to an increase in the number of clinics and Licensed Producers (LPs) under contract over the comparative period. FSD revenue decreased slightly by $0.2 million during the three months ended September 30, 2018 but increased by $2.1 million during the nine months ended September 30, 2018 due to an increased customer base and strong first quarter 2018 results. The increase over the comparative nine months ended September 30, 2017 is also due to the acquisitions of NHS and FSD midway through February 2017. Gross margin increased by $0.4 million and $2.8 million during the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018 primarily due to the increase of LP revenue in NHS. LP revenue provides the highest margin of all the Companys revenue streams. On a percentage basis, gross margin increased from 38% and 41% in the three and nine months ended September 30, 2017 to 56% and 52% in the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018 due to the increase in LP revenue. Selling, general and administration expenses increased by $1.3 million and $7.1 million during the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018. The increase is primarily due to an increase in operational spend with the Companys continued expansion, higher costs associated with being a publicly-listed company and increased advisory costs related to the development of the cultivation businesses in California and Canada. The most significant increase in costs relate to professional fees, personnel costs and rent. The increase over the comparative period is also due to the acquisitions of NHS and FSD occurring midway through the first quarter of fiscal 2017. Share-based payment expenses were $2.3 million and $6.4 million in the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018 compared to $3.3 million in the three and nine months ended September 30, 2017 with the introduction of the Companys stock option plan mid-way through fiscal 2017. The Company realized a non-cash gain of $1.0 million on settlement of a secured convertible promissory note issued in connection with the acquisition of FSD in the first quarter of fiscal 2018. Fair value changes in derivative instruments due to the revaluation of secured convertible promissory notes and warrants went from a gain of $0.3 million and an expense of $8.7 million for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2017 to gains of $1.1 million and $0.8 million for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018. This was due to a decrease in the Companys share price in the third quarter of fiscal 2018 and significant fair value changes in fiscal 2017 with the Companys private share value increasing throughout fiscal 2017. Amortization and depreciation expense increased by $0.1 million and $0.4 million during the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018 due to a higher cost base of the assets in fiscal 2018 and the intangible assets being acquired midway through the first quarter of fiscal 2017. The Companys cash position is $11.2 million as of the date hereof. Recent Operating Developments Subsequent to September 30, 2018 On October 12, 2018, the Company completed the Offering for aggregate gross proceeds of $23.0 million. A total of 4,370,000 units were sold at a price of $5.27 per unit. The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the Offering for construction and operations at the Sunniva Canada Campus and Sunniva California Campus, with the remaining amount funding working capital. On October 16, 2018, the Company signed a letter of intent with a related party, the Oakland Vision Project (Vision), to acquire all the issued and outstanding equity interests of the companies that comprise Vision. Vision is jointly owned by Vinayak Shastry, the Companys President of U.S. Operations. Vision operates a licensed cultivation facility located in Oakland, California (the Oakland Facility) and currently has a contract to supply the Sunniva California Campus with clean clones to initiate production. Completion of the acquisition remains subject to a number of conditions including, among other things: the negotiation and execution of a definitive agreement between the Company and Vision, completion of due diligence and receipt of regulatory approvals, including approval of the Canadian Securities Exchange. In November 2018, the Company transitioned from the OTCQX to the OTCQB as a consequence of the decrease in the Companys share price on the OTCQX which resulted in the Company no longer meeting the qualification requirement that it relied on for the purposes of listing. The Company will continue to trade under the symbol SNNVF and it will have no effect on the reporting obligations of the Company in the United States. On November 26, 2018, the Company signed a binding letter of intent with LTYR, a cannabis distribution company in California that is expected to become Sunnivas logistics and technology distribution platform to drive sales from Sunnivas large-scale cannabis production and manufacturing facilities and the launch of Sunniva-branded products commencing Q1 2019. LTYR will also utilize Sunnivas Cathedral City distribution and delivery license. The principal members of LTYR will also perform key management and sales roles in California. LTYR will continue to generate revenues and expand its existing relationships with over 120 licensed dispensaries throughout California. Concurrently, Sunniva is purchasing a 4,200 sq. ft warehouse in Long Beach, California that, once licensed and operational, will serve as an additional distribution hub for Sunniva and will expand the Companys distribution reach from the southern border to San Francisco. The City of Long Beach is a cannabis friendly region and the warehouse is situated in an industrial district that has been zoned for cannabis business operations. Renovations and receipt of licensing requirements are expected to be completed in Q2 2019. Completion of the acquisition remains subject to a number of conditions including, among other things: the negotiation and execution of a definitive agreement between the Company and LTYR, completion of due diligence and receipt of regulatory approvals, including approval of the Canadian Securities Exchange. Copies of our interim financial statements for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018 and related managements discussion and analysis of financial results are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com . California Operations Update Construction is nearing completion for Phase 1 of the Sunniva California Campus and is expected to be completed in Q1 2019. Total production capacity of Phase 1 is projected to be 50,000 kg (50 million grams) per year of premium indoor cannabis when fully ramped up. A total of 100,000 plants from the Oakland Facility are being prepared for onboarding for the initial planting cycle in Q1 2019. Automation will move the plants through their life cycle and when operating at full capacity, the Sunniva California Campus is expected to deliver a continuous daily harvest of approximately 210 kg (2.1 million grams) of dried flower. We continue to work toward the completion of our California state licensing requirements for the Sunniva California Campus. The cultivation licenses are currently being processed and the remaining license applications are being prepared for submission to the state of California. The Company does not expect operational delays from these licensing requirements. The Sunniva California Campus will be a 489,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art, purpose-built cGMP facility capable of producing 72,500 kg (72.5 million grams) per year of dried flower at peak capacity once construction of Phase 2 is completed. The Extraction Facility, licensed for both volatile and non-volatile extraction processes, commenced operations in July 2018. The extraction team has been manufacturing and perfecting its extracted product lines and developing product formulations. Sunniva is currently stockpiling inventory in preparation for the launch of Sunniva-branded product lines in Q1 2019. The Extraction Facility has the ability to produce vape oil-distillate, ultra-pure concentrates, fresh frozen, shatter, capsules, tinctures, and edibles. The Extraction Facility adheres to cGMP standards and has the capacity to process over 10,000 lbs of cannabis biomass a month. Sunniva continues to source compliant third-party biomass and trim through existing relationships which will drive revenues in early 2019. Reliance on purchases of third-party biomass will be reduced as production from the Sunniva California Campus becomes available. We have been evaluating many retail expansion opportunities to complement our vertical integration strategy. In addition to the flagship dispensary being built at the Sunniva California Campus, our goal is to pursue other retail acquisitions to expand our footprint in this part of the integration chain. Sunniva has strengthened its California management team in preparation for full operations in 2019. We have hired Kevin Wilkerson as COO of California operations, Tom Brozowski as Vice President Operations, Andrew Pruett as Vice President of Technology, Jay Myers as Vice President of Sales, Brad Neeld as Vice President of Distribution and Victor Ide, Manager of Human Resources. Canada Operations Update Our business strategy in Canada will shift from becoming a wholesaler of cannabis to a focus on the higher margin direct to patient medicinal cannabis market. Currently in Canada, there are approximately 400,000 registered cannabis patients, with that number forecasted to grow to over two million registered patients in the next three years. NHS has 105,000 registered patients to date and with 100% ownership of seven physician-based clinics across Canada, we feel we have a significant competitive advantage in capturing additional market share in this area. We have defined a clear path to accelerate our licensing and production timelines through SMI at the Sunniva Canada Campus by starting construction of a smaller modular phased approach that will require less than $1.5 million in cash capital expenditures. Production from this modular phase will be key to achieving our goal of 20,000 registered patients in 2019 and over 50,000 in 2020. We intend to increase future production capacity through phased development of the Sunniva Canada Campus. The Company intends to spin out its Canadian assets into Spinco and apply to list the shares of Spinco on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSX-V) first half of 2019. Spin-Out Steps and Anticipated Timelines Borden Ladner Gervais LLP has been engaged to handle the legal aspects of the Spin-Out including outlining the steps, timeline, preparation of the information circular and making the necessary regulatory and court applications. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP has been engaged as tax advisors to conduct the tax assessment and valuation of the Spin-Out to determine the allocation of value of the Canadian and US entities. MNP LLP has been retained as the auditors to conduct the audit of the carve-out financial statements of Spinco. Q1 2019 - set record date and mail out of information circular which will include information on the management, board of directors and financial statements of Spinco. Q1/Q2 2019 - meeting of the shareholders to vote on the transaction. Q2 2019 - shares of Spinco expected to begin trading on the TSX-V. Canada Business Plan Sunniva has the infrastructure to capture significant market share within the medicinal cannabis market: Market estimated to reach over two million patients in the next three years Insurance companies and unions providing medical cannabis coverage under group benefit plans Physicians are the gatekeepers to achieving market share High margin, LP direct to patient distribution business model BMO Capital Markets estimate medical sales price of $8.50 per gram for the next three years with the current average patient spend of $2,000 per year Patient capture through 100% ownership of NHS cannabis clinics and technology platform: Seven specialized brick and mortar cannabis clinics in four provinces (AB, SK, MB, ON) Over 105,000 registered patients 18 health care professionals (GPs, specialists) and two nurse practitioners Creating an online virtual e-commerce clinic platform for education, telemedicine and sales Planned collaboration with universities for research and development SMI received Confirmation of Readiness for a cultivation license under the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulation from Health Canada on May 26, 2018 SMIs application is approved and subject to initial phased build and readiness Phase 1 Modular fast- tracked facility (planned flower capacity ~5,000 kg/year) New cultivation modules expected to be delivered to site January 2019 Cannabis genetics already sourced for production Submit for cultivation license approval - January 2019 Estimate registering 20,000 medical patients in 2019, over 50,000 in 2020 Estimated costs < $2.50/gram pharma-grade, pesticide-free producer Initial capital of $1.5 million with additional production modules to be vendor financed Estimate receipt of sales license and first harvest by Q3 2019 Phase 2 458,000 sq. ft (50,000 kg per year flower capacity) State-of-the-art, purpose built, cGMP designed greenhouse Low cost < $1.00/gram pharma-grade, pesticide-free producer Subject to financing and license approvals Phase 3 301,000 sq. ft (50,000 kg per year flower capacity) State-of-the-art, purpose built, cGMP designed greenhouse Low cost < $1.00/gram pharma-grade, pesticide-free producer Subject to financing and license approvals Please see the updated Corporate Presentation and Fact Sheet at www.Sunniva.com/Investors / To be added to the Sunniva email distribution list, please email Sunniva@kcsa.com with Sunniva in the subject line. About Sunniva Inc. Sunniva, through its subsidiaries, is a vertically integrated cannabis company operating in the worlds two largest cannabis markets Canada and California. Our ability to leverage our large-scale, purpose-built cGMP designed greenhouses, offering better quality assurance with cannabis products free from pesticides, uniquely positions Sunniva as a leading supplier of safe, high quality products at scale. Through our strategically positioned cultivation and extraction facilities, we are launching Sunniva-branded products in various product categories including premium concentrates, vape cartridges, flower, pre-rolls, and beverages as well as aggressively pursuing upstream vertical opportunities including distribution and retail expansion. Sunniva's management and board of directors have a proven track record for creating significant shareholder value both in the healthcare and biotech industries. For more information please visit: www.sunniva.com 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. This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements that are not historical facts, including without limitation, statements regarding future estimates, plans, programs, forecasts, projections, objectives, assumptions, expectations or beliefs of future performance, statements regarding the Companys operations and growth opportunities, the Companys expansion of its footprint in the U.S., the Companys vision to become one of the lowest cost, highest quality vertically integrated cannabis producers in the markets we serve by building large scale purpose-built current cGMP designed greenhouses and expansion of retail locations, offering better quality assurance with cannabis products free from pesticides, providing better customer access to cannabis education and sourcing better therapeutic delivery devices, the profitability of the Companys facilities and operating subsidiaries, the expected dramatic increase in demand for cannabis in Canada following legalization of cannabis, the costs and expected production at the Sunniva California Campus and the Sunniva Canada Campus, the timing and conditions relating to the Spin-Out, the Sunniva California Campus being operational in Q1 2019 with the first harvest expected in Q2 2019, the ability of the Company to launch Sunniva-branded product lines in California and propagate the Sunniva California Campus with clean clones, the conditions of closing for the acquisition of Vision, the conditions of closing for the acquisition of LTYR, the expectation that LTYR will continue to generate revenues and expand its existing relationships with over 120 licensed dispensaries throughout California, the timing of renovations and receipt of licensing requirements for the warehouse in Long Beach, California, the impact of the transaction with LTYR on the Company and LTYRs expected role as the Companys logistics and technology distribution platform, the Companys expectation that there will be no operational delays from the California licensing requirements for the Sunniva California Campus, the Companys anticipated production and brand roll-out at the Extraction Facility, the reduction of reliance on purchases of third-party biomass as production from the Sunniva California Campus becomes available, the Companys goal to pursue other retail acquisitions in California, the Companys shift in focus from becoming a wholesaler of cannabis to the direct to patient medicinal cannabis market in Canada, the expected growth of the number of registered cannabis patients in Canada, the estimated medical sales price for the next three years and average patient spend, the Companys expected use of proceeds from financings, and statements regarding the plans, timing and conditions of the Spin-Out, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as plans, expects or does not expect, is expected, estimates, intends, anticipates or does not anticipate, or believes, or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, events or developments to be materially different from any future results, events or developments expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, among others, the risk factors included in the Sunnivas continuous disclosure documents available on www.sedar.com. These factors should be considered carefully, and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Although Sunniva has attempted to identify important risk factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other risk factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in forward-looking statements. Sunniva assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, even if new information becomes available as a result of future events, new information or for any other reason except as required by law. Company Contact: Dr. Anthony Holler Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Phone: (866) 786-6482 Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith has defeated Democrat Mike Espy in the Mississippi Senate race. This brings the Senate count to 53 (R) 47 (D). Mississippi, Goddam. The state just elected an openly white supremacist supporter of Donald Trump who unapologetically cracked a lynching joke about her Black and Democratic opponent. From the Washington Post's backgrounder on why the race was so important: No candidate received 50 percent of the vote in Mississippi's Nov. 6 special Senate election, sending the top two vote-getters to a Nov. 27 runoff. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R), a former state official, was appointed to this Senate seat after Thad Cochran (R) resigned in the spring. She faces Democrat Mike Espy, who was an agriculture secretary under President Bill Clinton. Republicans have already captured 52 Senate seats in the next Congress. Despite a series of campaign setbacks she's faced criticism for a Nov. 11 joke about attending a public hanging Hyde-Smith is favored to make it 53. She only received 42 percent of the vote on Nov. 6 but was challenged on the right by another Republican, state Sen. Chris McDaniel. The two combined for 58 percent of the vote, compared with 41 percent for Espy. Mississippi hasn't elected a Democratic senator since the 1980s. Sen. Roger Wicker (R) easily won reelection on Nov. 6 in the state's other Senate race. FILE PHOTOS, REUTERS: U.S. Senate candidate Mike Espy and U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R) are seen in combination file photos, in Jackson, Mississippi. Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith prevails in Mississippi Senate race, despite 'public hanging' comment https://t.co/B4dcrBDdf3 The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) November 28, 2018 BREAKING: GOP US Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith wins runoff in Mississippi, keeps seat; race was rocked by her "public hanging" remark. The Associated Press (@AP) November 28, 2018 NBC News projects that Cindy Hyde-Smith (R) wins the Mississippi Senate runoff over Mike Espy (D) Steve Kornacki (@SteveKornacki) November 28, 2018 I don't know who will win Mississippi's Senate election. But we do know that 1 in 6 black Mississippians were barred from voting today. (That compares to 1 in 16 people among the rest of the state's population, which is already shockingly high). Taniel (@Taniel) November 27, 2018 "The lesson of Mississippi is that deep-seated racism is alive and well in the United StateWhy isn't the GOP standing up right now on the right side of history and saying, 'These aren't our values. We're the party of Abraham Lincoln. We aren't the party of the Ku Klux Klan?'" https://t.co/TlkQo8ap35 Tim O'Brien (@TimOBrien) November 28, 2018 Projection: Cindy Hyde-Smith (R) has defeated Mike Espy (D) in the #MSSEN runoff. But she's done so w/ an underwhelming margin for an R in MS. Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) November 28, 2018 The disgraced former foreign policy advisor to the Trump campaign was boasting about a Russia business deal after the election, a newly unearthed letter reveals. "George Papadopoulos allegedly told a confidant in 2016 that he was pursuing a business deal in Russia that would result 'in large financial gains' for him and Trump," reports The Atlantic's rockstar reporter Natasha Bertrand. The House Intel Committee and FBI are now investigating. Excerpt: George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign adviser who pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents about his interactions with a Russia-linked professor in 2016, went to jail on Monday after fighting, and failing, to delay the start of his two-week prison sentence. But a letter now being investigated by the House Intelligence Committee and the FBI indicates that Papadopoulos is still in the crosshairs of investigators probing a potential conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia. The letter, obtained last week by The Atlantic, was sent to Democratic Representative Adam Schiff's office on November 19 by an individual who claims to have been close to Papadopoulos in late 2016 and early 2017. The letter was brought to the attention of Schiff and House Intelligence Committee staff, according to an aide who requested anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. The letter was also obtained by federal authorities, who are taking its claims "very seriously," said two U.S. officials who also requested anonymity due to the sensitivities of the probe. The statement makes a series of explosive but uncorroborated claims about Papadopoulos's alleged coordination with Russians in the weeks following Trump's election in November 2016, including that Papadopoulos said he was "doing a business deal with Russians which would result in large financial gains for himself and Mr. Trump." The confidant said they were willing to take a polygraph test "to prove that I am being truthful" and had come forward now after seeing Papadopoulos "become increasingly hostile towards those who are investigating him and his associates." A lawyer for Papadopoulos declined to comment. If corroborated, the claims in the letter would add to an emerging portrait of Trump and his associates' eagerness to strike backdoor deals with Russia even after the intelligence community concluded that Moscow had interfered in the 2016 election. (Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, tried to set up a "backchannel" to Russia in the weeks after the election and met with the CEO of a sanctioned Russian bank during the transition period. Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn, meanwhile, negotiated with the Russian ambassador about U.S. sanctions before Trump was inaugurated.) Jenny Odell is an artist and critic whose Bureau of Suspended Objects report on dropshipping (previously) was a fascinating dive into the weird, scammy world of crapgadgets and farcically poorly made fashion items sold through a network of "influencers" and turnkey ecommerce tool. Now, Odell has stumbled into a much weirder, much scammier, much murkier world, when she started investigating the parents of one of her Stanford students were receiving a steady stream of mysterious packages addressed to "Returns Department, Valley Fountain LLC." Odell's investigation revealed a bizarre network of shitty, overpriced off-brand gadgets sold through thousands of Amazon stores, as well as through a mostly empty "department store" right in the middle of Manhattan, as well as through a network of "book stores" that mostly sold crappy gadgets, whose proprietor kept on changing his name. This network is tied in with the religious cult that turned out to be the mysterious acquirers of Newsweek, whose subsequent shenanigans were revealed by Newsweek's own reporters, leading to police raids. This cult centered around Olivet University and an evangelical pastor named David Jang is also implicated in the International Business Times, as well as weird spam- and clickbait-mills. After Odell's extensive investigation, it's still not clear what, exactly, the fuck is going on with all these businesses, LLCs, storefronts, online storefronts, stock-art shoops, and other mysterious practices. What is clear is that someone is making a lot of money, somehow giant Manahattan department stores don't come cheap! Trying to map the connections between all these entities opens a gaping wormhole. I couldn't 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). 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 wasn't that the bookstore wasn't 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. A Business With No End [Jenny Odell/New York Times] We thank our sponsor for making this content possible; it is not written by the editorial staff nor does it necessarily reflect its views. There's always more to learn, especially when you have time off for the holidays! This holiday season, you can use your time away from work to learn something that's practical and READ THE REST The President extends a lump of coal to our troops along the border, in a gesture of Trumpian holiday slime. A Merry Christmas to all, and to the immigrant children locked in ICE dog cages, enjoy your gruel. At least 5,000 migrants, most of whom are part of a caravan that walked north from Central America through Mexico in recent weeks, are now waiting in Tijuana just across from San Diego to ask for asylum in the United States. My source Jeff Valenzuela who was on the scene during the mayhem at the border with the caravan sent me this photo from when tear gas canisters went off @KPBSnews pic.twitter.com/gBjYbem7S9 Jean Guerrero (@jeanguerre) November 26, 2018 This is how you ask for asylum, under U.S. immigration laws. A small number of border-rushers, including children, were tear gassed over the Thanksgiving holiday by Trump troops who were presumably just following orders, boss. Missy Ryan, Josh Dawsey, and Nick Miroff at the Washington Post: - ANC chair and Minister of Mineral Resources, Gwede Mantashe, testified at the State Capture Inquiry and came to the ANC's defence - According to Mantashe, the ANC only got involved with the drama between the Guptas and SA banks out of fear of job losses - There were also suspicions that the banks had been captured by WMC (white monopoly capital) PAY ATTENTION: Click See First under the Following tab to see Briefly.co.za News on your News Feed! Gwede Mantashe, ANC chair and Minister of Mineral Resources, came to the defence of the ruling party and says they did nothing terribly wrong. Mantashe testified at the State Capture Inquiry and tried to defend the ANC's decisions regarding the Guptas and their bank accounts. The Citizen reports that Mantashe said the ANC only intervened with South African banks about accounts of the Guptas because they were worried about job losses. Mantashe also said there was fear that the banks had been captured by white monopoly capital. PAY ATTENTION: Save mobile data with FreeBasics: Briefly is now available on the app During his testimony, Mantashe said 8 high-ranking officials approached him in 2016 about being forced to work with the Guptas and state capture. Mantashe told of how he was told by the ANC's top 6 to meet with Absa, Nedbank, Standard Bank and FNB about the closure of the Guptas' accounts. The Guptas wanted help with getting their accounts reopened and the ANC was told the closures would lead to 7 500 jobs being lost. But ultimately, the ruling party realised it would be highly irregular and illegal to interfere. Ultimately, the ANC realised it would be illegal to intervene in the Gupta saga with the banks. READ ALSO: Ramaphosa may hold the advantage in countdown to South African elections 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 Business / International by Maya Chisenga Maya Chisenga africayourafrica@gmail.com In the past year, Zimbabwe has attracted a new clique of international entrepreneurs, colloquially referred to on social media platforms as briefcase businessman. Zimbabwe's twitter is awash with pessimistic commentaries and jokes about these supposedly multi-million dollar investment proposals. Some commentators view them as the government's public relations initiatives to divert Zimbabwean's attention from bread and butter issues. The country has ambled from one investment promise to the next and failed to attract serious pedigree investors with a proven track record until now.The arrival of Ghanaian mining magnate Sir Samuel Jonah, Chairman of Ashanti Goldfields on Wednesday has heightened optimism in government offices and business circles. The Billionaire recently set up an investment vehicle, Polytimos Ousia Capital with local businessman Mr. Thabani James Moyo. The company was established with the sole purpose of investing in the mining sector. During his stay, he will meet President Mnangagwa and other government officials.We managed to speak to his business partner Mr. Moyo."This is an exciting opportunity for Zimbabwe. Sir Jonah brings invaluable knowledge and expertise in the mining sector. His highly regarded international business reputation and acumen will give confidence to other potential investors who are interested in establishing a local presence"The Zimbabwe mining sector could indeed benefit from Sir Jonah's international business network and invaluable experience in the country's quest for economic growth. Sir Jonah grew Ashanti from a single mine to the second largest gold producer in the world.The Billionaire started his working life breaking rocks miles underground and rose to the highest echelons of the mining world, brokering multi-billion dollar deals in boardrooms across the globe. A pioneer and true pan-African, the charismatic Sir Jonah has attracted fellow Ghanaians to the country's once foreign-dominated mining sector with an "Africanization policy", that insured his countrymen also prospered in the mining sector. Many African mining executives across the continent credit Sir Jonah for opening and paving the way.According to Thabani James Moyo, Sir Jonah will be in the country until Thursday and will meet President Mnangagwa, government officials and the business community. Moyo who has a vast network of high net-worth individuals across the globe interested in investing in Zimbabwe is excited about the country's future prospects."Zimbabwe's potential in numerous sectors such as mining and tourism cannot be ignored, we are a sleeping African giant"The new administration has been successful in making the country's business environment less bureaucratic. However, the investment climate in Zimbabwe is still reeling from the previous administration's draconian laws that hampered foreign investment.Sir Jonah is the second African Billionaire to visit Zimbabwe in recent years after the world's richest Blackman, Nigerian business magnate, Aliko Dangote visited the country last year to invest in a cement factory. The project has since been put on hold after the businessman and his team were left frustrated by the then Mugabe government.President Mnangagwa whose ambition is to create a Zimbabwean middle-class by 2030, has labeled his administration as a "new dispensation" that is "open for business", one fervently hopes Sir Jonah's business efforts in Zimbabwe run smoothly and encourage other investors to take a punt and tap into Zimbabwe's enormous potential and perhaps start a torrent of investments. News / National by Staff reporter The credibility of a report compiled by a committee appointed by former Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Dr Joram Gumbo to study the findings of an audit by Grant Thornton on the operations of the Zimbabwe National Road Administration has been questioned after some investors implicated in it disputed its findings.Others queried why Minister Gumbo appointed a separate committee to study the findings of an audit report which comes with recommendations that Zinara was merely supposed to implement.They argued that the committee was constituted by people who lacked expertise and competence that could not be paralleled with what Grant Thornton recommended in the audit report. One of the companies implicated by the committee is Santanah Holdings, a South African firm that facilitated the US$206 million loan that financed the refurbishment of the Plumtree-Mutare Highway.In its findings after studying the Grant Thornton audit report with regards to the Plumtree-Mutare Highway, the committee concluded that Santanah Holdings was paid a whopping US$198 000 raising fee for facilitating the US$206 million from the Development Bank of Southern Africa.Further, the committee said: "Over and above these payments, the committee has since established that Zinara is also paying administration fees on an annual basis. For the period under review (2011 to 2016), a total of US$22 733 196 was paid to Santanah/Sela/Golden Road as administration fees."The committee further established that a total of US$33 281 196 was paid as administration and capital raising of US$24 241 719." Sources who spoke to The Herald clarified the details around the loan and its costing of the loan.Said the source: "The pricing for the Plumtree-Mutare project was circa US$206,6 million capital costs without variances or any statutory increased costs on materials, labour and plant, approximately US$10,5 million Export Credit Insurance that was capitalised at the onset, as well as raising fees from both the bank and the investor's advisors, Santanah both of which charges are globally acceptable practices."The source said the political and commercial risk attributed to Zimbabwe at the time was inordinately high and: "In consequence the interest component that was charged by DBSA at inception amounted to some 8,25 percent above Libor and in addition the ECIC risk cover charged at 2,5 percent per annum."These are significant risk premiums, but at the time of borrowing Infralink was faced with a take it or leave it position by lenders. Facilitation and raising fees, advisory service and the like to borrowers for projects of this nature at the time stood at around seven to 10 percent of the capital cost payable on first drawdown."The facilitation at the time found that this would have been an added unnecessary burden on Infralink and opted to accept settlement of three percent on drawdown and the balance at the rate of 1,3 percent per annum for the tenure of the debt."With regards to the alleged payment to Golden Road for the facilitation of the loan which the committee said was never disbursed to Zinara, the source said: "As regards the settlement of raising fees on a loan of US$147,47 million secured for the dualisation of the road sections between towns of Norton and Kadoma, this request and application, including feasibility studies and all other pertinent administrative processes necessary to achieve this, was done at the behest of Infralink."The DBSA confirmed its intent to extend this loan and in fact issued their indicative term sheet for signature to Infralink and at the time the latter opted to forego the finance available."Golden Road settled the raising fee as it had done the job requested and secured the funding required as requested by Infralink. The fact that Infralink chose to withdraw its requirement did not retract from the obligation to settle the facilitation with the raising fee. "The suggestion, however, that an administrative fee of 1,3 percent is settled on this facility is not correct." News / National by Staff reporter A POLICE officer allegedly lost an AK 47 rifle during a drinking spree at a night spot with prostitutes and illegal gold panners while on duty.The cop, identified only as Constable Tarwirei allegedly reported for duty at Chivi Tollgate, Chivi District in Masvingo Province on Friday at around 10PM. Sources close to the investigations said that sometime during the night he sneaked from his post and went to a drinking spot near Chivi turn-off where he started drinking beer.Cst Tarwirei, the source said, had an AK 47 rifle that was fully charged with a magazine of 30 rounds and was wearing a police uniform.Sources said he drank beer with unknown illegal gold panners until the wee hours of the morning. It is suspected the panners drugged him and made away with the gun."At about 3AM he approached a prostitute for a quickie but she turned him down. Cst Tarwirei was visibly drunk and some unknown people who are suspected to be amakorokoza continued to ply him with beer," said the source.The source said patrons at the night spot later told investigators that the unknown people bought beer which Cst Tarwirei guzzled but surprisingly, they were not drinking."The prostitute that Cst Tarwirei had earlier tried to bed, said she joined the group. She said she had a couple of sips of the beer the constable was drinking and found it strange. She said she immediately felt dizzy and left the group," said the source.Another source said in the morning at around 5AM, Cst Tarwirei discovered that his rifle was missing and the men who were buying him alcohol were nowhere to be seen."He was dead drunk and had fallen asleep at the bar. He looked for his rifle. He asked people who were around but they knew nothing. The men who were buying him alcohol had disappeared," said the source.The source said when the gravity of the situation hit Cst Tarwirei, he seemed to sober up."He made a report at Chivi Turn-off Police Station. I suspect he started drinking again to drown his sorrows because when his superiors arrived hours later, he appeared dead drunk and could hardly speak," said the source.National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Mr Paul Nyathi yesterday declined to comment on the issue saying he was yet to receive a report."I'm not aware of such an issue, as it is I'm not at work. I can only get hold of this information once I reach office that is probably tomorrow. Now l can't give out any comment," he said. News / National by Mandla Ndlovu Norton Member of Parliament Temba Mliswa has denied reports that he has re-joined ZANU PF. The reports came after Temba Mliswa was seen wearing ZANU PF regalia at a rally held in Zvimba over the weekend."The beauty of being an Independent is having the freedom to support the good in each party. I was looking forward to my invite to the last MDCA event but nothing came...hopefully next time I'll get the chance to wear red." Mliswa said.Mliswa courted controversy after social media users accused him of being a flip floper by posing as an Independent by day and acting as a ZANU PF member by night.Recently a South African based Radio Disc Jockey Stanley Dube (known as Wildfire Deejay) has accused Norton Member of Parliament Temba Mliswa of being President Mnangagwa's henchman who lynches the presidents political opponents."Temba was and is still an Independent MP. Such an important Portfolio would not ordinarily be donated to anyone outside of Zanu PF unless a deal had been cut?"His loyalty to President Mnangagwa who is his relative is not doubted, so Temba is safe hands to protect and advance Mnangagwa's partisan interests when it comes to issue related to mines and energy."Temba Mliswa is related to former ZANU PF stalwart Didymus Mutasa and has been accused of abusing that relationship to engage in corrupt activities and accumulate wealth. NEW YORK, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Levi & Korsinsky announces it has commenced an investigation of Ternium S.A. (Ternium or the Company) (NYSE: TX) concerning possible violations of federal securities laws. On November 27, 2018, Bloomberg reported that Terniums Chairman Paolo Rocca was indicted for his role in a graft scheme. According to the article, The judge charged Rocca after the Argentine billionaire testified that one of his companys executives paid an undisclosed amount of cash to government officials in monthly installments from 2009 to 2012. The officials were allegedly working for then-President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchners administration to speed up a compensation payment from Venezuelas Hugo Chavez for the nationalization of Sidor, a unit that had been seized by Venezuela. Roccas group was compensated with $1.95 billion for the unit. To obtain additional information, go to: https://www.zlk.com/pslra-1/ternium-s-a-loss-form or contact Joseph E. Levi, Esq. either via email at jlevi@levikorsinsky.com or by telephone at (212) 363-7500, toll-free: (877) 363-5972. Levi & Korsinsky is a national firm with offices in New York, California, Connecticut and Washington D.C. The firms attorneys have extensive expertise in prosecuting securities litigation involving financial fraud, representing investors throughout the nation in securities and shareholder lawsuits. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes. News / National by Staff reporter With the ruling party clearly annoyed by his antics, MDC leader Nelson Chamisa, has vowed to turn the knife in until President Emmerson Mnangagwa's administration has dealt with the plight of long-suffering Zimbabweans, the Daily News can report.A few hours after Mnangagwa warned that his administration would not allow anyone to abuse the democratic space he claims is a by-product of last year's coup that toppled former president Robert Mugabe, Chamisa has responded by calling on MDC party faithful to join him in a mother-of-all demonstrations on Thursday.While addressing a Zanu-PF rally in Mashonaland West on Saturday, Mnangagwa along with his deputy Constantino Chiwenga took turns to denigrate the 40-year-old opposition leader, an indication that his intransigence is clearly getting into their nerves.Chiwenga declared that there was no vacancy at State House in response to the MDC's claims that the crisis dogging the southern African state was that of legitimacy arising from what they call a rigged July 30 poll.But through its spokesperson Jacob Mafume, the MDC told the Daily News yesterday that Mnangagwa and his deputy should focus on their internal squabbles and an economy that "is refusing to be rigged" instead of falling back into their default mode of closing democratic space."The guilty are always afraid, he (Mnangagwa) knows deep in his heart that he was beaten by Chamisa that is why he is always talking about Chamisa, he knows that like Mugabe he is in power because he has the guns, he is also too aware that he is the past and Chamisa is the future, they want to close the democratic space, let them try," said Mafume."On the 29th, we are going ahead with our demonstration, people have said that they want to demonstrate. The people are clear that they don't want taxes, they are clear they don't want to pay in United States dollars when they are paid in bond notes, the police have been notified and as far as we are concerned, we have followed the law".A showdown between government and the opposition now looms large with Chamisa promising to lead the protests against skyrocketing prices and taxes from the front.Political analysts canvassed by the Daily News said Mnangagwa's repeated threats against the opposition were ominous and could see arrests of dissenting voices and closure of the democratic space.Respected political science lecturer Eldred Masunungure said Zanu-PF sees people's freedoms as privileges and not rights and could take that away without necessarily caring about the consequences."The reality is that Zanu-PF and its leadership find it strange to open political space; what they did post-November is something that they regret, they now know that the space can be abused and this is because they are not used to democratic space."When they opened the space, they did not envisage people turning against them and thus they now believe that they have given too much to the people and thus they always warn the opposition that they can close that space."What is normal in truly democratic countries is abnormal here, they are making the point that we can go back to what we used to, they want to go back to what they are used to do," said Masunungure.Professor of World Politics at the London School of Oriental and African Studies Stephen Chan said Mnangagwa might be facing the headwinds and could risk losing all the international goodwill he managed to scrap during the time he has been at the helm.He said as long as Mnangagwa is courting Western investment, he needs to be careful not to close any significant democratic space."In addition, the courts seem to have recovered their sense of independent judgment, and a strong sense of safeguarding the Constitution. Opposition leader Chamisa is like a gadfly who won't go away. But, while a nuisance to Mnangagwa, he is not a threat. Chamisa does not appear to have united MDC party support. The most sensible thing Mnangagwa can do is to build greater unity in Zanu-PF," said Chan."But, as I have always said, the time really has come in Zimbabwe to stop focusing on personalities. There are still no economic policies that make any sense in the terrible economic times now developing nothing from Mnangagwa or Chamisa, Zanu-PF or the MDC. Everyone is saying is that they hope to persuade the outside world to give Zimbabwe more money. But the outside world sees a beggar nation with suburbs like Borrowdale Brook," he added.Political analyst Maxwell Saungweme said Mnangagwa should stop thinking that Zimbabweans owe him anything."First, we owe our freedoms to God and humanity and not Mnangagwa. Freedoms are not an act of magnanimity from a political demagogue. Chamisa has not abused any of the freedoms. He has gone haywire at times with his rhetoric at rallies but none of what he said amount to an abuse of his God-given freedoms. They may try to close the freedoms but that will be a shot in the feet. All their reform agenda, including the budget Mthuli Ncube announced, base their success on a couple of factors, key of them is opening civic space and freedoms," said Saungweme.Mnangagwa has tried on many platforms to project himself as a reformist and a democrat, but he has of late been warning the MDC against demonstrating.Chamisa, who claims to have won the elections, has on several occasions stopped his supporters from rioting but lately the war drums have been sounded and it appears Mnangagwa is worried sick. News / National by Staff reporter Police have refuted claims that villagers in Nyajena communal lands in Masvingo South looted wards of cash - both hard currency and local bond notes - from the wreckage of a Cessna light aircraft that crashed in a hill near Renco Mine, killing all five passengers last Friday.The plane, which was heading to Victoria Falls with Chiredzi conservancy operator Mr Barry Style in the cockpit, had taken off from Buffalo Range Airport before it crashed at Chamanjenjere Hills in the Tokwane-Ngundu area at around 0740hrs.Mr Style and his four passengers perished in the crash, whose cause is not yet known, although preliminary reports indicate that the plane started disintegrating while it was airborne.Reports went viral on social media over the weekend that Nyajena villagers were left counting their lucky stars in the wake of the plane crash after allegedly looting wards of cash mainly US$ notes.Masvingo acting provincial police spokesperson Assistant Inspector Kudakwashe Dhewa yesterday refuted the reports. He said police actually recovered hard currency cash and bond notes together with other valuables from the plane debris."We do not have reports that any cash or valuables were looted by anyone from the Nyajena plane crash site and in actual fact we recovered about $500 in bond notes and over US$400, among other valuables, from the plane's wreckage," said Asst Insp Dhewa.This was also corroborated by Masvingo South National Assembly representative Claudios Maronge.He said blood-stained wallets containing bond notes and US dollars were recovered and handed over to the police."Nobody took any cash from what I know and in fact $500 in bond notes and about US$405 was found in some wallets that were found at the wreckage," said Maronge."The wallets also contained Visa cards and this property was secured and handed over to the police, our people are conservatives and would not dare taking valuables in the event of such as mishap."Maronge said traditional leaders and elders in the Nyajena area were stunned by the horror plane crash and were mulling conducting cleansing rituals to appease the dead.Police and teams from the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe swiftly moved in to secure the plane crash site where debris was scattered as investigations into the cause of the crash continued. News / National by Staff reporter GOVERNMENT has intensified efforts to resuscitate ailing pharmaceutical company, CAPS, to ease drug shortages that have seen pharmacies demanding payment for drugs in foreign currency, Defence and War Veterans Affairs Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri has said.Minister Muchinguri-Kashiri said this during a provincial coordinating committee (PCC) meeting in Mutare recently where various economic issues were discussed."We have some pharmacies, which are demanding United States dollars from people in need of drugs, which is in contravention of Government policies."Government will soon be importing more drugs through NatPharm and public institutions will soon have them. Our aim is to enhance competition in Government health institutions. Government is working on the resuscitation of CAPS soon."Speaking at the same event, Chris Mushohwe, who is responsible for economic affairs in Zanu-PF, said Government had secured enough fuel for the farming season."With the farming season fast approaching, farmers are having sleepless nights over the fuel situation," he said."We would like to thank Sakunda Holdings, which secured 100 million litres of fuels that it gave to Government. I would like to assure farmers that there will be enough fuel for the farming season."Mushohwe said Government was working with the Ministry of Health and Child Care in engaging health institutions over pricing of medication and dealing with pharmacies that are demanding payments in foreign currency. He said Government had since reactivated the inter-ministerial committee on price monitoring chaired by Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga. News / National by Staff reporter DIVISIONS rocking the MDC Alliance played out in the open yesterday when allies of party leader Mr Nelson Chamisa confronted vice president Engineer Elias Mudzuri, scolding him in public for having attended a parliamentary function at State House.Eng Mudzuri is said to be angling to challenge Mr Chamisa for the presidency at the party's congress set for next year, reviving his earlier shots at the position which were pronounced when former party leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai was still on his death bed.Eng Mudzuri is the leader of opposition in the Senate and a member of the Parliamentary Standing Rules and Orders Committee (SROC). The meeting at State House was meant to fulfill parliamentary procedures which require that National Assembly and Senate presiding officers present themselves to the President on assuming their duties.The provisions are covered by Standing Rule and Order Number 11. Eng Mudzuri was properly at the meeting with President Mnangagwa, considering that the positions he holds in Parliament qualify him as a presiding officer.Other opposition officials, namely Ms Tabitha Khumalo (leader of opposition in the National Assembly) and Mr Prosper Mutseyami (Chief Whip) boycotted the presentation ceremony.Immediately after attending the meeting, Eng Mudzuri - who has been entangled in factional fights with MDC Alliance leader Mr Nelson Chamisa - was confronted by his president's allies who sought answers on why he was at State House.In a video that went viral yesterday, MDC Alliance National Assembly members Messrs Charlton Hwende (Kuwadzana East) and Murisi Zwizwai (Harare Central) led a few opposition legislators who confronted Eng Mudzuri at a Harare hotel and shouted at him.Surprisingly, the legislators were at the hotel on parliamentary business, taking part in post-budget consultations."Ikozvino vanhu vakadzingwa nemapurisa nenyaya yaMnangagwa," Mr Zwizwai is heard saying in reference to MDC Alliance legislators who were ejected in Parliament last week for rowdy behaviour."Iko zvino maenda kuState House, madii kufonera vamwe vanhu vese? Madii kutarisa kuona kuti hapana kana one wangu ari panapa?"Mr Hwende weighed in: "One munhu weMDC, vana chief whip vese havana kuenda. Hana yenyu yanga isingarove muri one kuState House kwacho?"Opposition legislators last week refused to acknowledge President Mnangagwa when he entered the National Assembly chamber last week for the national budget presentation, leading to their ejection from the House for disregarding parliamentary protocol.Mr Hwende chairs the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on ICT, and observers said he should be well-versed with parliamentary business because of that post.In an interview, Eng Mudzuri said he attended the event to fulfil his parliamentary duties. He accused Mr Zwizwai and company of making "theatrical accusations." "It's just being disrespectful of a senior person," said Eng Mudzuri."I went in my responsibility as a member of the SROC and we have been attending SROC meetings in Bulawayo where we agreed that we should have a selected number of people who engage the President regularly."These guys are just interested in waylaying people for nothing. This is disrespect of the highest order and I think whoever thinks you can separate our responsibilities in Parliament and central Government is being naive."How do we work? Budget has to be passed by the same person (President Mnangagwa) and the person doing the budget is also appointed by the President. Hondo yacho inopera kupi?"He went on: "They are being childish because I can't be attacked in public by juniors. If there is anything to worry about, they should ask the president to talk to me unless they are having private meetings. I can assure you that anyone who reasons will not find their argument in order."I want a situation where we take parliamentary business seriously. In any case, I was happy the President indicated that we have to look at electoral laws and the next election date is announced by the same person you don't want to engage."By late yesterday, those fighting in Mr Chamisa's corner were calling for the expulsion of Eng Mudzuri from the party.Eng Mudzuri and Mr Douglas Mwonzora are being accused of positioning themselves to challenge Mr Chamisa for the presidency at the party's congress due early next year. News / National by Staff reporter THE Zanu-PF Politburo meeting which was set to be held in Harare tomorrow to discuss a number of issues ahead of the party's national people's conference in December, has been postponed to December 5.Zanu-PF Secretary for Information and Publicity Simon Khaya Moyo said the meeting would be held at the party headquarters at 10AM."The Politburo of the revolutionary Zanu-PF will meet on Wednesday 5 December 2018 at the party headquarters commencing at 10AM and not on 28 November as earlier advised. Any inconvenience caused is sincerely regretted," he said.The meeting is taking place at a time the nation is preparing for a new farming season and the ruling party's annual conference set for Esigodini in Matabeleland South.Khaya Moyo said preparations for the annual indaba are on course with a delegation led by the party's national chairperson Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri expected to visit the venue of the conference on Friday."Preparations for the national people's conference in Esigodini are going on well. The national chairperson of the party Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri will be leading a delegation comprising the co-ordinating committee to Esigodini on Friday to assess progress," he said."Muchinguri-Kashiri will also dialogue with the provincial leadership to discuss progress in terms of the preparations."The conference, which runs from December 10 to December 15 under the theme "Zimbabwe is Open for Business: In Unity and Peace towards an upper middle income economy by 2030", is expected to attract 5 000 delegates drawn from the country's 10 provinces. News / National by Staff reporter Disgruntled MDC members yesterday scaled up calls for deputy president Elias Mudzuri's expulsion from the party for attending a meeting at State House with President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Parliament business as internal wars in the opposition party escalate.MDC youth wing secretary-general Lovemore Chinoputsa led the call for Mudzuri to be expelled from the MDC for what other members termed "being a sell-out" and supping with the devil after he attended the parliamentary presiding officers' meeting called by Mnangagwa.MDC legislators and party leaders have said they do not recognise Mnangagwa's presidency."This marks the end of the road for our vice-president. You can't keep defying the party time and again. By choosing Mnangagwa over the party, VP Mudzuri has effectively expelled himself from the party. It was a pleasure working with you Elias. Hambe kahle [farewell]!" Chinoputsa said on his Twitter account. Mudzuri was the only opposition politician among Zanu-PF's high-ranking officials. The MDC Senator joined the delegation which was led by Speaker of the National Assembly Jacob Mudenda and Deputy Speaker Tsitsi Gezi, Senate president Mabel Chinomona and her deputy, Senator Michael Nyambuya, who was represented by Chief Fortune Charumbira.In his response to the attacks, Mudzuri said he attended the meeting in his capacity as leader of the opposition in the Senate under the Parliamentary Standing Rules and Orders."It is with sadness and unfortunate circumstances that my fellow junior parliamentarians would want to play petty politics on something that is part of my terms of reference as a party deployee. My confusion to all this stems from the fact that if what I did was 'illegal' to my fellow parliamentarians, then I want to understand what we are still doing in Parliament as a party and wasting taxpayers' money," Mudzuri said in a statement.Other MDC MPs such as Charlton Hwende and Murisi Zvizwai also accused Mudzuri of being a sellout, but the former Harare mayor, who is touted as a potential challenger to party president Nelson Chamisa, said he had done nothing wrong."I went to State House, not to appease President Mnangagwa, but to respect the office of Parliament. If I am wrong and they are right I would be proud to be fired from the party because I represented the party in Parliament business. It's sad that my very colleagues were fully engaged in Parliament business at HICC (Harare International Conference Centre) on post-budget consultations, a budget presentation that saw MPs under attack from police. What hypocrisy!" Mudzuri said.After the meeting, Mudzuri was interrogated by party legislators at HICC, where the party had joined Zanu-PF MPs for a post-budget seminar, although the MPs were kicked out of the budget presentation last Thursday for refusing to recognise Mnangagwa as President of the country.Hwende, the chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Information Communication and Technology accused Mudzuri of being a sellout, who was now dining with the enemy."How do you go alone as an MDC member, alone, why? Were you not ashamed, being alone there?" Hwende asked, to which Mudzuri calmly responded that he was not ashamed of anything.Hwende accused Mudzuri of endorsing Mnangagwa, an allegation he countered by asking if the MDC MPs' attendance to parliamentary business meant endorsing Mnangagwa's regime.Mudzuri, together with party secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora, recently reportedly landed themselves in hot soup after holding talks with Chief Justice Luke Malaba, who had been heckled in Parliament by opposition legislators. At law, presiding officers are presented to the President and these include members of the Standing Rules and Orders Committee of Parliament. Mudzuri should have been joined by Tabitha Khumalo, the party's chief whip, Prosper Mutseyami and Morgen Komichi. Others presented to Mnangagwa include Joseph Chinotimba, Tsitsi Muzenda, Temba Mliswa, Perrance Shiri, Pupurai Togarepi and Ziyambi Ziyambi, the leader of government business in Parliament. News / National by Staff reporter A 41-YEAR-OLD Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) agent based in Guruve was yesterday convicted of contempt of court after defying a High Court order barring him from taking possession of his neighbour's irrigation pump station.Guruve magistrate Artwel Sanyatwi sentenced William Wachenuka of plot number 7, Disi Farm, to 12 months imprisonment, wholly suspended on condition that he does not commit a similar offence in the next five years.Prosecutor Albert Mazhindu told the court that sometime in 2008, the convict disrupted operations of the complainant, Clive George Hall (51), of Tobs Strong Private Limited at Plot number 3, Disi Farm, Guruve, after grabbing irrigation infrastructure.Hall made an application for restoration of possession that was granted in an interim High Court order on December 16, 2008.The judgment and final order were handed down on June 23, 2010, and it granted Hall full possession and access to the irrigation pump station.On June 5 this year, Wachenuka, in the company of two unidentified persons, gained entry to the pump station by cutting security locks on the electricity breakers box and replaced the locks. His actions were in contravention of the court order giving Tobs Strong Private Limited access to the irrigation pump house and electricity breakers box.In mitigation, Wachenuka said he was a polygamist with nine wives and 26 children, hence a custodial sentence would be too harsh for him."Your worship, I have a big family, that is nine wives and 26 children. I also want to continue going to work, that is at the President's Office. Above all, I was misrepresenting the High Court order. May I be given another chance to reform?" Wachenuka said. News / National by Mandla Ndlovu Factionalism within ZANU PF took a surprising turn over the weekend with reports that President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Vice President Constantino Chiwenga have found each other ahead of the December ZANU PF conference.Vice President Chiwenga shocked many people on Saturday when he declared his undying support for President Mnangagwa at a rally held in Zvimba.A Central Committee source from Mashonaland East opened up on the new developments in the party."The President and the Vice President have met and agreed to heal the cracks in the party in pursuit of unity, peace and development. The bold and emphatic statement that you heard coming from the Vice President at the Zvimba rally was a public confirmation that unity is now being pursued in the party." The source said.ZANU PF is reportedly planning to effect a number of changes a to the party's constitution and a clause that will recognize former President Robert Gabriel Mugabe as the founding Father of ZANU PF."You will notice that at the conference a number of changes will take place. The first one is the amendment of the constitution tom formally recognise VaMugabe as the founding father of the party."Also party of the progressive path agreed by the President and Vice President is to renew the politiburo and inject fresh blood that will redirect party in line with the contemporary dictates of the 2nd Republic."You might see the new look Politburo having people like David Parirenyatwa, Sydney Sekeramayi, Edna Madzongwe and Chris Mushowe booted out. People like Cde Raj Modi , Energy Mutodi , Mike Madiro and Jonathan Mangwiro drafted in."ZANU-PF has tentatively set December 11 to 16 as dates for its 17th Annual National People's Conference to be held in Esigodini, Matabeleland South Province, where 5 000 delegates are expected to attend. News / National by Mary-Kate Kahari HARARE - Zimbabwe's foreign affairs minister, Sibusiso Moyo's health has reportedly taken a turn for the worse amid reports that the minister is now unable to speak, Spotlight Zimbabwe reported.According to ministry of health officials aware of Moyo's kidney ailment related condition, the minister is said to have lost weight and can now barely speak, due to rapid deterioration of his well-being.The disclosure comes hard on the heels of reports by President Emmerson Mnangagwa, that former leader, Robert Mugabe, is now wheelchair bound in Singapore, where he is receiving specialist health care and treatment.Moyo is popularly known for announcing the Zimbabwe military coup against Mugabe on national television in November 2017, and was rewarded by Mnangagwa with his influential cabinet post, to manage the country's International relations and foreign policy. On 15 November 2017, following the house arrest of Mugabe the previous day, Moyo gave a statement on ZTV denying that a coup had taken place, stating that "the president and his family are safe and sound and their security is guaranteed", and that the military were "only targeting criminals around (Mugabe) who are committing crimes that are causing social and economic suffering in the country". Moyo went on to say that "As soon as we have accomplished our mission, we expect that the situation will return to mormalcy.""The situation has taken a turn for the worse," said a doctor working for the ministry. "I cannot disclose fine details about the minister's ailment, but it is true that he is unable to speak at the moment. He is however not in a comma as some have been speculating."Moyo who is thought to be a close ally of vice president, Constantino Chiwenga, in government, has not attended to government business since September and has had to undergo undisclosed surgeries and a recent review in South Africa.Last month Mnangagwa's spokeman, George Charamba, confirmed Moyo had undergone two medical operations at a local hospital, before flying out for a brief review in South Africa."I also want to correct the impression that was in the market that Lt General SB Moyo was in South Africa," said Charamba to the media. "In fact, he was treated at a local hospital and only travelled to South Africa for a review. It is understood that he had two operations meant to remove some growth in the stomach."There have been concerns in recent times over the effectiveness of government day to day operations, as senior figures especially in the presidium, including Mnangagwa have been receiving medical treatment at elite hospitals in South Africa.VP Chiwenga and his counterpart Mohadi, have both visited South Africa for medical treatment this year. Chiwenga was in October airlifted to a Johannesburg hospital, where he received medical attention for a mysterious illness. Mohadi on the other hand has been in and out of South African hospitals since early this year, with rumours at one time that he had passed on refuted by Mnangagwa in May. News / National by Mandla Ndlovu Members of the disability community have come out guns blazing against one Gift Rowdy Mabaudhi whom they accuse of misrepresenting himself as the champion for the disability cause in a secret bid to secure political mileage for himself.Writing on Facebook on Sunday Mabaudhi said, "For us in the disability community we scored major victories in this budget. 15 DPOs had tasked me to make representations on their behalf and this happened with less than 72 hours to the budget. I managed to present our case to Prof Mthuli Ncube and surprisingly the good Prof factored them in."However some members of the disability community said while they welcome the budget, there is little innovation regarding their sector."People with disabilities have been importing cars and other assistive devices duty free since the dawn of independence therefore there is nothing new here." Said Sijabulile Mpofu a wheelchair bound man from Bulawayo."So for us to hear that there is a man called Mabaudhi who claims to have been mandated by 15 disability organisations to input in the budget is simple a farce. Firstly, things that we as disabled people have been lobbying the government for a longtime for are not yet addressed and secondly that man Mabaudhi holds no official capacity that we can send him to represent us in budget consultations. He only runs a non-existing organisation called the National Disability Dialogue."Mabaudhi is simply trying to claim false victories and abuse the cause of the disabled for self aggrandizement and political benefits, he is an ambitious person whose thirst for political power will force him to lie like this to earn himself any government position available."Mpofu further blasted the former Harare special interest Councillor for failing for push for the renovation of Harare Town house to make it accessible to the disabled."Mr Mabhaudi is just an ordinary Zanu PF card carrying member who has done very little if anything for people with disabilities. Even as a Special Interest Councillor he failed to make Town House disability accessible."Back to the budget we as people with disabilities expected a more comprehensive budget that does not only mention a few items of duty rebate. I am of the view that budget was to create a more enabling environment for people with disabilities. So that our rights and dignities are respected on an equally basis with others, so that we enjoy of the same community services, facilities and amenities as the so called 'normal' people."Another disabled person person Chiedza Mlambo said if Mabaudhi was indeed consulted by Minister Mthuli Ncube, he was not mandated by anyone."As disabled people our plea to government has always been the revision of the disability fund to a the equivalent of a living wage, provision of a realistic disability empowerment loan scheme, scholarship fund for disabled people who intend to pursue higher education in Zimbabwe, provision of funds for infrastructure modifications to make them disability accessible and a budget allocation for healthcare and assistive devices provision ." Chiedza explained.South Africa is one of the countries in the region that have lots of progressive policies for the disabled. Many universities have scholarships for students with disabilities. LOS ANGELES, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sixty years ago this month, Nissan had the first public showing of its vehicles in the U.S. at the 1958 Los Angeles Auto Show. Little did the company know that the simple display of three cars and a tiny truck would six decades later lead to Nissan becoming a major player in the U.S. market with 22,000 employees and annual sales of 1.5 million vehicles. Today, Nissan revealed its two newest models both assembled in the U.S. the 2019 Maxima sedan and 2019 Murano crossover at the 2018 Los Angles Auto Show. Both models are set to go on sale at Nissan dealers nationwide in December. Los Angeles is where it all began for Nissan in the U.S., so were proud to support this always vibrant auto show with the first showings of these two new flagship models, Maxima and Murano, said Dan Mohnke, senior vice president, Sales & Marketing and Operations, Nissan Division U.S., Nissan North America, Inc. Both vehicles embody the vision for the future that we call Nissan Intelligent Mobility, which provides technology in ways that move people to a better world. The new 2019 Maxima features an aggressive, updated exterior appearance with a more voluminous front grille with a deeper V-motion flow that carries into the hood and down the body to the redesigned rear tail lamps and rear fascia with integrated quad-tip exhaust finishers. The precision crafted interior offers updated trim finishers and materials, along with available diamond-quilted Rakuda Tan semi-aniline leather appointments. Revisions to the popular third-generation Murano crossovers exterior add a more pronounced front V-motion grille, redesigned LED headlights and taillights, new LED fog lights, new 18-inch and 20-inch aluminum-alloy wheel designs and three fresh new exterior colors. Murano interior enhancements are led by new semi-aniline leather-appointed seats with diamond-quilted inserts and contrasting micro-piping trim. Other changes include three new interior trim finishers and the addition of Nissans innovative Rear Door Alert and available Traffic Sign Recognition and Intelligent Lane Intervention. Both the Maxima and Murano offer the availability of Nissan Safety Shield 360, a suite of six advanced active safety and driver-assist technologies designed to help provide 360 degrees of active driver assistance, crash avoidance and pedestrian detection. Safety Shield 360 includes Automatic Emergency Braking with Pedestrian Detection, Blind Spot Warning, Rear Cross Traffic Alert, Lane Departure Warning, High Beam Assist and Rear Automatic Braking. Nissan Safety Shield 360 is now available on five 2019 models. In addition to Murano and Maxima, it is offered on the 2019 Altima, Rogue and Rogue Sport, said Mohnke. Moving forward, Safety Shield 360 will be offered as standard equipment on one million new Nissan vehicles sold annually in the U.S. by 2021. The 2018 Los Angeles Auto Show public days run from Friday, Nov. 30 through Sunday, Dec. 9. To find out more about the 2019 Nissan Maxima, Murano and the entire Nissan lineup, please visit NissanNews.com . About Nissan North America In North America, Nissan's operations include automotive styling, engineering, consumer and corporate financing, sales and marketing, distribution and manufacturing. Nissan is dedicated to improving the environment under the Nissan Green Program and has been recognized annually by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as an ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year since 2010. More information on Nissan in North America and the complete line of Nissan and INFINITI vehicles can be found online at www.nissanusa.com and www.infinitiusa.com, or visit the U.S. media sites nissannews.com and infinitinews.com. About Nissan Motor Co. Nissan is a global full-line vehicle manufacturer that sells more than 60 models under the Nissan, INFINITI and Datsun brands. In fiscal year 2017, the company sold 5.77 million vehicles globally, generating revenue of 11.9 trillion yen. On April 1, 2017, the company embarked on Nissan M.O.V.E. to 2022, a six-year plan targeting a 30% increase in annualized revenues to 16.5 trillion yen by the end of fiscal 2022, along with cumulative free cash flow of 2.5 trillion yen. As part of Nissan M.O.V.E. to 2022, the company plans to extend its leadership in electric vehicles, symbolized by the world's best-selling all-electric vehicle in history, the Nissan LEAF. Nissans global headquarters in Yokohama, Japan, manages operations in six regions: Asia & Oceania; Africa, the Middle East & India; China; Europe; Latin America; and North America. Nissan has partnered with French manufacturer Renault since 1999 and acquired a 34% stake in Mitsubishi Motors in 2016. Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi is today the worlds largest automotive partnership, with combined sales of more than 10.6 million vehicles in calendar year 2017. For more information about our products, services and commitment to sustainable mobility, visit nissan-global.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and see all our latest videos on YouTube. Media contacts: Josh Clifton Nissan Product Communications 615-725-1767 josh.clifton@nissan-usa.com Kyle Torrens Nissan Product Communications 615-725-4019 Kyle.torrens@nissan-usa.com A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/6ca21111-77a3-44b9-a20e-f14a9bd278f1 News / National by Mandla Ndlovu The Kgalema Motlanthe led Commission of Inquiry has come under fire for not inviting President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Vice President Constantino Chiwenga to give evidence before them.The outcry comes after the commission announced on Tuesday that it had closed the interview stage and was now collating and analysing data with a view of tabling the report before the President.MDC representative African Union (AU) Mathula Lusinga said "I find it ridiculous that the Commission decides to close without inviting the President (who denied issuing an order for the army to be in the streets), his deputy Chiwenga (whom evidence points as to he gave the order). So the whole thing is just a charade. A complete waste of taxpayers money from a president who claims to be accountable."Mathula invited all Zimbabweans to join the MDC on the November 29 planned demonstration and work towards removing this government of Emmerson Mnangagwa.Former advisor to the late Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirayi, Alex T. Magaisa said, "In the interests of fairness, the Commission of Inquiry should extend an invitation to Mnangagwa and his Vice President and former defence minister, Rtd General Chiwenga to give their side of the story. Having been named, surely they deserve a chance to be heard, as was the case with Chamisa and Biti."The Kgalema Motlanthe Commission is supposed to produce a report within 3 months of its inception and table it before the President.The bloody post election violence left 6 civilians dead after an altercation between protestors and the military. Opinion / Columnist Luke 18 verse 11 to 12 says, "I thank you, God that I am not like other people-cheaters, sinners, adulterers. I'm certainly not like that tax collector! I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income." This was a bible story told by Jesus which talked about some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else.It story goes hand in hand with MDC leader Nelson Chamisa who testified before the 1st of August inquiry under oath, indicating that he will tell the truth but alas, the man was propagating naked_lies.He said that the MDC party was not involved in 1 August violence. In contradiction, he went to allege that if one throws a stone in Harare one is bound to hit an MDC supporter because ninety eight percent of Harare is MDC.He also said that the MDC party is not a party of violence. In relation to that Chamisa acknowledged that the Vanguard group was formed to deal with the indiscipline in the party.This alone tells a lot about the MDC party. It is indeed a party of violence hence the formation of the Vanguard group which become a vigilante group meant to whip others into line by way of violence. People who fell victim to the Vanguard ruthless violence are well documented.The Vanguard which Chamisa claims was disbanded was led by Shakespear Mukoyi who admitted that the group dealt with factional fights in the MDC party. The group was fiercely loyal to Chamisa. It is alleged that the group assisted in the rise of Chamisa to be MDC leader and party insiders testify that after fulfilling that mandate it was disbanded.It came out during his testimony before the Commission of Inquiry that Chamisa is a habitual liar. In his presentation on 1 August inquiry he lied that he had once met with Chief Emeka Anyouku. Chief Anyouku denied the allegations indicating that he only met Tsvangirai who displayed high levels of maturity and discipline. He added to say that he would be pleased if Chamisa do likewise. It is not the first time that Chamisa was caught lying of having met people who later on deny such claims.Earlier this year he lied that he had met Rwandan President Paul Kagame. Rwandan President dismissed Chamisa`s claims and tweeted,"1st my name is Kagame not Kagama 2-I don't know this man and no discussion ever happened with him anywhere..3rd Rwanda`s ICT policy, projects and program started before MDC formation and politics! I wish the people of Zimbabwe. Well!"Chamisa at one point also lied about meeting the President of United States of America Donald Trump. The MDC leader need time to grow. It is not surprising to note that such a blatant liar would deny that his party was involved in the 1st of August violence.Chamisa also testified that he visited his MDC supporters at the hospital. These are the very same people who had taken part in the violence and yet, Chamisa remained adamant even swearing by the bible that the MDC party was not involved in the August 1 violence.Chamisa is hiding under the guise of the Bible to cover his evil doings. To add more salt to injury, Chamisa continues to call for demonstrations. He is doing all this in order to fulfil his political desires. During the August 1 Inquiry Chamisa said, "For the record, my hands are clean. My conscience is very clear and my resolve is unbreakable. These hands that you see have not spilled blood,"Ironically Chamisa speaking on the organised demonstration that the MDC party is set to hold on 29 November said, "We have demonstrated before and we are going to demonstrate again as we are going to demonstrate on November 29."Demonstrations are known for causing disturbances in the country and it's only fair that government has laid down the law by stating that the MDC leadership is going to be held responsible for any loss of life or damage to property for their planned demo.People need to be led by principled people, who are mature, no wonder why Chamisa lost in the just ended 30 July elections which saw President Mnangagwa winning resoundingly. If people say Chamisa will not rule this country it is because they judge by his untold behaviour. He is very selfish and is only concerned about getting want he thinks he deserves. How To Deal With Painful Sex If It Ever Hurts When You're Getting It On, You Need To Read This Unless you and your partner are doing it intentionally with some consensual BDSM play, having sex shouldnt hurt. And if either of you are experiencing pain during sex, it definitely isnt something that should be dismissed. Why? There are actually a wide variety of conditions that could be causing things to not feel right in bed some of which can be signs of bigger health issues. While the majority of conditions that cause pain during sex affect women, there are still plenty that impact men as well. If you have one, youll want to seek out a the help of a medical professional. Never try and tough it out you could end up doing more damage. Similarly, if you find your partner is trying to do the same, encourage her to seek help. That being said, addressing pain sex-induced pain can be easier said than done. To make it easier, weve compiled a few common conditions that are culprits for causing pain during sex, and what to do if you or your partner think you might be suffering from one of them. 1. Vaginismus What it is: Its tough to draw a male comparison of what vaginismus feels like but imagine that all of a sudden, your dick decides to whack itself against something hard, completely on its own, causing you to be in way too much pain to enter your partner. Its kind of like that. Vaginismus involves the sudden and painful contraction of the muscles around the vagina upon penetration, which can be highly distressful, explains Dr. Jess OReilly, Astroglides resident sexologist. Some women find the tightening sensation so severe that they cannot handle any degree of penetration, and others describe a burning sensation that develops as penetration is prolonged or deepened. What causes it: Though we dont fully understand the conditions that give rise to vaginismus, it may be linked with inflammation, injury, past trauma, vestibulodynia (hypersensitive nerve endings near the vaginal opening), stress and psychological factors, Dr. OReilly explains. What you can do about it: Talk to your doctor about your specific experiences to pinpoint or rule-out medical causes, Dr. OReilly suggests. If the cause is psychogenic, you may also want to seek counseling from a professional who can support you through a program of improvement/recovery. This type of program might include exercises in breathing, relaxation, visualization, meditation, desensitization, moisturizing, pelvic floor therapy, masturbation and gradual insertions with dilators. Pro tip: Even if the issue is psychological, dont tell your partner that this pain is all in her head. What shes experiencing is very real and really hurts. Not sure how to bring it up? Get the conversation started by showing her this article (youre welcome). 2. Dyspareunia What it is: It sounds like a scary word, but basically dyspareunia is an umbrella term that refers to pain during and after intercourse for women which affects an estimated 8 to 20% of the U.S. population. Dyspareunia is generalized pain including sudden pain after intercourse, deep pain during thrusting, and burning pain anywhere in the vagina or pelvic floor, explains Dr. Jenni Skyler, certified sex therapist, sexologist and licensed marriage and family therapist for AdamEve.com. What causes it: Causes of dyspareunia can run the gamut, Dr. Skyler says, from something simple like inadequate lubrication, to previous injury, tight pelvic floor muscles, endometriosis, uterine fibroids, ovarian cysts, sexual trauma to the vagina, vaginal infection, poor reaction to birth control, anatomy issues or a past surgery. There is often an emotional component that becomes part of the negative feedback loop, she adds. If a woman has experienced past pain, she may have anxiety around sex and subsequently tighten her muscles in anticipation. RELATED: The AskMen Guide to Lube What to do about it: Seek the help of a professional to identify the cause. Once you have a diagnosis, a pelvic floor physical therapist and/or a sex therapist can help find a pathway out of pain and into pleasure, says Dr. Skyler. 3. Dysorgasmia / Orgasmalgia What it is: Known as dysorgasmia or orgasmalgia, men who suffer from this condition experience pain during ejaculation. What causes it: According to Dr. Skyler, this can be caused by a variety of things. Surgeries that involve the prostate sometimes lead to side effects around painful orgasms for men, she explains. Cysts or stones can develop, blocking a mans ability to ejaculate. Some STIs, such as trichomoniasis can also cause painful orgasm. What to do about it: Some of these issues may resolve on their own, but they are worth discussing with your primary care physician, Dr. Skyler says. If you have had a prostate cancer, or issues with your prostate it is worth mentioning because it can sometimes indicate a complication or side effect of surgery. 4. Vasocongestion What it is: You probably know what vasocongestion (aka blue balls) is but well give you the scientific answer. "Blue balls happens when the male sex organs aren't able to release the blood that swells during the arousal process," explains Eric M. Garrison, clinical sexologist, best-selling author and professor of masculinity studies at William & Mary College. What causes it: Ever wonder where the name blue balls came from? As Garrison explains, when the blood thats responsible for giving you an erection doesnt get released from orgasm, it causes congestion in your balls. "If there's too much oxygenated blood in the penis, this will make the testicles look blue," he says. The more you know. What to do about it: Get rid of the erection whether that means masturbating to orgasm, or by distracting yourself away from being aroused. "If you were right in the middle of sex and you heard someone behind you start a chainsaw, or if lightning struck, or you heard your in-laws shout, 'We're here a day early!,' any of those things would cause an immediate drop in sex drive," says Garrison. "Any response like that will cause vasocongestion to go away faster." If you dont have a chainsaw at your disposal, a cold shower should do the trick. 5. Phimosis / Paraphimosis What it is: Some bad news for men with foreskin: there are a few conditions that can cause pain during sex if you havent been circumcised. Phimosis is a condition where the foreskin is either damaged or too tightly constricting the head of the penis, Dr. Skyler explains. Paraphimosis is when the foreskin is stuck behind the head of the penis and can't be pulled forward. RELATED: AskMen Readers Weigh in on What They Think About Circumcision What to do about it: While the solve for severe cases is circumcision (dont shoot the messenger), there are other options that can help depending on your specific condition. But your first step should be to consult your doctor. You Might Also Dig: GM workers gather for a meeting at UNIFOR Local 222 near the General Motors' assembly plant in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada November 26, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Osorio 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. Story continues 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) Editors note: From November 19-30, Yahoo Finance Canada will be highlighting the best of Canadian innovation in a series called The Future Is Now. Well be bringing into the spotlight some of the companies and individuals that arent just pushing the limits, theyre creating new ones, for themselves and investors alike. Well be shining the spotlight on homegrown talent in the fields of satellite technology, autonomous vehicles, wearable tech and more. Check out our hub page for even more coverage and let us know in the comments: Which companies do you think represent the best of Canada looking toward the future? Figure 1 co-founders Gregory Levey, Richard Penner, Dr. Joshua Landy (Figure 1) Photo sharing isnt just for showing off vacation pictures, or your cute kids anymore. Thanks to a Canadian company called Figure 1, the technology can help saves lives too. Figure 1 lets the healthcare industry share images of things like brain scans, and x-rays with other doctors for their feedback. It even lets doctors share images from their phones from the field. Yahoo Finance Canada spoke with companys founders. What were you doing before starting the company? Richard Penner: Im a full-stack developer and before starting Figure 1, I was working in management at Rakuten Kobo with a focus on mobile tech. Gregory Levey: Ive had a varied career, which involves being a UN speechwriter, an investigative journalist, an author, and a professor of Professional Communication at Ryerson University. At the time we launched Figure 1, I was teaching. I still work as a professor today, while running Figure 1. Dr. Joshua Landy: Im an internist and critical care physician and in 2012, I was a visiting scholar at Stanford University studying how doctors use their phones for medical education. I still practice medicine today, which makes Figure 1 the easiest way for me to stay current. What gave you the idea? Landy: While at Stanford, I saw my colleagues sharing medical information over email and text message. There were two big problems with that. It was not secure. Private patient information would be compromised regularly. 2. It was inefficient. If one doctor learned something valuable from a challenging case, that means thousands could have but didnt. Home from Stanford, I met with Richard and Greg and we hashed out the idea for Figure 1 over dinner. We wanted to create something that would solve these two problems and keep the focus on doctors learning from their peers. What makes your software different than your competitors? Story continues Penner: The size and reach of our global community. There are many copycat apps and medical education websites, but none do what Figure 1 does at the scale we do it. We were the first to do what we do, and with more than 2.5 million users, we are by far the largest. How much money have you raised so far and who were the investors? Levey: To date, we have raised more than $20 million in financing from world-class investors including Union Square Ventures, Social Capital, and Samsung NEXT. What are your plans for raising money going forward? Levey: Recently, weve been approached by several strategic investors who have deep healthcare exposure. These are conversations we are currently having. Beyond that, we have no specific plans for investment. Would you consider selling your company if the right offer came along? Levey: We see a huge opportunity to transform the way medical knowledge is shared and used to save lives, and weve never been closer to claiming that prize. So right now, our focus is on continued growth. What are your plans for global expansion? Penner: In the early days, we focused intently on international expansion, and as a result Figure 1 is now used in 190 countries and in three languages. Now, were really interested in connecting specific specialties across time zones and national borders. How many users do you currently have? Penner: We have more than 2.5 million registered users. What has been your biggest challenge? Levey: The biggest challenge has actually been deciding what to focus on and when. Figure 1 could go in so many exciting directions and we are approached with opportunities on a regular basis, but the essence of strategy is choosing what not to do. Advice for other startups like yours? Levey: Find focus as soon as possible. This is important both for raising money and for building a good business. You should nail one thing really well as soon as you can. How have you dealt with privacy issues? Landy: We always say that the best way to keep a secret is not to know it. Figure 1 was created to prevent compromising patient privacy while sharing medical cases with colleagues. We provide tools for users to remove identifying features from each case, like the automatic face-blocking feature, for example. Additionally, our privacy moderation team reviews each case before it is posted. In short, we dont allow any identifying patient information anywhere on our platform. How do you monetize? Landy: Our platform is based on physicians teaching one another, and thats also the key to our business. We work with select partners to help them present high-quality clinical content to our community. This content is educational, clearly labelled, clinically based, and meets our benchmarks for integrity, engagement, and relevance. Figure 1 has seen great success with this peer-to-peer sponsored cases from partners like Novartis, Shire, and the Centers for Disease Control Foundation. Download the Yahoo Finance app, available for Apple and Android. Philippe Fernandez-Fournier was in Ecuador studying "social" spiders that typically stay close to their colonies. So, when one wandered off alone and started spinning a thick, cocoon-like web, he noticed. "It was very odd ... so I started taking notes," said Fernandez-Fournier, a former master's student in the University of British Columbia's department of zoology. UBC Those first notes led to the discovery of a new species of wasp that transforms the sociable spiders into lifeless drones that abandon their own colonies to obey the wasp instead. And, eventually, die to keep the wasp alive. Egg comes first The findings, published in Ecological Entomology this fall, detail the unusual parasite-host relationship between the Zatypota wasp and the spider. It begins when an adult female wasp only about the size of a fingernail lays an egg on the spider's abdomen. When the larva hatches, it latches on to its unlucky host and starts feasting. The larva slowly takes over the spider's body as it grows, keeping it alive until it's ready to move to a proper nest. Then, it commands its spider to spin a dense, protective cocoon not far from the colony. UBC The wasp then kills the spider, devours the corpse and crawls into the cage-like web. An adult wasp emerges fully formed after about 10 days. Samantha Straus, co-author of the study and a PhD candidate in UBC's department of zoology, said it's not clear how the wasp takes over the spider's brain. Her best guesses are some kind of hormonal or viral influence. UBC She said the wasps essentially use the spiders to ensure their own survival. "The environment in Ecuador is intense," Straus said in a phone interview on Tuesday. "The web is basically a protective cage for the wasp to keep growing." Parasitic wasps aren't entirely new, but the Zatypota species is the only one the authors believe can manipulate social spiders. The Vancouver-based student described the wasp hijacking, which was researched over six years, as one of the "coolest" things she's "ever worked on." Story continues So cool, that Straus got a tattoo of the wasp on her arm keeping with her tradition of getting some kind of tattoo in homage to her various field studies. "I think they're beautiful," she said, adding: "You have to be a pretty big nerd to think this stuff is cool. Which I am." By Lena Masri and Ali Abdelaty IKYAD DIJWI, Egypt (Reuters) - 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 can't afford that." Egypt's 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 wasn't specified. 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 it's 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 al-Sisi, the military has been seeking ways to tighten control over the population, she said. "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." The military owns 51 percent of a firm that is developing a new capital east of Cairo. 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. That's 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," Sisi said in September. "If it continues at this rate ... then we will have unplanned growth that requires spending on healthcare that's not available, clean water that's not available, roads and electricity networks that are not available. That can't 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-Hamid's sister, who has built a house on the family's 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. 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, 6th of 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. The government does have a social housing program 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. "There's 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 Group's 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 government's 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 world's 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 can't be right that while we're trying to cultivate the desert we are losing beautiful Egyptian farmland," he said. "Agricultural land is a red line." (Additional reporting by Nadine Awadalla; Writing by Lena Masri; Editing by Giles Elgood) Former Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne plans to table a private members bill on Thursday calling for mandatory seatbelts on school buses in Ontario. The Liberal MPP, who represents the Toronto riding of Don Valley West, plans to recommend three-point seatbelts in all new school buses by 2020 and retrofits for all existing school buses by 2025. "I recognize that there has to be a transition period because these are small businesses and the operators will need some time to retrofit their buses," she added. Submitted by Kirsten Hodgeson The move comes after an extensive CBC The Fifth Estate investigation exposed serious problems with a Transport Canada 1984 study that was the basis for a decades-long campaign against the use of seatbelts on school buses. The Fifth Estate also learned that government officials have known for years that seatbelts save lives and prevent injuries on school buses information the department has kept hidden from the public. A 2010 Transport Canada report that found school buses "failed" safety tests and did not do enough to prevent "serious injuries" was not made public until CBC asked for it in September. "That's the missing piece for me," Wynne said in an interview. Wynne, who has also previously served as transportation minister, says she has never acted on the issue before because she didn't have "all the information." The issue was already raised in Ottawa following The Fifth Estate's "As soon as I heard the report through The Fifth Estate Wynne consulted with a number of stakeholders in penning the bill, including the Ontario Safety League (OSL). "The reality is that safety is a non-partisan issue so even in discussing this with the government members, they see this as one of those evolutionary steps in safety," OSL CEO Brian Paterson said. Maple Leaf Foods' plan to build a massive new poultry processing facility in London will come at a cost to the town of St. Marys. As part of today's announcement to build a new $660-million poultry plant in south London, the company also announced consolidation plans that will mean the closure of smaller plants in Toronto, Brampton and in Perth South close to St. Marys. In total, the three plants slated for closure employ about 1,600 people. St. Marys' Mayor Al Strathdee said the plant in his region opened in the 1960s and at one time employed up to 700 people. Today, the plant has nearly 490 hourly and 35 salaried employees. Company plans to help displaced workers Strathdee said the news of the plant's closure comes as a hit to the town of just over 7,000 people. "It will be a big blow, this comes as a shock," he said. "The plant has been a mainstay, it supported several families. Over the years, these were good-paying jobs. "It's tough because it's another example of urbanization in this country," he said. "It's a boot to the smaller, rural areas." Andrew Lupton/CBC The closures of the three plants are set to start in late 2021 and 2022. In a letter to Strathdee, Maple Leaf Foods says "we deeply regret the impact on the affected employees and communities." The letter also says the company will encourage current employees to seek jobs at the new facility "and other regional Maple Leaf plants where they will be given priority for jobs." The company also plans to work with local governments and communities to find alternative uses for the plants. Strathdee said he's encouraged that Maple Leaf Foods is willing to help displaced employees, but said it's not a transition everyone can make. "A lot of people are long-term workers out there," said Strathdee. "If you're talking about commuting to London in the bad weather, not everyone is able to do that. This is going to be a big change for a lot of people. A message of uncertainty just before Christmas is never nice. Canada Post employees were back at work in Montreal Tuesday afternoon after spending the morning on the picket line. Local members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) went on strike Monday evening. It was not an order from national union leaders, members say. Senators voted Monday in favour of the Liberal government's legislation to force Canada Post employees back to work a move that was quickly given royal assent. The Senate vote, which passed by a margin of 53 to 25 with four abstentions, put an end to six weeks of rotating strikes. Canada Post workers were ordered to return to work by 12 p.m. ET on Tuesday. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers said it is exploring all options to fight the back-to-work order. Frustrated by back-to-work legislation Tuesday's early morning strike in front of the sorting centre in Montreal's Saint-Laurent borough was the second work stoppage this month in the city by postal workers. Canada Post worker Hakim Kaddouri told CBC News the back-to-work legislation is frustrating, since it's the second time since 2011 that the federal government has ended Canada Post strikes in such a fashion. "We have the right to go on strike," he said. "How can we deal with our employer if we have twice this special law?" The union's only power is the ability to strike, he said, and the government is taking that power away. Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press Union representative Annie Lesage said she expects CUPW will fight the legislation. "We will fight it as long as we can," she said. "We did it in 2011. We won the battle against the back-to-work legislation. If we have to go for it, we'll do it." Along with its request for safety improvements in the workplace, the CUPW wants better pay, job security, guaranteed hours and equality. "Our struggle is not for the money," Lesage said. "People will go back, working the same way they did for the last 10 years. We're saying there are a lot of injuries. It's not the work, it's the work Canada Post is putting on its workers." Accretive acquisition strengthens artificial intelligence assisted transcription and secure workflow solutions TORONTO, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- VIQ Solutions Inc. (VIQ or the Company) (TSX Venture Exchange: VQS), a global expert providing cyber-secure AI technology and service, announced today that it has acquired Net Transcripts, Inc. of Phoenix, Arizona (Net Transcripts), a leading provider of secure multi-speaker documentation services to law enforcement and criminal justice organizations. Key highlights of the transaction include (all amounts in USD): Adds $6.8 million in annualized recurring profitable revenue; Adds more than 350 law enforcement active clients in approximatively 47 States and the District of Columbia covering police departments, sheriffs offices, family protective services, district attorneys, public defenders and correctional services; Extends VIQs presence into a $6 billion market for multi-speaker transcription and evidence-based documentation in the USA; Adds approximatively 3.5 million minutes a year of secure multi-speaker video and audio content; Offers significant cross-selling opportunities across combined client base with true end-to-end solutions, including highly secured multi-speaker digital recording, transcription workflow, artificial intelligence and mobile applications including FEDRAMP, CJIS and FIPS-200 compliant; Enhances growth and margin expansion opportunities with greater scale; Expect immediately accretive operating margins and earnings per share, excluding customary acquisition-related expenses. As announced in the Companys press release dated November 9, 2018, VIQ has entered into non-binding letters of intent (LOIs) with certain companies in the USA that it is currently in ongoing discussions to acquire, subject to ongoing due diligence. The acquisition of Net Transcripts, a market and trusted leader in law enforcement, is a substantial milestone in VIQs growth strategy to expand our portfolio of services, opening up a significant and growing market in the USA. This highly fragmented market is undergoing major disruption due to artificial intelligence, which is encouraging customers to look at innovative ways to unlock the value in their digital media, said Sebastien Pare, VIQ President and CEO. Specifically, this transaction broadens VIQs strong market position in North America while providing the opportunity to increase the scale of our offering and serve a highly specialized group of public safety clients. These clients are experiencing unprecedented growth in the volume of digital video and audio being collected for evidence from mobile apps, drones, dash cams, body cameras, and interrogation interviews, added Mr. Pare. The combined organization will benefit from leveraging the outstanding reputation of each company as we continue to deliver exceptional service addressing our clients transcription and technology modernization challenges. We are pleased and excited to have Net Transcripts join our group of companies, soon to be powered by VIQ technology. Net Transcripts has more than thirty years experience and understands security, confidentiality, multi-speaker evidence and chain-of-custody, states Gary Nudd, CEO of Net Transcripts, Inc. Integrating VIQs secure technologies and artificial intelligence services will deliver significant new value and efficiencies to our customers while enhancing our financial bottom-line as we continue to scale and grow our brand in the industry. We wanted to become part of a leading organization that values what we do, has a true proven end-to-end solution for our industry and provides growth opportunities for our customers and our employees. Adding the targeted professional customer base of Net Transcripts to VIQs international expertise and secure market-specific technologies and secure cloud services will significantly grow our commitment within the justice market, said Susan Sumner, Chief Operating Officer of VIQ. Together we will offer customers tremendous new value and address cost efficiencies. The all-cash transaction is valued at USD$6.8 million. Net Transcripts is a profitable company and, excluding customary acquisition-related expenses, the transaction is expected to be immediately accretive to VIQs operating margin and earnings per share. As was announced in a press release dated November 9, 2018, VIQ funded the purchase price of this acquisition through a combination of the funds raised from its convertible debenture private placement (the Private Placement) and a drawdown of debt capital pursuant to a USD$11.5M debt facility (the Debt Facility) entered into on November 28, 2018 with Crown Capital Partner Funding LP (Crown). The definitive terms of the Debt Facility with Crown are as follows: Up to USD$11.5M is to be utilized and drawn upon for strategic acquisitions. 9 million common share purchase warrants (Crown Warrants) were issued by VIQ to Crown in connection with the closing of the Debt Facility. Each Crown Warrant will be exercisable into one common share (the Shares) in the capital of the Company at a price per Share equal to CAD$0.162 for a period of five years following closing of the Debt Facility. In addition, the Company issued to Crown 2,127,659 Shares at a deemed price of $0.141 per Share, which is equal to the 20-day volume weighted trading price of the Shares on the trading day immediately prior to the closing date. Pursuant to the Private Placement, the Company issued approximately USD$6M worth of convertible debentures (the Convertible Debentures) and issued common share purchase warrants (the Warrants). Each Warrant is exercisable to acquire one Share at an exercise price of CAD$0.162 for a period of two years from closing of the Private Placement. Conference call to Discuss Acquisition and Growth Strategy The Company will hold a conference call to discuss this transaction. The call will consist of a brief update by VIQ President and CEO Sebastien Pare, followed by a question period. For interested parties wishing to participate in the conference call, the details are below. DATE: Tuesday, December 11, 2018 TIME: 16:00 ET (please dial in five to ten minutes prior to the scheduled start time) NUMBER TO DIAL: 1 (855) 223-2840 within North America 1 (647) 788-4945 outside of North America CONFERENCE ID: 2358556 A telephone replay will be available beginning on December 11, at 18:45 ET. To access the replay, please dial in 1-855-859-2056 and follow the prompt with the passcode number 2358556. For further information: Nabbeela Dewji, Marketing Manager, VIQ Solutions, (905) 948-8266 ext. 214, email: ndewji@viqsolutions.com and Susan Sumner, COO VIQ Solutions, (905) 948-8266. For more information about VIQ, please visit viqsolutions.com. About VIQ Solutions Inc. VIQ Solutions is a global expert in video capture software and audio recording with voice-to-text capabilities. VIQ provides a cyber-secure AI technology and service platform to law enforcement, immigration, medical, legal, insurance, courts, and transcription service providers, enabling them to unlock the value of their enterprise digital media and streamline their document-creation workflow, using artificial intelligence tools for measurable business gains. Forward-looking Statements Certain statements included in this news release constitute forward-looking statements or forward-looking information under applicable securities legislation. Such forward-looking statements or information are provided for the purpose of providing information about management's current expectations and plans relating to the future. Readers are cautioned that reliance on such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. Forward-looking statements or information typically contain statements with words such as "anticipate", "believe", "expect", "plan", "intend", "estimate", "propose", "project" or similar words suggesting future outcomes or statements regarding an outlook. Forward-looking statements or information in this news release include, but are not limited to, managements targets for the Companys growth in 2018, as well as the size, scope, and timing of the implementation of projects currently in the pilot phase. Forward-looking statements or information is based on several factors and assumptions which have been used to develop such statements and information, but which may prove to be incorrect. Although VIQ believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements or information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements because VIQ can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. In addition to other factors and assumptions which may be identified in this news release, assumptions have been made regarding, among other things, the Companys recent acquisition, and that sales and prospects may provide incremental value for shareholders. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list is not exhaustive of all factors and assumptions that have been used. Forward-looking statements or information are based on current expectations, estimates and projections that involve several risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by VIQ and described in the forward-looking statements or information. These risks and uncertainties may cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements or information. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list is not exhaustive of all possible risks and uncertainties. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. JAKARTA (Reuters) - Customers who borrow funds through Indonesia's illegal financial technology lenders do not need to repay their loans, Deputy Communications Minister Samuel Pengerapan said on Tuesday. Indonesia is battling a wave of unlicensed "fintech" lenders who avoid registering with authorities and often employ aggressive debt collection practices. "The borrower can borrow as much as they like because the lender is not official. It's hard to reverse it," Pengerapan told reporters. "If the companies try to collect their debt, report them, authorities will arrest them because they are not licensed." Pengerapan encouraged consumers to first check whether the company they were dealing with was among the 73 fintech companies licensed by authorities. Regulators have banned more than 400 fintech lenders for operating without a license, with the communications ministry then blocking their websites in Indonesia. An investigation by Reuters in September found that many of Indonesia's banned lenders had come from China following a crackdown on the loosely regulated micro-credit sector there. Four customers who failed to repay loans on time told Reuters that Chinese fintech lenders took control of their phone contacts permission is granted when the app is installed - and harassed colleagues and friends for repayment. (Reporting by Fanny Potkin; Editing by Robert Birsel) Sabre-toothed squirrels, beavers and budgies: Best animal stories of 2018 Before her death she enjoyed her favourite meal field mouse and quail meat. Colonel Slade, a half-blind barred owl, known as an ambassador in Alberta's animal welfare community, died last week of an apparent stroke. "She was about the size of a loaf of a bread, more barred than striped," said Gord Court, a provincial wildlife biologist who acted as caretaker for the bird. "She was very, very beautiful. "People really enjoyed her, especially kids. I mean, we used her shamelessly to get kids away from their screens and get them to interact with nature." Slade the owl was 16, far past middle age for her species. "We thought we would get a little bit more time with her but I guess that's just the way it went," Court said in an interview Tuesday with CBC Radio's Edmonton AM. Watch the video below when Slade came to visit the CBC Edmonton studios in 2016. Slade's death prompted an outpouring of condolences from members of wildlife rescue and conservation groups. WILDNorth, which often hosted the bird as part of its education programs, was among the first organizations to share their condolences. "People loved her as soon as they laid eyes on her lovely barred feathers and soulful dark eyes, and witnessed her gentle disposition," the agency wrote on its Facebook page. "She will be fondly remembered. Thank you, Colonel, for all you've helped teach us!" Slade, named after the cantankerous army ranger character in Scent of a Woman, had become a mascot in the animal welfare community. She spent years visiting schools and rescue agencies, appearing regularly on television and other educational programs. She helped teach thousands of people about forest conservation and the plight of her species, which is listed as "sensitive" in Alberta due to habitat loss. "It is with a sad heart that we say our goodbyes to Colonel Slade, the Barred Owl," the Beaverhill Bird Observatory wrote on their Facebook page. Story continues "She has been loved by so many people. Her legacy will forever live on." 'We will miss her' Slade lived in captivity for 14 years ago, ever since she was struck by a passing car on a B.C. highway. Initially, she was used as a decoy by the University of Alberta, helping researchers better understand birds vulnerable to habitat loss. But she wasn't cut out for the rigours of the job, Court said. Slade was unusually gentle for a bird of prey. "When we found out how we could trust her with kids, how she actually seemed to enjoy being touched, and how absolutely dog-tame she was, we decided to remove her from that service and get her into public education. "She was perfectly suited to deliver the message." Slade lived in Court's Sherwood Park backyard for more than a decade and never caused "too much of a trouble," he said. "We will miss her." 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',) Payday loan companies operating in Nova Scotia will be hit by a small cut in what they can charge for their loans a defeat for an industry that tried to maintain the second-highest fee charged in Canada. Nova Scotia regulators reduced the benchmark charge from $22 per $100 to $19 in a decision released Tuesday. The rates are effective February 2019. The ruling affects four companies: National Money Mart, Cash Money, 310-Loan and My Canada Payday. In its ruling, the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board did not change the maximum that can be loaned $1,500 or the $40 default fee and 60 per cent interest on arrears. How Nova Scotia compares across Canada Only Prince Edward Island has a higher benchmark charge at $25 per $100. The cost per $100 in New Brunswick, Ontario and Alberta is $15, and $17 in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Newfoundland and Labrador has a proposed charge of $21. Quebec does not regulate payday loans. The Nova Scotia board rejected arguments from payday lenders who urged the $22 rate be maintained on the grounds that lowering it would hurt the industry. It accepted industry evidence that lowering maximum rates has caused some lenders to leave markets. The board also rejected a recommendation from the Face of Poverty Coalition for a rate of $2.25 per $100, saying it would "effectively eliminate" the payday loan industry in Nova Scotia. "The board is mindful that the elimination of the regulated payday loan industry in Nova Scotia would reduce available options of short-term credit for consumers, and would increase the presence of unscrupulous and unregulated lenders," it wrote in its decision. 56% of loans are repeats As in previous reviews, repeat borrowers were an issue for regulators. In Nova Scotia, 56 per cent of loans were repeats in 2017, involving 18,795 borrowers. Nearly a third of repeat borrowers had eight or more loans. The board repeated its recommendation from previous payday hearings for restrictions on repeat or concurrent loans from multiple lenders. The Nova Scotia government has said it is not feasible to create a loan-tracking database due to privacy reasons and cost. The board said it will recommend to the province that borrowers get more time to repay a loan. DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) Leg-spinner Yasir Shah put Pakistan in control of the second test on Monday with a career-best 8-41 as New Zealand rallied to 131-2 in its second innings after being forced to follow-on. The tourists were dismissed for only 90 runs in the first innings to give Pakistan a massive lead of 328 on the third day. Shah claimed both New Zealand wickets in the second innings to become the first Pakistani bowler to claim 10 wickets in a single day of a test match. New Zealand, which narrowly won the first test by four runs, still trails by 197 runs with Ross Taylor not out on 49 off 53 balls and Tom Latham, dropped on 19, remaining unbeaten on 44 at stumps. Shah removed opener Jeet Raval (2) for the second time in the day before having captain Kane Williamson (30) caught behind through a television referral off his sharp leg-spin in the last session. Earlier, six New Zealand batsmen were dismissed for zero in the first innings while Williamson was left unbeaten on 28 as Shah struck four times each on either side of the first two sessions. New Zealand were going along at 61-1 in 27 overs but lost nine wickets for 29 runs against Shah to get bowled out in only 35.3 overs after the lunch break. Shah extracted sharp bounce and turn from the wicket that included three wickets in five deliveries in his last over before lunch. The leg-spinner then claimed four more wickets after the break in quick succession with B.J. Watling getting run out and Colin de Grandhomme trapped leg before wicket by Hasan Ali. Unusual rain showers in Dubai delayed the start of day's play for an hour before New Zealand resumed on 24-0. Fast bowlers Mohammad Abbas and Hasan tied down both openers with their impressive swing and seam bowling before Shah ripped through the top order. Asad Shafiq spilled a low catch at second slip off Hasan's delivery that could have dismissed Raval (31) on his overnight score of 17. But Pakistan didn't have to wait long to get the breakthrough when the left-handed Raval played on while attempting an ambitious reverse sweep shot to Shah. Story continues Shah's triple strike then ignited the New Zealand collapse in the penultimate over before lunch. Latham (22), one of the three batsmen to reach double figures, was caught close to the wicket by Imam-ul-Haq on the leg side. Taylor's struggles continued in the series when, one ball later, he was bowled after playing around Shah's sharp leg-spin. Shah also bowled the left-handed Henry Nichols to leave New Zealand in deep trouble at lunch at 63-4. He then ran through the lower-order and bamboozled the tail-enders with his top spinners to leave Pakistan with a chance to level the three-match series. Shah's first innings figures were the second best by a Pakistan spinner in the country's test history. Leg-spinner Abdul Qadir holds Pakistan's record of most wickets in an innings when he claimed 9-56 against England in Lahore in 1987. New Zealand won the first test by four runs when Pakistan capitulated for 171 runs while chasing a 176-run target. ___ More AP sports: https://apnews.com/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports 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) It's a cool Thursday morning, and Mick has just landed a red-eye, trans-Atlantic flight his first from Halifax to London. Before his day is done, he'll pilot another Boeing aircraft this time in Thailand for a shorter trip, just over an hour. Looking out the front of the aircraft, he can make out some of the recognizable scenes of Chiang Mai, but only barely. Mick, whose given name is Kaokorn Jindarongs, is using a Microsoft flight simulator; he's stuck inside, as the snow at Gander's airport is just heavy enough to ground the planes at Gander Flight Training. Like any newcomer, Jindarongs had his battles with the weather. "I woke up in the morning, and I saw it was like 12 inches of snow in front of the door," he said, recalling a recent snowfall. "And I cannot go outside. So I just sat in my place. We never have snow in Thailand." Courtesy: GFT: Gander Flight Training/Facebook Mick is in his second year of schooling at Gander Flight Training, as part of a program between the flight school and Rangsit University in Thailand. In a room down the hall, eight more students from his university are studying for an upcoming test, throwing around a term familiar to anyone from Newfoundland and Labrador: de-icing. If you fly in Gander, you can fly anywhere in the world. - Mohammed Fazal "Once you get experience from here, you really won't have any kind of problems flying anywhere else," explained Charles Onyango, who was serving as Mick's first officer in the simulated flights. Onyango, like many of the other students in the flight school program, says the weather in Gander is a golden ticket. It's not that he likes it. It's because it's so bad, it makes him a better pilot. "The moment you go in any kind of environment with other pilots and they hear that you trained from Newfoundland, light bulbs go off," he said. "Training in Canada in the aviation industry, it's almost like gold." Story continues Garrett Barry/CBC Onyango was born in Kenya, and said he almost chose a flight school in South Africa before his peers convinced him of the virtues of training in Canada. So he's one of dozens of international students who have trained at Gander Flight Training in the last decade. "We've also had people from Colombia, from Africa, from all over the place," added Florence White, who owns the flight school and Exploits Valley Air Services with her partner, Pat White. Rain or shine Gander Flight Training says it has students from India, Turkey and Morocco enrolled in its programs this year. The students from Thailand are part of a formalized exchange program agreement with Rangsit. But there are also students, like Onyango, who find and choose Gander Flight Training on their own. Garrett Barry/CBC According to White, Gander has a few advantages over other flight schools. "One simple thing is, for instance, cross-wind landings," she explained. "They don't even get to practise [in Thailand], hardly at all, whereas here it's pretty well every day you're factoring in. "As we in the industry say, it's not a sunshine licence. They're getting to fly in real challenging conditions." Garrett Barry/CBC White also says co-operation between Gander Flight Training and EVAS two companies she co-owns helps too, giving students a path from complete beginner to commercial airline pilot. A young crowd Mohammed Fazal estimates he's about three months away from getting his instructor rating, and teaching others at the school. He came from Kerala, a southern province in India, to Gander to learn. Training in Canada in the aviation industry, it's almost like gold. - Charles Onyango "The weather is really challenging, so you can become a really good pilot," he said. "There's a saying that everyone says here: if you fly in Gander, you can fly anywhere in the world." He calls it a great place to learn but that doesn't mean his move was without its hiccups. Gander's older and smaller population means he spends an awful lot of time with his classmates from flight school. He even works with some of them at a restaurant not far from the school. "Gander's like a calm place, so mostly old people like it," he said. That doesn't offer much for a self described "party person." Just a bit of turbulence to get over. "You'll get a different life. You gotta experience a lot of life, right?" he said. "You know, everything is different, and everything has merits and demerits." Making a connection The agreement between Rangsit University and Gander Flight Training was signed in 2007. White calls it a financial success, and says there is a benefit to the community as well pointing out that the students rent, eat, work and spend in Gander. Most of the students spend about two years in the program, though a few like Mick make plans to stay in Canada longer than that. White says there's a sense of celebration every time she sees a student start to make connections in the community. Garrett Barry/CBC "For instance, we have one of our engineers who is originally from India just bought his first house in Gander, so he's staying," she said. "When we hear that they're entering into relationships, then we're hoping they're putting down some roots." And for Mick, it's looking good. At least, he's got some of the local language down pat. "A lot of variable weather, you can feel like sometime there are four weathers in one day." Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador 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. . ..carolineglick.com..28 November '18..Airbnbs partial boycott of Israel last week came just as the Arab world, Africa, and Eastern Europe moved closer to the Jewish state. These two diametrically opposed developments one negative and one positive showed that a race is on between competing global movements to determine whether Israel will sink or swim in the international area.On the negative side, on November 19, the Silicon Valley-based tourism behemoth Airbnb announced that it is delisting Jewish-owned properties located in Israeli settlements in the West Bank from its website. Airbnb chose not to delist properties in the so-called West Bank owned by non-Jews.Airbnbs decision to adopt a policy that is openly discriminatory towards Jews was the result of years of lobbying and pressure from the UN Human Rights Council, which the Trump administration left in June. The UN Human Rights Council was joined in its campaign by the European Union (EU), by EU member states, and by U.S.-based foundations ideologically aligned with the hard left.These forces, which share an aversion to nationalism, and ascribe to post-nationalist globalism, have combined since at least 2001 to achieve the goal of delegitimizing the existence of the Jewish state while legitimizing terrorism and war against Israel.Airbnbs move is a testament to the effectiveness of this campaign as are the growing disenfranchisement and intimidation of pro-Israel students on college campuses; the boycotts of Israeli exports; and the mainstreaming of extremist politicians who refuse to accept the legitimacy of Jewish nationalism or Jewish self-determination. 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. . ..National Post..27 November '18..Planning a group holiday in Kashmir? Airbnb is there to serve you. Likewise in Tibet, northern Cyprus and Georgias separatist republic of Abkhazia, all occupied or disputed territories. Airbnbs political neutrality in these hot spots therefore quite rightly casts suspicion, to put it mildly, on its recent decision to delist some 200 Jewish homes in West Bank communities.Airbnb stated, We know that people will disagree with this decision and appreciate their perspective. This is a controversial issue. No kidding. An Israeli class-action lawsuit has been filed against Airbnb, seeking US$4,000 in damages for every affected host.Indignation has been running high outside of Israel as well, in statements both spontaneous disgusted blog, Twitter and Facebook posts and considered. The Beverly Hills city council, for example, passed a unanimous condemnatory resolution, calling Airbnb out for anti-Semitism and stating, in part: The City of Beverly Hills hereby calls upon Airbnb to correct this act of disrespect to the land of Israel and restore its original services immediately.Setting aside the anti-Semitic optics, is it legal for Airbnb to do this? Are you lost in the wild? Sorry, but the page you're looking for has not been found Try checking the URL for errors, goto home or try to search below. TORONTO, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wayland Group (CSE:WAYL) (FRANKFURT: 75M) (OTCQB:MRRCF) (Wayland or the Company) has reported its financial and operating results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2018 and has filed the full report on SEDAR. "Consistent with previous guidance, we reserved product for European export and the recreational market in Canada, which legalized cannabis for adult use on October 17th. We have successfully delivered product in Q4 to Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and Ontario after initial sampler packs in one-gram format were delivered prior to legalization, allowing consumers the ability to try a broader assortment of strains and familiarize themselves with cannabis. Our Kiwi, Northern Harvest and High Tide products have received positive acclaim. We continue to await regulatory approval in Canada for the remainder of our expansion, which will provide the Company with greater supply capabilities." Stated Ben Ward, CEO of Wayland Group. Highlights for the quarter include: Entered into supply agreements to provide cannabis to BC Liquor and Ontarios OCS and delivered product. Directly received letter of intent for license approval from the Government of Malta. Closed a Private Placement raising gross proceeds of $37.4 million during the reporting period. Launched First Cannabidiol (CBD) formulation utilizing patented drug delivery technology in a soft gel formulation loaded with 25mg of CBD per capsule that utilizes the multi-patented VESIsorb delivery system to ensure optimum absorption and bioavailability. First high yielding harvest and the beginning of CBD production in Germany. Waylands European nutraceutical subsidiary MariPlant, commenced the harvest of approximately 165 hectares (~405 acres) of hemp, which resulted in 120,000 kg of extractable material. Shipped first CBD capsules to German market and pharmacies. Entered into Non-Binding joint venture in Italy with San Martino S.S. to expand global footprint, subsequently completed the definitive JV. Launched recreational products for the Canadian market. Kiwi was designed to simplify cannabis for people new to the product. Zurich was chosen as the location for Waylands first retail store. All figures are stated in Canadian Dollars. At September 30, 2018, Wayland recognized revenue of $225,122 and $1,983,600 for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018, respectively, as compared to $721,035 and $2,525,000 during the same periods in 2017. The decrease in revenues can be attributed to the Company shifting resources to address the recently legalized recreational adult-use market in Canada. Additional details of the three and nine months ended financial results for fiscal years 2018 and 2017 under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are available at www.sedar.com or on the Companys website. Maricann Group Inc., through its subsidiaries, is operating under the Wayland Group name. For further details see the press release dated September 24, 2018. About Wayland Group Wayland is a vertically integrated cultivator and processor of cannabis. The Company was founded in 2013 and is based in Burlington, Ontario, Canada and Munich, Germany, with production facilities in Langton, Ontario where it operates a cannabis cultivation, extraction, formulation, and distribution business under federal licenses from the Government of Canada. The Company also has production operations in Dresden, Saxony, Germany, Regensdorf, Switzerland and Ibague, Colombia. Wayland has also announced transactions that will expand its global footprint to include operations in Italy and the UK. Wayland will continue to pursue new opportunities globally in its effort to enhance lives through cannabis. Forward Looking Information This news release includes forward-looking information and statements, which may include, but are not limited to, information and statements regarding or inferring the future business, operations, financial performance, prospects, and other plans, intentions, expectations, estimates, and beliefs of the Company. Forward-looking information and statements involve and are subject to assumptions and known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause actual events, results, performance, or achievements of the Company to be materially different from future events, results, performance, and achievements expressed or implied by forward-looking information and statements herein. Although the Company believes that any forward-looking information and statements herein are reasonable, in light of the use of assumptions and the significant risks and uncertainties inherent in such information and statements, there can be no assurance that any such forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, and accordingly readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such risks and uncertainties and should not place undue reliance upon such forward-looking information and statements. Any forward-looking information and statements herein are made as of the date hereof, and except as required by applicable laws, the Company assumes no obligation and disclaims any intention to update or revise any forward-looking information and statements herein or to update the reasons that actual events or results could or do differ from those projected in any forward looking information and statements herein, whether as a result of new information, future events or results, or otherwise, except as required by applicable laws. The Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed, approved or disapproved the content of this news release For more information about Wayland, please visit our website at www.waylandgroup.com Contact Information: Investor Relations Graham Farrell VP, Communications Graham.Farrell@waylandgroup.com 647-643-7665 Media Inquiries: media@waylandgroup.com Corporate Headquarters (Canada) Wayland Group Corp. (Toronto) 845 Harrington Court, Unit 3 Burlington Ontario L7N 3P3 Canada 289-288-6274 European Headquarters (Germany) Maricann GmbH Thierschstrasse 3, 80538 Munchen, Deutschland There are many steps parents can take to monitor their children's online activities and protect them from negative experiences like cyberbullying. The most dangerous four-letter word in the digital world is Send. Once you send it, you have no control over it, Bill Burke of the Cape and Islands District Attorney's Office community outreach program said, during a recent Parent University on technology and social media at Monomoy Regional High School. You can never get it back. That not only goes for potentially illegal activities like sexting and uploading nude or other inappropriate photographs which can be easily shared or altered without the sender's knowledge but also something as simple as a rash reply to an email or text. Don't text when you are angry, Burke advised. The presentation provided parents with tools to monitor their children's online activities as well as a rundown on the websites and apps that are popular with kids these days. Some are eye-opening, such as Omegle, a website and app that allows users to chat with other users chosen at random. It's tag is Talk to Strangers. That's not only antithetical to what children are taught about online activities, but it can also be dangerous, Burke said. If you don't have to say who you are, you shouldn't be on it, he said. Some of the suggestions are common sense, such as requiring children to share their user name and passwords with parents and taking away devices at night so kids aren't tempted to check alerts and stay up late chatting with friends. Others are less obvious, such as disabling location services on devices such as phones and tablets. Most apps and many websites want to know where you are, Burke said, because they want to sell you things. Kids should also know that they need to get permission from friends to post their photos online, and they need to realize that anything they post will remain online basically forever. Nothing is ever deleted, he said. It stays on a server somewhere. This is especially important for older kids to know as they head into the college search process. Many colleges check Facebook and other social media sites, and that digital footprint remains as they enter the job market. In the past decade, Burke and others in the District Attorney's community outreach program have spoken about technology and the digital world to more than 15,000 students on the Cape and Islands. One of the main topics they focus on with students is how those activities can cross a line and become criminal. Angry phone calls, harassment, cyberbullying, unauthorized computer access, identity theft are major issues in juvenile court these days, while more drastic violations such as civil rights violations and child pornography veer into felony territory and have serious consequences. We've talked to a lot of students, he said, and most of them are listening to us. He urged parents to maintain an open line of communication with children and talk to them about their online activities. Update privacy and GPS/location settings and follow or friend your kids on social media to keep up on their activities. Devices can be set up to require parental permission to approve downloading apps. Software is available that allows parents to monitor and regulate device usage, and he recommended creating digital-free zones and times in homes and schools. Get familiar with the school's student handbook, which contains guidelines and rules for internet and device use. Middle school is the perfect time to talk to kids about these topics, he said. They know what's going on but they are still attentive and I believe they listen to us, Burke said. High school age, he added, is tougher. While Facebook gets a lot of press and many parents use the service, few kids are on it these days. Other apps and sites that have kids' attention now include Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Wanelo, Pheed, Live.me, Houseparty and Ask.fm. Many of these have in-app purchases and harvest user information. Burke referred parents to NetSmartz.org, an educational program of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which has a host of tools and tips on keeping kids safe online, focusing on such topics as cyberbullying, online predators and sharing too much. An internet safety rules contract can be downloaded that calls on kids to think before they post; respect others online; be careful when meeting online friends in person; and protecting themselves online. Other online resources for parents include Common Sense Media and the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center at Bridgewater State University, which provides free and low-cost bullying and cyberbullying prevention research and resources to schools and families (www.marccenter.org). WEDNESDAY, Nov. 28, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Fast tests designed to help primary care doctors rapidly spot dementia in their elderly patients often get it wrong, a new British report contends. The finding concerns three widely used quick dementia tests: the "Mini-Mental State Examination" (intended to assess mental orientation and verbal memory); the "Memory Impairment Screen" (which tests verbal memory); and "Animal Naming" (which gives patients one minute to quickly name as many animals as they can). The result: more than one-third of the patients were misclassified -- as either having or not having dementia -- by at least one of the rapid tests in question. "Dementia can be difficult to accurately detect, particularly in a primary care setting," said study lead author Janice Ranson. But the rapid tests "are important screening tools to help clinicians decide who is likely to benefit from further testing for dementia," she acknowledged. "Our results suggest that some of the misclassification is due to test biases, such as a patient's age, ethnicity or education level," she added. Ranson is a doctoral researcher in clinical epidemiology at the University of Exeter Medical School in England. She and her colleagues reported their findings in the Nov. 28 online issue of the journal Neurology: Clinical Practice. Ranson said quick tests are "routinely used" by primary care doctors as an initial screening. And if signs of dementia are found, a "full dementia investigation" typically ensues. The study included just over 800 patients in the United States who underwent the tests. The participants ranged in age from 70 to 110, with an average age of 82. The patients initially underwent comprehensive three- to four-hour dementia assessments. These involved a neurological exam, blood pressure readings, a medication review, DNA sampling, depression screening and lifestyle/family history interviews. These comprehensive assessments revealed that about one-third of the patients had dementia. All of the participants subsequently underwent each of the three quick dementia tests. But when the research team compared the quick test results with the in-depth results, they found that 36 percent of the patients were mistakenly diagnosed by at least one of the quick tests. Interestingly, the researchers found that individually, each quick test actually had a misdiagnosis rate of 14 to 21 percent, and only 2 percent of the patients were misdiagnosed by all three tests. Why? Each test appeared to have a different problematic bias, the study authors said. For example, while one test appeared to underdiagnose dementia in highly educated patients, others appeared to miss the mark based on patient age, race or nursing home status. "Each test is biased in different ways," said Ranson, "and so some tests are more accurate than others for certain patient groups. While these results are at first concerning, knowing the specific limitations for each test will help clinicians decide which is the most appropriate for their patient." Still, she said there's definitely room for improvement. "We desperately need more accurate and less biased ways of detecting dementia swiftly in clinic," said Ranson. "We are therefore developing new technology, using data science and artificial intelligence, to help clinicians get the best outcome for their patients. We are working hard to improve these tests with a more personalized approach to cognitive testing." Keith Fargo is director of scientific programs and outreach with the Alzheimer's Association, in Chicago. "Diagnosing Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia is an incredibly complex process, and not something that can be done on the quick," he said. "Simple cognitive tests can be a helpful first step toward diagnosis, but as the study points out, are imperfect," Fargo explained. "The Alzheimer's Association supports efforts to better understand and account for potential biases in short assessments for cognitive impairment," Fargo added. "Ensuring a timely and accurate diagnosis is critical, and this study identifies important biases that need to be considered when using these preliminary assessments." More information To learn more about dementia and dementia diagnosis, visit the Alzheimer's Association. No one can say that they ever look forward to a funeral, but, with Jenny, Carla, and Daisy as a trio of mourners, saying goodbye to Johnny C... Ambitious Plans for Bitcoin ATMs in Argentina Postponed Argentina, which is in the middle of an escalating financial crisis, will have to wait more to get at least 150 Bitcoin ATMs, which were promised to install by the end of this year. Source: iStock/PeterPal As reported in October, the US company Odyssey Group planned to install 150 Bitcoin ATMs in the Latin American country totaling 1,600 machines by the end of 2019. Moreover, another company, Athena Bitcoin that had set up the first crypto cash point in Argentina, has also stated that it expects to have a total of 30 machines in the country by the end of 2018. However, it seems that the country wont see dozens of new Bitcoin ATMs anytime soon. Odyssey Group has postponed its plans and now estimates to enter the market during the next six months, the Next Web reported, citing CEO Sebastian Ponceliz. According to the report, he claims that the reason for postponing Argentinas Bitcoin ATM upgrade is due to the central bank of the country and the organizations local market partners that allegedly asked the company to adjust all the legal and technical requirements that were demanded by the aforementioned parties. However, the report stressed that the company has previously made multiple promises that have yet to come true. In September 2017, the subsidiary of the company, Octagon, planned to install 250 crypto ATMs in Buenos Aires by October. While in May 2018, Ponceliz announced that his company had reached an agreement with Argentinas central bank to roll out 4,000 machines. Moreover, in the same interview, the CEO claimed that 200 ATMs had been set up in the Latin American country. But that did not happen, according to Coin ATM Radar that shows only four working crypto cash points in the country, all installed by Athena. At press time, Athena did not respond to a request for comment. Bitcoin ATMs in Buenos Aires: Source: coinatmradar.com ____ Meanwhile, the Argentinian Peso has been in a great decline since the start of this year. ARS / USD rate: Source: Google However, the fact that fiat currencies tend to be more volatile in Latin America brings "a tremendous opportunity for adoption across the region," according to some investors. For example, OKGroup, the owner of the major crypto-to-crypto exchange OKEx, has entered the region via its fiat-to-crypto exchange OKCoin, which offers its services in more than 110 countries. As the value of Argentinas fiat currency remains uncertain, our hope is that we can help bring some stability to the countrys economy by providing Argentines with an array of cryptocurrency options," OKCoins Latin American representative, Pablo Magro, told Cryptonews.com earlier in November. ____ Weekly LocalBitcoins, a peer-to-peer bitcoin marketplace, volume (in bitcoin) in Argentina: SYDNEY, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Partnerize , the leading provider of partner marketing software for global brands, today announced that Australian-born, premium menswear brand M.J. Bale has chosen the Partnerize Partner Management Platform (PMP) to expand its partner marketing program, both within and beyond the affiliate channel. M.J. Bale, which only recently became active in partner marketing, plans to use the Partnerize PMP to establish a range of new types of partnerships, including relationships with complementary leading brands in Australia. Our initial experiences in affiliate has been promising, and were eager to go deeper into more sectors of the partner marketing space, said Elle Kuiters, Head of Ecommerce & Digital at M.J. Bale. We selected Partnerize due to the companys deep experience in enabling a wide variety of partner relationships, from affiliate to influencers to brand-to-brand programs. As a part of its work for M.J. Bale, the APAC Partnerize team will be making introductions between the company and other leading Australian brands that share similar brand values and can provide additional customer acquisition avenues for M.J. Bale. Were delighted to add another iconic Australian brand to our retail client base, joining the likes of THE ICONIC, SurfStitch and Dan Murphys, said Alix Simpson, VP of Customer Success, APAC, for Partnerize. Were looking forward to working closely with M.J. Bale to grow their partner program and begin a range of innovative partnerships using our technology. M.J. Bales strategic selection of Partnerize was also driven by several other key platform capabilities: The ability to expand into other regions through partnerships Access to more granular data and reporting Seamless payment management across multiple geographies and types of partner agreements About Partnerize Partnerize helps the world's leading brands build powerful business partnerships that drive extraordinary business growth. The Partnerize Partner Management Platform (PMP) is an end-to-end, SaaS-based solution for forming, managing, analyzing, and predicting the future results of partner marketing programs using artificial intelligence. Hundreds of the worlds largest brands leverage our real-time technology to Partnerize their businesses. In fact, the Partnerize PMP drives and manages more than $6B in partner programs and financial exchanges across 214 countries and territories worldwide. To learn more about Partnerize and partner marketing, visit partnerize.com . About M.J. Bale In 2009 M.J. Bale founder, Matt Jensen, (the M.J in M.J. Bale) had an idea to create a totally unique Australian menswear brand that revolved around quality: quality of product and quality of in-store experience. Choosing tenets like authenticity, integrity, provenance and character as brand pillars, Matt launched the brand in September 2009 with a collection that would evolve over the next few years to become a total wardrobe collection. Today M.J. Bale offers its customers everything from the modern man needs to look his best in any given situation or dress code. Visit www.mjbale.com to discover more. Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman launched Mission Raksha Gyan Shakti in New Delhi to boost Intellectual Property Right (IPR) culture in indigenous defence industry. Mission Raksha Gyan Shakti It was instituted by Department of Defence Production as part of the ongoing initiatives to enhance self-reliance in defence. It aimed to provide a boost to IPR culture in indigenous defence industry. The main objective of this programme was to inculcate IP culture in Indian defence manufacturing ecosystem. Directorate General of Quality Assurance (DGQA) was entrusted with responsibility of coordinating and implementing the programme. During the event, salient inventions and innovations achieved by DRDO, Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) and Ordnance Factories (OFs) that have resulted in successful filing of IPR applications were showcased. Background IPR has emerged as key ingredient of an ecosystem which stimulates innovation and ingenuity. India has always been knowledge hub since ancient times, but due to lack of awareness on modern legal framework for protection of IP rights, nations knowledge and creativity have often not been utilised to its full potential. Spreading awareness about IPR will help in promoting culture of innovation and creation of Intellectual Property. Defence Ministry has established IP Facilitation Cell in April 2018 to achieve ambitious targets of training 10,000 personnel of OFB and DPSUs on IPR and facilitate filing of at least 1,000 new IPR applications. Andy Murrayis not planning on returning to the Citi Open in Washington following criticism from the tournament director.The British number one played only his third tournament following hip surgery in the American capital in August but pulled out ahead of his scheduled quarter-final against Alex De Minaur citing exhaustion.Murray had played three long three-set matches, the last of them finishing at 3am, and had been scheduled to play later the same day.Speaking to the Washington Post after Murray indicated he might withdraw, Keely O'Brien said: 'I hope that Andy really takes into consideration this role in his sport and as a global role model to guys and girls on the tour and kids around the world that, when things are difficult and tough and the conditions aren't great, it's not OK to just give up.'Given Murray's reputation as one of the sport's great fighters and the delicate nature of his comeback from a career-threatening injury, the comments seemed particularly ill-judged.Neither the Scot nor his team commented publicly at the time, although privately they were distinctly unimpressed and made their feelings known to O'Brien, who tried to repair the damage with a subsequent statement.That ended with her saying she looked forward to him returning to the tournament in 2019, but, in an Instagram Q&A on Tuesday, he responded to a question asking if he would play the event by saying: 'Probably not after the tournament director rinsed me.'Murray returned home from a family holiday to the Maldives on Tuesday and is due to fly to Miami early next month for a training block before beginning his season in Brisbane. Senior politicians from Germany, Austria, Poland and Estonia have 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.After Russia opened fire on and seized three Ukrainian naval vessels on Sunday near Russian-annexed Crimea, both Russia and Ukraine are trying to cast the other side as being in the wrong.President Vladimir Putin told German Chancellor Angela Merkel by phone on Monday that Moscow was ready to provide more details to bolster Russia's version of events. Moscow says Ukraine deliberately provoked Russia to trigger a crisis.Ukraine, which on Monday night introduced martial law for 30 days in parts of the country it deems most vulnerable to an attack from Russia, said its ships did nothing wrong and that it wanted the West to impose new sanctions on Moscow.Some of the more than 20 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.The Ukrainian sailors are expected to appear in a Russian court later on Tuesday. 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 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 taking boxes of ammunition off.Germany, potentially the leading voice in any call for Western action called upon both sides to de-escalate the new tension, while signalling a tougher line towards Russia.Norbert Roettgen, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union and a leading Merkel ally said Europe may need to toughen sanctions against Moscow.Merkel, an important voice in any future EU decision to impose more sanctions, on Monday spoke by phone to both Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Putin. She said the situation needed to be de-escalated.Putin told Merkel he was seriously concerned about Kiev's decision to put its armed forces on combat alert and impose martial law, telling Merkel he hoped Berlin would use its influence to stop Ukraine taking 'further reckless steps'.In Kerch, 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 their hulls.A doctor at the local hospital said three Ukrainian servicemen were being treated there. An unidentified man prevented Reuters from entering or talking to them.Russia's FSB security service released video footage on Tuesday of captured Ukrainian sailors saying their actions were deliberately provocative and 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. Turkish police searching for the remains of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi have scoured the grounds of two adjoining villas in northwest Turkey, the country's state-run news agency reports.Crime scene investigators and other officials aided by sniffer dogs and a drone first sealed off one of the villas near the town of Termal in Yalova province and later expanded their search to the grounds of the neighbouring villa, the state-run Anadolu agency says.The focus of the search was a well on the grounds of the first villa, which was being drained of water with special equipment brought to the scene.Turkey has maintained pressure on Saudi Arabia over the October 2 killing of the US-based Washington Post columnist, who was a critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.Turkey says the journalist was killed by a 15-member assassination squad sent from Riyadh.The assassins reportedly strangled and dismembered him before removing his remains, which have yet to be found.Anadolu, without citing a source, said the villas belong to two Saudi businessmen, including one who had allegedly been contacted by telephone by some members of the Saudi assassination squad.The agency did not name the businessman but said he was outside of Turkey at the time of the killing and had not returned in the past two months.Ankara insists the orders for the killing came from the highest levels of the Saudi government, but not King Salman.The Saudi agents who have been blamed for the killing included some members of the crown prince's security entourage.Saudi Arabia initially said Khashoggi walked out of the consulate before shifting its account of what happened amid Turkish intelligence leaks.Riyadh is now seeking the death penalty for five members of the hit squad in a move that appeared to be aimed at appeasing international outrage over the killing and distancing the killers and their operation from the crown prince.Saudi prosecutors maintain that the 15-man team sent to Istanbul exceeded its authority when the lead negotiator in the team decided to kill Khashoggi for refusing orders to return.Yalova governor Muammer Erol confirmed that a search related to Khashoggi's killing was taking place but said any announcement concerning the search would come from Istanbul's chief prosecutor, who is leading the Turkish investigation into the killing. A group of vegan activists stormed a Brighton steakhouse and played sounds of animals being slaughtered to shocked customers.Demonstrators from Direct Action Everywhere entered Touro Steakhouse in Brighton and waved around signs and placards.But 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.The incident was caught on camera and footage begins with protesters quietly walking into the restaurant while customers are eating their steaks.The person filming the 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.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.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.'Who were the activists who stormed steakhouse? How animal rights protest group with branches across UK was founded in San FranciscoDirect 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.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. English Japanese MELBOURNE, Australia, KYOTO, Japan and TOKYO, Nov. 29, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Telix Pharmaceuticals Limited (ASX.TLX) (Telix, the Company), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of diagnostic and therapeutic products based on targeted radiopharmaceuticals or molecularly-targeted radiation (MTR), and Nihon Medi-Physics Co., Ltd. (NMP), a leading manufacturer and supplier of radiopharmaceuticals and related products in Japan, have today announced that they have signed a collaboration agreement to jointly evaluate the feasibility of 225Ac-labeled (actinium) antibodies for the treatment of clear-cell renal cell cancer (ccRCC). In order to materialize Theranostics (a concept of integrating therapeutics and diagnostics), NMP is actively developing alpha-emitting radionuclide (such as 225Ac)-based therapeutic pipeline, following the decision to build a new R&D site to produce radionuclides including 225Ac. In comparison to other types of radionuclides, alpha-emitters have relatively higher energy to damage cancer cells and shorter energy deposit range to minimize damages to the peripheral normal cells. Therefore, 225Ac, an alpha-emitting nuclide, is expected to have significant clinical potential for the treatment of cancer via nuclear medicine techniques. The parties will collaborate to apply NMPs novel linker chemistry to Telixs anti-CAIX antibodies and jointly conduct proof-of-concept studies. Telix Pharmaceuticals Japan President, Dr. Shintaro Nishimura stated, Part of the attractiveness of this collaboration with NMP is that Telixs 89Zr-girentuximab (TLX250) PET imaging tracer also targets CAIX, and can therefore select patients for therapy. Through this important collaboration with NMP, we hope make theranostics a reality in Japan. NMP President, Mr. Hisashi Shimoda noted, NMP views theranostic radiopharmaceuticals as a growth driver for our business. This collaboration with Telix, who is extensively developing products in the oncology field, is expected to impact positively on our business strategy. NMP has long-standing experience and skills in the manufacture and supply of radiopharmaceuticals, and Telixs product portfolio, combined with our expertise, will together contribute greatly to moving closer toward the real Theranostics. About Telix Pharmaceuticals Limited Telix Pharmaceuticals Limited (Telix) is a global biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of diagnostic and therapeutic products based on targeted radiopharmaceuticals or molecularly-targeted radiation (MTR). The company is headquartered in Melbourne with international operations in Brussels (EU), Kyoto (JP) and Indianapolis (US). Telix is developing a portfolio of clinical-stage oncology products that address significant unmet medical need in renal, prostate and brain (glioblastoma) cancer. Telix is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX: TLX). For more information visit www.telixpharma.com . About Nihon Medi-Physics Co., Ltd. Nihon Medi-Physics Co., Ltd. Is a joint venture between Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd (Japan) and GE Healthcare (UK). As the leading company in nuclear medicine industry, it engages in the research, development, manufacture and sale of high quality radiopharmaceuticals that are considered useful for diagnosis and treatment of various health problems. Important Information This announcement does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, securities in the United States, or in any other jurisdiction in which such an offer would be illegal. The securities referred to herein have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933 (the US Securities Act), or under the securities laws of any state or other jurisdiction of the United States and may not be offered or sold within the United States, unless the securities have been registered under the US Securities Act or an exemption from the registration requirements of the US Securities Act is available. None of the products described in this release have obtained a marketing authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration or the Japanese PMDA. 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. The death penalty is not an answer to everything as there is no credible proof that it deters crimes, says de facto law minister Liew Vui Keong. In his speech during the dialogue session, "Abolition of Death Penalty: Way Forward", with the United Kingdom and Eire Malaysian Law Student's Union at the Malaysian High Commission in London on Saturday, Liew said the people should instead move towards becoming a humane society because hanging as punishment for causing a death is never the solution. "As of Oct 29 this year, there are 65,222 prisoners and 1,281 of them are death row inmates. "However, just one week before that, there were 59,997 prisoners and 1,279 death row inmates. So, there is an increase of 5,225 prisoners and 2 death row inmates in a span of just 1 week," he said. Liew, who headed the Malaysian delegation for the 11th International Meeting of Justice Ministers on "A World Without the Death Penalty" conference, from Nov 26 to Dec 1 in Italy, had made a stopover in London where he met the Malaysian university students. He said the issue behind the country taking away a human life would always be a hot button issue and everyone has an opinion on this. Liew said the government is committed to abolishing the death penalty. "After the Cabinet decision made on Oct 10, I made an announcement that the death penalty in all laws in this country will be abolished. Coincidentally, the 'World Day Against the Death Penalty' also falls on the same day," he said. To date, he said, there are 32 offences under 8 laws which are punishable with the death penalty. They include the Penal Code, Strategic Trade Act 2010, Arms Act 1960, Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, Armed Forces Act 1972, Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Kidnapping Act 1961 and Water Services Industry Act 2006. Miscarriage of justice Liew said there was always the possibility of miscarriage of justice when imposing the death penalty. For example, he said in 2017, a 20-year-old South Korean student, charged in the Seremban High Court for drug trafficking and facing the death penalty, was freed after a police officer, who was the most crucial witness in the case, admitted to lying during the trial. "It is said that it's better that 10 guilty men go free than 1 innocent man be wrongly convicted," said Liew. "If an innocent man is sentenced to death, it means that the guilty one is still at large. "Of course, all these facts are not meant to disregard the feelings of the victims and their family members." Liew said the government intends to replace the death penalty with imprisonment for life. "I fully understand the pain and suffering of those who have lost their loved ones but life has to go on. It's never easy to let go of the bitterness," he said. "I am proposing a mandatory imprisonment for life for those who have been convicted for heinous crimes without the possibility of parole." | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE! "One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde freemalaysiatoday.com, November 28, 2018 The moratorium was lifted by former president Abdulla Yameen in 2014. A 65-year moratorium on the death penalty will be maintained by the new administration of President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, the foreign ministry announced Tuesday. It also announced that the Maldives would vote yes on a draft resolution before the UN General Assembly entitled "Moratorium on the Use of the Death Penalty." The six-decade moratorium on capital punishment was lifted by former president Abdulla Yameen in 2014. However, despite religious campaign rhetoric and offering various dates, his previous administration did not resume executions. A pledge to uphold the moratorium was also announced Tuesday by the Maldives delegation attending a review by the Committee Against Torture in Geneva, Switzerland. The delegation led by president's office minister Ahmed Naseem, a former foreign minister, also pledged to criminalise marital rape, end corporal punishment of children and to respect all obligations under the Convention Against Torture. 3 young men are presently on death row after the Supreme Court upheld their sentences. During the previous administration, rumours of their imminent execution led to international condemnation, including from philanthropist Richard Branson, Indian politician Sashi Tharoor as well as the Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan. In July 2016, the UN Human Rights Committee asked the government to halt the execution of Hussain Humam Ahmed pending the outcome of a review of his case. The 22-year-old was found guilty of murdering parliamentarian Dr Afrasheem Ali in October 2012. According to Maldivian law, the death penalty can only be carried out should all of the murder victim's immediate relatives (heirs) choose to take the life of a convicted killer under the Islamic shariah principle of Qisas (retaliation in kind). Dr Afrasheem's heirs requested Humam's execution be delayed until the high-profile murder is solved. The inmate may prove to be key in identifying the financiers of the brutal killing, they said. Agnes Callamard, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, had also urged the government to maintain the de facto moratorium on the death penalty, calling the resumption of executions "a great setback for the country and the entire region". International human rights groups Amnesty International and Reprieve, in a petition against the death penalty in the Maldives said Yameen was putting the country "on the wrong side of history" by this "reckless course of action". | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE! "One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde Maldives Independent, November 28, 2018 President Edgar Lungu has commuted more death penalties to life imprisonment than any other serving Zambian President. Justice Minister Given Lubinda said this decision not to sign death penalties has earned Zambia's reputation internationally as an abolitionist country with regards to implementing the death penalty. Mr. Lubinda was speaking in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia yesterday when he transited to Rome to attend a conference on the 10th Anniversary of the campaign against the death penalty by an organisation called St. Egidio. He said Zambia had gone further to vote in the affirmative at the United Nations - UN- on maintenance of a moratorium of the death penalty. Mr. Lubinda said President Lungu made the bold decision in 2016 to allow the Embassy of the Republic of the Republic of Zambia in New York to start voting in the affirmative after having abstained from voting on the moratorium for years. He said despite the death Penalty still being upheld in the constitution, no President has signed the death penalty since 1998. Mr. Lubinda clarified that unlike other laws that can easily be amended, the death penalty was part of the bill of rights that could only be amended through a referendum. And the Minister said Zambia has adequate laws to guarantee the safety of investors in the country. He said it was unfortunate that some Zambians where taking the law in their own hands by attacking foreigners who had come in the country to invest. Mr. Lubinda said the recent xenophobic attacks on the Chinese where unfortunate and urged Zambia to use better channels in channelling their grievances. The Minister further said Zambia should resist the temptation of being used in what he termed an economic conflict against the Chinese. He said it was unfortunate that some political leaders including parliamentarians where inciting Zambians to rise against government's decision to engage the Chinese in some developmental projects. The Minister was received at Bole International Airport by Ministry of Justice Permanent Secretary, Andrew Nkunika and Zambia's Ambassador to Ethiopia, Ms. Susan Sikaneta. | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE! "One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde Lusaka Times, November 28, 2018 They were mercenaries who were brought in for the simple reason, that kings in those days did not trust their own people. A coin speaks a thousand words and can document the rise and fall of an empire. On a recent trip to Muscat (Oman), Arvind Kumar, IAS, was pleasantly surprised to find coins with the Charminar inscribed on them at a local souq (flea market). I was in Oman officially to understand the spatial planning done for Muscat city. As a part of the research we visited the Matrah Souq to study how to maintain a heritage market. And that is where I saw these coins being sold, Kumar recalls. He bought one of those coins as a souvenir and posted the picture on Twitter asking his followers to recognise these coins. It was not long before the citys coin-collecting enthusiasts chanced upon the tweets. Most of the twitterati recognised the coin as a commonly used ek rupaiyah from the Nizams era of 1923. Kumar elaborates, This coin was used for trading with Oman and it shows the significance Hyderabad and the Nizam had in the regions trade. There were at least 50 such coins in the souq. Explaining the inscription around the Charminar emblem D. Murali, a Twitter user said, Asaf Jah (top), Bahadur (left), Nizam Al-Mullk (right) and Ain (Urdu alphabet for O, initial of Osman) in the doorway) (sic). Most also mentioned that the coin was heavily in use during the period of Mir Osman Ali Khan Bahadur. Historian Sajjad Shahid said that the coin is ample evidence that while the trade relations between Hyderabad and Arabian countries were very well-known, there was also a large population of Arabs in the city during the Nizams rule. He further said, The trade links with Saudi Arabia and countries like Oman are fairly ancient. And it was pearls that were heavily traded. However, during the medieval period there was a very strong presence of Arabs in the south of India. Every kingdom had an Arab battalion, irrespective of whether they were Muslims or Hindus. Vijaynagar had a 10,00,00-strong battalion, Madura had 10,000 and so on. They were mercenaries who were brought in for the simple reason, that kings in those days did not trust their own people. They wanted people who were not involved in local politics. So these Arabs would get their whole tribes and settle down and they would relive these links constantly. The older chiefs would go back and send young blood. And this was also one of the main reasons tht these local Hyderabadi coins can be found across the globe! During a discussion after the launch of Congress leader Manish Tewari's book 'Fables of Fractured Times', Abdullah said, 'Lord Ram belongs to the world and is omnipresent. Why do you want to build a temple in Ayodhya?' (Photo: ANI | Twitter) New Delhi: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah on Monday asked why a Ram temple should be built in Ayodhya as Lord Ram is omnipresent and belongs to the world. This was, however, countered by JD(U) leader Pavan Verma who asked "why not" and Farooq Abdullah said that he has no objection to the construction of the Ram temple. During a discussion after the launch of Congress leader Manish Tewari's book "Fables of Fractured Times", Abdullah said, "Lord Ram belongs to the world and is omnipresent. Why do you want to build a temple in Ayodhya?" This was immediately countered by Pavan Verma, who asked Why can't Ram temple be built in Ayodhya. If Hindus want a temple in Ayodhya, as it is the birthplace of Ram, why not build the temple, the JD(U) leader asked. "If Hindus want a temple let there be a temple. The question is not whether a temple should be built. The question is how it will be built - by use of force or violence or by mutual agreement or court orders?" he said. Abdullah, however, went on to ask whether one was ready to accept a Supreme Court verdict in the matter. The Supreme Court last month had said that an "appropriate bench" will decide in the first week of January the schedule of hearing of the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case. "You want to put the Supreme Court in cold water," the NC leader alleged and asked whether we are living in a democracy. "Why not build a temple at Sitamarhi in Bihar for Goddess Sita," Abdullah asked. "All Muslims have said they will abide by what the court says," he said, to which Verma replied, "Now we are in agreement." Asserting that governors should not be puppets in the hands of the Centre, Abdullah said, "They should be men of integrity who uphold the Constitution." His comments came in the wake of Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik abruptly dissolving the Assembly Wednesday night hours after the PDP staked claim to form a government with the backing of rival NC and the Congress followed by another bid from the two-member People's Conference which claimed the support of the BJP and 18 legislators from other parties. Abdullah said, "Our governor does not even have a fax machine. How could they have sent us a communication? Would God have descended from heaven to tell us." He also said the Congress should have given the Bharat Ratna award to former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee when he was in good health. He also asked the Congress to allow regional leaders to grow and said the party was suffering as it did not do so. On the attacks on India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and other former premiers, he said, "If we are here, it is because of the legacy that has been passed on to us. His (Modi's) conduct is just not becoming of a prime minister. I have never referred to my mother in my political speeches. Why is he doing so?" Asserting that nobody can divide India as long as the people remain united, he said India would be able to prevent any future terrorist attacks as long as "our own house remains united". He claimed that it was because of the people of Kashmir that terrorists are being killed and Pakistan will not success to separate Kashmir from India. "Our successes are not because of intelligence but because common people are fed up with terrorists and they are giving exact information," Abdullah said. "Pakistan is a rogue state. It is dependent on its army. But if we are united, nobody is so powerful to divide this country," he said. "Ram does not need my vote nor does Allah need our vote. The elections are not being fought on developmental issues," he lamented. "Do not mistrust Indian Muslims. We are a part of this land. We have never taken directions from Pakistan. We decided not to participate in the elections because they (BJP) were playing with Article 370 and 35A," he said. 'My message is very clear - don't mess with Punjab,' asserted Singh, reiterating his warning to Pakistan against any attempt to disrupt India's peace. (Photo: File) Chandigarh: 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 on Tuesday that he had asked him to reconsider it. But the chief minister said he acceded to Sidhu's request for permission as he did not believe in stopping anyone from undertaking a "personal visit". Singh said that Navjot 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," Singh 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," the chief minister said. Notably, Sidhu crossed over to Pakistan through Attari-Wagah border on Tuesday to take part in the ground-breaking ceremony scheduled for today. Reiterating his stand of not going to Pakistan himself for ground breaking ceremony of the corridor there on Wednesday, Singh 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 Singh had earlier declined Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi's 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", Singh 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 Singh, 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, he said. "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 Singh, adding that 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 to 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 Pervez Musharraf and Parvez Elahi, Amarinder Singh 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 chief minister, 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 GS 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 Singh 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 that 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. LONDON, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- American International Group (AIG) chief executive Brian Duperreault praised Bermudas culture of quality and innovation, while urging fintech entrepreneurs to be relentless in their pursuit of novel ideas, on the second of a two-day industry forum in London. First and foremost, you have to believeand what a great feeling it is when you are successful, Duperreault told attendees at a half-day fintech seminar organised by the Bermuda Business Development Agency (BDA) at ME London. He was a special guest participant in an opening fireside chat with Bermuda Premier David Burt, moderated by BDA Interim CEO Sean Moran, that attracted investors, tech industry professionals, support industries, plus leaders of several recent Bermuda start-ups. Titled Innovation Island: Why Industry Pioneers Choose Bermuda, the discussion highlighted Duperreaults legacy as an insurance trailblazer and compared that industrys historic disruption with the current fintech revolution. Success breeds success, said Duperreault. Bermuda encourages people with an idea, who have the capital to deploy, who are quality people, to come to its market. And their success attracts others. Back in the 1980s and 90s, we kind of made up the rules as we went along. Discussions at the morning forum explored commercialisation of fintech, banking of digital assets and Bermudas new regulatory framework governing initial coin offerings, virtual asset business and insurtech. Panellists included c-suite leaders of cutting-edge companies like DrumG Financial Technologies, Core.Live, Hub Culture, Data Innovation Labs, Shyft Network, SALT and EQI Bankall incorporated in Bermuda, or exploring opportunities to do so. You can find accelerators and incubators anywhere in the world, from London to New York to Singapore, but theres only one place where the entire place is itself an innovation huband that is Bermuda, said the Premier. Innovation is inside the collective DNA of all Bermudians. If youre looking for a jurisdiction with a forward-thinking government that welcomes entrepreneurs and you have an idea youd like to demonstrate on a country-wide scale, then Bermuda can make your ideas reality. The afternoon saw a dedicated forum hosted by ILS Bermuda, Beyond Convergence, focused on insurance-linked securities, whose global market capacity Bermuda dominates. Theres increasing jurisdictional competition in the ILS space, but its valuable in a market like London, that has created its own ILS platform, to share and exchange ideas, said ILS Bermuda Chair Greg Wojciechowski, a BDA Director and CEO of the Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX). Competition doesnt necessarily mean going after the same pie; it can grow the pie. There are experiences weve had, due to the maturity of our insurance and ILS sectors, that we can share. And the face-to-face exchange of ideas gives people comfort to do business with you. Close to 200 industry professionals, from shipping to insurtech, attended Day One of the forum yesterday, which included a chat on blockchain benefits between the Premier and Lord Holmes MBE. The event was the agencys fourth overseas multi-industry conference over the past year, showcasing government, industry and regulatory expertise and business opportunities. The BDA has once again hosted an excellent event that saw two full days of solid attendance, said Jeremy Cox, CEO of the Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA), who took part in an ILS panel. London is an important market for Bermuda, so this offered us a great opportunity to educate, raise awareness, and answer in-depth questions. The BMA was proud to participate in an initiative that raised Bermudas profile and underscored our world-class regulatory reputation. 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. Workers pick out gravel from coal at a coal port in Hanoi. Photo by Reuters/Kham A serious coal shortage is threatening Vietnams power production plans even as the nations demand for energy rises. Le Duy Hanh, chairman of the Quang Ninh Thermal Power Company (TPC Quang Ninh), said they have shut down two out of four turbines since November 17 due to a lack of coal. He told VnExpress that the state coal mining group Vinacomin has supplied 2.6 million tons of coal to his plant this year, but another 145,000-200,000 tons are needed to run all four turbines. Hanh said the shutdown of two turbines has resulted in a loss of 10 million kilowatt hours per day, or VND13 billion ($555,685). This is the first time that the plant has not had enough coal for electricity production. "We have reported this to Vietnam Electricty (EVN) and are working with Vinacomin to solve the problem. Vinacomin is also looking for other coal sources, but is yet to find any," he said. Vietnam only allows two major producers to supply coal to power plants: Vinacomin and the North-Eastern Company (NECO) under the Ministry of Defense. Currently, these producers are not providing enough coal for plants to operate. Nguyen Thuong Quang, CEO of the Hai Phong Thermal Power Company (TPC Hai Phong), said that the two producers have only provided 2 million tons of coal to his plant so far this year, while the firm needs 3.4 million tons. "The plant needs about 12,000 tons of coal per day, but the producers are sending only 2,000-3,000 tons," Quang told local media, adding that his plants turbines might have to be shut down in the next four or five days should the current situation continue. The Ninh Binh Thermal Power Company is facing the same problem. Its CEO Trinh Van Doan said that they were operating at 75 percent capacity. The plant needs 300,000 tons of coal this year, and it has so far has received 260,000 tons. As its inventory is running low, Doan is concerned that the plant wont have enough coal if it needs to operate full capacity. National power utility EVN said in a recent statement that serious coal deprivation is happening at multiple plants in northern localities like Quang Ninh Province and Hai Phong City. Vinacomin and NECO have promised to provide enough coal for plants this year, but the amount provided until this month is lower than actual consumption. The power distributor has asked the government for permission to seek other sources of coal locally and to import from other countries. Grave consequences For the 2017-2020 period, Vietnam needs an estimated 40 million tons of coal for its thermal power stations, and this figure will go up to 50-55 million tons in the 2021-2030 period, Vinacomin chairman Le Minh Chuan said at a forum in October. However, Vinacomin and NECO can only produce 40-41 million tons of coal a year, Chuan said, adding that the two producers wont be able to provide the extra 10-15 million tons that the country will need in coming years. Existing power plants will therefore lack coal and the national grid could be seriously affected as a result, Chuan said. Thermal energy is expected to account for over 48 percent of the countrys power production next year. Coal, despite its harmful environmental impacts, is still the dominant power source for Vietnam. Under the revised Power Development Plan VII, by 2030 about 53 percent of the countrys power will come from coal. Vietnam, one of Asias fastest-growing economies, has been struggling to develop its energy industry due to a lack of state fund. The countrys hydropower potential has already been exploited almost fully, oil and gas reserves are running low, and Vietnam recently went from being a net exporter to a net importer of coal. At a forum on Monday, World Bank country director for Vietnam Ousmane Dione told government officials and energy partners that Vietnam will need to raise up $150 billion by 2030 to develop its energy sector. Dione added that electricity demand in the country will grow by about 8 percent a year for the next decade, Reuters reported. The World Bank official proposed that Vietnam allow the domestic and private sector to play a "more prominent role in power sector financing" to raise funds outside its state budget. He added that Vietnam needs to increase its renewable energy usage and introduce a competitive power market so that higher electricity prices can attract private investment in energy. Realizing that mistakes are unavoidable, avoiding their repetition and surviving is itself a success, says startup contest winner. At 10pm on November 15, the Datamart system was still congested due to overwhelming traffic. And Bui Hai Nam's phone was ringing incessantly. Many called to congratulate him for winning the 2018 Startup Viet competition five hours ago; some called to make cooperation and investment proposals. The contest had panned out beyond Nam's expectations. But, said the founder and CEO of Datamart: "I'm starting to feel anxious about how we can go further and meet rising customer expectations." Datamart was founded in 2016 with capital contributed by five co-founders. Its vision was to be the data infrastructure and analytics solutions provider of choice for retail partners. Nam and his partners were agreed that they would launch software products to test the market response, with the understanding that mistaken views and mistakes are often unavoidable in a startup. Over the past year, Powersell software, which includes nearly 100 properties developed by Datamart, has helped connect and manage multichannel sales. But only 20-30 percent of the properties matched market demand, Nam admitted. But he said that if he and his partners had waited to launch a perfect product, their startup could not have made its debut yet. Datamart earned revenues in its early days of operations thanks to a clear business strategy developed at the very beginning. This enabled the firm to break even early and execute its reinvestment plans. Truong Gia Binh, chairman of FPT Corporation and a member of the 2018 Startup Vietnam jury, said that despite not being a recognized brand, Datamart had grown rapidly and broken even, which was praiseworthy. Bui Hai Nam presents the Datamart project at the "Go Global" workshop held at the 2018 Startup Vietnam event. Photo by Huu Khoa. Through talks held with many investors, Nam came to believe that capital plays an important, but not decisive role in a startup's development. The 2018 Startup Vietnam winner realized it was more important to consider how investors can support the project, what their interests are and whether the two sides can coexist and go further. "We do not regard money as a top priority in seeking investors," he said. Datamart is yet to accept any major investor. Nam did not want to solicit large outside investments to expand the startup. He wanted to develop the firm by reinvesting its own profits. However, taking part in the 2018 Startup Vietnam contest completely changed the minds of Nam and his partners. They were shocked by the number of investment proposals they received. Notably, Pham Van Tam, chairman of Asanzo Electronic Group, announced an investment of VND5 billion ($215,000) in Datamart without demanding anything in return. Asanzo Chairman Pham Van Tam surprisingly decided to invest VND5 billion ($215,000) in Datamart at the finale of the 2018 Startup Vietnam event. Photo by Huu Khoa. Tam's investment decision surprised the Datamart CEO. Nam felt that the Asanzo chairman was a "daring" businessman, since investors are normally rigorous in assessing the success potential of their investments before making decisions. He said: "We have not had any discussions with the Asanzo side. And I have no idea about Tams strategic direction, but I believe that if we share the same view, that of enabling our Vietnamese brand to go as far as possible, both sides could definitely be partners. In fact, we can be strategic partners regardless of the investment." Evident passion Those who speak with Nam never fail to be impressed with this dynamism and passion. It is difficult to imagine that a few years ago, he was working at a boring desk job in an office. Born 1985 in the northern city of Hai Phong, Nam left home for Hanoi when he was 15 to study at a high school for gifted mathematics students. Then he entered the National Economics University in Hanoi. After graduation, he bagged a scholarship to study in Singapore and then worked with some banks in Singapore and Vietnam. At that time, banking was considered one of the most lucrative careers, and Nam climbed to the position of vice president at HSBC Singapore. But his interest and energy were flagging at the time. "I mistakenly thought it was enough to rise to the highest position as quickly as possible," he said. In fact, he had achieved what he wanted at 30, but did not know what to do next and all motivation seemed to disappear. After listless walks to office, Nam analyzed and recognized the potential of e-commerce and started working on a plan to set up his own business. Learning to start a business His startup idea led him to Ho Chi Minh City, where he joined the giant e-commerce platform, Lazada, and worked in many positions before setting out on his own. Working at Lazada enabled Nam to explore his new strengths. He had an opportunity to meet Chinese billionaire Jack Ma when the latter came to talk with Lazadas senior managers. Mas vision and dedication toward helping small businesses struck Nam. According to the Chinese entrepreneur, small businesses account for 70-80 percent of all businesses but they still have a lot of potential since almost everyone wants to work for large companies that make up only 10 percent. Nam realized that technology was needed to increase connections with small businesses and retailers because their manpower is limited. "I realized then that I could use my strengths in technology and analytical skills to support small businesses, and then I came up with the idea of a startup aimed at supporting businesses and households," he said. But that startup was not Datamart. After spending two years at Lazada, he and his friends set up a company offering e-commerce consultancy to large firms. Six months later Nam felt that the business could not grow further. He and four friends decided to start a new company that would develop an automated multichannel selling tool called Powersell. The tool would allow automation of all operations, statistics, sales analysis, and so on, based on big data and artificial intelligence. Nam achieved success with his second startup thanks to the lessons learnt from running the first one. Datamart had no option but to change itself quickly to adapt to the volatile market. Powersell was rebuilt three times, and its features constantly changed. It suffered several failures. Initially, only 20-30 percent of Powersells properties were accepted by customers. Now the number of Powersell users has increased to 4,000, and the software helps them manage 40,000 orders per day for five million products. The company targets a network of 2.5 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) throughout Southeast Asia. Nam said: "I have no recipe for success, but learning how to avoid failure and survive is itself a success. Almost 95 percent of startups fail, just five percent achieve success because they have learnt how to survive and go further. Its just the beginning of a long journey." The Donald Trump administration has silently retracted its decision to send thousands of Vietnamese immigrants back to Vietnam. Following a California district court ruling on October 18, thousands of Vietnamese immigrants who came to the U.S. as legal residents before 1995 have been spared from the risk of deportation by the federal immigration agents, the New York Times reported last week, citing an unnamed official in the Department of Homeland Security. The shift followed an agreement reached with Vietnam last August under which "the removal of pre-1995 Vietnamese is not reasonably foreseeable," the Times report said. However, the Trump administration has still asserted that it has the right to detain and re-detain immigrants who have criminal records even if they have already served their sentences. Last year, former citizens of Vietnam, Cambodia and several other countries were caught up in a hardline immigration policy adopted by the Trump administration that sought to deport immigrants with criminal records who have green cards but never became naturalized U.S. citizens, even if theyd served their sentences. As of December last year, there were 8,600 Vietnamese nationals in the United States subject to this controversial deportation policy that has put U.S. at odds with Vietnam. The U.S. and Vietnam had reached a bilateral agreement in 2008, stating that "Vietnamese citizens are not subject to return to Vietnam" if they "arrived in the United States before July 12, 1995." The White Houses deportation policy was in breach of this agreement. Ted Osius, former U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam whos opposed to the policy, has since resigned from the State Department. Osius told Reuters last April that most people targeted for deportation had arrived in the United States prior to 1995, the year diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the United States were resumed after the Vietnam War. Around 12 Vietnamese immigrants have already been sent back home while many others have been kept in detention by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency for months awaiting deportation, the New York Times report said. However, a 2001 Supreme Court ruling had determined that the government cannot detain immigrants for more than 180 days if their deportation is not "reasonably foreseeable," prompting the Asian Americans Advancing Justice to file a class-action lawsuit against the Trump administration to oppose the detentions earlier this year. The Trump administration had told the court in October that it would start releasing many of the immigrants who had been detained and in some cases held for months pending approval of their deportation. However, the White House asserted that ICE still has the right to detain them indefinitely and repeatedly. According to ICE figures, 71 Vietnamese people were deported to Vietnam last year, compared to 35 in 2016, and 32 in 2015. No information is given on when the deportees arrived in the United States. Nearly 1.3 million Vietnamese citizens have immigrated to the United States since the end of the Vietnam War and obtained green cards. However, many of them are yet to become permanent U.S. citizens, due to the lack of education, language skills or legal help to complete the procedures of obtaining citizenship. A Vietnamese woman was found dead in an apartment in Osaka in Japan Monday, local media reported quoting the police. The woman, whose identity has yet to be confirmed, was found with injuries to the neck and bleeding in the third floor apartment in a residential building in Hirano Ward at around 10:30 p.m. by another resident of the building, The Mainichi reported. An unidentified man, also believed to be Vietnamese, was found with similar injuries in another room. A cooking knife with blood on it was found at the apartment entrance. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene by the police, while the man was rushed to the hospital. His condition is now stable. The deceased woman appeared to be one of three Vietnamese women living in the building, the police said. They are investigating. Last year a 9-year-old Vietnamese girl was murdered by a Japanese man in Chiba Prefecture in Tokyo. The murderer, Yasumasa Shibuya, 46, was sentenced to life last July. The case sparked horror and outrage among millions of Vietnamese and Japanese at the time, with the girls bereaved parents launching a signature campaign seeking death for the killer. Murder is punishable with death in Japan, with executions carried out by hanging. Death sentences are however rare and handed down only in cases considered particularly heinous. A Jewish professor's office at Columbia Teachers College was vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti, including swastikas and an anti-Semitic slur. Elizabeth Midlarsky, a professor of psychology and education who researches the Holocaust, said she arrived at work at around 1 p.m. today and found large swastikas scrawled on the walls just outside her office. The word "YID" was also spray-painted on a wall. I was in a state of shock, she said, adding that shes an organ donor recipient whos been dealing with health issues. This is not the first time Midlarsky's office was vandalized. In 2007, she discovered a swastika spray-painted on her office door, as well as anti-Semitic flyers in her mailbox. Today, she alerted Columbia security, which arrived within half an hour, by her account. She also received a visit from Teachers College president Thomas Bailey and the NYPD. A spokesperson for Teachers College said, "The matter is now under investigation by the NYPD, to whom we reported the incident immediately upon discovery. All further questions should be directed to the NYPD at this time." Gothamist and WNYC received this tip through ProPublica's Documenting Hate project. According to the NYPD, there were 309 hate crimes reported as of November 7th of this yeara slight increase from 2017, a year that saw a dramatic spike in hate crimes both in New York City and nationwide. (Over half of those reported NYC hate crimes, 159, were anti-Semitic in nature.) Earlier this month, NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill said that the rise in hate crimes was, in part, due to the "current atmosphere" of heightened racial and religious rhetoric. Among Midlarskys areas of expertise is how non-Jews helped Jews during the Holocaust. "It's amazing, because I've always been looking at the good guys, she said. Not the violence. And Im experiencing something thats more on the violent end of things." Update: Teachers College President Bailey just issued this letter: To the TC Community: As you may already have heard, the office of a Teachers College faculty member has been defaced with swastikas. We unequivocally condemn any expression of hatred, which has no place in our society. We are outraged and horrified by this act of aggression and use of this vile anti-Semitic symbol against a valued member of our community. Please rest assured that we are working with police to discover the perpetrator of this hateful act. I also want to reaffirm the Colleges commitment - and my own - to providing a respectful and welcoming environment for all, and to protecting the safety and dignity of all members of our community. Thomas Bailey President Arun Venugopal is a reporter who focuses on issues of race and immigration. You can follow him on Twitter at @arunNYC. With additional reporting by Jen Chung Eight suspects will appear before a South African court to face charges of illegal possession of game products including lion parts and a tiger's carcass. Police found lion bones, lion meat, a tiger skin, gas cylinders, gas burners, containers, a saw, knives and other equipment when they intercepted the suspects' two vehicles headed to an unused farm in the North West province on Sunday. "As far as how many (lions), from our side there's been no definite number really... but its quite a few of them," Captain Tlangelani Rikhotso told AFP. "There were different parts of the lion that were there... so you can't exactly tell if its the stomach or whatever, but the lion in its entirety was chopped up basically." Local media reports said at least 40 lions were killed. Of the eight suspects, aged between 22 and 60, two are South African and six are Vietnamese nationals. Once detained, the suspects took the police to a farm where a lion skin was found dumped in the bush and large machines which were believed to have been the instruments for cutting the bones were also found in a garage. The arrest follows a three-month long intelligence driven operation by the Hawks North West Serious Organised Crime Unit in collaboration with other law enforcement agencies. But police would not say whether they believed this to be part of a poaching syndicate or an isolated incident, saying the investigation was continuing. South Africa has 8,000 lions in captivity bred for hunting, and just 3,000 wild lions living in the country's national parks where hunting is prohibited. World Bank to consider allocation of $750 mln guarantee to Ukraine in Dec The final parameters of the agreement will be determined after approval by the World Bank Board of Directors. If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter National Bank recognizes Russian VTB's Ukrainian subsidiary insolvent The decision was made due to the lack of real action by the bank owners to prevent its insolvency. If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter A total of 35 vessels have been blocked. Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan says that the Ukrainian ports of Mariupol and Berdiansk on the Sea of Azov are effectively under blockade by the Russian Federation. "The Ukrainian ports on the Sea of Azov Mariupol and Berdiansk are effectively under blockade by the Russian Federation. Vessels are being barred from leaving and entering," he wrote on Facebook on November 28. There are 18 vessels waiting for entry into the Sea of Azov: four are heading to the port of Berdiansk and14 to the port of Mariupol. Three vessels that have left Berdiansk and six vessels that have left Mariupol are waiting for exit from the Sea of Azov to enter the Black Sea across the Kerch Strait, the minister said. Another eight ships are standing by near the port berths. Read alsoInfrastructure Ministry sees no threat of fewer ship calls to Ukrainian ports amid martial law "Overall, 35 vessels have been prevented from carrying out normal operations. Only vessels moving towards Russian ports on the Sea of Azov are permitted entry. In essence, Russia has blocked the Ukrainian ports on the Sea of Azov. The actions of the Russians are clearly aimed at escalating the crisis in the Sea of Azov and destabilizing the region. The goal is simple by placing a blockade on the Ukrainian ports on the Sea of Azov, Russia hopes to drive Ukraine out of our own territory the territory that is ours in accordance with all relevant international laws," the minister stressed. The Infrastructure Ministry earlier said that a recent move by Ukraine's authorities to impose martial law was unlikely to affect the number of ship calls to Ukraine's maritime merchant ports. On November 26, the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, enacted President Petro Poroshenko's decree to impose martial law in 10 regions bordering Russia until December 26. We have this vision of immigrants arriving by ship, seeing the Statue of Liberty and landing at Ellis Island to start their new American lives. But thousands of people never made it that far. Instead, they were detained at Swinburne and Hoffman Islands, two tiny islands in our harbor that were used as quarantine islands from the 1870s until the 1920s. According to Professor James Colgrove at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, ships coming into New York harbor would be stopped before Ellis Island. He says: As the ship steamed into lower harbor, a tugboat would have pulled up alongside the boat and a doctor or a few doctors would have boarded the boat and all the passengers would have been asked to line up on deck. And the doctors would go down the line and give everybody a very quick once over... This was really looking for just the most visibly ill people. You might be looking for kids who were covered with measles spots, somebody with smallpox. Someone who was obviously very ill. The doctor might have popped a thermometer into somebodys mouth if they weren't sure. But basically this was just a very quick once over. And if you were unfortunate enough to be showing symptomsif you were extremely flushed, if you were vomiting, if you had some kind of visible sign of diseasethey would have then pulled you off the boat. Immigrants who arrived visibly ill would be taken by tugboat to Swinburne and Hoffman Islands, just south of where the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is today, about a mile off of Staten Islands South Beach. The story of how Swinburne and Hoffman came to exist is a bizarre chapter in New Yorks history. Before the islands existed, many immigrants who arrived with potentially contagious diseases were detained at the Marine Hospital, a compound of buildings on Staten Island known as The Quarantine. Back then, New Yorkers were dying from all sorts of maladies we rarely hear about today: smallpox, diphtheria, cholera. Much less was known about contagious diseases and in the 1850s, and there were frequent outbreaks; when they occurred on Staten Island, locals blamed The Quarantine, particularly after a bad outbreak of Yellow Fever that hit. Professor Colgrove explains, "Yellow fever was one of the most frightening diseases because it spread in really inexplicable ways. We understand now that it's spread through mosquitoes, but disease in general struck very much at random which is what made it so frightening." On the night of September 1st, 1858, a few dozen men broke down the brick walls surrounding The Quarantine. They entered the compound with matches and straw and set almost every building on fire. There were no fatalities because the staff and patients had been given advance warning to evacuate the premises. Given that Staten Islanders had been trying to get rid of this place for decades, no one was all that surprised the night The Quarantine burned down. The mob returned the following day to burn down more. In the years following the fire, no one could agree where to put the immigrants who arrived sick. The city eventually agreed to build two islands from landfill on a shoal in the Narrows: these were Swinburne and Hoffman. (Photo by Bjoern Kils /New York Media Boat) The conditions were horrific, and there was often overcrowding. In 1901, authorities held over 7800 people on Hoffman alone. But detailed records have disappeared, and the number of people who made it off alive or died on the islands is not known. In the 1920s when open immigration was drastically reduced, they were no longer needed as quarantine islands. The NY Times declared them "ghost isles" in 1949, noting they were "orphaned amid relics of a more auspicious past." Since then, Swinburne and Hoffman have been used for many unusual purposes: a place to quarantine sick parrots; a training base for the Merchant Marines, and in the 1960s, a film crew was arrested for shooting pornographic films on the islands. Theres not much left to see over there anymoreafter years of being subjected to everything from vandals to arson, the most destructive force was Superstorm Sandy. All that remains today is an old dock off of Hoffman and some crumbling brick walls and a smoke stack, possibly from a crematorium, on Swinburne Island. The islands are now owned by the National Park Service, and while visitors are not welcome, several tour companies offer boat rides that stop nearby so people can see the wildlife. Today Swinburne and Hoffman have become sanctuaries for herons, gulls and seals. Listen to Amanda Aronczyk talk about the islands on WNYC: "Germ City" runs until April 28th, 2019 at the Museum of the City of New York. WNYC is presenting a series of Germ City stories, as part of a collaboration with the Museum and the New York Academy of Medicineyou can read them here. Iberia received 168.9 complaints for every million passengers. Iberia Norwegian, Iberia and its associated airlines, Air Europa, the defunct Air Berlin, Wizz Air and Vueling, were the companies that came up most often in passenger complaints filed with the State Air Security Agency (AESA), a department of the Spanish Public Works Ministry that addresses claims over delays, cancellations and boarding refusals. The overall number of complaints has jumped by 50% since 2015 According to official data obtained by EL PAIS, AESA received 15,604 passenger complaints in 2017 a 50% rise from 2015 figures. This is due in part to the increase in air traffic in Spain, AESA said in a response obtained by EL PAIS under the Transparency Law, which for the first time has allowed access to information on complaints against each airline. Statistics show that 2,406 complaints were filed against Iberia in 2017, making it the worst-performing airline in absolute terms. The Spanish airline Vueling came in second place with 2,333 complaints, followed by Ryanair with 1,789. But in relative terms, taking into account the number of passengers who were carried that year, Iberia drops to second place with 168.9 complaints for every one million passengers, after Norwegian Airlines which received 180.1 claims per million. Rise in claims The increase in air traffic is only partly to blame for the rise in claims, given that the number of passengers only grew by 19.7% between 2015 and 2017, according to the Spanish airport authority AENA. More than half of all complaints filed last year were about delays (57%). One in three claimants (33%) demanded compensation for a canceled flight. In 6% of cases, passengers were prevented from boarding their flights. The rest of the cases (4%) were filed as other categories, according to AESAs managing director Isabel Maestre. Ignoring AESA rulings Once AESA has finished reviewing a complaint (the typical processing period is 90 days but it can be extended to 120 if the issue is complex), the organization releases a final report, which it sends to both the passenger and the airline. But the reports conclusions are not binding and many airlines ignore the decisions, meaning passengers have to turn to the courts. Fully 57% of all complaints were about delays AESAs decisions should be binding, according to EU law, but the legislative change that will make this possible in 2019 is still being processed. Most airlines consulted by this newspaper avoided specifying whether they follow AESAs decisions when these favor the passenger. The only airline that responded was Volotea (with 172 complaints and 811,576 passengers in 2017), which said it scrupulously complies with all resolutions that order passengers be compensated as part of its company policy. Passengers can only file a complaint with AESA when the airline has failed to respond for 30 days, or when the response has not been satisfactory. The data obtained by EL PAIS reflects the number of complaints accepted by AESA, not how many were presented to the agency. The Iberia group, which includes the airlines Iberia, Iberia Express and Air Nostrum, did not comment on the findings. English version by Melissa Kitson. A female with her cubs in the western range. Brown Bear Foundation The only brown bears who have managed to avoid extinction and thrive in Spain without the need to introduce foreign specimens are those that live in the mountains of Cantabria. They are distributed into two distinct populations, western and eastern, which have had different luck: in 2017 there were an estimated 250 bears in the western section, including 35 breeding females and 64 cubs, while in the eastern section this figure dropped to around 40 specimens, with six females and nine cubs, according to data from the regional government of Castilla y Leon. This year is proving to be especially tragic, with several dead bears found in the eastern side Both groups are separated by a strip of land measuring between 50 and 80 kilometers. The other brown bear habitat, located in the Pyrenees, has 44 specimens and it is shared with neighboring France and the principality of Andorra. This third group was created by bringing in Slovenian brown bears from the same species (Ursus arctos arctos). The last indigenous bear, a female, died in 2004. Despite years of study, it is still unclear why there is such a difference between the population growth of these two groups, which are distributed across the northern Spanish regions of Asturias, Galicia, Cantabria and Castilla y Leon. Guillermo Palomero, president of Brown Bear Foundation (FOP), focuses on the habitat. The mountains of Palencia are less productive because of the type of food that is found there. In the fall season, the bears depend on the forests of oak and beech for subsistence, while in the western portion they also have chestnuts besides acorns. They have a better guarantee of surviving the winter, he explains. A dead bear found in early 2017. FAPAS Palomero also recalls that when bear management began, there were more specimens in the western side. During the worst years there were between 50 and 60 specimens and at least 10 breeding females in the western side. In the eastern side, however, the population dropped to around 20 specimens and no more than two breeding females, a situation that encouraged inbreeding. The non-profit group Fund for the Protection of Wild Animals (Fapas), which works on bear conservation in the Cantabria mountains, warns that mortality rates are higher in the eastern side. There is a constant trickle of deaths tied to hunting. If these were natural deaths, the bodies would not be located, because these animals always hide when they are hurt or sick, says Roberto Hartasanchez, president of Fapas. The landscape is less rugged, and if you create trails, as has happened here, you reduce the number of places where the bears can take refuge. And bears need quiet places. This year is proving to be especially tragic, with several dead bears found in the eastern side. We are waiting for the results of the necropsies, if we get them, because you cant lose that many bears just like that, in one blow, says the head of FOP, who nevertheless rules out hunting or poaching. Goal: radio-marking The main goal of the Higher Council of Scientific Research (CSIC) researchers is to obtain authorization for a radio-marking campaign that they say will be instrumental in obtaining more specific data about the species. It is not possible to develop a management program without knowing what your starting point is, warns researcher Vicenzo Penteriani. The conservationist Roberto Hartasanchez, president of the non-profit group Fund for the Protection of Wild Animals (Fapas), agrees, because "it would provide fantastic information." At Fapas, however, experts say that specimens should be selected for radio-marking in order to find solutions to specific problems. But this is a taboo subject, because a similar project was launched 20 years ago and it went badly, explains Penteriani. A bear died just a few days after being captured for radio-marking inside Somiedo Natural Park, in Asturias, and a controversy broke out over the practice. For four years, a group of researchers from the Higher Council of Scientific Research (CSIC) and Oviedo University has been studying the case of the Cantabria brown bear. Vicenzo Penteriani, who heads the team, feels that from the point of view of resources (both food and habitat), there is not enough of a difference to explain the differences in the growth of the species. Besides, the females are similarly productive, which rules out fertility as a cause. The FOP says its own research indicates that females in the Cantabria mountains do, in fact, have fewer cubs than is usual for the species. Again, western females win, with an average of 1.87 cubs per litter, compared with 1.5 cubs for the eastern females. FOP biologist Fernando Ballesteros explains that while their techniques may not be that sophisticated, so many years of field observation (since 1989), makes their own data very robust. Ballesteros adds that both groups are now mixing, with some western males entering the eastern territory, as hair and excrement samples have shown. English version by Susana Urra. The Spanish government is maintaining its decision to leave the fate of 12 migrants in the hands of Libyan authorities after the former were rescued in the Mediterranean Sea last Thursday by a Spanish fishing boat. The Ombudsman has asked the Foreign Ministry to consider taking them in for humanitarian reasons, underscoring that the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) does not consider Libya a safe harbor for migrants, even though it is the closest country to the spot where the group was rescued. This is not just about the risk to a ship, were talking about people Ricardo Gatti, Open Arms The office of the Spanish deputy prime minister, which is in charge of negotiations with Libyan authorities, claims that Libya, being the nearest port, is therefore also the safest. The law defines as a safe harbor any port where it is possible to dock, remain and depart from without putting the ship at risk. This is not just about the risk to a ship, we're talking about people. We're talking about pushback policies. These are people who have been rescued from the sea and they need to disembark as soon as possible at a safe harbor, and Libya is not a safe harbor, says Ricardo Gatti, who heads the mission aboard the Open Arms, a rescue ship that has provided food and medical assistance to the fishing vessel Nuestra Madre de Loreto. Carrying more than twice the people that it is built for, and covered in shrimping nets, the conditions aboard the ship are not very salubrious, said these volunteers. The fishermen have donated part of their own clothing to the migrants, but warn that even with the recent food delivery by the non-profit, they will be unable to hold on for more than six or seven days. This is the latest case involving stranded migrants that nobody in the EU seems willing to take in. The Open Arms itself made headlines this past July when it took 60 migrants to Barcelona after they had been rejected by Italy and Malta. Before that, the Aquarius had brought more than 600 migrants to Spain after being similarly turned away in a case that attracted worldwide attention and underscored the problems with the EUs immigration policy. The Spanish governments position represents a change in its migrant rescue policy in the Central Mediterranean, where so far this year more than 1,277 people have lost their lives, according to the International Migration Organization (IMO). Ever since the government of Pedro Sanchez decided to accept the Aquarius in June of this year, the Spanish executive has offered Spain as a safe harbor on more than three occasions, although less enthusiastically each time. The lack of consensus over what to do with the rescued migrants in the face of the closed-port policies of Malta and Italy has led the Spanish government to seek negotiated solutions with its European partners. On August 15 Sanchez congratulated himself for leading a deal by which Malta accepted 141 migrants rescued by the Aquarius and six EU countries accepted to take them in. Critical situation Meanwhile, the situation aboard the Nuestra Madre de Loreto Is becoming critical. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister admits that the fishing ship, which is now dealing with a storm, faces a serious risk because there are twice as many people aboard as it is capable of carrying. The 24-meter-long ship is currently 100 nautical miles from Tripoli and 120 miles from Malta, waiting for its route to be decided by officials in a faraway office. The rescue groups Proactiva Open Arms, Sea-Watch and Mediterranea have asked the Spanish government to demand from Italy and Malta that they open their ports to the ship. The regional government of Valencia, on Spains Mediterranean coast, has offered its own ports. Spains Foreign Minister Josep Borrell said on Tuesday that the situation aboard the ship is not an emergency The crew aboard the fishing vessel is very busy dealing with the storm and concerned about the migrants, said Vicente Sampere, the second-in-command. They are not used to the sea and theyre very seasick, they keep throwing up. And we only have food and fuel left for six more days. The crew was not happy about statements made by Spains foreign minister, Josep Borrell, who said on Tuesday that the situation aboard the ship is not an emergency because theyre still fishing and the people aboard are being taken care of. We stopped fishing so as not to put the safety of these people at risk, said the captain, Pascual Dura, who does not support turning the migrants over to Libya. Even though it would mean a huge financial loss, Dura said he is ready to take them to a Spanish port. I am not afraid of dying, I am afraid of Libya Lorenzo DAgostino It was 8pm when Pascual Dura, the captain of the Nuestra Madre de Loreto, saw the lights of a small vessel that was being chased by a Libyan speedboat. "As soon as the boat came near us, one of the people jumped and grabbed onto our stern," recalls Vicente Sampere, the captain's right-hand man. "We stopped the boat because at night, with people at the stern, the propeller could have sucked them in." Several more migrants jumped into the sea and swam toward the Spanish fishing vessel. Those who did not were taken aboard the Libyan speedboat. "There were still a few in the sea but the Libyans sped away. We kept contacting them on the radio to warn them that there were people in the water, but they did not even reply. And so all 12 of them ended up here." The migrants hail from Somalia, Egypt, Sudan, Nigeria and Senegal. On November 24, volunteers from the non-profit Proactiva Open Arms went aboard and found that several migrants were still in a state of shock. They all had recent injuries, and several were suffering from scabies. One of the migrants said that he had lost his vision in one eye because of beatings at a Libyan detention center. Another migrant refused to talk and sat motionless, staring into space for the entire hour that the volunteers were aboard the ship. Souleiman (an assumed name) said he was 16 years old and comes from Sudan. I entered Libya when I was 12. The Libyans only want money; they put us in jail so we will pay them, he said. They put me in prison for one year and I was not able to shower even once. When I was on the boat and I saw the Libyan Coast Guard coming near I jumped in the water, because I am not afraid of dying, I am afraid of Libya. The two Nigerians say that the migrant boat had 36 people aboard, six of them women. "We jumped in the water and the others were taken away by the Libyans. Libya is horrible. They make your work as a slave, they pressure you to get money, they torture you while they force you to call your family to make them pay a ransom." English version by Susana Urra. The handsome Nordic spruce towering over Rockefeller Plaza has stood embarrassingly dim since Santa's helpers raised her on her stand in mid-November. True, she's been trimmed with five festive miles of multi-colored lights and topped with a Swarovski-studded star (personally, I would've preferred to keep the original mantel of disembodied human hands, a plated candle in every floating paw) but she has not truly been allowed to shine. Until tonight, that is. At 9 p.m. or so, we will light that shit up like, I don't know, is the SUN bright enough for you? While many people enjoy this time-honored annual tradition, others may prefer to avoid the cacophonous extravaganza: Be advised, then, that the larger Rockefeller Christmas Tree Lighting program begins at 7 p.m., and according to the NYPD, those of you who were planning to drive through Midtown should plan to not. Roads will close at 3 p.m., forcing even more people through the congested transit hub that is 47-50th Streets-Rockefeller Center, and turning the entire area into a holiday hell. Whether you intend to stay or go, or even just to commute home after your workday, here is everything you need to know about the impending shitshow, I mean ceremony. Who is she? The tree has a name, and it is Shelby. She is almost as tall as she is old: At 75 years, 72 feet, and 12 tons, Shelby commands your respect. She hails from Wallkill, NY, and will stand sentinel at 30 Rock until January 7. After that, she goes on to Habitat for Humanity, which will use her to build houses. Shelby is nothing if not selfless. Two days to go until the the 2018 #RockCenterXMAS Tree lighting! Shirley Figueroa and Lissette Gutierrez donated this years showstopper, a 72-foot-tall Norway Spruce. https://t.co/dd0VGgMg9N pic.twitter.com/8ceSZOEndb Rockefeller Center (@rockcenternyc) November 26, 2018 When do I need to get to 30 Rock? As mentioned, the actual lighting happens at 9, but the party begins at 7. If you want to snag a prime spot for the big blaze, the Today Showwhich is filmed right there and is therefore a seasoned authority on all things Rockefeller treeadvises you to arrive around 3 p.m., and certainly no later than 4 p.m., or find yourself shunted to the back with the straggling plebes. To reiterate, though, Shelby stands a staggering 72 feet tall, so I feel the odds of you being blocked out entirely would be fairly slim even if you arrived at, say, 4:30/5. Push it much further, though, and you might get trampled; I can't guarantee your safety in this moment of holiday madness. Do I need tickets? Nope, just willpower, bottomless patience, and strong legs. The event ends at 10 p.m., and then you have to get out, so all told you're looking at a knee-splitting amount of standing in crowds. Who else will be there? Your four-hour wait for the show to start admittedly promises inconceivable boredom, but eventually you will be entertainedby John Legend, Diana Ross, Tony Bennett, Diana Krall, Martina McBride, Brett Eldredge, Darci Lynne Farmer, Pentatonix, Kellie Pickler, Howie Mandel, Ella Mai, Rob Thomas, dancers from the New York City Ballet's production of The Nutcracker, and all the Radio City Rockettes. Also in attendance: your hosts Hoda Kotb, Savannah Guthrie, Al Roker, and Craig Melvin, of the Today Show. Swarovski unveils the star that will top the Rockefeller tree, it weighs 900 pounds and has 70 spikes on it! pic.twitter.com/pEC65AkAH6 TODAY (@TODAYshow) November 14, 2018 Which streets will be closed? Starting at, again, 3 p.m., the NYPD is shutting down the streets surrounding Rockefeller Center and Radio City Music Hall. Attempting to motor through the area will be a fool's errand from then until roughly midnight, don't even think about it! The following streets will be closed: 48th to 51st Street between Avenue of the Americas and Madison Avenue 47th Street between 5th Avenue and Madison Avenue 52nd Street between 5th Avenue and Madison Avenue But don't expect roads to clear completely once the mayhem winds down. From Thursday, November 29th until Monday, January 7, 2019, the following streets will be closed to traffic between 5:00 p.m. until 12:00 a.m. on weekdays and 1:00 p.m. until 12:00 a.m. on weekends, so you can see those majestic lights: 49th Street between 5th Avenue and Avenue of the Americas 50th Street between 5th Avenue and Avenue of the Americas Can I take the subway? You can certainly try. Not sold, can I stream? Sure, provided you have login information for a cable provider: NBC will begin streaming at 8, permitting you a peek at the pre-show before the main event. Should you miss or deliberately skip the whole ceremony, but you still want to see Shelby (she's beautiful), you can catch her all lit up from 5:30 to 11:30 p.m. every day through January 6, and from 5:30 to 9 p.m. on January 7. Naturally a special exception will be made for Christmas Day, when she will shine for a full 24 hours hell yes. You'll still have to go to Midtown, though. Doctors and firemen surrounded the Catalan regional parliament on Wednesday to demand Catalan regional premier Quim Torra reverse budget cuts introduced during the financial crisis. Catalan family doctors want a minimum of 12 minutes for each consult and no more than 28 consults a day The protesters waved placards and used plastic horns, whistles and megaphones to mount a noisy protest and make their demands heard. The demonstrators were held back by the Catalan regional police, the Mossos dEsquadra, who clashed with the firemen. The firefighters are calling for more personnel, resources and better salaries. Family doctors in Catalonia are also demanding more resources and better working conditions.This is the third day of industrial action for the group. The union Doctors of Catalonia (MT) began a strike on Monday, claiming the state of the regions primary healthcare sector is unsustainable. On the first day of the strike, hundreds of doctors blocked Barcelonas Gran Via avenue and occupied the headquarters of the Catalan Health Institute (ICS), the public entity that manages 80% of primary healthcare services. On Tuesday, more than a thousand people protested outside the Health Department against the precariousness of the sector, which lost nearly a thousand doctors during the cutbacks and, according to MC, only has 30% of its former purchasing power. Main entrance to Pompeu Fabra University in Poblenou. grego casanova The ICS has offered to immediately incorporate 200 doctors to help relieve the sectors urgent needs. While the institute has the budget to cover this measure, it admits there is not enough staff to fill the places and is asking doctors to work extra remunerated hours. The MC has rejected the offer. The union wants a minimum of 12 minutes to be guaranteed for each patient visit and no more than 28 visits a day demands the ICS has not accepted. We are doing everything we can to address their demands. Hopefully today we will find a solution, said Torra on Tuesday. But no solution was found and on Wednesday the family doctors entered their third day of stoppages. This time they were joined by university students who stopped classes to call for academic fees which rose by 67% during the financial crisis to be reduced by 30%. University protesters at UAB. Cristobal Castro The Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) suspended classes in the Ciutadella campus in Barcelona in response to the strike, citing security reasons. The University of Barcelona and the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) continued classes but asked professors not to hold exams or other activities that would be graded. Students at UAB blocked access to the Bellaterra campus early Wednesday morning, setting up barricades with chairs, tables and trash cans at each of the entry points. The strike, organized by the Catalan Student Union (SEPC), is set to continue on Thursday. University teaching and research staff have called their own strike on Thursday to support the students demand to reduce academic fees. Students and teachers will gather outside the University of Barcelona square for a demonstration at midday. English version by Melissa Kitson. Cristina Cifuentes on the day of her resignation. Jaime Villaneva Court proceedings are moving forward against Cristina Cifuentes over allegations that the former Madrid premier participated in the falsification of documents certifying that she successfully completed a masters program at the Public Law Institute (IDP) of King Juan Carlos University (URJC). The judge overseeing the case, Carmen Rodriguez-Medel, said she would proceed against Cifuentes in court records filed on Wednesday. In Spain, forgery of public records is a criminal offense entailing three to six years of prison time. In Spain, forgery of public records is a criminal offense entailing up to six years of prison time Cifuentes, of the Popular Party (PP), headed the regional government from June 2015 to April of this year, when she stepped down amid a growing scandal. The story broke in March when an online daily revealed that she had never attended classes or taken examinationswith the other students. A university employee later allegedly altered her grades transcript to make it look as if she had completed her coursework. Cifuentes final thesis never turned up, and while she claims to have defended it before a three-member panel, no official records exist of that event, university officials said. Pressed for evidence, Cifuentes produced a university document signed by the three members of the examining panel. It later emerged that at least two of the signatures were forged, and the case was taken up by prosecutors, as forgery of public documents is a crime that carries prison sentences. PP leader Pablo Casado. Jose Manuel Pedrosa (EFE) The regional leader denied the accusations, blaming the university for any irregularities with her qualifications. In April she returned the controversial masters degree but insisted, I have not committed any illegal act. I have an official title, stamped and certified by the department. The scandal hit crisis levels after a video emerged showing Cifuentes in a shoplifting incident in 2011, and she was forced to resign as Madrid premier. Two days after she quit, Cifuentes also stepped down as the president of the PP in Madrid. More defendants Rodriguez-Medel has also decided to continue proceedings against Enrique Alvarez Conde, the head of the URJC Public Law Institute where Cifuentes obtained her degree, as well as Cecilia Rosado, one of the professors who signed the fake document, and Teresa Feito, Cifuentes former advisor, who allegedly pressured professors at URJC to cover up the irregularities. I have not committed any illegal act Former premier of Madrid, Cristina Cifuentes In the court statement, the judge said Feito insisted that Alvarez Conde should create [...] the necessary documents to prove that Cifuentes had completed the masters degree normally and passed all the necessary tests to obtain the title, including the defense of the final thesis. Cifuentes is not the only Spanish politician to be embroiled in a scandal over their academic qualifications. Pablo Casado, who is now the president of the PP, was also accused of fraudulently obtaining a masters degree from the same university, without attending classes. The Supreme Court, however, ruled there was not enough evidence to show Casado was gifted the qualification in exchange for his political connections. Spains Health Minister Carmen Monton was forced to resign over irregularities with her master's degree, and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was also accused of plagiarizing his doctoral thesis. English version by Melissa Kitson. The supervisory council of Kyivstar on November 26 decided to appoint Chief Operating Officer of VEON Ltd (the Netherlands) Kjell Morten Johnsen as chairman of the company's supervisory board for three years instead of VEON Financial Director Trond Westlie appointed in June of the current year, according to a report by the operator in the information disclosure system of the National Commission on Securities and the Stock Market. Kjell Morten Johnsen from July 2007 to June 2015 had held the post of member of the board of directors at VimpelCom Ltd., from May 2012 to October 2015 - the post of Executive Vice President, Chairman of Telenor in Europe, from August 2016 to the present he has been Chief Operating Officer of VEON. The new head of the supervisory board is the representative of the shareholder of the issuer, namely VEON Holdings B.V. The Individuals' Deposit Guaranteeing Fund has started the procedure of withdrawing PJSC VTB Bank from the market by introducing temporary administration for one month from November 28 to December 27, 2018. According to the fund's website, Yulia Zabolotna has been appointed temporary administrator of the credit institution. The beginning and procedure of paying guaranteed amount to depositors will be announced additionally on the fund's website. As reported, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) on November 27 declared VTB Bank insolvent. The relevant decision was approved by NBU Board resolution No. 796-rsh/BT. According to the NBU, 97% of VTB Bank depositors (59,108 persons) will receive deposits in full, since their size does not exceed the guaranteed amount of UAH 200,000. Larger deposits will be reimbursed within the specified amount. The fund will provide the payment of a guaranteed amount for a total of UAH 942.7 million, while as of October 1, 2018 the amount of customer deposits on the bank's balance sheet stood at UAH 3.676 billion. A tender to sell a 78.289% stake in Centrenergo is to take place on December 13 as it is scheduled, and all auctions to privatize small facilities in the ProZorro.Sales platform will take place in line with the announced dates, acting Head of the State Property Fund (SPF) Vitaliy Trubarov has said. "The introduction of martial law will not affect the privatization processes (procedure), both for large and small enterprises. At the same time, an investor will take into account the relevant fact," he wrote on his Facebook page. According to Trubarov, bids are currently being received for the Centrenergo tender, after which the bidding companies must pay a guarantee fee. "And only after that we can talk about the number of bidders in the tender and their names," he said. As reported, the Verkhovna Rada approved the president's decree on the imposition of martial law in Ukraine until 14:00 on December 26 with the warning that it is being introduced in 10 of the 24 regions of the country on the borders with Russia and Transdniestria. Ukraine under threat of full-scale war with Russia, so it was decided to declare martial law The need to introduce martial law in Ukraine is caused by the threat of a full-scale war with the Russian Federation, as evidenced by the increase in Russia's military contingent near the Ukrainian border, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has said. "Don't think that it is fun. Ukraine is under the threat of a full-scale war with the Russian Federation," the president said in an interview with Ukrainian television channels on Tuesday. Russian citizens, who are crossing the border with Ukraine, are under the scrutiny of the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service; the action plans for border guards under martial law are still being developed. "I can say that every day certain part of Russian citizen does not enter Ukraine," Andriy Demchenko, the head of the public relations department of the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service, told Interfax-Ukraine. He mentioned that a foreign citizen needs a relevant list of documents to cross the border with Ukraine. "And additional control measures may be taken to find out the purpose of a visit to Ukraine. If a foreigner cannot confirm the purpose of the visit, they may be refused entry," he said. Demchenko also said that the plans of actions of the State Border Guard Service's units under martial law are now being thoroughly elaborated. "The head of the State Border Guard Service pointed out at the meeting of the National Security and Defense Council that the entry of certain groups of Russian citizens may be restricted. This is why it is quite possible that closer attention will be paid to Russian citizens after the documents are published and necessary unit action plans are developed," the State Border Guard Service said. Belarusian border guards said earlier on Tuesday that the Belarusian State Border Committee recorded the return of 47 Russian citizens, who had been barred from entering Ukraine, on flights from Kyiv since Monday morning. President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has said that the martial law in a number of regions will end on December 26. "According to the law, the term will be terminated, as far as I understand it, on December 26. When I made the appeal, there was another date. And now the date is December 26. Therefore, the martial law came into effect on November 26," the president said in an interview with Ukrainian television channels on Tuesday. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in an interview to Ukrainian TV channels stressed that Ukraine would struggle by all possible means for the liberation of Ukrainian sailors. "The relevant special services, Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada for Human Rights Liudmyla Denisova and the embassies had been ordered to take all measures available to Ukraine to return the Ukrainians," he said in an interview with Ukrainian TV channels on Tuesday. On November 25, Russian border guards captured the Yany Kapu tugboat and two small-sized Berdiansk and Nikopol armored artillery boats of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' Navy heading from Odesa to Mariupol. After the seizure, they escorted the vessels to the occupied Kerch. The FSB opened a case under Part 3 of Article 322 of the Criminal Code of Russia (illegal crossing of the state border). Initially, the Ukrainian side reported about six wounded sailors, and the Russian Federation said about three seamen. On November 27, First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, representative of Ukraine's president for a peaceful settlement in Donbas, Iryna Gerashchenko, said that among the captured sailors there were four injured and one in serious condition. European countries should step up support for Ukraine in connection with the incident in the Kerch Strait, introducing more effective sanctions against Russia, U.S. State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert has said. "And one of the things that we would like to see take place is our European allies doing more to assist Ukraine. The United States government has taken a very strong position in their support, in support of Ukraine. We would like other countries to do more as well," she said. In particular, Nauert specified, the governments of European countries could introduce more effective sanctions against Russia. "Many governments have imposed sanctions on Russia for its actions in Crimea, in Ukraine. Not all of those sanctions, as I have been told and our experts have explained to me, have been fully enforced," the press secretary said. According to Nauert, European countries, through which Nord Stream 2 will pass, should also consider whether they need it. "I think that's a question European countries have to ask themselves: Is Nord Stream 2 something that they want to continue with, because it helps the Russian government, and is that the kind of support that they want to provide the Russian government with, continuing to back Nord Stream 2 at this time?" she said. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said one possible option for supporting Ukraine in the current situation in the waters of the Azov and Black Seas could be sending several NATO ships into the Black Sea, according to the president's official website. In an interview with the American television channel NBC, he noted that the question of which countries could provide such ships could be discussed, but it should be the NATO countries "to no longer allow Russia to act aggressively." Answering the question whether he expects that U.S. President Donald Trump will report the position on Ukraine at the G20 summit to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Poroshenko said "There are two versions. The first is the Normandy format, the Minsk agreements, the de-escalation of the situation in the Sea of Azov, the de-occupation of Crimea, and many others. But you can do it in a few words: Get out of Ukraine, Mr. Putin," Poroshenko said. He also recalled his previous meetings with the U.S. president and stressed that he had received a firm position on his support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. Poroshenko said the introduction of martial law in several regions of Ukraine was done for the purpose of protection. He said the country does not intend to resort to military actions directed against anyone. Trump in an interview with the Washington Post published on November 28 said that his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in Argentina may not be held due to an incident with Ukrainian ships in the Kerch Strait. The U.S. president said he expects from his national security team on Tuesday evening a "full report" on the detention by Russia on Sunday of three Ukrainian naval ships and their crew members. According to him, the report provided will be "decisive" in the question of whether to hold a meeting with Vladimir Putin in Argentina. Meanwhile, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders and U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton said at a briefing Trump still expects to hold a bilateral meeting with Putin on the margins of the G20 summit, which will start in Argentina on November 30. The Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) has appointed Paul Grod to head the organization. "I would be glad to cooperate with Paul as new UWC president. I also thank Eugene Czolij, the previous president, for the years of dedicated work in the interests of the development of our state," Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said on Facebook. According to the government's press service, the prime minister met with Grod and congratulated him on his appointment. Groysman said Ukraine feels the support of the UWC. "Your role is important. We feel today the partnership of the UWC. And I am glad that we have an understanding and readiness to resolve any issues," said the Prime Minister. Since its establishment in 1967, the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) (until 1993 - the World Congress of Free Ukrainians) meets every five years to review its activities and to set the priorities for the future, including the election of the president and leadership of the UWC. The Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, on behalf of the Cabinet of Ministers, has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for the protection of Ukrainian sailors captured by the Russian Federation. "On behalf of the government, we appealed to the European Court of Human Rights with the requirement to apply rule 39 - this is an immediate decision to release the illegally captured Ukrainian citizens," Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko said at a government meeting on Wednesday. He noted that the position of Ukraine is that the captured seamen are prisoners of war and all the guarantees of protection that are defined by the Geneva Conventions should be applied to them. On November 25, Russian border guards detained the Yany Kapu tugboat and two small-sized Berdiansk and Nikopol armored artillery boats of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' Navy, sailing from Odesa to Mariupol via the Black and Azov Seas, near the Kerch Strait. The ships were convoyed to Kerch. Twenty-four Ukrainian military seamen are detained, from whom, according to various information sources, from three to six are wounded. In the course of the operation, the Russian Federation closed shipping on the Kerch-Yenikale Canal, attracted helicopters and combat aircraft. The European Union and the foreign ministries of many countries have condemned Russian aggressive actions in the Azov and Black Seas against Ukrainian ships. Kurt Volker, Special Representative of the U.S. Department of State for Ukraine Negotiations, and Pavlo Klimkin, Foreign Minister of Ukraine, said that there was nothing in the actions of the Ukrainian side in the Kerch Strait that could be regarded as a provocation. A special edition of the Verkhovna Rada's official newspaper Holos Ukrainy, Issue No 226, featuring the full text of the presidential decree "On the Introduction of Martial Law in Ukraine" and the parliament's resolution "On Calling Regular Elections of the President of Ukraine" has been published on the paper's website on November 28. Instead of Issue No 225 of November 28, a dual edition, No 225-226, has been published on the Holos Ukrayiny's website, which in fact is a previous issue, with a special edition added. The editors at Holos Ukrayiny have told Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine news agency that a print version will be published soon. BD Holdings press service has said introduction of martial law in 10 regions of Ukraine will not affect the construction process or the timing of housing commission "On all construction objects the work is carried out according to the schedule in the regular mode - the materials are constantly being ordered and supplied for construction, builders are working. We have the greatest complications because of the worsening of weather conditions at the moment. With winter coming, certain types of work postponed to when the weather gets warmer," BD Holding's press service said. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's decree introducing martial law, approved on November 26 by Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada, does not apply to our region. It refers to the regions located along the Russian border, the Transdniester area of the Moldovian border and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov. . Buyer Seller Meet: A Buyer Seller Meet is being organized by a visiting business delegation from Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (PHARMEXCIL) on 29th November, 2018 from 10:00 to 14:00 at The Zurich Hall, The Ramada Encore Kiev. The delegation will comprise representatives from 23 Indian companies dealing in Pharmaceuticals, Nutraceuticals, Ayurveda & Herbal products. The Buyer Seller Meet will give an opportunity to the Ukrainian pharmaceutical companies to directly interact with these Indian companies. The Buyer seller meet is being organized in association with Indian Pharmaceuticals Manufacturers Association (IPMA) and Ukrainian Association Ayurveda-Yoga(UAAY). Business Seminar : The Embassy of India in Kyiv, in association with Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (PHARMEXCIL) and Indian Pharmaceuticals Manufacturers Association (IPMA), Ukraine is organizing the annual business seminar on pharmaceutical and herbal sectors India- a Global Power in Pharmaceutical Sector: a Reliable Partner for Ukraine on 30th November, 2018 at 16:30 hours in Kyiv at The Ramada Encore Kyiv to promote and display the potential of India in these sectors. The event aims for exchange of commercial opportunities, statistics and services available in the pharmaceutical and herbal sectors, with an emphasis on imports and investments in Ukraine. The event will highlight the potential of the Indian pharmaceutical industry for Ukraine and the world as a whole and the holistic healthcare approach of Ayurvedic or herbal products effective for common chronic diseases and for preventive & promotive healthcare. The Seminar will be opened with the address by Ambassador of India, H.E. Partha Satpathy, and will include presentations by Executives of IPMA, PHARMEXCIL and major Indian pharmaceutical producers operating in Ukraine. From India, Pharmaceutical products are the biggest export to Ukraine. India is the third largest exporter of pharmaceutical products to Ukraine, after Germany and France in value terms. Indias pharma products exports to Ukraine amounted to US$ 135 million for the year 2017. Indian pharmaceutical companies are providing good quality medicine at very good competitive price. India has the 3rd largest pharmaceutical industry in the world by volume. India is the largest provider of generic medicines globally and the largest vaccine producer in the world. The pharmaceutical sector was valued at US$ 33 billion in 2017. The countrys pharmaceutical industry is expected to expand at a CAGR of 22.4 per cent over 201520 to reach US$ 55 billion. Indias pharmaceutical exports stood at US$ 17.27 billion in 2017-18. In 2018- 19 these exports are expected to cross US$ 19 billion. India manufactures medicines for all therapeutic categories: anti-infectious, medicines for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, anticancer drugs, for the treatment of HIV, gynecology, neurology, dermatology, for the treatment of diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, respiratory diseases, analgesics, medicines for the treatment of diabetes, vitamins / minerals / food supplements, etc. India exports pharmaceutical products to more than 200 countries. The main markets are the United States, Russia, Germany, Austria, and Great Britain. The event will be attended by about 250 honorable guests including members of Indian Pharmaceutical Manufacturers (IPMA), delegates from PHARMEXCIL; representatives of the Indian pharmaceutical companies based in Ukraine etc. For more information, please send a request to the e-mail com.kyiv.india@gmail.com or by phone number 044 468 66 61 Days after rumors and then action started against Irans foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in parliament, now there is a move among hardliner MPs against the well-connected speaker of parliament. Some 26 members of the Iranian parliament (Majles) initially called for an investigation into what they described as Majles speaker Ali Larijani's "illegal behavior." Later, some pulled back their co-sponsorship, although on Wednesday one MP claimed that there are five new signatures. The MPs, who are close to the ultra-conservative Paydari (Steadfastness) Front, have said that Larijani's measure in referring the bills against money laundering and funding terrorism to the Expediency Council was illegal. However, there is no indication that a Parliament, led and effectively controlled by Larijani, would take the motion seriously. While the move against Zarif is also connected with his support for the bills, it is not clear if the timing of the campaign against Larijani is a coincidence or part of a coordinated push by hardliners against pragmatists. The four bills, most notably the one about Iran joining the International Convention against Funding Terrorism (CFT), have been ratified by the Majles during the past months, but were later rejected by the Guardian Council for being "non-constitutional" and "against the Sharia'h." The Guardian Council is tasked by the Islamic Republic constitution to review all legislation passed by parliament. After its rejection of the bills, Larijani referred them to the Expediency Council which is the definitive arbiter in cases where the Majles and Guardian Council disagree over laws. Although most Iranian and foreign observers attributed the motion against Larijani to his role in ratifying the CFT at the Majles, it may also be a reaction by Iran's hardliners to reports about a possible alliance between President Hassan Rouhani and Larijani, and the latter's possible candidacy in the 2021 Presidential election. The move is possibly aimed at preventing the formation of that alliance and its consequences. IRGC-linked hardline news agency Fars has described the MPs' letter to the parliament's internal committee as a "call for impeachment" of Larijani. However, Iranian laws are silent about questioning or dismissing the Majles speaker although they contain many articles about the impeachment of the President and cabinet ministers. However, according to the internal regulations of the parliament, if at least 25 MPs protest to the way a Majles presidium member fulfils his duties, they can call for setting up a hearing committee consisting of parliamentary committees' chairpersons. The presidium member in question may be suspended from the presidium in case a majority of this committee votes for his or her disqualification. In the next stage, the vote will be first discussed at a closed-door session of the Majles, and then an open session would vote for or against the committee's ruling. In case a majority votes for the ruling, the person in question's status will automatically change to "resigned" and he or she is not allowed to take part in any re-election during that particular term of the Majles. The MPs who signed the motion against Larijani, including Hosseinali Haji Deligani, Hossein Naqavi Hosseini, and Mojtaba Zolnuri, are among those who led the inconclusive opposition at the Majles to the Iran nuclear deal also called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and the bills against money laundering and financing terrorism, which are part of the requirements of FATF (Financial Action Task Force) in order to take Iran out of its blacklist. They belong to a group of MPs who generally oppose any rapprochement between Iran and the West, particularly the United States. Their image has already been tarnished because of their support for controversial hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, particularly during his first term in office. Larjani was effectively instrumental in having the JCPOA and CFT bills ratified by the Majles in 2015 and 2018. While none of the anti-Larijani MPs, who have already been named, have held key positions in Iran's political establishments before being elected to the Majles, Ali Larijani has always enjoyed the trust and support of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the IRGC where he started his political career. He was Khamenei's representative to the Supreme National Security Council in early 2000s when he was Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, and was appointed by Khamenei as the chairman of Iran's national broadcaster IRIB where he served for nearly a decade. He is the son of Grand Ayatollah Hashem Amoli Larijani and the brother of Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larjani. His three other broths also hold top executive and diplomatic posts. Meanwhile he is well-connected through kinship as his wife is the daughter of Ayatollah Morteza Motahari, one of the founding fathers of the Islamic Republic. Deputy Speaker of Parliament Ali Motahari is his brother-in-law, and his cousins include influential former MP Ahmad Tavakoli. Larijani's proteges, including Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli and Majles Research Center Kazem Jalali, hold key positions in various parts of the Islamic Republic's political establishment. Larijani may look slim unlike most Islamic Republic politicians, but the MPs who want to unseat him have put themselves at loggerheads with a political heavyweight. Supreme Leader ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday asked the commanders of Irans navy to increase power and readiness so that enemies will not dare to threaten the Iranian nation. November 27 marks Navy Day in Iran and Khamenei met with commanders, according to his website. Iran's has two navies; the navy attached to the army and the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps Navy. He told his audience that more readiness of the armed forces can deter the enemies and intimidate them. But he also added, The Islamic Republic has no intention to start war with anyone. Speaking about the formation of an expansive front made up of enemies and rivals, facing the Islamic Republic, Khamenei said it is vital to double and re-double efforts in all fields, including the military, to compensate for shortcomings. As president Donald Trump has adopted a tough line on Iran and reimposed sanctions, Khamenei in recent months has repeatedly urged the military to increase power and readiness. Iranian officials have also threatened to close the Straits of Hormuz to oil tankers, if Irans oil exports are fully banned as a result of U.S. sanctions. The U.S. navy chief, Admiral John Richardson speaking about possible Iranian threats in the Persian Gulf, told VOA in August, "If we need to become more forceful, well, we're at a position to respond and do that". A member of Iranian parliaments presidium has told an Iranian news website that a proposal for impeaching foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has been received by parliaments leadership. Zarif would be the first Islamic Republic foreign minister to be subjected to impeachment proceedings, if the proposal goes forward. The proposal carries 22 signatures; two more than needed to officially start impeachment proceedings. So far, there is no mention of which MPs have co-sponsored the request, but it is safe to assume the group is made up of conservative members of parliament. MP Ali-Asghar Yousefnezhad has told ISNA, a government news agency, that the impeachment proposal is based on eleven accusations, including Zarif's improper position on money laundering. On November 11, Zarif had said that those who profit billions of dollars from money laundering are spending millions of it to prevent the passage of the bills requiring more financial transparency. An international transparency watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has demanded that Iran should adhere to anti-money laundering standards and enact laws to prevent financing of terrorism. The adoption of anti-money laundering and terrorism financing laws by Iran can help its standing with European countries that have pledged to help Iran continue doing trade despite U.S. sanctions. The foreign minister went on to accuse state-owned agencies that he refrained from naming, of mounting the campaign against President Hassan Rouhanis' proposed legislation known as Palermo Bills. The comments immediately triggered a wave of enraged responses from the conservative camp dominating Iran. Zarif was summoned for more explanations to parliaments influential National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, forcing him to reiterate that he had not accused any state-run institution of money laundering. But hardliners continued their harsh criticism of Zarif and rumors about his possible impeachment began to circulate last week. Many of his colleagues and some reformists came to his defense and some government officials began disclosing dirty money figures to prove that the foreign minister was right to raise the issue. The proposal said to have been tabled for Zarifs impeachment also accuses him of neglecting the economy in the countrys diplomacy, appointing inefficient ambassadors, neglecting the expansion of ties with Asian, African and Latin American countries, endangering the defense potential of the country and failing to ensure national interests in international agreements. Yousefnezhad has told ISNA that parliaments presidium will refer the impeachment proposal to its National Security and Foreign Policy Committee. BRUSSELS, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Iran's nuclear chief said on Tuesday he was warning the European Union's top diplomat that Iranian patience was running out on the bloc's pledges to keep up oil trade despite U.S. sanctions. Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said the Islamic Republic could resume enriching uranium to 20 percent purity - seen as well above the level suitable for fueling civilian power plants - if it fails to see the economic benefit of the 2015 deal that curbed its nuclear program. "If we cannot sell our oil and we don't enjoy financial transactions, then I don't think keeping the deal will benefit us anymore," Salehi told Reuters ahead of a meeting with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini in Brussels. "I will pass certainly a word of caution to her (Mogherini): I think the period of patience for our people is getting more limited and limited. We are running out of the assumed timeline, which was in terms of months." Following the meeting, Mogherini said she and Salehi remained committed to safeguarding the nuclear accord. "They equally expressed their determination to preserve the nuclear agreement as a matter of respecting international agreements and a key pillar for European and regional security," Mogherini's office said in a statement. It said Mogherini also repeated the EU stance "on issues of concern such as Iran's role in the region" - alluding to Iranian involvement in Middle East conflicts from Yemen to Syria. Under the 2015 deal with world powers, Iran restricted its enrichment program, widely seen in the West as a disguised effort to develop the means to make atomic bombs, in exchange for an end to international sanctions. U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of the accord in May, arguing it was weak because it did not halt Iran's development of ballistic missiles or support for armed proxies abroad, and reimposed sanctions on Iran's vital oil export sector earlier this month. But Europe sees the nuclear deal as an important element of international security. The EU and other remaining parties - China and Russia - have struggled to preserve trade incentives for Iran to respect the deal's nuclear limits under U.S. pressure. ENRICHED URANIUM In Brussels for talks on civilian nuclear cooperation that EU officials intended as a signal support for the accord, Salehi said the bloc's efforts were encouraging but added: "We have not yet seen any tangible results." He welcomed an EU plan to establish a special financial vehicle for non-dollar trade with Iran but only if it could preserve Iranian oil exports - Tehran's economic lifeline. "It (the SPV) could be helpful in keeping the deal alive," he said. "If there is nothing to reap, then what is the purpose of us staying in because voices in Iran are day by day becoming more against the deal." Iran's oil exports are expected to drop sharply to about 1 million bpd in November from a peak of 2.8 million bpd earlier this year. However, output is expected to recover somewhat from December thanks to U.S. waivers, including for two EU nations - Greece and Italy. Under the 2015 deal, Iran stopped producing 20 percent enriched uranium and gave up the majority of its stockpile. Salehi reiterated warnings that Iran has the technical capacity to ramp up enrichment if the deal unravels. "It is very easy for us to go back to what we were before - even to a better position. We can start the 20 percent enrichment activity. We can increase the amount of enriched uranium." Uranium refined to 20 percent fissile purity is well beyond the 5 percent normally required to run civilian nuclear power stations, though still well short of highly enriched, or 80 to 90 percent, purity needed for a nuclear bomb. Water pipelines were again sabotaged November 25 in the city of Isfahan in Central Iran, reportedly by farmers angry about the transfer of water to the neighboring province of Yazd. The destruction of the pipelines constitutes the 25th attack on water transfer infrastructure in Isfahan in less than a year, according to local authorities. "The damage on Sunday was so extensive that we have not yet been able to repair it and restore the facility, the director-general of the Yazd Water Department, Mohammad Mehdi Javadianzadeh, told state-run Iran Labor News Agency (ILNA). The disruption has forced the residents of Yazd to draw poor quality drinking water from local wells. Authorities have cautioned that the local wells cannot satisfy demand for more than a few days, and soon there will be no potable water in the province. Farmers, mainly from the eastern parts of Isfahan, have repeatedly held protest rallies and accused local authorities of water mismanagement. They demand a halt of water transfer to Yazd, arguing that sharing their water with the neighboring province has starved their own fields. Farmers have warned that if their demands are not met within 48 hours, they will totally destroy the pipes and facilities for transferring water to Yazd. Javadianzadeh told ILNA that three reservoirs and ten electricity pylons were destroyed in the attack. "We are unhappy for the Isfahani farmers' loss, but meeting all their demands would require that the entire population of Yazd move to another part of the country, Javadianzadeh said. Iranian Interior Minister Abdor-Reza Rahmani Fazli has warned of dire consequences if the drought continues. "If the drought continues, Iran will be facing a great disaster, Fazli has ominously predicted. Echoing Fazli's comments, Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian has also admitted Iran is struggling with the "monster" of water shortage. "334 cities with 35 million people across Iran are currently struggling with water stress, Ardakanian said April 21 in a speech to top members of President Hassan Rouhanis administration. The Isfahan farmers held several rounds of protests in March and April, demanding action by the government, arguing they have been unable to plant crops for the last few seasons. They have accused a number of former and current officials, including Ardakanian and pro-reform former President Mohammad Khatami, both of whom were born in Yazd, of favoritism. The government has promised to address Isfahan farmers water needs by transferring water to them from less arid western mountainous regions with the Third Koohrang Tunnel project. But the farmers in those regions in the provinces of Chahar Mahal and Bakhtiari are protesting the transfer of their water to Isfahan. Water transfer projects have led to protests across the country, including in the provinces of Khuzestan, Bushehr, Fars, Kohgilouyeh, and Boyer Ahmad. Over the past decade, Iran has seen the most prolonged and severe drought in more than three decades, according to the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). An estimated 97 percent of the country has faced some level of drought, Iran's Meteorological Organization says. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 28 Trend: Some 216,403 tons of cotton have been delivered to cotton collection points, Ministry of Agriculture of Azerbaijan said in a message on Nov. 28. On October 27, most of the cotton had been harvested in Saatli (28,391 tons), Barda (23,571 tons), Agjabadi (21,952 tons), Bilasuvar (20,563 tons) and Beylagan districts (20,285 tons), the message said. Compared to the same period of 2017,over 13.1 percent of cotton had been harvested in 2018. Cotton harvesting still continues. For every kilogram of cotton handed to state processing enterprises, farmers are given 0.10 manat subsidy. In order to encourage farmers and improve their financial situation, purchase prices of cotton varieties have been increased by 50 manats per ton. So, for the 2018 harvest, the price of the first grade has been increased from 600 to 650, the second grade from 580 to 630, the third grade from 540 to 590, the fourth grade - from 500 to 550 manats. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 28 Trend: Azerbaijan will chair the 53rd session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PABSEC), the Azerbaijan Press Council said in a message Nov. 28. Thus, the 53rd session of the PABSEC will be held in Baku June 2019. This decision was made at the 52nd session of the PABSEC held in Yerevan. On Nov. 28, the 52nd plenary session of the PABSEC, which started Nov. 27 in Yerevan, continued its work. The session is attended by Eldar Guliyev, deputy chairman of the agriculture policy committee of the Azerbaijani parliament, and Aflatun Amashov, MP, chairman of the Azerbaijan Press Council. At the event, the sides discussed the role of the organization in strengthening economic relations in the region, the influence of trade unions on society, the tourism potential of the region and its prospects. At the session, Eldar Guliyev made a report on the topic The role of parliaments in the development of regional economic cooperation, while Aflatun Amashov made a report on the topic State support for the development of small business in Azerbaijan. The chairmanship in the PABSEC is passed on the rotation principle in alphabetical order for a period of six months. In accordance with the rule, the PABSEC is chaired by the head of parliament of the country that hosts the event, so for the next six months, Speaker of the Azerbaijani Parliament Ogtay Asadov will be the chairman of the PABSEC. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 28 By Ilhama Isabalayeva - Trend: New skills and professions will be required in the Azerbaijani labor market in the near future, Azerbaijani Education Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said at the 15th congress of Azerbaijani teachers in Baku on Nov. 28. He said that therefore, early specialization, including specialization in innovative disciplines, should be a priority in the secondary education system. The main objectives are to improve higher education and use innovations, Bayramov added. First of all, teachers, who have mastered and are able to apply new approaches to teaching, are required. The 15th congress of Azerbaijani teachers opened at the Baku Congress Center on Nov. 28. The first congress of Azerbaijani teachers was held in 1906. By tradition, the congress is held every five years. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 28 Trend: The "Dede Gorgud's heritage: a file on culture, folk legends and music by Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkey was included in the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage at the 13th session of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, held in Port Louis, Mauritius, according to a joint statement of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The "Dede Gorgud's heritage: a file on culture, folk legends and music promotes unity, equality and diversity in Azerbaijan, Turkey and Kazakhstan, as well as the values of family, womens role in society, hospitality and justice. Armenian provocative attempts regarding the nomination of Yalli (Kochari, Tenzere) traditional group dances of Nakhchivan were suppressed, the statement said. The Azerbaijani delegation pointed out the inadmissibility of the Armenian side's non-constructive and irrelevant position. With the support of the First Vice President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, Goodwill Ambassador of UNESCO and ISESCO Mehriban Aliyeva, the "Dede Gorgud's heritage: a file on culture, folk legends and music, the art of crafting and playing kamancha, the tradition of cooking and serving dolma, the performance of Azerbaijani mugham (a folk musical composition), the tradition of cooking and serving lavash, Lahij copper craft, ashig art, Novruz holiday, the art of carpet weaving, tar performance, and kalaghayi art have been included to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, as well as, Chovgan, a traditional team game on Karabakh horses, and Yalli (Kochari, Tenzere), traditional group dances of Azerbaijans Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic have been included to the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 28 By Matanat Nasibova - Trend: Construction of an additional bunker silo in the territory of the feed plant built in Azerbaijans Yalama agro-industrial park will continue next year as well, director of the agropark Zaur Aliyev told Trend Nov. 27. He reminded that earlier it was expected that construction work in this direction will be completed by the end of this year. Construction of an industrial warehouse in the territory of the feed plant began much later than we planned, so we are late with the deadlines for this facility, said Aliyev. According to our calculations, the process will take another 3-4 months, and will be completed by April 2019. He noted that the feed plant operating in the Yalama agropark produces 13 types of feed, and is intended to cover the needs of local livestock farms. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 28 By Rashid Shirinov Trend: Kazakhstan and Russia, for the first time, started cooperating in the field of export credit activity. Now part of the risks of insuring short-term receivables of Kazakh exporters is covered by KazakhExport Export Insurance Company JSC, according to the website of the company. In Moscow, within the framework of the 13th International Conference on Eurasian Economic Integration, a reinsurance agreement was signed between KazakhExport and the Russian Agency for Export Credit and Investment Insurance (EXIAR). This agreement combines the financial instruments of the two companies to support Kazakh-Russian joint ventures, as well as exports of goods to third countries. The agreement is the result of a memorandum of cooperation between Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus and Armenia signed in 2017. The memorandum identified the key parameters and principles on which the joint work is now being built. During the conference, issues of trade financing were also discussed, in particular, support for mutual trade. KazakhExport Chairman of the Board Ruslan Iskakov informed about future plans for the development of the company. The international conference also touched upon the strengthening of the role of national currencies in payments for exports and imports within the EEU and Greater Eurasia, the EEU single capital market and ways of promotion. The mission of KazakhExport is to support the rise in exports of non-primary goods and services in priority sectors of the economy and to develop the practice of financial-insurance and non-financial support of Kazakhstan enterprises. By 2023, KazakhExport plans to become the key development institution in the implementation of the state foreign economic policy of Kazakhstan in the Central Asian region and the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @ShirinovRashid Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 28 By Elnur Baghishov - Trend: In the current Iranian year (started March 21), Iran's second tin sheet plant manufactured over 16,000 tons of tin sheet, Chairman of the Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province Industry, Mine and Trade Organization Na'im Emami said, SHATA reported. Emami noted that 16,798 tons of tin sheet was produced at Tavan Avar Asia Steel Industries Co. The plant's output amounted to 16,345 tons in the previous Iranian year, Emami said, adding that the country, on the other hand, needs 300,000 tons of tin sheet. Tin sheet is mainly used in food industry. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 28 By Azad Hasanli Trend: Azerbaijans ATEF Group of Companies will supply dry-type transformers for four power units of Ukraine's Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant, NAEK Energoatom, Ukraines state-owned company, said in a message. Such transformers for nuclear power plants arent produced in Ukraine. Recently, Baku hosted the 74th council meeting of technical managers of nuclear power plants and other separate divisions of NAEK Energoatom. During the meeting, technical managers saw the production facilities of ATEF and familiarized themselves with the current and future opportunities of the companies in this group. ATEF manufactures next generation transformers using the latest technologies and modern equipment, the message said. The products are of high quality, therefore, such cooperation is quite interesting for NAEK Energoatom. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @AzadHasanli Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 28 By Fikret Dolukhanov Trend: The first export exhibition-fair of Uzbek products Made in Uzbekistan started on Nov. 27 in Tashkent, Uzbek media reported. The exhibition is being held at the Uzexpocenter International Trade Center. During the exhibition, Uzexpocenter will also host thematic conferences in such areas as the metallurgical industry and mechanical engineering, the oil and gas, the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, the construction and electrical industry, round tables on development of the export potential of fruits and vegetables, and the electronic commerce. In addition, there will be a demonstration of finished textiles and of the process of making handicraft products. Visits to manufacturing enterprises in the machine-building, electrical, textile and fruit and vegetable industries will be organized for foreign guests of the exhibition. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @FDolukhanov Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 28 By Elnur Baghishov Trend: This Iranian year (started March 21), 11.5 million tons of products have been transported to various parts of Iran through the Markazi Province, Director General of Road Transport Administration of the Markazi Province Ali Zandifer said in an interview with IRNA. He said the transportation of goods increased by 7 percent this Iranian year compared to last year. He said that among the main transported products were different kinds of cement (17 percent), mazut and diesel (15 percent). These products were mainly transported to the Tehran, Khuzestan, Isfahan and Qom provinces, he added. Zandifer said that on average, more than seven million tons of products are transported from different parts of the country to Markazi Province. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 28 By Elnur Baghishov Trend: Mineral reserves in Irans Sistan and Baluchestan Province reach more than 1.1 billion tons, Shata cited Nader Mirshekar, chairman of the Industry, Mine and Trade Organization of the Sistan and Baluchestan Province, as saying. He said licenses were issued to extract more than 720 million tons of mine materials. The exploration operations have been already launched. More than 15 million tons of materials are extracted from 370 mines in the province per year, he said. Around 62 percent account for building materials, 11 percent account for granite, marble, travertine, porcelain stone, 9 percent - for non-metallic minerals and 18 percent - for metals, he added. He said that chromite and cement are major mining materials, and they are exported from the province. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 28 By Rufiz Hafizoglu Trend: Muslim countries should use their national currency in trade settlements to overcome dependence on the US dollar and other world currencies, the Turkish media cited President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying on Nov. 28. President Erdogan made the remarks at the meeting of the Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). The president also stressed that if Muslim countries do not use their national currency in mutual trade, then sooner or later they will face economic crisis. In 2017 the trade turnover between the OIC countries increased by $44 billion and amounted to $322.2 billion compared to 2016, OIC told Trend earlier. In 2017, the total trade turnover between the OIC countries and other countries amounted to $3.2 trillion. The main countries that have played an important role in increasing domestic trade turnover within the OIC are Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan, Egypt and Iraq, OIC said. The OIC member-states have great potential for increasing trade turnover. To increase trade turnover between the OIC countries, customs privileges should be applied for the OIC member-states, OIC said. ----- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 28 By Matanat Nasibova Trend: Azerbaijani winemaking company Sharg Ulduzu, located in the countrys Shamkir district, intends to export wine to more countries, head of the company Asgar Alirzayev told Trend on Nov. 28. He added that the company intends to export wine to Mongolia in the near future. "We visited Mongolia in September 2018, Alirzayev said. There are certain developments in this direction, so we may export wine to this country in the future." He stressed that presently, the company is mainly supplying alcoholic beverages to Russia and the Republic of Korea. "In the near future, we intend to export our wine to a number of post-Soviet countries," Alirzayev said. The company's wine has an international standard ISO 22000, a standard of conformity issued by the Azerbaijani State Committee on Standardization, Metrology and Patents, and a hygienic certificate issued by the Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Health. The modern equipment from Germany and Italy has been installed in the company where the latest technologies are used. Sharg Ulduzu LLC owns 110-hectare-vineyards in Shamkir district, where seedlings brought from France, Iran and Georgia, as well as local grape varieties, have been planted. Such varieties as Chardonnay, Bayan Shirey, Merlot and Shiraz are grown at the plantations of the company. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @MatanatNasibova Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 28 By Matanat Nasibova Trend: Azerbaijani winemaking company Sharg Ulduzu intends to increase export volume of alcoholic beverages to China, head of the company Asgar Alirzayev told Trend on Nov. 28. Alcoholic beverages produced by the company are in demand in the Chinese market, he said. Moreover, not only wine but also Azerbaijani cognac are popular. "This year we have visited China several times, he said. Our products were showcased at the international exhibition in Shanghai. We received proposals to increase the volume of supply of our alcoholic beverages. So we will try to use this opportunity next year." China is the fourth partner of Azerbaijan in terms of trade turnover. In 2017, Azerbaijan exported wine worth $6 million. Azerbaijani wines worth about $1 million were supplied to China. The export of Azerbaijani wine in the first half of 2018 exceeded $4 million, which is 80 percent more than the same period in 2017. Azerbaijani wine is mainly exported to Russia (85 percent), China (7 percent), European countries, Belarus and Kyrgyzstan. According to the State Program for the Development of Winemaking for 2018-2025, approved by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, the country intends to increase export volume of wine fivefold by 2025. Sharg Ulduzu LLC was established in 2002. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @MatanatNasibova Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 28 By Elnur Baghishov - Trend: Iran and Russia have serious will to expand economic cooperation, Iran's Ambassador to Russia Mehdi Sanai said on his Twitter page. Iran's exports to Russia increased by 42 percent over last nine months,Sanai noted, adding that trade turnover between the two countries has increased by 10 percent. The ambassador noted that 50 percent of Iran's exports to Russia account for agricultural products. Presently, the trade turnover between Iran and Russia is $2.2 billion. Iran exports goods worth $500 million to Russia, and in turn imports Russian goods worth $1.7 billion. Earlier head of the State Duma Committee on Transport and Construction said Russia is seeking to raise trade with Iran by 30 percent within a three-year period. "To expand cooperation, we started with making railways," Yevgeny Moskvichev further said. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 28 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. 28 By Leman Zeynalova - Trend: Earlier this month, the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) and the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) successfully completed their connection with the final golden weld, which physically connected the two pipelines, said a message from TAP AG consortium. This marks another significant milestone in the completion of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC), a new energy route, which will increase energy security and diversification of energy supplies by bringing natural gas from Shah Deniz 2 gas field in the Caspian Sea to Turkey and, subsequently, European markets, said the message. The consortium said that the golden weld was successfully completed under the supervision of TANAP and TAP representatives at the Turkish-Greek border. I am very pleased that another historic step forward has been taken this month. The connection of TAP with TANAP signals that we are moving towards the completion of the Southern Gas Corridor and will be delivering gas to Europe, according to our schedule in 2020. I would like to thank TANAP, the authorities, and the governments and all those involved in making this connection a reality, said Luca Schieppati, Managing Director for TAP. Southern Gas Corridor envisages transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian region through Georgia and Turkey to Europe. On May 29, Baku hosted the launch ceremony of the first phase of the Southern Gas Corridor project. The gas from the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field has already gone through the first segment of the Southern Gas Corridor - from the Sangachal terminal to the expanded South Caucasus Pipeline. The next stage is the commissioning of the TANAP gas pipeline, through which gas will flow into Turkey and further to Europe. TAP worth 4.5 billion euros is a part of the Southern Gas Corridor, which is one of the priority energy projects for the European Union. The project envisages transportation of gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz Stage 2 to the EU countries. The pipeline will connect to the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) on the Turkish-Greek border, run through Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea, before coming ashore in Italys south. TAP will be 878 kilometers in length (Greece 550 kilometers, Albania 215 kilometers, Adriatic Sea 105 kilometers, and Italy 8 kilometers). TAPs shareholding is comprised of BP (20 percent), SOCAR (20 percent), Snam S.p.A. (20 percent), Fluxys (19 percent), Enagas (16 percent) and Axpo (5 percent). --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 28 By Rashid Shirinov Trend: In the first 9 months of 2018, the Russian oil company Lukoil produced 2 million tons of liquid hydrocarbons and 1.1 billion cubic meters of gas in Kazakhstan, the company told Trend. In 2017, Lukoil produced 3 million tons of liquid hydrocarbons and 1.9 billion cubic meters of gas in the country. In particular, the companys production at the Karachaganak field amounted to 1.3 million tons of liquid hydrocarbons and 1 billion cubic meters of gas. Within the Kumkol and East Kumkol projects, Lukoil produced 0.3 million tons of oil and 26 million cubic meters of gas in 2017. The companys production at the Tengiz field was 1.4 million tons of oil and gas condensate and 0.8 billion cubic meters of gas. "The expected production volume within the company's projects in Kazakhstan will not change significantly in 2018 compared to 2017," Lukoil noted. LUKOIL has been operating in Kazakhstan since 1995. The company operates at the Tengiz, Karachaganak and Kumkol oil and gas fields of the country and is a member of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which transports most of Kazakhstans export oil. Together with Lukoil (13.5 percent share), Eni (29.25 percent), Royal Dutch Shell PLC (29.25 percent), Chevron (18 percent) and KazMunaiGas (10 percent) are engaged in oil, gas and gas condensate production at the Karachaganak field in the east of Kazakhstan. In the development of the Tengiz field, Lukoil is represented by its subsidiary Lukarko (5 percent). Other shareholders are Chevron (50 percent), ExxonMobil (25 percent) and KazMunaiGas (20 percent). Tengiz ranks second in Kazakhstan in terms of oil reserves. Also, Turgai Petroleum JSC, which is a joint venture of Lukoil and PetroKazakhstan, operates the Kumkol field. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @ShirinovRashid Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 28 By Leman Zeynalova - Trend: Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR is holding talks with the German EWE on buying its Turkish assets, Public Relations Head at Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR Ibrahim Ahmadov told Trend. He was commenting on Turkish media reports, which said that the companies have already signed a purchase and sale agreement. As it was earlier reported, we are holding talks with this company. However, no final agreement has been signed yet, said Ahmadov. Turkish media reported that EWE Turkey Holding, subsidiary of EWE, has sold its shares in Bursagaz, Kayserigaz, EWE Enerji and Enervis to SOCAR. Reportedly, the cost of the agreement is estimated at $140 million. Earlier, EWE told Trend that the decision about the possible sale of its assets in Turkey is related to the optimization of the company's activity. In the past 10 years, EWE has built up valuable companies in Turkey, which are able to manage investments entirely on their own, EWE said. Nevertheless, EWE regularly reviews whether all current measures ensure sustainable growth for the Group in the defined future areas. Therefore, we conducted a market investigation for our Turkey business, the company said. We noticed that there are some interested parties for this business. If a prospective customer wants to continue this business and offers us an acceptable price, EWE will divest this business. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn News Story not available This story has been published on: 2021-11-25. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. This story is no longer available on our site. Shanghai (Gasgoo)- In the coming 5 years to 2023, FAW Group aims to sell 5.9 million new vehicles and achieve revenue of RMB 900 billion, with profit over RMB 80 billion and RMB 180,000 by per capita income. Besides, the group will become a world-class mobility service company by 2030 and an important player in global auto industry. The group clarified the above target at the Congress of Party Representatives held on November 27. Up to now, three state-owned automakers have expressed their ambitions during the 13th Five-year Plan period to become global giants with annual sales of 6 million. In June, Dongfeng Motor Group set up its annual sales goal of 6 million and wishes to be an industry leader in management quality, independent business and emerging business. Even though SAIC Group didnt announce its sales target over the next 5 years, the group put forward the goal to bring the scale of global production to a new level and take a continual lead in domestic market share. In 2017, the group delivered nearly 7 million new vehicles and is expected to sell 10 million vehicles per year. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 28 By Leman Zeynalova - Trend: The Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) is of great importance for Bulgaria for receiving gas via the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC), said Chairman of Bulgarian Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (KEVR) Ivan Ivanov. IGB is of great importance for Bulgaria, because it will enable our country to receive natural gas from the Southern Gas Corridor, he said, adding that with the construction of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), Bulgaria can receive gas from this route in 2020. Further, he pointed out that the gas infrastructure in Bulgaria needs to be developed. This will allow for the supply of natural gas from different sources, Bulgarian media quoted Ivanov as saying. In addition, a liberalized natural gas market in the country and subsequently in the Southeast Europe region should be launched, he said. 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. 28 By Taleh Mursagulov - Trend: There is an uptrend on the hourly chart of Brent crude oil and an attempt to consolidate the price above $60 per barrel, reads the daily report of the Azerbaijani investment company InvestAZ. The companys analysts recommend to be cautious when trading in oil futures. The company believes that if the Brent crude price stays above $60, a further rise in price is possible to $62.29 and $64.49 per barrel. Alternatively, the analysts believe that in case if the oil price breaks through the level of $58.4 per barrel in a downward direction, a further decrease in the price to $56.9 and $54.93 per barrel is possible. As of 16:57 (GMT +4), the price of Brent was $60 per barrel. The rise in oil prices on Nov. 28 is supported by media reports that the Buzzard oil field in the North Sea, with the production of 150,000 barrels per day, was temporarily closed after corrosion of pipes was detected. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @TalehMursagulov Tehran, Iran, Nov. 28 Trend: The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has indulged exporters to sell their foreign currency revenues to banks and official exchange offices to avoid the currency abuse by the illicit dealers that have affected the market. According to a CBI announcement, exporters can trade their currency in the form of bank notes or wire transfer to prevent the exploitation by currency dealers, ISNA reported. The banks and exchange offices are required to register the amount of purchased currency from exporters into Iranian currency monitoring system SANA to indicate the total revenue return. Iran's foreign currency market has witnessed a drop in the rates during past weeks. The Iranian national currency (rial) rebounded recently due to CBI interventions in foreign currency rates. CBI has recently announced the process of returning currency from exports revenues, where exporters are required to return the foreign currency into the Integrated System for Hard Currency Transactions (NIMA) and the CBI is bound to provide currency for import of goods and services to exporters to improve the process of returning currency into the economy. Earlier, the Central Bank of Iran has issued the instructions on return details of the foreign currency earned by exporters into the domestic financial system. Depending on the exports revenues, the CBI offers exemption to exporters depending on the portion of foreign currency being returned to the system. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 28 By Taleh Mursagulov Trend: The Azerbaijani insurance company Xalq Life Insurance has appealed to Azerbaijans Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FIMSA) for obtaining an insurance license, a source in the Azerbaijani insurance market told Trend. FIMSA provided the company with a list of necessary documents, the source said. The source didn't specify when the document collection process will be complete. Xalq Life Insurance passed state registration with a registered capital of 15 million manats. Official representative of the company is Deputy Chairman of Xalq Insurance Roman Valiyev. If the insurance company receives a license from FIMSA, there will be four insurance companies in Azerbaijan rendering life insurance services. Presently, there are three companies operating in life insurance in Azerbaijan - Ateshgah Life Insurance, Qala Life Insurance and PASHA Life Insurance. (1.7 AZN = 1 USD on Nov. 28) --- Follow the author on Twitter: @TalehMursagulov Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 28 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: Heydar Aliyev International Airport in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, can serve as a hub to bring tourists from the Caspian region into Spain, Charge d'affaires ad interim of Spanish embassy in Baku Ignacio Sanchez Taboada told Trend. Speaking about the possibility of opening direct flights between Azerbaijan and Spain, he said that this is something which depends on the strategy of the air carriers. "If you just look at the reduced number of Azerbaijani tourist visiting Spain today, and vice versa, the prospects are not very promising. But if you devise the strategy to use Madrid Airport, for instance, as a hub to bring tourist from America into Azerbaijan, then the prospects may improve abruptly. If you look it the other way, you obtain the same conclusion. You may come out with a strategy to use Baku Airport as a hub to bring tourist from the Caspian region into Spain, a country which received 82 million visitors last year," he added. Taboada went on to add that tourism is a field with enormous potential for cooperation and more intensive private relations. "Spain received 82 million visitors in 2017. The second most visited country in the world and one of the best industries with assets around the globe. Yet the number of Azerbaijani visitor to Spain is marginal, probably less than 50,000. The Azerbaijani industry is also booming, but it is still a much unknown destination for the Spanish consumer," noted the Spanish diplomat. He pointed out that companies in both countries have a lot win if they cooperate. "Spain has a long tradition in vocational training in the hospitality industry and gastronomy which could be used by Azerbaijani growing industry." Taboada believes that culture is another field in which public and private institutions could make greater efforts. "During this year we have put in contact some Azerbaijani cultural institutions and major Spanish editorial groups. The idea is to translate masterpieces of Azerbaijani literature into Spanish Language, the mother tongue of more than 450 million individuals," he added. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 28 By Fikret Dolukhanov Trend: Uzbekistan has become a member of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), resulting in the number of member countries of the organization reaching 173, Uzbek media reported referring to the results of the 109th session of the Council of the UN Agency for Migration, which the day before voted in favor of supporting the countrys application for membership in IOM as a member state. With great pleasure, I welcome Uzbekistan to the IOM family. Your country is one of the most ancient and located on the most favorable world trade routes, migrants have crossed it since time immemorial. For the first time, I have the honor to welcome a new member country and hope to welcome many more countries during my tenure, new IOM General Director Antonio Vitorino said. Uzbekistans membership in the organization was included on the sessions agenda at the request of the countrys government, represented by Deputy Minister of Employment and Labor Relations Bahodir Nizomov. Uzbekistan is the most densely populated Central Asian country and locks in IOM membership from the region. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @FDolukhanov Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 28 By Fikret Dolukhanov Trend: From Dec. 4, Russias S7 Airlines opens direct regular flights from Novosibirsk to Uzbekistan's Namangan, Uzbek media reported. Tickets for the new flight are already on sale. Flights will be operated on Tuesdays. The plane takes off from Novosibirsk at 13:55 and lands in Namangan at 14:55 local time. The return flight departs at 16:25 and arrives in Novosibirsk at 21:20. The flights will be operated on Airbus A320 planes. We are developing a route network in the CIS countries and are pleased to offer passengers a new direct flight from Novosibirsk to Namangan, the second largest city in Uzbekistan. S7 Airlines also operates flights from the capital of Siberia [Novosibirsk] to Tashkent and Fergana, and in 2019 flights will be opened to Bukhara, Commercial Director of the S7 Group Igor Veretennikov said. A source in the Russian airline earlier told Trend that S7 Airlines is considering the possibility of increasing the number of flights to Uzbekistan in case if the authorized agencies of the two countries agree on further liberalization of air transportation. The frequency of flights of S7 Airlines corresponds to current agreements, the source noted. On April 30, 2018, the airline began to operate flights from Moscow to Samarkand, and regular flights to Tashkent will begin on August 3. In 2017, S7 Airlines transported about 85,000 passengers to/from the cities of Uzbekistan, which is 15 percent more than in 2016, according to the source. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @FDolukhanov Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 28 By Fikret Dolukhanov Trend: From Dec. 18, Russias IrAero opens a direct flight from Irkutsk to Uzbekistan's Fergana, Uzbek media reported. The flight will be operated once a week on Tuesdays. The plane takes off from Irkutsk at 08:50 and lands in Fergana at 09:30 local time. The return flight departs at 10:30 and arrives in Irkutsk at 17:10. The flights will be operated on Russian-made Superjet 100 aircraft. The duration of the flight is 3 hours 40 minutes; the price is 15,550 rubles and above. The flights will be operated in the Dec. 18, 2018-March 26, 2019 period. It was earlier reported that from Dec. 4, Russias S7 Airlines opens direct regular flights from Novosibirsk to Namangan in Uzbekistan. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @FDolukhanov Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 28 By Fikret Dolukhanov Trend: Uzbekistans flag-carrier Uzbekistan Airways will be reorganized into two separate joint-stock companies, Uzbekistan Airways and Uzbekistan Airports (for airport management), Uzbek media reported referring to the press service of the company. According to the information, President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed a Decree on Measures for the Radical Improvement of Civil Aviation in the Republic of Uzbekistan. In this regard, on Nov. 28, the company was visited by Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov, who held a meeting at which the implementation of the decree was discussed. The state enterprises that are parts of the airline will be transformed into limited liability companies. This applies, inter alia, to the aircraft maintenance and repair enterprise Uzbekistan Airways Technics. The UzAeroNavigation Center will be transferred to the Cabinet of Ministers. Also, the Uzbekistan Helicopters LLC is being established. According to sources of Gazeta.uz, the president also ordered to prepare proposals on creation of the Ministry of Transport. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @FDolukhanov The volume of agricultural production in Kyrgyzstan, is increasing annually, Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Food Industry and Melioration Maksat Tashbolotov told at a forum on innovation in the greenhouse industry, kabar.kg reports. An increase of 3% is observed in the agricultural sector, Tashbolotov said. Introduction of innovative technologies will help improving the situation even more. In fact, this is what we are currently working on. Speaking about the development of the greenhouse industry, Tashbolotov added that construction of greenhouses allows to create new jobs, get additional profit. The official said that now there are 2 thousand 151 economic entities in Kyrgyzstan, including various types of greenhouses. Moreover, drip irrigation systems have been installed for 2 thousand 344 hectares installed. Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan are preparing a joint document on cooperation between the diplomatic missions of the two states, kabar.kg reports referring to the press service of the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic. The discussion of the details of the Memorandum of Cooperation of the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kyrgyzstan with the Diplomatic Academy of Pakistan and the National University of Modern Languages of Pakistan was held Wednesday with the participation of Rector of the Academy Chinara Dikambayeva and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Pakistan Faisal Niaz Tirmizi. At the meeting, signing and implementation of this document were discussed. The diplomatic relations between Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan were established in 1992. Native of Tajikistan, Parviz Tukhtasunov, has been appointed to head the Federal Cadastral Chamber of Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography (Rosreestr) of Russia. An order on his appointment has reportedly been signed by the Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, Maxim Oreshkin, news.tj reports. Prior to this, Tukhtasunov served as adviser to the head of the Federal Cadastral Chamber, according to Govori Moskva Radio Station. He had reportedly been adviser to the head of the Federal Cadastral Chamber since October 2016. Meanwhile, some Russian media reports say that order on appointment of Tukhtasunov as the head of the Federal Cadastral Chamber has not yet been signed. The photo of his appointment order without ministers signature is posted on funclub.su website. According to bio data provided by the Federal Cadastral Chamber, Tukhtasunov was born in Dushanbe in 1985. He reportedly graduated from Moscow Medical Academy named after I.M. Sechenov on Medical Business specialty in 2008. In 2017, Tukhtasunov graduated from Open Institute High Professional School on Public and Municipal Management specialty and Plekhanov Russian University of Economics on Corporate Finance specialty. From 2011 to 2016, Tukhtasunov reportedly worked with various commercial companies. In August-October 2016, he served as deputy director of the management administration of FGNU Rosselkhozptvktmonitoring. From October 2016 to November 2018, he served as adviser to the head of the Federal Cadastral Chamber. The Federal Cadastral Chamber is a division of the Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography (Rosreestr), which is a federal agency in Russia, responsible for the organization of the Unified State Register of Rights on Real Estate and Transactions, as well as the spatial data infrastructure of the Russian Federation. It is Russia's official real estate agency. Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Nov. 28 By Huseyn Hasanov Trend: During a working government meeting in Ashgabat, President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov gave instructions for further strengthen the fruitful partnership with the EU and the steady practical implementation of the agreements reached, the Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper reported. The Turkmen president stressed that the European direction has always been one of the key vectors of the foreign policy of Turkmenistan. The priority areas of cooperation include the trade and economic sphere, energy, the transport and communications sector, the humanitarian field, including scientific, educational and cultural ties, as well as joining efforts to ensure global peace, security and stability. Turkmen deputy prime minister, Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov reported on the results of the working visit of the Turkmen delegation to Brussels (Belgium), which took place the other day, to attend the meeting in the EU-Central Asia format. The EU and Turkmenistan are committed to implementing a project designed to bring Turkmen hydrocarbon energy carriers to European markets. The negotiations have been underway since 2011. The project of laying a 300-kilometer gas pipeline along the bottom of the Caspian Sea to the shores of Azerbaijan is optimal for the delivery of Turkmen gas to the European market. Further, the Turkmen gas can be delivered to Turkey, which borders with European countries. Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Nov. 28 By Huseyn Hasanov Trend: Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov received CEO of Buried Hill Energy Peter Kallos, the Turkmenistan State News Agency reported. The sides discussed the results of joint work and prospects for cooperation, including in the field of exploration and development of oil and gas fields in the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea. In this context, the parties noted significance of the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea signed in August this year, which opened up new opportunities for enhancing mutually beneficial cooperation of coastal states with the world business community. The dynamic pace of economic development of Turkmenistan, a member of a number of world energy powers with enormous reserves of oil and gas, as well as favorable investment climate - all this creates prerequisites for the efficient operation of foreign companies and the implementation of major joint projects in various fields for the benefit of the two countries, Kallos said. Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Nov. 28 By Huseyn Hasanov Trend: During construction of an international seaport in the Turkmen city of Turkmenbashi, the extracted soil was used to create an artificial island in the Turkmenbashi Bay of the Caspian Sea, the Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper reported. This island of 170 hectares has become a nesting and wintering habitat for water birds. To assess the state of island nature, a group of scientists from the Academy of Sciences and the State Committee for Environmental Protection and Land Resources of Turkmenistan visited the island. Experts from the Institute of Chemistry took samples of coastal water as well as soil for research. The condition of the flora was estimated by scientists of the Institute of Biology and Medicinal Plants. A quantitative analysis of vegetation species was carried out, and its condition was studied. The island has the shape of a crescent, with its concave side facing the city embankment. In the future, when the island will organically fit into the Turkmenbashi Bay as part of the natural environment, it is planned to use it as an ecotourism destination. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 28 Trend: On November 28, 2018, the International Conference of Ministers of Transport of the States Parties to the Agreement on Transit and Transport Cooperation (Lapis Lazuli) began its work in the Avaza National Tourist Zone in the city of Turkmenbashi, said a message from Turkmen embassy in Baku. At the beginning of the conference, a congratulatory message from the President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, addressed to the participants of the International Conference of Ministers of Transport of the States Parties to the Agreement on Transit and Transport Cooperation (Lapis Lazuli) was read out. Then the heads of the delegations participating in the International Conference of Ministers of Transport (Lapis Lazuli) made their presentations: Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan M.Chakiyev, First Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan Yagub Eyyubov, First Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Uzbekistan Achilbai Ramatov, Minister of Transport and Infrastructure of the Republic of Turkey Jahit Turhan, Minister of Transport of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Tahmasi Mohd Hamid and Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia Akaki Sagirashvili. Also in the first part of the international conference, delegations discussed issues such as the role of interstate cooperation in the development of the international transport corridor Lapis-Lazuli and the importance of logistics companies in the development of transport corridors. The budget of the project, which is aimed at facilitating transit logistics and simplifying customs procedures, is estimated at $2 billion. This large-scale project is aimed at increasing the economic integration of countries in the region and increasing trade. According to the Lapis Lazuli project, railways and highways will connect the city of Torghundi in the Afghan province of Herat with Turkmenistan's Ashgabat, and further with the Caspian port of Turkmenbashi. The corridor will extend to the new port of Baku in Alat, going further through Tbilisi to Ankara with branches leading to Poti and Batumi in Georgia, and go ahead from Ankara to Istanbul. Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Nov. 28 By Huseyn Hasanov Trend: A delegation of Russias Gazprom paid a working visit to Turkmenistan on Nov. 28, the company reported. During the visit, a meeting was held in Ashgabat between chairman of the company's management committee Alexey Miller and President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, the company said. The sides discussed various aspects of cooperation in the gas sector. An intergovernmental agreement on cooperation, signed in 2003, is a fundamental document of cooperation between Russia and Turkmenistan in the gas sector. In October 2018, it was announced in Ashgabat that the sides will begin negotiations on the conditions for resuming the purchase of Turkmen gas by Gazprom from January 1, 2019. Tehran, Iran, Nov. 28 Trend: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said there are economic and external pressures due to sanctions, but when the foundation of the economy is properly constructed, there cannot be any serious influence on the people's lives. "Today, we must protect the country against those who plot against the Iranian nation and, fortunately, during the last two months, a good effort has been made by the authorities, and people are feeling somewhat calm," the president said in a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday. Pointing out that people still have problems with economic issues and livelihoods, Rouhani expressed hope that in next year's budget a significant part of these problems will be dealt with, and people will continue to live more calmly and everyone will help each other. Referring to the fact that some of the Central Bank's decisions were inappropriate in the past, he says, "For many years, we have been discussing with the Central Bank to free the entry of gold to the country and always the Central Bank opposed this idea, while the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade agreed to liberalize gold imports." "The Central Bank believed that if gold imports were liberalized, the price of the currency would increase, but when gold imports become free, we saw that the price of currency went down and the scientific formulations need more and more reconsideration," he said. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs, Abbas Araqchi, arrived in Algeria on Wednesday to discuss expansion of bilateral relations between Iran and the African nation, IRNA reports. Upon his arrival in Algiers, Araqchi told the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) that the trip is in the framework of political talks and consulting regional and international issues. Algeria is Iran's friend, he said, adding that both countries are maintaining close relations based on friendliness and mutual respect. The 7th conference of Iran-Algeria joint committee is slated to be held in Algeria later today. The second round of inter-religious dialogue between Islam and Taoism was held on Wednesday in the Chinese capital city of Beijing with the attendance of representatives from Iran, China, and other countries. All the religions, by essence, invite the human kind to recognize and interact with each other, said the President of Iran Majlis (Parliament) Islamic Studies Center Ahmad Moballeghi, addressing the event, IRNA reports. He called China an ancient country, tied with human civilization, adding that Islam has a positive view regarding China. Head of the International Department of Taoist Association of China Zhao Xiaoyang, for his part, said China pursues solidarity between different nations. According to Taoism thoughts, human-beings are a single family and should unite, said Xiaoyang said. He added that Irans Centre for Interreligious Dialogue has prepared ground to facilitate interactions between Islam and Taoism. He pointed to his visit to Iran three years ago and said that although Iran does not have Taoists, they warmly welcomed the Chinese delegation. President of Al-Mustafa University branch in China Attaran Tousi was also present at the meeting and named ethnic diversity as a positive characteristic of China. He stressed that similar to China, the relations between the people of different religions in Iran is positive. Attaran also expressed hope that such inter-religious dialogues would continue in the future. Irans caretaker cultural attache in China Adel Khani, another participant, said that both Iran and China are ancient civilizations and their relations have grown during the past few years. The participants set the next meeting to be held in Tehran. The first round of the dialogue was held on 2017 in Tehran. The Prime Minister of Georgia Mamuka Bakhtadze voted in the 2018 presidential elections, saying he voted in favour of Georgias peaceful development and European choice, Agenda.ge reports. During the election runoff voters will choose between independent candidate Salome Zurabishvili supported by the ruling Georgian Dream party and the candidate of the Strength in Unity coalition Grigol Vashadze. Bakhtadze called on voters to be active and make their choice for a better future for the country and their children. Today I made a choice in favour of Georgias peaceful development and our European choice. I would like to take a chance and address our citizens to go to the polls, make their choice and vote for Georgia's development and a better future for us and our children, said Bakhtadze. Polling stations were opened at 08:00 and will be closed at 20:00. 3,703 polling stations have been opened for the elections, including 55 abroad. The total number of voters is 3,528,658. The fifth president of Georgia will be elected to a six-year term; this will be the last time the president is elected through direct vote. Deputy parliament speaker of Georgia Tamar Chugoshvili has appealed to the public to come out to polling stations and vote while ensuring that the elections will be held in a free, fair and transparent environment, Agenda.ge reports. I also call on all political subjects to be highly responsible for the elections, not to allow provocations and violations of election legislation, said Chugoshvili. She said that the state will react to all violations. There are attempts of provocations at certain places, so it is very important political parties take responsibility for the electoral process. We also appeal to observers to properly review the violations and cases that will take place [during the elections], said Chugoshvili. Today is the second round of presidential elections in Georgia, and citizens of the country will elect the fifth president of Georgia.During the election runoff voters will choose between independent candidate Salome Zurabishvili supported by the ruling Georgian Dream party and the candidate of the Strength in Unity coalition Grigol Vashadze. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 28 Trend: The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will hold the Seventh Ministerial Conference on the Role of Women in the Development of the OIC Member States under theme of "Women Empowerment in Member States: Challenges and Prospects", from 30 November to 1 December 2018 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, said a message from OIC. The Conference will review cases in the area of women's empowerment as well as educational, pedagogical, social and cultural measures taken by Member States to combat violence against women and achieve equality between men and women. The participants will discuss ways and means of implementing the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security in the OIC Member States. The Conference will also deliberate on ways and means to counter the multiple challenges facing women in their daily life to deduce perspectives for a better wellbeing. It will also highlight the Member States commitments, particularly to combating violence against women and girls, the achievement of justice and gender equality, and addressing the economic, social and psychological difficulties weighing upon women and girls. In accordance with the resolutions of the 44th Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers held in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, the Conference will award the OIC Prize for Women's Achievement, recognizing the contributions of the awarded women and strengthening their role in the development process of the Member States. A preparatory meeting of senior officials from OIC Member States will precede the Seventh Ministerial Conference on the Role of Women in the Development of Member States. Saudi Arabia has pledged on Wednesday $50 million to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), which has been hit by the withdrawal of all US funding, an official said, arabnews reports. The announcement was made at a press conference in the Saudi capital by the director of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre, Abdullah al-Rabeea. Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump cut aid for Palestinians and announced it would no longer provide any funding to UNRWA, a week after cutting over $200 million in separate aid to Palestinians. They were the latest in a series of controversial moves by the Trump administration that have thrilled Israels government but caused shock and dismay among international powers and Palestinians, making their dream of an independent state more distant than ever. Syrian media has reported that the US-led coalition airstrike on the town of Hajin in the Deir ez-Zor province has left at least 6 casualties, Sputnik reported. According to the the Ikhbariya television channel, there are also injured people as a result of the strike, while their number remains unknown. "Aviation of the international coalition carried out airstrikes on a building in Hajin, which terrorists from the Islamic State group [Daesh*] used as a prison and held civilians there." This has not been the first time, when the Syrian state media accused the US-led coalition of causing civilian casualties, while conducting aerial operations in the country. In particular, on November 26, SANA reported that the coalition's airstrikes on a village in Syria's Deir ez-Zor province left civilian casualties. The report came just two days after the airstrikes of the US-led coalition reportedly left some 20 civilians dead. While neither confirming nor denying information about casualties in its airstrikes in Hajin, the coalition has admitted conducting operations in the area. The US-led coalition has been conducting its operations in Syria since 2014, without either Damascus' approval or a UN mandate. China seeks new foreign investments, and is ready to open more to the world and to protect intellectual property, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Wednesday, Sputnik reported. "We are building a new modern economic system China is interested in further opening its doors to the world, we will attempt to ease the access to the market for investments and to protect intellectual property," Xi Jinping said during his speech at the Spanish Senate. He recalled that China is the worlds second economy and "the biggest industrial and trade country," and warned that the world was stepping into an "unstable period." "The world is experiencing important changes that were not seen for the past 100 years For example, in economic terms, will we continue with the economic globalization and free trade, or will we resort to unilateral actions and protectionism To solve these problems we need cooperation, unity, international contacts, we need to strive for consensus in order to positively contribute to the solving of these problems, and for the world to move in a right direction," the Chinese president said in Madrid. A part of the Chinese leader's speech was devoted to the Belt and Road Initiative, which, according to Xi Jinping, is a mutually beneficial project that found good responses from the global community. Though, the day before, Spanish authorities said that they are not going to officially join the Beijings initiative. On November 27, Chinese President Xi Jinping came for a three-day visit to Spain, where he met with Spanish King Felipe VI and Prime Minister of Spain Pedro Sanchez. Mexicos outgoing government said on Tuesday it would bestow the countrys top honor for foreigners on Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trumps son-in-law, a decision quickly met with derision by critics on social media, Reuters reports. Kushner, who also serves as a senior White House adviser, will be admitted to the Order of the Aztec Eagle because of his significant contributions to a new North American trade pact agreed to in August, the government said in a statement. Kushner has often played a key diplomatic role in Trumps administration, meeting with Mexican and other foreign leaders and helping broker the deal to update the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement. Canada joined the pact in late September. The award is expected to be formally presented to Kushner on Thursday by outgoing President Enrique Pena Nieto on the sidelines of the G-20 summit of world leaders in Buenos Aires, Mexican newspaper Reforma reported on Tuesday, citing unidentified government sources. The summit is also where the leaders of Mexico, the United States and Canada are expected to sign the revamped regional trade deal. The honor bestowed on Kushner was a trending topic on Twitter, where it appeared to be mostly criticized by prominent Mexicans. Giving him the Aztec Eagle reflects a supreme attitude of humiliation and cowardice, Mexican historian Enrique Krauze wrote in one post, noting that Trump called Mexican migrants murderers and rapists during his 2016 presidential campaign. Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal wrote that the decision to honor Kushner was tremendously shameful. Past Order of the Aztec Eagle honorees include Colombian Nobel literature laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez and former South African President Nelson Mandela. Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will be inaugurated on Saturday after winning a landslide election victory in July. Kushners wife, Ivanka Trump, is expected to attend the swearing-in along with other U.S. officials, including Vice President Mike Pence. South Korean plans for a new ferry and cruise facility at the port city of Incheon will boost commercial and passenger sea traffic between the Koreas and, eventually, China, a leading South Korean state entrepreneur said, The South China Morning Post reports. Hong Kyung-sun, a vice-president of the Incheon Port Authority [IPA], told the South China Morning Post that his organisation was looking to connect Incheon with the North Korean port city of Nampo. Hong was speaking after the United Nations Security Council approved a plan to assess the viability of linking rail services between the two nations, exempting the study from sanctions against Pyongyang. At three inter-Korean summits this year, South Korean President Moon Jae-in offered Seouls help to upgrade the Norths railway network and tie it to the Souths. Re-connecting the sea routes might be the next phase of the inter-Korean cooperation, according to Hong. The port authority has created a task force to study inter-Korean [marine] cooperation in preparation for a joint sea route assessment so that we can immediately [engage with North Korea] once sanctions are lifted, said Hong, a former aide to various congress members from Moons ruling Democratic Party of Korea. The ports study would not be the first to look at inter-Korean marine cooperation, Hong said, as the port authority had commissioned government research institutions such as the Korea Maritime Institute to carry out others. After the study is done possibly next spring we plan to seek a partner in North Korea and will propose a joint field study We must understand each others needs through the joint inspection, he said. Nampo is North Koreas major port city, located in the countrys west about 60km (37 miles) southwest of its capital, Pyongyang. [The IPAs] plan will be to modernise unloading equipment and build additional ports after, of course, sanctions are lifted, Hong said, adding that development of Nampo could cost US$7 billion. The IPA ultimately wishes to run a Peace Cruise tour programme which links not only Incheon and Nampo but also Tianjin and Qingdao in China, Hong said, adding that he hoped the three nations would work together on maritime developments. Starting in April 2016, South Korea invested US$160 million in building a new international ferry terminal, and US$16.5 million for the construction of a 7,364 square metre (79,265 sq ft) cruise terminal with berthing capacity of 225,000 tonnes in Incheon, in anticipation of more tourists from China. The cruise terminal is expected to open next April. China has embarked upon an aggressive unofficial campaign to stop its tourists from visiting South Korea. The number of arrivals from China halved to about 4 million last year, compared to 2016, according to the Korea Tourism Organisation. The port authoritys Golden Harbour project which also includes hotels, a theme park, and shopping centres was created to lure Chinese tourists and proceeded regardless of the political disputes between Beijing and Seoul, Hong said. The two Koreas and China share many regional interests [such as stability and economic development] Korea and China are partners that have worked side-by-side throughout history. I am confident that relations will normalise soon, Hong said, adding Chinas practical support, including financial contributions to both Koreas, is essential. Last year, relations between Seoul and Pyongyang reached a low after a series of tests of nuclear weapons-capable missiles by the North. South Korea responded by deploying anti-missile defence systems provided by the United States. The [missile] dispute was rather a product of intensified tensions on the Korean peninsula, Hong said. Thus, easing of tension is the fundamental solution to the dispute, and it can be achieved by rebuilding trust via [economic] cooperation. The two Koreas and China must rebuild our trust with one another and walk towards the road of common prosperity Three-way economic engagement will result in active logistics and human exchanges, and ultimately a stable and sustainable prosperity in the Yellow Sea region. The Kremlin continues preparations for a meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump during the G20 summit in Argentina, TASS reports. "Preparations are continuing. The meeting has been agreed. We have no other information from our US counterparts," Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, when asked about the possibility the Russian-US summit in Argentina might be canceled. "Weve taken note of that statement [Trumps remark regarding the incident involving Ukrainian ships in the Kerch Strait]. Also, we noted yesterdays statement by my White House counterpart who said that Trump was planning a number of meetings, including one with Putin [in Argentina]," Peskov said. He drew attention to Trumps remark about aggression during the Kerch Strait incident. "It depends on what he calls aggression. If he described as aggression the actions of Ukrainian naval ships, thats one thing. It can be discussed if there was an act of aggression or not. If he uses the term aggression in relation to what the Russian border guards did to frustrate attempts at violating Russias state border, it is an entirely different mater. We disagree with that," Peskov said. He added that Putins schedule for Friday and Saturday was very tight and every minute mattered, because his stay in Argentina had three aspects - participation in the G20 summit, bilateral meetings on the sidelines and the official visit to Argentina, due to be held during the two days. Peskov did not say on what day Putins meeting with Trump would take place. Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 28 By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend: Turkey intends to abandon the use of UH-1 military helicopters in 2020, Turkish media reported Nov. 28 citing a military source. These helicopters are used to train new military pilots. Helicopters produced by the Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. (TAI) will be used to train military pilots. From 2011, Turkey produces mobile outposts that have proved useful in fight against the militants of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), and also the Canik TP9 handguns, unmanned ANKA aircraft and other military equipment to strengthen the domestic defense industry. Turkey is also developing a domestic military laser system. Earlier, the trials of the domestically-made long-range surface-to-surface missiles have been conducted in Turkey. The new rocket, named KAAN, was launched from a firing ground in the province of Sinop in the north of Turkey. The KAAN rocket system, produced by Roketsan, was first demonstrated at the International Defense Industry Fair IDEF 2017 in Istanbul. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 28 By Rufiz Hafizoglu Trend: A terrorist attack was prevented in Turkeys western Izmir province, the Turkish media reported on Nov. 28. Reportedly, as a result of a special operation conducted by the provincial police, five members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were detained. The terrorists planned to attack a number of state agencies in the province. Other details of the operation have not been reported. Earlier, terrorist attacks were prevented in Malatya and Mardin provinces. Meanwhile, 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 U.S. National security adviser John Bolton said on Tuesday that U.S. President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman are not expected to hold a formal bilateral meeting during the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Argentina, Xinhua reported. In a press briefing at the White House, Bolton, when asked to confirm whether Trump will meet with the Saudi leader, said that Trump's "bilateral schedule is full to overflowing at this point." 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, Russia as well as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Trump's meeting with Abe "will transform at some point during that meeting into a trilateral meeting" with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bolton added. Also at the press briefing, 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 U.S.-Saudi leaders' meeting, Sanders said she would not rule out any interaction, adding that Trump will also meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Three U.S. soldiers were killed due to a roadside bomb explosion in eastern Afghanistan, Xinhua reported according to The Washington Post. Citing U.S. military officials, the report said that the incident took place during a U.S. military patrol near Ghazni city, which caused three other U.S. service members and a U.S. military contractor wounded. 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 this attack on Tuesday. This attack appeared to be the deadliest attack on U.S. forces in Afghanistan in the last 17 months. A U.S. 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 U.S. Army National Guard was killed in Afghanistan in an insider attack launched by a member of the Afghan security forces. U.S. military deaths have surpassed 2,400 since the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001. By Mohammad Gharebag, KYODO NEWS - Nov 28, 2018 - 20:08 | World, All The head of Iran's nuclear agency said Tuesday that despite the ongoing U.S. sanctions push and efforts to isolate his country, Japan remains willing to continue cooperating with it on nuclear safety. "Japanese side insisted that under any circumstance they would like to continue their operation in the domain of safety," Ali Akbar Salehi, who heads the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, told Kyodo News in an interview on the sidelines of a seminar in Brussels. "Even as recently as few weeks ago, our officials from Iran and officials of Japan met each other," the former foreign minister said, while noting that Japan has already hosted training programs for Iranian scientists on safeguards and nuclear safety. He said that as nuclear accidents in any country could have impacts beyond its borders, it is important for international community to be involved in nuclear safety. Salehi praised Japan's supportive stand regarding Iran 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which the United States withdrew from in May before resurrecting economic sanctions on Iran and pressuring other governments to follow suit. He said he understands Japan's delicate position vis-a-vis the United States. At the same time, he urged it to put aside the "unnecessary caution" and restart or even expand cooperation with Iran in areas unaffected by the U.S. unilateral sanctions, such as the field of medical equipment and the "humanitarian side of the scientific technological cooperation." "We would like to see Japan to play more independent role. Japan can do a lot if it wishes. There are areas that has nothing to do with Americans, but the Japanese are very cautious in their actions when it comes to Iran," he said. Salehi said Japan could also play a positive role by supporting European efforts to salvage the 2015 nuclear accord. After the U.S. withdrawal, Iran said that it would continue its commitments so long as it sees economic benefits under the deal. It has given the European Union some time to come up with a solution. While Iran is starting to lose patience, Salehi said he had positive meetings in Brussels and is optimistic that the Europeans will find a way to pay for continued Iranian oil exports despite U.S. sanctions affecting financial transactions. He added that the two sides have agreed on a timeline. Salehi said that if the nuclear deal breaks down, "The consequences will be unpredictable for everybody, even for ourselves, for the international community, for the region. Only God knows what is going to happen." If that happens, he warned, Iran stands ready to resume enrichment of uranium, which was suspended under the 2015 nuclear deal, to 20 percent purity at its nuclear facility in Natanz. Noting that Iran now has the capacity to produce 190,000 separative work units, or SWUs, of enriched uranium, he said, "We will do it very easily, but we don't want to do that now. The capacity is there," he added. Under the deal struck between Iran and six major powers -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States -- Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of crippling economic sanctions. KYODO NEWS - Nov 28, 2018 - 14:33 | Urgent, All, Japan A government bureau in Osaka is set to launch a smartphone-based service next year to provide foreign tourists with disaster information ahead of the 2025 World Expo in the western Japan city. The initiative, expected to formally start next summer, is aimed at ensuring safe and enjoyable stays for foreign visitors to Osaka and its vicinity, which were hit by a number of natural disasters earlier this year such as earthquakes, torrential rains and typhoons. Weather news and evacuation orders will be provided and the service will also allow foreign embassies to issue messages to their nationals in emergency situations. Sightseeing information will be offered through the service when there is no disaster. An official at the local bureau of the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry said, "We want to develop (the system) into a framework that can respond to big events." According to the bureau, trial tests in English, Korean and Chinese will be held in Osaka Prefecture from February to April next year, with an eye on expanding the service to six prefectures in the Kinki region of western Japan in 10 languages. The bureau does not plan to create a new smartphone application. Instead, it will make public a system called application program interface which can be freely cited by external app operators. As fake posts and rumors have spread through Twitter and other applications in times of disaster, the bureau will limit the sources of information to public institutions and disaster-relief organizations. West Japan Railway Co., satellite broadcasting service firm Sky Perfect JSAT Corp. and the Osaka Convention & Tourism Bureau among other companies and municipal governments will take part in the trial. However, the report said that the CI Sudheer had not misbehaved with the girl as she had alleged in her death note. Kartarpur/Chandigarh: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan laid the foundation stone for the Kartarpur Corridor on Wednesday. Worth mention here three days before India performed the groundbreaking ceremony on its side in Punjab's Gurdaspur district. Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and other Senior Pakistani officials were in attendance at the groundbreaking ceremony held at Narowal in Kartarpur. From India Union ministers Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Singh Puri, and Punjab Cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu marked their presence. Union ministers Badal and Puri reached Pakistan on Wednesday to be present at the groundbreaking ceremony of Kartarpur Corridor while Punjab minister Sidhu had reached Kartarpur yesterday. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj was also invited by the Pakistan government for the ceremony but she had expressed her inability to travel and instead nominated Puri and Badal to be present at the ceremony. The Kartarpur Corridor aims to permit visa-free travel for Indian Sikh pilgrims to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib The project is likely to be completed within six months. The foundation stone for the corridor was laid in Punjabs Gurdaspur district on Monday by Indian Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu. Pakistan Foreign Office talking head Muhammad Faisal has stated that the work on the corridor will be ended in time for the 550 birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev in November next year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will leave for Argentina on Wednesday evening (November 28) to attend the G-20 summit. Briefing media in New Delhi, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said, there will be three sessions during the summit. He said PM Modi will be speaking on digital revolution in India, Ayushman Bharat programme, soil health card and other Central government schemes besides risk posed by volatility in oil prices and terrorism. The Foreign Secretary said PM Modi will hold bilateral meetings with several leaders on the margins of the G-20. He will be holding a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Asked whether the Prime Minister will also meet US President Donald Trump, Gokhale said, currently several bilateral meetings are being worked out. PM Modi will also be meeting United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The Foreign Secretary said that the BRICS head of states will also meet in the margins of G20. The Group of Twenty-G-20 is a leading forum of the world's major economies that seeks to develop global policies to address today's most pressing economic challenges. The G20 was instrumental in stabilizing the world economy. Since then, its agenda has expanded to include additional issues affecting financial markets, trade and development. Collectively, G20 members represent all inhabited continents, 85 per cent of global economic output, two-thirds of the world's population and 75 per cent of international trade. Biotechnology gene research used to screen and treat cancer VietNamNet Bridge - Apples legendary CEO Steve Jobs predicted that the biggest innovations of the 21st century will be the intersection of biology and technology. Biotechnology has made great progress with great achievements from sheep cloning to human genome sequencing. A report from EY cited the story of BenevolenBio in London as saying that AI and machine learning can help speed up the research of new medicines. BenevolenBio CEO Jackie Hunter affirmed that technology increases the success in R&D by four times. Cao Anh Tuan, founder of Gene Friend Way, said: Your and my genomes are 99 percent identical, but the other one percent makes up the difference, from skin color, to personality and potential," said. Genetica technology developed exclusively by Gene Friend Way relies on a combination of artificial intelligence and gene decoding to address this matter. Gene decoding technology can detect important genetic mutations and weaknesses in cancer cells, thus optimizing the treatment process. The cooperation of the technology and AI will help doctors research and develop new drugs, and serve the screening and prevention of cancer. The project development team, with the founder, a Ph.D in computer science, who contributed to Google's AI-related activities, comprises another four members, who are PhDs from top 10 universities in the US. They have at least 10 years of experience in the field of gene research. The competitiveness of Gene Friend Way lies in the fact that the company owns a specific chip customized to handle with Asian genomes. The chip is certified by Illumina as having high accuracy rate of over 99 percent. Decoding gene of Asians is also a goal set by Gene Friend Way. Currently, other genetic analysis companies work based on the samples of white people, while the genomes of different races vary. Gene decoding technology can detect important genetic mutations and weaknesses in cancer cells, thus optimizing the treatment process. The cooperation of the technology and AI will help doctors research and develop new drugs, and serve the screening and prevention of cancer. After working for MD Anderson Cancer Treatment & Research Hospital and having many research works honored, Dr Phan Minh Liem has returned to Vietnam with a hope of helping patients approach the new cancer treatment methods used in the world. In July, Liem established the Vietnam - US Biomedical Institute (VUBI), which aims to screen and treat cancer more effectively through gene decoding. Cancer is a disease caused by genetic mutations. These carcinogenic mutations can be found early by gene decoding and genetic medical analysis," he explained. Lam admitted that technology plays an increasingly important role in biotechnology. AI not only analyses genes, but also checks mutant data banks, drug data banks, medical records and scientific publications. RELATED NEWS Vietnam makes biotechnology progress Experts urge use of agricultural biotechnology as response to climate change Mai Chi Half of the ambulances targeted sustained serious damage and/or had to be withdrawn from service, the findings show. Now in its eighth year, the Syrian conflict has taken a heavy toll on medical facilities and health professionals from airstrikes, bombings, shootings, kidnappings and lootings. This is despite the fact that healthcare facilities and the ambulances servicing them are protected under International Humanitarian Law and the Geneva Conventions, and the UN resolution 2286, passed in 2016, condemning attacks on medical facilities and staff. To try and quantify the extent of the damage inflicted on the country's ambulance service, the researchers analysed data from individual reports submitted to the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) throughout 2016 and 2017 and reviewed published research on attacks on ambulances since the start of the war in 2011. Analysis of the SNHR data showed that there were 204 individual attacks involving 243 ambulances in 2016 and 2017. Half (52%) of the vehicles were deliberately targeted. Most attacks occurred in areas with large factions of opposition forces: Aleppo, Idlib, and Damascus. Only 1-2 per cent of the attacks occurred in pro-government areas. Half of the vehicles (49%) were either heavily damaged or had to be withdrawn from service. Only 12 per cent of vehicles sustained mild damage. The principal perpetrators were the Syrian regime (123 incidents; 60%) and Russian armed forces (60; 29%). Air-to-surface missiles and shelling were most often used in the attacks. Cluster bombs, which scatter munitions over a wide area, leaving unexploded remnants in the ground, and barrel bombs-unguided drums filled with metal fragments and explosives with a massive blast radius-are frequently used by Syrian government and Russian armed forces, note the researchers. The high degree of indiscriminate and widespread destruction caused by these bombs will most likely have contributed to the large number of ambulances becoming collateral damage during attacks on medical facilities, they suggest. The use of cluster bombs was banned in 2008 by the Convention on Cluster Munitions, indicating an "intentional disregard for international treaties on medical neutrality by the [Syrian] government," they point out. The review of the published research (18 articles) included the impact of the attacks-care delayed or prevented altogether; blocking and other forms of violence, such as looting; the withdrawal of humanitarian agencies to protect workers; and 'double-tap' attacks, where a location is bombed twice, several minutes apart, with the intention of targeting first responders, including paramedics. "This 'weaponisation of healthcare' turns the essential need for healthcare into a war tactic that aims to destabilise, intimidate, and demoralise," write the researchers. "The intentional, highly destructive and repetitive targeting of ambulances throughout the Syrian conflict has had an immeasurable and devastating impact on the people of Syria and the healthcare system. "As the most dangerous place in the world to be a healthcare provider, no cadre of health worker or health facility is immune to the attacks," they add. Collecting data on attacks on ambulances and pre-hospital providers is challenging, but is nevertheless essential for ensuring that these incidents don't become "usual war-time tactics," insist the researchers. "The UN Security Council and global humanitarian community must do more to protect the sacred space of medical neutrality in conflict and bring harsher punishments to perpetrators of violence against healthcare in Syria," they conclude. ### Nov. 28, 2018 WASHINGTON - To help determine if the descendants of Gulf War and post-9/11 veterans are at risk for health effects resulting from the service members' exposure to toxicants during deployment, a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recommends the creation of a health monitoring and research program (HMRP). The committee that carried out the study and wrote the report assessed the available evidence on the reproductive, developmental, and generational health effects related to exposures that may have occurred during the Gulf War and post-9/11 conflicts. While there is a growing base of human and animal evidence on the reproductive and developmental effects of many toxicants of concern, there is a dearth of information on the specific effects of veterans' exposures on their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Almost 700,000 U.S. troops were deployed to the Persian Gulf region during the height of Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm in 1990-1991. The U.S. military engaged in further conflicts in the Middle East following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, with troops stationed in and around Afghanistan and in Iraq. In any war, deployed service members may be exposed to potentially hazardous agents and situations -- some intentionally and others unknowingly, the report says. These may include chemicals that are used in everyday civilian life, such as pesticides and solvents, as well as chemical and biological agents, mandatory vaccines, smoke from burn pits and oil-well fires, dust, high ambient temperatures and heat stress, and depleted uranium. Because there was little or no information on specific effects in veterans for many of the toxicants, the committee relied on studies that examined occupational or residential cohorts, who were exposed to some of the same toxicants as Gulf War and post-9/11 veterans were. The committee was unable to determine how relevant the exposures in these non-veteran studies are to those experienced by deployed veterans in terms of the exposure magnitude, duration, frequency, mixtures, and co-exposures. The ability to generalize associations found in such studies to veterans is also limited by differences in population characteristics such as gender, age, ethnicity, and lifestyle. Therefore, such exposures should be studied specifically in active-duty service members and veterans in order to confirm that the associations are valid for those populations. The committee came to more than 50 conclusions in five categories of association between the deployment exposures and reproductive effects, adverse pregnancy outcomes, or developmental effects. No toxicant had sufficient evidence of a causal association between exposure and reproductive or developmental effects, nor did any toxicant have limited/suggestive evidence of no association between exposure and reproductive or developmental effects. Among the conclusions, the committee found sufficient evidence of an association between prenatal exposure to organophosphate pesticides and neurodevelopmental effects; prenatal exposure to particulate matter and adverse pregnancy outcomes, such as low birth weight and preterm birth; and prenatal exposure to benzene and childhood leukemia. In addition, the committee found limited/suggestive evidence of an association between sulfur mustard and reproductive effects in men, and between prenatal exposure to particulate matter and pregnancy-induced hypertensive disorders, and respiratory or neurodevelopmental effects in children. The HMRP would be a collaboration among a number of government and nongovernmental organizations. The report describes a recommended framework for development of an HMRP, including the following priorities, which will be critical to implementing a useful HMRP: The collection, storage, and maintenance of comprehensive baseline and longitudinal data and biospecimens from veterans, their partners, and their descendants; Detailed exposure characterization and assessment during and after deployment; and The development, evaluation, standardization, and interoperability of biomarkers of exposure, susceptibility, and biological effects. "Addressing the priorities outlined in this report will require substantial resources, long-term commitment by the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs and other governmental organizations, and considerable engagement by past, current, and future veterans and their families," said committee chair Kenneth S. Ramos, associate vice president for precision health sciences, professor of medicine, and executive director of the Center for Applied Genetics and Genomic Medicine at University of Arizona. "However, the results that arise from studying generational effects will ultimately be rewarded with new knowledge of veterans' exposures, their reproductive health, and the health of their children and grandchildren. Importantly, the new understanding derived from these investments will be relevant to the health of all Americans now and for future generations." There are numerous considerations that must be addressed to implement a large-scale HMRP, such as financial and human resource costs, the availability and expertise of adequately trained personnel, the time required for project completion, ready access to well-curated data, the maintenance of confidential human health data, ethical considerations for investigations that include parents and children, and the implementation of appropriate health and risk communication strategies between and among organizations and veterans and their families. Given these considerations, a practical approach to exploring generational health effects should leverage ongoing veterans' health research programs, such as the Million Veteran Program and the Millennium Cohort Study, the report says. The costs of designing and conducting an HMRP for any veteran cohort will be considerable, as demonstrated by the cost of similar programs such as the National Institutes of Health's National Children's Study and the All of Us Research Program, the report says. However, the costs of some of the underlying technologies -- for example, whole-genome sequencing -- have declined dramatically, and research results from the health monitoring program may translate into significant cost savings for the nation. The study was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are private, nonprofit institutions that provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions related to science, technology, and medicine. They operate under an 1863 congressional charter to the National Academy of Sciences, signed by President Lincoln. For more information, visit nationalacademies.org. A committee roster follows. ### Social Media: Follow us on Twitter: @theNASEM and @NASEM_health Follow us on Instagram: @theNASEM Follow us on Facebook: @NationalAcademies Follow the conversation using: #GulfWarHealth11 Resources: Report Highlights Summary of Conclusions Download the report at http://www.nationalacademies.org/GulfWarHealth11 Contacts: Dana Korsen, Media Relations Officer Andrew Robinson, Media Relations Assistant Office of News and Public Information 202-334-2138; e-mail news@nas.edu Newsroom Copies of Gulf War and Health, Volume 11: Generational Health Effects of Serving in the Gulf War are available from the National Academies Press on the Internet at http://www.nap.edu or by calling 202-334-3313 or 1-800-624-6242. Reporters may obtain a copy from the Office of News and Public Information (contacts listed above). THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES OF SCIENCES, ENGINEERING, AND MEDICINE Health and Medicine Division Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice Committee on Gulf War and Health, Volume 11: Generational Health Effects of Serving in the Gulf War Kenneth S. Ramos* (chair) Associate Vice President for Precision Health Sciences; and Professor of Medicine Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, and Executive Director Center for Applied Genetics and Genomic Medicine College of Medicine University of Arizona Tucson Tracy L. Bale Professor of Pharmacology, and Director Center for Epigenetic Research in Child Health and Brain Development School of Medicine University of Maryland Baltimore John R. Balmes Professor of Medicine Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine University of California San Francisco Brenda Eskenazi Brian and Jennifer Maxwell Endowed Chair in Public Health and Professor of Epidemiology, and Director Center for Environmental Research and Children's Health School of Public Health University of California Berkeley Elaine M. Faustman Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences School of Public Health, and Director Institute for Risk Analysis and Risk Communication University of Washington Seattle Mari Golub Adjunct Professor Emerita Department of Internal Medicine, and Affiliate Scientist California National Primate Research Center University of California Davis Rafael A. Irizarry Chair Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and Professor of Biostatistics Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Boston Tamarra James-Todd Mark and Catherine Winkler Assistant Professor of Environmental Reproductive and Perinatal Epidemiology Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Boston Stephen A. Krawetz Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and of Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Charlotte B. Failing Professor of Fetal Therapy and Diagnosis, and Associate Director C.S. Mott Center for Human Growth and Development Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology School of Medicine Wayne State University Detroit Linda A. McCauley* Professor and Dean Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing Emory University Atlanta Jacob D. McDonald Vice President of Applied Sciences Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute Chief Scientific Officer Lovelace Biomedical Albuquerque, N.M. Dylan Small Class of 1965 Wharton Professor of Statistics Department of Statistics Wharton School of Business University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia Jacquetta Trasler James McGill Professor in Pediatrics, Human Genetics and Pharmacology and Therapeutics, and Director for Pediatric Research Research Institute McGill University Health Centre Montreal Cheryl Lyn Walker* Director Center for Precision Environmental Health, and Alkek Presidential Chair Departments of Molecular and Cell Biology and Medicine Baylor College of Medicine Houston Carol S. Wood Staff Scientist Environmental Sciences Division Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge, Tenn. Robert O. Wright Ethel H. Wise Professor of Pediatrics, and Chair Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health Icahn School of Medicine Mount Sinai Hospital New York City STAFF Roberta Wedge Staff Officer *Member, National Academy of Medicine (Adds comments from vice premier Liu He on China's growth target) By Noah Barkin HAMBURG, Germany, Nov 27 (Reuters) - China's Vice Premier Liu He told an economic conference in Hamburg on Tuesday that protectionist and unilateral approaches on trade would only deepen economic uncertainty, saying no country could emerge as a winner in a trade war. "We believe that protectionist and unilateral approaches do not offer solutions to problems on trade. On the contrary, they will only bring about more economic uncertainty to the world," Liu said. "The history of economic development has proven time and again that raising tariffs will only lead to economic recession and no one ever emerged as a winner from a trade war. Our approach therefore is to seek a negotiated solution to the problems we have on the basis of equality and mutual respect," he added. The United States has levied additional duties of between 10 percent and 25 percent on $250 billion of Chinese goods this year as punishment for what it calls the country's unfair trade practices, with the 10 percent tariffs set to rise to 25 percent next year. Trump is due to hold trade talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines a G20 summit in Buenos Aires this week. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Trump said it was "highly unlikely" he would accept any request to hold off on the tariff increase, due to take effect on Jan. 1. While China's exports have been resilient so far, many economists expect the impact of the trade war with the United States to be felt next year, adding to China's domestic economic concerns. The Chinese government has set a target to expand the world's second-biggest economy by around 6.5 percent this year. but growth has been slowing amid Beijing's multi-year campaign to curb a corporate debt build-up and clamp-down on risky lending practices. In response to the gathering economic headwinds, Beijing has cut the level of cash that commercial banks must hold as reserves four times so far this year, in a bid to spur lending. The government is also expanding fiscal spending, cutting taxes and pledging infrastructure investment. China's economy is "on track" to meet the growth target for the full year, Liu said. (additional reporting by Ryan Woo; Editing by Jon Boyle) By Andrea Shalal BERLIN (Reuters) - European weapons makers to consolidate, the German government's armaments director said on Wednesday, and warned that failing to reduce the continent's fragmented defence industry could make Europe obsolete. Arms makers need to move beyond mere cooperation agreements and deepen ties, Benedikt Zimmer told hundreds of industry executives and military and government officials at the Berlin Security Conference, and said the drive was supported by the top levels of the German government. "You can call me a dreamer, but if we don't get it done, we are on the best way to making Europe obsolete," Zimmer said. The German call for consolidation is significant -- it was the German government that in 2012 blocked the merger of Britain's BAE Systems and Airbus, worried that it could result in the loss of high-paying jobs. Mergers in sensitive areas such as defence must be approved by national governments and European Union authorities, so a green light from Germany could help stimulate more M&A activity, industry executives said. In a separate speech in Berlin, German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz echoed Zimmer's comments, saying European Union member states should work together more closely on arms procurement to save money and become more effective. Mergers would also have to occur, he said. "It's no secret: There will be and there must be consolidation in the European armaments industry," Scholz said. Scholz, a member of the Social Democrats, who often oppose exports of German arms, said a unified European approach would also ease pressure on companies to export their goods to sometimes problematic buyer countries outside Europe. "If the European market for weapons grows, exports will become less important," Scholz said. Scholz also backed a push by French President Emmanuel Macron to move towards creation of a European army, adding that deployments would still have to be approved by national parliaments. Story continues Zimmer said rapidly increasing costs of new weapons systems could help drive change and provide new impetus to consolidate the large number of makers of disparate tanks, fighter aircraft and other equipment now built and operated in Europe. In the past, he said, there had been a bit of a stalemate - industry and political leaders each deferred to one another, and none pressed ahead. He said it would take time, but industry could play a constructive role in offering more unified weapons programmes that could help reduce the "national walls" that currently protected each respective country's industrial players. Zimmer also acknowledged concerns about the slow pace of weapons procurement in Germany, and called for a more differentiated approach that minimised risk but did not insist on so-called "gold-plated" solutions. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Madeline Chambers; editing by Michelle Martin, Larry King) Georgia Secretary of State, Brian Kemp. (Photo: John Disney/ ALM) Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp. (Photo: John Disney/ ALM) A new lawsuit filed Tuesday seeks to force "large scale reforms" upon Georgia's current election system. The lawsuit, filed by a nonprofit led by Stacy Abrams' former campaign manager, names acting Secretary of State Robyn Crittenden and members of the state Elections Board as defendants. But it clearly targets Republican Gov.-elect Brian Kemp, who as secretary of state was Georgias chief elections officer until he resigned two days after polls closed after a federal lawsuit was filed seeking to force him to step aside. Kemp defeated Abrams, a Democrat, after a hotly contested gubernatorial election. The new suit alleges broad constitutional, civil rights and voting rights violations as well as significant breaches of federal election laws. It asks a federal judge to find that the states current election process violates both Georgians fundamental right to vote and a federal ban on racial discrimination. Based on those proposed findings, the suit asks that the presiding judge take jurisdiction over the states elections so that no policy, standard, practice or procedure may be enacted without court approval. The case, filed in federal court in Atlanta, has not yet been assigned to a judge. The suit also seeks to ban policies implemented by Kemp while he was secretary of state. They include a use it or lose it voting policy that canceled tens of thousands of voter registrations for people who didn't vote for two consecutive years and an exact match policy that validated voter registrations only if they were an exact match to names in the federal Social Security and state driver's license databases. It also demands the immediate abandonment of the states obsolete electronic voting system in favor of paper ballots. It's the 11th lawsuit filed in Georgia challenging state election practices and election security associated with the midterm election. Eight of those suits, including one filed Friday contesting the lieutenant governors race and calling for a new election, are ongoing and seek similar relief. None of the other suits have asked a federal judge to declare the entire election system as unconstitutional and to essentially take it over until reforms are implemented. During early voting and while ballots were being counted, five federal judges issued six restraining orders or injunctions against Kemp and the State Election Board over flaws in the administration of the midterm election. Read the lawsuit: falcon-embed src="embed_1" By Jan Strupczewski BRUSSELS, Nov 28 (Reuters) - European Union banks have cut bad loans and raised provisions, the European Commission said on Wednesday, before EU finance ministers decide next week when to introduce an EU deposit guarantee scheme that hinges on lower risk in banks. The European Deposit Insurance Scheme (EDIS) would guarantee that the holder of a deposit of up to 100,000 euros ($112,890) in any bank in a euro zone country would always get it back in case of a bank collapse. But while this would boost confidence in the banking sector and help prevent bank runs, Germany and some other northern European countries say it can only be introduced once banks in various countries become safer by reducing existing risks. One of such key risks is the number of non-performing loans a bank has, often a legacy of the financial and euro zone sovereign debt crises, and the size of provisions made for them. European Union finance ministers are to decide on Monday on a roadmap for beginning political discussions on EDIS as well as other reforms to deepen economic integration between the 19 countries sharing the euro. "Working out the high stocks of non-performing loans is part of efforts to reduce risks in the European banking sector," Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said. "On the basis of the progress achieved on the risk-reduction side, I invite EU Finance Ministers and leaders to agree on concrete risk-sharing measures in December," he said, referring to EDIS. The Commission said in a report the ratio of bad loans in all EU banks fell to 3.4 percent of all loans in the second quarter from 4.6 percent a year earlier, and stood at 820 billion euros in absolute terms. According to World Bank data the global average for bad loans in 2017 was 3.7 percent of all loans. But the EU average masks large differences between countries -- in Greece 44.9 percent of all loans are bad, in Cyprus 28.1 percent, in Portugal 11.7 percent and in Italy 10.0 percent. The Commission said the provisioning ratio has also improved to 59 percent and that the longer term trend indicated that the bad loan ratio was approaching pre-crisis levels again. Story continues To help better deal with economic shocks and crises, the EU is also building what it calls a capital markets union (CMU), which would make it easier for investors, companies and individuals to borrow and invest across the EU. "The Capital Markets Union is about broadening access to finance for small and medium size companies, and to increase investment opportunities in Europe," Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen said. "This is why we count on the support of the European Parliament and the Council to agree swiftly on the outstanding measures we proposed under the Banking Union and Capital Markets Union agenda," he said. ($1 = 0.8858 euros) (Reporting By Jan Strupczewski; editing by Philip Blenkinsop) A man stands next to a board with the G20 Meeting of Finance Ministers logo in Buenos Aires, Argentina, March 19, 2018. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci/Files By Scott Squires (Reuters) - Global leaders will gather in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires this week for the Group of 20 summit, a meeting of the world's largest economies responsible for 85 percent of global economic output and two-thirds of the world's population. While leaders will try to build consensus on key issues, the talks will be overshadowed by trade tensions between the United States and China. Below is a breakdown of what to expect from the two-day summit, taking place Friday and Saturday: WHAT ARE THE KEY ISSUES AT THE SUMMIT? Leaders will discuss the global economy, the future of labor markets and gender equality issues. They will also talk about macroeconomic policy, the digital economy, reform of the World Trade Organization, financial regulation, taxation and trade issues. U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs on imports from major trading partners, particularly China, will likely dominate the conversation. Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet for the first time since Washington imposed tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese imports and China retaliated with its own measures. China hopes to convince Washington to hold off on hiking tariffs to 25 percent from 10 percent on Jan. 1. But officials from both countries are skeptical of any major breakthroughs that could lead to a resolution in the trade war. Delegates will also discuss climate change, another contentious issue after Trump last year announced his intent to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord. WILL LEADERS SIGN A COMMUNIQUE? This month's Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit failed to reach consensus on a communique, so there is a question over whether world leaders will be able to reach an agreement at the G20, particularly around trade and climate change. Officials from some member countries helping to prepare for the meeting say they are hopeful it will end with a communique, but they have acknowledged that progress has been slow, and the final document will likely be watered down to avoid contentious issues. The officials, known as "sherpas", convened on Monday in Buenos Aires to begin final negotiations on the communique. Story continues WHICH ARE THE MEETINGS TO WATCH? The summit's most closely watched meeting will be between Trump and Xi, which White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said would take place over dinner on Saturday night. The outcome could determine whether the U.S.-China trade dispute will de-escalate, or intensify. Trump is also expected to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The two are expected to discuss the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty after Trump said in October the United States would quit the agreement because Russia was not honoring it. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may meet Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the first time. It follows the Saudi killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey, which sparked global outrage. Trump is also expected to meet with the crown prince. The president has defended U.S. ties with Saudi Arabia, although sources say the CIA believes the crown prince ordered the journalist's murder. The United States, Mexico and Canada are expected to sign a revised North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on Friday, which has been dubbed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). (Reporting by Scott Squires; Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton in Washington, Michael Martina in Beijing, Tetsushi Kajimoto in Tokyo and Ekaterina Golubkova in Moscow; Editing by Daniel Flynn, Ross Colvin and Frances Kerry) FILE PHOTO: Shipping containers are seen at a port in Shanghai, China July 10, 2018. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo By Scott Squires (Reuters) - Global leaders will gather in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires this week for the Group of 20 summit, a meeting of the world's largest economies responsible for 85 percent of global economic output and two-thirds of the world's population. While leaders will try to build consensus on key issues, the talks will be overshadowed by trade tensions between the United States and China. Below is a breakdown of what to expect from the two-day summit, taking place Friday and Saturday: WHAT ARE THE KEY ISSUES AT THE SUMMIT? Leaders will discuss the global economy, the future of labor markets and gender equality issues. They will also talk about macroeconomic policy, the digital economy, reform of the World Trade Organization, financial regulation, taxation and trade issues. U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs on imports from major trading partners, particularly China, will likely dominate the conversation. Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet for the first time since Washington imposed tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese imports and China retaliated with its own measures. China hopes to convince Washington to hold off on hiking tariffs to 25 percent from 10 percent on Jan. 1. But officials from both countries are skeptical of any major breakthroughs that could lead to a resolution in the trade war. Delegates will also discuss climate change, another contentious issue after Trump last year announced his intent to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord. WILL LEADERS SIGN A COMMUNIQUE? This month's Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit failed to reach consensus on a communique, so there is a question over whether world leaders will be able to reach an agreement at the G20, particularly around trade and climate change. Officials from some member countries helping to prepare for the meeting say they are hopeful it will end with a communique, although they acknowledge it will probably be watered down to avoid contentious issues. The officials, known as "sherpas", convened on Monday in Buenos Aires to begin final negotiations on the communique. Story continues WHICH ARE THE MEETINGS TO WATCH? The summit's most closely watched meeting will be Friday's between Trump and Xi. The outcome could determine whether the U.S.-China trade dispute will de-escalate, or intensify. Trump is also expected to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The two are expected to discuss the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty after Trump said in October the United States would quit the agreement because Russia was not honoring it. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may meet Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the first time. It follows the Saudi killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey, which sparked global outrage. Trump is also expected to meet with bin Salman. The president has defended U.S. ties with Saudi Arabia, although sources say the CIA believes the crown prince ordered the journalist's murder. The United States, Mexico and Canada are expected to sign a revised North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on Friday, which has been dubbed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). (Reporting by Scott Squires; Additional reporting by Michael Martina in Beijing, Tetsushi Kajimoto in Tokyo and Ekaterina Golubkova in Moscow; Editing by Daniel Flynn, Ross Colvin and Frances Kerry) KATOWICE, Poland (AP) Electronics salesman Leszek Jaworowski says he can't discuss Poland's coal mining with his father. They end up at loggerheads, just like many families in the southern mining region of Silesia. Unlike his father Edward, Jaworowski defied the area's centuries-old tradition and didn't become a miner. The 42-year-old believes it's time for Poland, heavily dependent on coal, to move away from the dangerous, costly and polluting industry. But to those working in the mines, coal lies at the very core of Silesia's identity, despite the huge safety and health hazards that it brings. "Coal mines should be shut, Silesia doesn't need them anymore," said Jaworowski Jr. "They're destroying the region, the air and the people. The heaps of money pumped into maintaining them should be better used for creating jobs in innovative and clean industries like IT." Not everyone thinks that way. Tomasz Mlynarczyk, 43, who operates heavy extraction machinery at the Wujek mine in Katowice, thinks coal is a "treasure." "If there was no coal there would be no jobs," he said. "If we close the mines, then everything around goes bankrupt shops and other firms that produce and deliver goods to the mines." Poland has chosen to host this year's global climate summit in Silesia's main city, Katowice. The two-week conference starting Dec.2 will see governments, scientists and activists from around the world haggle over how to implement the Paris climate accord. The 2015 agreement set a goal of keeping global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), ideally no more than 1.5 C, an effort that experts say will require sharp cuts in carbon emissions that can only be achieved by ending coal-fired power plants in the coming decades. To spur the negotiators, Greenpeace activists on Tuesday climbed a 180-meter (590-foot) smokestack at Europe's largest lignite power plant in Belchatow in central Poland. The protest aimed to stress the harmful effects that burning coal has had on the world's climate and the pressing need to phase out the fossil fuel. Global pressure is also on other coal-burning countries like China, India, Australia, Germany, Colombia and the United States, where President Donald Trump says he is opting out of the Paris climate accord to avoid curbing industry. Story continues The Polish government argues that Katowice is a showcase for how a colliery center can be transformed into a modern, environment-friendly city. The venue is a closed mine turned into a museum and culture center. But despite the creation of a green technology hub and numerous new parks in recent years, coal's grip on Katowice and its surroundings remains firm as evidenced by the smog that envelops the region for much of the year. The mining industry has long been a source of pride and employment for generations of Silesians. For decades, its rich seams of hard, black coal were used to heat homes and provide electricity across Poland. At the end of Poland's communist era almost 30 years ago, some 400,000 people were employed in 70 collieries. Miners earned twice the national average, and their feast day of Catholic St. Barbara, known as "Barborka," was renowned across the country. Critics argue that coal's mythical image was maintained by covering up the industry's deadly accidents and downplaying the environmental damage caused by mining. Whole neighborhoods in some towns such as Bytom have been abandoned due to environmental concerns. From 1990, Poland's transition to a market economy forced the closure of many heavily subsidized, unprofitable mines. Ensuing layoffs were met with violent protests by miners that prompted costly government programs that included payments for miners retiring early or moving into other fields, and financial incentives to attract foreign manufacturing firms such as German Opel carmaker. Today, about 30 mines provide jobs to some 83,000 people in Poland. Despite the retrenchment, Poland is Europe's largest source of coal. In 2016, some 70 million tons of coal were produced, or 70 percent of the European Union's output, according to the Energy Ministry. Still, the cutbacks have helped Poland slash its carbon emissions by 30 percent much more than the 20 percent cut the European Union promised to achieve by the year 2020. But, like neighboring Germany, Poland cannot do without coal. Some 80 percent of Poland's energy still comes from coal. "We, as the government, want to have Polish coal for the Polish energy system," said Deputy Energy Minister Grzegorz Tobiszowski, who is in charge of restructuring coal mining. Consecutive Polish governments have assured miners in Silesia, home to 4 million people, that coal will remain an important energy source for decades to come. In 2040, the proportion of Poland's energy coming from coal should decrease to 50 percent, with the rest coming from renewable and nuclear sources, Tobiszowski said. While the government concedes that coal's role will diminish over time, Poland's rollout of renewables which provides about 15 percent of electricity has stalled partly due to legislation that protects traditional, state-owned energy companies. "It is not Poland's fault that we have such rich deposits of fuels. The point is to use them in the most efficient way and to have them in our energy mix and to work on reducing the pollution, the emissions," said Michal Kurtyka, a senior official at Poland's environment ministry who will chair the climate talks in Katowice. To reduce harmful emissions, some 7.2 billion zlotys ($1.9 billion) are to be invested through 2022 into modern, cleaner coal technologies. Like the Jaworowski family, opinions on the future of coal are split largely along generational lines. To younger Poles, the prospect of going deeper and deeper underground holds little relish. The coal industry has had to hire workers from neighboring Ukraine. Patryk Bialas, an engineer and environmental activist, plans to drive home that message during the upcoming U.N. climate conference. "The move away from coal can be done faster than it is being done, but there needs to be a political will," Bialas said. "We just need to sit down and discuss the future, because coal is finished." A flight attendant of Lion Air wears a pin commemorating Lion Air flight JT610 as she prepares for a news conference about the recovery process at a hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, November 5, 2018. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan/File Photo By Cindy Silviana and Fergus Jensen JAKARTA (Reuters) - A Lion Air jet that crashed into the sea off Indonesia last month was not in a safe condition on its second-to-last flight, when pilots experienced similar problems to those on its doomed last journey, Indonesian investigators said on Wednesday. A preliminary report unveiled fresh details of efforts by pilots to steady the jet as they reported a "flight control problem", including the captain's last words to air traffic control asking to be cleared to "five thou" or 5,000 feet. Indonesia's transport safety committee (KNKT) focused on airline maintenance and training and the response of a Boeing anti-stall system to a recently replaced sensor but did not give a cause for the crash that killed all 189 people on board. "At this stage I do not have the answer," KNKT investigator Nurcahyo Utomo told reporters. Contact with the Boeing 737 MAX jet was lost 13 minutes after it took off on Oct 29 from the capital, Jakarta, heading north to the tin-mining town of Pangkal Pinang. The brand-new airplane had suffered a sequence of problems in cockpit readings since Oct 26, culminating in a decision to change a key sensor known as the angle-of-attack probe before the penultimate flight from Denpasar to Jakarta. During the fatal night-time flight, a "stick shaker" was vibrating the captain's controls, warning of a stall throughout most of the 13 minutes aloft based on what investigators believe to have been erroneous data on its angle to the oncoming air. That angle is a key flight parameter that must remain narrow enough to preserve lift and avoid an aerodynamic stall. The airplane's anti-stall system repeatedly pushed the nose down, which is how pilots usually get air under the wings. But the system experienced an over-reaction known as a runaway, prompting an eight-minute battle between the captain pulling the nose back up and computers holding it down. Pilots flying the same plane on its penultimate flight a day earlier had experienced a similar problem, en route from Denpasar, Bali to Jakarta. But they used switches to shut off the system and then flew on manual controls, KNKT said. Story continues Although that flight landed safely, the continued shaking of the control column meant the plane was considered "un-airworthy" and the flight should have been discontinued, the report said. Lion Air CEO Edward Sirait rejected reports that the Boeing 737 MAX had not been airworthy since its previous flight, telling reporters it had been cleared by engineers. "I think pilots can judge for themselves whether to continue," Lion Air Managing Director Daniel Putut, a former pilot, added. BOEING SHARES HIGHER The report set out a sequence of glitches and incomplete debriefings as well as a mix-up over paperwork over the number of cabin crew on board when Flight JT610 plunged into the sea. Utomo said the agency had not determined if a new version of the anti-stall system, which was not explained to pilots in manuals, was a contributing factor. "We still don't know yet if it contributed or not," he said when asked about the new software patch on the Boeing 737 MAX. "It is too early to conclude." Shares in Boeing, which had come under pressure when word of the undocumented new system first emerged, rose 4.5 percent. "While the flight control problem appears important, crews have been reminded how to address it, and the fix may well be a software change," said Bernstein analyst Douglas Harned. "There appears no reason to expect a MAX fleet grounding, impact to demand, or other significant programme implications." The world's largest planemaker has 4,542 of the upgraded 737 jets on order from airlines, worth over half a trillion dollars at list prices, or about half that after typical discounts. In a statement, Boeing threw the focus on a list of airline maintenance actions set out in the report but stopped short of blaming ground workers or pilots for the accident. It did not make any reference to the revised anti-stall system introduced on the 737 MAX, which investigators and U.S. pilots say was missing from the operating manual. Boeing says the procedure for dealing with a so-called runaway remains unchanged from previous 737 models. Pilots however say the control column behaves differently in certain conditions, which could confuse pilots who have flown the earlier model. Indonesia's director general of aviation, Polana Pramesti, told Reuters the agency planned to require pilots in Indonesia to be trained on simulators for the MAX series rather than the solely computer-based conversion course for 737 pilots. Wednesday's report provided new recommendations to Lion Air on safety on top of earlier recommendations about the flight manual that have already been implemented by Boeing. Authorities are meanwhile still looking for the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) believed to be lying among oil pipelines. Indonesia plans to deploy a ship from Singapore capable of staying in position without dropping anchor in the risky zone. Asked what was needed from the CVR, Utomo said: "A lot. Discussions between the left and right pilots were about what? What procedures did they carry out. Were there any strange noises?" Without it, he added, there would be "a lot of guessing". (Reporting by Cindy Silviana and Fergus Jensen; additional reporting by Tim Hepher in Paris, David Shepardson in Washington, Tracy Rucinski in Chicago, Eric M Johnson in Seattle and Gayatri Suroyo in Jakarta; Writing by Ed Davies, Jamie Freed, Tim Hepher; Editing by Darren Schuettler, Nick Macfie and David Evans) (Bloomberg) -- For more than 30 years, Intel Corp. has dominated chipmaking, producing the most important component in the bulk of the worlds computers. That run is now under threat from a company many Americans have never heard of. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. was created in 1987 to churn out chips for companies that lacked the money to build their own facilities. The approach was famously dismissed at the time by Advanced Micro Devices Inc. founder Jerry Sanders. "Real men have fabs," he quipped at a conference, using industry lingo for factories. These days, ridicule has given way to envy as TSMC plants have risen to challenge Intel at the pinnacle of the $400 billion industry. AMD recently chose TSMC to make its most advanced processors, having spun off its own struggling factories years before. TSMCs threat to Intel reflects a sea change in chipmaking thats seen one company after another hire TSMC to manufacture the chips they design. Hsinchu-based TSMC has scores of customers, including tech giants Apple Inc. and Qualcomm Inc., second-tier players like AMD, and minnows such as Ampere Computing LLC. The explosion of components built this way has given TSMC the technical know-how needed to churn out the smallest, most efficient and powerful chips in the highest volumes. Its a once-in-a-50-year situation, said Renee James, the former No. 2 at Intel who heads startup Ampere. Her company is less than two years old and yet its going after Intels dominant server chip business. That Ampere thinks it can compete is a testament to stumbles by Intel, and TSMCs ability to benefit from those mistakes. Its been a decade since Intel faced major competition and its 90 percent revenue share in computer processing will again deliver record results this year. But some on Wall Street are concerned, and rivals are emboldened, because TSMC has a real chance to replace Intel as the best chipmaker in the business. Last year, the Taiwanese company amassed a bigger market value than its U.S. rival for the first time. Story continues What Intel investors really worry about is that the largest internet companies will start making their own chips. This week, Amazon.com Inc., the biggest cloud-computing company, announced its first in-house server processor. The Graviton is made by TSMC, and it supports a new version of an Amazon cloud service thats more than 40 percent cheaper than a similar offering powered by Intel chips, the company said. Without TSMCs capabilities, Amazon wouldnt have the option to go it alone, according to Matt Garman, a vice president of Amazon Web Services. More competition in this space is great, he said. Production bragging rights in semiconductors are judged by the width of the space between lines on the tiny circuits that give chips their function. Shrinking that gap -- measured in nanometers, or billionths of a meter -- gives designers the ability to make chips that count faster, use less power, store more data or simply cost less. In the highest-end processors, where Intel makes most of its money, space is at a premium. A Xeon server processor crams billions of transistors into an area the size of a postage stamp. Intel was the first to use 14-nanometer technology at scale in 2013, according to Goldman Sachs. It wont have 10-nanometer ready for prime time until the end of 2019 -- by far the longest wait in its history. TSMC has gone from 20-nanometer to 7-nanometer production in the same time. Intels holdup revolves around yield, the number of good chips that emerge from each production run. In plants that cost about $7 billion and run 24 hours a day churning out millions of chips each month, the slightest hiccup can be disastrous financially. Intel hasnt ironed out enough of these manufacturing wrinkles yet, and the company wont shift to 10-nanometer production until its sure everything works properly. Sanders current successor at AMD, Chief Executive Officer Lisa Su, doesnt have to worry about this because the company sold its factories and lets TSMC handle the complex production. Thats one of the best decisions weve made, said Su. It allows us to manage risk and focus on the things that make the product great. With TSMCs help, Su is pursuing a goal that Sanders never attained: A credible and lasting challenge to Intels hold on computing. AMD is now telling investors and customers that its new chip designs will surpass those from Intel. TSMC makes this competition possible, even though AMD has about a tenth of Intels workforce and R&D budget. TSMC didnt catch Intel all by itself, though. The companys real break came a decade ago when the smartphone began filling consumers pockets. Intel dabbled in mobile chips, but the U.S. company never committed its best production and design to the area, preferring to prioritize its existing cash cow PC and server chip businesses. When smartphone sales took off, phone makers used other processors from companies like Qualcomm. Or they designed their own using ARM technology, like Apple. And TSMC factories churned these components out. The smartphone business is now almost six times as big as the PC industry by volume. Thats given TSMC the advantage of high-volume manufacturing experience that previously belonged to Intel. With billions of transistors on chips, a problem with a small number of those tiny switches can render the whole component useless. Production runs can take up to six months and involve hundreds of steps requiring maniacal attention to detail. Each time theres a mistake, the factory operator has a chance to make tweaks and try a new approach. If the change works, that information is retained to try on the next challenge. The more production runs, the better. And TSMC has the most nowadays. "TSMC just continues to deliver latest chips on schedule without any mistakes, said Mark Li, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. He thinks Intels leadership in PC and server chips, plus its pricing power, are at risk because of its smartphone slip and TSMCs hard-earned consistency. Still, this is far from the first challenge Intel has faced. The company is working on its production problems, and in the meantime will deliver new chips built with existing production technology that it says will keep the opposition at bay. Navin Shenoy, head of Intels server division, argues nanometer-based production measures have never been the only factor of success (although the company liked to talk about this more in the past). Intels near-term solution is to design better chips using the old production technology. Im confident that were going to deliver what our customers care about, which is system performance," he said. Historically, the company has squashed rivals using a research budget that dwarfed anything else in the industry. But TSMCs approach is even undermining this advantage. While Intel still outguns TSMC in capital spending on new plants and equipment, the tables are turned when you combine the research budgets of TSMC customers like Qualcomm, Apple, Nvidia Corp. and Huawei Technologies Co. According to Goldman Sachs, the combined budgets of TSMCs customers are not only larger than Intel but the gap is increasing. By 2020, they will spend almost $20 billion, according to its estimate, at least $4 billion more than Intel. Theyre a self-fulfilling prophesy now, said Debora Shoquist, executive vice president of operations at Nvidia. "They are the best and the best go to the best. (Updates with Amazon chip details in seventh paragraph.) To contact the reporters on this story: Ian King in San Francisco at ianking@bloomberg.net;Debby Wu in Taipei at dwu278@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jillian Ward at jward56@bloomberg.net, Alistair Barr, Tom Giles For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com 2018 Bloomberg L.P. New Braunfels, TX (78130) Today Chance of a morning shower. Mostly cloudy and windy. Morning high of 68F with temps falling to near 55. Winds N at 20 to 30 mph.. Tonight Mostly cloudy skies. Low 42F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. The so-called Hanseatic League has for about a year questioned France's determined efforts to strengthen the euro zone. At the moment, France and the Netherlands are at loggerheads over a proposal to create a euro zone budget, a financial pot available only to the 19 countries that have adopted the euro. "It is not just a question of whether you want it or not. It is a far more complicated issue. You also have to ask for what purpose, how, who pays and who decides. It has to make sense and work," a European official told CNBC. There is a group of European countries that gets uncomfortable every time France comes up with ideas to deepen ties with other euro economies. Labeled the "Hanseatic League," this group includes the Netherlands, Finland, Denmark and Latvia. Its name refers to the confederation free-trading city states in the northern part of Europe that started in the 14th century. The Hanseatic League has for about a year questioned France's determined efforts to strengthen the economic union through motions that include putting together a euro zone budget. Instead, the group believes that each government needs to consider its own fiscal obligations and put the necessary policies in place doing so would reduce efforts at the euro zone level to further deepen integration between the 19 countries. "We are strongly in favor of euro zone reform. The question is what kind of reform," a European official, who is a member of the so-called league and who did not want to be named due to the sensitivity of the discussions, told CNBC. Differing opinions on how to move forward within the euro zone are nothing new, of course. But they seemed to reach a new level last weekend when France's Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire publicly stated Paris' frustration with the group. "Let's imagine that France tries to create a club of the southern countries with Portugal, Italy, Spain what would be the reaction of the other member states? Do you think that it would be a positive one? Do you think it would improve the situation of Europe?," Le Maire told the Financial Times . Story continues "I am not comfortable with the idea of creating new circles, new clubs, new leagues within Europe," he added. His comments followed a meeting with his Dutch counterpart Wopke Hoekstra often cited as the head of the Hanseatic League. At the moment, France and the Netherlands are at loggerheads over a proposal to create a euro zone budget, a financial pot available only to the 19 countries that have adopted the euro and that will help them to absorb any economic shocks that may occur. "It is not just a question of whether you want it or not. It is a far more complicated issue. You also have to ask for what purpose, how, who pays and who decides. It has to make sense and work in practice," the European official told CNBC. Le Maire said at a press conference in Brussels last week that the aim is to have a euro zone budget in place in 2021. Despite support from Germany, there are open questions about how much money euro zone governments would have to put aside to finance such a budget. Speaking at the same press conference, German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said it was important to strengthen the euro zone now as it will be the most important engine growth of Europe when Brexit takes place. "The euro zone will become even more important within the framework of the European Union. When the United Kingdom will have left the European Union, 85 percent of GDP (gross domestic product) will be produced in euro(s)," Sholz said. France and Germany want to reach an agreement on the euro zone budget proposal next month. 'Counterweight to Franco-German axis' The Hanseatic League "is a group of countries which tries to organize a counterweight to the Franco-German axis; a normal step as a single smaller country alone will hardly have its voice heard," Carsten Brzeski, chief economist at ING, told CNBC via email. "The common denominator of the group is that hardly any further reforms of the monetary union are needed a voice which many politicians in Berlin, by the way, do appreciate. It allows the German government to embrace French proposals, while at the same time provides enough counterweight not to go all the way," Brzeski said. The European official who is a member of the Hanseatic League explained that, "At the moment, we are eight countries, we are open to others but we also like to maintain some cohesion in the group. "Our meetings are irregularly regular, usually every two months on the sidelines and after the Eurogroup (the official meeting between the 19 finance ministers of the euro zone), but sometimes for logistical reasons we have to reschedule." Ricardo Garcia, chief euro zone economist at UBS, told CNBC that the current framework is unlikely to change significantly, meaning that whenever the next crisis hits, the euro zone will have to deal with it using current mechanisms, or create new ones then. "Whatever we get (by) mid-December will be the response to Brexit for the time being, and what we'll have for the next downturn," he said in an email. Euro zone reform is due to be discussed at a summit in Brussels in two weeks. More From CNBC By Asif Shahzad ISLAMABAD, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Pepsi and Coca Cola are set to invest $1.4 billion in Pakistan in coming years, a statement from Prime Minister Imran Khan's office said, after executives from the two companies met with Khan. Pepsi planned to make " a further investment of $1.2 bln" in next five years, Khan's office said on Wednesday, after the company's chief executive for Asia, Middle East and North Africa, Mike Spanos, led a Pepsi delegation that met Khan. Coca Cola, which has a $500 million business already in Pakistan, also pledged a planned $200m investment in the coming two to three years, Khan's office added in a separate statement on Tuesday. Coca Cola did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Pepsi could not be reached for comment. Khan, who assumed power in August, has inherited a wobbly economy reeling from a ballooning current account deficit, which has prompted the government to seek loans from allies China and Saudi Arabia, as well as enter bailout talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). But many consumer companies see Pakistan, the world's sixth most populous country, as a hot consumer market due to its fast-growing population of 208 million people. Khan told the delegations that Pakistan was committed to facilitate businesses and investors in Pakistan, where 100 million people are below the age of 30. "It is this youth bulge which we believe is attracting global companies in Pakistan along with the increasing affluence of the middle class," said Suleman Rafiq Maniya, head of research at local brokerage house Shajar Capital. Pakistan's economy has been rising in recent years due to a sharp reduction in electricity blackouts and a steep drop in militant attacks, which was a major deterrent to foreign investment. China's pledge to loan $60 billion in infrastructure spending has also helped growth. Despite this, growth, which hit 5.8 percent growth in 12 months to end of June, is due to fall below 5 percent in coming years, according to the IMF. The IMF predicted in October that Pakistan's growth will slow to 4 percent in 2019 and fall to about 3 percent in the medium term. (Writing by Asif Shahzad; editing by Drazen Jorgic & Simon Cameron-Moore) Nov 28 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. - Jack Ma, the head of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, is now a member of the Chinese Communist Party. The party's official People's Daily newspaper included Ma in a list of people who had made extraordinary contributions to China's development over the last 40 years and identified him as a party member. (https://nyti.ms/2Q0MHSW) - Conde Nast, the once-flush publisher of Vogue, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and other magazines, on Tuesday said that its Chief Executive Officer Robert Sauerberg Jr., would step down. (https://nyti.ms/2TLyLuh) - U.S. President Donald Trump has signaled a new willingness to make a deal with President Xi Jinping of China, a leader he has treated solicitously and will meet over dinner on Saturday in Buenos Aires. (https://nyti.ms/2BBTCsV) (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom) By Mike Stone WASHINGTON, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia will buy Lockheed Martin's $15 billion missile defense system, a U.S. Department of State spokesman said on Wednesday, after aggressive lobbying by the administration to close the deal that included a personal call between President Donald Trump and Saudi King Salman. The State Department said the Saudis and U.S. officials signed the letters of offer and acceptance documents on Monday, formalizing terms for Saudi's purchase of 44 Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) launchers, missiles and related equipment. In recent weeks the Trump administration and the U.S. defense industry worked to save the few actual deals in the much-touted $110 billion arms package for Saudi Arabia amid rising concerns about the role of the kingdom's leadership in the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a prominent Saudi critic. The THAAD deal had been under discussion since December 2016 and is now completed, the spokesperson said. Trump and King Salman discussed in a late September phone call the THAAD missile defense system deal, a Saudi official told Reuters in October. The official said at that time that the deal could well be closed by the end of the year. The State Department spokesman said the deal, first reported by CNBC, supports the "long-term security of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region in the face of the growing ballistic missile threat from the Iranian regime and Iran-backed extremist groups." Defying the White House, the Senate voted on Wednesday to advance a resolution to end U.S. military support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen's civil war, setting the stage for a possible final vote on the measure within days. Congressional approval for the THAAD missile defense system sale was given in 2017. (Reporting by Mike Stone in Washington, D.C. ) By Melissa Fares and Uday Sampath Kumar (Reuters) - Tiffany & Co's on Wednesday reported quarterly sales that missed estimates as Chinese tourists spent less than expected at the jeweler's stores in the United States and Hong Kong, a shortfall that sent the company's shares down as much 13 percent. Investors were also disappointed by the 181-year-old company's failure to raise its full-year profit outlook ahead of the holiday season and by growth of same-store sales at a slower pace than expected. Tiffany shares were down 11.8 percent at $92.58 in mid-day trade. Chief Executive Alessandro Bogliolo tried to reassure investors that while spending outside of China was down, sales in the country were robust. "We can speculate on the reasons for the tourist spend down outside of China but the reality is that the Tiffany brand is appealing to Chinese customers as evidenced by the continued strong sales growth in mainland China in the quarter," he said on an investor call. Some of the increase in demand in mainland China could be attributed to Tiffany lowering prices in the country after the Chinese government cut tariffs on luxury goods, he said. Bogliolo said Tiffany was shifting more inventory to mainland China, where customers are spending more than abroad. "When it comes to tourism, what we do is try to follow the customers while they spend ... We are increasing our inventory in China because demand there has grown," Bogliolo said. "Declining Chinese tourist spending is concerning and may be reflective of strained relations with the U.S.," said research firm Retail Metrics founder Ken Perkins, referring to the U.S.-China trade dispute. "Chinas growth has been slowing so to see strong spending on the mainland is encouraging." Tiffany forecast full-year profit between $4.65 and $4.80 per share. Analysts on average had estimated $4.83 per share. The unchanged outlook, among other things, reflected Tiffany's planned increases in marketing expenditure to entice younger shoppers into its stores and expenses related to the renovation of its flagship store in New York, the company said. The jeweler has refreshed its collections with more affordable items such as pendants and earrings to appeal to millennials who have been gravitating to lower-priced competitors such as Denmark's Pandora A/S and Signet Jewelers. Story continues Bogliolo said the company has also invested in marketing to reach Chinese customers and tourists specifically. "Of course if there are less Chinese tourists traveling, we divert our media from traveling locations - airports etc - more to domestic media, typically digital," he said, citing the recent launch of its platinum and diamond collection Paper Flowers in China. The New York-based company's net income fell to $94.9 million, or 77 cents per share, in its fiscal third quarter, ended Oct. 31, from $100.2 million, or 80 cents per share, a year earlier. Total revenue rose 3.7 percent to $1.01 billion. Analysts on average expected earnings of 77 cents per share on revenue of $1.05 billion. The company's comparable-store sales, excluding the impact of currency changes, rose 3 percent, while analysts on average were expecting a rise of 5.3 percent, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. (Reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru and Melissa Fares in New York; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty, Susan Thomas and Steve Orlofsky) NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / November 28, 2018 / Metal stocks were suffering on Tuesday as Traders showed their growing concerns over Chinese demand waning and according to Bloomberg, Soon-to-be-published research will show roughly 22 percent of Chinas urban housing stock is unoccupied, according to Professor Gan Li, who runs the main nationwide study. That adds up to more than 50 million empty homes. The Market Edge Initiates Coverage on: Alcoa Corporation https://marketedgereport.com/report/AA/ United States Steel Corporation https://marketedgereport.com/report/X/ Alcoa Corporation shares were down 4.24% yesterday on nearly 3 million shares traded. The stock plummeted to a new low of $30.95 as metal stocks tumbled on concerns over Chinese's demand waning. It was on Monday that the company said it had entered into an amended and restated $1.5 billion revolving credit agreement on November 21, 2018. Our ability to successfully amend our revolving credit agreement reflects Alcoas improving financial profile, said William Oplinger, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. We look forward to continuing to strengthen the Company to gain even greater flexibility in the future. Access The Market Edge's Alcoa Corporation Research Report: https://marketedgereport.com/report/AA/ United States Steel Corporation shares were down 8.32% yesterday on about 20 million shares traded. The stock sunk to a new low of $22.63 after traders expressed their concerns over steel demand in China slowing down. According to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the country's automobile sales dropped 11.7% to 2.38 million units in October. This marked the fourth straight month of year-on-year decline. The country's property investment growth also hit 10-month low of 7.7% in October, slowing from an 8.9% expansion in September, according to Reuters. It was also in October that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) slashed China's GDP forecast for 2019 to 6.2% from its earlier view of 6.4% citing the ongoing trade war. Story continues Access The Market Edge's United States Steel Corporation Research Report: https://marketedgereport.com/report/X/ Our Actionable Research on Alcoa Corporation (NYSE:AA) and United States Steel Corporation (NYSE:X) can be downloaded free of charge at The Market Edge. The Market Edge We are committed to providing relevant and actionable information for the self-directed investor. Our research is reputed for being a leader in trusted, in-depth analysis vital for informed strategic trading decisions. The nimble investor can leverage our analysis and collective expertise to execute a disciplined approach to stock selection. The Market Edge has not been compensated; directly or indirectly; for producing or publishing this document. Disclaimer: This article is written by an independent contributor of MarketEdgeReport.com and Nadia Noorani, a CFA charter holder, has provided necessary guidance in preparing the document templates. MarketEdgeReport.com is neither a registered broker dealer nor a registered investment advisor. For more information please read our full disclaimer at www.marketedgereport.com/disclaimer. CONTACT For any questions, inquiries, or comments reach out to us directly at: Address: The Market Edge, Unit #901 511 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY, 10011 Email: contact@marketedgereport.com CFA and Chartered Financial Analyst are registered trademarks owned by CFA Institute. SOURCE: MarketEdgeReport China has pledged to take in more US imports in a trade-off that has temporarily paused an escalating trade war between the world's two largest economies (AFP Photo/Fred DUFOUR) There is a "good possibility" President Donald Trump will reach an agreement later this week to resolve the trade dispute with China, a White House official said Tuesday. As the trade tensions have escalated and engulfed hundreds of billions of products in retaliatory tariffs, Trump is due to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Buenos Aires later this week on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit. "There's a good possibility we can make a deal and he's open to it but certain conditions have to be met, certain things have to be changed," White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow told reporters. 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 in a 'slump' - But Kudlow's comments indicate Trump is more upbeat about the prospects. In addition, he said other countries share the US concerns over China's trade practices. "China should change its practices and come into the community of responsible trading nations," Kudlow said. He stressed that 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." The rising trade tensions have been flagged by economists and the International Monetary Fund, among others, as a potential risk to the global economy. And fears about the impact were a key factor behind the drop in US stocks in the past few weeks, which erased most or all of the gains in 2018. Story continues But US growth remains on pace for a little over three percent this year, and Kudlow 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." And there will be "enormous benefits" from free trade, he said. Motley Fool Online gaming stock Roblox (NYSE: RBLX) bounced back from a two-day sell-off on Wednesday, closing the day up 8.2% -- not quite enough to erase the losses earlier in the week, but at least lessening the pain somewhat. Oh, sure, some analysts will tell you that growth stocks sold off this week because investors got spooked over the risk of rising interest rates in the U.S. Since Friday's close, the yield on U.S. 10-year Treasury notes has risen about 9 basis points. While you can criticize the stock's valuation and its lack of profits according to generally accepted accounting principles, Roblox is actually a pretty significant cash generator, boasting more than $615 million in positive free cash flow generated over the past 12 months. STORIES YOU MIGHT LIKE Afghan leaders and foreign diplomats are meeting in Geneva for a two-day conference during which international donors are expected to pledge billions of dollars in aid to Kabul. Dozens of countries are attending the high-level talks in the Swiss city on November 27-28. The Afghan government is expected to renew its commitment to reform and discuss aid contributions in its bid to achieve stability and security. The United Nations, which is co-hosting the summit with the Afghan government, said 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. Based on reporting by Reuters, dpa, and Al-Jazeera Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said his government has formed a 12-strong negotiating team to seek a peace agreement with the Taliban, as he laid out what he called a "roadmap" for the talks. "We seek a peace agreement in which the Afghan Taliban would be included in a democratic and inclusive society," Ghani told an international conference on Afghanistan in Geneva on November 28. Earlier this month, U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad held talks with the Taliban in Qatar as the administration of President Donald Trump stepped up efforts to settle the Afghan conflict after more than 17 years of war. The Taliban have long refused U.S. demands to directly negotiate with the Western-backed government in Kabul, which has struggled to counter attacks from the militant group since the withdrawal of most NATO combat troops in 2014. The government has formed the required bodies and mechanisms to pursue a peace agreement, Ghani said, adding, We are now moving ahead into the next chapter of the peace process." Ghani said the 12-person negotiating team, comprised of both women and men, will be led by his chief of staff, Abdul Salam Rahimi. The president also listed several principles that he said must form the backbone of any peace settlement. These include respecting Afghanistan's constitution and its provisions on women, as well as the rejection of interference in Afghanistans domestic affairs by foreign "terrorist" and criminal groups. The president stressed that the first year of the peace process must include steps to build trust between the former warring sides. He also described Afghanistans presidential elections scheduled for April 2019 as key to successful peace negotiations because the Afghan people need an elected government with a mandate to obtain ratification, implement the peace agreement and lead the societal reconciliation process." Officials at Afghanistan Independent Election Commission (IEC) this week said they were considering delaying the vote, citing economic, security and weather situations. In a message read to the Geneva conference, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said there was a rare opportunity to move to direct peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban." "We must not miss it," Guterres added. The European Union foreign affairs chief, Federica Mogherini, welcomed Ghanis peace plan, saying, "It is time for concrete talks about peace to begin." The U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, David Hale, urged all sides to "seize this opportunity: to move toward peace. "All of us need to facilitate the inter-Afghan dialogue," said Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who expressed concerns about the drug trade across the region's borders. Zarif also said the "presence of foreign military forces has never brought stability in our region and has historically provided a recruiting ground for extremists." Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow hoped for an end of Afghanistans fratricidal war" and voiced concerns over militant attacks by the Islamic State extremist group in the country. On November 27, the first day of the two-day Geneva conference, the European Union announced 474 million euros ($535 million) in financial aid for Afghanistan. It said the new funding would go toward reforms in the public sector, health, justice, and migration and displacement issues. With reporting by AFP, AP, Reuters, and dpa Prime Minister Imran Khan said that all Pakistani institutions want to mend ties with India, as officials from both countries attended the groundbreaking ceremony for a new border crossing. "I, the prime minister, my political party, the rest of our political parties, our army, all our institutions are all on one page. We want to move forward," Khan told the event on November 28. If India takes one step forward then we will take two steps forward toward friendship," Khan also said in his speech. India and Pakistan have a history of bitter relations since gaining independence from Britain in 1947. The two nuclear-armed rivals have fought three wars, two of them over the disputed Himalayan region Kashmir, where the two sides still regularly exchange fire. In a rare instance of cooperation between Pakistan and India, the two neighbors have agreed to open a new crossing point between their two regions called Punjab. The crossing, known as the Kartarpur corridor, is to open in November next year. It aims at making it quicker and easier for Sikh pilgrims from India to visit a shrine to Guru Nanak, the 15th-century founder of Sikhism. The November 28 groundbreaking ceremony was attended by hundreds of Sikh pilgrims, Pakistani army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, lawmakers from India, and other officials from the two countries. Bajwa called the laying of the foundation for the crossing a "step toward peace, which our region needs." The tourism minister of India's border state of Punjab, Navjot Singh Sidhu, was among those who crossed the border for the inauguration. "Both the governments should realize that we have to move forward," said Sidhu, a Sikh. Indian Vice President Venkaiah Naidu laid the road's foundation stone on the other side of the border earlier this week. Pakistan used to be home to a large Sikh community, but most of its members went to India during the 1947 partition, with only a few thousand remaining in Pakistan. Thousands of Sikhs visit Guru Nanaks shrine in Pakistan every year. With reporting by Reuters and Dawn Greenback cutthroat trout, once thought to be extinct, get VIP treatment in southwest Springs President Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, Chinas president, shake hands during a news conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing last November. City Editor Tom Roeder is the Gazette's City Editor. In Colorado Springs since 2003, Tom has covered the military at home and overseas and has covered statehouses in Denver and Olympia, Wash. His main job, though, is being dad to two great kids. El Paso County officials upset by the inclusion of toll lanes in the project to widen the Interstate 25 Gap may withhold as much as half of the $15 million they promised to the project. County commissioners are slated to adopt a final spending plan for 2019 on Thursday, but its unclear whether the proposed budget will bring the county any closer to fulfilling its funding commitment for the Gap project. Commissioners last year allotted $7.5 million to help widen the stretch of I-25 from Monument to Castle Rock and, in a budget resolution, stated they intended to put more money toward the project in future years. Construction began after Labor Day to add a pair of controversial toll lanes to the roughly 18-mile Gap, widening it from two to three lanes in each direction. The Colorado Department of Transportation says it is still relying on the county for a total contribution of $15 million for the $350 million effort. The countys 2019 budget proposal includes $7.5 million for high impact road infrastructure. However, whether that money would go to local roads or the widening hasnt yet been decided, said county spokesman Ryan Parsell. The county is negotiating a grant acceptance agreement with the U.S. Department of Transportation and state transportation officials that will likely clarify whether the county will be required to contribute the full $15 million, said Commissioner Peggy Littleton. Littleton has said she opposes allocating more county funds to the project because the tolls would amount to double taxation, as local governments are already chipping in taxpayer dollars for the widening. Last summer, the project was awarded a $65 million grant from the U.S. DOTs Infrastructure for Rebuilding America, or INFRA, program. Because the county applied for the grant, it is involved in negotiating an acceptance agreement, along with the Colorado Department of Transportation. What were really doing is just waiting to see now what the contract is going to say with the INFRA grant, Littleton said. We just dont know at this point in time. The grant acceptance agreement will be discussed at a public meeting before its adopted, said Parsell. Bob Wilson, a spokesman for CDOT, said the state transportation department expects that El Paso County will eventually provide the entire $15 million, even if no additional funding comes in 2019. Weve enjoyed a productive partnership with El Paso County, Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority and all of our local stakeholders whove been committed to the completion of this critical safety and mobility project, Wilson said in a statement. According to the terms of the INFRA award, we werent expecting to receive the full match amount next year anyway. Were confident local governments will fulfill their commitment to make the project whole. The application, submitted to the federal government last fall, included a project budget showing that El Paso County planned to contribute $15 million by the end of 2020. The state is expected to pay about $250 million, Douglas County will allot $10 million, and the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority will provide $10 million. The application began with a letter signed by county commission President Darryl Glenn that described adding two toll lanes but did not include alternatives. However, commissioners have become vocal opponents of the toll lanes. Glenn has said the county was required to use a letter template dictated by CDOT, which has a policy saying toll lanes must be strongly considered for highway expansion projects. Late last year, county commissioners approved an emergency resolution declaring their opposition to the toll lanes and saying the grant application does not bind the board into accepting the INFRA grant if awarded. Discussion about the countys contribution to the I-25 widening was largely absent from budget talks, although Littleton raised the issue at an Oct. 18 budget hearing, saying she would rather see money go towards local roads. During a budget presentation, the officials from the county Public Works Department said that any additional funding could be used to finance gravel road reclamation, other local road improvements, and upgrades to the countys stormwater management program. County CFO Sherri Cassidy told Littleton at the hearing that the $7.5 million that commissioners allotted to the project during the last budget process is being held in a reserve for CDOT, which had not yet requested the funds for the project. When asked whether the county would follow through with an additional $7.5 million for the project, Commissioner Stan VanderWerf said in an interview early this month that he was concerned about the toll lanes, which were not a component of consideration when the county went to voters last year to ask for permission to spend excess revenues on the widening and other efforts. Im not going to say Im committed or not committed to the money at this point in time because theres several variables and factors that we have to consider, VanderWerf said. Commissioners Longinos Gonzalez Jr. and Mark Waller declined to comment, citing the pending grant acceptance agreement negotiations. Darryl Glenn, president of the Board of County Commissioners, did not return phone calls asking for comment. Commissioners will vote to adopt the 2019 budget on Thursday after a final public hearing. The meeting will begin at 9 a.m. in Centennial Hall at 200 S. Cascade Ave., although commissioners will have regular business to take care of before voting on the budget. The roughly $375 million proposed budget includes about $130 million that commissioners can allocate to core services and departments at their discretion. Due to state and federal law and other restrictions, the remainder of the budget must go to specific programs and projects, such as human services. The 2019 budget proposal includes provisions that would: -Increase support for El Paso County Public Health by $200,000. Public health officials had sought a $250,000 increase to boost services across the agency, including hiring several new workers for environmental health inspections, identifying and controlling diseases and preparing for emergencies. The agency also is considering purchasing equipment, starting new health initiatives or ensuring current ones dont end when grant funding dries up. -Pay for an additional forensic pathologist at the coroners office and several new staffers at the 4th Judicial District Attorneys Office, including a deputy district attorney, investigator, and senior paralegal. -Allot nearly $170,000 to help bring county facilities in line with requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act. -Invest an additional $1.1 million in the countys information security program. -Provide $25,000 for neighborhood and homeless camp cleanups. -Invest about $3.9 million in pay increases for county staff, including cost of living adjustments and merit-based raises. -Allow in future years for more money to go toward new office staff at the Mount Caramel Veterans Service Center and the county attorneys office. Jakob Rodgers contributed to this article. EDITOR'S NOTE: This article has been revised to correct the value of the proposed 2019 budget, which was misstated in the original story. The cost of fighting a federal lawsuit against Colorado Springs over stormwater permit violations has surpassed the $3 million mark and is sure to increase. U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch ruled last week that Colorado Springs violated federal stormwater regulations at three development sites, leaving the city liable for what some councilmen have said could be hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties. Additional claims against the city are pending, but the city and plaintiffs, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, could seek an out-of-court settlement. Since the EPA and the state health department filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court two years ago, the city has spent more than $3.3 million on outside attorneys, said a spokeswoman for Charae McDaniel, the citys chief financial officer. That doesnt include time the citys staff attorneys have spent on the case, which is included in the annual budget, McDaniel said. The millions spent on outside attorneys comes from the citys general fund. Breaking down the cost, McDaniel said the city spent $838,838 on outside attorneys in 2016, $1.6 million in 2017 and $881,719 so far this year. Councilman Bill Murray noted that this years total doesnt include the plaintiffs attorneys fees, which the city could be ordered to pay now that Matsch ruled in their favor in a partial judgment. The EPA and the state health department were joined later in the lawsuit by Pueblo County and the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District, and their costs could also be added in, he said. The city could also be charged as much as $57,570 per day for each violation since Nov. 2, 2015, the lawsuit says. For violations before that date the fine could be $37,500 per day, although the amount drops further for violations before Jan. 12, 2009. Rather than continuing the costly legal battle, CDPHE officials have said they and the other plaintiffs are negotiating with the city to curtail violations and ensure future compliance with the stormwater permit and the federal Clean Water Act. Council President Richard Skorman has said hes hoping a settlement can be reached or Matsch does not levy an inordinate amount of civil fines against the city, which he says would be counterproductive. The higher the citys lawsuit costs go, the more its stormwater programs and other services might suffer, he said. conrad.swanson@gazette.com @conrad_swanson Thirty-eight people lost their lives in shootings, stabbings or brutal beatings across El Paso County in 2017, making it the second deadliest year on record. The death toll is surpassed only by the 43 killings in 2013, according to records. Most of the deaths, 31, occurred in Colorado Springs, one less than the record of 32 in 2011. And the totals may still climb. The Police Department has two outstanding death investigations that may end up being classified as homicides, which would raise 2017's total deaths to 40 and set a city record at 33. Details about those deaths were not released while a determination is pending. "It saddens us," police Lt. Howard Black said. "One death is one death too many in our city Michael Farren is a research fellow and Anne Philpot is a research assistant with the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Colorado Springs School District 11 voted 6-1 last week to take a pass on a charter school proposed by former Dallas school superintendent Mik You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close At the Library: Always forward: Raymond Groeger and the 45th Infantry Division at the Woodland Park Library VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Irving Resources Inc. (CSE:IRV) (Irving or the Company) is pleased to announce the closing of the non-brokered private placement announced on November 20, 2018. The Company raised $2,083,802 by the issuance of 1,894,365 units (the Units) at a price of $1.10 per Unit (the Private Placement). Each Unit is comprised of one common share of the Company and one-half of a share purchase warrant (the Warrants). Each whole Warrant is exercisable for one common share of the Company at a price of $1.75 per share for a period of two years from the date of issue, subject to an accelerated expiry provision. The Company plans to use the net proceeds of the Private Placement to fund matters related to property exploration in Japan and for general working capital purposes. The securities issued under the Private Placement are subject to a four month hold period. About Irving Resources Inc.: Irving is a junior exploration company with a focus on gold in Japan. Irving also holds, through a subsidiary, Project Venture Agreements with Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) for joint regional exploration programs in the United Republic of Tanzania, the Republic of Malawi and the Republic of Madagascar. JOGMEC is a government organization established under the law of Japan, administrated by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan, and is responsible for stable supply of various resources to Japan through the discovery of sizable economic deposits of base, precious and rare metals. Additional information can be found on the Companys website: www.IRVresources.com . Akiko Levinson, President & Director THE CSE HAS NOT REVIEWED AND DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ACCURACY OR ADEQUACY OF THIS RELEASE. Forward-looking information Some statements in this news release contain forward-looking information (within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation) including, without limitation, the statement as to the planned use of the net proceeds of the Private Placement. These statements address future events and conditions and, as such, involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the statements. Such factors include, without limitation, customary risks of the mineral resource industry as well as the performance of services by third parties. The securities of the Company have not been registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the 1933 Act)) or any U.S. state securities laws and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, a U.S. Person (as such term is defined in Regulation S under the 1933 Act) absent registration under the 1933 Act or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements of the 1933 Act and applicable U.S. state securities laws. Selbyville, Delaware, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The automotive communication technology market is poised to grow from its current value of USD 7 billion to over USD 18 billion by 2024; according to a new research report by Global Market Insights, Inc. The market growth is attributed to the increasing demand for automotive electronics. Over the last decade, the total contribution toward automotive electronics has increased from around 20% to 45%. Inventions such as automatic transmission, anti-lock brakes, telematics, and infotainment capabilities are revolutionizing the automotive industry, driving the market demand. The electronic systems also assist in meeting the safety regulations such as adaptive cruise control, blind spot detection, and lane chase assist, encouraging manufacturers to incorporate these systems into their vehicles. All these subsystems are connected to the central gateway through various bus modules including CAN, MOST, and Ethernet, enhancing in-vehicle communication and safety. Request for a sample of this research report @ https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/3008 Furthermore, the growing purchasing power, rapid urbanization, economic growth, and rise in the per capita ratio are the major factors contributing to the growth in the sales of luxury vehicles, having a positive impact on the automotive communication technology market. The government has also established various regulations for improving the fuel economy of cars and augmenting vehicle safety, contributing to the market growth. The MOST bus segment is growing at a steady rate in the automotive communication technology with a market revenue of over USD 1 billion in 2017. The MOST bus is used to provide in-vehicle infotainment and multimedia systems with precise communication during the transmission of data, audio, video, and control information. The MOST bus offers data efficient communication infrastructure for interconnecting infotainment and multimedia devices such as GPS navigation, radio, video display, and active speakers. The latest version MOST150 offers a speed of around 150 Mbps, enabling its usage in various automotive communication applications. However, as the MOST bus is provided by a limited number of suppliers, the cost is relatively high due to which automotive manufacturers are now shifting toward the Ethernet network as it acts as a cheaper and flexible alternative. The economy car segment is growing at the fastest rate in the automotive communication technology market and is projected to grow at a CAGR of over 16% over the forecast timeline. The major factors contributing to the market growth include the rising demand for vehicular safety from the economy class vehicle consumers and stringent government regulations for emission reduction. Hence, the economy car manufacturers are working with various automotive industry standards organizations to develop efficient networking solutions thereby meeting the stringent design constraints. This has contributed to the introduction of features such as ADAS, advanced safety, and user-friendly infotainment system into the cars, driving their adoption rates. The introduction of networking technologies in these vehicles is growing rapidly, contributing to the market growth. Browse key industry insights spread across 260 pages with 290 market data tables & 27 figures & charts from the report, Automotive Communication Technology Market Size By Bus Module (Local Interconnect Network [LIN], Controller Area Network [CAN], FlexRay, Media-oriented Systems Transport [MOST], Ethernet), By Vehicle Class (Economy, Mid-Sized, Luxury), By Distribution Channel (OEMs, Distributors), By Application (Powertrain, Body and Comfort Electronics, Infotainment and Communication, Safety and ADAS), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Canada, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Poland, China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand [ANZ], South Korea, India, Singapore, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, South Africa, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar), Growth Potential, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2018 - 2024 in detail along with the table of contents: https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/automotive-communication-technology-market The distributors segment is growing rapidly with a projected CAGR of over 17% over the forecast timespan. The communication technology providers mainly align with the distributors to provide its technology to automotive manufacturers worldwide. The distributors dominate the aftermarket landscape by developing strategies to deepen their relationship with customers, driving the company sales. They also provide an insightful understanding regarding the prevailing market conditions and the changing customer requirements, which enable companies to bring about necessary transformations in its offerings, contributing to the automotive communication technology market growth. The safety & ADAS segment dominates the automotive communication technology market with a projected market revenue of over USD 8 billion by 2024. The automotive systems have become more sophisticated as they include ADAS applications from collision avoidance, automatic emergency braking, and lane departure warning to autonomous driving, making the system bandwidth critical. To meet this high bandwidth and latency requirements, it is essential for automotive manufacturers to provide high-performance network connectivity. The use of automotive Ethernet in these systems delivers a single in-vehicle network, enabling a seamless cross-domain communication and accelerating their adoption rates in the market. The Europe automotive communication technology market held over 26% of the market share in 2017. The growth in this region is attributed to the rising awareness regarding automotive safety among citizens and stringent government regulations. The region is also the home for leading automotive semiconductor providers such as Elmos Semiconductor, NXP Semiconductor, STMicroelectronics, and Vector Informatik, which contributes to the market growth in this region. Poland is one of the fastest growing countries in this region and is anticipated to be the second largest automotive hub in Europe after Germany. The companies operating in the global automotive communication technology market are focusing on bringing about innovations in production technologies, resulting in the development of advanced solutions for the market. Major players functioning in this market include On Semiconductor, NXP Semiconductor, Microchip, Continental, Broadcom, Intel, Qualcomm, Renesas, Vector Informatik, Robert Bosch, Elmos Semiconductor, Xilinx, STMicroelectronics, Melexis, Infineon, Cypress Semiconductor, and Texas Instruments. These players are also entering into strategic partnerships with various automotive manufacturers to expand their presence and gain a competitive edge in the market. Make an Inquiry for purchasing this report @ https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/3008 Browse Related Reports: Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) Market Size By Technology (Adaptive Cruise Control, Automatic High Beam Control, Autonomous Park Assist, Blind Spot Detection, Driver Monitoring, Forward Collision Warning, Front Lighting, AEB, Night Vision, Head Up Display, Lane Departure Warning, Park Assist, Surround View System, Traffic Sign Recognition, Tire Pressure Monitoring System), By Sensor (LiDAR, Infrared, Ultrasonic, RADAR, Image Sensor), By Vehicle (PCV, LCV, HCV), By Distribution Channel (OEM, Aftermarket), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Canada, Germany, UK, France, Italy, Spain, Russia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Mexico, Brazil , Argentina, Turkey, Iran, South Africa), Growth Potential, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2018 2024 https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/adas-market Automotive Gesture Recognition Market Size By Product (Touch Based Systems, Touchless Systems), By Authentication (Hand/Fingerprint, Face, Vision/Iris), By Application (Multimedia/Navigation/Infotainment, Door/Window, Sunroof, AC Blower), By Vehicle (PCV, LCV, HCV), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Canada, Germany, UK, Italy, France, Spain, Belgium, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Netherlands, Austria, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Finland, Greece, China, Japan, Korea, Australia, Taiwan, Singapore, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Cyprus, Turkey, South Africa), Growth Potential, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2018 2024 https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/automotive-gesture-recognition-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. New York, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SendFriend, the next-generation remittance service and currently, the smartest way to send money to the Philippines, today announced that they are opening up their waitlist. Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) are now able to quickly send money from the U.S. back to the Philippines at a lower rate than ever before. Living and working far away from loved ones is hard, we dont think sending money home should be. We started SendFriend to reduce the costs and improve the experience for the millions of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) who send money home to support their families, said David Lighton, SendFriend co-founder and Chief Executive Officer. Migrants around the world sent home $650 billion in remittances last year, but they paid an average of over 7% per transaction, or $45 billion in fees, for services which often took 3-5 days. SendFriend was founded at MIT by a group of experienced individuals who believe that there is a better way for Overseas Filipino Workers to support their families from afar. SendFriend leverages secure blockchain technology to reduce settlement time and the cost of service. Benefits of using SendFriend include: Send More Money: Reduced fees mean that more money is sent to family overseas; SendFriends fees are 65% lower than the industry average as it replaces the frictions and fees of the banking system with one seamless, ultra low cost experience to send money globally Reduced fees mean that more money is sent to family overseas; SendFriends fees are 65% lower than the industry average as it replaces the frictions and fees of the banking system with one seamless, ultra low cost experience to send money globally Seconds instead of Days : Save time as payments sent from U.S. to Philippines are sent and received in near-real time : Save time as payments sent from U.S. to Philippines are sent and received in near-real time Secure and Trustworthy : SendFriend has cutting edge partners and is supported by leading institutions and investors including The MasterCard Foundation and Barclays Accelerator powered by Techstars : SendFriend has cutting edge partners and is supported by leading institutions and investors including The MasterCard Foundation and Barclays Accelerator powered by Techstars Easy to Send and Easier to Receive Funds: Sending money only requires internet access and a bank account the recipient in the Philippines does not need a SendFriend account money can be received via cash pick-up at Cebuana, M Lhuillier, LBC, and others; in a mobile wallet like Coins.ph; or at any of the major banks in the Philippines including BDO, Metrobank, BPI, PNB, and others Sending money only requires internet access and a bank account Customer First: SendFriend is intuitive and built with the customer in mind; service is accessible via both desktop and mobile SendFriend is the only option for OFWs to securely and reliably send money internationally in essentially real time and at the lowest cost to the customer, said Joel Kosloski, SendFriend Chief Technology and Compliance Officer and former MoneyGram Chief Architect. Whether its legacy players like Western Union or MoneyGram that are cash based and can charge up to 12% in fees or other digital or mobile newcomers that typically charge 4% in fees, SendFriend is the only option putting customers first and recognizing that every dollar, every peso matters. SendFriend plans to launch in New Jersey but will soon be available to OFWs in other states. Customers can now request early access and claim three fee-free transactions by visiting https://www.sendfriend.io/. ABOUT SENDFRIEND SendFriends vision is to empower the millions of Overseas Filipino Workers who overpay for international money transfers every year. Through blockchain technology and a partnership agreement with Ripple, SendFriend offers a secure, intuitive, and low-fee solution which reduces the cost of remittance payments by 65% from the industry average. SendFriend is led by a smart and experienced team with roots at The World Bank, MIT, MoneyGram, and Harvard Business School and its investors include the MIT Media Lab, Barclays, the Mastercard Foundation, Techstars, and Mahindra Finance. For more information and to sign up for SendFriend, please visit https://www.sendfriend.io/. TORONTO, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Generation Mining Limited (CSE:GENM, the Company) is pleased to announce that all permits have been received for a sampling program on the Alberta Zinc property (the Property) near High Level, Alberta, and that work will commence next week. The program is designed to pinpoint the source of a 4,000-square-kilometre zinc in till anomaly, as manifested by the presence of sphalerite grains, discovered by the Geological Survey of Canada and the Alberta Geological Survey in 2003 (Figure 2). The discovery consisted of numerous sphalerite grains in 30 Kg till samples ranging from values of less than 30 grains in samples external to the anomalous area and grain counts of up to 1047 grains in samples within the anomalous area. Other studies have indicated the likely ice direction of the most recent glacial movement, and the program is designed to systematically sample shallow till samples moving up ice until the anomaly ends, thus indicating proximity to the source of sub-cropping zinc mineralization. The Property is underlain by sedimentary sequences of the Western Canada Sedimentary basin (Figure 1). Beneath relatively shallow till cover, Cretaceous aged (80 million years) shales and sandstones are underlain by Devonian aged (370 million years) limestones and dolomites. The Devonian sequence is believed to be stratigraphically equivalent to the Pine Point district (historical production from 1964 to 1987 of 64 million tonnes with an average grade of 7.0% Zn and 3.1% Pb). Of particular importance is the existence of an oil well drilled by Chevron on the Property in 1993 which intersected 10 metres grading 3.7% zinc in Devonian dolomite at a depth of 1250 metres. Mineralization in the Chevron drill hole is believed to be similar to mineralization at Pine Point some 400 km to the northeast and may be an example of Mississippi Valley Type (MVT) mineralization. Both Pine Point and the Chevron drill hole are proximal to the Great Slave Lake Shear Zone (GSLSZ). There is evidence at Pine Point for two regional periods of increased geothermal activity with one occurring in the Devonian and the other in the Cretaceous. The Zn mineralization in the Chevron drill hole suggests that the GSLSZ has been active in the past and may have provided a locus for mineralizing fluids to move to the surface through the overlying stratigraphy. The working theory is that in Cretaceous time the Property area was submerged by a shallow restricted sea. It is possible that mineralizing fluids venting on the seafloor encountered waters which were anoxic, stratified and rich in hydrogen sulfide which would have provided optimal conditions for the formation of SEDEX (sedimentary exhalative) type zinc deposits. Subsequent uplift, erosion and eventual glaciation and till deposition would have distributed grains of zinc mineralization in till over a wide area. The program is expected to take 2-3 weeks and will be followed up sample analysis and, depending upon results, geophysics and/or shallow drill holes. The Property covers 65,000 hectares and is located along the Mackenzie Highway and the Canadian National Railways line. The Company also announces that it has granted options to purchase an aggregate of three hundred thousand common shares of the Company exercisable at a price of $0.15 cents per share for a period of two years, to consultants of the Company, in accordance with the terms of the Company's stock option plan. Qualified Person Rod Thomas, P.Geo., is a qualified person for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Properties, and the Company's Vice-President, Exploration, and a Director. He has prepared or supervised the preparation of the information contained in this news release. About Generation Mining Limited Generation Mining Limited is a base metal exploration and development company with various property interests throughout Canada. Its primary business objective is to explore and further develop these properties, and to continue to increase its portfolio of base and precious metal property assets through acquisition. For further information please contact: Jamie Levy President and Chief Executive Officer (416) 640-2934 (416) 567-2440 jlevy@genmining.com Forward-Looking Information This release includes certain statements that may be deemed forward-looking statements. All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address future production, reserve potential, exploration drilling, exploitation activities and events or developments that the Company expects are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the statements. There are certain factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. These include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. For more information on the Company, investors are encouraged to review the Companys public filings at www.sedar.com . 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, other than as required by law. 1700-80 Richmond Street West Phone: 416 567-2440 Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5H 2A4 Email: jlevy@genmining.com Images accompanying this announcement are available: http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ae72c872-1474-47ae-9d7b-aad42795df66 http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/6ce7c090-b875-4c4a-927a-d2caa5db8dfd BETHLEHEM, Pa., Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania s (BFTP/NEP) Board of Directors has approved the investment of $486,250 in support of regional economic development. BFTP/NEP announces the following early-stage company investments that are provided in the form of loans with warrants. HootBoard, https://www.hootboard.com/ , Ben Franklin TechVentures , Bethlehem Ben Franklin Investment: $100,000 Complete efforts to support customer acquisition through inbound marketing and value-added reseller partner development. HootBoard provides interactive digital kiosks that deliver a concierge-like service to clients of hotels, airports, and other publicly visited spaces through its SaaS platform. The kiosks are significantly less expensive to deploy compared to custom kiosks and can be set up in minutes. Since they are cloud-based, guests receive news and other content in real time, and can take the content with them on their smartphones. Rocket Cloud, Inc. , www.RocketCl.com , Ben Franklin TechVentures , Bethlehem Ben Franklin Investment: $100,000 Continue to improve the technology platform and implement a new marketing and sales strategy for this software platform interface for the building materials supply industry. The company provides innovative cloud- and machine-learning-based software solutions to streamline the supply chain. It allows traditional wholesalers of equipment and supplies to supplement their physical locations with third-party ecommerce channels, such as Amazon, eBay, Jet.com, and Walmart. Easy on-line access through e-commerce sites will increase sales. Universal Cross-Connection Contro l , http://universalccc.com/ , Ben Franklin TechVentures , Bethlehem Ben Franklin Investment: $50,000 Complete software enhancements, and increase sales and customer support for this developer of a software-enabled, automated, cross-connection control administration for water utilities. Many of the 160,000 U.S. water providers face numerous physical infrastructure deficiencies due to antiquated systems or software, including cross-connection control and backflow prevention problems. Circumstances such as firefighting, water main breaks, and power failures can cause polluted or contaminated water to backflow into the drinking water supply, creating health and safety issues. This can cause expensive repairs and/or lead to boil water warnings being issued in communities. UCCCs products allow water providers to protect the water supply and remain in compliance with regulations while remaining cost neutral to the water provider. Ben Franklin announces the following established manufacturer company investments. Ben Franklin provides 1:1 matching funding for work with a college or university partner on technology-based manufacturing innovation in established manufacturers. B. Braun Medical, Inc ., www.bbraunusa.com , Allentown Ben Franklin Investment: $23,000 University Partner: Lehigh Universitys Enterprise Systems Center Complete development of a decision support tool that addresses and analyzes alternatives to assist in optimizing B. Braun's fluids products supply chain network. B. Braun manufactures and supplies disposable medical devices and provides medical services products worldwide. Effort Foundry, Inc. , www.effortfoundry.com , Bath Ben Franklin Investment: $25,000 University Partner: Lehigh Universitys Enterprise Systems Center Implement improved production methods and product tracking capabilities at this supplier of high-integrity steel castings for the pump, power generation, and military industries. These technology upgrades will shorten lead times and reduce costs. Freshpet, Inc ., www.freshpet.com , Bethlehem Ben Franklin Investment: $25,000 University Partner: Lehigh Universitys Enterprise Systems Center Develop and implement a statistical process control system for controlling weight on two proprietary production lines, and evaluate and recommend an improved process for preparing ingredients prior to cooking. Freshpet manufactures all-natural and refrigerated food products for dogs and cats. Heyco Metals, Inc . , www.heycometals.com , Reading Ben Franklin Investment: $18,750 University Partner: Lehigh Universitys Enterprise Systems Center Analyze business processes and requirements, and then select a new Enterprise Resource Planning system. Heyco Metals is a precision mill that produces copper and copper alloy coil and stainless steel strip to exacting specifications, primarily for electronic connectors and consumer electronics. PhytogenX, Inc . , www.phytogenx.com , Morgantown Ben Franklin Investment: $25,000 University Partner: Lehigh Universitys Enterprise Systems Center Select and implement an Enterprise Resource Planning system at this contract manufacturer for the beauty and skincare industry. The system will support major company growth, including larger batch production levels and improved manufacturing efficiencies that greatly enhance throughput. Rea.deeming Beauty, Inc. , www.beautyblender.com , Bethlehem Ben Franklin Investment: $25,000 University Partner: Lehigh Universitys Enterprise Systems Center Continue to implement improved operational processes at this manufacturer of the award-winning elliptical-shaped beautyblender makeup applicator. Rea.deeming supplies high-quality products for the beauty, professional, and retail markets. This work will allow the company to expand its product line and leverage its enterprise resource planning system to optimize the supply chain and enhance its ability to meet increases in consumer demand. SOLO Laboratories, Inc., www.sololabs.com , Kutztown Ben Franklin Investment: $19,500 University Partner: Lehigh Universitys Enterprise Systems Center Increase capacity in the current facility and implement process improvements and quality measures to improve and grow this manufacturer of custom prescription orthotics and foot and ankle braces. Vastex International, Inc. , www.vastex.com , Bethlehem Ben Franklin Investment: $25,000 University Partner: Lehigh Universitys Enterprise Systems Center Select a new Enterprise Resource Planning system for this manufacturer of precision screen printing machinery, primarily for the apparel industry. The system will improve the companys top line growth by enhancing customer service and growing its customer base. BFTP also invested a total of $50,000 in business incubators comprising the Ben Franklin Business Incubator Network ( https://nep.benfranklin.org/ben-franklin-business-incubator/ ). With 35 years owning and managing its own incubator, BFTP/NEP was one of the pioneers of business incubation in the nation. The 13-member Ben Franklin Business Incubator Network is among the largest in the world. It brings together incubator managers to exchange ideas and information, work collaboratively, and share guidelines that are in accordance with International Business Innovation Association standards. Through this network, BFTP/NEP leverages its incubator expertise throughout northeastern Pennsylvania. About the Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania The Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania (BFTP/NEP) creates and retains highly paid, sustainable jobs by investing in and linking companies with experts, universities, follow-on funding, and other resources to help them prosper through innovation. It is part of a four-center economic development initiative of the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development and is funded by the Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority. BFTP/NEPs strategy encompasses three key areas: developing and growing early-stage technology-oriented companies; supporting established manufacturers as they creatively apply new technology to help them succeed globally by producing better, cheaper, and faster; promoting an innovative community-wide infrastructure that supports Pennsylvanias business technology ecosystem. Since beginning operations in 1983, BFTP/NEP has helped to create 18,056 new jobs for Pennsylvania workers and to retain 31,840 existing jobs, to start 511 new companies, and to develop 1,733 new products and processes. Since 2007, BFTP/NEP clients have generated $1.5 billion in follow-on funding. The Pennsylvania Ben Franklin Technology Partners network has returned $3.60 to the state treasury for every $1.00 invested in the program. arvs212 wrote: it would be great if you could give me some more information regarding IIFT accepting GMAT scores...and the course structure.. FAQ: Placements: Mode of Admission Important Dates: Pattern of Admission Test Contacts: Seems like GMAT score is acceptable only in case of Foreign Nationals and NRIs. In case you get more information on whether GMAT scores are acceptable for Indian Nationals, please share with all of us. IIFT admissions dates for "MBA-International Business" has been announced. The advertisement is available in today's (i.e. 18-Aug-09) Times of India, as well as on http://www.iift.edu/iift/courses_mba.asp For General/SC/ST/PH/OBC (non-creamy layer) candidates:On the basis of Written test, Group Discussion and Interview.For Foreign National/NRI/Children of NRI:On the basis of General Management Aptitude Test (GMAT)Tuition Fee (for 2010 batch):Approx Rs.3,50,000/- p.a.Last date for receipt of application : FIRST WEEK OF SEPTEMBERWritten examination: FOURTH SUNDAY OF NOVEMBER 10.00 am 12.00 noonCommencement of Programme: FIRST WEEK OF JULYThe admission test is a multiple choice objective type written test (in English). Duration of the test is two hours. It normally consists of around 200 questions covering ENGLISH COMPREHENSION, GENERAL KNOWLEDGE & AWARENESS, LOGICAL REASONING AND QUANTITATIVE ANALYSISNew Delhi Campus AddressIIFT BhawanB-21, Qutab Institutional AreaNew DelhiTelephone+91-11-26965124+91-11-26965051Fax+91-1126853956Kolkata Campus AddressJ-1/14 (7th-9th Floor),EP & GP Block, Sector-VSalt Lake City,Kolkata-700091Telephone+91-33-2357 2854Fax+91-33-2357 2855Hope this will help. Grand Old Partisan honors Daniel Polsley, born this day of 1803 in what is now West Virginia. After editing a Whig newspaper for twelve years, he became a prominent attorney and farmer. Reacting to Virginia's declaration of secession, he and other Unionists gathered at Wheeling to establish a state administration loyal to the U.S. government. At a second convention, in June 1861, delegates elected a governor, Francis Pierpont, and for lieutenant governor, Polsley. President Abraham Lincoln recognized this 'Restored Government' and the GOP-controlled 37th Congress admitted its two Senators and three Representatives. Governor Pierpont remained in office for the next seven years, but Polsley resigned in 1863. He soon was elected a state judge. In 1866, this patriotic Republican won a term in the U.S. House of Representatives. He voted for the GOP's 14th Amendment, extending civil right protection to all Americans. Here is a Video Version of this article on YouTube: https://youtu.be/2XhiKRNzS64 Michael Zak is author of Back to Basics for the Republican Party, a history of GOP civil rights achievement. Each day, his Grand Old Partisan blog celebrates more than sixteen decades of Republican heritage. And, see Speech Raves for audience feedback from his presentations in thirty-one states so far. Clarence Thomas cited Back to Basics for the Republican Party in a Supreme Court decision. Buy the book at Amazon See www.youtube.com/q?v=IzxKCiXc5Qc for a brief video of a Texas Republican praising Back to Basics for the Republican Party. "This is the most amazing book about politics that I have ever read. The Overview should be required reading for anyone with even a minor interest in government. The remainder is an enthralling history lesson that I will never forget. For years, we have all been misled about the true nature of the GOP. This is the real deal! Read it and be proud!" "Michael Zak wrote the definitive history of the GOP." "Back to Basics for the Republican Party is the most significant contribution to the Republican Party in the last twenty years apart from Ronald Reagan." "Back to Basics for the Republican Party is more important to our party now than ever before." and "one of the best books I ever read" IceViking strongly condemns physical attacks and harassment directed towards them. They are also often victims of the Islamic idea. This is true when it comes to the cruel and tragic treatment of Muslim women and children when it is in accord with the Koran, the example of Mohammed and Islamic law, Sharia, which may be applied regardless of where a Muslim male may find himself in the world, whether in a Muslim or non-Muslim country. However, in no way, shape or form should one judge all Muslim men because of what is in Islamic scripture and what constitutes the Islamic law, Sharia. "Race", ethnicity or basically anything that you are "merely" born with should never be a basis for bigotry and discrimination. Apostates from Islam have been executed for 1400 years in accord with the Koran and the words and actions of the Islamic prophet Mohammed and Islamic law, Sharia. They should be lovingly helped. Furthermore, approximately as many as 11,000,000 Muslims may have been killed by other Muslims since 1948. To quote the website The Religion of Peace (TROP), edited by Glen Roberts: While it may be safe to say that a true Muslim would not intentionally kill another true Muslim ( 4:92-93 ), the Quran places no such value on the life of a Muslim who is not true. Consider verse 9:73 : Strive hard against the disbelievers and the hypocrites, and be harsh against them, their abode is Hell. The Arabic for strive hard uses the same root as Jihad - and the context in this sura is holy war (see v. 86 and 91). Thus, there are two distinct classes of people that a true Muslim is to target with harshness: disbelievers and hypocrites. A disbeliever obviously refers to a non-Muslim, so a "hypocrite" must be a Muslim of some sort. In fact, hypocrites are those who say they believe, but do not act as they should. In other words, they are "Muslims", but not true Muslims. They will go to hell just as unbelievers do, and so, according to the verse, their lives matter for naught. The same sura says that a hypocrite can be recognized not just by lack of piety (reluctance to follow Sharia), but by fear of death ( 9:56 ), reluctance to fight ( 9:44-45 ) and even friendliness toward non-believers ( 9:67 ). A true Muslim would thus be a pious person who relishes martyrdom, is eager to fight, and shuns non-believers. Even the Quranic passage that warns against killing "believers" ( 4:88-94 ) is more complicated than it first appears. It never says that a true Muslim is incapable of killing another Muslim, just that it should not be done. In fact, it makes exceptions for the unintentional killing of "believers" in war and mandates the killing of "hypocrites." Verse 17:33 says, "Do not kill anyone which Allah has forbidden, except for a just cause" . The greatest cause of all is that Islam be superior ( 9:33 ), which is exactly what Islamic terrorists say is their goal. Thus believing Muslims are allowed to be collateral damage in the war on unbelievers. There is sadly a phenomena that I`ve noticed in Sweden and elsewhere of people using true facts about Islamic doctrine and history as a cover for all sorts of irrational targeting of Muslims, ranging from xenophobia and racism to verbal abuse and physical attacks. This is strongly condemned by this website and does not in any way serve serious criticism of orthodox Islam and other important work. It`s also important that one tries to express oneself in a civilized way. Words matter. In this bloggers humble opinion the root cause of the problem is the ancient doctrine of orthodox Islam. In simple terms a non-Muslim is a Kafir. " The Koran defines the kafir and kafir is not a neutral word. A kafir is not merely someone who does not agree with Islam, but a kafir is evil, disgusting, the lowest form of life." An exact quote, as stated in the writings of Dr. Bill Warner in the article "Kafir" at http://www.politicalislam.com/kafir . In the perfect Koran (Allah`s direct and literal word as revealed to Mohammed through the angel Jibril), Muslims are told 89 times to emulate Mohammed in all ways (see Koran 33:21 for instance). Mohammed`s example, the Sunna, is found in the Hadith (stories of what Mohammed said and did) and the Sira (biographies of Mohammed). Islamic law, Sharia , is directly derived from these unchanging scriptures. It is based on the Koran`s numerous commands to obey Allah and obey the Messenger, that is Mohammed (see Koran 4:59 for instance). Islam is Sharia. Sharia is Islam. It is a capital crime for Muslims to deny Sharia in any way. A Muslim is someone who submits to Islam and submitting to Islam means obeying the Sharia of Allah. Sharia law includes pronouncements for both Muslims and non-Muslims (Kafirs). Islam is a "complete way of life", a "complete code of life", a "complete system of life". Islam is not just a religion but also a comprehensive ideology. Islam is a supremacist ideology. Islam is a totalitarian and imperialistic ideology akin to Communism and Nazism. Islam is a civilization. Islamic law, Sharia, is a manual for a civilization. Islamic law, Sharia, governs every aspect of life. It has a say about every conceivable human act . Non-Muslims are morally and legally inferior in Islam. Women are morally and legally inferior in Islam. The History of Jihad: From Muhammad to ISIS by Robert Spencer is the first one-volume history of jihad in the English language and a great book on the topic. Allah guarantees Paradise to those who "kill and are killed" for him (Koran 9:111). A hadith depicts a Muslim asking Muhammad: "Instruct me as to such a deed as equals Jihad (in reward)." Muhammad replied, "I do not find such a deed." (Bukhari 4.52.44) Muhammad himself said: I have been commanded to fight against people so long as they do not declare that there is no god but Allah, and he who professed it was guaranteed the protection of his property and life on my behalf except for the right affairs rest with Allah. (Sahih Muslim 30) Freedom of speech, human rights, democracy, science and human lives are all at stake in the fight against the Islamic Jihad. As of August 26th, 2021 Yahoo India will no longer be publishing content. Your Yahoo Account Mail and Search experiences will not be affected in any way and will operate as usual. We thank you for your support and readership. For more information on Yahoo India, please visit the FAQ At least nine such activists were arrested in January 2018 and accused of spying on IRGC missile sites. Monga Bay notes that the charges stem, at least in part, from environmental researchers use of camera traps to monitor the critically endangered Asiatic cheetah. However, the IRGC and the Iranian judiciary eventually pushed most of the relevant cases to their extreme, charging five of the detainees with a vaguely-defined crime that can lead to the death penalty. In addition, one of the prisoners, Kavous Seyed-Emami, died under suspicious circumstances in February, and his family has vigorously disputed the regimes claim that he committed suicide in his cell. The Monga Bay article reiterates information that was first made public in October regarding the charges of spreading corruption on Earth. It underscores that cases against the five people in question were built gradually, over the course of approximately nine months, during which time they were afforded no access to legal representation or other rights of due process. The situation has accordingly been subject to wide-ranging international condemnation, which has no doubt been amplified by the fact that the Seyed-Emami was an Iranian-Canadian dual national and thus was an example of the Iranian regimes violence not only against environmentalists and the activist community but also against supposed sources of Western infiltration of Iranian society. The two repressive phenomena may be connected in more ways than one. The IRGC and other hardline entities have exhibited particular paranoia about that infiltration in the wake of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which some Iranian officials viewed as an abandonment of the regimes ideological opposition to the West. The mass arrest of environmental activists thus coincided with a broader crackdown on dissent and criticism of existing government, and some have suggested that it was also retribution for criticism of IRGC disregard for the environmental impact of new missile installations. Tehran has naturally targeted the US and Israel with accusations that they have spied on missile sites or otherwise attempted to undermine the missile program. Soon after the nine environmentalists were arrested, Hassan Firuzabadi, a military adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei made the bizarre claim that foreign intelligence agencies had used lizards to attract atomic rays and identify the locations of uranium mines. The claim has no basis in science, but it hinted at Tehrans embrace of conspiracy theories that would allow knowledge of wildlife to be portrayed as evidence of espionage. Of course, the regimes attempts to expose foreign infiltration are often much more straightforward. In recent years, several Western nationals have been detained by regime authorities, apparently on the basis of nothing other than their connections to foreign countries that Tehran describes as enemies. At least five persons with American citizenship or permanent resident status are currently detained in Iran. And while none of them are known to have joined the environmentalist detainees in facing down the death penalty, this does not mean that the American prisoners are safe. One of those prisoners has received renewed attention from Western media in recent days because of the risk that continued detention poses to his life. On Monday, NPR ran a story on Babak Namazis efforts to secure the release of his 82-year-old father Baquer, whose health has been deteriorating since he was first imprisoned nearly three years ago, and who was recently diagnosed with epilepsy. Babaks brother and Baquers other son, Siamak Namazi is also being held in Iran and also holds American citizenship. Both men are serving a 10-year sentence, but Baquers advocates were quick to warn that he was unlikely to serving that term in the harsh conditions of Irans Evin Prison. Baquer is reportedly on medical furlough as a result of life-threatening health conditions, but Iranian authorities have a long track record of providing prisoners with just enough medical attention to save their lives, only to return them to their cells before they have had a chance to fully recover. Over the long term, such practices effectively constitute a way of gradually and informally executing certain political prisoners, without adding to the statistics regarding executions in what is already the worlds most prolific user of the death penalty, on a per-capita basis. Of course, by charging five environmentalists with a capital offense, the Iranian regime has recently demonstrated that it is not shy about bolstering the number of official executions. Accordingly, the Iran Human Rights website issued a report last week warning that the Islamic Republic might be on the verge of a new wave of executions following an eight day period during which at least 15 people were put to death. On the eighth day, three executions were carried out in public in the city of Shiraz, in a demonstration of the regimes ongoing disregard for criticism and international standards of criminal justice. The poster quotes part of a sentence from Zarifs interview with the Guardian newspaper on November 19, where he claimed that Iran would survive and thrive despite US sanctions on Iran, whilst also admitting that the Iranian people are suffering. Critics complained that the Rouhani administration was cherry-picking comments and ignoring the fact that many people in Iran are in poverty, while also pointing out that many regime officials are so privileged that they cannot even fathom the realities for the Iranian public. Iranian journalist Mehdi Afrousmanesh pointed out in a sarcastic tweet that the children of the ministers are not, as most young and educated Iranians, struggling to find a job, but rather getting high-ranking jobs because of their family name something sometimes hidden by the officials or even living in the lap of luxury, not having to work. Many Iranians have even taken to social media to tweet about the recent earthquake in Kermanshah, using the Persian hashtag We Shall Survive, to point out that the Iranian Regime incompetence is killing people. One Twitter user, with the alias Haj Fidel, wrote: Thanks to the governments prudence, the people have been living in tents since last year to make sure that casualties would be limited to a minimum in the next jolt. This was a reference to last Novembers earthquake, which left hundreds dead and thousands injured and homeless; a problem not yet rectified. Many more pointed out that the Iranian Regimes lofty goals of annihilating Israel and taking on the US have been diminished into mere survival in the course of just a few months, while others celebrated that this showed that the Regime would likely fall soon. These anti-regime comments only continued to rise as the days went on, despite a desperate attempt by the Regime to cover up Zarifs error. This shows us in the West that the Iranian people are not distinguishing between different factions of the Regime, but rather pointing out that the whole thing is rotten to the core. There should be no appeasements of moderates because the Regime has no moderates. The Regime is falling apart and rather than attempt to patch it back together, the world should support the Iranian Resistance and the Iranian people. - President Rodrigo Duterte inaugurated the Bohol-Panglao International Airport - There was a power outage during the speech of President Duterte - The President also announced the resignation of his Peace adviser, Jesus Dureza PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed President Rodrigo Duterte led the inauguration of Bohol-Panglao International Airport (BPIA), the first ever eco-airport in the Philippines. KAMI learned that President Duterte unveiled the BPIA marker and checked out the terminal building. Known as the Green Gateway to the World, the new airport has solar technology for the hot water supply system that prevents the production of 18 tons of carbon dioxide yearly as reported by GMA News. In the middle of the speech of President Duterte, there was a power outage which lasted for around two minutes. The Presidential Security Group immediately surrounded the President. One member was suggesting for the President to wait in the holding area instead. However, President Duterte insisted to stay there. The President also announced that he fired OPAPP Undersecretary Ronald Flores. He also shared that he is sad to accept the resignation of Peace adviser Jesus Dureza. 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 - Arthur Solinap tweeted about his wife Rochelle Pangilinan - According to the actor, Rochelles Instagram and email accounts were hacked - He asked netizens to help them recover the accounts PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed Actor Arthur Solinap took to social media to ask assistance from netizens. KAMI learned that he needed help for his wife, Rochelle Pangilinan. According to his tweet, Rochelles Instagram account and email have been hacked. Pls help! Na hacked IG ni @rochellepangilinan and email. Baka may kakilala kayo from Instagram and Yahoo Phils. Thank you, he tweeted. GMA-7 News reported that the IG photos of Rochelle since May 2015 were deleted. Fortunately, things seem to be back to normal as her recent photos on IG can be viewed once again. 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! Rochelle Pangilinan broke through in showbiz as a member of the Sexbomb Girls. She got married to Arthur Solinap on August 8, 2017 in Tagaytay City. On August this year, the couple announced that Rochelle is pregnant with their first child. Enjoyed reading our story? Download KAMI's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major Filipino news! Filipinos Street Quiz: Philippines tricky questions - can you answer these tricky questions. This game appears simple: you should name the color of the word appearing on the screen. Let us see if you can pass it! on KAMI HumanMeter YouTube channel! Source: Kami.com.ph Alexandra Diaz is a Cuban-American spending her time between Bath, England, Santa Fe, NM, and the rest of the world. She has an MA in Writing for Young People from Bath Spa University and has led various workshops since she was fourteen. As a result of being homeschooled for most of high school, shes fascinated by teenage school life and the drama that occurs in those quarters. One of the reasons she writes is to experience life in someone elses shoes. She is a jenny of all trades having worked as a nanny, teacher, film extra, tour guide, and dairy goat judge (seriously). She currently teaches creative writing and circus arts, though not at the same time. For more information, got to www.alexandra-diaz.com WATCH: Senator Kamala Harris on Farr Nomination: We Must Do Better WASHINGTON, D.C. Today, U. S. Senator Kamala D. Harris, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, spoke out on the United States Senate floor against the nomination of Thomas Farr to be District Judge for the Eastern District of North Carolina. ADVERTISEMENT The way I see it, if its something worth fighting for, its a fight worth having, said Senator Harris. And this fight against Thomas Farr is a fight worth having. Because Mr. Farr is far from what we should accept in a nominee. And I know we can do better. And we must do better. Key quotes from Harris remarks: I always say your voice is your vote and your vote is your voice. And in the recent midterm elections, we saw that there are still powerful forces in our country willing to go to incredible lengths to deny Americans their right to vote Five years ago in Shelby County v. Holder, the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act. Congress is the only body that has the authority to restore and should now, therefore, be taking steps to restore and strengthen the Voting Rights ActWhy? Because the more people who can readily participate in our democracy, the more our government will be responsive to the people we are elected to represent. And yet instead of Congress acting to strengthen access to the ballot, the Senate is considering Thomas Farr for a lifetime appointment to the District Court of the Eastern District of North Carolina. A nominee who has consistently and for decades put limits on the ability of Americans to exercise their constitutional right to vote. Mr. Farrs public comments raise questions about his judgment as well. For instance, he has compared the decision upholding the Affordable Care Act to the Dred Scott and Plessy decisions. Now for a reminder, Dred Scott, a case that said that African Americans could not be citizens. Plessy v. Ferguson, which upheld the constitutionality of segregation. Both now nearly universally considered shameful decisions. The idea that a decision upholding the expansion of healthcare for millions of Americans is remotely comparable to these rulings should be utterly offensive to anyone who knows anything about Americas history. These are statements of an ideologue, not even someone who understands that their interpretation of these rulings should be something that people will, if theyre not careful, rely on. So these are the statements of an ideologue, not an even-handed and unbiased judge. The people of North Carolina deserve betterMore than a quarter of the population covered by the Eastern District is Black. Nearly 27%. Yet there has never been a Black federal judge serving the Eastern District of North Carolina in the courts 146-year history. In 2013, President Obama nominated Jennifer May-Parker, an Assistant United States Attorney and Chief of the Appellate Division of the United States Attorneys office, and she is BlackBut that nomination was blocked. In 2016, President Obama nominated Patricia Timmons-Goodson, a Justice who served on the North Carolina Supreme Court, who is also Black. That nomination was also held up And instead of two highly-qualified women, Senate Republicans want to fill this vacancy with someone who is an anathema to so many of our communities and in particular, communities of color. So I would echo the North Carolina NAACP which said that, If this nomination is confirmed, it represents an historic insult to justice and to the people of North Carolina. Full transcript of Harris remarks: ADVERTISEMENT Mr. President, a key component of our democracy is access to the ballot. The Supreme Court acknowledged in Reynolds v. Sims that the right of suffrage is a fundamental matter in a free and democratic society. Especially since the right to exercise the franchise in a free and unimpaired manner is preservative of other basic civil and political rights. Any alleged infringement of the right of citizens to vote must be carefully and meticulously scrutinized. I always say your voice is your vote and your vote is your voice. And in the recent midterm elections, we saw that there are still powerful forces in our country willing to go to incredible lengths to deny Americans their right to vote. And it is indeed outrageous that some voters in Georgia had to wait 4 hours to vote. And a candidate for governor was the one responsible for overseeing his own election. That Native Americans and their IDs were not accepted at polling places in North Dakota. That nearly 20% of North Carolina early voting locations were closed this year. Five years ago in Shelby County v. Holder, the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act. Congress is the only body that has the authority to restore and should now, therefore, be taking steps to restore and strengthen the Voting Rights Act. Should be taking steps to expand early voting and automatic voter registration. Why? Because the more people who can readily participate in our democracy, the more our government will be responsive to the people we are elected to represent. And yet instead of Congress acting to strengthen access to the ballot, the Senate is considering Thomas Farr for a lifetime appointment to the District Court of the Eastern District of North Carolina. A nominee who has consistently and for decades put limits on the ability of Americans to exercise their constitutional right to vote. Just look at the facts. Mr. Farr defended North Carolinas 2013 voting restrictions law, a law that would have required photo IDs, which disproportionately impacted Black voters. At the same time, they prohibited certain IDs, such as student IDs or public employee IDs. This law also reduced same-day registration and early voting. A law that was so clearly unconstitutional that the Fourth Circuit described the law as targeting Black voters with almost surgical precision. The Fourth Circuit went on to call it the most restrictive voting law North Carolina has seen since the era of Jim Crow. The facts also include that Mr. Farr represented the North Carolina legislature in multiple challenges to its 2011 Congressional and legislative redistricting. This was an attempt to draw Congressional boundaries in ways that disadvantaged Black voters for partisan gain. Those maps were later struck down as unconstitutional and racially discriminatory. Mr. Farr has also repeatedly represented powerful employers against the rights of workers and customers to be treated equally. For example, he represented a rental car company that allegedly imposed additional requirements on Black customers. He also represented a pharmaceutical company against allegations of gender discrimination, hostile work environment, and retaliation. Now, to be clear, attorneys are not charged, nor should they be, with the views of their clients. But when such a significant part of your decades-long record involves defending clients charged with discrimination and defending laws that undermine the right to vote, it is reasonable to question whether that individual can be a fair and impartial judge of similar cases. And Mr. Farrs public comments raise questions about his judgment as well. For instance, he has compared the decision upholding the Affordable Care Act to the Dred Scott and Plessy decisions. Now for a reminder, Dred Scott, a case that said that African Americans could not be citizens. Plessy v. Ferguson, which upheld the constitutionality of segregation. Both now nearly universally considered shameful decisions. The idea that a decision upholding the expansion of healthcare for millions of Americans is remotely comparable to these rulings should be utterly offensive to anyone who knows anything about Americas history. These are statements of an ideologue, not even someone who understands that their interpretation of these rulings should be something that people will, if theyre not careful, rely on. So these are the statements of an ideologue, not an even-handed and unbiased judge. The people of North Carolina deserve better. And lets be clear about who many of these people are. More than a quarter of the population covered by the Eastern District is Black. Nearly 27%. Yet there has never been a Black federal judge serving the Eastern District of North Carolina in the courts 146-year history. In 2013, President Obama nominated Jennifer May-Parker, an Assistant United States Attorney and Chief of the Appellate Division of the United States Attorneys office, and she is Black, and she was appointed to this vacancy, a position Senator Burr had previously recommended her for. But that nomination was blocked. In 2016, President Obama nominated Patricia Timmons-Goodson, a Justice who served on the North Carolina Supreme Court, who is also Black. That nomination was also held up. As a result, this is now the longest judicial vacancy in the federal court system. And instead of two highly-qualified women, Senate Republicans want to fill this vacancy with someone who is an anathema to so many of our communities and in particular, communities of color. So I would echo the North Carolina NAACP which said that, If this nomination is confirmed, it represents an historic insult to justice and to the people of North Carolina. Now I know there are folks who might consider the odds of stopping this nominee and throw in the towel. But the way I see it, if its something worth fighting for, its a fight worth having. If its something worth fighting for, its a fight worth having. And this fight against Thomas Farr is a fight worth having. Because Mr. Farr is far from what we should accept in a nominee. And I know we can do better. And we must do better. I yield the floor. Wednesday, November 28, 2018 No jurisdiction in the United States treats mishandling of entrusted funds - a core ethical responsibility - as leniently as New Jersey. From a recent letter opinion of the Disciplinary Review Board Respondent admitted that his misconduct resulted in the invasion of client funds. Generally, a reprimand is imposed for negligent misappropriation of client funds, even when accompanied by other, non-serious infractions, such as recordkeeping deficiencies, commingling, and failure to promptly deliver funds to clients. So far, so bad Although a reprimand might otherwise be sufficient to address respondents misconduct in this matter, we note that he has been the subject of prior discipline. Specifically, on July 27, 2004, respondent received a three-month suspension for his violations of RPC 1.5 and Rule 1:21-7 (unreasonable fee), RPC 1.7(a) (conflict of interest), RPC 1.8(a) (prohibited transaction with client), RPC 1.8 financial assistance to client in connection with litigation), RPC 3.3(a)(1) (false statement of material fact to a tribunal), RPC 3.4(b) (counseling or assisting a witness to testify falsely), RPC 8.1 (a) (misrepresentation in disciplinary matter), RPC 8.4(d) (conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice), and RPC 1.15(d) (recordkeeping) in connection with a personal injury action. In re Giorgi, 180 N.J. 525 (2004). Thus, the Board. considered, in aggravation, respondents failure to learn from past mistakes, some of which also included recordkeeping violations. For that reason, combined with his egregious and intentional misuse of his attorney trust account in connection with his personal business interests, the Board determined that respondents misconduct warrants a censure. Wow. The New Jersey Supreme Court agreed. The case is In re Giorgi and can be accessed here. (Mike Frisch) https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2018/11/no-jurisdiction-in-the-united-states-treats-mishandling-of-entrusted-funds-as-leniently-as-new-jersey-from-a-recent-letter.html Wednesday, November 28, 2018 The Oklahoma Supreme Court disbarred an attorney for a second encounter with the disciplinary system. The initial circumstances The Respondent was licensed to practice law in the State of Texas in 2004 and was admitted to the Oklahoma Bar in 2011. In 2009, the Respondent moved to Oklahoma and continued to practice law in Texas, having not yet been licensed in Oklahoma. During that period she hired a Texas resident Jeffrey Gipson as a paralegal. The Respondent met Gipson while the two were studying for the Texas Bar Exam. Mr. Gipson had failed to pass the exam and had been performing paralegal work. The Respondent's law office was essentially Gipson's home in Texas and she maintained a P.O. Box in which both she and Gipson had access. In 2012, the Respondent had difficulty communicating with Gipson. In November 2012, while making a trip to the office, she noticed many boxes with her name on them and legal matters initiated by Gipson without her knowledge. She took the boxes and files with her to Oklahoma and spent the next few months reviewing them. By March 2013, she contacted Gipson and terminated their working relationship. The boxes contained many matters where she was representing persons without her knowledge. Some of these unknown clients filed grievances against her. Three of these grievances were the subject of Gaines I... At the time of her probated suspension, the Respondent was licensed to practice law in Oklahoma and the Oklahoma Bar Association instigated a reciprocal disciplinary proceeding pursuant to Rule 7.7 RGDP. In April 2016, this Court issued an order directing the Respondent to show cause in writing why a final order of discipline should not be imposed or to request a hearing. State ex rel. Okla. Bar Ass'n v. Gaines, 2016 OK 80, 7, 378 P.3d 212. The Respondent did not file a response, enter an appearance or request a hearing. Gaines, 2016 OK 80 at 7. This Court held "respondent committed an act of commingling and conversion, neglected legal matters, failed to communicate with clients, failed to supervise an employee that resulted in the unauthorized practice of law, and failed to notify the General Counsel of her disciplinary proceeding." Id. at 15. We also noted there was no indication the Respondent had been complying with the terms of her probation by making monthly restitution payments. Id. at 12. An opinion was issued by this Court on June 28, 2016, and Respondent was suspended from the practice of law in Oklahoma for two years and one day. Id. This Court denied her petition for rehearing on September 12, 2016, and the case was closed the same day. Here there was post-paralegal misconduct We have conducted a de novo review of the record and find clear and convincing evidence that establishes the Respondent engaged in professional misconduct. Unlike Gaines I, it is clear here the Respondent conducted the settlement of the Gallegos sisters' personal injury matter and she received the settlement funds. Initially, she failed to properly supervise her non-lawyer staff person, Gipson, and failed to provide her clients a copy of a written and signed contingency fee agreement. She endorsed the settlement checks herself and cannot recall who endorsed the names of the Gallegos sisters, but she does not dispute the sisters' testimony that they did not endorse the checks nor authorize anyone else to endorse the checks. The funds were deposited into the Respondent's operating account and not her trust account. No funds were delivered to the Gallegos sisters, nor were necessary payments made to all third parties. She settled the Gallegos case and failed to notify her clients and provide them a settlement statement describing the outcome of the case. Over several years the Respondent failed to satisfy the sisters' requests for a status report. At the conclusion of the case she also failed to surrender any papers and property to her clients to which they were entitled. The Complainant's brief alleges the evidence conclusively establishes the Respondent misappropriated her clients' and third parties settlement proceeds. We agree. Sanction The record reflects the Respondent misappropriated her clients' settlement proceeds. The Complainant has acknowledged mitigating factors including the Respondent's lack of experience, stress of being a solo practitioner, and her remorse for the harm she has caused her clients and to the reputation of the legal profession. Nonetheless, the Complainant recommends the Respondent be disbarred retroactively from the effective date of her suspension in Gaines I. Misappropriation of a client's funds warrants the harshest discipline and disbarment is appropriate here. The Respondent is hereby disbarred and her name shall be stricken from the roll of attorneys upon the date this opinion is filed. (Mike Frisch) https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2018/11/the-oklahoma-supreme-court-disbarred-an-attorney-who-had-been-placed-on-probation-and-had-that-probation-revoked-the-initia.html The Anne Frank House Museum was built in the place where the Jewish teenager and her family hid from the Nazis in the Netherlands during World War II. Dutch King Willem-Alexander reopened the museum after it was renovated to receive a new generation of visitors. The museum and the small apartment where Anne wrote about her life in a diary receives 1.2 million visitors each year. Her diary has become the most widely-read story of the Holocaust. Annes story is told through photographs, parts of her diary and video of Holocaust survivors. Now, visitors can listen to a recorded explanation of Annes life. We sometimes say that the Anne Frank House Museum is one of the only museums in the world that doesnt have much more to offer than empty spaces, said museum director Ronald Leopold. He added that the audio explanation gives visitors information without disturbing what I think is one of the most powerful elements of this house: its emptiness. A visit to the museum begins with the history of the Frank family and their escape to the Netherlands after Hitler became the leader of Nazi Germany. It also describes their decision to go into hiding on July 6, 1942. Visitors pass through a bookcase that hid the opening to a small, secret room where Anne, her sister Margot, her father Otto, mother Edith and four other Jews hid until they were arrested by German police on August 4, 1944. The museum also shows the government document approving the deportation of the Franks to Auschwitz concentration camp. From Auschwitz, Anne was later sent to the concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen, where she died in early 1945 at age 15. She was one of the six million Jews who lost their lives under the Nazis. Of those that hid in the secret apartment, only Otto survived the war. Annes diary was returned to him by Miep Gies, a Dutch friend who had helped the Franks. Gies found the diary after the Franks were arrested. Otto describes reading the diary in a film recording. I must say I was very much surprised about the deep thoughts there she had; her seriousness, especially her self-criticism. It was quite a different Anne I had known as my daughter, he said. Since he and Anne had a close relationship, he decided that most parents dont know dont know really their own children. Im Susan Shand. Reuters reported this story. Susan Shand adapted this story for Learning English. Mario Ritter Jr. was the editor. _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story museum n. a building in which interesting and valuable things (such as paintings and sculptures or scientific or historical objects) are collected and shown to the public apartment n. a rented room or set of rooms that is part of a building and is used as a place to live renovate v. to make changes and repairs to (an old house, building, room, etc.) so that it is back in good condition diary n. a book in which you write down your personal experiences and thoughts each day audio adj. related to sound disturbing adj. something that stops someone from doing something or interrupts them concentration adj. related to a large number of people in one place It was spring 2007 in northern Iraq when 6-year-old Saja Saleem ran home from school with good news about her progress in school. She hoped to receive a gift her father had promised her. I found myself spinning into the airafter a loud boom, Saleem, now age 17, told The Associated Press. Saleem lost her eyesight, right arm and an ear in the explosion. The cause was a roadside bomb. Months later, her injuries forced her to leave school after other students criticized her scary face. Saleem recently turned to social media to find help. Eventually, her appeal captured the attention of a doctor who offered free medical care. Other Iraqis have also turned to social media. Emotional videos and pictures of people with war wounds and other disabilities have appeared on Facebook and other social media websites. The 2003 invasion of Iraq by a United States-led coalition and the violence that followed left hundreds of thousands of Iraqis wounded. That number increased with the 2014-2017 conflict against Islamic State forces. Many Iraqis have lost arms or legs. Their suffering continues long after the violence ended. Poor quality medical services, few specialized doctors or medical centers, and poverty have added to the suffering. Those who cannot get treatment at state-supported hospitals and those who find private doctors too costly are turning to social media to make appeals. Appeals are placed on the personal Facebook pages of patients or on the pages of aid groups and people with tens of thousands of followers. Patients describe their condition and provide contact information. Messages are also published on messaging services like WhatsApp and Viber. Saleem and her family remember the explosion that destroyed her life, and the years that followed as they struggled financially to get her treated. When I hit the ground, I felt severe pain all over my body ... I was bleeding, a pool of blood around me ... everything turned dark and I lost consciousness, she said. She spoke from her bed at a Baghdad hospital, where doctors have been performing operations to repair her physical appearance for free. Saleems mother, Khawla Omar Hussein, remembers her daughters shouts when she regained consciousness and realized she had lost her right arm and ear. She woke up screaming, crying: Mammy, mammy, Hussein recalled. Then she asked: Why cant I see...why is everything dark? Hospital workers told her it was the bandages covering her eyes and that she would see after they were removed. When that day came, the doctors told her she had lost both eyes. Nearly two years later, Saleems family tried to send her back to school, where she was accepted only as a listener in class. But that soon ended as other students and teachers said that her face was difficult to look at. I was crying day and night, Saleem said. The state-supported hospital was only able to perform the necessary treatments to save her life. So Saleems family considered plastic and reconstructive surgery for her at a private hospital, but they were unable to pay $7,500 for the operations. Then, in late 2017, her mother made an appeal, leaving pictures of Saleem and other details in a public group on Viber. Days later, Abbas al-Sahan, one of Iraqs best plastic surgeons, offered to treat her for free. Al-Sahan heads the only state-operated hospital for plastic surgery in Iraq. He said that about 40 percent of the monthly operations his hospital preforms between 600 to 850 are for victims of bombings and other war-related explosions, as well as for those wounded in military operations. Saleems family feels she is lucky. Not everyone gets the help they need through social media. Iraqi army Captain Salar al-Jaff was shot in January 2017, during the fight to recapture the city of Mosul from Islamic State. The bullet hit him in the head and left him paralyzed. Since then, he has been treated for the head wound, but not for the paralysis. He sold his car and all his possessions to raise money for three injections a day, each costing $100, to decrease the pain. Al-Sahan heads the only state-operated hospital for plastic surgery in Iraq. He said that about 40 percent of the monthly operations his hospital preforms between 600 to 850 are for victims of bombings and other war-related explosions, as well as for those wounded in military operations. Saleems family feels she is lucky. Not everyone gets the help they need through social media. Iraqi army Captain Salar al-Jaff was shot in January 2017, during the fight to recapture the city of Mosul from Islamic State. The bullet hit him in the head and left him paralyzed. Since then, he has been treated for the head wound, but not for the paralysis. He sold his car and all his possessions to raise money for three injections a day, each costing $100, to decrease the pain. He also appeared in a video asking for help. But as of earlier this week, there have been no offers for free treatment Im Susan Shand. The Associated Press reported this story. Susan Shand adapted it for VOA Learning English. The editor was George Grow. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page. ____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story reconstructive surgery n. an operation done on a body part to return it to a former shape or to change the way that it looks paralyzed adj. to be unable to move ones body scream v. to make a loud cry; to shout consciousness n. the state of being awake and able to communicate with others spin v. to move around and around boom - n. the sound made by an explosion scary - adj. frightening page n. a piece of information; part of a book or other publication A rural area in the western United States has a very unusual school. The school, in the state of Wyoming, has just one student and only one teacher. It is called Notch Peak Elementary. The only student is Corinne Gaby. Her teacher is Lisa Geary. Corrine has no brothers or sisters and lives with her parents on a large ranch in a mountainous area. The school is based on the idea that every child in the U.S. has the right to a public education no matter where that child lives. But no schools existed in the area where Corinnes family moved. The closest public school is at least a one-and-a-half hour drive away. And that road is not considered safely passable during the winter. Her parents also decided that teaching her themselves at home was not realistic. So when Corinne was old enough to start kindergarten, local education officials decided to create Notch Peak Elementary just for her. A new, separate school was not built. Instead, a classroom area was created on the second floor of a horse barn. Large windows keep the room bright, and a wood stove provides heat. The teacher Several teachers were considered for this unusual teaching situation. The first lasted a year. The next left after two. Then came Lisa Geary. In 2016 Geary was teaching at a small elementary school in the neighboring state of Colorado. She was excited to hear about the new position and in time was hired. The other teachers had lived in the horse barn. But for Geary, the school district brought a movable home nearby for her to live in. Still, she says her first year was harder than expected. She faced lonely surroundings and severe weather. In an interview, Geary told VOA her relationship with Corinne also got off to a rough start. It wasnt easy in the beginning [Corinne was] strong-headed, and it was tough. Geary said she became discouraged with their lack of progress. At first, she said it seemed like Corinne did not want to be taught. We really, really struggled that first year, so it wasnt fun for me as a teacher who is waiting for her cup to be filled up. Corinne agrees that the start of teaching was difficult. No, we didnt have a relationship right off. It was hard to start. But over time, Corinne said Gearys teaching methods changed her mind about the unusual one-on-one learning situation. Now in fifth grade and fourth grade, Ms. Geary and I have seen lots of changes in ourselves. Corinne says Gearys teaching has taught her far more than just what happens in the classroom. Shes my everything teacher. Corinne adds: I dont see why any kid would not want any other teacher thats just like her. Geary adds that in every teaching situation, the relationship between teacher and student is very important. She says that her relationship with Corinne is now so close, the two are like family. It really is a really good fit. We know so much about each other, we can finish each others sentences sometimes. Corinne agrees that the two have a much deeper connection than most students and teachers. She describes Geary as the greatest teacher in the galaxy. Well, she gives me chances and she really believes in me. The two also spend a lot of time together outside the classroom. Sometimes Corinne even gets to sleep over at her teachers house, and they both love taking care of the animals on the ranch. The curriculum The day usually starts with English-related studies, followed by math before lunch. Additional studies include science, social studies, art and physical education. Geary says the one-on-one relationship provides the chance for Corinne to learn with a greater depth of knowledge. We go to school from eight to three, and Im often saying, I wish we had more time, she said. However, Geary says she has learned to give Corinne some breaks. When I started teaching Corinne, I was one-on-one with her all the time, and Im in her face, all the time. She says she had to learn to pull back a little from the teaching to give Corinne time to regroup. The current situation will likely not continue when Corinne finishes the sixth grade. Geary would have to receive additional training and certifications. She says she sometimes gets sad thinking about this unusual relationship ending. But in the end, she says she just wants to do what is best for Corinne. She believes it will be good for her to get a new perspective in high school and a different teaching environment. But when Geary does leave Notch Peak, no one expects a permanent goodbye. I will always be connected to Corinne, she says. Even after I leave the 6th grade, she will always be a part of my life. Ill always be connected. Im Bryan Lynn. Bryan Lynn reported this story for VOA Learning English, with additional reporting from the Associated Press. Kelly Jean Kelly was the editor. What are your thoughts on this very unusual school situation? Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page. ________________________________________________________________ Quiz - Rural US School Has Just One Student, One Teacher Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz ___________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story ranch n. large farm where animals are kept barn n. large building on a farm where crops or animals can be kept discouraged adj. having lost \confidence or enthusiasm for something galaxy n. a large group of stars held together in the universe bond n. an interest, experience, or feeling that makes two people feel connected certification n. proof or document proving someone is qualified for a particular job, or that something is of good quality perspective n. a certain way of viewing things that depends on ones experiences Lawmaker Agnes Lam has asked the government to increase Macaus real estate information transparency, according to Lams written inquiry to the government. Lam first pointed out that the collection of real estate statistics from the Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC) currently concentrates on the average price per square foot. However, it seems there is a gap between the estimated property price and the bearable capability of the property price of the residents. The government could refer to some international reports and could also launch a median indicator of property prices, which is more reflective of the actual situation rather than the average price. [] In addition, according to local scholars, in other places, there are so-called property price estimates which are provided for the buyers reference. If the government has conditions, it could collect the concerned information and indicators, said Lam. In addition, Lam asked the government two questions. The first was about the kind of plans and the timetable for the finance and economy secretariat aiming at continuously enhancing Macaus real estimate information transparency and at improving Macaus overall statistical work. In the second question, Lam asked if the government will refer to other regions experience and thus add some specific real estate statistics indicators, such as the median price, the valuation, and the index of popularity of a property, the market return rate, [] in order to help local residents [who are interested in buying a property] make rational home purchase judgments. Apple is launching a new program designed to address the technology industrys 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 companys 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 Apples technology jobs in 2017, according to the companys latest breakdown. Thats only a slight improvement from 20 percent in 2014, despite the companys pledge to diversify its workforce. The idea behind the new camp is to keep women interested and immersed in the field, said Esther Hare, Apples senior director of world developer marketing. Apples training camp is a great step forward, said Lorrain 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 its not clear how much of a dent Apples new program will make. Google also offers training for girls and women pursuing careers in technology, but its program hasnt done much to diversify the workforce so far. Women were hired for nearly 25 percent of Googles 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 havent 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 isnt 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. Michael Liedtke, San Francisco, AP A scale model of a flying drone-car mashup has driven and hovered across an Amsterdam exhibition hall, 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 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 Tuesday at the Amsterdam Drone Week convention. Just dont 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. Japanese police probe after 7 bodies found in village Japanese police investigated yesterday a suspected mass murder in a remote mountain village after six bodies five people from one family and an acquaintance were found at a farmhouse. A sixth family member apparently jumped or fell from a nearby bridge and was found hours later. Police said they are investigating if the killings resulted from a family dispute. Miyazaki prefectural police said officers found the bodies Monday after a relative of the family contacted them, saying his calls had gone unanswered. The bodies were lying in pools of blood at multiple locations in the house. Police found a blood-stained machete that they believe was used in the killings, Kyodo News agency reported. Greed motivated a Hong Kong businessman to line the pockets of government officials in two African nations bribes intended to land lucrative business deals and oil rights for a Chinese energy conglomerate, federal prosecutors told a jury yesterday [Macau time]. But a defense attorney for Dr. Chi Ping Patrick Ho argued that the multimillion-dollar payments were both charitable and aboveboard, and that the conglomerate received nothing in return. This is a bribery case with no bribe, the attorney, Benjamin Rosenberg, said in his opening statement. 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 said. 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 defense team agreed before trial that it will not try to argue the U.S. brought the case against Ho, a former home affairs secretary in Hong Kong, as part of a broader campaign against China, or that the timing of the prosecution was part of a broader political agenda. Prosecutors said Ho gained access to prominent officials through his role leading a nongovernmental organization 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. Running an NGO allowed the defendant to pass himself off as a humanitarian, Paul Hayden, a U.S. Justice Department trial attorney, 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 USD2 million 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 testify against Ho under a nonprosecution 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. Testimony begins Tuesday morning before U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska. Jim Mustian, New York, AP The government has granted the taxi industry approval to charge an additional fee of five patacas for taxis that provide services to the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge Macau port. A Chief Executive order was published in the Official Gazette on Monday announcing the approval. Passengers who request taxi services to the Cotai Frontier Port will also be charged the extra five patacas. Currently, passengers are charged an extra five patacas for taxi services to Macau International Airport, Taipa Ferry Terminal and the University of Macau Hengqin campus as compensation for the time and fuel expended when providing services to these locations. The additional fee policy will now be applied to the HKZMB as a measure to encourage taxi drivers to provide services at said location. Additionally, on Saturday it was announced that HKZM Bus (a shuttle bus service operator on the HKZMB) had implemented a restriction measure in the hopes of balancing the number of passengers using the shuttle bus services at different times of the day. Soon after the bridges opening, in October, the bus company complained about the large number of group tours consisting of mainland seniors who were taking advantage of fare discounts to visit the bridge, enter Hong Kong in the morning and return to Zhuhai during the evening. The restriction limits the online sale of tickets to avoid having large numbers of passengers using the service during a certain period. On the second day of the policy address for the Secretariat of Economy and Finance, the cascade of questions to Lionel Leong continued as in the previous day, when 18 out 30 lawmakers that registered to speak been able to address their questions. Similarly to the first day of Leongs presentation at the Legislative Assembly (AL), there were more questions than answers yesterday, with many lawmakers showing disappointment for the flat answers of the Secretary and his team or, in some cases, the complete disregard of questions. Ng Kuok Cheong was one those who found several of his questions unanswered, including several that sought to clarify a suggestion by Leong that the government would start work on the universal extension of the minimum wage, currently in force only for building management, cleaning and security staff. Despite Ngs insistence and doubling-down on unanswered questions from the previous day, the lawmaker could not get a clear answer from Leong on the topic. Another of the topics raised by Ng was the Trade Union Law that has been proposed and rejected nine times at the AL, the last time about one year ago. Ng wanted to know the status of the work towards developing the bill. Replying to Ng on that matter was not the secretary but a representative of the Labor Affairs Bureau (DSAL), who said only, as we mentioned [one year ago], we proposed to launch a study to identify the conditions in which the Trade Union Law could gather the general consensus. [] The public tender on this study has been done already and we are now waiting for the outcome [of it] to present it to the CPCS [Standing Committee for the Coordination of Social Affairs]. To recall, the DSAL announced in late-January that the study would last for a total of 540 days. It has been assigned to the Association of Political Economic Studies of Macau. Ng also questioned Leong in relation to the growing number of non-resident workers, specifically performing duties at the gaming concessionaire companies. According to Ng, the number of these workers has been growing exponentially, now accounting for over 30 percent of the total staff in almost all gaming companies. We most control this! the lawmaker exclaimed. We need to bring this topic to the licensing renewal. We need to establish rules that state that the concessionaires must keep a maximum ceiling below the 30 percent [mark] and make them comply with that, urged Ng. Leong merely replied that the government keeps such data on record and could provide it to the lawmaker should he want to review it. Another of the questions barely answered by the Secretary came from lawmaker Song Pek Kei, who enquired about the planning of the government in face of challenges brought about by the trade war between China and the U.S. Leong said that the government is prepared and has contingency plans, although he declined to provide details. Replying to several lawmakers on the topic of the Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) scandal and on the criteria used to grant residency via investment, acting president of IPIM Irene Lau said, we have optimized the criteria using as reference the practices of neighboring regions and others. We also listened to several associations and different bodies including the Talent Development Committee. We have now a more suitable criteria, she added, that would lead to the creation of a new regime for the attribution of residency via investment. However, lawmaker Ella Lei found the response problematic, interjecting that Macau does not need a new regime for the attribution of residency. She claimed that the number of non-resident workers is already sufficient to solve the lack of manpower in some areas. We do not need to have this concern anymore, she said, adding that the policy of employment and residency attribution must be one. Vacant housing units not a big deal, says govt The issue of vacant housing units that are left off the rental market is, according to the government, not as big an issue in Macau as it is in Hong Kong. Financial Services Bureau Director Iong Kong Leong made the comment yesterday at the Legislative Assembly (AL) in reply to a question raised by lawmaker Song Pek Kei. Song had addressed the plenary to ask if the government had the intention to accept the proposal made by several lawmakers including herself to apply a special tax to housing units that are vacant and not in the rental market, similarly to a policy in neighboring Hong Kong. We believe that the percentage [of vacant houses] is not that high [as in Hong Kong], replied Iong, adding that he does not believe the issue has a significant impact on the local property market. According to figures cited by Iong, as of June 2018 there were about 10,000 housing units considered vacant from a total of 187,000. From these, 5,711 are house built before the year 2000, so they are mostly second-hand houses, not new and in need of some repair, he said. Nevertheless, the DSF head acknowledged that the government is aware and following up on this topic and on the impact of the measures [adopted in Hong Kong]. For the time being the Macau government believes the enforcement of such a rule in Macau could cause some problems. One of the difficulties is on how to classify [a house as vacant]. We believe that people have different opinions and we need to get consensus from society. We are planning to open a public consultation on this matter, Iong concluded. Leong complemented the answer of his subordinate by adding that the prices [of housing] has more to do with supply and demand. The most important is to control the supply and we need to focus on having enough supply [in the market] not just in private houses but also in public housing. A member of the Uighur minority yesterday [Macau time] detailed torture and abuse she says she experienced in one of the internment camps where the Chinese government 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 Uighurs to promote what the government calls ethnic unity in the countrys far west. 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 Uighur, 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 Uighur 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. Chinese authorities have denied that the internment camps exist but say petty criminals are sent to employment training centers. The State Department estimates that since April 2017, the Chinese government has detained 800,000 to possibly more than 2 million Uighurs, 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. Maria Danilova, Washington, AP A rights group that works to protect tribal people has urged Indian authorities to abandon efforts to recover the body of an American who was killed by inhabitants of an island where outsiders are effectively forbidden by Indian law. The group, Survival International, said the islanders could be exposed to deadly diseases if rescuers set foot on North Sentinel Island, where John Allen Chau was killed earlier this month. Chau traveled to the island by paying fishermen to smuggle him. The fishermen told authorities they saw the Sentinelese bury Chaus body on the beach. Notes that Chau left behind say he wanted to bring Christianity to the islanders. Indian officials have traveled repeatedly in recent days near the remote island but have not set foot on it. Scholars believe the Sentinelese are descendants of Africans who migrated to the area about 50,000 years ago and 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. Survival Internationals director, Stephen Corry, said in a statement yesterday [Macau time] that any efforts to recover the body would be incredibly dangerous for both Indian officials and the Sentinelese, who face being wiped out if any outside diseases are introduced. 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, Corry said. He said the body of Chau should be left alone as should be the Sentinelese. He was critical of Indians relaxation of controls over visitors to such islands. The weakening of the restrictions on visiting the islands must be revoked, and the exclusion zone around the island properly enforced, he said. He said the islanders should get the chance to determine their own fate. All uncontacted tribal peoples face catastrophe unless their land is protected, he said. An Indian police official earlier said they do not want to disturb the islanders existence. They are a treasure, said Dependera Pathak, director-general of police on the Andaman and Nicobar island groups. We cannot go and force our way in. We dont want to harm them. 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. Indian officials said earlier that they were consulting anthropologists to see how they can approach with a friendly gesture. They watched the Sentinelese from a distance in recent days. On Saturday the tribesmen were armed with spears and bows and arrows, but did not attempt to shoot them at the authorities. AP South Koreas top public prosecutor apologized yesterday over what he described as a botched investigation into the enslavement and mistreatment of thousands of people at a vagrants facility in the 1970s and 1980s nearly three decades after its owner was acquitted of serious charges. The remarks by Prosecutor General Moon Moo-il were the governments first formal expression of remorse over one of the worst human rights atrocities in modern South Korea. They add pressure for parliament to pass legislation to start a deeper inquiry into what happened at the now-closed Brothers Home, whose owner was exonerated from serious charges amid an obvious cover-up orchestrated at the highest levels of government. The past government created a directive that had no base in laws and used state power to detain citizens at the Brothers Home confinement facility with the disguised purpose of protecting them; more than that [inmates] were subjected to forced labor, while experiencing brutal violence and other harsh violations of their human rights, Moon said, stopping several times during his statement while appearing to hold back tears. I accept with a heavy heart the results of our committee [on past cases] that the prosecution then caved into pressure from above and closed its investigation prematurely. Even on the charges that were included in the indictment, the defendants werent properly punished during the trials. This was a process that cannot be described as democracy. Moon delivered his apology in a meeting with about a dozen former inmates, most of whom were children when they were snatched off the street by police and city officials and locked up at Brothers Home. They spoke of their experiences at the facility, including slave labor and near-daily assaults, how their sudden disappearance ruined their families, and how they have struggled with their lives since. I have no friends because I couldnt go to school, said Park Sun-yi, who spent more than five years at Brothers Home after being snatched by police at the age of 9. We have no families to go to at Chuseok, she said, referring to the Korean Thanksgiving. No one has been held accountable for hundreds of deaths, rapes and beatings at Brothers Home that were documented by an Associated Press report in 2016 . The AP report was based on hundreds of exclusive documents and dozens of interviews with officials and former detainees, which showed that the abuse at Brothers Home was much more vicious and widespread than previously known. Military dictators in the 1960s to 1980s ordered roundups to beautify the streets, sending thousands of homeless and disabled people and children to facilities where they were detained and forced to work. The drive intensified as South Korea began preparing to bid for and host the 1988 Summer Olympics. Brothers Home, a mountainside compound in the southern city of Busan, was the largest of these facilities and had around 4,000 inmates when its horrors were exposed in early 1987. Kim Yong Won, the former prosecutor who exposed Brothers Home, told AP that high-ranking officials blocked his investigation under direction from the office of military strongman Chun Doo-hwan who feared of an embarrassing international incident on the eve of the Olympics. Death tallies compiled by the facility claimed 513 people died between 1975 and 1986, but the real toll was almost certainly higher. Kims investigation records include transcripts of interviews of multiple inmates who said officials refused to send people to hospitals until they were nearly dead for fear of escape. Kim, now a lawyer, wasnt able to indict Brothers Home owner Park In-keun or anyone else for widespread abuses at the facility and was left to pursue much narrower charges linked to embezzlement and construction law violations and confinement at a construction site in Ulsan where inmates worked. The prosecutor generals apology is an important step toward fully revealing the truth of Brothers Home and compensating the surviving victims, Kim said. Former Brothers Home inmates have received no compensation. They have been calling for a new investigation to establish the governments responsibility more clearly and create a base for compensation. Seouls previous conservative government had refused to revisit the case, saying that the evidence was too old and expressing concerns over financial burdens. But the prosecution has recently been reviewing its handling of Brothers Home and other past cases suspected of human rights violations or abuse of investigation power as it faces greater pressure for reform under liberal President Moon Jae-in. Moon Moo-il, the top prosecutor, last week asked the Supreme Court to re-examine the trial of the late Brothers Home owner. Park In-keun, who died in 2016, had been acquitted in 1989 of charges linked to illegal confinement of inmates but served a short prison term for embezzlement and other relatively minor charges. The court then ruled that Park was abiding by a 1975 government directive that instructed police and local officials to round up vagrants. The Supreme Court has not decided whether to reopen the case. Moons request for an exceptional appeal allows the court to correct grave mistakes in interpretation of law though it cannot impose new punishment on the defendant. If the court accepts the case, a finding that the government failed to protect the constitutional rights of the former inmates could boost their push for compensation. Kim Tong-Hyung, Seoul, AP Norway has voted to reject membership of the European Union in a referendum, for the second time in its history. With 92% of the referendum votes counted the no campaign had a clear margin of 52.4% to 47.6% for the yes vote. Turnout was estimated at 80%. The result is a blow for Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, who has made Norwegian membership of the EU her main political goal for the last four years. It was the people who made the decision, and we as a country have to live with that, she said. Norway first rejected membership of the European Economic Community, as the EU was then known, in 1972. That result, by a similar margin to todays vote, forced the resignation of the government. Mrs Brundtland has ruled out resignation this time, but it remains unclear how she will lead Norway into a non-European future. The leader of Norways Anti-European Union campaign, Anna-Enger Lahnstein, told supporters With this, we have said Yes to Europe and Yes to international solidarity but we dont want to join the Union. The result threatens to leave the country bitterly divided after the closely-fought campaign. Voters in the far north, the stronghold of the no campaign, rejected membership by a margin of 80-20, whereas the capital, Oslo, where a third of voters live, backed membership. The no campaign led consistently in opinion polls throughout the campaign, but last-minute gains by the yes campaigners narrowed the gap and made the result too close to predict. Recent votes for EU membership in fellow Scandinavian countries Finland and Sweden swayed many voters, but even that was not enough to reverse the trend. The yes campaign has centred on the potential for Norway to become isolated if it doesnt join neighbouring EU countries in an era of expansion and change. However, the no campaign argued EU membership would undermine the countrys independence and its control over its rich petroleum and other natural resources. But economists also warn that although Norways oil-dependent economy is strong in the short term, North Sea oil and gas revenues are due to tail off soon and growth is expected to weaken. Courtesy BBC News In context The final result was 52.2% no to 47.8% yes, with turnout a record 88.6%. A poll in 2002, following the introduction of the Euro, suggested the tide had turned in Norway, and more than 50% were now in favour of EU membership. However, there are no imminent plans to reconsider applying. Gro Harlem Brundtland resigned two years after the no vote, after three terms in office. She served as director of the World Health Organisation from 1998-2003. In 2004 she was listed by the British newspaper, the Financial Times, as the 4th most influential European for the last 25 years, behind the Pope, Mikhail Gorbachev and Margaret Thatcher. In May 2004 the EU took in 10 new members, expanding it to 25 member nations, with more under consideration. Syrian government and Russian armed forces have deliberately and repeatedly targeted ambulances in Syria as part of the Assad regime's strategy to destabilise and intimidate through the 'weaponisation of healthcare,' reveals research published in the online journal BMJ Global Health. Half of the ambulances targeted sustained serious damage and/or had to be withdrawn from service, the findings show. Now in its eighth year, the Syrian conflict has taken a heavy toll on medical facilities and health professionals from airstrikes, bombings, shootings, kidnappings and lootings. This is despite the fact that healthcare facilities and the ambulances servicing them are protected under International Humanitarian Law and the Geneva Conventions, and the UN resolution 2286, passed in 2016, condemning attacks on medical facilities and staff. To try and quantify the extent of the damage inflicted on the country's ambulance service, the researchers analysed data from individual reports submitted to the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) throughout 2016 and 2017 and reviewed published research on attacks on ambulances since the start of the war in 2011. Analysis of the SNHR data showed that there were 204 individual attacks involving 243 ambulances in 2016 and 2017. Half (52%) of the vehicles were deliberately targeted. Most attacks occurred in areas with large factions of opposition forces: Aleppo, Idlib, and Damascus. Only 1-2 per cent of the attacks occurred in pro-government areas. Half of the vehicles (49%) were either heavily damaged or had to be withdrawn from service. Only 12 per cent of vehicles sustained mild damage. The principal perpetrators were the Syrian regime (123 incidents; 60%) and Russian armed forces (60; 29%). Air-to-surface missiles and shelling were most often used in the attacks. Cluster bombs, which scatter munitions over a wide area, leaving unexploded remnants in the ground, and barrel bombs-unguided drums filled with metal fragments and explosives with a massive blast radius-are frequently used by Syrian government and Russian armed forces, note the researchers. The high degree of indiscriminate and widespread destruction caused by these bombs will most likely have contributed to the large number of ambulances becoming collateral damage during attacks on medical facilities, they suggest. The use of cluster bombs was banned in 2008 by the Convention on Cluster Munitions, indicating an "intentional disregard for international treaties on medical neutrality by the [Syrian] government," they point out. The review of the published research (18 articles) included the impact of the attacks-care delayed or prevented altogether; blocking and other forms of violence, such as looting; the withdrawal of humanitarian agencies to protect workers; and 'double-tap' attacks, where a location is bombed twice, several minutes apart, with the intention of targeting first responders, including paramedics. "This 'weaponisation of healthcare' turns the essential need for healthcare into a war tactic that aims to destabilise, intimidate, and demoralise," write the researchers. "The intentional, highly destructive and repetitive targeting of ambulances throughout the Syrian conflict has had an immeasurable and devastating impact on the people of Syria and the healthcare system. "As the most dangerous place in the world to be a healthcare provider, no cadre of health worker or health facility is immune to the attacks," they add. Collecting data on attacks on ambulances and pre-hospital providers is challenging, but is nevertheless essential for ensuring that these incidents don't become "usual war-time tactics," insist the researchers. "The UN Security Council and global humanitarian community must do more to protect the sacred space of medical neutrality in conflict and bring harsher punishments to perpetrators of violence against healthcare in Syria," they conclude. Explore further Attacks on healthcare in Syria are likely undercounted: study More information: BMJ Global Health, gh.bmj.com/lookup/doi/10.1136/bmjgh-2018-001003 Microscopic image of tumor cells in which Ezh2 activity is inhibited (red) within a mouse lung and surrounded by immune cells (green). Credit: Michela Serresi, MDC Chess and cancer research have one thing in common: It takes strategy to defeat the opponent. And that's exactly what scientists at the MDC are doing. They are seeking to selectively make only those cancer cells aggressive that would otherwise evade chemotherapyand then lure them into a trap. In chemotherapy, cytostaticssubstances halting cell proliferationprevent cancer cells from growing and induce cellular death. This approach often leads to success but has a number of drawbacks. It has a negative effect on healthy cells, and may also cause significant side effects in some patients. What's more, in the case of very aggressive tumors, some cancer cells usually survive the therapy. "The remaining cancer cells are especially dangerous because they are altered in such a way that physicians often no longer know what type of cancer cells they are dealing with," explains Dr. Gaetano Gargiulo, head of the Molecular Oncology research group at the Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC). This makes it difficult to choose the right substances for further treatment. Being prepared for the opponent's next move In a certain form of non-small cell lung cancer, the chemotherapy frequently results in altered cancer cells that are almost untreatable. Those developing new treatments must keep this possibility in mind. "Like a good chess player, we must think several moves ahead instead of just reacting to the present situation," says Gargiulo. Together with his team and researchers under Professor Maarten van Lohuizen of the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam, he has tested how this might work on mice that were injected with cells of a special form of non-small cell lung cancer. In this form of non-small cell lung cancer, the cancer cells produce large quantities of an enzyme called Ezh2. The enzyme represses a number of tumor suppressor genes, which normally stop cells from multiplying out of control. Agents that inhibit this enzyme and thus reactivate the tumor suppressor genes are currently being tested in clinical studies. "In our mice, this agent initially worked as expected and inhibited the multiplication of tumor cells, thus keeping the cancer in check," says Michela Serresi, the lead author of the publication and team leader associated with Gargiulo's research group. But the researchers had also expected the agent to lose its effect over time. "Interestingly, there always developed an inflammatory situation that in turn supported tumor growth," says Serresi. The remaining cancer cells thus became even more aggressive as a result of the treatment. Making cancer cells aggressiveand then moving in for checkmate This is precisely where the MDC researchers are focusing their efforts. They are intentionally sending the tumor cells down this pathand setting them up for a trap. "Although the cells may be extremely aggressive once they are resistant to the Ezh2 inhibitor, they are dependent on the inflammatory situation," explains Gargiulo. "If we can foresee this development, similar to the way skilled chess players think through the possible moves their opponents might make, and even deliberately force it to occur, we can also selectively combat it." Therefore, in the second step of the therapy, the researchers administered the mice an anti-inflammatory substanceputting the cancer cells in checkmate. However, it is still a long way to go before patients will see benefits from these new treatment strategies. "If we intentionally make cancer cells more aggressive, we have to know exactly what we're doing," says Gargiulo, adding that, for example, it would be necessary to search for biomarkers that enable clinical scientists to clearly predict in which patients this strategy will actually be effective. "We first have to gather sufficient data and experience in the lab before we can even think about testing this treatment strategy on patients," emphasizes Gargiulo. Explore further Proposed cancer treatment may boost lung cancer stem cells, study warns More information: Michela Serresi et al. (2018): "Ezh2 inhibition in Kras-driven lung cancer amplifies inflammation and associated vulnerabilities." Journal of Experimental Medicine. DOI: 10.1084/jem.20180801 Journal information: Journal of Experimental Medicine Michela Serresi et al. (2018): "Ezh2 inhibition in Kras-driven lung cancer amplifies inflammation and associated vulnerabilities." Shanghai (Gasgoo)- BMW Brilliance Automotive Ltd (BMW Brilliance) was recently permitted by the authority to upgrade the existing assembly line of the BMW X3, which will ramp up annual capacity by 40,000 BMW iX3s (the BEV version of the BMW X3) for the automaker, according to local media. The program involves a total investment of RMB1.759 billion. With RMB700 million involved, the company will see the program of expanding the power battery assembly workshop start construction from April next year and be put into operation in May 2022. Once the program completed, an additional capacity of 266,400 sets of power battery pack to be applied in the new BMW 3 Series (code-named G28) will be added to BMW Brilliance on an annual basis. Obviously, BMW Brilliance is speeding up the pace of vehicle electrification. According to the data released by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), the Sino-Germany automaker sold 2,961 NEVs in October and 16,317 NEVs from January to October, the only joint venture that was included in the top 10 car makers by Oct. NEV wholesales volume. It is worth mentioning that BMW Group is the first international carmaker that nabbed a license to deploy ride-hailing service in China. It is a prelude for the Germany premium carmaker to launch ride-hailing services in Chengdu from December 14. Ride-hailing service is now the major market in which NEVs are largely utilized in spite of the less-than-expected EV range and supporting charging facilities. Thus, gaining a qualification to operate ride-hailing service businesses will help BMW Group climb up on a higher level in NEV domain. To help determine if the descendants of Gulf War and post-9/11 veterans are at risk for health effects resulting from the service members' exposure to toxicants during deployment, a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recommends the creation of a health monitoring and research program (HMRP). The committee that carried out the study and wrote the report assessed the available evidence on the reproductive, developmental, and generational health effects related to exposures that may have occurred during the Gulf War and post-9/11 conflicts. While there is a growing base of human and animal evidence on the reproductive and developmental effects of many toxicants of concern, there is a dearth of information on the specific effects of veterans' exposures on their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Almost 700,000 U.S. troops were deployed to the Persian Gulf region during the height of Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm in 1990-1991. The U.S. military engaged in further conflicts in the Middle East following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, with troops stationed in and around Afghanistan and in Iraq. In any war, deployed service members may be exposed to potentially hazardous agents and situationssome intentionally and others unknowingly, the report says. These may include chemicals that are used in everyday civilian life, such as pesticides and solvents, as well as chemical and biological agents, mandatory vaccines, smoke from burn pits and oil-well fires, dust, high ambient temperatures and heat stress, and depleted uranium. Because there was little or no information on specific effects in veterans for many of the toxicants, the committee relied on studies that examined occupational or residential cohorts, who were exposed to some of the same toxicants as Gulf War and post-9/11 veterans were. The committee was unable to determine how relevant the exposures in these non-veteran studies are to those experienced by deployed veterans in terms of the exposure magnitude, duration, frequency, mixtures, and co-exposures. The ability to generalize associations found in such studies to veterans is also limited by differences in population characteristics such as gender, age, ethnicity, and lifestyle. Therefore, such exposures should be studied specifically in active-duty service members and veterans in order to confirm that the associations are valid for those populations. The committee came to more than 50 conclusions in five categories of association between the deployment exposures and reproductive effects, adverse pregnancy outcomes, or developmental effects. No toxicant had sufficient evidence of a causal association between exposure and reproductive or developmental effects, nor did any toxicant have limited/suggestive evidence of no association between exposure and reproductive or developmental effects. Among the conclusions, the committee found sufficient evidence of an association between prenatal exposure to organophosphate pesticides and neurodevelopmental effects; prenatal exposure to particulate matter and adverse pregnancy outcomes, such as low birth weight and preterm birth; and prenatal exposure to benzene and childhood leukemia. In addition, the committee found limited/suggestive evidence of an association between sulfur mustard and reproductive effects in men, and between prenatal exposure to particulate matter and pregnancy-induced hypertensive disorders, and respiratory or neurodevelopmental effects in children. The HMRP would be a collaboration among a number of government and nongovernmental organizations. The report describes a recommended framework for development of an HMRP, including the following priorities, which will be critical to implementing a useful HMRP: The collection, storage, and maintenance of comprehensive baseline and longitudinal data and biospecimens from veterans, their partners, and their descendants; Detailed exposure characterization and assessment during and after deployment; and The development, evaluation, standardization, and interoperability of biomarkers of exposure, susceptibility, and biological effects. "Addressing the priorities outlined in this report will require substantial resources, long-term commitment by the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs and other governmental organizations, and considerable engagement by past, current, and future veterans and their families," said committee chair Kenneth S. Ramos, associate vice president for precision health sciences, professor of medicine, and executive director of the Center for Applied Genetics and Genomic Medicine at University of Arizona. "However, the results that arise from studying generational effects will ultimately be rewarded with new knowledge of veterans' exposures, their reproductive health, and the health of their children and grandchildren. Importantly, the new understanding derived from these investments will be relevant to the health of all Americans now and for future generations." There are numerous considerations that must be addressed to implement a large-scale HMRP, such as financial and human resource costs, the availability and expertise of adequately trained personnel, the time required for project completion, ready access to well-curated data, the maintenance of confidential human health data, ethical considerations for investigations that include parents and children, and the implementation of appropriate health and risk communication strategies between and among organizations and veterans and their families. Given these considerations, a practical approach to exploring generational health effects should leverage ongoing veterans' health research programs, such as the Million Veteran Program and the Millennium Cohort Study, the report says. The costs of designing and conducting an HMRP for any veteran cohort will be considerable, as demonstrated by the cost of similar programs such as the National Institutes of Health's National Children's Study and the All of Us Research Program, the report says. However, the costs of some of the underlying technologiesfor example, whole-genome sequencinghave declined dramatically, and research results from the health monitoring program may translate into significant cost savings for the nation. The study was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are private, nonprofit institutions that provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions related to science, technology, and medicine. They operate under an 1863 congressional charter to the National Academy of Sciences, signed by President Lincoln. For more information, visit nationalacademies.org. A committee roster follows. Explore further Vietnam veterans and agent orange exposurenew report Provided by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Credit: CC0 Public Domain A study has linked babies conceived through a type of IVF to lower birth weight followed by increased growth after birth. The University of Manchester led study of 5,200 IVF children found that singleton babies conceived from fresh embryo transfersused in two thirds of all IVFare associated with lower birth weights, head circumference and length, but then grow more quickly, catching up to naturally conceived children by school age. The team are also monitoring birth weight in IVF babies over a 25-year period, and initial results show that weight seems to be increasing. It may be that recent improvements in IVF technology are responsible, though it's too early to know for sure, say the team. Babies conceived from frozen embryo transfers used in about one third of IVF- have greater weight, head circumference and length at birth and show similar growth to naturally conceived children. "Though the effects are small, they do justify considering using the safest form of IVF treatment where possible, and continuing to monitor the long-term health of these children," said reproductive biologist Professor Daniel Brison who led the study. "Overall IVF babies are just as likely to be born healthy as any other, and the lifestyle choices they make in later life will far outweigh any small effect of low birth weight and altered growth," explained Professor Brison. Using Scottish data, it is the first large-scale study of early growth in IVF children from birth to school age anywhere in the world, and only the second study of health in UK IVF children using the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority register of IVF treatments. The European Union funded study, which involved researchers from the Universities of Manchester and Southampton, is published today in BMC Medicine. Among the headline findings are: The birthweight of babies born from fresh embryo transfer cycles is on average 93.7g less than naturally conceived babies. Babies born from frozen embryo transfers are on average 57.5g heavier. Fresh embryo babies grew faster from birth by on average 7.2g/week but remained lighter by 171g, at six to eight weeks, than normally conceived babies and 133g smaller than frozen embryo transfer babies; who were similar to normally conceived babies. By school entry (four to seven years), weight, length and BMI in boys and girls conceived by fresh and frozen embryo transfer were similar to those in naturally conceived children. Professor Brison said: "We don't yet know why fetal and child growth for children conceived through this form of fertility treatment is affected. "Babies born from IVF appear largely healthy, though the oldest of them, Louise Brown, is still only 40 so we feel there is a duty to monitor this cohort of children for diseases which show up only in later life. "The impact of fresh embryos transfer on birth weight is after all nearly as great as that of maternal smoking in pregnancy. One possible explanation, say the team, is that fetal growth is restricted with fresh embryo transfer because of impaired placental function associated with dysregulated maternal hormones. Freezing embryos, they argue, may also help to preserve them to establish pregnancy later on when the mother's body has recovered from IVF. "But IVF children need not be alarmed: the greatest risk from IVF is multiple pregnancy, and the IVF field and government regulator (HFEA) have worked together to improve this greatly over the last five to 10 years." "The growth of Assisted Reproductive Treatment-conceived children from birth to 5 years: A national cohort study" is published in BMC Medicine. Explore further Frozen embryo transfer leads to larger and heavier babies More information: Mark Hann et al. The growth of assisted reproductive treatment-conceived children from birth to 5 years: a national cohort study, BMC Medicine (2018). Journal information: BMC Medicine Mark Hann et al. The growth of assisted reproductive treatment-conceived children from birth to 5 years: a national cohort study,(2018). DOI: 10.1186/s12916-018-1203-7 The geographic distribution of National Mammography Database (NMD) facilities. NMD is the largest database of mammograms in the U.S. It has 1,087 registered facilities, 370 actively contributing facilities and 584 newly registered facilities. As of April 2018, there are 21,484,196 million mammograms in the NMD, with over 5 million accrued just in the last year. Credit: Radiological Society of North America A new, large-scale study of more than 5 million mammograms found that annual mammography screening beginning at age 30 may benefit women with at least one of three specific risk factors: dense breasts, a personal history of breast cancer or a family history of breast cancer. The study will be presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). Mammography is the standard imaging exam for breast cancer screening. The American Cancer Society says that women should have the choice to get an annual mammogram beginning at age 40 and recommends that all women at average risk should be screened annually beginning at age 45. Some other leading professional groups recommend annual mammography screening beginning at age 40, and RSNA supports this recommendation. However, for younger women, the directives are less clear. "Women under 40 have not been the focus of our attention when it comes to breast cancer screening," said Cindy S. Lee, M.D., assistant professor of radiology at NYU Langone Health in New York City. "Everyone is talking about the 40 to 49 range, and not the 30 to 39 age range. It's difficult to study this group because most women in this age range do not get mammograms, but some of these young women have increased risk for breast cancer and may need earlier and/or supplemental screening." For the study, Dr. Lee and colleagues compared the performance metrics of screening mammography in women between the ages of 30 and 39 with three specific risk factors versus women, age 4049, without these risk factors, using data from the National Mammography Database (NMD), the largest source of screening mammography outcomes in the U.S. The NMD contains information from over 19 million mammograms, including self-reported patient demographics, clinical findings, mammography interpretations and biopsy results. The researchers analyzed data from over 5.7 million screening mammograms performed on more than 2.6 million women over an eight-year period between January 2008 and December 2015 in 150 facilities across 31 states in the U.S. The research team compared screening performance metrics among subgroups of women based on age, risk factors and breast density. Three specific risk factors for breast cancer were evaluated in this study: family history of breast cancer (any first-degree relative regardless of age), personal history of breast cancer and dense breasts. "Current breast risk prediction models incorporate different risk factors, which are weighed differently and can produce different results for the same patient. This complexity can lead to confusion and uncertainty for both doctors and patients," Dr. Lee said. "Our study defined 'increased breast cancer risk' in a simpler and more inclusive way. Any woman with dense breasts, personal history or family history of breast cancer in any first-degree relative is considered to have increased risk." She added that breast density is an important risk factor for breast cancer, but is excluded from all risk models except one. Four performance metrics for screening mammography were calculated for each patient age and risk group: cancer detection rate, recall rate, and positive predictive value for biopsy recommended (PPV2) and biopsy performed (PPV3). Recall rate is the percentage of patients called back for follow-up testing after a screening exam. PPV reflects the percentage of cancers found among exams for which biopsy was recommended or performed. In the under 40 group, some of the women had increased risk either because of dense breasts, family history or a personal history of breast cancer. Overall, women age 30-34 and 35-39 had similar cancer detection rates, recall rates and PPVs. Cancer detection rates were significantly higher in women with at least one of the three evaluated risk factors. Moreover, compared to women ages 40 to 44 at average risk, incidence screening (at least one prior screening examination) of women in their 30s with at least one of the three evaluated risk factors showed similar cancer detection rates and recall rates. "Women with at least one of these three risk factors may benefit from screening mammography beginning at age 30, instead of 40," Dr. Lee said. Explore further Why are women at high breast cancer risk not having supplemental MRI screening? Credit: CC0 Public Domain A team of researchers from several medical institutions in Australia and the U.K. has discovered how long it takes for a LEGO head to pass through the digestive tract of a normal healthy adult human. In their paper published in Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, the group explains their reasons for conducting the research and what they found. Most parents know that despite their best efforts, children often swallow non-food items that later emerge in their feces. Children commonly swallow coinsnext on the list are small toys. Parents often ask doctors how long will it take for the toy to pass through. This is a reasonable question, because if the child can't pass the foreign object, it can cause problems. The researchers therefore set up an experiment to find out just how long it takes for a small toy (in this case, a LEGO head) to pass through the digestive tract of an adult. Children were not used for obvious reasons. In the experiments, six adults (three male, three female) working in the pediatric field were asked to swallow a LEGO head and then to sift through each subsequent bowel movement until they found the tiny toy. Each was also asked to keep a diary regarding their findings as the researchers also wanted to know about factors such as stool softness and how that might impact travel time. It was at this point that the research became a little difficult to swallow, if you will. Each volunteer was asked to rate the softness of their stool samples on a scale known as Stool Hardness and Transitto give themselves a SHAT score. And that was not the end of it: Each of the volunteers was also given a score to describe how long it took for a toy to pass throughthey called it the Found and Retrieved Time (FART) score. In the end, the researchers found that FART scores ranged from 1.14 to 3.04 days, with an average of 1.71 days. Though one individual reported that despite serious effort, he was never able to find the toy in his poo. It is not known if he simply missed it, or if the toy will remain forever lost in his bowels. The researchers acknowledge that it is unclear if the results would have been the same for toddlers. They also acknowledge that they chose not to conduct their efforts as a blind study due to the difficulty the volunteers would have encountered in getting someone else to pore through their poop samples for them. Explore further Fungi found in the guts of healthy adults just travel through More information: Everything is awesome: Don't forget the Lego, Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, DOI: 10.1111/jpc.14309 , onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/jpc.14309 Everything is awesome: Don't forget the Lego, 2018 Science X Network @alextdaugherty President Donald Trump said I dont see the dangers of climate change that were included in a report released by his own administration. Voters in Democratic-controlled Washington state rejected a tax on carbon at the polls earlier this month. And a host of climate-minded Republicans, including Miami Rep. Carlos Curbelo, lost reelection and wont be returning to Congress next year. But a group of lawmakers on both sides see a politically palatable way to tax pollution: give the money collected from polluters back to every American in the form of a dividend. Thats the big idea behind the latest piece of climate change legislation proposed by Florida Democrats Ted Deutch and Charlie Crist and Florida Republican Francis Rooney. The three House members were part of a five-member group that unveiled the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act on Wednesday, a sweeping bill that would tax carbon emissions and return the money raised by the tax to everyone. The goal was to craft a climate proposal that will be a huge leap forward in the way America responds to climate change, Deutch said. In South Florida, climate change is not a political issue. Our hope is with the introduction of the legislation that Congress shows that it can understand that as well. The carbon tax introduced Wednesday is unlikely to become law this Congress, because all bills that arent passed and signed by the president in the next month will expire. But the group of lawmakers see the bills introduction as a starting point for climate change discussions in the coming Congress, where Democrats will control the House while Republicans control the Senate and the White House. More here. Via @jkbjournalist On a muggy October morning in 2007, Miamis top federal prosecutor, Alexander Acosta, had a breakfast appointment with a former colleague, Washington, D.C., attorney Jay Lefkowitz. It was an unusual meeting for the then-38-year-old prosecutor, a rising Republican star who had served in several White House posts before being named U.S. attorney in Miami by President George W. Bush. Instead of meeting at the prosecutors Miami headquarters, the two men both with professional roots in the prestigious Washington law firm of Kirkland & Ellis convened at the Marriott in West Palm Beach, about 70 miles away. For Lefkowitz, 44, a U.S. special envoy to North Korea and corporate lawyer, the meeting was critical. His client, Palm Beach multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein, 54, was accused of assembling a large, cult-like network of underage girls with the help of young female recruiters to coerce into having sex acts behind the walls of his opulent waterfront mansion as often as three times a day, the Town of Palm Beach police found. The eccentric hedge fund manager, whose friends included former President Bill Clinton, Donald Trump and Prince Andrew, was also suspected of trafficking minor girls, often from overseas, for sex parties at his other homes in Manhattan, New Mexico and the Caribbean, FBI and court records show. Facing a 53-page federal indictment, Epstein could have ended up in federal prison for the rest of his life. But on the morning of the breakfast meeting, a deal was struck an extraordinary plea agreement that would conceal the full extent of Epsteins crimes and the number of people involved. Not only would Epstein serve just 13 months in the county jail, but the deal called a non-prosecution agreement essentially shut down an ongoing FBI probe into whether there were more victims and other powerful people who took part in Epsteins sex crimes, according to a Miami Herald examination of thousands of emails, court documents and FBI records. The pact required Epstein to plead guilty to two prostitution charges in state court. Epstein and four of his accomplices named in the agreement received immunity from all federal criminal charges. But even more unusual, the deal included wording that granted immunity to any potential co-conspirators who were also involved in Epsteins crimes. These accomplices or participants were not identified in the agreement, leaving it open to interpretation whether it possibly referred to other influential people who were having sex with underage girls at Epsteins various homes or on his plane. As part of the arrangement, Acosta agreed, despite a federal law to the contrary, that the deal would be kept from the victims. As a result, the non-prosecution agreement was sealed until after it was approved by the judge, thereby averting any chance that the girls or anyone else might show up in court and try to derail it. This is the story of how Epstein, bolstered by unlimited funds and represented by a powerhouse legal team, was able to manipulate the criminal justice system, and how his accusers, still traumatized by their pasts, believe they were betrayed by the very prosecutors who pledged to protect them. Read the series here. ARCHIVED - Spanish government refuses to allow 12 migrants rescued near Libya to be brought to port A dramatic U-turn in government policy since the Aquarius brought 630 migrants to Spain in June The issue of migration into Spain is a hotly debate done at present in the light of the record numbers of Africans making their way across the Mediterranean to the coast of Andalucia this year, but those who oppose any open arms gestures are finding their position challenged by the case of 12 migrants who were picked up by a Spanish fishing boat off the coast of Libya last Thursday. Over the last 6 days the attitude of the Spanish government has been to deny permission for the 12 people, including two children, to be brought to port in Spain, the reasoning being that the safest destination in this case is the nearest, i.e. Libya. But few share this view, arguing that to return the desperate migrants would be to condemn them to death, and Ricardo Gatti, the captain of the Open Arms Vessel which is supplying food and medical attention to the 12, is adamant that Libya cannot be viewed as a safe port for the individuals, even if it does fall into that category for the boat (the Nuestra Madre Loreto, based at Santa Pola in Alicante). It is worth bearing in mind that the United Nations High Commission for Refugees classifies Libya as unsafe for migrants, and all groups dedicated to maritime rescue in the Mediterranean are in agreement. This latest incident certainly represents a dramatic change in attitude by the Spanish government: in June the Aquarius was welcomed to Spain with 630 rescued migrants on board, and since then Spain has offered refuge to three more boats carrying those saved from death in the Mediterranean, but there has been increasing unease with this policy. As a result, solutions have been sought in collaboration with other European nations, and on 15th August it was considered a triumph for the government when another 141 people on the Aquarius were shared out among 6 countries rather than all being brought to Spain. While the debate goes on, the 24-metre Nuestra Madre Loreto remains at sea 100 miles from Tripoli and 120 from Malta, with twice the maximum number of people allowed on board, a storm approaching, and nowhere to sail to. The migrants have by no means found their sea legs and some are unable to keep food down, and it is estimated that both fuel and food will run out in five days. However, Josep Borrell, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, stated on Tuesday that this does not constitute and emergency, explaining that they are still fishing (a claim denied by the crew) and the people on board are being attended to. Image: Ricardo Gatti (Open Arms) Follow Murcia Today on Facebook to keep up to date with all the latest news, events and information in the Region of Murcia and the rest of Spain: https://www.facebook.com/MurciaToday/ article_detail --> Samsung has announced that it will launch support for compatible Samsung smartwatches on its Samsung Pay platform. Speaking at a media briefing in Johannesburg, Samsung Pay Project Lead Philip Henning said that Samsung Pay users will be able to pay for purchases with their Samsung smartwatch in the near future. We will launch this new feature very shortly, Henning said. This added support for wearable payments follows a recent overhaul of the Samsung Pay application and its user interface. Paying with a Samsung smartwatch only supports NFC technology, meaning you will be unable to pay at POS terminals which do not support contactless payments. The following Samsung wearables will be supported on the Samsung Pay platform: Samsung Gear S3 Classic Samsung Galaxy Watch Samsung Gear S3 Frontier Samsung Gear Sport To use Samsung Pay on their smartwatch, users do not need to connect their wearable to their smartphone as they can start up Samsung Pay on their watch by holding the back button for one-and-a-half seconds. After the Samsung Pay app appears, smartwatch users can select their card to complete their purchase. As an additional security measure, the Samsung Pay app on the smartwatch will request the user to enter a PIN if it detects that contact has been broken between the watch and the wearers body. UI changes and in-app payments Henning added that Samsung Pays redesigned user interface offers improved accessibility, adding dedicated Pay and Home buttons in addition to changing the orientation of the virtual card within the app from vertical to horizontal. He also said that Samsungs negotiations with South African banks were progressing, and that support for more banks would be added to the application soon. Samsung Pay now also supports in-app payments, he added. This allows users to make and verify online purchases directly from the Samsung Pay app, although this functionality is exclusive to purchases from the Galaxy App Store for now. The South African Fraud Prevention Service (SAFPS) has issued a statement alerting the public to the dangers of being recruited as a money mule. A money mule is somebody whose bank account is used by another person or entity. This type of fraud is enabled by technology such as biometric identification, and results in the implication of innocent bystanders. People on street corners are recruited as money mules with the promise of quick payments for the use of their banking account, said SAFPS executive director Manie van Schalkwyk. These money mules are used by others either knowingly or unknowingly, and will usually be recruited by somebody who does not have a bank account or wants to make a payment invisible. This problem has become so prevalent in South Africa that the SAFPS has opened a new category of fraud specifically to deal with the issue. The danger for the consumer is that they are complicit in a criminal act and will be getting themselves involved with a fraudster, van Schalkwyk said. It might look like easy money, but the victim has no idea what the money is being used for and it is often for illegal gains and even human trafficking. In South Africa, most people are recruited at street corners, but this problem is prevalent around the world, with a lot of the recruiting occurring over the internet. There is nothing easy about this money, van Schalkwyk said. When you allow the use of your banking account as the middleman for third party banking you are in breach of your contract of account with the bank, and will be on record as a money mule. You could be looking at a criminal record for life, and worse be party to the devastating crime of human trafficking. The SAFPS said it is working closely with local banks to maximise security and awareness around this type of fraud. Now read: Samsung Pay is coming to smartwatches in South Africa ZTE announced that it has completed a voice call and delivered an Internet and WeChat connection over 5G mobile technology. The international telecommunications company said this success marks a major milestone on the path to 5G commercial use. In April 2018, ZTE demonstrated the first 5G call using the 3GPP R15 global standard. The call was completed with a ZTE smartphone and a ZTE CPE device via a simulation system in its Shanghai R&D Centre at the end of October 2018. The 5G Internet and WeChat connection was provided via the same simulation system. Most 5G smartphones currently support the sub-6GHz frequency band, while ZTE said its solution supports full coverage from below 6GHz to the millimetre-wave frequencies. ZTE is expected to launch its first commercial 5G smartphone within the first half of 2019, after previously announcing it would unveil a 5G smartphone and experimental 5G CPE by the end of 2018. The company said its data testing for its 5G smartphone continues to progress, with additional tests scheduled for December 2018. On 26 November 2018, the EU Commission initiated proceedings for infringement of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union against 17 (out of 28) Member States for non-compliance with the Directive requiring the transposition into national law of the Marrakesh Treaty (Directive (EU) 2017/1564). here The Marrakesh Treaty is a WIPO-administered convention that was signed on 27 June 2013 and entered into force on 30 September 2016. The convention seeks to facilitate the production and international transfer of specially-adapted books for people with blindness or visual impairment (). This was done by creating copyright limitations and exceptions to allow the creation of copies of protected works accessible to the visually impaired, when none is otherwise available. 2017/1564 Directive of 13 September 2017 As member of both WIPO and WTO, the EU has authority to sign and ratify treaties on behalf of its Member States and to then require their implementation into national law via EU instruments such as directives or regulations. In this case, the EU asked that national legislators reform their domestic copyright law by transposing the. The Directive requires that all necessary national measures be implemented by 12 October 2018. Not all member states complied by this deadline, whereby the EU Commission introduced infringement procedures against them for non-compliance. The list of the non-compliant countries is as follows: Belgium Cyprus Czech Republic Germany Estonia Greece Finland France Italy Lithuania Luxembourg Latvia Poland Portugal Romania Slovenia UK Section 31A to 31F of the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988; Article L 122-5 para 7 of the French Intellectual Property Code However, some of the countries named and shamed by the EU Commission, such as the UK and France, have in fact introduced exceptions to copyright to enable the making of accessible copies to the visually-impaired (UK:France:). Indeed, both the UK and France went beyond what was required by the EU Directive and extended the exception to all disabilities (see Section 31F(2) that, overall, the measures taken to implement the Treaty were satisfactory (see Consultation Report September 2018 Indeed, both the UK and France went beyond what was required by the EU Directive and extended the exception to all disabilities (see). In May 2018, the UK had launched a consultation regarding the best approach for the implementation, concludingthat, overall, the measures taken to implement the Treaty were satisfactory (see). So what went wrong? In a word, IPKat does not know. At the moment, the Commission has not published details regarding the claimed non-compliance by the countries listed. We cannot assume that the non-compliance proceedings were launched because the countries failed to introduce the exceptions in full, because countries can also be sanctioned if the scope of the exception implemented is too broad, so much so that it is disproportionately harmful to the interest of rightsholders. So we will have to wait and see what part of the implementation was deemed not up to scratch by the Commission. Brexit means Exit of the Marrakesh Treaty? Not necessarily the overwhelming majority of respondents to the UK consultation asked that the UK government ratify the Marrakesh in its own name, irrespective of its (current) EU membership. Although the UK is not individually bound by the Marrakesh Treaty, the UK government may choose to ratify and incorporate it post-Brexit in order to maintain the rights of disabled content users. *** Update (30 November 2018) *** The confirmed that the EU Directive was implemented in the UK on time, as required. The organisation explains that the UK was listed as non-compliant by the Commission because the Member State was yet to issue a notification of implementation, which will now happen imminently. This Kat now wonders whether other countries are in the same position. Do comment below if you have any update or information to share with us on this topic. Please note that this article is purely for educational purposes and to detail what services can be accessed online by anyone with an Internet browser. We do not encourage illegal or illicit activity of any nature. To get a WhatsApp account you need a cellphone number, as when you set up a WhatsApp account the service messages you a security code to check that you are the owner of said cellphone number. But to get a cellphone number in South Africa you need to buy a SIM card from a mobile operator and register it in your name as part of the RICA process. This involves you taking proof of address and your ID to a store and having the SIM, and its number, linked to you. After registering scores of SIMs at MyBroadband over the years, we tested if we could set up a working WhatsApp account without having to buy a SIM and go through the RICA process. Virtual number The first step was getting a cellphone number without buying a SIM. After a few minutes of Google searching and visits to news websites which looked like they were dying to send us malware, we came across a site called Proovl. It is listed as a platform that provides a reliable channel for incoming and outgoing data, communications and partnerships. It runs from Estonia and essentially offers you a range of cellphone numbers you can rent for a certain period like a virtual cellphone number. We registered an account on the site, using only an email address, created a password, and we were good to go. To buy a cellphone number to receive an SMS, you select the SMS Numbers option, and are provided with a list of numbers available with different country codes. We went for a UK number, which would cost 5.00 for the day. To buy the number, you must first purchase credits on the site with one credit equalling one Euro. It was at this point that we became hesitant to use the service, but when checking the payment options we saw Proovl accepted Bitcoin. Thanks to its anonymity and security, the only risk we now faced when buying the credits with Bitcoin was our money getting taken. This was acceptable. Proovl was also offering bonus credits if you paid by Bitcoin, so we purchased 15 credits costing us just over R235 by sending Bitcoin to the address specified by Proovl. The payment went through in minutes, and around an hour later registered in our Proovl account. With our credits topped up, we purchased a UK cellphone number. The images below show the Proovl interface and our number purchase. WhatsApp and Gmail Once we had the cellphone number, we tested if it worked by signing up for a Gmail account. When creating a new Gmail account, Google will ask you for your cellphone number so it can send you a verification code to complete the setup of your account. We created a username, email address, and password in Gmail and then proceeded to the verification code screen. We entered our Proovl UK number and hit send. The code came through to the messages tab in our Proovl account soon after we requested it, and after entering the code into our Gmail setup we had created a Gmail account anonymously. The real test, however, was WhatsApp. Using the anonymous Gmail account we had just created, we set up a Google profile on an Android smartphone. This was so we could access the Google Play store to download WhatsApp. We downloaded WhatsApp on the phone and set it up. The image below shows the home screen of the smartphone, and that it does not have a SIM in it. (It was connected to an active Wi-Fi connection.) Using our UK number, we went through the WhatsApp setup process. This included the number verification page, which required us to input a code sent from WhatsApp to our stated cellphone number. All worked as intended, and the screenshots below show how we set up the WhatsApp account and received the verification code from WhatsApp via SMS to our Proovl account. After entering the verification code into WhatsApp, the account was good to go. We sent a test message to a South African number and they received it all worked as it should. As the Proovl number we purchased was only valid for a day, we enabled 2FA (two-factor authentication) in WhatsApp. This is aimed at protecting our account from being taken over in the event someone else rents the cellphone number we used. With 2FA enabled, a code we created in the app must be entered to set up the WhatsApp account on a new phone. We also removed the cellphone number as an account recovery option in our new Gmail account, in case the number is rented out again. The image below shows our no-SIM WhatsApp account having sent a message to a legitimate number and its WhatsApp account. Now read: Samsung Pay is coming to smartwatches in South Africa Does the name Fog Fab ring a bell? Maybe not yet, but Fog Fab is fast becoming the go-to company for Napa area wineries that want timeless, hand-made steel and wood furniture and related items to complement their premises. Wineries, tasting rooms and restaurants are definitely my sweet spot, said Mark Fogarty, founder and custom furniture maker. I do 99 percent of my business in the Napa Valley. Oddly enough, Fogarty had a different sort of career in mind when he moved out to the Napa Valley from Philadelphia. My plan was to study wine and become a sommelier, he admitted, but that didnt work out. That crushed me because I thought I was going to be in the world of wine the rest of my life, so I had to reinvent myself. In retrospect, that misstep was surely a blessing in disguise, and Fogarty turned to another talent that would become his trademark over the next 12 years. I knew how to weld, because my father had been a master welder, he said. So I bought a welder and I started out in my basement, playing around with it and making things. After people saw what I was creating, the next thing I know people are asking me to make things for them, he recalled. Six months later, I had a studio and recently have gotten a larger space on Mare Island to accommodate our size. We do every kind of welding imaginable. Anything you can think of, we can fabricate. Fogarty also said its not just him anymore; he now is part of a four-man team. His specialty is making pieces large and small out of a combination of steel and wood, some of it reclaimed. The two together make such a nice combination, Fogarty said. The greatest thing about my job is I experiment all the time and I do something different every single day, he said. We are working on a project right now for Acme Fine Wines up in St. Helena where we took these old beams from a barn that were hand-hewn and glued them all together, but we left the tops rough like they were when they were in the barn. You can still see the farmers name carved in the wood, Fogarty said. He also built the steel and wood bar in Acmes new tasting room in St. Helena. Fogarty doesnt apologize for the slight imperfections that come along with furniture thats hand-made. My pieces are what I like to call A-minus. They will have flaws and thats how you know they came from someone who built them by hand, as opposed to pieces that are mass-produced, he explained. Im not perfect every time, but thats what makes each piece unique. As for recent projects, Fogarty said his team created furniture for the tasting room in Dave Phinneys new craft distillery, Savage & Cooke, on Mare Island. The two had previously collaborated on steel work at Phinneys Orin Swift Cellars and his Prisoner Wine Company. Fogarty said his team added a patina to the steel in the tasting room. Patina is something I like to work with because its not meant to be perfect like a coating. A patina reacts to the metal and becomes part of it, unlike a coating that can just be scraped off, he said. Not one to sit still, hell soon work on new project in the Sonoma Plaza. Were going to be doing the majority of the large pieces for a large market/tasting room/wine store. In addition, Fogarty just expanded his offerings by adding a custom cabinet shop. These will not be cabinets made of cheap plywood, he said. We will do cabinets in the traditional way using real wood, and the style will be really clean, simple, classic and timeless. Although he says its a small part of what he does, some of Fogartys pieces are exhibited and sold through Aerena Galleries, including in Napa, Yountville and St. Helena. One of his most popular pieces is a distinctive wine holder he created from 15 small sections of pipe, welded on an angle, on a 50- to 60-pound base. Theyre selling like hotcakes, Fogarty said. Another plan the entrepreneur has is to make an artisan line of furniture. Its going to be a new company where we have designers come in and create a limited line of furniture for us, he said. Well have some furniture that we designed, too. Fogarty says the secret of his success is taking everything he likes to do and make it part of his business. And of course, keep experimenting. Next Im going to start casting aluminum just for fun. Right now, I am building the forge. A lot of his projects come from referrals, although Fogarty says he is still pounding the pavement. Weve been picking up really big, huge projects the last few years, projects that take six months and involve hundreds of pieces of furniture. But at the same time, were still doing one-off small pieces. Thats my roots; I never want to lose that, he said. We live in a throwaway world, but almost everything I make is too heavy to throw away, Fogarty chuckled. For details, visit fog-fab.com. Q: I am a female technician in an ophthalmologists office. Today, I had a patient who was wearing a low-cut shirt that exposed her bra and cleavage. Her arms were crossed under her breasts, pushing them up. It was so distracting that I respectfully said, Please do not take offense, but would you mind lifting your top because its revealing? She laughed and apologized. Later, on break, I was talking about this incident with several co-workers. My manager overheard and told me I could be fired for saying what I said to the patient. Can I really get fired for telling the patient to fix her shirt? A: Your manager could certainly fire you because he doesnt like the way you spoke to or about a patient, as long as he doesnt violate any federal or state discrimination laws or any employment contract you may have. For what its worth, though, what you said doesnt strike me as a firing offense. You could have made things less awkward by emphasizing her comfort, rather than your discomfort: Oh, you might want to adjust your shirtyour bra is showing, or (indicating her crossed arms) Are you warm enough? Can I get you a coverup? Otherwise, if you cant simply ignore a patients attireor facial piercings, overplucked eyebrows or other features you find distractingyou might discreetly ask a less easily rattled colleague to step in. That said: If you suspect a patient is trying to deliberately target you with suggestive words or actions, you should bring it to your managers attention. Employers have a duty to provide a safe, harassment-free work environment for employees, which may include taking action against customers or clients who harass or threaten them. Incidentally, for anyone inclined to assert that I should cut chest-ogling men some slack, since even a woman administering an ophthalmic exam couldnt keep her focus on a buxom patients eyes: The ignore or tag out advice works for them, too. Q: On my last day of a two-week overseas vacation, a co-worker texted to alert me that our companys open enrollment period for health coverage had begun after I left and was ending hours after I was due to land stateside. I had no way to enroll from where I was. Frantic, I emailed HR, whose response was curt and final: They would not extend the deadline for me. Fortunately, my husband was stateside. After working a graveyard shift, he spent 2 hours sifting through the benefits changes and was able to complete our enrollment before the deadline. My company gave us only eight business days to enroll. Did this violate any laws or regulations? A: Employers are not legally required to set a specific minimum or maximum period for open enrollment, according to Gary Kushner, president of HR consulting and benefits administration firm Kushner & Co. To be fair, he notes, processing benefit elections before the start of a plan year takes intense effort, and late enrollees add to that burden. But, he adds, most HR professionals in his experience would probably have granted someone in your situation an extension. Karla A. Miller, of South Riding, Virginia, offers advice on surviving the ups and downs of the modern workplace. For five years, in the early 2000s, Calistogans Jim and Kathy Flamson were in charge of organizing the local Relay for Life, a 24-hour fundraising drive for the American Cancer Society. We kinda fell into Relay for Life and that really consumed our time, Jim said recently. Jim Flamson has been in business in Calistoga, both as an insurance agent and a tax preparer for the past 44 years. His wife, Kathy, has had a varied career, most recently serving as Calistoga City Clerk. Both will retire at the end of December. For the five years that the Flamsons ran the Relay for Life, it was held on the grounds of the Calistoga High School. Then for four years, it was held in St. Helena, at the Robert Louis Stevenson Middle School and then it moved back to Calistoga for two years, where it was held at the Napa County Fairgrounds. We did five of them and then in their divine wisdom, (the American Cancer Society) decided to move it to St. Helena and that was really the death of it, Flamson said. The events, he added, supposedly werent making enough money. The first year we did it in Calistoga, we won an award for the second-highest per capita (amount raised) for a city under 10,000 people for the state of California. That was unheard of, Flamson said. That inaugural event included 44 teams and raised $116,000, according to newspaper reports at the time. Flamson continues his story: The second year we almost doubled what we made the first year and the third year, the amount raised was even more. Then the donations started to fall off and the American Cancer Society sponsors decided to move it to St. Helena. The last of those years, 2014, there were 49 people involved on 12 teams and the event raised $12,000. They tried to bring it back to Calistoga, although we could no longer use the high school grounds, because they put a new gymnasium in, which took up all the parking area. We tried to hold it on the grassy area at the Fairgrounds. It didnt work, Flamson said. Fifteen teams raised $20,000 in May 2015 and the following year, the last year the Upvalley Relay for Life was held, there were 11 teams that raised $19,000. When we talked about doing this (interview) about a month ago, I went and pulled out my Relay box, Flamson said. In it were stacks of newspapers, The Weekly Calistogans. The coverage was wonderful, it made all the difference in the world, he added. The editorials published in advance in the Calistogan, written by then publisher Doug Ernst, probably brought a couple hundred more people to the event, Flamson added. Kathy said, It was a community event and we had great support from the hospital. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. St. Helenas menorah, a nine-branched candelabra used only during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, will be lit at 6 p.m. on each night of Hanukkah, beginning Sunday, Dec. 2 and ending Sunday, Dec. 9. Each year, the menorah is displayed during Hanukkah at Lyman Park. On Thursday, Dec. 6, Ellyn Elson from Congregation Beth Shalom, who will conduct the lighting at 6 p.m. Twenty years ago a small group of St. Helena citizens and several local churches - the St. Helena Catholic Church, United Methodist Church of St. Helena, First Baptist Church and Calvary Christian Center donated the Hanukkah menorah to the City of St. Helena to be displayed in Lyman Park during the Hanukkah holiday. The St. Helena Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on the 2040 General Plan draft Environmental Impact Report at its next meeting, 6 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 4 at Vintage Hall. The purpose of the public hearing is to hear and receive comments on the draft EIR. It is expected that the planning commission will direct staff to prepare a formal response to those comments and finalize the EIR after the comment period ends on Jan. 2. Monday, Nov. 19 0708 Police checked for speeders on Spring Mountain Road. 0756 A caller received a fraudulent voicemail about Social Security. Police advised the caller not to give out their Social Security number of any other personal information over the phone. 0802 Report of a possible drunk driver swerving on Silverado Trail and turning onto Pope Street. 0822 Police checked for speeders on Spring, Pope/Starr, Sulphur Springs and South Crane. 1314 A caller reported getting a suspicious phone call from possible scammers asking for donations and claiming to be with Kids Smile or a similar program. 1405 Medical aid for an elderly woman on Los Robles Court. 1608 A car ran out of gas in the center lane of Highway 29 near Inglewood Avenue. A passerby was helping the female driver push the car into the gas station, but needed help with traffic control while crossing the southbound lane. 1646 A car was vandalized. 1823 Medical aid on Bella Vista Court. 2353 Shots or fireworks were heard in the distance. Tuesday, Nov. 20 06:49 Officer gave a verbal warning following a traffic stop at Spring Mountain Vineyards on Spring Mountain Road. 07:26 Officer initiated activity for speeding vehicles on Spring Mountain Road. 09:52 Officer gave verbal warning for speeding vehicles at Pope Street and College Avenue. 10:18 Report of trucks illegally parked and leaving trailers on Elmhurst Avenue, across from the middle school. Gone on arrival. 10:51 Report of unauthorized activity on business bank account, assisted citizen at police office. 14:06 Cars parked in handicap spaces without placards displayed or having handicap license plates on Hunt Avenue. 18:24 Child Protective Services employee requests officer to assist at a residence regarding child abuse allegations against the father, who is known to become angry and volatile. Wednesday, Nov. 21 05:16 Two or three-car collision involving a Jeep and a pickup truck on Main Street near Gotts. Referred to another agency. 18:00 Traffic hazard on Highway 29 and Big Tree Road. Big, white motorhome with two ATVs heading southbound from Calistoga, causing sparks. Gone on arrival. 20:19 Officers assisted with fire alarm on Oak Avenue. Thursday, Nov. 22 00:46 Traffic stop in the 100 block of Main Street. St. Helena woman, 22, arrested for DUI. Released with a signed promise to appear in court. 01:59 Three or four people screaming, fighting and yelling for about 15 minutes at the Oak Avenue apartments on Oak Avenue. Subjects included at least two females wearing dark gray clothing. 0:508 Three people screaming and fighting outside RPs home on Allison Avenue. 14:37 Two dogs, a golden lab and a German shepherd, loose on Main Street, will be detained by staff. 15:29 Friends on a walk discovered an irrigation line with a major water leak at home under construction on Kearney Street. As subjects got closer to turn off water, they discovered a window had been broken. 17:29 A creamy white, male pitbull, named Buddy was lost in the downtown area. 18:14 Hazardous situation reported, tree in the power lines in the front yard of a home on Silverado Trail, St. Helena. 20:51 Officers advised of an allegedly drunk driver eastbound on Highway 128 from Petrified Forest Road in a white Ford pickup truck. 21:35 Black wallet case with phone and credit cards missing, reported at the Police Department. Friday, Nov. 23 22:11 Officer warned driver at Howell Mountain Road and Silverado Trail. Saturday, Nov. 24 03:43 RP thinks theres someone in the house after hearing footsteps. After searching premise on Mariposa Lane, officers saw no sign that anyone had been in the residence or yard. 12:28 RP found a German shepherd on Edwards Street. Dog placed in kennel until owner can be located. 15:06 Minor injury accident involving three vehicles at Main Street and Charter Oak Avenue. RP states she is OK, but a female in another vehicle is bleeding from the head. Units dispatched. Southbound lane blocked, one patient transported to Queen of the Valley Hospital. 19:21 Caller reports a possible intoxicated driver in an older car that was swerving all over the road from Calistoga, now at Madrona Avenue and Main Street. Officer followed vehicle, noted no questionable driving observations. 19:30 Mother calls from out of state, reports a crisis situation at her daughters home, where 14-year-old son is angry and breaking dishes. Officers responded, assisted and followed up with RP. 20:39 Officer flagged down by person reporting possible drunk driver at Main and Zinfandel. 21:12 Suspicious circumstances on Meadowcreek Circle: Small white car parked for a couple of hours while several other cars park near it, stay for a few minutes and then leave. 22:01 Resident reports a vehicle just went tearing down Fulton Lane toward the end of the street. Driver is revving the engine. 22:22 Resident reports it some like a vehicle is stuck in the mud in her vineyard. She can hear people yelling and engine revving. Officers responded. Sunday, Nov. 25 00:28 Resident reports a group of male and females yelling and possibly trying to steal his mothers car on Monte Vista Avenue. Officers contacted male subject inside vehicle that he thought was his. Police arrested 30-year-old American Canyon man and charged him with public intoxication. As second-grade teacher Joseph Hall instructed his Napa Valley Language Academy students to create a picture of someone doing something kind or generous, he reminded them that each of them had experienced someone being kind to them. Three of his family members had come into the classroom to assist in the art project: his parents, Janet Borba and Parker Hall, both retired teachers, and his aunt, Nancy Claire Walker, a former classroom assistant. They helped guide Halls class through the theme of what giving, sharing and generosity looked like. Two pieces of the art that best represents the theme will be displayed on the Give!Guide website and one or two will be displayed in the Childrens Room in the Napa County Library for the month of December, said Nancy Claire Walker, an administrative assistant for the Teacher Resource Center of the North Bay. An opening reception for the students art will be held in the Napa County Library Community Room on Monday, Dec. 3 from 5:306:30 p.m. In a phone interview, Hall talked about the art project and shared fond memories of his own early childhood education. Hall said that the art project ties into his schools theme for the month of November of giving and caring. His students have been developing deeper insights into giving and caring through the Second Step, an empathy building curriculum, and the community circles done in his classroom. Caring is one of the character traits that is celebrated at an assembly once a month at our school, Hall said. Hall, a father of two children as well as a teacher, expressed appreciation for the type of education his parents gave him, and hed like to bring some of the richness his experiences to youngsters. I went to Silver Pony, a school operated by my parents, from the time I was born until I was 7 years old. It was a one-room building with all grade levels. That old red building looked big at the time I was there. Now, it looks small, Hall said laughing. The building Silver Pony School was housed in had once served as the Carneros Social Hall. Borba and Hall operated their school there from the late 1970s through the late 1980s. When Hall reached the age his students are now, his parents transferred him to what was, at the time, Pueblo Vista Alternative School. My dad, who does the television show Cooking in Napa with Parker Hall on Channel 28, was always cooking things for us at Silver Pony School, Hall recalled. There was a stage for us to perform. Mom played piano and guitar. There were chickens. Wed get eggs from the chickens. Dad still comes into the classroom, Hall said. He volunteers every Friday to cook things for my studentsquesadillas, grilled cheese sandwiches and his specialty, pumpkin bread. Mom helps with art projects. Hall said he was able to give each student a new packet of colored markers, a new box of crayons and a piece of card stock paper supplied by the Teacher Resource Center of the North Bay. Teacher Resource Center of the North Bay is the first and only free classroom supply store in Northern California; a place that teachers can shop for basic core supplies needed by their students to succeed in the classroom, according to Walker. The center is a volunteer-based nonprofit organization that is thriving because of the generosity of individuals, small businesses and large corporations who believe that children are the future and deserve the best learning environment that can be provided for them, teachers say. According to the organizations website, nearly a third of Napa Countys households qualify for the federally sponsored free and reduced-price lunch program for their school-age children. Nine of Napa Countys neediest schools have a 70 percent or higher participation in this program, and students who cant afford lunches cant afford school supplies. Teacher Resource Center of the North Bay offers free classroom supplies to public school students throughout Napa County to include Pope Valley, Howell Mountain, Calistoga, St. Helena and Napa Unified School Districts. Teachers can shop at the free store once each semester for needed supplies. Having the necessary classroom materials creates an equal playing field for all students and improves students self-esteem and confidence. In addition, the financial burden on teachers to spend personal funds averaging at minimum $500, due to federal and state budget cuts, is reduced dramatically. We need both monetary and in-kind donations to keep our shelves stocked with pencils, copy paper, glue sticks, crayons and more, said Walker. LOS ANGELES A California appeals court overturned a lower court ruling that found the state's assisted suicide law was unconstitutional. A panel of the 4th District Court of Appeals in the city of Riverside on Tuesday said doctors who brought the case did not show they were harmed because they could choose not to help terminally ill patients die. In finding the doctors represented by The Life Legal Defense Foundation did not have legal standing, the court bypassed whether the law was unconstitutional. The End of Life Option Act allows adults to obtain a prescription for life-ending drugs if a doctor finds they have six months or less to live. Riverside County Superior Court Judge Daniel Ottolia declared the law unconstitutional in May because it was adopted during a special legislative session that was supposed to address improving the medical system and health of Californians. The ruling written by Presiding Justice Manuel Ramirez has no immediate impact on the current status of assisted suicide because the appeals court had reinstated the law during the appeal by the state attorney general. However, it does set the stage for possible future legal actions. The case was sent back to the lower court and the lawsuit could be amended and refiled. The court even spelled out how groups challenging the law might be able to show harm. For example, a district attorney who wanted to prosecute a doctor for helping a patient die or a hospital or medical group that sought to discipline an affiliated doctor who participated in assisted suicide might be able to establish standing, the court said. Supporters of assisted suicide cheered the ruling and said it would strengthen their defense of the law in the future. "But the harsh reality is this case is likely to last several more years because the plaintiffs are hell-bent on depriving Californians of their constitutional right to end-of-life care options that ensure terminally ill Californians have access to a peaceful death, free of unbearable suffering," said attorney John Kappos, who represented Compassion & Choices, a group that supported the law. While two justices ruled only on the issue of standing, Justice Marsha Slough dissented in part because she said the appellate panel should have ruled on the merits of the case and found the law was constitutional. Slough said it was not a stretch for the Legislature to consider assisted suicide as an extension of a discussion on the efficiency of the health care system. She said there was no reason to "drag this case out" before finding lawmakers acted within their authority. "We have a responsibility to expeditiously disperse the uncertainty this litigation has created for countless patients, family members, and loved ones, as well as physicians and workers in the health care sector," Slough wrote. Katie Short, vice president of legal affairs for the Life Legal Defense Foundation group opposed to the law, said she was disappointed by the ruling and that her group would consider its options. "We are particularly disappointed in the way the court continued to hold to what we see as a false dichotomy in terms of the doctors' standing to represent patients," Short said. "The court has taken a simplest view, which basically is between doctors with those patients who want assisted suicide and those who don't. If they want assisted suicide, then the court says these doctors don't represent them." In 2017, the first full year assisted suicide was legal, 374 terminally ill people took drugs to end their lives, California health officials said. More than 575 people received aid-in-dying drugs last year, but not everyone used them. Oregon in 1997 was the first state to provide an end-of-life option. California passed the law after Brittany Maynard, 29, who was dying from brain cancer, moved to Oregon in 2014 to end her life. The District of Columbia and five other states Colorado, Montana, Vermont, Washington, and Hawaii also allow assisted suicide. The wreck occurred early Saturday south of the city of Sonoma, and the driver and two passengers were hospitalized in Napa, according to CHP. Martini Manna Law Firm) comes the news that recently the Venice Court of First Instance - in the context of interim proceedings - acknowledged copyright protection in the design (including of its interiors) of a yacht (RG 2236/2018). Via Katfriends Elena Martini and Luigi Manna () comes thethat recently the Venice Court of First Instance - in the context of interim proceedings - acknowledged copyright protection in the design (including of its interiors) of a yacht (). Background An architect, Tiberio Cerato, was commissioned to design the layout, interiors and furnishings of a yacht named Checkmate. A company, Wally, from which the yacht purchaser had only acquired the structural parts, however, published on its own website photographs of the yacht as if it was its own work. It also uploaded a video of the yacht on both YouTube and Vimeo in which it represented itself as the one responsible for the styling and interior design, without even mentioning the architect's name and indicating, instead, itself and another person as responsible for them. Cerato requested the Venice Court of First Instance to issue an interim order that would prohibit the company from using any images, drawings, projects and videos relating to the Checkmate yacht. Wally contested Cerato's claim, arguing among other things that Cerato's work would not be original, in that his choices were prompted by the very shape of the boat. As such, it would fail to be protected as an architectural work under Article 2, No 5, of the Italian Copyright Act . The decision Following a ping-pong between the parties and an initial dismissal of Cerato's application, in a subsequent decision the Venice court noted that the concept of originality should not be intended as entailing novelty. Furthermore, the same idea can be at the basis of different works which may carry the 'personal touch' of their authors. It follows that an architectural work may be eligible for copyright protection even if it revisits solutions already adopted in the past, insofar as the personal contribution of the author is visible in the creative result. In addition, the protection available to architectural works should be intended as also extending to interior furnishings, especially where such furnishings are the result of the author's own project. The court went on and held [the translation from Italian is mine] : In this sector, what matters is not really the realization of furnishings considered in their isolation, but rather the design and interpretation of elements which are already known, in such a way that the author can express their own personality. It follows that, for copyright protection to arise in architectural works, originality is to be assessed in light of the "choice, coordination and organization of the elements of the work, in relation to the overall result pursued". This would be the case of Cerato's work, whose work was indeed commissioned to create something personal and different from Wally's offering. Originality would lie in the architect's re-elaboration and personalization of known elements. [this is what happened here . The court thus concluded that both the requirements needed to issue the interim measure (fumus boni iurise and periculum in mora) subsisted. Hence, to safeguard both the economic and moral (attribution) rights of the architect, it ordered Wally to remove all images and videos representing the yacht. The only exception would relate to Wally's brokering activities: in such cases, it would be possible to publish the image of the yacht, though with the indication of the architect's name Also The IPKat dreams of likes to blog about IP from a yacht Comment The interim decision of the Venice court is not surprising, also considering the broad understanding of what qualifies as an 'architectural work' under Italian copyright law. With particular regard to interior furnishings, it is settled case law in Italy that these may fall within the notion of 'architectural works' and may be, as such, deserving of protection. recent decision of the Milan Court of Appeal, which acknowledged that copyright would vest in the store layout of Italian cosmetics brand KIKO. Also in that case it was found that originality lies in how a certain idea is expressed by the author. A creative result that is not imposed by the technical problem that it seeks to solve could be in fact eligible for protection. In this sense, readers might recall theof the Milan Court of Appeal, which acknowledged that copyright would vest in the store layout of Italian cosmetics brand KIKO. Also in that case it was found that originality lies in how a certain idea is expressed by the author. A creative result that is not imposed by the technical problem that it seeks to solve could be in fact eligible for protection. Isaac Kearns-Montanez is not your average college student. For one thing, he started college at age 11, when he enrolled at Solano Community College. The Napa native also took classes at Napa Valley College while a student at First Christian school and then St. Apollinaris school. As a Napa Valley Independent Studies student, Isaac blazed through high school and college requirements simultaneously. Now age 16, Isaac is a senior at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. By this spring when hes barely 17 hell graduate. He will be the youngest to ever do so at the southern university, according to the school. Next, Isaac will start law school, which he plans to complete by age 19. A lot of school always seemed like common sense to me, said the young student. I can remember the content (and) I was able to go through it very quickly, he said modestly. Hes always had extremely high standards for himself, said his father, David Montanez, who works in Napa in the mortgage industry. When his son was in fifth grade, he brought up the idea to start taking college courses, said Montanez. I thought it was pretty crazy at the time, his father admitted. He worried thered be too much of an age gap. But we enrolled him one class per semester and he started going to classes after his regular school dismissed each day. Accompanied by his mother, Jacqueline Hodges, or father, Wed sit in on the classes (and) watch him and his interactions with other people, Montanez said. He enjoyed the structure of college, his dad realized. His son is driven and self-motivated, said Montanez. He knows he can accomplish a lot. When I decide to do something, I go 100 percent, Isaac said. I just get rid of all distractions when I need to. With enough units to transfer to a four-year university, Isaac chose the University of Alabama. The move was made much easier because Isaac lives in Alabama with his mother and stepfather, who also moved to the Tuscaloosa area. His mother works for the university and his stepfather is in the military, said Isaac. At the University of Alabama, Isaac is about to earn a degree in political science with a minor in public policy. His GPA is 4.0. Thats not to say there havent been challenges. Isaac has dyslexia. While hes had accommodations in the past such as more time to take a test he choose not to ask for such help at the university, even though there definitely have been times when its been harder. The student said he welcomes challenges because they lead to a feeling of accomplishment. Isaac said that when his fellow students find out his age, the response varies. They are usually quite amazed, he said. The fact that Im 16 rarely is relevant. I just consider myself to be a normal college student. I keep telling him, tell everybody how old you are, said his father. Let them know youre still a minor. He says, They all know dad. Isaac said people sometimes ask if hes a genius. He hasnt taken an official IQ test. Ultimately, IQ is something that I dont really have control over. Asked to what he attributes his academic success and speed, Isaac said, I just figured out how to get through the system early. Besides classes, Isaac said he participates in college activities. At Alabama, he was an intern at the education policy center, part of the honors college and joined a pre-law club. I definitely fit in, he said. One thing that probably helped is that Isaac said he looks older than his age. Im 6-1, and if I want I can grow out a beard, he said. His first choice for law school is Yale, he said. But he also plans to apply to Harvard, Stanford, the University of Alabama, possibly the University of Virginia and the University of Michigan, and others. Since I was in seventh and eighth grade, I was very interested in politics, he said. In addition to recent changes in U.S. politics, I especially find global events very interesting right now. Montanez is extremely happy and proud, of his son. Age doesnt matter, said his father. Hes living proof. 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. SACRAMENTO In a report filed with state regulators Tuesday, Pacific Gas & Electric Company offered little explanation about why it failed to shut off power in Butte County before the deadliest wildfire in California history. The utility giant, under pressure to stop its power lines from sparking wildfires, adopted a plan this fall to turn off power during high-risk weather conditions. Days before the Camp fire killed at least 88 people, PG&E warned customers that it might cut electricity in Paradise and other fire-prone areas of the Sierra Foothills on Nov. 8. But the company ultimately canceled plans for the shut-off. The forecasted conditions didnt meet the criteria to initiate a Public Safety Power Shutoff, said James Noonan, a spokesman for PG&E. The California Public Utilities Commission requires utilities to file reports 10 days after customers are warned about or experience planned shut-offs. But a resolution adopted by the agency suggests a utility is only required to provide an explanation if it cuts power. The CPUC did not respond to questions about the policy Tuesday. The cause of the fire remains under investigation and its unclear if a planned outage would have prevented the devastation. PG&E reported problems with a high-voltage transmission line and a less powerful circuit shortly before and after the fire started. PG&Es 14-page report says it began sending shut-off warnings on Nov. 6 to 70,000 customers located in nine counties, including Butte, where the forecasted weather and wildfire potential indicated a high likelihood of impacts to the companys equipment and facilities. The company said it adjusted the warning to about 63,000 customers in eight counties on Nov. 7 because weather conditions were nearing but not reaching forecasted levels that would warrant temporarily turning off power for customer safety. PG&E did not offer any further explanation in the report for its lack of action overnight on Nov. 7 or early Nov. 8. A weather station near Paradise clocked wind gusts of 52 mph hours before the fire was reported at 6:29 a.m. Hours after the fire began, winds decreased and conditions no longer met the companys criteria for a shut-off by 1 p.m. on Nov. 8, PG&E said in the report. Based on the forecasted information, PG&E no longer anticipated a possible need to de-energize, the report states. PG&E immediately informed all stakeholders of the change in conditions and that no lines would be proactively de-energized. The CPUC is expected to review the report and determine if an investigation is warranted. In other questions about PG&Es actions, a federal judge on Tuesday asked the company to explain its role in the Camp fire and whether the utility may have violated the terms of its criminal probation from the San Bruno pipeline blast. Nearly two years ago, a U.S. District Court judge sentenced PG&E to probation and ordered the company to pay a $3 million fine after that incident on the peninsula. an underground pipeline burst in the San Francisco Bay Area neighborhood and killed eight residents. As part of the probation, PG&E was barred from committing any local, state or federal crimes. A judge issued a new order Tuesday giving PG&E and an independent monitor until the end of the year to explain its involvement in the Camp fire and other California wildfires since early 2017. Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) party spokesperson Bhim Dahal expressed that the political parties should have programmes and policies for the people and should connect with the peoples hearts. Dahal also stressed that without having any programme and policy and no any connection with the people, just to talking about the alliance would not make any difference. Responding to media queries during a press conference here on Wednesday, Dahal stated that SDF party has been contesting alone against lots opposition parties in the elections for so long since its inception. On recent meeting between Hamro Sikkim Party [HSP] and BJP state-unit to see possibilities for alliance, he mentioned that HSP was not opened with the blessing of the people of Sikkim but by the blessing of the people from the outside. He added that the step for the alliance by a party which still does not have the president would not make any difference. He expressed that HSP and the state-unit of the national party were not in any contest with the ruling party. Dahal stressed upon the need of programme and policies and connection with the people for a political party but to go for alliance without having any connection with the people would not make any difference. Responding to queries on the HSP allegation on the ruling party on sharing seats with a national party, he responded that there was no any such talk and step for the pre-poll alliance with any national party so far from SDF. There is no any need for any pre-poll alliance for the party as SDF has been contesting and winning elections with the support of the people of Sikkim, he said. While stating that SDF is the part of NDA, he stated the ruling party has always been working with the Government in the Centre in the interest of Sikkim and its people. On the same, SDF party spokesperson, KT Gyaltsen mentioned that HSP was hardly six months old party and still looking for its president and to talk about alliance in such situation shows that the party cannot stand alone as trying for an alliance. This step also shows that SDF party was still standing strong to form the government once again and the people of Sikkim will vote SDF to form the government, he said. On one family one job programme of the Government, Dahal stated, One Family One Job was the exemplary in the entire country and the outcome of the inclusive politics and humanitarian programme of the Chief Minister Pawan Chamling. He added that the Government has taken this decision for the welfare and in the interest of the people of Sikkim. On the same, Gyaltsen also stated that One Family One Job was the historic step in the interest of the people of Sikkim. He asserted that instead to oppose such humanitarian programme of the government opposition parties in Sikkim should able to show their programme and policies in the interest of the people. He expressed that such exemplary initiatives were the outcome of the inclusive politics of the longest servicing CM of the country. Responding on HSP allegation on SDF for not working to remove the tag of immigrants from Sikkimese Nepali, Dahal stated if the people started to find the origin of every community then the country would get deserted. However, he expressed that SDF party has already removed this tag of immigrants and Sikkimese Nepali has been living with self-pride in the country. On the same, he mentioned that Limboo and Tamang who originated Sikkimese Nepali have already been got tribal status and the centre income tax exemption to Sikkimese people proves the originality of Sikkimese Nepali. He added that Indian Sikkimese Nepali have been living with full self-pride in the State. SDF spokesperson TN Sharma expressed that the SDF Government has been working on its 40 seats formula to provide seats to Limboo and Tamang and to left-out communities of Sikkim. Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand, who is on her visit to the country since Sunday has arrived in Tripura on Tuesday. Princess Sirindhorn was accorded grand reception by State Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, Chief Secretary and DGP along with other top officials of the state administration at the Maharaja Bir Bikram airport, according to tripurainfo.com. A colourful event with participation of Buddhist monks and students of local schools showcasing ethnic culture was also held at the airport to on the arrival of the Thailand princess. Later, Chief Minister escorted the princess to Kailasahars Unakoti by a special helicopter. The circuit house of Kailasahar was also renovated to welcome her as a rest station before leaving for Unakoti where she had had her launch. Later on, Chief Minister Biplab Kumra Deb escorted her to the ancient land of Unakoti, which is believed to be a land of one less than a crore deities. On Tuesday afternoon, the Princess returned to Agartala airport after completing her visit. Later, State Chief Minister in a message expressed his deep gratitude to Her Royal Highness Princess for visiting the State. Zakharova says she has no comment on upcoming meeting of Russian, Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders Zakharova: Russia is interested in normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations Latest developments in Artsakh among issues to be discussed during Turkish National Security Council's session Armenian FM holds phone talk with Israeli counterpart Protests continue in Turkey with demand for Erdogan's resignation Armenia allocates AMD 1.44 billion to Karabakh COVID-19 in Armenia: 42 new deaths Russian peacekeepers ensure control in Nagorno-Karabakh Parliamentary hearings on demarcation and delimitation being held in Yerevan Ambartsum Matevosyan appointed Armenian deputy PM 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 12500 N.E. Tenth Place Bellevue, WA 98005 JPFO.org 800-869-1884 info@jpfo.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Nov. 28, 2018 Contact Floyd Neeland USING ANTI-SEMITISM IS STANDARD GET USED TO IT! Pretending it is abnormal is foolhardy. Socialist sweetheart Ocasio-Cortez shamefully uses the Holocaust to denigrate what she doesn't like (the refugee storm), democrats silent. Hating Jews is the way of the world. Stop pretending any particular Jew-hating incident is special or different. Since Biblical times, hating Jews is what goes on. Blacks, Christians, Muslims, politicians, even self-loathing Jews do itpart of the hate architecture on Earth has always included hating Jews. Doing lethally terrible things motivated by this hatred, often while denying it, is only ever stopped by countervailing force. Everyone knows this is true. This is why JPFO says Jews, and everyone, must be free to defend themselves with force when needed, for life, and for safety. Politicians and others who seek to disarm the public in a pipe-dream for safety are dangerously misguided or worse. Dozens of nations have set anti-Semitism as their policy. Wiping Jews off the face of the Earth is their stated goal. They may pay lip service to peace, but it fools no one. Exterminating Jews is openly featured in some cultures, and you know who we're talking about, don't make-believe you don't. Democrats now openly call for repealing the Second Amendment! Stop them. The United Nations Human Rights Council accepts anti-Semitism and practically promotes it, with advocates of genocide actually holding seats on that council, a human-rights mockery. This is solid grounds for the current U.S. president to disavow that organizationit's the righteous thing to do. America has been disgraced by previous administrations who played along with the evil U.N. charade. Discard your emperor's robes. Get armedthe anti-Semites are. Get trained. Join JPFO, we'll support you while you support us. Never ever relinquish your arms. Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, http://www.jpfo.org is Americas most aggressive civil-rights organization, dedicated to destroying the notion of gun control as any kind of credible public-policy position. So-called gun control does not control guns and doesnt control criminal behavior. What it does do is disarm the innocent, leaving them helpless in the face of criminals, tyrannical governments and genocide. History repeatedly proves this fact. Founded in 1989 by Aaron Zelman as a response to the Holocaust, JPFO speaks with the moral authority and tenacious commitment of survivors of persecution, and knows that surrendering your personal and family safety to government protection courts disaster. You dont have to be Jewish to fight by our side, you just have to love liberty. "I am not ashamed to tell the truth and JPFO should not be either! I've had it with too many Jews who would have me be a passive victim as they are, and I have spoken with too many Rabbis who don't seem to mind. With all due respect to their titles, they are naive and wrong. If all Jews were similarly timid, there would be no State of Israel and for that matter, we would have been wiped out any number of times in the past 5,000+ years." --JPFO Life Member R.B. in Pittsburgh ##### Back to Top Physics staff member to give talk on volunteers observing exoplanets by Tim Crosby CARBONDALE, Ill. A staff member in the physics department at Southern Illinois University Carbondale will give a presentation this week on involving citizen scientists in an effort to observe planets outside our solar system. Bob Baer, specialist in the Department of Physics, will address efforts of the Citizen CATE Experiment to observe exoplanets as they transit across neighboring stars. CATE stands for Continental-American Telescopic Eclipse Experiment, and the nationwide telescope network of citizen scientists played a major role in the 2017 total eclipse. Presentation free and open to the public Baers presentation is at 4 p.m. Friday in room 440 at the Neckers Building. It is free and open to the public. He will repeat the presentation during the meeting of the Astronomical Association of Southern Illinois, set for 6 p.m. on Dec. 10 at Pagliais Pizza in Carbondale. Network spread throughout the country CATE includes about 68 observation teams nationwide, roughly one every 40 miles along the path of the 2017 eclipse. Baer, who co-chaired SIUs eclipse committee, acts as a coordinator for six CATE teams in the area. Those six teams included about 30 local volunteers. CATE teams across the country were the core of observation sites providing outreach to visitors during the eclipse, Baer said. This was true locally, with teams at Pope County High School, Giant City State Park, Bald Knob Cross of Peace, SIU, and the Perryville, Missouri, airport. Citizen scientists provide valuable data Exoplanets are defined as those that orbit stars other than our sun. The group is using the 80mm refractor telescope and camera system used for the Citizen CATE eclipse observations to do photo analysis of the stars when the planet moves in front of it. Whenever a planet moves in front of a star relative to our observation point here on earth, we can see a very small dip in the light output from the star, Baer said. We are currently observing known transiting planets in this test phase. The planets are relatively large ones that block 1 to 2 percent of the host star's light. They also have well defined orbits so we know when to look for them. The work allows the group to evaluate what it can do with telescopes and to classify the types of transits that members can detect with the CATE network. Get involved Baer said all information on the project is shared on the Citizen CATE Facebook group, which is also open to the public. He encourages local residents with an interest in science and astronomy to attend the presentation, as well as one of the SIU physics departments monthly observations at Neckers Building. Because the astronomy talks usually attract a broad audience I will be aiming the content of the talk to general public with such interests, he said. WASHINGTON (AP) -- The breakdown of a plea deal with former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and an explosive British news report about alleged contacts he may have had with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange threw a new element of uncertainty into the Trump-Russia investigation Tuesday. A day after prosecutors accused Manafort of repeatedly lying to them, trashing his agreement to tell all in return for a lighter sentence, he adamantly denied a report in the Guardian that he had met secretly with Assange around March 2016. That's the same month Manafort joined the Trump campaign and Russian hackers began an effort to penetrate the email accounts of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. The developments thrust Manafort back into the investigation spotlight, raising new questions about what he knows and what prosecutors say he might be attempting to conceal as they probe Russian election interference and possible coordination with Trump associates in the campaign that sent the celebrity businessman to the White House. All the while, Manafort's lawyers have been briefing Trump's attorneys on what their client has told investigators, an unusual arrangement that could give Trump ammunition in his feud against special counsel Robert Mueller. "They share with me the things that pertain to our part of the case," Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, told The Associated Press. Giuliani also said Trump, who has recently stepped up his attacks on Mueller, has been enraged by the treatment of Manafort. Other figures entangled in the investigation, including Trump himself, have been scrambling to escalate attacks and allegations against prosecutors who have been working quietly behind the scenes. Besides denying he'd ever met Assange, Manafort, who is currently in jail, said he'd told Mueller's prosecutors the truth during questioning. And WikiLeaks said Manafort had never met with Assange, offering to bet London's Guardian newspaper "a million dollars and its editor's head." Story continues Assange, whose organization published thousands of emails stolen by Russian spies from Clinton's campaign in 2016, is in Ecuador's Embassy in London under a claim of asylum. It's unclear what prosecutors contend Manafort lied about, though they're expected to make a public filing that could offer answers. Dissolution of the plea deal could be a devastating outcome for a defendant who suddenly admitted guilt last September after months of maintaining his innocence and who bet on his cooperation getting him a shorter sentence. But it's also a potential setback for investigators, given that Manafort steered the campaign during a vital stretch of 2016, including a time when prosecutors say Russian intelligence was working to sway the election in Trump's favor. The prosecutors' terse three-page filing underscored their exasperation not only at Manafort's alleged deception but also at the loss of an important witness present for key moments under scrutiny, including a Trump Tower meeting at which Trump's oldest son expected to receive "dirt" about Clinton from a Kremlin-connected lawyer. "The fact is, they wanted his cooperation. They wanted him to truthfully reveal what he knew, so they're not getting what they wanted," said Washington defense lawyer Peter Zeidenberg. "This isn't like a good development where they're clapping their hands and saying, 'Now we get to crush this guy.'" Manafort's motivation, if indeed he lied to prosecutors, also was unclear. In an interview, Giuliani said Trump and his lawyers agree a presidential pardon should not be considered "now" but added, "The president could consider it at an appropriate time, as Manafort has the same rights as any American." Giuliani also accused Mueller's team of mistreating Manafort in hopes of getting him to give false testimony against the president. He said Trump "thinks it is outrageous and un-American and sounds like something that would happen under an oppressive dictatorship." Mueller's filing on Manafort came at a delicate time for investigators, who have gone months without new charges and continue to probe possible links between Trump associates and WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy website. As Trump continues raging against the investigation he tweeted Tuesday that Mueller was doing "TREMENDOUS damage to our Criminal Justice system" others in the crosshairs have filled the vacuum of Mueller's recent silence by publicly declaring their innocence, accusing prosecutors of coercing testimony or tempting fate by turning aside negotiations. One associate of Trump confidant Roger Stone is contesting a grand jury subpoena in court. Another, Jerome Corsi, said he was rejecting an offer to plead guilty to a false statements charge and has complained in news media interviews about his interrogations by prosecutors. Stone, under investigation himself for connections to WikiLeaks, has repeatedly disparaged Mueller's investigation and said his friend Corsi was at risk for prosecution "not for lying but for refusing to lie." A document drafted by Mueller's team as part of a plea offer says Corsi tipped off Stone in August 2016 that WikiLeaks planned to release damaging documents about Clinton. The tip accurately forecast that WikiLeaks would publicity post the material, including messages from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, in October. It is the first known reference by Mueller to Americans close to Trump appearing to have foreknowledge of WikiLeaks' plans. The draft document was first reported by NBC News and a copy of it was posted online by The Washington Post. Stone has denied knowing about WikiLeaks' plans in advance. Manafort, meanwhile, had been quiet since pleading guilty to conspiracy to obstruct justice and conspiracy against the United States. He has met repeatedly since then with investigators. He remained in the spotlight Tuesday when the Guardian published a report saying he had secretly met Assange around March 2016, when he was brought aboard the Trump campaign. The report suggested a direct connection between WikiLeaks and the Trump campaign. Manafort called the story "totally false and deliberately libelous," saying in a statement that he had never met Assange or anyone close to him. The Guardian cited 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 newspaper said Manafort returned in 2015 and 2016 and that its sources had "tentatively dated" the final visit to March. There was no detail on what might have been discussed. The Trump campaign announced Manafort's hiring 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 chairman that May. An AP investigation into Russian hacking showed that government-aligned cyberspies began an aggressive effort to penetrate the Clinton campaign's email accounts on March 10, 2016. Justice Department prosecutors in Virginia recently inadvertently disclosed the existence of sealed criminal charges against Assange, though it's unclear what that case entails. Prosecutors were in court Tuesday arguing against unsealing any charge. Meanwhile, a judge may soon set a sentencing date for Manafort now that his hopes for leniency appear dashed. "The cooperating defendant usually is very aware of what's at stake," said Shanlon Wu, who represented Manafort's onetime co-defendant Rick Gates. "What I always say to any client of mine who's contemplating that there is no going back. "It's like being a little bit pregnant," he added. "There's no such thing." ___ Lemire reported from New York. Associated Press writers Raphael Satter in London, Franklin Briceno in Lima, Peru, and Michael Balsamo in Washington contributed to this report. Apex Court issues order to study Bagh Durbar once again The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday issued an order directing the Department of Archaeology to conduct the study of historic Bagh Durbar once again and submit the report to the court. The oil price plunge of the past weeks has had OPEC considering a fresh production cut to prevent the next oil glut and steer Brent Crude prices back up closer to $70 per barrel. WTI Crude at $50, on the other hand, may soon start testing the U.S. shale patch if the U.S. benchmark oil price stays at that level. But oil majors are not worried about the recent slide in oil prices. Bruised by the 2014-2015 price crash, Big Oil has been planning projects, production, and profit margins at an oil price range assuming a conservative floor at $50 Brent Crude. BP, for example, sees a range of between $50 and $70 as sensible and plans on that range, the UK supermajors Regional President of BP Middle East, Michael Townshend, told CNBC on sidelines of a conference on Iraqs reconstruction in Dubai. Our investment decisions are all based on a range of pricing, theyre in that $50 to $70 range whatever today happens to be, we have no control over whatever tomorrow happens to be, Townshend told CNBC. BPs Regional President for the Middle East echoed comments from BPs CFO Brian Gilvary, who said on the Q3 earnings webcast at the end of October: As oil prices stay up over $50 a barrel, we will be surplus free cash as we go into 2020, and 2021. And, of course, we have said our breakeven goes down to $35-40 a barrel by the end of 2021, unless we chose to distribute to shareholders. Answering an analyst question at what oil price BP is basing its plans, Gilvary said that this year the company set that at $55 a barrel. We run those cases at $50 and $75 a barrel. And at $75 a barrel real over a very long period of time, and $50 is the base case that we run everything at. Thats how we look at our projects, Gilvary noted. Regional President of BP Middle East Townshend was a keynote speaker at the conference Iraq Reconstruction & Rebuilding, how to deliver Vision organized by the Iraq Britain Business Council, of which BPoperator of the worlds third-largest producing oil field, Rumaila in Iraqis a founding member. Related: How Much Does OPEC Need To Cut To Balance The Market? Working closely with State owned Basra Oil Company and PetroChina has allowed BP to develop Rumaila, which is now one of the most efficient fields in the world and contributes around 30% of the budget of Iraq, Townshend said ahead of the conference. While BP looks unfazed by the latest oil price plunge, analysts warn that the lower oil prices will reduce Iraqs oil revenues, which cover nearly 90 percent of the countrys budget. With Brent Crude at $60 a barrel, Iraq can afford to meet the current expenditures, but there wont be anything extra left for infrastructure investment to rebuild the country after it pushed ISIS out, Frank Gunter, professor of economics at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, said at the conference this weekend. A lot of infrastructure is needed electricity and water come immediately to mind. Yet it does not appear that the money will be there, CNBC quoted Gunter as saying. Iraqs new Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi is currently trying to pass the 2019 budget bill through Parliament, but politicians in many areas, including Nineveh in the north devastated by ISIS and the oil-rich key southern region Basra rejected a first budget draft, saying their regions are not getting enough for reconstruction and services infrastructure such as water and electricity. If oil prices stay at their current level, Iraqdespite boosting oil exports and productionwill have lower revenues to allocate to rebuilding the country. The oil price slide in recent weeks with Brent now at $60 may not be an issue for Big Oil, but it is an issue at OPECs second-largest oil producer Iraq, and at all other OPEC members for that matter. Its no surprise at all that OPEC is discussing a sizeable production cut to reverse an oversupply and lift oil prices. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Flying cars were thought to be coming as soon as four years from now, but actually commercial models are coming up sooner than what had been thought. Air taxi startup Kitty Hawk already has FAA approval to test its prototype in "uncongested areas." Boeing air taxi prototypes are in the works and the company expects to fly them within one year. German startup Volocopter is planning tests in Singapore next year. Audi and Airbus are testing out a trial run that will soon covert over to a flying car taxi service. "It's coming because it has to," said Robin Lineberger, the leader of Deloitte's Aerospace & Defense industry practice, over speculation on why major companies are investing heavily in the technology. "We have no more room on the ground to move cars around." Audi is conducting tests in South America in cooperation with the Airbus subsidiary Voom. Customers book helicopter flights in Mexico City or Sao Paulo, while an Audi is at the ready for the journey to or from the landing site. It will feed data into its autonomous, electric flying taxi prototype, which was shown taking its first public test flight yesterday at Drone Week in Amsterdam. In its first public test flight, the Audi and Airbus flight module accurately placed a passenger capsule on the ground module, which then drove from the test grounds in autonomous vehicle mode. Its expected that as soon as the next decade starts, Audi customers could use a convenient and efficient flying taxi service in large cities. It will operate both in the sky and on the ground, and it being designed around the goals of providing customers with the opportunity to turn drive time into leisure or work time while still in the vehicle. Audi and several of its global automaker competitors see advanced ride services as the inevitable wave of the future. More and more people are moving to cities. And more and more people will be mobile thanks to automation. In future senior citizens, children, and people without a drivers license will want to use convenient robot taxis. If we succeed in making a smart allocation of traffic between roads and airspace, people and cities can benefit in equal measure, said Dr. Bernd Martens, Audi board member for sourcing and IT, and president of the Audi subsidiary Italdesign. Related: How Much Does OPEC Need To Cut To Balance The Market? Industry watchers and proponents see flying cars becoming part of the global transportation network and generating as much as $5 billion a year in service revenue. It ties in closely to automakers and tech giants investing heavily into automated, electric vehicles expected to soon come to roads. Autonomous vehicles are expected to face a long phase of dealing with heavy traffic and competition for road space with human-driven cars and trucks. Some analysts see the worsening of urban traffic around the world leading to startups and majors exploring electric scooters as a mobility option. Air mobility promises to lift vehicles out of clogged streets and quickly over to their destinations. Another incentive thought to be supporting flying cars is the high cost of housing in big cities. Construction projects are common around the world, but it takes these projects years to be completed. It also faces the challenge of mounting political opposition in several cities and dwindling supply of available land. On the autonomous vehicle side, Waymo, Ford, General Motors, Apple, Uber, and Lyft, are working hard on testing out these vehicles and integrating them into shared ride services for corporations and individual riders. Thats where the concept of robotaxis has come from, which has generated a lot of interest and enthusiasm. Younger consumers, in particular, are more interested in having convenient, affordable rides than owning cars. Related: Mexicos Oil Crisis Deepens On the flying car side of the business, aerospace giants like Boeing and Airbus, Silicon Valley icons like Uber, and auto giants like Toyota, Volkswagen, and Daimler are jumping into the market. Jeff Bezos and Amazon are well-known for testing out drone package delivery test projects, which will help foster the technology into the commercial side of the business. Google co-founder Larry Page has played his part in pushing for the new technology to comet to market. Hes backed a startup called Opener that is scheduled to have its first product on sale next year. Openers first air/land craft, which is called BackFly, is capable of vertical takeoffs and landing. Its powered entirely from a battery that gets recharged like an electric car. The startup says that BackFly will be capable of a fully autonomous flight, but its not clear if that will be ready at the time of its debut. As ride-hailing giant Uber continues to push its potential 2019 initial public offering, the company sees its Uber Air flying taxi division to be part of its future. Uber has been in discussions with several companies, including Textrons Bell, in its list of vehicle concepts with partners. The company wants Uber Air to have 60 miles of flying taxi range, so that customers can be airlifted across traffic-congested cities where Uber already has a strong presence. By Jon LeSage for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Birthday wishes Call 281-422-8302 or email david.bloom@baytownsun.com to wish someone a happy birthday. We will print your birthday wish on Page 2 of The Sun. Happy Birthday Wishes Constitutional Council likely to pick Rana as next chief justice Supreme Court Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana is likely to become the next chief justice with the Judicial Council recommending his name to the Constitutional Council alongside Justice Deepak Raj Joshee, Saudi Arabia is going to do whatever it takes to stabilize the oil market, but it cant and wont do it alone without a collective decision from the OPEC and non-OPEC deal participants, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said on Wednesday. We are going to ... do whatever is necessary, but only if we act together as a group of 25, Reuters quoted al-Falih as telling reporters in Nigerias capital Abuja, referring to the 25 Saudi-led OPEC nations and Russia-led non-OPEC producers that have been tweaking oil production to stabilize the market for nearly two years. Saudi Arabia and Russia steered the group in June to start pumping more oil to offset what was expected to be a steep drop-off of Iranian oil supply with the U.S. sanctions. But after the United States granted waivers to eight of Irans key oil buyers, oil prices began to slide, dragged down by fears of oversupply and of slowing global economy and oil demand growth. Now the Saudis need higher oil prices than the current $60 Brent Crude, but Riyadhs earlier idea of a sizeable decisive cut to be announced at the OPEC+ meeting next week could be trumped by President Trumps recent comments about oil pricesThank you to Saudi Arabia, but lets go lower!and his support for the Kingdom and its Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman amid growing calls in the U.S. to punish the Saudis for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. As Saudi Arabia we cannot do it alone, we will not do it alone, al-Falih said on Wednesday, referring to a production cut, adding that I think people know that leaving the market to its own devices with no clarity and no collective decision to balance the market is not helping. Related: Mexicos Oil Crisis Deepens While Saudi Arabia is airing the idea of a new production cut, its key non-OPEC ally in the deal, Russia, is less convinced that it could take part in another reduction, or at least so it lets the market to believe. Russias energy ministry is discussing potential oil production cuts with local producers and will continue talks to come up with a position by the OPEC/non-OPEC meeting in early December, Energy Minister Alexander Novak said last week. Another meeting with Russian oil companies was held on Tuesday, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing two sources who knew that such a meeting was taking place. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The worlds largest oil company Saudi Aramco seems to have surprised the global energy markets the last couple of days. New announcements of multi-billion dollar investments in gas related operations, indicating a new move to make Saudi Arabia a major gas exporter, have been made public by the companys CEO Amin Nasser. This strategic pivot may come as a surprise, as Aramco is mainly known as a producer of crude oil. The reality, however, is different as the Kingdom has not only been quietly investing in upstream gas projects, it is also sitting on some of the largest natural gas reserves in the world. At a conference in Dubai, Amin Nasser stated that that Aramco will be committing around $150 billion in investments in the next 10 years, targeting a gas production of around 23 bcf per day, an increase of 9 bcf from the current 14 bcf. The Aramco CEO also stated that 16 drilling rigs are currently working on unconventional gas, while more than 70 wells have been completed in 2018. These statements are not a radical change in tactics by the oil giant. The last couple of years, a new strategy has been implemented by Aramco to diversify its operations from largely upstream into a more diversified downstream approach. The expanding domestic downstream sector already needs additional gas supply as feedstock. At the same time, Aramcos oil producing units are also demanding higher gas volumes. In order to support current crude oil production volumes, EOR techniques are being implemented, which are partly based on gas (re-) injection to stimulate pressure in the field and stabilize or increase production. Saudi Arabias ongoing economic diversification efforts and exponentially growing power demand has also had its repercussions on Aramcos gas strategies. More natural gas as feedstock for power generation is needed to counter the current steep demand for crude oil by power plants and refineries. Taking into account the higher demand for crude in the near future, Saudi Arabia will need to free up more crude oil to export or provide as feedstock for chemicals. Even though the Kingdom holds substantial conventional gas reserves, unconventional gas is needed to supplement existing production. Nasser indicated that unconventional gas will provide much needed liquids and ethane volumes, for which demand has increased substantially due to the expansion of the Saudi chemical sector. Related: $50 Oil Puts Shale To The Test Before Aramco and the Kingdom will be able to become a net exporter of natural gas, greater production is needed. Without a drive to implement vast renewable energy schemes, no additional volumes of natural gas will be able to be freed up for possible exports. And a mix of wind and solar investments will be accompanied by an expected 17.6 GW of nuclear energy generation capacity in 2032. On the other hand, Aramcos ongoing discussion to acquire a majority stake in SABIC, the worlds largest downstream operator, could be a major constraint in future. Aramcos target to increase its global refining capacity from 5.4 million bpd to 8-10 million bpd, could have consequences for natural gas exports too. Increasing refining capacity, while still trying boost oil exports in order to meet growing demand, could end up in cannibalizing part of the extra gas production inhouse. Some of the feedstock of Aramco-SABIC refineries can be supplied with natural gas products and liquids, keeping enough crude oil barrels available to stabilize the market and convince them of the Kingdoms future oil powers. Discussions will be held the coming years with regards to Aramcos gas future and capabilities. The current environment is challenging, even if the oil giant is going to prove up major new reserves in the Arabian Gulf and Red Sea areas. At present these volumes are impressive but may not be enough to push the Kingdom from being a growing gas importer to be a net gas exporter within 10 years. Unconventional resources in the Kingdom have been assessed several times as interesting, but not having the same impact on the market as new discoveries such as recent finds in the East Mediterranean. A possible interesting twist could be if Aramco is willing to invest and operate the coming years in cooperation with NOGA/Tatweer on the offshore shale oil field of Bahrain. Associated gas production is to be expected, but volumes are not known yet. Possible links with Aramco exist, so an integrated approach could be the solution here. It still feels a bit strange to discuss Aramco/Saudi Arabia as a major gas exporter. Looking at the market, in which LNG projects and major offshore gas fields are coming onstream, competition is fierce. Aramcos current requests and discussions with major gas producers, such as Shell, Gazprom and even its Arab counterpart ADNOC, on LNG import strategies, stands clearly in contrast to the desired gas exporter status. Related: Goldman: Oil Prices Set For Rebound In 2019 A more feasible approach than to target the Kingdoms (un)conventional gas reserves for exports is a further integration of Aramco and Abu Dhabis national oil company ADNOC in the LNG sectors. A week ago, both already have stated that they are discussing future gas and LNG investments. At ADIPEC, both have signed a framework agreement to share technical and operational knowledge. Most of the GCC countries, except Qatar, are currently gas import dependent. The UAE, holding several major (sour) gas fields, with reserves of 6TCF, is still importing vast volumes of LNG. For the Kingdom the situation is possibly the same the coming years. According to BPs assessments, the Kingdoms gas production and domestic demand was around 111.4 Bcm in 2017. The coming years, demand is expected to be higher, necessitating possible LNG imports. An increase in refinery capacity will also push gas demand up, which will need to be met by imports on the short term. To partly counter this growing demand, Aramco has been very aggressively targeting investments in international projects such as Russias Arctic LNG. The oil giant could however also use another link, based on the ongoing strategic cooperation between Cairo and Riyadh. Possible long-term contracts with Egypt to supply LNG or even pipe gas to Saudi should not be pushed aside too easily. In the short-to-midterm, Saudi Arabia will not be entering the gas exporters league at all. If the economic diversification drive of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Minister Khalid Al Falih, as indicated in Saudi Vision 2030, really takes off, demand for power and downstream feedstock will negate gas production increases. At the same time, increased production difficulties at major Saudi oil fields such as Ghawar also necessitates additional gas (re)injection projects. Taking a more geopolitical view, Nassers statements could be the first indication that the Kingdom is going to set up an in-depth gas strategy in cooperation with the UAE and Russia. Gazproms ongoing discussions to supply LNG to Saudi Arabia is not only economically interesting, but further strengthens relations between Riyadh and Moscow. The future of OPEC+ or NOPEC could be cemented by a gas deal between the major proponents of a new OPEC. Gas could become the grease needed to keep the OPEC machine lubricated. A gas marriage made in OPEC heaven is the message, not exactly what analysts are predicting. Saudi gas is too precious for the Kingdom itself right now. By Cyril Widdershoven for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: For years, boosters of U.S. LNG have trumpeted the fact that gas exports from the Gulf of Mexico could break Russias grip on the European energy market. That has yet to be the case, and in fact, Russia has managed to respond with various strategies to maintain its market share on the continent. The United States is not just exporting energy, were exporting freedom, U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry said in early 2018. Were exporting to our allies in Europe the opportunity to truly have a choice of where do you buy your energy from. Thats freedom. And that kind of freedom is pricelessTheres no strings attached when you buy American [liquid natural gas]. So thats world-changing. That comment from Perry crystalizes conventional wisdom in Washington. Europe relies on Russia for about a third of its gas needs. For years, Russias Gazprom was able to bind various European countries up into rigid contracts with fixed prices, often linked to higher crude oil prices. Worse, Russia tended to negotiate bilateral deals, and would offer preferential terms to friendly countries and higher prices to others. These practices raised the ire of the European Commissions antitrust regulator, which forced Gazprom to dial back on such strong-arm tactics. But with few alternatives, there was little prospect of fundamental change Europe would still need Russian gas for the long haul. The most promising alternative came from U.S. LNG. Cheap shale gas sparked a wave of investment earlier this decade. Cheniere Energy brought its Sabine Pass LNG facility online nearly three years ago, and several more terminals are in the works. The mere threat of American LNG arriving in Europe arguably weakened Gazproms hand. Lithuania, for instance, forced Gazprom to agree to pricing concessions when it managed to bring in a floating LNG import terminal, opening up the door to imported gas from places other than Russia. Last year, the first American LNG cargo arrived in Lithuania. U.S. gas imports to Lithuania and other European countries is a game changer in the European gas market. This is an opportunity for Europe to end its addiction to Russian gas and ensure a secure, competitive and diversified supply, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskait? wrote to Foreign Affairs at the time. Related: Goldman: Oil Prices Set For Rebound In 2019 However, things have not changed as much as some had hoped. Russias market share in Europe is little changed. This has occurred for several reasons. First, very few U.S. LNG cargos have actually arrived in Europe. Second, Russia is not sitting by watching its position erode. Instead, it has expanded its own use of LNG and it has also redoubled its efforts at locking European buyers into gas via pipelines. Moreover, as Russia faces some challenges in Europe, it has also pivoted to Asia to diversify its markets. China is the worlds fastest growing gas market, and China is one of the biggest reasons why global LNG prices have rebounded much quicker than analysts anticipated. Russia would be foolish not to focus gas sales on China. The two countries are set to open a long distance pipeline by the end of next year that will move more Russian gas into China. Russias LNG shipments to India are also picking up. Its a two-prong strategy that has proven successful to date. Our main goal is to preserve our current markets, primarily Europe, and to gain a foothold in new ones, especially Asia, Alexey Teksler, Russias first deputy Minister of Energy, told the Wall Street Journal. Over time, China is set to take on much greater importance for Gazprom. While Rick Perry wants to export more freedom, the U.S.-China trade war has resulted in Chinese tariffs on American LNG. That will make U.S. gas much less competitive in China relative to other sources of gas, such as from Russia. Related: The Oil Powerhouses Replacing OPEC It is not as though U.S. LNG has not had any impact at all. The pricing concessions offered by Gazprom, and the increasing shift towards more market-based pricing for Gazprom in Europe (as opposed to rigid contracts), is arguably the largest achievement that American LNG has secured. According to the WSJ, Gazproms average selling price fell by nearly 50 percent since 2013, although much of that is also the result of falling crude oil prices. Competition from the U.S., as well as antitrust scrutiny from Brussels, means that Gazprom cannot demand exorbitant prices. But other than that, U.S. LNG has not done much else to beat back Russia in the European market. Also, Russia can still offer cheaper gas than U.S. suppliers in many places. Gazprom may have had to lower prices to Europe to keep U.S. LNG out, but it can easily undercut American exporters. Even in India, Gazprom inked a 20-year agreement for gas at $7/MMBtu, which the WSJ says is about $1 to $1.50/MMBtu cheaper than anything coming from Qatar or the U.S. Weakening Russias energy grip over Europe has been a perennial goal of U.S. administrations dating back decades. But Russia continues to adapt and outmaneuver Washington. By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Iran and China have found a way for China to continue buying Iranian crude and pay for it without risking a U.S. sanction breach, an Iranian official said, as quoted by Fars News. "A Chinese bank will start its banking exchanges with the Iranian side on December 2," the head of the Iran-China Chamber of Commerce, Asadollah Asgaroladi said, adding "The Chinese side is due to introduce its second bank for exchanges with the Iranian side in a month." Sales of crude will begin next week, Asgaroladi also said. China had a special bank dedicated to handling payments for Iranian oil during the international sanctions against Tehran earlier this decade, so finding ways around sanctions is hardly new. The country is Irans biggest crude oil buyer and has repeatedly stated it will not suspend imports regardless of sanctions. However, state refiners were reported to have stopped buying Iranian crude ahead of the U.S. sanctions, likely in a bid to score a waiver with Washington because they have exposure to the U.S. financial system and if found to violate the sanctions they would have suffered negative consequences. Indeed, China was one of the eight major Iranian oil importers that were granted six-month sanction waivers, with Washington allowing it to continue buying Iranian crude at a rate of 360,000 bpd. Thats a lot less than Chinese refiners imported before, but state companies also have rights to production from fields in Iran where Chinese companies have stakes, so they will probably be getting more than that. Related: Oil Falls On Crude Inventory Build Chinas oil imports from Iran increased by 4.1 percent annually to average 631,556 bpd between January and September, and Tehran was the fifth-largest oil supplier to the worlds top oil importer, official Chinese data shows. After somewhat reduced import volumes in September, Chinas oil intake in October and November is seen rebounding, according to trade flow data from S&P Global Platts. Last month, Iran also sent around 22 million barrels of crude to one of Chinas biggest ports, Dalian, according to a Reuters report citing tanker-tracking data. Dalian is a major oil hub in China and Iran has used storage facilities at the port to keep crude during the previous international round of sanctions against Tehran. The usual rate of Iranian crude oil cargoes going into China has been between 1 million and 3 million barrels monthly. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Iraq is increasingly edging out resellers of its Basra crude grades on the spot market as its state oil marketing company SOMO aims to have greater share and control over the lucrative spot market for its crude, S&P Global Platts reports, citing oil traders. SOMO has started to warn its term crude cargo buyers against becoming spot sellers of destination-restricted cargoes on the secondary market. This move is not unusual for Middle Eastern oil producersmost of Middle Eastern oil producing nations dont allow the resale of oil cargoes under term contracts, Platts notes. The strategy of Iraqs state oil marketing company had already led to a slowdown in spot trading activity in the European market earlier this month. In early November, demand for sour crude grades in Europe was higher due to the low appetite for Iranian crudes just ahead of the U.S. sanctions on Iran amid no clarity on possible U.S. waivers for Tehrans oil customers. Trading sources told Platts at the time that SOMO had sent letters to companies in which it reminded them that their term contracts with Iraq dont allow resale of cargoes on the spot market. Spot trades in Iraqi crude continued to drop throughout November, leaving scarce liquidity in the December trading cycle, because the reminder that buyers arent allowed to resell cargoes removes the buying incentive and flexibility for resale for Basra oil buyers, according to traders who spoke to Platts. Due to SOMO cracking down on resale of term barrels, Asian refiners in South Korea and Japan will struggle to find Iraqi crude cargoes with destination for Asia on the spot market, a Singapore-based trader with a Chinese company told Platts. Meanwhile, Iraq is also looking to grab a higher market share in Asia, allocating 67 percent of its 2019 oil sales to the worlds fastest-growing oil demand region, and aiming to boost its oil supply to China by 60 percent next year. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Mexicos Pemex has reevaluated the reserves contained at its Ixachi discovery and now estimates its 2P (proven and probable) reserves at 750 million barrels of oil equivalent, S&P Global Platts reports, quoting Pemexs deputy director for exploration, Juan Antonio Escalera. The discoverys P3 reserves (proven, possible and probable) are estimated at 1.3 billion barrels of oil equivalent. The discovery is therefore the fourth-largest onshore one globally for the last ten years, Escalera noted. Currently, there are three wells operating at Ixachi, with two of them drilled in the last few months as Pemex seeks to stem a decline in the national oil total resulting from natural depletion and lack of investment in new exploration. Plans for the onshore field in the state of Veracruz are ambitious: Pemex plans to drill more than 40 production wells, which will require an investment of US$1.5 billion. Yet this pales in comparison to the expected value of the oil to be extracted from the field. "The expected value of the total production of Ixachi is worth $40 billion," the companys general director said at an industry event this week. "Based on these numbers, you can see how profitable this project will be." Peak production at Ixachi is seen to occur about 2022 at daily rates of 80,000 bpd of crude and 720 million cu ft of natural gas. The crude produced at Ixachi is light, of which Pemex definitely needs more to boost its gasoline production and reduce reliance on imports from the United States. Pemex recently reported its crude oil production had declined to 1.76 million bpd in October, one of the lowest monthly production rates since records began in 1990. Mexicos President-elect, however, has big plans for the countrys oil industry. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has pledged Mexico will pump 2.6 million bpd of crude by the end of his six-year term. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Hungarys Prime Minister Viktor Orban met with American martial artist and actor Chuck Norris during his visit to Budapest, Hungary, in late November. Prime Minister Orban shared footage of the meeting in which he is shown driving Norris around the city. The prime minister tells Norris and his wife that the liberals hate him. He also describes himself to Norris as a street fighter, telling him he doesnt come from the elite but from a small village. Orban then takes Norris and his wife to a training demonstration with a Hungarian anti-terrorist unit. Norris tells Orban it was the best display he had ever seen. Credit: Viktor Orban via Storyful 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 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. In a statement to AFP, a Disney spokesman dismissed the claims made against the company as "utterly without merit." Fox representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Genting Malaysia Berhad (GENM) said in a message to the local exchange that 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 had been set to feature more than 25 rides and attractions based on such blockbusters as "Ice Age," "Life of Pi," "Alien" and "Night at the Museum." FILE PHOTO: President Rodrigo Duterte MANILA, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday (November 27) said there is no question that illegal Chinese workers should be deported. However, he noted that the government should be careful in making such decision because thousands of overseas Filipino workers might suffer Chinese retaliation. They should be deported,the President said during the inauguration of the Bohol-Panglao International Airport on Tuesday. But in the same manner, you should be careful because when you point to the Chinese you also point yourself at us. There are so many thousands of Filipinos working there or went inside China as tourists and working there, he warned. This was President Dutertes response to the call of the senators to launch a crackdown against foreign workers including Chinese following reports from the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) that from more than 110,000 alien employment permits issued to foreign workers in the country, more than 50,000 were given to Chinese nationals. There has to be an arrangement there. So if you think that you are at a loss or as a disadvantage because there are so many Chinese nationals working here, remember that we have the same equal amount of people, of Filipinos who are working in China, the President concluded. Marje Pelayo The post Duterte says be careful in targeting Chinese workforce in PH appeared first on UNTV News. CEBU Archbishop Jose Palma has urged the faithful to pray for the blessings they received in 2018 and for President Rodrigo Duterte.He appealed to the public not to cheer on the chief executives unflattering PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte's decisiveness to stop corruption in government under his watch remains "resolute," Malacanang said on Wednesday, a day after alleged two corrupt-ridden public officials were dismissed from service. Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said Duterte's latest firing of Undersecretary Ronald Flores and Assistant Secretary Yeshter Donn Baccay was a warning to all government officials that "no person is exempted from the administrations high and exacting standards of honesty in public service." "Their termination also underscores that the President remains resolute in stamping out corruption in the bureaucracy, which includes offices which are specialized in particular fields of governance," Panelo said in a statement. "Like the war on drugs, the war on corruption must be fought unremittingly," he added. Duterte announced Tuesday, November 27, his decision to axe Flores and Baccay, who both worked from the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace Process's (Opapp) Support Services and Panama National Program Management Office, because of corruption allegations. The two Opapp officials' alleged involvement in corruption had prompted Presidential Adviser on Peace Process Jesus Dureza to resign from post. READ: Dureza quits; 2 Opapp officials fired Also on November 27, the President said he accepted "with sadness" the resignation of Dureza, who takes full responsibility for the wrongdoings committed by Flores and Baccay. Panelo said the Palace lauded Dureza for assuming full responsibility by giving up his position. He said Dureza's act shows the true "value of delicadeza and morality in governance." "We commend the former Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process for taking full responsibility and issuing an apology under the principle of command responsibility for the transgressions committed by his two subordinates," the Palace official said. Story continues "His resignation has set a concrete example and put a true meaning to the value of delicadeza and morality in governance. This is leadership by example," he added. Panelo said the executive branch was grateful to have Dureza as the presidential peace adviser. As presidential adviser on peace process, Dureza made great contributions to achieve peace in the country, Panelo added. "We take this occasion to thank Sec. Dureza for the services he rendered to the nation, particularly under the Duterte administration, where he assisted the President in walking the extra mile in advancing peace for the good of our nation and all Filipinos," he said. (SunStar Philippines) Four-layer security for dignitaries during Asia Pacific Summit The government is preparing to deploy around 3,500 police personnel in the Capital for the security of dignitaries attending the Asia Pacific Summit to be held in Kathmandu from November 30 to December 3. On Thursday 22nd November 2018, Cherngtalay Municipality, in collaboration with Laguna Resorts & Hotels (PLC), hosted the 17th annual Cherngtalay Loy Krathong Festival at Laguna Grove in Laguna Phuket, Asias premier destination resort. Honorable guests; Mr. Anupong Wawongmoon, Phuket Deputy Governor; Mr. Adul Choothong, Thalang District Chief; Mr. Sunirun Rachatapruk, Cherngtalay Mayor; Mr. Anthony Loh, Senior Assistant Vice President Services, Laguna Phuket and Laguna Phuket management jointly started the ceremony and released handmade Krathong floats into the lagoon to pay respect to the water goddess Pra Mae Khongkha and the water spirits. More than 3,500 villagers and tourists enjoyed various stage performances, activities and mini-street market areas at the Festival while observing the longstanding Thai tradition of Loy Krathong (meaning float the basket), a festival celebrated annually throughout Thailand. Highlight of the festival is master Krathong centerpiece in the lagoon, Rak Thai Contest a cultural appreciation competition for children, Krathong competitions, performances & exhibition of cultural crafts and arts, local foods, and mini concert by Pao Paowalee. Loy Krathong takes place every year on the evening of the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional Thai lunar calendar. In the Western calendar this usually falls in November. As Streptococcus pneumoniae cells divide, they normally form mother-and-daughter pairs (left panel). But in response to antimicrobial drugs like aztreonam and clavulanic acid, they start forming longer chains, as the cell division mechanism is affected by the drugs (right panel). Credit: Jelle Slager, University of Groningen 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 in microorganisms, the ability to take up and integrate foreign DNA. Microbiologists from the University of Groningen (UG) and the University of Lausanne have now described 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 first described the mechanism of 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 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, which 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 says, "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 says, "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 lead to chain formation, like aztreonam and clavulanic acid used in this study, will thereby increase the spread of antibiotic resistance genes. 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." Explore further Researchers discover what pneumococcus says to make you sick More information: Arnau Domenech et al, Antibiotic-Induced Cell Chaining Triggers Pneumococcal Competence by Reshaping Quorum Sensing to Autocrine-Like Signaling, Cell Reports (2018). Journal information: Cell Reports Arnau Domenech et al, Antibiotic-Induced Cell Chaining Triggers Pneumococcal Competence by Reshaping Quorum Sensing to Autocrine-Like Signaling,(2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2018.11.007 The Arctic nations. Credit: Shutterstock Climate change is redrawing the Arctic geopolitical map. Rising temperatures are causing permafrost and sea ice in the Arctic Circle to melt at an alarming rate. While this should be a worldwide cause for concern as its impact will have catastrophic consequences for the entire planet, the US, Russia, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland instead see it as an opportunity to gain access to natural resources and new trade routes. The Royal Institute of International Affairs estimates the region could contain up to 90 billion barrels of oil. According to the US Geological Survey, a fifth of the world's natural gas lays untouched beneath the Arctic ice sheet. The area is also rich in precious metals. In recent years, warmer summer months have made the area more navigable, too. In 2013, instead of using the traditional Panama Canal route, the Nordic Orion, a commercial ship, cut its journey from Vancouver to the Finnish port of Pari by about 1,850km by crossing the Arctic. And in 2017, the Russian oil tanker, Cristophe de Margerie, travelled from Norway to South Korea without the help of an icebreaker. As nations scramble to get their share of this 21st-century gold rush, old rivalries are resurfacing. Cold conflict Conflict is age old in the Arctic. Archaeological remains show it was a politically contentious area back in the 15th century. The Bering Sea also became the theatre of one of the American Civil war's battles, when Union vessels were attacked by the Confederate CSS Shenandoah in 1865. Finland lost 11% of its territory to Russia during the Winter War of 1939-1940, and fearing Japan would use the Aleutian Islands as a springboard to invade the American west coast, the US lost over 500 men trying to recapture them in 1943. During the Cold War, Washington and Ottawa set up the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line, radar stations in the far north of Canada to monitor the airspace for potential attacks. The Soviets built ballistic missile submarines and placed them in the Barents and Kara Seas. While the post-Cold War period saw a relatively peaceful interlude Russia was temporarily too economically weak to assert its power the impact of climate change has reignited interest in the area. Russia has most aggressively pursued and defended its interests in the region. For Moscow, this is not just an opportunity for lucrative, but also a national defence issue. The Kremlin considers the Arctic central to its military plans. Since the end of the Cold War, it has reopened six military bases and built three new nuclear icebreakers. Moscow is also modernising its Northern Fleet. This will include two icebreaking corvettes capable of carrying the latest anti-ship missiles. In 2013, the same year Russia annexed Crimea, president Vladimir Putin carried out extensive military exercises in the region. And in March, while posing for a photo by an Arctic glacier, he declared that: "Natural resources, which are of paramount importance for the Russian economy, are concentrated in this region." He then proceeded to explain how he would extract US$30 trillion worth of black gold from the Arctic. During 2017, nearly 300 Russian exercises took place and more than 200 missiles were fired in the region. Western allies are increasingly fearful of Russia's aggression. Canada and Norway feel particularly threatened given the vast unpopulated areas in their northern territories and the natural resources off their coasts. They have increased their defence spending. NATO has responded with the biggest military exercise since the Cold War. Recently, 50,000 NATO personnel took part in operation Trident Juncture in Norway. Enter the US The US joined this race for the Arctic in April 2018 when the Bureau of Land Management announced it would begin an environmental impact analysis for oil exploration in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR); an area designated as protected wilderness by Congress in 1980. This will enable the Trump administration to issue leases to the oil and gas industry in early 2019. This will help satisfy America's need for fossil fuels, but also to make it harder for Moscow to explore its options. New US sanctions have also targeted some Russian oil executives and prohibited American companies from dealing with them. As a result, Exxon Mobil was the first US oil company to leave Russia. More will follow. Oil is essential to the Russian economy, so Moscow will continue its aggressive pursuit of it. China also considers itself a "near Arctic state". Recently, it issued a White Paper which characterised the Northwest Passage as an "international strait". It stated: "China is an active participant, builder and contributor in Arctic affairs." The aim is to create a "Polar Silk Road" that would become part of its Belt and Road Initiative by making use of new shipping routes. China has also significantly increased investment in Greenland to expand infrastructure and hasten the island's independence from Denmark. Managing these competing interests will be a serious challenge, not least because the Arctic is a weak point in the convoluted web of treaty-based and customary international law. There is no overarching treaty governing the "High North". According to the United Nations, each country can claim up to 200 nautical miles off its coast of Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). To get access to any area beyond this point, a country must prove that this outer zone belongs to them. So far, only Iceland and Norway have been approved for such a claim. Canada, Denmark and Russia have submitted overlapping claims that are still being debated. These tensions increase the risk of international conflict. While an outright war might not be the immediate outcome, other significant threats such as piracy (illegal and unregulated fishing, for example), and eco-terrorism are likely to become more frequent. More importantly, an open race for the natural resources could quickly lead to ocean depletion. These are dark times in the High North. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Credit: CC0 Public Domain Today, scientists can sift through quadrillions of genetic sequences in open-access databases, searching (free-of-charge) for new ways to engineer crops, develop medicines or even create synthetic organisms. But a controversial proposal that aims to share the benefits of digitized DNA could affect scientists' ability to use these data, according to an article in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN). In late November, representatives from 110 countries will meet in Egypt to consider whether genetic data should be subject to the Nagoya Protocol. This international agreement, ratified in 2010, was designed to combat biopiracy by requiring users of genetic resources to obtain consent from and share benefits with the country of origin. However, until now the Nagoya Protocol has applied only to biological material, such as the leaves or roots of plants, and not to digitized DNA sequences, writes Senior Correspondent Cheryl Hogue. If the proposed changes to the pact are approved, scientists might have to pay fees to donor countries for commercial products developed from the genetic sequences. Applying the Nagoya Protocol to genetic resources is controversial. Proponents, many from developing countries, argue that the change will provide financial incentives to conserve biodiversity. On the other hand, many industry and academic groups argue that barring access to genetic sequence information would discourage innovation, hinder R&D and even endanger public health by increasing the cost and time to bring therapeutic drugs and vaccines to market. Some are hoping for a compromise that will provide financial benefits to donor countries for conserving biodiversity, while also minimizing costs for users of the genetic data. Explore further Public health officials warn of danger if genetic sequence data is included under the Nagoya Protocol More information: "Countries debate plan to equate digitized DNA data to biological material," "Countries debate plan to equate digitized DNA data to biological material," cen.acs.org/policy/intellectua ate-digitized/96/i46 Credit: CC0 Public Domain By using light waves instead of electric current to transmit data, photonic chipscircuits for lighthave advanced fundamental research in many areas from timekeeping to telecommunications. But for many applications, the narrow beams of light that traverse these circuits must be substantially widened in order to connect with larger, off-chip systems. Wider light beams could boost the speed and sensitivity of medical imaging and diagnostic procedures, security systems that detect trace amounts of toxic or volatile chemicals and devices that depend on the analysis of large groupings of atoms. Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have now developed a highly efficient converter that enlarges the diameter of a light beam by 400 times. NIST physicist Vladimir Aksyuk and his colleagues, including researchers from the University of Maryland NanoCenter in College Park, Maryland, and Texas Tech University in Lubbock, described their work in the journal Light: Science and Applications. The converter widens the cross section, or area of the beam, in two consecutive stages. Initially, the light travels along an optical waveguide a thin, transparent channel whose optical properties limit the diameter of the beam to a few hundred nanometers, less than one-thousandth the average diameter of a human hair. Because the waveguide channel is so narrow, some of the traveling light extends outward beyond the edges of the waveguide. Taking advantage of this broadening, the team placed a rectangular slab composed of the same material as the waveguide a tiny, precisely measured distance from the waveguide. The light can jump across the tiny gap between the two components and gradually leak into the slab. The slab maintains the narrow width of the light in the vertical (top-to- bottom) dimension, but it provides no such constraints for the lateral, or sideways, dimension. As the gap between the waveguide and the slab is gradually changed, the light in the slab forms a precisely directed beam 400 times wider than the approximately 300 nm diameter of the original beam. In the second stage of the expansion, which enlarges the vertical dimension of the light, the beam traveling through the slab encounters a diffraction grating. This optical device has periodic rulings or lines, each of which scatters light. The team designed the depth and spacing of the rulings to vary so that the light waves combine, forming a single wide beam directed at nearly a right angle to the chip's surface. Importantly, the light remains collimated, or precisely parallel, throughout the two-stage expansion process, so that it stays on target and does not spread out. The area of the collimated beam is now large enough to travel the long distance needed to probe the optical properties of large diffuse groupings of atoms. Working with a team led by John Kitching of NIST in Boulder, Colorado, the researchers have already used the two-stage converter to successfully analyze the properties of some 100 million gaseous rubidium atoms as they jumped from one energy level to another. That's an important proof-of-concept because devices based on interactions between light and atomic gasses can measure quantities such as time, length and magnetic fields and have applications in navigation, communications and medicine. "Atoms move very quickly, and if the beam monitoring them is too small, they move in and out of the beam so fast that it becomes difficult to measure them," said Kitching. "With large laser beams, the atoms stay in the beam for longer and allow for more precise measurement of the atomic properties," he added. Such measurements could lead to improved wavelength and time standards. More information: Sangsik Kim et al. Photonic waveguide to free-space Gaussian beam extreme mode converter, Light: Science & Applications (2018). Journal information: Light: Science & Applications Sangsik Kim et al. Photonic waveguide to free-space Gaussian beam extreme mode converter,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41377-018-0073-2 This story is republished courtesy of NIST. Read the original story here. Credit: CC0 Public Domain Could the behavior of an invasive species of ants explain the way humans interact? That's the implication of the findings a group of SUNY Buffalo State researchers has come up with, after studying the myrmica rubra species of ant. "It's a non-native ant from Europe that occurs at the Tifft Nature Preserve," said Robert J. Warren, associate professor of biology. "It probably came in on ship ballasts when they were loading coal and shipping it off. It only occurs in wet coastal areas in northern climates." Their paper on the ants, titled "Release from intraspecific competition promotes dominance of a non-native invader," was recently released. The ant has a "nasty sting," Warren said, making it a pest for the nature preserve. "It gets in densities like you would not believe," he said. "It hits densities where it literallynot figurativelycovers the ground." Warren (pictured at left), who was interested in the ants as an ecologist, and Tifft, who wanted to get rid of the ants, formed a collaboration to study the species. The main question for Warren centered on why myrmica rubra was not coexisting with native ant species at Tifft. "Essentially, where you have rubra, you have no native ants," he said. "It's a 95 percent reduction. It's higher than you'd expect." Warren said he and his team went into the study assuming the non-native species wiped out the native species of ants because it was a better competitor than the natives. Tiftt is also an "altered habitat," and it was possible that the native ants just weren't well-adapted to the environment there. "Neither was true," he said. "Rubra is actually a really poor competitor, so when we put it in head-to-head fighting with the natives, it loses. It has no unique niche, and it wants pretty much the same food and shelter as the natives." The one unique aspect about myrmica rubra is that it does not compete with itself, Warren said. "It has unnaturally low intra-specific competition," he said. With most invasive species, they arrive in a habitat with no natural enemies, and their populations explode, which is assumed to be because they are 'released' from natural enemies in the invaded range, Warren said. However, Warren's findings with rubra suggest that invasive species may thrive because they have no "friendly enemies" in the invaded range. "The natives are fighting with themselves and rubra, where rubra is essentially competing as one," he said. "Which means that all of Tifft and probably all of Western New York is one colony. It's really fascinating." The team of researchers observed the ants in nature as well as in the lab. Warren likened the way native ants behave toward each other to Game of Thrones, the popular HBO show. "They slaughter each other's queens," he said. "For ants, that's the death of the whole colony." For rubra, they're bad at fighting, as well as obtaining food, Warren said. However, not competing with each other allows their numbers to "explode." "Most natural populations limit themselves before they run out of food," he said. "They get territories, and they all compete for the food. This all limits them from running out." Rubra eats everything, and its populations crash every summer, Warren said. While the mechanism deals with ants in this specific case, it probably applies to other invasive species, like plants, Warren said. That hasn't been studied just yet. It may also explain human populations, Warren said. "Folks like to think that we're really mean to each other, but we actually have an unnaturally high level of cooperation, like nothing else," he said. For instance, if an Alaskan wolf was dropped into Siberia, the Siberian wolves would "tear it to shreds," Warren said. Conversely, Americans can travel to Siberia and work with people there. "We cooperate bizarrely high, and that's probably why our population continues to grow exponentially," he said. "Because of our cooperation." Explore further Plants compete for friendly ants More information: Robert J. Warren et al. Release from intraspecific competition promotes dominance of a non-native invader, Biological Invasions (2018). Journal information: Biological Invasions Robert J. Warren et al. Release from intraspecific competition promotes dominance of a non-native invader,(2018). DOI: 10.1007/s10530-018-1868-z In the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2007-2008 and the following studies and comments in literature and the financial press, a study from a group of leading Dutch economists, published in June 2018, is commented by Prof.dr. Piet Duffhues, Tilburg University, the Netherlands. The main conclusion of the study group was that an increase in the equity capital for Dutch banks should be realised. This proposal was based on an international comparison of bank balance sheets of leading countries. It means that commercial banks would be required to keep a greater difference between the values of their assets and their liabilities. In his paper, recently published in the open-access journal Monthly magazine for Accountancy and Business Administration (MAB), Duffhues agrees that if realised, the recommendation could not only bring Dutch banks back on their feet, but also increase their future solvency: the ability to pay their debts as they fall due. Thus, banks would have greater capacity to cover their future losses if necessary, and would manage risks in a far more efficient way. Duffhues argues that despite scientists, financial journalists and politicians having continuously analysed and discussed the causes of the most devastating financial crisis since the Great Depression in the preceding century, little attention has been paid to the financial structure of commercial banks themselves. Not only were Dutch banks not accommodating the international equity ratios, but, according to Duffhues, they were not compliant with the Dutch Corporate Governance Code 2016 in terms of external risk management, either. For a long time, they were keeping to a very low equity capitalonly holding 3% of their total balance sheet amount. With their debt possibly reaching 97%, these 3% losses were already enough to lead to a serious lack of trust. The 3% requirement had been imposed by national and international regulators in earlier decades. At that time, such strategy was considered reasonable by bank management and regulators. However, the financial crisis of 2008 turned out to be too intense to avoid the necessity of government action to rescue the banks from default. Naturally, their behaviour resulted in a very low solvency of the banks. "The behaviour of banks at that time can be seen as contributing to the systemic risk of the economy," explains Duffhues. The author goes even much further than the study group, whose study he references. He is convinced that a substantial increase in the equity capital of up to 25% for banks will not only secure their own survival, but will also bring a number of undoubtedly positive developments for the society as a whole, including more trust from citizens and firms, less need for government interventions, and avoidance of financial cycle collapses. If banks have high enough equity ratios, economic recessions will not result in finance stops for consumers and producers in the economy. Bank solvency ratios should reflect the banks' responsibility for the welfare and sustainable development of the society. Explore further Financial and non-financial firms need the same strong regulations to protect economies More information: Piet Duffhues, De lessen van de crisis van 2008 in terugblik, Maandblad Voor Accountancy en Bedrijfseconomie (2018). Piet Duffhues, De lessen van de crisis van 2008 in terugblik,(2018). DOI: 10.5117/mab.92.29016 For her research Witkowski collected seawater with fresh, modern algae to test potential indicators of the past. Credit: Caitlyn Witkowski Earth scientists are able to travel far back in time to reconstruct the geological past and paleoclimate to make better predictions about future climate conditions. Using the organic molecule phytane, a debris product of chlorophyll, scientists at the Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) and Utrecht University succeeded in developing a new indicator (proxy) of ancient CO 2 levels. This new organic proxy not only provides the most continuous record of CO 2 concentrations ever, it also covers a record-breaking half-billion years. The data confirms the idea that rises in CO 2 levels that used to take millions of years are now happening in a century. These findings are published in Science Advances on November 28th. As CO 2 increases today, it's vital to understand what impact these changes will have. To better predict the future, we must understand long-term changes in CO 2 over geologic history. Direct measurements of past CO 2 are available, for instance, bubbles in ice cores containing ancient gases. However, ice cores have a limited time span of 1 million years. To go further back in time, earth scientists have developed various indirect measurements of CO 2 from proxies e.g. from algae, leaves, ancient soils and chemicals stored in ancient sediments to reconstruct past environmental conditions. Phytane, a new way to travel in time A new proxy, using a degradation product of chlorophyll, allows geochemists to infer a continuous record of historic CO 2 levels in deep time. Scientists at NIOZ have recently developed phytane as a promising new organic proxy that uncovers a half-billion years of CO 2 levels in the oceans, from the Cambrian until recent times. Using the new proxy, they were able to make the most continuous record of ancient carbon dioxide levels ever. "We developed and validated a new way to time travelgoing farther back in time and to more places," says NIOZ-scientist Caitlyn Witkowski. "With phytane, we now have the longest CO 2 -record with one single marine proxy. This new data is invaluable to modelers who can now more accurately make predictions of the future." Witkowski and colleagues selected more than 300 samples of marine sediments from deep sea cores and oils from all over the globe, reflecting the majority of geological periods in the last 500 million years. Fossil molecules Past chemical reactions can be 'stored' in fossil molecules, and so they may reflect various ancient environmental conditions. Geochemists can infer these conditions, such as seawater temperature, pH, salinity and CO 2 levels. Organic matter, such as phytane, reflects the pressure of CO 2 in ocean water or the atmosphere (pCO 2 ). Although all organic matter has the potential to reflect CO 2 , phytane is special. Phytane is the pigment responsible for our green world. Anything that uses photosynthesis to absorb sunlight, including plants, algae and some species of bacteria have chlorophyll, of which phytane is a constituent. Plants and algae take in CO 2 and produce oxygen. Because chlorophyll is found all around the world, phytane is also everywhere, and is a major constituent of decayed and fossilized biomass. "Phytane doesn't chemically change over the course of time, even if it is millions of years old," Witkowski says. Carbon isotope fractionation CO 2 of the past is estimated from organic matter, such as phytane, through the phenomenon of carbon isotope fractionation during photosynthesis. When taking up CO 2 , plants and algae prefer the light carbon isotope (12C) over the heavy carbon isotope (13C). They only use the heavy carbon isotope when CO 2 levels in the surrounding water or atmosphere are low. The proportion between these two isotopes therefore reflects the level of carbon dioxide in the environment at the moment of growth. This also explains why Witkowski didn't use terrestrial plants as a source for her research, exclusively using phytane from (fossilized) marine sources. The plant world is divided into so-called C3- and C4-plants, each with their own unique ratio of light-to-heavy carbon. Phytoplankton all have very similar ratios compared to their plant counterparts. Witkowski: "By choosing only marine sources, we could limit uncertainty of the phytane source in the dataset." "In our data, we see high levels of carbon dioxide, reaching 1000 ppm as opposed to today's 410 ppm. In this respect, present day levels are not unique, but the speed of these changes have never been seen before. Changes that typically take millions of years are now happening in a century. This additional CO 2 -data may help us understand the future of our planet." In future research, phytane can be used to go even further back in time than the Phanerozoic, the earliest found in two billion-year-old samples. Explore further Study advances understanding the stories of ancient climate told by tiny shells More information: "Molecular fossils from phytoplankton reveal secular PCO2 trend over the Phanerozoic" Science Advances (2018). Journal information: Science Advances "Molecular fossils from phytoplankton reveal secular PCO2 trend over the Phanerozoic"(2018). advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/11/eaat4556 Provided by Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research The complex network of interdependencies between plants and animals multiplies the species at risk of extinction due to environmental change, according to a JRC study. In the case of global warming, predictions that fail to take into account this cascading effect might underestimate extinctions by up to 10 times. As an obvious, direct consequence of climate change, plants and animals living in a given area are driven to extinction when the local environmental conditions become incompatible with their tolerance limits, just like fish in an aquarium with a broken thermostat. However, there are many elusive drivers of species loss that go beyond the direct effects of environmental change (and human activity) which we still struggle to understand. In particular, it is becoming clearer that co-extinctions (the disappearance of consumers following the depletion of their resources) could be a major culprit in the ongoing biodiversity crisis. While the concept of co-extinction is supported by a sound and robust theoretical background, it is often overlooked in empirical research because it's extremely difficult to assess. A new study led by the JRC took on this challenge in order to determine the importance of co-extinctions in conditions of environmental change. JRC scientist Giovanni Strona, in collaboration with Professor Corey Bradshaw from Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, constructed 2000 "Virtual Earths", which they populated with thousands of plants and animals organized into a global system of inter-connected food-webs. They then subjected the virtual Earths to extreme trajectories of environmental change, consisting in either a "global warming", i.e. a linear, monotonic increase in temperature, or a "nuclear winter", i.e. a progressive cooling, such as that which could follow multiple nuclear detonations or an asteroid impact. They then tracked the loss of species diversity within two separate scenarios up to complete life annihilation. In the first scenario, they only accounted for the extinction of a species when the temperature became too high or too low for that species to tolerate. In the second scenario, starting from the extinctions triggered by the mismatch between local temperature and species tolerance limits, they also simulated co-extinction cascades. By comparing the two scenarios, the scientists were able to provide a quantitative estimate of the relative importance of co-extinctions in planetary biodiversity loss. They found that failing to account for interdependencies between species led to underestimation of the magnitude of mass extinctions triggered by climate change by up to 10 times. Giovanni reflects that "conservationists and decision makers need to move fast beyond a species-specific approach, and look with increasing attention at species interaction networks as a fundamental conservation target. Whenever a species leaves our planet, we lose much more than a name on a list". Global Warming: IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5C confirms the utmost urgency to act The study also explored the worst possible scenario of temperature change due to global warming. According to the simulations, 5-6C of warming would be enough to wipe out most life on the virtual Earths the scientists created. Giovanni recognises that "there are obvious limitations in our ambitious model, due to the multiple challenges of building realistic global ecological systems. On the one hand, our results are consistent with real-world patterns for which we have empirical evidence. This make us confident that the many assumptions we had to take in order to build a functional model are sound. On the other hand, however, it would be misleading to just focus on raw numbers." What is clear is that a warming Earth will put increasing pressure on the planet's biodiversity, and co-extinctions will add to that impact. While it is unlikely that the Earth will become 5-6C warmer in the near future, it is quite likely that global temperatures will continue to increase. Explore further Climate change is already causing widespread local extinction in plant and animal species More information: Giovanni Strona et al. Co-extinctions annihilate planetary life during extreme environmental change, Scientific Reports (2018). Journal information: Scientific Reports Giovanni Strona et al. Co-extinctions annihilate planetary life during extreme environmental change,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-35068-1 In the intestinal bacterium Escherichia coli, a single protein controls whether the cells divide again for the first time after hunger phases. Credit: iStock Whether dormant bacteria begin to reproduce is no accidence. Rather, they are simply waiting for a clear signal from a single protein in the cell interior. ETH researchers have now deciphered the molecular mechanisms behind this. Bacteria are capable of extremely rapid growth, but only when the conditions are right. If they lack nutrients, or if it is too cold or dry, they will enter a dormant state to wait it out. Until now, the question of how individual bacterial cells decide whether to divide has generally been studied using populations that are happily growing. But to date nobody has been able to say what it is that prompts a dormant bacterium to wake up and start dividing. Now Uwe Sauer, Head of the Institute of Molecular Systems Biology at ETH Zurich, and his team of researchers have solved this mystery. They studied the gut bacterium E. coli to find out what drives a cell's decision to divide for the first time. Surprisingly, the answer lies with a single protein in the interior of the bacterial cell: only when the concentration of this protein rises above a certain threshold will the cell divide. Based on their findings, the researchers developed a mathematical model. "Now, for the first time, this model makes quantitative predictions of when cell division will commence," Sauer says. Their study was recently published in the journal Molecular Systems Biology. Rapid activation of metabolism To understand this mechanism, the researchers first caused the E. coli bacteria to become dormant by starving them of nutrients. Next, they fed the cells with tiny droplets of glucose solution, which the bacteria lost no time in devouring: within seconds, their metabolism sprang into action. To demonstrate this, the researchers used a method developed in Sauer's lab that allows simultaneous real-time measurement of hundreds of metabolic products. Their analysis showed that it took the bacteria an astonishingly short time to turn the glucose they were fed into new biomass, including amino and nucleic acids of the kind that subsequently make up proteins and DNA the prerequisites for forming new cells. Feeding frequency is key Bacteria that are already in a growth phase will continue to divide as long as sufficient new biomass is present. But it was a different story with dormant cells: giving them the nourishing glucose drops every ten minutes caused them to produce more and more biomass over time, but they still didn't divide. Only when the researchers reduced the time interval and fed the cells every four minutes did cell division occur, albeit after one hour. Speeding up the feeding rate to once every minute had the effect that cell division commenced almost immediately. "It wasn't the total amount of sugar that was decisive, but rather the feeding frequency," Sauer says. This led the researchers to suspect that the cells were turning the glucose into a key protein, but that this protein was being broken down in the time between feeds. Only when glucose is provided at sufficiently frequent intervals is more of the protein produced than broken down, allowing the cell to divide. To test their hypothesis, the researchers combed the scientific literature for proteins that play a role in cell division and are broken down by the cell's own proteases. This is how they tracked down the protein FtsZ, which forms a ring during division that helps a cell split into two daughter cells. Cell division protein FtsZ as a signal Together with Professor Roman Stocker from the Institute of Environmental Engineering at ETH Zurich and Professor Suckjoon Jun from the University of California, San Diego, the researchers were able to demonstrate that FtsZ really is broken down in E. coli cells and that its concentration diminishes during periods of starvation. It turns out that this was indeed the key protein the researchers were looking for, because artificially accelerating the breakdown of FtsZ delayed the onset of cell division. In contrast, when the researchers used genetic methods to make the cells produce more FtsZ, those cells started dividing sooner. "This is how we showed that the concentration of FtsZ is the decisive signal for cells to begin dividing," Sauer says. In his opinion, these new findings not only serve to further basic research, they might also form the basis for specific applications: FtsZ is present not just in E. coli but in almost all species of bacteria, including pathogens such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis. "If we want to prevent dormant bacteria from beginning to divide, then FtsZ is a good point of attack," Sauer says. For some years now, several laboratories have been conducting research into substances that accelerate the breakdown of FtsZ, which makes them promising candidates for new antibiotics. Explore further Sculpting bacteria into extreme shapes reveals the rugged nature of cell division More information: Karthik Sekar et al. Synthesis and degradation of FtsZ quantitatively predict the first cell division in starved bacteria, Molecular Systems Biology (2018). Journal information: Molecular Systems Biology Karthik Sekar et al. Synthesis and degradation of FtsZ quantitatively predict the first cell division in starved bacteria,(2018). DOI: 10.15252/msb.20188623 Growing money Its time we realise the economic potential of the medicinal plant sector Quino checkerspot. Credit: US Fish and Wildlife Service 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, blue skies, 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. Two wings, actually. They're trying to save a tiny butterfly from extinction. 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. They'll sleep until the winter rains come and nature takes its course. The rain will prompt a small grass-like herb, California plantain, to sprout, and that's like a loud dinner bell to the insects. They'll wake up to eat, fueling their metamorphosis into butterflies. That's the idea, anyway. Howorth and her colleaguesscientists with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the Conservation Biology Institute, the U.S. Geological Survey, and other agencieshave had some success with this approach on other nearby sites. But there's still much they don't know, and they're constantly tweaking their methods and their equipment. Howorth pulled the lid off the storage bin and gingerly removed a small plastic cup similar to what you would use for salsa at a take-out Mexican restaurant. 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 the caterpillars wouldn't 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 two 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, which is why scientists have long watched them as indicators for the overall health of an ecosystem, even more so now amid ongoing climate change. "We start losing insects and everything gets out of synch," said Susan Wynn, a Fish & 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 Earth's 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. Millions of them flitted about every spring. Construction projectshouses, business parks, shopping malls, freewaysdestroyed many of the habitats and fragmented others. Non-native 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 percent 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 percent, and in 1997 the Quino was added to the federal endangered species list. Around 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 freeway route in Otay Mesa, one of just six places in the county where it was then 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. In took two decades to put everything in placethe funding, the land, the sciencebut that's what brought the group to the hillside in Rancho San Diego recently. 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 & 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 it's 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 place35 of them on this daySpring 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 night cap. It looks like it was done by a child, which 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. It's 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 days earlier to pinpoint where the pods should go had been yanked out of the ground. Martin suspected the culprit was someone mistakenly believing that the flags belonged to a surveyor marking the boundaries for a new house. There was no way to know for sure, though, which didn't seem to bother anybody. They're used to uncertainty. Two years ago, when they released the first group of caterpillars, "we were taking a big leap of faith," Wynn saidfaith that was rewarded when a strong rainy season led to hundreds of butterflies flying around. "We were giddy," Wynn said. Some of the butterflies were captured and taken to the zoo to deliver more eggsso many eggs, 4,500, that the team added additional sites for last year's 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 aren't right to emerge. That, apparently, is what most of them did. They could still take flight. Fingers Crossed The scientists were optimistic as they came back down from the hillside last week. A new batch of caterpillars was 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. Wynn was smiling as she made her way to the cars. In her job as a government biologist, she spends a lot of time in meetings, sitting at tables with developers, lawyers, and city planners. This was not like that. "We're outdoors, putting a plan into action that we've 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, and for plentiful plantain, and for a spring full of winged wonder. "Now," she said, "we wait." Explore further Zoo releases last summer batch of threatened butterflies 2018 The San Diego Union-Tribune Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. A refugee camp sits among agriculture fields in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon. While most Syrian refugees live in apartments and in urban settings, some live in temporary camps, working in the agriculture fields. Credit: Joe Proudman / UC Davis Arabic bounces off the walls of a small room in a nondescript building in Lebanon's notorious Bekaa Valley. About a dozen Syrian refugees carefully take photos of their diplomas and training certificates. One young man steadies a document on the brace around his left lega reminder of the civil war that has driven millions from their country, many here to Lebanon. Jawad Kaysaneya was in his first year of college, studying to be a civil engineer like his father, when he fled eastern Ghouta shortly after the war started. War derailed his dreams, and continues to do so in Lebanon, where he's lived since 2012. "In the whole world, if you are Syrian, you have nothing. You have no rights. You have no life," Kaysaneya said, in English. "I lived a life, and it's not the one I was dreaming about." But dreams have a way of persisting, especially with a little help. The web-based platform where these young Syrian adults are uploading their documents aims to remove obstacles to their aspirations. From UC Davis, the Article 26 Backpack is a new humanitarian tool that displaced people are using to securely store and share documents, such as transcripts and resumes, with universities, scholarship agencies and employers. Nearly 600 people have created virtual backpacks since the project launched in Lebanon this spring. "I think it's giving a chance for those people, for them, to erase the stigma," said Doha Albared, a computer science student at the American University of Beirut, or AUB, who helps users set up Backpacks. "But when we give those people a chance, in order to pursue what they startedmaybe their academic achievements, or career, or whateveryou're enabling them to erase that stigma." Credit: UC Davis The Article 26 Backpack grew out of the efforts of UC Davis professor Keith David Watenpaugh to address the suffering caused by attacks on students and scholars, institutions of higher learning and academic freedom. Supported by a $500,000 grant from the Ford Foundation, it takes its name from that icon of student life plus the article in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that established70 years ago next monththe right to education. Many refugees have fled without the papers so vital to getting an education or work. Their transcripts are incomplete, their diplomas are missing, or their professional certifications are not recognized. It is not only difficultbut also costly and even dangerousto seek documents from Syrian universities and state agencies. Any physical documents refugees do have risk being lost, stolen or destroyed in the uncertain environments in which they live. "If I'm telling you something, you're not going to believe me if I don't have the evidence, and those documents are the evidence," said Albared. "They're super, super important." The head of the burgeoning human rights program at UC Davis, Watenpaugh fears a generation is being lost to the ongoing civil war in Syria that has displaced or made refugees of more than 12 million people. Keith David Watenpaugh, right, a professor and director of the UC Davis Human Rights program, and Eslam Abo Alhawa, center, help Ali Almarzouki register for the Article 26 Backpack in the Bekaa Valley. Credit: Joe Proudman / UC Davis "Unless these young people have access to continuing education," Watenpaugh said, "they will not have that kind of capital that they can take with them back to Syria to help rebuild it or move to new societies where they can become leaders." Education, as the path to integrating them back into society, is, he said, "so important to confront ideologies of hate and xenophobia that seem to be on the rise not only in Europe but also in the Western Hemisphere." About 1 percent of refugees have access to higher education, tremendously fewer than the 36 percent of global youth with access, according to the United Nations refugee agency. Like Kaysaneya, many are frustrated in their attempts to pursue education and put what education they do have to work. "They have masters degree, they are well educated, but they don't have the opportunities to use them," said Eslam Abo Alhawa, a computer science student at AUB and Backpack guide. "They don't have job opportunities, and even many of them they are not able to continue their master's degree or even their baccalaureate degrees. They don't have these opportunities to show their skills." Watenpaugh, walks through a refugee camp where they register people for the Backpack the Bekaa Valley. Credit: Joe Proudman / UC Davis Watenpaugh is working with the Beirut-based university to reach out to refugees at camps and community centers as well as through social media. The guides, like Albared and Abo Alhawa, provide the human relationship important for working with people disconnected from their homeland, family and much of the world. Watenpaugh said he wants to take the Backpack to other areas of the Middle East most affected by the war in Syria. In the future, he sees its use for people affected by natural disasters, climate refugees and students with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, status in the United States. Not long after returning from Lebanon, Watenpaugh was at the Sacramento Food Bank to enroll Afghan refugees who came to the Sacramento area with special visas for working with the military in Afghanistan. Credit: UC Davis The Backpack website is available to users in English and Arabic. By the end of 2018, it will be in Spanish, too. Watenpaugh plans to integrate academic counseling and job placement assistance into the Backpack. The American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers is already developing a team to assess how the credentials that refugees share through the Backpack could be accepted by universities around the world. At the Bekka Valley site, Watenpaugh finds Kaysaneya fresh with disappointment that he didn't get a scholarship. But now that he's nearly done setting up his Backpack profile, he plans on using it to apply for future opportunities. "Look, now you never have to worry about where your documents are," Watenpaugh tells Kaysaneya. "That's one thing off your shoulders. You've had a lot to worry about." "I wish that it will change my life, actually," Kaysaneya said of the Backpack. "I believe in that." Credit: UC Davis Wire icing occurred from the 20th-25th January 2016. Credit: Shengjie Niu Chinese scientists have 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 researchers 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 fogessentially a supercooled cloud containing water droplets in liquid form at temperatures below zero degrees celsius that forms just above the Earth's surfacehad 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 conditionsthe presence of supercooled fog, lower temperatures and increased wind speedhelped 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. Explore further Maine airport moves to 100 percent recycled de-icing fluid More information: Tianshu Wang et al, Observational Study on the Supercooled Fog Droplet Spectrum Distribution and Icing Accumulation Mechanism in Lushan, Southeast China, Advances in Atmospheric Sciences (2018). Tianshu Wang et al, Observational Study on the Supercooled Fog Droplet Spectrum Distribution and Icing Accumulation Mechanism in Lushan, Southeast China,(2018). DOI: 10.1007/s00376-018-8017-6 A screenshot of the 'murder map'. Credit: Violence Research Centre First digital map of the murders recorded by the city's Coroner in early 1300s shows Cheapside and Cornhill were homicide 'hot spots,' and Sundays held the highest risk of violent death for medieval Londoners. Stabbed by a lover with a fish-gutting knife. Beaten to death for littering with eel skins. Shot with an arrow during a student street brawl. Shanked by a sore loser after late-night backgammon. These were just some of the ways to die violently in the city of London during the 14th century, as catalogued in the "Coroners' Rolls': the records of the medieval official tasked with documenting sudden and unnatural death whether accident, suicide or homicide. Now, University of Cambridge criminologist Professor Manuel Eisner has plotted all cases of murder from the surviving rolls covering the years 1300 to 1340 onto a digital map of the old city to show for the first time the 'hot spots' of lethal violence in medieval London. Building on work conducted by the historian Barbara Hannawalt over forty years ago, Eisner has also produced an analysis of the 142 homicides committed within the city's boundaries to reveal not just locations but the days, times and favoured methods. The "murder map" of medieval London will be made publicly available on Wednesday on the website of the Violence Research Centre, which will also host a launch event at 5pm today at the Institute of Criminology. "Following notification of a violent death, the Coroner and Sheriffs would summon a jury from the local area to investigate, then record all the findings," said Eisner. "The events described in the Coroners' Rolls show weapons were never far away, male honour had to be protected, and conflicts easily got out of hand. They give us a detailed picture of how homicide was embedded in the rhythms of urban medieval life." "By digitally mapping these murder cases, we hope to create an accessible resource for the public to explore these remarkable records," he said. Eisner's map allows people to filter the murders by year, weapon and crime scene, and has updated the language of each case description for modern audiences. While the map shows murders occurred across the city, two main homicide 'hot spots' emerge, both commercial centres of the time. One was the stretch of Cheapside from St Mary-le-Bow church the 'bow bells' of cockney legend leading up to St Paul's Cathedral. The other was further east: the triangle of Gracechurch, Lombard (then "Langbourn') and Cornhill streets that radiate out from Leadenhall market, the history of which can be traced back to the 14th century. The majority of murders, some 68 percent, took place in London's busy streets and markets, with 21 percent occurring in private residences. Religious buildings (six murders) may have been more dangerous than brothels (two murders). As today, medieval homicide was a weekend activity, with almost a third (31 percent) of murders taking place on a Sunday. "Sunday was the day when people had time to engage in social activities, such as drinking and gaming, which would often trigger frictions that led to assault," said Eisner. Around 77 percent of murders were committed between early evenings, "around the hour of vespers," and the first hours after curfew. Daggers and swords dominate the list of murder weapons, used in 68 percent of all cases. Thick 'quarter staff' poles designed for close combat were used in 19 percent of cases. Almost all (92 percent) perpetrators were men. In just four cases a woman was the only suspect. About a third of the cases had more than one suspect, with a number of murders involving brothers or servants helping masters. Estimates for London populations in the 14th century range from 40,000 to 100,000. Assuming a city of 80,000, Eisner suggests that medieval London murder rates were about 15-20 times higher than we would expect to see in a contemporary UK town of equivalent size. However, he argues that comparisons with modern society are problematic. "We have firearms, but we also have emergency services. It's easier to kill but easier to save lives." In fact, death by murder could be a slow process in the 14th century. "Over 18 percent of victims survived at least a week after the initial trauma, probably dying eventually from infections or blood loss," said Eisner. One saddle-maker who had his fingers cut off by a rival died of his wounds and consequently became a murder victim a full three weeks later. While his work takes in everything from bullying prevention to youth crime, violence reduction across the centuries is a major research strand for Prof Eisner. He has studied long-term historical trends in homicide from 1000 AD onwards. "London in the decades before the Black Death had more homicides relative to the population than London in the 18th or 19th century," added Eisner. "The trend in London is in line with the long-term decline of homicide found across cities in Western Europe, a decline that led to the pacified spaces that were essential for the rise of urban life and civility in Europe." Explore further CDC: Homicides by firearm on the rise in the United States New research shows wild bees are essential for producing larger and better blueberry yields -- with plumper, faster-ripening berries.The study is the first to show that wild bees improve not only blueberry quantities, but also size and other quality factors. Their benefits include: greater berry size (12 percent), quantity (12 percent), size consistency (11 percent), and earlier harvests -- by two and a half days. Credit: No credit required. Want bigger, faster-growing blueberries? New research shows wild bees are an essential secret ingredient in larger and better blueberry yieldsproducing plumper, faster-ripening berries. The study, led by University of Vermont scientists, is the first to successfully reveal that wild bees improve not only blueberry quantities, but also size and other quality factors. It finds that wild bees provide major benefits for berry farmers, including: greater berry size (12%), quantity (12%), size consistency (11%), and earlier harvestsby two and a half days. "Other studies have explored bees' effects on blueberry yields, but this is the first to show that pollinators can improve the quality of crops as well," says Charles Nicholson, who led the study as a Ph.D. student in UVM's Gund Institute for Environment and Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. The study is published in Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment. Of the nine berry farms studied across the state of Vermont, the researchers calculated that wild bees could boost production up to 36%, or roughly $136,000 per year, on one mid-sized berry farm alone. On other farms, researchers determined wild bees' potential benefits to production as roughly 6% on average. "This study highlights the undervalued work that wild bees do," says Nicholson, noting that two-thirds of the world's most important crops benefit from bee pollination, including coffee, cacao (for chocolate) and many fruits and vegetables. "Without them farmers need to find pollination somewhere else, by paying high rental fees to bring in honeybees, for example." The findings offer a farm-scale perspective to recent global estimates of wild bees' economic benefits in the billions, annuallyroughly equal to that of honeybees, with less associated costs. Bee scientists Taylor Ricketts and Charlie Nicholson study bee-friendly farms. Their research, at the University of Vermont, aims to protect bees, boost crop yields, and help farmers understand the benefits of conserving bees. Credit: Gund Institute/UVM Unique research location Because honeybees visit Vermont blueberries much less often than in other blueberry growing regions, the Green Mountain State is a perfect location to isolate the value of wild bees to berry farmers, researchers say. "Most pollination research occurs in regions awash in honeybees," says co-author Taylor Ricketts, Director of UVM's Gund Institute for Environment. "That makes it difficult to really see the job that wild bees can do for farmers." The team painstakingly hand-pollinated blueberry plants in all nine research sitesusing electric toothbrushes to mimic the buzz pollination of bumblebees, and then painted the collected pollen on over blueberry 5,000 flowers with small brushes. They compared production on these flowers, which received near-perfect pollination, to the naturally pollinated branches. The difference between the two conditions revealed each farm's "pollination deficit", the amount by which production could be improved with an increase in wild pollinators. "Many farmers don't realize they can be limited by not enough pollinators just like they can be limited by water or nutrients," says Nicholson. This study highlights the importance of wild bees to global agriculture, yet the first study to map wild bees across the U.S. - by Ricketts and colleaguessuggests wild bees declined in abundance by 23% between 2008 and 2013, especially in key U.S. agricultural areas. Another Ricketts study recently found that climate change could reduce areas available for coffee production by 88% in Latin America, as well as the bees numbers available to pollinate coffee. Another reason to protect wild pollinatorsfor berry lovers, at leastis that wild bees, especially bumblebees, are better at pollinating blueberries than honeybees. Bumblebees have evolved the ability to "buzz pollinate," vibrating blueberry flowers at a specific frequency to efficiently release showers of pollen. Honeybees are unable to do this, and must instead use less effective techniques to pry pollen from the flower. What can farmers and policymakers do to protect wild bees? The UVM team has found that maintaining a high proportion of natural bee habitat around farms can help, as well as spraying less pesticides. Small actions by homeowners can help too, such as mowing less, planting native wildflowers, and putting out 'beeboxes,' which are like birdhouses, but for wild native bees. "This study shows, yet again, that protecting wild bee populations offers important benefits to our agricultural economy," adds Ricketts. "Maintaining healthy ecosystems can be as important as providing fertilizer or water." Explore further The quiet buzz of wild bees More information: Charles C. Nicholson et al, Wild pollinators improve production, uniformity, and timing of blueberry crops, Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment (2018). Charles C. Nicholson et al, Wild pollinators improve production, uniformity, and timing of blueberry crops,(2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.agee.2018.10.018 Healthy Tasmanian devil populations have cornered the market on carrion. Credit: Menna Elizabeth Jones, Author provided The decline of Tasmanian devils is having an unusual knock-on effect: animal carcasses would once have been gobbled up in short order by devils are now taking many days longer to disappear. We made the discovery, published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, by placing carcasses in a range of locations and watching what happened. We found that reduced scavenging by devils results in extra food for less efficient scavengers, such as feral cats. Tasmanian devils have struggled for two decades against a typically fatal transmissible cancer, called devil facial tumour disease. The disease has caused devil populations to plummet by about 80% on average, and by up to 95% in some areas. Scavengers are carnivores that feed on dead animals (carrion). Almost all carnivores scavenge to a greater or lesser degree, but the devil is Tasmania's dominant scavenger. Since the extinction of the Tasmanian tiger, it is also the island's top predator. A scavenging experiment In our study, we put out carcasses of the Tasmanian pademelon (a small wallaby weighing roughly 5kg) in a variety of places, ranging from disease-free areas with large devil populations, to long-diseased areas where devil numbers are very low. We then used motion-sensor cameras to record all scavenger species that fed on the carcasses. DFTD has spread across most of Tasmania over a 20-year period. Dashed lines show the estimated disease front. Credit: Calum Cunningham/Menna Jones Unsurprisingly, much less carrion was consumed by devils in areas where devil populations have declined. This has increased the availability of carrion for other species, such as the invasive feral cat, spotted-tailed quoll, and forest raven. All of these species significantly increased their scavenging in places with fewer devils. The responses of native scavengers (quolls and ravens) were subtly different to those of feral cats. The amount of feeding by quolls and ravens depended simply on how much of each carcass had already been consumed by devils. Ravens and quolls are smaller and less efficient than devils at consuming carcasses, so they get the chance to feed only when devils have not already monopolised a carcass. In contrast, feral cats tended to scavenge only at sites where devils were at very low abundance. This suggests that healthy devil populations create a "landscape of fear" that causes cats to avoid carcasses altogether in areas where they are likely to encounter a devil. It seems that the life of a feral cat is now less scary in the absence of devils. The Carnivores of Tasmania: a Scavenging Experiment. Predator prevalence By looking at 20 years of bird surveys from BirdLife Australia, we also found that the odds of encountering a raven in Tasmania have more than doubled from 1998 to 2017. However, we were unable to directly link this with devil declines. It is likely the raven population is growing in response to a range of factors that includes land-use change and agricultural intensification, as well as reduced competition with devils. Other studies have shown that cats have also become more abundant in areas where devils have declined. This highlights the potential for devils to act as a natural biological control on cats. Cats are a major threat to small native animals and are implicated in most Australian mammal extinctions. Consumption of experimentally placed carcasses. Credit: Proceedings of the Royal Society B Carcass concerns Although smaller scavengers consumed more carrion as devils declined, they were unable to consume them as rapidly as devils. This has resulted in the accumulation of carcasses that would previously have been quickly and completely eaten by devils. In places with plenty of devils, carcasses were completely eaten within an average of five days, compared with 13 days in places where devil facial tumour disease is rife. That means carcasses last much longer where devils are rare. Around 2 million medium-sized animals are killed by vehicles or culled in Tasmania each year, and most are simply left to decompose where they fall. With devils consuming much less carrion, it is likely that carcasses are accumulating across Tasmania. It is unclear how much of a disease risk they pose to wildlife and livestock. DFTD has spread across most of Tasmania over a 20-year period. Dashed lines show the estimated disease front. Credit: Calum Cunningham/Menna Jones Conserving carnivores Large carnivores are declining throughout the world, with knock-on effects such as increasing abundance of smaller predators. In recent years, some large carnivores have begun returning to their former ranges, bringing hope that their lost ecological roles may be restored. Carnivores are declining for many reasons, but an underlying cause is that humans do not necessarily appreciate their pivotal role in the health of entire ecosystems. One way to change this is to recognise the beneficial services they provide. Our research highlights one of these benefits. It supports arguments that we should help the devil population recover, not just for their own sake but for other species too, including those threatened by feral cats. The devil seems to be solving the disease problem itself, rapidly evolving resistance to facial tumours. Any management plan will need to help this process, and not hinder it. Potentially, returning devils to mainland Australia could provide similar benefit to wildlife threatened by feral predators. Explore further Genetic mutation drives tumor regression in Tasmanian Devils This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Firefighters have been battling to contain more than 130 blazes across Queensland Thousands of people were being evacuated from their homes in northeast Australia late Wednesday, as bushfires raged across Queensland state amid a scorching heatwave. Some 8,000 people were told to leave the town of Gracemere, south of the central coast area of Rockhampton, as a fast-moving blaze threatened homes. The Bureau of Meteorology declared a "catastrophic" fire dangerthe highest possible risk ratingin some central areas, while firefighters battled to contain more than 130 blazes across the state. "This is a very stressful situation for families. I need you to all be strong. I need you to all listen. Your family and the protection of our community is vital," state premier Annastacia Palaszczuk warned those told to leave. "So we need to reach out to community members who are frail, who are elderly, who have a disability. Please listen to authorities, it is going to get a lot worse," she added. The Bureau of Meteorology said scorching temperatures had broken records across Queensland, with the state capital Brisbane reaching 37.9 degrees Celsius (100.2 degrees Fahrenheit). At least 34 schools were closed, and authorities earlier in the day said the number of homes destroyed was likely in "single digits" but it was too early to confirm. The fires erupted as Queensland is in the grip of a scorching heatwave Other states were sending back up firefighters to Queensland. "We will see more fires flare up very very quickly, so this is the start of it," Queensland fire and emergency services commissioner Katarina Carroll warned those evacuating. "It is very difficult to get a sense of how long people have in the area because the winds are picking up faster than what was expectedso evolving, but very, very quickly," she added. Resident Luana Royle from the central Queensland town of Finch Hatton told national broadcaster ABC that the area had been hard-hit by the blaze. A water bomber helicopter returns to fill its tank in the Blackwater creek of Deepwater National Park area of Queensland "Our fires around here, you couldn't even see 500 metres in front of you this morning," she said. "Everyone is OK, but two houses have went, which is pretty sad." Australia is no stranger to extreme weather, experiencing flash floods, sandstorms and even extreme drought in areas that are now being inundated. South of Queensland, in the neighbouring state of New South Wales, Sydney on Wednesday was hit by severe thunderstorms and heavy rainfall. While Queensland battles bushfires and extreme temperatures, further south Sydney was hit by severe thunderstorms The local Bureau of Meteorology reported more than 106 millimetres of rain in some places within a few hours. Flights were cancelled, railway lines closed and motorists stranded on flooded roads, as a month's worth of rain fell there early Wednesday morning. Explore further Heavy rains lash Sydney, prompting chaos 2018 AFP Dr. Jens-Eike Taeubert examining a trout infected by a previously unknown virus, which is related to a virus that infects salmon in the North Atlantic and the Pacific. Credit: Chair of Zoology / Technical University of Munich Every summer in Southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland, tons of brown trout perish. An interdisciplinary team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now discovered the culprit of the mysterious dying afflicting brown trout. It is triggered by a previously unknown virus, which is related to a virus that infects salmon in the North Atlantic and the Pacific. The setting is always in the same river sections. And the victims are always brown trout. Within a matter of days, their skin turns dark and the animals perish. Researchers and authorities have been hunting down the cause of this mysterious mass mortality for decadesunsuccessfully, until now. Using cutting-edge analysis methods, Prof. Ralph Kuhn and a research team from the Technical University of Munich have now identified the pathogen that triggers the proliferative darkening syndrome (PDS) in brown trout. From the river to the lab "The biggest challenge was identifying a pathogen nobody knew. At the outset, it was not even clear whether it was a bacterium, a virus, a parasite or an environmental toxin," recalls the biologist. Ten years of scientific detective work followed. The researchers set up two experimental stations at the Iller riverone in the headwaters, near Obersdorf, where the fish disease had never been observed; a second one in the lower course near Kempten, where brown trout die every summer. At both stations, the researchers set up aquariums fed with river water. From May to September they observed the fish in the aquariums and took tissue samples that were frozen and sent to the TUM laboratory for analysis. Searching for clues with next generation technology The observations indicated that PDS advances in three phases. Initially, the fish look healthy. Then changes in internal organs such as the liver and kidneys appear. In the third phase, the brown trout skin turns dark and the animals die shortly thereafter. "The progression of the disease quickly led us to suspect that PDS was a viral disease," says Kuhn. To detect the virus in the samples, the researchers deployed a set of modern molecular genetic procedures, known as next generation technology. Genomes can be analyzed rigorously using these procedures. First, the progression of the disease in the fish was characterized at the gene response level. Subsequently, the researchers looked at animals with a similar immune response to determine the nucleotide sequence of all inherited genetic materialof the fish and its possible pathogens. The needle in a genetic haystack The researchers deployed computer programs to pinpoint the pathogenic virus in this mountain of genetic data. Using deep bioinformatic processing, they successfully identified parts of the pathogen's genetic profile and compared them to the profiles of known viruses. Extended, virus-specific sequencing led to the determination of the viral genome. The result: The culprit behind the demise of the brown trout is a piscine reovirus. It is related to the virus that infects salmon in the North Atlantic and the Pacific, where it causes significant economic damage. In the next step, the researchers hope to grow the virus in the laboratory and investigate why it only occurs in certain sections of the Alpine rivers and to what extent global fish trade facilitates its spread. Explore further Smaller trout have growth spurts when they decide to go to sea More information: Ralph Kuehn et al, Identification of a piscine reovirus-related pathogen in proliferative darkening syndrome (PDS) infected brown trout (Salmo trutta fario) using a next-generation technology detection pipeline, PLOS ONE (2018). Journal information: PLoS ONE Ralph Kuehn et al, Identification of a piscine reovirus-related pathogen in proliferative darkening syndrome (PDS) infected brown trout (Salmo trutta fario) using a next-generation technology detection pipeline,(2018). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0206164 In this file photo taken Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2017, a passenger airliner flies past steam and white smoke emitted from China Huaneng Group's Beijing power plant that was the last coal-fired plant to shut down on March 18, 2017 as the Chinese capital convert to clean energy like thermal power. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File) Three years after sealing a landmark global climate deal in Paris, world leaders are gathering again to agree on the fine print. The euphoria of 2015 has given way to sober realization that getting an agreement among almost 200 countries, each with their own political and economic demands, will be challengingas evidenced by President Donald Trump's decision to pull the United States out of the Paris accord, citing his "America First" mantra. "Looking from the outside perspective, it's an impossible task," Poland's deputy environment minister, Michal Kurtyka, said of the talks he will preside over in Katowice from Dec. 2-14. Top of the agenda will be finalizing the so-called Paris rulebook, which determines how countries have to count their greenhouse gas emissions, transparently report them to the rest of the world and reveal what they are doing to reduce them. Seasoned negotiators are calling the meeting, which is expected to draw 25,000 participants, "Paris 2.0" because of the high stakes at play in Katowice. Forest fires from California to Greece, droughts in Germany and Australia, tropical cyclones Mangkhut in the Pacific and Michael in the Atlanticscientists say this year's extreme weather offers a glimpse of disasters to come if global warming continues unabated. In this Nov. 20, 2018 photo workers decorate the venue of the global climate summit that will be held at the site of the closed 'Katowice' coal mine in the city of Katowice, southern Poland, where - three years after sealing a landmark global climate deal in Paris - world leaders are gathering again to agree on the fine print. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski) A recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that time is running out if the world wants to achieve the most ambitious target in the Paris agreementkeeping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). The planet has already warmed by about 1 degree C since pre-industrial times and it's on course for another 2-3 degrees of warming by the end of the century unless drastic action is taken. The conference will have "quite significant consequences for humanity and for the way in which we take care of our planet," Kurtyka told the Associated Press ahead of the talks. Experts agree that the Paris goals can only be met by cutting emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to net zero by 2050. But the Paris agreement let countries set their own emissions targets. Some are on track, others aren't. Overall, the world is heading the wrong way. Last week, the World Meteorological Organization said globally averaged concentrations of carbon dioxide reached a new record in 2017, while the level of other heat-trapping gases such methane and nitrous oxide also rose. In this Jan. 7, 2011 file photo, people carry baskets of coal scavenged illegally at an open-cast mine in the village of Bokapahari in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand. 2018 is expected to see another 2 percent increase in human-made emissions, as construction of coal-fired power plants in Asia and Africa continue while carbon-absorbing forests are felled faster than they can regrow. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer, File) This year is expected to see another 2 percent increase in human-made emissions, as construction of coal-fired power plants in Asia and Africa continue while carbon-absorbing forests are felled faster than they can regrow. "Everyone recognized that the national plans, when you add everything up, will take us way beyond 3, potentially 4 degrees Celsius warming," said Johan Rockstrom, the incoming director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. "We know that we're moving in the wrong direction," Rockstrom told the AP. "We need to bend the global carbon emissions no later than 2020in two years' timeto stand a chance to stay under 2 degrees Celsius." Convincing countries to set new, tougher targets for emissions reduction by 2020 is a key challenge in Katowice. Doing so will entail a transformation of all sectors of their economies, including a complete end to burning fossil fuel. In this Nov. 17, 2018 file photo U.S. President Donald Trump visits a neighborhood impacted by the wildfires in Paradise, Calif. Forest fires from California to Greece, droughts in Germany and Australia, tropical cyclones Mangkhut in the Pacific and Michael in the Atlantic: scientists say this year's extreme weather offers a glimpse of disasters to come if global warming continues unabated. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, file) Poor nations want rich countries to pledge the biggest cuts, on the grounds that they're responsible for most of the carbon emissions in the atmosphere. Rich countries say they're willing to lead the way, but only if poor nations play their part as well. "Obviously not all countries are at the same stage of development," said Lidia Wojtal, an associate with Berlin-based consultancy Climatekos and a former Polish climate negotiator. "So we need to also take that into account and differentiate between the responsibilities. And that's a huge task." Among those likely to be pressing hardest for ambitious measures will be small island nations , which are already facing serious challenges from climate change. The U.S., meanwhile, is far from being the driving force it was during the Paris talks under President Barack Obama. Brazil and Australia, previously staunch backers of the accord, appear to be following in Trump's footsteps . Some observers fear nationalist thinking on climate could scupper all hope of meaningful progress in Katowice. Others are more optimistic. In this Sept. 17, 2018 file photo rescuers dig on the site where victims were believed to have been buried by a landslide after Typhoon Mangkhut barreled across Itogon, Benguet province, northern Philippines. Forest fires from California to Greece, droughts in Germany and Australia, tropical cyclones Mangkhut in the Pacific and Michael in the Atlantic: scientists say this year's extreme weather offers a glimpse of disasters to come if global warming continues unabated. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila, file) "We will soon see a large enough minority of significant economies moving decisively in the right direction," said Rockstrom. "That can have spillover effects which can be positive." Poland could end up playing a crucial role in bringing opposing sides together. The country has already presided over three previous rounds of climate talks, and its heavy reliance on carbon-intensive coal for energy is forcing Warsaw to mull some tough measures in the years ahead. The 24th Conference of the Parties, or COP24 as it's known, is being held on the site of a Katowice mine that was closed in 1999 after 176 years of coal production. Five out of the city's seven collieries have been closed since the 1990s, as Poland phased out communist-era subsidies and moved to a market economy. Yet elsewhere in the city, 1,500 miners still extract thousands of tons of coal daily. Poland also still depends on coal for some 80 percent of its energy needs. Poland intends to send a signal that the miners' futures, and those of millions of others whose jobs are at risk from decarbonization, are not being forgotten. During the first week of talks, leaders are expected to sign a Polish-backed declaration calling for a 'just transition' that will "create quality jobs in regions affected by transition to a low-carbon economy." In this Oct.24, 2018 file photo cargo ships pass sandbanks in the river Rhine near Oberwesel, Germany, during historically low water levels. A hot, dry summer has left German waterways at record low levels, causing chaos for the inland shipping industry, environmental damage and billions of euros of lossesa scenario that experts warn could portend things to come as global temperatures rise. (AP Photo/Michael Probst) Then negotiators will get down to the gritty task of trimming a 300-page draft into a workable and meaningful agreement that governments can sign off on at the end of the second week. "(I) hope that parties will be able to reach a compromise and that we will be able to say that Katowice contributed positively to this global effort," Kurtyka said. Explore further Global warming outpaces efforts to slow it: UN 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. India won't attend Saarc summit in Pakistan: Minister Swaraj Indian Minister for External Affairs (EAM) SushmaSwaraj on Wednesday said that India will not be attending the Saarc summit being organised in Islamabad, Pakistan, India media reports said. Its a Saturday night in early November. A jazz band plays near a rocket simulator in the Carnegie Science Center where a line snakes toward the bar. People in cocktail attire chat over hors doeuvres. Its not often that city public school teachers are at the center of a gala celebrating their work. But these are uncommon times in the Pittsburgh Public Schools. The teachers honored that night for excellence were identified through a rigorous new performance evaluation processone that administrators and union officials have collaborated and clashed over for years as educators and scholars across the nation watched. The new evaluation system has attracted its share of controversy, particularly over the issue of how to use student outcomes to rate teacher performance. But when the first official scores were posted last year, teachers across the district shined. Teachers matter A growing body of research shows that a childs education is strongly related to the quality of his or her teachers. Researchers find, for example, that Pittsburgh Public Schools students who have a teacher rated in the top 10 percent of the staff gain an extra year of learning over students taught by teachers whose work is rated in the bottom 10 percent, according to a 2012 report on teacher effectiveness by Mathematica Policy Research. The bottom line is that being an effective teacher means that the students in your charge learn and grow, says Jerry Longo, a clinical associate professor in the School of Education at the University of Pittsburgh Having a good teacher makes a difference, but theres also a lot of research that shows that having consistently good teachers makes a difference. If you have a bad teacher one year, you can actually lose some ground. Effective teachers make a big difference, including being critical to closing the achievement gap among races, a 2010 Mathematica study reports. But determining who the quality teachers are and determining the factors that distinguish great teachers from good ones, as well as fair teachers from the weakest teachers has long been problematic for schools. Traditional evaluation methods have largely failed to help as schools struggle to recognize the individual competencies of teachers and realize that theyre not interchangeable parts, according to a report by the New Teachers Project, a national nonprofit focused on education inequities. As a result, excellence often goes unrecognized, chronic poor performers are kept on staff, and appropriate professional development fails to reach all teachers who could use it to improve their classroom skills. Such reports have led to policies and strategies to reform the way teachers are evaluated and to promote their professional growth. Sweeping change In 2012, Pennsylvania adopted Act 82, requiring all school districts to evaluate teachers based half on observation and half on student performance measures using a model drawn from research on practices that promote professional development and improvement. While most districts began making the changes only last year, the Pittsburgh Public Schools have been working on sweeping evaluation reform since 2009 supported by federal dollars and a $40 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The model emerged from the collaboration of school administrators and the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers, the union representing the districts teachers. Its an attempt to fashion a system of teacher evaluation aimed at creating opportunities for professional growth, a modified career ladder for teachers, financial incentives for distinguished teachers and multiple measures for determining effective classroom teaching. The Pittsburgh work on teacher effectiveness has been applauded for developing and implementing best practices related to teacher evaluation in national studies, including a 2014 study by the National Council on Teacher Quality. What we can do with this system is learn over time to support teachers in different ways and make sure that the teachers who are doing well on all these things, have the opportunity to lead and share their practice, and feel valued and recognized, says Sam Franklin, executive director of the Pittsburgh Public Schools Office of Teacher Effectiveness. The model uses teacher observation, student surveys and measures of student outcomes to rate teacher quality as distinguished, proficient, needs improvement, or failing. Teachers are observed by principals and other teachers under the districts Research-based Inclusive System of Evaluation (RISE), which evaluates them on 24 teaching components to help inform their professional development. Student perceptions are solicited through surveys that ask them about their teachers control of the classroom, whether teachers challenge them, whether they feel teachers care about them, and other aspects of teaching. The third and perhaps the most controversial measure links teacher effectiveness to student outcomes. To do so, the district uses value-added measures (VAM) based on a formula developed by Mathematica Policy Research to assess growth in student standardized test scores while taking into account factors like Individual Education Plans and attendance. The student outcome measure, implemented during the 201112 school year, was the last component to be added to the evaluation process. A work in progress For Donna Ervin, a kindergarten teacher at Pittsburgh King K8 school, the new evaluation model has meant balancing concerns about how it will affect her work with its potential to promote professional growthsomething shes experienced as one of the districts teachers recruited to help train and support classroom colleagues. Before this evaluation system, you couldnt say This is good teaching, says Ervin, who has taught for 11 years and was recognized for distinguished work at the Carnegie Science Center gala in November. I couldnt go into a classroom and say, Heres where I see a weakness, let me help you. RISE has been a tremendous asset to teachers and supporting teachers. But the system is not without controversy. From the beginning, adding student outcomes to teacher evaluations raised concern among teachers. Student performance hinges on many factors, including some which teachers have little or no control over, such as family stability, household income and health. Moreover, the formula for accommodating student outcomes in teacher evaluations has grown complex. How we developed RISE in the beginning was so close to my heart, says Nina Esposito-Visgitis, president of Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers, It was true collaboration. Our evaluation system had been broken for so long. It was beautiful to watch this grow from the ground up. But now the system has become too overwhelming. Its become so huge. The transparency isnt always there. With something like VAM, people say, Let me see the formula. The formula is on the website but who understands it? Its difficult to be rated on something when you dont understand how they did it. Tensions also have risen between the union and school district over the benchmark scores that determine whether teachers need improvement or are failing. These so-called cut scores are generally considered more rigorous than those used in the statewide system. The dispute peaked after a dry run of the evaluation system in 2013 showed that more than 9 percent of the districts teachers fell into those categories. But data released late last year told a surprisingly different story. Nearly 97 percent of the more than 1,700 teachers evaluated earned scores high enough to rate their performance as either distinguished or proficient during 201314, the first school year the district used multiple measures in the report that informed what, if any, actions would be taken to improve teacher performance. Of the top performing teachers, 22.5 percent were identified as distinguished the highest rating they can receive. As such, they are eligible to be promoted to leadership positions in the district that include financial incentives. Only 1.6 percent of all teachers were given unsatisfactory ratings, a much smaller share than was identified as unsatisfactory during the dry run the previous year. The evaluation system offers teachers getting such poor ratings the chance to participate in an individualized improvement plan during which their progress is monitored and they are subject to additional observation and feedback from principals and others. High-performing teachers were identified in schools throughout the city, in all grades, in schools with low-income students and in schools with the most lowachieving students. How the evaluations and emphasis on quality teaching will affect such high-need schools remains unclear. Like distinguished teachers, those who rated less than proficient were spread across the district. But schools with the most students needing academic improvement also had a greater proportion of teachers with unsatisfactory ratings. Perhaps the final test of the new system of teacher evaluation and professional development unfolding in Pittsburgh is whether it can be sustained. It takes an infrastructure to maintain these tools with integrity, and it takes time for principals and teachers to invest in this, says Franklin, The evaluation system has components that are deeply focused on professional growth. What we do with that information and how the information is used will go a long way to determine the sustainability. 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. Mahasamiti meet may be early run at new Congress leadership The Mahasamiti meeting of the Nepali Congress scheduled for next month will be more of an exercise on new leadership of the opposition party as the general convention is only 15 months away. Nepal flag carrier safety audit by South Korea uncertain The planned safety audit of Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) by South Koreas aviation regulator before allowing Nepals national flag carrier to start flights in Seoul is still up in the air with no confirmed date. Anil Giri is a reporter covering diplomacy, international relations and national politics for The Kathmandu Post. Giri has been working as a journalist for a decade-and-a-half, contributing to numerous national and international media outlets. 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. The cryptocurrency community has been eagerly awaiting the approval of a Bitcoin ETF since early November, when U.S. regulatory agencies were supposed to officially announce a decision on a number of submissions that had been in the pipeline for months. And now, it appears that traders may have to wait a bit longer. On Tuesday, SEC chief Jay Clayton voiced concerns over the security and legitimacy of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchanges at the Consensus Invest Conference in New York City, "What investors expect is that trading in the commodity that underlies that ETF makes sense and is free from the risk of manipulation," adding, "It's an issue that needs to be addressed before I would be comfortable. Tools of the Trade Traditional exchanges have built-in safeguards to prevent manipulation. For instance, if a company was expecting major news or regulatory developments that would impact their business, trading of that particular stock may be halted briefly. Additionally, trading may be halted if a single stocks price surged or dropped by more than 10 percent in less than a five-minute period. Many exchanges also utilize sophisticated technology to receive early warnings on market manipulation and insider trading, allowing compliance teams to take action before significant damage is done. These features currently do not exist in the vast majority of cryptocurrency exchanges. Related: Teslas Chinese Sales Are Plummeting Though these tools do not reign in the markets completely, they do offer a major leg up on manipulators that crypto exchanges need to embrace before being taken seriously, at least according to the SEC. Security is Another Concern Another major concern Jay Clayton mentioned was security, stating, Weve seen some thefts around digital assets that make you scratch your head. Clayton went on to say that reputable custody of assets was of significant importance, and despite major financial players such as Goldman Sachs, Fidelity, and more already entering the space, custody offerings need to be " improved and hardened." Because cryptocurrencies exist in a different realm that true securities, however, ensuring the safety of digital assets to the satisfaction of regulators and naysayers may be an uphill battle. In 2018 alone, there has been nearly $1 billion in cryptocurrencies stolen from consumers, startups and exchanges. This number is increasingly worrying, especially as cryptos fight tooth and claw for mainstream acceptance. The SEC Does Not Speak With One Voice Though Jay Clayton remains the big boss of the regulatory agency, not all high-level officers agree with him, keeping hope for a Bitcoin ETF alive and well. Commissioner Hester Pierce, who made crypto-headlines after taking a stand against the rejection of the Wiklevoss ETF in July, voiced her opinion on crypto regulation in a recent podcast called What Bitcoin Did. Related: How Central Banks Impact Gold Markets Though Pierce stands firm on the regulatory front, she believes that Bitcoin, in particular, is ready for its chance in the sun, disagreeing with the SECs stance that the asset was not ripe enough, respectable enough, or regulated enough to be worthy of our markets. Despite her support for a Bitcoin ETF, however, she did voice concern over the crypto-market at large, noting, Just because you are calling something Crypto does not mean you can ignore the rules we have had in place for years but I do think we also need to be willing to open the doors a little bit wider for innovation. Conclusion Though the idea of an approved Bitcoin ETF may be shelved for now, its clear there is progress being made. Regulatory authorities are being particularly cautious, but not outright dismissing the idea, which can be seen as a positive thing for the community as a whole. Of course, these hurdles will have critics who will suggest that traditional markets are far from what the SEC envisions for crypto markets, but in the end, that could give this new tech an edge, ultimately ushering in a new era of finance. One thing is clear, however, for better or worse, the crypto space needs to clean up its act before it goes mainstream. By Michael Kern via Crypto Insider More Top Reads From Safehaven.com: In the clearest indication yet of just how severe the recent spike in Italian yields has been on the country's financial institutions, Italy's largest bank, UniCredit, surprised the market today when it sold $3 billion in dollar denominated five-year bonds. To find a willing buyer, the bank had to pay the equivalent of 420 basis points over the euro swap rate, which is six times more than the 70 bps over swaps it paid on five-year euro senior non-preferred bonds just this past January. The spread on the new issue was a shock as it represented a nearly 150bps concession to current market rates, and is an indication of just how much even the strongest Italian banks have to pay up if they hope to access capital markets during the ongoing Italian political turmoil. (Click to enlarge) According to the bank, the sale will help support the Italian banks capital position and boost its subordination ratio by about 73 basis points. And when we say the market was surprised, it wasn't just by how much UniCredit had to pay, but how many buyers turned up for the sale: just one, namely the world's largest fixed income manager, Pimco, which was the sole buyer of the bonds. UniCredits decision to raise funding privately with just one investor suggests that analysts are skeptical about the wider markets appetite for Italian bank bonds, said Jakub Lichwa, a credit strategist at Royal Bank of Canada in London: "The signal would have been far stronger if they had come to market with and built an order book at this level, he said. Related: How Central Banks Impact Gold Markets Which is ironic considering that even with a 150bps concession to market, the bank was still unsure it would find willing buyers. Ironically, UniCredit said that the transaction demonstrates UniCredits ability to access the market in all conditions, which, of course, is precisely the opposite of what happened as the bank was forced to not only massively overpay, but also to approach just one buyer amid fears it would be rebuked by a broader syndicate. UniCredit's surging funding costs are indicative of the problem faced by most of its peers as the rift between Rome and Brussels over the countrys budget has driven up debt yields and widened the spread between Italian bonds and benchmark German equivalents. Banks are also set to lose low-cost funding as long-term loans from the European Central Bank come due, while overnight ECB sources indicated that no new TLTRO will be forthcoming, perhaps as a bargaining chip to make sure Rome concedes to Brussels in the ongoing deficit debate which threatens to blow out yields far higher. Commenting on the surprise "drive by" bond sale, ABN Amro NV strategist Tom Kinmonth wrotes that the possibility that Italys sovereign debt may be downgraded further may justify doing the bond sale now. While the price, far above the market rate, will impact the UniCredits profitability it has placed the bank in a better position on capital for a prolonged period of time." Related: Online Shopping Just Got More Expensive As for why Pimco was UniCredit's sole buyer, Bloomberg notes that the Newport Beach-based firm was one of two buyers that took control of an unprecedented $20 billion package of non-performing loans sold by the bank earlier this year. Also, at the end of 2016, Pimco was among a handful of investors that were offered the banks riskiest bonds, people with knowledge of the matter said at the time. And while UniCredit was successful in its directly negotiated, and massively overpriced, sale to Pimco, others have not been so lucky, with Italian banks issuing only 60.5 billion ($68 billion) of bonds so far this year, the least since 2013. Which is why should the Italian political standoff with the EU not reach a favorable resolution soon, Italian banks - and their rising funding needs - will be first in line, especially once "lo spread" crosses 400bps, which the Italian government had made clear previously, is the "red line" before all hell breaks loose. By Zerohedge More Top Reads From Safehaven.com: Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. Province 2 CM criticised for involving Rekha Thapa in Beti Padhau, Beti Bachau campaign Lawmakers of the main opposition Nepali Congress (NC) have expressed their dissatisfaction over Province 2 Chief Minister Lal Babu Rauts move to involve actress Rekha Thapa in the Beti Padhau, Beti Bachau campaign. In the mid 1990s, Full Moon founder Charles Band and legendary stop-motion animation effects artist David Allen (Equinox, Willow) set out to make The Primevals, the most ambitious Full Moon feature ever and a passion project of Allen's that he directed in Romania and the Italian Alps. Band and Allen planned for a long post-production period in which Allen would create hundreds of intricately designed and animated effects shots. But when Allen fell ill, eventually passing away in 1999, the highly anticipated film sat unfinished, with Full Moon fans all over the world wondering if they would ever be able to see Allen's now-mythical magnum opus. Well, it looks like fans of Allen's and stop-motion generally may get their wish! Full Moon has launched a crowdfunding campaign to help finally bring David Allen's larger-than-life-retro-sci-fi epic to lustrous life. When released, The Primevals Special Edition Blu-ray set will feature two alternate edits of the film. The first will be the new, completed cut overseen by producer Charles Band. The second will be the "director's cut"-- faithfully assembled as David Allen intended and containing special animatic storyboards representing the unrealized shots from The Primevals. Both films will make for a fascinating comparative study, creating the definitive experience. A third disc will premiere a feature-length THE PRIMEVALS documentary from Daniel Griffith of Ballyhoo Motion Pictures loaded with never before available behind the scenes and archival footage from the many years of this film's amazing journey. More details can be found on The Primevals Indiegogo page. FBI along with cybersecurity firms dismantled a sophisticated ad fraud scheme that allowed its operators to earn tens of millions of dollars Law enforcement and private firms such as Google and WhiteOps took down one of the largest and most sophisticated digital ad-fraud campaign, tracked as Dubbed 3ve, that infected over 1.7 million computers to carry out advertising frauds. The name 3ve is derived from a set of three distinct sub-operations using unique measures to avoid detection, and each of them was built around different architectures with different components. 3ve has been active since at least 2014 and experts observed a peak in its activity in 2017. It has been estimated that the campaign allowed its operators to earn more than $30 million, people involved in the ad-fraud campaign are all from Eastern Europe. The United States Department of Justice also issued indicted 8 individuals from Russia, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine. Operators used a broad range of technique to monetize their efforts, they created fake versions of both websites and used their own botnet to simulate visitors activities, then offered ad spaces to advertisers, and Border Gateway Protocol hijacking for traffic redirection. Crooks also used malicious code to generate fake clicks over online ads and earn money. 3ve operated on a massive scale: at its peak, it controlled over 1 million IPs from both residential botnet infections and corporate IP spaces, primarily in North America and Europe (for comparison, this is more than the number of broadband subscriptions in Ireland). It featured several unique sub-operations, each of which constituted a sophisticated ad fraud scheme in its own right. read the report published by WhiteOps. Tech-savvy fraudsters try to produce fake traffic and fraudulent ad inventory to trick advertisers into believing that their ads are being seen by actual, interested users, The size of the infrastructure involved in the 3ve ad-fraud campaign is very huge, according to the experts fraudsters infected 1.7 million computers with malware, attackers used thousands of servers and more than 10,000 counterfeit websites to impersonate legitimate web publishers. The experts discovered that crooks used over 60,000 accounts selling ad inventory generating a record of 3 to 12 billion of daily ad bid requests. All told, 3ve controlled over 1 million IPs from both residential botnet infections and corporate IP spaces (as noted above, there were up to 700,000 active infections at any given time). continues the report. In aggregate, the operation also produced more than 10,000 counterfeit domains, and generated over 3 billion daily bid requests at its peak. We estimate that portions of the bot operation spanned over 1,000 servers in data centers allocated to various functions needed for this type of large-scale operation Experts observed three 3ve operations during their investigation: 3VE.1The BOAXXE Malware Scheme (aka METHBOT /MIUREF) So-called 3ve.1 sub-operation leveraged a the Boaxxe botnet, aka Miuref and Methbot, composed of infected systems in data centers across the US and Europe. Attackers also carried out BGP hijacking to obtain IP addresses used for traffic proxying from the compromised bots the data centers. The infected systems were used to visit both fake and real web pages. All the fake ad requests from 3ve.1 initially pretended to be from desktop browsers, but this changed over time, with the operation increasingly relying on spoofed mobile traffic. This was done by the data center-based browsers pretending to be Android devices. continues the report. There were two unique, active mobile misrepresentation schemes: in one the ad requests were spoofed to look like they came from mobile apps, in the other the ad requests were spoofed to look like they came from mobile browsers. The spoofing was achieved by overriding the parameters typically used to determine what type of device the traffic came from According to the investigators, between September 2014 and December 2016, the scheme involved over 1,900 servers hosted in commercial data centers to load ads from advertisers on over 5,000 counterfeit websites. With this scheme, fraudsters generated millions of dollars in profit for its operators. 3VE.2The KOVTER Malware Scheme In this second scheme, attackers used counterfeit domains to sell fake ad inventory to advertisers. Attaclers used a hidden, custom-built browsing agent (Chromium Embedded Framework) on more than 700,000 computers that were compromised with the Kovter malware. Fraudsters used redirection servers that instructed the infected computers to visit fake web pages operated by the gang. 3VE.3Data Centers IPs as Proxies In the third sub-operation bots were installed in data centers and used the IP addresses of other data centers as proxies. The 3ve campaign was first spotted in 2016 by ESET that tracked the botnet as Boaxxe botnet. Security firms helped the FBI to shut down the massive ad-fraud operation. Law enforcement obtained warrants that allowed them to seize 31 internet domains and 89 servers of the 3ve infrastructure. Pierluigi Paganini ( Security Affairs 3ve botnet, ad-fraud) Share this... Linkedin Share this: Twitter Print LinkedIn Facebook More Tumblr Pocket Share On "Can a General Conquer the Federal Prison System?" | Main | "Criminal Injustice: Alec Karakatsanis puts 'human caging' and 'wealth-based detention' in America on trial" August 23, 2017 Federal district judge finds due process problems with Indiana's forfeiture procedures As reported in this local article, a "federal judge has issued an order that partially halts the police seizure of vehicles in Indiana drug cases and other related crimes, calling the seizure of vehicles before an official forfeiture action unconstitutional." Here are the basics and the context of the ruling: U.S. District Chief Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson ruled that Indiana's forfeiture law violates the due process clause of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. "The Court concludes that the statutory provisions allowing for the seizure and retention of vehicles without providing an opportunity for an individual to challenge the pre-forfeiture deprivation are unconstitutional," Stinson ruled The order comes as the Indiana legislature reexamines the state's forfeiture laws in an interim study committee. Under Indiana law, law enforcement can hold a vehicle for up to six months. If the state decides to file a forfeiture claim against the vehicle within the first 180 days, the vehicle is held indefinitely until the case is concluded, which can often be several additional months, according to court documents. The full 35-page opinion in this matter is available at this link, and it gets started this way: This matter involves a challenge to Indianas civil forfeiture statute, specifically as it applies to the seizure and pre-forfeiture retention of vehicles. Plaintiff Leroy Washington, on behalf of himself and a putative class of plaintiffs, contends that Indianas statute violates the Due Process Clause of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Mr. Washington argues that the statute allows law enforcement officers to seize and hold vehicles based on an officers probable cause determination for up to six months without judicial oversight and without allowing individuals the opportunity to challenge that seizure and deprivation -- in other words without a post-seizure, pre-forfeiture hearing. In his Motion for Summary Judgment, Mr. Washington requests a declaratory judgment that the statute is unconstitutional, and a permanent injunction enjoining Defendants from enforcing the statute. For the reasons that follow, the Court concludes that Indiana Code Section 34-24-1-1(a)(1), as read in conjunction with the statutory provisions of the same chapter, violates the Due Process Clause of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. The Court therefore permanently enjoins Defendants from enforcing that statutory provision. August 23, 2017 at 10:19 AM | Permalink Comments Off with their heads!! Posted by: Queen of Hearts | Aug 23, 2017 7:12:00 PM Of, course, it is unconstitutional. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court also raised the requirement before it can take place. https://www.moneylaunderingwatchblog.com/2017/06/pennsylvania-supreme-court-strengthens-protections-for-property-owners-in-landmark-civil-forfeiture-decision/ However, I hope the coming avalanche of such state court decisions does not fully derail this practice. I offered a lawyer $$,$$$ for the filing of a non-frivolous writ of mandamus to make the US DOJ seize, in civil forfeiture, Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Twitter. Thousands, if not millions, of crimes have been committed on their platforms. I do not care if he can do it in an hour, since it would be so easy to document their criminality. Come on lawyer profession, get serious. Stop kidding around, seizing the houses and cars of grandmas in poor neighborhoods. A law school classmate sued Twitter on behalf of families of some of the victims of the Orlando massacre for Twitter's part in the conspiracy behind the massacre. My classmate has not listened to my theory, and is not doing well. The CDA of 1996 Section 230 states, No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider. However, by analogy, the phone company does not monitor phone calls. The moderation of comments waives that immunity, and makes the platforms publishers, since the communications are edited. They are not moderated by the telephone company, if we plan a robbery on the phone. This is why Prof. Berman should stop telling me to lower the vitriol. That request waives his Section 230 immunity from any crime committed on this platform, in my personal opinion. This is not legal advice. Posted by: David Behar | Aug 24, 2017 6:05:04 AM Post a comment Is Justice Gorsuch ready, willing, and eager to blow up the civil/criminal divide? | Main | How many federal prisoners may have Dimaya claims and how many procedural challenges will they face raising them? The title of this post is the title of this new piece by Matt Ford at The Atlantic, and the question it poses strikes me as particularly timely in light of the notable discussion of civil sanctions by Justice Gorsuch in a concurring opinion this morning in Dimaya. Here is part of the piece: The state of Indiana really wants to take Tyson Timbss Land Rover, as punishment for dealing just a few hundred dollars worth of drugs. Hes now asking the U.S. Supreme Court to let him keep it. Stories about civil forfeiture injustices are unfortunately common. What sets Timbss case apart is his legal argument: that the Eighth Amendments ban on excessive fines should shield his property from confiscation at the state level. If the Supreme Court takes up the case and agrees, the justices could impose some much-needed barriers on state and local governments voracious appetites for fees, fines, and forfeitures.... Undercover officers solicited from Timbs, buying just under four grams of heroin for less than $400. He was arrested and charged with dealing a controlled substance and conspiracy to commit theft. Timbs pleaded guilty and received a six-year sentence to be served outside prison walls. The state also tried to seize his Land Rover, kicking off the legal battle that ultimately brought him to the Supreme Court. The trial court refused to authorize the seizure. Indiana law only allowed a $10,000 fine for Timbss sentence, and the court concluded that seizing a vehicle worth four times as much as that threshold would be grossly disproportionate relative to Timbss crime. The Indiana Court of Appeals upheld the decision after their own review of the circumstances. But the Indiana Supreme Court intervened and approved the seizure. The judges unanimous opinion rested on a precedent, or lack thereof: The U.S. Supreme Court has never applied the Eighth Amendments Excessive Fines Clause to the states. Other lower courts have chosen to do so without waiting for the top justices, but Indianas Supreme Court was uninterested in following that path for Timbss benefit. Indiana is a sovereign state within our federal system, and we elect not to impose federal obligations on the State that the federal government itself has not mandated, the court declared. Timbs, with his petition in January, is now asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn that ruling.... But the Excessive Fines Clause is ripe for consideration in the age of mass incarceration. Impoverished Americans often lack the resources to pay off the fines and fees that can come from even a casual brush with the criminal-justice system. In a cruel twist, the inability to pay these costs can result in jail time itself. Keeping oneself out of trouble is also no guarantee of immunity: A 2014 Washington Post investigation, for example, found that police in multiple states use highway interdiction to target thousands of motorists for seizures of cash and property.... Civil-asset forfeiture, though still common, has come under increasing scrutiny across the political spectrum. Attorney General Jeff Sessionss push last year to revive the practice at the federal level drew harsh rebukes from the ACLU and congressional Republicans alike. Justice Clarence Thomas set off a signal flare of sorts last April suggesting he had doubts about the practices constitutionality. The Indiana case revolves around different legal questions that the ones Thomas was asking last year, but the underlying injustices are the same. Taking up the issue would give the justices a chance to set new limits on excessive fines and forfeitures for cash-hungry counties and cities. For Timbs and thousands of other Americans, that intervention would be a welcome relief. New York Court of Appeals rules noncitizen defendants have Sixth Amendment jury trial right when charges carry potential penalty of deportation | Main | "Lessons for Sentencing Reform and Reentry: A Case Study of Project New Opportunity" November 28, 2018 Despite push by Prez and VP and support of at least 70 senators, odds of a Senate vote on FIRST STEP Act still reportedly "less than 50/50" Politico has this lengthy report, headlined "White House makes last-ditch push on criminal justice reform bill," on the state of debate among Senate Republicans concerning the FIRST STEP Act. Here are details: The Trump administration and a bloc of Republican senators are making a last-ditch attempt to pass a criminal justice reform bill in the lame duck session. In a closed-door party lunch on Tuesday, Vice President Mike Pence made a strong endorsement of the bill to Senate Republicans, senators said, emphasizing that the GOP could take a clear win in the lame duck with passage. And supporters said they picked up votes during the discussion; one supportive GOP senator said theyve accrued more than 20 hard yes votes and that another dozen or so GOP senators are gettable, which would likely be enough to easily pass the bill if leadership will bring it up. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) maintained his poker face at the meeting, other than to reiterate the Senates short calendar. Asked to assess the prospect that McConnell will put the sentencing and prison reform bill on the floor, one attendee said: Less than 50/50.... A lot of people like me are still trying to understand what it does, said Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), who characterized Tuesdays critical meeting as a higher level discussion of whether we should attempt to do it. As they assess the bills prospects, GOP leaders are also asking senators whether they'd prefer to deal with the bill next year after Democrats take over the House, according to two sources familiar with the matter. That would dismantle a fragile bipartisan agreement and require Republicans and Democrats alike to essentially start over. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is still trying to garner more support for the bill, which would lower mandatory minimum sentences for some drug-related felonies, expand a program for early release, promote training programs in prison and require inmates be placed in prisons closer to their homes. He and other advocates say they are open to changing the bills treatment of some criminals in order to win new supporters. Were still working on getting additional yeses or additional cosponsors, Grassley said, noting that the only way to overcome opposition from Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and others was to increase co-sponsorship. He added that were talking about no announcement before a couple days. McConnell is loath to take up the bill on the floor to prevent a circular firing squad among Republicans. But thats already happening both in public and private: After trading blows on Twitter in recent days, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Cotton each gave opposing speeches about the bill in the lunch. But supporters said they have the momentum and estimated only a half-dozen Republicans will be difficult to convince: Cotton, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho) and Deb Fischer (R-Neb.). Over half of the Republicans are for it, and maybe 80 percent, 90 percent, maybe all of the Democrats support it, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky) said. Things are all moving in the right direction. Still, Sen. Marco Rubio said that he is skeptical of the bill, particularly when it comes to classification of crimes and said he is not sure there is anything that could win him over. And a small bloc of Republicans, led by Cotton and Kennedy, are vocally going after the bill. Kennedy called it ass backwards in an interview and said he had serious philosophical problems with the criminal justice bill. It takes all our authority and gives it to a bunch of bureaucrats, he said. The Senate also needs to pass a spending bill by Dec. 7 to avoid a partial government shutdown, and lawmakers are trying to wrap up negotiations around the Farm Bill. The criminal justice bill is regarded as a maybe that could potentially wait until next year. A version of the bill has already passed the House. Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) said that the bill is still being evaluated and people are still trying to figure out where they stand. He said McConnell has made no final decision.... But no matter what, there will be detractors. Cotton told reporters Tuesday that while the Houses version of the bill was fixable, the Senates draft of the legislation has gone consistently to the left. If only a handful of Republicans supported this bill, I could understand why (but would still be frustrated) the Senate Majority Leader would not want to bring forward a bill favored more by his opposing party than by his own party. But this Politico report reinforces my sense that a majority of GOP Senators would vote for the FIRST STEP Act and that a super-majority of all Senators (representing a super-super majority of the nation's population) want this legislation enacted. That a few Senators from a few states can, in essence, exercise a heckler's veto highlights why thoughtful federal criminal justice reform has been so very hard. Sigh. Some of many prior related posts: November 28, 2018 at 12:12 AM | Permalink Comments Looks like McConnell is going to save Republicans from themselves. Posted by: federalist | Nov 28, 2018 8:06:22 AM Haha, "It takes all our authority and gives it to bureaucrats." You bunch of lazy, spineless cowards have been doling your authority out to bureaucrats by the boxcar load for 50 years. And, when you prove incapable of competently wielding your authority, that's exactly what you should do. Posted by: Fat Bastard | Nov 28, 2018 9:10:52 AM Is this how you think democracy should work, federalist? Posted by: Doug B. | Nov 28, 2018 5:32:51 PM Lame deal anyway. Posted by: whatever | Nov 28, 2018 6:02:07 PM Last I checked, we live in a Constitutional republic, not a democracy. So no, I don't think this is how democracy is supposed to work, but this is how our republic works. Posted by: federalist | Nov 28, 2018 7:50:45 PM federalist, isn't it typically the case in any form of a constitutional republic that the policy preferences of a super-majority of representatives can and will become law (subject to some constitutional boundaries), and that no office-holder can or will be in a position of absolute power? Here is seems Senator McConnell is wielding absolute power to potentially thwart the work of a super-majority of representatives. Notably, when a President (who gets elected by the votes of the whole nation) decides to veto legislation, it only takes 67 Senators and 290 Representatives to override the veto. Here is seems a single Senator elected by voters in one state can thwart the votes of perhaps 80+ Senators and maybe 350+ Representatives. I surmise you like the policy outcome of there not being a vote on the FIRST STEP Act, federalist, but is this really how you think our Constitutional republic should be run? Posted by: Doug B | Nov 28, 2018 11:30:23 PM Post a comment Previewing SCOTUS consideration of civil forfeiture in Timbs v. Indiana from many sources | Main | Despite push by Prez and VP and support of at least 70 senators, odds of a Senate vote on FIRST STEP Act still reportedly "less than 50/50" The top court in New York issued an interesting opinion today concerning the application of the Sixth Amendment's jury trial right, as reported here via Courthouse News Service: Since noncitizens can be deported after convictions on mere misdemeanors, they are entitled to have those charges decided in jury trials, New Yorks highest court ruled 5-2 Tuesday. The ruling stems from the 2012 prosecution of Saylor Suazo with numerous assault and harassment crimes. Suazo, who remained in the United States illegally after his visa expired, was accused of throwing the mother of his children to the floor, and then choking and beating her. A month later he was charged with criminal contempt after he violated a restraining order. Before trial, prosecutors had the charges reduced to class-B misdemeanors, which are usually punishable by 90-day maximum sentences and qualify as petty crimes that can be tried summarily without a jury. Suazo nevertheless could face deportation proceedings if convicted, but the trial judge disagreed that this entitled him to a jury trial. After the bench trial concluded in 2012, Suazo was found guilty of the assault charge, as well as menacing, obstruction of breathing or blood circulation, and attempted criminal contempt. A three-judge appellate panel affirmed the judgment, finding that deportation is a collateral consequence of conviction, but the New York Court of Appeals reversed 5-2 on Tuesday. Writing for the majority, Judge Leslie Stein called it technically correct that deportation is a civil collateral consequence of a state conviction. She also noted, however, that deportation is practically inevitable when noncitizens face even class-B misdemeanors. Detention which closely resembles criminal incarceration may last several days, or it may last months or years, Stein wrote. A noncitizen who is adjudicated deportable may first face additional detention, followed by the often-greater toll of separation from friends, family, home, and livelihood by actual forced removal from the country and return to a land to which that person may have no significant ties, the 22-page opinion continues.... Judges Michael Garcia and Rowan Wilson dissented separately from the majority. In his dissent, Garcia wrote that the threat of deportation does not automatically transport petty crimes into serious ones covered by the Sixth Amendment, and that the U.S. Supreme Court must weigh in on the issue. Garcia also noted the majoritys ruling carves out special treatment for deportation and could also lead to a right to jury trials in other class-B misdemeanor cases, such as those that result in the loss of public housing.... Attorney Mark Zeno of the Center for Appellate Litigation, who represented Suazo, praised the ruling and noted that the D.C. Circuit also has upheld the right to jury trials for noncitizens facing deportation. A spokeswoman for the Bronx District Attorney Office meanwhile said that the ruling conflicts with U.S. Supreme Court precedent. We understand that while the Court of Appeals addresses the harsh realities presented by the possible consequence of deportation for noncitizens, its decision presents conflicts with existing Supreme Court precedent that must be resolved, the spokeswoman said in a statement. This decision creates ramifications, including serious backlogs and disparities in the administration of justice, for the courts of this state. We are considering taking the case to the Supreme Court to address the crucial questions this decision presents. Singapore is ranked as second top real estate investment market in Asia Pacific as the city-state continues to rebound from the cyclical lows of a couple years ago, according to Emerging Trends in Real Estate - Asia Pacific 2019, an annual real estate forecast. The report is jointly published by the US-headquartered think tank Urban Land Institute (ULI) and accounting firm PwC. Singapore rose from its third placing this year. The study covered 22 cities. Sentiment for commercial property in Singapore continues to improve, despite fears of an impending cyclical reversal as liquidity in the market reaches an all-time high. Rents and yields for prime retail space have been firming across the city, after years of poor performance, as landlords struggle to adapt to new models of retailing. The market was also supported by solid economic growth and high visitor numbers in 2018. In the office segment, the report notes that rising rents and falling vacancies reflect the possibility of a window of solid opportunity to develop core office space. Singapores pro-business environment and the growth in crowd data have placed the republic as one of the more attractive markets for data centres - an alternative asset class with higher yields, says Yeow Chee Keong, real estate & hospitality leader at PwC Singapore. Indeed, as the higher-yielding alternative asset classes continue to gain traction, niche sectors, such as shared/serviced offices and data centres, are still in demand, with Singapore leading the big four markets for data centres. Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Sydney follow behind. Co-working and other flexible office space operators have become among the biggest lessees of office space, while tech firms have also been active in the market. Pauline Oh, ULI Singapore executive director, says: The improvement in Singapores office market has seen the city-state comprehensively rerated by respondents, after falling to 21st place in our 2017 report. This can be demonstrated by a number of major office deals that have been sealed in the past 12 months, with domestic investors the biggest buyers. Story continues However, one fund manager active in the market says: It is possible the market is overly bullish towards the office sector, as 2019 could be a challenging year for the Singapore economy and new supply is expected in 2020 and 2021. While the central business district will see no new supply until 2020, decentralised office markets will see new office openings next year. Singapores residential market has proved to be exceptionally resilient, despite cooling measures being in place for several years. The outlook for the residential market remains clouded, as both developers and homebuyers have become more cautious as a result of the government tightening policies. The logistics market, however, continues to be plagued with oversupply, which has suppressed rents. But there are signs that excess space is now being taken up, and rents are expected to improve slightly in 2019. The annual report is based on the opinions of 350 real estate professionals in Asia, including investors, developers, property company representatives, lenders, brokers and consultants. See Also: Six killed in Dailekh jeep accident Six people were killed and two others injured critically when a jeep met with an accident at at Thatikadh Rural Municipality, Dailekh on Wednesday. Almost all food imported into Hong Kong by air getting through without safety documents, government auditor finds More than nine in 10 food products imported by air were given official permission to enter Hong Kong despite having no documents to prove they were safe, according to an Audit Commission report. The report, released on Wednesday, criticised the Centre for Food Safety for failing to ensure import licences were issued only after the importers submitted necessary documents, such as a health certificate, to support safety claims. The commission conducted a week-long inspection of the centre, which was formed under the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department in 2006. The food and hygiene authorities have to ensure that import licences are issued after submission of supporting documents as far as practicable, and that Centre for Food Safety staff must follow the guidelines on physical inspections, the 189-page report suggested. The director of food and hygiene agreed with the audit recommendations, a spokesman for the centre said. More than 90 per cent of food consumed locally last year was imported, with a total value of over HK$205 billion (US$26.3 billion). Over the past five years, the centres budget rose 32 per cent from HK$448 million to HK$592 million, and more than half of it was used on import control. In an inspection, the auditor found that 134 or 94 per cent of 138 food licences obtained for air import between January 25 and 31 were issued to importers even though they did not submit any of the required documents. According to the centres operating manual, supporting documents include an original or photocopy of the health certificate, or import permission. The centre argued it was a trade facilitation measure rather than an inadequacy, and that its staff could exercise flexibility after checking the information during the licence application and assessing the risk based on the track record of the importers. Staff would also physically inspect imports under the Food Surveillance Programme, the centres spokesman said. But the audit report said some items with no proof of safety were also slipping though the physical inspections. Story continues In an examination of 44 consignments of airborne imports, it was found three consignments of frozen chicken and pork from Europe were released with the consent of a senior health inspector, although health certificates were not submitted and the meat was not checked. Food imported by land was also loosely inspected, with trade insiders warning of the risks of smuggling. The commission found more than 110 consignments of chilled pork were transported by an unlicensed vehicle from mainland China on a daily basis for over four months but food safety officials stationed at the Man Kam To checkpoint said they were not aware of the illegal vehicle. Licence control and physical checks were also found to be inadequate in the food control office at the checkpoint, which handled 23,000 consignments, or 90 per cent of the total food imported from the mainland by road in 2017. Audit also noted that apart from the first-time examination and inspection of hygiene conditions when vehicles entered into [Man Kam To], the [centre] did not have the practise of conducting periodic examinations, the report said. An auditors inspection between January and April found that 14 of the 59 vehicles transporting chilled food through Man Kam To were operating without the required permission. Of the 14, 12 went through the food control office and brought in 159 consignments of food without being questioned. The other two went through the checkpoint without even passing the food control office. If pork was smuggled in and didnt go through proper quarantine procedures, who can ensure its safety? Hui Wai-kin, Pork Traders General Association chairman Hui Wai-kin, chairman of the Pork Traders General Association, said an unlicensed vehicle transporting chilled meat without being inspected could be a form of smuggling. If pork was smuggled in and didnt go through proper quarantine procedures, who can ensure its safety? Hui said. Hui, in the pork business for more than 50 years, said the industry expected food safety officials to enforce the laws strictly. They must do the job of gatekeeping well, especially when several provinces on the mainland are affected by African swine fever, he said, referring to the disease which causes deadly haemorrhagic fever in domesticated pigs but is not harmful to humans. Up to the end of September, at least 20 cases of African swine fever in eight provinces, ranging from south to north from Anhui to Inner Mongolia, have been reported by the mainland authorities. Lawmaker Helena Wong Pik-wan urged the food safety authorities and customs to explain the operational loopholes discovered by the audit. Inspection of airborne imports used to be the most stringent, and the exporters should have prepared some required documents, Wong said. How could the Hong Kong authority issue import licences without receiving any documents? Wong, a member of the Legislative Councils food safety panel, was also concerned loose controls on imports by road, in particular chilled pork highlighted by the auditors, could lead to health hazards. It could be quite dangerous if pork contaminated with veterinary drugs or hog cholera came into our market, she said. This article Almost all food imported into Hong Kong by air getting through without safety documents, government auditor finds first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018. Hong Kong police hurried to buy batches of HK$4.6 million worth of tactical gear capable of resisting clashes and sharp objects right before president Xi Jinpings visit to the city last year for the 20th anniversary of the handover, the audit report revealed. The decision of the procurement for the Police Tactical Unit was made in January 2017, according to the report, and the force was looking for a type of material that could resist physical impacts and stabbing with sharp objects to protect officers, after studying causes of injury cases among the police. The Post understands that the beefed-up gear could have been for the Special Duties Unit (SDU) commonly known as the Flying Tigers a prime and elite unit tasked with countering terrorist attacks, underwater searches and hostage rescue situations. Apart from the material, the design for cushioning effect against physical impact, the weight and the number of pieces in a full suit were also taken into account, the report stated, quoting the tender recommendation. Around two months ahead of Xis visit in late June, the force could only find one conforming offer out of seven tenders at a contract sum of HK$4.64 million, and one material out of three that are commonly used for manufacturing personal protective equipment. Upon the Security Bureaus advice, the material name and other details are not disclosed to minimise the risk of compromising the forces operational capability, the report stated, as the quantity of the suits that arrived in June last year remained unknown. Due to the short notice, the forces Operations Wing received approval to waive tender document clearance by the Department of Justice before the invitation for tenders invitation in early February 2017. The audit watchdog criticised the force for limiting innovative solutions and restricting competition by placing too narrow a brief on the material to be used as tenderers might have been able to offer new technologies or products. Story continues Hong Kong police provided an unprecedented blanket security shutdown when Xi began his three-day visit to the city on 29 June last year to mark the 20th anniversary of its return to Chinese sovereignty and to oversee the swearing-in of a new chief executive. Some 11,000 police, or more than one-third of the force, including snipers from the SDU, were deployed to protect Xi and first lady Peng Liyuan at different observation posts along the official motorcade route. Building work on the Wan Chai waterfront was suspended. And, to prevent vehicle attacks, the force deployed about 300 security barriers, weighing two tonnes each, to ring the two hotels the government delegation was using and the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai. About a dozen marine police boats operated by the SDU conducted 24-hour patrols around Victoria Harbour. This article Audit report: Hong Kong police bought HK$4.6 million worth of tactical gear at short notice ahead of Xi Jinpings visit for handover anniversary first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018. Nepal's pledge to crack down on fraudulent helicopter evacuations has failed to curb the scam, with tourists still being unnecessarily airlifted from the Himalayas so middlemen can profit on the insurance payouts, industry sources say. An AFP investigation earlier this year exposed the chopper racket where dodgy trekking outfits pressure tourists into needless and costly airlifts, or bill multiple times for a single flight. Nepal's government launched an inquiry in June after insurers were billed more than $6.5 million on 1,300 helicopter rescues in the first five months of 2018. Global insurers threatened to stop covering travellers to Nepal unless the frequency and cost of rescues fell sharply, worrying the poor Himalayan nation which relies heavily on tourism revenue. But industry insiders told AFP the scam was thriving well into the busy autumn trekking season, with operators continuing to make thousands evacuating tourists months after Nepal promised to rein in operators. "They (the government) came up with all these ideas but no one is following it," said Jay Rana, who acts as an in-country agent for international insurance firms. Invoices seen by AFP show trekking agencies and charter companies are still overbilling insurers for rescues, collecting kickbacks between $500 and $2,100 per flight. The four chopper firms involved most frequently in rescues told AFP they carried out 489 airlifts in September and October. Industry officials say the helicopter companies tend to understate the true figure to avoid competition and scrutiny. An airport source, who requested anonymity, said more than 1,000 chopper airlifts were conducted over the same two-month period -- with 68 recorded in a single day in late October. But Nepal's tourism department -- which started monitoring airlifts in September -- claimed only 40 helicopter rescues had occurred in the two months to November. "There is a little bit of a problem with the system in coordinating with the (trekking and helicopter) operators," conceded Dandu Raj Ghimire, director general of the tourism department, referring to the new rules the government implemented to curb the fraudulent rescues. But, he added, the chopper scam was "not a big problem nowadays". - 'The clock is ticking' - Nepal's trekking industry has become hooked on the kickbacks received from getting tourists evacuated by helicopter, said Rana. In one instance, a trekking company refused to share the location of a stricken tourist because Rana refused to pay the agency a hefty commission. "It was like a hostage situation," Rana said, adding the trekker was eventually brought to lower altitude on horseback. The government has also not taken action against trekking outfits selling the below-cost Himalayan trips which are at the heart of the chopper scam. The budget outfits bank on making a profit through the commission they receive if a tourist gets airlifted. Some offer itineraries without acclimatisation days factored in, or have guides push tourists to skip their rest days, increasing the risk of altitude sickness and a possible airlift from the mountains. There are also reports of guides putting baking soda -- a laxative -- in food to deliberately make trekkers ill. One tourist trekking in the Everest region in late October -- who declined to be named -- told AFP her guide advised that rest days were unnecessary. She was evacuated by a helicopter with altitude sickness halfway through her trek. The government's probe has identified 15 companies -- including helicopter firms, trekking agencies and hospitals -- linked to the lucrative racket. But no action has been taken against any of the alleged perpetrators. "Nothing punitive is happening," said Suraj Paudel, a Swiss-trained mountain rescue specialist. "We are still doing (the) helicopter business like we are buying goats in the market." Insurance companies, however, are taking note. Since AFP's investigation published in June, many UK-based insurers have hiked premiums or introduced special excess charges for helicopter rescues in Nepal. Anthony Kaye, of Campbell Irvine Insurance Brokers, described these steps as "a halfway house" and said it was only a matter of time before insurers stopped issuing policies for Nepal. "There is no commercial reason to maintain cover to Nepal given the sustained losses. The clock is ticking." Ivory Coast became the latest country to ask France to return works of art Wednesday, days after Paris said it was willing to hand back artefacts looted from Africa. The authorities will ask France to return around a hundred works of art, government spokesman and Communications Minister Sidi Toure announced following a cabinet meeting. "Ivory Coast has drawn up a list of about a hundred masterpieces," said Toure. That list will be passed on to the panel of experts appointed by the French government to consider such requests, he added. The move by the authorities in Abidjan came after the French presidency announced last Friday that it would restore to Benin 26 works of art plundered by troops in 1892. That decision was in line with the recommendations of a report last week by French experts that recommended a change in the law and the return of museum artefacts to Africa. Former French colony Senegal on Tuesday called on France to return all works of art taken from its country. Calls have been growing in Africa for the restitution of artworks, but current French law strictly forbids the government from ceding state property, even in well-documented cases of pillaging. The French experts' report, a copy of which has been seen by AFP, calls for new laws that would allow the return of thousands of African artefacts taken during the colonial period to nations that request them. Some of the Ivorian works art, like those to be returned to Benin, are currently kept in the Quai Branly museum in Paris. French President Emmanuel Macron called on other European countries to consider their position on the issue, including Belgium, Britain and Germany. President Duterte gestures during his speech at Camp Raja Sikatuna in Bohol BOHOL, Philippines In his speech last night at Camp Raja Sikatuna in Bohol,President Rodrigo Duterte said he is considering forming his own hit squad to combat the Special Partisan Unit (SPARU or sparrow) of the New Peoples Army (NPA). Ngayon ang kulang talaga is ang sparrow ko rin. Diyan lang man sila makalamang, sa bukid fight man yan. So mag-create ako ng sparrow Duterte Death Squad against the SPARU, he said. The SPARU is the known as the communist rebels hit squad during the regime of the late president Ferdinand Marcos in the 1980s. Last March, Duterte noted that there seems to be a resurgence of the NPAs sparrow units. I will match their talent also for assassinating people. May armas yan siguradoiyon ang balak ko, Duterte said. According to the President he will recruit former NPA members who have returned to the government fold to form his proposed hit squad. The Presidents statement comes amid continuing friction between the government and communist rebels, whose peace negotiations fell through in 2017 over continued attack on state troops. Communist Party of the Philippines founding chairman, Joma Sison slammed the Presidents plan, calling it a dangerous proposal that will bestow power upon the military to liquidate civilians suspected of being NPA members. Sison also clarified that the communist rebels sparrow units had long been defunct. Meanwhile, the President is also planning to deploy a bigger military force in Jolo, Sulu to counter the forces of the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group. Talagang isang division ilagay ko, not only a company, not only a battalion, not a regiment but Im going to place an entire division for the islands towards Sabah, Duterte said. The deployment of additional military forces in Jolo comes after the death of five soldiers and wounding of several others in a deadly encounter with the terrorist group. Joan Nano | UNTV News & Rescue The post Duterte mulls over formation of own hit squad vs NPA rebels appeared first on UNTV News. Georgia's ruling party candidate Salome Zurabishvili was on the verge of winning a hotly contested presidential vote, nearly complete results showed Thursday, as the opposition called for protests over alleged fraud. Former French diplomat Zurabishvili was on 59.61 percent of the vote after Wednesday's second round, the central election commission said, following completed counts from 98.41 percent of polling stations. Her rival Grigol Vashadze, from an alliance of 11 opposition parties led by exiled ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili's United National Movement (UNM), had 40.39 percent of the vote, the commission said. Western powers are closely watching the vote, seen as a test for the democratic credentials of the Caucasus nation as it seeks EU and NATO membership. Although the new head of state will have a largely ceremonial role, the vote is considered a trial run for the contest between Ivanishvili's party and the opposition in more important parliamentary polls set for 2020. Turnout was 56.23 percent when the presidential polls closed at 8:00 pm (1600 GMT) on Wednesday. Earlier, an exit poll by US firm Edison Research suggested that Zurabishvili, who is backed by billionaire tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream party, had won 55 percent of the vote against 45 percent for Vashadze. After the exit poll results were announced, Saakashvili immediately claimed "mass electoral fraud", in a statement to the pro-opposition Rustavi-2 television channel. "The oligarch has stamped out Georgian democracy and the institutions of elections," he said, referring to Ivanishvili. "I urge Georgians to defend our freedom, democracy and the law. I call on you to start mass peaceful rallies and demand snap parliamentary polls." Tensions increased ahead of the second round as the opposition accused the government of voter intimidation and claimed that ruling party activists had attacked members of Vashadze's campaign staff. Zurabishvili in turn said she and her children had received death threats through text and voice messages from people affiliated with the UNM. Rights groups have also accused government officials of vote-buying on a "widespread" and "unprecedented" scale, an allegation rejected by Georgian Dream party leadership. The Georgian Prosecutor General's office said it launched an investigation into the allegations. - Daughter of refugees - Zurabishvili, a 66-year-old independent lawmaker, is the daughter of refugees who fled Georgia in 1921 for Paris after the country's annexation by the Red Army. Her career in France's foreign service culminated in a posting to Tbilisi, where then-president Saakashvili appointed her foreign minister. But Zurabishvili quickly made enemies among the parliamentary majority, with MPs and some senior diplomats accusing her of arrogance and impulsiveness. When she was sacked after a year in the job, thousands took to the streets of the capital to protest her dismissal. "The outcome of the vote will determine not only who won the election, but also mark either progress or (a) setback for Georgia's young democracy," political analyst Gela Vasadze told AFP. Both candidates have promised to lead Georgia closer to the West, but analysts say they have different approaches to pursuing that goal. "Their records as ex-foreign ministers show that Vashadze is more closely associated with Washington, while ... Zurabishvili is clearly more EU-orientated," Vasadze said. Vashadze's election would also likely irritate Russia, which fought a bitter war with Georgia during the presidency of his ally Saakashvili. "For the Kremlin, a UNM candidate's win is like a red rag to a bull and may lead to increased tensions between the two countries," said analyst Gia Nodia. - 'Oligarch rule' - Vashadze, a 60-year-old career diplomat, has criticised Ivanishvili's "informal oligarch rule" amid growing discontent over the government's failure to tackle poverty. Ivanishvili, Georgia's richest man, stepped down as premier in 2013 after a year in office but is still seen as the country's de facto ruler. The vote is Georgia's last direct leadership poll as it transitions to a parliamentary form of governance. The first round on October 28 saw Zurabishvili take 39 percent of the vote, against 38 for Vashadze. More than 3.5 million people were eligible to vote in the election monitored by international observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Hong Kong health chief moves to allay safety fears after 175,000 French-made Sanofi Pasteur flu vaccines from batch with impurities imported to city Hong Kongs health chief on Wednesday moved to allay concerns about a possible medical scare involving substandard flu vaccines by saying there was no evidence to suggest the batch in question posed a threat. But Secretary for Food and Health Professor Sophia Chan Siu-chee urged French manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur to complete an ongoing investigation into impurities as soon as possible and send a report to the government. Replacements for the batch were expected to arrive before the end of the week. About 175,000 doses of flu vaccine from Sanofi containing white particles had been imported into the city, health officials revealed on Tuesday. The manufacturer said it suspected the particles could be related to plastics. Chan said 75,000 doses had already been delivered to clinics and hospitals, but the remaining 100,000 had not been touched. It was not known exactly how many of the distributed vaccines had been administered, or at what locations. A government statement on Tuesday night simply said there were around 100,000 doses of unused vaccine. The Department of Health and Hospital Authority are working hard to ascertain ... how many have been administered ... and are tracing the vaccines to the points of distribution, Chan said on Wednesday. Authorities had so far received no report or complaint about the white particles, and there was no evidence to show the vaccines had been compromised in quality, safety or efficacy, or posed any safety threat to recipients, she added. We request that the manufacturer quickly finish their investigation it is already under way and provide us with a comprehensive investigation report on the matter. The company had agreed to replace the problematic stocks and would be able to meet local demand within the week, Chan said. All flu vaccination services have been suspended at public hospitals and outpatient clinics, but are expected to resume gradually from Saturday. Flu vaccines from other suppliers are still available in the private sector and can still be used. Story continues The minister said there were strict international regulations governing good manufacturing practices for pharmaceuticals, including vaccines. In general the Department of Health would not test those already certified as making the grade, she said. The department said the batch concerned in Hong Kong carried the box label R3J721V and syringe label R3J72. Sanofi earlier said it had supplied more than 20 million quadrivalent doses globally during the flu season this year, and had not received any report about safety concerns. There was no evidence that the quality, safety or efficacy of the French-made vaccines had been compromised, the firm said, but medical facilities stocking the affected batch would be contacted and the doses replaced. According to Sanofi, samples of the concerned batch were first found to contain white particles by Taiwanese authorities. Hong Kong lawmaker and private doctor Kwok Ka-ki said he was disappointed with how the government had handled the incident, and was worried about the effect on public desire to get vaccinated. He urged the government to take the initiative to inspect vaccines and set up a telephone hotline to dispel any doubts held by Hongkongers. Sanofi Pasteur is the name of the vaccine business of pharmaceutical giant Sanofi. This article Hong Kong health chief moves to allay safety fears after 175,000 French-made Sanofi Pasteur flu vaccines from batch with impurities imported to city first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018. Chandan Kumar Mandal is the environment and migration reporter for The Kathmandu Post, covering labour migration and governance, as well as climate change, natural disasters, and wildlife. Government forces in Indian-administered Kashmir killed a top commander of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba militant group Wednesday during a fierce firefight, police said, triggering clashes with protestors. LeT, the proscribed group India blames for the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai, is one of the several groups fighting Indian soldiers for decades, seeking independence for Kashmir or a merger with Pakistan. Pakistani national Naveed Jatt, the man killed on Wednesday, had dramatically escaped in February from a hospital in Srinagar where he was brought from jail for a check-up two years after his arrest. Two police officers accompanying Jatt -- a renowned escape artist only five feet (1.52 metres) tall -- were killed in a shootout inside the hospital before he was whisked away on a waiting motorbike. Police also say that Jatt was part of the group of assailants who killed prominent journalist Shujaat Bukhari in a daring attack inside Srinagar's high security press area in June. Jatt and another militant were killed after they were trapped by soldiers, paramilitary forces and a police counterinsurgency unit surrounding the village of Chattergam in the central Kashmir valley. "It's a success, a relief. Naveed Jatt is one among the two militants killed," top police officer, Munir Ahmad Khan told AFP. "Jatt murdered two of our colleagues when he escaped (in February)," Khan said. Three soldiers were wounded in the gun battle, another police officer said, adding several protestors who hit the streets near the site of firefight were also injured in police action. Violence in Kashmir has left tens of thousands of people dead. This year has been the bloodiest in nearly a decade with at least 530 killed so far, including 145 civilians and nearly 400 combatants. Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since the partition of the subcontinent following independence from Britain in 1947. Both claim the former Himalayan kingdom in its entirety. India maintains some 500,000 soldiers in the part of the territory it controls, and regularly accuses Pakistan of arming and training rebels for attacks on Indian forces. Islamabad denies this, saying it only provides diplomatic support to a Kashmiri struggle for self-determination. A crashed Lion Air jet should have been grounded over a recurrent technical problem before its fatal journey, Indonesian authorities said Wednesday, as details from the new jet's flight data recorder suggested that pilots struggled to control its anti-stalling system. The preliminary crash report from Indonesia's transport safety agency also took aim at the budget carrier's poor safety culture, but did not pinpoint a cause of the October 29 accident, which killed all 189 people on board. A final report is not likely to be filed until next year. The Boeing 737 MAX vanished from radar about 13 minutes after taking off from Jakarta, slamming into the Java Sea moments after pilots had asked to return to the capital. Investigators said Lion Air kept putting the plane back into service despite repeatedly failing to fix a problem with the airspeed indicator, including on its second-last flight from Bali to Jakarta. "The plane was no longer airworthy and it should not have kept flying," Nurcahyo Utomo, aviation head at the National Transport Safety Committee (NTSC), told reporters. Lion Air's contested the preliminary result and said it was going to seek a written clarification from the NTSC. "We think this statement is not true," President Director Edward Sirait said. "The plane from Denpasar (Bali) was released and it was said (to be) airworthy according to documents and what the technicians have done." "The plane was airworthy," he added. The safety committee's findings will heighten concerns there were problems with key systems in one of the world's newest and most advanced commercial passenger planes. "But we don't know yet whether it's a Boeing or airline issue," said aviation analyst Gerry Soejatman. Investigators have previously 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. The report confirmed that initial finding, saying the plane's data recorder detected an issue with the AoA. It also said the plane's "stick shaker" -- which vibrates the aircraft's steering wheel-like control yoke to warn of a system malfunction -- was "activated and continued for most of the fight". 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 doomed plane's flight data recorder showed that pilots had repeatedly tried to correct its nose from pointing down, possibly after erroneous data from AoA sensors was fed into a system that automatically adjusts some of its movements. - Dubious record - Black box data showed the plane also had an airspeed indicator issue on multiple earlier flights, said investigators, who have yet to locate the cockpit voice recorder on the sea floor. Lion must take steps "to improve the safety culture" and bolster the quality of its flight logs, the transport agency said. "Airlines need to take paperwork seriously," Soejatman said. "That didn't cause the crash, but it can cause other problems in the environment they're working in." Despite a dubious safety record and an avalanche of complaints over shoddy service, the budget carrier's parent Lion Air Group has captured half the domestic market in less than 20 years of operation to become Southeast Asia's biggest airline. Indonesia's aviation safety record has improved since its airlines, including national carrier Garuda, were subject to years-long bans from US and European airspace for safety violations, although it has still recorded 40 fatal accidents over the past 15 years. The report stopped short of making any recommendations to Boeing but the US planemaker has come under fire for possible glitches on the 737 MAX -- which entered service just last year. The APA, a US airline pilots' union, said 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. "I am really surprised if Boeing has not shared all the flight performance parameters with pilots, unions, and training organisations," University of Leeds aviation expert Stephen Wright told AFP, adding that "a deliberate omission would have serious legal ramifications". In response to Wednesday's report, Boeing said: "(The company) is taking every measure to fully understand all aspects of this accident, working closely with the US National Transportation Safety Board as technical advisors to support the NTSC as the investigation continues." Several relatives of the crash victims have already filed lawsuits against Boeing, including the family of a young doctor who was to have married his high school sweetheart this month. Authorities have called off the grim task of identifying victims of the crash, with 125 passengers officially recognised after testing on human remains that filled some 200 body bags. Japan is expected to announce the purchase of 100 F-35 stealth fighters and the conversion of existing ships into full aircraft carriers in a move widely seen as a response to Chinas growing military clout. The planned purchase of the state-of-the-art Lockheed Martin aircraft and upgrade of two Izumo-class warships would mark a significant advance of Japans military capabilities. The moves, expected to be included in new defence guidelines due next month, come amid Beijings military build-up in the Pacific and concerns about it taking control of the Diaoyutai Islands known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan in the same way it has atolls in the South China Sea. Japan has already placed an order for 42 F-35 aircraft to replace the last of its obsolescent F-4 Phantom fighters, with the additional 100 jets to be delivered by 2024. A single F-35 costs more than Y10 billion (US$87.8 million). The first 42 aircraft will be the conventional landing and take-off variant, although the second batch will include a number of F-35B jets, which are capable of short take-offs and landings, making them ideal to deploy on aircraft carriers. Takeshi Iwaya, the defence minister, said on Tuesday that a study is underway to examine the operation of F-35B aircraft from the Maritime Self-Defence Forces Izumo and her sister ship, the Kaga. At 19,500 tons and 248 metres from bow to stern, the two ships are Japans largest naval vessels since the end of the second world war and capable of operating up to 14 helicopters. There has been an increasing number of air incursions by Chinese aircraft into what is known as the South-West Air Defence Division, which is the area around Okinawa and including the Senkaku Islands, said Garren Mulloy, an associate professor of international relations at Daito Bunka University. Mulloy said that while Tokyos security concerns were clear, more F-35s and expensive upgrades to existing warships might not be the most effective solution. Story continues They could have chosen land-based aircraft operating out of Ishigaki and the other islands there that already have military installations, including airfields, he said in an interview. That would have been a far cheaper and a far easier option than upgrading the Izumo-class ships and putting the F-35Bs on board. The short take-off version of the fighter is the least capable variant as it requires a second engine, which increases weight and limits the fuel load, range, maximum climb rate and weapons capability, Mulloy said. Due to space requirements for anti-submarine warfare and search-and-rescue helicopters, he said, the Izumo is also limited to a capacity of 10 aircraft. Mulloy said, however, that Tokyo seems set on pushing ahead with the project, which is clearly intended to serve as a shot across Beijings bow. There is no other reason for Tokyo to take these steps except China, he said. There are no other threats of this sort in the region, not from Russia or North Korea, and it would be a stretch to suggest that this platform would be of use in anti-piracy operations. It is likely that the government will say that the ships will be useful in the event of a humanitarian relief operation or in the aftermath of a natural disaster, but that doesnt explain away the F-35s. This article Japan eyes stealth fighters, vessel upgrades amid concerns over Chinas growing clout first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018. Georgia on Wednesday is due to hold a second round of its presidential election, seen as a crucial test for its increasingly unpopular ruling party led by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili. Here are five points on the culture and history of the tiny nation nestled between the Black Sea and the Caucasus mountains. - 'First Europeans' - Georgians jokingly claim the title of "first Europeans" due to the discovery of fossilised bones of early humans that are almost two million years old -- the oldest found outside Africa -- in the medieval town of Dmanisi, southwest of the capital Tbilisi. Before the discovery, there was no direct evidence that hominins -- a term comprising humans and chimpanzees -- had walked in Europe from the cradle of Africa more than 800,000 years ago. The well-preserved Dmanisi fossils revolutionised current theories of human evolution as they proved that early man was a single species with a wide range of looks -- rather than several distinct species. - The Golden Fleece - The early Georgian kingdom of Colchis features prominently in classical Greek and Roman mythology as the land of the Golden Fleece, a magical symbol of authority and kingship. One ancient Greek tale describes the quest for the Golden Fleece by the hero Jason and his crew who sailed to Colchis aboard a ship called Argo. They acquired the fleece with the help of sorceress Medea, the daughter of the king of Colchis, Aeetes. Other prominent "Georgian" characters in Greek mythology include sorceress Circe, Cretan queen Pasiphae, her brother Perses, and children Ariadne, Phaedra, and Minotaur. - The queen and the poet - Georgia traces its history back to at least the 13th century BC but was at the peak of its might between the 11th and 13th centuries, reaching its zenith under Queen Tamar. The country's first female ruler laid the ground for the establishment of a Georgian parliament and university, abolished the death penalty and protected the country from foreign invaders. She was glorified by Georgia's 12th century national poet Shota Rustaveli in his epic poem "The Knight in the Panther's Skin" which is still considered in Georgia to be the preeminent masterpiece of the country's literary tradition. - Cradle of wine - The world's earliest evidence of grape wine-making has been detected in 8,000-year-old pottery jars unearthed in Georgia, making the tradition almost a thousand years older than previously thought. The ceramic fragments containing traces of wine -- some decorated with grape motifs -- were found at two archaeological sites in Georgia by an international team of scientists. Early Georgians mulched grapes in their entirety -- juice, skins, pips, stems and all -- and left the mix to ferment in large earthenware vessels, known as "kvevri", stored in underground pits to keep the liquid cool. The technique is still used in Georgia and in 2013 was included on a UNESCO list of "intangible cultural heritage of humanity." - Nuts about walnuts - Thanks to its sumptuous wines and unique cuisine that blends local cooking styles with influences from Eastern Europe and the Middle East, Georgia became an emerging culinary tourism destination after it regained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. The most popular dishes include juicy khinkali dumplings, pizza-like cheese bread khatchapuri and a large variety of walnut-based food such as roast chicken in walnut sauce, fried aubergines with spicy walnut paste and pomegranate seeds, and garlicky spinach spread mixed with ground walnuts. President Vladimir Putin has insisted that Russian forces were in the right to seize three Ukrainian ships last weekend, but President Donald Trump expressed "deep concern" at Moscow's actions against a US ally. In his first extensive remarks since the confrontation at sea on Sunday, Putin said it had been orchestrated by Kiev as a "provocation". He said the Ukrainian ships had entered Russian territorial waters and refused to respond to requests to stop from Russian patrol boats. "What were they (Russian forces) supposed to do?" Putin said on Wednesday, when asked about the incident at an international investment forum in Moscow. "They were fulfilling their military duty. They were fulfilling their lawful functions in protecting Russia's borders. They would do the same in your country." Moscow and Kiev have traded angry accusations since Russian navy vessels fired on, boarded and captured the three Ukrainian ships off the coast of Crimea. After warning of the threat of "full-scale war", Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Wednesday signed an act imposing martial law for 30 days in regions bordering Russia, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. He also appealed to NATO members including Germany to send naval vessels to the region to back his country in the standoff. "Germany is one of our closest allies, and we hope that states within NATO are now ready to relocate naval ships to the Sea of Azov in order to assist Ukraine and provide security," he said in comments published Thursday by Germany's Bild daily. Western governments have rallied behind Kiev, accusing Russia of illegally blocking access to the Sea of Azov, used by both countries, and of using force without justification. Trump on Tuesday threatened to cancel planned talks with Putin at this week's G20 summit in Buenos Aires over the incident. The White House on Wednesday said Trump and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed the Ukraine-Russia incident by telephone and "the two leaders expressed deep concern about the incident in the Kerch Strait and the continued detainment of Ukraine's vessels and crew members". - 'Bring our boys home' - The Kremlin said it still expected the Putin-Trump meeting to take place and played down the threat of cancellation, with foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov saying: "The meeting is equally needed by both sides." The Ukrainian vessels -- a tug and two gunboats -- were trying to pass through the Kerch Strait from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov, but were refused access and chased into international waters by 10 Russian vessels. Kiev has demanded the return of its ships and the release of 24 sailors taken prisoner during the confrontation. The sailors have been put before a court in Simferopol, the main city in Russian-annexed Crimea, and ordered to be held in pre-trial detention for two months. Detention orders were made against 15 of them on Tuesday, including three still in hospital, and nine more on Wednesday. "We condemn this demonstration of barbarism and are multiplying our efforts to bring our boys home," Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said on Twitter after the court rulings. Sunday's incident was the first direct confrontation between Ukraine and Russia in the long-running conflict pitting Kiev 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. - New S-400s deployed to Crimea - Russian military officials said Wednesday that Moscow would soon deploy more of its advanced S-400 air defence systems in Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. The Ukrainian parliament voted on Monday in favour of Poroshenko's request for martial law, which gives authorities the power to mobilise citizens with military experience, regulate the media and restrict public rallies in certain areas. The European Union on Wednesday strongly condemned Russia's actions but, after three days of debate, failed to agree to threaten new sanctions. "We are dismayed at this use of force by Russia which, against the backdrop of increasing militarisation in the area, is unacceptable," EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said. The statement will disappoint some EU members hoping for a harder joint line, after officials earlier said the bloc was considering new sanctions against Moscow. Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the United States and Europe of encouraging Ukraine. "I think it reflects Washington's tendency to indulge any and all action taken by the Kiev regime, even inciting them to provocative actions," Lavrov told reporters in Geneva. Moscow has suggested that Kiev provoked the incident to boost support for Poroshenko, who is facing a tough re-election battle in a presidential vote set for next March. The cult of KP Social security scheme should reflect in governments policiesnot in its posters Ousted Hong Kong legislator argues in oath-taking appeal that Chinas top legislative body only has power to clarify Basic Law not supplement articles Chinas top legislative body had no power to supplement articles in Hong Kongs mini-constitution when it issued an interpretation on proper oath-taking two years ago, according to an ousted lawmaker appealing against his disqualification. Martin Lee Chu-ming SC on Wednesday mounted seven grounds of appeal against a lower courts decision last year to declare his client Long Hair Leung Kwok-hung had been disqualified as a lawmaker since the day he took an invalid oath during the swearing-in ceremony on October 12, 2016. Chief among his concerns were the limits of the powers of the National Peoples Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) in interpreting the citys mini-constitution, the Basic Law. Lee argued in the Court of Appeal that the NPCSC could only clarify the Basic Law, but not supplement any articles during the interpretation. Even if such a power existed, he said there could be no retrospective effect and demanded that Leung be given another chance to retake his oath since he did not decline or refuse to take it in the first place. Leung was a lawmaker for 13 years until he and five other pro-democrats Sixtus Baggio Leung Chung-hang, Yau Wai-ching, Lau Siu-lai, Nathan Law Kwun-chung and Edward Yiu Chung-yim were unseated after the previous administration, led by then chief executive Leung Chun-ying, challenged their oaths in October and December 2016. The NPCSC issued an interpretation on Article 104 of the Basic Law in November 2016, requiring oath takers to swear sincerely, solemnly and accurately with retrospective effect from July 1, 1997. Sixtus Leung and Yau failed in their appeals; while Lau, Law and Yiu later dropped their bids. On Wednesday, Lee invited the court to treat the interpretation as a very important opinion of the Standing Committee that the Oaths and Declarations Ordinance should be amended. Without the amendment, he said oath administrators and the public alike lacked guidance on the objective, criteria and benchmark for proper oaths. Story continues I dont understand why the government wont do it, Lee said. Lee also complained that the lower court erred in neglecting Leung Kwok-hungs legitimate expectation from past experience and in confusing his acts as intended to be incorporated as part of his oath. Until the interpretation, who in the whole of Hong Kong would have thought that when the clerk said OK, the president said OK, [the lawmakers] would be disqualified? Lee continued. How can we allow this unfortunate state of affairs to happen in Hong Kong? Benjamin Yu SC, for the chief executive and secretary for justice, will reply before Court of Appeal vice-president Mr Justice Johnson Lam Man-hon and justices Jeremy Poon Shiu-chor and Aarif Barma on Thursday. This article Ousted Hong Kong legislator argues in oath-taking appeal that Chinas top legislative body only has power to clarify Basic Law not supplement articles first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018. FILE PHOTO: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte and President Xi Jinping of Peoples Republic of China shake hands after declaring their joint press statements during the successful expanded bilateral meeting at the Malacanan Palace on November 20, 2018. | PCOO\Alfred Frias PASAY CITY, Philippines Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. believes there must be an established cooperation between the Philippines and China against illegal online gambling. On Wednesday (November 28), Locsin said such a measure will prevent misunderstanding between the two countries on matters concerning their respective migrant workers living and working in both of their soils. Locsins suggestion comes after calls from senators who were pushing the government to launch a crackdown against Chinese foreign workers. Most of the Chinese migrant workers in the Philippines are into the online gaming industry. But far from endangering or anyway affecting our relations with China, apparently we are going to do two things. One, online gambling is illegal where gonna stop it out with the help and not against the objection of China, Locsin said. Locsin said it is likely that the countries would join hands and help each other in addressing the issue. Two law enforcement agencies will be able to coordinate without it looking as we had surrendered our sovereignty, the Foreign Affairs secretary said. During Wednesdays deliberation of Locsins confirmation, senators expressed concern that Filipino workers will end up competing with illegal aliens seeking for employment opportunities in the country. This, according to Senator Risa Hontiveros, is a direct assault on our sovereignty and economy. For his part, Senate President Vicente Sotto III reminds the government to be careful in mentioning the number of alleged illegal Chinese workers in the country as it would bring a negative effect on Filipino workers in China. Iyong undocumented na nahuli is not less than 1,000. We must remember that there are over 200,000 Filipinos in Hong Kong that are undocumented, Sotto said. Story continues The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) will be forming a special task force to check on the operations of Philippine Offshore Gaming operators (POGO) in the country. Majority of Chinese workers with valid working permits are linked to POGO industry. Marje Pelayo (with reports from Nel Maribojoc) The post PH, China cooperation against illegal online gambling a must Locsin appeared first on UNTV News. Photo credit: aviation-images.com - Getty Images From Popular Mechanics A commercial pilot flying a twin engine Piper PA-31 Navajo Chieftain was lucky to avoid disaster when he fell asleep during an early morning flight over Australia. The flight-a short hop from Devonport, Tasmania, to King Island in the Bass Strait-went a bit over course, soaring aimlessly past its destination for 29 miles before air traffic controllers roused the pilot from his slumber. Vortex Air, the carrier employing the pilot, issued a statement about the incident: [The pilot] unintentionally fell asleep while in command of the aircraft..The issue became apparent when air traffic control was unable to contact the pilot in flight, and the aircraft traveled past the intended destination point while operating on autopilot." The pilot eventually reached his intended destination of King Island, in the Bass Straight, on the southeastern edge of Australia, after his accidental drift through the ether. Now, several Australian authorities are investigating the incident, probing whether or not the pilot was overly fatigued, and whether the airline sufficiently gauged his capability to fly. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau noted the pilot flew 29 miles past King Island. Several attempts to reach him via air traffic control went unanswered, the Australian newspaper reported. Authorities will seek to interview the pilot and review Vortex Air's procedure en route to releasing a public report. This is an extremely rare occurrence, as demonstrated by the companys excellent safety track record, the airline said in its statement. The flight in question departed at 6:20am on November 8, and reportedly marked the pilot's first flight after taking a leave of absence. The airline said he had been up the previous night dealing with personal issues. While it's certainly good news that no one was hurt, events like this should make us thankful for air traffic controllers, who can literally drag a sleeping pilot out of sleep and avert potential disaster. Story continues Source: Associated Press ('You Might Also Like',) By Patricia Zengerle and Doina Chiacu WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two senior U.S. Cabinet members urged senators on Wednesday not to downgrade ties with Saudi Arabia over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but lawmakers from both parties said they could not turn a blind eye to reports that the country's de facto ruler was involved in last month's killing. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said there was no hard evidence that the powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was behind the killing, seemingly contradicting an assessment by the CIA about Khashoggi's death in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. "We have no smoking gun the crown prince was involved, not the intelligence community or anyone else. There is no smoking gun," Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon. Mattis said he had read all the U.S. intelligence reports about the incident and a transcript of what is believed to be an audio recording of the killing. After repeated calls from members of Congress for a strong U.S. response to Khashoggi's death, both Mattis and Pompeo briefed the Senate behind closed doors about Saudi Arabia, the Oct. 2 murder of Khashoggi and the war in Yemen. Echoing similar comments from President Donald Trump, they said downgrading U.S. ties with ally Saudi Arabia would harm national security. Pompeo acknowledged to the lawmakers that the Yemen conflict - in which Saudi Arabia is deeply involved - has taken a terrible toll on civilians, but he argued that the Saudis provide an important counterweight to Iran in the region. "More broadly, degrading ties with Saudi Arabia would be a grave mistake for U.S. national security, and that of our allies," Pompeo said in his prepared remarks to the Senate. "The Kingdom is a powerful force for stability in an otherwise fraught Middle East." Pompeo told reporters after the briefing that there was no direct evidence connecting Crown Prince Mohammed to Khashoggi's murder. Story continues However, Pompeo and Mattis did not seem to sway leading Senate foreign policy voices, including some of Trump's fellow Republicans, who said they believed taking no action would send a more dangerous message to the world. Republican Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said after the briefing it was apparent to everyone in the room that the crown prince was responsible for Khashoggi's death. 'OUT OF CONTROL' "We have a problem here. We understand that Saudi Arabia is an ally, of sorts, and a semi-important country," Corker said. "We also have a crown prince that's out of control." Corker warned that Congress would act if the administration does not. "I think 80 percent of the people left the hearing this morning not feeling like an appropriate response has been forthcoming," Corker said. Defying the White House, the Senate voted on Wednesday to advance a resolution to end U.S. military support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen's civil war, setting the stage for a possible final vote on the measure within days. Senator Bob Menendez, the Foreign Relations Committee's top Democrat, said Washington was basically telling an ally "you can kill with impunity." "It is outrageous that we are willing to turn our eye away from such a murder because we have 'interests,'" Menendez said. Trump has dismissed a CIA assessment that the crown prince likely ordered Khashoggi's killing. He vowed last week to remain a "steadfast partner" of Saudi Arabia and said it was not clear whether the prince knew about the plan to kill Khashoggi. Those comments further angered members of Congress who have demanded an investigation of potential involvement by the crown prince. Many were angry that CIA Director Gina Haspel did not participate in the briefing, as they had requested. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who has been one of Trump's closest congressional allies, said he wanted to know whether the CIA assessment supports his belief that the killing could not have happened without the prince's knowledge. Graham said he would withhold his vote on any key issue, including must-pass spending bills, until the CIA briefs senators about Khashoggi's killing. When asked if he had told Trump as much, Graham said, "I just did." Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab states have been battling in Yemen since 2015 to restore a government driven out by the Houthis, Shi'ite Muslim fighters that Yemen's neighbours view as agents of Iran. The war has killed more than 10,000 people and created the world's most urgent humanitarian emergency. Pompeo said the United States would provide an additional $131 million for food aid in Yemen. Mattis said pulling back U.S. military support in Yemen and stopping weapons sales to important partners would be misguided. "Our security interests cannot be dismissed," Mattis said, even as Washington seeks accountability for Khashoggi's murder, a crime which "our country does not condone." An Argentine federal judge reviewing a complaint against the Saudi crown prince has asked the Argentine Foreign Ministry to seek information from Yemen, Turkey and the International Criminal Court, the judge's office said. The office of judge Ariel Lijo said it was seeking information on any open cases relating to the murder of Khashoggi or war crimes in Yemen. The crown prince arrived in Buenos Aires earlier on Wednesday for a summit of G20 nations. (Additional reporting by Idrees Ali and David Alexander; Writing by Alistair Bell; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Bill Berkrot) One of the most influential figures in international sport on Wednesday officially stepped down from a powerful Olympic body as he fights forgery charges in Switzerland. Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah had already announced he was "temporarily" stepping aside from his IOC duties and asked not to be re-elected president of the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC). "I am confident I am innocent. I trust the court of justice in Switzerland ... I know I am innocent. I am sure about that and I will follow through on my trust in the court in Switzerland," he told delegates. "I will decide to step aside -- of my own will -- for a while and to come back to you stronger," added the Kuwaiti powerbroker. But there was last-minute drama at the gathering in Tokyo as several representatives pushed for the Sheikh -- the only candidate for ANOC president -- to be re-elected anyway. In chaotic scenes, delegate after delegate spoke to defend Sheikh Ahmad, arguing that he had become embroiled in a political affair that had nothing to do with sport and that was being played out in the courts. "The ship of ANOC has been sailing rather smoothly and now is not the time to change the captain," said the representative from Guyana. After an unscheduled last-minute intervention from the Sheikh, delegates finally agreed to postpone the election for president while he sorts out his legal issues. Officials admitted this was a "unique" situation and there was nothing in the organisation's constitution to deal with such a case. A long-time IOC member seen as a close ally of President Thomas Bach, Sheikh Ahmad is accused of orchestrating a complex forgery scheme linked to his efforts to prove his native country's former prime minister is guilty of corruption and plotting a coup. The aim of the alleged forgery, according to a Swiss charge sheet seen by AFP, was to legitimise suspicious video recordings Sheikh Ahmad had presented in Kuwait as evidence of corrupt practices by ex-premier Sheikh Nasser Mohammad al-Ahmad al-Sabah and former parliament chief Jassem al-Khorafi. The case against Sheikh Ahmad, a nephew of Kuwait's ruler, Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, is set to go before a court in Geneva next year. Victims demand alarms civil leaders Taking serious exception to the 23-point charter issued by umbrella bodies of conflict victims last week, a section of civil society members knocked the door of United Nations resident coordinator to intervene in the matter. A "must-run" segment defending an anti-Muslim extremist is broadcast on a Portland, Oregon, local TV station. (Photo: ) Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns local news stations that reach a collective 40 percent of Americans, rolled out a must-run segment Wednesday morning that defended a far-right conspiracy theorist. The segment, by former Trump campaign senior adviser Boris Epshteyn, blasted Twitter for banning Laura Loomer last week for promoting hate, Media Matters first reported. Loomer, an anti-Muslim extremist who had around 260,000 followers on the site, would use the platform to claim without evidence that Sharia law had gone into effect in places like Michigan. In his segment, Epshteyn defended the tweet that finally got Loomer kicked off Twitter an attack on Muslim Rep.-elect Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). Omar had condemned the evil doings of Israel in a 2012 tweet, writing, Israel has hypnotized the world. The message, as Omar explained more fully during her campaign, was a criticism of the nation of Israel and its violent conflict with neighboring Palestine, not of Jewish people. But Loomer, who is Jewish, used Omars 2012 tweet to claim the representative-elect is anti-Jewish and participates in a religion in which women are forced to wear the hijab. Epshteyn also pushed the false notion that Omars message was a hateful critique of Jewish people, framing her ban as unfair conservative censorship. He went on to ask why Loomer had been banned when Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam and a known anti-Semite, had not been. In a series of tweets from its official account, Sinclair said Epshteyns comments dont reflect the companys views and emphasized that they were labeled clearly as commentary. However, there was no acknowledgment of the segment being a must-run on all its stations. We'd like to take a moment and address some concerns regarding a commentary segment by @borisep that was aired on Sinclair stations this week. The opinions expressed in this segment do not reflect the views of Sinclair Broadcast Group. Sinclair Broadcast Group (@WeAreSinclair) November 28, 2018 When Boriss segments are aired on our stations, they are labeled clearly as commentary. We also offer our stations reporting from the Beltway and beyond that are not partisan or bias in any way. Sinclair Broadcast Group (@WeAreSinclair) November 28, 2018 Twitter has been called out for its remarkably uneven policy of banning members. Yet Loomers hateful anti-Muslim rhetoric has been well-documented on the website. She was also previously banned from using Uber and Lyft after tweeting complaints about the Islamic immigrant driver[s] employed by both services. Story continues Epshteyns message directly follows another eyebrow-raising segment Sinclair reportedly broadcast to its nearly 200 networks. In it, Epshteyn defended using force, including tear-gassing children, against the Central American migrant caravans. Sinclair is known for making stations air its right-leaning must-run segments. The company demanded earlier this year that local news anchors recite a script bashing the mainstream media, and a video compilation of the bizarre mandate went viral. This story has been updated to include Sinclairs response via Twitter. Related Coverage Sinclair Broadcasting Orders Local Anchors To Record Bizarre 'Hostage' Video How To Hit Sinclair Where It Hurts, According To An Anonymous Sinclair Anchor New Sinclair Segment Defends Tear-Gassing Of Migrant Children At Border Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. The accident, which involved five Singaporeans including 20-year-old Gwyneth Lok (left) took place at the intersection of Remembrance Drive and Madden Road (right) in Windermere, 130km outside of Melbourne. (PHOTOS: Gwyneth Lok / Facebook page, Google Street View) A 20-year-old Singaporean woman who was on life support following a traffic accident in the Australian state of Victoria, has died, said Victoria Police on Wednesday (28 November). The woman, identified by earlier media reports as Gwyneth Lok, was a project executive with events company Chupa. Her death follows a vehicular collision at the intersection of Remembrance Drive and Madden Road on Saturday evening, which sent the blue Renault Lok was travelling in crashing into a tree. 5 Singaporeans involved in crash Five occupants in one of the cars, all Singaporean nationals, were taken to hospital, three with minor injuries, said a Victoria Police spokesperson. Two 20-year-old women remain in hospital in a stable condition. The driver, 21-year-old Nashua Nasser, was charged on Sunday with negligently causing serious injury and dangerous driving causing serious injury. She had allegedly failed to stop at a give way sign at the intersection. Followings Loks death, these charges will now be reviewed, said Victoria Police. According to media reports, the victims include Nassers twin sister Naimi, a Singapore Management University student. She was reportedly air-lifted to Royal Melbourne Hospital for critical head and chest injuries. Nashua Nasser, who is out on bail, will appear at the Ballarat Magistrates Court on 21 February. The driver of the second vehicle, a 48-year-old man, and his passenger, a 10-year-old girl, were not injured. More Singapore stories: 131 fall ill in third mass food-poisoning case this month AVA seeks public feedback on proposed blanket elephant ivory ban South Korean plans for a new ferry and cruise facility at the port city of Incheon will boost commercial and passenger sea traffic between the Koreas and, eventually, China, a leading South Korean state entrepreneur said. Hong Kyung-sun, a vice-president of the Incheon Port Authority [IPA], told the South China Morning Post that his organisation was looking to connect Incheon with the North Korean port city of Nampo. Hong was speaking after the United Nations Security Council approved a plan to assess the viability of linking rail services between the two nations, exempting the study from sanctions against Pyongyang. At three inter-Korean summits this year, South Korean President Moon Jae-in offered Seouls help to upgrade the Norths railway network and tie it to the Souths. Re-connecting the sea routes might be the next phase of the inter-Korean cooperation, according to Hong. The port authority has created a task force to study inter-Korean [marine] cooperation in preparation for a joint sea route assessment so that we can immediately [engage with North Korea] once sanctions are lifted, said Hong, a former aide to various congress members from Moons ruling Democratic Party of Korea. The ports study would not be the first to look at inter-Korean marine cooperation, Hong said, as the port authority had commissioned government research institutions such as the Korea Maritime Institute to carry out others. After the study is done possibly next spring we plan to seek a partner in North Korea and will propose a joint field study We must understand each others needs through the joint inspection, he said. Nampo is North Koreas major port city, located in the countrys west about 60km (37 miles) southwest of its capital, Pyongyang. [The IPAs] plan will be to modernise unloading equipment and build additional ports after, of course, sanctions are lifted, Hong said, adding that development of Nampo could cost US$7 billion. Story continues The IPA ultimately wishes to run a Peace Cruise tour programme which links not only Incheon and Nampo but also Tianjin and Qingdao in China, Hong said, adding that he hoped the three nations would work together on maritime developments. Starting in April 2016, South Korea invested US$160 million in building a new international ferry terminal, and US$16.5 million for the construction of a 7,364 square metre (79,265 sq ft) cruise terminal with berthing capacity of 225,000 tonnes in Incheon, in anticipation of more tourists from China. The cruise terminal is expected to open next April. China has embarked upon an aggressive unofficial campaign to stop its tourists from visiting South Korea. The number of arrivals from China halved to about 4 million last year, compared to 2016, according to the Korea Tourism Organisation. The port authoritys Golden Harbour project which also includes hotels, a theme park, and shopping centres was created to lure Chinese tourists and proceeded regardless of the political disputes between Beijing and Seoul, Hong said. The two Koreas and China share many regional interests [such as stability and economic development] Korea and China are partners that have worked side-by-side throughout history. I am confident that relations will normalise soon, Hong said, adding Chinas practical support, including financial contributions to both Koreas, is essential. Last year, relations between Seoul and Pyongyang reached a low after a series of tests of nuclear weapons-capable missiles by the North. South Korea responded by deploying anti-missile defence systems provided by the United States. The [missile] dispute was rather a product of intensified tensions on the Korean peninsula, Hong said. Thus, easing of tension is the fundamental solution to the dispute, and it can be achieved by rebuilding trust via [economic] cooperation. The two Koreas and China must rebuild our trust with one another and walk towards the road of common prosperity Three-way economic engagement will result in active logistics and human exchanges, and ultimately a stable and sustainable prosperity in the Yellow Sea region. This article South Korean ports deal with North could be step towards broader cooperation involving China first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018. Sri Lanka's highest-ranking military officer was remanded by a court Wednesday after weeks evading arrest for allegedly protecting the chief suspect in the murder of 11 people during the civil war. The Colombo Fort magistrate ordered that Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne, the country's military chief, be held in custody for a week pending investigations into the abduction and murder of the young men between 2008 and 2009. The magistrate denied bail for Wijegunaratne after it emerged he tried to abduct a key witness over the weekend, and sought to have an investigator removed from the case. "I am denying bail because in your position you are able to influence witnesses and disrupt the investigations," Magistrate Ranga Dassanayake told a packed courthouse. Wijegunaratne, who appeared in full military regalia, has denied any connection to the murders. Wijegunaratne's bodyguards earlier shoved journalists trying to photograph the chief of defence staff as he entered the courtroom. Earlier in the day, Wijegunaratne surrendered after weeks of ignoring court summons. Investigators told the court that Wijegunaratne protected the main accused in the high-profile murders, naval intelligence officer Chandana Prasad Hettiarachchi. He was arrested in August over the killings in the closing stages of Sri Lanka's bloody separatist war that ended in May 2009. Three warrants for Wijegunaratne's arrest were issued earlier this month but he ignored them, even travelling to Mexico while investigators were seeking a statement from him. Police believe the 11 victims were killed while in the illegal custody of the navy. Their bodies were never found. Military figures were accused of abductions and extrajudicial killings during the 37-year war against the Tamil Tiger separatist movement. Several intelligence officers are facing prosecution over the murder of journalists critical of Mahinda Rajapakse, the former president whose tenure was marred by allegations of war crimes and grave rights abuses. His recent controversial appointment as prime minister by Sri Lanka's president has plunged the country into crisis, with parliament twice voting against the war-era strongman ruler taking over government. Rajapakse, who has refused to step aside as Sri Lanka drifts in a power vacuum, and several members of his family are being investigated for fraud and murder during his 10-year presidency. But those inquiries were thrown into doubt after his surprise return to the helm of government in an alliance with President Maithripala Sirisena. Rajapakse lead Sri Lanka as government troops defeated the Tamil insurgency in May 2009, ending years of bitter and brutal fighting. The final days of the offensive were marked by major abuses, according to rights groups. A UN panel has said 40,000 civilians may have been killed in the final stages of the war. FILE PHOTO: Swedish Center Party leader Annie Loof talks to reporters near the parliament building in central Stockholm Swedish Center Party leader Annie Loof talks to reporters near the parliament building in central Stockholm, Sweden September 11, 2018. TT News Agency/Henrik Montgomery/via REUTERS By Johan Sennero and Daniel Dickson STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden took a big step towards a new government on Tuesday as the Centre Party said it would consider accepting Social Democrat Stefan Lofven as prime minister if he meets their policy demands, including lower taxes. A Sept. 9 election gave neither the centre-left or the centre-right a majority, leaving the balance of power with the Sweden Democrats, a hard-right anti-immigration party that mainstream groups refuse to deal with. The Centre Party had campaigned for dethroning Lofven, but, after weeks of stalemate, its leader signalled a major shift. "Lofven needs to accept our demands for us to consider letting him pass the vote next week," Annie Loof told reporters. "If they do, we can start negotiating on a budget, but we're not there yet." Her demands include lower taxes and less restrictive labour laws and housing rental rules. She ruled out her party joining a Social Democrat-led government. Lofven will face a parliamentary vote next week. If the Centre Party abstains, he could pass by securing votes from long-time collaborators the Green Party and the Left Party. Social Democratic leader and caretaker prime minister Lofven welcomed the signals from the Centre Party. "It's good and it takes the process forward but I have to see her demands before I say more," he told reporters. Earlier this month Ulf Kristersson, the leader of the centre-right Moderates, lost a vote to become prime minister after the Centre Party and the Liberals, both part of his Alliance bloc, refused to back him due to the fact that his government would also need support from the Sweden Democrats. GRAPHIC - Election scenarios: https://tmsnrt.rs/2p45tJh (Writing by Johan Ahlander; Editing by Robin Pomeroy) A defamation case by a Thai poultry farm against an activist who tweeted allegations of labour abuse should be dropped, a rights group urged Wednesday, as the complainant vowed further action against "so-called human rights defenders". Thailand exports billions of dollars of farm products to western markets in poorly regulated industries heavily reliant on migrant labour from nearby Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos. A chicken farm owned by the Thammakaset company in Lopburi province has been at the centre of disputes by Myanmar workers about grueling days, lack of overtime and confiscated documents. It has hit back with multiple defamation suits, a criminal offence in Thailand, but has yet to win. Still the company has filed fresh defamation charges against one of the former workers named Nan Win and prominent Thai activist Sutharee Wannasiri, who had shared on social media a 107-second video about the case produced by NGO Fortify Rights. Fortify, where Sutharee worked at the time, urged the company and authorities to drop the complaint, which will reach court on December 3. "These complaints are a form of judicial harassment and should be dropped immediately," said Amy Smith of Fortify. The International Federation for Human Rights also condemned the lawsuit. But Thammakaset owner Chanchai Pheamphon said he was forced to bring the suits to defend the name of his company from false allegations. "For the past two years, everyone blamed me but they never did a proper investigation," he said, denying accusations of confiscating passports and making workers endure herculean shifts of more than 20 hours. "From now on, you will see that more lawsuits will be filed against a series of so-called human rights defenders in Thailand who to me are actually (rights) violators," he warned, adding that attempts at negotiation had failed. Betagro, a Thai food giant that sells to clients around the globe, has said it cut ties with the supplier farm after the initial abuse claims. If convicted on all counts, Sutharee said she could face up to six years in prison while the Myanmar worker could face four. Both could also face large fines. Sutharee said she believed the lawsuit was an "intimidation tactic". Activism is fraught with risk in Thailand where political and business elite frequently bring legal cases against critics. President Donald Trump has "deep concern" over Russia's armed seizure of three Ukrainian ships, the White House said Wednesday as Trump decides whether to cancel planned talks with President Vladimir Putin. During a phone call between Trump and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, "the two leaders expressed deep concern about the incident in the Kerch Strait and the continued detainment of Ukraine's vessels and crew members," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said. Russian border patrol boats fired on, boarded and seized the three Ukrainian vessels, along with 24 sailors, on Sunday off the coast of Crimea, a Ukrainian region annexed by Moscow. The clash has refocused international attention on the long festering conflict in Ukraine, a former Soviet republic where Russia has supported insurgents in the east and taken complete control of Crimea in the south. Trump said Tuesday that as a result of the crisis he is reconsidering plans for one-on-one talks with Putin during the G20 meeting in Buenos Aires at the end of this week. Trump and Erdogan will discuss the issue at their own talks during the G20, the White House said. Meanwhile, Putin defended Russian forces' actions on Wednesday, accusing the Ukrainians of having staged a "provocation." Ukraine's president, Petro Poroshenko, accuses the Kremlin of preparing for "full-scale war." Western governments have rallied behind Kiev, accusing Russia of illegally blocking access to the Sea of Azov, used by both countries, and of using force without justification. Theresa May rebuked Donald Trump and insisted Britain could strike trade agreements outside the EU as she kicked off a nationwide tour on Tuesday to whip up support for the contested Brexit divorce deal. The British prime minister headed to Wales and Northern Ireland, hours after the US president said it seemed like a "great deal" for the European Union that could block Britain from forging its own trade agreements with the United States. May has two weeks to convince the public and, crucially, a divided parliament, before the December 11 vote in the House of Commons that risks ending in a humiliating defeat and sinking the deal. Trump suggested May had made a mistake by signing an agreement that might impede a future trade deal between London and Washington. "Sounds like a great deal for the EU," he said at the White House, adding: "We have to take a look at seriously whether or not the UK is allowed to trade". "As the deal stands, they may not be able to trade with the US and I don't think they want that at all," said the president, who is close to leading Brexiteers in the UK. - May strikes back - Starting her tour in Builth Wells in central Wales, May insisted Trump had not rained on her parade. "We will have an independent trade policy and we will be able to negotiate trade deals with countries around the rest of the world," May 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. "It will no longer be a decision taken by Brussels." Her spokesman said there were no plans for one-to-one talks between May and Trump at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires this weekend. May on Sunday closed 17 months of complex talks with Brussels by sealing Brexit arrangements with the 27 other EU heads of state and government. But this tortuous chapter on ending Britain's 45-year involvement in the European project was just the beginning of another struggle. May runs a minority Conservative government and opposition parties, as well as many of her own MPs, are against the deal. Some Brexiteers think it keeps Britain shackled to Brussels while pro-EU lawmakers think the terms are worse than staying in the bloc and want a second referendum. Opposition Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn called the deal "an act of national self-harm". May also met resistance in Belfast, where she met the leader of the small Northern Irish party that props up her government. Democratic Unionist Party chief Arlene Foster said the deal created trade barriers between Northern Ireland and mainland Britain, and urged May to find a "third way". May's agreement, "in its current form, is unacceptable and she will not persuade the DUP to support it," Foster said. - TV face-off - But May has demonstrated remarkable resilience against all the odds. Although she ducked televised debates during the 2017 snap general election, she challenged Corbyn to a TV contest, nominally planned for December 9. "I am ready to debate it with Jeremy Corbyn because I have got a plan. He hasn't got a plan," May was quoted as saying by The Sun newspaper. 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." Meanwhile in Luxembourg, lawyers for a group of Scottish politicians argued before the top European court that the British parliament should have the unilateral power to halt the countdown to Brexit, set for March 29. A Scottish court has referred the case, which hinges on whether London could simply revoke Britain's "Article 50" EU withdrawal process, to the European Court of Justice. The British government argues that the case is a political tactic by pro-EU opponents. 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. 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. Drivezy has also announced that it has secured US$100 million in an asset financing deal under it plans to induct over 50,000 vehicles Bangalore-based vehicle sharing marketplace, Drivezy, has raised US$20 million in a Series B equity financing round, led by existing investor Japans Das Capital. New investor Yamaha Motor Co., and other existing investors Axan Partners and IT-Farm also joined. The company will use the capital to expand its marketplace into new markets and integrate advanced services. This round brings the companys total equity fund-raise to date to US$31 million. This includes US$10 million funding from existing investors, including Das Capital, IT-Farm, CrowdWorks, and Axan Ventures. Additionally, Drivezy has announced that it has secured US$100 million in an asset financing deal under it plans to induct over 50,000 vehicles. The funds will be deployed over a period of three years through a special purpose vehicle (SPV), called Harbourfront Capital, which will focus on investment in global shared assets. Founded in 2015, Drivezy is a peer-to-peer self-drive vehicle-sharing network. Having partnered with over 2,000 owners, Drivezy has more than 7,000 operational cars, motorcycles and scooters on its platform, which are rented by over 37,000 customers every month. Since January 2018, Drivezy has doubled the number of vehicle listings on its marketplace and plans to deploy an additional 10,000 bikes in Bangalore and Hyderabad by December 2018. Also Read: Being a remote-working tech-writer and father has taught me these things Drivezy (formerly JustRide) was one among the few startups selected by US startup accelerator, Y Combinator, for the 2016 summer batch. Google is also an investor in the startup. The sharing economy in India is thriving and has picked up the real pace in the past five years, especially within the mobility sector. With less than eight per cent of Indian citizens owning a car, the rapidly growing car and bike sharing industry could provide convenient and sustainable mobility to millions of urban Indian residents. This fresh investment will allow us to cement our foothold as the market leader in a growing Indian vehicle sharing market, said Co-founder and CEO Ashwarya Singh. Story continues Drivezys vehicle sharing marketplace is a strategic alternative to outright vehicle purchase for consumers. It allows vehicle owners to list their idle cars, motorcycles and scooters and turn them into profit-generating assets by renting the vehicles to customers at a fraction of the cost required to purchase a vehicle. Customers can rent a car or a two-wheeler from Drivezy on an hourly, daily, weekly and a monthly basis. The company is aggressively scaling its bike and scooter rental divisions which have added 3,000 scooters in Bangalore and Hyderabad this year under a partnership with Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India. Drivezy also plans to deploy an additional 10,000 bikes and scooters in the two cities by December. The post Vehicle-sharing startup Drivezy raises US$20M from Yamaha, Japanese VCs appeared first on e27. 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 Xi Jinping on charm offensive in Europe with cooperation calls to Spain, France and Germany Beijing is stepping up efforts to strengthen ties to Europe, with China saying its relationship with Spain is the best in history and calling for greater cooperation with Germany and France. Spain rolled out the red carpet for Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is seeking allies as trade clashes with Washington raise the temperature of international relations. Heads of state Xi and King Felipe VI reviewed a guard of honour at the royal palace in Madrid on Wednesday, while Xis wife Peng Liyuan and Spains Queen Letizia watched the formalities from a podium. In his meeting with the king on Tuesday, Xi said relations between China and Spain were the best in history. We should continue to support each other on the issues of core interests and big concerns, Xi was quoted by state-run Xinhua as saying, suggesting more cooperation on trade, tourism and third-party markets under Chinas Belt and Road Initiative framework. The Chinese president will follow his two-day visit to Spain by flying to Argentina on Thursday for a G20 leaders summit the next day, and then visit Panama and Portugal until December 5. In addition to Xi, other senior Chinese officials are stepping up engagement with Europe as China seeks to stabilise its external relations while it is locked in a trade war with the United States. At an economic forum in Hamburg, Germany, Vice-Premier Liu He called on Germans to work with China against unilateralism and protectionism. Liu met German Chancellor Angela Merkel during his four-day visit. He brought a message from Xi to Merkel that China is willing to cooperate closely with Germany to enrich the strategic connotations of bilateral cooperation and strive to promote global economic governance, safeguard multilateralism and free trade, and build an open global economy. China believed protectionist and unilateral approaches brought more economic uncertainty, not less, Liu said. Story continues Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who accompanied Xi to Spain, discussed the G20 summit in Argentina with his French counterpart, Jean-Yves Le Drian, by phone on Wednesday. Xi and French President Emmanuel Macron are to meet in Buenos Aires. Xi and Macron met during the French presidents state visit to China in January, when trade was high on the agenda. Wang and Le Drian both promised to push forward the agenda of climate change and give momentum to the next Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change known as COP 24 which will take place in Poland next month. In 2016, Donald Trump said that if he were elected US president he would withdraw from the Paris Accord on climate change. The US will abandon the accord in November 2020. Xi will have important meetings at the G20, including one with Trump to discuss the US-China trade war, as well as European leaders. It is critical timing all sides would hope for a fruitful summit and are preparing, said Cui Hongjian, head of European studies at the China Institute of International Studies. This article Xi Jinping on charm offensive in Europe with cooperation calls to Spain, France and Germany first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018. New Zealand's largest telecoms carrier Spark said Wednesday that the country's intelligence agency had barred it from using equipment provided by China's Huawei in its 5G network as it posed "significant national security risks". The move follows reports the United States is urging its allies to exclude the Chinese telecoms giant from 5G rollouts over cybersecurity fears. Spark said in a statement that it was legally obliged to inform the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) about its 5G plans. It said GCSB chief Andrew Hampton had raised concerns about the use of Huawei Radio Access Network (RAN) in the new network and declined the proposed rollout. "The director-general has informed Spark today that he considers Spark's proposal to use Huawei 5G equipment in Spark's planned 5G RAN would, if implemented, raise significant national security risks," Spark said. The firm called the decision "disappointing" and said it would decide its next action after examining the detailed reasoning behind Hampton's conclusion. It still expected to complete its 5G network by July 2020. Hampton confirmed Spark's announcement in a brief statement. "The GCSB under its (legislative) responsibilities, has recently undertaken an assessment of a notification from Spark. I have informed Spark that a significant network security risk was identified," he said. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang expressed "deep concern" over the ban. "The Chinese government encourages Chinese enterprises to follow market principles and international regulations, and develop overseas economic partnerships on the basis of abiding by local laws," he said. "The economic and trade partnerships between China and New Zealand are mutually beneficial. We hope that New Zealand will offer a level playing field for Chinese enterprises operating in New Zealand, and do more to benefit mutual trust and partnerships." Huawei -- one of the world's largest telecommunications equipment and services providers -- has been under scrutiny in some countries, including the United States and Australia, over its alleged close links to Beijing authorities. China has long disputed accusations of security risks and the firm's links to state intelligence services. New Zealand is a member of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, which also includes the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia. China is one of its main trading partners but Wellington has become increasingly concerned about Beijing's influence in the Pacific recently. In response, New Zealand has boosted its Pacific aid programme to reinforce its presence in a region it considers its own sphere of influence. By Moses Kyeyune. Kampala Central MP Mohammed Nsereko has asked parliament to probe what he calls suspicious powers wielded by socialite Brian White. Nsereko has been submitting views on irregularities in the rescue mission and recovery on bodies drowned in Lake Victoria following the Saturday wreckage on Lake Victoria. Nsereko says that the acts by Brian White to take control of a rather security operation is unbelievable. The MP wants government to explain the source of such power. Related stories.. More than 30 bodies retrieved from the #LakeVictoriaBoatAccident Govt declares Friday a National mourning day #LakeVictoriaBoatAccident There will be no Democratic shocker in Mississippi. Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith defeated Democrat Mike Espy on Tuesday in a runoff to serve out the remaining two years of retired GOP Sen. Thad Cochrans term. The Associated Press called the race with roughly 85 percent of the vote counted, and with Hyde-Smith up 10 percentage points, 55 percent to 45 percent. Hyde-Smith was appointed as Cochrans interim replacement in March after he retired for health reasons. With the victory, the GOP will begin next year with a six-seat advantage in the Senate, 53 to 47. Thats two more seats than they have now, a significant gain but a small one given that Republicans benefitted from a midterm calendar that was one of the most favorable either party has seen since the direct election of senators began more than a century ago. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Espy was a heavy underdog from the start of the race: Mississippi hasnt elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in more than 30 years, and it hasnt sent an African American to the upper chamber since Reconstructiondespite having the highest share of black Americans in the nation (38 percent). And yet Democrats thought that maybe, just maybe, things would be different this time after Hyde-Smith was caught on camera this month making a pair of Kinsley gaffes that evoked her states history of racial violence and disenfranchisement. Speaking at a campaign stop in Tupelo on Nov. 2, Hyde-Smith decided that the best way to describe her loyalty to one of her supporters was with what sounded like an allusion to lynching: If he invited me to a public hanging, Id be on the front row. Then, at an event at Mississippi State University the following day, Hyde-Smith spoke fondly of voter suppression on campuses, in a state with more than a half-dozen historically black colleges and universities: Theres a lot of liberal folks in those other schools that maybe we dont want to vote. Maybe we just want to make it a little more difficult. Advertisement Advertisement Remarkably, things only got messier from there. Hyde-Smiths attempts to clean up after herself did not go smoothly. Then, reporters who dug into her past discovered one example after another of her embracing Confederate history and its racist legacy, often in her role as an elected official: She pushed a revisionist history of the Civil War while a state lawmaker; she posted photos to Facebook of herself posing in Confederate garb while she was state agriculture commissioner; and as a teenager she attended an all-white private academy created specifically in response to the desegregation of public schools, and then later enrolled her own daughter in another such school, from which she graduated in 2017. Advertisement Democrats hoped that would motivate black voters to turn out in droves for Espy while also prompting a significant slice of white Republicans to cross party lines, or to simply stay home. But as my colleague Jamelle Bouie explained ahead of the returns, that was always a long shot in a rural state defined by stark racial polarization: Advertisement The inelasticity of the Mississippi electorate means the odds are not in his favor. Even with her missteps, Hyde-Smith is likely to win. She is the beneficiary of a deeply racialized white political culture that reads black political power as an existential threat, which means she can almost certainly count on the overwhelming support of white voters in the state to carry her to victory. Advertisement In order to energize those white voters, Hyde-Smith embraced Donald Trump early and often in a state he won by 18 points two years ago. She featured him prominently in her TV ads and on the side of her campaign bus. She brought him up repeatedly at last weeks debate. And the president touched down in the state on Monday for two get-out-the-vote rallies, at one of which he wondered aloud how Espy fit in in the state where he was born and raised. Advertisement Espy ultimately failed to flip a ruby-red seat to blue the way Doug Jones did last year in Alabama, where Democrats benefitted greatly from accusations that Roy Moore was a sexual predator but where Jones wouldnt have won without black voters who reacted to Moore fondly recalling the days of slavery. While Espy came up short in the runoff, he appears all but certain to improve on his showing on Nov. 6, when he finished with roughly 40 percent of the vote to Hyde-Smiths 41 percent, in a four-way race that required someone to win a majority to avoid a runoff. The problem for Espy, of course, was that Hyde-Smith improved on her share by even moremost likely winning over a significant slice of the 16 percent of voters on Election Day who voted for a second Republican, conservative firebrand Chris McDaniel. The post-Pelosi future of House Democrats, should such a time ever come, got a lot clearer on Wednesday morning. In the showdown for the highest-ranking contested Democratic leadership position, New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries defeated progressive icon California Rep. Barbara Lee in the race for caucus chairman. The job was previously held by outgoing Rep. Joe Crowley and will be the No. 5 position in the new House Democratic majority. Jeffries is widely viewed among House Democrats as eventual speaker material, and his win gives him the foothold in leadership that hes been eyeing. Advertisement Lee, whose opposition to the war on terror from the outset has made her a hero to the left, loses an excruciatingly close race for leadership for the second time in a row. She lost the race for caucus vice chairman to California Rep. Linda Sanchez by one vote in 2016, and lost to Jeffries this time by a 10-vote margin, 123113. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lee had sought to sell herself to a broader spectrum of the caucus than just progressives by touting her pragmatic, bipartisan side, such as her work with President George W. Bush on AIDS relief in Africa. She was, as always, unwaveringly gracious after her defeat. But she did speak to the difficulties of running as an older, black woman against a younger man perceived as a rising star. When a reporter asked whether she thought ageism or sexism played a role, she said she absolutely thought that was the case. Advertisement Thats something that women, especially women of color, African-American women, have to fight, constantly, each and every day, she told reporters. Thats nothing new. Its here, its everywhere. And I think we did a great job, had many, many women supporting me. Many men supporting me. From all parts of the country. But we still have many glass ceilings to break, women of color. When asked later what it was like to have two such close races in a row, she returned to the subject. Well, black woman, and you know, the institutional barriers are still there, she said. And we just keep fighting. Jeffries, when asked about Lees comments during a press availability afterward, said that he believed the race was a friendly contest of ideas. The members of the House Democratic caucus worked their will, he continued. I look forward to all of us coming together and moving forward on behalf of the American people. Next question, please. Jeffries was later asked about whether he aspired to be speaker once Pelosi, presumed majority leader Steny Hoyer, and presumed majority whip Jim Clyburnthe trio of leaders still clinging to power in their late 70sretire. Not at all, he said. Dont believe that for a second. As a rabbi, my job is to see and appreciate other human beings, their uniqueness, and their stories. I always thought that the United States promoted a vision of humanity that aligns with this work and my belief that all are created equal and endowed with certain unalienable rights, and that no countrys citizenship but rather the Creator provides this to all. But my personal experience with our immigration system these past eight months has revealed that there is a hidden part of our country where these truths are violated daily. Advertisement Armando Rojas, the custodian at the congregation where I am a rabbi in Westchester County, New York, and a 20-year member of our communal family, was taken from us suddenly in February by ICE and deported back to a country he had not lived in for decades. Left behind were his two sons, his wife, and hundreds of families who have grown to love him in our community. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For months we have been trying to tell his story to an immigration-enforcement system and asylum process not interested in hearing it. His family is being broken apart, his fears are going unheard, and he has spent months in detention. All of this has happened with grudging responsiveness and a stunning lack of transparency from our government. Advertisement One of the reasons we as humans fear a flood is that it is thoughtless and indiscriminate as it uproots. Washed out to sea, we have worked persistently to coax the current to bring Armando back to shore with little sense that the waters that grip him know the preciousness of what they hold. In contrast to that indifference, our community of more than 500 families responded with love by bringing Armandos family weekly meals, hiring an attorney, and calling the family daily. We didnt hesitate to send two delegations to the border to walk Armando to a port of entry so he could seek asylum. We didnt think twice about driving his teenage son to visit him in detention, where he has been for the past five months. Advertisement The detention facility is one of the most mechanized forms of processing human beings and their stories I have ever encountered. What none of us were prepared for was the peek behind the curtain we have gotten of a callous immigration system that disregarded Armandos 30 years in this country with no criminal record, that deported him knowing we had filed for a stay of deportation, and that shrugged after the stay was granted one day too late. We were in shock to hear that ICE officers left him on the other side of the border with no ID, no cash, no bank card, and no cellphone, saying to those he was dropped off with, Youll all probably get kidnapped. Advertisement We were not prepared for the up-close view of the way our country now processes asylum cases, from the initial attempt by Border Patrol to deter Armando from seeking asylum by claiming it had no capacity to the months he has spent in detention with no sense of when it would hear his story. While he was in detention, the definition of asylum was significantly narrowed by the attorney general of the United States. When Armando finally received an interview, allowing him to explain why he is afraid to return to Mexico, our attorney described a hopeful conversation with the ICE asylum officer only to have those hopes dashed when a supervisor denied that Armando had a fear of return. They denied any fear with no explanation or justification even though two of his relatives had been killed and he received threatening phone calls upon return to the village where he grew up. Advertisement Advertisement But it was our trip to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Buffalo Detention Facility, and our attempt to simply observe Armandos final appeal before an immigration judge, that truly revealed how hidden our broken immigration system is from public view. Nine members of our community, including Armandos wife and son, drove six hours north so we could be present at his hearing in Batavia, New York. We drove in to an office park with no signage at the entrance identifying the fact that tucked away at the end of the road and out of sight was the ICE Buffalo Detention Facility. When we arrived at the security gate, the officer took our IDs, made a phone call, and came back saying, Sorry, you cant go in. When he saw our shock, he added, There is nothing to see. Its all by video. When we insisted we just wanted to be there for support, he said, Sorry, you cant go in. We hadnt said whom we were there to see or what case we were interested in. But somehow he knew to turn us away. Advertisement Advertisement I called our attorney, who was inside the facility, and he spoke to the court clerk. After a number of minutes the attorney called and said he had worked it out and we could come in. The guard made another call and raised the gate to let us in. Once inside, the clerk of the court said, Oh, you are the letter people. She acknowledged receiving the hundreds of letters our community had sent that now sat in a box in the office. She apologized that there was no way to enter them into the case proceedings. We asked if we could sit and observe the proceedings so at least Armando would see us there, but we were told that we could not. Advertisement Advertisement Eventually Armandos case was called and the detention officer opened a door to a small hallway where there were courtrooms and our attorney disappeared inside. He reappeared 15 minutes later and described the exchange as terse, tightly controlled, and with little opportunity for him to speak in order to make the case. The judge said he had not read the attorneys brief but doubted that it could even be entered into the record. The attorney for the government questioned whether our attorney could even be there. Our attorney argued that he had a right to be there and submit a brief. The judge ultimately allowed for both. Armando was there by video and the judge asked him a couple questions. It was over before it really started. Advertisement Advertisement The next day, the judge issued a decision by checking off boxes on a form ruling that Armando does not have a fear of return to his country and concluding that the case is returned to the DHS for removal of the alien. Months of waiting and building a case to present a fully formed human being to the government and, in the end, a government form dismisses his story and the very essence of his humanity. From the perspective of the government, all that was left to do was remove the alien. The detention facility is one of the most mechanized forms of processing human beings and their stories I have ever encountered. Everything about it is meant to insulate the people who work there, the judges, and even those of us visiting from seeing human beings. Intimidation is rampant, from the officer at the front gate who didnt want to let us in at all to the judge and government attorney questioning and limiting the role our attorney could play, and of course refusing our presence in the room to observe. Advertisement Advertisement We entered a part of our country that is hidden away. When people function knowing they are not being observed, it becomes much easier not to see but to simply process human beings. To devalue their lives, constrain their liberty and ignore their happiness by taking away that which should be unalienable and simply calling them alien. Out of sight, it also becomes easy to avoid seeing the consequences our immigration policy visits upon broken families. Advertisement Advertisement Earlier, we held a rally at our synagogue where hundreds gathered in support of Armando. Beforehand, a teen in our community said about him, He knew my name. After the rally, Armandos teenage son said, I didnt realize how many people loved my dad. That is exactly what we hope to teach our kidshow to see and appreciate people. Because our immigration system is hidden from view, it makes it easier for those working within it to not feel public shame for not seeing the people whose lives they hold in their hands. To not seem to care at all as we stand on the shore watching Armando carried out to sea. The administration of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, in its last days, has granted a high honor to Jared Kushner, President Donald Trumps son-in-law and adviser and one of the most important figures for U.S.-Mexico relations since Trump won the White House. Pena Nieto awarded Kushner the Order of the Aztec Eagle, which the Guardian described as the highest honor for foreigners granted by the Mexican government. Kushners father-in-law literally kicked off his presidential campaign with demagoguery aimed at Mexico, which he said was sending people that have lots of problems, including rapists. Advertisement From almost the moment Trump took office, Kushner took charge of his emerging relationship with the Mexican government, including reportedly encouraging his father-in-law to stop demanding that Mexico pay for a wall on the U.S. border. Kushner was also one of the lead figures in renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement and helped head off Trumps impulse to abruptly withdraw the U.S. from it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Mexican Foreign Relations Department said the award was specifically for Kushners significant contributions in achieving the renegotiation of the new (trade) agreement between Mexico, the United States and Canada, the Associated Press reported. Since Trump won the election, the Pena Nieto administration has frantically worked to keep him and his administration happy, with uneven resultsup to and including honoring Kushner. The award comes in the dying days of Pena Nietos time in office before populist President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador takes over on Dec. 1. Many people in Mexico take a less sanguine view of Kushners actions and honor for work his done on behalf of Trump. One Mexican academic told the Guardian that the award was the final kick in the crotch for Mexicans. Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta, who has been criticized for his role in a plea deal 10 years ago with a multimillionaire alleged to have abused dozens of underage girls, allowed the billionaires lawyers to largely set the terms of their clients prosecution, a yearlong investigation by the Miami Herald found. On Wednesday, the Herald released its multi-part report into the sex crimes of hedge fund manager Jeffrey Epstein in the early 2000s and the shockingly lenient punishment he received. The crimes described in the report are deeply upsetting: The Herald identified 80 victims, many of whom were preyed on because they were poor and in unstable homes, or on the verge of homelessness. They spoke of being paid to give massages and ultimately were coerced into sex acts, or of being tasked with finding other girls for him. Some described repeated and regular abuse by Epstein (one described going to his home hundreds of times), and one victim said Epstein raped her. A lawsuit pending in New York also alleges Epstein used an international modeling agency to traffic girls from Europe, Ecuador, and Brazil to house and use for his own sexual gratification. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Despite the vast scale of the abuse, Epstein pleaded guilty in June 2008 to just two prostitution-related charges in state court and was jailed for just 13 months in the Palm Beach, Florida, county jail. (Critics have pointed out that girls below the age of consent cannot be considered prostitutes but victims of trafficking.) Epstein was housed in a private wing of the jail and was allowed to leave six days a week for 12 hours at a time to work out of one of his comfortable offices. (Per sheriffs department rules, sex offenders do not qualify for work release, the Herald noted.) He did register as a sex offender and was ordered to pay restitution to the three dozen victims who had been identified by the FBI at that point, but the victims payments came only after Epsteins attorneys exposed every dark corner of their lives in a scorched-earth effort to portray the girls as gold diggers, the Herald reported. Advertisement To make matters worse, the plea deal he accepted effectively shuttered an ongoing FBI probe into whether there were other victims or guilty partiesits possible other powerful and wealthy people were involvedand the victims themselves were intentionally kept in the dark about the criminal proceedings against Epstein. Advertisement Acostas role in the case as a U.S. attorney placed him in the position to hold Epstein to account for the trauma he inflicted. Armed with an abundance of evidence and victim testimony, legal experts familiar with the case told the Herald, Acosta could have ensured Epstein was convicted on federal criminal charges and sent to prison for the rest of his life. But instead, on one morning in 2007, he meet one of Epsteins attorneys for breakfast at a Marriott 70 miles away from the prosecutors headquarters in Miami. The attorney was a former colleague of Acostas, and the two struck a deal that morning that ultimately arranged for Epstein and four of his accomplices to plead just to state charges and receive immunity from all federal criminal chargesalong with any potential co-conspirators. The agreement that resulted was sealed until after it was approved by a judge, the Herald reported. As a result, no victims or victims advocates were aware of the agreement and given the opportunity to object. According to the Herald: Advertisement Advertisement In email after email, Acosta and the lead federal prosecutor, A. Marie Villafana, acquiesced to Epsteins legal teams demands, which often focused on ways to limit the scandal by shutting out his victims and the media, including suggesting that the charges be filed in Miami, instead of Palm Beach, where Epsteins victims lived. On an avoid the press note I can file the charge in district court in Miami which will hopefully cut the press coverage significantly. Do you want to check that out? Villafana wrote to [one of Epsteins lawyers] in a September 2007 email. Advertisement The Herald reported that Epstein provided valuable information to federal investigators, and while the nature of that information is not known, the Herald speculated that it could have something to do with Epsteins role as a witness against two Bear Stearns executives accused of corporate securities fraud at the time of the 2008 global financial crisis. (They were later acquitted.) Advertisement Acosta himself said he was pressured by Epsteins team of lawyers, which included, among other prominent names, Jay Lefkowitz, a senior domestic policy adviser in the Bush administration; Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz; and former Clinton-era special prosecutor Ken Starr. When Trump nominated Acosta to become labor secretary in 2017, he was questioned about the Epstein case at the Senate confirmation hearing but argued that the plea deal had been necessary to ensure Epstein go to jail. At the end of the day, based on the evidence, professionals within a prosecutors office decided that a plea that guarantees someone goes to jail, that guarantees he register [as a sex offender] generally, and guarantees other outcomes, is a good thing, he said. Advertisement A lawsuit in South Florida contends that Acosta and other federal prosecutors broke the law in not notifying the victims of court proceedings or allowing them the opportunity to appear at their abusers sentencing, in violation of the federal Crime Victims Rights Act. One police sergeant reported that FBI agents believed they had enough evidence to prosecute Epstein but were overruled by Acosta. Advertisement Advertisement As Jordan Weissman noted for Slate in February 2017, Acosta is considered an accomplished and respected legal and political figure. While working for the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division in the Bush administration, he worked to combat anti-Muslim bigotry and is the only Hispanic member of Trumps Cabinet. Notably for those who would defend him against accusations of giving Epstein a cushy deal, he prosecuted corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff while working in Miami. Compared with Trumps other Cabinet members, Acosta has managed to largely keep his head down and manage his vast department without attracting scandal. Even after signing a plea deal with the special counsel in September, Paul Manaforts lawyer provided President Trumps attorneys briefings on the former campaign chairmans interactions with federal investigators, the New York Times reported Tuesday. The move was most certainly a provocative one and would be highly unusual for a defendant offered a deal in return for a reduced sentenceas Manafort was by the Mueller teamfor fear that it might jeopardize the plea deal. The Times points out that the arrangement where Manafort attorney Kevin Downing passed along information about the line of questioning pursued by Robert Mueller is not technically illegal, but it reportedly angered the Mueller team, which accused Manafort Monday of breaching his agreement to cooperate, opening him up to far greater jail time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The disclosures to the Trump team surely added to the special counsels mounting belief that Manafort was double-dealing. And its hard to read Manaforts efforts to help Trump as anything other than an attempt to curry favor and signal his allegiance to the president in hopes of a pardon. Before striking a deal with prosecutors, Manaforts legal team had been coordinating with Trumps lawyers under a joint defense agreement, which is commonly used by defense attorneys during investigations with multiple witnesses to facilitate sharing of information without violating attorney-client privilege rules. Trumps team reportedly had such agreements with 32 people involved in the investigationeither as witnesses or subjectsbut when a defendant agrees to cooperate with the prosecution, typically the defendants lawyer withdraws from the joint defense agreement in order to stay in good standing with prosecutors, as was the case with former national security adviser Michael Flynn last year. Advertisement Though it was unclear how frequently he spoke to Mr. Trumps lawyers or how much he revealed, his updates helped reassure Mr. Trumps legal team that Mr. Manafort had not implicated the president in any possible wrongdoing, the Times reports. Rudolph W. Giuliani, one of the presidents personal lawyers, acknowledged the arrangement on Tuesday and defended it as a source of valuable insights into the special counsels inquiry and where it was headed. Such information could help shape a legal defense strategy, and it also appeared to give Mr. Trump and his legal advisers ammunition in their public relations campaign against Mr. Muellers office. Mississippi isnt just a deep-red stateDonald Trump won nearly 58 percent of the vote to Hillary Clintons 40 percentits also a largely rural one defined by stark racial polarization. Black residents almost uniformly support Democratic candidates and white residents almost uniformly support Republicans, which makes Mississippi electorally inelastic. Theres a narrow band of outcomes and an almost unshakable GOP advantage. This political divide is a direct holdover from the states past, a product of its deep entanglement with slavery and its culture of exclusion and hierarchy. Just two facts show the extent of Mississippis reliance on slave labor: On the eve of the Civil War, 55 percent of people living in the state were enslaved, and at the height of the domestic slave trade, Natchez, which sits on the bank of the Mississippi River, was one of the richest cities in the United States, with half the nations millionaires. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For Mississippi and its peers, emancipation was a profound shock to the system whose ripples have been felt ever since. We document that Southern whites who live in areas where slaveholding was more prevalent are today more conservative, more cool to African Americans, and more likely to oppose race-related policies that many feel could potentially help blacks, argue scholars Avidit Acharya, Matthew Blackwell, and Maya Sen in Deep Roots: How Slavery Still Shapes Southern Politics. Mississippi whites are still among the most conservative in the nation, a direct consequence of the states experience with slavery, emancipation, and its aftermath. These attitudes grew out of the historical incentives to subjugate African Americansincentives that strengthened through the antebellum period and morphed in the postbellum period into significant institutional and social customs designed to keep blacks in socially, politically, and economically marginalized positions, Acharya, Blackwell and Sen write. Advertisement These attitudes are so ingrained, so tied to the particular history and culture of the Deep South, that it continues to weigh on the politics of the region, well after the civil rights era and the death of Jim Crow. We can feel some of this weight in the context of Tuesdays runoff election for Senate in Mississippi. Advertisement Incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, appointed to fill the vacancy created by former Sen. Thad Cochran, is running to complete the last two years of his term. She has stumbled through the race, in a campaign marked by controversy. In one instance, she advocated for voter suppression. In another, she said that if a supporter invited her to a public hanging, Id be on the front row, a phrase which carries ugly connotations in a state marked by a long history of brutal racial violence, and sounds even worse in light of the fact that her opponent, Democrat Mike Espy, is black. Advertisement Advertisement Espy, a former three-term congressman and secretary of agriculture under Bill Clinton, has had a strong showing for a Democrat running statewide in Mississippi. He finished just behind Hyde-Smith in the first round of voting, taking 44 percent of the vote in the only public poll of the runoff. His strategy for winning is similar to the one used in Alabama to elect Democrat Doug Jones in last Decembers special election: supercharged turnout among black voters (who make up 37 percent of the voting age population) tied to modest support from white moderates. Espy won 18 percent of white voters in the first-round election. If he can boost that to 25 or 30 percent, he can win. Advertisement Advertisement Mississippi whites are still among the most conservative in the nation, a direct consequence of the states experience with slavery, emancipation, and its aftermath. The inelasticity of the Mississippi electorate means the odds are not in his favor. Even with her missteps, Hyde-Smith is likely to win. She is the beneficiary of a deeply racialized white political culture that reads black political power as an existential threat, which means she can almost certainly count on the overwhelming support of white voters in the state to carry her to victory. Espy is an able, talented politician, but his fate is likely sealed. This isnt just a story of Mississippi and the Deep South. Racism, anti-black or otherwise, weighs on the country writ large. Since Barack Obamas election in 2008, the partisanship of all white voters has increasingly aligned with their racial attitudeswhites with conservative racial views are more likely to be Republican than ever before, while whites with liberal racial views are far more likely to be Democrats. And this isnt an artifact of some other change to public opinion. In fact, no other factor predicted changes in white partisanship during Obamas presidency as powerfully and consistently as racial attitudes, write political scientists John Sides, Michael Tesler, and Lynn Vavreck in Identity Crisis, their recent analysis of the 2016 election. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Extrapolate from these trendsand add a Republican Party whose leaders are committed to fanning racial hysteria for the sake of votesand you can see a political landscape that looks like the one in Mississippi and other states of the Deep South, defined by stark racial polarization and a durable base for highly reactionary politics. The midterm elections offer a glimpse of this in its early stages, with Democrats consolidating diverse suburbs and Republicans doing the same among rural and exurban whites. The two parties have always been separated by geography, education, and race, but that divide has grown even more dramatic in the modern era, as a politics of racial exclusion takes hold in the GOP. There are still many exits left before our national politics reaches that point. But looking at America under Trump, its hard to say that were not heading steadily on that path. This piece was originally published on Just Security, an online forum for analysis of U.S. national security law and policy. The primary mandate of special counsel Robert Muellers investigation is to determine if there are any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump. That specific task has nothing directly to do with criminal liability for any Americans or Russians nor anything to do with the potential political implications for the president, whether in the form of an impeachment report or something else. The primary mandate of the special counsel is instead a counterintelligence investigation. With all the media focus on potential criminal and political implications, we often forget this critically important, core mission for Mueller. We should concentrate far more on that dimensionthe counterintelligence effortas the country prepares for the release of the special counsels report. Advertisement Muellers counterintelligence effort can answer nationally important questions like: Why did the Russians have such a successful impact on the 2016 presidential election? For the past year and a half, the special counsel has undertaken a broad investigation into allegations regarding collusion on the part of then-candidate Donald Trumps campaign and matters that arise from that investigation. While the political and criminal investigative efforts make for great media, the critically important counterintelligence part of the special counsels investigation is being undertaken much more discretely. Of course, the special counsel is looking to determine if criminal wrongdoing happened, but he will be working to identify and understand the more complex intentions and actions undertaken at the direction, or at the least, with the concurrence, of one of Americas most significant adversaries, the Russian government. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We are all hopeful that the counterintelligence investigation will not only identify the actions undertaken by the Russians but also why they were so successful. Knowing this, more than anything else, is necessary to guard against future effective efforts by either the Russians or other intelligence services. We are all hopeful that the counterintelligence investigation will not only identify the actions undertaken by the Russians but also why they were so successful. In January 2017, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a report documenting what the U.S. Intelligence Community considered to be a dramatic and intentional effort by Russian intelligence to affect the 2016 presidential election, including distribution of stolen emails, social media campaigns, and the compromising of state and local electoral systems. For the most part, this report was well received by the public and within the U.S. government. However, there were those who were hesitant to fully accept the findings and called into question the integrity and the process of underlying U.S. Intelligence Community members including the CIA, FBI, and National Security Council. While the report was the public tip of the iceberg relative to recent Russian interference, the U.S. Intelligence Community also conceded that this was not the first time Russia had undertaken efforts to influence the U.S. political system. Regardless, the pushback against the intelligence agencies was one of Russias public victories. Advertisement Advertisement So what makes this counterintelligence effort by the Russians different from previous efforts and why was it so successful? It may be best to start with just a simple understanding of the basics of an intelligence operation and what Muellers counterintelligence investigation may be looking for and finding along the way. An intelligence effort usually has a clear goal of acquiring information, access, or influence. With the goal identified, a multipronged strategy can be used to accomplish the goal. Individuals and organizations can be targeted with hopes of acquiring specific outcomes. Operations generally begin with a significant amount of research and a solid understanding of the targets. If a specific outcome is the primary goal, a number of individuals may be targeted because of their connection to or influence relating to the ultimate goal. Advertisement Advertisement In this effort, tools deployed by an intelligence service may include: the use of recruited or coerced individuals, the undermining and exploitation of systems for conveying information, and the propagation of false information to paint an alternate narrative that benefits the goals of the intelligence effort. These are time-tested tools and not new or unique to the Russian services. Even in the most technical of intelligence operations, individuals are often targeted. Knowing an individuals or an institutions history is foundational to assessing a targets anticipated action and responses. As information is developed, the targets weaknesses come to light. With people, these vulnerabilities can be very personal in nature, such as a desire or need for acclaim or an appreciation of certain things, whether they be money or something less tangible. Personal weaknesses such as infidelity or a propensity for criminal behavior can also be useful when considering vulnerabilities of a target. Greed and arrogance are traits that are incredibly helpful when assessing a targets weaknesses, as they often provide an opening to lure a target into a mutually agreed or coerced relationship. As a result, intelligence operations are generally tailored to maximize and exploit such weaknesses. Advertisement Advertisement The Russians were effective. They not only successfully engaged with individuals who lacked familiarity or sophistication in intelligence operations but also demonstrated arrogance and neediness. While I am not naming specific persons in this article, I am sure a number of familiar names and faces easily come to mind for readers as well when thinking about individuals who have been of interest to the special counsel. While understanding the target of an intelligence operation is foundational, having access to the target is critical. This access can be direct, such as when intelligence services have one-on-one contact with a targeted individual or organization. However, the access does not always have to be direct. It can also be indirect via someone close to the target, for instance a family member. Sometimes having access to someone close to the target, an exploitable close associate or relative, is even better. This access can help gain cooperation of a less-vulnerable target through coercion or manipulation and often to protect the family member or associate. Advertisement Advertisement Plenty of information demonstrates the Russians pursued access to the Trump campaign through a variety of individuals. Going back to the summer of 2016, we see campaign affiliates having active and sometimes professional ties to both Russian business and government officials. Through meetings and other professional associations, Trump campaign officials and contacts demonstrated their lack of sophistication and potentially exposed the campaign to Russian access and exploitation. Advertisement With access to individuals, intelligence services work toward consummated relationships. These relationships can start as all business. Professional environments often provide good assessment opportunities for intelligence services and potential individual targets. Individuals who are prone to too much self-disclosure are of obvious interest and generally easy to exploit. Through either a friendly, mutually beneficial relationship or a manipulative and coerced one, relationships are needed to identify, disclose, and acquire the sought-after information, gain access, or exert influence. Advertisement Cyber tools and hacking are also utilized broadly by intelligence services across the globe. Having information about the most intimate details of your adversary is a currency these days. According to the special counsels July indictment of 12 Russian officials from the GRU, Russias military intelligence agency, we know that the agency hacked into the accounts of Democratic National Committee staff, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee staff, and those of Hillary Clinton campaign employees and volunteers. The Russians did this, in part, through sending a convincing email to a senior Clinton campaign official with a fake security-reset email. Once the bait was taken, the Russians used his email credentials to send others inside the Clinton campaign fraudulent emails allowing the Russians to eventually steal their emails and credentials as well. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While obviously a U.S. criminal offense, the Russians benefited from this hack first by exposing a weakness in the campaign and the Democratic Party. Whats more, they benefited from access to insider information that provided them with valuable and, in some cases, very embarrassing information. It also gave the Russians an edge in feeding a narrative to help achieve their goals of impacting the 2016 election. The Russians effectively used ill-gotten information and released it at a time that benefited them the most. Advertisement The Russians employed normal and everyday intelligence methods, but their success essentially cannot be overstated. I am hard-pressed to say anything nice about the Russian intelligence services, but I will say they are good at what they do. Russian intelligence agencies such as the FSB, SVR, and the GRU are very worthy adversaries. U.S. intelligence agencies have long considered them some of the most aggressive services. Advertisement Like most professional intelligence services, the Russians are studied and well-versed in American processes and way of life. They are experts at identifying and taking advantage of weakness, arrogance, and vanity. They effectively use outright manipulation, coercion, and blackmail and are unafraid to deliver on their threats. With all that said, the Russians can also be incredibly charming and alluring to the naive. Advertisement In addition to the manipulation of persons and the aggressive hacking and theft of personal and campaign information, the Russians have written their version of the American story from a million different perspectives. Over the past year, big tech companies have identified a host of ways the Russians have manipulated social media tools to create false identities and spread propaganda and false storylines sowing both political and social discord. These tech firms and social media outlets have been called to account and to be more transparent about their own weaknesses. Of course, this only adds to our growing distrust of another aspect of American societyan aspect thats one of the largest economic sectors of the U.S. economy. Advertisement The Russian influence campaign has caused all of us to question significant parts of trusted American processes and institutions. In hindsight, much of that trust was already waning. The Russians just made the most of it. I wonder how successful the Russians would have been had we been more willing to have civil discussions over issues as opposed to eagerly fueling political rancor and partisan drama. They took advantage of us fully and the effectiveness of their efforts is much broader than even they could have imagined. Some Americans distrust our intelligence community and law enforcement. Some distrust a prior presidential campaign and a current White House administration. Some distrust our media and our technology sector. We have allowed Russian-created false narratives to stoke racial and political discord. Most of all, the Russians have been successful at causing us to distrust each other. I hope at the end of the day, the special counsel will reveal as much as possible about how the Russians plotted and manipulated individuals in campaigns and government, stole sensitive information, and created false identities and narratives, all to satisfy their U.S. election goals for their good, not ours. The unfortunate reality is that probably nearly 50 percent of the country will believe it and nearly 50 percent will not. More From Just Security: Can Congress Subpoena Trump to Testify? U.S. House Investigations v. White House Slow Walk: Scenarios The Washington Post published an explosive piece by columnist David Ignatius on Tuesday detailing the Saudi royal family feud that led to the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a feud that he writes matches anything in the fantasy series Game of Thrones. The centerpiece of the article is an incident in the summer of 2016 in which allies of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, commonly known as MBS, organized the detention of a prominent rival in Chinaan event that, as Ignatius notes, bears similarities to what happened to Khashoggi in Turkey in October. Advertisement Businessman Tarek Obaid was a financial adviser to Turki bin Abdullah, a former governor of Riyadh and son of the late King Abdullah. Turki is one of the chief rivals of MBS in the power struggle that has broken out since the kings death in 2015. Obaid was detained and brutally interrogated by Chinese authorities based on information from Riyadh that he was actually a terrorist financier organizing a plot against that years G-20 summit. (If youve been puzzled about why Arab autocrats seem remarkably unbothered by Donald Trumps overt Islamophobia or Chinas persecution of Muslims, consider the willingness of powerful Saudis in this case to exploit foreign fears of Islamist terrorism for their own ends.) Obaid was eventually released when the Chinese realized they had been deceived. He is now living in exile in Switzerland. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Since Khashoggis death, theres been renewed attention on Saudi Arabias influence in Washington and other foreign capitals, from its vast lobbying effort to its funding of think tanks to its courting of prominent journalists. But Ignatius storyboth the events recounted in it and its very existencesuggests the problem is more complicated. The Saudis are far from a monolith. They are a divided and fractious group of players who are not only fighting one another for power but are also using foreign institutions and governments as pawns in that struggle. Of course, Saudi Arabia is not the only government that speaks with more than one voice. There are days when Trump and his senior foreign policy advisers dont even seem to be representing the same country. But the problem is more acute for the only absolute monarchy among the worlds major economic powers. Moreover, its a monarchy where the rules of succession are ambiguous and there are literally thousands of potential heirs; the jockeying for influence among them is inevitable. Advertisement Ignatius reports that as the crown prince began to gather power, his rivals sought to turn the U.S. against him. Knowing that [CIA Director John] Brennan and other members of the Obama administration were uneasy about MBS, several of Abdullahs sons hired a leading strategic advisory firm in Washington, to gather information about the new dynamic in U.S.-Saudi relations, he writes. Turki and Obaid traveled to Washington in May 2016 and spent several days holed up at the Four Seasons meeting with prominent former officials and journalists, including Ignatius, to raise concerns about the brash young prince. It didnt work: Obama was apparently charmed and impressed by MBS talk of reforms when the prince visited the White House that June, and Obama backed his disastrous military intervention in Yemen, albeit with less enthusiasm than Trump would eventually show. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This lobbying offensive was mild compared with the MBS groups later attempts to manipulate Chinas state security apparatus to silence Obaid after he had publicly criticized the crown princes economic plans. Likewise, its worth keeping in mind that Khashoggi himself was hardly a classic dissident. He was, until recently, a royal insider close to both the late King Abdullah and the billionaire investor Alwaleed bin Talal, whom MBS had arrested last year. This isnt to diminish the horror and brutality of Khashoggis killing, but the tragedy is perhaps better explained by internecine power struggles than the simplistic notion of a dictatorship killing a prominent critic. Another recent story suggests why talk of Saudi influence in Washington is often overly simplistic. On Monday, it was reported that Kirsten Fontenrose, a former top White House official overseeing policy toward Saudi Arabia whose resignation earlier this month had been seen as a protest of the Trump administrations lackluster response to the Khashoggi killing, would be joining Sonoran Policy Group, a lobbying firm that in 2017 was the top recipient of Saudi Arabian money in Washington. What initially looked like a pure example of Washington hypocrisy is in fact a little more complicated. As Quartz reported in October, SPG had been hired by the Saudi interior ministry, led by Mohammed bin Nayef, who was once heir to the throne until he was sidelined by MBS. Nayef had enjoyed close ties to the intelligence community under Obama but had lost influence in Trumps Washington. Ignatius describes MBS as paranoid about Nayef. In other words, after resigning over Trumps reluctance to punish MBS, Fontenrose defected to go work for MBS rivals. K Street is just one more battlefield in this royal power struggle. Advertisement Advertisement In light of what were learning about the Saudi royal familys divisions, Trumps policy toward the country looks less like an embrace of Saudi Arabia, as a nation, than a personal endorsement of the crown prince. (Recall that Trump gave his tweeted endorsement to MBS unprecedented arrest, purge, and in some cases torture of his most powerful relatives one year ago.) This makes sense for a president who often seems to view foreign policy purely in terms of personal relationships and sometimes seems like he wants his own administration to resemble a royal court, complete with prominent roles for his relatives. (Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner has become personally close to MBS over several trips to the kingdom and is reportedly the main point of contact between the two ruling families.) Advertisement Advertisement Since Khashoggis death, several commentators have made the case that while the Saudi relationship is worth preserving, MBS must go. This is becoming a more dubious case to make. For one thing, the more we learn about the regime, the less convincing the notion that its in any way a bulwark for regional stabilityas Secretary of State Mike Pompeo not very convincingly argued Wednesday in the Wall Street Journal. Advertisement As the global backlash against MBS grows (the latest news is that Argentine prosecutors are considering pressing charges against him at this weeks G-20 summit), his critics should be wary of simply playing a part in the internal Saudi power struggle. MBS rivals, still smarting from last years purge, are clearly feeling emboldened by the international opprobrium being heaped upon him. Ignatius article itself is probably read in this context. Obaid, now in Switzerland, is a named source in the piece, and its safe to assume that most of the sources are associated with Turkis side in the power struggle against the crown prince and are looking to further damage his already sullied reputation. Ignatius concludes by comparing MBS brutal paranoia to that of Saddam Hussein during his dictatorship of Iraq and urges the United States to calm this family feud before it does any more damage to Saudi Arabia and the world. Better still to not participate in it. Last week, Donald Trump claimed that a deal had been reached on a plan that would keep asylum-seekers on the Mexico side of the border until immigration judges in the United States approve their cases. Incoming Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador denied that a deal had been reached on the subject, but it appears that some agreement to hold asylum-seekers in Mexican border states may be in the works. How such a policy would be implemented remains unclear. Perhaps the idea would be for Mexico to house asylum-seekers in existing shelters run by churches or charities, or to set up what would essentially amount to a refugee camp on Mexican soil. Maybe the plan is merely to let asylum-seekers languish on the southern side of the border until they give up. Regardless of the details, however, it is clear that such a policy would damage our already broken immigration system beyond repair and all but eliminate the ability of asylum-seekers to find an attorney. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Currently, asylum-seekers arriving at the border either present themselves at a port of entry and request asylum from agents stationed there, or attempt to enter the United States without inspection. Many who enter without inspection surrender to Border Patrol immediately. Either way, most asylum-seekers are then processed into immigration detention. Officially, the asylum-seeker is then put in removal proceedings. Some are released shortly after processing with a notice to appear in immigration court at a later date, but many remain detained. On a recent trip, guards told my paralegal that she would not be allowed to see our client because it was raining. After they are detained, they must speak to an asylum officer who vets their fear of return to their country. At the detention center where I most often work, those interviews, which are supposed to be confidential, take place in cold rooms where guards stand outside, listening and loudly talking with each other. The phones sometimes used for translations during the interviews are perpetually broken, issuing an ever-present hissing noise over the low voices on the other end. Asylum-seekers must pass this interview in order even to present their asylum claim to a judge. After this interview, some of these detained asylum-seekers become my clients. Advertisement As a nonprofit deportation defense attorney, though, the most challenging part of my job is navigating the endless and ever-changing policies that are seemingly put in place to frustrate my detained clients chances at asylum and make it impossible for me to represent them effectively. Immigration and Customs Enforcement constantly shuffles immigrants between detention centers, and sometimes those who request our help are moved before we can even see them. Sometimes, people just disappear from the online locator that is supposed to detail their location, and we have to call each jail, asking if theyre detaining a client. Advertisement Even when our clients remain in the local detention center, however, we do not have easy access to them. Although attorneys can technically visit a client all day, in practicality those visits are limited by the realities of twice-daily countswhen all movement in the detention center stops so that officials can count all of the detaineesand mealtimes, during which I cannot visit my clients. On a recent trip, guards told my paralegal that she would not be allowed to see our client because it was raining. Our access to our clients is guided mostly by the whims of whatever officer happens to be working the front desk. It gets more complicated if you dont speak the same language as your client. To bring in my cellphone to call a translation service, I must get permission from an immigration supervisor in advance. Advertisement Advertisement After a recent trial, one client waited in a holding cell for 45 minutes while I pleaded with the guards for permission to use my cellphone to communicate with him. I had followed the most current protocol to request permission to use a translator, but no one had ever replied. After being told that no one could approve my cellphone use, I eventually used Google to translate a message to my client, which I had to write out by hand in his native language on a yellow legal pad. I told him that I would come back to see him in a few daysif I could get clearance for a translator. Advertisement Similarly, my clients often have trouble collecting evidence because they cannot pay for the expensive phone minutes needed to call their loved ones to request affidavits of support for their cases. Although the detention center technically should supply stamps to indigent detainees, detention center mail can be unreliable, and messages frequently get lost. Detained clients who dont speak English or Spanish are left without assistance to fill out the complex asylum application. Advertisement All of these inconveniences add up to a reality in which it is difficult to do the one thing they must: write an asylum application and collect evidence supporting their claim. To have a shot at asylum, my clients must show that they have a well-founded fear of returning to their country based on persecution on account of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. To meet this narrow definition, the asylum-seeker must fill out a lengthy application, available only in English; submit a detailed affidavit, in English; and present corroborating evidence and country conditions to support their claim, also in English. If someone is unable to turn in their asylum application because they do not read or speak English, the immigration judge can simply find that they abandoned their claim and order them deported. Without enough evidence, the judge can likewise order them removed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As a result, a large part of my job as an immigration attorney is merely doing the things that detained people cant do for themselves, like researching country conditions on the internet, calling their family members to obtain statements and evidence, and getting documents translated. These are the tasks that give my clients a shot at asylum. Most detained migrants are not lucky enough to find a lawyer, and the results are clear: not having a lawyer makes deportation much more likely. Those who are fortunate enough to be allowed to await their asylum cases safely in the interior of the United States have a much better chance of finding an attorney and of winning their cases. But for all the difficulty I go through to assist my clients while they are detained, I can at least access them. Under the proposed remain in Mexico policy, asylum-seekers would be cut off from legal services in the United States. Being banned from entering the U.S. would effectively bar immigrants from finding and retaining U.S. attorneys. Even if some asylum-seekers were able to hire private attorneys, it is unclear how an attorney would be able to present an effective asylum case on their behalf. The attorney would have to either travel into Mexico to meet with their clients, an unrealistic option for most attorneys spread throughout the country, or try to assist their clients entirely by phone and mail. That is if the asylum-seekers would even have access to such forms of communication. Those of us working on the border may be able to assist clients in Mexico, but how will we be able to develop an effective asylum claim for someone who has no home, no way to collect evidence, no stability? How can we expect asylum-seekers to meet the incredibly difficult burden our immigration system sets before them if they are forced to live under blankets on our international bridges? Perhaps that is the point of the proposed policy from a president and administration that have done everything in their power to decimate our asylum system. But those of us who still care about our basic humanitarian obligations, and even those who prize law and order above all else, should not let this happen without a fight. A policy that pushes asylees out undermines not only our humanity but the legitimacy of our legal system. Serving asylum-seekers is not easy and is made more difficult by our byzantine system of immigration laws and the ever-expanding immigration jail system. But a system that forces asylum-seekers to fight their cases from our doorstep wont just make my job harder; it might make it impossible. On Friday, the federal government released the Fourth National Climate Assessment, a report on the state of climate change. On Monday, President Trump rejected the reports findings. The reports authors, representing 13 federal agencies and hundreds of scientists, say [the] economic impact could be devastating, a reporter told the president. Yeah, Trump replied. I dont believe it. On Tuesday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders brushed off the report. Its not based on facts, she asserted. Its based on modeling. Advertisement Trump and Sanders are repeating an old Republican talking point: that coal jobs and oil sales are real, but climate change is just speculation. But thats no longer true. Weve procrastinated about climate change for so long that its no longer hypothetical. Its happening. And its hitting Americans in their pocketbooks, especially in Trump country. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The report calculates that by 2090, under present trends, climate change will cost the United States more than $500 billion every year in lost wages, heat fatalities, flooding, coastal property loss, road damage, electrical strain, and other expenses. Thats roughly the annual cost of Medicare or national defense. But this damage isnt speculative. The report shows its well underway. Advertisement To start with, were cooking ourselves. The Southwest has broken regional heat records in five of the past six years. Southeastern states are leading the country in occupational heat-related deaths, and in 61 percent of Southeastern cities, heat waves have intensified. By 2090, under present trends, outdoor heat in the Southeast will cost workers $47 billion in annual lost wages. Temperatures in Phoenix will reach triple digits 150 days a year. Buckling roads have already cost Texas millions of dollars. The national cost of road repairs due to heat and water damage is creeping into the billions. In the West, were burning. Human-caused climate change is estimated to have doubled the area of forest burned in the western United States from 1984 to 2015, says the report. In 2015, wildfires incinerated a record 10 million acres, including 5 million in Alaska and more than a million in Montana. Thousands of homes burned in California, Colorado, and other states. The damage runs into the billions, as does annual federal spending on wildfire control. By the middle of this century, the report warns, the annual area burned in the western United States could increase 26 times from the present. Advertisement Advertisement In the heartland, were parching the earth. Climate change has dried out soil across the country. A 2017 drought caused $2.5 billion in damage. A 2015 drought cost twice that. A 2012 drought cost $33 billion, destroying crops across the Plains and the Midwest. Livestock losses from heat stress are approaching $2 billion per year. The report says major portions of the Ogallala Aquifer, a huge area that stretches from South Dakota to Texasand covers states that produce one-fifth of the countrys corn, cotton, and wheatshould now be considered a nonrenewable resource. Advertisement In the South and Southeast, were flooding. On average, sea levels have risen 3 inches since 1990, more than twice the rate of the previous century. But thanks to subsidence, parts of the Southeast have lost 1 to 3 feet of elevation, relative to sea level, in the past century. In Texas, sea level has risen as much as 17 inches relative to the coast, and nearly $10 billion in property now sits within a 5-foot reach of high tide. In Florida, the portfolio of property at risk is even bigger. The report documents increased flooding from Florida to Virginia. Annual occurrences of high tide coastal flooding have increased 5- to 10-fold since the 1960s in several low-lying coastal cities in the Southeast, says the report. In fact, flooding occurrences increased more than 50% in 2015 compared to 2014. Advertisement Advertisement Its not just the sea level thats changing. Its the rain. The last three decades are the most torrential on record, and extreme rainfall is becoming more pervasive. Across the Southeast since 2014, there have been numerous examples of intense rainfall eventsmany approaching levels that would be expected to occur only once every 500 years, says the report. Massive downpours caused $2 billion in damage in South Carolina in 2015 and $10 billion in Louisiana a year later. From 2015 to 2017, floods in Texas broke records. Warmer water is also feeding hurricanes. In 2016, Hurricane Matthew caused $10 billion in damage, mostly in the Carolinas. In 2017, Hurricane Irma caused $50 billion in damage, mostly in Florida. Hurricane Harvey smashed rainfall records, drowning Houston and shutting down much of the energy industry. The 2017 Atlantic Hurricane season alone is estimated to have caused more than $250 billion in damages, says the report. Based on past trends and recent sea surface temperatures, the heaviest rainfall amounts from intense storms such as Harvey are about 5%7% greater now than what they would have been a century ago. Advertisement Advertisement These arent hypotheticals. Theyre facts. Last year, the United States suffered more than $300 billion in damage from weather disasters, breaking the previous record by more than 40 percent. Nearly $1.5 trillion in real estate sits within an eighth of a mile of the coast, and rising tides are beginning to claim it. There are already indications in places like Atlantic City, New Jersey, and Norfolk, Virginia, that homes subject to recurring flooding may become unsellable, says the report. Risk portfolios in the housing finance, municipal bond, and insurance industries may need to be adjusted. Advertisement Youre paying for all of this. You pay for federal flood insurance, which covered losses from the 2017 hurricanes. You pay for federal crop insurance, which shelled out nearly $15 billion to farmers in the 2012 drought. You pay for billions of dollars in federal outlays to control wildfires and coastal erosion. Youll pay billions more to upgrade electrical grids and elevate ports as the heat grows and the oceans rise. So when Trump says, I dont believe it, hes not puncturing a fantasy. Hes telling you not to believe whats happening right in front of you. Hes turning his back as heat, fires, droughts, and floods destroy lives and livelihoods. When your taxes, electrical bills, and insurance premiums go up, thats climate change. When you turn on your TV and see homes burning or families wading through streets, thats climate change. Its killing people and gutting communities. But its not bothering Donald Trump. During an interview with the Washington Post on Tuesday, President Trump offered often incomprehensible answers to questions ranging from climate change to the economy and his opinion of the Fed chair. The two Post reporters who conducted the sit-down described the exchange as a discordant 20-minute interviewand thats putting it politely. The president offered up rambling, corkscrewing answers that often careened into complete and utter incoherence. When comprehensible, Trumps responses were worrying: He doesnt believe his administrations warnings on climate change or the Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salmans role in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi; hes mad at the Fed chair he selected, and it goes on and on. Advertisement Heres an actual sentence uttered by the president: One of the problems that a lot of people like myself, we have very high levels of intelligence, but were not necessarily such believers. Thats totally out of context, but still. And another: Theyre making a mistake because I have a gut, and my gut tells me more sometimes than anybody elses brain can ever tell me. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Buckle up, heres sampling of Trumps answers. The full transcript is here. Trump explains climate change (or his insistence on the lack thereof) or something: Trump: One of the problems that a lot of people like myself, we have very high levels of intelligence, but were not necessarily such believers. You look at our air and our water and its right now at a record clean. But when you look at China and you look at parts of Asia and when you look at South America, and when you look at many other places in this world, including Russia, includingjust many other placesthe air is incredibly dirty. And when youre talking about an atmosphere, oceans are very small. And it blows over and it sails over. I mean, we take thousands of tons of garbage off our beaches all the time that comes over from Asia. It just flows right down the Pacific, it flows, and we say where does this come from. And it takes many people to start off with. No. 2, if you go back and if you look at articles, they talked about global freezing, they talked about at some point the planets could have freezed to death, then its going to die of heat exhaustion. There is movement in the atmosphere. Theres no question. As to whether or not its man-made and whether or not the effects that youre talking about are there, I dont see itnot nearly like it is. Advertisement Advertisement Trump on whether the latest Russian aggression will impact his scheduled meeting with Vladimir Putin at the G-20: Trump: I am getting a report on that tonight, and that will determine what happens at the meeting. Im getting a full report on that tonight. That will be very determinative. Maybe I wont have the meeting. Maybe I wont even have the meeting. Were going to see. But depending on what comes out tonight, we should have a pretty good indication on exactly what happened tonight at about 6 oclock. Washington Post: Should that aggression concern people here? Trump: I dont like that aggression. I dont like that aggression at all. Absolutely. And by the way, Europe shouldnt like that aggression. And Germany shouldnt like that aggression. You know theyre paying 1 percent, and theyre supposed to be paying much more than 1 percent. Advertisement Advertisement On whether or not Trump is blaming Fed Chair Jerome Powell (who Trump put in the job just nine months ago) for recession jitters: Trump: Im not blaming look, I took recommendations. Im not blaming anybody. But I will tell you, at this moment in time I am not at all happy with the Fed. I am not at all happy with my choice. I think we have to let it go Im doing deals and Im not being accommodated by the Fed. Im not happy with the Fed. Theyre making a mistake because I have a gut, and my gut tells me more sometimes than anybody elses brain can ever tell me. Advertisement Advertisement Trump on how he absolutely has no financial interests with the Saudis. Really. Trump: In the end, though, theyre spending massive amounts of billions of dollars. If you look at Iran and what they do, and you look at many other countries I dont have to embarrass other countries by saying it if you look at what they do, its a rough part of the world. Its a dangerous, rough part of the world. But theyve been a great ally. Without them, Israel would be in a lot more trouble. We need to have a counterbalance to Iran. I know him. I know him well, the Crown Prince. And, by the way, never did business with them, never intend to do business with them. I couldnt care less. This is a very important job that Im doing right now. The last thing I care about is doing business with people. I only do business for us. Somebody said, well, maybe theyre an investor in one of his jobs. The answer is no. But I just feel that its very, very important to maintain that relationship. Its very important to have Saudi Arabia as an ally, if were going to stay in that part of the world. Now, are we going to stay in that part of the world? One reason to is Israel. Oil is becoming less and less of a reason because were producing more oil now than weve ever produced. So, you know, all of a sudden it gets to a point where you dont have to stay there. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump on why he doesnt believebut doesnt not believe?the American intelligence on culpability for the Khashoggi murder: Trump: If you look at my statement, its maybe he did and maybe he didnt. But he denies it. And people around him deny it. And the CIA did not say affirmatively he did it, either, by the way. Im not saying that theyre saying he didnt do it, but they didnt say it affirmatively. Im saying this: We have $52-a-barrel oil right now and I called them about three months ago, before this whole thing happened with Khashoggi, and I let him have it about oil. We were up to $82 probably two and a half months ago we were up to $82 a barrel and it was going up to $100 and that wouldve been like a massive tax increase and I didnt want that. And I called them and they let the oil start flowing and were at $52. Sounds like hes got it all pretty under control. A few years ago, a young associate professor named He Jiankui wrote me, asking for help promoting his research. At the time, I didnt think much of it. I was then a China-based news correspondent for Science magazine, and I occasionally got emails from scientists who took me for a journal editor. The entreaty stood out only for its urgent tone. He told me that his research group had worked day and night to sequence the H7N9 virus, a lethal strain of avian flu that had crossed over to humans in eastern China. I have drafted the manuscript and want to publish it in Science or other journals as soon as possible, he wrote. Advertisement I thought back to that email on Sunday night, when news broke that He Jiankui claimed to have made the worlds first genetically edited babies, using the technique CRISPR-Cas9, which allows researchers to alter an organisms DNA by adding or deleting genes. He said that he recruited seven couples in which the father had HIV to undergo in vitro fertilization. During IVF, he said, he altered the genetic makeup of the embryos, aiming to increase the embryos resistance to the virusa tweak that carries significant risks. The experiment has so far yielded one healthy pregnancy, he claims, resulting in the purported birth of twin girls named Nana and Lulu. Instead of staying quiet until his work could be published in a peer-reviewed publication, he gave an interview to the Associated Press and posted a series of YouTube videos touting his research. The girls are as safe and healthy as any other babies, he said 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. He urged viewers to write to an email address he provided for Nana and Lulu, whose worries, once they learn how to read, may soon extend far beyond responding to fan mail. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement CRISPR has revolutionized areas ranging from cancer treatment to plant breeding. For years, scientists have understood that the technique might eventually be used in human reproduction, but the prospect of actually doing so conjures the test-tube castes of Aldous Huxleys Brave New World, giving many researchers pause. The National Academy of Sciences recommends restricting gene-editing research in human embryos to situations involving clear unmet medical needs. According to many critics, HIV does not meet that standard. In the experiment He claims to have conducted, the risk that infected fathers would have actually transmitted the virus to their children was low. The edit he performed, moreover, could make the twins more susceptible to other infections, like West Nile virus and Japanese encephalitis. In the wake of the news, CRISPR inventor Feng Zhang of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology called for a moratorium on gene-edited babies. Advertisement The development will likely confirm some peoples worst fears about science in China. For several years, Western commentators have worried that gene-edited babies would emerge first there. In some cases, the hand-wringing took the form of cultural essentialism. This was helped along by commentators inside China who pointed to a distinct Confucian ethics, where the needs of the community come before those of the individual and embryos do not have rights. In fact, Chinas scientific community encompasses a diverse range of views, and Confucius did not give clear guidance on the ethics of tweaking our DNA. The more mundane reality is that at many Chinese institutes, informed consent protocol is poorly implementedand informed consent, as the bioethicist Nie Jing-Bao has argued, is about power, not culture. Combine that with a history of mixing reproduction with eugenics, and of subordinating the desires of would-be parents to those of scientists and the state, and the atmosphere is ripe for a stunt like the one He Jiankui has pulled. (Also see the case of South Korean stem cell researcher Hwang Woo-suk, who in 2004 gained notoriety for claiming to have cloned human embryonic stem cells. It later emerged that much of his research had been fakedbut not before Western commentators had attributed his rise to a Confucian work culture and to Koreas huge supply of fresh human eggs.) Advertisement Advertisement Confucius did not give clear guidance on the ethics of tweaking our DNA . In 2013, the same year that He wrote me, I toured a hospital in Guangxi region that was implementing a massive program to screen for beta thalassemia, a debilitating genetic disorder that disproportionately affects the Zhuang minority group. Part of the effort entailed testing would-be couples for the disease and then counseling them on the odds that they would give birth to a child with the condition. Beta thalassemia can be fatal, and there is no question that eliminating it would save families a lot of grief. But the Guangxi program also included prenatal screening, and mothers found to be carrying fetuses with the disease were strongly encouraged to abort. The couples I spoke with in hospital waiting rooms told me that they agreed to all of this willingly, but it was hard to know what to make of their remarks. Decades of population planning had numbed people to government intrusion in their reproductive lives. For members of minority groups in particular, programs with eugenic aims are fraught. Advertisement Later, I was unsurprised to hear that a team at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou had tried using CRISPR to correct a mutation associated with beta thalassemia. That group worked with nonviable embryos and had mixed success. Nonetheless, the study was a precursor to the experiment He Jiankui now claims to have done (although targeting embryos with beta thalassemia would have been less of an ethical leap than editing the genomes of healthy embryos to make their cells more resistant to HIV). Advertisement The informed consent agreement for He Jiankuis experiment describes it as an AIDS vaccine development project and used highly technical language to describe the procedure that patients would undergo. If the reality for some Chinese patients is that such agreements are glossed over, densely written, or never read, the reality for some researchers working in the country is that the appeal of cutting-edge trials is too great to resist. It is not just Chinese scientists who can be blinded by the lure of quick breakthroughs. Several of the most notable breaches of informed consent on the mainland have involved Western researchers or co-authors. He Jiankui reportedly collaborated with Rice University bioengineering professor Michael Deem, and Deem sits on the scientific advisory boards of two companies. (Rice is now reportedly investigating Deems involvement in the experiment.) When people say that the usual rules dont apply in China, they are really referring to authoritarian science, not some alternative communitarian ethics. Advertisement Advertisement For the many scientists in China who adhere to recognized international standards, the incident comes as a disgrace. He Jiankui now faces an ethics investigation from provincial health authorities, and his institution, Southern University of Science and Technology, was quick to issue a statement noting that He was on unpaid leave. The page where the scientist posted his first YouTube video quickly filled up with angry comments. As a Chinese student I feel ashamed of this person, one wrote. More than 120 scientists separately signed a statement published in the Chinese press saying that they strongly condemned the experiments. But by then the damage was done. The ambitious researcher had been cast in a role, and he was determined to play it. 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 ... Tips for the top 10 events in the capital between November 30 and December 9, plus regular services in different languages, training, temporary exhibitions and highlights of the year. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled These tips are prepared in cooperation with Eventland. Download the app and see what's going on around you wherever you are (Android, iOS). Top 10 FILM: 20th International Film Festival Bratislava; Starts: Nov 29-Dec 2 BALLET: Beatles go Baroque; Starts: Nov 30, Dec 1, 19:00 EVENT: Advent at the castle; Starts: Nov 30 Dec 19 EVENT: Wedding Exhibition; Starts: Dec 1, 9:00 19:00 EVENT: Christmas dinner - vegan cooking course; Starts: Dec 1, 15:30 EVENT: Uprising Winter Edition; Starts: Dec 1, 20:00 EVENT: Sunday Rest; Starts: Dec 2, 16:00 OPERA: Nabucco & Verdi Gala; Starts: Dec 2, Dec 3 BALLET: Swan Lake; Starts: Dec 2, 19:00 CONCERT: Gregorian Chant; Starts: Dec 2, 19:30 Religious Services for non-Slovak speakers Galleries in Bratislava: Temporary exhibitions Training in English Highlights of the year (selection of events for which it's advisable to obtain tickets early) Top 10 20th International Film Festival Bratislava Various venues, Bratislava, Thursday Sunday, November 29 December 2 This year's festival will offer a selection of quality titles brought to you by current young film productions. With innovative views on the world and how it functions, the audience will meet in the pleasant atmosphere of Bratislava's Lumiere and Mladost cinemas. Admission: 9.90 - 14.90. More info at: bratislavaiff.sk. video //www.youtube.com/embed/jB6YHU_0IMY Beatles go Baroque Slovak National Theatre, Pribinova, Bratislava-Old Town, Friday, November 30 and Saturday, December 1, 19:00 The immortal compositions of the legendary Beatles band in Baroque arrangements by the world-renowned conductor, composer and pianist Peter Breiner will come to life on the stage of the SND, thanks to the original Slovak project by young as well as well-known Slovak choreographers, mostly from the Ballet SND. Admission: 20 - 25. More info: www.snd.sk. Advent at the castle Bratislava castle, Bratislava, Friday, November 30 Wednesday, December 19 The third year of advent at the castle will be carried on in a family atmosphere. There is a children's theater, St. Nicholas visit, creative workshops and many other activities for both young and old! Admission is free. More info: sk-sk.facebook.com. Wedding Exhibition - 10th year Radisson Blu Carlton Hotel, Bratislava, Hviezdoslavovo square 3, Bratislava, Saturday, December 1, 9:00 19:00 Join us to celebrate the 10th year of the most beautiful wedding show and discover everything you need on your day with a capital "D". On 1.12.2018 you will have a perfectly planned wedding at your fingertips, without stress. Find inspiration from our exhibitors and find your dream wedding dress, ribbons, floral decorations, photographer and everything needed for the perfect day. Admission: 5. Christmas dinner - vegan cooking course Loove, Kopcianska 10, Bratislava, Petrzalka, Saturday, December 1, 15:30 At this vegan cooking course, we will teach you how to prepare a honey-beetle, potato mayonnaise salad and how to pack a happy "fish" of celery. Admission: 40. More info: sk-sk.facebook.com. Uprising Winter Edition Atelier Babylon, Square SNP, Old Town Bratislava, Saturday, December 1, 20:00 Winter Uprising for the ninth time! Lineup: Jah Mason Music, Turbulence Big Lion, Kumar Kumz Bent, Fireman Crew - Backing Band, Mc Rida Radar, Ryhha, Colectiv, DJ Spliff, DJ F.I.L., DJ Magadread. Admission: 19. Sunday Rest: Useful Photography. Photography in Contemporary Slovak Art Esterhazy Palace, Ludovit Stur Square 4, Bratislava, Sunday, December 2, 16:00 Photography is frequently used as an instrument for a wide spectrum of contemporary art expression. This lecture will present selected artists working with photography and a wide range of artistic strategies in contemporary Slovak art in the past 10 15 years. It will also touch on the impact of internships and stays abroad on the work of Slovak artists. Admission is free. Nabucco & Verdi Gala NTC Arena, Prikopova 6, Bratislava, Sunday, December 2, 19:00, Monday, December 3, 19:00 December 2 NABUCCO Giuseppe Verdis legendary opera with an unforgettable Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves, Nabucco is coming back to Slovakia! A magnificent performance for opera lovers. December 3 VERDI GALA The famous arias, choirs and overtures of the great Giuseppe Verdi will be performed by world-famous music performers. Admission: 40 - 100. More info: predpredaj.zoznam.sk. Swan Lake Incheba expo arena, Viedenska cesta 3-7, Sunday, December 2, 19:00 It has become a rule that in December in Bratislava, spectators may see a ballet by the Royal Moscow Ballet. This year they are performing Swan Lake, with traditional choreography that tells the story of princess Odette under a spell and brave prince Siegfried. Admission: 20-55. More info: www.ticketportal.sk. video //www.youtube.com/embed/bYmH5cBASnY Gregorian Chant Kostol Zvestovania Pana, Frantiskanske square 10, Old Town, Bratislava, Sunday, December 2, 19:30 Schola Minor is vocal ensemble specializing in interpreting Gregorian chant and polyphony. Besides vocal solo, there will be space for early polyphony and improvised many-voiced singing inspired by late-Gothic music technique and sound characteristics of current stringed musical instruments of classical music (violin, viola, violoncello, contrabass). Schola Minor sings: Hilda Gulyasova (solo), Tomas Selc (solo), Maria Palenikova, Julia Urdova (also viola), Sylvia Urdova (artistic manager). Participating: Juraj Tomka (violin), Gregor Reges (violoncello), Lumir Machek (contrabass). Do you want to know more? Download Eventland's app and see what is going on around you wherever you are (Android, iOS). TRAINING: Pilates in English; Starts: Every Monday evening, 20:30 TRAINING: Yoga in English on Thursdays; Starts: Every Thursday, 18:30 TRAINING: Yoga in English at Indian Embassy; Starts: Monday to Friday, 11:00, 16:00, 18:00 TRAINING: Pilates in English The class is in English, suitable for men and women, beginners and advanced, Slovaks and foreigners. The venue is equipped with Pilates requisites, a shower and a kitchen. (you do not need to bring a mat). Andreas classes are a mix of Pilates exercises for a strong core and and flexible body, and also Yoga exercises for stretching the stiff muscles caused by a sedentary lifestyle. Her classes end with the all-important relaxation of Body and Mind. She also uses highly qualitative etheric oils (doTerra) during the class. Refreshments, tea, fruits are included in the price. Starts: Every Monday evening, 20:30; Open Mind centrum, Mickiewiczova 2. Admission: 8 (one-time charge). More info: www.internationals.sk. TRAINING: Yoga in English on Thursdays - You need to make reservation via yoga@internationals.sk. This is a beginners & intermediate class and you do not need any pre-knowledge. We will practice Dynamic Flow yoga. Take a look on one of our sessions: https://www.facebook.com/InternationalsBratislava/videos/1604953649521444/ Tea, water, fruit, showers are available to use for free. In this classes we are going to perform exercises that will make us stronger, more flexible, obtain balance and have fun while doing it. Starts: Thursday 18:30; Open Mind Centrum, Mickiewiczova 2. Admission: 8 (one-time charge) or 59 for a 10 session ticket you can use within 12 weeks. More info: www.internationals.sk. TRAINING: Yoga in English at Indian Embassy - The Embassy of India in Bratislava is happy to announce the commencement of Yoga classes. The classes will be conducted by Ms. Jaiwanti, Yoga Teacher. The classes will cover Asanas, Pranayama, Meditation and Relaxation techniques. People interested in joining the Yoga Classes are requested to fill in the attached Registration Form. The Registration Form may then be sent to email: eindia.iccr@mail.telekom.sk. For any clarification/further information, you may contact Ms. Jaiwanti at Tel: +421-2-5296 2916/7/8 or email: eindia.iccr@mail.telekom.sk. Admission is free. Starts: Monday to Friday, 11:00, 16:00, 18:00, Dunajska 4, Bratislava. More info: www.indianembassy.sk Illustrative Stock Photo (Source: AP/SITA) SLOVAK NATIONAL GALLERY The eights; Open: Tue Wed 10:00 18:00, Thur 12:00 20:00, Fri Sun 10:00 18:00 until Dec 31, 2018 Useful Photography. Photography in Contemporary Slovak Art; Open: Tue Wed 10:00 18:00, Thur 12:00 20:00, Fri Sun 10:00 18:00 until Feb 17, 2019 DANUBIANA Adam Szentpetery: Geo Codes; Open: Tue Sun 10:00 18:00 until January 13 Milan Lukac: Paintings and Sculptures; Open: Tue Sun 10:00 18:00 until January 13 Peter Roller: Messages; Open: Tue Sun 10:00 18:00 until January 13 Karol Kallay: Unforgettables; Open: Tue Sun 10:00 18:00 until January 13 KROKUS GALLERY Erik Sille: Black Melon; Open: Wed-Sat 14:00 18:00 until December 21 TEMPORARY EXHIBITION IN SLOVAK NATIONAL GALLERY: The eights - The exhibition project The Eights is unconventionally conceived for the atrium as a series of small exhibitions for the anniversaries of the eights: February 1948, August 1968 and October 1918. The basis of the exhibition is a long, 3-meter high wall - "gallery noticeboard" - on which the visual collages will be rotated according to the anniversaries. The results will be a draft or materialised Pinterest board, a reminder of socialist "noticeboard culture". The collages will consist of artistic materials of various types (paintings, photographs, documents), primarily from the collections of the SNG. The final layout, the conflict of the artworks next to each other, their juxtaposition will speak about the nature of the historical event. Open: Tue Wed 10:00 18:00, Thur 12:00 20:00, Fri Sun 10:00 18:00 until Dec 31, 2018. More info: www.sng.sk Useful Photography. Photography in Contemporary Slovak Art This exhibition will not present photography as a useful, fast recording medium, "a document of the period", or as an instrument of digital manipulation, but as a tool that is suitable for a wide range of use in contemporary art. In their response to the era of digital technology, artists use the photo medium much more freely but in a more sophisticated way. Appropriated documented reality is constructed, arranged, staged anew, but with the use of purely photographic methods and classical approaches. The collection will focus on events in the past 10 to 15 years, examples of artistic techniques and strategies within the wide spectrum of possibilities of this medium. It will also take into consideration a relatively new phenomenon - the impact of foreign training and long-term stays on the work of Slovak artists. Open: Tue Wed 10:00 18:00, Thur 12:00 20:00, Fri Sun 10:00 18:00 until Feb 17, 2019. More info: www.sng.sk. TEMPORARY EXHIBITION IN DANUBIANA Adam Szentpetery: Geo Codes - This individual exhibition of prominent Slovak artist Adam Szentpetery features a retrospective view of his painting career in the visual language of geometry. Line, colour and plane are the basic building blocks of his visual system. Over the course of four decades Szentpetery has created a monolithic painting program in the field of geometric abstraction which is the essence of mental contraction, rational practices and protestant economy of form. The exhibition presents basic themes and series of works, but without any linear sequence. On the contrary, they run parallel to each other or emerge in a later period in a transformed shape. Open: Tue Sun 10:00 18:00 until January 13, Vodne dielo Cunovo. More info: www.danubiana.sk. Milan Lukac: Paintings and Sculptures - Sculptor Milan Lukac is one of the most well-known artists in Slovakia and his name resonates in a wider European context, particularly in France and Austria. Thanks to the universal language of his paintings and sculptures he can address a broad audience as his work conveys a convincing testimony of the state of the world in its endless forms and shapes. Sometimes it has an eminently intellectual and even philosophical charge with distinctive human overtones; at other times it interprets the fragility of interpersonal relations, but frequently it casts a lighter view of the endless realm of nature, its mysteries and its metamorphosis. Open: Tue Sun 10:00 18:00 until January 13, Vodne dielo Cunovo. More info: www.danubiana.sk. Peter Roller: Messages - Peter Roller is an inventive Slovak sculptor who has mastered space, form and the material itself. Since entering the art world in the 1970s, he has created a special associative and metaphoric language of sculpture. He equally enjoys working with stone, wood and metal. Light has played important role in his work from the very beginning. For Roller, the material building of sculptures and objects is a philosophical utterance whose outer expression is dependent on the inner construction. The light of the environment, which turns the sculptures surface into shadows, emphasizes and complements the quality of the form by its various intensity. Open: Tue Sun 10:00 18:00 until January 13, Vodne dielo Cunovo. More info: www.danubiana.sk. Karol Kallay: Unforgettables - Karol Kallay entered the world of Slovak photography in his own way. In 1942, at the age of sixteen, he won his first award (gold medal for first place) for his photograph entitled Asfalteri / Asphalters at a national competition. In 1950, he definitely decided to devote his life to photography, and he began to work as a freelance photographer and travel the world. In the mid-1950s he brought motion to fashion photography by taking models outside and away from the photo studios and breathing life into his shots. His work was well received in Germany and France; he even received an offer for cooperation from Moscow. Open: Tue Sun 10:00 18:00 until January 13, Vodne dielo Cunovo. More info: www.danubiana.sk. TEMPORARY EXHIBITION IN KROKUS GALLERY Erik Sille: Black Melon - Erik Sille (1978), painter and graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, has been nominated for the Tatra Banka Art Award 2018 for his solo show error at Kunsthalle Bratislava in 2017, and the monograph Erik Sille Happiness Is Within Reach (published by Krokus and Slovart) is in the final selection of the National Design Prize 2018. Open: Wed-Sat 14:00 18:00 until December 21, Namestie 1. Maja 3. More info: www.krokusgaleria.sk. Religious Services for non-Slovak speakers SERVICE: Apostolic Church; Starts: Sundays, 9:30, Bratislava City Church, Trnavske myto 1, English SERVICE: Bratislava International Church, Starts: Sundays 10:00 English, Maly kostol, Panenska Street (entrance from Lycejna Street) SERVICE: Brotherhood Church (Cirkev bratska); Starts: Sundays 10:00, Cukrova 4, English MASS: The Church of Saint Ladislav; Starts: Sundays 11:00, Spitalska, English MASS: Church of St. John of Matha; Starts: Sundays 9:00 Latin MASS: St. Martins Cathedral; Starts: Sundays 7:45 German, 9:00 Latin MASS: Church of the Merciful Brothers; Starts: Sundays 11:30 Italian SERVICE: Small Evangelical Church; Starts: Sundays 9:00 Hungarian, 10:00 English, 11:30 German, Maly kostol, Panenska Street (entrance from Lycejna Street) SERVICE: Citylight Church, Starts: Sundays 10:00 English, Namestie 1.maja 1 SERVICE: Bratislava International Fellowship, Starts: Sundays 10:00 English, Trnavske myto 1, (Istropolis) SERVICE: International Baptist Church; Starts: Sundays 10:00 English, Sulovska 2 JEWISH SERVICE: Synagogue on Heydukova Street; Starts: Friday evening (before twilight), Saturday morning (usually at 9:00), and during feasts, Hebrew Highlights of the year CONCERT: Glenn Miller Orchestra; Starts: January 15, 19:00 CONCERT: Steven Wilson: To the Bone Tour 2019; Starts: February 10, 20:00 CONCERT: Nicki Minaj & Future; Starts: February 22, 2019, 19:30 EVENT: Lord of the Dance; Starts: Mar 1, 20:00 CONCERT: Paul Kalkbrenner; Starts: Mar 7, 19:30 CONCERT: Eros Ramazzotti; Starts: Oct 5, 2019 CONCERT: Glenn Miller Orchestra - The original American Glenn Miller Orchestra was founded in the thirties of the last century. Founder Glenn Miller is considered one of the greatest shining stars of the American jazz scene for more than 35 years. Glenn's career lasted only five years, but this time was long enough for Glenn Miller to become a leading personality of the world's most popular swing orchestra, which remains under the name of "Glenn Miller Orchestra". Dutch conductor and keyboardist Wil Salden has been conducting the orchestra for several decades. You can enjoy his amazing talent and work live on January 15, 2019 in Bratislava. They will play favourites such as Sunrise Serenade, Moonlight Serenade, Moon Love, Over The Rainbow, Blue Orchids, Careless, When You Wish Onon, and Imagination. Starts: January 15, 19:00, Istropolis, Trnavske myto 1. Admission: 45-59. CONCERT: Nicki Minaj & Future World hip-hop icons Nicki Minaj and Future have their first shared tour, NickiHndrxx. The show is great for those who love hip-hop and mainstream music. The several award-winning musicians are well-known for their hits that reach top places in the music rankings. Together, they will bring an unforgettable show to the stage. Starts: February 22, 2019, 19:30, Ondrej Nepelas Winter Arena, Odbojarov 9, Bratislava. Admission: 69-109. More info: www.ticketportal.sk. CONCERT: Steven Wilson: To the Bone Tour 2019 - Steven Wilson, composer, musician, producer and leading personality of contemporary progressive rock, will perform for the first time in Slovakia. His successful show, To the Bone enriched by Porcupine Tree, will be presented on February 10, 2019 in the Bratislava refinery gallery. Steven Wilson has published more than fifty albums over his thirty-year career. The current, To the Bone, is his most successful record. After being released in August last year, he reached third place in the UK Album Chart, 2nd in Germany, and even in August 2017 his was among the 10 best-selling albums in Europe. To the great pleasure of intelligent progressive rock fans, Steven Wilson continues his successful worldwide tour To the Bone in 2019. Starts: February 10, 20:00, Refinery Gallery, Vlcie hrdlo, Bratislava. Admission: 39.5 - 50.5. More info: https://listocheck.sk/en/detail/steven-wilson. EVENT: Lord of the Dance: Dangerous Games The Famous Lord of the Dance returns to Slovakia to perform in front of our public. Their last visit in 2017 was rewarded with record audiences. A brand new dancing performance, great visual technology, sound, beautiful costumes, new music by composer Gerard Fahy and 40 talented young artists from around the world are the core of Dangerous Games. Starts: Mar 1, 20:00, Viedenska cesta 3-9, Incheba arena. Admission: 23-78. More info: www.ticketportal.sk. CONCERT: Paul Kalkbrenner - Paul Kalkbrenner is ranked among the best electronic musicians in the world. The DJ from Berlin caught the attention of Slovakia in 2012 and after seven years he is returning to Bratislava with new work. The best electronic concert of the year 2019 will be played at the Refinery Gallery and you must be there! Starts: Mar 7, 19:30, Refinery Gallery, Vlcie hrdlo, Bratislava. Admission: 39. More info: www.ticketportal.sk. CONCERT: Eros Ramazzotti Italian pop-rock star Eros Ramazzotti has announced his world tour and also a new studio album. Slovaks can also look forward to well-known songs such as Fuoco nel fuoco and Piu bella cosa, LAurora, Un altra te, Dove c e musica, Se bastasse una canzone. Starts: Oct 5, 2019, Ondrej Nepelas Winter Stadium. Admission: 39-79. More info: www.ticketportal.sk. The debate over migration has reached an absurd new level. News: Receive favorite authors articles by email. Try the new feature and turn on the subscription. Andrej Danko (left) was the first to say Slovakia shouldn't even go to Marrakesh. (Source: TASR) Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled If anyone needed proof that the Slovak government is suffering from selective schizophrenia, the most recent twist in the migration discourse should settle the argument. Former prime minister Robert Fico recently fell out with the foreign minister, Miroslav Lajcak despite Smer, the party Fico still leads, originally nominating Lajcak to the post, and despite its relentless efforts over the last few months to get him to run as their candidate for president. When Lajcak tried to advocate for the UN Migration Compact which the Slovak government has now decided it will not sign in Marrakesh on December 10 Fico recorded another one of his Facebook videos, reassuring citizens that he and his party were not going to let any illegal migrants enter the country. Literally within hours, Ficos successor as prime minister, Peter Pellegrini, chaired a cabinet session that simplified the rules for hiring foreigners from outside the EU, with a set of measures that businesses have long called for in order to fill yawning gaps in Slovakias labour force. PM Peter Pellegrini said security forces are prepared for deployment anytime. News: Receive favorite authors articles by email. Try the new feature and turn on the subscription. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled No immediate incidents are expected for now on the border with Ukraine, but Slovakia is ready to respond anytime, said PM Peter Pellegrini after the meeting at the National Security Analytical Centre (NBAC), which unites all security forces in Slovakia. I want to guarantee that all forces and security authorities of the state are prepared and in case of the growing tension, Slovakia will be ready, said Pellegrini, as quoted by the TASR newswire, adding that the government cannot underestimate any possible threat. At the same time, the NBAC will maintain the second, increased degree of terrorist threat in Slovakia. Several scenarios discussed However, Slovakia needs to count on various crisis scenarios due to the conflict in the Sea of Azov. One concerns the mass migration, while the other is the energy crisis. Read also: Read also: Slovakia will not introduce special measures on Ukrainian border for now Read more A significant group of people might start moving from the eastern parts of Ukraine towards the west, which might create pressure on our border, Pellegrini said, as quoted by the Dennik N daily. As for energy, the government needs to expect a situation where Russia stops delivering fuels to Ukraine, which would also affect Slovakia. We have a reverse flow, we have some reserves, but we still need to review it, Pellegrini stressed, as quoted by Dennik N. The good news is that Slovakia has crude oil reserves for 105 days, while natural gas reserves are full as well. Army also ready Defence Minister Peter Gajdos of the Slovak National Party (SNS) reported on the inspection of the crisis staff that took place the previous night. Currently, the staff is holding a meeting led by the state secretary of the Defence Ministry. Read also: Read also: Slovak officials: We need to stand by Ukraine Read more At the same time, the military intelligence service is monitoring and evaluating the situation in Ukraine on a regular basis, TASR reported. If needed, the Slovak army is ready to deploy 1,200 soldiers and military police officers, and an unspecified number of special unit members, on the borders, Gajdos said, as reported by Dennik N. No stricter sanctions yet Slovakia does not support sanctions against Russia, because they do not bring about any desired effect, Pellegrini said. Nonetheless, Slovakia will respect the decision taken within the European Union, he added, TASR wrote. The coalition has withdrawn the security strategy from the parliamentary session, following the criticism of SNS. News: Receive favorite authors articles by email. Try the new feature and turn on the subscription. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled The parliament did not debate the proposal of Slovakias new security strategy, which is supposed to replace the outdated document currently in force. The new strategy was withdrawn from the discussion based on the proposal of Anton Hrnko from the Slovak National Party (SNS), only one day after the conflict in the Sea of Azov began, the Sme daily reported. SNS chair and Speaker of Parliament Andrej Danko, who keeps reminding people of his speech in the Russian State Duma, has not mentioned Russia in his statement on the conflict. Similarly to Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini (Smer), he only mentions the current situation in Ukraine, as Sme wrote. Ukraine already once cheated us with a dead journalist, Danko said, as quoted by Sme. It is necessary to look coolly at all events and facts, but I am really afraid whether some people are not only playing with us again. Opposition critical The opposition responded to this step by saying that the ruling coalition has thus put Slovakias citizens and countrys defence capacity in danger. Precitajte si tiez: Precitajte si tiez: New strategy responds to current threats Read more We regard this step, which directly endangers our defence and security of citizens, to be absolutely irresponsible, said former defence minister Lubomir Galko of Freedom and Solidarity (SaS), as quoted by the TASR newswire, adding that the opposition will make an effort to bring the strategy back to parliament very soon. MP Gabor Grendel of the Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OLaNO) recalled that the strategies were prepared by experts of the ministries of defense and foreign affairs, and that a year ago the ministers for SNS as well okayed them, as reported by Sme. Outdated strategies In Galkos opinion, it is unacceptable to follow strategic documents from 2005 in times of modern threats, as reported by TASR. Both the defence and security strategies were already approved by the government in October 2017. However, the law stipulates that they also have to be approved by the parliament. We approved them and that is why the strategies are binding on us without the parliament passing them, said Pellegrini, as quoted by TASR. The fire also damaged a nearby building. The Main Square had to be evacuated. News: Receive favorite authors articles by email. Try the new feature and turn on the subscription. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled A fire broke out at the Christmas market held in Bratislavas Main Square on November 28. Apart from the food stall, the fire spread and damaged the nearby historical building, where the popular Roland Restaurant Cafe occupies the ground floor. The whole square and the neighbouring buildings had to be evacuated, said Zuzana Farkasova, spokesperson for the Fire and Rescue Corps Presidium (HaZZ), as reported by the Sme daily. video //www.sme.sk/vp/37249/ One person injured The fire started in the afternoon, after a gas bomb in the stall selling lokse, the traditional potato pancakes, bust into flames, the Novy Cas daily reported. The amateur videos suggest that the fire started in the kitchen and when it reached the textile roof, the whole stall caught on fire. At the time, the nearby cafe was also in flames. The fire gradually reached the second floor, Sme wrote. About 25 firefighters fought and later extinguished the fire. The owner of the building calculated the damage at more than 200,000, according to Sme. One person was injured, got burnt on the face and hands, but is now in the care of medical workers, reads the HaZZs website. No other injured people were found, HaZZ added. Experts will examine the scene to determine the exact cause of the fire, Sme wrote. Markets expected to reopen on November 29 The city of Bratislava, meanwhile, issued a statement, claiming that the stall was not part of the capitals Christmas markets. https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/536866056&color=%23096f52&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true The stalls owners didnt sign any rental agreement with the city, nor did they ask the capital permission for taking the public space, Bratislavas spokesperson Zuzana Onufer said. The fire was reported by local police officers, who also contacted firefighters. Before their arrival, the local police secured the place and navigated people to a safe distance, Onufer added. The markets on the Main and Frantiskanske Squares will remain closed, but they are expected to open again on November 29, Onufer said. NAKA head Peter Hrasko made mistakes when investigating the organisers of the For a Decent Slovakia protests, an analysis revealed. News: Receive favorite authors articles by email. Try the new feature and turn on the subscription. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled Police Corps President Milan Lucansky has initiated a disciplinary proceeding against Peter Hrasko, head of the National Criminal Agency (NAKA), for misconduct in the investigation of an anonymous complaint filed against the For a Decent Slovakia initiative, the police announced on Facebook. Several mistakes in procedures, carried out after receiving the anonymous criminal complaint in relation to For a Decent Slovakia, were found according to the conclusions of the analysis, Lucansky said, as quoted by the Sme daily. He will take further steps once the disciplinary procedure is over. Interior Minister Denisa Sakova (Smer) has supported Lucanskys decision and will wait for the outcome. It is the police corps presidents duty, and I will wait for his decision, Sakova said, as quoted by Sme. Doubts about NAKA investigation Precitajte si tiez: Precitajte si tiez: Police to review actions concerning the anonymous complaint against protest organisers Read more Lucansky admitted over a week ago that some misconduct could have occurred during the investigation of the For a Decent Slovakia initiative. After analysing the anonymous criminal complaint himself, Lucansky suggested Hrasko had lied to him, Sme reported. Although the police had been questioning the representatives of the initiative over the alleged corruption, Lucansky found there was no word on corruption in the filed anonymous complaint. Due to contradictions in this case, the police corps president ordered that the procedures taken by the police, who investigated and questioned the initiative over an accusation of being funded by George Soros, be scrutinised. When the scandal broke news, former Slovak Information Service (SIS) agent Pavol Forisch also published his criminal complaint against the For a Decent Slovakia initiative, accusing them of being financed from abroad. The criminal complaints contain claims very similar to those of ex-PM Robert Fico (Smer), who has also suggested several times that the initiative may be funded by Soros. Will Hrasko be next to go? Read also: Read also: Police to review actions concerning the anonymous complaint against protest organisers Read more The outcome of Lucanskys inspection is a disciplinary proceeding against Hrasko, whom the media link with former Police Corps President Tibor Gaspar and former head of NAKAs anti-corruption unit, Robert Krajmer, for the links to oligarch Norbert Bodor. If he's booted out, he will be the third person linked to Bodor, who was forced to leave the police this year, Sme reported. Steven C. Beck, former superintendent of Hempt Farms, the 'Home of the Keystones' of the late Hall of Famer Max C. Hempt, passed away on Oct. 30 at the age of 74. Born in Freeport IL, Beck went into the military service of the country soon after high school. While with the Navy, he was stationed in, among other places, Cuba and Panama when they were international hot spots. He ended his military service attached to a Marine battalion deployed in Vietnam. In 1968 Beck went to work at Hempt Farms and spent almost a quarter of a century at the Mechanicsburg PA nursery. He rose through the management ranks there until retiring as Farm Superintendent in 1992. He met his wife Betty Ann Hobbs, known as Ann, in 1971, and they were married a year later. After Beck left Hempt, he and Ann established the small breeding operation Anchor Farm in Carlisle PA until full retirement in 2006. They were living in Mechanicsburg at the time of Becks passing. Besides Ann, Steve Beck leaves behind twin sons Craig and Jeff, along with six grandchildren. He was preceded in death by a sister, Barbara Bacus. Beck was interred on November 14 at West Branch Cemetery in Haldane, IL. Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the friends and family of Steven Beck. Officials with Woodbine Mohawk Park have informed Trot Insider that the Campbellville racecourse is closed for training today (Wednesday, Nov. 28). The closure is due to track maintenance. Mohawks next program of live Standardbred racing is scheduled for Thursday (Nov. 29). First-race post time will be at 7:10 p.m. To view the entries, click here. It is expected that the ceasefire in Idleb, the constitutional committee and the release of prisoners will be at the top of the agenda reports Anadolu Agency. The 11th round of Syria peace talks in Astana are scheduled to start in the Kazakh capital on Wednesday. After a six-month recess, the guarantor countries of Turkey, Russia, and Iran will meet once again in Astana to exchange views on various topics. The ceasefire in Syrias northwestern province of Idleb, efforts to establish a constitutional committee that will rewrite the countrys constitution and the release of prisoners are expected to top the agenda. The meeting is set to be attended by the guarantor countries and the Bashar al-Assad regime, and the Syrian military opposition. The United Nations and Jordan were also invited to the meeting as observers. Talks on Wednesday will be closed to the press, while Thursdays main session where all the sides will meet and a final declaration will be read out will be open to media. Turkey will be represented by Deputy Foreign Minister Sedal Onal during the talks. From Iran, Hussein Gabri Ansari, Assistant Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs, and Alexander Lavrentiev, the Russian Presidents Special Envoy for Syria will attend the meeting. On behalf of the main Syrian opposition group, Ahmed Tuma, the former Premier of the Syrian Interim Government, will take part in the talks while the regime will be represented by Bashar Jaafari, the regimes Permanent Representative to the UN. The US had not sent an official to the last two meetings. The first meeting in the Astana format, for reaching a cease-fire in Syria, was held in January 2017. Nine meetings were held in Astana, while the 10th meeting was held in Sochi this July. The final declaration of the July summit held by the guarantor countries in Russia highlighted the establishment of a constitutional committee for Syria. On Jul. 5, 2018, the Syrian Negotiation Commission submitted a list of 50 candidates to represent the Syrian opposition in the constitutional committee to UNs outgoing Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura . After a meeting in Sochi between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Sept. 17, 2018, the two sides agreed to set up a demilitarized zone in Idleb, in which acts of aggression are expressly prohibited. Under the terms of the deal, opposition groups in Idleb will remain in areas in which they are already present, while Russia and Turkey will carry out joint patrols in the area to prevent a resumption of fighting. On Oct. 10, 2018, the Turkish Defense Ministry announced that the Syrian opposition and other anti-regime groups had completed the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the Idleb demilitarized zone. Despite the ceasefire agreement, the Assad regime and its allies continue their low-intensity attacks on Idlebs de-escalation zone. This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian agreed that a settlement needed to follow UN Resolution No. 2254 reports SANA. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that his country and France agree on the need for a political solution to the crisis in Syria. In a press conference on Tuesday, with his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian held in Paris, Lavrov said that the two sides agreed on the need for a political settlement to the crisis in Syria in accordance with United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution No. 2254. He clarified that Russia also agrees with the other guarantor states (Iran and Turkey) in the framework of the Astana track, on the necessity of a political settlement to the crisis in Syria, based on the outcomes of the Intra-Syrian Dialogue Conference held in Sochi and the UNSC resolutions, particularly Resolution No. 2254. This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. The mother of young girl filed a petition for custody of her daughter after her father died reports Al-Araby al-Jadeed. On Monday, a rebel administration in Syrias last major insurgent stronghold of Idleb handed over a four-year-old girl to her Belgian mother after a custody dispute following her fathers 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 alliance, which is led by the jihadists of Syrias former al-Qaeda affiliate. Yasmine was handed over today to her Belgian mother Hajer after the dispute between those who were her guardians here and her mother was solved, 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 fathers 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 Hayat Tahrir al-Sham 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 childs father was a fighter, or to what armed group he might have belonged. There was no immediate information from the Belgian or Turkish authorities. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham controls more than half of Idleb province, but other jihadists including the al-Qaeda-linked Hurras al-Deen group are also present in the northwestern region bordering Turkey. Turkish backed rebels hold most of the rest of the region. This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. The families had previously been living in the Idleb countryside and were provided with food and medical provisions by the authorities writes SANA. SANAs reporter said that on Tuesday, tens of displaced families, coming from areas where terrorist groups are positioned, arrived at the Abou al-Dohor crossing in Idlebs countryside on the way to their liberated villages in the countrysides of Aleppo, Idleb and Hama. The reporter said that the authorities set up field points to provide medical and food assistance for the locals. The families expressed happiness at returning to their homes from which they were expelled by terrorists, stressing that the residents in areas where terrorists are still positioned are waiting impatiently for liberation, so that they will also be able to return. This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. In the second ministerial shakeup of the year, President Assad has appointed nine new ministers to the cabinet reports Al-Modon. On Monday, President Bashar al-Assad issued his decision to change nine ministers in the second ministerial shakeup of 2018. The ministerial change which Assad issued had been expected for two months, especially after the increasing public anger against the government and the major escalation by parliament against the ministers poorly planned decisions. Assad issued a decree to cancel the appointment of Major General Mohamed al-Shaar, who had twice survived bombings in Damascusthe first the bombing of the crisis cell meeting in the National Security Building, and a second attack in front of the Interior Ministry that wounded Shaar and led him to be transported outside Syria for treatment. Major General Mohamed Rahmoun will take over the Interior Ministry from Shaar, who was removed from the post after a reduction of his powers, and a corruption case was opened against the Ministry about two months ago at Russian instruction. Major General Mohamed al-Shaar was appointed as the deputy head of the National Progressive Front. Rahmoun had been head of the Political Security division and before that of the Air Force Intelligence branch in Harasta. He was included on American sanctions lists as one of the Syrian military figures who participated in the bombing of eastern Ghouta with chemical weapons. Assad appointed Atef Naddaf as Minister for Internal Trade and Consumer Protection following Abdullah al-Gharbi. Gharbi was known as the Minister of the Poor for his efforts to fight corruption and control market prices. Assad appointed Imad Muwwafaq al-Azab as Minister of Education, replacing Hazwan al-Waz. Azab is from Daraya in the Damascus countryside and a former member of its executive committee and a former member of parliament. He was in the ranks of the Baath Party and the Revolutionary Youth Union, and was the President of the National Commission for the Syrian Scientific Olympiad. Assad also removed the Minister of Tourism Bishr Yaziji and appointed Mohamed Radwan Martineh in his place. Martineh is from Aleppo city and was the head of the Syrian-Russian Business Council and the head of the Tourism Chambers Federation. He was also the former assistant to the Tourism Minister and is considered to be close to Rami Makhlouf. He also headed the Julia Domna tourism company owned by Makhlouf. Mohamed Eyyad al-Khatib will become Minister of Communications following Ali al-Zafeer. Khatib was previously the Director of the Syria Telecom Damascus branch, and then General Director of Syria Telecom. The changes also included the Minister of Higher Education, which was taken by Bassam Bashir Ibrahim following Naddaf. Hussein Arnous took over as Minister of Water Resources following Nabil al-Hassan. The Industry Minister portfolio was taken by Mohamed Zein al-Abidin following Mohamed Youssef. The Public Works and Housing Ministry was given to Mohamed Abdel Latif following Hussein Arnous. In his decree, Bashar canceled the National Reconciliations Ministry entirely and changed it into the National Reconciliation Agency which will take Damascus as its headquarters and be affiliated with the premiership. Ali Haidar was appointed as head of the agency after ending his appointment as the Minister. It had been expected that Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem would be changed out for health reasons and that Bashar al-Jaafari would take over the posistion. Sources told Al-Modon that Muallem will soon leave his post given the serious collapse of his health, and his transferral to hospital several times over the last few months. The decision to dismiss Muallem may be done separately, given his high-level position and history of service to the regime. The government changes were preceded by undeclared security changes which affected officers in the State Security Directorate and the Air Force Intelligence Directorate, as well as National Security. The Director of the National Security Bureau, Ali Mamlouk, was changed as well as number of National Security officers, according to Al-Modons sources. Al-Modons sources said that the service of Jamil al-Hassan, Director of the Air Force Intelligence, would end soon, perhaps with the end of the year. The most prominent candidate to take over the Air Force Intelligence division is Brigadier General Suhail al-Hassan, head of the Nimr Forces, and known for his strong ties with Russia. 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. Forces from the Gulf are active on the ground in Deir ez-Zor, fighting against the Islamic State and deterring any actions by the Turks writes Basnews. A source close to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), of which the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) are the backbone, has confirmed that Gulf Arab forces are participating on the ground in battles against the Islamic State (ISIS) in the groups last pockets in the Deir ez-Zor countryside, east of the Euphrates. The source, on conditions of anonymity, told Basnews, The Gulf Arab participation includes ground forces and heavy machinery east of the Euphrates. He added, The SDF have about 60,000 fighters, 30,000 of them are the forces fighting on the ground, and another 30,000 that the International Coalition will train to be border guard forces. The source added that, Saudi and the United Arab Emirates would have borne the cost of training and arming of these forces, but Turkish opposition and their pressure on the United States and the rest of the International Coalition countries has prevented the application of this plan and delayed it until an appropriate time. The source said, The Arab forces participation in the ongoing campaign to eliminate ISIS in its last pockets in the eastern Deir ez-Zor countryside, in conjunction with the efforts to establish observation points on the northern border of the eastern Euphrates areas, come as part of the reactivation of the previously-noted plan to weaken the Iranian presence in Syria by cutting off Irans land connection with it. The source said that Saudi and the UAE will contribute to funding the training of border forces and strengthening the observation points on the border with Turkey. Although a Kurdish source close to the SDF previously denied to Basnews that the International Coalition forces had specified observation points on Kurdistans western border with Turkey in Kobani and Tel Abyad yet, another source from the noted area said that American forces had actively begun working over the last 48 hours to establish five observation points on the Turkish border with west Kurdistan (Syrian Kurdistan) as part of a series of measures which Washington is carrying out in order to bolster its military and diplomatic presence in the region. This also included signing a memorandum of understanding for a year to train 30,000 fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces and fight ISIS cells. Last Thursday, an official source in the SDF told Basnews that, Observation and monitoring points are deployed on the border between our forces and Turkish forces, in the town of Ain Eissa in the northern Raqqa countryside, which is part of our understandings with America, France and Britain, regarding Turkish attacks on areas in northern Syria. The Kurdish source said that, Establishing these points aims directly to reduce tension between Turkey and the SDF and to stop Turkish attacks on the eastern Euphrates area in general. He said that, This means a return of the stability, which this area had been enjoying after the ISIS attack on Kobani. 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. The Ministry of Reconciliation was established in 2011, but will now be a public agency affiliated with the cabinet reports Enab Baladi. Regime president, Bashar al-Assad has issued a decree canceling the Ministry of Reconciliation and changing it into a national agency headquartered in the capital Damascus. According to the SANA news agency, on Nov. 26, 2018, Decree No. 19 was established, which stipulated the establishment of a public agency, with an administrative nature, called the National Reconciliation Agency, headquartered in Damascus and affiliated with the cabinet. Assad also issued a decree that abolished the position of Minister for National Reconciliation, which was previously held by Ali Haidar, and established the position of head of the National Reconciliation Agency, which was given to Ali Haidar. The cancelation of the Reconciliations Ministry by Assad came along with the issuance of a decree changing all nine ministers in the Imad Khamis government. The Syrian regime had established the Ministry of National Reconciliations in 2011 at the outbreak of the Syrian revolution, and appointed Ali Haidar who represented the so-called national opposition as the Minister, a post he held until the dissolution of the Ministry. Haidar was born in the city of Maysaf, Hama, and worked as an ophthalmologist in addition to heading one of the wings of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party. Since he took over the Ministry in 2012, Haidar failed to persuade refugees to return and failed to have a direct relation to the settlements or reconciliations that were conducted in some Syrian areas under the supervision of the Russian Reconciliation Center in Hemeimeem. Haidar appeared in the media many times visiting villages that the regime had taken control over in eastern Syria, and called on those involved to return to the states embrace by settling their statuses. He also appeared in Russian media to discuss the qualifications for settlement and the national reconciliation process. 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. Credit: United States Patent 10,135,963 A patent was filed to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) titled "Mobile terminal and control method for the mobile terminal" which, if you look beyond the rather lackluster title, proposes an exciting set of powers to the smartphone. LG Electronics is proposing no less than 16 camera lenses on a single smartphone. As such, all kinds of doors open for those who want to play like crazy with visual options. Watchers at Engadget seemed to be rolling back on its chairs when it got wind of the filed patent that was seen by LetsGoDigital. "LG imagines a smartphone with no less than 16 camera lenses." Chaim Gartenberg, The Verge, said that "the goal of the multiple cameras seems to be to offer different angles on a scene using the perspective of the different lenses." So, no triple, quad or penta camera, but a hexadecimal camera, gasped LetsGoDigital. In the smartphone design of their vision, you could achieve scenes from multiple perspectives in single shots. You could be as creative (and manipulative) as you ever dreamed, splicing photos and more. Gartenberg in The Verge looked at the patent's touchpoints and noted it would be able to use "the different datasets from the different lenses to cut out things from the image (say, for things like portrait mode or even replacing a background entirely)." Steve Dent in Engadget offered examples of "moving someone's head around or replacing it completely." Notebookcheck thinks that LG's concept as a development "could revolutionize 3-D photography and similar functions." Dierdre O'Donnell said, "for example, it could allow for the selection and editing of just 1 part of a given image in all these dimensions without having so much as moved the phone beforehand." Dent said the design involves a 4x4 matrix. CNET's Sean Keane talked about that 4 x 4 matrix design and what it all meant. "The lenses would be arranged in a four-by-four matrix, with each placed at a certain curvature to allow you to take multiperspective photos or combine them to create the desired shot." So, in the smartphone marketplace, is this getting a little crazy, where smartphone vendors have to outdo each other? And is the battle of the brands primarily over the visual, of cameras and picture quality? Steve Dent aimed for the mark in Engadget: "Much like the megapixel race several years ago, smartphone makers are trying to grab the interest of increasingly bored consumers by adding more cameras, it appears." If you think LG is going a little crazy you have company. Nonetheless, LG has enough photography talent to act crazy like a fox. JC Torres in SlashGear: "You might think LG has gone overboard and you wouldn't be mistaken. That said, LG naturally has thought this through. At least enough to apply a patent for it. In a nutshell, those 16 cameras will work together to provide different angles of the same subject. You can pick the best angle you want or, better yet, create a moving image out of the combined different views." Patent ideas may never see the light of day but it is captivating to think that LG Electronics may be working on a smartphone camera with that many lenses for real. PhoneArena's Milen Yanachkov is not at all surprised that LG is thinking in the 16-lens direction. He said, "it wouldn't be too far-fetched to assume that LG could try adding more cameras to its phones. Furthermore, there's already a portable camera with 16 lenses (and sensors) on the market. It is called the Light L16." Gartenberg, The Verge, said, "with the ever-escalating battle to push phone cameras to the limit, it may only be a matter of time until the hexadecimal camera is a reality." Keane in CNET looked at the patent discussion about "a display and speaker on the back on the phone, the latter allowing it to create stereo sound." Well, you can't enthrall everybody. You can't even please them. A number of negative comments on various sites could be summed up as "Overboard." "Waste of resources." "If they spent that much time on the battery it would be nice." More information: Mobile terminal and control method for the mobile terminal, Mobile terminal and control method for the mobile terminal, United States Patent 10,135,963 2018 Science X Network Dedicated to the Restoration of Progressive Democracy "In Brussels, President Tokayev will hold talks with the leadership of Belgium and the European Union. A number of meetings with the heads of major European companies are also expected," Uali wrote in a Facebook post. "Tech-savvy fraudsters try to produce fake traffic and fraudulent ad inventory to trick advertisers into believing that their ads are being seen by actual, interested users," WhiteOps researchers said. 3ve Ad Fraud Operation Types and Working "Its operators constantly adopted new ways to disguise 3ve's bots, allowing the operation to continue growing even after their traffic was blacklisted. Whenever they were blocked off in one place, they'd reappear somewhere else," Google said. 3VE.1The BOAXXE Malware Scheme, aka METHBOT or MIUREF 3VE.2The KOVTER Malware Scheme 3VE.3Data Centers IPs as Proxies Authorities Take Down "3ve" Ad Fraud Operation 8 People Charged Over Multimillion-Dollar Ad Fraud Scheme Aleksandr Zhukov (38, Russian Federation) [arrested from Bulgaria] Boris Timokhin (39, Russian Federation) [arrested from Estonia] Mikhail Andreev (34, Russian Federation and Ukraine) Denis Avdeev (40, Russian Federation) Dmitry Novikov (Russian Federation) Sergey Ovsyannikov (30, Republic of Kazakhstan) [arrested from Malaysia] Aleksandr Isaev (31, Republic of Kazakhstan) Yevgeniy Timchenko (30, Republic of Kazakhstan) "The Office also extends its appreciation to Microsoft Corporation, ESET, Trend Micro Inc., Symantec Corporation, CenturyLink, Inc, F-Secure Corporation, Malwarebytes, MediaMath, the National Cyber-Forensics and Training Alliance and The Shadowserver Foundation for their assistance in the botnet takedown," DOJ said. Google, the FBI, ad-fraud fighting company WhiteOps and a collection of cyber security companies worked together to shut down one of the largest and most sophisticated digital ad-fraud schemes that infected over 1.7 million computers to generate fake clicks used to defraud online advertisers for years and made tens of millions of dollars in revenue.Dubbed(pronounced "Eve"), the online ad-fraud campaign is believed to have been active since at least 2014, but its fraudulent activity grew last year, turning it into a large-scale business and earning their operators more than $30 million in profit.Meanwhile, the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) also unsealed Tuesday a 13-count indictment against 8 people from Russia, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine who allegedly ran this massive online advertising scheme.The 3ve botnet scheme deployed different tactics, such as creating their own botnets, creating fake versions of both websites and visitors, selling fraudulent ad inventory to advertisers, hijacking Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) IP addresses, using proxies to hide real IP addresses, and infecting users PCs with malwareall to create or generate fake clicks over online ads and get paid.3ve involved 1.7 million computers infected with malware, over 80 servers in generating fake internet traffic, more than 10,000 counterfeit websites to impersonate legitimate web publishers, and over 60,000 accounts selling ad inventory via more than one million compromised IP addresses to generate 3 to 12 billion of daily ad bid requests at its peak.According to Google and multiple cybersecurity firms, the ad-fraud scheme has been named 3ve because it relies on a set of three distinct sub-operations, "each taking unique measures to avoid detection, and each built around different architectures using different components."Here's a brief overview of all three 3ve operations:The first 3ve's three ad fraud sub-operations, called 3ve.1 for the sake of clarity, was powered by a network of bots operating in data centers across the US and Europe.This operation used thebotnet, also known as Miuref and Methbot, and BGP hijacking to obtain IP addresses used for proxying the traffic from the infected devices in the data centers and visit fake and real web pages.Initially, all the fake ad requests originated from desktop browsers, but over time, this operation increasingly started relying on spoofed mobile traffic from Android devicesad-requests spoofed to look like they came either from mobile apps or from mobile browsers.Between September 2014 and December 2016, this scheme used 1,900 computer servers hosted in commercial data centers to load ads from advertisers on over 5,000 counterfeit websites, generating millions of dollars in profit for its operators.This approach used counterfeit domains to sell fake ad inventory to advertisers. However, instead of relying on proxies to hide its activities, this approach deployed a hidden, custom browsing agent (Chromium Embedded Framework) on more than 700,000 computers infected with themalware.This scheme made use of redirection servers that instructed the infected computers to visit specific fake web pages.Detected by ESET in 2014, Kovter was initially a piece of ransomware, but the family has evolved since then to become ad fraud malware with its ability to send fake traffic if it detects a network monitor, terminate its own spawned process if Windows Task Manager is started, use so-called "fileless" persistence by storing its malicious payload encrypted in the Windows registry, and more.The third 3ve-associated sub-operation was similar to 3ve.1. Its bots were based in a few data centers, but in order to cover its tracks, it used the IP addresses of other data centers as proxies (exit node layer) instead of residential computers.Although data centers are far more suspicious to advertisers who are worried about bot traffic, 3ve.3 strategy still allowed a reasonable degree of agility by helping its operators find new data centers as soon as old data centers were blocked.Google uncovered the 3ve operations last year while its companies were assessing the impact of the Methbot operation, an underground ad fraud enterprise that White Ops revealed in 2016, which ESET named as the Boaxxe botnet However, after 3ve's activity grew in 2017, generating billions of daily ad bid requests, Google collaborated with other security companies who were independently investigating this prominent ad-fraud operation to take down the entire 3ve network.Google and other security firms worked with the FBI to shut down the massive ad-fraud operation. After obtaining warrants last month, the FBI seized 31 internet domains and 89 servers that were all part of the 3ve infrastructure.Cybersecurity companies in the private sector also helped blacklist the 3ve infrastructure engaged in the ad-fraud scheme and sinkhole the traffic to the bad domains.On Tuesday, the U.S. Justice Department indicted eight people allegedly involved in the infamous 3ve online advertising scams, which included five Russian nationals, one person from Russia and Ukraine, and two people from Kazakhstan. Three of them have already been arrested.The defendants are charged with 13 counts of criminal violations, including wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, money laundering, and conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, among other offenses. On the popularity of the Greens. (via The New York Times) snip ... It was also the Greens success that forced the chancellors decision not to run for re-election shattering a host of entrenched narratives about voters and politics in Germany. The secret? We are the anti-populists, said Robert Habeck, the partys co-leader, who published a book in 2008 about what he calls positive patriotism. We see ourselves at the center of the nation, and that also means reclaiming the symbols of our country from the nationalists. --- Username: Password: or Register Back to Forum Reply to This post Post New Thread Thread Rating: 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average 1 2 3 4 5 Page: 1 2 Ukraine attempted to sabotage Trump now want his help LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 474542 11-28-2018 03:44 AM Post: #1 Ukraine attempted to sabotage Trump now want his help Advertisement https://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/u...ire-233446 LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 475477 11-28-2018 03:47 AM Post: #2 RE: Ukraine attempted to sabotage Trump now want his help Porky really porked the pooch. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 475532 11-28-2018 03:48 AM Post: #3 RE: Ukraine attempted to sabotage Trump now want his help neteenyahoo's empire is crumbling like the clintonsneteenyahoo's empire is crumbling LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 445976 11-28-2018 07:34 AM Post: #4 RE: Ukraine attempted to sabotage Trump now want his help I find this rather amusing. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 460662 11-28-2018 08:58 AM Post: #5 RE: Ukraine attempted to sabotage Trump now want his help Btw I read this somewhere! maybe Russia and Russia's allies knows about this LOL..... since a lot of Jews in Canada came from Russia. "This "Jewish" community does not legally exist at all and is a phony community that has no legal existence at all in Edmonton, Canada, and there are SO many people in this "Jewish" community who look like straight out uglified and also fat-VERY fat AND uglified versions of these normal very good looking Jewish women and men who live in places like the United States, with a number of more people in the "Jewish" community who's faces ether change back and forth between ugly and attractive VERY unnaturally OR their faces change back and forth between quite attractive and averagely good looking who look very strangely similar to normal very good looking Jewish people who live in places like the United States, and that some of these quite-VERY ugly people used to be good looking and when they were good looking they look quite-very strangely similar to even better looking Jewish people who live in places like the United States at some point in their lives, and there are A LOT of these extremely strange appearanced people in this "Edmonton Jewish community" and how so many of them look like ugly versions of very good looking Jewish people who live outside of Canada and as said even stranger used to be quite attractive and looked even MORE like those same Jewish people outside of Canada IS BEYOND ABNORMAL, and YES IT'S BEYOND ABNORMAL HOW THERE ARE MANY OF THESE PEOPLE IN THIS EDMONTON JEWISH COMMUNITY!!!!!!! They need to send people to Edmonton and investigate this "Edmonton Jewish community" because I have heard that a lot of the people in the Edmonton Jewish community are fraud impersonators of non existent people who look strangely similar to A LOT of normal people who live in places like the United States that these Edmonton "Jews" believe to exist, and that these people in this "Jewish community" make up very horrible lies about what they know are innocent people that they believe are the people these weird looking-to ugly and fat and weird looking to ugly people are fraud impersonators of, and even dumber that many of those very retarded criminals in that Edmonton "Jewish" community actually start believing the horrible lies they make up about innocent people they believe to exist. There are 3 orthodox "rabbi's" in Edmonton, with two of those rabbi's still living in Edmonton because one of them is said to have "moved back to New York with his wife(FRAUD IMPERSONATOR)" that are married to fraud impersonators of non existent people who's existence it imagined and therefor made up from right off of the very mere existence of 3 real very beautiful Jewish women who live in the United States, and those "rebbetzins"(rebbetzin means wife of rabbi) at some point have very noticeably resembled those 3 normal Jewish women who live in the United States. The "Casper" actress Cathy Moriarty looks moderately similar to one of these normal Jewish women who lives in the United States who has a rebbetzin in Edmonton being an indirect fraud of her since her fraud used to look quite a lot like her in some pictures when she was younger but never looked highly similar to her and NOW looks like a VERY uglified version of this very beatiful women that Cathy Moriarty looks moderately similar to combined with the sister of this woman a milder amount, so yes if you take the woman that Cathy Moriarty looks like and combine her face with her sister a milder amount and then make a very very ugly and fat version of that face, that is what this orthodox "rebbetzin" looks like now. Cathy Moriarty. https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5B...00_AL_.jpg >>> LOL ok that does sound very very very weird, I heard some very VERY bad things about this Edmonton "Jewish community" actually, but i've never been to Edmonton so I wouldn't know about these apparently VERY messed up people who are said to live there, I would NEVERRRRR go to Edmonton or Calgary or anywhere in Alberta and that is why I have never been to Alberta LMAO. <-------- LMFAO Ukraine is many times better than Russia because there are at least SOME non bad people in the Ukrainian government, authorities and common population, plus Ukraine is a lot freer than Russia.Btw I read this somewhere! maybe Russia and Russia's allies knows about this LOL..... since a lot of Jews in Canada came from Russia."This "Jewish" community does not legally exist at all and is a phony community that has no legal existence at all in Edmonton, Canada, and there are SO many people in this "Jewish" community who look like straight out uglified and also fat-VERY fat AND uglified versions of these normal very good looking Jewish women and men who live in places like the United States, with a number of more people in the "Jewish" community who's faces ether change back and forth between ugly and attractive VERY unnaturally OR their faces change back and forth between quite attractive and averagely good looking who look very strangely similar to normal very good looking Jewish people who live in places like the United States, and that some of these quite-VERY ugly people used to be good looking and when they were good looking they look quite-very strangely similar to even better looking Jewish people who live in places like the United States at some point in their lives, and there are A LOT of these extremely strange appearanced people in this "Edmonton Jewish community" and how so many of them look like ugly versions of very good looking Jewish people who live outside of Canada and as said even stranger used to be quite attractive and looked even MORE like those same Jewish people outside of Canada IS BEYOND ABNORMAL, and YES IT'S BEYOND ABNORMAL HOW THERE ARE MANY OF THESE PEOPLE IN THIS EDMONTON JEWISH COMMUNITY!!!!!!!They need to send people to Edmonton and investigate this "Edmonton Jewish community" because I have heard that a lot of the people in the Edmonton Jewish community are fraud impersonators of non existent people who look strangely similar to A LOT of normal people who live in places like the United States that these Edmonton "Jews" believe to exist, and that these people in this "Jewish community" make up very horrible lies about what they know are innocent people that they believe are the people these weird looking-to ugly and fat and weird looking to ugly people are fraud impersonators of, and even dumber that many of those very retarded criminals in that Edmonton "Jewish" community actually start believing the horrible lies they make up about innocent people they believe to exist.There are 3 orthodox "rabbi's" in Edmonton, with two of those rabbi's still living in Edmonton because one of them is said to have "moved back to New York with his wife(FRAUD IMPERSONATOR)" that are married to fraud impersonators of non existent people who's existence it imagined and therefor made up from right off of the very mere existence of 3 real very beautiful Jewish women who live in the United States, and those "rebbetzins"(rebbetzin means wife of rabbi) at some point have very noticeably resembled those 3 normal Jewish women who live in the United States.The "Casper" actress Cathy Moriarty looks moderately similar to one of these normal Jewish women who lives in the United States who has a rebbetzin in Edmonton being an indirect fraud of her since her fraud used to look quite a lot like her in some pictures when she was younger but never looked highly similar to her and NOW looks like a VERY uglified version of this very beatiful women that Cathy Moriarty looks moderately similar to combined with the sister of this woman a milder amount, so yes if you take the woman that Cathy Moriarty looks like and combine her face with her sister a milder amount and then make a very very ugly and fat version of that face, that is what this orthodox "rebbetzin" looks like now.Cathy Moriarty. https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/act...gKLMukdXU= >>> https://www.facebook.com/familyshulbethisrael/ << LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 460662 11-28-2018 09:25 AM Post: #6 RE: Ukraine attempted to sabotage Trump now want his help and here is yet more stuff I read about this Edmonton "Jewish community" that I saw posted somewhere online. "so one of the rebbetzin's in Edmonton looks like the woman that Cathy Moriarty looks like the most and she is a big time rebbetzin in Edmonton, so another one of the Edmonton Rebbetzin's yet another big rebbetzin looks like a far better looking woman that Libby from Sabrina the teenage witch looks moderately similar to, out of everyone that Libby looks like she looks like this normal and very beautiful woman the most, the woman that this rebbetzin looks like a very plain and overweight version of lives in the United States. Jenna Leigh Green.(Libby from Sabrina the teenage witch) https://riverdalereviewed.files.wordpres....jpg?w=840 https://riverdalereviewed.files.wordpres....jpg?w=840 and this Rebbetzin in Edmonton and her family have told everyone in Edmonton that they moved to Israel!!! lets see if the Israeli authorities know about these people. Since this "rebbetzin" used to be STRANGELY better looking and thinner and used to look noticeably strangely similar to the even better looking Jewish woman(that Libbly looks like as said) who lives in the United States and she used to look more like this normal woman because she is a fraud of a non existent person who's existence is made up and IMAGINED from off of the existence of the woman that Jenna Leigh Green looks moderately similar to, and that two of the daughters of this "rebbetzin" in some pictures look VERY strangely similar to two of the daughters of this normal woman who lives in the United States only they are not as pretty as her daughters and they are the opposite of normal while the prettier girls they look like are completely normal. Here is another page for the FAR BEYOND QUESTIONABLE "Edmonton Jewish community" >>>> LOL ok again that sounds just freaking messed up and weird to say the least. So Edmonton and all of Alberta is a place I will officially never go to. <------- the people of Albera OK, three rabbi's in Edmonton being married to 3 women who are fraud impersonators of three normal Jewish women(and apparently especially beautiful women) sounds very VERY freaking bad.and here is yet more stuff I read about this Edmonton "Jewish community" that I saw posted somewhere online."so one of the rebbetzin's in Edmonton looks like the woman that Cathy Moriarty looks like the most and she is a big time rebbetzin in Edmonton, so another one of the Edmonton Rebbetzin's yet another big rebbetzin looks like a far better looking woman that Libby from Sabrina the teenage witch looks moderately similar to, out of everyone that Libby looks like she looks like this normal and very beautiful woman the most, the woman that this rebbetzin looks like a very plain and overweight version of lives in the United States.Jenna Leigh Green.(Libby from Sabrina the teenage witch)and this Rebbetzin in Edmonton and her family have told everyone in Edmonton that they moved to Israel!!! lets see if the Israeli authorities know about these people.Since this "rebbetzin" used to be STRANGELY better looking and thinner and used to look noticeably strangely similar to the even better looking Jewish woman(that Libbly looks like as said) who lives in the United States and she used to look more like this normal woman because she is a fraud of a non existent person who's existence is made up and IMAGINED from off of the existence of the woman that Jenna Leigh Green looks moderately similar to, and that two of the daughters of this "rebbetzin" in some pictures look VERY strangely similar to two of the daughters of this normal woman who lives in the United States only they are not as pretty as her daughters and they are the opposite of normal while the prettier girls they look like are completely normal.Here is another page for the FAR BEYOND QUESTIONABLE "Edmonton Jewish community">>>> https://www.facebook.com/jewishedmonton/ <<<< "LOL ok again that sounds just freaking messed up and weird to say the least.So Edmonton and all of Alberta is a place I will officially never go to. Upside Down Just hangin out User ID: 460808 11-28-2018 09:28 AM Posts: 51,601 Post: #7 RE: Ukraine attempted to sabotage Trump now want his help I support Ukraine. I think my country, the USA, should kick Russia out of Crimea. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 445139 11-28-2018 10:00 AM Post: #8 RE: Ukraine attempted to sabotage Trump now want his help Upside Down Wrote: (11-28-2018 09:28 AM) I support Ukraine. I think my country, the USA, should kick Russia out of Crimea. But You're a faggit ButYou're a faggit Upside Down Just hangin out User ID: 460808 11-28-2018 10:08 AM Posts: 51,601 Post: #9 RE: Ukraine attempted to sabotage Trump now want his help LoP Guest Wrote: (11-28-2018 10:00 AM) Upside Down Wrote: (11-28-2018 09:28 AM) I support Ukraine. I think my country, the USA, should kick Russia out of Crimea. But You're a faggit Wow, you have a good grasp of international affairs. But I still won't but fu*k you. Because That is not how I swing. Wow, you have a good grasp of international affairs.But I still won't but fu*k you. Because That is not how I swing. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 445139 11-28-2018 10:18 AM Post: #10 RE: Ukraine attempted to sabotage Trump now want his help Upside Down Wrote: (11-28-2018 10:08 AM) LoP Guest Wrote: (11-28-2018 10:00 AM) But You're a faggit Wow, you have a good grasp of international affairs. But I still won't but f*#k you. Because That is not how I swing. Crimea quick search reveals u r faggit Crimean status referendum, 2014 - Wikipedia official result from the Autonomous Republic of Crimea was a 96.77 percent vote for integration of the region into the Russian Federation with an 83.1 percent voter turnout Crimea quick search reveals u r faggitCrimean status referendum, 2014 - Wikipediaofficial result from the Autonomous Republic of Crimea was a 96.77 percent vote for integration of the region into the Russian Federation with an 83.1 percent voter turnout Upside Down Just hangin out User ID: 460808 11-28-2018 10:22 AM Posts: 51,601 Post: #11 RE: Ukraine attempted to sabotage Trump now want his help LoP Guest Wrote: (11-28-2018 10:18 AM) Upside Down Wrote: (11-28-2018 10:08 AM) Wow, you have a good grasp of international affairs. But I still won't but f*#k you. Because That is not how I swing. Crimea quick search reveals u r faggit Crimean status referendum, 2014 - Wikipedia official result from the Autonomous Republic of Crimea was a 96.77 percent vote for integration of the region into the Russian Federation with an 83.1 percent voter turnout Fact is that they are not part of russia in 2014. Crimea WAS NOT PART OF RUSSIA!!! Russia 'took' them. They are criminals. Hitlers. Tear down the bridge!!! Fact is that they are not part of russia in 2014.Crimea WAS NOT PART OF RUSSIA!!!Russia 'took' them.They are criminals.Hitlers.Tear down the bridge!!! LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 445139 11-28-2018 10:23 AM Post: #12 RE: Ukraine attempted to sabotage Trump now want his help Upside Down Wrote: (11-28-2018 10:22 AM) LoP Guest Wrote: (11-28-2018 10:18 AM) Crimea quick search reveals u r faggit Crimean status referendum, 2014 - Wikipedia official result from the Autonomous Republic of Crimea was a 96.77 percent vote for integration of the region into the Russian Federation with an 83.1 percent voter turnout Fact is that they are not part of russia in 2014. Crimea WAS NOT PART OF RUSSIA!!! Russia 'took' them. They are criminals. Hitlers. Tear down the bridge!!! Closet faggit Closet faggit Upside Down Just hangin out User ID: 460808 11-28-2018 10:26 AM Posts: 51,601 Post: #13 RE: Ukraine attempted to sabotage Trump now want his help I had hoped some LOPers would debate me on this more. however. Lets kick Russia's ASS!!! USA RULES!!! Russia SUCKS!!! WTF? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M11SvDtPBhA OK, complicated situation.I had hoped some LOPers would debate me on this more.however.Lets kick Russia's ASS!!!USA RULES!!!Russia SUCKS!!!WTF? Upside Down Just hangin out User ID: 460808 11-28-2018 10:28 AM Posts: 51,601 Post: #14 RE: Ukraine attempted to sabotage Trump now want his help LoP Guest Wrote: (11-28-2018 10:23 AM) Upside Down Wrote: (11-28-2018 10:22 AM) Fact is that they are not part of russia in 2014. Crimea WAS NOT PART OF RUSSIA!!! Russia 'took' them. They are criminals. Hitlers. Tear down the bridge!!! Closet faggit yawn... closet *****, closit whatever.... america? Yes. No. Pick one. Pick your nose. Whatever. yawn...closet *****,closit whatever....america?Yes.No.Pick one.Pick your nose.Whatever. Upside Down Just hangin out User ID: 460808 11-28-2018 10:30 AM Posts: 51,601 Post: #15 RE: Ukraine attempted to sabotage Trump now want his help https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nXGPZaTKik Advertisement Back to Forum Reply to This post Post New Thread As many as 48 Japanese enterprises specializing in household commodities and consumer goods will participate in an event to connect with importers, wholesalers, retailers and consumers in Vietnam, promising to make the domestic industry more active. The Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) will organize the Good Goods Japan, an event for business matching in high-quality Japanese household commodities and consumer goods, in Ho Chi Minh City on December 4. The event is to take place from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, with the participation of such large importers and distributors as Phuong Nam Bookstore, Fahasa, Hachi Hachi, and AEON, in Grand Castor Hall on the fifth floor of Gem Center in District 1. Prior to that, JETRO, together with the 48 Japanese enterprises, will visit the outlets of these brands on December 3. After the Ho Chi Minh City event, the Japanese enterprises will go to Hanoi and also pay a visit to a number of retail chains including BiboMart, Soc&Brother, Format, Sakudo, and AEON in Long Bien District on December 6. The Good Goods Japan business-matching event will be held at Melia Hotel in Hoan Kiem District from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm the following day. It is anticipated that around 100 importers and distributors will attend this event. Wahei Frei Corporation's stainless double wall tumbler Variety of Japanese household items Good Goods Japan will feature numerous household commodities and consumer goods of high quality and uniqueness, providing customers with a wide range of choices. Among them is Try Companys catch cool ice pack, which helps keep food fresh until it is used. The firm is expected to meet the demand of Vietnamese consumers as many of them have the habit of bringing home-packed meals to the workplace, as well as a preference for fresh food. Users can store the ice pack in the freezer after use and take it out for reuse whenever they want. Another noteworthy product that will be introduced at the event is the S-care tongue brush by Shikien Company. Brushing ones tongue is said to be good for health throughout the world as it helps prevent unpleasant breath, which is mainly caused by the coating on the tongue. We recognize that the pace of development in Vietnam is increasing, that peoples lives are improved, and they pay more attention to dental health, said a Shikien representative. We want to seize this opportunity to develop our market in Vietnam. The company expressed their wish to be welcomed by Vietnamese consumers, especially importers, during the meet and exchange opportunity opened up by Good Goods Japan." S-care tongue brushes made by Shikien Company The hot water bottle Yutanpo by Tange Chemistry Industry Company is another product expected to be a suprise at the event, thanks to its ability to keep warm all day without using electricity. The hot water bottle can be used in both winter and summer when many office workers work in air-conditioned environments at least eight hours per day. Besides, Thermos will introduce its stainless steel vacuum one-push tumblers, food jars and carafes at the Ho Chi Minh City event. Thermos is one of the manufacturers of stainless steel vacuum flasks and thermal cookers that are popular among consumers in Japan. And last but not least, Wahei Frei Corporation will bring to the event the stainless double wall tumbler with the ability to maintain the temperature of hot and cold beverages. JETRO was established in 1958 by the Japanese government as a governmental-related trade promotion agency. The organization has one representative office each in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Good Goods Japan has been annually organized by JETRO since 2016. Try Companys catch cool ice pack Lunaticoutpost.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program , anaffiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.Amazon, the Amazon logo, MYHABIT, and the MYHABIT logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.Don't be a pest to the forum.No profanity in thread-titles or usernamesNo excessive profanity in postsNo Racism, Antisemitism + HateNo calls for violence against anyone..This website exists for fun and discussion only. The reader is responsible for discerning the validity, factuality or implications of information posted here, be it fictional or based on real events. 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Nearly 10,000 out of 28,000 hectares of paddy fields in Tien Giang Province, about 70 kilometers south of Ho Chi Minh City, had rice downed by strong winds and heavy rain brought along by typhoon Usagi, according to figures by the provincial agriculture department. While the storm, which caused a deluge in Ho Chi Minh City on the weekend, did not make landfall on Tien Giang, its location was close enough to wreak peripheral havoc on the rice crops here. More rice fields were knocked down in areas nearer to the sea. The impact was tremendous as most of the damaged crops were just under two weeks to harvest. A farmer uses a diesel-powered machine to drain his paddy field in Tien Giang Province, southern Vietnam, November 27, 2018. Photo: Tuoi Tre A farmer operates a pumping machine on his rice field in Tien Giang Province, southern Vietnam, November 27, 2018. Photo: Tuoi Tre Many farmers said the blow was to cause losses, or break-even results in the most optimistic scenario. To rectify the situation, they were utilizing machines to drain their fields and hiring laborers to tie rice in groups so that the plants could stand upright again. The rescue is crucial, given that ripe rice grains are likely to be damaged or produce seedlings when soaked. Hiring the laborers meant the farmers had to cover greater costs, in addition to the expenses for pesticide and harvest, which make up a large part of their agricultural spending. A diesel-powered machine drains water from a rice paddy in Tien Giang Province, southern Vietnam, November 27, 2018. Photo: Tuoi Tre Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! HANOI, Nov 27 - Power-hungry Vietnam, one of Asias fastest-growing economies and a production hub for global companies such as Samsung Electronics, needs to raise up to $150 billion by 2030 to develop its energy sector, according to a World Bank official. Vietnam has been struggling to develop its energy industry due to a lack of state funds. The Southeast Asian countrys hydropower potential has almost been fully exploited, oil and gas reserves are running low, and Vietnam recently went from a net exporter to net importer of coal. The financing requirements of the sector have been huge, World Bank country director Ousmane Dione said in a speech to Vietnamese government officials and energy partners on Monday, a copy of which was reviewed by Reuters on Tuesday. Since 2010, the sector invested about 80 billion dollars in generation, transmission and distribution and between now to 2030 another 150 billion dollars needs to be raised, said Dione, who added that electricity demand in Vietnam will grow by about 8 percent a year for the next decade. Vietnam had difficulties raising funds for its energy sector. Public debt in the country is close to a centrally-mandated ceiling of 65 percent of gross domestic product. Nguyen Van Binh, head of the Party Central Committees Economic Commision, said the issue was an extremely difficult problem, in a government statement about Mondays meeting. Vietnam should allow the domestic and private sector to play a more prominent role in power sector financing to raise funds outside its state budget, said Dione of the World Bank. He said Vietnam needed to increase its renewable energy usage, and introduce a competitive power market, where higher electricity prices can attract private investment in energy. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc told Reuters in an interview earlier this year Vietnam plans to more than triple the amount of electricity it produces from renewable sources and push for a 26 percent increase in household solar energy usage by 2030. Vietnam has not been able to reduce its reliance on coal energy, which will account for 53 percent of all energy generated in the country by 2030, according to its trade ministry. Another challenge for the sector is complying with the governments objectives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and meet its climate change targets, Dione said. That of course refers to the contentious issue on the role of coal in the future energy mix. A number of young people living in Ho Chi Minh City found the plight of down-and-outs who were probably starving after a storm so moving that they took it upon themselves to give the destitute food and drinks at night. Typhoon Usagi, which on Sunday and Monday dumped a record rainfall in the southern metropolis in years, turned multiple streets into rivers and sent residents scrambling to their cozy homes. But homeless people, who are a common sight along city roads at night, stayed on the sidewalks, shaking in loneliness with cold and hunger. They appeared in the thought of many young urbanites. Huynh Quang Huy, a senior at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Fine Arts, was doing his graduation thesis in his room when rainwater splattered on him through a window. Even in the room I was still affected by the storm. I wondered what might be happening to the people out there, Huy told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper. Having stepped out of the accommodation, he found a wet homeless man eating rice porridge with shivering hands in front of a closed shop. I felt really embarrassed at his situation. I bought something for him but the street was very empty at the time, he said. Huy managed to purchase a banh bao (a steamed pork bun with hard-boiled quail eggs), which the man ate quickly while saying thanks. A man eats banh bao along a street in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Photo: Huynh Quang Huy He went around but failed to find more down-and-outs. He then went back to the man but he was no longer there. Huy posted photos of the man, which have gone viral on Facebook over the past few days and were seen by Ngoc Mai, a 23-year-old office worker in Ho Chi Minh City. Mai did something more practical than just clicking the like and share buttons. The photos motivated her to float her plan of helping the homeless on social media. One hour later instant noodles, sausage, milk, banh mi, drinking water bottles and raincoats were delivered to her accommodation. Mai and her friends put their items, worth around VND5 million (US$215), into 80 bags to be given to derelicts on the streets. Young people prepare gifts for the homeless in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Photo: Tuoi Tre Young people fold clothes as gifts for the homeless in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Photo: Tuoi Tre Young people prepare gifts for the homeless in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Photo: Tuoi Tre One of the participants was a college student who rode a motorbike from the citys neighbor Dong Nai Province in order to join hands with Mai. Photos of the homeless shivering on a cold night on the streets deeply touched me, said another participant, Minh Trang. Mai and her friends rode in groups along many streets and stopped when they caught sight of down-and-outs on Monday. A homeless woman who had lived in the metropolis for years could not fight back tears while receiving her new jacket. A man gives a jacket to a homeless woman in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Photo: Tuoi Tre A woman gives a gift to a homeless man in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Photo: Tuoi Tre A man embraces a homeless woman in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Photo: Tuoi Tre A woman hands presents to street people in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Photo: Tuoi Tre A man gives a gift to a homeless woman in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Photo: Tuoi Tre Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Politics -- A delegation of the Communist Peoples Party of Kazakhstan led by Secretary Dmitryi Legkyi is on a visit to Vietnam in the context of noteworthy development in the friendship between the two countries. -- Do Can, deputy head of the General Department of Politics under the Vietnam Peoples Army, on Tuesday received Bin Rathmoni, Deputy Chief Justice of the Cambodian Military Court, in Hanoi as the officials aimed to enhance mutual trust and understanding between the two armies. Society -- Da Nang business tycoon Phan Van Anh Vu, who was arrested and charged earlier this year for disclosing state secrets, evading tax and abusing power, told a court in Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday that he has a second nationality in the Caribbean country of Antigua and Barbuda. -- Subsidence and cracks have been found on multiple sections of the notorious Da Nang Quang Ngai Expressway in central Vietnam after authorities have scrambled to fix numerous potholes that appeared on the US$1.48 billion road months after its opening in September. -- The health department of Ho Chi Minh City says it wants to expand its scheme of using scooters in place of ambulances to provide emergency medical assistance during busy traffic hours, as the model has proved effective after three weeks of being piloted at select hospitals. Business -- Multiple coal-fired power plants in northern Vietnam have had to shut down parts of their generators due to insufficient coal supply, threatening energy security in the entire region. -- Products made from basa, a species of catfish popularly raised in Vietnam, have won over local consumers for their superior taste and nutritional value compared to made from chicken. -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has agreed to loan $100 million to Vietnam and provide the country with an additional non-refundable aid of $300,000 for development of irrigation systems in five provinces on the south-central coast and in the Central Highlands region to mitigate the impacts of climate change. -- Since a non-stop electronic toll collection system was launched at a tollgate in Binh Tan District, Ho Chi Minh City on October 27, only 1.24 percent of the vehicles passing through the toll station have opted to use the new system, according to statistics from the municipal transport department. Sports -- Vietnams national soccer team will depart from Hanoi on a direct charter flight to Bacolod, the Philippines at 11:00 am on Wednesday to prepare for the first leg of the semi-final against the Filipinos at the 2018 AFF Championship on Sunday. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Authorities in Da Nang have sent a delegation of officials to Japan to study a waste sorting model that is expected to help solve trash-related problems in the central Vietnamese hub. To Van Hung, director of the municipal Department of Natural Resources and Environment, confirmed the information during a meeting chaired by the citys administration on Tuesday. A waste sorting program will then be drafted and submitted to the municipal Peoples Council for approval, Hung continued. The city produces about 1,000 metric tons of trash on a daily basis, Huynh Duc Tho, chairman of the Da Nang Peoples Committee, said, adding that the amount increases by about 20 percent every year. The garbage is mainly disposed of via burial, but the city may soon run out of space for this method, Tho elaborated. Local businesses have invested in constructing facilities that can covert certain types of solid waste into fuel, fertilizer, and building materials. The Khanh Son landfill in Da Nang City. Photo: Tuoi Tre The process, however, cannot take place if the waste is not properly sorted, the chairman stated. Municipal authorities will thus enforce regulations on garbage classification, along with penalties for violators, which is similar to what is applied in Ho Chi Minh City, he added. Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City started to require its residents to classify their garbage on November 24. The rules will be phased in over an undisclosed time frame, before government agencies begin fining violators. In Da Nang, officials are expected to provide citizens with bags and recycle bins to help sort their rubbish correctly. They will also take necessary measures to improve the services of units responsible for waste collection, transport, and treatment. The garbage sorting model is anticipated to be applied across Da Nang in May 2019. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Vietnams former Minister of Planning and Investment Bui Quang Vinh has been disciplined for being involved in a scandalous US$391-million deal where state telecom company Mobifone attempted to acquire most of a private firm. Vinh, who is also an ex-member of the Party Central Committee, has been slapped with a reprimand from the Partys Secretariat for his violation. The decision was made during a meeting of the Secretariat on Tuesday, which was chaired by General Secretary and State President Nguyen Phu Trong. Vinh was disciplined for his role in the now-aborted deal where Mobifone tried to buy a 95 percent stake in AVG, a pay-per-view private TV company. While serving as leader of the Ministry of Planning an Investment, Vinh showed a lack of responsibility when signing a document on November 24, 2015, in which he asked the prime minister to approve such investment of the state-run telecom firm. After hearing some unusual information regarding the project, Vinh submitted another document suggesting the cessation of the project. However, it was too late as the Minister of Information and Communications (MIC) had already approved it. According to the Partys office, Vinh has acknowledged his wrongdoings and accepted the disciplinary measure. Mobifone, an entity owned entirely by the state, has been under the management of the MIC since December 2014. In December 2015, Mobifone signed a confidential contract to take over 95 percent of AVG, a deal that was valued at VND8.889 trillion ($391.1 million). The Central Inspection Committee and government inspectorate then began a comprehensive examination of the transaction in July 2017, before the contract was nullified in March 2018. Inspectors stated that the deal could have caused losses worth over VND7 trillion ($308 million) to the state budget. In July, police arrested a former chairman of MobiFone and a senior official of the MIC accused of involvement in the case. Vietnams information minister was suspended that month and replaced in October over alleged ties to wrongdoing at the company. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! On Saturday SBS premieres Civilisations a BBC / PBS history series designed as a follow-up to the landmark 1969 series Civilisation by Kenneth Clark. This is a 9 part series which debuted internationally in March. The title is a reference to Civilisation, the series written and presented by Kenneth Clark almost fifty years ago. That landmark offered one mans personal view of western European civilisation, from the end of the Dark Ages onwards. It was partly conceived by David Attenborough to demonstrate the potential of colour television. The new series ranges more widely, featuring African, Asian, American, as well as European cultures to explore how human creativity began and developed, how civilisations around the world influenced one another and how artists have depicted the human form and the natural world. For each presenter, the series provides powerful and moving firsthand encounters with art. David Olusoga travels to Nigeria to see the technique behind the Benin Bronzes which he was taken to see in the British Museum as a child. Mary Beard climbs one of the Colossi of Memnon in Egypt which she says she has waited half her life to see up close. In Japan, Simon Schama apologises for his shaking hands as he examines an image he describes as almost perfect. Series One, Episode One: The Second Moment of Creation Simon Schama looks at the formative role art and the creative imagination have played in the forging of humanity itself. The film opens with Simons passionate endorsement of the creative spirit in humanity and the way in which art can help to forge the civilised life. Saturday, 1 December at 7.30pm on SBS. The Federal Government has now passed the Copyright Amendment (Online Infringement) Bill 2018, with online search engines now included in the fight against online piracy. The legislation introduced by Minister Mitch Fifield and passed with support from the Opposition, Greens and cross bench senators makes it easier to block mirror sites and reduces the burden of proving a sites primary purpose is copyright infringement. Free TV Australia CEO, Bridget Fair said This legislation is a critical tool for content owners, including broadcasters, to protect their content against large-scale online piracy. Importantly, it acknowledges the role that online search engines play in facilitating access to pirated material. Content creators will now be able to seek orders to demote or remove search results for infringing sites. The amendment, which received objections from the Digital Industry Group Inc (DIGI) whose members also include Google, Instagram, Yahoo, YouTube, Redbubble, and Oath, is to be reviewed in 2 years. Under the initial Federal Court ruling, rights holders are to pay a AU$50 fee per domain they want to block, with the websites to be blocked within 15 business days. Source: ZDNet Username: Password: or Register Back to Forum Reply to This post Post New Thread Thread Rating: 1 Vote(s) - 5 Average 1 2 3 4 5 Australia refuses to sign UN migration pact it helped draft LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 370703 11-28-2018 05:50 PM Post: #1 Australia refuses to sign UN migration pact it helped draft Advertisement The Morrison government has confirmed it will not sign up to the United Nations migration pact, claiming it will undermine Australias harsh policies to deter asylum seekers despite Australias role in helping to draft it. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...-detention Good enough for other countries though. Did as I say not as I do.. Australia refuses to sign UN migration pact, citing risks to turnbacks and detentionThe Morrison government has confirmed it will not sign up to the United Nations migration pact, claiming it will undermine Australias harsh policies to deter asylum seekers despite Australias role in helping to draft it.Good enough for other countries though. Did as I say not as I do.. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 370703 11-28-2018 06:00 PM Post: #2 RE: Australia refuses to sign UN migration pact it helped draft The final draft includes a commitment to review legislation and policies to ensure migrants are not detained arbitrarily, that decisions to detain are based on law, are proportionate, have a legitimate purpose, and are taken on an individual basis, in full compliance with due process and procedural safeguards, and that immigration detention is not promoted as a deterrent or used as a form of cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment to migrants, in accordance with international human rights law. She Man lop guest User ID: 453356 11-28-2018 06:52 PM Post: #3 RE: Australia refuses to sign UN migration pact it helped draft In these critical times please help us protect independent journalism at a time when factual, trustworthy reporting is under threat by making a year-end gift to support The Guardian. Were asking our US readers to help us raise one million dollars by the new year so that we can report on the stories that matter in 2019. Small or big, every contribution will help us reach our goal. The Guardians independence means that we can report on the stories that matter and pursue difficult investigations, challenging the powerful and holding them to account. No one edits our editor. No one steers our opinion. Our journalists have the freedom to report on the facts, with no commercial bias and without politicians or shareholders influencing their work. In 2018, The Guardian broke the story of Cambridge Analyticas Facebook data breach; we recorded the human fallout from family separations; we charted the rise of the far right, and documented the growing impact of gun violence on Americans lives. We reported daily on climate change as a matter of urgent priority. It was readers support that made this work possible. She Man lop guest User ID: 453356 11-28-2018 06:55 PM Post: #4 RE: Australia refuses to sign UN migration pact it helped draft She Man Wrote: (11-28-2018 06:52 PM) In these critical times please help us protect independent journalism at a time when factual, trustworthy reporting is under threat by making a year-end gift to support The Guardian. Were asking our US readers to help us raise one million dollars by the new year so that we can report on the stories that matter in 2019. Small or big, every contribution will help us reach our goal. The Guardians independence means that we can report on the stories that matter and pursue difficult investigations, challenging the powerful and holding them to account. No one edits our editor. No one steers our opinion. Our journalists have the freedom to report on the facts, with no commercial bias and without politicians or shareholders influencing their work. In 2018, The Guardian broke the story of Cambridge Analyticas Facebook data breach; we recorded the human fallout from family separations; we charted the rise of the far right, and documented the growing impact of gun violence on Americans lives. We reported daily on climate change as a matter of urgent priority. It was readers support that made this work possible. spo snouou get it's news. spo snouou get it's news. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 370703 11-28-2018 07:44 PM Post: #5 RE: Australia refuses to sign UN migration pact it helped draft She Man Wrote: (11-28-2018 06:55 PM) She Man Wrote: (11-28-2018 06:52 PM) In these critical times please help us protect independent journalism at a time when factual, trustworthy reporting is under threat by making a year-end gift to support The Guardian. Were asking our US readers to help us raise one million dollars by the new year so that we can report on the stories that matter in 2019. Small or big, every contribution will help us reach our goal. The Guardians independence means that we can report on the stories that matter and pursue difficult investigations, challenging the powerful and holding them to account. No one edits our editor. No one steers our opinion. Our journalists have the freedom to report on the facts, with no commercial bias and without politicians or shareholders influencing their work. In 2018, The Guardian broke the story of Cambridge Analyticas Facebook data breach; we recorded the human fallout from family separations; we charted the rise of the far right, and documented the growing impact of gun violence on Americans lives. We reported daily on climate change as a matter of urgent priority. It was readers support that made this work possible. spo snouou get it's news. The guardian needs money to pay the wikileaks lawsuit.. The guardian needs money to pay the wikileaks lawsuit.. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 370703 11-28-2018 07:46 PM Post: #6 RE: Australia refuses to sign UN migration pact it helped draft She Man Wrote: (11-28-2018 06:55 PM) She Man Wrote: (11-28-2018 06:52 PM) In these critical times please help us protect independent journalism at a time when factual, trustworthy reporting is under threat by making a year-end gift to support The Guardian. Were asking our US readers to help us raise one million dollars by the new year so that we can report on the stories that matter in 2019. Small or big, every contribution will help us reach our goal. The Guardians independence means that we can report on the stories that matter and pursue difficult investigations, challenging the powerful and holding them to account. No one edits our editor. No one steers our opinion. Our journalists have the freedom to report on the facts, with no commercial bias and without politicians or shareholders influencing their work. In 2018, The Guardian broke the story of Cambridge Analyticas Facebook data breach; we recorded the human fallout from family separations; we charted the rise of the far right, and documented the growing impact of gun violence on Americans lives. We reported daily on climate change as a matter of urgent priority. It was readers support that made this work possible. spo snouou get it's news. I got tired of it constantly shitting on the USA so I post a bunch of Australia is a shithole threads. I got tired of it constantly shitting on the USA so I post a bunch of Australia is a shithole threads. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 453356 11-28-2018 11:15 PM Post: #7 RE: Australia refuses to sign UN migration pact it helped draft LoP Guest Wrote: (11-28-2018 07:46 PM) She Man Wrote: (11-28-2018 06:55 PM) spo snouou get it's news. I got tired of it constantly shitting on the USA so I post a bunch of Australia is a shithole threads. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 453356 11-29-2018 01:58 AM Post: #8 RE: Australia refuses to sign UN migration pact it helped draft LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 453356 11-30-2018 01:08 AM Post: #9 RE: Australia refuses to sign UN migration pact it helped draft Back to Forum Reply to This post Post New Thread Bullish on Britain: Ashik Ahmed, Deputys CEO/CTO, and cofounder. Photo: Deputy An Australian tech startup that helps companies manage staffing schedules is planning to expand in the UK after raising 63m, ($81m, A$111m). Sydney-based Deputy has raised the sum from Silicon Valley venture capital firm IVP, which has backed companies like Slack and Dropbox, as well as local Australian funds Square Peg Capital, OpenView, and EVP. It is the biggest Series B round the second institutional funding round for a tech startup in Australia to date. Deputy is a tech platform that helps companies interact with part-time and hourly-paid staff. Its app helps with things like employee rotas, tracking time worked, and communicating with staff. Deputy has offices in Sydney, the UK, and the US, and works with the likes of Uber, Amazon, and Jaguar Land Rover. Ashik Ahmed, the CEO and cofounder of Deputy, said the new funds would be used to expand his business across Europe and the US, with a particular focus on the UK. Ahmed told Yahoo Finance UK he saw significant opportunity in Britain as around 60% of employees are on hourly wages. Plans to invest in the UK market come despite the looming uncertainty of Brexit. Ahmed said: I dont think Brexit will have that much of an impact on [businesses] decision as to go there or not. The opportunity is still very large. The UK is definitely a great opportunity for any of the businesses that have come out of Australia or other parts of the world, Ahmed said. Its still four times the size of Australia in terms of GDP so the market opportunity is definitely there. Deputy currently employs 12 people in the UK, out of a global staff of around 200. Asked about hiring plans in Britain, Ahmed said: Definitely it will scale but I couldnt possibly give you a number. It could double, it could quadruple. Oscar Williams-Grut covers banking, fintech, and finance for Yahoo Finance UK. Follow him on Twitter at @OscarWGrut. Read more Bitcoin approaching its worst ever slump heres whats driving it Skypes cofounder is trying to raise a $750m tech fund Father-and-son investment team raising $200m tech fund Slough and Scotland have particularly large concentrations of homes for sale in need of renovation, Zoopla has found. Home buyers looking for a fixer-upper property should head to Slough, research suggests. Property website Zoopla analysed homes across Britain which had been listed on its website and included the word requires alongside terms such as refurbishment, fixing, overhaul, tlc, reconfiguration, development, planning and fixer-upper, among others. It identified Slough as Britains top hotspot for renovations with 3.32% of properties requiring work, looking at listings covering the past year. Plymouth, Greenock, Bristol and Salford were also found to have particularly high concentrations of homes needing work, potentially offering bargains for buyers willing to roll their sleeves up and get stuck in. Zoopla found that overall, 0.86% of properties it analysed described homes as needing some work. The website said Scotland has the highest concentrations of properties for sale which are in need of work, accounting for 1.49% of properties listed across the country. Wales has the next highest, at 0.98%, followed by South West England, where 0.92% of properties for sale are in need of renovation. At the other end of the spectrum, buyers in the East Midlands may struggle to find a property in need of renovation, as Zoopla found only 0.57% of homes for sale there were described as needing work. This was followed by London, where 0.62% of homes needed work. Within London, Zoopla found Redbridge has the highest proportion of properties for sale needing work at 1.52%, followed by Newham at 1.25% and Lewisham at 1.04%. Waltham Forest has the smallest proportion of properties in need of renovation in London at 0.48%. Greenwich holds the second lowest percentage (0.52%) and Kensington and Chelsea is third (0.56%). Lawrence Hall, a spokesman for Zoopla, said there are renovation hotspots in many parts of Britain. Story continues He continued: Its worth bearing these locations in mind if youre considering moving to a new area and dont mind putting some work into a property to turn it into your dream home. Here are the top 10 post towns with the highest proportions of properties for sale requiring work according to Zoopla, with the percentage of properties needing renovation: 1. Slough, Berkshire, 3.32% 2. Plymouth, Devon, 2.55% 3. Redruth, Cornwall, 2.54% 4. Greenock, Renfrewshire, 2.46% 5. Camberley, Surrey, 2.22% 6. Bristol, 1.75% 7. Salford, Greater Manchester, 1.73% 8. Ilford, Essex, 1.71% 9. Penrith, Cumbria, 1.69% 10. Reading, Berkshire, 1.67% And here are the proportions of properties for sale across Britain that require work, according to Zoopla, ranked from areas with the highest proportions to those with the lowest: 1. Scotland, 1.49% 2. Wales, 0.98% 3. South West England, 0.92% 4. North East England, 0.84% 5. Yorkshire and the Humber, 0.83% 6. West Midlands, 0.82% 7. East of England, 0.81% =8. North West England, 0.76% =8. South East England, 0.76% 10. London, 0.62% 11. East Midlands, 0.57% FILE PHOTO - Oil tanker unloads crude oil at a crude oil terminal in Zhoushan FILE PHOTO - An oil tanker unloads crude oil at a crude oil terminal in Zhoushan, Zhejiang province, China July 4, 2018. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo By Florence Tan, Chen Aizhu and Rania El Gamal SINGAPORE/BEIJING/DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia is set to expand its market share in China this year for the first time since 2012, with demand stirred up by new Chinese refiners pushing the kingdom back into contention with Russia as top supplier to the world's largest oil buyer. Saudi Arabia, the biggest global oil exporter, has been surpassed by Russia as top crude supplier to China the past two years as private "teapot" refiners and a new pipeline drove up demand for Russian oil. Now fresh demand from new refineries starting up in 2019 could increase China's Saudi oil imports by between 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) and 700,000 bpd, nudging the OPEC kingpin back towards the top, analysts say. Saudi Aramco said last week it will sign five crude supply agreements that will take its 2019 contract totals with Chinese buyers to 1.67 million bpd. "With the recent crude oil supply agreements and potential increase of refinery capacity, the Saudis could overtake the Russians and reclaim (the) crown as the biggest crude exporter to China," Rystad Energy analyst Paola Rodriguez-Masiu said. Saudi Arabia has already gained ground this year. China imported 1.04 million bpd of Saudi crude in the first 10 months of 2018, China customs data showed. This is equivalent to 11.5 percent of total Chinese imports, up from 11 percent in 2017, Reuters calculations showed. Saudi's market share in China could jump to nearly 17 percent next year, if buyers requested full contractual volumes, analysts from Rystad Energy and Refinitiv said, while growth in Russian oil supply to China could slow. China imported 1.39 million bpd of Russian crude in January-October this year, about 15 percent of total Chinese imports, customs data showed. Russia had a 14 percent share at 1.2 million bpd in 2017. "We expect Chinese imports of Russian crude to remain at a similar rate in 2019 as a large share of these Russian barrels are imported via pipeline," Refinitiv analyst Mark Tay said. Story continues Graphic: China's top crude oil suppliers by market share - https://tmsnrt.rs/2PKcVZF NEW CUSTOMERS The biggest boost to Saudi exports to China comes from contracts inked with new refineries starting up this year and next, owned by companies other than state oil giants Sinopec <600028.SS> or PetroChina <601857.SS>. The contracts include 130,000 bpd to Dalian Hengli Petrochemical and up to 170,000 bpd to Zhejiang Petrochemical Corp, each of which has a 400,000-bpd refinery. Saudi Aramco has also agreed to increase Sinochem Corp's [SASADA.UL] supplies, which will be processed at its Quanzhou and Hongrun refineries. Sinopec, PetroChina and China National Offshore Oil Corp [SASACY.UL] have all kept their term Saudi volumes for next year unchanged. Beijing-based consultancy SIA Energy expects Saudi crude imports to rise by just 300,000 bpd in 2019, raising its market share to 13.7 percent, but leaving it behind Russia. "We expect lower Saudi crude demand from Hengli and Rongsheng as it is unlikely for them to run their refineries at full rate in 2019," analyst Seng Yick Tee said. Zhejiang Petrochemical is majority-owned by Rongsheng Holdings. Still, a source familiar with Aramco's export plans said there is tremendous appetite from China's independents, and that it needed to be more aggressive in its marketing strategy. The state oil company did move more swiftly to seal the most recent deals than it used to in the past, industry sources said. Aramco's first deal with Hengli was to supply 20 million barrels of crude, about 55,000 bpd, in 2018, said a senior source with direct knowledge of the deal. "Hengli executed the 2018 deal nicely, which helped build trust," he said. Hengli is designed to process 90 percent Saudi crude, a mix of Arab Medium and Arab Heavy, while the remaining 10 percent is Brazilian Marlim crude. Rongsheng's plant is identical to Hengli, the industry sources said. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity. Aramco is also supplying PetroChina's refinery in China's southwestern Yunnan province with about 4 million barrels a month of crude via a pipeline from Myanmar between July and November, Eikon data showed, although sources said talks for Saudi Arabia to acquire a stake in the refinery have stalled. Saudi Aramco's Chief Executive Amin Nasser said on Monday the company will push to expand its market share in China and is still looking for new refining deals there despite OPEC's likely limits on output next year. Graphic: China crude oil imports by country - https://tmsnrt.rs/2PPwEaA MAY CUT OIL EXPORTS TO U.S. Saudi Aramco will supply up to 70 percent of the oil required at its 300,000-bpd joint venture refinery in Malaysia with Petronas [PETR.UL]. Between China and Malaysia alone, Saudi Arabia will have to increase exports to Asia by more than 500,000 bpd next year. This comes as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is discussing production cuts of as much as 1.4 million bpd for next year to prop up oil prices. Between balancing global supplies and increasing market in Asia, Aramco may decide to "forgo market share in other markets like the United States, where the surge in domestic production will make it difficult for the Saudis to retain market share anyway," Rystad's Rodriguez-Masiu said. Saudi's oil shipments to the United States have risen recently to above 1 mln bpd, but U.S. output is also increasing, said the source familiar with Saudi Aramco's export plans. "You need to lessen the inventories in the U.S.," the source said, adding that Aramco will likely divert oil supply from the United States to Asia to meet rising demand there. A Chinese oil executive said: "China is where the demand growth is. The Saudis are very wise to capture this market." Graphic: U.S. crude oil imports from Saudi Arabia - https://tmsnrt.rs/2PNG723 (Reporting by Florence Tan in SINGAPORE, Chen Aizhu in BEIJING and Rania El Gamal in DUBAI; Editing by Tom Hogue) By Gabriela Baczynska BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union leaders meeting for a summit in Brussels in December are expected to extend for another year the bloc's main economic sanctions against Russia over Ukraine. The bloc is debating whether to add more sanctions over the latest flare-up of tensions between the two on the Azov Sea. Below is a list of measures already in place. The bloc first imposed sanctions after Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea from Kiev in March, 2014, and ratcheted them up as Moscow went on to back rebels fighting against government troops in east Ukraine. ECONOMIC SANCTIONS - The bloc's main, economic sanctions against Russia cover the financial, energy and defence sectors. They are in place until the end of January, 2019, and EU leaders are expected to agree next month to extend them for another year. - They limit access to the EU's capital markets for Russian state-owned financial institutions, introduce an arms embargo and an export ban for dual-use goods for military purposes. - EU nationals and companies cannot buy financial instruments with maturity above 30 days from five major Russian state-owned banks, three Russian energy companies and three defence companies. Providing loans to these is also barred. - The measures curb Russia's access to oil production and exploration technologies, barring exports of products related to hydraulic fracturing and offshore drilling on the Arctic shelf. - The European Investment Bank is no longer financing new projects in Russia. Italy, which has long pushed to soften the EU's sanctions regime on Russia, has proposed that the EIB return to providing money to small Russian firms. SANCTIONS ON CRIMEA - The EU stresses the annexation of Crimea was illegal and refuses to recognise it. It has hence introduced tight restrictions on doing business with the peninsula. - They include a ban on importing goods from Crimea and a prohibition to invest there or provide tourism services. EU citizens and companies cannot buy real estate or entities in Crimea, or finance firms there. Story continues - The EU has barred export to Crimea of goods and technology for the transport, telecommunications and energy sectors or for the exploration for oil, gas and mineral resources. Providing related services is also forbidden. - Although sanctions were introduced with the unanimous backing of all 28 member states, the bloc has still at times had problems enforcing them, as was seen when gas turbines by Germany's Siemens were delivered to Crimea. - These punitive measures are currently in place until late June, 2019. BLACKLIST - The EU has a travel ban and an asset freeze in place, which currently covers 155 people and 44 entities for "actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine." - The latest additions include six construction and design companies involved in the construction of the Kerch bridge - the only direct link between Russia and the annexed Crimea. The 19-kilometre bridge was a top political project for Russian President Vladimir Putin and was built by his close allies for 3.6 billion dollars. Last weekend's standoff between Russian and Ukrainian navy vessels developed around the bridge, which straddles the Kerch Strait linking the Black Sea to the smaller Azov Sea. The strait is the only outlet for Ukrainian ports on the Azov Sea. - Among the names of people barred from travelling to the EU over Ukraine are pro-Russian leaders and separatist fighters from Crimea and east Ukraine, Russian lawmakers and senior military brass, as well as top Putin aides. The latter group includes Nikolai Patrushev, the head of Russia's national Security Council, Alexander Bortnikov, the head of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), and Arkady Rotenberg, Putin's personal friend whose Stroygazmontazh built the Kerch bridge. - The blacklist is now in place until mid-March, 2019, and is regularly being updated with new entries. Some entries are also removed as, for example, some blacklisted rebels in east Ukraine have been killed. (Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Peter Graff) The Government is to set out its analysis of the economic impact of Brexit as Theresa May battles to save her deal for leaving the European Union. Downing Street said the papers will cover a range of scenarios as the Prime Minister seeks to press her case the agreement represents the only way to protect jobs and investment while avoiding the chaos of a no-deal break. She will then travel to Scotland for another day of campaigning on Wednesday as she appeals over the heads of MPs to ordinary voters to support her plan. The Treasury analysis is expected to conclude the UK will be far better off under the terms of Mrs Mays controversial agreement with Brussels than if it faced a disorderly Brexit with a no-deal break. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said Mrs Mays deal would make Scotland poorer (Jane Barlow/PA) Ministers have also agreed to publish their assessment of the impact on the economy if Britain were to stay in the EU, having been faced with the prospect of a damaging Commons defeat if they refused. Ahead of her visit to Scotland, Mrs May clashed with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon who released a report claiming her deal would cost people in Scotland 1,610 a year by 2030 people compared to if the UK had remained in the EU. Ms Sturgeon said the backstop being put in place to prevent the return to a hard border in Ireland could leave Scotland at a serious competitive disadvantage to Northern Ireland. In short, it will make us poorer, Ms Sturgeon said. No government of Scotland with the interests of this and future generations at heart could possibly accept it. Mrs May, who spent Tuesday campaigning in Wales and Northern Ireland, also again came under fire from Arlene Foster, the leader of the DUP who prop up her Government in the Commons and who remain resolutely opposed to the backstop plan. Following talks between the two leaders at Stormont, Mrs Foster said the deal remains unacceptable in its current form and her party would not support it when it comes to the vote next month. Story continues 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, she said. Arlene Foster has said the Northern Ireland backstop remains unacceptable (Michael Cooper/PA) 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. While Mrs May continues to appeal directly to voters to support her plan, some questioned whether she would not have been better off remaining in Westminster trying to win over MPs who will decide whether to back the agreement in the vote on December 11. With scores of Tory MPs having declared publicly they will vote against the deal, and Labour and the other opposition parties also firmly opposed, ministers have acknowledged the parliamentary arithmetic is challenging. They are expected to use the next two weeks arguing there is no Commons majority for any of the alternative proposal being touted round Westminster and that Mrs Mays plan remains the only alternative to the chaos of a no-deal break. Speaking in Wales, Mrs May said: I ask every Member of Parliament to consider the national interest in doing so, to recognise the need to deliver on Brexit and to do it in a way that protects peoples jobs. If the deal is voted down in the House of Commons, it will lead to more division and more uncertainty. Earlier, Mrs May insisted the UK was working very well with the United States over future trade after Donald Trump suggested her Brexit plan could stop the two countries striking a deal. During a visit to the Royal Welsh Winter Fair in Builth Wells, she said the Political Declaration on future relations with the EU meant the UK would be able to negotiate 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 US on this. Sajid Javid has backed police over controversial new tactics which have seen suspects knocked off their mopeds. The Home Secretary said the "risk-assessed tactical contact" is "exactly what we need". He was responding to Labour criticism following videos released by Scotland Yard last week, which showed police vehicles ramming moped riders from their bikes and to the ground, sometimes at speed. Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott condemned the practice, saying "knocking people off bikes is potentially very dangerous. It shouldn't be legal for anyone. Police are not above the law." Metropolitan Police say the videos they released show the tactics used by specially trained drivers, to reduce the need for pursuits and prevent injury. They also stressed that there is no maximum speed for police cars to hit mopeds and said the commonly held belief that officers cannot pursue suspects if they drive dangerously or remove their helmet is not true. It is hoped the tough approach will act as a deterrent. The Independent Office for Police Conduct is investigating three cases of "tactical contact" involving police and scooters. Last year, a teenager was taken to hospital with serious leg injuries after a pursuit. Concerns have also been raised over the risk to police officers, with Ken Marsh, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, worrying that officers could risk their "livelihood and liberty" if someone being pursued was seriously hurt. Fears over "moped muggings" have soared in recent years. An estimated 22,000 moped muggings occured in London in the year until June, double the amount of the previous year. Comedian Michael McIntyre was robbed of a Rolex worth thousands of pounds by a moped rider, while Sajid Javid had his phone stolen. However, the last few months have seen a drop in recorded offences. FILE PHOTO: Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is seen during a meeting with students at the Hussayniyeh of Imam Khomeini in Tehran, Iran, November 3, 2018. Official Khamenei website/Handout via REUTERS Thomson Reuters GENEVA (Reuters) - Iran should increase its military capability and readiness to ward off enemies, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday in a meeting with Iranian navy commanders, according to Khamenei's official website. "Increase your capability and readiness as much as you can so Iran's enemies will not even dare threaten these great people," Khamenei said. He added, "The Islamic Republic does not intend to start war with anyone." (Reporting By Babak Dehghanpisheh; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg) See Also: 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 FILE PHOTO North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspects a construction site in Yangdeok, in this undated photo released on October 31, 2018 by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). KCNA/File Photo via REUTERS. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is willing to allow inspectors into the reclusive country's main nuclear complex in Yongbyon, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported on Tuesday, citing a senior diplomatic source. "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," Yonhap quoted the source as saying. The source said Moon passed the message on to U.S. President Donald Trump when the two met during the United Nations General Assembly in New York 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. Asked about reports on Tuesday on North Korean willingness to allow inspectors in and whether there had been new developments, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said she was "not aware of any of that," but Kim had agreed to inspections in a meeting with Pompeo recently. "That's something the secretary and Chairman Kim had agreed to and spoken about when the secretary was in Pyongyang about a month ago or so," Nauert told reporters. "So that's something they agreed to and we look forward to Chairman Kim fulfilling his commitments." It was not clear from her remarks whether Kim had specifically said inspectors could visit the Yongbyon facilities. The United States has stressed the importance of verification as it negotiates with the North about the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula. (Reporting by Doina Chiacu, David Brunnstrom and David Alexander; Editing by James Dalgleish) By Lefteris Karagiannopoulos OSLO (Reuters) - Norway may lend support for a potential bid by Britain to rejoin the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) if so wished by London after it exits the European Union, Prime Minister Erna Solberg said on Wednesday. In Britain, supporters of a so-called "Norway plus" plan that would see Britain re-entering EFTA, of which Norway is a member, have said it could provide an alternative to Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit agreement with Brussels. Asked whether Norway would support Britain coming back to EFTA, Solberg told Reuters in an interview: "If that is what they really want, we will find solutions in the future. "To find a good agreement is important for all European countries and I hope that we will see an orderly deal that doesn't disrupt economic affairs in Europe," she added. Britain is Norway's biggest trading partner, to whom it sells natural gas, fish and services. May began on Wednesday a tour of the United Kingdom to drum up support for her Brexit divorce deal with the EU ahead of a vote in parliament scheduled for Dec. 11. Amid demands from many British lawmakers for May to seek a better deal from the EU, a step Brussels has said it will not countenance, her deputy has said parliament might reject her plan if asked to vote on it now. In the two years since Britain voted narrowly in favour of leaving the EU, Solberg has expressed both doubt and support for Britain rejoining EFTA, which London helped found but quit to enter the EU in 1973. She has expressed concern in the past that the size of Britain's economy - fifth largest in the world and second largest in the EU - and 66 million people would radically change EFTA, which now comprises Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein with a combined population of just 14 million. Solberg has also cited farming as one example of a possible conflict of interest if Britain rejoined EFTA. Britain exported food and drink worth 18 billion pounds in 2015 while Norway imposes high import barriers to protect farmers in a country that stretches into the Arctic. Being back in EFTA would keep Britain within the EU's lucrative single market for services, whereas Britain would leave it under May's deal with Brussels. (Writing by Gwladys Fouche; Editing by Terje Solsvik and Mark Heinrich) Staff from one of Britain's leading online fashion retailers were physically attacked and chased out of a Leicester factory when they went to inspect it, a parliamentary committee has heard. The claim was made by Paul Smith from Missguided, whose CEO Nitin Passi declined to give evidence to the Environmental Audit Committee hearing in Parliament. The retailers have been called before parliament after the committee heard "shocking" evidence that the buying practices of some online retailers maybe forcing some manufacturers to pay garment workers illegally low wages. The committee has also been looking at "fast" fashion's impact on the environment. An estimated 235 million items of clothing were sent to landfill in the UK last year. When asked by committee chairwoman Mary Creagh MP what the factory, which provides garments to various retailers, could be hiding, Mr Smith said: "Underpayment of workers". He told the committee that 30% of Missguided's production comes from Leicester, with 50% coming from China and the remaining products being made in Pakistan, Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria and Vietnam. Mr Passi declined to appear before the committee, sending a message that they were "people trying to create a story and you are the bait". The committee heard evidence from executives from big-name retailers like Burberry, M&S, Asos (LSE: ASC.L - news) and popular online retailer Boohoo. Boohoo chief executive Carol Kane was asked how they can make dresses in Leicester for as little as 4 and still pay the minimum wage to those making the garment? She (Munich: SOQ.MU - news) replied: "We have 80 dresses across 6,700 styles that are 5. It's a tiny, tiny amount of our collection. There are 60,000 styles for sale. We don't make any money, it's a loss leader and it drives people to our website." During the hearing, concerns were also raised about the low-quality of some "fast fashion" garments and the excessive waste that this business model is generating. Russian President Vladimir Putin has laid the blame for a stand-off with Ukrainian vessels in the Black Sea on the Ukrainian president and his desire to get re-elected. It is the first time that Putin has commented on the incident near Russia-occupied Crimea on Sunday that raised the spectre of a full-blown conflict between the two neighbours. Ukraine has released what it says is the exact location near Crimea where its three vessels were fired on and seized by Russia, showing that they were in international waters. But Putin said in a televised speech on Wednesday that the incident was entirely provoked by the Ukrainian vessels, which refused to communicate with Russian border guards. One of the captured Ukrainian sailors speaks in a court room in Simferopol, Crimea (AP) Putin laid the blame on Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, saying that he ordered the navy to provoke the stand-off with the sole purpose of scoring political points and getting re-elected next year. Putin also said the Ukrainian vessels violated the territorial waters off southern Russia, which is the internationally recognised border. Russia considers Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, part of its country. This appears to run counter to the claims of the Ukrainian government, which said the ships were approaching from another direction and were firmly in international waters. The damage on one of the three Ukrainian ships is visible after it was seized (AP) Russian officials say they will try the captured seamen for violating the Russian border and that they do not consider them prisoners of war. Meanwhile Estonia, a former Soviet republic, summoned the Russian ambassador to Tallinn. 1/3 On Sunday #Russia attacked #Ukrainian military vessels on the Azov Sea. We must use the right terms: this is war in #Europe. The Ukrainian people have been engaged in war since 2014 and the Crimean peninsula is still under occupation. #WarInEurope #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/XURCnFwgaA Kersti Kaljulaid (@KerstiKaljulaid) November 27, 2018 The Estonian foreign ministry says Aleksandr Petrov was told that Russia must immediately return the three vessels and release the crew. Story continues The ministry said Wednesday that under international law, Russia must ensure that vessels from any countries can pass through the Kerch Strait unhindered. President Kersti Kaljulaid said on Tuesday the attack constitutes war in Europe. After Moscows annexation of the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine, Estonia, like its Baltic neighbours Latvia and Lithuania, fear that they and other former Soviet republics could be next. The developments in the #AzovSea over the past days are unacceptable and we expect #Russia to immediately release the Ukrainian vessels and their crew. We expect #Russia to restore freedom of passage at the Kerch strait. Such agression has no place in #Europe. #Ukraine Valdis Dombrovskis (@VDombrovskis) November 28, 2018 The European Union is also insisting that Russia restore freedom of passage in the Kerch Strait. European Commission vice president Valdis Dombrovskis said Wednesday that international law obliges the Russian Federation ensures unhindered and free passage of all vessels through the Kerch Strait. Therefore we expect Russia to restore the freedom of passage. Dombrovskis called the Russian action unacceptable, and we expect Russia to immediately release the vessels and the crew and ensure the needed medical assistance to the Ukrainian servicemen. Storm Diana brought winds of 70 mph and strong waves to Ireland and parts of the UK on November 28, leaving more than 40,000 homes and businesses without power. Met Eireann issued a yellow weather warning for the Republic of Ireland, while the Met Office also issued one for the UK. The Met Office warning covered the period up to 3 am on Thursday, November 29. Credit: Marie Quinn/The Moorings via Storyful A groundbreaking study from Oxford University has linked the pregnancy test drug Primodos to malformations in babies born to mothers who used the drug. Sky News can also reveal a former employee at the drug manufacturer was advised not to use Primodos by a doctor working at the company, while it was still being offered to the public. The drug was made up of two pills which would induce a period in women who were not pregnant. Sandra Malcolm became pregnant while working as a receptionist for Schering in Burgess Hill. She says she was told by a doctor at the company: "I can't give it to you because it may not work and it may cause deformities." This happened seven years before Primodos was removed from the UK market in 1978 over fears that it may harm the foetus. Alleged victims have never been compensated and have fought a decades-long campaign to prove their children were damaged or even killed by the drug. Now they have a new hope. A team led by Professor of Evidence based medicine, Carl Heneghan, has conducted a systematic review of all previous human studies. The Nuffield Department for Primary Healthcare Services discovered that when the data is pooled it shows "a clear association" with several forms of malformation. In an exclusive interview, Professor Heneghan told Sky News: "What the evidence showed was that the direction of effect was showing that there was an association with congenital malformations. "It was a clear association for all congenital malformations but also more specific malformations: cardiac malformations, musculoskeletal, neurological and neurogenetical malformations, it was all clear; there is an association there that is significant." This new publication comes almost exactly a year after a government commissioned review suggested evidence wasn't strong enough to demonstrate a causal association. Sky News raised doubts about the Expert Working Group (EWG) report by overseen by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). We discovered aspects of the report had been removed. Story continues Some MPs called it "a whitewash". Professor Heneghan is also critical of the EWG review. He said the EWG didn't pool all the data together and properly collate it to show an overall effect. "What has clearly gone wrong here is complete failure to do the right approach for systematic reviews. "That was missing in the EWG's report - that's why we've now done that piece of work and actually put it out there so that people can look at it and come to their conclusions on what the balance of probability is." He added: "Once you start looking at more specific malformations, you start to see the threshold which is doubling the risk which UK law courts say 'but for' this wouldn't have happened." Mrs Malcolm says the manufacturer, which is now owned by Bayer, should admit its failings. While at the company in 1971, she discovered she was pregnant and spoke to colleagues at work. She said: "I was in reception one day and there were two guys there. One may have been a medical rep and he said to me 'you want a dose of Primodos' and the other said 'I think it's been taken off the market, and the other one said 'no, you can get it'. "So with that information I went upstairs to see one of the doctors. I said I'm a week overdue and can I have some Primodos? And he said 'I can't give it to you because it may not work and it may cause deformities', so I thought that was definite no." Mrs Malcolm says that after the conversation she decided not to take it "for obvious reasons" and that she just assumed it wasn't on the market. It was many years later when she saw a report about Primodos causing deformities and she was shocked to discover it had remained on the market. Mrs Malcolm's interview is among a compilation of evidence that Sky News has submitted this week to the government's Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review, which is re-assessing the safety and regulation of Primodos. Sky News also gave oral evidence this week. The manufacturer who took over Schering told Sky News: "Bayer is aware of the ongoing Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review. "This follows a review by an independent Expert Working Group on Hormone Pregnancy Tests of the Commission on Human Medicines that has already found, consistent with Bayer's view and based on all available data, that the scientific evidence does not support a causal association between the use of hormone pregnancy tests, such as Primodos, and birth defects or miscarriage." An MHRA spokesperson responded to the Oxford University study saying: "This publication, which is currently awaiting peer review, does not contain new data. It is a different approach to the analysis of existing historic observational data which was reviewed by the Commission on Human Medicines' Expert Working Group on Hormone Pregnancy Tests. "The review by the Expert Working Group was comprehensive, scientifically robust and independent. Based on the totality of the data, the review concluded the available scientific evidence did not support a causal association between the use of HPTs such as Primodos during early pregnancy and birth defects or miscarriage. "In line with our commitment to review any new evidence, we will be consulting independent scientific experts for their views." US president Donald Trump has suggested he may cancel his planned sit-down with Vladimir Putin over Russias seizure of three Ukrainian naval ships last weekend. In an interview with The Washington Post, Mr Trump said he would be receiving a full report from his national security team on Russias recent actions in eastern Ukraine and the Black Sea. He said he would decide on a course after that. Maybe I wont have the meeting, he said. Maybe I wont even have the meeting. He added: I dont like that aggression. I dont want that aggression at all. Mr Trump is due to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin (Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) The comments were Mr Trumps strongest to date in condemnation of Russias recent actions in Ukraine, where tensions are flaring. But White House aides were still planning for the Putin meeting after Mr Trumps comments. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday that the meeting was on and that Russia has not received any other information from our US counterparts. The meeting between the two presidents is set to be just one of several high-profile foreign policy engagements for the US leader on a whirlwind two-day visit to Argentina. Mr Trump is also set meet with Chinese president Xi Jinping over dinner this weekend, in what may be a pivotal session in determining if and how the ongoing trade dispute between their two countries could be resolved. On Tuesday, the White House warned Mr Xi against trying to wait out Mr Trump in the ongoing talks, suggesting the Chinese economy was not as resilient to a trade war as would be the US. The warning from Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, came ahead of the two leaders high-stakes sit-down on Saturday evening. Russia seized three Ukrainian naval ships over the weekend (AP Photo) Over the last year, the two countries have levied a series of tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of imports from one another, with the latest round of US duties set to go into force in the new year. Story continues Mr Xi said on Wednesday the international community needs to build consensus to solve the conflict between free trade and protectionism. In a speech to politicians in Spain, where he is conducting a state visit before attending the Group of 20 leaders summit in Argentina, he said the world is facing instability, uncertainty and hot topics without precedents in our history. I think we are at a crossroads, Mr Xi said. In economic terms we need to decide if we are going to follow the economic globalisation and free market or if we are going to choose unilateralism and protectionism. National Security adviser John Bolton said Mr Trump will also be meeting with German chancellor Angela Merkel, Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, Argentine president Mauricio Macri, South Koreas Moon Jae-in, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders called the trip an opportunity for the president to cement relations with other world leaders and advance a global economic system based on free, fair and reciprocal trade. Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman looks on during a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo, Egypt November 26, 2018. Bandar Algaloud/Courtesy of Saudi Royal Court/Handout via REUTERS Thomson Reuters 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. Story continues 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) See Also: Uber has been fined more than 900,000 by UK and Dutch regulators over a hack in which millions of customer details were stolen and which the company then hushed up. Britain's Information Comissioner's Office (ICO), which issued a 385,000 penalty to the ride-sharing company, said it had shown "complete disregard" for the customers as well as 82,000 drivers whose records were taken. In the Netherlands, where 174,000 citizens were affected by the worldwide incident, Uber was fined 600,000 (532,000) by the Dutch data protection authority. Details of the 2016 hack, which affected 57 million Uber users worldwide, were first disclosed a year later - when it also emerged that the company paid the hackers $100,000 to delete the data rather than notifying the victims. The ICO said a series of "avoidable data security flaws" had allowed customers' personal details to be accessed and downloaded from a cloud-based storage system operated by Uber in the US. They included full names, email addresses and phone numbers. Driver details - including journeys made and how much they were paid - were also taken during the incident in October and November 2016. The ICO said the hackers used a process known as "credential stuffing", in which compromised username and password pairs are entered into websites until they are matched to an existing account, to gain access to Uber's data storage. The regulator said the incident had the potential to expose customers and drivers affected to increased risk of fraud. 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. "Paying the attackers and then keeping quiet about it afterwards was not, in our view, an appropriate response to the cyber attack. Story continues "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." The ICO penalty was issued according to 1998 data protection laws under which the maximum fine was 500,000. Under new laws that came into force this year, the regulator has power to impose fines of up to 17m or 4% of global turnover on companies. More follows... Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Tuesday warned of the threat of "full-scale war" and said Russia had sharply increased its military presence on their shared border as tensions escalate between the ex-Soviet neighbours. The crisis also threatened growing diplomatic fallout with US President Donald Trump warning that he may cancel a long-awaited summit with Russia's Vladimir Putin. Trump is scheduled to meet Putin at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires at the end of this week, but he told The Washington Post that it would depend on the results of a report about the incident being prepared by his national security advisers. "Maybe I won't have the meeting. Maybe I won't even have the meeting," he said. In Ukraine, Poroshenko warned that the clash at sea could herald more drastic developments in the simmering Ukraine-Russia military standoff. "I don't want anyone to think this is fun and games. Ukraine is under threat of full-scale war with Russia," the president said in an interview with national television. 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. 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 late 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 late on Monday 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 on Tuesday called for "maximum restraint," urging both sides "to take steps without delay to contain this incident and reduce tensions". (AFP) Ffirefighters battle flames at a burning apartment complex in Paradise, California, on 9 November. Photograph: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images The Trump administration has been accused of using the deadly wildfires in California to push for weakened environmental rules in forests, opening them up for more logging. Ryan Zinke, the interior secretary, said that he hoped new legislation would allow for the thinning of forests to help prevent wildfires. He said he was confident Congress would soon pass a new farm bill that would remove environmental reviews for the removal of trees and brush, as well as the building of roads through federal forests. We have to manage our forests, said Zinke on a visit to the charred remains of Paradise, a town in northern California that has been razed by the so-called Camp fire. The death toll from the fire stands at 88, making it the deadliest in Californias history. It shouldnt be as hard; sometimes it is, Zinke said of forest management. I think our practices over the period have ended up to where we are today. Maybe this is the time to take a horrendous experience like this, and move things along to where we dont have to do this year after year. Its unacceptable. Zinke was joined on the Paradise tour by Sonny Perdue, the agriculture secretary, who also backs greater intervention in forests. People say they want pristine forests well, this doesnt look pristine to me, Perdue said, referencing the ashy remains of Paradise. Pristine is well-managed, groomed forests. But environmentalists claimed that the administration, led by Trump, who has blamed gross mismanagement of the forests, was using the fire to pave the way for more logging on federal land, with potentially disastrous results. Donald Trump and Ryan Zinke are being dangerously dishonest, said Chad Hanson, a forest ecologist who was involved in a major 2016 study that found that logged areas with lower environmental protections have the most intense, fast-moving fires. They are trying to use this tragedy to help logging interests, which is one of the most disgusting things Ive seen in my career. They are trying to eliminate half a century of environmental protections and turn over forests to the logging industry. Story continues Since 2011, an area east of Paradise has been set aside for logging, with the Camp fire racing through it rather than slowing down. Instead of selectively eliminating flammable fuel from the forest, thinning usually involves removing trees and leaving behind debris and invasive weeds that are actually far more effective at spreading fires, Hanson said. Zinke and Perdue are pushing extreme logging provisions that experts say wont protect Californians from these blazes, said Randi Spivak, public lands director at the Center for Biological Diversity. Their so-called solutions could actually worsen wildfire risk. Its misleading and dangerous to give people a false sense of security that they can log their way out of this, especially in the face of climate change. Fire experts have backed a variety of measures, such as allowing remote fires to burn, making buildings more fire resistant and widening roads, as a way to reduce wildfires. Zinke has also backed many of these reforms, as well as improving evacuation routes, and claimed his concept of forest management has been mischaracterized. Its not clear-cutting, its coming in and thinning those forests, Zinke said on Monday. Logging has become a pejorative term of just massive hillsides of clear-cutting, and thats not what were talking about. Thats not what producing fuel load is all about. The Trump administration is less enthusiastic about addressing the link between climate change and wildfires, an influence made clear in a major federal government climate report released last week that warned the area burned annually in the western US could increase by up to six times by the middle of the century due to rising temperatures. Asked by the Guardian about whether the wildfires would make the administration rethink its reversal of climate regulations, Zinke demurred. Well go through it with a fine-tooth comb, he said of the climate report. I think well look at all things considered. Were gonna to look at the report, seriously. Ive asked the US Geological Survey, for example, the last hundred years, tell me what the sea level has risen? In 20 years. Do you know? Regardless of whether you believe or dont believe in climate change, it doesnt relieve you of the responsibility of mitigating destruction of these fires. The University of North Georgia's (UNG) connections to Asia keep growing. UNG signed its only current agreement with an Indian university Nov. 6, forming a science and business partnership with BML Munjal University. Earlier this semester, UNG announced two new partnerships between the Corps of Cadets and Taiwanese military schools while expanding a partnership with another Taiwanese school. With the additions, UNG now has military student exchanges with 11 schools. "I am delighted that UNG has an academic connection with BML Munjal University so that our students, faculty and staff can learn more about India's culture, as well as the institution's academic and industrial innovations," said Sheila Schulte, associate vice president for international programs at UNG. "Our partnerships in Taiwan help UNG create opportunities for our Chinese-language learners as well as those interested in East Asian studies. These collaborations in South and East Asia provide key locations for our students to grow their global competence and helps UNG expand our global footprint in an increasingly important part of the world." Dr. J.B. Sharma, assistant department head of physics at UNG, visited BML Munjal when he was in India to see family. He said he was impressed with the private university, which was founded in 2014 and already had connections with the likes of Siemens, IBM and the Imperial College of London. Sharma made a connection with Dr. M.B. Srinivas, dean of BML Munjal's College of Engineering and Technology, which led to the agreement signed in early November. UNG and BML Munjal will be working to form a variety of faculty and student exchanges, through the efforts of Sharma; Dr. Mohan Menon, department head of management and marketing in UNG's Mike Cottrell College of Business; and Dr. Jeff Turk, director of UNG's Institute for Environmental and Spatial Analysis. "Engagement between the oldest democracy and the largest democracy in the world is very important," Sharma said. "It will be beneficial for both societies." Schulte is grateful for Sharma's passion in jumpstarting the BML Munjal partnership. Col. Yihsiung Lin, deputy commandant of MCNDU, and UNG President Bonita Jacobs make an exchange of gifts after signing a partnership agreement Aug. 22. "It is always good to have our partnerships happen organically through faculty interest," Schulte said. "Faculty engagement in international partnerships makes them sustainable over the long term, and these are the types of partnerships that help us build a global learning environment at UNG." Taiwan's Management College, National Defense University (MCNDU), and UNG signed an agreement Aug. 22 facilitating the exchange of students and faculty. UNG on Aug. 27 signed an agreement to extend its partnership with the Republic of China Military Academy (ROCMA), a relationship that began in December 2012. ROCMA was the first military student exchange program for UNG, and 15 UNG cadets have studied at ROCMA. UNG President Bonita Jacobs and Colonel I-Ming Chen, FHK deputy commandant, hold up an agreement between the schools at an October signing ceremony. UNG President Bonita Jacobs then traveled to Taiwan in October to sign a student and faculty partnership agreement with Fu Hsing Kang College (FHK), National Defense University. Jacobs also visited with Gen. Wan-Chiao Wu, president of Taiwan's National Defense University, during her October trip. The expanded ROCMA agreement will allow ROCMA military students to study at UNG as four-year, degree-seeking international students. Additionally, the partnership sets a goal of faculty exchange that will allow UNG faculty to teach, research and guest lecture at ROCMA in computer science and information management, physics, political science, and chemistry. Jacobs attended ROCMA's 90th anniversary celebration in 2014. Cadet Logan Covington, a UNG senior from Lawrenceville, spent five months at ROCMA as part of the military student exchange. He was excited to hear more cadets will get to learn in a similar environment. "It was a great experience. We definitely got thrown into the culture," Covington said. "Instead of just learning about it in class, it's a lot nicer to experience it firsthand. I really appreciated the fact that it forced you to use and learn the Chinese language a lot better." Security Bank Corp., the sixth-largest lender in terms of assets, has teamed up with Association of the Filipino Franchisers Inc. to provide exclusive loans to its members and their franchisees. AFFI is an organization that promotes responsible micro, small and medium enterprise businesses in the Philippines. Under the partnership, AFFI members and Security Bank customers can avail of discounted loan rates and waived fees to help them venture into franchising and grow their businesses. We believe in financing the future for the growth of our economy. The success of the future lies in supporting local businesses including franchisers who make up a huge part of the Philippine entrepreneurial space, bank president and chief executive Alfonso Salcedo, Jr. said in a statement. There are a lot of local aspiring entrepreneurs who are hindered in pursuing their dreams due to lack of available capital. With our exclusive partnership, we are now able to help these entrepreneurs jumpstart or even grow their businesses, Marie-Joyce Co Yu, AFFI president, said.Salcedo said the partnership would also help increase local franchisees and create a more competitive market. Businesses that will utilize the loan facility can also access DigiBanker, the banks secured online cash management solution that can help efficiently manage a business cash flows and payments. Through the partnership, Security Bank clients can also attend major AFFI events for the entire duration of the contract, opening a wide array of franchising opportunities for them. AFFI and Security Bank actually share similar goals. AFFI is committed to promoting responsible micro, small, medium enterprises through franchising while Security Banks trademark service of BetterBanking strongly supports the thriving SME industry in the Philippines, Salcedo said. [November 28, 2018] Vonage Appoints Industry Veteran Mario DeRiggi as SVP of National Channel Sales HOLMDEL, N.J., Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Vonage (NYSE: VG), a business cloud communications leader, has announced that Mario DeRiggi has joined the Company as Senior Vice President, National Channel Sales & Operations. With more than 25 years of experience in building sales channels and programs for business cloud solutions from the ground up, Mr. DeRiggi's expertise in these areas will further advance the Company's channel program. "Vonage has experienced significant growth over the last year in channel sales, and we are continuing to invest in our channel leadership to keep this momentum going," said Kenny Wyatt, Vonage Chief Revenue Officer. "Mario's deep experience in the Channel and vast knowledge of the Cloud and business communications space will help Vonage continue to enhance the solutions, tools and support partners need to help their customers drive better business outcomes." Prior to joining Vonage, Mr. DeRiggi served as Executive Vice President at integrated communications provider Broadview Networks (now Windstream) where he drove UCaaS, Cloud and Managed Services sales among enterprise customers across all sales channels, and go-to-market strategies, channel sales support, technical service, training and customer support. He also held executive sales, marketing and operations roles at various software and communications companies including 10N2 Technologies, PAETEC, Cablevision Lightpath, WinStar Communications and AT&T. "I am thrilled to be joining an organization that is so committed to its partners' success and to helping their customers to transform how they do business," said Mr. DeRiggi. "Vonage's considerable growth in the channel is testament to this commitment, and I look forward to helping to build upon this upward growth trajectory and create deeper relationships with both new and existing partners." About Vonage Vonage (NYSE:VG) is redefining business communications. True to our roots as a technology disruptor, we've embraced technology to transform how companies communicate to create better business outcomes. Our unique cloud communications platform brings together a robust unified communications solution with the agility of embedded, contextual communications APIs. This powerful combination enables businesses to collaborate more productively and engage their customers more effectively across messaging, chat, social media, vdeo and voice. Nexmo, the Vonage API Platform, provides tools for voice, messaging and verification, allowing developers to easily embed innovative programmable communications into mobile apps, websites and business systems on a global scale. The Company also provides a robust suite of feature-rich residential communication solutions. Vonage Holdings Corp. is headquartered in Holmdel, New Jersey, with offices throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and Israel. Vonage is a registered trademark of Vonage Marketing LLC, owned by Vonage America Inc. Safe Harbor Statement This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements about growth priorities or plans and other statements that are not historical facts or information, that constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In addition, other statements in this press release that are not historical facts or information may be forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this release are based on information available at the time the statements are made and/or management's belief as of that time with respect to future events and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and outcomes to be materially different. Important factors that could cause such differences include, but are not limited to: the competition we face; the expansion of competition in the cloud communications market; our ability to adapt to rapid changes in the cloud communications market; the nascent state of the cloud communications for business market; our ability to retain customers and attract new customers cost effectively; the risk associated with developing and maintaining effective internal sales teams and effective distribution channels; risks related to the acquisition or integration of businesses we have acquired; security breaches and other compromises of information security; risks associated with sales of our services to medium-sized and enterprise customers; our reliance on third party hardware and software; our dependence on third party facilities, equipment, systems and services; system disruptions or flaws in our technology and systems; our ability to scale our business and grow efficiently; our dependence on third party vendors; the impact of fluctuations in economic conditions, particularly on our small and medium business customers; our ability to comply with data privacy and related regulatory matters; our ability to obtain or maintain relevant intellectual property licenses; failure to protect our trademarks and internally developed software; fraudulent use of our name or services; intellectual property and other litigation that have been and may be brought against us; reliance on third parties for our 911 services; uncertainties relating to regulation of business services; risks associated with legislative, regulatory or judicial actions regarding our business products; risks associated with operating abroad; risks associated with the taxation of our business; risks associated with a material weakness in our internal controls; governmental regulation and taxes in our international operations; liability under anti-corruption laws or from governmental export controls or economic sanctions; our dependence on our customers' broadband connections; restrictions in our debt agreements that may limit our operating flexibility; foreign currency exchange risk; our ability to obtain additional financing if required; any reinstatement of holdbacks by our credit card processors; our history of net losses and ability to achieve consistent profitability in the future; our ability to fully realize the benefits of our net operating loss carry-forwards if an ownership change occurs; certain provisions of our charter documents/and other factors that are set forth in the "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017 and in the Company's Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC. While the Company may elect to update forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so except as required by law, and therefore, you should not rely on these forward-looking statements as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to today. (vg-a) View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/vonage-appoints-industry-veteran-mario-deriggi-as-svp-of-national-channel-sales-300756454.html SOURCE Vonage [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] The creator of the popular Nickelodeon show "SpongeBob SquarePants" Stephen Hillenburg, passed away at the age of 57. Variety reports that the cause of death was ALS, better known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. Stephen Hillenburg was first diagnosed with ALS in March 2017. Hillenburg spent nearly 20 years in animation. His best-known creation was the mix of his two favorites, marine biology, and animation. Hillenburg was born in 1961. He first got involved with experimental animation at the California Institute of Arts. In 1993, he began working for Nickelodeon and became a writer and director on several shows including "Rocko's Modern Life," "Rugrats." In 1999, he created the world of "SpongeBob SquarePants." Nickelodeon paid tribute to Stephen Hillenburg Nickelodeon released a statement saying that Stephen was a beloved friend and a dedicated creative partner. Stephen created SpongeBob and the rest of the characters with a bit of humor and innocence. His work brought joy to generations upon generations of kids and families. Hillenburg earned his first award in 1992 for his animated short "Wormholes," which ended up being shown at multiple international animation festivals. The first episode of "SpongeBob SquarePants," debuted on May 1, 1999. The show has drawn in fans of all ages, from children to adults, and even college students. College students have even hosted viewing parties for the popular show. The popular series has earned multiple US and British Emmy Awards, Annie Awards, and ASCAP Awards. The show has ended up being dubbed and subtitled in over 60 languages, including Azerbaijani. Discuss this news on Eunomia 'SpongeBob SquarePants' popularity continues to rise Stephen Hillenburg wrote, directed and produced the 2004 film "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie." The film ended up earning more than $140 million globally. Hillenburg ended up writing the script for the sequel "The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water," which was released in 2015. Hillenburg told Nickelodeon Animation that his comedy was inspired by his enjoyment of marine science. The hit comedy show highlighted original music from any notable artists including the Flaming Lips. "SpongeBob SquarePants," once featured David Bowie voicing Lord Royal Highness in an episode. A Broadway musical premiered in 2016 and featured music from David Bowie and Brian Eno, as well as several other hit performers. One minor foreign company with interest in the disputed West Philippine Sea is starting to fight back to prevent a further erosion of its stake in the oil and gas prospect. Minority shareholders of FEC Resources Inc., a unit of PXP Energy Corp., have started the process of filing a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commissions of the US, Canada and the Philippines in a bid to obtain a higher valuation of the companys 6.8-percent stake in Forum Energy Ltd., the company that controls a 70-percent interest in Service Contract 72 off northwest Palawan. FECs economic interest in SC No. 72, also known as the Reed Bank offshore area that contains the Sampaguita gas discovery field, is hard to gauge, but minority shareholders of FEC feel that the valuation of their investments are tied to recent transactions and the highly prospective area of the Palawan field. FEC shareholder Matt OMalley, who represents most of the minority owners, is seeking a valuation close to the private placement completed by businessman Dennis Uy in PXP Energy. OMalleys FEC lost 11.6 percent of its interest in Forum Energy (and SC 72 for that matter), without notice, without a valuation methodology and without an opportunity to protect itself from dilution, according to an FEC source. The FEC minority shareholders were also perplexed over the way their interest in Forum Energy dropped to 6.8 percent from 18.4 percent through a debt for equity swap and a share sale. FEC Resources shareholders were told about the swap and sale after they occurred. There was no opportunity for FEC Resources shareholders to protect itself from dilution. No opportunity to retain our extremely valuable position in Forum Energy/SC-72/Reed Bank, the source said. Uy recently invested in PXP Energy through his Dennison Holdings Corp. His firm subscribed to 340 million shares at P11.85 per share or for a total of over P4 billion. FEC Resources believes the valuation of its economic interest in Forum Energy should approximate Uys subscription price as one way of protecting minority investors.The Securities and Exchange Commission, meanwhile, has found itself mired in a religious controversy over an alleged investment scam. The regulatory body early this month decided to pry into the fund-raising activities of a Christian missionary group from Sarangani province. The SEC acted on complaints that the Kapa Community Ministry International, led by charismatic pastor-preacher Joel Apolinario, may have been enticing the public to invest with promise of returns way beyond the current market rates.Apolinario is a fundamentalist Bible-quoting type of evangelist who attracts common people in search of relevant spirituality. But he has apparently offended the leaders of more conservative church groups who see him as a flock stealer. The pastors nemeses, it is believed, have joined forces to portray the religious leader as an investment scammer. The alleged investment scheme, however, has turned out to be nothing more than an aggressive effort on the part of Apolinarios church group to raise donations and contributions. Almost all church groups aggressively raise money through donations, contributions and even investments. A recent article in social media cited the vast investments of the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines. According to the Daily Sentry, several Catholic Bishops hold thousands of shares at blue-chip Ayala Corp. valued at millions of pesos. The article noted that several ranking Catholic officials own shares at mining companies, especially those operating in Eastern Visayas. Citing data from the Philippine Stock Exchange, the article claimed that the Archbishops of Manila and Zamboanga own some 2.5 million shares at Philex Mining Corp. valued at over P200 million. The Archbishop of Manila is also the fourth biggest shareholder at the Bank of the Philippine Islands with a stake valued at close to P18 billion. Nobody questions the Catholic Churchs enormous wealth. It obviously needs money to run educational and charity programs and fund its mission. The same can be said of Apolinarios little Sarangani-based community Church. The pastor needs all the help he can get to preach the Gospel and help his brethren. But we doubt if the money he can raise from donations will be enough to buy even a fraction of the shares in blue-chip companies that Catholic Church officials hold. Apolinarios nemeses, instead, should debate with him in the pulpit, instead of using the SEC to silence the religious leader. The corporate watchdog has been put in an unfair position in this issue by those who cannot stomach a bible-quoting small-town preacher.E-mail: [email protected] or [email protected] or [email protected] Rana Daggubati and Baahubali producer Shobu Yarlagadda will soon be attending the upcoming edition of Comic Con in Japan. The duo have already left Hyderabad, and they will reportedly interact with scores of Baahubali fans in the country. Incidentally, Shobu had gone to Japan earlier this year along with Rajamouli to attend a special movie screening. The response from the audience was so phenomenal that Subbaraju, who played Kumaravarma, too attended a screening session later on. Now, with Rana too joining the list, it remains to be seen if Prabhas would go to Japan anytime soon. Baahubali 2 had released in Japan in December, 2017 and it is still playing in select few screens. Even more surprising is that fact that everytime there is a special show, where audiences are encouraged to make noise and have fun, they are almost houseful. Such is the craze for Baahubali in Japan! Articles that might interest you: American agriculture company Cargill Inc. announced Wednesday a plan to invest another P12.5 billion in the Philippines over the next two years as part of its expansion. We are proud to have been in the Philippines since we started our business here 70 years ago. Working closely with the government, our customers, partners and the community, we are helping farmers thrive and are bringing safe and nutritious food to Filipino tables. We are grateful for our partnership with the Philippines government as they welcome investments that enable Cargill to grow alongside the Filipino people and the local economy, said Cargill chairman and chief executive Dave MacLennan. The company said the investment would drive the expansion of its animal feed and nutrition business and agricultural supply chain operations. It will also support the growth of C-Joy to deliver on increasing consumer demand for the chicken. The company is focused on helping meet the increased domestic demand for chicken and pork and on delivering solutions in key areas of the global agricultural supply chain, it said. Cargill is celebrating its 70th anniversary in the Philippines this year. The company opened its first office in1948, which also marked the companys first office in the Asia Pacific region. Cargill employs 2,200 employees across 27 locations in the Philippines. The company is also celebrating the first year anniversary of C-Joy, Cargills joint venture with Jollibee Foods Corp. to process chicken for domestic consumption. The company also announced a P7-million contribution to support the Inclusive Business Capacity Building Fund to help Filipino farmers become more successful. Supporting the Inclusive Business Capacity Building Fund is another way we can help the world build food security. Smallholder farmers are an essential piece of feeding nearly 10 billion people by 2050 and they need all the help they can get to become more productive and profitable. I am also particularly pleased to see that this program also focuses on advancing women in agriculture, said MacLennan.C-Joy also joined the Inclusive Business Model Investment Program of the Board of Investments to improve the lives of 300 farmers, 30 percent of whom are women. Cargill has a strong chicken and pork farmer training program in the Philippines. For the past 25 years, the company has worked closely with farmers, educating them on best farming practices to increase productivity and profitability. About 40,000 farmers benefitted from the program in 2017. This year, this number is expected to increase to 70,000. Cargill also works closely with the Philippine Coconut Authority and the Agricultural Training Institute to help increase incomes of smallholder coconut farmers in the Philippines. Through a joint program with GIZ, BASF, and P&G, the company helps farmers improve their productivity and become more sustainable. About 4,300 farmers have benefited from the coconut program, with about 750 receiving sustainability certifications from the Rainforest Alliance. In September 2018, the first shipment of sustainable coconut oil certified by the Rainforest Alliance was exported from the Philippines. Democrat TJ Cox is the projected winner in California's 21st congressional district, defeating incumbent Republican David Valadao. This was the final House race to be called. Democrats have a net gain of 40 seats, and will hold a 235-200 edge on the GOP when the new House is seated during the first week of January. It is over for Congressman David Valadao in #CA21. His best county's provisionals reported today, and broke for the Democrat, TJ Cox. Outstanding votes are going to be more of the same. That makes a forty seat gain for the Democratic Party in the House of Representatives. Decision Desk HQ (@DecisionDeskHQ) November 28, 2018 Almost all media outlets had initially called the race for Valadao, who led by 8% on election night. However, his lead steadily shrunk as more votes were counted, and these same outlets were forced to retract that call. Cox took the lead for good two days ago. California 21st District Results Seven of California's 53 congressional districts sided with Hillary Clinton in 2016 while re-electing a GOP member of Congress. All seven of these districts were flipped to the Democrats this year. That party will now hold 46 of those 53 seats. This spreadsheet shows the change in partisan composition by state as a result of the midterm election. Related: 2018 House Interactive Map - Actual Results Jazmine Rae GoodIron (Lakota) always wanted to be a nurse, but then life happened. She had her first child at age 18 and later took a job as a receptionist at a hospital in South Dakota, putting her dreams on hold in order to support her growing family. But then mentors stepped in and changed the course of her career and future. My director said to me, This isnt what you wanted to do your whole life, GoodIron said. He encouraged me to go back to school, and it turns out that I needed that push. In response to the dropping numbers of American Indian-Alaska Native (AI-AN) medical and nursing students, mentorship and support programs are being developed in schools and organizations around the country. In addition to career advancement for individual tribal members, the hope is that increasing the number of AI-AN medical professionals will improve health conditions overall for Indian country, whose people suffer some of the worst health outcomes of any ethnic group in the United States. A diversified Chinese company based in Shaoxing in Chinas eastern Zhejiang province has sent a five-man mission to the Philippines, taking a step closer to finalizing the terms for a $100-million green textile industry park it plans to set up at the Cagayan Special Economic Zone and Freeport in Sta. Ana, Cagayan. Officials of the China Zhejiang Guannan Group, led by its Chairman Shaoxiong Cai, arrived in Manila this week in the final phase of its preparation before committing to a formal Memorandum of Agreement with the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority, CEZA Administrator and CEO Sec. Raul Lambino said Wednesday. Lambino hailed the Chinese initiative as bold, since it will break new ground in the Freeport in the area of textile production. Apart from textile production, the China Zhejiang Guannan Group is also into real estate development in Asia. CEZA Deputy Administrator Agrimero Cruz signed the agreement for CEZA and Shaoxiong Cai signed for the Chinese company, which will be classified as a locator in the special economic zone and Freeport.Up to 10,000 hectares of land in Sta. Ana and other neighboring towns could be developed to accommodate the requirements of the green textile industry park, Lambino said in a statement. Among other structures, the park will build its own power plant, water plant, sewage disposal plant, waste processing plant and other facilities and infrastructure, Lambino added. The Chinese firm will also invest heavily in the development of townships and real estate following its major projects in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Shaoxing. When enemies not enemies? And why we should be thankful for them? columns WASHINGTON The breakdown of a plea deal with former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and an explosive British news report about alleged contacts he may have had with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange threw a new element of uncertainty into the Trump-Russia investigation Tuesday. A day after prosecutors accused Manafort of repeatedly lying to them, trashing his agreement to tell all in return for a lighter sentence, he adamantly denied a report in the Guardian that he had met secretly with Assange around March 2016. Thats the same month Manafort joined the Trump campaign and Russian hackers began an effort to penetrate the email accounts of Hillary Clintons presidential campaign. The developments thrust Manafort back into the investigation spotlight, raising new questions about what he knows and what prosecutors say he might be attempting to conceal as they probe Russian election interference and possible coordination with Trump associates in the campaign that sent the celebrity businessman to the White House. All the while, Manaforts lawyers have been briefing Trumps attorneys on what their client has told investigators, an unusual arrangement that could give Trump ammunition in his feud against special counsel Robert Mueller. They share with me the things that pertain to our part of the case, Trumps lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, told The Associated Press. Giuliani also said Trump, who has recently stepped up his attacks on Mueller, has been enraged by the treatment of Manafort. Other figures entangled in the investigation, including Trump himself, have been scrambling to escalate attacks and allegations against prosecutors who have been working quietly behind the scenes. Besides denying hed ever met Assange, Manafort, who is currently in jail, said hed told Muellers prosecutors the truth during questioning. And WikiLeaks said Manafort had never met with Assange, offering to bet Londons Guardian newspaper a million dollars and its editors head. Assange, whose organization published thousands of emails stolen by Russian spies from Clintons campaign in 2016, is in Ecuadors Embassy in London under a claim of asylum. Its unclear what prosecutors contend Manafort lied about, though theyre expected to make a public filing that could offer answers. Dissolution of the plea deal could be a devastating outcome for a defendant who suddenly admitted guilt last September after months of maintaining his innocence and who bet on his cooperation getting him a shorter sentence. But its also a potential setback for investigators, given that Manafort steered the campaign during a vital stretch of 2016, including a time when prosecutors say Russian intelligence was working to sway the election in Trumps favor. The prosecutors terse three-page filing underscored their exasperation not only at Manaforts alleged deception but also at the loss of an important witness present for key moments under scrutiny, including a Trump Tower meeting at which Trumps oldest son expected to receive dirt about Clinton from a Kremlin-connected lawyer. The fact is, they wanted his cooperation. They wanted him to truthfully reveal what he knew, so theyre not getting what they wanted, said Washington defense lawyer Peter Zeidenberg. This isnt like a good development where theyre clapping their hands and saying, Now we get to crush this guy.' Manaforts motivation, if indeed he lied to prosecutors, also was unclear. In an interview, Giuliani said Trump and his lawyers agree a presidential pardon should not be considered now but added, The president could consider it at an appropriate time, as Manafort has the same rights as any American. Giuliani also accused Muellers team of mistreating Manafort in hopes of getting him to give false testimony against the president. He said Trump thinks it is outrageous and un-American and sounds like something that would happen under an oppressive dictatorship. Muellers filing on Manafort came at a delicate time for investigators, who have gone months without new charges and continue to probe possible links between Trump associates and WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy website. As Trump continues raging against the investigation he tweeted Tuesday that Mueller was doing TREMENDOUS damage to our Criminal Justice system others in the crosshairs have filled the vacuum of Muellers recent silence by publicly declaring their innocence, accusing prosecutors of coercing testimony or tempting fate by turning aside negotiations. One associate of Trump confidant Roger Stone is contesting a grand jury subpoena in court. Another, Jerome Corsi, said he was rejecting an offer to plead guilty to a false statements charge and has complained in news media interviews about his interrogations by prosecutors. Stone, under investigation himself for connections to WikiLeaks, has repeatedly disparaged Muellers investigation and said his friend Corsi was at risk for prosecution not for lying but for refusing to lie. A document drafted by Muellers team as part of a plea offer says Corsi tipped off Stone in August 2016 that WikiLeaks planned to release damaging documents about Clinton. The tip accurately forecast that WikiLeaks would publicity post the material, including messages from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, in October. It is the first known reference by Mueller to Americans close to Trump appearing to have foreknowledge of WikiLeaks plans. The draft document was first reported by NBC News and a copy of it was posted online by The Washington Post. Stone has denied knowing about WikiLeaks plans in advance. Manafort, meanwhile, had been quiet since pleading guilty to conspiracy to obstruct justice and conspiracy against the United States. He has met repeatedly since then with investigators. He remained in the spotlight Tuesday when the Guardian published a report saying he had secretly met Assange around March 2016, when he was brought aboard the Trump campaign. The report suggested a direct connection between WikiLeaks and the Trump campaign. Manafort called the story totally false and deliberately libelous, saying in a statement that he had never met Assange or anyone close to him. The Guardian cited 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 newspaper said Manafort returned in 2015 and 2016 and that its sources had tentatively dated the final visit to March. There was no detail on what might have been discussed. The Trump campaign announced Manaforts hiring 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 chairman that May. An AP investigation into Russian hacking showed that government-aligned cyberspies began an aggressive effort to penetrate the Clinton campaigns email accounts on March 10, 2016. Justice Department prosecutors in Virginia recently inadvertently disclosed the existence of sealed criminal charges against Assange, though its unclear what that case entails. Prosecutors were in court Tuesday arguing against unsealing any charge. Meanwhile, a judge may soon set a sentencing date for Manafort now that his hopes for leniency appear dashed. The cooperating defendant usually is very aware of whats at stake, said Shanlon Wu, who represented Manaforts onetime co-defendant Rick Gates. What I always say to any client of mine whos contemplating that there is no going back. Its like being a little bit pregnant, he added. Theres no such thing. ___ Lemire reported from New York. Associated Press writers Raphael Satter in London, Franklin Briceno in Lima, Peru, and Michael Balsamo in Washington contributed to this report. LAS CRUCES, N.M. A former U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer in Las Cruces has been sentenced to 366 days in prison for obstruction of justice. Prosecutors say 32-year-old Christopher Holbrook also was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Las Cruces to two years of supervised release after his prison term. According to Holbrooks guilty plea, he falsified an official report regarding his use of force against a man in March 2015. Prosecutors say Holbrooks report falsely claimed that he used the minimum amount of force necessary to control the man. They say Holbrook admitted that he intentionally swept the mans legs out from under him and caused his head to hit the floor. The victim was only identified by initials in court documents. 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. Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. quickly breezed past the powerful Commission on Appointments whose members unanimously confirmed his ad interim appointment on Wednesday after no opposition was registered. Describing Locsin as a maverick and quick-witted person, Senator Panfilo Lacson, chairman of the CA Foreign Affairs committee, endorsed the approval of Locsins confirmation during plenary session. According to Lacson, Locsin has distinguished himself with the credentials and qualifications befitting someone who should be at the helm of the Department of Foreign Affairsirrepressible, articulate, very independent-minded and extraordinarily prolific in writing.Never dull and never ordinary, the senator said of the nominee. He said that it remains enjoyable and exciting to listen to what Locsin would say next while he insulted and humiliated. Lacson said that as secretary of Foreign Affairs, Locsin would bring his own brand of diplomacyone that represents the true value of an independent foreign policy enshrined in our Constitution. I dare say this without mental reservation. If he pulls off and succeeds in the present endeavors which he is currently occupied with, with nary a constitutional challenge but that would catapult the Philippines into the league of rich, influential and economically powerful nations, we may now be confirming a future president of the Republic of the Philippines, Lacson added. San Juan Rep. Ronnie Zamora, committee vice-chairperson, also endorsed Locsin, saying he believes Locsin would not allow anyone to besmirch the country and would not surrender the integrity of the people. Senate Majority Leader Migz Zubiri and Senators Grace Poe, and Sonny Angara, seconded the approval of appointment. of Locsin, a lawyer by profession. Locsin had served as Philippine Ambassador to the United Nations. Not too long ago, the CA unanimously and decisively confirmed Locsins appointment as the countrs Permanent Representative to the United Nations. In such a short stint as ambassador until he was personally chosen by President Rodrigo Roa Duterte to be the countrys top diplomat, Locsin effectively made his mark within the high-brow milieu of the international community of nations, Lacson said. Locsin also worked as journalist, and was the representative of the First District of Makati from 2001 to 2010. Poe said Locsin was not just a good choice but the right choice for the post. She said she was supporting the nominees appointment, because I know that he will not allow our country to be bullied. I think he has it in him the spirit to fight for what is right, for what is just, said Poe.Poe said she she expects more great things from Locsins appointment. Humanda silang lahat, Poe said. Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recro said he can say with authority that Locson is the most well-read foreign affairs secretary in the world today. At a time when diplomacy is practiced by those who speak softly and carry a selfie stick, it pays to have a foreign affairs secretary who is brash, brave and brilliant because it will allow our country to punch above its weight, he said. But he did not learn what he needs to do for his present job from books alone. He is a lawyer, a journalist, a publisher, a Kapuso. He had sat in the boards of blue chip companies. He spent three terms in Congress as resident editor, who gave free tutorials on how to write clear and concise laws to colleagues whose verbosity was as big as their egos, noted Recto. But he didnt grab credit for his edits. An example is the Cheaper Medicines Law, which he fashioned into one good piece of legislation, added Recto. Before getting the nod of the congressional body, Locsin was girlled by Senator Risa Hontiveros, who asked him on the Presidents decision to withdraw from the ICC and Duterte administrations policy toward China. In responding to the question, Locsin said that withdrawing from the ICC does not legitimize any violation of human rights and was far from being a knee-jerk reaction. In reply to Hontiveros query about Dutertes drug war, Locsin said It is, in my view, a legitimate war against criminal syndicates. Hontiveros also questioned Locsin how he reconciles an independent foreign policy with the Duterte administrations China-friendly policy. She cited Locsins earlier statement that an independent foreign policy does not simply mean switching masters. Is this simply switching masters? asked Hontiveros. No, far from that, said Locsin. President Rodrigo Duterte has appointed Locsin in October to replace then DFA Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano, who is running as Taguig City representative in the 2019 elections. SANTA FE A 72-year-old man found guilty last year of molesting two boys at the Fort Marcy Recreational Complex has had his convictions overturned, and a judge on Tuesday ordered that he can be released from jail. Court records indicate that District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer last month overturned the May 2017 convictions at trial of Eric Knee on two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor under age 13. She granted a defense motion for a new, third trial based on new evidence. An initial prosecution of Knee ended in a mistrial. On Tuesday, Marlowe Sommer rejected a prosecution request that Knee remain in jail, where hes been held for 18 months, pending a third trial. His lawyers filed a motion for a new trial more than a year ago. Knee is accused of sexually assaulting two boys age 11 and 12 in the locker/shower room at Fort Marcy in December 2015. Knees attorney, Dan Cron, said the new evidence includes a testimony from an eyewitness present during the locker room incident who says he saw or heard nothing unusual and that the boys were not in distress. Cron said there are also new accounts from other witnesses, that Knee successfully passed a polygraph test, and that theres been a psychosexual evaluation that indicated Knee had no sexual interest in males of any age. At Tuesdays detention hearing, prosecutor Jennifer Padgett Macias argued that Knee should stay in jail because the presumption of innocence no longer applied given his previous conviction. She also argued that Knee had committed perjury in denying accusations that he had engaged in sexually inappropriate conduct in 2011 at another city-operated recreation center. But Judge Marlowe Sommer wasnt buying it. I dont think that argument is made in good faith, she said, adding that perjury charges had been dismissed. The judge also became frustrated with Padgett Macias. Im just asking the state to give me reasons (for keeping him incarcerated) other than were scared,' she said. The judge then outlined Knees conditions of release, which with the addition of house arrest are stricter than the conditions placed on him prior to being found guilty. He must post a $2,500 unsecured appearance bond, cannot consume alcohol, and must stay at least 100 yards away from the alleged victims home and school, which youre not going to do because youre under house arrest, the judge added. Next up in the case is a pretrial hearing set for Feb. 14. A jury trial is scheduled to begin in April. Knee and city government also face civil litigation from the families of the two boys over the alleged molestations. Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported Justin Hansens condition based on information from the 3rd Judicial District Attorneys Office. State Police say Justin Hansen is back in prison after being treated for injuries following a fight at a southern New Mexico prison, contradicting early reports that he had been so seriously injured he had been placed on life support. A spokeswoman for the 3rd Judicial District Attorneys Office said earlier in the evening that Hansen had been placed on life support, but she, State Police and a Department of Corrections spokesman have now confirmed that was not true. Officer Ray Wilson said State Police responded to the Southern New Mexico Correctional Facility in reference to an altercation between Hansen and another inmate, and an investigation is ongoing. Hansen was treated and released. Hansen is serving an 18-year sentence in a 2008 shovel beating that nearly killed Brittani Marcell, then a 17-year-old Cibola High School student. The crime went unsolved for nearly a decade. On Oct. 12, I was sentenced to 60 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $3,000,000 in restitution to four charter schools I co-founded with Dolly Juarez. The legal process has engulfed my life for the past 52 months. At my sentencing, I was permitted to address the court. Since I accepted responsibility for my actions in federal court, no cameras were permitted. Consequently, the people needing to hear from me the most did not. I want to personally apologize to the taxpayers of New Mexico, and the students and parents who trusted in us. I have no excuses to offer and I cant justify our actions. What started as an amazing idea and proved to be a world-class school eventually led to a sense of entitlement for the personal risks we took and the innovations we developed. With limited oversight from the hand-selected boards including Dollys spouse the schools were run with impunity. For the past 52 months, I have been advised to remain silent. I can now publicly accept responsibility for my actions. I will pay the price financially and with my freedom for my bad decisions. I want to let the taxpayers of New Mexico know that, upon my release, I will work to right our wrongs. I have begun a website, www.scottglasrud.com, so taxpayers can hold me accountable and follow my journey through the criminal justice system. I hope the site provides insight into the criminal justice system (and) daily prison life, and (that it) can serve as a source of information for the public and for students. The court found $3,000,000 is owed to the taxpayers. I was not the sole beneficiary of these funds. I encourage (the others) to voluntarily accept responsibility for their involvement and help me make this right. Again, to all New Mexicans, I apologize for my actions, the hardships I have caused, and for the damage brought upon the reputations of these incredible schools, their staffs and the charter school community. The New Mexico Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission (JPEC) is a state taxpayer-funded commission created by the New Mexico Supreme Court supposedly to improve the performance of elected judges to provide useful, credible information to voters on judges standing for retention. JPEC sends out confidential surveys to licensed attorneys, court jurors and others who interact with the courts, and then publishes its recommendations to retain or not retain. JPEC evaluates judges in five major areas: legal ability, fairness, communication skills, preparation and temperament, and control over proceedings. No retention recommendations usually result in about 12 percent fewer votes. There is virtually no recourse for any judge to dispute a no retention recommendation given to them. Six weeks before the midterms, the JPEC issued no retention recommendations on four Metropolitan Court judges. Because of the exceptionally small fraction of the surveys returned, it was misleading and useless. JPEC also spent at least $160,000 to do the survey and published the results without allowing the judges to comment or dispute the results. Presiding Metropolitan Judge Edward Benavidez and Metro Judge Kenny Montoya, a former New Mexico National Guard adjutant general, failed to secure the 57 percent retention vote to keep their jobs. During my 40-plus years as an attorney, including seven years as a workers compensation judge, I have seen how lawyers and parties can react and carry a grudge when they disagree with a ruling. All too often, certain segments of the New Mexico Bar, court personnel or police officers who appear before Metro judges have a strong dislike for them, and target and disparage the judges with the JPEC. All state judges are strictly prohibited by the Code of Judicial Conduct from holding any elected or appointed positions in political parties. All state judges are strictly prohibited from endorsing any candidate for office and cannot solicit donations for elections. Candidates running for judge must have a confidential finance committee set up to raise money for them. Names of donors and amounts are not disclosed to judges to prevent them from knowing who donated to their campaigns to avoid the appearance and accusation of giving preferential treatment in decisions rendered. A judge is also prevented by the Code of Judicial Conduct from making extrajudicial comments that may reflect on his or her fairness and impartiality to the media or public. Judges are prohibited from defending their decisions and sentencings, and their job performance in a public forum outside of their courtrooms, so criticizing judges is like shooting fish in a barrel. The JPEC does not give equal time on its web page to the judges who are rated, as would be the case during debates on an incumbent candidates job performance. It is doubtful that confidential surveys from those who may have a personal axe to grind against any judge are of much use to give a complete and accurate picture of any judges job performance every day they are on the bench. The JPEC wants voters to accept as gospel without challenge the recommendations it makes on retention. It is totally inappropriate for a government agency, funded with taxpayer money, to be spending and advertising to tell people who to vote for. Elected officials working in other branches of government are not subjected to similar evaluations. That is what political elections are all about. There has to be a better way for JPEC to seek removal of judges for poor job performance than to go to voters with recommendations. If there is indeed a problem with the job performance of any judge that would justify removal, the appropriate remedy would be an investigation by the Judicial Standards Commission that results in the judges removal by the New Mexico Supreme Court. The JPEC is a clear threat to judiciary independence on many levels. It has become nothing more than a political hit squad that uses taxpayer money to actively campaign against judges, and it should be abolished. Copyright 2018 Albuquerque Journal She has endured freshman orientation and posed for the class photo. But Deb Haaland said it was a tap on the shoulder that really resonated. Two girls both Native American, from South Dakota approached Haaland in the U.S. Capitol this month and recognized her as one of the first Native women to win election to Congress. Their mom came over, and they were all crying, Haaland said in an interview. It means a lot to some people to see themselves in that body of our government. Haaland, a member of Laguna Pueblo, is preparing to take office Jan. 3 when she and fellow Democrat Sharice Davids of Kansas will make history as the first Native American women to join Congress. Haaland, 57, has been traveling between Albuquerque and Washington, D.C., since winning election this month. She has participated in Democratic caucus meetings, signed payroll paperwork and sat through hours of orientation sessions. But she said the reality of taking office as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives may not sink in for a while. Its hard to grasp, Haaland said. I almost feel like by the time Jan. 3 comes around, and Im sitting at my desk ready to work, maybe thats when it will all actually settle in. Her election, in any case, has been felt in tribal communities across New Mexico and beyond. Kara Bobroff, founding principal of the Native American Community Academy in Albuquerque, said Haalands victory was inspiring for students and their families. The day after the election, Bobroff said, there was an incredible, positive buzz and a lot of celebration. Our students, especially young women, stated, OK, I can see somebody whos a role model for me. State Rep. Georgene Louis, D-Albuquerque, said members of her own family from Acoma Pueblo even people who supported Republicans or werent registered to vote were excited about Haalands campaign. For those people, especially in tribal communities that didnt really think their voices were heard, I think its just a profound impact, Louis said of Haalands win. Haalands election comes about 70 years after Native Americans secured the right to vote in New Mexico. After World War II, a Marine veteran, Miguel Trujillo Sr. of Isleta Pueblo, went to court after a clerk refused to register him to vote. Bobroff, who is Navajo/Lakota, said Haalands election had an intergenerational impact. Not only students, but their parents and the community as a whole, saw this as a huge historic victory for indigenous communities and Native Americans, she said. Background Haaland campaigned as someone who understood the struggles of ordinary New Mexicans. She told about working as a single mom and relying on food stamps. She won a six-way primary election to take the Democratic nomination in June and withstood negative campaigning down the stretch to win the general election by 23 percentage points over her closest competitor, Republican Janice Arnold-Jones, in the 1st Congressional District. Haaland has plenty of political experience. Over the years, she climbed the ranks from campaign volunteer to chairwoman of the state Democratic Party, a post she held from 2015 to 2017. Her career has included stints as a tribal administrator, service provider for developmentally disabled adults and state Native American vote director for President Barack Obamas 2012 re-election campaign. She founded a salsa company in the 1990s. Haaland will succeed Democrat Michelle Lujan Grisham, who opted to run for governor rather than seek re-election to Congress. Haaland said she has already touched base with Lujan Grisham who won the governors race about the transition and ensuring Lujan Grishams work on behalf of constituents isnt interrupted by the change. Shortly after winning election, Haaland also requested her committee assignments. The House Appropriations Committee, a key budget-writing panel, is her first choice. If she is selected, it would be the only committee shed serve on. In the alternative, she has requested membership on Armed Services and Natural Resources two committees she sees as a natural fit. Combating climate change and supporting renewable energy were signature issues in her campaign. And she grew up in a military family her dad was a Marine and will represent an area thats home to Kirtland Air Force Base. Tumultuous time Haaland is part of an incoming class of freshmen who flipped control of the U.S. House, with Democrats picking up 39 or 40 seats. Republicans, in turn, expanded their majority in the Senate. The new Congress will include a record-breaking number of women, with help from Haaland and another new member of New Mexicos congressional delegation: Xochitl Torres Small, a Democrat from Las Cruces. The political landscape may also be shaped by the special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. It is a tumultuous time, Haaland said. Im just ready to work hard and make sure we can get things done. She said her initial priorities will match the issues she campaigned on, including climate change, health care, LGBTQ rights and public education. And she knows people across the country are watching. Its sort of like you feel, I guess, even more responsible, in a way, Haaland said. Representing District 1 of New Mexico is a responsibility its even more so when you have these young Native girls who are looking up to you. She wasnt going to keep the puppy. Not forever, anyway. Shelby Sukunda already had Colby, a terrier-Chihuahua mix, small enough to live comfortably in Sukundas small Madrid digs. But Sukunda had shown up at a friends house just as a litter of pit bull pups was coming into this world, and that made her their fairy dogmother, she was told. The friend gave her the pick of the litter, so how could a fairy dogmother say no to that? I took this idea of trying to help find homes for the puppies and I would foster one of them, she said. Just in case she ended up falling in love with her foster pup and decided to keep it, Sukunda chose the runt. I thought, at least this one will be smaller than the others, she said. She named the little brown girl pup with the golden eyes Percy. And then she fell in love. They became inseparable, or nearly so. She just wants to follow me everywhere, she said. I cant go anywhere without her following me. For the most part, that was OK with Sukunda, because she didnt want to go anywhere without Percy. This dog, she said, was her forever dog, after all. Im all she knows, she said of Percy, now 10 months old. Shes in all my passwords. Sukunda, a metal sculptor, found a bigger place to raise Percy, moving to a five-acre spread on La Madera Road in Sandia Park that she shared with her metalworker mentor, his wife and their dogs. The property was fenced, but Sukunda also installed a wireless electric fence after Percy ran off looking for her in September. But even an electric fence was no match for a dog that endured the shock just to race to Sukundas approaching Jeep, hop in and greet her with slobbery kisses. And this is where the story goes astray in a way no fairy dogmother has figured out how to fix. The first big snowfall in the East Mountains this season was on Nov. 11. Sukunda was visiting her father in Madrid when it hit and had to spend the night there, leaving Percy to be cared for by the mentor and his wife. She tried to make it home the next day, but the roads had yet to be plowed and she had a flight to catch to spend Thanksgiving with her mother in West Virginia. After getting stuck twice in the snow and losing her cellphone in the process, she gave up and headed to the airport. She didnt know then that Percy was already missing. News of her missing pooch finally reached her Nov. 15. Thousands of miles away and with no cellphone, all Sukunda could think to do was post about her missing dog on Facebook and on the East Mountain Pet Alert site and cut her trip short. The soonest she could get a plane back was Nov. 19, eight days after Percy disappeared. That day, she found a message, left Nov. 11, on her replacement cellphone about Percy being at the Animal Humane New Mexico shelter in Albuquerque. She called the shelter immediately. But Percy had already been adopted. It all happened so fast, she said, tearfully. I broke down, like, please, dont let this be happening. But they just treated me like a careless owner, like it was just too late. Animal Humane marketing director Autumn Gray said the shelters policy is to hold strays with microchips or ID tags for seven days, not including the day of intake, which for Percy was Nov. 11. Animals without identification are held for three days. Both are in accordance with city animal welfare laws. We always go above and beyond to locate the owner, Gray said. Our heart breaks for her for what has happened. Percy, Sukunda said, was microchipped and wore two collars one with a transmitter for the invisible fence, the other a pink camo print with rabies tag and a tag with her name, address and phone number. But Gray said Percys microchip listed a disconnected phone number a claim Sukunda refutes. The phone number on the dog tag was to the cell phone Sukunda lost, so no one could reach her. The address on the tag did not include Sandia Park, but Gray said workers pieced together a full address using Google Maps and the cross street where the dog had been picked up, and an emergency letter was mailed there. Sukunda said she never received it. It was a perfect storm which lost her dog, not her carelessness, said Joyce Lewis, who runs the East Mountain Pet Alert. What is different about this is that this is the worst series of unfortunate events that I have ever been involved in. At Sukundas pleadings, the new owners were contacted and told about the situation, but Gray said it is their decision as to whether to keep the dog or return her. Should Percy be returned, Sukunda will be notified immediately, Gray said. So far, Sukunda has not received that call. I just cannot believe that anybody would intentionally tear a dog from her family, Sukunda said. Anybody who has had a relationship with a dog knows that the dog becomes like your kid. I just know whoever has my dog would feel differently if they knew her family has been found. Percy didnt start out as Sukundas forever dog, but thats just what she became. No one knew then, though, how short forever can be. UpFront is a front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Joline at 823-3603, jkrueger@abqjournal.com or follow her on Twitter @jolinegkg. Calling all angels Remember to submit nominations to our 10th annual Angels Among Us, which honors those unsung someones who brighten the community with their selfless acts of kindness. Deadline is Dec. 16. Copyright 2018 Albuquerque Journal New Mexico is dead last in local government efforts to control methane emissions from oil and gas operations, according to a new study comparing regulatory efforts in high-production states. The study, released Tuesday, compared emissions and local regulations in the eight states that produce the most oil and gas on federally leased lands to determine how much state-level regulations can offset federal efforts to scale back national control over emissions. The study, disputed by industry, follows the U.S. Bureau of Land Managements rollback in September of an Obama-era rule that imposed strict regulations on venting, flaring and leaking of methane from operations on public lands nationwide, generally leaving it to the states to pick up the regulatory slack. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is now also rewriting an Obama-era rule to relax EPA controls over industry operations on all lands nationwide. The new study by The Wilderness Society and Taxpayers for Common Sense found New Mexico regulations lag far behind other states. New Mexico has zero requirements that meet or exceed any in the previous BLM rule, leaving significant sources of methane waste unregulated. Overall, New Mexico regulations match only about 22 percent of the controls contained in the former BLM rule, according to the report. In contrast, Colorado matches 74 percent and California 67 percent. Thats not just a state issue, but a national problem, because New Mexico has the most federally leased land and the highest methane emissions from those lands in the country, said Taxpayers for Common Sense President Ryan Alexander. That contributes a lot to national level emissions, Alexander said. What we do here affects everybody. The report said $322.5 million in natural gas has been vented, flared or leaked on federal lands in New Mexico over the past decade, or more than all the natural gas consumed by the states residential sector in the last 2 years. If operations on all lands are included, New Mexico could be wasting up to $240 million in natural gas annually, costing the state about $27 million in tax and royalty revenue, according to the report. Industry disputes that data. New Mexico Oil and Gas Association spokesman Robert McEntyre said methane leakage declined by 46 percent in New Mexicos side of the San Juan Basin and 6 percent in the Permian Basin from 2011-2016. Emissions continue to fall through industry innovation to control it, McEntyre said. These groups dont acknowledge what industry is doing on the ground to capture more methane. The study sponsors want newly elected Democratic officials to enforce more controls. Were hoping a serious discussion will take place starting in January, said Peter Daigle of The Wilderness Society. This study can contribute to those efforts by pointing out gaps that need to be filled. Both governor-elect Michelle Lujan Grisham and incoming State Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard called for state-level restrictions on methane emissions in their election campaigns this year. Victor Reyes, a member of the governor-elects transition team, said Lujan Grisham remains committed to that goal. To do this, shell bring businesses, industry, and conservation leaders to the table to implement a statewide rule to curb methane waste and pollution in a balanced and effective way, Reyes told the Journal in an email. New Mexico will capitalize on this opportunity to create jobs through leak detection and remediation technologies and generate additional revenue for public schools, while protecting public health through cleaner energy production. Garcia Richard has not responded since the election to repeated Journal inquiries by phone and email to discuss her position. EL PASO, Texas U.S. Border Patrol agents faced a choice near San Diego. Do they respond with force against a crowd of migrants that include men throwing rocks and barefoot children? And if so, what kind? The circumstances at the San Ysidro border crossing on Sunday were exceptional. But the question facing the agents was not. Its a split-second choice more often made in the remote desert. The agents fired tear gas. It triggered widespread outrage and rekindled complaints that the Border Patrol is too quick to use force. Government statistics show use of force by Customs and Border Protection officers and agents is declining from a high during the 2013 budget year. There are high-profile exceptions. Still, experts say policies have improved following a major audit five years ago. Copyright 2018 Albuquerque Journal SANTA FE A familiar New Mexico name will be at the center of Capitol Hill politics as Democrats tangle with President Donald Trump over the next two years. U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan won election Wednesday as assistant Democratic leader in the House of Representatives a post that will make him one of the top four leaders in the party that controls the House next year. Its the highest House leadership position ever held by a New Mexican, according to the chambers Office of the Historian website. Lujan, a Santa Fe Democrat, said he called his mom, Carmen, and was thinking about his late father former New Mexico House Speaker Ben Lujan as he made his way into the caucus meeting. He made sure that people who didnt have a voice that their voice would be heard, Lujan said of his father in a telephone interview. His election Wednesday as assistant leader, he said, will help him push for job creation, access to health care and other priorities. I believe Ill be able to shape and advance an agenda that benefits the people of New Mexico, Lujan said. Many of the priorities we have in New Mexico are the same priorities we share as a Democratic caucus. N.M. interests His election comes as New Mexico is otherwise losing seniority in the House. Two members of the states delegation Democrat Michelle Lujan Grisham, elected in 2012, and Republican Steve Pearce, who has served 14 years gave up their seats to run for governor. They will be replaced by Deb Haaland of Albuquerque and Xochitl Torres Small of Las Cruces, both Democrats. Lujan Grisham won the governors race. Michael Rocca, a University of New Mexico professor who studies American politics and national institutions, said Lujan will be in a great position to look out for New Mexicos interests. Seniority, influence and power mean everything in the House of Representatives, Rocca told the Journal. Its an institution where the most influential and the most powerful are the ones who get things done behind the scenes. Brian Sanderoff, president of Research & Polling Inc. in Albuquerque, said Lujans ascension is good news for New Mexico, especially with the Democrats regaining control of the House. New Mexico depends heavily on the federal government and is home to two national laboratories, three Air Force bases and more than a dozen national monuments, parks and trails. New Mexicos other two members of the U.S. House will be newcomers, with no seniority, Sanderoff said. Thus, its important to have members of Congress in leadership positions to look out for New Mexicos interests. No. 4 position Lujan is moving up in leadership after helping Democrats reclaim a majority in the House during this years midterm election. Since 2015, he has served as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee a group that recruits candidates, raises money and works to elect Democrats. As assistant Democratic leader, Lujan will have the partys No. 4 leadership slot in the House, just below the speaker, majority leader and whip. He was chosen Wednesday by fellow members of the House Democratic caucus, which met privately in Washington, D.C, to choose a nominee for speaker and other leadership positions. Nancy Pelosi of California picked up the nomination for speaker, although there was some dissent. The new Congress takes office Jan. 3. Lujan will succeed U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat who was elected majority whip. At 46, Lujan is much younger than the Democrats higher up in leadership. He has represented northern New Mexico in Congress since 2009. He won re-election this month with 63 percent of the vote in a three-way race. In a Nov. 7 letter to his colleagues announcing his leadership bid, Lujan spoke about growing up on a small farm in New Mexico and learning from my family the importance of hard work, caring for our neighbors, and looking out for one another. LOS ANGELES A California appeals court overturned a lower court order that had imperiled the states assisted suicide law, but a longer legal fight may loom because the ruling skirted the larger issue of whether the legislation was unconstitutional. A three-judge panel of the 4th District Court of Appeals in the city of Riverside on Tuesday did not rule on the merits of the case because it found doctors opposed to the law had no right to sue to block the law. The court said the doctors failed to show they were harmed because they could choose not to help terminally ill patients die. The End of Life Option Act allows adults to obtain a prescription for life-ending drugs if a doctor finds they have six months or less to live. The ruling reversed Riverside County Superior Court Judge Daniel Ottolias judgment in May that declared the law unconstitutiona because it was adopted during a special legislative session that was supposed to address improving the medical system and health of Californians. The appellate ruling written by Presiding Justice Manuel Ramirez has no immediate impact on the current status of the law because the appeals court had put the trial court judgment on hold during the state attorney generals legal challenge. News that the lower court ruling had been reversed buoyed advocates of doctor-supported death. Our patients will be tremendously relieved, said Dr. Catherine Sonquist Forest, a family physician in Northern California who has six terminally ill patients considering the option. Thousands across the state will find great solace in knowing this option is there. The ruling is probably not the last word on the matter and could set the stage for future legal actions. The case was sent back to the lower court and the lawsuit could be amended and refiled. The court even spelled out how groups challenging the law might be able to show harm to plaintiffs. For example, a district attorney who wanted to prosecute a doctor for helping a patient die or a hospital or medical group that sought to discipline an affiliated physician who assisted a death might be able to establish standing, the court said. The Life Legal Defense Foundation, which represented the doctors, said it was disappointed and would consider its options. Other opponents of the law criticized the decision. Assisted suicide is not health care and places countless Californians at risk of deadly harm, said Matt Valliere of the Patients Rights Action Fund. Sadly the courts ruling in this case fails to protect vulnerable patients whose care has been compromised by this dangerous public policy. Supporters of assisted suicide said the ruling would strengthen their defense of the law in the future. But the harsh reality is this case is likely to last several more years because the plaintiffs are hell-bent on depriving terminally ill Californians (of) a peaceful death, free of unbearable suffering, said attorney John Kappos, who represented Compassion & Choices, a group that supported the law. While two justices ruled only on the issue of standing, Justice Marsha Slough dissented in part because she said the appellate panel should have ruled on the merits of the case and found the law was constitutional. Slough said it was not a stretch for the Legislature to consider assisted suicide as an extension of a discussion on the efficiency of the health care system. She said there was no reason to drag this case out before finding lawmakers acted within their authority. We have a responsibility to expeditiously disperse the uncertainty this litigation has created for countless patients, family members, and loved ones, as well as physicians and workers in the health care sector, Slough wrote. In 2017, the first full year assisted suicide was legal, 374 terminally ill people took drugs to end their lives, California health officials said. The District of Columbia and six other states Oregon, Colorado, Montana, Vermont, Washington, and Hawaii also allow assisted suicide. ___ Associated Press Writer Julie Watson contributed to this story from San Diego. ECOWASTE DEMAND. Members of EcoWaste Coalition gather Wednesday outside the Bureau of Customs to demand the expedited return of illegal garbage imports from South Korea before Christmas, and the rapid reshipment of about 6,500 tons of Korean garbage languishing in Misamis Oriental. Norman Cruz Members of environmentalist group Ecowaste Coalition on Wednesday picketed at the Bureau of Customs in Port Area, Manila to press for the immediate return to South Korea of the controversial dumped garbage.The move followed a statement by the government of South Korea confirming it would take measures to have the wastes in question be brought back to Korea as soon as possible. In line with the expression strike while the iron is hot, we call upon the BOC to act with urgency, rush the removal of the dumped wastes in Misamis Oriental, and send them back where they belong, said Ecowaste national coordinator Aileen Lucero. We hope the Korean garbage will be out of our territory before Christmas and not beyond Dec. 31, 2018, she added. BOCs rapid action will send a clear and unequivocal signal to waste traffickers that the Philippines is taking strong action against illegal waste export to protect public health and the environment, and uphold the national dignity and sovereignty, she emphasized. To dramatize their demand for action against waste trafficking, the protestors carried a ship replica topped with mixed garbage and wielded placards in English and Korean urging the authorities to expedite the return of the controversial garbage shipments that originated from Pyeongtaek City. Through a letter submitted to the Office of Commissioner Rey Guerrero, the EcoWaste Coalition urged the bureau to: 1. Expedite the process of reshipping the Korean garbage to its origin as a topmost priority. 2. Hold Customs officers liable for the uploading of the Korean garbage even without importation clearance. 3. Blacklist the shipper and charge the consignee for the illegal entry of the Korean garbage.The above action points are pursuant to the state policies to protect and promote the right to health of the people and protect and advance the right of the people to a balanced and healthful ecology, and in line with BOCs mandate to prevent and suppress the smuggling and entry of prohibited imported goods, the group said. Last week, the Embassy of the Republic of Korea, through a press release, announced that the Ministry of Environment on November 21 initiated legal procedure to have the wastes in question in the Philippines be brought back in accordance with Article 20 of the Law on Cross-border movement and Disposal of WastesPrior Notice of Repatriation Orderand embarked on investigation of the violation of Article 18-2 of the said lawFalse Export Declaration. The embassy also reported that a joint inspection by the Korean Customs Service and the Ministry of Environment and Customs Service of the exporters business site and warehouse in Pyeongtaek City found plastic garbage waiting to be shipped mixed with large amount of waste wood, metal and residuals that have not gone through appropriate recycling process, corroborating the initial findings by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. According to Customs-Region 10, some 6,500 tons of Korean garbage misdeclared as plastic synthetic flakes arrived on July 21, 2018 at the port of the Philippine Sinter Corp. in Villanueva, and on Oct. 20, 2018 at the Mindanao International Container Terminal in Tagoloan. The shipments, consigned to Verde Soko Philippines Industrial Corp., arrived with no prior importation clearance from DENR and were found to contain bales of plastic waste with hazardous materials such as used dextrose tubes, diapers, batteries, bulbs and electronic equipment and thus considered illegal. This latest garbage dumping incident, according to the Ecowaste, is a brazen violation of the countrys customs and environmental laws and regulations, namely, Republic Act 10863 (Customs Modernization and Tariff Act), Customs Memorandum Circular 44-2015 (No Importation Clearance, No Unloading Policy), Republic Act 6969 (Toxic Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear Wastes Control Act), and Republic Act 9003 (Ecological Solid Waste Management Act). The Ecowaste stressed that no disposal of foreign garbage in local dumps or landfills should be allowed by Customs leadership. The group recalled that in July 2015, 26 of the 103 garbage-filled container vans from Canada were secretly buried in a private landfill in Tarlac City at the request of the BOC, drawing broad condemnation from local and national politicians, civil society groups and citizens. An airman assigned to Cannon Air Force Base in eastern New Mexico was among three U.S. servicemen killed Tuesday in Afghanistan, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. Air Force Staff Sgt. Dylan J. Elchin, 25, of Hookstown, Penn., was assigned to Cannons 26th Special Tactics Squadron. Elchin, Army Capt. Andrew Patrick Ross, 29, of Lexington, Va., and Army Sgt. 1st Class Eric Michael Emond, 39, of Brush Prairie, Wash., were killed when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in Afghanistans Ghazni province, according to the Defense Department. Ross and Emond were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) at Fort Bragg, N.C.. Elchin was deployed to Afghanistan in August. Dylan had an unusual drive to succeed and contribute to the team. He displayed maturity and stoicism beyond his years, and was always level-headed, no matter the situation, Lt. Col. Gregory Walsh, commander of the 26th Special Tactics Squadron, said in a news release sent by the 24th Special Operations Wing, which oversees the 26th Special Tactics Squadron. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Dylans family, fiancee and friends. He will be sorely missed, but never forgotten. Elchin enlisted in the Air Force in 2012 and was stationed at the Clovis-area base after a two-year combat control training program. He is a recipient of the Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart, Army Commendation Medal with Valor and Air Force Commendation Medal, among others. He graduated with distinction from Airman Leadership School. The Defense Department says the incident is under investigation. LAS CRUCES A man suspected in a Thanksgiving crime spree that included a violent home invasion in Las Cruces and deadly triple shooting in El Paso is in custody. Jason Aaron Gibson of Mesa, Ariz., is facing charges for beating of an 86-year-old man and kidnapping two women, including the mans daughter, according to Las Cruces police. The mans daughter told police Gibson forced her to drive to El Paso and drop him off in a neighborhood where he is suspected in a second home invasion and triple shooting that killed Juan Salas, 58, and critically injured the mans 58-year old wife and 24-year old-son. U.S. Marshals tracked 38-year-old Gibson to Daytona Beach, Fla., where he was driving the homicide victims vehicle and arrested him Tuesday after a brief car chase. Las Cruces police investigators say Gibson has no known connection to the area. He is suspected of attacking the 86-year-old Las Cruces man in a gated mobile home community. Gibson forced his way into the mans home on Wolf Trail and brutally beat him. The next morning, when the mans daughter arrived with a friend to pick him up to celebrate Thanksgiving dinner at a relatives home, they encountered Gibson armed with a taser in one hand and a black handgun in the other, according to police. Gibson forced the daughter to tie up her friend using duct tape and ordered the friend into the bathroom where the 86-year-old victim lay bleeding and badly injured on the floor, according to police investigators. The daughter who was kidnapped and forced to drive Gibson to El Paso called Las Cruces police when she was free. While at the Las Cruces Police Department, the woman saw a news report about the triple shooting in the neighborhood where she had dropped off Gibson according to investigators. After notifying El Paso Police, both police departments worked with U.S. Marshals to track Gibson. Las Cruces police did not release details of the first violent home invasion until after the suspect was in custody. The cooperation we received was outstanding, said Las Cruces Police spokesman Dan Trujillo. The 86-year-old victim is recovering from multiple injuries to his head, face and hip. His injuries, though serious, do not appear to be life-threatening, according to police. The mans daughter and her friend did not suffer serious physical injuries. We in Las Cruces are just grateful no more harm was caused and the three victims here will all recover, said Trujillo. Gibson faces murder charges in El Paso. In Las Cruces, he has been charged with three counts of kidnapping, four counts of aggravated battery causing great bodily harm, two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated burglary and larceny of a firearm. He could also be charged federally for a kidnapping that crossed state lines. BUTTE COUNTY, Calif. - The Chico women's club is hosting support groups to help the community heal from the Camp Fire. There will be a total of seven sessions, all held by the North Valley Mutual Aid and the Council for Grieving. Anyone is welcome to attend. "This is all really intended to support us in the process of moving through the grief that we're all experiencing at this horrendous and unexpected change in our lives," said Malama Mcneil, a community volunteer with the club. The club is located at 592 E 3rd Street, Chico. The sessions will be held at the following times. Mondays: Nov. 26 from 1-4 p.m. Dec. 10, 17 and 24 from 1-4 p.m. Thursdays: Nov. 29 from 6-9 p.m. Dec. 27 from 2-5 p.m. and 6-9 p.m. There will be no nationwide declaration of martial law, President Rodrigo Duterte said Tuesday as he justified his recent order to deploy additional troops to several parts of the Philippines. In a briefing after the inauguration of the Bohol-Panglao International Airport, Duterte denied that his Memorandum Order 32 was a prelude to martial law or the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. Youre all interested to know if Im going to declare martial law. No, I am not going to declare martial law. There are enough powers of the Presidency that I can use, Duterte told reporters. He made the remark after critics, including some legislators from the Makabayan bloc, suspected that his memorandum, which ordered the deployment of military and police forces to the Bicol, Samar and Negros to suppress sporadic acts of violence was the Duterte administrations next step toward its supposed plan to put the country under martial rule. Malacanang had previously denied this accusation, saying should there be an intention to declare martial law nationwide, it would have been implemented already. But Duterte said there was a possibility of declaring martial law if there was widespread violence in the country. Well, if theres really a widespread violence then maybe [I will declare it]. But I do not need really violence in every corner of the Philippines to say that we are in danger, Duterte said. But like the one in the office, they are working for the people. I will do what is necessary to preserve this nation and to protect the people, that is my oath of office.Duterte said he issued the order after a series of armed encounters and ambush incidents that his troops had suffered from lawless groups. There are so many encounters there and Im losing a lot of soldiers and policemen, ambuscades, and everything. You place troops where you think you need an added force. Im surprised why you [media] are so interested about deployment when Im supposed to take care of the security of the country. Duterte said no additional places would be added to the list of areas with increased presence of troops at the moment. But he vowed to send an entire division of soldiers to guard the conflict-torn areas near Sabah. There will be a division size. I will really place an entire division. Not only a company, not only a battalion, not a regiment, but Im going to place an entire division for the islands there towards Sabah, Duterte said. STANISLAUS COUNTY, Calif. - A Stanislaus County deputy was killed while going after a suspected drunk driver Sunday night. Antonio Hinostroza was killed when his car hit a center median on Claribel Road. Christian Gonzalez and his girlfriend Aileen Hernandez witnessed Hinostroza's car speeding down the road when it hit the center median. They then attempted to help and save his life. "He wasn't alone, we were here to help him and we're doing our best like I'm trying to open the door from the other side," said Hernandez. Sheriff Adam Christianson said Hinostroza was on his way to stop a suspected drunk driver, who had been convicted and served time for five prior DUI's. He tried to run from deputies but ended up getting caught. "Just love the ones you have and cherish them a little bit more," Gonzalez said. "Everything could be taken away from you." There is no such thing as a hopeless situation; especially if you have time on your side. Time has the potential to change everything in a blink of an eye. When grief fills a place that was once laced with love, it leaves you numb and tired. &PriveHD, the destination for nuanced cinema, brings you the story of a distraught parent who takes matter in her own hands to find her daughters murderer in Secret in Their Eyes on Saturday, December 01 at 1 PM and 9 PM. Written and Directed by Billy Ray, the movie is a remake of the 2009 Argentine film of the same name, both based on the novel La pregunta de sus ojos by author Eduardo Sacheri. The movie has an exceptional star cast featuring Golden Globe and Oscar Winner Nicole Kidman who plays the character of Claire and Academy Award Winner Julia Roberts (Jess), along with Dean Norris as Bumpy Willis & Chiwetel Ejiofor as Ray Kasten who is the films churning energy center. Two policemen Ray and Jess are allotted "terrorist" duty, monitoring the activities around a local mosque in Los Angeles. Having been informed about the death of a teenage girl in an alley near the area, the pair quickly rushes to the crime scene to only find out that it is actually Jess daughter Caroline. The brutal murder of Jesss daughter leaves the investigators wondering and tears them apart eventually rendering them motivation-less to crack the case. 13 years after the prime suspects walk away, Ray insists on reinvestigating to get to the bottom of the gruesome murder and convinces Jess to reopen the case. An unspeakable secret will be revealed about the destructive effects of personal vengeance on the human soul. Witness the other side of a grieving mother as Secret In Their Eyes premieres on Saturday, December 1 at 1 PM and 9 PM only on &PriveHD. Rico Chan, Managing Director, Hong Kong, India and SEA, Oath, underlines why brands need to frame customer relationships within the themes of shared values, trust, relevance, convenience and usefulness in order to succeed. IKEA solved a problem digitally that every one of us has struggled with at some point buying furniture that may or may not fit in the space we had in mind. With IKEA Place, you hold up your phone, let augmented reality take over and show you how a 3-D model of the furniture looks in the room you are in. Since it appears at scale, you'll know soon enough if it works to the millimeter, or if you just avoided a very big mistake. Behind this and every other immersive digital experience, technology is hard at work as brands rethink traditional experiences for a digital world. Of course, none of this is on the customers radar. They look forward to finding the fun, discovering the usefulness and slipping into an experience thats tailored just for them. Though specific campaign goals vary, every client we talk to has the same overarching goals. They want to grow brand love and strengthen the bond with customers. They want to personalize their message and offerings so it is relevant to consumers at scale. And, they have to achieve this in a landscape where the customers outlook and priorities are shifting. In the fallout of data privacy scandals and fake news on social media, theres been an erosion of trust by consumers in brands on digital platforms. The consumers patience with bad or irrelevant ad experiences is at an all-time low. To hit their goals, brands have to surface unexpected, surprising and useful ideas that can capture the consumers imagination, but also fill a gap. They have to harness technology to elevate the experience, but use it in the right way to build trust. They have to find the sweet spot where the art of branding intersects the science of data. And, they have to overlay every decision with values that match the users sensibility. In the current climate, I see brands succeeding only if they can frame customer relationships within the themes of shared values, trust, relevance, convenience and usefulness. Take a stand, walk the talk Nissan ran a #shedrives campaign in Saudi Arabia after the countrys historic decision to allow women to drive. Budweiser repurposed a brewery to produce clean drinking water and shipped this to communities in the US affected by natural disasters. A wave of campaigns at Cannes this year showed that brands are taking a stand, entrenching themselves in communities and turning culturally relevant to build deeper emotional bonds with consumers. Its a shift that aligns with what consumers expect from their brands today. Oaths 2018 Brand Love Index, a global research study, found that people want to be seen using brands that share their values a key driver of brand love. Having a point of view that resonates with customers can help you connect with them in a meaningful way. But advertisers have to also ensure that their actions reinforce what their brand represents. Use customer data for good to increase relevance and build trust Give me relevant recommendations I wouldnt have thought of myself. Remind me of things I want to know but might not be keeping track of. These were some of the asks McKinsey got from shoppers on the kind of personalized interactions they found useful. Consumers today want experiences that are very specific to their world and they want to see it at the time and place it makes sense. Adobes 2018 Digital Trends report found that marketers in APAC are focused on making the experience as personalized and relevant as possible for customers. They are ahead of their global counterparts when it comes to using new technologies like AI, to give consumers a smarter, faster, more personalized, experience. But with data and technology in every marketers toolkit, how do you stand apart with customers when you leverage it? Data is personal and respecting peoples privacy has never been more important. Its also the first step to building trust. Consumers interact with brands that they trust. Our Brand Love Index found trust represents 20% of brand love around the world and is the highest indicator of brand loyalty and admiration. A big part of that trust is giving consumers control and transparency over how their personal data is used. Offer users access to transparent disclosures and meaningful privacy choices based on the sensitivity of their personal data. Make sense of that data to deliver real value, relevance and convenience. Like a certain superhero who lived by the words, with great power comes great responsibility, use customer data for good, without taking advantage. Pack utility and convenience into immersive experiences Pokemon GO was not just fun, its success got marketers thinking about the immense possibilities that Extended Reality Advertising offers. We have already stepped into the new future of retail. From home decor to apparel, advertisers are looking beyond standard mobile ad units to immersive AR ads that let consumers try out their products. They provide great utility and make buying choices easier for consumers. At Oath, clients are testing out our new AR mobile ad unit, charting ways to create immersive mobile shopping experiences. Interactive experiences powered by technologies like AR and VR could bring in a whole world of convenience for new Internet consumers in our region. A significant number of new-to-net users in India, which is leapfrogging in mobile, come from the countrys smaller towns currently powering Indias e-commerce success story. In SEA, the worlds fastest growing Internet region, a recent study has predicted the Internet economy will grow to $200B by 2025, with ecommerce being one of the key drivers. If brands can successfully engage this surge of new users with reimagined digital ad experiences that are relevant, useful and influence their buying decisions, it will be a game changer for the retail industry. A brand's ability to exceed needs by doing something no other brand does, is the strongest driver of brand love globally. Like, solving a problem that customers might not even know they have. In South East Asia, Grab is upending the consumer experience with its vision for an everyday mobile superapp, giving users services and information relevant to exactly when they need it. Starting with partners like HappyFresh for groceries and Yahoo for content who are integrating their services in a way that increases convenience for customers Grab wants to open up its platform to the wider Southeast Asia ecosystem. Whats in it for the consumer? A new experience at their fingertips, bringing unparalleled efficiency, utility and convenience, with relevance and greater personalization the holy grail for every marketer. Consumers today expect brands to set trends. They are willing to go out of their way for brands that innovate to elevate experiences our research tells us this unlocks both brand love and loyalty. Go right ahead with big, bold ideas. Bring them to life with technology, build in trust and amaze customers they will love you all the more for it. Rico Chan joined the senior leadership team of Yahoo Hong Kong in 2009 bringing in his versatile sales & marketing and senior management experiences of over 25 years from the Information Technology to Media arena both in Hong Kong and in the Mainland of China. As the Head of Advertising Business with Yahoo Hong Kong in the first four years, Chan was responsible for direct sales, channel sales and online business development, driving the integration of Display and Search Marketing sales teams. Were you surprised by the reaction to "Vaxxed"? What were you expecting? [Andy] and Polly came to New Orleans, and spent about three hours with us, just asking me questions about what had happened. Someone asked me if there was a script [for her role in Vaxxed], but there was no script. We were just talking casually like Im talking to you. And thats how I ended up becoming a part of Vaxxed. Sheila said that when she and her family were displaced by Hurricane Katrina, they temporarily lived in Austin, Texas. Thoughtful House, an autism research center that is connected to Dr. Wakefield, sponsored a theater night and Sheila met Andy for the first time. She told him the story of what happened to her son after being vaccinated.. Sheila explained that she was contacted by someone who knew Dr. Andrew Wakefield was looking for an African American family affected by autism. She said that originally Vaxxed was simply going to be a documentary on the Autism Media Channel. Sheila, tell us about your role in "Vaxxed." Why were you included in the film? By Anne Dachel I recently talked with Sheila and recorded her responses on Skype. Not only is she the mother of a vaccine injured African American son with autism, but shes also an outstanding advocate for children on the spectrum. For her, the cover-up revealed by William Thompson is very personal. SHEILA: When I first got involved with Vaxxed, it didnt even have a name because Dr. Wakefield hadnt even named it yet. Sheila explained that Andy had first used her video during presentations and talks. Imagine my surprise when he called me and he said, Youre never going to believe this. Robert DeNiro wants to screen Vaxxed at Tribeca. It came like the quiet storm. Bam! We were there. I had no idea Vaxxed was going to end up being what it is now. Last April, Robert Kennedy, Jr., speaking about the children everywhere who regressed into autism following vaccination, called this a "holocaust," and he came under immediate attack in the media for the use of the term. In your speech on Vaxxed, you also referred to children like your son as victims of a holocaust. Do you think you have a right to use the term "holocaust"? SHEILA: Ive used the word holocaust to explain what is going on because one of the meanings of that word is mass slaughter and reckless disregard of life. When you consider 340 percent causation rate of autism in African American boys if given [the MMR vaccine] before the age of three, when you consider a 700 percent causation rate of isolated autism in any typically developing, healthy child with no other co-morbid factors, you have to look at that and see it for what it is. It is reckless destruction of life, you are destroying these children before they even have a chance. The Nuremberg Code is based upon the fact that the Nazis did medical procedures without consentinformed consent. We dont have informed consent. They took the right of our informed consent away when they lied and they hid the fact that they knew these things, they knew that that triple dose could do these things to our children. So when you consider that, thats a holocaust. As Stephanie Seneff said, in sixteen more years, every one in two children will be diagnosed with autism. And eighty percent of the male population will be autistic. What else can you consider that but a holocaust. Its massive destruction, reckless destruction of our children, of our future and our legacy. Will there be a society? Can there be a society when you destroy the children? Its not possible. So yes, I consider that a holocaust. What has the experience with "Vaxxed" and the aftermath done for recognition of vaccine-induced autism, in your opinion? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXb_wAOy3uU SHEILA: Vaxxed, I believe is the vessel that God has used to bring and unite people together. Even though the CDC covered up what was happening to African American boysand theyve had a history of atrocitiesmedical atrocities, it has touched everyone. Autism knows no respect of person. Neurotoxins going in any childs veins can affect them adversely and damage what would have been a very beautiful life. Vaxxed has been the tool to bring us together. Were in a spiritual movement. I believe that with everything in me. God is the pilot of this movement, and it is a national movement. When a government decides its going to go to fascism and medical tyranny, and take away the publics right to democracy, people are going to rise up. This is about people rising up. And thats why I used Get off the bus. It is time to stop believing the lies were constantly fed. When youve got 270 more vaccines coming down the pipeline, it makes you wonder. How did society exist without vaccinations for? Because they did. Sheila explained that Vaxxed is going international, in Europe and beyond. The atrocities that are happeningtheyre not just happening here, theyre happening all over the world. Were in the midst of a movement and that movement is going to forward. I said it and Ill say it again, This is our America, and were not going anywhere! Sheila Lewis Ealey is the mother four and lives with her husband Ron in New Orleans. Her son Temple was taken to the doctor to be vaccinated along with his twin sister Lucinda, he was given a double dose of the MMR vaccine, along with the DTaP and HIB vaccines. The effect was immediate. By the next morning, he was not responsive. Within the next six months, Temple was diagnosed with severe autism disorder and later in 2008 with mitochondrial myopathy one. Her son's case was one of the 5,000 injury claims dismissed by the federal government. Since that time, Sheila has been an advocate for informed consent and truth in the vaccination program. She was educated in New Orleans' public schools and St. Mary's Dominican College and Loyola University. Currently, she is finishing a Masters in Education. Previously, she was a co-founder, director and curriculum developer for the Creative Learning Center of Louisiana, a school for students with autism for the last 10 years. She is certified in different educational modalities and plans to pursue a doctorate in education beginning in September 2016. For more on Sheila Ealey, see How Autism Happens: A Conversation With Sheila Ealey By Dan Olmsted Anne Dachel is Media Editor for Age of Autism. Note: My Gianna is prone to saying that phrase and it always makes me laugh. "Hasta la pasta!" However, nothing has been funny on the way to the forum, so to speak, in Italy as the government attempted to crack down on parents' vaccine choices with heavy fines and punishment. Lo and behold, the protests have forced a change. We have not been so fortunate here in the USA, especially California, where Senator Richard Pan and surely the new owner of the LA Times, a wealthy pharma/medical/vaccine tycoon have robbed children of the right to attend school based 0n vaccination status. ### Proof of Childrens Vaccinations? Italy Will Now Take Parents Word for It ROME Italian parents will no longer have to provide state-run schools with a doctors note to show that their children have been vaccinated, the countrys new populist government announced on Thursday a move that raised alarm among experts who fear that compliance with vaccines will drop. The new rule, announced at a news conference by Giulia Grillo, Italys health minister and a prominent member of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, requires only the assurance of parents that their children are immunized to enroll in school this September. The government said its aim was to simplify enrollment procedures and enable school participation for all, including children whose parents do not have their paperwork in order yet. We want to spur school inclusion and simplify rules for parents, Ms. Grillo said. But critics of the move say the Italian government is eroding faith in science and public norms. Read more here. Note: Not sure how to unravel this monstrous story from Belgium. While we do not subscribe to neurodiversity's teaching that autism is simply another way of being or thinking, or a difference like hair or eye color, I certainly do not agree that it means a waste of a life. Or that the life should be snuffed out. Euthanasia is a topic lightly tread upon if at all, here in America. We tend to demand any and EVERY medical intervention, even if courts are necessary. To give a diagnosis of autism simply to meet the criteria to die is frankly abhorrent to me. Kim ### Three doctors who certified a woman as autistic so that she could die by euthanasia are set to go on trial in Belgium. The sisters of Tine Nys told investigators that her suffering was caused instead by a broken heart after a failed relationship, and that she had falsely claimed to be autistic to two doctors and a psychiatrist. She had told them her suffering was 'unbearable and incurable' so that she could qualify for euthanasia under Belgian law. Ms Nys was given a lethal injection in April 2010, just two months after her diagnosis of autism, and died aged 38. Her sisters and her parents were at her bedside. Read more here. Campaigners in the UK say the case highlights the dangers of introducing euthanasia here. THE NEW JERSEY RATE CITED AT THAT TIME WAS ONE IN EVERY 34 CHIDREN (one in every 22 boys). Youd think people would have been in a panic to explain the NJ numberswhy the big difference? (Or why there is NEVER a comparable rate of autism found among ADULTS.) Remember back to last April when the rate of one in 59 U.S. children was announced? The message to the American people ONCE AGAIN is: AUTISM IS NOT, NOR WILL IT EVER BE, A CRISIS. When the news broke on the latest findings, I could predict that every major news outlet covering it would ONCE AGAIN deny any real increase and would ONCE AGAIN attribute the numbers to better counting and greater awareness. And this time were told its also due to different methods of gathering data. EACH AND EVERY TIME an update in the numbers came out, there was ALWAYS the caveat added by some expert and featured by all in the mainstream media that assured the public that the new rate was nothing to worry about no real change. Ive been writing on this phenomenon over the last couple of decades. Once again the officialdom in Atlanta [the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] has announced that the autism rate is higher than previously believed, and once again, were told that IT DOESNT MEAN MORE CHILDREN ACTUALLY HAVE AUTISM. Calm down. One in every 40 kids with autism is nothing to worry about. It was noted that New Jersey kept better data on autism, which might mean that their numbers were more accurate than the other states in the survey. It was all just another piece in the puzzleone big, collective yawn on the part of health officials. So here below is the new rate coverage that also spreads the message that its all good. MORE AUTISM IN CHILDREN IS NOT A PROBLEM! (Were just getting closer to the New Jersey numbers.) Its no surprise. Sleep well tonight. (Note that the Grand Rapids, MI story hints at a real increasejust a hint.) UPI: U.S. autism rate up to 1 in 40 children, CDC says A new government study finds that roughly 1 in 40 American children has autism, a huge jump from the previous estimate of 1 in every 59 children. The survey asked parents of more than 43,000 children between the ages of 3 and 17 whether or not their children had ever been diagnosed with autism or an autism spectrum disorder, or ASD, and whether the child in question still struggled with an ASD. Study author Michael Kogan offered several explanations for the discrepancy between the previous figure from the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the new figures from the 2016 National Survey of Children's Health. "I don't know if 'surprised' is the word I would use," Kogan said about his team's findings. "We began the study knowing that the prevalence of ASD had been increasing for the last 30 to 40 years." The findings were published online Nov. 26 in the journal Pediatrics. Thomas Frazier, chief science officer at Autism Speaks, expressed little surprise at the findings. "They are generally consistent with previous parent surveys and other direct prevalence studies where researchers directly screen for and attempt to identify autism," he said, adding that the CDC numbers are "probably a bit conservative." As to why estimates have generally been rising in recent years, Frazier dismissed the idea that the overall share of American children who have autism is growing that rapidly, suggesting instead that analysis methods have become "more liberal and inclusive." Wood8TV, Grand Rapids, MI: How many American children have autism? The U.S. government answers that question at least three different ways and says the latest estimate 1 in 40 kids doesnt necessarily mean the numbers are rising. The new number, published Monday in Pediatrics, is from one of three periodic surveys the government uses to assess autism rates. Its higher than a different surveys estimate published earlier this year, but the surveys use different methods and measure different populations of kids so the results arent really comparable. Because theres no medical test, autism spectrum disorder is a particularly challenging condition to track, government researchers wrote in the Pediatrics report. The true occurrence of autism likely ranges from about 1 in 59 kids to 1 in 40 kids, researchers say, taking into account information from all three surveys. All contribute different information to form a fuller picture, said Michael Kogan, lead author of the new report conducted by the U.S. Health Resources & Services Administration, a federal agency. Various reports in recent years have suggested autism rates are rising slightly. Experts think thats mostly because of earlier diagnosis, an expanded definition and more awareness, but say they cant rule out a true increase caused by unknown factors. St. Louis Post Dispatch: Dr. John Constantino of Washington University, one of the authors of the CDC report, said he expects the autism rate to stay fairly steady going forward in all of the different accounting methods. If the rate of autism does continue to rise, there may need to be a serious recalibration of the disorders definition to avoid overdiagnosis, Constantino said. Fox5, San Diego: Frazier said the 1-in-40 figure is generally consistent with previous parent surveys and other direct prevalence studies where researchers directly screen for and attempt to identify autism. Fierce Health Care: Research has shown autism diagnoses have increased in children over the past two decades. Experts caution that while this figure is higher than a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study released earlier this year estimating 1.7 % kids have the disorder, the difference in these two particular estimates more likely reflects differences in how the data was collected rather than an increase Reuters: The current study is based on one of several different surveys used to estimate autism rates in the U.S. Another recent study in JAMA used different data and found 2.8 percent of U.S. children from 3 to 17 years old had autism spectrum disorders. Based on yet another set of data, however, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 1 in 59 kids have autism. Taken together, some of the recent studies on autism suggest that diagnosis rates may be leveling off after steadily climbing for years, researchers say. One limitation of the study is that differences in how it counted kids with autism and how it reached parents to participate make it hard to compare the findings with other data to determine whether autism rates might be changing, the authors note. I think that the take-home message isnt necessarily new but is important: autism spectrum disorder is a common condition that merits screening and early treatment, said Dr. Jeremy Veenstra-VanderWeele, a psychiatry researcher at Columbia University in New York City who wasnt involved in the study. WebMD: Study author Michael Kogan offered several explanations for the discrepancy between the previous figure from the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the new figures from the 2016 National Survey of Children's Health. First, he noted that "because there is no biological test for ASD, it is difficult to track." And he added that different data collection methods can produce very different results. CNN: "Prevalence is not growing that rapidly, although the CDC's data suggests it is still growing," Thomas Frazier, chief science officer of the advocacy organization Autism Speaks, said in an emailed statement. He was not involved in the new report. "What is happening is that these studies use methods that are a bit more liberal and inclusive than the CDC's methods," Frazier said, adding that he prefers the CDC's numbers but understands "that they are likely a bit conservative." Dr. John Constantino of Washington University, one of the authors of the CDC report, said he expects the autism rate to stay fairly steady going forward in all of the different accounting methods.So if your child has autism, he or she is just one of many. The most we can hope for is early diagnosing and better treatment. Business owners in the historic West Bottoms district of Kansas City, Missouri, are pushing back against what they deem intrusive, uninvited photographers who use their storefronts and lobbies as backdrops for their photo shoots, notes Fstoppers. Professional photographers argue the trouble is being caused by a few bad apples that arent representative of the whole industry, adds PetaPixel. Several buildings in the area with preserved historic doorways have posted "No Trespassing" signs with "No Photography" written on the signs. President Rodrigo Duterte might soon put the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process under military control, the Communist Party of the Philippines said Wednesday, following the sudden resignation of Jesus Dureza and the termination of two of his senior officials. READ: Duterte fires three DSWD officials CPP founding chairman Jose Ma. Sison said it is possible that Duterte would order the military to take over the OPPAP by appointing another former military official to replace Dureza. READ: Duterte fires 2 more execs The real issue may not be corruption but Duterte trying to put OPAPP under military control, occupation, and corruption, he said in an online interview from the Netherlands. Sison said Duterte might order outgoing Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff Carlito Galvez to spend his post-military career as the head of OPAPP. The problem is when the military comes in, they impose conditions for the surrender of the New Peoples Army, he added. National Democratic Front of the Philippines peace consultant Satur Ocampo admitted that seeing a former military official at the negotiating table between the government and communists would not be good. A peace negotiation where the military will have the last say is not going to result in an acceptable agreement, Ocampo, a former Bayan Muna Party-list representative, told the ANC news channel. Last week, the AFP chief said he personally told Dureza his plan to become a peace consultant weeks before his retirement. I personally conveyed my request to OPAPP and I told Secretary Dureza, Can I be some sort of consultant? So, he accepted my request, he said. Galvez is set to leave his post for retirement on Dec. 12. In his previous remarks, Duterte has explained that he preferred to designate former military men in his Cabinet as they get the job done without much debate. On Tuesday, Duterte himself announced that he accepted Durezas resignation as the latter took responsibility for the alleged corruption of two of OPAPPS senior officials Undersecretary for support services Ronald Flores and Assistant Secretary Yeshter Donn Baccay. I am sad because, despite my efforts to be compliant with your strong advocacy against corruption, I failed, he said.Asked if Dureza will be moved for another post in the government, the President said the resigned OPAPP chief did not ask for anything. And even if Dureza had asked, there will be no place left for him as all the seats in his Cabinet are filled up. The Palace on Wednesday commended Dureza for resigning and apologizing for allegations of corruption committed by two of his subordinates, who have been sacked. We commend the former Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process for taking full responsibility and issuing an apology under the principle of command responsibility for the transgressions committed by his two subordinates, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a press statement. His resignation has set a concrete example and put a true meaning to the value of delicadeza and morality in governance. This is leadership by example, he added. Panelo thanked Dureza for his services, particularly in his efforts to advance government efforts to resolve challenges to peace. We take this occasion to thank Secretary Dureza for the services he rendered to the nation, particularly under the Duterte administration, where he assisted the President in walking the extra mile in advancing peace for the good of our nation and all Filipinos, Panelo said. Panelo also described the firing of Flores and Baccay as a warning to all government officials that no person is exempted from the administrations high and exacting standards of honesty in public service. Their termination also underscores that the President remains resolute in stamping out corruption in the bureaucracy, which includes offices which are specialized in particular fields of governance, Panelo said. Like the war on drugs, the war on corruption must be fought unremittingly, he added. On Tuesday, Dureza said he was stepping down from his post to allow a needed reorganization within the OPAPP. I truly am sad that OPAPP, as an institution which I head, had to suffer publicly due to the acts of a few. Nonetheless, I take full responsibility and apologize for all this, he added. Dureza thanked Duterte for the opportunity of being the presidential peace adviser under his watch. 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. CEVA Logistics Greater China is preparing to launch truck services between China and Europe, claiming they are cheaper than airfreight and faster than rail. The first trial of the service, which has become possible since the international customs transit system, TIR, became active for the Peoples Republic of China last May, left Khorgos in the far west of China on 13 November, travelling via Kazakhstan to reach Poland on 24 November. The 7,000 km trial was operated as a joint initiative between CEVA Logistics, the IRU (International Road Transportation Union) and CEVAs partners Jet-rail International Transportation in Shanghai and Alblas International Logistics in the Netherlands. The companies claim the new road service will deliver a cost saving of about 50% compared to air options. With a lead time door-to-door of between 10 and 15 days, it will be 30-50% faster than rail. Torben Bengtsson, Executive Vice President of CEVA Logistics Greater China, said Chinas participation in the TIR (Transports Internationaux Routiers) system as part of the Road & Belt initiative prompted it to investigate the possibility and feasibility of road transportation from China to Europe in order to find an alternative to the escalating airfreight market. He says: The trial proves that the TIR carnet issued in China is accepted in the transit countries en-route to Europe. The Government, IRU, Research Institute of Highway Ministry of Transport (RIOH) and many other parties worked together to remove barriers and uncertainties. "As a result we foresee a great future for road transportation from China to Europe. We have a lot of customers waiting for the start of a regular service. During the coming weeks we will work on some small details of the service and then prepare to start regular operations as early as possible in 2019. Umberto de Pretto, IRU Secretary General, said: This first TIR journey by road from China to Europe is a win-win-win model for business, trade and governments and will be a game changer for cross border transportation in China. It shows that the system is secure and also highly competitive in terms of cost and time relative to other modes of transport on similar routes. It will boost trade between China and Europe, which will help China and the countries along the Belt & Road route to reap the economic and development rewards of international road transport. It is also a wakeup call to European hauliers who can seize the opportunity to benefit from round trip operations. Read more freight forwarder news Click here for a free digital subscription President Rodrigo Dutertes plan to create his own armed civilian group called the Duterte Death Squad to counter communist assassins met with strong pushback from allies and critics alike, and drew a cautious reaction from his own Defense secretary. In a speech Tuesday night at Camp Rajah Sikatuna in Bohol, Duterte referred to the Sparrow Units of the communist New Peoples Army, which specialized in assassinations READ: Sparu revival only a ploy, CPP warns Now what I dont have is my own Sparrow, the President said. So I will create my own Sparrow. Duterte Death Squad against the Sparrow I will match their talent also for assassinating people. They will have firearms for sure. Thats my plan. They will do nothing but look for idlers who are prospective New Peoples Army members and take them out, he said. The idea was immediately shot down by Dutertes own political ally, Senator Aquilino Pimentel III, president of the Presidents ruling party, PDP-Laban. That cannot be done. Im sure the President will not create such [a] squad, Pimentel said. Communist Party of the Philippines founding chairman Jose Ma. Sison said Dutertes planned formation of a civilian hit squad was just to cover up his administrations widespread use of summary executions. I think that Duterte is citing them [Sparrow] as a pretext for organizing more death squads of the AFP [Armed Forces of the Philippines] and PNP [Philippine National Police] for the mass murder of mere suspects who are not even the target of any court warrant of arrest, Sison told an online news site. He added that the Sparrow Units, active during the martial law years, have not been operational since the 1980s. Opposition Senator Antonio Trillanes IV said Duterte only wants to instill more fear in the hearts of Filipinos by warning there will be another round of extrajudicial killings. He is doing this because he feels that he is losing his grip on power and that fear is his only way to keep people check, he said. Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said they will thoroughly study Dutertes proposal and admitted that the plan could lead to cases of abuse. We will study it very closely. Who will compose it, who will supervise it, who will be the targets, who will be accountable? Because there is great danger of abuse or mistakes in these undercover operations, Lorenzana said.One way to prevent this is for someone higher up to give the go-signal after careful and thorough vetting. There should not be a blanket authority, he said. Philippine National Police chief Oscar Albayalde said he had yet to receive instructions from the President regarding the matter. Senator Francis Pangilinan warned that Dutertes death squad would turn the country into a howling, lawless wilderness. It will not create more jobs for the ordinary citizen. It will not lower the prices of basic goods. It will not increase incomes and wages of the worker. It will only turn our country into a howling, lawless wilderness, he said. Senator Gregorio Honasan said he believed that extreme situations call for extreme measures, but said these must be within the bounds of the law. But he said the formation of such a group was the Presidents prerogative and a judgement call. Senator Grace Poe said she needed to know the context of the Presidents statement, but said the idea was alarming. Senator Panfilo Lacson said it is up to the public to interpret if the President was serious or not when he made the statement. Being a lawyer and former prosecutor, I dont think he was serious because he knows its illegal and criminal to do perform such an act, he said. The Commission on Human Rights denounced the idea, saying the principles of international humanitarian law strictly prohibit death squads under all circumstances. The commissions chairman, Jose Luis Gascon, said the law only allows the use of regular armed forces under strict military discipline. Indigenous peoples from Sarangani and Sultan Kudarat in Mindanao also objected to the plan. At a news conference in Quezon City, Dande Dinyan, chieftain of the Taboli-Manubo Sdaf Claimants Organization (Tamasco), said the Presidents plan could only lead to more violence and deaths of helpless people. NORTHERN ALEPPO COUNTRYSIDE In the Syrian province of Idlib, where hundreds of thousands of internally displaced Syrians struggle to make a living, a new initiative has revived the communal spirit, through a much-needed clothing drive. In the first stage, Oct. 10-Nov. 10, campaign organizers placed five collection and distribution boxes in various parts of Saraqeb, a small town 12 miles southeast of the city of Idlib. The haul was then organized for distribution to the needy before the harsh winter sets in. The campaign, Think of Others, is the brainchild of Saraqeb Youth, a group established in 2014 by young people eager to volunteer. The group had previously organized a number of educational activities, such as producing plays for children and conducting photography courses, in attempts to try to normalize life in Saraqeb, which made international headlines when Syrian government helicopters dropped chlorine gas on it on Feb. 11. The 20 volunteers for the clothing drive obtained permission from local councils to set up boxes around town, after which they conducted an awareness campaign to inform residents of the location of the boxes and what to put (and what not to put) in them: no summer clothes or items that are so old or so tattered as to be unusable. With collections underway, the team began sorting through the donations and repairing pieces requiring some mending. Team members then organized the clothes for the process of people dropping by to pick up what they needed from among the items contributed. Ahmad Khatab, the campaign manager, spoke to Al-Monitor, explaining the impetus behind the project. As winter approaches, poor and low-income families face even harsher challenges, Khatab said. This is especially true of the displaced living in Saraqeb, most of whom do not have a job to earn money and buy clothes, so we wanted to help them, without hurting their dignity. At the same time, we wanted to show the way to people who wanted to help but did not know how. It does not take much just the clothes you no longer use, Khatab emphasized. The campaign calls for donating only usable clothes. It also calls on beneficiaries to take what they need but to also think of others. Campaign volunteer Ahmed Sheikh Ahmad told Al-Monitor that the boxes made it easier for both sides, noting, People in need could head to the spots where the boxes are and choose the clothes they need for themselves or for their family members. The campaign aims to promote a culture of social solidarity and community participation in light of the difficult reality that people are living under the weight of the war, poverty, displacement imposed on many Syrians, Khatab said. The team members conducted a general assessment on Nov. 10, Ahmad said. They were told by the locals that the campaign had been appreciated by the people of the town. This is why the group decided to add more boxes in the next phase. It has not yet been determined when the second phase will begin. There is no time limit to the campaign, Ahmad remarked. We might expand it in the coming period to cover the rest of the cities and towns of Idlib to help as many needy people as possible. According to Ahmad, Saraqeb Youth has the financial means to continue the clothing campaign and has received some support from local councils. The initiative might usher in a series of similar efforts in Idlib, he said, noting that some of the people involved in the clothing drive had suggested also organizing food or furniture donations. Houda Sheikh Ali, who works at the Women Now Center in Saraqeb and provides psychological support to women in the region, told Al-Monitor, The Think of Others initiative is a significant step to encourage local people to donate, to feel empathy for others and to help fulfill their needs. She noted that there were many families in town who wanted to help the needy but did not know where to send donations. The campaign serves as an intermediary, she said. Ali also pointed out that the campaign helps the poor in a discreet way that does not hurt their pride. Some charities take photos of the needy in a humiliating way while delivering financial aid or food, she commented. I hope that the campaign grows bigger to include food, blankets, and other items. Providing a child under 10 years of age with winter clothing would typically cost 25 Syrian pounds ($50). The majority of struggling families cannot afford this, as anything they earn goes toward the basics food, rent, water and electricity. Hence the need for campaigns like Think of Others. Congress held a rare vote to curtail US military involvement in Yemen today in a direct, bipartisan rebuke of the Trump administrations refusal to crack down on Saudi Arabia. Clearing a key procedural hurdle, the Senate voted 63-37 to move ahead with legislation directing President Donald Trump to end US support for the Saudi-led coalition against Yemens Iran-backed Houthi rebels. Todays vote marks the first time the Senate has used the 1973 War Powers Act to direct a president to end a foreign military intervention. It is imperative today that the United States Senate tells Saudi Arabia and tells the world that we are not going to be continuing to be part of that humanitarian catastrophe, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the resolutions sponsor, told reporters ahead of the vote. We are ending our participation in that horrific war and we are going to do everything that we can to force the Saudis and the Houthis to the peace table and to provide the desperately needed humanitarian aid that the Yemenis want. Sanders had tried to secure the same vote in March, but unlike today, it failed to clear the necessary procedural hurdle 55-44. The Trump administration had hoped to again forestall such a vote by dispatching Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary James Mattis to brief senators today on Saudi Arabias campaign in Yemen as well as its murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. But the classified briefing backfired, prompting several senators from both parties who had previously opposed moving forward with the Sanders resolution to switch their votes in an unprecedented rebuke of the embattled US ally. The briefing today with Secretaries Pompeo and Mattis, though appreciated, raised more questions than it answered, said Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., who voted to move forward with the debate despite his previous opposition to the resolution. I will take a back seat to no one as an Iran hawk, added Young. Famine and the indiscriminate targeting of civilians will only push more Yemenis towards Iran and its proxies. The absence from the briefing of CIA Director Gina Haspel, one of the few US officials believed to have listened to Turkeys recording of Khashoggis murder, only compounded lawmakers ire. Like most in the room, I was disappointed that Gina Haspel was not there, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., told reporters after the briefing. He went on to refer to the briefing as highly unsatisfactory and called the administrations response not valid. Both The New York Times and The Washington Post have reported that the CIA has concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered Khashoggis assassination. But Pompeo, like Trump, has rebutted those reports, shielding the crown prince from scrutiny. There is no direct reporting connecting the crown prince to the order to murder Jamal Khashoggi, Pompeo said after todays briefing. Corker nevertheless blamed the crown prince for Khashoggis death. We have a crown prince whos out of control, said Corker. The blockade in Qatar, the arrest of a prime minister of Lebanon, the killing of a journalist. And whether theres a smoking gun, I dont think theres anybody in the room who doesnt believe he was responsible for it. The Tennessee Republican opposed Sanders first attempt to force a vote on the Yemen war, but ultimately voted to proceed with the resolution today to send the Trump administration a message. He noted that the Sanders resolution can be amended to figure out some way for us to send the appropriate message to Saudi Arabia to appropriately display American values and American action. Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., co-sponsors on the Yemen resolution, both said they would be open to Republican amendments to secure final passage after todays procedural vote. Todays overwhelming vote comes after Pompeo opted to take a dismissive approach toward congressional anger in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. The October murder of Saudi national Jamal Khashoggi has heightened the Capitol Hill caterwauling and media pile-on, Pompeo wrote Tuesday. But degrading US-Saudi ties would be a grave mistake for the national security of the US and its allies. Pompeo and Mattis also reject the legal standing on which the Sanders resolution rests, arguing that US support for the Saudi coalition does not fall within the purview of the War Powers Act. The US is not operationally involved in hostilities in Yemens civil war or in situations where the threat of hostilities is imminent, Mattis asserted in his opening remarks to lawmakers. Sanders and other lawmakers, however, maintain that targeting assistance, logistical support, the deployment of US troops on the Saudi-Yemeni border and the midair refueling for Saudi coalition warplanes all qualify as hostilities. And while the Trump administration ended the refueling support for coalition planes earlier this month, Yahoo News recently reported that the Defense Department is conducting a classified operation to assist the Saudis against the Houthis in Yemen, which may involve US ground troops. Even if the Senate ultimately passes the Yemen resolution amended or otherwise Republican leadership in the House has refused to allow a floor vote in the lower chamber. However, Democratic leaders have signed onto the resolution, meaning that it could pass both chambers when Democrats take control of the House in January. The only other time the House used the War Powers Act to limit military engagement abroad was in 1993 after President Bill Clinton had already decided to remove US troops from Somalia. GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip The $150 million that the Qatar Development Fund pledged last month in aid for Gaza has begun to provide some relief to Gazans and their faltering economy. At a Nov. 6 press conference in Gaza City, representatives from the Ministries of Finance, Social Development and Labor in Gaza announced that the Qatari assistance will go toward cash handouts, temporary employment projects and paying a portion of government employees' salaries. Youssef Ibrahim, undersecretary of the Ministry of Social Development, told Al-Monitor, Financial aid worth 700 shekels ($200) was disbursed Nov. 7 from the Qatari grant to 5,000 individuals. These include families of martyrs who fell in the Great Return March protests, people who were seriously wounded and others who underwent amputations during the same protests. On Nov. 10, the Ministry of Social Development provided 50,000 poor families with a $100 in assistance. Moussa al-Sammak, undersecretary at the Ministry of Labor, had informed Al-Monitor, Ten thousand individuals will be selected for a temporary two-phase employment program. The first phase began Nov. 18, with the announcement of the names of 5,000 graduates and workers who will be offered six-month jobs. The other 5,000 will be announced during the second phase. Sammak did not specify when the second phase will start. Eight years after graduating from Al-Azhar University with a diploma in nursing, Ibrahim Saada was finally offered a job, thanks to Tomouh 2, the temporary program aimed at employing 2,500 graduates and 2,500 workers in its first phase. I am happy, but my happiness remains incomplete as this is only a six-month job that I got thanks to the Qatari grant, Saada told Al-Monitor. I wish I could land a permanent job to be able to guarantee my family a decent future. Also as part of the grant, Hamas-appointed government employees began receiving their salaries from July on Nov. 7. These employees have continued to perform their jobs although for years they have only been receiving partial compensation due to the governments inability to fully cover their salaries amid the political and economic siege imposed against Hamas and Gaza since 2007. A Nov. 9 statement issued by the Ministry of Finance in Gaza said that employees who received a full salary for July will get 50% of their August, September, October and November salaries over the next five months. Ibrahim Mahfouz, owner of Supermarket Ibrahim on the main street of Omar al-Mukhtar, in Gaza City, told Al-Monitor that people have had very low purchasing power in the past few months. Now that government employees have received portions of their salaries, and poor families have received financial handouts, sales have slightly improved, he said. As soon as the employees received their salaries, they settled some of the debt they owed me, Mahfouz remarked. This, in turn, helped me pay off the debt I owed to traders. According to the Qatar News Agency, 27,000 employees will benefit from the grant. The rest will have 60% of their salaries paid from local revenues over the coming six months, the agency added. A government official informed Al-Monitor, The employees who did not benefit from the grant are mostly military employees whose inclusion in the grant faced Israeli rejection. Their salaries will be covered by the local revenues of the Gaza government. Members of the police were also denied assistance. This prohibition applied to 23,000 people. Mahmoud Mustafa, a military officer with the Ministry of Interior and National Security in Gaza, is responsible for the welfare of three people. It has been four years since I last received a full salary, and I did not benefit from the Qatari grant because Israel refused to allow our salaries to be included, Mustafa said. The economic situation in Gaza is very difficult, and we have only been receiving 40% of our salaries for four years now. There are a lot of things and luxuries I can no longer afford, and I am heavily indebted. Meanwhile, Abdul Wahab Bayan, a civil servant who provides for four people, has benefited from the grant. I received a full salary, a first since August 2016, as I have only been receiving 40% of my salary since then, he told Al-Monitor. Hamas spokesman Abdellatif al-Kanoua said in a statement to Al-Monitor, The Qatari grant that led to the creation of several employment projects was the fruit of the sacrifices made by the people in the peaceful Great Return March. He further stated, There has been progress in the consultations and understandings reached with several parties in order to break the Gaza siege and establish calm without paying any political price. According to Ministry of Health statistics, 225 people have been killed since the beginning of the Great Return March protests in March, and more than 21,000 have been wounded. Sixty-six people have had amputations. Mustafa al-Sawaf, a political analyst and former editor-in-chief of Felesteen newspaper, views the situation similarly to Kanoua. The group of projects that have been established and the support that Gaza has benefited from resulted from the Great Return March protests, he said. These placed enormous pressure on the occupation [Israel] and forced [it] to think about relieving the burden weighing on the shoulders of the Palestinians. Also, the UN is afraid of a big explosion in the event of an ongoing siege. Such an explosion would affect the entire region, and everyone would have to bear the consequences. Sawaf concluded, The Egyptian, Qatari and international efforts offer a glimmer of hope. Maher Tabbaa, an economic analyst, has a slightly different take on the situation. The Qatari grant has managed to grease Gazas economic wheels, but not to a sufficient level, he told Al-Monitor. The grants effect will only last for six months, which is not enough time to revive Gazas economy. In other words, Palestinian reconciliation remains a must to resolve the humanitarian crisis plaguing Gaza. Sitting on a low wooden chair, Saeed Hegazy warps and wefts on a loom, duplicating a complicated motif from the drawing in front of him. This is what Hegazy has been doing for 43 years, since the age of 10, when he became a young apprentice in Egypts then-thriving handwoven carpets industry. Hegazy prefers the good old days, when work was hard but the cost of living was more affordable and more people bought handwoven carpets. Everything is getting expensive compared to my income, he complained to Al-Monitor. Nor do I see any hope in the future regarding this craft. Hegazy earns around 1,600 Egyptian pounds (approximately $90) a month, which is not enough, he said, to meet the needs of his five children. Despite the financial shortfall, Hegazy cannot imagine doing anything else. I like weaving carpets, he stated. It's been my craft since childhood. Besides, who would give me another job after 50? I will work here until my death. Here is El Kattan Carpets, where Hegazy has been employed for the last 25 years. He had previously worked for other establishments in different governorates, but today, Hegazy said, Most of [them] are closed for a lack of workers. El Kattan, founded in 1930 in Cairo, continues to hold on, despite the decreased demand for carpets and the new generations lack of interest in weaving. This is a profession that is inherited, not taught, and the worker must acquire it at a young age because it requires a lot of skill and coordination, said Mohamed El Kattan, representing the third generation to run the factory founded by his grandfather Ahmed Fahmy El Kattan Bey, who is also considered the founder of technical training in Egypt. There are no books, no classes for carpet weaving. It is taught through an apprenticeship system, right on the job. The craft of weaving is no longer the first choice of younger generations, mainly because they do not see a future for it. Many craftsmen have left the factory and weaving to work as tuk tuk drivers or for jobs in construction, El Kattan told Al-Monitor. The El Kattan factory, located in Hadayek el-Kobba, in Greater Cairo, now has only three looms and three full-time craftsmen to work them. By comparison, 12 years ago, there were 40 looms in operation. The company's production has fallen from 2,000 square meters of carpet a year in its heyday, in the 1960s and 1970s, to 120 square meters today. The number of customers interested in purchasing the type of carpets made by El Kattan has also declined, a trend in the entire sector, according to a 2017 report by the Egyptian Chamber of Commerce. Handmade carpets are today considered a luxury item, not an essential. The carpets have also become more expensive because the price of the materials used local wool and cotton, silk from China and dyes from Europe have increased in price. To Atef Zarif, a part-time drawer for El Kattan, there is no comparison between the handwoven carpets the factory makes and machine-made version, no matter the price. [The machine-woven carpets] lack the soul of the craftsmans artwork, he told Al-Monitor. They do not last long either. Zarif makes the designs the craftsmen weave into the carpets. Although he once worked full time at El Kattan, he now only works when summoned, when there is work for him to do. The factory produces carpets using old Persian styles, such as Tabriz, Kashan and Isfahan as well as Mamluk, which are characterized by their specific weaving techniques and use of high-quality materials, colors and patterns, Zarif told Al-Monitor. I take a photo of each design from catalogs, then I draw the design on paper and give it to craftsmen to copy. In an effort to reach out to young people and teach them to weave, El Kattan cooperates with charities, among them the Stable Antar Dreams Foundation, to conduct workshops taught by the factorys craftsmen. El Kattan also provides the materials and looms, hoping it will stir the interest among younger generations. Shaimaa Gamal, a teenager, has participated in the courses, practicing weaving at the foundation for seven years. It is an easy task, she confidently told Al-Monitor. I didn't have any difficulties doing it. Sadly for El Kattan, Gamal has concluded that her future is not in carpets, but in wax. When I need a break from time to time, I usually join other workshops offered by the foundation, such as making accessories, pottery and creating wax statuettes, she said. Only a few weeks after a fresh Cabinet reshuffle triggered by multiple impeachments, a group of Iranian hard-line lawmakers is going out of its way to unseat four ministers. The foreign, interior, science and education ministers are now on the list. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif seems to be the main target of the campaign; the lawmakers are demanding explanations on issues ranging from his "money-laundering accusations against the Islamic Republic" to "failures in economic diplomacy" to "weakening the country's defenses." A request to summon him has reached the parliament's presiding board and will be decided by the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission. Driving the hard-liners' move were the controversial and pointed remarks Zarif made earlier this month putting the spotlight on money laundering as a problem in the Islamic Republic, opening up a can of worms. The comments, considered to be baseless and offensive by a large majority of conservatives, are being used a pressure tool against the foreign minister, who has been a thorn in their side the past five years. The pro-reform daily Etemad hit out at those lawmakers for their "addiction to impeachment" and abusing their constitutional powers by summoning ministers at the "wrong time." Even Javan, a conservative paper typically critical of Zarif, stood up for him by highlighting the lawmakers' timing. "Abort the Zarif impeachment," the paper advised the lawmakers, describing the plan as "fruitless and harmful." It also criticized the legislators' failure to recognize "the timing" and "Iran's current position in the face of its enemies." Some even called it a lose-lose game for the architects of the impeachment project, saying the parliament session will only give another chance to Zarif to lash out at them with even more details and fresh revelations, while the majority of the parliament will vote to keep him in office. Still, since the US withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran's hard-liners have found themselves in a position where they have been able to repeatedly reaffirm their "I told you so" criticism of the Rouhani government. The JCPOA's bleak status was reflected in comments by Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Nov. 26 as he complained about "close to zero" benefits the deal has brought Iran. That was interpreted by some as a remark filled with "signs of fear about a full collapse of the deal." Araghchi's stance was shared the same day by Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization and a member the nuclear negotiating team, as he warned of an "ominous" and "unpredictable" situation in case Europeans fail Iran to preserve the JCPOA. Perhaps pinning its last hopes on Europeans and expecting them to blow some life into the dying deal, the Rouhani administration is now looking to defeat the merciless hard-liners at home, whose battle seems to be more one of a purely partisan nature than one for the sake of the collective national interest. The Wall Street Journal reported Nov. 26 that Paris and Berlin are about to create a payments channel to maintain trade with Tehran in defiance of US sanctions. The news has been largely received in Iran as a signal that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) will yet be salvaged. The channel, known as a Special Purpose Vehicle, has been under discussion for months by Iranian and European negotiators. Printing a picture of French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel hand-in-hand on its front page, Reformist newspaper Aftab praised their two governments "step forward" in bypassing US sanctions on Iran. "The French and Germans are rolling up their sleeves to implement the mechanism," read another editorial in Iran, a paper echoing the official agenda of President Hassan Rouhani's government. "Once implemented, the mechanism will prevent Iranian financial isolation," the article stated. Since the US pullout from the JCPOA on May 8, Iranians have been looking to Europeans to rescue the pact with practical steps beyond political support. In an interview a day after the report, Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, expressed Tehran's frustration with delays in European action and made it clear to Europe that failure was not an option. He said he would convey to the EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini ahead of a meeting between the two in Brussels that Iranians' patience is running out. Salehi also renewed a warning that Tehran would resume its 20% level uranium enrichment program if it finds the deal is no longer working. While largely viewed as positive, the plan left many with unanswered questions. This "first step from word to action," according to pro-reform daily Ebtekar, sill faces hurdles that include guarantees to immunize European firms from US punishment. Hamid Reza Asefi, a senior former Iranian diplomat and ambassador, threw pessimism at the plan, noting that it's simplistic to think that a financial mechanism with Europeans is workable. "Europe is determined to keep the JCPOA but without paying any price," he said. "From a realistic point of view, if they have to pick one between Iran and the United States, Europeans will definitely go for the latter." In the wake of the report, Iran's national currency, which has taken several sharp drops in the past few months, mainly due to US sanctions, regained value against the greenback on Nov. 28. The governor of the country's Central Bank heralded better days for the rial, but did not elaborate on whether the intensified Iran-Europe diplomacy had helped the troubled currency get back on its feet. Iran's hard-liners have been warning that Europe's ties with the United States are too important to be sacrificed for Iran. Although they have largely ignored the Wall Street Journal report, the message has always been clear: "Mr. foreign minister! Write this note down on a piece of paper: the lesson from the US," cautioned Javan, which represents Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. "Keep it before your eyes while sitting down with Europeans, so that the same [experience] does not have to be repeated." Iran's deputy interior minister for security affairs, Hossein Zolfaqari, met with Vasilii Piskarev, the chairman of the Russian Dumas Committee on Security and Corruption Control, on Nov. 5. At the meeting, both sides stressed the need to finalize a bilateral security agreement and described cybersecurity, the fight against terrorism and countering drug proliferation and illegal immigration as key aspects of such an accord. One of Irans goals in signing such an agreement is to boost its domestic security, particularly considering the threats emanating from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, which, to be deterred, require transnational cooperation. For Iran, to engage in security cooperation with Russia, a country that has influence in the region and shares common security concerns, can help increase the impact of its own safety measures. Tehran and Moscow have signed several security documents in the past. Among these is a document signed in January 2013 by Irans then interior minister, Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, and then Russian Minister of Internal Affairs Vladimir Alexandrovich Kolokoltsev, which called for adopting joint measures to fight the proliferation of drugs and countering transnational organized crime. Given the regional and international developments since then, the new agreement is more extensive and places greater emphasis on the need to counter international terrorism. Although there have been fewer instances of terrorism around the world following the collapse of the organizational structure of the Islamic State (IS), intelligence and analytical reports by various countries see the potential for attacks by IS as high. As a result, the desire by Tehran and Moscow to expand their security collaboration can be viewed as a response to the rising threat of narcotics and terrorism, which in recent years have found more evident transnational dimensions. Afghanistan and the Middle East are the main sources of these threats that impact the interests of Iran and Russia. According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the cultivation of opium in Afghanistan increased by 63% in 2017 compared to 2016, going from an area of 201,000 hectares to 328,000 hectares. The quantity of narcotics produced also went up from 4,800 tons in 2016 to 9,000 tons in 2017. According to UN reports, the Taliban are one of the main elements involved in the production and export of narcotics while Iran and Russia are among its key destinations. Irans seizure of smuggled narcotics has risen by an average of some 15% a year during the past five years. In this vein, Irans Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli has stated that about 785 tons of narcotics were confiscated in Iran in 2017, the main portion of which was destined for regional countries and Europe. Of this amount, 24 tons was heroin. Based on available data, Russia has the worlds largest heroin market in the world, with about 75-80 tons of heroin being annually smuggled in from Afghanistan. The country has about 7.3 million addicts, as indicated by statistics from the countrys Health Ministry and the Federal Drug Control Service of Russia. This data alone show how large a threat narcotics are for Iran and Russia. Transnational terrorism has also created many shared concerns for Tehran and Moscow. The recent terrorist attacks in Iran are an example of this. These include the June 2017 attack on the Iranian parliament in Tehran, which left 23 people dead, and the September 2018 attack on a military parade in the southern city of Ahvaz, which claimed 25 lives. Meanwhile, in Russia, terrorist attacks in the year 2016 and 2017 left 64 and 36 people dead, respectively. Although Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, has stated that the number of terrorist attacks in his country has decreased from 779 cases in 2010 to 24 cases in 2017, the likelihood of such strikes being carried out in Russia or Iran is still high. This has made both countries realize that effectively dealing with this transnational threat is not possible without transnational intelligence, military and security cooperation. This shared feeling of threat is one reason for the military-security cooperation between the two countries in Syria. To further strengthen this collaboration, the two sides have signed military accords, one of which is a military-defense agreement that was concluded in January 2015, between Hossein Dehghan, Irans then defense minister, and his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu. That agreement highlights the need for cooperation for maintaining security and stability and fighting terrorism, separatism and extremism. Given this context, the new security accord complements existing political and military cooperation documents. By linking the two countries security and military organizations, the new agreement can provide a more coherent structure for security collaboration. If signed and implemented, it can make bilateral cooperation, especially in the fight against the proliferation of narcotics and terrorism, more organized and extensive, thus having a greater impact in eradicating these threats. Furthermore, Tehrans aim in signing the agreement is not only to improve its domestic security but also to expand bilateral cooperation with Moscow to all aspects of their relations. At the regional level, Iran seeks to utilize Russias potential in the Middle East and Afghanistan more effectively and in a more predictable manner. Tehran has no problems with achieving these aims by expanding the sought-after security agreement from a bilateral deal to a framework for organizations such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization or the Collective Security Treaty Organization. By promoting its relations with Moscow at these two levels, Tehran is also trying to use Russias international potential to reduce US pressures, including the Donald Trump administrations unilateral sanctions. Considering Tehran and Moscows tough approach toward foreign policy, Iran sees security cooperation as a starting point for strengthening relations with Russia at other levels. Bersamin new chief justice Palace also names second female magistrate to high court posted November 28, 2018 at 11:32 pm by Nathaniel Mariano and Rey E. Requejo November 28, 2018 at 11:32 pm and Court of Appeals Rosmari Carandang as SC associate justice, Malacanang announced Wednesday. New SC justice. Newly appointed Supreme Court Justice Rosmari D. Carandang takes her oath before newly appointed Chief Justice Lucas P. Bersamin at 2:31 pm Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018, at the New Session Hall in Padre Faura Street, Manila. Carandang, who placed ninth in the 1975 Bar examinations, was appointed Associate Justice of the Court of Appeals in March 2003. She served as the Chairperson of the CA Third Division and its Rules Committee. With Macon Ramos-Araneta and Maricel V. Cruz READ: Carpio refused offer to be CJ President Rodrigo Duterte has appointed Supreme Court Associate Justice Lucas Bersamin as the next Chief Justice and Court of Appeals Rosmari Carandang as SC associate justice, Malacanang announced Wednesday. READ: Justices want insider to be new chief; Bersamin leads nominees with 10 votes The Palace announces the appointments of Mr. Lucas P. Bersamin and Ms. Rosmari D. Carandang as Chief Justice and Associate Justice, respectively, at the Supreme Court, Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said in a statement. Panelo said Bersamin is the most senior justice in the Supreme Court in terms of services rendered under the Judicial Branch in various capacities. He served nearly 17 years as the Presiding Judge of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court, over six years as Associate Justice at the Court of Appeals, and close to 10 years as the 163rd magistrate of the Supreme Court, Panelo added. Bersamin, who served as an associate justice for nine years at the Supreme Court, is the third most senior in the tribunal after Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta. Bersamin will render 10 months in service as the countrys top magistrate as he will retire on Oct. 29. The 69-year-old Bersamin, who already took his oath, replaces Teresita Leonardo-de Castro who previously retired from government service in October after serving as top magistrate for over a month following the dismissal of Maria Lourdes Sereno.As an associate justice of the Supreme Court, Bersamin wrote the decision acquitting former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of plunder, voted to acquit former Senator Jinggoy Estrada of plunder, and favored a heros burial of former President Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. He also favored the Duterte administrations actions including the declaration of martial law in Mindanao, the arrest of opposition Senator Leila de Lima, and the dismissal of Sereno. The 66-year-old Carandang, who has been an associate justice of the appellate court since 2003, is the second unmarried female to be appointed to the Supreme Court. In her interview with the Judicial and Bar Council in September, Carandang said staying single allows her to focus in her duties in the judiciary. She takes the post vacated by De Castro when she was named chief justice earlier this year. The Palace expressed confidence over the two newly-appointed magistrates. Both Justices belong to what President Rodrigo Duterte calls the best and the brightest as Chief Justice Bersamin placed 9th in the 1973 Bar Examinations while Associate Justice Carandang also claimed the same spot in the 1975 Bar Examinations, he said. We are confident that CJ Bersamin and AJ Carandang will continue to uphold judicial excellence, assert its independence, and stand firm against erring members of the bench, the bar, and court personnel as they lead the third branch of the government, together with the rest of the Supreme Court Justices, in remaining steadfast in its role as the guardian of the rule of law, he added. Bersamin was handpicked from a shortlist of five SC justices that included Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and Associate Justices Diosdado Peralta, Estela Perlas-Bernabe and Andres Reyes Jr. He took his oath of office before Carpio, who served as acting chief justice during the vacancy in the top judicial post. Duterte justified his appointment of Bersamin based on his seniority. While Carpio is the most senior among the SC justices, having been appointed in 2001, Bersamin is the most senior in the judiciary among the nominees as he rose from ranks in his 32-year career in the judiciary. Bersamin will lead the judiciary until Oct. 18, 2019, when he reaches his compulsory retirement age of 70.Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, an ex-officio member of the Judicial and Bar Council, confirmed the appointments of Bersamin and Carandang as chief justice and SC associate justice, respectively. Bersamins promotion as top magistrate resulted in a vacancy for the post of associate justice in the 15-member bench. On Jan. 5, 2019, there will be another vacancy with the mandatory retirement of Associate Justice Noel G. Tijam. Chief Justice Bersamin, who finished his law degree from the University of the East, was ninth placer in the 1973 bar examinations. In 1986, he was appointed regional trial court judge for Quezon City. In 2003, he was promoted as CA associate justice. On April 2, 2009, then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, now Speaker of the House of Representatives, promoted Bersamin to the post of SC associate justice. Carandang, on the other hand, was a judge of the Manila City RTC before she was promoted as CA associate justice. She finished her law degree from the University of the Philippines and placed ninth in the 1975 bar examinations. Before her promotion to the SC, Carandang chaired the CAs third division. Carandang was the seventh appointee of President Duterte to the SC. The first six appointees were Associate Justices Samuel Martires (who retired to assume the post of Ombudsman), Noel G. Tijam, Andres B. Reyes Jr., Alexander G. Gesmundo, Jose C. Reyes Jr., and Ramon Paul L. Hernando. This is on top of the Presidents appointment of De Castro and Bersamin as chief justice. In his first media briefing, Bersamin vowed to uphold judicial independence in his one year as chief justice. Senate President Vicente Sotto III yesterday lauded the appointment of Bersamin, who had worked with him in 2008 when he still headed the Dangerous Drugs Board. Senator Grace Poe said she sees Bersamin as fair and objective, having handled many controversial cases before joining the Supreme Court. In the House, lawmakers supported Bersamins appointment as well. Former Speaker and Quezon City Rep. Feliciano Belmonte, Jr. said he was proud that Bersamin had honed his judicial skills as a regional trial court judge in Quezon City. Paranaque City Rep. Gus Tambunting also cheered Bersamins appointment. He is very capable and competent to head the Judiciary with more than three decades of service and most senior among his colleagues in terms of court experience, Tambunting 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. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was all smiles at his Nov. 25 joint press conference with Chadian President Idriss Deby. "Now I'm going to drop a big hint, I hope to come to the center of Africa. And I wish to bring with me Israeli entrepreneurs, Israeli experts, Israeli companies, everything that can improve the life of the peoples of Africa, which is something we believe in," said Netanyahu. But journalists noted a strange change of mood at the end of the press conference. Deby and Netanyahu were about to leave the room when Deby was asked whether the two leaders discussed bilateral arms trade. The Chadian president started to make his way back to the microphones to respond, but Netanyahu reached the microphones quicker and stated, simply, "We discussed what we discussed." This minor incident revealed the dilemma facing Israeli diplomacy concerning Netanyahus frenzy over Israels "return to Africa." What sort of image is Israel trying to project in its efforts to resume ties with Chad and other African nations? An image of Israel the smart-agriculture nation or that of Israel, world leader in sophisticated weapons? On Nov. 22, just three days before Deby's visit, the Foreign Ministry hosted in Jerusalem a first-of-its-kind conference, "Africa, Climate Change and Israels Contribution." The keynote speakers were Patricia Espinosa, the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and Rwandas Environment Minister Vincent Biruta. Netanyahu addressed the conference via video, and spoke of Israels achievements in solar, agriculture and irrigation technology. "Israel is in a unique position to work with African countries to alleviate some of these pressing environmental challenges," he said. The participation of the Rwandese minister is interesting. Over the years, the foreign press has accused Israel of supplying weapons to the Hutu regime in Rwanda between 1990 and 1995. In 2016, the British press reported that documents detailing Israels alleged defense exports to Rwanda are to remain sealed, following a ruling by the Israeli Supreme Court. But over the past few years, Israel-Rwanda ties have grown very strong, turning Kigali into Jerusalems No. 1 ally on the continent. Senior Israeli diplomat Roni Adam was recently appointed as Israels first resident ambassador to Rwanda (until recently, it was the Israeli Embassy in Ethiopia accredited also to Rwanda). Israel partners with Rwanda on several civil high-tech projects, mostly in fields of solar energy and telecommunication. In the case of Deby, Israeli and Chadian interests are not necessarily similar. The Chadian delegation to Israel included Foreign Minister Cherif Mahamat Zene and President Deby's defense and security adviser Djiddi Saleh Kedellaye. According to reports, a secret meeting in New York at the end of September, between Zene and Israels national security adviser Meir Ben Shabbat, entailed a visit by an Israeli delegation to NDjamena, thus opening the way for Debys formal visit. The fact that Ben Shabbat, and not a senior Foreign Ministry official, was sent to the New York meeting speaks volumes, though Israel did not confirm the meeting. Reporting on Debys visit, the Chadian press openly addressed reports on arms deals between the two countries during the decades since Chad severed its diplomatic ties with Israel in 1972. Chadian French-language Le Pays newspaper noted that while Deby did not reveal details of his meetings with Netanyahu, the visit was surely focused on security. The newspaper added that Israel supported the Chadian army in the domain of satellite eavesdropping on rebel groups operating in the north of the country, and that part of the armored equipment of the Chadian army was bought from Israel. In an effort to refocus the visit on Israeli technologies and innovations, Deby was invited to visit the irrigation solutions company Netafim and the Soroka hospital neonatal unit. Israeli press only briefly discussed the human rights record of Debys regime. The Israeli dilemma over the nature of its ties in Africa also has another angle that of the regional battle against jihadi groups. On that aspect, Israel is not ambiguous, stating clearly that this common goal is a priority on the African continent. Such affirmations were included in Netanyahus Nov. 25 press conference and were repeatedly expressed during his three trips to Africa. "We have a shared struggle, as you said Mr. Prime Minister, against the sickening evil of this century, which is terrorism," said Deby at the press conference, echoing Netanyahu. Netanyahu wants Israel to be considered as a significant partner in the African regional coalition against extremist Islamist terrorism. But the way to this alliance is complicated. A senior Israeli diplomat reminded Al-Monitor that Israel has never participated in UN peacekeeping forces. Also, he noted, it is not involved in African and European efforts (mostly France, Germany and Italy) of establishing the G5 Sahel Joint Force designed to settle armed conflicts in the region and battle the rise of jihadi terror. The diplomat noted that the current trend is one of cooperation frameworks, which are not necessarily bilateral, for training of African armies and establishing governing institutions. And so Israel is supposedly left with assistance in intelligence and the supply of arms. Both means that could be used efficiently against Muslim terrorists, but also against anyone else who displeases certain regimes. With growing rumors in Israel about attempts to get closer to Sudan, this consideration is especially relevant. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition decided on Nov. 26 to delay the Knesset vote over the loyalty in culture bill that would allow cuts to government funding for institutions not showing "loyalty" to the state. The coalition didn't have sufficient votes to guarantee its adoption. By delaying the vote, Netanyahus floundering coalition was forced to lower a major banner. Still, he chose to ignore the raucous commotion taking place all around him. On that day, just two hours before the Likuds Knesset faction was scheduled to convene for its weekly meeting, a new fight broke out among two prominent figures in his coalition: Culture Minister Miri Regev (Likud), and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon (Kulanu chairman). The two of them seemed to have been cooperating recently, but then Kahlon decided to grant the members of his party the freedom to vote according to their conscience on the loyalty in culture bill, which was proposed and advanced by Regev. This controversial piece of legislation had become a paradigm of the aggressive tactics being taken by the most right-wing nationalist government in Israels history. Then, in the blink of an eye, the chances of it passing seemed to disintegrate. Former Defense Minister Avigdor Libermans resignation left a narrow coalition of just 61 members so that Kahlons decision meant that the law didnt really have a chance. Having estimated that the coalition would soon fall apart anyway, Kahlon was determined to prove his independent spirit by distinguishing himself from the Likud. Regev responded by calling a press conference in the Knesset, though it ended up being more of a horror show than a conference of any kind. She used the opportunity to hint that Kahlon is collaborating with terrorism by authorizing funds for institutions that allegedly glorify Palestinian assailants, and she claimed that he was aiding the enemy by helping to bring down the government. All that anyone there could do was to rub their eyes and gape in awe as she carried on with a litany of ridiculous rhetoric. Another target of Regevs attacks was Liberman. He may have supported her law when he was part of the coalition, but since he switched to the opposition benches, he has made it quite clear that he no longer works for the current government. The chairman of Yisrael Beitenu declared that he can no longer support the bill because the coalition bundled it together with the Gideon Saar Law (on tasking the formation of a government only to heads of parties), which he claims is personal (Netanyahu uses this bill against former Likud Minister Saar) rather than ideological. According to Regev, Liberman is also aiding and abetting terrorism. Still, Netanyahu seemed to be in high spirits when he entered the Likud faction meeting accompanied by his retinue. While he spoke about the challenges faced by his narrow coalition, he made no mention of the collapse of Regevs proposed legislation. Instead, he preferred to talk about his recent diplomatic successes particularly the state visits to Israel by Chads President Idriss Deby and Czech Republic President Milos Zeman. The surprise visit by Deby the leader of a Muslim nation in Africa was a major diplomatic achievement for Netanyahu, and he used it to its full advantage. In case anyone forgot that he is also minister of defense, Netanyahu also informed the members of his party that he found time to visit new recruits that very morning at the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Induction Center. He said he had lunch with the new soldiers and even initiated a spontaneous phone call to the mother of one of them to assure her that her son was in good hands. He then posted a video of it on his Facebook page, which has long been one of his most prominent mouthpieces with over 2.3 million followers. Anyone watching the prime ministers self-laudatory display from the sidelines might come away thinking that Its all paradise, to borrow a phrase from Liberman. Netanyahus friend and rival of the past 30 years will frequently repeat that phrase when asked how he is doing. But of course, thats hardly an accurate account of the situation, certainly not on the day that Netanyahu learned that his coalition had spun out of control and that the heads of all the parties were already busy with their own election campaigns. The fact that he stabilized his government last week and prevented HaBayit HaYehudis ministers from quitting the coalition still hasnt kept the election train from rumbling down the track. The loyalty in culture bill is one thing. He could live without it. What really irks Netanyahu is the Conscription Law, which he advanced together with the IDF and Liberman when Liberman was still defense minister. This is a vital piece of legislation, written in response to the Supreme Courts ruling ordering that the issue be resolved by December 2018. The coalition will fall apart and new elections will be called if the law is not approved by then, but it now looks like Netanyahu will be hard-pressed to get majority support for this law. On one hand, Netanyahu can no longer be assured that he will get the automatic support of Liberman and his party. At the same time, however, he has no assurance that the opposition Yesh Atid faction, which voted for the law in its first reading, will support it now either. He is afraid that Liberman will try to get back at him and that he is conspiring with Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid to bring down the government. At the same time, the ultra-Orthodox parties tend not to support the law either, which explains why the law was not brought up for a vote this week. The government now plans to ask the Supreme Court for an extension. What all this chaos means is that the coalition has effectively stopped functioning properly and is only surviving in the most basic sense of the term. Coalition Chairman David Amsalem offered a fair account of the situation in an interview with Army Radio on Nov. 27. As he put it, All it would take is for one member of Knesset to go to the restroom during a vote or to disagree with a single aspect of the law in order to keep it from passing. But Amsalem remains optimistic and believes that the coalition can survive intact. On the other hand, even if he is right for now and given everything that happened over the past few days, it doesnt look like it can survive much longer. Squabbles between the various parties leaderships are not expected to die down when every party member and certainly every party leader is facing a tough election campaign. Kahlons position in the polls is hardly optimal, while Regev needs Likud members' support and votes in order to be ranked high on the party list. Floating at the top of this seething brew is the prime minister himself. His actions seem to prove that he has no interest in early elections, but at the same time, he certainly realizes that the chaos in his coalition will eventually tarnish his image. That is why he decided to separate himself from Mondays commotion, preferring to focus on himself and his achievements since that is what will apparently feature at the center of the Likuds election campaign. This will be the seventh time that Netanyahu has run as head of the Likud (he won four elections and lost two), and it seems like he himself will decide when it is the right time to dismantle the current coalition. One conclusion can be drawn from everything that happened this week. Netanyahu may have regained a modicum of control over the countrys political agenda and kept his coalition intact, but we are still in the midst of a de facto election campaign. There is broad agreement in Israel about the fact that Iran has captured the top spot on the list of the Jewish States bitterest enemies over the past decade. Israel views the Iranian threat as the sole existential threat to the countrys future. Iran is Israels last remaining significant strategic threat in all security-related respects. The Iranian nuclear program is considered a direct strategic threat, and Irans expansion throughout the Middle East and the Shiite axis it heads from the Persian Gulf in the south to the Syrian port of Latakia in the north are regarded as a significant conventional threat. To top it all off, Iran is also the main purveyor of state-sponsored terrorism against Israel and the prime funder of the Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah movements, all committed to Israels annihilation. Whereas Iran describes Israel as little Satan, for Israel, Iran is undoubtedly big Satan. By the same token, one can describe Iran as one of Israels most significant strategic assets at this time. This is no exaggeration, but a fact. Recent months have seen the unveiling of a growing number of clandestine contacts Israel is conducting with Arab and Muslim states in the region and the world with which it does not have diplomatic ties. The budding romance between Israel and several Sunni states is also turning slowly into an up-front relationship. This is all being enabled thanks to Iran. The Shiite threat and Iranian expansion westward are of great concern to a large number of regional leaders. Israel is being sucked into the center of this arena as the only response to the primeval fear of a reconstituted Persian Empire and the growing Shiite influence on the region. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with the energetic help of Mossad Chief Yossi Cohen and national security adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat, is effectively leveraging the emerging situation to fortify Israels standing as a bastion of regional defense and a magnet for all those who fear Iran. The president of Chad, Idriss Deby, made a surprise visit to Israel on Nov. 25, at the end of which Netanyahu announced that he would soon pay a reciprocal visit to that Muslim African state during which the two would announce the renewal of the diplomatic relations Chad ruptured 46 years ago. At the same time, Channel 10 news reported that a special emissary of Israels Foreign Ministry met in Turkey last year with senior Sudanese officials to discuss the possibility of advancing bilateral contacts. The meeting came against a backdrop of intensive contacts between Israeli officials and some Persian Gulf states, among them Bahrain, regarding an upgrading of their secret ties with the Jewish State. On Oct. 26, Netanyahu paid a historic visit to Oman as the personal guest of its ruler, Sultan Qaboos bin Said. The tip of the diplomatic iceberg between Israel and Saudi Arabia was also revealed recently, with Netanyahu playing principle advocate of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over his alleged role in the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. All of the above is still only an iota of the actual events that have turned Israel into a vital port of call for any ruler seeking survival in the chaotic environment of the Middle East. As previously mentioned, none of these developments could have occurred without the growing Iranian presence throughout the Middle East. Israel is perceived as the only true response to the Iranian threat and the only one truly able to confront it. The Gulf States, including the Saudis, find it hard to trust President Donald Trump; he himself told The Washington Post on Nov. 28 that the United States maintains its presence in the Middle East to defend Israeli interests. In addition, Israel has cleverly leveraged its defense capabilities. It has used its varied defense technologies, especially its well-developed cyber capacities, to lure states in the region seeking access to these treasures. An intermediary who sought his help in buying offensive cyber technology for Saudi Arabia reportedly contacted former Prime Minister Ehud Barak in 2015. Many Israeli cyber firms have signed hefty contracts in countries with which Israel has no diplomatic ties that are preparing and arming themselves against the danger from Iran. I have no idea where we would be in this respect today were it not for the Iranian threat, a senior Israeli defense official tells Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. Thanks to them [the Iranians], Israel has not been the regional pariah for a very long time, but rather the state whose closeness and favors everyone seeks. This is a dramatic change, an ongoing strategic process of recent years that shows no signs of abating. On the contrary, it appears to be strengthening. This process also has a very important side effect for Netanyahu: Whereas in the past, a threshold condition for any Arab or Muslim state to conduct ties (even clandestine ones) with Israel was progress on an agreement with the Palestinians, nowadays this is almost a moot issue. The Palestinians are no longer of interest to the Arabs, a former top Israeli diplomat told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. Once it was the first question at every secret meeting. Today, they pose the question to be polite, at the end of the meeting. Israel is no longer being forced to promise progress on the Palestinian issue and not even to discuss the prospects of negotiations with the Palestinians. Instead of making these demands, Israels Arab interlocutors are asking Israel to maintain a low profile. Keep quiet, they urge the Israelis, so that the Palestinian issue does not re-emerge on the agenda. In other words, Arabs and Muslims in the region are content to maintain the Israeli-Palestinian status quo in order to continue advancing their ties with Israel, both the open ones and those behind the scenes. This is perhaps one of the reasons that made Netanyahu opt to end the latest crisis with Hamas without being drawn into a full-scale war in Gaza, to swallow his pride and help Qatar fund Hamas despite its terror activity against Israel. All he wanted was to douse the flames on the southern front. Given this state of play, Iran has become a type of strategic Israeli asset in recent years. The question of whether it is more of a burden than an asset does not have a clear answer for now. President Trump adopted in full the Israeli approach vis-a-vis Iran, taking a hard-line position on the Shiite state, while Israel continues to exploit the situation to its advantage. As far as Netanyahu is concerned, the current situation can be frozen in place forever. Iran can keep being a threshold nuclear state threatening the region while Israel joyfully reaps the fruit. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not lying and or exaggerating when he told the nation on Nov. 18 that Israel was facing one of its most complex defense challenges. He was right in telling his coalition partners, We are in an intensifying battle and berating them for being irresponsible by threatening to quit the government at such a time. He urged them to set aside personal and political considerations. Israel is indeed facing a security challenge that requires its elected officials to act responsibly and to set aside personal and political considerations. But the solution requires a change in leadership. The complex security challenge is not lurking on Israels northern border. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Oct. 18 that Russia cannot force Tehran to pull its forces out of Syria, and Netanyahu himself explained on Nov. 19 to the Knessets Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that Russia would be unable to stop Irans military activity on Syrian soil by itself. Both leaders hinted that the key to removing Iranian forces from Syria is in US hands, but President Donald Trump has not shown any inclination to sink into this quagmire, not even for his good friend in Jerusalem. Therefore, based on the fairly certain assumption that Netanyahu does not wish to clash with Russia, the ill winds are unlikely to blow from the direction of Syria nor from Lebanon. On Nov. 20, Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot said during a tour of the Syrian border that Iran had been far less successful than it had hoped in transferring precision weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Israel Defense Forces, he added, will continue acting to thwart these efforts while preserving the security situation in the north for the long term out of dedication to the protection of the citizens of the State of Israel. Since the most recent cease-fire was reached with Hamas on Nov. 13, calm appears to have been restored to the Gaza Strip. Hamas is reining in the violent demonstrations along the border with Israel and Eizenkot is reining in the security cabinet ministers. Military affairs commentator for Haaretz Amos Harel reported Nov. 16 that Israeli officials believe the restored calm will also enable progress in contacts on a long-term cease-fire deal with Hamas. The real and justified security concern emerges from unusually harsh and candid testimony by Nadav Argaman, head of the Shin Bet security agency, to the Knessets Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Nov. 6. Argaman said the apparent calm in the West Bank was illusory. Hamas is trying with all its might to carry out terror attacks in the West Bank under instructions from the groups offices in Gaza, Turkey and Lebanon, he said. This year, Argaman added, Israel had foiled plans by 219 local Hamas cells in the West Bank, compared with 148 in 2017 and 114 in 2016. This reflects the high threat potential posed by local terror activity and explains why the calm in Judea and Samaria is illusory, he said. Hamas views the West Bank as a central arena for terrorist activity in support of its campaign for the right of return and also for advancing broader interests within the Palestinian system. The nature of these interests was made clear on Nov. 9, when Qatar transferred $15 million to Hamas in Gaza and cash-strapped Iran allocated millions of dollars for the families of Palestinian shahids (assailants killed in acts against Israelis). The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center views Irans financial aid as a means to intensify its influence on the Palestinian population of Gaza while sending a message to the Sunni and Arab world that Iran is helping the Palestinian struggle against Israel. Criticism of Netanyahus blind rush to reach a long-term deal with Hamas without holding out for significant concessions by the organization emerges between the lines of Argamans testimony. Stabilizing Hamas' rule in Gaza, especially after the achievements it recorded in the latest round of resistance against Israel, strengthens its standing also in the West Bank, governed by its rival the Palestinian Authority. In return for its close security coordination with the Shin Bet and the IDF, all the PA gets are more Israeli settlement outposts in the West Bank, more Palestinian homes razed, the violation of the status quo at Jerusalems holy sites and a freeze of negotiations with Israel on its demand for independence. The binary approach of the right-wing government leaves Israel with only one choice: war or deal. There is no third option of a comprehensive diplomatic agreement. Currently, the ministers are vying to rattle their sabers the loudest, criticizing the cease-fire with Hamas and calling for a tough hand against it. Education Minister Naftali Bennett has positioned himself at the head of this group after being forced to withdraw his ultimatum to quit the government and agreeing to stay in order to let the IDF win in the next round with Hamas. His colleague, Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan, assured Israelis, We are closer than ever since the devastating disengagement plan to control of parts of the Strip, or all of it, referring to Israels 2005 pullout from the Gaza Strip. Housing and Construction Minister Yoav Galant, who was next in line to speak at the Nov. 21 Jerusalem Post Diplomatic Conference, took over the seat vacated last week by the resignation of Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman. Referring to Yahya Sinwar, he said the days of the Hamas leader in Gaza are numbered" and "He will not see out his days in an old-age home. The retired general nonetheless added, War is the last option. What, then, is the nature of the first option? Can anyone utter the word peace in Israel these days without being condemned as a leftist supporter of the New Israel Fund? When did we last hear the term permanent status arrangement with the Palestinians? Where has the regional option gone? Now is not the time for illusions. Show a bit of responsibility. Even the prime minister said, We are in an intensifying battle. Israeli leaders have long invoked defense and security issues to counter peace efforts. Some 17 years ago, Netanyahu was unknowingly recorded explaining how do so. In return for agreeing to the 1997 Hebron Agreement on withdrawing Israeli forces from several parts of the West Bank, he extracted a promise from the Clinton Administration that Israel reserved sole right to designate the military sites (and the settlements) exempted from the redeployment, Netanyahu said. For example, Netanyahu convinced the Americans that the entire Jordan Valley section of the West Bank was a security zone, a military area. At that moment, Netanyahu bragged, I put a stop to the Oslo Accord. The biggest challenge Israel is facing these days, just as it did 25 years ago, is diplomatic-strategic, not military, in nature. In this respect, the continued rule of the political right is the problem, not the solution. WASHINGTON Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis urged senators at a closed-door briefing today to stay the course on US support for the Saudi-led military coalition fighting in Yemen. But the Donald Trump administrations refusal to send CIA Director Gina Haspel to brief senators on the intelligence community's assessment of the role of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, coupled with Pompeos urging of business as usual with the Saudis in a poorly received Wall Street Journal op-ed overnight, appeared to backfire. Several senators emerged from the briefing saying they planned to vote for legislation that would curtail US involvement in the war. Its outrageous and a cover-up that the White House refused to send Haspel to join the briefing, ranking Senate Foreign Relations Committee Democrat Bob Menendez told journalists as he emerged from the briefing. "Tells me volumes about what's really going on here. "We also have a crown prince that's out of control, a blockade in Qatar, the arrest of a prime minister in Lebanon, the killing of a journalist, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., the outgoing chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told journalists after the briefing. Whether there is a smoking gun, I don't think there is anybody in the room that doesn't believe he was responsible for it. Though Pompeo and Mattis both called for an immediate Yemen cease-fire by all parties to the conflict on Oct. 30, and the State Department reiterated that call last week, they argued in remarks prepared for todays briefing that the United States should in essence help Saudi Arabia keep the military pressure on Yemens Houthi rebels ahead of efforts to bring the parties to the table at UN talks next month. Pulling back our limited US military support, our weapons sales to partners and our protection of the Saudi and Emirati populations would be misguided on the eve of the promising initial negotiations, Mattis said in his prepared remarks to senators, referring to the talks in Sweden that UN Yemen envoy Martin Griffiths hopes to convene next month. It took us too long to get here, but at this key juncture, a change in our approach would work against Martins efforts by bringing new life into the Houthis' combat operations, just as they are reluctantly engaging with the UN interlocutor. This conflict isnt optional for Saudi Arabia, and abandoning it puts American interests at risk too, Pompeo said in prepared remarks for the all-senators briefing. The message to Congress from the Trump administrations top diplomat and military chief is essentially: Let us continue business as usual with the Saudis in Yemen, and let us handle it. Its another blank check endorsement of Saudi war aims, Bruce Riedel, a former CIA and National Security Council official, and Al-Monitor columnist, told Al-Monitor. The administration is doubling down on MBS. We are the one with leverage, but the administration has given it all away, Riedel added. Pompeo, asked by journalists after the briefing why the CIA director wasnt there, avoided saying the White House had made the decision. I was asked to be here, and Im here, Pompeo said, twice. But he said the United States does not have smoking gun evidence of MBS role in ordering Khashoggis murder. There is no direct reporting connecting the crown prince to the order to murder Jamal Khashoggi. And thats all I can say in an unclassified setting, he said. Senatorial frustration is understandable, given that the administration sent Pompeo and Mattis to cheerlead the administrations policy of status quo with Saudi Arabia, but not an intelligence official who could provide answers to questions not tailor-made to fit the policy, former CIA analyst Cindy Otis said. Haspel or a senior intelligence community official could have responded to a number of questions that I am sure came up in the meeting, Otis, a former CIA branch chief specializing in Europe and the Middle East, told Al-Monitor. What senators would want to know is things like, what is the extent of our military support, what has it actually accomplished on the ground. They would also like to know about the effects of the humanitarian crisis and whether US military involvement has played a role in worsening that, Otis said. That is something CIA would be able to respond to. Pompeo is a policy guy, he is pushing the White House agenda, she said. I think they [the senators] know he will toe the line of the White House regardless of the reality on the ground. US military chiefs like Mattis, meanwhile, have a tendency to want to continue the status quo, Otis said. The military in particular has a long history of getting trapped into continuing policy decisions or operations. Look at Afghanistan, for instance, Otis said. Every sort of SecDef or ComISAF or Centcom commander will say, we need to keep my war, because I have a new idea for it. No one wants to admit it is a funk war. Officials from Russia, Iran and Turkey assembled with representatives of the Syrian opposition and the Syrian regime in the Kazakh capital Astana today. The first order of business was reportedly to ensure that a shaky cease-fire in the rebel-held province of Idlib agreed in September doesnt collapse. Worries that the violence would escalate grew after Russian war planes struck opposition targets in Hama and Idlib provinces Sunday. It was the sharpest flare-up since mid-September, when Turkey and Russia sealed an agreement designating a demilitarized zone encircling Idlib and parts of rebel-held Aleppo and Hama provinces. The Russians said they were responding to an alleged chemical attack on Aleppo citys al-Khalidiya neighborhood by opposition rebels the same day. The talks, the 11th round in the Astana peace process, kicked off as Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke over the telephone with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to discuss recent tensions between close Turkish ally Ukraine and Russia over control of the Azov Sea. But the issue of Idlib, where Turkey is tasked impossibly, many analysts say with clearing out the al-Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and co-opting moderates, may well have also been been broached. Erdogan had a separate call with US President Donald Trump to relay his conversations with Putin and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Turkeys state-run Anadolu news agency reported. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, a watchdog group that has investigated allegations of chemical weapons use during the seven-year Syrian conflict, said it was investigating government claims that hard-line Islamists used chlorine gas against civilians. Opposition rebels deny the report, labeling it a false flag operation. Either way, the Russian attacks may signal growing restlessness with Turkeys perceived failure to fulfill its mandate, easing instead, as the regime sees it, into a modus vivendi with HTS. But defanging the most powerful jihadi group is no easy task. Sam Heller, the International Crisis Groups senior analyst on non-state armed groups, has highlighted the complexities of untangling HTS from the armed opposition because of the groups local embeddednes, using the language of the revolution and jihadism alike. HTS integral relationship with Syrias opposition could make it impossible to isolate the jihadists, Heller noted recently in a piece for the specialist publication War on the Rocks. Conversely, it could give the Turks the opening they need to engage and demobilize parts of the group. That has yet to materialize. Sustaining the cease-fire is critical to Turkey, as any Russian-backed regime onslaught would likely propel tens of thousands of more civilians and jihadists to seek refuge in Turkey at a time of deepening economic malaise and public resentment toward more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees already sheltering there. Kerim Has, a Moscow-based Turkish analyst of Russian affairs, believes Turkey has overburdened itself and lacks the capacity to keep hard-liners in check. Ahmet Yavuz, a retired major general who ran Turkeys Military Academy, concurred. He told Al-Monitor, Turkey cannot fully prevent [HTS] from targeting Aleppo from without the demilitarized zone. Has contended in an interview with Al-Monitor that with the airstrikes, Russia signaled that it would intensify such actions should extremist rebels not hold their fire. Over time, Has added, Russia will likely allow regime forces to retake territory in the demilitarized zone in a piecemeal fashion while herding jihadis into a pocket near the Turkish border. Turkey, in turn, will continue to play for more time. Fabrice Balanche, a French academic specializing in Middle Eastern affairs at the University of Lyon II, believes the Russians will likely sound out Turkeys Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal, who is in Astana, on further regime advances in Idlib. They will want parts west of Aleppo and to the north of Hama, Balanche told Al-Monitor. The Astana delegates are also expected to debate the establishment of a constitutional committee that is meant to convene early next year with the eventual goal of holding elections. The Russian-led effort to shape Syrias future government has run into several obstacles, notably the lack of consensus as to who from Syrias fractious opposition will sit on the committee. The United States, which controls a large chunk of territory east of the Euphrates River full of oil, water and wheat, is not present at the talks. The US position that it will not leave Syria until the Islamic State is vanquished, Iran kicked out and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad cast aside muddies the waters. Turkeys fierce opposition to letting the largest Syrian Kurdish faction sit at the table because of its close links with Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants waging a bloody insurgency against the Turkish army is another hitch. Russia is keen to exploit Turkish fury over the United States partnership with the PKK-affiliated group, part of an overarching strategy to drive a wedge in the NATO alliance. Balanche reckons both Russia and Iran want Turkey to pressure the United States to leave Syria. Erdogan has vowed to cleanse the length of the Turkish-Syrian border of the Syrian Kurdish fighters. But Turkey is loath for the United States to leave until it disarms the Syrian Kurds, and also because the presence of at least 2,000 American forces serves as a counterweight to Russia and Iran. Has predicts that Russia will increase pressure on Turkey to ease its objections to Kurdish participation in the constitutional committee. It would accelerate a Russian-sponsored settlement and prise the Kurds away from the United States grip. Balanche noted, however, that Russia is unlikely to push Turkey too hard on either HTS or the Kurds, saying, Putin doesnt want any problems with Erdogan. He needs him too much to neutralize NATO and to maintain pressure over the European Union with the threat of an influx of Syrian refugees. Senior officials from the Donald Trump administration are set to brief the Senate on Wednesday in a last-minute effort to dissuade lawmakers from voting to end US support for the Saudi coalition in Yemen. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary James Mattis will brief senators amid unprecedented bipartisan backlash against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for his alleged involvement in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the looming famine in Yemen. The briefing is the administrations last chance to convince lawmakers to vote against an expedited resolution ending US support for the Yemen war. The effort by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to do so earlier this year failed 55-44. But the resolution now stands a chance of passing following Khashoggis murder and a grassroots push from anti-war activists. I think there is a growing understanding of the humanitarian disaster [in Yemen], Sanders told reporters today. Were talking about tens of thousands of children already dead, more in danger of starving to death. People are understanding the despotic nature of the Saudi regime. While the Trump administration has already ended US midair refueling support for the coalition, Sanders and other lawmakers say his resolution would also end targeting assistance and logistical support for Riyadh as well as the deployment of US troops on the Saudi-Yemeni border. Yahoo News reported this month that the Defense Department is conducting a classified operation to assist the Saudis against the Houthis in Yemen, which may involve US ground troops. Several key senators who opposed the Sanders resolution earlier this year are now undecided and many are waiting to hear what Pompeo and Mattis have to say. At least two, Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Chris Coons, D-Del., say theyre now inclined to support it. It is deeply concerning that the president is apparently not accepting the widely reported CIA assessment of the Saudis direct role and the Saudi crown princes direct role in the murder of Khashoggi, said Collins. We need more than the Treasury Department sanctioning individual Saudis. Collins also faulted the Saudi-led coalitions war against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels for Yemens humanitarian crisis. Theres no doubt that the Saudis are responsible in large part for the blockade that is causing a humanitarian disaster in Yemen, she said. I went to Yemen many years ago and it was the poorest country Ive ever visited. And I just cannot imagine what life is like now. Were going to see a famine the likes of which we havent seen in decades if something isnt done. For his part, Coons is dissatisfied with reports that the White House will not allow CIA Director Gina Haspel to brief lawmakers. Haspel is one of the few people who have heard Turkeys graphic recording of a hit squad murdering Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. Gina Haspel should be there, said Coons. The CIA ought to be telling us what the CIA has told the president and then we should reach a conclusion about whats the right path forward to send a strong signal that we will not remain closely aligned with countries that violate fundamental American principles and human rights. Kate Kizer, the policy director for Win Without War, a coalition of anti-war activist groups, also noted that several senators who opposed the Sanders resolution in March may now switch their votes following Khashoggis murder and Trumps lenient response. The list includes Sens. Dean Heller, R-Nev., Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., and Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., all of whom are leaving Congress at the end of the year. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., also tweeted his support for the Sanders resolution last week, giving Senate Democrats further cover. Last week Win Without War took out several ads in local newspapers urging several senators to switch their votes later this week. The ads targeted Heller as well as Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Tim Scott, R-S.C., James Lankford, R-Okla., and Doug Jones, D-Ala. Heller and Jones both indicated that they are waiting on the Trump administrations briefing to make a decision. One of the reasons we did this series of ads is to increase public awareness of the situation in Yemen, the upcoming vote and the fact that their senator could have a really impactful say on how US policy develops moving forward, Kizer told Al-Monitor on a press call. Were on the verge of what could be a serious rebuke of Trumps foreign policy decision in Yemen. A YouGov poll released Monday found 75% of Americans who expressed an opinion support ending US military backing for the Saudi coalition. However, 58% of respondents did not know that the United States backs the coalition. Still, some holdouts remain. Graham, despite his calls for a more robust response to Khashoggis murder, told reporters that he would vote against the Sanders resolution. Graham and Collins are co-sponsoring separate legislation introduced by the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Bob Menendez of New Jersey. Menendezs bill would sanction members of the Saudi royal family involved in Khashoggis murder, end refueling support and certain arms sales for Saudi Arabia and sanction any actors blocking humanitarian aid to Yemen. But the committee has yet to advance the bill, and Menendez has suggested he could vote in favor of the Sanders resolution despite his earlier opposition. Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., also remains undecided. House lawmakers are also clamoring for their own briefing so far to no avail. Republican leadership successfully forestalled a vote on the same resolution in the lower chamber earlier this month by a vote of 201-187. Nonetheless, the resolution has the support of Democratic leaders, who have threatened to advance it when they take control of the House next year. As of August, the United Nations had documented 17,062 civilian casualties in Yemen since the Saudis intervened in the conflict in March 2015. Most were caused by coalition airstrikes. The coalitions on-again, off-again offensive has also reduced activity at the rebel-held port city of Hodeidah, a crucial lifeline for humanitarian aid and food supplies, by half. SANAA As humanitarian calls intensify for peace in embattled Yemen, the world will have to wait to see whether UN-led negotiations set for December in Sweden actually materialize. The last time negotiations were scheduled in September in Switzerland the Houthi rebels didn't attend. But UN Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths has made a flurry of visits to rally support for the December peace talks. He arrived Nov. 26 in Riyadh after visiting Houthi leaders in Yemen's capital of Sanaa on Nov. 22 and Yemens port city of Hodeidah on Nov. 23. The situation is still volatile in Hodeidah, where some of the fiercest battles have been waged. The international community is warning that the port, which is the only entrance for relief material and merchandise to the Houthi-controlled governorates, could cease operations. Yemen's civil war has been raging since March 2015 between the Houthis (Ansar Allah) and the internationally recognized government of Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. The Houthis are backed by Iran, while Hadi's government enjoys military and political support from a coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). US Secretary of Defense James Mattis has called for all parties involved to meet in December. Mattis said Oct. 27 during the International Institute for Strategic Studies Manama Dialogue that any settlement in Yemen would have to be based on dividing the country into areas of self-rule the traditional homelands for the traditional peoples, for everyone to be in their own area and to provide Houthis with some degree of autonomy. His statements were denounced by many in Yemen. Houthis flatly reject Mattis proposal, though it could give them some chance for autonomy. However, Mattis failed to clarify whether this self-rule area would be limited to the Saada governorate, where the Houthis stronghold lies, or whether it would include areas under their control since they took over power in early 2015. Houthis control the densely populated northern governorates where 9 million people live, according to the latest (2004) government census statistics, as well as parts of Al-Jawf, Marib, Hodeidah and Taez. Although Houthis have wide control in those regions, not everybody is loyal to them. Abdul Malek al-Ejri, a member of Ansar Allahs political bureau, commented Oct. 29 on Twitter about Mattis statement. Talk about self-rule areas reveals separatist intentions," Ejri said. It is as though Ansar Allah is a national ethnicity and Yemen is a multiethnic country, or the conflict is social rather than political. Mattis has forgotten Yemen is a united country that is culturally homogeneous and that Ansar Allah is a national element, while the conflict is political, Ejri added. It's unclear whether the Houthis rejected Mattis proposal out of conviction or for political maneuvering. In a Nov. 1 statement published by Yemen's official news agency, Saba, the Hadi government said, Any talk about the form of the Yemeni state must be in line with the outcomes of the National Dialogue Conference, based on federal division and turning the country into a six-region federation. The conference was held from March 2013 until January 2014 and included political parties and social forces that agreed on building a state and other national issues. But Houthi leader Mohammed al-Bakhiti said Oct. 31 to Al-Mayadeen channel, We refuse any talk about self-rule in Yemen. He called for "respect for the sovereignty and unity of Yemen." Rajeh Badi, a spokesperson for the Hadi government, refused to comment to Al-Monitor. A political science professor at Sanaa University told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, The settlement that Mattis unveiled complicates rather than solves the crisis. The US vision of the conflict is superficial. Even if they implement the self-rule idea, this will only temporarily delay another round of conflict over power." He added, The West must understand the composition of Yemen and its conflicts. Without that, it is useless to seek sustainable solutions to stop the war. Political analyst and journalist Khaled Abdul Hadi told Al-Monitor, Mattis statements reflect a Western perspective of the US administration and its officials toward Third World countries. This perspective does not see the struggle of these countries for citizenship, democracy and civil politics, and only considers them minorities, sects and ethnicities that could only live in sectarian and ethnic divisions [like] Balkanization. The journalist said that Yemen is "not the right place" to discuss self-rule. "Its war is political, despite attempts from regional and local forces to make it look otherwise. These forces think the separatist card will help them come out with the spoils of war. Mattis had said Nov. 21 that Saudi Arabia and the UAE had stopped their attacks in Hodeidah and surrounding areas, and the battlefronts hadn't changed for 72 hours "despite some skirmishes. But there have been numerous reports of fighting, and on Nov. 24, a Hodeidah citizen told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that he'd heard a fighter jet affiliated with the Saudi-led coalition launching two air raids that targeted Houthi locations. Despite the loud thud of raids, I heard shots from medium and heavy weapons, and the city shook with clashes until the morning," he said. The war has killed thousands of civilians and soldiers and caused the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. The World Food Program says about 18 million people face food shortages or are starving. The humanitarian group Save the Children estimated this month that over the course of 3 years, 85,000 children under the age of 5 may have died of starvation because of the war. Flying tractors may not be in the cards just yet, but the seemingly odd-couple pairing of Airbus and John Deere has jointly won a major European agriculture innovation award. In conjunction with the upcoming 2019 SIMA agriculture industry show in Paris, the two companies have received a silver medal for their Live NBalance program, which Airbus describes as a service merging satellite and tractor data to monitor intra-field nitrogen balance even more precisely during the growing season. Tractor data? So much for the dream of going back to the farm to get off the grid. Apparently now the farm is the grid. Airbus puts it down where the chickens can get it, at least if they're chickens open to using cutting-edge data visualization to evaluate fertilization efficiency: "By leveraging farming data from agrarian machine sensors with accurate crop development measurements from satellite imagery, Live NBalance provides an in-season, site-specific nitrogen information via a multi-section dashboard." Basically: John Deere makes equipment for handling and spreading nitrogen fertilizers. The effort with Airbus uses satellite imagery to track how well crops are using the nitrogen and whether more is needed. A beta version of the tractor-satellite matrix "will be tested in 2019 with a selection of early adopters." It hasn't been revealed whether any of those early adopters are in Alabama. But there has already been evidence that Airbus' growing jet assembly line in Mobile might impact the state's agricultural picture. Earlier this year, JetBlue took delivery of a made-in-Mobile A321 whose tanks were partly filled with "sustainable" fuel made from renewable resources. The air travel industry is keen on developing such fuels because they can be engineered to produce lower emissions that regular petroleum-derived fuels. At the time, Airbus executives said the company wanted to promote biofuel production among farmers in Alabama and the rest of the southeast. Daryl Taylor, vice president and general manager of the Mobile plant, said the company wanted to "leverage our growing investment in Alabama" to help make the economics of biofuel production viable for farmers. Doing so could help "create new markets" for Alabama farmers, he said. "We are actively seeking ideas to leverage Airbus' strategy into opportunities for new development in Alabama," said Frederic Eychenne, head of new energies at Airbus. Now it seems at least hypothetically possible that Airbus could have an intimate role in growing those crops as well. Airbus Defense + Space executive Jean-Michel Darroy celebrated the award in an online post, describing it as the work of a dream team between the two companies. This strategic partnership, with two companies coming from two different worlds, is just at the very beginning, he said. A European automaker may be mulling a factory in the United States. Multiple media outlets are reporting that BMW CEO Harald Krueger today said the companys U.S. sales are climbing enough to mull building another factory. Reuters reported Krueger, in an interview at the Los Angeles Auto Show, said BMW is considering a factory to make transmissions and engines. BMW currently has a vehicle assembly plant, in South Carolina, and is planning to open a Mexico factory next year. Another factory would provide a natural currency hedge, Krueger said, in light of reports that President Donald Trump is considering a tariff on imported vehicles. The BMW plant in South Carolina was announced back in 1992 after the state sought the project for three years. That announcement came one year before Mercedes-Benz decided to build a factory in Vance. The following article is written by Ignacio Ibanez of Red Floridablanca and translated by Joshua Gregor. On behalf of Red Floridablanca, I would like to thank the Acton Institute for translating and publishing this series of articles, which I had the honor to coordinate, to commemorate the 170th anniversary of the death of Father Jaime Balmes (Vic, Spain, 1810-1848). The articles by Alejandro Chafuen, Josep M. Castella,and Leon Rivas published under the series that now comes to a close with this piece have distilled different economic, political, legal and moral aspects of Father Jaime Balmess thought (Vic, Spain, 1810-1848). But we would do little justice to Balmess thinking if we were not to stress also his ideas continued relevance in our own day. Let us therefore open the time capsule and see what treasured lessons and advice Balmes has for our politiciansparticularly those in the making. 1. Principles and values Government should appeal to the great principles of society, wrote Balmes. He continued: [T]hose principles which are not of any one school, which are not new but old as the world itself, existing from eternity in the paradigm of all perfection, communicated to societies like a breath of life. Reason, justice, good faith: these are the words that government must write upon its flag. Scholasticism shines through here, does it not? Spanish historian Marcelino Menendez Pelayo said that Don Jaime memorized St. Thomass Summa. Balmess theses on the origin of civil power, its attributes and limits, as well as his defense of the right of resistance to tyrannical governments, come from members of the Salamanca School such as Francisco Suarez; these scholastics laid the foundations of classical liberalism. Following Aquinas, Balmes insists on the need for legitimate power to be subject to law, and for law to be subject to reason. As if he were analyzing the crisis we face in Catalonia today, he also warns that transgressing (constitutional) norms involves habituating peoples and governments to disrespect laws; it establishes habits of purely discretionary rule and forced obedience; this is tantamount to assuring that the country will continuously live with despotism or anarchy. He concludes: [T]o make it a principle that society is to be ruled by the will of man and not by the law is to establish a maxim from which tyranny is necessarily born. 2. Pragmatism In order to strive for the common good, Balmes explains, government and law should likewise be tied to reality, to actual human beings actions and interactions within a society. For instance, in the case of the Catalonian nationalist crisis of identity, which he predicted, Balmes sought a pragmatic solution. He was conciliatory while being clear about the factsa good lesson for todays politicians: Without dreaming of absurd independence projectswithout losing sight of the fact that the Catalonians are Spanish too, and that a very prominent part of the nations prosperity or misfortunes must necessarily be theirs; without giving ourselves up to vain illusions that it is possible to break the national unity begun in the reign of the Catholic Monarchs Catalonia can nourish and foster a certain legitimate provincialismprudent, judicious and compatible with the nations broader interests. 3. Consistency In order to avoid abuses of reason and intellectual smugness, Balmes sought to ensure that theoretical principles are applicable in practicein his definition of politics as the art of the practicable he anticipates Spanish statesman Antonio Canovas del Castillo (1828-1897), and in his epistemological humility he anticipates the thinking of F. A. Hayek (1899-1992) and Karl Popper (1902-1994). Political ideas, discourses and deeds need to form a strong continuum if the objective is the common good. Thus, he criticizes political parties double standards and lack of consistency. Saying one thing and doing the other is taking voters for fools and undermining trust and cohesion. We can find numerous examples of this kind of contradictory and erratic behavior in todays politics, particularly on the left. It is well-known, for instance, how the harshest critics of capitalism are often those who most enjoy a luxurious lifestyle. 4. Truth Balmes tried to build bridges between Spanish moderate liberals and traditionalists after Spains bloody civil war (1833-1840). To do so, he stressed the importance of truth as a compass of all action and therefore recommended considering all the facts, all the circumstances, both adverse and favorable to find the best solutions to any political problem. His pragmatic approach does not lead him to utilitarianism. On the contrary, he insists on the active role that principles, morality and tradition should play in politics. At the same time, he believes in human progress and looks with hope to the development of science, without falling into utopianism or determinism. In a nutshell, Balmes is principled without being dogmatic, which helps him reconcile different political positions into an innovative intellectual synthesisan unequivocal sign of a freedom-loving thinker. 5. Prudence Balmess conciliatory approach does not stop him from being a harsh critic of changes and revolutions with no discussion of a gradation that could influence ideas and behavior, and no connection to social realitymere fruits of pressure and influence from arrogant minorities who think they know better than anyone else whats best for the majority of citizens. Such a critique is as valid in 19th-century Spain as it is in Western countries today. We demand immediate big-bang social and political changes, and dismiss incremental, well-thought-out and trial-and-error approachesa suicidal trend that completely disregards human nature. The thinker of Vic does not oppose change, but he does lay down some conditions: In every age, it is necessary that the men who are to direct society understand the nature of the spirit that animates it and what its tendencies are; and rather than recklessly insisting on fighting with the nature of things, they should try to remedy what is bad in them, and use and foster the good they hold. Everything should be done with slow and gentle action, proper to the age in which they live, always giving a wide berth to one of the principal agents in the formation of great works: time. Edmund Burke could not have said it better. 6. Institutions Balmes considered institutions a key element of a societys stability. They are wisdom poured forth throughout generations, fertile soil for an ordered prosperity for the common good. Nevertheless, he has us consider the classic dilemma of government of laws versus government of men from another point of view, since there are times and circumstances when the institutions themselves guide men; but there are also times and circumstances in which men have to guide the institutions. This is the case after a revolution, for then the institutions are too weak. From a contemporary classical liberal perspective, such as that of Europe today, this could sound anachronistic. But let us think now of the institutions and serious crises that certain developing countries face, and questions will start to arise. Balmes does not purport to justify absolutisms or dictatorshipsthroughout his political writings he insists on the need to adapt to new times, on the importance of civil versus military power, and on the role of Parliament (Cortes), among other institutions. What he advocates is that the best people lead in difficult times (a certain elitism) and that frank, calm and amicable communication be established between government and peoples so that there will be order, since without order there is no obedience to the laws, and without obedience to the laws there is no freedom. 7. Private property Balmes gives special attention to another fundamental institution of open societies: the right to private property. For example, regarding the Cortes voting on taxesthat is, Parliament exerting control over the financial pressure the government puts on citizenshe notes that it is one of the best guarantees of peoples prosperity, and a healthy check on envy, prodigality and the wastefulness of bad governments. He added that one of the most beautiful hallmarks of European society was that even from its birth it tended to guard against government appropriation of citizens property. This raises at least two questions. First, do Parliaments still protect our pockets? Second, are citizens interests truly well-defended when their representatives negotiate debt ceilings, tax increases and the national budget, or are particular interests placed before the general interest? On the 170th anniversary of Father Jaime Balmess death, let us in conclusion add three pieces of advice to these seven lessons given to politicians. First, be open and conciliatory: Take the initiative and propose and implement, when possible, all the good that may exist in the opponents system [of thought]. Second, be optimistic: Why cant great and splendid days be in store for our homeland? Why cant streams of light and life arise from the very blow that we bewail? So let us not fall into discouragement, or give ourselves up to excessive confidence. And third, be hard workers: For all great triumphs, there is a necessary condition that no man can refuse: work. May good ideas depend little on government support; may they depend much on your own strength. Ignacio Ibanez is director for International Politics at Floridablanca. (Photo credits: Carles Puigdemont, Wikimedia Commons; Enric, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0; Luis Javier Modino Martinez, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.) Angkas, the fastest-growing motorcycle-hailing app service in the Philippines, has revealed plans to come up with the very first motorcycle ambulance service in the country. Dubbed Angkas Buhay, the groundbreaking ambulance service aims to provide first aid on-the-spot for emergency cases or the immediate transport of doctors to the patient. In this regard, Angkas is inviting driver-partners and new sign-ups to join the pilot program in Metro Manila to train as volunteer paramedics. Initially a collaboration between Angkas, Our Lady of Guadalupe Colleges and Victor R. Potenciano Medical Center in Mandaluyong City, Angkas Buhay will pioneer an intensive training course for Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT-certified) drivers. After undergoing training, qualified EMT drivers, armed with life-saving techniques aboard a specially-designed ambucycle fitted up with medical supplies and equipment, will be able to stabilize patients until secondary medical transport arrives. Expected to go live towards mid-2019, Angkas Buhay will be featured through an in-app Emergency button to match the EMT driver in close proximity to the patient. Debuted on Nov. 25, 2018, at the Ynares Center in Antipolo, Rizal, during the inaugural Safety Fiesta of Angkas to commemorate its first anniversary, Angkas Buhay is the latest initiative of the transport app in support of public safety. Displaying the ambucyle prototype with a brief video trailer, a panel of speakers from Angkas and its key partners gave an overview of the project. Weve all heard the tragic stories about critical patients who needed to be rushed to the hospital but because of the traffic gridlock and the cost of ambulance rides, many are, sadly, dead on arrival. For some of us, this may even hit close to home, but what if Angkas could change all that? said Angkas founder and CEO Angeline Tham. Posing a challenge to the riders, Tham recounted the heroism demonstrated by driver-partner Francis C. Belecario, who, last Sept. 3, was instrumental in the rescue of wounded patroller, PO1 Berlino L. Ricafort, in Barangay Kamputhaw, Cebu City.Cited for exceptional bravery and invaluable service to the community, Belecario was recognized by the Cebu City PNP for quick thinking and immediate response to the call of duty when he brought PO1 Ricafort to the nearest hospital for treatment. Tham points out that were it not for Belecario on the Angkas platform, PO1 Ricaforts injuries might have proven life-threatening. An eye-opening moment for Tham, she shared that the incident was a turning point for Angkas, We started out with one mission, to help commuters beat the traffic, and for many, that is a lifesaver. Then we realized that we could go further as a public service, not only taking passengers where they need to go, but to hasten the arrival of medical attention for those needing urgent care. Angkas Operations head David Medrana also took the opportunity to encourage drivers to register for the Angkas Buhay program, We welcome both new drivers and our current partners to become part of our elite EMT team. Angkas Buhay is accepting applications and we are looking forward to introducing our first batch of trainees to the public. On behalf of affiliate VRP, OLGC College administrator Mark P. Vergel de Dios remarked, OLGC and VRP are proud to embark on this partnership with Angkas. Angkas Buhay will help many people and we are thrilled to impart our knowledge to Angkas drivers. Metro Manila Development Committee chairman Rep. Winston Winnie Castelo and transport-sector ally was also a guest of honor, together with Quezon City Councilor Precious Hipolito Castelo; PNP Highway Patrol Group Director, Chief Superintendent. Roberto Fajardo and NCRPO Deputy Regional Director for Administration Chief Superintendent Amando Clifton Empiso were also in attendance. Castelo commended the ambucycle for its civic-oriented innovation. We have seen how commuters have benefitted from the safe, affordable, and convenient mode of transportation offered by the platform, and now we can also depend on Angkas to extend another valuable public service, he stressed. Concluding the program, Tham underscored that Angkas Buhay strengthens their larger brand advocacy for safety: Angkas is steering 14 million motorcycle drivers to a safe and professional livelihood, and now with Angkas Buhay, the platform can also be a means for saving lives. Since launching the service in 2017, Angkas has provided free driver education to 60,000 motorcycle drivers, with 20,000 qualified drivers in their fleet across three urban hubs in Metro Manila, Cebu, and Cagayan de Oro. The Birmingham Baptist Association, a group of 126 cooperating churches, has hired a former Birmingham pastor as the new executive director. The Rev. Chris Crain will take over the job on Jan. 1. We want to help the churches reach the communities around them, Crain said in an interview with AL.com. We have incredible churches, some great people who have a heart and heritage for serving Christ in the city." The Birmingham Baptist Association includes some of the largest Southern Baptist congregations in Alabama, including Hunter Street Baptist, Dawson Memorial Baptist, Shades Mountain Baptist, Lakeside Baptist and the Church at Brook Hills. Although most of the largest churches are in the suburbs, the association includes inner-city churches and Crain wants the association to work to improve racial relations. Of the 126 churches in the association, about 25 percent are predominantly black, and there are numerous Hispanic ministries. Its important that we continue to build relationships between churches, Crain said. We want to continue to work on reaching the city and reaching urban areas. We really have a heart for the center of Birmingham. Crain has been serving as director of missions for the St. Clair Baptist Association and will continue in that post until the end of the year. Crain was previously pastor of South Roebuck Baptist Church in Birmingham from 2003 to 2014. While at South Roebuck, he helped launch the North Valley Church in Margaret in 2006 and served as pastor there from 2006 to 2015. He also helped launch The Chapel near Argo and the South Roebuck Community Church in Birmingham. Crain was pastor of White Springs Baptist Church in Rainbow City from 1999 to 2003. He graduated from Southeastern Bible College in 1996 and earned a master of divinity degree in 1999 and a doctor of divinity degree in 2015, both from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Crain will succeed previous Executive Director Mike McLemore, who died in February. Jeanne Moore Weaver loves history, and she found a lot to love in the Unitarian Church. Our denomination, one of its trademarks is equal justice for all, a principle of our church, said Weaver, who has a Ph.D. in history from Auburn University. The church worked for the abolition of slavery. Weaver joined the Birmingham Unitarian-Universalist Church in 1979 and became immersed in the rich history of the churchs role in the civil rights movement in Alabama in the 1950s and 1960s. We had a lot of bomb threats, Weaver said. We were afraid they would bomb our building. It had been very hard to raise the funds to build it. Members would sit up all to watch the church. In one case, the church received a call from a man who claimed he was going to bomb the church. There are a good many calls ahead of you, replied Eve Gerrard, the church secretary whose husband played in the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. That is a very proud part of our church history, Weaver said. Weaver has documented that history in a recently published book, The Unitarian Universalist Church of Birmingham, Alabama, 1952-2017, available from the church for $15. In 1952, a Birmingham newspaper ad invited religious liberals interested in forming a Unitarian fellowship to a meeting at the Redmont Hotel. Nineteen people attended. By Feb. 9, 1954, they were officially incorporated as a church affiliated with the American Unitarian Association. The Rev. Alfred Hobart served as minister for the first decade. He was committed to equality for all people, Weaver said. It was an educated group. It was his leadership that was so very important. The Unitarians, who reject the Trinity, and the Universalists, who believe in universal salvation, merged in 1961. The denomination has no creed, but is known for an emphasis on tolerance, social justice and its activist role in civil rights. Ministers and members of the Birmingham church worked toward racial justice, focusing on battling segregation in schools and public accommodations. Members of the Birmingham church were involved in the 1965 Selma marches. Even before the march for Selma, a group of Unitarian ministers were there doing the groundwork for the voter registration drive, Weaver said. Our church took a very active part in the Selma-to-Montgomery March. The church went all out in 1965, setting up a logistical center to coordinate the marchers who came from all over the country. There were four busloads of them that came through, Weaver said. The Unitarians here opened their homes. They picked them up at the airport and drove them. The Unitarian Universalist Church of Birmingham became a key rallying point as Unitarians from across the country poured into Alabama. Unitarians would also provide two martyrs to the cause, white activists who gave their lives to help promote civil rights for blacks. On March 9, 1965, Unitarian Universalist minister James Reeb of Boston was beaten in Selma by a mob with clubs and died two days later in a Birmingham hospital. Viola Liuzzo, a Unitarian from Detroit who had taken part in the Selma marches, was killed March 25 by the Ku Klux Klan. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave the eulogy for Reeb, declaring, ''James Reeb was murdered by the indifference of every minister of the gospel who has remained silent behind the safe security of stained glass windows.'' The Unitarian Universalist Church of Birmingham, now located at 4300 Hampton Heights Drive, has continued to be on the liberal edge of social issues including gay rights. Its ministers were among the first to perform gay marriage ceremonies in Alabama when it became legal. Strong leadership has been a key part of the congregations history, Weaver said. The ministers were so committed that the congregation shared their commitment, she said. We have a new minister. We moved into a new building in 2003, Weaver said. The church did very well for a time and hit a plateau. We didnt seem able to grow. From August 2016 through June 2018, interim Minister Ed Brock, a Birmingham native, the church began a resurgence, Weaver said. The church took on new life, she said. He brought stability and a lot of good things. The church hired the Rev. Julie Conrady as the new minister in May. Conrady graduated with a bachelor's degree in religion from Oklahoma City University and a master of divinity degree from Harvard Divinity School. Conrady served as an affiliated community minister of the First Unitarian Church of Oklahoma City. Conrady and her husband, Josh Flores, had one young child, Stark, and were expecting another when she was hired in Birmingham. She was very much in a motherly way, Weaver said. The pregnant preacher was greeted with large crowds and excitement when she began preaching in August, Weaver said. Its so remarkable, she said. We had standing room only services. Conrady took six weeks off for maternity leave after the Sept. 6 birth of her second son, Ezio. She returned Oct. 28 and is back in the pulpit. Now we have birthed a new ministry and a new journey, Conrady said. A lot of folks talk about the energy in the church. On Nov. 4, the congregation participated in a joint All Souls Day service at First United Methodist Church of Birmingham with the combined choirs singing. We focused on those who have lost their lives to violence, Conrady said. Our choirs sang these beautiful hymns. From a historians point of view, Conradys arrival signals a new era. Now it seems things are really looking up, Weaver said. We have a lot of younger people, and oldsters like me. We have a pretty good spread of ages. Its so amazing. Of course, for a church thats unashamed to call itself liberal in a deeply conservative state, growth remains a challenge. More people come to our church who are looking for a liberal church, Weaver said. Some people just wouldnt be happy in our church, just like we wouldnt be happy in their church. Thats what Americas all about. The Mobile man accused of attempting to murder five people, which include shooting his own daughter during a car chase over the weekend, was granted a bond of over $1 million during a hearing Wednesday. Robert Hooper, 39, is accused of shooting at a vehicle containing three minors and two adults during the seven mile car chase around 8.30 p.m. Nov. 25 on the I-10 in Mobile. The children in the vehicle were aged six months, two-years-old and nine-years-old. The oldest child was his own daughter. The mother of his child was also in the vehicle along with her husband, his childs stepfather. Its not yet known why Hooper was chasing the vehicle, but according to Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Wright, Hooper shot out one of the tires on the vehicle and rammed it. When the vehicle came to a stop Hooper then shot into the vehicle, hitting his own daughter in the shoulder. The vehicle was able to continue moving for a short period before the chase came to an end. Mobile District Court Judge Joe Basenberg agreed with the recommendations of Wright in assigning Hooper $200,000 for each count of attempted murder. He was also charged with criminal mischief, reckless endangerment, illegally owning a pistol, discharging a gun into an occupied vehicle, and possessing illegal contraband. In all, his bond totaled $1,091,050. In giving her recommendations, Wright said that a prior robbery conviction and a job in Florida meant that Hooper was a flight risk. He is to have no contact with any occupant of the vehicle. Hooper will have an arraignment hearing Nov. 29. Calls for justice, police accountability and healing rang through the historic 16th Street Baptist Church Tuesday night in Birmingham during an event honoring a man who was fatally shot by Hoover police at the Riverchase Galleria mall. Soon after that event was over, protesters gathered outside the house of Hoovers mayor to continue their call for answers. The shooting happened after gunfire erupted at the mall on Thanksgiving night. By the time the shooting was over, Bradford was killed by police gunfire, his 18-year-old friend and a 12-year-old girl was also injured. Initially, police said they fatally shot the suspect. On Friday night, however, police said Emantic Bradford, Jr. 21, most likely did not fire the shots that injured the two other individuals. This was one of the most powerful moments during the prayer event at 16th Street Baptist Church. After EJ's mom collapsed, people started coming to the stage and prayed for her family. pic.twitter.com/b0gRckE1bC Jonece Starr Dunigan (@StarrDunigan) November 28, 2018 A crowd of about 100 people gave a standing ovation as Bradfords family walked up to the pulpit of the church. Bradfords father, Emantic Bradford, Sr., said his son sometimes treated him as if he was his child, especially after he became ill with cancer. Emantic Bradford, Sr said his son came by his house every day to check on him. He said showed a lot of love towards his mother and his grandmother. Emantic Bradford, Sr. held back tears as he described how it felt not to hear his sons voice anymore. "I can't hear him say daddy again. No more will he walk through my door and call my name again," Emantic Bradford, Sr. said. "Now I gotta bury my baby boy and it hurts me to my core because being at home isn't going to be any fun because I can't talk to my child." Bradford's mother, April Pipkins, was describing how no Thanksgiving due to the shooting before she collapsed. Before paramedics arrived at the church to give her aid, people rushed to the stage to pray over the family. Throughout the event there were demands for Hoover police to release any video footage of the shooting. Hoover police said all footage was immediately handed over to the SBI for investigation. Activists say they will protest until they get the footage. Benjamin Crump, a Florida-based civil rights attorney who is representing the family, said the chant, Say no mo'! Release the video! has become protestors' war cry. Soon after the event, about 35 protesters demonstrated outside Hoover Mayor Frank Brocatos home, vowing to return every night until police body cam footage of the incident is released. A protester is shouting at a black Hoover police officer that he should be ashamed of himself. Before you were blue you were black. Never forget that. pic.twitter.com/3IISGXjtl9 Howard Koplowitz (@HowardKoplowitz) November 28, 2018 You cant be comfortable if were not going to be comfortable, Mr. Mayor, said LeDarius Hilliard of the Outcast Voters League, one of protest organizers. If were uncomfortable, youre going to be uncomfortable. Brocato was not home at the time of the demonstration, which was peaceful. The mayor drove to his house about 20 minutes before protesters arrived. Hoover police officers stationed outside the home looked through Brocatos windows and walked around the perimeter shortly before the mayors car drove up to the house. Brocato briefly went to his front door and then returned to his car. After two officers had a short chat with the mayor, he drove off. 25 E.J. Bradford Jr. Memorial at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham Protesters took turns shouting through a megaphone addressing the absent mayor before taking a lap around his block. Another protest organizer, Carlos Chaverst of the Outcast Voters League, had a message for Brocatos neighbors: Unless the demonstrators received answers to Bradfords death, the group would disturb their sleep. The protesters dispersed about an hour after they started demonstrating, capped by one of Brocatos white neighbors offering them hot chocolate. Till black lives matter, all lives dont matter, they said. The crowd is less than 40 people. They saying they will be out here every night until the Mayor addresses them. If were uncomfortable, then you are going to be uncomfortable. pic.twitter.com/Lr3KGCtSA0 Shauna Stuart (@ShaunaReporter) November 28, 2018 Before the family spoke during the event at the church, Crump pointed out other shootings when white suspects were arrested alive. One of the names he mentioned was Dylann Roof, who walked into one of the nation's oldest black churches in Charleston, South Carolina in June 2015 and fatally shot nine parishioners. Crump said black individuals face a different fate. He informed the crowd about Jamel Roberson, a black security guard who was fatally shot by a police officer at a bar near Chicago. Witnesses say Roberson had subdued an alleged suspect who was shooting inside the bar when he was shot by police. "Does America ever see that a good guy with a gun can be black?" Crump asked. There were many nods to the historical location of Tuesday's event and how black activists, preachers and community leaders were demanding justice for a black man in the same place where Ku Klux Klan members bombed and killed four black girls in 1963. Rev. Arthur Price Jr., who has been the church's pastor since 2002, opened the event by saying, "We've been here before." Bernard Simelton, Alabama NAACP president, called on church leaders to open their doors and work with activists. Your work isnt in the sanctuary. Your work is out in the community, Simelton said. A former nursing home employee in Florence has pleaded guilty in the case of a patient who was sexually assaulted. Zachariah Lee Reeves pleaded guilty to attempted sodomy, court records show. In exchange for the guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to drop charges of sodomy and elder abuse. Lauderdale County Circuit Judge Will Powell scheduled sentencing for Dec. 19. Prosecutors have offered a split sentence as part of the plea agreement with Reeves. The plea deal stipulates a 15-year sentence that will be split to serve 18 months in prison, court records show. The remainder of the sentence would be suspended, pending successful completion of 60 months on probation, the plea agreement states. Lauderdale County District Attorney Chris Connolly said the victim, a 68-year-old, man died as a result of unrelated health problems before the case made it to trial. His family approved the plea agreement, Connolly said. The main concern was making sure Reeves will be a register sex offender for life. Reeves was fired from Mitchell-Hollingsworth Nursing and Rehabilitation Center after being accused of sexually assaulting a 68-year-old patient in November 2017, authorities said. At the time, Reeves was a certified nursing assistant. Another worker caught Reeves straddling the patient and engaging in a sex act, court records state. When the worker walked into the patients room, "Reeves jumped off of the victim and crouched next to the bed," Florence police Detective Kevin Jackson wrote in court records. Supervisors put Reeves on leave and contacted police. The victim told police Reeves forced him to perform oral sex and assaulted him, court papers state. Reeves' attorney declined comment. Brian Scheri is the administrator of the nursing home at 805 Flagg Circle in Florence. At the time of Reeves arrest, Scheri told AL.com the nursing home has a zero-tolerance policy for mistreatment of patients. He said Reeves actions dont reflect the quality of care provided by the nursing home. "To be clear, as administrator of Mitchell-Hollingsworth for 14 years, this kind of incident has not happened before, Scheri said in a statement. "Our staff immediately and appropriately responded to this situation. We have worked closely with the family and local law enforcement to ensure they have all the facts. Updated at 5:30 p.m. with comments from DA Chris Connolly. Earlier this week, it was revealed any member of the Hoover City Council may launch an independent investigation into the police shooting of E.J. Bradford, Jr. at the Riverchase Galleria mall on Thanksgiving night. In an open letter to Derrick M. Murphy, the first African American to serve on the Hoover council, former Birmingham attorney Donald Watkins, who was also once a member of the Montgomery City Council, said Murphy had the power and authority to investigate the incident by forming a committee of one under the Mayor-Council Act. I am not asking you to do any more than I did as a Council member, Watkins wrote on his personal website, referring to a 1979 investigation into the shooting of Love Mae Lawson by Montgomery police officer Frank Mitchell while responding to a domestic violence assistance call. Policing the police comes with your job as a City Council member. We all want answers, Murphy told AL.com on Tuesday evening. We all want the truth to be heard and known. For me, there is no in between. I am committed to making sure the right thing is done. I will have more to say very soon. Murphy spent most of Tuesday afternoon at a special-call city council meeting to discuss current or potential litigation related to the shooting, which occurred in the aftermath of a dispute at the mall between at least three men, according to authorities. Amid gunfire precipitated by the dispute, 18-year-old Brian Wilson, a friend of Bradfords, and 12-year-old Molly Davis were wounded. Wilsons attorney, John Robbins of Birmingham, told AL.coms Carol Robinson his client remains hospitalized and is heartbroken over the death of his friend. It has been a difficult time, Robbins said. But with Gods love and guidance and the support and love of their family and many friends, they will get through this. Most of the Hoover council meeting was spent behind closed doors in executive session, which did not end until almost 5 p.m. Watkins, who once represented former Birmingham mayor Richard Arrington and currently lives in Atlanta, wrote that the shooting in Montgomery took place the day after he was sworn in. Ms. Lawson, who was unarmed at the time, was critically wounded in the shooting. A week later, Watkins said he launched an independent inquiry into the shooting. My investigation revealed that Mitchell had engaged in excessive use of force. Hoover police, after initially declaring Bradford as the shooter, recanted less than 24 hours later, saying new evidence showed he likely did not fire the rounds that injured [Wilson]. Authorities have not said how Davis was wounded. The family of Bradford says witnesses tell them the victims gun was tucked in his waistband. Officials, however, have said Bradford was brandishing his weapon. In a statement on Monday, authorities said: 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 family, activists, and protesters have consistently asked for Hoover officials to apologize to the Bradford family and for all video of the encounter with Bradford to be released. To this juncture, Hoover mayor Frank Brocato and city officials have only expressed deep and sincere sympathy to the family and other victims. We are deeply and sincerely sympathetic to the family and friends of Mr. Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr., Brocato said in a prepared statement on Monday evening. 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. The U.S. Supreme Court in a unanimous decision Tuesday vacated an appeals court ruling allowing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to designate a Louisiana woodland as critical habitat for an endangered species of frog, even though that frog likely could not survive in that area under current its conditions. In the case Weyerhaeuser Company v. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Court held that any areas designated as critical habitat must be habitat, for the species in question, but remanded the case back to a lower court to consider the limits of what constitutes habitat, which is not defined in the Endangered Species Act. Chief Justice John Roberts, in a unanimous opinion, noted that the statute does not authorize the Secretary to designate the area as critical habitat unless it is also habitat for the species. He noted that the law allows for unoccupied areas to be chosen as critical habitat, but directed the lower court to determine whether the tract in question could be considered habitat. The case centers around the endangered dusky gopher frog, which is currently only found in Mississippi and lives and reproduces in ephemeral ponds in longleaf pine forests. It requires the open canopies of the longleaf ecosystem that allows grasses and undergrowth to survive, yet part of the area the Fish and Wildlife Service designated as critical habitat for the species is found in a densely packed pine plantation in Louisiana. The frog was once found in longleaf forests in Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana, but populations have greatly diminished as old-growth longleaf forests have been steadily replaced by development or densely packed pine plantations. The area at issue in the case is currently being used as a timber plantation in St. Tammany Parish, La., owned by Weyerhaeuser, a timber company. According to the decision, the owners plan to redevelop the land -- a fast-developing and have already invested resources into doing so. The critical habitat designation would not impact the current timber operations, but could be an impediment if the owners redevelop the land and have to get permits to comply with the Clean Water Act or other environmental laws during the redevelopment. The site is the last known location the frogs were found outside of Mississippi, but the frogs have not been found there since 1965. Weyerhaeuser argues that the frogs would not be able to survive there unless the existing pines and culled and conditions closer to an old longleaf forest are restored. The case has been remanded back to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the same body that initially ruled to allow the critical habitat designation to stand. Justice Brett Kavanaugh did not participate in the decision, as he had not yet been confirmed when arguments took place. Marshall: Decision is a victory for fairness and common sense Alabama was one of 18 states that filed briefs backing the Weyerhaeuser Companys position that the Wildlife Service should not be allowed to designate critical habitat in areas where the endangered species in question is not capable of living, and Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said the decision was "a victory for fairness and common sense and a loss for overreaching federal bureaucrats. At issue is the question of whether the federal government, acting under the authority of the Endangered Species Act, could extend the reach of a critical habitat beyond the area currently occupied by a species at risk, Marshall said in a news release. "Under President Obama, the federal government vastly expanded the definition of what constitutes a critical habitat, going even beyond the boundaries of what is considered habitable for an endangered species to include areas that may never be inhabitable by that species. This unprecedented action would bestow upon the federal government the power to claim essentially any land as critical habitat for practically any endangered species. Given the potential impact of such a federal expansion over Alabamas agriculture, timber and mining industries, it was vital that we oppose this federal land grab all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Alabama has had other conflicts regarding the designation of critical habitat for endangered species, most notably the area near the site of the Mazda-Toyota manufacturing plant in Huntsville. The Center for Biological Diversity, which has launched a host of legal actions against the Fish and Wildlife Service alleging that the agency has neglected its obligations under the Endangered Species Act, issued a statement calling the decision a narrow ruling that would allow the appeals court to determine whether the tract could be considered habitat. While were disappointed, the ruling doesnt weaken the mandate to protect habitat for endangered wildlife, said Collette Adkins, a Center for Biological Diversity attorney who defended the frogs protections before the Supreme Court. The dusky gopher frogs habitat protections remain in place for now, and were hopeful the Fifth Circuit will recognize the importance of protecting and restoring habitats for endangered wildlife. Funeral services for E.J. Bradford, Jr., who was killed by Hoover police at the Riverchase Galleria mall on Thanksgiving night, will be held Saturday, December 1 at 10 a.m. at the Boutwell Auditorium, it was announced Tuesday evening near the end of the prayer vigil held at the 16th St. Baptist Church. Bradford, 21, was killed by an officer in the aftermath of a dispute involving at least two other men, according to authorities, that erupted into gunfire. Brian Wilson, 18 and Molly Davis, 12, were wounded. The Hueytown native possessed a weapon. Authorities initially identified him as the shooter but recanted less than 24 hours later when new evidence emerged showing he likely did not fire the rounds that injured [Wilson]. Authorities have not said how Davis was wounded. Bradfords parents spoke at the vigil. E.J. Bradford, Sr., who is suffering from cancer and underwent chemotherapy treatment on Tuesday afternoon, spoke of one of his final conversations with his son, regarding a car. He wanted a new car, he said. But I wasnt buying him one. Audience getting emotional as EJ's father starts to cry as he talks about not being able to talk to his son again. pic.twitter.com/EafHsteWD4 Jonece Starr Dunigan (@StarrDunigan) November 28, 2018 April Pipkins, Bradfords mother, spoke for only few minutes before collapsing. She was attended by medical personnel who were present and later by members of the Birmingham Fire Department. Bradford, Sr. said during his last conversation with his son on Thanksgiving: I told him to go straight home. This story will be updated. A protester from Huntsville who identified himself as a member of the African Peoples Socialist Party leads a chant outside the home of Hoover mayor: Mayor Frank, you cant hide. We charge you with genocide. pic.twitter.com/WCAz5s73kV Howard Koplowitz (@HowardKoplowitz) November 28, 2018 Activists have asked the Mayor of Hoover to come outside and address them. pic.twitter.com/inbOafVRnD Shauna Stuart (@ShaunaReporter) November 28, 2018 Two Iranian nationals have been charged for their roles in an international hacking scheme that hit victims in almost every state, including paralyzing the city of Atlanta for weeks. Faramarz Shahi Savandi, 34, and Mohammad Mehdi Shah, 27, both of Iran, were indicted in New Jersey federal court for their roles in creating and deploying the infamous SamSam ransomware, the Justice Department announced Wednesday. The Iranian defendants allegedly used hacking and malware to cause more than $30 million in losses to more than 200 victims, U.S. deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein said. According to the indictment, the hackers infiltrated computer systems in 10 states and Canada and then demanded payment. The criminal activity harmed state agencies, city governments, hospitals, and countless innocent victims. Between four and five SamSam attacks were reported in Alabama, according to the Justice Department. Among the victims included the City of Atlanta, which shut down many city services, including courts, online bill pay and computer systems for city workers after its networks were infiltrated earlier this year. The hackers demanded a $50,000 ransom to free the network; the city reportedly spent some $2.7 million on computer security services after the cyber intrusion. According to the Justice Department, other targets included the City of Newark, New Jersey; the Port of San Diego, California; the Colorado Department of Transportation; the University of Calgary in Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles, California; Kansas Heart Hospital in Wichita, Kansas; LabCorp, headquartered in Burlington, North Carolina; MedStar Health, headquartered in Columbia, Maryland; and Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Inc., headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The DOJ said the hackers acted from inside Iran, targeting hospitals, state agencies, city governments and municipalities. They would extort victims by demanding ransom paid in the virtual currency Bitcoin in exchange for the decryption keys to free the systems. The indictment alleges the two men collected more than $6 million in ransom payments. The men are believed to still be in Iran and its unlikely they will face justice in a U.S. court unless they travel to a country that permits extradition. They will be listed as wanted by the FBI. Three lower Alabama people were arrested on drug charges after a traffic stop in near to Fairhope in the early hours of Monday morning. Officers from Fairhope Police department conducted the stop near to Highway 181 and County Road 32. Christopher Michael Carter, 28, of Mobile is charged with trafficking methamphetamine and tampering with evidence. Rogerio Bella, 43, of Daphne and Madison Theresa Cousens, 26, of Fairhope also face charges of trafficking meth and tampering with evidence. Cousens was also charged with the possession of drug paraphernalia. Its unknown how much meth law enforcement recovered during the search. Carter, who is currently in Baldwin County Jail and registered as homeless, was out on bond after being caught with more than 28 grams of meth during an arrest in May of this year, according to court documents. Documents also indicated that Carter was awaiting a Grand Jury hearing and was supposed to be using a GPS ankle monitor at the time of his arrest. Carter was also charged with 2nd degree assault at the time of his arrest in May, as well as possession of marijuana and possessing drug paraphernalia. Carter also has a marijuana conviction from Cobb County, Georgia, dating back to Aug. 2011, which is included in court reports. Bella was also on bond during Mondays arrest, according to court records. He was arrested for drug charges dating back to April 2018. Bella was released from jail on bond at the end of September. Cousens, who was arrested for possessing cocaine in July 2018, was diverted to pre-trial intervention in September after pleading guilty. Her next court appearance is to take place in December. No other information is available from law enforcement at this time. "We cannot stand idle and let our people reap the negative consequences of the influx of Chinese workers." "We cannot stand idle and let our people reap the negative consequences of the influx of Chinese workers." Two weeks ago, I expressed my concern on the rising unemployment in the country. My fellow legislators in the Senate raised a similar concern and recently conducted a hearing on the influx of illegal foreign workers in the country. During the hearing, it was found that many of these foreigners are Chinese nationals who enter the Philippines as tourists and then convert their status via alien employment permit (AEP). The Department of Labor and Employment reported that almost 50 percent of the AEPs issued to foreign nationals from 2015 to 2017 were issued to Chinese nationals. Note that our labor laws only allow employment of foreign workers after a determination of the non-availability of a Philippine national who is otherwise competent, able and willing at the time of application to perform the services for which the foreigner is desired. The Bureau of Immigration reported that this year, out of the 393 foreign nationals arrested for overstaying their visa or lack of working permit, 304 were Chinese. These Chinese nationals are employed in online gaming while some are engaged in construction work. The Bureau of Immigrations statistics also shows that there is an upward trend in the number of Chinese nationals entering the country since 2015, reaching more than a million in 2017.Whether through legal or illegal means, the increasing number of Chinese nationals working in the Philippines puts our own nationals in a perilous position, in terms of securing gainful employment. For example, we are befuddled that AEPs are being awarded to foreigners for construction work. Construction work is no doubt within the abilities of any Filipino. In fact, it is one of the most common employment opportunities for many Filipinos who find it difficult to land a permanent job. I see no reason why there is a need to employ Chinese workers for such kind of work. I am one with my fellow legislators in the Senate on this alarming situation. We cannot stand idle and let our fellow Filipinos suffer the consequences of the perceived lack of the governments regulatory mechanisms intended to protect the interests of the public. Given the lack of insight of the frontline agencies and poor inter-agency coordination, this situation defeats the intention and efforts of the national government to provide job opportunities to Filipinos. A man died in a crash involving a truck and tractor in north Alabama on Tuesday evening. The wreck happened three miles west of Hillsboro on Alabama 20 in Lawrence County, according to AL.com news partner WHNT News-19. James Randolph Church, a 49-year-old from Tuscumbia, died at the scene of the 5:15 p.m. crash, state troopers told WHNT. Church was driving a truck that hit the tractor. Troopers are investigating. An Alabama mother is accused of hiding a used methamphetamine pipe inside her infants dirty diaper while sheriffs deputies were investigating the womans involvement with a stolen U-Haul vehicle, authorities said. Jessica Nicole Young, 33, is charged with chemical endangerment of a child, possession of drug paraphernalia and receiving stolen property, according to the Limestone County sheriffs office. Young was being held in the county jail. Sheriffs deputies encountered Young when they were investigating a report of a stolen motorcycle at a home on the 14000 block of Dogwood Circle in Athens. Deputies found the motorcycle and a stolen U-Haul rental truck at the scene, said Sheriff Mike Blakely in a news release. Inside the U-Haul, deputies saw Young and her 5-month-old baby, the sheriff said. Another suspect ran from the scene. Young and the homeowner were detained. Because it was cold outside, the homeowner allowed Young, the baby and an investigator to stay warm inside the house. After bringing the diaper bag and the baby into the residence, Young asked to go change the babys diaper and was allowed to do so, the sheriff said. However, she was caught by deputies and investigators attempting to dispose of a used meth pipe inside the dirty diaper the baby was wearing. The Department of Human Resources released the child to a family member upon Youngs arrest. The childs father, 34-year-old Timothy Dewayne Cline, fled the scene, the sheriff said. Cline was last seen wearing black pants and a black hoodie sweatshirt with a tan American flag on the front. He ran northwest from Dogwood Circle toward Wright Road and Snake Road. Timothy Cline is wanted by Limestone County investigators. Cline is wanted on warrants charging him with receiving stolen property, chemical endangerment and attempting to elude, authorities said. Anyone with information about Clines whereabouts is asked to contact Investigator Caleb Durden at 256-232-0111. A fire at Lawson State Community College heavily damaged one classroom and left smoke throughout the entire building. The blaze erupted at 5:15 p.m. in Academic Building B at the southwest Birmingham campus of Wilson Road. Birmingham fire officials said the fire was accidental and the damage limited to the one classroom where it started. They dont yet know the cause of the fire, but a witness reported hearing two loud pops that sounded like a door slamming. Students quickly evacuated the building and there were no injuries. Classes were canceled for the rest of the night. Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service will continue with the investigation. Authorities are trying to find family members for a 77-year-old woman who died more than a week ago at a Bessemer nursing facility. Ellon Gail Benton died Nov. 17 at Oak Trace Care and Rehabilitation where she lived. The Jefferson County Coroners Office said Benton was discovered about 6:30 a.m. that Saturday in her bed. Benton died of natural causes, but her body is ready to be released for burial and coroners officials have not yet been able to notify her relatives of the death. Chief Deputy Coroner Bill Yates said a friend of Benton has been helping them try to find family members. Benton had siblings and children, accord to the friend. She may also have had family in either North Carolina, South Carolina and Ohio. Anyone with information on family members is asked to call the coroners office at 205-930-3603. Despite the glow of some successes unveiled in the last couple of days, Mobiles mayor and council remain locked in two disputes that could end up in court. On Monday, Mayor Sandy Stimpson and assorted council members were all smiles as Stimpson announced that Carnival was renewing its contract with the city for another year, meaning the cruise terminal will continue to be a profit center rather than a liability. On Tuesday, they again celebrated as Stimpson revealed that the Mobile Fire Rescue Department has received an elite ISO 1 rating. But Tuesday's council meeting found them again at odds over two stubborn issues: pay for Public Works employees and the council's wish to rehire a communications coordinator fired by the mayor. Stimpson's proposed budget included money for a Public Works incentive plan. As it amended that budget in late September, the council added money and called for a straightforward 5 percent raise rather than the incentive. More recently, Stimpson announced he was proceeding with the incentive plan. City Attorney Ricardo Woods appeared to make multiple arguments for that course of action on Tuesday. He asserted that under the law governing Mobile's city government, pay is a mayoral power and "the council doesn't get to make that decision." He also asserted that technically, the council's budget amendments had added money to the line item for the incentive program, rather than draining that allocation and shifting money to a new line item for a raise. Some council members said they'd been very clear about their desire to fund a raise rather than the incentive program, and that they were well within their power to allocate money to one rather than the other. "The council has clearly expressed their budgeting authority," said council attorney Wanda Cochran. The upshot: Council members expressed a desire for Cochran and Woods to discuss the legal points directly. Whatever course that discussion takes, it'll occur concurrently with a council investigation into worker complaints in the Public Works Department's trash pickup section. While that discussion didn't relate to a specific vote or agenda item, the same wasn't true of the other conflict: The council voted 6-1 to give Stimpson a deadline. If he doesnt sign a contract to rehire Marion Steinfels by Friday, the council resolved, Council Vice President Levon Manzie will do so. Though there was no discussion on Tuesday, that issue has been the subject of heated words in previous sessions. Steinfels was fired in October, in apparent retaliation for the council's budget changes. Stimpson later said he felt that in the interest of a less confrontational environment, council communications with the public should be handled by his own communications department. On Nov. 13, the council passed a resolution calling for the mayor to rehire Steinfels under a professional services contract within 10 days, or else the council itself would do so. Tuesday's discussion revealed that on Nov. 20, the council had received a document titled "Disapproval of Resolution and Objections." That document, provided by the mayor's office, says that the council's resolution "exceeds the legal authority of the council" and that the council "lacks authority to appoint or engage persons to perform the work of the city." It cites other cases to back up that interpretation. Cochran has argued that the council can contract for professional services, a view she maintained on Tuesday. The council voted 6-1 to maintain its position "notwithstanding the objections of the mayor." Councilman Joel Daves, who voted against the council's budget amendments in September and against the initial resolution calling for Steinfels to be rehired, was the lone vote against the measure approved Tuesday. It specifies that "Should the Mayor fail to execute and return the professional services contract with Marion Seinfeld [sic] attached to Resolution 21-792 by November 30, 2018, the contract shall then be executed in the name of the City of Mobile, Alabama by the president of the Council. In the event of a vacancy in the office of president of the Council, the contract shall then be executed in the name of the City of Mobile, Alabama by the vice-president of the Council." The council currently has no president, meaning Manzie would be the one to sign it. George Talbot, senior director of communications for Stimpson, held out some hope that Cochran and Woods could come to a common legal understanding on the issue, but said it was highly unlikely that Stimpson would authorize the contract by Friday as requested. "There's an underlying legal question about whether the council has the authority to hire someone, so there's some disagreement about that," Talbot said. "We just need to resolve that. The two lawyers are engaged in talking about that. I think it could end up in court but if that's what we need to do, that's what we'll do." I think its amicable, weve just got to resolve that question, said Talbot. If it means getting a judgment, thats what well do. If Ricardo and Wanda can resolve it in their conversations, then all the better. Former Mobile County Commissioner Steve Nodine can vote again, thanks to Florida voters' recent approval of Amendment 4, and he has a new political purpose. He's hoping to help meld hundreds of thousands of newly re-enfranchised former felons into a voting bloc that can promote its own interests and command some respect from both major parties. Whatever opinion people might have about ex-cons, he said, he thinks they can pull together and shake things up in positive ways. "We're not Democratic, we're not Republican," he said. "There's a bond of which no party can touch There is much in common." "It was one of the greatest educations of my life, being in a jail, being in federal prison," he said. "Not an education I wanted to get, obviously, but I learned a lot." Nodine was an irrepressible force in Mobile politics a decade ago, serving as a Mobile City Council member and then a Mobile County Commissioner, with abundant speculation of a shot at higher office. All that fell apart starting with a misdemeanor drug charge in 2009 and the 2010 death of his mistress. Nodine, who was married, was charged with murder in the death of Angel Downs but never convicted; his defense argued that Downs had committed suicide. Nodine did however serve prison time for state charges of perjury, harassment and an ethics violation and also for a federal charge of being an unlawful drug user in possession of firearms. He has since sought to have the guilty plea on the gun charge overturned; he said he's also filed a request for a presidential pardon on it. Since being freed he's made a few headlines for probation violations. More to the point he has moved back to his native Florida, where he has retained his interest in politics. He had a stake in this months voting, though he wasnt yet eligible to cast a ballot. I was part of the recount team for Rick Scott down in Palm Beach County, he said Wednesday. He added that he was among a group of monitors and wasnt actually handling ballots. While he had personal reason to be excited about the success of Amendment 4, he said, he also started thinking about the broader ramifications. Florida has a reputation for major elections decided by thin margins and controversial recounts. This time around was no different, but Amendment 4 potentially has added 1.5 million voters to the rolls next time around. (It doesn't apply to those convicted of murder or felony sex crimes, and requires people to complete all terms of their sentences before regaining the right to vote.) Nodine is in the process of launching an initiative called Florida's Second Chance Voters. At the moment its public presence consists solely of a week-old Facebook page. Limited media attention so far has been based on Nodine's notoriety rather than anything Florida's Second Chance Voters has actually done. Nodine says a website is on the way, and a nonpartisan platform of issues, and he's confident he's working fertile ground. By the time the next national election cycle heats up, he hopes to have 200,000 to 400,000 people involved, including both felons and family members affected by their loved ones' time in the justice system. Given Floridas history of messy impacts on national politics, Nodines effort has prompted a suggestion, or two, that the Republican Party should reach out to folks who might be casting their first vote in 10-to-20 in 2020. Nodine, a Republican, says hes spoken with party officials and activists who supported Amendment 4 and are open to the possibilities. And he thinks that the national opioid abuse epidemic, among other factors, has flipped the demographic of the prison population, putting in more people who might have hewed to conservative middle- and working-class norms if they hadnt fallen into addiction. But he also thinks some of the potential new bloc's main concerns won't be strictly partisan. Having experienced the business end of the justice system, he said, they'll be keenly interested in justice reforms and in making it easier for those who've served their time to build new lives. Their common bond will be especially strong "when it comes to overcoming the obstacles society has placed upon us." One price of those obstacles, he said, is that people who've paid their debt to society remain unable to rejoin it productively. "People don't realize that once you have your rights taken away, you have a sense of detachment from the community and society," he said. He also jokes that as a former political consultant, he sees certain advantages in trying to build a database of former felons. Its much easier, I can tell you, he said, because were already in the system. "The issue here is respect. They have the right to live as they deem best. Leave them be." "The issue here is respect. They have the right to live as they deem best. Leave them be." A man wanting to convert to Christianity the inhabitants of an island declared off-limits by authorities defies the prohibition on Nov. 14 by paying fishermen to take him there; on Nov. 16, he dies a grisly death at the hands of irate natives. American missionary John Allen Chau was obsessed with bring the word of God to the inhabitants of North Sentinel Island, part of the Andaman and Nicobar group of islands administered by India. The North Sentinelese, one of the worlds last remaining traditional hunter-gatherer societies, have actively resisted outside contact. This has led the Indian government to ban visitors to the island to protect its people and their way of life. They have been left in utter isolation, without government intervention. Chau knew what he was doing was illegal, but as he said in his final letter, he believed Jesus had bestowed him with the strength to go to the most forbidden places on Earth. In one passage, he asked God if North Sentinel was Satans last stronghold. In another, he asked: What makes them become this defensive and hostile? The North Sentinelese are not a wholly uncontacted tribe. In the late 19th century, British naval officer Maurice Vidal Portman went to the island, observed the inhabitants, and, as part of his experiments, took, or kidnapped several adults and children and brought them to a nearby British prison island. The adults fell ill and died; the children he returned. Some scientists theorize it could be this experience that soured the tribe on further contact with outsiders. Since then, they have generally greeted visitors with a shower of arrows and aggressive gestures of repudiation. In 1970, the director of a National Geographic documentary took an arrow in the leg. In 2006, two Indian fishermen whose boat had accidentally strayed into their island were killed. Chau was no exception to the islanders policy of isolation. Chaus story and his dark end could have come from the annals of the early modern period to the Victorian era, the age of empire. People from Europe swashbuckled their way through swathes of land in Africa and Asia, claiming large areas of territory for their countries, reaping their resources, and ruling over and trafficking their inhabitants as slaves. As colonizers, white people became the symbol of oppression worldwide.Often, economic and political conquest were accompanied by forced religious conversion of the colonized. This we well know from our countrys own experience with Spain over 400 years. Chau belongs to a wave of white saviors, people imbued with a messiah complex to help out-group people, in many cases whether they like it or not. Indian anthropologist T. N. Pandit, who visited North Sentinel several times between 1967 and 1991, says the tribe only wants to be left alone. They are not wanting anything from you. We are coming to them, he said. They suspect that we have no good intentions. Thats why they are resisting. Chau did not respect that clearly communicated wish, and flouted authority in order to pursue his own self-imposed agenda and inflict his desires upon a people who want nothing to do with outsiders. To call an island and its inhabitants Satans last stronghold is the arrogance of someone in a position of self-assumed superiority. In a Nov. 25 interview by Scroll, Indian sociologist Rudolf Heredia says Chau was a foolish man, a fundamentalist making the historical mistake of treating Christianity as a political ideology through a rather colonialist mission to convert a remote group he viewed as a primitive tribe. Some missionaries want to be martyrs, he said. They want to prove their bona fides by doing this kind of thing. Some act out of ignorance. Maybe he [Chau] wanted to make a sensation. We dont know what his psychological motivations were. But he violated the space and the culture of the tribe, when he should have respected them. Would leaving the Sentinelese alone indefinitely be beneficial to them? They survive without schools, hospitals, and the other trappings of modern society. However, contact with outsiders can leave them vulnerable to diseases that they do not have immunity for, and destroy their culture and lifestyle. The issue here is respect. They have the right to live as they deem best. What we should do is to leave them be. Dr. Ortuoste is a multi-awarded writer and researcher. FB and Twitter: @DrJennyO UK war veteran and activist, 94, on fears of US under Trump and his plans to document refugee crisis to spur empathy. Note: This interview was in October 2017. Harry Leslie Smith passed away on November 28, 2018. London, England When Harry Leslie Smith was a boy, his father hoped that by dragging his hungry son along as he begged for a shift at the Weetabix cereal factory in the northern city of Bradford, sympathy would secure him a days wage. Smith, now 94 years old, says his father would cry out to the factory manager: Look at my boy. Hes starving! But millions of men in Britain were out of work in the Great Depression era, and sympathy in the slums of Yorkshire was hard to come by. With his father languishing in unemployment, Smith snuck out to the factory alone, because a boy alone is easier to take pity on. Some workers allowed the child to ride rounds with them and gave him boxes of broken cereal to take home. The Smith family was so poor that dinner would be Weetabix not with milk, but water. For years, even when they were finally able to afford more food, Weetabix would never reappear on the table the sight of it was too painful. Having grown up in poverty, Smith later served in the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. He has seen the best and worst of humanity, and now his optimism is sinking. [Trump Harry will be the beginning of a revolution that will spread throughout the world and maybe end civilisation. I am dreadfully scared, believe me] From the unpredictability of hawkish US President Donald Trump and the refugee crisis, to neoliberalism and the British governments squeeze on the National Health Service (NHS), there is much about the current state of the world that angers Smith. The US is in turmoil they dont know which way they are going and unless Trump is eradicated and pushed out, he will be another Hitler, he tells Al Jazeera, speaking before a book reading in Londons Wood Green district. Thats all it amounts to. He will be the beginning of a revolution that will spread throughout the world and maybe end civilisation. I am dreadfully scared, believe me. He is here on a crisp autumn evening to promote his fifth book. Dont Let My Past Be Your Future is a reflection on poverty and a wake-up call for younger generations to think beyond personal desires and work towards a more equal society. Harry Leslie Smith served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War [Courtesy: Harry Leslie Smith] His slight figure is wrapped in a suit and a black leather jacket. The memories of the cold sink deep into his bones his family couldnt afford enough coal to heat the house. He asks for his gloves to keep warm during the interview. One by one, young and old ticket holders find their seats in the Big Green Bookshop to listen to Smith. Many came to know about the event on social media. For the past seven years, he has shared his thoughts, frustrations and warnings on Twitter, gaining almost 140,000 followers. He also recently launched a podcast. Standing outside my hotel young woman maybe 30 with kit bag slung on her shoulder. Stops me apologises and says"I don't know how it happened but I am homeless can you spare a couple of pounds so I can sleep in a hostel." Thanks to Theresa May it's 1932 all over again. John Smith (son of Harry Leslie Smith) (@Harryslaststand) November 9, 2017 A lifelong socialist, he brought the 2014 Labour Party conference to tears with a blistering speech about an England before the NHS, describing when common diseases trolled our neighbourhoods and snuffed out life like a cold breath on a warm candle flame. His latest book carries an endorsement by Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn: Smith is a vital and powerful voice speaking across generations about the struggle for a just society. Today immigrant is a dirty word, its ridiculous Born in 1923, Smiths greatest concern now is for the millions who have been forced from their homes through war, persecution or poverty, often all three. As a young soldier, he witnessed the floods of refugees across Europe abandoning their homes in the hope of finding safety. Roads were loaded with men, and women and children mostly, who were giving up their homes rather than face a Hitler barrage, he says. These were people who had been taken as slave labour in German prisoner-of-war camps and people who were scared for their lives. When many arrived in Britain, he says, they were welcomed in a manner that would be unrecognisable today. It was such a different world then. Britain was a different country. It was a country with a heart. We have lost some of our early love for each other. We arranged for these migrants to have their children in decent accommodation, we arranged camps where they could have food, we arranged certain areas of Britain where they could be landed as immigrants. And today, immigrant is a dirty word, its ridiculous. There were 300,000 Polish soldiers who fought for the Second World War. And they were taken in by Scotland, he says, pausing to take stock of his own words. Three-hundred thousand people taken in by Scotland to be accommodated and fed and everything else. We have to learn to live with each other. There is not that much difference between us. We all have to eat to live. We all have to work and have a job Harrie Leslie Smith According to a report by Oxfam in December, fewer than three percent of five million Syrian refugees have been resettled in rich countries. The United Kingdom, the report said, fell far short of taking in 25,000 Syrians its fair share of refugees from the war-torn country, and accepted just 4,400 people. Smith remembers a woman who protested the arrivals of refugees fleeing Nazi Germany to her small British town. She was told you can like it or lump it, but this is how life is today. And you have to get used to it. You know? So that was the end of that. Maybe [the difference now] boils down to the governments that have taken over our countries in the last 40 years. And so, given the apparent lack of compassion by Western governments, Smith is taking it upon himself to rally empathy for the refugees of today. Harry Leslie Smith pictured in the so-called Jungle camp in Calais in 2016 [Courtesy: Harry Leslie Smith/GoFundMe] Last year, he visited the so-called Jungle camp in the French port city of Calais. Now, he is raising funds to travel to refugee hotspots in Europe and document what he says is a preventable tragedy that could lead to a conflict as gruesome as the Second World War. By the time of publishing, Smith had secured more than $37,000 of a $60,000 goal on GoFundMe for the tour. Ive always been passionate about [the refugee crisis] The whole world has to come together and say we are all human beings, we all have to live, and we are all looking for the same things peace and good lives for ourselves and our children. We have to learn to live with each other. There is not that much difference between us. We all have to eat to live. We all have to work and have a job. The mention of employment leads Smith back to the days of the Great Depression, signs of which have returned worldwide with zero-hour contracts and rising joblessness. The fact that too many young people cant find work [is] a disaster, because when young people cant find work they turn to mischief. And quite often that mischief is dangerous and deadly. It neednt happen. You dont want it to happen to your children and I certainly dont want my grandchildren to go through it. It is again a stern warning from Smith, for whom giving up is never an option despite his own personal suffering. He lost his sister to tuberculosis when she was 10 years old because the family couldnt afford a doctor; his wife, a German who he dearly loved, to cancer, and his 70-year-old son, Peter, to mental illness. I had a good life, he says, explaining that he does not fear death. With tearful eyes, he adds: My middle son died in 2009 from mental illness He said to his friend, I know I wont have a long life. But thanks to my parents I had a ball for the time I lived. As for myself, I know that once this beautiful life that we dont appreciate ends, it is curtains. There is nothing else. Follow Anealla Safdar on Twitter: @anealla Harry Leslie Smith married Friede Edelmann in August 1947, when relationships with Germans were still taboo [Courtesy: Harry Leslie Smith] The British political elite has ignored mounting evidence of interference and illegality in the Brexit vote. Theresa May has had to get used to facing difficult questions about Brexit. After two years of gruelling negotiations, the British prime minister has spent recent weeks trying to sell the virtues of her proposed Brexit deal to the United Kingdoms media, and to often sceptical colleagues in her own party. Whether she has succeeded or failed should become apparent soon. But there is a major question about Brexit that the Conservative leader still refuses to answer: Was Britains 2016 referendum to leave the European Union tainted by illegal campaign funding and foreign interference? And if it was, should there be a full investigation into the Brexit vote itself? Cambridge Analytica, Russia and Brexit These are not purely speculative concerns. The last two years have seen mounting evidence of wrongdoing by some of the key players in the Brexit campaign. Take Arron Banks. The controversial insurance businessman was little known before he spent 8m ($10.4m) on Brexit the largest political donation in British history. Now hes being investigated by Britains National Crime Agency, after reporting by openDemocracy and others raised serious concerns about the sources of his wealth. Last week, leaked emails revealed that Banks asked the highly controversial firm Cambridge Analytica for help fundraising in the United States after Steve Bannon, Trumps former campaign manager, introduced them. (It is illegal under British laws to raise funds from foreign sources; Banks maintains that all his Brexit cash came from his own businesses.) Banks has faced multiple questions about his links with Russia. Emails leaked to the Observer newspaper showed he had 11 meetings at the Russian embassy in the run-up to the Brexit vote and in the two months after (he initially claimed to have just one boozy lunch), and that he was offered lucrative business opportunities by the Russian ambassador. Banks denies any Russian collusion. Banks also repeatedly misled parliament about how his Brexit operation was run. In May, his Leave.EU campaign was fined for a series of breaches of British electoral law, and the UKs Information Commissioners Office has said that it will levy fines on Banks for breaching data protection laws. There are concerns about whether Leave.EU still holds the personal information of millions of British voters and who else has accessed it. More dark money Banks is not the only figure from the successful Leave.EU campaign with question marks hanging over. Vote Leave, the official pro-Brexit campaign, was found guilty of illegal campaign coordination. The group headed by former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Environment Secretary Michael Gove and a raft of senior British politicians broke spending limits by funnelling over 600,000 to a 23-year-old fashion student in the final days of the Brexit campaign. Meanwhile, Northern Irelands Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the hardline party now propping up Theresa Mays minority government in parliament, also received unprecedented amounts of dark money in the weeks before the knife-edge Brexit vote. The source of a controversial 435,000 donation to the DUP channelled through a secretive shell company remains a mystery, thanks to outdated donor secrecy laws that applied only to Northern Ireland. The donation was almost 10 times what the DUP had spent in the entire previous general election and almost none of the cash was spent in Northern Ireland itself, raising concerns about donation laundering and prompting a change in the law. A country divided So have British political leaders responded strongly to these grave concerns about where the money for the Brexit vote came from, and whether foreign governments interfered in the vote? Not quite. If anything unites Theresa May and opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, it is the desire to move past the 2016 Brexit vote. With their own parties and the country at large deeply divided on Brexit, neither May nor Corbyn seems willing to ask tough questions about the legitimacy of the referendum campaign, or how to protect the integrity of future democratic processes. On the Brexit vote, it has been left to journalists to do the digging. The indefatigable Carole Cadwalladr at the Observer, our small team at openDemocracy, the Financial Times Cynthia OMurchu and a few other small independent outlets, such as Byline Media, have been responsible for nearly all the evidence that has emerged. The contrast between the UK and the US is stark. Whereas special counsel Robert Mueller has sweeping powers to investigate Russian interference in Donald Trumps presidential election victory and has racked up a number of indictments and guilty pleas, with more expected to follow in the UK the only official oversight has come from a UK parliamentary inquiry into fake news. The MPs on this inquiry have not held back in expressing their concerns about the Brexit vote. Their recent report spoke of evidence of Russian state-sponsored attempts to influence elections in the US and the UK through social media, efforts of private companies to do the same, and law-breaking by certain Leave campaign groups in the UKs EU referendum in their use of social media. But British parliamentary inquiries have limited legal powers. Senior Leave figures such as former Vote Leave campaign director Dominic Cummings have refused to give evidence. Vote Leave spent more than 3m ($3.8m) on social media advertising with an obscure Canadian data analytics firm that has been linked to Cambridge Analytica. But MPs have no power to compel him to answer their questions. Facebook supremo Mark Zuckerberg has also refused repeated requests by MPs to give evidence prompting an unprecedented seizure of court documents this week in order to help British parliamentarians piece together answers to their questions. Damian Collins, chair of the UKs fake news inquiry, believes the UK needs an investigation into Brexit similar to Muellers probe. Labours deputy leader Tom Watson agrees. The connections between Brexit and the election of Trump are not just rhetorical. Mueller has found strong evidence of ties between London, the Trump campaign and Moscow. Rumours are rife that former Ukip leader Nigel Farage who still regularly appears on British media is a key person of interest to the Mueller investigation. Its also now known that Banks had extensive contact with Trump guru Steve Bannon months before the Brexit vote. But in Britain, power is extremely centralised. Mueller was appointed by the US deputy attorney general after then Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Russia inquiry. Official inquiries in the UK generally only emerge when there is a cross-party political consensus on the need for an investigation. The Leveson inquiry, for example, was a response to widespread outrage about phone-hacking. Even then, such inquiries in the UK do not have Muellers powers to assign blame or issue prosecutions. A pinch of Kafka Britain, famously, does not have a written constitution. Convention generally triumphs. And this way of doing politics is looking increasingly shaky. During the summer, senior figures from both Vote Leave and Bankss Brexit campaign were reported to the Metropolitan police for breaching the British electoral law. But as of last month, the police had not yet even opened these investigations citing political sensitivities around the Brexit vote. A phrase Orwell would be proud of. Theresa May has also refused to deny newspaper reports that she prevented British intelligence services from investigating Banks when she was the home secretary in 2016. Last week, it was revealed that the British Home Office was refusing to release information about the case, as to do so might impede the future formulation of government policy. Mays critics rounded on her, calling it a lame excuse for a cover up with a pinch of Kafka. Meanwhile, a former Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) politician has just been appointed to a key role at the Electoral Commission, Britains elections watchdog the body that should be investigating the sources of the DUPs controversial Brexit cash. Conservative MP Damian Collins, chair of the fake news inquiry, has warned of a crisis in our democracy based on the systematic manipulation of data to support the relentless targeting of citizens, without their consent, by campaigns of disinformation and messages of hate. But so far British political leaders have failed to heed the warnings. The time has surely come for a Mueller-style investigation to get to the bottom of exactly what happened during the UKs most important vote in decades and to prevent such exploitation of the electoral process happening again. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance. Abdulla* goes to bed every night dreading that knock on the door, a knock he has heard in recurrent nightmares and in stories from neighbours. He expects it can come at any moment. He is an ethnic Uighur and has always called Xinjiang his home. His forefathers lived and toiled atop this land for centuries, which the nascent communist Chinese government annexed in 1949. He is a father of two, a son and a daughter, and a devout Muslim cautiously performing his five prayers every day behind the veil of secrecy his home temporarily offers him. In the past months, several of his friends and colleagues have heard that dreaded knock on their doors and in the quiet of the night, disappeared with no trace or warning. Everybody, including Abdulla, knows where they have been taken and kept. But nobody knows for how long they will be held, nor do they know if theyll ever come back home. Most are yet to return, and those who have returned are shells of their former selves, neighbourhood ghosts, warning others of what looms around the corner for Uighurs refusing to disavow Islam. In August, a United Nations human rights panel reported that nearly 1.1 million Uighur Muslims were being held in concentration camps in Xinjiang the autonomous region in western China, home to approximately 11 million Uighurs. Gay McDougall, who sits on the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, claimed that the imprisoned population could be as high as 2 million. Notwithstanding the estimates, the number of Uighur Muslims being arrested, uprooted from their families and lives, and imprisoned in concentration camps for no other reason than being Uighur and Muslim is rising with each passing day. {articleGUID} Shortly after the UN broke the news of the concentration camps, Sigal Samuel of The Atlantic reported that inmates were forced to renounce Islam, criticize their own Islamic beliefs and those of fellow inmates, and recite Communist Party propaganda songs for hours each day. Male inmates were compelled to shave their beards and were force-fed pork and alcohol which Muslims are forbidden from consuming. These concentration camps, which hold more than 10 times the number of Japanese citizens and residents the US government locked away during World War II, are where Uighur Muslims are remade into atheist Chinese subjects.These are horrific sites where fear and physical violence, psychological trauma and emotional abuse are all available tools, wielded to push Uighur inmates to renounce Islam, which the state has called a mental illness, and reject the distinct Uighur customs that are deeply intertwined with their faith. This programme of brainwashing and indoctrination is not exclusive to adults. The state also operates orphanages for Uighur Muslim children taken from their parents, where the process of disconnecting them from their Islamic faith and ethnic heritage is deeply inculcated into their education. At these orphanages, disguised as schools, China is converting future generations of Uighur Muslim children into loyal subjects who embrace atheism and Han customs, pushing them to turn their backs on their families and towards Beijings vision of destroying the Uighur Muslim people. Three months have passed since the UN broke the news of Chinas network of concentration camps and the ancillary programmes designed to purge Islam and destroy the Uighur people who cling so tightly to it. Yet, global outrage and political pressure are slow to match the velocity and ferocity of Chinas designs to cleanse itself of a population it deems inimical to and inassimilable with its national identity. Why? Answers can be traced to prevailing economic and geopolitical pressures, namely, nations fearing the economic hit they would foreseeably take if they challenged or sanctioned China for its ethnic cleansing of the Uighur people. China is an economic superpower, and nations across the world rely on it heavily for imports, trade, and more. The economic factors deterring humanitarian intervention are accompanied by a global so-called war on terror landscape that opened the door for Beijing, after 9/11, to violently rev up its persecution of Uighur Muslims behind the veneer of countering terrorism. A campaign spearheaded by the Bush administration and the United States, encouraging other nations including China to join in and crack down on their Muslim populations. {articleGUID} Today, in a world where nations as close as Myanmar and as distant as France are weaponising Islamophobia to drive racist, populist visions, China is not only joining in, but violently upping the ante, capitalising on this global moment to use Islamophobia to push forward its own populist vision: Wiping out an indigenous people seeking self-determination and standing against the state-sponsored mandate of Han supremacy. With Islam serving as the spiritual lifeline connecting the Uighur people to their land, their history and to one another, the state has zeroed in on it. If it can destroy Islam, Beijing believes, it can destroy the Uighurs. And this is precisely what it has been doing behind a curtain of global ignorance for years and, even after the UN lifted that curtain for the whole world to see in August, it has carried forward without pause. For Abdulla, that feared knock on the door is yet to come. It may never come, or it may come tomorrow, or the day after. Yet, the fear of the unknown and the stark reality that every moment with his children, his wife, and his elderly parents, could be his last, follows his every step like a shadow. Beyond the walls of the concentration camps, Xinjiang has become an open-air prison for Uighur Muslims like Abdulla, whose every word is monitored and religious expression closely policed. He only finds solace in prayer. Prostrating himself before Allah, beginning in the early morning and one final time after sitting with his children at dinner, he prays that the state does not take him away and destroy his family. Yet, the paradox of prayer symbolises the imminent perils of being Muslim in Xinjiang today, whereby the more people are unwilling to relinquish their spiritual identity and disavow Islam, the more likely they are to be taken way and kept far from everybody they love and everything they know, locked away in a living hell devised to purge them of their faith, disintegrate their families, and wash away their nation. *Name changed to protect identity The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance. Ashraf Ghanis peace offer comes as US has begun to engage Taliban in talks to end 17-year-old war. Geneva, Switzerland The Afghan government has formed a 12-member team to hold peace talks with the Taliban, President Ashraf Ghani announced in the Swiss city of Geneva on Wednesday. Im pleased to announce today that after several months of intensive consultation with our citizens across the country, we have formulated a road map for peace negotiations, he said at the two-day United Nations conference on Afghanistan to renew a process of development and reform. The constitutional rights and obligations, of all citizens, especially women, should be ensured, Ghani said. The Afghan leader also announced that the negotiating team will be led by presidential chief of staff Salam Rahimi and will include men and women with the necessary credentials to deal with the key challenges of peace negotiations. Ghani said he is hoping for a peace agreement in which the Taliban would be included in a democratic and inclusive society, but added that no organisation that has ties with terrorist networks will be allowed to join the political process. European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini called the plan a courageous peace offer to the Taliban, adding that it offered unique opportunities to break the stalemate and move the country forward. I underline forward, not backwards, because this is an unconditional offer for peace talks, but it is not unconditional as a result of peace talks that can be started, she said. This weeks summit is billed as a platform for the Afghan government to renew its commitment to reform and discuss aid contributions in its bid to achieve stability and security. Taliban conditions The conference comes at a time when the United States administration is holding direct talks with the Taliban, Afghanistans largest armed group which was toppled following a US-led invasion in 2001. The Taliban wants the pullout of international forces as a pre-condition for talks. Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the war that has dragged on for more than a decade and cost billions of dollars. Earlier this month, Taliban officials held three days of talks with US special representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad in Qatar, aimed at renewing the peace process. The Afghan government has not been involved in these talks. Last week, a five-member Taliban delegation headed to the Russian capital, Moscow, to attend for the first time an international conference to discuss the Afghan peace efforts. A second phase (of discussions) should be held among Afghans (themselves) on how to bring about peace and form a government in Afghanistan, Sohail Shaheen, a Qatar-based spokesperson for the Taliban, told reporters in Moscow. According to Safiullah Taye, a PhD candidate studying aid allocation and prioritisation in Afghanistan post-2002, If it is anyone, it will be the US, the international community or the neighbouring countries who the Taliban would want to negotiate with. Taye added that the Afghan government cannot afford to accept the Talibans conditions and therefore if serious talks do take place it will take longer to have an agreement and then implementation. Although the Taliban announced a ceasefire during the Eid holidays in June, the group has so far ignored Ghanis calls to enter into peace negotiations with the government. The group also rejected a second call to ceasefire in August. Brazil backs out of hosting COP25 next year due to budget constraints and a presidential transition. Brazil withdrew its offer to host the COP25 United Nations climate conference next year citing budget constraints and presidential transition. In a statement on Wednesday, Brazils foreign ministry said: Considering the current financial and budgetary restrictions and the process of transition for the recently elected administration the Brazilian government feels obliged to rescind its offer to host COP25. The move came just days before the start of COP24, this years annual climate conference, being held in Polands Katowice city. COP25 was due to take place from November 11 to 22, 2019. Brazilian President-elect Jair Bolsonaro, who will assume office on January 1, had threatened to withdraw Brazil from the Paris climate accord. He has also vowed to remove restrictions on the agri-business sector accused of causing untold devastation to the environment, in particular, the Amazon rainforest. {articleGUID} Brazil has 60 percent of the Amazon rainforest within its borders, a biome scientists consider one of natures best defences against global warming as it acts as a giant carbon sink. Brazil has made significant strides in the past 15 years to curtail destruction of the jungle, but the government reported last week that annual deforestation levels have hit their highest level in a decade. Incoming right-wing regime Critics said the decision to not host the UN climate conference was related to the election of right-wing Bolsonaro. The reversal to host the meeting is likely because of the opposition of the incoming government, which has already declared war on sustainable development on multiple occasions, environmental group Observatorio da Clima said on its website. Its not the first and will not be the last awful news from Jair Bolsonaro on this theme. Earlier this month, Bolsonaro appointed career diplomat Ernesto Araujo as his new foreign minister, a man who this week hit out at climate scare-mongering in an article in the Gazeta do Povo newspaper. Bolsonaro has antagonised environmentalists by threatening to pull Brazil out of the Paris climate accord, although he also said late in October that he was not set on such a move if elected. Opposition leaders reject Netanyahus planned visit to Chad, saying ties with Israel will only benefit Deby personally. Opposition leaders and civil society groups in Chad denounced the central African countrys President Idriss Debys decision to visit Israel and his intention to establish diplomatic relations with it. Political and civic leaders said Chad should not restore diplomatic ties with Israel as long as it continues to occupy Palestinian territories, and in absence of a collective decision by African states to establish relations. Deby became the first leader of the majority Muslim nation to visit Israel in decades which, according to analysts, came as a crowning achievement of intelligence and military ties between the Debys government and Israel. Al Jazeeras Fadoul Abderazak, reporting form the capital NDjamena, said the majority of Chads political establishment suspects that Debys motive behind restoring ties with Israel is to maintain control over the country using Israeli military and intelligence assistance. Chad had severed its ties with Israel in 1972 after the Organization of African Unity, the predecessor of the current African Union, issued a decision to its member states to cut diplomatic ties with Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians. Chads Alliance of Civil Associations for Jerusalem, a group of 22 civil organisations, issued a statement in condemning Debys visit to Israel. {articleGUID} We strongly denounce the presidents visit to the Zionist entity, the statement said. Through this statement we issue an apology on behalf of the people of Chad asserting that the presidents visit does not represent us as it will not change our peoples support for the Palestinian cause, the statement added. Opposition leader Mahamat-Ahmad Alhabo, head of the Freedom and Development party, opposed the rapprochement, saying that without African consensus Chad should not restore ties with Israel. Alhabo said that Deby did not inform the people of Chad of his visit to Israel, adding that Chadians found out about it via Israeli media. Mahamat-Ahmad Alhabo [Al Jazeera] Israel is only looking after its own interests and intends to use Chad as a Trojan horse through which it can use it as a forward base to establish ties with other African nations, Alhabo added. Chad should only resume ties with Israel after it stops its aggression against the Palestinians and end its illegal occupation of Palestinian lands, especially the Muslim holy places in Jerusalem, he said. Israels prime ministers office said in a statement on Tuesday that Netanyahu would soon visit Chad to officially establish diplomatic relations between the two countries. But for Abu Bakr Yousef Zayed, a former deputy mayor of NDjamena and member of the ruling party during the 70s, told Al Jazeera that Chad should not consider its religious or cultural background when debating its ties with Israel. Chad stands to benefit from having ties with Israel, especially since Israel has very advance military and intelligence capabilities, he said. Israeli vision for Africa Thembisa Fakude, a senior researcher at Al Jazeera Center of Studies and an expert on central Africa, said Israel is embarking on major efforts on the continent and is making notable inroads towards winning the support of African states, especially in East Africa. Arab countries have neglected Africa and left it for Israel to reestablish its presence that was once the bedrock of support for Arab causes in the international arena, Kakuda said. Fakude added that while African leaders stand to benefit from access to Israeli intelligence and military training, Israel, on the other hand, has its eyes on a larger strategic objective. Israel aims to change the UN equation and legitimise its policies in the occupied Palestinian territories in the eyes of the world. Themeisa Fakuda, Africa expert The main objective for Israels push towards Africa is to increase its numbers when it comes to votes at UN organisations, such as the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council. African nations tend to support the Palestinians and condemn Israeli actions, he said. He argued that with Israel seeing through its efforts in Africa, the tally of UN votes will eventually change to show Israel as being more accepted by the international community. Israel aims to change the UN equation and legitimise its policies in the occupied Palestinian territories in the eyes of the world, Fakude added. Follow Ali Younes on Twitter: @ali_reports China accused of political meddling after Taiwan local elections In an exclusive interview, Taiwan FM says worsening relations with Beijing played part in ruling partys defeat. Chinas ambassador to the US says Xinjiang camps to re-educate terrorists and China being held to double standards. China will retaliate in proportion if the United States sanctions its top official in its far-west Xinjiang region over alleged human rights abuses, Chinas ambassador to the US said, adding Beijings policies there are to re-educate terrorists. Chinese Ambassador Cui Tiankai compared actions in Xinjiang with US troops battling the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS), and told Reuters news agency that Chinas efforts to combat international terrorism were held to a double standard. Can you imagine [if] some American officials in charge of the fight against ISIS would be sanctioned? Cui said, adding if such actions are taken we have to retaliate. Cui did not elaborate on specific actions China might take. Beijing has faced an outcry from activists, academics, foreign governments and the United Nations over mass detentions and strict surveillance of the Uighur minority and other Muslim groups in Xinjiang. In August, a UN human rights panel said it had received many credible reports that one million or more Uighurs were being held in what resembles a massive internment camp that is shrouded in secrecy. US officials have said the Trump administration is considering sanctions targeting companies and officials linked to Chinas crackdown on minority Muslims, including Xinjiang Party Secretary Chen Quanguo, who is a member of the powerful politburo and in the upper echelons of Chinas leadership. Normal persons Cui said while the United States was using missiles and drones to kill terrorists, we are trying to re-educate most of them, trying to turn them into normal persons [who] can go back to normal life. Well see what will happen. We will do everything in proportion, he said, responding to a question on how China would retaliate to possible US sanctions on Chen. Cuis comments are the strongest response yet to US threats on the issue. Any decision by the US to impose sanctions on such a senior official as Chen would be a rare move on human rights grounds by the United States, which is engaged in a trade war with China but also wants Beijings help to resolve a standoff over North Koreas nuclear weapons. US sanctions could be imposed under the Global Magnitsky Act, a federal law that allows the US government to target human rights violators around the world with freezes on any US assets, US travel bans, and prohibitions on Americans doing business with them. Chinese authorities deny any ethnic or religious repression in Xinjiang. They say strict security measures likened by critics to near martial law conditions, with police checkpoints, detention centres, and mass DNA collection are needed to combat the influence of extremist groups. After initial blanket denials of the detention facilities, officials have said some citizens guilty of minor offences were sent to vocational centres to improve employment opportunities. At a briefing in Washington on Monday, a Uighur woman, Mihrigul Tursun, 29, told reporters she experienced physical and psychological torture, including electrocution while strapped to a chair, during 10 months in detention in Xinjiang. Rejecting Chinese government claims that the detention facilities serve vocational purposes, she said many of the dozens of other women in her cell were well-educated professionals, such as teachers and doctors. Chinas embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tursuns statement. Independent assessments of the conditions in Xinjiang are nearly impossible given restrictions on journalists from openly reporting from the region. UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet has called on China to allow monitors in Xinjiang, but Beijing has responded by telling her to respect Chinas sovereignty. "I did not ever imagine we would come to this." "I did not ever imagine we would come to this." President Dutertes appointment of Associate Justice Lucas Bersamin as the new chief justice is a testament that he cannot tolerate criticism or dissent, never mind if it is valid. This is not to say Bersamin is not qualified. Like Justice Antonio Carpio, he has probity, integrity and independence. Bersamin is from Abra. He was a cousin of my later brother in law, lawyer Alfredo Bersamin Feraren. Truth to tell, Carpio already was prepared for the inevitable. He said he was ready to not be appointed by the President. What is sad is that Carpios criticism of the administrations handling of the South Chine Sea dispute is valid. * * * Doesnt President Duterte realize the implications of what he calls the Duterte Death Squads? These are civilians roaming around the country in search of Red Sparrows. We will have killing fields here in our midst! Its bad enough that the war on illegal drugs has resulted in so many deaths already, most of them from the poor. This has created a climate of impunity. Are killings the new normal, my gulay? The President has said civilian death squads would be sent to transport terminals, restaurants, malls and other places to kill suspected rebels and even loiterers and junkies. Must they all now be terminated with extreme prejudice? I am all for the continued war against the New Peoples Army. I am also for the termination of peace talks between the government and the Reds. Jose Ma. Sison and Luis Jalandoni no longer have control over the members of the NPA. They are just enjoying the perks of their self-exile. But civilian death squads are another thing. This just means that the President no longer has confidence in our security forcesthe military and the policein fighting the enemies of the state. In effect, President will create undisciplined and untrained civilians with firearms licensed to kill alleged enemies of the state. This will be like the Wild Wild West where the one with the fastest gun was king. Critics of the President should be alarmed. They could be assassinated by these death squads! I never dreamed we would ever see this: Civilians killing one another in the name of ridding the country of enemies of the state. I thought the dark days of martial law were over. * * *With the upcoming 2019 elections, we will be presented with self-serving poll surveys that say this or that candidate was in the Magic 12. I was involved in poll surveys myself, when I was public affairs manager of the Kanlaon Broadcasting System of Robert Benedicto. I know that surveys can be manipulated depending on what questions are asked. This is what happens when survey results dont eventually come true. It all ends in disaster, since in the Philippines there are only two kinds of candidates: The winners, and those who say they were cheated. I am not necessarily against poll surveys. They can be used in selling brands and other products. They are essential to candidates because they get an idea where they are: If they are trailing behind, or if they should campaign harder and where. However in our kind of elections, poll surveys tend to create a bandwagon effect. Voters go for the candidate who is leading in the survey. This is where moneyed administration candidates enjoy their advantage. They have the money and power to distribute sample ballots. Statistics show that the average voter only write down names of only seven or eight candidates. In the US, surveys count for a lot. In the US and other developed countries, voters are educated enough on what and whom to vote for. Americans only have to choose between Republicans and Democrats. * * * The Comelec may as well do away with what it calls election period when candidates can start campaigning. Here, the moment a candidate files a certificate of candidacy, he or she already starts campaigning. The best example is the Presidents favorite candidate, Christopher Lawrence Bong Go. He makes a mockery of the election period. The President himself has been heard as endorsing Go as being good for the Senate. * * * Mislatel, a consortium of Davao-based billionaire Dennis Uy who was a contributor to the Duterte campaign in 2016 and China Telecom, has been named as the third player in the telecommunications industry to break the duopoly of Smart and Globe. Mislatel is promising a lot of things like fast Internet. But what worries many people is that China Telecom is government-owned. This would make the Chinese government breach our national security. * * * There are two things I dont like debatingreligion and politics. President Duterte is not the first to attack the Catholic church and its leaders. So, I will not debate him on the issue. www.emiljurado.weebly.com Lu Guangs wife says award winning photographer went missing while visiting Xinjiang and appeals for his safe return. An award-winning Chinese photographer has been missing and his wife is apprehensive that he might have been arrested by state security officers while visiting Chinas far-flung western Xinjiang region. Lu Guang, a three-time World Press Photo award winner, had been invited to take part in photography events in the regional capital, Urumqi, in late October, his wife, Xu Xiaoli, said in online posts. She lost touch with her husband on November 3 while he was travelling alone in the southern city of Kashgar, and has not heard from him since, Xu said. She later contacted the wife of the person who had invited Lu to Xinjiang and was told both men had been taken away by state security officers, Xu said. The Xinjiang regional government did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Reuters. Xu, however, said that her husbands detention was confirmed to her by authorities in Lus hometown Yongkang in Zhejiang province. Im extremely worried, and hoping for his safe return home as soon as possible! Xu posted on Twitter. Yongkang police told AFP news agency that they were unaware of the situation. Someone who picked up the phone at the police department in Kashgar hung up after hearing the call was from AFP. At a regular news briefing in Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said he was not aware of the case. He went to Kashgar alone, Xu, who lives in New York City, told Reuters on Tuesday. Later, it was both him and the friend who were taken away. Talking to Al Jazeera, Sophie Richardson of Human Rights Watch (HRW) said she has called on Chinese authorities to immediately confirm and clarify the whereabouts and well-being of the photographer, who is a US green card holder. Thats an obligation for them, she said. Richardson added that it is not terribly credible for Chinese authorities to not have any information about the status of Lu. Photographer Lu Guang has been forcibly disappeared since Nov. 3. Here are some photos he took showing the human cost of China's economic development. pic.twitter.com/x7E6OBBc2W Yaqiu Wang (@Yaqiu) November 27, 2018 In a statement to Al Jazeera, Patrick Poon of Amnesty International noted that Lu is famous for his photographs of ordinary citizens in China. He went missing in Xinjiang most probably because the Chinese authorities would be afraid that he would take pictures in Xinjiang and expose the real situation there, Poon said. We call on the Chinese government to immediately disclose Lu Guangs whereabouts and release him as there is no evidence to show that he has violated any criminal offences. Outcry over treatment of Uighur Muslims Beijing has faced an outcry from activists, academics, foreign governments and the United Nations rights experts over mass detentions and strict surveillance of the Uighur Muslims and other Muslim groups in Xinjiang. Chinese authorities routinely deny any ethnic or religious repression in Xinjiang and say its measures are needed to combat the influence of religious extremism. Xu said she had not received any official notice of Lus arrest and had been unable to contact Xinjiang police. December 4 is our 20th wedding anniversary. He was meant to celebrate with us together, Xu said in an online post. Ever since I lost touch with him, the days have dragged on like years. Lus 25-year career as a photographer has produced many award-winning photos which delve into the dark side of Chinas economic development and societal changes, documenting industrial pollution, worker abuse, AIDS-plagued villages, and the illegal export of African timber to China. Lu had planned to travel from Xinjiang to southwestern Sichuan province on November 5 and rendezvous with a friend, who was unable to reach him, his wife said in a statement posted on Twitter. Foreign journalists travelling to the region are frequently detained and followed by police to prevent and obstruct reporting on the internment camps and treatment of Uighurs. HRWs Richardson said that like the case of international artist Ai Weiwei and actress Fan Bingbing, Chinese authorities have demonstrated that it has no trouble effectively taking people off the grid. Each of these cases makes painfully clear how lawless China is, Richardson said, as she urged governments to come together to create pressure on the Chinese government to address the human rights situation in Xinjiang. With additional reporting by Ted Regencia in Doha. EU court upholds blocs decision to recover money paid by French far-right leader for her security. A top European Union court has upheld the blocs decision to recover money from far-right politician Marine Le Pen, delivering the former French presidential candidate a second legal setback this year. The EUs General Court, its second highest court, on Wednesday rejected a bid by Le Pen to halt the repayment of parliamentary expenses she used to pay a bodyguard. Le Pen, member of the European Parliament from 2009 until 2017 for the National Front now renamed National Rally party, hired the bodyguard on a three-month contract in 2011 with a monthly pre-tax salary of over $10,000. According to the EU anti-fraud agency, OLAF, which started an investigation into the case in 2014, a total sum of $46,902 should be paid back by Le Pen because it was wrongfully paid to the assistant. Le Pen said the original decision was based on factual errors, misuse of power, discrimination and a lack of independence by OLAF. The General Court rejected those claims, saying they lacked evidence or legal basis. {articleGUID} The far-right leader can still appeal the decision at the European Court of Justice, the EUs top court. It is not the first time Le Pen has to pay back money to the EU she had spent wrongly. In June, the General Court had upheld a parliamentary decision to recover $470,346 paid to another person hired by Le Pen as a personal assistant. Controversial leader Le Pen has also been involved in a court case for the distribution of violent images on Twitter. The tweets, written shortly after the 2015 Paris attacks, showed executions carried out by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) members and included an image of the body of American journalist James Foley, who was decapitated, as shown in a widely circulated video by a member of ISIL, and a captured Jordanian pilot being burned alive in a cage. If convicted, Le Pen could potentially face three years in jail and a 75,000 euros ($90,000) fine. {articleGUID} Additionally, Le Pens political group Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF) to which Le Pens party belongs, was ordered in July to pay back more than $580,000 claimed in unjustified expenses, including expensive champagne and dinners. The ENF group brings together 35 MEPs, of which almost half are from Le Pens party. It also includes members of other far-right European parties like the Austrian FPO, the Italian League and the Dutch Party for Freedom. Some of the groups 2018 funds were frozen by the European Parliament as a precaution to ensure it could pay back the money. Aid will support public sector reform, healthcare, elections as well as migration and displacement challenges. Geneva, Switzerland The European Union signed a financing agreement worth millions of euros with Afghanistan during a key summit focused on development and the war-torn countrys beleaguered economy. The aid agreement made on Tuesday at the Geneva Conference on Afghanistan is worth 474 million euros ($535m) to support state building and public sector reforms, healthcare, law enforcement, and elections as well as to address migration and displacement challenges in Afghanistan. The EU stands side by side with Afghanistan and its people to build a stronger future for the country, Neven Mimica, commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, said at the summit. Through joint efforts we intend to reduce aid-dependency and invest in democratic governance for the benefit all citizens of the country, Mimica said. The two-day summit in Geneva is billed as a platform for the Afghan government to renew its commitment to reform and discuss aid contributions in its bid to achieve stability and security. Pursuing reform The United Nations, which is co-hosting the summit at the citys Palais des Nations with the Afghan government, said the conference will also be crucial in measuring results against the $15.2bn committed by the international community for Afghanistan in 2016. Within the package, 311 million euros (roughly $351m) is allocated to support the Afghan government in pursuing its reform agenda, 80 million euros (roughly $90m) to improve the health and nutrition of the population, and 15.5 million euros (roughly $16m) to support the presidential and provincial council elections in 2019. The EU and the Afghan government also signed a new agreement worth 37 million euros (roughly $42m) to reinforce EU assistance to Afghanistan in addressing migration and forced displacement challenges, which brings the total contribution to almost 230 million euros (roughly $260m). Earlier on Tuesday, UNICEFs chief of communication in Afghanistan, Alison Parker, warned the situation for children is dire, with severe acute malnutrition among children being among the highest globally with about half a million children affected. The situation is exacerbated by what has been described as the worst drought in decades with some two million people affected, over half of whom are children, Parker said at the summit in Geneva, adding some 5,000 children have been killed or maimed within the first three quarters of 2018, equal to all of 2017. {articleGUID} Taliban The conference comes at a time when the US administration is holding direct talks with the Taliban, Afghanistans largest armed group which was toppled following a US-led invasion in 2001. The Taliban wants to drive international forces out of the country and establish a legal system based on a strict interpretation of Islamic jurisprudence, a conflict which has claimed thousands of lives in Afghanistan. According to the latest figures released in July by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), 1,692 civilians were killed during the first six months of 2018 the most recorded in the period over the last decade since the agency began documentation. There are now about 14,000 US soldiers in the country as part of the Resolute Support. The Taliban has previously said the presence of foreign troops was the biggest obstacle to peace in Afghanistan. Officials say 19 others were injured after a suicide bomber and gunmen attacked a security compound in the capital city. At least 10 people have been killed and 19 wounded in an attack on a security compound in the Afghan capital Kabul, a health ministry spokesman said on Wednesday. Najib Danish, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, told Al Jazeera that the explosion happened close to a compound of British security contractor group G4S, near an industrial park on the main road leading out of Kabul towards eastern Afghanistan. Officials said a suicide bomber detonated his explosives and then other fighters started a gun battle with the forces in the area. Police chief spokesman Basir Mujahid said security forces are in control of the area and the shooting has ended. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. The explosion came only hours after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani told a United Nations-sponsored conference in Geneva of plans to seek a peace agreement with the Taliban. Separately, at least 30 civilians were killed, along with 16 Taliban fighters, by government forces battling the fighters in Helmand province overnight. Security officials have warned that violence is likely to escalate alongside peace moves as the Taliban seeks to strengthen its position before any formal negotiations. Police claim Naveed Jatt was involved in killing of prominent journalist Shujaat Bukhari in June. Security forces in Indian-administered Kashmir claim they have killed a senior fighter believed to be involved in the murder of a prominent Kashmiri journalist in June. Naveed Jatt, the fighter who was killed after a gun battle, was a member of the Pakistan-based armed Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) group, police said on Wednesday, adding that he was part of the group of assailants who killed journalist Shujaat Bukhari. {articleGUID} Bukhari was killed in a daring attack inside Srinagars high-security press area on June 14, while he was getting into his car. Police said on Wednesday that Jatt and another fighter were killed after they were trapped by soldiers, paramilitary forces and a police forces surrounding the village of Chattergam in the central Kashmir valley. LeT, the proscribed group India blames for the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, is one of several groups that has been fighting Indian soldiers for decades, seeking independence for Kashmir or a merger with Pakistan. Jailbreak Jatt had dramatically escaped in February from a hospital in Srinagar where he was brought from jail for a check-up two years after his arrest. {articleGUID} Bukhari was an editor for the English-language Rising Kashmir, two other daily newspapers and a weekly. He was an advocate for a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute and was often part of peace conferences between India and Pakistan attended by former diplomats and generals from both countries. Violence in Kashmir has left tens of thousands of people dead. This year has been the bloodiest in nearly a decade with at least 400 killed so far, including 145 civilians. Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since the partition of the subcontinent following independence from Britain in 1947. India maintains some 500,000 soldiers in the part of the territory it controls and regularly accuses Pakistan of arming and training rebels for attacks on Indian forces. Islamabad denies this, saying it only provides diplomatic support to a Kashmiri struggle for self-determination. People inspect a house damaged in the gun battle in the village of Chattergam, central Kashmir valley [Danish Ismail/Reuters] G20 final communique reaffirms the groups commitment to further strengthening of the global financial safety net. Nineteen leaders of the worlds biggest economies and a representative of the European Union gathered this weekend in Buenos Aries, Argentina for the Group of 20 summit. All eyes were on a range of issues, including a high-stakes meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and the signing of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmans appearance at the summit also prompted some protests over the murder of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi. Here are all the latest updates: Saturday, December 1 China and the United States have agreed to halt additional tariffs as both countries engage in new trade negotiations with the goal of reaching an agreement within 90 days, the White House said on Saturday. The breakthrough came after a dinner meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires. Trump agreed not to boost tariffs on $200bn of Chinese goods to 25 percent on January 1 as previously announced, while Beijing agreed to buy an unspecified but very substantial amount of agricultural, energy, industrial and other products, the White House said in a statement. Trump, Chinas Xi end high-stakes trade talks with no word on outcome US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping held high-stakes trade talks on Saturday but ended their summit without any immediate word on whether they made progress toward defusing a damaging tariffs war between Washington and Beijing. White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told reporters that the meeting went very well. But there was not immediate comment on whether any progress was made toward defusing a damaging trade war between Washington and Beijing during the dinner meeting at the end of a two-day gathering of world leaders in Buenos Aires. G20 communique seeks stronger financial safety net G20 final communique said the members reaffirm commitment to further strengthening the global financial safety net with a strong, quota-based, and adequately resourced IMF at its centre. The text announced on Saturday, the last day of the two-day summit in Buenos Aires, added that international trade and investment are important engines of growth, productivity, innovation, job creation and development. It also said leaders note current trade issues, reaffirms our pledge to use all policy tools to achieve strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth. The communique said the group will safeguard against downside risks, by stepping up our dialogue and actions to enhance confidence. He has his position. I have my own.: Putin and Trump have quick chat Russian President Vladimir Putin got his chance to talk with US President Donald Trump after all but their brief exchange over Ukraine didnt accomplish much. Russia put on a brave face after Trump abruptly junked a much-awaited sit-down with Putin, blaming it on internal US politics and anti-Russian hysteria. The two men did end up talking briefly Saturday on the sidelines of the G20 just long enough for Trump to ask Putin what he is up to in Ukraine, and for Putin to respond. I answered his questions about the incident in the Black Sea. He has his position. I have my own. We stayed in our own positions, Putin told reporters. Trump calls off G20 news conference US President Donald Trump cancelled a news conference at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires on Saturday following the death of former President George H.W. Bush. We will wait until after the funeral to have a press conference, Trump said in a tweet. The former presidents funeral arrangements have yet to be made, according to Bushs spokesman. China, US showdown looms on trade The United States and China, the worlds two largest economies, will see on Saturday if they can find a breakthrough to exit a spiraling trade war as their presidents meet at a tense G20 summit. With markets watching nervously, US President Donald Trump has described the Buenos Aires summit of the 20 leading economic powers as a deadline for China to meet his demands or risk even further pressure. The summit itself, with leaders from France, Russia and Saudi Arabia among those attending, has been struggling to carve out any accord on fighting climate change while hot-button disputes such as Ukraine loom large. Trump, who has already slapped tariffs on $250 bn worth of Chinese goods, sounded upbeat about making progress with his counterpart Xi Jinping after weeks of dire warnings. Friday, November 30 G20 leaders wrap up Day 1 with a cultural show G20 leaders are attending a cultural show at the Colon Theater, the landmark in the Argentine capital that is one of the worlds great opera houses. US President Donald Trump, Germanys Angela Merkel, and Russian President Vladimir Putin were among the dignitaries who joined for leaders photo before they took their seats at the stately Belle Epoque building that was founded in 1908. The show features videos celebrating Argentinas majestic landscapes as well as dancing and music that goes from a philharmonic orchestra, to rock and the Argentine Tango. UK PM May urges MBS to act over Khashoggi killing British Prime Minister Theresa May told Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that he should take action to prevent the recurrence of incidents like the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, her office said on Friday. The Prime Minister stressed the importance of ensuring that those responsible for the appalling murder of Jamal Khashoggi are held to account, and that Saudi Arabia takes action to build confidence that such a deplorable incident could not happen again, Mays office said in a readout of a meeting with Prince Mohammed at the G20 summit in Argentina. Will a final joint statement come from the G20? A top Argentine Treasury official is hopeful a final joint statement will be possible at the Group of 20 summit that began Friday in Buenos Aires. Laura Jaitman says world leaders have made progress in talks about the challenges of the global economy regarding finance and trade. She adds that US President Donald Trump is very active and committed in the dialogue with all members. European officials said earlier that the U.S. is blocking progress on agreeing how to fix world trading rules, fight climate change and deal with migration. Jaitman says that theres a very positive message of how trade has been an engine of growth for the next decades and how it will continue in the future providing benefits for all citizens. Putin explains Crimea tensions with pen and paper Vladimir Putin found an unusual way to explain why Russia was justified in seizing Ukrainian naval ships near Crimea he took out pen and paper and drew a map. Officials in French President Emmanuel Macrons office say that when Putin and Macron met Friday, Putin pulled out a sheet of white paper and sketched out the Ukrainian coast and the disputed waters where the weekend incident took place. The French officials say Macron asked for documents proving Russias claims, and insisted on the need for restraint in the conflict. Ukraine contends its ships were in international waters, while Russia claims the boats violated its maritime border. Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014, and neither Ukraine nor Western powers recognize the territory as Russian. Thousands of demonstrators flooded a downtown avenue in Buenos Aires to protest the Group of 20 summit taking place in the Argentine capital. Theyre waved flags and held up up banners with slogans like Go away G-20 and Go away Trump. Argentine official pushes back against White House A senior Argentine official is pushing back on a remark by White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders suggesting that Argentina sides with the United States in its trade war with China. Sanders said Friday that Presidents Donald Trump and Mauricio Macri had reiterated their shared commitment to face challenges that include predatory Chinese economic activity during a morning meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit. The official told The Associated Press that the adjective used by Sanders is too strong and doesnt reflect Argentinas relationship with Beijing. The official was not authorised to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. China is one of Buenos Aires top trading partners and the main importer of Argentine agricultural commodities that are the backbone of its economy. You never listen to me: Macron meets MBS on G20 sidelines A cryptic exchange between French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Friday was caught on video and shared by the English-language Saudi Gazette. In the video, Prince Mohammed, also known as MBS, can be heard telling the French leader not to worry, to which he replies: I am worried. Macron then tells MBS: You never listen to me, to which the prince responds I will listen, of course. Mohammed bin Salman meets Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the G20 summit [Foreign Ministry of Saudi Arabia/Twitter] UK opposition Labour Party demands May confront MBS Labours Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry says her party will be watching British Prime Minister Theresa Mays meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman closely. Thornberry said failing to raise the issues of Jamal Khashoggis killing and the war in Yemen would be a national disgrance. When she sits down with Crown Prince Bin Salman, Theresa May has a moral duty to demand the truth about Jamal Khashoggi, she said. Trump upbeat ahead of talks with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping US President Donald Trump said on Friday there were some good signs on talks with China ahead of his meeting with Xi Jinping on Saturday. Were working very hard. If we could make a deal that would be good. I think they want to. I think wed like to. Well see, he said, adding his staff was preparing for the Saturday night dinner. Who has Mohammed bin Salman has met so far? President Emmanuel Macron (France) President Moon Jae-In (South Korea) President Xi Jinping (China) President Enrique Pena Nieto (Mexico) Vice President Jusuf Kalla (Indonesia) Prime Minister Narendra Modi (India) Trump: Pleasantries exchanged with MBS but no meeting The US president has given a far less generous interpretation of his exchange with the Saudi crown prince. Donald Trump said he exchanged pleasantries with the royal but there had been no discussion. Saudi TV: Trump and MBS had friendly meeting The Saudi-owned Al Arabiya channel is reporting that Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had a friendly meeting. The White House and other media outlets have yet to confirm the reports. Putin enthusiastically greets Saudi crown prince A lot of attention before the start of the G20 summit was on how world leaders would receive Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in light of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Perhaps the most enthusiastic embrace for the prince so far has come from Russias Vladimir Putin, who was filmed high-fiving the Saudi royal at the summit. Putin has faced criticism for his own alleged campaign of targeted assassinations, which have targeted members of the Russian opposition and journalists critical of the Kremlin. Putin and Saudi crown prince MBS share smiles and a high five at the #G20Argentina Summit. Latest updates: https://t.co/lx2xK3tiSn pic.twitter.com/H0TmDA5edB Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) November 30, 2018 Petrol bombs found in Buenos Aires Argentinas security minister confirmed that eight petrol bombs were discovered in an area of the capital where a protest against the G-20 summit is expected later in the day. A police operation on Friday turned up the rudimentary explosives made from bottles and cloth wicks in a burned and abandoned taxi on the street. The site is more than 6 miles from the place where the summit is taking place. Security Minister Patricia Bullrich said that despite the find, a day of peace and without violence is expected. Trump appears to walk past MBS and Putin without acknowledgement President Donald Trump chatted with the leaders of Canada, Japan and France during a group photo session at the Group of 20 summit in Argentina. But he walked by, without appearing to acknowledge, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Macron and MBS discussed oil prices The Elysee Palace says that French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman discussed oil prices and the role Saudi Arabia can play in its fluctuations. It is unclear whether the French leader discussed the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi or the alleged role the Saudi prince played in it. France has witnessed protests in the past week over the rising price of petrol. White House: Mueller probe not reason for cancelling Trump-Putin G20 meeting The probe into potential collusion between US President Donald Trumps presidential campaign and Moscow is probably undermining US ties with Russia, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said on Friday, but she denied it was the reason Trump canceled his planned G20 meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Sanders disparaged Muellers investigation as the Russian Witch Hunt Hoax in a statement and added unfortunately, it probably does undermine our relationship with Russia. However, the reason for our canceled meeting is Ukraine, she said. Separately, a White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, denied a report that Trump planned a pull-aside meeting with Putin at the G20 after canceling plans for a longer bilateral. MBS meets Macron Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met world leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Buenos Aires on Friday, Saudi Arabias foreign ministry said on twitter. The ministry posted pictures of Prince Mohammad talking to Macron and other leaders, as well as with Mexicos President Enrique Pena Nieto, and South Korean President Moon Jae-In | Crown Prince met with world leaders on the sidelines of the #G20Argentina#CrownPrinceInG20 pic.twitter.com/RkCGgArBMA Foreign Ministry (@KSAmofaEN) November 30, 2018 Putin denounces use of sanctions Russian President Vladimir Putin has lashed out over the vicious use of sanctions and tariffs. His comments come amid a heightening diplomatic crisis over last weeks naval clash between Russian and Ukrainian vessels in the Sea of Azov, in which three Ukrainian boats, as well as the sailors on board, were captured by Moscow. Russia says the incident was contrived by Kiev and its Western allies in order to usher in a new round of sanctions against it. Kremlin: Trump, Putin will have impromptu meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin will have a brief impromptu meeting with US President Donald Trump in Argentina just as he will with other leaders at the G20 summit, RIA news agency cited Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying. Trump on Thursday abruptly cancelled a planned meeting with Putin in Argentina after Russia captured three Ukrainian navy vessels and their crews off the coast of Crimea. US President Donald Trump, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and outgoing Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto have signed an updated free trade agreement, aimed at replacing NAFTA, on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Argentina. Trump said on Friday that the trade pact was model agreement that changes the trade landscape forever. Russia: Trump cancelled Putin meeting for domestic reasons Russia said it believes President Donald Trump cancelled his meeting with Vladimir Putin due to domestic issues and not the situation in Ukraine. Is the provocation started by Kiev in this area [Azov Sea] a real reason for the cancellation, spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies. We heard that as an official version and we accepted that. Is it a real one? I believe we should look for answers in the US domestic political situation. Saudi crown prince meets Indias Modi in Argentina Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and discussed cooperation between the two countries in security, energy and investments, the Saudi press agency said. The two leaders, who met in the princes residence in Buenos Aires, also discussed Saudi Arabias readiness to supply India with all its needs of oil and petroleum products and Saudi oil giant Aramcos investments in the fields of oil refining and oil storage in India, it said. The crown prince and Modi also agreed on investing in solar energy, it added. UK PM May to speak to Saudi crown prince on Khashoggi, Yemen British Prime Minister Theresa May plans to raise the killing of Jamal Khashoggi and the situation in Yemen with Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the G20 summit in Argentina. The killing of the Washington Post columnist, a critic of the crown prince, has strained Saudi Arabias ties with the West and battered Prince Mohammeds image abroad. Saudi Arabia has said he had no prior knowledge of the murder. I am intending to speak with the crown prince of Saudi Arabia. The message that I give will be very clear on this issue of Jamal Khashoggi but also on the issue of Yemen, she told reporters on the flight to Buenos Aires. We want to see a full and transparent investigation in relation to what happened and obviously those responsible being held to account, she said of Khashoggis killing. Western nations are calling for an end to the Saudi-led military campaign in neighbouring Yemen, which was launched by Prince Mohammed, as a humanitarian crisis there worsens. On the issue of Yemen, we continue to be deeply concerned about the humanitarian situation, May said. The long-term solution for the Yemen is a political situation and we will be encouraging all parties actually to look for that and work for that. Thursday, November 29 Merkel to miss G20 opening after emergency landing in Cologne: spokeswoman German Chancellor Angela Merkel will miss the opening of the G20 summit in Argentina after her plane was forced to make an emergency landing in Cologne on Thursday due to a technical problem, her spokeswoman said. We will not be proceeding today, she told AFP. According to tweets by German journalists on board the Airbus A340, named Konrad Adenauer after Germanys first post-war chancellor, Merkel will leave for Madrid on Friday and head on a commercial flight for Buenos Aires with a slimmed down delegation. The Chancellery did not confirm these reports. Every Thursday since 1977, a group of women march around the Plaza de Mayo, the square in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires, where the presidential palace is located. Their demand? The return of their disappeared children. Tens of thousands people were forcibly disappeared during Argentinas last dictatorship (1976-1983). Many have be confirmed dead, the whereabouts of others remain unknown. On Thursday, the group marched again, for the 2120th time, reiterating their demand as world leaders arrived in the city for the G20 summit. Kremlin spokesman says Moscow ready for contact with Trump RIA The Kremlin regrets US President Donald Trumps decision to cancel a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Argentina and said Moscow is ready for contact with Trump, RIA news agency cited spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying on Friday. Trump on Thursday said he was cancelling a planned meeting with Putin at the G20 summit, citing the crisis in Ukraine. Trumps meeting with leaders of Turkey, South Korea will be pull asides US President Donald Trumps meetings with the leaders of Turkey and South Korea will be pull asides at the Group of 20 summit rather than formal bilateral meetings, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters Trump decided to cancel Putin meeting while on flight to G20 White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders on Thursday told reporters US President Donald Trump decided to cancel a scheduled meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin during his flight to the G20 summit, and said she was not aware of a conversation between the two leaders about the cancellation. Trump spoke with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and White House Chief of Staff Kelly on the flight to the Group of 20 industrialised nations summit in Argentina and called National Security Adviser John Bolton, she said. Sanders also said the US and Russian governments had exchanged phone calls. Trump cancels meeting with Putin over situation in Ukraine Trump said on Thursday he is cancelling his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin due to the situation in Ukraine. The pair had expected to meet on the sidelines of the G20 summit. Based on the fact that the ships and sailors have not been returned to Ukraine from Russia, I have decided it would be best for all parties concerned to cancel my previously scheduled meeting. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 29, 2018 Trump said he is looking forward to a summit with the Russian president once the Ukraine situation is resolved. Responding to Trumps comments, a spokesperson for Putin said Moscow had recieved no official information on the cancellation of the talks. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the Russian leader would have a couple of extra hours spare for other meetings if the sit-down with Trump didnt take place, Russian state media outlets reported. Macron to meet with MBS French President Emmanuel Macron has said he will meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on the sidelines of this weekends G20 summit, according to the Reuters news agency. Ive always been very clear about the issue of Saudi Arabia and I will inevitably have the opportunity to discuss it with the Saudi crown prince on the sidelines of the G20, Macron told reporters on Thursday. The French leaders comments came after Argentine President Mauricio Macri said there could be discussions about complaints against MBS during the summit, which is being held in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires. The G20 includes: Argentina Australia Brazil Canada China Germany France India Indonesia Italy Japan Mexico Russia Saudi Arabia South Africa South Korea Turkey United Kingdom United States European Union The 33-year-old de facto ruler of Saudi has been under intense scrutiny following the killing of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi inside the kingdoms consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul last month. Trump says no meeting planned with MBS at G20 As Trump left the White House for the G20 summit in Argentina, the US president said he would have been willing to meet with Prince Mohammed bin Salman, but no such meeting was set up. Trump says hes close to doing something with China on trade US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he was close to making a deal with China on trade but is not sure he wants to do it and likes where things stand now. As he left the White House for the G20 summit in Argentina and a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump told reporters he was open to making a trade deal. Kremlin confirms Putin-Trump meet The Kremlin has announced it has received confirmation from Washington, DC, that a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US counterpart Donald Trump will take place on the sidelines of this weekends G20 summit. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday that the two leaders will hold a conversation on Saturday, which will be followed by longer negotiations. The US had threatened to cancel the face-to-face talks because of an ongoing crisis between Russia and Ukraine following the formers seizure of three of the latters ships in waters near the Crimean peninsula on Sunday. Merkel to press Putin over Ukraine tensions German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she will press Russian President Vladimir Putin at this weekends G20 summit over the countrys ongoing dispute with Ukraine. Tensions between Kiev and Moscow have been heightened in recent days following the latters seizure of three Ukrainian ships on Sunday in waters near the Crimean peninsula. Addressing a Ukrainian business summit in Berlin on Thursday, Merkel said the situation could only be resolved through talks as there was no military solution. Im for putting the facts of what we know so far on the table and (ask) that all soldiers get released and also that one doesnt force confessions like weve seen on television recently, she said, referring to appearances by some of the captured Ukrainians on Russian state television earlier this week. Russias FSB security service released video footage on Tuesday of some of the captured Ukrainian sailors admitting that their actions had been deliberately provocative and that they had ignored Russian orders to stop moving through the Russian-controlled Kerch Strait. Kiev contends the individuals were forced to lie under duress and has denied that the ships intruded into Russias territorial waters. Wednesday, November 28 Argentine civil society organisations have kicked off a series of actions scheduled for this week against the G20 summit. We reject policies which favour large multinationals and imperialist countries and not the people or the rights of nature, said Beverly Keene, spokesperson for Confluence G20 and IMF Out, which is organising a Peoples Summit on Wednesday and Thursday. The anti-G20 gathering aims to provide an open space to discuss ideas for a peaceful and just future. Argentine judge seeks help from Turkey, Yemen in Saudi crown prince case An Argentine judge reviewing a complaint by Human Rights Watch (HRW) against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for his involvement in the war in Yemen asked Argentines foreign ministry to seek Turkey and the International Criminal Court for information, the judges office told Reuters news agency. On Monday, HRW asked the judge to use a war crimes clause in its constitution to investigate any involvement by the crown prince in possible crimes against humanity in Yemen and Jamal Khashoggis murder. The office of federal judge Ariel Lijo said on Wednesday it was seeking information on any open cases relating to the murder of Khashoggi or war crimes in Yemen. A representative of the federal prosecutors office that is working with Judge Lijo on the complaint told Reuters it was still reviewing HRWs request and that no decision had yet been made on whether to investigate it. Putin to discuss Khashoggi murder with MBS Russian President Vladimir Putin will discuss the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the G20 in Buenos Aires, his foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov said on Wednesday. Of course, they will talk about this subject, Ushakov said, referring to the Khashoggis murder. However, he said the main aim of the meeting will be the development of Russian-Saudi relations. Earlier on Wednesday, Putin praised top OPEC oil exporter Saudi Arabia and Prince Mohammed personally for his role in agreeing to balance supply and demand in crude production. This is the first time in the history of this organisation (OPEC) that we have succeeded 100 percent in doing this, Putin told attendees at an investment forum in Moscow. I must admit that this is largely thanks to the position of Saudi Arabia. This is essentially down to Saudi Arabia and the Crown Prince, the Russian leader said. IMF chief warns trade tensions could hurt global economy International Monetary Fund (IMF) Chairwoman Christine Lagarde has warned world leaders escalating trade tensions, including car tariffs and Brexit, could hurt the global economy. In a report for the G20 leaders meeting in Buenos Aires, the IMF said car tariffs, if imposed, could cut 0.75 percent off the global economy. US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on autos as part of his aggressive trade strategy focused on preserving US jobs. He has hit half of US imports from China with steep punitive tariffs, which has drawn retaliation from Beijing. Emerging market economies, especially China and the euro area, are already seeing their economies slow, while a no-deal Brexit could further dent confidence, Lagarde said in a blog post that accompanied the report. Lagarde warned the upcoming G20 gathering that the global economy faces a critical juncture. We have had a good stretch of solid growth by historical standards, but now we are facing a period where significant risks are materializing and darker clouds are looming, she said. Rising trade barriers are ultimately self-defeating for all involved. Thus, it is imperative that all countries steer clear of new trade barriers, while reversing recent tariffs, she stressed. Saudi crown prince arrives in Argentina Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman landed in Buenos Aires for the G20 summit, according to Argentine TV news. His arrival comes amid international furore over the murder of Khashoggi and a request by Human Rights Watch that Argentina investigate him for war crimes in Yemen. AP Analysis: Will MBS be a pariah at G20? All eyes will be on Prince Mohammed, particularly over the killing of Khashoggi. There have been allegations that he ordered the killing, which happened inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last month. There will be leaders who wont want to get caught in a grip-and-grin situation with MBS. Its a photo opportunity that could cause serious ripples, even disgust, and have concrete repercussions at home by appearing to exonerate or legitimise the man US intelligence agencies concluded ordered the killing. That wont be a problem for US President Donald Trump, who drew bipartisan ire in the US Congress for effectively giving the prince a free pass in the name of America First, based on the presidents vastly exaggerated claims of Saudi military contracts and investments in the US. It may well be that Trump will go out of his way to embrace the de facto Saudi leader as others scurry away, treating him as a pariah. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has kept international pressure mounting on Saudi Arabia, is also expected to attend. The crown prince has requested a meeting with Erdogan on the sidelines of the summit, according to Ankara. MBS leaves Tunisia to Argentina to attend G20: report Earlier in the day, Reuters news agency reported that Prince Mohammad left Tunisia for Argentina to attend the G20 summit, where all eyes will be on world leaders reaction to the man accused of ordering Khashoggis murder. The prince left Tunisia early on Wednesday, Reuters quoted Al-Arabiyas website as saying. The crown princes G20 attendance is a bold effort to force the issue of whether world leaders will work with Saudi Arabia, analysts say. Riyadh is also indicating with his appearance in Buenos Aires that Prince Mohammed is back in the saddle and the worst of the controversy is over. Human Rights Watch requested that Argentine authorities arrest the crown prince and that he be tried by a court for war crimes in Yemen and Khashoggis killing. Tuesday, November 27 Trump: I may cancel Putin meeting at G20 over Ukraine conflict US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he may cancel his scheduled meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in Argentina because of Russias maritime clash with Ukraine. Maybe I wont have the meeting. Maybe I wont even have the meeting I dont like that aggression. I dont want that aggression at all, Trump told the Washington Post in an interview. White House adviser says China-US trade deal still possible White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Tuesday that Trump will have a dinner meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the upcoming G20 gathering in Argentina and also held open the possibility that the two countries would reach a trade deal. There is a good possibility that we can make a deal and he is open to it, Kudlow, the National Economic Council director, told a press briefing, referring to Trump. No plans for Trump-MBS meet at G20: Bolton US National Security Adviser John Bolton said President Donald Trump had no plans to meet Saudi Crown Prince Prince Mohammed at this weeks G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said that while no meetings are planned, she could not rule out any interaction between Trump and Prince Salman. Trump will meet leaders of Russia, Japan, Germany, Argentina at G20 President 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 Chinas Xi Jinping for the first time since the worlds two largest economies imposed tariffs on each others imports. No plans for a Trump-May meeting at G20 British Prime Minister Theresa May has no specific plans for a bilateral meeting with Trump at the G20 meeting later this week, her spokesman said on Tuesday. On Monday, Trump stoked concerns among some of Mays legislators about her Brexit deal by saying he thought it was good for the EU and may make trade between Washington and London more difficult. Mays office disputed that, saying it would allow Britain to sign trade deals with countries throughout the world. Monday, November 26 Trump says he expects to raise China tariffs: WSJ Trump said on Monday he expects to move ahead with raising tariffs on $200bnin Chinese imports to 25 percent from 10 percent currently. 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. Trump, who is due to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires this week, said if negotiations are unsuccessful he would also put tariffs on the rest of Chinese imports. Prince Mohammed arrived in Egypt on Monday, the third leg of his first trip abroad since the murder of journalist Khashoggi in Turkey last month. Prince Mohammed is expected to travel to Tunisia after his two-day visit to Egypt before heading for a G20 meeting in Buenos Aires. Last week, Nader Hashemi, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Denver, said all eyes will be on MBS as world leaders gather for the G20 meeting from November 30 to December 1 in Argentina Hashemi noted the Argentina trip puts Prince Mohammed in possible legal jeopardy under the policy of universal jurisdiction under international law. If there is a case brought against the Saudi crown prince for war crimes or murder by another court that is considered to be credible then an indictment can be issued against him when he arrives in Buenos Aires. So, I suspect this is something his lawyers and advisors are looking into, Hashemi told Al Jazeera. Tech giant taken to task for not challenging Chinese governments policy that politically sensitive results be blocked. More than 200 employees comprising engineers, designers and managers at Alphabet Incs Google published an open letter demanding 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 US legislators have criticised Google for not taking a harder line against the Chinese governments policy that politically sensitive results be blocked. The letter expresses concern over the Chinese government 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. Human rights group Amnesty International also launched a public petition on Tuesday calling on Google to cancel Dragonfly. The organisation said it would encourage Google workers to sign the petition by targeting them on LinkedIn and protesting outside Google offices. Google declined to comment on the employees letter on Tuesday. Values over profits About 1,400 of Googles tens of thousands of workers urged the company in August to improve oversight of ethically questionable ventures, including Dragonfly. 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 home-grown internet services. The nine employees who first signed their names on Tuesdays letter said they had seen little progress. 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. Second world war veteran and activist was a lifelong socialist and concerned about the recent rise of the far right. Harry Leslie Smith, a second world war veteran and anti-poverty activist who described himself as the worlds oldest rebel, has died at the age of 95. His son John confirmed his death at the Belleville General Hospital in Ontario, Canada. In a message posted to Harrys Twitter account on Wednesday, John wrote to more than 250,000 followers: At 3:39 this morning, my dad Harry Leslie Smith died. I am an orphan. #istandwithharry Born in 1923, Smith grew up in poverty in northern England and served in the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the second world war. As a young soldier, he witnessed the floods of refugees across Europe abandoning their homes in the hope of finding safety. Smiths greatest concern in 2018 was for the millions of refugees today fleeing war, persecution or poverty. He had been planning to tour Europes refugee and migrant camps to rally empathy and awareness. {articleGUID} In an interview with Al Jazeera in October last year, he said: It was such a different world then. Britain was a different country. It was a country with a heart. We have lost some of our early love for each other. And today, immigrant is a dirty word, its ridiculous. Smith spent his final years writing Dont Let My Past Be Your Future his fifth book, recording podcasts and giving speeches in support of the welfare state and against neo-liberalism. A lifelong socialist, he brought the 2014 Labour Party conference to tears with a blistering speech about an England before the NHS, describing when common diseases trolled our neighbourhoods and snuffed out life like a cold breath on a warm candle flame. He attracted hundreds of thousands of supporters across the world, using his Twitter feed to comment on current affairs. He was particularly concerned about the recent growth of the far right across Europe. Jeremy Corbyn, leader of Britains main opposition Labour Party, was among those who considered Smith a friend. Harry said to me some time ago, "If you saw thousands of refugees wearily dragging their feet along the dusty roads of war, in your youth & now in your old age you see the same thing happening again to innocent people and do not raise your voice against it you've got no humanity" John Smith (son of Harry Leslie Smith) (@Harryslaststand) November 26, 2018 Smith lost his sister to tuberculosis when she was 10 years old because the family couldnt afford a doctor; his wife Friede, a German who he dearly loved, to cancer, and his 70-year-old son, Peter, to mental illness. According to his son John, Smith had suffered a fall last week and was in hospital with pneumonia and other illnesses. He is survived by his sons John and Michael, and two grandchildren. John had accompanied him for the last eight years on speaking engagements, and had over the past week kept his fathers supporters informed of his condition via Twitter. Tens of thousands of people had sent messages of support to Smith while he was in hospital. Speaking about the end of his life last October to Al Jazeera, Smith had said: I had a good life, explaining that he did not fear death. I know that once this beautiful life that we dont appreciate ends, it is curtains. There is nothing else. Gavin Ford, one of the most popular radio presenters in Lebanon, was found dead in his home east of Beirut. Beirut, Lebanon Gavin Ford, one of Lebanons most popular radio presenters, was found dead in his home in the hills of Beit Mery near the capital, Beirut. Ford, a British citizen, was found reportedly covered in blood in his bedroom on Tuesday, with police confirming it was a murder without putting forward a motive. Police said that Fords car appeared to have been stolen at the same time, although they did not directly link the theft to the killing. An-Nahar, a local newspaper, reported that Fords arms had been bound and he had been strangled with a piece of cloth. The Associated Press news agency also quoted an unnamed official who confirmed Ford was strangled. Fords voice enthralled the Lebanese for 20 years. He was the host of the breakfast show for Radio One, an English-language music channel in Lebanon. A household name, his killing has left his fans in shock. Hiba Abboud listened to him as a teenager over a decade and a half ago. She remembered him with fondness and said: Gavin made everyones morning. He was always upbeat and his was the cool show to listen to. Abboud called his untimely demise a loss for Lebanon adding that A piece of Lebanon is now missing. His voice is a part of growing up in Lebanon. Deeply saddened to hear about the murder of Gavin Ford, Radio One's beloved morning host. Listening to his show on our way to school was the highlight of our morning for years. May your soul rest in peace and may justice be served. #GavinFord #Lebanon #RadioOne Tala Anchassi (@TalaAnc) November 27, 2018 https://twitter.com/AsmarJoanna/status/1067453253095514112?ref_src=twsrc^tfw Hearing Radio one Lebanon play classical music to lament gavin ford is a different level of sadness. #GavinFord Oliver Jabbour (@oliver_jabbour) November 27, 2018 Ford arrived in Lebanon from Cyprus in 1995 and joined Radio One. He quickly earned a reputation for his humour on the show, Gavin Ford in the Morning, which he hosted along with Olga Habre. His colleagues at the radio station reached out to the police when Ford did not arrive for work and did not reply to calls. After hearing news of his death, the station released a statement: We are heartbroken to announce the passing of our dear Gavin Ford, a member of our team for many joyful years. Chris Rampling, the British ambassador to Lebanon, said: I am shocked and deeply saddened by the death of Gavin Ford, one of Lebanons most popular morning breakfast hosts. The thoughts of all at the embassy are with his family, friends and colleagues at this terribly difficult time. Genuine and sincere man Derek Isaacs, a British writer based in Beirut, knew Ford for years. He remembers how Ford did a series of stories on a 4-day-old kitten rescued by Isaacs last year. Speaking to Al Jazeera, Isaacs remembered Ford as a gentle, genuine and a sincere man. He had such an important job and yet he was so down to earth, Isaacs said, adding that the killing was a complete mystery to him. Lebanon is largely seen as a safe shore on the Mediterranean for foreigners and locals alike. However, Fords murder, and before him the killing of British diplomat Rebecca Dykes in December last year, raises questions over the safety of expats in the country. Lebanese police officials have begun questioning Fords neighbours in Beit Mery, east of Beirut, to identify recent visitors to his home. For now, the Lebanese are puzzled. Who could have killed a man who brought such happiness to our lives, asked his long-time fan, Abboud. Heartbreaking news: Radio host Gavin Ford from Radio One was found dead in his appartment in Beit Merri #Lebanon earlier today.. no words can explain how much you brightened out mornings with your show and impressions and jokes .. Luna Safwan (@LunaSafwan) November 27, 2018 Ford will be remembered, as one Twitter follower put it, as the man who helped them bear Beiruts chaotic traffic each morning. World leaders at upcoming G20 summit may refuse to shake hands with Saudi prince, amid outcry over Khashoggis killing. Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has arrived in Buenos Aires in the run-up to the G20 summit, a visit fraught with controversy over the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Human Rights Watch asked Argentina on Monday to use the war crimes clause in its constitution to investigate any involvement by the crown prince in possible crimes against humanity in Yemen and Khashoggis murder. The killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and a critic of the crown prince, at Riyadhs consulate in Istanbul six weeks ago, has strained Saudi Arabias ties with the West and battered Prince Mohammeds image abroad. Saudi Arabia has said the prince, the kingdoms de facto ruler, had no prior knowledge of the murder. Prince Mohammed arrived in Buenos Aires from Tunisia, where he was met by protesters who denounced him as a murderer for the killing of Khashoggi. Western nations are also calling for an end to the Saudi-led military campaign in neighbouring Yemen, which was launched by Prince Mohammed, as a humanitarian crisis there worsens. Shunning the photo-op? The G20 leaders summit begins on Friday and there will likely be leaders who would not want to be seen shaking hands with the Saudi prince. The summits photo opportunities could cause serious ripples, and have concrete repercussions for the world leaders at home by appearing to exonerate or legitimise Prince Mohammed, who US intelligence agencies reportedly concluded ordered the killing. {articleGUID} Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has kept international pressure mounting on Saudi Arabia, is also expected to attend. The crown prince has requested a meeting with Erdogan on the sidelines of the summit, according to Ankara. Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Pentagon chief James Mattis will brief the US Senate on Wednesday on the latest developments related to Saudi Arabia. The closed-door briefing could determine how far Congress goes in punishing its long-time Middle East ally over Khashoggis murder. Many US legislators, including some of President Donald Trumps fellow Republicans, as well as Democrats, have expressed concern about Khashoggis killing and the war in Yemen, which has created one of the worlds most urgent humanitarian disasters. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says some kind of response is needed from the US for the Saudis role in the death. While US President Donald Trump has equivocated over who is to blame, the Senate is considering a vote as soon as this week to halt US involvement in the Saudi-led war in Yemen. What obviously happened, as basically certified by the CIA, is completely abhorrent to everything the United States holds dear and stands for in the world, McConnell said. Were discussing what the appropriate response would be. Mattis and Pompeo are expected to address the Senate at 16:00 GMT in Washington, DC. In recent years, the Supreme Court has emerged from being a quiet branch of government that spoke only through its decisions to a controversial agency with its own share of infighting and intrigue. The string of controversy began with the impeachment of Chief Justice Renato Corona in 2012. Corona was tried in the Senate and was convicted and ousted for failing to declare all his bank account holdings in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth. In his place, then President Benigno Aquino III appointed Maria Lourdes Sereno to head the Supreme Court. Serenos appointment caused a stir because she was a junior justice at the time, and she had bypassed other magistrates who had been at the High Court for much longer than she had. Six years later, Sereno found herself in the same predicament. An impeachment complaint was filed against her before the House of Representatives, with some of her colleagues coming out to testify against her. Even before this progressed, however, Sereno was ousted when the Supreme Court voted in favor of a quo warranto petition that voided her appointment in the first place. Sereno was replaced by one of her most vocal critics in the court, Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, who stayed on for less than two months before her retirement.Meanwhile, the most senior justice, Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio, was bypassed yet again this week. President Duterte picked another justice in the running, Lucas Bersamin, from among the short list submitted by the Judicial and Bar Council. While it was clear to many and even among his colleagues that Carpio stood a fair chance at appointment, his vocal stand against the Presidents inaction on the South China Sea dispute with China may have caused some questions about his loyalty. Then again, the President has spoken, we have a new chief justice, and there are many things to do not only in the cases for the Courts disposition but also in the administration of courts nationwide. Bersamins work is cut out for him, and there is no room for intrigue, or dispute. The justices need to get out of the limelight and back into chambers for the real job to get done. Top Trump administration officials defend US involvement in Yemen, saying downgrading ties with Riyadh would be mistake. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said there was no direct evidence connecting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi last month in Istanbul. Pompeo spoke to reporters on Wednesday after he and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told the Senate behind closed doors that weakening US-Saudi ties over the killing would hurt national security. There is no direct reporting connecting the crown prince to the order to murder Jamal Khashoggi, Pompeo said. His comments come despite reports that the CIA concluded that Prince Mohammed must have at least known about the plot. CIA Director Gina Haspel was not present during Wednesdays Senate briefing. The October murder of Saudi national Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey has heightened the Capitol Hill caterwauling and media pile-on. But degrading US-Saudi ties would be a grave mistake for the national security of the US and its allies, Pompeo wrote in a blog post shortly before Wednesdays briefing for US senators. Pompeo made the case that the Saudis are too important an ally to lose, citing its help to contain Iran in the region, secure democracy in Iraq and fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) and other armed groups. During the briefing, Mattis said security interests cannot be dismissed as [the US] seeks accountability for Khashoggis murder, according to remarks sent to reporters. I must note we are seldom free to work with unblemished partners, he added. Pompeo said the United States involvement in the Yemen conflict is central to the Trump administrations broader goal of containing Iranian influence in the Middle East. The first mission is to assist the Saudis and the Emiratis in their fight against Iranian-backed Houthi fighters. This conflict isnt optional for Saudi Arabia, and abandoning it puts American interests at risk, too, he said, according to the prepared remarks. The US support for the war has come under increased scrutiny since Khashoggis murder. After offering several contradicting accounts, Saudi Arabia admitted last month that Khashoggi had been killed in its Istanbul consulate on October 2 and his body dismembered. Riyadh has said that Prince Mohammed, also known as MBS, had no knowledge of the killing, which Turkey said was ordered at the highest level of Saudi leadership. Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ruled out King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, however. The murder has strained relations between Saudi Arabia and several other countries, with rights groups and many US politicians calling for Prince Mohammed to be held to account. {articleGUID} Prince is out of control Wednesdays briefing could determine if and how far Congress goes in punishing the longtime US ally in the Middle East. According to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, some kind of response is needed from the US for the Saudis role in the murder. The US senators who spoke to reporters after the briefing said they were disappointed that CIA Director Haspel was not present. Democratic Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey accused the Trump administration of attempting to stonewall the Senate and called the absence of an intelligence official outrageous. Some said the White House blocked her from briefing the Senate, an allegation it denies. Senators called for greater action against the kingdom over Khashoggis death and the war in Yemen. When we do not send a message to a country like Saudi Arabia, we are telling an ally they can kill without impunity because they have an interest with us, Menendez told reporters after the briefing. We are then sending a global message that is frightening and one that does not serve US national interest. Republican Senator Bob Corker said after the briefing it was apparent to everyone in the room that MBS was responsible for Khashoggis death. We have a problem here. We understand that Saudi Arabia is an ally, of sorts, and a semi important country, said Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. We also have a crown prince thats out of control. Earlier this month, the US placed economic sanctions on 17 Saudi nationals allegedly involved in Khashoggis murder. Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan said he has asked the Trump administration to brief Congress about the killing of Khashoggi in the next week or two. Its very important, I think, that we speak with moral clarity and with respect to holding people accountable, we need to do that, Ryan told reporters at the US Capitol. We have actually requested (for) the administration to come and give a briefing to all members of Congress, he added. That means theres more to find out and more to do on it. Shortly before Wednesdays briefing, Pompeo also announced an additional $131m in additional humanitarian aid for Yemen, which has been struck by food and medicine shortages since the war in Yemen began in 2015. Through our generous example, the U.S. has galvanized humanitarian assistance to ease Yemeni peoples suffering. Today were announcing nearly $131 million in additional food assistance in #Yemen, bringing total humanitarian aid to more than $697 million over the past 14 months. Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) November 28, 2018 The war in Yemen began in September 2014, when Houthi rebels took control of Yemens capital Sanaa and proceeded to push southwards towards the countrys second-biggest city, Aden. In response, 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. According to aid groups, tens of thousands of people have been killed in the war. As per Save the Children, as many as 85,000 children under five may have died from extreme hunger or disease since 2015. Support grows for Yemen resolution after briefing by Trump officials on Khashoggis killing leaves senators frustrated. Support is growing in the Senate for a resolution aimed at limiting US involvement in the war in Yemen. The Senate voted 63-37 on Wednesday to advance the resolution, which, if passed, would end United States military support for the Saudi-led coalition in the war. The advancement sets the stage for a possible final vote on the measure in coming days. The Trump administration has threatened to veto the resolution if it passes Congress. Politicians are frustrated with the administrations response to the killing of columnist Jamal Khashoggi and say the administration has not done enough to punish Saudi Arabia for its involvement. Earlier on Wednesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told the Senate in a closed-door briefing that weakening US-Saudi ties over the killing of Khashoggi would be a mistake. The October murder of Saudi national Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey has heightened the Capitol Hill caterwauling and media pile-on. But degrading US-Saudi ties would be a grave mistake for the national security of the US and its allies, Pompeo wrote in a blog post shortly before Wednesdays briefing for US senators. Several senators, speaking to reporters after the briefing, said they were not satisfied with the administrations stance on its support for Saudi Arabia in the war on Yemen, and called for Prince Mohammed to be held accountable for Khashoggis death. Some who had opposed the Yemen resolution in an earlier vote now support it, including Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, who said on Wednesday that its time to send Saudi Arabia a message both on its violation of human rights and the incredible humanitarian catastrophe its creating. Pompeo called the vote poorly timed as diplomatic efforts to end the conflict were under way. But Senator Bernie Sanders, who is sponsoring the bill, said the time to end the US involvement in the war is now. We have already seen 85,000 children starved to death, the UN tells us that millions of people are facing starvation, 10,000 new cholera cases are developing each week because there is no clean drinking water in the country, Sanders said following the briefing. {articleGUID} All of that was caused by the Saudi-led invasion of Yemen three years ago, led by a despotic, dishonest dictatorship. The war in Yemen began in September 2014, when Houthi rebels took control of Yemens capital Sanaa and proceeded to push southwards towards the countrys second-biggest city, Aden. In response, 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. According to aid groups, tens of thousands of people have been killed in the war. Republican Mike Lee, who is a co-sponsor of the Yemen resolution, criticised both former President Barack Obama for getting the US involved in the war and current President Donald Trump for continuing it. This is a war of bipartisan creation. A Democratic president has gotten us involved in a civil war in Yemen. We now have a Republican president, and that war has continued, Lee said. Lee added the Senate would try to invoke the War Powers Act, which is a law that states the president cannot get the US involved in a war without approval from Congress. Out of control prince Republican Senator Bob Corker also voiced his support for the resolution, saying that the US needs to send a message to Saudi Arabia with regards to the war in Yemen and the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a permanent US resident and contributor to the Washington Post. After offering contradictory statements, Saudi Arabia admitted last month that Khashoggi was killed inside its consulate in Istanbul on October 2 and his body was dismembered. The kingdom has repeatedly said Prince Mohammed had no knowledge of the killing, which Turkey said was ordered at the highest level of Saudi leadership. Corker said that he prefers the executive branch send a message, but that so far it has failed to do so. We have watched innocent people being killed and we have seen people die of diseases they should not be dying of, Corker said. We also have a crown prince that is out of control; A blockade of Qatar, the arrest of a prime minister of Lebanon, the killing of a journalist, he added. Several senators said they were disappointed that CIA Director Gina Haspel was not present during Wednesdays briefing. Trump has dismissed reports of a CIA assessment that Prince Mohammed ordered Khashoggis killing. On Wednesday, both Mattis and Pompeo said there is no direct evidence linking Prince Mohammed to the killing. We have no smoking gun the crown prince was involved, not the intelligence community or anyone else. There is no smoking gun, Mattis told reporters. But senators were unsatisfied, and Senator Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally, threatened to oppose key legislation until the Senate is briefed by the CIA on Khashoggis murder. Hassan Al Kontar spent the past seven months at a Kuala Lumpur airport terminal, posting his ordeal on social media. A Syrian man who had been stranded at a terminal at a Malaysian airport for the past seven months has finally arrived in Canada, ending a long ordeal that highlighted asylum seekers often bizarre quest for refuge. On Monday night, Hassan Al Kontar landed at Vancouver airport, wearing flip-flops and a T-shirt. He became a permanent resident upon landing, since Canada had already recognised him as a refugee. Al Kontars 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 Airports Terminal 2. His ordeal began when he was refused a new Syrian passport while working in the United Arab Emirates in 2012. The 37-year-old was afraid of returning home because he refused to enlist in the army. His only choice was to go to Malaysia, one of the few countries where Syrians did not need a visa. After outstaying his Malaysian tourist visa, he paid a penalty before attempting to depart but was not allowed to board his Ecuador-bound flight. He similarly tried to go to Cambodia but was deported back to Malaysia. Millions of Syrians have fled a devastating seven-year civil war that has left more than 350,000 people dead. Ordeal shared on social media Al Kontar ended up at the airport terminals domestic transfer lounge, where he spent the past seven months looking for options. He took to social media to document his everyday life, catching the attention of a group of Canadian volunteers who filed a refugee application on his behalf in April. With processing time for refugee applications lasting up to 23 months, a Canadian group lobbied with the authorities to let him into the country until his legal status was formalised, but to no avail. Things took a turn for the worse when he was arrested by Malaysian police last month and sent to a detention centre where authorities threatened to deport him to Syria. {articleGUID} Meanwhile, his paperwork for asylum was cleared in Canada. Al Kontar said he had been too excited since his arrival to sleep. In real life, there are moments that are more beautiful than the dream itself. He said the first thing he did on stepping out of the Vancouver airport into the rain was to breathe in his new surroundings. For me, walking on the street again and smelling the fresh air, its not a normal thing: Its the sound and smell of freedom. UKs central bank says smoother Brexit may mitigate much of economic effect from leaving EU. The Bank of England has warned a no-deal Brexit would trigger a financial crisis in the United Kingdom, causing the pound to plunge by 25 percent. The UKs central bank on Wednesday said in a report that such a scenario could mean a gross domestic product (GDP) shortfall of 8 percent in the first quarter of 2019. The bank said a smoother Brexit for Britain could help mitigate much of the economic effect from the countrys decision in June 2016 to leave the European Union. The banks warning came shortly after the British government said the country will be poorer after leaving the EU than if it had stayed in, no matter what sort of trade deal it enters with the bloc. A government report released earlier on Wednesday estimated that 15 years after Brexit, the UKs GDP will be 0.6 percent lower, even if it enters into a trade deal with the EU. A no-deal Brexit, on the other hand, would render the GDP 9.3 percent smaller than it would otherwise be in the same period, the report added. {articleGUID} British Finance Minister Philip Hammond said the departure deal agreed on Sunday between Britain and the EU was the optimum way to minimise the cost of leaving the bloc. Hammond insisted that the economy was not the only consideration and controlling Britains borders, money and laws also had value. There will be a cost to leaving the EU because there will be impediments to our trade. What the prime ministers deal does is absolutely minimise these costs, he told BBC radio. Bad news for Theresa May The report comes as bad news for Prime Minister Theresa May as she tries to sell her Brexit divorce deal to a sceptical nation. May has less than a fortnight to convince MPs to back the deal in a December 11 vote and avoid plunging Brexit into chaos, four months away from Britains March 29 departure date. May runs a minority Conservative government and opposition parties, as well as many of her own MPs, are against the deal. {articleGUID} This analysis does not show that we will be poorer in the future than we are today, May told MPs in parliament. It shows we will be better off with this deal. Our deal is the best deal available for jobs and our economy that allows us to honour the referendum, she said, referring to the 2016 vote to leave the EU. On Wednesday, she visited Scotland, which voted strongly to remain in the EU in the 2016 referendum. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said Mays deal is bad and her Scottish National Party will vote against it. The Brexit Deal for jobs and our economy explained in 60 seconds #BackTheBrexitDeal pic.twitter.com/sqj3QgQbeu Theresa May (@theresa_may) November 28, 2018 Jeremy Corbyn, leader of Britains main opposition Labour Party, told May she was running the most shambolic government in living memory and she should accept the reality that parliament would not back the deal. Its not hard to be the best deal, if its the only deal, he said. By definition, its also the worst deal. This is the most shambolic government in living memory. Today at #PMQs pic.twitter.com/5nPLrJEil8 Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) November 28, 2018 Some Brexiteers think the Brexit deal keeps Britain shackled too closely to Brussels, while pro-EU MPs think the terms are worse than staying in the bloc and want a second referendum. An online Survation poll of 1,030 adults for the Daily Mail newspaper found that 37 percent supported the deal up 10 percent on November 15 and 35 percent opposed it, down 14 percent. Some 41 percent wanted MPs to vote for the deal and 38 percent wanted them to vote it down, as per the survey conducted on Tuesday. Further militarisation of the annexed peninsula puts the entire Black Sea region in danger, Kiev says. Kiev, Ukraine Ukraines foreign ministry has condemned Russias plan to deploy a fourth S-400 surface-to-air missile battalion to the annexed Crimean peninsula amid a deepening conflict with Kiev. Earlier on Wednesday, Russias southern military district spokesman Vadim Astafiyev told Interfax news agency that S-400s would soon be deployed to Crimea. The system is expected to be operational by the end of the year, according to Russias RIA news agency. Olexiy Makeyev, the Ukrainian foreign ministrys political director, told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that the development was dangerous not only for Ukraine but the whole Black Sea region. The systems operational range is up to 400km so it places all literal states in the Black Sea region, including NATO members under the threat of an attack. We know that those missiles can be used also for ground targets, he said. Makeyev said that Moscow has been militarising Crimea since 2014 bringing in new weapon systems including nuclear-capable aircraft and missiles as well as military personnel. {articleGUID} The occupation and subsequent militarisation of Crimea led to the expansion of the area of use of Russian warships and military aircraft in the Black Sea and far beyond, even the Mediterranean basin, he said. Such militarisation has far-reaching consequences for security not only in the Black Sea area but in the whole southern Europe, as well as North Africa and Middle East. Tensions escalate The tension between Ukraine and Russia reached a new low this week after the Russian border patrol blocked the route of three Ukrainian military vessels travelling from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov through the Kerch Strait the shared internal waters of both states according to their 2003 agreement. {articleGUID} The seizure of the ships and the arrest of 24 crew members caused international outcry and condemnation of Moscows moves, including from US President Donald Trump who suggested that he might cancel his planned meeting with Russias President Vladimir Putin over the aggression. Putins foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov responded saying the meeting was equally needed by both sides and important for the development of the general situation in the world. Sergey Lavrov, Russias foreign minister, used stronger language, calling on Washington to stop encouraging provocative moves by Ukraine and instead mediate between Kiev and Moscow-backed rebels who claimed control of parts of Ukraines Donetsk and Luhansk regions in 2014. Lavrov claimed Ukrainian warships had ignored maritime law on Sunday, aiming to create a scandal for domestic political purposes. US encouragement for such acts saddens me greatly, he said. The standoff began on Sunday after Russia seized three Ukrainian vessels [Al Jazeera] Makeyev responded to the allegations, advising anybody who listens to the Russian statement [on Ukraine provoking Sundays clash] to read George Orwell beforehand, because you would not understand the Russian false logic. Nobody [in Ukraine] is interested in warmongering. We are a peaceful nation. But we will defend our soil from the Russian aggression. We count on support of our American partners and we enjoy a full support also by the European Union, he said. On Wednesday, a 30-day period of martial law took effect in 10 of Ukraines 27 regions, with President Petro Poroshenko saying it aims to prevent an all-out Russian invasion. Kept like hostages Also on Wednesday, a Russian court in Crimea ordered the 60-day detention of the last group of 24 captured Ukrainian crew members. {articleGUID} The nine sailors were taken to the same detention centre in the Russian-controlled Ukrainian city of Simferopol on the peninsula as their 12 colleagues who faced the court a day earlier on Tuesday, Aider Azamatov, lawyer of Yuri Budzila one of the detainees, told Al Jazeera. The same verdict was handed down to the remaining three crew members on Tuesday in Kerch city where they are hospitalised following their injuries in the Russian air force attack on his ship on Sunday. They are accused of illegal crossing of Russias maritime border, said Azamatov. Of course, my defendant did not plead guilty. He understands that it is a political matter and the sailors are kept like hostages, he said. Azamatov also said that all of the detainees should be recognised as prisoners of war as they are all military personnel. {articleGUID} The Geneva convention has to be applied to them, which means that the captured servicemen should not be put in custody like this, he said. They should have been left on their vessels and armed patrol should have been assigned to them right in the sea. Ukraine is seeking to secure their release through international mediators. We started negotiations with our partners and possible mediators. We engaged the International Committee of the Red Cross to be intermediator in our talks with Russians, said Makeyev. We would appreciate every possible effort of all the countries, of all the free nations to be intermediator and urge Russian Federation to return our prisoners of war. Follow Tamila Varshalomidze on Twitter @tamila87v. Russia condemns the implementation saying martial law will escalate the conflict that has killed about 10,000 people. Kiev, Ukraine Thirty days of martial law will take effect in 10 of Ukraines 27 regions on Wednesday with President Petro Poroshenko saying it aims to prevent an all-out Russian invasion. The measure that affects regions closest to Russias military bases the first ever martial law during the four-year conflict was approved by parliament on Monday, a day after a clash between Ukraine and Russian forces in the Sea of Azov, but it lacks one last signature. Andriy Parubiy, chairman of Verkhovna Rada the Ukrainian parliament said on Tuesday in Brussels he would sign it on Wednesday, which will kick-start the implementation of the largely symbolic legislation. The Kremlin has condemned the development saying martial law will escalate the conflict that saw Moscow seize three Ukrainian ships and capture 24 crew members off the coast of the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula. A court in Crimea ordered 12 of the Ukrainian sailors to be held for two months, the TASS news agency reported on Tuesday. Volodymyr Fesenko, director of the centre for political studies Penta, told Al Jazeera martial law was for now more like a preventive measure. But in case of any manifestations of the Russian aggression, Ukraine would be able to respond militarily, he said. It will not affect the day-to-day life of ordinary people, said Fesenko. Why now? Poroshenko, who critics allege initiated martial law to postpone Ukraines March 31 presidential elections, said on a local TV station on Tuesday that Kiev had to resort to it to save the country. Ukraine is facing a threat of a full-scale war with the Russian Federation, he said. Asked why Kiev did not impose martial law when Crimea was annexed by Moscow in 2015 and the Russian-backed rebels seized parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Fesenko told Al Jazeera it was hard to say. At that time, the law enforcement agencies and majority of the government were simply disorganised and demoralised, he said. Also Ukraines international partners advised Kiev against it. Fesenko rejected the pro-Russian theory that Ukraine might have provoked the latest flare-up and exaggerated it with martial law to prevent the Russia-backed violence that killed more than 10,000 people in the country since 2014. The Sea of Azov conflict on Sunday that saw Russia temporarily close the Kerch Strait came two months after Poroshenko announced the creation of a new naval base in the area between Crimea and Russia. He made the move after two Ukrainian warships the search and rescue ship A500 Donbas and the seagoing tug A830 Korets on September 23 passed through the strait for the first time without incident. The vessels used to be part of the countrys Black Sea fleet. The country lost much of its navy after the annexation of Crimea when Russia seized Ukraines ships. Economic hit The developments of the last few days have affected the Ukrainian currency as markets reacted to the tension. Hryvnia lost five percent of its value, but the situation is temporary, according to Pavlo Kukhta, deputy chairman of Strategic Advisory Group at the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. It is typical for a situation like this. Psychological reactions happen when risks are higher, but it does not really affect the economy in a major way, he told Al Jazeera. Kukhta also said since Russia has already reopened the Kerch Strait for commercial shipments, the effect of the conflict is also expected to be limited in the Mariupol regions port from where Ukraine exports one-quarter of its metals. Ukraines economy suffered a major blow when it lost control over Crimea and parts of Luhansk and Donetsk as many industrial factories are based in the territory. But the country has weathered its worst days, according to Kukhta, with economic growth at an average European rate of 3.5 percent this year. Follow Al Jazeeras Tamila Varshalomidze on Twitter: @tamila87v Russia condemns the implementation, saying martial law will escalate the conflict that has killed about 10,000 people. Kiev, Ukraine A 30-day period of martial law has taken effect in 10 of Ukraines 27 regions on Wednesday, with President Petro Poroshenko saying it aims to prevent an all-out Russian invasion. The measure, which affects the regions closest to Russias military bases the first ever martial law in the countrys history was approved by parliament on Monday, a day after a clash between Ukrainian and Russian forces in the Sea of Azov. The largely symbolic legislation was activated after Poroshenko and Andriy Parubiy, chairman of Verkhovna Rada the Ukrainian parliament signed and published it in the government newspaper, Uryadovy Courier. The Kremlin has condemned the development, saying martial law will escalate the conflict that saw Moscow seize three Ukrainian ships and capture 24 crew members off the coast of the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula. On Wednesday, Russias Southern Military District spokesperson, Vadim Astafyev, told Interfax news agency that a fourth S400 surface-to-air missile battalion would soon be deployed to Crimea. The annexed peninsula already has three such missile installations, which are capable of shooting down up to 36 aircraft at a range of 400km. The new missiles will be operational by the end of the year, according to Russias Ria news agency. Ukraine has yet to comment on the development. Volodymyr Fesenko, director of the Penta centre for political studies, told Al Jazeera martial law was for now more like a preventive measure. But in case of any manifestations of the Russian aggression, Ukraine would be able to respond militarily, he said. It will not affect the day-to-day life of ordinary people, said Fesenko. Why now? Poroshenko, who critics allege initiated martial law to postpone Ukraines March 31 presidential elections, said on a local TV station on Tuesday that Kiev had to resort to it to save the country. Ukraine is facing a threat of a full-scale war with the Russian Federation, he said. Asked why Kiev did not impose martial law when Crimea was annexed by Moscow in 2014 and Russian-backed rebels seized parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Fesenko told Al Jazeera it was hard to say. At that time, the law enforcement agencies and majority of the government were simply disorganised and demoralised, he said. Also, Ukraines international partners advised Kiev against it. Fesenko rejected the pro-Russian theory that Ukraine may have provoked the latest flare-up to bring the ongoing, Russia-backed, separatist violence in the east back onto the international communitys radar. The fighting has killed more than 10,000 people in the country since 2014. The Sea of Azov conflict on Sunday that saw Russia temporarily close the Kerch Strait came two months after Poroshenko announced the creation of a new naval base in the area between Crimea and Russia. He made the move after two Ukrainian warships the search and rescue ship A500 Donbas and the seagoing tug A830 Korets on September 23 passed through the strait for the first time without incident. The vessels used to be part of the countrys Black Sea fleet. {articleGUID} The country lost much of its navy after the annexation of Crimea when Russia seized Ukraines ships. Economic hit The developments of the last few days have affected the Ukrainian currency as markets reacted to the tension. The hryvnia lost five percent of its value, but the situation is temporary, according to Pavlo Kukhta, deputy chairman of Strategic Advisory Group at the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. It is typical for a situation like this. Psychological reactions happen when risks are higher, but it does not really affect the economy in a major way, he told Al Jazeera. Kukhta also said since Russia has already reopened the Kerch Strait for commercial shipments, the effect of the conflict is also expected to be limited to the Mariupol regions port from where Ukraine exports one-quarter of its metals. Ukraines economy suffered a major blow when it lost control over Crimea and parts of Luhansk and Donetsk as many factories are based in the territory. But the country has weathered its worst days, according to Kukhta, with economic growth at an average European rate of 3.5 percent this year. Follow Al Jazeeras Tamila Varshalomidze on Twitter: @tamila87v Lev Tahor community forced out after villagers say they felt intimidated by the groups lack of contact with locals. A few months after moving from Canada to a remote part of Guatemala to find religious freedom, a group of ultra-orthodox Jews have now been forced to leave their homes in a bitter conflict with villagers. The Lev Tahor community packed its bags on Friday in San Juan la Laguna around 150km west of Guatemala City, to board buses bound for the capital after weeks of friction with sections of the local population. The towns Elders Council voted last week to force the group to leave because they say some members of the sect have mistreated indigenous residents and tourists in the area, the AP news agency reported. Verbal abuse, threats to cut off power and eject them by force were, say the Jews, the last straw for the group who began arriving in March from Canada, where the Lev Tahor groups strict religious ways had clashed with authorities. Founded in the 1980s by Israeli Shlomo Helbrans, the Lev Tahor practice an austere form of Judaism. Winning admiration from some Jews for its devoutness, the group is condemned by others as a cult-like sect. Helbrans declined to be interviewed, but another Lev Tahor leader in San Juan, rabbi Uriel Goldman, fielded questions about the group. Goldman insisted most of the Guatemalan villagers were friendly toward the group but that it was pushed out by an aggressive minority he said were motivated by local politics. I dont understand why they dont want us, were doing nothing bad here, said Goldman, who like other men in the Lev Tahor, which means Pure Heart in Hebrew, the Reuters news agency reported. Ultimatum According to Goldman, the Elders Council issued an ultimatum to the Lev Tahor, saying water and electricity would be cut off if they did not leave. They also warned us they would remove us from the village by force, he added. Miguel Vasquez Cholotio, a member of the council, said the villagers decided to expel the group because they refused to greet or have physical contact with the community. We felt intimidated by them in the streets. We thought they wanted to change our religion and customs, he said. Eschewing technological trappings such as television and computers, daily life among the Lev Tahor, is steeped in religion. Rejecting the state of Israel because it views the Jews as a people in exile, the Lev Tahor hope to find land elsewhere in Guatemala to build 30 houses to resettle the 200-odd strong community, Goldman said. Around 60 members of the group left San Juan during the night with the rest set to follow. Peter Geoghegan Peter Geoghegan is an Irish writer and broadcaster based in Glasgow. His most recent book is The People's Referendum: Why Scotland Will Never Be the S... more ame Again. LinkedIn, the worlds largest professional network, has just revealed its inaugural LinkedIn Opportunity Index in the Asia Pacific region where it has more than 153 million members including six million in the Philippines. The Index is a composite measure that seeks to understand how people perceive opportunity and more importantly, barriers that may prevent them from getting to those opportunities. The research surveyed over 11,000 respondents in nine markets in the Asia Pacific region - Australia, Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore. The Philippines ranked third along with the Chinese Mainland on the LinkedIn Opportunity Index, with Indonesia and India taking the top two spots. On the other hand, more developed markets such as Japan, Hong Kong, and Australia trailed in the Index as people in these markets expressed concerns over the economic outlook, and generally felt more cautious about their chances of accessing and achieving success with opportunities that are relevant to them. We believe access to opportunity should be universal and for everyone. With the inaugural LinkedIn Opportunity Index, our aim is to gain an insight into the aspirations of people across the Asia Pacific region, how they feel about the opportunities they want to pursue, as well as the barriers that may stand in their way. The growing workforce in the region is a key asset that, if harnessed effectively, is going to continue to drive the economies. Over time, by tracking peoples perception of opportunity and the barriers they face, we hope we can continue to facilitate more of a balance between demand and supply in the opportunity marketplace, said Olivier Legrand, Managing Director, LinkedIn in Asia Pacific. Key Highlights of LinkedIn Opportunity Index 2018: - Starting own business is top opportunity for respondents in the Philippines More than half, or 53 percent, of respondents in the Philippines see starting my own business as their definition of opportunity. They are similar to respondents in Indonesia (50%) who are interested in entrepreneurial pursuits. In contrast, respondents in Australia (13%), Hong Kong (13%) and Japan (7%) are least likely to embark on new ventures. Similar to many respondents in APAC, many respondents in the Philippines hope to achieve or maintain work-life balance. A significant 44 percent of respondents in the country have identified having a job which offers good work-life balance as their ultimate definition of opportunity, slightly above the APAC average of 40 percent.A significant 37 percent of respondents in the Philippines also interpret their ultimate opportunity as being able to learn a new skill. In an environment concerned with the impact of AI/automation and other shifts in the labour ecosystem, professionals also recognise that with jobs rapidly evolving, they need to upskill to stay relevant. - Respondents in the Philippines cite financial status as top barrier to opportunity Similar to the rest of APAC, a significant number of respondents in Philippines (46 percent) believe that their less optimal financial situation is the top obstacle to their access to opportunity. While APAC respondents cited barriers to opportunity such as lack of a strong network and connections, a difficult job market, and lack of required professional skills, respondents in the Philippines ranked innate or psychological reasons such as fear of failure (24 percent) and lack of confidence (20 percent) as bigger hurdles to overcome. - The Philippines believes diligence is currency to get ahead in life Similar to more than 90 percent of APAC respondents, 96 percent of respondents in the Philippines believe in working hard to get ahead in life. Other attributes respondents in the country consider as important to advance in life include the willingness to embrace change (93 percent), social equality (91 percent), level of education (87 percent), and knowing the right people or having the right connections (85 percent). The barriers to realising opportunities in life are very real, and despite the diversity of the Asia Pacific region, there are more similarities than differences when it comes to our hopes and aspirations. The good news is that no matter what opportunities mean for each one of us, we can count on our community for help. Whether it is learning a new skill, networking or sharing guidance, we can all help one another to unlock and create opportunities, added Legrand. Former Secret Service agent Dan Bonginos explosive new book (with D.C. McAllister), Spygate: The Attempted Sabotage of Donald J. Trump, spotlights the lefts broken trust with the American people and the blatant criminality of the Obama/Clinton Deep State. Since the moment Donald J. Trump and his wife Melania glided down the Trump Tower escalator into history, the Democrats and the allies in the Deep State have been committed to crushing him. For Trump, it was obvious that draining the swamp was never going to be easy because everything possible would be done to disguise and protect the illegal activities of the Obama/Clinton administration. But who thought they would go this far? Bongino has painted a highly detailed account of how the Obama administration criminalized our intelligence communities as well as other government agencies to stop Trump, and when that didnt work to try and bring down the president of the United States. The book relies heavily on left-leaning news outlets CNN, the Washington Post, the New York Times, Reuters, CBS News, The Hill, London-based The Guardian and numerous others. All of this is carefully footnoted in the book. In a recent speech, Bongino said, The reason I wrote the book, is because of this whole spy scandal, this debacle, this atrocious disgrace of a scandal that happened to our president. We deliberately did not use footnotes from right-leaning resources. I used (the mainstream media) because anyone who tells you oh, this didn't happen, just go to the footnotes and say, did you read this article? It happened, folks. The President of the United States had the intelligence community and the law enforcement community of the United States, at the highest levels, weaponized against him. [emphasis added] But wait, you say, I knew some of this, but I wasnt aware of this extraordinary level of criminality from the Democrats and their government allies. No, of course not, unless you have been intensively following, cataloging and linking developments on a day-to-day basis as Bongino has done. These once-trustworthy news organizations have written and broadcast piecemeal articles scattered over multiple outlets over several years when they had no choice to publish because the stories were so prominent they couldnt cover them up. But they carefully avoided stitching the full and real story together thus earning the fake news label. Where was a modern day Woodward and Bernstein team on this? This is a Pulitzer Prize level story but apparently no one in the media wants to claim it. It has taken the likes of Dan Bongino, a veteran of the US intelligence system and knowledgeable of the workings of the intelligence community, to weave it all into a crushing narrative that cries for a lot of big names to end up with long prison sentences. These big names start with Obama, highlighted by FBI agent Peter Strzok who claimed in one email, The White House is running this. It goes on to Hillary Clinton, former CIA Director Brennan, former FBI Director James Comey, Former FBI Director Robert Mueller, senior Justice Department official Rod Rosenstein, and on and on. Its an extensive cast of characters, some of whom you may not even be familiar with and others you will be, such as DNI James Clapper, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Bob Mueller's chief of staff John Carlin, National Security Advisor Susan Rice, UN Ambassador Samantha Power, Obama's White House counsel and Clinton Foundation Attorney Kathryn Ruemmler, Mueller aide Andy Weissman, FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, FBI agent Peter Strzok, FBI lawyer Lisa Page, British academic and FBI informant Stefan Halper, Edward Lieberman, husband of Evelyn Lieberman, Bill Clinton's old chief of staff, a number of Russians and some other Brits and on and on. The number of people involved and the extensive amount of detail about their activities are nothing short of stunning. If there is any justice, there should be a lengthy set of perp walks. As Bongino tells the story, when the Trump threat became clear, the Democrats and their allies in the Deep State panicked. They had a lot to cover up including the Clintons association with the Russians, who paid Bill Clinton $500,000 for a single speech and arranged for millions to be poured into the Clinton Foundation. All of this was in exchange for the sale of 20% of Americas uranium reserves that could be funneled to the Iranians developing nuclear weapons. According to Bongino, The Obama administration and FBI-paid informant admitted that we were giving the Russians uranium while they were building the Iranian nuclear program and chanting death to America. There was also the Benghazi scandal, the nuclear deal with Iran and Russias support for the program as well as the use of the illegal private server that connected Hillary directly to Obama. Bongino says Clinton ...needed to win to keep incriminating details and possibly illegal activities while at the State Department buried it was imperative that she escape Trumps campaign pledge to lock her up. (page 266) So they came up with the idea of transferring her Russian entanglements to Trump. They cranked up what Bongino describes as the most massive spying operation in a political campaign in US history. They learned to manipulate queries in the NSA database, which has a whole boatload of information -- metadata, texts, that kind of stuff. The Obama administration figured out that through wiretapping people, pretending theyre targeting foreigners and then querying information in this database, that they can get all the political opposition research in the world that they need against the Trump team. No one's going to call them out, the media's on their side, right? Until finally, after Trumps victory, one brave American did step forward. Mike Rogers, director of the NSA, smelled a rat. He saw that various parties were tapping into the massive NSA database making political queries. Queries such as these are legally required to follow very specific and strict guidelines about unmasking of US citizens. It is strictly against the law to spy on Americans in the database without a court ordered and individually approved FISA warrant. A report on this released in 2017 is devastating. Among other things, page 80 says the NSA database was being queried by private contractors working with the FBI. Thats right, people within the government were using private contractors to query highly classified information they had no judicial or legal authority whatsoever to look at. Rogers knew about the bugging and/or wire tapping of the Trump team and Trump Tower by CIA Director John Brennan, possibly with White House approval. Ten days after the election, Rogers quietly visited Trump without asking for permission from anyone in the White House. The next day Trump abandoned Trump Tower and relocated to Bedminster, New Jersey. Another day later, the Obama administration called for Mike Rogers to be fired. Obama knew Rogers had the goods on him and probably correctly assumed had filled Trump in. Now realizing that Trump had blocked their plan to bug his offices, Brennan and others found another way to spy on him. The FISA Court where . . . we can get a warrant on somebody. When you get a warrant on somebody in the Trump team they have this beautiful thing . . .called the two hop rule, which means anyone linked to a FISA approved suspect can now be pulled into the surveillance. Bongino says, So what does the FBI and the State Department and the DOJ do? They say well, we don't really have any evidence, let's just make it up. We've got this guy we worked with in the past, this guy (British intelligence operative) Christopher Steele. And so the story goes. GCHQ, the NSA of British intelligence, is brought in by Brennan to help. And with their own set of concerns about Trump, they go along with it. Even today this remains a dangerous potential scandal overhanging the current British government as well as a potentially devastating crisis between the two long time allied agencies. As Bongino has noted, So not only is the United States government weaponizing its intelligence community to listen in and computer search the Trump team to hurt them during the campaign for political oppo, they're working with the British and the Australians to pass information about the Trump team onto the Obama administration. Don't take it from me, take it from CNN. Bongino asks, Now does John Brennan's meltdown after the election make sense? He's the head of the intelligence community it involve(ed) an intersection of players with different motives and the same goal of sabotaging the Trump campaign and presidency with false accusations, illegal spying and entrapment. This is the real story, and its the greatest scandal in American political history. A final plea from Bongino, If these people don't go down, the right way, unlike the Obama administration tried to do it to us, this will happen again. I'm telling you, what they did was such a grotesque, horrendous abuse of power. It disgusts me to this day it's a grotesque thing to do to someone, to unleash the power of the federal government when they did nothing wrong. And Donald Trump did nothing wrong. Final word from Rod Rosenstein, No evidence of (Russian) collusion with the Trump campaign is found. (Page 320) Frank Hawkins is a former U.S. Army intelligence officer, Associated Press foreign correspondent, international businessman, senior newspaper company executive, founder and owner of several marketing companies and published novelist. He currently lives in retirement in North Carolina. Folks, I continue asking myself, why do leftists think so differently from the rest of us? Oprah Winfrey said she is an open-minded Christian who does not believe Jesus came to die for our sins. In other words, Oprah rejects the Gospel. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16) Oprah says Jesus is not the only way to heaven. As a self-proclaimed follower of Jesus, how can Oprah reject what he said? I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6) I find it amazing that Oprah believes she can rewrite God's plan for salvation to fit the agenda of herself and her leftist gurus. Oprah is free to believe whatever she wishes, but why call herself a Christian? Celine Dion believes it is wrong to perceive babies as male or female at birth. Celine believes children should be allowed to grow into the gender they prefer. Celine has launched a dark, bizarre gender-neutral clothing line for kids. Rather than butterflies, Teddy bears and Bunny rabbits, Celine's clothing line for children is covered in human skulls. Eastern Michigan University canceled its production of The Vagina Monologues because not all women have vaginas. The production has been deemed to lack diversity and inclusion; insensitive to transgenders. Folks, there are barely enough transgenders to fill a phone booth (0.6%). Will Ferrell, Oprah Winfrey, and other Hollywood celebs have achieved great wealthy via capitalism. So why did these celebs campaign for Georgia's socialist gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams? Abrams is a huge supporter of government redistribution of wealth via oppressive tax increases. Abrams actually wanted illegal aliens to vote for her. Why do most Americans believe illegals invading our country is wrong and leftists passionately support it? Professed Christian Tyler Perry joined his Hollywood homeys in bashing Georgia for not allowing men to use women restrooms who claim to wake up feeling like a woman. A spokesman for Perry said, At Tyler Perry Studios, we believe in inclusion and equality for all people. How does Perry square that with his Christian Bible which says, Male and female He created them? (Genesis 5:2) From kindergartners to adults, allowing men into women restrooms has led to numerous sexual assaults. Why do Perry and his fellow leftists ignore this commonsense reality? What kind of bizarre thinking causes leftists to conclude that accommodating a handful of disturbed men trumps protecting little girls and women? Meanwhile, leftists claim to be our superiors in regard to advocating for and protecting women. Regular Americans are repulsed upon learning that abortionist Kermit Gosnell murdered thousands of babies after they were born by snipping the spine at the base of the neck. Gosnell is America's biggest serial killer. And yet, leftists (fake news media, Hollywood, and Democrats) covered for Gosnell. Along with Obama, leftists support the murderous practices of partial-birth abortion and infanticide. The same leftists who vehemently fight to protect their right to kill human babies before and after birth passionately protect animals and trees. Here's another example of dark weirdo leftist thinking. Leftists scold conservatives for supposedly not caring about women. And yet, leftists support the acceleration of Sharia law in America. Sharia advocates female genital mutilation which involves piercing, cutting, and removing or sewing closed a girl's or woman's genitals for no medical reason. A leftist judge in Michigan has recently ruled that outlawing female genital mutilation is unconstitutional. Researchers estimate the judge's ruling puts 513,000 girls and women at risk in the U.S. Incredibly, leftists say anyone who opposes this barbaric abuse of women is a racist and a hater. Leftists hate Jesus and passionately war against Christianity while embracing and passionately defending Islam. Islam unquestionably suppresses women and executes homosexuals. I scratch my head trying to understand why leftists support Sharia. If Sharia dominated America, leftists' debauched lifestyles would be outlawed. The most disturbing example of weird leftist thinking is their desire for America, their homeland, to suffer and fail. When Democrats take over the House in January, they will be obsessed with rolling back every one of Trump's remarkable achievements for America. Our economy is booming. Black, Hispanic, women, and Asian unemployment are at historic lows. Trump has ended the U.S. being exploited by foreign countries. Why is all this good news for Americans deemed bad news in the warped minds of leftists? Folks, leftists' thinking comes from a strange place alien to the rest of us. They cannot be reasoned with. Leftists must be defeated. I am confident that God is on our side. Fasten your seatbelts -- 2019 is going to be a very bumpy ride. Lloyd Marcus, The Unhyphenated American Help Lloyd spread the Truth Admiral Gortney USN, the former head of NORAD and NORTHCOM, once told us that threats to the United States of incoming missiles from the 10 and 2 Oclock position. The Russians and Iranians are an emerging threat at 2 Oclock and the Chinese and North Koreans augmenting their missile capabilities are a threat at 10 Oclock. But what about an important clear and present strategic danger today from a different direction? Right now a strategic hybrid-war threat is at our southern border, geographically at the 6:00 Oclock position. Are we able to stop this migratory flow of unknown and un-vetted cohort of illegal invaders? So far, there is a growing number of individuals -- of the good, the bad and the evil sorts -- trying to enter the country illegally. Why are we still saddled with the top leadership at the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security that cannot figure out how to deploy a military and civilian force to secure our southern border? We can spend trillions of dollars operating in distant lands and do counter-insurgency and build Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) to pacify a country like Afghanistan while the population inundation from failed states from the South remains unchecked? Defense.info: From Nation Building to Counter-Insurgency, to Stability Ops, whatever that means, tremendous treasure has been squandered with limited progress as the US begins to face deadly peer-to-peer adversaries. The assumption that the US can drain treasure and blood in the endless war while we refocus on peer competitors, who are directly threatening the United States at home and abroad is simply misplaced. A direct 21st Century threat to the safety and security of all Americans is the current growth of transnational criminal syndicates. Mexican drug cartels are a good example, but others include cross-border terrorist cells, and now leftist agitators that, sadly, are using innocents as provocative propaganda examples to violate and negate the laws of the United States. It is difficult to understand why the Department of Defense is ramping up engagements in Afghanistan and Syria when our own borders are unprotected. We have heard about failed states, but what about failed agencies unable to help protect the United States against the outpouring from the failed states to our South? Secretary Mattis has had many pithy quotes but one stands out I keep other people awake at night. But apparently he does not trust his troops integrity to follow any legally established Rules of Engagement (ROE) if appropriately armed: Theyre not even carrying guns so just relax, Mattis explained, speaking to reporters on Wednesday just hours after the White House issued its use of force order. Dont worry about it. What about this gem of a Secretary Mattis quote: Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet. It has been estimated that there are over 500 criminals and an unknown number of terrorists are all trying to sneak in by hiding in the hoard of people trying to rush through our southern border check points. Since Speaker Ryan thwarted the Presidents quest for a continuous wall and American military intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) is the best in the world why do individuals and groups still infiltrate continuously? For example, where is a visible ISR deterrence show of force all along the border using Military helo support? If the US military can build forward operating bases in the Middle East, why can they not find a way to do so in the long rugged terrain along our Southern border? This evolving and soon to be an historical moment in answering the question Do we have a Nation or not? has seen terrible institutional failure. The troika of DHS/Iraq Invasion/Afghan stability ops still dominates the national agenda. It is time to shift from this unholy trinity of legacies and take a fresh start. End the forever war in Afghanistan: General Mattis USMC (ret) and now Defense Secretary Mattis has been at the highest levels of leadership fighting the Afghan war for almost 25% of the time the war has gone on and it has recently been declared a stalemate after 17+ years of combat. It is now appropriate to critically asses with very clear focus the performance of DHS in this moment of crisis. Since DHS was hastily assembled after the 9/11 events, elements of a ramshackle agency still persist. In looking at lessons being learned daily in this time of testing, it is time to look at pulling it apart and rebuilding DHS. Perhaps the President and Congress can focus on this task in the period ahead. In a seminal article, Jose R. Olivares, a combat Vietnam Veteran and a Founding Member of the US Department of Homeland Security in March 2003 makes a strong case for DHS reform, by asking? How is it that the current Director of USCIS (US Citizen and Immigration Services https://www.uscis.gov/) is not heard from in the current news cycles? Instead, leading the news cycle on the caravan pending immigration disaster is the Secretary of Homeland Security; who is clueless about the pending real disaster. Certainly, as a nation welcoming to legal immigration, we need guaranteed security to abort the pending dissolution of our nation by being faced with an ever-growing illegal migrant tide. President Trump campaigned on the restoration of a sense of what it means be a citizen of the United States. He is the right person at the right time to stop an illegal tide which has made citizenship seem increasingly irrelevant to living in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recently announced the formation of a task force to investigate a new mysterious illness afflicting primarily children. Acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) is a polio-like illness believed to be caused by a virus. But in contrast to polio, which has been mostly eradicated, except in a few pockets around the globe, AFM is on the rise. The disease sleuths at the CDC are befuddled. Unlike in the movie The Andromeda Strain, where a crack team of scientists, within a few days, identified and cured a mysterious illness from far beyond the reaches of our galaxy, a bureaucratic behemoth full of scientists is stumped. When a government agency either does not know the answer, or for political reasons does not want to acknowledge and reveal the answer, they form a task force. By the time the task force settles on a meeting schedule and what types of snacks to serve during meetings, AFM will either disappear naturally or become a mass extinction event. Perhaps the scientists have some ideas where AFM came from and why it is increasing in prevalence, but if they want to keep their jobs, pensions, and reputations, they feign ignorance. A task force with a few scientists and many more non-scientists, skilled at media and public relations, will eventually announce their findings, scrubbed of anything politically incorrect or offensive to any of the many victim groups in America. But it's worth looking at who's bringing this disease in, because it coincides with recent vast waves of illegal immigration. AFM begins as a flu-like illness progressing to difficulty swallowing, slurred speech, and sudden limb weakness. Most children improve although many are left with residual arm and leg weakness, much like polio. Its believed to be caused by a virus, specifically Enterococcus D68. AFM incidence seems to spike every other year. In 2018, 38 cases so far. In 2017, 33 cases, but in 2016, 149 cases. In 2015, 22 cases, and 120 cases in 2014. Much of the U.S media is uninterested in AFM. Jake Tapper and Jim Acosta most likely send their children to private schools plagued by the occasional cold or weekend underage drinking and partying. Their children pal around with other private school kids, returning home to tony neighborhoods free of annoying infectious diseases, whether AFM, or other refugee afflictions such as lice and scabies. CNN is far more concerned with President Trumps latest tweets. Most of America doesnt live the charmed lives of media stars and Washington D.C. politicians, however. Instead they live in lower- or middle-class enclaves. Their kids attend public schools, the same schools frequented by the illegal immigrants settled into their towns. As the media is incurious about the migrant caravan and illegal immigrants beyond their tweets of outrage and framing the story in a way to inflict maximal damage on President Trump, lets take a closer look at those migrating to our southern border. Where are the migrants coming from and what diseases might they be bringing to America? The Association of American Physicians and surgeons asked these questions and took note of the obvious. What invisible travelers are accompanying them? And what infections are already here in the millions of illegals already dispersed throughout the country? In the past, waves of immigrants from Europe were stopped at Ellis Island, medically examined, and quarantined long enough to be sure they were not incubating a contagious disease. Procedures are less rigorous today, and of course those who enter illegally are not screened at all. Polio has been eradicated in much of the world, but is still endemic in three countries Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria. Polio has also reemerged in the socialist paradise of Venezuela, as reported by CNN. How many migrants are fleeing the Venezuelan hellhole, bringing who knows what with them? Middle Easterners, despite media claims to the contrary, are also part of the migrant invading force. Some may be bringing jihad, others may be carrying infectious diseases such as AFM. How many of those crossing our southern border receive a comprehensive medical examination? How many in the past have been resettled around America after their brief catch and release layover in a border town? Its not just AFM that is crossing the border, but many other unpleasant diseases. The CDC reports 300 million legal southern border crossings each year for work and travel. Thats part of the problem. But its the illegal crossings that are of most concern regarding contagious diseases. In July of this year, A total of 31,303 people were apprehended at the border after illegally crossing into the United States according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. How many were not apprehended? Likely a far greater number. And thats just in one month. What disease might these illegal border crossers be carrying? The CDC provides an answer. Studies have identified the importance of cross-border movement in the transmission of various diseases, including HIV, measles, pertussis, rubella, rabies, hepatitis A, influenza, tuberculosis, shigellosis, syphilis, Mycobacterium bovis infection, brucellosis, and foodborne diseases, such as infections associated with raw cheese and produce. And lets not forget that mysterious polio-like illness, AFM, caused by a virus, much like many of the above-mentioned diseases, that has the CDC perplexed to the point of needing a task force to formulate a politically correct explanation and solution. If you keep the windows of your home open and have a problem with flies, wasps, or racoons entering your home, common sense tells you to install screens, close your windows, or put up with your visitors. Same goes for a national border. If a country wants screens on its windows, its easy enough. The Immigration Act of 1924 severely restricted immigration to the U.S. and established quotas based on nationality. The purpose of this act was to preserve the ideal of U.S. homogeneity. So, there is precedent. Unfortunately, both political parties want the windows open. President Trump and a handful in Congress want to put up screens. And most who voted Trump into the White House want screens, too. Yet many Republicans, bought and paid for by the Chamber of Commerce, do not. Neither do Democrats needing a growing dependent class to vote them into power. Yet the suburban parents of some of the children afflicted with AFM are also offended and outraged over Trumps tweets and treatment of Jim Acosta. They do their children a disservice by supporting the party that wants no screens on Americas windows, no border at all, migrants and diseases free to invade our fruited plains. The answer for the CDC is not a bureaucratic and politically correct task force, but common-sense analysis and solutions. Secure the border, scrutinize who comes across and stays, and put the well-being of Americans first. How hard is that? Brian C. Joondeph, MD, MPS, a Denver based physician and writer. Follow him on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Image credit: Ruptly, via YouTube, screenshot The read of the day is Angelo Codevilla's dose of reality about the nature of our "ally" and "friend" Saudi Arabia, titled "What Is Saudi Arabia to Us?" Unlike virtually all of the commentary on the killing and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, Codevilla does not pretend that politics in Saudi Arabia are anything but a matter of life-and-death factional conflict among the roughly 5,000 male members of the royal family, descendants of Ibn Saud, the regime's founder, who seized power with the help of hard-line Wahhabi clerics. It seems that Saudi Arabia's rulers murdered an opponent. The U.S. media and political class is shocked, shocked, to find that murder is going on in such precincts. Who did they imagine the Muslim world's leaders are? Moreover, our chattering class demands that President Trump do whatever it takes to make sure that they do nothing like that again. Do what? Does anyone really think that swapping sheik A for sheik B would improve their kind's moral standards? Do they have any idea of what keeps A on top of B, what it would take to switch them, or what the repercussions would be in foreign policy? Are they naifs, idiots, or are they just playing with foreign policy to make life a little harder for Trump? ... Saudi Arabia's rulers are a subspecies of the desert rats endemic in the region. The ones on the cheese now are of the clan of seven sons out of old king Saud's favorite wife, Suda, and hence are known as Sudaris. The previous ruler, Abdullah was the only son of another wife. When Abdullah's birth-order turn came, in 2005, he took the throne thanks only to having mobilized the national guard of bedouins for war against the national army (and everything else) controlled by the Sudaris. Today, when you read about Mohammed bin Salman's "anti-corruption reforms," you should know that they target primarily Abdullah's son and other relatives. In other words, what is going on, including murder, is a purely dynastic power play. But that is Saudi Arabia's nice side. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (credit: White House). Sure, it would be nice if the Saudis would adopt democratic values, stop oppressing women, and behave like people we are familiar with. But to pretend such a process is well underway only ensures that any actions we take will be based on a fantasy. Codevilla's essay is astute and economical in presentation. Read the whole thing. Then, if you have time and want to get a sense of the sort of analysis that Codevilla mocks, read this very long essay in the Washington Post by David Ignatius. He is far from stupid, and he knows a lot, but he is a prisoner of the assumptions Americans like to make about others that they are simply waiting to become just like us. Ignatius adopts the fiction that Jamal Khashoggi was a "journalist" rather than an insider power player in that nation's political intrigue (which means Saudi royal family conflicts). His piece has a lot of detailed information on the factional conflicts preceding Khashoggi's assassination and serves as a valuable supplement to Codevilla. But Ignatius still pretends that somehow the Saudis don't have to be what they are and always have been. He concludes: The House of Saud rules with a sometimes bloody hand. The United States, as the kingdom's key ally, has an obligation to calm this family feud before it does any more damage to Saudi Arabia and the world. Holding hands and singing kumbaya ain't going to cut it in Riyadh. I recommend that Ignatius read Raymond Ibrahim's outstanding book Sword and Scimitar, which contains accounts of dynastic succession in the Muslim monarchies of the Middle East, where standard operating procedure for a new monarch on the death of his father was to strangle all his brothers. Yes, it's awful. But it has been happening for a very long time. And it's not going to change quickly, no matter how outraged we pretend to be. Apparently, the Clintons' political life is set to end not with a bang, but a whimper. I wonder what kind of envy Bill and Hillary Clinton experienced over the jam-packed arenas with thousands listening outside that President Trump always has, as they gazed out at the more than 15,000 empty seats facing them last night in Toronto on their stadium speaking tour. Even though curtains were erected cutting the arena in half, the vacant seats far outnumbered the occupied ones. The U.K. Daily Mail reports that 3,300 tickets were sold in the Scotiabank Arena, which holds 19,800, 16.6% of capacity. Screen grab Daily Mail video. Perhaps even more humiliating, while ticket prices began at $53 (Canadian), the U.K. Daily Mail reported that "[o]ne ticket was going for $6.55 in the final minutes before the event." The program featured the Clintons talking with Frank McKenna, deputy chair of TD Bank. According to the Daily Mail, he is also "a former Canadian ambassador to the U.S., was also a major Clinton Foundation donor, and was featured in the book, 'Clinton Cash.'" While 3,300 tickets sold at prices ranging from $53 to over $200 still yields a healthy payday, even after expenses, the optics are terrible. Clinton-friendly CNN reports: And even Democrats loyal to the Clintons are questioning the decision to embark on the tour. "I just think the optics of going to an event where people are paying to see them, and they are financially gaining from this, I am not sure that is the right way to reingratiate them back into the public sphere," said a former Clinton aide. "They haven't gone away, and I don't want them to go away, but I am not sure this is the right venue from an optics standpoint." The very progressive Toronto Star's review of the performance headlined, "Hillary and Bill Clinton just won't go away." Rosie Dimanno asked: But what in the world are they doing with this Live Nation production, a Clinton-times-two odyssey, which began in Las Vegas a fortnight ago and trucks on into Montreal next, 13 stops in all this year and next, three of them north of the border? Surely they can't need the money, although the stench of avarice has long clung to Hillary. According to Forbes, they've racked up $240 million (U.S.) since departing 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in 2001, when Bill Clinton claimed they were broke, so much of their personal finances spent defending himself against civil law suits and impeachment. It is unclear whither the profits from what has been billed as "An Evening with the Clintons" projected gate $120 million with tickets topping out at $745.50 per seat, depending on the city. Joint conversations to share "stories and inspiring anecdotes that shaped their historic careers," as per the event PR bumpf. According to media accounts, President Trump loomed over the event, the subject of frequent disparaging comments by the former power couple. And Monica Lewinsky was never mentioned. But making a return appearance was Hillary Clinton's coughing fit. Martin Walsh of the American Mirror: Hillary was asked a question about Russian President Vladimir Putin allegedly interfering in the 2016 presidential election. Before she could begin her usual spill about how Russia cost her the election, Clinton was completely overtaken by an uncontrollable cough. As Clinton couldnt shake the cough for several seconds, the moderator asked her husband, former President Bill Clinton, about climate change. While the moderator was speaking with the former president, Hillary could not stop coughing and compose herself. The Clintons have wildly overestimated their mass appeal. Maybe they should try dinner theaters. The #2 Republican in the Senate says there may be a vote on a bill that would protect special counsel Robert Mueller and his investigation into Russian collusion during the presidential campaign 2016. But Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is saying he doesn't want to spend any time on the legislation. Democrats have indicated that they will not vote for a budget resolution unless Mueller receives some protection from being fired. The government faces a partial shutdown of several agencies on December 8 without a vote. Politico: Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) said several times Tuesday that the chamber could vote on a bill that would codify some protections for special counsel investigations, a key demand of Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who has said he will oppose all judicial nominees until he gets his vote. Without Flake, the 51-member GOP has no margin for error on some nominees; a vote this week to install Thomas Farr on a District Court in North Carolina is in danger because of opposition from Democrats and undecided moderates who are concerned he is hostile to voting rights. More worrisome for Republicans is getting judicial nominees through the narrowly divided Judiciary Committee, where Flake's opposition could tag them with "unfavorable" recommendations if Democrats stay in opposition. In an interview, Flake said he is standing firm and will not acquiesce to a nonbinding resolution on protecting the special counsel. This summer, Flake took a similar stand to demand a vote on congressional authority over Trump's tariffs, but he backed down after a nonbinding measure was considered. "A resolution in place of a vote? No. It's got to be the bill," Flake said after Cornyn hinted that a vote was possible. "Let's vote." Cornyn told reporters Tuesday morning that Republicans are willing to hold a vote "if that's what it's going to take" to move more nominees. When the new Congress convenes in January, Republicans will have a greater margin for error, as the election of Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi last night gives the GOP a 53-47 advantage next term. But McConnell is opposed to a vote on Mueller, calling it "a solution in search of a problem." "The president is not going to fire Robert Mueller," McConnell told reporters Tuesday afternoon. "We have a lot of things to do to try to finish up this year without taking votes on things that are completely irrelevant to outcomes." Senate Republicans could also measure support for the bill in the caucus and try to show Flake the bill can't pass in a bid to appease him without holding a vote. The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to consider more judges on Thursday. But Flake said nothing short of an actual floor vote will sway him, and it must occur for him to break his opposition to moving forward on judicial nominees. I think Flake's fears are well founded. Donald Trump knows the best way to get Republicans to rally around him is to bait the Democrats into an impeachment inquiry. Firing Mueller would almost certainly do that. While the House might vote out articles of impeachment on Trump, Democrats would need 19 Republican senators to vote for conviction. That won't happen unless Mueller has a smoking gun that points irrefutably to Trump masterminding cooperation with the Russians. If he had it, the information would almost certainly have been leaked to the press by now. So the prospects are poor for Congress to pass a spending bill, and pretty good that Democrats will initiate an impeachment inquiry if Trump fires Mueller. May we be cursed for living in interesting times. An insight into what Donald Trump means by Make America Great Again will be seen in the fallout from General Motors' announcement to halt production at three North American assembly plants: Lordstown, Ohio; Hamtramck, Michigan; and Oshawa, Ontario. Shutting down these plants will affect around 14,000 jobs and is due to declining markets for the company's Chevy Cruz, Chevy Impala, Buick LaCrosse, and Cadillac CT6. These plant closures are due to market forces. If there are not enough buyers for those sedans, why make them? That is what the old-time Republican establishment would say. And to be honest, said establishment would not shed many tears over the loss of United Auto Worker (UAW) jobs if the invisible hand of the market is behind it. But that's not Donald Trump. Trump is for the American worker unionized or not. The president is apt to look around and say to Mary Barra, CEO of GM, "not so fast." He will note that GM is presently building popular Buick SUVs in China, vehicles that can easily be built in America. He will pointedly ask Barra: "Why isn't GM investing in and retooling U.S. plants to produce these SUVs?" The truthful answer is that GM wants to benefit from low wages and loose labor and environmental laws in China and then have the advantage of exporting those cars into the American market with minimum tariffs applied to them. And what of the American auto workers who lost their jobs in the process? They're written off as casualties of globalization. This has been going on since the 1980s in industries across the Midwest. But Trump does not play that game. He puts American workers and Main Street ahead of profits for Wall Street and giant international corporations. This is what MAGA is all about. Trump's coalition is middle-class Democrats (workers) and middle-class Republicans in the small businesses and professional and managerial jobs. It is their interest he cares most about. Yes, GM has a responsibility to its shareholders. But the company lives in a bigger world than that. And the height of irony is that GM, which now outsources American jobs, exists today only because of a massive U.S. taxpayer bailout just ten years ago. Talk about having your cake and eating it, too. Don't expect Trump to take GM's action lying down. He's apt to use the threat of tariffs on Chinese cars as a way to help GM (and others) see the light. He will look for a win-win out of this mess. Utterly defeated by the resolve of President Trump, caravan migrants from Central America are packing up and going home. The San Diego Union-Tribune described the mood of the several thousand of them at their Tijuana base camp as subdued and morose. The big Che Guevara-style border charge at the U.S. barricades Sunday didn't work out quite as the group's leftist organizers said it would. It didn't even work out like the one they managed to get done at Mexico's southern border a few weeks earlier. The glory of challenging gringo for the goodies never came. And as a senior Border Patrol official told the Washington Examiner, they were sold "a bad bill of goods." This raises the next question: when are the migrants going to get angry? It's obvious they've been used, and it's about time they turn on their organizers. Up until the protests in Tijuana ten days ago and that border-charging incident on Sunday, the migrants had been promised by their organizers that all would be fine and dandy. The whole trip to get into the U.S. would be easy. That was in repeated statements of the migrants, who told the press they were looking for work, early on in the caravan. Democrats would support them, the public would melt at the sight of their kids in strollers, the press would be with them, and the Mexicans would be with them. Better still, the U.S. border was a joke, and President Trump's warnings about not entering illegally were the roar of a paper tiger. Better yet, a migrant caravan would offer protection from cartel human-smugglers. It would all be so easy for them if they went as a group and applied pressure to be allowed in. Instead, they got concertina wire, troops, and...after hurling stones, Intifada-style, mere tear gas, not bullets. And no Che Guevara-style glory at challenging (as Hugo Chavez used to say) "the empire." That's a lot of effort, a lot of walking, a lot of sore feet and danger and cost for some false promises. What's more, it's got to be painful for them, because many are already disillusioned about their own country. I recall talking with Honduran illegal aliens in Murietta, California a few years ago, when Obama was transporting illegal immigrants to that community amid protests and asking them why they didn't try to change things in their own country, given that they had a vote there. A young woman explained to me that "it doesn't matter, it doesn't ever matter." Now, after a big buildup, and sassy Honduran flag-waving and a festive atmosphere, the caravan migrants have been let down. It was all such a waste of time. Anyone serious about seeking asylum to the U.S. could have applied for it right there in Tegucigalpa from the comfort of their own homes. There was no need to march up to Tijuana, make a mess, get sick, complain about the donated food, set up a smelly migrant camp, and make oneself unpopular enough to draw local protests. The mission, frankly, was a failure. That raises questions about what this caravan was really about. Groups such as Pueblo Sin Fronteras and Honduran Chavista politicians whipped up the migrant caravan, promising migrants that it would be so easy if they all went together. Pueblo Sin Fronteras told the press it had been successful in the past in organizing caravans and getting asylum-seekers through. It was a phony promise, and it was a political project in the name of open borders and, by extension, votes for Democrats. And now it's obvious that the migrants, marching with their kids in strollers, were used. As these migrants begin to pack up, one can only wonder at what the fallout will be as President Trump stands victorious and word is out that the U.S. border will be defended. At what point are these migrants going to turn on those rabidly left-wing organizers who used them as part of their political project and shut them down? Image credit: CBS News screengrab from YouTube. Samsung is exploring the possibility of engineering a folding smartphone and tablet hybrid that centers around a watchband-style hinge, based on new IP documentation reviewed by AndroidHeadlines. The hinge in the patent is designed as a series of interlinking geared segments that can be folded in a single direction and are held together by pins, as illustrated below. When unfolded, those lay flat and provide users with a wide display. The display can also be folded away from the user so that the right-hand portion of the display is moved to the back and the left side of the panel remains facing the user. The central portion of the display that covers the gears takes on the role of one of the side edges and the usable display panel is nearly square in that configuration. The rear panels lay nearly flush with one another when folded. Background: The concept shown in Samsungs latest patent is completely different from the details that have been provided by the Korean tech giant or that have leaked in terms of display real estate. The information detailed alongside the companys Infinity Flex panel at this years Samsung Developer Conference 2018 suggests that the first Samsung folder will actually feature two displays. The handset, tentatively dubbed the Samsung Galaxy F, has been hinted as folding in a similar fashion to a book with a second 4-inch panel on the cover when its folded. The flexible panel on the inside will measure around 7.3-inches like a tablet. Conversely, the new Samsung design does line up well with Googles recent additions to Android OS itself. The search giants announcement on the matter included descriptions for how Android could be adjusted by OEMs to operate using exactly this configuration. Thats not surprising since Samsung is has worked closely with Google to ensure that Android will respond automatically to changes in the configuration of a folding smartphone. The design also isnt entirely different from those previously used by Lenovo in its own clamshell-style dual-screen devices like the Lenovo Yoga Book or Miix-series detachable laptops. There are some differences between the two. For example, the hinge does seem to protrude more on Lenovo hardware than whats shown in the recent patents associated images and they dont include a flexible panel laid over top. But there are likely to be key similarities as well and Lenovo isnt the only manufacturer to take inspiration from watches when designing a hinge. At the same time, the company is among those that has reportedly been in talks with LG Display in order to attain flexible display technology for use in smartphones though. Advertisement Impact: The patent in question may or may not generate conflict within the industry. LGs screens are expected to be in mass production at around the same time that Samsung is expected to reveal its final design for the Galaxy F family of handsets but those arent likely to be based on this patent. Lenovos devices using those displays are rumored to be landing in Q3 2019. Since the Galaxy F is very unlikely to be based on this particular design, given whats known about it, Lenovos handset could be finalized with a watch-style hinge first. That could help free up either company or another to challenge the use of the design. A small, bipartisan Senate initiative will see a couple of stateside legislators attempt pressuring the White House into once again investigating Chinese technology company ZTE over possible violations of trade sanctions imposed by the United States government. Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) penned a letter to the Trump administration wherein theyre suggesting ZTE might have violated Commerce Department sanctions by helping Venezuela build a database meant to be used for the surveillance of its citizens. The letter is specifically addressed to the secretaries of commerce, state, and treasury, demanding that the sitting administration probes ZTEs dealings with Venezuela and determine whether the aforementioned project was carried out using technologies both hardware and software from American companies. ZTE is suspected of using memory storage solutions from Dell Technologies to set up the said Venezuelan database in collaboration with Cantv, a state-owned telecom giant in the South American country. Dell previously denied having records that indicate it sold such hardware to ZTE for the purpose of building a surveillance mechanism, though the company isnt legally obligated to demand information on how its equipment will be used before its sold. Senators Van Hollen and Rubio also asked the administration to investigate whether the said transgression are in direct violation of ZTEs settlement with the Commerce Department reached earlier this year that essentially saved the company from bankruptcy following another elongated episode revolving around similar issues broken trade embargoes. Background: ZTE has a rough year behind it, having spent months watching its operations grind to a halt due to a denial order the Commerce Department used to prevent American companies from buying or licensing their technologies to the Shenzhen-based firm. The measure was issued in response to a violated 2017 settlement the government and ZTE reached after the latter broke trade sanctions imposed on Iran and North Korea. While it originally paid close to $1 billion in fines and agreed to discipline certain employees involved in the incident, ZTE failed to do the latter and repeatedly lied to investigators. The company said the issue was an accident and not an intentional act of defiance, citing the fact it self-reported it as proof of that claim and arguing the Commerce Departments response was hence too strict. Advertisement Washington wasnt convinced by those arguments, which led to the aforementioned denial order, and it wasnt until President Trump personally intervened with the Commerce Department that the federal government reached a second settlement with ZTE which was significantly stricter than the original one. As part of that agreement, ZTE paid another $1 billion in fines, made a $400-million escrow payment, threw out its board of directors and management, and agreed to a wide variety of other concessions. One of them was paying for an independent auditing team that will be supervising it for other potential violations of stateside trade embargoes, whereas another one was agreeing to increase the volume of components it purchases from American companies in the short term. Without access to American technologies in a period from April to late August, ZTE was forced to halt the majority of its operations as it was unable to continue operating its core business manufacturing smartphones; smartphones that use Qualcomms Snapdragon chips and Googles Android operating system. Its telecom equipment unit also had to pause its day-to-day business and the entire episode is believed to have already cost it in excess of $3 billion, and thats not accounting for future lost business. Following the ordeal, ZTEs new management opted to take out a $10 billion loan to help weather through the troubled period, raising concerns that the firm is now overleveraged. That state of affairs is why some industry watchers still believe in a ZTExit of sorts, at least in the U.S. where the firms repuration took a massive hit due to the incident. While the ordeal was still ongoing, the Chinese government made the issue part of its trade negotiations with Washington, insisting that ZTE is saved from bankruptcy before other subjects can be discussed. While the U.S. administration obliged, the matter still resulted in an all-out trade war thats ongoing to this date. Some analysts previously suggested ZTE should at the very least look to rebrand its American arm and separate itself from the name of its parent thats majority owned by a Chinese state company. Advertisement Impact: The latest turn of events doesnt spell good news for ZTE; in case the company is found to be in yet another violation of stateside trade sanctions, its likely to be put out of business for good with a new denial order from the Commerce Department. Coupled with the always-present calls for the firm to be blocked from doing business in the U.S. due to allegations that it poses a national security risk, the Chinese company could be in a world of hurt several months down the line. Naturally, thats all assuming the U.S. government obliges and agrees to investigate ZTEs dealings with Venezuela on the request of Senators Rubio and Van Hollen. With the political climate in the U.S. currently being rather polar, bipartisan efforts are a rarity, and the Trump administration so far showed little willingness of working with Democratic legislators (and vice versa) due to their diametrically opposite beliefs. The fact that the new initiative is backed by Senator Rubio does give it some extra weight in Washington, though the Florida Senator was also calling for ZTE to be put out of business earlier this year to no avail, so his political pull certainly isnt without limits. The latest turn of events also illustrates how much trouble Google could be facing further down the road due to Project Dragonfly, a controversial initiative aiming to create a censored version of its Search engine for China. Much like ZTE could be facing sanctions for using American technologies to aide a regime to move against basic democratic principles and human rights, so could a case be made against Google for doing the same, much like some of its disgruntled and disillusioned employees said earlier this week. Tribit X1 True Wireless Earbuds push boundaries in price and size, while also delivering on sound where it really counts. Tribit Audio is a well-known brand in the world of audio accessories, having consistently released high-fidelity, high-quality earbuds, headphones, and speakers since its founding. Is latest product, the Tribit X1 True Wireless Earbuds push the boundaries of size and usability while maintaining that high standard the brand is renowned for. Whats more, although pricing starts out a retail well below the typical cost of laudable listening devices at just $60, they can often be found during sales for as low as $40. After having tried a pair out, courtesy of the company, there are at least one or two areas where improvement is still needed. However, its also easy to see that the work put into these firmly places them as some of the highest value earbuds in the world. Specs Advertisement These are Tribit Audios smallest pair of wireless Bluetooth headphones to-date. The company doesnt list the exact size or metrics of the earbuds themselves but the protective battery case is listed as being 48.26 x 33.02 x 43.18 on Amazon and the overall package, earbuds included, weighs in at 40grams according to the included manual. Meanwhile, by comparison to other true wireless headphones weve reviewed, they are substantially smaller and the difference in weight is just barely enough to be noticeable. Moving on to perhaps the most important aspects of any media listening device, audio is streamed via Bluetooth 5.0, with support for A2DP, AVRCP, HFP, HSP and 20hz to 20Khz over dual 6mm drivers that also support 3D stereo sound. Behind that is CVC 6.0 algorithms on the mic side. The 800mAh charging case powers up via micro USB at a claimed time-to-charged of around two hours. The individual buds can last an hour on a 15-minute charge and take around 30-45 minutes to power up. Draining the earbuds 50mAh per bud will vary based on volume and other factors but, on average, provide around three hours of listening time. In The Box Advertisement Opening the box, buyers are first presented with the two earbuds themselves packed alongside the charging case in two layers of foam. To the side of that is a smaller box which contains the exceptionally short, flat-style charging cable theres no wall adapter here but the battery charges optimally at a fairly standard 5V/1A and silicone earbud tips. There are a total of three sizes in that package, including small, medium, and large. After peeling all of that away, the remaining items include a foldout user manual, helpful for working out the multi-function button actions and what the LED lights mean. Last, Tribit includes, as with every product weve tested from the brand, a warranty card as well as a card indicating that the company donates a dollar to UNICEF with every purchase. The latter of those also vows to donate a dollar for every consumer that leaves a review on any of its official channels. Hardware and Build Quality Advertisement On the hardware front, theres not necessarily anything special about these earbuds except that they are so much smaller than others in their category. The battery charging case, for example, fit easily in the palms of our hands, with quite a bit of room to spare. Build quality is just about average as well but that isnt really a bad thing. They certainly feel as though theyll take a beating and keep on playing under most circumstances and they are splash-proof so they should be more than capable of handling sweat or the rain without issue. The dual ridged silicone tips are comfortable and do a good job of canceling out most noise and the entire build is comprised of plastics with the exception of the copper charging tips. Similarly, the plastic charging box feels sturdy and, although magnets are used to hold the lid closed, wont stop working just because the lid happens to get snapped off either. Thats because magnets also hold the earbuds in place during charging and those are strong enough that even shaking the case strongly doesnt budge them out of place. In any case, the aesthetic is understated with matte blacks and white or blue LEDs accenting everything. Setting that aside the hardware is also well-equipped in terms of features. The led lighting around the top of the earbuds light up and that can be seen through the lid while the charging process is ongoing and then those turn off when charging is complete. The box has its own small LED which flashes blue to indicate charge level. The single button on each earbud controls functionality for every circumstance, similar to nearly every other true wireless headset. Holding the button for more than two seconds turns the device on while turning off requires four seconds. Of course, they also turn off or on automatically once placed in or taken out of the charging box. Pressing the button does require some pressure but isnt uncomfortable. That can also be pressed to control music and control phone call as well as controlling Google Assistant and other AI helpers via voice simply by saying Hey, Google or similar as long as a smartphone is connected. Advertisement Sound Quality In terms of sound quality, these are certainly not at an audiophile level but thats to be expected with consideration for the pricing. Theyre also punching well above their weight with one caveat. Namely, they need to be positioned correctly and wearers need to try out the different sized tips to ensure theyre using the proper size for their own ears. With how small these earbuds are, finding the right fit makes an enormous difference. For context, when we initially popped open the box and tried out a few songs from across any genre ranging from R&B to Nu metal, the quality was not so good, in fact, we thought they might be defective. In fact, we also noted that some reviews written on these had a similar experience but that the company had responded to request that users find their correct size and try again. So thats what we did. Advertisement The improvements to quality were immediate and profound. The balance is exceptional, first and foremost. However, bass packs plenty of punch and can certainly be felt where intended. Highs and lows dont wash that out but also dont get lost in the mix at all regardless of genre. Thats just about as good as one can ask for in any pair of headphones and it shines through as well as it would in headphones that cost twice or three times as much money. Battery Life & Connectivity Advertisement Battery life works about as well as advertised, although we did note a drop of around a half hour or so when the volume was turned up and distance increased to near maximum between the earbuds and our source device. The LEDs on the charging case, meanwhile, arent necessarily the most helpful. Only serve to show the percentage while charging is ongoing. For context, it has a single blue LED that blinks four times every two seconds indicates that is three-quarters full while a solid light means that charging is complete. Things step down by quarters from there, with a single blink every two seconds showing that the capacity is only 25-percent filled or less. Meanwhile, there doesnt appear to really be a way to determine how many charges are left while out and about. As long as a user is vigilant enough to charge them up every day or two, that shouldnt become a problem but it is just slightly annoying though it would be more-so if these werent so good for the price. The earbuds themselves use their LEDs to show when the device is charging showing a white light-ring and turning off when charging is complete. Despite being advertised to take as much as an hour, our average charge time from the first warning that the battery was low delivered via a built-in robotic voice was only just over 30-minutes to full. Thankfully, that voice didnt repeat often enough to become annoying, which is a refreshing change from other headphones. Charging the box takes right around two hours. In terms of connectivity, thats solid up to 33ft in open space, as expected. However, we also noticed issues in one or two cases on one device an HTC U11 where audio would cut out if another electronic passed between the headphones and sourced device in close proximity. Thats not at all a big issue and we didnt notice the same issue at all with any other handsets but it is worth pointing out all the same. A single earbud can be used by itself but that only applies to the left earbud with the right bud acting as a slave to the first. Bearing that in mind, the connection between the two can hang if media is playing when the second earbud is taken off of the charger before connecting. Connections aside from that circumstance are nearly instantaneous and reconnections are as well. Advertisement Conclusion The only real drawbacks we noticed with these earbuds stemmed primarily from their biggest advantage their size and weight. The audio quality is, of course, great here but the average consumer isnt necessarily looking for the best audio. Instead, a lot of focus is placed on battery life, comfort, wearability, price, and similar features. On that front, the Tribit X1 True Wireless Earbuds both excel and hold their own. The small size means that weight is kept down and long-term wearing isnt uncomfortable but also that the battery size has been reduced and that it is a somewhat more finicky process to find the perfect position for above-average audio quality. Two to three hours or slightly above isnt at all bad by any stretch of the imagination since its just about on par with nearly every other true wireless earbud on the market. Thats especially true with consideration for the well-balanced dual 6mm drivers and for the overall cost. Bearing that in mind, anybody who happens to be looking for a new pair of Bluetooth earbuds would be hard pressed to find a better value at or below 60. Googles latest ad for the Google Assistant includes six YouTubers, who were brought to a space in Brooklyn where Google teched it out just for them. The whole point of this was to show off Google Assistants Routine feature for different things. Whether thats getting ready to go in the morning, changing the temperature in your home for your plants to stay alive, or anything else. Each YouTuber created their own video on their own channel using Hey Google and doing a routine with Google Assistant, which you can see here. Google also did a short behind-the-scenes video showing how it all went down, and needless to say, some of the YouTubers were pretty shocked at what Google Assistant can actually do. For this ad blitz, Google tapped some of the biggest YouTubers around, including Todrick Hall, TheSorryGirls, Jackie Aina, Lele Pons, Katrina Garcia and The Action Lab. It made a lot of sense for Google to tap YouTubers to promote this feature of Google Assistant, seeing as YouTube is arguably more popular than regular TV, so if youre going to make a video or a commercial, its better to do it on YouTube, where youre going to get more attention. Of course, Google is also able to promote their own platform at the same time, which is a win/win for the search giant. Each of the videos done by these YouTubers do have some pretty complex routines, these are to help you get ideas on what to use Routines for, but also showcase how great they can really be to automate things that you might be doing every single day. Background: Google announced Routines for Assistant earlier this year, and rolled it out over the summer. Essentially, it is a way for users to bundle a number of commands into just one command, with the Google Assistant. A very common one is Hey Google, Good Morning, in which the Google Assistant will tell you the time, the weather, how the traffic is, and also give you the latest news. Of course, these routines are all customizable, so you can have the Google Assistant do a number of different things with these routines. Its designed to make it easier to use the Google Assistant. Instead of telling the Assistant to do five different commands, you can tell it just one, and be on about your day and such. It can be a very useful feature to have on a smart speaker or a smart display, and the customizability just keeps growing as Google adds more features to it. Advertisement Recently, Google has gone on a pretty big ad blitz, following its fall hardware event in October. This was to promote the new hardware it had debuted at the event, but to also promote the Google Assistant in a number of things. Google has been promoting a number of spots on shows on ABC. Including part of the Jimmy Kimmel Live show, where Eminem performed Venom on top of the Empire State Building in New York City, and it was entirely filmed on the Pixel 3. Google also sponsored spots on Good Morning America with Disney, and of course, that is part of its ongoing partnership with Disney. Google has been spending a ton of money on ads for the Google Assistant, Google Home Hub and Google Pixel 3 as of late, which isnt a surprise. After all, Google is an ad company, so having it do a ton of ads is not a huge surprise, its kind of in their blood. But it is a good thing to see Google promoting this stuff, which is a big change from the past. When Google had its Nexus program, it didnt really advertise its smartphones at all. But that has all changed for the better with the Pixel lineup. Impact: Promoting Routines in Google Assistant should get more people using the Google Assistant, but more importantly, it should get more people buying Google Assistant products. For Black Friday, Google had discounted a number of its products. Including the new Google Home Hub which dropped $50 to $99, and many retailers were offering up gift cards and credit for other services along with the Home Hub. The Google Home Max also dropped $50 to $349, and the Google Home Mini saw a new low price of just $25. This made it easier for people to get the Google Assistant into their home, and hopefully use the Routines feature. It is also making it easier for people to make a smart home that is running solely on the Google Assistant. And that is important because all of this stuff can be added to the Google Assistant Routines. So in the morning, you can also have the Google Assistant turn on the lights in your kitchen, or turn on the coffee pot so that your coffee is being made while you take a shower, or read the paper (if that is still a thing these days). Google Assistant is one of the better personal assistants out there right now, of course, the only real competition that it has is with Amazons Alexa. And with Alexa, its really only good for controlling smart home products, and a big reason for that is because Amazon is not a search engine like Google is. So if you ask Alexa something like Whos the President? itll get that answer, but if you ask something more in depth like their height, age, weight, etc., Alexa might have trouble. Whereas Google Assistant knows all of that information because of Google Search, which is running in the back-end. Google Assistant is also becoming a more popular assistant because it is available on every single Android smartphone out there right now. Whereas Alexa is not, it is only available if you download the app, or on select smartphones that Amazon sells. Now Google is looking to make Routines a very popular feature, and that might just happen with this new ad blitz that Google is putting on, but well have to wait and see. Posted on: November 28, 2018 4:47 PM Archbishop Justin Badi Arama has paid a visit to South Sudans President Salva Kiir to pray for peace in the country. During the visit, Archbishop Justin thanked President Kiir for his continued support for the countrys churches and for his support for the funeral of the late Bishop Peter Munde, who died last month. A peace process in the war-torn country continues and this week, President Kiir began a fresh round of talks with the opposition group the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement. During this weeks meeting, Archbishop Justin prayed for President Kiir and the government; and for the sustainability of peace and stability in the country, a presidential spokesperson said. The celebrations take place across Abu Dhabi International Airport (AUH) premises, which will be buzzing with festivities on the 2nd December, the UAE National Day. The airport will be filled with national decorations and national music to welcome its passengers in celebration. UAE flags and pins will be distributed to passengers across arrival and departure terminals, as a sign of pride and nationalism. Passengers will also be greeted with coffee and treats, and have chances to win symbolic gifts. Abu Dhabi International Airport will be celebrating the joy with passengers by rolling out 47 activations throughout the terminals over 47 hours. Such activations will include 47 gifts found on the luggage belt to be given to travelers randomly. In addition, There will be dances from UAE national performers, as well as performances of traditional national music, providing passengers with an exciting and an unforgettable experience. Abu Dhabi Airports staff are also taking part in the UAE National Day festivities. On Wednesday, the 28th of November, Abu Dhabi Airports employees celebrated UAE National Day with their families. The staff members and their families enjoyed performances from local school children as well as poetry recitals and musical performances celebrating UAE national heritage. Bryan Thompson, chief executive officer of Abu Dhabi Airports, said: Abu Dhabi Airports take pride in celebrating the UAE National Day and introducing the Emirati culture and tradition to passengers coming from all over the world. In celebration of the 47th UAE National Day, Abu Dhabi Airports strives to convey the sense of patriotism, pride, and unity of all the Emirati people. Our celebration of the UAE National Day is in line with our continuous efforts to provide a unique travel experience for our passengers and ensure we offer the highest quality services, as part of our vision to become a world-leading airport group, Thompson added. Popular British radio presenter, Gavin Ford of Radio One, has been found dead in his apartment in Beirut with police handling the case as a homicide, reports say. The widely known anchor who gained fame with his show Gavin Ford in the Morning on Radio One, was found dead Tuesday. Police sources told local media that his death was being treated as a homicide. Local media, LBC TV, said the radio presenter who has been working with the Radio One since 1996, was strangled and struck on the head. Fords death sent a shock wave among his fans and listeners. The UK diplomatic mission in Beirut said it was shocked and is providing assistance to his family. I am shocked and deeply saddened by the death of Gavin Ford, one of Lebanons most popular morning breakfast hosts. The thoughts of all at the Embassy are with his family, friends and colleagues at this terribly difficult time, British Ambassador to Lebanon Chris Rampling said in a tweet. 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, the missions spokesperson also said. Ford has been living in Lebanon for years. This is the second death of a British citizen in the Middle East country in a less than a year. 31-year-old Rebecca Dykes, was found dead in the Lebanese capital in December last year. Police has charged her Uber driver for the murder. YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. Rescuers are searching for a 24-year-old citizen who is missing in an avalanche near the village of Kakhakn, Gegharkunik Province. The emergency situations ministry did not disclose the identity of the victim. It said that authorities were notified at 14:58, November 27 on the incident. The initial search and rescue operations were hindered by bad weather conditions. Today early morning the rescue ops resumed, involving additional emergency personnel. The ministry said additional information will be provided later. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan 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. Omani authorities have widened the sectors it has banned for the employment of expats as it drives to create more jobs for local skills. A decision by the government has added purchase and sales representatives and workers in the construction, cleaning, and workshop sectors to the list. Authorities have since January ceased issuing employment visas for expats in 87 professions, which include media, engineering, accounting and finance, IT, insurance, technicians, administration and HR industries. The move, termed as Omanization of employments seeks to create employment for local kills. The policy has been feared with many expat investors believing that it will harm business growth in the Gulf state. The ban, planned to last six months, has been extended in July. Looking at 100 job ads for general counsel, the word business is used 306 times, beating compliance (257 mentions) into second place. Phrases indicating traditional legal expertise are used less often agreements (113), risk (107), contract (67), and drafting (57). The analysis also revealed that women make up 31% of GCs and their male counterparts are paid 39% more on average. The study also reveals the path to become a GC, in the Fortune 500 revealing that 70% of those taking the top legal jobs have an in-house legal background, rather than arriving from a law firm. The GC, already the highest paid and most-senior role in the legal profession, has in recent years become as influential as the CFO and other senior leaders in the boardroom, said ACC President and CEO, Veta T. Richardson. With a role encompassing everything from strategic leadership, and management, to negotiating on regulation in major growth industries, the modern GC is realizing an almost limitless opportunity to imprint their experiences and knowledge in a new phase of corporate America." As satiated Americans gathered around their Thanksgiving tables to count their blessings, incensed protesters gathered in roadways and intersections across France to count the cost of Emmanuel Macrons punishing gas taxes. A leaderless rebellion propelled hundreds of thousands of people into the streets on foot, of course and made France perhaps the least likely site in the world to see citizens demand, Death to taxes. That was one of the phrases emblazoned on placards held aloft by the gilets jaunes movement (named for the yellow vests French drivers must wear in the event of a breakdown). The protests, expected to last one day, have endured a week. On November 17, 244,000 protesters erected 2,000 roadblocks nationwide. Estimates of protesters from the following Saturday range from 81,000 to 106,000 including 8,000 protesters on the Champ-Elysees alone. When a few miscreants turned the protests violent, police responded with tear gas. Meanwhile, politicians from every opposition party hurried to claim ownership ofthe grassroots movement that voices an authentic national consensus: The governments excessive taxes on gasoline and diesel are hurting families. A problem of its own making Like its neighbors, the French government once used taxes and incentives to nudge the French to ditch gasoline for diesel. Diesel, scientists said, emits less carbon dioxide than gasoline. The incentives worked, and by 2013, two-thirds of all new cars on French roadways had diesel engines. But then the governments of Europe learned that, while diesel emits less CO2, it releases far higher levels of other particulates. Now the government is correcting a problem of its own making by taxing both diesel and gasoline. Last year, President Macron announced the government plans to end the sale of gasoline and diesel vehicles by 2040. Meanwhile, he ratcheted up the economic pain. Gasoline costs as much as $7.06 a gallon (1.64 a liter) in Paris. Diesel prices are being taxed into near parity. The government assesses that taxes account for 60 percent of the overall cost of fuel. Carbon taxes continue to pile up with no end in sight. The New York Times reports, the tax burden had grown by about 25 billion every year between 2002 and 2017. Taxes increased this year, and the government plans to hike fuel taxes again early next year (by an additional 6.5 cents a liter for diesel and 2.9 cents a liter for gasoline). Authorities hope the move will force the French to reduce their carbon footprint and switch from diesel, yesterdays preferred purchase, to electric and hybrid cars. Instead, the people have gone public with their tales of pain and outrage: A father of seven who makes 1,500 a month said hes sick of being taxed on everything; 1,500 a month said hes sick of being taxed on everything; A contractor who has to drive large distances for his business said, It seems like to us that the government is only working to maintain its own privileges Why should we have to finance their projects? A 21-year-old woman said, They take everything from us. They steal everything from us; and 860,000 people signed a petition on Change.org to reduce the gasoline tax. Even far-Left radical Jean-Luc Melenchon has said, When tax is no longer agreed to, its the start of revolutions in France. No one can doubt the potency of this populist revolt, least of all Macron, whose approval ratings have dipped into the 20s. How has his government responded? Let them eat electric cars Macron this week said the protests created a moral crisis of ambient demagogy. At times, hes conflated the undeniably grassroots movement with a small fraction of extremists who joined in the protests. He vacillated between affirming the protesters pain and denouncing them as thugs who want to destroy and create disorder. But on the substance of their complaint, he refuses to budge. We must not change course, because the policy direction is right and necessary, Macron said. He instead promised to dispatch his environmental minister to meet with the protesters. And he pledged enhanced tax incentives to purchase new electric cars. We cant buy food at the end of the month but were going to buy an electric car? asked an understandably piqued 45-year-old woman. Macrons moral morass This is, indeed, a moral crisis. The power of the government has been harnessed to nudge an unwilling populace toward goals set by the political leadership. The tax burden imposed by the government has been so severe that an increasing number of families cannot care for their other legitimate needs. To add insult to injury, the French free-market think tank Fondation iFRAP reports that France already has one of the lowest levels of C02 emissions of any industrialized nation and much of the carbon tax goes to the governments general fund, not to alternative energy initiatives. Moreover, the nations political leadership refuses to listen to the voice of the governed who are pleading for relief. Oppressive taxes inhibit human flourishing. And unpopular elitists disregarding the pleas of their suffering people in order to fatten government coffers could drive a wedge in French society that explodes in perilous ways. The biblical story of Rehoboam shows how excessively harsh taxation can divide a people. French history provides its own example of a monarch who cruelly ignored the plight of starving people. That story, too, ended badly. A free market allows people to pursue their own ends, according to their own values. The French peoples already-light carbon footprint attests to the value they place on the environment. But humane economics values those people, their families, above all. (Photo credit: Florian Pepellin. This photo has been cropped. CC BY-SA 4.0.) Egypts national flag carrier EgyptAir has revealed that the ongoing blockade imposed by the North African country, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain on Qatar over its alleged support for terrorism has created a significant dent in the airlines figures. Saudi Arabia and its allies since June last year have severed ties with Doha and imposed a sea/air/ground blockade on the tiny gas-rich country over its alleged endorsement for terrorism and strong ties with regional arch enemy Iran. The boycotting countries have banned Qatari planes from using their air space and banned their airlines from flying passengers to the emirate. Speaking before the parliament on Monday, EgyptAir Chairman, Ahmed Adel said the ongoing blockade has caused heavy losses for the airline, Middle East Monitor reports. Ahmed Adel told the parliaments tourism and civil aviation committee that the cessation of EgyptAir flights to Doha has incurred heavy losses on the company. The conflicts and political instability in Libya and Yemen according to the airline official have also had a toll on the companys annual sales. (By Katty2016/Shutterstock.com) (By Katty2016/Shutterstock.com) Australia's population is forecast to reach 30 million in 11 to 15 years with newcomers from overseas contributing to the growth, according to official figures.Based on current trends the number of people living in Australia will reach this mark between 2029 and 2033, the latest figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) suggest.Population projections are based on assumptions of future levels of fertility, life expectancy and migration, which are guided by recent population trends.'The projected time for the nation to grow by five million people on current indications will be similar, if not a little shorter, than the 14 years it took to grow from 20 million to 25 million,' said Anthony Grubb, director of demography at the ABS.'Looking further ahead, based on the medium of our three main projection assumption series, Australia could add a further 10 million to our current 25 million by the year 2043,' he pointed out.'However under our higher range of fertility, mortality and migration assumptions the population would reach 35 million five years earlier in 2038. Conversely, under lower assumptions the population would only reach 35 million a decade later in 2053,' he explained.Under all assumptions, the population of New South Wales is projected to remain as the largest state with a population of between approximately nine and 9.3 million. Victoria is projected to experience the largest and fastest increase in population, possibly reaching between seven and eight million by 2027.Queensland is projected to continue growing over the projection period, increasing to six million people in 2027. Western Australia is projected to increase to three million by 2027, while South Australia is projected to have slower growth, increasing to two million.The population of the Australian Capital Territory is projected to increase to between 479,000 and 510,000 people closing the gap on Tasmania's population which is projected to reach between 545,000 and 573,000 people in 2027. The Northern Territory is projected to increase to between 270,000 and 284,000 people in 2027.The SBS is also forecasting that the number of people aged 85 years and over is projected to double in the next 25 years by 2042, increasing to over one million people.'By 2042, people aged 85 years or over could make up 3% of Australia's population, compared to only 2% in 2017. The narrowing gap in the life expectancy of men and women could see the proportion of men in this older age group increase from 38% to 42% in 2066 under medium assumptions.The median age of the population would increase by between one and 3.6 years. In 2017, Australia's median age was 37.2 years old and by 2042 it could be 39.3 years and by 2066 it could be 40.7 years. SUV With the arrival of this model, the Levante range has four flavors in North America. There are two twin-turbo Ferrari-assembled V6 versions, this and the 590-hp top-of-the-line Trofeo model that shares the 3.8L twin-turbo V8. That being said, this doesn't feel like a real debut, since FLA organized a media driving event for the GTS a couple of months ago.The model that it's mostly going to be compared to is the Porsche Cayenne Turbo, which currently stickers for $124,600. And because Maserati is failing , we don't expect the Levante to compete well. Also, there are going to be performance versions of the BMW X5 and Mercedes GLE soon.The 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8 is a little smaller than what all the above-mentioned rivals have/will have. But with 550 horsepower at 6,250 rpm and peak torque of no less than 538 lb-ft between 2,500 and 5,000 rpm, you can't complain. And like all the other Levante models, it has Maseratis Q4 Intelligent All-Wheel-Drive System and the eight-speed ZF gearbox with a manual mode. While thewill do 62 in about four seconds, it also has an off-road mode and a suspension lift.As we've already mentioned, the full 2019 model range is coming to LAAS 2018. For example, you can look forward to the new "Pieno Fiore" leather, which is said to be super-soft and develop character over the year. It's going to be shown in black, tan or red, depending on the model.Also, Maserati has tweaked the front grille and side skirts on the Quattroporte GTS GranSport, which now features double vertical bars in glossy Black Piano and side skirt inserts in the same color. A new tri-coat color is also available, the deep dark Blu Nobile, which will be presented on the Levante S GranLusso and Quattroporte S GranLusso. Presented back in March as a crazy concept, Pop.Up Next comprises an ultra-light, two-seater passenger cabin that can be attached to either a self-driving car module, built by Audi or a self-flying drone, manufactured by Airbus.For the test in Amsterdam, the flight module accurately placed a passenger capsule on the ground module, which then drove from the test grounds autonomously, says Audi.While the actual concept is being tested in Europe , including at Audis main facility in Ingolstadt, the idea of having people mix air and ground transport to get by in a crowded city more easily is being researched in South America, together with Airbus subsidiary Voom.There, select customers take helicopter flights in Mexico City, Mexico, or Sao Paulo, Brazil, and when they land they are greeted by a car ready to take them to their final destination.Audi says a functional service based on the Pop.Up Next concept could be up and running as soon as next decade.Flying taxis are on the way. We at Audi are convinced of that, said in a statement Bernd Martens, president of Audis subsidiary Italdesign, which helped create the concept.If we succeed in making a smart allocation of traffic between roads and airspace, people and cities can benefit in equal measure.The Pop.Up Next cabin boasts a TV-like 49-inch screen which relays information back to the passengers. The autonomous system uses speech and face recognition to allow humans to control it.Additional control can be achieved via eye-tracking technology and touching the screen. Huibers actually finished his Ark in 2012 and its his second attempt at it. The first one was too small, so he sold it and started working on the second. This one took 4 years to build and the work of many volunteer, inexperienced builders. It can accommodate 5,000 people and animals.The result, Huibers tells JTA , is that there are many crooked things about the boat but one this is certain: this is an exact copy of Gods ship, so he aims to sail it to Gods land, Israel.My preferred destination for the ark is Israel, he says. It may sound scary, but I believe everything written in this book [the Bible], cover to cover. This is a copy of Gods ship. It only makes sense to take it to Gods land.There is only one problem with that: while the boat can float, it does not have an engine to take it all the way to Israel. Sailing would have to be done by means of tugboats and renting as many as needed would cost over $1 million. Huibers made a fortune off constructing storage spaces, but he doesnt say whether he intends to spend that kind of money to make the trip.For the time being, the Ark is closed to visitors. The municipality of Krimpen aan de Ijssel is no longer allowing visitors on board, citing adjustments that would have to be made for security reasons. Huibers insists the boat is safe, insured and fitted with all the necessary equipment to extinguish fires.Huibers believes the end of times is coming, even though people arent aware of it. He wants to get the Ark to Israel to sound off the alarm on that, to show that God exists, and to offer people the chance to see it first-hand.For the record, this is the second planned trip for the Ark. Huibers previously made arrangements to take it to Brazil for the Olympics, but the journey was never made.The water is going to come. From the mountains, from the sea, through Germany. It sounds like doom and gloom, but Im not afraid of it, he says. Huibers has other, smaller boats at home. For when the end comes. The homeowner got out and ended up shooting the alleged robber, WSB-TV reports. Police are now investigating to determine whether the shooting was justified, but in his neighbors eyes, he did the right thing.Cobb County police confirmed to Channel 2 Action News that a man was in the process of breaking into a pickup truck when the homeowner came out and confronted him. During the confrontation, the homeowner shot the suspect at least once below the waist, police said, the report says.The suspect was taken to the hospital, where hes being treated for non-life-threatening injuries. The identity of neither man has been made public, because of the ongoing investigation.Be that as it may, the mans neighbors believe he acted appropriately, telling the media outlet that they would probably have done the same. As one woman puts it, they worked hard for the things they had and they didnt want other people to come over and just take them without putting up a fight.I think he did the right thing. I truly do. I probably wouldve done the same thing, neighbor Sheila Tolbert also says. Hes trying to protect his home and his vehicle. And if thats what you have to do, then thats what you have to do.The Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution speaks of the peoples right to keep and bear arms to protect themselves. Under this Amendment, the homeowner did nothing wrong, but to people asking for stricter gun control and those not from the U.S., it seems weird to shoot a man because he was ransacking your car unless it was in self-defense. HP In the past few years, the Carabinieri have also received SEATs from Spain and a couple of 510 horsepower Alfa patrol sedans . The 308 GTi is undoubtedly a cool little police car. It's got the sort of deep blue paint and red stripes that make you want to add it to your want to add it to your Matchbox collection. It also comes with all the stuff it needs for Carabinieri duty: a siren, flashing lights in the grille, safety equipment, an illuminated writing desk in the rear parcel with dual USB socket and system, and radio.The 308 GTi is not the sort of thing you expect to see being used by the police. This hot hatch is the lightest in its class at about 1.2 tons and features a high-strung 1.6-liter turbo producing 272 horsepower. I also feature 19-inch wheels, stiff suspension, and a Torsen mechanical diff. The Italian policing force will no-doubt also appreciate that it can do the standing kilometer in 25.3 seconds.What we don't understand is why the Italians are advertising a foreign car brand, though. Could you imagine the German police using an Alfa Romeo? And don't they already have a fleet of Giuliettas, including some 240models?We think it's a sort of good-will gesture since Group PSA Italia contribute about 3 billion euros to the local economy, employ 700 people directly and another 8,000 through suppliers. The Peugeot 308 GTi will be used only in Rome and is an indeterminate-period free loan from Peugeot. In any case, here's a video of the Carabinieri toy being put through its paces on the Misano track. According to the publication, the driver, Henry Herman, is in his 70s and was trying to parallel park when the accident happened on Monday evening. It was raining at the time, as the surveillance video below can confirm, but police are yet to determine whether that played any part in the accident.The Toyota minivan is seen speeding down the street in reverse, before hitting a crowd of pedestrians standing by a fruit stand. Of those hit, 1 died, 1 is in critical condition and 5 others have sustained minor injuries.One eyewitness describes the scene to the NY Post as one of utter chaos. The driver, too, panicked when he got out of the car and saw how many people hed hit with his car.He came down to check on people and he said, Oh, my God. People were on the floor, one man trying to climb up. Hes saying, Oh, my God, says the eyewitness. I was just in shock. I told him not to move.I think people were just shocked. People on the floor, the witness continues. There were maybe five people there, other than the man who was dead. The man just died right there.Herman remained on the scene until first responders and police arrived. He was then arrested and charged with failure to exercise due care and failure to yield to pedestrians, but more charges could be brought against him, depending on the findings of the investigation.Police are working on the theory that Herman may have mistaken the acceleration pedal for the brake, as he was trying to bring his car to the curb in reverse. Nicole He is an artist and programmer who uses uses digital and physical mediums to explore the relationship between humans and computers with interactivity, playfulness, and humor. Day-to-day she is a freelance creative technologist at Google Creative Lab experimenting with creative uses of voice technology. In this talk she discusses how computers are able to understand human speech better than ever before, yet voice technology is still mostly used for practical (and boring!) purposes, here she dives into what else we can experience in the very weird, yet intuitive act of talking out loud to machines! People like to yell at computers, so now is a good time to make creative work with voice technology! Subscribe now - watch the hottest design talks and interviews from Awwwards, on our YouTube Channel. Next stop - Awwwards Conferences 2019 Amsterdam February 13th - 15th & San Francisco 8th - 10th May digital designers network and learn key tools from visionaries and leading agencies about current trends and emerging web technologies. The Justice Department announced Tuesday that it has brought criminal charges against eight people on 13 indictments related to a digital ad fraud scheme dubbed "3ve" worth tens of millions of dollars. The scheme, which included three separate operations, was uncovered by Google and fraud detection firm White Ops. Why it matters: The operation was one of the largest and most sophisticated schemes ever to be uncovered involving digital ad fraud, in which advertisers are charged for bogus ad views. The discovery required unprecedented collaboration between law enforcement and dozens of different private sector groups, many of whom are competitors. Our thought bubble: It's easier to have such a joint effort between companies and law enforcement when a financial harm is being committed. Although this sort of collaboration is also beginning to occur more often on the organic media side, catching misinformation botnets, there's less financial incentive for it. Be smart: Per Buzzfeed's Craig Silverman, who broke the story: "With todays charges and the takedown of 3ves systems, the Department of Justice is sending a message that it now recognizes ad fraud for what it is: a global criminal industry thats stealing billions with impunity and little fear of prosecution." The details: The indictment was unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn. Eight men five from Russia, one from Russia and Ukraine and two from Kazakhstan were charged with criminal violations, including wire fraud, computer intrusion, aggravated identity theft and money laundering. Three of the eight have been arrested. Some experts found the new fraud scheme reminiscent of the now infamous 2016 Methbot ad fraud botnet that stemmed from Russia. How it works: The fraudsters ran fake ad networks, pushing ads to load on fabricated webpages, and in turn cashed in on the ad revenue. While this operation was different from the one against Methbot, it did use some of the same infrastructure that helped deliver that fraud scheme two years ago. By the numbers: To give you a sense of just how complex and advanced the operation was: Officials say "tens of millions" of advertising dollars were obtained illegally. Per Google, the operation involved more than 10,000 counterfeit websites, more than 60,000 accounts selling ad inventory via more than a million compromised IP addresses, and processed more than 3 billion daily bid requests. The federal court in Brooklyn revealed seizure warrants authorizing the FBI to take control of 31 internet domains and to take information from 89 computer servers that were all part of the infrastructure for botnets engaged in the fraud scheme. How they found it: White Ops and Google worked together to identify and investigate the crime ad operation last year, which led to the news on Tuesday from law enforcement. White Ops says it was truly a cross-industry effort. "We were in a room at the beginning of this collaboration directed by the FBI with some of the largest platforms on the internet, over a dozen FBI agents and federal prosecutors at the DOJ... It was a rather historic turning point in the history of ad fraud." Hassan The bigger picture: The digital ad industry is extremely vulnerable to such kinds of fraud because there's a lot of money at stake ($273 billion globally, per eMarketer), and there's very little regulation or oversight of transactions. To make matters harder, online criminals can operate well beyond their physical jurisdictions, which means it usually takes international law-enforcement bodies to work together to identify and dismantle such operations. What's next: The industry, led in part by Google, the dominant player in the global digital ad business, has tried to regulate itself in order to combat the problem. But while these measures have been widely adopted on the publisher side, they are still far from being fully implemented on the ad agency side, and fraudsters have become more sophisticated about how to beat the system while evading detection. Bottom line: Digital advertising was supposed to bring more transparency to the advertising sector, but its increasingly automated nature has made it more susceptible to fraud. A lack of oversight makes fraud schemes often hard to detect until it's too late. Industry collaboration as a form of self-regulation will be key to maintaining trust in the digital marketplace. US President Donald Trump and his team barred the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for briefing the Senate on the assassination of Saudi journalist and Washington Post contributor as the upper house was due to hold this Wednesday a private discussion on relations with Saudi Arabia, The Guardian has revealed. The secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, and the defense secretary, James Mattis, are due to give a briefing on US relations with Saudi Arabia to the entire Senate behind closed doors on Wednesday, ahead of a vote that could cut off US support for Riyadhs military campaign in Yemen, The Guardian said. A Senate staffer also told the British paper that it is customary to have an intel person present during such an important session but the decision by the White House can be interpreted as a clear move to zip the mouth of the intelligence community. CIA Chief, Gina Haspel and her agency have listened to audio tapes of Khashoggis killing on Oct. 02, provided by Turkish authorities. Turkey pointed the finger at the highest level of the Saudi leadership, leaving King Salman aside but piling pressure on the Crown Prince, Mohamed bin Salman (MbS). The New York Times, The Washington Post and several media institutions have reported that the CIA has held MbS as the mastermind of what Turkish authorities have referred to as premeditated crime in which the 59-year old journalist was strangled and dismembered. Saudi Arabia has confessed the killing but has denied the Crown Princes link with the assassination. However, Trump claimed that the 33-year old de facto ruler may have known about the plan to murder his critic who fled the kingdom in September last year and settled in the USA. The US leader has refused to listen to the tapes noting that it will not change his position regarding Saudi Arabia that he views as an important trade ally and a partner in the fight against terrorism. Meanwhile, US lawmakers from across the spectrum pressure him to scale down relations with the Gulf country. Brazil's government says it will no longer host next year's United Nations annual climate summit, citing "budgetary and financial restrictions," reports Bloomberg. The big picture: Experts have warned that the environmental policies favored by right-wing president-elect Jair Bolsonaro could cause a spike in greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation in the Amazon rainforest which a recent report claims has reached its highest level in a decade. The withdrawal of Brazil as a host venue is symbolically important, since it was the Rio Earth Summit of 1992 that kicked off multilateral negotiations on climate change in the first place. Per Axios' Amy Harder, Brazil's retreat is the latest sign of the rise of leaders around the world who are resistant to globalism and multilateral diplomacy, which is what these climate talks and the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement are all about. Go deeper: Congress' criminal justice reform bill has some implications for the opioid crisis. Details: High-level fentanyl and heroin traffickers would not be eligible for credits to reduce their sentence. These credits are available to lower-level inmates many of whom have a substance abuse disorder and can be earned through participation in treatment programs. The bill also would require the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to submit a report on a pilot program for medication-assisted treatment. What they're saying: "The bill comes far short of requiring BOP to provide treatment inside and to be linked to the treatment on the outside upon re-entry, [and] that's a huge missed opportunity," Northeastern University's Leo Beletsky says. "Shortened sentences are obviously imperative but if people are being released, there needs to be very specific re-entry work done to make sure they don't overdose and die," Beletsky adds. The bill is also limited to the federal system, while opioid users are often charged with simple possession or petty crimes that are generally prosecuted at the state and local level, Stanford University's Keith Humphreys tells Axios. Go deeper: GOP senators battle McConnell for vote on criminal justice reform 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 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 I.D. chip that's used in cell phones, 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. A former employee at Facebook said in a memo posted online Tuesday that the company has widely failed to support its black workers and users. The big picture: Civil rights advocates have pushed Facebook to do a better job of policing harassment, and earlier this year the company agreed to do a civil rights audit of its platform. What he's saying: Mark Luckie, who was strategic partner manager for global influencers at Facebook, said in a memo earlier this month which he posted online on Tuesday that black users "are finding that their attempts to create 'safe spaces' on Facebook for conversation among themselves are being derailed by the platform itself." Luckie said that "disenfranchisement of black people on the platform mirrors the marginalization of its black employees." Luckie said that black employees had been called "'hostile' or 'aggressive'" for sharing opinions in a similar manner as colleagues who are not black. "Racial discrimination at Facebook is real," he said. He said that multiple times a day at Facebook's headquarters, another employee would "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 said. Facebook's response: 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," said Facebook spokesperson Anthony Harrison in a statement. We want to fully support all employees when there are issues reported and when there may be micro-behaviors that add up. Only 3.5% of total U.S. employees at Facebook are black, according to the company's most recent diversity report. The company said this summer that the percentage of black employees had increased in recent years but that the "percentage of Black employees in technical roles remained flat, as did the percentage of Black employees in leadership roles." What's next? Earlier on Tuesday, the civil rights group Color of Change said Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg had agreed to meet with them this week after reports that the firm used opposition research in an attempt to discredit its critics, including Color of Change. The group says it wants Facebook to: The use of tear gas on crowds of asylum-seekers is only the latest attack in an ongoing war the Trump administration has launched at the border. The big picture: Trump campaigned on drastic immigration changes, including building the wall on the border, but Congress is nowhere near passing any sweeping immigration legislation and the Trump administration is struggling with a surge of asylum claims, chaos at the border and a record number of unaccompanied minors. Migrant children The family separation policy is over, and the majority of immigrant families have been reunited. But the Trump administration is still dealing with another child migrant crisis: There are around 14,000 migrant minors in government custody, but they don't have the proper space to hold and care for them. What was supposed to be a temporary shelter is quickly turning into a permanent tent city in Tornillo, Texas. Its tents currently hold 2,349 mostly Central American boys and girls between the ages of 13 and 17 more people than are held in all but one of the country's 204 federal prisons, according to AP. While Health and Human Services works to find family members to care for the children instead of keeping them in shelters, some advocates worry that reports of ICE arresting immigrants who came forward to do so are scaring off other caretakers. Caravans Caravans of thousands of Central Americans have been making their way through Mexico, and many have landed at the southern U.S. border in Tijuana. What was once thought to be a midterm political play for Trump to stoke his base has become a logistical nightmare as border agents grapple with how to handle the hoards of asylum-seekers. Around 5,900 troops were sent to the border in preparation of the caravan's arrival, and White House chief of staff John Kelly signed an order that would allow the troops to use force in defending border agents. were sent to the border in preparation of the caravan's arrival, and White House chief of staff John Kelly signed an order that would allow the troops to use force in defending border agents. Over the weekend, border officials launched tear gas into crowds of these migrants allegedly in response to thrown rocks. Images of children and families choking on the chemical sparked outrage among humanitarian groups, Democrats and some Republicans. border officials launched tear gas into crowds of these migrants allegedly in response to thrown rocks. Images of children and families choking on the chemical sparked outrage among humanitarian groups, Democrats and some Republicans. Border officials have had to close a border crossing from Tijuana, and many immigrants may be forced to wait weeks or months in Mexico before being able to submit their asylum claims. have had to close a border crossing from Tijuana, and many immigrants may be forced to wait weeks or months in Mexico before being able to submit their asylum claims. Mexico may enter into an agreement with the U.S. that would require all asylum-seekers to remain in Mexico until their cases have been decided, the Washington Post reported. The Mexican government has denied that any such agreement has been reached. The courts Several of the Trump administration's efforts to curb immigration have been stopped by the courts, the most recent being a proclamation that would have automatically disqualified anyone who crossed the border illegally from claiming asylum. A federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order blocking the measure. Larry Kudlow, President Trumps chief economic adviser, said China should be prepared for a massive slate of new tariffs absent a breakthrough in Trumps meeting at the G20 on Saturday with Chinese President Xi Jinping, and it needs to understand that Trump will continue his hardline approach as long as hes in office. Why it matters: Trump threatened to raise existing tariffs on China to 25% and impose tariffs on an additional $267 billion in Chinese imports "if we dont make a deal" in yesterdays interview with the Wall Street Journal. Kudlow said in a briefing with reporters Tuesday that its up to Xi to change Trumps mind because, "as weve all learned, he means what he says." He also insisted that its Trump who enters the meeting with the upper hand: "Were strong, theyre not. From an economic standpoint, I like the position were in frankly. I like our negotiating position." Kudlow said the meeting was "a great opportunity" for a breakthrough, but only if China comes in with new ideas and far more flexibility than theyve shown thus far. He mentioned intellectual property, forced technology transfers, "so-called joint ventures" and cyber hacking as key issues for discussion. There's been considerable speculation that Trump and Xi will agree to a short-term truce, in part because the markets would react so negatively if, as Kudlow warned was possible, things "deteriorate more." Kudlow said Trump has shown some optimism about the meeting, but has grown deeply frustrated by China's "unsatisfactory responses" to his demands. Between the lines: Axios contributor Bill Bishop says Kudlow is right, to a degree, that the Chinese "don't seem to understand that the tactics that worked in the past in D.C. no longer do." On that note, Kudlow added, "President Xi might have a lot more to say in the dinner. I hope he does by the way, I think we all hope he does so we can break through the barriers, these impasses. Because at the moment, we dont see it." What to watch: The meeting will take place over dinner at the summit in Buenos Aires, where Trump will also be meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kudlow said the Xi meeting won't just be about trade, as Trump's national security team also has agenda items.Go deeper: President Trump believes that General Motors "turned their back on him" in announcing layoffs and plant closures, according to top White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow. Why it matters: For Trump, politics is always personal. For GM, this could mean less influence over future policy. More from Kudlow, who spoke with reporters in the Roosevelt Room of the White House: These are their business decisions, I just think theres a tremendous amount of disappointment, maybe even spilling over into anger. President Trump expressed his dissatisfaction, lots of other people did, this is a bipartisan thing." I met with [GM CEO Mary] Barra, whom I generally like. I have no idea if shes made the right decisions or the wrong decisions, its not my business. I do think, however, the presidents point of view is, we concluded the USMCA deal which really helped the American auto business and American auto workers, and was designed to do that. And the car companies supported us. "So part of the disappointment is, 'We made this deal, we worked with you along the way, weve done other things mileage standards for example and other regulations. Weve done this to help you, and I think his disappointment is it seems like they kind of turned their back on him." The backdrop: U.S. automakers generally supported the USMCA, but mostly because it was considered preferable to Trump's threats of ripping up NAFTA without a replacement, and additional tariff threats. Make School, a San Francisco startup that operates a two-year bachelors degree in applied computer science, has been accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges via a partnership with Dominican University of California. The big picture: The boom in so-called coding bootcamps several years ago highlighted the need to bridge the gap between traditional college degrees and the growing demand for computer programmers. Make School is betting that it can offer some students a more efficient alternative to a four-year degree. What theyre saying: "Were seeing a shift with this generation theyre optimizing for outcomes," Make School co-founder Jeremy Rossmann tells Axios of today's teenagers. In 2012, Rossmann and co-founder Ashu Desai started the company then called Make Games With Us offering short programs for teenagers to learn to code their own video games. Since then, it has added its two-year computer programming program, which aims to help students build a portfolio to land a full-time job in software. The curriculum is heavily focused on computer science and programming, but also includes liberal arts classes and courses in practical skills like job interviewing. San Francisco is a Mecca for tech and theres a tremendous amount of value in having your formative years in tech in downtown San Francisco, says Rossmann, explaining why the company chose to locate in one of the most expensive U.S. cities, where it offers student housing. Since 2014, 210 students have participated in either a one-year pilot program or the full two-year version, with a 12% dropout rate. Make School says its making its education more accessible, both via its business model and approach to admissions. The school offers income-sharing options, meaning students can pay a percentage of their pre-tax salary once they land a job making at least $60,000 instead of paying tuition upfront. According to Rossmann, 95% of current students have opted for some form of income sharing. Make School says that its admissions process is designed to be less focused on traditional academic requirements and offers a pre-admissions program that helps candidates get up to speed with programing basics to ensure theyll be ready for the curriculum. A quarter of its most recent group of admitted students had to complete the program, says Rossmann. Make School also requires that candidates take the SAT or ACT test as they would for most traditional colleges. Of the 110 students currently enrolled, 25% are women, 40% are from underrepresented minorities, and 60% are from households making less than $60,000 per year. Employers also seem open to alternative education like Make Schools program. So far, graduates have gone on to work at top tech companies like Facebook, Snap, Google, and Apple. Their average starting salary is $95,000 per year, says Rossmann. A number of large tech companies have dropped their requirement that job candidates have a college degree, signaling a broader shift in how these employers view the link between higher education and job skills. Yes, but: Make School, like most other non-traditional programming education programs, is still small and young. Whether they can successfully replace traditional computer science college degrees, or expand into other disciplines, remains to be seen. Editor's Note: This article has been corrected to clarify that the figures on enrollment include students in a one-year pilot program. Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manaforts lawyer repeatedly talked to the president's attorneys about discussions with federal investigators after Manafort began cooperating two months ago with the special counsel, sources familiar with the matter told the New York Times in a report Tuesday. Why it matters: The president's legal team has long maintained a joint defense agreement with witnesses in Robert Mueller's Russian inquiry, including Manafort. But the Times reports that its "highly unusual" for the agreement to continue after a witness reaches a plea agreement with federal prosecutors. Rudy Giuliani, one of the presidents personal lawyers representing him in Muellers probe, has confirmed the arrangement with the Times and defended it. Details: Giuliani said the conversations provided valuable insight about the Muellers probe and the direction it's heading. Giuliani said Manaforts lawyer Kevin Downing had informed him that Muellers team had grilled him over whether the president knew Trump knew about the 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Trump campaign associates and a Russian lawyer who vowed to provide damaging information on Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump Jr. He wants Manafort to incriminate Trump, Giuliani told the Times, referring to Mueller. Downing did not respond to a request to the publication for comment. The Times noted that the attorney didn't violate any laws, but said the move has infuriated and inflamed tensions with Mueller's team. The backdrop: The revelation comes a day after Muellers team said that Manafort had violated the plea agreement by lying repeatedly to federal investigators and Mueller's office. Manafort could face more than a decade in prison after he pleaded guilty in September on charges of financial fraud, attempting to obstruct justice and breaching foreign lobbying laws. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo deflected questions Wednesday about why CIA director Gina Haspel did not appear at a Senate briefing on military aid to Saudi Arabia, and claimed that there is "no direct reporting connecting the crown prince to the order to murder Jamal Khashoggi." The big picture: Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told reporters that Pompeo and Defense Secretary James Mattis, who also appeared before the Senate, explained in the briefing that Haspel's absence was "a decision by the White House." Haspel was dispatched to Turkey following the death of Khashoggi and has reportedly heard an audio recording of the murder. Update: CIA Press Secretary Timothy Barrett told NBC News, "The notion that anyone told Director Haspel not to attend today's briefing is false." King Mohammed VI of Morocco has underlined his steadfast determination to follow in the steps of the late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan and the late King Hassan II to foster the longstanding bonds between the UAE and Morocco. King Mohammed VIs remarks came in a message he sent to a symposium held Tuesday in Rabat to mark the 100th birthday of the late Founding Father of the UAE. The Sovereign paid tribute to the wisdom and clear-sightedness of late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who contributed to consolidating not only Moroccan-Emirati bonds, but also the unity and solidarity between Arab countries. Relations between Morocco and the UAE are steeped in history, he said recalling that the foundations of this longstanding relationship were laid by the late King Hassan II and Sheikh Zayed. My venerable father once said that whenever he wanted to describe relations between the Moroccan people and the people of the UAE, he could not find in the dictionary a more fitting description than that of brotherly, most cordial relations. He went on to say that the two peoples were like twins, separated only by geography, the king said in the message that was read out by his younger brother, Prince Moulay Rachid. Morocco, its King and people have the highest regard for this illustrious leader and his esteemed royal family, whose members have remained ever faithful to the brotherly bonds of loyalty uniting them to my family as well as to the Kingdom of Morocco, he underlined. Guided by a firm belief in a common destiny and the need for solidarity between Arab countries, the leaders of the two nations worked with dedication and goodwill to provide the conditions for the promotion of bilateral and joint Arab action in order to rise to the challenges facing our peoples, said King Mohammed VI. King Mohammed VI who praised Sheikh Zayeds active role in the creation of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), recalled that at the same time, King Hassan II was seeking to build the Maghreb Union because it was a strategic choice and a popular demand. The aim was to achieve comprehensive development, integration and complementarity. This attests to the wisdom and foresight which characterized the two leaders, who also shared a firm belief in unity, legitimacy, dialogue and commitment to upholding just Arab and Islamic causes, stressed the King, noting that continuing our joint action today to promote these exemplary relations is the best way to show loyalty to the special relationship that existed between Sheikh Zayed and Hassan II may God bless their souls. Continuing our joint action today to promote these exemplary relations is the best way to show loyalty to the special relationship that existed between Sheikh Zayed and Hassan II may God bless their souls, he stated further. The symposium, held under the theme Sheikh Zayeds Role in Building UAE-Moroccan Relations, was convened by the UAE Embassy and the Academy of the Kingdom of Morocco. A federal grand jury indicted two Iranian nationals on Wednesday for a widespread "SamSam" ransomware campaign that targeted hospitals, public services and businesses, causing more than $30 million in losses over nearly three years. The big picture: The indictment does not include an allegation that the Iranian government was involved in the campaign, which claimed more than 200 victims, including the city of Atlanta. The criminals ultimately received over $6 million in ransomware payments, although it is unclear if victims got their data back unencrypted, FBI Executive Assistant Director Amy S. Hess told reporters at a press briefing. Go deeper: Cyber incidents doubled globally in 2017 Ethicists and experts are afraid of what comes next, now that a Chinese scientist claims to have created the worlds first genetically engineered child. The big picture: The way this project was targeted conducted and announced have all raised red flags about the ethical use of gene-editing tools and some experts fear designer babies are the next logical step. Driving the news: Chinese scientist He Jiankui announced Sunday night that a pair of twin girls had been born from embryos he modified using the gene-editing tool known as CRISPR. He hasnt provided solid proof, but if its true, it would be the first time the technology has been used to engineer a human. What theyre saying: The inventors of CRISPR technology did not seem pleased with the development one called for a moratorium on implantation edited embryos into potential mothers. I hope we will be more cautious in the next thing we try to do, and think more carefully about when you should use technology versus when you could use technology, said Jessica Berg, a bioethicist at Case Western Reserve University. Between the lines: Several specific factors in Hes work sent up ethical red flags. Many scientists had assumed that, when this technology was first used in humans, it would edit out mutations tied to a single gene that were certain to cause a child pain and suffering once it was born essentially, as a last resort. But He used CRISPR to, as he put it, close a door that HIV could have one day traveled through. That has prompted some speculation that this project was more about testing the technology than serving an acute medical need. That should make us very uneasy about the whole situation, Berg said. Of all the things to have started with, it does make you a little suspicious about this particular choice. The intrigue: Theres a lot we still dont know about Hes work, and thats also contributing to an attitude of skepticism. How many embryos did he edit and implant before these live births? How will he know it worked? As the children age, theyll likely have their blood drawn and those samples will be exposed to HIV in a lab, but researchers arent going to tell them to go out and have unprotected sex or use intravenous drugs another reason HIV seems like an odd starting place for human gene editing. How did this even happen? The university where He worked said he was on leave, and Chinese officials have said hes under investigation. But gene editing is a pretty hard thing to freelance. The other side: He defended his work in a video message, saying, I understand my work will be controversial but I believe families need this technology and Im willing to take the criticism for them. Their parents dont want a designer baby, just a child who wont suffer from a disease which medicine can now prevent, He said. Yes, but: Now that this threshold may have been crossed, attempts to create designer babies within the limitations of what CRISPR can do probably arent far off, some experts fear. President Trump told Politico in an interview on Tuesday night that he's "totally" willing to shut down the government if he doesn't get $5 billion approved for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, calling the issue "a total winner" politically. Why it matters: The fight over border wall funding has been a long time coming, but Trump has backed down before after threatening a shutdown over the summer and before the midterm elections. Senate Democratic leaders have said they would approve $1.6 billion for border security, but GOP sources told Politico they think Democrats "will want to strike a deal so they start 2019 with a fresh spending slate." The fight comes as the administration has shifted its focus to the caravans of Central American migrants seeking asylum at the border. The Trump administration has demanded that the Palestinian Authority release a Palestinian and U.S. citizen currently being held in Ramallah. The man, Isaam Akel, was arrested two months ago by the Palestinian General Intelligence Service for allegedly selling real estate in East Jerusalem to Israeli settlers. Why it matters: The Palestinian Authority is cracking down on sales of land by Palestinians to Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. According to Palestinian law, such deals are illegal. The Palestinians claim Jewish settlers are trying to buy property from Palestinians in East Jerusalem to prevent the eventual establishment of a Palestinian capital there and it's exacerbated by the Trump administration's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, move the U.S. embassy to the city and downgrade the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem that conducted relations with the Palestinians. What they're saying: U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, who was given authority over U.S. relations with the Palestinians in addition to his portfolio as ambassador to Israel with the consulate downgrate, tweeted today that Akel's "suspected 'crime' is Selling land to a Jew. ... Akels incarceration is antithetical to the values of the US & to all who advocate the cause of peaceful coexistence. We demand his immediate release." The big picture: Relations between the Trump administration and the Palestinian Authority are at an all time law. The Palestinians have boycotted the White House since Trump's Jerusalem announcement. The only channel of communication between the parties is between the CIA and the Palestinian General Intelligence Service the same agency which arrested Akel. Go deeper: The White House has threatened to veto a joint resolution, up for a procedural vote in the Senate today, which would pull U.S. support from the Saudi-led coalition in the war in Yemen. Why it matters: Opposition began gathering steam after Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed, particularly as reports emerged alleging that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was responsible. Earlier today, several senators left a briefing on the murder from Secretaries James Mattis and Mike Pompeo unsatisfied and fuming that CIA Director Gina Haspel didn't testify. The resolution failed earlier this year, but now appears to have a better chance of success, at least in the Senate. The resolution is backed by Sens. Bernie Sanders and Mike Lee and needs a simple majority today to move ahead. It would face an uphill battle in the House and then a presidential veto. What they're saying Signs of movement: Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), who voted against the resolution in March: "I left the briefing unsatisfied. ... I am going to change my vote and vote for the Sanders resolution. I think it's time for us to send a clear and strong signal to our close ally Saudi Arabia that actions that violate our core values ... have consequences." who voted against the resolution in March: "I left the briefing unsatisfied. ... I am going to change my vote and vote for the Sanders resolution. I think it's time for us to send a clear and strong signal to our close ally Saudi Arabia that actions that violate our core values ... have consequences." Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) , who also voted against the resolution earlier this year: "Not having Gina Haspel, the CIA director, at this briefing is a coverup to a critical question that members of the senate have ... and a critical element of U.S.-Saudi relationships. ... I heard nothing convincing as it relates to why we should not proceed with the Sanders-Lee, and others, resolution." , who also voted against the resolution earlier this year: "Not having Gina Haspel, the CIA director, at this briefing is a coverup to a critical question that members of the senate have ... and a critical element of U.S.-Saudi relationships. ... I heard nothing convincing as it relates to why we should not proceed with the Sanders-Lee, and others, resolution." Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.): "Like most in the room was disappointed that Gina Haspel was not there. ... I may now be willing to get on the Lee-Sanders vehicle knowing it can be amended to figure out some way for us to send the appropriate message to Saudi Arabia." Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) tweeted later on Wednesday that Corker announced he will vote in support of moving the resolution forward. "Like most in the room was disappointed that Gina Haspel was not there. ... I may now be willing to get on the Lee-Sanders vehicle knowing it can be amended to figure out some way for us to send the appropriate message to Saudi Arabia." Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) tweeted later on Wednesday that Corker announced he will vote in support of moving the resolution forward. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.): The briefing "was inadequate because the CIA was not there. ... I'm not going to be denied the ability to be briefing by the CIA ... and if the briefing reinforces the conclusion that I already tentatively have formed then there will be no more business as usual with Saudi Arabia." Voices of support: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.): "The question is, who is the world's leading military power? And the last I heard it was not a two-bit Saudi dictatorship, it was the United States of America. We have to make the decision as to what happens in the war in Yemen and our role in that." "The question is, who is the world's leading military power? And the last I heard it was not a two-bit Saudi dictatorship, it was the United States of America. We have to make the decision as to what happens in the war in Yemen and our role in that." Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) : "I didn't hear anything in that briefing that changed my mind with regard to our constitutional authority to decide whether or not we go to war. ... [I]t makes me even more convinced that this is an appropriate exercise of that power." : "I didn't hear anything in that briefing that changed my mind with regard to our constitutional authority to decide whether or not we go to war. ... [I]t makes me even more convinced that this is an appropriate exercise of that power." Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.): "I went in prepared to vote for the Sanders-Lee Resolution and I remain convinced I'll do so. ... I wish she [Gina Haspel] would have been there. A lot of us were frustrated that she wasn't." "I went in prepared to vote for the Sanders-Lee Resolution and I remain convinced I'll do so. ... I wish she [Gina Haspel] would have been there. A lot of us were frustrated that she wasn't." Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.): "The most persuasive presence in this briefing was the empty chair, the chair that should have been occupied by Gina Haspel. ... As far as I'm concerned, even allies of the United States need to be held to standards of values and principles that we in the United States embrace." "The most persuasive presence in this briefing was the empty chair, the chair that should have been occupied by Gina Haspel. ... As far as I'm concerned, even allies of the United States need to be held to standards of values and principles that we in the United States embrace." Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.): "It was unacceptable that they would not allow Gina Haspel to come, it was a clear effort interpreted by the senators to be an effort to not give us full information about the Khashoggi situation. ... It's very important I believe that we support this resolution and make clear finally that we will no longer be involved in this humanitarian disaster." "It was unacceptable that they would not allow Gina Haspel to come, it was a clear effort interpreted by the senators to be an effort to not give us full information about the Khashoggi situation. ... It's very important I believe that we support this resolution and make clear finally that we will no longer be involved in this humanitarian disaster." Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.): "I don't think the Republican administration won any votes in this briefing." The White House's statement: National security adviser John Bolton denied a report from the Guardian Tuesday that said the White House is preventing CIA Director Gina Haspel and other intelligence officials from briefing the Senate on the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. What's new: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary James Mattis briefed the Senate on Wednesday. Pompeo avoided answering why Haspel did not appear at the briefing. CIA press secretary Timothy Barrett later told NBC News that "The notion that anyone told Director Haspel not to attend today's briefing is false." Why it matters: Intelligence officials are normally present at such a meeting, especially given the Senate is set to vote on a measure that could end U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. The backdrop: Haspel's absence would be particularly noticeable, given she was dispatched to Turkey following Khashoggi's death and has reportedly heard an audio recording of the murder. Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said he might not vote against the resolution unless Haspel testifies before the committee, The Washington Post reports. The CIA also released a report stating that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing. Several lawmakers have criticized Trump's response to the incident (last week Trump said the U.S. would stand by Saudi Arabia, despite the release of the CIA report). Go deeper: "I don't speak Arabic": Bolton says he hasnt listened to Khashoggi tape Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect "what's new," including both John Bolton's and Timothy Barret's denials. 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. 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. The background: 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 and published a bunch of leaked 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 on the 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. "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. The European Union intends to increase its financial and technical assistance to Armenia, a senior EU official said on Wednesday. We have increased and will increase our support to Armenia because we see a [government] will to move in the direction supported by us, Luc Devigne, a deputy managing director at the European External Action Service, told RFE/RLs Armenian service in Yerevan. Devigne noted that the EU is currently implementing 250 million euros ($283 million) worth of projects in Armenia. We also have loans for 1 billion euros in Armenia. We will do more, he said without specifying future aid volumes. After meeting with top EU officials in Brussels in July, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian criticized the 28-nation bloc for not boosting its assistance to Armenia following mass protests that brought him to power. The head of the EU Delegation in Yerevan, Piotr Switalski, countered at the time that Pashinians government needs to propose specific reform-oriented projects before demanding greater aid. We have seen a number of what we believe are positive actions taken by the government, Devigne said, singling out its efforts to combat corruption in Armenia. The anti-graft drive bodes well for greater EU investments in the Armenian economy, he added. The EU official spoke after co-chairing, together with Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Karen Nazarian, the first session of the EU-Armenia Partnership Committee. The body was set up recently in line with the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) signed by Brussels and Yerevan in November last year. At the meeting, the EU reiterated its support for the Armenian government's reform process, read a statement released by the committee late on Tuesday. The Armenian side, for its part, pledged to ensure that the December 9 parliamentary elections in the country are genuinely free and fair, according to the statement. We are confident that on December 9 the parliamentary elections will take place in good order, Devigne said in this regard. Earlier this month, the EU and three of its member states -- Britain, Germany and Sweden -- allocated 2.9 million euros in aid aimed at facilitating the proper conduct of the snap polls. Armenias courts must allow law-enforcement authorities to again arrest former President Robert Kocharian in connection with the 2008 post-election violence in Yerevan, Prosecutor-General Artur Davtian insisted on Wednesday. Kocharian was arrested in July on charges stemming from the deadly breakup of opposition demonstrations during the final weeks of his 1998-2008 rule. He strongly denies the accusations, saying that the current Armenian government is waging a political vendetta against him. The Court of Appeals freed the 64-year-old in August, saying that the Armenian constitution gives him immunity from prosecution. Both state prosecutors and Kocharian appealed against that ruling. The latter claimed that there were also other legal grounds for his release. Earlier this month, the Court of Cassation, the countrys highest body of criminal justice, ordered the Court of Appeals to examine the case anew. The latter began hearings on the matter on Tuesday. Davtian is personally attending the hearings along with several other prosecutors. Our position is that [Kocharian] must stay under arrest, he told reporters. We are making arguments substantiating the need for the second presidents arrest at this stage of the investigation, added the chief prosecutor. Kocharian is specifically accused of illegally using the armed forces against opposition supporters who protested against alleged fraud in a disputed presidential election held in February 2008. Law-enforcement authorities say that amounted to an overthrow of the constitutional order. Eight protesters and two police personnel were killed when security forces quelled those protests on March 1-2, 2008. The Court of Appeals assigned the case to one of its judges, Ruben Mkhitarian, by a draw, prompting strong objections from Kocharians lawyers. They claimed that this is a violation of Armenian law and demanded Mkhitarians replacement. The judge rejected the demand on Wednesday. One of the defense lawyers, Hayk Alumian, said they will file other court petitions on Thursday. In particular, he said, they will demand that Mkhitarian ask Armenias Constitutional Court to rule on an article of the Criminal Code used against the ex-president. The lawyers believe that the article is unconstitutional, said Alumian. Kocharian announced his return to active politics just days after his release from prison. He has repeatedly accused Prime Minister Nikol Pashinians government of endangering the countrys national security, undermining its relations with Russia and lacking economic programs. Still, he decided not run in snap parliamentary elections slated for December 9. Pashinian, who played a key role in the 2008 protests and spent nearly two years in prison because of that, has strongly defended the criminal case against Kocharian. All murderers will go to prison, he declared on August 17. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian refused on Wednesday to take part in a one-on-one televised debate with the top parliamentary election candidate of the former ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK). The candidate, Vigen Sargsian, challenged Pashinian to such a debate earlier in the day, while accusing the latter of campaigning for the December 9 elections in the most ugly and inappropriate way. Pashinian dismissed the proposal as illogical as he campaigned in the northern Tavush province. The same proposal could be made by [Bright Armenia party leader] Edmon Marukian, [Menk alliance] leader Aram Sarkisian and other parties, he told reporters. Should I have 10 separate debates? Pashinian said he is prepared instead for a different TV debate that would involve leaders of all 11 parties and blocs running in the snap elections. Sargsian said he too supports such a broad-based debate but believes that he and Pashinian must also face each other separately because the HHK is the main target of the premiers harsh verbal attacks launched on the campaign trail. Pashinian spends most of his campaign scaring the people with Republicans, said the former defense minister. The HHK condemned this hate speech in a written appeal to Armenias Central Election Commission and human rights ombudsman issued on Tuesday. Pashinian shrugged off the HHK claims. I think that with their black-and-white posters the Republicans created a notion or admitted that they are hated in Armenia, he said. Im not the one who has disseminated that sentiment. They have disseminated it with their activities. Campaigning in another northern province, Lori, on Tuesday, 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. He ordered the Armenian police to deal with HHK-linked criminal elements in a similar fashion. He did not name names. By Leman Mammadova The export missions of Azerbaijan continue to expand with the aim of promoting country's non-oil products abroad. The Azerbaijani export mission to the capital of Germany was organized by the support of the Ministry of Economy and Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation (AZPROMO). The export mission will take place on November 27-30. The Azerbaijani Ministry of Economy told AZERTAC that the export mission includes 28 Azerbaijani companies operating in food, textile and furniture industries. Bilateral meetings between Azerbaijani and German businessmen will be held within the framework of the mission to discuss the expansion of national products export to Germany. Launched in 2016, the Made in Azerbaijan brand envisages a large-scale promotion of local non-oil products in foreign markets. Export missions are a supporting measure to identify opportunities for accessing new markets, strengthen local product positions in existing markets and provide these markets with new products. During 2018, export missions to Russia, Switzerland, China, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Turkey and Bulgaria have already been sent. The first Azerbaijan Wine House was opened in China in September this year. Azerbaijani Trade Houses have begun operating in Ukraine, Latvia and China in January-September. During the visit to Bern and Zurich cities of Switzerland preliminary agreements on hazelnut export were reached with Switzerland's GN-company, Varistor and Delica and other influential companies. In the course of the mission, Switzerland agreed to import 220 tons of hazelnuts worth $ 125,000. The total volume of hazelnut export from Azerbaijan to Switzerland was 22 tons in 2017. As many as 17 Azerbaijani companies involved in the production of wine and other alcoholic beverages, dairy and dairy products, canned products, medicinal herbal teas, confectionery, mineral waters, ICT sector and other areas took part in the export mission to Ulan Bator, Mongolia. Azerbaijan will start exporting wine to Mongolia. Agreements were reached on the export of products to Turkey within the mission of 19 companies operating in food, construction and construction materials, chemical industry, furniture manufacturing and tourism in Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic during the visit to Istanbul in October. On November 6-9, local companies, that visited Sofia as part of the export mission, reached an agreement to export pomegranates, pomegranate juices, nuts and other products. Export missions to UAE and Saudi Arabia will be organized by the end of this year. As many as 25 export missions are expected to be organized in 2019. Local entrepreneurs will participate in major trade fair in Russia, UAE and Germany in February. The new market at which Azerbaijan aims is South Korea, Azerbaijan will be participating in the food fair there in May 2019. Promotion of export-oriented local products under the Made in Azerbaijan brand in a wider geographic area also helps to attract foreign investment. The export of non-oil products will stimulate the expansion of the production of these products and will further strengthen the non-oil sector's share in the structure of the GDP. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Abdul Kerimkhanov Ministers of Russia and Azerbaijan discussed the directions of cooperation between two countries in the areas of information technology, post and telecommunications. The Minister of Transport, Communications and High Technologies of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ramin Guluzade, met in Moscow with the Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation, Konstantin Noskov, AZERTAC reported. Azerbaijani Ambassador to Russia Polad Bulbuloglu also took part in the meeting. An exchange of views was held on issues of cooperation between countries in the field of information security, education in the field of information and communication technologies, development of the concept of "smart" cities, quality control of cellular communication, reduction of prices for international roaming. The Russian side spoke about the procedure for charging for the use of the radio frequency spectrum, as well as about the reform of the universal communication service, which has been implemented in Russia since 2014 as part of the program to eliminate digital inequality. Ramin Guluzade expressed the interest of Azerbaijan in the development of bilateral sectoral cooperation, including expanding ties with Russian companies. The minister also noted the importance of organizing joint measures to prevent the illegal activities of the Russian operator MegaFon in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. The Russian side noted that this company is not carrying out any activity in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, and in this connection, official information will be provided to the Azerbaijani ministry. In addition, the sides discussed issues of ensuring the transmission of international traffic entering Azerbaijan into full high-quality direct channels. At the same time, it was decided to organize regional cooperation in the field of mail and study the issue of introducing preferential delivery rates when exchanging international mail traffic between the two countries, concluding an agreement on cooperation in the field of international postal communication between Azerpoct and Mail of Russia. At the end of the meeting, the sides discussed the possibility of the participation of Russian companies in the 24th Azerbaijan International Exhibition and Conference "Telecommunications, Innovations and High Technologies" ("Bakutel-2018"), which will be held in December 2018 in Baku. At the meeting with the Deputy Minister of Transport of Russia Sergey Aristov, organized during the visit, discussions were held in connection with the issues of the Road Map, signed this year in Sochi, the development of the North-South transport corridor, and the current state of construction Samur bridge. The importance of concluding draft agreements in the field of maritime transport between the two countries was highlighted at the meeting. Azerbaijan is one of the main economic partners of Russia among the CIS countries. Interregional cooperation plays an important role in the development of Russian-Azerbaijani trade and economic relations and the increase in trade turnover. Russia has been included in the list of Azerbaijans five largest trade partners in January-June 2018 with the volume of trade turnover of $ 1.14 billion (8.54 percent of the total volume of trade turnover). Azerbaijan invested more than $1 billion in the Russian economy, and Russia invested about $4 billion in the economy of Azerbaijan. The products worth $349.23 million were exported from Azerbaijan to Russia from January to June 2018, which is 5.76 percent more than in the first half of the year. The volume of imports from Russia, in turn, amounted to $788.21 million, which is 0.29 percent more than in the first six months of 2017. The trade turnover between the states amounted to $1.3 billion in January-July 2018, according to State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan. Russia accounts for 7.89 percent of the total foreign trade turnover of Azerbaijan. --- Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Heydar Aliyev International Airport in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, can serve as a hub to bring tourists from the Caspian region into Spain, Charge d'affaires ad interim of Spanish embassy in Baku Ignacio Sanchez Taboada told Trend. Speaking about the possibility of opening direct flights between Azerbaijan and Spain, he said that this is something which depends on the strategy of the air carriers. "If you just look at the reduced number of Azerbaijani tourist visiting Spain today, and vice versa, the prospects are not very promising. But if you devise the strategy to use Madrid Airport, for instance, as a hub to bring tourist from America into Azerbaijan, then the prospects may improve abruptly. If you look it the other way, you obtain the same conclusion. You may come out with a strategy to use Baku Airport as a hub to bring tourist from the Caspian region into Spain, a country which received 82 million visitors last year," he added. Taboada went on to add that tourism is a field with enormous potential for cooperation and more intensive private relations. "Spain received 82 million visitors in 2017. The second most visited country in the world and one of the best industries with assets around the globe. Yet the number of Azerbaijani visitor to Spain is marginal, probably less than 50,000. The Azerbaijani industry is also booming, but it is still a much unknown destination for the Spanish consumer," noted the Spanish diplomat. He pointed out that companies in both countries have a lot win if they cooperate. "Spain has a long tradition in vocational training in the hospitality industry and gastronomy which could be used by Azerbaijani growing industry." Taboada believes that culture is another field in which public and private institutions could make greater efforts. "During this year we have put in contact some Azerbaijani cultural institutions and major Spanish editorial groups. The idea is to translate masterpieces of Azerbaijani literature into Spanish Language, the mother tongue of more than 450 million individuals," he added. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Abdul Kerimkhanov The International Conference of Ministers of Transport of the States Parties to the Agreement on Transit and Transport Cooperation (Lapis Lazuli) began its work in the Avaza National Tourist Zone in the city of Turkmenbashi on November 28. Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan M.Chakiyev, First Deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Yagub Eyyubov, First Deputy Prime Minister of Uzbekistan Achilbai Ramatov, Minister of Transport and Infrastructure of Turkey Jahit Turhan, Minister of Transport of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Tahmasi Mohd Hamid and Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia Akaki Sagirashvili participated in the event. Among the key topics of the forum are the launch of test deliveries through the Lapis Lazuli transport corridor connecting the regions of Central and South Asia, the Caspian and Black Sea basins, the Mediterranean, coordination of tariffs for transportation along this route and other aspects of the project. Speaking at a conference, Deputy Minister of Transport, Communications and High Technologies Elmir Velizade declared that investments in infrastructure projects will increase Azerbaijans GDP directly by 240 million manat, indirectly by 140 million manat, a total of 380 million manat, and also lead to the opening of 5,500 new jobs. Also in the first part of the international conference, delegations discussed issues such as the role of interstate cooperation in the development of the international transport corridor Lapis-Lazuli and the importance of logistics companies in the development of transport corridors. Afghanistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Georgia signed an agreement on the creation of the Lapis Lazuli transport corridor which is set to connect the five countries on November 15, 2017. The trans-regional corridor will encompass mainly railways and highways, which will connect the city of Torghundi in the Afghan province of Herat with the port of Turkmenbashi on the shore of the Caspian Sea via Ashgabat. From Turkmenbashi, goods will be able to travel further by ferry to Baku, where they would be placed on train cars and continue westward to Europe across the South Caucasus via the newly launched Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway. Further, the corridor will pass through Tbilisi to Ankara with branches to Poti and Batumi, and, then, from Ankara to Istanbul. Consultations on the creation of the transport corridor began back in 2012. The initiative seeks to improve transport infrastructure and procedures (including for road, rail, and sea), increase exports, and expand the economic opportunities of citizens in countries benefiting from this new transport corridor. Barriers to regional trade and transit and transaction costs will be reduced, in part, through a new Custom Integration Procedure and, between Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, a new Cross-Border Transport Agreement. Its projected impact is considerable not only because most of the needed infrastructure is already in place, but also because most of the investment required will focus on improving policy and governance. The name Lapis Lazuli is derived from the historic route that Afghanistans lapis lazuli and other semiprecious stones were exported along, over 2,000 years ago, to the Caucasus, Russia, the Balkans, Europe, and North Africa. --- Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR is holding talks with the German EWE on buying its Turkish assets, Public Relations Head at Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR Ibrahim Ahmadov told Trend. He was commenting on Turkish media reports, which said that the companies have already signed a purchase and sale agreement. As it was earlier reported, we are holding talks with this company. However, no final agreement has been signed yet, said Ahmadov. Turkish media reported that EWE Turkey Holding, subsidiary of EWE, has sold its shares in Bursagaz, Kayserigaz, EWE Enerji and Enervis to SOCAR. Reportedly, the cost of the agreement is estimated at $140 million. Earlier, EWE told Trend that the decision about the possible sale of its assets in Turkey is related to the optimization of the company's activity. In the past 10 years, EWE has built up valuable companies in Turkey, which are able to manage investments entirely on their own, EWE said. Nevertheless, EWE regularly reviews whether all current measures ensure sustainable growth for the Group in the defined future areas. Therefore, we conducted a market investigation for our Turkey business, the company said. We noticed that there are some interested parties for this business. If a prospective customer wants to continue this business and offers us an acceptable price, EWE will divest this business. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Throughout long history of Azerbaijan, many nationalities and different ethnic groups with various religious beliefs have lived together in peace and harmony, and thats why the country can proudly be called a land of religious tolerance. Azerbaijani people have developed a mentality of kindness towards all people who live within its territory despite nationality, roots, culture and religion. While the entire world experiences great problems based on religious intolerance and conflicts, Azerbaijan can serve as best example of a community where each person shows respect to human-beings of different races and religions. The issues assume a particular importance in times when Europe faces terrorist attacks, aggression of the newly emerged nationalistic parties. Being a Muslim-majority country has not prevented Azerbaijan from becoming home to Christians, Jews and other religious confessions. Till today, the history has not recorded a single conflict between Christians, Jews and Muslims the three main groups of believers. The Jews running away from the Jewish kingdom, ruined as a result of occupation of Jerusalem by Babil ruler Novukhodonosur the Second (586 B.C.) found refuge on the territory of Azerbaijan. The first followers of Christianity settled in Azerbaijan in the first century A.C. and laid a foundation of Albanian autocephaly church that later was set up there. The traditions of tolerance even strengthened with the spread of Islam on the territory of Azerbaijan. The Muslim tolerance bases on the suras and citations from the holy book Koran. According to historians, Muslims displayed tolerance and patience to Judaism, Christianity and Zoroastrian trend in 7th-8th century. The common history united the people with different views and beliefs and brought them together. Today, representatives of various religions even join their activity and participate in charitable work carried out in the country. Whats the secret? The reason for peaceful coexistence in one country is the right, well-considered policy of the state, which promotes and supports multiculturalism and tolerance. Various religious communities feel the care of the state in preservation, reconstruction of churches, both orthodox and catholic, mosques, synagogues and even settlements. For example, Krasnaya Sloboda is one of the rare places in the world densely populated by the Jews. The Jews living in this village, which is called "Israel of the Caucasus", have been keeping their traditions for many years. The religious community and the center of the national culture of the Jews are functioning here. Azerbaijan's Community of Mountain Jews is one of the largest of the three Jewish communities of the Caucasus, going back to the Jews of ancient Persia who are believed to have settled in the region 1,000 years ago. They speak Juhuri, a mixture of Hebrew and Farsi. There have always been strong traditions of tolerance and mutual respect among different ethnic and religious communities. Thanks to tireless efforts by Azerbaijans leadership, these traditions have been further fostered and strengthened since Azerbaijan regained its independence. The government constantly meets with the leaders of religious communities and displays interest in their problems and needs. The major religious holidays of Christians and Jewish people are being marked accross the country. Moreover, Azerbaijan often hosts international conferences and meetings of religious representatives, since the country has established its own model of interfaith dialogue and religious tolerance. Of course, all these issues are being noticed and hailed by the representatives of various religions from different countries. Pope Francis has recently recalled his visit to Azerbaijan, saying that the religions can be builders of harmony based on personal relations and on the good will of those responsible. Despite being a Muslim-majority country, Azerbaijan is a secular state which managed to build strong relations with all religious communities. This is why safety and stability were easily achieved here. State policy on religions reflects the will of the people and the atmosphere created by its help allows representatives of various ethnic minorities to feel comfortable within the Azerbaijani territory. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Abdul Kerimkhanov Bako Saakyans visit to Moscow caused a wave of displeasure in Baku, whose reaction did not keep long to wait. "Entry permit for a representative of the illegal separatist regime established in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan to Russia is undermining efforts to advance the negotiation process and contradicts Russia's mediation efforts as a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group," Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Such step by Russia does not correspond to the high level of current relations between Azerbaijan and Russia and contradicts the regulatory framework of bilateral relations, in particular the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Security between Russia and Azerbaijan, and at the time prohibit and suppress the activities of individuals targeting state sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of another country. Such visits of the head of the illegal regime to the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries can lead to an unpredictable development of the situation around the conflict. In this case, Armenian side will bear all responsibility, the ministry said. In turn, the Azerbaijani community of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan public association issued a statement in connection with the "visit" to Russia of Bako Sahakyan, positioning himself as a representative of the illegal regime established in the territories occupied by the armed forces of Armenia. Professor Elchin Ahmedov, Chairman of the Coordination Council of the Public Association, said that the U.S., France and Russia, who are co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, despite their commitments to resolve the conflict, do not take any measures to prevent the entry of Bako Sahakyan, who is positioning himself as a representative of the illegal regime established in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, into their countries. Bako Sahakyan's visits to Belgium (in 2017), to the U.S. in March of 2018, and to France, the U.S. and Russia in November, first of all, completely contradict the principles of international law and do not meet the relevant OSCE mandate and mediation obligations. The statement says that Bako Sahakyan is a representative of illegal regime formed in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan as a result of the use of military force. Providing him with the opportunity to visit foreign countries, including the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries, serves to encourage the regime created through occupation, aggression and terrorist acts. Unfortunately, co-chair countries of the OSCE Minsk Group, pursuing such a policy based on discrimination, close their eyes to the violation of the rights of the Azerbaijani community of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan who were subjected to ethnic cleansing. The U.S., France and Russia are the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs and act as mediators in resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on the basis of a mandate provided by the international community. Instead of unilateral steps, they should strive for peace between the Azerbaijani and Armenian communities of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, and the return of Azerbaijani internally displaced persons to their native lands. Resolutions of the UN Security Council number 822, 853, 874 and 884 in connection with the aggression of Armenia against Azerbaijan calls to ensure the territorial integrity, sovereignty and inviolability of the borders of Azerbaijan. Although the documents of the UN Security Council demand the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, the efforts made by the Minsk Group for 26 years have not yielded effective results due to belligerant position of the Republic of Armenia. "The main reason for the failure of the OSCEs peacekeeping activities in the region is precisely the lack of recognition of the fact of direct aggression by the Republic of Armenia against Azerbaijan. From this point of view, we, on behalf of the internally displaced people from the Nagorno-Karabakh region of the Azerbaijan Republic, that account for over 80,000 Azerbaijanis, strongly condemn and express our indignation for the visits of Bako Sahakyan, who position himself as a representative of the illegal regime created in the Armenian-occupied territories of Azerbaijan. We regard this step of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries as disrespect for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan," the appeal said. It is noteworthy that the visit of Bako Saaakyan to Moscow coincided with rumours about his imminent resignation. For instance, leader of the armed terrorist group "Sasna Tsrer" Zhirayr Sefilyan called the situation in Karabakh "explosive" in an interview published on November 24. Sefilyan openly stated an intention to discuss with the authorities in Yerevan a change of power in Nagorno-Karabakh. Apparently, the leader of the Karabakh separatists, Bako Sahakyan, felt the danger and hurried to consult his curators in Moscow. According to official documents, the parties to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict are Armenia and Azerbaijan, while the Armenian and Azerbaijani communities of Nagorno-Karabakh are the interested parties. So, if Armenians of Karabakh want peace, they should talk with the Azerbaijani community. This could lead to some search for compromises, and not foolish statements about the involvement of one community in the region during the negotiation process. So, Saakyan does not shine as a party to the negotiations and his visit to Moscow is nothing but a meaningless provocation. --- Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Narmina Mammadova Cotton is one of the oldest natural fibers in the World, which has been grown in Egypt, India, Pakistan, America, China. Azerbaijan with its favorable climate and soil is an ideal place for development of the cotton industry. Cotton-growing has always been a tradition in Azerbaijan, where people have been engaged in cotton growing for centuries. Today, the state is making every effort to further develop the cotton industry and make it more productive. "This year cotton is planted on 132,000 hectares in Azerbaijan. Next year we plan to plant 100,000 hectares with cotton," Minister of Agriculture Inam Karimov said at the opening of the State Agrarian Center in Masalli region, Report.az informed. "The cotton picking season is coming to an end. To date, 215, 000 tons of cotton have been harvested. This year the average yield is 16 centners per hectare, which exceeds last years figure. Next year we plan to increase the yield. Our goal is to achieve high yield," said the minister. 2016 was a turning point from the perspective of cotton-growing in the country. In 2016, cotton was planted on an area of 51,000 hectares, while the harvest hit 90,000 tons. That is three times more than in 2015. Cotton production is most developed in Saatli, Bilasuvar, Barda, Aghjabadi and Sabirabad. President Ilham Aliyev constantly makes accent on importance of developing this sphere. The head of state recently said that Azerbaijan restored the glory of cotton growing, havin increased crop area of cotton by about three times. In early 2017, the State Program for 2017-2022 was approved with an aim of strengthening measures directed at developing this sphere. The purpose of the State Program is to develop cotton growing, increase export potential in this sphere, ensure employment of the rural population and increase the production. The new goal of the state is to bring the cotton production up to 500,000 tons by 2022 from the current 260,000 tons. Earlier, it was also reported that the number of varieties of cultivated colored cotton may increase in Azerbaijan. Head of the State Seed Control Service of the Ministry of Agriculture Imran Jumshudov said that two varieties of colored cotton were grown so far in order to accumulate experience, adding that the climate of Azerbaijan allows growing such varieties of cotton, as colored and organic. "For the time being, brown and light-brown cotton is grown in Azerbaijan. However, there are also varieties of red, green, light pink and blue cotton. If the already planted varieties give a big harvest, in the future other varieties of colored cotton can be grown in Azerbaijan, he said. There are ancient traditions of cotton in Azerbaijan. A flap of cotton fabric several thousand years old was found during excavations at the construction site of the Mingachevir Hydro Power Plant (HPP). Cotton is a drought-resistant plant, but it does not tolerate frost and low temperatures, so Azerbaijan is a safe place to grow it. At the beginning of the eighties, Azerbaijan harvested up to a million tons of cotton per year. But then, like all other industries, as in all other Union republics, cotton growing declined and it could not receive the necessary investments for revival for a long time after that. That is, on the one hand, Azerbaijan has a rich potential and experience in this matter, whereas, on the other hand, there is a high need. The oil era is coming to an end, or at least the events of recent years have made the world's oil countries understand that the state treasury is not filled with oil, and attempts to prove the opposite are fraught. And Azerbaijan became one of the first countries that promptly reacted to the challenges of the time, set as one task the diversification of the economy, in particular, the development of the non-oil sector. On top of that, cotton growing is a highly profitable segment of the agrarian industry. Cotton is used in various areas of life. It goes to the textile processing for the production of cotton yarn first of all. Cotton is used to produce fabrics, knitwear, threads, cotton wool and more. Cotton fluff and cotton mats are used in the chemical industry as raw materials for the manufacture of artificial fibers and threads, films, varnishes, etc. It is also used in explosives ... The practice of other states shows that cotton production can bring millions to the budget. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Leman Mammadova The next social event is held to support the creativity opportunities of the persons with disabilities and to integrate them into society. Handicraft exhibition of persons with disabilities will be held in Baku. On December 3-5, the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Population will host the 10th Republican Exhibition of Physical Persons at the Icherisheher State Historical-Architectural Reserve, dedicated to the International Day of Persons with Disabilities The goal of organizing the fair of disabled persons is to promote the talents and abilities of these individuals and to support their creativity. The event will be organized within the Ministry's Social Protection and Rehabilitation Program for Disabled Persons and Children in 2018. More than 1,500 hand-made artworks, including artworks, carving, painting, tissue, carpet-weaving, pottery-ceramic products, wood carving, various art and home-made samples will be demonstrated at the exhibition-competition. Favorable conditions will be created for the handicapped people and children within the framework of the event, which will serve to stimulate their creative activities. The participants distinguished by their skills and talents, will be rewarded in corresponding nominations on the first day of the event. Baku residents and guests will have the opportunity to visit and buy the handicrafts within three days. So far, various NGOs have organized social projects to raise the awareness in community for supporting individuals with disabilities. In addition, vocational trainings are organized to raise the level of employment. The main purpose of the exhibition is to help people with disabilities to deal with isolation, demonstrate their knowledge and skills and help them integrate into society. The annual observance of the International Day of Disabled Persons was proclaimed in 1992, by the United Nations General Assembly resolution 47/3. It aims to promote the rights and well-being of persons with disabilities in all spheres of society and development, and to increase awareness of the situation of persons with disabilities in every aspect of political, social, economic and cultural life. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By 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. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By 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. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Abdul Kerimkhanov The Government of Tajikistan and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed an agreement to provide the republic with gratuitous aid in the amount of $ 35 million which will be used to joint the power system of Tajikistan with the Central Asian energy system by reconnecting with the system of Uzbekistan. The agreement was signed by the Minister of Economic Development and Trade Nematullo Hikmatullozoda, the Government of Tajikistan, and the ADB - Permanent Representative of this financial institution in the republic Pradeep Srivastava, the press service of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade reports. At the beginning of last week, the ADB approved a grant in the amount of $ 35 million, which will be aimed at full restoration of the connection of the electricity system of Tajikistan with the power system of Uzbekistan. This means the restoration of the parallel operation of the Tajik energy system from the regional one, from which Tajikistan was cut off in 2009. The ADB office in Dushanbe said that within the framework of the project to synchronize the electricity networks of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, it is planned to install modern relays, automatic switches, instrument transformers, auxiliary, and other equipment. Equipment that will increase the reliability of the system will be installed at the junction points on 220 kV and 500 kV transmission lines. In addition, it is planned to launch two new points of connection of Tajik networks to the Uzbek power grid in the north. It is assumed that the installation of 500 kV transmission lines, 1.5 km long, which is designed to increase the stability of the parallel operation of the two power systems. The ADB believes that the parallel operation of the energy systems of Central Asia will benefit all countries in the region. This project will allow Tajikistan to export summer surplus of electricity to Uzbekistan, and to ensure more efficient use of regional energy resources. Reconnection is an important step in ensuring full parallel work with the power system of Uzbekistan and the Central Asian energy system, said ADB Financial Specialist Yuki Inoue. Taking into account the contribution of the Government of Tajikistan in the amount of $ 5 million, the total cost of the project is $ 40 million. It is expected to be completed in 2022. Currently, as part of United Energy System, the energy systems of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and South Kazakhstan are working in parallel. The power system of South Kazakhstan is an integral part of the Unified Power System of Kazakhstan, through which the Central Asia Power Network operates in parallel mode with the UES of the CIS. The Turkmen energy system withdrew from the ECO in 2003 and operates in parallel with the Iranian energy system. The Asian Development Bank was conceived in the early 1960s as a financial institution that would be Asian in character and foster economic growth and cooperation in one of the poorest regions in the world. ADB assists its members, and partners, by providing loans, technical assistance, grants, and equity investments to promote social and economic development. The Bank is composed of 67 members, 48 of which are from the Asia and Pacific region. In 2017, ADB operations totaled $32.2 billion, including $11.9 billion in cofinancing. ADB is celebrating 20 years of development partnership with Tajikistan in 2018. To date, ADB has approved around 1.7 billion dollars in grants, concessional loans, and technical assistance to the country. 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. --- Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Andrej Hunko (Germany, UEL) and Reina de Bruijn-Wezeman (Netherlands, ALDE), members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), will travel to Georgia from 27 to 29 November to observe the conduct of the second round of the presidential election, alongside observers from the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, European Parliament and OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), said a message from the Council of Europe. They are due to meet the two candidates, the Central Election Commission, and representatives of the media, before observing the ballot on Wednesday 28 November. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will hold the Seventh Ministerial Conference on the Role of Women in the Development of the OIC Member States under theme of "Women Empowerment in Member States: Challenges and Prospects", from 30 November to 1 December 2018 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, said a message from OIC. The Conference will review cases in the area of women's empowerment as well as educational, pedagogical, social and cultural measures taken by Member States to combat violence against women and achieve equality between men and women. The participants will discuss ways and means of implementing the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security in the OIC Member States. The Conference will also deliberate on ways and means to counter the multiple challenges facing women in their daily life to deduce perspectives for a better wellbeing. It will also highlight the Member States commitments, particularly to combating violence against women and girls, the achievement of justice and gender equality, and addressing the economic, social and psychological difficulties weighing upon women and girls. In accordance with the resolutions of the 44th Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers held in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, the Conference will award the OIC Prize for Women's Achievement, recognizing the contributions of the awarded women and strengthening their role in the development process of the Member States. A preparatory meeting of senior officials from OIC Member States will precede the Seventh Ministerial Conference on the Role of Women in the Development of Member States. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Leman Mammadova The Caspian Basin is a region rich in energy and strategically important in terms of regional energy security, since Asian and European main transportation corridors pass through its territtory. Moreover, the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea is extremely rich in promising areas for hydrocarbon explorations. Over 200 oil and gas fields have been discovered in Turkmenistan so far. According to various estimates, Turkmenistan may possess about 50 trillion cubic meters of gas. In case this data is true, then the Central Asian country occupies the first place in the world in terms of natural gas reserves. Turkmenistan's resource potential in oil equivalent is 71.2 billion tons, of which 53 billion tons are concentrated onshore, and 18.2 billion tons - on offshore areas. The Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea is divided into 32 licensed blocks, in five of which oil works are undergoing, Chairman of Turkmen State Oil 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, saying 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, Turkmenneft successfully cooperates on the implementation of a number of projects with Dragon Oil, Eni, Buried Hill, Mitro International and ARETI companies. During the talks between Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and CEO of Buried Hill Energy Peter Kallos, the sides discussed the results of joint work and prospects for cooperation, including in the field of exploration and development of oil and gas fields in the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea. In this context, the parties noted significance of the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea signed in August this year, which opened up new opportunities for enhancing mutually beneficial cooperation of coastal states with the world business community. Turkmenistan plans to further explore and develop the promising oil fields on the Caspian Sea shelf. Turkmenneft has already developed a field project. As part of the first stage of field development which will require about $ 600 million , 60 exploration and production wells are planned to be drilled. According to preliminary calculations, the increase in geological reserves of oil is estimated at 38.5 million tons, and in the course of further work, the total reserves of the field can be increased to 87.3 million tons. Turkmenistan plans to attract foreign investment by reimbursing the money spent by a part of the produced oil. For this purpose, Turkmenistan proposes to create a joint venture, where 90 percent of the work will be performed by Turkmenneft, and a potential foreign investor will provide services. The investments toward the countrys oil and gas sector include three onshore production sharing agreements: the Nebitdag Contractual Territory operated by ENI; the Khazar project operated jointly by the Turkmennebit state oil concern and Mitro International of Austria; and the Bagtyarlyk Contractual Territory operated by the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). According to the State Agency for Management and Use of Hydrocarbon Resources under the president of Turkmenistan, the amount of foreign investments in the development of oil and gas projects exceeded $3 billion in 2014 as part of the production sharing agreements. The Dragon oil company based on the PSA signed in 1999 works on contract area Cheleken. The company produces Caspian oil on the fields Jeitun and Jigalibek and having repaid their investments, get stable profits over a long period of time by selling raw materials mainly through the port of Baku. Malaysia's Petronas is producing oil and gas, London-listed Dragon Oil is extracting oil, while Germany's RWE, Russia's Itera and Cyprus-headquartered Buried Hill are prospecting for oil on the sea shelf. There is a serious effort to bring Turkmen gas to Europe. Talks on Turkmen gas supplies to Europe are in progress since 2011. The Southern Gas Corridor, including the Trans-Caspian project, remains a priority for the European Union. The length of the gas pipeline extending to the shores of the Caspian Sea at the seabed of the Caspian Sea will be 300 km. In the context of delivery of Turkmen gas to European markets through South Gas Corridor, the ministers of energy of Azerbaijan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Vice-President of the European Commission for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic signed the Ashgabat Declaration on energy in May 2015. At present, the main buyer of Turkmen gas is China. Currently, more than 90 percent of Turkmen gas is supplied to China. As many as 31.7 billion cubic meters of natural gas was imported from Turkmenistan by China in 2017. Turkmenistan is interested in diversification of its export routes to be not depended on a single market. The TAPI gas pipeline (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) is under construction in the south by which Turkmen gas will reach Pakistan in two years. The total cost of the TAPI pipeline is about $ 7 billion. The annual capacity of the gas pipeline will be 33 billion cubic meters. Turkmengas State Concern holds 85 percent stake on construction and operation of pipeline. Afghanistan, Pakistan and India will each cover 5 percent. Raw material for TAPI will be provided from Galkynysh, the largest natural gas field in Turkmenistan. The main investor is the Asian Development Bank, which technically and financially supports the project. The Islamic Development Bank has allocated $ 700 million for the construction of the Turkmen part of the pipeline. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Abdul Kerimkhanov The Russian airline S7 Airlines opens direct regular flights from Novosibirsk to Namangan (Uzbekistan) from December 4, 2018. Airline tickets for the new flight are already on sale. Flights from Tolmachevo Airport will be operated on Tuesdays. The aircraft departs from Novosibirsk at 13:55 and lands in Namangan at 14:55 local time. The return flight departs at 16:25 and arrives in Novosibirsk at 21:20. Flights will be operated on modern, comfortable Airbus A320 liners. Igor Veretennikov, commercial director of the S7 Group said that S7 Airlines developing a route network in the CIS countries and is pleased to offer passengers a new direct flight from Novosibirsk to Namangan, the second largest city in Uzbekistan. S7 Airlines also operates flights from the capital of Siberia to Tashkent and Fergana, and in 2019 flights to Bukhara will be launched. The representative of S7 Airlines noted that the frequency of flights between Russia and Uzbekistan is strictly regulated by agreements between the aviation departments of the two countries. S7 Airlines flight volumes comply with current agreements. From April 30, 2018, the airline began operating flights from Moscow to Samarkand, and from August 3, regular flights to Tashkent begin, he recalled. At the same time, as a company representative said, S7 Airlines transported about 85,000 passengers on flights to / from cities of Uzbekistan in 2017, which is 15 percent more than in 2016. Trips to Novosibirsk and nearby cities are in high demand among residents of Namangan. The new direct regular flight will be in demand both for business trips and for personal ones - to visit relatives and friends. At the same time, passengers will be able to appreciate the convenience of transfer flights to other cities of the S7 Airlines route network, when the journey is issued with a single ticket and the luggage is delivered immediately to the destination. S7 Airlines is a successfully developing Russian airline with a modern fleet of aircrafts. All flights are operated on liners of leading world manufacturers, Airbus, Boeing and Embraer. A wide network of domestic routes allows you to travel around Russia without restrictions. With S7 Airlines, it is easy to fly to all CIS countries, Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and countries of the Asia-Pacific region. S7 Airlines is part of the oneworld global aviation alliance, which is the world leader in passenger service. Alliance airlines are based on all continents and fly to 150 countries of the world. With S7 Airlines you can really fly around the whole world. For 25 years, S7 Airlines has been striving to introduce the most modern online passenger service technologies in the Russian air transportation market. For frequent flyers, there is the S7 Priority program, which allows you to collect miles for flights and receive bonuses from S7 Airlines, oneworld airlines and program partners. --- Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan are preparing a joint document on cooperation between the diplomatic missions of the two states, kabar.kg reports referring to the press service of the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic. The discussion of the details of the Memorandum of Cooperation of the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kyrgyzstan with the Diplomatic Academy of Pakistan and the National University of Modern Languages of Pakistan was held Wednesday with the participation of Rector of the Academy Chinara Dikambayeva and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Pakistan Faisal Niaz Tirmizi. At the meeting, signing and implementation of this document were discussed. The diplomatic relations between Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan were established in 1992. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend The Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) is of great importance for Bulgaria for receiving gas via the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC), said Chairman of Bulgarian Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (KEVR) Ivan Ivanov. IGB is of great importance for Bulgaria because it will enable our country to receive natural gas from the Southern Gas Corridor, he said, adding that with the construction of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), Bulgaria can receive gas from this route in 2020. Further, he pointed out that the gas infrastructure in Bulgaria needs to be developed. This will allow for the supply of natural gas from different sources, Bulgarian media quoted Ivanov as saying. In addition, a liberalized natural gas market in the country and subsequently in the Southeast Europe region should be launched, he said. 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 us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Following the recent call launched by King Mohammed VI to neighboring Algeria for a direct, open and frank dialogue to resolve all the Moroccan-Algerian issues, Morocco made several formal and informal moves to establish contact with Algerian authorities at ministerial level, but to no avail. So, Moroccan Foreign Minister held on Monday (Nov.26) at his department a meeting with Algerias ambassador to Rabat to tell him that Morocco remains open and optimistic about the future of relations with Algeria and to reiterate Moroccos request to Algerian authorities to make known, officially, their response to the Royal initiative for the establishment of a joint political mechanism for dialogue and consultation to break the stalemate in bilateral relations. In a speech on the celebration of the Green March anniversary on November 6, King Mohammed had 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, reiterating his commitment to work hand in hand with the Algerian brothers. However, so far Algeria has not responded to the royal initiative, which gained the praise of several countries and international and regional organizations. A Statement released by the Moroccan Foreign Ministry after the meeting with the Algerian diplomat said Morocco can only regret that this invitation has not yet received the expected response, even though it has always been requested by Algeria itself. Despite this situation, Morocco remains open and optimistic about the future of relations between the two brotherly countries. At a time when other approaches (regional framework, intermediaries, etc.) have proved unsuccessful, Morocco still hopes that direct human contacts will provide the appropriate response to bilateral differences, the statement said. Nasser Bourita reiterated to the Algerian diplomat Moroccos wish to know the official reaction of the Algerian authorities to the royal initiative to establish a political mechanism for dialogue and consultation with Algeria. The Moroccan top diplomat underlined that the royal initiative translates a sincere willingness to create a framework for direct and inclusive bilateral dialogue, to resolve all disputes between the two countries, relaunch their cooperation and consult each other on regional and transnational challenges, the statement added. Regarding the recent proposal by Algeria and Tunisia to convene a meeting of the Foreign Ministers Council of the Arab Maghreb union (AMU), the statement said Morocco took note of the AMU Secretary Generals letter related to this meeting but deems the AMU-related request is unrelated to the Royal initiative. The royal initiative is related purely to Moroccan-Algerian bilateral relations, while the Algerian approach is part of the relaunch of the AMU regional edifice, Bourita said. He added that the state of lethargy that has been affecting AMU for years is essentially due to the abnormal nature of Moroccan-Algerian relations, which can only be addressed through bilateral, direct dialogue, without intermediaries. Besides, the Maghreb Union and its member States have persistently called for a Moroccan-Algerian dialogue in order to transcend their differences in a spirit of neighborliness and a common aspiration to raise themselves to the level of the expectations of the five Maghreb peoples. Morocco, which remains committed to relaunching the Maghreb Union on sound and solid foundations, has no objection, in principle, to holding a meeting of the AMU Council of Foreign ministers and has reacted constructively to the proposal. Nevertheless, Morocco doubts that this 35th ministerial meeting can achieve any tangible results, different from the 34th meeting, in the absence of a good preparation and a responsible direct dialogue between two AMU member States. You can reach Sam Morgen at 661-395-7415 or smorgen@bakersfield.com. You may also follow him on Twitter @smorgenTBC. The members of Parliament of Lesotho are demanding a 100% pay increase, Times newspaper reports. According to the privately owned newspaper, Prime Minister Thomas Thabane has instructed Finance Minister Moeketsi Majoro to explore a revised salary structure for parliamentarians. If the MPs demands are met, the legislators gross monthly salary would rise to M74 000 each up from the current M37 000 pay cheque ($5,344). An average factory worker in Lesotho barely earns up to $144 a month. The parliamentarians are also demanding that they be eligible for pensions after serving for only two years in the House. They are presently only eligible for pensions after serving two five-year terms. Early this year, public pressure forced the government to backtrack on its March decision to include the legislators among the groups of locals who were eligible to bid to lease vehicles for the government fleet. Lesotho is geographically surrounded by South Africa and economically integrated with it as well. The economy of Lesotho is based on agriculture, livestock, manufacturing, mining, and depends heavily on inflows of workers remittances and receipts from the Southern African Customs Union (SACU). Ethiopias Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Tuesday met members of 81 opposition parties to discuss ways of reforming the electoral system. The move comes a month after a former judge and leading opposition figure has been sworn in as the head of Ethiopias electoral board. The Tuesday meeting focused on highlighting the reforms required to ensure the upcoming election is free & fair, and the shared responsibilities of all, his office said. There was no immediate comment from any of the opposition groups, according to Reuters. Ruling EPRDF coalition has been in power in Ethiopia a major Western ally in an unstable region since 1991. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has carried out wide-ranging reforms since coming to office in April. These include making peace with neighboring Eritrea after two decades of conflict, freeing political prisoners and welcoming back armed opposition groups from exile. The 42-year-old leader has also given half of the governments 20 ministerial posts to women. He pledged that elections would be free and fair in Africas second most populous country. The Horn of Africa country is scheduled to hold elections in 2020. 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. A bomb threat forced the evacuation of Texas Southern University on Wednesday afternoon but the situation was deemed safe three hours later. The Houston Police Department's 911 call center received a call around 1:30 p.m. about a possible bomb. The caller mentioned TSU, according to HPD. Nearly 2,000 on-campus students, as well as faculty and staff members, were evacuated from the university's academic buildings and dorms, forcing them onto the neighboring streets as police investigated. After about three hours of the evacuation, police gave the "all clear," according to a tweet from the university. Just as investigators wrapped up the sweep of TSU on Wednesday afternoon, authorities in Grambling, Louisiana, reported a bomb threat to Grambling State University. Evening classes were cancelled and administrative offices closed. Both Grambling State University and TSU are historically black universities. Authorities, however, indicated that they were unaware of any tie between the two incidents. In a statement on its website, Grambling said "evening classes are cancelled due to a bomb threat to the University's Grambling Hall building. GSU Police and local agencies are investigating." At TSU, freshman Lamarsay Austin was on his way to class when he was told of the threat on the Houston school. "We had problems like this in high school sometimes," he said as officers scoured the university across the street. "It was just threats. It's never been a bomb." He said he wasn't ever worried about the threat being real. A college basketball game between the University of Houston and the University of Texas,Rio Grande Valley was played Wednesday evening on the TSU campus. UH has been playing their basketball games at TSU as crews work to completely the new Fertitta Center. All classes were canceled Wednesday after the threat was received, although a normal schedule will resume Thursday, officials said. The University of Houston Police Department and HPD assisted TSU police with the investigation. Jay R. Jordan covers breaking news in the Houston area. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com | Follow him on Twitter at @JayRJordan | Email him at jay.jordan@chron.com | Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message A League City child care facility denied any responsibility for the death of a 3-month old girl who died under its supervision, according to Galveston County court records. Attorneys for Cory and Summer Bullock, doing business as Bullock's Bright Beginnings, LLC, and Kiddie Academy of League City, submitted their response to a lawsuit filed on Oct. 17 in in the state District Court by Jared and Lindsey McNeel of League City. The plaintiffs accuse the child care facility of negligence for allegedly allowing their daughter, Skylar McNeel, to smother herself during her nap on Aug. 27. The response by the facility's attorneys asserts that McNeel's death was "not caused by any act or omission of these Defendants," and petitioned the court to cap any damages awarded to the plaintiffs. The McNeels' lawsuit claims that Skylar died when an employee of the daycare laid her face down on her stomach in a crib that was not "blanket free," which would violate the facility's own "Infant/Toddler Safe Sleep Policy" and state standards. TRAGIC DEATH: Daycare closed, Houston police identify 3-year-old who died in hot van "She died from asphyxiation during her nap due to the negligence of the defendants," the lawsuit states. The lawsuit also claims that employees at Kiddie Academy misled the McNeels as well as investigators charged with determining the cause of Skylar death by providing false information about her sleep position, who was caring for her at the time of her death, and the status of the facility's video monitoring system. Texas Child Care Licensing, a branch of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, launched an investigation into Kiddie Academy after Skylar McNeel's death. Earlier this year, child care facility inspectors found a string of deficiencies at the company's west location that included a lack of supervision and "good judgment" after a child suffered a fractured arm and needed medical help. A "child was observed crying and in pain due to an arm injury," according to a state compliance report filed on April 6. "Yet the parent was not notified until hours later." CHILD ABUSE: Unlicensed day care worker accused of breaking baby's legs In the same month, state inspectors found improper supervision as children played outside. During an April 9 visit, inspectors found four babies sleeping in bouncers, rather than in cribs. Bouncers are considered restrictive equipment, an assessment read. The McNeels' lawsuit seeks more than $10 million in damages. Staff writer Nicole Hensley contributed reporting. Nick Powell covers Galveston County for the Chronicle. Follow him on Twitter and send him tips at nick.powell@chron.com The Houston Police Department recently announced the arrest of 21 suspects accused of sex trade-related crimes. Police said the suspects were arrested in October for either the solicitation of prostitutes or compelling prostitution, also known as pimping. "We hope by publishing these suspects' photos we will raise awareness of the issue that is human trafficking and put the community on notice that we will no longer tolerate these crimes in our neighborhoods," HPD Vice Division Captain James Dale said in a prepared statement. According to a University of Texas study, more than 300,000 Texans are victims of human trafficking. Of those, 79,000 youths or minors are forced into prostitution or sex trafficking, the 2017 study found. ICYMI: Harris Co. Deputy's stalker threatens to kill him, eat his children, according to court records 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. One person was arrested after they allegedly broke into the North Orange Animal Hospital Monday and stole flea medicine, according to information from the Orange Police Department. At approximately 9:09 a.m. police responded to a call in reference to a burglary in the 3700 block of 16th St. 17 NGOs Slam Prosecutors Office Statements Regarding Case of Fake IDs 17 non-governmental organizations based in Georgia, criticize the Prosecutors Office of Georgia (POG) for its statements regarding the case of allegedly printing fake ID cards for rigging the upcoming presidential elections.The information about the illegal IDs was released by the NGOs several days ago, and they claim that Georgias Public Service Development Agency is printing fake ID documents in order to forge the presidential election runoff in favor of Salome Zourabichvili, a presidential candidate supported by the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party.An employee of the Public Service Development Agency informed us that the Agency is allegedly producing fake identification cards. According to this employee, fake ID cards are being printed with the purpose of rigging the second round of the presidential elections in favor of Zourabichvili, and the Agencys high-ranking officials are supervising the process, the NGOs stressed.The NGOs were summoned to the POG for questioning, where they refused to name the source who provided them with the information, after which the POG released a statement that NGO Transparency International Director Eka Gigauri and the lawyer of the Georgian Young Lawyers Association (GYLA) Irma Pavliashvili, did not name the source of their information.The POG stated they will apply to the court and demand the questioning of Gigauri and Pavliashvili in presence with the Judge Magistrate in order to get more information about the source.Gigauri says the law does not oblige them to name the source, saying they checked the information provided by this person and it turned out to be true.We made the statement about the ID cards only after verifying the provided information. Our source did not attend the meeting where it was decided to make fake IDs, this is why we did not name the person. Also, it is about the safety of our source, she added.According to the information released by non-governmental organizations on November 23, the statement of the Prosecutor's Office contains an indirect message about imposing criminal liability upon their colleagues.The organizations claim the statement of the Prosecutor's Office is a warning message to NGOs working in the field of human rights and is a continuation of the governments recent targeted policy against the civil sector.Since the "Law on Freedom of Speech and Expression" was adopted in Georgia in 2004, there has not been any state agency, which cast doubt on the rights of human rights defenders that they have right to keep in secret their source of information, the statement reads."The source of professional secrecy is protected by an absolute privilege and nobody has the right to request disclosure of this source," the NGOs added.Non-governmental sector claims that no prosecution or judicial power will ultimately be able to restrict their rights, adding they will never put the competence of any state authority before human rights.The investigation into the case is in progress under Article 362 of the Criminal Code of Georgia. Dozens of state and local law enforcement swarmed the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston's downtown office Wednesday to seize records related to Father Manuel La Rosa-Lopez, the priest accused of sexually abusing at least two children who attended a Conroe church. Montgomery County District Attorney Brett Ligon said the surprise search was aimed at a trove of employment and disciplinary records related to La Rosa-Lopez and his time at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Conroe. If evidence of additional victims or accused priests were found outside Montgomery County, the Texas Rangers were there to seize it, Ligon said. They came armed with a search warrant at the nation's fifth largest diocese. A set of confidential documents kept by each diocese, known as "secret archives" in Canon law, was among the records sought. "I am a lay Catholic myself, but today I stand here as a district attorney of Montgomery County," Ligon said. "This is not a search warrant against the Catholic Church, but this search warrant is to review files that belonged to a defendant." The morning search came as Cardinal Daniel DiNardo who is currently serving as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops pledged a new era of transparency in the investigation of priest abuse allegations dating as far back as the 1950s. "This archdiocese takes every allegation of wrongdoing brought to our attention seriously and is fully cooperating and will cooperate with any and all investigations related to the clergy abuse of minors," DiNardo wrote in an opinion column in Tuesday's Houston Chronicle. "We recognize the only way to resolve the abuse crisis and restore trust with the faithful is to address any and all accusations of abuse squarely and transparently." The search on San Jacinto Street began around 9:30 a.m. and continued through the afternoon, with at least two boxes of evidence carried out. Standing outside the church as about 60 law enforcement officials including unspecified federal agents searched inside, Ligon expressed trust in DiNardo's vow of transparency but said his confidence has limits, even as the archdiocese prepares to release the names of priests deemed to have been credibly accused. Ligon told reporters that "the Catholic Church has cooperated to a degree." "Even if DiNardo is cooperative, the people working for him may not," Ligon said. "He can be transparent all he wants, but what he doesn't know, he doesn't know. I'm born suspicious as hell. I assume people are going to lie to me and not tell the truth." Archdiocese spokesman Jonah Dycus acknowledged the search warrant and the ongoing investigation in a statement Wednesday. "The Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston continues to cooperate, as we have since the outset, with this process," according to the statement. "In fact, consistent with Cardinal DiNardo's pledge of full cooperation, the information being sought was already being compiled." Michael Norris, who leads the Houston chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, lauded the search. "All too often, police and prosecutors pursue child molesting clerics but ignore the church supervisors and co-workers who hide their crimes," Norris said in a statement. Previous allegations The search warrant was the fourth one issued in La Rosa-Lopez's case after Montgomery County authorities previously searched the Conroe church, the Shalom Treatment Center in Splendora and the St. John Fisher Catholic Church in Richmond where La Rosa-Lopez was most recently assigned. "If there's something to cover up, I'm sure I'll find it," Ligon said. "If it leads to the Vatican, I'll be headed to Rome." The arrest of La Rosa-Lopez on Sept. 11 marked the fourth time a Houston area clergy member is known to have been arrested for an alleged sex abuse crime in nearly four decades. He was charged with four counts of indecency with a child involving a boy and girl who attended the Sacred Heart Catholic Church. The alleged abuse spanned three years starting in 1998. Ligon declined to comment on the status of a third claim against La Rosa-Lopez. Another accuser came forward in October to say he was molested by La Rosa-Lopez, then a seminarian, in the early 1990s at a Houston church. The priest has not been charged in connection to that claim, but the Schiffer Hicks Johnson law firm representing the accuser confirmed Wednesday that the Texas Rangers interviewed him on Oct. 31. Up until September, only three priests out of more than 20 who have faced molestation claims in the Houston area were known to have been jailed because of those charges. The last priest arrested was Fernando Noe Guzman, who was charged in 1990 after a failed $11 million civil lawsuit revealed a social worker caught him molesting a 14-year-old Navasota girl who attended his church. Before that, in 1986, a Houston police officer arrested an Oblates priest Donald Stavinoha assigned to the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church after finding him performing a sex act on a teenage boy inside a church-owned van. The first known priest in the Houston area arrested was Carlos Guerra, who was charged in 1984 with sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy who aspired to join the St. Cyril of Alexandria Catholic Church. Guzman and Stavinoha were convicted. Charges against Guerra were dropped after a new law required corroboration of the accuser's testimony after an interval of six months. Lists of 'credibly accused' The priests may be included on a list of credibly accused priests being compiled by the archdiocese and others across Texas in the wake of a damning grand jury report in Pennsylvania. More than 70 dioceses nationwide have announced similar plans to compile lists of pedophile priests, as have each of the 15 Catholic Dioceses in Texas. Some churches have sought the help of former law enforcement officers, lawyers and judges to lead their audits, with the lists expected to be published by Jan. 31. Over the years, DiNardo's predecessor, retired Bishop Joseph Fiorenza, has dropped hints to the number of accused in the religious jurisdiction. During the high-profile civil case against Guzman, Fiorenza testified that he was aware of five priests, including Guzman, who had been accused of sexual misconduct since his appointment in December 1984. Guzman was sued by a former bookkeeper at Our Lady of Fatima, who claimed he forced her into a sexual relationship. The bookkeeper lost her case in court, but allegations surfaced that Guzman had molested the teen the year before he was transferred to her Galena Park church. In 2004, Fiorenza raised the total of credibly accused to 22 priests and four deacons after participating in the John Jay Report, a survey commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The tally only accounted for allegations deemed credible after internal investigations. The bishop did not disclose how many unsubstantiated allegations the diocese had received or whether he was excluding religious order priests. The Chronicle found nearly 20 clergy members publicly accused of child abuse, either through news accounts or court records, suggesting that additional allegations have remained private. At least 10 more clergy members accused elsewhere have been in the Houston area, according to the Bishop Accountability watchdog site. The tally includes religious order priests assigned to parishes in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. Two other priests, Terence Brinkman and John Keller, were accused of sex abuse but were found by the church not to be credibly accused. Court records show a 2010 civil suit lodged against Brinkman, a pastor at the St. John the Evangelist in Baytown, was dismissed that same year. As for Keller, Fiorenza, acting on the advice of a church review board, concluded in 2003 that he "had not engaged in an act of sexual abuse and that he should remain in ministry." Earlier this month, sign-waving members of SNAP, including the mother of Keller's accuser, protested at the Prince of Peace Catholic Community where Keller now is assigned. But archdiocese officials said recently they stand by the previous decisions. 'Feeling the pressure' On Tuesday, DiNardo revealed in the Chronicle column that the Kinsale Management Consultants would "help compile and validate this important list." The announcement did not address how the firm would decide who has been credibly accused, and the archdiocese has not respond to repeated requests since October for further details on how the lists will be compiled. The Kinsale group tapped by the Archdiocese is led by a former FBI Executive Assistant Director Kathleen McChesney, who has been tasked with compiling similar lists for dioceses in California and Arkansas. Marci Hamilton, a church-state scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, said allowing the Catholic Church to conduct third-party audits is the "least trustworthy" tactic for transparency. She questioned the data, saying there's no guarantee the dioceses are providing their consultants complete access to the records. "They'd rather voluntarily put out the lists than have the government and their subpoena power come in and investigate," said Hamilton, author of "God vs. Gavel." "This is very defensive," she said. "It shows you that they're feeling the pressure." The legal system is the best way to undercover the depth of the abuse, she said. The case against La Rosa-Lopez, meanwhile, is pending. A court appearance in October was delayed until January because of the plethora of documents seized by Montgomery County officials in the previous three raids. nicole.hensley@chron.com twitter.com/nkhensley samantha.ketterer@chron.com twitter.com/sam_kett Marvin Odum, the former Shell Oil president Mayor Sylvester Turner tapped as Houstons volunteer recovery czar shortly after Hurricane Harvey, announced his departure from that role Wednesday to broad praise for his efforts to tweak bureaucracies from City Hall to Washington for the benefit of Houstonians. Odum had committed to coordinate Houstons storm recovery until the arrival of the first significant chunk of federal aid, and Houston is now expected to receive $1.17 billion in housing assistance within a month. Departing with him as of Friday following another trip to D.C. to advocate for funding and project proposals will be Niel Golightly, a Shell vice president who has been on loan to the city as Odums chief of staff. Steve Costello, a drainage engineer and former councilman who has served as the citys flood czar since 2016, will replace Odum. Houston plans to hire a new chief resilience officer (Costellos formal title) to replace him. This is by no means the end of the recovery, Turner said. Theyve taken us through Phase One and we begin now to launch Phase Two, but weve just been very fortunate to have the benefit of their expertise, their intellect over the last 15 months. The city could not have asked for a better team to assist us. Odum and Golightly worked with only one to two staff devoted to the recovery, but they convened weekly meetings of city department heads, some of whose employees spent some work time on recovery tasks; Odum was quick to credit this broader team. Among the groups accomplishments was securing local control over the housing aid the city and Harris County will receive, rather than having that money routed through the state General Land Office, as state and federal officials originally intended. Bob Harvey, president of the Greater Houston Partnership, participated in meetings with Odum and state and federal officials on the issue and said Odums presence was key. It certainly was important in Washington and in Austin that the former president of Shell Oil had taken on this role and had immersed himself in it to the degree that Marvin did, Harvey said. He had a very good high-level view of the problem, but he could go as deep as was needed in the moment. No matter who he was dealing with, he had a command of the facts. Odum also successfully pushed FEMA to adopt a new nationwide policy that lets local governments count volunteer work hours and donated materials toward the local match required for grants to repair damaged facilities. In Houstons case after Harvey, that local match could top $250 million. Odum said he was proud his team had tried to think outside the typical disaster recovery process, pointing to the new FEMA policy and to the citys move to hire data scientists to produce a flood inundation model showing that the $1 billion in housing aid Houston is about to receive an allocation based on readily available but incomplete damage data falls $2 billion short of the citys actual needs. Thats just the way its done. Well, actually theres something better than that, Odum said. We just kept saying, Why cant it be this way? Odum highlighted the 14 recovery centers the city, county and nonprofits staffed in affected neighborhoods, linking more than 16,000 residents to services, and pointed to the councils vote to set stricter development rules in floodplains. Referencing his experience as an industry leader in a heavily regulated field, Odum waded into the intensely lobbied fight, pushing council members to embrace the proposal and helping secure its narrow 9-7 passage. Moving forward, Odum said, Houston must continue collaborating with county, nonprofit and business groups; push FEMA to fund repairs sufficient to harden city facilities against future floods, not simply fix them; advocate for more funding; and keep seeking the $30 billion, three-decade flood mitigation blueprint he believes the region needs. Costello, who has led recovery efforts related to infrastructure projects, said he is getting up to speed on housing issues, including a Wednesday night meeting with city housing director Tom McCasland. Most of the leadership in these organizations, whether state or federal, knew that Marvin was going to be sort of a short-timer, so the transition is going to be relatively smooth simply because weve been part of the recovery team from Day One, Costello said. I know most people that were dealing with. It just made sense. A Houston Chronicle investigation last year found that the engineering firm Costello left in January 2015 helped develop neighborhoods in the Barker Reservoir flood pool and produced a study showing thousands of properties were at risk of flooding there. Costello has said he personally did no work related to the neighborhood in question, called Grand Lakes, and didnt recall the study. He said Wednesday he does not believe the issue will affect the publics confidence in his work. Ive been the flood czar for two and a half years and that hasnt really come up, he said. Im focusing on providing protection to our neighborhoods, our city and our citizens. Some local governments respond to disasters by staffing entire agencies to run their recoveries, but Houston has basically no money budgeted for its recovery team, and Turner said Costello is simply taking Odums seat. Coming federal aid would let the city add staff, but thats not necessarily the right choice, said Andy Kopplin, who was the founding director of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, which led rebuilding after hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The structure of the recovery team is less important than its leadership, he said. Whether it is the mayor, the recovery czar, or someone else, Kopplin said, there must be a voice emphasizing the need to select impactful projects, even if they are costlier or politically more difficult. Youve got to have somebody who can execute and build the team to get the money out the door, Kopplin said, but you also have to have folks who hold true to the vision for building a more resilient city. mike.morris@chron.com twitter.com/mmorris011 Investigation on Alleged Election Fraud Last week, an employee of the Public Service Development Agency informed us that the Agency is allegedly producing fake identification cards. According to this employee, fake ID cards are being printed with the purpose of rigging the second round of the presidential elections in favor of Salome Zurabishvili, and the Agencys high-ranking officials are supervising the process.According to the source, it was decided to print fake IDs after the first round of the elections. The source said that Soso Giorgadze, chairman of the Public Service Development Agency, and Bezhan Obgaidze, head of the Internal Audit Service of the Agency, are in charge of the process. The source explained that a special meeting concerning this topic was held last week. According to the plan, five IDs are to be printed per person, indicating different last names, first names, and personal numbers but the same photo of that one person. The information about that person would appear in the voter rolls of several polling stations, making it possible for one person to vote at several polling stations with different ID cards, which means voting according to a so-called carousel principle.The source is not aware of the scale of this plan or how many fake ID cards are going to be printed. The source said that the ID cards are being printed by several territorial offices of the Agency. The source also said that, in the regions, the heads of the territorial offices who are not considered trustworthy, have been sent on business trips, while trustworthy people have been sent to replace them. According to the source, Arkadi Pipia, head of the Tsalenjikha territorial office, and Zurab Khvedelidze, head of the Gardabani territorial office of the Agency, were deemed untrustworthy. In Tsalenjikha, Manuchar Nachkebia is acting as the head of the territorial office while the latter is away on a business trip. Arkadi Pipia confirmed to our representatives that he is away on a business trip. According to the information we have obtained, Zurab Khvedelidze is also likely to be away on a business trip while Gvantsa Menapire is performing his duties during this time.Based on the information we have at the time, it is impossible to determine how large-scale this plan is.Forging documents and rigging elections are criminal offenses. Such actions could irreparably damage the election environment and challenge the legitimacy of the elections.The corresponding investigative agencies must look into the alleged forgery of identification documents. We, therefore, call on the Prosecutors Office of Georgia to promptly begin the investigation and carry out corresponding measures envisaged by the law. Eye care and healthcare industry leaders weighed in on private equity investment on Eye Care Leaders' blog. Here are the key details to know: 1. More companies with greater financing are looking to invest in eye care practices compared to the past, said Mark Abruzzo, a lawyer who represents healthcare companies. 2. Private equity investors target medium and large practices that dominate the markets they're in. Practices can serve as platform practices, or smaller independent practices that can grow bigger in the future, said Caroline Patterson, a healthcare lawyer. 3. Robert Wiggins Jr., MD, an ophthalmologist, said after the acquisition, the solo practice can grow by adding subspecialties, an ASC and satellite locations. He also said investors are looking for practices with a strong local brand, sustainable business model, ancillary services and high growth potential. Medscape released the Massachusetts Physician Compensation 2018 report. Medscape surveyed 20,239 respondents across more than 29 specialties to compile its responses. Respondents were required to be practicing in the U.S. Here are four key details to know: 1. Specialists in Massachusetts had overall salaries of $291,000, compared to $203,000 for primary care physicians. 2. Physicians who are self-employed made more than those who are employed by a health system. Self-employed physicians made $375,000, while employed physicians made $244,000. 3. More than half of physicians in Massachusetts felt fairly compensated; 55 percent were satisfied with their pay. 4. Physicians' net worth in Massachusetts was about the same as physicians nationally 65 percent of Massachusetts physicians had a net worth between $1 million and $5 million, compared to 62 percent nationally. Olympus Corp. issued a statement defending its duodenoscopes after a piece from The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists tied contaminated scopes to more than 190 superbug infections, The Japan Times reports. Here's what you should know: 1. ICIJ tied Olympus' TJF-Q180V duodenoscopes to superbug outbreaks between 2012 and 2015. ICIJ also discovered an email from a Tokyo-based Olympus executive sent to an Olympus Corp. of the Americas' executive in which the Tokyo executive said, "It is not need (sic) to communicate to all the users actively," about the possible duodenoscope infections. He continued, "You should communicate with the user who has asked a question." 2. The superbugs have been tied to more than 190 people and 17 medical organizations in the U.S., Netherlands, France and Germany. 3. Olympus responded to the report with a statement saying, "The evidence does not support claims that the infections were caused by Olympus product designs or instructions for use." 4. Olympus reasserted its scopes were safe and effective, "when properly used." 5. Olympus is facing several civil suits in the U.S. in relation to the duodenoscopes and said it would be "inappropriate" to comment further. 6. Issues regarding Olympus' duodenoscopes began in January 2010. An FDA report alleged up to 350 people from 41 facilities worldwide were either exposed to or infected by contaminated scopes in five years. The Hartford Business Journal outlined the growth of outpatient orthopedic care in Connecticut and across the country. Here are the key details to know: 1. Andrew Caputo, MD, an orthopedic surgeon, told the Hartford Business Journal many procedures are being performed on an outpatient basis rather than inpatient. 2. The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons projects the number of total knee replacements performed in the U.S. will increase 189 percent to 1.3 million by 2030, and then increase to 2.6 million in 2060. By comparison, 680,000 total knee replacements were performed in 2014, according to the AAOS. 3. To keep pace, hospitals and health systems are building and opening outpatient facilities, such as the Hartford, Conn-based St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center's $26.2 million pain and orthopedic ASC in Hartford. The two Ohio Valley Health Services & Education Corp. hospitals that fell victim to ransomware Nov. 23 aren't paying a ransom to remedy the attack, officials told The Times Leader. "We are not paying a ransom," Karin Janiszewski, director of marketing and public relations for the two hospitals the East Ohio Regional Hospital in Harper's Ferry, Ohio, and the Ohio Valley Medical Center in Wheeling, W.Va. told the publication. "It is not necessary because we have redundant security and ransomware was only able to make it through our first line of security and they caught the attempted attack quickly." As of Nov. 28, the two hospitals are still on a so-called "yellow diversion," meaning emergency medical services can call into an emergency room, at which point staff will let them know if it's a case the facility can take, OVMC CEO Daniel Dunmyer told the publication. Officials hope the ERs will be fully operational soon. As part of their work to remedy systems in the wake of the attack, the hospitals' IT teams are rebuilding the front of their software programs, including systems to read radiology and CT scans. "That interface should be fully functional by the end of [Nov. 27] and we can go off of diversion in the ERs," Ms. Janiszewski told The Times Leader. Patient information was not compromised in the ransomware attack, according to the hospitals. A group of 126 nurses at St. Louis-based Mercy Children's Hospital pooled together to purchase a winning lottery ticket that totaled $7,200 after taxes. Rather than give $56 to each nurse, the group decided to split the winnings between two colleagues in need, according to KMOV4. The nurses, all in the hospital's NICU, gave the money to one co-worker whose husband has been unable to work for months due to cancer treatment and another whose son committed suicide the same night as the lottery drawing. The majority said, 'Let's give it to our co-workers, our family, the ones that are in biggest need' so that's what we decided to do," said Stephanie Brinkman, a nurse in the NICU. North Carolina Treasurer Dale Folwell called for the U.S. Justice Department to push all hospitals in his state to be transparent in their pricing and take action against the ones overpaid by the state's health plan. The request comes after Charlotte, N.C.-based Atrium Health settled a lawsuit brought by the U.S. and North Carolina justice departments. The lawsuit challenged the system's contracts with many major insurers, alleging they included antitrust provisions. Earlier this year, the State Health Plan submitted a public records request to Chapel HIll, N.C.-based UNC Health Care for a copy of its contract and fee schedule with Blue Cross NC, the third-party administrator for the plan. The system provided redacted information with no prices. "For decades, the largest public hospital system in North Carolina has been engaging in this and other anti-competitive activities," said Mr. Folwell. In the spirit of this settlement, I'm calling on all North Carolina hospitals to be transparent and to publish their pricing so consumers can make informed decisions regarding healthcare. I'm also calling for the United States Department of Justice and the North Carolina Department of Justice, on behalf of the State Health Plan, to recover the potentially hundreds of millions overcharged to consumers by hospital management from this illegal activity." Mr. Folwell said that unless action is taken to increase price transparency, the effect of healthcare costs on the state's budget will affect other areas of government. In North Carolina, we already spend $3.4 billion a year in taxpayers' money for state employees and retiree health care. Additionally, we owe $30 billion for long-term health care costs, and we don't even know what we're supposed to pay for medical services," said Mr. Folwell. If something isn't done now, then other core functions of government like education, public safety and roads will be financially impacted." Christopher Maiona, MD, CMO at EHR optimization software company PatientKeeper in Waltham, Mass., discusses his EHR concerns and their correlation to physician burnout rates as well as voice recognition technology and the potential improvements it poses to clinical decision support and physician workflow. Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length. Question: Where do you see the biggest need for innovation to improve the healthcare system in the future? Dr. Christopher Maiona: Innovation is required to make computers indispensable tools for patient care. While we have done a reasonable job in some areas data capture, clinical decision support and document legibility, for example we have not made the EHR indispensable for the nurses and doctors at the tip of the patient care spear. To the contrary, we have complicated workflows, fractionated thought process, decreased productivity and demoralized users, as evidenced by the alarming physician burnout rates attributed in part to EHR concerns. The innovation I believe we need, in the near term, relates to EHR optimization specifically, creating an instinctive user experience for physicians and enhanced integrations with third-party applications, platforms and the health information exchange. These integrations will provide the clinician with a 360-degree view of the patient in a manner consistent with a provider's thought process, specialty and patient diagnosis. This EHR optimization will provide the foundation for further innovation as we look long term to integrating with more advanced technologies as they become reality. Q: What do you consider your No. 1 priority as CMO? How do you ensure you're successful? CM: One of the roles of a CMO in the health IT space is to level set the wants and needs of the clinical end user with the technological capabilities and vision of the technology vendor. In this role as peer liaison and translator, my primary priority is communication. As such, my job entails perpetual conversation. I listen to my physician colleagues to ensure we are providing them with what they need to safely practice at the top of their game. I draw on this input, as well as my experience as a physician, to help guide development and implementation of software that provides maximum value and an optimal user experience to our physician clients. Q: How do you feel about the use of voice recognition technology, such as Amazons Alexa and Google Assistant, in healthcare? Is there a place for its use within the EHR? CM: There is definitely a place for voice recognition technology in the EHR. One of the major challenges physicians face with the EHR now is the inability to rapidly translate thought into action. While certainly lacking the clinical decision support and legibility of modern systems, the paper chart supported the direct link of pen to paper I did not have to click my pen 20 times before writing an order. Voice recognition technology can affect this direct link, whether it be for simple screen navigation, note dictation or complex order entry and diagnostic research, immediately as the thought is conceptualized. The result is an instinctive process that maintains the physician's train of thought, enhances patient safety and empowers physicians to be better. To learn more about clinical informatics and health IT, register for the Becker's Hospital Review 2nd Annual Health IT + Clinical Leadership Conference May 2-4, 2019 in Chicago. Click here to learn more and register. To participate in future Becker's Q&As, contact Jackie Drees at jdrees@beckershealthcare.com. Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare made two leadership changes. Effective Jan. 6, 2019, Saumya Sutaria, MD, will serve as the COO of the company in a newly created enterprise role, while Eric Evans, president of hospital operations will step down at the end of the year. Dr. Sutaria most recently served as a senior partner at McKinsey & Co. In that role, he offered advisory support to hospitals, health systems, physician groups and ambulatory care models, among other entities. He was previously a member of the associate clinical faculty at University of California at San Francisco. Mr. Evans has worked at Tenet for 14 years. Following his retirement, the president of hospital operations role will be eliminated. Dr. Sutaria will directly oversee Tenet's hospital operations business in his capacity as COO. "With the addition of [Dr. Sutaria], it is clear the role of president of hospital operations is a layer which [Mr. Evans] and I, in consultation with our board, mutually decided to eliminate. This is consistent with our philosophy of a flatter organization," said Ron Rittenmeyer, executive chairman and CEO of Tenet in a statement. Shawn Sheffield, chief strategy officer at Keck Medicine of University of Southern California in Los Angeles, discusses her prior academic and clinical administrative roles, what she's learned along the way and her advice to aspiring health system CSOs. Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length. Question: How have your previous health system executive leadership positions prepared you for your role as CSO at Keck Medicine of USC? Shawn Sheffield: My previous administrative roles running large academic clinical departments at both Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore and UC San Francisco as well as associate vice chancellor of resource and planning at UC San Diego have all helped prepare me for my role as CSO at Keck Medicine of USC. To be effective in an externally facing strategic role, you need to know operations, work well with faculty and understand the complexities of your market and all the players. Strategy roles are nuanced and oftentimes political. All of my previous roles at various academic health systems have honed these skills. Q: What advice do you have for aspiring health system CSOs? SS: My advice to aspiring CSOs would be to find a mentor who believes in you and will constantly push you to take on new challenges. I remember thinking, 'I have no idea how to do this,' several times in my early career, but then I would just figure it out. There really isn't a playbook, you just have to be willing to work really hard and be nice to people. Q: What is the vision for your team in 2019? How will you approach your role and meeting your goals? SS: I have the best team in healthcare. Our vision for 2019 can be summed up in one word: Growth. We are constantly pushing the organization forward with new growth opportunities partnerships, acquisitions and service line expansions. My role in helping to make that happen is to communicate and problem solve. I work with really smart people. Most of the time when we get the right people in the room, we can make great progress. Q: What is one conviction in healthcare that needs to be challenged? SS: A conviction in healthcare that needs to be challenged is doing things the way we've always done them and expecting new results. Healthcare, like other industries, will need to transform. I think everyone knows change will involve seamless customer service and making things easier for our consumers. We know what we need but implementing is harder. Still, I think it will happen soon in healthcare and I am excited to be a part of that change. To participate in future healthcare executive thought leadership Q&As, contact Jackie Drees at jdrees@beckershealthcare.com. Dan Kitwood/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- Facebook and Google joined the list of companies requesting refunds of campaign donations to Mississippi Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith after a video surfaced on social media in which she talks about attending a hypothetical "public hanging." "The recent public comments made by Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith do not reflect the values or mission of Facebook. Our PAC contribution was made before these comments were made, and we have asked the Hyde-Smith campaign to return our campaign donation," a Facebook spokeswoman told ABC News Tuesday. Facebook made a donation of $2,500 on Oct. 17 and Google made a donation of $5,000 on Oct. 13 to the incumbent Republican senator, each before the "public hanging" remark was made public. Hyde-Smith is in a tight runoff election race tonight with Democrat Mike Espy, a former congressman who would be the state's first African-American senator since the 1800s. Last week, a number of big-name companies in the pharmaceutical and medical industry, including Pfizer, Amgen, Leidos and Boston Scientific, asked the senator's campaign for refunds ranging from $2,000 to $5,000. We condemn racism and bigotry in all its forms, Pfizer spokesperson Sharon Castillo told ABC News last Tuesday. We are withdrawing our support and have requested a full refund of our contributions, which were made months in advance of the senators comments. Pfizer and Amgen are among the leaders in the industry in terms of lobbying and for making campaign contributions in 2018, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. Hyde-Smith's assignment earlier this year to the Senate Appropriations subcommittee, which oversees the Food and Drug Administration, "could not be more critical" for such companies to build relationships with the senator for "influence and access," according to Lisa Gilbert, vice president of legislative affairs for Public Citizen, the nonprofit consumer advocacy organization. However, Hyde-Smith's remark and a series of missteps prompted backlash. The video in question shows Hyde-Smith in Tupelo, Mississippi, embracing a supporter and saying, "If he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be on the front row." After the video was posted on Twitter, Hyde-Smith did not apologize but defended herself. "If he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be on the front row"- Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith says in Tupelo, MS after Colin Hutchinson, cattle rancher, praises her. Hyde-Smith is in a runoff on Nov 27th against Mike Espy. pic.twitter.com/0a9jOEjokr Lamar White, Jr. (@LamarWhiteJr) November 11, 2018 "In a comment on Nov. 2, I referred to accepting an invitation to a speaking engagement," she said in a statement. "In referencing the one who invited me, I used an exaggerated expression of regard, and any attempt to turn this into a negative connotation is ridiculous." When actress Debra Messing criticized Walmart for its donation to Hyde-Smith, the company responded that the senators comments clearly do not reflect the values of our company and associates. Hi Debra. Completely understand your concern. Sen. Hyde-Smiths recent comments clearly do not reflect the values of our company and associates. As a result, we are withdrawing our support and requesting a refund of all campaign donations. Walmart (@Walmart) November 20, 2018 Walmart requested a full refund of $4,000 Tuesday, according to a company spokeswoman, while AT&T requested a full refund of $2,000. ABC News reached out to the senator's campaign office last Tuesday but has not yet received a response regarding the refund requests. Hyde-Smith, however, did vaguely refer to the "public hanging" comment and apologized at a debate with her opponent Espy last Tuesday. "For anyone that was offended by my comments, I certainly apologize," she said. "There was no ill will, no intent, whatsoever in my statements." Four days after the first video surfaced, another video from Nov. 3 was tweeted in which Hyde-Smith tells a group of supporters in Starkville, Mississippi, that it would be a great idea to make voting just a little more difficult for liberal folks. Cindy Hyde-Smith on voter suppression: "And then they remind me, that there's a lot of liberal folks in those other schools who that maybe we don't want to vote. Maybe we want to make it just a little more difficult. And I think that's a great idea." Nov 2nd in Columbus, MS. pic.twitter.com/OxNY77XCft Lamar White, Jr. (@LamarWhiteJr) November 15, 2018 Hyde-Smiths campaign once again refused to apologize and released a statement saying, "Obviously Sen. Hyde-Smith was making a joke and clearly the video was selectively edited." Then, a photo dating back to 2014 surfaced on Facebook before the debate showing Hyde-Smith donning a Confederate soldier hat. The photo is captioned, "Mississippi history at its best." Hyde-Smith, appointed by Gov. Phil Bryant, is facing a runoff with Espy after she netted 41.4 percent of the vote on Election Day while Espy had 40.6 percent. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. MOSS POINT, Miss. -- Chief Brandon Ashley of the Moss Point Police Department is asking the driver of the gray 2011 Toyota Camry used to drop off a home invasion victim at Singing River Hospital to come forward. "We have the vehicle and after speaking to the owner, she has a connection to one of the suspects who was shot, but she is unaware who was in her vehicle when it was used in this crime and to drop the suspect off at Singing River Hospital," Ashley said. On Sunday, two men attempted a home invasion at a residence located at 4618 Frederick St. in Moss Point. The occupant, 25-year-old Michael Richardson Jr., heard a man knock at the door inquiring if anyone was home. The men left and returned and after hearing a man at his door say, "nobody's home", the front door burst open and the men ran inside towards him. Richardson opened fire on both men, killing 18-year-old Titus Kelly Jr., of Ocean Springs and seriously injuring 19-year-old Antonio Jackson of Gulfport. Ashley said the driver of the Camry dropped Jackson off at SRH and at this time, the driver's whereabouts are unknown. "At this time we are unsure of that person's role in the home invasion and it would benefit them if they willingly come forward to speak with detectives," Ashley said. Nashville, Tenn.-based Ardent Health Services signed a letter of intent to sell its interest in a 323-bed Florida hospital to Pensacola, Fla.-based Sacred Heart Health System, part of St. Louis-based Ascension. Under the deal, Ascension will acquire 323-bed Bay Medical Sacred Heart, including its physician clinic operations in Panama City, Fla., and Bay County, Fla. Bay Medical was formed through a joint venture between Ardent and Sacred Heart. The hospital joins the three other hospitals in the Sacred Heart system. "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," an Ardent executive said in a Nov. 27 news release obtained by Becker's Hospital Review. Bay Medical was one of several hospitals damaged by Hurricane Michael, which hit the U.S. coastline in October. Patients were transferred by air and ground ambulance to other Ascension hospitals in the area, and those facilities continue to accept Bay Medical emergency room patients as the hospital works to rebuild and restore its inpatient services in stages. The deal is subject to customary regulatory review. A nonprofit organization called "A Coalition for Choice" in Missouri has taken out full-page ads in various newspapers to "oppose healthcare monopolies" like the potential sale of two St. Louis-based SSM Health hospitals to Columbia, Mo.-based MU Health Care, according to the News Tribune. Here are four things to know: 1. The nonprofit organization has taken out ads in the News Tribune and other publications to notify the public of the potential increase in healthcare costs in instances of hospital consolidation. The group formed after MU Health Care announced its intention in August to purchase two hospitals: SSM Health St. Mary's Hospital-Jefferson City (Mo.) and SSM Health St. Mary's Hospital-Audrain in Mexico, Mo. "If MU Health successfully acquires SSM St. Mary's Hospital, evidence shows that quality of care will likely decrease and jobs may be lost among Mid-Missouri's largest employers," the coalition said in a news release obtained by the News Tribune. 2. The coalition's news release and its ad in the Nov. 24 edition of the News Tribune, said MU Health is currently lobbying to pass legislation allowing the system to merge its affiliate hospital, Jefferson City-based Capital Region Medical Center, with SSM St. Mary's Hospital-Jefferson City, creating one consolidated system. "Multiple studies demonstrate the negative impact of hospital consolidation," the group said. "The ultimate result of this merger will be significantly higher healthcare costs, fewer jobs, fewer doctors, lower quality outcomes and less healthcare innovation." 3. SSM Health and MU Health Care released statements to the News Tribune about the potential acquisition, though neither system offered additional details regarding the deal's timeline. "MU Health Care is committed to improving access to affordable, quality care for all those we serve. Transferring ownership of St. Mary's Hospital-Jefferson City and St. Mary's Hospital-Audrain to MU Health Care will allow us to better integrate the care provided within these communities to ensure patients have access to a full continuum of care and the advanced clinical services of a premier academic health system close to home. It also furthers our efforts to provide strong support to rural communities that are facing increasing shortages of primary care physicians," MU Health Care said. 4. SSM Health said in a separate statement to the News Tribune that the potential deal will "also create new opportunities for MU Health Care to train more physicians, nurses and other health professionals to care for patients throughout Missouri especially those in underserved, rural areas." To access the full report, click here. More articles on transactions and valuations: Steward, Cleveland Clinic + 5 other hospitals expanding overseas Penn Medicine expands into UK Mount Sinai expands into China The former CEOs of North Fulton Medical Center in Roswell, Ga., and Atlanta Medical Center face possible prison time in a long-running kickback case, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Here are six things to know: 1. Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare agreed to pay approximately $514 million in October 2016 to resolve allegations the company paid kickbacks in exchange for patient referrals. Although Tenet settled the lawsuit, the federal government attached a name to the case in early 2017 when John Holland, who previously served as senior vice president of operations for Tenet's Southern States Region and as CEO of North Fulton Medical Center, was indicted in the fraud scheme. 2. The Department of Justice alleges Mr. Holland and his co-conspirators circumvented Tenet's internal accounting controls to pay illegal kickbacks and bribes to Clinica de la Mama, a chain of clinics in Georgia and South Carolina that referred pregnant patients to Tenet hospitals for Medicaid-covered deliveries. Federal prosecutors allege the illegal scheme helped Tenet bill the Georgia and South Carolina Medicaid programs for more than $400 million. 3. Prosecutors secured a new indictment in September 2017 that included several charges against Mr. Holland and added William Moore, Atlanta Medical Center's former CEO, to the case. Atlanta Medical Center was previously operated by Tenet. 4. Jamila M. Hall, one of the attorneys on Mr. Holland's defense team and a former federal prosecutor, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution her client is innocent and noted the unusual tactics the prosecution has used in the case. "At almost every step, the government has used unusual strategic tactics to purposely disadvantage Mr. Holland, the likes of which our team with over 75 years of federal criminal experience has never seen," Ms. Hall said. 5. In motions filed in the case, Mr. Holland's defense team argues he didn't benefit financially from any hospital contract at issue in the case and there was no fraud because the government suffered no loss. If the government had not paid Tenet for the deliveries, it would have paid a different hospital, the defense argues. 6. Mr. Moore is also fighting back against the criminal charges. "Mr. Moore never broke any law and never personally benefited from any hospital contract," Brian McEvoy, an attorney representing Mr. Moore, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "In fact, the medical services provided to Clinica patients not only saved lives and improved outcomes, they undoubtedly saved the federal government substantial amounts of money." Read the full Atlanta Journal-Constitution article here. More articles on legal and regulatory issues: 13 latest healthcare industry lawsuits, settlements CHS settles lawsuit against ex-CEO of Indiana hospital Atrium settles antitrust lawsuit over health plan contracts: 6 things to know A fired pharmacist who worked for Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente faces charges that he set up a camera in a pharmacy lab bathroom and secretly recorded people, including a child, according to a KPTV news report. Johnny Tuck Chee Chan, faces charges of first-degree encouraging child sexual abuse, six counts of second-degree encouraging child sexual abuse, 28 counts of first-degree invasion of personal privacy and 36 counts of second-degree invasion of personal privacy. He was arrested Nov. 27 after a yearlong investigation. According to court documents, the recordings took place from Dec. 1, 2016, to Nov. 14, 2017, at Kaiser's Airport Way Center pharmacy supply and lab. Mr. Chan allegedly used secret cameras to record people, including a child, at work. The investigation began in November 2017 after an employee discovered a hidden camera inside a bathroom at the facility. "We discovered a camera in a unisex bathroom at our Airport Way Center pharmacy supply and lab in November 2017. This is not a patient care facility, and the bathroom was used primarily by employees. We notified Portland Police and collaborated with them on an investigation, through which we identified an employee suspect. We terminated the employee immediately," Kaiser Permanente told KPTV. Burlington, N.J., officials charged Bernard Ogon, MD, for his role in a $20 million telemedicine fraud scheme in which he allegedly prescribed expensive medications to patients who did not need them, according to a Nov. 16 news release. Various unnamed telemedicine companies allegedly paid Dr. Ogon to prescribe expensive compounded medications, such as pain creams, scar creams, migraine creams and metabolic supplements, or "wellness capsules," to patients regardless of whether they were medically necessary. Dr. Ogon reportedly signed these prescriptions without establishing any prior relationship with the patient, and without speaking with the patient or conducting a medical evaluation. He also signed prescriptions for patients in states he was not licensed to practice in. The signed prescriptions were sent to pharmacies that Dr. Ogon or other entities involved in the scheme had relationships with. Those pharmacies allegedly filled the prescriptions and billed the patients' health plans regardless of medical necessity. The telemedicine companies allegedly paid Dr. Ogon between $20 and $30 per prescription. Dr. Ogon's role in the scheme cost healthcare benefit programs more than $20 million, at least $3 million of which was sustained by TRICARE, a program for members of the military and their families. If convicted, Dr. Ogon faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. Medicaid patients treated for opioid-use disorder in New York may have received prescription opioids from sources outside their treatment a potentially lethal oversight, the state comptroller's office revealed in a recent audit, according to the Democrat & Chronicle. Here are five things to know: 1. The audit was released Nov. 26 by the New York Department of Health and holds records from October 2013 to September 2017. 2. The audit shows a total of 18,786 Medicaid recipients received an additional 208,198 opioid prescriptions outside of their treatment. "The state Department of health should take steps to help treatment programs and healthcare providers work together to prevent overdoses that could lead to hospitalization or death," New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said. 3. The New York Department of Health indicated that large number of patients were treated in state-funded centers. New York opioid prescriptions are monitored through the online database called Internet System for Tracking Over-Prescribing, which has been used since 2013 to crack down on illicit opioid prescriptions. 4. Physicians prescribing opioids are required to consult the I-STOP database before writing prescriptions for Schedule II, III and IV controlled substances. Treatment centers are not required to share patient's medication on I-STOP. 5. About 85 of the 1,065 perceptions received coordination consent, while coordination only happened 59 times. The New York Comptroller's Office urged the state health department to remind opioid treatment providers of the importance of coordinating patient care with clinicians prescribing outside of the programs. "The department takes seriously its obligation to prevent inappropriate dispensing of opioid medications and is reviewing alternatives to strengthen existing requirements and procedures," the health department said. More articles on opioids: ERs see spike in meth-related hospitalizations Vermont hospital's needle-exchange program offers addiction treatment, too Opioid prescriptions fall by 25%, Scripps Health reports Fayetteville, N.C.-based Cape Fear Valley Health is closing the ExpressCare urgent care center at the Cape Fear Valley Medical Center campus, hospital officials announced. The last day for the urgent care center, also in Fayetteville, is Dec. 2. On Dec. 3, a new Cape Fear Valley Emergency Department treatment area will open "with expanded capacity and staff to better accommodate patients," hospital officials said. Cape Valley Health spokesperson Janet Conway told The Fayetteville Observer: "I do know that the volumes had dropped. In addition, many of the patients presented signs and symptoms more appropriate for the emergency department." With the urgent care center closing, staff reportedly will transfer to the hospital's emergency department. Hospital officials said patients may still visit Health Pavilion North ExpressCare and Highsmith-Rainey ExpressCare, which are open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week. The impending urgent care center closure comes as Cape Fear Valley Health has eliminated 59 positions to reduce costs amid diminishing reimbursement from insurers, Ms. Conway told The Fayetteville Observer. She said more than 30 of the employees affected by those cuts took other jobs within the system, and 22 took a severance package. New Jersey health officials on Nov. 27 confirmed the deaths of two premature infants linked to an outbreak of Acinetobacter baumannii bacteria in the neonatal intensive care unit at Newark, N.J.-based University Hospital, reports northjersey.com. Here are four things to know: 1. The infants contracted A. baumannii infections six weeks ago and died last week. University Hospital notified the state health department of the deaths Nov. 26. 2. In total, the hospital has reported four A. baumannii infections among infants in the NICU since Oct. 1, including one other death. Health officials noted the most recent deaths may not be directly linked to the infections, as the infants had other serious heath issues associated with their premature births. 3. Health officials investigated the hospital's NICU in early October and identified "major infection control deficiencies," including issues related to hand hygiene, personal protective equipment and cleanliness. In late October, the hospital hired a state-ordered infectious disease specialist to help with infection control practices in the NICU. 4. The health department also sent an inspection team to University Hospital Nov. 27 to investigate the facility's internal notification policies and governance related to reporting deaths during an outbreak. "As of yesterday, the hospital's own infection control program was not aware of the deaths when contacted," the health department said in a press release. 5. A University Hospital spokesperson shared the following statement with Becker's Hospital Review: "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. "We continue to reinforce proper procedures and protocols with our team." More articles on clinical leadership and infection control: 5 hospitals awarded CDC grants to develop antibiotic resistance solutions Monthly reviews help increase adverse event reporting, study finds IU Health performs liver transplant on state's oldest recipient The CDC awarded over $15 million to 41 private and academic investigators, including five hospitals, to pilot innovative solutions that protect patients from antibiotic resistance. These awards, part of the agency's Antibiotic Resistance Solutions Initiative, are intended to increase the CDC's innovative approaches to fight antibiotic resistance. The CDC and investigators will improve antibiotic stewardship, analyze antibiotic-resistant germs and genes, investigate the human microbiome for how it relates to antibiotic resistance and develop new tools for antibiotic resistance detection. This year's hospital awardees are: 1. Cleveland VA Medical Center 2. Henry Ford Health System (Detroit) 3. Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center (Baltimore) 4. Rush University Medical Center (Chicago) 5. Children's Hospital of Philadelphia More articles on clinical leadership and infection control: Many hospitals do not follow CDC recommendations for antibiotic use with newborns, study shows ED crowding linked to delayed antibiotics for sepsis, study finds 50 Hawaii hospital employees reportedly infected in scabies outbreak Five top healthcare performers were honored for transforming healthcare delivery by healthcare consulting firm Press Ganey at its 2018 national client conference this month in Orlando, Fla. The awards included Physician of the Year, Nurse of the Year, Team of the Year, Pediatric Excellence Award and Safety Champion. "Today we honor the extraordinary achievements of our 2018 award winners. Those we have recognized have exhibited a true commitment to transforming the delivery of healthcare by improving the patient experience, reducing suffering and enhancing caregiver resilience," said Patrick Ryan, Press Ganey CEO. The five 2018 award recipients: 1. Emily Sedgwick, MD, received the physician of the year award. She is chief quality officer of faculty group practice and medical director of breast imaging at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Dr. Sedgwick was recognized for her compassionate commitment to the patient experience. 2. Melle Reider-Demer, a nurse practitioner at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, received the nurse of the year award. She was honored for her commitment to the betterment of patients and the organization. 3. Charleston-based Medical University of South Carolina's blood and marrow transplant program received the team of the year award for its exceptional ability to treat adult and pediatric patients in multiple entities within the university. 4. Children's Hospital of Philadelphia received the pediatric excellence award. The hospital was honored for its commitment to delivering breakthrough experiences for patients, families and staff. 5. Dale Harvey, RN, director of performance improvement, quality and safety at Richmond-based VCU Health, and Joan Wynn, PhD, RN, chief quality officer at Greenville, N.C.-based Vidant Health took home the safety champion award honoring individuals who demonstrate expertise and success in advancing patient and caregiver safety. More articles on clinical leadership and infection control: Top-ranked hospitals demonstrate worse readmission rates for heart failure, study finds AFM outbreak up to 116 cases in 31 states, CDC says Firing of St. Louis nurse for violating mandatory flu shot policy sparks protest A nurse was fired for violating St. Louis-based Mercy Hospital South's policy requiring a flu shot, sparking a protest outside the hospital, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The nurse had been granted a religious exemption from the annual flu shot while working for St. Anthony's Medical Center, now Mercy Hospital South, before it was acquired by Mercy this year, according to the protest organizer. Demonstrators walked on the public sidewalk outside the hospital Nov. 28 to protest Mercy's mandatory flu shot policy, according to a KTVI report. It is unclear whether hospital employees were involved in the protest, but the demonstrators said they support employees who request exemption from the flu shot for religious or medical reasons. "That's the problem here: They declined the religious exemption," said protest organizer Nelia Aubuchon, who would only volunteer that she is close to the fired nurse. Mercy started requiring flu vaccinations in 2016. The health system got 170 requests for medical or religious exemptions to the flu vaccine among its 44,000 employees in four states. Most of the requests were granted, but employees whose exemptions the health system declined received notification the week of Nov. 25, according to a statement from the hospital. "The point of our flu vaccination policy is simple: Protection against the flu virus saves lives, especially those of our most vulnerable patients," the statement said. Seventy-nine-year-old Bruce Anderson became the oldest patient in Indiana to receive a liver transplant, which calls into question the age barrier many patients meet when searching for a viable organ transplant program, according the Indy Star. Mr. Anderson was turned down by multiple organ transplant programs due to his age. He then sought out the transplant program in Indianapolis, where Chandrashekhar Kubal, MD, a transplant surgeon at Indiana University Health, cleared him for the procedure. "In our program, we do not have a cutoff or we don't believe in putting numbers in our selection criteria," Dr. Kubal told the Indy Star. "We look at patients individually. ... If you can get five to 10 years of good quality of life, I think that's worthwhile." In the U.S., each transplant program creates its own criteria on how it accepts or rejects a transplant, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. Dr. Kubal noted age will always be a consideration in medical decision-making, though physicians have been letting older patients undergo organ transplant surgery. Organ transplant consideration will continue to rely on which patients are considered a "risky surgery" and which are not. Older transplant patients carry the stigma of being at higher risk of developing disease years after the transplant, as opposed to younger transplant patients. More articles on clinical leadership and infection control: Study highlights top factors for predicting terminal patients' deaths 5 hospitals awarded CDC grants to develop antibiotic resistance solutions Monthly reviews help increase adverse event reporting, study finds After the mass shooting at Chicago-based Mercy Hospital & Medical Center Nov. 19, area hospitals are reviewing safety measures and preparing for a new violence-prevention law, according to the Chicago Tribune. Here are three things to know: 1. State legislators are supporting a proposed law mandating metal detectors be installed at hospitals. Critics claim this is a "one-size-fits-all approach" that does not address the issue of gun violence. Hospitals already conduct active shooter drills and de-escalation training with security staff. 2. The Illinois Nurses Association helped create separate legislation that was approved earlier this year. The new law increases violence prevention in hospitals, including risk assessments of the facilities, and will take effect Jan. 1. "A hospital is supposed to be a place of healing and recovery and we're seeing that it's now a place where a mass shooting can take place," Alice Johnson, executive director of the Illinois Nurses Association, told the Chicago Tribune. 3. Hospitals throughout Illinois are increasing safety and security efforts to comply with the new law. Advocate Aurora Health is even accelerating its safety training program to all of its inpatient and outpatient facilities in Illinois and Wisconsin. The safety training program requires every employee to complete an online active shooter response class. More articles on clinical leadership and infection control: Methodist Dallas Medical Center earns 3 Joint Commission certifications for pancreatic care 74% of adults report barriers to traveling for specialty cancer care Physicians group wants to ban hot dogs from children's hospital menus A research team at the Brunel University London conducted a study published in BMJ Open examining the accuracy of physicians identifying how long a terminally ill patient has to live. Here are four things to know: 1. For the study, a group of palliative care physicians completed an online test, where they were presented with 20 real case studies of patients referred to palliative care hospitals or hospice care. Physicians were then asked if the patient was close to death. 2. The top 20 percent of the volunteers were presented with 50 more patient cases and asked if the patient would die within the next three days. Here, the researchers identified the key factors in participants' clinical decision-making and what factors led to their medical predictions. 3. Palliative performance scale, the most important factor, measures how much support someone needs based on their ability to function. This ranges from full independence at 100 percent to needing full support and unconsciousness at 10 percent and below. 4. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence instructs physicians to first recognize the imminent death of a patient but does not explain how clinicians are expected to identify dying patients or how new physicians can improve their skills. "This research has shone a light on how expert doctors are able to recognize when terminally ill patients are nearing the ends of their lives, and it is to be hoped that this greater understanding will help to educate medical students and less experienced doctors about how to improve this clinical skill," Paddy Stone, MD, professor of palliative and end-of-life care at the Marie Curie Research Department at University College London, said. More articles on clinical leadership and infection control: Monthly reviews help increase adverse event reporting, study finds Many hospitals do not follow CDC recommendations for antibiotic use with newborns, study shows Current screening tools may not be effective at diagnosing maternal sepsis The Democratic Republic of Congo on Nov. 28 started a four-day effort to address malaria amid the nation's ongoing Ebola outbreak, reports Reuters. Health workers will go door-to-door delivering mosquito nets and antimalarial drugs to 450,000 residents in the city of Beni, which is the current epicenter of the Ebola outbreak. Beni has seen eight times more malaria cases in 2018 than in the year prior. Health officials believe children with malaria who visit health centers are likely also contracting Ebola at these facilities. Reducing malaria cases will free up more time and resources for health workers to treat Ebola patients, while also keeping Congo residents away from the health centers, where they could contract the virus. "It will make things a lot easier if malaria is taken out of the equation," Dr. Stefan Hoyer, a medical officer with the World Health Organization, told Reuters. "We can assume that the suspected Ebola cases to be triaged would at least go down by half." The WHO reported 421 confirmed and probable Ebola cases, along with 241 confirmed and probable deaths linked to the outbreak, as of Nov. 24. More articles on clinical leadership and infection control: Physicians find link between heroin use, spinal infections Mercy Hospital shooting sparks safety review of Chicago-area hospitals 74% of adults report barriers to traveling for specialty cancer care Auris Health received $220 million in equity financing to advance the commercialization of its endobronchial Monarch Platform and robotic technology development. Here are four notes: 1. Led by Partner Fund Management, Auris received additional funding from new investors Wellington Management, D1 Capital Partners and Senator Investment Group. 2. Existing Auris investors who participated in the finance round included Mithril Capital, Lux Capital and Viking Global Investors. 3. Designed for diagnostic and therapeutic bronchoscopic procedures, the Monarch Platform uses a computer-assisted controller interface to navigate a flexible robotic endoscope to the periphery of the lung. 4. Auris has raised more than $700 million to date. Warsaw, Ind., is known as the 'orthopedic capital of the world,' according to Wane.com, featuring Zimmer Biomet, Medtronic and DePuy Synthes manufacturing locations. Those companies and many others are reacting the FDA's decision to redesign its decades-old medical device clearance system. The current FDA 510(k) clearance pathway has been in place for 40 years. The system allows manufacturers, like Medtronic, to release new devices based on other decade-old products. The FDA proposed a new system that will be based on clinical testing to receive approval. The pathway will reflect up-to-date safety and effectiveness features. Currently, around 20 percent of devices are being cleared based on a model that is more than a decade old. FDA officials will work on overhauling the approval processes for these devices first. FDA officials plan to seek out public feedback on released the manes of devices and manufacturers who develop technologies based on the old model. Officials stressed that while the clearance process is undergoing an overhaul it does not mean the devices are unsafe. Advanced Medical Technology Association spokesperson Greg Crist told Wane.com, "At the end of the day, we all want the same thing, the world's most effective medical devices to treat human suffering in the safest manner possible for patients and their families." In Indiana, residents have 190,000 classes of medical devices available to them. DePuy Synthes spokesperson Mindy Tinsley told Wane.com, "While we are unable to speculate the potential changes to the U.S. FDA clearance process, we believe a balanced regulatory system is important, and we are open to the continuous improvement of the medical device regulatory system." Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., suggested the CDC needs more funding to combat a rare polio-like illness that is rampaging across the nation, according to Fox 5. Here are four things to know: 1. Currently, the CDC is monitoring 116 acute flaccid myelitis cases in 31 states. Two cases are in New York. 2. AFM typically affects children and can cause paralysis. The CDC began monitoring these cases after an outbreak in 2014. 3. "It's a condition that affects the brain and spinal cord," family physician Jennifer Caudle, MD, told Fox 5. "And in children, which is where we're mostly see this condition, it's caused symptoms such as weakness of the arms, weakness of the legs, droopy eyelids, problems swallowing and things of that nature." 4. Between August 2014 and Nov. 23, the CDC reported 440 AFM cases in the nation. The most recent promotional motion poster of Viswasam has been doing the rounds on social media, receiving a positive response and quite some expectations for the Pongal release. Meanwhile, Thala Ajith never seems to stop doing everything he loves. Apart from his fantastic career as a huge star in films, we have often seen him involve himself in various other activities that he masters, from racing to aeromodelling. Ajith is currently in Germany, to attend a conference with the MD of Vario Helicopter, Kirsten Zodtner. This meeting is said to be to enable the German government to prepare a requisition to the Indian government for the recognition of aeromodelling in India. The pictures of Thala's meeting with the Vario Helicopter team have gone viral on social media and there's a lot of talk about it. Ajith has once again proven that there's no end to his quest for knowledge. Northern Ireland farmers have shot down a suggestion compensation for cattle affected by TB should be cut, saying such a measure would not be accepted until "meaningful action" is taken to eradicate the disease in wildlife (Steve Parsons/PA) Northern Ireland farmers have shot down a suggestion compensation for cattle affected by TB should be cut, saying such a measure would not be accepted until "meaningful action" is taken to eradicate the disease in wildlife. Farmers were reacting after a report found one in eight cattle herds in Northern Ireland are affected by bovine tuberculosis. Ulster Farmers' Union deputy president, David Brown said while it supported parts of a report from the Comptroller and Auditor General, it would not be backing calls for a reduction in compensation until meaningful action was taken in tackling TB in wildlife - not just in cattle. He instead reiterated the representative body's suggestion that farmers could pay a levy to the costly effort to eradicate TB. The disease remains a common problem, despite around 40m a year being spent trying to eradicate it - with around 500m being spent over the past half century since the introduction of the bovine TB eradication programme. Since 2006, 158m has been paid to farmers for the compulsory eradication of 127,500 cattle under the bovine TB eradication scheme. Read More One of the recommendations included in the report states: "To drive home the need for shared ownership of the problem and to reduce the burden on the public purse, the Department should take steps to reduce compensation." It is suggested the cuts in compensation could come from putting a "realistic cap" on the amount paid for each animal and a reduction in paying 100% market rate. UFU deputy president Mr Brown said: "Until there is meaningful action taken to address TB in wildlife, farmers will not accept any cuts to compensation. We are beyond frustrated. "TB has plagued the countryside for decades and we are no closer to eradication. This is despite huge efforts by industry and government, which has cost both farmers and taxpayers millions of pounds annually. Something has to change." On the financial contribution farmers could make, Mr Brown said: "The establishment of a statutory/compulsory levy, controlled by farmers and held by an industry body, would help to address bovine TB. Past attempts have been made in the past to change the current levels compensation is paid at, but the proposals were not supported by the Northern Ireland Assembly's Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee. A US company providing cloud IT services to global capital markets has announced it's doubling its workforce to 200 as it moves into new offices in Belfast. Options will be based at Linen Loft in Adelaide Street, and said the move will bring 100 new posts in addition to the 100 created when it first opened in Belfast in 2014. The company announced a major investment of around $100m earlier this year from New York private equity fund, Bregal Sagemount. It's led in Belfast by company chief operating officer Danny Moore, and the office here is now recruiting for roles in technical support, engineering, cybersecurity, account management, and marketing. Options also has offices in London, New York and Hong Kong. Mr Moore said: "As well as providing greater opportunity for Belfast's dynamic and highly educated workforce, the growth of our Belfast operations will help deliver critical support, sophisticated engineering and secure managed services to Options' global client base. "We are delighted to be part of Belfast's rapidly expanding financial technology hub and are confident that the breadth of local talent, both technical and non-technical, will ensure our new headquarters, state-of-the-art training facilities and technology resources are an integral part of our mission to transform the sector." Mr Moore is the former chief operating officer of NYSE Technologies - one of the first fintech foreign direct investors into Northern Ireland - as well as serving as chief executive of trading technology firm Wombat Financial Software. He also worked for Newry-based financial software and consulting firm First Derivatives during the early part of his career. Options has now moved into its new offices, after previously occupying space at the European Commission building on Belfast's Dublin Road. Stephen Morrow, Options head of account management, said: "From outstanding industry expertise to computer science and engineering talent, Belfast has been instrumental in the development of our business in recent years. "In what is a period of vast innovation and global expansion for Options, the opening of our new offices in Adelaide Street will ensure Options continues to raise the bar for service excellence and cement the next phase of growth for the firm." Founded in 1993 in London, Options began as a hedge fund technology services provider and later diversified to become the first provider to offer private cloud services to the financial sector. It opened its first US base in 2005, and then opened in Asia three years later. It now provides 'front to back office' cloud infrastucture to over 200 clients around the world, including global investment banks, hedge funds and private equity houses. It was named among the UK's leading growth companies in the 2018 and 2017 Sunday Times HSBC International Track 200 league table. Pets at Home has 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 (PA) Pets at Home, which has 10 stores in Northern Ireland, has 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, said the group has already imported goods worth a "couple of million pounds" as part of no-deal Brexit contingency plans. The group warned that 17% of its goods come from outside the UK and said its stock supply could be disrupted in the event of delays at ports and borders under a no-deal Brexit scenario. Mr Pritchard said: "We don't want families to run out of food for their pets." Details of its no-deal Brexit planning came as he outlined aims to overhaul the group's chain of veterinary practices after rapid expansion in recent years. The firm plans to buy out 55 joint venture vet practices from the 471-strong Vet Group chain, with around 25 of them becoming company-managed practices and the remaining 30 under review for closure. Pets at Home reported pre-tax profits crashing 80.5% to 8m in the six months to October 11 after taking costs of 29m relating to the Vet Group plans and warned over its full-year results. The group's Brexit plans see it join a growing list of major firms launching contingency efforts amid mounting fears that Theresa May will not get the parliamentary support for her EU withdrawal deal. Topps Tiles also revealed yesterday it aims to begin stockpiling key products ahead of Brexit, following recent confirmation of similar plans from the likes of Mr Kipling cakes firm Premier Foods, Majestic Wine and catering giant Compass. On the Prime Minister's Brexit deal, Mr Pritchard 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 - in particular 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 overhaul of the vet arm may also see up to 300 staff impacted should the 30 practices close, but Mr Pritchard said the group aims to redeploy nearby where possible. He said the overhaul was not down to a poor performance of the division, which grew revenues by 15.4% over the half-year, but the need to "rebalance" after rapid expansion. "I recognise we have grown at pace and, more recently, have seen the pressure that rising costs and our fees are placing on this young business," he said. "Yes, we have opened an awful lot of practices and, yes, we have got a small number wrong." Towards the end of last week we sat down in the Dobson household to watch our very first Christmas movie of 2018 - that's right, the trees are up, the lights are flashing and we are very much in festive mood here in Waringstown. Before you pass judgement on our state of mind, just consider for a moment that as Christmas approached last year I was facing it hooked up to a dialysis machine in Daisy Hill Hospital, so I do have a lot to be thankful for and the ability, thanks to mum, to enjoy with an even greater freedom what this Christmas has in store. So, still over a month to go and we were settled down in front of the TV to watch Kurt Russell take on the role of Santa in the new movie Christmas Chronicles. What struck me as I watched this feelgood movie unfold was that the recently widowed mother figure - or should I say 'Mom' - was balancing her very busy job working at the local hospital while looking after both her teenage son Teddy and 10-year-old daughter Kate. From my own personal experience, this is not an extraordinary occurrence, and Santa Claus isn't the only person wearing a uniform and running around working hard on Christmas Eve. Our doctors, nurses and auxiliaries are doing exactly the same - caring for patients while they are at work, away from their families at Christmas. Last year, while on dialysis, I was one of those patients who received dedicated care over the festive period, and my heart goes out to the health professionals who continue to place the care of others before themselves. We so often hear about winter pressures on our health service, which further heap pressure on already overstretched staff and services. If you do get a chance to see this movie over the Christmas period, just think about those who are away from home at this time of year because they are caring for others. They will always have my love and respect, especially at Christmas. I want to give a big shoutout to Gordon Speers this week as he prepares the musical arrangements for this year's Christmas Carols from St Mark's as both the Portadown ladies and male voice choirs come together to celebrate the festive season. This year is the 21st annual service and is being held on December 7 at St Mark's Church in Portadown, with proceeds in aid of Kidney Care UK and Air Ambulance NI. This promises to be an amazing Christmas spectacular in such a wonderful setting, and I encourage you to seek out one of those coveted programmes through either Winnie's Newsagents in Woodhouse Street in the town or from any of the choir members. Sticking with what has turned out to be a very Christmassy-themed column this week, Black Friday and Cyber Monday have been much in the media. It got me thinking about these one-day events and just how successful they really are at generating publicity and channelling people to buy into a concept or, in the case of these two pre-Christmas days, a product. Every year we have Organ Donation Week, which highlights the need for people to have that family discussion with their loved ones and to consider signing on the Organ Donor Register. The crucial difference to Black Friday is that the Organ Donor Register is open and free to register on every single day of the year. Much in the same way, I am thankful to the Belfast Telegraph for enabling me to provide a regular weekly platform to promote the life-saving message and keep the flame of hope alive for my fellow kidney and transplant patients. As Christmas approaches, please spare a thought for those waiting for that telephone call which will tell them that their lives are about to change. That call is right at the top of their Christmas wish list and is truly the ultimate gift which anyone can give. Could you? BBC presenter Justin Webb has said he can see both sides in Northern Ireland's political debate over Theresa May's Brexit Withdrawal Agreement. But speaking ahead of the BBC Radio 4 Today programme's visit to Ulster University tomorrow, he said it was harder to see which argument would eventually win out. "I can see where everyone is coming from, I suppose that's the thing," he said. "You can see where the DUP is coming from, you can see where the other sides are coming from. "But what you can't see at the moment is where the balance of power truly is and who wins." The DUP and other parties here have been at loggerheads over the Prime Minister's Brexit deal. Arlene Foster's DUP refuses to back it, claiming it erodes Northern Ireland's constitutional position in the UK, while other parties support the deal, as do business leaders. Mr Webb was a BBC trainee journalist in Belfast during the Troubles. He lived on Wellington Park Avenue with the current science editor of BBC News, David Shukman. Mr Webb (57) said: "I came from London in the 1980s and there were bombs and bullets and soldiers and all the rest of it, but I was standing in the middle of Belfast and this little old lady came up to me and said, 'Could you just help me across the road'. "She kind of grasped my arm and we went across the road together and she said 'thank you' and off she went. "I just thought that would never happen in south London." He went on to present Good Morning Ulster, and has also reported from America and Brussels before he joined the Today programme in 2009. On Northern Ireland, he said: "Now, obviously, I come back and physically can't recognise the place." But he warned against a return to sectarianism. "Well, I think the problem is that young people don't remember how awful it was and that's part of one of the issues that we want to explore," he commented. "The memories fade in a good way, but they also fade in a bad way and it was so divided for so long and it was such a miserable experience for so many people that it's almost inconceivable that people would knowingly go back to it." As a co-host on the flagship news show, Mr Webb is well versed on Brexit. He commented: "Because of the Northern Ireland backstop being such a huge issue, we will be talking a little bit about what people are saying about it. "I do feel that those questions are often answered in the studio in London and it will be interesting to hear them asked and answered at Ulster University." The show's visit to Ulster University's York Street campus in Belfast will be its first time in Northern Ireland, and it will be broadcast tomorrow from 6am to 9am. Prospective guests include Professor Siobhan O'Neil, from mental health sciences at Ulster University; comedian and Give My Head Peace star Tim McGarry; Marie McDonald, who is producer of the BBC One comedy show Soft Border Patrol; Professor Jim Dornan from Queen's University, Belfast; and Felicity Huston, former Commissioner for Public Appointments. Topics due to be discussed by the panel and audience tomorrow are mental health problems, comedy, the Troubles and a united Ireland. Arlene Foster and Theresa May were engaged in a war of words yesterday as the Prime Minister flew into Belfast on a whistlestop tour to secure support for her Brexit deal. The under-pressure Conservative leader is trying to build up public support for her Brexit deal ahead of a key vote in the House of Commons on December 11. While Mrs May's withdrawal agreement enjoys the support of the business community, many farmers, Sinn Fein and the smaller parties at Stormont, she faces trenchant opposition from the DUP - the only Northern Ireland party with votes in the Commons. The PM's decision to appeal directly to the public above the heads of the 10 DUP MPs who prop up her government appeared to antagonise her Commons allies yesterday. The DUP told her to "dump her PR plans" and "instead work on fin ding a better way forward". It suggested that removing the backstop could ensure their support for the rest of the deal. DUP leader Arlene Foster described Mrs May's tour, which started earlier in Wales, as "propaganda", a claim the PM rejected. Speaking after a meeting in Stormont House to discuss the withdrawal agreement with Mrs May, who also met the smaller parties, Mrs Foster said the Prime Minister was "always welcome to Northern Ireland". But the former first minister added: "However the withdrawal agreement, in its current form, is unacceptable and she will not persuade the DUP to support it. "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." Mrs May faces an uphill battle to get her deal through Parliament with Labour and many of her own MPs calling for it to be renegotiated. Mrs Foster said that with no enthusiasm amongst MPs, the deal "seems destined to be rejected" in the Commons vote. "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," she said. "There is another way. This is not a binary choice. We need to explore that third way." The Tory leader's first stop was Queen's University, Belfast where she met with business, education and religious representatives. She urged MPs to act in the national interest in the December 11 vote - a message clearly aimed at her erstwhile DUP allies. Civic representatives in Belfast also gave Mrs May the clear message to move on and develop the future, she said. The PM said: "I will be talking to my DUP colleagues, as I will be talking to colleagues in the House of Commons and across the House of Commons, of the importance of this vote for the UK, for the future of the UK, for the future of jobs for their constituents, for the future security of their constituents, this is a deal that protects those issues but also delivers on the Brexit vote." She added: "The alternative is more uncertainty and more division, and that is a very clear message that we have got here in Northern Ireland but have had elsewhere as well, that people do not want to return to uncertainty and division." She said her draft agreement with the EU delivered on the Brexit vote in a fashion that protected jobs, livelihood and security. The message I have clearly heard here today from across the board, from the voluntary sector, from young people, from businesses, from the cultural sector, from academics, is the importance of that certainty and the importance of Parliament accepting that deal so we can move on to develop our future." Asked about the use of the border backstop, she said: "What arrangements we put in place in the UK for determining whether there should be any regulatory divergence is actually a matter for us. There already is regulatory divergence today between Northern Ireland and Great Britain in some limited areas. We have that regulatory divergence today. We are one UK, but there is an acceptance of the particular position of Northern Ireland in the regulations as they are applied today." A report by Northern Irelands Education and Training Inspectorate has raised a number of concerns about the sector. (Ben Birchall/PA) Four and five-year-old children are among a rising number of pupils receiving suspensions at Northern Irelands schools, a report from the Education and Training Inspectorate has found. In the academic year 2016-17, 4,084 pupils of compulsory school age were suspended. Around three times more boys than girls were issued with suspensions. The Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI) noted that alarmingly 286 were of primary school age, and officials revealed that 74 were in primary one or primary two. Repeated infringement of school rules was among the main reasons for the suspensions. The ETIs biennial report Learning Lessons: Inspiring People: Putting Learners First was published on Wednesday and sets out challenging times in education, noting a recent Audit Office report finding that the general schools budget has fallen in real terms by 9.3% from 2012-13 to 2016-17. Powersharing government in Northern Ireland has been in suspension since January 2017 which has left senior civil servants in charge of departments instead of ministers. The ETI report said the absence of an education minister was restricting the decisions that can be made, which in turn creates further uncertainty, delay and frustration. The report also revealed further challenges to the sector in a rise in the number of under-age children those aged two in nursery units. It found that at 25 of the 338 statutory nursery schools and nursery units within primary schools, a quarter of the children were two. Where there is a larger number of under-age children in a class, including those with additional needs, the demands on the practitioner to provide a quality pre-school programme is restricted and, as a result, the children do not make as sure a start as expected, the report found. On Wednesday at 10.00am Noelle Buick speaks in Belfast to launch her Chief Inspectors Report to celebrate the many positives in education and training in Northern Irelandand outline the challenges remaining. #CIR16-18 Education and Training Inspectorate (@ETI_news) November 26, 2018 ETI chief inspector Noelle Buick emphasised that education and training in Northern Ireland has many positives that should be celebrated. She described many exceptional and inspirational leaders, teachers, lecturers and youth workers. Ms Buick commended high standards in maths and good development of thinking skills at primary schools. However she also highlighted concerns including large gaps in attainment in public exams and a growing number of primary one children being overweight. The report includes a large and wide-ranging number of findings. These include a large attainment gap for school leavers achieving at least five GCSEs at grades A*-C, including English and maths, between those who received free school meals and those who did not. In 2016/17 47.5% of those receiving free meals reached this standard, compared with 77.4% of those who did not receive free meals. Exam results continue to show improvement, however large gaps in attainment are still not being addressed with the necessary urgency and energy, Ms Buick said. Pupils on free school meals continue to underperform overall and there is a gap in performance between boys and girls. The report also revealed that a fifth of Northern Irelands children entering primary school are overweight. This rises to one in four by year eight. Mental health issues were also flagged in the report which found that a significant number of school children are impacted. The report quoted local research that found 45,000 children in Northern Ireland have a mental health problem and one in five pupils are suffering significant mental health problems by the time they reach 18. An ETI survey identified more than 4,000 pupils with emotional health and well-being issues, many of which are identified in the first year of primary school. Ms Buick has called for a multi-agency healthy lifestyle programme to address the issues. We need to get better at working innovatively and collaboratively if we are to address the growing health problems amongst our young people, she said. Being overweight is a growing problem with one-fifth of primary one children affected. There is also a significant and growing number of learners presenting with complex and mental health needs. Prime Minister Theresa May making a statement on Brexit in the House of Commons (PA) Withdrawal from the European Union under the Governments plans could cut the UKs GDP by up to 3.9% over the next 15 years, according to new official figures. But leaving without a deal could deliver a 9.3% hit to GDP over the same period, said the analysis produced by departments across Whitehall. And the UK will be poorer in economic terms under any version of Brexit, compared with staying in the EU. The document did not put a cash figure on the potential impact on the economy, but independent experts have said that 3.9% of GDP would equate to around 100 billion a year by the 2030s, far outweighing the UKs current contribution to EU budgets. Meanwhile, the Long-Term Economic Analysis paper found that Government borrowing could be forced up by as much as 119 billion by 2035 if the UK quit the EU without a deal and up to 26.6 billion under a scenario similar to Mrs Mays plans. The 83-page document was drawn up by officials from Whitehall departments including the Treasury, the Department for Exiting the EU, Industry, Environment, International Trade and the Home Office. It was released as Prime Minister Theresa May prepared to head to Scotland on the latest stage of a tour of all parts of the UK to promote her deal to voters ahead of the crucial House of Commons vote on December 11. Expand Close Theresa May is heading to Scotland to push her agreement with Brussels (Liam McBurney/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Theresa May is heading to Scotland to push her agreement with Brussels (Liam McBurney/PA) Chancellor Philip Hammond acknowledged that all possible Brexit options will make Britain economically poorer, compared with remaining in the EU. But he insisted that the PMs plan agreed by EU leaders at a Brussels summit last Sunday will minimise the economic damage. In the Commons, Mrs May said the analysis did not mean the country would be poorer in the future than we are today. She told MPs at Prime Ministers Questions: What we have seen behind the analysis this morning is that our deal is the best deal available for jobs and our economy. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, however, said the analysis was meaningless as there was no actual deal to model just a 26-page wish list in the Political Declaration. The Government analysis does not attempt precisely to forecast the impact of Mrs Mays deal. But it compares the likely impact of the proposals agreed by the Cabinet at Chequers in July and set out in the Governments White Paper with the alternative scenarios of Norway-style membership of the European Economic Area, a Canada-style free trade agreement with the EU and a no-deal Brexit. It finds that GDP will be lower in 15 years under all Brexit scenarios than it would be with EU membership. And in all cases, national income will be reduced if migration from Europe is reduced from its current levels. Expand Close Chancellor Philip Hammond said the Prime Ministers Brexit plan will minimise the economic damage (Nick Ansell/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Chancellor Philip Hammond said the Prime Ministers Brexit plan will minimise the economic damage (Nick Ansell/PA) Potential outcomes range from a 0.6% reduction if the White Paper is accompanied by frictionless trade and unchanged migration levels to 9.3% if a no-deal Brexit reduces net immigration by European workers to zero. The scenario which most closely reflects the Governments plan would see the Chequers deal tempered by some trade friction and with zero net immigration from the EEA. Under these conditions, GDP could be expected to be 3.9% lower 15 years after Brexit than it would have been if the UK remained. If frictionless trade was achieved, the cut would be around 2.5%. GDP would be an estimated 1.4% lower with EEA membership and 4.9% with a Canada-style free trade agreement if migration levels remained the same, the document suggests. If net migration was cut to zero under a Canada-style deal the hit to GDP would be around 6.7%. The North East, North West, Northern Ireland and West Midlands would be hardest-hit by a no-deal Brexit or a Canada-style FTA, while the pain would be more evenly spread under the scenario closest to Mrs Mays deal, with London worst hit. Speaking to BBC Radio 4s Today programme ahead of the documents publication, Mr Hammond said the outcome of the PMs preferred Brexit plan will be a slightly smaller economy over the next 15 years. And he said under any scenario, in a purely economic sense, the UK will be worse off than if it stayed in the EU, as exiting will create impediments to our trade. But he added: What the Prime Ministers deal does is absolutely minimises those costs, and reduces to an absolute minimum the economic impact of leaving the EU, while delivering the political benefits, in terms of being able to do third-country trade deals, having control of our fishing waters, and the many other issues that will be delivered politically. Expand Close Theresa May will say that Brexit will allow the UK to take full control of fishing waters (Owen Humphreys/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Theresa May will say that Brexit will allow the UK to take full control of fishing waters (Owen Humphreys/PA) Having spent Tuesday campaigning in Wales and Northern Ireland, Mrs May will use her visit to Scotland to argue that the agreement offers the prospect of an unprecedented economic partnership with the EU after Brexit. At the same time, she will emphasise that it will mean Britain leaves the Common Fisheries Policy, enabling the country to decide who it allows to fish in UK waters. At long last, we will be an independent coastal state again taking back full sovereign control over our waters, and free to decide for ourselves who we allow to fish in our waters, she is expected to say. While Mrs May continues to appeal directly to voters to support her plan, some questioned whether she would not have been better off remaining in Westminster trying to win over MPs who will decide whether to back the agreement in a vote on December 11. Expand Close Attorney General Geoffrey Cox (Jonathan Brady/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Attorney General Geoffrey Cox (Jonathan Brady/PA) With scores of Tory MPs having declared publicly they will vote against the deal, and Labour and the other opposition parties also firmly opposed, ministers have acknowledged the parliamentary arithmetic is challenging. Meanwhile, the Government has become embroiled in a fresh row over the publication of Attorney General Geoffrey Coxs legal advice on the Withdrawal Agreement. Mr Hammond says Downing Street will ignore a House of Commons motion to reveal Mr Coxs full comments, saying it would be impossible for the Government to function if such confidential material was made public. He was speaking after leading Tory Brexiteer Sir Bill Cash backed Labours call to release the full comments Mr Cox made to Cabinet. Asked on the Today programme if it was right to do so, the Chancellor said: No, theres a very important principle here that the Government must be able to commission impartial legal advice which absolutely tells it like it is to enable it to shape its decisions, while always complying with its legal obligation in the negotiations. Mr Hammond added: It would be impossible for Government to function if we create a precedent that the legal advice that the Government receives has to be made public. We must have, as every other citizen has, the right to take privileged legal advice which remains private between the lawyer and the client. So the client has the ability to ask the difficult questions, to receive full and frank legal advice, and then to make decision based on that full and frank advice. Just over 1% of people who had a mesh implant to treat a prolapse had them removed over a nine year period, official figures have revealed. The Department of Health has released new statistics on the use of the controversial mesh implants and subsequent removals. They show that, between 2008 and 2017, some 694 patients had a mesh insertion procedure for prolapse. Nine patients were readmitted to hospital for a removal procedure, according to the report. However, a campaign group has said the figures do not reflect the agony being endured by hundreds of people across Northern Ireland. Jackie Harvey from Sling the Mesh NI said: "These statistics only show the number of people who have been in hospital to have their mesh removed. "They don't reveal the countless people in our group who have been suffering for years and have been told that it was all in their mind, that there was nothing wrong with them. "For far too long, women have been suffering, they have been robbed of their mobility, robbed of their jobs, their relationships. "Some patients have even been referred to psychology as though they are mad. These figures don't reflect the people who are being referred to pain clinics, who are going back and forward to their GP for years or being fobbed off by consultants." Ms Harvey said it is essential that as many women as possible attend an upcoming fact finding mission to Belfast by the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review. Chaired by Baroness Julia Cumberlege, the review was announced in February by the Health Secretary at the time, Jeremy Hunt. It is investigating how the health system responds to reports from patients about harmful side effects from medicines and medical devices. It is looking at the hormone pregnancy test, Primodos, anti-epileptic drug, sodium valproate, and surgical mesh. The review team will be at the Hilton Hotel at Lanyon Place in Belfast on December 6 to hear from affected patients. Ms Harvey continued: "For so long, we were told there was nothing wrong with mesh but officials are finally acknowledging that isn't the case. Only recently we have had two women from our support group go to England to have the mesh removed. "They came back and for the first time since I met them they were able to come to one of our meetings without using crutches. It was so emotional. "It's absolutely vital that as many people as possible who have been affected, or think they may have been affected by mesh, to come along to the Cumberlege review next week. "The figures released by the Department of Health really mean nothing, but this review is actually listening to patients and trying to find out the complications that mesh can cause." Sinn Fein MLA Orlaithi Flynn has welcomed the publication of the statistics but said more work needs to be done to establish the harm that has been caused by mesh implants. "The analysis doesn't include variables such as the type of mesh used, the surgical technique used or patient profiles as these are not collected as part of the hospital inpatient system," she said. "The data also doesn't record the severity of the condition before surgery or any subsequent complications." In July, health officials in Northern Ireland issued a directive suspending the use of vaginal mesh implants for the treatment of stress urinary incontinence. Women have long complained about vaginal mesh implants causing agony by cutting into tissue. A number have even taken their lives as they were unable to live with the complications. Mechanic Joe Dunlop at his garage yesterday after a second arson attack in Carrickfergus believed to be linked to the UDA A defiant Co Antrim car mechanic has vowed never to give in to UDA "rats" after his business was attacked for the second time within four weeks. Joe Dunlop (52) was woken up by the police in the early hours of yesterday morning and informed that six vehicles had been set alight outside Dunlop Motors in Carrickfergus again. "I didn't even bother going to see the damage this time," he said. "The people doing this are rats who only come out at night and I wasn't being lured out of my home." The same number of vehicles were torched on Halloween night outside Mr Dunlop's repair shop, which is located just yards away from a petrol forecourt on Woodburn Road. The married father-of-three said the workshop he set up three decades ago was almost "dead" following the attacks, which could end up costing him 20,000. "They have taken everything, and will come back for more," he said. The fed-up garage owner believes he is being targeted by South East Antrim UDA who have bombarded his son with sinister threats for almost two years. "I've been told that if they can't get him they will come after me - I've received two death threats since the first attack and I'm expecting another one very soon," he said. "I have no doubt that it's on the way." Mr Dunlop said the threats also apply to his wife and two daughters. "The eldest has three kids and has already moved out of Carrick - now she is considering closing her hairdressing business in the town," he explained. "The youngest is studying to be a primary school teacher - they are both petrified and so is my wife." The former UDR and RIR soldier said those responsible for the attacks know nothing about serving anyone except themselves. "I've served my Queen and country and this is the thanks I get from people apparently doing the same," he added. "I've worked here for 30 years, never been involved in anything and never had any bother. "Now there's men with crowbars, threats non-stop - it's p***ing me off, but if you fold even once to these people they think they have power over you." Mr Dunlop believes he has no choice but to remain defiant. "I feel bad for my family who want nothing to do with this, but I'd rather be dead than live under their control," he said. A PSNI spokesperson said detectives are investigating a link involving "ongoing tensions" in the Carrickfergus area. A man allegedly bit his girlfriend on the face and shoved her at the top of a flight of stairs, the High Court heard on Wednesday. Gerard Lavery, 36, is also charged with threatening to kill the woman after they had been drinking together at his Co Armagh home. Lavery, of Brownlow Terrace in Lurgan, was refused bail. Prosecution barrister David McClean said both of them appeared drunk when police were called to the house on November 20. "She made a verbal allegation that she had been bitten on the cheek at an unknown time the previous day," the barrister submitted. A red mark was said to be visible on that area of her face. She further claimed Lavery issued the threat and pushed the woman, causing her to stumble. According to the prosecution she allegedly had to grab a banister to prevent falling down the stairs, with her coat ripping during the incident. Lavery is accused of assault occasioning actual bodily, criminal damage and common assault. Defence counsel argued that there were issues about whether photographs of the suspected injury actually depict a bite mark. He referred to claims made against his client as "malicious and fabricated". With both Lavery and the woman described as alcoholics, the barrister added: "This is a relationship which is rough and volatile." Denying bail, however, Mr Justice McAlinden ruled: "There's a significant risk of re-offending with this vulnerable individual." Dissident republican prisoner Tony Taylor is to be released from jail this morning after almost 1,000 days behind bars. His wife Lorraine was told that her husband was due to be released last night, but it later emerged that due to "an administrative delay" Taylor will be released this morning. Londonderry-born Mr 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 had been 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. Mr 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, he was 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. The DUP's Gregory Campbell questioned Mr Taylor's release yesterday and sought clarity over any restrictions on him to allay "public safety concerns". He said: "The overriding consideration in this case will be the one of public safety." "Whatever context people might put on the family considerations - which in a family context would be understandable - the wider public safety context is one that has to be borne in mind by the police. "There have been two previous occasions when Mr Taylor has been released and on both those occasions, it ended up in him appearing in court on other charges. "So that is what people will be concerned about. "Hopefully whatever conditions are applicable to him - we need to see what they are - will be strict and they will be carefully monitored for precisely that reason. "Because if people get one opportunity and breach faith in wider society and end up in court, and get a second opportunity and breach faith again and end up in court again, now to get out a third time, we will need to ensure that there is a very, very close monitoring process on him." Yesterday, Tommy McCourt, the chairman of the Free Tony Taylor Campaign, said that the release was the result of "immense public pressure". "There was an appeal in Belfast last week," he said. "Parts of it were held in public and parts in private. There were restrictions put on the people who were there to witness proceedings, no one is allowed to discuss what happened in terms of the evidence or process. "The powers that be, who took the decision to put him in prison, have in one part been persuaded by all sorts of representation and by the public protests that were taking place and beginning to grow. "I think that may have affected their point of view. "There has been quite a lot of input talking about the very negative effects that this type of legal internment is having on any kind of hope for the future in this society. "People were beginning to question if anything had changed or if we were right back where we started in the 1970s. "Nothing essentially has changed insofar that Tony has been inside for several years, so his behaviour or actions have not changed. "So I would say that it is more to do with public opinion than politics. I think they realised that this type of behaviour isn't acceptable in how they deal with legacy issues." A spokesperson for the Northern Ireland Office, when asked what had changed in Mr Taylor's circumstances to initiate his release, said: "This is a matter for the Parole Commission." Foyle Sinn Fein MLA Raymond McCartney welcomed Taylor's "belated" release, but said it "doesn't change the fact that he should never have been returned to prison in the first place". TUV leader Jim Allister has accused Ian Paisley of arrogance and of showing "absolutely no remorse" after the disgraced MP said that "many a smaller man would have crumbled" after his House of Commons suspension. Mr Paisley was banned from the Commons for 30 sitting days for failing to declare two 2013 family holidays paid for by the Sri Lankan government. Read More In July, a parliamentary watchdog found that a year after the luxury holidays, Mr Paisley lobbied then Prime Minister David Cameron not to support a UN probe into alleged Sri Lankan human rights abuses during that country's civil war. In September, a recall petition which could have cost Mr Paisley his North Antrim seat fell short of the 10% of his constituents needed to force a by-election. The required number of signatures was 7,543, but the target wasn't reached. Commenting on his suspension in this week's Ballymena Guardian, 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." North Antrim MLA Mr Allister accused Mr Paisley of displaying an "arrogant attitude" and claimed his remarks showed he had "learnt nothing" from his suspension. "He brazenly places himself in this role, that a lesser man would have fallen under this, and I think the real response from a more responsible person would be to realise the depth of what he had wrongly done," Mr Allister stated. "That would have been the more appropriate manner, rather than trying to brazen it out. "He shows absolutely no remorse, it's quite brazen. "There's no acceptance on his part of the scale of the wrong. "The suspension blatantly wasn't more than he deserved. It obviously hasn't had much transformative impact on him," he added. In his Ballymena Guardian interview, Mr Paisley also hit out at his critics. He told the newspaper: "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." However, his comments were slammed as "irresponsible" by Mr Allister. "He is saying that the fact that people in North Antrim were left voiceless for 10 weeks without political representation is neither here nor there," the TUV Assembly member said. "It is very irresponsible - North Antrim was left voiceless and voteless. "It is flippant, and it does not reflect well on him after what he did. "He comes out the other end in this brazen fashion." Mr Allister continued: "The public, by not requiring a by-election, was guaranteed this arrogant attitude. "It doesn't look like he has grown from the experience or has learnt a lesson." Mr Paisley declined to comment when contacted by the Belfast Telegraph last night. Last week, the PSNI confirmed that it had completed its investigation into social media posts by Sinn Fein MLA Philip McGuigan and TUV councillor Timothy Gaston after Mr Paisley alleged that electoral law had been broken during the recent recall petition process. A file has now been sent to the Public Prosecution Service. Following his suspension from the House of Commons, Mr Paisley was suspended from the DUP, but that has since been lifted. However, he is barred from holding office within the party for a year. Police investigating the murder of Eddie Meenan in Londonderry have been given an additional 36 hours to question a 19-year-old man. The body of Mr Meenan was discovered off Creggan Street in the early hours of Sunday. The PSNI said he had sustained significant head and body injuries. Police have been given additional time to question the man on suspicion of murder. A 35-year-old woman and two men aged 31 and 26 who were arrested on suspicion of murder, remain in custody. The head of a pro-Israeli group says the decision to ban the Northern Ireland Friends of Israel from speaking at an event in Londonderry is "hugely disappointing". Steven Jaffe, co-chair of the organisation that aims to build bridges between Northern Ireland and Israel, was speaking after an invitation to address Derry City and Strabane District Council was voted down. At a meeting in the city's Guildhall, independent republican councillor Paul Gallagher proposed sending 'a message of solidarity' out to coincide with the United Nations' Day of Solidarity with the people of Palestine, on November 29. The proposal passed despite opposition from all unionists present. Ulster Unionist deputy mayor Derek Hussey proposed that the council invite the NI Friends of Israel to address members, on the basis that "there are two sides to every story". However Sinn Fein councillor Christopher Jackson said his party could not support the proposal, given that the "Israeli onslaught on the Palestinian people continues to this day". While unionist councillors supported the proposal, it failed after remaining SDLP, Sinn Fein and Independents opposed it. Mr Jaffe said: "This is not just excluding us as an organisation but a wider section of the community that regards itself as being Friends of Israel. "The council is effectively saying that people who hold that view are not welcome, which is of great concern. We addressed Fermanagh and Omagh District Council this month where there were members of all political parties present. Everyone listened respectfully and, while we didn't all agree, it was an evening of dialogue. Sadly, it doesn't appear that will be possible at Derry City and Strabane Council level. It's more than a little ironic that this happened in Derry given its history of civil rights and inclusivity. I wonder if John Hume was a well man what he'd say about it." Glass fell from the rooflight of a building in Belfast city centre on Wednesday as strong winds battered the city. A Belfast City Council spokesperson confirmed that glass fell from the Wellington Buildings into the street below around 6.30am. Read More Managing agents of Wellington Buildings, CBRE, contacted Clerkin Elevations who sent a platform to fix the problem. Wellington Street was slightly cordoned off for a short period while the contractors completed their repair. A spokesperson for CBRE said work had been carried out to ensure that no further damage would occur in the area. "Due to the damaging impact of Storm Diana, a piece of glass was dislodged from Wellington Buildings early Wednesday morning," the spokesperson said. "An engineering team was quickly on site to carry out repairs - which were completed before lunchtime - and ensured that no further damage occurred to the building or surrounding area." More police officers could be needed to patrol the Irish border after Brexit. (PA) The UK Government must give police financial assurances they will have the resources to patrol the Irish border in the event of a no-deal Brexit, the Police Federation has said. The body representing rank-and-file officers in Northern Ireland said a failure to pay for extra recruits would force the redeployment of hundreds of policemen and women away from cities and towns to cover border crossings. Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Chief Constable George Hamilton has asked the Home Office to fund 400 extra officers to enable him to deal with the repercussions of Brexit. Expand Close Chief Constable George Hamilton (PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Chief Constable George Hamilton (PA) The federation, which believes even more officers will be needed, said a Government decision was overdue. Police Federation for Northern Ireland (PFNI) chairman Mark Lindsay called for certainty, direction and clarity around Brexit and what it will mean for policing in the region after March. The political turmoil around Brexit is for politicians to resolve, but what we are saying is accelerate contingency planning to prepare for what happens from April 1, he said. We cannot afford to sleepwalk into a situation where, at the last minute, officers are redeployed from cities and towns such as Belfast, Ballymena or Coleraine to some of the major crossing points along the 310-mile border with the Republic of Ireland. Expand Close A border crossing between Co Fermanagh in Northern Ireland and Co Monaghan in the Republic (PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A border crossing between Co Fermanagh in Northern Ireland and Co Monaghan in the Republic (PA) We need hundreds more officers if the UK crashes out of the EU without a deal. The case has already been made by the PSNI for more resources, and decisions are now overdue. Mr Lindsays remarks come amid warnings from commanders on both sides of the border, and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, that a hard Brexit could prompt an upsurge in dissident republican activity, with the border becoming a target for violent attacks. I am appealing to all concerned to make this a major priorityMark Lindsay The Democratic Unionist Party has downplayed concerns about renewed violence, dismissing some of those making that argument as scaremongers. Mr Lindsay added: We simply cannot produce 300-400 officers overnight and if Government approval for an increase in the size of the PSNI isnt forthcoming quite soon, then we will be left to confront major gaps in service provision as we race to meet requirements in a hard Brexit scenario. I am appealing to all concerned to make this a major priority and to get it sorted out without further procrastination. It is much too serious an issue to leave on the long finger. A PSNI spokeswoman said: There has been and continues to be high level engagement with Government about the challenges facing PSNI in the context of a severe terrorist threat, and the potential operational implications of what will become the only land Border between the UK and the EU. These discussions are addressing what the appropriate uplift for PSNI resources should be. Mrs May insisted the UK was working very well with the United States over future trade (PA) The Government is to set out its analysis of the economic impact of Brexit as Theresa May battles to save her deal for leaving the European Union. Downing Street said the papers will cover a range of scenarios as the Prime Minister seeks to press her case the agreement represents the only way to protect jobs and investment while avoiding the chaos of a no-deal break. She will then travel to Scotland for another day of campaigning on Wednesday as she appeals over the heads of MPs to ordinary voters to support her plan. The Treasury analysis is expected to conclude the UK will be far better off under the terms of Mrs Mays controversial agreement with Brussels than if it faced a disorderly Brexit with a no-deal break. Expand Close First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said Mrs Mays deal would make Scotland poorer (Jane Barlow/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said Mrs Mays deal would make Scotland poorer (Jane Barlow/PA) Ministers have also agreed to publish their assessment of the impact on the economy if Britain were to stay in the EU, having been faced with the prospect of a damaging Commons defeat if they refused. Ahead of her visit to Scotland, Mrs May clashed with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon who released a report claiming her deal would cost people in Scotland 1,610 a year by 2030 people compared to if the UK had remained in the EU. Ms Sturgeon said the backstop being put in place to prevent the return to a hard border in Ireland could leave Scotland at a serious competitive disadvantage to Northern Ireland. In short, it will make us poorer, Ms Sturgeon said. No government of Scotland with the interests of this and future generations at heart could possibly accept it. Mrs May, who spent Tuesday campaigning in Wales and Northern Ireland, also again came under fire from Arlene Foster, the leader of the DUP who prop up her Government in the Commons and who remain resolutely opposed to the backstop plan. Following talks between the two leaders at Stormont, Mrs Foster said the deal remains unacceptable in its current form and her party would not support it when it comes to the vote next month. 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, she said. Expand Close Arlene Foster has said the Northern Ireland backstop remains unacceptable (Michael Cooper/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Arlene Foster has said the Northern Ireland backstop remains unacceptable (Michael Cooper/PA) 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. While Mrs May continues to appeal directly to voters to support her plan, some questioned whether she would not have been better off remaining in Westminster trying to win over MPs who will decide whether to back the agreement in the vote on December 11. With scores of Tory MPs having declared publicly they will vote against the deal, and Labour and the other opposition parties also firmly opposed, ministers have acknowledged the parliamentary arithmetic is challenging. They are expected to use the next two weeks arguing there is no Commons majority for any of the alternative proposal being touted round Westminster and that Mrs Mays plan remains the only alternative to the chaos of a no-deal break. Speaking in Wales, Mrs May said: I ask every Member of Parliament to consider the national interest in doing so, to recognise the need to deliver on Brexit and to do it in a way that protects peoples jobs. If the deal is voted down in the House of Commons, it will lead to more division and more uncertainty. Earlier, Mrs May insisted the UK was working very well with the United States over future trade after Donald Trump suggested her Brexit plan could stop the two countries striking a deal. During a visit to the Royal Welsh Winter Fair in Builth Wells, she said the Political Declaration on future relations with the EU meant the UK would be able to negotiate 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 US on this. A Belfast man accused of trying to murder his elderly father in a Co Down care home has been remanded into custody. Appearing in the dock of Downpatrick Magistrates Court on Monday, 66-year-old James Anderson Weir confirmed that he understood the single charge against him. Weir, from Manor Street in north Belfast, is charged with the attempted murder of James Weir Snr on November 24 this year at Blair House Care Home, Newtownards. During an unsuccessful bail application, a police officer told the court how staff at the Newtownards care home contacted the PSNI after they saw Weir holding a pillow above his father's face, believing he was trying to "suffocate" his dad. After the pillow was taken off him, Mr Weir Snr was examined by a doctor and taken to hospital while his son was arrested. Defence counsel Conan Rea said that Weir was intoxicated at the time of the incident, and revealed that both of Weir's parents reside at the care home. "It's a tragic situation," said the lawyer. Further submitting that he could be freed on bail, Mr Rea told the court that Weir's siblings wanted him to be released and were willing to act as a surety for him. Refusing bail however, District Judge Amanda Brady told the defendant: "This is obviously a very sad and tragic case [but] I don't think you are a suitable candidate for bail." Remanding Weir into custody, she ordered him to appear again this Friday at Ards Court via videolink. Councillors in Londonderry have voted to allow staff members to wear the Easter lily. The decision by members of Derry City and Strabane District Council on Tuesday evening after a meeting of its governance committee. It will now be put in front of a full council meeting where it is expected to be ratified. The issue was first put onto the council's agenda in April 2016, when independent republican councillor Paul Gallagher put forward a motion to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising calling for its wearing to be allowed. Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph on Wednesday, Mr Gallagher said the proposal was about creating a "shared" space for staff. "There is a world of difference between a neutral space and a shared space, and we are trying to create a shared space where things can be seen. Staff are currently allowed to wear the Poppy if they so choose, so this is about trying to bring a balance," he said. Mr Gallagher said he was disappointed members of the DUP and UUP chose not to support the motion, as they had previously been receptive to it during meetings of the working group. Read More Once the motion is ratified staff will be allowed to wear the Easter lily for a one-week period in advance of Easter Sunday, in line with the one-week period staff members can wear the Poppy for around the period of Remembrance Sunday. Staff in the council traditionally had the option to wear the Poppy if they chose. A working group was set up following the original motion in April 2016 and has held a number of meetings in the interim, with representatives from the Equality Commission and Trade Union Officials contributing. A number of issues around the displaying of emblems in the workplace have been highlighted in a council report. In the report, the Equality Commission noted there was not a strict legal framework for emblems, but that it should consider how it is creating a "good harmonious workplace". The report also considers how political emblems could impact on recruitment, especially from the under-represented Protestant community, and the implication for how it could impact on council workers during interactions with the public. The republican symbol is based on the lily flower and worn around Easter time to commemorate those killed in the 1916 Rising and subsequently conflicts. The Easter lily has previously proven controversial during discussion on its wearing in other public spaces in Northern Ireland. In 2017, Sinn Feiin called for Belfast council workers to be allowed to wear the symbol, and for it to be treated with similar status to the Poppy. It is worrying that patients in Northern Ireland are waiting longer than anywhere else in the UK to receive a bowel cancer diagnosis, a leading charity has said. Margaret Carr, Cancer Research UK's public affairs manager in Northern Ireland, said it was "unacceptable" that the province remained the only part of the UK and Ireland without a strategy for cancer - our number one killer. Patients here wait an average of 64 days, with Scots only having to wait 38. But once patients in Northern Ireland are diagnosed, they begin their treatment faster than the other home nations. Across the UK, one in 10 bowel cancer patients can wait a year to start treatment. Across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, 10% of patients can wait for 12 months from first spotting a symptom to beginning treatment, according to a group of international researchers. Ms Carr said: "It's worrying that some patients in Northern Ireland are waiting so long to receive a bowel cancer diagnosis and begin their treatment. "This is further evidence of the significant problems in cancer services here. "Diagnosing bowel cancer relies on trained endoscopists and pathologists, and there have long been shortages of these vital health professionals. "Ensuring cancer services are adequately staffed and have the right equipment so patients receive the tests they need in good time must be a priority. The recent news that the Department of Health will 'reconsider' producing a cancer strategy is a welcome development. We hope the outcome of this will be positive, and work can begin on a plan for preventing, diagnosing, treating and researching this devastating disease. "Cancer is Northern Ireland's number one killer and it's unacceptable that we are the only part of the UK and Ireland without a current strategy." Meanwhile, the average time from first noticing a symptom to starting treatment varied across the regions studied, with people in Wales waiting an average of 168 days compared to just 77 days in Denmark. The new study, published in the journal BMJ Open, compared countries with similar healthcare systems including the four nations of the UK, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Manitoba in Canada and Victoria in Australia. The authors examined questionnaires completed by more than 2,800 patients and their doctors between 2015 and 2017, as well as their health records. A midwife in Northern Ireland at the top of her pay bracket will earn at least 2,000 less than her peers at the same level in England (stock photo) Midwives in Northern Ireland have voted overwhelmingly in favour of taking industrial action - including strike action - over salaries. Yesterday, the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) Board said almost 95% of its midwife and maternity support worker members (MSWs) in Northern Ireland voted in favour. A midwife in Northern Ireland at the top of her pay bracket will earn at least 2,000 less than her peers at the same level in England. RCM members in England, Scotland and Wales have accepted a three-year pay deal which is now being implemented. Whilst funding for similar increases for midwives in Northern Ireland has been made available from the UK Treasury, officials in Westminster and Northern Ireland will not even negotiate because they say there is no government to implement an agreement. The RCM and other unions have asked the Government to intervene to break this deadlock, but to no avail. Prime Minister Theresa May visits Scotland in the latest stop of her tour (Russell Cheyne/PA) Separate assessments from Whitehall and the Bank of England have painted a grim picture of the impact of a no-deal Brexit on the UK economy. The Bank warned Britain could be tipped into a recession worse than the financial crash, with an 8% cut in GDP, unemployment surging by as much as 7.5% and house prices falling by almost one-third. Meanwhile, a cross-Government analysis found the UK economy would be 9.3% smaller after 15 years if Britain leaves without a deal and falls back on World Trade Organisation rules, compared with remaining in the EU. While the UK economy would continue to grow after withdrawal, Britain would be worse off under any Brexit scenario than if it stayed in the EU, the Government paper found. Withdrawal under the plans set out in the Governments White Paper would leave GDP up to 3.9% lower by 2035, according to the figures produced by officials from the Treasury and other Whitehall departments. Public sector net borrowing could be forced up by as much as 119 billion by a no-deal withdrawal and up to 26.6 billion under a scenario similar to Mrs Mays plans. Expand Close Theresa May visited the Scottish Leather Group Limited in Bridge of Weir (Russell Cheyne/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Theresa May visited the Scottish Leather Group Limited in Bridge of Weir (Russell Cheyne/PA) The document did not put a cash figure on the hit to the economy, but independent experts say 3.9% of GDP will equate to around 100 billion a year by the 2030s, far outweighing the UKs current contribution to EU budgets. The stark findings will be seized upon by Theresa May in her bid to persuade MPs to back her Brexit plan, in order to avoid the uncertainty of a disorderly no-deal withdrawal. But supporters of a second EU referendum said that they added weight to their call for a Peoples Vote with Remain on the ballot paper. Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran, a supporter of the Best for Britain campaign, said: I do not believe that people who voted Leave or Remain voted to give their families less money at the end of the month. Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said: The Bank has confirmed what other independent reports this week have been telling us: a no-deal Brexit could be even worse than the financial crisis of 10 years ago, and the country would be much worse-off under Theresa Mays deal. Instead of ploughing on with this discredited deal the Government should set new priorities that would protect jobs and the economy. Expand Close Theresa May visited the Scottish Leather Group Limited in Bridge of Weir (Russell Cheyne/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Theresa May visited the Scottish Leather Group Limited in Bridge of Weir (Russell Cheyne/PA) Labour appeared to be inching closer to backing a second referendum, with Mr McDonnell agreeing it will become inevitable if the House of Commons rejects Mrs Mays plan on December 11 and Labour is unable to force a general election. In the House of Commons, Mrs May accused Jeremy Corbyns party of wanting to cause chaos, frustrate Brexit (and) overturn the will of the British people by backing a fresh vote in what she said would be a betrayal of the many by the few. But Mr Corbyn accused her shambolic Government of trying to force her Brexit deal through the Commons on the back of a wish-list plan and without allowing MPs access to its full legal advice. As Labour denounced the decision to provide only a summary of the advice as a violation of the sovereignty of Parliament, Speaker John Bercow indicated he was ready to consider a complaint of contempt. Expand Close (PA Graphics) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp (PA Graphics) The Banks report came under fire from a former member of its Monetary Policy Committee, Andrew Sentance, who described it as highly speculative and extreme and said it would add to the view that the Bank is getting unnecessarily involved in politics. And prominent Conservative Brexiter Jacob Rees-Mogg said: It is unusual for the Bank of England to talk down the pound and shows the Governors failure to understand his role. He is not there to create panic. In the Commons, Mrs May said the cross-Government analysis did not mean the country would be poorer in the future than we are today. She told MPs: What we have seen behind the analysis this morning is that our deal is the best deal available for jobs and our economy that allows us to honour the referendum and realise the opportunities of Brexit. But Chancellor Philip Hammond said that, in a purely economic sense, the UK will be worse off than if it stayed in the EU, though he insisted the PMs deal minimises the damage. The 83-page document EU Exit: Long-Term Economic Analysis was released as Mrs May set off for Scotland on the latest leg of her tour of the nations of the UK to sell her Brexit deal to voters. It does not attempt precisely to forecast the impact of the deal agreed with EU leaders in Brussels on Sunday. It compares the likely impact of the Chequers proposals set out in the Governments White Paper with the alternative scenarios of membership of the European Economic Area, a Canada-style free trade agreement and a no-deal Brexit. Expand Close Chancellor Philip Hammond said the Prime Ministers Brexit plan will minimise the economic damage (Nick Ansell/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Chancellor Philip Hammond said the Prime Ministers Brexit plan will minimise the economic damage (Nick Ansell/PA) The scenario which most closely reflects the Governments plan would see the Chequers deal tempered by some trade friction and with zero net immigration from Europe. Under these conditions, GDP could be expected to be 3.9% lower 15 years after Brexit than if the UK remained. If frictionless trade was achieved, the cut would be around 2.5%. GDP would be an estimated 1.4% lower with EEA membership and 4.9% with a Canada-style free trade agreement if migration levels remained the same. If net migration was cut to zero under a Canada-style deal the hit to GDP would be around 6.7%. The North East, North West, Northern Ireland and West Midlands would be hardest-hit by a no-deal Brexit or a Canada-style FTA, while the pain would be more evenly spread under the scenario closest to Mrs Mays deal, with London worst hit. Picture by Justin Kernoghan Security alert at Royal Mail. Police and emergency services are attending a security alert at Royal Mail sorting offices in Mallusk this afternoon. Police have confirmed that a suspicious package containing white powder that was discovered at a postal sorting office in Newtownabbey is non-hazardous. Emergency services rushed to the Royal Mail sorting office in Enterprise Way, Mallusk, on Wednesday morning following the discovering of the package. The PSNI spokesperson said: "Police and other emergency services attended a report of white powder discovered in a package at a sorting office on Enterprise Way in Newtownabbey this morning. The powder was checked by NIFRS and found to be a non-hazardous substance." A Royal Mail spokesperson said: "Royal Mail can confirm that white powder was found in an item at the National Returns Centre (NRC) at Northern Ireland Mail Centre in Mallusk this morning. "The safety of our people is of the utmost priority and in line with our policy and procedures, the emergency services attended and the area where the powder was found was cordoned off. We are assisting the emergency services with their investigation. "There is no impact on the operation of the mail centre and the processing of mail. The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service received a call at 10.22am following reports of an incident at the sorting centre. Two members of the Hazardous Area Response Team and one Rapid Response Paramedic were sent to the scene. The NRC is where staff have authority to open mail. This enables them to try and return all unclaimed items to their sender. They also attempt to reunite undeliverable items with the intended recipient, or return them to the sender. People taking part in the Belfast Pride parade set off from Custom House Square in central Belfast. Michael Cooper/PA Wire Public opinion on several important topics has dramatically shifted in Northern Ireland over the past 20 years, a landmark study has found. Attitudes towards gay marriage, abortion and religious relations here have become more positive since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, according to the research compiled by Queen's University and Ulster University. ARK - a joint initiative between the two institutions - has been monitoring public attitudes, and has charted the shift in a series of surveys. Since 1998, more than 87,237 adults, young people and children have taken part. Now a new report of key findings has highlighted how the number of people who thought abortions were acceptable or only sometimes wrong has risen by 30% since the agreement. In 1998, around half of respondents thought it was not at all or only sometimes wrong to have an abortion if there was a strong chance of a serious defect in the baby. But by 2016, over 80% thought the law should definitely or probably allow abortion where a foetus had a fatal abnormality. Expand Close Professor Paddy Nixon, Vice-Chancellor and President of Ulster University / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Professor Paddy Nixon, Vice-Chancellor and President of Ulster University Cross-community relations have also improved in recent years, according to the ongoing polls. Just 28% thought Catholics and Protestants got on better in 2001 than in the five years before, whereas 49% did in 2017. In 1998, a majority here (58%) thought that same-sex sexual relations were always wrong, but by 2013 this view had fallen to 27%. In 2013, the last year when questions on this subject were asked, 59% of Northern Irish people surveyed supported same-sex marriage. Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close People taking part in the Belfast Pride parade set off from Custom House Square in central Belfast. Michael Cooper/PA Wire PA Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Staff from UTV join marchers and members of the public at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Pacemaker Press Belfast 04-08-2018: The Belfast Pride parade 2018 starts and finishes at Custom House Square in Belfast. Rainbow flags, face paint, fancy dress and brightly coloured floats will create a riot of colour on the streets of Belfast on Saturday. Picture By: Arthur Allison. Pacemaker Press Belfast 04-08-2018: The Belfast Pride parade 2018 starts and finishes at Custom House Square in Belfast. Rainbow flags, face paint, fancy dress and brightly coloured floats will create a riot of colour on the streets of Belfast on Saturday. Picture By: Arthur Allison. Pacemaker Press Belfast 04-08-2018: The Belfast Pride parade 2018 starts and finishes at Custom House Square in Belfast. Rainbow flags, face paint, fancy dress and brightly coloured floats will create a riot of colour on the streets of Belfast on Saturday. Picture By: Arthur Allison. Pacemaker Press Belfast 04-08-2018: The Belfast Pride parade 2018 starts and finishes at Custom House Square in Belfast. Rainbow flags, face paint, fancy dress and brightly coloured floats will create a riot of colour on the streets of Belfast on Saturday. Picture By: Arthur Allison. Pacemaker Press Belfast 04-08-2018: The Belfast Pride parade 2018 starts and finishes at Custom House Square in Belfast. Rainbow flags, face paint, fancy dress and brightly coloured floats will create a riot of colour on the streets of Belfast on Saturday. Picture By: Arthur Allison. Pacemaker Press Belfast 04-08-2018: The Belfast Pride parade 2018 starts and finishes at Custom House Square in Belfast. Rainbow flags, face paint, fancy dress and brightly coloured floats will create a riot of colour on the streets of Belfast on Saturday. Picture By: Arthur Allison. Pacemaker Press Belfast 04-08-2018: The Belfast Pride parade 2018 starts and finishes at Custom House Square in Belfast. Rainbow flags, face paint, fancy dress and brightly coloured floats will create a riot of colour on the streets of Belfast on Saturday. Picture By: Arthur Allison. Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - PSNI and Garda police officer join marchers and members of the public at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - PSNI and Garda police officer join marchers and members of the public at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - PSNI and Garda police officer join marchers and members of the public at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - PSNI and Garda police officer join marchers and members of the public at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - PSNI and Garda police officer join marchers and members of the public at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - PSNI and Garda police officer join marchers and members of the public at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - PSNI and Garda police officer join marchers and members of the public at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Staff from UTV join marchers and members of the public at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - PSNI and Garda police officer join marchers and members of the public at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Staff from the Northern Ireland Civil Service join marchers and members of the public at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Staff from Danske Bank join marchers and members of the public at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Sinn Fein representatives join marchers and members of the public at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Staff from Danske Bank join marchers and members of the public at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Staff from Danske Bank join marchers and members of the public at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - David Sterling, Head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service joins marchers and members of the public at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Staff from UTV join marchers and members of the public at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Pacemaker Press Belfast 04-08-2018: The Belfast Pride parade 2018 starts and finishes at Custom House Square in Belfast. Rainbow flags, face paint, fancy dress and brightly coloured floats will create a riot of colour on the streets of Belfast on Saturday. Picture By: Arthur Allison. Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Pacemaker Press Belfast 04-08-2018: The Belfast Pride parade 2018 starts and finishes at Custom House Square in Belfast. Rainbow flags, face paint, fancy dress and brightly coloured floats will create a riot of colour on the streets of Belfast on Saturday. Picture By: Arthur Allison. Pacemaker Press Belfast 04-08-2018: The Belfast Pride parade 2018 starts and finishes at Custom House Square in Belfast. Rainbow flags, face paint, fancy dress and brightly coloured floats will create a riot of colour on the streets of Belfast on Saturday. Picture By: Arthur Allison. Pacemaker Press Belfast 04-08-2018: The Belfast Pride parade 2018 starts and finishes at Custom House Square in Belfast. Rainbow flags, face paint, fancy dress and brightly coloured floats will create a riot of colour on the streets of Belfast on Saturday. Picture By: Arthur Allison. Pacemaker Press Belfast 04-08-2018: The Belfast Pride parade 2018 starts and finishes at Custom House Square in Belfast. Rainbow flags, face paint, fancy dress and brightly coloured floats will create a riot of colour on the streets of Belfast on Saturday. Picture By: Arthur Allison. Pacemaker Press Belfast 04-08-2018: The Belfast Pride parade 2018 starts and finishes at Custom House Square in Belfast. Rainbow flags, face paint, fancy dress and brightly coloured floats will create a riot of colour on the streets of Belfast on Saturday. Picture By: Arthur Allison. Pacemaker Press Belfast 04-08-2018: The Belfast Pride parade 2018 starts and finishes at Custom House Square in Belfast. Rainbow flags, face paint, fancy dress and brightly coloured floats will create a riot of colour on the streets of Belfast on Saturday. Picture By: Arthur Allison. Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - PSNI and Garda police officer join marchers and members of the public at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - PSNI and Garda police officer join marchers and members of the public at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - PSNI and Garda police officer join marchers and members of the public at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - PSNI and Garda police officer join marchers and members of the public at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - PSNI and Garda police officer join marchers and members of the public at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - PSNI and Garda police officer join marchers and members of the public at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - PSNI and Garda police officer join marchers and members of the public at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Staff from UTV join marchers and members of the public at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - PSNI and Garda police officer join marchers and members of the public at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Staff from the Northern Ireland Civil Service join marchers and members of the public at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Sinn Fein representatives join marchers and members of the public at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Staff from Danske Bank join marchers and members of the public at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Staff from Danske Bank join marchers and members of the public at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - David Sterling, Head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service joins marchers and members of the public at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Staff from Danske Bank join marchers and members of the public at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Lord Mayor Deirdre Hargey with marchers and members of the public at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Police officers pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - PSNI and Garda police officers pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Dogs with marchers pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Claire Sugden MLA pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - John O'Doherty pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Religious protestors and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 4th August 2018 - Marchers and members of the public pictured at the annual Belfast Pride parade in Belfast City Centre. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E Kimberly McClusky taking part in the Belfast Pride parade set off from Custom House Square in central Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Saturday August 4, 2018. See PA story ULSTER Pride. Photo credit should read: Michael Cooper/PA Wire PA Dancers taking part in the Belfast Pride parade set off from Custom House Square in central Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Saturday August 4, 2018. See PA story ULSTER Pride. Photo credit should read: Michael Cooper/PA Wire PA People taking part in the Belfast Pride parade set off from Custom House Square in central Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Saturday August 4, 2018. See PA story ULSTER Pride. Photo credit should read: Michael Cooper/PA Wire PA A person taking part in the Belfast Pride parade set off from Custom House Square in central Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Saturday August 4, 2018. See PA story ULSTER Pride. Photo credit should read: Michael Cooper/PA Wire PA A dancer taking part in the Belfast Pride parade set off from Custom House Square in central Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Saturday August 4, 2018. See PA story ULSTER Pride. Photo credit should read: Michael Cooper/PA Wire PA Dancers taking part in the Belfast Pride parade set off from Custom House Square in central Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Saturday August 4, 2018. See PA story ULSTER Pride. Photo credit should read: Michael Cooper/PA Wire PA A person taking part in the Belfast Pride parade set off from Custom House Square in central Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Saturday August 4, 2018. See PA story ULSTER Pride. Photo credit should read: Michael Cooper/PA Wire PA People taking part in the Belfast Pride parade set off from Custom House Square in central Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Saturday August 4, 2018. See PA story ULSTER Pride. Photo credit should read: Michael Cooper/PA Wire PA A Police Service of Northern Ireland officer taking part in the Belfast Pride parade set off from Custom House Square in central Belfast. Michael Cooper/PA Wire PA Miz Tasty and Red Scarlet taking part in the Belfast Pride parade set off from Custom House Square in central Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Saturday August 4, 2018. See PA story ULSTER Pride. Photo credit should read: Michael Cooper/PA Wire PA Miz Tasty and Red Scarlet taking part in the Belfast Pride parade set off from Custom House Square in central Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Saturday August 4, 2018. See PA story ULSTER Pride. Photo credit should read: Michael Cooper/PA Wire PA Miz Tasty and Red Scarlet taking part in the Belfast Pride parade set off from Custom House Square in central Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Saturday August 4, 2018. See PA story ULSTER Pride. Photo credit should read: Michael Cooper/PA Wire PA People taking part in the Belfast Pride parade set off from Custom House Square in central Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Saturday August 4, 2018. See PA story ULSTER Pride. Photo credit should read: Michael Cooper/PA Wire PA Players from the Belfast Azlans, a gay rugby team taking part in the Belfast Pride parade set off from Custom House Square in central Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Saturday August 4, 2018. See PA story ULSTER Pride. Photo credit should read: Michael Cooper/PA Wire PA People taking part in the Belfast Pride parade set off from Custom House Square in central Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Saturday August 4, 2018. See PA story ULSTER Pride. Photo credit should read: Michael Cooper/PA Wire PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp People taking part in the Belfast Pride parade set off from Custom House Square in central Belfast. Michael Cooper/PA Wire Half of children aged 16 who took part in a 2014 study said they had heard of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child - but only 28% of 10 and 11-year-olds had. The idea of a special tax collected over a person's life - so they would get care when they needed it for free - was floated in 2015, and 63% agreed. But as many as 72% of those asked in 2017 felt society does not recognise the contribution older people can make. Professor Adrienne Scullion, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Queen's University Belfast, said: "The ARK survey series gave the people of Northern Ireland a voice when they didn't necessarily have one. A key strength of the surveys is that they are flexible and can focus on new topics as they arise. "We hope that the surveys will continue into the future, providing important evidence of public opinion in Northern Ireland across all age groups, and contributing to public policy and academic debates." The report, which marks 20 years of the Northern Ireland Life and Times (NILT) survey series, focused on the opinions of adults and started in 1998. From 2003, the Young Life and Times began monitoring the attitudes of 16-year-olds and the Kids' Life and Times survey started recording the opinions of 10-11-year-olds in 2008. The three surveys cover issues that affect the lives of people in Northern Ireland, including community relations, abortion, sport, ageing and ageism, same-sex equality, racial prejudice, children's rights and views and social care. The data collected has helped evaluate public policies such as community relations and racial equality. It has informed public and political debate in highly contested policy areas. Professor Paddy Nixon, Vice-Chancellor and President of Ulster University, said: "Research that has a tangible impact on the real lives of the people of Northern Ireland and beyond is part of the DNA of Ulster University. "The Life and Times Surveys have been a vital barometer of public attitudes to the key social and political issues here, making an important contribution to significant civic discussions." Dissident republican prisoner Tony Taylor has spoken of his relief after being released from jail after nearly 1000 days. In a video at their Londonderry home, his wife Lorraine said that her family's "nightmare" was finally over and that having her husband back was an early Christmas present. Tony Taylor said he was "delighted" to be reunited with his family. "Due to strict conditions on myself I have to be very careful what I say, I can't really talk about my internment or anything around that at all. "It's great to be home again. It's great to be here with my mother and father, I'm delighted to be back with them and I know that they've missed me alot. They are up in age, I've always been there for them and I want to continue to do that. "Between them and my own family, I'm sure I'll be kept right and busy, my mother's already got jobs for me and I'm only out a couple of hours. We're all back together again and that's the main thing." Derry republican Tony Taylor speaks for the first time since his release from prison this evening after 1,000 days. He says he is delighted to be home with his family pic.twitter.com/zyZrJqEt0F Leona O'Neill (@LeonaONeill1) November 28, 2018 He was released from prison on Wednesday evening after 994 days. 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. Derry republican Tony Taylors wife Lorraine says that the familys nightmare is over. Tony cannot speak due to restrictions put on him with regards his release pic.twitter.com/shRk4nnUkg Leona O'Neill (@LeonaONeill1) November 28, 2018 His wife Lorraine said she was "delighted" to have him home. "Thank god, my nightmare's finally over. I'd just like to thank the people of Derry for their faith, for all their campaigning for Tony, and for all their support during the two and a half years" Mrs Taylor said. "It's been a long process, but I'm glad now they made the decision to let him home. An early Christmas present for us all." 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 appealed for witnesses to come forward. An investigation has been launched after a woman was sexually assaulted in Londonderry. The victim, in her late 20s, was approached and sexually assaulted by an unknown male in the Great James Street area shortly before 2am. Detective Constable Suzanne Nicol said: The suspect is described as having a shaved head and was wearing a grey hoody with dark tracksuit bottoms. Its believed he was driving a dark-coloured, people carrier-style vehicle. "We know that there were a number of people and vehicles close by at the time of the assault and I am appealing for witnesses or anyone who noticed a people carrier type vehicle in the Great James Street/Little James Street area to please get in touch. "Detectives are also keen to hear from anyone who may have captured dashcam footage. Detectives can be contacted by calling 101, quoting reference number 241 of 18/11/18. Information can also be passed to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. A woman who has hallucinated about being a witch assaulted a nurse while in a drink and drug-fuelled state, a court heard. Kerry Holland's barrister said she suffers from a delusional disorder and has no memory of her aggressive outburst in a Belfast hospital. Deferring sentencing of the 36-year-old for nine months, a judge warned her: "I want no further offending." Holland, with an address at Verner Street in the city, was convicted of disorderly behaviour, assault on police and common assault on the female nurse. Belfast Magistrates' Court heard she had been acting erratically and refused to cooperate with officers during an incident at Victoria Street on July 30. A prosecution lawyer said she was loud, aggressive and continued to swear amid attempts to calm her down. A PSNI constable feared he was about to be assaulted due to her behaviour. Holland was arrested but then taken to an undisclosed hospital due to her level of intoxication. The common assault occurred while the nurse was carrying out triage. Holland had to be woken in the public gallery so that she could enter the dock for the hearing. District Judge Fiona Bagnall was told she does not remember the incident or even being in hospital. Declan Quinn, defending, set out his client's history of alcoholism and substance misuse. "She started on heroin when she was aged 15," he said. Mr Quinn cited expert medical opinion to back his submissions that her mental health issues were not due to drug-taking. "There are significant underlying issues," the barrister stressed. "The (doctor's) report refers to hallucinations about witchcraft, she thought she was a witch at one point." Holland also thought voices from the television were referencing her, the court heard. Counsel added: "She has asked me to apologise to the court and in public for her behaviour in hospital." Agreeing to the suggested deferral of sentencing, Mrs Bagnall acknowledged Holland seemed to be getting the services she requires. The judge ordered her to return to court in nine months time. David Davis was addressing an Economists for Free Trade event in London (Victoria Jones/PA) David Davis has rejected the Governments claims that Brexit will have a negative impact on the British economy. The former Brexit secretary argued Treasury forecasts are often proved wrong and are based on flawed assumptions. He urged parliamentary colleagues to reject the Prime Ministers bogus withdrawal deal with the EU. He said any vote in support of the agreement would repudiate the wishes of the British public and cause incalculable damage to the countrys democracy. The future of the UK economy does not lie with the EU but with the wider world.David Davis Mr Davis argued the deal would deprive Britain of the chief economic benefits of Brexit by preventing it striking free trade deals around the world. Speaking at an event held by the Economists for Free Trade in London on Wednesday, Mr Davis said the UK-EU agreement would keep Britain in a customs union, make it subject to EU single market rules, and annexes Northern Ireland. Worst of all it make us prisoners of a Hotel California customs union, we can check out any time we like, but we can never leave, he added. Mr Daviss comments came after Chancellor Philip Hammond warned Brexit would leave the country worse off. But Mr Davis said economic warnings are part of a propaganda onslaught ahead of MPs voting on the deal in Parliament, saying they need to ready for project fear 2.0. He said: Treasury forecasts in the past have almost never been right and have more often been dramatically wrong. He said predictions the UK economy would contract by 2.1% in the 18 months after the Leave vote were unfounded, with it actually growing by 2.8%. Mr Davis added that other negative forecasts around unemployment and family incomes were also unfounded. None of this spine-chilling nonsense came to pass, he said. The ex-minister claimed the forecasts were based on flawed assumptions. He suggested a Brexit scenario in which the UK reverts to a free trade deal with the EU based on World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules could benefit the economy. It would involve all the choking tentacles of the EU falling away, he said. UK exports to non-EU countries had grown four times faster than exports to the EU, Mr Davis claimed. He added: The future of the UK economy does not lie with the EU but with the wider world. Hysteria around the consequences of a no-deal Brexit outcome are also unfounded, he said. Mr Davis cited the example of Operation Stack in 2015, when industrial action saw lorries queuing on the M20 in Kent, saying it did not cause a downturn in the economy. He predicted MPs will reject Theresa Mays deal and the government should press for a Canada-plus free trade agreement backed by technical solutions at the Irish border. If this is not achieved, the country should prepare for a transition to WTO rules. The task facing the Conservative Party is to deliver the will of the people as set out in June 2016, he said. That means Brexit, and it means a clean Brexit that ensures a decisive break from the influence of a foreign power. He said the Withdrawal Agreement and the Political Declaration are a bogus prospectus, and would keep Britain as nothing more than a satellite state ruled from afar. Theresa May has said her party's 'confidence and supply' agreement with the DUP is still in place - but declined to clarify in Belfast yesterday whether or not the remainder of the 1bn promised for Northern Ireland in the deal will still be paid if it collapses. DUP leader Arlene Foster has already confirmed that her party's 10 MPs will vote against the draft EU Withdrawal Agreement on December 11, putting it on course to violate the terms of the deal, which requires the DUP to support the government on legislation related to the UK's exit from the EU. It's understood that around 430m has already been delivered so far. Asked whether the rest of the funding is safe during a visit to Queen's University, Belfast the Prime Minister simply sounded out a plea for all MPs intent on voting down the draft deal. "Every MP needs to think about the national interest, about delivering on the Brexit vote, but also on the impact their decision will have on jobs, and their constituent's livelihoods," she said. While she confirmed that the confidence and supply agreement continues for now, she was less clear on its future after December 11. "I will be talking to my DUP colleagues as I will be talking to colleagues across the House of Commons of the importance of this vote for the future of the UK." But on the December 11 vote, she repeated: "I think it's incumbent on every member of Parliament to think about the impact of that decision they will be taking on their constituents and on their constituents' futures." Visiting both Wales and Northern Ireland yesterday, the Prime Minister said she wanted to listen to the views of people right across the UK on the draft deal. Ahead of meeting the five main parties in Stormont, Mrs May visited Queen's University, where she met with 60 people from the world of business, education, religion and wider civic society. The event involved Mrs May and Secretary of State Karen Bradley, rotating around eight round tables over the course of one hour, answering questions posed by the delegates. Afterwards she said: "The message I clearly heard here today from across the board, from the voluntary sector, from young people, from businesses, from the agricultural sector, from academics, is the importance of that certainty and the importance of Parliament accepting this deal so we can move on to develop our future. "The message I am giving and one of the reasons I wanted to get out and about is to hear from members of the public, to hear from businesses, to hear from the third sector and others about their views on this deal. "All Members of Parliament represent their constituents and they need, when they come to this vote, to think about the impact of this vote and of this decision on their constituents." Professor David Phinnemore, who specialises in European politics at QUB, was among those who took part. "People certainly got the opportunity to raise the questions that they had and express a range of views," he said. "There were a lot of different voices raising a range of different questions at their various table discussions with the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State." President of Queen's Students Union, Connor Veighey raised a number of issues with the PM including research funding from the EU and the Erasmus exchange programme. "This was a great opportunity to represent students at the highest level and it was great to put questions directly to the Prime Minister," he said. "The question of course is whether or not the points we raised were really taken on board." The Prime Minister was met with a same-sex marriage rally on her arrival at the front of Queen's University. The protest was organised by Love Equality NI, who have called on Mrs May to legislate for same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland. Theresa May denied being too feart to take on Nicola Sturgeon in a TV debate (Russell Cheyne/PA) Theresa May has hit back at claims she is too feart to go up against Nicola Sturgeon in a TV debate on Brexit, as the Prime Minister insisted her withdrawal deal will be good for the UK as a whole. With the countrys departure from the European Union looming in just four months, she also restated her opposition to any propspect of a second Scottish independence referendum. One thing we do know is what would be bad for the Scottish economy would be taking Scotland out of the UK, the PM said. With speculation MPs could reject her Brexit agreement in a key Commons vote next month, Mrs May is touring the country in a bid to sell the package directly to voters. But she stressed that as the planned TV debate with Labours Jeremy Corbyn was about a vote thats going to take place in the House of Commons the SNP leader had no part to play in it. Downing Street earlier said as Ms Sturgeon was not an MP she would not be involved in the meaningful vote on the Withdrawal Agreement on December 11. Neither are all the members of the public that the PM is currently appealing to on her tour of the country. #feart (as we say in Scotland). https://t.co/4bhZ1T5Qui Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) November 28, 2018 The First Minister responded by tweeting: Neither are all the members of the public that the PM is currently appealing to here on her tour of the country. She added #feart a Scottish word used when someone is afraid. Ms Sturgeon attacked the Prime Minister the day after a Scottish Government paper warned the draft arrangements for the UKs departure from the European Union could result in a loss equivalent to 1,610 per person in Scotland compared to EU membership by 2030. Separate documents published by the UK Government showed its draft deal could cut the countrys GDP by up to 3.9% over the next 15 years. Leaving the EU without a deal in place could cause the economy to shrink by 9.3% over the same period, the analysis claimed. It warned the UK will be poorer in economic terms under any version of Brexit compared with staying in the EU. First Minister @NicolaSturgeon on being left out of a TV Brexit debate: "To Theresa May I would simply say 'what are you scared of?'" pic.twitter.com/knO4L9tGb5 Conor Riordan (@cmriordan) November 27, 2018 Mrs May, who was visiting the Scottish Leather Group in Bridge of Weir, Renfrewshire, said: What weve negotiated is a Brexit deal that is good for the UK as a whole, its good for Scotland, good for employers and Scottish fishermen. Support for the deal has been encouraged by employers like Diageo, the Scotch Whisky Association and the National Farmers Union of Scotland. She also claimed Scotlands interests have been taken into account throughout the negotiations weve been doing, arguing that leaving Europe gives the UK the chance to negotiate its own trade deals, which could help iconic Scottish products like smoked salmon and Scotch whisky. Pressed on whether leaving the EU could pave the way for a second independence referendum in Scotland, Mrs May insisted: Now is not the time to be thinking about this. The UK faces a very important decision, its a historic moment for the UK we entered the EUC, as it was, as the whole UK and were leaving the UK as a whole United Kingdom. The Brexit Deal for jobs and our economy explained in 60 seconds #BackTheBrexitDeal pic.twitter.com/sqj3QgQbeu Theresa May (@theresa_may) November 28, 2018 The Prime Minister said it was important her government can deliver on the Brexit vote of the UK in the deal that we negotiated with the EU. She added: If you look at the Labour Party, they dont have a plan for a Brexit deal with the EU. What they seem to want to do is frustrate Brexit and weve heard that today from the Shadow Chancellor. I believe its important we deliver on the vote of the British people, I think its about trust in politicians. This isnt a question about debating Leave of Remain, it isnt a question about re-running the referendum. Its about looking ahead to a vote thats taking place in the House of Commons when MPs will be looking at the deal the government has negotiated. I think people should be aware of what the proposals from the Leader of the Opposition are and from everything Ive seen and heard he doesnt have a plan for Brexit. Theresa May claimed her weekend shopping list is longer than Jeremy Corbyns Brexit plan, as she faced accusations that she is leading the most shambolic Government in living memory. The Prime Minister attempted to dismiss claims the UK will be poorer after Brexit, and said Labour is preparing a betrayal of the many by the few by moving towards support for a second referendum. But Mrs May faced fierce criticism of her Brexit plan at Prime Ministers Questions, with Mr Corbyn rubbishing her belief it is the best deal available before demanding that MPs receive warts and all legal advice so they can make an informed decision. The Labour leader then warned about the lack of support in the Commons for the deal and urged the Government to stand aside. PM says Corbyn wants to cause chaos, frustrate Brexit and overturn the will of the British people - a betrayal of the many by the few PARLY (@PARLYapp) November 28, 2018 The fiery exchanges emerged after both leaders paid tribute to Conservative peer and former Bletchley Park code-breaker Baroness Trumpington, and social justice activist and RAF veteran Harry Leslie Smith. Speaking at PMQs, Mrs May said: Our deal is the best deal available for jobs and our economy, that allows us to honour the referendum and realise the opportunities of Brexit. This analysis does not show that we will be poorer in the future than we are today, no it doesnt, it shows we will be better off with this deal. Instead, she claimed, Mr Corbyn and shadow chancellor John McDonnell were the biggest risk to our economy. Expand Close Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn speaks during Prime Ministers Questions in the Commons (PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn speaks during Prime Ministers Questions in the Commons (PA) Mr Corbyn said it was not hard to be the best deal if it is the only deal, adding: By definition, its also the worst deal. He continued: The Governments economic forecasts published today are actually meaningless because theres no actual deal to model, just a 26-page wish-list. Mrs May shot back: What does Labour have to offer? Six bullet points my weekend shopping list is longer than that. Mr Corbyn later questioned Mrs Mays trade pledges, saying: Shes gone from guaranteeing friction-less trade to offering friction and less trade. He also highlighted how Mrs May had previously pushed for legal advice linked to the Iraq War to be published, as he pressed for full disclosure over Brexit. Mrs May replied: The advice any client receives from their lawyer is privileged thats the same for Government as it is for any member of the public. Mr Corbyn pushed again on Brexit, adding: MPs need to see that advice, warts and all, so they can make their informed decision on this matter. The Prime Minister insists her Government will be able to negotiate every aspect of the UKs future trade relationship within the space of two years. Weve had two-and-a-half years since the referendum so far 20 of her own ministers have resigned. This is the most shambolic Government in living memory. She is now asking Parliament to vote on the basis of a 26-page wish-list without even seeing the full legal advice. Its now clear that Parliament will not back this plan. So, isnt it time for her to accept that reality and make way for an alternative plan that can work for the whole country? The Prime Minister had previously called for the full legal advice on the Iraq war to be given to MPs why does she not practice what she preaches @jeremycorbyn PARLY (@PARLYapp) November 28, 2018 Mrs May replied: I will take no lectures from (Mr Corbyn), who has seen 100 resignations from his frontbench. But I will also say this today we saw what really lies behind Labours approach. Last night, the shadow chancellor told an audience in London that he wanted to seize upon a second referendum and vote Remain. So now we have it they want to cause chaos, frustrate Brexit, overturn the will of the British people, and that would be a betrayal of the many by the few. Tory Brexiteer Anne-Marie Trevelyan later called on Mrs May to use the 39 billion EU divorce bill to pay for a clean global Brexit. The Berwick-upon-Tweed MP said: Its a fact of any divorce proceedings that if the parties cannot reach a fair and equitable agreement they go to a judge to ask for a decision. In the case of the divorce between the UK and the EU, this Parliament must be the judge. Does the Prime Minister agree with me that once this Parliament has rejected the EUs controlling and dominating proposal, which wont leave us free to decide our future, that the UK will be better off actually spending the money we set aside to prepare for a clean global Brexit? Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall during a visit to Ely Market Place Prince Harry meets with Second World War veterans and widows as he attends an event to commemorate the WWI and WWII Zambian veterans Prince Harry meets with Second World War veterans and widows as he attends an event to commemorate the WWI and WWII Zambian veterans The Duke of Sussex has spoken of his "complete joy" at seeing the work of The Queen's Commonwealth Trust in Zambia, labelling it a "global movement for good" led by the youth of today. Harry, who is in the African country on a two-day trip without the Duchess of Sussex, passed on greetings from Meghan, who is expecting their first child. Harry also visited Burma Barracks to commemorate the service of First and Second World War Zambian veterans. Meanwhile, 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 to take home and Charles pausing beside a gin stall. An RAF F-35B Lightning stealth jet, a United States Air Force F-15 Strike Eagle and a French Air Force Rafale fly in formation over the English Channel during Operation Point Blank. (Joe Giddens/ PA) Fighter jets soared over the English Channel as the RAF joined its French and American allies in a training exercise. More than 40 aircraft participated in Operation Point Blank on Tuesday, including two of the RAFs F-35B Lightning II stealth fighter jets, based at Marham in Norfolk. Planes took off from bases around the country and the exercise was led by the US Air Forces 48th Fighter Wing, based at RAF Lakenheath, Suffolk. The exercise has taken place before, but this years is the largest to date, with almost double the aircraft, and it is the first time the French air force has participated. 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. Expand Close A pair of US Air Force F-15 Strike Eagle fighter jets over the English Channel (Joe Giddens/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A pair of US Air Force F-15 Strike Eagle fighter jets over the English Channel (Joe Giddens/PA) Expand Close The cockpit of a US Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker (Joe Giddens/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The cockpit of a US Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker (Joe Giddens/PA) 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. Its a great insurance policy. Expand Close A pair of RAF F-35B Lightning stealth jets fly behind a US Stratotanker during Operation Point Blank (Joe Giddens/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A pair of RAF F-35B Lightning stealth jets fly behind a US Stratotanker during Operation Point Blank (Joe Giddens/PA) 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. David Lammy called on the government and law enforcement to step up their activities at the event (David Mirzoeff/PA) Leading MPs have slammed the institutional silence around allegations of wrongdoing around the Brexit referendum ranging from Russian interference to collusion between campaign groups. Damian Collins, the Conservative chair of the parliamentary inquiry into fake news, and Labour MP David Lammy called on the government and law enforcement to step up their activities at an event on the topic in London. We say we know what the Russians are doing but whos looking into that? What is the plan? It would be reassuring for people to understand a bit more about how the government is analysing these threats and how it was responding to them, Mr Collins told the Press Association. I would want to ask what is home affairs committee doing? What is the intelligence committee doing? What is the justice committee doing? Ive heard nothing, Mr Lammy added. They were speaking at the event asking whether Britain needed a Mueller-style investigation into Brexit, similar to that of the FBI investigation into the 2016 US election. Expand Close Bill Browder, David Lammy, Carole Cadwalladr, Shahmir Sanni and Damian Collins at Trump, Putin and the Great Brexit Robbery (Alastair Reid/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Bill Browder, David Lammy, Carole Cadwalladr, Shahmir Sanni and Damian Collins at Trump, Putin and the Great Brexit Robbery (Alastair Reid/PA) In a November 2017 speech at the Lord Mayors Banquet, Theresa May accused Russia of deploying its state-run media organisations to plant fake stories and photo-shopped images in an attempt to sow discord in the West. But the Prime Minister has been largely silent on the issue in the year since as more evidence of wrongdoing around the Brexit vote has emerged. In May, the Electoral Commission fined Nigel Farages Leave.Eu over, bankrolled to the tune of 12 million by businessman Arron Banks, for breaches of electoral law. The following month the Electoral Commission fined the official Vote Leave campaign group and referred its leaders to the police after they exceeded the spending limit before the Brexit vote. Questions remain around the source of Arron Banks personal wealth and meetings with Russian officials before he made the donation to Leave.EU which made him the largest single donor in British political history. Expand Close Farage has been named as a person of interest in the FBI investigation into possible Russian meddling in the 2016 US Presidential election (Aaron Chown/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Farage has been named as a person of interest in the FBI investigation into possible Russian meddling in the 2016 US Presidential election (Aaron Chown/PA) Similarly, Mr Farage has been named as a person of interest in the FBI investigation into possible Russian meddling in the 2016 US Presidential election. Both Mr Banks and Mr Farage have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. Meanwhile, both Twitter and Facebook released details about Russian information campaigns in the UK and US over 2018, behaviour aimed at dividing communities in a wider strategy of disruption, said Mr Collins. Both Mr Collins and Mr Lammy agreed that government departments and law enforcement agencies could be doing more to reassure the public that they were taking the allegations seriously. I think it says something that Ive been able to get a meeting with the FBI but not a meeting with our own National Cyber Security Centre in the UK, said Mr Collins. Its led to serious, serious doubts as to the legitimacy of a referendum that is leading us off a cliff, Mr Lammy added. What the papers say November 28 (PA) Brexit takes a bit of a back seat in Wednesdays papers with boardroom pay, climate change and the royal family featuring on the fronts. The Times leads with a new care scandal, with a woman alleging Rotherham council gave her abuser the opportunity to meet her son. The paper reports serial rapist Arshid Hussain was contacted by social workers in prison to give him the chance to stake a claim in the boys future. The Daily Telegraph leads on Brexit, saying backpedalling has begun and reporting that Theresa May will block the publication of the legal advice behind her Brexit deal. The front page of tomorrow's Daily Telegraph 'The Brexit backpedalling begins' #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/JIsC0LlH8o The Telegraph (@Telegraph) November 27, 2018 The Guardian says customers of Britains largest companies could be given the right to vote on executive pay under proposals being considered by Labour. The Guardian front page, Wednesday 28 November 2018: Labour plan to give customers of big firms vote on boardroom pay pic.twitter.com/Je1jzUNjeY The Guardian (@guardian) November 27, 2018 The Financial Times runs with potential changes to rules on corporate structures blamed for facilitating money laundering on an industrial scale. Just published: front page of the Financial Times, UK edition, Wednesday 28 November https://t.co/kgq1nI3OWC pic.twitter.com/txrYKrne9r Financial Times (@FinancialTimes) November 27, 2018 And the Metro carries a story from an inquest into a trapped toddler, with a Pcso telling the court of the moment she tried to rescue two-year-old Kiara Moore. The i says that tech giants are in the dock as an inquiry into fake news begins in the UK, Uber is fined for failing to protect customers data and Google faces a data protection complaint. Wednesday's front page: Tech giants in the dock - but Mark Zuckerberg doesn't turn up #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/iBt3yYoA4a i newspaper (@theipaper) November 27, 2018 The Independent runs with climate change and a UN report suggesting countries have just over a decade to avert disastrous global warming. Meanwhile, the Daily Mirror reports on Harry and Meghans new home, with the paper saying security at the property could cost 5 million. And The Sun reports that Meghan made Kate cry over demands for Princess Charlottes bridesmaid dress. Tomorrow's front page: Meghan Markle 'left Kate Middleton in tears over demands for Charlotte's bridesmaid dress' https://t.co/ie3L3CWElA pic.twitter.com/K6EPkkvJQO The Sun (@TheSun) November 27, 2018 Elsewhere, the Daily Mail runs with a poll on Brexit which suggests people think Theresa Mays deal is the best one on offer. The Daily Express also runs with the story from Rotherham, calling it a monstrous decision. Tomorrows @Daily_Express front page - Scandal of rapist given rights over victims child - #ImACeleb - Jungle Annes hospital horror - Would you live in the town that Prince Charles built?#tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/ml6jpjErRT Daily Express (@Daily_Express) November 27, 2018 And the Daily Star leads on a plotline from Coronation Street. A simple question about how three Formula One drivers will spend the off-season had some people hot under the collar after Sundays season finale in Abu Dhabi. World champion Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen were asked how they would spend their free time ahead of the 2019 season, which begins in Australia in March. And when talk of babies arose, the inevitable talk of the birds and the bees was not far behind. So what are you going to get up to in the offseason, lads? #F1 #AbuDhabiGP pic.twitter.com/unXGFUwv7U Formula 1 (@F1) November 28, 2018 If you need advice I know how to do it! Vettel told his fellow drivers regarding having a child, before adding: I dont know how long you two want to be in free practice. I like free practice, Verstappen responded, while Hamilton added: Im going to stay in free practice for a little bit longer, works best for me. The drivers will take part in pre-season testing in February 2019 in Barcelona no double entendre intended. A dog is given oxygen by firefighters (Wayne Township Fire Department) Firefighters came to the rescue of a dog in distress as they saved her from a blaze and revived her with oxygen. The dog, named Lady, got into trouble in a garage fire at a house in Wayne Township, Indiana. Video footage posted by the Wayne Township Fire Department shows Ladys tail starting to wag as she breathes in the oxygen from the mask provided by the fire crew. The fire department said in a Facebook post: After a few minutes of oxygen and some TLC from firefighters and medics she was back on her feet and doing well! According to firefighters, the blaze was started by a faulty wood-burning stove. Denmarks top prosecution authority says it has filed preliminary charges against the countrys biggest bank for alleged violation of the laws on money laundering. Morten Niels Jakobsen, the prosecutor for international economic crimes, said that despite the initial charges against Danske Bank, his office is still at an early stage of its investigation. In Denmark, preliminary charges are a step short of formal charges. Danske Bank admitted in September that some 200 billion euro (176 billion) had flown through accounts at its Estonian branch from 2007 to 2015, following reports of transfers from family members of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Its interim chief executive, Jesper Nielsen, said Wednesday: It is in our interest that the case is fully investigated, adding the bank would co-operate. Pope Francis has praised a mute child who climbed onstage at the Vatican on Wednesday to play during the pontiffs general audience. Swiss Guards and Vatican gendarmes stood by and gamely let six-year-old Wenzel Wirth run around Francis, who commended the freedom displayed by the little boy. Expand Close (Gregorio Borgia/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp (Gregorio Borgia/AP) Expand Close (Gregorio Borgia/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp (Gregorio Borgia/AP) When Wenzels Argentine-Italian mother went on stage to fetch him, she explained to Francis that the boy cannot speak. Francis responded Let him be, let him be, and the mother retreated and let Wenzel continue to play. Expand Close (Gregorio Borgia/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp (Gregorio Borgia/AP) Expand Close (Gregorio Borgia/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp (Gregorio Borgia/AP) When Francis took the microphone, he explained in Spanish to the crowd that the child was speech-impaired. But he knows how to communicate, to express himself. And he has something that made me think hes free. Undiciplined-ly free, but hes free, a chuckling Francis said to applause from the crowd. It made me think, am I so free before God? When Jesus says we have to be like children, it means we need to have the freedom that a child has before his father. I think this child preaches to all of us. And let us ask for the grace of speech (for him). Expand Close (Gregorio Borgia/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp (Gregorio Borgia/AP) The boys father, Ariel Wirth, told The Associated Press that Wenzel suffers from behavioural problems as well as his speech limitations, and that the family at home tries simply to let him express himself as he can. We try to let him be free. He has to express himself, and we live without hiding his problems, he said. The family lives in Verona and went to Rome just for Wednesdays general audience. Expand Close (Gregorio Borgia/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp (Gregorio Borgia/AP) Expand Close (Gregorio Borgia/PA) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp (Gregorio Borgia/PA) Mr Wirth said Wenzel was tired after the long journey and long wait for the pope Wednesday morning, and clearly needed to run around. It was not planned, he said, though he added that the family had told Wenzel that they were going to see the pope and that he was clearly excited at the prospect. Security forces block the roads at the site of a suicide bomber attack (Rahmat Gul/AP) There has been a co-ordinated attack against security forces in the eastern part of the capital Kabul, Najib Danish, a spokesman for Afghanistans Interior Ministry, has said. He said a suicide bomber detonated his explosives on Wednesday and then other insurgents started a gun battle with forces in the area. Danish said there were casualties but the number of dead and wounded was not immediately clear. Wahid Majroh, for the Public Health Ministry, said at least 11 wounded were transferred to hospitals from the attack site. Kabul police spokesman Basir Mujahid said the target of the attack may have been security company G4S. Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on Twitter. The explosion comes after at least 30 civilians were killed, along with 16 Taliban fighters, by government forces battling the insurgents in Helmand province overnight. Attahullah Afghan, who heads the provincial council, said most of the casualties in Helmand, which included men, women and children, happened in an airstrike that hit a house on Tuesday night during military operations in the province, a Taliban heartland. A statement from the governors office in Helmand confirmed that 16 Taliban insurgents were killed and said that an investigation was under way to determine the number of civilian casualties. It said the militants had stockpiled ammunition in the area of the operation, which could have caused civilian casualties. There was also a car packed with explosives that ignited during the strike, the statement added. Abdul Wadod Popul, a politician from Helmand, also confirmed the civilian casualties. The area is under Taliban control and it is very difficult to get a precise number of casualties, he said in Kabul. The Helmand fighting came as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani was in Geneva, attending a two-day UN-backed conference which was focusing on development, peace and security in the war-battered country. While I was hosted by Amarullah Saleh, his house was attacked by 3 attackers. The attack was quickly repelled by his guards and the attackers retreated. We both are fine & safe! Rahmatullah Nabil (@RahmatullahN) November 28, 2018 Also on Wednesday in Kabul, the home of former intelligence chief Amarullah Saleh was attacked by three insurgents but was quickly repelled by Salehs security guards, said Rahmatullah Nabil, also a former intelligence chief in a tweet. Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith speaks to her supporters as she celebrates her runoff win over Democrat Mike Espy (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis) Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith has won a divisive race for the Mississippi Senate seat, surviving a video-recorded remark decried as racist. In the footage, Ms Hyde-Smith said of a supporter: If he invited me to a public hanging, Id be on the front row, while a separate video showed her talking about liberal folks and making it just a little more difficult for them to vote. The comments by Ms Hyde-Smith, who is white, made Mississippis history of racist lynchings a theme of the runoff and spurred many black voters to return to the polls on Tuesday. In the aftermath of the video, Republicans worried they could face a repeat of last years special election in Alabama, in which a flawed Republican candidate handed the Democrats a reliable Republican Senate seat in the Deep South. The Republicans pumped resources into Mississippi, and US president Donald Trump made a strong effort on behalf of Ms Hyde-Smith, holding last-minute rallies in Mississippi on Monday. I simply cannot stress the importance of our 11/27 runoff. Theres so much at stake for our country rebuilding our military, securing the border, ending the practice of taxpayer-funded abortions and we MUST finish this fight strong. #Cindy2018 #TeamCindy #MSSEN pic.twitter.com/1KM7F7raFs Cindy Hyde-Smith (@cindyhydesmith) November 13, 2018 Speaking to supporters after her win, Ms 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, Im 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 furore over her comments was overblown. In the final weeks of the runoff, Ms Hyde-Smiths 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 publicised, she apologised 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, who was aiming to become the first African-American US senator from Mississippi since Reconstruction, replied: I dont know whats in your heart, but I know what came out of your mouth. Some corporate donors, including Walmart, requested refunds on their campaign contributions to Ms Hyde-Smith after the videos surfaced. The win makes her the first woman elected to Congress from Mississippi. Mr 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! For six months after the EU referendum, it looked as though the political parties - particularly the DUP and Sinn Fein - would be able to reach consensus on a soft-landing approach to Brexit. In August 2016, Martin McGuinness and Arlene Foster wrote to Theresa May: "We are reassured by your commitment that we will be fully involved and represented in the negotiations on the terms of our future relationships with the EU and other countries. We regard this as a fundamental prerequisite of a meaningful negotiation process." In November 2016, they penned a joint article for the local media: "It's hardly a secret that our two parties come from very different places and have very different ideologies. However, that should not and will not stop us working together on day-to-day, bread-and-butter issues. Brexit is a case in point. Our parties have opposing standpoints on this important issue. That hasn't prevented us agreeing a practical way forward as Executive ministers - identifying the key priorities as the negotiations unfold." Broadly speaking, that was good enough for local business, manufacturing, retail, tourism, construction and farming organisations here. They were confident that their concerns and interests would be listened to by the Executive and represented at all levels of negotiation before and after Article 50 was triggered. They were similarly confident that the Executive would speak with one voice and that the DUP and Sinn Fein would be prepared to compromise for the collective common good in Northern Ireland. But that confidence collapsed along with the collapse of the Executive and Assembly just a few months later, in January 2017. And, once the DUP signed its "confidence and supply" deal with the Conservatives five months later, it became clear that there would no longer be a "common good" voice speaking on behalf of Northern Ireland. Frustratingly for local organisations, the ongoing lack of an Assembly also meant they had no Executive, ministers, or MLAs to lobby. So, it is a nonsense for some in the DUP, Sammy Wilson in particular, to claim that the representatives of organisations who have been to Downing Street in the past week are, in his word, "puppets". Who else are these people supposed to lobby? There is no government in Northern Ireland. There is no jointly agreed Executive policy, or strategy. And even if the Withdrawal Agreement doesn't get through the Commons on December 11, there is no evidence that the DUP has an alternative that has been talked through with any of these organisations. And that's why the leaders of these organisations are angry. Irrespective of what happens on March 29, 2019, these organisations need clarity and certainty. They also need something resembling stability. They must plan years ahead. They can't just make it up as they go along. Since the early-1970s, they have tended to "keep out of politics", preferring, instead, to encourage the sort of environment in which Northern Ireland could become a good place for investment, employment, tourism and economic growth. So, whatever their personal constitutional preferences may have been, they were reluctant to attack political parties. That is no longer the case. They are angry with the DUP. And they are making it very loud and very clear that they are angry with the DUP. Speaking after a meeting with Theresa May last Thursday, Stephen Kelly, chief executive of Manufacturing NI, said: "We would hope that not just the DUP, but all parties in parliament, would rally around this Withdrawal Agreement, rally around the political declaration and let's move on to a more positive, substantive future relationship conversation." That remained the view of the business organisations after their meeting with Mrs May yesterday. Responding after her own meeting with Mrs May, Arlene Foster didn't even mention the business organisations: "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." What this boils down to is that the DUP (along with the UUP and other unionist parties) is reading the Withdrawal Agreement from a constitutional perspective. Whether or not the agreement makes economic sense for Northern Ireland is not their priority: it's whether the agreement opens and then leaves open the door to a situation in which Northern Ireland is not treated in the same way as the rest of the UK a few years down the line. In other words, the constitutional position trumps the economic argument. That was always going to be the case. And it's something that has raised concerns for MPs across all parties. My own view is that the business organisations - and others from so-called "civic society" - don't fully understand the political/constitutional significance and ramifications of the Withdrawal Agreement and, consequently, don't understand why it presents such a problem for unionism. And that's why it would have made sense if the DUP, rather than leaving almost everything to Mrs May and threatening her every now and again, had conducted a lengthy and deep consultation with these organisations over the past couple of years. It would also have made sense to have conducted a similar consultation with the Irish government and Irish parties. Economic stability and political stability go hand-in-hand: they are interdependent. So, when the leading party of Northern Ireland doesn't represent the opinion of the majority on such a crucial issue as Brexit, then the last thing it needs is the opening of a second front with business organisations. As I've said, it's no surprise that those organisations, in the absence of an Assembly to lobby, have taken their case to Westminster. And it is no surprise that Mrs May is now courting them for her own purposes. Her tour of the UK is her way of using "soft power" to persuade key non-political players to lobby MPs on her behalf. She wants the "ordinary" people she met yesterday - including academics, business, clergy and students - to contact Labour and Tory MPs and explain to them the very specific dangers to Northern Ireland of rejecting her agreement. She needs any vote from any MP - this tour is just one way of doing that. Whether it works is anyone's guess: although it seems unlikely enough MPs can be swung at this point. One thing is clear, though: whatever happens on December 11, the DUP needs to rethink its approach to the "puppets". Northern Ireland's future in the United Kingdom doesn't just depend on what the DUP thinks. A woman who is running in Bangladeshs upcoming general election displays a letter confirming her candidacy, outside the opposition BNP partys offices in Dhaka, Nov. 27, 2018. Updated at 11:28 a.m. ET on 2018-11-29 The deadline to file nomination papers for Bangladeshs upcoming parliamentary elections expired Wednesday, with longtime opposition leader Khaleda Zia sidelined and unable to compete because of a series of legal rulings against her. Her Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) officially filed papers Wednesday to nominate the three-time ex-prime minister as a candidate for a few seats, although Supreme Court rulings this week effectively disqualified the jailed leader from the Dec. 30 polls. On Tuesday, five senior politicians from her party who were also convicted on corruption charges lost their petition before the court to allow them to contest the elections. Anyone sentenced to more than two years in prison was ineligible to seek office, the court ruled. The next day, another bench upheld the ruling against one of the five. The rulings did not name Zia but covered her. The constitution stipulates that anyone convicted for two years cannot contest the polls. So, Khaleda Zia cannot vie in the next parliament election, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told BenarNews on Wednesday. Zia has been behind bars since Feb. 8 at the old Dhaka jail, where she is its lone inmate. The 73-year-old whose health is said to be deteriorating, faces at least five years in prison for her February and October convictions on corruption charges. Wednesdays ruling did not sit well with BNP leaders. We reject this verdict. This verdict reflected the desire of the government, BNP secretary-general Mira Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told reporters. He alleged that the verdict was in line with a plot by the ruling Awami League party to keep Zia off the ballot. Meanwhile, Kamal Hossain, the man who has emerged as the potential leader of an opposition drive to oust Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, did not file a nominating petition with the Election Commission on Wednesday. Hossain founded the National United Front coalition earlier this year, bringing together the BNP and a group of centrist parties to challenge Hasinas grip on power. Hossain, 81, is a former law minister and a political protege of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Hasinas father and the founding leader of Bangladesh. I do believe the real danger, the real danger about having an authoritarian government like the present one, god forbids if it survives the next election, many of us will not be able to remain in the country, I mean I know many will have to just leave the country, Hossain told Reuters news service earlier this week. So that commitment to democracy is there, I believe those who are aspiring autocrats dont realize how deep the democracy commitment is there in the blood of our people. BNP, which has commanded more than 30 percent of the popular vote in previous contested elections, boycotted the January 2014 vote in protest of Awamis refusal to cede the reins of government to a neutral caretaker administration during the campaign season. There have been other critical elections in the past also in similar circumstances where attempts have been made to undermine democracy and we revived democracy through elections, Hossain told Reuters. But this time its critical because what has happened in the last five years is unprecedented, weve never had a government which has been around for five years without elections. Zias nomination papers On Wednesday, BNP officials filed nominating petitions for Zia in three constituencies. The party has fielded back-up candidates for all three seats if Zias petitions are rejected, BNP spokesman Shayrul Kabir Khan said. Zias son and expected heir apparent, Tarqiue Rahman, who has been exiled in London since 2008 and has been convicted of corruption charges with his mother, along with his wife, Zobaida Rahman, did not file petitions to run in the upcoming election. The election commission has made no decision on Zias petitions. We have yet to get the court order. But what we can say is we will work in line with the order of the court, Asaduzzaman Arzu, a spokesman for the commission, told BenarNews. Former Election Commissioner Sakhawat Hossain told BenarNews that it was required to receive petitions from any person. During scrutiny of the nomination papers, the election commission will examine eligibility of every candidate. If the court order reaches the commission, then the nomination papers of the candidates convicted for more than two years will be rejected, he said. On Dec. 30 voters will go to the polls to elect 300 members of parliament while another 50 seats will be reserved for women who will be appointed by MPs. Zias nemesis, Hasina, is seeking a record fourth term as prime minister. As many 3,056 nomination petitions had been turned in as of 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, the last day for candidates to file required paperwork. But the final number may increase a little bit, commission Secretary Helal Uddin told reporters. A Lion Air jetliner that crashed into the sea with 189 people on board was not airworthy and should have been grounded prior to its deadly flight, Indonesian investigators said Wednesday. The Boeing 737 MAX 8 plummeted into the Java Sea about 11 minutes after takeoff from Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on Oct. 29. Everyone on board was presumed dead. In our view, the plane was not airworthy and the flight (from Bali to Jakarta) should have not been continued, crash investigator Nurcahyo Utomo told a news conference as Indonesias National Transport Safety Committee (KNKT) released its preliminary report on the probe. Several problems occurred at the same time, including a severe one where the aircraft was about to experience a stall or a loss of the lift," Nurcahyo said. There should have been special treatment if a problem occurs several times in a short period of time. KNKT said in its report that the aircraft had shown incorrect airspeed and altitude readings on the previous flight from Bali to Jakarta, the night before it crashed. The pilots turned off the stabilizer trim switches after the aircraft experienced the automatic nose-down trim and flew the remainder of that flight without the autopilot, the report said. Lion Air CEO Edward Sirait debunked the report about the planes airworthiness. The aircraft was airworthy, according to documents from our technicians, Sirait told a news conference. With regard to this statement, we will seek clarification from the KNKT in writing, adding that the company was not ruling out legal action. The report said maintenance logs for the aircraft recorded airspeed and altitude reading problems on each of the four flights that occurred over the three days before the flight that crashed. But the issues persisted despite the logs indicating that that various maintenance procedures were performed, including the replacement of an Angle of Attack sensor, it said. The report did not determine the cause of the crash. A final report on the investigation is expected later next year. Nurcahyo said the pilots of the doomed flight struggled to regain control of the aircraft. The crew tried to pull the aircraft back up repeatedly as the aircraft's automatic nose-down trim was activated, Nurcahyo said. "This sequence repeated for the rest of the flight until the flight data recorder stopped recording," Nurcahyo said. A feature in the Boeing aircraft, known as the maneuvering characteristics augmentation system (MCAS), has been installed by Boeing on its latest generation of 737s to prevent the aircraft's nose from getting too high and causing the aircraft to stall. Investigators are looking into the possibility that the system might have forced the nose down after receiving erroneous information from sensors. A deadly game of tag Peter Lemme, an aviation expert and a former Boeing engineer, likened the pilots' struggle to pull the aircrafts nose back up to a deadly game of tag. "The prior flight showed similar behavior. But on that flight, the flight crew appear to have quickly cutout the electric trim altogether, and completed the flight trimming the stabilizer with the wheel," Lemme wrote in his blog on Nov. 23. Nurcahyo said the KNKT did not have enough information about the feature. "This is another issue we will discuss with Boeing when we visit their facility. Why was this information not in the manual and why did the FAA (U.S. Federal Aviation Authority) approved the manual?" he said. In its preliminary report, KNKT recommended that Lion Air "improve the safety culture" and empower pilots to make a proper decision on whether to continue a flight. It also urged the airline to ensure that all documents are properly filled. Boeing said after the preliminary report was released that safety was its top priority. As our customers and their passengers continue to fly the 737 MAX to hundreds of destinations around the world every day, they have our assurance that the 737 MAX is as safe as any airplane that has ever flown the skies, the company said. Boeing said it was taking every measure to fully understand all aspects of this accident. Last month's crash was the second deadly accident involving a Lion Air plane in 14 years. In 2004, the budget airline's McDonnell Douglas MD-82 overshot the runway of the airport in the central Java city of Solo and crashed into a cemetery, killing 25 people. Nine years later, a Lion Air Boeing 737 carrying more than 100 people crashed into the sea while trying to land on Bali island, almost splitting the fuselage into two. There were no fatalities. A Malaysian lawyer was among 30 people arrested and detained on charges of rioting in connection with violence that injured eight and caused damage to public property at a Hindu temple outside Kuala Lumpur two days ago, authorities said Wednesday. Mazlan Mansor, the police chief of Selangor state, said one of the suspects arrested was an attorney appointed by One City Development to handle the relocation process of the Sri Maha Mariamman temple in Subang Jaya township on the outskirts of the capital. It was only one lawyer arrested and not two, Mazlan told reporters. The other was his friend. Violence erupted at the temple Monday after a group of men attacked devotees and destroyed more than a dozen vehicles. Authorities described the incident as an escalation of a dispute over the relocation of the house of worship and not race-related. Mazlan made the statement hours after Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin alleged during a news conference that the detained lawyer had hired a group of Malays to encroach into the temple. Muhyiddin, citing the police investigation, said about 50 Malays each received payment of between 150 ringgit (U.S. $36) and 300 ringgit (U.S. $71) to take over and guard the temple. If these careless acts did not take place, I think the incident would not have occurred, Muhyiddin told reporters in the administrative capital Putrajaya. Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Wednesday visited a firefighter who suffered injuries during the rioting. Mahathir told reporters that police will conduct a thorough investigation to find the suspect who injured to firefighter. He also criticized the lawyers alleged decision to employ the group of men, including those with permanent-resident status, to invade the temple grounds, according to the state-run news agency Bernama. The act of hiring foreigners to guard the Hindu temple was also wrong, Mahathir was quoted as telling reporters at the National Heart Institute in Kuala Lumpur. These people are foreigners and do not understand the Malaysian culture. Authorities said more arrests would take place as investigators widen their search for suspects. Mazlan said the remand order for the lawyer and his friend expired Wednesday, but has since been extended to Saturday. About 61 percent of the 32.4 million Malaysia are Muslims while 1.6 million are Hindus. Despite its multicultural make-up and civil liberties that are enshrined in the countrys federal constitution, Malaysia has experienced racial violence, including rioting in the aftermath of the 1969 general election. Rights advocates slammed Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday over remarks he made a day earlier about forming a police squad to assassinate communist insurgents. In a speech before military personnel on central Bohol island, Duterte said he would form a death squad to counter the sparrow unit once deployed by the communist New Peoples Army (NPA) to target members of the police and military force. The communist sparrows carried out assassinations in urban centers in the 1980s, when dictator Ferdinand Marcos was in power. One of these days, I will be forced to create my own sparrow, Duterte said in Tuesdays speech. They would be tasked to only go after loiterers or those suspected to be NPAs, and kill them. Dutertes comments surprised many people because no killings had been attributed to the sparrow unit in years. I will match their talent also for assassinating people. They will be armed and that is what I intend to do, he said. Duterte suggested that government forces were vulnerable to attacks from sparrow units, especially after peace talks between his administration and the rebels political wing collapsed. What I lack is a sparrow unit. Thats their advantage. ... So I will create a sparrow. Duterte Death Squad against the sparrow, the president said. While it was not clear whether Duterte was serious, his statement troubled human rights groups which said it could increase impunity in a country where thousands of suspected drug dealers and addicts have been gunned down since he became president two years ago. Jose Luis Gascon, chairman of the independent Committee on Human Rights, said Dutertes statement was worrisome because the state had a duty to protect its citizens from all forms of harm including lawless violence and terrorist acts. This duty must at all times be undertaken in accordance with established rules of engagement, Gascon said, adding that the principles of International Humanitarian Law prohibits state forces from using death squads. New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) also weighed in criticizing Dutertes comments. If there was a death squad Olympics, Duterte would be on the victory stand. Yet his murderous policies continue to make the people of the Philippines the losers. His statement is a declaration of open season against rebels, leftists, civilians and critics of the government, said Carlos Conde, HRWs Philippine researcher. The police, Conde warned, would only worsen what HRW had branded as a human rights calamity in the country tied to Dutertes war on drugs. Duterte once again affirmed extrajudicial killing as his administrations official policy against government critics, Conde said. Asked to comment on the presidents statement, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana appeared to be at a loss for an answer, saying the government would study it very closely. But he conceded that forming a death squad could lead to potential abuses and problems with accountability. Because there is great danger of abuse or mistakes in these undercover operations. One way to prevent this is for someone higher up to give the go-signal after careful and thorough vetting. The operatives should not be granted blanket authority, the defense secretary said. Duterte faces two mass murder cases before the International Criminal Court (ICC), which were filed by victims of his drug war and two self-confessed former members of a suspected death squad that operated in Davao city when Duterte served as mayor. Manilas justice secretary, Menardo Guevarra, on Wednesday sought to play down the presidents comments. We should always understand that kind of statement to mean use reasonable force to apprehend suspected assassins, Guevarra told the Philippine Star. But if there is armed resistance and your life is seriously endangered in the process, shoot back, he said. Dutertes comments came hours before a member of a left-leaning labor group was gunned down Wednesday morning. Linus Cubol, a leader of the Kilusang Mayo Uno labor group, was shot five times and died at a furniture shop he owned in southern Agusa del Norte province. A week earlier, Cubol had been taken in for questioning by members of the armys intelligence unit about his recent participation in anti-government rallies, his colleagues said. Mark Navales in Cotabato City, Philippines, contributed to this report. Moncks Corner, SC (29461) Today Sunshine and clouds mixed. High 64F. Winds light and variable.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies this evening. Increasing clouds with periods of showers late. Low 47F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%. 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 For Immediate Release, November 28, 2018 Contact: Peter Galvin, (707) 986-2600, pgalvin@biologicaldiversity.org Court Hears Arguments to Stop Destructive Highway-widening Project Through Ancient California Redwoods SAN FRANCISCO Conservation groups and Humboldt residents appeared in federal court today for a hearing on a legal challenge to Caltrans controversial Richardson Grove Operational Improvement Project. The project would needlessly damage and harm ancient redwood trees in Californias iconic Richardson Grove State Park along Highway 101 in Humboldt County. The highway-widening project would damage the roots of more than 100 of Richardson Groves ancient redwoods, including trees up to 3,000 years old, 18 feet in diameter and 300 feet tall. Caltrans has pursued this project solely to incrementally improve passage for oversized commercial trucks, and continues to rely on inadequate environmental review. These are some of Californias oldest and most iconic trees. Its ridiculous that Caltrans continues to push a plan to hack into them just to accommodate a few more huge trucks, said Peter Galvin with the Center for Biological Diversity. The redwoods of Richardson Grove have survived for thousands of years, and well continue fighting to keep these ancient trees intact. At todays hearing before Judge William Alsup in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, the plaintiffs and Caltrans presented motions for summary judgment, with each side arguing that its case should prevail as a matter of fact and law without going to trial. The motions are under submission and a court ruling is forthcoming. Litigation against the Caltrans project in Richardson Grove has been pursued in both state and federal court. In 2012 the federal court issued a temporary injunction stopping the project, citing numerous errors in Caltrans mapping and measurement of affected old-growth redwoods and use of faulty data. The state court ruled in May 2018 against a Caltrans motion to dismiss the state lawsuit. Background The federal lawsuit challenges Caltrans violations of the National Environmental Policy Act due to inadequate evaluation of the environmental impacts of cutting into tree roots. The suit also alleges violations of the Transportation Act, which requires highway projects with federal funding to minimize harm to natural resources in state parks. The lawsuit was filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, Environmental Protection Information Center, Friends of Del Norte, Californians for Alternatives to Toxics, and longtime local residents Bess Bair, Trisha Lee Lotus, Jeffrey Hedin and David Spreen. Previous legal challenges had blocked construction and forced Caltrans to rescind all project approvals in 2014. The agency reapproved the project in 2017, claiming it had made significant changes. However, Caltrans still intends to cut into tree roots, threatening the stability and viability of old-growth redwoods. The conservation groups also filed suit in state court challenging the new project approval. Richardson Grove State Park, where tourists often first encounter large redwoods when heading north on Highway 101, is home to one of the last protected stands of accessible old-growth redwood trees in the world. The park has essential habitat for threatened and endangered species such as the northern spotted owl, and its creeks support runs of imperiled salmon and steelhead trout. Caltrans first proposed the project in 2007, claiming the widening is needed to accommodate large-truck travel. But Highway 101 through Richardson Grove is already designated for larger trucks and does not have significant safety problems. The agency cannot demonstrate that the project is necessary for safety or would benefit the local economy. The attorneys for the plaintiffs in this suit are Philip Gregory; Stuart Gross of Gross & Klein LLP; and Sharon Duggan, a staff attorney with EPIC and a long-time expert on environmental law. For Immediate Release, November 28, 2018 Contacts: Kari Birdseye, Natural Resources Defense Council, (415) 875-8243, kbirdseye@nrdc.org Marjorie Fishman, Animal Welfare Institute, (202) 446-2128, margie@awionline.org Sarah Uhlemann, Center for Biological Diversity, (206) 327-2344, suhlemann@biologicaldiversity.org Court of Appeals Upholds U.S. Ban on Mexican Seafood Imports to Save Vaquita Court Backs Applying Federal Law to Prevent Extinction of Vanishing Porpoise WASHINGTON In a victory for one of Earths most endangered marine mammals, a third U.S. court decision today upheld a four-month-old ban on importing Mexican shrimp and other seafood caught with gillnets that drown vaquita porpoises. Rejecting a Trump administration legal challenge, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit confirmed a preliminary order implementing a federal law that requires a ban on seafood imported from Mexicos Upper Gulf of California and caught with gillnets that drown the vaquita porpoise. Gillnets kill about 50 percent of the rapidly dwindling vaquita population every year. The federal agencies charged with protecting the vaquita should focus their resources on saving the last of these animals, rather than continuing to lose in the courtroom, said Giulia Good Stefani, staff attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Immediate pressure on Mexico to ban all gillnets in the upper gulf and to clear the area of illegal nets is necessary now for the vaquitas survival. Conservation groups initially filed suit in the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York City in March and secured a preliminary ban on vaquita-killing imports in July. The departments of Commerce, Treasury and Homeland Security, which are charged with banning imports that are contributing to the vaquitas extinction, have tried and failed to modify or undue the import ban three times. This victory helps U.S. consumers fight the vaquitas extinction, said Sarah Uhlemann, international program director at the Center for Biological Diversity. The seafood embargo will force Mexico to finally remove dangerous gillnets and save these graceful porpoises before its too late. Todays decision is critical to the survival of the remaining 15 vaquita. Vaquita reside in only one place on the planet the upper Gulf of California. Fishing with gillnets is driving the vaquita to extinction because the small porpoise is easily entangled and drowned in these dangerous nets. The Marine Mammal Protection Act requires the U.S. government to ban seafood imports from foreign fisheries that kill or injure marine mammals, including the vaquita, at a rate above U.S. standards. Mexicos efforts to stop the bycatch of the vaquita does not meet U.S. standards. Over the past 20 years, 95 percent of the population has been lost. In recent years the vaquitas decline has accelerated. Scientists predict that the vaquita will be extinct soon, possibly even by 2021, if Mexican fishing practices and law-enforcement efforts remain unchanged. Mexico has failed to permanently ban all gillnets in the vaquitas habitat, despite repeated recommendations by scientists and evidence that the use of gillnets by any fishery in or adjacent to the vaquitas range will undeniably lead to the species extinction. The U.S. government is wasting its time and facilitating the extinction of the vaquita by continuing its efforts to reverse the courts order, says DJ Schubert, a wildlife biologist with the Animal Welfare Institute. Its time for the U.S. government to accept the opinion, ensure full implementation of the ban and continue to work with the government of Mexico to save the vaquita. Merck foundation acknowledged the First Lady of Central African Republic for her efforts as Merck more than a Mother Ambassador in Central African Republic -C.A.R. Merck Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Merck Germany underscored their commitment to build healthcare capacity in the Central African Republic - C.A.R. during their high-level meeting with The Head of State, H.E. FAUSTIN-ARCHANGE TOUADERA. The discussion led by Prof. Dr. Frank Stangenberg Haverkamp, Chairman of the Executive Board of E. Merck KG and the Chairman of Merck Foundation Board of Trustees and Dr. Rasha Kelej, CEO of Merck Foundation to explain and discuss the programs which launched on the same day in partnership with The First Lady and ministry of Health of C.A.R. H.E. FAUSTIN-ARCHANGE TOUADERA, the President of Central African Republic emphasized, Central African Republic needs the programs of Merck Foundation urgently. These training programs for specialized doctors are very critical for our people and their social and economic well-being. I wholeheartedly support Merck Foundation in our country, to enable the success of all their programs. "Through Merck Foundation, we commit to the long-term partnership with Ministry of Health and The first Lady foundation to build healthcare capacity in the country," Prof. Dr. Frank Stangenberg-Haverkamp explained. I am very happy and proud to organize this meeting. This partnership will help us train specialized doctors in the fields of Diabetes, Hypertension, Oncology and Infertility care. This will help to contribute significantly towards social and economic development in Central African Republic. We are committed to lead Africa to a better future through changing the landscape of healthcare in the continent with special focus on French-speaking countries in the next few years, emphasized Dr. Rasha Kelej. Merck Foundation together with H.E. MADAM BRIGITTE TOUADERA, The First Lady of Central African Republic & Merck more than a Mother Ambassador have conducted a special meeting with more than 100 infertile women who have been enrolled in the Empowering Berna project to establish small businesses and train them to be able to generate steady monthly income. Dr. Rasha Kelej, President of Merck more than a Mother has pledged to support more childless women through Merck more than a Mother campaign. In partnership with the First Lady and ministry of health, Merck foundation will provide clinical training on fertility specialty to improve access to quality and equitable fertility care in the country. Merck Foundation has also approved a list of candidates to be enrolled in their one and two-year oncology fellowship program as a contribution to improve cancer care in the country. Moreover, they will also provide on-line diabetes diplomas in French for Doctors from C.A.R as well as cardiovascular preventive medicines fellowship in Asia. About Merck Oncology Fellowship Program The Merck Oncology Fellowship Program, a key initiative of Merck Cancer Access Program, focuses on building additional capacity through medical education and training. The lack of financial means is not the only challenge in Africa and developing countries, but a scarcity of trained health care personnel capable to tackle the prevention, early diagnosis and management of cancer at all levels of the health care systems is even a bigger challenge. Merck Oncology Fellowship Program focuses on building professional cancer care capacity with the aim to increase the limited number of oncologists in Africa and Developing countries. The program provides One-year fellowship program at Tata Memorial Centre - India, One and half-years Oncology Fellowship programs at University of Malaya - Malaysia, Two years Oncology Fellowship Program at University of Nairobi - Kenya and Two years Master degree in Medical Oncology at Cairo University - Egypt, in partnership with African Ministries of Health, Local Governments and Academia. Launched in 2016, over 43 candidates from more than 21 African countries have rolled in the Merck Oncology Fellowship Program. The program will continue to build cancer care capability in African countries such as Botswana, Cameroon, CAR, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mauritius, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. About Merck More Than a Mother campaign In many cultures, childless women suffer discrimination, stigma, and ostracism. Their inability to have children results in great isolation, disinheritance, and assaults. Merck More Than a Mother empowers such women through the access to information, health, change of mindsets and economic empowerment. As part of this Campaign, we started Empowering Berna project in Africa to help childless and infertile women starting their own business and thus achieve financial independence and become stronger and happier. The project has benefited more than 1,000 women across the continent. Also, part of the campaign is our Merck Embryology & Fertility Training Program, a three-month hands-on practical course to establish the platform of fertility specialists across Africa and Asia. Merck Foundation provided for more than 84 candidates, three months to six months clinical and practical training for fertility specialists and embryologists in more than 29 countries across Africa and Asia such as: Chad, Niger, Central African Republic, Cote DIvoire , Ghana, Ethiopia , Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania , Zambia , Nigeria, Benin, Mali, Burkina Fuso, Senegal, Guinea Conakry, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cameron, Rwanda, Botswana, DR Congo , Congo Brazzaville, Gambia , Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Cambodia. Merck Foundation is making history in many African countries where they never had fertility specialists or specialized fertility clinics before Merck More Than a Mother intervention, to train the first fertility specialists such as; in Sierra Leone, Liberia, The Gambia, Niger, Chad, and Guinea. Merck Foundation plan supported the establishment of the first public IVF centers in Ethiopia and Uganda through providing the clinical and practical training necessary for their staff. Merck Foundation also plans to support the establishment of the first public IVF in Tanzania soon. Merck more than a Mother launched in 2015, is a program of the Merck Foundation, the foundation drives many of our initiatives and programs in the area of build health care and research capacity and improves access to equitable healthcare solutions. This facility was founded in 1992 and is a state-of-the-art unit for manufacturing Active Pharmaceuticals Ingredients (API), both fermentation-based and synthetic Lupin has announced the receipt of the Establishment Inspection Report (EIR) on the completion of an inspection by the US FDA (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. Commenting on the development, Nilesh Gupta, Managing Director, Lupin said, For Lupin, meeting and exceeding global quality and procedural standards has always been paramount. We are committed to upholding the highest levels of quality and compliance standards across all our facilities. This facility was founded in 1992 and is a state-of-the-art unit for manufacturing Active Pharmaceuticals Ingredients (API), both fermentation-based and synthetic. Profitability too not expected to worsen from current levels. Indian pharma companies with significant presence in the US generic business have been grappling with slow growth as a result of intense US generics pricing pressure and thereby eroding operating profits, are likely to see favourable times in the next 12-15 months. As per an ICRA report, covering a sample of seven large Indian pharma companies, the US generic pricing pressure is expected to normalise, going back to earlier levels of low to mid-single digit. Positive and selective price changes too are not ruled out. This is as against the low teens pricing pressure seen during CY2017 and 10-12% estimated by ICRA during CY2018. Elaborating further, Gaurav Jain, Vice President, Corporate Sector ratings, ICRA says, The competitive intensity of US generic business and the pricing pressure thereof was due to the consolidation in distribution supply chain and monopolistic conditions, with three large buying group controlling 90% of the distribution channel. This coupled with the faster pace of ANDA approvals adopted by USFDA too has played its part. Consequently, the US generic business which has been a significant contributor to growth and profitability for Indian pharma players over the last decade faced slowdown registering growth of 4.0%, -13.1%, 1.5% in FY2017, FY2018 & Q1FY2019 respectively. The faster pace of ANDA approvals by USFDA impacted generic prices thereby increasing competitive intensity. ANDA approvals rose from 409 in FY2014 (October to September period) to 763 and 781 in FY2017 and FY2018 respectively. The pace increased because in October 2012, the Generic Drug User Fee Act (GDUFA) was implemented in the US leading to increased pricing pressure. Before GDUFA, while the average approval time was 36 months, under GDUFA, action on 90% of the standard ANDAs submitted needs to be taken within 10 months and; for priority ANDAs, the timelines has been reduced to 8 months subject to meeting certain requirements. Priority ANDAs are those drugs that have less than three approved generics or Para IV filings among others. The USFDA has already issued draft guidelines to promote entry of complex generics such as complex transdermal and topical and is further expected to issue guidelines for injectables, metered dose inhalers, peptides under the Drug Competition Action Plan thereby simplifying the scientific evidence required to show bioequivalence. The aftermath of this measure is that while higher ANDA approvals leads to high competitive intensity, mid and large size pharma companies will be selective in new launches owing to inadequate profitability, enabling normalisation of prices to some extent. Already between October to September in FY2018, companies have withdrawn 606 approved ANDAs, as compared to 214 and 248 withdrawals in FY2017 and FY2016 respectively. ICRA note says that, domestic pharma players have exited several products where pricing was unsustainable in the last 12-15 months; the freed capacities have been realigned for manufacturing higher volumes of existing products having strong market, so as to benefit from economies of scale or for new product introductions. The initiatives are likely to reduce competitive pressures and normalise prices. On the R&D front, companies are rationalising their spending by dropping plain vanilla generics development where there are already several ANDA filers awaiting approval or existing competition is high. They are instead focussing their spends towards complex generics, specialty products including NCEs (New Chemical Entities) & NTEs (New Therapeutic Entities) and bio-similars where less competition is expected. Players are progressively focusing on developing value-added generics (NTEs) by combining drugs, new route of administration or dosage form which allows them certain exclusivity and at the same time the risk reward ratio is more favourable. These drugs are improved or enhanced version of approved drugs. The average R&D cost (as a %age to sales) has reduced from 9.0% in FY2017 to 8.8% in FY2018 and 8.6% in Q1FY2019 for ICRAs sample and is expected to remain at similar levels. Companies operating profits which fell from 26-28% till Q3FY2017 to current 19.0-21.0% has been cushioned by the cost reduction exercise, undertaken across various expense heads SG&A (selling, general and administrative expenses), R&D as well as employee cost. This has resulted from streamlining of product portfolio and manufacturing facilities. Going forward, the profitability will get support from new launches and thereby the impact of on-going pricing pressure will be absorbed. ICRA expects significant reduction in prices will render the US generic business unattractive for many players enabling stabilisation and positive price changes in the medium term. Further, Indian companies having pipeline of complex generics will benefit from faster approval cycle and higher margins before other complex generics entry intensify pricing pressure. All these initiatives combined are likely to reduce competitive pressures enabling normalisation of prices and; will auger well for the Indian pharma players in the medium term, concludes Jain. NCKU Hospital will provide training for medical staff at Cygnus. Cygnus Hospitals has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) Hospital in Tainan, Taiwan for promoting bilateral exchange in medical developments. The MoU was inked, at a signing ceremony held in Tainan, by NCKU Hospital Superintendent Yang Chyun-yu and Director of Operations at Cygnus Hospitals Naveen Nishchal, who is also chairman of Voice of Healthcare, a policy think tank based in New Delhi. NCKU Hospital will provide training for medical staff at Cygnus, while presenting an opportunity for Taiwan's biotechnology industry to tap the growing Indian market. University of Birmingham leads the way in accepting Chinese 'Gaokao' exam Chinese students at the University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham is the first elite UK Russell Group University to announce that it will accept the Gaokao exam for high-flying Chinese students wishing to join its undergraduate courses in 2019. High school students who complete the National Higher Education Entrance Examination, or Gaokao, with top grades will be able to apply for direct entry onto Birmingham degree programmes without first completing a Foundation year. Gaokao is usually taken by students in their last year of senior high school and, every year, each province in China sets the grades required to gain admission to its universities. The University of Birmingham Jinan University Joint Institute, which opened in September 2017, already accepts Gaokao for entry to its innovative dual degree mathematics courses. University of Birmingham Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir David Eastwood said: The University of Birmingham has been challenging and developing great minds for more than a century. We welcome people from around the globe to study at Birmingham and Chinese students form an integral part of our education and research community. We are further opening access to Birminghams wealth of education opportunities for the brightest and most dedicated Chinese students by accepting this rigorous and important qualification. I look forward to welcoming these high-flying students to the University of Birmingham. The annual Gaokao examination is usually held across China in early June. Students are tested in Chinese, Mathematics and a Foreign Language - usually English. They also have to choose between testing in social sciences or natural sciences in most regions. Exam results are usually published towards the end of June and each province will have their own list of minimum Gaokao grades for entry into Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 universities in China. Gaokao is increasingly accepted by universities in Australia, the USA, Canada and mainland Europe. Birmingham will only be considering high quality students who achieve a minimum 80% Gaokao score and meet additional academic and English language requirements. Professor Jon Frampton, Director of the University of Birminghams China Institute said: The University of Birmingham has a long history of educating students from China and one of our most famous graduates is Li Siguang the founding father of Chinese geology. I am delighted that the University is now accepting the Gaokao. This gives the brightest and best Chinese students an opportunity to move straight into the first year of our undergraduate programmes and experience the benefits of studying at a global Top 100 university, such as Birmingham. ENDS For more information or interviews, please contact Tony Moran, International Communications Manager, University of Birmingham on +44 (0) 121 414 8254 or +44 (0)782 783 2312 or Notes for editors Japanese kyogen star joins universities' Shakespeare symposium Professor Minako Okamuro, President Aiji Tanaka, Mansai Nomura and Professor Robin Mason at the Shakespeare Symposium Experts from the University of Birmingham and their counterparts at Waseda University were joined by Japanese Kyogen actor Mansai Nomura to explore how to bring Shakespeare to life for todays theatre audiences. The famous actor took part in the international symposium which delivered new insight on bringing together theatre practice and academic research to stage the Bards plays focussing on how Japanese traditional theatre can help better understand Shakespeare. Mansai Nomura joined Flute Theatre director Kelly Hunter to deliver a unique performance from Macbeth at the event, with Ms. Hunter speaking the part of Lady Macbeth in English and Mr. Nomura delivering Macbeths part in Japanese. The Japanese star addressed the packed auditorium at Waseda about how Noh theatre techniques such as dead characters in Richard III wearing masks - had been used in Japan to breathe new life into performances of Shakespeares plays. Professor Tiffany Stern, from the University of Birminghams world-renowned Shakespeare Institute, talked about staging plays in Shakespeares time and how this could help todays theatre makers. Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) associate director Angus Jackson discussed how he had staged a season of Shakespeares Rome plays, such as Julius Caesar, whilst Kelly Hunter talked about using Shakespeares A Midsummer Nights Dream to engage with young people with autism. The symposium was a highlight of Wasedas University of Birmingham Day which explored the importance of global Higher Education research particularly focussing on Britains research links with Japan. It celebrated a strategic research partnership between the Universities of Birmingham and Waseda, started formally in 2016, building on collaboration dating from 2000. The partnership involves collaboration in areas such as robotics, atmospheric environmental science, urban studies, language education, creative writing and corpus linguistics, as well as Shakespeare studies. The event also marked a further day of workshops and discussions between researchers, setting the stage for more collaboration between the two universities in the future. University of Birmingham Pro-Vice-Chancellor (International) Professor Robin Mason commented: The Shakespeare symposium illustrates the strength and depth of the research partnership between our universities and we were delighted and honoured that Mansai Nomura joined us to add a fascinating new perspective to our understanding of the Bard. The UK is one of Japans top research partners and we are proud of our partnership with Waseda. It is vitally important for both the University of Birmingham and our country to develop closer engagement with our counterparts in Japan, especially in areas of shared research strength. Professor Mason delivered a keynote speech at the opening ceremony, outlining the globally important role played by British universities research. H.E. Paul Madden CMG, British Ambassador to Japan, also addressed the audience, noting that the Waseda-Birmingham partnership was testament to the strong ties between the UK and Japan. Waseda University President Professor Aiji Tanaka told the audience: We believe that this is an extraordinary partnership made possible through trust and a relationship developed over 18 years. There are things that we cannot achieve ourselves and our friends at the University of Birmingham can help Waseda University grow and achieve our research goals. The symposium Adapting Shakespeare for the Stage Today was sponsored by the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, co-organised by the University of Birminghams Shakespeare Institute and Waseda University. It explored what it means to present Shakespeares work to audiences around the globe today. The Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum is a Waseda facility devoted to the history of performing arts and used for performances by artists from across the globe. It is named after Professor Tsubouchi Shoyo, a pioneer in modern Japanese literature and theatre, also known for translating Shakespeares complete works into Japanese. The Shakespeare Institute is located in Stratford-upon-Avon and has been a beacon for international Shakespeare scholarship since its foundation in 1951. Students benefit from the Institutes collaboration with the RSC and access to the expertise of the companys artists and practitioners. The two universities have worked together since 2000 before signing their formal agreement in 2016 and there is an active student exchange between Waseda and Birmingham. ENDS For more information, please contact: Tony Moran, International Communications Manager, University of Birmingham on +44 (0) 121 414 8254 or +44 (0)782 783 2312. Out-of-hours enquiries: +44 (0) 7789 921 165. For more information about the event, please contact International Office, Waseda University, Notes to Editors ((1995, charming couple - his face with Chinese building-up, so charming that I's hooked up to follow him up. regret to see he didn't earn any award, only with one nomination. Well, they got two sons and one daughter, hoping magic will happen in their life. Crying Freeman is a 1995 action film starring Mark Dacascos, Julie Condra, and Tcheky Karyo, ... The movie eventually received a U.S. release via Amazon Prime streaming in November 2018 . ... Shimazaki then tells everyone that Emu is the Freeman's next target, as she was the only witness to his son's assassination, and .. Plot [ edit ] While painting the landscape on a hill in San Francisco, a young woman named Emu O'Hara witnesses the murder of a Japanese Yakuza member. She notices that while the assassin stands emotionless in front of her, his eyes begin to shed tears. The assassin introduces himself to Emu as "Yo". Days later, after Emu returns to her home in Vancouver, British Columbia, Shido Shimazaki makes his appearance at the local police precinct, announcing a war between his clan, the Hakushin Society, and the "Sons of the Dragons" - a Chinese Triad that ordered the assassination of Shimazaki's son in San Francisco. Interpol detective Netah explains that the Sons of the Dragons are descendants of 108 Buddhist monks who rebelled against the Manchu reign in China centuries ago, and that the "Freeman" is their bringer of death. Shimazaki then tells everyone that Emu is the Freeman's next target, as she was the only witness to his son's assassination, and the assassin's code is that a person who is given Freeman's name becomes his next kill. However, shortly after their meeting is adjourned, Shimazaki and his bodyguards are ambushed outside the precinct by a masked Freeman and his assistant Koh. After dispatching the bodyguards and disabling the nearby police officers, Freeman successfully kills Shimazaki before running off. During his escape, he passes by Emu, who recognizes his eyes through his mask. As Freeman and Koh flee the scene, Emu utters Yo's name to the surprise of Detective Forge, who is assigned to protect her. Later that night, Emu is interrogated by Netah and Forge over Freeman's identity. Due to a lack of evidence, she is shortly released and escorted back to her mansion. As Netah scouts the mansion's perimeters, he discovers that Forge is knocked unconscious and he encounters Ryuji and Kimie Hanada, who are out to claim the Freeman's head and take over the Hakushin Society. Inside the mansion, Emu discovers that Yo is in her room and begins to accept her fate. However, instead of killing her, Yo makes love to her before members of Ryuji and his gang break in. Yo kills the thugs and wounds Ryuji, but Emu is shot in the process. Against his own code, Yo brings Emu to the nearest hospital. Days later, Emu travels to Japan and reunites with Yo, who tells her about his origin. Years ago, he was Yo Hinomura, a renowned pottery sculptor who stumbled upon a roll of negatives during his exhibit in New York City. Yo developed the photos in his hotel bathroom, revealing the torture and execution of a man wearing dragon tattoos similar to what he would eventually wear. Before leaving his hotel, he was drugged and abducted by the Sons of the Dragons, who implanted subliminal messages into his mind using acupuncture techniques. During his first mission, where he killed Mafia boss Antonio Rossi, he began to shed tears; hence his name Crying Freeman. Yo is notified by Koh that Ryuji's gang have attacked a soya factory in Shanghai that was protected by the Sons of the Dragons. As retribution, Yo and Koh travel to Shimazaki's funeral outside Tokyo to kill Ryuji and wipe out the clan. During the funeral, while having sex inside a closet, Kimie reveals to Netah that the Shimazakis were set up by the Hanadas to be assassinated so they could take over the clan. Yo and Koh wipe out the clan, but as Koh prepares to kill Yo for treason, Ryuji guns him down before the entire complex blows up and kills him. Yo returns to his home, where he prepares the area to self-destruct and arms himself to battle Netah and Kimie, along with her henchmen. Despite being wounded by Netah, Yo kills the henchmen and defeats Netah and Kimie - the latter by stabbing her near the heart. Kimie gives Yo her word of honor that in exchange for saving her life, he and Emu won't be pursued. While Yo and Emu leave the premises, Netah prepares to shoot them from behind, only to be killed by Kimie. Yo and Emu are last seen riding a speedboat into the sunset. Cast [ edit ] Reception [ edit ] Reviews for the film have been mixed. Leonard Klady of Variety wrote a favorable review of the film, citing it as "one of the few of the recent batch of comic-book adaptations that works, Crying Freeman has the potential to ring up the type of big numbers that would warrant a franchise. It's hoped that those involved with the first will still be aboard."[2] Kung-Fu Cult Cinema gave the film a score of 3.5 out of 5, citing that it "is very well worth its weight in action."[3] Beyond Hollywood, however, commented on their review that the acting was sub-par and the film's subplot of Yo's relationship with Emu is "not the best story in the world. It's really rather, well, stupid."[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBRYlt4HjGo If Chloramphenicol Is Dangerous, Why Is It Given In The First Place? Chloramphenicol is an antibiotic that is effective against a variety of bacterial infections. It is effective to the extent that, when potent agents like Penicillin fails, doctors may suggest the administration of chloramphenicol. This antibiotic is mostly given directly to the mother at some point of her pregnancy, but it could also be given to the baby if need be. Most Read: Neck Rash In Babies: Causes, Symptoms, Home Remedies & Prevention The chloramphenicol may get passed on from the mother's body to the baby while inside the womb and also while outside through breast milk. It is when newborns are given the antibiotic in unmonitored levels within the first three days of their birth that they are posed with a greater risk of developing the grey baby syndrome. What Are The Causes Of Grey Baby Syndrome? The biological systems of a newborn baby are fragile and only-so-developed to handle the toxicity caused by high levels of chloramphenicol. Neither does their livers have the necessary enzymes to metabolize large amounts of the antibiotic, nor do their kidneys have the ability to filter and excrete out the same. As a result, the chloramphenicol starts to build up in their bloodstream, causing multiple complications leading to grey baby syndrome. However, chloramphenicol is not just dangerous for kids, but it can also cause side effects in kids and adults. These could be low-intensity - vomiting, headaches, fever and rash - or could be high-intensity - anaemia, bleeding, blurry vision, weakness, infections, etc. What Are The Symptoms Of Grey Baby Syndrome? The symptoms mentioned below are associated with the grey baby syndrome in infants, although it is not necessary that your baby will have all of them. It usually takes a week or less for the symptoms to appear. 1. Greyish skin colour 2. Bluish lips or skin 3. Greenish stools 4. Swelling in the abdomen 5. Breathing difficulty 6. Vomiting 7. Low blood pressure 8. Low body temperature or hypothermia 9. Body limpness 10. Irregular heartbeats 11. Refusing breastmilk If you notice one or more of these symptoms in your baby, consult your doctor immediately. Grey baby syndrome can be treated with on-time diagnosis, yet causing any delay may lead to fatality. How Is The Grey Baby Syndrome Diagnosed? Once the doctors observe the symptoms and suspect the grey baby syndrome, they will conduct a physical examination on your baby. Even though the doctors will go through your medical history, treatments and medications provided, if they don't ask you themselves, you must make it a point to let them know that you or your baby have been exposed to chloramphenicol before. This will help in easier diagnosis. The doctor will then perform the relevant tests and also measure the levels of chloramphenicol in the blood from time to time. What Are The Treatments Available? Thankfully, with prior diagnosis, grey baby syndrome can be treated successfully. First, your doctor would ask you to stop giving the chloramphenicol-containing medicines to your baby. Secondly, if you're required to take the antibiotic yourself, then the doctor would not ask you to discontinue your medications, although he will ask you to stop breastfeeding so that more of the antibiotic isn't transferred to your baby through the breast milk. Since this specific syndrome can be fatal, your baby will most likely be hospitalized for optimum care and close, constant monitoring. Two of the treatments available for grey baby syndrome are exchange transfusion and haemodialysis. 1. Exchange Transfusion This is a procedure carried out to neutralize the effects of most diseases or conditions that cause changes in the blood. Through this procedure, the components of the baby's blood will be slowly replaced with freshly-donated blood from healthy donors. Thin tubes called catheters placed into the blood vessels are usually used to carry out this process. When it comes to babies, medical practitioners exercise even more care than they usually do, while performing the procedure. Exchange transfusion is an effective treatment even in the case of the grey baby syndrome wherein the chloramphenicol-affected blood can be successfully removed from the baby's body. 2. Haemodialysis As the name suggests, this procedure involves the use of a dialysis machine to purify the baby's bloodstream. Haemodialysis or simply dialysis is performed on people whose weak kidneys aren't efficient enough to remove toxins from a person's body. It also helps in maintaining the salt-balance of the body. Apart from the aforementioned treatments, your doctor may try different treatments like haemoperfusion, although all the treatments aim at one thing - reducing and removing the chloramphenicol from the baby's bloodstream. PR Newswire BOSTON, Nov. 27, 2018 BOSTON, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Fit Factory, the Boston-based chain of full-service health clubs, announced today that it has signed a deal with Benderson Development to open their 5th location at Shops at Highland Commons in Berlin, Massachusetts. "We are extremely excited to announce our newest location in Massachusetts, and our first location serving the Metro-West market, at Highland Commons," stated Ian Newland, Fit Factory's Director of Real Estate. "Benderson is a best-in-class developer who has put together a great lineup of co-tenants. We plan to offer members a state-of-the-art facility and a wide range of classes at a reasonable price." This is the first of six locations Fit Factory plans to open in the Greater Boston area by 2020. Shops at Highland Commons is a 900,000 square foot shopping center located off I-495, Exit 26. The center has a lineup of national tenants including Market Basket, TJ Maxx, Ulta, BJs, and the Commonwealth's only Cabela's. About Fit Factory Fit Factory was founded in 2015 by Boston natives Ryan Gadles, Matt Genes, and Dennis Bairos with the goal of leveraging their respective business and fitness-industry experience to deliver a superior gym experience typically reserved for high-priced, luxury clubs at an affordable price. For more information, visit www.fitfactoryclubs.com. Press Inquiries Sharilynn Brown, Marketing Manager p: 617-249-7090 x113 e: [email protected] Related Images image1.png image2.jpg image3.jpg image4.jpg View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fit-factory-announces-plans-for-club-in-berlin-ma-300756485.html SOURCE Fit Factory PR Newswire BASEL, Switzerland, Nov. 28, 2018 BASEL, Switzerland, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Growing Huobi Group's global presence and the cryptocurrency market's long-term potential: those were two of the biggest items on Huobi Senior Business Director David Chen's agenda at the Blockchain Leadership Summit in Switzerland over the weekend. "There is no question that 2018 has been a bear market. Everyone knows it. Just like bull markets, though, bear markets will come and go," said Chen, shortly after participating in a panel discussion with other industry experts. Chen also said he expects 2019 to be a big year for Huobi and a better year for the market than 2018 was: "We believe the market will ultimately be a lot warmer than where it is right now, and we do not intend to sit still. We'll be continuing our expansion into global markets. We plan to expand into 30 branch offices across the world. We already have nearly 20." Chen also looked past 2019 to Huobi's long term goal of becoming the world's largest digital asset exchange. "We focus on the big picture at Huobi, so we're not just looking towards 2019 but also the next five to ten years and beyond," he said. About Huobi:Consisting of ten upstream and downstream enterprises, Huobi Group is the world's leading blockchain company. Established in 2013, Huobi Group's accumulative turnover exceeds US $1 trillion. It proudly provides safe, secure, and convenient cryptocurrency trading and asset management services to millions of users in 130+ countries. For enquiries, please contact: Jiayi Li+6592295769 [email protected] View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/huobi-looks-to-the-future-at-swiss-blockchain-leadership-summit-300756612.html SOURCE Huobi 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 SINGAPORE, Nov. 28, 2018 SINGAPORE, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- SM Prime Holdings, Inc. (SMPH) was honoured with the 2018 Frost & Sullivan Philippines Property Development Industry Growth Excellence Leadership Award at the annual Frost & Sullivan Asia-Pacific Best Practices Awards banquet held at Shangri-La Singapore earlier today. Janice Wung, Program Manager, Energy & Environment, Frost & Sullivan noted that the property development market in Philippines continues to develop steadily, driven by economic growth, rapid urbanization, and government spending on infrastructure projects. In 2017, competition among domestic property developers to acquire prime land and development projects intensified significantly. "Amid this backdrop, SM Prime Holdings Inc. cemented its position as the leading developer in the retail and commercial property market. The company continues to redefine the lifestyle mall concept, achieving higher than average revenue growth, successfully launching 7 new shopping malls, and making headway in China's real estate market in 2017," she added. "We are proud to be honored with the 2018 Philippines Property Development Industry Growth Excellence Leadership Award. This is truly inspiring and at the same time challenging for us to be always better than ourselves in pursuit of a higher purpose of being a catalyst of economic growth in our country. We will continue to deliver innovative and sustainable lifestyle cities that enrich the quality of life of millions of people while keeping our commitment to our stakeholders as a whole," said SM Prime President, Mr. Jeffrey C. Lim. The recipients of the annual Frost & Sullivan Asia-Pacific Best Practice 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 short-listed companies were 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. About SM Prime Holdings, Inc. SM Prime Holdings, Inc. is one of the largest integrated property developers in Southeast Asia who is committed to its role as a catalyst for economic growth, delivering innovative and sustainable lifestyle cities with the development of malls, residences, offices, hotels and convention centers, thereby enriching the quality of life of millions of people. SM Prime has topped Publicly Listed Companies in Southeast Asia in the ASEAN Corporate Governance Scorecard of 2018. 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? Media Contact Melissa TanCorporate Communications Asia-Pacific Phone: +65.6890.0926Email: [email protected] View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sm-prime-holdings-inc-receives-philippines-property-development-industry-growth-excellence-leadership-award-from-frost--sullivan-300756603.html SOURCE Frost & Sullivan PR Newswire SHANGHAI, Nov. 27, 2018 SHANGHAI, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- WuXi AppTec, a leading global pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device open-access capability and technology platform, today announced that it received the 2018 Global Integrated Drug R&D Services Competitive Strategy Innovation & Leadership Award from Frost & Sullivan, a top-notch business research and consulting firm. WuXi was awarded for the second consecutive year. The award is part of the Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Award series, which recognizes companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. WuXi has been recognized for its excellence in demonstrating innovation and strong growth performance over the years. "Adherence to best practices in service delivery has allowed WuXi AppTec to provide timely results and enable clients to achieve drug R&D and manufacturing cost optimization," said Sanjeev Kumar, Industry Analyst from Frost & Sullivan Transformational Health. "WuXi has succeeded in achieving consistent growth by aligning its growth strategies with changing market needs. The company's focus on addressing customer demand, broad industry coverage, and capacity development through state-of-the-art facilities has enabled WuXi to maintain and expand its client base globally." "Thank you Frost & Sullivan for recognizing WuXi's enabling platform we have been diligently building over the years," said Dr. Ge Li, Chairman and CEO of WuXi AppTec. "It's an honor to serve our innovative partners around the world and help expedite the discovery and development of better medicines for patients." About WuXi AppTec WuXi AppTec is a leading global pharmaceutical and medical device open-access capability and technology platform company with global operations. As an innovation-driven and customer-focused company, WuXi AppTec provides a broad and integrated portfolio of services to help our worldwide customers and partners shorten the discovery and development time and lower the cost of drug and medical device R&D through cost-effective and efficient solutions. With its industry-leading capabilities such as small molecule drug R&D and manufacturing, cell therapy and gene therapy R&D and manufacturing, drug R&D and medical device testing, WuXi platform is enabling more than 3,000 innovative collaborators from more than 30 countries to bring innovative healthcare products to patients, and to fulfill WuXi's dream that "every drug can be made and every disease can be treated." View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/wuxi-apptec-receives-2018-global-integrated-drug-rd-services-competitive-strategy-innovation--leadership-award-from-frost--sullivan-300755745.html SOURCE WuXi AppTec On Nov. 10, more than 250 members of the Clarkston refugee and immigrant communities, Emory and Georgia State University (GSU) researchers and volunteers, and community organization representatives met at GSUs Clarkston campus to learn from each other and lay a foundation for future engagement around multiple important issues affecting these communities. This conference, dubbed the Clarkston Summit, was the kick-off event for the recently established Refugee & Immigrant Health and Wellness Alliance (RIHWA), a partnership among the Emory Global Health Institute (EGHI), Georgia State University, Kaiser Permanente of Georgia, the DeKalb County Board of Health, numerous refugee resettlement agencies, and many other organizations working with refugees and immigrants in Clarkston. Heval Kelli, MD, a Kurdish refugee from Syria who came to Clarkston after 9/11 and is now a cardiology fellow at Emory, first envisioned the Summit in 2016 with Mary Helen OConnor, director for the Center for Community Engagement at GSUs Perimeter College. Parminder Suchdev, EGHI associate director and professor of medicine and public health at Emory University, discussed with Kelli the idea of an Emory collaboration on the project in 2017. In May 2018, Kelli, OConnor, and Suchdev revisited the idea for the Summit, and it took flight. Ever since we met in a Clarkston grocery store more than two years ago, Heval and I have dreamed of creating an event like the Summit. We firmly believed that bringing all of the assets of the community together would result in stronger collaborations and ultimately better support for all community members. As co-chairs of the Summit, we are both thrilled with the feedback we are receiving from the participants and are excited about whats next, says O' Connor. The Summit began with a plenary session and panel discussion that included Clarkston Mayor Ted Terry and City Councilman Awet Eyasu, 11Alive News reporter Neima Abdulahi, and CDC researcher Martin Cetron. Cetron, an expert in international migration, explained the current status of migration to the U.S. and other parts of the world and the role that the CDC plays in ensuring that all refugees who resettle in the U.S. are healthy. He explained that the U.S. receives a small proportion of refugees relative to other countries. In his remarks, Mayor Terry suggested that Clarkston is a future glimpse of America given its diversity and the strength that this diversity brings to the community. Councilman Eyasu and Abdulahi both came to the U.S. as refugees and provided their perspectives on arriving in the U.S. and learning to live in a new culture. Eyasu described his journey from refugee to Clarkston City Councilman and that Clarkstons motto, Where Possibilities Grow, is emblematic of the life he has been able to lead. Abdulahi, who was born in Somalia and resettled in Decatur, Ga. as an elementary school student knowing no English, described how her family would spend weekends in Clarkston because it felt comfortable and a little bit like home. During her remarks, she also indicated that the biggest challenge for her was learning what resources were available and finding mentors to guide and push her. Back row left to right Manal Sidi, RSPH student and EGHI Graduate Research Assistant Lucy Whitehead, RSPH student and EGHI Graduate Research Assistant Neima Abdulahi, Reporter, 11Alive News Parminder Suchdev, EGHI Associate Director, Professor at SOM and RSPH Heval Kelli, Cardiology Fellow, EU SOM Mary Helen OConnor, Director, Center for Community Engagement, GSU Perimeter College Ted Terry, Mayor, City of Clarkston Front row seated left to right Awet Eyasu, Councilman, City of Clarkston Martin Cetron, Director, Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, CDC The fact that the Clarkston Summit attracted so many stakeholders early on a cold Saturday morning is testament to the hard work of the planning committee, which included representatives from Emory, GSU, the CDC, the International Rescue Committee, and Sagal Radio. Britton Tuck, EGHI Program Associate and logistics chair for the committee, will be compiling data gathered during the Summit as preparation for RIHWAs next steps. After the panel discussion, Summit attendees participated in breakout sessions that focused on business development, legal issues, education, mental health, womens health and healthcare access. The event culminated with an expo where community organizations advertised their services and attendees had an opportunity to informally network. Like OConnor, Kelli was pleased with the Summit. We all came together from various fields, experiences, and communities to meaningfully serve each other so that we can serve the underserved community in sustainable ways, he says. Suchdev agrees. We are really excited that the turnout for the Clarkston Summit was as large as it was and that everyone who attended was engaged and had a positive response to our bringing so many different stakeholders together. We are also grateful to Kaiser Permanente of Georgia for supporting the planning process that led to the development of RIHWA and to all of our partners, especially GSU. We are looking forward to examining the information we collected during the Summit to see what we should focus on that would most benefit Clarkston. Holiday shopping insight from the experts Maybe you havent darkened the door of a shopping mall since high school and youre wondering how theyre still around. Or youre curious if you can save a few bucks by getting your brother a knock-off electronic gadget instead of a known brand. Read on as University of Florida experts shed light on all of your holiday shopping mysteries. Are no-name products just as good as the name brand? Store brands are less expensive than nationally advertised products, but will anyone mind if you cook up a holiday feast of no-name items or gift a knock-off TV? UF Warrington College of Business expert Woochel Shin says some store brands are actually better than the big namesbut even he has some brand loyalty. Full story Do online product recommendations actually help? You know the suggested items that pop up when you go to buy something online? Retailers say they generate a huge amount of their sales, but UF Warrington researcher Anuj Kumar wasnt so sure. See what he discovered when he partnered with a major department stores website to see what changed when recommendations werent offered. Full story How is the mall still a thing? It might seem like brick-and-mortar retail stores are fading into obscurity, but dont expect them to go away completely. What were seeing is an overdue adjustment to the realities and limitations of online shopping, Kumar says. He offers five different possibilities for the future of shopping. Full story What if I am the employee who deals with all these holiday shoppers? Have you tried social mindfulness? Warrington researchers Mo Wang, Klodiana Lanaj and Yifan Song found that when customer service workers spent a few minutes thinking about things from a customers perspective, they experienced less mistreatment from customers. When they did have negative interactions, the staffers who practiced social mindfulness didnt dwell on it as much. Full story Whats the safest way to pay? Cybersecurity researcher Patrick Traynor of UFs Wertheim College of Engineering never uses his debit card right before a holiday. Why? Because the fraud protection folks might be off enjoying the holiday, too, which could slow detection of fraudulent activity. A credit card or alternate payment such as ApplePay offers more protection, Traynor says. For tips on shopping safely online, check out this post from UFs Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. Japan's gross domestic product could fall by over 25% in the next 40 years as its population declines, the International Monetary Fund said Wednesday, urging the government to boost productivity through structural reform to mitigate the damage. A rapidly aging and shrinking population "implies a commensurate drag on real output" under current policies, the IMF said in its annual report. The organization consults every year with member countries to get a sense of their economic conditions. Structural reforms are crucial to keeping the economy from slowing too much, the report said. It specifically pushed for a commitment to equal pay for equal work between permanent and irregular workers, on which Japan passed a law in June, and changes to tax and social benefit rules that discourage married women from seeking full-time work. Such efforts, combined with corporate governance reforms and trade liberalization, could "boost real GDP by as much as 15% in 40 years," compared with the baseline scenario, the IMF said. The organization predicted that Japan's economy will grow 1.1% in 2018 but just 0.9% in 2019, due to the consumption tax hike planned for October. While the IMF has pushed for the hike, it still warned that the move could cause the economy to contract. It backed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's proposal to cut auto and housing taxes to soften the blow. - Nikkei Getting a warm meal at the Helping Hands soup kitchen in Brandon has been a vital part of Clayton Pollocks routine for the past six years. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 28/11/2018 (1093 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Advertisement Advertise With Us Ella McLean, Kenzie Albert, Miki Xintong Zhen joined fellow Vincent Massey High School students students with Youth Revolution by serving food to Brandonites at the Helping Hands Soup Kitchen on Seventh Street on Tuesday. (Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun) Getting a warm meal at the Helping Hands soup kitchen in Brandon has been a vital part of Clayton Pollocks routine for the past six years. He sat in front of a full plate of food with meat, gravy, vegetables and potatoes as he spoke with The Sun on Tuesday, in the kitchen that was rapidly filling for lunch. "Its appreciated, you know? People just need something more to connect the dots in their life, and if they didnt have something to eat, what are they going to do?" Pollock said. 27112018 Breanna Shin plays the piano while volunteering with fellow students with Vincent Massey High School's Youth Revolution group at the Helping Hands Soup Kitchen on 7th Street in Brandon on Tuesday. (Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun) Students from Vincent Massey High School were at the soup kitchen on Tuesday helping out, handing out desserts and scooping vegetables. Its good for people in the community to see how the kitchen works, he said. "Its just a different perspective, a different view," he said. "Everyone doesnt have everything, (and) theres always something people can contribute if they feel like they want to understand." The students helping out were part of Youth Revolution a group in the Brandon School Division that does a variety of community outreach initiatives. One of the students, Kenzie Albert, in Grade 10 at Vincent Massey, said she was happy to help people in the community. "Its just a good feeling knowing that you can help someone else that cant help themselves and knowing that maybe you can help them get back on their feet and just help them get their life back in order," Albert said. 27112018 Students with Vincent Massey High School's Youth Revolution group serve food to Brandonites at the Helping Hands Soup Kitchen on 7th Street in Brandon on Tuesday. (Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun) The project started after Melissa Kerrik, a Grade 10 student at the school, helped apply for a Rising Youth Grant funded by the Government of Canada. Once approved, the students decided to take the $1,500 they received to pay for a meal at the Helping Hands soup kitchen on Tuesday. The grant helped pay for the meat, vegetables and desserts for approximately 168 people. Its important for them to have support like this, soup kitch co-ordinator Vandana Jamadagni said. "At this time of the year its really much needed because during cold winter days more and more people are accessing our program," Jamadagni said. "Its really nice to have them reach out and helping us with the food, with the volunteerism. Its really hard to come by. Not every day of the year we get this kind of service." She added that number of people accessing the kitchen has grown in the six years that she has been working at the kitchen. When she first started, they would average about 130 people per meal, and now its closer to 170. 27112018 Karla Avila (C) and fellow students with Vincent Massey High School's Youth Revolution group serve food to Brandonites at the Helping Hands Soup Kitchen on 7th Street in Brandon on Tuesday. (Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun) The lineup curved toward the door on Tuesday as the clock hit noon lunchtime. Albert, 15, was busy at the front, ready to serve the hungry guests. "If we can help one person have a hot nutritious meal, then thats really all we came here for," she said. By her side, also ready to serve the food was Grade 10 student Ella McLean. "I think its really important as somebody whos coming from an able bodied position to be able to give what I can to others who dont have anything," McLean said. Although their Youth Revolution group is involved with many different community initiatives, this one is particularly rewarding, she said. "Its always nice that you can be physically present," she said. "We donate money all the time, but not all the time are you able to have the opportunity to physically give somebody something." The kitchen depends on volunteers like McLean to run. Each day during the lunch hour they require 13 to 15 volunteers to co-ordinate everything, from serving the food, handing out dessert to doing dishes in the back. We are depending on the community," Jamadagni said. "Theyre a great support for us ... Its a big team work (and) during lunchtime is the most hectic time of the day." Without the support they receive from the community, they wouldnt be able to keep their doors open and continue helping out those who need it, she said. "Its kind of different people pitching in to make this a success story, (and) we are all very grateful for the Brandon (help)." mverge@brandonsun.com Twitter: @Melverge5 OTTAWA - Without U.S. global leadership, just a few effective ways remain for Canada and its allies to respond to Russian President Vladimir Putin's latest attack on Ukraine. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 28/11/2018 (1092 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at an annual VTB Capital "Russia Calling!" Investment Forum in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin) OTTAWA - Without U.S. global leadership, just a few effective ways remain for Canada and its allies to respond to Russian President Vladimir Putin's latest attack on Ukraine. Short of dispatching a NATO-led naval show of force that could escalate to all-out war, the West could still hurt Putin by imposing more sanctions, travel restrictions and curbs on Russia's foreign financial transactions, say diplomats and analysts. After seizing three Ukrainian ships and capturing their two dozen sailors in the Kerch Strait between Crimea and the Russian mainland on the weekend, Russia announced Wednesday it would deploy another battery of anti-aircraft missiles to the Crimean Peninsula, bolstering its hold on the region it seized from Ukraine in 2014. The Kremlin also said it would send nine Ukrainian sailors to court to face charges while the remaining 15 linger in prison indefinitely. Canada and other Western countries have called loudly for the release of the sailors, but the rhetoric will continue to fall on deaf ears in Moscow unless they hit Putin in the pocketbook. Michael Bociurkiw, a Canadian-born global-affairs analyst, says strong statements of support for Ukraine and condemnation of Russia including from Canada are appreciated in Kyiv, but they do not deter Putin. "What he really understands are more targeted sanctions, travel restrictions on a wider circle, financial restrictions on overseas transactions, on commercial Russian banks," said Bociurkiw, who until recently served in Kyiv with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. For countries such as Canada, the United States and Britain, that could mean using their "Magnitsky" legislation, which allows them to sanction particular people deemed to have violated human rights, he said. That could prevent Putin's rich oligarch friends from travelling and curtail their ability to buy foreign property and other assets, said Bociurkiw. (The law is named for an accountant who exposed corrupt Russian tax officials and died in prison.) Andriy Shevchenko, the Ukrainian ambassador to Canada, said his country wants Canada to push Magnitsky sanctions especially with its G7 allies. Canada, he says, still holds the chairmanship of the G7 for another month, and should use that position to deal with the current crisis. Canada could also use this week's G20 meeting in Argentina to advance that line of response, said Shevchenko. "We would like to see a joint consolidated response from the free world," he said. "We hope that Canada will help us unify this position among our allies." The Ukrainian government has the names of individual prosecutors, judges, police officers, special-forces members and politicians who could be targeted, said Shevchenko. Canadian government officials, who briefed journalists prior to this week's G20, were non-committal about what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau or Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland might be prepared to do on behalf of Ukraine at this week's summit. Freeland on Twitter called the imprisonment of the sailors "completely unacceptable" and called for their release, adding that an "immediate de-escalation is necessary." Freeland pushed the Ukraine crisis onto the G7 agenda earlier this year. She is headed to meeting of NATO foreign ministers next week. But Bociurkiw says the 28-country military alliance doesn't have the stomach to send an armada through the Kerch Strait to challenge the Russian attempt to gain control over the Sea of Azov, a strategic body of water off Ukraine's south roughly the size of Switzerland. Shevchenko said this weekend's nautical clash represents a significant deepening of the Ukraine-Russia conflict because it marks the first time the Russian military has actively attacked Ukrainian forces. Until now, he said, Russia hid behind rebel separatist forces in eastern Ukraine. "This time they do not hide behind any 'green men,' or local mercenaries, or any rebels or whatever they call them. This time they do it openly," said Shevchenko. "This is a message not just to Ukraine, but to the West. They are trying to say, 'we believe we can do whatever we choose to.' " Bociurkiw said the timing of the latest Russian attack is vintage Putin it comes with Europe mired in uncertainty over Brexit, coupled with the rise of far-right governments in some eastern European capitals, as well as the dominance of a U.S. president who has often appeared too accommodating of the Russian leader. "We're seeing the aftereffects of the U.S. abdicating its traditional role as the world's policeman," said Bociurkiw. Earlier this week, U.S. President Donald Trump blamed Russia for its "aggression" and said he might cancel a meeting with Putin at the G20. But a Kremlin spokesman quickly contradicted the U.S. president on Wednesday, saying Russian fully expects the meeting to take place. Bociurkiw said he expects Trump's anti-Putin bluster to evaporate by the time he reaches Buenos Aires, given the U.S. president's performance next to the Russian leader at their infamous Helsinki meeting this summer. Trump accepted Putin's denial of meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, and faced massive criticism for not defending American interests. "Trump is very, very intimidated by Putin," Bociurkiw said. "They're both alpha males, but this is one male Trump can't stand up to." The son of internet-famed anti-poverty activist Harry Leslie Smith, a war veteran who campaigned to ensure that the sins of the past were not repeated by future generations, is vowing to lead his late father's legions of social media supporters in carrying on his legacy. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 28/11/2018 (1092 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. This Sept. 24, 2014 photo shows World War II veteran and political activist Harry Leslie Smith speaking during the Labour Party annual conference, in Manchester. His son John said on Twitter that Smith died Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018 in Canada at 95 after being hospitalized following a recent fall. (Peter Byrne/PA via AP) The son of internet-famed anti-poverty activist Harry Leslie Smith, a war veteran who campaigned to ensure that the sins of the past were not repeated by future generations, is vowing to lead his late father's legions of social media supporters in carrying on his legacy. John Smith said he feared that with his father's death on Wednesday, the "living history" he embodied is on the verge of extinction, putting us at risk of perpetuating the cycle of calamity that has plagued societies past and present. "I think that means we better grab hold of that message and run with it, or else we are in for as much trouble as Europe was in the 1930s," said Smith, vowing to take on the mantle of his father's fight for justice. "He wanted the generations that followed him to actually build societies that actually care about all of their citizens... That's what I think he wanted his legacy to be." The 95-year-old Smith died early Wednesday morning in hospital in Belleville, Ont., said his son, who had been issuing regular medical updates to his father's 250,000 Twitter followers. The younger Smith said his father was admitted to hospital there last week for pneumonia after contracting an infection and suffering a fall. "I think he has at least planted the seed in many people's hearts that we have to change the way we're going," John Smith said in a phone interview from Belleville. "(His upbringing) reinforced his idea that when a country is only for the few and not the many, that it is a great human rights violation, which is why he always fought against that." News of his passing was met with an outpouring of grief on social media, with Twitter users proclaiming #IStandWithHarry more than 100,000 times since last Tuesday. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was among the chorus of supporters extolling Smith's dedication to championing society's most vulnerable Wednesday. "Throughout his life, Harry Leslie Smith fought and worked to make the world a better place for everyone," Trudeau tweeted. "His legacy will be profound." British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn tweeted that Smith was "one of the giants whose shoulders we stand on," and led the British parliament in a tribute to the veteran. But despite the embrace of politicians and other notables, Smith's son said his dad's moral authority stemmed from his profound ordinariness. Born on Feb. 25, 1923, Harry Leslie Smith grew up in squalor in the small town of Barnsley in Yorkshire, England. In his writing in several publications and books, Smith recounted the sound of his father's boots among the coal miners who made their daily pilgrimage beneath the surface of the Earth. In 1926, he lost his 10-year-old sister to tuberculosis, a disease he attributed to the lack of sanitation in the slum in which his family lived, too poor to afford proper medical care before the formation of the National Health Service. As the Great Depression took hold, Smith would rummage through garbage bins to quell his aching stomach, his son said, and was forced into hard labour at the age of seven to help his family make ends meet. He witnessed the rise of fascism during the Second World War as a member of the British air force, and was deeply affected by the stream of desperate refugees he saw as victims of "other people's wars," said his son. Amid the destruction and bloodshed, however, Smith found the great love of his life a young German woman named Friede Edelmann, his wife of more than five decades before her death in 1999. Having lived in the U.K. through the 1950s, John Smith said his parents decided to move to Canada, a country they believed was less gripped by the strict class divisions that defined the pecking order of British society. "Both my mother and father thought that they needed a neutral country, one where they had no past, but they could have a future," Smith said. As the couple raised three children, John Smith said his father made a living selling rugs to Toronto's upper crust, including former newspaper mogul Conrad Black and Geills Turner, the wife of former Canadian prime minister John Turner. Smith said Harry's hardscrabble youth manifested in a steadfast commitment to give his children the comfortable upbringing he never had. "A lot of people who suffer that type of trauma and PTSD go inwards, and not by their own frailties, they become bitter and lash out at people," he said. "That never happened with my dad." As he entered his twilight years, Smith was shaken by death of his 50-year-old son, Peter, in 2009. And as the Great Recession deepened, Smith saw a resurgence in the same destructive forces that wrought havoc in the early 20th century the dismantling of social-welfare systems, the inequities of unchecked capitalism and the rising threat of nationalism. "He knew if he didn't do something positive with what was left for his time on Earth, he would go mad," John Smith said. "He did not want his past to become our future." Dubbing himself the "world's oldest rebel," the nonagenarian spread his call for justice across the globe in several books, speaking tours through Canada and the U.K., as well as newer modes of communication like social media and podcasting. His books included "Don't Let My Past Be Your Future: A Call to Arms" and "Harry's Last Stand: How the World My Generation Built is Falling Down." John Smith said the elderly social justice warrior's polemics gained particular resonance among many millennials, who heralded him as a member of the greatest generation that built the welfare state, only to have those social safety nets eroded by the baby boomers that followed. "What he always told (millennials) was, 'You will be the greatest generation for the 21st century, because you will be the people that raise the boats for everyone,'" Smith said. Last year, Smith launched a crowdfunding campaign to finance his travels to refugee hotspots to put a spotlight on their plight. John Smith said his father was inspired by how the Allied forces came together to ensure those displaced by the Second World War were clothed, fed and sheltered, and hoped that nations would once again band together to solve the current refugee crisis. The veteran found an ally in the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, said Canada's representative Jean-Nicolas Beuze. "What is remarkable with Harry is that he really dedicated his last energy to flag the risk of again turning our backs on refugees," Beuze said in a phone interview Wednesday. "He had the perspective of history to warn us about not making the mistakes that humanity did before." Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version had the wrong age of Smith's sister when she died. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 28/11/2018 (1092 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. 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. The head of the union representing workers at General Motors' car plant in Oshawa, Ont., says the company's decision could lead to the collapse of the auto-parts industry in Canada. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Eduardo Lima Four stories in the news for Wednesday, Nov. 28 UNION HEAD CALLS FOR TARIFFS ON GM CARS The head of the union representing workers at General Motors' car plant in Oshawa, Ont., says the company's decision could lead to the collapse of the auto-parts industry in Canada. Unifor president Jerry Dias said GM "just showed the president of the United States and the prime minister of Canada their middle finger" by moving production out of the two countries. He said the Liberals should put tariffs on GM exports coming out of Mexico to dissuade the company from following through on its plans. Dias will meet his American counterpart today in Washington to decide what action the unions will take, such as having workers walk out at other GM plants alongside the ones slated to close. FIRST NATIONS WAIT TO BE REPAID FOR WILDFIRE COSTS A central B.C. First Nation is set to meet with provincial government officials today to discuss their struggle to contain the enormous Shovel Lake wildfire this summer. The blaze destroyed 922 square kilometres of Nadleh Whut'en territory near Fraser Lake, including two cabins and a smokehouse at a cultural camp. Chief Larry Nooski says the Nadleh spent about $400,000 on equipment, firefighters, an emergency operation centre and security. He says Emergency Management B.C. assured him it would make the province and federal government reimbursed the First Nation, but it's still waiting. NATIONAL ENERGY BOARD RELEASING STUDY OF SOLAR COSTS Installing solar panels already makes sense for most homeowners in Saskatchewan and Ontario but the National Energy Board says the abundance of cheap hydroelectricity in Quebec and Manitoba means solar power may never make much economic sense in those provinces. In Canada, long, dark winters means it's unlikely solar will ever become the sole source of electricity anywhere. The NEB today is releasing a study of the costs of solar compared to current electricity prices. It has an online site where Canadians can plug in their city name and find out whether there is an economic case for solar for them now or in the future. B.C. PREMIER DEFENDS SPEAKER AS SESSION ENDS Premier John Horgan says he has confidence in legislature Speaker Darryl Plecas even though he wishes the events of the last week at British Columbia's legislature had unfolded differently. Horgan said he believes Plecas will continue to perform his impartial duties despite the disruptive events that resulted in two top officials in the legislature being placed on leave amid an RCMP investigation. The premier made the comments Tuesday at a news conference marking the conclusion of the fall sitting of the legislature, which started Oct. 1. ALSO IN THE NEWS: Gov. Gen. Julie Payette will present the 2018 Governor General's Literary Awards during a ceremony at Rideau Hall. The trial of Edward Downey, 48, continues today. He faces two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Sara Baillie and her daughter Taliyah Marsman. The Humboldt Broncos GoFundMe money hearing will take place to hear how final distribution will occur. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh will hold a media availability in Ottawa to discuss preventing job losses at GM's plant in Oshawa, Ont. Jenny Kwan, NDP critic for immigration, refugees, and citizenship, will hold a press conference in Ottawa today in recognition of the victims of the Nanjing Massacre. MONTREAL - Labrador Innu say caribou meat seized this week by Quebec wildlife officials was a gift from Quebec Cree intended for ceremonial purposes. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 28/11/2018 (1092 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. MONTREAL - Labrador Innu say caribou meat seized this week by Quebec wildlife officials was a gift from Quebec Cree intended for ceremonial purposes. A statement from the Innu Nation said members from the northern Labrador community of Natuashish, including Innu Nation Grand Chief Gregory Rich, were stopped in north-central Quebec Tuesday as they drove home from Chisasibi. The group was fined but of greater frustration was the seizure of the caribou, which they said in a statement is important to "Innu cultural and spiritual survival." They had a letter from the chief of the Chisasibi Cree declaring the caribou meat, packed into coolers, was a gift. They hoped the letter would allow them to transport the meat home. Rich called the behaviour by wildlife officers colonial. The practice of historical sharing between the Cree and the Innu of what is now Labrador goes back to long before the assertion of sovereignty by the Crown, he said in the statement. The Innu said the caribou came from the Leaf River herd. Quebec's Wildlife Department stated in February that the herd's numbers have dropped sharply since the early 2000s. Sport hunting was closed in February and Indigenous harvesting is subject to monitoring. Chisasibi Chief Davey Bobbish said he extended the letter as a courtesy after Rich requested it Monday. He said he warned the Innu he could not guarantee the letter would work if they were stopped by authorities. "The bottom line is other than the beneficiaries of the James Bay Agreement the Cree, the Inuit and the Naskapi no one other than those three nations is allowed to possess caribou according to interpretation of the Quebec legislation," Bobbish said in an interview. He said the Cree have recently opened talks with Innu on Quebec's lower north shore about a possible protocol allowing the Cree to conduct a traditional harvest for the Innu, who are facing dwindling caribou populations in their region. Rich noted in the statement that Innu and Cree have many blood relationships, and he said traditional law supports offering caribou as a gift between the groups. He was not immediately available to comment Wednesday, but he told CBC's Labrador Morning he intends to consult lawyers about the legality of the seizure. "It hurts to know that game wardens don't respect our ceremonial and spiritual purposes of the caribou," Rich told the show. "They told us it was illegal and that we were carrying an illegal meat." Rich said the wildlife officers had a warrant to seize the meat, and they did not accept Bobbish's letter as a defence. "The letter was done out of kindness because they were in the community already and they asked if they could use my letter as a shield to protect their meat," Bobbish said. "But without any agreement, Quebec doesn't recognize one chief's authority to another First Nation." Quebec Wildlife Department officials said they are aware of the incident, but they declined comment. HALIFAX - Ottawa is committed to advancing the Mikmaw Nation and recognizing Indigenous Peoples' inherent right to self-determination, a key federal official told a First Nations self-governance summit in Halifax Wednesday. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 28/11/2018 (1092 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Speaking only in the Mohawk language Quebec Liberal MP Marc Miller delivers a statement prior to question period in the House of Commons in Ottawa on June 1, 2017. The federal parliamentary secretary of Crown-Indigenous Relations says Ottawa remains committed to resetting its relationship with Indigenous Peoples, and getting "out from under the Indian Act." At a summit on First Nations self-governance in Halifax, Marc Miller told delegates that the paternalistic constraints of the Indian Act lead directly to dependency, isolation and indignities. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld HALIFAX - Ottawa is committed to advancing the Mikmaw Nation and recognizing Indigenous Peoples' inherent right to self-determination, a key federal official told a First Nations self-governance summit in Halifax Wednesday. Marc Miller, the parliamentary secretary to the federal Crown-Indigenous Relations minister, said treaty implementation and nation building starts with getting Indigenous Peoples "out from under the Indian Act." "We know the paternalistic constraints of the Indian Act lead directly to dependency, isolation and indignities," he told hundreds of delegates. "Those mistakes must not be repeated." Prime Minister Justin Trudeau launched a national engagement process with Indigenous Peoples earlier this year. A new legislative framework, to be developed in partnership with First Nations, Metis and Inuit, is intended to recognize and implement Indigenous rights and help tackle the many challenges facing Indigenous communities. Miller said Ottawa has held over 100 engagement sessions with more than 1,700 Indigenous rights-holders. He acknowledged the Assembly of First Nations has shared concerns about the timeline and the engagement activities, and says the federal government will work on addressing those concerns. "Your insights are essential if we truly want to reset the relationship between the federal government and Indigenous Peoples," Miller said. The Quebec MP said he recognizes that there is no pan-Indigenous approach to reconciliation, and that Ottawa will listen to the priorities of Indigenous Peoples in the Atlantic region and support the advancement of the Mikmaw Nation. "It comes back to a recognition of your inherent rights to self-govern," Miller told hundreds of delegates at the summit. "Self-determination isn't about giving government to Indigenous groups. It's about recognizing Indigenous governments and the rights that already exist, and have existed since time immemorial." Miller, who garnered applause after opening his remarks in Mi'kmaq, quipped that he hoped his attempt at the Indigenous language "wouldn't set our relations back 10 or 15 years." He added that Indigenous Peoples' control over their own education in their own language is "not only a right but an essential element of identity" and an important part of self-governance. First Nations leaders from across Canada attended the regional summit on self-governance. The three-day event, which wraps up Thursday, is focused on finding a pathway to nationhood for Indigenous Peoples in the Atlantic region known as Mi'kma'ki. The second day of the summit featured a panel with three former Assembly of First Nations national chiefs: Ovide Mercredi, Matthew Coon Come and Georges Erasmus. The Indigenous leaders spoke of their struggles to establish sovereignty for their people and a path forward for the Atlantic region. Erasmus noted that Indigenous Peoples have been strongly influenced by the Indian Act for more than a hundred years. He said First Nations in the Atlantic region have the opportunity to rethink what their governance structure should be. "We all had our own system of governance before," he said, noting that elements of the past that are still relevant could be reintroduced. Meanwhile, Mercredi said the Assembly of First Nations should help Indigenous communities re-establish nationhood. "It should be proactive in terms of the development of laws not with Canada, but with our people. It needs to redirect its focus away from giving advice to Canada, to giving advice to our people." TORONTO - A Progressive Conservative legislator who publicly denounced Ontario's decision to eliminate the independent office of the French-language services commissioner and a planned French-language university broke ranks with her party again Wednesday in supporting an attempt to overturn the measures. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 28/11/2018 (1092 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. TORONTO - A Progressive Conservative legislator who publicly denounced Ontario's decision to eliminate the independent office of the French-language services commissioner and a planned French-language university broke ranks with her party again Wednesday in supporting an attempt to overturn the measures. Amanda Simard, a rookie legislator who represents a largely Franco-Ontarian riding, backed what she called an "important" Opposition motion that aimed to revive the university project and the commissioner's office, saying the province's "partial backtracking" on the issue wasn't enough. Simard said she is not satisfied by the Tory government's announcement late last week that it would create a commissioner position within the office of the provincial ombudsman, establish a Ministry of Francophone Affairs, and hire a senior policy adviser on francophone affairs in the premier's office. No changes were announced in regard to the university. The moves appeared aimed at quelling backlash over the university cancellation and the consolidation of the commissioner's office with the ombudsman's controversial measures unveiled as part of the province's fall fiscal update. "The government's proposals since this initial announcement amount to one step forward but three steps back. If we make this kind of concession, there will be nothing left in a few years," an emotional Simard said in French in the legislature. "Franco-Ontarians are not asking for additional rights or services, we're asking that the existing protections and entities remain in place," she added in English. Simard, who represents the eastern Ontario riding of Glengarry-Prescott-Russell, served as a city councillor in the community of Russell before joining the Tory roster under then-leader Patrick Brown. She holds a law degree from the University of Ottawa and previously worked on Parliament Hill as a policy adviser. The Tories, who have insisted they welcome Simard's input on the issue, had refused to let her speak on the motion Wednesday, saying she expressed interest in doing so too late. She nonetheless seized an opportunity to weigh in during the afternoon debate. The non-binding motion did not pass, however, and Simard did not rise in time to have her vote added to those in favour. She pointed out her mistake but a request to have her vote counted by unanimous consent was rejected. She later voted against the bill that includes the changes to French-language services. Premier Doug Ford said Wednesday he had listened to concerns about the changes and already offered some concessions. "I listened, I heard, we reacted," he said. Ford has said the measures announced in the fall economic statement were necessary to bring down the province's deficit, although he has not said how much would be saved. Simard argued Wednesday the moves would not "contribute in any meaningful way" to the provincial belt-tightening. NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, who introduced the motion to reverse the changes, said there was no warning or consultation on scrapping the university project. Franco-Ontarians are too often forced to fight their government to ensure their rights are respected, she said. "There are too few French-language counter services in too few regions throughout our province as we speak," she told the legislature. "Government consultation on policy decisions are often only offered in English and far too often no consideration is given to the impact the government's decisions have on Franco-Ontarian people and communities." Under the current law, Ontario residents are entitled to receive services in French from the central office of any provincial government ministry or from a branch office located in one of 26 designated areas in the province. Designated areas are those where francophones make up at least 10 per cent of the population, or in the case of a city, those that have at least 5,000 francophone residents. About 80 per cent of Ontario's francophones live in designated areas, which include Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa and London, according to government data. French-language services are also provided by government agencies, but some including hospitals and seniors' homes are not legally required to do so. They may choose to offer services in French, however. As a result, access to French-language services varies greatly, said Linda Cardinal, a professor at the University of Ottawa and research chair in Canadian Francophonie and public policies. "It's not like someone in the majority, who can show up anywhere and will always actively be offered services in English," she said in French. "A francophone who arrives somewhere can't expect to spontaneously be served in French they always have to ensure it's a designated place," she said. "But even then, that service isn't always actively offered, often it's only on demand." In a hospital, for example, even if it is designated bilingual, the person you interact with may not speak French, she said. The loss of an independent French-language services commissioner will lead to the erosion of those services, Cardinal said, because the commissioner proactively monitored the availability of services in French and reminded the government of its obligations. It also conducted studies that proved there was a need for additional French-languages services, such as a standalone university, she said. The ombudsman, meanwhile, has more limited powers and only investigates issues in response to complaints, she said. Apple continued its downward slide after US President Donald Trump suggested that 10% tariffs could be placed on mobile phones, like the iPhone, and laptops made in China. The shares, which have lost about a fifth of their value in a tech market rout since October, fell 1% in New York at one stage. Earlier in the week, Apple briefly ceded its crown as the worlds most valuable publicly traded company to Microsoft. The company already is facing reports of suppliers cutting forecasts, signalling the new iPhone models introduced in September arent selling as well as anticipated. Mr 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 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%, and people could stand that very easily, he said. The US is due to raise import duties on about $200bn (176bn) worth of goods from China to 25% from 10% at the start of January. The vast majority of iPhones and other Apple products are built in China and then exported globally. 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 Mr 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 on 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. RBC analyst Amit Daryanani lowered earnings estimates for the companys March quarter, citing softer demand for the iPhone from Apple suppliers. RBC also lowered its price target on the stock to $235 from $240. Shares of Hon Hai Precision Industry, the biggest iPhone assembler, slipped less than 1% in Taiwan trading and have dropped about 40% this year. - Bloomberg A Derry-based construction company says it could deliver 30 to 40 new builds per month to the Irish housing market. FastHouse specialise in rapid house delivery by building timber frame houses off-site through a panelised system. There has been an increase in interest from companies in Australia and New Zealand in investing in Ireland, the IDA has said, as an Australian travel insurance firm announced 60 jobs in Cork. World Nomads Group, said that it had chosen Cork as its European headquarters to support its international expansion strategy. The firm has 20 existing staff in Cork, which will be increased by 60 in the next 18 months, the firm said. The Cork office will directly manage the companys European travel insurance business. World Nomads Group is part of the Australian healthcare firm, Nib Group, which has more than 1,500 employees in eight countries around the world. World Nomads Groups general manager for Europe, Bernard OSullivan said that the firm was migrating its European travel insurance arrangements from the UK and continental Europe to the Cork office. Tanaiste Simon Coveney said World Nomads Group,s location choice demonstrates the value and attractiveness that Cork and Ireland have to offer to major companies wishing to operate in Europe. It is the second Australian firm to choose Cork as its European base in recent months, with healthcare software firm HealthKit opening its first office outside its home country in September with 10 jobs. The IDA, which has had a presence in the Australian market since 1985, has extended its focus on major cities in Australia beyond Sydney, particularly to Melbourne and Brisbane, saying it is seeing increased activity from the Australian market in recent years. Since 2015, IDA has also targeted the New Zealand market. There are an estimated 65 Australian and New Zealand companies in Ireland employing almost 3,000 people. The IDA has 24 Australian client companies from a range of sectors employing over 1,300 people including Resmed, Macquarie Bank and Computershare and Siteminder. A spokeswoman for the agency said: Key drivers for Australian and New Zealand companies looking to invest in Ireland are European market access and access to talent. The rising cost of rents and property in Dublin is driving C-level business leaders out of Ireland, according to executive search firm Ardlinn. According to Ardlinn, C-level leaders are professionals with aspirations to become Chief Executives, Chief Operations Officers, Chief Financial Officers, or Chief Technical Officers. The firm highlighted recent research which shows that in places such as Blackrock in the capital, workers need to be earning around 165,000 a year just to buy the typically priced house in that area. Ardlinn Founder and Director, Aine Brolly, said the cost of living in Dublin will create significant lack of workplace talent within five years. With Dublin property prices rising by more than 12% in the last year, Irelands capital is now rated in the top 14% of the worlds most expensive cities. They said that the high house prices, and the associated cost of living, are driving out low to medium earners and medium to high earners. Ms Brolly, who previously worked as Senior Vice President in San Franciscos Silicon Valley for Invest NI, said: On speaking to some of Irelands top businesses, there is a growing concern that within 5 years, finding the next generation of C-level talent will be a much more difficult task than it has been previously. "When you look at where the majority of FDI and big business is based in Ireland, it is largely Dublin centred. The problem with that is middle management, and talented professionals, one or two rungs below C-level are being priced out of the market and are increasingly considering options elsewhere. "Having seen this occur first hand in San Franciscos Silicon Valley, where costs forced investors and talent to relocate, I am concerned Dublin could suffer a similar fate." "We have yet to realise the full extent of this issue here, and whilst policies such as new allowances on building height restrictions, tax breaks for landlords and restrictions on short-term lettings are all positive moves, their implementation must be accelerated. We need to support our business leadership cycle by skilling and preparing our next generation of leaders, not forcing them out. She added that the sharp increases in property prices and rents are not being matched by jumps in wages. Household rents are rising at their fastest annual rate since 2007, with house prices doubling since 2012, and now well in excess of levels recorded 10 years ago. She also said that many businesses are facing the reality of a 14% rise in rental properties from 2017 to 2018 which are placing significant pressures on businesses based in Dublin and discouraging new investors from Irelands capital. Ms Brolly said: The rising cost of properties in Dublin is creating serious risk for employers and employees alike. A key reason for big business and FDI basing themselves in Dublin has been access to our indigenous talent which has been nurtured through academia and then workplace development. "The concern for many companies now is that the investment required to train and develop employees for C-level is not being rewarded, with an increasing number now seeing their future elsewhere as they reach their mid to late twenties. - Digital Desk The European Parliament is expected to make changes to a fund that supports workers who have been made redundant as a result of global changes that affect their jobs. The parliament's Employment and Social Affairs Committee recommended the changes to the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) which will be adopted from 2021 onwards. They still have to be agreed by the European Council. One of the major changes is that workers who are made redundant in smaller countries, such as Ireland, will have a greater chance of benefiting from it. From now on, Member States will be able to apply for support when a restructuring event of at least 200 workers takes place. The minimum threshold is currently 500 employees. Ireland South MEP, Deirdre Clune said: "This fund supports workers who are made redundant as a result of global changes that affect their jobs. The EU provides funds to directly support affected workers through upskilling and support to gain alternative opportunities. There had been a threshold of 500 workers or above to apply for the fund but this has proved difficult for small countries. However, the vote said that number should be reduced to 200. This statement reflects the European Parliaments position and will have to be agreed with council but is should benefit smaller countries such as Ireland. Ireland has made 10 successful applications to the EGF. Seven of these applications were submitted on foot of large-scale redundancies from the closure of facilities at Dell, Waterford Crystal, SR Technics (all in 2009), Talk Talk (2011), Andersen Ireland, Lufthansa Technik Airmotive Ireland (2014) and PWA International (2015). With a budget of 1.57bn between 2021 and 2027, this fund will provide support for people who lose their jobs resulting from major changes due to globalisation, including cases where restructuring events happen because of automation, digitalisation or the transition to a low-carbon economy. Cork native Samantha Barry, who recently became editor-in-chief of Glamour magazine, will be will be honoured at UCCs Alumni Achievement Awards on Friday. Ms Barry, who is originally from Ballincollig, was hired by Conde Nast as editor-in-chief of the iconic fashion and beauty media brand in January this year. Minister Katherine Zappone has insisted that the Government are being "prudent" and are prepared for any future financial crash. It comes as the Government budget watchdog the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council warned that the State is pumping up spending while failing to control healthcare spending when it should be planning for the inevitable hard times. While Ms Zappone said it is "really important always to listen" to the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council she dismissed their claims that Budget 2019 is not prudent. "The European Commission's judgement of our Budget is that it's fiscally compliant, secondly I supported [Finance] Minister [Paschal] Donohoe in a number of things that I think he has done in the establishment of the rainy day fund, spending of money but spending it in a way that I think is focused on capital investment which effectively helps us with any of the issues in relation to the overheating of the economy," the Children's Minister said. "So there is significant money spent that way and we are balancing the budget, we are reducing the deficit, we have identified that any additional windfalls, particularly in corporation tax, are going to be used to continue to reduce the deficit." Ms Zappone added: "I think we have been prudent, I do think that we have been prudent, I do appreciate that there is another view being presented to us." She said she is confident that the decisions made in Budget 2019 "establish the foundation" to prepare for any future economic downturn. A parliamentary assistant to former TD Paudie Coffey advised in the run-up to the last general election that he should remain focused on trying to win his seat rather than deal immediately with a response to a newspaper article which was allegedly defamatory, the High Court has heard. Paul Fox, who worked as assistant and advisor to the then deputy, now Senator Coffey, said the Kilkenny People article of January 2016 was "was certainly not going to help" the election campaign over the following few weeks. He said it was difficult to judge at the time because they were gearing up for the campaign and his advice was that was where the focus should be. He agreed with Barney Quirke SC, for Sen Coffey, his advice at that time was "damage limitation in terms of the article". He was giving evidence on the sixth day of Sen Coffey's action against Iconic Newspapers, publishers of the paper, over comments from FG Kilkenny colleague John Paul Phelan TD describing a proposal to bring part of the Kilkenny administrative area in Waterford city as "daylight robbery". 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. Mr Fox said when he (Fox) first discussed the article, Sen Coffey "wasn't happy and described it as lies, he just wasn't very happy". He advised Sen Coffey to deal with it later as they had an election campaign to win. He also advised against seeking a retraction at the time because of the election news cycle and because they could have "got bogged down in the right to reply". A lifelong friend of Sen Coffey and his ministerial driver for two years told the court he became very isolated and "went into his shell" as a result of the article. Michael O'Brien, who also canvassed for Sen Coffey said: It was frightening, it was not the Paudie Coffey I knew. He said the two of them were walking to a hurling match shortly after the publication when one of a group of men shouted "go away Coffey you robber" and there was a big laugh. Mr O'Brien said he was taken aback and Sen Coffey didn't think it was funny. Breandan Coffey, his older brother, said Paudie's demeanour changed after the article and he "went into himself". He told Paudie he needed to do something about it. It "impacted on him horrifically", he said. Earlier, continuing cross-examination by Rossa Fanning SC, for Iconic, Sen Coffey said he was not aware of a revival in interest in "Crotty the Robber" shortly before the Kilkenny People article. Counsel said some people referred to him as a Robin Hood type figure who robbed the rich and gave to the poor while others said he was a bloodthirsty murderer. Mr Fanning put to him not a single person will come and say they thought less of him as a result of the article. Sen Coffey said Crotty was not a fictional character who was hanged for his crimes but the article call him and robber. I am not a robber and immediately someone reads that they associate me with it and I would argue does lower me in a person's view because of the charges made in the article. He agreed no defamation proceedings had been brought by former environment minister Alan Kelly who was also named in the article as having "banded together" with then junior minister Coffey to "commit daylight robbery". In re-examination by his own counsel, Sen Coffey said he would have responded if he had been given an opportunity by the paper before it published its article. He became upset as he spoke of the Coffey name and the community service his father, who was a councillor for 32 years, had given and his mother who was a public health nurse. The attack on him by the newspaper "affected me deeply and took my name away and my family's good name", he said. The trial continues before Mr Justice Bernard Barton and a jury. Businessmen brothers Brian and David Stenson have claimed before the High Court a "vulture fund" has allegedly concocted the wrongful appointment of a receiver over a commercial property they own in Finglas, Co Dublin. Jarlath Ryan Bl for the brothers told the court today that Promontoria (Oyster) DAC has no entitlement to appoint Mr David O'Connor as receiver over the property at Century Business Park in Finglas. Counsel said his clients are not in default of loans acquired by the fund from Ulster Bank in 2004, and the fund is attempting to put his clients effectively "out on the street". Mr Ryan, instructed by Downes Solicitors, said it is his client's case that the fund is seeking to enforce the premature payment of a debt owed by them in respect of the loans. Counsel said last February and September the fund issued demands for repayment of just over 2m claiming his clients had defaulted on the loans that Promontoria acquired from Ulster Bank in 2016. While his clients reject the fund's claim they have defaulted on what they say are performing loans the fund proceeded in October to appoint Mr O'Connor as receiver over the premises. As a result of the appointment, the brothers seek various orders against Promontoria and Mr O'Connor of BDO including injunctions preventing the defendants from interfering with their property rights, and from alienating, using, letting or marketing the property. In their proceedings, Brian Stenson from Donabate, Co Dublin and David Stenson from Malahide, Co Dublin in their proceedings also seek declarations that no default of the loan agreement has occurred. They also seek declarations that Promontoria is bound by the terms of the loan agreement acquired from Ulster Bank and that Mr O'Connor is not entitled to act as a receiver in respect of the property. The Stensons took out loans with Ulster Bank in totalling just over 2.23m which they used to acquire the unit. The loans are not due to expire until 2029. Counsel said the premises were leased to a pet food wholesale business. However, a new tenant, a logistics business, has been in place since 2017. Counsel said Promontoria had refused to consent to the new lease. He said this refusal was without commercial rationale or merit. Counsel said how could his clients pay the mortgage if it did not have tenants in place, adding that the lack of consent was an attempt to engineer an artificial default so the "vulture fund" could call in the loans. Counsel said payment on the loans are fully up to date, and that Promontoria is ignoring the construction of the correct construction of the loan agreements. The matter came before Ms Justice Leonie Reynolds today. The Judge granted the Stenson's lawyers permission, on an ex parte basis, to serve short notice of the proceedings on the fund and Mr O'Connor. The case will come back before the court next week. Update 3pm: Areta Leliukaite has been found safe and well. Gardai carrying out inquiries into an unrelated incident found Areta in Heuston Station this afternoon. She has been returned home. Earlier 9.57am: Gardai are seeking the public's assistance in locating 15-year-old Areta Leliukaite who is missing from the Navan area since November 23. She is described as being 5'5", with long brown hair, of slim build with brown eyes. When last seen, Areta was wearing a green jacket, grey leggings, and black Nike shoes. Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to contact gardai in Navan on 046 9079930. Digital Desk The High Court has permitted an appeal of its decision to extradite a man to Poland, holding that there was at least the possibility of "another view prevailing in relation to controversial justice reforms in the EU Member State. The case concerns Artur Celmer (31), who is wanted to face trial in his native Poland on drugs trafficking charges. Mr Celmer, who was arrested in Ireland on foot of a European Arrest Warrant last year, has been fighting his proposed extradition to his native Poland over radical reforms to the justice system in his country, which has put Poland at odds with the European Union in recent years. In March, Ms Justice Aileen Donnelly, the High Court judge in charge of extradition, asked the European Courts for a ruling on the effect of Polands justice reforms. She said recent legislative changes in Poland were so immense, the High Court was forced to conclude that the common value of the rule of law had been "systematically damaged" and democracy in Poland had been breached. In a landmark ruling, the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) in Luxembourg, advised the High Court that it must assess whether there was a specific risk to Mr Celmer that his fair trial rights would be breached, notwithstanding general deficiencies in the Polish justice system. Ordering his surrender last week, Ms Justice Donnelly said the High Court was only concerned with determining whether the issues in Poland specifically related to Mr Celmer, in accordance with the CJEUs ruling. However, she permitted an appeal of her decision today/yesterday(WEDNESDAY) on foot of an application by Mr Celmers lawyers. Ms Justice Donnelly said the High Courts interpretation of the CJEU ruling was not so clear cut that it was beyond argument. There was the possibility of "another view prevailing. If there was at least a possibility that the High Courts interpretation of the CJEU decision was incorrect, then an appeal to a higher Irish court was desirable in the public interest, she said. She raised the possibility that, given the precise legal nature of the case, the issue was likely to end up in the Irish Supreme Court. She said all sides may wish to consider a "leapfrog" appeal straight to the Supreme Court rather than the Court of Appeal "especially in light of the impact the case was having on other extradition proceedings. Ms Justice Donnelly said the question to be determined by a higher Irish court required formalisation. She proposed asking whether generalised and systemic deficiencies in the independence of the judiciary in an EU member state were sufficient to establish grounds for believing a specific accuseds fair trial rights would be breached. She put a stay on the order for Mr Celmers surrender for 11 days. Earlier in the proceedings, Ms Justice Donnelly sought specific assurances in respect of Mr Celmer after Polands Deputy Justice Minister was quoted as calling him a "dangerous criminal" connected to a "drugs mafia", despite the presumption of innocence. President of the Warsaw Regional Court, Judge Joanna Bitner, wrote to the High Court in September assuring Ms Justice Donnelly that any and all such statements by politicians and the media were absolutely irrelevant and had no impact on a judges decision making process. She said judges in Poland were independent and subject only to the Polish Constitution and laws. However, Judge Piotr Gaciarek, also of the Warsaw Regional Court, told the High Court that it was not true for his superior to have said the independence of judges and courts in Poland was not presently at risk. Judge Gaciarek told the High Court that laws adopted within the last three years and the practical operation of those laws by politicians currently in power posed very serious threats to the Polish justice system. Judge Gaciarek referred to a number of his colleagues who had already been disciplined by the governments new disciplinary body for judges. He said the common denominator for all recent disciplinary actions taken against judges in Poland was the fact that they have been taken against judges who openly criticise the amendments pushed by the Government and the Minister of Justice whose aim was to have courts and judges under a political control. Judge Gaciarek said comments from Polands Deputy Justice Minister should be perceived as a typical rhetoric of politicians currently in power, who build their position among voters based on illegitimate and unjust attacks on courts and judges. UPDATED U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said that the countrys higher education system is in crisis thanks in part to a government takeover of the student lending system put in place by the Obama administration. But her contention was quickly fact-checked by a former GOP Senate staffer and other higher education experts. Our higher ed system is the envy of the world, but if we, as a country, do not make important policy changes in the way we distribute, administer, and manage federal student loans, the program on which so many students rely will be in serious jeopardy, DeVos told the Federal Student Aid Training Conference in Atlanta in prepared remarks on Tuesday Students are taking out tens of thousands of dollars in debt but many are misinformed or uninformed as to the implications of taking on that debt and their responsibilities to pay it back. Student debt, she said, is now 10 percent of national debt. The student loan program is not only burying students in debt, it is also burying taxpayers and its stealing from future generations, she said. DeVos offered solutions for ballooning student debt, including giving students the opportunity to pursue the postsecondary path thats right for them, even if thats not a four-year college degree. She also called for boosting innovation. And she appeared to take a swipe at the free-college movement, whose champions include Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate. Nothing is free, DeVos said. Someone, somewhere ultimately pays the bills. But Clare McCann, the deputy director for federal policy on higher education at the New America Foundation, said she sees DeVos making an argument that its not worth investing in low-income students who are more likely to take out loans to finance post-secondary degrees. I think one thing you see in here, reading somewhat between the lines is that she clearly would like Congress to evaluate the benefits that exist under the student loan program. Which is not necessarily a bad idea, actually, said McCann, citing public service loan forgiveness that disproportionately benefits graduate students. On the other hand, you could read some of this to sort of suggest that we shouldnt be lending money to low-income students, which kind of flies in the face of the entire concept of the student loan program, added McCann, who served in the Obama administration. If the implication here is that low-income students arent worth the investment, thats not what weve seen, its that low-value programs are not worth the investment. The secretary, though, made a point of saying that helping students cover the cost of post-secondary education should be a priority. First, people--human capital--are our greatest national resource, she said in the speech. Its in our nations interest to support individual students interests, to support their potential, their creativity, their destiny. Every person should have the opportunity to pursue the education thats right for them. DeVos blamed spiraling debt in part on the Obama administrations decision to phase out the Federal Family Education Loan Program, which relied on government-backed lenders, in favor of the Direct Lending program, in which students borrow right from the treasury. Since 2010, when the previous administration orchestrated a government takeover of student lending, FSAs portfolio has skyrocketed. Over 8 percent annual growth. Two times faster than the growth of the cost of attendance and almost four times faster than the growth of our economy, DeVos said. But that statement is utterly false according to Jason Delisle, who worked for Republicans on Capitol Hill and now serves as a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a think tank funded in part by DeVos family. It is nearly impossible to imagine that, had the 2010 switch to direct lending not happened, outstanding student debt would be lower today, Delisle wrote in a 2017 paper. Just saw @BetsyDeVosED repeat the completely illogical claim that government student lending increased because of changeover to direct loans in 2010. Utterly false. I have a 2017 paper intended to rebut that exact myth. https://t.co/EQiDCr2c7Y pic.twitter.com/o0kEkp206B Jason Delisle (@delislealleges) November 27, 2018 DeVos also claimed that when the federal government bolsters student loan money, colleges raise their rates. Student loans account for 80 percent of the actual tuition and fee revenue received by schools, she said. Thats a contention made by one of DeVos predecessors, Bill Bennett, who served as President Ronald Reagans secretary of education. And theres no evidence that its true, said McCann. This is a classic one that conservatives often like to throw out there simply isnt true, she said. And Ben Miller, the senior director for postsecondary education at the left-leaning Center for American Progress, questioned DeVos estimate that student loans account for 80 percent of colleges revenue. Even among exclusively full time students, who presumably represent a larger % of tuition revenue, only 2/3 get any federal aid. Again, thats not the same as tuition revenue, but seems unlikely that federally aided make up a larger share of tuition revenue than enrollment pic.twitter.com/qXbuSgDGts Ben Miller (@EduBenM) November 27, 2018 Whats more, DeVos proposed solutions for skyrocketing student debate arent well-defined, said Barmak Nassirian, director of federal policy American Association of State Colleges and Universities. Its appropriate to flag the issues of cost and student debt as a significant problem area, he said. But the added that the remedies that the secretary offers are way too sketchy and exceedingly vague. Quick eight-week certification programs or apprenticeships arent a substitute for postsecondary coursework, he said. And hes not certain what the secretary means by innovation and when she expects the nation would see results from changes, given that a college degree is a lifetime investment. U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos listens during a meeting between President Donald Trump and business leaders in the State Department Library of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House on April 11. --Evan Vucci/AP Cant get enough of Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos? Check out some of our best coverage: Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 . A district judge said it was very negligent of motorists to leave their cars unlocked overnight in the driveways of their homes. Judge Olann Kelleher made the comment at Cork District Court in a case where the culprits modus operandi was to walk through suburban areas in the early hours of the morning and check for unlocked cars outside houses. The judge said that from the point of the crimes themselves it did not take from the seriousness of the offences the fact that the cars were unlocked. Kelvin McNamara, aged 19, of 79 Ardmore Avenue, Knocknaheeny, Cork, pleaded guilty to all the charges against him at Cork District Court today. The counts were of theft and attempted theft at houses in the Blackrock and Beaumont areas. Sergeant John Kelleher said the accused and another man who was not before the court today were seen on CCTV between 3am and 5am on January 16 in those areas. In one theft at Silverdale Avenue, 20 was taken, in another at Lindville, 80 was taken together with a Huawei phone. Frank Buttimer, solicitor, said McNamara had a background of education and addiction difficulties. A total jail term of eight months was imposed in respect of all of the offences. Judge Olann Kelleher said at Cork District Court, It is very negligent of the owners to leave cars unlocked all night outside their homes. Update 4.45pm: The man killed in a fatal crash in Co Monaghan last night has been remembered as an active member of his community. Stephen Marron served as assistant sacristan at Saint Marys Church, Castleblayney and Saint Patricks Church, Oram. His fellow parishioners are "shocked and deeply saddened" by his death. "The priests and all the people of the Parish of Muckno are shocked and deeply saddened by the sudden and tragic death of Stephen Marron as a result of an incident on Main Street, Castleblayney last night," a statement from the parish of Muckno said. "Stephen was an active member of our parish community, serving as assistant sacristan at Saint Marys Church, Castleblayney and Saint Patricks Church, Oram. "Stephen also served as a Minister of the Word at our liturgical gatherings and was a member of our Parish Safeguarding Committee. He was a devoted member of the wider Castleblayney community, particularly through sports organisations. Above all, Stephen was a loving and devoted husband and father, a son, brother, and a good friend to many. Parish Priest of Muckno, Canon Shane McCaughey said Mr Marron was the community's "go-to-man". "Stephen was the go-to-man for everyone in the community of Muckno parish," he said. "Stephen bore witness to his faith through the generosity and kindness that he showed to all who were in any kind of need." He said the parish will pray for all affected by the incident. Digital Desk Earlier: Man killed in Monaghan crash that also injured garda named Update 4pm: Gardai investigating a fatal crash in Co Monaghan last night have named the man killed in the incident as Stephen Marron, 47, from Castleblayney. Mr Marron was driving a Skoda on Main Street when the crash occurred. Garda Michael Devlin stopped a man driving an Audi at the garda station in the town. The motorist then drove off, dragging the garda along with him for roughly 500 metres before crashing into Mr Marron's car. The scene of the fatal accident in Castleblayney, Co Monaghan. Photos: Ciara Wilkinson Garda Devlin, 31, who was injured has now been discharged from hospital. He is stationed in Monaghan Garda Station. A 34-year-old man who was arrested at the scene remains in custody at Carrickmacross Garda Station under the provisions of Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984. Gardai have renewed their appeal for witnesses that may have been in or around Castleblaney last night at the time of the collision to contact Carrickmacross Garda Station on 042 9690190, The Garda Confidential Telephone Line 1800 666 111, or any Garda Station. Earlier: GSOC investigating after man killed and garda injured in Monaghan crash Update - 2pm: The Garda Ombudsman is to launch an investigation after a man was killed and a garda was injured following a road collision in Monaghan last night. Gardai referred the matter to GSOC after the incident in Castleblayney which began with the garda stopping a man driving an Audi at the garda station in the town. The motorist then drove off, dragging the garda along with him for roughly 500 metres before crashing into a Skoda on Main Street. A man in his 40s who was driving the Skoda was killed in the collision while the garda was taken to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda with facial, head and leg injuries. GSOC have deployed a team of investigators to the scene and an examination of the incident continues. Under Section 102 of the Garda Siochana Act, 2005, an independent investigation can be carried out "of any matter that appears to indicate that the conduct of a member of the Garda Siochana may have resulted in the death of, or serious harm to, a person". The investigation into the incident continues to be carried out by An Garda Siochana. Earlier: Man, 40s, killed after collision in Monaghan A man in his 40s has died and a Garda has been injured following a collision in Co Monaghan overnight. The crash involving two cars occurred on Main Street in Castleblayney at around 11.30pm. Shortly before the incident, a garda had attempted to stop a silver Audi A6 in the town, but when the man drove off the garda was dragged by the car for about 500 metres before it crashed into another car, a Skoda Octavia. The driver of the Skoda was pronounced dead at the scene. The Garda, who's in his late 20s is being treated for facial, head and leg injuries at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda. The driver of the Audi, a man in his 40s, was arrested and is being held at Carrickmacross Garda Station. The Main Street is closed while Garda Forensic Collision Investigators and Crime Scene Examiners attend the scene. Any witnesses are asked to contact gardai. Digital Desk A rapist jailed for 12 years who successfully challenged the constitutionality of a law stopping payment of the State's old age pension to prisoners is entitled to 10,000 in damages, the Supreme Court has ruled. The five-judge court unanimously concluded last July that the relevant law - Section 249.1 of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 - which disqualifies persons who are otherwise qualified for various welfare benefits, from receiving "any" of those benefits, including the old age contributory pension, while imprisoned or detained in legal custody was unconstitutional. The State may not operate a disqualification regime that applies only to convicted persons because it constitutes an additional punishment not imposed by a court dealing with an offender, it held. Following its decision, the court adjourned the matter to consider further legal argument as to the precise form of order which should be made and to determine if the man, who cannot be identified To protect his victim, was entitled to substantial damages. The matter returned before the court today for final orders when the court formally declared the relevant section of the 2005 Act to be invalid and in breach of the Constitution. In his judgement, Mr Justice Donal O'Donnell said he hoped the Oireachtas would address the question in a comprehensive and humane way and would produce an outcome consistent with the Constitution. The judge also said the man would have had an entitlement to the old age pension had it not been for the existence of Section 249.1.b. While the man's capacity to recover damages was significantly limited, he was entitled to recover arrears for unpaid pension and should receive 10,000 in compensation. The court noted that some 7,500 of that sum has already been paid on account. The Chief Justice, Mr Justice Liam McKechnie and Ms Justice Iseult O'Malley concurred with Judge O'Donnell's findings. Mr Justice John MacMenamin expressed a different view on that issue after holding that the man had no entitlement to damages on the basis that the section was invalid only from today's date. In addition the judges were unanimous that the Supreme Court does have a jurisdiction to delay the making of a declaration of invalidity or to make a deferred order. The judgements all emphasise that this jurisdiction should be exercised sparingly. The case was brought by a 76-year-old prisoner jailed after he was convicted on 14 counts of rape and 60 counts of sexual assault against a family member. During his working life he made PRSI contributions and, when he retired in 2005, got the State contributory pension. After his conviction in 2011, that payment stopped. He took High Court proceedings over that, seeking a declaration Section 249.1 is incompatible with the Constitution and European Convention on Human Rights and sought damages. After the High Court rejected his challenge, he was given permission to appeal to the Supreme Court. The core issue was whether a prisoner has a constitutional right to payment of the State contributory pension. The State opposed the challenge. The man's weekly prison allowance is 11.90, less than the normal weekly allowance of 18.90 due to his inability to engage in work activities in prison. He claimed he had insufficient funds to buy items in the prison tuck shop and relied on clothes provided by the prison service or St Vincent de Paul. He also argued some other prisoners had access to non-State pensions. In July Mr Justice MacMenamin, giving the unanimous judgment, said, while the State argued the law was intended to prevent "unjust enrichment" of prisoners, its true effect "can be described as punitive, retributive, indiscriminate and disproportionate". The measure is an additional punishment not imposed by a court and is therefore in breach of the separation of powers and Articles 34 and 38 of the Constitution, he said. Those provide justice shall be administered in courts and no person shall be tried on any criminal charge except in due course of law. In this case, the man is entitled to the pension and the reason for his disqualification from entitlement was the fact of imprisonment, the judge said. Update November 27, 5pm: Kalem Murphy has been located safe and well. Gardai are asking for the publics assistance in tracing the whereabouts of 17-year-old Kalem Murphy who is missing from his home at Lahinch Road, Ennis, Co. Clare. Kalem was last seen in the Whitewater Shopping Centre, Newbridge, Co. Kildare on Saturday afternoon. From here it is understood he may have travelled to Kilmainham in Dublin. He is described as being 6-foot tall, of thin build, he has light brown hair and blue eyes. When last seen he was wearing a white hooded top, black Adidas tracksuits pants and navy Nike runners. Anyone who has seen Kalem or who can assist in locating him is asked to contact Newbridge Garda Station 045-440180, The Garda Confidential Line 1800 666 111 or any Garda Station. Digital Desk Racegoers will have to be up at the crack of dawn, quite literally, as early-morning greyhound races are being introduced to Ireland. Early-risers face 8:18am starts to watch the weekday races in Kilkenny and Waterford in the coming months. The new fixtures, announced by the Irish Greyhound Board, are targeted at expanding their televised offering to UK and Irish betting shops, as well as online operators, as part of SISs exclusive streaming portfolio. The first 8:18am meetings will start on Wednesday mornings in Kilkenny next month. Kilcohan Park in Waterford will host its early starts on Thursday mornings from January 2019 on. Irish Greyhound Racing is now broadcast to in excess of 4,000 betting shops in the UK, said Joe Lewins, Director of Tote Wagering and IT with the Irish Greyhound Board. This gives the IGB, and the Irish greyhound industry as a whole, further opportunity to showcase our racing product to the SIS audience and to build on the success of the meetings currently being broadcast throughout Ireland and the UK. The IGB welcomes the extension of the SIS programme in both Waterford and Kilkenny. We will continue to promote the product so that Irish greyhound racing can benefit from those exposures and revenues. ANZ chief Shayne Elliott says the bank will introduce a cap on how much credit can be drawn down on online gaming platforms in a bid to help problem gamblers. Giving evidence at the banking royal commission on Thursday, Mr Elliott also revealed the bank was looking at stopping providing funding to the tobacco industry. ANZ chief executive Shayne Elliott leaves the royal commission on Thursday. Credit:Joe Armao Mr Elliott was called to give evidence at the royal commission after ANZ was accused of a litany of misconduct including treating customers unfairly and breaches of responsible lending laws. This included that ANZ was the worst of the big banks when it came to adhering to laws that it must notify the corporate regulator within 10 days of discovering a significant breach of the law and that ANZs five instances of overcharging fees to customers impacted 2 million accounts. Christmas came early for the burgeoning buy now pay later sector and its market darling leader Afterpay Touch after the corporate regulator confirmed that its desire to tighten rules would not see it require the companies to act like credit card or loan issuers. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) on Wednesday issued a keenly anticipated report on the sector showing two million people now use its services with those customers owing more than $900 million as of the end of June. "They've got a lot of alerts so I'm never caught off guard": Eleanor Brown Credit:Luis Enrique Ascui In a key finding, ASIC did not recommend that the sector be brought under the National Credit Act, which would compel companies like Afterpay to take steps to ensure the credit it provides is not unsuitable for consumers. This is despite concerns from some consumer groups about an explosion in the use of buy now pay later services particularly with millennial customers many of whom are students who are in part-time employment or unemployed. Google's own employees have publicly called for the search giant to abandon plans to develop a censored search engine for the Chinese market to meet the communist government's requirements for it to start operating again in the country. Google confirmed the existence of the secretive project to re-enter China, code-named Dragonfly, last month. The development of a search engine that complies with China's censorship regime would allow Google to re-enter the market after a decade's absence. A letter published online, signed by 60 Google employees, said they are among thousands of the company's employees who have "raised our voices for months" about the controversial project. A day trader told a London jury that he 'freaked out' when a friend told him she was a compliance officer for UBS Group AG, fearing their relationship put them both into jeopardy. Fabiana Abdel-Malek is accused of insider trading. Credit:Bloomberg Walid Choucair, 39, said he gave Fabiana Abdel-Malek a burner phone when she told him, because he was nervous about how it looked that he was partying with a compliance officer at the investment bank, which advised many of the companies he traded. Both are on trial for insider trading. "She hits me with the bomb," Choucair said Monday during his first day of testimony. "She's got access to inside information. She's the keys to the Garden of Eden. And I'm in a situation. I was like, 'Whoa, whoa.'" [November 28, 2018] Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Modernizes Regional Travel with Unified Payment System Powered by Salesforce SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Salesforce (NYSE:CRM), the global leader of CRM, today announced that the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) is transforming how people pay for travel throughout the region with a new solution called TAPforce. The idea for the innovative hybrid system was originated by Invoke Technologies and architected, implemented and launched on the Salesforce Platform by Publicis.Sapient. TAPforce adds a cloud-based layer to the existing TAP Card System and enables one centralized place for program signup and TAP payment spanning several new programs, beginning with Metro Bike Share. L.A. Metro, the agency that operates the TAP smart card system on behalf of 27 agencies, wanted to improve payment options for its smart card system, which is used in 99 rail stations and on 3,800 buses in Los Angeles County. Rather than spending half a billion dollars building a completely new system, L.A. Metro took a hybrid approach by layering existing infrastructure with Salesforce, providing the modern connections that today's transit customers expect at a fraction of the cost. The agency partnered with Publicis.Sapient to replace its CRM system with Salesforce Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud and Community Cloud, creating TAPforce, which allows customers to view ride history, add funds to their TAP cards or TAP accounts, order new cards,and sign up for new programs from a single digital hub. It also empowers vendors to order new cards and report issues easily. TAPforce allows new payment solutions such as PayPal, and includes a "Pay Near Me" feature that allows customers to load their TAP accounts with cash at nearby retailers such as CVS and 7-11. In addition to offering new payment options, the new solution will enable L.A. Metro to quickly incentivize customers with promo codes and discounts that can be conveniently shared across programs. In 2019, L.A. Metro will launch the new TAP mobile app, TAP rewards an more payment options such as Apple Pay and Android Pay. The TAPforce solution acts as a one-stop shop for payment and program sign-ups for multiple account-based transportation options in Los Angeles. Metro Bike Share is the first program to integrate with TAPforce, enabling customers to sync their bikeshare account with their TAP account. This integration opens doors for consolidation of other transportation optionsL.A. Metro plans to connect payments for scooter sharing, parking, electric vehicle charging, micro transit, toll lanes, ride-hailing and other account-based programs through TAPforce in 2019. "TAP is revolutionizing transportation services in Los Angeles by using Salesforce to build a new hybrid payment system that complements and expands existing transit, enables new options for moving people off our crowded freeways and is also easy on our taxpayers' wallets," said Robin O'Hara, Executive Officer, L.A. Metro. "While many major cities are still talking about building these sophisticated systems, L.A. has actually begun. Enabling Metro Bike Share customers to pay with their TAP accounts, in addition to future payment connection plans with other transit programs, is paving the way for smarter transportationand smarter cities." "Legacy systems are not built to meet the demands of the modern consumer who wants personalized experiences," said Chad Kaltenstein, Director, Professional Services, Publicis.Sapient. "Our deep Salesforce knowledge allows us to create innovative solutions for our clients that help them deliver enhanced customer experiences." "As the world becomes more connected, cities, counties, regions and their underlying infrastructure need to innovate if they are to stay relevant and impactful," said Dave Rey, EVP of North America Public Sector, Salesforce. "With Salesforce, L.A. Metro is transforming the way people of Los Angeles engage with public transportation by providing them with a modern, personalized way to pay for travel." About Metro The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) is unique among the nation's transportation agencies. Created in 1993, Metro is a multimodal transportation agency that transports about 1.3 million passengers daily on a fleet of 2,200 clean air buses and six rail lines. The agency also oversees bus, rail, highway and other mobility-related building projects and leads transportation planning and programming for Los Angeles County. About Publicis.Sapient Publicis.Sapient, the digital business transformation hub of Publicis Groupe, helps clients drive growth and efficiency and evolve the ways they work, in a world where consumer behavior and technology are catalyzing social and commercial change at an unprecedented pace. With 16,000 people and 60+ offices around the globe, our expertise spanning technology, data sciences, consulting and creative combined with our culture of innovation enables us to deliver on complex transformation initiatives that accelerate our clients' businesses through creating the products and services their customers expect. For more information, visit www.publicis.sapient.com . About Salesforce Salesforce, the global CRM leader, empowers companies to connect with their customers in a whole new way. For more information about Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), visit: www.salesforce.com . View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/los-angeles-county-metropolitan-transportation-authority-modernizes-regional-travel-with-unified-payment-system-powered-by-salesforce-300756610.html SOURCE Salesforce [ Back to the Next Generation Communications Community's Homepage ] Under her eye. For decades, ardent fans of Margaret Atwood's dystopian classic, The Handmaid's Tale, have been demanding a sequel. And for years, Atwood has demurred. Until now. The Canadian author has decided to continue the tale more than three decades after it was first published. On Wednesday, she announced she will publish The Testaments, a sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, in September 2019. Set 15 years after the final scene of The Handmaid's Tale, the novel features three female narrators. In a statement released by her publisher, the 79-year-old said she decided to return to the story not just because of her voracious fans, but because she wanted to explore the eerie parallels between her imagined dystopia and our current political climate. A stop order placed on the derelict Broadway Hotel after a fire in September all but gutted the remaining structure will expire by December 3, but Environment Minister Leeanne Enoch has promised to renew it before the expiry. The state government and Brisbane City Council are at loggerheads over who is responsible for further enforcement action to prevent the heritage-listed building from further degradation after multiple fires made it unsafe. Fire crews brought in aerial appliances to fight the flames that destroyed the hotel in September. The state government issued the stop order, aimed to prevent the demolition of the remaining structure, was issued shortly after the fire. The council issued several enforcement actions against the owner of the Broadway Hotel, Malcolm Nyst, including a show-cause notice which Dr Nyst has until December 14 to respond to. People who spoke to police about the unsolved 1989 murder of a Queensland teenage girl were considered "dogs" who were breaking a code of silence, an inquest has heard. Annette Mason, 15, was found raped and beaten to death in her bed in a house she shared with friends after a night out in Toowoomba. Witness, Margaret Reis is seen leaving the Brisbane Coroners Court in Brisbane on Wednesday. Credit:AAP A Brisbane inquest is hearing evidence from an extended circle of people, many of whom were consuming alcohol and drugs heavily at the time, associated with main persons-of-interest Michael Laine and Allan McQueen. Witness Margaret Reis has testified she heard multiple stories about Annette's death but her empathy was inhibited by her drug-taking. Residents were warned they could die if they refused to evacuate as fierce bushfires ravaged Queensland. An unprecedented catastrophic fire danger warning, the highest on the scale, was issued for Capricornia, the Central Highlands and Coalfields regions on Wednesday, as about 138 fires burnt across central and north Queensland and dry, hot winds wreaked havoc with firefighting efforts. QFES predictive services inspector Andrew Sturgess, Fire Commissioner Katarina Carroll, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, State Disaster Coordinator Bob Gee and Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster David Grant at the Kedron Emergency Services Centre. On Wednesday afternoon, 8000 people were ordered to evacuate from Gracemere, just outside Rockhampton, without packing belongings due to a fast-moving fire. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk described the conditions as "catastrophic". Avreet Jhinger, 8, died after she was struck by a car in Doncaster. An eight-year-old who died on Thursday morning after being hit by a car has been described by her devastated family as a "princess" who loved to study and dress up. Avreet Jhinger, a pupil at Templestowe Park Primary School, was hit near a notoriously dangerous intersection in Melbourne's east on Wednesday evening. Police believe she ran out in front of the vehicle. In a statement released to Channel Nine, Avreet's family said she liked to dance and play games on her iPad. "She was our princess." The Morrison government is warning it would pursue tit-for-tat referrals to the High Court if Labor and the crossbench force Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton to test his eligibility for Parliament under section 44 of the constitution. That prospect became more likely on Tuesday after former Liberal MP Julia Banks quit the party to sit on the crossbench and remained silent on the question of referring Mr Dutton. Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton faces another attempt to refer his eligibility to the High Court. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Independent MP Kerryn Phelps has been briefed by Attorney-General Christian Porter and shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus but late on Tuesday she was yet to decide how she would vote on a referral motion. Fairfax Media understands Cathy McGowan, another independent who previously voted to refer Mr Dutton, was re-examining the issue on Tuesday in light of the rapidly changing events in Parliament. Liberal Party branch members and sitting MPs have privately urged Dave Sharma to oust Tony Abbott from Parliament, as consensus grows in Canberra that the former prime minister needs to leave politics to let the Coalition heal from an expected election loss. But Mr Sharma - who lost last month's byelection in the neighbouring electorate of Wentworth to independent Kerryn Phelps - rebuffed the advances and is focused on recontesting the seat next year. Mr Sharma confirmed multiple Liberal Party figures had urged him to run in Warringah, a prized seat on Sydney's northern beaches held by Mr Abbott since 1994. "I've never considered it as anything more than a ridiculous suggestion," Mr Sharma told Fairfax Media. At 6.55pm on Tuesday, the office of leader of the house Christopher Pyne sent out a housekeeping email notifying journalists of the parliamentary sitting calendar for 2019. The government of the day has the power to determine the sitting schedule, just as it has the power to set an election date. Manager of opposition business Tony Burke, left, and leader of the house Christopher Pyne, right, in Parliament in a file picture. Credit:Andrew Meares Usually the calendar is noteworthy only insofar as it lets press gallery journos know when they can book their holidays. But this one looked a little different from previous ones. 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. Washington: The Justice Department unsealed charges on Wednesday accusing two Iranian men of hacking into American hospitals, universities, government agencies and the city of Atlanta, causing tens of millions of dollars in damages. FBI Executive Assistant Director Amy Hess speaks during a news conference announcing the indictment of the Iranian hackers. Credit:AP More than 200 victims were affected, more than $US6 million in ransom was collected and damages exceeded $US30 million, officials said. Ransomware encrypts data on affected systems, making it impossible for a victim to access their own computer files unless they pay a ransom demand. Officials said the case marks the first time federal prosecutors have charged individuals with writing their own ransomware and deploying it themselves as part of a criminal scheme to extort money. Theres another one! Tom would tell Maddie and me as we were driving down the interstate in Georgia this summer. By the time it registered we needed to look outside our car going some 70 miles per hour we missed seeing anything. Tom was keeping his eye out for armadillos and, actually, roa Sign up for our PoliticsNY newsletter for the latest coverage and to stay informed about the 2021 elections in your district and across NYC Its a whole mess of Texas! A new food hall opened in Americas Downtown on Monday, serving Texas-inspired grub for every meal of the day. The founder of barbecue joint Hill Country, who transformed his former restaurant on Adams Street into the new food park, said that the new setup lets the company expand its culinary horizons while staying true to its Texas roots. Were really excited about it, said Marc Glosserman. Weve got a little bit of something for everyone here, any day of the week and time of the day come Monday for chicken, Wednesday morning for coffee and a breakfast taco, and Thursday for ice cream. Hill Country Food Park boasts six stalls, with designs inspired by food trucks in the Lone Star State. South Congress serves coffee from local roasters City of Saints, pastries from Williamsburg spot Dus Donuts, and sweets from Brooklyns Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream. Other stalls include Nickies, which offers Tex-Mex food; Bluebonnets, with fresh salads and sandwiches; pizza spot Austinos; and the Hill Country Barbecue Market and Hill Country Chicken, where visitors can get classic barbecued meats and fried chicken, said Glosserman. They can expect a variety of really delicious foods at great price points, and they can expect some of the stuff that they were offered previously at Hill Country BBQ, and some really exciting new and innovative offerings, he said. Some of the booths combine Glossermans native Texas roots with his wife and partner Kristen Glossermans Italian heritage, he said. The pizza were doing, Austinos, is gonna be our signature twist on pizza, doing rectangular oversized slices called Texas slices; rectangular pies topped with a lot of our smoked meats traditional pizza and BBQ fused together, he said. The giant food hub will also feature a new iteration of Hanks Saloon, the beloved honky-tonk watering hole and music venue, which will close its Boerum Hill location later this month, and re-open on the second floor of the food hall early next year. Hanks will fit right in with the rest of the food hall, said Glosserman. We knew as part of this we wanted to have a terrific bar and bar program. We share a lot in common, it just felt like a natural fit, he said. What were doing here is not a full stop replica, were trying to keep the spirit of Hanks alive. Glosserman said that he partnered with some vendors he already knew, while others were the result of researching the boroughs best foods. It was a combination of people we know and have had relationships with over time, and doing a lot of testing, eating your way through lots and lots of ice cream and donuts, he said. Hill Country Food Park (345 Adams St. near Willoughby Street Downtown). Open daily, 11 am8 pm. South Congress opens at 7 am. Sign up for our PoliticsNY newsletter for the latest coverage and to stay informed about the 2021 elections in your district and across NYC 84th Precinct Brooklyn HeightsDUMBOBoerum HillDowntown Schermerhorn assault Police arrested a man for allegedly robbing and assaulting a woman on a G train at the Schermerhorn Street subway station on Nov. 20. The victim told police she was on the Church Avenue-bound train when a man entered the car at Clinton and Washington station and started playing loud music. When she asked him to lower the music, the suspect allegedly said You dont know me, n, hit the woman in the head with the mini speaker, took her iPhone 10 when she tried to take a photo of him, and punched her, and got off at the station near Hoyt Street at 1:39 pm, according to cops. Cigarette break Cops cuffed a man who they say threatened another man with a knife on Water Street on Nov. 20. The victim told police he was near Main Street at 4:40 pm when the suspect approached, flashing the knife, and demanded a cigarette. When the victim said he didnt have one, the suspect said, Give me whatever the f you got, according to police. Police say the suspect is an employee of a nearby restaurant, and the victim said he appeared to be highly intoxicated, according to the police report. Smith Street slasher A goon slashed a mans face, causing lacerations, on Smith Street on Nov. 20. The victim told police he was breaking up a fight near Wyckoff Street at 12:30 am when someone slashed his left cheek. The nogoodnik fled toward Hoyt Street and the victim was treated at Methodist Hospital, according to cops. Rock-ing into the store A looter broke into a Jay Street drugstore on Nov. 25 and stole items. The thief threw a cobblestone rock at the stores front door, near York Street, at 6:40 am, entered the store, and stole items from the shelves and from behind the cash registers, according to police. Cops say the lout took the cobblestone from the construction site across the street near York Street. Sleeping grab A punk stole a mans two phones on the subway near Jay Street on Nov. 16. The victim told police he fell asleep on the Manhattan-bound F train with a T-Mobile bag next to him and when he woke up at York Street at 1 pm his two phones were gone. Locker looter A thief stole an employees items while she was working at a clothing store on Fulton Street on Nov. 19. The victim told police she placed her coat, wallet, and keys in her employee locker at her workplace near Lawrence Street at 2 pm, and when she came back, her items were gone. Hotel hoodie thief A robber stole a womans items from a hotel on Flatbush Avenue Extension on Nov. 22. The victim told police she left her debit card, iPhone charger, $60, and Apple headphones unattended in her hoodie on a chair in the buildings lobby area, near Tillary Street, at 3:53 am, and it was stolen. Phone swipe A pickpocket robbed a woman on the subway at Willoughby Street on Nov. 22. Cops say the woman got on a Manhattan-bound A train at Nostrand Avenue at 6:45 am with her cellphone and ID in her backpack and when she got off at the Jay Street station, the backpack was open and her phone and ID were missing. Stolen property A raider stole a womans iPhone X from her apartment on Nov. 25. The woman told police she left her place at 1:57 am with the door unlocked and when she returned, her phone was missing. Speaker steal Two crooks stole electronics from a department store on Albee Square West on Nov. 25. The bandits walked into the store near Flatbush Avenue at 5:27 pm and stole four Bose headphones and speakers from a glass display case, concealing them in a bag, and leaving the store, according to police. Car converter crook A sneak stole a device from inside a car parked on Fulton Street sometime between Nov. 17 and 19. The victim told police that he left the vehicle near Gold Street at noon on Nov. 17 with the catalytic converter installed, and when he returned on Nov. 19, the converter was removed. Cycle criminal A freebooter stole a bike on Montague Street on Nov. 14. Police say the thief was seen on video removing bolts and the bicycle from scaffolding outside a restaurant near Clinton Street at 12:43 pm, and fled in an unknown direction. E-bike steal Someone took a delivery persons electronic bike on Smith Street on Nov. 19. The victim was delivering food to a bakery near Dean Street at 2:08 pm and left his bike on the sidewalk, and when he returned, his Stealth P-7 E-bike was stolen, according to police. Brianna Kudisch Sign up for our PoliticsNY newsletter for the latest coverage and to stay informed about the 2021 elections in your district and across NYC 88th Precinct Fort GreeneClinton Hill Snatched from behind A pair of crooks stole a guys wallet and electronics on Vanderbilt Avenue on Nov. 7, police said. The victim told cops he was near Myrtle Avenue at about midnight when he noticed one of the baddies following him, and another one grabbed him from behind. The nogoodniks demanded the victim hand over his wallet and phone, and one of them snatched his backpack with his earbuds, phone, and wallet inside, according to authorities. Both of the jerks fled down Vanderbilt Avenue, cops said. Cashed out A lout broke into a Putnam Avenue restaurant on Nov. 10 and stole a wad of cash, according to authorities. Video caught the punk break through the front door to get into the eatery near Fulton Street a little before 7 am and run out with $180 from the cash register, police said. Hot wheels Cops cuffed a guy for riding off with a stolen bike on Myrtle Avenue on Nov. 10, police said. Police stopped the suspect for riding the two-wheeler on the sidewalk near Saint Edwards Street a little after midnight, when he confessed to stealing the pricey Citi Bike, according to authorities. Take from the trunk Some malefactor broke into the trunk of a womans car parked on Atlantic Avenue on Nov. 10 and stole her bag, police said. The victim told cops she had parked her four-wheeler at a gas station near Grand Street at about 1 am and when she returned to it about three hours later, some knave had smashed her back window and trunk and taken out her expensive Louis Vuitton handbag with two credit cards inside it, according to authorities. Blind rage Police cuffed a guy for stealing a wallet and keys from a blind victim on Fleet Walk on Nov. 8, police said. The 42-year-old victim, who says he is legally blind, told cops the suspect snatched his keys and wallet with his Ohio identification card and medical card inside it from him as he lay in bed inside his apartment near Navy Street at about 8 pm. The victim said he didnt see the suspect, but recognized his voice when he asked him for money, according to authorities. Julianne Cuba Dear Reader, Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance. We, however, have a request. As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed. Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard. Digital Editor The government has stayed the land acquisition process for the controversial project after consulting the Shiv Sena, Chief Minister told the Legislative Assembly Wednesday. The Sena, a ruling ally of the (BJP)-led state government, has been opposing the project on the grounds that it is against the interest of the farmers and would destroy ecology in Ratnagiri district in the coastal Konkan region. "The government has not issued any new notice for land acquisition. After talks with Sena Uddhav Thackeray, the entire process has been stayed," he said. The issue came up after of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patiltold the House thatjournalist Alok Deshpande of English daily was manhandled by police at Azad Maidan in south Tuesday night while covering a protest against the upcoming project. To this, Fadnavis said he would seek information about the incident and take appropriate action. Meanwhile, fourpersons, including two women seated in the visitors gallery of the House,were detained by the Vidhan Bhavan security for raising slogans demanding scrapping of the refinery project. Three Indian oil majors had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on April 11 this year with Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil company of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, to develop a refinery and petrochemicals complex in the coastal district. The Sena, rooted firmly in the Konkan region, has been opposing the project. In April this year, senior Sena and Industries Minister Subhash Desai had announced in Ratnagiri that a government notification for acquiring land for the project in Nanar stood cancelled. Desai's statement was negated by the chief minister who said that the order had not been cancelled. For generations, filmmakers have dreamt up stories of sentient robots as best friends, be it an R2D2 from Star Wars or a robotic sibling like VICKI from the popular 80s series Small Wonder. While a Baymax or Wall-E that saves the humans might not be commercially available yet, startups and investors are waking up to the market potential of robotic child companions for busy parents already. 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 If you were planning to drop into one of Myntras brick-and-mortar store and pick up a fashionable sweater for this winter, hold on for a while. The online company has put its plan to open 100 franchise stores across the country on hold for now. Myntra, which was planning to open the stores even two months back, has decided to concentrate on the online business, what with internal reorganisation, exits from the leadership team, and layoffs as part of a merger with Jabong, It already has 15 stores across the country 12 under the Mango brand, which it manages; and ... The objective was to understand the relevance of the channel to the beverage companys scheme of things and what PepsiCo was doing there. Out-of-home is growing in importance for both PepsiCo and Coca-Cola in India, given the manner in which the two companies have been tying up with players, including quick-service restaurants (QSRs) and multiplexes in recent months as exclusive ... Dear Reader, Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance. We, however, have a request. As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed. Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard. Digital Editor The Delhi High Court on Wednesday upheld the conviction of around 80 people and awarded five-year jail term in a The high court dismissed their appeals against the conviction by a trial court for burning houses and curfew violations during the riots. Justice R K Gauba directed all the convicts to surrender within four weeks. The convicts had challenged the August 27, 1996 judgement of a Sessions Court which had convicted 88 out of the 107 people arrested on November 2, 1984, for rioting, burning houses and curfew violation in Trilokpuri area of East Delhi. After a division bench recused itself from hearing a petition seeking a probe into judge B H Loya's death, another judge of the Nagpur bench of the on Wednesday withdrew from the case Loya, who was presiding over the trial of Sohrabuddin Shaikh alleged fake encounter in which BJP chief Amit Shah and some senior IPS officials were among the accused, died of a heart attack in 2014 while staying at the government guest house 'Ravi Bhavan' in Nagpur. Shah, who was Gujarat's Minister of State for Home at the time of the alleged fake encounter, was later discharged in the case. A petition regarding Loya's death filed by advocate Satish Ukey came up before a bench of Justices S B Shukre and S M Modak here on November 26, but the judges said 'not before them', meaning they will not hear it. The petition was then assigned to a bench of Justices P N Deshmukh and Swapna Joshi. However, Justice Joshi recused herself from the case Wednesday. ALSO READ: No SIT probe into Judge Loya death case as SC dismisses review plea Ukey's petition seeks that all records related to Loya's "suspicious" death be safeguarded, including those of the state guest house. He has already moved a judicial magistrate's court in Nagpur seeking a probe into Loya's death. Ukey told PTI that the chief justice of the will now constitute a new bench to hear his plea before the high court. Shaikh, 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. Tulsiram Prajapati, his aide who was said to be a witness to the encounter, was allegedly killed in another fake encounter in December 2006. Of the 38 people charged by the (CBI) for the alleged fake encounters, sixteen of them including Shah and all senior police officials were discharged. The Supreme Court in April rejected petitions demanding an independent probe in Loya's death, holding he died of natural causes. Despite the strong resistance of the Islamist movements in Tunisia, the cabinet approved last Friday a draft law that provides for equal inheritance rights for women. The Council of Ministers in Tunisia on Friday decided to send a draft law to parliament that would give male and female heirs automatic and full equality, unless there is an explicit objection in the will of the deceased. The High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Tuesday warmly welcomed the move as a significant step towards gender equality in the country, and sets an example for the region. I warmly welcome this significant move to secure equal rights for women and men in Tunisia, High Commissioner Bachelet said, insisting that to grant women equal inheritance rights is to empower them and to ensure protection of their economic and social rights. In many ways, Tunisia sets an example for other countries in the region. Over the past few years, we have seen the Tunisian parliament reform a number of laws to bring them in line with the commitment to human rights, equality and non-discrimination enshrined in its Constitution and its ratification of international human rights treaties. The High Commissioner cited World Bank data from 2018 indicating that in 36 out of 189 economies, widows are not granted the same inheritance rights as widowers. In 39 economies, daughters are prevented from inheriting the same proportion of assets as sons. Unequal inheritance rights can mean that women are left even more vulnerable in an already difficult phase of their lives, following the loss of a loved one, she said. It can leave them exposed to dependence on the goodwill of male relatives and limits their ability to make decisions for themselves and their family. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women has recommended that States parties provide explicit constitutional protection for formal and substantive equality and non-discrimination in the public and private spheres, including all matters of personal status, family, marriage and inheritance law, and across all areas of law. Pepsi and Coca Cola are set to invest $1.4 billion in Pakistan in coming years, a statement from Prime Minister Imran Khan's office said, after executives from the two companies met with Khan. Pepsi planned to make " a further investment of $1.2 bln" in next five years, Khan's office said on Wednesday, after the company's chief executive for Asia, Middle East and North Africa, Mike Spanos, led a Pepsi delegation that met Khan. Coca Cola, which has a $500 million business already in Pakistan, also pledged a planned $200m investment in the coming two to three ... Amid hectic election campaign home and diplomatic commitments abroad, Prime Minister Modi will clock hundreds of hours travelling in the next few days, official sources said Wednesday. After visiting and during the and campaign, the Prime Minister Wednesday left for to attend the G20 summit, in the midst of campaigning for the and Telangana elections, they pointed out. From November 23, Modi has been on the campaign trail every day. Beginning with on November 23, the Prime Minister has campaigned across Madhya Pradesh, and Telangana in the last six days. Wednesday saw him address two election rallies in Rajasthan, in the course of a seven-hour journey, involving both plane and chopper. "Barely ninety minutes after landing in Delhi, the Prime Minister emplaned for Argentina," a functionary said. The journey from to Buenos Aires involves two legs of nearly 12 hour duration each, with a short technical halt in Cape Town, The total travel time to Buenos Aires is 25 hours, and consequently, the to and fro trips will involve a combined journey time of nearly 50 hours. In between these two trips, the Prime Minister will be in Buenos Aires for just over 50 hours. This time period includes two nights. In the space of 50 hours, the Prime Minister has over 25 scheduled engagements. These include the various sessions of the G20 summit, sideline meetings including the BRICS informal meeting, and bilateral meetings with various world leaders. Modi will return to in the wee hours of December 3 only to take off again within 12 hours to resume his political campaigning in and Telangana for the next two days. On December 3, he will campaign in Jodhpur and Ambassador of to India Alexandre Ziegler Wednesday said there was no 'scandal' associated with the deal. Pointing out at the 'cooperation' and 'trust' shared between both India and France, he asked people to look at the facts. "What scandal? Just look at the facts, not at the tweets, that's my only recommendation. There is no scandal at all," Ziegler said in response to a question on whether the alleged scandal has made any dent in the partnership that has with India. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the launch of French Tech Community here, he said, "...look at the track record, look at the trust that has been built between our two countries in aeronautics. Look at their commitment for Make in India, which is impressive. 50 per cent offset is very unique, look at the major procurement..." To a question about political comments regarding HAL losing potential jobs because of the deal, Ziegler questioned whether HAL has made any comments about losing jobs. "Did they tell you that they have lost jobs?... I don't know what potential jobs are, he said, as he pointed out that there is a 50 per cent offset clause in the Rafale contract, which is about four billion Euros or about Rs 300 billion that is going to be invested in "That's huge (amount) and there will be room for hundreds of companies, including HAL, which has had a very fruitful historical cooperation with French companies," he added. The Ambassador also noted that all major would be participating in Aero India, scheduled for February 20-24 in Bengaluru. "Our companies will be there...I cant tell you how many, but all our major companies will be there," Ziegler said. Stating that almost all major French players have been investing in India for years now, he said, "we have had long cooperation with India. Companies like Airbus, Thales, Dassault have been sourcing in this country. Transfer of technology has been happening for decades." It's very very "historical cooperation" between India and France, he said, adding that we have not waited to be launched. "Our companies have been making in India for decades now. Transfer of technology has been happening," he said. The Congress has accused the government of forcing to make Reliance Defence its offset partner for the Rs 580 billion deal to purchase 36 Rafale jets. The party has alleged that the government was helping the Anil Ambani group get a contract worth Rs 300 billion from the deal. However, the Reliance Group has said that Dassault Aviation's investment in Reliance Airport Developers Limited has no link with the Rafale fighter jet deal, and has accused Congress of resorting to "blatant lies" for political gains. Gabons President Ali Bongo is leaving King Faisals hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, this Wednesday(Nov. 28) and will head to Morocco for a recovery period, his wife confirmed on Tuesday. Sylvia Bongo wrote late Tuesday on her Facebook page that her husbands health had improved significantly and that he would be transferred to a hospital in the Moroccan capital on Wednesday where he would undergo a period of convalescence and rehabilitation. President Bongo, 59, has been hospitalized in Saudi Arabia since October 24, but the Gabonese presidency kept a mystery about the exact cause of his illness. His absence from his country has fueled suspicions and fake news including a death report filed by a Cameroonian media. The Minister of Communication and government spokesman Guy Bertrand Mapangou was prompt to confirm that Ali Bongo would fly to Rabat Wednesday. President Ali Bongo will leave Riyadh Wednesday to go to Rabat. This is his will, that of his wife, the government, he confirmed. Sylvia Bongo added in her post that the President will take advantage of this brief period of convalescence to recover his full physical abilities and work on the highest priority files. According to a source at the Presidential palace, Ali Bongo asked the secretary-general of the presidency, his chief of staff, his chief of protocol and the presidential spokesman to join him in Rabat to work on urgent files. The government, for its part, has said that the convalescence in Morocco will be short because the head of state will resume work very quickly. Despite Gabons vast oil wealth, a third of its citizens live on $1.25 a day or less. Ali Bongo Ondimba was elected in 2009, just four months after the death of his father. He has maintained his fathers stranglehold on the countrys opposition and the countrys democratic development. From Sabarimala in the south to the disputed site at Ayodhya in the north, abstract notions of faith are driving the countrys politics. Politics, in the custody of contemporary politicians not just in India but the world over, has whittled down to nothing but a sway of feelings and emotions. As we move towards the general elections in 2019, development is no longer the article of faith the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) embraced and swore by in the 2014 pre-poll campaign. Instead, matters of faith have come to define BJPs strategic moves and ... Foreign ministers from Russia, Germany, and other countries, as well as EU's foreign policy chief have joined Afghanistan's and other top officials at a UN meeting in Geneva to show support for the impoverished, war-battered country. Afghan told the conference Wednesday that he wanted to "specifically recognise the commitment in blood and treasure that the has shown since 2001" in Ghani called the US its "key ally" and praised the Trump administration's policy as a "game changer" for Ghani, who faced an increasingly violent insurgency in recent months, presented his government's efforts in areas like security, justice, women's rights and anti-corruption. He says: "We have a plan for reform, and we need your support to help implement it. US President will advance a global economic system based on fair economic competition during his participation in the summit meeting of G-20 leaders in Buenos Aires later this week, the White House said Tuesday. "President Trump's participation in the 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," the White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters at a news conference. Trump leaves for the annual G-20 Summit later this week. The First Lady, Melania Trump will accompany him. While at the summit, Trump will interact with many leaders including those from Argentina, Russia, Germany, China and No bilateral meeting has been scheduled with the Saudi Crown Prince, the US national Security Advisor John Bolton said. In terms of the US positions, Trump and his delegation is going to use this as an opportunity to talk about measures of tax cuts and deregulations and rescaling and job training and so forth that have generated significant economic growth and prosperity, said Larry Kudlow, Trump's chief economic advisor. "That includes women's economic empowerment. Free, fair and reciprocal trade and trade reform. There will be discussions of infrastructure finance and also the US emergence as the dominant energy power in the world today actually," Kudlow said. In his meetings, Trump and his delegation will also seek support on the US position on a host of issues in particular those being opposed by China. "I am sure we will. I'm sure we will. We have in many other form," he said, in response to a question. U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images In 2015, Kiese Laymon, the black writer from Jackson, Mississippi, wrote an essay about white violence and black forgiveness. Published by the Guardian, the piece focused on Laymons grandmother, who for years supplemented her income from a local chicken plant by washing clothes for her white neighbors a job she had performed, in various iterations, since she was a child. Sometimes, Kie, at five in the morning, we had to go to white folks house and wash they clothes outside, no matter how hot or cold it was, she told him: Sometimes they might pay in you in some change. Most of the time, they pay you in a little cornmeal. Anyway, we sometimes would be behind they great big houses washing they clothes in the tub out there, and hanging them up before school. And the little white children who was no older than us would be in the house pointing and laughing. Laymon pressed his grandmother, trying to understand the roots of the white childrens ridicule and whether it instilled in her a desire to wield their power, to have what they had. She said it did not. We knew that was the kind of work niggers had to do. Our thing was that the white folks didnt need to be laughing at us for trying. The act of trying has defined black life in the United States. [Trying] to make it to tomorrow with food in our belly, and clothes on our back, Laymons grandmother said. Shit, trying to not hit them upside they head. This struggle, and its attendant failures, are so etched in black Americans social, political, and cultural consciousness that uphill battles, in most endeavors, are accepted as facts of life. But a layer of cruelty is added when we are forced to try with white laughter echoing around us as was the case in Mississippi this week. Cindy Hyde-Smith laughed her way into the United States Senate on Tuesday. The runoff election between her and Mike Espy, a black Democratic former U.S. congressman and one-time U.S. secretary of Agriculture, ended decisively, with Mississippis white and conservative majority handing the Republican incumbent a nine-point margin of victory, according to exit polls. The final weeks of Hyde-Smiths campaign were controversial. First came footage of her remarking, in response to praise from a Tupelo cattle rancher, If he invited me to a public hanging, Id be in the front row. Then came footage of a campaign stop in Columbus, where she quipped, [Theres] a lot of liberal folks in those other schools who maybe we dont want to vote. Maybe we want to make it just a little more difficult. And I think thats a great idea. Most recently came revelations she had been photographed at Jefferson Daviss Biloxi home in 2014 wearing a Confederate soldiers hat, describing it, and similar artifacts, as Mississippi history at its best! All three exchanges were marked by smiles and laughter Hyde-Smiths, when she said something she found particularly funny, or that of her audience, sharing her mirth. But her levity belied the gruesome subjects at which she was winking some of the goriest strands of Mississippis history. Public hanging comments sour in a state that once led the country in lynching black people. Jokes about voter suppression assume more weight where white citizens made a pastime out of murdering black would-be voters. Valorizing Mississippis Confederate past speaks for itself. Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery the greatest material interest of the world, reads the states preCivil War declaration of secession. Hyde-Smiths debt to this history was affirmed when news broke she had attended a segregation academy as a teenager, then sent her daughter there some years later. Black Mississippi deserves better. Hyde-Smith may have prolonged her states legacy of empowering white bigots, but the glee that marked her rise adds insult to what was already a nigh-unwinnable fight for black Mississippians. At 38 percent, the black population of Mississippi is the largest share of any U.S. state, but that has not translated to state-level power. No black official has been elected to statewide office in the 140 years since Reconstruction. Even when black Mississippians were the majority as they were into the 1930s their political power has been repressed, often brutally, by the states white ruling class and its foot soldiers. Cruelty, even without laughter, was a defining feature of these endeavors. Many of them centered on black suffrage, and came to a head when civil-rights workers launched targeted efforts to register black voters in the 1950s and 1960s. Poll taxes, literacy tests, and threats of bodily harm had rendered the ballot box an almost unreachable prize. Early efforts to change this resulted in bloodshed. In 1955, the Reverend George Lee, a local pastor and grocery store proprietor in Belzoni, began printing leaflets encouraging black people to register and encouraging them to pay the tax. White locals responded by forming a White Citizens Council to fight him, and circulated a list of the people who had already registered. Local white businessmen punished those on the list, firing them from their jobs, denying them credit, or raising their rent. On May 7, as Lee was driving toward home, occupants from a passing vehicle opened fire, blowing off half his face. He lived long enough to stagger from his car and ask for help from a nearby cab stand. Two black drivers took him to the local hospital, where he died. The leading suspects in the shooting White Citizens Council members Peck Ray and Joe David Watson Sr. died in the 1970s without the case being brought to trial. The violence continued as registration efforts intensified. In September 1961, Herbert Lee a black man in Liberty, Mississippi, who became the local driver for Robert Moses, a voting-rights activist with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was killed before dozens of eyewitnesses in broad daylight by E.H. Hurst, an elected member of the Mississippi house of representatives. His body was left in the sun for hours. The local sheriff coerced the black witnesses into corroborating Hurts claim that he shot Lee in self-defense, and Hurst was acquitted that afternoon by an all-white jury. Soon after, Louis Allen, one of the black witnesses, recanted and said he would testify against Hurst for a federal investigation. He faced years of harassment and reprisal before being killed outside his home in April 1964. The case went nowhere. As I have written before, such incidents were de rigueur. Books like My Soul Is Rested, an oral history of the civil-rights movement in the South, are filled with accounts of the brutality of white efforts to stop black people from voting in Mississippi. According to activist Lawrence Guyot, some 63 people [were] killed around the question of the vote before 64. Registering, he said, was akin to a suicide. Why dont I just shoot myself? Itd be quicker. Describing efforts to register black voters in Indianola in 1962, activist and journalist Charles Cobb said, Right after the first attempt to register people to vote, nightriders came through the black community and shot up three houses, wounding the daughter of a neighbor of the person we were staying with. And in Greenwood, according to a ProPublica report from Nikole Hannah-Jones, a local man named Silas McGhee was shot in the face for trying to register black voters: The bullet barreled through his mouth, taking his front teeth with it. That black Mississippians survived these atrocities only to have their white counterparts elect a senator, in 2018, who winks at their degradation and dismisses her glibness as innocent, is an unfathomable gesture of contempt. There are few avenues for recourse. Mississippi is one of the least elastic states in the country, writes Nate Silver at the FiveThirtyEight a perennial 60-40 red state, where a rigidly Republican white majority and near-total absence of swing voters makes it close to impossible to send anyone to statewide office if they are backed by the states Democratic black minority. As such, the states white power structure is functionally etched in stone, and long will be, barring a dramatic demographic or ideological shift. It would have shocked the nation had Tuesday turned out any other way. But Hyde-Smiths laughter and the laughter of white Mississippians who backed her campaign is what made it such a cruel defeat. US has said he may cancel a meeting with his Russian counterpart following a maritime clash between and Trump told the Post he was waiting for a "full report" after Russian ships fired on and seized three Ukrainian boats on Sunday. A Crimean court was expected to decide the fate of detained Ukrainians on Wednesday, the reported. The US has told the Post that the report coming from his national security team would be "very determinative". "Maybe I won't have the meeting (with Putin). Maybe I won't even have the meeting. I don't like that aggression. I don't want that aggression at all," he said. The two leaders were due to meet on the sidelines of the summit in Buenos Aires later this week and discuss security, arms control, and issues in and the after the meet convenes on Friday, national security adviser told reporters. The US has also urged European states to do more to support State department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said wanted to see tougher enforcement of sanctions against Russian coastguard ships opened fire on Sunday as two Ukrainian gunboats and a tug sailed through the Kerch Strait off the coast of Crimea, which was annexed by in 2014. Twenty-four Ukrainians were detained and at least three were wounded in the incident. Ukraine described it as an "act of aggression" but Russia said the ships had illegally entered its waters. A Crimean court later ordered that 12 of the Ukrainians be detained for 60 days. On Tuesday, Ukrainian said there was a threat of "full-scale war" with Russia, a day after Kiev imposed for a 30-day period from November 26 in 10 border regions, the reported. "The number of (Russian) tanks at bases located along our border has grown three times," he said. Five of the 10 regions border Russia while two are adjacent to Moldova's breakaway Trans-Dniester region, where Russian troops are stationed. The other three regions border the Black Sea or Sea of Azov close to Crimea. 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. A Chinese scientist at the centre of a controversy over what he claims are the world's first genetically edited children apologised on Wednesday for the result being leaked unexpectedly as he detailed his findings at a conference in Hong Kong. He Jiankui, an associate professor at Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China, addressed a packed hall of around 700 people attending the Human Genome Editing Summit at the University of Hong Kong. "First, I must apologise that this result was leaked unexpectedly. This study has been submitted to a ... British Prime Minister Theresa May will argue on Wednesday that she managed to secure broader fishing rights for in the face of firm EU opposition in tough talks. May has embarked on a nationwide campaign to sell sceptical Britons on the EU divorce arrangement she secured in Brussels last weekend. She will spend part of Wednesday in Scotland, whose small nationalist party in the British Parliament rejects the agreement, and where fishing is a particularly emotive issue. Lawmakers will debate May's deal on December 11, with early vote counts stacking up against the British premier. "At long last, we will be 'an independent coastal state' again -- taking back full sovereign control over our waters, and free to decide for ourselves who we allow to fish in our waters," May will say in an address near Glasgow, extracts of which were released by Downing Street. "The EU maintained throughout the negotiation process that it wanted to link overall access to markets to access to fisheries. It failed in the withdrawal agreement and it failed again in the political declaration," May will say. "I have been robust in defending the interests of Scottish fisherman so far -- and I will always be so." May had promised to make sure Britain leaves the EU's Common Fisheries Policy after enters into force on March 29. But under the deal sealed on Sunday, that will only happen after a transition period scheduled to end in December 2020. Scottish are furious they will have to continue obeying EU rules during these 21 months, including much-despised quotas and allowing European vessels access to UK waters. US President has said he may cancel a long-awaited summit with his Russian counterpart after a confrontation at sea between and Ukraine led Kiev to warn of the threat of "full-scale war". Trump is scheduled to meet Putin at the 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 and Kiev, as 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 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." The incident was the first major confrontation at sea in the long-running conflict pitting Ukraine against 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 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 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 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. 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 called for "maximum restraint," urging both sides "to take steps without delay to contain this incident and reduce tensions". Ahead of President Donald Trump's meeting with his Chinese counterpart in Argentina on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit, the on Tuesday set four conditions Beijing has to meet in order to arrive at any trade deal. "I want to just mention what the president told us a short while ago and that is in his view there is a good possibility that a deal can be made and that he is open to that. He is open to that," Trump's Chief Economic Advisor Larry Kudlow told reporters at a news conference here about the G-20 Summit in Buenos Aires on November 30 and December 1. Trump and Xi are scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting over dinner, during which the two leaders are expected to focus on discussing an ongoing trade dispute and arrive at a deal. ALSO READ: Hopes arise on trade thawing "Certain conditions have to be met with respect to fairness and reciprocity as we've said many times. For example, issues of intellectual property theft must be solved, forced technology transfers must be solved, significant tariffs and non-tariff barriers must be solved, issues of ownership have to be solved," Kudlow said. "The president will probably reiterate his view; we want a world ideally of zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers, and zero subsidies. Now whether they can get through all of that remains to be seen but that's the president's point of view as I said just a little while ago," Kudlow told reporters soon after he and the national security advisor John Bolton had a meeting with Trump on the various aspects of G-20 Summit. The US, he said, is coming to the summit in very good shape. "Our economy is quite strong, it's growing at three percent over the past year. Second quarter was 4.2, third quarter was 3.5 perhaps to be revised upwards. We are in a very good shape," he said. On the other hand, the Chinese economic situation is not good, he said. "I'm not here to critique or second-guess the but most observers believe China to be in a slump whereas the United States is in a very strong solid position going into the summit. However, again to repeat the president said there's a good possibility that we can make a deal and he is open to it," he said. Kudlow warned that if the conditions set by the Trump Administration are not met and not dealt with, Trump has said he is perfectly happy to stand on his tariff policies which is 10 per cent import duties on $200 billion worth of Chinese import scheduled to go to 25 per cent. "He has said as recently as yesterday, the day before if need be if things don't work out in this U.S.-China summit meeting, he will invoke another ($) 267 (billion) some odd billion dollars in tariffs," he said. That may not be the first choice, Kudlow noted. Responding to questions, Kudlow said that the final decision in this regard would be taken by the president after his meeting with Xi. "President is going to make up his mind after the meeting," he said. The United States, he asserted, is in far better shape than the Chinese. "I am a free trader but you have to ask yourself -- this is what President Trump has been talking about, is it free trade when there is clear evidence of unfair and WTO illegal trading practices by China for several decades? Is that fair? Is that free?" he asked. "Is it free when intellectual property theft occurs or when Chinese ownership of American companies force transference of technology from American companies to the Chinese companies? Is that fair? Or high tariffs on agriculture and industrial supplies? Is that fair?" he questioned. Trump, he said is the first president in at least 20 years who not only has made this case but continues to make this case forcefully. "Other presidents in both parties have raised the issue and then walked away from it and President Trump obviously doesn't intend to," he said. "If China will come to the table or in this case the dinner table with some new ideas and some new attitudes and some new cooperation as the president said there's a good possibility, they can make a deal. He's open to it. So nothing is written in cement or stone," Kudlow said. Market regulator Sebi on Wednesday banned Bengaluru-based and its two partners from the "till further orders" for acting as an investment adviser without registering with the watchdog. Besides, Sebi asked why any direction to refund the amount collected by them from the clients for its various schemes should not be issued against them and directed to file reply in 21 days from the date of the order. In an interim order, the regulator said, "The activities of including its partners Mohd. Tanveer Ahmed and Sunny Gupta are prima facie in violation of IA (Investment Advisers) Regulations." Under Investment Advisers (IA) regulations, it is mandatory for IA to register with Sebi for providing services to the clients. The regulator on a complaint conducted an investigation regarding the entities and found that it was providing investment tips to its clients and charged a fee promising good profits in investing in the Besides the regulator noticed that it has collected over Rs 25.3 million in four bank accounts. As the firm was not registered with the Sebi, it "prima-facie" violated IA norms, the regulator said. Accordingly, apart from the ban, Securities Exchange and Board of India (Sebi) directed banks to not allow any withdrawals from the entities' accounts, without the regulator's permission. In another order, the regulator banned 7 entities for the period of four years for fraudulent trading in the scrip of Partani Appliances by placing buy order higher than Last Traded Price (LTP) and thereby manipulating the scrip price. ALSO READ: Sebi guidelines on corporate bonds likely to keep yields elevated The entities are Global Enterprises, Sajjan Kedia and Sankalp Garg among others. In a separate order, Sebi fined Suvidha Securities Rs 5 lakh for failing to submit the required information sought by the regulator in the matter of siphoning of the initial public offering (IPO) proceeds of Ravi Kumar Distilleries. Washington The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday weighed whether to uphold a lower-court decision that could mean that nearly half the state of Oklahoma is still an American Indian reservation, with implications for taxation, education, and criminal justice. The justices are reviewing a 2017 decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, in Denver, that under high court precedent some 3 million acres in eastern Oklahomaincluding the city of Tulsaare currently an Indian reservation of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, based on 1866 territorial boundaries of the tribe. Because the Creek Nations history parallels that of the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole, and Cherokee Nations, the decision below likely renders more than 19 million acres in eastern Oklahoma Indian country, Oklahoma says in a brief . That cannot be right. Lisa S. Blatt, a Washington lawyer arguing for the state in Carpenter v. Murphy (Case No. 17-1107), said, Eastern Oklahoma is not an Indian reservation, because, among other reasons, Congress destroyed all features of a reservation by terminating all sovereignty over the land in the march up to statehood. Oklahoma joined the Union in 1907 when Congress merged the Oklahoma territory to the West with Indian Territory to the East. As with other Indian tribes, there is a complex history of treaties (many not honored) and acts of Congress regarding tribal and reservation status. The state, joined by President Donald Trumps administration, argues that the federal government disestablished the Creek Nations territory in the leadup to Oklahoma statehood, with statutes that broke up the tribes lands, abolished its courts, circumscribed its governmental authority, applied federal and state law to Indians and non-Indians alike in its territory, and gave the U.S. Interior secretary authority over tribal schools until a state school system could be established. The status of the region comes up in an unlikely fashionvia a criminal appeal stemming from the death sentence under state law of Patrick Murphy, a Creek Nation member who in 1999 mutilated and murdered his girlfriends former lover, a Creek Nation member named George Jacobs. Murphy was convicted and does not challenge his guilt, but his lawyers argue that Oklahoma courts lacked jurisdiction to convict him because he is an Indian and he committed his crime on an Indian reservation and thus could only be tried in federal court. A three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit court unanimously agreed last year , ruling that no single act of Congress ever disestablished the Creek Reservation and thus Murphys conviction was invalid. Edwin S. Kneedler, a deputy U.S. solicitor general arguing in support of Oklahoma, told the justices that of some 1.8 million people residing in the disputed reservation area, about 10 percent are Indians (either Creek Nation or members of other tribes) who would be subject to federal jurisdiction for major crimes. And beyond law enforcement, Kneedler said, the Supreme Courts Indian precedents mean that the Indians could not be taxed by the state in the entire area of the former reservation, including state income and sales taxes. This would be a dramatic change from the way everyone has understood it for the past 100 years, he said. Neither the federal government nor Oklahoma emphasized the potential impact on education of the reservation question, but a friend-of-the-court brief filed by the International Municipal Lawyers Association does. Upholding the decision below and affirming the 1866 Creek Nation boundaries as Indian Country could potentially deprive Oklahoma of a significant source of revenue generated by taxation which would directly impact the education system throughout the state, says the brief. Ian H. Gershengorn, a Washington lawyer representing Murphy and defending the 10th Circuits decision, acknowledged that a Supreme Court decision upholding that ruling would mean there would be limits on state authority over income tax and sales tax of tribal members on the reservation. I would agree thats significant, said Gershengorn, a former acting U.S. solicitor general under President Barack Obama. I would not call it existential. Riyaz A. Kanji, an Ann Arbor, Mich., lawyer arguing for the Creek Nation, told the justices that the tribe has cross-deputization agreements with local police forces under which tribal law enforcement officers police the reservation area. The Creek [are] providing health care, education, infrastructure, he said. And this is all vital, and a disestablishment would snuff all that out. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan asked sharp questions of Blatt, representing the state, and Kneedler, of the U.S. solicitor generals office. But several other justices appeared skeptical of upholding the 10th Circuit. Theres a fundamental principle of law that derives from Sherlock Holmes, which is the dog that didnt bark, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. said to Gershengorn. 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? Gershengorn said the Creek Nation adopted a constitution in 1979 and has claimed some political jurisdiction over the territory in question since then. Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh told Gershengorn that stability is a critical value in judicial decisionmaking, and we would be departing from that and creating a great deal of turmoil by upholding the 10th Circuit ruling. And so why shouldnt the historical practice, the contemporaneous understanding, the 100 years, all the practical implications, say leave well enough alone here? Kavanaugh said. A decision in the case is expected by next June. The hostage-taker in chief. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that the Democratic Party would support no more than $1.6 billion in new border-security funding but also, that he was willing to negotiate on that. Sen. Chuck Schumer tells reporters at his on-cam presser that Democrats position is $1.6 billion for wall funding - far less than the $5 billion Trump wants - but he wont say if Democrats are shutting the door on anything more, saying hes not going to negotiate in public. Manu Raju (@mkraju) November 27, 2018 This displeased many progressives, who contend that the proper amount of new border-security funding (to provide to an administration that considers kidnapping and psychologically torturing migrant children a legitimate form of border security) to be approximately $0. Schumer defended himself from this backlash by insisting that none of the new funds would go toward Trumps border wall. This did address the Democratic bases most widespread complaint (liberals do not want their party playing any part in the construction of Trumps monument to American xenophobia). But it was also a rather odd line to draw. After all, it wasnt wall funding that allowed the Trump administration to separate migrant children from their families, or to staff migrant detention centers with caregivers who hadnt passed FBI fingerprint checks. Normal border-security funding has enabled the most inhumane aspects of Trumps immigration-enforcement regime. By contrast, funding for his wall has enabled nothing much beyond research and development into a structure that will (almost certainly) never get built. As Republican strategist Evan Siegfried notes in a column for NBC Think, even if Trump won full funding for his wall, the fact that Americas borderlands are almost entirely privately owned means that eminent domain lawsuits are all but certain to delay groundbreaking on the structure for years which is to say, until after Trump has passed from the White House (if not from this mortal coil). Given this reality, Schumers ostensible willingness to negotiate over wall funding seems perfectly defensible. With Republicans about to forfeit control of the House, it seems at least possible that Trump would be willing to, say, legalize Dreamers for the sake of realizing his own idiotic dream. Or, rather, that was how things had seemed before Trump told Politico the following Tuesday evening: SENATE MINORITY LEADER CHUCK SCHUMER (D-N.Y.) said yesterday in the Capitol that Democrats position is they would be open to OKing $1.6 billion for border security. So we asked TRUMP are you firm on $5 billion for the wall? I AM, Trump told us. I am firm. We need border security, of which a wall is part of it. But we need border security. All you have to do is look at the borders. WE THEN ASKED TRUMP if he would be open to a deal with Democrats to shield DREAMERS from deportation as part of an agreement to build the wall. THE ANSWER TO THAT seemed to be a resounding no. WELL, I THINK DACA is gonna be much more interesting to talk about when we go to the Supreme Court, he said. IF THE SUPREME COURT DOESNT ALLOW DACA, he said in other words, if it gets struck down, we will settle every single issue we have. Does that make sense to you? THE PROBLEM IS and we were very close to making a settlement on $25 billion and lots of other things. And we were going to allow even a larger group of folks under DACA you know, a generous group. And we were all set, and then shockingly, including for the Democrats, shockingly, the court said that DACA would be allowed. Once that happened, when I called up Chuck, they said, Lets see, Donald Trump? I dont know anybody named Donald Trump. It was the most amazing transformation Ive ever heard. Here, Trump reiterates his view that the Dreamers (undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children, have clean criminal records, and are either in school or have secured a high-school diploma) are his hostages and he doesnt want to negotiate over their fates until the Supreme Court lets him put loaded gun to their heads. The president has never actually made a coherent, affirmative argument for why he canceled the Executive branch program that had allowed Dreamers to apply for temporary work permits. When his administration ended Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals last year, it claimed to being do so as a legal necessity: While Trump had great heart for the Dreamers, it was simply unconstitutional to protect them from deportation without congressional approval. The problem with this argument, as federal judges eventually noticed, is that deferred action has been blessed by both the the Supreme Court and Congress as a means to exercise enforcement discretion and embraced by presidents of both parties for decades. Further, the specific features of DACA, such as work permits, are explicitly allowed under current law. (Notably, in other contexts, the Trump administration has shown little reluctance to assert the Executive branchs immense discretion over immigration policy.) In reality, Trumps true argument for cancelling DACA has always been that taking Dreamers hostage just might compel Congress to pass a long list of immigration reforms that it would not otherwise be willing to countenance. But ever since federal courts revived DACA (on the grounds that the White House had failed to provide a legitimate explanation for the programs cancellation), Trumps hostages have become less vulnerable, and thus, less valuable. So he doesnt want to talk about setting them free until the Supreme Court lets him kill DACA. If Trump is not willing to move from that position, then Schumer will (almost certainly) not be willing to provide any significant wall funding. And since Republicans need Democratic cooperation in the upper chamber to pass the appropriation bills necessary for keeping the government open, its unclear how a stalemate over wall funding will end. The president has indicated that he is willing to shutdown the government unless Congress coughs up $5 billion for his wall. But then, hes also indicated that he believes he can declare the wall a national security priority, and unilaterally order the military to start building it. If history is any guide, expect Trump to loudly advertise his displeasure about Congress rebuffing his demands, before deciding that the fight isnt worth sacrificing Executive Time to continue. Former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister and Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (JCC) founder Ajit Jogi was admitted to the Lilavati Hospital here after he faced breathing problem. According to the doctors, Jogi is stable now and will soon be discharged. Jogi had contested the recently-held Chhattisgarh Assembly elections from Marwahi in Bilaspur. Assembly polls in Chhattisgarh were held in two phases earlier this month. The results will be announced on December 11. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) President Ram Nath Kovind has appointed Arvind Saxena as the Chairman of Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). "The tenure of Saxena will commence from the date he enters upon the office of Chairman, UPSC," read an official statement on Wednesday, adding he would hold the post till August 7, 2020, or till further orders whichever is earlier. Saxena joined UPSC as a Member on May 8, 2015, and has been performing duties of the post of UPSC Chairman since June 20, 2018. Prior to joining UPSC as a Member, Saxena was working as Director of the Aviation Research Centre (ARC). A student of Civil Engineering at the Delhi College of Engineering besides having M Tech in Systems Management from Delhi's Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Saxena was selected for the Civil Services and joined the Indian Postal Service in 1978. In 1988, he started working at the Cabinet Secretariat, where he specialised in the study of strategic developments in neighbouring countries. A recipient of awards for Meritorious Services (2005) and Distinguished Services (2012), Saxena has travelled extensively in India and abroad. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader Indresh Kumar has criticised the three-Judge bench of the Supreme Court which had on October 29 adjourned the Ayodhya title suit till January 2019 to fix the date of hearing in the matter. He said that the bench has "delayed" justice and "disrespected" the Constitution. Referring to the Chief Justice of India-led bench's decision to defer hearing on the Ayodhya matter, Indresh at an event here said: "I haven't taken names because 125 crore Indians know their names. The three-judge bench. they delayed, they denied, they disrespected. They have disrespected the Constitution and fundamental rights." The top court adjourned the matter which challenged the Allahabad High Court ruling of 2010. The 2010 verdict had divided the disputed land in Ayodhya into three parts for each of the parties -- the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla. RSS, Vishva Hindu Parishad and Shiv Sena had on Sunday organised events at various places in Ayodhya, Nagpur, and Bengaluru highlighting the growing demand for the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As voting for the single-phase Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram Assembly elections gets underway, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have appealed to voters to exercise their right. Ahead of the commencement of polls, BJP president Amit Shah tweeted, "As voting in Mizoram begins, I appeal all my sisters and brothers of state to turnout in record numbers and vote. Your one vote will lay the foundation of a prosperous and corruption free Mizoram." Urging the people of Madhya Pradesh to cast their votes, the BJP chief added, "Development comes from clear intention, policy and leadership. The biggest contribution in the development path of which Madhya Pradesh is today is the election of the right leadership in the last 15 years by the public. I appeal to all the voters to make Madhya Pradesh a prosperous state by casting their vote." Senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala urged voters to cast their respective votes to bring a "change". "I appeal all voters that it is time to bring change. It's time to get rid of 15 years of BJP's misrule; teach a lesson to the corrupt and oppressive BJP. Press the button of hand, create a Congress government. Good days will come when Modi-Shivraj will go," he tweeted. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, took to Twitter to urge voters in Mizoram and Madhya Pradesh to exercise their franchise. Amid tight security, Madhya Pradesh is voting for a new assembly today. The voting is being underway at 65,341 polling booths, which have been set up for the single-phase elections to 230 seats of the state Assembly. As many as 2,000 booths will entirely be operated by women staff. Special arrangements have been made for visually impaired people to help them cast their votes. A total of 5,04,95,251 voters including 41,30, 90 females and 1389 third gender will cast their votes to decide the fortune of as many as 2, 907candidates, who are in the fray. The State Election Commission has made elaborate security arrangements to ensure that polling takes place in a free and fair manner. On the other hand, as many as 209 candidates are contesting to bag a seat in the 40-member Legislative Assembly of Mizoram, which is the Congress bastion in the North East. Both Congress and Mizo Front (MNF) are contesting all 40 constituencies this time, while the BJP is fighting in 39 seats. The result of the polls will be declared on December 11. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former Joint Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and IPS officer V.V Lakshmi Narayana has announced to soon launch his own political party. "It has been decided in our volunteers' meeting held on November 26 that my political entry should be done through my own political party, as per their suggestions. The name of the new party, its modalities, date and place of the launch of the party, and other details will soon be announced," read a statement from Narayana. Narayana had called a meeting of his followers on Monday. He even invited leaders of Lok Satta, Telangana Praja Party, and Aam Aadmi Party. All of them announced their support to the former IPS officer. Lok Satta founder Jaya Prakash Narayana had even offered to take the reins of his party. Following which, Lakshmi Narayana said that he would consider the offer. Narayana is famous in Telugu states as he was the Joint Director of CBI, who investigated and filed charge sheets against YSR Congress Party supremo YS Jaganmohan Reddy in economic offence cases. (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 Wednesday registered a case against unknown persons in connection with alleged malpractices in the examinations of the Institute of Open School (NIOS) after the agency received a complaint on July 23 this year from the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD). The Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) of HRD Ministry had complained about the alleged malpractices in Class X and Class XII examinations held last year. After receiving the complaint, the CBI had carried out searches at 26 locations spread across five states and one Union Territory of the country. The searches were conducted in Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Odisha, Assam, Sikkim, and Delhi. At 26 different locations, the premises of NIOS officials, NIOS study centres and private properties were also searched. During these searches, the CBI had recovered hard disks, computers, answer sheets, fees payment as well as seat planning structure of the examination hall. These items have been recovered from the accused and the places, which were searched. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former Minister of State for Agriculture Arun Yadav, who is contesting against Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan from Budhni town in the assembly elections being held on Wednesday, is confident of the party's victory in the polls. In an exclusive interview to ANI, Yadav who was also the Congress state president asserted that people are disillusioned with the ruling Madhya Pradesh government as they failed to develop the state. "I am here in Budhni from the past 15 days. I believe that the majority of the people will vote for us (Congress). People are upset with this government because they have not carried any substantial development plan so far. I have visited villages and towns of Madhya Pradesh. people residing in these areas do not have access to even basic amenities such as water and electricity," he said. The 44-year-old leader also accused the aides of the incumbent Chief Minister of creating an atmosphere of panic among voters in the state. Yadav's remarks came shortly after Chouhan, in a jibe at his Congress opponent, said the party had been "unfair" to Yadav by ousting him from the post of state unit president and then by giving him a ticket from Budhni. Voting in the state began at 8 am and will conclude at 5 pm. However, poll timing in Baihar, Lanji and Parswada Assembly constituencies of Balaghat district has been set from 7 am to 3 pm. Around five crore eligible voters will decide the fate of 2,899 candidates contesting for 230 seats of the state Assembly. Elaborate security arrangements have been made in order to ensure free, fair and peaceful polls. Around 1,80,000 security personnel have been deployed to maintain law and order in the region. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Minister for Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Wednesday said that she has clearly told the Pakistan media that Kashmir belongs to India and there is "no scope" of negotiation on this issue. Speaking to scribes soon after crossing the border at Wagah, Badal said, "I have clearly told their media (Pakistan media) that Kashmir is a part of India and will stay that way. There is no scope of negotiation on this." She along with Union Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri crossed Atari-Wagah border to return to India. The two ministers came back on Wednesday evening after attending the groundbreaking ceremony of Kartarpur corridor in Pakistan earlier in the day. Sharing her experience about the visit, Badal said, " must be left aside on Kartarpur issue. As much as our visit is concerned, neither Pakistan invited us nor we have any friend or relative there but it was Baba Nanak's invitation which took us there for the first time. It is my belief that when Baba Nanak gave his blessing, the pending demand of 70 years got fulfilled." On being asked to comment on Punjab Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu's visit and his comments made in Pakistan, Badal said, "It must be noted that I and Hardeep Singh Puri went to this ceremony to represent our country. He (Sidhu) participated on account of an old friendship. So there is, of course, a difference between the two." Earlier in the day, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan performed the groundbreaking ceremony of much-awaited Kartarpur corridor. Several Pakistani dignitaries including Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi were present at the occasion. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Congress leader Pratap Singh Bajwa on Wednesday defended Punjab Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu's visit to Pakistan for the groundbreaking ceremony of the Kartarpur corridor, saying that Sidhu visited Pakistan in his personal capacity and the onus of what he says there lies on him alone. Speaking to ANI, Bajwa said: "Navjot Singh Sidhu went there on a personal invitation because he is a friend of Imran Khan. He didn't go there in an official capacity as a Minister. This has also been clarified by the Punjab Chief Minister. The onus of whatever he says there in his personal capacity lies on him alone." Bajwa further said, "Navjot Singh Sidhu went there for the second time in three-four months. Who issued him the visa? Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) did. First, you issue him a visa and then you talk about what he did and what he said there. Navjot Singh Sidhu's visit to Pakistan has no link with Punjab government and Congress," Bajwa said. He also expressed delight over the opening of the historic Kartarpur corridor, calling it a "happy day for the entire Sikh community." "Today is a very happy day for all Sikh community and for people from different religions, who believe in Guru Nanak Dev Ji. We thank our government, Punjab government and most importantly Pakistan government to felicitate this corridor," the Congress leader said. He refused to credit any political party for the corridor, saying: "The credit goes to only Guru Nanak Dev Ji. I believe that credit of this happiness goes to Guru Nanak Dev Ji; it has become possible because of his blessings. It is a moment of happiness and we should not ruin this happiness with any political comment or any kind of controversy." Earlier today, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan performed the groundbreaking ceremony of much-awaited Kartarpur corridor. Several Pakistani dignitaries including Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi were present at the occasion. The Indian representatives included Minister for Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri, who crossed the Wagah Border to attend the inauguration ceremony. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Acosta doing business? Photo: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images Imagine you are a U.S. Attorney, spearheading the prosecution of an alleged serial sexual abuser of children. You have statements from dozens of self-identified victims teenage girls who do not know each other, and yet tell virtually identical stories (even providing corroborating descriptions of the suspects genitalia). The victims unanimously say that the suspect operated a kind of sex pyramid scheme, in which he would: 1) Offer barely pubescent girls a lot of money to come to his house and give him a massage. 2) Coerce them into performing sex acts during and after the massages. 3) Offer those who liked the money but not the molestation more pay in exchange for luring other barely pubescent girls to his home. Your team has uncovered phone records, flight logs, and written messages that corroborate the alleged victims claims. Someone who worked in the suspects home has given you a sworn statement, confirming that young girls were constantly entering and leaving the house and that, on one occasion, he accidentally stumbled on a high school girl sleeping naked in the suspects spa. A search of the suspects property turned up naked photos of underage girls, written instructions for delivering flowers to a local high school, a dresser drawer full of sex toys, and loose dangling wires all over the property the suspect having, apparently, removed all of his computer hard drives, surveillance cameras, and videos from the house shortly before your team arrived. The house perfectly matches the alleged victims (uniform) descriptions. Meanwhile, investigators have begun to uncover evidence that the suspect was involved in bringing 13-year-old girls from Brazil and Ecuador to the United States to work as prostitutes at his sex parties. As that investigation is moving forward, the suspects attorneys offer you a deal: The suspect will plead guilty to two state-level prostitution charges, in exchange for: Immunity from all related federal criminal charges not only for himself, but also for any potential co-conspirators who might have been involved in those alleged federal crimes. This provision would effectively forbid the FBI from looking any further into the evidence of international sex trafficking, and, essentially, make it retroactively legal for anyone to have conspired with the suspect to rape any of the alleged victims. A 13-month sentence, to be served in a private wing of a county jail except for the six days a week when the suspect works. On those days, he will be allowed to commute to his private office, and work for 12 hours. A commitment that this agreement will be kept secret from the self-identified victims, so that they do not have the opportunity to protest the arrangement in court (even though keeping a plea agreement secret from victims is an ostensible violation of federal law). Would you accept this plea agreement? If you are Donald Trumps Labor secretary, then the answer is yes. All the facts described above are not actually from a bizarre hypothetical, but rather, from the actual prosecution of billionaire hedge-fund manager Jeffrey Epstein, as detailed by a bombshell investigation from the Miami Herald. In 2008, thenU.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta agreed to derail an active FBI investigation into a sex-trafficking ring and let a man who was transparently guilty of molesting and/or raping dozens of underage girls serve a 13-month sentence (the Palm Beach County Sheriffs Office then approved his 12-hour-a-day, six-days-a-week work-release arrangement). Acosta would later attribute the leniency of the agreement to, in part, harassment from Epsteins high-powered legal team which, according to the Herald, hired private investigators to dig up dirt on the billionaires victims, on the police officers investigating Epsteins crimes, and on federal prosecutors. But emails and documents obtained by the Herald suggest that the relationship between federal prosecutors and Epsteins team was often more collaborative than adversarial: Its clear, from emails and other records, that prosecutors spent a lot of time figuring out a way to settle the case with the least amount of scandal. Instead of charging Epstein with a sex offense, prosecutors considered witness tampering and obstruction charges, and misdemeanors that would allow Epstein to secretly plead guilty in Miami, instead of in Palm Beach County, where most of the victims lived, thereby limiting media exposure and making it less likely for victims to appear at the sentencing. The email chain shows that prosecutors sometimes communicated with the defense team using private emails, and that their correspondence referenced discussions that they wanted to have by phone or in person, so that there would be no paper trail. Its highly unusual and raises suspicions of something unethical happening when you see emails that say call me, I dont want to put this in writing. Theres no reason to worry about putting something in writing if theres nothing improper or unethical in the case, said former federal prosecutor Francey Hakes, who worked in the Justice Departments crimes against children unit. Conspiracy theorists often fantasize about nefarious, elite cabals that sexually abuse and traffic children with impunity, because their secret, private power supersedes that of all national governments. It is hard to examine the facts of the Epstein case and not wonder if those folks in the tin-foil hats arent onto something. Epstein had no shortage of powerful friends, including Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Prince Andrew, and Alan Dershowitz all of whom, at various points, frequented planes and properties that Epstein allegedly used for sexually abusing girls, sometimes with other men. At least some of Epsteins powerful friends appear to have been aware of his crimes. For example, the current president of the United States told New York Magazine in 2002, Ive known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy. Hes a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it Jeffrey enjoys his social life. One of Epsteins alleged victims, Virginia Giuffre, has claimed in court papers that she was recruited into the billionaires child sex ring when she was 15 and working as a towel girl at Mar-a-Lago. She also claims that Dershowitz and Prince Andrew participated in her sexual abuse. The star attorney and British royal have vigorously denied those allegations. Still, the incomprehensible leniency of Epsteins plea deal and the extraordinary provision immunizing any unnamed co-conspirators who participated in his trafficking ring from federal charges both invite the dark suspicion that federal prosecutors felt compelled to protect an individual, or individuals, who were even more powerful than Epstein. The Herald floats an alternative explanation for the prosecutors behavior but its less than satisfying: The Herald learned that, as part of the plea deal, Epstein provided what the government called valuable consideration for unspecified information he supplied to federal investigators. While the documents obtained by the Herald dont detail what the information was, Epsteins sex crime case happened just as the countrys subprime mortgage market collapsed, ushering in the 2008 global financial crisis. Records show that Epstein was a key federal witness in the criminal prosecution of two prominent executives with Bear Stearns, the global investment brokerage that failed in 2008, who were accused of corporate securities fraud. Epstein was one of the largest investors in the hedge fund managed by the executives, who were later acquitted. It is not known what role, if any, the case played in Epsteins plea negotiations. Generally speaking, American prosecutors do not take corporate securities fraud more seriously than serial child molestation and sex trafficking. But whatever the motivation behind Acostas decision, his acceptance of Epsteins plea agreement surely disqualifies him from leading a federal agency responsible for combating sex trafficking. Anyhow, this summary only scratches the surface of the Heralds incredible investigation, which is worth reading in full. You should also check out New York Magazines contemporary reporting on the investigation into Epstein. Although, be advised: Reading about Jeffrey Epstein for longer than 45 minutes may lead one to conclude that 4-chan posts about Pizzagate paint a more accurate picture of the American ruling class than, say, all those uplifting speeches at John McCains funeral. Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said that his party and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) have a similar vision and they are fighting for the people of Telangana. After meeting Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu here, the Congress president said: "We are not adversaries. There is a similarity in our vision. We are fighting for the voice of people of Telangana." He added that both the parties are working together as there is "a threat to the nation from Prime Minister Narendra Modi." Naidu and Gandhi earlier in the day took part in a road show in Hyderabad. The Telangana Legislative Assembly election is scheduled to be held in Telangana on December 7 to constitute the second Legislative Assembly. The result 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 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday accused the Congress, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) of deleting names of scores of people from Telangana voters' list on grounds of their community. Speaking to the media after meeting senior officials of the Election Commission, Union Minister for Minority Affairs and BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said, "Genuine voters from a particular community and supporting a specific party have been deleted under planned conspiracy." He also alleged that names of several fake voters and Rohingyas have been illegally included in the voters' list and urged the Election Commission to take action in the matter. "Names of several fake voters have been included in the list. Around 700-800 voters have the same address. Names of Rohingyas have also been included in list; they should not be allowed to cast votes. We demanded the Election Commission to look into the loopholes before the election and take action against officers involved," Naqvi added. Telangana will go to polls on December 7 to elect the 119 members of the legislative assembly. 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.) The Kerala Cabinet on Wednesday sanctioned Rs. 10 crore as financial aid to the Tamil Nadu government for the relief and rehabilitation work in cyclone Gaja-hit areas. The Kerala government will also set aside Rs 3.25 crore from the Chief Minister's relief fund for the fishermen who participated in rescue operations during the ensuing floods. This amount will be used to compensate them for their damaged boats. The move comes a day after actor-turned-politician and Makkal Needhi Maiam chief Kamal Hassan wrote to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, asking him to provide full support to the citizens of Tamil Nadu who were affected by the cyclone Gaja. Stating that "cyclone Gaja has caused widespread damage and destruction to life and property" in the Cauvery delta and coastal districts of Tamil Nadu, Hassan asked Vijayan to "rise above politics and other affiliations to demonstrate a true spirit of human kindness". Cyclone Gaja left a trail of destruction in Tamil Nadu about two weeks ago, claiming the lives of as many as 46 people apart from causing widespread damage to property and livestock. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) After a span of 22 years, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday upheld the Karkardooma trial court's order convicting 88 people in a case relating to 1984 anti-Sikh riots that took place in East Delhi's Trilokpuri area. Justice RK Gauba in his judgment penned, "34 long years have passed after the crimes were committed and, yet, the victims await justice and closure. Is this what we call a potent and effective criminal justice system? Is our judicial apparatus at all equipped to deal with the crimes of such magnitude? Do we have lessons to be learnt from this?" "It is indeed a matter of lament that there has been no meaningful thought spared till date to usher in reforms in the judicial process to effectively deal with the cases of communal riots which are engineered by those who have clout or influence- of various kind." he added. The court cancelled the bail bonds of all the accused and directed to forthwith surrender to undergo the punishment awarded against them. The single judge bench further directed re-examination of the 22 bodies, the identification of which was not possible at the time of filing the FIR. "It is likely that 22 homicidal deaths may not have seen any criminal action initiated against anyone till date. In the foregoing facts and circumstances, this court directs the Commissioner of Police, Delhi to have the material, and the evidence, in above nature, re-examined by an appropriate agency for such further action under the criminal law as may be requisite," the judgment said. In 1996, the Sessions Court of Karkardooma had convicted 88 of the total arrested accused. The convicts had later filed an appeal in the Delhi High Court against the trial court's order. More than 100 people were arrested in November 1984 for allegedly rioting, burning houses and violating curfew imposed in Trilokpuri area of Delhi. In another case relating to the 1984 riots, a Delhi court had on November 20 this year pronounced death penalty to Yashpal Singh and life imprisonment to Naresh Sehrawat for killing two Sikhs during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. The court also slapped Rs 35 lakh fine on each of them. Massive riots had erupted across the country after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her bodyguards. As per the official records, around 2,800 Sikhs were killed across India, including 2,100 in Delhi, during the clashes. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) It was a moment of great joy and pride for the students of Summer Fields and Ridge Valley School, Gurugram when Kartik Sawhney visited them and interacted with them. Kartik a specially-abled boy, with 100% visual impairment is the first blind student in India to pursue science in class XI and beyond. Often called as the face of ability this boy changed the way Indian educators look at disabled students. Kartik completed his majors in Computer Science with a focus on Artificial Intelligence and Human-Computer Interaction at Stanford University. Currently, he is working with Microsoft as IT Engineer in California. Kartik is a DLF Foundation's scholar who received DLF Raghvendra Scholarship to pursue his higher studies at Stanford University. Despite scoring 96 percent in his class 12 CBSE examinations and becoming the first visually impaired student to achieve this feat in Science stream, Kartik was denied a chance to study at India's most valued IITs due to his visual impairment. But he, determined to beat all odds, decided to not place 'dis' in his ability and applied in several foreign universities. His application was accepted by Stanford University. Sawhney, who comes from a middle-class family, couldn't afford overseas. Though Stanford University agreed to fund a portion of his tuition fee expenses, it was still difficult for him to manage the rest and survive in the US. Hence, DLF Foundation, realizing his potential to excel, decided to pay for Kartik's expenses at the topmost university. He was given the DLF Raghvendra Scholarship and DLF Foundation supported his journey to ensure that Kartik completes his without any financial hindrance. Sharing his journey Kartik said, "I once met honorable A. P. J. Abdul Kalam who told me 'You don't need vision to have the Vision'. His words till today have been with me and have helped me fight all the odds. Initially, when I decided to take up science it was very difficult, at times I felt that maybe I have made a mistake to study science because at that point of time no facilities were available for a person like me to study the subject after 12th. However, my parents and their attitude that I will live and do everything that a normal child does help me overcome all the obstacles and achieve my dreams." When he was asked about how was the society to him he said, "Initially society was a little mean lot of people questioned me for my decision but that eventually helped me work harder and paved my way to Standford." Sawhney was born blind due to retinopathy of prematurity, which causes abnormal blood vessel growth in the retina and detaches it from the back of the eye. However, his disability never stopped him from achieving what he wanted. Gen Kumar Vijay Singh Lalhotra, AVSM, YSM, SM (Retd.), Sr. Advisor (Education) DLF Foundation, said, "We are proud to have Kartik as one of our scholar who has beaten all odds to reach where he is today. His journey is an inspiration in itself and today also his presence and interaction with the children have motivated them to follow their dreams and believe in their abilities." He is also a trained Hindustani classical vocalist; Kartik has performed for the former Presidents of India, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, President of Austria, Princess of Thailand, besides other eminent musicians such as Pt. Ravi Shankar, A. R. Rahman, and Usha Uthup. He was felicitated by the Queen of Britain at Buckingham Palace in 2016. He was honored with Queen's Young Leader Award. He was very recently awarded Sri Sathya Sai Award for Human Excellence. He also Co-founded I-Stem that provides online technical training, professional development webinars and mentorship to blind students in India, besides organizing hands-on events and initiatives such as hackathons, demo days and internships. (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 Wednesday said that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao led Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government did not implement the Centre's 'public friendly' schemes in the state, fearing that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would get the publicity. Shah, who was addressing an election rally here, blamed Chief Minister Rao for not fulfilling many of his promises. "KCR had promised airport in Adilabad. What happened? Not yet started. KCR had promised construction of 18 tanks. Not even excavation works were started. KCR had promised a town hall in Adilabad. What happened to that town hall," he asked. "KCR had even promised two-bedroom houses. Forget about it. Even the funds sent by the Centre under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMJAY) are not being spent. KCR had promised Rs 80,000 crore for tribal welfare but did not spend even Rs 8 crore. KCR is afraid of Modi and fears that if Modi's schemes are implemented in Telangana, Modi will get much publicity," he went on adding. Accusing KCR of indulging in minority appeasement, Shah said, "KCR had surpassed all others in minority appeasement. He announced 12 per cent reservation for Muslims and prevented the reservation for Tribal. TRS MPs are speaking in favour of illegal migrants from Bangladesh," he said. "Congress president Rahul Gandhi is four steps ahead of KCR in minority appeasement. The Congress manifesto says reservations for minorities in government contracts, separate hospitals for them, separate Urdu quota. The leaked manifesto of Congress is anti-constitutional. Earlier also, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said that Muslims have the first right on the resources. But it was only Prime Minister Narendra Modi who said that it is the poor and the needy, who have the first right on resources," he said. Attacking Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Shah said, "Rahul Baba is roaming in some areas of Telangana. Can he get Telangana rid of All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen? Can Kodandaram and communists do that? Can KC Rao and TRS do that? No. In fact, KCR and others are afraid of MIM. That is why they are not even celebrating Telangana Vimochan Day. Had not Komram Bheem and others sacrificed their lives, we had to take Visa and passport to enter Telangana." Shah also referred to how the Congress did not allow the funeral of former Prime Minister Narasimha Rao in Delhi. "Congress damaged the Telugu pride. When senior Congress leader and former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao passed away, his body was not allowed to enter the Congress party office. Then Congress leadership did not even let his last rites to be performed in Delhi and forced his body to be flown to Hyderabad," he said. Shah informed the gathering that the Central government under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi had exponentially increased the budget for Telangana. "During the Congress rule at the Centre, Rs 16,000 crore was allocated for the state whereas the BJP government at the Centre has increased that amount to Rs 2.35 lakh crore," he said. BJP general secretary Muralidhar Rao, Union Minister Hansraj Gangaram Ahir and BJP candidates of six Assembly constituencies of Adilabad district were also present on the dais. Telangana goes to assembly polls on December 7. The counting of votes will be done on December 11. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Gauri Khan has declared husband Shah Rukh Khan and son AbRam as the sweetest couple in the world. She took to her official Instagram account to share an adorable moment between the father-son duo, and captioned it as, "Can we just declare them the 'sweetest' couple in the world. #lovegoals#kissonforehead" In the photo posted by Gauri, the two are twinning their outfits. The tiny tot is kissing his doting father's forehead, while SRK is smiling peacefully as the little munchkin expresses his love for him. The two are definitely one of the cutest father-son duos in B-town and are often snapped together publically. Apart from AbRam, Gauri and SRK are also proud parents to Aryan, 21 and Suhana, 18. The actor had recently praised his wife for her debut on the list of Fortune India's 50 Most Powerful Women in business this year. He took to his Twitter to support and encourgae his wife's efforts. On the work front, the 'Dilwale' actor is gearing up for his next film titled 'Zero' which also stars Anushka Sharma and Katrina Kaif in the lead roles. The flick is directed by Aanand L Rai. In the film, SRK plays the role of Bauua Singh, a vertically challenged man on a lookout for a bride, while Anushka Sharma portrays the role of a scientist who has cerebral palsy and Katrina Kaif is playing a superstar, Babita Kumar, battling alcoholism. Produced by Gauri Khan, 'Zero' is all set to release on December 21, this year. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi High Court on Wednesday allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Director Alok Verma and Joint Director AK Sharma to inspect the case diary related to the FIR against the Central probe agency's Special Director Rakesh Asthana at the office of Central Vigilance Commission (CVC). Verma will inspect the case file on November 29, while Sharma will inspect the same on November 30 at the CVC office in the presence of CBI's Superintendent of Police Satish Dagar. The High Court's order comes while hearing the plea filed by Asthana seeking quashing of FIR against him in an alleged bribery case. CBI's Joint Director, Sharma in his reply to Asthana's plea, said that the "probe against him (Asthana) is at the initial stage and because of that the FIR should not be quashed." The High Court extended till December 7 its order directing the CBI to maintain status quo in the matter. Asthana came under scrutiny after the CBI filed an FIR against him on the charges of alleged extortion, forgery, bribery, and corruption. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Minister for Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Wednesday said that if Berlin Wall could be demolished, then why can't the hatred between India and Pakistan with the opening of Kartarpur corridor. "When the Wall of Berlin can be brought down, then hatred between India and Pakistan can also be brought down with the opening of Kartarpur corridor. It can be a new beginning in the name of Baba Nanak, who said 'Na Koi Hindu, Na Koi Musalman Lekin Ek Onkar' (No one is Hindu, No one is Muslim but all are one)," she said. Badal, said, "This is a historic day for the Sikh community. No matter which part of the world we are from, for the last 70 years we have been striving to pay obeisance at this historic place. This (Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur) is 4 kilometres away from the border. From the other side, we would bow our heads and during peaceful evenings and would also immerse into soothing religious hymns rising from this holy place. It was so near and yet very fear." "It is very significant for me to be a witness of this moment. This is a miracle of Baba Nanak. This is a very big gift for the Sikh community by both the countries on the occasion of Guru Purab. This peace corridor will further propagate the preaching of peace, harmony, and love as given by Guru Nanak Dev," she added. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday performed the groundbreaking ceremony of much-awaited Kartarpur corridor here. Several Pakistani dignitaries including Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, and Minister for Religious Affairs Noorul Haq Qadri and Railways Minister Sheikh Rasheed, Minister of State for Interior Shehryar Afridi, Indian ministers, and foreign diplomats attended the foundation laying ceremony, reported Dawn. A delegation of Indian journalists and a number of Sikh pilgrims also attended the ceremony. Minister for Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri crossed the Wagah Border to attend the groundbreaking ceremony of Kartarpur corridor in Pakistan as India's representatives for the event. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Minister of State for External Affairs, Gen V K Singh on Wednesday asserted India's firm commitment to the rebuilding and reconstruction of Afghanistan and voiced support for an inclusive political settlement in the country while addressing the Ministerial Conference in Geneva Singh reiterated India's support to the efforts of the Government of Afghanistan in the peace and reconciliation process and the need for firm action by the international community against those who breed, support, sustain and sponsor terror and violence. Recalling India's age-old historical, cultural, civilizational and economic ties with Afghanistan, Singh also enunciated India's perspective on the development cooperation assistance to the country keeping its people as the priority. Singh, accompanied by a delegation of ministerial officials further reiterated India's development assistance commitment of over USD three billion to Afghanistan in consonance with Afghanistan's priorities under its National Peace and Development Framework. He stated that for enduring peace and stability, terrorist safe havens and sanctuaries need to be eliminated and there is an imperative need for any political settlement to be free of external influence. Earlier, on Tuesday, in a high-level closed-door dinner on Peace in Afghanistan jointly organised by the Government of Afghanistan and the United Nations, he expressed India's support in building a united, stable, secure, inclusive, democratic and prosperous Afghanistan and reiterated that peace and reconciliation efforts in Afghanistan have to be Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-controlled. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A GM Cruise test vehicle recharging in San Francisco. Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images General Motors announced mass layoffs on Monday. The automaker plans to cut about $6 billion in spending and fire 14,700 employees, including more than 6,000 factory workers and 8,000 salaried workers. It will also idle five North American factories. Dont take it as a sign of business trouble, though: GM reported $2.5 billion in net income in the third quarter of 2018, and has done very well during the past decade of economic growth. Rather, the layoffs are a long-term strategic decision one that gives us some insight into the future of car manufacturing in the U.S. There are two strategic imperatives behind the layoffs. The first is GMs need to get out of the business of making increasingly unpopular sedans in favor of selling trucks, SUVs, and crossovers, in following with general consumer preferences. The company is halting production on the Chevrolet Cruze and Volt, the Buick LaCrosse, and the Cadillac XTS and Cadillac CT6. The second, says GM CEO Mary Barra, is making GM lean and agile as we aim to lead in autonomous and [] electric vehicles. Thats great news for people working at GM Cruise, the company acquired by GM for $1 billion in 2016 and now valued at $11 billion. GM Cruise has quickly become a true contender for winning the race to build a commercial business around automated vehicles. But GM Cruise is a bit different from GMs other divisions. For one thing, its based in San Francisco rather than Detroit (and is opening a second office in Seattle), in order to attract more engineering talent. Its growing extremely rapidly, but its total headcount is 1,000, and thats nearly all for research and development. By contrast, the Detroit/Hamtramck factory, one of the five to be closed, is located only three miles away from GMs corporate headquarters, and employs nearly twice as many people as the entire Cruise division but not for much longer. GM Cruise is theres no denying it a huge success. GM Cruise is a little bit behind Waymo on the tech side, but not that far, says Sam Abuelsamid, a senior analyst at Navigant Research; he releases his Automated Driving Leaderboard every year and put GM Cruise at the top of the heap for 2018. But were not just looking at the core automated driving technology, were looking at the whole landscape of companies being able to successfully commercialize that technology. GM has the manufacturing infrastructure, a dealer network to provide fleet management and maintenance, and a financing arm they can use fund the fleets. It makes sense that GM would want to plow more money into what is obviously the future of its company. Navigant Researchs Automated Driving Leaderboard for 2018, showing GM Cruise leading the way. But thats not much solace for auto workers who have just found out theyll be laid off after returning from the Thanksgiving holiday. Its hard not to look at GMs layoffs and general strategy and see a gloomy analogy for the American economy of the past 30 years. Blue-collar manufacturing jobs and mid-level white-collar jobs for people without advanced degrees are vanishing and being replaced by a smaller number of positions requiring expensive and extremely specialized education. That doesnt mean that there wont be auto manufacturing jobs in the U.S. once self-driving cars arrive on a mass scale. GMs plant in Orion, Michigan currently produces the all-electric Chevy Bolt and test vehicles for GM Cruise, and it will take on manufacturing autonomous vehicles once they enter mass production. (The Orion factory, which currently puts out around 1,000 vehicles per week and employs just under 1,200 people, was untouched by GMs closures.) Ford, which is also working rapidly towards building its own self-driving vehicles, has said that its will be built in Flat Rock, Michigan. As both companies move towards producing automated vehicles, they will likely do so in America. Theres not really any compelling reason to move that [production] to some other location, says Abuelsamid. But were in an awkward phase of the hype cycle. Automated vehicles are gonna take a lot longer than the hype over the last few years has suggested, says Abuelsamid. We expect that at least through 2023 and 2024, [the] growth [will] be very slow. Abuelsamid doesnt foresee autonomous vehicles being produced in the millions until 2025, and even then he predicts that it will be something like 5.4 million out of the 105 million cars produced annually not even 5 percent of the market. GMs layoffs dont presage the death of auto manufacturing in this country, but even if Mary Barras wildest hopes about self-driving automobiles come to pass, I doubt GM will replace the number of manufacturing jobs being lost right now. The future of GMs profitability may lie in autonomous vehicles, but the future employment of autoworkers does not. Correction: A previous version of this article mistakenly stated that GM would cut 147,000 jobs. The actual figure is 14,700. Naveed Jutt, a terrorist allegedly involved in the assassination of journalist Shujaat Bukhari was shot dead in an encounter here on Wednesday. The encounter broke out between security forces and terrorists in Chathergam village of Budgam early this morning. This is the second terrorist allegedly involved in Bukhari's killing was gunned down by security forces. On November 23, in another encounter security forces neutralised Azad Malik, allegedly involved in Bukhari's killing, in Sekipora area of Bijbehara in Anantnag. Bukhari was the editor of Rising Kashmir and was shot dead by terrorists in Srinagar on June 14. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Japan is all set to resume its oil imports from Iran by the end of the year following an exemption from United States sanctions which will last for 180 days. "Some firms may resume imports from Iran late December. The amount of the imports will likely grow from January to March," NHK quoted Takashi Tsukioka, the President of the Petroleum Association of Japan, as saying. There is an ambiguity surrounding what may happen after the exemption period is up, but Tsukioka believes that Japanese wholesalers will bring in as much Iranian oil as they can during this time. The US had exempted eight nations from its sanctions related to oil imports from Iran, including Japan after it decided to reimpose sanctions on the middle-eastern nation after its withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal in May this year. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Judy Sheindlin, a.k.a. Judge Judy, is the world's highest-paid TV host, according to a new Forbes list. Shiendlin, the formidable host of the courtroom series 'Judge Judy' for more than two decades, raked in USD 147 million pretax last year. The 76-year-old even holds the Guinness World Record for the longest career as a TV judge. "Last year she sold the rights to her Judge Judy's 5,200-episode library, as well as future episodes of the show, to CBS for an estimated USD 100 million. Between that paycheck and the USD 47 million she gets for hosting Judge Judy and producing Hot Bench, Sheindlin took in triple her typical annual paycheck. With that added to her bank account, she also became 48th-richest self-made woman in America, with a net worth of USD 400 million," noted Forbes. Ellen DeGeneres, on the other hand, has taken the No. 2 spot on the list of highest-paid talk show hosts with USD 87. 5 million. In third place is perpetual advice-giver Dr. Phil McGraw with USD 77.5 million, followed by multi-hat-wearing host and 'Keeping Up with the Kardashians' producer Ryan Seacrest at USD 47 million, and 'Family Feud's Steve Harvey with USD 44 million. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) At least 10 people were killed and 19 others got injured in an attack on a security compound in Kabul on Thursday, Al Jazeera reported. Najib Danish, spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior, informed that the explosion occurred close to a compound of British security contractor group G4S, near an industrial park on the main road from Kabul towards eastern Afghanistan. Officials stated that a suicide bomber detonated his explosives following which a gun battle ensued between other fighters and the forces in the area. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday said the opening of Kartarpur Corridor does not mean a dialogue between India and Pakistan will start as "terror and talks cannot go together". "For many years the Indian Government has been asking for this (Kartarpur) corridor, only now Pakistan responded positively. It doesn't mean the bilateral dialogue will start because of this, terror and talks can't go together," the minister stated, while addressing media in Hyderabad. The foundation stone of the Kartarpur Corridor will be laid on the other side of the border by Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan today. It will connect Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan's Kartarpur and Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India's Gurdaspur district.While on the Indian side, the foundation stone was laid on November 26 by Vice President Venkaiah Naidu. Swaraj also took the occasion to give a strong response to Pakistan's invitation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the 20th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit. "We are not responding to the invitation unless Pakistan stops terrorism, we will not respond. We will not participate in SAARC," Swaraj asserted. Yesterday, Pakistan's Foreign Office (FO) announced that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be invited for the 20th SAARC summit which is to be held in Islamabad. The dates of the summit are yet to be finalised. Pakistan FO spokesman Mohammad Faisal, while addressing the Kashmir Conference in Islamabad, 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," Pakistan FO spokesman Mohammad Faisal asserted. It is worth noting 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.) Army Chief General Bipin Rawat on Wednesday said that Kartarpur corridor issue should be seen in isolation and should not be linked with anything else. "All people say that give peace a chance for something to happen, but we must see what our government has said today that this is to be seen in isolation. The opening of Kartarpur corridor should be seen in isolation and not linked with anything else," said General Rawat. His statement comes in the backdrop of Indian delegation visiting the groundbreaking ceremony of Kartarpur corridor in Pakistan in which pro-Khalistan leader was allegedly seen standing with Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and also shaking hands with Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa. "It is a one-sided decision, that has nothing to do with anything else," he said. On neutralising terrorist in Jammu and Kashmir, General Rawat said that the Army has its 'list' and is eliminating terrorist one by one according to it. "Our soldiers are doing their work and are going according to the list of 12 that we have. Slowly we have to eliminate the leaders and nab others. We are successfully doing it," said Rawat. Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Naveed Jatt, the prime accused in the killing of senior journalist Shujhaat Bukhari, and one other militant were killed in a gun battle with security forces at Budgam in Kashmir on Wednesday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Opposition in Maharashtra accused the Devendra Fadnavis-led state government of suppressing the opposition in the garb of Rs 35,000 crore Maharashtra irrigation scam case. "The matter is in court, and I do not want to comment on it. But, the government is trying to suppress the opposition. The government has given a clean chit to their own ministers who have corruption charges against them," said S Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, the leader of opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly. The development came after Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) informed the Bombay High Court that former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar had a role in the Rs 70,000 crore scam. Pawar, who belongs to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), along with others, was in-charge of Maharashtra's irrigation department when Congress-NCP coalition government was in power in the state from 1999 to 2014. That was a period during which the scam, relating to alleged irregularities in various irrigation projects, took place. Pawar, speaking to ANI, said that he has been cooperating with the authorities in the case and will continue to do so. "I have cooperated with the inquiry and I will continue to cooperate with it. Since the judicial proceedings have begun, I will not comment on it. We have a lot of issues to address and discuss over in the assembly," Pawar said. An affidavit was filed by the Director General of Anti-Corruption Bureau, Sanjay Barve on November 26, alleging that Ajit Pawar was responsible for the multi-crore irrigation scam of projects undertaken by the Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation, Nagpur. Speaking to ANI, Irrigation Minister of Maharashtra, Girish Mahajan said, "We have given full autonomy to the ACB. In the affidavit, it has pointed out about the mobilization of funds and files being directly going to the secretariat without following the procedure. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Coming down heavily on Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan for his Kashmir remark during Kartarpur corridor groundbreaking ceremony, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Wednesday said that Khan "chose to politicise the pious occasion." "It is deeply regrettable that the Prime Minister of Pakistan chose to politicise the pious occasion meant to realise the long pending demand of the Sikh community to develop a Kartarpur corridor by making unwarranted reference to Jammu and Kashmir which is an integral and inalienable part of India," said the official Spokesperson of MEA Raveesh Kumar. Kumar further said that Pakistan must fulfill its international obligations and should stop supporting terrorism. "Pakistan is reminded that it must fulfill its international obligations and take effective and credible action to stop providing shelter and all kind of support to cross-border terrorism from territories under its control," he added. Earlier on Wednesday Pakistani Prime Minister Khan said that the only issue between the two neighbouring countries is Kashmir. "The only issue between us is Kashmir. All it needs is just two capable leaderships to resolve this issue. Just imagine the potential we have if our relationships get strong. We should move forward. Pakistan wants to move forward. Can we not solve one problem," asked Khan. Pakistan Prime Minister Khan was addressing the gathering after laying the foundation stone of the religious corridor between Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur and Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district of Punjab. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Proving that age is just a number and nothing else, a significant number of people falling under the age group of 90 to 100 years, and even above, came to the polling stations to exercise their franchise in the ongoing Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram Assembly polls on Wednesday. Although a majority of these women were visibly fragile, their determination to contribute to strengthening democracy in the states was motivation enough to come out and cast their votes. In Mizoram's Kawrthah, a 106-year-old woman arrived to cast her vote in a wheelchair along with a family member. A number of people belonging to the Bru community including aged women queued up to vote in the Assembly elections. With a pale face and wrinkled skin, an elderly woman posed for the media showing her inked finger. At present, over 12,000 Brus are living in six relief camps in Tripura. They are voting at Kanhmun village in Mamit district where 15 temporary polling stations have been set up. To safeguard the interest of the Bru community, special polling arrangements have been made across the state. Food and transport facilities are also being provided to those coming to vote. In Madhya Pradesh's Agar Malwa district, a 101-year-old woman arrived at a polling booth to cast her vote. Guided by the motto of "no voter to be left behind", the Election Commission has made adequate arrangements for differently-abled persons to exercise their franchise. Volunteers have been trained to guide these people to cast their votes. In Madhya Pradesh's Katni region, the Municipal Corporation has arranged pick-up and drop facilities for differently-abled voters. Experts working for the upliftment of the disabled in the society believe that special machines for visually impaired and sign-language interpreters for those who cannot hear should be provided by the authorities to help them during the time of polling. Voting enthusiasm also soared among the young minds, many of whom voted for the first time. In both the states, youngsters, including women, came out in large numbers. Speaking to ANI, a first-time woman voter standing outside a polling booth in Bhopal said that she is voting in the name of development. "I am voting not only to contribute to democracy but also for the development of the region. It will be unfortunate for women that even after the smooth process of elections they are not exercising their franchise. Please vote to bring change in the society." Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's younger son Kunal Chouhan also voted for the first time in Budani assembly constituency earlier in the morning and urged youngsters to do the same. Around five crore eligible voters will decide the fate of 2,899 candidates contesting for 230 seats of Madhya Pradesh Assembly. In Mizoram as many as 209 candidates are contesting for the 40-member Legislative Assembly. 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.) Merck Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Merck Germany, underscored their commitment to build healthcare capacity in Central African Republic - C.A.R. during their high level meeting with President Faustin-Archange Touadera. The discussion, led by Dr Frank Stangenberg Haverkamp, Chairman of the Executive Board of E. Merck KG and the Chairman of Merck Foundation Board of Trustees, and Dr Rasha Kelej, CEO of Merck Foundation, to explain and discuss the programs which launched on the same day in partnership with The First Lady and ministry of Health of C.A.R. "Central African Republic needs the programs of Merck Foundation urgently. These training programs for specialized doctors are very critical for our people and their social and economic well-being. I wholeheartedly support Merck Foundation in our country, to enable the success of all their programs," said Faustin-Archange Touadera. "Through Merck Foundation, we commit to the long-term partnership with Ministry of Health and The first Lady foundation to build healthcare capacity in the country," Dr Frank Stangenberg-Haverkamp explained. "I am very happy and proud to organise this meeting. This partnership will help us train specialised doctors in the fields of Diabetes, Hypertension, Oncology and Infertility care. This will help to contribute significantly towards social and economic development in Central African Republic. We are committed to lead Africa to a better future through changing the landscape of healthcare in the continent with special focus on French-speaking countries in the next few years," added Dr Kelej. Merck Foundation, together with Madam Brigitte Touadera, The First Lady of Central African Republic and Merck more than a Mother Ambassador conducted a special meeting with more than 100 infertile women who have been enrolled in the "Empowering Berna" project to establish small businesses and train them to be able to generate steady monthly income. Dr Kelej has pledged to support more childless women through Merck more than a Mother campaign. In partnership with the First Lady and ministry of health, Merck foundation will provide clinical training on fertility specialty to improve access to quality and equitable fertility care in the country. Merck foundation has also approved a list of candidates to be enrolled in their one and two-year oncology fellowship program as a contribution to improve cancer care in the country. Moreover, they will also provide on-line diabetes diplomas in French for Doctors from C.A.R as well as cardiovascular preventive medicines fellowship in Asia. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Photo: Peter Foley/Bloomberg via Getty Images On Tuesday, a group of Google employees published a statement on Medium, asking the search giant to stop its work on Dragonfly, Googles tentatively planned effort to introduce a search engine for China in compliance with the Chinese governments stringent censorship and surveillance demands. 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, they wrote. 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. When it was first published, the letter was signed by 12 employees using their real names; within an hour, another 12 had added theirs. By the following morning, nearly 400 Google employees had added their names and titles to the document. In some industries, an open and public show of dissent like this might not be remarkable. Unions frequently object to management decisions with statements and press conferences, and if you havent spent much time covering or reading about Silicon Valley, this might not seem all that different from, say, the way Guardian journalists publicly objected to their papers editorial stance on trans rights. But its pretty remarkable in the contemporary tech industry, which has managed to maintain a kind of omerta among its employees a vow of silence that has made it uniquely difficult to get a clear picture of the inner workings of many of the worlds biggest and wealthiest companies. For years, reporting on tech companies has been, at best, extremely difficult. Not impossible by any means see the many stories broken by publications like The Information or Businessweek but a pain in the ass. Its not just that the press operations of the big tech companies are comparatively more withholding than those of their non-tech peers. Its that the employees are, too. The overwhelmingly young and mission-driven Silicon Valley workforce has by and large regarded reporters as, at best, nosy dopes, and, at worst, malevolent liars. Some of them seem to genuinely believe in their companies as forces for good that journalists are intent on undermining. Others might just be scared of the rat-catching teams employed by Facebook and other companies to squash you like a bug for leaking information. (Theres also the fact that many tech workers are partly compensated in stock, and would rather not leak information that might hurt their options.) Thanks to the silence of the true believers and the paranoiacs, it has been difficult to know exactly whats been going on inside companies like Facebook and Google as theyve confronted accusations of misinformation, harassment, and bias over the last few years. But the omerta seems to be breaking. Its not just that were increasingly seeing current and former employees at all levels open up to reporters the Times monster Facebook story from mid-November seems like ample proof of that. Its also that the employees themselves are opening up to the public. Just a few hours after the dissenting Google employees published their statement, former Facebook executive Mark Luckie posted to Facebook a lengthy letter describing how Facebook is failing its black employees and its black users. Luckie isnt the first tech employee to publicly discuss his negative experiences with an employer Susan Joy Fowler famously upended Uber with a wrenching description of her time at the ride-share company but hes the first executive at Facebook (which is second only to Apple as the most notoriously secretive company in the Valley) to do so. (Even the engineer who thought Facebook didnt have enough political diversity initially limited the circulation of his memo to the companys internal discussion boards.) Why the change? Tech workers are reading the same coverage of their companies that users are and generally know more even than whats being reported. Its much harder to keep quiet for the sake of your companys mission if you dont think its staying true to that mission, as the Google employees who signed the open letter made clear. And no one, it seems, is afraid of the ratcatchers anymore. The Dragonfly dissenters strategy is reminiscent of the Google Walkout protests, held by employees who were righteously angry over a Times report about the companys handling of sexual-harassment and discrimination claims. In classic labor-organizing fashion, the Walkout organizers were open about their identities, campaigned publicly for their demands, and were more than happy to discuss their complaints with reporters; by making themselves so public and by inspiring 20,000 of their coworkers to join them they made themselves effectively unpunishable. Of course, it remains to be seen what will happen to the signers of the anti-Dragonfly letter, or to the Facebook employees who were the sources for the Times extensive reporting on the companys faults. No company likes to have its dirty laundry aired in public. But as tech platforms like Google and Facebook take on increasingly large responsibilities, its also increasingly important that the public should have some idea of whats going on inside them and that employees feel empowered to hold companies to the lofty ideals they claim. A voter turnout of 49 per cent has been recorded till 1 pm in the Mizoram Assembly elections being held on Wednesday. Voting in the single-phase polls began at 7 am and is scheduled to end at 4 pm. As many as 209 candidates are contesting to bag a seat in the 40-member Legislative Assembly. The Congress party, which has been in power in Mizoram since 2008, is eyeing a third consecutive term in the state. In the previous election in 2013, Congress had fielded 40 candidates and won 34 seats, whereas Mizo Front (MNF) secured only five seats after contesting on 31 seats. Mizoram People's Conference (MPC) had contested on eight seats but managed to bag only one. Both Congress and MNF are contesting all 40 constituencies this time, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is fighting on 39 seats. Incumbent Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla is contesting from two seats - Serchhip and Champhai South. In Serchhip, Thanhawla will be contesting against Zoram People's Movement's (ZPM) chief ministerial candidate Lalduhoma, Mizo Front (MNF) nominee C Lalramzauva and People's Representation for Identity and Status of Mizoram (PRISM) party chief Vanlalruata among others. In the Champhai South, the incumbent Chief Minister would contest against MNF's T J Lalnuntluanga and ZPM's C Lalremliana. Mizoram is the only northeastern state that is currently ruled by the Congress. 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.) One Election Commission official in Guna and two in Indore have died of cardiac arrest at their respective polling booths. Madhya Pradesh Chief Election Officer (CEO) VL Kantha Rao said a compensation of Rs 10 lakh each will be given to the kin of the deceased, and additional help will be given through Red Cross society. The CEO said nearly 70 EVMs were replaced after complaints of malfunctioning. He added that at least 30 cases have been registered against those found distributing liquor and money in the poll-bound state. On being asked about Madhya Pradesh Congress president Kamal Nath showing his hand - a symbol of the Congress party- after casting vote, the CEO said, "We will first verify the pictures and video and will take action if needed." Showing party symbols or asking voters to vote for their party violates the EC's Model Code of Conduct. Amid tight security, Madhya Pradesh is voting for a new assembly today. The voting is underway at 65,341 polling booths, which have been set up for the single-phase elections to 230 seats of the State Assembly. As many as 2,000 booths will entirely be operated by women staff. Special arrangements have been made for visually impaired people to help them cast their votes. A total of 5,04,95,251 voters including 41,30, 90 females and 1,389 third-genders will cast their votes to decide the fortune of as many as 2, 907candidates, who are in the fray. The State Election Commission has made elaborate security arrangements to ensure that polling takes place in a free and fair manner. The result of the poll 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 Supreme Court on Wednesday issued an order to the Nitish Kumar-led government in Bihar to handover the investigation report prepared on the seventeen shelter homes of Muzzafarpur and their owners to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). This came after the apex court pulled up the state administration for its approach towards investigation and failure to file a correct First Information Report (FIR) in the alleged rape of girls at the shelter homes. During the hearing, the top court bench of Justices Madan B Lokur, S Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta had called it "tragic". Justice Deepak Gupta said, "Every time I read this file (relating to the case), I find it tragic." These comments from the bench came after a petitioner informed the court that the Bihar government was being "soft" on the accused. "A staff member is involved in sexual abuse and physical violence of girls. It was an offence under Section 377 of the IPC and the POCSO Act and they (police) has registered a case under minor charges," the petitioner added. The gruesome incident came to light after Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) filed an affidavit detailing horrifying sexual abuse cases at the shelter homes in Bihar, the court observed. The counsel appearing for the CBI told the Supreme Court that these are offenses against mankind. Children are being trained as "child soldiers" to finish off the other children if they don't listen to the staff of the shelter homes staff. More than 40 minor girls were allegedly sexually assaulted over a period of time in the shelter home which was run by Brijesh Thakur's state-funded non-governmental organization (NGO). Thakur is the purported mastermind of the incidents. Subsequently, the NGO was blacklisted and the girls were shifted to other shelter homes in Patna and Madhubani. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Days after a man was allegedly beaten to death in full public view in Uttar Pradesh's Shamli, Opposition leaders on Wednesday hit out at Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over the alleged deteriorating law and order situation in the state. Speaking to ANI, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Sudhindra Bhadoria said that ever since Adityanath came to power in the state, a new "lynching raj" has evolved in the state. "Ever since Yogi Adityanath became the Chief Minister of the state, we are hearing the news about the 'Gunda Raj,' 'Jungle Raj' in Uttar Pradesh and this new episode only proves that the 'Lynching Raj' is also there. The common people are feeling threatened and unsafe," Bhadoria said. Samajwadi Party leader Sunil Yadav also hit out at the Chief Minister saying that under the leadership of Adityanath the state is being ruled by the criminals. "There is no law and order in Uttar Pradesh. There is only Yogi Ji's jungle raj. It seems as if criminals rule the state. The government remains mum over all these incidents. No one is safe in Uttar Pradesh. The state is ruled by the criminals," Yadav told ANI. On Monday, the video of a man being thrashed by six people after he was dragged out of a police van went viral on social media. The man identified as Rajendra was being taken into the police custody for allegedly creating nuisance in a drunken state. One person has been arrested in this regard, while a lookout notice has been issued for five others who allegedly attacked Rajendra. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday performed the groundbreaking ceremony of much-awaited Kartarpur corridor here. Several dignitaries including Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, Minister for Religious Affairs Noorul Haq Qadri and Railways Minister Sheikh Rasheed, Minister of State for Interior Shehryar Afridi, Indian ministers, and foreign diplomats attended the foundation laying ceremony, reported Dawn. A delegation of Indian journalists and a number of Sikh pilgrims also attended the ceremony. Minister for Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri crossed the Wagah Border to attend the groundbreaking ceremony of Kartarpur corridor in Pakistan as India's representatives for the event. The Pakistan government will open the four-km-long visa-free corridor connecting Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur area of Narowal district to Dera Baba Nanak in India's Gurdaspur district on Guru Nanak Dev's 550th birth anniversary next year. The Kartarpur route along the India-Pakistan border is three kilometers away from Gurdaspur, Punjab. Once opened, it would allow Sikh pilgrims a direct access to the historic Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, Pakistan, where Guru Nanak Dev died in 1539. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As part of the #MumbaiByDesign initiative, Pearl Academy hosted children from Salaam Baalak Trust, an NGO that works for street children, at its campus at Andheri East in Mumbai. #MumbaiByDesign is a design initiative conceptualized by Pearl Academy that demonstrates the power of design thinking to reimagine Mumbai with the aim of developing sustainable solutions to the city's many functional and environmental problems. The first phase of the initiative was held in two segments. In the first segment, children from the Salaam Baalak Trust were invited for an immersive workshop on Art and Design. The children were divided into three groups, based on age, and were taught various primary and secondary colors associated with particular shapes, creating new colors, layout design and design composition. In the second segment, Salaam Balak Trust assigned a portion of a large wall in its Andheri shelter for Pearl students to paint. The three-day activity was an exhilarating experience for the students and faculty as they created the framework and background of what became the #MumbaiByDesign wall. The students used the design concepts taught during the workshops and put them to practical use. The painted wall is an ode to Mumbai city, which is full of the contrasting hustle and bustle, along with the peace that the sea brings along. The second phase of this initiative will be a design festival which will be held at Pearl Academy Mumbai Campus and will be dedicated to workshops, panel discussion and competitions for students from colleges across the city. This will be a two-day event which will be held in January 2019. Speaking on the occasion, Professor Nandita Abraham, President, Pearl Academy said, "Pearl Academy is delighted to take the Mumbai By Design concept to the next level. This initiative aims to connect with young minds and help them use their innate creativity to come up with sustainable solutions for the city. Mumbai is the city of dreams. We have taken upon ourselves the responsibility to set in motion conversations that intrigue, question, observe and offer solutions to the very many aspects of what keeps this city ticking. We are happy that our students got an opportunity to paint the Andheri shelter of Salaam Baalak Trust and we look forward to more such opportunities in future. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday evening left for Argentina to attend G20 summit. During various sessions of G20 summit, PM Modi will also have informal BRICS meeting and bilateral meetings with various world leaders. Before emplaning, Prime Minister Modi addressed two rallies in Rajasthan. Earlier, he visited Singapore and Maldives, while the campaigning for Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh assembly polls was at its peak. On the day of his arrival on November 29 in Argentina, Prime Minister Modi is slated to attend and address a "Yoga for Peace" event in Buenos Aires. On November 30, the Prime Minister is scheduled to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Prime Minister of Netherlands Mark Rutte. The Prime Minister may engage informally with other leaders as well. Prime Minister Modi will also engage in an informal Russia-India-China (RIC) meeting on the sidelines of G20 summit. Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale at a press conference said that Prime Minister Modi will be addressing the summit and will discuss important topics including Ayushman Bharat, MUDRA Yojana, Jan Dhan scheme 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." Prime Minister Modi will also 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 an employment opportunity, said Gokhale. During the summit, Prime Minister Modi will make the pitch for other countries, which are not between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn to join the International Solar Alliance. One of the focal points of the G20 will be a multilateral meeting on World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the reforms needed in the organisation in a manner that it serves India's interest. Prime Minister Modi will also focus on the need for reformed multilateralism which reflects the contemporary realities and can effectively strengthen collective action for global good. On December 1, the Prime Minister will meet with the Prime Minister of Argentine. He will also engage with the President of the European Union (EU) and the President of the European Council. Prime Minister Modi will meet with the heads of several countries including Spain and Jamaica. The Prime Minister will return to India in the wee hours of 3rd December only to take off again within 12 hours, to resume his political campaigning in Rajasthan and Telangana, for the next two days. On December 3, Prime Minister Modi will campaign in Jodhpur and Hyderabad. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US National security adviser (NSA) John Bolton here on Tuesday said that President Donald Trump will have a trilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi at the G20 summit in Argentina. 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 two-day 13th G20 summit will be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina on November 30 and December 1. Bolton further asserted that President Trump will not meet Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as Trump's "bilateral schedule is full". "President Trump's bilateral schedule is full to overflowing at this point," Bolton said in a press briefing, reported Xinhua. However, he did not exclude the possibility of the two leaders' informal meeting. Trump will be holding over half a dozen bilateral meetings on the sidelines of this week's Group of 20 summit in Argentina, the White House said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Hundreds of people took to streets in the capital city of Tunisia on Tuesday to protest against the arrival of Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MSB) in the North African country. The protests were organised in the wake of the alleged involvement of the Saudi Prince in the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul on October 2. Al Jazeera reported that for the second day in a row, protestors showed massive demonstrations on streets more than seven years after the revolution which toppled long-time ruler Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali regime and started a new wave of uprisings against the oppressive governments across the Middle East. "I was here yesterday and I came here again to say 'No' to the murderer and criminal, Mohammed bin Salman," , Al Jazeera quoted Said Arous, a prominent human rights activist, as calling Khashoggi's killing "an appalling crime". The Saudi crown prince arrived in Tunisia on Tuesday evening as part of a regional tour, before embarking on his visit to Argentina to attend the G20 summit on Friday [November 30]. Arous said that the Saudi Prince's foreign tour, especially after claims of his involvement in Khashoggi murder, is aimed at whitewashing his image abroad amid an international outcry over the murder of the former Washington Post columnist, Al Jazeera reported. The protestors at the same time also accused Saudi Arabia of carrying out a coalition-led military campaign in Yemen, where a four-year war has spawned the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The devastating war in Yemen is believed to have killed tens of thousands of people, including many children especially due to malnutrition and rampant poverty. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday mounted an assault on the Telangana Rashtriya Samithi (TRS), labeling the party "Telangana Rashtriya Sangh Parivar" and calling it "B-team" of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Addressing an election rally here, Rahul led a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of dividing the nation and spreading hatred among people. He further accused former Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao to have played a key role in the Prime Minister's plans. "Whatever he did throughout the country, he couldn't have done without the Telangana chief minister. When we were fighting against Narendra Modi in Parliament, he was helped by the TRS. In every Bill, the TRS supported the BJP, RSS and the Sangh parivar," Rahul said. TRS is not Telangana Rashtriya Samithi and instead it should be called the "Telangana Rashtriya Sangh Parivar", he said. "Their only aim is to ensure that the Congress party does not defeat the BJP at the level. If TRS actually were a party that worked for Telangana, they wouldn't have helped a man like Narendra Modi," Rahul said. He also attacked Chandrashekhar Rao over his unfulfilled promises to the people of the state, saying, "He (KCR) had promised to provide employment to at least one lakh youths. I want to ask the youth today, in the past four-and-half years, how many of them were given employment by KCR ji? Your chief minister employed four members of his family, those four snatched the future of four crore people." "KCR made promises to everyone. He promised to give double bedroom houses. He promised to build 22 lakh houses, but the reality is, only 5000 were built. He also promised to give lands to our Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes brothers, even that promise was hollow," Rahul added. The Congress president further stated that the People Front alliance's government in the state, comprising the Congress, Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and the Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS), will provide houses and lands to the public. While saying that women are the "backbone" of the state, Rahul said that the Congress party had introduced Self Help Groups (SHGs) for women, adding that KCR did not support the concept. "As soon as our government is elected to power, we will give a grant of Rs 1 lakh to every SHG, and will provide Rs 500 crore for women entrepreneurs as bank loans," Rahul said. The Congress president also said that the People's Front government will provide Rs 5 lakh for medical expenses for the poor and construct a 30-bed hospital in every mandal of the state. Telangana will go to polls to elect the 119 members of legislative assembly on December 7, with the results scheduled to be declared on December 11. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) President Trump: authentic, brilliant, according to his economic advisers. Photo: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images Trumponomics is a damning expose of the corrupt bargain between Donald Trump and the partys wealthy insiders. The odd thing is that the book is not intended as an expose at all, but as an auto-hagiography written by three Republican policy entrepreneurs who helped win Trump over and shape his program, and are so lacking in self-awareness that they earnestly believe they are defending both Trump and his partners. The authors of Trumponomics are Larry Kudlow (who left in the middle of its writing to accept a job as director of the National Economic Council), Stephen Moore, and Arthur Laffer. The three fervently propound supply-side economics, a doctrine that holds that economic performance hinges largely on maintaining low tax rates on the rich. In the 1990s, the supply-siders insisted Bill Clintons increase in the top tax rate would create a recession and cause revenue to plummet. The following decade, they heralded the Bush tax cuts as the elixir that had brought in a glorious new era of prosperity. Moore wrote Bullish on Bush: How George Bushs Ownership Society Will Make America Stronger, and Kudlow wrote the forward to The Bush Boom. Their record of being wrong about everything is so incomprehensibly vast it is astonishing they have retained their positions of influence over a major party. Trumponomics inadvertently clarifies how an economist who was declaring the U.S. housing market to be perfectly sound and on its way up in July 2008 secured a job as chief economist to the president of the United States as a matter of course. The supply-siders have maintained absolute faith in their dogma in the face of repeated failure by banishing all doubt. Laffer explains in the book that he believes economists must resist the temptation to start ignoring simple truths in favor of complex falsehoods. When I first encountered that sentence I assumed I had read it backwards, but no Laffer believes on principle that economic truths are simple, and he must steel his brain against the seductions of complexity, which is rather the opposite of how normal economists think. This seems to be the method by which they have warded off all doubts their repeated errors might have sown. Accordingly, they have confined their failed predictions to the memory hole. A brief economic history in Trumponomics touts the gains made from 1982 to 1999, and laments those gains stalled out after 2000 under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Notice, in addition to starting the Reagan era in 1982, thus absolving him for any blame for the recession that began a year into his presidency, they have retroactively moved the hated leftist Bill Clinton into the right-wing hero camp and the beloved conservative hero George W. Bush into the failed left-wing statist camp. At no point do they acknowledge the contemporaneous arguments they made against Clinton or for Bush. This is a preview of the method they will one day use with regard to Trump if the economy fails to deliver on their predictions: They will dismiss him as a leftist in disguise, without ever admitting having endorsed or designed his program. The extraordinary lack of self-awareness allows the authors of Trumponomics to record a series of predictions that have already failed even before the books publication. Describing their case for a huge tax cut, they recount convincing Republicans in Congress that cutting the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent would yield about the same revenue and possibly more than the current system with a 35 percent rate. (It hasnt corporate tax revenue has fallen by a third since the passage of the Trump tax cut.) They show Kudlow assuring Trump his tax cut would not lead to deficits because the phony numbers of Washingtons bean counters are always wrong. (They werent wrong or, to put it more precisely, the bean counters turned out to underestimate the deficit following the tax cut.) They describe Trump demanding, I want to make sure that this isnt a tax cut for rich people like me (it was) and that Trump didnt want the Trump middle-class voters to think that this plan was self-serving (they did.) The three record that, after meeting the great man and noticing his skeletal campaign staff, supposedly for money-saving reasons, they marveled to each other that President Trump would have a field day going through the federal budget and rooting out the rampant waste, fraud and redundancy. (He wouldnt.) The three authors proudly retell their litany of errors with the satisfaction of conquering heroes taking credit for their triumphs. Its as if Robert McNamara published a book in 1968 boasting of his successful efforts to persuade Lyndon Johnson that the Vietnam War would be won by 1967. *** Like virtually all members of the Republican Establishment, Kudlow, Moore, and Laffer initially greeted Trumps candidacy with skepticism. But their hesitation did not center on the candidates ignorance, bigotry, irrepressible lying, authoritarian instincts, criminal history, or general viciousness. Instead, they doubted his commitment to the cause of low taxes for the affluent and lax regulation of business. A meeting with Trump easily dispelled these concerns. He wanted tax cuts. He wanted to deregulate, he wanted to get government out of the way, they recall. This was all it took. The three of us saw Trump in a whole new light. Their newfound appreciation for Trump quickly bleeds into other attributes. They report one touching episode, in which the candidate agrees to meet a paralyzed teenage fan backstage before a rally. They ask why he didnt bring the wheelchair-bound boy onstage, a campaign staffer explains that Trump didnt want people to think he was exploiting this tragedy for political gain. Bear in mind that Trump constantly boasts not only about charitable donations he makes, but also donations he claims to make but doesnt, and is also the only recorded presidential candidate in history to mock a disability onstage. While Trump may have had reasons to keep a disabled fan off stage, it seems a little hard to believe either modesty or sensitivity toward the disabled was the motivation. Yet the authors accept the staffers flattering explanation purely at face value, calling it a side of Donald Trump that many people are unaware of. Soon they find themselves lavishing Trump with compliments. When people ask us what Donald Trump is really like in person, the one word we have found best described him was authentic, they write of a man who has been described by his own aides as a compulsive liar. Kudlow, Moore, and Laffer are unusually fixated on tax cuts, but they are merely extreme examples of the entire Republican Establishment, which shared their broad priorities. The consolidation of the party behind Trump was greatly facilitated by the attractiveness of the Trump tax plan, they report. Greed is the glue that holds their story together. A large segment of their narrative consists of Trump turning over control of his agenda to various plutocrats. They tell how they wrote a memo defining the administrations energy strategy during the transition period, drawing on three sources: oilman Harold Hamm; the Institute for Energy Research (a partner organization of the American Energy Alliance, a fossil fuel lobby); and Jack Coleman, an oil and gas lobbyist. They do not report consulting on any information sources not controlled by the fossil fuel industry. They describe a coal executive advising Trump, if you want to make America great again, put a muzzle on the regulators. At another meeting, one energy executive suggests natural gas, coal, and nuclear power should each have 30 percent of the power grid, with renewables splitting the remaining 10 percent. That sounds about right, Trump replies, except for the ten percent for renewable energy. The authors report that they abandoned the idea of creating a border-adjustment tax because some businesses opposed it. The business community was completely divided, they note. As such, we agreed very early on that the BAT had to go. Trump himself refused to accept an end to the deductibility of interest payments. Look, Ive spent my whole life doing real estate deals, he tells them, Every one of them was financed by debt. I hate this idea. Here they reveal Trump killing a reform solely because it would negatively impact his own business. This scene comes just five pages after they credulously cite Trump promising that the tax cut wont benefit him personally. The authors seem oblivious to either the contradiction with Trumps populist rhetoric, or the general idea that an administration outsourcing policy to wealthy people with a personal stake in the outcome is in any way suboptimal. If these scenes had been ferreted out by investigative reporters instead of blithely repeated by a trio of hagiographers, many of them would be damning exposes you could imagine on the front page of the New York Times or the Washington Post. The bizarre shamelessness of these accounts is explained in part by their belief that Trumps wealth proves his motives are pure. We never believed for one moment that [Trump] was in this to further enrich himself. He was already rich, they reason. The notion that the rich would never engage in corruption is not a throwaway line, but a bedrock principle the authors have articulated before. Why shouldnt the president surround himself with successful people? Kudlow wrote in 2016. Wealthy folks have no need to steal or engage in corruption. Trumponomics is an unintentionally persuasive argument for the exact opposite conclusion. Activists of Jammu Kashmir National Independence Alliance (JKNIA) took to the streets in London to demand an end to the decades-long subjugation and economic depredation of the illegally occupied regions of Gilgit Baltistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The protest came at a time when Pakistan's Chief Justice Saqib Nisar was seeking donations for the construction of Diamer Bhasha dam - a mega project set to displace thousands of locals of Gilgit Baltistan - subsequently pushing them into a state of abject poverty. The protesters were carrying placards saying 'No to Diamer Dam' and 'Abolish terrorist charges against human rights activists in Gilgit Baltistan'. They also demanded the Islamabad establishment to keep its hands off the resources of the occupied region. Mahmood Kashmiri, the Chairman of the Jammu Kashmir National Independence Alliance said, "Chief Justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar is here in the United Kingdom and he is going around the cities to fundraise for the Diamer Bhasha dam. Jammu Kashmir National Independence Alliance has protested against it. We ask him to resign from his office if he wants to do We have also conveyed that Pakistan should not pursue the construction of a dam in Gilgit Baltistan as it is not a part of Pakistan. If Pakistan needs water and electricity then it should build dams in the country. Since it is a disputed territory, a project of this magnitude cannot be built and people of Kashmir are protesting against it. We want to say this to the Chief Justice of Pakistan that he should stay in his limits and his limits are confined to the boundaries of Pakistan. So he cannot execute his authority outside Pakistan." The demonstrators made shocking allegations against Pakistan and stated that in order to meet its materialistic needs, Pakistan has been exploiting the occupied regions for decades. They further alleged that Pakistan has, on a number of occasions, claimed the region to be its own but has always accorded it a step motherly treatment. Kashmiri further added, "Earlier also Pakistan had constructed the Mangla dam with the misuse and abuse of power. People have not been able to settle till date; they are living in the far-flung areas of Pakistan with a number of cases filed against them; arrests have been made, people have been killed. Pakistan is also a culprit of not providing compensation to our people." People with objectivity who seek equal rights for Kashmiris are subjected to brute Pakistani force, according to the protestors. They further alleged that their voices are muzzled, they are implicated on false charges, abducted and killed after they become a challenge. Jamil Maqsood, United Kashmir People's National Party's (UKPNP) Secretary of Foreign Affairs remarked, "The people in Gilgit-Baltistan who raise their voice for human rights and environmental issues are subjected to inhuman treatment. These people are used as specimens to threaten others. People are suggested that they will also meet the same fate if they raise their voices against human rights violations, ownership of natural resources, development in the area or empowerment of common man or if they talk of constitutional rights." They also claimed that oppressed Kashmiris have demanded the restoration of state subject rule of 1974 in Gilgit Baltistan as its abrogation has fostered a massive demographic shift in the region which activists accuse is being carried out under the command and courtesy of Pakistan Army and Inter-Services Intelligence. Protesters believe that the years-long persistence of Kashmiri activists is paying-off lately with Pakistan getting exposed at various international platforms as activists refuse to bog down by twists and trickeries of Islamabad. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Minister for Human Resources and Development (HRD) Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday lambasted Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu for his remarks made in Pakistan claiming that Sidhu praised Imran Khan more than what was due. He further said that Punjab minister should know that this was not a laughter challenge. Mincing no words in his criticism of Sidhu, Javadekar told ANI: "The most objectionable thing in Sidhu's Pakistan trip is that he referred to various domestic issues which are not done in any diplomatic relations. He is going there and breaching all political and diplomatic norms and criticising and raising issues of Indian domestic He praised Imran Khan more than what was due and praised him to the hilt. When Pakistan is indulging in all kinds of terror activities and cross-border terrorism, one needs to be very cautious about it. It was not merely in enthusiasm or a laughter challenge by Sidhu; this is the Congress policy of doublespeak. Even Mani Shankar Aiyar like diplomat who understands diplomacy went there and talked about removing Modi from power. So this is how Congress behaves and that's why Congress has been delineated from public feelings." Reacting on Imran Khan's tongue in cheek comment inviting Sidhu to contest from Pakistan, Javadekar said: "Once flattery starts, it never ends. So I don't give much importance to what Imran Khan said. The important thing for India is what Navjot Singh Sidhu as a minister and Congress leader is saying, which is very bad." On being asked whether he thinks that Congress will take any action on Sidhu, Javadekar said: "Congress will not take any action against Sidhu because this is Congress's deliberate policy of double speak on Pakistan, China and many other issues. Sidhu in his own mesmerising way on Wednesday heaped praises on Imran Khan while delivering a speech at the groundbreaking ceremony of Kartarpur corridor. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Thailand's Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn was accorded a warm welcome by Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh on her maiden visit to the state on Wednesday. She also witnessed the annual Manipuri Sangai Festival 2018 here. On her arrival at the Bhagyachandra Open Air Theatre (BOAT), the Princess was accorded a warm welcome. She witnessed the mesmerising cultural performances by artists from Manipur and Thailand. Speaking on the occasion, Princess Sirindhorn said that it was indeed a great pleasure to visit the state and experience the festival. She appreciated the government's initiative of 'Act East Policy' and mentioned that Thailand would extend co-operation in this regard. The Princess was accompanied by Thailand's Ambassador to India, Chutintorn Gongsakdi, officials of Royal Thai Embassy, Thailand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Officials from the Indian Ministry of External Affairs were also present at the festival. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Chandramukhi, a 30-year-old trans-woman activist, contesting the Telangana Assembly election from the Goshamahal constituency in Hyderabad on Bahujan Left Front ticket, went missing from her home since Tuesday morning. Speaking to ANI over the phone, Banjarahills ACP KS Rao said that the transgender community on Tuesday night approached the police complaining of Chandramukhi's missing since morning. The police has registered a case and investigations are underway. "We have formed a special team to search Chandramukhi. We are monitoring the CCTV. There is no suspicion on anyone," the police said. On November 21, Chandramukhi filed nomination from Goshamahal constituency. Chandramukhi's opponent is sitting legislator Raja Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The Telangana Legislative Assembly election is scheduled to be held on December 7 to elect members from 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.) Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko has claimed that the country is under the threat of a "full-scale war with the Russian Federation" as martial law was enforced along the country's border with Russia for a month starting today. "And that is why I don't want anybody to think that it's a trifle. The country is under the threat of a full-scale war with the Russian Federation," Poroshenko told local media. He also vowed to "struggle by all possible means" to bring back the Ukrainian sailors who have been detained by Russia following a skirmish at Kerch Strait on November 25. This comes in the wake of 12 Ukrainian sailors being sentenced to a two-month detainment by a court in Simferopol, Crimea, according to CNN. The President's website also stated that Ukraine's decision to enforce martial law is being supported by its western allies. "We see absolute support and understanding of the decisions made by the Military Cabinet, the National Security and Defense Council, the President, and the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's unicameral Parliament)," Poroshenko highlighted. Trying to allay fears regarding the prolongment of the martial law without the Parliament's support, the President stated, "According to the law, the validity term will end, as far as I understand, on December 26 ... There was absolute nonsense yesterday in the Verkhovna Rada when everyone was frightened by the fact that the President will prolong the effect of martial law for an indefinite period of time without the Verkhovna Rada. The law does not provide for such opportunities. This was a straightforward misinformation. It was a fake news campaign aimed to disrupt the adoption of this Law." He also underscored that constitutional rights of the Ukrainian citizens will not be restricted during the time under martial law until there is a Russian "invasion outside of the JFO in the east and the illegally annexed Crimea". "The purpose of this martial law is to show that the enemy will pay a very high price if he decides to attack us and that it will be like a cold shower that will stop the insane who have plans to attack Ukraine. And if there is no aggression, consider that the goal of these actions has been achieved," he further said. Poroshenko also noted that elections cannot be held in the nation during martial law, mentioning that he would be doing 'his best' to prepare legislative initiatives that would allow for elections in the united communities. On the other hand, US President Donald Trump threatened to cancel his meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Argentina over the Kerch Strait incident, highlighting that he does not like "that aggression". The US, in a press release, had earlier extended its support to Ukraine and had condemned the incident in the strongest terms where the country reiterated its rejection of Russia's "attempted annexation of Crimea". Three Ukrainian ships were impounded by Russia at the Kerch Strait on Sunday, leading to a tense situation and conflicting reasons given by both the nations over the incident. While Ukraine states that two of its small gunboats and one tugboat were attacked by Russia when they entered the Kerch Strait, the Russian Foreign Ministry states that Ukraine provoked the country by crossing the Russian maritime border despite Russia's warning to stop. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India and Russia conducted joint military exercise, Indra 2018 in Uttar Pradesh's Jhansi on Tuesday. In this joint exercise, the fifth Army of the Russian Federation and Indian Army's Mechanized Infantry Battalion took part. As many as 500 soldiers from both sides took part in the exercise, which was conducted at the Babina field firing range here. The exercise was held to provide training to soldiers as well as to understand the arms and ammunition of the two countries. This comes amid Indian Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba's 3-day visit to Russia. His visit is aimed at strengthening bilateral defense relations and explore new avenues for defense cooperation between the two nations. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The United States of America (USA) has imposed financial sanctions on Nicaragua's Vice President and First Lady Rosario Maria Murillo De Ortega, and Nestor Moncada Lau, who, they claim, acted as a national security advisor to both President Daniel Ortega and the Vice President. The Department of State issued an official statement, outlining that the Executive Order (EO) signed by US President Donald Trump counters the "worst abuses" of the Ortega regime, "including its dismantling of democratic institutions and serious human rights violations and abuses". "The E.O. is a new U.S. tool to expose and promote accountability of those responsible for the abuses taking place in Nicaragua, in support of the people of Nicaragua in their continued calls for democracy and rule of law. This action sends a clear signal that the United States will not tolerate the exploitation of the people and public resources of Nicaragua for private gain," the statement highlighted. The statement, issued by the office of Heather Nauert, the Spokesperson of the Department of State, further called on members from the ruling party in Nicaragua to "change" their ways. "Now is the time for those within the ruling party to change their ways and for the private sector to make their voices heard in support of democratic reforms and an end to violence. Attacks and threats against peaceful protestors and the general population violate the human rights of the Nicaraguan people and must cease," the US underscored. The statement warned that the complicit may face consequences. "Those who remain silent or are otherwise complicit may face significant consequences as all officials of the Government of Nicaragua and private sector actors who continue to aid and abet the Ortega regime's repression could be subject to the sanctions outlined in the Executive Order," it added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Minister of State for External Affairs General Vijay Kumar Singh met Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani and the country's Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah here on Wednesday on the sidelines of the two-day Geneva ministerial Conference on Afghanistan which began on November 27. "Partnering in Afghanistan's efforts for peace & prosperity. MOS @Gen_VKSingh is representing India at the Geneva Conference on Afghanistan being held on 27-28 November. On the sidelines of the conference, MOS called on the President of Afghanistan," tweeted Raveesh Kumar, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). He also announced Singh's meeting with Abdullah Abdullah. "Prioritising progress and commitment. MOS @Gen_VKSingh met with the @afgexecutive Dr. Abdullah on the sidelines of the #GVAAfghanistan2018. Both emphasised the importance of development & reform and the need for a constructive contribution to peace and security," he tweeted. Kumar also reinforced India's support for an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned approach towards peace in the country. He mentioned that the MoS is at the Geneva talks which aims to show the international community's solidarity for the people of Afghanistan and strengthing the government's efforts towards development, peace and security across the country. The European Union announced a comprehensive package of development assistance worth EUR 474 million for Afghanistan on the first day of the conference. This package supports state and resilience building, the reform of the justice sector, zero hunger and quality health, a democratic electoral process and the addressing of challenges of migration and forced displacement in the country. The conference is being held in Geneva at the Palais des Nations to demonstrate progress and commitment between the Afghanistan government and the international community, and maintain the momentum for elections and opportunities for peace in Afghanistan, according to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). The ongoing conference focuses on policy and strategy, rather than pledging activities like the Tokyo conference in 2012 or the 2016 Brussels conference. The conference will also play a crucial role in measuring results against the USD 15.2 billion committed by the international community for Afghanistan in 2016. The Tokyo Conference in 2012 introduced the Tokyo Mutual Accountability Framework (TMAF), under which high-level periodic reviews take place. The senior officials meetings are held in Kabul, while ministerial level meetings are held outside Afghanistan. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Majesco announced that its subsidiary, Majesco, USA has entered into a Share Purchase Agreement on 27 November 2018, for acquisition of all the issued share capital (collectively, the Securities) of Exaxe Holdings , a private limited company incorporated in Ireland (Exaxe). Majesco, USA consummated the purchase of 90% of the Securities. Majesco, USA has agreed to purchase and the sellers have agreed to sell to Majesco, USA the remaining 10% of the Securities on 01 August 2019. In consideration for purchase of the Securities, Majesco, USA paid the sellers Euro 6.39 Million. In addition, Majesco, USA agreed to make an additional payment to the sellers of Euro 0.72 Million for the remainder of the Securities on 01 August 2019. Accordingly, Exaxe has become a direct subsidiary of Majesco, USA and step-down subsidiary of the Company. Exaxe is a leading SaaS solutions provider with strong digital and robo-advice capabilities providing full lifecycle support for life, pension & wealth management products. It has presence in Ireland and United Kingdom (UK). 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 barometers came off day's high in mid-afternoon trade as profit selling emerged at higher levels. At 14:16 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 196.79 points or 0.55% at 35,709.93. The Nifty 50 index was up 34.25 points or 0.32% at 10,719.85. Sentiment, however, was strong due to positive global cues. Broader market succumbed to selling pressure. Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was off 0.43%. The BSE Small-Cap index was off 0.33%. The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was weak. On BSE, 984 shares rose and 1482 shares fell. A total of 174 shares were unchanged. Telecom shares fell across the board. Reliance Communications (down 1.75%), MTNL (down 1.74%), Vodafone Idea (down 1.55%) and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (down 1.13%), edged lower. Telecom major Bharti Airtel was down 1.57%. The company announced during trading hours today, 28 November 2018, that its subsidiary, Bharti Airtel International (Netherlands) B.V., settled its previously announced tender offer to purchase for cash any and all of its outstanding US$1,500,000,000, 5.125% Guaranteed Senior Notes due 2023 (the Notes). The tender offer was made pursuant to the Tender Offer Memorandum. Capitalized terms used in this announcement but not defined herein have the meanings given to them in the Tender Offer Memorandum. The company hereby announces that payment of the Consideration plus Accrued Interest for all Notes validly tendered (and not validly withdrawn) and accepted for purchase by the Company has been made on 27 November 2018. Pursuant to the settlement of the tender offer, US$995,085,000 in principal amount of the notes were purchased and redeemed by the company on 27 November 2018 and cancelled pursuant to the terms and conditions of the Notes. US$504,915,000 in principal amount of the Notes remain outstanding. Auto shares witnessed selling pressure. Tata Motors (down 2.06%), Eicher Motors (down 1.59%), Escorts (down 1.05%), TVS Motor Company (down 0.87%), Ashok Leyland (down 0.86%), Maruti Suzuki India (down 0.39%), Mahindra & Mahindra (down 0.35%) and Bajaj Auto (down 0.01%), edged lower. Hero MotoCorp was up 0.87%. On the political front, state assembly elections will be closely watched. Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram were underway today, 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 stocks were trading higher Wednesday, as investors looked ahead to an all-important G-20 summit later this week. US President Donald Trump and Chinese premier Xi Jinping are expected to have dinner together when they meet at the G-20 summit in Argentina this weekend. Asian shares were trading higher on Wednesday as investors wait for an important meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping later this week. The two leaders are expected to talk trade after Washington and Beijing applied additional tariffs on billions of dollars' worth of each other's imports. Those moves prompted concerns about slowing global economic growth. US stocks bounced back from early losses to close higher Tuesday as gains in so-called defensive sectors helped to offset anxieties that a near-term resolution to trade tensions between the US and China remain elusive. On the US data front, home prices across the country are rising at the slowest pace in nearly two years, according to the S&P/Case-Chiller 20-city Index. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Mexicans are by no means pouring over the southern U.S. border. Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images There has never been much of an empirical basis underlying Donald Trumps crusade against immigrants. Racism and xenophobia are like that: statistics may be deployed to support prejudice, but they are as disposable as Christian morality to the bigoted. Its not a big shock, then, to find that Pew Hispanic Center has plowed through the latest (2016) U.S. government data only to find that the number of unauthorized immigrants in the country dropped significantly during the previous decade. And some of the largest drops were among unauthorized immigrants from Mexico. The number of unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. fell to its lowest level in more than a decade, according to new Pew Research Center estimates based on 2016 government data. The decline is due almost entirely to a sharp decrease in the number of Mexicans entering the country without authorization Overall, between 2007 and 2016, the unauthorized immigrant population shrank by 13 percent. By contrast, the lawful immigrant population grew 22 percent during the same period, an increase of more than 6 million people. The declining overall number of unauthorized immigrants is due mainly to a very large drop in the number of new unauthorized immigrants, especially Mexicans, coming into the country. Consequently, todays unauthorized immigrant population includes a smaller share of recent arrivals, especially from Mexico, than a decade earlier. Increasingly unauthorized immigrants are likely to be long-term U.S. residents: Two-thirds of adult unauthorized immigrants have lived in the country for more than 10 years. So we really need to modify our idea of the immigrant population to understand that unauthorized entries across the border are dropping and the number of immigrants is stabilizing. And even within the unauthorized population, a rising percentage of entries are legal: 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. Not much a border wall can do about that problem. Yes, there has been an uptick in unauthorized entries from Central America (though less than the downtick in those from Mexico itself). And as the Trump administration winds down the Temporary Protected Status program for Salvadorians, Hondurans, and Haitians threatened by violence or natural disasters, the number of illegals will artificially go up. All in all, the projection of an immigration crisis on which the Trump campaign in 2016 so heavily relied was based on fanning largely unrealistic fears about a situation that was actually improving. If it continues to improve, the administration will probably be torn between taking credit and continuing to batten on prejudice. Just ignoring the evidence and going with the presidents harsh assertions will always be an option. Key equity indices extended gains for third straight session and ended with decent gains. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, rose 203.81 points or 0.57% to 35,716.95, as per the provisional closing data. The Nifty 50 index rose 43.25 points or 0.40% to 10,728.85, as per the provisional closing data. Positive global cues boosted investors sentiment. The Nifty ended above the 10,700 mark. IT shares were in demand. Broader market succumbed to selling pressure. Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.50%. The BSE Small-Cap index fell 0.48%. The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was weak. On BSE, 1009 shares rose and 1599 shares fell. A total of 162 shares were unchanged. TCS (up 4.75%), Infosys (up 4.36%), IndusInd Bank (up 2.07%), Reliance Industries (up 1.84%) and ICICI Bank (up 1.31%), were the major Sensex gainers. Tata Motors (down 3.06%), ONGC (down 2.63%), Larsen & Toubro (down 2.04%), State Bank of India (down 1.94%) and Coal India (down 1.73%), were the major Sensex losers. Telecom major Bharti Airtel fell 4.69%. The company announced during trading hours today, 28 November 2018, that its subsidiary, Bharti Airtel International (Netherlands) B.V., settled its previously announced tender offer to purchase for cash any and all of its outstanding US$1,500,000,000, 5.125% Guaranteed Senior Notes due 2023 (the Notes). The tender offer was made pursuant to the Tender Offer Memorandum. Capitalized terms used in this announcement but not defined herein have the meanings given to them in the Tender Offer Memorandum. The company hereby announces that payment of the Consideration plus Accrued Interest for all Notes validly tendered (and not validly withdrawn) and accepted for purchase by the Company has been made on 27 November 2018. Pursuant to the settlement of the tender offer, US$995,085,000 in principal amount of the notes were purchased and redeemed by the company on 27 November 2018 and cancelled pursuant to the terms and conditions of the Notes. US$504,915,000 in principal amount of the Notes remain outstanding. Yes Bank slumped 11.66% after the bank said that its foreign currency issuer ratings have been downgraded to Ba1 from Baa3 by Moody's Investors Service. The outlook, where applicable, has been changed to negative from stable. At the same time, Moody's has affirmed the bank's counterparty risk assessment (CR Assessment) of Baa3(cr)/ P-3(cr) and domestic and foreign currency counterparty risk rating (CRR) of Baa3/ P-3. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 27 November 2018. On the political front, state assembly elections will be closely watched. Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram were underway today, 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 stocks were trading higher Wednesday, as investors looked ahead to an all-important G-20 summit later this week. US President Donald Trump and Chinese premier Xi Jinping are expected to have dinner together when they meet at the G-20 summit in Argentina this weekend. Asian shares ended higher on Wednesday as investors wait for an important meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping later this week. The two leaders are expected to talk trade after Washington and Beijing applied additional tariffs on billions of dollars' worth of each other's imports. Those moves prompted concerns about slowing global economic growth. US stocks bounced back from early losses to close higher Tuesday as gains in so-called defensive sectors helped to offset anxieties that a near-term resolution to trade tensions between the US and China remain elusive. On the US data front, home prices across the country are rising at the slowest pace in nearly two years, according to the S&P/Case-Chiller 20-city Index. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tata Consultancy Services has acquired business of BridgePoint Group, LLC, a U. S. management consulting firm catering to the financial services industry, and specializing in retirement services, through the purchase of select company assets. This acquisition augments TCS' financial services and insurance domain knowledge, particularly in the area of US retirement services, where BridgePoint's team of experts currently provide strategic insights and advisory services around growth, business agiity, customer experience and technical transformation. BridgePoint's entire management team and key experts will join TCS. Their deep customer relationships and significant industry knowledge adds to TCS' ability to provide digital solutions that enhance sponsor and participant experience, and drive Business 4.0 transformations in the $1 trillion US retirement services market. 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 recent intensified crackdown against impostors masquerading as discom officials has resulted in the apprehending of 10 impostors, Delhi power distribution company BSES said on Wednesday. Advising consumers to verify the identity of persons who visit their premises claiming to be from BSES, a company statement said that in the last 3-4 years, over 30 of these "impostors" have been apprehended and most of them arrested. "Recently, a tout masquerading as a BSES official was convicted by the Special Court of Electricity. He was imposed a fine of Rs 72,000 and in default, he will have to undergo simple imprisonment of 10 days. During an inspection at his premises in Krishna Nagar in 2014, several meters and fake documents were found," it said. "Posing as BSES 'enforcement' officials, two people visited a residence at the posh Paryavaran Complex in south Delhi, ostensibly to check the meter. Suspecting something amiss, the alert customer called BSES Vigilance which advised her to do a sting operation. The suspect was found to be an impostor." In this case, before the BSES team could reach the spot, the impostors managed to flee. "Police was informed and an FIR was registered at the e-Police Station in Mehrauli," the statement added. Advising consumers to verify the identity of persons claiming to be from BSES, a company spokesperson said: "We once again appeal to our consumers not to get intimidated by the impostors and give them any money whatever be the reason. All enforcement (fines and penalties) and commercial payments are to be made only at designated BSES offices." "If consumers have any doubt or notice anything suspicious, they should immediately alert the nearest BSES office or call 262 73311 / 39999707 for BRPL and 8010930719 / 39999808 for BYPL or inform the local police on 100," the statement said. --IANS bc/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Polling is underway for 40 seats to elect a new Mizoram Assembly. Nearly 15 per cent of the over 7.68 lakh electorate cast their votes in the first two hours on Wednesday, officials said. "Till 9 a.m., 15 per cent voter turnout has been recorded," an Election Commission official said. Around 11,100 security personnel comprising of the central paramilitary and state security forces have been deployed to foil any trouble during the polling, the official said. Voting will continue till 4 p.m. In all, 7,68,181 voters, including 393,685 women, would decide the fate of the 209 candidates, of whom 15 were women. In 2013, only six women had contested in the Assembly polls and none were elected. Mizoram's Joint Chief Electoral Officer Zorammuana told IANS that no untoward incident has been reported so far from anywhere in the state. Besides the two national parties, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), many regional parties have fielded candidates in most of the 40 assembly seats. These include the 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 was likely to be between the ruling Congress and the MNF. Both the parties have fielded 40 candidates each. The BJP has fielded candidates in 39 constituencies. Except for 10 years -- 1998-2003 and 2003-2008 -- the Congress has been in power in Mizoram since it became a full-fledged state in 1987. Counting will be on December 11 along with four other poll-bound states -- Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Chhattisgarh. --IANS ps-sc-aks/in (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Brisk polling is underway in Mizoram with nearly 25 per cent of 7.68 lakh voters casting their votes in the first three hours on Wednesday, an official said. Men and women dressd in traditional attires were seen queued up outside the many polling stations in all districts well before voting began at 7 a.m. Around 25 per cent of the 7,68,181 voters cast their votes by 10 a.m., Deputy Additional Chief Electoral Officer C.C. Lalchhuangkina told IANS over the phone quoting reports from all eight districts. "Conducive situation and favourable weather helped the people to exercise their franchise smoothly," he added. "Except for a few EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines)- VVPAT (Voters Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) device malfunctioning, no untoward incident was reported so far. "Like previous elections, polling was absolutely peaceful. As Mizo society is very disciplined and Church guided, electioneering has always been incident-free in the state," he said. The nine-hour long polling would draw to a close at 4 p.m. Bordered with Myanmar (510 km) and Bangladesh (318 km), mountainous Mizoram is the Congress' last bastion among the eight Northeastern states The ruling Congress led by incumbent Chief Minister and state party chief Lal Thanhawla is determined for a third consecutive term against a stiff challenge mounted by the main opposition Mizo National Front (MNF) headed by former Chief Minister Zoramthanga. Both the Congress and MNF have fielded candidates to all the 40 Assembly constituencies. The Congress has been in power, except for 10 years, since Mizoram became 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. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is also trying to make its presence felt in the last non-saffron party dominated state and fielded 39 candidates, its highest ever. Many regional parties have fielded candidates in most of the 40 seats. They include People's Representation for Identity and Status of Mizoram (PRISM), Zoram People's Movement (ZPM) and Meghalaya's dominant ruling party National People's Party (NPP). Like the previous polls, women voters once again outnumbered the men in Mizoram. There are 3,93,685 women and 3,74,496 men and they will decide the fate of 209 candidates, 15 of whom are women. 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 this election. "In view of the Assembly polls, the BSF (Border Security Force) and Assam Rifles troopers have been asked to further tighten the security along Mizoram's borders with Bangladesh and Myanmar 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 strengthen the security along Mizoram's inter-state borders with Tripura, Assam and Manipur. "No movement other than those associated with the election process would be allowed at the inter-state borders." Vote will be counted on December 11 along with four other poll-bound states -- Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Chhattisgarh. --IANS sc/in (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Despite concerns over a "difficult jobs market", 70 per cent of people in India are confident of finding better opportunities next year, according to a LinkedIn survey on Wednesday. Nearly two out of three Indians (62 per cent) are optimistic about the general economic situation improving in the next 12 months, according to the inaugural edition of the LinkedIn Opportunity Index in Asia Pacific (APAC) region. The index is a composite measure that seeks to understand how people perceive opportunity and the barriers that prevent them from getting those opportunities. The research by the professional networking platform surveyed more than 11,000 respondents in nine markets in the Asia Pacific region - India, Australia, Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore. Indonesia grabbed the top two spots on the LinkedIn Opportunity Index, followed by India. On the other hand, the more developed markets such as Japan, Hong Kong and Australia trail on the Index as people in these markets expressed concerns over economic outlook, and generally felt more cautious about their chances of achieving success with opportunities relevant to them. "Over time, by tracking people's perception of opportunity and the barriers they face, we hope we can continue to facilitate more of a balance between demand and supply in the opportunity marketplace," Olivier Legrand, Managing Director, Asia Pacific, LinkedIn, said in a statement. Much like in the rest of APAC, Indians consider career advancement as their main opportunity. Along with career advancement, most Indians consider learning a new skill as one of the main opportunities, and they feel working hard can help them get ahead in life. Starting one's own business is also seen as one of the top three opportunities for Indians, according to the LinkedIn Opportunity Index. One's "financial status" (31 per cent), followed by the "lack of direction and guidance" (20 per cent), and a "difficult jobs market" (19 per cent) are regarded as the three key barriers by Indian respondents in achieving opportunities, the survey showed. In digital India, 90 per cent feel that digital and social media equip them with material relevant to the opportunity they seek, and 89 per cent feel that digital and social media have helped them to learn new skills, according to the findings. Microsoft-owned LinkedIn has more than 153 million members in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, including over 53 million members in India. --IANS gb/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Up to 26 militants have been killed and more than 20 others injured as troops, backed by air force, targeted Taliban hideouts in Afghanistan's eastern province of Ghazni, the Army said on Wednesday. The government forces have been targeting Taliban hideouts in Andar, Gilan, Qarabagh districts as well as in villages outside the provincial capital of Ghazni city since Tuesday, Xinhua news agency reported. A large quantity of arms and ammunition of the militants have been destroyed, an Army statement added. --IANS mr/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Debt-ridden national carrier Air India has commenced a 'cost-cutting and revenue augmentation' plan to garner 'financial benefits' of Rs 2,000 crore per annum. According to Civil Aviation Secretary R.N. Choubey, cost cutting and revenue augmentation plan was recently implemented by the airline. Choubey spoke to reporters on the sidelines of a curtain raiser event for the Global Aviation Summit, which will be held on from January 15-16, 2019 in Mumbai. Subsequently, the plan was presented to an inter-ministerial panel - Air India Specific Alternate Mechanism - which has been formed to look after the divestment of the national carrier on Tuesday. Choubey told reporters that airline will work on 10-12 items under the plan, which if implemented in entirety, is expected to result in financial benefits of Rs 2,000 crore per annum. However, these benefits will be over and above the financial relief that the airline will get by lowered interest payments on its legacy debt. It was earlier decided by the inter-ministerial panel that a major portion of the over Rs 48,000 crore debt of the airline group will be transferred to a SPV (special purpose vehicle). He added that any future financial support to the airline will be contingent on the results that airline achieves by implementing the plan. Accordingly, as and when the airline would require financial assistance, its management will be required to show the results obtained from the cost cutting and revenue augmentation plan and improvements in efficiency. He added that airline will not be allowed to default on its payment obligations. On Tuesday, the inter-ministerial panel decided 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. -IANS rv/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi High Court on Wednesday allowed Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Director Alok Verma and Joint Director A.K. Sharma to inspect the file related to case against Special Director Rakesh Asthana in the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC)'s office. Justice Najmi Waziri allowed the CBI Director's plea after Verma's counsel told the court that Asthana in his plea has levelled mala fide charges against him and sought permission to visit CVC office for inspecting the files. Verma can visit the CVC office on Thursday while Sharma can on Friday. The Delhi High Court also extended the interim protection from arrest granted to CBI Special Director Rakesh Asthana till December 7 and ordered to continue the status quo in the case till the next date of hearing. The court was hearing Asthana and suspended Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Devender Kumar's pleas seeking quashing of FIRs against them, saying the cases were registered against them in an illegal manner with mala fide intention. According to the CBI, Kumar had fabricated the statement of Sana Sathish Babu, a witness in the businessman Moin Qureshi case, showing he recorded the statement on September 26 in Delhi. However, investigation revealed that Sana was not in Delhi on that day. He was in Hyderabad and joined the investigation only on October 1. The CBI has registered an FIR against Asthana, Kumar and two others, alleging that they took bribes at least five times between December 2017 and October 2018. Asthana, a 1984-batch IPS officer of the Gujarat cadre, is accused of accepting a bribe of Rs 2 crore from a businessman who was being probed in the Qureshi case to "wreck" the investigation. The case was being examined by a special investigation team headed by Asthana. On October 24, CBI chief Alok Verma was divested of his charge and Joint Director M. Nageshwar Rao was made the interim Director. Asthana was also divested of all his supervisory responsibilities. The government took the decision after Verma and Asthana accused each other of taking bribes. --IANS akk/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Photo: Courtesy of the retailers Welcome to Reading Lists, comprehensive book guides from the Strategist designed to make you an expert (or at least a fascinating dinner-party companion) in hyperspecific or newsworthy topics, from microdosing and psychedelic therapy to French cooking. Here, a selection of books for new dog owners. Dogs may be mans best friend but that doesnt mean they speak our language. If youve recently adopted a dog or are planning on getting one for the holidays the world of obedience training, housebreaking, and canine socialization can feel totally overwhelming. To help make heads or tails of dog training, we asked a variety of trainers and behavioral experts to recommend the best books for new dog owners. Our panel of experts included Sarah Fraser, co-founder and co-CEO of Instinct Dog Behavior & Training; Annie Grossman, owner and co-founder of School for the Dogs; Anthony Newman, of Calm Energy Dog Training; Twahlee Rollins, founder of Metro Dog Training; and Shelby Semel, senior trainer and founder of Shelby Semel Dog Training. Each book on this list came highly recommended from at least two of the experts we surveyed. Perfect Puppy in 7 Days: How to Start Your Puppy Off Right, by Dr. Sophia Yin $10 $10 Veterinarian and animal behaviorist Dr. Sophia Yin, who passed away in 2014, challenged the once-prevalent notion that owners had to establish dominance over their dogs in order to ensure good behavior; she advocated for humane training through positive reinforcement, instead. Yin also wrote articles like this one, which Semel says is a must-read for new dog owners. It breaks down the differences between the two training styles and explains why most vets and trainers prefer the latter. Nearly all the experts we spoke with mentioned Yins books, especially the thorough and fully illustrated Perfect Puppy. Semel recommends it for teaching basic obedience, house training, and crate training. Along with the step-by-step guidance, Fraser likes that all of the training techniques in this book focus not only on helping you address common puppy issues, but on building a strong, positive, trusting relationship between you and your puppy. $10 at Amazon Buy $10 at Amazon Buy Dont Shoot the Dog!: The New Art of Teaching and Training, by Karen Pryor $10 Grossman calls trainer Karen Pryors book the canonical guide to positive reinforcement. Through universal principles that could also apply to raising children or building business relationships, Pryor explains how affection training is the best way to encourage behavior modification. Semel says, I remember reading it before I became a dog trainer and thinking, Wow, that makes perfect sense. Why didnt we all think of this before? Pryor is an advocate for early puppy socialization, which is also supported by the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior. Semel also recommends this article from that organization. Its written by vet behaviorists so they understand the medical side and the risks, as well, she says. $10 at Amazon Buy $10 at Amazon Buy The Other End of the Leash: Why We Do What We Do Around Dogs, by Patricia B. McConnell $15 $18 now 17% off $15 Zoologist and animal behaviorist Patricia McConnells book is unique in that its just as concerned with human behavior as it is with dogs actions. This is my absolute favorite dog book, says Fraser. It focuses on communication: how dogs communicate, how people communicate, and the differences between them. All of her scientifically-backed information is interwoven with beautiful stories and personal experiences of her work with dogs and other species. Newman says McConnell backs up her philosophies with a deep knowledge not only of dogs and wolves but of animal behavior, communication, and psychology on the whole. He also appreciates her uncommonly nuanced discussion of dominance training, in which she stresses the owners role as a benevolent leader rather than an aggressive alpha. $15 at Amazon Buy $15 at Amazon Buy The Puppy Primer, by Patricia B. McConnell and Brenda Scidmore $14 $17 now 18% off $14 Also by McConnell, who is one of Semels favorite dog writers, The Puppy Primer (written with Brenda Scidmore) is one of the titles Grossman always suggests for new puppy owners because it focuses on setting up a puppy for success and socialization during the crucial three-to-five month window where theyre most open to learning about living in our world. Full of exercises for teaching dogs specific skills like learning to sit and stay, staying calm on walks, and crate training, its also the guidebook used by many puppy classes and obedience schools. $14 at Amazon Buy $14 at Amazon Buy The Culture Clash, by Jean Donaldson $15 $20 now 25% off $15 In The Culture Clash, Jean Donaldson, founder of the Academy for Dog Trainers, examines the inherent differences between humans and dogs, and the trouble owners can find themselves in if they insist on anthropomorphizing their pets and assuming that dogs will act with the same rationales and motivations as humans. Its a philosophical look at how peoples expectations of dogs have been unduly affected by popular cultures depiction of them, says Grossman. She argues that too many dogs have suffered because weve projected our own ideas of morality and ethics onto them in order to explain their behaviors. Donaldsons dog training philosophy relies on the principles of operant conditioning, a learning style using rewards and punishments. Semel says its a must-read for anyone really interested in behavior. $15 at Amazon Buy $15 at Amazon Buy Cesars Way: The Natural, Everyday Guide to Understanding and Correcting Common Dog Problems, by Cesar Millan with Melissa Jo Peltier $9 $25 now 64% off $9 From the host of Dog Whisperer on National Geographic, this is easily the most controversial book on this list, as Cesar Millan espouses old-school dominance-based training that other authors have mostly denounced. Two trainers we spoke with did find merit in Millans approach, though. His knowledge of dog behavior is born from deep firsthand experience instead of in a classroom, says Newman, who believes that part of the bias against Millan stems from academic elitism. He focuses on dog psychology, physical communication, and has done a great service to the dog community by emphasizing the importance of walks and exercise. Rollins likes it for working dogs who must meet a higher standard of behavior. $9 at Amazon Buy $9 at Amazon Buy Honorable mentions Although these two titles were only recommended by one expert each, we felt their deep dives into specific aspects of dog ownership made them warrant inclusion on our list. The Right Dog For You, by Daniel F. Tortora $16 $17 now 6% off $16 If youre still deciding on what type of dog to bring home, Rollins says this is the primary book hed recommend for guiding your decision. He says its essential for understanding the temperament of the various breeds and making sure youre choosing the right dog for your lifestyle. In the book, animal psychologist Daniel F. Tortora explains the characteristics and temperaments of over 100 different breeds across categories like sociability with children and strangers, territoriality, problem-solving ability, and learning rate. There are so many different training methods and not everyone is aligned, says Rollins. Whats universal are the temperaments of dogs and what their purposes are. Knowing that hounds are bred to hunt prey by scent, for example, can help owners understand the motivation behind their pets behavior. $16 at Amazon Buy $16 at Amazon Buy Barking: The Sound of a Language, by Turid Rugaas $13 $13 Semel says her clients often think dogs only bark out of aggression, but as this book by trainer and behaviorist Turid Rugaas explains, there are actually six different types of barks. Among other emotions, barking can signify excitement or fear, and each type of bark calls for a different response. I lend this to clients, says Semel. It has a barking log and lets [owners] figure out why [their dogs are] barking and what to do about it. $13 at Amazon Buy $13 at Amazon Buy Additional resources for you and your dog The Power of Training Dogs With Food $65 $65 When it comes to working with dogs, Rollins says a hands-on or visual experience can be much more helpful than reading about techniques in a book. He credits much of his experience to attending seminars or working with other trainers, and says informational DVDs can show dog owners obedience exercises in action. Michael Ellis is one of the top dog trainers in the industry, and his approach is balanced and modern, says Rollins. His DVDs give visual examples of how to work with dogs of various temperaments, which is key in truly learning how to train dogs. You can see some of Elliss techniques in his YouTube videos. $65 at Amazon Buy $65 at Amazon Buy School for the Dogs Podcast, Episode 16: The Dog Training Triad, Part 1: Management Photo: Annie Grossman For podcast fans, check out the first in Grossmans three-part series on the basics of training. Management, as she explains, is the concept of controlling your dogs environment to nip bad behaviors in the bud. Small tweaks like keeping the toilet lid closed to stop dogs from drinking toilet water or storing shoes in the closet to prevent chewing can help create a home that fosters good behavior. Buy at School For The Dogs 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. Intensifying the BJP's campaign for next month's Telangana Assembly elections, its President Amit Shah conducted a road show in Hyderabad on Wednesday. Standing in an open top jeep, Amit Shah waved to people as a long convoy of vehicles passed through various areas in Musheerabad constituency in the heart of the city. BJP's Telangana unit President K. Laxman, who is seeking re-election from Musheerabad, Secunderabad MP Bandaru Dattatreya, scores of BJP leaders and activists accompanied Amit Shah. Police imposed restrictions on vehicular traffic for Shah's road show. Earlier, addressing an election rally in Adilabad town, the BJP chief said that during the 2014 elections, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president K. Chandrashekhar Rao had promised to make a Dalit as the Chief Minister but after TRS won the elections he himself occupied the chair. "Will you fulfill your promise at least now," Shah asked the TRS chief. The BJP leader said Telangana had surplus budget but TRS government plunged the state into Rs 2.5 lakh crore debts. Shah alleged that KCR was so scared of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) that he stopped celebrating Telangana Liberation Day. "If voted to power, BJP will celebrate the day on a grand scale." Elections to the 119-member Telangana Assembly are scheduled on December 7. --IANS ms/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Organisers of a march planned to coincide with the November 30 start of the G20 summit in the Argentine capital on Wednesday called for the protest to proceed peacefully and "without provocations". "We ask all the people who will attend the march not to respond to any sort of provocations. We are going to march to repudiate and with our right to protest," Nora Cortinas, with the human rights group Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, told a press conference, Efe news reported. Another of the organisers, Beverly Keene, urged people not to respond to any provocations, especially after what she called the government's campaign of "intimidation." The two-day summit begins Friday, but some international delegations are already in Argentina. Among the leaders who have announced travelling to Argentina to participate in the meeting are Donald Trump of the United States, Xi Jinping of China, Russia's Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. President Mauricio Macri's conservative government plans to carry out a security operation that will include the deployment of 22,000 police in Buenos Aires, a drastic reduction in public services and banning access to parts of the city for vehicles and pedestrians. Argentine authorities say that the main objective is to prevent terrorist acts and violent street protests, like those that occurred during the 2017 summit in Hamburg, Germany. Apart from the rejection of the G20, composed of the world's 20 most important developed and developing economies, the demands at the national level will target economic policies that have led to growing poverty and an increase in the foreign debt. --IANS kk/sc (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Jailed Bangladeshi ex-Prime Minister Khaleda Zia suffered a fresh blow on Wednesday as the country's apex court upheld a ban on convicts from running in the general elections slated for December 30. A seven-member bench of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain upheld Tuesday's High Court order that ruled that anyone jailed for more than two years cannot contest elections, reports Xinhua news agency. Additional Attorney General Murad Reza told journalists that following the apex court order, no convict including Zia will be able to contest the upcoming elections. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's ruling Bangladesh Awami League party leaders said the release of Zia from jail was a matter of court's decision. The country's major opposition alliance led by ex-Prime Minister Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has already decided to contest the parliamentary polls next month. BNP has been demanding the immediate release of all political prisoners including BNP Chairwoman Zia, who has been in jail since February in a corruption case. --IANS mr/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Bihar Assembly on Wednesday was adjourned for second consecutive day after the opposition RJD members disrupted proceedings demanding that the Speaker accept their adjournment motion to discuss the "misuse of CBI" against Lalu Prasad and deteriorating law and order situation in the state. Former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi, who is a member of Legislative Council, said the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) would not allow the Assembly proceedings unless the issue of misuse of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is discussed in the House. The RJD members shouted slogans and created a ruckus over the role of Prime Minister's Office (PMO) with regard to the use of CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to frame Lalu Prasad and his family members in various cases. Speaker Chaudhary urged the members to cooperate and allow the House to run smoothly. But, as the RJD members continued to disrupt the House proceedings, Choudhary first adjourned the House till 2 p.m and later till 11 a.m on Thursday. The five-day winter session began on Monday where the second supplementary budget for 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 during the session. --IANS ik/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A top Pakistani commander of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) who was wanted for the murder of senior journalist Shujaat Bukhari was shot dead on Wednesday in a gun battle in Jammu and Kashmir's Badgam district, police said, calling it "good news". In what is seen as a major success for security forces, Naveed Jatt alias Abu Hanzullah was among the two militants killed in the gunfight that followed a cordon and search operation in Kuthpora village, Director General of Police Dilbagh Singh told the media. "Yes, we have ground confirmation that one of the two terrorists killed in Badgam was Naveed Jatt," the officer said. Naveed Jatt, who hailed from Multan in Pakistan, was the most wanted LeT commander in Kashmir. He was wanted for the June murder of "Rising Kashmir" Editor Bukhari in Srinagar. Bukhari was killed by militants along with two security guards. Police believe Naveed Jatt was among the three militants who carried out the crime. He had escaped from police custody on February 6 when he was taken from the Srinagar Central Jail to S.M.H.S. Hospital in the city. Two policemen were killed during the escape. The Pakistani was operating in south and central Kashmir. Intelligence agencies believe he was playing a major role in trying to woo youths towards militancy. Dilbag Singh told the media: "More than two dozen militants have been killed in the last one week. They would lift boys and force them to join militancy. They would also torture them. "Their elimination is good news for the peace-loving people. "For the last two months, no new youth has joined militancy in the Valley. That is a welcome development." The police chief said that security forces do their best to ensure that civilians were not harmed during anti-militancy operations. "Stone pelting incidents have come down. Lesser the number of militants, better for the people. Youths should desist from going to encounter sites. "The militant outfits are unable to recruit more youths. With fresh infiltration, sometimes the number of militants operating here goes up," he said. --IANS sq/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two persons were killed and two dozen injured in Uttar Pradesh's Rampur district on Wednesday when a passenger bus coming from Nepal and headed to New Delhi was hit by a speeding truck, police said. The accident took place when one of the tyres of the truck burst. The driver lost control over the vehicle and it rammed into the bus. All the passengers in the bus were from Nepal. Due to the impact of the collision, half of the bus was smashed. The condition of five of the injured is stated to be critical. --IANS md/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Chilean police said Wednesday that an operation in the northern part of the country resulted in nine arrests and the seizure of 993 kg of cocaine worth $22 million. The action targeted a gang led by two Bolivian nationals -- a mother and son -- living near the city of Iquique, Efe news reports. The operation required one year of investigation by prosecutors and members of the police organised crime unit, the unit's commander, Guillermo Galvez, told reporters. The ringleaders frequently traveled to Bolivia to acquire the drug, which was smuggled into Chile through the Atacama region, where it was collected and later handed over to traffickers in the Chilean capital, police said. The seized drug was valued at 15 billion pesos ($22 million) and police also seized 23 high-end SUVs, used to transport the narcotic, along with nearly $25,000 in cash. Prosecutor Raul Arancibia said that the detainees could face at least five years in prison, but that term may be increased if other charges are confirmed, such as criminal conspiracy. --IANS kk/sc (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Both the ruling Congress and the main opposition MNF on Wednesday said they are confident of winning the Mizoram Assembly polls. After casting his vote here, Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla told the media that he was sure of retaining power by winning at least 27 of the 40 Assembly seats. "We have done a lot of developmental work in Mizoram. People have full trust in our governance and performance," he said. MNF leader and former Chief Minister Zoramthanga told the media that he was confident of returning to power because of the failure of the Congress government in all respects including financial management. --IANS sc/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Minister of State Hardeep Puri on Wednesday said though the Kartarpur Corridor was a welcome initiative between India and Pakistan, the relations between the countries could not change just because of this and India will have to deal with the "ground reality of terror". "We have to deal with ground reality of terror. Terror and talks don't make a happy companion. Relations between both countries cannot change because of the corridor," Puri told media immediately after returning to India on Wednesday evening after attending the ground breaking ceremony of the Kartarpur Corridor in Pakistan along with Union cabinet minister Harsimrat Badal. Puri made it clear that Pakistan will have to show intentions if it wanted relations with India to move forward. "Pakistan will have to do a lot of work on (controlling) terrorism and infiltration. If there is delivery on terrorism, and that is an essential pre-requisite, (we can move ahead)," he said. Refusing to get into the controversy over credit for the Kartarpur Corridor being approved by governments of India and Pakistan and Punjab cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu's role, Puri said: "Talks on the Kartarpur Corridor have been going on for seven months." Union Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Badal said she and Puri had gone to Pakistan to represent the country and also offer prayers to Guru Nanak Dev who spread the message of love and peace. "I have told the media there that Kashmir is part of India and will remain as such. There is no scope for negotiation on this," Harsimrat, who acknowledged that they were given a lot of warmth and respect in Pakistan, told media after her return. Both ministers represented India at the function where Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday performed the ground-breaking ceremony for the Kartarpur Corridor project near the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara, where Sikhism's founder, Guru Nanak Dev, spent the last 18 years of his life. Earlier, while heading for Pakistan, Puri said there was an "opportunity and goodwill" in the decision of the Indian and Pakistani governments to build the Kartarpur Corridor, but sounded a note of caution: "We have to be acutely conscious of the ground realities" in the two nations. "This is a historic day. This is a long standing demand of the Sikh community. At least, what I know, since 1994-95, we have been making this demand," said Puri, who walked across to Pakistan through the Attari-Wagah check post, around 30 km from Amritsar. "This decision is anchored in hope and goodwill. But we have to be acutely conscious of the ground realities. And the ground realities are that the two countries, on account of a lot of factors, house distrust," he said. "We have felt for very long that we have been at the receiving end of actions of a country which should not have allowed certain forces on its territory. I don't want to touch on those now," Puri said. The Minister made it clear that he was not going for any bilateral discussions with Pakistan. "I am not carrying any bilateral brief. But equally, if the ground-breaking ceremony and these atmospherics are done in a positive way and we are able to invoke the Guru Maharaj's blessings, I am sure that it will become a stepping stone to positive things happening in the future," he said. "This is a corridor that should have been operationalised many years ago. The cartographer who made the (boundary) line made a fundamental mistake. I think this (gurdwara) should have been on this (India) side (of the border). But let's accept the ground realities. We should take one step at a time without getting euphoric," he said. Puri said that both countries now need to operationalise the corridor project smoothly. "And making the corridor operational and taking this process further will require actions by all stakeholders. "Let's take these things one step at a time. I don't want to jump the gun, I think we must allow the goodwill of the Guru Maharaj that is the essence of his teaching," he said. "He was a person at least half a century ahead of his times. And the kind of teachings he has given, if those teachings can be invoked to resolve our problems, it would be a very proud day for me as a Sikh," he added. Asked to comment on the statements of Punjab Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, who is projecting himself as the person who was instrumental in getting the Kartarpur Corridor project cleared by both countries, Puri said: "I don't want to comment on my colleague (Sidhu) in any way. There is no scope for personalisation here. This is a demand of the Sikh community." It was at the Kartarpur gurdwara, located around 3km from the international border and is right opposite the border belt in Dera Baba Nanak in India's Gurdaspur district in Punjab, that Guru Nanak Dev spent his last days till he died in 1539. The gurdwara, which fell inside Pakistan's territory following the Partition of India in August 1947, has huge significance in Sikh religion and history. For the past over 71 years, ever since the Partition, Sikhs have been offering prayers near the border watching the gurdwara from a distance. --IANS js/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US House Democrats voted on Wednesday to nominate Representative Nancy Pelosi for speakership in the new Congress. Pelosi, 78, ran unopposed as the nominee for speaker in a closed-door Democratic caucus election despite an entrenched rebellion against her, Xinhua news agency reported. "I'm proud to be the nominee of the House Democratic caucus once again for speaker of the House," she told reporters, though the hand counting of ballots was reportedly still underway. The California Democrat needs 218 votes, the majority of the full House, to be elected speaker. Democrats have at least 233-vote majority in the new Congress starting January, but some Democratic lawmakers have pledged that they won't back Pelosi for speaker. Pelosi was the first woman to be House speaker and held the position from 2007 to 2011 after Democrats took control of the lower chamber in the 2006 midterm elections. --IANS kk/sc (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Photo: Courtesy of the retailer. Todays teens are resurrecting Y2K fashion baby tees, baguette bags, and, yes, low-rise jeans. If youre a die-hard high-rise lover, this might come as a shock. But dont fret its probably just a phase. Just as with any trend cycle, theres always some novelty trend that appears that is extreme in nature, flattering to few, and usually a corollary that opposes the mass trend, according to trend forecaster Jessica Richards of JMR Design Consulting. She predicts that it is not a cut that will take the place of high-rise anytime soon. But what about the high-rise makes it so appealing? Well, its all about the derriere with denim, and a high-waisted jean most effectively sculpts your peach and accentuates your waist. Not only that, but because the fabric extends higher on the body, the legs appear longer, says personal stylist Jessica Cadmus. Plus you can easily tuck in a T-shirt whether its white or black into a pair for an effortless ensemble. Still, as flattering as high-waisted jeans can be, they do have their own downsides: causing wedgies, digging into your waist, and putting pressure on your insides (even if they look fantastic on the outside). To find a range of high-waisted jeans from straight-leg to skinnies that are simultaneously flattering, easy to sit in, and that work for all different kinds of body types, we turned to stylish women, who shared their favorites. Levis Womens Wedgie Straight Jeans $54 $98 now 45% off $54 As we conducted our search for the best pairs of high-rise jeans, there was one pair that we heard about again and again: Levis Wedgie Straight Jeans. Theyre a favorite of Bird founder Jennifer Mankins, Joyce Lee, who heads the design team at Madewell, and Dianna Cohen, founder of hair-care line Crown Affair. Despite their name, the jeans dont actually give you a wedgie (at least not in the bad way) but have the butt-flattering effect of your favorite vintage-shop find. Theyre popular because they fit you like you want old 501s to fit. So a perfect straight leg, but with a bit more of a generous/modern cut. And it has a bit of stretch and natural rise that hits right at your belly button, so its high, but not too high, says Mankins. High-waisted jeans have become super comfortable now that there is stretch in the fabric its amazing how technology has enabled us to innovate with new denim fits without losing an authentic vintage look, says Lee (who is partial to Madewell jeans first, of course). For Cohen, the jeans are a daily staple, even in a time when denim may not be your go-to for pants: Its the only pair Ive worn frequently at home during quarantine theyre almost as comfy as sweatpants, but make you feel more put together if you have a meeting and want to wear actual pants (even if the other participate cant see them), she says. They look as great on when theyre still-tight and just out of the wash as they do once theyre more worn and loosen up through the week. $54 at Amazon Buy $90 at Levi's Buy Levis Womens Dad Jeans $98 $98 It took me 34 years but I finally tracked down the perfect jean, says designer Susan Alexandra. Im hesitant to share this because they are oft sold out, but here goes: I present to you the Levis Dad Jean. Alexandra calls the slightly-retro light-wash, pair a wardrobe staple evocative of the best vintage denim. I had mine nipped in the waist to give them that perfect I got these at a flea market in Berlin look, she says. $98 at Urban Outfitters Buy Lee Riders Womens Classic Fit Jean From $27 From $27 Rilka Noel, e-commerce planner at Kith, told us that her high-waisted jeans of choice are from Lee Riders, which can be purchased new at Walmart or vintage on Etsy. My favorite pairs Ive found were thrifted for $30. They fit perfectly because they have some stretch around the hips and booty, she says. From $27 at Amazon Buy DL1961 Patti Full Length High Rise Straight Jeans $189 $189 Strategist writer Chloe Anello says that when it comes to high-rise jeans, lately shes really gotten into the straight-leg style. Namely, this pair from sustainable denim line DL1961. These are really comfortable and mold to your body after a few wears, she says. Theyre more tailored than wide-leg or boyfriend, so they look a bit more polished, but still have a lot of give and flexibility to them. The jeans have a vintage-inspired wash, and keeping with the vintage feel, a button fly. $189 at Nordstrom Buy AYR Womens Riser Jeans $225 now 20% off $180 Those looking for a high-rise jean with a skinnier leg might consider this pair, which designer Mary Young says felt like a match made in heaven when she put them on. Of the fit, Young, who is on the petite side, says: The high rise sits perfectly without any gapping at the back and comes in different inseams which is a huge blessing for me, who stands my tallest at 52. And though theyre on the pricier side, Young swears theyre worth the splurge: Ive been wearing them nonstop for three years and they do not show it, she says. $180 at Amazon Buy $180 at Amazon Buy Levis Mile High Super Skinny Womens Jeans $90 $90 Strategist writer Jenna Milliner-Waddell says these Mile High Levis are super stretchy to the point where you can size down and have enough compression to suck everything in. Plus, theyre good quality: I have owned many pairs of high-waisted jeans, she says, but none that have lasted as long as these without stretching out. $90 at Levi's Buy AGOLDE High Rise Kick Pinch Waist Jeans $178 $178 Photo: retailer Another pair that might work well for petite women is these from AGOLDE. They come recommended by candy artist Robyn Blair Davidson, who says that she loves them because theyre tight in all the right places and the high waist isnt too too high, which is often a problem since Im only 51. They suck me in in all the right places, plus, they make my butt look good! Blair also says theyre particularly easy to dress up or down. $178 at Shopbop Buy Levis Womens 720 High Rise Super Skinny Jeans From $70 From $70 Photo: retailer Ive been wearing high-waisted pants since high school and theyre tricky things to shop for, says writer Diana McCorry. Every brand seems to fit differently and some are truly heinous, so once I find a decent fit, I tend to buy in bulk. My current favorites are Levis 720s. Theres enough stretch to avoid that nasty tummy compression, but enough shape to create a great silhouette when you stand up. Theyre also totally affordable. I have them in three colors. McCorry often feels she has to bargain between comfort in the rear and looseness at the waist. Id rather wear a belt than feel like Im in the trash compactor from Star Wars all day, she says. The 720s are a little loose in the waist, but not quite enough to necessitate a belt, which is nice. From $70 at Amazon Buy A.P.C. Alan Jeans $265 $265 This pair is a recent find for Richer Poorers creative director Jenny Alaimo, who says these jeans fit like a glove, as theyre perfectly high-waisted and hold their shape all day without any bagging. Alaimo is petite, just under five feet tall, and while these are designed to be cropped, theyre exactly full-length on her, with no hemming necessary. She also gives an honorable mention to her vintage Levis 501s because they are perfectly worn in and go with everything. Her advice? If you can find a good pair, buy them! Alaimo pointed out two pairs you can buy online at the moment: an original style and a skinny version. [Editors note: These jeans are sold out in the blue pictured, but theyre in stock in off-white for $245.] $265 at A.P.C. Buy GoldSign Curved Jeans $265 $265 Araks Yeramyan, founder of namesake lingerie line Araks, told us about this pair of black high-waisted jeans from Goldsign, whose legs. have a curved cut. The fit and feel of these jeans is what I love, she says. Theyre relaxed, but tapered at both the waist and the ankle, which gives them a feminine silhouette. Yeramyan says the cotton is a good weight, meaning that the jeans hold their flattering shape even after many wears. $265 at Shopbop Buy Frame Le High-Rise Jeans $209 $209 Cadmus owns a pair of vintage denim that she loves, but in order to get them on, she needs to lie on her bed and pull the zipper up with a hanger. Actual vintage high-waisted flare jeans sans stretch from the 70s feel constricting, she says. Thats not the case with these jeans from Frame, which are one of her favorites. The jeans have a classic cut but still feel very of the moment, as the 70s are making a comeback as we speak, according to Cadmus. Like a cherry but on the bottom, as she describes, these have retro flare, with an actual flare at the hem. The jeans are made with stretch denim that not only helps them retain their shape while youre wearing them but makes them more comfy too, Cadmus says. $209 at Bloomingdale's Buy $209 at Saks Fifth Avenue Buy Madewell 10 High-Rise Skinny Jeans $128 $128 Photo: retailer Despite favoring more lounge-like styles when it comes to working, author and lingerie expert Cora Harrington of The Lingerie Addict recommends Madewell High-Rise skinny jeans. Your body changes as you get older (Im in my mid-30s); places that were once firm grow softer. I feel contained and smoothed in these jeans, and the waist comes up high enough [so] I dont get that annoying gapping at the back, says Harrington, adding that the style fits her body type, which is an inverse triangle, with a 13-inch difference between her waist and her hips. They hold up well through regular wash and wear, neither falling to pieces nor becoming entirely stretched out of shape. And they just look good. I feel stylish and put-together when I wear these, which matters a lot. $128 at Madewell Buy Madewell Petite Curvy High-Rise Skinny Jeans $128 $128 The favorite high-waisted jeans of Kate Sokolov who co-founded the clothing brand Social Goods with her sister, Lisa are a slightly different version of the above Madewell pair. She favors the petite and curvy version of the style. Being five feet tall and with a curvy frame, Sokolov says its hard to find well-fitting high-rise jeans that arent too high and too long. But these jeans have a perfect rise for a short torso and an inseam that allows me to wear flats without having to get them hemmed. She prefers this Black Sea wash for its raw hem, ripped knees, and a little extra room in all the right places. Plus, she explains that no matter how she wears them, they always make her feel more put together. $128 at Madewell Buy Re/Done Comfort Stretch High-Rise Ankle-Crop Jean $250 $250 Lisa Sokolov, the other half of Social Goods, had sworn off denim until she found this pair from Re/Done. She loves that the jeans (which she got in the faded-black shade, but there are 15 more colors to choose from) have just enough stretch to make them comfortable while still looking like much more rigid denim. I really wanted to love rigid denim but kept finding them too structured and uncomfortable, she says. These jeans became a staple ever since she found them at Shopbop. $250 at Revolve Clothing Buy $250 at Re/Done Buy NYDJ Teresa Trouser Jeans From $79 $119 now 34% off From $79 Photo: retail Lifestyle blogger Ali Stone calls this pair of wide-legged jeans from NYDJ super comfortable, and the fit so flattering. The fit is versatile, too: Stone says that her mom tried the jeans, and was just as pleased with them. They fit my Mom and I both perfectly and its the first pair of jeans we have ever shared, says Stone. They are truly built for a real womans body. [Editors note: Stock is limited for this pair, but the jeans also come in different washes with slightly more sizes to choose from.] From $79 at Amazon Buy $119 at NYDJ Buy AYR The Onelove Jeans $195 When it comes to plus-size jeans, Christina Andrew, a size 14/16 model, recommends AYRs deep indigo Onelove jeans. The fit on these jeans is comfortable enough to enjoy a full range of activities and flattering enough to want to be photographed doing said activities. Simply put, Id wear these on a plane. $195 at Ayr Buy PrettyLittleThing Plus Light Wash Wide-Leg Denim Cropped Jeans $48 $48 Samantha OBrochta, a travel blogger who works at a PR agency in London, came across this pair after searching on a couple different sites that had their own curve and plus-size sections. The jeans are one of the few pairs she has tried on lately that have accurate sizing and a fit that sits at the right spot on my waist without any awkward bunching, according to OBrochta. With wide-legged styles making a comeback, this pair makes her feel like shes back in the 70s. I liked that they were wide-leg without jumping into flare territory, she says. And OBrochta thinks these pair perfectly with a crop top or a basic T-shirt. The jeans seem sturdy, which is always a good thing for those of us whose thighs rub together when we walk. $48 at PrettyLittleThing 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. Kira Dice, a popular model who has appeared on Vogue Russia and worked with Gucci, has opened up about allegedly being attacked by her boyfriend in order to raise awareness on the severity of domestic violence. On Sunday, Dice, 23, shared a number of photos of her brutally battered face along with a post detailing the alleged assault, which she claims took place on June 30 of this year, reports people.com. On the day of the alleged attack, Dice, who also goes by the name Kira Fox, says that she was preparing for a modelling job in China when her boyfriend attacked her in her home in Moscow. According to people.com, the allegations are yet to be confirmed with local authorities or by the model's former boyfriend. "He threw a chair at me then brutally beat me up," Dice wrote on Facebook, which has been translated from Russian. "He smashed furniture in my apartment shouting at me..." Due to the severity of the alleged assault, Dice claims she was knocked unconscious and her boyfriend was forced to call an ambulance after neighbours started knocking on her door. Dice then claims police arrived on the scene and she was taken to a nearby hospital and treated for a concussion. Following the alleged attack, Dice explained she got back together with her boyfriend and they continued to date for two months. Concluding the post, Dice wrote, "I ask you not to be indifferent to domestic violence." The model has continued to spread awareness of domestic violence on Facebook and her Instagram account. --IANS nv/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (EV) on Wednesday welcomed the Delhi government's draft "Electric Vehicle Policy 2018", which aims to ensure adoption of 25 per cent e-vehicles among new registrations by 2023. "We congratulate Delhi government for coming out with a comprehensive draft EV policy to combat the issue of vehicular air pollution in the capital. EV industry welcomes the government's vision towards adopting a cleaner mode of transportation," Sohinder Gill, Director General, Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles, told IANS. The policy, he said, addressed some of the major concerns required to bring an EV revolution in the city. He said that businesses like food deliveries and couriers that use two-wheelers should be instructed to convert 100 per cent of their polluting fleet to electric in next two years. For E-buses, the society had suggested that charging swapping infrastructure for it will have to be planned well in advance to ensure that the fleet runs without downtime. The society not only suggested that schools vans and school buses be converted to electric but an awareness campaign should be undertaken so that people embrace electric mobility. They demanded that polluting parts of the city should be declared "EV only" zones. The Delhi government on Tuesday released its draft "Electric Vehicle Policy 2018", which aims to ensure the adoption of 25 per cent e-vehicles among new registrations by 2023. Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot said: "About 30 per cent of particulate pollution in winter is caused by vehicles. A rapid adoption of zero-emission electric vehicles is therefore of great importance to Delhi." --IANS nks/mr/and (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An eunuch was shot dead on Wednesday evening here near the Gurugram-Delhi Expressway's Kherki Daula toll plaza, police said. Eunuch Kiran was shot dead by rivals Babal and Bhola, police said. "Eunuch gangs fought over some issue. One of them shot thrice at Kiran. She was declared brought bead at a hospital," police officer Kuuldeep Kumar told IANS. The officer said that the brawl erupted among the third gender group over the collection of money. "Three of the eunuchs fought over a seat in a shared auto-rickshaw near the toll plaza. One of them shot Kiran," the officer said. --IANS pradeep/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A top Afghan security official said that a conference that ended here Wednesday has put a renewed focus on a peace process owned and led by those in the country, and now it is up to the Taliban to come forward and play a constructive role. "We see the stars lining up for peace at his point," said Hamdullah Mohib, national security adviser of Afghanistan, at a press conference here after the two-day Conference on Afghanistan in Geneva, adding that "the ball is in the Taliban's court", Xinhua news agency reported. The Geneva Conference on Afghanistan, co-hosted by Afghanistan and the UN, was attended by delegations from 61 countries and 35 international organisations, representatives of civil society, the private sector and the media. It issued a communique at the end saying, "Participants call on all concerned to seize this opportunity for an Afghan-owned and led peace process as the only viable path to satisfy the citizens' desire for an end to conflict, sustained and broad-based economic growth, and a more prosperous tomorrow." UN Secretary-General's special representative Tadamichi Yamamoto said the gathering was likely the first international meeting on Afghanistan when issues of "peace have been taken up with such weight". Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Wednesday called for a political settlement in Afghanistan as his Swiss counterpart Ignazio Cassis offered Switzerland to play a peace-broking role between warring factions. In a conference speech, Lavrov said, "We believe that the Afghan crisis can be settled only by political means," adding: "A broad intra-Afghan dialogue with the participation of the government, the Taliban movement, and the whole spectrum of political and social forces is needed." Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said in a speech his government has formed a negotiating team to work on a peace agreement with the Taliban. "We seek a peace agreement in which the Afghan Taliban would be included in a democratic and inclusive society," Ghani told the conference. Swiss Foreign Minister Cassis also spoke on the second day of the conference to assess progress since a pledging conference was held in Brussels in 2016 and to measure results against the $15.2 billion committed by the international community for Afghanistan in 2016. "After 17 years of war that produced only losers, the time has come for dialogue. The time has come for a political solution. Switzerland is ready to host any round of talks if requested," said Cassis. Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed and wounded in Afghanistan since the war started in 2001. --IANS kk/sc (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Google has said it will now power advertising for Disney's collection of brands and properties -- including Disney, ABC, ESPN, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars -- across multiple channels, including live streaming and direct-to-consumer content offerings. As part of a global strategic relationship with Google, Disney will bring its entire global digital video and display business onto Google Ad Manager, which will serve as its core ad technology platform, Philipp Schindler, Chief Business Officer at Google, said in a blog post. With the partnership, Disney will be able to serve video ads effortlessly on the web, in mobile apps, streaming through connected TVs and for live events, Schindler said. "Together, we plan to build an advanced video experience for Disney that will transcend devices, platforms, and living rooms to bring the magic of premium video content into people's hearts, minds, and screens -- everywhere," he added. Schindler said media companies are now reimagining the commercial break as TV is no longer a stationary box anchored to a corner in the living room. While people now expect the same content they love in the living room on every screen, advertisers want to deliver quality ad experiences that are relevant, seamless and measurable across screens, he added. --IANS gb/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The 43rd International Kolkata Book Fair will begin from January 30 next year, with the central American nation Guatemala -- the heart of the Mayan World -- as the focal country, the organisers announced here on Tuesday. Around 20 countries from Asia, Europe and Latin America would take part in the 12-day mega event -- known over the decades for its huge footfall -- that is slated to be inaugurated by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The fair would conclude on February 10, Publishers and Booksellers Guild officials told the media here in the presence of Ambassador of Guatemala in India Giovanni Castillo. "The focal theme this time is -- The Heart of the Mayan World-Guatemala," said Guild General Secretary Tridib Chatterjee. With the fair's regular venue Milan Mela still undergoing renovation, the fair would be held at the Central Park in Salt Lake this year too, and stalls of approximately 600 publishers and 200 small magazines will be set up. Chatterjee said the International complex will also have the presence of the UK, the USA, Russia, China, Japan, Vietnam, 11 Latin American countries and Bangladesh. "Iran will participate in the book fair for the first time and we had a word with publishers from Pakistan. If everything falls in place, even they will be a part," he said. Publishers from Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and other states would be among the participants. Expressing happiness over Guatemala being made the focal country, Castillo said his land "resembles India". "I can definitely say that Guatemala somehow resembles India, by having a great cultural diversity with 24 local languages coexisting in the same territory, each one of this with a rich tradition and customs of its own," he said. Castillo said a special collection of 22 astrophotography would be showcased uring the fair. There would be a special exhibition of the work of famed Guatemalan artist Sergio Montufar. Javier Payeras's book "Soledad Brother", translated into Bengali, will be launched at the International Book Fair, he said. Also, the sixth Kolkata Literature Festival, a highlight of the book fair, will be held from February 7 to 9. "Distinguished writers, directors, historians, authors, theatre personalities and celebrities will be part of the Literature Festival. The names will be announced shortly," Chatterjee revealed. The last edition of the fair recorded around 2.2 million visitors and books worth Rs 22 crore were sold. --IANS bnd-ssp/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Himachal Pradesh on Wednesday became the first Indian state to launch a single emergency number "112" which will connect to police, fire, health and other helplines through an Emergency Response Centre (ERC) in the state. This obviates the need for citizens to remember multiple numbers. Under the project, one ERC has been established in Shimla along with 12 District Command Centres covering the entire state. "The ERC has been integrated with police (100), fire (101), health (108) and women helpline (1090) services to provide emergency services via single emergency number 112," said a Union Home Ministry statement. The service is part of the Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) which includes a '112 India' mobile app integrated with panic button of smartphones and ERSS state website for ease of citizen in availing immediate assistance. "Ensuring safety of women, a 'SHOUT' feature has been introduced in '112 India' mobile app to seek immediate assistance from registered volunteers in the vicinity apart from the immediate assistance from ERC. The SHOUT feature is exclusively available to women. To increase the effectiveness of emergency response, the ERC has also been integrated with location based services provided by telecom service providers," said the statement. It said the '112 India' mobile app will be subsequently rolled out in all states and Union Territories to help people across the country access the unified emergency services. Launching the ERSS project, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh appealed residents of Himachal Pradesh to download '112 India' mobile app available in App store of Google and Apple. Citing the success of Himachal Pradesh in rolling out the ERSS project, the Minister requested other states and Union Territories to make all out efforts to commence rollout of their ERSS project. Speaking on the occasion, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur expressed his gratitude to the Union Home Minister for inaugurating the 112-single emergency number, 112 India mobile app and ERSS website and for providing financial assistance of Rs 4.71 crore for the project. The Central government has allocated Rs 321.69 crore under Nirbhaya fund to implement the ERSS project across the country. --IANS rak/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Seven people died and at least 16 were admitted in the hospitals after allegedly consuming spurious liquor in West Bengal's Nadia district, police said on Wednesday. "Seven people have been died and 16 hospitalised from the Nrishighapur village. Locals alleged they had consumed hooch, but it can be confirmed only after medical examination," said a police officer. The signs of mass illness were reported early on Wednesday after which a team of doctors was sent to the the spot, the officer said. The state government ordered a CID inquiry into the incident and announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh each to the kin of the deceased. "Eleven excise officials, including deputy excise collector of Ranaghat range and eight excise constables, have been suspended," Finance and Industry Minister Amit Mitra told the state Assembly. Mitra, who also holds charge of state Excise department, said the investigating agency would also probe whether the spurious liquor is being transited into rural Bengal from Bihar and Jharkhand. --IANS bdc/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Terming hybrid warfare -- using non-state actors against an adversary nation -- as "not the best option", Army chief General Bipin Rawat on Wednesday said this tactic was causing more damage to Pakistan than to India. "Any nation that has attempted hybrid warfare against an adversary has finally been the sufferer. Today Pakistan is facing that brunt," Rawat said while delivering a lecture on "Challenges of hybrid conflict in 21st century". "They (Pakistan) supported something in Afghanistan but after the imbroglio was over, what happened to those people (the jihadis)? This hybrid warfare launched by them (Pakistan) has actually started affecting them more than it is affecting us," Rawat said. However, the General warned that the proxy war by Pakistan is there to stay despite all the things and despite India's effective tackling of it. Responding to a query as to why India, even after suffering for decades, does not launch offensive hybrid warfare against Pakistan, the General said it is not the best option for India, and emphasised that India is satisfactorily countering this warfare directed against it. "Paying the other fellow exactly in the same coin may not be the best option. A stone that is thrown in the air comes back to your head. "Before we launch the hybrid warfare in the offensive-defensive domain, we should be prepared to see what will happen to those people once the objective is achieved. What you do with those people?" he said. While he underlined that India does have the capability to launch an offensive hybrid warfare or even "strike across" at those perpetrating the hybrid offensive against it, the Army chief said for that the Indian leadership must be clear as to how far the country can go if an escalation happens. "India will have to carefully work on the escalation matrix as to how far it was willing to go if escalation happens," he added. He said to counter such operations by Pakistan, which include a propaganda on the social media, various Indian forces and agencies need to work together in close coordination. Rawat said India can utilise its soft power with friendly nations to isolate the terror-exporting nation and offered that the Indian Army can help the country expand its soft power in many ways. Speaking on the Kashmir situation, General Rawat said that sustained pressure is needed to tire out the militants instead of wrongly believing after a peaceful year in the Valley that lasting peace has returned. "When things become comfortable, we would go into this limbo thinking that peace has returned, not knowing that every time the peace returns, the nexus has utilised this period to rebuild their capacities and strength. And therefore sustained pressure is required," Rawat said. "What I am trying to highlight is that you get one successful year and you say let's give peace a chance. That is I think a fault that you have been committing. "If you think that just after having one successful year you should give peace a chance, that may not be the best option. You should have repeated successes and then think of giving peace a chance. And that is what we are doing now. Let us look at tiring the other side," he added. He also rued that the Army faces flak even for taking a tough action against those pelting stones at it. --IANS mak/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Governor Satya Pal Malik hinted on Wednesday that he may be shifted out of Jammu and Kashmir following his remarks that New Delhi wanted to see Peoples Conference leader Sajad Lone as Chief Minister. Speaking at a function marking the death anniversary of senior Congress leader Girdhari Lal Dogra here, Malik said: "As long as I am here, I'm here. It is not in my hands. But the threat of transfer is there. "I don't know when I will be transferred from here. I will not lose my job, but as long as I am here, I assure the people that whenever you call me, I will come." Malik publicly admitted on November 24 in Gwalior that had he looked for directions from Delhi on how to tackle the political crisis in Jammu and Kashmir, he would have had to install BJP-backed Sajad Lone as the Chief Minister. But he did not want to do that, Malik said. Following his remarks, Raj Bhawan issued a statement saying that while dissolving the state Assembly, the Governor took an objective and impartial decision. "There was no pressure or any kind of intervention from the Centre in the entire matter and some news channels are misinterpreting the Governor's statement and putting things out of context to convey that there was pressure from the central government," the statement said. Amid reports that the PDP, National Conference and the Congress were close to forming an alliance to stake claim to power in the state, Malik dissolved the Assembly on November 21. --IANS sq/in/mr (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 Wednesday told Prime Minister Narendra Modi that India is not his grandfather or father's 'jagir' (estate). The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief made a scathing attack on Modi at an election rally in Sangareddy. "Is India your grandfather and father's estate (jagir)? This is democracy. How many days will you be in power?" KCR asked in his inimitable style in Telugu. The TRS leader was criticizing Modi for not allowing the state to increase reservation for tribals and Muslims. KCR said as the population of tribals and Muslims had gone up in Telangana, resolutions were passed in the Assembly and cabinet to increase their quota. "I not only went to Delhi to hand over these resolutions but wrote 30 letters to the Centre. The Ministers also went to Delhi to meet Modi and make a request. Now they are saying they will neither do it nor allow others to do it," said KCR, referring to recent statement of BJP President Amit Shah. The TRS chief said Telangana can get justice only if a non-BJP, non-Congress Federal Front comes to power at the Centre. --IANS ms/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The next round of negotiations on expanding the India-Korea Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), or free trade agreement (FTA), will be held on December 11-12 and both countries will try to conclude the negotiations in 2019, a senior official said on Wednesday. Addressing the India-Korea Business Partnership Forum 2018 here organised by Indian industry chamber CII and the Korea International Trade Association (KITA), Commerce Ministry Additional Secretary Sanjay Chaddha said that a committee will be constituted shortly under the recently formed India-Korea Future Strategy Group to specifically operationalise joint cooperation in research and development (R&D) projects. He said the India-Korea CEPA signed in 2010 was India's first FTA entered into outside the developed economies of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). "Both countries are also involved in negotiations for the RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) which involves a lot of sensitivities," he said. "At a time of growing trade imbalance between our two countries and global slump, when Indian industry is wary of opening new lines, it has also been decided to review the CEPA." Chaddha noted that while the bilateral trade has doubled in the nine years since the CEPA was signed, the trade deficit has widened in Korea's favour. South Korea's exports to India jumped from $10.47 billion in 2010-11 to $16.36 billion in 2017-18. India's exports to South Korea, however, grew more slowly from $3.72 billion in 2010-11 to $4.46 billion in 2017-18. Elaborating on the challenges to the CEPA, the official said that the utilisation rate of duty concessions on the merchandise trade is the lowest for both countries. "We have to understand that it is only when the utilisation rate increases will the industry be comfortable about further liberalisation of markets," he said. In his address, Korean Ambassador to India Shin BongKil noted that economic relations has not kept pace with the high-level friendship and trust established between the political leadership of the two countries. "India and Korea have a bilateral trade target of $50 billion which is still very small compared to Korea's trade with China which was $200 billion last year," he said. BongKil pointed out that despite the CEPA, South Korean investment into India has stayed low at around $0.5 billion annually and cumulatively amounted to only $4.6 billion for the period 1980-2017. --IANS bc/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India won't attend the proposed Saarc Summit in Pakistan and there will be no dialogue with Islamabad until it stops sponsoring terrorism, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj announced on Wednesday. Sushma Swaraj made it clear that New Delhi will not participate in the Saarc summit and it was not responding to an invite from Pakistan for Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the gathering of South Asian leaders. "As I said, unless and until Pakistan stops terrorist activities in India, there will be no dialogue and we will not participate in Saarc," she told the media here. Modi will be invited to Pakistan for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) Summit, Foreign Office spokesman Mohammed Faisal said on Tuesday. The Saarc Summit of 2016 which was to be held in Pakistan was cancelled after India boycotted the event, triggering a pullout by Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Bhutan. Sushma Swaraj said on Wednesday that talks and terror cannot go together. She said that although India welcomed the development of the Kartarpur corridor for Sikh pilgrims, it would not have any dialogue with Islamabad till it stopped sponsoring terrorism. "Bilateral dialogues and Kartarpur corridor are two different things. I am very happy that for the last 20 years, rather many years, the government of India has been asking for this Kartarpur corridor and for the first time Pakistan responded positively," she said. "But that doesn't mean that bilateral dialogue will start... We always say terror and talks can't go together. The moment Pakistan stops terrorist activities in India, the dialogue can start. The dialogue is not connected with only Kartarpur corridor," she added. Sushma Swaraj said she could not attend Kartarpur ceremony because she was tied up with a visit to Telangana. She refused to comment on Punjab Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu's participation in the ceremony related to the corridor opening and referred to his statement that he was going there in his personal capacity. The Minister said it was for the Punjab Chief Minister and Congress party to comment on Sidhu's participation. Union Ministers Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Puri are in Pakistan to attend the ceremony. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan will perform the ground breaking ceremony for the project near the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara, where Sikhism's founder, Guru Nanak Dev, spent the last 18 years of his life. --IANS ms/mr/in (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India reacted sharply on Wednesday to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's reference to Kashmir at the Kartarpur Corridor function saying it was "unwarranted" and that he chose to politicise the pious occasion. It also said that Jammu and Kashmir is an inalienable part of India. "It is deeply regrettable that the Prime Minister of Pakistan chose to politicise the pious occasion meant to realise the long pending demand of the Sikh community to develop Kartarpur corridor by making unwarranted reference to Jammu and Kashmir which is an integral and inalienable part of India. "Pakistan is reminded that it must fulfil its international obligations and take effective and credible action to stop providing shelter and all kind of support to cross border terrorism from territories under its control," the spokesperson for the External Affairs Ministry said in response to queries on the issue --IANS vsc/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Budget airline IndiGo on Wednesday said that it will introduce daily non-stop flights between Bhopal-Hyderabad and Jabalpur-Hyderabad from January 2019. "The airline is introducing daily non-stop flights between Bhopal-Hyderabad and Jabalpur-Hyderabad. In Madhya Pradesh, Bhopal and Jabalpur will be the 2nd and 3rd cities IndiGo will be flying to, after Indore," the airline said in a statement. "Additionally, the airline will also operate its 4th daily return flight between Hyderabad-Tirupati. All new services will commence effective January 2019." --IANS rv/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Rome, Nov 29 (IANS/AKI) Italy will not take part in the intergovernmental conference in Marrakech next month to adopt the United Nations global compact on safe and orderly migration, populist premier Giuseppe Conte said on Wednesday. "The Global Migration Compact is a document that raises issues and questions that many citizens have strong feelings about," Conte said. "Therefore, we consider it right to put the debate in parliament and subject any final decision on the outcome of that debate,as Switzerland has done," he said. "So the government will not participate in Marrakech, reserving the option to adopt the document, or not, only once parliament has expressed its opinion," Conte said. Poland, Hungary, Austria and the United States are among countries which have already said they won't support the non-binding compact, which is due to be formally approved at a 10-11 December meeting in Marrakech, Morocco. The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration was finalised under UN auspices in July. --IANS prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader survived an attack on him here on Wednesday. Police said Sajad Ahmad was on his way to attend a party meeting when militants fired at his car in Hawal area of Srinagar. "He escaped unhurt. Searches were started in the area after the attack," a police officer said. --IANS sq/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A regional party in Jharkhand on Wednesday raised the issue of missionary schools making students harvest paddy crops on the outskirts of the state capital. "I have seen Saint Igonisis School students cutting paddy crops at Vijaygiri village. The were all girls and in school uniform," All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) legislator Vikas Kumar Munda told the media here. He also informed the authorities. Based on Munda's complaint, when Circle Officer of Tamar Rajesh Kumar inspected the area, he found the students cutting paddy. Principal Father Johan was also present. The school management, however, insisted that it was part of the students' Socially Useful Productive Work (SUPW) and as per the academic curriculum, taken up only in after-school hours. "It's exploitation of the girl students. We will take up the issue. We will also ensure that action is taken against the school management," Munda said. A similar incident was also reported from Dighia village in Bero block here, where girls from Saint Anna School were found cutting paddy. Around 50 students took part in the after-school activity as part of SUPW, Sister Marry Bage, principal, told reporters. The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) has also sought action against the school managements. --IANS ns/in/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Jharkhand government will start paddy procurement from farmers on December 1, said an official on Wednesday. "The paddy procurement will start on December 1 and last till March 31, 2019. The paddy will be procured at a rate of Rs 1,750 per quintal. The state cabinet has already given its approval," an official of the Agriculture Department told IANS. The official said: "The procurement will be done through state food corporation in four commissionaires of the state. In Palamau commissionary, it will done by the Food Corporation of India." For the procurement, a total of 239 centres will be established in the state. The district administration can have additional centres based on the requirements. The state government has released Rs 200 crore for the procurement. The farmers will be paid the price within 15 days of procurement. --IANS ns/mag/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Minister of State Hardeep Puri on Wednesday said there was an "opportunity and goodwill" in the decision of the Indian and Pakistani governments to build the Kartarpur Corridor, but sounded a note of caution: "We have to be acutely conscious of the ground realities" in the two nations. "This is a historic day. This is a long standing demand of the Sikh community. At least, what I know, since 1994-95, we have been making this demand," Puri, who walked across to Pakistan through the Attari-Wagah check post, around 30 km from Amritsar, along with Union Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, told the media before leaving. Both Ministers will represent India at the function where Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan will on Wednesday afternoon perform the ground-breaking ceremony for the Kartarpur Corridor project near the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara, where Sikhism's founder, Guru Nanak Dev, spent the last 18 years of his life. "This decision is anchored in hope and goodwill. But we have to be acutely conscious of the ground realities. "And the ground realities are that the two countries, on account of a lot of factors, house distrust. "We have felt for very long that we have been at the receiving end of actions of a country which should not have allowed certain forces on their territory. I don't want to touch on those now," Puri said. The Minister made it clear that he was not going for any bilateral discussions with Pakistan. "I am not carrying any bilateral brief. But equally, if the ground-breaking ceremony and these atmospherics is done in a positive way and we are able to invoke the Guru Maharaj's blessings, I am sure that it will become a stepping stone to positive things happening in the future," he said. "This is a corridor that should have been operationalised many years ago. The cartographer who made the (boundary) line made a fundamental mistake. I think this (gurdwara) should have been on this (India) side (of the border). "But let's accept the ground realities. We should take one step at a time without getting euphoric," he said. Puri said that both countries now need to operationalise the corridor project smoothly. "I am expressing hope in my personal capacity and as a member of the union council of ministers, that there is an opportunity here that the demand of the Sikh community has been met but we need to operationalise the decision. "And (for) making the corridor operative and to take this process further will require actions by all the stakeholders. "Let's take these things one step at a time. I don't want to jump the gun, I think we must allow the goodwill of the Guru Maharaj that is the essence of his teaching. "He was a person at least half a century ahead of his times. And the kind of teachings he has given, if those teachings can be invoked to resolve our problems, it would be a very proud day for me as a Sikh," he added. "I can tell you that I regard myself as particularly privileged and blessed to be able to make this pilgrimage and go and pay obeisance at the gurdwara sahib which has a very special significance in the life of every Sikh as it is the final resting place of the Guru," Puri said. He added that the cabinet decisions of November 22, also brought about the opening of the corridor from Dera Baba Nanak to Kartarpur Sahib that was "one of the more significant measures". Asked to comment on the statements of Punjab Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, who is projecting himself as the person who was instrumental in getting the Kartarpur Corridor project cleared by both countries, Puri said: "I don't want to comment on my colleague (Sidhu) in any way. "I have desisted from that. I never comment on what other people say. There is no scope for personalisation here. This is a demand of the Sikh community." It was at the Kartarpur gurdwara, which is located around two to three kilometre from the India-Pakistan international border (IB) and is right opposite the border belt in Dera Baba Nanak in India's Gurdaspur district in Punjab, that Guru Nanak Dev spent his last days till he died in 1539. The gurdwara, which fell inside Pakistan's territory following the Partition of India in August 1947, has huge significance in Sikh religion and history. For the past over 71 years, ever since the Partition, Sikhs have been offering prayers near the IB watching the gurdwara from a distance. --IANS js/in/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) External Affairs Minister and senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday alleged that Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao was bothered about his own family and that he forgot the martyrs of Telangana. She said though Telangana state was formed because of the sacrifices of thousands of youth, power in the new state remained confined to the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief and his four family members. Sushma Swaraj was in Telangana to campaign for the BJP for next month's Assembly elections. "KCR forgot the martyrs whose sacrifices resulted in the formation of Telangana state," she told the media. "He remembered only his family. KCR is Chief Minister, his son and nephew are Ministers, his daughter is Lok Sabha member and his niece is Rajya Sabha member," she said. The BJP leader said that while 2,000 youth sacrificed their lives for the sake of Telangana, KCR recognized only 400 as martyrs and failed to fulfill even the promises made to them in the previous elections. She said that the BJP extended its support to the demand for Telangana when the chips were down. She found fault with the kind of language being used by KCR against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. She said that political parties should not treat their rivals as enemies and should exercise restraint while speaking. Sushma Swaraj denied that the BJP had a secret understanding with TRS. She said the rumours were being spread by those who want to damage the BJP's credibility. "Whatever we do, we do it openly." --IANS ms/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to bring an ordinance to stop "sealing" in the national capital. "The BJP has to pass an ordinance of only four lines in the Lok Sabha which will ensure that for the next five years, no shops, factories and houses would be sealed," Kejriwal said. He was addressing a gathering in west Delhi's Matiala Vidhan Sabha constituency when he attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over sealing thousands of shops and factories in the last one year. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Convener said that even though the BJP controls the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), "it won't stop the sealing drive". "BJP's hooliganism has been going on for the past one year in the name of sealing. First they sealed thousands of shops, then factories and now I have received information that some houses have also received the notice," Kejriwal said. He said that just one four-line ordinance will give the government a chance to find an alternate solution to this "sealing problem" and people would also not be rendered jobless. "For the last one year, the BJP has created chaos in the capital. People's shops have been closed for 8-9 months and thousands of people have become unemployed. If it continues like this, millions of people in Delhi will be unemployed," Kejriwal said. The AAP leader said that if the BJP does not stop sealing even after a year of chaos, then it would only mean two things -- first, they want to shut small businesses and bring in big companies like Walmart, and second, they are taking revenge on the people of Delhi for voting for AAP three years ago. Targeting Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari, Kejriwal said on one hand the BJP is running its sealing drive and on the other, "Manoj Tiwari does drama by breaking the seal of a house". "I challenge him to break the seals of all shops, factories and houses if he really sympathises with the people of Delhi," he said. --IANS sd/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi High Court made significant observations on Wednesday in a case of anti-Sikh violence of 1984 that led to numerous deaths in Trilokpuri in east Delhi: The anti-Sikh riots of 1984 are indeed a dark chapter in the history of independent India which, it is often said, this country must put behind so as to move ahead. But for those who suffered personal loss in the form of killings of their near and dear ones, or destruction of their homes, there possibly can never be a closure. The theories of politico-criminal nexus, aided and assisted by police or civil service officials loyal to the cause, being behind the mayhem that was wrecked, virtually with impunity or immunity, continue to abound and haunt. There is also a contrarian view that such dark chapters in the history of the land must never get effaced from memory since they confront us, the civil society at large, by showing a mirror, to expose to us the rot that lies within. That the criminal justice administration may falter or crumble, or lose its potency, is no longer a distant doomsday scenario. It appears to have arrived and stares at us in the face. The question as to whether the guilt of the appellants for complicity in rioting and mischief by fire was correctly concluded or not has come up for determination 34 years after the crimes were committed and 22 years after the trial court had rendered its decision. The failure of the police and the civil authorities, in controlling the situation or meeting the challenge by enforcing the law, has been chronicled not only in the media reports but also found to be a fact in decisions of the courts of law, in various cases brought at almost each level of the judicial hierarchy, as indeed recorded in the reports of numerous Commissions of inquiry or Committees. The circumstances that prevailed during the riots are the harsh reality of which judicial notice may be taken. This case is one of the several cases that were registered around that period, the grievances of the victim community, and the civil society at large, consistently being that there was utter failure on the part of the police in not only controlling the situation but also in bringing the perpetrators of the crimes to justice. Allegations have been made ... that the police officials ... instead of discharging their obligations turned their gaze the other way or made endeavour to ensure that those guilty could either escape or even if brought to trial could avoid their guilt being proved. Thirty-four long years have passed after the crimes were committed and, yet, the victims await justice and closure. Is this what we call a potent and effective criminal justice system? --IANS akk/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Rome, Nov 28 (IANS/AKI) NGO rescue boats will not dock at Italy's ports, hardline Interior Minister Matteo Salvini pledged after three charities announced they were resuming operations off Libya amid a spike in migrant deaths in the Mediterranean. "Our NGO friends can go where they like, but they won't be coming to Italy," Salvini said on Tuesday. He closed Italian ports to rescue ships in June. "When boats return which knowingly or unknowingly abet traffickers, they are doing them a favour," he said. Sea Watch, Proactiva Open Arms and Mediterranean announced on Friday that they were launching a joint rescue operation for migrants off Libya's coast. Supported by a reconnaissance aircraft, the fleet will carry out joint search and rescue in the central Mediterranean and document human rights violations, the charities said, accusing European Union countries of shirking their international legal obligations towards migrants. The last migrant rescue ship operating in the Mediterranean, the Acquarius, chartered by the Doctors without Borders (MSF) and SOS Mediterranee charities, has been stuck in Marseille's since Manama in September revoked the right to fly its flag, allegedly following a request from Italy's far-right government. Last week, MSF said Italy ordered the seizure of the Aquarius for allegedly dumping 24 tonnes of potentially toxic waste at its ports, passing it off as ordinary garbage. --IANS/AKI mr/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday appealed to the people of Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram to participate in large numbers as polling got underway in both states. "I urge all voters in the state to take part in democracy's biggest festival with full enthusiasm and to vote in huge numbers," Modi tweeted to Madhya Pradesh voters. "I request my sisters and brothers of Mizoram, particularly the dynamic youth of the state, to turnout in large numbers and vote," he said. Polling for the 230 seat Madhya Pradesh Assembly and 40-member Mizoram Assembly was underway amid tight security and would continue till 5 p.m. and 4 p.m., respectively. The Bharatiya Janata Party, which has been in power in Madhya Pradesh since 2003, is seeking a fourth consecutive term. Except for 10 years -- 1998-2003 and 2003-2008 -- the Congress has been in power in Mizoram since it became a full-fledged state in 1987. Votes will be counted on December 11 along with three other poll-bound states -- Rajasthan, Telangana and Chhattisgarh. --IANS aks/in (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Over 75 per cent of voters in Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram voted on Wednesday in the Assembly elections in the two states where incumbent governments are seeking a straight fourth and third terms in office respectively. Around 75 per cent polling was recorded till 6 p.m. in Madhya Pradesh's 227 assembly constituencies against 72.13 per cent recorded in 2013 assembly polls, Election Commission officials said in New Delhi. In the state's remaining three Maoist-affected constituencies of Balaghat district's Baihar, Lanji and Paraswada, polling was recorded at 78 per cent, 79.07 per cent and 80.06 per cent respectively. The polling in these three constituencies began at 7 a.m. and finished at 3 p.m. Mizoram witnessed 75 per cent polling by 5 p.m. at the close of polling. However, the officials said that the polling percentage would go up as in many constituencies the communication facilities were not there, thus they had not received the actual figures. "Once we get the actual figures from those constituencies, the percentage of polling would go up," the official said. In 2013, Mizoram witnessed 83.41 per cent polling and 82.35 per cent voter turnout in 2008. Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were used in Mizoram after 2003. The official said the highlight of the day in Mizoram was that over 10,000 elederly voters exrcised their franchise with a 108-year old man, 106-year old woman on wheel chair and 103-year-old man coming out to vote. In the case of Madhya Pradesh, violence was reported in a few places in Bhind district. Two persons were arrested in a firing incident near an election booth in Bhind, police said. Several Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) malfunctioned, which were replaced by the poll panel officials. The Election Commission also announced that Rs 10 lakh each would be paid to its officials who died during the voting exercise. The highlight of the day in Madhya Pradesh was the voting by a 101-year-old woman, who exercised her franchise in Agar Malwa district. In the central Indian state, the contest is mainly between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress, though the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) are also in the fray. There are a total of 2,907 candidates. The BJP has fielded candidates for all the seats, while the Congress is contesting for 229 seats leaving one in Jatara in Tikamgarh district, for Sharad Yadav-led Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD). The BSP has fielded 227 candidates and the Samajwadi Party is contesting for 51 seats. There are 1,102 Independent candidates. In the last elections, the BJP won 165, Congress 58, BSP four and Independents three. There are 2,63,01,300 male electorates, 2,41,30,390 women and 1,389 of the third gender. In Mizoram, the last bastion of the Congress in the North-East, the party is striving for a third successive term against a stiff challenge from the Mizo National Front (MNF) headed by former Chief Minister Zoramthanga. The fight is largely between the Congress and the Mizo National Front though the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is also seeking to make its presence felt. The Congress has fielded 40 candidates while the BJP and MNF are contesting in 39 and 40 constituencies, respectively. Around 7.7 lakh voters will decide the fate of 209 candidates. --IANS aks/vsc/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Congress state unit chief Kamal Nath on Wednesday requested the poll panel to quickly replace all faulty EVMs and VVPAT machines after 100 complaints were received within the first hour of polling in Madhya Pradesh. "There is a large number of EVM machines not working properly, we have information from across the state... This is affecting voting. "There are long queues outside the polling stations... Why such big glitches? The Election Commission must urgently take steps," the Congress leader tweeted. Chief Electoral Officer for the state V.L. Kantha Rao said that complaints of faulty EVMs and VVPATs were received and many were replaced within the first hour itself. In Ujjain, two faulty electronic voting machines (EVMs) and 11 Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines were replaced by the Election Commission officials. In Bhuranpur constituency, five VVPATs and two faulty EVMs were replaced by 9 a.m. Taking note of the faulty EVMs, senior Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, who cast his vote in Gwalior, tweeted: "There have been reports of the faulty EVMs from across the state. In democracy, vote is the voice of the people -- it is worrying that an effort is being made to suppress it. "I request the Election Commission to immediately take notice of this and ensure that the polling takes place in a fair manner without any hurdles." Polling began at 7 a.m. in three Maoist-affected constituencies in Balaghat district, while votes were cast for the remaining 227 assembly seats starting 8 a.m. Polling would end in the three constituencies -- Baihar, Lanji and Paraswada -- at 3 p.m, while it would continue till 5 p.m. in all the other constituencies. The contest is mainly between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress, though the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) are also in the fray. --IANS hindi-in/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Wednesday confirmed the killing of LeT commander Naveed Jatt, who was wanted for the murder of senior journalist Shujaat Bukhari, in Badgam district and called the Pakistani's elimination "good news". Director General of Police Dilbag Singh said: "Yes, we have ground confirmation that one of the two terrorists killed in the Badgam encounter was Naveed Jatt." Naveed Jatt alias Abu Hanzullah was the most wanted Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander in Kashmir. He was wanted for the murder of "Rising Kashmir" Editor Bukhari in Srinagar on June 14. Bukhari was killed by militants along with two of his security guards. Police believe Naveed Jatt was among the three militants who carried out the crime. Belonging to Multan in Pakistan, Naveed Jatt had escaped from police custody on February 6 when he was taken for a medical check-up from the Srinagar Central Jail to S.M.H.S. Hospital in the city. Two policemen were killed during Jatt's escape from the hospital. Dilbag Singh told the media: "More than two dozen militants have been killed in the last one week. They would lift boys and force them to join militancy. They would also torture them. "Their elimination is good news for the peace-loving people. "For the last two months, no new youth has joined militancy in the Valley. That is a welcome development." The police chief said that security forces do their best to ensure that civilians were not harmed during anti-militancy operations. "Stone pelting incidents have come down. Lesser the number of militants, better for the people. Youths should desist from going to encounter sites. "The militant outfits are unable to recruit more youths. With fresh infiltration, sometimes the number of militants operating here goes up," he said. The killing of Naveed Jatt is seen as a major success for the security forces. Naveed Jatt was operating in south and central Kashmir. Intelligence agencies believe he was playing a major role in trying to woo youths towards militancy. --IANS sq/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday said in the past four years, Naxalism has come down to eight districts and the militancy in the North-East decreased by 80 per cent. Even on Wednesday, top commander of LeT (Lashkar-e-Taiba) Naveed Jatt was killed in Kashmir, he said. "In last four years, Naxalism came down from 90 to eight-nine districts," the Home Minister said in this Himachal Pradesh town, some 140 km from the state capital. Singh said the militancy in the North-East has decreased by 80-85 per cent. "In Kashmir, in the last three-four days, our forces killed 18-19 terrorists. Even today (Wednesday) our forces killed the commander of LeT Naveed Jatt." He was here on a day's visit to preside over the meeting of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s Panna Pramukh meeting of the Mandi parliamentary constituency. Prominent party leaders like Union Health and Family Welfare Minister J.P. Nadda, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, state party President Satpal Singh Satti, and former Chief Ministers Prem Kumar Dhumal and Shanta Kumar, among others participated. --IANS vg/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday said that in the past four years Maoist activities had come down to eight districts while militancy in the north-east has decreased by 80 per cent. Even on Wednesday, a senior commander of LeT (Lashkar-e-Taiba), Naveed Jatt, was killed in Kashmir, he said. "In the last four years, Naxalism came down from 90 to eight or nine districts," the Minister said in this Himachal Pradesh town, some 140 km from the state capital. Singh said the militancy in the north-east had decreased by 80-85 per cent. "In Kashmir, in the last three-four days, our forces killed 18-19 terrorists. Even today (Wednesday) our forces killed the commander of LeT Naveed Jatt." The Minister was here on a day's visit to preside over the meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s Panna Pramukh meeting of Mandi parliamentary constituency. Prominent party leaders like Union Health and Family Welfare Minister J.P. Nadda, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, state party President Satpal Singh Satti and former Chief Ministers Prem Kumar Dhumal and Shanta Kumar participated. Pakistan will be forced to stop cross-border firing, Rajnath Singh said. "If a single bullet is fired from Pakistan, then India should not count the number of bullets fired in retaliation," he said. He said India would help Pakistan getting rid of militancy. "But for this Pakistan has to come forward." Earlier, Rajnath Singh launched Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) here. Himachal Pradesh is the first state to launch pan-India single emergency number 112 under ERSS. Addressing the gathering, he applauded the initiatives of the state for being the first state to launch the single emergency number. He requested other states and Union Territories to make all-out efforts to commence the rollout of ERSS project. Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister Thakur thanked the Home Minister for approving a National Disaster Response Force battalion for the state, Rs 4.2 crore for modernization of police and for approving enhancement of monthly salary of Special Police Officers in Chamba district. The ERSS emergency service will connect to the police, fire, health and other helplines. Under this project, one emergency response centre (ERC) has been established in Shimla along with 12 district command centres, covering the entire state. --IANS vg/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A meeting of non-BJP parties will be held on December 10 to form a front against the BJP-led NDA, said Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and TDP President N. Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday. Addressing an election rally along with Congress President Rahul Gandhi, he said the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Congress and other parties will meet to form the front against the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Urging all non-BJP parties to join the proposed front, he asked Telangana's ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and its ally Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) to spell out where they stand. Terming the upcoming meeting as historic, Naidu said the TDP and Congress fought each other for 37 years but have now come together for the sake of the country and democracy. Naidu, whose party pulled out of NDA in March, said the country suffered under Narendra Modi's rule. He alleged that democracy was under threat as all institutions like the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED), Income Tax, Reserve Bank of India and even governor's office were undermined. Stating that demonetization failed to curb black money and ATMs and banks ran out of cash, the TDP chief blamed Modi for this situation. He also slammed Modi for not properly implementing Goods and Services Tax (GST) and said this affected economic growth. Naidu voiced concern over growing intolerance in the country and said a sense of insecurity was created among Muslims and Dalits. "Political rivals are being raided for speaking against the government." The TDP chief told the gathering that he never opposed the formation of Telangana and rubbished allegations by TRS that he was working against the interests of Telangana. He assured the people that he will always strive to work for the interests of both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Naidu wondered why TRS President and Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao was targeting him. "I can't understand this. Is it justified? What is the wrong I have done?" Pointing out that the TRS chief began his political career in TDP, Naidu said without the TDP there would have been no KCR. Recalling how he built 'Cyberabad', the information technology hub in Hyderabad, Naidu said Telangana had potential to be number one in the country. He said Telangana had surplus budget and all the opportunities but during four years of TRS rule the state was burdened with huge debts. --IANS ms/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Over 50 major Indian companies have shown interest in expanding their operations to the Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone (RAKEZ) in the UAE, one of UAE's seven emirates and a free economic zone offering comparatively attractive incentives, RAKEZ Chief Executive Ramy Jallad said on Wednesday. Briefing reporters prior to the second RAKEZ Business Investment Forum here, Jallad said the first such forum held in Mumbai last year had resulted in firm commitments from 20 large Indian companies, as well as over a hundred small firms to set up businesses in RAKEZ. "More than 50 high-profile Indian business leaders have discovered the advantages of expanding their operations to Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone," Jallad said. A RAKEZ release here said this special economic zone, less than an hour's drive from Dubai, offers a strategic geographical location that helps companies easily take advantage "of the trade flows between East and West". "RAKEZ currently houses over 14,000 multinational companies and thousands of freelancers from from more than 100 countries, covering over 50 industries, making it one of the largest economic zones in the region." He also said RAKEZ has the highest level of industrialisation in the UAE. Jallad said that several meetings are lined up at the second RAKEZ business forum here with companies like DCM Shriram, MSN Lab and LT Foods. "India is very important for us. The bilateral ties between India and the UAE are excellent and out of the over 14,000 multinational companies present at RAKEZ, 22 per cent are Indian. We are looking for more from India and other countries," he said. Indian majors like Ashok Leyland, Dabur and GK Technologies are already operating in RAKEZ, he added. Elaborating on the business opportunities in RAKEZ, the CEO said companies can invest in various areas like manufacturing units, back offices, call centres and sales offices, among others. One of the UAE's 45 free economic zones in the UAE, RAKEZ offers clients easy access to markets in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and South and Central Asia through major logistical hubs available in the emirate. It is well connected to various countries through road and its five ports. This economic zone also offers finance facilities, whereby an investor who commits to bear the 60 per cent cost of setting up at RAKEZ, can avail the balance 40 per cent financing from the hosts, he said. "To smoothen the process, RAKEZ offices have been set up in India, Turkey, Germany and the UK where investors can go to have queries addressed. If an investor wishes to start business, RAKEZ will help him in start operations within 24 hours after getting all clearances and approvals," Jallad added. --IANS bc/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Noting that Pakistan is a mere strategic distraction for India's security while China possesses the real threat, retired Lieutenant General of Indian Army, Prakash Menon, on Wednesday said India must comprehend China's real political objective to deal with its threat. "Pakistan for us is a strategic distraction while the greater threat lies with the biggest emerging power in the world, China. We must monitor China's activity to figure out what would be a major deterrence for them," Menon said at the lunch of his book 'India & Pakistan under the nuclear shadow'. The former Army officer claimed despite China's constant pressure on India's northern borders, it is highly unlikely that they would conduct a full-fledged offensive overcoming the mountainous obstacle of the Himalayas, but would rather continue to nibble at Indian territories with small attacks. "We cannot look at China and Pakistan through the same prism. If China has to be dealt with properly, we must first understand what the Chinese political objectives are insofar as India is concerned. On the military side, it is not feasible for China to bring in about 30 divisions across the Himalayas," he said. He said China's actual motive is to stop India from becoming a strong maritime power in the Indian Ocean region as it would work against their interest. "China does not want India to become a strong maritime power. Our geographical position gives us the opportunity to become a dominant force in the Indian Ocean, but they don't want to do that. They are also apprehensive about India ganging up with the United States to become a maritime player. "It has now created the northern borders as a pressure point and it would try to nibble at India's territory on regular intervals. They are also using Pakistan against us," he said. Menon claimed China is becoming successful in its motive to an extent as India is spending a large section of its defence budget in protecting its northern borders while not having sufficient fund to build a robust maritime infrastructure. He also said India's attempt to create a strike corp against China will be difficult as India neither has the budget nor the logistics for it. --IANS mgr/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India's public healthcare system is sick. In late September, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration launched Ayushman Bharat, meaning Long Life India, to address this illness. This initiative, which has been described as the "world's biggest healthcare programme" will insure more than 500 million Indian citizens who currently have no coverage. Will "Modicare", as the programme has been labeled, cure what ails India's public health care system? The answer is maybe. That answer must be equivocal because of the enormity of India's healthcare needs, concerns regarding the adequacy of funding to address those needs, and uncertainty regarding Modicare's implementation. Healthcare in India today is tale of two groups. The first group is the wealthy and upper middle-class who receive their healthcare primarily from private sector providers. Overall, that healthcare is of good quality and easily accessible but can be expensive. The second group is the lower middle-class and the poor who receive their healthcare primarily from public sector providers. Overall, that healthcare is of poor quality, difficult to access and the money spent on it is insubstantial. In 2015, India's public expenditure on public healthcare was approximately one per cent of its GDP. This compares quite unfavorably to other countries who provide some form of universal healthcare coverage. For example, Singapore expended 2.2 per cent of its GDP, South Korea expended 4.2 per cent and the United States expended 8.5 per cent. India's small expenditures are reflected in its healthcare performance. Some of the deficiencies of the current system are: * The per capita insurance expenditure on healthcare is one of the lowest in the world. Over 75 per cent of Indians have no health insurance. * Because the states carry the primary burden for healthcare coverage, there is a significant difference in the scope and nature of that coverage across the country. * There is a huge rural-urban disparity in terms of the quantity and quality of coverage. * Compared to the rest of the world, India has an average number of doctors but they attend to only one third of the Indian population. * The lack of adequate insurance coverage and availability of public sector health care causes Indians to have to cover more than 60 per cent of their expenses personally. Ayushman Bharat is structured to address these conditions. It provides poor families insurance of up to $6,950 (nearly Rs 500,000) for hospitalisation, calls for the establishment of 150,000 health and wellness centres to provide primary care throughout India and emphasises holistic healthcare ideas such as yoga as part of this intervention. The programme will expand the public health network far beyond the existing governmental hospitals. It will pay public and private sector facilities a fixed rate for covered services. To date, 15,000 hospitals have applied to be certified providers. This appears to be a solid framework for launching this new initiative. The government has appropriated $1.5 billion for Modicare health insurance for 2018-19 and 2019-20. Of this, $300 million is allocated for the first year of the programme. This seems like a lot of money. But, $1.5 billion divided by 500 million covered lives means this is only $3,000 per individual -- a very modest amount. The total allocation also seems insufficient when unknowns are considered: What percentage of the-newly insured will take advantage of their coverage in year one? Who provides payment when an insured individual or family exceeds it coverage? To what extent will private sector providers deliver their services at fixed rates to public sector patients, if they can get full payment from more affluent clients? Another problem is the issue of implementation and roll-out. The new scheme looks good on paper. But establishing 150,000 health and wellness centres is much easier said than done. This is especially true given that doing this will require extensive collaboration and coordination with India's 29 states and seven Union Territories which have varying levels of capacity and competence. In sum, this is not a negative or pessimistic perspective on India's new healthcare programme, but a realistic one. Modicare represents a beginning and an initial step that must be taken to bring India's healthcare system into the 21st century. Some have criticised the introduction of this new programme as a political stunt designed to influence the results of the national elections to be held in 2019. Regardless of why it was done, this action was essential given the sad and sorry state of India's current public healthcare system. The challenge and opportunity is to continue to move the healthcare ball up the field. The goal for whomever becomes the next Prime Minister should be to make India's healthcare programme not only the "world's biggest" but also among its finest. Accomplishing this will help to move India from a developing to a developed nation and bring it closer to becoming a full-fledged world leader. (Frank F. Islam is an entrepreneur, civic and thought leader based in Washington, D.C. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at ffislam@verizon.net) --IANS frank/vm/tb/sac (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Jointly campaigning with foe-turned-friend TDP leader and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu in Telangana, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday asserted the 'People's Front' will not just come to power in the southern state but will also defeat the Modi-led BJP in 2019. Sharing the dais With Naidu at their first public meeting at Khammam, Gandhi called the state's ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) the "B-team" of Prime Minister Modi and flayed the K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR)-led government for farmers' distress and rising unemployment in Telangana. Simultaneously attacking Modi and KCR, Gandhi alleged that both the BJP government at Centre and TRS government in the state were insensitive to the plight of farmers and workers. He promised to waive farm loans and providing minimum support price for 17 crops if the Congress was voted to power in the state. "This fight is not just for Telangana but for the future of India. In Delhi Modi is busy destroying democratic institutions one after the other -- be it the Supreme Court, or the Election Commission and the Reserve Bank of India. "While in Telangana on one side is KCR and his family and on the other are the masses -- farmers, workers, women and the youth. "First the Grand Alliance will defeat Modi's B team TRS in Telangana and then in Delhi we will defeat the A team, the BJP," said Gandhi. Exuding confidence of the alliance coming to power in the state, Gandhi said the Khammam public meeting was not just historic for the state but also for Indian Besides the Congress and the TDP, the Communist Party of India (CPI) and Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) are constituents of the 'People's Front'. Among others to share the dais were CPI leader S. Sudhakar Reddy, TJS leader M. Kodandaram, revolutionary Telugu balladeer Gummadi Vittal Rao, popularly known as Gaddar and Madiga Reservation Porata Samithi (MRPS) leader Manda Krishna Madiga. Earlier addressing a rally in Kosgi of Mahbubnagar district, Gandhi accused the Telangana government of "failing" to keep its promises and attacked Modi for calling Congress "the B team of TRS." "When we were fighting over land acquisition Bill in Parliament, the TRS was helping BJP. TRS helped RSS and Modi in every Bill. TRS is not Telangana Rashtra Samithi, it is Telangana Rashtra Sanghpariwar. It is the 'B-team' of Sangh Pariwar. TRS' aim is that Congress should not oust the BJP at the national level," he said. Gandhi blamed the Rao-led government for giving employment to his family members while failing to give jobs to crores of unemployed youths. "KCR promised to provide 22 lakh double bedroom houses. But the reality is only 5,000 houses have been built. He promised land to SC/ST which has turned out to be a hollow promise." If the Congress came to power, Gandhi said people would get land and houses. "Our Chief Minister will give youths employment or Rs 3,000 allowance. In the first year, our government will give employment to 1 lakh youths in private and government sectors." Gandhi assured people free medical treatment up to Rs 5 lakh and said a 30-bed hospital would be set up in each 'Mandal'. Elections for 119-member Assembly are scheduled for December 7. The Congress has fielded candidates in 94 constituencies, leaving the rest for its allies. The TDP is contesting 13 seats. --IANS and/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Taking a firm stand, Kerala Chief Minister said on Wednesday that Sabarimala won't be allowed to become an Sabarimala town has witnessed protests ever since the ruled in September that women of all ages can enter the temple that hitherto banned girls and women aged 10-50. As the opened on Wednesday, legislators from the Congress-led opposition came with placards and banners demanding that the prohibitory orders in the temple town be lifted. During the entire question hour, the opposition was rooted before the Speaker shouting slogans. As former Devasom Minister V.S. Sivakumar alleged that the Left government and the Sangh parivar were colluding to destroy the sanctity of the Sabarimala temple, Vijayan said that the prohibitory orders now in place at the temple town will not be withdrawn. "We are bound to adhere to the apex court ruling even as the Sangh parivar with the support of the is out to create trouble in the temple," the Chief Minister said. "At no cost will we allow Sabarimala to be turned into an and there is no question of withdrawing the prohibitory orders," he said to thumping of desks by the treasury benches. Vijayan said that even the Kerala High Court had supported the rules now in force at Sabarimala. "The is trying to make political capital out of the Sabarimala issue." Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala said that now it had become clear that Vijayan had only one agenda -- to weaken the party and for that he has given the full support to the BJP/RSS. ALSO READ: District collector extends prohibitory orders in Sabarimala by four days "The decision of the police to hand over the mike to Valsan Thilenkery to control the protesters at the temple reveals everything... Vijayan is behaving like those who built the Titanic who said the ship will never sink. But it sank. Vijayan is also going to meet such an end. The way he is handling the Sabarimala issue, devotees are deeply pained," he said. When the opposition members trooped near Speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan, he went through the listed business of the day in a flash and adjourned the House for the day. The Assembly saw the lone legislator O. Rajagopal and his new found ally P.C. George turn up in black shirts. They said they were protesting against the government for putting the Sabarimala pilgrims into difficulties. The Supreme Court on Wednesday enhanced to Rs 50 lakhs the compensation to 33 house owners in the Kant Enclave, a posh locality on the periphery of the national capital, whose houses have been declared unauthorized by the top court and face demolition. This is part of the compensation that Haryana government has to pay to the those having houses in Kant Enclave faced with demolition in pursuance to September 11 judgement of the top court. Almost doubling the compensation by the Haryana government, the bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur, Justice S. Abdul Nazeer and Justice Deepak Gupta said that the state government will pay the enhanced compensation by December 10. As the counsel for the state government told the court that as per its earlier order, the compensation to be paid by it comes to Rs 25 lakhs, Justice Lokur said that we have modified our order and directed the payment of Rs 50 lakh each to the 33 home owners. The court ordered enhancement in the compensation as senior counsel Dushyant Dave told the court that the affected people are retired defence personnel, bureaucrats, scientists and that their properties are being undervalued for the compensation. Urging the court to give more time to the effected people to find alternative dwellings, senior counsel Raju Ramachandran said a two-room DDA flat in the vicinity of Alaknanda, near Kant Enclave, costs something like Rs 2 crore. The top court by its September 11, 2018, judgment while directing the demolition of concrete structures raised in Kant Enclave after August 18, 1992, had directed the compensation of Rs 50 lakh each to those whose structures would get demolished. The court had ordered that The quantified amount will be paid, in equal proportion, by R. Kant & Co. and the Town & Country Planning Department of Haryana. --IANS pk/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The supreme court on Wednesday upheld the validity of the death sentence for murder under penal law while it commuted to life imprisonment the death sentence of one Channnu Lal Verma, a resident of Chhattisgarh. The bench of Justice Kurian Joseph, Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Hemant Gupta upheld the penal provision of the death sentence under Section 302 of the IPC by a majority of 2:1. Justice Joseph differed seeking a review of the capital punishment as it has failed to be deterrent to curb the heinous crime. Justice Joseph is retiring on Thursday. He cited a report of the Law Commission which says the death penalty has failed to be a deterrent to curb heinous crimes. However, Justice Deepak Gupta also speaking for Justice Hemant Gupta, defended the retention of the death penalty. The majority judgment referred to earlier judgments of the top court in Bachan Singh and Machhi Singh upholding the validity of the capital punishment. Justice Joseph in his minority judgment said that trial court proceedings at times get impacted by public opinion and even the investigating agencies mount pressure for the conviction of the accused. It is court's duty to be "constitutionally correct" even when its view is "counter-majoritarian," Justice Joseph said. "After all, the society's perspective is generally formed by emotionally charged narratives. Such narratives need not necessarily be legally correct, properly informed or procedurally proper." The top court had earlier, in Delhi gang rape case, upheld the validity of the death sentence, and in the Bachchan Singh's case in the 1980s, the top court had coined the doctrine of "the rarest of rare" case for the award of the death sentence. In the instant case, three judges while pronouncing the split verdict on the validity of death sentence as punishment, commuted the death sentence of one Channnu Lal Verma of Chhattisgarh who was convicted and awarded the death sentence by the trial court and the same was upheld by the High Court. Channnu Lal Verma was convicted for the murder of three people who had appeared as witness against him in an alleged rape case. Channnu Lal Verma was acquitted in the rape case. Channnu had murdered 25-year-old Ratna Bai, her father-in-law Ram Sahu and mother-in-law Firtin Bai. --IANS pk/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the validity of the death sentence for murder under penal law while it commuted to life imprisonment the death sentence of one Channnu Lal Verma. The bench of Justice Kurian Joseph, Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Hemant Gupta upheld the penal provision of death sentence under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) by a majority of 2:1. While Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Hemant Gupta upheld the penal provision of death sentence under Section 302 of IPC, Justice Joseph differed, seeking a review of capital punishment as it has failed to be a deterrent to curb the heinous crime. Justice Joseph, who is retiring on Thursday, has cited the 262 report of the Law Commission which has said that death penalty has failed to be a deterrent to curb the heinous crime. However, Justice Deepak Gupta, also speaking for Justice Hemant Gupta, defended the retention of the death penalty on the statute book. The majority judgment referred to earlier judgments of the top court in Bachan Singh and Machhi Singh case, upholding the validity of capital punishment. He said there was no need for re-examining the validity and correctness of the death sentence. Section 302 of the IPC that provides for punishment for murder says: "Whoever commits murder shall be punished with death or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine." Justice Joseph, in his minority judgment, said that trial court proceedings at times get impacted by public opinion and even the investigating agencies mount pressure for the conviction of the accused. The top court had earlier, in the Delhi gang rape case, upheld the validity of the death sentence, and in the Bachan Singh's case in the 1980s, the top court had coined the doctrine of "rarest of rare" case for the award of the death sentence. In the current case, three judges, while pronouncing a split verdict on the validity of the death sentence as punishment, commuted the death sentence of one Channnu Lal Verma of Chhattisgarh who was convicted and awarded the death sentence by the trial court and the same was upheld by the High Court. Verma was convicted for the murder of three people who had appeared as witnesses against him in an alleged rape case. He was acquitted in the rape case. He had murdered one 25-year-old Ratna Bai, her father-in-law Ram Sahu and mother-in-law Firtin Bai. --IANS pk/mag/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Voters in Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram caste votes to elect their representatives in the respective state legislative assemblies on Wednesday. Both Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram registered a record voter turnout of 75 per cent. The results for the Assembly elections in both states will be declared on December 11. While polling remained peaceful in Mizroam, reports of malfunctioning of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines and sporadic violence punctuated the voting process in Madhya Pradesh. As many as 883 ballot units and 881 control units were replaced during Madhya Pradesh state Assembly elections, along with 2,126 VVPATs during mock poll and during voting, ANI quoted state's Chief Electoral Officer V L Kantha Rao. Meanwhile, controversy erupted after Congress leader Kamal Nath allegedly showed his party's symbol just after he had exercised his voting rights. Reports suggest that Nath showed his palm, the election symbol of Congress party, while casting his vote in Chindwara, Madhya Pradesh. Model of conduct mandates that party symbol cannot be displayed near polling booth during voting process is underway. On the other hand, Nath said in defence of his action: "I had already cast my vote. When people asked me when those from media asked me whom I have voted for I showed this (palm). What else could have I done? Show a lotus?" In the ongoing, voters have cast their votes to elect representatives for 230 seats in the Madhya Pradesh State Assembly, and 40 seats in the Mizoram State Assembly. A total of 2,899 candidates are in the poll fray from Madhya Pradesh, whereas 209 candidates have thrown their hat in the ring for the Mizoram legislative elections. In an saddening development, one polling officer in Guna and two officers in Indore have died due to cardiac arrest in Madhya Pradesh. The Election Commission has announced compensation of Rs 10 crore for the kin of officials who have passed away during poll duty. Meanwhile, faulty EVMs and VVPAT machines held up polling process for some time in Madhya Pradesh. Here are the LIVE updates from the state assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram: 06:40 pm: Mizoram sees 75 per cent voter turnout till 5 pm, according to ANI. 06:30 pm:Around 74.61 per cent voter turnout was recorded till 6:00 pm in the Madhya Pradesh State Assembly elections,ANI reported. 04:48 pm: As many as 1,146 EVMs and 1,545 VVPAT machines were replaced in Madhya Pradesh after complaints of technical snags, according to state's Chief Electoral Officer V L Kantha Rao. 03:25 pm: 50 per cent voters exercise their voting rights in Madhya Pradesh till 3:00 pm, according to the office of Chief Electoral Officer. 03:25 pm: Mizoram registers 58 per cent voter turnout till 3:00 pm. 02:30 pm: Voter turnout at 34.99 per cent in Madhya Pradesh by 2:00 pm. 02:00 pm: "I had already cast my vote. When people asked me when those from media asked me whom I have voted for I showed this (palm). What else could have I done? Show a lotus?," says Congress leader Kamal Nath on controversy over him showing his party's symbol after casting his vote in Chhindwara. 01:31 pm: 49 per cent voting recorded in Mizoram till 1:00 pm. 01:30 pm: Voter turnout reached 31.33 per cent in Madhya Pradesh till 01:30 pm. According to reports, the highest voting percentge in the state was recorded in Anuppur at 47.29 per cent, whereas the lowest was in Dindori with 20.77 per cent. 01:25 pm: On demands of extending polling time at certain booth in Madhya Pradesh raised by Congress on account of faulty EVMs, Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat said that there are provisions for extending voting timings, and lcoal officers can take a call on it as they see fit. CEC O P Rawat on Jyotiraditya Scindia's request to EC to extend polling time due to EVM malfunction: There are provisions for the extension of time, the local officers can take the call as they see fit. The matter does not need to be handled by the commission. pic.twitter.com/OznJsAKzcJ - ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 01:15pm: Shots fired yet again in Bhind as the polling continues in the state. Police has detained two individuals in the matter. 12:35 pm: Congress calls for extension of voting time in booths where polling had to be stopped due to malfunctioning EVMs. "There have been many complaints of EVMs malfunctioning, have written to Election Commission. Have requested that voting time in these polling booths should be extended to compensate for the delay," Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia said. There have been many complaints of EVMs malfunctioning, have written to Election Commission. Have requested that voting time in these polling booths should be extended to compensate for the delay: Jyotiraditya Scindia, Congress #MadhyaPradeshElectionspic.twitter.com/EfJiIg7lW0 - ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 12:15 pm: Reports of malfucntioning EVMs coming in from several parts of Madhya Pradesh. Around 25o EVMs replaced so far. 12:00 pm: Firing close to a polling booth near Bhind, Madhya Pradesh. Police is searching for the person responsible for opening fire. 12:00 pm: Reports of 140 irregularities have come from Madhya Pradesh within two hours of polling. 11:58 pm: Election Commission announces Rs 10 lakh as compensation for the kin of its officials who passed away while on poll duty. #Update Election Commission announces Rs 10 lakh each compensation for the kin of the EC officials who passed away while on election duty #MadhyaPradeshElectionshttps://t.co/7Qv1XJvwIS - ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 10:45 am: One Election Commission official in Guna and two officials in Indore pass away due to cardiac arrests while on election duty. One Election Commission official in Guna, and two in Indore have passed away due to cardiac arrest #MadhyaPradeshElections - ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 09:15 am: Voters have started to cast their votes in Mizoram to elect a 40-member state Assembly amid tight security. 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. 08:45 am: Polling has begun in Madhya Pradesh, where the ruling BJP and opposition Congress are fighting for supremacy. Renewing their public protests, hundreds of Google employees have demanded in an open letter withdrawal of "Project Dragonfly," Google's effort to create a censored search engine for the Chinese market. "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 Google employees wrote in an open letter published on Medium on Tuesday. "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," they wrote. Google had earlier launched a search engine in China in 2006 but pulled the plug in 2010, citing Chinese government efforts to limit free speech and block websites. But now the search giant is trying to have bigger presence in the Chinese market and information regarding Google's "Dragonfly" project began surfacing in August. Since then the company has faced severe backlash from its employees as well as the US government. In September, Google reportedly developed a prototype of "Dragonfly" that linked users' search history to their personal phone numbers allowing security agencies to easily track users seeking out information banned by the government. Google has confirmed the existence of the project at an "experimental" level, but said that it was not close to launch. In their new open letter, the Google employees said that providing the Chinese government with ready access to user data, as required by Chinese law, would make the company complicit in oppression and human rights abuses. Amnesty International also launched on Tuesday a global petition calling on Google CEO Sundar Pichai to drop project Dragonfly that would blacklist search terms like "human rights" and "Tiananmen Crackdown". "This is a watershed moment for Google. 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," said Joe Westby, Amnesty International's Researcher on Technology and Human Rights. --IANS gb/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Slovenia has appointed a woman as head of its army, becoming the only Nato nation to do so. Maj Gen Alenka Ermenc, 55, will take charge as chief of staff on Wednesday, BBC reported. A former army commander, Ermenc began her military career in 1991, when the country gained independence from Yugoslavia. President Borut Pahor said he hoped she would improve the army's performance. Earlier this year, a Slovenian army brigade failed a Nato combat readiness test, the BBC report said. Ermenc graduated from the Royal College of Defence Studies in London and completed a Master's degree in International Studies at London's King's College University. Slovenia, the home country of US First Lady Melania Trump, has an army of 7,500 soldiers. --IANS kk/sc (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) SpongeBob SquarePants creator Stephen Hillenburg has died at the age of 57, Nickelodeon that broadcast the hugely popular cartoon series since 1999, has confirmed. In a statement, the company said Hillenburg's death on Monday was due to motor neurone disease (also known as ALS) -- a condition he revealed he had been diagnosed with in March 2017, the BBC reported. He not only created the character, Hillenburg also directed the 2004 "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie". "We are sad to share the news of the passing of Stephen Hillenburg, the creator of SpongeBob SquarePants," Nickelodeon tweeted from its official account. The company's statement added: "Steve imbued 'SpongeBob SquarePants' with a unique sense of humour and innocence that has brought joy to generations of kids and families everywhere. "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." "SpongeBob" is Nickelodeon's all-time biggest hit, and has aired for nearly two decades since its premiere on May 1, 1999, bringing characters SpongeBob, Patrick, Squidward, Mr Krabs, Sandy Cheeks, Plankton, Pearl Krabs, Mrs Puff and Larry the Lobster to life. Hollywood actor David Hasselhoff, who starred as himself in "The SpongeBob Movie," remembered his time on set. "Wow what a unique and fantastic character Steve created! It was my pleasure and honor to be in 'SpongeBob The Movie' and to share some great laughs with this gentleman," the "Baywatch" alum tweeted. "To this day I am stopped and flattered by people and kids who have seen me in the film." Following the news of Hillenburg's death, SpongeBob fans began posting tributes on social media, thanking him for his creation, which "enriched lives" and "stirred up laughter for years to come". --IANS in/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) would visit the Andaman & Nicobar Islands from December 4-6 to investigate the killing of American tourist John Allen Chau allegedly by an isolated Sentinelese tribe in the Andamans last week, Tribal Affairs Ministry said on Wednesday. NCST Chairperson Nand Kumar Sai said the vulnerability of Sentinelese tribes in North Sentinel Island had increased many fold, and any aggressive steps to recover the body would adversely disturb the peace and tranquillity in the island. The NCST on Wednesday reviewed the reports on the killing incident submitted by Union Home Ministry and the A&N Administration. Sai said all necessary steps must be taken by the government to maintain "Inviolability of North Sentinel Island". The Lieutenant Governor of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands has already constituted a committee to review the institutional mechanism to prevent the landing of any foreign national in the North Sentinel Island. The five-member committee under the chairmanship of Secretary (Tribal Welfare) of the A&N Administration would also suggest measures to prevent such incidents in future. --IANS spk/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The US has imposed sanctions against Nicaragua's Vice President Rosario Murillo, the wife of President Daniel Ortega, accusing her of corruption and serious human rights abuses. She is believed to have influenced a youth organisation that the US says engaged in extra-judicial killings, torture and kidnapping, the BBC reported. The sanctions will ban US individuals, banks and other entities from carrying out transactions with the pair, who will also have any assets that fall under US jurisdiction frozen. On Tuesday, the US Treasury said it was using a new executive order issued by US President Donald Trump to punish Murillo, accusing her of undermining Nicaragua's democracy. Sanctions were also imposed on the presidential couple's security advisor, her aide, Nestor Moncada Lau, who was accused of carrying out orders by paying armed groups to attack protestors during months of anti-government disturbances earlier in 2018. Murillo has ruled Nicaragua jointly with Ortega for more than a decade. She is accused of controlling the police and the youth wing of the governing Sandinista Liberation Front. Earlier in November, opposition activist Felix Maradiaga told the BBC that human rights in Nicaragua were at the "most severe crisis in generations". Maradiaga was forced to flee his country in July after receiving death threats. The Central American nation has been through huge upheaval in 2018. In April, anti-government protesters demanded that the socialist President Ortega step down over unpopular pension reforms. However, he refused to negotiate and instead sent in the security forces. Hundreds were then killed in the space of weeks. --IANS in/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Criticising the malfunctioning of some Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) during the ongoing Madhya Pradesh assembly elections, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday claimed that providing faulty EVMs was a ploy to manipulate people's votes. Taking a swipe at the Election Commission, Banerjee said it is the responsibility of the constitutional body to ensure that none of the EVM or VVPAT machines used during polling are faulty. "I am hearing since morning that several EVM machines used in Madhya Pradesh polls are faulty. We all understand these plans. These are attempts to manipulate people's vote for own advantage," Banerjee said in a veiled reference to the Bharatiya Janata Party, who is in power in the state as well as at the Centre. "I have heard that only two per cent votes cast through an EVM machine can be traced. What is the significance of two per cent? If two per cent votes are fair and 80 per cent of it is rigged, who would take the responsibility? If EVM and VVPAT are used in elections, the EC must ensure that not a single EVM machine malfunctions during polling," she said. The Trinamool supremo said she would raise the issue of faulty EVMs during the opposition parties' meeting to be held in Delhi in December. "We have already raised the issue. I will again raise the issue during our opposition party meeting in Delhi. I will also circulate the document to show what exactly is going on in Madhya Pradesh," she added. Polling is underway for the 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly on Wednesday, where several faulty EVMs and VVPAT machines had to be replaced within the first hour. --IANS mgr/mag/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) 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, Xinhua news agency reported. Manafort was accused of 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 signalled 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 US 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 fuelled 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. 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, 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. In a statement on Tuesday, Manafort, however, denied having met with Assange. "This story is totally false and deliberately libellous. I have never met Julian Assange or anyone connected to him," he said. --IANS kk/sc (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actor Rahul Bose, who was last seen in "Vishwaroopam II", has said that he will start shooting for "Baahubali: Before the Beginning" in December. He was interacting with media at the inauguration of an art show called 'Breaking Barriers' on Tuesday here. Sporting a bearded look when Rahul was proded about it, he said: "I am doing a prequel to 'Baahubali' for Netflix. It is called as 'Baahubali: Before the Beginning'. "I have a big role in it. We will start shooting December beginning. My character has a bearded look, and I don't want to sport a fake beard for the next six months. I will have the same look." "Baahubali: Before the Beginning" is a web series based on Anand Neelakantan's 2017 novel "The Rise of Sivagami", and is a Netflix Original from India. A part of the Baahubali franchise, the series is directed by Deva Katta and co-directed by Praveen Sataru. It is produced jointly by S.S. Rajamouli and Arka Media Works. It stars Rahul Bose, Mrunal Thakur, Shriya Saran and Atul Kulkarni in key roles. "Baahubali: Before the Beginning" is the third Netflix Original produced in India after the crime thriller "Sacred Games" and horror mini-series "Ghoul". The first season consists of nine episodes and acts as a prequel to "Baahubali: The Beginning", following the journey of Sivagami's rise to power in the fictional Mahishmati kingdom. --IANS iv/in (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Worry re-emerged in South Korea over a so-called demographic cliff amid the continued fall in childbirth that was mainly blamed on "money problem". The number of newborn babies was 26,100 in September, down 4,000, or 13.3 percent, from a year earlier, Statistics Korea data showed on Wednesday, reports Xinhua news agency. It was the lowest September figure since the statistical agency began compiling the data in 1981, marking the first double-digit decline this year. The number of newborns kept falling for 34 months in a row. For the past decade, concerns lasted about the low birthrate as one of the most serious social issues, but the worry deepened further amid the spreading social trend to delay or avoid marriage. According to social analytics on marriage which unveiled in the parliamentary policy forum on low birthrate, the younger generation delayed or shunned marriage due to financial burden for preparing marriage, purchasing residence and raising a child. The social trend was partly caused by the prolonged high unemployment rate among the younger generation. South Korea is reportedly required to keep the fertility rate at 2.1 to maintain the current population. According to the statistical agency's estimate, the South Korean population was forecast to begin sliding from 2028. --IANS mr/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) At a time when arguments are on about the autonomy and accountability of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the move to detect deviation and divergence in the recognition of the assets, and accounting the required level of provisions as per the prudential norms will enable banks to initiate corrective action to comply with the norms. The uniformity in asset classification and income recognition is of paramount importance in respect of consortium accounts across the member banks to make sure the ... Dear Reader, Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. 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Digital Editor The on Wednesday accused the of "manipulating" of previous years and said it reflects a desperate attempt to undermine India's growth story over the last 15 years. chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala termed the step a "classic" case where "the operation is successful but the patient is dead". "The entire GDP back series data released today reflects the desperate attempt of a defeatist to undermine India's growth story over last 15 years. and its puppet want the people to believe that 2+2=8. "Such is the gimmickry, jugglery, trickery and chicanery being sold as 'back series data'," he said in a statement. There was no immediate reaction from the on the Congress's claims and allegations. The leader said the economic mismanagement under the Modi government has led to economic anarchy and jugglery of GDP figures. "Manipulated back series data' will not change Modi government's exit date'. (Prime Minister Narendra) Modiji's new definition of GDP is 'Gimmickry Data Product'," he said. Surjewala alleged a failed "Modinomics plus a Pakoda economic vision" has put India's economy in complete turmoil, and the prime minister and his finance minister have caused economic "mayhem" by the "ill-conceived" decisions of demonetisation, a "flawed" coupled with "tax terrorism". "Faced with utter and complete rejection of the 'voodoo economics' of the Modi-Jaitley duo, they are resorting to malicious and fraudulent jugglery of GDP figures to hide the enormous body blow caused by them to India's economy," he said. Surjewala alleged that since the advent of the NDA government in May 2014, there has been a determined effort to run down the record of the two UPA governments under Manmohan Singh during 2004-2009 and 2009-2014. A lot of confusion was sown and the Modi government added to the confusion by changing the base year from 2004-05 to 2011-12, he said. The Congress leader said his party has repeatedly pointed out that when the base year was changed, the government should follow the healthy international practice and revise the numbers for the previous years. "We had demanded that the back series data of GVA and GDP should be calculated and released so that meaningful comparisons can be made," he said, adding that the back series data as released by Statistical Commission (NSC) in August 2018 is available in public domain and numbers prove that the truth cannot be suppressed. The opposition leader claimed that UPA-1 and UPA-2 delivered the highest decadal growth of 8.13 per cent at factor cost since Independence and during this period 140 million people were lifted out of poverty. When the UPA demitted office, economic growth had recovered to 6.39 per cent at market prices in 2013-14. Besides, the fiscal deficit had been reduced to 4.48 per cent and the current account deficit contained at 1.7 per cent, he claimed. "The revised New Series' computed today by the Ministry of Statistics and has completely undermined the NSC ( Statistical Commission), the autonomous body for deciding data transparently and in accordance with global standards of calculating GDP as per Market Price Linked Methodology. "Today, the Modi government deceived the country by surreptitiously changing the methodology in order to manipulate This is called Excel Sheet Management' i.e deciding the result first and filling the marks later. The new methodology is GVA based, which does not take into account tax+ subsidies and consequently is extremely flawed to sub serve the myopic interests of the Modi government," he said. Surjewala alleged that under this government, there has been complete stagnation in investment and the Gross Fixed Capital Formation in the last three years has remained constant at 28.5 per cent. "At that level of investment (GFCF), it is not possible to achieve higher growth rates," he said. The government Wednesday lowered the country's economic growth rate during the previous Congress-led UPA regime, shaving off over one percentage point from the only year when India posted double-digit GDP growth post liberalisation and from each of the three years with 9-plus per cent expansion. Recalibrating data of past years using 2011-12 as the base year instead of 2004-05, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) estimated that India's GDP grew by 8.5 per cent in the financial year 2010-11 (April 2010 to March 2011) and not at 10.3 per cent as previously estimated. Similarly, 9.3 per cent growth rate each in 2005-06 and 2006-07 was lowered to 7.9 per cent and 8.1 per cent respectively, while 7.7 per cent rate was now estimated for 2007-08 instead of 9.8 per cent. The revised growth numbers have been released ahead of the 2019 general elections. The Delhi High Court Wednesday upheld the conviction of 70 out of the 89 people who were awarded five-year jail term by a trial court for rioting, burning houses and violation of curfew during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Of the remaining 19 people, 16 died during the pendency of their appeals against the trial court's August 27, 1996 decision. The appeals of the three others were dismissed after they absconded, the high court noted in its judgement. Justice R K Gauba, while dismissing the 22-year-old appeals, asked the convicts to surrender forthwith to serve their remaining prison terms for rioting, looting and burning houses in various residential blocks in Trilok Puri between October 31 and November 3 in 1984 after the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh bodyguards. Around 3,000 people died during the anti-Sikh riots. The court noted that the 1984 anti-Sikh riots were a "dark chapter" in the history of independent India as the "law and order machinery had broken down". It said: "The police forces, and the civil administration, did not take timely or effective action to prevent the riotous conditions from spiralling out of hand. The criminal law process began, but hesitatingly and belatedly. "The fact that these cases have continued to linger in the courts at the stage of trial or appeals or revisions till date itself is an indicator of the reality that the response of the law has been tardy, ineffective and highly unsatisfactory." The high court said that in view of the extensive damage that was caused by the appellants to a large number of houses or other properties of Sikh community by fire, the case merited punishment more severe than the one meted out by the trial court. "Given the fact there is no appeal seeking enhancement of the punishment, the trial court having taken a lenient view, there is no occasion for this court to modify the order on sentence either way," it said. In its 79-page verdict upholding the conviction and jail term of the convicts, the high court said in the instant matter, the police did not promptly register the crimes and collect evidence and the other agencies, including the prosecution and the trial court, "failed to rise to the occasion". "...the manner in which the case was handled, or lingered, at the stage of committal proceedings before the Magistrate, was designed to ensure the case would not proceed with the promptitude it deserved," the judge said. The high court said the trial court's order committing the case "lacked clarity" as to why no case for a graver offence, like murder, was made out as a large number of persons had died in the violence committed by the rioters. In his judgement, Justice Gauba noted that of all the bodies recovered after the rioting, 22 remained unidentified and it was likely that no prosecution was initiated against anyone in respect of these deaths. "In the foregoing facts and circumstances, this court directs the Commissioner of Police, Delhi to have the material, and the evidence, in above nature, re-examined by an appropriate agency for such further action under the criminal law as may be requisite," the high court said. It also said that the evidence of the prosecution witnesses, "leaves no room for doubt that riots had broken out in various blocks of Trilok Puri, particularly affecting, very badly, Block no.32 right from the afternoon of October 31, 1984", when Indira Gandhi was assassinated. "The large scale rioting, mob violence, arson, plunder, genocide and looting has been duly proved and established... On the foregoing facts, and in the circumstances, the judgment of the trial court returning finding of guilty convicting the appellants must be upheld. Ordered accordingly," the high court said. It dismissed the appeals of the convicts and cancelled their bail bonds. The court said that after each communal riot, there are allegations of political influences being the root cause and therefore, there might be a need to "inject" a "sense of neutrality" in the investigative and prosecution process, particularly when such incidents are invariably perceived to be engineered by those holding control over certain power centres. "Towards this end, the possibility of entrusting such tasks to authorities other than normal agencies of the State needs to be explored," the high court suggested and expressed hope that the legislature will consider enactment of a special law to deal with such crimes effectively at an early date. The high court also suggested reforms, like amending the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952 and the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 to entrust such bodies with the responsibility of taking note of cognisable offences committed in communal riots, investigate through special investigating teams (SITs) under their control and oversee prosecution through Special Public Prosecutor(s) engaged by them. "The law on the subject of communal riots cannot be a complete answer to the challenge unless it also establishes special courts with suitable amendments to the general criminal law procedure as indeed the rules of evidence," the high court suggested. It also said that since media -- both print and electronic -- were the fourth pillar of democracy, press reports supported by photographic material and video footage may be utilised as evidence in trials of criminal cases arising out of communal riots. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Around 200 agitating nurses were arrested from two state-run medical college and hospitals of Assam on Wednesday, the third day of their strike, only to be released later, officials said. The nurses under the banner of All Assam Nurses' Association (AANA) were on strike in two hospitals since Monday to press for their demands including alleged pay anomalies. The authorities imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 CrPC in the premises of the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) and the Jorhat Medical College and Hospital (JMCH) on Wednesday morning, official sources said. When the agitating AANA members in their nurses' uniform assembled in front of the two hospitals and started raising slogans, around 100 nurses from each of the hospitals were arrested, the sources said. The nurses of the GMCH were taken away in buses to a temporary jail set up in the 4th Assam Police Battalion Headquarters at Kahilipara area of Guwahati and were released later, police said. The AANA members claimed that Health Minister Pijush Hazarika had called them for a meeting on Tuesday but after their representatives reached his office, the meeting was cancelled all of a sudden. The minister could not be reached for his comment. The AANA members were demanding, among others, 'same post same salary', restoration of the abolished designation of 'staff nurse' instead of 'nurse', solution of "pay anomalies". They asserted that they had placed their demands before the government several times but received no positive response. On their strike affecting functioning in the hospitals, they said, "The government will be responsible for any eventuality as it has driven us to this point by not heeding to our repeated demands". The authorities of the GMCH and the JMCH said functioning of the hospitals were affected as other nurses were engaged. Nurses and faculty from the Regional Nursing Colleges attached to the GMCH and the JMCH, nursing supervisors and nurses undergoing training in the hospitals, paramedical interns were pressed into service, they said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 26-year-old woman was shot dead allegedly by three robbers when she was returning home with her husband, even as her father accused his son-in-law of killing his daughter, police said Wednesday. The deceased was identified as Kavita, a resident of Vair Buland Shahar village here, said Senior Superintendent of Police Upendra Agarwal. According to a statement given by Kavita's husband Rinkoo, three masked robbers looted Rs 40,000 from them at gunpoint when they were returning home from a party. When Kavita resisted the loot bid, the robbers fired two gunshots at her and fled from the spot, Rinkoo said in his statement to police. However, Rinkoo's father-in-law rejected his claim and lodged a complaint against him, alleging that he killed Kavita and was making up a story. Based on the complaint, an FIR was registered against Rinkoo on Tuesday evening, the SSP said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Altogether 65.5 per cent voters exercised their franchise in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections Wednesday, just over seven per cent less than the figure in the previous polls. In the 2013 Assembly election, 72.69 per cent turnout was recorded, an election official said. The polling Wednesday was marred by complaints of faulty Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVVPAT) machines. Poll officials said 1,145 EVMs and 1,545 VVPATs were replaced after complaints of technical snags. Polling was held between 8 am and 5 pm in 227 seats, while in three assembly segments - Lanji, Paraswada and Baihar - in the Naxal-affected Balaghat district, the voting time was between 7 am to 3 pm, state Chief Electoral Officer V L Kantha Rao said. About 2.5 per cent (polling) machines were replaced, Rao said, adding this percentage was around two per cent in other states where elections were held recently. Three employees died due to "health reasons" while performing poll duty in Dhar, Indore and Guna districts, he said. At Gadhpura village in Bhind district, a person was injured in violence but it was not poll-related, he said. The incident happened "far from the booth" and was related to enmity between two groups, he added. Asked about reports that some EVMs were found in a hotel, Rao said, "We have got the information that a sector officer in Shujalpur was staying in a hotel along with ballot machines. On getting information, the officers reached the hotel and seized the machine. The officer concerned was removed (from poll duty) and the polling team was sent along with a new sector officer." Congress leaders claimed that EVMs at many places had malfunctioned. "There were several complaints that EVMs at many places malfunctioned. We asked requested the Election Commission that voting time in these polling booths should be extended to compensate for the delay," Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia said in the afternoon, while polling was on. The Guna MP said the Election Commission should compensate for time wasted in replacing the EVMs by extending polling time in those booths. "Several reports are coming from across the state that EVMs are not working. This has been affecting the polling. Long queues are being witnessed in the city. EC should immediately take decision. The EVMs should be changed," state Congress chief Kamal Nath tweeted when voting was in progress. Responding to the demand, CEC O P Rawat had said in Delhi that there are provisions for the extension of time and local officers (in Madhya Pradesh) can take the call on the matter. Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, BJP candidate from Budhni seat, and his wife Sadhana Singh cast their votes at his native village Jait, which is part of his Assembly constituency. Kamal Nath cast his vote in Chhindwara district while Scindia, the party's state campaign committee chief, exercised his franchise in Gwalior. The battle of ballots in Madhya Pradesh is just months ahead of the Lok Sabha polls slated in the first half of 2019. Altogether 2,899 candidates were in the fray. The state has 5.04 crore eligible voters. Also, 3,00,782 government employees, including 45,904 women, were on poll duty and 65,341 polling stations were set up. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Altogether 74.61 per cent voters exercised their franchise in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections Wednesday, a rise of around two per cent compared to the previous polls. The figure may go up, state Chief Electoral Officer V L Kantha Rao said. In the 2013 Assembly polls, it was 72.69 per cent, he added. Polling was marred by complaints of faulty Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVVPAT) machines. Rao said 1,145 EVMs and 1,545 VVPATs were replaced after complaints of technical snags. Polling was held between 8 am and 5 pm in 227 seats, while in three assembly segments - Lanji, Paraswada and Baihar - in the Naxal-affected Balaghat district, the voting time was between 7 am to 3 pm, About 2.5 per cent (polling) machines were replaced, Rao said, adding this percentage was around two per cent in other states where elections were held recently. In Naxal-affected Baihar district, the percentage was 75.05, in Lanjhi 79.07 per cent and in Paraswada it was 80.05 per cent, he said. Those who were in queue at the polling booths till 5 pm were allowed to vote, he said, adding such polling was underway at 2,200 polling stations. "There was no demand for re-polling. Poll officials received 386 complaints and all of them were resolved," he said. Three employees died due to "health reasons" while performing poll duty in Dhar, Indore and Guna districts, he said. At Gadhpura village in Bhind district, a person was injured in violence but it was not poll-related, he said. The incident happened "far from the booth" and was related to enmity between two groups, he added. On reports that some EVMs were found in a hotel, Rao said, "We got information that a sector officer in Shujalpur was staying in a hotel along with ballot machines. On getting information, a team of officers reached the hotel and seized the machine. The officer concerned was removed (from poll duty) and the polling team was sent along with a new sector officer." Leaders of Congress, which is in a straight fight with BJP to win the crucial election in the central Indian state, claimed that EVMs at many places malfunctioned. "There were several complaints that EVMs at many places malfunctioned. We had requested the Election Commission that voting time in these polling booths should be extended to compensate for the delay," Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia said. The Commission should compensate for time wasted in replacing EVMs by extending polling time, the Guna MP said. State Congress president Kamal Nath said there were reports from across the state that EVMs did not work at many places. "This affected polling. Long queues were witnessed in the city," he said. Chief Election Commissioner O P Rawat said in Delhi that there are provisions for the extension of time and local officers (in Madhya Pradesh) were empowered to take a call on the issue. Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, BJP candidate from Budhni seat, and his wife Sadhana Singh cast their votes at his native village Jait, a part of his Assembly constituency. Kamal Nath cast his vote in Chhindwara district while Scindia, the party's state campaign committee chief, exercised his franchise in Gwalior. There were 2,899 candidates in the fray. The state has 5.04 crore eligible voters. Altgether 3,00,782 government employees were on poll duty and 65,341 polling stations were set up for polling, which was peaceful, the official said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 78-year-old drifter in prison in Texas has confessed to 90 murders and is being investigated as possibly the most prolific serial killer in US history. Samuel Little preyed mainly on drug addicts and prostitutes during a decades-long murder spree that stretched from coast to coast, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said in a report. Little, a 6ft 3in (1.9m) former boxer also known as Samuel McDowell, was arrested at a homeless shelter in Kentucky in 2012 and extradited to California to face drug charges. Once there, DNA evidence linked him to three cold cases and Little was convicted in 2014 of murdering three women in Los Angeles between 1987 and 1989. All three had been beaten and strangled. Sentenced to life in prison, Little was transferred to Texas in connection with the investigation into another murder. Bobby Bland, district attorney of Ector County where Little is being held, said he eventually confessed to the 1994 murder of Denise Christie Brothers in Odessa, Texas. And after a Texas Ranger named James Holland gained his trust, Little began confessing to dozens of other murders committed between 1970 and 2005, Bland said. FBI crime analyst Christina Palazzolo said during the course of an interview in May 2018, Little "went through city and state and gave Ranger Holland the number of people he killed in each place. "Jackson, Mississippi - one; Cincinnati, Ohio - one; Phoenix, Arizona - three; Las Vegas, Nevada-one..." Palazzolo said. A total of 90 murders in all, of which law enforcement has so far verified 34 killings. "Little will be confirmed as one of, if not the most, prolific serial killers in US history," Bland said in a statement. The deadliest known US serial killer is believed to be Gary Ridgway, the so-called "Green River Killer" convicted of 49 murders who is serving a life sentence in Washington state. The FBI said it was working with the Department of Justice, Texas Rangers and dozens of state and local agencies to match Little's confessions to unsolved murders across the country. According to the FBI, Little "remembers his victims and the killings in great detail" but is "less reliable, however, when it comes to remembering dates." Because his victims were mostly drug addicts and prostitutes, in some cases the women were never identified and their deaths were not investigated. "Little's method of killing also didn't always leave obvious signs that the death was a homicide," the FBI said. "The one-time competitive boxer usually stunned or knocked out his victims with powerful punches and then strangled them," it said. "With no stab marks or bullet wounds, many of these deaths were not classified as homicides but attributed to drug overdoses, accidents, or natural causes." Little grew up in Ohio, dropped out of high school and lived a "nomadic life," shoplifting or stealing to buy alcohol and drugs, the FBI said. His criminal record dates back to 1956 with arrests for shoplifting, fraud, drugs and breaking and entering. He was accused of murdering women in Mississippi and Florida in the early 1980s but was not convicted. The FBI said Little is in poor health and is likely to spend the remainder of his days in prison in Texas. The FBI did not say what ailments he suffers from but The New York Times said he is wheelchair-bound and has heart disease and diabetes. Sergeant Michael Mongeluzzo, a Florida detective, told the Times that he had asked Little during an interrogation how he managed to avoid arrest for all these years. "I can go into my world and do what I want to do," Mongeluzzo recalled Little as saying. "I won't go into your world. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) No gas load shedding during Dec-Feb: ECC The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet on Tuesday decided that there would be no gas load shedding in the country during the Dec-Feb period. The committee, chaired by Finance Minister Asad Umar, allowed injection of around 160 mmcfd per day re-gasified LNG volumes in the SNGPL systems for consumption by the domestic and commercial users. The available indigenous gas meets merely 60% of the needs. Against the demand for over 6 billion cubic feet of gas per day (bcfd), the available indigenous gas stands at only 2.22 bcfd, the Petroleum Division informed the ECC. Meanwhile, the ECC also allowed the Power Division to avail Islamic funding to pay off circular debt for which a committee had already been formed. The committee will decide on the procedure for the Islamic funding. The AAP hit out at Lt Governor Anil Baijal and Delhi's food and supplies commissioner on Wednesday, alleging a scam in the public distribution system in the national capital. However, the Delhi BJP termed AAP's allegations as "political gimmick" aimed at misleading people. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal suspended the food commissioner after Civil Supplies Minister Imran Hussain found irregularities during a raid at a fair price shop (FPS) in Nangloi area on Tuesday night. Hussain claimed that 152 quintal of wheat and 38 quintal of rice were found missing during the raid, suspecting a "big scam" in it. "The chief minister has ordered suspension of the food commissioner and it has been forwarded to the Lt governor. If implementation of suspension order is delayed there would be questions over the role of L-G and the food commissioner in the ration scam," said senior AAP leader Dilip Pandey. He demanded a probe alleging that a ration scam was going on right under the nose of the Lt governor and the food commissioner. Denying the allegations levied by the AAP, Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said, "Last night's raid at a fair price shop in Nangloi was a political gimmick of the AAP government to mislead the people of Delhi." A ration scam in Delhi was unearthed in a CAG report last year but the Kejriwal government did not initiate any action, Kapoor claimed. "Had the Kejriwal government been sincere in exposing the ration scam, it would have acted on the CAG report and not played a gimmick after being in power for almost four years," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Anti-Corruption Bureau registered a case against several officials of the Education department Wednesday in Jammu and Kashmir's Kishtwar district for misappropriation of funds worth lakhs of rupees, a spokesperson of the ACB said. The FIR was registered against the then officials of education zone on the basis of a verification conducted into the allegations of misappropriation of government funds to the tune of Rs 10.50 lakhs pertaining to cooking cost and honorarium to cooks, he said. He said the verification conducted revealed that during the financial year 2011-12 then ZEO Marwah Nazir Ahmed Farash, under a well-knit conspiracy hatched with his sub-ordinate then incharge accounts assistant Fiaz Ahmed, issued various cheques amounting to Rs 4.21 lakhs in his name from the official account of Farash out of the funds meant for mid-day meal scheme with the intention to misappropriate the same. The verification revealed that the said amount stands withdrawn by Farash, but the same has not been disbursed to the concerned, he said, adding that by acting in this manner Farash, under a well-designed conspiracy with Ahmed by abuse of his official position as public servant, issued cheques in the name of Ahmed in violation to mid-day meal guidelines and thus misappropriated the government money, the spokesperson said. On the basis of the above-mentioned act of omissions and commissions on the part of Farash and Ahmed constitute offences punishable under various sections of the J-K Prevention of Corruption Act and the Ranbir Penal Code. However, no cognisance is taken against Ahmed, who has already died, he said, adding that investigation into the case has been taken-up. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Agriculture Ministry has withdrawn from the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance its report that suggested the government's shock decision to demonetise old Rs 500/1,000 notes in November 2016 affected farmers' community, according to some committee members. A panel chaired by senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily had met Tuesday where RBI governor Urjit Patel had made a presentation on the state of the economy. Some members on the panel belonging to opposition parties said that the ministry had on November 20 presented a report before the panel saying farmers had to face difficulties in purchase of seeds and fertilisers due to demonetisation. But the ministry has apparently withdrawn its November 20 report and has now presented a new one before the panel, the opposition members said. The new report has stated that there was no impact of demonetisation on farmers, they added. On November 23, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh had denied claims that demonetisation prevented farmers from purchasing seeds. "There was no ban on purchase of seeds with the (scrapped) Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes. In the year before demonetisation, 308 lakh tonnes of seed was bought by farmers, while it reached 348 lakh tonnes during the year in which demonetisation was implemented," Singh had said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ahead of Rajinikanth-starrer '2.0' release on Thursday, the Madras High Court has directed 37 internet service providers (ISPs) to block over 12,000 websites that exhibit pirated versions of Tamil movies. The list includes more than 2,000 websites operated by 'TamilRockers.' Justice M Sundar passed the order Wednesday while allowing a plea moved by Lyca Productions Private Limited, the movie's producer. When the plea came up, Lyca's counsel Vijayan Subramanian produced an extensive list of 12,564 illegal websites. The counsel contended that when 'TamilRockers' website is blocked, it immediately creates mirror websites by changing an insignificant part of the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or any other extension, and are therefore able to reinstate the infringing material with minimal effort. Subramanian produced a probable list of extension of 'TamilRockers' and sought an injunction against all such websites. According to Lyca, its latest venture is '2.0', starring Rajinikanth, Akshay Kumar, Amy Jackson and others. The movie has been directed by S Shankar. The producer has invested substantial sums of money in the production of the film and it is scheduled to be released in more than 7,000 screens in India and worldwide. including Chennai, on November 29. The movie is releasing in more than five languages, including Mandarin in China. The trailer for the promotion of the film has been released. The official trailer, published on 'YouTube', has already garnered 13,089,498 views, the counsel said. While the company has acquired all exploitation and distribution rights including theatrical and music, besides other rights, including TV, internet, digital and home video exclusively, under the Copyright Act, it apprehended that such illegal websites might exhibit pirated versions of the film soon after its release. According to the counsel, the web pages and websites which provide such links are multifarious and are disbursed all over the globe. Such websites are allowed to be viewed in India through various internet service providers such as the 37 listed in the plea, the company contended. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The government Wednesday lowered the country's economic growth rate during the previous Congress-led UPA regime, shaving off over 1 percentage point from the only year when India posted double-digit GDP growth post liberalisation and from each of the three years with 9-plus per cent expansion. Recalibrating data of past years using 2011-12 as the base year instead of 2004-05, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) estimated that India's GDP grew by 8.5 per cent in the financial year 2010-11 (April 2010 to March 2011) and not at 10.3 per cent as previously estimated. Similarly, 9.3 per cent growth rate each in 2005-06 and 2006-07 was lowered to 7.9 per cent and 8.1 per cent respectively, while 7.7 per cent rate was now estimated for 2007-08 instead of 9.8 per cent. The revised growth numbers have been released ahead of the 2019 general elections. At a joint press conference along with Chief Statistician Pravin Srivastava, Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar said variation in two sets of numbers was due to the recalibration of data in certain sectors of the economy, including mining, quarrying and telecom. "A complex exercise has been carried out by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation to update the National Accounts Series. The new series has made significant methodological improvements," Kumar said. He added that the New Series, with its supporting back series, is "internationally comparable and is in sync with UN Standard National Account." When asked if it is a coincidence that GDP numbers have been revised downwards only for the UPA period, Kumar replied in the negative. "No it was not a coincidence. It was a matter of hard work done by the CSO officials who had taken the pain to do all the recalibration of economy that they have done," he said, adding, the methodology adopted has been vetted by leading statisticians. Kumar further said the government has no intention to "mislead or try and do something purposefully" which does not reflect the reality. The GDP growth rate for 2008-09 -- the year that witnessed the global financial crisis -- was lowered to 3.1 per cent from 3.9 per cent in the previous estimate. For the following fiscal, the same was revised to 7.9 per cent from 8.5 per cent and for 2011-12, the growth was lowered to 5.2 per cent from 6.6 per cent. In January 2015, the government moved to a new base year of 2011-12 from the earlier 2004-05 for national accounts. The base year of national accounts had been revised earlier in January 2010. The so-called back-series data released Wednesday is in contrast to an August 2018 report by the Committee on Real Sector Statistics appointed by the National Statistical Commission (NSC), the autonomous body that helps in collection of data by India's statistical agencies. In the report, which the government had subsequently stated was a draft seeking comments from stakeholders, the economy grew at a faster pace under the UPA government from 2004-05 to 2013-14, compared with the average growth during the first four years of the current government. It had put the GDP growth at 10.08 per cent in 2006-07 under the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the highest since the liberalisation of the economy in 1991. The highest ever growth rate since Independence was stated to be at 10.2 per cent in 1988-89 when Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister. The committee's report has not been accepted and Kumar said the methodology adopted by them was flawed. Giving reasons for divergence in the data sets, Srivastava said in the new series the share of primary sector in total Gross Value Added (GVA) is higher than that in the earlier 2004-05 series primarily due to changes in the data sources. In the mining and quarrying sector, regular annual returns of public sector have been used instead of the Indian Bureau of Mines data in the 2004-05 base. As per the CSO, the share of secondary sector in total GVA has increased in the back-series compared to the 2004-05 series. The increase is largely due to use of Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) data and public sector data in organised electricity and manufacturing sectors, which was earlier sourced from annual reports of private electricity companies and annual survey of industries, respectively. The share of the tertiary sector, which mainly includes services, in overall GVA has reduced in the back-series compared to the 2004-05 series. Giving an example, Kumar said in the communication sector, in the old series, benchmark estimates were moved with telecom subscriber growth, where the growth was over 20 per cent. In the new series, minutes of usage has been adopted, which better reflects the behaviour of this sector, said the Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman. The GDP figures for fiscals 2012-13 onwards on old series are not available for comparison, Kumar said, adding that the methodology used for computing the national accounts is in line with global standards. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An outfit claiming to represent people displaced from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir has urged the Election Commission to allow the community to elect their representatives to eight of the 24 Assembly seats designated for the area falling under PoK which are kept vacant. Rajiv Chuni, chairman of SOS International, has submitted a representation to the Chief Election Commissioner in New Delhi with regard to "defreezing" the eight seats in the assembly, a spokesman of the outfit said. He said the representation has also been forwarded to the Centre, state government and Chief Electoral Officer of Jammu and Kashmir. The displaced persons from PoK who have a population of 13 lakh are given shelter at various places in the country. However, they are facing apathy of government because they don't have political reservation," Chuni said, demanding that they should be allowed to vote to elect MLAs of constituencies under PoK. "We have appealed to the EC to look into this and take a decision accordingly," he stated. By not holding elections for a particular constituency and keeping it vacant, we are not only depriving the people of their rights but also failing to discharge lawful duties as envisaged under 'TheRepresentative of People Act' and other analogous applicablelaws, he added. Of the 111 seats in the J-K Assembly , 24 seats are designated for the territorial constituencies of the state that are in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). These seats remain officially vacant as per section 48 of the state constitution. These seats are not taken into account for reckoning the total membership of the Assembly, especially for deciding quorum and voting majorities for legislation and government formation, according to the assembly website. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Air passengers' grouping APAI has approached the Civil Aviation Ministry against Air India's decision to shift to a single global distribution services platform from December 4. In a release Wednesday, the Air Passengers Association of India (APAI) said Air India's "unwise decision" should not be implemented as it would adversely impact the national carrier and also benefit the airline's competitors. The grouping has written to Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu and Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha on the issue. Last month, UK-based firm Travelport bagged the contract for Air India's domestic ticket distribution services replacing Amadeus. The national carrier is to move to a single GDS platform from December 4. "With Air India's move to put all its ticketing with a single technology, it is further learnt that after December 4, this will disconnect about 18 code share airlines and over 100 interline partners...," the release said. Code sharing allows an airline to book its passengers on its partner carriers and provide seamless travel to destinations where it has no presence. An interline arrangement refers to a pact to issue and accept tickets for flights that are operated by the partner airline. Air India's decision to restrict itself to a single platform from December 4 is a "highly retrograde step" and an anti-consumer move, the APAI said. "Post December 4, the PNRs already issued, fresh bookings, the onward journeys, crediting of Star Alliance Partners' miles by Air India will need to be resolved by its own call centres and customer care," APAI Founder and National President Sudhakara Reddy D said. Earlier this month, travel industry bodies TAAI and TAFI urged the Air India management not to discontinue the inventory from other existing GDS providers. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Arunachal Pradesh Governor Brig (retd) B D Mishra on Wednesday called upon the armed forces stationed in the state to motivate and train the youth to join the army. Inaugurating the 'Tawang Maitree Diwas', a festival of friendship and bonhomie between the army and people of the state, Mishra said the event has laid a strong foundation in building good relations between the armed forces and the civilian population, an official release said here. "Such joint efforts promote sense of security amongst the civil population and also reinforce the trust between the people and security forces," the Governor said. Mishra informed that till now the festival was financially supported by the family of Chief Minister Pema Khandu, but from next year onwards, it would be organised officially by the state government. National and international tourists would also be invited to participate in the event, the release added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) At least 10 people were killed and 19 wounded in a Taliban-claimed attack at a private British security firm's compound in Kabul, officials said Wednesday, without confirming the victims' nationalities. "10 dead, 19 wounded have been evacuated from site," health ministry spokesman Wahid Majroh told AFP. An interior ministry spokesman confirmed the toll but warned it could still change. The interior ministry and police both said the blast had been a car bomb targeting a compound which houses G4S, a private British security company, in east Kabul. "We can confirm that there has been an incident at one of our locations in Kabul. The situation is ongoing and we are coordinating with the Afghan authorities to bring it to a conclusion," G4S tweeted from its official account. Afghan authorities also said they were conducting a clearing operation at the site. But the Taliban, who claimed the attack in a tweet, said the assault was ongoing. Interior Ministry deputy spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said at least seven wounded people had been evacuated from the area, but did not confirm their nationalities. A health ministry official put the wounded toll slightly higher, at 11. Earlier, sources had said the blast was followed by gunfire. Rahimi said no gunfire had been heard for some time, however. According to its website, G4S provides security for the UK Foreign Office in Kabul. The attack came just hours after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani announced the formation of a team for prospective peace talks with the Taliban, as the United Nations renewed calls for direct negotiations between Kabul and the militants. The Afghan government, Western diplomats and UN officials have in recent weeks raised hopes of finally reaching a deal to end the 17-year war. At an international conference on Afghanistan in Geneva, Ghani said the 12-person negotiating team includes both men and women and will be led by his chief of staff Abdul Salam Rahimi. Rahimi, a former humanitarian worker and ex-deputy Afghan finance minister, is considered one of Ghani's closest aides. Wednesday's assault on G4S is the second high-profile attack claimed by the Taliban on foreigners in as many days. On Tuesday, three US soldiers were killed in a blast near Ghazni city in central Afghanistan that was also claimed by the militant group. The attacks follow a wave of bloody violence across the war-torn country in recent weeks that has killed hundreds of people as militants step up their attacks. Earlier Wednesday, NATO said it was investigating an airstrike in southeastern Afghanistan that might have killed civilians, with unverified reports of women and children among the dead. On November 20, at least 55 people were killed when a bomber blew himself up in the middle of a banquet hall in one of the deadliest attacks in Afghanistan this year. The violence comes as the Taliban intensify pressure on Afghan security forces, even as the international community ramps up efforts towards talks. US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has expressed hopes that a peace deal to end the war could be struck before the Afghan presidential election, scheduled for April. His comments underscore an apparent increasing sense of urgency in the White House and among American diplomats for a peace deal to be done quickly. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Shehbaz Sharif to be kept in open and clean space: Medical report Doctors on Tuesday recommended that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif, who is currently in the National Accountability Bureaus (NAB) custody, be kept in an open and clean space as his chest and kidneys had been affected. According to his medical report dated November 25, Few sub-centimeter mediastinal lymph nodes are seen. One of the more prominent right lower paratracheal lymph node measures 8.00mm in short axis. Both the kidneys show lobulated contours. There is a tiny hypodense area at lower pole of left kidney with internal fat attenuation suggesting of bening etiology likely angiomyolipoma, it added. In the light of the report, doctors recommended that Shehbaz be kept in an open and clean space. A few days earlier, a blood test report of the PML-N president had indicated that signs of cancer were returning. Following the report, doctors at Poly Clinic conducted further blood tests of the leader of the opposition in NA and even conducted his CT scan. Further, doctors had recommended that a larger medical board comprising cancer experts be formed to examine Shehbaz. Authorities have expressed displeasure over the delay in the constructions approved by the government in various departments in Jammu and Kashmir. Principal Secretary Animal, Sheep Husbandry, Fisheries and Transport Department Asgar Hassan Samoon took a comprehensive review of the departmental activities during a meeting here at Civil Secretariat, an official spokesman said Wednesday. Samoon took stock of ongoing and pending works of repair and construction related to these departments, he said, adding that Director Sheep Husbandry informed the chair that construction of sheep shed at Loorkot and Thathri with an estimated cost of Rs 66 lakhs each is still pending. He said over Rs 22 lakh was released but the executing agency was yet to start the work. The senior officer from Animal Husbandry informed the chair that Rs 41.30 lakh has been released to complete the Veterinary Hospital at Katra. While taking the review, Samoon expressed displeasure over the incomplete projects and decided to impose 2 per cent penalty on the executing agency from the date they were supposed to complete the project. Ha said that strict action will be taken and 2 per cent penalty levied on the executing agencies if they failed to complete the project in the stipulated time. He emphasized upon the officers and field functionaries to work with dedication and honesty to improve the productivity of livestock in the state so that better results of the various schemes can be achieved. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) West Bengal Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Wednesday said the government will put in place pollution monitoring stations at 78 places across the state. Adhikari said in the assembly that the state will be divided into four zones in terms of pollution monitoring -- Haldia, Siliguri, Asansol and Kolkata. "We are taking stern action to control pollution in the city... There will be pollution monitoring stations at 78 places. In 105 places, there will be a system to monitor pollution in rivers," he said. The minister admitted that the amount of pollution in Kolkata and New Delhi on Diwali were at par. Adhikari, who is also the state transport minister, said a new rule would be introduced in districts, too, to stop 15-year-old buses from plying on roads. In Kolkata, 15-year-old commercial vehicles are banned but the rule was not applicable for buses and trucks registered in districts. The state government will procure 80 electric buses over a period of time, Adhikari said, adding, within January 2019, 40 electric buses would start operations. Electric vehicle charging stations will be installed in 25 bus depots in and around the metropolis, he said. Adhikary also placed a bill to repeal the Bengal Smoke Nuisances Act 1905, stating it was no more relevant. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A court here Wednesday convicted 20 persons in connection with a three-month-old incident wherein a woman was beaten up and paraded naked by a mob which accused her of having murdered a man. Additional District and Sessions Judge Ramesh Chandra Dwivedi convicted all the 20 persons named as accused in the case relating to the incident that took place in Bihiya locality of Bhojpur district on August 20. Among the accused, five have been held guilty of parading the woman after tearing off her clothes, while the remaining have been convicted for rioting. The court has fixed November 30 as the date for announcing the quantum of sentence. The incident had followed the recovery of 19-year-old Vimalesh Sah, near railway tracks in Bihiya, a day after he had gone missing from his native village of Damodarpur. A mob had gathered at the spot and suspecting the residents of nearby red-light area of involvement in the murder, went on the rampage, setting fire to shops and hurling stones at trains passing through the area besides assaulting the woman. Police had to fire several rounds in the air to disperse the mob and bring the situation under control. Later, with the help of CCTV footage, 20 persons were arrested by the police. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Bihar Legislative Assembly on Wednesday passed the Industrial Disputes (Bihar Amendment) Bill, 2018 with voice vote amid pandemonium by the opposition demanding discussion on the "misuse" of the CBI by the NDA government at the centre. Except for the approval given to the Bill, no other business could be taken up in the House due to the ruckus created by the opposition. The House proceedings lasted for only three minutes during pre-lunch session while the post-lunch session could barely run for 12 minutes on the third day of the brief winter session. As the House assembled for the day at 11 am, the opposition members from RJD, Congress and CPI(ML) rushed into the well of the House raising slogans against the Nitish Kumar government and demanded suspension of the question hour to discuss the issue of "misuse" of the CBI by the NDA government at the centre. The RJD has been alleging "misuse" of the CBI by the Central government against its president Lalu Prasad in the multi-crore fodder scam cases. Prasad is languishing in Ranchi jail following conviction in some cases of the fodder scam relating to fradulent withdrawal of government money from treasuries in early 90s when RJD was in the power in the combined Bihar. Unable to run the House, the Speaker Vijay Kumar Chaudhary adjourned the house till 2 pm. The opposition members continued to agitate over the same issue in the post-lunch session too. Even as the din prevailed, Labour Resources Minister Vijay Kumar Sinha introduced the Industrial Disputes (Bihar Amendment) Bill, 2018 for its passage after the debate on it. The debate could not take place due to noisy scenes in the House and hence the minister sought Speaker's permission to lay his written reply on the topic and requested him to make the text the part of House proceedings. In his reply, which was tabled in the House, Sinha said that people engaged in sales promotion work, hitherto, did not come under the purview of the definition of 'workman' and hence they were not eligible to get protection enshrined under the provisions of Industrial Disputes Act 1947. But, with the passage of the Bill, they will now be considered as 'workman' which would enable them to avail the benefits of protection which is available under the Act, Sinha said. Many states have already amended the Act to the extent to give protection to people engaged in sales promotion work under the Act, he said adding that now Bihar has also taken decision to extend protection benefit to its sales promotion people. After passage of the Bill, the House was adjourned for Thursday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The opposition BJP lacks knowledge of Mizo culture and there is a clash of tradition with the local people in its first serious attempt to enter the state Assembly, former Mizoram chief secretary and Mizo Peace Accord signatory Lalkhama said Wednesday. After casting his vote at Zarkawt-II polling station here, the former bureaucrat expressed fears on the possibility of horse-trading post results as "too many" Independent candidates are contesting this time. The Mizo Peace Accord was signed on June 30, 1986 by Mizo National Front chief Laldenga, the then Union home secretary RD Pradhan and Lalkhama, who was the Mizoram chief secretary then, after 20 years of violence and disturbance in the state. "BJP lacks knowledge about the Mizo culture. When they talk about Indian nationhood, they talk about culture, tradition and customs. Mizo people think that they are not in that group of culture," Lalkhama told PTI in an interview here. The 87-year old, who was actively involved in the creation of the state of Mizoram, added that local people look at the BJP with apprehension due to a "clash of tradition". "People were also apprehensive of the possibility of use of money power by the BJP, but no such proof has been found yet. The BJP is contesting on a serious note for the first time. This fact makes the present election a bit different from the earlier ones," Lalkhama said. He also said the advent of the BJP into the picture and the possibility of money power coming into play have made it difficult to predict the outcome of this election. "There is an apprehension that money power will play its game after the results are out. This time too many Independent candidates are fighting the elections. It never happened earlier. If they win, that will create the possibility of horse-trading," the veteran citizen said. On February 20, 1987, Lalkhama had read out the proclamation of statehood at a public meeting organised at Aizawl's Parade Ground in the presence of the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. The ruling Congress and the MNF have fielded 40 candidates each this time, while the BJP is looking to open its account in the state for the first time by contesting in 39 seats. The ZPM and the Zoram Thar have put up 38 and 23 candidates respectively, but these two parties have not registered themselves with the Election Commission, thereby making their contestants Independents. Besides, two other Independents are in the fray, which takes the total number of Independent candidates contesting this year's Mizoram Assembly elections to 63. The Congress has been in power in Mizoram since 2008 and is eyeing a third consecutive term. In the 2013 Assembly elections, the Congress had won 34 seats, while the MNF had five and the Mizoram People's Conference bagged one. The Congress and the MNF left no stones unturned to woo voters, while the BJP launched a spirited campaign in this strategically important northeastern state, sandwiched between Myanmar and Bangladesh, with party national president Amit Shah declaring that Christmas will be celebrated in Mizoram under the BJP rule this December. Mizoram is being seen by the BJP leaders as the "final frontier" in its 'Congress-free North East' campaign as the party has already secured power in Assam, Tripura, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh, besides joining the ruling coalitions in Meghalaya and Nagaland. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A massive explosion outside a British security company's compound rocked Kabul late Wednesday, officials said, with the attack claimed by the Taliban in the latest violence to target the Afghan capital. The interior ministry and police both said the blast had been a car bomb targeting a compound which houses G4S, a private British security company, in east Kabul. "We can confirm that there has been an incident at one of our locations in Kabul. The situation is ongoing and we are coordinating with the Afghan authorities to bring it to a conclusion," G4S tweeted from its official account. Afghan authorities also said they were conducting a clearing operation at the site. But the Taliban, who claimed the attack in a tweet, said the assault was ongoing. Interior Ministry deputy spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said at least seven wounded people had been evacuated from the area, but did not confirm their nationalities. A health ministry official put the wounded toll slightly higher, at 11. Earlier, sources had said the blast was followed by gunfire. Rahimi said no gunfire had been heard for some time, however. According to its website, G4S provides security for the UK Foreign Office in Kabul. The attack came just hours after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani announced the formation of a team for prospective peace talks with the Taliban, as the United Nations renewed calls for direct negotiations between Kabul and the militants. The Afghan government, Western diplomats and UN officials have in recent weeks raised hopes of finally reaching a deal to end the 17-year war. At an international conference on Afghanistan in Geneva, Ghani said the 12-person negotiating team includes both men and women and will be led by his chief of staff Abdul Salam Rahimi. Rahimi, a former humanitarian worker and ex-deputy Afghan finance minister, is considered one of Ghani's closest aides. Wednesday's assault on G4S is the second high-profile attack claimed by the Taliban on foreigners in as many days. On Tuesday, three US soldiers were killed in a blast near Ghazni city in central Afghanistan that was also claimed by the militant group. The attacks follow a wave of bloody violence across the war-torn country in recent weeks that has killed hundreds of people as militants step up their attacks. Earlier Wednesday, NATO said it was investigating an airstrike in southeastern Afghanistan that might have killed civilians, with unverified reports of women and children among the dead. On November 20, at least 55 people were killed when a bomber blew himself up in the middle of a banquet hall in one of the deadliest attacks in Afghanistan this year. The violence comes as the Taliban intensify pressure on Afghan security forces, even as the international community ramps up efforts towards talks. US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has expressed hopes that a peace deal to end the war could be struck before the Afghan presidential election, scheduled for April. His comments underscore an apparent increasing sense of urgency in the White House and among American diplomats for a peace deal to be done quickly. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Minister Nitin Gadkari Wednesday said the blue economy is a critical aspect of the India's economic development agenda and the country endorses its growth in a sustainable manner. Transport and Shipping Minister Gadkari, who is in Kenya to attend a conference on the blue economy, also said that Africa could be a good market for Indian electric vehicles and two-wheelers. "India 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)," Gadkari was quoted as said at the conference in Nairobi in a statement by the Ministry of Shipping. He said the blue economy remains a critical aspect of India's economic development agenda, and more than 95 per cent of the country's trade is being carried on by sea. The minister was speaking Wednesday at the 'Sustainable Blue Economy Conference' in Nairobi, hosted by Kenya with Canada and Japan as co-hosts. "Emphasising the importance that India lays on developing its maritime resources, Gadkari said that our National Vision in this regard is clearly articulated in the term SAGAR - Security and Growth for All in the Region - coined by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said that Prime Minister says that the 'blue chakra' of India's national flag represents the potential of the blue economy, and gave assurance that the Ministry of Shipping is committed to realising its full potential," the statement said. The minister talked about the government's ambitious Sagarmala Programme and how it is poised to revolutionise maritime logistics and port led developments in India. He said the programme has identified 600 plus projects entailing a huge investment of USD 120 billion (around Rs 8 lakh crore) by 2020. This in turn would save India 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 adding that Coastal Economic Zones (CEZs) are being developed with a proposed investment of USD 150 million per location under the programme. The minister said the programme is also focussing on the development of coastal communities and people through skill gap analysis, skill development centres to train coastal communities in the sustainable use of ocean resources, modern fishing techniques and coastal tourism. "An investment of USD 1.10 billion is planned across various coastal districts in India for this purpose. In addition to this, several green initiatives are also being taken in the coastal regions like 31 MW of captive solar power generation being planned at various ports, installation of oil spill response facilities and study to identify ways to re-use waste water at ports," the statement said. Talking about the important role of the private sector for sustainable growth, the minister said that industry body FICCI took lead in 2016-2017 by establishing a task force to develop a business model on India's engagement in the blue economy sector. Gadkari also held discussions with James Wainaina Macharia, the Kenyan Cabinet Secretary (Minister) Transport, Infrastructure, Housing and Urban Development, during which he offered India's cooperation to Kenya for ship-building, vessels for coast guard, fishing trawlers. He invited the Kenyan Minister to visit India and see the expertise of Cochin Shipyard Ltd in building ships, which would be required by the newly established Coast Guard of Kenya, and also fishing trawlers for deep sea fishing. "Gadkari further highlighted the development of electric cars and vehicles in India which could have market in Kenya. He also offered to encourage Indian car manufacturers to set up assembly plants in Kenya for the African market," the statement said. The Kenyan minister offered cooperation to India for activating ship building in Kenya and suggested that the bilateral cooperation could extend beyond blue economy to other areas. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Brazil announced Wednesday it is withdrawing its offer to host the COP25 UN climate conference next year, citing financial constraints. "Considering the current financial and budgetary restrictions, which are expected to continue in the near future, and the process of transition for the recently elected administration... the Brazilian government feels obliged to rescind its offer to host COP25," said the foreign ministry in a statement. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Blaming Reliance for financial woes of the telecom sector, employee unions of on Wednesday alleged that the government was favouring the latest entrant over other firms and said they will go on an indefinite strike from December 3. The employee unions claimed that the government has not allotted spectrum for services to in order to prevent it from competing against Reliance Reliance did not comment on the allegations. "As of now, the whole telecom industry is gripped with a crisis...All these have happened due to the predatory pricing of the owned The whole game plane of is to wipe out its competitors, which includes the state owned BSNL," unions said in a joint statement. All Unions and Associations of BSNL (AUAB) alleged that with its huge financial muscle, is offering services at 'below-cost' rates. It said that private telecom like Aircel, Tata Teleservices, Anil Ambani-owned and have already closed their mobile service businesses. It alleged that Reliance Jio will steeply raise call and data tariffs once the entire competition is wiped out. "It will loot the people by steeply raising the call and data charges. It is a matter of deep concern that, Reliance Jio is being openly patronised by the Narendra Modi government," the statement said. No immediate comments were received from the Prime Minister's Office. AUAB said the public sector firm has been demanding allotment of spectrum but "the government has turned a deaf ear to this demand, with the ulterior motive of preventing the public sector company from putting up an effective competition to Reliance Jio". All officers and workers of BSNL are going on an indefinite strike from December 3, 2018, the AUAB said. "Demands of the strike include the immediate allotment of spectrum to BSNL for rolling out its 4G service, implementation of the government rule in respect of payment of pension contribution by BSNL, wage revision of the employees and pension revision of the retirees, from January 1, 2017," the statement said. It also alleged that whosoever tried to act against Reliance Jio had to pay the price, including former telecom secretary J S Deepak. "JS Deepak wrote to the Trai demanding action on Reliance Jio, for adopting predatory pricing. As a result, JS Deepak was instantaneously shunted out of the DoT... This was a clear signal given by the Narendra Modi government, as to what would happen to any one who dares to speak against Rliance Jio," the unions alleged. Deepak was named India's to the (WTO) when he was abroad to attend the Mobile World Congress 2017 in The unions said that BSNL was in a loss of more than Rs 8,800 crore in 2011-12 but due to the combined efforts taken by the employees and the management, the PSU posted an operating profit of Rs 672.57 crore in 2014-15. "BSNL's improved performance is reflected in the expansion of it's customer base also. It must be remembered that all these achievements are made by BSNL without 4G technology and with only 2G and 3G technologies, while all the private are armed with 4G technology," the statement said. Apart from the allotment of 4G spectrum, the AUAB is also demanding the implementation of the government's rule in the matter of BSNL's payment of pension contribution. "It is atrocious that, the is violating it's own rule, and is fleecing a huge amount from BSNL every year, in the name of Pension Contribution. This is seriously affecting the financial health of the Company," the unions said. : Sounding a word of caution on Electronic Voting Machines, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu Wednesday said that people should check with the VV PAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) machines after casting their votes in the December 7 assembly elections. Naidu was speaking at a public meeting at Khammam, where he shared the dais with AICC President Rahul Gandhi for the first time at an election rally here. "I request all of you... we are using EVMs. I want you to be careful with EVMs. After casting your votes, it will be displayed. Check that also. We have a right to check and know whom we voted for. I am well versed with technology. Even cell phones can be be tapped," he said and claimed that VV PAT was introduced only on his demand. Naidu reiterated that there is a 'historic necessity' for all non-BJP political parties to align and fight the NDA government, which, he alleged,was destroying institutions like the Reserve Bank of India, Income Tax Department, Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation. The Chief Minister said that he would convene a meeting of all non-NDA parties on December 10 and demanded that the TRS and MIM make their stand clear on who they support. "I am requesting you (people)... if you vote for TRS or MIM, it will benefit the BJP," he said. Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao's TRS has friendly ties with AIMIM of Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi. Attacking Rao, Naidu claimed that it was the TDP which was responsible for the political career of KCR (as Rao is popularly called). Rao was a minister in the Chandrababu Naidu government in undivided Andhra Pradesh. The chief minister maintained that he had never been an obstacle for the development of Telangana. Rao and other TRS leaders have frequently targeted Chandrababu Naidu, calling him an outsider and anti-Telangana leader who created hurdles in the way of Telangana's development during his stewardship of the undivided state. TDP is contesting 13 assembly segments in Telangana as part of the 'Peoples Front' led by Congress. Telangana has 119 Assembly seats. TDP won 15 seats in the 2014 elections, but 13 legislators deserted the outfit, with 12 joining TRS and one the Congress. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) has called on Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG) to end their strike action as it is having an unbearable effect on students. NUGS urged CETAG to return to the negotiation table and amicably reach an agreement in the best interest of all stakeholders. CETAG declared a nationwide strike on Monday 29th October 2018 after months of failed negotiations with government. Below is a statement from NUGS pleading with the lecturers to call off the strike GO BACK TO THE NEGOTIATION TABLE; NUGS PLEAD WITH CETAG The National Union of Ghana Students is saddened by the over 21 days strike action by the Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG) over their controversial market premium and 'book and research allowance' demands. The National Union of Ghana Students believes that the strike action has had negative effect on students of the over 46 Colleges of Education especially for the new entrants who just entered their colleges and have not had access to their reading materials, books and lecturers to take them through their academic studies. There is a saying that when two elephants fight it is the ground that suffers. In this case the ordinary students seem to be at receiving end of this impasse. The union applauds the leadership of the Teacher Trainees Association of Ghana and the SRC Leadership of the Presbyterian College of Education, Akropong -Akuapem, which called for negotiation among CETAG and the parties involved in their press release dubbed "The Horrible Current state of the Colleges of Education as Government remains unconcern while CETAG abandons the tutelage". The National Union of Ghana Students wishes to plead on CETAG to go back to the negotiation table and make their case as was done previously. We further plead with the government to also work to put measures in place by ensuring that CETAG returns to the classroom. The National Union of Ghana Students is interested in the concerns of Students and how early it would be addressed and we wish to call on all stakeholders like, CETAG, Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, Labour Commission, Ministry of Labour and Employment, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Education to collaborate in addressing the impasse to ensure that students have a comfortable environment to continue their academic work. Signed... Richmond Asare Tinkaro (President, NUGS) 0543253243 Kobby Otchere Marfo (Press and Information Secretary, NUGS) 0240852651 Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video China's President Xi Jinping told Spanish lawmakers on Wednesday his country would boost protection of intellectual property ahead of a G20 meeting where he faces a trade showdown with the United States. Xi is due to meet his US counterpart Donald Trump at the gathering in Argentina this week, with Washington threatening to ramp up a trade war with Beijing if it doesn't allay US concerns over intellectual property theft and China's forced technology transfers. "China will make efforts to further open its door to the outside world," Xi told the Senate as he pays a state visit to Spain. "We will make a lot of efforts to speed up market access, improve the investment environment and increase protection of intellectual property." The United States has already imposed tariffs on more than USD 250 billion in Chinese goods in an attempt to pressure the country to reverse its alleged unfair trade practices. Washington this week warned it might impose tariffs on its remaining USD 267 billion in imports from the Asian giant, including iPhones made in China. The issue will take centre stage at the G20 meeting in Argentina, which starts on Friday. Xi also warned that the world faced "unprecedented" instability and uncertainty. He said that in economic terms, this centred on "whether or not we will continue economic globalisation and free trade, or if we turn to unilateralism and protectionism." Xi has cast himself as a defender of globalisation and opponent of protectionism, but US and European governments say foreign companies still face many hurdles to do business in the Communist-ruled country. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) China and Spain on Wednesday pledged to re-balance trade ties during President Xi Jinping's state visit, as Madrid complains of a "chronic deficit" with Beijing. While Spanish exports to China increased last year by 28.3 per cent, it still has a trade deficit of 19.4 billion euros (USD 22.1 billion), a 2.3 per cent increase over the previous year, according to the Spanish foreign ministry. "Both sides agree to increase economic openness and boost commercial exchanges in such manner that these will be more balanced and extend to new sectors," the two countries said in a joint statement. Some 600 Spanish firms are present in China, mainly small companies, although multinationals such as Telefonica, Zara-owner Inditex and major banks like Santander and BBVA also operate in the country. The two countries also agreed to boost cooperation between Chinese and Spanish scientists in the field of advanced materials, as Beijing shifts its economy towards competitive, high-end industries. Examples of such materials include scratch-resistant glass for smartphone screens or composites used in planes that make them lighter and more fuel efficient. They also agreed to further open up the lucrative Chinese market to Spanish grapes and its treasured "jamon" cured ham, which is very popular in the Asian country. Prior to Xi's visit, Spain had said it would not sign on to China's ambitious "One Belt, One Road" initiative that seeks to better link Asia and Europe through a network of ports, railways, roads and industrial parks. 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. Spain has justified its refusal to sign on by saying it prefers to work with the European Union which in September presented its own plans to develop a parallel network of infrastructure to connect it to Asia. In the joint statement, both countries highlighted the importance of China's initiative. They said they would work to "identify synergies" between the Chinese and EU plans in terms of punctual business and investment projects. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) China has allocated USD 13 billion for poverty alleviation next year as part of its efforts to eradicate poverty by 2020, the government has said. China has lifted 740 million people in rural areas out of poverty from 1978 to 2017, roughly 19 million each year, state-run National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in September. As per recently released guidelines on winning the battle against poverty, impoverished people should be guaranteed food and clothing, and children from poor families should also be guaranteed nine-year compulsory education. Basic medical needs and living conditions of the impoverished should also be guaranteed. People whose annual income is lower than 2,300 yuan (USD 337.3) are defined as living below the poverty line in China. China's central government has dispensed in advance part of its 2019 poverty alleviation fund to local governments, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said Tuesday. The poverty alleviation fund already allocated to 28 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities totalled 90.98 billion yuan (about USD 13 billion) accounting for 86 per cent recorded last year, according to the MOF. Some 12 billion yuan of the fund will be used to support areas in deep poverty, including Tibet, Xinjiang, and parts of Sichuan, Yunnan, and Gansu provinces, state-run Xinhua agency reported on Wednesday. The ministry also delegated its power to review and approve the use of poverty alleviation funds to county governments, stressing funds should not be used for any projects or tasks unrelated to poverty reduction. In 2015, the Chinese government set a goal of eradicating absolute poverty by 2020. As of October 2018, China has seen 153 counties officially removed from the country's list of impoverished areas, with documented people in absolute poverty accounting for less than three percent of the local population. NBS data shows that China's poverty relief achievements have contributed more than 70 per cent to global poverty alleviation work in the past 40 years. Over the past five years since President Xi Jinping came to power, over 68 million people were lifted out of poverty in China, a previous Xinhua report had said. The country aims to further lift 10 million people out of poverty this year and eradicate poverty by 2020, it said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BJP president Amit Shah attacked Telangana's TRS government and the Congress on Monday over "minority appeasement", claiming the Congress party's poll manifesto for the state assembly polls largely focused on the welfare of Muslims. Addressing an election rally here, Shah said the TRS dispensation's decision to raise Muslim quotas in government jobs and state-run educational institutions to 12 per cent resulted in blocking of a proposal for hiking reservations for tribals. He said the K Chandrasekhar Rao government also talked about separate IT corridors for religious minorities. Quoting a national TV channel, the BJP president said it leaked the Congress manifesto that envisaged quotas for minorities in government contracts. "And if you are not from minority community, you will not get contracts. Rs 20 lakh will be given for education of the students of minority communities. Congress will build separate hospitals for them. "Urdu teachers' quota will be decided, and if you do not know Urdu, you cannot become a teacher in Telangana," Shah said, citing the TV channel's report, and calling the Congress manifesto "unconstitutional". The Congress manifesto, which was released yesterday, however, promised free power supply for all temples, mosques, churches and other places of worship. It envisaged judicial power for wakf Board and a sub-plan for religious minorities. It also spoke about releasing funds for repair of temples, mosques, and churches by introducing a "proper system". In his speech, Shah wanted to know if the grand alliance led by the Congress, and caretaker chief minister Rao can "liberate" Telangana from AIMIM of Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, a vocal critic of the BJP. "This Rahul Baba, who is touring Telangana, can he liberate you from MIM? Can his allies TJS and CPI? Will they liberate you from the MIM? Can KCR liberate you from MIM," Shah asked the audience. He alleged the KCR government does not celebrate September 17, the day the princely state of Hyderabad merged with the Indian union in 1948, as Telangana Liberation Day "out of fear of the Owaisis". Shah promised Telangana Liberation Day will be celebrated in every village if the BJP was voted to power. The BJP chief said he would have needed a passport to visit Adilabad had legendary Gond leader Komaram Bheem not revolted against the Nizam's rule. Bheem was martyred in 1940 while fighting against the Nizam for forest rights of native people. Shah wanted to know why KCR's promises of building an airstrip in Adilabad, construction of 18 new lakes, townhall and 2 bedroom houses for poor were not fulfilled. He claimed while funds under Pradhanmantri Aawas Yojana were not properly utilised in Telangana, in BJP-ruled Maharashtra over 1 lakh houses were built under PMAY and handed over to the beneficiaries. Of the Rs 80 crore Rao had promised to spend for tribal welfare, not even eight crore was utilised, he claimed. The BJP leader said Rao chose to keep Telangana out of the Ayushman Bharat scheme as he "feared" it would further boost Prime Minister Narendra Modi's popularity. Over 3.5 lakh people benefited from the scheme in the last two months but the poor of Telangana were left out, he said. Shah accused Rao of not honouring his promise of making a dalit the chief minister of Telangana and wanted to know if he will project a dalit or tribal as chief ministerial candidate of the TRS. "I know he will not do that because he wants to elevate his son and daughter," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Central Pollution Control Board has come out with a list of nearly six lakh diesel and petrol vehicles that are over 10-years-old and will not be allowed to ply in Haryana. The lists gives details of the registration mark series, name of the authority and registration numbers of these vehicles plying in Haryana, including NCR cities of Gurgaon, Sonipat and Bahadurgarh. As many as 2,87,613 petrol vehicles that were older than 15 years have been listed while 3,07,453 diesel vehicles more than 10-years-old have also been named, the CPCB said on its website. In October, the Transport department issued a notice warning that petrol vehicles that are 15-year-old and 10-year-old diesel vehicles plying on the city roads in violation of the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal (NGT) orders will be impounded. In its 2015 order, the NGT had banned the plying of petrol vehicles older than 15 years and diesel vehicles older than 10 years in the national capital region (NCR). It also banned the parking of 15-year-old vehicles in any public area. The Supreme Court endorsed the NGT order and directed that such vehicles be impounded. Earlier, the CPCB has put a list of 3,30,947 diesel vehicles comprising buses, cars, motorcycles and even ambulances which were more than 10-years-old in Delhi that would not be allowed to ply. The pollution watchdog also named 36,73,147 petrol vehicles that were older than 15 years old. Delhi NCR has been battling alarming levels of pollution for over a month, prompting authorities to take a number of steps to combat pollution. On Wednesday, the overall air quality index of Delhi was recorded at 323, the CPCB said. The Supreme Court-appointed Pollution Control Board had time and again reiterated the need to combat pollution caused by petrol and diesel vehicles which causes 40 per cent of pollution in Delhi NCR. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Opposition CPI-M urged the Tripura director general of police Wednesday to arrange for protection of the Left candidates ahead of the December 22 election in 10 municipalities and alleged that the poll may be rigged by ruling BJP supporters. The notification for the election to the civic bodies was made by Tripura State Election Commission on November 26 and the filing of nominations for it began the same day. A four-member delegation of CPI-M, led by Deputy Leader of opposition Badal Chowdhury met Director General of Police (DGP) A K Shukla Wednesday and alleged that the situation was not conducive for smooth and peaceful elections in the state. The other members of the delegation included Jitendra Chowdhury, MP, Manik Dey and Narayan Kar, the two state committee members of CPI-M. The delegation in their memorandum also alleged that workers of the ruling BJP have already started threatening and intimidating the prospective Left candidates to force them to abstain from filing nominations. "They (BJP workers) have even set up camps near the offices of the returning officers so that no opposition party candidates can file nomination papers", the memorandum, a copy of which was made available to the press, said. The CPI-M delegation requested the DGP to take strong security measures so that the opposition party candidates could file their nominations in a free, fair and peaceful atmosphere. They also demanded protection for the Left candidates and their houses. The CPI-M leaders later told a press conference that an "unprecedented reign of terror was let loose by the BJP members and their supporters after they assumed power on March 9 last. Along with the election to the 10 municipalities, by-elections will also be held for vacant seats in five other urban local bodies including the Agartala Municipal Corporation on December 22, the notification said. Ballot papers would be used in the municipal election and the by-election instead of EVMs as the Election Commission has declined to give EVMs for the polls, election office sources said. As per the notification the last date of filing of nomination is December 4, the date for scrutiny is December 5 and for withdrawal December 7. The counting of votes would be held on December 26, it said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The iconic Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) junction in south Mumbai is all set to get a pedestrian-friendly makeover on the lines of Times Square in New York. As part of the move, which is aimed at creating a safe zone for pedestrians and reducing road accidents, walking and resting zones will be developed in the area along with clearly delineated traffic lanes. The project is part of a joint initiative of the National Association of City Transportation Officials- Global Designing Cities Initiatives (NACTO-GDCI), the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Mumbai traffic police. The move is a part of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety. According to authorities, work on redesigning the CSMT junction and data compilation for the project has already begun. Janette Sadik-Khan, who had served as the commissioner of transportation department of New York city during 2007 to 2013, was in the city on Tuesday to discuss the initiative with the officials of the city traffic police and the BMC. In a statement issued here, Sadik-Khan, Principal, Bloomberg Associates & Chair, NACTO-GDCI, said the proposed redesign for CSMT could be a moonshot for Mumbai. "We are excited to have Additional Municipal Commissioner Vijay Singhal endorsing the Global Street Design Guide, demonstrating Mumbai's commitment to safer, more sustainable streets. This guide gives cities like Mumbai a permission slip to innovate with proven, evidence-based designs for urban streets," she said. "Mumbai joins over 80 global cities and organisations that are taking back their streets with designs that put people first," she added. Talking to PTI, Abhimanyu Prakash, programme manager of the NACTO-GDCI said, "We will redesign the existing facilities at the CSMT junction, create additional safer facilities for pedestrians as they are the most vulnerable road users. Separate lanes for vehicles will also be created." He said, as part of the initiative, H P junction at Bandra has been redesigned and transformed. "It has been done by our associates and we have received a good response. It was approved by the BMC and Mumbai traffic police," he said. He said 19 traffic intersections in the city, mainly P D'Mello Road, LBS Road and Belasis Road, are slated to undergo improvements to reduce the risk of accidents. The Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety was started in 2015 after an agreement was signed between Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Michael Bloomberg. "Since the initiative has begun, road crash deaths in Mumbai have come down by 20 per cent from 611 in 2015 to 490 in 2017. This year too, there has been a decline of around 17 per cent as the compared to the previous year," the statement added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Centre Wednesday informed the Supreme Court that a cyber crime portal has been launched and over 1.06 lakhs persons have visited the website till Wednesday. Indicating the actions taken by the Ministry of Home Affairs in compliance with the apex court's directions, the Centre told the court that nodal officer and one level above officers have been nominated by all the states and the Union Territories for redressing grievances raised by the citizens. "All India awareness campaign on radio for promoting use of cyber crime reporting portal and other cyber crime against women and children will start from first week of December," the government told a bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and U U Lalit. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the bench that they had held meetings with intermediaries on November 11 and November 26 and a standard operating procedure (SoP) for handling complaint has been finalised by taking their inputs into consideration. "Draft agreement has been sent to the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) on November 19 this year to access cyber tipline reports regarding missing and exploited children. Their reply is awaited," he said. Mehta told the court that there were certain actions which were required to be taken by the intermediaries like setting up pro-active monitoring tools for auto deletion of unlawful content by deploying artificial intelligence based tools. He said intermediaries have to take actions regarding "deployment of trusted flaggers for identifying and deletion of unlawful content" and "setting up of 24X7 mechanism for dealing with requisitions of law enforcement agencies". Mehta said that beside this, intermediaries have to appoint India based contact officer and escalation officers and should have "prompt disposal of requisitions of law enforcement agencies to remove unlawful contents". The bench has posted the matter for further hearing on December 6. The apex court had earlier fixed November 15 as deadline for the Centre to finalise a SoP for a cyber portal to handle complaints regarding child pornography, child sexual abuse, rapes and obscene content on the Internet. The court was hearing a matter following a letter sent in 2015 to then Chief Justice of India H L Dattu by Hyderabad-based NGO Prajwala, along with two rape videos in a pen-drive. The court had on its own taken cognisance of the letter and asked the CBI to launch a probe to apprehend the culprits. The NGO's letter had also mooted the idea of maintaining a national sex offenders' register which should contain details of persons convicted for offences like eve-teasing, stalking, molestation and other sexual assaults. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi Commission for Women has issued notice to a Delhi government hospital over death of a minor girl allegedly due to unavailability of timely treatment, the DCW said in a statement on Wednesday. According to a media report, the three-year-old girl was diagnosed with pneumonia and was admitted to the hospital on November 19. Her condition deteriorated on November 25. Taking suo-motu cognisance of the report that the minor girl died due to unavailability of timely treatment in the hospital, the DCW has issued notice to Chacha Nehru Bal Chikitsalaya, the statement said. It cited the report according to which doctors advised to admit the girl in an intensive care unit (ICU), but there was no ICU bed available in the hospital and the minor died late night on November 25. DCW chairperson Swati Maliwal has expressed anguish over the death of the girl and sought explanation from the hospital. The DCW has asked the hospital to give reasons for not providing ICU to the the minor and not referring her to other hospital. Also, the DCW asked for details of persons responsible for the death of the girl, details of inquiry conducted in the matter and action taken against responsible persons have been sought. The DCW has also sought information about availability of ICU and steps taken by the hospital to do away with the scarcity of ICUs in the hospital. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A team of the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) will visit the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in December to look into the issue of killing of a US national by a protected and reclusive tribe in the North Sentinel Island, according to an official statement. A decision in this regard was taken at a meeting of the NCST Wednesday. At the meeting, NCST chairman Nand Kumar Sai said, "Aggressive steps to recover the body of the US national will adversely disturb the peace and tranquility in the island." The commission also reviewed the reports submitted by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Andaman and Nicobar administration on the incident, the statement said. John Allen Chau, 27, was killed by members of the Sentinelese Tribes, possibly with arrows, when he tried to enter the North Sentinel Island, on November 17. At the meeting, the NCST chairperson said that following the "unfortunate incident, the vulnerability of the Sentinelese tribes in the North Sentinel Island has increased manyfold and any aggressive steps to recover the body will adversely disturb the peace and tranquility in the island". He said that the NCST team will visit the Andaman and Nicobar Islands from December 4 to 6 for "investigation and monitoring of the matter". Sai also urged the government to take all necessary steps to maintain "inviolability of the North Sentinel Island". Fishermen told police that Chau had visited the Andaman and Nicobar Islands five times earlier. He had expressed a desire to meet the Sentinelese Tribe, whose name is derived from that of the island they inhabit, Sentinel, which is at a distance of 102 km from Port Blair. Chau had hired a fishing dinghy from the Chidiyatapu area and reached close to the island on November 16, from where he traveled in his own canoe. He had made a failed attempt to reach the island on November 14 as well, police said. A case of culpable homicide has been registered, and the fishermen who took to the island have been arrested. The Sentinelese tribe is known to resist all contact with outsiders, often firing arrows at anyone who comes near. Its people survived the tsunami of 2004 without any help from the outside world. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The ranking member of Defence and Interior Committee of Parliament and National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Builsa North, James Agalga, yesterday caused controversy in parliament when in contributing to the debate on the 2019 budget, said, government should scrap the Ministry of National Security. He also said government must, as matter of urgency, reverse its policy of increasing the service years for men or other ranks of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAR) after the new Legislative Instrument (L.I.) which seeks to increase the service years from 25 years to 30 years, matured on Monday, November 26. He argued that governments intention to increase the service years for other ranks of the GAR will bring down morale in the military and weaken its ability to defend the territorial lands of the country. He posited that aged men of the GAR cannot fight and their health problems will be an added responsibility for the nation to bear adding that it is better to let these men go home after 25 years or even less with enhanced retirement packages as well as improved conditions of service. He said in the United Kingdom and the United States of America, where Ghana is learning a lot of things from, service years are pegged at 18 and 22 years respectively to ensure that the military is always made up of able-bodied young men and women who can effectively defend their countries. On the scrapping of the Ministry of National Security, the ranking member said the 2019 Budget did not mention anything about the Ministry not even the policy direction of the ministry. He indicated that unlike 2017 and 2018 when the budgets made space for some policy statements, the 2019 budget is completely silent and therefore there could be no justification to maintain the ministry let alone approve any budgetary allocation for the running of the ministry. He pointed out that parliament is there to scruntise and approve budget allocations with justifications but the Ministry of National Security has not given any justification for its existence. The Minister of Defence, Dominic Nitiwul in responding to the issue of increasing the service years from 25 years to 30 years said the LI was presented to the Committee of Defence and Interior, of which Hon Agalga is the ranking member, for scrutiny and approval but as a ranking member, he refused to object to the policy and helped passed it. According to the Minister, he is wondering why the ranking member is raising the issue in his contribution to the budget debate now that the LI has matured and taken effect. He said the policy is to enable men in uniform to serve the nation for a longer period and get a befitting retirement packages as well. The Deputy Minister of Defence, Major Derek Oduro (rtd) who also responded to the scrapping of the Ministry of National Security said issues of national security cannot be discussed openly that is why the ministry is given the opportunity to defend its budgetary allocation at the committee level. 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 Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad Wednesday said that the government cannot hold a debate in Parliament on demonetisation just to satisfy ego of Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Prasad hailed the central government for measures like demonetisation and GST and said 1.5 lakh people deposited Rs 5 lakh crore after demonetisation. "Debate on demonetisation cannot be organised for ego satisfaction of Rahul Gandhi. It would be better if the discussion is based on information. They made it an issue in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh elections and had to face defeat," he told reporters at a press conference here. Prasad said the number of tax payers doubled in the last four years. Only 3.82 crore people used to file tax in 2013-14 compared to 6.86 crore in 2017-18. Tax collection, which was Rs 6.38 lakh crore in 2013-14, shot up to Rs 10.20 lakh crore in 2017-18. Nearly 1.10 crore traders, including 49 lakh new traders started filing tax after the Goods and Services Tax (GST) was implemented, he said. The Union Law and Justice minister cornered the Congress over a range of issues, including its stand on triple talaq and "caste-based politics". He said the Congress's desperation was quite evident as the parliamentary elections are approaching and this is why the party was asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi's caste. "Does the Congress no more trust the issue of development?" Prasad said. The Congress's dual face was exposed when its leader Kamalnath said that it will be a big loss for the party if Muslims did not vote for the party and on the other hand the party remains silent when religion-based reservation is proposed in Telangana, he said, referring to Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao's proposal for 12 per cent reservation to Muslims in public educational institutes and government jobs in the state. The Congress, which talks about justice for women, should make its stand clear on triple talaq issue, he said, alleging the party was stalling the bill in Rajya Sabha. Responding to a question on bringing an ordinance on a Ram temple in Ayodhya, he said that the government wants its solution under the constitutional ambit and is in favour that the matter be heard soon. Prasad hailed Vasundhara Raje-led BJP government in Rajasthan, saying pulling the state out of BIMARU category was the biggest achievement of the ruling dispensation. BIMARU is an acronym for states with poor socio-economic parameter. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BJP legislators will meet President Ram Nath Kovind and seek his intervention to restore the "democratic" functioning of the Delhi Legislative Assembly, Leader of Opposition in the House Vijender Gupta said Wednesday. The rules and regulations pertaining to the conduct of the assembly were violated in the special session of the House held from November 26-27, Gupta alleged at a press conference here. The two-day session called by the AAP government had discussed the chilli powder attack on Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and the alleged deletion of voters names from electoral rolls. "BJP MLAs would seek the president's intervention in restoring the democratic functioning of the Delhi Legislative Assembly by drawing his attention on wearing of caps with party logo by AAP legislators, including Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Home Minister Satynder Jain, in the House," Gupta said. Wearing caps with party logo is violation of House rules, he said. The BJP MLAs will also lodge a complaint with the president on how their voice was "suppressed" in the House, said the leader of opposition. "BJP MLAs were not allowed to raise issues... On the ground that prior permission of the speaker was not taken," Gupta said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee Wednesday offered its assistance to build a world-class rest house at Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan. The DSGMC's offer comes on a day when the ground breaking ceremony was held for the Kartarpur corridor linking two revered gurdwaras on both sides of the India-Pakistan border. In a letter to Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan, DSGMC president Manjeet Singh offered assistance of the committee "to build and manage" a world class rest house of 100 rooms for devotees. Singh termed the corridor as a message of universal brotherhood and appealed to Khan for its expeditious completion. The corridor will link Darbar Sahib in Pakistan - the final resting place of Sikh faith's founder Guru Nanak - with Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India's Gurdaspur. It will facilitate visa-free movement of Indian Sikh pilgrims, who will have to just obtain a permit to visit Kartarpur. Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan is located across the river Ravi, about four kilometres from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Centre's special representative for Kashmir Dineshwar Sharma Wednesday met Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik at Raj Bhavan here. They discussed about the political and developmental aspirations of the people anda range of issues relating to the internal security situation and initiatives required for protecting and promoting the educational and career interests of youth, an official spokesman said. He said Malik discussed with Sharma the recent initiatives taken by his administration for ensuring equitable development of the state and bringing accountability and transparency in the administrative set up. Sharma congratulated the governor for incident free conduct of polls to the Urban Local Bodies and ongoing elections to the Panchayats, the spokesman said. He said they discussed the crucial importance of establishing grass root level democratic institutions for the balanced development of an area. Meanwhile, Sharma also called on senior BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Kavinder Gupta at his Gandhi Nagar residence here and discussed the present political scenario in the state with him, a party spokesman said. Gupta, during his half-an-hour meeting with Sharma, lauded the policy of union government and saidthe state has suffered a lot in the matters related to development during the turmoil. "Peace is imperative to take the state into an era of progress and prosperity," he said, addingthere has been decline in terrorist related activities as the army and security forces are carrying out effective operations to identify and kill the trained militants. Gupta told Sharma that the firm stand of the union government has achieved tremendous success in checking the incidents of stone pelting and neutralizing the repeated bandh calls, the BJP spokesman said. The former deputy chief minister said the faith of the people in democracy has further strengthened as large number of voters across the state came out to vote during the recently held ULB polls and ongoing panchayat elections despite threats and boycott calls. He also discussed the issue of 5300 refugee families from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir who settled outside the state and are deprived of the benefits which are conferred on those who are living in the state, the spokesman said. The issue of West Pakistan refugees, safety of the Hindu temples and shrines in Kashmir, speedy work of ongoing road projects and construction of bunkers in border villages also came up for discussion during the meeting, the spokesman said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court restrained the Tamil Nadu government Wednesday from transferring the district collector of the Nilgiris, where several resorts operating without approval in the elephant corridor area have been sealed without the apex court's prior permission. The apex court said this after it was informed that there was a possibility that the district collector would be transferred for allegedly complying with the court's order to seal or close down such resorts. A bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur, S Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta was also told that electric fencing and barbed wires have been removed from the elephant corridor of the Nilgiris in pursuance of the top court's direction. Advocate A D N Rao, assisting the court as an amicus curiae in the matter, said that the district collector has sealed several resorts as per the directions given by the court. "The collector is likely to be transferred due to the stringent action taken by her in pursuance to the court's order," he said. "The amicus says he has been informed about the possibility that collector of the Nilgiris will be transferred. Since we require her assistance in the matter....she (collector) shall not be transferred without the leave of this court," the bench said and posted the matter for hearing in second week of January. The top court had in August asked the Tamil Nadu government to seal or close down 27 resorts operating without approval in the elephant corridor of the Nilgiris area. The court had passed the order after perusing the report placed before it by the district collector of the Nilgiris which had said that resorts with restaurant were operating in the area even though they do not have approval for the same. The apex court had said that elephants were our "national heritage" and expressed displeasure as to how constructions had come up in elephant corridor of the Nilgiris. It had stressed on the need to have elephant corridors across the country to reduce animal fatalities due to man-animal conflicts and accidents and asked the Centre to come up with some "workable solution" in this regard. The Centre had earlier told the court that there were 27 "critical" elephant corridors in 22 states across the country. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The DMK Wednesday called for a meeting of its alliance and friendly parties here Thursday to deliberate the Central Water Commission (CWC) allowing Karnataka to prepare a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for a balancing reservoir at Mekedatu across the Cauvery river. A day after DMK president M K Stalin slammed the Centre for the nod, the main opposition party said the meeting would be held at its party headquarters Thursday where it is expected to chalk out a political strategy on the issue. The CWC has recently given its go-ahead to Karnataka for preparing a DPR for a proposed balancing reservoir-cum-drinking water project at Mekedatu. Stalin had hit out at the AIADMK government as well for what he called the incumbent regime's "negligent" attitude that resulted in the Centre's permission to Karnataka. The leader of opposition in the Assembly had wanted the Tamil Nadu government to approach the Supreme Court to obtain stay for the Centre's permission and Karnataka's efforts for a dam. On Tuesday, Chief Minister K Palaniswami had urged the Centre to withdraw its permission to Karnataka for preparing a DPR for the project. Reacting to the Tamil Nadu government's demand, Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy had asserted that the project has to come into effect. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bengaluru-based vehicle sharing marketplace Drivezy Wednesday said it has raised USD20 million in the latest round of equity financing, led by existing investor Das Capital. The other investors who participated in the Series B funding round include Yamaha Motor, Axan Partners and IT-Farm, it said in a statement. The company, that was founded in 2015, will use the capital to expand its marketplace into new markets and integrate advanced services, it added. Additionally, it has also secured an asset financing deal for USD 100 million, that will be deployed over three years through a special purpose vehicle, Harbourfront Capital, which will focus on investment in global shared assets, the statement said. ********************** NCR Corporation to manage over 3,600 ATMs of PNB * NCR Corporation, a banking and commerce solutions provider, Wednesday said it has signed an agreement with Punjab National Bank to manage its ATMs. Under the three-year agreement, NCR will provide services support to PNB's global network of over 3,600 ATMs. PNB is the sixth largest bank in terms of ATMs deployed in the country, with 100 million customers, including approximately 40 million debit card holders. It maintains more than 6,692 branches and has a presence in nine countries. ******************* Air France, KLM offer discounted fares for North America * European carriers Air France and KLM have announced special online discounted fares, starting at Rs 52,000 for travel to over 20 destinations across North America under a limited period period offer. The customers, availing the tickets under the offer, which is into effect from November 26, can book their flights until November 30 for travel until June 14, 2019, a release said Wednesday. The tickets are available for purchase through Air France and KLM websites, it said, adding the North American destinations under the offer include Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Montreal, New York, San Francisco, Toronto, Vancouver and Washington, among others. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) and senior advocate H S Phoolka Wednesday welcomed the upholding of the conviction by the Delhi High Court of around 80 people in connection with the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, saying it was a "landmark judgement" as it has been a long fight. DSGMC president Manjit Singh G K said, "It has been a long struggle. And, the committee appreciates the verdict by the high court". "However, these are just cases of rioting and arsenal, and we feel, the cases of murder should also be investigated," he said. The Delhi High Court Wednesday upheld the conviction of around 80 people and awarded them five year jail term for rioting, burning houses and violation of curfew during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Justice R K Gauba dismissed their 22-year-old appeals against conviction by a trial court and asked all the convicts to surrender forthwith to undergo the prison term. According to the FIR lodged in connection with the Trilokpuri incident, 95 people had died in the rioting and 100 houses were burnt, said senior advocate H S Phoolka, who has been representing the riot victims in various matters. Phoolka termed the verdict a "landmark judgement" and said it will lend comfort to the community that has felt the pain for over 30 years. The convicts had challenged the August 27, 1996 judgement of a Sessions Court which had convicted 88 out of the 107 people arrested on November 2, 1984 for rioting, burning houses and curfew violation in Trilokpuri area of East Delhi. After the assassination of former prime minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984, the next couple of days witnessed widespread rioting and killings of Sikhs in the national capital. Of the 88 convicts who moved the high court, several have died during the pendency of their appeals and the case against them has abated, police had earlier said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 92-year-old man was found dead at his residence in southeast Delhi's Badarpur on Wednesday, police said, suspecting role of a domestic help behind the incident. The nonagenarian used to live with his wife, son, daughter-in-law, grandchildren, police said. Police said they suspect the domestic help to be behind the killing as he is absconding. A manhunt has been launched to trace the domestic help, police said, adding further investigation is underway. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actor Eva Green has opened up about working with Italian director Bernardo Bertulocci, who died on Monday after a brief battle with cancer. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Green, who was 22 when she starred in Bertulocci's "The Dreamers", said she was "desperate to do the part in his movie" and she had one of her "best experiences" while working on the project. "We used to go to his house every weekend, and Bernardo would tell us stories about the movies he's made, about music and art in the 1960s. He was so kind and generous and sort of a father figure," she said. "I always called him the Little Buddah. There was something very wise about him, with his very naughty, mischievous but kind eyes. I learned so much from him. He was very open to the unexpected, to the spontaneous," she added. The 38-year-old actor said her parents were "worried" about her when she signed the film, particularly because of the controversy around the filmmaker's 1972 feature "Last Tango in Paris". "They thought I would be damaged because there were stories about what happened to Maria Schneider on The Last Tango. But I met Bernardo for a few screen tests and I liked his vibe," Green said. Schneider, who died in 2011, alleged that she was never consulted regarding a rape scene, which she shot with Marlon Brando. The filmmaker had attracted controversy years later after admitting that the graphic nature of the scene in the erotic drama was improvised on set. Green said she does not want to undermine "Schneider's experience" but to her, Bertulocci came across as a "gentleman". "... As for my own experience, he was always a gentleman. Very respectful. He knew how nervous I was about the sex scenes but he never pushed me. He just let us do things. There was never anything odd. There are so many worse directors he was just a wonderful person and maestro," she 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 Sounding a word of caution on EVMs, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N on Wednesday said they can be 'manipulated' and asked people to check with the VV PAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) machines after voting in the December 7 assembly elections. Naidu was speaking at a public meeting at Khammam, where he shared the dais with AICC President Rahul Gandhi for the first time after forging a four party alliance, at an election rally here. "I request all of you... we are using EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines). I want you to be careful with EVMs. After casting your votes, it will be displayed. Check that also. We have a right to check and know whom we voted for. I am well versed with technology. Even cell phones can be tapped," he said and claimed that was introduced only on his demand. Later, speaking at a roadshow in Hyderabad, he asked voters to be careful with EVMs "because there is a chance to manipulate them." "Everybody should be cautious. You can check whom you voted for through VV PAT. If it not clear, then you can lodge a complaint (with the Election Commission)," he said. Naidu reiterated that there is a 'historic necessity' for all non-BJP political parties to align and fight the NDA government, which, he alleged,was destroying institutions like the Reserve Bank of India, Income Tax Department, Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation. The Chief Minister said that he would convene a meeting of all non-NDA parties on December 10 and demanded that the TRS and MIM make their stand clear on who they support. "I am requesting you (people)... if you vote for TRS or MIM, it will benefit the BJP," he said. Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao's TRS has friendly ties with AIMIM of Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi. Attacking Rao, Naidu claimed that it was the TDP which was responsible for the political career of KCR (as Rao is popularly called). Rao was a minister in the government in undivided Andhra Pradesh. The chief minister maintained that he had never been an obstacle for the development of Telangana. Rao and other TRS leaders have frequently targeted Chandrababu Naidu, calling him an outsider and anti-Telangana leader who created hurdles in the way of Telangana's development during his stewardship of the undivided state. TDP is contesting 13 assembly segments in Telangana as part of the 'Peoples Front' led by Congress. Telangana has 119 Assembly seats. TDP won 15 seats in the 2014 elections, but 13 legislators deserted the outfit, with 12 joining TRS and one the Congress. A former director general of the Punjab Police filed an application in a local court Wednesday, saying he must be heard in the Ludhiana city centre scam case which involves Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, his son and son-in-law, among others. In the plea, former DGP Sumedh Singh Saini has requested the court to make him a party in the case as he was the chief director of the vigilance bureau when an FIR was registered in this connection. Thecourt will hear the case on December 7. Earlier, District and Session Judge Gurbir Singh had dismissed pleas of MLA Simarjit Bains and former SSP of the vigilance bureau K S Sandhu to make them party in the case. They had opposed the closure report filed by the vigilance bureau that gave a clean chit to Amarinder, his son and other accused in the case. The Rs 1,100 crore scam case, alleging that a private builder was favoured during Amarinder's term as the chief minister in 2003, was filed in 2007 when the SAD-BJP coalition was in power. Overruling its 100-page charge sheet filed initially, the state vigilance bureau in August last year had filed a closure report in the case, saying a reinvestigation of the matter found nothing to substantiate the charges against Amarinder, his son Raninder Singh, son-in-law Raminder Singh and 33 others. The case had been filed under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act. Though the charge sheet was filed earlier, the charges were yet to be framed against the accused. Touted as one of the biggest projects in the state, the Ludhiana city centre plan was rolled out in 2006. To be spread over 25 acres of land, the project proposed to have shopping malls, 12 multiplexes, residential apartments, helipad and parking slots. The project site on Pakhowal Road of Ludhiana, however, is currently in ruins. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A huge explosion outside a chemical plant in China's northern Hebei province on Wednesday killed at least 22 people and left as many others injured, the second major industrial accident in the country in the last four days. The blast occurred outside the Hebei Shenghua Chemical Industry in Zhangjiakou, Qiaodong district around 12:40 am, igniting a fire that engulfed nearby vehicles, the officials were quoted as saying by thepaper.cn, a Shanghai-based website. An industrial safety official, identified only as Wu, said that one of the trucks lined up outside the plant to deliver chemicals had exploded, setting off a chain reaction that engulfed other trucks. Chinese news reports, and images from the scene, indicated that a fiery explosion near the plant had set around 50 vehicles ablaze, including dozens of trucks, and sent a dark plume of smoke into the night sky. The fire has now been contained, and a search operation is underway, authorities said. The injured have been taken to a nearby hospital. Employees at the Shenghua plant said operation has been suspended out of safety concern. Shenghua is affiliated with China Haohua Chemical Group, a subsidiary of State-owned ChemChina, which is ranked 167th among Global Fortune 500 enterprises. Fu Jianhua, the vice-minister of emergency management, has led a team to the site to guide relief work, the report said. Zhangjiakou, a city about 156 km northwest of Beijing, is set to host the 2022 Winter Olympics alongside the capital. Industrial safety is a major concern in China, where requirements for the storage and transport of chemicals and other dangerous products are often weakly enforced. This is the second major industrial explosion in China in the last four days. Two people were killed and 57 injured in a warehouse explosion in northeast China's Jilin Province on November 24. A total of 370 houses have been damaged, with 15 having collapsed. A massive explosion in 2015 traced to improperly stored chemicals killed at least 173 people in Tianjin, about an hour east of Beijing. Thousands of farmers on Wednesday began a foot march programme organised by the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) from Singur in Hoogly district towards Kolkata, protesting the alleged agrarian crisis in the state. Around 10,000 farmers and agricultural workers of AIKS, the CPI(M) farmers' wing, kick-started the 'Singur to Raj Bhavan Abhijan', to highlight the "series of crisis" engulfing the sector in West Bengal. State secretary of Kisan Sabha and senior CPI(M) leader Amal Haldar alleged that the TMC government has been neglecting agrarian issues, and without addressing the root cause of the problem, it is organising festivals across the state. "Our rally will be joined by 40,000 others from various parts of the state, who will also conduct rallies and campaigns on November 28 and 29 to draw attention to the serious problems faced by farming communities here," Haldar said. The campaign is part of the all India 'Kisan Mukti March'. AIKS general secretary Hannan Mollah said the march has been organised to voice farmers' demands and proper implementation of the MNREGA scheme. Reacting to the AIKS programme, TMC secretary-general Partha Chatterjee said the allegations against the state government are completely baseless, as it has taken enough steps for the development of the farmer community of West Bengal. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former Gujarat BJP MLA Lalji Mer on Wednesday joined the opposition Congress. Mer, a Koli community leader, was inducted into Congress in the presence of the party's state unit chief Amit Chavda, state Congress in-charge Rajiv Satav and Leader of Opposition in the Gujarat Assembly Paresh Dhanani here. Mer was a Member of the Legislative Assembly from Dhandhuka in Ahmedabad district between 2012 and 2017. The BJP did not give him the ticket again in 2017 polls. Mer had left the Congress and joined the BJP ahead of the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. He fought the Lok Sabha election on BJP ticket in 2009, but lost to Congress candidate Somabhai Patel, also a Koli leader. Talking to the media Wednesday, Mer claimed that BJP and its government were anti-farmer. "This government works only for the rich. I am leaving BJP with a heavy heart. As an MLA, I made several representations to the government about the problems of farmers. But I only received assurances," he claimed. On Tuesday, four-time MLA and former Gujarat minister Sundersinh Chauhan had joined the Congress, alleging that the BJP leadership was ignoring him. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Facing flak from various quarters on the Sabarimala issue, the CPI(M)-led LDF government in Kerala on Wednesday came in for severe criticism from the High Court which said it was adopting "double standards" in implementing Supreme Court judgements. The court questioned how despite an apex court order the state government was unable to ensure that a group was allowed to offer prayers at a church, when authorities had "no difficulty in deploying thousands of police personnel at Sabarimala". A division bench, comprising justices P R Ramachandran Menon and Devan Ramachandran, was considering a petition by the Orthodox faction of the Malankara Syrian Church seeking police protection for offering prayers at Piravom Church. Earlier, even though the apex court had allowed the Orthodox faction to offer prayers at the church, members belonging to the rival Jacobite faction allegedly prevented them from entering it. The bench asked the the Advocate General to explain how and why the apex court orders were being implemented "selectively." The AG said about 200 people belonging to the Jacobite faction were camping in the church and preventing the implementation of the top court's verdict. "You had no difficulty in deploying thousands of police personnel at Sabarimala wherein lakhs of devotees had gathered to pray," the bench said. It also directed the AG to file an affidavit in two weeks time and reasons for non-implementation of the apex court's direction. The state government has drawn severe flak over its handling of Sabarimala issue as a section of devotees has been protesting its decision to implement the apex court order allowing entry of women of all age groups into the hill shrine. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Legislative Council Dhananjay Munde Wednesday said the state government must collect two per cent of companies' net profits for drought mitigation work. Munde also alleged Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had completely failed in dealing with drought situation in the state. During a discussion in the Upper House on the drought, the NCP leader said the government must promulgate an ordinance to recover two per cent of profits as CSR from companies registered and operating from the state. "Apart from waiving the electricity bills of drought-hit farmers, the Centre must give Rs 30,000 crore to the state for giving compensation to the affected farmers," Munde said. He added that the government has not given powers to tehsildars for supply of water tankers to drought-hit areas. Instead of waiving exam fees of students in the drought-hit regions, the government must waive their educational fees for the year, he added. Munde said this year's drought is more severe than that of 1972. "Kharif crops have been completely lost. There is a drinking water crisis. As there is no drinking water for the cattle now, what will happen in next eight months?" he asked. "Since the last four years, farmers have been facing problems in various forms like demonetisation, pink bollworm, poor Minimum Support Price (MSP) for pulses and now drought," he said. He added that 70 per cent places in the state have not received rains since July. "Hence, drought should have been declared much before," Munde said. According to him, the Centre's drought management manual 2016 was not in the interest of the state. "I had written to the chief minister suggesting that it should be rejected as was done by many other states. But the government went ahead and accepted it," he claimed. He alleged that crop insurance was a "big scam". "In 2016-17, farmers paid a premium of Rs 4,000 crore, but they got Rs 1,900 crore as crop insurance. So, the government has helped the companies to make a profit of Rs 2,000 crore in one year," Munde alleged. The government must order an audit from the third party into the irregularities and corruption in the Jalyukt Shivar works. The government will reply to the discussion over the issue on Thursday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal Wednesday brought home some soil from Pakistan's Kartarpur, where Guru Nanak Dev spent his last days. She also brought some flowers, prashad' and 'chappatis' for her husband and Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal from the gurdwara at Kartarpur, where she attended the groundbreaking ceremony for a corridor linking it with a shrine in Gurdaspur. She and her colleague Hardeep Singh Puri returned here Wednesday evening after attending the ceremony in Pakistan. The two Union ministers attended the event as representatives of the Indian government. Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu was also invited there in his personal capacity. Meeting reporters at the border crossing in Amritsar district, Badal said she performed the 'sewa' of cleaning utensils at the Kartarpur gurdwara complex. Puri said he hoped that there would be no obstacles to the building of the Kartarpur corridor on both sides of the India-Pakistan border. Badal and Puri Wednesday morning had crossed over to Pakistan through the Attari-Wagah land route. The planned corridor will link Gurdwara Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur with the Kartarpur shrine across the border, fulfilling a long-pending demand of the Sikh community. Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of Sikhism, spent the last 18 years of his life in Kartarpur. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi High Court Wednesday allowed CBI Director Alok Kumar Verma and Joint Director A K Sharma to inspect in the CVC's office the case file relating to FIR against the agency's Special Director Rakesh Asthana. Justice Najmi Waziri also extended till December 7 its order directing the CBI to maintain status quo regarding proceedings against Asthana, who has sought quashing of the FIR against him in a bribery case. The court permitted Verma to inspect the case file, stated to be in the custody of Central Vigilance Commission, on Thursday at 4:30 PM in the CVC's office where CBI's Superintendent of Police Satish Dagar will be present at the time of inspection. The case files and documents have been sent to the CVC for scrutiny following the Supreme Court's order directing the vigilance body to inquire against Verma. The high court's order came after the counsel for Verma and Sharma orally submitted that they be allowed to inspect the file to "refresh" their memories as there are allegations of mala fide against them in Asthana's petition. Sharma has been asked to go to CVC's office to inspect the case record on Friday. During the hearing, the court allowed the plea of Sharma's counsel that he be allowed to placed in a sealed cover certain incriminating material to maintain the sanctity of the institution. Advocate M A Niyazi, representing Sharma, said the documents are not personal and they are also with the CBI but he just wanted to point out the sensitive material which should be looked into by the court and the agency. The court directed that the documents given by Sharma be kept in sealed cover till further orders. Senior advocates Amrendra Sharan and Dayan Krishnan, appearing for Asthana and CBI Deputy SP Devender Kumar respectively, said Sharma should give the material to the CBI and if reliance is placed on the documents given by him in the court, they should also be allowed to go through the material. The court also granted a week's time to Verma to file his response to the petitions of Asthana and Kumar seeking quashing of FIR against them. Advocate Rahul Sharma, appearing for Verma, said there are allegations of mala fide against him in Asthana's petition and he needs to rebut the averments but did not having access to the case file. CBI's counsel Rajdipa Behura said the case file was not in the possession of the agency and they were with the CVC. Asthana's counsel submitted that the Supreme Court had given in sealed cover the CVC's findings of the probe against Verma on corruption allegations to the CBI chief. To this, Verma's counsel said he was not given the entire case file. The court was hearing separate pleas of Asthana, Kumar and middleman Manoj Prasad seeking quashing of the FIR against them. The high court on October 23 had ordered the CBI to maintain status quo on proceedings against Asthana which was further extended on October 29 till November 1. On November 1, the interim order was extended till November 14 and then to November 28. The October 23 order had made it clear that the agency would not take any coercive step against Asthana. On November 1, both CBI and Asthana had opposed the plea of Additional Superintendent of Police S S Gurm, who has been transferred from Delhi to Jabalpur in the wake of a feud between Verma and Asthana, to be heard in the matter. The CBI in its reply to the pleas of Asthana and DSP Devender Kumar had said allegations against them and others show cognisable offences. Kumar is out on bail at present. The CBI had filed the replies in response to the notice issued to it on the petitions filed by Asthana and Kumar, who was granted bail by the trial court, against the filing of the case. The agency had said it was "handicapped" in its probe against them as the case files and documents have been sent to the CVC for scrutiny following the Supreme Court's order directing the vigilance body to inquire against Verma. Kumar, earlier the investigating officer in a case involving meat exporter Moin Qureshi, was arrested on the allegations of forgery in recording the statement of businessman Sathish Babu Sana who had alleged to have paid bribe to get relief in the case. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi High Court Wednesday said it was in consultations with the Delhi government over the need for more prosecutors, staff and infrastructure, including court rooms, in subordinate judiciary. It has however expressed reservation over the government suggestion to hire prosecutors on contractual basis. A bench headed by Chief Justice Rajendra Menon said he and the registrar general of the high court recently had a meeting with Delhi Law Minister in which they have expressed their concern over these issues. The bench, also comprising Justice V K Rao, said the government has assured that the issues would be resolved and it will wait for the outcome. According to advocate AK Singh, Treasurer of Delhi Prosecutors Welfare Association, there should a minimum of 330 prosecutors in trial courts in Delhi. The current strength is around 280. The court was hearing two PILs seeking upward revision in the pay scales of prosecutors and for equipping them with facilities and infrastructure needed to do their job. Regarding the Delhi government's proposal to appoint prosecutors on contractual basis, the chief justice expressed reservations on the ground that this would lack accountability and the appointments should be made on regular basis. On revision of pay scales of prosecutors and payment of arrears, the court was informed that the Delhi government was considering the issue and it has sent the proposal to the Centre. The court asked the Delhi government to file an affidavit on the action taken on the issue of revision of pay scales of prosecutors and payment of arrears and the communication sent by it to the central government. It also directed the central government to file an affidavit on the decision taken by it on Delhi government's proposal. The court listed the matter for further hearing on February 1. The high court had earlier asked the AAP government to explore the possibility of setting up an academy for imparting training to prosecutors and take a cue from other states like Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Bihar where the governments have such centres. It had also asked the Registrar General of the Delhi High Court to see whether prosecutors could be given training at the judicial academy here. The registrar general has now filed a status report before the court on the issue. The court had earlier asked how the government lawyers or prosecutors could be expected to perform efficiently if they were not paid properly and on time. The centre had in April told the court that it has hiked the salaries of prosecutors in Delhi to bring them at par with their counterparts in other states. The court was earlier informed by senior advocate Rajeev K Virmani, who was appointed an amicus curiae, and senior advocate Dayan Krishnan and advocate Ashish Dixit, who represented the prosecutors, that assistant prosecutors were being paid in the pay scale of Rs 9,300 to Rs 34,800. For additional public prosecutors the grade pay was Rs 4,600 in pay bank II as per the 6th Pay Commission which was equivalent to what was received by a stenographer in district courts. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Bombay High Court Wednesday asked the Maharashtra government to respond to a plea, filed by the father of a 24-year-old man who was lynched by a mob in Pune in 2014, demanding compensation. Sadiq Sheikh has sought Rs 10 lakh (Rs 5 lakh each from the Union government and the state) under a scheme which offers compensation to victims of communal violence. His son Mohsin, who was working with an IT firm in Pune, was beaten to death by a mob on June 2, 2014. There was communal tension in Pune's Hadapsar area after morphed photos of late Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj were circulated on social media. Mohsin and his friend were stopped by the mob when they were returning home. While his friend escaped, Mohsin was lynched. Police later arrested several members of right-wing group Hindu Rashtra Sena for the alleged murder. Twenty-three members of the group including its head Dhananjay Desai were named in a charge sheet. The trial in the case is still on. Sheikh's petition came up for hearing before a division bench of Chief Justice N H Patil and Justice M S Karnik which asked the state government to file its reply by Thursday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The government has decided to constitute a high-level committee to chalk out plans on what to do with undocumented people after the final list of the NRC is published in Assam, officials said. The decision to set up the committee, comprising representatives from the central and Assam governments, was taken at a meeting convened by Home Minister Rajnath Singh Tuesday night and attended by Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal among others. "The high-level committee will see what to do with those people who would be left out from the final list of the National Register of Citizens (NRC)," a senior official, who attended the meeting, told PTI on Wednesday. As of now, just about six lakh people, out of the total 40 lakh, who were excluded in the draft NRC, have submitted applications for inclusion of their names in the list of Assam's citizens and have given relevant documents claiming that they are Indian citizens. The proposed committee will examine all available options which can be worked out with all undocumented people in Assam, the official said. The official, however, refused to disclose whether the government will consider granting them work permit. With just about six lakh people submitting the applications for inclusion in the final NRC, this means 34 lakh people have not yet come forward to claim that they are Indians, probably they may not have proper documents, another official said. Following a directive of the Supreme Court, the process of filing claims and objections to the draft NRC began on September 25 and it will come to an end on December 15. Tuesday night's meeting was also attended by Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba and Director of Intelligence Bureau Rajiv Jain besides others. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had claimed that the NRC exercise was carried out with a "political motive" to divide people and warned that it would lead to "bloodbath" and a "civil war" in the country. Following exclusion of over 40 lakh people in the draft NRC, Banerjee had also said those "Indian citizens have become refugees in their own land". She had alleged the NRC was an "attempt to evict the Bengalis from Assam". The Supreme Court has also finalised a set of standard operating procedure (SOP) or disposal of claims and objections in the updating of the NRC. The draft NRC was published on July 30 and included the names of 2.9 crore people out of the total applications of 3.29 crore. There has been a huge controversy over the exclusion of 40 lakh people from the draft NRC. Initially, the apex court had allowed the claimants to rely on any of the 10 documents -- land documents, permanent residential certificate issued from outside the state, passport, Life Insurance Corporation of India policy, any licence or certificate issued by any government authority, document showing service or employment under the government or public sector undertaking, bank or post office accounts, birth certificates issued by a competent authority, educational certificate issued by boards or universities and records or processes pertaining to court provided they are part of processing in a judicial or revenue court. However, on November 1, the court allowed five additional documents to rely upon for inclusion of names in the NRC. The additional papers are -- 1951 NRC, electoral roll up to March 24, 1971, citizenship certificate, refugee registration certificate and ration card. For the claims and objections process, forms are available in 2,500 Seva Kendras in Assam, where people can file their appeal in their respective areas. People can file corrections to their names that are in the draft and also raise objections against suspected foreigners. The NRC exercise, aimed at identifying illegal immigrants in the state that borders Bangladesh, was carried out only in Assam, which faced influx of people from Bangladesh since the early 20th century. When the NRC was first prepared in Assam way back in 1951, the state had 80 lakh citizens then. As per the 2011 census, Assam's total population is over 3.11 crore. The process of identification of illegal immigrants in Assam has been widely debated and become a contentious issue in the state's politics. A six-year agitation demanding identification and deportation of illegal immigrants was launched by the All Assam Students Union (AASU) in 1979. It culminated with the signing of the Assam Accord on August 15, 1985, in the presence of then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Himachal Pradesh Wednesday became the first state to launch a pan-India single emergency number '112' where all kinds of immediate help can be sought in urgent matters. Under this project, an Emergency Response Centre (ERC) has been established in Shimla along with 12 district command centres (DCCs), covering the entire state, a Home Ministry statement said. The ERC has been integrated with police (100), fire (101), health (108) and women (1090) helpline numbers to provide emergency services through the emergency number '112'. The single number for various emergency services, which is similar to the '911' all-in-one emergency service in the US, will be gradually rolled out across the country, an official said. The service also includes a '112 India' mobile app that is integrated with a panic button for smartphones and state Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) websites for ease of citizen in availing immediate assistance. To increase the effectiveness of emergency response, the ERC has also been integrated with location-based services provided by telecom service providers, the statement said. Launching the service, Home Minister Rajnath Singh applauded the initiatives of the Himachal Pradesh government for being the first state to launch the single emergency number '112' under the ERSS project. He appealed residents of the state to download '112 India' mobile app available on the app stores of Google & Apple. Citing the success of Himachal Pradesh in rolling out the ERSS project, he requested other states and union territories to make all out efforts to commence its rollout. This event marks the beginning of commencement of a single number based emergency services, which will connect to the police, fire, health and other helplines through an emergency response centre in the state.This service obviates the need for citizens to remember multiple helpline numbers, the statement said. To ensure safety of women, 'SHOUT' feature has been introduced in '112 India' mobile app to seek immediate assistance from registered volunteers in the vicinity, apart from immediate assistance from ERC. The SHOUT feature is exclusively available to women. The '112 India' mobile app will be subsequently rolled out in all states and UTsto help people across the country access the unified emergency services. The central government has allocated Rs 321.69 crore under Nirbhaya Fund for implementation of ERSS project across the country. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Several shanties were gutted in a major fire that engulfed a slum pocket in Pune's Shivaji Nagar area Wednesday but no casualty was reported in the mishap, officials said. The blaze erupted in the Patil Estate slum adjacent to the old Pune-Mumbai Highway at around 1 PM, fire brigade officials said, adding that it spread rapidly due to explosion of LPG cylinders. People rushed to safety as the fire raged, they said. Officials said the highway was closed for vehicular movement for some hours due to the fire. "The fire spread rapidly due to explosion of LPG cylinders. Over 60 shanties gutted in the fire. No casualties are reported as people rushed to a secured area," a fire brigade official said. The flames were put out completely after more than two hours with the help of 30 fire tenders, he said, adding that the cooling operation is on at the location. The exact cause of the incident is not known immediately. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a joint operation with the Uttar Pradesh Police, Delhi Police's Special Cell arrested a 50-year-old man, carrying a reward of Rs 1 lakh, after a gunfight in Muzaffarnagar, police said Wednesday. The accused has been identified as Shamim, a resident of Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh. "On Tuesday, a police team reached Muzaffarnagar. To launch a joint operation, they shared information with the Muzaffarnagar police," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Pramod Singh Kushwah. "At around 7.40 pm, Shamim was seen on a motorcycle along with a person at Vahalna Chowk. When he was signalled to stop, he tried to flee from the spot and opened fire at the police team. After a brief exchange of fire, Shamim sustained injury in his leg and was later overpowered. Another person, Parvez, managed to escape in a sugarcane field," Kushwah added. Shamim used to supply illegal arms and was carrying a reward of Rs 1 lakh, police said, adding that one country-made pistol and three bullets were seized from his possession. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) on Wednesday said that for sustainable peace, prosperity and stability in it is important that the world community continues to support the Afghan government and its defence forces to combat terror and ensure that "verifiable actions" are taken to end safe havens and sanctuaries outside the war-torn country. Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh said here that supports all efforts for a political settlement in which are inclusive, promote unity, security, democracy and build a self-reliant and prosperous country. He emphasised on the Afghan side having a greater responsibility in running and managing its own affairs. "For sustainable peace, prosperity and stability it is equally important that the community continue to support the Afghan government, the people and the National Defence Forces of to combat terror and violence imposed on them and ensure that verifiable actions are taken to end safe havens and sanctuaries outside Afghanistan," Singh said in a veiled attack on Pakistan. He was participating in the Ministerial Conference on Afghanistan in Geneva to evaluate and strategise on developmental policy achievements during the "transformation decade" (2015-24) for the war-torn country. India, he said, has been engaged in a development partnership with Afghanistan and this was based on the objectives of building capacities for governance, training human resources, creating infrastructure, enhancing connectivity, and promoting trade and investment. A robust bilateral development cooperation dialogue is in place to ensure that these are in consonance with National Peace and Development Framework and National Priority Programmes of Afghanistan, he added. Condemning the "mindless terrorist violence" against the Afghan population, Singh said the people of Afghanistan yearn for peace, security and stability. " supports all efforts for a political settlement in Afghanistan which are inclusive, promotes unity, peace, security, democracy and builds a self-reliant and prosperous Afghanistan. It is important that all such efforts for peace and reconciliation should be Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-controlled," he said. "The community needs to continue to support the Afghan people and the government in their efforts so that there can be enduring peace, stability and end of terrorist violence," he said. Singh also reaffirmed India's commitment to the rebuilding and reconstruction of Afghanistan. He also reiterated India's development assistance commitment of over USD 3 billion to Afghanistan in keeping with Kabul's priorities under its National Peace and Development Framework. On the margins of the Geneva conference, Singh separately called on Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah. He also held bilateral meetings with foreign ministers of Norway and Hungary. India also participated in the side meeting on the 'Role of Regional Partners of Afghanistan' on Tuesday. Singh, on Tuesday, had participated in the high-level closed door dinner on 'Peace in Afghanistan' jointly organised by the Afghan government and the UN. "The MoS stated that for enduring peace and stability, terrorist safe havens and sanctuaries need to be eliminated and there is an imperative need for any political settlement to be free of external influence," an MEA statement said. A restricted breakfast meeting on Peace in Afghanistan was also jointly organised by the Afghan government and the UN on Wednesday. In the breakfast meeting, Singh conveyed India's support to efforts of the Afghan government in the peace and reconciliation process and the need for firm action by the community against those who breed, support, sustain and sponsor terror and violence, the statement added. At the conclusion of the conference, the Geneva Communique entitled 'Securing Afghanistan's Future: Peace, Self-Reliance and Connectivity' along with the Geneva Mutual Accountability Framework document on deliverables was also adopted. India Wednesday discussed with African nation Gabon ways to increase economic cooperation in various sectors, including logistics, infra, energy, agriculture and tourism. The discussions were held between Gabon's Foreign Affairs Minister Regis Immongault and Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu here. It is possible for the two countries to work together in sectors like logistics, infrastructure, energy, water, agriculture, services and tourism, the ministry said in a statement quoting Prabhu. The bilateral trade between the countries stood at USD 440.47 million and is yet to realise its full potential, it said. "Both sides will have to work together to improve bilateral trade in the coming years," it added. Indian companies are already operating in wood, plywood, mining and fisheries sectors in Gabon. Gabon has shown interest in entering into a Bilateral Investment Treaty with India. The ministry also said India has suggested that Gabon may give a complete list of minerals for Indian industries to consider investing in for mining projects. Gabon has the 6th largest reserves of Manganese in the world. Manganese Ore India Ltd (MOIL) team visited Gabon in July to explore possibilities of joint collaboration with Gabonese mining companies. The African nation is making efforts to attract investment from India in construction of railway lines in key mining clusters. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India on Wednesday reaffirmed its commitment to the rebuilding and reconstruction of Afghanistan even as New Delhi reiterated its development assistance commitment of over USD 3 billion for the war-torn country. India's renewed commitment to Afghanistan was enunciated by Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh at the Ministerial Conference on Afghanistan in Geneva to evaluate and strategise on developmental policy achievements during the 'transformation decade' (2015-24) for the country, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement. Expressing India's support for an inclusive political settlement in Afghanistan, Singh also enunciated New Delhi's perspective on the development cooperation assistance to Afghanistan keeping the priorities of the people of Afghanistan at its centre. In his address at the conference, Singh asserted India's commitment to the rebuilding and reconstruction of Afghanistan and also reiterated New Delhi's development assistance commitment of over USD 3 billion to Afghanistan in consonance with Kabul's priorities under its National Peace and Development Framework. On the margins of the Geneva conference, Singh separately called on Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah. He also held bilateral meetings with foreign ministers of Norway and Hungary. India also participated in the side meeting on the 'Role of Regional Partners of Afghanistan' on Tuesday. Singh, on Tuesday, had participated in the high-level closed door dinner on 'Peace in Afghanistan' jointly organised by the Afghan government and the UN. He also expressed India's support in building a united, stable, secure, inclusive, democratic and prosperous Afghanistan and reiterated that peace and reconciliation efforts in Afghanistan have to be Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-controlled. "The MoS stated that for enduring peace and stability, terrorist safe havens and sanctuaries need to be eliminated and there is an imperative need for any political settlement to be free of external influence," the MEA statement said. A restricted breakfast meeting on Peace in Afghanistan was also jointly organised by the Afghan government of and the UN on Wednesday. In the breakfast meeting, Singh conveyed India's support to efforts of the Afghan government in the peace and reconciliation process and the need for firm action by the international community against those who breed, support, sustain and sponsor terror and violence, the statement added. At the conclusion of the Ministerial Conference, the Geneva Communique entitled 'Securing Afghanistan's Future: Peace, Self-Reliance and Connectivity' along with the Geneva Mutual Accountability Framework document on deliverables was also adopted. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India has rejected the US charge of subsidising cotton beyond the limits prescribed by the World Trade Organisation (WTO), saying its market price support is intended to help the country's poor farmers, an official said. The US has alleged that India was providing substantial market price support for cotton well in excess of India's WTO spending limits. India's policies for supporting its cotton and sugar sectors were under the spotlight in a meeting of the WTO's Committee on Agriculture on November 26-27. Australia too had raised the issue. "The support provided (by India) is intended to ensure that poor farmers do not resort to sales under distress and that procurement by government agencies only accounts for a very small part of total production (less than 2 per cent)," a Geneva-based official said. India has been using a consistent reporting approach since 1995 and it uses a robust methodology as compared to the US in its calculation of the support. India's figures on total value of production are publicly available and they do not include it in WTO notifications because it is not required and other members also do not report this figure. "The method used by India is consistent with WTO rules," the official added. The US had alleged that India was substantially under-reporting the value of its minimum price support (MPS) for cotton. They had stated that in its 2015-16 notification to the WTO, India reported Rs 1.2 billion in MPS for cotton whereas the US estimated India's support at over Rs 504 billion. These actual support levels also mean that India is well in excess of its WTO spending limits on cotton support, which is fixed at 10 per cent of the total value of overall production, the US had alleged. Similarly, India has also rejected Australia's claim that India's market price support for sugarcane is in excess of its WTO spending limits. "The entire Australian counter-notification is based on a fallacious approach...In fact, MPS for sugar does not qualify as domestic support as there is no procurement by the government," the official said. India has stated that the fair price announced is intended to prevent distressed sales of sugar by domestic farmers. India is a marginal player in the international market for sugar and accounts for less than 1 per cent of global sugar exports. The country has made no contribution to the glut that is currently depressing prices, India has claimed. Australia in a communication to the WTO has alleged that India is the world's second largest sugar producer and fourth largest exporter and the dynamics in India's sugar market have significant implications for both prices and trade in the global market. They have alleged that India has provided support for sugarcane over a six-year period vastly in excess of its WTO spending limits. According to them, the support provided by India topped Rs 747 billion in the 2016-17 market year. Other countries that raised red flags over India's support to the sugarcane sector include Guatemala, Thailand, Paraguay, Brazil and European Union. In the meeting, questions were also raised regarding India's decision to increase import on milk powder from 30 per cent to 40 per cent. India has replied that the measure was based on domestic demand and supply and the new duty was within India's bound tariff limit (the maximum permitted tariff in India's WTO schedule of commitments). The EU said this was an example of India restricting trade by raising Former president on Wednesday expressed dissatisfaction over India's economic growth and said the country should have been a five to six trillion US economy. Addressing students of Greenwood High International School on the topic 'Value of education in today's scenario,' Mukherjee said India has the potential to become a global economic power. Replying to a query on how students can contribute to India's journey to become a global economic power, Mukherjee said, "India is bound to be a global economic power. Today, as I have mentioned to you, the Indian economy is worth 2.268 trillion US I am not satisfied. As a former finance minister, I think we should have done much more progress. It should have been five to six trillion US economy..." Recalling Indias progress from the time when it was not able to even manufacture a fountain pen during the colonial era, Mukherjee said the 71 years of independence and 68 years of planning resulted in India rising to become one of the largest economies. "We are the third military power of the world," he said. Mukherjee highlighted the country's achievements in science and technology besides space research. "We are the only country till today out of 184 members of the United Nations, who succeeded in sending its orbiter to Mars in its very first attempt," Mukherjee said. To a question on how a leader should handle criticism, Mukherjee said, "Criticism is part of life, criticism is not always bad, it is not always negative." Mukherjee also emphasised on access to quality education to all. China has now agreed to import fish meal and fish oil from India as both sides have inked a protocol regarding this on Wednesday. "Signing of the protocol between the two countries paves the way for export of Indian fish oil and fish meal to China," the commerce ministry said in a statement. A protocol on hygiene and inspection requirements for the exports was signed during the visit of Chinese Vice Minister, General Administration of Customs of China Hu Wei here. The move would enable India to commence export of fish meal and fish oil to China. The neighbouring country has so far not allowed these exports by India. China imports fish oil to the tune of USD 143.29 million per year and fish meal worth USD 263.43 million. The chinese minister, who is leading a six-member delegation, met Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan and discussed various issues of market access for different products like milk and milk products, agricultural goods like soy meal, fruits and vegetables, tobacco and pharmaceuticals. India has been seeking market access for these items from China. "Both the sides agreed to resolve the market access issues expeditiously to achieve the vision of the leaders of both the countries by promoting a more balanced trade," it said. India's trade deficit with China has increased to USD 63.12 billion in 2017-18 as against USD 51.11 billion in the previous financial year. China has earlier permitted imports of rice from India. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India is playing a larger role than ever at CERN as the country can now propose experiments and also vote on its important decisions, says an eminent Indian-origin scientist at the organisation which runs the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator. Archana Sharma, a senior scientist at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), Geneva, Switzerland, who was involved in the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012, said that CERN will look for more Higgs-like particles. Talking about how India has now become an active CERN member, she said, "India has been at CERN since 1970s and Indian scientists have been participating at CERN because of a huge talent pool in the country. "We were seriously engaged with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment, with the ALICE and CMS experiments, and with the accelerator itself." "The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in Mumbai took the lead in commissioning the LHC in 2001," Sharma told PTI in an interview. ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is a heavy-ion detector on the LHC ring while as the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) is a general-purpose detector at the LHC. "After we became an associate member in 2017 officially, we have now entered into a second stage where we can propose experiments and also vote for how things happen at CERN. These are the kind of changes that have taken place," Sharma said. She said India will try to invest and harvest the technologies that it learns from CERN into the country. Sharma said that the next run of CERN, which will start in 2021, will look for more Higgs-like bosons. The Higgs boson dubbed the 'God Particle' is an elementary particle in the Standard Model of particle physics, produced by the quantum excitation of the Higgs field, one of the fields in particle physics theory. "According to the theory, it is actually possible to have many heavy bosons, and a Higgs-like boson is that was found initially. Then it was confirmed to be a Higgs boson. There could be other bosons which are heavier than this one," Sharma noted. "The question is if we can find more Higgs-like bosons that are heavier. Up till now we haven't found more and that is the question for the next run of CERN which will start in 2021," she said. Asked how India has contributed to CERN since becoming an associate member officially last year, Sharma said "India is a huge country, it has a huge potential. So already you see there is a lot of India at CERN working in the various experiments, various R and D projects and the accelerator for the future." She said that for the upgrade of the High Luminosity LHC, which will start in 2025-26, Indian scientists have been participating in the R & D. The High-Luminosity LHC project aims to crank up the performance of the LHC in order to increase the potential for discoveries after 2025. Sharma was in India for a Physics conclave organised by Shiv Nadar School, Noida and an NGO called Life Lab Foundation. She noted that if India can take leadership in the next generation of 'tabletop accelerators,' the country could become a world leader in particle acceleration. Tabletop or a laser-plasma accelerator is an emerging class of particle accelerators that use a specialised laser and a charged-particle gas called plasma to get the particles to speed up. Physicists believe they can shrink traditional, miles-long accelerators to machines that can fit on a table. "For India, we should really engage in technologies like the Plasma acceleration technologies or AWAKE technologies (an accelerator R&D project at CERN). "If we can take leadership in these new-wave of accelerators or tabletop accelerators, there is nothing that can stop India from being a world leader in particle acceleration," Sharma added. Asked about the initiatives taken by India to engage more proactively at CERN, she said, "India's Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology (RRCAT) in Indore engages extensively with CERN and they have collaboration there." Sharma said that CERN is searching for candidates for dark matter, a hypothetical form of matter thought to account for approximately 85 per cent of the matter in the universe, and about a quarter of its total energy density. "We are looking for exotic particles because a dark matter is somehow the name given to something we don't understand. So we are looking for everything else as well. "It's just that we haven't been able to reach those energies at the LHC to look for them," she said. Giving the example of the Higgs boson, she said it was not discovered in the previous generation of the accelerator simply because we didn't have sufficient energy to create the particle. "Then we came to LHC where there was sufficient energy to create the Higgs boson," Sharma said. Similarly, she said, as CERN moves towards the High Luminosity LHC there could be available energy to create other things which we do not know. "So CERN certainly is not at the point to say that dark matter doesn't exist, and if we do not find anything, for example, by 2026, it is also a result," she said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The India-Britain partnership will remain strong irrespective of the direction the ongoing Brexit negotiations take, India's new High Commissioner to the UK, Ruchi Ghanshayam, has said. In one of her first addresses on the bilateral partnership since taking charge at the Indian High Commission in London last week, Ghanshayam told a gathering organised by the Indian Professionals Forum (IPF) at Chatham House that it was important that familiarity does not lead to complacency in the relationship. "The India-UK partnership is very old, it has stood the test of time and whatever happens to this Brexit process, whichever way it turns out, I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that India and the UK will remain important partners," she said in her keynote address on the topic of 'Indo-UK Collaboration: Opportunities and Challenges'. The UK is set to exit the European Union on March 29, 2019. Lawmakers will debate Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal in Parliament on December 11. "The relationship is both special and deep. One of our greatest strengths is familiarity with one another. But the risk of familiarity is that we must guard against complacency. We must remain conscious of the need not to be complacent," the Indian envoy said. The IPF, a non-profit think tank for Indian diaspora-related policy advocacy and a members' club launched last year, followed up the keynote address with a focus on the prospects of India-UK collaboration in the health care sector. "We see considerable potential in the area of health, with some parallels being drawn between the Ayushman Bharat programme and the UK's National Health Service (NHS). We want to reflect on how India and the UK can collaborate on health care policy and provision," said IPF founder and president Mohan Kaul. A range of panellists from the sector highlighted areas such as affordability, availability and accessibility as the focal points of the collaboration. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An Indian Navy commander and a captain were among those honoured at the 'Asian of The Year' awards here on Wednesday, acknowledging their selfless service and bravery in rescue operations during the devastating floods in Kerala. Commander (Pilot) Vijay Varma and Captain (Pilot) P Rajkumar were honoured for their death-defying rescue flying during the floods earlier this year. Commander Varma, 42, who was widely praised for leading the rescue in a district of the port city of Kochi, winched up a heavily pregnant woman who gave birth just after being airlifted to safety. Captain Rajkumar, 54, winched 26 people up from a rooftop in Kochi while hovering between trees and other houses just two days after receiving a medal for saving a fisherman last year. A video of his Sea King helicopter pulling up a wheelchair-bound pregnant woman was widely shared on social media. Rajkumar ended up with 32 people on board. Together with dozens of helicopters, Indian Navy pilots undertook high-risk missions to save people from rooftops and isolated land as the southern state battled the severe flood crisis in August. "This year, the editors are pleased to honour the many men and women of courage and commitment who stepped up in the moment of greatest need," said a press release by The Straits Times daily which is associated with the awards. Many ran towards the disaster-struck areas looking to help friends and neighbours moments after the tragedy. It is these people, together with organisations that would arrive later, that the daily would like to honour, it said. Collectively, the award also goes to the late Ng Kok Choong, a Singaporean paraglider, for his rescue work in the aftermath of the recent earthquake in Central Sulawesi in Indonesia. Also honoured were individuals who rushed to the scene of disaster, including at the Tham Luang cave rescue in Thailand and Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman, National Agency for Disaster Management (BNPB), Indonesia. Others awarded included the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management (AHA Centre), and Singapore NGO Mercy Relief, who operated amid large scale flooding, earthquakes and a variety of other disasters. "They have served as a beacon of selflessness and the finest instincts of mankind - to preserve and protect the flock at the cost of their own lives, if necessary," said the release. Warren Fernandez, editor of The Straits Times, said, "The first responders were picked after the briefest of debates because theirs was a standout case of courage and selflessness. In an Asia witnessing disasters of increasing frequency and intensity, it is clear that there is nothing like 'over there' anymore - we all are equally affected". "These men, and the two organisations we picked, have taught us through personal example that at the end of the day security is indivisible," he said. Now in its seventh year, The Straits Times Asian of the Year award, announced towards the end of each year, has become an important part of the Asian calendar since 2012. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An Indian-American cardiologist has pleaded guilty to distributing highly addictive prescription drugs to patients without any medical purpose, contributing to the nation's opioid epidemic. Dr Devendra Patel, 59, owned and operated the Northeastern Nevada Cardiology and was indicted by a grand jury in December, 2017. US District Judge Larry Hicks accepted the guilty plea. The investigation revealed Patel unlawfully prescribed opioids and other prescription narcotics to patients for financial gain. As part of his plea, Patel admitted that, between September 2015 and February 2016, he prescribed Oxycodone and Hydrocodone to patients without a legitimate medical purpose and outside the usual course of professional practice. Prosecutors said these prescriptions were in direct violation of his duty as a long-term licensed medical doctor. As a result of his actions, Patel's license was suspended upon his arrest in December, 2017. Patel's prescribing practices allowed him to see a high volume of patients and easily prescribe and sell the opioids, while not addressing any legitimate medical concerns of his patients. He is scheduled to be sentenced in March, 2019 and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of one million dollars. According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), America's public health institute, approximately 115 Americans die every day of an opioid-related overdose. In 2016, there were 408 opioid-related deaths in Nevada, according to the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services. In 2016, Nevada's per capita prescription rate for opioids was 87/100 residents. Nevada ranked as the sixth highest state for the number of milligrams of opioids distributed per adult, according to a study by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). From 2010 to 2016, opioid-related hospitalisations have increased by 136 per cent in emergency room encounters and 84 per cent in in-patient admissions. During this period, 85 per cent of all opioid-related deaths in Nevada were deemed accidents, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse Study for Nevada. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Indian and Israeli communities in the US strongly condemned the impunity with which masterminds of the 2008 Mumbai terror attack continue to roam free in Pakistan as they called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice, 10 years after the assault that killed 166 people. The Consulate General of India in New York in collaboration with the Consulate General of Israel and the American India Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) held a memorial service on Monday to pay homage to the victims of the attack on India's financial hub, that included four Israelis and six Americans. The Consul General Of India Sandeep Chakravorty led the memorial service, stressing that India and Israel share a unique relationship and the two nations should join hands with the US to fight terrorism. He also mentioned Haifa Day as the Indian Army commemorates September 23 every year as 'Haifa Day' to pay respects to the three Indian cavalry regiments - Mysore, Hyderabad and Jodhpur Lancers - that helped liberate the city of Haifa, which later became a part of Israel, following a dashing cavalry action by the 15th Imperial Service Cavalry Brigade of the then British Indian Army at the Battle of Haifa in 1918. Chakravorty and Consul General of Israel Dani Dayan were united in their message that the world stands in solidarity with India and its fight against terrorism. They condemned the impunity with which the masterminds of the 26/11 attack move around in Pakistan and called for justice. Seven Lashkar-e-Taiba members, including its operations commander Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, are facing charges of planning and executing the deadly Mumbai attack. However, since 2009 the case is still dragging 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 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 it has no plans to challenge his bail. The US has also announced a USD 10 million bounty for information leading to the arrest and conviction of LeT founder Hafiz Saeed but despite periods of detention over the years, he has remained free in Pakistan. AIPAC President Jagdish Sewhani said the international community must press the Pakistani leadership to bring the perpetrators of the horrific attack to justice. "Instead of meeting its international obligations including implementing the UN Security Council resolutions in this regard, Pakistan has let the 26/11 masterminds roam freely inside the country. Not only that, these masterminds are openly issuing threats to India, the United States and Israel," he said. Sewhani added Indian-Americans and Jewish-Americans need to join hands and reach out to their US representatives and senators to designate Pakistan as a state sponsor of terrorism. He also urged the governments of India, the US and Israel to not only enhance their cooperation but also lead an international effort to achieve the common goal of a terrorism-free world. "There should be a policy of zero tolerance against terrorism. The people of India, Israel and the US are the worst victims of terrorism," he said. The homage to the victims of the Mumbai attack ended with a 'Mourner's Kaddish' - a prayer in Aramaic seeking harmony and peace - led by author Seth Seigel. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Chhagan Bhujbal Wednesday came out in support of party colleague Ajit Pawar, who is facing allegations of involvement in a multi-crore irrigation scam, and hit out at the BJP-led Maharashtra government over it. Bhujbal alleged that people in government first "fix" a politician in Opposition and later start taking action against him. "... The thing is that politicians (in government) first fix a person (in Opposition) and later through police machinery start action against him. They (government) first decide what would be the result of the action and later, the inquiry starts," Bhujbal said. State BJP president Raosaheb Danve had said recently that Ajit Pawar, the state's former deputy chief minister, can be arrested "anytime" in the alleged irrigation scam. Taking a dim view of it, Bhujbal said how could Danve make such comments when police were already investigating the alleged scam. "In my case also, some politicians made a hue and cry demanding that Bhujbal should be put behind bars and then, I was arrested," the 70-year-old NCP leader said. Bhujbal was arrested over two years back by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case, and was granted bail by the Bombay High Court in May this year on account his old age and deteriorating health. "Some ministers in the government first decide whose voice in Opposition needs to be silenced and accordingly, police are instructed to silence that person's voice," he alleged. Notably, the state Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) informed the Bombay High Court's Nagpur bench on Tuesday that its probe into the alleged irrigation scam has revealed major lapses on part of Ajit Pawar and other government officials. The scam, pegged at around Rs 70,000 crore, relates to alleged corruption and irregularities in approval and execution of various irrigation projects in Maharashtra during the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) rule. Bhujbal also supported the Maratha community's demand for reservation in government jobs and education in the state. "The 52 per cent reservation given to Other Backward Classes (OBCs), Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) should not be touched. The quota limit can be increased besides this, and the Maratha community can be given reservation," he suggested. He claimed there were instances in the past where on the decisions of courts, Parliament had adopted a new way. "In this case also (for Marathas), it can be done and the reservation limit can be increased by 10 to 20 per cent so that Marathas in Maharashtra, Patidars in Gujarat and Gurjars in Haryana can be benefited," Bhujbal said. He was speaking on the sidelines of an event to mark the 128th death anniversary of social reformer Jyotiba Phule. Former President Pratibha Patil gave this year's 'Mahatma Phule Samata Award' to NCP chief Sharad Pawar on the occasion. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Finance Minister will present the interim Budget for 2019-20 fiscal on February 1, 2019. The Finance Ministry Wednesday said "the work for preparation of interim Budget 2019-20 has already commenced and is now gaining momentum". It has already sought inputs from different central ministries for the budget speech, which would be the last budget of the current BJP-led NDA government before the 2019 general polls. Last month, the ministry began the budgetary exercise for 2019-20. During the process, meetings were held with the ministries of steel, power, and housing and urban development, among others, to finalise revised expenditure for the current fiscal and projections for the next financial year. The ministry will impose quarantine from December 3, which will bar the entry of into the North Block, the seat of the country's Finance Ministry, till the date of presentation of the interim Budget by the finance minister in Parliament on February 1, 2019, it said. ALSO READ: Finance Ministry seeks input from ministries for next Budget by Nov 30 This will be the sixth consecutive Budget to be presented by Jaitley. As per practice, a vote-on-account or approval for essential government spending for a limited period is taken in an election year and a full-fledged budget is presented by the new government. The Narendra Modi-led government scrapped the colonial-era tradition of presenting the budget at the end of February. With the preponement of budget, ministries are now allocated their budgeted funds from the start of the financial year beginning April. This gives government departments more leeway to spend as well as allow companies time to adapt to business and taxation plans. Previously, when the budget was presented at the end of February, the three-stage Parliament approval process used to get completed sometime in mid-May, weeks ahead of the onset of monsoon rains. This meant government departments would start spending on projects only from August-end or September after the monsoon season ended. Several policemen who are accused in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh alleged fake encounter case of Gujarat claimed before a special CBI court here on Wednesday that junior personnel like them were falsely implicated in the matter due to "political rivalry". Special CBI Judge S J Sharma is currently recording the final statements of the accused in the 2005 case. Under section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), after examination of witnesses, the court records statements of all the accused in a case. Former inspector of the Rajasthan police, Abdul Rahman, in his statement told the court he was in no way related to the case and that he has been falsely implicated in it. Rahman refuted the charge levelled by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which probed the high-profile case, that he was the one who fired at Shaikh, a suspected Gujarat-based gangster with terror links. Other policemen who are accused in the case, Vijay Kumar Rathod, Yudvir Singh, Kartar Singh and Narayan Singh -- all constable to assistant sub-inspector rank personnel -- made similar submissions in the court. They told the judge they were falsely implicated in the case due to "political rivalry". Shaikh was shot dead on November 26, 2005 in a "fake" encounter while he was in the Gujarat police custody, according to the CBI. His wife Kausar Bi was later killed too allegedly in another alleged stage-managed gunfight, the central agency had claimed. Tulsi Prajapati, an aide of Shaikh who was said to be an eyewitness to the twin fake encounters, was allegedly killed by Gujarat and Rajasthan police personnel at Chapri in Gujarat's Banaskantha district in December 2006, it had said. Of the 38 people charged by the CBI for the alleged fake encounters, 16 have been discahrged including BJP chief Amit Shah, who was then the Gujart Minister of State for Home, and all senior police officials, some of them of IPS rank. As per the CBI charge-sheet, Shaikh and Kausar Bi were abducted by officers of the Gujarat ATS and the Rajasthan Police from near Hyderabad. Prajapati was shot dead at the behest of the Gujarat and Rajasthan officers, who had been allegedly involved in the killing of the husband-wife duo, the CBI had claimed. The encounter cases of Shaikh and Kausar Bi, and Prajapati were clubbed together in 2013 after the Supreme Court directed that the trial be shifted to Mumbai from Gujarat. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Russia said on Wednesday it still expects a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump to go ahead as planned. Trump, in an interview with The Washington Post on Tuesday, said he may cancel the sit-down with Putin in Argentina following Russia's seizure of three Ukrainian naval ships last weekend. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday that the meeting is on and that Russia has not received "any other information from our US counterparts." The long-simmering conflict between Russia and Ukraine burst into the open on Sunday, when Russian border guards fired on three Ukrainian vessels and seized the ships and the crew. Trump said he would be receiving a "full report" from his national security team on Russia's recent actions in eastern Ukraine and the Black Sea. He said he would decide on a course afterward. "Maybe I won't have the meeting," he said. "Maybe I won't even have the meeting." Trump added: "I don't like that aggression. I don't want that aggression at all." The comments were Trump's strongest to date in condemnation of Russia's recent actions in Ukraine, where tensions are flaring. But White House aides were still planning for the Putin meeting after Trump's comments. The meeting between Trump and Putin is set to be just one of several high-profile foreign-policy engagements for the US leader on the whirlwind two-day visit to Argentina. Trump also is set meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping over dinner this weekend, in what may be a pivotal session to determining if and how the ongoing trade dispute between their countries could be resolved. The White House on Tuesday warned Xi against trying to wait out Trump in the ongoing talks, suggesting the Chinese economy was not as resilient to a trade war as would be the US economy. The warning from Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, came ahead of the two leaders' high-stakes sit-down on Saturday evening. Over the last year, the two countries have levied a series of tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of imports from one another, with the latest round of US duties set to go into force in the new year. National Security adviser John Bolton said Trump will also be meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Argentine President Mauricio Macri, South Korea's Moon Jae-in, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders called the trip an opportunity for the president to cement relations with other world leaders and advance a global economic system based on "free, fair and reciprocal trade." The Trump-Xi meeting would be the first since the two countries began hitting each other with import taxes earlier this year. The United States targeted USD 250 billion in Chinese products, and Beijing lashed back by slapping tariffs on USD 110 billion worth of US goods. The two sides have been in negotiations for months, but Kudlow described them as being stalemated until just a few weeks ago. Kudlow said the administration has been "extremely disappointed" by China's engagement in trade talks but the meeting between Trump and Xi on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit could be a game-changer. "Perhaps we can break through in Buenos Aires or not," he said. Kudlow added that if the US doesn't get "satisfactory" responses to its trade positions more tariffs will be imposed. He said Trump is "not going away." "I hope they understand that," he said. China's foreign ministry has said a recent phone conversation between Xi and Trump about trade and other issues was "extremely positive. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Kremlin says it still expects a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump to go ahead as planned. Trump, in an interview with The Washington Post on Tuesday, said he may cancel his planned sit-down with Putin in Argentina following Russia's seizure of three Ukrainian naval ships last weekend. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday that the meeting is on and that Russia has not received "any other information from our U.S. counterparts." The long-simmering conflict between Russia and Ukraine burst into the open on Sunday when Russian border guards fired on three Ukrainian vessels and seized the ships and the crew. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Leicester will face holders Manchester City in the League Cup quarter-finals after a 6-5 penalty shoot-out win over Southampton on Tuesday. In a match rearranged following the tragic death of Leicester owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha in October, Claude Puel's side were held to a 0-0 draw by struggling Southampton at the King Power Stadium. But in the shoot-out, Manolo Gabbiadini's effort was saved by Danny Ward before Nampalys Mendy bagged the winner for Leicester. It was Leicester's first home victory since Vichai's helicopter crashed outside the club's stadium just days before they were scheduled to face the Saints in the fourth round tie. Leicester, who last won the League Cup in 2000, will host Premier League champions City on December 18 for a place in the semi-finals. Southampton are on a wretched run in the league, but Mark Hughes' side came close to winning in normal time. Nathan Redmond turned past Caglar Soyuncu and Danny Simpson on a mazy run into the penalty area and the Southampton winger's shot struck the underside of the crossbar. Leicester's best moment came when Demarai Gray ran beyond Steven Davis and Cedric Soares before flashing a shot narrowly wide from 20 yards. Southampton thought they had broken the deadlock when Redmond's cross was finished off by Davis, but the goal was ruled out by VAR after Redmond was adjudged to have handled. There was still time for another VAR review at the other end when Leicester's Jonny Evans went down under a challenge but no penalty was awarded. Ward made a fine save to divert Gabbiadini's late free-kick on to the bar as the tie went to penalties. Ward was the hero again after the first five kicks from each team were scored, then Mendy provided the knockout blow. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan-born Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Naveed Jhatt, who was wanted in connection with the assassination of journalist Shujaat Bukhari and escaped from custody in February, was gunned down in Jammu and Kashmir's Budgam district on Wednesday, police said. In a major success for the security forces, "most wanted" Jhatt, who was an associate of 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab, was killed along with an accomplice in an encounter in a village in central Kashmir's Budgam area, officials said. Three Army personnel were injured in the encounter that claimed the life of the terrorist who had slipped away from the police dragnet at least six times and was involved in multiple attacks in the Valley over the years. The LeT terrorist was a Pakistani national and due process would be followed, Director General of Police Dilbagh Singh said. "We'll be writing to the Ministry of Home Affairs to inform Pakistan to take the body," Singh told PTI. The endgame for Jhatt, alias Hanzalla, started in the early hours of Wednesday when a special operations group of the Jammu and Kashmir police cordoned off a house at Kuthpora Chattergam area of Budgam following an intelligence input about the presence of militants, officials said. A gun battle broke out when those holed up inside the house fired at security forces, they said, detailing the events leading to Jhatt's killing. The forces retaliated and the firing intensified as the terrorists moved from one house to another. The operation was interrupted when locals cried for help from one of the houses and had to be evacuated. During this process, the militants fired at the police and army teams, leading to minor injuries to the armymen who were shifted to hospital, officials said. At daybreak, two militants were killed. They were identified when security forces started clearing and sanitising the area. One of them turned out to be Jhatt, who was known as a commander of the proscribed terror outfit LeT and staged a dramatic escape from a government hospital here in February this year. "It was swift operation carried out by security forces. We finally got the prize catch Naveed Jhatt, who was a Pakistani national," Singh said. "He has managed to give us the slip in six different encounters but today our boys managed to pin him down," the DGP added. Jhatt was wanted for his complicity in a series of terror crimes, including the killing of noted journalist Shujaat Bukhari in June, attacks on security establishments and many other civilian atrocities, police said. According to disclosures he made earlier, Jhatt, alias Jhutt alias Abu Hanzalla, was born in Multan in Pakistan and was part of Kasab's group at a madrassa in the neighbouring country where he had undergone arms training. The militant had undergone intensive training and was good in handling equipment like compasses, GPS, wireless sets and mobile phones installed with Skype software, an official said. Jhatt and his associates crossed over into Kashmir Valley in October 2012, state police records. He notched a long history of terror crime after that. The 22-year-old school dropout from Pakistan was involved in multiple terror strike, including an attack on the Army in Hyderpora in Srinagar, an attack on the Silver Star hotel along the national highway outside the city and three attacks on police and CRPF camps in south Kashmir. He was involved in the killing of an ASI in Pulwama on May 2013, a series of grenade attacks on security forces and the killing of CRPF personnel at Awneera Shopian in August 2013, officials said, giving details. Besides, he was also involved in conspiring and executing several bank robberies and terror attacks in south Kashmir. These include the attack on a court complex in Pulwama on March 2014 in which two policemen were killed and the strike against a polling party in Shopian the following month in which a presiding official, Zai-ul-Haq Wani, was killed and several civilians. He was also believed to be involved in an attack on a police team in Bongam Shopian on June 2014 in which several civilians and policemen were injured. Jhatt escaped from SMHS hospital on February 6 after he was caught in Kulgam in south Kashmir in 2014. He was moved to hospital with suspected scabies after complaining of itchiness to the medical staff at the Central Jail Srinagar. Jammu and Kashmir Police wanted to shift him along with five other prisoners from Srinagar jail to other high security jails outside the Valley but was disallowed from doing so by the sessions court on December 26, 2017. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) "Most wanted" militant Naveed Jhutt, who was allegedly involved in the assassination of journalist Shujaat Bukhari, was killed in an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir's Budgam district on Wednesday, officials said. The gun battle broke out after security forces launched a cordon and search operation in Budgam in the morning following information about the presence of militants there, a police official said. The militants opened fire at the security personnel carrying out searches and the forces retaliated, he said. Internet services in Budgam have been snapped as a precautionary measure. Bukhari, a veteran journalist and editor of Rising Kashmir, was shot dead by terrorists outside his office in the heart of Srinagar in June this year. Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist Naveed Jhutt, who was wanted in connection with the assassination of journalist Shujaat Bukhari and had escaped from custody in February, was killed along with an accomplice in an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir's Budgam district on Wednesday, officials said. Three army personnel were injured in the encounter that claimed the life of "most wanted" Jhutt, they said. The LeT terrorist was a Pakistani national, Director General of Police Dilbagh Singh said. "We'll be writing to the Ministry of Home Affairs to inform Pakistan to take the body," Singh told PTI. Jhutt's endgame started in the early hours of Wednesday when a special operations group of the Jammu and Kashmir police cordoned off a house at Kuthpora locality in Chadoora in Budgam following an intelligence input about the presence of militants, officials said. A gun battle broke out when those holed up inside the house fired at security forces, they said, detailing the events leading to Jhutt's killing. The forces retaliated and the firing intensified as the terrorists moved from one house to another. The operation was interrupted when locals cried for help from one of the houses and had to be evacuated. During this process, the militants fired at the police and army teams, leading to minor injuries to the armymen who were shifted to hospital, officials said. At daybreak, two militants were killed. They were identified when security forces started clearing and sanitising the area. One of them turned out to be Jhutt, who staged a dramatic escape from a government hospital here in February this year. "It was swift operation carried out by security forces. We finally got the prize catch Naveed Jhutt, who was a Pakistani national," Singh said. "He has managed to give us the slip in six different encounters but today our boys managed to pin him down," the DGP added. Jhutt escaped from SMHS hospital on February 6 after he was caught in Kulgam in south Kashmir in 2014. He was moved to hospital with suspected scabies after complaining of itchiness to the medical staff at the Central Jail Srinagar. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The state government Wednesday withdrew the bill that seeks to amend the Maharashtra Agricultural Produce Marketing (Development and Regulation) Act from the Legislative Council. The bill was passed in the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday. In October, the BJP-led government had allowed farmers and traders to sell their yield outside the Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMC), calling it a "pro-farmer" move. After the bill was passed in the Lower House on Tuesday, the APMCs, largely controlled by the NCP, had announced a two-day state-wide shutdown. The bill which sought to deregulate APMCs sparked off protests by mathadi workers (head loaders) in the state. A source from the agriculture department said the bill sought to allow farmers to sell produce outside the APMC market yards. In the legislative council, 10 members, including Prasad Lad, Vijay Girkar (both BJP), Neelam Gorhe and Anil Parab (both Shiv Sena) moved a motion seeking to refer the bill to a select committee of the House for review. "We had already warned the government that the bill is against the mathadi workers, but they didn't listen to us and today all the wholesale yards are on strike," Dhananjay Munde, Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council, said. Through the bill, the state government is seeking to free essential items from the purview of the APMC Act which will allow those items to be sold outside the market yards as well. The bill also provides that traders who conduct their business inside the market yard will also be taxed. It also allows online trading facilities, initially in 210 such markets of the total 307. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Maharashtra government Wednesday announced in the Legislative Assembly that it was contemplating to increase to Rs 15 lakh the financial aid to the kin of those killed by tigers. Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar made the announcement while replying to a debate on the issue of killing of tigress Avni in the Lower House raised through a calling attention notice. Presently the financial compensation is Rs 10 lakh, he said. "Similarly, the compensation for killing of cattle by a tiger is being proposed to be raised from Rs 40,000 to Rs 60,000," he added. Avni, who was believed to have turned man-eater and killed 13 people in the last two years in Yavatmal district's Pandharkawda area, was shot dead in Borati forest there earlier this month. The killing of T1, as the tigress was officially known, led to outrage among animal lovers and wildlife organisations. NCP leader Jayant Patil said it is being alleged that the tigress was killed to facilitate setting up of a cement factory of Reliance company there. However, Mungantiwar rejected the charge saying, "The project was sanctioned in 2012 when Congress-NCP ruled the state and Congress-led UPA government was at the Centre. The place where Avni was killed is 60-kms away from the cement factory site." He said Avni had turned a man-eater and killed 13 people. "The issue was discussed in the Assembly on December 21 last year and the matter had reached the Supreme Court. The apex court alsodirected if Avni can't be captured, she can be killed," he said. Avni was shot dead by sharp-shooter Asgar Ali, son of famous sharp-shooter Nawab Shafat Ali. When asked about it, Mungantiwar said Asgar Ali was an authorised hunter of nine states in the country. Patil criticised the minister over his response and also sought to know how he would respond to the criticism of Union Minister Maneka Gandhi, who had slammed him after the incident. Gandhi had lashed out at the Maharashtra government, dubbing it a "ghastly murder". Referring to Avni's post-mortem report, he said it did not mention thatthe tigress was shot when she was moving away. "The post-mortem report states that the dart fired to tranquilise her did not enter her veins," he said. Mungantiwar said in two years between 2016-18, total 50 tigers, including seven cubs, had died. "As many as 33 tigers died naturally, seven were electrocuted, six died in accidents and three others due to food poisoning. One tiger was hunted down," he said. There have been no incidents of poaching of tigers since 2014, he said. In 2014-15, there were 203 tigers in the state as per the state forest department, while the National Tiger Conservation Authority said in 2014 that there were 190 tigers in the state, the minister said. Three tiger cubs, aged less than six months, were crushed under a train in the Junona forest range in Chandrapur district on November 15. Talking about the incident, Mungantiwar said since their mother was able to cross the railway tracks, she was saved. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) If the number of protesters at goes beyond 1,000, they will be asked to go to Ramlila Maidan, which can accommodate up to 50,000 persons, is among one of the guidelines of Police for people protesting there. Citing these guidelines, Police is holding talks with the All India Kisan Sangharsh Samiti Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), which will be marching towards Parliament on November 30. Police said they will stop the protesters at Ramlila Maidan since it is expected that the number of protesters will be close to 30,000. According to the order, protest at shall be organised between 10 am to 5 pm. Earlier, had become a hub to many groups protesting for various causes, the guidelines prohibit pitching tents or temporary structures at Jantar Mantar "even for a temporary period". "Multiples protests in a day may be allowed subject to availability of suitable timings and appropriate time gap but the limit of total 1,000 persons shall be adhered to," the order said. Any organiser bringing in protesters exceeding 1,000, despite submitting an undertaking, will be considered as a "deliberate attempt to violate the orders of the Supreme Court". "Such organisers and their protest will be video-graphed and their non-compliance as well as non-cooperation shall be considered not only for legal action as deemed appropriate but will also be kept on record to consider while giving permission to them for their future protests," the order added. According to the order, maximum 25 buses of the protesters will be permitted in the jurisdiction of New district and parking of these vehicles will be allowed at Jai Singh Road or any other alternative place in consultation with the Traffic Police. "No tractors, trolleys, bullock-carts, cycle-rickshaws, or hand-driven carts shall be allowed. No animals like horses, elephants, camels, cattle would be allowed in a rally or dharna," the order stated. No loudspeaker or public address system shall be used at the venue of the rally or dharna at Jantar Mantar without specific permission from the Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi), it said. In case of permission is granted by the concerned authority, loudspeakers shall be sued between 10 am to 5 pm and no vehicle mounted with public address system for addressing protesters will be permitted at the place of protest. The order bans carrying of lathis, firearms, spears, swords and other such weapons at these protest venues and also on burning effigies or documents, cooking and littering while also caution the participants from indulging in arson, or assaulting any government servant. "No participant shall make any provocative speech or use any language likely to inflame passions of the crowd or incite them or promote enmity between different groups on ground of religion, race, place or birth, residence language, etc," the order said. It has also listed out measures for concerned government agencies to undertake cleaning work and restore normalcy not later than 12 hours after the event. There is also a provision for compensation towards "damage to environment" from the organiser and in case any violation is found, legal action will be taken. On July 23, the today lifted a blanket ban on rallies, dharnas or sit-ins at the Jantar Mantar and Boat Club areas here, saying there could not be an "absolute" ban on protests in such localities. Senior Trinamool Congress leader and minister Firhad Hakim and a BJP nominee, who is a former deputy mayor, filed their nomination papers for the post of Mayor in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) on Wednesday. The two filed their nomination papers a day after Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi gave his assent to a Bill enabling a non-councillor to become the mayor of the KMC. The election would be held on December 3 through secret ballot, officials said. Thursday is the last day for filing nomination and the next day is that for withdrawal. Hakim, the Urban Development and Municipal Affairs Minister, arrived at the KMC a little after 2 pm and handed over his nomination paper to the Municipal Secretary (Returning officer) Harihar Prasad Mondal. Hakim is not a councillor of the KMC. An hour later, BJP nominee Meena Devi Purohit, now a councillor, also filed her nomination. Purohit was Deputy Mayor of the KMC during 2000-2005 when TMC's Subrata Mukherjee was Mayor in the Board of the TMC-BJP combine. In the 144-seat KMC, the TMC has 122 councillor, Left Front 14, BJP 5 and Congress 2, while one seat is vacant. The state assembly had passed the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (Second Amendment) Bill 2018 on November 22 to amend a rule enabling a non-councillor to become the Mayor. The amendment came after incumbent Sovan Chatterjee resigned as Mayor on Thursday last. According to the Bill, a non-councillor could be appointed as Mayor of the KMC, but the person has to get elected as a councillor of KMC within six months. The earlier 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.) Around 15 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the first two hours of polling in 40 Assembly constituencies of Mizoram, Chief Electoral Officer Ashish Kundra said Wednesday. The voting began at 7 am amid tight security and will continue till 4 pm, he said. A total of 7,70,395 voters, including 3,94,897 women, would decide the fate of 209 candidates, including Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla, who is contesting from two seats -- Serchhip and Champai South. While Thanhawla is seeking a third consecutive term in the state, the BJP, which failed to open its account in 2013 elections, is looking to uproot the Congress in its last bastion in the northeast. Long queues of enthusiastic voters were seen outside many polling stations early in the day. Former chief minister and opposition Mizo National Front (MNF) chief Zoramthanga was among the first ones to exercise franchise at 7 am. Zoramthanga cast his vote at Ramhlun polling booth in Aizawl North-II constituency. Bru voters from six relief camps in North Tripura district arrived at Kanhmun village, along the Mizoram-Tripura border, where 15 temporary polling stations have been erected. The voters had to walk around 500 metres from the inter-state border to reach the polling stations, where members of local civil societies welcomed them with pork curry. Forty-seven of the 1,179 polling booths have been classified as "critical" and as many as "vulnerable" by the Election Commission. Election office sources said 40 companies of Central Armed Police Forces, in addition to the state police, have been deployed to ensure free and fair polls. Each constituency has a polling booth, named after a pink flower 'Dingdi', exclusively for women voters. These booths have women polling officials and security personnel. While the ruling Congress and the main opposition MNF are contesting all 40 seats, the BJP has fielded candidates in 39 constituencies. Zoram People's Movement (ZPM), a conglomerate of two political parties -- the Zoram Nationalist Party (ZNP) and Mizoram People's Conference (MPC) -- and five other groups, are in the fray for 35 seats. The National People's Party and the Nationalist Congress Party are contesting eight seats and five seats respectively. Six independents are also in the fray. In 2013 elections, the Congress had won 34 seats, while its main opponent, the MNF, got five and the MPC bagged one seat. Borders with neighbouring countries -- Myanmar and Bangladesh -- and states -- Tripura, Assam and Manipur -- have been sealed since Sunday in view of the polls. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Around 55 per cent of Bru voters in the six relief camps in Tripura came here Wednesday and exercised their franchise at the 15 special polling booths created for them after public outrage over their place of voting. There was an apprehension that voter turnout of Bru refugees would be very less as some of their leaders were initially reluctant to come to Mizoram and were demanding the earlier system of exercising their franchise at the relief camps. "Around 55 per cent of the Bru refugees have voted. This percentage will go up further as around 200 more people are still waiting to cast their votes," a senior Election Commission official told PTI. The Bru voters are taking more time than usual because most of them are unaware of the EVM operation as till now, they have casted their votes through postal ballots from the camps, he added. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has created 15 special polling booths in Kanhmun village, along the Mizoram-Tripura border, for 11,987 Bru refugees who are part of nine Assembly constituencies in three districts of the hill state. Addressing a press conference at Aizawl, Mizoram Chief Electoral Officer Ashish Kundra said: "Voting at Kanhmun went very peacefully. My special gratitude to the civil society, particularly the Young Mizo Association (YMA), for going out of their way to help the Bru refugees in casting their votes." The YMA has put up a hoarding welcoming Bru voters, erected a tent with benches to sit and arranged pork curry for the refugees coming from six camps in Tripura that are situated at varying distances of 6-60 km from the border. "The gesture of the YMA and general public showed the rich tradition of the Mizo culture. The voting exercise at Kanhmun was successful through a partnership between the YMA and us," Kundra said. He also appreciated the Tripura government for arranging transportation facilities from the camps although the cost will be borne by the Mizoram CEO's office. "I am satisfied with the voters turnout at Kanhmun because some leaders were insisting on voting at the camps just 5-6 days ago. From there, we could create a congenial atmosphere within this short phase of time and today saw such a huge number," Kundra said. Since early Wednesday, people started coming in large numbers and at one point of time, security personnel had to come into the picture to streamline the queue in front of the YMA playground, where nine booths have been set up. Another six booths have been constructed inside a local badminton stadium, where two strong rooms will house the voting machines for three constituencies of Lunglei district overnight. Voting started at 7 am in the morning and ended at 3 pm at Kanhmun, while it went went till 4 pm in the rest of Mizoram. The place of voting for the Bru voters became the most controversial issue in the run up to the Mizoram Assembly polls, leading to the replacement of the chief electoral officer less than two weeks ahead of the elections. To solve the issue of the place of voting for Bru refugees residing in Tripura, Kundra personally visited Kanhmun village twice after taking charge on November 15 to oversee the arrangements. As per the direction of the ECI, a special team was formed under Kumar Abhishek, who has been flown in from Delhi after the crisis broke out, while Assistant Inspector General of Police (Training) Devesh was made in-charge of the security arrangements. The ECI has overnight air-dropped Bhuvanesh Yadav, the special secretary of Higher Education to the Chhattisgarh government, on Sunday as the specially appointed observer only for these 15 booths keeping in mind the sensitivity. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Permission to gather at the Boat Club area in the city will be given only to "peace loving" groups raising awareness on social, traffic and educational issues or programmes involving school children, according to the standing order of the Delhi Police. Earlier, the Supreme Court had asked the Centre and the Delhi Commissioner of Police to frame guidelines within two months for according sanctions to such events in the Jantar Mantar and the Boat Club areas. These guidelines will now serve as standing order of the Delhi Police with regard to programmes to be held at Boat Club. Gathering at the said locations cannot have more than 100 people and should be symbolic highlighting social, educational, health-related or environmental issues, the order said, adding that the timing of the gathering will be between 11 am and 4 pm and in "exceptional circumstances", it can be extended upto 6 pm. "Candle vigil by school children for social, traffic and educational awareness may be allowed only in exceptional circumstances after a thorough assessment by the Special Branch, Traffic Police and New Delhi District Police, whose decision shall be final," the order said. According to the order, no permission will be granted during Parliament Session, VIP movement, Republic Day celebrations, Beating Retreat arrangement, Independence Day celebration, important government functions, festival days and New Year celebration. No participant shall carry firearms, lathis, spears, swords, among other weapons or bring animals or pitch tents or stay overnight. "Deputy Commissioner of Police (Delhi) will have the power to revoke the permission in case of unforeseen and sudden developments such as VIP movement or any other intelligence input," the order said. On July 23, the Supreme Court had lifted a blanket ban on rallies, dharnas and sit-ins at Jantar Mantar and Boat Club. These guidelines will now serve as standing order of the Delhi Police with regard to programmes to be held at Boat Club. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A British mother pleaded for a change in the law on Wednesday after her rapist was told he could seek access to her son. Arshid Hussain -- ringleader of a notorious child abuse gang who was jailed for 35 years in 2016 -- was contacted by the local council in Rotherham, northern England, to give him the chance to apply for parental rights and play a role in the boy's life. Sammy Woodhouse, who was 15 when Hussain raped her and got her pregnant, identified herself as the mother in question after The Times newspaper revealed the story about Hussain. "This story is actually about myself, about my son and about the man that raped me," she said on Twitter. "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." She called on the government to change the 1989 Children Act "to ensure that rapists can't gain access to children conceived through rape and abuse. "Women and children are being put at direct risk." Rotherham gained notoriety in 2014 when a report found as many as 1,400 victims of organised child sexual exploitation in the town. The perpetrators were described as being chiefly men of Pakistani heritage. Similar rings have since been exposed in towns and cities across Britain. Rotherham MP Sarah Champion told BBC television of her "utter disgust, incredulity" at the case. "Victims are re-traumatised again and again by the system," she said. A Rotherham Council spokesman said: "We must comply with legal requirements, including practice directions, and that would include giving notice of proceedings to parents with or without formal parental responsibility." The Ministry of Justice said in a statement: "This is obviously a very distressing incident and the relevant departments and local authority will work urgently to understand and address the failings in this case. "Local authorities can apply to courts to request permission not to notify parents without parental responsibility about care proceedings, and courts should consider the potential harm to the child and mother when making this decision. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Nearly 36 per cent of voters exercised their franchise till 2 pm Wednesday in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections which were marred by complaints of faulty Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) at some places. Around 745 EVMs and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines were replaced after complaints of technical snags, MP's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) V L Kantha Rao said. He also said that around 36 per cent voter turnout was recorded till 2 pm. Following complaints of malfunctioning of EVMs, senior Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia demanded that the Election Commission make up for the time wasted in replacing faulty EVMs by extending the polling time in the booths concerned. "I want that the EC should compensate for the time lost in replacing the EVMs. It should extend voting time at places where EVMs failed to work," he told reporters after landing in Gwalior to cast his vote. "I have already spoken to Chief Election Commissioner O P Rawat and MP Chief Electoral Officer V L Kantha Rao on this issue over phone," the Lok Sabha member from the state's Guna seat said. Scindia said he wanted maximum people to cast their vote. State Congress chief Kamal Nath also expressed concern over complaints of technical snags in EVMs. "Several reports are coming from across the state that EVMs are not working. This has been affecting the polling. Long queues are being witnessed in the city. EC should immediately take decision. The EVMs should be changed," he said in a tweet. Polling is being held from 8 am to 5 pm in 227 seats, while in three Assembly segments of Lanji, Paraswada and Baihar in the Naxal-affected Balaghat district, the voting time is from 7 am to 3 pm. Two polling officials have died due to health issues while performing their duties in Indore and Guna districts, Rao said. The families of these employees would be given an ex-gratia of Rs 10 lakh each, he said. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who is the Bharatiya Janata Party's candidate from Budhni seat, and his wife Sadhana Singh cast their votes at his native village Jait, which is part of his Assembly constituency. Earlier, Chouhan also offered prayers at a local temple. The Congress has fielded former Union minister Arun Yadav against Chouhan. Kamal Nath cast his vote in Chhindwara district while the party's campaign committee chief Scindia exercised his franchise in Gwalior. Rao said polling was going on peacefully in all the Assembly constituencies and long queues were seen in the Naxal-affected seats and other places. 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 The state has 5.04 crore eligible voters. Over three lakh government employees, including nearly 45,000 women, are on poll duty across the state. As many as 1.80 lakh security personnel, including those drawn from central paramilitary forces, have also been deployed to ensure free and fair poll, Rao said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Around 50 per cent voting was recorded till 3 pm Wednesday in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections even as there were complaints of faulty Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) at some places in the state. As many as 1,146 EVMs and 1,545 Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines were replaced after complaints of technical snags, MP's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) V L Kantha Rao said. "So far, 50 per cent turnout was recorded in the state till 3 pm," he told reporters here. Three employees died due to health reasons while performing their poll duties since morning in Dhar, Indore and Guna districts, he said. Rao said that at Gadhpura in Bhind district, a person was injured in violence but it was not poll-related. Following complaints of malfunctioning of EVMs, senior Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia demanded that the Election Commission make up for the time wasted in replacing faulty EVMs by extending the polling time in the booths concerned. "I want that the EC should compensate for the time lost in replacing the EVMs. It should extend voting time at places where EVMs failed to work," he told reporters after landing in Gwalior to cast his vote. "I have already spoken to Chief Election Commissioner O P Rawat and MP Chief Electoral Officer V L Kantha Rao on this issue over phone," the Lok Sabha member from the state's Guna seat said. State Congress chief Kamal Nath also expressed concern over complaints of technical snags in EVMs. "Several reports are coming from across the state that EVMs are not working. This has been affecting the polling. Long queues are being witnessed in the city. EC should immediately take decision. The EVMs should be changed," he said in a tweet. Earlier, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who is the Bharatiya Janata Party's candidate from Budhni seat, and his wife Sadhana Singh cast their votes at his native village Jait, which is part of his Assembly constituency. The Congress has fielded former Union minister Arun Yadav against Chouhan. Kamal Nath cast his vote in Chhindwara district while the party's campaign committee chief Scindia exercised his franchise in Gwalior. Polling is being held from 8 am to 5 pm in 227 seats, while in three Assembly segments of Lanji, Paraswada and Baihar in the Naxal-affected Balaghat district, the voting time is from 7 am to 3 pm. As many as 2,899 candidates, including 1,094 Independents, are in the fray for the 230-seat Assembly, but the main contest is between the Congress and BJP the Big Two of MP The state has 5.04 crore eligible voters. Over three lakh government employees, including nearly 45,000 women, are on poll duty across the state. As many as 1.80 lakh security personnel, including those drawn from central paramilitary forces, have also been deployed to ensure free and fair polls, Rao said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) NATO is investigating an air strike in southeast Afghanistan that might have killed civilians, it said Wednesday, as unverified reports circulated claiming women and children were killed and wounded in the bombardment. The strike reportedly occurred during a firefight between Afghan special forces working with US advisors and Taliban insurgents late Tuesday in restive Helmand province. NATO said air support was requested by security forces on the ground as the militants deployed heavy weapons and retreated into a nearby compound. "After the strike, there were secondary explosions, we assess from explosives inside the compound," NATO said in a statement. "The ground force was unaware of any civilians in or around the compound, they only knew that the Taliban was using the building as a fighting position," the statement continued. "The Taliban continue to use civilians, especially children, as a protective measure," it added. Afghan officials have offered varying unconfirmed numbers over how many civilians might have been killed or wounded by the strike, with one official saying the toll was at least 18 dead. "Last night, following ground fighting in Garmsir district, foreign forces bombed some Taliban positions killing many of them. Unfortunately, we also have reports of some civilian casualties as result of the air strikes," said Omar Zhwak, the Helmand governor's spokesman. Ataullah Afghan, the head of Helmand provincial council, said women and children were among the dead. Ordinary Afghans have borne the brunt of the 17-year war, which is on track to be deadlier than Syria in 2018. Civilians continue to face "extreme levels of harm", a recent UN report said, with 8,050 people killed or wounded in the January to September period this year. Violence has intensified in the past year as US and Afghan forces step up ground and air offensives against Taliban and IS insurgents. The Taliban has also increased 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. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) New Zealand's largest telecoms carrier Spark said Wednesday that the country's intelligence agency had barred it from using equipment provided by China's Huawei in its 5G network as it posed "significant national security risks". The move follows reports the United States is urging its allies to exclude the Chinese telecoms giant from 5G rollouts over cybersecurity fears. Spark said in a statement that it was legally obliged to inform the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) about its 5G plans. It said GCSB chief Andrew Hampton had raised concerns about the use of Huawei Radio Access Network (RAN) in the new network and declined the proposed rollout. "The director-general has informed Spark today that he considers Spark's proposal to use Huawei 5G equipment in Spark's planned 5G RAN would, if implemented, raise significant national security risks," Spark said. The firm called the decision "disappointing" and said it would decide its next action after examining the detailed reasoning behind Hampton's conclusion. It still expected to complete its 5G network by July 2020. Hampton confirmed Spark's announcement in a brief statement. "The GCSB under its (legislative) responsibilities, has recently undertaken an assessment of a notification from Spark. I have informed Spark that a significant network security risk was identified," he said. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang expressed "deep concern" over the ban. "The Chinese government encourages Chinese enterprises to follow market principles and international regulations, and develop overseas economic partnerships on the basis of abiding by local laws," he said. "The economic and trade partnerships between China and New Zealand are mutually beneficial. We hope that New Zealand will offer a level playing field for Chinese enterprises operating in New Zealand, and do more to benefit mutual trust and partnerships." Huawei -- one of the world's largest telecommunications equipment and services providers -- has been under scrutiny in some countries, including the United States and Australia, over its alleged close links to Beijing authorities. China has long disputed accusations of security risks and the firm's links to state intelligence services. New Zealand is a member of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, which also includes the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia. China is one of its main trading partners but Wellington has become increasingly concerned about Beijing's influence in the Pacific recently. In response, New Zealand has boosted its Pacific aid programme to reinforce its presence in a region it considers its own sphere of influence. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Green Tribunal (NGT) has slapped a Rs 50 million fine on the West Bengal government for "failing to comply" with its two-year-old directive to improve in Kolkata and Howrah. The NGT Eastern Zone principal bench comprising Judges S P Wangdi and non-judicial member Nagin Nanda on Tuesday said the fine should be paid within two weeks of the order to the Central Pollution Control Board, failing which, the government will have to pay an additional Rs 10 million as fine for every month's delay to the CPCB. The order was given in the wake of West Bengal government not enforcing several measures recommended by the NGT in an earlier order in 2016 to check air pollution, the bench observed. In the order, the NGT had recommended measures like introducing alternative mechanism to put a lid on high number of polluting diesel vehicles in the twin cities of Kolkata and Howrah, introducing remote sensing device (RSD) to monitor smoke emission, increasing number of computerised air monitoring stations from the existing ones. The other measures include introducing the system of allowing private vehicles with odd and even registration numbers on specific days in the week, monitoring entry of non-BS 4 commercial vehicles to twin cities, stop burning of waste in dumping sites in different parts of state. The green body in subsequent sittings in the intervening period of two years had sought to know if the West Bengal government's Environment department and the West Bengal Pollution Control Board had taken any steps towards the direction. The NGT had passed the 2016 order on the basis of a report submitted by an expert committee but environmentalist Subhas Datta had moved a contempt petition recently which led to imposition of the fine by the tribunal. The NGT on Tuesday also directed the West Bengal chief secretary to file an affidavit by January 8, 2019 regarding the follow-up action plan and payment of fine. Environmentalist S M Ghosh said this was the culmination of a 20-year-old battle by environmentalists with a writ petition on health hazard caused by pollution first filed in 1999 at the Calcutta high court by him, another petition on the same issue filed by environmentalist Subhas Dutta in HC in 2006 and the case being transferred to NGT East bench in 2014. The NHRC has issued notices to the Gujarat government and the state's police chief over reports that a "drunken" doctor allegedly performed a C-section on a woman, leading to the death of both the mother and her baby at a government hospital in Botad. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in a statement issued Wednesday observed that doctors are expected to always maintain high standards of professionalism and devotion to duty, but in the instant case, it appears that the doctor showed "carelessness and criminal negligence" by performing a Caesarean in an inebriated condition. "The NHRC has taken suo motu cognisance of media reports that a drunken doctor performed a C-section on a woman in an advance stage of pregnancy leading to the death of both the mother and her child at the government-run Sonawala hospital in Botad on November 26," it said. The rights panel has issued notices to the chief secretary and the director general of police of Gujarat, seeking a detailed report as well as the status of the criminal case registered against the doctor concerned in four weeks. The commission has observed that the incident, if true, amounts to gross violation of human rights of the victims. "According to the media reports, carried Wednesday, the police have arrested the alleged erring doctor on the complaint of the victims' relatives. His blood sample has been sent for testing as, at the time of his arrest, he was found drunk," it said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) What education revolution will you bring on land which is cradle of civilisation since ages; Pargat asks Kejriwal There is no upper limit or a 'cap' on the amount of toll that can be collected from motorists on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, the Maharashtra government told the Bombay High Court Wednesday. A bench of Chief Justice Naresh Patil and Justice MS Karnik was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking direction to authorities concerned to stop collecting the toll from motorists using the expressway, claiming the contractor in-charge IRB Infrastructure Developers had already recovered the cost of the project. The state government and IRB Infrastructure Developers dismissed the claim made by the PIL which was filed by four petitioners, including activist Pravin Wategaonkar. "We have gone through all the records and there is no illegality in the toll collection. The contract does not impose a cap on the amount that can be collected as toll or the number of years for which such toll can be collected," government lawyer Abhinandan Vagyani said. The PIL claimed the contractor had already recovered the cost of the project as per its agreement details with the state authorities, and its continuation of toll collection amounts to a "wrongful gain". Wategaonkar told the bench that as on June 1 this year, the IRB Infrastructure Developers had collected Rs 1,400 crore more than the anticipated amount through the toll collection. IRB counsel Janak Dwarkadas told the bench that the petitioners were ill-informed and that the contractor was not making any illegal or wrongful gains. He said the IRB had secured the contract for maintaining the expressway and has been collecting the toll from motorists through a transparent and competitive bidding process. "I (IRB Infra) paid Rs 918 crore to the state in lieu of the contract and the interest from that money is going to the public exchequer. I also spent money on the maintenance of the expressway, and on providing emergency security and health facilities along the expressway," Dwarkadas said. "While we had estimated to earn a certain amount from the toll collection, and projected that figure in the contract, there is no clause in the contract that puts a cap or an upper limit on such toll collection," he said. IRB's argument was supported by the state government which told the bench that it had not imposed any upper limit on the toll collection amount. Vagyani also cited a previous affidavit filed in the case by the state Public Works Department in August this year stating that the contractor had neither made any wrongful gains nor had it breached any terms of the contract with the government. The bench has now directed IRB Infrastructure Developers to file an affidavit clarifying its stand and putting its submissions on oath. The bench also directed that the infrastructure firm make its stand clear on Wategaonkar's request for making the Enforcement Directorate (ED) a party to the case. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) There will be no dialogue with Pakistan unless it desists from terrorist activities against India, External Affairs Minister declared Wednesday, in a rebuff to Pakistan a day after Islamabad said it would invite Prime Minister to the SAARC summit. She also said the initiative was not linked to the dialogue process with Pakistan. "Unless and until Pakistan stops terrorist activities in India there will be no dialogue and we will not participate in SAARC," Swaraj told a press conference here. Swaraj's statement came hours before Pakistan Prime Minister was to lay the foundation stone for the much-awaited corridor linking Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan's Kartarpur - the final resting place of Sikh faith's founder Guru Nanak Dev - to Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India's Gurdaspur district. India has been asking for a corridor, which will facilitate visa-free travel of Indian Sikh pilgrims to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, for many years and she said she was happy that Pakistan had for the first time responded positively. "But that does not mean that bilateral talks will start only on this," she said, adding terror and talks cannot go together. Pakistan Foreign Office Spokesman Mohammad Faisal had said on Tuesday that prime minister Modi will be invited to that country for the SAARC summit. India had pulled out of the 19th SAARC summit that was to be held in Islamabad after the deadly terrorist attack on an Indian Army camp in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir in September that year. The summit had to be called off after Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan also declined to attend. Maldives and Sri Lanka are the other two members of the regional grouping. No summit meeting of SAARC has happened ever since. Swaraj, who is campaigning here ahead of the Telangana elections on December 7, said, "The moment Pakistan stops terrorist activities in India, dialogue can start but the dialogue is not connected with only the The Congress-led UDF Opposition Wednesday lambasted the ruling CPI(M) over restrictions imposed by police at Sabarimala, even as Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said it was to ensure a smooth pilgrimage for "real" devotees. Armed with placards and banners, the Opposition members tried to interrupt the proceedings of the House as soon as it met and demanded the withdrawal of the prohibitory orders invoked in and around Sabarimala 'Sannidhanam', the temple complex. Some members even tried to climb Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan's podium and argued with him, demanding scrapping of the Question Hour to take up the adjournment motion over Sabarimala, considering the gravity of the subject. As the protest continued, the speaker stopped the proceedings for around an hour before the beginning of the 'Zero' hour (members can, with prior notice to the Speaker, raise issues of importance during this time). Justifying the police restrictions at the Ayyappa temple, Vijayan said the CPI(M)-led LDF government had no agenda to destroy the faith of devotees. He said the Sangh Parivar forces were trying to implement a "pre-planned agenda" at the Lord Ayyappa shrine to check the real devotees there and the government could not give perpetrators of violence a free hand. Dismissing the charge that the Left government had shown "hastiness" in implementing the Supreme Court verdict permitting entry of women of menstrual age into the shrine, Vijayan said that as a responsible and law-abiding government, it had no way other than implementing the order. "A small group, in the guise of devotees, had tried to prevent real pilgrims and unleash violence in the name of belief. It is the responsibility of police to check the recurrence of violence," the chief minister said. The government cannot allow Sabarimala to be turned into a centre of violence, he said, adding that police actions were not against devotees, but to protect and help them. "All steps, taken by the police and the government, including the imposition of prohibitory orders, are in accordance with the law. The restrictions at the shrine were inevitable to ensure smooth darshan for real devotees and cannot be withdrawn in the present circumstance of possible threats," Vijayan said. Due to the effective intervention of police, no violent incidents occurred at Sabarimala after it was opened for the Mandalam-Makaravilakku festival on November 16, he said. The chief minister also alleged that the stand taken by the Congress-led UDF on the Sabarimala issue amounted to "supporting and promoting" those who tried to run riot at the Ayyappa shrine. Seeking notice for the adjournment motion, former Devaswom (temple administration) minister and Congress legislator V S Sivakumar said it was "police raj" at Sabarimala and it would destroy one of the rare pilgrim centres known for its secular traditions. Police were chasing away devotees and not allowing them to perform rituals like "neyyabhishekam" (ghee offering), he said. Besides the restrictions, lack of adequate toilets, rest rooms and dearth of safe drinking water also were causing hardships to the devotees. "This government is trying to impose the stand of atheists on believers and destroy the Lord Ayyappa temple. Otherwise, why did not you go for a review petition against the September 28 (supreme court) verdict?" Sivakumar asked. He also accused Vijayan of allegedly highlighting the actions of the BJP in the Sabarimala issue to destroy the Congress party. When the speaker denied permission for the motion, the Opposition trooped into the well of the House and raised slogans. As they did not heed his repeated requests to return to their seats, he took up other businesses and adjourned the House for the day. Meanwhile, Kerala Jana Paksham leader P C George and lone BJP MLA O Rajagopal, who had decided to cooperate on the Sabarimala issue in the House, came wearing black clothes as a mark of solidarity with Ayyappa devotees who are opposing the government's decision to implement the apex court order. The hill shrine has been witnessing protests by devotees and right-wing groups on the matter. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan has altered the demography of PoK and the identity of Kashmiris on that side has been systematically eroded, Army Chief Bipin Rawat said on Wednesday. He disapproved of suggestions about sending back security forces "to barracks" whenever there is "a little bit of peace" in Kashmir, saying it will give terrorists time to revamp their networks and asserted that there was a need to maintain sustained pressure "to control the situation". Rawat, who was delivering the Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial Lecture, also expressed concern over allowing funeral processions of terrorists, saying they glorify militants as martyrs and are "possibly encouraging more people to join the terrorist ranks". Referring to PoK, Rawat said, "Pakistan has very cleverly changed the demography of so-called Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan. So, one is not very sure who is an actual Kashmiri. "Is he is a Kashmiri or a Punjabi who has come in there and occupied that area. People from Gilgit-Baltistan are also now being taken over gradually. So, if there is an identity between our side of Kashmiri and the other side, then the identity thing has gradually been eroded. That is an issue we have to look at," he said. The Army chief credited the locals for successful operations against militants in Kashmir, saying they were providing "hard intelligence". "Things will be brought into control and are being brought under control, but sustained pressure needs to be maintained. "It should not happen that little bit of peace that we see and say, Oh, it is hunky dory and it is now time to return to the barracks and let things happen. This time will be used for revamping the network of the terrorists," he said. Rawat said the situation needs to be brought to a level where the terror groups are not able to revamp. "You have to bring them to a level where they (terrorists) are not able to revamp, get the leadership out and make sure they have very few weapons left with them and they do not have opportunities to carry out conglomeration and get together wherever they want to," the Army chief said. He also pointed out that the funeral processions that glorify terrorists as martyrs should be addressed. "In a funeral procession when you make a martyr of a terrorist is what is possibly encouraging more people to join the terrorist ranks," he said. "These are some of the issues which we are gradually addressing," Rawat said noting that the Army does not want to deal with a heavy hand and allow that to become a trigger for violence in the Valley. Rawat stressed on the need for a greater positive engagement with the youth to motivate them to remain off the street and the "gun culture". He said the Army will also take maulvis from Kashmir on 'Sadbhavna yatras' to places like Ajmer Sharif, Agra and show them that there is no persecution of any religious minorities in India. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Gujarat High Court Wednesday asked a petitioner, who has challenged proposed renaming of Ahmedabad as Karnavati, to find out from the state government if there was any further development in this regard. A division bench of acting Chief Justice Anant Dave and Justice Biren Vaishnav was hearing a petition filed by Hetvi Sancheti. The court asked her to find out what steps the government has taken for the proposed renaming. Sancheti has sought the court's intervention to prevent the government from renaming the city, contending that its existing name holds significance as a "cultural heritage of the people of Ahmedabad". The name Ahmedabad is "deeply embedded in the cultural identities of Amdavadis irrespective of creed, caste and religion," she said, claiming that the renaming is being undertaken with the "ulterior motive of vote-bank politics". The UNESCO has nominated Ahmedabad as a World heritage City, the petition pointed out. The government, while talking about its willingness to change the name, did not conduct any referendum, Sancheti said. The court should restrain the state government from changing the name to Karnavati, and "recognise the name of the city of Ahmedabad" as "intangible cultural heritage," said the plea. On November 8, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani had said that his government was considering renaming Ahmedabad as Karnavati, possibly before the Lok Sabha elections. Rupani's statement came days after the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh announced renaming Allahabad as Prayagraj and Faizabad as Ayodhya. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) To revive Air India's fortunes, a plan is being implemented that will result in annual financial benefits worth Rs 2,000 crore by way of cost cutting and revenue enhancement measures, a senior official said Wednesday. Civil Aviation Secretary R N Choubey said the plan was drawn up around 15 to 20 days ago and focuses on about "10 to 12 items" but did not divulge specific details. The government is working on efforts to turn around the national carrier, which has a debt burden of over Rs 50,000 crore. Talking about the plan, Choubey said, "financial benefits" to Air India would be around Rs 2,000 crore per annum by way of cost cutting and revenue enhancement measures. The implementation of the plan, which has been prepared on the basis of recent levels of crude oil prices and rupee value, would be monitored by the ministry, he added. When asked whether the plan is being implemented, Choubey replied in the affirmative. The ministry would monitor the implementation of the plan and then report to the Air India Specific Alternative Mechanism (AISAM). Asserting that defaults by Air India would not be allowed, Choubey said financial support would be given to the airline on "as you go basis". Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu said Air India is facing a legacy problem. "What is Air India's problems and we are addressing it by strategy... we will request the Finance Ministry to give us some more money (for Air India)," he said in response to a query on how the airline can improve amenities to passengers. Regarding Air India, Prabhu said the Civil Aviation Ministry and the Finance Ministry are on the same page. "There is no conflict... the question is that debt is so large and we have to work out something large," he added. They were speaking on the sidelines of an event here. Emphasising that efforts are to ensure that Air India is "competitive and viable", Choubey said the airline has to work on efficiency improvements. "We have told them, on one hand, work on efficiency improvements and on the other hand, we will ensure support for you if you are able to show efficiency improvements," he noted. On Tuesday, the AISAM approved a proposal for strategic sale of Air India's ground handling subsidiary AIATSL. The latest plan to sell AIATSL follows the decision by the ministerial panel in June to make Air India competitive, by way of cutting down debt and raising resources by selling land assets and other subsidiaries. The ministerial grouping had decided to revive Air India after the government's strategic stake sale offer failed to attract any bidders earlier this year. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday issued a notice to the state government on a public interest litigation (PIL) alleging "religious profiling" of Muslim candidates appearing for the board examinations. Petitioner K R Koshty claimed every candidate applying online for Class 10 and 12 board examinations for 2019 has been asked to specify whether he or she is Muslim. The PIL also challenged the government's decision to accept the forms online, saying that Internet connectivity in many parts of the state is poor. Further, the forms seek Aadhaar details which is against the Supreme Court's recent judgement, it said. A division bench of acting Chief Justice Anant Dave and Justice Biren Vaishnav sought replies from the state government, Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) and the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) by December 6. The online forms for the board exams conducted by GSHSEB have a column seeking to know whether the candidate belongs to a minority community, and if yes, whether he or she belongs to the "Muslim" or "Other" minority communities. It is mandatory to fill in this information, as per the PIL. The petitioner alleged that this amounted to a "religious profiling" of Muslim candidates and it is "unconstitutional". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A CPI(M) councillor Wednesday filed a petition before the Calcutta High Court challenging the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (Second Amendment) Bill 2018, which was passed in the West Bengal Assembly recently. The amended act, to which the governor has given his assent, enables a person, who is not an elected councillor, to be made the mayor of a corporation. The person would have to be elected within six months to continue in the post. The amendment facilitated the taking over of Firhad Hakim, who is not a councillor, as mayor of KMC. Hakim is a minister in the West Bengal cabinet. Claiming that a stranger cannot be elected mayor of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and the assembly does not have the authority to change laws governing the election of a mayor to a civic body, CPI(M) councillor Bilkis Begum filed the writ petition, her lawyer Shamim Ahmed said. The councillor prayed for the nullification of the amendments, claiming that the amended act is unconstitutional, The petition will be moved before an appropriate bench of the high court on Friday, Ahmed said. The Trinamool Congress, which has a huge majority in the KMC, has elected Firhad Hakim as its leader in the municipal body, following the resignation of former mayor Sovan Chatterjee. Chatterjee had been asked to resign from the post of mayor by Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee after he tendered his resignation as a minister. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two top officials from the administration of President Donald Trump sought Wednesday to persuade US lawmakers to maintain America's increasingly contentious backing of Saudi Arabia in the war in Yemen, arguing that pulling back would worsen the brutal conflict. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis appeared before the Senate ahead of a planned vote on reducing military assistance to Riyadh, which has been blamed for high civilian death rates in Yemen strikes and is facing global ire over the death of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. "The suffering in Yemen grieves me, but if the United States of America was not involved in Yemen, it would be a hell of a lot worse," Pompeo said, according to prepared remarks from the closed-door hearing. "What would happen if the US withdrew from the Yemen effort? The war wouldn't end." The Yemen conflict has triggered the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with the country now on the brink of famine. The UN estimates as many as 10,000 people have died, most of them civilians, since the coalition launched military operations in 2015. US military backing to the Saudi-led coalition is based on non-combat support, such as the sharing of intelligence and training pilots in the "best practices" of conducting air strikes with minimal civilian casualties. The Pentagon had also been conducting air-to-air refueling for coalition aircraft, but this month said it was stopping doing so. Still, a series of high-profile coalition strikes has killed scores of civilians, many of them children, and now some US politicians are balking at America's role in the war. Trump's emphatic support of Riyadh has rankled lawmakers including from his own Republican partly, particularly following Khashoggi's murder. Saudi Arabia has acknowledged that the Washington Post columnist, a US resident, was killed inside the kingdom's Istanbul consulate in October but has blamed his death on a "rogue operation." Trump last week called Saudi Arabia a "steadfast partner" and said it was unclear whether Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was aware of the plan to kill Khashoggi. Trump has also cast doubt on the CIA's reported conclusion that the crown prince, also known as MBS, was behind the killing. After Wednesday's hearing, Pompeo told reporters he'd seen no "direct" evidence linking MBS to Khashoggi's murder. Peace talks aimed at ending the war in Yemen have been set for early December in Sweden, between Huthi rebels and the UN-recognized government, Mattis said last week, and officials are worried a move to cut support ahead of the summit is poorly timed. Senators could vote as early as Wednesday on a bipartisan proposal that would force the US to end its backing of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. Other lawmakers want to impose sanctions beyond those that Washington slapped on 17 Saudis allegedly involved in the killing. The events have left administration officials publicly grappling with global realpolitik, saying Saudi Arabia's role in countering Iran is too important for the US to turn its back. "We are seldom free to work with unblemished partners," Mattis said in prepared remarks. "Long-standing relationships guide but do not blind us. Saudi Arabia, due to geography and the Iranian threat, is fundamental to maintaining regional and Israeli security, and to our interest in Mideast stability." The Pentagon chief added the US must try to hold those responsible for Khashoggi's murder to account while also recognizing Saudi Arabia as a "necessary strategic partner.""We cannot be deflected from using all our influence to end this war for the good of innocent people in trouble, and ultimately the safety of our own people, and this includes our military engagement," he said. Mattis pointed to the US military's training of partner pilots as key in reducing deaths. "While tragedies occur in war, we assess restraint and improved tactical judgment by Arab coalition pilots has reduced the risk of civilian casualties," he said. Pompeo meanwhile warned lawmakers that a US drawdown would lead to a stronger Iran, while reinvigorating both the Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. "Try defending that outcome back home," he said. On Twitter, Pompeo announced the US would be spending an additional USD 131 million in food assistance and again took a swipe at Iran. "Iran's regime has no interest in easing Yemeni suffering; the mullahs don't even care for ordinary Iranians. Saudi Arabia has invested billions to relieve suffering in #Yemen. Iran has invested zero," he tweeted. Also on Twitter, Democratic Senator Ed Markey said Pompeo is wrong to say Saudi Arabia is worth keeping as a partner, given its human rights record. "Leadership isn't about an amoral pursuit of material benefit & profit. It's about applying our values to friends & foes alike, even when - especially when - it's hard," he wrote. Saudi Arabia and its allies intervened in the conflict between embattled Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, whose government is recognized by the United Nations, and the Huthis in 2015. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India and Indonesia will hold a business forum to facilitate the commercial and people-to-people linkages between the Andaman and Nicobar Islands with Aceh and North Sumatra Provinces of Indonesia on November 29 in Port Blair, the Indian Embassy here said. A 30-member delegation consisting of members of Chamber of Commerce of Aceh, state and local enterprises, shipping and logistics companies, academics, media and officials of Foreign Ministries of both countries are to attend the India Indonesia Business Forum (IIBF). It will also be attended by the members of Andaman Chamber of Commerce and officials of Andaman and Nicobar Administration, the statement said. This edition of IIBF is a step forward in the continuing engagements between Aceh and Andaman, which have commenced since July 2018, when the 1st Business Forum was held in Aceh, said the embassy. A team of 3 researchers from Aceh also visited Andaman from November 23 to 28 to further explore the benefits and potential of enhancing physical connectivity between Andaman & Nicobar and Aceh. The preliminary research done by academic institutions in Indonesia have identified the potential and opportunities for economic cooperation that can be developed between Aceh & North Sumatra and Andaman-Nicobar. The areas include tourism, especially cruise tourism and eco-tourism, air transport connectivity and sea transportation in the form of RoRo vessel shipping to facilitate trade between the two regions (supply of commodity) among others. A Memorandum of Understanding between Chamber of Commerce of Aceh and Andaman Chamber of Commerce and Industry is currently under consideration and is expected to be agreed upon and signed during the visit, the statement said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Eyebrows were raised on Wednesday when a prominent pro-Khalistan separatist leader was present at the ground-breaking ceremony of the Kartarpur corridor and was also seen shaking hands with Pakistan Army chief When asked, a Pakistani official said, Gopal Singh is a senior leader of Pakistan Sikh Gurudwara Prabhandak Committee (PSGPC), and he was invited to all events involving the Sikh community. Singh is the general secretary of the PSGPC and is known as a pro-Khalistan voice. ALSO READ: PM Imran Khan lays foundation stone for Kartarpur corridor in Pakistan He was seen shaking hands with the Pakistan Army chief. Several other pro-Khalistan leaders were also present at the event. "Indian media taking a myopic view is selectively showing Mr Gopal Singh meeting COAS. Army Chief met all guests at the venue irrespective of identity. A peace initiative should not be subjected to propaganda," ISPR DG Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor tweeted. Sources said Singh was instrumental in denying access to Indian High Commission officials to two gurudwaras in Pakistan a few days back. The officials had gone to the gurudwaras to meet Indian pilgrims. India had slammed Pakistan for refusing access to the pilgrims. Eyebrows were raised on Wednesday when a prominent pro-Khalistan separatist leader was present at the ground-breaking ceremony of the Kartarpur corridor and was also seen shaking hands with Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa. When asked, a Pakistani official said, Gopal Singh Chawla is a senior leader of Pakistan Sikh Gurudwara Prabhandak Committee (PSGPC), and he was invited to all events involving the Sikh community. Singh is the general secretary of the PSGPC and is known as a pro-Khalistan voice. He was seen shaking hands with the Pakistan Army chief. Several other pro-Khalistan leaders were also present at the event. "Indian media taking a myopic view is selectively showing Mr Gopal Chawla meeting COAS. Army Chief met all guests at the venue irrespective of identity. A peace initiative should not be subjected to propaganda," ISPR DG Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor tweeted. Sources said Singh was instrumental in denying access to Indian High Commission officials to two gurudwaras in Pakistan a few days back. The officials had gone to the gurudwaras to meet Indian pilgrims. India had slammed Pakistan for refusing access to the pilgrims. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Indian contingent deployed with UN justice support mission in Haiti is returning home with a sense of "pride" of having served with discipline and without any cases of human rights violations or allegations of sexual abuse against it, said one of the contingent commander. Currently, two Indian Formed Police Units (FPUs), comprising 140 police personnel each, are deployed with the United Nations Mission for Justice Support in Haiti (MINUJUSTH). With operations at the mission set to drawdown by October 2019, one Indian Formed Police Unit will soon return home while the other is slated to depart by October next year. "We have a specific mandate in which we have been given the task to assist the Haitian National Police. We have worked very sincerely and with discipline. I can say with pride that for the last 10 years that the Indian peacekeepers and police personnel were here, there have been no cases of indiscipline, human rights violations nor any allegation of sexual exploitation and abuse (against us). We feel proud of that," Commandant Dhananjay Shukla, Contingent Commander of Indian FPU 1 told PTI in an exclusive interview through video call from Haiti. "Ten years is not a short period. We have carried out our work sincerely, meeting the expectations of Indian and UN authorities. We feel we have won the hearts of the Haitian people," he said. Accompanied with Inspector Navin Kumar Singh, who is the Section Commander, Sub-Inspector Vivek Kumar Pandey, the Team leader of the Unit and UN Police Commissioner Serge Therriault, Shukla said the Indian contingents deployed with the mission in Haiti, have over the years ably met the expectations of the UN as well as the local authorities. He said Indian police personnel in the mission are regularly briefed about discipline and the honourable conduct expected from them. "The Indian FPU 1 has come from the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF). We have a culture in which there is respect for women," he said. Describing the Haitian people as very friendly, Singh said the Indian peacekeepers and police personnel have always helped and supported them. "We have been able to show them that we support them in their development and progress. We are here to assist the Haitian police maintain law and order and this will instill a sense of confidence in the Haitians that they are not alone, the world is behind them." Pandey added that the Indian contingent is also known for providing medical assistance in many places to the Haitian people besides doing work to support orphanages. "In this way, we get the trust of the Haitian people," he said. Therriault strongly appreciated the service and contribution of the Indian contingent in Haiti during its deployment. "The place where I feel the most home is when I go to the Indian FPU contingent and meet with officers. It is with them that I have had the best Indian food in the Caribbean," Therriault, a Canadian native, said. He added that the legacy of the Indian FPUs, which are part of the UN family of UN police, is to have left a strong professional police force for Haiti. "It is part of helping this country turn a page of its history. After years of international peacekeeping presence in Haiti, now they will take the ownership and responsibility of their own safety and security. "As we are drawing down over the course of the next year, we are really showing the world that this is being done. They (Indian FPUs) need to leave but their legacy will live on and I thank them for that," he said. The first Indian contingent had arrived in Haiti in October 2008, with the current contingent arriving in April this year. The tenure of the Indian contingents, comprising 140 personnel and officers, has been for one year each and currently the 10th contingent is deployed in the mission. Currently, India is the top police contributor to MINUJUSTH, with 280 personnel. MINUJUSTH was created in October 2017, beginning operations upon completion of the mandate of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). Through a resolution, the Security Council had affirmed its intention to consider the withdrawal of MINUJUSTH and transition to a non-peacekeeping presence in Haiti beginning no sooner than October 15, 2019. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Paris Saint-Germain may still be playing catch-up with Europe's traditional giants on the field, but they claim to have already become "the hottest club in the world". That is the boast made by Russell Stopford, the 47-year-old Briton who joined the club last year as their Chief Digital Officer, having previously worked at Manchester City and Barcelona. In an age where clubs seem to be as keen to grow their brand and increase their digital fanbase as they are to win trophies and generate income, there is no doubt that PSG have been transformed this decade under Qatari ownership. PSG have more than 62 million followers across the major social media networks of Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. That leaves them a long way behind the very biggest names on the continent -- Real Madrid and Barcelona each have well over 100 million fans on Facebook alone. PSG, the reigning French champions, had four consecutive runs to the quarter-finals of the Champions League before losing in the last 16 in each of the last two seasons, to Barcelona and then Madrid. However, a defeat against Liverpool on Wednesday could even condemn PSG to a group-stage exit this season, which would be disastrous for a club who spent more than 400 million euros (USD 451.6m) to sign Brazilian star Neymar and prolific teenage forward Kylian Mbappe last year. Liverpool -- last season's runners-up -- carry an aura having lifted the European Cup five times and been English champions 18 times since being founded in 1892. In contrast, PSG were only founded in 1970. Yet they seem to be adapting better to the demands of the digital age -- Liverpool's social media followers lag behind their opponents at under 55 million. "Social media is a new phenomenon and the hottest club in the world is Paris Saint-Germain. That's why we are growing so far," Stopford told AFP. PSG have Twitter feeds in seven languages, including English, Arabic and Portuguese, but also Indonesian. "When we create contents in these different languages, it gives the opportunity to connect directly with our fanbase," says Stopford. "It is also bringing the fans closer to the club, so they can feel part of Paris Saint-Germain." Stopford has a team of 30 people working for him, and the club says it now has more followers in countries like Indonesia and Algeria than in France. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Puneri Paltan produced a superb comeback to beat Haryana Steelers 35-33 in a thrilling Pro Kabaddi Season 6 match here Wednesday. It was a solid all-round effort by Puneri Paltan as they picked up their game in the second half. Haryana Steelers were left ruing a disappointing second half performance. Sandeep Narwal scored seven points for Pune while G B More chipped in with six points. Monu Goyat got 11 points for Haryana but their second half performance let them down. Monu opened Puneri Paltan's account with a two-point raid in the first minute. Haryana Steelers leveled the match at 4-4 with a couple of raid points. Haryana Steelers tightened their grip on the match in the next few minutes as Vikas Kandola's brilliant raid in the ninth minute inflicted an all out on Pune. Puneri Paltan could not recover from that all out in the first half as they struggled to put points on board. Harayan Steelers asserted further domination with another all out in the 17th minute to lead 20-7. Monu Goyat and Vikas Kandola got points at regular intervals as Haryana enjoyed a healthy 15-point lead at the end of the first half. There was a sense of complacency in Haryana's performance in the second half as in 10 minutes they could score just three points. Puneri Paltan's hopes of a comeback were ignited as they inflicted an all out in the 29th minute to trail 21-26. Pune's defence had a first half to forget as they could muster just two tackle points. At the start of the second half, they picked the third tackle point to trail 10-24 after 24 minutes. A super tackle was forced by PuneriPaltan in the 25th minute as they attempted to reduce the point gap. Puneri Paltan were in scintillating form in the second half as they inflicted an all out in the 36th minute to complete a sensational comeback. In the last five minutes, Haryana Steelers could not come to terms with Puneri Paltan's intensity. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) President Vladimir Putin insisted Wednesday that Russian forces had the right to seize three Ukrainian ships at the weekend, as Kiev lashed out at Moscow for failing to release its sailors. In his first extensive remarks since the confrontation at sea on Sunday, Putin said it had been orchestrated by Kiev as a "provocation". He said the Ukrainian ships had entered Russian territorial waters and refused to respond to requests to stop from Russian patrol boats. "What were they (Russian forces) supposed to do?" Putin said when asked about the incident at an international investment forum in Moscow. "They were fulfilling their military duty. They were fulfilling their lawful functions in protecting Russia's borders. They would do the same in your country." Moscow and Kiev have traded angry accusations since Russian navy vessels fired on, boarded and captured the three Ukrainian ships off the coast of Crimea. After warning of the threat of "full-scale war", Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Wednesday signed an act imposing martial law for 30 days in regions bordering Russia, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Western governments have rallied behind Kiev, accusing Russia of illegally blocking access to the Sea of Azov, used by both countries, and of using force without justification. US President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to cancel planned talks with Putin at this week's G20 summit in Buenos Aires over the incident. The Kremlin said it expected the meeting to take place and played down the threat, with Putin's foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov saying: "The meeting is equally needed by both sides." The Ukrainian vessels -- a tug and two gunboats -- were trying to pass through the Kerch Strait from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov, but were refused access and chased into international waters by 10 Russian vessels. Kiev has demanded the return of its ships and the release of 24 sailors taken prisoner during the confrontation. The sailors have been put before a court in Simferopol, the main city in Russian-annexed Crimea, and ordered to be held in pre-trial detention for two months. Detention orders were made against 15 of them on Tuesday, including three still in hospital, and nine more on Wednesday. "We condemn this demonstration of barbarism and are multiplying our efforts to bring our boys home," Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said on Twitter after the court rulings. Ukraine's foreign ministry sent Moscow a diplomatic note in protest at the "illegal" detentions. Sunday's incident was the first direct confrontation between Ukraine and Russia in the long-running conflict pitting Kiev 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. Russian military officials said Wednesday that Moscow would soon deploy more of its advanced S-400 air defence systems in Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. One more of the systems would be joining three others already deployed in Crimea, they said. The Ukrainian parliament on Monday voted in favour of Poroshenko's request for martial law, which gives authorities the power to mobilise citizens with military experience, regulate the media and restrict public rallies in affected areas. It was unclear how it would be applied in the border areas and Poroshenko has suggested it is meant essentially as a preventative measure. The European Union, Britain, Canada, France, Germany and others have expressed support for Kiev, in statements pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestia denounced as "predictably anti-Russian". Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov shifted the blame to the West, accusing the US and Europe of encouraging Ukraine. "I think it reflects Washington's tendency to indulge any and all action taken by the Kiev regime, even inciting them to provocative actions," Lavrov told reporters in Geneva. Moscow has suggested that Kiev provoked the incident to boost support for Poroshenko, who is facing a tough re-election battle in a presidential vote set for next March. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Courtiers around the "naamdar" believe Naxals and Maoists are revolutionaries, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said here Wednesday in a sharp attack against Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Modi, who often refers to Gandhi as "naamdar" (dynast), was addressing a rally ahead of the December 7 elections in this Rajasthan town. "Raag darbari of the naamdar say Naxals and Maoists are revolutionaries," he told the gathering. Close aides of the "naamdar" refer to the Army chief as street thugs, Modi said, asking whether they could protect the nation. Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit last year triggered a row after he likened Army Chief General Bipin Rawat to a "goon on the street", prompting the BJP to demand his expulsion. The Congress distanced itself from the remarks. Dikshit withdrew his remarks and apologised. "We implemented one rank, one pension in the Army. The Congress never worked on that," Modi said, adding that the party insults martyrs. Continuing his attack against the opposition party, he said the "game of scams" had stopped in the four years that his government was in power. "Your dreams are my dreams," he told the gathering. The prime minister also extolled his government's record on terrorism, saying terrorists were confined to Kashmir after 2014. "Don't underestimate the value of your one vote. It secured the country, reduced terrorist attacks and brought fame across the world," he told the crowd. It was his second speech of the day in the state. Earlier in the morning, he addressed a rally in Nagaur. Driving home the difference between himself and the "naamdar", he said in Nagaur that he was like the people and was not born with a golden spoon. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Congress will release its election manifesto for the December 7 Rajasthan polls on Thursday. PCC president Sachin Pilot, former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, chairman of the manifesto committee Harish Chaudhary and other senior leaders of the party will release the manifesto, a party spokesperson said. The party president Rahul Gandhi has already announced to waive farmers'loan within 10 days if the party forms government in the state. A day earlier, the BJP released its manifesto for Rajasthan polls, saying it had met 95 per cent of the promises it had made in 2013. Congress legislator Sharad Ranpise on Wednesday moved a breach of privilege motion against Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil for not tabling the report of the State Backward Class Commission (SBCC) before the Maharashtra Legislative Council. Citing constitutional provisions, Ranpise said that tabling the report along with government's statement as to whether it has accepted or rejected its recommendations was mandatory. However, senior Sena legislator Anil Parab objected, saying that before moving a breach of privilege motion, the member has to seek prior permission of the Council chairman, and at least seven members have to support the motion. Ranpise's motion did not meet these conditions, Parab said. Ranpise said Patil committed a breach of privilege of the members of the house, misleading them by contending that there was no need to table the report. Chairman Ramraje Nimbalkar said he will decide whether to admit the motion or not after seeking a reply from the minister. Meanwhile, government sources said that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had called for a meeting of the cabinet sub-committee on Maratha quota later in the evening to discuss tabling of the Action Taken Report (ATR) over the SBCC report. The government is to table the ATR and a bill on Maratha quota in the Assembly and Council Thursday. The two-week winter session of the legislature will end on November 30. For the sixth consecutive day, opposition members demanded tabling of the SBCC report, which has favoured the Maratha community's demand for reservation in government jobs and educational institutes. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Newly weds Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone on Wednesday hosted a party for family friends and select media persons. The couple, who got married in two separate ceremonies on November 14 and 15 in Italy, has been on a spree of hosting parties for their near and dear ones who could not attend the wedding. Ranveer and Deepika looked resplendent in Abu Jani-Sandeep Khosla colour coordinated ensemble. While Deepika wore a white and golden sequinned saree with a heavy 'chunni' covering her head, her husband, known for his unique fashion sense, was seen in a sherwani teamed up with a long skirt. Deepika's family was dressed in white while Ranveer's wore black for the reception held at a suburban five-star hotel here. Before the ceremony, the couple arrived hand-in-hand to pose for camera persons. At the ceremony, Sufi music played in the background as the couple met and greeted all their guests with huge smiles on their faces. They are now set to host another and final reception for their colleagues and friends from Bollywood on December 1. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday registered a record 75 per cent voter turnout for the state Assembly polls that was marred by complaints of faulty EVMs with the BJP looking for a fourth straight term in a tough battle with a resurgent Congress which is eyeing a comeback after 15 years. The voting figures in the one-phase polls for 230 seats, which was peaceful, was 74.61 per cent and it is likely to go up after the final tally, poll officials said. The previous highest was in the 2013 Assembly polls when the turnout was 72.69 per cent. Voters turned out in large numbers in three constituencies in Naxal-affected Balaghat district with the tally being 75.05 per cent in Baihar, 79.07 per cent in Lanjhi and 80.05 per cent in Paraswada, officials said. Polling in the state was marred by complaints of faulty Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVVPAT) machines. The state Chief Electoral Officer V L Kantha Rao told reporters that 1,145 EVMs and 1,545 VVPATs were replaced after complaints of technical snags. About 2.5 per cent (polling) machines were replaced, Rao said, adding this percentage was around two per cent in other states where elections were held recently. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who is seeking a fourth term, and his wife Sadhana Singh cast their votes at his native village Jait, which is part of his Budhni Assembly constituency. Polling was held between 8 am and 5 pm in 227 seats, while in naxal affected areas of Lanji, Paraswada and Baihar the voting time was between 7 am and 3 pm. Those who were in the queue at the polling booths till 5 pm were allowed to vote, Rao said, adding polling there was underway at 2,200 polling stations. "There was no demand for re-polling. Poll officials received 386 complaints and all of them were resolved," he added. Three employees died due to "health reasons" while performing poll duty in Dhar, Indore and Guna districts, he said. At Gadhpura village in Bhind district, a person was injured in violence but it was not poll-related, he said. The incident happened "far from the booth" and was related to enmity between two groups, he added. On reports that some EVMs were found in a hotel, Rao said, "We got information that a sector officer in Shujalpur was staying in a hotel along with ballot machines. On getting information, a team of officers reached the hotel and seized the machine. The officer concerned was removed (from poll duty) and the polling team was sent along with a new sector officer." Leaders of Congress, which is in a straight fight with BJP to win the crucial election in the central Indian state, claimed that EVMs at many places malfunctioned. "There were several complaints that EVMs at many places malfunctioned. We had requested the Election Commission that voting time in these polling booths should be extended to compensate for the delay," Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia said. The Commission should compensate for time wasted in replacing EVMs by extending polling time, the Guna MP said. State Congress president Kamal Nath said there were reports from across the state that EVMs did not work at many places. "This affected polling. Long queues were witnessed..." he said. Chief Election Commissioner O P Rawat said in Delhi there are provisions for the extension of time and local officers (in Madhya Pradesh) were empowered to take a call on the issue. Nath cast his vote in Chhindwara district while Scindia, the party's state campaign committee chief, exercised his franchise in Gwalior. There were 2,899 candidates in the fray. The state has 5.04 crore eligible voters. Altgether 3,00,782 government employees were on poll duty and 65,341 polling stations were set up for polling, which was peaceful, Rao said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Renowned Tabla maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain performed in front of a big crowd at India House, Indian Embassy here. The two-hour-long performance by Hussain along with three members of his team on Tuesday was attended by around 1,500 people including chief justice, Parliament Speaker, Foreign Minister of Nepal and other senior leaders of political parties. Hussain was accompanied by Anantha Krishnan on Mridangam, Sabir Khan on Sarangi and Navin Sharma on Dholak. Ambassador of India Manjeev Singh Puri on the occasion introduce the musical team led by Hussain to the distinguished guests. He mesmerized the audience with his energetic, contemporary and classical portrayal of tabla playing. The concert with Hussain took place in Nepal after a gap of 17 years to mark 70 years of India-Nepal diplomatic relations and to cherish shared musical heritage of both the countries, said a release by Embassy of India today. Zakir Hussain had performed in Nepal way back in 1997 with flutist Hariprasad Chaurasiya and in 2001 with Ustad Sultan Khan in Sarangi. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) / -- 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 cohort 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. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Opposition RJD legislators led by Rabri Devi Wednesday created ruckus in the Bihar Legislative Council over demand for immediate discussion on the "political misuse" of CBI, following which five of its MLCs were suspended for the remaining two days of the winter session. Suspension of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) members for "disrespecting the chair" further infuriated the party legislators, who later sat on a dharna inside the state's Upper House. Congress, an ally of the RJD in the 'mahagathbandhan', joined them in the agitation inside the House and also lent support to their dharna. The RJD has nine MLCs in the 75-member Bihar Legislative Council, while Congress has a strength of three. The ruling JD(U) has 32 members, while its ally BJP has 22 MLCs. The Lalu Prasad Yadav-led RJD had raised the issue of "political misuse" of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) vociferously in the Legislative Assembly too, resulting in the disruption of the House during the day. Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, Tejashwi Yadav also joined the MLCs agitation. The RJD has been alleging that the NDA government at the Centre was "misusing" CBI against opposition leaders, including Lalu Prasad, who is presently in a Ranchi jail following conviction in fodder scam cases. Tejashwi told reporters that CBI was being misused with Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi meeting the agency officials in Delhi regarding cases against opposition leaders. Meanwhile, Deputy Chairman of the Council Haroon Rashid gave an assurance to withdraw the suspension of the RJD members. "In legislative business, such incidents sometimes do happen. The suspension will be withdrawn when the House reassembles on Thursday," he told PTI. Asked whether the RJD MLCs had indulged in any kind of physical violence, Rashid said, "Nothing of the sort had happened. They had been demanding a debate on their adjournment motion without following the due process". "Moreover, it is considered a disrespect to the Chair when the person heading the House rises and appeals to the members to take their seats, but the latter go on raising slogans. So they were held guilty of disrespect to Chair and thus suspended. But the issue has now been resolved," he said. Following the assurance, the RJD decided to end the demonstration. Tejashwi Yadav and his mother Rabri Devi told journalists it was a victory of the Opposition and the defeat of the government. No government can function without the Opposition, they said.. As the Upper House commenced the days proceedings at noon, opposition members were adamant on a discussion on alleged political misuse of the CBI through an adjournment motion. Amid unruly scenes, the House was adjourned till 2 pm. After the House reassembled, the Industrial Disputes (Bihar Amendment) Bill, 2018 was passed amid bedlam. With no letup in the noisy protest by the RJD MLCs over their demand, the Chair ordered suspension of five members for the remaining two days of the current session. The suspended MLCs are Radha Charan Seth, Subodh Kumar, Dilip Kumar Rai, Qamar-e-Alam and Syed Khurshid Ahmed. "Bihar has been shamed by sharpest ever criticism by the Supreme Court in the Muzaffarpur shelter home sex scandal case. Despite all this, attempt is being made by the government to throttle our voice and implicate us in false cases. The protest will continue till justice is done," Tejashwi Yadav said. Congress MLC Prem Chandra Mishra told reporters mikes of opposition members were switched off at times at the direction of Sushil Modi. Meanwhile, miffed over the developments of the day, the deputy chief minister tweeted the RJD acquires political power by misleading the people and uses the same to amass benami property for one family. "Its members did not allow issues concerning the public to be raised and the valuable time of the winter session was wasted in an attempt to save a convicted person. They do not want logical discussion but a democracy driven by their muscle power," Modi said. JD(U) MLC and spokesman Neeraj Kumar tweeted, "The opposition's obstinacy is baffling. It has been adamant on violating the rules of proceedings and unmindful of the instructions of the Chair". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Veteran screenwriter Salim Khan was honoured for his lifetime contribution to Indian cinema at the 49th edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) on Wednesday in what was largely a bland ceremony. Producer-actor Arbaaz Khan, son of Salim Khan, accepted the IFFI Special Award on behalf of his father. Khan, one half of Bollywood's popular writing duo Salim-Javed credited for films such as "Zanjeer", "Sholay" and "Deewar" among others, marked his presence via a text message which was read by Arbaaz, who attended the event with rumoured girlfriend Giorgia Andriani. "I want to thank IFFI, Information & Broadcasting Ministry, Government of India for honouring me with Indian Personality for Lifetime Contribution to Indian cinema. I dedicate this award to Indore, my birthplace and Mumbai my workplace, the film industry which has given me everything. "I would so like to thank Mr Javed Akhtar without whose contribution it would not have been possible," Salim Khan said in the message. In the valedictorian ceremony, Sergei Loznitsa-directed film "Donbass" won the biggest award of the evening, Golden Peacock. Lijo Jose Pellissery scored Silver Peacock for Best Direction for "Ee Maa Yove" while Silver Peacock for Best Actor (Female) went to Anastasiia Pustovit for "When the Trees Fall". Chemban Vinod won Silver Peacock for Beat Actor (Male) "Ee Maa Yove". Dominique Fishback and Tatum Marilyn Hall bagged Special Mention (Acting) for "Night Comes On". Praveen Morchhale's "Walking with the Wind" won the ICFT UNESCO Gandhi Award and "Los Silencios" bagged a special mention in the category. Centenary Award for Best Debut Film of a Director was given to Alberto Montreal for "Respeto". "Aga", directed by Milko Lazarov, won special jury award in the segment, whereas "Volcano" and "To-Let" received special mention. Vijai Sardesai, Minister for Town & Country Planning, Government of Goa, said people compare Cannes to IFFI and they plan to make Goa the "Cannes of Asia". "They say Cannes is about freedom and IFFI is about red tapism. We will make amends next year... It will be a jewel in the crown of India," Sardesai said. The minister also paid tributes to Italian filmmaker Bernando Bertolucci, who passed away at the age of 77 on Monday. KJ Alphons, Minister of State for Tourism (Independent Charge), Govt. of India, talked about how he went from a child who would buy a 25 paisa ticket to watch a film in his village to a "Union minister in honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government". Without naming Aamir Khan, the Union minister said it was through power of films (like "Dangal") that the Bollywood actor had become the second most influential Indian in China after PM Modi. "I don't know if anywhere in the world films are made on sanitary pads and toilets..." he said. Alphons added, "There are a lot of people who have sacrificed their lives for this country. There are a lot of ideas for filmmakers to make realistic films." The daring dance act by XIX group on songs such as "Gajanana" and "Malhari" in the beginning set a tone to the event, which could not maintain its momentum. A romantic medley by Vipin Aneja did little to lift the spirits. The event was hosted by Sophie Choudry and Arjan Bajwa. This year country of focus was Israel and state of focus was Jharkhand. Also present were Anil Kapoor, Jim Sarbh, Diana Penty, Rakulpreet Singh, Kabir Bedi, Goa Governor Mridula Sinha and BJP Delhi chief Manoj Tiwari, among other stars and politicians. Rajyavardhan Rathore, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India, urged people, via a video message, to be in Goa next year for its 50th edition. The movie extravaganza, that screened 212 films from 68 countries in the last eight days, was declared closed with a promise of meeting next year in Goa for the golden jubilee celebrations. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Film director A R Murugadoss, whose Vijay-starrer 'Sarkar' has drawn the ire of the ruling AIADMK, Wednesday declined to give an undertaking to not criticise government policies in future movies as demanded by the state in lieu of a no-objection for his anticipatory bail plea. Counsel for the director said the petitioner would not give any undertaking as demanded by the prosecution. "It is against his fundamental right guaranteed under the Constitution. Moreover, no citizen of this country has the right to waive his fundamental right," the counsel said. "Let them (prosecution) register case if offence is made out," he added. Recording the submissions, Justice G K Ilanthiraiyan granted two weeks to the state to register a case if cognisable offence is made out and directed that Murugadoss shall not be arrested till then. AIADMK workers had staged protests against the film, released earlier this month, after several ministers took exception to scenes in the film criticising welfare schemes and a reference to former chief minister late J Jayalalithaa. The counsel for the director had earlier informed the court that the objectionable portions had been removed from the film. On November 9, apprehending arrest in connection with the issue, Murugadoss moved the court, seeking anticipatory bail. Registering strong opposition to the bail application, public prosecutor A Natarajan demanded that the director give an undertaking stating he would not criticise the policies of the government in his future movies. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court Wednesday directed the CBI to conduct probe into the allegations of physical and sexual abuse of inmates in 16 shelter homes in Bihar which were flagged in a report of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). The report had highlighted rampant sexual and physical abuse of inmates in several shelter homes in the state. A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur, S A Nazeer and Deepak Gupta transferred the investigation being conducted by Bihar Police to CBI and dismissed the state government's fervent request not to do so and grant them a week to rectify the problems. The apex court said the report of TISS, which was given to the Bihar government earlier this year, had raised grave concern about 17 shelter homes in Bihar and the CBI must look into all of them. Out of these, the case of Muzaffarpur shelter home, where several girls were allegedly raped and sexually abused, is already being investigated by the CBI. At the outset, the CBI's counsel told the bench that he has taken instructions on whether the agency could probe all these matter. "The interim director (of CBI) has told me that court number one (of the apex court) has asked him not to take any policy decision. Tomorrow, the CBI case is coming up in court number one," he said. The CBI counsel was referring to a separate matter that is pending before a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, in which CBI Director Alok Kumar Verma has challenged the Centre's decision to divest him of his duties and sending him on leave. The bench headed by Justice Gogoi had earlier directed acting CBI Director M Nageswara Rao not to take major policy decisions. During the hearing on Wednesday, when the CBI's counsel referred to the order asking acting CBI director not to take any policy decision, Justice Lokur observed, "This does not say that all investigation should stop". "It (order) does say that he (Rao) will not take any policy decision but that does not mean that all investigation will stop," the bench said, adding that, "tomorrow's matter has nothing to do with this, absolutely nothing". "You find out if the CBI is ready to take up the investigation. Tell us after five minutes," the bench told the CBI's counsel. The counsel appearing for Bihar said they have carried out requisite rectifications and investigating officers (IOs) probing the shelter homes cases have been directed to add stringent provisions, including section 377 (unnatural offences) of the Indian Penal Code, against the accused in some of the matters. "Can such a direction be issued to the IOs under the law?," the bench asked. When the state's counsel referred to a provision of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) to buttress his arguments, the bench observed, "This provision is not applicable here." When Bihar's counsel said that superior officers could give such a direction to the IOs, the court said, "It will leave more loopholes in the case". The bench noted in its order that it was not at all satisfied with the contents of the communication sent to IOs directing them to add offences under stringent provisions in these cases. At this juncture, the CBI's counsel said he has taken instructions from the interim director and "in-principle" the CBI was ready to take up all these cases for investigation. Bihar's counsel requested that the court should give them one week's time and they would file a status report giving details of all the shelter home cases. When he said every case should not be sent to CBI, the bench observed, "If state governments does it work properly, then every matter is not required to be sent to the CBI". Bihar's counsel said that state was acting with "all sincerity" in these cases and court's order transferring these matters to CBI "will eventually cast a doubt" on them. "Kindly do not pass this order now. Give us one week. We will file a status report. You can go through the status report and then if you will still feel the need to transfer the cases to CBI, then you pass the order," he said. The court refused to accept the contentions of the state and asked CBI to probe all these cases. It also made it clear that CBI officers probing shelter home cases in Bihar will not be transferred without its prior permission. The CBI's counsel also informed the bench that they would file a charge sheet by December 7 in the Muzaffarpur case. He said since CBI has been asked to investigate all these cases, the interim director has requested that the probe team should be expanded. The bench allowed the request and granted permission to the interim director to expand the probe team and also asked Bihar government to render all assistance to the agency. At the fag end of hearing, lawyer Aparna Bhat, assisting the top court as an amicus curiae in the matter, referred to a report of the Centre and said there were 1,028 shelter homes across India where instances of sexual and physical abuse have been reported. "Do not mix it up with this case," the bench said and posted the matter for hearing on December 12. The court was hearing a plea seeking lodging of FIRs and court-monitored probe by an independent agency into alleged physical and sexual abuse of inmates in several shelter homes in Bihar. 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. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed a National Green Tribunal (NGT) direction allowing regularization of unauthorised structures in Kasauli, a popular tourist destination in Himachal Pradesh, after paying environmental compensation. A bench of justices M B Lokur, S Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta said that the October 5 direction of the NGT shall be stayed till further orders. "It appears to us that direction number 5 (of the NGT) is not in consonance with the directions issued by this court from time to time in the matter. In these circumstances, until further orders the direction number 5 is stayed," the bench said and posted the matter for hearing in second week of January 2019. The NGT, while hearing a matter related to unauthorised construction in Kasauli, had on October 5 passed a slew of directions including regularisation of unauthorised structures after payment of environmental compensation. The direction number 5 in the order passed by NGT said, "With respect to unauthorized structures where plans have been submitted and construction work with deviation have been completed prior to this judgment and the authorities consider it appropriate to regularize such structures beyond the sanctioned plan.... "The same shall not be compounded or regularized without payment of environmental compensation at the rate of Rs.5,000 per sq. ft. for exclusive self-occupied residential buildings and Rs.10,000 per sq. ft. for commercial or residential-cum-commercial buildings." The green panel had said that the compensation amount collected should be utilized for development of environment of the area and should be kept in a separate account. At the outset, senior advocate P S Patwalia, appointed as amicus curiae to assist the court in the matter, said that the direction of the NGT virtually nullifies the decision of the apex court by regularizing unauthorized construction. He also said that the said direction has wide ramifications as it also nullifies the judgment of the Himachal Pradesh High Court. Referring to the status report filed by Himachal Pradesh Government, Patwalia said that an expert committee has said that there were problems of water facilities and Kasauli has already exceeded its carrying capacity. Advocate General Ashok Sharma, appearing for the state government, said that they already have a scheme for water supply in and around Kasuali. The bench then posted the matter to second week of January. On October 25, the state government had told the apex court that departmental action has been initiated against erring public servants who were posted in Kasauli when unauthorised constructions happened there. The state government had said that preliminary inquiry has been initiated against public servants, who were found to be negligent in performing their duties, and show cause notices were also issued to them. It had informed the court that demolition of unauthorised constructions at several hotels and resorts in Kasauli has also been done and the state was proceeding in accordance with the law for curbing such instances in future. The state had also told the court that illegal constructions would be sealed for one year and if requisite permissions and regularisation are not taken within this period, the unauthorised structures would be demolished. The court had then made it clear that unauthorised floor of a building cannot be regularised. Earlier the state government had informed the court about the status of a case in which on May 1, Assistant Town and Country Planner Shail Bala Sharma, who had gone to supervise the demolition of unauthorised construction at Kasauli's Narayani Guest House, was shot dead allegedly by the owner of the building. The state had said that the accused was in judicial custody. The court had earlier taken cognisance of the Kasauli incident in which Sharma was killed, terming it as very unfortunate and observed that it had happened due to "non-implementation" of the law. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By Prakash Katoch On November 19, Indias Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) announced a blueprint for construction of strategic roads and permanent integrated buildings along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) between India and China in the states of Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim. It is a project worth 250 billion rupees (US$35 billion). It envisages construction of 19 roads and 29 permanent integrated buildings. The report states that construction of this critical infrastructure will be a challenging task for the executing agency since the job involves construction of 2-meter-wide roads in mountainous and rugged terrain. The decision to fast-track the construction of roads and other critical infrastructure on the Chinese border assumes significance as it is happening at a time when India is looking to fend off the dragons threat on its northeastern border. The blueprint is yet to be approved by the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS). The committee is also to consider other border-related projects in such states as Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura. Eighteen coastal border outposts are to be constructed in Gujarat to strengthen the vigil along its coast, the longest mainland coastline in India. The executing agency is also to take up fencing and road-construction work along the India-Bangladesh border in Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura. With reference to resolution of border infrastructure in Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, NDTV reported, some issues involving forest and wildlife clearance and land acquisition have been resolved, implying that much more of this is yet to be resolved. With general elections due next year, political parties ruling in New Delhi and in the state capitals are spending millions of rupees to advertise their achievements since the last general elections in 2014. But there is deafening silence regarding achievements in terms of border infrastructure in this time period. Ground reports indicate that this is because very little has been done and whatever has come up is of poor quality. Unfortunately, India is still mostly planning on paper while Chinas border infrastructure is vastly superior and is consolidating in Bhutan and along the LAC. Of the 14 strategic railways required, only four appear to be planned. Both Indias Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defense and the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) have rapped the government periodically for the slow pace of border infrastructure development. In March 2017, the CAG pointed out that of the 61 projects (3,409.27 kilometers) of 73 roads allotted to the Border Roads Organization (BRO) and 12 roads to the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) and other civil organizations, the BRO had completed only 12 roads by 2012, and of the remaining 46, only seven by March 2016. Overall 22 roads had been completed as of March 2016 despite incurring an expenditure of 45.36 billion rupees against the estimated cost of 46.44 billion rupees for 61 roads. There were also numerous instances of defective construction of roads due to faulty design, steep gradients, defective alignment, vehicle-turning problems, improper contract management, poor riding conditions, inadequate drainage facilities and non-connectivity of roads, this apart from delays, with additional expenditure of 630 million rupees on account of corrective action. Last year the Ministry of Defense (MoD) gave additional financial and administration powers to the BRO by way of according administrative approval, accepting contracts, procuring construction equipment, and engaging big construction companies to take up road projects on a turnkey basis. Not much acceleration has happened on ground. In fact, the whole concept of making the MHA responsible for development of border infrastructure seems to be skewed, as the executing agency is the BRO, which is directly under the MoD. Charged with external defense, the MoD must be responsible for development of border infrastructure, especially in sensitive regions of Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh and Sikkim. Looking at the magnitude of the task, clear division of development of roads must be made between the private sector and the BRO; engaging of private sector for border infrastructure need not be only through the BRO. Priorities of the MoD and MHA with reference to external threats may not be the same. The MHA appears charged with more than what it can handle; for example, of the projects slated to be approved by the CCS, the MHA is to address borders with multiple counties as well as the coast. Political influences and considerations also come into play, as indicated from the mention of 18 coastal border outposts to be constructed in Gujarat while the entire west and east coasts are threatened, with arms smuggling and an influx of Rohingya from the east coast happening in the past. There is also a need for clarification as to what the proposed 29 permanent integrated buildings are and for whom these are meant. A realistic assessment of the state of preparedness of Indias border infrastructure must be made with timelines drawn to fast-track development, incorporating private players for road infrastructure, and complementing capabilities of the BRO. The LAC should be under the MoD, which should directly control border infrastructure development along that border. Not making these changes would be detrimental to Indias defense. The Supreme Court Wednesday directed the CBI to take over the probe into allegations of physical and sexual abuse of inmates at 16 shelter homes in Bihar. A bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur transferred the investigation being conducted by Bihar Police to the CBI, and dismissed the state government's request not to do so. The apex court said that the report of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) raises grave concern about 17 shelter homes in Bihar and the CBI must look into all of them. Of these, the Muzaffarpur case is already being looked into by the CBI. CBI told the bench, also comprising justices S A Nazeer and Deepak Gupta, that in principle it was ready to take over the investigation. The agency is already investigating the Muzaffarpur shelter home case in which it is expected to file a charge sheet by December 7, the court was told. The apex court also said that CBI officers probing the shelter home cases in Bihar will not be transferred without its prior permission. The top court had yesterday 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 had favoured a CBI investigation in these matters. The court had said that the state was "very soft" and "very selective" in registering FIRs against the perpetrators and had asked the Bihar government whether these children were not the citizens of this country. The apex court had 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 the allegations that children were sodomised at the shelter homes. The counsel appearing for Bihar had 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, had claimed that the state was going "soft" in these cases and FIRs have been lodged under less heinous offences. Naphade had referred to the report of TISS and said that offence under section 377 of IPC was made out as several children were sodomised in the shelter homes. The court had 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. Later, the bench was of the view that CBI should probe all these matters because if the state police continued with the investigation, the truth would never come out. The court had also said that as per TISS report, there were 17 shelter homes where the allegations were of grave nature. The bench, after perusing the affidavit filed by state, had asked why FIRs were lodged in matters relating to five child care institutions only when there were nine such institutions. The bench had 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, had said these were "offences against the mankind". He had 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. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) :Taking exception to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's criticism against the TRS government for not joining 'Ayushman Bharat', caretaker Chief Minister Chandrasekhar Rao Wednesday said that the schemes implemented in the state are much better than the Central scheme. "Narendra Modi introduced a scheme.It's name is 'Ayushman Bharat'. A big bogus matter. (We have) to become a member of 'Ayushman Bharat' to avail the great medical facility he gives. To become a member, there are 50 conditions," he said. Rao, the caretaker Chief Minister, claimed that the scheme would not be applicable even if one owns a motorbike. "There are many conditions. Not even 20 per cent will get. Even in a 'Lambadi Thanda' (tribal habitation), there are 50-50 motorcycles....Then nobody will get Modi's scheme," he said, addressing an election campaign meeting at Narsapur near Medak. The 'Arogya Sri' and Chief Minister's Relief Fund being implemented by the state government are much better than 'Ayushman Bharat', he said. "Why should the state lose the existing medical facility by joining Ayushman Bharat"? Rao asked. "We are implementing the Chief Minister's Relief Fund, Arogya Sri scheme. We are spending lakhs of Rupees to protect people. Very excellent scheme. He came yesterday (and said) you did not participate in Ayushman Bharat. Should we lose the facility we have by participating. Should the existing facility go, Modiji?," he asked. The Telananga BJP president should answer as to why the state join 'Ayushman Bharat' when the state scheme is good,Rao said. "Why should we join yours when ours is good?" he asked. He asked Modi whether Rs 1,000 social security pension to the poor and free power to farmers were being given in any of the 19 states that BJP is in power. He said he felt pained over Modi saying that the power situation was not good in Telangana. He asked the gathering if electricity was available there or not,to which they responded positively. Rao said those holding high posts should be careful about what they speak. Rao explained the steps taken by the TRS government to ensure effective power supply. He also spoke about various welfare schemes of his government. Speaking in Telangana Tuesday, Modi 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. Modi said the chief minister had once asserted he would transform Nizamabad into a smart city like London, but the cithy was still grappling with shortage of water, electricity and proper roads. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Researchers have regrown hair strands on damaged skin by stirring crosstalk among skin cells that form the roots of hair. The findings by researchers at the New York University (NYU) School of Medicine in the US better explain why hair does not normally grow on wounded skin. The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, may help in the search for better drugs to restore hair growth. It examined the effect of distinct signalling pathways in damaged skin of laboratory mice. Experiments focused on cells called fibroblasts that secrete collagen, the structural protein most responsible for maintaining the shape and strength of skin and hair. Researchers activated the sonic hedgehog signalling pathway used by cells to communicate with each other. The pathway is known to be very active during the early stages of human growth in the womb, when hair follicles are formed, but is otherwise stalled in wounded skin in healthy adults. Researchers said this possibly explains why hair follicles fail to grow in skin replaced after injury or surgery. "Our results show that stimulating fibroblasts through the sonic hedgehog pathway can trigger hair growth not previously seen in wound healing," said Mayumi Ito, an associate professor at NYU. Regrowing hair on damaged skin is an unmet need in medicine, Ito said, because of the disfigurement suffered by thousands from trauma, burns, and other injuries. However, her more immediate goal, she said, is to signal mature skin to revert back to its embryonic state so that it can grow new hair follicles, not just on wounded skin, but also on people who have gone bald from ageing. Ito said scientists have until now assumed that, as part of the healing process, scarring and collagen buildup in damaged skin were behind its inability to regrow hair. "Now we know that it's a signalling issue in cells that are very active as we develop in the womb, but less so in mature skin cells as we age," she said. Key among the study's findings was that no signs of hair growth were observed in untreated skin, but were observed in treated skin, offering evidence that sonic hedgehog signalling was behind the hair growth, researchers said. To bypass the risk of tumours reported in other experiments that turned on the sonic hedgehog pathway, the team turned on only fibroblasts located just beneath the skin's surface where hair follicle roots (dermal papillae) first appear. Researchers also zeroed in on fibroblasts because the cells are known to help direct some of the biological processes involved in healing. Hair regrowth was observed within four weeks after skin wounding in all treated mice, with hair root and shaft structures starting to appear after nine weeks. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Scotching rumours that the ruling Sikkim Democratic Front would contest the next polls in alliance with the BJP, the SDF on Wednesday said it would go it alone in the assembly and Lok Sabha elections in 2019. Since the inception of the party 27 years ago, the SDF has contested all the elections on its own and the people of Sikkim have blessed the party in every polls, party spokespersons Bhim Dahal, KT Gyaltsen and TN Sharma said. "The SDF will contest the assembly and parliamentary elections in 2019 on its own under the able leadership of the party supremo and Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling," Dahal said. He alleged that opposition parties were spreading rumours to create seeds of doubt about the SDF among people. On the SDF being constituent of the BJP-led NDA and the North-East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), another spokesperson KT Gyaltsen said the party has always been a part of the coalition of the party ruling at the Centre. This is required to safeguard interests of the Himalayan state sharing borders with China, Nepal and Bhutan, Gyaltsen said. Spokesperson TN Sharma said the party's long standing demand to increase the strength of Sikkim assembly from the existing 32 to 40 has yet to be met. The demand for reservation of assembly seats for the Limboo and Tamang communities, accorded Scheduled Tribes (ST) status in 2002, also remained unfulfilled, he said. The SDF has decided to give five tickets to Limboo and Tamang communities in the next assembly polls from the 17 general seats, he said. Of the remaining 15 seats, 12 are reserved for Bhutia-Lepcha communities, two for Scheduled Castes and one for the 'Sangha'. The 'Sangha' seat is the one of its kind in India which was created under Article 371 (F) of the Constitution to give monks' representation in governance as was done during the rule of the erstwhile Chogyal kings. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Senators who have grown increasingly uneasy with the US response to Saudi Arabia after the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi are set to grill top administration officials Wednesday at a closed-door briefing that could determine how far Congress goes in punishing the longtime Middle East ally. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says "some kind of response" is needed from the United States for the Saudis' role in the gruesome death. While President Donald Trump has equivocated over who is to blame, the Senate is considering a vote as soon as this week to halt US involvement in the Saudi-led war in Yemen. "What obviously happened, as basically certified by the CIA, is completely abhorrent to everything the United States holds dear and stands for in the world," McConnell said Tuesday. "We're discussing what the appropriate response would be." Much will depend on what senators hear from Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Administration officials were able to stall a Senate effort earlier this year against the Saudi-backed conflict in Yemen. But senators are outraged over the administration's response to Khashoggi's killing, and they're particularly upset that no one from the intelligence community is attending Wednesday's briefing. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, one of 10 Democrats who declined to join the earlier effort against the Saudis, said Tuesday he was reconsidering his position. "Things changed," Manchin said. "The whole thing with Khashoggi is very much concerning. It's not who we are as a country. It's not who we should have as allies and not condemn that." The top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, will likely be in favor of the Yemen resolution, and another key member of the panel, Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said he was "inclined" to support it now if it came up for a vote. Senators are getting hammered by outside groups running ads and lobbying them for action. "What I would argue to the administration is that somehow or another there's got to be a price to pay for what has happened," said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., the chairman of the committee. "My sense is, unless something happens where they share what it is they're going to do to deal with this injustice that has occurred my sense is that people are going to vote to get on the bill." The resolution from Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, fell just six votes short of passage earlier this year. It drew a mix of Democrats and Republicans who have grown uneasy with US involvement in the Saudi-led campaign against the Houthis, the Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen, in war that human rights advocates say is indiscriminately bombing civilians and wreaking havoc on the country. That was long before the Oct. 2 death of Khashoggi, the U.S.-educated journalist who was publicly critical of the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. Khashoggi was killed in what U.S. officials have described as an elaborate plot at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, which he had visited for marriage paperwork. While U.S. intelligence officials have concluded the crown prince must have at least known of the plot, the CIA's findings have not been made public. Trump has said it may never be known who was responsible for the killing and in public comments and a long and unusual statement last week the president reinforced the United States' long-standing alliance with the Saudis. Trump has praised a pending arms deal with the kingdom that he says will provide the U.S. with jobs and lucrative payments, though some outside assessments say the economic benefits are exaggerated. Several GOP senators, including key allies Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Rand Paul of Kentucky, have publicly questioned Trump's handling of the situation. Paul is trying to block the arms sale. "If you don't draw the line here, where do you draw the line?" Graham asked reporters Tuesday. He, too, supports blocking the arms sale and said giving the crown prince "a pass on murdering a critic doesn't make the world a safer place." The resolution needs just a simple majority to advance, but a vote is not certain this week. It could launch a process for amending the bill that could play out for days in the Senate. Kate Kizer, policy director at the advocacy group Win Without War, said the pressure on the senators "is working." On a conference call with reporters, Sarah Margon, the Washington director at Human Rights Watch, said Khashoggi's death "brought home the brutality" of the Saudi regime, and that's putting pressure on Congress to act. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Violence must be stopped and peace should be restored between India and Pakistan, Punjab cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu said Wednesday as he described the Kartarpur Corridor as a major opportunity to open the hearts of the people in the two neighbouring countries. Sidhu, who attended the groundbreaking ceremony of the Kartarpur Corridor on the Pakistani side, said both the government should realise that they have to move forward. Prime Minister Imran Khan Wednesday laid the foundation stone for the corridor linking Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan's Kartarpur - the final resting place of Sikh faith's founder Guru Nanak Dev - to Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India's Gurdaspur district. Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan is located across the river Ravi, about four kilometres from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine. 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. The Kartarpur Corridor, which will facilitate the visa-free travel of Sikh pilgrims on both sides, is expected to be completed within six months. Sidhu congratulated his 'friend' Khan for the initiative and hoped that their will be love and peace between both the nations. He said there had been enough bad blood and that the corridor would be a major opportunity to open the doors of the hearts of the people. "Violence must stop and peace should return to the region," he said. Sidhu said that both the nations should seek a path of brotherhood and live in harmony without any fear with the blessing of Guru Nanak Dev. Sidhu said that if the borders between both countries opened, it would be possible to transport goods to different parts of Pakistan and even others countries. "This is my hope, this is my dream ... While there is blood in my veins, I will continue to thank both governments," he said. "My father used to tell me that Punjab Mail went till Lahore, I believe that it can go further till Peshawar, till Afghanistan," he said. He said his "big hearted" friend Khan has kept his promise and ended 70 years of wait for the corridor. "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," he said ahead of the ceremony. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Six UK nationals were deported to their country on Wednesday for allegedly performing dangerous stunts from a high-rise building in Mumbai's Dadar locality, a senior police official said. The foreigners were found jumping from the terrace of one high rise to another in Dadar. Police had launched a probe into the matter after the video of their stunt went viral on social media on Tuesday. "We brought them to the police station after identifying them based on the video of the alleged incident," the official said. They told the police that they were UK nationals and admitted to having performed the stunts, he said. All of them had come to India on visitors' visa and were scheduled to attend an event in Worli on December 2, he said. "Following an inquiry, they were deported to their country on Wednesday for violating visa norms by indulging in such acts," the official said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) NCP chief Sharad Pawar Wednesday said some people were trying to spread "regressive" thoughtsin the society. He was speaking at an event organised here to mark the 128th death anniversary of social reformer Jyotiba Phule. Pawar was presented with Mahatma Phule Samata Puraskar at the hands of former President Pratibha Patil during the event. "Phule worked for equality in the society. He, along with his wife Savitribai Phule, played a pivotal role in making education available to everyone, including women, despite stiff opposition at that time," he said. "Today, some people are once again trying to spread regressive thoughts in the society. A statue of Manu was installed outside the Rajasthan High Court by the people who are in power. "It shows that such thoughts are still prevalent in the minds of people, who are in key positions," he said. The former Union minister added that in order to eradicate 'Manuvad' (Manu's ideology), there is a need to spread the thoughts and teachings of Jyotiba and Savitribai Phule. "By spreading the thoughts of the Phules, people from all the sections in the society will get equal treatment," he said. NCP leader and former Maharashtra deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal was also present on the occasion. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Sony has started planning a sequel to "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" even before the feature hits the theatres. The studio is developing a "Spider-Verse" sequel, which will continue the adventures of Brooklyn teen Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore), according to The Hollywood Reporter. The animated feature, directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman and also featuring actors Jake Johnson, Liev Schreiber, Mahershala Ali, Brian Tyree Henry, Hailee Steinfeld and Lily Tomlin, is set to release on December 14. For the sequel, Sony tapped Joaquim Dos Santos, best known for "Avatar: The Last Airbender" and "Voltron" series, as the director while David Callaham is penning the script. The studio is also working multiple spin-offs, including an all-female Spider-Women film that will focus on three generations of web-slinging women. Bek Smith has been hired to write the story for the spin-off. Director Lauren Montgomery is in negotiations to helm the project. "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse", based on Marvel comics, is set in an alternate universe from Sony's other Spider-Man properties but introduces a shared multiverse. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Guwahati: Journalists Forum Assam (JFA) welcomes the verdict of Delhi High Court staying the retrenchment of 297 employees of Press Trust of India (PTI) and congratulates the employees for the historic legal success. It may be noted that the higher court on 27 November 2018 passed an order to stay retrenchment of those PTI employees pointing out that the arbitrary policy of management didnt follow the concerned rules. Earlier the management of India's most trusted news agency had sacked 297 employees (out of total 530 workers across the country) in a single day (29 September) arguing that there was no work for them. Most of the sacked employees were engaged in transmission, IT and messenger department. Later the federation of PTI employees union challenged the management in the higher court and now it terms the outcome a victory. Indian Federation of Working Journalist, Brihanmumbai Union of Journalists with many other organizations hailed the court order. Sri Lanka's highest-ranking military officer Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne on Wednesday surrendered before a local court which remanded him in custody for a week in a case of abduction of 11 youths during the last phase of the bloody civil war with the LTTE in 2009. Chief of Defence Staff Admiral Wijegunaratne appeared before the Fort magistrate court in full military uniform and his army commando security. The court was informed that Wijegunaratne shielded a naval intelligence officer accused of 11 murders in the final stages of the civil war with the Tamil rebels that ended in 2009. The court remanded him in custody until December 5. Admiral Wijeguneratne denies the allegations. Navy personnel had been arrested for abductions and disappearance of 11 youths in 2009 apparently for ransom. A special police team informed the court that Wijegunaratne had facilitated the main suspect Chandana Prasad Hettiarachchi, a lieutenant commander of the Navy, to flee the country to avoid legal proceedings. Wijegunaratne had concealed information to the court over Hettiarachchi's whereabouts, the police team said. The court wanted him to appear before it, but Wijegunaratne avoided. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which led the separatist war for a separate Tamil homeland for three decades in the island nation, was finally crushed by the Lankan military in 2009 with the death of its leader V Prabhakaran. The UN Human Rights Council has called for an international probe into the alleged war crimes during the military conflict with the LTTE. According to the government figures, around 20,000 people are missing due to various conflicts including the 30-year-long separatist war with Lankan Tamils in the north and east which claimed at least 100,000 lives. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tata Motors-owned (JLR) is among three new research and development projects to have won the backing of the UK government's 25-million Pounds grant, aimed at accelerating the development of innovative low-carbon vehicle technologies. The funding will be provided through the UK's Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) enabling JLR and others to drive the development of low-carbon propulsion technologies and their supply chains. "The centre will help JLR adapt their existing engine production facilities to be capable of making electric vehicles," UK Business and Energy Secretary Greg Clark said at the annual Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) event in London on Tuesday. He said that modern industrial strategies are being used to unlock economic opportunities. "Through our modern Industrial Strategy, we are harnessing our globally-renowned automotive heritage and engineering excellence to unlock the economic opportunities future vehicle technologies present to businesses across the country," he said. JLR's project will bring together a consortium of academic and industry partners, with the aim of developing strategies and capabilities to produce electric drive units alongside internal combustion engines at its manufacturing facilities. A second project led by Ford will work with a consortium to collaborate on the development of digital engineering tools for a new engineering process that enables the next generation of electrified commercial vehicle technologies to be developed and brought to the market much quicker. The third major R&D project will be led by Arcola Energy to bring to market complete fuel cell electric powertrains, develop an integrated motor drive unit, strengthen UK capability in battery packs supply and demonstrate hydrogen technology on a commercial vehicle. The projects, valued at 54 million Pounds in total including the grant funding from the APC, are expected to save around 2.5 million tonnes of CO2 and help build the future of major UK automotive facilities, creating and safeguarding a total of 1,750 jobs. The announcement coincided with a new survey released by UK automotive representative organisation SMMT, which warned the government against the "catastrophe" of a no-deal More than half of respondents to the survey said their operations have already suffered as a result of uncertainty about future trading arrangements and almost a third said they had postponed or cancelled UK investment decisions because of "Frictionless trade as part of the EU single market and Customs Union has driven the success of the UK automotive industry so the fact we are leaving is already painful, and already causing damage. Leaving without a deal would be catastrophic plants will close, jobs will be lost," Mike Hawes, SMMT Chief Executive, said. In much-needed support to British Prime Minister Theresa May's recently concluded Withdrawal Agreement, he said: "Leaving is not what we wanted, but we recognise that the Withdrawal Agreement has been hard-fought and, crucially, delivers a transition period which steps us back from the cliff-edge." "No deal is not an option. In the short term, crashing out of the EU would have immediate and devastating impacts, with border chaos disrupting the 'Just-in-Time' basis on which our business depends," SMMT President Tony Walker, who is also Managing Director of Toyota Motor Europe, said. Theresa May is lobbying and campaigning various groups and MPs in the lead up to the crucial parliamentary vote on the Withdrawal Agreement, scheduled for December 11. Unless a deal is passed through, Britain faces the prospect of crashing out of the European Union in a no-deal scenario in March next year after a June 2016 referendum in favour of Brexit. India's biggest software services firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Wednesday said it has acquired the business of BridgePoint Group, LLC, a US management consulting firm. BridgePoint Group caters to the financial services industry and specialises in retirement services through the purchase of select company assets. "This acquisition augments TCS' financial services and insurance domain knowledge, particularly in the area of US retirement services, where BridgePoint's team of experts currently provide strategic insights and advisory services around growth, business agility, customer experience and technical transformation," TCS said in a statement. However, the quantum of acquisition deal could not be ascertained. The statement added that BridgePoint's entire management team and key experts will join the Mumbai-based company. BridgePoint's deep customer relationships and significant industry knowledge will add to TCS' ability to provide digital solutions and drive transformation in the USD 1 trillion US retirement services market, the statement said. The US retirement business is complex, so BridgePoint's deep industry expertise and team of highly experienced consultants will enable TCS to develop a robust customer-focused retirement services business, TCS President and Global Head (Banking, Financial Services and Insurance Platform) Suresh Muthuswami said. "This move underscores our long-term commitment to this industry, enhancing our ability to provide end-to-end engagements, from strategic consulting to servicing of retirement assets," he added. The portfolio of services offered by TCS will offer growth potential and superior service to retirement providers across the US, Barbara March, Chief Executive Officer at BridgePoint, said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Several thousand protesters from Macedonia's right-wing opposition marched through the capital Skopje Wednesday in a protest against Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, who is pushing through a deal to change the country's name. The group, waving Macedonia's red-and-yellow flags, was led by the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party that was ousted from power in 2017 and has seen its ranks weakened further in recent months. The party has so far failed to thwart a deal that Zaev, a pro-EU Social Democrat, struck with Greece this year to rename the country "North Macedonia". If the change is finalised in parliament, Athens has promised to lift its veto on Skopje's attempts to join NATO and the EU. Greece has blocked the road for years because it insists the name Macedonia should apply solely to its own northern province. Critics of the deal argue that Macedonia is being bullied by Greece. "We'll show you your place in history, the dark side of history, in the next early or regular elections," VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski said of Zaev's government in a speech to the crowd. He added that he wants to fix this "situation of national humiliation" and called for weekly protests in the capital. The mostly elderly protesters paraded from the party's headquarters to parliament nearby. "We should not allow the centuries-old name of our fatherland Macedonia to be changed," Marlena Janeva, a 70-year-old, told AFP. After a dramatic parliament vote that saw several VMRO-DPMNE MPs defect from their party to approve the name change, parliament is now drafting the precise constitutional amendments to enshrine the deal. A final vote will need to pass with a two-thirds majority. In another dose of drama to rock VMRO-DPMNE, the party's former leader, ex-PM Nikola Gruevski, fled Macedonia this month to escape a two year prison sentence for abuse of power. He was granted asylum in Hungary, which Skopje has strongly criticised, demanding his return. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Right-wing leader Pravin Togadia Wednesday asked the RSS to clarify its stand on the Ram temple issue and sought to know why the Modi government had failed to build the temple so far. Referring to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's 'Dharma Sabha' held in Ayodhya on Sunday, Togadia, who has now floated Antarrashtriya Hindu Parishad (AHP), alleged that it might be an attempt to help the BJP in the assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. "Where were they (VHP and RSS) during the last four and a half years of the BJP government at the Centre? Did they come out because of these Assembly polls or the upcoming Lok Sabha polls? Was that for the temple or just for the polls?" Togadia asked during a press conference here. "RSS leaders held a meeting with BJP leaders in Lucknow a month back. Why didn't the RSS ask the BJP to build Ram temple at that time? Now you are protesting for the temple, but against whom? If you are against the Centre, then why did you sit alongside them?" he asked. He added that although all the key decision makers- Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and President Ram Nath Kovind- were RSS 'swayamsevaks', Ram temple could not be built during the Modi rule so far. "You (RSS) hold protests outside, but sit with them inside. Since the government has not promised to bring a law as demanded by you, it shows that the government is not ready. In this case, are you ready to intensify your protest against the government with the slogan 'no temple no vote'?"asked the former VHP leader. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) will next year initiate an in-depth consultation on general principles related to spectrum including its valuation methodology, Chairman R S Sharma said Wednesday. Sharma - who chaired a meeting with telcos including Vodafone Idea, Reliance Jio and Airtel on Wednesday to discuss issues to be prioritised for 2019 - said the upcoming consultation will not have any bearing on the past recommendations of Trai on the auction of radiowaves. Trai, in August this year, had recommended rules and prices for the next round of spectrum auction that included radiowaves for 5G mobile services and other bands. "We have received suggestions on spectrum-related issues, policy relating to spectrum auction, reserve price valuation methodology, spectrum leasing, surrendering, trading...all these things will be deliberated upon. We will bring out a consultation paper which will have all spectrum-related issues," Sharma told reporters here. He noted that telecom companies had been of the view that valuation method being used for spectrum had certain "deficiencies" and "inconsistencies". Trai will, hence, look at all aspects of spectrum including pricing, the manner in which it is valued, how often should auctions be held. Issues pertaining to backhaul spectrum that augments signals between mobile towers and new spectrum bands for the purpose would also be part of the forthcoming consultation. Other issues that will be taken up by the regulator next year include fiberisation, review of Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) and creation of broadband readiness index for States -- a concept enshrined in the National Digital Communications Policy. With a view to boost fibre network in the country, the regulator will consider steps that can be taken to improve fixed line broadband, and mull new business models that can create fibre-only players. "How do you ensure that fiberisation increases in the country? Can you ensure new business models that create only fibre players or netcos so they can provide fibre to other entities on a non-discriminatory manner, much like tower companies do today," Sharma said. There may also be discussions with the states on issues related to Right of Way permission. "The telecom operators were of the view that we can consult the states and see if there can be a model where states are encouraged to participate in fiberisation of the country," he said. Regulatory framework for IPTV and re-designing of the USOF model may also be taken up next year. "USOF currently has certain objectives. The question is whether in the changed reality situation we need to redefine the objective of USO Fund. So we will consult and provide our recommendations to the government," Sharma said. The meeting was attended by senior officials of Vodafone Idea, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio as well as state-owned firms BSNL and MTNL. The industry, which is not generating enough cash to even service loans, flagged issues around high levies and GST refunds during the meeting with Trai. The industry has sought lowering of the applicable GST, currently at 18 per cent for telecom services, and also raised concerns around refunds. "We will not give any recommendations on that as there is already a framework for GST," Sharma said adding that the regulator has also already suggested cut in spectrum usage charges and licence fee. The telecom sector has been bruised by falling tariffs, eroding profitability, and mounting debt in the face of stiff competition triggered by disruptive offerings of Reliance Jio, owned by Mukesh Ambani. The industry has sought urgent relief measures entailing debt restructuring, cut in levies like licence fee and spectrum charges, and release of GST input tax credit locked up with the government. Billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla, who heads Vodafone-Idea - the new entity post merger of Vodafone India and Idea Cellular - met Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha and his department's top bureaucrat Aruna Sundararajan recently and raised concern over stress in the telecom sector. Birla is said to have expressed concern over Rs 30,000 crore locked up on account of GST payment under 'reverse charge mechanism', and sought deferring of the payment schedule for spectrum. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US President Donald Trump will hold a trilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe this week on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Argentina, amidst China flexing its muscles in the strategic Indo-Pacific region. The trilateral, which would be an expansion of the bilateral meeting between Trump and Abe, is part of the series of meetings the US president would have on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires on November 30 and December 1, the White House said. 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 Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Briefing reporters ahead of the G-20 Summit, US National Security Advisor John Bolton said on Tuesday that Trump will meet with Abe, and then the two leaders will meet jointly with Modi. China is engaged in hotly contested territorial disputes in the South China Sea, and with Japan in the East China Sea. Both the areas are said to be rich in minerals, oil and other natural resources. China claims almost all of the South China Sea. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have overlapping claims in the waterway, which includes vital sea lanes through which about USD 3 trillion in global trade passes each year. The US has been conducting regular patrols in the South China Sea to assert freedom of navigation in the area where Beijing has built up and militarised many of the islands and reefs it controls in the region. Prime Minister Modi, in his keynote address at the Shangri La Dialogue in Singapore in June expounded India's stand on the strategic Indo-Pacific region. The Indo-Pacific is a natural region. It is also home to a vast array of global opportunities and challenges, he said. "India does not see the Indo-Pacific Region as a strategy or as a club of limited members. Nor as a grouping that seeks to dominate. And by no means do we consider it as directed against any country. A geographical definition, as such, cannot be," the prime minister explained. "India stands for open and stable international trade regime. We will also support rule-based, open, balanced and stable trade environment in the Indo-Pacific region, which lifts up all nations on the tide of trade and investment," he said. President 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. "The president will meet with President Putin and have a working dinner with President Xi," National Security Advisor Bolton said. Prime Minister Modi will also meet Chinese President Xi on the sidelines of the summit. It would be their fourth meeting in last seven months. Modi will also meet UN 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 the European Union and European Council. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The two Koreas will begin a joint survey on reconnecting railways across their border this week, Seoul said Wednesday, the latest move in a rapid reconciliation drive between the two countries. Linking up the railway systems was one of the agreements made earlier this year between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and the South's President Moon Jae-in. The two countries -- technically still at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended with a ceasefire instead of a peace treaty -- have said they aim to hold a groundbreaking ceremony before the end of the year. The unification ministry said a South Korean train will depart from Seoul early Friday and cross the border on a 18-day joint mission to examine the North's rail system. It will be the first time since 2007 a train from the South will enter North Korea. The train will have 28 South Korean passengers on board -- mostly officials and experts -- as well as 55,000 litres of fuel and other unspecified materials. The project has faced delays over concerns it could violate UN sanctions imposed on the North over its nuclear and missile programmes. The UN Security Council granted an exemption for the joint study last week, although it is unclear whether others will be given as the project progresses. Seoul said the survey was purely aimed at gathering information on the current state of the North's rail system. "The actual construction will be pursued according to progress in North Korea's denuclearisation," the unification ministry said. The study comes as differences emerge between Seoul and Washington, which stations 28,500 troops in the South as part of their decades-old alliance. The South's dovish President Moon has long favoured engagement with the nuclear-armed North and has dangled large investment and joint cross-border projects as incentives for steps towards denuclearisation. The US has been adamant pressure and sanctions must be maintained on Pyongyang until it fully dismantles its weapons programme. US president Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un held a historic summit in Singapore earlier this year, signing a vaguely worded deal on denuclearisation. But since then, talks on denuclearisation have stalled, with meetings either deemed unproductive, pushed back or cancelled altogether. A second leaders' summit is expected to take place in early 2019, according to Washington. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Britain's environment minister reassured the country on Wednesday that it would have plenty of safe drinking water should it crash out of the European Union without a deal. The unusual message from Michael Gove came in response to a media report of cabinet ministers being briefed about various doomsday scenarios. One of them reportedly included the possibility of the UK running out of the European chemicals it imports through ports to purify water supplies. The Mail on Sunday said Gove only came out in support of Prime Minister Theresa May's divorce arrangements with the EU after being told that no deal would see Britons "immediately face a shortage of drinking water and (an) inability to flush toilets". Responding to the report, Gove told a parliamentary committee hearing that the chemicals in question were primarily shipped through the less-congested port of Immingham. Economists think the country's biggest port in Dover could grind to a halt if London and Brussels fail to agree new customs and regulations procedures. "It is the case that the water industry is reliant on chemicals that are imported from the EU in order to ensure that we have pure and safe drinking water," Gove said. "Prudently, we have talked to the water companies, and I have been talking to the regulator, to make sure that those chemicals can be sourced." Gove explained that the government was taking "appropriate steps to mitigate". "So, it should be the case that our water will be -- in fact, it will be the case that our water will be completely safe to drink." Most Britons have grown accustomed to hearing frightening stories about life after the day Britain ends its 46-year membership in the EU on March 29. The summer saw newspapers report about the cabinet drafting plans to stockpile non-perishable food supplies. Firm Brexit backers dismiss the stories as underhand tactics design to get politicians to support a divorce deal that maintains close future EU-UK ties. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Kathmandu, Nepal: Ms. Hou Yanqi has been named as Chinas next ambassador to Nepal. The Chinese government has communicated to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA about its decision to nominate Yanqi as the new ambassador seeking agreemo. Senior diplomat Hou will replace incumbent ambassador Yu Hong. Ms. Yu, who has been serving as the ambassador envoy to Nepal since November 2016, is returning back to country after completing her full term as ambassador to Nepal. To be appointed new ambassador Ms. Hou is currently serving as one of the four deputy director generals at the Department of Asian Affairs under the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Ms. Hou will be appointed as next ambassador to Nepal from the Chinese President once the Nepalese side approves the agreemo. It is said that Ms. G20 leaders, wrestling with the US-China trade war and ascendant populism at their 10th summit this week, face a new crisis following Russia's naval confrontation with Ukraine. In November 2008, countries representing four fifths of the world's economic output came together to forge a collective front against the financial panic then engulfing the West. A decade on, that unity has vanished as US President Donald Trump shreds the consensus underpinning international trade. Other G20 countries such as Brazil, Italy and Mexico have turned to populist leaders, or, in Britain's case, are grappling with a fractious electorate's decision to file for divorce from the European Union. And this year's G20 host Argentina is enduring its own economic crisis, necessitating the deployment of more than 22,000 police against the threat of mass protests when the heads of government convene on Friday and Saturday. "I would say that the G20 has lost a lot of the steam that it once had in the global financial crisis in 2008, 2009," Matthew Goodman, senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said during a briefing previewing the summit. "The last summits have been somewhat disappointing and marked by contention, particularly over trade-related issues. And I would expect that to be the case again." Trump's "America First" stance has already upended other recent world summits such as the G7 and the Asia-Pacific bloc APEC. For the G20 as a whole, Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Faurie told AFP that the summit should stress the importance of trade itself. But given the dysfunction at those other summits, the G20 leaders are expected to stop short of repeating their vows to fight protectionism, which were a founding principle in 2008. Given US objections, analysts also dismiss any notion that the group can replicate its past consensus on the need to confront climate change, just ahead of a UN summit on the planetary threat in Poland. After imposing a raft of tariffs on Chinese goods and threatening more to come, the US president is due to meet with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping for a working dinner in Buenos Aires. His economic advisor Larry Kudlow told reporters on Tuesday that "the president said there is a good possibility that we can make a deal and he is open to it." But he warned that "if things don't work out in this US-China summit meeting, he will invoke another $267 some odd billion dollars in tariffs." Trump himself told The Wall Street Journal that it was "highly unlikely" that he would accept China's request to defer the next increase scheduled for January 1. The White House confirmed Trump will sit down with President Vladimir Putin for their first face-to-face meeting since a July summit in Finland, when he astonished observers by praising the Russian leader. That bilateral has taken on new urgency after Russian vessels seized three Ukrainian ships near Crimea at the weekend, igniting a storm of protest in Europe. However, Trump told The Washington Post he was waiting for a report on the incident from his national security advisors before making up his mind over whether he would meet Putin. "That will be very determinative. Maybe I won't have the meeting," he said. On Monday, his UN ambassador Nikki Haley condemned such "outlaw actions" by Russia. The exact location of the Ukrainian ships when they were boarded is subject to dispute. Kiev, backed by allies in Western Europe, says they were in international waters in the Sea of Azov. In the G20 context, that parallels controversies pitting Beijing against other nations over the passage of ships through the South China Sea, a vital trading artery. "What's happening in the Sea of Azov is serious," said Francois Heisbourg, special adviser at the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris. "If you start transgressing on the principles of freedom of navigation, that could serve as a precedent around the world. Any country controlling a strait could be tempted to forbid passage." On the trade front, Heisbourg said the question at the G20 was whether Xi will "rear up" against Trump's combative stance, or try to find an accommodation between the world's two largest economies. Analysts are skeptical that Buenos Aires will witness a breakthrough big enough to forestall Trump's threat to toughen the China tariffs in January -- or even if there is, whether it will hold for long. Cui Lei, an expert at the Department for American Studies at Beijing's China Institute of International Studies, said the signs were not promising following the stormy APEC summit and new US accusations of Chinese sharp practice on fronts such as intellectual property rights and technology transfers. "There may be a statement of principles (in Buenos Aires), confirming they will maintain negotiation and communication, but I think it will be difficult to reach a comprehensive agreement, because to do that both sides need to make big concessions," he said. Markets will be watching the G20 for any steps by Saudi Arabia and Russia -- the world's two biggest exporters of crude -- to reverse a recent collapse in oil prices. Such petro-diplomacy would, however, run headlong into Trump's loudly stated desire to keep oil prices low. And Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman can ill afford to alienate the one Western leader who seems to be standing by him following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey last month. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged leaders at the UN climate conference kicking off next week to set aside stubbornness and instead compromise to seal a deal on implementing the Paris climate accord. Guterres will join delegates from nearly 200 countries at the COP24 conference that opens Sunday in the southern Polish city of Katowice, with the aim of agreeing a plan to move forward on the 2015 climate deal. World leaders have been trying to breathe new life into the Paris Agreement following the US decision to pull out of the deal and backsliding from several nations over commitments made. "At the moment, we are headed for a world of cataclysm and uncertainty due to climate disruption," Guterres told reporters at UN headquarters. He called on governments to show ambition and leadership to meet the climate challenges, adding that "leadership is also the capacity to compromise." "Leadership is to understand that the agreement is the most important objective. That, more than to be very stubborn in staying in each one's position." "It is very important to fill the need to compromise and to find something that can be acceptable for everybody in order for Katowice to be a success." The Paris climate deal 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 global warming is on track to surpass three degrees by 2100 and urge governments to do more than first planned to rein it in. The United Nations has been haunted by the dismal failure of the 2009 Copenhagen summit, when a key opportunity to turn the corner on global warming was missed when no deal was struck. "Failure to act means more disasters and emergencies and air pollution that could cost the global economy as much as 21 trillion dollars by 2050," warned Guterres. The UN chief will raise climate in his talks at the G20 summit in Argentina, where he will be traveling later Wednesday. G20 countries are responsible for more than three-quarters of greenhouse emissions, he said, and they "have the power to bend the emissions curve." In its latest report released Tuesday, the United Nations warned that several countries were not on track to meet their commitments. The US, the world's second biggest carbon emitter, will miss its targets, as will Australia, Canada and South Korea, the UN report said. The European Union and South Africa will also fall short. Top emitters China and Russia are both on track, but mostly because their goals were so modest to begin with, as are Brazil, Japan and Turkey. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Anglo-Dutch consumer goods company Unilver PLC has emerged as the top contender for the nutrition business of GlaxoSmithKline consisting of popular brands like Horlicks in India, media reports has suggested. Ending almost four-month long auction process in which several companies including CocaCola, Kraft Heinz and Nestle joined the intense bidding process, Unilever emerged as the leading company, said the reports. According to the Financial Times report, GlaxoSmithKline has entered into "exclusive negotiations" with Unilever to sell its nutrition business for the USD 4 billion leaving behind the Vevey-headquarted Swiss food and beverages firm Nestle. Quoting sources, Financial Times said that Unilever has beaten rival bid from Nestle, which was looking to build on its market-leading position in powdered hot drinks, where it already sells Milo and Nesquik. If the deal is sealed in favour of Unilever, it would further consolidate the position of its Indian subsidiary Hindustan Unilever, which is expanding its portfolio in the food & beverages segment. Earlier, Atlanta-based cola major CocaCola Co was also in the race to acquire the malt-based health drink Horlicks from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). Horlicks in India is largely sold through GlaxoSmithKline Healthcare in India, in which GSK owns 72.5 per cent stake. GSK has put Horlick on the block after it had decided to buy 36.5 per cent stake in the consumer healthcare business of Novartis for GBP 9.2 billion. The company is considering to sell Horlicks and other nutrition brands to fund the acquisition. When contacted, a HUL spokesperson declined to comment on the issue. Last month Kraft Heinz Co had announced to sell its India business, which include the popular health drink brands Complan and Glucon-D to Ahmedabad-based consumer products firm Zydus Wellness for a consideration of Rs 4,595 crore. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Kanyashree University Bill and Harichand Guruchand University Bill 2018 introduced by the West Bengal government are not election gimmicks, state Minister Partha Chatterjee asserted on Wednesday. Chatterjee was replying to allegations raised by BJP MLA and the party state unit president Dilip Ghosh assembly during the discussion on the bills in the assembly that though Harichand Guruchand University, proposed to be set up at Thakurnagar at North 24 Parganas, is a welcome step but should have been introduced much earlier. The Kanyashree University is the second university exclusively in the state with emphasis to the women under the Kanyashree Prakalpa ensuring the empowerment of adolescent girls who complete school He said the bill has been introduced at this juncture with an eye on the impending general election next year and to woo voters in the name of Ghosh also expressed doubts whether the announcements for new universities would remain on paper. Chatterjee responding to his comments in the House said work for all the universities announced by the government is progressing. Land for the universities have been allotted and budgets allocated. He also invited Ghosh to pay a visit to get a first hand experience of these university projects. The Kanyashree scheme - a targeted conditional cash transfer scheme of the West Bengal government aimed at retaining girls in schools and other educational and skill development institutions and preventing early child marriage was recognised by Unesco last year. The proposed Harichand Guruchand University will empower students of Thakurnagar, which is inhabited by a large number of Matua community people, who are still far from the ambit of higher education due to geographical distances and and economic distress. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Opposition Left Front and the Congress Wednesday staged a walkout from the Assembly after their demand for an adjournment motion over various issues was turned down by the Speaker. The Assembly witnessed unruly scenes as the Opposition MLAs came down to the well of the House after war of words erupted between them and the treasury benches. The Opposition had been demanding an adjournment motion over the issue of non formation of a panchayat board in Purulia despite the completion of rural poll process in May this year. The adjournment motion was rejected by the Speaker Biman Banerjee, following which the MLAs of the Left Front and Congress came down to the well of the House and shouted slogans against the government. The Speaker cautioned Congress Chief whip Manoj Chakraborty to mind his language. While speaking to reporters later on, Leader of Opposition Abdul Mannan of the Congress said the party was even ready to sweep the floor of the House clean but how can the ruling Trinamool Congress rid the scars it has put on the "face on parliamentary democracy" by trying to "scuttle" the voice of the opposition. State Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee condemned the activities of the Opposition MLAs and said they are trying to malign the dignity of the House. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Uttar Pradesh police chief O P Singh said there were no riots in the state for some time and programmes organised by the Vishva Hindu Parishad and the Shiv Sena in Ayodhya passed off peacefully. The UP director general of police, who was here to attend an event, told reporters that the state has been a riot free state for some time now. "Programmes organised by the VHP and the Shiv Sena passed off peacefully under tight police security," he said. He said 4000 cases of cyber crime were pending in the state and the police were working on it. He also informed that the dial 100 service has been linked with the railway police, fire service and the Health Department to provide early relief to the people in the state. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Uttar Pradesh government has directed authorities in 10 districts to raise the boundary walls and install entry gates for Ramlila grounds, leaving the Opposition fuming over what it sees as a pro-Hindutva card of the Yogi Adityanath-led dispensation ahead of 2019 polls. "Ramlila grounds should be identified as per revenue records, Ramlila committees and local beliefs and 6-8 feet high boundary walls, having murals related to the Ramayana, should be built so that the entire place is developed as an artistic Ramayana premises," Special Secretary of Culture Department Shishir said in a recent order. The order was issued to the district magistrates (DM) of Gorakhpur, Lucknow, Bareilly, Varanasi, Chitrakoot, Ayodhya, Allahabad, Firozabad, Agra and Saharanpur. The grounds should have adequate arrangements for drinking water and power supply, it said. The order suggests that the entry gates of these grounds be named after Ayodhya, Chitrakoot, Mithila, Janakpur and Panchvati -- places associated with the Ramayana. A committee, chaired by the respective DMs, will assess the proposals for development of Ramlila grounds and decide on the rent, among other things, after the work is complete. After a ground has been developed, it will be handed over to a Ramlila committee on the condition that it will be used for other cultural events, besides 'Ramlila' -- an enactment of the life of Lord Ram. The government's decision has not gone down well with the Opposition, which is viewing it as Hindutva push ahead of next year's Lok Sabha polls. "The promises made by the BJP in polls have not been fulfilled. As 2019 elections are near, the move is nothing but pushing the Hindutva agenda to polarise voters," Samajwadi Party leader Rajpal Kashyap told PTI. "We believe in development of the state and works initiated by the previous Akhilesh Yadav government have set an example which it (BJP) should follow, instead of indulging in gimmicks," he said. Congress leader Mukesh Singh Chauhan also termed the decision as a "political gimmick" of the BJP and said it will not serve any "political purpose". Earlier, the Adityanath-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government had renamed Allahabad and Faizabad districts as Prayagraj and Ayodhya respectively. UP BJP spokesperson Manish Shukla had said that by changing the name of Allahabad district, the state government had "rectified the mistake made by Akbar". Last week, the Uttar Pradesh government announced that a 221-metre bronze statue of Lord Ram will be built on the banks of river Sarayu in Ayodhya. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) American teenagers remain generally upbeat about social media, saying it helps them feel included and connected, despite persistent problems of social pressure and bullying, a study showed Wednesday. The Pew Research Center report found a strong majority of the 13- to 17-year-olds had positive rather than negative feelings about their social media experiences. The nationally representative survey found 81 per cent of teens said social media makes them feel more connected to their friends. And 97 per cent said they used at least one of the seven major online platforms that were queried in the survey. The survey also highlighted a number of the negative aspects of social media which have drawn attention recently including peer pressure and bullying, but said teens appeared to see more good than bad in their online experiences. More teens -- 71 per cent to 25 per cent -- said that social media makes them feel included rather than excluded, confident rather than insecure (69 to 26 per cent), authentic rather than fake (64 to 33 per cent) and outgoing rather than reserved (61 to 34 per cent). Many of teens also said social media can help them become more civic-minded and exposes them to greater diversity than in the offline world. Large percentages said social networks help them meet people with similar interests and making them feel more accepted. Still, 45 per cent of teens say they feel overwhelmed by the "drama" on social media. Among those who have disconnected, more than three-fourths cited excessive "drama." Some 43 per cent said they feel pressure to only post content that makes them look good to others. Nearly half of the teens said they at least sometimes unfriend or unfollow people on social media. The survey did not ask about experiences with specific social networks but included data confirming that Facebook had been overtaken by rivals as the most popular social media application. It found Facebook-owned Instagram used by 72 per cent of the teens, with Snapchat at 69 per cent and Facebook 51 per cent. Twitter was used by 32 per cent. The report was based on a survey of 743 teens from randomly selected households between March 7 to April 10, with an estimated margin of error of five percentage points. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Bhawan-Bhairon passenger ropeway will be commissioned soon with a team of experts carrying out final trial runs and other safety tests, a senior official said here Wednesday. The ropeway is expected to make travel easier for pilgrims to the cave shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi in Trikuta hills of Jammu and Kashmir's Reasi district. "The trial and testing of the project formally started on November 26 and it is likely to conclude in the first week of December. The project will thereafter be put to use for the benefit of 'yatris'", said chief executive officer (CEO) of Shri Mata Vaishnodevi Shrine Board (SMVDSB) Simrandeep Singh. Besides trial and testing of the passenger ropeway, mock rescue and evacuation drills are also being conducted, simultaneously the shrine board staffers are being trained during the ongoing week-long session, the CEO said. The disaster management task force (DMTF) of the shrine board organised rescue and evacuation drills. CEO of SMVDSB, director security and enforcement Suresh Sharma along with a platoon of 'sahayaks' and a section of SDRF team from Reasi participated in the rescue drills. In total, 90 officials of the board and SDRF participated in the rescue exercises. "Garaventa, the Swiss Company which has designed and executed the entire state-of-the-art project, conducted the drills and is training the board team for undertaking rescue operations which could be necessitated in the rarest eventuality," the CEO said. As part of the rescue exercises, CEO of the shrine board and other officers were evacuated from a mid-point location between Bhawan and Bhairon over a steep hill side. A medical team from Bhawan also participated in the exercise. The shrine board's much-awaited ropeway project is being executed by a joint venture of Swiss-based Garaventa AG and Damodar Ropeways Construction from Kolkata under the supervision of RITES. The equipment and cabins of the ropeway have been imported from Switzerland, officials said, adding that the ropeway system was being fully equipped as per relevant safety standards. The ropeway has a carrying capacity of 800 persons per hour. Pilgrims, particularly the elderly and the disabled, can now have a comfortable journey to the shrine to pay obeisance to the presiding deity at Bhaironji Temple, which was earlier difficult due to the steep climb at an altitude of 6,600 feet, they said. The material ropeway between Siar Dabri and Bhawan was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 19 and it is fully operational now. The system has made it easier for the shrine board to ferry construction and other materials such as foodstuffs, water and 'prasad'. It is also used to transport waste material to Katra for disposal. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Alleging irregularities to the tune of Rs 4,800 crore in the BJP-led Maharashtra government's flagship 'Jalyukt Shivar' scheme, Leader of Opposition in Legislative Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil Wednesday demanded an inquiry into the "scam". He said a panel of water experts should be appointed and the inquiry should be constituted under the Commissions of Inquiry Act. The Congress leader was speaking in the Lower House of the state Legislature over the debate on drought situation in the state. "Of the Rs 8,000 crore spent on the government's flagship scheme to create water storage in the state, there were irregularities to the tune of Rs 4,800 crore," he alleged. Vikhe Patil said that in the last three years, 5.5 lakh works of Jalyukt Shivar were completed in 16,000 villages. "Rs 8,000 crore were spent and it was announced that 235 TMC to 250 TMC water was available," he said. The government has claimed that ground water level has increased by three metres, but the latest survey report says ground water table has actually depleted. Vikhe Patil said Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had tweeted about Mohkhed village in Buldhana district having abundant water owing to the Jalyukt Shivar scheme. "But I visited that village and people there complained about depleted ground water and said drinking water had to be supplied by tankers," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Intro Greetings! I am a political scientist , specializing in International Relations , my research and teaching focus on ethnic conflict and civil-military relations . I watch way too much TV, and I like movies as well so I tend to write about both and find IR stuff in pop culture. I rant alot about American politics and sometimes about Canadian politics. I like to take ideas I once learned a long time ago and apply them to whatever strikes my fancy. Genes that act late in life could explain why women have poorer health than men in older age, according to a study. Scientists have long wondered why older women are less healthy than older men, given that men at any given age are more likely to die than women (a puzzle known as the "male-female, health-survival paradox"). The answer, according to scientists from the University of Exeter in the UK, is "intralocus sexual conflict -- genes that benefit one sex but harm the other. The researchers used mathematical models and experimental data on flies to show that such genes can easily spread if they take effect after female reproduction stops. "Shared genes tether the sexes together in an evolutionary tug of war," said Professor David Hosken from the University of Exeter. "Selection is trying to push females and males in different directions, but the shared genome means each sex stops the other from reaching its optima," Hosken said. "Basically, certain genes will make a good male but a bad female, and vice versa. "However, after females reach menopause, they no longer reproduce to pass on their genes which means selection (which is reproduction) on females is greatly weakened," he said. "So after that point, any genes that improve late-life male fitness will accumulate, even if they harm female fitness," said Hosken. He said it was important to note that survival and health are not the same thing -- and that the accumulation of late-life male benefit genes hinged upon males' ability to continue reproducing after the age of female menopause. The experimental data on flies (Drosophila) supported the findings of the mathematical models on humans, as genes that were better at late-life male reproduction tended to be worse for females. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) LeT terrorist Naveed Jhutt, who was killed in an encounter on Wednesday, was a Pakistani national, Director General of Police Dilbagh Singh said, adding that they will write to the Union Home ministry to inform Islamabad to take his body. Jhutt, who was wanted in connection with the assassination of journalist Shujaat Bukhari and had escaped from custody in February, was killed in an encounter in central Kashmir's Budgam district Wednesday morning. "We'll be writing to the ministry of home affairs to informing Pakistan to take the body," Singh told PTI. He said Jhutt, a Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist, had managed to give them the slip in six different encounters but the forces finally managed to pin him down on Wednesday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Wipro Lighting, a business of Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting, has signed a premium partnership agreement with Schreder, a leading global lighting solutions company. Under the agreement, Wipro Lighting can market Schrder Lighting products and solutions in India, Wipro Lighting Vice President and Business Head Anuj Dhir told reporters here. "The aim of our partnership with Schreder is to bring their patented technology and products like smart streetlights and smart poles and expertise to empower smart cities in India and address the premium lighting requirements of an urban India," he said. "This is one more offering on our Internet of Lighting (IoL) platform and we are confident that this will help derive the best outcomes and make cities safe and smart," he added. As a premium partner, Wipro Lighting would market smartcity products and beyond lighting solutions along with Wipro brand portfolio, Dhir said. The partnership would allow Schreder to offer world's most advanced and leading smart lighting products and solutions to the highly important Indian market, Chief Regional Officer AMEA of Schreder SA, Carl Watson said. "Schreder looks forward to this new partnership and to explore the opportunities it brings to all the stakeholders," he added. AMEA Strategic and Marketing Director of Schreder Group, Karim Boutaour said the collaboration with Wipro Lighting would provide cities the means to ensure a quality of life while saving energy and reducing costs. For 111 years, Schreder has been designing lighting solutions - from motorways, tunnels, residential streets and pedestrian areas - to monuments and more. Schreder employs 2,600 people worldwide, the company said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Maharashtra government will make available "chains" (necklaces) with a panic button for women which can be used to send a distress signal to police in emergency. The announcement was made by Minister of State for Home (Rural) Deepak Kesarkar while replying to a discussion on crimes at Ashramshalas (government-funded residential schools) in the Legislative Council here Wednesday. The minister said the government is finalising a scheme under which "chains" with panic button will be made available at Rs 1,000 or less. Women will be able to wear them around the neck. "Such chains are available in several western countries....In the next one month, the technology will be finalised and we will float a tender," said Kesarkar. Shiv Sena legislator Neelam Gorhe, who raised the issue, said eight girls were sexually harassed at Minai Ashramshala in Walva tehsil of Sangli district in September. A security committee should be set up in every Ashramshala for the security of girl inmates, she demanded. Congress legislators Husna Bano Khalife, NCP's Vidya Chavan and Shiv Sena's Manisha Kayande also expressed concern about safety of girls at Ashramshalas. Replying to the discussion, Minister for VJNT, OBC and SBC Welfare Ram Shinde said that henceforth, only women superintendents would be appointed in Ashramshalas and hostels for girls. Also, directions have been issued to appoint committees for dealing with complaints of sexual harassment, as contemplated under the Supreme Court's 'Vishakha judgement', at Ashramshalas, Shinde said. In Minai case, 14 Ashramshala staff were suspended and an administrator was appointed, the minister said. Speaking to the reporters later, Kesarkar said the chains (or necklaces) which the government is planning to make available will have a GPS chip and a button, which, when pressed, will alert the nearest police station. "A monitoring room would be set up in the police control room so that the woman's location can be ascertained," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Yemen's internationally recognised government has called for a block on the broadcast of a rebel television channel from the war-torn country, the state agency reported Wednesday. Information Minister Moammer al-Eryani said the Huthi-run Al-Masirah television was "generating poisonous sectarianism and inciting violence and hatred", Saba agency reported. He added that Arab satellite operator Nilesat -- which is based in Cairo -- had stopped broadcasting the rebel outlet. The Huthi rebels condemned the calls, tweeting a link to a live stream of their Al-Masirah channel. "Satellite operators are succumbing to pressures by the Saudi-US coalition and blocking the broadcast of Al-Masirah on Nilesat," the rebel outlet tweeted. "We will work with all our energy to keep the voice of truth even if it costs us our lives." The Supreme Council for Media Regulation in Egypt told AFP it had not ordered the closure of any channels, but the outlet was not visible on Nilesat on Wednesday evening. Nearly 10,000 people -- mostly civilians -- have been killed in the Yemen conflict since 2015, when a Saudi-led coalition intervened on the side of the Yemeni government to fight the Huthi rebels. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By Jeffrey DastinLAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc 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 , whose satellite receivers would connect directly to AWS Ground Stations to help manage data ... By Shadia NasrallaLONDON (Reuters) - Scottish marine salvage group Ardent is adapting the tanksit used to refloat the Costa Concordia, the cruise ship wrecked off the Italian coast in 2012, to decommission North Sea oil platforms. It is one of several companies trying new ideas to win business in the market for dismantling disused oil platforms.In Britain's ageing oil fields alone, the opportunities could be worth up to 17 billion pounds ($21.85 billion) before 2025, according to industry body Oil and Gas UK. The ideas could then be deployed to other maturing fields such as in the Gulf of ... By Stephen Nellis(Reuters) - Apple Inc's iPhone XR has been the company's best-selling iPhone model every day since it went on sale in mid-October, a company executive told Reuters on Wednesday.The iPhone XR, which costs $749, was announced alongside two other models, the iPhone XS and XS Max, which start at $999. The XR brings many key features of those phones to a lower price point, and analysts widely viewed it as Apple's effort to bring facial recognition unlocking and its newest processing chip to a wider set of buyers.But a string of negative forecasts from smartphone suppliers in ... TOKYO (Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co's auditor had repeatedly questioned transactions at the heart of allegations of financial misconduct by former chief Carlos Ghosn but Nissan said they were proper, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday.Ernst & Young ShinNihon LLC questioned Nissan's management several times, chiefly around 2013, about purchases of overseas luxury homes for Ghosn's personal use and of stock-appreciation rights that were conferred on him.But the Japanese automaker said the transactions and financial reporting were appropriate, the source told Reuters on ... STAFFORD, Va. After two years focusing on increasing the lethality of the small ground units and providing logistical support in the contested littorals, the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL) is moving into intensive trials on information operations and ways to more fully integrate the naval forces to fight the maritime campaign, which will include a search for Marine-operated anti-ship weapons. The focus of the Sea Dragon force development effort in the current fiscal year will be on a handful of select, high-value capabilities that will enable Marine expeditionary forces to maintain their battle networks in the most highly contested environments, providing a high degree of domain awareness through experimental technologies for sensing the environment and feeding that into networks we can fire and fight from, Brig. Gen. Christian F. Wortman, the MCWL commander, said Nov. 27. They also will be testing capabilities to disrupt an enemys ability to sense the environment and target Marine units, Wortman told reporters at an office near Marine Corps Base Quantico. Then, the gains from the first three years of the re-energized Sea Dragon will culminate in fiscal 2020 experiments to address Marine contributions to a maritime expeditionary campaign, with close cooperation with the Navy, Wortman said. Those efforts will be in direct support of Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert B. Nellers commitment to an integrated naval force, he added. We know that fleet and Marine forces are far more lethal, survivable and effective when they fight as an integrated team. So were approaching naval and Marine Corps development as an integrated team, to the maximum extent possible. As a key part of Nellers commitment to the integrated naval campaign and the Corps effort to support the sea fight in contested maritime domains, Marine elements will conduct, in partnership with the Navy staff, the research establishment and industry, a series of fight the naval forces forward advanced naval technology exercises (ANTX) in 2020, Wortman said. The ANTX series will focus on naval fires, technology to close the kill chain in highly contested environments and to deny the enemy the ability to target our forces. A key part of that will be a search for land-based, long-range, anti-ship missiles that Marines could employ from advanced expeditionary bases within an enemys defensive shield to support the Navys fight for sea control. The commandant is determined to provide a capability to strike a killing blow against advanced surface ships from our tac [tactical] air assets or land-based locations, Wortman said. Where the first year of the new Sea Dragon campaign resulted in major changes to enhance the lethality of the infantry squad and other small ground combat elements, 2018 focused on the logistical and sustainment challenges of distributed operations in contested areas. Those experiments identified unmanned and autonomous logistics distribution assets as high value. We are working aggressively on unmanned underwater, surface, air and ground vehicles to support our logistics distribution requirements, the general said. The goal is to sustain the expeditionary forces in high-tempo operations while dramatically reducing the risk to our Marines and frustrating the ability of potential adversaries to interrupt our sustainment operations. In response to a question on the possible role of underwater vehicles, Wortman said anything that offers us the ability to move bulk liquids, ordnance or other consumables over extended range in a manner that is hard for an enemy to target is really attractive to us. They also see the potential of those systems in the sea-control fight by employing unmanned underwater systems from expeditionary advanced bases with a wide range of payloads that will challenge or destroy adversary capabilities in some of these contested environments. Wortman said the 2018 experiments also introduced the new experimental opposing force, a cadre of eight to 10 civilian experts who will challenge the MCWL experimenting units and the technologies and concepts they are testing. MUMBAI (Reuters) - India and China on Wednesday signed an agreement allowing Beijing to inspect imports of Indian fish meal and fish oil, as the two nations work out a broader trade deal following a thaw in relations this year.The decision was part of discussions between India's commerce ministry and a six-member Chinese delegation, led by Vice Minister, General Administration of Customs of China, Hu Wei, on easing market access for exports of various farm products, the ministry said in a statement.Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet on the sidelines ... By Belen CarrenoMADRID (Reuters) - China will widen market access for foreign investors and step up protection of intellectual property rights, China's President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday ahead of the G20 meeting of world leaders in Argentina.Speaking before the Spanish upper house of parliament during a two-day stop in Madrid, Xi also said China planned to import $10 trillion worth of goods over the next five years."China will make efforts to open, even more, its doors to the exterior world and we will make efforts to streamline access to markets in the areas of investment and protect ... By Gertrude Chavez-DreyfussNEW YORK (Reuters) - Cryptocurrencies are here to stay despite a prolonged slump this year, and will gain wider acceptance after the recent entry of more institutional investors in the space, Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser at Allianz, said on Tuesday. At a CoinDesk conference called "Consensus: Invest in New York," El-Erian said the participation of institutional investors in various crypto projects, even as retail investors have shied away because of price declines, was a positive sign."I think cryptocurrencies will exist, they will become more and more ... COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark's state prosecutor has filed preliminary charges against Danske Bank for alleged violations of the country's anti-money laundering act in relation to its Estonian branch.The country's biggest lender was placed under investigation in August over concerns that transactions worth billions of Danish crowns might have been part of criminal money laundering.Danske Bank is involved in a money laundering scandal at its Estonian branch, involving 200 billion euros ($225 billion) in suspicious transactions between 2007 and 2016."We are still working intensively with the ... By Cindy Silviana and Fergus JensenJAKARTA (Reuters) - A Lion Air jet that crashed into the sea off Indonesia last month was not in an airworthy condition on its second-to-last flight, when pilots experienced similar problems to those on its doomed last journey, investigators said on Wednesday.In a preliminary report, Indonesia's transport safety committee (KNKT) focused on the airline's maintenance practices and pilot training and a Boeing Co anti-stall system but did not give a cause for the Oct. 29 crash that killed all 189 people on board.KNKT investigator Nurcahyo Utomo said the agency ... By Cindy Silviana and Fergus JensenJAKARTA (Reuters) - A Lion Air jet that crashed into the sea off Indonesia last month was not in an airworthy condition on its second-to-last flight, when pilots experienced similar problems to those on its doomed last journey, investigators said on Wednesday.Contact with the Boeing 737 MAX jet was lost 13 minutes after it took off on Oct. 29 from the capital, Jakarta, heading north to the tin-mining town of Pangkal Pinang.In a preliminary report, Indonesia's transport safety committee (KNKT) focused on the airline's maintenance practices and pilot training ... Global trade tensions are putting at risk commitments by the Group of 20 leading economies to keep markets open, European Union delegates to the G20 said, pledging to help reform World Trade Organization rules to resolve the strains. G20 leaders meet on Friday and Saturday in Buenos Aires with the escalating trade dispute between the United States and China likely to top the agenda. The chairman of EU leaders' meetings Donald Tusk and the head of the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, Jean-Claude Juncker will represent the 28-nation bloc at the ... By Nate RaymondBOSTON (Reuters) - A former executive at Insys Therapeutics Inc pleaded guilty on Wednesday to participating in a scheme to bribe doctors to prescribe the company's powerful opioid medication and entered into a deal to cooperate with prosecutors.Alec Burlakoff, who was the Arizona-based drugmaker's vice president of sales, pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston to racketeering conspiracy, becoming the highest-level executive to admit wrongdoing in the investigation of Insys.By agreeing to cooperate, Burlakoff could become a key witness at the January trial of six former ... GlaxoSmithKline Plc is in exclusive talks to sell its Indian Horlicks nutrition business to Unilever Plc, putting an end to an auction that is expected to fetch more than $4 billion, Financial Times reported on Tuesday. GlaxoSmithKline beat a rival bid from Swiss rival Nestle which was also bidding for the unit and looking to expand its portfolio in the powdered hot beverages category, the report added. In September, sources had told Reuters that Nestle, Unilever and Coca-Cola were among bidders for GSK's Indian Horlicks nutrition business and that Nestle was particularly ... By Anna RingstromSTOCKHOLM (Reuters) - IKEA Group said on Wednesday large investments in improving its online offering, delivery services and in opening new smaller city centre stores to meet changing shopping habits pulled its full-year profits down 26 percent.The world's biggest furniture retailer is known for its vast self-service out-of-town stores but is transforming its business model in the face of mounting competition, increasing urbanisation, and more demanding consumers who'd rather order furniture online to their door then trekking to the city limits.IKEA is also developing faster ... LONDON (Reuters) - India's sugar sector is in urgent of reform as stocks climb and high cane prices keep production costs far above those of its rivals, the Indian Sugar Mills Association said on Wednesday.The association's director general, Abinash Verma, said India's sugar stocks were expected to rise during the 2018/19 season despite an expected dip in production to 31.5 million tonnes from the previous season's 32.5 million tonnes.Indian sugar consumption should be 26 million tonnes and there is an export target of 5 million, indicating a build in stocks to 11.2 million tonnes from 10.7 ... (Reuters) - Shares of India's Jet Airways Ltd rose sharply on Wednesday following a report that founder Naresh Goyal has agreed to sell his controlling stake and give up operational control of the struggling carrier.Although Goyal has been reluctant to relinquish his controlling stake in the 25-year-old airline, he is said to have met all three prospective buyers - Tata Group, Etihad Airways and a consortium of Air France - KLM and Delta Air Lines Inc, television news channel CNBC TV18 reported, citing multiple sources familiar with the matter. "Goyal has agreed to sell controlling stake in ... By Tova CohenTEL AVIV (Reuters) - Mexican industrial group Mexichem is establishing an innovation hub in Israel, building on this year's acquisition of Israeli drip irrigation pioneer Netafim.The company has a team scouting for technology and start-ups that fit Mexichem's main businesses - building and infrastructure, agriculture and data communications and basic materials, Chief Executive Daniel Martinez-Valle said.The hub will also help develop new business models for the company's customers and examine investment opportunities for Mexichem's new corporate venture capital fund."Israel will ... By David GaffenNEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil slipped below $60 a barrel on Wednesday, continuing a recent run of losses, after U.S. crude inventories rose for the 10th week in a row. The market also remains nervous over whether OPEC-led producing countries will reach an accord next week on output cuts. Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday it would not cut output alone and Nigeria stopped short of committing to a new push to curb supplies. U.S. crude stockpiles rose by 3.6 million barrels in the week to Nov. 23, exceeding expectations. After falling to 2-1/2-year lows in September, crude stocks have ... By Paul Carsten and Katya GolubkovaABUJA/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia will not cut oil output on its own to stabilise the market, Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said on Wednesday as Nigeria and Russia said it is too early to signal whether they would join any production curbs.Oil producer group OPEC and its allies, led by Russia, meet in Vienna next week against the backdrop of concerns over a slowing global economy and rising oil supplies from the United States, which is not involved in an existing agreement to restrain output.The negative economic outlook helped to push oil below $60 a ... By Karin Strohecker and Marc JonesLONDON (Reuters) - The Kremlin's latest standoff with Ukraine in the Azov Sea is forcing foreign investors to reconsider Russia, which faces the possibility of even more stringent Western sanctions.European Union leaders are expected to soon extend existing sanctions on Russia, although some senior politicians have also called for imposing fresh ones.But the bigger risk is that Washington could opt to bar Russian banks such as Sberbank and VTB from operating in the United States and restrict their dollar access.Somewhat less painful could be measures to ... By David ShepardsonWASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said new auto tariffs are "being studied now," asserting they could prevent job cuts such as the U.S. layoffs and plant closures that General Motors Co announced this week.Trump said on Twitter that the 25 percent tariff placed on imported pickup trucks and commercial vans from markets outside North America in the 1960s has long boosted U.S. vehicle production."If we did that with cars coming in, many more cars would be built here," Trump said, adding "and G.M. would not be closing their plants in Ohio, ... Eight months after Spotify's CEO and co-founder Daniel Ek announced at the company's investor day presentation that an India launch was "imminent", things are finally moving towards fruition. Industry executives told The Economic Times that the popular music streaming service is in the final stages of negotiations with top Indian labels T-Series, Times Music, Eros Music and Zee Music for local content as it prepares to debut in the country in the next six months. Its first attempt to foray into India through the acquisition route had failed as talks collapsed. So in its second attempt, Stockholm-based Spotify is opting to come in solo. It has reportedly already hired over 300 employees in India, including former Olx India CEO Amarjit Singh Batra as country head, and has taken up a large office space in Mumbai. "We are in the final stages of negotiations for a two-year deal," Bhushan Kumar, managing director of T-Series, told the daily. "Our music will be available in the international markets on Spotify in the first quarter and later in India, when they launch here." This is a major victory for Spotify since in its earlier attempt the brand could not get Indian labels to share their music. "India is very different... and here you can't run a music service without T-Series. So far, they have had only small labels, so a launch was difficult," a senior music industry executive told the daily. Times Music, which has already signed an international deal with Spotify, also claims to be in "active negotiations for India". Similarly, executives at Eros International and Zee Music confirmed that talks are underway with the Swedish company. Citing experts, the daily added that the Indian market won't be a cakewalk for Spotify as it is already dominated by services such as Gaana, which passed 75 million users this year, Saavn, Hungama, Airtel-owned Wynk and global services Apple Music, Google Play and Amazon Music. In any case, its third quarter results show that although it is the largest music streaming service in terms of global users - its monthly active users grew 28% to 191 million while it has 87 million premium subscribers - it is far from profitable. It posted an operating loss of 6 million euros in Q3 on revenue of 1.35 billion euros. India is not the only new market Spotify has been focussing on. It recently added 13 countries in the Middle East and North Africa expanding its global footprint to 78 markets as of mid-November. Edited by Sushmita Choudhury Agarwal The three-day Poultry India Expo 2018, billed as the sector's largest event in South Asia, took off in Hyderabad on Wednesday. It has attracted 350 exhibitors, including 80 from abroad; ranging from those involved in breeding operations, feed, pharmaceutical and equipment manufacturers. Most in the audience during the inauguration clapped at the pictures of solidarity on stage between various stakeholders--specially the industry representatives and the representatives from the government. But in private and off the record, those from the industry stated that a lot was lacking in terms of action on the policy and the enforcement. To the industry the pressing need today is its hope from the government to back it in the courts against the animal welfare groups. They want the government to take a stand so that this does not affect the economic viability of the sector and the egg pricing. Many stakeholders argue that input prices have been rising at a faster pace than that of the egg prices since 2008. They clearly see their fate linked to the stand the government takes before the Delhi High court, which is hearing the case raised by animal welfare organisations on a re-look at the system of holding the birds in cages. Those from the industry, Business Today spoke to felt as many as around 75 per cent of the farms in the country followed the practice of providing a minimum of 450 square centimetre space per bird, which many felt was in tune with what was largely recognised globally. Many also had cage size of a minimum 1400 square centimetre, which enabled the birds (three in a cage) to completely spread their wings. "We are being told that a better option would be to have the birds in the open and on the ground, this will not only mean that huge tracks of land would be needed but then such an option could also trigger new health concerns," says Harish Garware, President, Indian Poultry Equipment Manufacturers Association. His argument is that birds on the ground would be more prone to infection since they would feed and also excrete there. This in turn could result in more use of antibiotics, an issue that most were already coping with, especially in terms of use on a prophylactic basis. Garware, who himself is an equipment manufacturer and makes cages, feels in fact a bigger issue is to help those in the industry that want to transition from smaller cage formats to bigger size cages and for adoption of better technologies and more automated farms. He and some others argue that the industry might be willing to increase the cage sizes from around 450 square centimetres today to about 550 square centimetres in certain cases but not more since that could make it viable for many. Therefore, the hope among some of the industry players is that the government would make a strong case before the court in support of the industry. But then, what about other issues in the industry that are bothering consumers? Business Today spoke to some of the owners of poultry farms and there were two major concerns where self-correction or caution by the industry is just not working. These are related to unchecked use of antibiotics and the other was to improve the bio-security practises, which manages the people and material flow into the farms. It is hard not to believe when some of them find the usage quite indiscriminate because even for humans, there is arguably quite a bit of recklessness. India in poultry, many feel needs to follow the UK model where every prescription by the veterinary doctor is tracked and correlated. Today apparently, the use of antibiotics in the poultry industry is not getting recorded. After Starbucks resolved the naming issue with SardarBuksh, following which it was ordered by the court to change its name to Sardarji-Bakhsh, the American beverage giant has a new problem in its hands. Now, it is trying to fend off companies selling fake Starbucks merchandise. The US company is fighting legal cases against a host of firms that are supplying fake Starbucks products to retailers. Starbucks lawyers and court-appointed local commissioners recently raided establishments in Delhi's Sadar Bazar area and seized goods with the Starbucks logo and trademark. This is not the first time such an incident has taken place. The company also earlier this year informed custom officials about a consignment of fake Starbucks goods making its way from China, which was then seized. "We have been made aware of instances of counterfeits and have taken up the matter with the relevant authorities," said a Tata Starbucks spokesperson. Tatas and Starbucks have an equal joint venture in India. As mentioned in a report in The Economic Times, Starbucks said that it does not sell its merchandise to any third-party seller in the country. However, a quick search at e-commerce sites will throw up options of Starbucks merchandise. This does not seem far from the truth as multiple reports in the past have said that a huge chunk of goods found online is fake. A recent survey by LocalCircles found that one out of 5 products sold on e-commerce sites are fakes. As such, companies suffer insurmountable losses every year. US Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property (IP Commission) estimated that around $50-100 billion of counterfeit products were exported by China and Hong Kong in 2015. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan inaugurated the Kartarpur corridor project on Wednesday. The much-talked about event saw the participation of many political leaders from India, including Cabinet Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Union Minister for State Hardeep Singh Puri. The day marked emotional speeches by political leaders from both sides, with leaders advocating for peace on both sides of the border. While Punjab Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, who reached Pakistan yesterday after missing the ceremony in India, showered praises on the Pakistan PM. He said Imran has created a "history" by taking the initiative of connecting the two countries through the corridor. "Jab bhi iss dwaar ka itihaas likha jaayega, pehle panne par aapka naam likha jaayega. [This is history-in-making and whenever the future generations pen this down, your name will be on the first page.]" Calling an end to the bloodshed along the border on both the sides, Sidhu said someone needs to stop this fire from spreading. "Bahot nuksaan ho gaya, bahot aagjani ho gayi! Koi iss ag ko bujhaaney waala chaida hai, koi isspar paani daalna waale chaida hai [There has been a lot of destruction, a lot of damage. There's this fire. There has to be someone to put a stop to all this. There has to be someone to put out this fire.]" Imran Khan, who is a close friend of Sidhu, said he fails to understand why Sidhu was being criticised for spreading love, the message of peace and harmony. "I think, Sidhu, you should contest elections here. People love you so much; you will surely win," Khan said. In an indirect reference to India, he said there's a need to fight poverty not each other. "Every nation needs to take a lesson from China, which uplifted over 80 crore from poverty in the last 30 years. No other nation could so," he said, adding that Pakistan is ready to take two steps if India takes one. He said India and Pakistan need to forget everything and move ahead. "We need to move ahead. Our maazhi [past] is stopping us from moving ahead. We need to paying attention to it. The European nations have learnt from their past. We need to too." Union Cabinet Minister of Food Processing Harsimrat Kaur Badal, said this is a miracle of Baba Guru Nanak. "I am able to go to the place that is so sacred and holy is an overwhelming feeling. I am emotional," Harsimrat Badal told India Today TV. "If the Berlin Wall can be brought down, there can be peace between India and Pakistan." "This has been possible due to a joint effort by the governments of both nations. I hope there will be peace in future," she added. Voters in Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram caste votes to elect their representatives in the respective state legislative assemblies on Wednesday. Both Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram registered a record voter turnout of 75 per cent. The results for the Assembly elections in both states will be declared on December 11. While polling remained peaceful in Mizroam, reports of malfunctioning of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines and sporadic violence punctuated the voting process in Madhya Pradesh. As many as 883 ballot units and 881 control units were replaced during Madhya Pradesh state Assembly elections, along with 2,126 VVPATs during mock poll and during voting, ANI quoted state's Chief Electoral Officer V L Kantha Rao. Meanwhile, controversy erupted after Congress leader Kamal Nath allegedly showed his party's symbol just after he had exercised his voting rights. Reports suggest that Nath showed his palm, the election symbol of Congress party, while casting his vote in Chindwara, Madhya Pradesh. Model of conduct mandates that party symbol cannot be displayed near polling booth during voting process is underway. On the other hand, Nath said in defence of his action: "I had already cast my vote. When people asked me when those from media asked me whom I have voted for I showed this (palm). What else could have I done? Show a lotus?" In the ongoing, voters have cast their votes to elect representatives for 230 seats in the Madhya Pradesh State Assembly, and 40 seats in the Mizoram State Assembly. A total of 2,899 candidates are in the poll fray from Madhya Pradesh, whereas 209 candidates have thrown their hat in the ring for the Mizoram legislative elections. In an saddening development, one polling officer in Guna and two officers in Indore have died due to cardiac arrest in Madhya Pradesh. The Election Commission has announced compensation of Rs 10 crore for the kin of officials who have passed away during poll duty. Meanwhile, faulty EVMs and VVPAT machines held up polling process for some time in Madhya Pradesh. Here are the LIVE updates from the state assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram: 06:40 pm: Mizoram sees 75 per cent voter turnout till 5 pm, according to ANI. 06:30 pm: Around 74.61 per cent voter turnout was recorded till 6:00 pm in the Madhya Pradesh State Assembly elections,ANI reported. 04:48 pm: As many as 1,146 EVMs and 1,545 VVPAT machines were replaced in Madhya Pradesh after complaints of technical snags, according to state's Chief Electoral Officer V L Kantha Rao. 03:25 pm: 50 per cent voters exercise their voting rights in Madhya Pradesh till 3:00 pm, according to the office of Chief Electoral Officer. 03:25 pm: Mizoram registers 58 per cent voter turnout till 3:00 pm. 02:30 pm: Voter turnout at 34.99 per cent in Madhya Pradesh by 2:00 pm. 02:00 pm: "I had already cast my vote. When people asked me when those from media asked me whom I have voted for I showed this (palm). What else could have I done? Show a lotus?," says Congress leader Kamal Nath on controversy over him showing his party's symbol after casting his vote in Chhindwara. 01:31 pm: 49 per cent voting recorded in Mizoram till 1:00 pm. 01:30 pm: Voter turnout reached 31.33 per cent in Madhya Pradesh till 01:30 pm. According to reports, the highest voting percentge in the state was recorded in Anuppur at 47.29 per cent, whereas the lowest was in Dindori with 20.77 per cent. 01:25 pm: On demands of extending polling time at certain booth in Madhya Pradesh raised by Congress on account of faulty EVMs, Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat said that there are provisions for extending voting timings, and lcoal officers can take a call on it as they see fit. CEC O P Rawat on Jyotiraditya Scindia's request to EC to extend polling time due to EVM malfunction: There are provisions for the extension of time, the local officers can take the call as they see fit. The matter does not need to be handled by the commission. pic.twitter.com/OznJsAKzcJ - ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 01:15pm: Shots fired yet again in Bhind as the polling continues in the state. Police has detained two individuals in the matter. 12:35 pm: Congress calls for extension of voting time in booths where polling had to be stopped due to malfunctioning EVMs. "There have been many complaints of EVMs malfunctioning, have written to Election Commission. Have requested that voting time in these polling booths should be extended to compensate for the delay," Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia said. There have been many complaints of EVMs malfunctioning, have written to Election Commission. Have requested that voting time in these polling booths should be extended to compensate for the delay: Jyotiraditya Scindia, Congress #MadhyaPradeshElections pic.twitter.com/EfJiIg7lW0 - ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 12:15 pm: Reports of malfucntioning EVMs coming in from several parts of Madhya Pradesh. Around 25o EVMs replaced so far. 12:00 pm: Firing close to a polling booth near Bhind, Madhya Pradesh. Police is searching for the person responsible for opening fire. 12:00 pm: Reports of 140 irregularities have come from Madhya Pradesh within two hours of polling. 11:58 pm: Election Commission announces Rs 10 lakh as compensation for the kin of its officials who passed away while on poll duty. #Update Election Commission announces Rs 10 lakh each compensation for the kin of the EC officials who passed away while on election duty #MadhyaPradeshElections https://t.co/7Qv1XJvwIS - ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 10:45 am: One Election Commission official in Guna and two officials in Indore pass away due to cardiac arrests while on election duty. One Election Commission official in Guna, and two in Indore have passed away due to cardiac arrest #MadhyaPradeshElections - ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 09:15 am: Voters have started to cast their votes in Mizoram to elect a 40-member state Assembly amid tight security. 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. 08:45 am: Polling has begun in Madhya Pradesh, where the ruling BJP and opposition Congress are fighting for supremacy. A teenaged 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 Assam commented "I am 54 years younger than you. "I just finished high school with average marks. But even I can tell you that the 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 US President. 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 climate change on the Arabian Sea. The euphoria around the wedding festivities of Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone is refusing to die down even after 13 days of their wedding. After two lavish wedding receptions in Bengaluru and Mumbai, the actors will today throw another party for the extended family and friends in Mumbai. The Bollywood's most sought-after couple has decided to organise this event at The Grand Hyatt. Their previous wedding party, organised by Ranveer's sister Ritika Bhavnani for family and friends, was also held at the same venue. The invitation card issued by the couple says: "Please join us at a reception to celebrate the wedding of Deepika and Ranveer, Wednesday, 28th November, 2018, at 8 PM." The grand event will see Bollywood celebrities thronging to the reception party. Ranveer's father Jugjeet Singh Bhavnani's friends, including extended family members, will attend the celebration, reported India Today. Actor Anil Kapoor's family, who is related to the Bhavnanis from his mother's side, was expected to attend the event today. Anil Kapoor reportedly confirmed he would attend the couple's another reception on December 1. Earlier reports suggested the actor was upset for not being invited to the couple's wedding in Italy's Lake Como. "I don't know where the news of me being upset with Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone for not calling me came from. I am going to their reception on the 1st December and I am looking forward," said Anil at IFFI. Also read: Deepika-Ranveer wedding: Likes flood on Instagram, wishes pour on Twitter as the newlyweds share pics The actors are expected to make heads turn with their unique designer outfits. During the wedding in Lake Como, Deepika wore a red and gold saree, while Ranveer wore a white kurta. In their Bengaluru reception, famous designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee had styled the actors with traditional outfits. Also read: Deepika, Ranveer say no to wedding gifts, ask guests to donate to her charity instead The Arvind Ltd stock fell in early trade today after its shares turned ex-date for the proposed demerger of its brand apparel business and engineering business. The stock hit a fresh 52 week low of 90.25 in trade today , falling 17.88% on the BSE. The mid cap stock has lost 76.91% since the beginning of this year and fallen 76.65% during the last one year. 13 of 17 brokerages rate the stock "buy" or 'outperform', two "hold" and two "underperform", according to analysts' recommendations tracked by Reuters. It later recovered to Rs 104.75 down nearly 4.69% compared to its previous close of 109.90. The textile company will demerge its business into Arvind Fashion Ltd (AFL) and Anveshan Heavy Engineering Limited (AHEL) on November 29. All equity shareholders of the firm will be entitled for allotment of (One) fully paid up equity share of Rs 4 each of AFL for every Rs 5 equity shares of Rs 10 each held in Arvind ; and 1 fully paid up equity share of Rs 10 each of AHEL for every 27 equity shares of INR 10 (Indian Rupees Ten) each held in Arvind. Arvind Fashions and Anveshan may also get independently listed in early January. The Ahmedabad bench of (National Company Law Tribunal ) NCLT had cleared scheme of demerger of branded apparel business and engineering business of Arvind into Arvind Fashions and Anveshan Heavy engineering in October this year. Arvind's branded apparels business comprises licensed international brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein and US Polo Association. Arvind Ltd's principal products/services are finished fabrics and garments. Its segments are textiles; brands and retail; real estate, and others. The textiles segment includes fabric, yarn and garments. The Brands and Retail segment includes retailing of branded garments, apparels and fabrics. The Real Estate segment includes real estate development. The others segment includes electronics, technical textile, construction, e-commerce and project activity. It also manufactures cotton shirting, denim, knits and bottom weights (Khakis) fabrics, and jeans and shirts garments. In an attempt to pare down Air India's debt burden of over Rs 50,000 crore, the government yesterday decided to sell some of the Maharajah's real estate along with the strategic sale of the airline's ground handling subsidary Air India Air Transport Services Limited (AIATSL). Sources in the know told The Times of India that on Tuesday a ministerial panel headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley gave the green light to sell 27 acres of Air India's land in the capital's upmarket Vasant Vihar to public sector company NBCC. This land will be used to build high-end luxury apartments. The panel reportedly also took an in-principle decision to take up the sale of a large plot on Baba Kharak Singh Marg, in Central Delhi, which can be taken up for commercial use. Also read: Air India disinvestment plan put on back-burner: Senior govt official tells parl panel The daily added that in the next phase of monetising the beleaguered airline's assets the Centre will decide on several buildings that it owns. The logic is clearly to get rid of all the real estate that the airline does not need. As per government estimates, the sale of AIATSL and some of the other subsidiaries, along with the monetisation of Air India's land assets, could help the debt-ridden carrier raise over Rs 10,000 crore, which will be used to repay lenders. "The Alternative Mechanism has approved EoI [Expression of Interest] together with Preliminary Information Memorandum for AIATSL sale. [This] would happen after transferring AIATSL to a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), which has already been incorporated," sources told PTI yesterday. The buzz is that the Centre is keen to conclude the strategic sale in the current fiscal itself. AIATSL, which provides airport ground handling services to Air India, including passenger, ramp, security and cargo handling, had posted a profit of Rs 61.66 crore in the financial year 2016-17. Also read: Jet vs Air India: In a race to the bottom, which airline is beating the other? With its debt pared down and continuing good news on the oil price front, the Maharajah could even clean itself up for a successful disinvestment round in the future. According to Reuters, oil prices have lost around 30% in value since early October, weighed down by an emerging supply overhang and the widespread weakness in financial markets. However, much rides on the G-20 meet this week, and the upcoming meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on December 6. With agency inputs With Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio Infocomm continuing to gain strength in a majority of telecom circles during the September quarter with its disruptive pricing, rival Bharti Airtel has upped the ante on building its war chest. The Sunil Mittal company plans to raise Rs 12,000-15,000 crore through issue of fresh shares in the current fiscal, The Economic Times reported. Sources told the daily that Airtel is examining the option of a rights issue to existing shareholders or a private placement to institutional investors and promoters. This is reportedly a part of its strategy to build a war chest of about Rs 30,000 crore in three tranches to meet its capital expenditure - earlier this year the company had pegged capex at Rs 24,000-26,000 crore for FY19 - and bolster cash flows. However, the bulk of the proceeds will be used to repay debt and bring down borrowing costs. The telco reportedly boasts net consolidated debt of Rs 1.14 lakh crore, of which the Indian operations' borrowings amount to about Rs 80,000 crore, including outstanding spectrum payments of nearly Rs 46,000 crore. Meanwhile, on Monday, Bharti Airtel's Africa business arm announced the appointment of eight global banks to work on its initial public offer (IPO) plan. "Airtel Africa Limited Monday announced the appointment of global banks for an intended IPO on an international stock exchange. The banks appointed are JP Morgan, Citigroup, BofA Merrill Lynch, Absa Group Limited, Barclays Bank PLC, BNP Paribas, Goldman Sachs International and Standard Bank Group," the telco said in a statement. The development follows the recent subscription of shares - at an enterprise value of $9.4 billion - in Airtel Africa by six leading investors, including Warburg Pincus, Temasek, Singtel and SoftBank Group International, for an aggregate consideration of $1.25 billion. The company plans to utilise this fund to lower debt of its Africa unit which stands at around $5 billion. Also read: Airtel, Vodafone-Idea show recovery in metro cities; Jio top telco in terms of adjusted gross revenue "By financial year 2020, the group's debt is expected to come down significantly, with the international business having residual debt of about $2.5 billion (approximately Rs 17,500 crore)," a source told the daily. The third round of fundraising will reportedly be done through equity dilution in Bharti Infratel. In April, Airtel's tower subsidiary announced a merger with Indus Towers to create one of the world's largest tower companies that will be jointly controlled by Airtel and Vodafone. Airtel's stake in the combined entity, which will boast over 163,000 towers across India, is expected to be around 33.8-37.2%. The sources added that depending on market conditions, Airtel will dilute its stake in the tower business in the latter half of 2019. With PTI inputs Also read: Airtel, Vodafone prepaid users may need to get monthly minimum recharges for calls to continue Chinese smartphone maker Oppo has announced that it will be launching its high-end R17 Pro smartphones in India on December 4. The pre-orders for the phone will begin from December 1. The Oppo R-series smartphones are typically premium phones that have often acted as an inspiration for the OnePlus devices. The phone has already been launched in China and therefore many details are already out in the open. In China the phone was priced at CNY 4,299, which is about Rs 45,000. As far as specifications are concerned, Oppo R17 Pro has a 6.4-inch Full HD Plus AMOLED display with a 19:9 aspect ratio and a waterdorp notch, giving it a 91.5 per cent screen-to-body ratio. #SeizeTheNight with all-new #OPPOR17Pro. Magical gradient design, hidden fingerprint unlock, and breathtaking night shots. pic.twitter.com/RwOT57aVpy - OPPO Mobile India (@oppomobileindia) November 26, 2018 However, the biggest selling point of the R17 Pro is its battery charging speed. Oppo has switched from VOOC charging to SuperVOOC charging. The new method can charge a phone from 0 to 40 per cent in just 10 minutes. The output power is now maximised to 10V, 5A and close to 50W. Under the hood, the R17 Pro is driven by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 710 SoC and has 8 GB of RAM along with 128 GB of internal storage. The phone will come with Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box with Oppo's custom skin ColorOS 5.1 on top. The Oppo R17 Pro will sport a glass back with a gradient colour design. There's also no physical fingerprint sensor, therefore the phone will offer an in-display sensor. For clicking pictures, R17 Pro will have triple camera setup at the back. The main camera on the phone is a 20 MP sensor with a fixed aperture. The second camera has a 12 MP sensor and can switch between f/1.5-f/2.4 apertures. The third camera is a 3D depth sensor. The front will have a single 25 MP camera. Also Read: Realme to launch selfie-centric Realme U1; Key specs, features we know so far Recently Gauri Khan was named one of India's Most Powerful Women in Business by Fortune. Gauri Khan posted a couple of pictures from the event on her social media accounts. Khan, who was dressed by Falguni Peacock in a black pantsuit, spoke about Gauri Khan Designs, an interior decor store that she owns. Her proud husband shared her tweet and gave credit where it was due. Shah Rukh Khan said, "On our family list of 'Fortunate' she is the most powerful." The 52-year actor has often been seen cheering on his family members. Shah Rukh Khan and Gauri Khan were recently spotted at a Mexican eatery in Mumbai called Sanchos that she had designed. While interacting with the press, Khan said, "I just go to whichever restaurant she opens because I get free meal, so it's really good for me... I hope she keeps opening up new restaurants so that all of us can keep coming here to party." On our family list of 'Fortunate' she is the most powerful! https://t.co/XWi5m1aFzg - Shah Rukh Khan (@iamsrk) November 27, 2018 Gauri Khan Designs was started by the designer and is known for its high-end projects. Projects that the company has handled includes a flagship store for Ralph Lauren, a party room for the Ambani residence Antilia, Ranbir Kapoor's house, Karan Johar's terrace, Jacqueline Fernandez's bedroom and Siddharth Malhotra's house. While most of her projects are high-end, Gauri Khan wants to move the business online as well to expand her clientele. "The most important things for us is to see a smile on the client's face at the end of the project. We don't impose our designs on the clients but try and show them the path," she had said at the Fortune India's Most Powerful Women in Business 2018 event. Gauri Khan also said that she manages a work-life balance as Shah Rukh Khan is equally involved in raising their youngest child, AbRam who is five years old. Khan also added that the actor is involved in her projects as well and provides her with insightful feedback. DublinTown has this week asked Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure, Paschal Donohoe to remove the vat rate on service charges and give full service appreciation back to employees. DublinTown is Dublin Citys Business Improvement District, a not-for-profit organisation charged with creating a welcoming and economically viable city environment. They are a collective of 2,500 businesses in the city centre and work with partners to enhance the appeal of the city centre as the place for shopping, recreation and business development by increasing footfall and improving overall trading performance The organisation say the recent rise in VAT for hospitality from 9% to 13.5% is only a windfall for the taxman as patrons will now find themselves paying 13.5% on top of their service charge. DublinTown say in levying this additional tax charge, tax compliant businesses and their employees are being penalised. They believe where an employer collects a service charge and distributes it to its employees, the employee is already subject to income tax on the receipt but now the customer will pay more by way of increased VAT with no benefit to the employers who provide the service. DublinTown requests that the service charge element of a hospitality bill is zero rated and that Finance Bill 2019 contains the necessary provisions to ensure this. The organisation say it is only fair that the appreciation shown by patrons is received in full by those who have earned it. DublinTown have asked the unions representing workers in the industry to support this call. Speaking this week, CEO of Dublin Town, Richard Guiney stated, "The hospitality industry in Dublin City Centre has grown in strength and confidence in recent years. As many people now visit the city to socialise as to shop. The citys food and beverage offering constantly exceeds the expectations of visitors and is increasingly becoming a crucial element allowing Dublin to meet its ambitious tourist growth targets." He added, "It is only fair that the appreciation of staff is not allowed to remain a VATable activity. We therefore call on Minister Donohoe to zero rate service charges in the forthcoming 2019 Finance Act so those working within this vital industry feel the full benefit our appreciation of their service." Source: www.businessworld.ie 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 Trump's 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 giant's 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. "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," Canadian lawmaker Charlie Angus said at a special international hearing at Britain's parliament. "So Mr Zuckerberg's decision not to appear here at Westminster (Britain's parliament) to me speaks volumes," he said, later suggestingFacebook could be broken up to help address the issues. Facebook says it complies with EU data protection laws, but Richard Allan, the company's vice president of policy solutions who appeared in Zuckerberg's stead, admitted it had made mistakes. "I'm not going to disagree with you that we've damaged public trust through some of the actions we've taken," Allan told the hearing. 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 toFacebook 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 that's 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." (Reuters) Source: www.businessworld.ie Data from Urbanation indicated that Toronto condo rent rates increased by 7.6% on an annual basis to reach an average of $2,385 in Q3 2018, and by 17% for newly available purpose-built units. Long considered a haven for the citys affordability seekers, the rental market is becoming less friendly to all but the wealthiest families. Weve reached a point now where given the amount of people, industries were attracting, we are already becoming terribly unaffordable for everyone, University of Toronto professor Richard Florida told Bloomberg. Were at a crisis and we dont even realize it: Our transit, traffic problem and housing problem are urgent matters. Everyones getting priced out, he added. My students at the Rotman School of Management in the University of Toronto, who are going to be some of the most successful students in Canadian business, are now saying its doubtful they could ever afford a single-family home. Read more: Renters deserve adequate protection from housing risk A scarce supply of rental units is not helping matters, with Torontos apartment vacancy rate currently around 0.5%. Homelessness is growing, couch-surfing is growing and this will have a lot of pressure on families and on the city itself, according to Alejandra Ruiz Vargas of the low-and-moderate-income advocacy group Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now Canada. Not even a seemingly healthy number of housing starts is enough, as a recent study by Altus Group Ltd. reported that the pace of rental units entering the market is not enough to accommodate Torontos influx of 17,000 new renter households a year. The condo completion rate has nearly reached a 5-year low of around 10,000 units. Also, only 11,620 new units across 60 purpose-built rental buildings were built since 2005. Related stories: Rental demand to boost further apartment construction CMHC Toronto apartment inventory having trouble catching up with demand news, latest-news Good morning Canberra, We're heading for a top of 23 degrees today and there should be a bit of sunshine about. Start your Thursday out right - here are today's headlines. The Greens have proposed low income Canberra residents should pay less for parking and traffic fines. Greens MLA Caroline Le Couteur on Wednesday proposed the territory move towards a system used in Finland and other European nations, where a flat fine for minor offences is replaced with a tiered system based on people's capacity to pay. Daniel Burdon has more. Police have concerns that a bill to legalise cannabis in the ACT does not adequately address existing laws relating to driving while on drugs. Australian Federal Police Association president Angela Smith said the bill, which was introduced in the ACT Legislative Assembly on Wednesday, did not explore issues of the health system, therapeutic controls and how to deal with those found driving under the influence of cannabis. Sally Pryor has more. The success of the weekend's SouthFest in Tuggeranong has everyone asking if it will be an annual event. Organisers estimate more than 15,000 people - and perhaps as many as 20,000 people -went to the inaugural SouthFest event last weekend. Megan Doherty has more. The Anglican School Googong has become the second local school this month to consider dropping Indonesian, with both decisions sparking petitions from students to save their language classes. Australian National University Indonesian expert George Quinn said a downturn in Australian students studying the language would leave them behind on the world stage. Chloe Livadeas has more. Good news for potential migrants to the ACT, with 600 extra places allocated to the territory by the Department of Home Affairs. The ACT government will reopen its Skilled Nominated Visa (subclass 190) program for skilled migrants on Thursday, after it was closed suddenly in June to deal with an influx of international students to the territory. Sally Whyte has more. /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/ec55f318-c585-4a2f-b4c7-38a773e084cd/r0_185_2000_1315_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg The event aims to mark the 15th founding anniversary of the province with the participation of 40 ethnic minorities in the country and representatives from Laos, Cambodia and Indonesia. The festival also is to preserve, restore and promote traditional patterns and costumes of the ethnic minority groups throughout the country and Dak Nong province particularly. The provincial authorities expect to promote cultural heritage values and tourism potentials of the province to local and international visitors. By DONG NGUYEN Translated by Kim Khanh news, latest-news Residents were warned they could die if they refused to evacuate as fierce bushfires ravaged Queensland. An unprecedented catastrophic fire danger warning, the highest on the scale, was issued for Capricornia, the Central Highlands and Coalfields regions on Wednesday, as about 138 fires burnt across central and north Queensland and dry, hot winds wreaked havoc with firefighting efforts. On Wednesday afternoon, 8000 people were ordered to evacuate from Gracemere, just outside Rockhampton, without packing belongings due to a fast-moving fire. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk described the conditions as "catastrophic". "This is the first time we have had this category in Queensland, unprecedented, unchartered," she said. "This is a very stressful situation for families, I need you to all be strong. "We need to reach out to other community members who are frail, who are elderly, who have a disability, please listen to authorities, it going to get a lot worse, a lot more intense." About 3pm, Police Commissioner Ian Stewart said a fast-moving fire was "racing towards Gracemere" from Stanwell. "If you're picking up the kids, don't go home, go straight to the showgrounds at Rockhampton, you can connect with the rest of your family with our assistance from that position but you'll be safe there," he said. QFES predictive services inspector Andrew Sturgess said the fire danger for central Queensland would continue into the night. "There are fires that are now spreading and developing very rapidly," he said. "There'll be strong winds into the night after sunset tonight. It will not get better." Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster David Grant said there was an increase of dry, westerly winds across the region and very hot temperatures. "There is the potential for some thunderstorms to occur about eastern parts of south-east Queensland and central Queensland, which in combination with these hot and dry temperatures could produce very dangerous fire weather conditions," he said. "We may see fire behaviour that has not been seen in Queensland for quite some time, and may not experience ever before." Fire commissioner Katarina Carroll said people might have only had 20 minutes or less to move when given the order to leave. "This is evolving now but we expect this to go well into the night, normally you get reprieve at that time, there will be no reprieve for the next several hours," she said. "We have never, ever in this state been in this situation before, not at a catastrophic level, this is ... unchartered waters." Dire conditions were expected to continue after 300 firefighters worked to fight more than 130 fires across the state. Firefighters were flown from South Australia, Western Australia, Victoria and New South Wales. Ms Carroll continued to urge residents in Ambrose, Carmila and Gracemere to listen to local authorities and check their radios and media as they held concerns for what would come overnight. The fire at Gracemere, weve had the advantage of using the aerial tankers to give us good suppression in that area so that has assisted us greatly however that cannot operate through the night," she said. Ms Carroll said crews were also being sent to Oxenford, Wamuran and Stradbroke after fires broke out on Wednesday. Some houses were destroyed at Finch Hatton west of Mackay but crews were unable to assess the damage as it was too dangerous in the area. There were also bushfires at Kowari Gorge west of Mackay; North Stradbroke Island; Wamuran in south-east Queensland; near Ambrose; and approaching Deepwater, Baffle Creek, Rules Beach and Oyster Creek south of Gladstone. Emergency Services Minister Craig Crawford warned weather conditions were similar to those experienced in the 1983 Ash Wednesday fires, which killed 75 people in South Australia and Victoria. On Wednesday morning, state disaster co-ordinator Bob Gee warned residents who had chosen to not evacuate from Baffle Creek, Oyster Creek and Rules Beach could die. People in about 50 properties in Rules Beach were refusing to leave, although by the afternoon only a "small number" had stayed, as one containment line was broken. "People will burn to death, their normal approaches most probably won't work if this situation develops the way it is predicted to develop," Mr Gee said. "The situation is still dire in that area." At least 38 state schools, including Emerald State School and Wartburg State School, nine early childhood centres and six private schools were closed due to the threat of bushfires. Schools in the catastrophic fire danger zone would remain closed on Thursday. - with Toby Crockford and Jocelyn Garcia /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/2f95216d-c913-412f-aa22-93921fbff23f/r0_224_4096_2538_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. Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Ministry of Defence has released an employment notification calling out aspirants to apply for the posts of Junior Research Fellow and Research Associate. Those interested can check out the eligibility, salary scale, how to apply and the complete details of the government job here. The initial fellowship period is two years and is extendable depending on the requirement. Selected candidates can earn a stipend up to INR 40,000 per month. The selection process is through a walk-in interview held on 5 December 2018. UPPRPB Recruitment 2018 Opens For 49568 Police Constables DRDO Recruitment 2018 Vacancy Details CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Junior Research Fellow and Research Associate Organisation Defence Research and Development Organisation Educational Qualification ME, MSc, MS or PhD Experience Desirable Skills Required Research skills Job Location Delhi Salary Scale INR 25,000 to INR 40,000 per month Industry Defence Application Start Date November 28, 2018 Application End Date December 5, 2018 Maximum Age Limit: 35 years Also Read: 275 Apprentice Vacancies Open At Indian Navy How To Apply For DRDO Recruitment 2018 In order to apply for DRDO Recruitment 2018, follow these steps: Step 1: Draft your application form. Step 2: Attach attested photocopies of your documents. Step 3: Attend the walk-in interview at the venue. DRDO Recruitment 2018 Venue Defence Research Officers Mess and Institute (DROMI), DRDO Residential Complex, Brig SK Majumdar Road, Timarpur, Delhi - 110054. Follow the link - http://www.davp.nic.in/WriteReadData/ADS/eng_10301_163_1819b.pdf to read the detailed official notification. The minister highlighted the responsibility of authorised agencies to clean up the environment and raise awareness amongst Thais as well as seek cooperation from tourists to safeguard waters and land. He stressed that single-use plastic bags, fabric bags, portable water bottles, foam boxes and single-use drinking straws will all be wiped out. The minister said one of the main campaigns this year in promoting eco-tourism is to ask private sectors for cooperation in eliminating the use of non-degradable products at tourism hot spots. Thai Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has also banned the use of single-use foam and plastic containers in all 154 national parks country-wide. Meanwhile, Thai Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Surasak Kanchanarat said that waste had created a negative impact in Thailand's forest ecosystems. He added that the ministry launched a "Green National Park" campaign in 2015 and laid out policies amongst stakeholders in all national parks. There is an immense drop in the use of plastic bags since the campaign was launched, he noted, underscoring that there are much to do more to tell international friends that Thailand is very serious in tackling plastic waste. The environment ministry said in a statement that in the past 10 years, plastic wastes had accounted for about 12 percent of the total wastes, an equivalent of 2 million tonnes a year. These plastic wastes were also difficult to decompose and recycle, therefore the best resolution is to eliminate all single-use plastic bags and foams, said the minister. According to the Pollution Control Department's information, of the 10.78 million tonnes of garbage generated in 23 coastal provinces in 2016, about 1.3 million tonnes were plastic trash and 74 percent of them were properly disposed of, while the remaining were washed into seas.-VNA Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has released an employment notification calling out aspirants to apply for the post of Air Traffic Controller Trainee (Grade I) in the Airport Services Centre Division and Helicopter Division located in Bengaluru (10 Posts) & Tumukuru (Karnataka) (3 Posts). 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. Selected candidates can earn up to INR 1,20,000 per month. The last date to apply for this government job is 19 December 2018. IOCL Recruitment 2018 For Environment Associate HAL Recruitment 2018 Vacancy Details CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Air Traffic Controller Trainee (Grade I) Organisation Hindustan Aeronautics Limited Educational Qualification Graduate degree in computer science, electrical or electronics engineering Experience Desirable Skills Required Engineering skills Job Location Karnataka Salary Scale INR 30,000 to INR 1,20,000 per month Industry Aeronautics Application Start Date November 28, 2018 Application End Date December 19, 2018 Maximum Age Limit: 28 years Also Read: BEL Recruitment 2018: Become A DGM And Earn Up To INR 2,20,000 How To Apply For HAL Recruitment 2018 In order to apply for HAL Recruitment 2018, follow these steps: Step 1: Log on to the HAL official website. Step 2: Click the CAREERS tab on the home page. Step 3: The list of notifications will be displayed on the screen. Click on the link that reads, Detailed advertisement for the post of Air Traffic Controller Trainees (Grade-I) Click here. Step 4: Under Career Documents/Details, click the link that reads, Click here to View. Step 5: Click the registration link on the next page. Step 6: The registration form will open. Enter your details in the fields provided. Step 7: Enter the captcha code. Step 8: Click Submit and complete the registration process. Step 9: Log in using your credentials and complete the application process. Follow the link - https://hal-india.co.in/Common/Uploads/Resumes/961_CareerPDF1_Advertisement ATC Trainees 28112018.pdf to read the detailed official notification. Indo Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBP) has released an employment notification calling out aspirants to apply for the post of Head Constable. 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 100. Selected candidates can earn up to INR 81,100 per month. The last date to apply for this government job is 4 December 2018. DRDO Recruitment 2018 For Research Fellows And Associates ITBP Recruitment 2018 Vacancy Details CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Head Constable Organisation Indo Tibetan Border Police Force Educational Qualification Class 12 passout with a degree or diploma in a veterinary course Experience Freshers can apply Skills Required Physical fitness Job Location India Salary Scale INR 25,500 to INR 81,100 per month Industry Police Application Start Date November 5, 2018 Application End Date December 4, 2018 Age Limit: 18 to 25 years Also Read: UPPRPB Recruitment 2018 Opens For 49568 Police Constables How To Apply For ITBP Recruitment 2018 In order to apply for ITBP Recruitment 2018, follow these steps: Step 1: Log on to the recruitment page of the ITBP official website. http://recruitment.itbpolice.nic.in/. (Currently the page is not loading) Step 2: Once the page becomes active, click the tab that reads REGISTER USER. Step 3: The registration form will open. Enter your details in the fields provided. Step 4: Enter the captcha code. Step 5: Click Submit and complete the registration process. Step 6: Go to the home page and click LOGIN. Step 7: The login form will open. Enter your credentials in the fields provided. Step 8: Enter the captcha code. Step 9: Click Login and complete the application process. Follow the link - http://www.davp.nic.in/WriteReadData/ADS/eng_19143_21_1819b.pdf to read the detailed official notification. Carlow's lifesaving heroes will be recognised at the Irish Water Safetys National Awards Ceremony in Dublin Castle today, Wednesday, November 28. Garda Aidan Kelly On June 10, at Lannigan Lough, Garda Kelly observed a female in distress in the water. He immediately obtained a ring buoy and entered the river. He proceeded to swim to the other side of the river to reach the female. He managed to support the woman in the water until the rescue boat arrived. The woman made a full recovery. Beibhinn Keane On July 25, at the River Barrow, Bebhinn was alerted that her aunt had gotten into difficulty in the water. Bebhinn entered the water and swam quickly towards her aunt. Upon reaching her aunt, Bebhinn called out to another person to call emergency services. She held onto her aunt which gripping the river bank for some time. Beibinn continued to reassure her Aunt as she drifted in and out of consciousness. Meanwhile, she called to her cousin to carefully enter the water and place an inflated lifejacket on her aunt. She then placed her aunt onto her back and proceeded to bring her to the top of the river where the ambulance crew were waiting. Her aunt managed to reach up and grab the hands of ambulance crew and they pulled her out of the water to safety with the help of a lifeguard. She made a full recovery. Mr Sean Canney TD, Minister of State at the Department of Rural & Community Development will present the Seiko Just in Time Rescue Award to the rescuers in appreciation for saving so many lives. It is an honour to pay tribute to these courageous recipients. Tragically an average of 127 people drown in Ireland every year and although thats 127 too many, the figure would be even higher but for the dramatic efforts of these individuals who saved others from drowning and the ongoing work of Irish Water Safety volunteers teaching swimming and water rescue skills. Long-Service Volunteer Awards will also be presented to 63 volunteers, recognising a combined total of 1,315 years of service teaching swimming, water rescue and survival skills in communities nationwide. The work of Irish Water Safetys volunteers in teaching and assessing Lifeguards pays dividends at our waterways every year, reflected in the fact that Lifeguards rescued 331 people from drowning this summer, administered first aid on 4,496 occasions and reunited 329 lost children found wandering unsupervised near water. I appeal to all adults to make themselves more aware of the dangers of drowning, continued Minister Canney. It only takes seconds for tragedy to strike and this can so easily be avoided if people learn about the hazards and take personal responsibility for their own safety. I ask that people encourage friends and family to read Irish Water Safetys guidelines at www.iws.ie so that they have the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to avoid becoming a drowning statistic. Photo: Google Maps UPDATE 7:20 p.m. A grizzly bear has killed a woman and her 10-month-old baby in the Yukon. The Yukon Coroner's Service says 37-year-old Valerie Theoret and infant Adele Roesholt died in the attack. The service says in a release that it received notice of the deaths in the Einarson Lake area near the Northwest Territories border. It says RCMP received a call at about 3:45 p.m. on Monday from a trapper, identified as Gjermund Roesholt. The service says he was charged by a grizzly bear about 100 metres from a cabin he shared with his wife and infant daughter. It says he shot the bear dead, but when he returned to his cabin, he found the bodies of his wife and child just outside. "It appears they had been out for a walk when the incident occurred," says coroner Heather Jones in the release. The family had been in the area for the last three months, trapping around Einarson Lake, the coroner says. The investigation is ongoing, with Mayo RCMP, Environment Yukon, Yukon Coroner's Service and the RCMP's Forensic Identification Section assisting. The service extended its condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Theoret and her child. It did not specify where the family originally came from. Yukon RCMP are investigating what is believed to be a deadly bear attack. A message posted by the RCMP on social media says two people have died. The attack happened Monday northeast of Mayo, near the boundary with the Northwest Territories. Police say the coroners service and Environment Yukon are assisting with the investigation. The names of the victims have not been released and police have not identified the type of bear that may have been involved. Photo: File photo A Montreal teen who drowned during a high school gym class spent 38 minutes at the bottom of the pool without anyone noticing, a coroner's investigation has found. Dr. Louis Normandin's report into the death last February of Blessing Claude Moukoko reveals a troubling lack of supervision. "Blessing Claude Moukoko was left alone at the bottom of the pool ... and this, because there wasn't a lifeguard essentially dedicated to their function," Normandin wrote in the report made public Tuesday. Like many of the 19 Ecole Pere-Marquette students in the class, Moukoko, 14, was just learning to swim. He was taking part in his third swim class as part of a high school gym course the morning of Feb. 15. He was last seen struggling to do the crawl, and no one noticed the Grade 8 students absence when the class left the pool deck. It was only when a second class arrived that they saw what they thought was a dummy at the bottom of the municipal pool, which is adjacent to the school in the city's Rosemont district. The coroner described security video of the pool from that morning as unsettling. "People are walking around the pool deck, the water is calm, so calm in fact, they have the impression the students in the second course that they see a dummy in the bottom of the pool," he said at a news conference. "The lifeguard understands, dives, calls for help." Normandin recommended that any gym teacher giving swim lessons receive the training required by the province and that a lifeguard provide full-time surveillance during all courses. If it isn't possible to have one person teaching and another keeping watch, Normandin recommended school swimming lessons be suspended. "Nobody had ill intentions in this story," Normandin said. "However, the swimming course, in my opinion, must be given by those who are deemed competent." The coroner found that the teacher a substitute that day did not have the training required by the province. As a result, the lifeguard was helping teach rather than being in the chair to watch over the students in the pool. In his first class, Moukoko did not venture into the deep end. His friends later told authorities he struggled to stay afloat, becoming short of breath and often grabbing the side of the pool. Normandin said the video confirmed his inability to swim. "The precariousness of the situation as he reaches the deep part of the pool is obvious," Normandin wrote. Normandin said water safety, not the acquisition of technical swimming skills, should be the primary goal of swimming lessons in schools. He recommended the province integrate the Lifesaving Society's Swim to Survive program into the curriculum a basic training that teaches people what to do in the event of an unexpected fall into deep water. Raynald Hawkins, executive director of the Quebec Lifesaving Society, welcomed the recommendation. "This is an evaluation so that when they follow a learn to swim program, the kids have the minimum skills and requirements in case they go on the deep side of the swimming pool," Hawkins said. The school board said in a statement it acknowledges the coroner's recommendations and will put in place the necessary measures. "Our duty is to do our utmost to strengthen our practices to prevent such events from happening again," Commission scolaire de Montreal chairwoman Catherine Harel Bourdon said. In Quebec City, Isabelle Charest, junior education minister, said it is too soon to start cancel swimming classes. "I don't think we need to suspend the courses. We can start to work without stopping everything," Charest said, calling the death extremely tragic. Photo: The Canadian Press The Irving Shipbuilding facility is seen in Halifax on June 14, 2018. Canada's International Trade Tribunal is telling the federal government not to award its contract to design new warships for the navy. The federal government announced last month that U.S. defence giant Lockheed Martin beat out two rivals in the competition to design replacements for the navy's frigates and destroyers. Lockheed is now negotiating a final contract with the government and Halifax-based Irving Shipbuilding, which will build the ships. But one of the other two bidders, Alion Science and Technology, asked the Canadian International Trade Tribunal to quash the decision, saying Lockheed's design did not meet the navy's stated requirements and should have been disqualified. Late Tuesday, the tribunal officially ordered the government to postpone the award of any contract until the tribunal can determine whether Alion's complaint is valid. With a $60-billion total price, the warship project is Canada's largest-ever military procurement, with new vessels expected to serve as the navy's backbone for most of the century. Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Geng Shuang's Regular Press Conference on November 28, 2018 2018/11/28 Q: We have noted that on November 27, nine international experts and scholars published an article titled "Buenos Aires Summit Is a Good Place to Start Fighting Back Against Destructive Unilateralism" in the Financial Times, hoping that the upcoming G20 summit will achieve positive practical outcomes. The article specifically mentioned a piece by China's G20 Sherpa and Assistant Foreign Minister Zhang Jun published on the same newspaper on November 26 which calls for resisting trade protectionism and upholding multilateral trading system. As the G20 summit approaches, what is your expectation for this meeting? A: We have seen relevant articles and reports. The mechanism of the G20 summit was established against the backdrop of the global financial crisis. During the past ten years, it has made remarkable progress, becoming a universally recognized major platform for international economic cooperation which plays an important role in making top-level planning for global economic governance. Currently, the world economy is faced with downward risk and pressure and impacted by unilateralism and protectionism. China hopes that the mechanism of the G20 summit, on the occasion of its 10th anniversary, will once again demonstrate its leading role as a major forum for international economic cooperation, send out a positive signal of upholding multilateralism, advocating partnership, improving global economic governance, addressing climate change, guiding innovation-driven growth and promoting inclusive development, achieve practical outcomes and inject new impetus for the world economy to embark on a course of robust, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth. China always sets store by and takes an active part in the G20 cooperation. The Chinese leaders attended all the previous G20 summits and contributed Chinese wisdom and Chinese proposals to improving global economic governance. The G20 Hangzhou summit in 2016 marked a milestone in the history of G20 cooperation. All these fully showcase China's full support to the G20 cooperation and multilateralism. China stands ready to work with all relevant parties to strive for consensus at the upcoming G20 summit and ensure its success, thus enabling it to continue to serve as a major forum for international economic cooperation and make more progress in promoting global growth and enhancing global economic governance. Q: The Meeting of China-DPRK Joint Committee on Border Issues was held in Beijing again after two years. Could you tell us what was talked about at the meeting? A: On November 26 and 27, the Fourth Meeting of China-DPRK Joint Committee on Border Issues was held in Beijing. The chief representatives of the two sides, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou and DPRK Vice Foreign Minister Pak Myong Guk, respectively headed a delegation to the meeting. The two sides exchanged views on the implementation of the Agreement on the China-DPRK Border Management System since the third Meeting of the Joint Committee. Q: A US-based Chinese photographer called Lu Guang has gone missing in Kashgar, Xinjiang according to his wife. Do you have any information on what might happen to him? A: I'm not aware of the case you mentioned. Q: The Spanish government said that it would not sign the Memorandum of Understanding on the Belt and Road Initiative. Do you have any comment on this? A: China and Spain are comprehensive strategic partners, who have prominent complementary strengths in building the Belt and Road and have already achieved some early harvests. If my memory serves me right, former Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy Brey attended the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in China in 2017. President Xi Jinping is now on a state visit to Spain. China is willing to take this visit as an opportunity to strengthen the synergy of development strategies with Spain, further tap into the potential for cooperation, elevate and upgrade the practical cooperation to make greater contributions to promoting Eurasia connectivity. Q: The New Zealand government has declined to allow a New Zealand telecom firm to use Huawei to provide 5G services citing a risk to national security. Are you aware of the situation? Have you discussed it with New Zealand? A: We are gravely concerned about relevant reports. The Chinese government encourages Chinese companies to conduct economic cooperation in other countries on the basis of following market principles and international rules and abiding by local laws. The China-New Zealand economic and trade cooperation is mutually beneficial in nature. We hope that New Zealand can level the playing field for Chinese enterprises' operation there and contribute more to mutual trust and cooperation. Q: Does the Chinese government have any plan to prevent scientific research on human gene editing in the future? A: A journalist raised a similar question yesterday. Like I already said, this is not a diplomatic question. In addition, China's National Health Commission, Ministry of Science and Technology and other relevant associations and Chinese experts and scholars have expressed their opinions on this issue. I believe you may have noted that. 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. The Odessa City Council might be looking into establishing a code of ethics ordinance to govern city council members. Our media partners at the Odessa American reported that Mayor Turner spoke with council members and the city attorney about an ordinance that would provide ethical guidelines for city council members. And with four city council members sworn in Tuesday night, its a fresh start for the council. At-large city councilwoman Peggy Dean explained how the subject was brought to her attention. I only know that the mayor had told me this is something he had wanted to work on pretty quickly after the new council was in place. And I think its a good idea, depending on whats in that ordinance. But I cant really tell you any more about it because I havent seen it. But hes just indicated that its coming down the pipe, she said. Interim City Attorney, Gary Landers, said theres a possibility of the council adopting a code of ethics, and that it might be discussed at a private city council gathering. Landers said code of ethics range from conflicts of interest to council member conduct. Many cities in Texas have whats called an ethics ordinance, or conflict of interest ordinance, and the catch is, it really depends on what the local city council wants. Theres a large variety in Texas of what that ordinance can be. So I dont know what it might actually cover until the city council decides what they want to do, he said. The attorney then gave an example of how the code could dictate behavior. Sometimes, you have council members that have interest in a business that might want to do business with the city. And those things arent illegal, but they have to be handled through what we call a conflict of interest. They have to disclose ahead of time, so it will probably include something like that, he said. Landers said the council members follow the same rules and regulations as city staff. Often city councils take the position that they want to be the leader, that they want to step out instead of the regular city ordinances that apply to city staff and the public. They want to have an ordinance that applies to them and their volunteer board appointees, he said. When asked if this potential code of ethics is due to previous and current council member activity, Landers deflected the question to the voting council members. Well youd need to ask the mayor about that or any individual council members, he said. Ector County Commissioner, Armondo Rodriquez, said county commissioners have to go to a class covering ethics for public office holders. He declined to comment on the potential ethics ordinance, but said transparency with the public is always a priority. Landers said if the council decides to move forward with the code, the ordinance would be placed on the city council agenda. Like any other ordinance, community members would have the opportunity to voice their opinions before it is voted on by city council. Mayor David Turner has the opportunity to vote on agenda items, since Proposition 2 was passed by voters on election day. If the ordinance is created and passed, it would also govern city volunteer boards, like the Odessa Development Corporation. Recent extreme weatherHurricanes Harvey and Florencecaused widespread toxic contamination of floodwaters after low-lying chemical plants, coal ash storage facilities and hog waste lagoons were inundated. Such storm-driven chemical disasters demonstrate that state water pollution permitting programs are overdue for reforms that account for stronger and more intense hurricanes and heavy rainfall events, sea level rise and extreme heat. As the Chesapeake Bay watershed states and the District of Columbia prepare their final watershed implementation plans for cleaning up the Bay, two important lessons should be clear from the recent disasters: First, climate change will greatly complicate Bay cleanup efforts and must therefore be factored into planning. Second, the state regulation of pollution sources can and should be a critical component of the plan. The potential pollution implications of climate change are many and varied for the Bay watershed: Where sunny-day flooding now occurs on a weekly basis in parts of DC, Maryland and Virginia, accelerating sea levels will cause nuisance flooding on a near-daily basis in the next 2030 years. Sea level rise also raises the prospect that seawater will intrude into coastal groundwater, inundating and degrading drinking water wells, septic tanks and underground chemical or hazardous waste storage facilities. Sea level rise will also shrink tidal wetlands, weakening these natural filters' ability to help capture pollution. The most recent Bay pollution modeling suggests that present-day climate impacts, including increased rainfall and more intense storms, are responsible for higher levels of inorganic nitrogen, as well as warmer water temperatures that render pollution reductions less effective at preventing dead zones. Prolonged, extreme heat from climate change is problematic, too, as heat waves can cause blackouts that disrupt pollution control practices, and high temperatures can degrade above-ground storage tanks. As Bay jurisdictions develop plans to integrate climate resilience into their pollution permitting systems, it's also important that they keep in mind the overwhelming social dimension to this problem: Climate-driven chemical disasters and environmental pollution may amplify the harm to the vulnerable populations and communities that are already disproportionately exposed to both industrial pollution and the impacts of climate change. Low-income communities, surrounded by urban industrial facilities that emit toxic dust and air pollution, or industrial agricultural operations that emit toxic ammonia into the air and toxic nitrate pollution into surface and groundwater, are often the same communities plagued by flooding, storm surge and extreme heat. Vulnerable populationschildren and seniors among themare more susceptible to environmental pollution and climate impacts, and they are more likely to be immobile during disaster. State policymakers also need to address disaster policy to ensure that when pollution or a disaster does occur, vulnerable communities will have the means to minimize their exposure. Fortunately, not all of the news is bad. Many Bay jurisdictions have made progress in broadly addressing adaptation and resilience to climate change. New York State, for example, has tackled the threat of climate-driven pollution head on. Environmental organizations pushed New York to pass the Community Risk and Resiliency Act in 2014. Among other requirements, the law requires state agencies to develop regulatory standards for sea-level rise projections and requires pollution permit applicants and regulators to consider present and future exposure to sea level rise, storm surges and river flooding. These requirements only took effect less than two years ago, so critical questions about their effectiveness are still unanswered. There are a number of other steps that jurisdictions can undertake today to help minimize the costs of climate impacts on the Bay and pollution-permitting in the future. They include: Bay jurisdictions should examine opportunities to apply existing legal authority to adapt pollution-permitting to climate impacts as part of their commitment to address climate change in their upcoming watershed implementation plans. Merely adapting restoration practices will fall far short of what is needed to account for the impact of climate change on the Bay cleanup. Bay jurisdictions can also establish a longer-term task forcestaffed by regulators, elected officials, and community stakeholdersto continue exploring opportunities for climate resilience policy reforms by amending state pollution regulations in a manner that also aligns with existing commissions focused on the Chesapeake Bay, environmental justice and climate change. Bay jurisdictions should dedicate resources to identify and study climate-vulnerable pollution permittees and the communities potentially exposed to climate-driven pollution, then commit resources to assess the environmental and social benefits of any adopted policy reforms, including state funding decisions for investments in infrastructure and growth planning. Reforms in regulatory transparency will serve communities exposed to potential climate-driven chemical disasters. State regulators should meaningfully comply with existing regulatory frameworks, including the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, which requires public disclosure about neighborhood chemical risks. Moreover, regulators should use this information to target inspection and enforcement resources to vulnerable communities and those with greater exposure to climate-induced pollution. Policymakers must engage industry and others in the process of investigating policy reforms and discrete actions that can be taken at industrial facilities to address vulnerabilities to flooding and other climate impacts and that require sufficient resources for regulators. The Massachusetts Office of Technical Assistance has produced a remarkable model for this type of work. Additionally, without sacrificing ambitious near-term action, the public and private sectors need to collaborate and develop long-term, enforceable plans to move or modify problematic facilities. Billions of dollars are at stakemeasured by the value of our natural resources and the health of our communities, as well as the magnitude of past and present investments in pollution control and a clean and healthy Chesapeake Bay. We must break away from business as usual and reform our public safeguards to account for the accelerating impacts and cascading harm of a changing climate. David Flores is a policy analyst at the Center for Progressive Reform. His opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Bay Journal. Nesher dismisses one-third of Haifa workforce ICR Newsroom By 28 November 2018 Nesher Israel Cement Enterprises laid of 20 workers at its Haifa cement plant around a third of the sites workforce, due to a decline in output. Israels largest cement producers is reportedly undergoing further downsizing with further steps expected at its Ramla works. The dismissals come in the wake of the entry of cheap cement from Turkey and Greece, which has seen Hartuv Cement come under considerable pressure. "From a market share of 75 per cent we have fallen to 65 per cent. If you ask me, I think we are getting close to 60 per cent, and we have had to cut prices," Nesher CEO, Moshe Kaplinsky said in an interview with G Magazine six months ago. Nesher's market share is currently estimated at 60 per cent. Nesher supported Hartuv Cements petition to the Commissioner of Trade Levies in Israel's Ministry of Economy and Industry for the imposition of a dumping levy to protect local production from cheap imports. Published under Twitter has added greater protection to its terms of service for trans people. To protect against deadnaming and misgendering, among other abuses, Twitter banned targeting individuals with repeated slurs, tropes or other content that intends to dehumanise, degrade or reinforce negative or harmful stereotypes about a protected category. If a user deliberately misgenders or deadnames someone, they can be reported and banned from Twitter. Advocates including Mermaids, a gender-diverse charity, and Paris Lees, an author, have been commending Twitter on the pro-trans move. About time! Twitter should be a safe space for everyone, Lees tweeted. Twitters new terms also take into consideration research that marginalized groups including women, people of color, and LGBTQ people have been targeted with more abuse online than other groups. World AIDS Day marks its 30thanniversary on Saturday. Founded in 1988, World AIDS Day was the first-ever global health day. Every year, World AIDS Day events take place across South Florida to raise awareness and show support for people living with HIV. This years theme is Know Your Status. There are several opportunities to get tested and find out. HIV/AIDS disproportionately impacts the South. Florida is no exception. According to the Florida Department of Health, 116,944 persons were living with an HIV diagnosis in Florida at the end of last year. Nearly 5,000 people received an HIV diagnosis in Florida in 2017, and more than 2,000 received an AIDS diagnosis in Florida in 2017. Heres a list of a few of the events happening in Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach Counties: Wednesday, Nov. 28 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Ribbons for the Children Art Contest The World AIDS Museum hosts talented, young local artists who will honor World AIDS Day through artistic interpretation. The event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. The World AIDS Museum is located at 1201 NE 26thStreet, #111, Wilton Manors. Thursday, Nov. 29 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Resource Fair - World AIDS Day is one of LGBTQA Initiatives signature events at Florida International University. This years Resource Fair consists of free HIV testing, free lunch, and features a moment of remembrance by the bay area to remember those lost to HIV/AIDS. It takes place Florida International University - Biscayne Bay Campus: Wolfe University Center Panther Square. 3000 Northeast 151st Street, Miami, FL 33181. Saturday, Dec. 1st Broward 6:30 p.m. World AIDS Day Vigil and Remembrance Walk - The Community is invited to come together for a vigil and walk in Wilton Manors. Broward House hosts this annual event. It begins at Hagen Park and participants walk down Wilton Drive united in memory, healing, and love. The candlelit walk will culminate at The Pride Center for a few words of respectful remembrance, support, and continued vigilance. Miami 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. AIDS Walk and Mini Health Fair - Community Health of South Florida holds its first-ever AIDS Walk along with a mini health fair. The Doris Ison Health Center is at 10300 SW 216th Street, Miami, FL 33190. 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Transformation Conference - On World AIDS Day, the Southeast AIDS Education and Training Center will be hosting its 2018 Practice Transformation Conference. Primary care professionals, specialty care providers, nurses, case managers, and community advocates will review proven strategies in HIV care and prevention, discuss updates in HIV care policies and analyze collaborative care strategies. The conference takes place at the Grand Beach Hotel, 9449 Collins Ave., Surfside. 7 p.m. to Midnight Art Show - AIDS Healthcare Foundation hosts an original art show displaying pieces of work from artists spanning from various Latin countries. Artistic performances, and special guest appearances will include Justin Quiles, Coastcity and the host of the evening will be Jessica Carrillo. AIDS Healthcare Foundation commemorates World AIDS Day every year to remind the global community that the fight to end HIV is far from over. The show takes place at the Perez Art Museum, 1103 Biscayne Boulevard, Miami, FL. Palm Beach County 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. World AIDS Day Observance - The mayor of Lake Worth will give a proclamation in commemoration of the event. The Voices of Pride chorus will perform followed by a few words by Rev. Chris Freeman. A candlelight vigil will then be held after the opening of the 30 Block Display of The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. This display will be open to the public from Dec. 1 through Dec. 13. The observance happens at Compass Community Center, 201 N Dixie Highway, Lake Worth, FL. Sunday, Dec. 2 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. World AIDS Day at The Pride Center - Co-hosted by Church of the Holy SpiritSong, the event features fellowship, food, giveaways, and free HIV testing. The Pride Center is located at 2040 N Dixie Hwy., Wilton Manors. 4 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. State of The Kiki Address - The Kiki Project is hosting "A Party with a Purpose." The party will be held at Stonewall Museum 2157 Wilton Drive and the attire is Wakanda African. Monday, Dec. 3 6 p.m. Paseo del Edredon (Quilt Tour) - Tour of The Names Project Memorial Quilt in Spanish. This free event includes light snacks. Attendees are urged to register in advance at Paseodeledredon.eventbrite.com. The tour takes place at Compass, 201 N Dixie Hwy. in Lake Worth. Wednesday, Dec. 5 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. The Tea on HIV - This event features an in-depth educational session on the history of HIV/AIDS, methods of transmission, and how to reduce transmission in the youth age group (12 to 18 years old). The tea is spilled at Compass, 201 N Dixie Hwy. in Lake Worth. 6 p.m. WAD Community Education Series (CES) This event will recognize World AIDS Day and show the AIDS Memorial Quilt. Guest Speaker will be Ed Sparan, Advocate/PrEP Linkage Specialist of the Pride Center at Equality Park. Dinner will be served. Register at CesworldAIDSday.eventbrite.com. The dinner will take place at Compass, 201 N Dixie Hwy. Habitat for Humanity of Greater Chattanooga Area is hosting a lunch and learn event in the Alton Park Villages Community on Saturday, Dec. 8, from 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. We are excited to share our vision for the future of Alton Park Villages, said Tenasa Lucas-McGhee, director of Family and Mortgage Services, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Chattanooga Area. Habitat Homes that are built in the Alton Park Villages feature attractive two, three, and four bedroom updated homes. Residents of the community enjoy scenic views of Lookout Mountain, with easy access to public transportation and other amenities. Habitat homes are equipped with HVAC systems and duct work designed specifically for maximum efficiency, that correlates with EPB standards keeping electric bills affordable. They also come with low maintenance siding, laminate flooring, Grade I insulation packages, Energy Star rated refrigerator and dishwashers, and washer/dryer hook ups. Habitat incorporates these energy efficient features into every new home built. The spacious baths are tiled and provide extra storage space in easily accessed closets. Oversized windows provide natural lighting and a view of the front porch, a rear patio, private drive and surrounding landscaping. Our Southside Habitat homes are within miles of some of Chattanoogas hottest Attractions like the Chattanooga Incline, Ruby Falls, And Rock City just to name a few," said Ms. Lucas-McGhee. "Our homes provide a great choice for young families, the elderly or even single individuals. We are creating a very special community that will be enjoyed by neighbors at every stage of life. We are excited to add more neighbors to our community and look forward to sharing information with the public on Dec. 8. The Lunch and Learn event will take place at the South Chattanooga YFD complex at 1151 W. 40th St. The event will feature guest speakers from the Chattanooga Police Department, the Chattanooga Fire Department and several other organizations. Current and future residents will hear from leaders in the community and learn about the area schools and services. To reserve a spot, call 756-0507. The Chattanooga Heart Institute at CHI Memorial welcomes Robert Huang, M.D., MPH, FACC. Dr. Huang received his medical degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio. He completed his residency and internship in internal medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, as well as fellowships in cardiovascular medicine and interventional cardiology. While at Vanderbilt University, he also earned a masters in public health. He is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease, and interventional cardiology. Dr. Huang comes to The Chattanooga Heart Institute with experience as a previous STEMI director, radial program director, and cath lab quality/AMI director. The Chattanooga Heart Institute has 28 highly-trained cardiologists - including specialists in interventional procedures, electrophysiology, imaging and vascular disease - and two cardiothoracic surgeons on staff. This practice offers a comprehensive multi-disciplinary approach to cardiac care with a team of physicians providing recommendations on specific areas of treatment. At The Chattanooga Heart Institute, cardiologists work in collaboration, aided by the latest technology, to diagnose heart problems and provide advanced interventional procedures for the treatment of heart disease. Rehabilitation services are available at CHI Memorial Hospital Chattanooga for those with an elevated risk of a cardiac event and for those who have experienced a cardiac event. The Chattanooga Heart Institute at CHI Memorial offers access to the regions leading cardiologists in six locations - Chattanooga, East Brainerd, Hixson, Cleveland, and Jasper in Tennessee and in Ringgold. For more information or appointments, call (423) 697-2000. Minnie Fagerlunds life was tested by tragedy, the terror of war, and separation from her Finnish homeland. Now, her legacy will live at Nokian Tyres new factory in Dayton, thanks to a generous gift from a local benefactor. Mrs. Fagerlunds grandson, Southeast Tennessee resident Pete Levelle, donated a portrait of her to the Finland-based tire company, which remains on schedule to begin producing tires at the Dayton factory in 2020. It is my distinct privilege to donate a piece of family art that represents the values of our past generations and our hope for the future generations in our country, Mr. Levelle said during a presentation ceremony at the Dayton Welcome Center. Mrs. Fagerlund brought her family to the United States at the turn of the 20th century, where her life was forever altered by a pair of New York landmarks. She entered the country through Ellis Island. And in 1909, her husband, John, died after falling from Brooklyn Bridge while participating in its construction. Mrs. Fagerlund returned to Finland after the tragedy and endured World War I before bringing her family back to the U.S., this time for good. She established a family tree that is proud to honor its roots through actions such as this generous donation, said officials. If Minnie were present with us today, Mr. Levelle said, she would rejoice knowing an image of character and strength was returning to the Finnish people and to Nokian Tyres. We are humbled and deeply grateful to receive this priceless painting from our companys home in Finland, said Dayton Factory Operations Manager Peter Chia. We are proud of our companys Scandinavian heritage and eager to embrace our new home in Southeast Tennessee. Nokian Tyres new production factory in Dayton will produce four million tires per year once it reaches full capacity. The company plans to employ 400 workers and will begin its first phase of hiring in early 2019. It also opened a new headquarters office in Nashville earlier in 2018. Nokian Tyres aims to double its sales in North America by 2023. The Dayton factory, its third production facility worldwide, is a key element of that plan. Company officials say that even as they press forward toward a bright future, they will continue to honor the past. This generous donation reminds us that heritage matters, said Mr. Chia. We look forward to sharing our Scandinavian heritage with the people of Southeast Tennessee as we deepen our roots in the United States. A man who pleaded guilty in the death of a 60-year-old motorcyclist outside a bar on Lee Highway in May 2016 has gone into confinement to begin serving a nine-year prison sentence. Henry Cofrancesco III had appealed the term handed down by Judge Don Poole, but the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals on May 22 upheld the conviction and sentence. He had remained free during the appeal. Cofrancesco in April of 2017 pleaded guilty to one count of vehicular homicide (by Impairment) and one count of (DUI per se) (enhanced). Cofrancesco, who was 34 when he pleaded guilty, was initially charged with possession of cocaine, failure to yield right of way, leaving the scene of an accident, failure to render aid and DUI. Robert Benedict was struck and killed on Lee Highway when a vehicle pulled onto the highway from the Images nightclub. At 8:10 p.m., officers from the Chattanooga Police Department's Traffic Division responded to the fatal crash at 5950 Lee Highway involving a 2015 BMW convertible and a 2006 American Ironhorse motorcycle. Police said Cofrancesco was driving the 2015 BMW. He was pulling out of the parking lot at 5950 Lee Highway. When his vehicle pulled out into the road he struck the motorcycle rider. The impact caused substantial damage to both vehicles. Mr. Benedict was pronounced dead at the scene. A witness said Cofrancesco drove over a curb onto Lee Highway directly in front of the motorcycle. The witness said the driver got out of his car, looked around, then went back into the bar. Shane Morrow, the founder and director of Jazzanooga, an event at the Bessie Smith Hall, on Tuesday asked the City Council to join with him in a creative partnership to help involve the underserved people in the community to be exposed to and participate in the arts. He said they need to be able to express themselves creatively and thinks that it will keep people out of trouble if young people have something to latch onto. He said he was not asking for dollars but for a commitment from the city. An example was to give tickets at the rec centers for ballets and music events.There was a discussion about short term vacation rentals. Councilman Chip Henderson said that he would like to discuss the possibility of changing the format. He said in deciding on planning and zoning issues, RPA Executive Director John Bridger gives an overview but there is no introduction when someone is applying for a permit to operate a short term rental. So he suggested that each one be introduced before the discussions and votes. An example would be to let the council know the number of letters in opposition that had been received. Another suggestion was putting these type of businesses on a GIS map as a visual illustration. Chairman Ken Smith said that the council will not see where they are and if they are many clustered in an area unless there is opposition. He said all areas of town have to be treated the same way, so it would be better to have a policy that could be applied equally.He also suggested thinking about limiting the number of non-owner occupied short term rentals. He said that Chattanoogas policy does not address if they are owner/occupied. City Attorney Phil Noblett said he believes that Nashvilles policy does put limits on those.City Finance Director Daisy Madison introduced Tim Maddux as the new city treasurer. She said he has 24 years of experience in the financial arena. He was hired from within, coming from the City-Wide Services/Public Works department. His new job is effective on Dec. 4.Councilman Henderson asked for information about two programs related to youth and family development. He was told that the programs are both related to Howard. One is to help youth finish High School instead of getting a GED. The second will help create a seamless pipeline" between a student graduating and getting technical training, maybe by exposure to the workplace. He was told that there will be a better explanation at the meeting where it will be discussed.There was an update by Councilman Anthony Byrd about putting the name of the late John P. Franklin on the City Council Building. He said he is working on the costs to put the name on the building. It will not be carved into the stone. He also wants to put a picture or bust of Mr. Franklin, who was a longtime city official.At the regular meeting, the council approved a resolution to declare restrictive covenants for seven city-owned parcels. The reason for declaring restrictive covenants for these properties are that they are all in the Mountain Creek watershed assessment and improvement plan. All are in the floodplain or the floodway, and all are considered to be undevelopable. It could become a greenway in the future, officials said.Also approved was a resolution to enter a lease agreement with the Chattanooga Radio Control Club at 4246 Woodland Dr. to lease six acres and a defined fly zone for flying model airplanes, club meetings and other related activities for a term of three years, with the option to renew for an additional one year. The annual rent will be $200 per year. It is in District 4.The city will apply for an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grant for brownfield assessment and clean up grants from the Southeast Tennessee Development District for three years beginning on Dec. 1, 2018.A current loan through Brightbridge, Inc. is expiring and will be assigned to the Southeast Tennessee Development District. The purpose of the loan is to create and retain jobs for low income individuals. The rate with Brightbridge was six percent, but the new one will depend on the market at the time it is taken out.There was a presentation from the Human Resources Department on updates about Safety/Health/ Wellness of city employees. The city expects to lose 20 percent of employees over the next five years. Officials believe that improvements in all these categories will give the city a competitive advantage in hiring people. Officials said it is important because occupational safety affects the citys retention, productivity, and recruitment. There is also a loss to the city due to decreased work morale.In the past the city looked at the number of accidents, but now the city is looking at the incident rate, to be able to compare to other cities or businesses. The rate was 7.3 in 2018. In the first quarter of 2019, it was 6.909, which shows accidents are trending down. The most accidents occur in the Fire Department (96) last year, Police Department (105) and Public Works (112) because of the nature of those jobs. Some decreases are because of policy changes such as limiting weight that can be lifted to 51 pounds. The most injuries are sprains and tripping and falling, which was attributed to an aging workforce. Some are repeat injuries, especially incidents such as poison ivy and insect bites.The city is offering training classes and through education will help to identify causes and how to prevent accidents. There are no stats yet on the results from the classes. That will be available at the end of 2019.In 2018 the city paid $2.9 million in workers comp claims. There are about 400 pending claims for heart and lung injuries and about 80 other claims.For example, for the fire department last year, screening was done, and the Wellness Center focused on building exercises that could be done with the existing equipment to reduce injuries and advice about nutrition and supplements. Also there was a focus on mental health. There was a health fair in August, and a mobile lung screening. There was also discussions about allowing employees to go to the Wellness Center and/or exercise during lunch breaks on their personal time, or in the future, allowing 30-minute workouts while on the clock. The city plans on starting a diabetes class. There is a discount on insurance for non-smokers.Chairman Smith said a number of companies are buying gym memberships for employees and that might be more cost effective than running a city-owned facility.The Avondale Youth and Family Development Center is currently under construction and the council approved increases in the contract with Hefferlin and Kronenberg Architects in the amount of $164,798 (total amount of $505,298). The cost increased due to redesign for electrical service and relocation of a parking lot, plus the cost to replat the space in order to be rezoned.The new cost is $4,952,539. The project is by J&J Contractors. The time planned for construction was nine months but has been changed to 12 months. It is expected to be finished at the beginning of March. The goal is to have it open for summer activities when school is out. The nations last authentic overnight steamboat may once again cruise the rivers of Americas Heartland and Deep South. The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Tuesday to reinstate an exemption to allow the Delta Queen Steamboat to return to service after a decade-long retirement. A remarkable piece of the nations maritime history is reborn, said Leah Ann Ingram, vice president and chief operating officer of the Delta Queen Steamboat Company. The Delta Queen is an American icon that offers a nostalgic experience unlike any other vessel. Since 2010, restoring and returning her to overnight service has been our mission. Today, were thrilled to take the next step to welcoming explorers and history enthusiasts aboard this floating piece of history. Beginning in 2020, themed voyages will operate on the Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee, Cumberland, Kanawha and Arkansas Rivers. The vessel will first undergo an extensive renovation at a ship yard in Houma, La. The Delta Queen was in Chattanooga docked near Coolidge Park as a floating hotel until it was moved to be restored. Preserving the boats historic integrity and ensuring passenger safety are our priorities, said Cornel Martin, president and CEO of the Delta Queen Steamboat Company. With this approval, we may now move forward with our renovations and return her the waterways, where she belongs. In 2008, the Delta Queen was forced to retire from service when her Congressional Exemption from the 1966 Safety at Sea act expired. The law intended to prohibit ocean-bound vessels from carrying overnight passengers unless completely made of non-combustible materials included the Delta Queen, even though she was never more than several hundred yards from shore. Congress approved nine exemptions over four decades to allow the Delta Queen to continue operations until 2008. The vote today completes a decade-long legislative effort to renew the exemption. Once signed into law by the President, major repairs will begin to allow the Delta Queen to return to overnight service. We are thrilled the Delta Queen will be restored to her original grandeur and returned to our riverfront, said Mayor Philip D. Stang of Kimmswick, the vessels home port. The distinction she brings to our city elevates our presence as a historic destination. In addition, the revival of river cruising will create hundreds of jobs and a significant economic boom in Kimmswick and the many other ports of call. We are grateful for this partnership and look forward to generations of cruising to come. The Delta Queen is a National Historic Landmark and on the National Register of Historic Places. The steamboat is also included in the National Maritime Hall of Fame and was named a National Treasure by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. On behalf of all of us at The Delta Queen Steamboat Company, we would like to thank our past passengers, supporters, crew members and law makers who did not give up on our efforts to save the Queen, said Mr. Martin. Returning the Delta Queen to service would have been impossible without our supportive legislators, namely Ohio Congressman Steve Chabot, Missouri Senators Claire McCaskill and Roy Blunt, and Missouri Congressmen Blaine Luetkemeyer and Jason Smith, added Ms. Ingram. In addition, we must thank the many government officials in Jefferson County, Port Authority and Economic Development Corporation who have been steadfast in their dedication to the Delta Queens return to her home port. For more information about the Delta Queen and upcoming cruises, go to www.DeltaQueen.com. In 1956, five missionaries were viciously killed in Ecuador and, as a 7-year-old boy at the time armed with a Life magazine that chronicled the unparalleled tragedy that summer, I was mesmerized by the youthful leader of the group, Jim Elliot. The missionaries knew fully that the Huaorani tribe was extremely dangerous and deadly to outsiders, but these gentle people felt a calling to share the gospel where Christs teachings were totally unknown, just as missionaries from many religions have done for centuries. That issue of Life magazine had about 12 pages of stories and pictures of the savage killing on the banks of the Curaray River, which feeds into the Amazon, and the fact several of the missionaries were felled by darts from blow guns caused me to become even more entranced. What I couldnt believe is that anyone was willing to die because of their convictions. Oh, I had read about similar missions in the Bible, and knew wars were where Americans defended freedom and stood for nations too small to defend themselves, but these were Godly people who literally gave their life for just a holy cause without fighting back. Believe me, that bothered a 7-year-old greatly. How does one just stand there while the poison from a dart in a blow gun begins to paralyze your lungs? Also, dont think I would vigorously try to defend the life of a dear friend or fellow Christian. In complete candor, I still dont get it really! -- but before he died, Jim Elliot famously wrote, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep -- to gain that which he cannot lose." Elliot wrote beneath the journal entry a telling verse from Luke 9:24. "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it." In the last few weeks, we have learned another youthful missionary has become a martyr on a remote island in the Indian Ocean. John Chau, a fervent Christian and graduate of Oral Roberts, has since been painted as a child of Western arrogance a reckless kid breaking Indian law to approach a tribe who kills on sight. Others say he is real, very much a modern-day martyr who approached the worst-of-the-worst fully knowing he might die but willing to risk it all to give a message from Jesus: I love you. Reports say a teenaged Sentinelese boy used a bow-and-arrow to shoot through Chaus waterproof Bible. When Indian police neared the island to retrieve Chaus body, the Sentinelese so called because they are the only ones to occupy North Sentinel Island for the past 50,000 years rained enough arrows at the boat and the helicopters that the police turned back. I cant help but wonder if Jim Elliot, 28 when he was killed, affected the life of John Allen Chau, age 26. Many books, documentaries, and even a full-length movie have emerged about Elliot and his fearless persistence in the past 60 years and we are assured Elliotts intentions were pure. His widow, Elisabeth, and the Elliots daughter, age 3 at the time, went to live with the Huaorani for two years and Elisabeth led many in the tribe to Christ. She encouraged and helped one of their elders to develop a dictionary and Biblical materials in the tribes language, only to learn the translator was in fact -- her husbands killer. She gave complete forgiveness and that act literally transformed the tribe. It is one of the most inspirational and magical stories in modern-day religious history. Chaus story is different. Ruthless oil companies have allegedly paid Christian actors posing as missionaries -- to make inroads into the fertile Amazon rain forests and have been largely repelled, the Indians fearful of a simple disease wiping our entire colonies who hardly have developed the immunity factors or the defense mechanisms against such things as a common cold, the flu, diabetes or other diseases we can treat easily. North Sentinel Island is protected by the India government and, brother, I am talking high protected with patrol boats and Navy vessels. Those who helped Chau reach the shore are now under arrest. There are reports Chaus body was dragged down the beach and buried but when some media reported the off limits ban for North Sentinel Island had been relaxed, officials said that is untrue and police boats guarding the islands privacy have dramatically been increased. Chau is believed to have been murdered on Nov. 17. In a letter dated the day before to his parents, Chau wrote: You guys might think Im crazy in all this but I think its worth it to declare Jesus to these people, wrote the slain missionary. A native of Washington state, he asked his parents, that if his life was taken, Please do not be angry at them or at God if I get killed. Chau, age 26, was sponsored by the missionary outreach All Nations. John was a gracious and sensitive ambassador of Jesus Christ who wanted others to know of Gods great love for them, said Mary Ho, international executive leader of All Nations, which says it trains and supports 150 missionaries in 31 countries, including India. As we grieve for our friend, and pray for all those who mourn his death, we also know that he would want us to pray for those who may have been responsible for his death. The comparisons between Jim Elliot and John Chau are just beginning anyone under 60 has never heard of Elliot but I have. There are parts in every tragedy I will never be able to explain but I know exactly what this means "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep -- to gain that which he cannot lose." royexum@aol.com Congressman Fleischmann awarded Captain Mickey McCamish, USN (RET) and Stacey Kehoe the Congressional Recognition Award for their outstanding and invaluable service to our community and state. Captain McCamish and Ms. Kehoe were awarded at the Tennessee Society's Daughters of the American Revolution State Conference held in Franklin. Both were nominated by the NSDAR, Judge David Campbell Chapter. Ms. Kehoe is also the regent of the Judge David Campbell Chapter, NSDAR. I was humbled to honor two exemplary Tennesseans that embody the epitome of the Volunteer spirit, said Congressman Fleischmann. Captain Mickey McCamish, a veteran of the US Navy and President of the Navy League of Greater Chattanooga Council, received the Outstanding Veteran Volunteer DAR Award for his service to our country and community. "Stacy Kehoe, vice president of the Navy League of Greater Chattanooga Council received the Outstanding DAR Service for Veterans Award for her many roles to ensure that our nations patriots are cared for and honored after their service. "In addition, their participation in various military organizations and committees such as the Chattanooga Area Veterans Council, the Armed Forces Day Parade Committee, the Navy Ball Committee, and leadership of the Chattanooga Navy League allows East Tennesseans to show our respect for service members year-round. It was a privilege to recognize their steadfast commitment as they go above and beyond the call of duty for our East Tennessee veterans. Currently, both Captain McCamish and Ms. Kehoe are serving on the Wreaths Across America Committee at the Chattanooga National Cemetery to Remember and Honor the 43,000 veterans at the Chattanooga National Cemetery. As a result of members of the gay community feeling unsafe around uniformed police, New Zealands largest gay pride parade has banned them from attending. The decision has sparked heated debate and some sponsors have withdrawn from the next parade in February 2019, according to the South China Morning Post. Vodafone, one of the sponsors, withdrew, saying they would stand with any excluded group, including the police. The Rainbow New Zealand Charitable Trust also condemned the decision. It appears to be driven by a small and vociferous minority in the community, and is contrary to the wishes of the vast majority of the rainbow community, The Rainbow New Zealand Charitable Trust said. However, Auckland Pride said it is committed to creating a space for our rainbow communities to feel safe celebrating their gender and sexual identity. Ex-imam explains what Muslims get wrong about Jesus, details family's persecution for following Christ 28 November, 2018 by Samuel Smith/CP , | A former Nigerian imam-turned-pastor who says Islam's 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 family's ordeal in which one of their son's 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 John's 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 in 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 didn't 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 don't go about preaching. The Muslims don't 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 wife's 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 alter 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 didn't 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 family's 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 didn't 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 John's 11-year-old son was shot and killed in September 2000 because of the family's faith in Christ. Six months after his son's 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." Read more about "Ex-imam explains what Muslims get wrong about Jesus, details family's persecution for following Christ" on The Christian Post. JOS, Nigeria, November 28, 2018 (Morning Star News) Christian leaders meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja, Nigeria this month delivered a sharp rebuke, saying the military is complicit in attacks on Christians. With the governor of Plateau state in attendance, the Rev. Dacholom Datiri, president of the Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN), delivered a report to Buhari at the presidential villa on Nov. 6 stating that 646 Christians in Plateau state alone were killed from March through October. The narrative has been that these people are killed by unknown gunmen, or suspected herdsmen, or that there have been farmer-herders clashes, Datiri said in the report, obtained by Morning Star News. All these are deceptive narratives deliberately framed to conceal the truth and continue to perpetrate the evil. The truth, he said, is that Muslim Fulani militias heavily armed with sophisticated guns, including AK47s, machine guns, and rocket-propelled grenades have attacked and killed Christians. After the attacks, it is the Fulani herders that settle and graze their cattle on the farms of the victims, Datiri said in the report to the president. The proficiency and mode of operation in all of these attacks, as testified by the surviving victims, leaves us in no doubt of the complicity of the military being used as hired mercenaries by the Fulani militias. On this, we are disappointed, and sadly so, that the government has not delivered on her constitutional responsibility of protecting lives and property. Datiri said the herdsmen in collaboration with Boko Haram jihadists and other Muslim militants in the areas of Barkin Ladi, Riyom, Bassa and Bokkos destroyed 30 church buildings and 4,436 Christian homes, sending 38,000 Christians into 10 camps for displaced persons from March through October. Are we to believe that the armed forces sent to keep peace go with the instructions to protect them? Datiri said. The implication is that they protect the aggressors and leave the victims mercilessly helpless. Datiri pointed out that as the figures pertain only to Plateau state, they do not include those killed by Boko Haram in northeast Nigeria. For his part, Plateau Gov. Simon Lalong reportedly faulted Muslim and other community leaders for compounding the crisis of violence in the state by hiding criminals. Buhari, a Fulani Muslim, responded to the Christian leaders by saying he did not doubt COCINs report on the atrocities committed against their communities. The communities (in Plateau) have lived long enough to know that there is nothing they can do without each other than to live together in harmony, Buhari said. As leaders, we must persuade the upcoming generation using every channel, particularly the educational institutions, to live together with our neighbors. Christian and Muslim leaders have to work harder to convince the upcoming generation that they must live together in the same country, Buhari said. It is not all Muslims that are against Christians, and neither are all Christians against Muslims, he said. In our security arrangement, the police is in the frontline in making sure that communities irrespective of ethnic or religious bias live together in peace. Church Under Siege Datiri told Buhari the church in Plateau state has been under siege for 18 years, bringing the 3 million COCIN members of the 104-year-old church to their knees across central and northern Nigeria. We are here to tell you the truth with the hope that it will help you to make adjustments and take appropriate action, he said. We are aware that you might have received several false and misleading information regarding the perennial crises. It is our hope that you will oblige us to tell you our concerns and pains affecting us and make suggestions that will bring about positive impacts on your government. With about 65 percent of the population of Plateau state belonging to the COCIN, the church leaders have first-hand knowledge of the true facts on the ground, he said. Your excellency, in the last 18 years, COCIN as a denomination has suffered destruction of lives and property more than any church or any community, Datiri said. The devastation in terms of massacre of lives and destruction of property is unimaginable. Pastors and members in their thousands have been killed in cold blood, either shot dead or slaughtered like animals or burned to death. Houses and businesses have been burned or looted and farmlands have been destroyed. COCIN has also suffered in the northeastern states of Yobe, Borno (in Maiduguri, Gwoza and Chibok, for example) and Adamawa states, he said. And yet, despite the huge government intervention in that area, very little relief has come to COCIN and her members, if any, he said. We are aware that a lot of government intervention in terms of relief material has gone to the northeast. Unfortunately, our members in that zone have been left out of the distribution. In the Tafawa Balewa and Bogoro counties of Bauchi state, where more than 90 percent of the population belongs to the COCIN, thousands of lives have been lost and billions of naira in property destroyed, Datiri said. We have also suffered heavy losses in Taraba, Benue, Nasarawa, Kaduna states, he said. In Plateau state, where thousands of lives and billions of naira in property have also been lost, the devastation this year has been incredible, he said. Even on the day you visited Jos in March and launched the Peace Roadmap, your excellency, lives were being massacred in Bokkos and Bassa Local Government Areas, Datiri said. And in June, over 300 people (about 350) were massacred, slaughtered in cold blood over a period of three days in Barkin Ladi and Riyom Local Government Areas. Since then, almost on a daily basis, people are either ambushed and shot dead or attacked in their homes and killed in cold blood or killed on their farms. The COCIN leaders sought the meeting with Buhari to correct misinformation about the nature of the violence, he said. They urged Buhari to take urgent measures to end the carnage and to rehabilitate and resettle displaced Christians. We have a lot of our members in the IDP camps and others living with relatives in other communities, Datiri said. There is an urgent need for them to return back to their homes to continue their farming activities, which is their main source of livelihood. Their lands and homes need to be recovered and rebuilt. The Internally Displaced People are depressed and broken and need rehabilitation, he said. They need to be reassured that the government is concerned of their welfare. Economically, they need to be re-equipped with farming tools, fertilizers and seeds, he said. The church has always been the last hope for the poor, downtrodden, depressed and broken. It is the first place for rehabilitation. If the IDPs are resettled in their various communities, their usual meeting points are their churches, schools and hospitals established by the same church. The church buildings and institutions should be rebuilt. Finally, he called on the government to secure the release of kidnapped Christians, including Leah Sharibu, a high school Christian abducted along with more than 100 other girls from Dapchi in February but not released with the others because she refused to recant her faith. We call on the federal government to take every adequate measure in ensuring their safe release from their abductors, Datiri said. About 100 of 276 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram from the town of Chibok, in Borno state, in 2014 are still missing. Boko Haram, whose name is loosely translated as, Western education is a sin, has fought for more than nine years to impose Islamic law on all of Nigeria, killing tens of thousands of people and displacing more than 2 million. Boko Haram militants reportedly warned parents of the returned Dapchi girls not to send their daughters back to school. In 2015 the Nigerian military began taking back most of the territory Boko Haram had controlled, but many areas remain, and the terrorists are still mounting isolated attacks. Jubilee Campaign reports that, according to figures from the Stefanos Foundation, Boko Haram in 2017 took responsibility for attacks that claimed more than 650 lives. Christians make up 51.3 percent of Nigerias population, while Muslims living primarily in the north and middle belt account for 45 percent. Nigeria ranked 14th on Open Doors 2018 World Watch List of countries where Christians suffer the most persecution. If you would like to help persecuted Christians, visit http://morningstarnews. org/resources/aid-agencies/ for a list of organizations that can orient you on how to get involved. In an interview published by the Washington Post on Wednesday, President Trump questioned whether U.S. troops should stay in the Middle East. In a wide-ranging interview with the Washington Post, Trump questioned the need for U.S. troops in the Middle East, noting that oil prices in the U.S. have drastically decreased. He said, Now, are we going to stay in that part of the world? One reason to is Israel. He continued, Oil is becoming less and less of a reason because were producing more oil now than weve ever produced. So, you know, all of a sudden it gets to a point where you dont have to stay there. This comes following the news that three U.S. soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. According to the New York Times, three U.S. soldiers were killed on Tuesday by a Taliban bombing. Three more soldiers and an American contractor were also wounded in the attack. The New York Times reports that a roadside bomb was detonated near Ghazni City where Special Forces units were sent only three months ago to stop the Taliban from overtaking the area. American combat operations were officially ended in Afghanistan in 2014, but since the Pentagons declaration, the Taliban have expanded in the area leading Americans to re-enter the sphere. One person who saw the bombing noted that the explosion occurred right as an American convoy was passing through on the highway. The witness said, The convoy set off a roadside mine, and there was smoke all over the place. The local witness named Haji Abdulamin continued saying, The road was blocked, and a few minutes later helicopters landed and took the dead. The loss of these soldiers makes 2018 the deadliest year in Afghanistan for America since 2015. The total loss of life of U.S. troops in Afghanistan since 2015 is 42. Photo courtesy: Pixabay/Skeeze Today, please join me, Ed Stetzer, and thousands of Christians in petitioning President Trump to grant asylum to Asia Bibi and her family. On Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, reports surfaced that Islamic radicals in Pakistan were hunting house to house for Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi. Her story should be painfully familiar by now. Bibi has been in hiding since Pakistans supreme court acquitted her of blasphemy chargesthis after a 9 year imprisonment and legal battle that left at least two of her supporters dead. She now faces a vigilante campaign for her execution, the execution of her family, and the three high court judges that rendered the verdict. Her attorney has already fled the country. A few countries, including Canada and Australia, seem to be working with Pakistan to grant her asylum, but so far the United States has remained silent. This should . . . not . . . be. On Friday, my BreakPoint This Week co-host Ed Stetzer and I, using the social media hashtag #AsylumforBibi, called on President Donald Trump to fulfill recent promises made by his administration to persecuted Christians and to grant asylum to Asia Bibi and her family; and to pro-actively work with Pakistani officials to ensure safe transport to the United States. Please join us in petitioning the President to act now. So far, the response to #AsylumforBibi has been strong, but Asia Bibi and her family need you to not only help raise social media awareness, but to also send a letter to your congressman, senators, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Our colleague Roberto Rivera has provided a sample letter that you can find at BreakPoint.org. Now, as I have said often on BreakPoint, the Trump Administration has, for the most part, been a stout defender of religious freedom at home and abroad. The appointment of Sen. Sam Brownback as Americas Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, and hosting the first-ever State Department Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom are both great things. And, the rhetoric has been strong. Both President Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence are on record that America needs to do more to aid Christian refugees. So why the silence now, when Asia Bibis life is so clearly in danger? Asia Bibi and her family fit perfectly with the U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services definition of refugees eligible for asylum. Let me quote from their website: Refugee status or asylum may be granted to people who have been persecuted or fear they will be persecuted on account of race, religion, nationality, and/or membership in a particular social group or political opinion. So far, so good. Reading on, the USCIS says, Refugee status is a form of protection that may be granted to people who meet the definition of refugee and who are of special humanitarian concern to the United States. Refugees are generally people outside of their country who are unable or unwilling to return home because they fear serious harm. There should be absolutely no legal reason not to offer refugee status and offer asylum to Asia Bibi. And, there is every humanitarian and moral reason to do so. Of course, the attention of the administrationand certainly the mediais focused on the crisis at our southern border. Even under calm conditions, hundreds or thousands of people applying en masse for asylum would overwhelm the system. Weve reached the point where the Administration felt, rightly or wrongly, that it had to close the busiest border crossing between the U.S. and Mexico. Even so, closing our borders and our hearts to Asia Bibi and her family forfeits our moral leadership and is unacceptable. President Trump, please, offer asylum for Asia Bibi. Christian friends, pray for her and her family. Check out the sample letter at BreakPoint.org. And join our social media campaign, #AsylumforBibi. BreakPoint is a Christian worldview ministry that seeks to build and resource a movement of Christians committed to living and defending Christian worldview in all areas of life. Begun by Chuck Colson in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on todays news and trends via radio, interactive media, and print. Today BreakPoint commentaries, co-hosted by Eric Metaxas and John Stonestreet, air daily on more than 1,200 outlets with an estimated weekly listening audience of eight million people. Feel free to contact us at BreakPoint.org where you can read and search answers to common questions. John Stonestreet, the host of The Point, a daily national radio program, provides thought-provoking commentaries on current events and life issues from a biblical worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview. Publication date: November 28, 2018 Photo courtesy: Jonathan Simcoe/Unsplash Christian Bible teacher with same-sex attraction releases new book on Holy Sexuality, witnessing to LGBT community Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Bible teacher and author Christopher Yuan says he faced rejection from his non-Christian parents when, in his early 20s, he revealed to them that he was gay, and thus began leading a life of sexually risky behavior, substance abuse, and even drug dealing. After his parents converted to Christianity they welcomed him and eventually, after he was convicted of drug-dealing, he, too, became a follower of Christ. In an interview with The Christian Post earlier this month, Yuan explained that his new book, Holy Sexuality and the Gospel: Sex, Desire, and Relationships Shaped by God's Grand Story,grew out of an earlier book he co-wrote with his mother about their faith journeys, titled Out of a Far Country: A Gay Son's Journey to God, A Broken Mother's Search for Hope that was released in 2011. Yuans earlier book introduced a concept he called holy sexuality. I define holy sexuality not heterosexuality, not homosexuality, but holy sexuality as chastity in singleness and faithfulness in marriage, explained Yuan to CP. I just knew that I had to flesh out that concept more. So this new book is really just fleshing out that concept of holy sexuality. The following is an edited transcript of Yuan's Q&A with The Christian Post. CP: At the start of the book, you said that many perspectives on homosexuality begin with the "common intent" of "love." Do you believe people in this debate struggle to accept that those who think differently have good intentions? Yuan: I think they assume everyone, that the people we disagree with have bad intentions. And this applies broadly to not just sexuality or different views of sexuality, but politics, and all of that. I think we need to just assume that this person isnt completely just evil and just out to get people. There are a few people that are like that, but I would argue [many are not]. Its this complete distortion of what is good and what is love. Today, the mantra of the gay community is love is love. At the surface, that seems so of course it is. Love is love. But I would argue not all love is the same. I think a wife beater, a man who beats his wife, would argue that he loved his wife. And, whats even just as sad, is that the wife who gets beat would even argue that her husband loves her. I think even that a father sexually abusing his young daughter would even argue that he loves his daughter. I dont think that we can say that love is love in a sense that all love is the same. We ought to not have a distorted view of love. And people, especially sometimes Christians who say well, we just need to love, what they mean by love is not the biblical understanding of love. Basically, what I think what theyre implying is we basically throw out Gods truth and we just show grace, but thats at the expense of truth. CP: In the book, you stressed the importance of understanding sexuality through the dual ideas of the image of God and the doctrine of sin. What danger is there in not understanding sexuality through those two ideas? Yuan: People who argue and defend biblical sexuality oftentimes forget this important thing. One of the first things is the image of God is such an important concept that we cant even get out of Chapter 1 of the first chapter of the Bible before were introduced with this very important concept. That we all are created in the Image of God. And what that means quite simply is that every person, whether they have accepted Christ or not, whether they are living in sin or not, everyone is created in Gods Image. Which means that we all have value, God loves us as the pinnacle of His creation. And so as believers, we need to remember that about everyone. When we talk about people in the gay community as our enemies, or our opposites, or talking to them in disdain, we forget that they are still Gods Image-bearers. And they are indeed of grace, just as the same grace that we received that we didnt earn and that we need to treat people in that way. Another misunderstanding is misunderstanding the doctrine of sin. We know that with our sinful temptations and our struggle with sin, the main cause of that is original sin, that we all have a sin nature. And one mistake, the second mistake that I want to say that we often make is that many times I hear people who try to find this root causes in our past. or in peoples past. To find out what exactly went wrong in their childhood that caused them to have same-sex attractions. And when they do that, they forget the doctrine of sin. That the main cause, if there is going to be one root cause, it would be our sin nature. When people list what they say are root causes, those arent root causes, but theyre influences. I call them catalysts. Another misunderstanding is this perception that sometimes you hear now, these newer Christians who identify as gay celibate Christians who say, My sexual orientation can be redeemable or sanctifiable, and they also misunderstand this concept of sin nature. Because if same-sex sexual behavior is sin, which it is, then also the desire for that also is sin. Then sexual orientation is basically a pattern of these types of desires and we would then know that those desires stem from our sin nature. And to say that somehow I can bring good out of our sin nature misunderstands that. And lastly, there is this concept that many unbelievers believe, I would say most unbelievers believe this and also some Christians are now beginning to believe this that somehow we are born gay and thats just part of who we are. But again, understanding the image of God and the doctrine of sin helps us to understand sexuality; that is, our sexual orientation is not who we are, its how we are. And who we are is created in Gods image but that image has been distorted, from Genesis 3, by sin. And even though people might say, Well, Im born this way, Im born that way, well, Jesus was so clear in His own words. In John 3 He says: You must be born again. So even though people would say, I am born gay or I am born an alcoholic or whatever you might say, God is so clear in sending His Son who said: You must be born again. CP: At certain points in your book, you critique the claims of Matthew Vines' book, God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships. What would you say is one of the major problems with Vines' work? Yuan: For one, hes really just rehashing some other books that he read, so it isnt anything new. He does make the gay affirming misinterpretations a little bit more readable for the lay audience. But his mistake is simply interpretation. He said he is simply using context, but its the wrong context in many different ways. And more importantly, he ignores reading things canonically, that is when we read First Corinthians 6, we need to read that in light of the rest of the whole Bible, from Genesis all the way to Revelation. For example, reading First Corinthians 6 in light of Leviticus. Because that will help guide us. We use the Bible to help us interpret the Bible. That doesnt mean we ignore context, but we do use the Bibles context. It does have priority over other contexts, because we could use context and use the wrong context. CP: Near the end of your book, you focused on how the Church should and should not witness to LGBT individuals. As you know, recently there was a gathering of LGBT Christians known as the Revoice Conference. What was your opinion of Revoice? Yuan: I do want to commend that Revoice. They do believe that same-sex relationships are sinful. So I commend them in that and they even will defend that and argue against people like Matthew Vines and Justin Lee. Yes, they believe that same-sex sexual relationships are sinful, but then they will broadly say that non-sexual same-sex relationships and even desire is not sinful. And this is where they make a mistake. They dont differentiate between same-sex platonic desires or relationships and same-sex romantic desires and relationships. This is a big mistake that they make, because they think that these romantic types of relationships are OK, they just need to be careful with them so that they dont get hurt, but dont try to be careful with them because its sin. Another thing is that the approach has been kind of a very typical secular approach from not only the gay community, the LGBTQ+ community, but also, what we find in the secular community as well where they have taken the concepts of identity and made it political identity politics or what the world calls intersectionality. In other words, if you a white male, then you no longer have authority and you are ignorant. And only people who have a minority victim status have a voice and only people who are victims really understand the issue and they must have a voice, too; because they now have authority because of that victim status and everyone else who doesnt have that, has no right to speak. And so, Revoice kind of now just repackaged it and puts a veneer of Christianity on it, and makes it seem that everyone who's same-sex attracted and gay are the victims, and the white male Christian and specifically the evangelical church is now the perpetrator. I find that highly problematic. The message is youre the problem and were here to bring the solution, whereas it should be we all are the problem, every one of us, and Christ is the solution. Require Bible publishers to add 'anti-semitic' warnings to New Testament, Jewish groups say Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment 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 Quran, 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 Quran 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. At the presentation of the report last week in Vienna, European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor pointed out that Jewish people continue facing violence in Europe and around the world. Europe doesnt have a monopoly on antisemitism anymore. No Jewish community, anywhere in the world, however strong and well organized, is now immune from Jew hatred. Fighting antisemitism deserves much more than simple statements of good will. We need concrete policies and reinforced legislation, he declared. Bermudas top court reversed the governments ban on gay marriage, as it was unconstitutional, after an appeal from the attorney general. The lawyers that challenged the ban said the ruling was meant to appease a powerful religious lobby, according to Ruters. While the ruling has been denied by the top court, it can still go to the Privy Council in London. But, according to Reuters, those appeals are rare. Now, after months of a pause on gay marriage, same-sex unions can resume. Love won again, and today love was reaffirmed, Winston Godwin, a prominent equal marriage rights activist told Reuters. My marriage doesnt impact anyone elses. However, the government still has to decide whether to appeal the decision made by the top court. Southeast Christian Church to merge with congregation whose pastor is battling cancer Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The over 22,000-member Southeast Christian Church in Kentucky will open its seventh campus through a merger next year. The Louisville-based evangelical church announced through an email sent to church members over the weekend that an agreement has been made with River Valley Christian Church in Goshen to become the newest SECC congregation. The merger comes after River Valleys senior pastor, Brandon Braun, was diagnosed with Leukemia in August. According to WDRB, leaders at Southeast Christian were approached several months ago about a possible merger with River Valley Christian Church. The merger was approved through a vote by the River Valley elders on Sunday morning. Were excited to share with you that the River Valley Church Family voted and agreed to join the Southeast Christian Family, Pastors Dave Stone and Kyle Idleman of SECC said in a joint statement. "Join us as we praise God for this unique opportunity to continue to build His church as we share the hope and love of Jesus throughout our communities. Terry A. Roach, chairman of the elders of River Valley Christian Church, said in a statement last week that the decision was made for a few reasons. [T]he options were to maintain status quo, sell the church and move the church to a smaller building or merge with a larger church, Roach explained, adding that the church has benefitted from having some people give big checks when we needed them. Gods wants a strong vibrant church that will as our original Bylaws expressed carry out the program of Christ as expressed in the New Testament (i.e. the winning of souls to Christ and the edification of the saints). Its about being a bright light on this hill where we have been flickering. Its not about RVCC, its not about Brandon, its not about the staff and its not about our family culture. Its about God and his plan for the Goshen/Prospect area! Roach explained that when they turned to Southeast for help, they were told that Southeast leaders had been praying for how they could impact the Goshen/Prospect area. [T]hey considered our coming to them as an answered prayer, he explained. Roach said that the River Valley leadership wasnt immediately convinced a merger was the right move until the Southeast leadership made them several assurances. SECC agreed to put Braun on staff and that their health insurance would cover him. The megachurch also agreed to keep current River Valley staff or provide them with a buyout plan. Of other importance to River Valley is its mission partners, to which SECC assured that it has a large mission budget. SECC also agreed to take over or pay off the loan on the River Valley church building, Roach added. Stating that the River Valley name has much importance to the congregation, Roach said that he was also told that the new SECC campus can be called Southeast Christian Church-River Valley. In a statement directed at the members of River Valley, the SECC leaders proclaimed that they are committed to building upon River Valleys heritage and mission of sharing the hope and love of Jesus. Were grateful that were like-minded with similar missions, unified under the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Eph. 4:13), the statement reads. This is a unique opportunity for the bride of Christ to be healthy, collaborative, and effective. May we always be bonded in prayer and stand together as one through the grace of Jesus Christ! Along with three campuses in Louisville, SECC also has campuses in Elizabethtown, La Grange, and Jeffersonville, Indiana. The new campus is expected to open in spring 2019. Stone, who has pastored at SECC for the last 12 years, announced in September that he plans to step down and allow Idleman to transition into the role as the congregations leader in 2019. A GoFundMe crowdfunding page has been created to benefit Braun and his family as he goes through cancer treatment. So far, nearly $7,000 have been raised in three months. Benny Hinn's nephew identifies 5 types of 'dangerous church members' pastors must 'protect' body of Christ from Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Costi Hinn, nephew of televangelist Benny Hinn, has identified five types of dangerous church members and encouraged pastors to protect the precious bride of Christ from such individuals. In a recent blog post, Hinn, pastor at The Mission Bible Church in Orange County, California, explained that while no pastor should ever be callously eager for church members to head out the door, they must make every effort to protect the flock from divisive members who prove to be more inclined to subterfuge than support. Sure, there will be plenty of seasons when difficult church members need thick-skinned pastors who will offer counsel, exhibit gentleness and patience, and be longsuffering. That is the job, he said. But are there times when a pastor needs to brush the dust off his feet and let church members huff and puff out the door? Absolutely. The first kind of dangerous church member, Hinn said, is the money manipulator, a person who either gives significantly to the church to manipulate their agenda, or they refuse to tithe because they dont get their way. This kind of church member completely ignores imperatives for generous giving without strings attached (1 Timothy 6:17-18), he said. Sometimes, they know a lot about church because they grew up in it, served on a deacon board, or perhaps even hold a seminary degree. Unfortunately, all of their experience and knowledge doesnt translate into supporting or submitting to the church. Second, the sideline spectator is an unhealthy church member, Hinn said, because their pride holds them back from using their gifts to benefit the church and serve others. When VBS needs volunteers, the food pantry needs a cook, the campus team needs ushers, or the childrens ministry needs a teacher, they shrug it off with sentiments like, Let the paid guys worry about that. Thats why we put food on their table, he said. The third type of dangerous church member is the extortionist, or an individual who uses their position or wealth to manipulate a pastors message. Horror stories abound of elder boards and influential families putting a pastor in the position of, do what we say or end up homeless, Hinn shared. This heart-breaking reality is actually one of the reasons why denominations and church associations are so beneficial. They can usually help find the pastor a new church to serve. Fourth, the bitter busybody is detrimental to the Body of Christ because they spend a lot of time making their rounds, gossiping and creating factions, questioning the leadership of the church, and adding, promise you wont tell? to their secrets. They are a time thief who distracts the church from staying on mission, Hinn explained. Youll often notice a repeated pattern of strife, gossip, bitterness, and discord at multiple churches from these individuals. ... Usually, they dont deal with their heart issues at one church so they continually leave churches because of their own pride; ignoring the very thing church members are supposed to: work out their sin and be restored. Hinn identified the blame gamer as the final dangerous church member. This individual, he said, blames the pastor for their own issues and sins. Dangerous church members are those who refuse to love their wives, wont put down the porn, cuss at the boss, and roll their eyes at the pastors sermon series on marriage only to blame the pastor for what they caused, he said. Disobedient church members demanding the pastor save them from their sins have it twisted. They dont need a pastor. They need Christ. Hinn closed his message with an encouragement for pastors: Be encouraged, faithful shepherd. There are some people that you can let go. Focus on loyal labor for the Master and serve those whom God has entrusted to your care. He will reward you (Rev. 22:12). Previously, Hinn, who rejected the teaching of his "Uncle Benny" after working alongside him for years, explained there is a clear model in the Bible for keeping relationships with people for the purpose of evangelism. "I want to keep that bridge up," he said. "Flame-throwing and being angry and going ad-hom on arguments and character assaults of my unsaved or charismatic friends or third-wave followers is not going to get me anywhere." The Bible gives instruction on how to address loved ones who are caught up in false or misleading teaching, Hinn said, referencing Jude 22-23. The passage states, "Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh." "I've let my Uncle Benny be in that third category," he said. "I have mercy on him with fear. I'm very concerned for his salvation, I want him to be saved, I hate the sin, I hate the prosperity gospel, but I don't hate him. I want to see him saved." While there are some who need to be "snatched from the fire," Hinn said it's impossible to do so "if I have spent my time with people insulting them and debating foolish controversies and spending too much time in vain wrangling." "I'm not going to get the opportunity to be the one to harvest that soul," he explained. "God will use somebody else, because He's gonna save who He's gonna save, but we have to make sure we are keeping those relational bridges up. When people are ripe for the picking, I want to be ready. I want to have relationships with people who know they can come to me. So we need to keep our doors open and our Bibles open and our hearts and ears open." Catholic leaders in China urge Pope Francis to not make compromises, use them as scapegoats Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Eight Catholic church leaders from the diocese of Datong in China have issued an open letter pleading with the Vatican to help in the persecution that they face and to not make compromises with the Chinese government. AsiaNews, which provided a translation of the letter earlier this week, revealed that the church leaders address the government that they say is denying them religious freedom, but also the faithful around the world. The Datong priests, who have been without a bishop since 2005, declare in their letter that they "cannot sit down silent without any concern, even more we cannot stand by with folded arms." What is worth of our concern is the freedom of religious faith since it is a fundamental human right, that cannot be violated, forbidden or taken away. Obviously, many statements and proposals of the Government, we must not necessarily agree upon and accept, some of them we even oppose, they wrote. But, it is not possible to take away our freedom and right because we have a different faith. As a community of believers, we are even more concerned with the freedom of speech, since it cannot be separated from freedom of religion: without one there cannot be the other! The church leaders continue: We now receive your control. The cross of our church and even the whole church has been demolished. The freedom of the faithful to attend our meetings is opposed. The church is forced to accept the guide of the Chinese Government. All these things make us worried and dissatisfied. They add: As believers, we know that the future decides the present. With this joint declaration of ours we hope that you can respect the right of the Church, respect every person: this is a bottom line that cannot be overtaken. Further detailing the persecution they have faced, the Christians state that the Communist government has blocked them from buying Bibles from the internet, and has restricted large congregation meetings. They also express concern about the reported deal between the Vatican and China to elect bishops as chosen by the government, fearing that the Holy See might make compromises, turning them into scapegoats in order to establish diplomatic relations. Both underground and officially registered churches in China have faced crackdowns, with pastors arrested and congregations prevented from meeting. Churches have been demolished, and there have been reports that Communist officials have even burned Bibles. Tenzin Dorjee, chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, told The Christian Post in an email in September that President Xi Jinping's "clenching fist" is targeting religious minorities like never before. "At a time when faith is flourishing in China, Beijing is cracking down on religious believers, approving only those individuals and groups who agree to a rigid, socialist version of religion tightly controlled by the atheist government," Dorjee said. "Anyone who runs afoul of Beijing by choosing to follow their own conscience is at risk of discrimination, harassment, detention or enforced disappearances, imprisonment, and even torture. No one is safe from Beijing's wrath," he added. USCIRF commissioner Johnnie Moore, who serves on the evangelical advisory board for U.S. President Donald Trump's administration, further told CP that the worsening persecution goes against reason. "I think that China, under Xi's leadership, is having a relapse to a time in Chinese history that did not bring economic prosperity, but did bring isolation from the world and countless examples of unnecessary suffering," Moore argued. "For some strange reason, at such a moment of opportunity, the Chinese leadership is choosing to embrace the methodology of the past," he added. Christian House of Prayer Founder Nathaniel Holcomb Dies at 66 Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Nathaniel Holcomb, founder and longtime pastor of the Christian House of Prayer, one of the largest churches in Central Texas, died Tuesday. He was 66. Holcombs death was first announced in a brief statement on his churchs website and social media. "Our beloved apostle, bishop and Pastor Nate Holcomb received his promotion this afternoon and is now in the presence of the Lord," the statement read in part. The news of the beloved preachers death spread quickly on social media, prompting reactions from many in his community. Im saddened by the news that Bishop Nathanial Holcomb, pastor of my church the Christian House of Prayer has passed away and gone on to be with the Lord, Killeen City Councilman Gregory Johnson began in a statement on Facebook. He lived a rich and fruitful life that inspired many generations to follow and accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. He has left a true legacy and example for aspiring servant leaders like myself to follow. Over the years, Ive come to admire his professionalism, meekness, faith in God and dedication of service to those he was called to serve, he continued. Rest in Peace, sir. My thoughts and prayers are with his family, loved ones and the Christian House of Prayer family. Bishop LaDell Thomas Jr., with Cathedral of Deliverance and Praise in Harker Heights, Texas, said Holcomb will never be forgotten. One by one God is taking us away ... another giant and prophetic voice has paused through the silence of death. Yes, for the moment we mourn the transition of our dearly beloved brother and friend, the Bishop Nathaniel Holcomb, he said in a statement shared on Facebook. Today as loving humanity, we mourn but at the remembrance of the tremendous impact this man has made on our very being, Gods grace and favor will enable and inspire us to smile again. When our tomorrow emerges, and it shall, this voice of the late apostle Nate Holcomb, a man sent from God, will continue to echo throughout generations of friends, family, sons and daughters to come!!! R.I.P my friend. We will see you later, he noted. According to the churchs website, Holcomb and his entire family accepted Jesus in 1977 at a time when he had a very promising and lucrative recording contract with Motown Records. His convictions led him to void this commitment, the church said, and he chose instead to follow the call of God into ministry at age 28 while serving in the U.S. Army. Stationed first at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and later at Fort Hood, Texas, he made full proof of his calling with manifestations of signs, wonders and miracles. He arrived at Fort Hood, Texas, in January 1980, and immediately began a Bible study that took roots (sic) and blossomed in the first week, the church said. With just 13 people, he eventually started The Christian House of Prayer Ministries and it grew to become one of the largest ministries in Central Texas with a global influence. His church currently has a 2,000-seat sanctuary, on Stan Schlueter Loop in Killeen. Congress passes bill to provide relief to ISIS genocide victims after nearly 2 years Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A bill, two years in the making, that aims to provide humanitarian relief to victims of the Islamic States genocide in Iraq and Syria is finally heading to President Donald Trumps desk. On Tuesday night, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 390, also known as the Iraq and Syria Genocide Relief and Accountability Act of 2018. The Houses passage of the bill follows the unanimous passing of the legislation by the U.S. Senate in October. The bill is designed to provide emergency relief to victims of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Iraq and Syria and provide accountability for perpetrators of these crimes. Among other key parts of the bill, H.R. 390 would authorize and direct the U.S. government to fund entities, including faith-based organizations, that are directly involved in giving humanitarian and recovery aid to Christian and other religious and ethnic minority communities that were targetted by IS (also known as ISIS, ISIL or Daesh). The bill would also direct the U.S. government to address humanitarian vulnerabilities and needs that could force the persecuted religious minority communities to flee their homelands even though areas like Mosul, Iraq and Raqqa, Syria have been liberated. The resolution also urges the State Department to provide assistance to entities and nongovernmental organizations addressing the crimes against humanity committed since January 2014 by IS through criminal investigations and the preserving of evidence that links perpetrators to their atrocities. The bills passing comes over 4.5 years after IS took over large swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria. IS militants systematically killed and sexually enslaved thousands while forcing hundreds of thousands of others to flee their homes. The bill was first introduced by Republican Rep. Chris Smith, an outspoken advocate for international religious freedom, in September of 2016 and was reintroduced again in the new Congress in January of 2017. When genocide or other atrocity crimes are perpetrated, the United States should direct humanitarian, stabilization, and recovery aid to enable these people to surviveespecially when they are minorities whose existence as a people is at-risk, Smith said on the House floor prior to Tuesdays vote. HR 390 would ensure our actions match our words. Today, less than 200,000 Christians remain in Iraq when there were over 1.4 million Christians in Iraq in 2002 and 500,000 Christians in Iraq in 2013. While some displaced Christians have returned to their homes in the months following the liberation, many Christians are stilling living in displacement camps in the Kurdish region. The genocide also impacted Iraqs Yazidi minority. According to a press release from Smiths office, 60,000 Yazidis fled to Europe while there are still about 550,000 Yazidis still in Iraq with 280,000 of them remaining displaced. The bipartisan legislation has over 47 cosponsors in the House from both parties including leading Democrat co-sponsor Rep. Anna Eschoo, Calif. Tens of thousands of religious and ethnic minorities in Iraq and Syria were targeted for genocide by ISIS between 2014 and 2017, Eshoo said in a statement. As survivors return to their homes and begin rebuilding their communities, the United States government must make it a priority to help families in need of assistance now, while ensuring the perpetrators of these crimes against humanity are held accountable. Eshoo, who is of Armenian and Assyrian descent, said that H.R. 390 will send a powerful message to the persecuted Muslim communities that the U.S. hasnt forgotten them. The bills passage has also been praised by religious freedom advocates, including those associated with the Washington, D.C.-based lobbying group Religious Freedom Institute, which has strongly supported the bill since its inception in 2016. The situation in the Nineveh Plain and Sinjar Province has grown extremely urgent. Unless concrete steps are taken now to help these victims return safely to rebuilt homes, schools and churches, the prospects for stabilizing pluralism in Iraq will be lost, RFI Executive Director Kent Hill said in a statement. RFI President Tom Farr, a former director of the State Department Office of International Religious Freedom, stressed that the present and future stability of the region is tied directly to preserving these historic and diverse communities of faith. Providing emergency relief to these victims is the right thing to do; it is also a strategic component of sound U.S. foreign policy, Farr said. Passage of the bill was also applauded by the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal organization that has raised up to $20 million to help rebuilding Iraqi Christian communities in the aftermath of IS. The fact that this bill passed both the House and the Senate unanimously shows that the American response to genocide transcends partisanship and that there is enormous political will to protect and preserve religious minorities in the Middle East, including Christians and Yazidis, who were targeted for extinction, Supreme Knight Carl Anderson said in a statement. Smith is the chairman of the House global human rights subcommittee and has held 10 hearings on the persecution of ethnic minorities in Iraq and Syria. As the bill now advances to Trumps desk, Vice President Mike Pence has vowed to protect vulnerable Christians in the Middle East in the wake of IS atrocities. However, the Trump administration has faced some criticism as the humanitarian aid that was promised by the Trump administration last year had taken longer than advocates liked to be distributed. In October, the United States Agency for International Development announced a partnership with Knights of Columbus to help the administration facilitate humanitarian relief funds and create better relationships with aid partners in the region to help communities in the Middle East recover from genocide and persecution. Devil Next Door, new A&E series to take closer look at controversial Word of Faith Fellowship Church Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The A&E Network is set to begin airing a new, six-part original docu-series on Tuesday night called The Devil Next Door based on the decades old controversial evangelical sect, Word of Faith Fellowship Church in Spindale, North Carolina. 'The Devil Next Door' takes a look at Spindale, North Carolina. It appears to be an average American town but hidden inside lies a church that is steeped in scandal, a summary of the series begins on A&E. The Word of Faith Fellowship, led by Jane Whaley, proclaims to be a devout Christian church, but former members tell a different story: one of violence and exploitation. Its the mission of these former members to convince those still inside, including their own loved ones and children, to break away from the church. Is Janes power finally about to come to an end? it ends. The six-part series will air on A&E starting at 10 p.m. EST on Tuesday. Episodes will air weekly through Dec. 18 and then the last two episodes will air in January 2019, the Times News Online said. We have interviewed or spoken with about 30 ex-members over the entire period weve been working on the project. Some did not want to participate on camera but were willing to speak to our producers and share their stories. The six episodes do focus on the stories of six specific ex-members who have opened up their lives to us, Melissa Koshir, senior manager of publicity for A&E, told Times News Online. Word of Faith Fellowship Church, founded by Jane Whaley and her husband, Sam, in 1979, describes itself as a nondenominational, Protestant church with classical Christian conservative beliefs. It also operates Word of Faith Christian School. Officials from the cable network like Elaine Frontain Bryant, executive vice president and head of programming for A&E, said the victims of the church will provide powerful testimony in the series which they hope will help to convince their loved ones who still remain a part of the church to break free. A&E Network prides itself in finding truth and conviction through powerful storytelling, Bryant told Times News Online. The victims of the Word of Faith Fellowship Church have shocking and timely first-hand accounts that need to be shared and A&E is proud to provide them this very necessary platform so we can ensure their voices will be heard. Last summer, officials in Brazil and the U.S. announced that they were investigating Word of Faith Fellowship Church after the sect was accused of enticing young members of the Brazilian branch of their church to come to the U.S. on tourist and student visas, then coercing them to work illegally "like slaves" with little or no pay. Prior to the announcement of the federal investigation, 16 Brazilians alleged in an Associated Press report that they were forced to work "like slaves" while in the U.S. after being lured with the chance of coming to America to sightsee as tourists or study. "Everybody knew these trips were not about tourism," Paulo Henrique Barbosa, 23, who now works in information technology in Sao Paolo, told the AP. "I didn't want to go, but I had no choice." ISIS Bus Attack Survivors Recount Horrors of Seeing Parents, Children Killed: '4 Families Destroyed' Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Victims of last week's attack on Coptic Christians have detailed the horrifying moments when gunmen murdered seven and injured at least 20 others after they left worship at a monastery in Egypt. "We visited the monastery and spent a wonderful time but on our way back we were attacked by two cars who fired on us," 7-year-old Mina Basem told the Saudi-based Arab News. "I don't remember anything after that." Basem's mother, Reham Milad Yusuf, was killed in the attack on buses departing from a desert Monastery near Minya last Friday. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility. Basem's brother also suffered injuries. But he was able to escape the path of the bullets by hiding underneath his seat, one of his relatives told Arab News. Along with Yusuf, those killed by the gunmen were six members of the Shehata family. Safwat Shehata, who was not present when the attack occurred, told the independent Egyptian online newspaper Mada Masr that his cousins who were killed in the attack ranged in age from 12 to 55 years old. "Three men and their children were killed," Shehata said. "Only my female cousins and two children survived. Four families have been completely destroyed. Snatched away by death." Shehata said that his surviving cousins explained to him that the attackers told them: 'We will kill the men and children and leave you to live the rest of your lives in misery.'" "The microbus driver tried to flee, but the bus was surrounded by the attackers," Shehata detailed. "They killed the driver first, shooting him in the head. Then they stopped the bus completely and no one could get away." Shehata said that his two female cousins and the two children were injured. Both children were shot and one is suffering from internal bleeding, Shehata detailed. "We do not fear death," Shehata was quoted as asserting. "People should be safe. There should be access to communication networks on that road. ... Our people tried to seek aid and reach out to someone, but they had no cell service." Last Friday's attack followed a similar attack that occurred on a bus near the same monastery last year that killed 29. That attack was also claimed by the Islamic State, which has an affiliate group located in Egypt's Sinai region. The Egyptian interior ministry announced this week that security forces had engaged in a firefight with 19 militants affiliated with the group that carried out last Friday's attack, killing them all. The authorities didn't say when the firefight with the militants took place. Funerals were held on Friday and Saturday of last week for the deceased. On Saturday, the funerals for the six Shehata family members were held at the Prince Tadros church in Minya. As Mada Masr notes, the Maghagha and Adwa Archdiocese demanded last year that the government implement measures to make the desert road to the St. Samuel Coptic Orthodox Monastery more secure following the May 2017 bus attack. The church requested that there be a permanent security presence at the entrance of the road to the desert monastery, a police patrol to secure trips to and from the monastery, lighting and paving of the road, the installation of surveillance cameras and better mobile coverage for communication along the route. However, none of those request have been accommodated. Daoud al-Samouili, a monk at the monastery, told Mada Masr that interior ministry officials visited the church in the wake of the attack. The officials reportedly suggested it might be best to just suspend visits to the monastery. Following the attack last year, visits to the monastery were suspended for several months and then allowed to resume on Fridays only. "They said it was forbidden to visit the monastery, but people still continued to go after the incident and nothing happened," Shehata told the outlet. Egypt ranks as the 17th-worst nation in the world when it comes to Christian persecution, according to Open Doors USA's 2018 World Watch List. The Coptic Community has faced several attacks and bombings over the last couple years, most of which have been claimed by the Islamic State. The Egyptian authorities have worked to punish the culprits who bombed churches in Tanta and Alexandria in April 2017 and a church in Cairo in December 2016. In October, 17 militants accused of their participation in the bombings were sentenced to death while 19 others were given life in prison. Islamic radical group Boko Haram expands raids into Niger, kidnaps 15 girls Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Islamic terror group Boko Haram has expanded its deadly raids into the country of Niger, killing seven workers at a mining company and kidnapping 15 girls from nearby villages. The radicals, who since 2009 have been active in Nigeria but have also attacked neighboring Cameroon, reportedly killed seven people at the French mining company FORACO in the Diffa region in Niger last week. Later in the week the terrorists raided the villages of Blaharde and Bande in the municipality of Toumour, kidnapping 15 girls, Fides News said. Boko Haram is renowned for kidnapping masses of schoolgirls throughout Nigeria, including many Christian girls, and attempting to force them to renounce their Christian faith and marry jihadi fighters. Politicians in Diffa responded to the latest raid by calling on the Army to locate and rescue the hostages. "We ask the government, despite all the efforts already made, to take urgent measures to find the abducted women, and return them to their families, parliamentarians said in a statement. "Other events could occur: if we do not anticipate the deadly actions of Boko Haram, we will live more difficult situations. We ask the government to consider our requests, not only as elected officials in the Diffa region, but also on behalf of the peoples of the region who are experiencing moments of extreme difficulty, they warned. There had been hopes that the terror group is being defeated under the presidency of Nigeria's Muhammadu Buhari, but attacks in several countries have continued and increased in the past few months. AFP reported that Buhari is planning on visiting with military troops fighting the Islamic State terror group-affiliated rebels, in the wake of clashes that have left scores of soldiers either dead or missing. As many as 100 soldiers are believed to have been killed during a massive Boko Haram raid on a base in Metele village near the border with Niger on Nov. 18. "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 defense budget?" More than 27,000 are believed to have been killed by Boko Haram in Nigeria since the start of the attacks in 2009, with thousands of women and children held in captivity and used for ransom. The story of 15-year-old Leah Sharibu who was kidnapped from a school in February has drawn international attention, as the Christian girl has refused to convert to Islam to gain her freedom. Boko Haram has demanded a ransom payment of $275 million for Sharibu's release, and has warned they will hold her captive and use her as a slave for life if their demands aren't met. Its a miracle: Actor Kevin Sorbo reveals how Calif. blaze suddenly stopped just feet from his home Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Actors Kevin and Sam Sorbo are among the celebrities expressing gratitude that their home was spared during the recent California wildfires. The husband and wife duo recently revealed the miracle that unfolded when flames approached their home. Read Also:10 Amazing Christmas Movies You Can Watch Right Now We survived the fires and our house is intact, even though the fire approached and got very close, Sam Sorbo said in a recent holiday video released by PureFlix.com. Kevin Sorbo explained that the flames came within three feet of the house but that the blaze mysteriously stopped short of touching the house. Why it stopped, I dont know, he said, expressing gratitude that the family home was safe during the deadly blaze. Its a miracle. Watch the Sorbos and other celebrities discuss the California fires below: The fire tragically destroyed homes on the Sorbos street, including the house next door, with Kevin urging prayers for those impacted. The couple also expressed gratitude to the many people who prayed for their safety and home. Read Also:20 Bible Verses About Strength: Gods Word on Faith in Hard Times Other actors, including Kirk Cameron and Dean Cain, also shared their experience with the fires. Cameron, who was in Thousand Oaks, California, was evacuated alongside his family. Despite their situation, he expressed gratitude for their safety. In the midst of this the fires and the mass shootings just a day before the fires broke out in our city Im thankful to know that theres a loving, Almighty God whos still on his throne, Cameron said. And Im so thankful to have all of my kids and my wife safe with me. Cain expressed thankfulness to the firefighters who helped save his home as well. Stay tuned for more messages from these celebrities as the Christmas season draws near. This article was originally published on Pure Flix Insider. Visit Pure Flix for access to thousands of faith and family-friendly movies and TV shows. You can get a free, one-month trial here. Billy Hallowell, author of "The Armageddon Code," has contributed to TheBlaze, the Washington Post, Human Events, the Daily Caller, Mediaite, and the Huffington Post, among other news sites. Through journalism, media, public speaking appearances, and the blogosphere, Hallowell has worked as a journalist and commentator for more than a decade. Members of the Mombasa, Kenya community tipped off police about an LGBT organization supposedly recruiting youth in the area to join the gay community. Police were able to arrest two members of the organizations staff and interrogate them because homosexuality is illegal in Kenya, according to Nairobi News. Men convicted of having gay sex could be sentenced to up to 14 years in prison. We received complaints from members of the public about the activities of the organization, Makupa Police Station told Nairobi News. We raided and nabbed some of its staff for questioning. They were let go after four hours. Meanwhile, in Bristol, gay rugby player Kenneth Macharia is facing deportation back to Kenya. If hes deported, Macharia would have to conceal his sexual identity, he said. Pastor in India severely beaten for preaching Gospel vows not to stop despite persecution Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment An Indian pastor who was severely beaten alongside members of his congregation earlier this month in Bihar state has vowed to continue preaching the Gospel just like the heroic figures of the Bible did. Since I am working for the Lord, I have always prepared myself for any kind of eventuality, persecution, or danger. I am prepared to pay the price for serving my God," said Pastor Bangali Das in an interview with International Christian Concern while wrapped in bandages and breathing heavily due to injuries he sustained during the attack. Great men of God in the Bible like Shedrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and their friend Daniel were persecuted. So I feel that its an occasion for me to glorify God, like them. I will continue to work for the Lord in spite of all such obstacles and pain, he added. Das, who has been a pastor for the last 12 years, was accused by others in the village of Tetua of carrying out forceful conversions, which is a charge often used against Christians in villages across the Hindu-majority country. With his congregation having increased to over 200 worshipers, for months he also faced issues with local police. In February, they evicted him from the premises that he rented for church services, due to noise complaints. But Das refused to give up on ministering to people in Tetua and explained that he had to carry out services at an open place. He said that a number of men and women from the local Manjhi caste accepted Jesus and they offered me an open place to conduct worship. As many as 150 non-Christian Manjhi attacked a worship service on Nov. 4, however, accusing the pastor of forcefully converting people, and demanding that he stop preaching. When our believers requested them to give some time to buy a place and build a worship hall, they surrounded us and started beating us, Das explained. Two men caught me and began to rain blows on me with their hands. I got hurt in my chest very badly and my arm was injured. They threw me on the ground and beat me until I became unconscious. Christians have been under a wave of persecution in several Indian states this year, which has resulted in pastors being beaten and churches being destroyed. Pastor Singh, who leads a congregation in India's Madhya Pradesh State, shared of how Christians are being threatened to stop following their faith back in September. Hindu radicals threatened to beat and kill Christians, leading to 15 families becoming too reluctant to go to church. "The reason for this drop in the attendance is the threats from Hindu radicals," Singh told ICC at the time. "The radicals say they will beat and kill my church members if they continue to attend the services." "Prior to May this year, around 200 people used to worship regularly in my church," he added. "But now only 50 to 60 people attend my church on Sunday. They are under tremendous pressure from Hindu radicals." 'We in American Christianity are in danger of losing our own mission,' Russell Moore argues Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment WASHINGTON Leading Southern Baptist ethicist Russell Moore argued Monday that Christians in America are in danger of losing our mission during a discussion with Republican Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse. The head of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission joined the junior Nebraska senator for a conversation on topics ranging from Americas loneliness epidemic and political tribalism to reconciliation and technologys impact on the future of the United States at the National Press Club. The conversation titled The Lonely American: Rootedness and Reconciliation in a Riven Land was hosted by The Trinity Forum, an evangelical nonprofit that regularly convenes leading thinkers and thought leaders to consider and discuss lifes great questions in the context of faith. Being the keynote speaker, Sasse gave about a 25-minute speech in which he said that the political tribalism seen in the U.S. today is merely a symptom of the digital revolution in which people have more material abundance than ever before but are feeling more spiritually impoverished and more lonely than at any point in his lifetime. Along with the digital revolution, the 46-year-old senator said a media environment has been fostered to where Americans have lost their sense of we. That is strange. It isnt the case that there used to be a big, coherent, America national we that didnt have scars and blemishes and problems, Sasse explained. It was that you had local communities, and distant communities served a distant and lesser purpose. Because they were in a box of what happened far away, you could have your local community and your distant community, and your distant community wouldnt be the thing that you tried to impose all sorts of grand meaning. Because of the digital revolution and the hollowing out of the local community and the evaporation of place in a lot of ways, we are projecting things onto a distant national identity of 300 million people but we arent really sure what the we is that we share and have in common, Sasse added. Tasked with responding to Sasses remarks, the 47-year-old Moore highlighted what he thinks the American Church has to offer when it comes to this sort of rootless, lonely American life. What I would suggest is the things the Church has to offer are actually the things that are the most offensive at the surface level to the outside culture, Moore explained. The first thing is the exclusivity of truth. Moore noted, however, that there are several common objections that people who are not Christians have toward the Church, such as their objections with biblical truths that might run counter the cultural agenda. What I would suggest is that we are living in a time, which as Marilynne Robinson puts it: a society that is moving toward the dangerous ground when loyalty to the truth is seen as disloyalty to the tribe, Moore said. While Moore explained that people who are not Christians dont have to agree with the Bible or the Christian worldview, he said that the primary objection that the outside world has with the Church is not that it is too dogmatic in its beliefs but rather that Christians do not actually believe what we say we believe. Look at the devastation that is coming with the [sexual abuse] revelations out of Pittsburgh and the Catholic Church, he explained. Look at the devastation that comes with some of the cartoonish and buffoonish behavior that will often take place in evangelical life. Does the Church have the ability to speak to the moral imagination that says, You dont have to agree with us but you can be confident that when we are speaking it is not in service to some other agenda political, social, market-based but actually because we are, as Jesus puts it, bearing witness to the truth.' Even though Jesus calls on Christians to love their neighbors, refugees and the most marginalized members of society, a recently released poll found that white evangelicals are the only religious demographic to have a majority that view immigrants as a threat to the country and the nations increasing racial diversity as harmful. While some notable conservative evangelicals have issued inflammatory remarks in the past that some say demonize Muslims and immigrants, Moore said that a recent Cato Institute study had shown that evangelical Christians who go to church more often actually have more positive views toward their Muslim neighbors, toward refugees and immigrants, toward people of other ethnicities and races. Such does not surprise me at all, Moore said. It is that churches that are the most actively evangelistic are also the ones who most are connected with their neighbors, most love their neighbors. If you find a congregation that is working with Muslim refugees, sharing the Gospel, those are going to be the Christians who will say, You will not scream at our neighbors, Moore continued. We believe they are created in the image of God and we believe they are loved by God and we are going to stand with them. Also, that understanding of faith sees Christian in a very different way than the alt-right does, for instance, which sees Christian as simply another word for western civilization, white identity, European roots, fill in the blank. Moore also asserted that people who actually believe the devil exists are less likely to make devils out of other people or their neighbors. Having an understanding of demons ought to lead the Church not to demonize other people, he explained. The Church ought to be the one to say that Mephistopheles is not the presence in front of you who disagrees with you. The devil is usually subtle within your very midst, offering you pleasure and power. We ought to be the ones that understand that and are able to see that. Along with the idea of welcoming the neighbor, Moore contended that churches need to justify their own existence through the bustle of business within their congregations in an era where exhaustion and inactivity have become a new normal for many tired Americans. It seems to me that we are living in a time when there is exhaustion of being active around us, a time when quietness and a kind of liturgy and a kind of disconnection from the whirl and velocity of the outside world is necessary, Moore said. It is also true that as we in American Christianity are looking at the outside world, we recognize that we are in danger of losing our own mission. Moore explained that many people today choose their churches on the basis of the activity and missions that go on at those congregations. I have said for years, one can usually tell the difference between a church that is booming and a Church that is old and maybe past its prime on the basis of whether or not there is a church graveyard, Moore said. They dont build church graveyards at megachurches. Seeker-friendly congregations usually do not think about church graveyards. They think about coffee kiosks. The idea is that we dont want to be associated with death and inactivity. We want to be associated with philosophy and activity. There used to be signs that said A Church Alive is Worth the Drive. In following up on Sasses theme of the sense of we, Moore said that American Christians need to be sure that they hold on to a more pre-eminent sense of we. [W]e also need to understand that behind that we, there has to be a more pre-eminent we that is [more than] a nation E Pluribus Unum. It's a nation under God, a group of people who have loyalties to something that is more than a nation itself, Moore said. With that happening, I think we can then bridge the gap between who we are from who they are. That requires remembering who we are in the first place. Only then, I think, can we say to rootless, exhausted, tired, lonely Americans, in the words of Jesus, Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Only then can we learn to sing to ourselves, Jesus loves them this I know for the Bible tells me so. 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 Tony Perkins, The Friendly Atheist spar over science and gender, importance of religion Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment 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 News segment 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." Look, the reality is that we base law and policy on fact, on science, on biology, not subjective feelings. What the Trump administration is doing here is re-establishing what was in place for probably fifty years through the 1964 and 1972 non-discrimination acts, where sex is based on biology. Mehta said that we learn more when time goes on, and contended that he doesnt need an education from someone who is known for rejecting it all the time. Watch the full debate between Mehta and Perkins below: Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Friends, Congress is debating a major change to our federal criminal-justice system, and I wanted you to hear directly from me about why I oppose the Senates FIRST STEP Act. I hope that even if we disagree, you can have a better understanding of my objections. I promised to always do what I believe is right, even if it's not popular, and I intend to keep that promise. I support many reforms to our criminal-justice system. I wrote about my priorities here . I believe that the government has too much power over our lives, and the complexity of our criminal code allows the State to exercise power arbitrarily. I believe in redemption and second chances. And I support some parts of the bill, which offers faith-based groups greater access to prisoners and provides protections for pregnant women in prison. Those are good things. If this bill did only that, I would vote for it. But the bill has many negative consequences that I dont believe align with the values of the faith community. I believe these other features of the bill, which are not widely known, are a threat to public safety and harm victims. Thats why I oppose it. First, the bill significantly reduces the penalty for trafficking heroin and fentanyl. According to the National Association of Assistant United States Attorneys (NAAUSA)the federal prosecutors who are the foremost experts on this federal criminal lawthe bill effectively cuts in half the prison time for a repeat fentanyl trafficker with the highest amount of fentanyl. Look at what I discussed here to see how this bill affects the traffickers responsible for tens of thousands of deaths last year. What about our opioid crisis suggests that drastically reducing the penalty for trafficking these drugs is a wise idea? Im sure many of you know someone who has been tragically affected by drug addiction or even overdose and death. Now is not the time to go soft on those who are killing our kids. Second, some alarmingly violent crimes qualify for the bills new early-release time credit system. The FIRST STEP Act allows inmates to get early-release credits worth up to one-third of their sentence. In our federal system, inmates already earn good time credits. This new system is in addition to thatmeaning hardened criminals will return to the streets much earlier than under current law. While the bill excludes some violent offenders from this new time credit system, according to NAAUSA Attorneys, many other violent felons will be eligible for early release. Since the bills sponsors either misunderstand their own bill or misrepresent its consequences, let me cite chapter and verse. Here are some of the felons who will qualify for early release under these new credits: felons who assault law enforcement officers with deadly weapons under 18 U.S.C. 111(a); commit arson under 18 U.S.C. 81; assault a spouse, intimate partner, or a child resulting in serious bodily injury 18 U.S.C. 113(a)(7); and sex offenders who fail to register under 18 U.S.C. 2250. Maybe the bills sponsors believe these felons deserve to have up to a third of their sentence cut. I dont. And I suspect most of you agree that child abusers and sex offenders shouldnt have their prison terms cut short by even a day. The legislation has some safeguards by only allowing felons who are categorized as low risk to use the new credits, but color me skeptical that government bureaucrats can finely assess the state of a hardened criminals soul. And even if they could, imagine a liberal administration making those decisions. Finally, the bill gives more discretion to judges to decide whether to apply mandatory minimum, sentences to offenders who have prior criminal records. If the offender has never served more than one year in prison for any single crime, under certain circumstances, the judge can ignore the mandatory minimum punishment for trafficking deadly drugs. Do we really want to give liberal judges that much more power over our public safety? Remember, about three fifths of active federal district court judges were appointed by Presidents Obama and Clinton. These are some of the reasons I oppose the FIRST STEP Act. I cannot stop a bill if most of my colleagues support it. But as more parts of this bill are becoming known, its becoming less popular. And when a big piece of legislation is rushed through, its rarely a good result. Remember Obamacare? I would encourage you to read the bill yourself, and read the letters from law enforcement organizations, including the National Sheriffs Association, the Major County Sheriffs Association, the Major County Chiefs of Police, the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, and others that came to the same conclusion I didthe bad in this bill outweighs the good. I hope we can have a hearing on this bill so both sides can make their case. You may come to a different conclusion than I have on this legislation. If so, I respect your position and know that we will continue to work together on all the other issues where we agree. I believe in Gods grace and the promise of redemption, as well as protecting our children and our communitiesand I dont think those goals are at odds. Tom Cotton is a U.S. senator for Arkansas. Archaeological discovery: Stone weight mentioned in Bible found in Jerusalem Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A small stone weight used during the First Temple period of Ancient Israeli history and mentioned in the Old Testament has been discovered in modern Jerusalem. Known as a beka, the small stone weights are a rare find for archaeologists, with this recent discovery being located by a volunteer at a dig near the Western Wall. The beka is mentioned in the Bible. Eli Shukron, an archaeologist working on behalf of the Israeli Antiquities Authority, said in a recent statement that the beka stone was unique in that its inscription goes left to right, rather than the usual right to left. Apparently, the seal craftsman got confused when he engraved the inscription on the weight and mistakenly used mirror script as he was used to doing, stated Shukron, as reported by the Times of Israel last week. From this mistake we can learn about the general rule: the artists who engraved weights during the First Temple period were the same artists who specialized in creating seals. The beka is mentioned in the Bible, including in Exodus 38:26, one beka per person, that is, half a shekel, according to the sanctuary shekel, from everyone who had crossed over to those counted, twenty years old or more, a total of 603,550 men. Last month, the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Israel Museum announced the discovery of a stone tablet from the First Century AD that had the modern spelling of Jerusalem in Hebrew lettering. Yuval Baruch, Jerusalem regional archaeologist of the IAA, and Professor Ronny Reich of Haifa University explained the biblical significance of the find in a statement last month. "First and Second Temple period inscriptions mentioning Jerusalem are quite rare. But even more unique is the complete spelling of the name as we know it today, which usually appears in the shorthand version. This is the only stone inscription of the Second Temple period known where the full spelling appears," stated the experts. "This spelling is only known in one other instance, on a coin of the Great Revolt against the Romans (6670 CE). The unusual spelling is also attested to in the Bible, where Jerusalem appears 660 times, with only five mentions of a relatively late date having the full spelling (Jeremiah 26:18, Esther 2:6, 2 Chronicles 25:1, 2 Chronicles 32: 9, and 2 Chronicles 25: 1)." John Chau: Missionary managed to tell isolated tribe Jesus loves you in encounter before death Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Indian police are warning that there are significant difficulties in recovering the body of John Allen Chau, the missionary killed last week by an isolated tribe at North Sentinel Island. Further details from Chaus diary have meanwhile revealed that he was able to tell the Sentinelese people, believed to have lived in isolation for thousands of years, that Jesus loves them in one brief encounter preceding his killing. CNN reported that Indian authorities ventured near the island on Friday and Saturday, looking out for where Chaus body was reported to have been seen by fishermen last week, but to no avail. "We have mapped the area with the help of these fishermen. We have not spotted the body yet but we roughly know the area where he is believed to be buried," said police official Dependra Pathak. Pathak noted that his team saw a number of tribe members carrying bows and arrows, the weapons that are believed to have killed the 26-year-old missionary. "The mission was done from a distance to avoid any potential conflict with the tribespeople as it's a sensitive zone," he said. "We are discussing with anthropologists and psychologists about the nature of the Sentinelese." "There are legal requirements as well which we need to keep in mind while carrying out the operation. We are also studying the 2006 case where two local fishermen were killed. The bodies were recovered then," he added. North Sentinel Island, which is part of India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands territory, has been protected for decades, with outsiders not allowed to venture anywhere near the area, for fear of exposing the tribespeople to modern diseases they have no immunity for. Chau's family, who have said that they forgive those who killed their son, shared excerpts from his diary last week with The Washington Post. Im scared, the U.S. citizen from Washington state wrote. Watching the sunset and its beautiful crying a bit ... wondering if it will be the last sunset I see. The New York Times posted more details of Chau's attempts at contacting the tribe prior to his death, including one time where with the help of fishermen he was able to sneak past the Indian Coast Guard and get close to the island by kayak. Two armed Sentinelese came rushing out yelling, Chau wrote in his notes. They had two arrows each, unstrung, until they got closer. I hollered, My name is John, I love you and Jesus loves you." Chau says that he was able to offer them some fish, but they kept coming toward him. I turned and paddled like I never have in my life, he recalled. I felt some fear but mainly was disappointed, he added. They didnt accept me right away. As All Nations, an international Christian missions training and sending organization to which Chau belonged, revealed the 26-year-old is a graduate of Oral Roberts University who for years had trained to share the Gospel with the Sentinelese. International Executive Leader Mary Ho described the slain missionary as a "gracious and sensitive ambassador of Jesus Christ who wanted others to know of Gods great love for them." Nigerian pastor ambushed, beheaded by attackers during motorcycle ride in war-torn area Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A pastor and his driver were beheaded in the Cross River state of Nigeria over the weekend as the communal conflict continues to plague the area. The pastor has been identified as George Lifted, while the other victim was a commercial motorcyclist who was giving a ride to the pastor. According to Daily Post, the pastor was being driven from Ebom to Assigha in the Yakurr local government area when the men were attacked while traveling through Adim. Ebom is one of the communities in the state that is plagued by clashes between the Usumutong and the Ediba people. The people of Usumutong ambushed the victims and killed them at the road leading to Adim, Ebom village chief Henry Bassey told the Daily Post. The pastor was going to his village with the cyclist conveying him. We have reported the incident to the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in Ugep and he asked us to bring the corpses and we did that. A source in the area told the Daily Post that the incident occurred in the early hours of Saturday morning along Adim road. The source explained that because of the communal conflicts, people in the area have had to pass through Adim in order to get to Ebom. [T]hat is where Usumutong people went and ambushed and killed the duo and had their heads cut off, he explained. The village head of the Usumutong, who also serves as ruler of the Abi local government area, Ova Solomon Osm Edward denied the allegations that Usumutong people killed the victims. How can we kill them? We are in our community, how can we go into Ebom community and start killing people? Our community was attacked and several houses burnt, Osim told the Daily Post. They are liars, we have not entered their community. Come to Usumutong and see what they did to us, the destruction of our property and the number of people killed. Although the pastor was originally from Assigha, he lived in Ebom and had a church there, according to the source. People from Assigha came to Ebom to collect the pastors head and body, the source added. The victims deaths are being investigated by police. Nigeria ranks as the 14th-worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution, according to Open Doors USAs 2018 World Watch List. A large reason why Nigeria is ranked so high on the World Watch List is the fact that violent Fulani herdsmen continue to attack Christians and farming communities. Fulani herdsmen have murdered thousands of Christians and ransacked numerous farms and villages this year. Recently we have seen Fulani militias have Boko Haram branding and wreaking havoc in communities with sophisticated weapons and anyone who stands in their way is killed or decimated. When this happens, they occupy," Stephen Enada, co-founder of the International Committee on Nigeria, recently told The Christian Post. "It is not that they are unknown. It is just that government is looking the other way. If someone is a terrorist and overruns a community, the government should make sure certain people are arrested and prosecuted." Enada and others are calling for the Nigerian government to step up and hold the Fulani herdsmen accountable when they try to drive farmers from their lands. "These communities and villages have been displaced and ransacked and you see Fulani imposing themselves in that community. They are not arrested. They are not prosecuted, Enada said. Rather, it is just government inaction showing us that government is culpable." Taiwan votes against legalizing gay marriage, goes against growing trend Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment 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." Meanwhile, Amnesty Internationals Taiwan-based acting director, Annie Huang, who is in favor of gay marriage, called the results a "bitter blow and a step backwards for human rights in Taiwan." The vote follows a May 2017 constitutional court ruling in favor of same-sex couples, which had been the subject of national debate. Chen Ke, a Catholic pastor in Taiwan in support of traditional marriage, noted that many legislators will stand for re-election in 2020. The legislature has lots of choices on how to make this court order take effect, the priest noted. A count by ABC News in June found that there are 27 countries in the world that have chosen to legalize gay marriage, including by popular vote. Ireland voted in a 2015 referendum in favor of legalizing it. The vast majority of those with pro-gay marriage laws are in the Western world, though a number of Latin American countries, including Brazil and Argentina, have also legalized the practice despite their Catholic-majority cultures. Germany was the latest country to legalize gay marriage in 2017 following overwhelming public support, with a bill passing Parliament by a 393-226 vote. Cuba has emerged as another big battleground for the debate, with a proposed amendment to legalize gay marriage receiving strong opposition from evangelicals. Alida Leon Baez, president of the Cuban Evangelical League Church, warned in October that if the country's definition of marriage changes, then "our nation is going to total destruction." Pastor Lester Fernandez of the Methodist Church in Havana stressed that "the Bible condemns" proposals to change the marriage definition. Anti-religion group places atheist nativity scene outside courthouse A group campaigning for the removal of Christianity from American schools and the public square has placed an atheist nativity scene outside an Illinois courthouse. Instead of the traditional figurines of Mary and Jesus watching over baby Jesus, the Freedom From Religion Foundation nativity shows cutouts of American's founding fathers Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington gazing down upon the Bill of Rights lying in a straw-filled manger. The display was installed on the front lawn of the Grundy County Courthouse, near Chicago, and will stay until the end of December. Beside the scene is a sign wishing visitors to the courthouse a happy winter solstice. 'Happy Winter Solstice. At this Season of the Winter Solstice, we honor reason and the Bill of Rights (adopted Dec. 15, 1791),' the sign reads. At the bottom, it adds: 'Keep State & Church Separate.' The FFRF said: 'With the help of its ever-vigilant membership, the Freedom From Religion Foundation is keeping the flag of free thought flying high around the country.' A Christian Nativity scene traditionally appeared outside Grundy County Courthouse until 2015 when it opened the space up to other religions. Pressure from the FFRF was part of the reason for the change in policy. 'In Illinois the county's sheriff has custody of the courthouse. In 2013 we received a letter from the Freedom From Religion group in Wisconsin stating we had a manger alone on the lawn,' Assistant State's Attorney Perry Rudman said at the time, adding that there was the possibility of a lawsuit against the county. 'They questioned the laws and cited various court cases supporting the removal,' he added. Christian displays at US state and county buildings have come under increasing threat in recent years. In May, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the state of Arkansas after it erected a monument of the Ten Commandments outside the state capitol. The Satanic Temple protested the Ten Commandments monument by asking the Arkansas legislature to allow a statue of Baphomet to be placed outside the capitol as well. Taiwan was the first place in Asia to legalize gay marriage, but seven million citizens voted on a referendum against it. A conservative referendum to specify marriage as between a man and a woman in Taiwans Civil Code passed despite Taiwan legalizing gay marriage last May. The government gave two-years to put it into action, but conservative opposition has gotten in the way. The regression of gender equality deals the most severe blow to Taiwans democratic values," Jennifer Lu, a spokeswoman for Marriage Equality Coalition Taiwan told Reuters. Despite the referendums grim outlook for same-sex marriage, the government said it will not impact the courts original decision to legalize gay marriage. With less than a year to bring gay marriage in, they are facing even more of a challenge with the conservative referendums. Bishop calls for joined-up government thinking on Britain's rural areas A Church of England bishop has called for the government to introduce a joined-up rural strategy, saying current measures to protect schools were 'insufficient'. Stephen Conway, Bishop of Ely, is the CofE's lead bishop for education. His comments came following a consultation at Lambeth Palace attended by Lord Agnew, parliamentary under secretary of state for the school system, with representatives from Ofsted, the NFU and the Prince's Countryside Fund together with council and education leaders from across England. Conway said: 'We have been reassured that the Government has a presumption against the closure of rural schools, which is a positive foundation for the future. 'We have also heard from a number of stakeholder organisations, as well as those who are working with schools and communities across the country, who are exploring innovations in collaboration and the use of new technologies to improve pupil outcomes. 'However, it is clear that these steps alone are insufficient, and an overarching rural strategy is now required for the issues facing our countryside communities to be seen together.' Arguing that schools could not be seen in isolation from wider issues, he said: 'Such an approach is needed not only to give longer-term stability to our education provision, but for housing, infrastructure, broadband, agriculture, business and industry to be seen in the same lens.' He said the countryside was 'not uniform, and requires a joined-up approach to give its communities the opportunity to thrive for generations to come. We are committed to working with the Government to achieve this.' Bones found on Vatican property do not belong to missing girls Bones found at a property in Rome belonging to the Vatican do not belong to two girls who went missing in the 1980s. The bones were found at the end of October in the basement of the caretaker's lodge at the Apostolic Nunciature in Rome. The discovery gave rise to speculation that they were those of Mirella Gregori and Emanuela Orlandi, two young girls who went missing within weeks of each other in 1983. Orlandi was the daughter of a Vatican employee and lived in Vatican City with her family when she mysteriously disappeared in June 1983. The two girls, who were both 15 at the time, have never been found but speculation has persisted that their disappearances are linked. Zenit news agency reports that an insider in the case of the newly discovered bones has discounted any link with the missing girls after initial analysis revealed the remains are over 50 years old. Giovanni Arcudi, Professor of Legal Medicine at Tor Vergata University, was appointed by Rome's Procurator General to examine the bones. According to Zenit, he said in an interview with InBlu Italian Catholic Radio on Monday that the bones belong to a man and date back to before 1964. The Italian authorities became involved in the investigation after the Holy See reported the discovery, Professor Arcudi said. The remains were discovered during work on an annex to the Vatican compound located close to Rome's famous Villa Borghese museum. The investigation continues. First genetically edited babies born in China but some scientists say it is unethical News that the world's 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 it's 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 women's 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 He's work. It's "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." "We're dealing with the operating instructions of a human being. It's a big deal," he said. Others, such as Harvard University's 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. China's 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 it's not fiction anymore." Courtesy of The Christian Post New study findings line up with Bible's account of Adam and Eve 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 Earth's 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. God's 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 Thaler's 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." Courtesy of The Christian Post Nigerian archbishop urges protection for Christians as Islamist violence soars An Anglican archbishop is warning Nigeria's Christians face escalating attacks by Islamist militants in the lead-up to next year's general election. Ben Kwashi, Archbishop of Jos, is calling on the Nigerian government to provide security for Christian farmers in the north, who are being killed and driven from their homes by heavily armed Fulani herdsmen. The archbishop has also criticised inaccurate reporting for paralysing the will to intervene to prevent the Fulani attacks. Kwashi is a partner of UK-based Release International, which supports persecuted Christians around the world. On a speaking tour with Release, the archbishop has called for the Nigerian government to intervene to protect Christians. The archbishop has himself survived three assassination attempts. The UN has described the humanitarian crisis in north-eastern Nigeria as 'one of the most severe in the world'. More than 7 million people are now in need of relief aid in the worst-affected states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, and the conflict has spilt over into the wider Lake Chad region. Many of those attacks are being carried out by nomadic Fulani herdsmen, armed with assault rifles. Reports reaching Release International estimate that militants killed 6,000 people in the first six months of 2018 and drove almost 50,000 from their homes. These attacks are growing. 'It's a situation of fear,' Kwashi said. 'Most Christians fear the attacks will get worse in the coming general elections next year [February 16]. Many, many Christians, especially in the north, are afraid they might get wiped out. 'The Federal government of Nigeria has allowed its own citizens to be decimated by Fulani terrorists without any protection. These killers have targeted the Christian settlements in the north-east and central regions of Nigeria. The people they are killing are unarmed Christians and subsistence farmers, literally the poorest of the poor.' Kwashi has criticised inaccurate reporting suggesting the conflict is a tit-for-tat clash between two warring parties Christian and Muslim. The aggressors, he argues, are the heavily armed Fulani herdsmen, who are driving Christians from the north. 'This narrative has provided excuses as to why this evil has continued for so long. It gives the excuse for Western governments to do nothing, and for Nigeria's government to provide only token help, without actually providing security for its people. It is an unjust government that will allow the poor to be decimated in this way. 'I want the Nigerian government to rise up to the truth, to provide security for these poor Christians and protect them. I'm calling on the Nigerian government to rise up to its responsibilities and to do so justly.' The Archbishop also called for prayer for the Christians of Nigeria: 'It is only through prayer that these people can be kept alive.' 'These are the key questions,' said Release chief executive Paul Robinson. 'Just who is arming and training these Fulani militants? And whose agenda does this killing of mainly Christian communities serve? 'It all points to a strategy to drive out Christians from the north. The government of Nigeria must act now to protect its vulnerable Christian communities.' Pro-life groups blocked at two Scottish universities Pro-life groups at two Scottish universities are claiming discrimination and an attack on freedom of speech after they were prevented from affiliating. The Students' Representative Council (SRC) at Glasgow University has ruled against the affiliation of Glasgow Students for Life. In a similar move at Aberdeen University, the Aberdeen University Students' Association (AUSA) prevented the Aberdeen Life Ethics Society from affiliating. Without approval by the student bodies, the pro-life groups cannot become official university clubs, a status that would give them certain privileges such as being able to organise events on campus, have access funding for events, and set up a stall at the student freshers fair. Lauren McDougall, president of the SRC, revealed that the council objected to the Glasgow group's campaigning against abortion. 'The executive view affiliation as a form of endorsement because affiliated clubs and societies are permitted to use our branding in their promotional material,' she told the Scottish Herald newspaper. 'Given the SRC's campaigning on a number of related social issues over the years, including support for the recent Repeal the 8th campaign in Ireland, it would be contrary to our ethos to endorse a society which calls for limited rights for women.' The group has submitted a complaint against the SRC, accusing it of discrimination and curtailing its freedom of speech. Grace Deighan, the President of Glasgow Students for Life, said: 'Our society exists to start a conversation about serious bioethical issues such as abortion and euthanasia, and we want to have a proper academic debate on the issue. 'The fact that the SRC would deny a platform for open debate on such an important issue is disappointing. We want to see this decision overturned not just for the pro-life cause, but also to protect freedom of expression at Glasgow University.' Jamie McGowan, who acts as a legal advisor to Glasgow Students for Life, is optimistic that their complaint will be upheld. 'Their legal argument is pretty strong, given that "philosophical beliefs" such as those of the pro-life movement are considered to be a protected characteristic in Scots Law,' McGowan said. The Aberdeen Life Ethics Society said its bid to become affiliated had been rejected because it conflicted with the AUSA's policy on abortion, which states that the institution is 'pro-choice' and will 'offer no funding, facilitation, or platform to any such group that may offer advice that conflicts with the advice given by either AUSA or a body/service recommended by AUSA'. Under the policy, the association also vows to 'oppose the unreasonable display of pro-life material within campus and at AUSA events'. Writing in Aberdeen University's student newspaper The Gaudie, the group accused AUSA of censorship. 'AUSA's willingness to censor dissenting speech, even though such speech is protected by UK and EU laws, should be chilling to any fair-minded student who believes that the free exchange of ideas is essential to a university's ethos,' it said. 'Moreover, this decision exhibits AUSA's hypocritical enforcement of tolerance. Although our students' association prides itself on being radically tolerant, its willingness to block the formation of a minority-view society illuminates the lopsided nature of how tolerance is actually practised on our campus.' Psychotherapist fears transgender kids are being 'led' down the wrong path A psychotherapist has raised concerns about encouraging children who are confused over their gender to transition. Stella O'Malley spoke out in the recent Channel 4 documentary Trans Kids: It's Time to Talk, in which she questioned the experts who are championing transitioning as a suitable treatment for gender dysphoria. The married mother-of-two revealed that she had struggled with her gender as a child and was 'absolutely certain' that she would have transitioned if she had been growing up in today's society. But she is worried about the long-term and irreversible effects for people who start transitioning at a young age. She said more research needs to be done into the effects of transitioning and that young people need to be made fully aware about the medical implications, including a lifelong dependency on medication. 'For me, that doesn't feel liberating at all,' she said. O'Malley, who is based in Offaly, Ireland, also suggested that there should be more debate on the mental health aspects of gender dysphoria, including the possibility of future regret. 'What if they've got this wrong? What if everything I had was what they're feeling, because it certainly sounds very, very, very like it,' she questioned. Asked why she was upset by this prospect, she replied: 'Because I think they're being led. I think they're lost and I think they're being led.' O'Malley claimed that she had reached out to transgender charities, lobby groups and the NHS, but they had refused to be part of the documentary. 'It's right to ask legitimate questions about people who may regret transitioning, or the lack of research into the drugs to make sure we are not doing harms to kids,' she said. 'Fundamentally you can't help but think they don't like the fact that I exist. They don't like the fact that I had gender dysphoria, I was that kid and I have grown up to be this woman. On some level that is threatening as far as I can say.' She adds: 'I never realised quite how hard it would be to make a film about transgender kids. 'I feel it is so important as a society that we can have a real conversation about the best way to support kids like I was who are confused about their gender.' Scientists find evidence near Dead Sea supporting biblical account of Sodom's destruction Scientists have found that a "superheated blast from the skies" destroyed cities near the Dead Sea 3,700 years ago, which biblical analysts say 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 19of 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." What is more, Silvia and Collins authored the paper "The Civilization-Ending 3.7KYrBP Event: Archaeological Data, Sample Analyses, and Biblical Implications"back in 2015, which argues that "the physical evidence from Tall el-Hammam and neighboring sites exhibit signs of a highly destructive concussive and thermal event that one might expect from what is described in Genesis 19." "The destruction not only of Tall el-Hammam (Sodom), but also its neighbors (Gomorrah and the other cities of the plain) was most likely caused by a meteoritic airburst event," the authors added. Courtesy of The Christian Post 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. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee and Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis joined each other in remembering the late Mickey Leland on his birthday Tuesday, and announced a "Moving Monuments" bus mural in his honor. Lee's statement in a press release focused on the heavy volunteer presence Leland, the former congressman for the 18th District of Texas, exuded -- starting with soup kitchens and shelters, which later translated to political focus on public health. The parents of a foreign exchange student killed in the May mass shooting at Santa Fe High School have filed legal claims against the suspected shooter's parents, alleging they neglected to take basic steps to keep the shooter from accessing their firearms. Abdul Aziz and Farah Naz, the parents of Sabika Sheikh, who was 17, joined a lawsuit filed in a Galveston County court. The suit was brought by family members of some of the people killed at Santa Fe High School and alleges that the parents of suspect Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 18, were negligent and irresponsibly stored their firearms. "Sabika's picture is in front of our eyes every single moment, and her voice and laughter echo in our ears," Aziz and Naz said in a statement. "For a mother and a father, this trauma and mourning stay until their last breath," they said. "We are grateful to everyone in the U.S. and around the world who met us in person and reached us through emails, print, electronic and social media to express solidarity and empower us to endure this most profound tragedy." Sheikh was one of eight students and two substitute teachers killed in the school shooting. Police have said Pagourtzis entered the school armed with a shotgun and revolver, weapons owned by his parents. Authorities said Pagourtzis also had explosive devices that failed to detonate. Sheikh's parents filed their legal claims days before what would have been their daughter's 18th birthday. Before her death, Sheikh was less than three weeks away from returning home to Pakistan after spending a year as an exchange student in the United States. She was a youth ambassador with the U.S. State Department sponsored Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study Program, which is administered by the American Councils for International Education, the American Institute for Foreign Study Foundation and I*Earn. The lawsuit alleges that Pagourtzis' parents, Antonios Pagourtzis and Rose Marie Kosmetatos of Galveston, failed to respond to and address warning signs that their son posed a risk to others. Ron Rodgers, a League City-based attorney defending Pagourtzis' parents in the lawsuit, said in a statement that he is confident his clients were not negligent and "could not have predicted what occurred." "My clients are truly heartbroken over the horrific loss of Ms. Sheikh and all of the victims of the May 18th tragedy, and our hearts go out to their families and the community," Rodgers said. "While it is perhaps natural for those looking for someone to blame for the acts of a child to point the finger at the parents, the fact is that many of the allegations concerning my clients are either inaccurate or wholly untrue. The legal theories they are putting forward are premised on facts that just aren't there." Sheikh's parents, who live in Karachi, Pakistan, are represented by Everytown for Gun Safety's litigation team and by attorney Clint E. McGuire of Martinez and McGuire PLLC in Houston. McGuire did not respond to a request for comment. Shaheerah Albasit, Sheikh's cousin and a graduate student living in Washington, D.C., said the fact that Sheikh's parents live abroad made it logistically difficult for them to join the lawsuit right away. Albasit hoped the lawsuit would contribute to the nationwide dialogue around ending gun violence. "Our motivation behind (the lawsuit) is that this will contribute to increasing a sense of accountability, not just to gun owners when it comes to safe storage and responsible storage of their weapons, but also in people around them that display signs of harming themselves and harming others and to be more cognizant about them, and to take measures to ensure that they do not end up doing what (Pagourtzis) did," Albasit said. Pagourtzis remains in custody in Galveston County without bail, charged with capital murder and a first-degree felony charge of aggravated assault on a peace officer in the wounding of Santa Fe Independent School District Officer John Barnes. Pagourtzis is eligible for a life sentence if convicted, and could be eligible for parole in 40 years. A federal investigation into the Santa Fe shooting is ongoing. Nick Powell covers Galveston County for the Chronicle. Follow him on Twitter and send him tips at nick.powell@chron.com H-E-B is giving the University of Houston $250,000 toward its plan to create the city's first new medical school in nearly half a century. The donation, to be paid over several years, is a general gift to the recently created College of Medicine and not designated for any specific cause. The planned school has been approved by the state but still needs to be accredited before it can open. Its targeted opening is for fall 2020. The Houston engineering and construction firm McDermott International has been awarded a subsea service contract for an deepwater project operated by Shell in the Gulf of Mexico. McDermott said that Shell's offshore exploration and production arm awarded the company a contract to install a new subsea umbilical and flowline installation for the Great White Frio development. The Argentine judge overseeing an investigation into the so-called notebook scandal has indicted billionaire Paolo Rocca as part of a graft case. Shares of steel pipe-maker Tenaris SA, in which he is the majority shareholder, plunged in Italy. The judge set a $103 million bond and forbade Rocca from leaving the country. Shares of Tenaris dropped as much as 9.3 percent to 10.64 euros in Milan on Wednesday, its lowest price since April 2016. They fell as much as 11 percent in New York Tuesday. Rocca, whose net worth is estimated at $8 billion at Bloomberg Billionaires index, lost more than $100 million on Tuesdays stock drop. Tenaris has its North American headquarters in Houston, including a new $1.8 billion pipe mill southwest of Houston in Bay City that opened in December. This summer, Tenaris also restarted its pipe treatment and manufacturing facility in Conroe that had been mothballed during the most recent oil bust. Tenaris makes piping that goes into oil and gas wells. In an interview in March, Rocca said that he was planning more Texas growth by Houston and near the booming Permian Basin. Tenaris was virtually unheard of in Texas until just over decade ago, when it bought St. Louis-based Maverick Tube Corp. and Houston-based Hydril Co. for a combined $5 billion. In short order, Tenaris grew from about 50 Houston employees to more than 2,000. SERVICES: Houston-based MLP exits construction aggregates business The ruling, which was reported earlier by Clarin, was confirmed by a clerk at judge Claudio Bonadios court who asked not be identified as the investigation is ongoing. Tenaris spokeswoman Stefania Argento said in a telephone interview that she had no immediate comment. Trading of steelmaker Ternium SA, which is also majority-owned by Rocca, was halted in the New York Stock Exchange. Tenariss board has been monitoring the situation in consultation with its legal advisers and, after a review of the judges decision, has confirmed Rocca as chairman and chief executive officer, it said in a statement. The judge charged Rocca after the Argentine billionaire testified that one of his companys executives paid an undisclosed amount of cash to government officials in monthly installments from 2009 to 2012. The officials were allegedly working for then-President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchners administration to speed up a compensation payment from Venezuelas Hugo Chavez for the nationalization of Sidor, a unit that had been seized by Venezuela. Roccas group was compensated with $1.95 billion for the unit. PIPELINES: Magellan, Navigator exploring Cushing to Houston oil pipeline The move comes as Bonadio probes hundreds of alleged bribes paid by construction companies, energy suppliers and electricity generators to members of the former government. The case, known as the "notebook scandal" after a series of notebooks belonging to a driver for the former deputy secretary for planning, who kept records of names, amounts, addresses and dates of alleged bribes paid between 2005 and 2015. Bonadio also ruled he had no evidence to file charges against Pampa Energia chairman and majority owner Marcelo Mindlin. Spokesman Jorge Azcarate didnt reply to messages seeking comment. Pampa Energia shares pared declines. --With assistance from Dan Liefgreen and Chiara Remondini. 2018 Bloomberg L.P. An activist investor concerned with the direction of Luby's is calling for new board members to turn around the struggling Texas restaurant chain. FULL STORY at HoustonChronicle.com: Activist investor calls for 'fresh faces' to turn around Luby's Bandera Partners, a New York hedge fund that owns 8.9 percent of Luby's outstanding shares, nominated five new board members in a letter sent Tuesday to the company's board of directors. The letter is the first step toward a proxy fight over control of the Houston company, which has been operated by the Pappas family since 2001. "I'm writing today to tell you that what's happening at Luby's is simply not working," Jeff Gramm, Bandera co-founder and portfolio manager, said in the letter. "I believe this is the outside shareholders' last chance to salvage their investment in the company, and I feel a responsibility to take on this difficult battle on their behalf, rather than subject myself and other Luby's shareholders to another year of value destruction." RELATED: Luby's closes 21 restaurants amid lackluster sales The proposed new board members include Gramm; his father and former Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas; Stacy Hock, chairwoman of Texans for Education Opportunity; Savneet Singh, a partner at New York asset management firm CoVenture; and Brian Wright, the CEO of Massachusetts-based Bertucci's Italian Restaurants. Luby's, in a statement, said it will review Bandera's letter and consider the hedge fund's candidates. The board will make a formal recommendation later, the company said. Chris Pappas and his brother Harris Pappas, founders of Houston-based Pappas Restaurants, became majority shareholders of Luby's in 2001 and serve as CEO and president, respectively, for the chain. "We are always open to good ideas regardless of their source and will carefully review and consider Bandera's candidates as we would any other potential directors to assess their ability to add value to the board for the benefit of all shareholders," Peter Tropoli, Luby's general counsel, said in a statement. Founded in San Antonio in 1947, Luby's has struggled to retain diners in recent years amid growing competition from new fast-casual concepts, such as Shake Shack and Flower Child, which offer trendy foods and limited service that appeals to younger diners looking to share their dining experience on social media. The company operates 146 restaurants under the Luby's Cafeteria, Fuddruckers Restaurants and Cheeseburger in Paradise brands. Luby's, in its latest annual financial report, said it had $365.2 million in sales over the year, down 3.7 percent from the previous year. Same-store sales fell a half percent. The company, which has a stock market value of around $40 million, has $39.3 million of debt. The chain is in the process of closing and selling restaurants to pay down debt, and negotiating with lenders to reach a refinancing agreement. RELATED: Luby's plans to close even more locations amid lagging sales Gramm, in his letter, criticized Luby's executive salaries and company strategy of selling company-owned properties to reinvest in the business and pay down its debt. Gramm also said he tried to negotiate with Luby's management for additional seats on the board "to improve the board with fresh, independent faces," but said the company has not had a substantive discussion with Banderas on the matter. "It is brutally painful to watch the company chisel away at its real estate portfolio to fund low-return investments into the business," Gramm said in the letter. "Since fiscal 2008, Luby's has sold $88 million of assets. This capital, more than double the current market capitalization, is gone and forever lost to shareholders." Bandera, which has a stake in Famous Dave's BBQ and has invested in the past in Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and Fiesta Restaurant Group, has owned Luby's stock for more than a decade. The hedge fund has issued a number of public letters to company boards, including one sent earlier this year to Boardwalk Pipeline Partners in Houston. Jeff Gramm is the author of "Dear Chairman," a book on activist investors. He is on the board of Morgans Foods, along with James Pappas, the son of Luby's CEO Chris Pappas. A new era of the downtown Houston food hall boom commences Dec. 3 when Finn Hall officially opens to the public with 10 chef-driven food outlets, a craft beer and wine bar and a cocktail bar. Set in the Art Deco opulence of the JPMorgan Chase building at 712 Main, Finn Hall is the first of three food halls Bravery Chef Hall and Lyric Market are also on the books to open downtown. With 20,000 square foot of space including a sleek mezzanine cocktail bar, Finn Hall is named for Alfred C. Finn, the architect of the JPMorgan Chase tower, who was considered one of the leading Art Deco-style architects in Texas throughout the first half of the 20th century. The food operators in the main hall are laid out around a center bar called St. Jac's offering beer, cocktails and 12 wines on tap. Finn Hall's new vendors include: Amaya Coffee: A new coffee concept from Max Gonzalez, owner of Catalina Coffee and Amaya Roasting Company. The coffee menu will include macchiatos, cortados, flat whites, lattes, cappuccinos, iced coffee, cafe con leche and affogato (Fat Cat Creamery's Amaya coffee ice cream with espresso) as well as chai latte and hot tea. Goode Co. Taqueria: The first expansion of the Goode company's taqueria brand which opened in 1981. It will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner tacos on house-made flour and corn tortillas, made-to-order guacamole and Goode's famous campechana and Brazos Bottom Pecan Pie. Low Tide: Alli Jarrett, the owner of Harold's Restaurant & Tap Room in the Heights, has created a fresh seafood and raw bar concept that will offer oysters, seafood towers and main dishes such as steamed mussels, shrimp and grits, lump crab cakes, fish and chips, fried shrimp platter, shrimp and oyster po'boys and fish ceviche. The menu also includes breakfast options such as fried chicken and biscuit, fish and grits and bagel with lox. Dish Society: The Houston-born farm-to-table restaurant opens its fourth location inside the food hall with an abbreviated menu of the same locally-sourced dishes found at the restaurants in Houston and Katy (a fifth is set to open in January in the Heights). Breakfast options include chicken and biscuits, breakfast tacos, breakfast sandwich and Nutella French toast. Lunch and dinner options include shrimp and grits, brisket-stuffed baked sweet potato, chimichurri steak tacos, citrus-glazed salmon, sandwiches and salads. Mr. Nice Pie: The partners behind Moon Tower Inn, Voodoo Queen Daiquiri Dive and Love Buzz have pizza concept serving up giant slices (yes, there is breakfast pizza with bacon, eggs and hash browns) and creative pies served throughout the day. The menu also includes cheesy garlic bread, pizza poppers, calzones, stromboli and salads. Craft Burger: Chef Shannen Tune has traded in his food truck for his first brick-and-mortar restaurant serving as many as 15 different burgers made with locally sourced all-natural Black Angus beef. He also has a buttermilk fried chicken sandwich, beer battered onion rings, loaded sweet potato fries, hand-cut fries and specialty fries such as truffle and parmesan. Milk shakes and root beer floats complete the picture. Sit Lo: Another food truck (Bowl'd Up) that has traded its wheels for a sit-down restaurant experience, Sit Lo offers authentic Vietnamese dishes such as pho, grilled pork vermicelli, grilled chicken vermicelli, shaken beef, and banh mi sandwiches made with grilled pork, chicken and tofu. Appetizers include crispy spring rolls, Vietnamese tots, pot stickers, chicken wings and fresh spring rolls. Jay Le, who owns the business with his siblings Adrienne Le and Jeff Jacobson, said to think of Sit Lo as comfort food like a Vietnamese mom would make. And they have the mom there to prove it: their mother Suzi Jacobson is the chef. Sit Lo's name is a takeoff on "xich lo," the cycle rickshaws of Vietnam. Oddball Eats: The falafel food truck is now a brick-and-mortar restaurant from the brother and sister team of Rani and Rene Francis. Main dishes are a falafel sandwich in pita, chicken shawarma sandwich in pita and falafel sampler and salad. Oddball will offer a weekend brunch that includes an Egyptian breakfast, lamb chorizo hash, shakshuka (eggs poached in stewed tomatoes), falafel bowl and a Egyptian stewed fava beans with market vegetables and egg. Yong: Daniel Ajtai, former head chef at La Grange and Cottonwood, opens his first restaurant, named for his Korean mother, Yong. He calls the menu Korean comfort food but "decluttered" from the traditional banchan experience. Instead of the many side dishes served with Korean meals, Ajtai is putting them in bowls such as bulgogi bowl (thin-sliced ribeye with kimchee, spinach, mung beans and soft-boiled egg), bibimbap (rice bowl with bulgogi, kimchee, spinach, daikon, mushrooms, pickled cucumber, Asian pear and carrots), kalbi (marinated grilled short ribs) and Korean fried chicken (double-fried strips with sauce, kimchee and pickled cucumber). Mala Sichuan: The first to sign on, Mala's stake in Finn is part of the carefully plotted growth of the Chinatown-born brand of spicy Chinese cuisine. Owners Cori Xiong and Heng Chen are planning to open two more Malas in 2019 (in Katy and Sugar Land) but for now they are concentrating on how to edit and serve their traditional family-style dishes as individual dishes at Finn Hall. Lunch options will include Kung Pao chicken with red oil dumplings, Sichuan beef stew, shredded pork in spicy garlic sauce, garlic pork belly with sour and spicy shredded potato, and mapo tofu with wok fried string beans. Dinner options will include braised oxtail with asparagus, lamb shank stew, pork with bok choy and fried rice, chicken with bamboo shoots and spinach, fish and fillets with cabbage. Swallow's Nest: This Art Deco cocktail lounge is perched just above the food hall floor on the mezzanine level. Decorated in tufted red leather booths and cozy tables, the bar will serve specialty and craft cocktails as well as wine by the glass. Guests can order from any menu downstairs and a server will bring it to the table. For some established restaurateurs, Finn Hall allows a different way to position the brand in the busy downtown marketplace. For some vendors, this is their first restaurant for concepts they've nurtured for years. Levi Goode, CEO of Goode Company, is no stranger to the Houston restaurant scene, yet his Goode Co. Taqueria in Finn Hall represents the first time he's expanded his Tex-Mex concept since the first taqueria opened in 1981. The food hall model, he said, made for an interesting way to present a long-established brand, he said. "There's no denying that food halls have made a splash across the country," he said. "I think it really connects with new diners, new ages and backgrounds." Goode added that Finn Hall represents a new way of "bringing our old school way of cooking to a modern urban environment." Restaurateur Alli Jarrett, who owns Harold's Restaurant & Tap Room in the Heights, saw the hall as a way to test drive a new concept of fresh and affordable seafood and raw bar. If her Low Tide takes off in downtown Houston she hopes to expand the brand to the suburbs such as Sugar Land, Pearland and the Woodlands. She also sees Low Tide as filling a seafood void in the marketplace that has few "middle" options but is serviced by the everyday Red Lobsters on one end and the McCormick & Schmick's and Truluck's on the higher end. Even within Finn Hall's restaurant collection she believes she's offering something distinctive. "There are no cuisines here that are the same," she said. "Everything here is unique but it's all Houston." Trent Patterson, director of operations for Dish Society that put its fourth store in Finn Hall, agrees. "This isn't a food court," he said. "It feels more upscale. There's not a McDonald's in the corner. Everything in here is uniquely Houston." Patterson added that Finn Hall's dining options also distinguish it from fast food in the tunnels where many downtown workers fetch breakfast and lunch. While Dish Society has had its eye on downtown, a full-service restaurant, seven-days-a-week restaurant on the scale of its other Houston restaurants might not have made financial sense. The food hall, however, is something workable for a brand like Dish Society, and provides more brand awareness. "It's a great opportunity not just to market to a new client, it's a big opportunity to spread the knowledge of who we are." Ditto for Cori Xiong and Heng Chen, owners of the Chinatown darling Mala Sichuan which is on an expansion spree with two more restaurants coming to Sugar Land and Katy in the new year. Finn Hall, Xiong said, provided an opportunity to present Mala Sichuan cuisine, served family style, in a new format for the food hall (individual servings). "It's so much better than what I imagined in my head," she said of Mala's stall where guests can see directly into the kitchen line. "It's more theatrical than a traditional restaurant." Finn Hall allowed chef Shannen Tune to take his Craft Burger business from food truck to dine-in restaurant. A menu of about a dozen specialty burgers will be served alongside gussied-up, hand-cut fries and milkshakes such as Bananas Foster. Tune has waited for years for his brick-and-mortar dreams to come to fruition. Not only is he opening at Finn Hall, he recently signed a lease to open a new restaurant in the Heights, due in October. Called Carol Kay's, the "Caribbean meat and three" concept will feature dishes such as oxtails, jerk chicken and curry shrimp served with sides such as rice and peas, macaroni and cheese and sweet potato casserole. For Daniel Ajtai, Finn Hall represents a new start with his own business. The former chef at La Grange and Cottonwood is making his own name with Yong, named for his mother, serving "authentic Korean food, simplified." "I consider myself very lucky," he said, "I got in here very late." But he got in. Just like Jay Le, one of the owners of Sit Lo, serving Vietnamese street food. He and his siblings Adrienne Le and Jeff Jacobson will be working alongside their mother, Suzi Jacobson, the chef, on a project sprung from two years working as Bowl'd Up food truck. Sit Lo, Jay Le said, isn't just a new direction for their food, it's an opportunity for growth. His goal is to create a brand that can be franchised. Le added that smart culinary operators need to look at where business will thrive in the future. The food hall concept, he said, "is where the food truck was in 2010." Max Gonzalez, who has a solid customer base for his Catalina Coffee and Amaya Roasting Company, was in no rush to expand his gourmet coffee business. But Finn Hall, with its enviable street level spot in a handsome, historic building, was something he couldn't pass up. "For us, the history and architecture of the building were important," he said. "You already have built-in character. It's priceless." It also doesn't hurt that his Amaya Coffee owns the best corner position at Rusk and Main. What better way to draw traffic into the building than coffee, he asked. Finn Hall's vendors were carefully curated by Oz Rey, the food hall's developer to represent not just familiar names like Goode and Dish Society but unique, under-the-radar concepts like Yong and Sit Lo. The company had discussions with more than 100 potential operators before settling on 10 to open the hall, said David Goronkin, president of Oz Rey. "We wanted to make sure we were discovering the best the community has to offer," he said. "This is Houston all authentic Houston." The hall's vendor mix also offers cuisines not currently available downtown. "If I want a $50 steak, I have a lot of choices downtown," he said. What's not readily available are foods such as authentic Chinese (Mala Sichuan), inventive pizza (Mr. Nice Pie), made-to-order falafel (Oddball Eats) and upscale fresh seafood presented in a casual environment (Low Tide). Finn Hall's opening will shake up the downtown dining scene by offering so many culinary experiences under one roof, seven days a week. But it's by no means the only such concept planned for downtown. Bravery Chef Hall, at 409 Travis in the Aris Market Square tower, is set to open in January, and Lyric Market at 411 Smith, is scheduled to open in summer 2019. Houston's first food hall, Conservatory, opened in 2016 on Prairie Street. Greg Morago writes about food for the Houston Chronicle. Follow him on Facebook or Twitter. Send him news tips at greg.morago@chron.com. Hear him on our BBQ State of Mind podcast to learn about Houston and Texas barbecue culture. The Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office is reaching out to the public for help in identifying and locating a suspect in a burglary at a Stafford-area bakery. The Sheriff's Office reports that about 2:45 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 14, deputies were dispatched to the Aishwarya Bakery and Restaurant in the 2000 block of Fifth Street in the Stafford area of Fort Bend County. Instagram account of "It's Not Hou It's Me" The BeVisible Pride Wall at Jenni's Noodle House in the Heights will be removed after being vandalized, the restaurant's co-owner said. Scott Tranweaver said the wall will be painted white on Wednesday, covering a colorful rainbow and the words that vandals scrawled over it. He said that the landlord does not want the wall to be a target for future vandalism that encourages hate. "I have now been limited to what I am allowed to put up because I do not own the building," Jenni's Noodle House said in a Facebook post. "My support for the #LGBTQIA+ community has not changed and is stronger than ever." Tranweaver said they are considering memorializing the mural inside of the restaurant or one of the other locations. He said the community loves the mural and he wants them to remember how good it was. "There are always ways to support equality and human rights," he said. The restaurant said in a Facebook post that the funds collected to repaint the wall will be donated to the non-profit organization Pride Portraits. Tranweaver said he believes the restaurant was vandalized around Friday morning. A giant "X" and a "Stop your gay agenda" was written across the rainbow mural. The vandal has not been identified. Houston police said the case is an ongoing investigation. NEWS WHEN YOU NEED IT: Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message | Sign up for breaking news alerts delivered to your email here. 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 Get into the holiday spirit by touring with your friends on the Holiday Crystal Wine Trail along the Texas Bluebonnet Wine Trail during the first two weekends in December. Your wine trail ticket allows you to enjoy two specially selected wine tastings, paired with a unique holiday food sample at each of the seven wineries on the trail. As an added bonus, have your ticket stamped at each of the wineries as you taste and at the sixth participating trail winery you will receive a commemorative keep-sake. Participating wineries include: Bernhardt Winery near Plantersville Cork This! Winery in historic Montgomery Messina Hof Winery in Bryan Peach Creek Winery in College Station RONS WINE PICK Brennan Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Wine Characteristics: This ruby red blend wine has nose of cherry and currants with a hint of vanilla. Pair with: Grilled Ribeye Steak Where to buy: H. E. B. Stores (Most Stores) Price: $20.94 per bottle See More Collapse Pleasant Hill Winery in Brenham Saddlehorn Winery near Burton Texas Star Winery near Chappel Hill Tickets for this Wine Trail Event are available for the discounted single ticket price of $35 or $56 for a Ticket-for-Two, plus tax and handling costs. Tickets are available only online at www.LocalWineEvents.com. You have the two Saturdays and Sundays (Dec. 1 and Dec. 2 along with Dec. 8 and Dec. 9) to use your ticket to visit seven great wineries along the Texas Bluebonnet Wine Trail. Several wineries have special events going on during this wine trail event. Bernhardt Winery Celebrates Winter Solstice The date of Saturday, Dec. 15, marks the 11th Annual Winter Solstice Celebration at Bernhardt Winery. This fun Christmassy event is for the entire family. Bundle up good for it should be a little crisp. Festivities start around 4 p.m. with the placement of luminaries around the winery and the vineyards. Volunteers will be recruited to light over a thousand luminaries. The old Minneapolis Moline tractor will be cranked up, hitched to a hay wagon, and hayrides provided for kids from one to 92 through the winery grounds while caroling on the 15 minute- route through a 17-year-old vineyard. Of course there will be hot chocolate and fixings for smores, leaving white mustaches for your enjoyment. Assuming no big winds, a bonfire will be provided to keep warm and make your smores. After the lighting of the luminaries, patrons will be treated to a special arrangement of Christmas music presented by Maureen Finlon from 2-5 followed by an evening concert by SKYLINE. Vittles will be available from a bevy of food trucks. The Big Guy from the North Pole will also make his traditional visit dispensing candy canes and Christmas Spirit. Dont forget your cameras and kids for Santa pictures! Of course, there will also be the traditional sunset toast to greet the long darkness of the night. Include in your list of must-brings for this Christmas Winter Solstice Event such as kids, friends, chairs, a portable table, finger snacks, your personal favorite foods for Dinner, cameras, and home-made cookies for the cookie swap. Kids 16 and over are $10 each with kids free. Some special events will have an additional charge. Christmas Shopping for your Wine Lover The Christmas buying spree has begun. Did Black Friday satisfy your shopping needs? Do you have a wine lover that still needs that special gift? If so, you are in luck with these suggestions! Bottles of Texas wines autographed by the winemaker from places like CORK THIS!, Bernhardt, Windy Winery, Pleasant Hill, and Messina Hof. One of the top wines at Messina Hof is the PAULO series which has topped Opus One and Silver Oak Winery in blind wine tastings. WINEAUX WEAR from CORK THIS! and Bernhardt Wineries. Wine Accessories from The Ranchers Daughter in Montgomery. Magazine subscriptions to wine magazines like WINE SPECTATOR, DECANTER, and WINE ENTHUASIST. The best in wine glasses like Riedel from Sur La Table and SPECS. For that Klutz, get Polycarbonate Wine Glasses from Bed, Bath, and Beyond. For that Special Klutz, get unbreakable infusion glass wine glasses. Wine Aroma Kits from SPECS Wine-making Kits from Brew It Yourself at 25770 I-45, just north of Rayford Road on the east side of I-45. Whatever your choice, your wine lover should love these unique gift ideas! Ron Saikowski may be reached at rsaikowski@comcast.net. 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 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 Pearland Medical Center, which became the first hospital in Pearland when it opened three years ago, has expanded to add 19 licensed beds in a second-floor medical-surgical area that includes an observation unit. The plan was always to start small and to grow with Pearland, and thats what were doing these new beds will help us fulfill our mission of meeting patients needs for quality health care in their own backyards, the hospitals CEO, David Wagner, said of the facility, which is at at 11100 Shadow Creek Parkway. The HCA Healthcare-affiliated hospital opened in 2015 and debuted the $8.5 million expansion on Nov. 29, according to a news release from the company. Completed after six months of construction, the addition adds 14,380 square feet to the hospital, bringing the total size to 158,380 square feet, and increases its total capacity to 53 licensed beds. Of the new licensed beds, 18 are for standard patient rooms in the medical-surgical unit and one is an isolation room used to keep contagious or immunocompromised patients separated from other patients. LAKE HOUSTON: Memorial Hermann continues growth with patient tower, Convenient Care Center An additional four beds are in the observation unit for patients from the emergency department who generally stay there for less than 48 hours for observation and are not admitted to the hospital, hospital spokeswoman Casey Delperdang said. The company hired eight new nurses for the new areas. Pearland Medical Center 11100 Shadow Creek Pkwy. Pearland, TX 77584 (713) 770-7000 www.pearlandmc.com See More Collapse The hospital started operating at 100 percent capacity last year, Wagner said. That meant there were times, for example, during peak flu season last year, when not every patient had immediate access to a private room and was instead safely accommodated elsewhere in the hospital until one was available, he said. With this expansion, were even better positioned to maintain a consistent and ideal patient experience as seasonal and overall demand for hospital services in Pearland grows. The new space is expected to improve patient experience by helping to ensure patients direct admission to a private room. Like previously existing patient rooms, the new rooms will have telemetry systems that allow patients cardiac rhythms and other vital signs to be monitored around the clock. That means sicker patients can stay at Pearland Medical Center instead of being transferred to other hospitals farther from home. Wagner said that the November opening of the new areas was timed to coincide with the expected increase in hospital admissions typical in the fall and winter months because of flu season and increased respiratory illnesses. Wagner said that the hospital was built with expansion in mind. We fully anticipated this area of Pearland and down the (Texas 288) corridor to continue to see population growth and we wanted to be in a position to match that, he said. The real driver for this addition is that weve experienced tremendous growth over our first three years as Pearlands population has expanded, said Wagner. Our goal is to continue to proactively monitor and respond to the markets needs so as much as possible, our community has the option of staying close to their homes and families for their health care. NEW RANKING: Houston's best hospitals, according to U.S. News The hospital is aiming to keep pace with a city that has been ranked as one the nations fastest-growing in the last decade, according to Pearland Economic Corp.s population summary on its website, which cites U.S. Census population figures from 2017. Pearlands population of 125,198 in 2017 compared with a population of 37,640 a decade before, making it the second-largest city in the Houston metropolitan area after Pasadena, which had 153,533 residents last year. The other hospital in Pearland is Memorial Hermann Pearland Hospital at 16100 South Freeway at Texas 288. Wagner said Pearland Medical Center receives patients from places as far away as Sweeny and Lake Jackson and from areas just outside the Texas Medical Center to the north. In December the hospital opened an additional operating room to relieve congested schedules on the existing ones. There are now four total operating rooms. Wagner said it is too early to predict when another expansion is necessary. After the first quarter of 2019, hospital administrators will assess capacity needs. If another expansion is needed, he said, funds to do that are available through HCA, their parent company and the largest hospital system in the Houston area. Wagner said staying competitive by offering a comfortable setting for patients and their families as well as top-notch medical care is the goal behind every expansion to the hospital. We want to make sure someone who came to this hospital really felt cared for and in the event they become sick in the future, their fist thought was, I want to go to Pearland and Medical Center, he said. For more information, call 713-770-7000 or visit www.pearlandmc.com. jaimy.jones@chron.com A blood drive in honor of Needville resident Amanda Riddle is set for 2 to 6 p.m. Friday, Dec. 7, in the parking lot at Needville Elementary School, 3600 Margaret St. The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Mobile Blood Bank will be at the school to take blood donations, and Riddle will receive $25 credit toward her medical bills for each donation. The credit is a nice gift, but we really just want people to donate because so many others need it as well, said Riddles husband, Josh. We have seen firsthand what a blood and/or platelet donation means to someone who needs it. A photo ID is required, and donors must be in good general health and feeling well, and eat a hearty meal before donating. They must also be at least 17 years old, weigh a minimum of 110 pounds, and not be pregnant. An appreciation item, snacks and refreshments will be provided to each donor. The Riddles have twins in second grade at Needville Elementary and a sophomore at Needville High School. Amanda was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) last December. It was put in remission, and she had a bone marrow transplant in March. About a month ago, doctors discovered myeloid sarcoma leukemia cells in the bone marrow. After many tests, they found AML in the bone marrow as well. Amanda is now on a new chemotherapy regimen and will require another bone marrow transplant. We cannot remember how many blood and platelet transfusions she had, but for a while it was daily, Josh said. It truly is a gift of life to someone else and makes these treatments possible. Without them, most chemotherapies would not be possible due to how it affects your body. The Riddles are on an M.D. Anderson (MDA) e-mail list, and Josh said from time to time requests for blood and/or platelet donations are made due to shortages. Those pleas are what moved the Riddles to advocate for more people to donate. Karen Gless (counselor) and Kristy Archer (first-grade teacher) took charge, setting this up at the school, which is a wonderful idea, Josh said. If you cant make it to the drive, you can donate in Amandas name at MDA. A donation at another blood bank will not give her credit, but that doesnt matter. What matters is donating. Visit http://tinyurl.com/1endcancer1218 to schedule an appointment to donate Dec. 7 at Needville Elementary. A grant application that would allow the completion of a feasibility study for a Spring Creek flood detention reservoir has been denied yet the interested parties have not given up on the project. Members of The Woodlands Township Drainage Task Force discussed possible funding workarounds at a meeting of the large group on Tuesday. Task Force Chairman Bruce Rieser seemed confident that despite the lack of money, the study still needs to be completed. We need to discuss what the next steps might look like. I still think we need to do this, Rieser said of the study. The grant had been submitted to the Texas Water Development Board by officials with the San Jacinto River Authority. It had two parts, the first of which was a proposed study to look for good sites to create flood detention areas, which are temporary water storage spots, along Spring Creek. The creek is part of a watershed that spans almost 300 square miles and four counties, and includes The Woodlands area. The 10 different Municipal Utility Districts in The Woodlands, which are managed by the Woodlands Joint Powers Agency, had pledged to contribute $400,000 proportionately for the study. The matching $400,000 in funds from the Texas Water Development Board is what was denied. San Jacinto River Authority Division Engineer Shane Porter said agency officials are looking at other funding options to help bridge the gap between what has been pledged and what is still needed. In addition to the MUDS, the (Woodlands) township and Montgomery County, were going to continue knocking on doors and fund-raise to see if we can get additional funds, Porter said at the meeting. Alan Black, who is the engineering division director with the Harris County Flood Control District, offered a suggestion on where to find the money, the recently approved bond in Harris County. The Harris County bond election included $12.5 million for planning, right of way acquisition, design and construction of a reservoir along Spring Creek, Black said. Another suggestion is to ask us (to contribute funds). Chuck Gilman, the flood management director for the San Jacinto River Authority, said there were 38 applications to the Texas Water Development Board requesting more than $6 million for projects. Howver, only $1.8 million in funding was available to be doled out, he noted. Thats why, Gilman added, he feels fortunate to have received money for the second part of the grant request a tool that would help the SJRA in determining how and when to open Lake Conroes gates. Gilman said the agency currently does manual calculations of lake levels based on several gauges, but the new tool would instead acquire data from precipitation forecasts and help officials to better anticipate the water levels in the lake. The SJRA received a $150,000 grant for the new tool, and the agency will supply the matching $150,000 for the project. Theres a lot of need across the state for these dollarswe very much appreciate the support for this project, Gilman said. In regard to other projects, Jim Stinson with The Woodlands Joint Powers Agency reported that the agency was not able to lower the $7 to $9 million price tag on a Bear Branch area improvement project that was also recently denied funding. With more hopeful news, Black shared that Harris County Engineering has activated a $50,000 sprint study in regard to preliminary planning for a Timarron-area flood wall, a project that has been discussed at previous meetings by Harris-Montgomery Counties MUD 386 representatives. Much of that district, which backs up to Spring Creek, was flooded by Hurricane Harvey. There were two task force personnel changes made at the meeting. Zach Toups, who had represented MUD 386, has moved out of the MUDs boundaries and therefore can no longer represent the district. Toups said that he was excited about what has been going on in the district, such as the plans for a possible flood wall, as well as other plans to still keep up with the MUD even though he is no longer formally part of the board. In terms of additions to the growing task force roster, Diane Cooper Montgomery Countys floodplain administrator was notified at the meeting that she is officially part of the task force. The panel will not meet in December and instead plan to resume their monthly meetings in January. jane.stueckemann@chron.com This may sound funny, but I really dont pay that much attention to the numbers. This (the record) is like a bonus. I just drive. On November 24 at Northfield Park, Aaron Merriman became the first driver in the history of harness racing to achieve multiple 1,000-win seasons, and he did it in back-to-back fashion, nonetheless (for more on the achievement, click here). Merriman has taken the time to discuss the achievement with The Plain Dealer. Much of the article focuses on the hectic lifestyle that the 40-year-old has had to conform to in order to become the sports current dash-winning stalwart. One thing is evident from the article: Merriman loves the rush of driving. I just love the action, even though my schedule takes a toll, Merriman was quoted as saying. I can stand in the paddock and feel like hell, but as soon as I get in the bike, I feel better. Some days I feel like Im 20, but there are others when I feel much older. And, I like doubleheaders, driving day and night. Merrimans schedule has definitely taken its toll on him. Regardless, his passion for being in the bike is superseding any negative fallout that comes with the lifestyle. Im definitely tired, not of winning, just tired, he said. Ive said before that I was going to quit doing this, but I keep going Who knows what the future will hold? MERRIMAN NOTCHES ANOTHER RECORD As the Untied States Trotting Association has explained, Merriman has continued to re-write the record book. On Tuesday (Nov. 27), just days removed from notching second consecutive 1,000-win campaign, Merriman set the record for the most driving victories in a single month. Merriman won eight times on Tuesday twice at the Meadows and six times at Northfield to push his total in November to 123. Tim Tetrick held the previous record for wins in a month, as he had made 121 trips to the winners circle in November of 2007. Tetrick finished 2007 with a record 1,189 victories. Merriman entered Wednesdays harness racing action with 1,020 wins. He won 1,095 races in 2017, which is currently the second highest total in history. (With files from The Plain Dealer and the USTA) The principal of Houston ISD's Lanier Middle School has been reassigned from her position at the Montrose campus, with district officials providing no details about the reasons for her unexpected ouster late Tuesday. Katie Bradarich, who has led Lanier since July 2017, has been replaced in the interim by Theresa Campos, according to a phone message left with parents Tuesday evening. Campos is listed in district payroll records as an "hourly principal," a title typically given to experienced administrators who temporarily fill in for principals during an absence. She also is listed as an assistant professor of educational leadership at the University of St. Thomas, located about a mile southeast of Lanier. In a statement, HISD officials said they would not comment on Bradarich's reassignment "due to the fact this is a personnel matter." District officials did not disclose Bradarich's new assignment. Efforts to reach Bradarich Tuesday were unsuccessful. Lanier is HISD's fourth-largest middle school, serving nearly 1,500 children. About half of the student population lives in the school's zone, one of the wealthiest in HISD, while the other half transfer in from across the district. Bradarich joined HISD in 2016 as an assistant principal at Furr High School after spending 15 years as an educator in the Chicago, St. Louis and Houston areas. Although HISD officials have said former Furr principal Bertie Simmons oversaw widespread grade and records manipulation, leading to her placement on leave in October 2017, and eventual departure from the district in September, Bradarich has not been publicly linked to any wrongdoing there. District officials have not disclosed any evidence to validate their findings of misconduct and denied records requests for investigative reports generated by an outside law firm, calling them protected under attorney-client privilege. The timing of Bradarich's reassignment suggests it is unrelated to the Furr investigation. Houston city council on Wednesday approved Mayor Sylvester Turners request to hire an outside law firm to provide the city with legal advice related to the firefighter pay parity measure approved by voters earlier this month, but not before cutting the contracts potential cost in half. Following a testy discussion that lasted nearly 80 minutes, council gave the green light on a 9-7 vote for a contract worth up to $500,000 with Norton Rose Fulbright, a global firm with ties to the political action committee that backed the campaign to oppose Proposition B. The ballot item, approved by voters on Nov. 6, grants Houston firefighters equal pay to police officers of corresponding status. The firm is likely to help Turners administration address what has become a core question in the post-election debate over Prop B: whether state law in the form of a collective bargaining contract preempts the city charter. Council on Wednesday also adopted the pay parity item as a charter amendment, a procedural formality. Council initially was set to consider a contract with Norton Rose worth up to $1.34 million, $250,000 of which already been had appropriated for a separate issue. The council separated that cost, delaying it for a future meeting, then on Turners suggestion cut the remaining contract from $1.09 million to a maximum of $500,000. The firm operates more than 50 offices globally, including one in Houston. Neil Thomas, a Norton Rose partner in that office, served as treasurer for the anti-Prop B PAC, Protect Houston, and the firm contributed $15,000 to the committees coffers. Councilman Dwight Boykins, who voted against the contract, urged Turner to work out a contract with the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association, who have asked the mayor to return to the negotiating table since the election. Turner has said he would not do so before first settling the preemption question. The union responded to Wednesdays vote with a statement criticizing the mayor. The mayors vindictiveness is now surpassed only by his dishonesty about the implementation of Prop B, union president Marty Lancton said. Contrary to the mayors claims, state law is clear: a legally negotiated contract with firefighters would settle this issue, once and for all. Houstonians need to recognize that the mayor is willing to destabilize public safety to settle political scores. Lancton has pointed to several examples of collective bargaining agreements superseding language in the city charter, and some labor lawyers have backed up the unions claims. Turner told reporters after the meeting that he would have legally challenged Proposition B before the election, but found legal precendent that said such a move had to wait until voters approved the measure. "There's only one issue right here: whether or not it was preempted by state law," Turner said. "If a judge should come back and say to the City of Houston it wasn't preempted by state law, then we'll have to move very quickly to implement it." The mayor initially planned to seek a contract with Norton Rose the morning after Election Day, but delayed the vote over concerns that hiring the firm would look like a middle finger to the voters, as District G Councilman Greg Travis put it. It is not about going against the will of the people, Turner said after a handful of councilmembers raised concerns about the city not following the will of the voters. It is about whether (Prop B) was valid in the first place. Some members, including Travis, said negotiating a contract with the fire union similarly would serve as a repudiation to voters. Near the end of the debate, District E Councilman Dave Martin questioned why the fire union had sought to put Proposition B on the ballot, where it passed with 59 percent of the vote, if state law ultimately preempts the charter amendment. Why did we even have a pay parity petition? Martin said. What were people trying to gain? What was this about? Was it about leverage? In the end, Boykins, Travis and council members Jack Christie, Karla Cisneros, Mike Knox, Michael Kubosh and Brenda Stardig opposed the law firm contract. The most vigorous opposition came from Kubosh, who argued the city could settle the legal question with its in-house attorneys. Turner said the legal department is stretched thin, and contended the legal sum would amount to a small fraction of the cost of implementing Proposition B, which has an estimated annual cost of $100 million. Norton Rose Fulbright is an outstanding international law firm, Turner told reporters, citing their work on Houstons pension reform. They are very, very good at what they do. jasper.scherer@chron.com twitter.com/jaspscherer A former MD Anderson Cancer Center scientist accused of possession of child pornography had his case dismissed Wednesday after a Harris County grand jury declined to indict him on charges brought by university police. Keping Xie, a 56-year-old researcher in pancreatic cancer, resigned from the cancer hospital in April, some three months after University of Texas-Houston police launched their investigation into contents of his work computer. The research hospital is part of the UT System. Xie was arrested Aug. 20, on allegations that his computer had five child pornography images and faced a maximum of 10 years in prison if convicted. He vehemently denied the accusations. On Wednesday, he expressed sadness that so much time and resources were wasted by the hospital administration in trying to build a criminal case against him. Its sad they wasted taxpayer dollars, he told the Houston Chronicle in an exclusive interview. They wasted time, time that could be used for cancer research, education and patient care. His attorney, Nathan Mays, said Xie is considering filing a lawsuit against the MD Anderson and University of Texas-Houston police for malicious prosecution. The attorney said the criminal case was put together after Xie was forced to resign from the renowned Houston hospital. Xie, and his wife who is also a cancer researcher, left MD Anderson for the University of Arizona and took their four National Institute of Health grants that totaled $12 million. Those grants typically follow the researcher, not the institution, Mays said. It was because of those grants, Mays said, that the hospitals police force filed reports to get Xie charged. They acted with intent to damage Dr. Xies professional reputation, Mays said, and ultimately impaired and hindered his ability to conduct the extremely important research that he does and has done for 28 years. Officials with MD Anderson released a statement with the University of Texas-Houston police department saying they had a duty to turn over the information. As with any case involving suspected images of child pornography, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has legal and ethical obligations to turn over such images to authorities, according to the statement. We appreciate the District Attorneys efforts in pursing these charges, and we respect the Grand Jurys decision. Even though he is considering litigation against the institution, Xie left open the possibility of returning to MD Anderson, because of his long history there and deep friendships with colleagues. I would like to go back to MD Anderson, he said. I have been an advocate for MD Anderson for as long as I can remember, 28 years. So, I have a lot of work to do and I would like to go back. Xie has had a complicated relationship with the institution, which he successfully sued in 2011 to gain tenure. After he said he was forced to resign, he was hired as chairman of the department of interdisciplinary oncology at the University of Arizona in July. After the charges were filed, he was placed on administrative leave. Xies employment contract was rescinded in October because grant money had not been transferred to the University of Arizona, Mays confirmed. The attorney said Xies employment contract still guarantees the job, so Xie may have to sue to stay there. Officials with the University of Arizona declined to comment on the situation. Instead of blaming the Harris County District Attorneys Office for charging Xie, Mays said he blamed the UT-Houston police force, who submitted reports that prosecutors relied on to charge Xie with the felony offense last summer. The district attorneys office was not fully informed when they filed charges, Mays said. The DAs office confirmed the charges were dismissed but said little else. Every bit of evidence was presented to grand jurors, and with their vote, the community has determined that criminal charges are not warranted, DA spokesman Dane Schiller said. Typically under Texas law, police officers file charges against suspects and the DAs office accepts those charges. Then, within 90 days, a grand jury reviews the information in secret to make sure there is enough evidence to go forward and hands down an indictment. In a few rare cases, like Xies, the grand jury decides there is not enough evidence and signs a no-bill, which results in a dismissal. The case began in January, when a computer security officer, using a program to monitor what Xie was doing on his MD Anderson computer, saw the researcher appear to alter a restaurant receipt using Photoshop. He referred the matter to the University of Texas at Houston police to investigate as a possible case of tampering with a government record, which is typically a misdemeanor. Xie agreed to cooperate with the investigation and consented to a search where police took more than 80 electronic devices out of his home and lab, including laptops and external hard drives, Mays said. UT police arranged to have a judge sign a warrant at 1 a.m. to search Xies computers in case he refused, his attorney said. That data, about 40 terabytes, contained years of test results and other work, including those of his assistants. UT police hired an outside firm to conduct a forensic investigation of the data as part of their investigation of tampering with a government record. In March, that firm notified UT police that they suspected five images to be known child pornography, although they were not able to determine how the images were downloaded to the computer. The police at UT took that report to the Internet Crimes Against Children unit at the Houston Police Department, according to a sworn affidavit filed by the police with the charges. But HPD did not seek charges and instead sent the case back to the UT police department. It was an unusual move, Mays said, because HPD typically arrest suspects once child pornography is detected. In June, the UT police got another search warrant to search Xies computers again but found nothing new, according to court documents. Two months later, after Xie had moved to Arizona with his grant money, he was arrested. After Xie was arrested, there were anonymously sourced reports that the FBI was investigating the cancer researcher for possible espionage on behalf of China. Xie denied the allegation and Mays called it ludicrous. This child pornography charge is the second against an MD Anderson professor since 2015. Dr. Dennis Patrick Hughes, a pediatrician, remains in a federal prison in Bastrop after being sentenced to seven years in December 2016. He was arrested and charged with possession of child pornography in June 2015. In that case, MD Anderson immediately reached out to Hughes patients to disclose those activities. There was no such disclosure of the allegations against Xie. An MD Anderson spokeswoman said that was because he was no longer employed by the institution when he was charged and never was involved in patient care. Police on Tuesday announced the arrest of 164 wanted parole violators in the Houston area as part of an ongoing multi-agency operation. In addition to parole violations, the suspects' charges range from theft to sexual assault to murder, authorities said during a press conference. Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said 16 surrounding agencies, including sheriff's offices in Harris, Waller and Montgomery counties, met in September to coordinate a system that targets parole violators across the region. RELATED: Suspected serial killer expected to face 3 capital murder charges He said local agencies wanted to take a closer look at those offenders after two parolees cut their ankle monitors and killed four people between them in July. "When people are not complying with the terms and condition of parole, that doesn't mean they've been hanging out in church finding God," he said at the press conference. "We know that four people lost their lives at the hands of two suspects ...who had cut their ankle monitors." One of those suspects was Jose Gilberto Rodriguez, who eluded police for almost two weeks during an alleged nine-day killing spree. Two people were killed at a local mattress store and a woman was found dead in her home. He's facing three capital murder charges in that case. At Tuesday's press conference, Acevedo said the arrests were made over a two-week period, and the agencies plan to conduct these large-scale operations every quarter. A Waller County Sheriff's Office sergeant said one of their high profile parole violators admitted to sexual assault, theft of a firearm and another theft in Fort Bend County. The sergeant did not identify that suspect. RELATED: Son charged in mom's stabbing death held without bond Officials with the Harris County Sheriff's Office said they were able to clear 34 warrants after arresting 25 parolees during the operation. And Houston PD released mugshots of all 86 parolees arrested by their agency. One suspect arrested by Houston police, 37-year-old Regina Havard, showed visible facial injuries in her booking photo. Houston Police Spokesman Victor Senties said she sustained the injuries during an incident in Lufkin unrelated to her arrest. Kirk Bonsal, the chief deputy at the Harris County Pct. 3 Constable's Office, expects the community will greatly benefit from the ongoing team effort. "Really, you get down to it, it's a quality of life issue," he said. "You're taking these bad guys out of these neighborhoods and its a better place for their families." Julian Gill is a digital reporter in Houston. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, houstonchronicle.com. | julian.gill@chron.com | Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message A teenager was shot when bullets flew through his front window in Northline on Tuesday night, Houston police said. The 17-year-old was struck around 11:40 p.m. as he slept on the couch at his house in the 600 block of Cresline. A gunman either drove or walked by the house before opening fire, said Det. S. Ragsdale of the Houston Police Department. Mayor Sylvester Turner will ask Houston city council Wednesday to hire a law firm to advise the city on possible litigation related to the firefighter pay parity measure, setting in motion a potential court challenge to the item approved by voters earlier this month. While the firefighters union has urged the city to return to the negotiating table, Turner has questioned whether the city could preempt the ballot measure approved by voters, suggesting a judge should settle the question first. Firefighters and labor attorneys contend the mayor does not need to seek a judges opinion, saying Texas collective bargaining laws preempt the city charter. The city still has not sought a legal opinion on the matter. The mayor initially had planned to ask council to hire the law firm on Nov. 7, the day after the election, but delayed the vote over concerns it would appear the city was moving to reject the will of voters. Councils consideration of the law firm contract comes a day after the Houston Civil Service Commission approved a request from the Turner administration to combine the fire departments four civil service classifications fire suppression, fire prevention, fire alarm and maintenance into a single fire service class. Each classification has its own promotion tests, Fire Chief Samuel Pena said, hampering lateral transfers and increasing costs. The proposed consolidation, he said, would allow the department to offer five promotional tests instead of 17, and develop employees with a broader set of skills. It would not change pay, the number of firefighters, or adjust any employees currently assigned to each division, the chief said. Its not going to bridge the gap to pay for pay parity, but its an incremental change that will allow us to reinvest small amounts of money back into the organization to pay for professional development, health and safety, equipment, assets and so forth, Pena said. Turner has said the parity measure, if implemented immediately, would amount to a 29 percent pay raise for firefighters and would cost the city an additional $100 million a year. In a social media post, the fire union on Tuesday cast the commissions approval as a retaliatory measure by Turner, who appoints the commission and has instructed Pena to restructure HFD, including layoffs, to find the money to pay firefighters more. It also contended that civil service classifications are enshrined in the city charter and can only be modified via referendum or a collective bargaining contract. Council Wednesday also is set to adopt the charter amendment as an ordinance, something of a formality as it will not not affect the deadline to implement Proposition B, which Turner has said is Jan. 1. Public safety officials continue to warn of dire consequences if the parity measure known as Proposition B is fully implemented immediately, and say the city would have to lay off hundreds of firefighters and police officers to absorb the additional costs imposed by the ballot measure. Shortly after the election Turner asked Pena to come up with an updated staffing plan to reflect the necessary cuts. Pena, in turn, has warned he may have to lay off as many as 850 firefighters and civilianize the citys emergency medical services to meet that mandate. Police Chief Art Acevedo has voiced similar concerns, saying the layoffs of hundreds of police officers would lead to an absolute, visible reduction in response times, particularly for lower priority calls. The fire union and the city had trouble at the negotiating table after Turner took office, with the firefighters initially requesting a 20 percent pay raise over three years. After the city countered with a 4 percent raise over two years, the union declared an impasse and requested arbitration in May 2017. The city rejected the request, saying both sides had not made every reasonable effort to reach an agreement. The following month, the city and fire union entered mediation but again failed to reach an agreement, after which the firefighters orchestrated a petition drive that ultimately led to Proposition B. In a letter sent to Turner Monday, Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association President Marty Lancton again called for a return to the negotiating table. The election season is over, the letter said. We hope you agree it's time to end the divisiveness of the campaign and the related retribution against firefighters. Like you, Houston firefighters want what's best for the city. The mayor, who instructed each city department in September to submit plans for reducing their respective budgets by 3.4 to 5.2 percent, has remained tight-lipped about how he plans to make the cuts he has warned are needed to square the citys budget. The Chronicle submitted a public information request seeking copies of the departments budget-cutting memos, but the city has sought an opinion from the Texas Attorney General on whether the documents can be exempted from disclosure. Several city departments including the Administration of Regulatory Affairs, the Solid Waste Department, and Public Works and Engineering declined to say how Prop B-related cuts would impact their services and referred all questions to the mayors office. Alan Bernstein, a mayoral spokesman, referred the Chronicle to the months-old memo asking departments to submit reduction scenarios. In the months leading up to Election Day, Turner repeatedly warned the parity measure, if approved, would require mass layoffs. He also hinted at the possibility of a protracted legal battle over the initiative's implementation, on election night citing vague and ambiguous ballot wording. That may not be the only legal battle firefighters face to get their raises. The Houston Police Officers Union has said it also is considering potential litigation over the implementation of Prop B. jasper.scherer@chron.com st.john.smith@chron.com Standardbred racehorse breeder Francene Marie Nash passed away on Sunday, November 25 at the age of 72. Born on March 12, 1946, Nash was the daughter of the late Frank and Nell Nash. Nashs early life was spent in New Jersey and Jeffersonville, Ind. Later, the family lived in Lake Charles, La. and Leominster, Mass., where she graduated from high school. She attended Boston University and the University of Kentucky where she worked first in the Dept. of Agriculture and then in the Appalachian Center until her retirement. Her 25-year involvement, along with her brothers family, in Standardbred racing and breeding produced several noteworthy horses, including the 2010 Horse of the Year Rock N Roll Heaven. She is survived by her brother, Charles Cotton (Julie); nephews, Patrick (Christy) and Richey; niece, Audrey (Jason) Lowrey; and eight great-nieces and great-nephews. Visitation will take place on Thursday (Nov. 29) at 12 noon at Cathedral of Christ the King, 299 Colony Blvd., Lexington, Ky., followed by Mass of Christian Burial at 1 p.m. Burial following at the Calvary Cemetery. Expressions of sympathy may be made to New Vocations Racehorse Adoption Program, Standardbred Program, or Standardbred Retirement Foundation, 42 Arneytown-Hornerstown Rd., Cream Ridge, NJ 08514. Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of Francene Nash. (Harnessracing.com) This week Lone Star Beer announced its newest spokesperson, a spunky Australian ex-pat and adopted Texan who can smoke meat like no one's business. It was announced this week that Austin-based chef and author Jess Pryles would be the beer brand's ambassador. MEAT MAVEN: Jess Pryles, Texas' own 'Hardcore Carnivore', preaches the gospel of smoked meat Known for her "Hardcore Carnivore" cook book and a line of spice and mixes, Pryles will be an official spokesperson for Lone Star and an advocate for Texas live fire cooking. What's more, it's hard to find a photo of Pryles not sitting pit side without a Lone Star product nearby. She's been called the "female Ron Swanson" for her love of bourbon, beef, pickup trucks, and hunting. You'd be hard-pressed to find another high-profile cooking personality that can shoot, kill, and clean a deer by themselves. LEARN ALL ABOUT IT: The true origin stories behind some of Texas' favorite brands "I could not be more excited for this partnership since Lone Star Beer has always been my beer of choice," Pryles said in a statement. "I am proud to be working alongside Lone Star to honor the Texas traditions of live fire cooking." Lone Star says that it will also eventually roll out products and merchandise in the live fire grilling category. DUH, Y'ALL: Texas ranked as America's best food state "Jess Pryles is a great addition to the Lone Star brand family," Lone Star Brewing Co. brand manager Elkin Vasco added. "Our goal is to collaborate on authentically Texan recipes and offerings that live fire cooking enthusiasts and Lone Star Beer advocates will truly enjoy." To that end, Pryles also shared a special Lone Star Holiday Beer Brine for use with holiday turkeys. Hint: you need a lot of Lone Star Beer. COMFORT FOOD: The story of how Luby's became a Texas comfort food staple The connection between Pryles and Lone Star Beer is really a no-brainer. This past Texas Independence Day she posted a gallery-worthy photo of herself as a version of the Goddess of Liberty, wrapped in the Texas flag holding a can of Lone Star Beer aloft and cradling firewood. It was immediately a social media hit. Craig Hlavaty covers Houston history and pop-culture. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com. | craig.hlavaty@chron.com | Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message 3 1 of 3 Andrew Harnik, STF / Associated Press Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Moises Castillo, STR / Associated Press Show More Show Less 3 of 3 WASHINGTON Texas U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, who will join Vice President Mike Pence in Mexico City at this weekend's inauguration of incoming Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, said Wednesday that U.S. officials hope to send a strong message of international cooperation on the trip. "Obviously, we have a lot in common and I think it's important that members of Congress and members of the administration, like Vice President Mike Pence, who will be travelling there, will make a statement by their presence," Cornyn said. "That we value the relationship, we understand that many of the challenges we face individually we face together, and it's imperative that we work together." WASHINGTON Trump administration officials on Tuesday expanded their case for using tear gas and pepper spray against members of a migrant caravan trying to crash the U.S. border in Tijuana last weekend, saying border agents employed the same tactics under former President Obama and that they would likely do so again. Pressed about reports of women and children being hit with tear gas during Sundays border melee in Tijuana, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said it was not the first time such tactics had been employed by U.S. authorities on the Mexican border. Sanders maintained that tear gas incidents occurred once a month during the previous administration under very similar though much less dramatic circumstances in border incidents. She did not provide exact statistics or additional details. Images of crying women and children affected by tear gas canisters lobbed from the American side of the border have fueled outrage in Mexico and the U.S., helping escalate political tensions over immigration policy in both nations. The border crisis comes as the lame duck Congress faces a December 7 deadline to fund President Donald Trumps $5 billion border wall request or risk a government shutdown. It also comes as U.S. and Mexican officials continue to negotiate a plan to have migrants seeking asylum remain in Mexico while their cases are adjudicated in U.S. courts. For subscribers: Trump, GOP press lame-duck Congress for border wall funding Texas U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, speaking on the Senate floor Tuesday, called the talks a sea change in our relationship with Mexico and recognition that this is a problem we need to resolve together. The Texas Republican also called on Congress not to leave for the holidays before reaching a bipartisan deal resolving both the migrant crisis and the border wall. He did not spell out the outlines of any such deal, but some have suggested to possibility of an agreement protecting young immigrant Dreamers in exchange for wall funding. Department of Homeland Security officials briefing reporters Tuesday argued that tear gas and pepper spray are used regularly at the border and in law enforcement to control unruly crowds and disorderly people. Rodney Scott, chief Border Patrol agent in the San Diego sector, said his officers came under assault from a hail of rocks from mostly adult male caravan members trying to cross the border illegally. He added that if Border Patrol officers need tear gas and pepper spray again to defend themselves, they would do it tomorrow. Scott added new details to the official account of the border fracas, which he said started when about 500 men clashed with Mexican police and started throwing rocks. He said some, mostly adult males, then started charging the border in groups of about 50. My agents responded to an immediate and direct threat to their safety, Scott said. The agents responded with the least amount of force that they could It was a very chaotic situation. Amid a growing furor among many Democrats and immigration activists over the incident, which resulted in 42 arrests, Trump officials sought to portray the conduct of U.S. border agents as routine and non-political. Border security is not a partisan issue, said Tyler Houlton, a top DHS spokesman. Houlton and Scott echoed the defense of DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who said in a tweet Monday that the violence at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in California was entirely predictable given the scale of the crisis as thousands of Central American migrants arrive at the southern border seeking entry. Weve been preparing for this for weeks, said Scott, adding that immigrant activists and some non-governmental organizations are party to blame for many immigrants expectations of receiving asylum at the border. Noting that only a small percentage of applicants ever receive asylum, Scott said caravan members have been given horrible advice. He and other U.S. officials suggested that some caravan members are returning home after taking stock of their chances. For subscribers: Trump administration tries to curb asylum requests But Houlton said that in contrast to smaller groups of migrants who have made their way to the border in recent years, the caravan that has congregated south of the border in Tijuana is made up predominantly of adult males migrating for economic reasons, not for asylum. Immigration activists have disputed that contention, arguing that the impetus for caravan derives from the fears of families, women and children fleeing poverty, violence and corruption in Central America. Houlton, doubling down on the administrations defense of its use of soldiers to back up border agents, dismissed criticism of the military mobilization as a political stunt. This is a real threat, he said. In recent days, DHS officials say they have identified at least 600 caravan members who they allege have criminal records in their home countries. But Houlton declined to say how U.S. officials arrived at the count. Scott downgraded previous estimates of nearly 70 arrests, saying that the official count on Tuesday was 42 people, including seven women and a few children. The vast majority, he said, were men. Sanders said any use of tear gas on women or children was unintentional. Certainly the White House would never want children to be in harms way in any capacity whatsoever, she said. However that is why we are continuing to encourage people to follow the law and go to the ports of entry. Standardbred horse owner and racetrack superintendent Terry Lee Kibler, 60, of Woodstock, Virginia, passed away at home on Monday, November 26. Kibler was the speed superintendent at the Shenandoah County Fair where he helped to run various aspects of the harness racing program. Kibler was also an avid lover and owner of Standardbred racehorses racing primarily in Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. According to the Virginia Harness Horsemens Association, arrangements for Kibler will consist of a visitation at Valley Funeral Service in Edinburg, Va., on Friday (Nov. 30) from 6-8 p.m. and a graveside service will be held on Saturday (Dec. 1) at 2 p.m. at Masanutten Cemetery. Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of Terry Lee Kibler. (USTA) As cities around the world grow, the need to transform them through the application of smart cities becomes an ever-greater concern. Cities are pillars of economic growth for a nation, but they are also often examples of severe inefficiency as more people move to them, creaking infrastructure can no longer support the population, critical services go undelivered or underdelivered, and the sprawl becomes unmanageable. People feel isolated and lonely within the concrete jungle, and in general it becomes an unpleasant place to be. The understanding that smart cities are critical in allowing cities to again become that beacon of possibility and economic growth is being seen across the globe. The recent Smart City Expo World Congress the leading event for discussing the future of smart cities - attracted over 20,000 visitors and 400 speakers, representing 700 cities across the planet. Huawei is a global partner for the event, and a number of its partner cities for smart city projects were recognised for their commitment to, and innovation in, these projects. One of the key themes driving this years Smart City Expo World Congress was determining how to structure smart cities in a future-proof and innovative manner. As a leader in the provision of the technologies underpinning smart city infrastructure, Huawei is well positioned to identify and define the future of smart cities. What a smart city should look like Building truly future-ready smart cities should be structured as a four-step process, from the foundational infrastructure where many cities are now embarking through to the management layer at the end where the greatest value will be derived: Infrastructure Where cities deploy new and modern ICT infrastructure to establish the foundation for digital economic development. Security Covering both physical and virtual world, and a necessary step on the ladder in ensuring that as more critical applications can be developed into the smart city, there is no risk that the city will become compromised. Digitalization At this stage the city will help its industries achieve digitalization, and bring them into the fold, so that the entire city is unified around the vision of the smart city. Management This final step is the brain of the smart city; a management platform across the city that features AI and machine learning to complement and enhance the efforts of the city managers. These steps towards a smart city need to be approached in methodical order in order to stablish a stable and adaptable framework. Furthermore, not just any technology can be used successfully. There are three key traits that technology needs to reflect to be appropriate for use in smart city projects: The technology should be open source Smart cities are collaborative projects that bring together industry, government, and a wide range of technologies. The only way these projects can work efficiently is if everyone approaches them from an open-source perspective. Data should be open as well One of the key outcomes from smart city projects is the collection, management, and use of data. Again, for a smart city project to be successful, agencies and bodies need to be able to share data in an efficient and open manner. Application-driven The end goal of any Smart City project is the applications that drive the improvements in living and workplace standards, and city efficiency. Any smart city project needs to keep this in mind from the outset. The end goal of a smart city project is the creation of what Huawei terms a digital twin of a city. Through the technology rollout, and the strategy underpinning it, a smart city is one that takes all the data from the physical world, stores it in an effective and readable manner, and is then used by both humans and AI to deliver back innovation and efficiencies to the city. How smart cities are delivering human outcomes One example of a smart city project that Huawei has worked on, which has delivered a meaningful improvement to the lives of millions, is Chengyang. Chengyang is a pioneering city in using saline-alkali land, in combination with sensors, wireless technologies, data modelling and deep learning technologies, to convert the land into arable land, capable of growing seawater rice. That innovation is now being applied in other areas of the world and it is projected, based on current projects, to eventually feed 80 million people using previously unusable land. As a technology giant with a particular interest in smart cities, Huawei has been instrumental in establishing the very idea of what a smart city should be. The company has been involved in the establishment of standards around smart cities, such as the P2413.1 Standard for a Reference Architecture for Smart City, an international standard which was established in China, with the standards that Huawei champions focused on establishing that openness and communication between parties in smart city projects. Additionally, Huawei works with over 30 core partners, 1,100 solutions partners, and 5,600 channel and services partners across the globe, having undertaken projects across more than 40 countries and 160 (now smart) cities. The scope of smart city projects is such that no one company can do it all again, pointing to the fundamental need to have open platforms and data sharing and much of what took place at Smart City Expo World Congress was in looking to establish those frameworks that will shape the collaborative approach that must take place to establish cities as the smart cities of the future. As one of the global leaders in R&D, Huawei has a wide range of technology solutions to benefit enterprise and government alike. Click here for more information on the full suite of services. Around 2003/2004 I was working with a youth charity Known as K-Generation to the Charity Commission but Kikass to the kids who would hang out there. It was set up by a friend of mine, Neil Almond, who asked me if I would be interested going to No.11 Downing Street for an event that was looking at how to encourage young people to get involved in volunteering. Gordon Brown, the then chancellor, wanted to look at ways we could make charitable activities more appealing, as he found that the voluntary work he did on a youth magazine had shaped him growing up. Because I had also worked on youth magazines in Hackney and Haringey, I was intrigued about the event, so I went along. Downing Street had invited members of the White House to talk about a programme they were running and a delegation of young people who were members of that program. The main civil servant addressed the sleepy British audience with good morning, when he didnt get the response, he wanted he repeated it but louder. The Brits, not wanting confrontation, repeated it back. He then started talking about 9/11 and how it has shaped American policy and that the American government had created an accreditation system that would reward young people who completed voluntary acts. As I recall they called this something along the lines active service, and framed the initiative around young people's duty to their society. A lot of the rhetoric implied military-esque service that was critical to getting young people to show their value. Of course, this was all very confusing for the young British kids in the room. Nevertheless we were bundled into a room with the American kids to talk about the type of work they had done and how we would feel about this type of service. Gordon Brown was a big fan of this American initiative, but it was felt that getting young people's voice was important. The Labour government at the time had launched The Big Conversation which aimed at consulting people about their views and getting the population more active in politics. In the session room, it was quite clear that none of the British kids liked the term service. There was something too military and prescription about it. Context is key; the British government had just launched an unpopular war in Iraq, so anything that marginally connected itself to that was wholeheartedly rejected. Instead, we spoke about providing opportunities and moving away from the word volunteering, because it also had some negative connotations. After we had finished our session, we reported back to the adults in the room who had this time been joined by Gordon Brown himself. About four of us were elected to feedback what we had discussed; I was chosen to speak last. From what I can remember I spoke about aspirations being the key thing we should target and not service. Then I said something along the lines of because who would have thought four years ago that we would be in this room Everyone laughed, including our civil servants who seemed quite nervous until they saw Gordon laughing as well. What one of them explained to me afterward was Gordon Brown didnt expect to still be at No. 11 Downing Street, but next door, which is why they thought it was funny. One-size-fits-all opportunities model didnt work In any case, it was clear that the American-style system wouldnt work in the UK and so the Russell Commission was born. Headed by Ian Russell, the commission was tasked to look at ways we could encourage an extra young one million young people into volunteering activities. Ian Russell has created two committees to advise him on his proposals; one made up of leaders from business, industry and the voluntary sector, the other made up of twenty young people from all walks of life known as the Youth Advisory Board, or YABsters for short. For about one year we went up and down the country talking to young people from various walks of life, running various events with Kikass trying to understand how we could push an aspirational message to young people from. It seemed clear that a one-size-fits-all opportunities model didnt work, as the challenges faced in Cardiff are different from the East End of Glasgow. That part of the challenge was not just the opportunities but the lack of empowerment for local community groups who wanted to run successful projects but couldn't due to a lack of resources. At this point, it became clear that an incubator that supports local communities was the right way forward. So the proposal to create a charity that would do that was put forward by the Commission. At the time the YABsters seemed confused. We didnt understand why we needed another charity, I'm not sure what we were expecting; the whole process has been such a rollercoaster; none of us saw it as ever ending. Perhaps this was down to our expectations; I think most of us assumed we would form an NGO that was run by the YABsters to have fun. When none of us got jobs out of it we felt somewhat rejected, and the processed felt somewhat anticlimactic. With the benefit of time and hindsight the new charity called v and later vInspired, made perfect sense, empowering local communities to do wonderful things. In the same spirit of the YABsters, we helped create another youth advisory board that would help and support the charity in the same way we had. During the launch of Vinspired, some of the YABsters were giving talks at third sector events, talking about the process. One such event was being launched at the Treasury offices, on the 7th July 2005, which I was supposed to speak at. London was buzzing from the day before; we had just found out that we got the Olympics, personally launching this new initiative and showing the work we had done felt this newfound optimism that the city and country didnt often have. Tragically this was short-lived, as while on my way to the event I was caught up in the terrorist attack that took place on the London underground and never made it. A couple of days ago one of my friends, David Floyd, whom I worked with as a co-founder of not-for-profit design company Social Spider during the Russell Commission time, sent me an email, titled the end of an era. The email contained a link to a news story speaking of the sudden demise of vInspired. Even though I didnt have any real contact later on with the charity, hearing this news made me feel sad. Lots of us, from the civil servants in the Home Office and Treasury to Kikass, Gordon Brown, the YABsters, Ian Russell and all of the other young people across the country put our hearts and souls into creating opportunities. I mean I almost died in the process. The sad part of this is you will never see the full extent to how Vinspired and organisations like that achieve because a lot of the impact they have takes years. However, charities like that do change peoples lives for the better and give them hope. The Russell Commission helped me so much, more than I can thank them for. I wish the good work we created could continue and support the next generation of young people. In August, an image of a painting by the British artist Ben Taylor called The Host went viral. It was a self-portrait of sorts, though an unconventional one: a striking close-up of an eyeball with a pale, translucent worm slithering on and beneath its surface. Taylor completed the painting after he discovered that an inch-long roundworm had, horrifically, taken up residence in his eye during a trip to Gabon a couple of years earlier. The painting stood out not just for its grisly backstory, but also because it happened to have been featured that month on the cover of Emerging Infectious Diseases, a journal published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. EIDwhich, like the agency, is based in Atlantais funded by the CDC (at a cost, in 2018, of nearly $2.8 million, the agency affirms); it has no advertising, and subscriptions are free. The peer-reviewed journal publishes more than 500 articles per year and accepts, on average, only a quarter of all submissions, which come from virtually every country on earth. ICYMI: Its almost like having a robo-freelancer pitching a story The journal always chooses its covers to accentuate the material inside, a collection of grim reports and seemingly abstruse charts that give scientists worldwide a forecast of whats to come in the world of infectious diseases. The August issues theme was Parasitic and Tropical Diseases. The goal is not to be playful or cute or to attract attention, says D. Peter Drotman, the editor in chief of EID. Its to humanize the content and to say were dealing with an issue that affects humanity in many ways. One way that humanity has expressed itself is through art and how it deals with the human condition and suffering. Sign up for CJR 's daily email Its a surprisingly abstract sentiment for a publication whose dispassionately worded articles, with titles like Evidence for Previously Unidentified Sexual Transmission of Protozoan Parasites, dont leave much room for metaphysical interpretation. But the magazine, which was founded in 1995, takes this mission seriously. Since 2001, the journal has published art on the cover of every issue, a practice initiated by Polyxeni Potter, one of EIDs founding editors. Her aim was to bear out the connection between art and public healtha connection with a rich history, going back to da Vincis famed anatomical studiesand she accompanied each cover with a short, explanatory essay at the end of the magazine. The column was a welcome relief from the publications otherwise clinical content, a palate cleanser in the vein of The Economists heartwarming back-of-the-book obituaries. (In 2013, Potters essays were collected in a book called Art in Science: Selections from Emerging Infectious Diseases.) EID isnt the only journal in the world of infectious-disease publishing to put art on its covers. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, for instance, holds annual contests to choose an artist to create original covers inspired by the journals articles. The Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society has been using childrens art on its covers since its inception in 2012. And Clinical Infectious Diseases features disease-related artpaintings, statues, architectureon its covers. Showcasing art offers a way to enhance visual appeal and to attract people to the public-health information inside each issue, editors at these journals say. Some have more specific motivations: It was decided that featuring childrens art would be an optimal way to engage the next generation, explains a former JPIDS cover editor. The genesis of the trend, however, can perhaps be attributed to the Journal of the American Medical Association, which began using fine-art covers in the 1960s under the direction of an art-enthusiast editor in chief. In the 1970s, cover selection fell to longtime JAMA editor Therese Southgate, whose masterstroke was to include an eloquent, page-long essay in each issue, giving some art history along with her own feelings about the work she had chosen. Southgates essays were an unlikely hit, appealing to physicians and lay readers alike, and theyre now collected in three separate volumes, published between 1996 and 2011, called The Art of JAMA. Im trying to show that everything is related: art, medicine, life, Southgate said in a 1999 interview with The New York Times. Physicians and other people in the field can enjoy art, whether its medical or not. (Southgate died in 2013.) After a redesign in 2013, JAMA stopped regularly publishing art on its covers, and so EID, with its thoughtful cover curation and charming essays, has perhaps more than any other scientific journal continued Southgates legacy. Byron Breedlove, who has been the journals managing editor since 2014, is now in charge of choosing art and writing most of the accompanying essays, a responsibility he approaches with care. When Peter assigns the cover theme, he says, I go through a period of, usually, panic to try to think about how Im going to find things. Breedlove, who has worked for the CDC since 1987, takes an ecumenical approach to cover selection, featuring a wide variety of art from different cultures, geographic areas, and periods in history. We are biased in favor of artwork that depicts humans, and particularly humans interacting with animals, says Drotman, who has helmed EID for 17 years and previously worked in preventive medicine. Thats an important route by which infectious diseases emerge. In terms of tone, the covers are alternatingly stark (Nicolas Poussins 1630 oil painting The Plague at Ashdod graced the cover of the January 2018 issue, High-Consequence Pathogens), playful (Picassos Don Quijote was a complement to Zoonoses the next month), and creepy (Alexander Skachkovs 2014 painting Old Mosquito was a visual stand-in for Vectorborne Infections on the cover of the August 2017 issue). (Images below.) In this clever image, Skachkov depicts a tired older mosquito heading home after a long night of collecting blood, Breedlove notes in his accompanying essay, which he cowrote with Paul M. Arguin, an associate editor of EID. The bare branches and grayish fog of morning suggest that summer is past and the old mosquito is approaching the end of his days in the end of the year. The bright red blood contained in the mosquitos jug, his red hat and legs, and, of course, his blood-tipped proboscis tinged from its hematophagous endeavors, contrasts with the morning gloom. Though the journal is mostly read by public-health professionals in the field, with just under 5,000 print subscribers, it appears to have something of a niche following among art and literary types, who appreciate the magazine for its beautiful covers and dismal content. Alexis Rockman, a visual artist who says hes a fan of EID, and whose paintings have been featured by the journal, says he finds the covers kind of goofy, but he appreciates them nonetheless, comparing the journals design approach to Harpers Magazine, which frequently features fine art on its covers. Anything that appreciates art, Im all for, he says, because in America, unless youre talking about auction prices, no one cares about art. Dwight Garner, the New York Times book critic, says hes been a subscriber for a few years now, though he admits that he doesnt read the magazine in its entirety. I look forward to the day it arrives, reading the ghoulish headlines aloud to my wife, he writes in an email. They sound even more terrifying in the magazines restrained academese; theyre like NOAA weather broadcasts, just the facts. The covers are almost always great, Garner adds. Emerging Infectious Diseases livens up a coffee table, for sure. ICYMI: Facebook and The Innovators Dilemma Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Matthew Kassel is a freelance writer whose work has been published by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Slate. Since early 2017, English-language news outlets in the US have published numerous stories about a series of leaked draft regulations that would limit immigration to the US in profound ways, based on prospective immigrants supposed likelihood of requiring public assistance. The rules sought to potentially deport legal immigrants for using social services and to incorporate previously excluded benefits, such as health-insurance subsidies and the earned-income tax credit, into the governments determinations of which prospective immigrants are likely to become a public charge. The proposed regulation, Politico reported in September would effectively gentrify the legal immigration system, blocking poorer immigrants from obtaining green cards or even from entering the country in the first place. One draft of the regulation leaked in early 2018 proposed expanding the limitations specifically to people who use food aid, including nutrition assistance from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). A generally uncontroversial program that serves approximately 50 percent of all infants in the US, WIC provides formula, diapers, and breastfeeding tutorials, among other benefits, to low-income adult caregivers. In late September, the Department of Homeland Security finally released an official version of the proposed rule, which was covered widely in US media, excluding WIC from public-charge determinations. And even before that, reporting from major English-language US outlets made clear, use of benefits would not affect immigration decisions. But many immigrants dont get their news from major English-language outlets. Instead, officials from WIC tell CJR in a phone call, they turn to foreign-language and ethnic media, and in some cases the alarmist reporting they found there may have persuaded them to turn away from programs like WIC. Statistics provide some support for the WIC officials claims about the ubiquity and influence of ethnic media: in 2006, according to a Pew report, 29 million adults in the US preferred ethnic media to mainstream English-language outlets, and immigrants generally preferred to receive news in their own language. More than 65 million US residents speak at least one language in addition to English, according to US Census data, the most common being Spanish. New York City alone has more than 250 ethnic publications releasing information in more than 30 languages, according to a 2013 study by the CUNY Center for Community and Ethnic Media. Nearly a quarter of the citys residents rely on non-English languages to communicate, says CCEM Co-Director Jehangir Khattak. According to Jose Zamora, senior vice president of news strategic communications at the Spanish-language network Univision, Spanish-language outlets reach more than 90 percent of Hispanic households. Sign up for CJR 's daily email Plus, there is greater interest in the ethnic media in covering the policies of the Trump administration and how it impacts those communities, says Vincent Eng, a consultant for the Asian & American and Pacific Islander American Health Forum, a health-advocacy organization. In the case of the draft immigration rules, English-language articles about the leaks trickled down to foreign-language news sources, stirring up sometimes unwarranted anxiety, says Douglas Greenaway, the president and CEO of the National WIC Association (NWA), a nonprofit advocacy arm of the program. They were not always accurate in their reporting, Greenaway says of these foreign-language outlets, which created much of the alarm among families. Although its unclear how much effect this had, this September, Politico reported that following the publication of the leaked executive orders and news reports on the proposal, a growing number of women had unenrolled from programs such as WIC. According to Brian Dittmeier, the NWAs state government affairs counsel, hundreds of participants called or came in to clinics around the country, indicating that they had seen updates about the program in foreign-language media, some of which have misstated or overrepresented the public charge issue, Dittmeier says. These reports have caused panic among Asian and Hispanic populations in particular, leading to some unenrollments. Participants requested to have their names and information completely removed from the WIC systemnot simply to drop out, adds Sarah Diaz, WICs California policy and media coordinator. And some of them wanted to return their WIC vouchers or attempt to pay back benefits they had received. This February, NWA officials report, a woman in Los Angeles returned WIC food checks after reading about the proposed executive order in the Korea Times. She said she didnt want her receipt of WIC benefits to affect her husbands application for a green card. The Korea Times could not be reached, after multiple attempts, for comment. In April, Dittmeier says, a woman in New York, with two children on WIC, who learned about the proposed rule through Spanish-language news, returned food checks out of fear that receiving WIC benefits would affect her citizenship application. Particularly alarming to WIC staff, says Diaz, is a September 9, 2018 report, based only on leaked information, that was broadcast on a New York Univision station in which an attorney advises undocumented immigrants to get off programs like WIC. (Separately, Eng references a lawyer interviewed on a local Spanish-language station in California who also urged WIC participants to unenroll to avoid losing their green cards.) Zamora acknowledges that the lawyer did initially urge people to unenroll from WIC but later clarified the advice, and he notes that the story included a statement from the head of WIC at the end of the segment. We are extremely careful with everything we report on, especially on those issues, because it can lead to panic, Zamora says. In this case, he adds, he understands concerns that people are panicked because of our content, but thats not necessarily because its misinformation. The issue, Eng says, is difficult to track across Asian-American media, because information is disseminated in a range of languages across various media outlets. What we do see, he says, is that the issue is being heavily discussed. Recently, WIC clinic staff received a document from an employee at the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County, containing six links collected over the course of three days in August 2018 from various Korean news reports, claiming that green-card applicants would be rejected if their dependent children were enrolled in Medi-Cal, an ACA insurance plan, or SNAP. An August email by an unnamed Korean WIC nutrition assistant to the programs California office cited similar reports by the local station AM 1650 Radio Seoul. When contacted, the radio station declined to comment. Its difficult for officials to reach out to specific program participants who might be concerned, officials claim, and so far WIC has surveyed only its staff on the reasons for calls and messages from participants. Only one state, Indianawhich excludes non-citizens 18 years and older from WICasks for or considers immigration status when awarding these benefits, Greenaway explains. And WIC staff do not collect data from participants on their immigration status. We view this as a positive thing, Greenaways says. If families had to answer those questions, it would be a significant deterrent to participation. So as such misinformation spreads, the role of correcting it is also largely left to ethnic-media outlets. To mitigate the spread of misinformation around changes to immigration laws, including WIC, Univision makes brief explainer videos. In the absence of sourced original reporting, another possible solution to the problem, both Zamora and Eng agree, is for outlets either to simply reprint reporting from major English-language media outletsas many Asian-American outlets, such as the LA-based newspapers Korea Times and the Chinese-language World Journal, have been doing. As the federal government continues to weigh this regulationand in light of the Trump administrations continued focus on policies that are likely to disproportionately affect immigrant and foreign-language-speaking populationsforeign and ethnic media outlets will face a greater challenge and responsibility in keeping much of the American population responsibly informed. We have a very unique role, says Zamora. Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Khushbu Shah is a freelance journalist in Atlanta covering immigration, politics, and social justice. She previously covered officer-involved shootings, the migrant caravan, and worked on the team investigating Hurricane Maria's death toll in Puerto Rico as a field producer for CNN. Its becoming a cliche in public hearings: the empty chair with the name of a senior executive who should be there answering questions but has chosen not to attend. Congress did it when Google refused to send CEO Sundar Pichai to a hearing in August, and a multi-governmental hearing in Britain into Facebooks transgressions did it on Tuesday with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, making sure a chair with his name on it was prominently positioned at center stage for the TV and newspaper cameras. (Facebook VP of Public Policy Richard Allan was questioned in his place.) There was also a predictable amount of grandstanding to go along with the dramatic accoutrements, with MPs and senior ministers from Britain, Canada, Argentina, and several other countries, complaining about Facebook. Our democratic institutions have been upended by frat-boy billionaires from California, Canadian MP Charlie Angus said. The theatrics actually began even before the UK hearing, when Damian Collins, the head of the committee looking into the spread of misinformation and the Cambridge Analytica scandal, used a little-known legal gambit to compel an American businessman, Ted Kramer, to turn over documents he had on his laptop. Kramer was escorted to the House of Commons by the Serjeant-at-Arms (the guy who usually holds the ceremonial mace) and forced to hand over the files, including emails and other documents related to a lawsuit between his company and Facebook (Kramer has since alleged that UK authorities may have been tipped off to his whereabouts by Guardian reporter Carole Cadwalladr, who has so far declined to comment). Collins said the committee may even publish parts of the documents at some point in its investigation, possibly as soon as next week, despite the fact that they have been sealed by a California court. ICYMI: A reporter asked for 20 years of lottery winner data. After analyzing the records, he noticed something unusual. So after all that drama, do the documents contain any smoking gun proving Facebooks guilt, either in the Cambridge Analytica scandal or in the proliferation of fake news? So far the biggest stick that has emerged from the files is the fact that an unnamed Facebook engineer reportedly told his superiors at the social network in 2014 that unknown entities using Russian IP addresses were accessing as many as three billion data points a day. Allan, however, told the committee that any information that you have seen in that cache of emails is at best partial, and at worst potentially misleading. Facebook later provided copies of the emails showing that the engineer in question misunderstood what he was looking at; the data was being accessed by users of Pinterest, and it was more like six million data points, not billions). Whether the Kramer documents reveal anything, the issue of when and how much Facebook knew about Russian agents using the platform to spread disinformation is a fairly crucial question for regulators. An internal report put together by the social networks security team as recently as last year stopped short of attributing any of the suspicious behavior on the platform to the Russians, except to reference, obliquely, US intelligence agency reports. Alex Stamos, the former head of security for Facebook, has said Facebook executives didnt shut down any investigations or scrub any reports. But it is increasingly obvious that the company downplayed that influence, and only admitted later to knowing about it because Zuckerberg wound up on the hot seat in front of Congress. The British parliamentary committee is also interested in Kramers claim that the social network didnt just allow apps like his to access to the friend graph data of users, it actively promoted that access. This is less of a smoking gun than it might seem, since the API access Kramer and Cambridge Analytica had was commonplace at the time. Facebook believed that making it easier for users to find each other on various apps and services was a positive thing (part of Zuckerbergs stated mission to make the world more connected) and that the best way to do that was to allow those services to see who else in a users friend group also used an app or service. Who could possibly have known that this friend data would be used to create psychographic profiles in an attempt to convince people to vote for a former reality-TV star with a terrible track record? Sign up for CJR 's daily email ICYMI: Newspaper investigates after veteran reporter accused of making up sources Heres more on Facebook, the UK, misinformation, and Cambridge Analytica: Sending the cat : If you are looking to relive the UK hearing, reporters for The Guardian were live-blogging it as it occurred, including a Belgian representative explaining that when someone doesnt show for an appointment, the Flemish say he sent his cat. : If you are looking to relive the UK hearing, reporters for were live-blogging it as it occurred, including a Belgian representative explaining that when someone doesnt show for an appointment, the Flemish say he sent his cat. Sandberg under fire : Bloombergs Sarah Frier says Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg is coming under fire inside Facebook for her role in some of the controversies that are hounding the social network, including a lack of action against misinformation. : Bloombergs Sarah Frier says Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg is coming under fire inside Facebook for her role in some of the controversies that are hounding the social network, including a lack of action against misinformation. Facebook purge : Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibbi talks to a man who started a left-wing news site that got millions of visitors from Facebook, until it was suddenly shut down in a crackdown on spam and inauthentic behavior. But the sites creator says he published fact-checked news and was never told by Facebook why his site was removed. : writer Matt Taibbi talks to a man who started a left-wing news site that got millions of visitors from Facebook, until it was suddenly shut down in a crackdown on spam and inauthentic behavior. But the sites creator says he published fact-checked news and was never told by Facebook why his site was removed. The war room lives : One of the misinformation measures Facebook promoted recently was a war room in which staff would target fake news. After a Bloomberg piece said the war room was being disbanded, the company said it wasnt, and that it is just trying to expand its misinformation work in other ways, or something. : One of the misinformation measures Facebook promoted recently was a war room in which staff would target fake news. After a Bloomberg piece said the war room was being disbanded, the company said it wasnt, and that it is just trying to expand its misinformation work in other ways, or something. Mistakes were made: Facebooks former head of security, Alex Stamos, wrote a Washington Post editorial in which he admitted the social network did not do enough to recognize the threat from Russia, but he said others were also to blame. Other notable stories: Jamilah Lemieux writes for CJR about the power and fragility of working in black media in the United States, something she says she no longer does because so few black publications are healthy financially, and those that are have lost sight of their mission. Lis Power of Media Matters for America notes that while some cable networks are avoiding White House press briefings altogether, others such as CNN are broadcasting them with a facts first side panel aimed at correcting falsehoods up front. Conde Nast said Bob Sauerberg, CEO of the US arm of the magazine publisher, is exiting the company as it consolidates its American and international operations under a single global chief executive, who has yet to be named. The Nieman Lab writes about the problems facing Civil, the blockchain-powered journalism platform, after the failure of its cryptocurrency token offering. Some of those writing for newsrooms on Civil say they are facing financial pressure because the tokens they were promised in lieu of salary havent arrived. Former Facebook employee Mark Luckie has published a 2,500-word memo that he sent to his coworkers before he left the company, arguing that the social network has a black people problem. Luckie said that in some parts of the Facebook campus there are more Black Lives Matter signs than there are actual black people. The Emerson Collective, which invests on behalf of Apple founder Steve Jobs widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, has acquired the company that produces Pop-Up Magazine events and publishes California Sunday Magazine . The Emerson Collective also owns a controlling stake in Atlantic magazine. . The Emerson Collective also owns a controlling stake in magazine. Washington Post media blogger Erik Wemple says a Bloomberg reporter is trying to nail down earlier reporting done by the news agency for its story about a Chinese hack that allegedly compromised servers used by Apple and Amazon. The story was denied by both companies, and questioned by a number of experts. media blogger Erik Wemple says a Bloomberg reporter is trying to nail down earlier reporting done by the news agency for its story about a Chinese hack that allegedly compromised servers used by Apple and Amazon. The story was denied by both companies, and questioned by a number of experts. According to a report by The Daily Beast, staff at the Fox News show Fox & Friends routinely shared their interview questions with theEnvironmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt and in some cases even gave him script approval. Fox said this was not standard practice and that the matter was being addressed internally. Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Mathew Ingram is CJRs chief digital writer. Previously, he was a senior writer with Fortune magazine. He has written about the intersection between media and technology since the earliest days of the commercial internet. His writing has been published in the Washington Post and the Financial Times as well as by Reuters and Bloomberg. Does Palestine pay $350 million a year to terrorists and their families? Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested as much in a speech he gave in the US last March, but its a murky and complex claim to confirm or rebut. Glenn Kessler, the editor of the Fact Checker blog at The Washington Post, spent nearly 2,500 words dissecting the statement in a post published about a week later. He was able to write the post relatively quickly because by the time he published it, Kessler had actually been working on that fact-check for seven weeks already, beginning long before it came out of Netanyahus mouth. He got a jump on the background research thanks to an algorithm that had given him a heads-up when a similar statement was made by an Israeli official on CNN in January. That algorithm is called ClaimBuster. Its used by the Duke University Tech & Check Cooperative to monitor CNN transcripts for claims that are fact-checkabletypically statements involving numbersand send alerts about them to reporters. Every morning a list of checkworthy statements made on air is emailed to fact checkers at outlets such as The Washington Post and Politifact. Journalists then decide which to focus onlike the claim about the $350 million dollar payments that Kessler drilled into. Journalism still needs people to perform the difficult task of weeding through the hype, spin, and bias in ambiguous statements, but computers can help a lot with monitoring and spotting claims that might be deserving of journalists attention. Its a useful tip sheet that alerts us to things that we would have otherwise missed, Kessler tells CJR. Algorithmic claim spotting is one of a growing number of applications of computational story discovery. Whether monitoring political campaign donations, keeping an eye on the courts, surfacing newsworthy events based on social media posts, winnowing down hundreds of thousands of documents for an investigation, or identifying newsworthy patterns in large datasets, computational story discovery tools are helping to speed up and scale up journalists ability to surveil the world for interesting news stories. Algorithms offer a sort of data-driven sixth sense that can help orient journalistic attention. Another early foray into computational story discovery is the Newsworthy tool, developed at Journalism++ in Sweden. The system monitors open government data and identifies statistically interesting leads based on anomalies, outliers, and trends in numerical data streams such as real estate prices, weather patterns, and crime reports, among others. These leads are adapted for different municipalities by putting local aberrations in context with national trends, which helps reporters pursue local angles. In the pilot deployment of the system, creator Jens Finnas told me that it had distributed 30-100 news leads per dataset per month to journalists who were part of the beta-test network in Sweden. Its almost like having a robo-freelancer pitching a story that might be interesting to commissiona starting hook for further reporting. Newsworthy users can subscribe to leads from various datasets to receive an alert when an interesting statistical pattern is found. Its almost like having a robo-freelancer pitching a story that might be interesting to commissiona starting hook for further reporting. For instance, the figure below shows a lead produced by the system indicating that the number of asylum applicants from Pakistan to the EU had dropped between 2016 and 2018. It includes several summary sentences of text about the anomaly, plus a bar graph to provide visual evidence and context, and, perhaps most importantly, the data, which reporters can use to verify results for themselves. Of course, there are still a number of challenges that make such tools difficult to incorporate in practice. Sign up for CJR 's daily email READ: The cruel image of border protection A fundamental hurdle to building and using these tools effectively is articulating in algorithm form what kind of news youre looking for. That means defining what is newsworthya difficult thing to pin down for an algorithm because it depends on a range of individual, organizational, social, ideological, cultural, economic, and technical forces. A story may need to fit with a publications editorial focus, agenda, or other organizational constraints, as well as with audience expectations. Context, including whether a story has already been covered and what other stories are currently getting attention in the media, are important factors. Newsworthiness is not intrinsic to an event. It arises out of a judgment process that humansand now algorithmscontribute to. In some cases newsworthiness might be defined explicitly in terms of rule-based patterns in the data: IF outlier detected, THEN send alert. In other cases, investigative journalists might tag a set of documents as newsworthy or not newsworthy and use machine learning techniques that allow new documents to be tagged automatically. But whether rule-based or data-driven, the definition of newsworthiness is very much scenario and topic-dependent. There is no one-size-fits-all algorithm for detecting newsworthiness in data. So, to be useful in a variety of reporting scenarios, it helps if the story discovery algorithms permit a high degree of configurability in the user interface. Flexibility in defining which sources to monitor is key. The Tech & Check project, for instance, only monitors CNN transcripts, but if it could be configured to monitor NBC, Fox, and even statements on the floor of Congress, that would be huge, Kessler said. Within those transcripts, it would also be useful to filter by speakeran important modulator of newsworthiness in the domain of fact checking. If algorithms arent configurable, the outlets using those leads may end up with exclusivity issues, according to Staffan Malstam at Radio Sweden, a beta tester for the Newsworthy tool. When every newsroom is getting the exact same leads from the default algorithm, speed becomes the only obvious competitive differentiator. If we didnt do this stuff immediately, other channels might, or local newspapers might have just printed those statistics so that it was no use for us, Malstam explains. More configurability would allow newsrooms to compete based on how theyve set up the tool, including what sources to monitor, what definitions of newsworthiness to calculate, and what types of filters to apply. ICYMI: Facebook and The Innovators Dilemma Another problem is the sheer volume of leads computational story discovery tools can produce. The Tech & Check project sends 15 leads per day based on CNN transcripts, but these only translate into about one additional fact check per month at The Washington Post. Thats not a great conversion ratio. While the concentration of promising leads might be increased by improving the algorithm and allowing for greater configurability, an equally important factor is how much reporter attention is available to chase those leads. That varies with the news cycle. Alert fatigue is a real danger. Malstam suggests that getting one solid lead per month from Newsworthy might be finemany more than that can become overwhelming. In order to turn a statistical lead into an interesting news package with local context and sourcing, We have to put like one or two people to work with it [the lead] for one week, he explains. Angie Holan, an editor at Politifact, says that it typically takes a reporter at her outlet a day or two to check a claim and prepare it for publication. Every algorithmic lead creates a variable amount of human work that depends on the required reporting depth. All of this underscores the need for newsrooms to be able to set the volume and type of leads they receive. Theres also the question of how much journalists should trust leads generated by algorithms. In the Newsworthy lead shown above, theres a link to the original data at the bottom of the lead. Thats by design, so that theres transparency into the data the algorithm used to generate the lead. Leads from Tech & Check also include a link to the transcript of each check-worthy claim identified. This allows journalists to catch algorithms making mistakes, which can be a problem in Tech & Checks quote attribution. Kessler recounted one salient mistake when the machine attributed several Sarah Sanders quotes to Bernie Sanders. But with one click to look at the transcript, he was able to spot the error. To move forward with a fact check, the original video of the claim on CNN also needs to be pulled to make sure the transcript is accurate. We know these are automated tipsheets so we have to double-check them, Holan explains. Many of the reporters I talked to indicated that they treated the automated news leads as any other source: worthy of skepticism. Its still early days in the history of computational story discovery. Experimental prototypes are already yielding results that lead to news stories, but these tools can be improved. They are, after all, just that: tools for human reporters. Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Nicholas Diakopoulos is an assistant professor at the Northwestern University School of Communication, the author of the book Automating the News: How Algorithms Are Rewriting the Media, and a regular contributor to CJR. Eight former employees at the Saks Fifth Avenue flagship store filed a race and age discrimination lawsuit Tuesday against the high-end store and its corporate parent, alleging they were subjected to a hostile work environment and unfairly fired. The suit, filed in New York, said the men were each forced to endure a pervasive pattern of discrimination and retaliation their respective managers deliberately targeted them because of their race and/or age. Attorney Derek Sells said managers for the four black, two white and two Hispanic men engaged in a range of actions including making it difficult to get customers from store foot traffic, using abusive language, not allowing promotions to happen, and letting younger, white colleagues get away with harassing behavior, all with the intention of moving toward a younger, whiter workforce. Some of the plaintiffs said that even when they made sales targets, managers would find other metrics to evaluate them poorly. Saks parent organization, Hudsons Bay Co., declined to comment on the litigation but said we take these allegations seriously as we are committed to diversity and inclusion across our organization. Some of the plaintiffs had worked at the store for several years, Sells said, and the atmosphere changed to become more hostile after Hudson Bays acquired Saks in 2013. An example, he said, was the computer system used to register customers information. The men in the suit claim the system was faulty and would generate error messages when they tried to input information, and they made repeated complaints to their managers without anything getting fixed. Sells said the men would then be evaluated poorly for not registering enough customers, while younger, white employees were either helped with workarounds for the problem or not evaluated the same way. Thomas Bisky, 68, one of the two white plaintiffs, and who had been working for Saks since 2011, said he had been told in fall 2017 that he had been having his best sales quarter yet but was still given a warning for not registering enough customers. He said he received no support to fix the error message problem despite making repeated complaints, and was terminated in January. It was quite clear to me that they wanted to get me out of there because I was of a certain age, he said. The suit seeks monetary damages. In 2015, Saks settled with a former saleswoman in Texas, who said she had been discriminated against because she was transgender. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Standard Newswire is a cost-effective and efficient newswire service for public policy groups, government agencies, PR firms, think-tanks, watchdog groups, advocacy groups, coalitions, foundations, colleges, universities, activists, politicians, and candidates to distribute their press releases to journalists who truly want to hear from them.Do not settle for an email blasting service or a newswire overloaded with financial statements. Standard Newswire gets your news into the hands of working journalists, broadcast hosts, and news producers.Find out how you can start using Standard Newswire to CONNECT WITH THE WORLD The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia said Tuesday it is putting aside $25 million to start paying claims to people who say its clergy sexually abused them as children. The archdiocese said it expects to need more money than it has on hand, so it will have to borrow and liquidate assets. A spokesman calls initial funding of $25 million to $30 million, from existing liquid assets, a floor and not a ceiling. The archdiocese announced last week it was beginning a claims process and had mailed out a few hundred informational packets to people who had previously reported credible abuse claims. Most of the states dioceses are setting up compensation funds. A proposal to retroactively allow child sexual abuse lawsuits that are otherwise too old to pursue passed the state House by a wide margin but was blocked by state Senate Republicans. A grand jury report issued in August identified about 300 priests and other clergy in six of the states eight dioceses that it said had sexually abused more than 1,000 children dating to the 1940s. Similar widespread abuse was documented in the Philadelphia Archdiocese over a decade ago. Most of the attacks took place too long ago to result in criminal charges or lawsuits. The grand jury recommended doing away with the criminal time limits for child sexual abuse going forward, and to allow a window for the otherwise time-barred lawsuits to proceed. Critics of compensation funds say some victims want to confront their abusers, lawsuits can force facts into the open, and settlements can end up being less than what would have resulted from litigation. The Philadelphia Archdiocese, which includes the city and Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties, is requiring those who want to apply to the compensation fund to register by the end of July and file by the end of September. Six of the states seven other dioceses are expected to set up compensation funds and start processing claims early next year. Altoona-Johnstown said it set up a victim fund in 1999. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Samsung Electronics apologized Friday for illnesses and deaths of some of its workers, saying it failed to create a safe working environment at its computer chip and display factories. The announcement by the South Korean technology giant came weeks after the company and a group representing ailing Samsung workers agreed to accept compensation terms suggested by a mediator and end a highly-publicized standoff that went on for more than a decade. The companys apology was part of the settlement. Kinam Kim, president of Samsungs device solutions division, said the company failed to sufficiently manage health threats at its semiconductor and liquid crystal display manufacturing lines. As detailed in Associated Press reporting over the past decade, dozens of employees who worked there have experienced grave illnesses such as leukemia and brain tumors. We offer our sincere apology to our workers who have suffered with illnesses and their families, Kim said during a news conference in Seoul, which was also attended by activists and relatives of the workers. But while cutting a deal and loosely admitting to lapses in safety standards, Samsung has yet to fully acknowledge its workplace environment as the direct cause of the illnesses. The standoff began in 2007 when taxi driver Hwang Sang-gi refused to accept a settlement after his 23-year-old daughter died of leukemia after working at a Samsung factory. Hwangs efforts to clarify the cause of Yu-mis death and hold Samsung responsible for problems related to working conditions galvanized a broader movement to hold businesses and the government accountable for safety lapses in the chip and display industries, which use huge amounts of chemicals. No apology would be enough when considering the deception and humiliation we experienced (from Samsung) over the past 11 years, the pain of suffering from occupational diseases, the pain of losing loved ones, Hwang said at the news conference. But I take todays apology as a promise from Samsung Electronics, to improve the safety of its workplaces, he said. According to the settlement, Samsung will compensate for various illnesses of employees who have worked at its chip and LCD factories since 1984, including as much as 150 million won ($132,000) for leukemia. The compensation also covers miscarriages and congenital illnesses of the workers children such as child cancer. Since 2008, dozens of workers have sought occupational safety compensation from the government. Few won compensation, mostly after years of court battles. Half the remaining claims were rejected and half remain under review. Families of the victims often have depleted their savings and sold their homes to pay hospital bills. Some workers end up incapacitated and unable to work. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. LexisNexis Fire and Disaster Response Aids Insurers in Rating, Underwriting Fire Risk LexisNexis Risk Solutions announced a new data score that will enable insurers to more accurately rate and underwrite local fire responses using predictive analytics. The LexisNexis Fire and Disaster Response Score can help property insurers improve profitability, streamline processes, and reduce expenses by leveraging more robust geographic and fire-specific data sources. The LexisNexis data-driven approach to fire response scoring achieves consistent results by incorporating cutting-edge geospatial technology, historic fire department responses and loss data, true drive times from responding fire stations, and other data sources to help precisely model the peril of fire. It also provides the level of risk at the location area, which is an advantage as the LexisNexis Fire and Disaster Response score provides a more granular geographic fire risk than is typically available and used in the industry. By converting this quantifiable data into actionable intelligence, this solution estimates an average future loss severity based on fire station response capabilities by segmenting risk into 10 different segments. Nationally, the homes at highest risk for a fire are more than 2 times riskier than those considered low risk, based on fire response. Oyster Insurance Expands Workers Compensation Coverage into California Oyster Insurance, a provider of small business insurance, announced that they have begun protecting small businesses in California. Now licensed in 26 states, Oyster plans to launch their workers compensation coverage in an additional six states throughout 2019. The insurer has been providing workers compensation to over 70 classes of business in New York and New Jersey since January of this year. Coverage initially began with professional classes such as software consulting firms, lawyers and medical and dental offices. The company has expanded into covering variety stores, groceries/delis, bakeries, eating places, drug stores, jewelry stores and florists. Oyster uniquely provides partners the ability to offer workers compensation coverage that is bindable online to small business owners. As businesses juggle a number of demands on a daily basis, Oyster is enabling entrepreneurs and small business owners the ability to bind coverage online 247. Providing real-time quoting and binding capabilities to partners has been a significant factor in Oysters growth. AGCS Extends Partnership with Praedicat to Mitigate Product Safety Risks Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS), the Allianz corporate insurance carrier, together with Praedicat, an InsurTech analytics company based in Los Angeles, are expanding their partnership to provide a unique analytic resource to policyholders. Specifically, AGCS clients will benefit from access to ChemMeta, Praedicats software product delivering science and regulatory risk analytics for industrial companies. ChemMeta helps both chemical manufacturers and those who incorporate chemicals downstream to minimize their product safety risks. Based on the latest peer-reviewed scientific literature and risk analysis, ChemMeta provides companies customized intelligence on thousands of chemicals and materials to help make better decisions across critical functions, including product stewardship, R&D, enterprise risk management, EHS and regulatory affairs. Understanding emerging risks inherent in any manufacturing process is particularly relevant in the chemical, pharmaceutical and food & beverage industries. In the end, it is relevant to any corporation which produces or uses chemicals within their own value chain. Large companies might employ teams of up to 100 scientists to monitor scientific publications and track relevant findings. However, the scope of their activity is often limited due to manual analysis and, as a result, only a certain number of production elements can be thoroughly investigated. For small and medium companies, resources are even scarcer. At the same time, there is exponential growth of data and information as a result of digitalization. To comprehensively evaluate chemical products or ingredients at a company, a scalable approach is required. AGCS liability insurance policyholders may receive access to ChemMeta for a defined period. After this period, they can opt for their own subscription to the analytics. 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. 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. Relatives of a man whose body was used by the Bellingham Fire Department for intubation practice have filed claims against the Washington city totaling more than $15 million, a newspaper reported. Eleven fire department employees including two office workers acknowledged practicing inserting and removing breathing tubes on the body of Bradley Ginn Sr. while waiting for it to be transported to a funeral home on July 31, The Bellingham Herald reported . A review by a Seattle attorney determined it had been an accepted practice for department paramedics to meet certification requirements by practicing on patients who had just died, the newspaper said. The fire department said in October that such tube checks were not to be performed without the consent of the patients next-of-kin. Bellingham Mayor Kelli Linville declined to comment on the litigation. Twelve employees were disciplined. One paramedic was suspended for a week without pay. A captain with nearly three decades of experience with the department retired rather than face demotion, and a division chief resigned, the department said. The state Department of Health is investigating the nine members of the department who participated and were credentialed health care providers. Records from the Bellingham City Attorneys Office show that Ginns wife, Jai Ginn, filed a $15 million claim for damages on Oct. 4, saying she had suffered physical and mental pain from the intentional and negligent care of a body and abuse by city of Bellingham employees. She also made claims for the unauthorized invasion and desecration of a dead body and possible wrongful death. One of the claims was filed by Bradley Ginn Jr. and seeks $200,000, the records show. Ginn Jr.s lawyer said the intubations took place as family members were trying to locate Ginn Sr.s body. Ginn Sr. had a do-not-resuscitate directive, which prohibited the use of invasive procedures such as intubation, the records state. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. AKRON, Ohio - The city and Downtown Akron Partnership are helping holiday shoppers and visitors get to downtown businesses and Lock 3 Winterfest activities despite construction related to the Main Street Corridor Project. They are also creating sharable maps and videos to help businesses communicate the best routes to their locations, said Kimberly Beckett, Downtown Akron Partnership's director of business relations. "We've been working to come up with ideas to mitigate some of the inconvenience on Main Street and we're trying to make this as transparent as possible," said city spokeswoman Heather Bolestridge. "There's more to come." As construction moves forward on the $31 million Main Street project, launched last summer, sidewalk and street patterns will change, Bolestridge said, but sidewalks on one side of the street will always be open. To help get around downtown, look for: Signs and dots Walking tours Parking During the project, look for "Walk This Way!" signs offering maps of downtown blocks, and showing pedestrian walkways and construction zones. The Main Street Corridor Project will be built in two phases, from Cedar Street to Perkins Street/MLK Boulevard, and is expected to be complete by spring 2020. The work includes newly paved streets and sidewalks; new signs and traffic signals; and new bus and bike lanes. A roundabout with a water feature will be installed at Main and Mill streets and the State Street Bridge will be rebuilt. Greenery and benches will be added throughout. "There are a lot of things going on downtown that are really cool," Bolestridge said. "It's still an awesome place to be and when all is said and done, you can say you supported it." The city was awarded two Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grants -- $5 million in 2016 and $8 million earlier this year. Akron also was awarded $7.5 million in federal bridge funds in 2017 for the State Street bridge. Main Street is not the only area being improved, Bolestridge said. Utilities are being updated under Main Street and improvements are underway on Cedar and Exchange streets. The Bowery Project has begun developing apartments and retail shops on the block of Main Street that houses the Akron Civic Theatre, which is expanding and adding a new performance venue in downtown. "It's a vision. You have to be able to see the big picture," Bolestridge said. Want more Akron news? Sign up for cleveland.com's Rubber City Daily, an email newsletter delivered at 5:30 a.m. Monday through Friday. BROADVIEW HEIGHTS, Ohio -- The Cuyahoga County Planning Commission will help Broadview Heights update its master plan, which will show how the city may look in future years. However, the master-plan agreement with the county doesn't say how much the plan will cost, or if the city will contribute financially. The agreement also doesn't state whether the planning process will include a survey of Broadview Heights residents by mail or phone. James Sonnhalter, the county Planning Commission's manager of planning services, referred all questions about the master plan to Broadview Heights officials. Mayor Sam Alai and City Council President Robert Boldt didn't return emails Monday and Tuesday. The commission works on master plans every year with various communities throughout the county. In the past, the planning process has cost $60,000, with the county picking up all or some of the expenses The commission is now working on master plans in Strongsville, which is contributing $30,000 toward the process, and Brecksville, which is paying nothing. North Royalton completed a master plan with the commission in 2014. Broadview Heights last updated its master plan in 2001. Master plans typically examine existing conditions, create a community vision, develop policy and schedule plan implementation. The target completion date for the Broadview Heights master plan is Dec. 31, 2019. According to the agreement between Broadview Heights and the county, the master-planning process will consist of five phases: Plan initiation and study of current conditions. Community vision. Policy development (recommended goals and actions). Implementation plan. Draft master plan and final master plan. The master-plan agreement between the city and county Planning Commission includes a funding clause, but is vague regarding sources of funding. It reads, "Broadview Heights acknowledges that the professional services for the completion of the master plan ... were awarded through a competitive application process conducted by county planning. "Further, Broadview Heights acknowledges that ... the professional services provided by county planning are limited by the scope of work and the extent of grant funding." CLEVELAND, Ohio The MetroHealth System announced Wednesday that it received a $1 million grant for its campus transformation project from the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, the first lead corporate donor for the hospital systems five-year, $100 million fundraising effort. The grant is part of MetroHealths capital campaign, For All of Us, launched earlier this year to help defray the cost of the hospital systems $946-million transformation project. So far, the campaign has raised about $40 million. MetroHealth leaders expect to reach the $50 million mark by the end of next year. We are honored to have Bank of America as a key partner as we continue to achieve and increase our health services that will make MetroHealth and Northeast Ohio a more formidable force in the future, Brian M. ONeill, chair of the MetroHealth Foundation board of directors, said in a prepared statement. Bank of America representatives present a $1 million donation to The MetroHealth System during a MetroHealth board meeting Wednesday, Nov. 28. (Courtesy of MetroHealth) The transformation project involves expanding the health care systems services, as well as erecting a new 11-story, 270-bed hospital on the site of MetroHealths existing main campus building, which will be demolished. Construction on the tower started this year and is expected to be done by 2022. MetroHealth recently finished building a 1,500-space employee parking garage on the campus, off West 25th Street in Cleveland, and will move on to the next phase of that project demolishing an existing garage in December. Were incredibly proud to provide an anchor grant in support of MetroHealths impressive community revitalization transformation project," Jeneen Marziani, Ohio market president at Bank of America, said in a prepared statement. MetroHealth last year issued $946 million in hospital revenue bonds to finance expansion-related projects. Were very excited about this partnership and working with you guys very closely, Marziani said during a MetroHealth board meeting Wednesday. CLEVELAND, Ohio Two top-level officials in Mayor Frank Jacksons administration will be suspended without pay for bypassing security in October at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. Fred Szabo, the assistant director for the city-owned airport, was suspended 10 days without pay, the administration announced in a news release. Szabo also will lose airport privileges for 90 days, including his ability to bypass security and to escort others through security. Darnell Brown, the mayors chief of operations, was suspended for five days without pay. The suspensions took effect Monday. The administration said it considers the matter closed. Both men were suspended with pay after the Oct. 25 breach. Szabo is paid $150,000 a year. Brown is paid just over $133,000. The pay they received while not working for a month cost taxpayer nearly $22,000. Szabos unpaid suspension will cost him nearly $5,800 in wages. Browns unpaid suspension will amount to nearly $2,600. The incident involved bypassing Transportation Security Administration checkpoints at the airport. Brown, who had passed through TSA security to catch a flight, realized he had left a laptop computer in his car. After the laptop was retrieved, Szabo helped him return to the flight area more quickly by bypassing security. As a result, Browns laptop came aboard the plane without being checked by security. Security and access to restricted areas of the airport are highly controlled. Travelers are granted access to the concourses only after clearing a TSA security check. Airport staff, as a function of their jobs, have access to secure areas. But even with that security clearance, they cannot, for example, simply escort people around TSA security to catch a flight. While the city considers the matter closed, TSA will conduct its own study once it reviews the citys findings. A TSA spokesman said this week that it was awaiting Clevelands report of the incident and review of security protocols. A spokeswoman for the city did not immediately know Wednesday the status of that report or if anything had been forwarded to TSA. Once TSA receives that report, the agency will look to see what further action, if any, is required, spokesman Mark Howell said. TSA, as a matter of policy, does not speculate on what fines or prosecution could be recommended for specific security incidents. But TSA documents show Szabo, Brown and the airport could face potential fines ranging from a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars. In the case of more serious violations, criminal prosecution also could be sought, according to the documents. MORE FROM CLEVELAND CITY HALL CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A man who spent the last 27 years in prison for a murder he maintains he didnt commit was released from prison Tuesday as he awaits a new trial. Charles Jackson, 54, was mobbed by cheering friends and family when he walked out of the Cuyahoga County Jail about 6 p.m. God bless all of you, Jackson said, according to a Facebook Live video broadcast by WJW Channel 8 news. Im overwhelmed. The scene came after Common Pleas Court Judge Robert McClelland on Tuesday morning granted Jacksons motion for a new trial after lawyers with the Cincinnati-based Ohio Innocence Project found police reports and witness statements that could have aided in his defense were not handed over at his trial in the April 1991 death of Joe Travis. Traviss mother, Omelia Tucker, got into a confrontation with an intoxicated man at her apartment building on Othello Avenue in Cleveland, according to court filings. The man, identified as Charlie Davis, vowed revenge, and Daviss brother and another man, who police said was Jackson, came back to the apartment and shot Travis dead in the hallway, records say. No physical evidence tied Jackson to the crime, according to the Innocence Projects motion for a new trial filed earlier this year. The states case at the time relied largely on the testimony of two eyewitnesses, Tucker and Ronald Lacey, who identified Jackson as the shooter. Lacey testified that Jackson, who he only knew as Sweetman, put a gun to the back of his head and fired a shot, but the bullet ricocheted off a metal piece of his hat and spared his life, records say. He fell to the ground to play dead and watched as Jackson shot Travis in the side of the head and he and Daviss brother ran from the apartment, records say. Tucker, who was in her apartment at the time, said she heard a car alarm going off outside and looked out her window in time to see Jackson getting into a car with a gun. Jurors convicted Jackson of aggravated murder in Traviss death and attempted murder for the shot fired at Lacey, and he was sentenced to life in prison with his first chance at parole after 27 years. The Innocence Project took up his case in 2016 and filed records requests with the City of Clevelands police and law departments for the case file. When the city handed it over a year later, it contained several supplemental police reports that were not turned over to Jacksons defense lawyers at trial that contained statements from Tucker that contradicted the testimony she gave in court, the motion says. Tucker first told police she couldnt see the shooters face so she couldnt identify him, the motion says. Lacey The reports also contained information about a third person, Thomas Salvano, who claimed he witnessed the shooting and told police that Jackson was not the shooter, according to their motion. Salvano said he was inside Tuckers apartment at the time of the shooting and heard the commotion in the hallway, and looked out the peephole just in time to witness the killing. He didnt come forward at the time, and it wasnt until he was arrested on drug charges months later that he spoke to police. The Innocence Project tracked down Salvano and he told them that two detectives visited him in jail after his arrest and showed him a picture of Jackson, and told him to identify Jackson in Traviss shooting. Salvano said he got his lawyer, Angelo Lonardo, and the detectives came back and showed him a full lineup of photographs that included the photo of Jackson they had shown him earlier, and he did not identify any of the shooters. The Innocence Project also found out that Tucker pleaded guilty to stealing a car in a deal with Cuyahoga County prosecutors six months before Jacksons trial, but testified that she had never been convicted of a crime and the prosecutor on the case, Winston Grays, did not correct her. Jacksons trial lawyers could have used all of the previously undisclosed evidence to attack the states theory that he was guilty, the Innocence Project said. Prosecutors did not object on Tuesday to McClelland ordering a new trial in the case, which has yet to be scheduled. To comment on this story, please visit Tuesdays crime and courts comments page. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- GM's announced plant shutdowns and job cuts stabbed Lordstown and Trumptown. Monday, GM announce it would cut 15% of its workforce, stop making several poor selling sedans and shutter plants in Michigan, Maryland, Ontario and Ohio. The iconic Chevy Impala, and newer Volt and Cruze are among the sedans GM will stop making. The Cruze had been the flagship of GM's revival after the government bailed it out. But now it's being cast aside as GM looks to meet consumer demand for SUV's and pickups, and looks to the future of all-electric and self-driving cars. Cruze sales fell 26.5% over the first 9 months of 2018. It's demise led to the idling of the Lordstown, Ohio plant that made it. 1,400 Lordstown jobs and 30 Lordstown suppliers will be directly impacted. But Rep. Tim Ryan said there isn't a neighborhood in Ohio's Mahoning Valley that won't be affected. "This is brutal. General Motors, the very company bailed out by American taxpayers, is screwing its workers," said Ryan. The Lordstown cuts are hitting Trumptown hard too. President Trump shared Ryan's road rage over GM's moves. Monday, Trump expressed his unhappiness with GM CEO Mary Barra. "I am not happy with what she did. You know, the United States saved General Motors, and for her to take that company out of Ohio is not good." Trump said he would be pressuring GM to put something that's selling back in the Ohio plant. During visits to Ohio during the campaign and last year, Trump vowed he would be bringing jobs back to the state, just as he had promised coal miners he would be bringing mining jobs back to West Virginia. "They're all coming back," Trump said of the jobs. "Don't move. Don't sell your house." The only jobs that are coming are for job placement counselors, house foreclosure and closed plant/business auctioneers. Tuesday Trump threatened to cut any GM subsidies in a tweet. "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..." Trump told the Wall Street Journal GM "better damn well open a new plant [in Ohio] very quickly." He said he told Barra, "you're playing around with the wrong person" Can we expect Trump to open a second front, and send tear gas-tossing troops to surround GM in Detroit? Look for GM to try and appease Trump by naming a new car that runs on hot air and cheetos the Model T for Trump, or the Trumpvette, Trumpala or Trumptwitter. Maybe they'll change the iconic Chevy bowtie logo to a Trump red tie. Lordstown Mayor Arno Hill is trying to remain optimistic. Emphasizing that GM hasn't closed the plant, but idled it, Hill is hopeful GM will bring in another vehicle. GM has said that up to half of the workers impacted will be given a chance to move to another GM plant elsewhere. But while workers may be able to move, Lordstown and the Mahoning Valley can't. CLEVELAND, Ohio Cheryl Stephens was sworn in Tuesday as a Cuyahoga County Council member. Swearing-in ceremonies are typically held Jan. 1. But Stephens took her seat Tuesday, when the Nov. 6 election results were certified by the Board of Elections, because she is replacing an appointed council member. Stephens defeated incumbent County Council member Michael Houser in the Democratic primary. She faced no opposition in the November election. Houser had held the seat since January, when he was selected by Cuyahoga County Democratic precinct committee members to replace Anthony Hairston, who was elected in November 2017 to Cleveland City Council. Stephens represents District 10, which includes Bratenahl, Cleveland Heights, East Cleveland and all or a portion of Wards 8 and 10 in Cleveland. Stephens was a member of Cleveland Heights City Council. She is the chief executive officer at the East Akron Neighborhood Development Corporation, and said she planned to continue working full-time while serving as a County Council member, as other members do. She served as director of acquisition, disposition and development for the Cuyahoga Land Bank from 2009 to 2017 and has said the county needs a strategy for re-developing commercial property and regaining housing values on Cleveland's East Side and in the eastern suburbs. Council members currently are paid $45,000 a year. Salaries for the part-time jobs will increase to $52,000 a year beginning in 2019. The salary increase for the council positions was approved by council in 2016. ELYRIA, Ohio Police say two people have confessed after they were arrested in connection with the break-in of a school on Thanksgiving Day. Randy Messer Jr., 46, of Elyria, and Michelle Slagle, 46, are being held in the Lorain County Jail, each facing a fifth-degree felony count of breaking and entering. According to police, the suspects broke a window to gain entry into Northwood Junior High School on Gulf Road. Police used security video to identify the two suspects. Messer surrendered for arrest Tuesday after being contacted by police. He told investigators he was trying to take money from vending machines in the school, police say. He also told police he was involved in break-ins earlier this month at Elyria Roll Arena and Discount Drug Mart. Additional charges are expected connection with those incidents. Slagle was arrested in the jail on Tuesday. Police say the two suspects were stealing money to support a drug habit. To comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments page. TOLEDO, Ohio A former sergeant with the Lucas County Sheriffs Office accused of raping an unconscious woman was found guilty by a judge Tuesday after pleading no contest to a lesser charge, reports say. Joseph A. Gorney, 51, entered the plea to a third-degree count of sexual battery as part of a deal with prosecutors, The Blade reports. He had been facing a first-degree felony charge of rape. Authorities accused Gorney of raping a 38-year-old woman in June, WTOL Channel 11 reports. Authorities tell The Blade that Gorney found the woman unconscious from drinking at a neighbors house at about 2 a.m. and raped her. Gorney, who had worked at the department for 24 years, resigned on June 22. Gorney will be sentenced on Jan. 3 and is being classified as a Tier 3 sex offender. To comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments page. CLEVELAND, Ohio Another Heartless Felon gang member is charged in connection with a botched robbery that resulted in the death . Richard Pinson, 24, is charged with murder in the Sept. 5 robbery turned shootout that left Deandre Wilson dead. Pinson is not in police custody and a warrant was issued Tuesday for his arrest. Two others David Wagner, 28, and Devaughnte Rice, 26, another member of the Heartless Felons are charged with aggravated murder in the case. Ohio law allows for murder charges to be filed if someone commits a felony that leads to someone's death. The 36-year-old man who shot Wilson has not been charged with a crime. The shootout happened in a parking lot on East 30th Street and Project Avenue in the citys Central neighborhood. Wilson, Pinson, Rice and Wagner walked up to the man, pointed guns at him and stole one of the mans gun. The group punched, kicked and pistol-whipped him while he was on the ground, according to police. The man pulled out a second gun while he was on the ground and fired several shots at the group. The trio returned fire. One of the bullets hit Wilson, 26, in the chest. He was taken to MetroHealth where he died. No one else was injured in the shootout. Pinson and Rice were both convicted in 2014 of being a members of the Heartless Felons street gang. They and three others were charged after gang members attacked a man at a Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority apartment complex on Cedar Avenue and East 28th Street. The group chased a man and woman into their apartment and threatened to kill them and shoot up their apartment. Four hours later the group fired eight gunshots into the apartment but injured no one. Pinson was sentenced to three years in prison in the case and Rice four. Pinson also has prior convictions for possessing a gun in a car and drug trafficking in 2017 after his release from prison. He has also been convicted of robbery, drug trafficking and drug possession. To comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments page. CLEVELAND, Ohio A 24-year-old man was shot in the neck inside a popular downtown Cleveland nightclub frequented by rappers and professional athletes. The shooting happened about 2:45 a.m. inside Medusa Lounge on St. Clair Avenue and East 14th Street. The club is known to draw pro athletes and a photo on the clubs Instagram shows a photo of the rapper Future inside the club about a week ago. Several off-duty Cleveland police officers were working at the club late Saturday and early Sunday for a birthday party for a club promoter, according to police reports and the clubs social media accounts. A fight broke out near the front door of the club as the club closed, according to police reports. Someone fired a single gunshot, hitting the man in the right side of his neck, police reports say. The crowd inside flooded out after the gunshot, police reports say. The 24-year-old man and several off-duty officers did not see who fired the gunshot, according to police reports. The 24-year-old man ran outside, where police found him with a gunshot wound. He was taken to MetroHealth for treatment. No arrests have been made in the case. Another man was shot outside the club in July 2017 after an argument broke out between a club promoter and several others. A message left at the club was not immediately returned. To comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments page. CLEVELAND, Ohio Steve Anthony, the the Cleveland FBI office for nearly eight years, will step down from the post, retiring from the bureau after more than 30 years. Anthony, 56, served as special agent in charge of the local office longer than any other than any other previous official. His retirement has been in the works for some time, as the FBI requires agents to retire at age 57, with few exceptions. He said in an interview Wednesday that his last day in the office is Friday. Cleveland FBI spokeswoman Vicki Anderson said his replacement has not yet been picked. Anthony, who lives in Lakewood, said he will remain in the Northeast Ohio after retiring from the FBI, as he has accepted a job in Cleveland. He declined to say what his next job was, but said it would be in the field of investigations. When asked for highlights of his time in Cleveland, he said he couldnt pin down just one. Its just being able to be part of a committed team of individuals that are addressing the wide range of things that can impact our community," he said. Anthony added its imperative for the FBI to live up to high standards because trust is very hard to gain ... and it can be lost in a second." He said agents understand that. Anthony began working for the FBI as an agent in Memphis in February 1988. Then-FBI Director Robert Mueller appointed Anthony to replace Frank Figliuzzi, and he arrived in Cleveland in January 2011. A native of Conneaut, Anthony was working in Washington, D.C. at the time and came to Cleveland when federal officials were several years into an investigation into corruption in Cuyahoga County. Agents investigated many notable crimes on a variety of topics during that time period. They include the Amish beard-cutting attacks, a group of people who plotted to blow up a bridge over the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and a wealthy Canton businessman accused of illegally funneling campaign contributions to U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci and Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, who was running for U.S. Senate at the time. Businessman Ben Suarez was convicted of witness tampering in 2014. Agents under Anthony also worked to piece together what happened to three women, Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus, after they escaped from the house of Ariel Castro in May 2013 after a decade of captivity. He said he would never forget the day the trio escaped and that it was gratifying to see Castro, who was sentenced to life in prison and subsequently committed suicide there, be held accountable. These kind of cases just dont generally end that way, and it was so fantastic to see those three girls rescue themselves and then go on in their lives, Anthony said. U.S. Attorney Justin Herdman said in a statement that Anthony will be missed. Steve came back home to Northeast Ohio and spent every waking moment since his return working to make it safer," Herdman said. "He has strengthened relationships with local police and always been someone we could work with. U.S. Marshal Pete Elliott said Wednesday that Steve has been a valuable partner for us at the U.S. Marshals Service and the best FBI special agent in charge Ive ever worked with. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Farmers Insurance recently aired a television advertisement thanking hero firefighters who battled this months California wildfires. Its a feel-good ad in the wake of a disaster that claimed at least 85 lives and destroyed 14,000 residences. The Farmers advertisement echoes a longstanding American theme of grit and relentless survival: Theyve (firefighters) been working to bring help and hope to communities devastated by the recent fires Were all Californians and were in this together, intones J.K. Simmons, the famous Michigan-born actor who is the TV voice of Farmers advertisement campaigns. Simmons statement about being in this together stands out. America seems more fractured than ever. We stand greatly in need of more unifying messages from our politicians, corporations, civic and religious leaders, and our citizens. Is this expression of hope and goodwill coming out of the California wildfires transferable in the face of other life-altering calamities? When General Motors announced Monday morning that it plans to shutter its manufacturing plant in Lordstown, costing 1,500 people their jobs, reaction was swift. U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, whose district includes Lordstown, described the news as a new black Monday in the Mahoning Valley. Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown called the decision corporate greed at its worst. Dave Green, the president of UAW local 1112, put it even more bluntly. The union guy called the news a shot in the gut, to an area that has never recovered from the collapse of its steel industry in the late 1970s. Two years ago, GMs Lordstown plant worked around the clock, with three-shifts. Now, the sprawling complex, which currently produces the Chevy Cruze, will soon produce nothing. It will be mothballed in the early spring maybe permanently. But, maybe not. President Trump sounded like a tough-talking union guy shortly after news of GMs decision became public. His statement to the Wall Street Journal undoubtedly caught the attention of many affected workers in Trumbull County, which voted overwhelmingly for Trump in the 2016 presidential election. They better damn well open a new plant there very quickly. I love Ohio. I told them, Youre playing around with the wrong person, Trump said he warned General Motors. Perhaps Trumps bluster will be taken with all due seriousness. Nonetheless, Wall Street took immediate notice of GMs decision and celebrated it by boosting stock prices by nearly 5 percent after news broke of the pending plant closures and layoffs. Americans increasing appetite for trucks and SUVs and distaste for sedans was seen by investors as a directive to GM and other auto manufactures to adapt or lose market share. We recognize the need to stay in front of changing market conditions and customer preferences to position our company for long-term success, said Mary Barra, GMs chairman and CEO. Next year, GM plans to close five plants, including Lordstown, and lay off nearly 15,000 workers. Its anybodys guess what comes next for the long-suffering Mahoning Valley or Detroit for that matter. The holiday season will prove to be painful for legions of people in Northeast Ohio facing a highly uncertain and gloomy future. Can the words of Farmers and J. K. Simmons ring true here? Are we are all in this together? Simmons was born in the leafy, affluent Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe, Michigan. Grosse Pointe is less than 10 miles from GMs Hamtramck plant in Detroit, which also is scheduled to close next year. Simmons also spent some of his youth in Ohio, living with his family just outside of Columbus. When the pitchman Simmons says we are all Californians, he undoubtedly knows a thing or two about Ohioans as well. We are fighters and survivors. Farms run by Japanese Americans once numbered around 200 on the Peninsula. Now, Rancho Palos Verdes will evict the last such farm next summer. COVINGTON, Kentucky Police say a man will not face charges after he shot and killed one of three armed men who broke into his home early Tuesday morning, according to reports. Police identified the man killed as Joshua Kersey, 43, of Cincinnati, Ohio, WCPO Channel 9 reports. Kersey died of his wounds after being taken to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. Kersey was one of three men who broke into in Covington at about 1:45 a.m. Tuesday, police tell WLWT Channel 5. The men threatened two occupants in the home, demanding to see another person who had not lived in the home for years. Floyd Gillie Sr., 54, the owner of the home, shot Kersey and the other two men ran from the house, the Cincinnati Enquirer reports. Kersey reportedly stumbled outside of the house and collapsed. The other two suspects have not been captured. Commonweath Attorney Rob Sanders tells the Enquirer that the shooting is justified under the states Castle Law Doctrine. This wasnt a close call ... it was clearly justified, Sanders tells WCPO. Covington is located across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. To comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments page. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- University of Akron trustees are considering vastly expanding the committee to decide the universitys next president, but will hold the search in private. Unlike in the past, the intent is to keep everything confidential -- including the names of the finalists. A new proposal would involve more university community members, including elected leaders from the American Association of University Professors, faculty senate and undergraduate student government. This will be the third time the university has searched for a new president in the past five years, and the new hire must deal with a large projected financial deficit and a potential reorganization. The idea of expanding the committee aims to strike an appropriate balance between community feedback and confidentiality, board president Joseph Gingo said in a statement. The university will continue to discuss the search in executive session. Trustees are legally allowed to go into executive session, a private meeting of the group, if the reason falls into one of the categories outlined in state law. These exemptions include to consider the appointment, employment, dismissal, discipline, promotion, demotion, or compensation of a public employee or official. We believe that having more members of the University community participate in the discussions of the Board throughout the entire search process, rather than just making observations about finalist candidates at the end, strengthens shared governance and will yield a better decision by the Board, Gingo said in the statement. Read the current presidential search process here. Critics say that as a public university, officials should release whos in the running. Officials say thats difficult because contenders dont want their names released. While we understand concerns that some may have about this approach, the reality of searches at this level is that top candidates will be extremely unlikely to have their names circulated publicly while they hold current prominent positions," Gingo said. Gingo was not available for comment Wednesday. Members of the search committee, who are not on the board of trustees, would be required to sign pledges of confidentiality. Board members already are bound by law to keep confidential matters discussed in executive session. The university conducted a national search for a president in 2014, where names were released. Scott Scarborough, who at the time worked for the University of Toledo, was eventually selected. The last presidential search was in 2016. Matt Wilson was selected as interim president from internal candidates. The university did not undergo a national search, instead opting to keep Wilson. The current interim president is John Green. The university will use a search firm. The full board of trustees will consider the proposed changes on Dec. 5, after any action by committee. COLUMBUS, Ohio The Ohio Senate adopted a bill that would make strangulation and attempted suffocation of partners or family members felonies under the states domestic violence laws. The crimes are currently misdemeanors, and judges have discretion over whether -- and for how long -- an offender spends time behind bars, said Stephanie Kunze, a Columbus area Republican who is sponsoring Senate Bill 207. If youre strangled by your domestic partner, youre 750 percent more likely to be murdered by them, so its a really strong indicator that your life is in danger, Kunze said. Obviously any domestic violence situation is egregious and we care about all of them, but once your partner has strangled a victim, it just increases the likelihood that theyre probably going to be murdered by them." The research correlating strangulation and murder has sprung states into action. Forty-two now have strangulation as a felony and Kunze said its time for Ohio to be the 43rd state. SB 207 passed the Senate 30 to 0. It now heads to the Ohio House, where it will compete for attention against dozens of other bills in the last weeks of the legislative session, known as lame duck. The 132nd General Assembly officially ends Dec. 31, although the two chambers will likely formerly adjourn before then. PARMA, Ohio -- Drug abuse, Snow Road: On Nov. 16, police observed a car on Snow Road belonging to a Cleveland woman with a warrant. She was arrested and held for transport. It turned out that she was in possession of suspected felony drugs. She was also cited for drug abuse. Theft from auto, North Avenue: On Nov. 20, police were dispatched to a North Avenue residence after the homeowner discovered that someone had removed property from his vehicle, which was parked in the driveway. There are no suspects. Police are investigating. Stolen car, Hauserman Road: On Nov. 20, police were dispatched to a Hauserman Road apartment complex after a resident discovered that someone had stolen her car from the parking lot. There are no suspects. Police are investigating. Fraud, Craigleigh Drive: On Nov. 20, police were dispatched to a Craigleigh Drive home after a man was suspected of making fraudulent charges on a debit card belonging to an 86-year-old Parma woman. Police are investigating. Drug abuse, West Ridgewood Drive: On Nov. 16, police observed a suspicious man inside of a car parked in the Walmart parking lot. The officer discovered that the Brook Park man was in possession of suspected felony drugs. He was arrested for drug abuse. Fraud, Ames Road: On Nov. 16, police were dispatched to the Firestone garage on Ames Road after a North Royalton woman discovered that her credit card had been taken from the business and fraudulently used by someone else. There are no suspects. Police are investigating. Theft, Chevrolet Boulevard: On Nov. 16, police were dispatched to a Chevrolet Boulevard apartment complex after a resident discovered that someone had removed property from a unit. There are no suspects. Police are investigating. Assault, Chevrolet Boulevard: On Nov. 17, police were dispatched to a Chevrolet Boulevard apartment complex regarding an assault. An arriving officer located a Euclid man, who had harmed a Parma woman. The man was arrested for assault. If you would like to discuss the police blotter, please visit our crime and courts comments page. COLUMBUS, OhioOhio House members introduced a proposed constitutional amendment on Wednesday that would make it harder to alter the state constitution via a statewide referendum. House Joint Resolution 19 comes after Ohio legislative leaders lamented what they said was a cottage industry set up to put frivolous amendments on the statewide ballot. Under the resolution, 60 percent of Ohio voters would have to approve a proposed constitutional amendment for it to pass. Currently, any proposed constitutional amendment -- including HJR 19 itself -- needs a simple majority of yes votes to take effect. It would also move up the deadline to submit the hundreds of thousands of petition signatures needed to put a proposed amendment on the ballot. That deadline is now in early July; the resolution would move it to April 1. In addition, each petition signature would only be valid for 180 days. Right now, theres no expiration date for signatures. HJR 19 would also change the way Ohioans can force the state legislature to pass a law. Right now, a group can force lawmakers to take action on a proposal if it gathers a number of petition signatures equal to 3 percent of the number of voters in the last gubernatorial election (that number is 129,553, based on this years gubernatorial vote). If lawmakers dont pass the measure within four months, proponents can gather signatures from another 3 percent of voters to put the proposal on the statewide ballot. In addition, any law passed in this way couldnt be altered or repealed by lawmakers for one year after its passage, under the resolution. Assistant Majority Floor Leader Sarah LaTourette, a Geauga County Republican co-sponsoring the bill, told reporters that lawmakers are trying to strike a careful balance with the resolution. We are trying to make sure that our constitution is not for sale and making sure that outside groups cannot buy their way into our constitution, LaTourette said. But at the same time, were trying to make sure that citizens voices continue to be heard. The proposed amendment was sharply criticized by state Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney, a Cleveland Democrat. This dangerous new restriction on democracy would silence citizens voices and further tilt the balance of power to corporate, out of state special interests who have the power and money to change our constitution under this misguided plan, Sweeney said in a statement. Even though shes in House leadership, LaTourette said shes not sure whether HJR 19 will pass the Ohio General Assembly before session ends next month. If that happens, LaTourette indicated the resolution would likely be reintroduced next year. However, both House Speaker Ryan Smith and Senate President Larry Obhof said earlier this month that they would like to raise the bar for voter-approved constitutional amendments. Ohioans have voted on a number of ballot issues in recent years on topics ranging from legalizing recreational marijuana to (most recently) reducing penalties for non-violent drug offenses. Most of these measures have been opposed by legislative Republican leaders. I think the Ohio Constitution has been used and abused for decades, Obhof said during a Nov. 8 speech. Frankly, I am growing really weary of having to defend against bad ideas that dont belong in the constitution because there is a cottage industry in Columbus of people who earn a living by selling, or trying to sell, parts of the Ohio Constitution. State Rep. Niraj Antani, a Dayton-area Republican, introduced a resolution last year proposing even tougher requirements for ballot issues, but that measure has stalled. Antani has signed on as a co-sponsor of the new resolution, which was introduced by LaTourette and Democrat Glenn Holmes of Trumbull County. 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." Azim Premji, Chairman of Wipro Limited, received the highest French civilian distinction, Chevalier de la Legion dHonneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour), from the Ambassador of France to India, H.E.Alexandre Ziegler. Speaking on the occasion, Ambassador Ziegler said, The award was bestowed on Azim Premji for 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. The Legion dHonneur (the Legion of Honour), instituted in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte, is the highest civilian award given by the French Republic for outstanding service to France, regardless of the nationality of the recipients. The President of the French Republic is the Grand Master of the Order of the Legion of Honour. In his acceptance speech, Premji said, I am extremely honored by the award bestowed on me. The vibrancy of the French democracy and its diversity is an inspiration to all across the world. Wipros association with France spans over 15 years and the company enjoys a close relationship with several French organizations. Nearly 65% of Wipros employees in France are locals. France is a key market for Wipro and the company is committed to continued investments there. @Technuter.com News Service After years of breaking down market moves for investors often times at the risk of being wrong CNBC's Jim Cramer is taking a stand against market commentators who play it safe, but never really help the average stock-picker. "If I came out here every day and said it was the seventh inning of the bull market, would anyone really mind? That's the kind of cautious nonsense that you could've said every day for the last 30 years and it's always lapped up ... by journalists," the "Mad Money" host said on Tuesday. Cramer argued that it's all too easy for commentators to "equivocate," detailing both sides of a problem but not offering a solution, or to put themselves permanently in the bullish or bearish camp, which he said is "equally unhelpful." Similarly, it's easy for someone to tell investors to stay away from stock-picking altogether, he added. "The problem is that none of that is actually advice that is at all helpful for regular investors," Cramer said. "You have to try to explain the risks and the rewards. You have to try to help people avoid gigantic downside, even if the market can come back over a five-year period, as was the case from 2007 to 2012." Right now, Cramer believes that stocks have "a lot of risk and not a lot of reward," something he knows people don't necessarily want to hear. But, in his view, honesty is more useful to individual investors than eternal optimism. "If you want wishy-washy opinions or permanent bullishness, believe me, you've got a lot of different options to choose from," he said. "But as far as I'm concerned, that kind of analysis is not very useful. I'd rather try to get it right and help people, which is why I come out here every night, including tonight, and tell you the truth as I see it, even when it causes me to get pilloried on social media, and even when I get it wrong, either through a lack of understanding or simple bad luck." Apple and the bears Tim Cook, CEO of Apple speaks while unveiling new products during a launch event on October 30, 2018 in New York City. Stephanie Keith | Getty Images The stock of is "front and center" in this , and the weakness won't unwind until investors get more clarity on what the future holds for the iPhone maker, Cramer said as on trade optimism. "In this tough, tough market, as long as we don't know if there's a real iPhone slowdown, and until the president takes Apple's iPhone off the trade table, you can't expect an end to the pain," he argued. In an interview published by the Wall Street Journal on Monday, the United States could slap 10-percent tariffs on iPhone and laptops imported from China, a possible negotiating tactic that nevertheless . Meanwhile, , most of which cite confidential sources familiar with the situation, have thrown Apple analysts into a tizzy and put further pressure on the stock. In less than two months, Apple's stock has lost 25 percent of its value, or roughly $200 billion. Cramer, whose charitable trust owns shares of Apple, that stocks could reverse course and end their bearish phase for good if President and Chinese President strike a positive tone in their meeting at this week's G-20 summit. Even so, the market can't fully recover without a turnaround in the stock of Apple, he said. Click here for his full analysis. Salesforce chief talks earnings, big tech Marc Benioff, CEO of SalesForce. Adam Jeffery | CNBC Salesforce.com is in peak performance mode as companies shift their operations to become more digital and cloud-reliant, the software giant's Chairman, co-founder and co-CEO Marc Benioff told CNBC on Tuesday. "I don't think the company's ever been stronger or been in a better position, and the reason why is every company that we're dealing with is going through a huge digital transformation and every digital transformation begins and ends with the customer," he told Cramer in an exclusive interview on "Mad Money." "If you don't have a digital, one-on-one relationship with your customer, you're just not going to be that successful," the CEO added. Click here to read more about Benioff's take on Salesforce's latest quarter and to watch his full interview. Benioff also said that companies that don't value trust as a top priority are going to have trouble keeping their customers moving forward. Click here to read more about his take on big tech responsibility and to watch his full interview. Off the charts: Peaking volatility? Trader on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Lucas Jackson | Reuters After inspecting the charts of the a market measure sometimes referred to as the "fear gauge" or the VIX volatility expert Mark Sebastian thinks that the market could soon exit its . Stocks have been trading choppily since early October, mainly on uncertainty surrounding the Trump administration's tariff policy and plans for raising interest rates. The declines, led largely by shares of big-cap technology companies that reported earnings that Wall Street saw as underwhelming, have caused panic in the market. But Sebastian, an expert in market panic, the founder of OptionPit.com and a colleague of Cramer at RealMoney.com, told Cramer on Tuesday that the VIX's charts suggest the worry among investors has subsided. "[The] charts ... suggest that it's time to start doing some buying," Cramer said. "[Sebastian] thinks you might not get another chance as good as this one for the rest of 2018. I don't know if he's right, but don't you find it heartening when you consider how right Sebastian's been in the past?" Click here to read the full analysis. Cramer flags a long-term winner under pressure Constellation Brands' Corona Light is displayed for sale at a grocery store in New York. Scott Eells | Bloomberg| Getty Images Sometimes, it's worth keeping an eye on long-term winners, even if their short-term outlook is grim. That's why Cramer highlighted Constellation Brands on Tuesday, a popular beer maker with a stock down over 40 basis points from its high. "I think the market has turned on beer specifically and alcohol in general. Why? Because of disappointing sales at Anheuser-Busch InBev," the "Mad Money" host said. "Crazy thing? That's a competitor that I think it's losing share to Constellation. But in a bear market, who the heck cares?" But Constellation, which has invested $4 billion in Canadian cannabis producer Canopy Growth, remains a long-term powerhouse as its Corona and Modelo brands continue to take market share and its leg up in the marijuana space takes shape, Cramer said. "I am confident ... that Constellation's the best way to play beer and bud," he said. "So if you have the patience, if you're willing to accept some short-term pain in expectation of longer-term gain," you might consider investing. Lightning round: Finding tech buys The Lincoln Aviator is the latest new model from the luxury American brand, and industry watchers say it is yet more evidence that the brand has returned to its roots. After showing off a concept version of the vehicle at the New York Auto Show in early 2018, the brand is unveiling the production version at the Los Angeles Auto Show on Wednesday. The Aviator comes as Lincoln is still enjoying the astounding success it has had with the 2018 redesign of the Lincoln Navigator. After Lincoln introduced that vehicle, the company was selling them so fast it was having trouble keeping production up. That momentum has largely continued throughout the year. In the month of October Navigator sales were up 70 percent over the same month in 2017. Many customers are opting for the most luxurious versions, such as the Black Label, which can command prices up to $100,000. Now the brand is aiming to repeat the trick in another segment. The 2019 Lincoln Aviator is a smaller SUV than the Navigator, and it is the latest step Ford's luxury brand is taking in carving out a place for itself as a purveyor of spacious and comfortable SUVs that float over the pavement. Tech companies need to abandon their previous laissez-faire approach to policing their own platforms, Khosrowshahi tells CNN. "I think the hypothesis in the past was we're building a platform and there are good people and bad people, and we're not responsible for what they do on the platform," he said in the interview. "We didn't want to be responsible because we don't want to be the censor. We don't want to tell you what to say. ... It was an ethical decision." In a recent interview with CNN, Khosrowshahi talked about the idea of reinvention as well as the need for America's tech leaders to learn to "take responsibility" for what happens on the tech platforms they are running, which could include anything from monitoring offensive or misleading posts on a social media site to cracking down on sexual harassment and assaults committed by Uber drivers or passengers. Khosrowshahi himself is among the Silicon Valley CEOs dealing with that backlash, as he tries to rebuild Uber's reputation following a string of scandals at the massive ride-hailing company, which reportedly could be valued as highly as $120 billion in an IPO next year. It's true that many Silicon Valley companies have attempted to walk the thin line between protecting freedom of speech on their platforms and silencing or removing abusive users. But times are changing, and the calls for companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter to crack down on people who use their platforms for nefarious purposes are growing louder and louder. "The platforms are extending into every part of our life and creating superpowers within them," Khosrowshahi tells CNN. "If you communicate something in the old world, you can get it to five people. These platforms allow you to communicate to a million. That realization has created, I think, now the responsibility for all of the platform builders to take responsibility for the content on your platform." In Uber's case, Khosrowshahi, former CEO of Expedia, was hired as CEO in 2017 to replace founder Travis Kalanick and reshape the company's image following allegations of rampant sexual harassment and discrimination at Uber. Meanwhile, Uber has also been criticized for not doing enough to prevent sexual harassment and assault on its popular ride-hailing platform, whether it is allegedly committed by drivers or passengers. Under Khosrowshahi's watch, Uber has made some strides in those areas, including hiring more women and firing over 20 employees after an internal investigation into sexual harassment complaints. The company has also developed a system for tracking sexual harassment and assault claims that stem from Uber rides. Uber also said in May that it will allow users who claim to have been sexually assaulted by Uber drivers to sue the company, rather than forcing them into arbitration. (In April, a CNN investigation found that over 100 Uber drivers in the U.S. have been accused of abusing or assaulting passengers over the past four years.) Clearly, these are issues that Uber is still trying to tackle, and Khosrowshahi says that other Silicon Valley companies need to come to terms with the fact that they are at least partly responsible when their tech platforms are used to do harm. But, Khosrowshahi says he's happy to be at Uber and he's optimistic about the tech industry overall. He believes that leaders across Silicon Valley will "grow up" and that we will soon see "technology companies truly understand that we are one and intertwined with society." Don't Miss: Uber CEO: What scares me the most is how much the company depends on me Like this story? Subscribe to CNBC Make It on YouTube! The upcoming meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G-20 summit may result in a "cease-fire" in the trade war, former Obama administration economist Christopher Smart told CNBC on Wednesday. The two leaders are set to meet for dinner on Saturday to discuss trade and other issues. Smart, head of macroeconomic and geopolitical research at Barings, said that the G-20 gathering of world leaders is typically a highly choreographed event. However, Trump has already shown he likes spontaneity. "It's entirely possible that we could come out of this meeting, in spite of the rhetoric going into it, with a truce," said Smart, who was special assistant to the president at the National Economic Council from 2013-2015. Before that, he was deputy assistant secretary of Treasury. However, it won't solve the problem since there are fundamental differences between the two economies that could take years to solve, he said on "Power Lunch." "But there could be sort of a cease-fire that can kick this problem into next year." Trump is increasingly anxious about the impact of a long trade war on the economy and the financial markets, according to The New York Times. Therefore, Trump could push for a compromise at the summit in Argentina, the report said, citing several U.S. officials. Any compromise would be a sharp turn from his tough talk of late. Earlier this week, Trump told The Wall Street Journal it is "highly unlikely" that the U.S. would delay increasing tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods to 25 percent. He also said the administration would target the remaining $267 billion worth of goods from China that haven't yet been subject to tariffs. Smart said the list of U.S. demands, like China's government subsidies and its alleged forced technology transfer and intellectual property theft, won't be solved this weekend. Instead, the result of a cease-fire may be something like an agreement to set up a commission to study the issue, which would lead to a delay in the U.S. raising tariffs. Dan DiMicco, who serves on the president's advisory committee on trade policy and negotiation, doesn't see Trump not moving forward with 25 percent tariffs. DiMicco is also the former CEO of Nucor. "President Trump will stay strong. He is definitely committed to his issue," he said on "Power Lunch." "It's a much bigger thing than trade." The bosses of 30 European start-ups have called on politicians to reform rules around employee stock ownership to help them attract more talent and compete with their Silicon Valley counterparts. Chief executives from firms including TransferWise, Stripe, PayPal-owned iZettle and recently listed Farfetch co-signed an open letter urging lawmakers in the continent make changes to existing regulations on employee stock options. "Without delay, we call on legislators to fix the patchy, inconsistent and often punitive rules that govern employee ownership," they said in the letter Wednesday. Employee stock options grant employees the ability to buy a specified number of shares of the company they work for at a certain price and at an agreed time. According to U.S.-based venture capital firm Index Ventures, tech workers in the U.S. own twice as much equity in the companies they work for than their European counterparts. The investment firm adds that there is an imbalance country-by-country, with the U.K. having the "most favourable" regulatory and tax conditions for start-ups when it comes to stock options and German and Spain being "most in need of change." Artificial intelligence (A.I.) will level out the quality of health care in China in the coming decades, particularly closing the gap between rural and urban parts of the country, according to a CEO in the medical industry. Speaking at CNBC's East Tech West conference in the Nansha district of Guangzhou, China, Jim Wang, CEO of health care conglomerate NovaVision Group, which owns brands focused on eyecare, said new advances in A.I. would help heal discrepancies between rural and urban health care in China. "Over the last 30 to 40 years, not enough medical resources have been deployed (equally) ... There's a lot of mistreatment. Medical A.I. will smooth that over. For example, we can train A.I. to support the rural countryside medical doctors. This is what's being done in China," he told CNBC's Chery Kang. Wang is hopeful that A.I can plug the gap between rural and urban health care. He said that bringing A.I. advances into health care such as algorithm cameras to scan for preventative measures could put less pressure on hospitals in China's major cities. "We are raising people's awareness of vision care. We can screen over 1,000 diseases just from one screening or picture of your eye. We've found diseases with 97 percent accuracy. In China, we don't have family doctors and a referral system. Everyone will go to the big hospitals, which is why big hospitals are very cramped." "A.I will reduce the need to go to larger, urban hospitals," he said. "The Chinese government has a belief that technology can be a driver of innovation for rural areas. I tried to roll out the service in Taiwan, but I was told you have to get approval from the health bureau. It takes 3 to 4 years to get that approval." Wang said that despite government support for A.I in health, most of the innovation was driven by the private sector. The major challenges he faces are attitudes to tech in a "conservative industry." "Nova and our A.I. partner, we call ourselves outside of the medical gateway alliance. That's because doctors tend to be very conservative," Wang added. Data protection General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) ushered in earlier this year by the European Union is a good standard for Chinese companies to follow when it comes to the protection of personal information, Wang said. But he believes NOVAVision is already setting a "strict" standard for protecting medical records on behalf of patients. "We have strict personal data policy in our company and our legal department is adamant on that. We have strong enforcement in that area and already enforcing that standard in our company." He added that collaborations between China's medical industry and tech companies work with a "common agreement" when it comes to data protection. The "struggle" for A.I. is to be more efficient when it comes to protecting data and personal privacy. But he believes that the big global challenge is personal privacy. "At the end of the day, any persons medical data should belong to that person." Deteriorating visions Apple shares have lost more than quarter of their value in less than two months, but one of Wall Street's top analysts on the stock explained why history is against a turnaround any time soon. "Sell-side estimates have only been revised downwards by -0.8% so far, and history suggests that the stock is unlikely to inflect until estimates stop coming down," Bernstein's Toni Sacconaghi said in a note to investors Wednesday. Sacconaghi looked at the last three times in the past decade when Apple's stock has unperformed. The three downturns Sacconaghi identified are tied to the life cycle of iPhone products: The iPhone 5, the iPhone 6S and the beginning of the iPhone X. Of the lessons to be learned from prior stock downturns, Sacconaghi said Apple's stock is "typically anticipatory of estimate declines," as well as has a high correlation to Wall Street's "next-12-month EPS estimates." "Perhaps most importantly, Apple's stock price has historically bottomed only once sell-side EPS estimates have bottomed," Sacconaghi said. Apple's full year 2019 earnings are about $12.34 a share when comparing the current product cycle to the iPhone 6S cycle in 2016, according to Sacconaghi. Those earnings would be about 7 percent below Wall Street's current consensus for next year, Sacconaghi said. Bernstein's analysis does not include any potential hits to Apple from tariffs. The company's stock slid on Tuesday after President Donald Trump suggested the U.S. could place a 10 percent tariff on iPhones and laptops made in China. "We should note that neither our current estimates nor our downside scenario incorporates any potential impact from tariffs," Sacconaghi said. Apple shares have fallen more than 20 percent this month as of Tuesday's close of $174.24 a share. Bottom line: Until analysts are done cutting their earnings expectations on the stock, expect more weakness. WATCH: Apple's stock is plunging - Here's what six experts say investors should know Relations between China and the U.S. have the potential derail global economic growth, but the ongoing tariff fight is a political matter between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, said a major Chinese private equity fund company. Despite trade tensions between the two economic giants, there are plenty of reasons for them to work together in the longer term, said Duo Yuan, founder and chairman of Blue Stone Asset Management. "Chinese and American people all want a good outcome. For the Chinese, we also hope that we can buy cheap U.S. products, have good American companies to cooperate with and learn new things from them. From the U.S. perspective, investing in China will bring good returns, Duo said on Wednesday at the East Tech West conference in the Nansha district of Guangzhou, China. "So, there are mutual benefits in working together," said Duo, whose conversation in Chinese was translated by CNBC. Duo is a veteran in the Chinese financial sector. He had a hand in founding the investment trading business at China International Capital Corporation, a leading Chinese investment bank, and Bank of China's fixed income business. His current firm, Blue Stone Asset Management, is one of the largest private equity fund companies in China, with assets under management in tens of billions yuan (billions of U.S. dollars). The U.S. and China the two largest economies in the world have had a difficult relationship this year, with both countries imposing tariffs on the other's products. Trump and Xi are expected to discuss trade at the G-20 summit this week, and many have said they hope the meeting will help to calm tensions. "The development on U.S.-China relations is something that everyone is watching very closely. But on a long term perspective, the U.S. and China will likely be on the same path," Duo said. Members of the search team lift part of the landing gear of the ill-fated Lion Air flight JT 610 during search operations at sea off the coast from Karawang on November 5, 2018. Boeing shares rose Wednesday after a preliminary report from Indonesia investigators said the Lion Air 737 plane "was not airworthy" before its fateful flight. Investigators are now looking at potential maintenance mistakes that may have led to the Oct. 29 crash that killed 189 people, according to The Wall Street Journal. A pilot flying the jet the day before the crash chose to press on after shutting down the plane's anti-stall system, Nurcahyo Utomo, head of Indonesia's national transport safety committee, said at a news conference. Boeing further described the investigators' initial findings in a statement. "The report explains that the maintenance logs for the accident aircraft recorded problems related to airspeed and altitude on each of the four flights that occurred over the three days prior to Flight 610," Boeing said. "The logs indicate that various maintenance procedures were performed, but issues related to airspeed and altitude continued on each successive flight." Boeing's stock closed 4.9 percent higher on Wednesday. The company's shares had slid steadily since the crash, down more than 8 percent this month before Wednesday. The Journal report said investigators suspect maintenance mistakes in the days before the crash may have led to the unexpected series of events that sent the plane in a steep dive into the Java Sea. Indonesian investigators said Wednesday they were looking at those maintenance actions. "At this stage, we cannot determine if [the actions were] correct or not," Utomo said. Following the Lion Air plane's flight the previous day, Boeing said "the pilot reported some of the experienced issues both on the aircraft maintenance log and to engineering." "The report states that the pilot ran the runaway stabilizer non-normal check list, but it does not state that he communicated that fact in the maintenance documentation following that flight," Boeing said. A final report is expected in the coming months but the investigation continues to be hampered by the missing cockpit voice recorder, which sank to the floor of the Java Sea after the crash. CNBC's Meghan Reeder and Reuters contributed to this report. WATCH: Inside United Airlines' Pilot Training Simulator Short-term U.S. Treasury yields slipped Wednesday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that he thinks the central bank's overnight rate is "just below" a neutral level. "Interest rates are still low by historical standards, and they remain just below the broad range of estimates of the level that would be neutral for the economy that is, neither speeding up nor slowing down growth," Powell told the Economic Club of New York in a speech being closely watched in what has become a volatile financial marketplace. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note crept higher to 3.061 percent at 4:56 p.m. ET, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond climbed to 3.347 percent. The 2-year Treasury note yield, which is impacted to a greater extent by changes in Fed policy, dropped 2 basis point to 2.813 percent. The fall in short-term rates contributed to a steeping of the yield curve. The spread between the 2-year yield and the 10-year yield rose to 24 basis points from recent lows near 20. While FOMC participants projections are based on our best assessments of the outlook, there is no preset policy path. Jerome Powell Chair of the Federal Reserve Powell's address came a day after Fed Vice Chair Richard Clarida said something similar, that interest rates are "much closer" to a level that neither stimulates nor restricts growth. Some central bank officials, including Powell and Clarida, have underscored the importance of the Fed's reliance on financial data when debating further increases to the overnight rate. Weakness in financial markets both in the U.S. and overseas have led some investors to wonder whether Fed members may temper the pace of their rates hikes. "Powell's speech to the economic club of New York was a bit dovish," Jon Hill, rates strategist at BMO Capital Markets, wrote in an email. "One key point that we're focusing on is that that rates are 'just below' the neutral range. ... However, Powell's note that financial stability has a more integral role for monetary policy suggests a desire to at least continue the hiking path to remove an accommodative stance." The chairman's October observation that rates were "a long way" from neutral helped spark a turbulent period on Wall Street over the last month. The major stock indexes dipped into correction territory and angst mounted that more rate hikes could derail the economic growth of the past two years. Lukewarm inflation, a steep drop in oil prices and dwindling effects from President Donald Trump's tax cuts have also added to concerns that the robust economic growth in the U.S. over the past year may be coming to a end. Jerome Powell, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, speaks during a news conference following a Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, June 13, 2018. Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images "I think given the volatility we've seen in the equity market and some signals of slowing growth globally and domestically, that the Fed can be a little bit more relaxed with its approach in getting toward it's neutral rate," said Gary Pollack, head of fixed-income trading at Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management. Though the central bank did not adjust its plans for further rate hikes when stocks pulled back in February, Pollack said that a decline in inflation expectations and continued contraction in global growth may be enough to soften monetary policy hawks. Still, other Fed members points to an unemployment rate under 4 percent and burgeoning GDP figures as early evidence of an overheating economy and grounds to goad borrowing costs higher. The Federal Open Market Committee which seeks to control inflation and maximize employment has hiked the federal funds rate three times so far this year, emboldened by stronger gross domestic product data and hot jobs numbers. "It seems that there is a little bit of a softening in his tone from his previous comment, which the market is taking as a sign that rate hikes are going to be slower than anticipated," said Putri Pascualy, managing director for PAAMCO. "However I'd be cautious about reading too much into that. Yes, he's tempered his tone, but if you read the statement, he talks a lot about how things are quite strong." The current federal funds rate rose to 2.25 percent when the FOMC voted to bump the rate on September 26, 2018. Both the Fed and markets anticipate a fourth rate hike in December. Treasurys "Can I tell you something embarrassing that happened?" Yes. Yes, you can. Rebecca Rescate is sitting in the kitchen of her home in Yardley, Pennsylvania. The 39-year-old entrepreneur is getting ready to tell a funny story involving her annual gynecological exam. But I'll get to that in a minute. (How's that for a tease?) Rescate has created a lot of wealth and opportunity in her young life. She's launched several companies she's the only person to appear on ABC's "Shark Tank" twice for two different products but nothing has been as successful or as strange as her first idea: CitiKitty, a potty training kit for cats. Why potty train a cat? "Kitty litter is gross," she says. To date Citikitty has sold 300,000 units with more than $8 million in total revenues. CNBC Make It To date CitiKitty has sold 300,000 units with more than $8 million in total revenues, and Rescate feels there is plenty of upside left. "You've got 8 million people who live in New York City, and probably half of them have a cat. None of these people want litter boxes." It all began with a cat named Samantha In 2004, Rescate was working in marketing at an enterprise software company, a job that did not excite her. CNBC "From the time I was 17, I realized I wanted to work with consumer goods," says Rescate. As a teenager she read "Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping," to understand how stores are designed to maximize sales based on human behavior. Rescate graduated college with a degree in graphic design. Then she went to business school, but soon dropped out. "There's a reason they recommend that you work before you go into an MBA program, so that you can actually know what they're teaching you," she says. By 2004, Rescate was working in marketing at an enterprise software company, a job that did not excite her. She had recently married and she and her husband moved into a tiny New York apartment with her 11-year-old cat, Samantha. "We got this 500 square foot apartment, and I decided to toilet train the cat." As one does... apparently. Rescate searched for solutions online. "There was, like, hundreds of people talking about toilet training on forums." Solutions included putting roasting pans under toilet seats and filling them with kitty litter to get cats used to the idea, so she tried something similar with Samantha. It worked. "I was calling my friends, 'You have to get over here and see what she can do! She pees at 6 a.m., come on over!'" Why potty train a cat? "Kitty litter is gross," says Rescate. CNBC Make It Rescate had an entrepreneurial epiphany. "I always thought it would be fun to start a business, but I didn't have the right idea, and it wasn't until I toilet trained my cat that this idea fell in my lap," she says. In late 2004 she went to work creating a product, seeding the startup with $10,000-$20,000 she'd received as wedding gifts. Her final prototype was a litter box that fits under the toilet seat with removable concentric circles to gradually train the cat to go straight into the water. Eventually the entire product can be removed. "A cat's natural instinct is to cover the scent of its waste from predators," says Rescate. "Water covers the scent better than anything else." With a prototype in hand, Rescate and a friend created the branding for CitiKitty and the training manual in one weekend. She found a manufacturer by calling around (she's still using the same manufacturer). However, when she launched in June of 2005 and priced Citkitty at $29.99, some of her family and friends doubted anyone would buy such a weird product. "Everybody laughed. They thought, you know, this isn't going to work," she recalls. "You're the last one laughing when it's selling and you're helping people." First year revenues were $115,000, much better than the $40,000 Rescate was making at her regular job, so she quit. Revenues this year will come in between $700,000-$800,000. CitiKitty is made in the USA, which impacts margins, but Rescate feels lower margins are more than made up for with quicker turnaround times and the lack of a language barrier. Local manufacturing turned out to be a big advantage when she went on "Shark Tank" and found herself completely unprepared for the jump in sales. "I had, like, 400 units lined up," she says. "I think I sold 10,000 units from the airing, and I wasn't ready...thank God I manufacture in the US, right?" Moving beyond cats As CitiKitty became a success, Rescate had to fight off copycats. She also looked for other products to launch, starting with a line of cat treats. Then she hit a rut. "I was so caught up in the fact that I thought it had to be a cat product, and I couldn't think of another cat product." For six years, "I made nothing else." Rebecca Rescate is the founder and CEO of CittiKitty. CNBC Make It Finally, she met someone seeking an investment as he launched his own product, the HoodiePillow, a pillow which includes a hood to cover your head. At first, Rescate merely wanted to provide advice, not an investment, but when she saw how successful the product was, "I changed my mind. I don't want to teach you to fish, I want to fish with you," she laughs. She put in $100,000 and is now a co-owner of HoodiePillow. Since then, she's also created about a half dozen other products, from day planners to kids' blankets. That embarrassing story Oh yeah, back to the embarrassing story involving the gynecologist. Rebecca Rescate was having her annual exam with a new doctor, and, well, he was busy doing his...job. If you are a female who has gone through this process, you know it's awkward at best. Rescate blushes recounting the encounter: "He's trying to make small talk," she says. "He's like, 'What do you do for a living?' And I was, like, 'Well, I make consumer goods.'" The doctor commented that her response was pretty vague, so Rescate told him exactly what she does. "One of my products...is a toilet training kit for cats." She says the doctor stopped what he was doing, telling her, "You should have that product on 'Shark Tank.'" She replied that she had already been on the show, at which point the doctor poked his head above the drape separating the top of her body from the exam area and exclaimed, "I recognize you!!" It didn't end there. Rescate says when he moved up to do a breast exam, he wanted to know everything, bombarding her with questions such as, "Tell me what Kevin O'Leary is like." And you thought making a potty training kit for cats was the weirdest part of this story. Lessons learned Over the last 14 years, Rescate has had a lot of success, but she's also learned from her missteps. One of the biggest mistakes she made as an entrepreneur was not trusting her gut. She always considered herself a strong person, "But for some reason, my natural instinct when a guy with a deeper voice that's taller than me would say something, I'd be, like, 'Oh, I should listen to him! He's got the stature for it!'" It took her years to trust herself, and her advice to other women entrepreneurs with a crazy idea? "Never, never, never allow the sex of someone else dominate over what you already know." More from Strange Success: How this dad's hairy back made him a millionaire Like this story? Check out the Strange Success podcast. Below is the transcript of a CNBC interview with Alain Crozier, CEO, Microsoft Greater China Region and CNBC's Deirdre Bosa. The interview took place at CNBC's inaugural tech conference, East Tech West, in Nansha, Guangzhou. DB: Mandy-, first of all, thank you guys, and good morning, and Mandy, you really could not have put that better. Microsoft, today, is not a lot like it was back in the 90s, and what a day to be sitting here, Alain. I don't know how many people know this, but just yesterday, historic moment, Microsoft's market cap surpassed that of Apple, becoming the biggest company by market cap in the world. Who would've-, I mean, it's been a lot of back and forth, over the decades, but, Alain, when Apple surpassed Microsoft, back in 2010, The New York Times described the moment as the end of an era, and the beginning of the next one. Do you think we're at a similar moment? AC: Well, you know, I've been 25 years with Microsoft, and very interestingly enough, you know, if you go back ten years, and if you look at-, it's not a question of number one, or-, Microsoft was in the top five. Ten years before, we were still in the top five. Actually, there is only one company in the world that has been in the top five, 30 years in a row, and that's Microsoft. So, I think, you know, as Jim said, evolutions are happening, and reinventions are happening, and I think we are-, we are, right now, in the middle of a big reinvention. DB: I know, as you said, you've been with the company for 25 years, so-, AC: Yeah. DB: Your faith could not have wavered as much as some others, but certainly in the media there were doubts that Microsoft could turn things around, and it is a very different company. It used to be all about Windows. Now, Windows, Xbox and Surface make up just 36% of Microsoft revenue. You look at some of the other big tech companies, and, by the way, Microsoft market cap is more than that of Amazon and Alphabet, just have to note that, um, 86% of Google's revenue comes from advertising. 60%-, nearly 60% of Apple's revenue comes from the iPhone. Microsoft has actually done a better job diversifying itself over the years. What drove that? Tell us a little bit about the businesses now that have increased that shift. AC: Yeah, so, the first thing is, we did a very big shift to the Enterprise, and, of course, to serve the enterprise-, [Connection drop 09.34.59] [Connection return 09.36.34] AC: you know, very seamless way for our customers, and I think this is what really has changed drastically, versus maybe the older Microsoft-, DB: Right. AC: That you mentioned. DB: The older Microsoft, and you've seen it all, you've sat in the US, you've sat in Europe. Now you're in China, you've been in Beijing-, AC: Yeah. DB: Three years, right-, AC: Yes, yes. DB: Tell me a little bit about the China story, and how that has or hasn't played in to Microsoft's transformation. AC: Yeah, I think it's-, it's very deep. We've been here 20, 26 years. Most importantly, I think, Microsoft decided to have a long-term view, which is-, everything we do has a long-term view. And sometimes people say, 'Why do you do that? Why do you go there?' But it's a long-term view. So, we-, we implemented our R&D Centre 20 years ago here in China, and when talking about R&D, I'm not talking about development, I'm talking about research. China has the largest R&D centre outside of the United States, and when you talk about search, when you talk about AI, when you talk about some connectivity aspects, some hardware research, it's all done here out of China. And so I think this has really paved the way for, I would say, a very deep presence here in China. DB: It's interesting you say that Microsoft has been here for 25 years, because Jim and Geoff just spoke about this-, AC: Yeah. DB: How there-, maybe, in the future, there are some companies that are going to be able to be in both China and the US, but a lot of companies have really struggled with that, big tech companies, Facebook, Google. You're putting an emphasis on long-term research. Would that be a different strategy than you think that they've taken? Because a lot of these tech companies, when it comes down to it, some say that they have to choose between principle or profits. How has Microsoft navigated that dilemma? AC: Yes, I think the notion of-, the big notion is, again, long-term. When you-, when you develop, when you do research, do you think you're going to find something tomorrow morning, or the next week, or the next month? No. You have to invest. And investing means, at some point, some of your IP is going to be developed here. So, you need to not have this fear that, you know, everything is going to go the negative way. I think that's a very important one. The second one is, when you come and you do business somewhere, you also have to contribute very heavily to the market you are in, and contribution is not just doing business. It is how many people today are leading some of the most famous Chinese companies that came from Microsoft? You know, you look at ByteDance today, and TikTok, 450 million active users, well, he went through the-, the Microsoft R&D Centre. And so what's important is you are here also to develop the ecosystem-, DB: Mm-hm. AC: 17,000 partners that we have been nurturing for years, to bring some of our technology, but also competitive technology, to market, together. And so, long-term view, ecosystem, and also making sure, and I rebound on Jim's point, on the education piece. DB: Right. AC: Everything we do, everything we do, everything we do, every day, has to have an education component aspect. If you just come here for business, I think your challenges are going to be way bigger. DB: Do you think that's where some of the other big tech companies have struggled? AC: Definitively. DB: Yes? AC: Definitively. DB: Like Google and Facebook? AC: Like Google and Facebook. DB: So, they haven't been prepared to invest enough in-, especially on the education part, or the long-term research and development part? AC: And they also need to understand that some ways of doing business are slightly different, or different. DB: When you say 'slightly different', are there points where you have to compromise? You brought up search and IP, and, you know, Steve Ballmer said-, AC: Yeah-, DB: Earlier this month, that 90% of Chinese enterprises use Windows, 1% pay for it. AC: The thing is very simple, you know, we are developing a specific version of Windows for the Chinese government, and state-owned enterprises, critical state-owned enterprises. If you think that your product can be used, and will be used, across the world, the same product, the same product, I think today it's not going to happen anymore, in some areas of the business. Why? Because some governments, and it's not China, it's China and many others, want to have some protection-, DB: Right. AC: They want to make sure that, if they bet on an operating system, or on a cloud, which are the two largest components of any strategy, then there-, there is a way to make sure that you can control what is being done in those spaces. And so I would-, I would say that you have to make some compromise, you have to adjust, and you have to work hand-to-hand with the customers, no matter if they are China, Germany, Croatia or Brazil. DB: When you talk about the Chinese government, though, and you talk about compromise, do those sometimes compromise principles that perhaps Microsoft holds in America, things like security and IP rights? IS that the cost of doing business in China? AC: No, I think it's-, I think we have to work on a different, let's say, level. You know, the world today is very intertwined, it's interlinked. You can't do something without having impact elsewhere. Why? Because you don't build things in one place, or you don't develop, or you don't research, in one place. It's not, I think, the right thing to do, and it's not the right-, the way Microsoft have decided to do. Why? Because we go also where the competencies are, where the skills are, not only where the markets are, but also where the people who can develop, and help us. And so you have to really work in an environment where you're not going to be in a contained environment, you're going to have to work with your neighbours, and they may not behave, they may not react, (inaudible) the same way. I think you have to just be able to navigate through that, and again, be very patient. DB: Yeah. As you say, look at the long-term. AC: Be very patient, and just focus on the long-term. DB: Let's talk about what's going on right now, the relationship between China and the US is evolving, it's changing, we're at an interesting point right now, and really tech, it feels, has become this bargaining chip, in talks between the United States and China. Does that affect Microsoft's strategy at all? Partnerships with Huawei, which the US government has identified as a national security concern, your contracts with the Chinese government, has that changed anything? Are you thinking about that? AC: No, the-, you know, it's a-, it's a very interesting comment, I just (inaudible) how much we've accomplished in the past two or three years. I think we've accomplished a huge amount of progress. And so, I see that, I know that, you know, people will sit around the table, and, you know, intelligent people will find a way to-, I would say to resolve their difference. That's the only thing I can say. What I can tell you is that, you know, our activity in China has never been as great as it is today, no matter if you are talking about operating system, or you are talking about cloud, where the notion of data, the notion of, you know, residency, and all that. No, we do-, we do have very strong relationships with different partners, because China is not only a set of partners, you know-, DB: Right. AC: Everybody wants to talk only about the big guys, from the internet space, or from, I will say, the hardware space, like the Huawei or the Lenovos of the world. But think about it, you have 20, 30, 40 companies, that are just one inch behind, that offer, I would say, tremendous opportunity for great partnership, and this is the route Microsoft is taking. DB: So you're not worried about, sort of, these tensions, and escalating talks between-, or, you know, escalating tensions between the two leaders of both countries, you're not worried about that affecting Microsoft's business? AC: No, because, again, I think the contribution of Microsoft to China-, DB: Right-, AC: Has been unbelievable. If you take the top 20-, DB: The President doesn't care about that, though, he cares about the contribution to-, AC: No, it's fine, but-, but-, but I think-, I think, you know-, um, I think it's important to look at the contribution you are making to the country. If you take the top 20 companies, internet companies, hardware companies, in China, 80% of them have either a CTO or a Lead Technician that comes from Microsoft. And so, I would say, again, what has been decided by Bill Gates, and-, and-, and the predecessors of Satya, I think is-, it's putting us in a special position. Now, you know what, I don't have a crystal ball-, DB: [Laughter]. AC: And I know, in two days, or three days, we're going to have some-, some news-, DB: Some more [laughter]. AC: But I'm not really very concerned about that. DB: Well, there's one thing that, you know, President Trump said, in an interview earlier this week, and he said that tariffs could be placed on iPhones and computers. Microsoft makes Surface products here in China. How do you view his comments? AC: Um. How do I view his comments? I think the-, you know, the-, the world is-, is big. It's big. You have a lot of consumers of Surface. And China, by the way, is our largest market now-, DB: The largest one? AC: Yeah. So-, so, I think, you know, at the end, people will not touch what's going to impact innovation, and the US will not impact innovation, and-, and the US will not impact innovation, because this is what the United States is-, is all about. And so, we can meet, in a week from now, and-, and-, and we learn more-, DB: See what happened. AC: But I'm not worried. And by the way, his comment was very clear, but, you know, I saw that Apple market cap went up, you know, like, half an hour after his comment, so-, DB: Right, so you think it's-, it may be the art of the deal, negotiation, we'll see where it actually goes-, AC: We'll-, DB: That's what you're saying? AC: We'll see. We'll see. DB: Okay, well, I appreciate you answering some of these sensitive questions-, AC: My pleasure. DB: And being with us today-, AC: My pleasure. DB: And we learned a lot, thank you very much. AC: Thank you. Thank you. ENDS About CNBC: CNBC is the leading global broadcaster of live business and financial news and information, reporting directly from the major financial markets around the globe with regional headquarters Singapore, Abu Dhabi, London and New York. The TV channel is available in more than 410 million homes worldwide. CNBC.com is the preeminent financial news source on the web, featuring an unprecedented amount of video, real-time market analysis, web-exclusive live video and analytical financial tools. CNBC is a division of NBCUniversal. For more information, visit www.cnbc.com. Below is the transcript of a CNBC interview with Cindy Mi, Founder & CEO, VIPKid and CNBC's Everett Rosenfeld. The interview took place at CNBC's inaugural tech conference, East Tech West, in Nansha, Guangzhou. ER: So, Cindy, thank you for joining me. For many of the audience who know your company, VIPKid, they'll know it's an education technology company that has been valued by investors at several billion dollars, but it's so much more than just a tech play. Can you tell us a little bit about what VIPKid does? CM: Yes, so, VIPKid connects 4 to 15-year-old Chinese students, who want to learn English, after school, at the comfort of their homes, to teachers in North America, in the United States and Canada, so that teachers can teach the students, live, live streaming, real-time, one-on-one, in the comfort of their own home, as well, but they will then learn together, through this iPad, or this computer, so this is a connection between students and teachers that's never happened before in human history, but is creating such a great learning efficacy for our students, because they're so engaged with their big friends, and they're looking forward to have the classes every day. So, we were founded in 2013, and by now, we have half a million students, and over 60,000 teachers, that work with us on a weekly basis. ER: So that's a business model that is really sort of global from the outset. It is connecting people, between China and the US, and I understand you're expanding to other countries, you have expanded to other countries, but primarily, you're looking at China and the United States, and it's a business model that depends on people trusting each other, and people wanting to learn from each other. To what extent does the state of US/China relations affect that business model? CM: Well, we want a constructive and positive environment in our world of learning, and I know there are a lot of parents, and if you have a little kid, when you think about him or her growing up, and becoming a global citizen, how do they know about each side of the Pacific Ocean, and then begin to understand the other culture? Let me give you some examples on this. ER: Please. CM: We're so proud of our teacher community, that we have 60,000 of them, and in Texas, we have over 7,000 teachers. So, we were in this teacher conference, it's called Journey, teachers initiate it, and they organized a conference themselves, August this year, and the former First Lady Laura Bush, joined the conference, and then 400 teachers got together, everyone just shared their passion about teaching children in China, and teachers tell me, they say, 'Oh, my students-, Jenny, she is my other daughter, in China,' and some teachers even share their story of their visiting China on their own expense, and then they say, 'I walk around my neighborhood, and tell my neighbours, and I say, 'Chinese people are amazing, the kids are so smart, the parents really respect me.'' You know, one time, one of our teachers had her birthday, and then, on the other side of the screen, it's the whole family, not just the kid, but candles-, like, grandparents, parents, and then they almost bow to the teachers, because we respect the teachers so much in China, and they really respect and appreciate everything the teacher has done for them. ER: So, it is really creating people an opportunity to see each other, learn from each other-, CM: And to understand each other, from when the child is so little, and the teachers then tell all their neighbours and students, in their K12 schools, how amazing China is. I think, when we talked just now, you said you were connecting the both countries, and then-, it's critical to the-, the future of the world, and by education, we're doing the same thing. ER: And a lot of your teachers are not just in major US urban centers, where they may run in to Chinese people, periodically, they're from all parts of America, including rural America. CM: Yes. We had another teacher conference in Florida, last month, in September. The city, Orlando, named the 29th of September VIPKid day. And one of our teachers is from Tampa, from a very-, a little-, a little city, and then she said to me, she said, you know, 'Without VIPKid, I can't have this extra income, to support the house mortgage, and then buy a car, so with VIPKid, my life is significantly different,' and we-, we're really grateful that we have such an amazing group of teachers to work with us. ER: So, you mentioned you have 60,000 teachers? CM: Yes. ER: How many students do you have? CM: Half a million students. ER: And that is all within China? CM: So, mostly within China, we also have some Korean and Japanese students. So, what we're really working on to build is a high-quality education program on the cloud, it's a future, cloud-based school, where all the students, from everywhere, can learn from all the teachers. We also have a Mandarin learning program, called Lingo Bus-, ER: Mm. CM: So we're enabling Mandarin learners, when they're 4 to 15 years old, out of the country, to learn Mandarin in an also immersive way, with a Chinese teacher, so we're doing this vice versa. ER: I'm sure you have all kinds of package deals, so it's hard to ask, but what is the pricing structure like? Is this something that only the wealthiest can afford? Or is this-, is this very accessible to the average Chinese family? CM: It is accessible to the average Chinese family, people pay about over 10,000 RMB per year, to learn with VIPKid, and, compared to this one-on-one model, they're paying this for the small classes, if they're learning offline. ER: Mm. CM: So, the benefits for the students are very tremendous, because then they can have a teacher, out of the 60,000 teachers, that is the most appropriate for the child, that can really, you know, create this curiosity for learning, and we match it with technology, so students can really, like, get the best teacher, due to their personality preferences, or the learning style, or the-, the other parents comment, based on the teacher, and then they-, they pay way less. ER: How about on the other side of the equation? CM: Mm. ER: How much are teachers making, in a month? In a year? CM: Teachers make about $20 US dollars per hour, it is 30 to 40% more than they would make offline tutoring, on average, on Payscale.com, one of the US payment websites, so teachers really love this, because they have the independence and flexibility, many of our teachers are stay-at-home moms, or previous or current K12 teachers. And if you read an article, just a couple of months ago, talking about teachers in the United States, the headline read, 'I'm a teacher in America, and I work three jobs, and I sell blood twice every month, to make ends meet. Because everyone wants to make a good income, and then pay for the-, the family, but if you are a stay-at-home mom, there's little chance you can have a part-time job, or a, like, teaching opportunity, as independent contractors, but VIPKid really opens the world, for the teachers, so that they can choose to stay home with their babies during the day, but choose to work from 4am to 8am in the morning, and then make the-, the good income for the family. ER: So, we've talked about what VIPKid can do, but the proof is in the results. What does your retention rate look like? Are students, are teachers, sticking with the programs, course after course? CM: So, for our students, we have a very high retention rate, our parents choose to stay with us, and, not only that, they refer our program to other parents. So out of the new students we get every month, over 65% are from existing parents' referrals. They talk about their students' learning experience on WeChat, and they share about it, and then other parents would sign up, so it's really very helpful for retaining everyone. And then on our teacher side, teachers really enjoy working with us, and every month, there are even 35 to 45 teacher meetups, across the country, and teachers stay, because they make a good income, and also they have this independence and flexibility teaching, and they feel that this is a great community that we work together. ER: So, it's fair to say that both your student pool and your teacher pool are growing at a strong rate? CM: Very strong rate. If you think about 2014, there was hardly education technology, edtech, and 2015, in March, we only had 20 teachers, and 200 students. And after 3.5 years, this is where we are. And I think it shows a very strong demand, from the parent side, wanting a global education. ER: But where are the constraints? You know, where are the constraints on the demand-, on the student, the parent side? How many people want to do it? Where are constraints on the supply side? Are you going to run out of teachers? CM: I think, no, we're not going to run out of teachers, there are about 4 million K12 teachers in the US, and many more that are retired, or-, or English language teachers. The demand side is, like-, the sky's the limit, too, there are so many children who want the program. I think the limit is, as a platform, how can we maintain the highest quality possible, where we're undergoing this rapid growth? How can we stay focused on quality, and learning efficacy, while we're working with so many teachers, and so many students? ER: So you're focused on efficacy, you're focused on your community, but on the tech side, you have obviously a-, a-, a very functional video conferencing system. What's next? Are you working on other technologies? I heard something about looking at augmented reality and virtual reality. CM: Yes, so the amazing thing about online education is, this little iPad is a student's 'i-classroom', so, so much technology can be implemented in there to increase their engagement and their learning efficiency. So, for example, for the matching technology we have, how can we match the half a million students to the 60,000 teachers, in the most appropriate way, recommendations, all the tagging, and everything. And then, for augmented reality, as you just mentioned, if the student wants to talk about a dinosaur, we-, instead of a plain picture, we work with content providers, like National Geographic Learning, and then they have all these vivid, visceral things we can turn in to, like, a lively dinosaur, that can almost, like, interact with the student, so she feels so engaged, and surprised. And also we have these virtual stickers for the classrooms, a teacher can turn herself in to a-, a princess, or-, or a hero, a superhero, and then the students are so enjoying the class, and then, for virtual reality, we have the museum tours, where all these, like-, our teachers make videos, to show the students what their hometowns look like, and we're implementing some of the VR, as well, to show, like, a virtual tour, as well. So, there is so much technology we can use, but only to enhance students' learning efficacy. ER: That's really interesting, a lot of the things you just mentioned, because it is not just a rote, memorizing vocabulary, it seems like you're really aiming for an entire, sort of, cultural education. Is that accurate? CM: Yes, that's very accurate. We believe that, as a 21st Century global citizen, it's where we want our children to be, so we're teaching them not only the language of English, grammar, vocabulary, but also reading, writing, math, social studies, science, and it's all blended in to the content of learning. So, this year alone, we've partnered with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Oxford University Press, Scholastic, and we even introduced Harry Potter to the-, our-, to our reading program, our reading library, students really enjoy reading this, and then we also partner with SSAT, to provide an online solution for students learning, as well. ER: Thus far, a lot of-, a lot of your income, a lot of what you're doing, depends on people wanting to learn English, I know you have Lingo Bus, the Mandarin language. Are you seeing an increasing interest in people wanting to learn English? A decreasing interest? Where do you project that, going forward? CM: I think we see an increasing interest in students learning English. The parents today-, you know, I want to understand who in the audience has children, if you don't mind raising your hands? Oh, wonderful. Well, I'm sure many of your children have learned a second language, if you're in China, English probably is the number one option, in-, in the US, hopefully, Mandarin, becoming the number one option. I think the-, the common theme here is, we are international parents, global parents, and we've been constantly communicating, interacting with our peers, in the business world, and everything, and then we want our children to be global, as well. So, think about this. If a student, from when they're 4 or 5 years old, talk to a teacher in, say Minnesota, or Florida, or Dallas, and vice versa, a teacher in Guangzhou teaches a student in New York State, or New York City, Mandarin, they get to know each other, and this cloud-based classroom not only would really encourage the learning, but also, as you mentioned, bridge the culture, this people-to-people connection, this is important, not just to build the knowledge base, but to really cultivate our children to be global citizens. So, we see a lot of growing interest in learning English not only in the cities. For example, in rural areas, we've helped 500 schools. Our teachers volunteered to teach those classes, online, live, every week, and then those students, they would spend their whole weekend preparing for it. One minute, self-introduction, they will paint a whole picture about it, and then say, 'My name is Peter. There are three people in my family,' and then they will share all of these with their teachers on the screen, when they're interacting together. So, this interest would also open the door for the-, for the rural kids, when they're so little, and get to see the world of potential, where they probably would not only go to Tsinghua, 'Beida' (Peking University) or, you know, Yale, or Stanford, and then to see the world, and then bring all this back, to the community where they come from, and I think this is the future we want for our education. ER: So, from a business perspective, you have obviously achieved some scale, you are hard at work in implementing new technologies, and you have a-, you have a strong community, as you've said, in the United States. What are the barriers to entry, though, for a competitor? What's to stop a giant, established education company from setting up video conferencing? CM: Mm. So, the technology is very challenging, we have now over 180,000 classes every day happening, and every two Chinese children who learn online to learn English, one of them is with VIPKid. I think the real barrier, though, is never technology, or growth, or scale. The real barrier, I think, is the passion for education from the team, and our teachers. That's the real barrier, for anyone to enter the market. And our teachers choose to work with us-, if you look at the YouTube videos, over 20,000 teachers uploaded their own experience with VIPKid, and-, and then there are so many Facebook shares, on their amazing experience interacting with the kid. So, that's the first one. The second one is the knowledge we learned, from all the interactions that are already happening in our platform, the efficiency, the way we analyze all the videos between-, the student/teacher interaction, we have all the data on students' learning outcomes, unit assessments, how we can go back to how we build the-, the curriculum product, so that we can design the best way to scaffold the content, and then we can create the most learning efficacy. So, these two, people, and also efficacy, are the most important barriers, and then I think that's also very important for education. ER: Just really quick, we just have a few seconds left. Do you see the future of education moving entirely online? Do you see VIPKid being a model for schooling, you know, in decades ahead? Or will this continue to be supplementary to the normal education system? CM: Yes, we have such a huge, tremendous respect for all educators, online and offline, trying to make it work better. Right? So, our thesis is, everything would be blended, or partially online, because it just helps with the data, it helps with efficiency, efficacy, everything can be so much more engaging and enriched, but I think the direction, generally, we would believe in, is one, it's going to be more personalized, because of the technology connection, teacher/student interaction, content, designed in a knowledge graph way, where we can personalize experience, and secondly, I think it's going to be more global. No student would only learn from the teachers in the country only, but, you know, summer camps is a good example, where American students will go to Europe, so a more global learning community would be there. And then, lastly, I think, more access to education, affordable education, where technology really helps lower down the cost, bridging better, connecting better, being efficient, teachers get paid more, students pay less, so we can then help-, there are still a billion people out there where they only have 3 US dollar a day as a living expense, so education is a luxury. So when we can then implement all these great technology, like, learning, for all these students, so learning is never a luxury, and then we can really build a personalized, affordable, and global online learning platform, for all the children. So, we want to start-, one sentence-, we want to start with afterschool tutoring, figure out how students can learn English better, and then apply this, and help more rural schools, and then gradually, you know, what we can do for the learning community and education field, to make learning better and more efficient for the students. That's our goal. ER: Very interesting stuff. Cindy, it's been great talking to you thank you very much. CM: Thank you. ENDS About CNBC: CNBC is the leading global broadcaster of live business and financial news and information, reporting directly from the major financial markets around the globe with regional headquarters Singapore, Abu Dhabi, London and New York. The TV channel is available in more than 410 million homes worldwide. CNBC.com is the preeminent financial news source on the web, featuring an unprecedented amount of video, real-time market analysis, web-exclusive live video and analytical financial tools. CNBC is a division of NBCUniversal. For more information, visit www.cnbc.com. Below is the transcript of a CNBC interview with Leo, Gang LIU, VP, SenseTime & GM, SenseTime's Shenzhen Office and CNBC's Eunice Yoon. The interview took place at CNBC's inaugural tech conference, East Tech West, in Nansha, Guangzhou. EY: So, Leo Liu, VP of SenseTime, he has spent some time in Beijing, along with me, for several years, before moving over to Shenzhen-, LL: Yeah. EY: So, I just want to pick up on what Mandy had said. You're a young company, obviously very important in empowering AI, and we know that the government's national directive has been to focus on AI, turn AI in to a $150 billion industry by 2030. So, what does that mean, for some of the experimentation that you're seeing, when it comes to applications? So retailers, for example, or for, as Mandy had said, anything on your mobile phone? LL: Yeah, thank you. If course, AI, actually, the value of AI is to make a lot of things, impossible in the past, possible nowadays. For example, like, retail, like transportation, we always imagine that, for a lot of repeatable, or repeated, routine work, we always that-, okay, if there's some machine there, to do the job for humans, that's terrific, especially for some low-value work. But nowadays, a lot of applications are already there, for example, (inaudible) you arrived here from Guangzhou airport-, EY: Mm. LL: So, some of our technology has already been running there, but you didn't notice that. EY: Right. LL: For the security pass, actually, the challenge there is to make sure that you are using your own ID to take the plane, so it's much safer than just to rely on people. So, like, retail, we have quite some innovation, with retailers, like Walmart, like (inaudible), a lot of, like, AI shops have already been opening up in China. So, AI in the past, like, more than 60 years, has been categorized as very interesting, it has been very interesting. But nowadays, it has been labelled as very useful, which means that technology, if we put technology to the industry, it can generate a lot of value. EY: Yeah. LL: So, we are quite fortunate, and we are very excited that, the government, this country, the market, even the user, our customers, are kind of embracing the new technology, so we have been very fortunate, I think. EY: Yeah, well, you mentioned going through the airport. Now, after visiting your headquarters in Beijing-, I think a lot, every single time I go through Beijing airport, about how the security situation has been changed, and the equation has changed, just because the facial recognition technology is largely what you guys are working on, right? So, in terms of application. So, one of the other questions that I want to ask you, in terms of-, about the-, the government policy, is that, you know, obviously, government sets a policy, creates a lot of experimentation opportunities-, LL: Yeah. EY: For startups, for big retailers-, LL: Yeah. EY: Like you had mentioned, including Walmart, I know that they're doing some experimentation. However, industrial policy doesn't guarantee success. So, we've seen, in various countries, including in China, where the government has set a policy, so, for example, in developing a domestic car industry, it had mixed results. So, what other advantages do you see in AI that make you so optimistic about the prospects? LL: Yeah. SenseTime is a young company, like you mentioned. The average age of the staff is only 28. So I'm kind of the older generation of the company [laughter]. EY: [Laughter]. LL: But it's a young company, but with a long history. In Chinese, we have a saying that [proverb in Chinese], I'm not sure how to put that in English, it's kind of, just-, it's like a quick kick-off, but with a long accumulation, kind of like that. So, first of all, like, SenseTime, we have a long history. Before we started the company, we have a long history of research. Because the value generated by AI is not, kind of, invented or created. You must push the technology to the limit. Which means, if you want to create a value, you have to always try to be better, better and better. Take accuracy, for example. SenseTime is a company focused on visual intelligence, and deep learning, so the-, the criteria for the technology to be valuable is, of course, that your accuracy must surpass human performance. So, I think one advantage we enjoy is that we have a long history we focused on research. And another one is, we are quite value-oriented, which means-, technology, by itself, cannot generate value. You have to apply the technology to the specific industries, or the specific scenarios. EY: Mm. LL: And, as we understand that China is kind of a-, a-, a nation full of-, full of spirit of innovation, so a lot of industries kind of embrace the new technologies, which give us a quite good chance to put our technology to the industries-, EY: Right. LL: So that value will be generated there, which means that we make-, of course, maybe you have some idea in your industry, but you don't have the way to realize it, in the past, so I've provided that-, EY: Yeah. LL: Way of realizing your idea, in your industry, so-, and value generated for you. And the last one I want to mention is that China has been enjoying the quick development, in terms of the economics, so a lot of talent, top talent, are now, kind of, gathering around China-, EY: Mm. LL: For example, like, our big bay, right, that's in the big Bay Area, a lot of talent is coming back, and, take our company, for example, we have staff around 2,000, but we have more-, we have more than 150 full-time PhDs in our company. So, they are continuing focused on advanced technology, and we (inaudible) this technology, the algorithms, the technology, to the specific industries, and the value will be generated there-, EY: Mm. LL: And with the macro support, from the government, from the industry, from the customer, so we're kind of enjoying this era, and doing good. EY: [Laughter]. Not so bad. Well, I've heard that-, I've heard that quite a bit, actually, especially when it comes to-, when people are comparing, say, silicon valley-, LL: Mm-hm. EY: And-, and China-, LL: Yeah. EY: And various parts of China, that are working in AI, that in the United States, there are-, there's a lot of really solid technology, but here in China, it's where all the applications and experimentation is-, LL: Yeah. EY: And that that's a big advantage, and part of that is because of the data that is here. I was reading an interesting stat that Chinese companies collect data on 1 billion active mobile phones. That's a lot of phones, and a lot of data-, LL: Yeah. EY: So, what kind of position, then, does that allow you to be in, as well as other startups? LL: Okay. In terms of data, I think we need a clarification here. So, data, of course, is kind of a key success element, to have advanced AI technology. So-, but the data are actually collected and used in different scenarios. For example, when you are doing the learning or training of AI, a lot of data actually are obtained from the internet, with the permission from the user. But when you use the technology, for example, you mentioned that-, that, kind of, huge data, 1 million, 10 million, for example, that-, like I told you, that more than 400 million cell phones are actually using our technology, like face unlock-, EY: Mm. LL: Like the enhancement of pictures. Maybe you-, you-, you didn't notice that, but a lot of phones, the pictures you are taking by the phone, the quality is higher and higher, right? So, actually, it's-, it's-, it's not because of the camera itself, but also because of AI technology. So, (inaudible) have already been running on hundreds of millions of phones, but we don't collect the data-, EY: Mm. LL: It's because we kind of generated the algorithm, so this algorithm, after, is put in the smartphone, the phone, by itself, uses this technology. SO, because China has been enjoying the advantage of, kind of, going to the mobile internet era, quite quickly-, EY: Yeah. LL: We skipped the PC era, so this kind of flexibility, and huge amount of internet users, and the spirit of innovation, kind of have given us the scenarios to apply our technology to this huge market. EY: Now, you made a point to-, to say that you do not collect the data, and there is a lot of concern about privacy issues-, LL: Mm-hm. EY: When it comes to AI-, LL: Yeah. EY: Especially with facial recognition, or any other type of body recognition technology, like, either with your hand, or with your eye. So, do you worry about a pushback-, LL: Mm-hm. EY: From consumers, or from anyone else, about-, for-, because of privacy issues? LL: Yeah. No, actually, not. Actually, on the contrary, not, because-, I'll give you a very specific example. As staff of SenseTime, we do not have a (inaudible) badge. Because the badge-, the purpose of the badge is to open your door, right? When you go to your office every day, you need a badge to walk in the door. We don't have a badge, because our face is our badge. So, we now-, we-, yeah, I mean, if you want to go to the office, I mean, to work overtime, you don't need to bring a badge. I mean, even-, so-, take (inaudible), for example. The employees in our company, they know that they use their face to open the door, and they all, of course, permitted that, because to go in to your office, you use your face to open the door, it's more convenient, it's fast, and it's more secure. And-, EY: But these are a very, like, selected group of people, who all want to work at your company, so they would-, LL: Yeah. EY: Feel more comfortable, with the idea of-, LL: Sure. EY: Having their faces scanned-, LL: Yeah. EY: No? LL: So, my point is that we don't collect or use the data without the permission of the user. So, as long as we get the permission from the user, and the user, of course, enjoys the value generated by AI, and when they get used to use the AI, in their everyday life, they will actually like the AI technology, more and more. So, that's kind of worked for the past more than three years, four years, we are actually just celebrating our four year birthday, this week, so for the past four weeks, we have signed almost more than 700 business customers, and hundreds of millions of users. So the feedback from the customers? Fantastic. I mean, they have-, they have been enjoying the-, the convenience, the safety, I mean, the smarter life generated by AI technology. EY: Mm. And I think that's what makes a lot of sense, that you see the convenience and the-, LL: Yeah. EY: Security-, LL: Yeah. EY: As the benefits of-, of AI, in particular of facial recognition technology, of course there is a trade-off, as I said, with, with privacy. I wanted to push back a little bit-, LL: Mm-hm. EY: And also ask you about the accuracy-, LL: Accuracy, yeah. EY: When it comes to facial recognition technology. Because, obviously, the technology's getting better and better, but it's not perfect, and if you're talking about applying it to a lot of different areas, either with-, you know, to try to help with the bureaucracy, or here in China, the national ID system, or trying to use it as a way to withdraw money, say, for example-, LL: Yeah, yeah. EY: Then you have to make sure it's pretty accurate-, LL: Yeah. EY: Right? LL: Sure. Actually, accuracy is kind of a milestone event in the history of visual intelligence. So, why SenseTime is, kind of, founded in 2014? Because a kind of milestone event happened in that year. In the-, the specific dataset, it's kind of an international dataset, it has more than 1 million faces, so, the theoretical accuracy of human performance is kind of around 97%, so which means that, in that dataset, a lot of face pictures there-, EY: Mm. LL: If it's a normal human being, you will make two mistakes for 100, I mean, kind of, verifications. But in that year, in 2014, the algorithm from SenseTime, for the first-, very first time, in the history of human-, in human history, the accuracy beat the human performance. And nowadays, for example, when you use your ID, to go through the security, to take airplane, it's normal people, right? The security guard is comparing you to your ID photo, in your passport or on your ID. It is accurate, but it's not so accurate-, EY: Mm. LL: So-, because we are human beings, right-, EY: Yeah. LL: This theoretic accuracy is almost 97% accurate. EY: So it's better than the human eye [laughter]. LL: Yeah. But the machine-, EY: Yeah. LL: Nowadays, for that particular scenario, it's 99.9-, then seven 9s, behind the point, percent. So it's almost-, EY: You're very precise. [Laughter]. LL: It's almost no mistakes. EY: Well, just, I-, one-, one quick last question, because I have only 30 seconds left, but how worried are you about the trade tensions that we're seeing with the United States? I know that, right now, you're focused on the China market, but you guys have been interested in pushing at the technology, globally. IS this something that you're worried about, that you could see a pushback? LL: Actually, no, because as a tech company, I have been spending my whole career in the IT industry, so I can see that the technology actually is joined by China, US, I mean, Singapore, South Asia, and Africa, the Middle East, so I don't think it's going to be a challenge for us-, EY: Okay-, LL: So I'm quite optimistic. EY: Thank you very much. ENDS About CNBC: CNBC is the leading global broadcaster of live business and financial news and information, reporting directly from the major financial markets around the globe with regional headquarters Singapore, Abu Dhabi, London and New York. The TV channel is available in more than 410 million homes worldwide. CNBC.com is the preeminent financial news source on the web, featuring an unprecedented amount of video, real-time market analysis, web-exclusive live video and analytical financial tools. CNBC is a division of NBCUniversal. For more information, visit www.cnbc.com. President Donald Trump was "rattled" by General Motors' plan to slash production at several American plants, and he's beginning to notice there are "cracks" in the economy, CNBC's Jim Cramer argued Wednesday. Trump is starting to realize "holy cow" the booming U.S. growth "could go away," Cramer said on "Squawk on the Street," a day after the Washington Post published a wide-ranging interview with the president. In the Post interview, Trump blamed the stock market's recent declines and GM's plant closures on the Federal Reserve's policies under the leadership of Chairman Jerome Powell. Powell said early last month that the cost of borrowing money was a long way from so-called neutral, sparking concerns about a more aggressive Fed tightening. In turn, the in October saw its the worst month since September 2011. The market volatility has since spilled over into November. Stocks opened higher Wednesday as Wall Street awaited Powell's speech at The Economic Club of New York, around noon ET. Cramer has repeatedly blamed Powell for spooking the markets. The "Mad Money" host has said central bankers need to recognize that the economy is slowing and they can't move rates to a preconceived notion of neutral. Watch: Why you aren't feeling a boost in your paycheck Deere Chairman and CEO Samuel Allen said on Wednesday that his main concern with President Donald Trump's tariffs is the long-term effects it will have on the supply of agricultural commodities. "We're more concerned about the structural changes that it might force on the global supply of soybeans and other commodities," Allen said on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street." For example, if China were to seek out soybeans from another country like Brazil, those farmers could produce the soybeans quickly, which could lead to an oversupply over a longer period of time. That means the U.S. farmer will continue to be hurt by the tariffs even after they are lifted because of the surplus created by China seeking out substitute suppliers. A secondary concern for Allen is the farms that are very leveraged and are struggling in the short-term. Allen, who also serves as the chairman of the Council on Competitiveness, said he believes intellectual property theft by China is a valid issue that should be resolved. But he disagrees with Trump's approach, saying that he does not think that tariffs make the U.S. more competitive against China and create more friction between the countries. Instead, Allen favors negotiations away from the eyes of the public. "There should be discussion with China and its leaders," he said. "We think that's probably best done outside of the public forum and done in more private conversations that can lead to more fruitful negotiations." Allen pointed to Trump's strong will and skill set as a negotiator as reasons why he could have more success than his predecessors in private talks with China. Once again, all eyes will be on Trump and President Xi Jinping at this weekend's G-20 summit, where the two leaders could broker a truce on trade. One issue that he does agree with the president on is the Federal Reserve raising rates. "I think they ought to pause and see if the economy continues to move forward in a robust fashion," Allen said. "They can always later mete another rate or two increase but I worry if they bring in another rate increase that it may be the triggering event that causes the economy to really slow down and so I would wish they would hold up for a few quarters." Allen said that Deere has seen a slowdown in orders because customers are worried about what could happen with rate hikes. The effects of slowing home sales has not yet hit its construction equipment orders, however, because that equipment can also be used in oil production and fracking. The Department of Justice on Wednesday indicted two Iranians it says were behind a set of ransomware attacks called "SamSam" that devastated the City of Atlanta in March 2018, as well as the Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital in February 2016 and other victims. Ransomware is malicious software that locks up computers and any computer-controlled equipment until the victim pays a ransom to the criminal involved. While it's often seen as a purely criminal activity, deployed to get money from unsuspecting businesses, its deployment can cause chaos and nation-state intrigue, as well as major shut-downs in government or corporate services. According to the Department of Justice, of the hundreds of U.S. victims of this campaign, many sustained "substantial losses." In March 2018, the City of Atlanta was held hostage by the ransomware, which shut down government services for several days and ultimately cost the city $17 million. But one of the most alarming attacks of the SamSam campaign came much earlier. In February 2016, long before most people had heard of ransomware, Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital near Los Angeles was hit with a virulent strain of the malicious software forcing it to shut down systems across its facility. As a result, cancer doctors in the radiation department could not turn on their devices, and other physicians reported they couldn't access patient medical records, nor share MRIs, X-rays or blood tests. Patients were turned away. The shut-down lasted for more than a week, and the hospital ultimately paid criminals $17,000 to get back online. The scenario prompted many hospitals to re-think cybersecurity and imagine how a cyberattack might play shake out at a critical facility that serves the publich. It also introduced many people to the concept of "ransomware" itself, and served as a preview of WannaCry and NotPetya attacks that took out health care, logistics, medical and industrial facilities worldwide. The hospital's actions also sparked an ethical debate over whether or not companies should pay ransoms in order to get services back online, provided the criminals in question have a high likelihood of being able to deliver. Many posit that it's unethical to pay criminals who may ultimately be supported by rogue nation-states or organized crime, or that paying a ransom will only invite more criminals. But for those who advocate paying the ransom, the difference between Presbyterian's $17,000 payment to ransomers and Atlanta's $17 million price tag for not doing it is proof they're right. The two people indicted for allegedly taking part in the SamSam campaign, Faramarz Savandi and Mohammad Mansouri, currently live in Iran. It's unlikely they will be arrested, much like other cybercriminals from Russia, Iran and North Korea indicted in absentia. The Department of Justice has made "naming and shaming" a priority in these cases, in order to put pressure on these countries. Alongside the DoJ action, the U.S. Department of Treasury has assigned sanctions to two further Iranians who it says helped process the ransoms, which were paid in Bitcoin: Ali Khorashadizadeh and Mohammad Ghorbaniyan. The group allegedly sustained the campaign for 36 months, according to the indictment. Other entities that fell victim included the City of Newark and Kansas Heart Hospital. Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer and founder of Facebook, holds his phone after the morning session at the Allen & Co. Media and Technology Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, July 13, 2018. "I would back and invest again and again in Mark Zuckerberg," Jim Breyer, founder and CEO of global venture capital firm Breyer Capital, said in an interview with CNBC's Deirdre Bosa . "I believe he should be the chairman and CEO but the company, to its own admission, has deeply mishandled the past 12 months." Mark Zuckerberg should remain in power at Facebook , but a "radical change" is needed on how decisions are made at the social media company, an early investor and former board member said Wednesday. Facebook has seen its shares fall 26.24 percent during the past year amid scrutiny over its Cambridge Analytica scandal and disclosures of data breaches and Russian trolls, causing some to question whether Zuckerberg should step down from his role. A Wall Street Journal report published Nov. 19 said Zuckerberg had blamed Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and her teams for many of Facebook's problem. But a day later, Zuckerberg told CNN he would not step down and praised Sandberg. Breyer, who served on Facebook's board from 2005 to 2013 after leading the company's Series A funding round, said Zuckerberg is "ultimately responsible" for Facebook's controversies. But he added that Zuckerberg and Sandberg are the "best team" in Silicon Valley and should continue to lead Facebook. "Leaders often mishandle certain situations," said Breyer, whose worth an estimated $2.7 billion, according to Forbes. Breyer, speaking from the East West Tech conference in the Nansha district of Guangzhou, China, said he first met Zuckerberg about 14 years ago, when the Facebook founder was 20 years old. Breyer currently serves on the board of directors of Blackstone and 21st Century Fox. Technology and innovation have transformed China's retail space and that's what sets the sector apart from the rest of the world, according to a senior executive at JD.com. Innovation in the domestic retail industry has led to newer ways for businesses to sell their products to consumers, including via online and offline channels and over social networks, Ling Chenkai, vice president at JD.com, told CNBC's Eunice Yoon during a fireside chat at the East Tech West conference held in the Nansha district of Guangzhou, China. "The retail infrastructure during the past couple of years have improved a lot, I think the retail infrastructure is really leading the world," Ling said. He explained that China has adopted advanced technologies including artificial intelligence, the study of large volumes of data and blockchain in the retail sector. That has led to the development of new types of unmanned convenience stores popping up in China where customers check out items on their own, and where facial recognition and electronic price tags are used. Ling predicted that there will other types of developments happening in the future. JD.com competes aggressively with Jack Ma's Alibaba in China's massive e-commerce space and has the backing of prominent global and local names such as Google and Tencent. Recently, China celebrated a major shopping event called Singles Day where both JD and Alibaba racked up billions of dollars in e-commerce sales. The spending habits of Chinese consumers have attracted many Western brands, including luxury names, to sell in China. U.S. technology companies that want a piece of the China pie need to take a long-term view and that could mean developing some of their intellectual property in the world's second largest economy, said the chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft Greater China Region on Wednesday. American companies should be prepared to invest in research and development over a period of time and be open to working with local partners to bring various technologies to market, Alain Crozier told CNBC's Deirdre Bosa during a fireside chat at the East Tech West conference held in the Nansha district of Guangzhou, . "You have to invest," Crozier said. "Investing means, at some point, some of your (intellectual property) is going to be developed here. So, you need to not have this fear that everything is going to go the negative way. I think that's a very important one." The United States has previously accused China of widespread intellectual property theft and said it costs the U.S. between $225 billion and $600 billion every year. If you just come (to China) for business, I think your challenges are going to be way bigger. Alain Crozier chairman and CEO of Microsoft Greater China Region China is home to Microsoft's largest research and development center outside the U.S. It's where researchers focus on technology areas that are crucial to the company's long-term strategy, such as artificial intelligence. Besides investing in research, companies need to contribute to the domestic technology environment and it extends beyond just doing business, and includes nurturing talent, and working with partners, Crozier said. Many former Microsoft employees left the tech giant to start their own companies in China or play important roles in others for example, ByteDance, which started a popular Chinese social media app, has a research arm that's headed by a former Microsoft Research Asia executive. Typically, U.S. tech companies work with local partners in order to sell in China. For its part, he explained, Microsoft works with thousands of partners in the country to bring some of its own, as well as competitive technologies, to market together. "If you just come here for business, I think your challenges are going to be way bigger," he said. Doing things differently in China One thing that Microsoft competitors Facebook and Google need to understand is that some of the ways of doing business in China are slightly different, according to Crozier. Recently, Google drew widespread criticism from its own employees when it was reported that the company was secretly working on a search app that restricts content banned by Beijing. The tech giant originally withdrew its search service from China in 2010 due to increased concerns about cyber attacks and censorship. Microsoft is developing a specific version of Windows for the Chinese government and some state-owned enterprises, Crozier said. He explained that it was not possible for a tech company to sell the same products in various parts of the world because buyers, including governments, want to exert some sort of control over the technologies they use. Saudi Arabia' oil minister and chairman of Saudi Aramco Khalid A. Al-Falih arrives as Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman meets Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May in Downing Street in London, March 7, 2018. Saudi Arabia will likely move to cut its oil output in order to prop up crude prices, against Donald Trump's demands to keep pumping so that prices stay low. Analysts believe that despite Washington's geopolitical leverage over the kingdom, after its staunch defense of the Saudi monarchy amid accusations over its alleged role in the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Riyadh will still pursue its own economic interests rather than abide by the wishes of President Trump. The pivotal question hanging over oil markets remains that of production cutbacks. Who will tighten their taps, and by how much? The answers to these questions will be negotiated by the world's largest crude producers Russia, Saudi Arabia and the U.S. at this week's G-20 meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and then at the OPEC+ meeting in Vienna, Austria, the following week. The spectrum is huge, ranging from a potential 500,000 to as many as 2 million barrels per day (bpd) taken off the market, according to Ehsan Khoman, head of MENA research and strategy at the Dubai branch of Japanese bank MUFG. "Saudi Arabia will likely see through the pressure and not entertain calls from President Trump, and in fact lower production," he said. "The key question now is the size and magnitude of the actual production cuts for each of the OPEC members." In November 2016, when OPEC and non-OPEC members initially implemented production cuts to stem falling prices and end the supply glut, roughly 1.8 million barrels came off the market. "This time around, given the large oversupply we have in the market, we think anything between 1.3 and 1.5 million barrels could come off the market when they meet in Vienna," Khoman told CNBC's "Capital Connection" on Wednesday. Facebook has invested $1 million in CodePath.org, a nonprofit that provides computer science education to female and minority students at universities around the country. The investment announcement comes one day after the company was publicly criticized by Mark Luckie, a former employee who said Facebook has "a black people problem." "CodePath.org is doing something unique by offering free, remote computer science courses that will serve from freshman to senior year," said Christian McIntire, Facebook's lead for computer science education initiatives, in a statement provided to CNBC. "They have the potential to help build one of the largest pipelines of high-performing, diverse software engineers for the industry." Since launching its university program three years ago, CodePath.org has taught 1,700 students across 30 universities. The investment from Facebook will allow the organization to quadruple the number of students taught per semester, CodePath.org founder Michael Ellison wrote Wednesday. CodePath.org's program is offered at schools with high diversity, Ellison said. Schools that offer CodePath.org's program include Jackson State University, Mississippi State and Texas A&M, Ellison said. "The funding will also allow us to create courses that target underrepresented minorities and women during their freshman year and expand our number of college partners," Ellison wrote. The courses are taught on campus over 12 weeks for academic credit, and afterward, students are matched with CodePath.org's internship partners, which includes Facebook, Ellison said. There is, however, a possibility that Facebook will not accept any CodePath.org students into internships, Facebook's McIntire told CNBC. "It's not guaranteed. They have to earn that internship like anyone else," McIntire said. "We think the program will prepare students well to be competitive in that process." Although CodePath.org is "an excellent program," this investment will not do anything to change the way those groups are treated once they are hired by Facebook, Luckie told CNBC in an interview Wednesday. "Facebook needs to step up and talk about the things it's doing internally to create an inclusive space rather than just fixing the pipeline," Luckie said. "What my post called them out on is not being addressed so far, and the lack of response from non-black executives is very telling of the problems I outlined." Ellison told CNBC that the timing of the announcement was purely coincidental and has been in the works for six months. Facebook has previously worked with CodePath.org to train its own employees and it has supported the organization's student program for years, he said. "I see our close partnership as an opportunity to collaborate together to help set an example," Ellison said. "It's more important for organizations like ours to double down and work more closely so the people who are leading these organizations can benefit from our insight and our work on the ground." Tyson Timbs holds a photo of his vehicle seized after a drug arrest. Source: Institute for Justice A former heroin addict appears poised to win a major legal victory at the Supreme Court after a day of argument in which the justices appeared deeply skeptical of the case against him. The case could have a substantial impact on the ability of states and cities to collect criminal fines and fees and to seize assets, a growing source of revenue for governments around the country. The fees, which often fund the court systems and police departments that extract them, fall disproportionately on minority populations and poor people. Tyson Timbs pleaded guilty five years ago to selling a few hundred dollars' worth of heroin to undercover police officers in Indiana. A court sentenced him to one year of home confinement, five years of probation, and about $1,000 in fines and other fees. They also took his $42,000 Land Rover. Timbs bought the car with some of the life insurance money he was issued following the death of his father. He spent the rest of the money, about $30,000, on heroin, using the Range Rover to shuttle it to Indiana from out of state. On Wednesday, Timbs appeared at court to ask for the car back. He argued that he's protected from the seizure by the 8th Amendment's protection against excessive fines. During an hour of argument, the justices appeared inclined to rule in his favor. That would move him one step closer to getting his car back and deliver a victory to the bipartisan slate of civil society and business groups who supported him. The Bill of Rights and the states Ultimately, the case boils down to whether the 8th Amendment applies to the states. Most elements of the Bill of Rights have been incorporated over the years, but not all of them. Most recently, the Supreme Court said the 2nd Amendment protected gun owners from certain state gun control efforts in the landmark 2010 ruling McDonald v. Chicago. A state court sided with Timbs and found that the forfeiture of the car was disproportionate to the crime he committed, citing Indiana's maximum fine of $10,000 for any felony. But the top court in Indiana reversed that ruling, saying the excessive fines provision had never been incorporated. On Wednesday, justices on the Supreme Court seemed to have little patience for that argument. Indiana's solicitor general, Thomas Fisher, faced tough questions from virtually every justice on the bench, including both of President Donald Trump's nominees to the high court, Neal Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. He seemed to fail to deliver satisfactory responses. "Most of the incorporation cases took place in, like, the 1940s," Gorsuch said. "And here we are in 2018 still litigating incorporation of the Bill of Rights. Really? Come on, General." Kavanaugh, who was confirmed to the court last month, seemed to share Gorsuch's frustration. "Isn't it just too late in the day to argue that any of the Bill of Rights is not incorporated?" he asked. State and federal courts are divided about whether the 8th Amendment applies to states. High courts in Montana, Mississippi, Michigan and Indiana have said that it does not, while at least 14 states have said it does. Fines weigh on small biz, poor communities States have grown increasingly reliant on fines and fees, as well as asset forfeiture, to supplement tax collection in recent years. In a brief, the American Civil Liberties Union wrote that 48 states have increased their criminal fees since 2010. In some cities, fines account for 10 percent or more of total revenue. The impact of fees and asset forfeiture on individuals can be calamitous. Most states permit suspending the driver licenses of those who fail to meet their payments, which can lead to lost work, missed medical appointments, or worse. Ten million people owe a collective $50 billion in fines, fees and forfeitures, according to a 2017 report from Harvard Kennedy School and the National Institute of Justice. The controversy over forfeitures gained steam after the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown, a black 18-year-old, by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. A Justice Department investigation of the police department that followed the shooting found that the emphasis on revenue collection "has compromised the institutional character of Ferguson's police department, contributing to a pattern of unconstitutional policing" and inflicted unnecessary harm on the population of the city. Meanwhile, the Chamber of Commerce, a conservative business group, said the fines are hitting small businesses and strangling economic growth. 'Things don't have rights' Jim Breyer, an early investor in Facebook and the cryptocurrency Ethereum, said he thinks investors should reset their expectations when it comes to returns on venture capital in China. "There are segments that are extremely healthy. There are many more which are undergoing very significant valuation downdrafts as well as consolidation," he told CNBC's Geoff Cutmore at the East West Tech conference in the Nansha district of Guangzhou, China. "We are no longer, I believe, in a market where people by expectation will consider 8, 10, 12 percent or more per year, many times after tax, to be a ballpark estimate of what they're trying to do for their funds," said Breyer, founder and CEO of global venture capital firm Breyer Capital. He now foresees a "more profound change in what expectations should be" in the near future. China's industry has witnessed an influx of money from state funds over the past eight years, but that boom may not last long, he warned. "There has been an abundance of capital with an abundance of opportunity, and these kinds of trends generally don't last and in many cases, they end badly." Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks on stage during the annual Google I/O developers conference in Mountain View, California, May 8, 2018. Google CEO Sundar Pichai is expected to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Dec. 5 to discuss transparency and potential bias on the platform, according to a release from the committee. Google previously declined an invitation for Pichai or his boss, Alphabet CEO and Google co-founder Larry Page, to appear before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Tech peers Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter and Square, and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg attended. The committee left an empty chair for Google. Pichai later talked to members of Congress in a private session. Now, the Google CEO will have to face lawmakers to defend its practices. The company has been accused of skewing search results against conservative viewpoints and has been criticized for its consideration of creating a censored version of its platform to re-enter the Chinese market. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said in statement that Google's vast reach requires the company to be responsible with its users. "Unfortunately, recent reports suggest Google might not be wielding its vast power impartially," McCarthy said. "Its business practices may have been affected by political bias. Additionally, reports claim the company is compromising its core principles by complying with repressive censorship mandates from China." "Online technology is now an integral part of most Americans' modern lifestyle," House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said in a statement. "It has globalized society and made it possible for people to connect across continents, explore vast amounts of information, and share meaningful dialogue with friends. However, the technology behind online services like social media and Internet search engines can also be used to suppress particular viewpoints and manipulate public opinion." Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube. Google's super-simple and cheap cellphone service will now work with a broader selection of devices, including iPhones from arch-rival Apple. Google Fi (formerly known as Project Fi) is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), which means that instead of just using one of the "big four" carriers, it automatically jumps between several cellular networks depending on which has better service. Fi hops between Sprint, T-Mobile, and US Cellular, and also favors Wi-Fi whenever possible, including for calls and texts. The main appeal of Google Fi is a simple pricing scheme that, depending on a person's usage habits, can end up being cheaper than any of the bigger carriers. It costs $20 for unlimited calling and texting, and $10 per gigabyte of data. Users get money back for whatever data they don't use, and data usage over 6 GB is free (though Google will throttle speeds after users hit 15 GB). It also has no roaming fees in more than 170 locations. But despite the simplicity and appealing pricing, Google Fi wasn't very useful because it only worked with a very small number of phones, namely from Motorola and Google's own Pixel line. WATCH: Google's newest Pixel phones have fantastic features, but they come at a high price He has made it a particular point of emphasis as he stokes fears about a so-called caravan of Central American migrants seeking asylum in the United States. Trump has used immigration as perhaps his main tactic to rile up the Republican political base. Trump has spoiled for a fight over the wall for more than a year. As the potential political damage of a shutdown has lessened after the midterm elections, the president has seemed increasingly open to letting funding lapse to make a statement. Trump has pushed for $5 billion in U.S. funding for his proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border despite his repeated campaign pledge to force Mexico to fund the barrier. Democrats appear reluctant to agree to that sum, the biggest remaining sticking point in the talks. The president told congressional Republicans on Tuesday that he will not back down from the $5 billion demand, according to The Washington Post . As Congress has already approved money for large parts of the federal government, a partial shutdown will have limited effects on its core functions. The funding fight does have stakes for how much of the president's immigration agenda he can enact as a migrant crisis plays out at the southern border. Congress faces a Dec. 7 deadline to fund parts of the government. Trump signed spending legislation in September for five agencies, such as the departments of Defense and Health and Human Services, for the next fiscal year. But lawmakers still need to fund seven other agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security. Once again, a spat over President Donald Trump 's immigration plans has derailed talks to keep the government open. U.S. government funding may lapse next week and cause the third partial government shutdown of the year. In a Tuesday interview with Politico in which he said he would "totally be willing" to shut down the government over wall funding, Trump called the border "a total winner" as a political issue. However, he claimed he does not do anything "just for political gain." Trump's decision to send troops to the U.S. border late last month to respond to the caravan was widely considered a political move ahead of the midterms. Speaking to The Washington Post on Tuesday before the Politico interview, Trump appeared to acknowledge that he may not win the wall fight and mentioned the military as a possible backup plan. "We need Democrat votes to have a wall," Trump told the newspaper. "Now, if we don't 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." It is not clear Trump actually makes political gains from playing up immigration. The GOP lost at least 39 House seats in the Nov. 6 elections, when the president made the caravan his closing message. Republicans gained two Senate seats while running on their most favorable map in years: Democrats and independents who caucus with them defended 26 seats, compared with nine for the GOP. Lawmakers in both parties have shown little appetite for a shutdown as a new Congress starts in January and Democrats get set to take control of the House. Still, Democrats do not want to give up too much to Trump and the GOP needs nine Democratic votes in the current Senate to pass spending bills. House Speaker Paul Ryan said Tuesday that the current GOP-held House has the support to pass the $5 billion in funding Trump desires. He added that "we hope the Senate comes with us." On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., tweeted that bipartisan senators have a "months-old agreement" to approve $1.6 billion "for border security, NOT a concrete wall or increases in detention beds or [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents." Schumer told reporters that his party would not agree to more border security funding. "If there's any shutdown, it's on President Trump's back," he said. Schumer and fellow Democrats have faced backlash from the party base for agreeing to any new border security money. Images of migrants, including children, getting tear gassed as they tried to cross the border illegally near San Diego over the weekend only emboldened Democrats against compromise. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi could also face some rebellion within her caucus if she agrees to the $1.6 billion in border security funding. She is trying and appears close to success to hold off a pocket of opposition to her bid to become House speaker in January. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., added another hurdle for Trump on Wednesday. He said "it's going to be hard for me to vote for any spending bill" until he gets a CIA briefing on the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, according to NBC News. The Washington Post contributor was killed inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul last month. Trump has promised to stand by the Saudi government despite the CIA's assessment that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman likely ordered Khashoggi's killing. Both of the brief shutdowns in January and February of this year also related to immigration. Democrats wanted legal protections and a potential path to citizenship for young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children. But they considered Trump's demands for border security funding and restrictions on legal immigration too steep. Polling has found most voters do not agree with Trump's desire to shut down the government over the border wall. Fifty-five percent of voters said a shutdown is not worth it, while only 31 percent said it was, according to a Morning Consult poll released last week. Not even a majority of GOP voters want a shutdown over the wall. Forty-nine percent believe it is worth it, while 34 percent think it is not, the survey found. Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube. House Democrats nominated Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to be the next House speaker on Wednesday, giving the longtime party leader a vote of confidence amid rebellion from some members of the caucus. She still needs to win a majority in a roll call vote on the House floor on Jan. 3, when her party will take control of the chamber for the first time in eight years. Some Democrats expect to oppose Pelosi's bid for speaker after calling for new leadership. Pelosi earned the nomination by a 203-32 margin Wednesday. The 32 votes of opposition would be enough to sink her bid on the House floor, but some of those members will likely support her in January. When Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, challenged her for minority leader in 2016, he garnered 63 votes. Pelosi, the first woman to serve as House speaker, would take over the post she last held in 2011. On Wednesday afternoon, she said, "It was so inspiring to hear my colleagues place my name in nomination once again" for speaker. She ran unopposed for the nomination. While numerous current and incoming Democratic lawmakers initially opposed Pelosi's bid for speaker, a serious challenge to the California Democrat never materialized. Asked about the whip count for the upcoming speaker vote, Pelosi responded, "I think we're in pretty good shape." Earlier Wednesday, the leaders of the Pelosi opposition Democratic Reps. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, Kathleen Rice of New York and Ryan met with the minority leader ahead of caucus leadership votes. After the talks, Moulton said "no agreement was reached" about a leadership transition. "We are hopeful Leader Pelosi will invite us back to the table to plan for the future success of the Democratic Party," he said in a statement. Also Wednesday, the Democratic members of the Problem Solvers Caucus a bipartisan group of lawmakers who cast themselves as centrist said they reached a deal to support Pelosi for speaker in conjunction with rules changes. The group says the tweaks will help to cut through gridlock in Congress. Pelosi, 78, has led House Democrats for 16 years, prompting some members of the caucus to call for a younger leader. But no serious challenger surfaced. Pelosi's allies also questioned the need to replace her after the party gained at least 39 GOP-held House seats in the Nov. 6 midterms to take a majority. The longtime leader is known for her fundraising prowess. Democrats will hold at least 234 seats in the House starting in January, with one contest, California's 21st District, still undecided. With 234 Democratic seats, Pelosi could lose 16 members of her caucus and still become speaker. Exactly 16 members signed on to a letter opposing her speakership after the midterms, but some of those representatives have since supported the minority leader. Still, some current or incoming lawmakers who opposed Pelosi on Wednesday said they would not budge. Rep. Conor Lamb, D-Pa., said he would vote against the leader on the floor, arguing "we need new leadership to put the partisan gridlock behind us." Democratic Rep.-elect Max Rose of New York also pledged to oppose Pelosi in January, saying "we need to show the American people that we've heard their call for change." Democrats also elected Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., as House majority leader. Hoyer, 79, previously held the post during Pelosi's tenure as speaker. The party chose Rep. Jim Clyburn, R-S.C., for majority whip, the third ranking leadership position. The 78-year-old also served in that role the last time the Democrats held the House. Democrats looking for a younger generation of leaders saw at least one positive development Wednesday. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, a 48-year-old from New York, narrowly defeated 72-year-old Rep. Barbara Lee of California in the race to become Democratic caucus chairman. Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube. If one CEO's outlook holds up, offline retailers may have a very limited future. The consumer will deal directly with a manufacturer, potentially leaving out retailers, predicts Chen Xiaodong, CEO of Intime, an e-commerce platform run by Alibaba. "Before, the controlling rights belonged to the retailer, but in the future it will shift to the manufacturer," Chen told CNBC's Arjun Kharpal. "The consumer will still be there, the manufacturer will still be there, but we need to consider who will be between these parties?" A department store or a shopping mall will become a warehouse in the future, Chen said. Chen was speaking at CNBC's East Tech West conference in the Nansha district of Guangzhou, China, where overseas and Chinese tech leaders have gathered to discuss the future of artificial intelligence, financial technology, cybersecurity, blockchain and other cutting-edge technologies. Jing Ulrich, MD & Vice Chairman of Asia Pacific of JPMorgan Chase, speaks during Fireside Chat on Day 1 of CNBC East Tech West at LN Garden Hotel Nansha Guangzhou on November 27, 2018 in Nansha, Guangzhou, China. More start-ups valued at $1 billion or more so-called "unicorns" are coming to China within the next five years, a J.P. Morgan Chase executive said on Wednesday. "We are very excited about the prospects for technology in China," said Jing Ulrich, managing director and vice chairman for Asia Pacific at the investment banking giant. In particular, China is "really leading the way globally" in the realms of artificial intelligence, "new-energy" vehicles and electronic payments, Ulrich said at CNBC's East Tech West conference in the Nansha district of Guangzhou, China. "I would say in the next three to five years, in some of these verticals, you will have a number of unicorns and super-unicorns emerging, and they should be very, very popular among investors globally," Ulrich said. Unicorns are commonly defined as start-ups valued at $1 billion or more. Ulrich's upbeat assessment comes amid an intense trade fight between Beijing and Washington. Investors will closely watch a weekend meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina. People are fascinated by wealth, but do they really understand it? For instance, publications like Forbes and Bloomberg publish running lists of the world's richest people multi-billionaires like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos ($131 billion net worth, according to Bloomberg), Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates ($94 billion) and investor Warren Buffett ($87 billion). But, while many of us are endlessly intrigued by how these titans of industry managed to amass their eye-popping wealth, it can be difficult for the average person to fully appreciate just how much money that really is. Fortunately, renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has a handy way of explaining the massive gap between the average person's net worth and that of a person like Bill Gates. In order to illustrate just how wealthy Gates is compared to the average person, deGrasse Tyson tells CNBC Make It that he once did an experiment to determine how much found money would need to be laying on the street for someone as wealthy as Gates to take the time to bend over and pick it up. Tyson uses himself finding a penny as an example: "Since I have a stable job and a car, the penny I'm not bending down to pick up the penny," deGrasse Tyson, who is director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York and the host of "StarTalk" on National Geographic Channel tells CNBC Make It. "Let somebody else get that." "Same with a nickel. [A] dime? If I'm not in a hurry, I'm picking up the dime; in a hurry, I'm walking past. "A quarter I'm picking up every time." So what about Gates? When deGrasse Tyson did the experiment in 2011, Gates' net worth was around $50 billion, deGrasse Tyson tells CNBC Make It. The astrophysicist did a calculation that took into account his own personal net worth compared to Gates' considerably larger assets, and he then used that ratio to determine Gates' version of the quarter that deGrasse Tyson would be willing to pick up. The answer: Gates would not pick up anything less than $45,000, the scientist tells CNBC Make It. For some added perspective, the median household income in the U.S. was just over $61,000 last year, so $45,000 would be nearly three-quarters of the median income for an American household. "So, if there's a wad of cash, $45,000, in the street, [Gates might say] 'No, I'm too busy, let someone else pick that up!'" deGrasse Tyson says while chuckling. "That's how much wealth $50 billion is, because the $45,000 is not even worth bending over to pick up." Now, of course, Gates' net worth is nearly double what it was seven years ago, so it's likely that it would take closer to six figures to get the former Microsoft CEO to stop walking. Don't Miss: Neil deGrasse Tyson: Why Elon Musk is more important than Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg What Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates was doing at 20 years old Like this story? Subscribe to CNBC Make It on YouTube! Danish energy firm Orsted has unveiled an "extensive investment program" that will see it invest around 200 billion Danish krone ($30.26 billion) in green energy between 2019 and 2025. Breaking the figures down, Orsted said that investments in offshore wind farms were expected to make up 75 to 85 percent of the program, with onshore investments accounting for 15 to 20 percent. Bioenergy and customer solutions were expected to represent 0 to 5 percent of the spending. "Today, our portfolio consists of 11.9 GW (gigawatts) of offshore and onshore wind farms and biomass-fired combined heat and power plants that are either in production, under construction or have been given final investment decision," Henrik Poulsen, Orsted's CEO and president, said in a statement Wednesday. "Towards 2030, it's our strategic ambition to reach an installed capacity of more than 30GW, provided that the build-out creates value for our shareholders," Poulsen added. "As an important step, we're raising our 2025 ambition for offshore wind from 11-12 GW to 15 GW." Orsted is a world leader in offshore wind. In September, the business officially opened the Walney Extension Offshore Wind Farm, the world's largest operational offshore wind facility. Located in the Irish Sea, it has a total capacity of 659 megawatts and is capable of powering nearly 600,000 homes in the U.K. Orsted owns 50 percent of the project, with Danish pension funds PFA and PKA owning 25 percent each. Europe as a whole is a major player in the offshore wind sector. It is home to more than 4,000 offshore wind turbines across 11 countries, according to trade body WindEurope. Thirteen new offshore wind farms were completed in 2017, including the world's first floating offshore wind farm, Hywind Scotland, located 25 kilometers off the coast of Peterhead, Aberdeenshire. WATCH: Here's what drives the price of oil Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during the State Awards Ceremony at the Kremlin on November 27, 2018 in Moscow, Russia. According to the Kremlin, Putin is planning to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump at the G20 Summit in Argentina at the end of this week. Ukraine is responsible for provoking a dispute with Russia in which the federation seized several Ukrainian ships on Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday. "This is a dirty game within the country (Ukraine)," Putin said, addressing an audience of business people and investors at VTB Bank's 'Russia Calling' investment forum in Moscow. "It is a provocation initiated by the current authorities, and I think by the (Ukrainian) president, in light of the upcoming elections to be held next year... The incident in the Black Sea happened, it is a border incident, no more," he said. Ukraine had used the incident as a pretext to introduce martial law, he said. Putin's comments come after Russia ramped up its dispute with Ukraine on Sunday when it seized three Ukrainian navy vessels and their crew members in the Kerch Strait, a channel of water that links the Sea of Azov and Black Sea and one that's crucial for both nations' economies. Ukraine said the incident was an "act of aggression," while Russia said the ships had entered its territorial waters illegally, an allegation Putin repeated. Both sides accuse the other of violating the conditions of a 2003 treaty that enshrines free access to the Kerch Strait and Sea of Azov. Putin said Wednesday that Ukraine's action was "undoubtedly a provocation" designed to boost Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's popularity ratings ahead of a presidential election in March 2019. Russia is still laboring under international sanctions for its 2014 annexation of Crimea and role (which it denies) in a pro-Russian uprising in the east of Ukraine the same year. Those sanctions, which target Russian individuals, entities and sectors separately, could be extended beyond the current expiry dates in 2019. On Tuesday, Poroshenko warned that Russia would face serious consequences if it attacks Ukraine, telling NBC News that Moscow would pay a "huge price" if it did so. Ukrainian soldier stands guard aboard military boat called 'Dondass' moored in Mariupol, Sea of Azov port on November 27, 2018. - Three Ukrainian navy vessels were seized off the coast of Crimea by Russian forces, which fired on and boarded Kiev's ships after several tense hours of confrontation. Here's what is known about Sunday's incident. SEGA VOLSKII | AFP | Getty Images Ukraine's president has created an "artificial conflict" with Russia just to boost his chances in a presidential election set to happen in Ukraine in March next year, the president and chairman of Russia's VTB Bank has claimed. "I think you should look for somebody that benefits from this and actually it's Mr Poroshenko, the president of Ukraine, definitely," Andrey Kostin told CNBC at VTB's Russia Calling Investment Forum on Wednesday. "The original idea of his was to postpone elections as it looks from public opinion polls that he won't perform very well, so creating this additional tension that has led to a martial law (and to a situation) where he might extend his presidency," he told CNBC's Julianna Tatelbaum. "That's our point of view, it's a very artificial conflict," he said. Kostin's comments come as the international spotlight has once again fallen on Russia following its seizure of three Ukrainian naval vessels, and 23 crew members, on Sunday. The incident happened in the Kerch Strait, a channel that separates the Sea of Azov and Black Sea, to the south of Ukraine and Russia. Ukraine said the incident was an "act of aggression," while Russia said the ships had entered its territorial waters illegally. Both sides accuse the other of violating the conditions of a 2003 treaty that enshrines free access to the Kerch Strait and Sea of Azov. Ukraine's president has responded by declaring a 30-day period of martial law in certain parts of the country, specifically in districts bordering Russia. He also said there is a threat of Russia staging a land invasion. VTB's Kostin said that Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko was manufacturing the conflict ahead of a presidential election due end of March 2019, however. "We've lived like this with Ukraine for years now and now all of a sudden, just a couple of months before elections, this has happened," he said. CNBC got in touch with Ukraine's presidential office to respond to Kostin's comments but has yet to receive a response. President Poroshenko told NBC News on Tuesday that Russia would "pay a huge price" if it attacked his country. New low The latest episode marks a new low for Russia and Ukraine. Relations between the neighbors have been frosty, to say the least, since Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and supported a pro-Russian uprising in east Ukraine in the same year although the Kremlin denied any involvement. Needless to say, Russia's actions provoked international condemnation and a range of U.S. and European sanctions targeting individuals, entities and certain sectors (including financial, energy and defense), were imposed on Russia. These were extended recently until various points in 2019 and the latest provocation with Ukraine certainly won't help to persuade the U.S. and Europe from potentially extending punitive measures designed to punish Russia and anyone else seen to have played a role in the Ukraine crisis. VTB Bank has not been unscathed by Ukraine-related sanctions either, and neither has Andrey Kostin, who is seen as a close associate of President Putin, are both subject to sanctions. A soldier with Battery Echo, 62nd Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 69th Air Defense Artillery Brigade shows the members of the brigade staff around the training area developed specifically for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense weapon system, Sept. 20 at Fort Hood, Texas. Manufactured by Lockheed Martin, the Pentagon's top weapons supplier, THAAD, or terminal high altitude area defense, is regarded as America's crown jewel in missile defense systems. Saudi officials, alongside their U.S. counterparts, signed the crucial government-to-government agreement earlier this week, paving the way for the massive sale of 44 THAAD launchers, missiles and related equipment. WASHINGTON Saudi Arabia has signed a letter of offer and acceptance with the United States for Lockheed Martin 's THAAD missile system, a significant step forward in the $15 billion deal, a State Department spokesperson confirmed to CNBC. The Saudi Embassy did not respond immediately to CNBC's request for comment. The development comes as Saudi Arabia is under fire over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as well as its role in the war in Yemen. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has cited the importance of defense deals in defending his decision to stick with the kingdom in the aftermath of the slaying. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has denied knowledge of the attack, although the CIA reportedly concluded that he ordered Khashoggi's death. Read more: Limits on Saudi arms deals would have little impact on defense firms Saudi Arabia and the U.S. entered formal discussions for THAAD in December 2016. "After completing required congressional notifications in 2017, followed by many months of negotiation, signing letters of offer and acceptance marks a step toward protecting the United States and its regional partners from Iranian-origin missiles," said the State Department spokesperson, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "The sale of the THAAD missile defense system benefits U.S. national security by supporting the long-term security of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region in the face of the growing ballistic missile threat from the Iranian regime and Iran-backed extremist groups," the spokesperson added. Thomas Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, echoed those notions. "It's a big step forward to strengthening missile defense capabilities in the Gulf, in a couple of ways," he said. "Besides probably being the largest missile defense sale to date, it also represents an important political commitment by both the U.S. and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to counter Iranian ballistic missiles by every means possible." Read more: Russia lures buyers with a missile system that costs less than U.S. models Saudi Arabia's oil-rich monarchy is one of America's most crucial strategic partners and a significant patron of U.S. defense companies. The Saudis are the top buyers of U.S.-made arms, a title that has safeguarded the kingdom from retaliatory sanctions over the killing of Khashoggi and the war in Yemen. In an extraordinary statement last week, Trump affirmed that the U.S. would continue to stand with Saudi Arabia, linking the countries' relationship to his "America first" platform. Trump also has commented on the potential impact to defense suppliers if the U.S. were to sanction the Saudis over the Khashoggi killing. "I tell you what I don't want to do," Trump said to CBS' "60 Minutes" last month, when he was asked about possibly blocking arms sales to Riyadh. "Boeing, Lockheed, Raytheon, all these [companies]. I don't want to hurt jobs. I don't want to lose an order like that. There are other ways of punishing, to use a word that's a pretty harsh word, but it's true." WATCH: House Dems to investigate Trump's financial ties to Saudi Arabia Special counsel Robert Mueller (2nd L) leaves after a closed meeting with members of the Senate Judiciary Committee June 21, 2017 at the Capitol in Washington, DC. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, objected to the attempt to bring the bill forward, citing late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia as he argued that passing the legislation would be "fundamentally undermining the principle of separation of powers that is so core to our liberty." An effort by GOP Sen. Jeff Flake and Democratic Sens. Chris Coons and Cory Booker to force a full vote on a bill designed to protect special counsel Robert Mueller was blocked Wednesday. Each of the senators backing the bill said that Mueller's investigation has been threatened by President Donald Trump. "We know that the special counsel is in danger," Booker said on the Senate floor. The bipartisan bill has received glimmers of support from Republicans legislation protecting Mueller even passed the Republican-held Senate Judiciary Committee. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., had already told reporters on Tuesday that he would "probably" block it once again. Speaking on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Wednesday, Delaware's Coons said Trump posed a threat to the ongoing Russia probe. "I don't know what would give me the idea that President Trump might suddenly do something unpredictable, except that he does it almost every day," Coons said. Legislation protecting the special counsel "is the easiest way possible to prevent an entirely predictable constitutional crisis," Coons added. Flake, who is leaving his Arizona Senate seat at the end of his term, has become one of Trump's loudest critics in his own party. He has also emerged as one of the Senate's staunchest defenders of Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and potential coordination between Russia and Trump campaign-related figures. "This bill is designed to do one thing: protect the integrity of the Special Counsel's investigation, and spare it of any interference from the executive branch, including from those who may themselves be subjects of the investigation," Flake said on the Senate floor earlier in November. Trump has repeatedly said there was no collusion between his campaign and the Kremlin and has tried to discredit the probe, calling it a "witch hunt." The special counsel declined CNBC's request for comment on the legislation. A spokesman for McConnell referred CNBC to the majority leader's remarks on the bill Tuesday. While Flake has at times been accused of grandstanding by his detractors, he took a step beyond mere rhetoric in November by refusing to vote to advance Trump's judicial nominees in the Judiciary Committee a threat Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said has been taken into account. Asked by journalists Tuesday if there will be a vote on the bill in order to end Flake's blockade during the lame-duck session, Cornyn replied, "If that's what it's going to take, yeah." He said Senate leadership is checking the balance of favor on the bill now "to see where people are to give us an idea of what the outcome would be." A bill protecting the special counsel passed the committee in April with unanimous support from the Judiciary panel's 10 Democrats. GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa joined Flake in support of advancing the bill. But when Flake on Nov. 14 asked for consent from the Senate to bring the bill forward, McConnell shot it down. The retiring Arizona senator retaliated by vowing not to vote on Trump's judicial nominees until his legislation comes to a vote in the full Senate. Meanwhile, Trump has amped up his attacks on the special counsel. "Wait until it comes out how horribly & viciously they are treating people, ruining lives for them refusing to lie," Trump wrote in a furious series of tweets Tuesday. "Mueller is a conflicted prosecutor gone rogue." Trump tweet On Tuesday, McConnell shrugged off concerns that Trump would axe Mueller. "This is a solution in search of a problem. The president is not going to fire Robert Mueller, nor do I think he should, nor do I think he should not be allowed to finish," McConnell told reporters. "We have a lot of things to do to try to finish up this year without taking votes on things that are completely irrelevant to outcomes." Asked specifically if he would block the bill again, McConnell replied: "I probably would, yeah." McConnell said the Senate has other pressing issues to address, including the president's judicial nominations and avoiding a possible government shutdown by approving a year-end spending package. If Mueller were to be fired, the bill would require the attorney general to provide a specific reason for the removal. It would also allow the special counsel to challenge his firing in federal court and would save all of Mueller's work compiled before his firing. Some conservatives have argued that such a law would violate the separation of powers enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. "I think it's an unconstitutional bill and forgets the lessons we learned from independent counsel in the past like with Watergate," Cornyn said Tuesday. The push to protect Mueller comes amid a flurry of new developments in Mueller's probe. On Monday, Mueller's attorneys wrote in a Washington, D.C., federal court filing that Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, lied to the FBI on a "variety" of topics after striking a plea deal in September. Manafort, who is currently in jail, was convicted in August on eight felony counts lodged by the special counsel in Virginia federal court. The charges related largely to his past work for a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine, which he performed years prior to joining the Trump campaign. It is not yet clear what Manafort is alleged to have lied about. His lawyers maintain in the court filing that Manafort "believes he has provided truthful information." A day later, The New York Times reported that one of Manafort's lawyers briefed Trump's own attorneys about the ex-campaign chief's discussions with federal investigators. Those briefs were provided after Manafort agreed to the plea deal, the Times reported. Also on Tuesday, The Guardian published a bombshell report that Manafort held multiple clandestine meetings with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy in London between 2013 and 2016. Manafort, in a statement Tuesday evening, called the report "totally false and deliberately libelous." Advocates for the bill to protect Mueller have also raised alarms about Trump's pick to temporarily replace former Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, whose appointment was announced less than a day after the Nov. 6 midterm elections, has been denounced as a "loyalist" for Trump and a critic of the special counsel. Just a few months after the special counsel was appointed, Whitaker, a former U.S. attorney in Iowa, penned an op-ed for CNN arguing that the probe is "dangerously close to crossing" the so-called red line not to look into the Trump family's finances. Graham told reporters on Nov. 15 that Whitaker assured him during a closed-door meeting that Mueller was handling the investigation appropriately, as far as he has seen. Coons, on "Morning Joe" on Tuesday, said lawmakers of both parties "have privately agreed that Whitaker is a less reliable supervisor and may well stumble into interfering with the Mueller investigation." Check out the companies making headlines before the bell: Dick's Sporting Goods The sporting goods retailer earned 39 cents per share for its latest quarter, 13 cents a share above estimates. Revenue was essentially in line with forecasts and Dick's raised its full-year forecast. Tiffany The luxury goods retailer matched estimates with quarterly profit of 77 cents per share. Revenue was slightly below Wall Street forecasts, with comparable-store sale also shy of estimates. Tiffany also reiterated its prior full-year earnings forecast. J.M. Smucker Smucker reported adjusted quarterly profit of $2.17 per share, 17 cents a share below estimates. Revenue also fell short, and the food maker also cut its full-year forecast amid what it calls a competitive environment and lower pricing. Salesforce.com Salesforce reported adjusted quarterly profit of 61 cents per share, beating consensus estimates by a penny a share. The business software maker's revenue also beat forecasts, but it gave a mixed outlook. Salesforce's current-quarter earnings guidance is below expectations, but it is forecasting 2020 revenue above consensus as more companies subscribe to its cloud-based service. Humana The health insurer announced an accelerated $750 million stock repurchase program, and also raised its estimate of membership growth for its individual Medicare Advantage products. Barnes & Noble In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Executive Chairman Leonard Riggio said he is evaluating and may participate in a potential sale of the book retailer. Riggio is Barnes & Noble's largest shareholder. Sleep Number Sleep Number will have to face a defamation lawsuit first filed 11 years ago by rival mattress retailer Mattress Firm. A federal appeals court has revived the lawsuit, overturning a dismissal by a lower court judge. Teva Pharmaceutical Teva is recalling certain combinations involving its blood pressure drug valsartan in the U.S. That follows the detection of an impurity that could cause cancer, although the FDA said there that Teva had not received any reports of adverse events related to the issue. Amazon.com Amazon has begun selling software that scrutinizes medical records for information that could be used to generate more effective treatment as well as cut costs. Alaska Air Alaska Air was added to the "Conviction Buy List" at Goldman Sachs, which points to several positive factors for the airline including a favorable 2019 cost outlook. Nutanix Nutanix lost 13 cents per share for its fiscal first quarter, less than half of the 27 cents a share loss that analysts had anticipated, and the cloud software provider also saw revenue come in above estimates. Campbell Soup Campbell could name food industry veteran Mark Clouse as its next CEO, according to the Wall Street Journal quoting people familiar with the food company's search. Clouse had been CEO of Pinnacle Foods prior to its acquisition by Conagra Brands. Clouse is said to be the leading candidate, although the paper says there's no guarantee he'll ultimately chosen or that he'll accept the job. Whirlpool Whirlpool was downgraded from "outperform" to "neutral" at Credit Suisse, which notes that a solid pricing environment for appliances appears to be already reflected in Whirlpool's stock price. Delta Air Lines, American Airlines The two airlines were rated "positive" in new coverage at Susquehanna Financial, which also assigns "neutral" ratings to United Continental and Southwest Airlines. It rates Delta the best among legacy carriers helped by a structural advantage provided by its Atlanta hub, and it feels American has strengthened its overall network. Don't read too much into reports that Tesla sold just 211 cars in China last month, a top Chinese auto executive said Wednesday. An official from the China Passenger Car Association told Reuters on Tuesday that Tesla's China sales dropped 70 percent in October from a year earlier. Speaking at CNBC's East Tech West conference in the Nansha district of Guangzhou, China, WM Motor CEO Freeman Shen called the report "misleading information." "I doubt that number because, as a person who has been working in the Chinese auto industry for many years the Chinese Passenger Car Association is not always accurate," Shen told CNBC's Eunice Yoon. Freeman H. Shen, Founder, Chairman & CEO of WM Motor, speaks during Fireside Chat on Day 2 of CNBC East Tech West at LN Garden Hotel Nansha Guangzhou on November 28, 2018 in Nansha, Guangzhou, China. Dave Zhong/Getty Images for CNBC International Shen said China vehicle sales are "always kind of a mystery" because automakers report their data through a number of different channels. He added companies can disclose vehicle sales "at free will" with the Chinese Passenger Car Association, adding it can be "any number you want." In a statement Tuesday, a Tesla spokesperson called the October China sales plunge "wildly inaccurate," according to Reuters. A spokesperson for the Chinese Passenger Car Association wasn't immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC. A US cargo ship seen at the Yangshan Deep-Water Port, an automated cargo wharf, in Shanghai on Apr. 9, 2018. A Hong Kong property tycoon with close ties to the United States says Washington will ultimately regret waging a trade war against China. The current U.S. policy is short-sighted and destined to fail, said Ronnie Chan, chairman of Hang Lung Properties, with commercial and residential development in Hong Kong, Shanghai and other mainland cities. It will only push China to develop in a way that is ultimately against American interests, Chan said at the MIPIM Asia Summit, a real-estate industry conference in Hong Kong on Tuesday. "In fact, If you were to ask me 'who is the biggest loser in the U.S.-China trade war,' I'll tell you it's actually the United States of America," said Chan, a noted philanthropist whose family foundation pledged $350 million to Harvard University in 2014. In his view, trade is not the biggest factor for the U.S. Rather, it is Washington's longstanding concerns about China's technological development which could become a military threat, including in cyber warfare. Tiffany's stock sank 9.6 percent Wednesday after the jeweler released disappointing third-quarter sales that were hurt by weaker spending from Chinese tourists in the U.S. and Hong Kong. The luxury retailer's earnings were in line with estimates, but revenue of $1.01 billion was shy of the $1.05 billion estimate from analysts surveyed by Refinitiv. Same-store sales also fell short, with the company reporting an increase of 3 percent while Wall Street expected 5.3 percent. Europe and Japan both reported weak same-store sales. Europe saw a decline of 3 percent for the quarter, while Japan's rose by only 1 percent. Net income fell to $94.9 million, or 77 cents per share, from $100.2 million, or 80 cents per share, a year ago. The results matched Wall Street estimates. Its full year outlook remains unchanged, with Tiffany estimating it will earn $4.65 to $4.80 per share. The United States, however, was a bright spot for the retailer, which saw a 5 percent increase in same-store sales in the region. "On the sales side, we remain satisfied by Tiffany's growth especially within the American market where sales rose by 5%," Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retailer, said in an email. "Some of this is related to the strength of the economy, with the increased affluence and confidence of middle and higher income consumers helping to boost spending on jewelry." Saunders also attributed strength in the U.S. market to Tiffany's efforts to revamp its brand to appeal to younger consumers with marketing campaigns and new product lines. President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he's not ruling out a pardon for his embattled former campaign chief Paul Manafort. "It was never discussed, but I wouldn't take it off the table," the president told The New York Post in an interview. "Why would I take it off the table?" The president's remarks come shortly after special counsel Robert Mueller and Manafort broke a cooperation agreement reached as part of a September plea deal. The special counsel accused Manafort, who is facing more than a decade in prison for financial crimes, of lying on several occasions after reaching the plea deal. Also in Mueller's sights: Trump confidant Roger Stone and his associate Jerome Corsi. Both men have denied any wrongdoing. On Wednesday, Trump called the three men "very brave" and said Mueller has pressured them to lie, according to the Post. A spokesperson for the special counsel declined to comment. "I'm telling you, this is McCarthyism. We are in the McCarthy era," Trump told the Post. "This is no better than McCarthy. And that was a bad situation for the country. But this is where we are. And it's a terrible thing." Roy Cohn, who was Sen. Joe McCarthy's chief counsel and lead attack dog during the so-called Communist witch hunts of the 1950s, represented Trump and his businesses during the 1970s and 1980s. Manafort and Corsi both have joint defense agreements with the president allowing their lawyers to communicate with attorneys for the president without breaking typical client confidentiality rules. Manafort's attorneys regularly briefed Trump's team on the workings of the special counsel, The New York Times reported on Tuesday. The president has publicly vented his anger about the Mueller probe and suggested that he had knowledge about its inner workings. "They are screaming and shouting at people, horribly threatening them to come up with the answers they want," he wrote in a post on Twitter earlier this month. The president has used his unilateral authority to issue pardons and clemency in an unusual fashion for a modern president. In recent decades, presidents have typically followed a bureaucratic process led by the Department of Justice. In contrast, Trump has chosen to dole out clemency to those he knows personally or following personal appeals from their advocates. Trump issued his first pardon to immigration hardliner Joe Arpaio, the controversial former sheriff from Maricopa County, Arizona, who endorsed Trump's bid for the presidency. He also awarded clemency to the conservative provocateur Dinesh D'Souza, whom the president said at the time he knew from seeing on television. Alice Marie Johnson, whose sentence the president commuted in June, was freed following a lobbying effort from Kim Kardashian West. WATCH: Here's how presidential pardons work Richwood, TX (77531) Today Showers and thundershowers during the morning will give way to steady rain this afternoon. High 73F. SSW winds shifting to NNW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected. Locally heavy rainfall possible.. Tonight Cloudy skies. Slight chance of a shower throughout the evening. Low 46F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. President Donald Trump talks to the media before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Friday, Nov. 9, 2018, in Washington. U.S. President Donald Trump said he would "totally be willing" to shut down the federal government unless Congress authorized $5 billion to fund his long-promised border wall along the U.S. southern border with Mexico, according to a Politico interview released on Wednesday. Speaking to the news outlet at the White House on Tuesday, Trump also said the $5 billion request was just to build the physical barrier, and that additional funding would be needed for border security. Earlier on Tuesday, Trump in a separate interview with the Washington Post hinted that he could avoid a government shutdown and still build his wall by utilizing the U.S. military, which he had deployed to the U.S.-Mexico border last month to install barbed wire and fencing. U.S. lawmakers must act to pass a spending bill by December 7 to fund some government agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security that oversees the border and immigration. Trump has previously threatened to shut down the U.S. government over the border wall funding but has not followed through. His comments to Politico and the Post came amid a White House meeting on Tuesday with House Republicans, who control the chamber until Democrats take over in January. Trump's fellow Republicans also control the Senate and will maintain their hold next year. President Donald Trump takes a question during a news conference following Tuesday's midterm congressional elections at the White House in Washington, November 7, 2018. President Donald Trump has told special counsel Robert Mueller in writing that he neither knew in advance about a 2016 meeting at Trump Tower where a Russian lawyer was expected to dish dirt on Hillary Clinton, nor was tipped by Roger Stone ahead of WikiLeaks' dump of emails allegedly stolen by Russians from the Democratic National Committee that same year. Both answers to Mueller, which sources familiar with the matter shared with NBC News on Wednesday, would be in line with what Trump previously has publicly said about the Trump Tower sit-down, which his son Donald Trump Jr. attended, and about the WikiLeaks email dump. However, the sources did not share Trump's verbatim answers in what were a series of written responses to questions posed to the president by Mueller. That leaves unclear how categorical or not Trump's reported denials are. Nor is it known whether Mueller has evidence that could contradict Trump's answers which could expose the president to additional legal peril. The gist of the answers was first reported by CNN on Wednesday. CNN cited a source familiar with the matter who said Trump had made it clear that he answered Mueller's questions to the best of his recollection. Earlier, Trump's attorney, Rudy Giuliani, told the The Washington Post that the president did not recall ever speaking with Stone or right-wing conspiracy monger Jerome Corsi about WikiLeaks. Mueller is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, and possible coordination with that effort by members of Trump's campaign. The special counsel, who previously was the FBI's director, also is looking into whether Trump has obstructed the Justice Department's inquiry into the matters. Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing by himself and by his campaign. Both the WikiLeaks dump and the Trump Tower meeting are of particular interest to Mueller's investigation. The document release group WikiLeaks in 2016 came into possession of emails allegedly hacked by Russians from the DNC and from Clinton's presidential campaign chairman, John Podesta. WikLeaks released the first of two batches of Podesta's swiped emails on Oct. 7, 2016, in a move later seen as affecting Clinton's chances in the campaign. Trump praised the organization and its document dumps during the final stretch of the campaign. "I love WikiLeaks!" Trump proclaimed at an Oct. 10, 2016, rally in Pennsylvania. Two months before that, Corsi wrote to Stone, a longtime political advisor to Trump, that he had heard WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, referred to as "friend in embassy" in the message, "plans 2 more dumps," according to a drafted court document sent to Corsi by Mueller, which NBC News reported Tuesday. "Impact planned to be very damaging," Corsi wrote to Stone. Stone has claimed, repeatedly, that he did not have advance warning of the WikiLeaks email dump. He has also claimed that "I never discussed any of this with Donald Trump." Trump, during an interview with The Associated Press in 2017, said he had "never heard of WikiLeaks, never heard of it." The meeting at Trump Tower in New York City occurred June 9, 2016. Attendees included Trump's eldest son, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, then campaign chief Paul Manafort, and Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer whom Donald Trump Jr. has said he believed was planning to offer damaging information about Clinton. Trump Jr. later said that Veselnitskaya had "no meaningful information" to share. The president in July 2017 more than a year after the meeting said he did not know it was going to occur before it happened, and that he only learned of it in July 2017. His son also has denied telling Trump about the meeting in advance. WATCH: Here's how presidential pardons work A Sleep Number representative lays on a new Sleep Number bed at the International CES in Las Vegas. A federal appeals court on Tuesday revived for a second time a 11-year-old defamation lawsuit by bedding retailer Mattress Firm against adjustable bed maker Sleep Number. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a lower court judge misinterpreted New York law in dismissing claims first brought in March 2007 by Sleepy's, now part of Mattress Firm, against Select Comfort, renamed Sleep Number last November. Andrew Hansen, a lawyer for Sleep Number, declined to comment. Lawyers for Mattress Firm did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Mattress Firm, part of South Africa's Steinhoff International, emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week. The case concerned whether Select Comfort violated a 2005 contract that let Sleepy's sell Select Comfort's wood framed "Personal Preference" beds, while Select Comfort sold its plastic-and-polymer framed "Core" beds in its own stores. Sleepy's sued after "secret" shoppers it hired to visit Select Comfort stores reported that salespeople disparaged the quality and comfort of Personal Preference beds, whose sales were poor, and said Sleepy's offered inferior warranties. U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert in Central Islip, New York dismissed the case in Sept. 2015, saying the alleged disparagements were not "published to a third party" under New York law because only Sleepy's secret shoppers heard them. But in a 3-0 decision by the New York-based appeals court, Circuit Judge Robert Sack said the publication requirement might have been met if the shoppers qualified as Sleepy's "agents." He ordered Seybert to revisit that issue, and whether Sleepy's consented to the alleged slanders. The appeals court also threw out a $2.63 million legal fee award for Sleep Number, saying Seybert didn't justify it and should reconsider the amount. Sleep Number is based in Minneapolis. Sleepy's was based in Hicksville, New York, and Mattress Firm is based in Houston. Sleepy's lawsuit had been dismissed by a different judge in Sept. 2012, and revived by the appeals court in March 2015. The case is Sleepy's LLC v. Select Comfort Wholesale Corp et al, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Nos. 15-3560, 16-3595. 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. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, joined at left by Rep. G. K. Butterfield, D-N.C., heads into the Democratic Caucus leadership elections unopposed following an effort by a contingent working against her becoming the speaker of the House when her party takes the majority in the new Congress in January, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) The Denver City Council has overwhelmingly approved a pilot program to allow drug abusers to shoot up under supervision. But the pilot program still needs the help of the state legislature, which convenes for four months starting in January. Denver is aiming to become the first U.S. city to allow sanctioned, supervised use of heroin, methamphetamine and other illegal drugs. The council passed an ordinance 12-1 Monday night to set up an injection site as a pilot program aimed at steering users into treatment. More immediately the sites are supposed to curb overdose deaths and prevent the spread of diseases through shared needles. Democrats in the statehouse have taken the lead on often bipartisan efforts to curb the state's opioid crisis, but injection sites are controversial. On Election Day this month Democrats retained the governor's office and expanded their majority in the House, while seizing the majority in the Senate, as well. In the last session, the Republicans in the Senate squashed legislation to allow just that, Senate Bill 40, even though it was sponsored in the chamber by Sen, Kent Lambert, R-Colorado Springs. Polis hasn't taken a position on injection sites yet, his spokesperson told Colorado Politics Tuesday. Denver Mayor Michael Hancock applauded the city's vote Like cities across the country, Denver is seeing significant numbers of people dying each year of drug overdoses, he said in a statement. He said there were still "legal details to work out," but he supports the bill approved by the council and looked forward to signing it. Hancock said he was hopeful the General Assembly would get on board. Denver has taken this step, and we look forward to a continued partnership with the state legislature in addressing the opioid crisis and exploring changes to state law to allow for innovative solutions to this statewide problem, he said. Brittany Pettersen, D-Lakewood, a state House member who was elected to the Senate in November, has led the Democratic charge on opioid addiction programs in the statehouse. She and state Rep. Leslie Herod, D-Denver, traveled to Vancouver in Canada to learn about supervised injection sites there. Pettersen told the Associated Press Tuesday that she is confident the legislature, in Democratic hands, would support the pilot program. "This is about keeping people alive today and ensuring they get the help they need tomorrow," she told the AP. While there's a long list of Democratic maybes, Lorena Garcia says she is definitely challenging Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner in 2020. Garcia, a Denver resident, is the executive director of Colorado Statewide Parent Coalition. Her campaign noted she is a seventh-generation Coloradan on her fathers side and first generation on her mothers side. She has been with her wife for seven years, the campaign said. "Garcias family background mirrors the diversity families represent in Colorado and across the country," the press release stated. Garcia's platform will key on "economic equity for all" that includes health care and education. She's an advocate for womens rights, including abortion, civil rights and more funding for public transportation, her campaign said in a press release. Its time for a new voice in the U.S. Senate, Garcia said in a statement. We are at a crossroads in our history where we can no longer accept the status quo and must take action to fix our broken government systems. Im running because we need innovative leaders who will work on behalf of the interests of every Coloradan, not for political self-interest. Besides her work with Colorado Statewide Parent Coalition, Garcia also is the executive director for Namlo International, an international nonprofit that supports local communities in Nepal and Nicaragua with economic self-sufficiency. She is the former executive director of the Colorado Organization For Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights and is the former state director of 9to5 and the National Association for Working Women. Though they have not publicly announced their candidacy, two others have filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission: Derrick James Blanton of Denver filed his statement of candidacy in July 2017, and Dustin John Leitzel of Denver formally joined the race in February 2017, according to FEC paperwork. 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. Hi! I'm an education beat reporter for Fall 2018, and I'm a senior studying print and digital news. Please provide me with any feedback, questions or tips you have my email is kyle.lahucik@mail.missouri.edu and my phone number is 708.359.9917. Follow this search 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. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today 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 Popular consumer technology often makes the jump from the personal to the professional. AOL Instant Messenger, the iPhone and Facebook, for example, started off as consumer apps and devices and quickly gained ground in the office. More recently, WhatsApp, the messaging app now used by 1.5 billion people worldwide (and owned by Facebook) has been traveling that same path. A recent survey from UK-based analyst firm CCS Insights indicates WhatsApp is the most widely-used mobile app in the workplace, more prevalent than mobile versions of team chat apps such as Slack and Microsoft Teams. It is one of the most successful and popular apps out there and that will naturally bleed over into the enterprise, said Nick McQuire, vice president for enterprise research at CCS Insights. The firsm surveyed 672 employees in the US and Europe. For WhatsApp, the reasons behind its popularity are simple: Its free, easy to use and familiar to a huge audience. But popular apps aren't necessarily the most secure apps, and employees that side-step corporate-approved messaging software in favor of their preferred tools can create headaches for the IT department. By their nature, consumer apps lack central management capabilities such as the ability to add and remove participants from a group, and they raise the possibility of sensitive documents being shared externally. As a result, some companies have banned WhatsApp's use outright. Employee use of a tool like WhatsApp is often a challenge for large organizations, said McQuire. WhatsApp has encryption mechanisms, but there's not enough control, governance, visibility and reassurances that enterprises need. That's understandable because it is not an enterprise service, but that's the problem they have. Real-world use, data protection concerns Since its launch in 2009, WhatsApp has proved immensely popular leading to its $19 billion acquisition by Facebook. As usage has grown, the app has shown up more frequently in corporate cubicles and on mobile devices. For instance, WhatsApp has become a favorite of physicians in the UK that had been forced to rely on outdated technology. A study of 2,107 doctors across five hospital sites in 2015 showed that a third of doctors and nurses use WhatsApp and other messaging apps to send clinical information, despite NHS warnings about data privacy risks. A follow-up study in 2016 that looked at WhatsApp specifically concluded that the app delivered a range of benefits, [breaking] down the traditional hierarchies that can stunt effective communication within a team. WhatsApp is performing an essential function, providing [less-experienced healthcare workers] whose teams are fragmented between [operating rooms] and wards with a hotline to senior opinion, the research report said, noting that doctors will continue to use methods of communication that are most useful and efficient in practice. For Danish shipping firm Maersk, WhatsApp became a lifeline for internal and external communications when the company was hit by a NotPetya cyber-attack. It was frankly quite a shocking experience, Maersk CEO Soren Skou told The Financial Times. Your email goes down, all your address systems. We ended up having to use WhatsApp on our private phones. Even though some companies have embraced WhatsApp, a growing awareness of data protection risks has pushed other firms in the opposite direction. In some cases, they have prohibited the use of WhatsApp (and other consumer tools) outright. Deutsche Bank, for example, chose to ban WhatsApp in 2017 as it sought to improve compliance processes. And earlier this year, another German firm, tire manufacturer Continental, prohibited its 240,000 employees from using WhatsApp as it sought to comply with new GDPR rules, citing concerns around the storage of users WhatsApp contacts on Facebook's servers. Enterprise concerns around shadow IT use pre-date WhatsApps rise and this years introduction of tightened data protection regulations in the EU. Ovums 2017 Secure Enterprise Messaging survey of 300 businesses found that 65% of respondents were worried that consumer chat apps can create a security loophole, while half were troubled by their inability to monitor and audit employee communications. The concern is not how secure is the app, the concern is that it is not an enterprise app. It is not built for work, which means that there is no way to administer it, there is no way to manage users, said Stacey Epstein, CEO at Zinc, an enterprise mobile messaging vendor that sees corporate use of WhatsApp as a source of competition. So, if I am out in the field and I have a problem and I need to reach out to my buddies and I start creating these WhatsApp groups and just start adding people, well who has, not even control, but visibility to who's in the group, Epstein said. Mitigating consumer app risks While Continental opted for an outright ban, most businesses are more pragmatic in their approach, acknowledging that such decisions are often hard to enforce. Ovums research showed 38% of respondents that provided a company-authorized mobile messaging app also allowed the use alternatives such as WhatsApp. But two-thirds of that group said they only did so because it was impossible for them to block them. TiVo CIO Steve Palmucci argued that, as with any organization, it is inevitable that some employees will use a tool like WhatsApp for messaging. Such communications arent an issue if theyre limited to personal conversations. Its when corporate data is shared or stored externally without ITs knowledge that problems can arise. Part of TiVos strategy has been to deploy a "robust MDM solution" that covers all devices, whether company-issued or employee-owned, said Palmucci. We have proper safeguards in place to govern how devices are used. This gives us the ability to protect data, to wipe the data in the event that devices are lost or employees are terminated. TiVo doesnt use its MDM software to block mobile apps outright, a move he said would be seen as draconian considering TiVos tech-savvy workforce though doing so would technically be possible. We, as a decision, don't control the applications that users can download to their phones even on phones that we provide to the user base, he said. Thats true, even to the extent that there may be some users who are communicating in WhatsAppwith external parties. Corporate policies and staff training are another part of TiVos strategy. "We have a policy that addresses the use of those types of applications. It doesn't list WhatsApp specifically, but it addresses the use of third-party mechanisms for sharing company data or for communicating with people outside of your company. So what we don't control by the tools we have in place, we try to limit by policy. Enterprise messaging app options Another part of TiVos approach is to provide workers with a range of mobile-ready messaging tools that are more suited to enterprise communications, including Skype for Business, Slack and Zoom for video conferencing. We have other mechanisms for employees to achieve similar outcomes that are more enterprise-class, not necessarily consumer, Palmucci said. So it is not as if it is an unmet need. It is more a question of people's preferences and also their comfort level with a certain tool. According to Ovums survey, Skype for Business is the most popular enterprise mobile messaging app, though a variety of startups are targeting the market, too. That list includes TeamWire, Wickr and Zinc. Despite the popularity of team chat tools such as Slack and Microsoft Teams which offer mobile versions for iOS and Android they dont meet the needs of staffers that prefer a simple interface particularly frontline workers, Zinc's Epstein said. You can't argue with how important it is to have real-time communications. Unfortunately, the communication apps that have ben built for the desktop world like Slack and Microsoft Teams have been built for a person staring at a computer screen, she said. They are also effective, but when you are mobile and you are on your phone, logging-in to Slack or Teams is just not as efficient as using something like WhatsApp. The user experience is super simple, super fast; it is all about real time communications and everybody knows how to use it. An enterprise version of WhatsApp? With employees keen on using simple chat apps at work, would it make sense for Facebook to launch an enterprise-friendly version of WhatsApp? The company made similar moves with its social network platform, launching a business-focused application, Workplace, in 2016. It has also created an enterprise product for its Oculus VR hardware, another indication of a growing interest in corporate sales. And in 2017, the company announced WhatsApp Business, a platform for business-to-consumer communications. Facebook has thus far shown little interest in developing an enterprise version of WhatsApp, however. Asked about that prospect, a spokesperson said only: "WhatsApp makes it possible for people to message friends, family, and businesses in a simple, reliable, and secure way. It will be interesting to see whether Facebook ... starts to think about ways in which they can make WhatsApp more friendly to businesses, said McQuire. At the moment, it's more or less entirely a consumer product and enterprises have had to figure out ways in which they either support it or turn a blind eye to it because users are using it. While there might be complications to launching a WhatsApp for Enterprise service how it would align with Workplaces Chat function, for example it would make sense, both for Facebook and for end users. It feels like that's the next phase for WhatsApp, but we'll see when that comes, he said. Swiss-based Sirin Labs plans to launch its first blockchain-enabled smartphone on Thursday; the device will give users a secure method to access cryptocurrency exchanges, store their digital currency offline and exchange encrypted communications with other users. Announced earlier this year, Sirin's Finney smartphone will come with a built-in cold-storage crypto wallet for retaining bitcoin, Ethereum and other digital tokens keys, including Sirin's own SRN token. The SRN token enables fast payments between blockchain network peers without the need for crypto mining (also known as feeless blockchain). Sirin was able to raise more than $157 million in an initial coin offering for the Android-based Finney smartphone. The company also plans to eventually release a blockchain-enabled PC. Both will run Sirin's open-source operating system, Sirin OS. Sirin Labs Sirin Labs' Finney blockchain-enabled smartphone. Jack Gold, principal analyst with J. Gold Associates, said blockchain-enabled smartphones are aimed at a small niche market in an attempt to differentiate from a crowded smartphone market; they will not likely be lucrative. "The companies that are playing here are hoping that the crypto market will take off and become a real payment method for mass market," Gold said via email. "Frankly, I think it's wishful thinking, as I don't see this taking off anytime soon. "There are no doubt some people out there that are interested in this (the real hyper-crypto crowd). But that relatively small number of potential users will not make a lucrative market in the short term, especially with a high-priced $1K device," Gold said. The Finney smartphone retails for $1,000. The proprietary Sirin OS it runs is a derivative of Android OS, meaning it offers users an Android experience, along with the Play Store and the apps it contains and supports. "Of course, if you start running your own OS, even if it is a derivative of Android, then what does that mean for app compatibility?" Gold asked. The Finney provides users with a Token Conversion Service, which enables automatic exchange between supported tokens and coins, eliminating the need to visit external exchanges. Like Sirin's previously available Solarin Android smartphone, the Finney phone will feature a physical toggle switch that will immediately turn off all unencrypted communications, ensuring the internal digital storage is wirelessly inaccessible and can function as a "cold wallet" for digital currencies. The phone also offers encrypted communications, including VoIP, text and email and three-factor authentication: biometric, lock patter and behavioral. Sirin Labs Sirin Labs' Finney smartphone. The Finney smartphone also offers a decentralized app store that enables users to use DApps, learn about new crypto projects and earn new coins and tokens. The encryption-protected, blockchain-enabled smartphone uses a Safe Screen for secure crypto transactions on a blockchain ledger. Sirin's CEO has stated the goal of the blockchain-enabled smartphone is to make it simpler for users to use cryptocurrency and peer-to-peer networks. Using an extension of the Android OS will also make it feel more familiar. "These factors will enable Finny to herald in mass adoption of blockchain technology," the company argued. The Finny comes with a 6-in. display with an 18:9 in ratio, an SD card slot and 128GB of internal storage. The phone has a 12-megapixel primary camera on its rear and an 8-megapixel front-facing camera. The company has not yet announced the exact date the device ships. Sirin not alone In May, Taiwan-based electronics company HTC also announced it would release a blockchain-enabled smartphone that allows users to securely store cryptocurrency offline and act as a compute node in a blockchain network. In October, HTC announced limited preorders for the $1,000 Exodus 1 smartphone. Like Sirin's Finny, the Exodus 1 contains a cold storage wallet to hold a user's private keys to cryptocurrency separate from the Android OS. To address the possibility of lost crypto keys, HTC created a "social key recovery mechanism" that lets users store key recovery details with a "few trustworthy friends" who've download a key management app. HTC HTC's Exodus 1 blockchain-enabled smartphone. If you lose your keys, the key management algorithm will enable you to retrieve pieces of your keys from friends, which you can then piece together. HTC also invited cryptographers and third-party developers to create their own apps and "improve the strength of this secure enclave." "Exodus 1 is a foundational element of the crypto internet. For digital assets and decentralized apps to reach their potential, we believe mobile will need to be the main point of distribution," Phil Chen, decentralized chief officer at HTC, said in a statement. "We look forward to partnering with developers in the blockchain community to usher in this vision." The Exodus 1 comes with a 6-in. touchscreen display, is powered by an octa-core processor and has 6GB of RAM as well as 128GB of internal storage. It has a 12-megapixel primary camera and a 16-megapixel secondary camera on the rear. On the front, it has an 8-megapixel primary camera and a 8-megapixel secondary camera. HDB to develop apps, services for improving living environment in Singapore To improve the living environment in the housing estates of Singapore by utilising modern technology, the Housing and Development Board (HDB) will soon develop various apps and services. In this connection, two initiatives were announced that will provide more resources to help aspiring entrepreneurs and enterprises advance the development of innovative solutions that improve HDB living. Pulse of the Heartland initiative Under one of the initiatives, called the Pulse of the Heartland programme, HDB will collaborate with tech start-up Sentient.io, StarHub, IBM and the Info-communications Media Development Authority (IMDA) to develop an ecosystem of applications and services that will be useful to residents, said HDB in a news release today. The development of such an ecosystem will leverage Sentient.ios AI and Data Platform, which comprises information on HDB towns such as shops in the neighbourhood, and AI capabilities such as a voice-enabled chatbot that could be integrated in future web and mobile applications for residents to interact with, it added. Lawrence Wong, Minister for National Development & Second Minister for Finance of Singapore announcing the launch of 'Pulse of the Heartland' initiative at the inaugural HDB Innovation Festival. Photo courtesy: Facebook page of HDB Lawrence Wong, Minister for National Development & Second Minister for Finance, announced the measures today at the launch of the inaugural HDB Innovation Festival - a two-day showcase of innovative solutions and programmes at the HDB Hub Atrium. Dr Cheong Koon Hean, HDBs Chief Executive Officer, said, Innovation is part of HDBs DNA. HDB has been investing in the latest construction and digital technologies to constantly seek new solutions to deliver better products, services, and experiences for our residents. We would like to build more partnerships with the community and industry to drive greater innovation and to facilitate entrepreneurship by test bedding their ideas in our housing estates. Under the Pulse of the Heartland programme, StarHub will develop a new mobile application that will provide residents with a one-stop digital directory to find out more about the services, amenities and events in their neighbourhood. With the app, residents will be able to explore the town and search for dining options, retailers and other services in their vicinity. Besides the search function, it will also feature a chatbot that can offer information and recommendations on where to shop or what to eat. Residents can also subscribe to notification alerts to stay up to date on the latest events happening near their homes. A beta version of the app will be available for free download in the first quarter of 2019. More features will be rolled out progressively, beyond the digital directory of commercial shops. Over time, the platform will be enriched with more datasets as other public agencies and private companies come on board to offer more types of data, such as location and availability of transport and car park facilities. App developers can tap on the data amalgamated on this platform to build more apps, thus growing it into an ecosystem of apps and services that will benefit residents in HDB estates. Notably, the initiative is part of the Smart HDB Town Framework which maps out how HDB will create liveable, efficient, sustainable and safe towns for residents. Cool Ideas Enterprise The other initiative, called Cool Ideas Enterprise, is aimed at aspiring entrepreneurs and enterprises with ideas to improve the HDB living environment. The programme will focus on innovative solutions for the built environment, under the domains of Energy, Urban Greenery, Living Environment, Building Technology and Waste & Water. Cool Ideas Enterprise is aimed at aspiring entrepreneurs and enterprises with ideas to improve the HDB living environment. Photo courtesy: Facebook page of HDB Under the programme, entrepreneurs and enterprises can apply for funding and seek mentorship to help fine-tune or scale up their solutions for implementation, said HDB. Around SGD5 million has been set aside by Enterprise Singapore to support the programme over two years starting from November 2018. The programme is run by HDB in partnership with Enterprise Singapore, and supported by the Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE) and the Intellectual Property Intermediary (IPI). Successful applicants can leverage Enterprise Singapores business networks to get their business going. They can also benefit from business training workshops offered by ACE, on how to market their solutions and expand their business outreach, said HDB. It will also offer practical expertise and advice, testing opportunities and a potential chance to pilot these ideas in selected HDB estates like Punggol, Yuhua and Tengah. Sikh community in US lauds Indian government's Kartarpur Corridor initiative Highlighting the positive effect on Indo-Pak relations not just in the subcontinent but across the world, Sikhs in America have hailed the Indian governments decision to build a religious corridor linking the Indian border district of Gurdaspur with historic Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara in Pakistan fulfilling a long pending demand of the community. Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan is located across the river Ravi, about 4 km from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Punjabs 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. Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh (2nd from right) and Indian Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu (Centre) at the inauguration of the Kartarpur foundation stone. Both India and Pakistan have announced that stretches would be developed in their respective areas. Both India and Pakistan have announced that stretches would be developed in their respective areas. The Indian governments decision to develop and open the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor is historic, Jasdip Singh, the chairman of the Sikhs of America, said during his meeting with visiting Union Minister of State for External Affairs Gen (retd.) VK Singh. A delegation of eminent Sikhs of America led by Jasdip Singh on Saturday met the minister here. From the very first day after coming to power, the Prime Minister has not only been sympathetic to the concerns of the Sikh community but has also acted to address all our concerns, he said. Welcoming the decision, Gurinder Singh Khalsa, a community leader, said that this is just a beginning for greater good of the region and the humanity. Incarnation of God, Guru Nanak became corridor between Hindus and Muslims, rich and poor, Pundits and Dalits during the most troubled times. I am a firm believer that now again after 550 years, with the grace of almighty, Kartarpur (town of God) corridor will be a pathway for sustainable peace between the two countries of India and Pakistan, Khalsa said. This is a historic decision, said Adapa Prasad, vice president of Overseas Friends of BJP. Fulfilling the decades pending demand of Sikhs, GoI clears 'Kartarpur corridor' till Pakistan border to help pilgrims. Shrine is 3 kilometres from the India-Pak border. The 3-4 km long corridor will be built and funded entirely by the Govt of India.#Kartarpur #KartarpurCorridor pic.twitter.com/CsPiKFtex1 Avinash Srivastava (@go4avinash) November 22, 2018 The decision regarding construction of the Sikh corridor has the potential to kick-off peace between India and Pakistan. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been a great friend of the Sikhs. This was one of our long pending decision, said Puneet Ahluwalia, a Republican leader from Virginia. In a memorandum submitted to the visiting minister, Sikhs of America organisation urged the prime minister to bring to justice the masterminds of the 1984 riots. The memorandum also urged the Indian Government to provide visa to the Sikhs in the US who have received political asylum. My govt has decided to build a grand Gate at the #KartarpurCorridor as a historic symbol to commemorate the 550th birth anniversary of Sri Guru Nanak Dev ji. Im happy to share that Union Minister @nitin_gadkari has approved our proposal. Will ensure befitting celebrations. pic.twitter.com/nYKInPtvt9 Capt.Amarinder Singh (@capt_amarinder) November 27, 2018 Singh, who is currently on a three city US trip to inaugurate Passport Seva projects in New York, Washington DC and Atlanta, was felicitated at a Baltimore Gurdwara in Maryland in recognition of some of the decisions being taken by the Indian government for the Sikh community. The local Sikh community from Maryland and Virginia representing the Sikh Sewa presented a Saropa to the minister at a community reception later in evening. Government to publish HMT analysis of Brexit scenarios today Forecasts suggest Britain would be 150bn worse of in case of no deal Telegraph but not full legal advice on the deal, as was determined by Commons Theresa May will embark on the next phase of selling her Brexit blueprint today as the Treasury releases an analysis of the deal. The document will compare the economic consequences of staying in the EU with other outcomes, including staying in parts of the single market, a Canada-style free-trade agreement and a no-deal scenario. Brexiteers are preparing to challenge figures showing that Britain might be better off with a close relationship. The reputation of government economics is in the gutter, a source said. That must change. Its time for the chancellor to publish all his assumptions. The Times Theresa May will defy Parliament by blocking publication of the full legal advice behind her Brexit deal, prompting accusations of a cover-up. Downing Street said a position statement will be published on the legality of the deal, rather than the final and full advice given to ministers. Brexiteers claimed Mr May was refusing to reveal the advice because it will show that the Cabinet was warned that Mrs Mays deal could leave the UK stuck in a customs union. Number 10 was accused of ignoring Parliament which voted on the matter two weeks ago. Telegraph Theyll publish a position paper instead Daily Express Labour says this doesnt comply with terms of vote Guardian Bone says it sets a dangerous precedent Daily Express Is Mays deal en route for a crashing defeat in the vote? as opponents of her deal scramble to plan for the chaotic aftermath of the meaningful House of Commons vote in less than a fortnight, which she appears likely to lose by a crushing margin. The prime minister will visit a factory near Glasgow and speak to workers and employers about the agreement, telling them: It is a deal that is good for Scottish employers and which will protect jobs. Back in Westminster, few MPs believe the controversial package is likely to pass the Commons, despite a charm offensive from Tory whips, who are pressing the argument that none of the alternatives from a Canada-style trade deal to a second referendum could command a majority. Guardian MPs are considering alternatives FT Foster says Mays given up on getting a good deal Telegraph Foster says Mays given up on getting a good deal Telegraph Mays allies say alternative could be customs union Daily Mail Sturgeon says deal is unacceptable and that May is desperate Daily Express Bercow has prioritised Mays opponents The Times Labour MPs say Downing St treated them like idiots during WA briefing Telegraph Johnson joins critics of Mays TV debate plan The Times Labour pushing for ITV as host Guardian Latest poll shows public support for deal Daily Mail >Today: Fallon: This is a bad deal Say no, guys Priti Patel, The Times Its up to the MPs Tom Harris, Daily Telegraph Mays done a great job Sarah Vine, Daily Mail Javid implies post-Brexit immigration policy may not be revealed before the vote and that migration target may be scrapped We need to take stock now, and consider whether we are acting in the countrys interest. Security co-operation, Gibraltar, fishing rights, the fight against serious crime, the role of the European Court all these things are important. But in the end, Brexit is a negotiation about trade: how we continue to trade in the European markets and how we reach new free trade agreements with countries across the world. Nobody doubts that the Prime Minister has tried her very best. But neither the Withdrawal Agreement nor the political declaration with which she has returned give us any certainty whatsoever about our future trading relationships. Daily Telegraph MPs might have to vote on the Brexit deal without knowing details of the future immigration policy, Sajid Javid has said, as he also indicated the planned scheme might abandon the target of keeping net annual migration to the tens of thousands. In a sometimes testy appearance before the home affairs select committee, the home secretary said only that the long-awaited white paper on post-Brexit immigration should arrive before the end of the year. The government hasnt set a final publication date for the white paper, but very shortly, Javid told the cross-party panel when asked when it would arrive. Id certainly say in December. Guardian Meanwhile, Home Office to face high court challenge over child citizenship registration fees Guardian Hammond and Clark call for softer approach regarding low-skilled EU migrants The Cabinet is deeply split over the post Brexit immigration policy as at least three ministers demand Theresa Mays axes a crackdown on low-skilled EU migrants. Chancellor Philip Hammond and Business Secretary Greg Clark are among those who want to soften the policy for fear of damage to the economy. Major industries, particularly agriculture, are dependent on short term, low skilled labour and fear worker shortages when EU free movement ends after Brexit. The Cabinet war has delayed publication of a new policy paper on how the immigration system will work after Brexit. The paper is stuck at No 10 after Home Secretary Sajid Javid proposed pro-business changes to allow workers on temporary visas, the Standard revealed today. Daily Mail May will speak today of a Brexit that works for Scotland Shell commit to defending fishermen Telegraph She insists the backstop is intended to be temporary Theresa May will today promise a Brexit deal that works for Scotland and which will strengthen the Union as she ventures north of the border to sell her deeply controversial plan for life outside the European Union. The sentiments are in sharp contrast to the SNP Governments analysis, highlighted in a new report yesterday, that warned how Scots face being more than 1,600 a year worse off outside the EU than inside the EU. Today, the UK Government will publish its own Brexit analysis, covering a range of different scenarios. As the Prime Minister prepares to travel this afternoon to a factory near Glasgow to talk to bosses and staff about the merits of the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement, Nicola Sturgeon accused her of governing by threat and seeking to impose on Scotland an unacceptable Brexit deal, which would make the nation 9 billion poorer by 2030. Herald The prime minister has insisted that the controversial Irish border backstop is only intended to be temporary if it comes in at all. Theresa May was speaking in response to a News Letter question about the controversial backstop, which is strongly opposed by the DUP but which has been incorporated in the Withdrawal Agreement with the EU. Nigel Dodds told this newspaper after the DUP conference at the weekend that Tory backbench opposition to the backstop was growing, and Arlene Foster told the media yesterday that opposition to that Withdrawal Agreement at Westminster was coalescing around the backstop. Belfast News Letter US ambassador Woody Johnson: Britain is the perfect trading partner for us The United States is ready to get straight to work. A talented group of Americans have been meeting their British counterparts for over a year now to lay the groundwork. The presidents trade representative has already formally notified Congress of our intention to start negotiating. If we seem enthusiastic, its because we are. Britain is the perfect trading partner for the United States. We are both countries that are at the top of our game when it comes to business, science and innovation. No other countries come close to winning the number of Nobel Prizes we do. Our universities dominate the world rankings. The Times A US deal isnt so important Alex Brummer, Daily Mail Trump made it worse for May Gaby Hinsliff, Guardian More trade May says its going very well with the US FT But that she isnt planning to have talks with Trump at G20 Daily Mail Meanwhile, Paterson claims Trump offered May an FTA in July Telegraph WTO gives provisional support to UK membership FT Is there a serious shortage of trade negotiators in the FO? Guardian cuts are proving a problem, there FT More Conservatives Gauke pours water on Javids knife crime proposals The Times Hancock is a childish Tigger John Crace, Guardian Baroness Trumpingtons exciting life The Sun >Today: ToryDiary: Hath not a Muslim eyes? >Yesterday:Video: WATCH: I certainly didnt mean that to be on television. In memory of Baroness Trumpington. Labour sets out ideas for work policies, including focus on high pay Customers of Britains 7,000 biggest companies would be given the right to vote on the pay of top executives under plans for a clampdown on boardroom pay being considered by Labour. A report commissioned by Rebecca Long-Bailey, the shadow business secretary, and John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, calls for an annual binding vote on executive packages to include all stakeholders including employees and consumers. Other suggestions include scrapping all forms of share options so that executives are paid only in cash, a ban on golden handshakes and punitive fines for directors of companies that persistently fail to pay the minimum wage. The report also proposes that all companies in Britain with more than 250 staff would have to reveal the names of employees paid more than 150,000 a year. Guardian Comment: Dont ignore this Nils Pratley, Guardian More Labour Austin cleared The Times News in Brief Daniel Hannan is an MEP for South-East England, and a journalist, author and broadcaster. His most recent book is What Next: How to Get the Best from Brexit. I have been watching the degringolade of Brexit with if such a thing is possible even more agony than the rest of you. Its not just the frustration of seeing mistake after avoidable mistake being made by our side. Its not just the tossing away of a generational opportunity to relaunch Britain as a global trader. Its something else. You see, I had always expected, at this stage, to be one of those Leavers who could warmly back a compromise deal. As regular readers of this column will know, I never liked the idea of a WTO Brexit. I wrote here on the day of the referendum itself that, whichever side won, it would need to accommodate the large minority which had voted the other way. I have spent two years suggesting various compromises that both sides might live with. So when the clever and amiable David Lidington urges us to back the withdrawal deal on grounds that the 52 per cent get control of laws, money, borders + out of CFP; the 48 per cent get closer trade partnership with EU than Canada or any advanced economy + cooperation on police & security, I really want to agree. Liders, after all, is more or less taking the line I have been taking over the past two years. A 52-48 vote, as I kept telling anyone whod listen, was not a mandate for a radical break, but for a phased and partial recovery of powers. When critics complained that wed be left half in, half out, Id retort that that was pretty much the way the nation had voted, and that there was no dishonour looking for a middle way. But heres the thing. When I suggested accepting a half-in-half-out settlement, I assumed wed aim to keep the good half and junk the bad half. The Eurosceptic demand, down the years, had always been common market, not common government. That was the position of Teddy Taylor and Dick Body and, before them, of Neil Marten and Enoch Powell, of Hugh Gaitskell and Clement Attlee. It seemed a safe bet that the government would respond to the 2016 vote by seeking something along those lines. I wanted Swiss-style EFTA membership, but I was prepared for pretty much any reasonable compromise. Yet, incredibly, Theresa May has come back with a deal that keeps the worst aspects of membership and junks the potential advantages. Instead of staying in the common market but leaving the EUs more federal policies, we are doing the reverse. We propose to leave the common market but keep, as much as any non-member can, the obligations imposed on us by the European Arrest Warrant, the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the rest. Instead of doing a Switzerland leaving the Customs Union but retaining chunks of the Single Market we shall end up staying in the Customs Union but leaving most of the Single Market. In other words, we shall prejudice our trade with the EU 27 while simultaneously making impossible trade deals with anyone else. If you had asked three years ago whether leaving the EU while keeping the Customs Union was desirable, youd have been laughed at by all sides. It had always clobbered Britain uniquely as the member state that did the most trade outside the EU. The idea that we might stay in it while giving up any say over it, obliging ourselves to follow all EU concessions to third countries without any incentive for those third countries to reciprocate to us, would have been too absurd to contemplate. How have we ended up in this humiliating position? In Labours case, the answer is sheer opportunism. The party was anti-Customs Union until February of this year on the impeccable grounds that, as Jeremy Corbyn put it, it is protectionist against developing countries. It reversed its position when it scented an opportunity to win a parliamentary vote, but I still havent heard a single Labour MP come out with a convincing defence of the new policy. Indeed, debating some of them, Im left wondering whether they have any grasp of what the Customs Union is. Labour now seems to be anti-Single Market but pro-Customs Union on no better grounds than that it doesnt like the word market but does like the word union. The Governments position is even odder. Having promised on more than 20 occasions that Britain would leave the Customs Union, the Prime Minister now presents as a victory the fact that the backstop would keep the whole UK in that subordinate position. In fact, of course, this was the EUs aim all along. The row over the Northern Ireland border was invented as a way to grip the UK in the tight clamp of the Customs Union, giving EU exporters preferential access to our market while simultaneously allowing Brussels negotiators to use that market as a negotiating counter to get better terms for their own countries. The claim that the Customs Union is temporary depends on our faith in two things: the Prime Ministers negotiating ability and the EUs generosity. On the basis of the record of the past two years, is that a gamble youd make? The other EU states are not hiding their glee at our surrender. Emmanuel Macron has already said that he will veto a future trade deal that is, keep us in the Customs Union unless we open our fishing grounds to his skippers. It takes only one country to wield a veto at that stage, so Madrid might make a similar threat over Gibraltar, Dublin over Ulster and so on. Britain would by then have handed away its 39 billion and all its leverage. Are we really supposed to believe that the EU would terminate a position that is, as Donald Trump correctly says, advantageous to the 27 but excruciating for Britain, out of sheer goodwill? I cant speak for every Eurosceptic, but most of us voted Leave because we wanted a freer, more democratic and more global Britain. We didnt want to sever all our links with our European allies. We simply wanted to be free to stand aside as they pursued their goal of political amalgamation. The deal that will come before Parliament doesnt offer that outcome. Quite the opposite: it would lead to a Britain that is as constrained as now, but less commercially engaged. The only Leavers who might support such a deal are those Old Labour voters who want a protectionist Britain and fewer foreign workers. Yet, as far as I can tell, even they dont like it. Supporters of the deal are (with the exception of the brilliant but, on this occasion, mistaken Rory Stewart) not really trying to make a positive case for it. Instead, they are reduced to telling us that the alternatives are even worse and that everyone is sick of the whole business. Theyre wrong. The alternatives have not been tried, and most Leavers only ever supported Brexit as a means to an end, not an end in itself. This agreement delivers an outcome worse than either staying or leaving. It has been negotiated by people who never liked what they were doing, never understood why anyone might have voted Leave (other than on anti-immigration grounds) and defined their success as coming back with something anything to which they could attach the label Brexit. They have misjudged the electorate; and they have, I think, misjudged the MPs whom that electorate returns. Nick Herbert is a former Minister for Policing and Criminal Justice, and is MP for Arundel. With Christmas arrives the inevitable repeat of Its A Wonderful Life, in which an angel dissuades James Stewart from committing suicide by showing what the world would have been like without him. Come down, heavenly bodies, and reveal to my fellow Conservative MPs the future they could so easily enjoy but seem about to jeopardise. In Christmases ahead, we could be out of the EU, the Common Fisheries and the Common Agricultural policies. We could have a free trade deal with the EU and with other countries around the world. We could have control over our borders. No more eye-watering sums would go to Brussels. Our Parliament would be back in control. These gifts are now within sight. But we have become hung up on legalistic objections to the divorce agreement which are out of all proportion to the political gain of a new relationship. The kernel of the case against the Withdrawal Agreement is that a backstop could lock us into a customs union with the EU forever, preventing us from doing trade deals and subjecting us to EU law. We are told that the EU would trap us forever in this limbo rather than offer a decent trade deal. Brexiteers used to assure us that the EU would be bound to do a good trade deal because they need us more than we need them. Still, concern about the backstop must be taken seriously, not least because it has now become the hook on which so many Conservatives have impaled themselves. The UK agreed a backstop last year. Its an insurance policy to ensure no hard border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in the event that a free trade deal with the EU isnt completed by the end of 2020. Almost everyone agrees that such a border must be prevented. However the backstop would no longer keep Northern Ireland alone in a customs union with the EU, because the Prime Minister successfully insisted that it would encompass the whole of the UK. Its a far more acceptable measure than it was before. But the key point about the backstop is that we want to avoid it, and that even if we cant it could only be a temporary state. We could extend the transition period for a short time instead. We could develop technological alternatives to a hard border, a solution that Brexiteers tell us will be straightforward. The backstop could not be permanent because, legally, it can only be a step towards a trade deal with the EU. There is a mechanism by which we could get out of it against the EUs will, albeit an imperfect one. And while Ministers can never say that the UK would breach a Treaty obligation, if we really did become snared, what could stop our sovereign Parliament from just getting out? But these are all the darkest of scenarios. Despite Emmanuel Macrons posturing, the EU doesnt really want us to get into a backstop, either, ironically because they believe that it will unfairly advantage us. What we all want, and can have, is exit followed by a free trade deal. So lets stop describing temporary measures as though they were the end state. Theyre not. Lets stop fuelling outrage with overblown warnings that Britain will become a vassal state or even more absurdly a colony. And lets stop fetishising betrayal. Every time a Conservative MP unwisely and wrongly says were failing to honour our manifesto or our promises they give a hostage to fortune and profit opponents who tell voters we cant be trusted. In becoming so obsessed with the backstop we have lost sight of the prize. The Political Declaration agreed by the EU proposes a free trade deal that could look remarkably like the Canada plus model that Brexiteers have been espousing. Theres no mention of Chequers. The declaration promises a close economic partnership with the EU, yet gives an explicit commitment to ensure we can strike trade deals around the world. What every Conservative should be doing is calmly weighing up the pros and cons of the divorce arrangements and the future relationship in the round. Instead, too many MPs have rushed to public judgement on one aspect of the Withdrawal Agreement without thinking through the consequences. Those of my fellow Tory MPs who are proposing to vote against the Prime Minister should pause to consider why they will find themselves in the same lobby as Jeremy Corbyn or MPs who want to stop Brexit altogether. No-one knows the consequence of voting down the deal, but its unlikely to be a harder Brexit when the substantial majority of MPs want precisely the opposite. In insisting on ideological purity, obsessing over the legal trees while failing to see the political wood, Conservative MPs may fell their only chance to secure the kind of Brexit they want. If they really think a free trade agreement with the EU will render us a slave state, they should try a Norway-style membership of the EEA plus customs union for size. Good luck as they attempt to explain why the public cant have full immigration controls, we wont be able to strike global trade deals and well still have to pay billions into a European budget. In the worst scenario following rejection of a deal, there would be an election. In another, the Commons could fall back on a second referendum. No-one can say what the question could be, or explain why we should honour a second referendum if we dishonour the first. Few appear to have thought through the consequences of an even narrower margin of victory for one side, deepening the wounds of division in the country rather than healing them. The euphemistic peoples vote is in reality the politicians device, an excuse dressed up as direct democracy to renege on a decision already made and a promise faithfully given. So far, it deservedly hasnt commanded majority parliamentary support. But watch Labour MPs who long to ditch Brexit inch towards it. The Meaningful Vote on 11 December will present Conservative MPs with a stark choice: delivering an orderly and pragmatic withdrawal, followed by the free trade deal with Europe that Brexiteers wanted, or a plunge into unknown territory that is most likely to result in Brexit delayed, diluted, or even ditched altogether. We have the prospect of an economic bounce and a dividend for public services and tax cuts, or further uncertainty for business and a risk to jobs. We could provide a smooth transition to reassure investors, or risk no-deal chaos of the kind which can destroy a governments reputation for competence for decades. The hardliners will never accept that the Brexit glass is way more than half full, and that overall the offer is good, not least because many of them really want no deal. But usually-pragmatic Tory MPs should think hard before joining them and taking such an unnecessary gamble. Another Christmas movie perennial, Bridge on the River Kwai, reappeared last weekend. What have I done?, gasps Alec Guinness, as at last he realises his folly, staggers over the detonator and blows the bridge he misguidedly built for his enemies. Theres still time for Conservative MPs to recognise, in the final words of the film, the madness, madness of siding against the very thing for which they have yearned for so long. Peter Walker is a former Deputy Chief Constable of North Yorkshire Police. He now owns SuperSkills, a construction training business. With all thats going on in the world, or, to use the shorthand, Brexit happening, its not surprising news programmes are not covering as broad a range of subjects as usual. Which is probably why readers of ConservativeHome have not noticed that their gas cooker was connected by a Low-Skilled worker. He or she had the requisite CORGI accreditation, will, in all probability, have served an apprenticeship, and will have been unable to work alone until an experienced gas installer had overseen enough work to certify his or her skills. But that experienced gas installer is officially Low-Skilled as well. The risks associated with this are obvious. Yet they have been compounded by the fact the electrician who wired the house is also Low-Skilled. So now we have the potential for sparks from the electrics to ignite any gas leak the Low-Skilled gas installer permitted to happen. Mind you, the chances are the house will fall down anyway, because all the people who worked on it are Low-Skilled. This is obviously nonsense. But it is in danger of becoming Government-approved nonsense, because as part of the preparations for Brexit, the Governments Migration Advisory Committee has decided that all construction trades are to be regarded as Low-Skilled. That has implications, not least for the number of people coming into the trades. Its been difficult enough trying to persuade schools to promote construction as a career for young people to consider without putting this additional obstacle in the way. Trade rates of pay are now higher than they have been in ten years. Yearly earnings north of 50,000 are common. If you want to work in London, they can be even higher. A Head of Department in a school will earn on average about 43,000, but still the careers staff wont promote construction as a valuable and rewarding career. Tom Fitzpatrick, Editor of Construction News said recently: Imagine the kids sitting in school hearing about low-skilled jobs. Then ask yourself why any pupil would choose to pursue a trade, when the Prime Minister herself thinks its of secondary importance. (Actually, hes not strictly accurate here, but she is getting some dreadful advice at the moment that jumping the queue remark in her speech the other day being a prime example.) Additionally, all the construction sector employers have all signed up to the Construction Skills Certification Scheme to ensure the workforce has the right skills and qualifications for the particular jobs they are doing. The CSCS scheme is in danger of being undermined by this proposal. I wonder if this decision has actually been informed by regard of perceived social status of construction workers by those who make up the Migration Advisory Committee or is it just they are woefully ill-informed about the highly technical nature of the trades involved and the level of knowledge and skill required to undertake these jobs? Theres another, far more important issue. Placing all the construction trades in the category of Low-Skilled work means they cannot recruit skilled tradespeople from overseas using the Tier Two visa. When this applies to workers from the EU after Brexit, firms will not be able to recruit staff in the way they have in the past. Further complications emerged over the weekend, with the announcement that Low-Skilled workers will only be permitted to remain in the UK for 11 months under proposed arrangements for post-Brexit immigration. There is little prospect of people who have gained construction skills and qualifications elsewhere wanting to move to this country for such a short period. Construction employers are already struggling to find staff, and the Metropolitan Police are rightly concerned about the increasing role organised criminal gangs are playing in meeting some of the demand by worker exploitation and undeclared employment. The construction sector needs at least 40,000 new entrants a year, just to keep pace with last years ministerial promises about house-building. Both political parties have added to these numbers since then. About 9,000 people graduated from construction apprenticeship programmes last year, and the number of youngsters starting them has fallen in the last 12 months. Thats a shortfall each year of 31,000. It doesnt take a mathematical genius to work out we actually need Pavlov the Plasterer as well as Bob the Builder if we are to build the houses the country so desperately needs and deliver the infrastructure required to support economic growth. Thats why we need to start valuing people regardless of their occupation for the contribution they make to society but in particular, to get away from this poorly thought out scheme that lumps all construction workers together with this blanket Low-Skilled label. The Migration Advisory Committee should think again and if they dont, ministers should reject their proposal. Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness. This is a proposed definition urged on the Government by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims. Lets ponder it for a few moments. Some people who hate Islam or Muslims or both are undoubtedly racists. But are all of them? We dont believe so, for two main reasons. First, some are members of the same race if that is quite the right term here as very many Muslims themselves. It would not be easy to postulate a racial difference between, say, a Hindu and a Muslim originating from the Punjab. Second, others clearly detest Islam or Muslims for religious reasons, not racial ones. We believe that hating Muslims is always wrong and hating Islam completely unreasonable. Then again, much hangs what one means by Islam. Like Judaism and Christianity, its fellow Abrahamic religions, Islam is a vast, multi-faceted, complex faith. This site has always maintained that a distinction can and should be drawn between Islam and Islamism. The first is a great religion, the majority manifestation of which, throughout its history, has been the traditional, classical variety. The second is a politicised variant a kind of bastard child of Salafist practice and western technology. ISIS are at one of its scale and the Muslim Brotherhood at another. On our view, one should be phobic about it. It is to the credit of the all-party group that it in no way seeks to silence opinions of this kind. Criticism of religion is a fundamental right in an open society and is enshrined in our commitment to freedom of speech, it says in its report, Islamophobia Defined, which proposes the definition. But if people are to be free to be phobic about Islam or Judaism, or Christianity, or atheism, or any other form of belief would it really make sense for public policy to target something called Islamophobia, any more than it might target, say, Judaeophobia, Christianopobia or Atheismopobia? Wouldnt government do better to take aim at anti-Muslim hatred and prejudice? Our sense is that the report recognises the problem. Rooted in appears to betray a certain nervousness about the claim of racism, almost as though the reports authors had thought through the weaknesses in it that we outline above. The end of its proposed definition is much nearer the mark than the beginning. It is incontestible that Muslims are sometimes singled out for violence and hatred because of expressions of their religion: wearing a headscarf, say, or attending a mosque. Muslimness may be a jargony word, but it describes a real thing. Indeed, the report itself is the result of an inquiry into a working definition of Islamophobia/anti-Muslim hatred, as it confirms. The yoked mention of the second may reveal a residual nervousness about whether the first is of any real use. We apologise if our analysis of this definition seems a bit abstracted offered as though the terms concerned were debating points for an evening at the Oxford Union, rather than having implications for people and their lives. Which they do. After all, words have consequences, and the Group wants the Government to adopt, promote and further its own definition of Islamophobia, in much the same way that successive governments have long taken up the Working Definition of Antisemitism used by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. (Yes, thats the one to which Jeremy Corbyn and his claque have been so resistant, with consequences to the Labour Partys name and electoral performance.) The Government presently uses no definition at all. We suspect that the driving reason is that it recognises the deep problems that the term Islamophobia presents for public policy. It wouldnt do for Ministers to seem to be giving Islam special protection from criticism. But we believe that it would be right for them to work towards a working definition of anti-Muslim hatred and prejudice that government would adopt in much the same way that it does the working definition of antisemitism. One does not have to agree with the reports claim that Islamophobia is Britains bigotry blind spot to believe that anti-Muslim prejudice and hatred is an evil and a problem. Criticising religious beliefs is one thing (though we prefer it to be done with temperance). Abusing its practioners, even when the bar is set below the level at which the law bites, is another. The report has plenty of examples of the last to offer. It is worth adding that for government to adopt a working definition of anti-Muslim prejudice, to sit alongside the anti-semitism one, would reopen a question whose implications for the way we live stretch wider than both. It is, in a nutshell: who decides? A racist or religious hate incident is defined as being so if the victim or anyone else thinks it was carried out because of hostility or prejudice based on race or religion. In one way, this makes sense. A Jew or a Muslim is likely to be more alert to prejudice aimed at either than a third party will be. In another, and we believe more profoundly, it doesnt. There must surely be some objective basis to determining a claim, let alone a crime. Feeling should walk in step with fact. On its own, it isnt enough, or shouldnt be. This line of thought can be applied to the five tests which the report sets out to determine whether what we are dealing with is reasonable criticism of Islam or Muslims or Islamophobia. The fifth is insincere criticism for ulterior motives. The last is everywhere and so is the first. But who is to decide who else has a motive that may be malign, or whose criticism is insincere? The question cant be ducked if any new definition is to have real teeth. And there would be no point in having a working definition of anti-Muslim prejudice and hatred without them, even if it aims to work without further use of the law and the courts. The Government should be very wary of tests that are essentially subjective, or giving anyone special status to judge motives and sincerity. This is part of the reason that this site is reflexively hostile to seeking to define extremism in law. So: let government adopt a working definition of anti-Muslim prejudice and hatred. Thats the central, correct thrust of the all-party groups report. But it must be based on objective criteria, overseen by people we elect, and who can therefore be held accountable. Meanwhile, Islamophobia should be dropped altogether. The report reads to us as though its authors know that the word, first popularised by the Runnymede Trust over 20 years ago, has outlived its time and is lingering on life support. But they cannot quite bring themselves to turn off the machine. 11/28/2018 Photo (c) Nmedia - Fotolia Cybersecurity continues to make its way into headlines, as more and more consumers and corporations are affected by data hackers. Though it may seem like the problem is only escalating with no end in sight, a group of researchers from Binghamton University are hoping to change that. Inspired by Targets 2013 data breach, the researchers, led by Assistant Professor of Computer Science Guanhua Yan, are working to end the fight against hackers by tightening up current cyber deception tools. The main objective of our work is to ensure deception consistency: when the attackers are trapped, they can only make observations that are consistent with what they have already seen so that they cannot recognize the deceptive environment, the researchers wrote. Tricking the hacker Yan and PhD candidate Zhan Shu explain in their research that cyber deception works to ultimately trick the hacker. When a device recognizes a hacker is present, the cyber deception tool creates a fake online environment to effectively shut out the hacker without revealing theyve been discovered. However, according to Yan, some expert hackers have become keen to this trick, which is where this new research comes in. The issue is that sometimes cyber deception uses what are called bad lies that are easily recognizable by the attacker, Yan said. Once the deception is realized, the attacker can adjust and work around this form of protection. Yan and Shu worked to create a deceptive environment that only shows the hacker what he/she has previously seen. The goal here is to disorient and confuse the hacker, and also eliminate any chance of data being stolen. To put this theory to the test, the researchers had college students -- all of whom had recently completed a course in cybersecurity -- pretend to act like hackers, and some landed in the new and improved deceptive environment. According to Yan, the system worked as designed. It was clear that most students were simply guessing whether they had entered into the deceptive environment or not, said Yan. They couldnt quite tell the difference when we used our consistent model. However, despite favorable results, Yan warns that this isnt a foolproof method, as it may not hold up against more advanced attacks. The researchers do plan to continue to improve these tools in their quest to crack down on malicious data hackers. Targets data breach The researchers study was based on Targets 2013 data breach that affected 41 million customers and cost the company $18.5 million in penalties. The breach was so intense, and the legal process so extensive, that Target didnt finalize the final $18.5 settlement amount until last May. California got the most out of the deal, collecting $1.4 million, while Alabama, Wisconsin, and Wyoming didnt participate in the lawsuit. Officials identified several errors in Targets data storage system, including the companys decision to ignore messages from its security system that data had been hacked. Following the breach, Target was required to tighten its security measures in an effort to protect customers data, which included a new hire to monitor the new system. We are analyzing the site. Please wait a few seconds.. On index cards tied up with string, dozens of prayers hang inside Bryant Parks winter village. The interactive Give-back gift pop-up shop belonging to Christian humanitarian organization World Vision, added a tree this year where people could hang prayers and hopes on the branches instead of ornaments. According to their website, the Give-back gift shop works to provide needs such as food, income, access to fresh water, school supplies, and much more to people living in developing countries. For the past two years World Vision has opened a pop-up Give-back Gift shop in New York City to teach people about the difference one person and one gift can make in the lives of many. This year the shop was open form November 25-27 and it featured a large Christmas tree where people could express their prayers and hopes to God. According to The Christian Post, one card read, I pray that hatred, intolerance & bigotry will stop. That all creatures of this planet will have enough to eat. Another said, Lord, please bless my family, friends, our city and our world. Help us to live for you and let our light shine. A&Es Duck Dynasty star Sadie Robertson, who works with World Vision, went out to the pop-up shop which she called really special. Robertson told The Christian Post that she loved the concept of the prayer and hope tree because it provided kids with a powerful visual aid. She said, "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." 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 added. Though the pop-up shop in New York has officially closed, gifts can still be given on the World Vision website. Click here to give a gift. Photo courtesy: Getty Images/Terry Wyatt/Stringer "South Australia continues to welcome more ship visits year on year. With larger vessels coming into Australia our infrastructure is ready to host the largest of ships and our tourism products and experiences will exceed passenger expectations, said Leah Clarke, manager product and cruise development for the South Australia Tourism Commission. The destinations in the state are highlighted by Adelaide, Port Lincoln and Kangaroo Island. Two smaller regional ports may also enter the mix in time for the 2019-2020 cruise season, Clarke said. Weve seen significant growth in domestic homeporting with P&O Australia offering itineraries with Pacific Eden and Pacific Aria, Cruise & Maritime Voyages (CMV) offering itineraries with the Astor and from 2019 with the Vasco Da Gama, Clarke continued, adding that Princess has also recently added itineraries sailing from Adelaide. Kangaroo Island has been part of the success story. Having started with three calls in the 2012-2013 season, the destination will now welcome 30 ship visits for 2018-2019. Thirty-four percent of guests visiting the port take organized shore excursions, Clarke said. South Australia has a cruise ship master plan, which aims to attract 100 total cruise visits annually by 2020, with hopes of contributing $200 million AUD to the state economy. In Adelaide the ports passenger terminal was recently upgraded with new elevators, stairs, signage and imagery. The navigational channel is currently undergoing a significant widening project to accept bigger ships, with a targeted completion date of later this year. "We continue to work hard to deliver new experiences for cruise lines to sell, activating our amazing natural assets to offer exclusive products, Clarke said. We build new destinations for future itineraries and we work hard to continually seek investment into port infrastructure to keep up with growing demand. Nov. 28, 2018 - CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI) Environmental Science & Resource Management Chair Sean Anderson, Ph.D., is the winner of the 2018 Marine Science Teaching Award, which is presented by The Maritime Alliance. It was totally out of the blue and a very kind acknowledgement of the work Ive dedicated my life to, Anderson said. It was humbling and very much appreciated. No sooner had he recently accepted his award at the 10th annual BlueTech Gala Dinner & Award Ceremony in San Diego that the Hill and Woolsey fires broke out. Within days, he and his students and technicians got back to work, taking what samples they could to help determine the long-term effects of the fires on Southern California. Our students are prepared when they graduate because we embed them in monitoring of unfolding incidents like the Thomas fire, monitoring oil spills and so forth, Anderson said. We measure what is actually going on around them so we can get them on the right path for a job in environmental science or a related field. Andersons boots on the ground teaching style is part of what earned him the award, which is given to a select number of individuals and organizations each year for their work in the coastal and marine industries, otherwise known as the Blue Economy. When the Refugio oil spill happened in 2015, CSUCI student researchers were the first scientists on the scene, documenting ecological impact and gathering oil and sand samples from the beach. When the Thomas fire broke out last year, the students were on the blackened hillsides measuring soil and recording damage to wildlife and plants within days of the onset of the burn. And when the Hill and Woolsey fires started recently, they immediately started taking air samples and, as soon as initial road closures were lifted and areas became safe, they began documenting impacts within burn areas. Blue Economy jobs can be anything from a marine biologist to a wastewater treatment plant technician. The Marine Alliance is a non-profit organization that seeks to define and promote this Blue Tech segment of industry, which brings in at least $14 billion each year. The Marine Alliance is trying to bring together industry with academia and the government, Anderson explained. These groups are really promoting Blue Tech, which describes a huge array of jobs from longshoremen to Ph.D.s building robots. Andersons classes and the entire Environmental Science & Resource Management program allows students to travel to fishing ports, offshore oil and gas sites, marine research centers and commercial piers to get firsthand experience with the industries affected by government policies. Under Andersons guidance, CSUCI students work with underwater remotely-controlled vehicles (ROVs) and aerial drones, to name just a few of the tools used to more accurately explore our oceans and coastlines and discover new ways to keep them healthy for generations to come. To learn more about CSUCIs Environmental Science & Resource Management program, visit: https://www.csuci.edu/academics/esrm.htm. A Greenwich firm will become among the largest publicly traded oil tanker companies in the world after reaching a merger agreement with a Greek shipping operator. Diamond S Shipping will maintain its Greenwich headquarters under CEO Craig Stevenson Jr., while absorbing a fleet of tankers from Athens-based Capital Product Partners in a spin-off and merger that will make DSS a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange. The companies are valuing the transaction at $1.65 billion. First Reserve, a private equity firm that moved to Stamford from Greenwich earlier this year, will be the second largest shareholder of the newly public Diamond S Shipping. DSS currently operates more than 40 tankers including one of the worlds largest fleets of medium-range vessels designed to service most ports and will add 25 more from Capital Product Partners, making it the third largest publicly traded tanker company globally. The combined fleet will include 15 Suezmax vessels that are among the larger vessels in the world. Capital Product Partners shareholders will receive $23 million in the transaction, with a focus going forward on chartering a fleet of container ships. Diamond S Shipping filed to go public in 2014 with plans to raise more than $250 million, at the time reporting net income of $2.3 million over the first nine months of 2013 on revenue of $134 million, and having a staff of 30 people at 33 Benedict Place in downtown Greenwich where its offices remain today. Southwestern Connecticut has a cluster of maritime vessel owners, pool operators and brokers that includes Charles R. Weber in Greenwich; Dorian LPG, Eagle Bulk Shipping and Nordic Tankers in Stamford; Penfield Marine in Fairfield; and Ridgebury Tankers, Primal Marine, Team Tankers International and Westport Maritime, all in Westport. Stevenson has led Diamond S Shipping since the company was created in 2007, before that having been CEO of Stamford-based OMI, which was sold to that year to a joint venture of Teekay Shipping today the worlds largest oil tanker company and Torm. Speaking with investment analysts in mid-November, Teekay CEO Kenneth Hvid said that crude tanker rates strengthened during the third quarter, typically the weakest quarter of the year, and that rates have gained as tanker companies scrap older vessels and oil exports increase by OPEC, Russia and the United States. Despite the recent volatility in oil prices, we believe that longer-term offshore fundamentals remain intact, Hvid said this month. Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-842-2545; @casoulman BRIDGEPORT The school board has agreed to change its magnet school policies in an attempt to balance fairness and expected rigor. Stamford parents concerns eased after first week at new school Im not so sure I would call the new policy a good thing, more like ... its less worse than it couldve been, said Joseph Solokovic, a board member active in the discussion of magnet school policies even before he was elected to the board a year ago. The changes came after more than two years of committee debate over the purpose of the citys coveted magnet schools and an attempt to prevent removal of students from city magnet schools in most instances. By design, magnet schools outshine other schools in the district on most academic measures. While many city elementary schools score among the lowest in the state on standardized tests, the districts magnet schools often score on a par or better than the state average. Some had wanted to modify the rules governing magnet schools, arguing they should play by the same rules as other city schools and not be allowed to remove students they cant handle. When the issue first came before the school board, there were proposals to eliminate the ability to reassign students based on bad grades or behavior. Board member Ben Walker said magnet schools should not be allowed to discriminate because one student is smarter or behaves better. That drew strong opposition from a number of magnet school parents who say the reason the schools work is that standards are kept high. When I signed on that dotted line, I knew what I was signing up for, High Horizons Parent Diane Draper told the board when the issue came before them a year ago. On Wednesday, Draper called the compromise policy a true collaboration. How to lose a Magnet School seat in Bridgeport. Getting in is one thing. Students in grades 4-8, can be reassigned back to their home school if they: Get a grade of "D" or below for two consecutive marking periods in a core subject (reading, writing, math, science and social studies). Get a grade of 3 or higher across their report card in conduct Fails to follow the district attendance policy. (Students can have no more than 20 unexcused absences in a school year.) Commits any Type 3 Code of Conduct violation such as starting a fire, stealing, intentionally, causing injury to another, threatening a staff member, possession of a weapon or drugs, hazing or sexual assault. Before the reassignment, parents or guardians must be warned, and it can only take place at certain times during the school year. Source: Bridgeport Board of Education. See More Collapse I think the outcome was as fair as it possibly could have been, Draper said. She only wishes the district could offer more magnet school seats. The children that have this opportunity, including my own daughter, are truly fortunate to be enrolled at a magnet school. Education shouldnt be a prize that is won because your name is picked from a hat. The changes, which will take effect with the 2019-20 school year, base admission for students in kindergarten through third grade on a blind lottery with no additional entrance criteria or test. Altogether, the district has a reported 6,000 applicants or more each year for 2,500 elementary magnet school slots. Students in grades four through eight vying for open slots in the districts intra-district magnet schools have to keep good grades, meet attendance requirements and behave to get in and avoid possible reassignment. Once in, several interventions and warnings have been put into place to make sure students have chances to improve before being sent back to neighborhood schools. The same safeguards are also now in place for the nearly 2,200 high school magnet seats; entry into Bridgeport Military Academy is through a blind lottery. Fairchild Wheeler, interdistrict magnet schools with 1,500 seats combined, is open first to graduates of Discovery Magnet School with leftover seats distributed by lottery. At Central Magnet, graduates of the districts magnet or talented and gifted programs get first dibs on the 450 slots, with remaining seats open through a lottery process to students who get a final grade of C or better in core academic subjects in eighth grade, have good conduct and good attendance. Sokolovic, whose son attends Park City Magnet, worried that the changes would have watered down standards. He wanted the rules to be strengthened, not weakened. It is one of the reasons he ran for a seat on the board. He chair of the committee that spent months debating entrance and performance expectations for the schools. I truly believe if you demand more and expect more ... our students, magnet or not, will rise up and meet whatever standard that is set, he said. Magnet School principals have told the board that most students who win seats rise to the challenge. They each report having sent no more than a handful of students back to their home schools over the past four years. Sokolovic said he sees the changes now approved as a compromise that sets a clearer and consistent appeals process for struggling students. Magnet schools were started in the district in 1980 as a way to promote diversity and offer themed instruction, focusing on such areas as science. The idea was to offer rigor and groom students for college. The elementary school lottery process opens for most schools in Jan. 7, 2019. lclambeck@ctpost.com; twitter/lclambeck WASHINGTON Representative-elect Jahana Hayes said Tuesday that she will support Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to be Speaker of the House, one of two Connecticut Democrats to add to whats shaping up as an acclamation vote Wednesday for the 78-year-old House Democratic leader. Once Pelosi loyalists, some CT Dems now weighing support for her leadership The other was Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., who on Monday told CNN that he, too, would support Pelosi, even though he had previously declared his preference for a new generation of leadership. Speculation on Pelosis future intensified in the wake of Democrats winning back control of the House on Election Day after an eight-year absence. "The whole attack on leader Pelosi was that you can't win with Nancy Pelosi, Himes said. Well, son of a gun, we won in Oklahoma, Kansas, South Carolina, places we never imagined we would win. Hayes, who in January replaces Rep. Elizabeth Esty as the representative of Connecticuts 5th Congressional District, initially endorsed Pelosi in an appearance on MSNBC on Tuesday morning. In an interview in Washington with Hearst Connecticut Media later in the day, Hayes explained her decision as partly the consequence of no one stepping up to oppose Pelosi. You cant beat someone with no one, she said. Hayes, 45, who parlayed a national award as Teacher of the Year into a successful campaign against the Democratic Partys preferred primary candidate and then Republican opponent Manny Santos, said she respected Pelosis effectiveness as leader of House Democrats. But I was hoping to have a different perspective and leadership style, she added. I would absolutely want to see a new generation of leadership. Republicans have long used Pelosi as a pinata of sorts to build opposition to Democratic candidates. With varying degrees of success, they depicted Pelosi as an out-of-touch West Coast liberal devoted to big-government solutions such as the Affordable Care Act Obamacare. Attacks on Pelosi were accompanied by unflattering pictures of her. During the campaign, many Democrats distanced themselves from Pelosi to the point of saying they would not vote for her. In Connecticut, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a chief Pelosi lieutenant, worked the phones on her behalf. But Himes and Hayes held their fire. When Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, endorsed Pelosi and took herself out of the running against her, the door closed and holdouts gradually began to line up beside the veteran leader, who was House Speaker between 2007 and 2011 when Democrats last controlled the House. Pelosi now is expected to overwhelmingly win when House Democrats gather Wednesday to anoint their leader. With Democrats in the majority as the 116th Congress convenes in January, Pelosi is all but guaranteed the speakership. In the interview, Hayes said she saw herself as an unabashed progressive not afraid to have difficult conversations on issues such as voting rights, education and social justice that she feels were ignored in the Republican-controlled Congress. But I am not a Socialist, she said with a laugh, putting some distance between herself and at least one other newcomer Representative-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who at 29 will be the youngest woman member of Congress. The 5th Congressional District takes in most of the states northwest corner, but includes urban zones including Danbury and Waterbury, where Hayes grew up in extremely modest circumstances. She credits her success as a teacher of history at John F. Kennedy High School in Waterbury to government programs, in addition to a lot of inner drive. Government is a positive force, she said. Government is not the problem. Hayes, who is African-American, won in a district that is about 80 percent white, according to U.S. Census data. While the issue of race remains divisive in the era of Black Lives Matter, increasing white supremacism and hostility to undocumented immigrants, Hayes is hopeful that her victory might be evidence that voters have moved beyond race as the deciding factor. I will always be a black woman; I couldnt hide that during the campaign! she said with a laugh. But If someone only sees me as an black woman, theyre missing everything else that I bring, she added. I am a wife, a mother, a teacher, a volunteer all of these other things that I think people in our communities can identify with. dan@hearstdc.com BRIDGEPORT - With the days ticking down before the secretary of the state certifies the winner in Stratfords house election, a judge has agreed to decide whether she has the right to consider ordering a new election. By the end of the day on Friday the secretary of the state must certify the election between Republican candidate James Feehan and Democratic incumbent Phil Young for the 120th house district. During a hearing Wednesday the lawyers for Feehan and Young said they couldnt come to an agreement on questions in the case to pose directly to the state Supreme Court. So, Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis said she will decide Friday afternoon if she has jurisdiction to decide the case. If Bellis does decide to hear the case Feehans lawyer, Proloy Das, said he will again urge her to order the secretary of the state to hold off on certifying the election. Youngs lawyer, William Bloss, has argued that such an order is not necessary. Feehan, who in a recount lost to Young in the contest for the 120th District by 13 votes is suing to get a new election. 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. The recanvas showed that, at Bunnell High School, a total of 859 votes were cast for Feehan, 608 votes for Young, 6 votes for Palmer, and 27 ballots presented no votes in the race for the 120th Assembly District. The voter checklist for the 120th district showed that 1,575 voters at Bunnell High School received ballots. The recanvas showed that 75 voters at Bunnell High School were denied the right to vote in the 120th Assembly District. BRIDGEPORT - After waiting 21 years to be arrested for murder, Camillo Douglas will only have to serve three years in prison. The jury had been selected, witnesses, some who had long retired, were in court to testify when Douglas agreed to accept a plea deal. He had been charged with murder in the Feb. 3, 1997 shooting death of Richard Red Salito. Salito, 23, of Marion Street, was found lying in a pool of blood on the sidewalk at the intersection of Capitol and Whitney avenues. He had been shot multiple times in the head, according to the autopsy report. Under the deal, the 37-year-old Douglas pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of first-degree manslaughter with a firearm. Judge Robert Devlin told Douglas he will sentence him on Jan. 25 to 20 years in prison but give him credit back to September 2001 and make it concurrent to a two-year prison term Douglas has left in New York. Douglass lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Jared Millbrandt, said the sentence means that his client will serve about three years in prison. Senior Assistant States Attorney Ann Lawlor told the judge that Salitos father and sister, who were not in the courtroom, are not happy with the deal. But she continued that based on a significant legal issue regarding the delay in which Douglas was served with the arrest warrant and the fact he was 15 when he committed the crime, this is a fair and just disposition. Millbrandt said he was prepared to argue that the case should be dismissed against Douglas. He said the murder warrant was signed by a judge here in September 2001, but Douglas was not notified of it until earlier this year while serving the remainder of a 15-year prison term in New York for a gang-related shooting. Millbrandt said Douglas was in the process of being deported to his native Jamaica when New York officials were made aware of the Bridgeport warrant. Our claim was that the delay in advising Mr. Douglas that there was a warrant was a violation of his due process and sixth amendment rights to a speedy trial, Millbrandt said. The Bridgeport police knew where he was and could offer no compelling reason as to why this amount of time had passed. Police Capt. Brian Fitzgerald said there were issues in the case that were not in their control. He did not elaborate. Im just happy the case has been put to rest, Fitzgerald said. A bird's-eye view of Connecticut's foliage Take some time to relax and enjoy the whimsical wonder of Connecticut's fall foliage with this visual experience of Fairfield County. In his interview with The Washington Post's Philip Rucker and Josh Dawsey on Nov. 27, President Trump made a number of false or misleading claims, including many that we have fact-checked previously. Here's a quick round-up, with statements listed in the order he made them. Some comments made by the president during the interview are unclear and may be subject to additional fact checks. - - - - "We're not having a wall because of the Democrats. We need Democrat votes to have a wall." Trump needs 60 votes in the Senate, meaning he needs all Republicans and at least nine Democrats, to clear the way for a filibuster-proof bill that funds the border wall. The Secure and Succeed Act would do just that. Sponsored by Sen. Chuck Grassley R-Iowa, and backed by the White House, the bill would provide $25 billion for the wall, among other measures. But the president's claim that Democrats are blocking the wall makes sense only if all 51 Republicans are on board. They're not. Grassley's bill failed 39 to 60 in the Senate in February. It got 36 of 51 GOP votes and three Democratic votes, far short of passage. Three other immigration proposals, backed by broader mixes of Republicans and Democrats, each got more than 50 votes. - "We almost had a deal [with Democrats], and then the judge ruled shockingly in favor of Obama's signature, when even Obama said what he's doing is not legal. Essentially, he said, it's not going to hold up. But when the judge ruled, all of a sudden it was like, that's the end of that deal. But we were very close to having a deal - $25 billion for a wall and various other things on the border. And DACA." Trump claims he almost struck a deal with Democrats to extend the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and fund the border wall with $25 billion. But the deal fell through, he says, because a judge ruled to uphold DACA in the middle of negotiations. These comments are confusing and wrong in several ways. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., met with Trump in early September 2017 and then announced they had a tentative deal that extended DACA but did not fund the border wall, although they did agree to include some form of border security measures. Trump took a beating from his right-wing supporters after that announcement, and days later tweeted that there was no deal with Pelosi and Schumer. No judge had ruled to uphold DACA in the interim. Meanwhile, Obama never said his executive order on DACA was illegal. His administration argued in court that the order was "a lawful exercise of the enforcement discretion that Congress delegated to the executive branch in the Immigration and Nationality Act, which charges the executive with 'the administration and enforcement' of the country's immigration laws," as the ACLU put it. - "You look at our air and our water and it's right now at a record clean." This is false. The 1970 Clean Air Act, and its amendments in 1990, has certainly made a difference in keeping the air in the United States cleaner than in countries such as China and India. But "record clean"? Nope. U.S. carbon emissions have declined, but they are only the lowest since 1996, according to the World Bank. Emissions were lower before then. In fact, it was nearly two times lower in 1960. - "If you go back and if you look at articles, they talked about global freezing, they talked about at some point the planets could have freeze to death, then it's going to die of heat exhaustion." Trump appears to be referring to some speculative journalism a half century ago.There had been a period of cold winters in the early 1970s, and so some reporters put two and two together - and came up with five. The Washington Post, for instance, published a 1970 article titled, "Colder Winters Held Dawn of New Ice Age." It warned: "Get a good grip on your long johns, cold weather haters-the worst may be yet to come." Time magazine in 1974 titled an article "Another Ice Age?" and said "climatological Cassandras are becoming increasingly apprehensive, for the weather aberrations they are studying may be the harbinger of another ice age." And Newsweek, in 1975, ran an article titled "The Cooling World," which said: "Meteorologists disagree about the cause and extent of the cooling trend. . .. But they are almost unanimous in the view that the trend will reduce agricultural productivity for the rest of the century." (There is even a fake Time Magazine cover floating around the internet, which purports to be a 1977 cover displaying a lone penguin underneath this headline: "How to Survive the Coming Ice Age: 51 things you can do to make a difference." But this is actually a photoshopped version of a Time cover from 2007, titled "The Global Warming Survival Guide.") In any case, the science was still unsettled at the time, which allowed reporters to pick and choose the angle to emphasize. In 2008, several scientists decided to go back and review the peer-reviewed literature at the time. Despite the media coverage highlighted by Trump, it turns out that peer-reviewed articles on global cooling were in a distinct minority compared to those concerned with global warming. "The survey identified only seven articles indicating cooling compared to 42 indicating warming. Those seven cooling articles garnered just 12 percent of the citations," the researchers reported. In fact, in 2006, Newsweek admitted it had been "spectacularly wrong" in publishing its article. Yet the bad journalism of the 1970s is still cited today by climate skeptics such as Trump, even though the science affirming the impact of human activity on climate change now is widely accepted. - "The fire in California, where I was, if you looked at the floor, the floor of the fire they have trees that were fallen, they did no forest management, no forest maintenance, and you can light - you can take a match like this and light a tree trunk when that thing is laying there for more than 14 or 15 months. And it's a massive problem in California. ... You go to other places where they have denser trees - it's more dense, where the trees are more flammable - they don't have forest fires like this, because they maintain. And it was very interesting, I was watching the firemen and they're raking brush - you know the tumbleweed and brush and all this stuff that's growing underneath. It's on fire and they're raking it working so hard, and they're raking all this stuff. If that was raked in the beginning, there'd be nothing to catch on fire. It's very interesting to see. A lot of the trees, they took tremendous burn at the bottom, but they didn't catch on fire. The bottom is all burned but they didn't catch on fire because they sucked the water, they're wet. You need forest management, and they don't have it." This is not what Smokey the Bear meant when he said "only you can prevent forest fires." Experts say the most recent wildfires besetting California were not sparked by forest management problems such as an overpopulation of trees or a lack of raking. (Trump previously said the president of Finland once told him they avoid forest fires by raking the ground, but the Finnish president denied saying this.) "The ones in Southern California are burning in chaparral, so it's not a forest management issue at all," LeRoy Westerling, a climate and fire researcher at the University of California at Merced, told us in a previous fact-check. "The fire in Northern California didn't start in forest; it started in other types of vegetation, from what I read. . . . There, you're talking about what kind of vegetation people manage on their homes on private properties." Some California forests appear to have many more trees per acre than what is considered healthy, according to an expert cited by the San Francisco Chronicle. But more than half of the state's forested land is managed by the federal government. The U.S. Forest Service says the "rising costs of fighting fires has led [it] to regularly raid its $600 million budget for forest management," according to the Sacramento Bee. The scientific consensus is that climate change is the big driver of these intensifying wildfires, although other factors such as forest management play a (smaller) role. Trump is not convinced that global warming is an issue, despite an overwhelming scientific consensus and reports from his own administration. A 2016 study of western U.S. forests published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found "human-caused climate change caused over half of the documented increases in fuel aridity since the 1970s and doubled the cumulative forest fire area since 1984." "We estimate that human-caused climate change contributed to an additional 4.2 million ha [hectares] of forest fire area during 1984-2015, nearly doubling the forest fire area expected in its absence," authors John T. Abatzoglou and A. Park Williams wrote. "Natural climate variability will continue to alternate between modulating and compounding anthropogenic increases in fuel aridity, but anthropogenic climate change has emerged as a driver of increased forest fire activity and should continue to do so while fuels are not limiting." - "We lose $800 billion a year with trade." The United States does not "lose" money on trade deficits.The trade deficit just means Americans are buying more products other countries than foreigners are buying from the United States, not that they are somehow stealing U.S. money. Trade deficits are also affected by macroeconomic factors, such as the relative strength of currencies, economic growth rates, and savings and investment rates. By passing a large deficit-financed tax cut, Trump has made it harder to reduce trade deficits, if that were even important. Trump's figure is also inflated. The U.S. had a $552 billion trade deficit in 2017, when goods and services are counted. But Trump only counts trade in goods, thus inflating the total. The trade deficit has widened in 2018, according to the Commerce Department. Virtually every mainstream economist would argue that it is far more important to focus on overall trade and investment between nations. If overall trade increases between nations, people in each country generally gain, no matter the size of the trade deficit. - "We have $52-a-barrel oil right now and I called them about three months ago, before this whole thing happened with Khashoggi, and I let him have it about oil. We were up to $82 -- probably two and a half months ago -- we were up to $82 a barrel and it was going up to $100 and that would've been like a massive tax increase and I didn't want that. And I called them and they let the oil start flowing and we're at $52." Trump may have called the Saudi king to complain about oil prices. But the plunge from about $80 started in mid-October after reports of slowing demand. The Saudi government has indicated it will join other OPEC producers in cutting production in order to boost prices, as the current level strains its budget. OPEC in July decided to increase production and the Saudis were slow to follow. But now the oil cartel plans to cut production in an effort to get the price of oil up again. - "We have an ally that's investing billions and billions of dollars in our country. They could very easily invest $110 billion, $450 billion overall over a period of time, fairly short period of time. $110 billion in military. Russia and China would love to have those orders and they'll get them if we don't." We have repeatedly explained that these numbers are a fantasy. We had earlier documented that the commercial agreements announced after Trump's 2017 trip to the kingdom were mostly smoke and mirrors, with many of the purported deals aimed at creating jobs in Saudi Arabia, not the United States. At the time, Trump claimed they were worth $350 billion, but without explanation the figure has grown to $450 billion. As for the $110 billion in military sales, according to a confidential 2017 document of all of the military sales agreements reviewed by The Fact Checker, most of the items on Trump's $110 billion list did not have delivery dates or were scheduled for 2022 or beyond. There appeared to be few, if any, signed contracts. Rather, many of the announcements were MOIs - memorandums of intent. There were six specific items, adding up to $28 billion, but all had been previously notified to Congress by the Obama administration. Moreover, the Saudis have been clear that they expect to impose a 50 percent localization rule. In other words, only half of the $110 billion, if the deals were actually inked, would be spent in the United States. - "Germany shouldn't like that aggression. You know they're paying 1 percent, and they're supposed to be paying much more than 1 percent. . . .They're absolutely not doing enough. Germany? Absolutely not. Many of those countries are not doing enough toward NATO. They should be spending much more money." There are two types of funding for NATO: direct funding and indirect funding. Direct funding, for military-related operations, maintenance and headquarters activity, is based on gross national income - the total domestic and foreign output claimed by residents of a country - and adjusted regularly. With the largest economy in NATO, the United States pays the largest share - about 22 percent. Germany is second, with about 15 percent. A significant portion of the U.S. share is operating the Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AWACS) fleet operations, according to the Congressional Research Service. The U.S. share of the actual military budget is negotiated each year, but largely based on the cost-sharing formula, and amounts to less than $500 million a year, according to Defense Department documents. But Trump is really talking about indirect funding. Since 2006, each NATO member has had a guideline of spending at least 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on defense spending. At a 2014 summit, responding to Russian aggression in Ukraine, NATO members pledged to meet that guideline by 2024. In 2017, only five of the 28 members exceed the guideline - with the United States leading the way at 3.5 percent. The other members that exceed the guideline are Greece, Estonia, Britain and Latvia, but the perceived threat from Russia has prompted other nations to bolster their defense spending. It's important to remember that the United States is a world power with global responsibilities, including in Asia. Iceland, which spends the smallest percent of its GDP on defense, does not even have a standing army. Germany spends 1.24 percent of its GDP on defense but the somewhat arbitrary measure penalizes countries with strong economies. Greece manages to meet its 2 percebt commitment mainly because its economy is weak. NORTH HAVEN - A 60-year-old male pedestrian was struck and killed by a vehicle on Quinnipiac Avenue near Cindy Lane on Wednesday morning. Deputy Chief of Police Kevin Glenn said the man from New Haven exited a city bus on Quinnipiac Avenue. Have you ever looked at something that was happening, and felt unsettled about it? Sometimes you feel, deep down in your gut, that something isnt right. You dont know why, but something is making you wonder about what is going on. I may get some hate for this, but I cant help feeling this way about the recent governors election in Connecticut. Let me explain the factors that are arousing my suspicion. The first factor is that of general post-election shenanigans by the Democratic Party. Unless youve been living in a cave, youre probably aware of the way Florida made a complete mess of their governors and US Senate elections. It gives me no pleasure to report that similar things are happening in Georgia, as well as Arizona. Having been witness to this liberal attempt to take power by any means necessary, I find myself asking why the same kind of thing cant happen in Connecticut. After all, all of our key state officials are Democrats. Maybe Im incorrect in this assessment, but Im raising a brow, so to speak. I believe it was Stalin who said that it doesnt matter who votes; it matters who counts the votes. CUNA raised concerns with several taxes contained the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in a letter to legislators sent Monday. The letter was sent to Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) and Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) in response to Monday nights release of the Retirement, Savings and Other Tax Relief Act of 2018 (H.R. 88). Americas credit unions were deeply appreciative that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) retained the credit union exemption from the federal income tax. This reflects Congresss understanding that the tax status is based on credit unions unique structure and mission within the financial services sector, the letter reads. While credit unions are exempt from income tax, they are subject to various other taxes and are therefore invested stakeholders in tax legislation under consideration by Congress. Through this lens, we raise additional concerns we hope Congress will address in H.R. 88, the Retirement, Savings, and Other Tax Relief Act. H.R. 88 contains two CUNA-supported extensions of tax provisions that have expired, known as tax extenders. One eliminates the requirement for most financial institutions to file an IRS Form 1099-C on a mortgage default involving an individuals primary residence. The IRS is being impersonated by scammers in an email making the rounds and using tax transcripts as bait to entice people to open attachments laced with malware. In its newswire IR-2018-226, the IRS and Security Summit partners warned that the scam is particularly troublesome for businesses whose employees might open the malware, known as Emotet, since it can spread throughout a companys network and take months to remove successfully. Emotet usually masquerades as specific banks, credit unions and other financial institutions in trying to trick people into opening infected documents. This is not the first appearance of Emotet, but whats new is its guise as the IRS. It pretends to be from IRS Online, and contains an attachment labeled Tax Account Transcript or something similar. The subject line uses some variation of the phrase tax transcript. The 2018 NAFCU Report on Credit Unions is now available online. The report shows, among other things, that the credit union industry continues to strengthen and see membership growth, although compliance burdens have led to industry consolidation. Our 2018 NAFCU Report on Credit Unions shows that credit unions play a critical role in the economy to the tune of $16 billion annually and continually work to meet the needs of their local communities and members, said NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger. The credit union industry remains well-capitalized, financially sound and committed to its members which is why the industry saw over 4 percent membership growth during the past year. More than 114 million Americans are members of a credit union, where 300,000 credit union employees work daily to provide them with the best service possible. However, regulatory and compliance burdens still weigh heavily on the industrys ability to serve its membership. Thats why its so important to NAFCU the industrys Washington Watchdog to ensure that the interests of the nations 5,500 federally insured credit unions are effectively represented, Berger added. Courtesy of British Summer Time Hyde ParkThe first show of the 2019 edition of London's British Summer Time Hyde Park concert series has been confirmed and it's a biggie. Bob Dylan and Neil Young, arguably two of the greatest and most prolific songwriters of the rock era, will co-headline the event, scheduled to take place on Friday, July 12. Tickets for the concert will go on sale this Friday, November 30. Dylan will be backed by his longtime touring group, while Young will be accompanied by Promise of the Real, the Americana act that features Willie Nelson's sons Lukas and Micah. Over the past several years, Neil has released three albums that he recorded with Promise of the Real: 2015's The Monsanto Years, 2016's Earth and 2017's The Visitor. The full list of British Summer Time Hyde Park shows will be announced soon. The Hyde Park concert is the first 2019 date announced for both Dylan and Young. Neil currently has no other shows on his schedule, while Bob is in the middle of a seven-show stand at New York City's Beacon Theatre that winds down on December 1. He'll wrap up his 2018 itinerary with a December 3 concert in Philadelphia. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. STORY LINK GBP to AUD Exchange Rate Gains Modest as Risk-Sentiment Limits Sterling GBP Benefits from Hopes for Eventual Brexit Deal Passage No one thinks this will get through the first time, At least 90 MPs have said they will vote against it. The risk is actually that, with everyone discounting the first vote, you get more. Anyone who votes against this is voting in favor of a hard Brexit, I cannot imagine anyone in opposition would even seriously consider such a development. Pound short positions will be favored until we know how parliament votes, The deal will only pass if its amended. Article 50 could be extended to avoid a no-deal scenario; no-deal threat will be used to negotiate and extract concessions. AUD Supported by Hopes for US-China Trade Breakthrough GBP/AUD Forecast: Markets Turn Attention to G20 Summit Like this piece? Please share with your friends and colleagues: The British Pound to Australian Dollar (GBP/AUD) exchange rates Wednesday gains were modest, despite Sterling seeing a more solid recovery versus other major rivals like the Euro (EUR). The Australian Dollar avoided further losses against Sterling due to market risk-sentiment keeping the Aussie buoyed.Since opening this week at the level of 1.7713, GBP/AUD has generally trended with a downside bias. GBP/AUD touched a weekly low of 1.7595 on Tuesday. While GBP/AUD did recover slightly on Wednesday, it only recovered around half of its weekly losses and trended near the level of 1.7675 at the time of writing.Demand for the Pound improved slightly on Wednesday, helping the British currency to rebound slightly from its Tuesday slide.The primary cause of the Pounds recovery was market hopes that even if the UK-EU Brexit bill is rejected by UK Parliament, it will be more likely to pass Parliament in a following vote.Markets have been increasingly concerned by the possibility that the long-negotiated UK-EU Brexit deal could be knocked down in UK Parliament during a vote at the beginning of December.In fact, as opposition to the bill is so broad, even amongst UK Prime Minister Theresa Mays allies, markets are starting to price an initial defeat into Sterling.Steve Fielding, Professor of Politics at Nottingham University, believes there is very little confidence in the possibility of a first-time pass for the bill:Analysts expect the bill will go through some further negotiation or tweaks before it has a chance of passing.However, others point out that very few within UK Parliament will be willing to allow the deal to collapse completely which would lead to a no-deal Brexit. According to Peter Kinsella, Head of Foreign-Exchange Strategy at Union Bancaire Privee:Hopes that no-deal Brexit fears could help a softer Brexit to pass, or could even help the UK to negotiate more concessions, bolstered Sterling support slightly on Wednesday. According to Kenneth Broux, Strategist from Societe Generale SA:Despite some underwhelming Australian construction stats on Wednesday, the Australian Dollar was able to hold against Sterling gains thanks to stronger market demand for riskier trade-correlated currencies.Investors have been more willing to take risks this week, amid broad market anticipation for an upcoming meeting between US President Donald Trump and China President Xi Jinping.Trump and Xi are expected to meet for a formal dinner at a G20 summit in Argentina, set to take place at the end of the week.While Trump indicated earlier in the week that he could introduce a new round of trade tariffs on US imports of Chinese goods, other US officials such as Director of National Economic Council Larry Kudlow have said that a breakthrough may be possible.Kudlow indicated that US President Trump may be open to solutions if China President Xi was also open.His comments left investors more willing to take risks and riskier trade-correlated currencies like the Australian Dollar saw stronger performance.GBP/AUD was still able to advance slightly though, as demand for risky currencies was limited by hawkishness from Federal Reserve officials.As the week enters its second half and November draws to an end, investors of risky trade-correlated currencies like the Australian Dollar will be increasingly focused on the upcoming meeting between US President Donald Trump and China President Xi Jinping.The Presidents will meet at a formal dinner during the G20 summit in Argentina set to take place into the end of the week.Markets are broadly hoping that there will be some kind of key development in US-China trade tensions during the meeting.As a result of the anticipation for this meeting, risk-sentiment will remain volatile and sensitive until the outcome of the meeting becomes clearer.This means the outlook for risky currencies like the Australian Dollar is unlikely to change much over the next day.The Pound is unlikely to see major movement on Thursday either, as investors look for perceived shifts in opinion on UK Prime Minister Theresa Mays Brexit deal. International Money Transfer? Ask our resident FX expert a money transfer question or try John's new, free, no-obligation personal service! ,where he helps every step of the way, ensuring you get the best exchange rates on your currency requirements. TAGS: Pound Australian Dollar Forecasts 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. Dear Editor: Re LETTER: Mideast theocratic allies reflect racism of U.S. empire, by Fred Nagel, Nov. 21, 2018: If Nagel is comparing the United States of America to the radical countries in the Middle East, he is way off, labeling American Christians as murdering, barbaric people. American Christians have fought many wars against people from barbaric countries to protect our freedoms. And many have lost their lives, including Latinos, gays, Jews, Muslims and women. You need to look at the whole picture. American Christians do not invade countries to murder women and children, etc. We go to these countries to protect them from the people Nagel is comparing America to. Check your history. And if you do not like this country, then start yourself a caravan and go elsewhere. There are plenty like Nagel who are followers in this country. Think about the sacrifices many Americans have made so persons like Nagel can write their letters and tell their family members that the country they fought for is full of barbaric murderers. Love it or leave it. Richard T. Cantwell Sr. Saugerties, N.Y. The Duchess of York has faced a backlash for gushing about her stay at the five-star Marriott Hotel in Athens in the same week as wildfires killed at least 91 people. Sarah Ferguson, 58, took to Instagram at the weekend to share snaps of Acropolis, adding: 'Staff and customer service excellent .. atmosphere superb, very comfortable, a great place for a stay in Athens @marriotthotels.' Some critics took issue with the timing of her comments, branding them 'disappointing and inappropriate, with one adding: 'Wild fires killing scores only a few miles from here and all she can talk about is the luxury hotel.' However, others rushed to the Duchess' defence, pointing out that she had thrown her support behind the victims of the tragedy earlier in the week and was doing her bit to encourage tourism and promote the country to assist its recovery. The Duchess of York, 58, pictured at the Ministry of Tourism in Greece last week, has faced a backlash for gushing about her stay at the five-star Marriott Hotel in Athens after wildfires claimed at least 91 lives The royal took to Instagram to praise the establishment's atmosphere, comfort and customer service Some commenters were not impressed and said that her post was badly timed, given the tragic loss of life near Athens One wrote: Tourism is a primary source of income for Greece, so if the people stop coming in, jobs and livelihoods are lost. 'I think Greece has suffered enough financial losses and tragedies. We must all move forward. Earlier in the week Fergie expressed her 'deepest sympathy' to all affected by the tragedy and praised the emergency services for their tireless work. And during a meeting with Greek tourism minister Elena Kountoura, she vowed to provide 'every possible help'. The Duchess stayed at the five-star Marriott hotel in Athens on her visit, during which she expressed sympathy for the victims of the wildfires Fergie accompanied her praise for the Marriott with a snap of the Acropolis in Athens on her Instagram account Fans rushed to Fergie's defence, saying her post was aimed at encouraging people to visit Greece and help the affected areas rebuild after the disaster She also encouraged Brits to visit Greece to stimulate its tourism industry to help it recover from the devastating fires and floods. 'We are here to help. Greece is a very beautiful country and... people must come here and see how beautiful it is,' she told a press conference. The ex-wife of Prince Andrew was speaking from experience as she holidayed in the country with Kate Moss in 2016. Ms Kountoura thanked her and said the government was doing everything in could to help victims of the disaster. A tourist has launched an internet search for a mystery couple after capturing the moment they got engaged in Santorini in a stunning photograph. Col Stinson, who is believed to be based in the US, explained how he was watching the sunset on the Greek island when he took the picture. In the photograph, a man wearing a blue shirt can be seen kneeling down, as his girlfriend, wearing a black dress, puts her hand out. The couple were on top of a cliff overlooking the Aegean Sea, as the sun set over the island. Sharing the photograph, Col said: 'Watching the sunset in Santorini last night and captured this but wasnt able to get the picture to the couple, so twitter do your thing'. Col Stinson, who is believed to be based in the US, shared a photograph of a couple getting engaged on the Greek island of Santorini on Saturday night Col shared the photograph on Twitter, in a bid to track down the mystery couple. He explained he had been watching the sunset on the Greek island The post has so far been shared more than 10,000 times as Twitter users attempt to help Col find the newly-engaged couple. Social media users described the photograph, taken on Friday night, as 'beautiful', declaring that the couple would 'love it'. One wrote 'This is the cutest thing ever!!', while another added: 'Oh my gosh that's so beautiful I hope the find it!!'. Meanwhile, one Twitter user commented: 'That's a beautiful pic. I'm sure they would love this framed in their home. The scenery helps capture the moment. They'd love it.' Other social media users were quick to comment on the photograph, describing the picture as 'beautiful'. One described it as the 'cutest thing ever' The photograph was shared on Twitter on Saturday, but the couple do not appear to have come forward so far. It comes after Santorni was voted the second most romantic place in the world, behind Paris. The Greek island is known for its idyllic beaches, blue-topped buildings and jaw-dropping sunsets and is extremely popular with honeymooners. Venice and the Amalfi Coast were also on the list of top 20 most romantic places around the world, as voted by a poll of of travel experts and 2,000 members of the public. It comes after Santorini (pictured above) was voted the second most romantic location in a recent poll Tiffany Trump continues to live the sweet trust fund life this summer, continuing her prolonged European holiday on the beach in Mykonos. The first daughter, 24, was spotted enjoying the sun and sand on July 31 while vacationing on the Greek Island. Opting for a modest look, Tiffany tied a long white cover-up over her black one-piece swimsuit, and accessorized with a shoulder bag, jewelry, and dark sunglasses. Tiffany Trump was spotted on the Greek island of Mykonos on Tueday The 24-year-old wore a black one-piece swimsuit and a white cover-up tied around her waist She accessorized with a pair of espadrilles and a snakeskin bag for the outing Tiffany seemed to be enjoying herself and smiled wide while taking in the scene and looking at her phone She also enjoyed the company of a male friend who smiled nearby Tiffany wore sunglasses as the sun seemed to be setting on the island Tiffany had a group of men with her, including some who appeared to be friends and others who were more likely Secret Service agents. She wore a wide smile on her face as she stood along parked cars in her swimsuit, grinning as she took in the scene and looked down at her phone. The swimwear was an outfit change from earlier in the day, when Tiffany wore black and white stripes and stacked necklaces while hanging out at a sunny restaurant with a friend. She posted images from the afternoon out on Instagram. Tiffany appears to be enjoying her time in Greece, and on Friday spent the night out with Mean Girls star Lindsay Lohan. The two were spotted partying together a fundraiser for the Greek wildfires, particularly in social media snaps posted by Tiffany and her friends. She also wore several stacked necklaces draped around her neck The first daughter has only been in Mykonos for a few days but is making the most of her time She was also accompanied by Secret Service agents who milled about Tiffany is enjoying a summer overseas while on break from Georgetown University Law School in D.C Tiffany seems to be spending time with friends after a brief trip with her mother They've posted screengrabs of themselves chatting over FaceTime since Lohan's move to Dubai. One of Tiffany's best friends, Andrew Warren, revealed in an Instagram post last month that the trio were planning a trip to Mykonos where Lohans' second club, the Lohan Beach House Mykonos, opened earlier this year. On Friday night, Lindsay star posted a photo of herself with Tiffany and Warren at Nammos restaurant, with multiple heart emojis, and the hashtags #mykonos #america. She also tagged Tiffany's father Donald Trump in the caption. Warren also shared the photo, adding: 'So happy to be @nammosmykonos to support the fires happening, love a good cause with my favorites.' Tiffany also spent some time out at a sunny restaurant on the island She posted a video to Instagram, using a heart sunglasses filter She smiled and posed with friend Michael B in the clip, shared in her stories The photo showed a smiling Tiffany in the center, wearing a black, slinky buttoned up dress which gaped and strained around every button. Warren, to her left, pouts in a Louis Vuitton headband with his arms wrapped round her waist. Meanwhile, Lohan, on her right, looks uncomfortable, and grimaces at the camera. Lindsay, 31, has spoken in the past about her friendship with Tiffany, who is enjoying a summer overseas after completing her second semester at Georgetown University Law School in D.C. '[She's] a really sweet girl,' she said of Tiffany in a New York Times profile. 'Nice person.' Back in April, Lohan shared a screenshot of herself talking to Tiffany over FaceTime and last month, Warren shared another where she mentioned the pair were planning a trip to Mykonos. On Friday, she partied with Lindsay Lohan at a fundraiser for the Greek wildfires The Mean Girls star posted a photo of herself with Tiffany and friend Andrew Warren at Nammos restaurant, with multiple heart emojis, and the hashtags #mykonos #america Warren also congratulated Lohan on her new Greek club in another post Catching up: The two friends have FaceTimed each other with their mutual friend Andrew Warren, and he captioned a screenshot of their recent call 'Planning mykonos' (left) Lohan has also expressed her support for Tiffany's father Donald Trump. 'THIS IS our president,' Lohan tweeted. 'Stop #bullying him & start trusting him. Thank you personally for supporting #THEUSA,' she tweeted. During a Facebook Live Q&A session with the Daily Mail in February 2017 too, Lohan urged Americans to 'join him', adding: 'I think always in the public eye you're going to get scrutinized. He is the president we have to join him. If you can't beat him, join him.' Meanwhile, Tiffany has been making the most of her summer break from school, partying in the Hamptons, visiting Trump Winery in Virginia, and catching up with her mother Marla Maples during a trip to the UK. The two where they enjoyed a quiet weekend in the picturesque English countryside, with Marla posting Instagram snaps of the pair in Glastonbury. Tiffany has been making the most of her summer break from school, partying in the Hamptons, visiting Trump Winery in Virginia and catching up with her mother Marla Maples during a trip to the UK (pictured) Models: Tiffany and Marla posed for photos together as they tried on leather jackets at a Matchless store in Mayfair, an affluent area in the city's West End They also posed for pictures together in Trafalgar Square Outside of London, they enjoyed time on the English countryside as well Model move: The first daughter struck a pose with friend Karen Shiboleth while enjoying their night out in London They then went to London, taking in the sights and posing in Trafalfar Square. 'Last day in #London with Tiffany under the gaze of the most blue skies and guarded by the bronze Lions of #TrifalgarSquare,' she wrote on July 27. 'With gratitude I thank England and all our friends there for memorable times surrounded by love,' she added. From there, it seems, Tiffany may have separated from her mom to head on to Greece. When it comes popping the question, many swear by an intimate setting and a romantic moment shared between two people. But one man took this a step further, when he asked his teacher girlfriend to marry him in front of her class and got the students to give him a hand. The gesture took place with the help of some very special Year 2 students (aged between seven and eight), and it couldn't have come as more of a surprise to the bride-to-be, Stephanie Conroy of Hervey Bay, Queensland. 'Everyone in the room started to cry. I was crying, my mother was crying, the kids were crying,' Miss Conroy told FEMAIL. Scroll down for video Stephanie Conroy (pictured right and her beau Jackson Sewell (pictured left) have been together for five years Year 2 students were asked to help by Miss Conroy's fiance to help him make the proposal extra special (pictured) Miss Conroy, 26, revealed there was absolutely no way she could have guessed her fiance Jackson, 24, was planning to ask her to marry him - much less in front of her class. She explained how the surprise unfolded after she was called out of her class recently to discuss junior reports with the school head. After a quick conversation, she returned to her class, but Miss Conroy said as she was approaching the door she heard the couple's favourite song playing, and 'all the kids were dead silent' - a sure sign something was up. Jackson Sewell (pictured with Stephanie Conroy) got down on bended knee to pop the question in front of students, other teachers and her mum Miss Conroy revealed how a group hug and spontaneous tears were the order of the day after the surprise proposal Upon entering the room, she saw three of her students holding up signs, which they flipped around to reveal the words: 'Miss Conroy will you become Mrs Sewell?'. Within moments, her fiance appeared from a back room and got down on one knee - a moment that saw everyone spontaneously burst into tears. 'My teaching partner worked with my fiance to organise it and make it so special. It was such a wonderful surprise and totally overwhelming,' she said. Miss Conroy said the family had experienced a tough year so the proposal came as a something which 'brightened their spirits' Even Miss Conroy's mother was able to get into the spirit of things as she also works at the school. However, she said her husband-to-be had managed to keep this a secret from her right up until the big moment. 'She had no idea why she was being called over to my classroom and so she was very emotional as well.' What makes the long-awaited proposal even more special is the fact the family have had a tough year. 'We really needed something to brighten our spirits and this was it,' the newly engaged teacher said. A wedding is tentatively planned for September 2019 and it's hoped Miss Conroy's students will be a part of the celebrations While no date has been set for the pair's pending nuptials, September 2019 looks the most promising. And although it's yet to be decided whether the kids will form part of the bridal party, it's hoped they will be a part of the couple's special day. 'They are such a beautiful group of kids and all very special to me,' Miss Conroy said. 'All of them are just so genuinely kind and I feel really lucky to have such a wonderful group of students. They make every day great.' Surprise celebration! Miss Conroy said that as well as the surprise proposal, Mr Sewell had arranged for friends and family to celebrate their engagement without her knowing Miss Conroy also shared that as well as the surprise school proposal, her beau also arranged a romantic beach-side dinner for the pair later that night. 'However, once I got there he had organised for 25 of our closest family and friends to be there to surprise me. 'He even managed to get my best friends from Townsville and Brisbane there to celebrate - and all without me knowing!'. Gayle King may be an social media star in her own right, but that isn't stopping her from taking a few posing pointers from her niece Mackenzie Schwab. The 63-year-old co-anchor of CBS This Morning took to Instagram on Tuesday to reveal that she has been recreating her 22-year-old niece's bikini photos during their family trip to Puerto Rico, where they spent the Thanksgiving holiday. The series of six snapshots alternates between Mackenzie's original snapshots and Gayle's versions which are spot-on recreations of the cheeky poses. Strike a pose: Gayle King, 63, took to Instagram on Tuesday to share her 22-year-old niece Mackenzie Schwab's bikini photos and her recreations of them Surprise! Gayle revealed that she has been recreating Mackenzie's cheeky poses during their family trip to Puerto Rico 'This GORGEOUS girl is my favorite niece @mknzschwb!' Gayle captioned the images. 'She picks the pose & I play along .. fav daughter & fav son do not approve. And refused to come. 'I say Life is short have fun! shes 22 ..Im 63.. so who did it best?' she asked. 'Swipe left I can take it ...wish I had a two piece suit...' In the first photo, Mackenzie is showing off some cleavage in a red patterned bikini while leaning against a palm tree. The University of Virginia graduate is smiling as she rests her head on her hand. When posting the image on her own Instagram page, Mackenzie wrote: 'ugh winter, am i right.' Imitation game: The co-anchor of CBS This Morning explained that Mackenzie 'picks the pose' and she copies it Looking good: Although she didn't have her own bikini to wear, Gayle modeled a flattering floral one-piece while recreating her niece's pictures Fun in the sun: Mackenzie was all smiles as she posed on a rock on the water Different location: Gayle was photographed leaning back on her hands on a much smaller rock The next picture shows Gayle striking the same pose for her snapshot, which was taken at a slightly different angle. Although she didn't have her own bikini to wear, the journalist looks confident in her flattering floral one-piece. Mackenzie was later photographed lounging in a hammock by the beach at sunset, wearing the same red bikini from before. While Gayle had the pose down, she opted to photograph her version when the sun was still high in the air. In her final photo, Mackenzie is smiling for the camera while sitting on a rock that is jutting out into the water. Living it up: Gale and her family stayed at Dorado Beach, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, a new resort in Puerto Rico Close as can be: Gayle called Mackenzie her 'favorite niece.' They are pictured in June Good times: Mackenzie enjoyed a night out with her aunt and Oprah Winfrey (second from left) in October Her aunt, on the other hand, opted for a different location. Gayle was photographed leaning back on her hands on a much smaller rock, and the snapshot shows the crystal blue water behind her. The images received more than 11,000 likes in just two hours, including one from Reese Witherspoon. Gayle is the editor-at-large for O, The Oprah Magazine, and her brilliant photos even attracted the attention of the publication. 'We need to turn this into a spread for one our issues! Who agrees?' the magazine commented. Gayle and Oprah Winfrey have been best friends for decades, and one person couldn't resist responding: 'Agreed! If only she knew someone at @oprahmagazine.' 'Get it, Gayle!' Demetria Lucas added. When Sydney woman Maria Stroh struggled to get her daughter Kivarni's temperature under control, she took the three-year-old to the emergency room. After a series of blood tests, doctors diagnosed the toddler with gastroenteritis and discharged Kivarni with sachets of Hydrolite to fight dehydration. The next morning, she lost the use of her limbs and fell unconscious. Rushing back to hospital, an MRI revealed life-threatening swelling and lesions on the brain - a rare condition known as Acute Necrotising Encephalopathy - caused by the influenza virus, which rendered the toddler unable to walk, talk or swallow. Speaking to Femail, Ms Stroh, 30, shared the frightening story behind Kivarni's illness, the challenging road to recovery as well as her message to parents about the importance of having children vaccinated against the flu. Maria Stroh (left) grew concerned about her three-year-old daughter Kivarni (right) when her temperature soared above 41 in late September After a misdiagnosis of gastroenteritis, an MRI showed life-threatening lesions and swelling on little Kivarni's brain caused by the common flu virus 'We thought it was just another cold she picked up from kindy, so we gave her some Nurofen but I started to worry when it got much higher than usual,' Ms Stroh told Daily Mail Australia. 'She was drowsy and started to wet herself too, which is completely out of character.' When Kivarni's fever reached more than 41.3 in late September, she and husband Ryan rushed her to the emergency room. But despite their little one vomiting repeatedly, shivering uncontrollably and being unable to support herself walking, blood tests showed no anomalies and medical staff discharged her with a diagnosis of gastroenteritis. 'Once she was able to keep fluids down they let us go home, but later that night Kivarni woke up in pain. 'The next morning we took her downstairs to the lounge and she couldn't pick anything up, she had no coordination and she more or less fell unconscious.' Despite the toddler vomiting repeatedly and becoming unable to support herself, doctors discharged her with Hydrolite to combat dehydration Back at the hospital for over 12 hours, staff ran numerous tests including CT scans and lumbar punctures before sedating Kivarni into an induced coma and transporting her to a larger regional facility. 'From the initial CT scan they thought there was just swelling in the back of the brain, but when they ran the MRI the following day they discovered lesions and more severe swelling.' Kivarni was diagnosed with Acute Necrotising Encephalopathy caused by the influenza A virus, a strain of the flu which doctors said her system 'couldn't handle'. WHAT IS ACUTE NECROTISING ENCEPHALOPATHY? Acute Necrotising Encephalopathy (ANE) is a rare brain disease caused by a severe viral infection. Historically, the condition primarily affected previously healthy Japanese, Taiwanese and other East Asian infants, but in modern times has been diagnosed in children from all corners of the world. Symptoms of the viral infection, including fever, respiratory difficulties and gastroenteritis, are usually followed by seizures, lapse of consciousness and the development of a coma, liver failure and neurological damage. ANE is thought to be caused by both environmental and genetic factors, and generally develops secondary to viral infections like influenza. Source: US National Library of Medicine Advertisement Previously healthy Kivarni lost her speech and mobility due to Acute Necrotising Encephalopathy, and is now re-learning how to walk, talk, eat and swallow After a course of high dosage immune suppressing steroids and an anti-viral shot to bring down swelling, Kivarni has made what her mum and medical professionals call 'an actual miracle'. 'We know other parents who have kids with ANE and it's been completely different - we were only in hospital for six weeks, no one believed she would recover so quickly,' Ms Stroh said. But despite her swift turn around, previously healthy Kivarni lost her speech and mobility because of ANE and is now re-learning how to walk, talk, swallow and eat again. 'Her neck control was also gone and she couldn't make eye contact. That's back to normal now but we're still doing occupational therapy she has some difficulties with her right hand and right leg but it's coming along with every session.' 'Our paediatrician said the MRI was one of the worst he'd ever seen - it's still hard to believe everything that's happened, we were really living minute by minute. 'Our older girl Cali had a few breakdowns, she was distraught - it was really hard on her with my husband and I living separately between the hospital and at home.' Ms Stroh said the experience was terrifying and a difficult period for her eldest daughter Cali (right), and urged parents to be vigilant in monitoring warning signs in young children Asked about the advice she would give to parents concerned about their child's well being or unusual symptoms, Ms Stroh said the first port of call is to get a flu shot for each of your kids. 'That's obviously first and foremost, but also be aware of the neurological signs of these lesser known conditions. 'If their temperature is crazy high or they start to walk funny, wet the bed or anything out of character - go straight to the hospital. 'You know yourself as a mother when something is just a bit off, it's like a gut feeling. 'Every parent knows their child better than anyone so listen to your instincts and don't accept something if you have doubts.' Jackie Chan's estranged lovechild has married her girlfriend after claiming earlier this year they were left homeless due to 'homophobic parents.' In posts shared on Instagram Monday, 19-year-old Etta Ng confirmed the news that she married Canadian partner, Andi Autumn, on November 8, sharing pictures of the happy couple's marriage certificate. Although Etta is Jackie's love child, she regards him as a stranger and has said in the past that she will never consider him to be her real father following his brief affair with her mother in the late '90s. Love: Jackie Chan's estranged daughter Etta Ng, 19, announced her marriage to Canadian partner Andi Autumn Monday Official: The couple, pictured on their wedding day, married in Canada on November 8 before returning to Hong Kong The couple married in Canada before returning to Hong Kong, where Etta is from, according to reports. Jackie has yet to comment publicly on his daughter's marriage, but his estranged daughter seems happy to just be focusing on celebrating her nuptials. 'There is nothing greater than true love found,' Etta wrote on Instagram when announcing the news, before revealing that the couple have since returned to her home country. Love child: Etta's mother, former beauty queen Elaine Ng Yi Lei, had an affair with Jackie Chan (pictured) in 1999 'With love we've returned. My home is Hong Kong, a beautiful city full of life and passion.' Same-sex marriages are not recognized as a legal union, however earlier this year, the government agreed to recognize overseas same-sex partnerships when granting dependent visas, which may be why the couple chose to wed in Canada. The women were both visions in white during the ceremony; each of them wore what appeared to be hoodies, while Andi, 31, accented her outfit with a veil. Pictures from the wedding day show the couple holding hands and embracing before signing their marriage certificate to make their union official. Andi also shared her own pictures and videos from the wedding, while speaking out about how Etta has changed her life. 'Back to Hong Kong as Wife & Wife,' Andi wrote. '@ettazen has given me the gift of being my true self and it's so hard to explain the change I feel... 'My whole life I thought I was toxic, she made me realize I was surrounded by negativity. 'Now that its gone, this new feeling has taken over and I now know I deserve just as much as the world has to offer.' Happy as can be: 'There is nothing greater than true love found,' Etta (right) wrote on Instagram when announcing the news Estranged: Etta is Jackie's love child from an affair he had in the 90s, but she is never thought to have had a relationship with him The wedding video shows the couple holding hands while standing in front of the officiant during the ceremony. Etta's mother, former beauty queen Elaine Ng Yi Lei, had an affair with Jackie in 1999 during his marriage to Taiwanese actress Joan Lin. He and Joan have been married since 1982, and they share a 35-year-old son, Jaycee Chan. Following Elaine's pregnancy, Jackie held a press conference to address his affair with Elaine, who is nearly two decades his junior. 'I have made a mistake that many men in the world make,' he said at the time. The actor has an estimated net worth of $350 million but has never reportedly sought a relationship with his daughter, who was raised alone by her mother. And in 2015, Etta told the Express that she would never consider the martial arts expert and on-screen star to be her real father. 'He is not my dad. I have no feelings for him. He is my biological father but he is not in my life,' she said. Look of love: Etta and Andi both wore white sweatshirts for their nuptials Overcome with joy: Andi appeared to be crying as they exchanged vows All smiles: The wedding video shows the couple holding hands while standing in front of the officiant during the ceremony 'He never existed in my life. I will never regard him as a father,' she added. 'I would not say that he is my dad. I would say, "Oh, Jackie Chan, an actor."' Etta's marriage news comes less than a year after she and Andi claimed in a YouTube video that they had 'been homeless for a month due to homophobic parents'. In the clip, which was published in April, Etta is seen reading off of a sheet of paper while speaking to the camera. 'Hi Im Jackie Chans daughter and this is my girlfriend Andi,' she says. 'Weve been homeless for a month due to homophobic parents. We pretty much slept under a bridge, and other things.' The two candidly expressed their fears of being separated because of their relationship if they were forced to sleep in government shelters - however Etta did not specify whether she had made Jackie aware of her situation, despite mentioning his name at the start of the clip. Speaking about their homelessness the couple, who reportedly started dating in late 2017, just months after Etta publicly came out, said that their family members would not offer them more assistance other than to send them to a homeless shelter. 'I've asked all my friends for help,' Andi said. 'I've asked all my family for help. Everyone just keeps sending us to the direction of shelters, where they know we will be split up.' Together: They reportedly started dating in late 2017, just months after Etta publicly came out Allegations: In April, Etta and Andi posted a video claiming they were left homeless on the streets by their parents because of their relationship Andi went on to say that friends have stopped answering her phone calls. Continuing the plea, Etta added: 'I don't even understand. We've gone to the police, we've gone to the hospital, the food banks, LGBTQ community shelters and all of them just don't give a s**t.' 'Two people in love that share true love are trying not to get split apart and they're trying to f**k us over just because - I don't understand it - I love her.' Etta's mother has refuted the claim, telling the Asian news site Coconuts that they 'should go find work' if they don't have any money. 'They shouldnt film a clip telling others they are broke and who Ettas father is,' she said. 'People all over the world work hard and dont rely on someone elses fame to get money.' According to Gay Times, Jackie was asked about his feelings towards Etta's coming out while promoting the film Foreigner. 'If she likes it that's fine,' he said. It remains unclear if the couple has figured out their housing situation since creating the video, which amassed more than 1.5 million views, since April. They say there is a perfect red lipstick for every woman, no matter their hair or skin tone. But so often, many of us struggle to find the perfect red to bring out our features, and so shy away from trying one in favour of nude and peach tones. However, locating the perfect formula, consistency and colour is possible with the help of the experts. FEMAIL spoke with the beauty editor from the online retailer, lookfantastic, Raisa Lorenzana, to find out your dream product, no matter your hair or skin tone. Scroll down for video FEMAIL spoke with the beauty editor from the online retailer, lookfantastic, Raisa Lorenzana, to find out your dream red lipstick product, no matter your hair or skin tone Speaking to FEMAIL, Raisa said that blonde-haired, fair-skinned women suit 'blue-based red best' (left: Margot Robbie) - dark hair and fair skin can pull off bold tones (right: Emily Ratajkowski) BLONDE HAIR AND FAIR SKIN Butter London's Impulsive shade (pictured) works well for blonde hair and tanned skin Speaking to FEMAIL, Raisa said that blonde-haired, fair-skinned women suit 'blue-based red best'. 'Darker lip shades against your skin tone will stand out dramatically, although this can work if you want to go for a bold look,' she said. 'Alternatively, if you want to be seen sporting a bright, cheerful lip this summer, then raspberry reds are for you.' The beauty editor recommends either the Gorgeous Cosmetics Lipstick in Lola for $32, the Kryolan Professional Lipstick in Fortuna for $36 or theYoung Blood Lip Kit for $71.96 for fair-skinned blondes. Try: Blue-based reds. BLONDE HAIR AND TANNED SKIN Antipodes' product in Ruby Bay Rouge (pictured) also suits blonde hair and tanned skin Those who have blonde hair and a golden complexion will 'find that gold, orange and yellow tones will suit you well'. 'Warm reds and burnt orange-red lip colours shine particularly well through tanned skin for that radiant glow,' Raisa explained. She said this skin tone should avoid 'cool tones, which can read differently on your skin and may even give off the impression of a dull complexion'. She recommends Butter London's $22.50 Impulsive shade, Antipodes' $24.65 product in Ruby Bay Rouge or Mirenesse's $23.96 option in Rave. Try: Warm reds and burnt oranges. Avoid: Cool tones. Dark-haired, olive-skinned women are lucky in the reds department, suiting both brick reds and burgundy tones according to the expert (pictured: Olivia Culpo) L'Oreal Paris 's Perfect Red (pictured) works for dark hair and fair skin DARK HAIR AND FAIR SKIN 'Women with fair skin and dark hair wear bold, sultry reds quite beautifully,' Raisa said. 'These strong hues are flattering on a light skin as they reveal a brighter complexion.' Confessing that she has tried hundreds of bold reds in her time, the expert admitted her favourites are Gerard Cosmetics' lipstick in Passion Play, Mirenesse's Mattfinity in Seoul and L'Oreal Paris's Perfect Red. Try: Bold, sultry reds. 'Women with fair skin and dark hair wear bold, sultry reds quite beautifully,' Raisa said (pictured: Amal Clooney) DARK HAIR AND OLIVE SKIN Illamasqua's Rocket shade (pictured) is a good accompaniment for dark hair and olive skin Dark-haired, olive-skinned women are lucky in the reds department, suiting both brick reds and burgundy tones according to the expert. 'Deep, red hues calm down olive undertones, which is why lipsticks in ruby or wine are excellent choices,' Raisa said. Glo Minerals' lipstick in Vixen is a good choice, as is Kryolan's Aphrodite and Illamasqua's Rocket shade. Try: Lipsticks in ruby and wine. RED HAIR AND PALE SKIN Like fair-skinned blondes, fair red heads suit 'blue-based lipsticks with cool undertones'. 'These cooler tones contrast with your red hair, hence highlighting the beautiful colour of your tresses,' Raisa said. This skin tone and hair colour can wear the same products as fair-skinned blondes. Try: Blue-based lipsticks with cool undertones. 'High colour pigments complement your skin well and are ideal for that perfect, summer-ready look if you are red haired and have golden skin,' Raisa said (pictured: Emma Roberts) RED HAIR AND GOLDEN SKIN 'Women with red hair and golden skin suit a strong and solid red,' Raisa said. 'High colour pigments complement your skin well and are ideal for that perfect, summer-ready look.' Raisa recommends Antipodes' product in Forest Berry Red or Victoria Glam's Red Hot. Try: High colour pigments with a strong and solid red. 'Warmer skin tones are characterised by yellow undertones, and lipsticks with highly-pigmented shades of red and orange-red tend to brighten the complexion,' Raisa said (pictured: Natasha Ndlovu) DARK HAIR AND DARK SKIN When it comes to dark hair and dark skin, warmer shades are your best friend. 'Warmer skin tones are characterised by yellow undertones, and lipsticks with highly-pigmented shades of red and orange-red tend to brighten the complexion,' Raisa said. Illasmasqua's AntiMatter lipsticks are a good place to start, as is ModelCo's lacquer in fire red. Charlotte Tilbury also has plenty of covetable products, with a handy guide that allows you to figure out which undertone of skin you have. 'The golden rule is to never apply lipstick over chapped lips,' Raisa concluded. 'Keep your lips from drying out or cracking with regular top-ups of Lanolips.' Try: Lipsticks with highly-pigmented shades of red and orange-red. GREY HAIR AND PALE SKIN 'Women with grey hair look amazing in red lipstick and best suit vivid reds that are highly-pigmented,' Raisa said. 'These hues are always en vogue and timeless. If you are looking for a summer alternative, coral reds are fun to wear.' Try: Coral reds and vivid colours. Advertisement Those who arrive at 'Arcadia' in Merricks, Victoria, are greeted with the humble yet perfectly manicured exterior most would expect from a quiet country home set in a cul-de-sac. But when they step inside, guests are treated to a breathtaking $6million abode complete with panoramic views across the 10 acre property and beyond, a heated pool, five contemporary bedrooms and three modern bathrooms. The two-storey residence, located just over an hour south of Melbourne, has just hit the market and boasts a coffee bar in the kitchen, a marble topped window seat in the dining area, a day bed in the living room, a media room, gym, stables, a dam and five paddocks. 'The views are incredible, from Western Port (Bay) back over vineyards and the countryside,' Andrew Hines from Kay & Burton Flinders told realestate.com.au. The property was being sold privately with a price guide of between $5.5million and $6million. Those who arrive at 'Arcadia' in Merricks, Victoria, are greeted with the humble yet perfectly manicured exterior most would expect from a quiet country home set in a cul-de-sac But when they step inside, guests are treated to a breathtaking $6million abode complete with panoramic views across the 10 acre property and beyond, a heated pool, five contemporary bedrooms and three modern bathrooms The two-storey residence, which is located just over an hour south of Melbourne, has just hit the market and boasts a coffee bar in the kitchen, a marble topped window seat in the dining area and a day bed in the living room Sliding timber battened screens on the western projection helps with light control This day bed in the living room is further defined by a freestanding French Cheminees Philippe fireplace nearby There are also 5.8 metre vaulted ceilings which draws residents' attention to the amazing views at all times Talking about money in a new relationship is always a difficult area to navigate. But there are certain tips and tricks that can help facilitate the conversation. Speaking to FEMAIL, finance and investing expert Shahirah Gardner, a Yahoo Finance New Investor, revealed the financial red flags you should look out for in a new couple, and her top tips for establishing an open relationship around money with a boyfriend. Yahoo finance and investing expert Shahirah Gardner (pictured) revealed the financial red flags you should look out for in a new couple She said that things like no savings, job instability, drowning in debt and living paycheck to paycheck are bad in new relationships (stock image) What are the financial red flags to look out for in a new relationship? For Shahirah, there are four main things you should watch out for when you start dating someone and notice a few red flags. What are the financial red flags in a new relationship? * No savings. * Job instability. * Drowning in debt. * Living paycheck to paycheck. Advertisement No savings: 'Basic savings demonstrates self-discipline and respect for financial goals,' Shahirah explained to Daily Mail Australia. 'They are a sign of a good foundation and appreciation of the value of money.' Job instability: For the expert, if your partner's constantly in between jobs, then there's 'something fish going on'. 'If they have stability in the workplace, their chances of stability in the home place are that much greater. Not to mention, it's harder to pay bills and plan holidays if you can't guarantee a steady income.' Drowning in debt: One thing to keep an eye on is how many credit cards your partner has. 'Do they have three too many and are still doing a bunch of spending?,' Shahirah said. 'Sharing a life with somebody means you share their debts, whether directly or indirectly.' Living paycheck to paycheck: 'One in two Australians live paycheck to paycheck,' she said. 'While it seems almost unavoidable for a lot of young Aussies, how fast is your partner running out of money? If it's payday and they're already counting down until the next, then be careful.' To have a solid relationship around money, Shahirah said approach the conversation early but slowly, understand your own goals, avoid lying and set boundaries (stock image) How can you establish an open relationship around money with a boyfriend? An honest and open relationship is the cornerstone of success for men and women. How can you establish an open relationship around money? * Approach early, but slowly. * Understand your own financial goals first. * Don't lie. * Set boundaries. Advertisement But while you might be upfront about some matters, if you're not this way about your financial affairs, then it will never work. 'Seven out of ten Australian couples fight about money, which is why it's important to approach the subject early (and slowly),' Shahirah said. 'Bring up the fact that you want to talk about finances and gauge their response. If they seem huffier than the time you won control of the remote, then you need to know to step carefully.' Next, she said, you should understand your own financial goals first. 'If you don't know what you want, how could you meet your partner in the middle?'. One of the most important rules is to avoid lying, which is surprisingly commonplace. 'Some 52 per cent of Australians financially cheat on their partner,' she said. 'Whether it's deceiving them about how much money you make or spend, a lie is a lie. Getting away with one opens the door to creating more.' Finally, you have to set boundaries. 'If you are going to be honest and create goals with one another, set limitations too,' she said. 'If you're sharing a bank account, you could agree that any purchase over a certain amount must be discussed. Your partner needs to understand that their financial decisions affect your future and ability to invest long term.' A cheap manicure is a great way to save a few dollars, but when your freshly polished nails start to peel after a few days, are you really getting a bargain? Far from it, says Sydney-based manicurist Iman Davomoni of Purely Polished, who believes when it comes to nails you get what exactly what you pay for. She explains while some salons charge more for their services, not only do you get a better result but because this lasts longer, you'll need to go less often. Here, she outlines the four things your manicurist might do that can reveal it's time to find someone new. Iman Davomoni of Purely Polished (pictured) believes when it comes to nails you get what you pay for Beware of the bargain It can be tough to walk past a budget $30 mani or pedicure, but Iman cautions that bargain prices can mean a sub-standard job. 'The service may be poor, the process can be rushed and the products used might be either old or low quality,' she said. Iman explained a quality manicure will see a nail technician take some time to prep nails first to ensure the product (nail polish or shellac) lasts longer. 'If the nail beds aren't properly prepared, your manicure won't last, and your polish (if it is gel) can peel off,' she said. She said a shellac manicure should last for a minimum of two weeks, if done correctly. Less than than and you may need to start searching for somewhere new. UV lamps are regularly used to cure manicures, however, there has been some concern about the use of these in the past (stock image) What should you look for in a nail salon? * Iman advises first checking the product being used are quality salon brands * She said hygiene is a priority. This means all tools are sterlised and disposable tools are used where possible. * Nail technicians should also ensure their hands are sterlised or they use gloves before working on yours. Advertisement Your salon uses UV lamps to cure nails UV light, or ultraviolet light, is the mostly invisible form of light that is present in sunlight, tanning lamps, and nail-polish lamps used for curing nails, explains Allure. Iman said while there have been concerns in the past about using UV lamps to cure shellac manicure, the rays emitted by the lamps aren't thought to be strong enough to cause damage. However, she said if you are concerned about this, ask your nail technician to use an LED light instead. Scraping away at nails to remove polish isn't just painful, it will also leave your nails damaged (stock image) How to repair damaged nails? * Moisturise your hands on a regular basis * Use cuticle oil to get nails back to a good condition * Use an intensive hand moisturiser before going to bed and wear gloves overnight (for extremely damaged nails) * Give your nail beds time to breathe before you get your next manicure Advertisement Beware the manicurist who scrapes at nails to remove SNS or shellac If your manicurist is taking to your nails with a small tool to scrape off SNS or shellac, get yourself out of that salon fast. Scraping away at nails to remove polish isn't just painful, it will also leave your nails damaged. 'Your nail technician should soak your nails with acetone to remove SNS or shellac,' the nail expert said. 'Once the polish is removed, they will gently buff away the excess to ensure your nails aren't damaged, and they should use a moisturiser as well as cuticle oil to give your hands and nails a hydration boost.' Watch out for the electric nail file Iman explains some salons may use electrical tools to remove SNS or shellac, but this isn't standard practice as these products are easily removed with acetone. 'Electrical tools are damaging to your nails and must not be used to file them. Steer clear,' she warns. If any metal or disposable tools are being used as part of your manicure, the expert said ensure these have been autoclaved (sterilised and in sealed plastic). This will help stop any spread of infection. Kirstie Allsopp has said her family had a 'much better summer' as a result of her infamous decision to smash her sons' iPads - and revealed she is yet to replace their tablets. The Location, Location, Location presenter, 47, said on Good Morning Britain on Wednesday that she stood by her decision, and that it yielded positive results for the whole family. Kirstie, who is mother to sons Oscar Hercules, 11, and Bay Atlas, 9, with husband Ben Andersen, confessed back in September on The Jeremy Vine Show to smashing them against a table leg as her children watched as punishment. Her boys had failed to follow her rules about screen time, and Kirstie said that since dishing out the drastic discipline the brothers have spent more time outdoors playing. Kirstie Allsopp has revealed that she is still yet to replace her children's iPads that she broke as punishment in June because they did not follow her rules on screen time After revealing she hadn't bought her children new iPads to replace those she broke, Kirstie said on GMB: 'The reality was pretty fantastic and I kind of feel a bit boring for saying that. 'But we had a much better summer, all that negotiation had gone, the iPads had gone, so they couldn't say "I will help with this if you let me do half an hour of Fortnite". We just did a lot more. They got back into their roller blades and skateboards and reading, playing chess.' Following the confession in September Kirstie faced backlash from her social media followers who didn't agree with her approach to parenting, and she quietly deactivated her Twitter account. She told Piers Morgan on the ITV daytime show that she wasn't prepared for the barrage of criticism and chose to leave the platform. Defending suggestion she didn't own her beliefs, she said: 'I do stand up, whenever these things happen I don't back down, I say the truth. 'But I dont deliberately go into them. And I think when you go into them by mistake the reaction is quite a shock.' Piers Morgan said that Kirstie was too quick to leave Twitter following the criticism she received saying she should own her views and fight back The Location, Location, Location presenter explained that the backlash over her parenting techniques were unexpected and so she chose to leave the social media platform In July 2017 she took a short break from Twitter after comments she made about washing machines belonging outside the kitchen caused a similar uproar. The mother-of-two also previously made headlines when she spoke about travelling in business class, while her children travelled in economy class. Kirstie, who has a new series called Kirstie's Homemade Christmas starting this week, also confessed that she will be jetting to sunnier climes for the festive break. She said that she prefers a little bit of heat in the winter but that her children complain about being away. 'For me there are loads of Christmas thing in my life which I really like... But my Christmas starts on the first of October.' It comes amid rumours of a rift between the Cambridges and the Sussexes This led to Cambridges inviting Sussexes for Christmas, according to insiders Prince Harry 'fell out' with brother Prince William as he 'felt he wasn't rolling out the red carpet' for Meghan following their engagement, sources have claimed. An insider said that Harry, 34, believed William, 36, wasn't making enough effort to welcome his then fiancee into the royal family. According to the source, the tension between the brothers was only resolved when Prince Charles stepped in - leading to William and Kate to invite Harry and Meghan to spend Christmas with them at their Norfolk home. It comes amid rumours of a rift between the Cambridges and the Sussexes, following the announcement that Harry and Meghan will be moving away from Kensington Palace to Frogmore Cottage. Prince Harry (pictured with Meghan at the Christmas Day service at Sandringham last year) 'fell out' with brother Prince William as he 'felt he wasn't rolling out the red carpet' for Meghan following their engagement, sources have claimed Speaking to Vanity Fair's Katie Nicholl, a source claimed that 'any issues are between the brothers'. Meanwhile, a mutual friend said: 'Harry felt William wasnt rolling out the red carpet for Meghan and told him so. 'They had a bit of a fall out which was only resolved when Charles stepped in and asked William to make an effort. Thats when the Cambridges invited the Sussexes to spend Christmas with them.' The Duke and Duchess of Sussex stayed at Anmer Hall, Norfolk, last Christmas, and joined the Queen and the rest of the royal family at nearby Sandringham for Christmas Day. An insider said that Harry, 34, believed William, 36, (pictured together at a service of remembrance at Westminster Abbey earlier this month) wasn't making enough effort to welcome his then fiancee into the royal family The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge invited the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to stay with them at Anmer Hall, which is close to Sandringham, for Christmas A source also told the publication that 'Kate and Meghan are very different people and they dont have a lot in common but they have made an effort to get along.' Kensington Palace announced on Saturday the Duke and Duchess of Sussex would be moving to Frogmore Cottage, Windsor, ahead of the arrival of their first child in the Spring. It had been widely speculated that Meghan and Harry would move into Apartment 1, at Kensington Palace, next to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's 22-room home. Following the announcement, sources insisted there was no acrimony between the Cambridges and the Sussexes. The insider told the Daily Mail's Rebecca English: '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. Amid rumours of a rift between the Cambridges and Sussexes, sources have suggested Kate was 'in tears' following three-year-old Charlotte's bridesmaid dress fitting, ahead of Meghan and Harry's wedding '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. '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.' Other sources suggested Harry and Meghan's options in London were limited, and that the couple wanted their children to grow up away from the 'goldfish bowl' of Kensington Palace.' One 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.' However, others have hinted that there may have been tensions between the two Duchesses ahead of the royal wedding in May. The Telegraph 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. MailOnline has contacted Kensington Palace for comment. A mother has continued to breastfeed her toddler son despite doctors urging her to stop when she developed mastitis. Summer Dawn Pointer, 22, from Georgia, was determined to nurse son Knox after his birth in May 2017. When he was five weeks old, Summer noticed a red knot on her right breast and was later diagnosed with mastitis, a condition which causes the tissue to become painful and inflamed. Determined: Mother Summer Dawn Pointer continues to breastfeed 18-month-old son Knox, pictured together, despite suffering from breast inflammation caused by mastitis Proud: Summer insists she will continue nursing Knox until he is ready to wean himself Painful: A photo of Summer's inflamed breast before the abscess was surgically removed The new mother was encouraged by a doctor to stop breastfeeding but continued despite the warning - and insists she won't stop until her 18-month-old son weans himself. She said: 'I plan to breastfeed Knox until he's at least two-years-old or older if he decides to go longer than that. I will stop whenever he is ready to self-wean.' When Summer was first diagnosed with mastitis, she was prescribed a course of antibiotics. After they failed to treat the condition, Summer was referred to a breast surgeon to remove the painful abscess that had formed on her breast. 'She [the surgeon] wanted me to quit breastfeeding, but I cried and cried and told her we had to try something else besides that,' Summer continued. Inflamed: The abscess on Summer's right breast which was later surgically removed. The breast surgeon encouraged the new mother to stop nursing but she refused Support: Summer said her boyfriend is fully behind her decision to continue breastfeeding 'So, she gave me the strongest antibiotics I could get, and I took two scripts [prescriptions] of it before she finally just lanced out the abscess. 'It affected how much milk I was producing, I couldn't nurse my son off of the breast because it could've made the infection worse.' Summer said that despite the risks, she continues to breastfeed Knox eight to 10 times a day. Difficulties: Summer revealed the breast surgery affected how much milk she was producing Taking a stand: Summer encourages other mothers to breastfeed in social media posts She said: 'I breastfeed anywhere, anytime. In the beginning I was a little nervous to just because it was hard latching him but after time it became easier. I've gotten plenty of weird looks. 'My boyfriend's family used to say he was too old but they know I'm not going to quit until he's ready so they don't comment anymore. 'My oldest sister and mom, Connie, are very supportive as well as my boyfriend.' 'Breast is best': Summer believes in the health benefits of breast milk for children Summer, who posts about breastfeeding on Instagram, said she receives mainly positive comments from followers but that she is criticised by some for insisting 'breast is best'. 'Breast milk is better for him then cow's milk and if other moms aren't going to help wean him then it's none of their business,' she said. She added: 'I hope to encourage more moms especially new moms to breastfeed and stick to it. These recently unearthed pictures help tell the story of a bizarre phenomenon, the so-called 'fasting girl' that captured the public's imagination in the Victorian era. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, several young women and girls around the world emerged with the same claim, that they could survive without any food or drink. Many achieved local renown and some even achieved international celebrity, with fascinated people travelling great distances just to lay eyes on them. The reasons behind their apparent fasts included a religious gift and a link to psychic powers. However ultimately all four of these women were uncovered as frauds - with one dying during the scientific tests to verify her claims. Some psychologists and historians claim this phenomenon could be a precursor to the condition now known as anorexia. Here, with the help of contemporary illustrations, FEMAIL explores the stories of four 'fasting girls'... The Welsh Fasting Girl Bed-ridden: Sarah Jacob, known as the Welsh Fasting Girl, became famous across Britain in the 1860s by claiming never to eat or drink. Pictured, a sketch of Sarah made in 1869 In the late 1860s, people from across Britain flocked to a tiny village in Carmarthenshire to see a girl who claimed she never consumed any food or drink. Sarah Jacob, known as the Welsh Fasting Girl, fell ill at the age of nine and was told to take bed rest. It is believed that she found her time reading the bible and composing poems while convalescing to be far more enjoyable to the back-breaking farm work she was previously occupied with and so began to refuse food to keep herself weak. Her parents, Evan and Hannah Jacob, soon joined in on the ruse and publicly claimed she had taken no food or water for two years. The story quickly spread and Sarah soon became a celebrity. Cruel death: Sarah Jacobs starved to death in front of nurses from London who were sent to test her claims. Above, the cover of a pamphlet detailing the circumstances of her death Prosecuted: Sarah's parents, Evan and Hannah Jacob, pictured, were convicted of manslaughter following their daughter's death from starvation. The medical staff were not Fascination: A sketch of Sarah Jacobs' home, where people from across the country flocked to see the schoolgirl who claimed to never eat or drink However Sarah's continued growth and apparent health raised suspicions as far away as London. A doctor from Guy's Hospital arranged for Sarah's claims to be tested, believing one of her sisters had been sneaking her food, or that Sarah herself had been waking in the night to eat and drink. Six nurses were sent to Sarah's village to watch the girl day and night. The cruel experiment lasted for five days, with Sarah starving to death in front of the nurses' eyes. During the autopsy, evidence was found that she been desperately trying to open a water bottle paced in her bed. Mr and Mrs Jacobs were subsequently convicted of manslaughter. The doctors and nurses involved in the experiment were not prosecuted. The Brooklyn Enigma Serious injury: In 1865 Mollie Fancher was seriously injured when her skirt became caught on a streetcar and dragged her down the street for nearly a block. She suffered brain damage and slipped in and out of consciousness. She also claimed not to eat or drink. Pictured, in 1887 Finding fame: Mollie Fancher, known as the Brooklyn Enigma, pictured here aged 16 Across the Atlantic in New York, another tale of a 'starving girl' soon captured the public's imagination. In 1865 Mollie Fancher was seriously injured when her skirt became caught on a streetcar and dragged her down the street for nearly a block. She suffered head and spinal injuries and as a consequence laid in bed, paralysed, whilst slipping into trance states. Observers claimed they never saw Mollie eat or drink and that you could feel her spinal column through her stomach. Investigation: Doctors, scientists, authors, academics and clergymen visited Mollie in a bid to better understand her condition. Pictured, Mollie with her Aunt in 1886 The apparent mysteries surrounding her survival earned Mollie the nickname 'The Brooklyn Enigma'. Mollie also claimed to possess psychic powers and stories of her predicting a knock on the door and thunder storms started to emerged. Doctors, scientists, authors, academics and clergymen visited Mollie in a bid to better understand her condition. By the 1890s Mollie's condition had improved, she regained her sight and was able to move. This coincided with the apparent waning of her psychic powers. The German Clairvoyant Religious gifts: Therese Neumann experienced 'blood-coloured serum' oozing from her eyes, as seen above, in 1926. She also claimed to survive on nothing more than Holy Communion When a young German woman took a nasty tumble off a stool in 1918 it started a remarkable chain of events that led to some claiming she was a clairvoyant. The subsequent spinal injury may have been the cause of a whole host of ailments that Therese Neumann suffered, including blindness, gastric problems and paralysis. In 1926 a 'blood-coloured serum' oozed from Therese's eyes and she began suffering Stigmata during Lent. In 1927 she claimed to have been visited by a Saint who told her that food and water were no longer necessary - just Holy Communion. Under scrutiny: Tests apparently showed Therese Neumann to be a genuine 'starving miracle'. However some of her contemporaries remained skeptical of the apparent phenomenon She was observed day and night for a fortnight in July 1927, with doctors and nurses even measuring the amount of mouthwash she used so they could make sure that she hadn't swallowed any of it when she spit it back out. By the end of two weeks, the medical team concluded that their patient never took or even attempted to take food. Though she lost weight at the beginning of the observation period, Therese apparently gained five or six pounds by the end of it. Although this was taken as proof of her supernatural powers, some contemporaries believed her to be a fraud who was aided and abetted by her father. While she comes after many other 'fasting girls' she is still classed with those from the Victorian era. Therese died from cardiac arrest in 1962. Ann Moore The Imposter Notorious: Ann Moore, pictured lying in her bed in Tutbury, Staffordshire, circa 1808 was a poverty-stricken woman who found some fortune by claiming to starve herself Proof: A sketch of Ann Moore the Imposter from Tutbury, Stafordshire, circa 1808. A local experiment claimed to find that Ann had not eaten or drunk anything in a fortnight Pre-dating the Victorian era, the poverty-stricken Ann Moore lived in the village of Tutbuty, Staffordshire, and found fame by enduring long fasts. In 1807 pamphlets were distributed detailing the last ever morsel of food she had apparently eaten: a single blackcurrent. Visiting writers claimed Ann lived on air and declared her condition a manifestation of the power of God. In September 1808 a group of local residents set about testing her claims and reported how Ann, while emaciated, indeed lived without food or drink in good spirits. The committee's report was considered conclusive evidence of the 'miracle'. Caught out: However, as her nickname suggests, Ann was later uncovered as a fraud. She subject to another, more stringent, checks on her claims where she was proven to be false Crowds of visitors started to flock to Staffordshire, many of whom made substantial donations to help support Ann. However, as her nickname suggests, Ann was later uncovered as a fraud. She subject to another, more stringent, checks on her claims where she was proven to be false. Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop has launched its first 'size-inclusive' clothing collection. The new range, which is a collaboration with New-York based brand Universal Standard, will be available in US sizes 00 to 40 (UK size 4 to 44). Previously, Goop's clothing lines had only been available in sizes up to a US 12, or a UK size 16. Discussing the capsule collection, Gwyneth, 47, explained how she wanted her lifestyle brand 'to be a place where women who are feeling marginalised in any way can come'. Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop has launched its first 'size-inclusive' clothing collection, which includes a flattering hi-low dress (above), priced at $295 (244) The 'size-inclusive' capsule collection - which is priced from $225 to $395 (186 to 327) - consists of five wardrobe basics: a black tuxedo jacket, cropped trousers, a black jumpsuit, a classic peacoat and a hi-low dress. Discussing the importance of 'size-inclusivity' in fashion, Gwyneth told the Business of Fashion: 'This is an area where we havent been great and I believe inclusivity is really important.' The actress turned wellness guru decided to join forces with Universal Standard, which was founded in 2015, in order to realize her vision. The New York-based brand aims to cater for women of all sizes, after its co-founders found that clothing options for women above a US size 14, or UK size 18, were so limited. Gwyneth, 47, (pictured at a Dior dinner in New York earlier this month) admitted her lifestyle brand previously 'hasn't been great' at size inclusivity The collection is a collaboration with New-York based brand Universal Standard. Pictured is the black tuxedo jacket, priced at $335 (277) from the range Speaking about the collaboration, co-founder Alexandra Waldman told BoF: 'This is really about making [size inclusivity] the new normal through a variety of channels. 'The thing that should determine [your clothing] choices should be your taste and your budget. We dont need any more barriers than that.' Each piece from the collection has been tailored to someone of each size, rather than simply sizing up or down a template fitted onto one model. As well as being available in the US, the new range can also be shipped to the Canada and Europe, including the UK. The largest size currently available in the UK is a size 36, which is the equivalent to a US size 32. Other classic pieces from the capsule range include a wool peacoat, priced at 327 ($395) Crown Princess Mary of Denmark donned traditional African dress while in Kenya on Tuesday. Mary, 46, showed off a red and yellow wrap, along with a colourful headdress and necklace, as she visited the Kalama Conservancy in the south-west of the country. Wearing her hair up in a high bun, she opted for a natural make-up look, later shielding her eyes with a pair of trendy sunglasses. The mother-of-four looked in high spirits as she was given a warm welcome by a group of local women as she arrived at the nature reserve. Crown Princess Mary of Denmark donned traditional African dress during a visit to Kenya on Tuesday, where she was joined by Danish Minister for Development Ulla Toernaes (right) Mary, 46, wore and a red and yellow striped wrap as she visited the Kalama Conservancy, in the south-west of the country Mary looked stylish as she arrived in Kalama wearing a simple blue shirt and beige chinos. She finished off the look with a pair of practical New Balance trainers on her feet, and a tote bag slung over her shoulder. The royal was joined by Danish Minister for Development Ulla Toernaes on the visit, but husband Crown Prince Frederik did not accompany her on the trip. Mary has made several trips to Africa in the past, including a visit to Burkina Faso in 2016. Wearing her hair up in a high bun, Mary showed off a colourful headdress and necklace during the visit on Tuesday Mary was joined by Danish Minister for Development Ulla Toernaes (right), but husband Prince Frederik did not accompany her on the trip Mary looked in high spirits during the visit to the Kalama Conservancy in south-west Kenya Local women at the Kalama Conservancy helped the Danish royal put on a traditional wrap during the visit (above) Crown Princess Mary looked in high spirits as she put on a colourful headdress and necklace The trip was focused on promoting the importance of sexual and reproductive health of women and girls in the region. Mary has had a busy month so far, joining husband Frederik, 50, in presenting the Crown Prince Couple's Prizes 2018 on Friday. The couple put on a loved-up display at the event, following suggestions of marriage troubles. Rumours began swirling 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 truth is that like any married couple, Fred and Mary are having a tough time of it at the moment.' Mary looked stylish as she touched down in Kalama on Tuesday wearing a simple blue shirt and beige chinos The royal was seen meeting local women on arriving in Kalama, south west Kenya, on Tuesday Crown Princess Mary looked stylish in a blue shirt and chinos as she arrived in Kalama today Crown Princess Mary took time to chat to the women waiting to greet her at the Kalama Conservancy Crown Princess Mary was accompanied by local officials as she visited the nature reserve Queen Letizia of Spain wowed in a 95 pastel pink ASOS dress as she joined the Chinese President and his wife in Madrid today. The mother-of-two, 46, wore a stylish collarless brushed wool jacket and dusty pink clutch bag which matched her stilettos for the ceremony at the Royal Palace. After arriving at the Teatro Real, Letizia then stepped out in the long-sleeve budget midi frock with a purple heron and floral design on the front. Keeping her brunette hair back in a chignon, Letizia also wore a subtle pink eye shadow and lipstick. Letizia joined her husband King Felipe VI, 50, as they played host to President Xi Jinping and his wife wife Peng Liyuan on their two-day tour of the country. Queen Letizia was all smiles as she walked along with Peng Liyuan, the Chinese President's wife, during a visit to the Royal Palace in Madrid Letizia then wowed in a 95 pastel pink ASOS dress as she joined Peng at the Teatro Real in the Spanish capital Peng and her husband President Xi Jinping are on a two-day tour of the country, which is the first time a Chinese leader has visited Spain in 13 years Peng, dubbed China's First Lady by the Chinese press, wore a modern camel coat with oversized lapels. She also opted for a messier chignon, and kept her jewellery to a minimum by wearing a pair of pearl earrings. Peng also wore a nude-coloured belted top with a matching skirt. During the visit, Peng and Letizia inspected actors on stage wearing Chinese warrior suits at the Royal Theatre. Letizia and Peng watched as King Felipe VI and President Xi Jinping reviewed Spain's guard of honour at the Royal Palace Letizia wore a light pink brushed wool jacket, while Peng kept the cold at bay with a stylish camel coat with oversized lapels Both women wore their hair in chignons, after wearing matching royal blue dresses at an event last night The two countries are expected to sign around 20 intergovernmental and business agreements later today Felipe and Xi also reviewed Spain's guard of honour at the Royal Palace while Chinese Peng and Letizia observed the ceremony from a podium. The tour marks the first time a Chinese leader has visited the country in 13 years, and the two countries are expected to sign around 20 intergovernmental and business agreements later today. This should include a deal to export on-the-bone legs of Iberian ham to the Chinese market, and rules to avoid double-taxation. Peng and Letizia chatted away during their visit to the Royal Theatre Letizia wore a long-sleeve frock that came to below the knee with a purple heron and floral design on the front, while Peng opted for a nude-coloured belted top with a matching skirt The Chinese President and his wife attended an official welcoming ceremony at the Royal Palace Both countries will also explore joint bids in infrastructure, energy and telecommunications projects in Africa and Latin America. Yesterday Peng and Xi joined Letizia and Felipe at Zarzuela Palace, with both women opting for navy blue dresses. Letizia dazzled in a mid-length blue dress that had a sleeveless design and a lace hem, while Peng wore an oriental style dress in navy that complimented Letizia's own outfit perfectly. The Chinese leader will flying to Argentina on Thursday for a G-20 leaders' summit the next day, and visits to Panama and Portugal until December 5. Later in the day Peng and Letizia inspected the Chinese warrior suits worn by two actors on stage When it was announced in October that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are expecting their first baby in the Spring, avid royal watchers did some swift calculations and marked their calendars for a late April arrival. But now an astrologer who worked with Harry's late mother, Princess Diana, has predicted the Duke and Duchess will welcome their little one 'much earlier' than that. Speaking to Tatler, Debbie Frank, who knew Diana in the last eight years of her life, said she was 'not sure about this late April delivery date'. Ms Frank has a track record of correctly predicting royal births, and guessed correctly that Prince George, five, would be a Cancer star sign before he was born on 22 July 2013. Kensington Palace announced the Duchess was expecting on October 15. Couples typically wait until the second trimester to share pregnancy news. Princess Diana's psychic has predicted that Meghan Markle's baby will be born 'much earlier' than the April due date royal watchers have assumed she had. Pictured: Meghan (left) and Harry at the Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia during their visit to the country last month She said she couldn't predict whether the baby will be a boy or a girl but had some ideas about Meghan's due date. Ms Frank said: 'One thing I do feel is that it will be born earlier rather than later. I'm not sure about this late April delivery date. 'I'm quite good at connecting with royal births and with Meghan and Harry's baby the main connections are there and I'm thinking a much earlier birth than late April.' Meghan, 37, has been expected to give birth in April as the couple's announcement was made in October, and pregnant women traditionally announce their pregnancies when they are three months along. Debbie Frank (pictured), who knew Diana in the last eight years of her life, said the baby will be born 'earlier rather than later' and doesn't think he or she will arrive in late April Diana (pictured on a visit to Argentina in 1995) worked with Ms Frank from 1989 up until her death in 1997 at the age of 36 Kensington Palace declined to comment when contacted by MailOnline. An astrologer to the stars, Ms Frank worked with Diana from 1989 up until her death in 1997 at the age of 36. Diana was a strong believer in astrology and used it often. She used Ms Frank's skills to try and understand Charles' relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles and spoke honestly about her husband's infidelities. At the peak of the pair's friendship, Ms Frank claims Diana would call her three times a day for advice - even going as far as phoning her hotline if she had trouble getting through. Meghan has been expected to give birth in April as the couple's announcement was made in October, when many royal watchers assumed she was three months along. Pictured: The Duke and Duchess of Sussex at the London palladium earlier this month Ms Frank said she correctly predicted that Prince George (pictured front row with his grandfather Prince Charles) would be born a cancer. Pictured: An official portrait released to mark the Prince of Wales's 70th birthday Like Prince George, Diana was a Cancer and Ms Frank said this made her very maternal. She continued: 'She was very maternal and being a mother was the most important thing to her but also as a mother to the world and not just her boys. She would always be there for people and get involved in a very personal way.' Kensington Palace announced on Saturday the Duke and Duchess of Sussex would be moving to Frogmore Cottage, Windsor, ahead of the arrival of their first child in the Spring. Sarah Ferguson has revealed how her 'near death experience' during the 9/11 attack has given her a greater appreciation of life. On September 11, 2001 the Duchess of York had been making her way to the North Tower of the World Trade Centre but was twenty minutes behind schedule due to heavy traffic, something she says that saved her life and gave her a fresh outlook. Speaking to Hello! the mother-of-two said: 'I take every minute as a blessing, I really do, and I really work hard at it. 'Because the minute you look too far forward, then you're missing now. The minute you look back,... you can't go back. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.' Sarah Ferguson (pictured in June last year) has opened up about her 'near death experience' during the attack on the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001 Then 42, Sarah had been given an office on the 101st floor of the North Tower for her charity Chances for Children. Fergie, as she is affectionately known, had created a mascot for the fundraiser in the form of a rag doll called Little Red that was sat in her office at the time of the attack. After the collapse of the Twin Towers, Little Red was found among the rubble by photographers and was initially mistaken for a child's doll. Speaking to the BBC in 2014, Sarah said: 'And when it came on TV, I looked and saw Little Red and the presenter said 'Oh look there's a child's doll!' and I immediately called up the presenter and said please, don't worry. The Duchess of York had been on her way to her office on the 101st floor but was delayed by twenty minutes due to heavy traffic. The mascot for her charity Chances for Children, Little Red had been in her office. Pictured: Sarah with the same doll at a World Trade Centre photography exhibit in Italy in 2002 Little Red (pictured) had been found by photographers in the rubble and had initially been mistaken for a child's toy before Fergie stepped in to reveal it's identity 'Because I was so worried they would think that a child was lost or buried in the rubble. 'So I said no, it's not a child's doll it's Little Red and she is a symbol for Chances for Children.' The original mascot is now part of the 9/11 memorial exhibit on Ground Zero, and Sarah has gone on to write a series of books based on the character. The World Trade Centre in New York was hit by two hijacked planes on September 11, 2001 Ten years after the terror attack Sarah pitched an idea for a children's book based around the atrocity which was rejected by publishers who feared Americans would find it offensive. The Duchess of York, 51, sent publishers an outline of the 32-page book, The Little Pear Tree, in 2011 following the story of a tree that survived the attack. She told them she intended to present a copy to President Barack Obama at the opening of the Ground Zero Museum in New York in September that year. But a source said at the time: 'The Duchess got her people to contact at least three publishers but none showed any interest because the Americans regard works of fiction about 9/11 as insulting.' A pear tree near the Twin Towers had its branches stripped during the attack. Workers brought it back to life as a symbol of hope. This is the emotional moment a bride danced with her terminally-ill dad at her wedding after fearing he would be too sick to attend. Vanessa Wickham, 24, from San Diego, California, worried her dad Lew Johnston, 65, would be unable to make her special day as he is in the end stages of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Lew was diagnosed with the degenerative illness, which obstructs airflow to the lungs, 20 years ago and now needs 24/7 oxygen to keep him alive. Vanessa and groom Mike Wickham, 25, feared he would struggle to breathe at their venue in Lake Arrowhead, California as it is 4,000ft above sea level. Stunned: An emotional video shows the moment a terminally-ill dad was able to dance with his daughter at her wedding in Lake Arrowhead, California Emotional: Lew Johnston, 65, was in the end stages of his chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which obstructs airflow to the lungs Heartwarming: Lew didn't think he was going to be able to make his daughter Vanessa Wickham's, 24, wedding because of the disease Doctors warned his lungs could collapse, so Lew arranged to travel there for a practice run to check he could cope with the altitude. Vanessa was thrilled when it was a success, and Lew was given the all clear to attend her wedding at Arrowhead Pine Rose Cabins, where he walked her down the aisle. Precious footage shows the dad-and-daughter duo swaying slowly to Elton John's Can You Feel The Love Tonight. Vanessa, a nurse, said the moment made her wedding to her college sweetheart Mike, an accountant, all the sweeter. The bride said: 'It was amazing to have my dad there. It was such a special moment to dance with him. 'He is in the end stage of COPD which has progressed rapidly over the past number of years and his quality of life has gone down a lot. He is on oxygen 24/7 now. 'We thought he wouldn't be able to come to my wedding because of the altitude and that was such a worrying few weeks. 'It would have devastated me and I was so relieved when his doctors cleared him to go.' Picture perfect: The wedding was held 4,000ft above sea level, and doctors warned it could cause Lew's lungs to collapse if he attended So sweet: Lew did a practice run at the venue and his body reacted fine, which allowed for him the attending the wedding Precious: Vanessa and her dad shared an emotional dance during the reception to Elton John's Can You Feel the Love Tonight Dad-of-three Lew added: 'My illness is so bad now I really am lucky to get out of the house. To walk Vanessa down the aisle was the highlight of my life. 'She took my breath away. I felt like I was walking on air when I was walking her down the aisle. I didn't even notice my oxygen machine over my shoulder.' Lew, a construction business owner, and Vanessa enjoyed their first dance in front of 100 guests on July 14. Lew said: 'When we were dancing it felt like Vanessa and I were the only people in the room. Beautiful: 'She took my breath away,' Lew said. 'I felt like I was walking on air when I was walking her down the aisle' Emotional: Vanessa describes her dad as her 'inspiration' and said it was a special moment to dance with him at her wedding In love: Vanessa married college sweetheart Mike Wickham, 25, (pictured) on July 14 Vanessa added: 'It was honestly the most special day of my life. 'My dad is such an inspiration to me. He ran his own company and he has mentored and helped me my whole life.' Despite his illness Lew hopes he will live to see another one of Vanessa's life milestones. 'It's a little greedy of me but I would love to meet a grandchild. 'But I've had a good life and I take it day by day. If I wake up in the morning that's great. 'I feel very lucky that Vanessa has met a guy like Mike - her soulmate. She deserves the very best. From the day she came into our lives she's been an angel.' Vanessa added: 'Because of my dad's illness, it was extra meaningful. It makes you appreciate every moment you do have together.' Advertisement These extraordinary photos show a happy and carefree Duchess of Sussex on holiday in Malta just over a year before she first locked eyes with her future husband. Before marrying into the royal family, Meghan, then an up-and-coming actress, spent a few days in the country soaking up the local culture and learning about her ancestry. Malta has a special place in Meghan's heart as her great-great-grandmother Mary was born there 1862, and the future royal confessed to feeling a special connection with the Commonwealth nation. According to local news sites, Meghan visited Mdina, Valletta, Victoria and Dwejra during her brief stay, during which she took part in a shoot for glossy fashion magazine ELLE UK. The Suits actress was in Malta to learn more about her ancestry and sample Maltese food and wine, according to 89.7 Bay - and later confessed she 'blended in' with the locals. Wearing a traditional headdress, the future Duchess of Sussex is pictured on a visit to Malta in 2015 - a year before she met her future husband Prince Harry - wearing a gonnella The future wife of Prince Harry is seen wearing a traditional headdress in one of the newly-surfaced snaps. Meghan described the 'bucolic bliss' of the Maltese countryside in an Instagram post written at the time, adding: Coming to Malta has been really important to me because my great-great-grandmother lived here, so weve been trying to trace the ancestry' Future royal: Casually dressed in a grey t-shirt and baggy jeans, the future Duchess of Sussex looks decidedly happy and carefree in the images, which were taken in 2015. She said of her stay in Malta: To come somewhere where you so quickly settle in to feeling welcomed is really special. Its this Maltese hospitality that is really special to the place' Meghan said at the time: Coming to Malta has been really important to me because my great-great-grandmother lived here, so weve been trying to trace the ancestry. 'This trip was mostly about trying to understand where I come from, my identity. There is something so lovely about fitting in a piece of the puzzle. To come somewhere where you so quickly settle in to feeling welcomed is really special. Its this Maltese hospitality that is really special to the place. 'Before I came, people were telling me, "When you go to Malta, everyone will look like you," and I started to say, "Oh my gosh I do sort of blend in," and its the loveliest feeling. The Maltese people have been so kind. In an interview during her stay, she said: 'In Gozo I loved the fresh goats milk cheeses, particularly the pickled ones with the black pepper on them. Im about to have the spaghetti with rabbit, which Ive been waiting to try. This morning, for breakfast, I tried the pastizzi with peas and ricotta. Oh my goodness theyre delicious! So my suitcase will be filled with all sorts of Maltese treats. Blending in: This photo sees Meghan with the Marquis de Piro and his wife Frances at their home Casa Rocca Piccola, while dressed in a traditional gonnella headdress. Meghan later mused: 'This trip was mostly about trying to understand where I come from, my identity. There is something so lovely about fitting in a piece of the puzzle' Ready for lunch! Meghan visited Mdina, Valletta, Victoria and Dwejra during her stay, during which she posed for a photo shoot for glossy fashion magazine ELLE. Meghan felt she 'blended in', calling the locals 'so kind' in an interview Meghan is a self-confessed foodie and said during her 2015 trip: Im about to have the spaghetti with rabbit, which Ive been waiting to try. This morning, for breakfast, I tried the pastizzi with peas and ricotta. Oh my goodness theyre delicious! So my suitcase will be filled with all sorts of Maltese treats' A casually dressed Meghan soaks up the local culture in Malta in 2015. Prince Harry also shares a connection with Malta, as his grandparents lived there in 1949 when Prince Philip was made First Lieutenant on HMS Chequers The future Duchess of Sussex, dressed in a black polo neck and boyfriend jeans, cracks a smile during her 2015. Malta visit. The rare images came to light after being tweeted by Joe Little of Majesty magazine earlier this week All smiles: Meghan strikes a pose as she explores Malta in 2015. The country has a special place in Meghan's heart as her great-great-grandmother Mary was born there 1862. Meghan also described the 'bucolic bliss' of the Maltese countryside in an Instagram post written at the time Tourist for the day: Casually dressed in a grey t-shirt and baggy jeans, the future Duchess of Sussex looks decidedly happy and carefree in the images. Meghan appears to be wearing her beloved 1,600 MaxMara 'Manuela' Coat Meghan also described the 'bucolic bliss' of the Maltese countryside in an Instagram post written at the time. It is believed the remarkably candid snaps were taken in March 2015 - just four months before she met Prince Harry and eventually swapped the showbiz world for Kensington Palace. Casually dressed in a grey t-shirt and baggy jeans, the future Duchess of Sussex looks decidedly happy and carefree in the images. She appears to be wearing her beloved 1,600 MaxMara 'Manuela' Coat, which has not seen the light of day since Meghan became a fully-fledged royal. One photo sees her with the Marquis de Piro and his wife Frances at their home Casa Rocca Piccola, while dressed in a traditional gonnella headdress. A beaming Meghan can't hide her delight as she explores Malta with her guide. Prince Harry also shares a connection with Malta, as his grandparents lived there in 1949. It is believed the remarkably candid snaps were taken in March 2015 - just four months before she met Prince Harry and eventually swapped the showbiz world for Kensington Palace The future Duchess of Sussex exploring the streets of Malta in 2015. Before marrying into the royal family, Meghan, then an up-and-coming actress, spent a few days on Malta soaking up the local culture and learning about her ancestry Meghan shares a joke with her companion as the pair pose in front of a dramatic rural backdrop. The rare images came to light after being tweeted by Joe Little of Majesty magazine earlier this week Meghan's ripped jeans and baggy t-shirt are a world away from her polished royal wardrobe. Prince Harry also shares a connection with Malta, as his grandparents lived there in 1949 when Philip was made First Lieutenant on HMS Chequers Making friends: Meghan gushed about the locals, later saying: 'Before I came, people were telling me, "When you go to Malta, everyone will look like you," and I started to say, "Oh my gosh I do sort of blend in," and its the loveliest feeling. The Maltese people have been so kind Meghan exploring the picturesque streets of Malta. It has previously been speculated that Meghan and Harry might have been planning to honeymoon in Malta, as Prince Harry also shares a special connection with the nation Meghan learning about Maltese culture. It is believed the remarkably candid snaps were taken in March 2015 - just four months before she met Prince Harry and eventually swapped the showbiz world for Kensington Palace The rare images came to light after being tweeted by Joe Little of Majesty magazine earlier this week. He wrote: 'In Valletta on Saturday I was shown this pic of the then Meghan Markle with the Marquis de Piro and his wife Frances during her visit to the island in 2015. 'Meghan, whose great-great-grandmother was born on Malta, wears the gonnella national head-dress. #duchessofsussex.' Prince Harry also shares a connection with Malta, as his grandparents lived there in 1949 when Prince Philip was made First Lieutenant on HMS Chequers. The Queen's friend and bridesmaid Lady Pamela Hicks told the Mail: 'The Princess really loved Malta because she was able to lead a normal life, wander through the town and do some shopping. 'It was the only place that she was able to live the life of a naval officer's wife, just like all the other wives.' Advertisement This luxurious playhouse, that was designed and built to match the homeowner's existing home, could be every child's ultimate Christmas gift - that is if you're willing to dish out a whopping $44,681. The miniature house - which was custom-built by a company based in Mansfield, Texas, has its own living room, play-kitchen and porch area, complete with flower boxes in the windows. And the exterior of the house is even more impressive with a rock-climbing wall, a 10ft slide and a swing set. Outstanding: The children's playhouse was created by Wish to Play, and cost approximately $44,600 Impressive! The exterior of the playhouse includes two slides (10ft and five foot), a swing-set, and a rock-climbing wall Inspiration: The playhouse was designed to look like the homeowners actual house. It is completed with homely touches including a porch area (pictured) decorated with flower boxes and a festive wreath Images show the exterior of the miniature house with a porch as well as an attached play area with a rock climbing wall and 10ft slide. Other shots show the interior including 10x12ft living area, a screened sand box area to keep mosquitoes out and plenty of storage space with sofas to relax on. The fantastic children's playhouse was built by Wish to Play for a customer, but they can build other modular playhouses for between roughly $8,000 to $10,000. Brian Grossman of Wish to Play said: 'This playhouse was designed to similarly match the homeowner's existing home and guest house. 'The customer has two grandchildren and thought this would be a great place for them to play outside yet not be an eyesore for the neighborhood and blend into the existing decor around the property. 'The living area is roughly 10'x12' and includes pre-finished ship lap siding, electrical, HVAC, insulation, hardwood floors and tongue & groove decking on exposed rafters. The wall height is six foot tall but since the ceiling is vaulted, when you walk in, it feels very large.' Brian added that there is also a screened in sand box area, that was designed to repel mosquitoes and keep them away from children while they play. A childhood dream: The playhouse has its own living room area complete with sofas, photo frames, a rug and storage boxes A cheaper option: The company said that this particular playhouse was built for a specific customer, but they can build modular playhouses for around $8,000 to $10,000 Life-like: The kitchen area (pictured) features a make-pretend kitchen including a refrigerator, oven, sink and a kitchen table and chairs Playful and practical: The sandpit area (pictured) is screened-in, meaning that mosquitoes won't be able to enter the area while children are playing He said: 'Then there is a two tiered pergola that is roughly 12'x12' with a rock wall, and 10' tube slide coming off it. There is a separate back stair that goes up to the pergola if you do not want to climb up the rock wall. 'These stairs also go the opposite direction of the pergola over to a smaller five foot slide for smaller kids. There is also a large 'A' frame swing set attached to one of the columns of the pergola with three swings attached. 'We ran some trees up through the pergola to the second floor to give it a tree house feel. We added cedar siding with stain to match the house, cultured stone and brick to imitate the existing house as well. I designed and built this structure in about six weeks.' Wish to Play has built 12 playhouses for the Make-A-Wish Foundation for free. The company aims to donate one playhouse to the charity for every 10 modular playhouses or five custom playhouses they build and sell. Brian said: 'This company was built and designed to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation because we could see the lives it has changed and wanted to do more. A great cause: Wish to Play often teams up with the Make-A-Wish foundation. For every 10 modular playhouses or five custom playhouses they build and sell the company aims to donate a playhouse to the charity Suitable for all ages: The play house features a small five foot slide and well as a baby swing, making the playhouse ideal for smaller children Designed to fit: The playhouse was designed to look like the homeowners house and to fit in with the general vibe of the neighborhood 'So we have since started building modular playhouses, in addition to custom playhouses. And our whole sales model is based on for every 10 modular playhouses, or five custom playhouses we build/sell, one playhouse gets donated to a wish kid from Make-A-Wish. 'It is like the Tom's Shoes model but with playhouses, a company for a cause. 'We are actually only about three or four months in on this company and are getting ready to start marketing these modular playhouses as well as the custom ones. 'The modular playhouses are 8'x12' and come in 18 pieces that are pre-finished in our shop ready for install by you or a local contractor.' Tucked away somewhere in my loft are pictures from my first modelling shoot. They show how, at 14 years old, I had already mastered the art of the moody stare. Those photos, part of an advertising campaign for a local jewellers, were the start of a lengthy and successful modelling career which today still sees me working for leading magazines and on programmes such as This Morning. So those pictures should make me proud: at 52, I know Im lucky to still be in demand in a world where you can easily be chewed up and spat out by 30. Yet I can barely look at them. Because, when I do, I recall only the helplessness I felt, not just then but time and again as a young model. For alongside those photos were others taken at the same time by a photographer happy to exploit my teenage nerves, who made it clear that my passport to success required me to pose in a skimpy see-through negligee. Frankie Park, 52, (pictured) shared the uncomfortable situations she's experienced throughout her modelling career including pressure to smoke drugs and take risque photos That I complied remains a source of shame to this day so much so that I have never before told anyone: not my parents, my friends or my two teenage sons. Back then, the culture in modelling was one of shut-up-and-get-on-with-it, whether it was taking off your top on a photoshoot, being asked to smoke drugs to loosen up or enduring the lascivious glances and sometimes more of the men wielding the camera. Its something Kate Moss highlighted recently, saying she had felt pressured as a young model to take part in shoots that made her desperately uncomfortable. I didnt like it at all when I first started, she said. I wouldnt let my daughter do it. Shes 15 and to think I was going topless at her age, its crazy. It isnt the first time she has shed light on less-than-pleasant experiences. Six years ago she recalled that the 1992 Calvin Klein photoshoot with actor Mark Wahlberg, in which she was pictured astride him topless, left her so anxious that she couldnt get out of bed for two weeks. She recalls: Nobody takes care of you mentally. Theres massive pressure to do what you have to do (and) I didnt like it. But it was work. Like Kate, I understand the pressures that were placed on young models until quite recently. Turning up at a studio to find there was no private area to change, so you had to disrobe in front of the predominantly male technicians, photographers and assistants. Arriving for what you thought was a fashion shoot, to be told you were doing a lingerie shoot as well. Putting up with the occasional misplaced hand. It was seen as all part of the job, and woe betide you if you made a fuss. The worst part? Far from being disgusted, until recently my main feeling was fear that anyone would find out. Growing up, it never occurred to me that I might become a model. My childhood was relatively happy and stable, and with a flair for performing I dreamt of being an actress. Frankie (pictured) says a French photographer once spat at her for slapping him But by my early teens, my height I was tall and skinny and blonde mane meant that more than once, while out shopping with friends, I was approached by talent scouts asking if I had considered modelling. I was 14 and, while I may have looked a good two years older, I was still a wide-eyed schoolgirl. At first I laughed them off, then a local jeweller asked if I would model necklaces and earrings and I agreed. Here was a chance to earn decent money doing something fun the fee was 100, a lot for a mornings work in the late Seventies, and if it went well there would be more. I was nervous but excited when I turned up, as arranged, at the photographers flat one Saturday morning. How common is workplace sexual harassment? A poll by the TUC in 2016 found 52 per cent of female participants said they had faced sexual harassment at work Advertisement It all felt so innocent, my dads only concern was that it might interfere with my homework so nothing could have prepared me for what happened. Handing me a see-through negligee, the smiling photographer, a man no older than 30, told me we needed to take some initial photos and if they went well Id get the actual job. I needed to put the negligee on and take everything else off. Even now, I can recall my horror: this wasnt what Id expected. Yet he was the grown-up and Id been brought up to do as I was told. Tentatively, I asked if it was OK to keep my bra on. No. Everything off! he told me. Theres a good girl. There was no one else there. Just me and him: the predator, the man offering me something dreams were made of. Im keeping my knickers on, I mumbled. He said that was OK for now as he smilingly manoeuvred me into position, back to the window so my naked silhouette was outlined by the sun. Relax, he said as the shutter started to click. It was all I could do to choke back my tears. After what seemed like hours, he put down his camera and told me to come and sit on his lap. Think about how much you want this job, he told me, slapping his thigh. I felt sick yet in that moment I also felt I had no choice. All he wanted me to do was sit there while he put his hand on my thigh and my heart hammered in my chest. Yet the powerlessness I felt has never left me nor the shame. Even as a confident, successful mum of two, I still worry that people will judge me for what happened that day. Frankie (pictured) says returning to modelling in her 40s was refreshing as she now feels in control I never saw those negligee photos but I did model for the jewellery shop. By the age of 16 I had an agent, and in between studying for exams I was regularly modelling for newspapers and magazines. A lot of it was fun: I did local catwalk shows, magazine shoots and small jobs for local businesses. I was paid well and largely treated well enough to make me think that I could make a career of it for a while. So shortly after my 18th birthday I moved to New York, where I was signed by Wilhelmina, then one of the hottest model agencies in the city. It wasnt long before I was being signed for jobs that paid $1,000 a day big money now and even bigger money back then. This was the Eighties and New York felt like the centre of the world, its pulsing heartbeat the famous Studio 54 nightclub. Night after night, photographers, models, musicians and stars from Madonna to Wham! would congregate there and although I was only 18, the expectation was that I would be there, too. Youve got another invitation, my booker would tell me. Dont miss it. Drugs were as much a part of the scene as ra-ra skirts and pixie boots, and while I vowed not to get sucked in, it quickly became clear that for some photographers taking drugs was part of the brief. My agency was excited that I was working with one well-known photographer, but on a shoot with him I was handed a joint. Id rather not, I spluttered. If we want to really get the shot I need you to do this, he told me. It is hard to convey how overwhelming it was: in that world the photographer was God, and I knew only too well how angry my agent would be if word got back that Id upset him. Taking a deep breath, I grabbed the joint, my head spinning as I inhaled the acrid smoke. I spent the night throwing up, partly horrified by what Id done, partly terrified that word would get out and I would be judged. Only now do I know that what was happening to me was also happening to many of my peers, who like me adopted a code of silence. The first time some of them ever spoke about it was after I mentioned I was writing this piece. One friend revealed that she, too, has lost count of the occasions on which she was groped, stared at and humiliated. She also learnt there was no point in making a fuss: our bookers and agents might not have said it explicitly but the message was clear: if you wanted to be successful, you did what it took and didnt upset the applecart. Returning to Europe in my early 20s, first Paris, then London, I realised the culture was the same here, too. Certain photographers some of them well respected and still working today just made you feel seedy. Their eyes would linger where they shouldnt, and they would make crude comments about your figure or your underwear. Most of the time you took it although when one French photographer came up behind me and rubbed his erection against my bottom, I couldnt help myself: turning round, I slapped him in the face. His reaction? To spit at me and call me crazy. When I confided to my agent that I had walked out of the shoot, she showed no sympathy. Well, youre obviously never going to work with him again, she said, rolling her eyes at my prima donna-ish behaviour. Another French photographer barked at me to get my knickers off because otherwise my knicker line would be visible in the shoot. I knew he was lying. Of course, it wasnt all bad. A lot of it was fabulous. Work took me all over the world, from Trinidad to Turkey, Arizona to South America. On good shoots, with respectful photographers and a fun crew, it could feel like being paid to go on holiday. Yet it could also be crushingly lonely, and you didnt have to look far to see the legacy of addiction, anorexia and promiscuity that often went hand-in-hand with the glamorous beaches, bars and boutique hotels. That was one reason why, as I entered my 30s, I decided to take a step back, putting my family first. I later did some acting work before, in my 40s, I tentatively contacted one of my agents who said there was a lot of work for older models. Returning after a long absence was refreshing. I was no longer a frightened girl or insecure twentysomething desperate to please. Now Im in control. It helps, of course, that sometimes I am old enough to be the mother of the people behind the cameras. The fashion industry has changed too: these days that person behind the camera is just as likely to be a woman. Many leading magazines, Vogue among them, now refuse to work with models under 18, while those who are underage are required by law to have an adult chaperone. And the presence of a cameraphone on a shoot can prove a handy deterrent. More than anything, Id like to think that, even before the advent of #MeToo, our young men are learning to treat women with a respect that was often absent in my youth. It seems true of my sons, both of whom were genuinely shocked when I confided my reasons for writing this piece. That just wouldnt happen now, Mum, one of them told me. I hope hes right. She is famed for her cutting edge approach to royal fashion but Letizia was the epitome of a Queen this evening. The Queen of Spain joined her husband King Felipe VI and their guests the President of China Xi Jinping and his wife wife Peng Liyuan for a gala dinner on Wednesday. The dinner this evening will celebrate the couple's visitors' final evening in Spain as they come to the end of their two-day tour. Letizia, 46, looked typically glamourous in a floor length black velvet gown for the banquet which was held at the Royal Palace. Letizia, 46, looked typically glamourous in a floor length black velvet gown for the banquet which was held at the Royal Palace The Queen of Spain joined her husband King Felipe VI and their guests the President of China Xi Jinping and his wife wife Peng Liyuan for a gala dinner on Wednesday The dinner this evening will celebrate the couple's visitors' final evening in Spain as they come to the end of their two-day tour The dress had a hint of Hollywood in the form of diamante cuffs and naturally the crowning glory was the royal consort's tiara. For tonight's event Letizia opted for the Diamond and Pearl tiara of Queen Maria Christina previously favoured by her mother-in-law Queen Sofia. She could also be seen wearing the sash of the Royal and Distinguished Spanish Order of Charles III as is customary during ceremonial engagements. King Felipe, 50, looked suitably dapper in black tie and could be seen wearing the same sash as his wife. The two couples appeared to be in high spirits as they shook hands ahead of the event this evening The foursome posed for official photos together before proceeding to the dining room for tonight's dinner Peng Liyuan (left) looked elegant in a monochrome gown as she stood by her husband's side at the banquet Queen Letizia (pictured) looked regal in her form fitting dress and sash as she flashed a smile for the cameras She wore the Diamond and Pearl tiara of Queen Maria Christina (pictured) previously favoured by her mother-in-law Queen Sofia Their guests meanwhile put on an equally elegant display with the President wearing a formal jacket and trouser and his wife looked graceful in a monochrome floor-length gown. The foursome posed for official photos together before proceeding to the dining room for tonight's dinner. Earlier today Letizia joined her husband and their guests for a visit tothe Royal Theatre. The royal and the President's wife showed off their blossoming bond (pictured) and seemed happy to be in each other's company Peng Liyuan (left) carried a delicate black clutch bag and flashed a coat of coral nail polish at the event Queen Letizia gave just a flash of her skyscraped black stilettos (pictured), which had a peep toe detail The group appeared to be in high spirits as they all gathered around to pose for a group photograph at the banquet The oppulent royal palace (pictured) was the perfect place to hos the Chinese President and his wife Felipe and Xi also reviewed Spain's guard of honour at the Royal Palace while Chinese Peng and Letizia observed the ceremony from a podium. The tour marks the first time a Chinese leader has visited the country in 13 years, and the two countries are expected to sign around 20 intergovernmental and business agreements later today. This should include a deal to export on-the-bone legs of Iberian ham to the Chinese market, and rules to avoid double-taxation. The tour marks the first time a Chinese leader has visited the country in 13 years and tonight the group enjoyed a banquet at the Palace on the final night of the visit Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and his wife Maria Begona Gomez (pictured right) were also introduced to the President and his wife Presdient XI and his wife Peng also met and shook hands with Mayor of Madrid Manuela Carmena (pictured) First Lady Peng looked in high spirits as she shook hands with Spanish tenor Placido Domingo at the banquet (pictured) Placido Domingo also shook hands with the President who stood with King Felipe and his wife by his side (pictured) King Felipe shook hands with Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell (pictured) at the gala dinner Both countries will also explore joint bids in infrastructure, energy and telecommunications projects in Africa and Latin America. Yesterday Peng and Xi joined Letizia and Felipe at Zarzuela Palace, with both women opting for navy blue dresses. Letizia dazzled in a mid-length blue dress that had a sleeveless design and a lace hem, while Peng wore an oriental style dress in navy that complimented Letizia's own outfit perfectly. The Chinese leader will flying to Argentina on Thursday for a G-20 leaders' summit the next day, and visits to Panama and Portugal until December 5. King Felipe and President Xi Jinpig led the guests into dinner at the high-profile event tonight (pictured) The President of Spain and his wife closely followed behind the King and President into the dinner (pictured) Queen Letizia and the Spanish Prime Minister clinked classes (pictured) during a toast at dinnertime The Chinese leader will flying to Argentina on Thursday for a G-20 leaders' summit the next day, and visits to Panama and Portugal until December 5. Pictured: The guests share a toast at the banquet Both countries were said to explore joint bids in infrastructure, energy and telecommunications projects in Africa and Latin America during the visit. Pictured: The crowd applauds during the banquet President Xi Jinping gave a speech a the gala dinner (pictured second left) while the Queen and Prime Minister appeared to read a translation (second and first right) Sophie Wessex has welcomed the fashion elite to Buckingham Palace for a glittering reception on Wednesday. The Countess of Wessex was joined by designers, artists, retailers and entrepreneurs to celebrate 10 years of the London College of Fashion's Better Lives project. The mother-of-two looked suitably stylish herself in a full-length black skirt printed with a red floral pattern which she paired with a trendy roll-neck jumper. She could be seen chatting with some of the most influential figures in the fashion industry including curve model Felicity Haywood. Felicity, who has been a prominent voice in the body positivity movement, stunned in a floor length silver sequin gown as she chatted with the wife of Prince Edward. Sophie the Countess of Wessex welcomed fashion's elite to Buckingham Palace on Wednesday night to celebrate 10 years of the London College of Fashion's Better Lives project. Pictured: Speaking to plus size model Felicity Haywood Sophie, 53, also spent time speaking to the iconic model and fashion designer BiBi Russell who looked typically zany in an applique coat. Other designer guests included Christopher Kane as well as Vogue online editor Suzy Menkes. The Countess gave a short speech where she thanked members of the charity for their work. The Better Lives project uses fashion as a discipline to drive change, build a sustainable future and improve the way we live. The Countess gave a short speech where she thanked members of the charity for their work Sophie, 53, also spent time speaking to the iconic model and fashion designer BiBi Russell who looked typically zany in an applique coat The project working with brands on projects to improve sustainability, diversity and social responsibility. In 2013 the Countess became the first ever Patron of London College of Fashion, part of the University of the Arts London. One of the key areas of work within 'Better Lives' is the 'Fashion Education in Prison Project' through which LCF works in partnership with HM Prison Service on projects working towards the rehabilitation of women offenders. The aim is to equip women with skills they can further develop during their time in prison and then use, upon release, to aid employment or education opportunities. The first of these is at HMP Holloway, which was visited by Her Royal Highness in June 2014. Other designer guests included Christopher Kane as well as Vogue online editor Suzy Menkes Two more premature infants have died at a New Jersey hospital after they contracted a bacterial infection. According to the state Department of Health, the infants became infected at University Hospital in Newark and died last week, but officials were not notified of the deaths until Monday. This brings the total number of deaths up to three after four babies in the NICU contracted Acinetobacter baumanii, a hospital-acquired infection. The news comes just one month after inspectors found 'major infection control deficiencies' at the hospital related to 'hand hygiene and cleanliness'. Two more premature infants have died at University Hospital (pictured) in Newark, New Jersey, after acquiring a bacterial infection, bringing the total number of deaths up to three Acinetobacter baumannii is an opportunistic bacterium, meaning it takes advantage of hosts with weakened immune systems or altered microbiota. A healthy host with a normal immune system will not experience illness if infected with the bacterium. Premature babies, who have weaker immune systems than full-term babies, are at a greater risk when it comes to infections. During the last stages of pregnancy, antibodies from the mother's body travel through the placenta and umbilical cord to the baby. But a premature baby may be born before this stage and therefore is born without any protective antibodies. The department said the two infants had other medical conditions associated with their premature birth, meaning the bacterial infection may not be the cause of death. Four infants in total were exposed to Acinetobacter baumannii, with the first child dying in late September. The baby who survived was discharged last month, the health department said. According to the hospital there have been no new cases in the NICU since October. 'We have worked diligently since the Acinetobacter baumannii bacteria was discovered in our neonatal intensive care unit to control the outbreak,' a statement from the hospital read. 'We continue to reinforce proper procedures and protocols with our team.' The health department said an inspection team is on-site investigating the hospital's policies after learning that University's own infection control program was not informed of the two new deaths. '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,' the department stated. However, government officials are now calling for new senior staff and board members at the hospital. '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,' said Newark Mayor Ras Baraka 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.' Last month, New Jersey Health Commissioner Shereef Elnahal ordered University Hospital to hire a full-time certified infection control practitioner after a department inspection found 'major infection control deficiencies'. The Directed Plan of Correction specifically cited issues with ' hand hygiene, personal protective equipment and cleanliness'. The outbreak at University Hospital is the latest in a series of unrelated viral outbreaks in New Jersey this year. At the Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation in Haskell, 11 children died after being infected with adenovirus. And at the Voorhees Pediatric Facility, 13 children were confirmed to have contracted a milder strain adenovirus, but no deaths resulted from that outbreak. Thousands of bathroom heaters have been recalled over fire hazard concerns. Seabreeze International says the safety cutoff on its SF14TA Smart Thermaflo Bathroom Heater Fans with nightlight, can fail to function, which causes the heater to rapidly overheat. The company has received one report of a unit overheating and catching fire, leaving scorch marks on the walls. According to a press release from the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), no injuries were reported. Seabreeze International recalled more than 2,100 units of its SF14TA Smart Thermaflo Bathroom Heater Fans with nightlight (pictured) after reports that the safety cutoff can fail to function, which causes the heater to rapidly overheat The recalled units were manufactured in 2015 and 2016 and sold from August 2015 through May 2017. The CPSC reports that the recall involves around 2,100 units that were sold in the US. Stores and websites that sold the heaters include Ace Hardware, Amazon, Wayfair, HomeDepot.com, Sharper Image, Brookstone and Air, and Water Inc with prices ranging between $60 and $65. The agency added that 3,050 of the heaters were also sold in Canada, but Health Canada has not issued a recall. The CPSC has advised any consumerswho owns the heater to 'immediately stop' using it and contact Seabreeze for a refund. Seabreeze said it will not be offering replacing units to customers looking to return the recalled heaters. According to the National Fire Protection Association, 25,000 residential fires and more than 300 deaths every years are caused by electric space heaters. That makes the appliances the second-leading cause of home fires behind cooking and the second-leading cause of home fire deaths behind smoking. Additionally, more than 6,000 Americans are sent to the emergency room for burn injuries associated with space heaters. The CPSC has released several statements in the past advising consumers to not use portable electric heaters in bathrooms. The commission cites that most electric heaters do not have protection against electrocution should the appliance come into contact with water. On Sunday, a fire began in the top floor bathroom of a three-story apartment in Lisbon, Oregon, where a space heater was being used. According to Salem News, Richard Parrish, who owned the apartment where the fire started, was using a space heater because he didn't want to sign up for gas service. Jamie Novak, a fire investigator with the St Paul Fire Department in Minnesota, told TODAY in 2017 that space heaters 'are small, but they draw a lot of electricity'. He also stressed the importance of plugging the heater directly into the wall rather than using extension cords because many cannot handle the amount of electricity running through the wire.. Safety experts recommend keeping the heater three feet away from anything that could catch fire and burn. Half of America's teenagers have never had a private conversation with a doctor, according to a new study. Since 1992, federal guidelines have recommended that kids start seeing a doctor on their own from the age of 13. But a nationally-representative survey suggests that the rate of teens seeing physicians independently has barely changed in three decades. Doctors warn that could be a key stumbling block to driving down teen tobacco use, sexually-transmitted diseases, and drug use. Guidelines published in 1992 said teens should see doctors on their own from 13 but for half the population, that's not happening (file image) By most accounts, the current batch of American teens is more sensible than previous generations. Despite eating more junk food and getting hooked on e-cigarettes, they generally drink less alcohol, start having sex later, do more yoga, and more diligently research their own health issues and healthcare providers. But with sexually-transmitted diseases, anxiety and suicides on the rise, and drug overdoses at an all-time high, pediatricians aren't exactly relaxed about the current state of things. Even without alarming epidemics circulating, having private conversations is important for your health, period, says lead author of the Dr Jon Klein, executive vice head of pediatrics at the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center. A doctor's office is meant to be a place where you can disclose your activities, habits and concerns comfortably so your doctor has a good idea of what advice you need. 'There should be one on one time for screening and counseling,' Dr Klein told DailyMail.com. 'It's important that some advice be given that reflects the adolescent's individual needs. 'Unless there's a confidential discussion, teens aren't likely to disclose their own needs.' One clear example is sexual health. 'If a young person has chosen to have sex, knowing about sexually-transmitted diseases, contraception, testing needs, HIV is important,' he says. Of course, everyone should be having 'The Talk' with their parents, 'because we know that when parents talk with adolescents about their expectations for healthy behaviors, adolescents are more likely to [act accordingly].' But those conversations can be limited, thin, and cut off quickly. And parents may not be sure when's the right time ('adolescents generally don't ask their parents whether to have sex or not'). Doctors, meanwhile, are trained to discuss sexual health, tobacco use, drinking, drug use, and all the things that parents are typically most concerned about. Why aren't these conversations being had? It's not clear. (Dr Klein's study, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, is part of a broader investigation with national healthcare organizations to try to answer that question.) Most parents in the survey - which encompassed parents from a range of races, backgrounds, and ages - said they would welcome doctors speaking privately with their kids about health issues. Dr Klein's conclusion is that doctors simply aren't instigating the conversation (though he says it would help if more parents pushed for it, too). That is certainly a well-documented factor. A study in 2013 by Duke University found that doctors and teens alike feel uncomfortable talking privately about sex and sexuality, and spend an average of 36 seconds discussing it, based on recordings of more than 200 teen doctor visits. 'Sexual health is a very difficult conversation for a number of pediatricians,' lead author of that study, Dr Stewart Chang Alexander, now associate department head of consumer science at Purdue University, told DailyMail.com. 'I don't think that it's intentional but adolescents are very awkward about it. When they will only give you "yes" or "no" answers it's hard to dig deeper.' He suggests pediatricians should take baby steps: tell the teen, 'it may be uncomfortable at first but maybe in a couple of years you're going to have questions about it.' That is, if the doctor can get mom and dad out of the room. Dr Chang Alexander's research, and previous studies, suggest that parents are open to teens getting advice on any kind of subject - but not out of their earshot. 'I think that one of the big challenges has been with parents,' he explained. 'A lot of surveys show parents are really supportive of adolescents having conversations with their doctors but often they want to stay in the room.' With that resistance, it can be awkward ordering parents out of the room. And, regardless, many doctors prefer parents being there. 'Doctors [often] feel more comfortable with a parent in the room so the parent hears everything and it doesn't feel like there are any secrets or it's uncomfortable. 'The intention there is to be helpful and transparent.' Having conversations about sex with teenagers can be yet more pressing for all parties in states that teach abstinence-only education - like North Carolina, where Alexander conducted his study, and where there is a strong taboo against discussing or acknowledging sex among teens in general. Both Drs Klein and Chang Alexander insisted that state-by-state education and attitudes should not impact how doctors carry out healthcare. As Dr Klein sees it, there are clear ways to discuss sexual health in any context. 'While there are states that recommend abstinence only education the clinical recommendations are very clear,' Dr Klein said, suggesting doctors can talk about 'abstinence plus' - aiming for abstinence, but understanding safe sex practices if they choose to do otherwise. 'Abstinence is a safe choice but if someone chooses other behaviors, there are things you can do to protect yourself,' he added. Dr Chang Alexander concedes that cultural taboos can make the situation more awkward. But he doesn't believe it is the biggest factor preventing teens and doctors having confidential conversations. At the end of the day, it might all boil down to something more simple. Clinics are crowded, doctors are pressed for time, and there is a lot to get through. 'Doctors are doing so much in such a short period of time, they often fall behind and sometimes you don't have time for that pause,' he said. 'Clinics are quite busy. People are not always closing doors all the time. Sometimes the clinics are set up in a way that parents bring multiple children in the room, which makes confidentiality... very difficult. 'If [the adolescent] has multiple issues it can crowd out the idea of confidentiality. 'It's just not at the top of their mind.' Doctors will be told to stop wasting money by prescribing silk stockings, bath oils and gluten-free pizzas. They will be issued with guidelines today stating that NHS patients should be given gluten-free staples only. These include bread and flour mixes. Doctors had been prescribing gluten-free pizza bases, Battenberg cakes and custard creams to patients with digestive disorders such as coeliac disease, which affects up to one in 100. NHS England is also consulting on whether to ban eight other items including silk stockings and bath oils for those with skin conditions. Doctors had been prescribing gluten-free pizza bases, Battenberg cakes and custard creams to patients with digestive disorders such as coeliac disease, which affects up to one in 100 GPs will be issued with guidelines today stating that NHS patients should be given gluten-free staples only, including bread and flour mixes Bath oils for eczema and dermatitis cost 15.8million a year while silk stockings and under garments add an extra 1.2million. Officials point out that patients can buy these items from chemists, without taking up GPs time or incurring delivery charges. Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, said: It is essential the NHS should not be paying for anything which has been proven to be ineffective or where there are safer or cheaper alternatives. In July last year NHS England announced it would be banning homeopathic and herbal remedies, describing them as at best a placebo. Sarah Sleet, chief executive of Coeliac UK, an independent charity, said: The result of the consultation is that prescribing of gluten-free bread and flour mixes should continue due to the high cost and availability. Highlighting the curtailment of prescribing gluten-free cakes and biscuits is a total red herring and sensationalism. The guidelines are part of an ongoing crackdown on low priority items to ensure there is more money for cancer care, A&E units and mental health. Sainsbury's should warn people to cut the tops off its 'well-fired' loaves of bread because they contain a cancer-causing chemical, experts have claimed. The loaves, which have a 'unique' blackened crust, have been criticised by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH). They could contain higher than usual levels of acrylamide, a chemical in burnt food which can build up in the body to increase the risk of cancer. 'They should really come with a health warning,' said Tony Lewis, head of policy at the CIEH. Sainsbury's has reportedly been selling its well-fired loaves of bread since the 1980s, but health experts have warned the black crust could contain a carcinogenic chemical Guidelines released earlier this year by the British Hospitality Association said over-cooked bread should be thrown in the bin and not served to the public. And the EU last year brought in a rule saying food companies could be disciplined if they don't take steps to stop selling burned bread or potatoes, The Telegraph reports. But Sainsbury's continues to sell its 75p well-cooked loaves, which have been available since the 1980s and have, in the past, been accused of just being burnt. 'We are firmly of the view that we waste too much food,' said Mr Lewis. 'So we do have some support for the idea of selling well-fired bread, which has perhaps been accidentally burned and would otherwise be wasted. 'But that said, if you are going to buy the well done bread, there is some simple advice which you should use, which is don't consume the outside crust because of the risk of acrylamide risk. The loaves' selling point is their over-cooked 'unique' crusts, but the blackened edge could contain acrylamide, which can build up in the body over time and increase the risk of cancr 'If Sainsbury's are going to sell these loaves they should really come with a health warning telling people to cut the top off.' Acrylamide is a chemical produced by a chemical reaction when certain foods are baked, fried, grilled, roasted or toasted for too long. If eaten regularly the chemical can build up in the body over a long period of time and is believed to increase someone's risk of getting cancer. Foods which can produce high levels of acrylamide when burned include potatoes, other root vegetables such as parsnips and carrots, and bread. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) advises people not to toast bread beyond a golden colour darker foods are thought to contain more of the chemical. Sainsbury's said in a statement: 'Our well fired loaves are popular and we can reassure customers that the acrylamide levels are low and well within the FSA benchmark levels.' The FSA benchmark for wheat-based bread is 50 micrograms of acrylamide per 1kg of food. An FSA spokesman told The Telegraph the company didn't appear to breaking any rules. A leading statistician said last year 'there is no direct evidence that anyone has ever got cancer because of acrylamide'. Sir David Spiegelhalter, a Cambridge University statistician, said even adults who consume the greatest amount of acrylamide are nowhere near risk. Studies on the carcinogenic have only been conducted on mice, and its effects on humans is relatively unknown, he added. Cancer Research UK said on its website: 'Evidence from animal studies shows that acrylamide has the potential to interact with the DNA in our cells, so could be linked to cancer. 'However, evidence from human studies has shown that, for most cancer types, there is no link between acrylamide and cancer risk.' On its website it also warned of 'weak and inconsistent' data regarding a higher risk of womb cancer. While it said 'even food industry workers, who are exposed to twice as much acrylamide as other people, do not have higher rates of cancer.' The International Agency for Research on Cancer Group, a branch of the World Health Organization, lists the chemical as a probable human carcinogen. This could be because women want to seem thinner and men more healthy They found single people change their food choices if they're on a hot date Single young people order healthier food if they're on a date with somebody good-looking, a study has revealed. The attractiveness of your dining partner doesn't make a difference if you're already in a relationship or eating with someone you have no interest in. But both men and women are keen to be seen as healthy when searching for a potential romantic partner. People tend to make healthier choices in restaurants if they are single and know they will be eating with someone they find attractive, which scientists believe is because both sexes want to appear fit and healthy to potential mates Researchers at East Carolina University studied 639 heterosexual students with an average age of 18 to find out how a good-looking dining companion would affect what they ate. Women may eat healthier because thinness is seen as more attractive, while men want to portray themselves as fit and healthy, the researchers suggest. In the study, each of the participants were told to pick an item from a restaurant menu after being shown a photo of who they would be eating with, The Times reported. The scientists had already rated people's attractiveness beforehand, and found the most attractive people inspired their partners to eat healthily. On the other hand people in relationships, those with unattractive dates, or straight people with someone of the same sex did not change their meal choice. 'Perhaps because society portrays thinner women as more desirable,' the authors wrote, 'women may be especially motivated to appear thin or at least to engage in behaviors that promote thinness when in the presence of others.' They added: 'Smaller meals are generally considered to be more neat and feminine ... and women tend to be rated as more attractive when their meals contain lower fat content.' But their theory about men was wrong they thought men would eat more calories in a bid to seem more muscular and strong. This theory appears to have been based on past research claiming men eat bigger portions in the presence of women in an attempt to seem more powerful. However, if that was ever true it doesn't apply to 21st century young men, who are more likely to want to be seen as health-conscious. 'Individuals who consume healthier foods tend to be rated as more fit, attractive, and likeable,' the scientists said to explain the men's behaviour. 'This research showed that women rate men who eat good (i.e., healthy) foods to be especially attractive. 'It could be said that people generally adhere to the mantra of you are what you eat.' And the scientists explained their findings support other research which has shown women to be less willing to buy unhealthy food after looking at an attractive man. On the flipside, looking at attractive women doesn't change how healthy a man wants to be, but makes him likely to spend more money on food and drink. The research was published in the journal Appetite. A four-year-old girl was forced to relearn how to walk and talk after the chickenpox caused her to have a stroke. Sophie Fuller has been left permanently brain damaged and with limited use of her right arm after suffering a stroke in what doctors have called an 'extremely rare' case. Since the incident on July 8, Sophie, of Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, requires 24-hour care and has to take blood-thinning injections twice a day. Although still affected by the health scare, the youngster has returned to nursery and has even learned to ride an adapted tricycle. Sophie Fuller was forced to relearn how to walk and talk after the chickenpox caused her to have a stroke last July. She is pictured recovering in hospital in August Sophie Fuller has been left permanently brain damaged and with limited use of her right arm. She is pictured earlier this month riding a specially-adapted tricycle Sophie's mother Tracy Fuller (right), 33, says their family is 'living in fear' that she will suffer a second stroke, with the blood vessels in her brain still being dangerously narrow. She is pictured being held by her father Edwin, 32, with her siblings Courtney, 15, and Connor, 17 Five out of every 100,000 children has a stroke in the UK every year. Research has shown chickenpox can increase the risk of the condition in youngsters. The virus behind chickenpox is thought to cause blood vessels in the head to narrow, according to the Stroke Association. Four months on, the blood vessels in Sophie's brain are still very thin, which puts her at risk of suffering a second stroke. Her mother Tracy Fuller, 33, said: 'From her recent MRI in October it shows permanent brain damage and the vessels are still very narrow. 'Sophie will always be at risk. We keep her in our bedroom and don't let her sleep on her own. 'We are living in fear, making sure she is breathing, but we are a really strong family and have a lot of support. 'This is going to be a long journey. This has completely changed our lives. You're living every single day and you're reminded what happened.' Sophie is due to have another MRI scan in around six months time, with doctors being unsure if the blood vessels in her brain will ever expand to a normal size. During her eight-week stint in hospital, Sophie learned to walk and talk again with the help of daily speech and language therapy, as well as occupational therapy and physio. 'Sophie still needs her wheelchair for out and about as she cant walk far, but has learned to again for short distances,' Mrs Fuller said. 'Sophie has a limp when walking but is doing amazingly well.' The youngster also has a splint on her right leg and foot to help her stay mobile. Sophie fell out of her bed last July while suffering from the chickenpox. Her father picked her up, only for the youngster to have a seizure in his arms. She is pictured that month in hospital Pictured on holiday last June with her siblings, Sophie now requires 24-hour care and is forced to endure blood-thinning injections twice a day to prevent her suffering a stroke again CAN CHICKENPOX CAUSE STROKE? Stroke has been reported as a 'rare' side effect of chickenpox. Dr Tina Tan, professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University, told Today: 'Basically, the chickenpox virus infects the large blood vessels in the brain and causes inflammation in them. 'The blood vessels can scar and that can decrease blood supply to the brain, which can lead to stroke.' Studies have shown children are most at risk six months after they first become infected with the chickenpox virus. This can leave youngsters with permanent disabilities, including paralysis or seizures, depending on which blood vessels are involved, Dr Tan said. Other scary complications can include the blistering skin rash shingles, meningitis, pneumonia and dehydration if pox lesions develop around the mouth. Advertisement Sophie's father Edwin, 32, first knew something was wrong when he picked his daughter up after she fell out of bed, only for her to have a seizure in his arms. Mrs Fuller, who is also mother to Courtney, 15, and Connor, 17, said: 'When I saw her I panicked and said "she's having a stroke" - it's absolutely heartbreaking.' An ambulance rushed the youngster to the Royal Hospital for Children. 'We witnessed everything she went through,' Mrs Fuller said. 'They told us to keep talking to her. 'All I wanted to know was whether she was going to be alright but nobody could tell me. 'My husband realised how severe it was. It's just the worst thing you can possibly imagine. 'The hospital staff saved her life. We can't thank them enough. We feel they are part of our family because of what they have done.' Although still deeply affected by what happened, the family put on a brave face and are looking forward to taking Sophie to Disneyland Paris next month so she can meet her favourite Disney character - Beast from Beauty and the Beast. Sophie is pictured on holiday in June riding the beloved bike she got for her birthday Sophie is pictured on the hospital rooftop last July being wheeled around by her father. Mrs Fuller claims he was more aware of how dangerous her condition was when she had the seizure Despite what she has been through, Mrs Fuller describes Sophie as a 'head-strong girl'. She is pictured in her wheelchair in September watching Disney on Ice. The family are taking the youngster to Disneyland Paris next month to meet Beast from Beauty and the Beast 'The strength she has shown, we have got to keep going for Sophie - she needs us to keep going,' Mrs Fuller said. 'Every single day we get upset but we have to hide that from Sophie. 'One of the physios said it's almost like a grieving process. It's almost like you have lost your wee girl. She was a very head-strong girl. She still is.' Doctors have told Mrs Fuller such a young child suffering a stroke is 'very, very rare'. 'No four-year-old should be experiencing this. Anyone can take a stroke at any age - I have learned so much,' she said. 'She's come so far in only four and a half months. We are so proud of the journey she's been through, and we want to thank everyone who supported us.' A mother-of-one thought she had leprosy after her 'cold' caused her to cry blood and flake off large chunks of skin. Jo Daniels, 42, suffered 'horrific' blisters in her eyes, mouth, nose and gums days after she woke with cold-like symptoms last February. Convinced she was dying, Ms Daniels, of Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, was later diagnosed with the rare condition Stevens-Johnson syndrome. Despite being prescribed antibiotics, it took three weeks before Ms Daniels' ulcers began to heal, with large chunks of skin flaking off into her mouth. Although nearly recovered, Ms Daniels claims the ordeal has 'transformed the way she looks' by making her gums recede and leaving her eyes constantly swollen. Ms Daniels, now too self-conscious to leave the house, battles depression and anxiety, and lives in constant fear the disease will return. Mother-of-one Jo Daniels thought she had leprosy after her 'cold' caused her to cry blood and flake off large chunks of skin. Ms Daniels woke in February to find blisters in her eyes, nose, gums and lips (pictured). She was later diagnosed with Stevens-Johnson syndrome Pictured at home before the ordeal, Ms Daniels was convinced she was dying when she experienced symptoms she had never heard of before. Doctors at Morriston Hospital, who prescribed her antibiotics and anti-viral drugs, had also never come across the condition Ms Daniels, who is single and mother to 21-year-old Alexander, said: 'I was convinced I was going to die. The symptoms were horrific and unlike anything I had ever heard of before. 'It was like having severe burns across the whole of your mouth, nose and eyes and I was in constant pain, unable to eat or drink anything apart from small amounts of water. 'At its worst, parts of my face were starting to fall away and I remember one day finding a big chunk of something in my mouth - which I then realised was a bit of the inside of my cheek that had come away. It was as though I had leprosy.' Ms Daniels developed a cough at the beginning of this year, which she put down to the start of a cold. But, over the next five days, she started to develop large ulcers in her mouth, as well as painful, itchy bumps around her eyes. Her GP suspected she may have measles and prescribed antibiotics. 'I knew it wasn't measles,' Ms Daniels said. 'By that stage, my symptoms were so bad I was having to swallow clots of blood that were building up in my nose and I was constantly spitting blood. 'I was barely able to see because my eyes were bleeding. I was terrified.' Ms Daniels then went to Morriston Hospital in nearby Swansea in March for blood tests, where she was finally diagnosed in the first case her doctors had ever seen. Specialists believed the disease was triggered by an infection, which her immune system was reacting violently to. The skin on Ms Daniels' lips blistered before turning into ulcers that then fell off. She even had a large chunk of skin fall into her mouth when part of the inside of her cheek fell away. Ms Daniels relied on her mother Diane Daniels to ensure she did not choke while she slept Ms Daniels is pictured eight months on while still recovering and suffering impaired vision Despite being prescribed further antibiotics and anti-viral medication, Ms Daniels' symptoms continued to get worse over the next three weeks. 'I couldn't leave the house or do anything at all because I couldn't see,' she said. 'I tried eating soup and jelly, but it was just too painful for anything to touch the ulcers all along my mouth and throat - so I ingested nothing that whole time, except for water.' And when the burning sores finally began to heal, a whole new set of problems set in. 'As the skin started to get drier, big chunks of it began to come off on my lips and in my mouth. It was horrible,' Ms Daniels said. Ms Daniels' blistered lips meant she was barely able to eat anything throughout the ordeal Pictured with her cat in February before the incident, Ms Daniels says she used to be a sociable person and is now agoraphobic. She also battles depression and lives in fear of being ill again Ms Daniels' claims the ordeal has totally 'transformed her looks' with her now suffering from receding gums and puffy eyes. Her eyesight is also too bad for her to apply make-up Worried she might choke on her own flesh, Ms Daniels was monitored by her mother Diane during the few hours of sleep she managed to get a night. After an agonising three weeks of treatment, Ms Daniels was finally able to see and eat again. WHAT IS STEVENS-JOHNSON SYNDROME? Stevens-Johnson Syndrome (SJS) is a rare, serious disorder of the skin and mucous membranes. It often begins with flu-like symptoms, followed by a painful red-purple rash that spreads and blisters. SJS affects up to six people per million in the US. Its UK prevalence is unknown. Other symptoms may include: Fever Unexplained widespread pain Blistering of the skin, mouth, nose, eyes and genitals The top layer of skin then dies and sheds. SJS' cause is often unclear but may be as a side effect of medication or an infection, like pneumonia. People are more at risk if they have a weakened immune system, or a personal or family history of the disorder. Treatment can include stopping unnecessary medications, replacing fluids, caring for wounds and taking medication to ease the pain. Source: Mayo Clinic Advertisement But, although her blisters have nearly disappeared, she continues to suffer the physical and emotional damage of the experience. 'My vision is now very bad because of the sores that were in my eyes,' Ms Daniels said. 'But, more than anything, I feel I have completely lost my confidence and my looks. 'Anyone who hasn't seen me since before it happened would think to themselves, "What's happened to her?" because it has transformed the way I look. 'Now I have bad teeth, because it made my gums recede, my eyes are nearly always swollen and I can't put make-up on, because I can't see well enough to. 'I used to be a very sociable person, but I've been made an agoraphobic by this terrible illness.' As well as being left anxious and depressed by the ordeal, Ms Daniels also lives in fear of being struck by Stevens-Johnson syndrome again. 'It is so rare that there is really so little information available about it,' she said. 'Even medical professionals couldn't really tell me much about it at all and I feel like I can't sleep soundly until someone can give me some answers and let me know that this will never happen to me again.' But despite the toll the condition has taken on her wellbeing, Ms Daniels is determined to regain the life she had before. 'The illness has robbed me of this entire year and could well take more than that,' she said. 'But I have to stay determined to beat it. It's been like going to hell - but I have to believe I'll get out the other end.' A mother who initiated change in medical guidelines after her premature son was 'left to die' has given birth to a 'miracle' baby. Emma Jones' first baby, Riley Goodger, was born in 2013 at 22 weeks and five days old, weighing just over 1lb at University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff. Despite being able to breathe independently, doctors refused to give medical care to the baby because he was born nine days earlier than what was considered acceptable for doctors to try and keep premature infants alive. Devastated, his mother, from Ely in Cardiff, launched a campaign to change guidelines so that any babies born before 24 weeks of pregnancy - and showing signs of life - are given appropriate NHS treatment. The Welsh Government decided to change its advice to health boards to ensure that severely premature newborns on the 'threshold of survival' are given a fighting chance. The rest of the UK follow guidelines on treating babies from a charity. Now, almost five years later, Ms Jones and her partner, Chris Goodger, have finally had a baby boy, after dealing with the trauma of three miscarriages, a stillbirth, and Riley's death since 2012. Emma Jones, 28, of Cardiff, finally gave birth to a healthy boy, Jacob in October after having three miscarriages, a stillbirth, and her first baby dying less than two hours after birth The mother and her partner, Chris Goodger, from Cardiff, Wales, sucessfully campaigned for medical guidelines to change after her first child born, Riley Goodger, was 'left to die' by doctors at University Hospital of Wales in 2013 Jacob Goodger was born last month at the same hospital as his passed brother, University Hospital of Wales, at 36 weeks and three days weighing 6lb 9oz. 'This baby is our little miracle,' said Ms Jones. 'It feels absolutely amazing to have him home. 'We finally have the bundle of joy we have wanted for so, so long.' Ms Jones, reflecting on her years of heartache, said she hoped the change in NHS guidelines in Wales - announced last year - would give hope to other families. She said: 'I am immensely proud of myself, but at the same time I still cannot help but think that Riley may still be here today if the guidelines had been changed sooner.' Riley died in the early hours of December 29, 2013, just 93 minutes after Ms Jones had given birth to him. Doctors and nurses refused to treat the 480g child because the medical guidelines they followed, issued by the British Association of Perinatal Medicine, recommend that doctors do not attempt to resuscitate babies born before 24 weeks, due to the extremely high risk of developing serious disabilities. After the tragic death, Ms Jones told Wales Online: 'He wasn't crying but I could see he was breathing and his heart was beating through his chest wall. 'But no care could be provided for him even tfhough he was living. 'I was incredibly tired after just going through labour but my mother, father and partner tried everything they could to get the staff to change their minds. 'They were begging because they knew what had happened with my previous son and they felt it couldn't happen again. It was heartbreaking.' Doctors were unable to help Riley, born at 22 weeks, because it was not recommended to attempt to resuscitate babies born before 24 weeks, due to the extremely high risk of developing serious disabilities. Riley was nine days out of viability, despite breathing WHAT ARE THE CHARITY GUIDELINES FOR GIVING PREMATURE BABIES MEDICAL CARE? The British Association of Perinatal Medicine (BAPM) sets out guidelines for all doctors and NHS hospitals - across the UK - to follow when a baby is born very prematurely. The NHS states that babies are considered to be 'viable' at 24 weeks or later into the pregnancy this means it's possible for them to survive being born from this point onwards. The earlier the baby is born, the less chance there is of it surviving and being healthy, so the national recommendations for care of babies born very early are as follows: 25 weeks and over The baby will be actively cared for to support breathing and keep it warm, and transferred to the neonatal intensive care unit for ongoing care. 24 weeks Resuscitation and intensive support is usually offered unless parents and doctors agree that there is little hope of survival or babys level of suffering would outweigh the babys interest in continuing to live. 23 weeks At this stage of pregnancy, there is greatest uncertainty about the outcome for an individual baby. Intensive support will be offered if parents specifically request it and the senior paediatrician/neonatologist (baby doctor) present feels it to be appropriate. Otherwise comfort care only will be given to your baby with no active intervention to support life. 22 weeks At this very early gestation the chances of survival without severe long term problems are so low that active intervention to support life is not recommended and comfort care is given to a baby. An experienced neonatologist will be close at hand if appropriate, though the baby would not usually be given active support because the chances of survival are so low. Source: NHS Advertisement Ms Jones handed in a 2,759-signature petition into the National Assembly of Wales' Petitions Committee. Following this, The Welsh Government now advises health boards that when the a baby is on the 'threshold of survival', maternity teams should consult an on-call neonatal or paediatric team to ensure clinical assessments are planned and undertaken. It also recommends the baby's family should be involved in the decision-making process about ongoing care. Now every health board in Wales has a midwife who takes the lead on bereavement support. Wales' chief medical officer Dr Frank Atherton said: 'We recognised there was a need for the Welsh Government to develop this additional guidance, because the current professional guidance from the British Association of Perinatal Medicine does not state what the NHS should do to care for babies born alive before 24 weeks.' Other government's have not followed suite to step in and tighten guidelines, with NHS hospitals following the those endorsed by BAPM as the best available advice. The pregnancy and birth of Jacob was far from straightforward for the couple. Due to her previous miscarriages, Ms Jones was 'constantly monitored'. 'I had weekly appointments and was given about 25 scans in total,' she said. 'It was worry after worry for me, but my consultant was absolutely marvellous and he pushed for me to have all these checks.' Seventeen weeks into her pregnancy, Ms Jones feared she had suffered another miscarriage when she lost a lot of fluid. 'It was an horrendous time,' she said. 'But thankfully there was fluid remaining and so I was given further checks to make sure the baby was okay.' After the death of Riley, Ms Jones was given a cervical stitch in an attempt to keep her next baby in the womb for as long as possible. Ms Jones was terrified there would be a high risk of complications, but made it to almost full-term (37-42 weeks pregnancy). 'I struggled to believe that the baby was going to be okay,' she said. 'After waiting all this time for a healthy child, I feared something was going to go wrong.' The couple pictured together at a relative's wedding in 2016 Five years since Riley Goodger's death, 'miracle baby' Jacob Goodger was born. He struggled to breath when born at 36 weeks, but is now home and healthy The couple were forced to face their fears, as Jacob had, in fact, been born with complications. When baby Jacob was delivered via c-section, he initially struggled to breathe due to the large amount of fluid on his lungs. 'I couldn't see what was happening as I couldn't move and was being stitched up,' Ms Jones said. 'I'd waited all this time to see my baby but I still couldn't hold him [for long].' Jacob was taken to the neonatal intensive care unit where he was placed in an incubator and given additional help with his breathing. Ms Jones wasn't able to see her baby for a further seven hours. She still couldn't move the lower half of her body due to the anaesthetic from the c-section, and had no choice but to be wheeled back to the maternity ward. 'I was back in my empty room which was really upsetting,' she recalled. 'It wasn't until six or seven hours later that I was able to move into a wheelchair and get myself down to intensive care. 'When I got there it brought back a lot of memories. There were quite a few babies who were really, really small and it reminded me of holding Riley.' Ms Jones and Mr Goodger were initially only allowed to touch Jacob through the incubator as he struggled to breathe independently. But a week later, they were finally able to take home the baby they had waited for so long for, as his breathing improved quickly. 'I needed to be in hospital for a week myself as I'd suffered nerve damage during the c-section, which was completely unexpected,' she added. 'I kept on feeling a burning sensation in my abdomen, when all the while I was trying to breastfeed too. 'But I wouldn't change it for the world. Every time I look at Jacob I realise how precious he is, and my family and friends feel exactly the same way. 'We're all just so happy to finally have our precious baby. He is our everything and truly worth the wait.' Despite needed a couple of additional stays at the Noah's Ark Children's Hospital for Wales after suffering with bronchiolitis, Jacob is now settled into his home. 'He's a right chubby little monkey and he's feeding really well', the mother said. Traces of faeces have been found lurking on every McDonald's touchscreen used for ordering food in an investigation. Samples were taken eight stores - six in London and two in Birmingham - all of which were contaminated with coliforms, found in humans faeces. Diners who use the machines, which have been rolled out at restaurants across the UK, head to the server to pick up their food. An investigation into six McDonald's stores found traces of faeces on the touchscreens diners use to order their food. The results, which found other contagious bacteria, are worrying, according to Dr Paul Matawele of London Metropolitan University Senior lecturer in microbiology at London Metropolitan University Dr Paul Matawele said that, although the screens are cleaned, it is clearly not rigorous enough. 'These bacteria can be on touchscreen machines for days on end', he said. The investigation was undertaken by metro.co.uk and the London Metropolitan University School of Human Science. 'We were all surprised how much gut and faecal bacteria there was on the touchscreen machines. These cause the kind of infections that people pick up in hospitals. 'For instance Enterococcus faecalis is part of the flora of gastrointestinal tracts of healthy humans and other mammals. It is notorious in hospitals for causing hospital acquired infections.' The samples found traces of other worrying bacteria, including staphylococcus, which can cause blood poisoning and toxic shock syndrome. Seeing Staphylococcus on these machines is worrying because it is so contagious, according to the expert. 'It starts around people's noses, if they touch their nose with their fingers and then transfer it to the touchscreen someone else will get it, and if they have an open cut which it gets into, then it can be dangerous. 'There is a lot of worries at the moment that staphylococcus is becoming resistant to antibiotics. However, it is still really dangerous in places like Africa where it can cause toxic shock.' Listeria bacteria was found in Oxford Street and Holloway Road branches. It can cause listeriosis which can lead to miscarriages and stillbirths in pregnant women. What are coliforms? Coliform bacteria are organisms that are present in the environment and in the feces of all warm-blooded animals and humans. Coliform bacteria will not likely cause illness. However, their presence in drinking water indicates that disease-causing organisms (pathogens) could be in the water system. Most pathogens that can contaminate water supplies come from the feces of humans or animals. There are three different groups of coliform bacteria; each has a different level of risk. They are total coliform, fecal coliform, and E. coli which are all indicators of drinking water quality. Total coliform bacteria These are commonly found in the environment (e.g., soil or vegetation) and are generally harmless. Fecal coliform bacteria These are a sub-group of total coliform bacteria. They appear in great quantities in the intestines and feces of people and animals. The presence of fecal coliform in a drinking water sample often indicates recent fecal contamination, meaning that there is a greater risk that pathogens are present. E. coli This is a sub-group of the fecal coliform group. Most bacteria are harmless and are found in great quantities in the intestines of people and warm-blooded animals. Some strains, however, can cause illness. Source: Washington State Department of Health Advertisement Dr Matewele said: 'Listeria is another rare bacterium we were shocked to find on touchscreen machines as again this can be very contagious and a problem for those with a weak immune system.' Three quarters of the screens swabbed showed traces of the bacteria proteus, which can be found in human and animal faeces. Dr Matewele said: 'Proteus can be found in human and animal faeces. It is also widely distributed in soil. It can cause urinary tract infections and is also one of the hospital acquired infections where it may responsible for septicaemia. 'Klebsiella is also from the gut and mouth, they are associated with urinary tract infections, septicemia and diarrhoea. Some species can infect the respiratory tract resulting in pneumonia.' Dr Matewele added: 'Touchscreen technology is being used more and more in our daily lives but these results show people should not eat food straight after touching them, they are unhygienic and can spread disease. 'Someone can be very careful about their own hygiene throughout the day but it could all be undone by using a touchscreen machine once.' He added: 'These bacteria can be on touchscreen machines for days on end. A McDonald's spokesman said: 'Our self-order screens are cleaned frequently throughout the day. All of our restaurants also provide facilities for customers to wash their hands before eating.' The restaurants test were Oxford Circus, Holloway Road, Oxford Street, Kensington High Street, Seven Sisters Road and Bethnal Green in London, and Ramp and Pigeon Park in Birmingham. McDonald's started rolling out the touchscreen, often called self-service kiosks, at its US locations in 2015. By 2020, it plans to have most of its 14,000 US locations to have the touchscreens installed. In the UK, McDonald's says it is currently trialling the kiosks in some restaurants and will look to install more in other locations if the trial is successful. The technology was designed to increase efficiency in the restaurants, speeding up the ordering process and reducing potential human error. The opioid epidemic has consumed national attention by claiming more American lives in just one year than the entire Vietnam War. But that crisis has overshadowed another: soaring rates of methamphetamine overdoses. Amphetamine-related hospitalizations spiked by 245 percent between 2008 and 2016, according to a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Experts say the surge is flying 'off the radar' - even compared to opioids, which drove a comparatively mild 46 percent rise in hospitalizations. They add that while there are good replacement drugs for opioids, the same is not true for methamphetamine, which could increase overdose rates even further. A new study has found that amphetamine-related hospitalizations spiked by 245 percent between 2008 and 2016, but its being overshadowed by the opioid epidemic (file image) Amphetamines are stimulant drugs, meaning they speed up the messages that travel between the brain and the nervous system. Legally, forms of the drug are prescribed to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and narcolepsy, which is a chronic sleep disorder that causes overwhelming daytime drowsiness. Other types of amphetamines are illegally used to create and sell speed and methamphetamine. Methamphetamine boomed in popularity in the 1990s and early 2000s when it was made from pseudoephedrine a sinus decongestant found in medicines such as Sudafed. In 2005, Congress passed the Combat Methamphetamine Act, which banned the use of over-the-counter sales, required pharmacies to keep a record of all purchases made and limited the amount of pseudoephedrine a customer could buy to 7.5 grams in a 30-day period. It was around this time period that opioids began to take a stronghold. However, there is evidence of the drug's resurgence in emergency departments, according to Kaiser Health News. Patients arrive exhibiting erratic - sometimes violent - behavior, where they seem agitated and paranoid. And the cost to treat these hospitalizations is rising - from $436 million in 2003 to nearly $2.2 billion in 2015, according to the JAMA study. 'There is not a day that goes by that I don't see someone acutely intoxicated on methamphetamine,' Dr Tarak Trivedi, an emergency room physician in Los Angeles and Santa Clara counties, told Kaiser Health News. 'It's a huge problem, and it is 100 percent spilling over into the emergency room.' Police officers who encounter suspected users on the street often need to take them to the hospital first to treat skyrocketing heart rates and blood pressure before taking them to jail. In states including California, Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas, meth overdose rates have surpassed those of heroin. Addiction researcher Jane Maxwell told Kaiser Health News that the surge of deaths and hospitalizations 'is just totally off the radar. Nobody is paying attention.' Although meth has a lower overdose risk, it is purer and cheaper than heroin and easier for people to get their hands on. However, the long-term effects are devastating. Meth use can cause premature aging, anxiety, dental problems, weight loss and even organ failure. Opioid addiction can be treated with medications, such as methadone, to alleviate the symptoms of withdrawal and cravings. Unfortunately, the same is not true when it comes to treating meth addiction, the primary source of treatment being cognitive behavioral therapy. 'There are some promising pharmacologic therapies out there but we don't have replacement therapy that works nearly as well for meth as it does for opioids,' Dr Leo Beletsky, an associate professor of law and health sciences at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, told DailyMail.com. The study authors stressed the need to treat methamphetamine use via both pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic therapies. 'A function of our society to jump from one crisis to another,' said Dr Beletsky. 'We look at whats sensational whether it's meth in the 1990s or opioids now. It could be function of the media or our very short attention span but if we don't work to address the issue, it's only going to get worse.' Dementia tests commonly used by GPs may misdiagnose more than a third of older people. Family doctors are the first to see older people when their memory starts to fail, giving them a series of memory and language tests. But the three most popular tests, taken together, get it wrong 36 per cent of the time. A study of more than 800 people found the Mini-Mental State Examination, a series of word and number puzzles given to thousands of older people, can fail to identify whether highly educated people have dementia because they do better in the test. And a simple test in which someone names as many animals as they can in 60 seconds can mistake normal age-related memory problems for dementia. Dementia tests used by GPs may misdiagnose more than a third of older people (stock) These false positives and negatives matter because people who are wrongly told they may have dementia face weeks of worry. GP tests provide the first indication they might have dementia and people are then sent to hospital for a full investigation before being diagnosed. Older people who actually do have dementia could spend years without the treatment they need because of an inaccurate test result. The study, led by the University of Exeter, looked at the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), a word recall test called the Memory Impairment Screen (MIS) and the animal naming task. When 824 people aged 70 to 110 were asked to do them, just over 300 were misdiagnosed by at least one test. Professor Willie Hamilton, a GP and professor of diagnostics at the University of Exeter and a co-author of the study, said: We must have the best tests available to spot the people who need to be sent to the memory clinic. An early dementia test can help people get early treatment and arrange the finances and support they will need. In Britain, 850,000 people are living with dementia, with that number predicted to rise to two million by 2050. In the study group asked to test the three main assessments, almost two-thirds had dementia, while 35 per cent did not, based on full investigations including three-hour specialist assessments and interviews with family members. But the Mini-Mental State Examination, which asks people the date and time and where they are, as well as posing language puzzles, misdiagnosed more than one in five. Highly educated people with dementia were 23 per cent more likely to be told they did not have the condition. Across all the tests, people were almost five times more likely to be wrongly told they had dementia if they lived in a nursing home. The Memory Impairment Screen, which asks people to recall four words, with clues if they need them, was wrong 16 per cent of the time. If people were older or had depression, which can both cause memory problems, they were more likely to be wrongly told they had dementia. Across the three tests, up to 83 per cent of people given a false-positive had cognitive impairment - memory problems which fall short of dementia and may never turn into it. Dr Sara Imarisio, head of research at Alzheimers Research UK, said: This study highlights the limitations of certain brief cognitive tests of the kind that might be used by GPs when determining whether to refer a person to a specialist memory service for a more detailed dementia assessment. It is important to also note that GPs dont rely on these tests in isolation but will also take note of a range of other factors including a persons medical history, if friends or family members have observed changes in their behaviour, and how well they are able to go about their daily life. As many as four million smart meters may need to be ripped out and replaced, Money Mail can reveal. This is because it may not ever be possible for them to work properly when customers switch supplier. The Government has promised to launch a new system to fix the problem so that all customers can switch provider without issue, but it has been repeatedly delayed. Now, an official report has claimed that their plan may not work for all of the meters affected. Today, our special report tells you all you need to know about smart meters. Junked: As many as four million smart meters may need to be ripped out and replaced because they won't work with other suppliers What is the problem with smart meters? Under the Government-run scheme, suppliers have been ordered to offer all households and small businesses a smart meter by 2020. The gadgets show customers how much they are spending on energy by the minute and allow suppliers to collect readings remotely, putting an end to estimated bills. It is hoped they will encourage households to reduce their power consumption. But many people have said they are not comfortable giving suppliers access to so much information about when and how they use energy. Customers can refuse to have a smart meter. But if suppliers cannot prove they made every effort to contact households, they will be hit with hefty fines. Of the households who agree to get a new gadget, one of the biggest complaints is that their meter goes dumb when they switch supplier. This means that while the meters will still record how much power is being used, customers must go back to calling in their own readings and are no longer able to see how much energy they are using in pounds and pence. The problem is that there are two types of meters Smets1 and Smets2. The older version of the gadget, Smets1, typically stops working when customers change provider because different firms are using different technology which is not always compatible. This forces customers to choose between switching to a cheaper deal and losing the benefits of their smart meter, or remaining on a more expensive tariff. The more advanced Smets2, on the other hand, will allow you to switch supplier without any issues. Suppliers were supposed to begin installing the newer version in 2014, but a series of delays meant they did not begin until 2017. As a result, providers have ended up fitting a total of 12.5 million of the older style meters. The Government said in 2012 that it would create a new system to connect all Smets1 smart meters so customers no longer experience problems when they switch. It is thought the meters will be enrolled onto the system remotely so engineers do not have to visit peoples homes. But the new Smart Data Communications Company (Smart DCC) service has been repeatedly delayed. The latest start date is May 2019, but there is risk of further delay, according to an official report by the spending watchdog revealed last week. Flawed plan to solve the smart meter problem? All of the Smets1 meters installed have been split into three groups. The solution for the first of these three groups is currently being tested. But in the National Audit Office report it says that the Government has not yet decided if a third of the smart meters around 4.2 million will ever be enrolled onto this new vital system when it is launched. It is awaiting cost and feasibility information, it says. On top of this, ministers estimate that a further 2 per cent of those they do enrol on to the system (around 160,000) will not be successfully transferred. And this is considered to be an optimistic assumption, according to the report. It goes on to say: The Department [of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy] says it has high confidence in the delivery of the project. But, given the complexities involved and the fact that migrating Smets1 meters into the DCC is novel, it is not certain that the process will work as intended for all Smets1 meters. We consider that the Department should be careful not to suggest that successful enrolment and adoption of all Smets1 meters is inevitable. If the meters cannot be enrolled, it means that if customers want to move to a cheaper supplier their meter will stop working properly. And, according to the report, any meters in dumb mode must be replaced by the end of 2020. There are currently 943,000 smart meters operating in dumb mode There are currently 943,000 smart meters operating in dumb mode, according to the report. If customers stay with their existing supplier they will not need their meter replaced. And some providers technology is compatible, meaning the meter would continue to work in smart mode. However, the report says that many customers may choose to request a newer version of the meter in the future, regardless, because they have extra controls that may help people save money with the uptake of electric vehicles and heat pumps. Why is the smart meter revolution still mired in chaos? Problems: Nicola Dean says her smart meter doesn't work during the coldest months When it comes to smart meters, the nation is divided. Some people say they love being able to see how much energy they are using around the house and have saved money as a result. Others claim the new gadgets have caused nothing but problems and don't work properly. Many Money Mail readers say they simply have no interest in getting one. They have concerns about how their data will be used, whether their details will be safe from hackers, or they are happy with their traditional meter and don't like the way energy companies harass them with phone calls and letters about the new meters. They say suppliers sometimes even book in appointments to install smart meters without waiting for customers to respond. And increasing numbers of people are angry that many energy firms reserve their cheapest deals for customers with smart meters. It means those who say no to having one can end up paying hundreds of pounds more every year. Here, readers share their experiences with the new gadgets the Government wants us all to have by 2020. Broken and useless: the not-so-smart meters When 35-year-old Nicola Dean's meter was fitted by British Gas in 2015 it worked for the first year, but over the past two winters hasn't functioned during the coldest months. 'It just says there is no network and doesn't show energy use,' says Nicola, a hospital theatre practitioner from Hampshire. 'When it is bitterly cold, it's the one time you really want to know what you are spending to heat the house so you can budget. 'I've still got to go outside in the cold to do the readings,' she adds. A British Gas spokesman says: 'We are sorry Ms Dean had problems with her smart meter sending readings to us. This has now been resolved.' Retired probate clerk Jan Carter, 71, was keen to get a smart meter so she wouldn't have to poke around in a dark cupboard each month to read her meter. With the new gadget, her readings would be sent to her supplier automatically and she could relax in the knowledge that her bills would be accurate. But her hopes were dashed when it emerged the mobile phone signal at her home in Hope Cove, near Salcombe, Devon, was not strong enough to support a smart meter. Jan says her supplier, EDF Energy, had repeatedly assured her it would work perfectly well, so last year she booked an installation. But when the engineer tried to fit the meter, he couldn't connect it to the network. I'm no better off than I was before. A complete waste of time and money Now, the gadget that is supposed to be showing her how much power she is using is instead sitting on a shelf gathering dust and she still has to poke around in the cupboard to take her own readings. 'It's a bit of a shambles,' she says. 'I'm no better off than I was before. A complete waste of time and money.' An EDF spokesman says: 'While we understand this is frustrating for customers, network coverage is improving constantly and it is possible to reconnect meters remotely. As soon as we are able to connect the meter, we will do so.' Laura Jameson, 36, a credit analyst, had a similarly infuriating experience. She moved house four years ago and found a smart meter had already been installed by E.on, and she enjoyed keeping an eye on her energy usage. But when, a year or so later, she decided to move to a cheaper tariff with Scottish Power, the gadget stopped working and no longer showed her how much energy she was using minute-by-minute, so she put the useless gizmo away in a drawer. Last month, she switched back to E.ON and assumed it would start working again, but she was told the smart functionality wouldn't return. 'What's the point of it?' asks Laura, from Cheshire. 'Why go through with this expensive roll-out of smart meters that become redundant when you switch supplier? 'All this money is being spent on technology that's fundamentally flawed. All the wasted costs of installing these meters will likely be absorbed by consumers, adding to our ever-increasing bills.' A spokesman for E.on says: 'We're currently unable to re-establish communication with previous customers' smart meters, however this will be possible in the future.' Pestered non-stop to make the switch Pestered: Louise Baker says she was bombarded with text messages and calls pushing her to book an installation Discovering that EDF Energy offers its cheapest tariff to customers with smart meters, Louise Baker, 51, reluctantly agreed to have one fitted. Those who refuse pay an extra 97 a year for the next best deal. But Louise says she was also fed up with being bombarded with text messages and calls pushing her to book an installation. She adds that these continued even after she had agreed to a booking. 'I had text messages on October 5, 7, 22, 24, 27, 29 and then November 2, 4, 9, 11, 14, 16 and 18,' says Louise, a legal secretary from Somerset. 'I also had several calls and six emails.' Louise has an installation scheduled for December, but doesn't know whether or not to go ahead as she has found out the meter may not work properly with her solar panels. A spokesman for EDF says: 'We are sorry Ms Baker felt pressured into having a smart meter fitted. At no point did we tell Ms Baker she needed to have one fitted to be eligible for a cheaper tariff.' What do the people behind smart meters say? The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Stategy (BEIS) insists it is making good progress on a plan to enrol the final third of the Smets1 meters. Claire Perry, the BEIS minister, says: Millions have already chosen to have a smart meter and take control of their energy bills. Weve said everyone will be offered a smart meter by the end of 2020 to reap these benefits and we will meet that commitment. This world-leading upgrade to our national infrastructure is the cornerstone of our move to a smarter energy system of the future which will bring benefits to consumers and industry worth up to 40 billion. A Data Communications Company spokesman says: Smart DCC has built the secure network that carries smart meter data, linking almost every home with more than 60 licenced energy suppliers. Suppliers are installing second generation smart meters onto it at an ever-increasing rate up to 4,000 are being installed every day, connecting homes and small businesses. Robert Cheesewright, director of corporate affairs at Smart Energy GB, the body in charge of promoting the rollout, says: We know that delays to the rollout are frustrating for consumers. The Government has made it clear, if a consumer has a smart meter at home that is currently operating in traditional mode, its smart services will be restored and work with all energy suppliers by the end of the rollout. Households plagued by pushy letters Peter and Rosemary Wright, 69 and 68, have also been plagued by pushy correspondence about the meters. The couple, from Leicester, say they have no intention of getting one, but have been overwhelmed by letters about the gadgets from their electricity supplier, E.on. Peter, a retired ambulance driver, says: 'I must have had eight or nine letters and several phone calls it's all very heavy-handed. I got so annoyed I binned them. It felt like bullying, and in the end I told E.on to stop contacting me about it. If I hadn't known better, I would have been terrified and thought that smart meters were compulsory 'The wording of the letters suggested my current meter was soon going to be redundant. If I hadn't known better, I would have been terrified and thought that smart meters were compulsory.' The Wrights say they will not get a smart meter unless they are forced to because they are concerned about what energy suppliers will do with their data and the risk of the information falling into the wrong hands. 'Smart meters mean that your energy supply can be cut off at the press of a button, so what would happen if someone hacked our energy supplier and did this?' asks Peter. 'If it can happen to your bank account, it can happen to your energy supplier.' Stephen Hobden says he was annoyed at the pushy tactics of energy firms A spokesman for E.on says the company has not contacted Peter about smart meters since March. Stephen Hobden, 70, a retired undertaker from Stevenage, is similarly annoyed at the pushy tactics of energy firms. He says he received an email from his supplier, E.on, last month with the subject line: 'We need to change your meters.' The email went on to say: 'We have an obligation to change your electricity and gas meters to our self-reading smart meters as part of a Government-led nationwide upgrade programme.' Stephen, who lives in sheltered housing, says: 'I'm annoyed at the way energy firms are campaigning to get us to have smart meters. It is very pushy to say the least. 'I worry that other people will think it's compulsory because of the way suppliers are phrasing their letters. If someone received this email and didn't already know about smart meters, they would probably fall into the trap of thinking it was an obligation, rather than a choice. I'm perfectly happy with the way things work now.' A spokesman for E.on says the firm makes it clear to customers that smart meters are not compulsory. But these great-grandparents love their smart meter Great-grandparents Heather and Frank Philips estimate they are saving around 180 a year by monitoring the meter it even prompted an energy-efficient cooker However, great-grandparents Heather and Frank Philips have nothing but praise for the new gadgets. The couple, from Dartford, Kent, may be in their 80s, but that has not stopped them from getting to grips with the new technology. Frank, 85, a retired draughtsman, and Heather, 80, who was a stay-at-home mother, first got a smart meter from British Gas around 18 months ago. They estimate they are saving around 180 a year by monitoring the meter it even prompted them to buy an energy-efficient cooker when their oven needed replacing. The couple, who have eight grandchildren and six great-grandchildren, are very technology-savvy, also using smartphones and a computer. They say they jumped at the chance to find out how much they were spending minute-by-minute. 'It's quite fun to switch appliances on and off and see how much energy each one is using,' says Heather. 'Frank always wants to leave the lights on so our two rescue cats, Homer and Rusty, can find their way home at night, but I think it's ridiculous. Now we have switched to energy-saving lightbulbs so that he can do that without it costing us too much money. 'We are much more careful now to watch how much we are using, which really helps when you are older and your income is limited. 'I'm advising all my children and grandchildren to get smart meters, too. It has also been an absolute boon not to have to go outside to do the readings, or wait in for the meter man to come around.' money.mail@dailymail.co.uk Would you buy a Chinese car in the next two years? It's a question British motorists will soon have to ask themselves with the first Chinese brand arriving in the country in 2020. And industry insiders have predicted that more Chinese-made motors will be arriving in Europe soon, with the country building more cars than any other in recent years. Made in China: Bosses at Jaguar Land Rover and VW predict that models built for the Chinese market will soon be sold in Europe as the quality of vehicles improves in the Far East. From 2020, Britons will be able to buy Lynk & Co models, built by Geely motors In interviews with Auto Express, bosses at Jaguar Land Rover and Volkswagen have forecast models built for the Chinese market will be sold in Europe soon. China overtook the US in 2009 to become both the biggest car maker and market, selling 13.6million units that year and producing 13.8million passenger and commercial vehicles during those 12 months. Those figures have almost doubled since, with around 28.8million vehicles sold in the country last year - and now one in every four new cars assembled globally being made in China. Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) - which partners with US automaker General Motors and MG Motors in the UK - produced almost 7million cars alone in 2017. That is four times as many that were made in the UK in total. This incredible rate of growth could soon see Chinese-made motors filtering into our showrooms - especially those built by European brands specifically for the Far East market. In an interview with Auto Express, Jaguar Land Rover technical director Dr Wolfgang Zeibart said there was a 'very high chance' China could export its cars soon. 'The market is growing too fast for it to happen now, but in the future I can see it,' he said. 'Production costs are lower and so are the components, and the quality is very good.' The improved product is testament to the rapid growth of home-grown brands in the country, as well as increased production of models by recognised European brands. This is the best-selling car in China for the last few years. It's called the Wuling Hong Guang and it is a practical MPV for large families Two Volkswagen models made specifically for the Chinese market are in the top 10 best sellers in the country. This includes the Lavida (left) at number 3 and the Sagitar (right) at number 10 The best-selling model in China last year was the Wuling Hong Guang, with 533,950 registered last year. The top 10 most popular list also included two Volkswagens, a Toyota and one Nissan - as well a US-branded Buick. 10 best-selling cars in China in 2017 1. Wuling Hong Guang - 533,950 2. Haval H6 - 506,418 3. Volkswagen Lavida - 457,959 4. Buick Excelle - 416,990 5. Nissan Sylphy - 405,854 6. Geely Boyue (X7 Sport) 386,885 7. Baojun 510 - 363,949 8. Trumpchi GS4 - 335,467 9. Toyota Corolla - 333,485 10. Volkswagen Sagitar - 332,733 Source: China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) VW's sales and marketing boss, Jurgen Stackmann, told the popular car title: 'You will see cars from us in the next two years that will only be sold in China, but people elsewhere will also want them. 'The market size allows us to come up with larger sub-segmentation compared to regions like Europe, and we are looking at bringing cars from China into Europe.' MG Motors is currently the largest importer of Chinese-made cars into the UK, selling models like the MG3, MG GS and MG ZS. Some 4,441 MG models were registered last year, which was almost on par with Alfa Romeo. In two year's time, it will be joined by more Chinese cars in Britain, in the shape of Lynk & Co models that will be sold from 2020. This is a new brand owned by Chinese giant Geely, which is also the parent company of Volvo and Lotus. However, instead of importing models built at the 1.4billion headquarters in Zhangjakou, China, models sold in Europe will be made at Volvos plant in Ghent, Belgium. The 01 - a compact SUV that shares a platform with the award winning Volvo XC40, which is built in the same factory - will be the first to arrive. It will be followed by a smaller 02 crossover and the 03 saloon. MG sold just short of 5,000 new models last year, which was on par with Alfa Romeo The Lynk & Co 01 - based on the same platform as the Volvo XC40 - will soon be available in Europe The brand will also launch an 03 saloon car, seen here in concept form What do the best-selling cars in China look like? We've already seen the Wuling Hong Guang, the most-bought car in China last year, and the two Volkswagen models that feature in the top 10 - but what about the rest? Here are the cars selling like hotcakes - or Mandarin pancakes - in China: The Haval H6 is a roomy family 4x4 that would easily go undetected among the European SUVs currently dominating sales in the UK The Buick Excelle is available in China as both a saloon and hatchback. It's proving to be a popular choice Probably not the most fortunate of names for this one, but the Nissan Sylphy looks like a fairly practical family saloon. There's an electric version due to hit the market this year Geely is making use of the knowledge it has inherited from Volvo to make a range of decent SUVs, including the Boyue The Baojun 510 is a practical compact SUV that looks like a mix of a Ford EcoSport and Audi Q2. It only went on sale in China last year and managed to make it into the top 10 best sellers This is the manufacturer you're most likely to remember - Trumpchi. While the brand name is comedy, the GS4 is no laughing matter - it's a hugely popular family-size 4x4 Smart meters have become a Marmite option for millions. Some households delight in poring over every detail of their energy usage. Others would rather stick pins in their eyes than agree to a Big Brother device that stalks their power consumption. But, whatever your preference, the Government-sponsored rollout is indisputably a shambles. Last week, the spending watchdog revealed that plans to offer every household a smart meter by 2020 were doomed. Its language left no room for doubt the Government's original goal 'will not be met', said the report. Last week, the spending watchdog revealed that plans to offer every household a smart meter by 2020 were doomed The scheme has been plagued by delays and the technology is still not even close to being ready. Now, we have in people's homes millions of meters that stop working upon switching supplier and, as we reveal on page 35, there is no end in sight to this problem. The findings of the National Audit Office follow repeated calls from consumer groups such as Citizens Advice imploring for the deadline to be pushed back. Yet ministers refuse to see sense and admit that their plan is just not realistic. Indeed, energy minister Claire Perry has effectively ignored the report and said she 'didn't want to slow down'. Yet her insistence on rushing to meet the target is actually pushing up the cost of the scheme and, therefore, our bills. Ministers argue that if they move the goalposts, suppliers will underinvest in the scheme. It seems more like stubbornness. Forcing the scheme forward when officials knew the newer model of the meter was not ready was foolhardy. I'll certainly be waiting until my supplier offers the new version before getting one. And if you really want to watch the pennies this winter, consider technology such as Hive or Nest, which allows you to control your heating via your mobile phone. Probate fee fury while we're on the subject of Whitehall obstinacy, the Ministry of Justice needs to take its head out of the sand. Its decision to hike probate fees is an abuse of power and a sneaky attempt to levy a backdoor tax. Don't take my word for it. Every legal expert and consumer group we have spoken to has been horrified at the decision to increase the cost of obtaining probate essentially a simple rubber-stamping exercise from a flat 215 fee to as much as 6,000. A House of Lords committee has also attacked the move and urged ministers to reconsider. Bereaved families have a difficult enough time of it as it is. Britain's inheritance tax and probate system is so baffling that one in ten relatives is already forced to spend more than 100 hours sorting out the estate of their loved one, according to an official report. Introducing another layer of complication by hiking probate fees will only add to their already crushing burden. Fight goes on... Many of you have written recently to ask about Money Mail's Unlock Our Pensions campaign. You want to know if we plan to continue the fight for fairness pursued by my predecessor, Dan Hyde. Absolutely it is an utter disgrace that five million pensioners are locked into annuity contracts that give them small monthly payments of just a few pounds for life. A lump sum, meanwhile, could transform their lives, by allowing them to pay off debts, buy a car or carry out home improvements. So keep your letters coming and we will carry on our work behind the scenes. As soon as we have an update, you'll be the first to hear. Scam warning Money Mail reader George Smith sent me around 20 examples of scam emails this week. All of them appear to be offering discounts from legitimate retailers such as Argos, Amazon and Tesco but look closely and it is clear they are junk. 'Congratulations. Get your 50 Tesco gift card,' reads one. 'Complete our quick survey to see if you qualify,' it goes on. Never respond to emails asking for personal information. You don't know for what sinister purposes your data could be used. v.bischoff@dailymail.co.uk Glaxo boss Emma Walmsley said in March that she would put Horlicks and other nutrition brands up for sale Unilever has emerged as the front runner in the race to buy Glaxosmithklines Horlicks malt drinks business. The Anglo-Dutch consumer goods firm is understood to have pulled ahead of rivals after a last-minute, all-cash offer. Glaxo launched the bidding process in September, pitting some of the worlds biggest consumer goods giants against each other. Horlicks, which is being sold along with other nutrition businesses, is expected to fetch as much as 3billion. Until yesterday the Swiss giant Nestle was seen as a top contender, but it is believed to have been edged out by Unilever. Coca-Cola was another bidder but its interest reportedly petered out. Unilever is now understood to have entered exclusive talks with Glaxo. It had offered an all-share deal to Glaxo, compared to an all-cash offer from rival Nestle. But when the sale looked like it could go in Nestles favour Unilever swooped in with a bigger cash offer, according to CNBC. If Unilever is successful, the deal would boost its presence in the rapidly growing Indian market where Horlicks is a national favourite. Glaxo and Unilever last night declined to comment. Emma Walmsley, the chief executive of pharmaceuticals giant Glaxo, said in March that she would put Horlicks and other nutrition brands up for sale, saying they no longer fitted in with the rest of the business. The nutrition brands are held within an Indian-listed division in which the British drug maker has a 72.5 per cent stake. That holding was worth around 2.4billion yesterday. A bid from Unilever or any other buyer is expected to add a premium to that figure. Emma Walmsley's revamp of drug giant Emma Walmsley, 49, took over from Sir Andrew Witty in 2017 After years of underperformance, she promised to take it back to producing blockbuster drugs She also announced the Horlicks drinks business would be sold Hundreds of jobs were axed and a planned factory in Cumbria scrapped A brutal reshuffle in the top ranks saw Walmsley replace nearly half of her executives in less than a year She has hired a series of high-flyers, including Astrazeneca executive Luke Miels, Walmart tech chief Karenann Terrell and Silicon Valley veteran Hal Barron The mother-of-four has said becoming more efficient and innovative is key to Glaxos success London-listed Glaxos shares closed 1.4 per cent, or 21.8p, higher at 1585.8p, as investors sensed a deal was close. John Rountree, managing partner of pharmaceuticals consultancy Novasecta, said a sale would boost Glaxos war chest for acquisitions as it seeks to boost its drugs pipeline. Walmsley has made restoring the company to its former glory in pharmaceuticals her priority. She has not ruled out acquisitions to bolster key areas where it is seen to have fallen behind, such as cancer treatments. But with the 49-year-old also vowing to protect the dividend, Rountree said asset sales were a useful way to release cash. He added: The sale of Horlicks makes a lot of sense for all the parties. The brand has been sitting in the portfolio for a while and it really doesnt fit with where Glaxo is going. It had Ribena and Lucozade as well and it sold those. This is a company that does provide, and always has provided, a very good dividend for its shareholders it amounts to about $5billion [3.9billion] a year. So if you are investing in innovation you have to stock up the balance sheet to pay for that. Horlicks, made from wheat, milk and malted barley and sold in powdered form, is hugely popular in India, where it is given to children before school. It was invented in 1873 by Victorian businessmen William and James Horlick. The drink was brought to India by Indian soldiers who fought alongside the British in the First World War. Nestle is said to have told Glaxo several times privately that it was interested in buying Horlicks. A spokesman said that it would not comment on speculation Donald Trump's tax cuts have supported household spending and investment GOING UP The US economy grew at an annual rate of 3.5 per cent in the third quarter, having expanded by 4.2 per centin the second quarter, bolstered by Donald Trumps tax cuts which have supported household spending and investment. DOORSTEP WINDFALL Hundreds of employees at doorstep lender Morses Club are in line for a windfall worth 1,000. A share incentive scheme will see 428 staff awarded the equivalent of 3.25 per cent of their salary in shares, based on a price of 141.4p. LOSSES DOUBLE Losses at fashion retailer All Saints doubled last year despite strong sales of its leather jackets and chunky boots. The firm, based in east London, posted losses of 34.3million in the year to February 3, compared with 16.9million a year earlier. All Saints blamed the losses on 9.8million in exceptional costs relating to the overhaul of its sourcing division. HOUSE BOOM Profits at UK builder Telford Homes jumped by 16.1 per cent to 10million in the six months to September 30, boosted by the Governments Help To Buy scheme and a lack of supply in London. PROFIT HOPE French insurer Axa expects profits to rise after buying Bermuda rival XL for 11.7billion this year. It also said more cash will be paid to investors in dividends. LEGAL BONANZA An extra 30,000 jobs were created in British legal services last year an 8.8 per cent rise in employment across the industry. The 100 biggest firms generated 24.2billion, up 10 per cent, says lobby group The City UK. The UK trade surplus in legal services stood at 4.4billion. DEADLINE DAY Banks have until tomorrow to apply for cash from a 775million fund to boost competition among business lenders. The money is being handed out by RBS to give its competitors a boost, as part of a deal when it was bailed out in 2008. WATCHDOG WARNS Customers of insurance broker Larksway are being warned their policies are at risk. The Financial Conduct Authority has stopped it providing services after concerns over its behaviour. SERVICES FEAR Confidence in the services sector dropped sharply in the three months to November, according to the CBI, as companies await a decision on Prime Minister Theresa Mays Brexit deal. In services such as accountancy, the fall was the sharpest for two years. Spying fears: New Zealand has barred China's Huawei from upgrading its mobile networks New Zealand has become the latest British ally to bar China's Huawei from upgrading its mobile networks over spying fears. Its intelligence service said using Huawei's equipment in new 5G services would pose a 'significant security risk'. The US and Australia have already banned Huawei from building the high-tech networks, dealing a major blow to the company's international ambitions, and the move by New Zealand will pile pressure on British authorities to do the same. The concerns about Huawei centre on laws in China which force companies to hand over data when demanded by security services. Ren Zhengfei, its founder, is also a former People's Liberation Army officer. Huawei rejects claims businesses in Western countries could be spied on. Dr John Hemmings, an Asia expert at the London-based Henry Jackson Society, said: 'Chinese legislation makes the question of whether or not Huawei co-operates with Chinese intelligence a question of when, not if.' China has completed the first test flight for the mass-produced model of drone bomber CH-5, according to state media. The CH-5 unmanned aerial vehicle, also known as Rainbow-5, was unveiled last year and was said to be China's largest and most powerful drone bomber. The aircraft can carry 16 missiles and fly up to 60 hours without refuelling, reaching a maximum range of 10,000 kilometres (6,213 miles). CH-5, China's largest drone bomber, has entered its mass production stage, according to Chinese state media. Pictured, the unmanned aircraft is displayed at the China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition last November The aircraft can carry 16 missiles and has a maximum range of 10,000 kilometres (6,213 miles). The CH-5 was unveiled last November in Shenzhen (pictured) The test flight took place on July 14 at an airport in northern China's Hubei Province, according to Xinhua News Agency. CH-5 DRONE BOMBER: WHAT WE KNOW Wingspan: 21 meters (69 feet) Maximum take-off load: 3,300 kilograms (7,275 pounds) Flight time: 60 hours Maximum range: 10,000 kilometres (6,213 miles) Maximum external load: 1,000 kilograms (2,204 pounds) Advertisement China Central Television Station reported that the success of the trial fight meant CH-5 had entered into its mass production stage. The mass-produced model has a wingspan of 21 meters (69 feet) and a maximum external load of 1,000 kilograms (2,204 pounds), said the report. 'Because of its external load, its reconnaissance and attacking capabilities has made a qualitative leap compared to the previous models,' Ou Zhongming, the General Director of the Rainbow Drone Project, told China Central Television Station. The plane's maximum take-off load is 3,300 kilograms (7,275 pounds). A redundancy system has been fitted into its flight control, which would enable the drone to carry on with its task even if one component breaks down, Mr Ou added. The CH-5 is also capable of carrying high-definition radar systems which would allow the aircraft to conduct surveys at different altitudes. The mass-production model of CH-5 successfully completed a test flight on July 14 in Hebei, northern China. The plane is said to be the Chinese equivalent to the American military drone, General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper. Pictured, the aircraft was displayed in Shenzhen last year Chinese media claimed that CH-5 'is much more advanced' than MQ-9 Reaper (pictured) CH-5 is developed and manufactured by the China Academy of Aerospace Aerodynamics. It's the latest member of the country's Rainbow Drone Project. When the CH-5 debuted last autumn at the China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, Chinese media said it was the country's equivalent to the American military drone, General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper. Global Times, a Chinese state-owned newspaper, claimed that CH-5 'is much more advanced' than MQ-9 Reaper. CH-5 is said to be twice as big as China's last drone CH-4 and can carry 2.5 times more external load than CH-4. The head engineer, Shi Wen, said in a previous interview with Global Times that the flight time of CH-5 would be expanded up to 120 hours in the future. The original CH-5 made its maiden flight in August 2015 in China's Gansu Province. It's well-known that ancient Europeans loved drinking wine, but a recent discovery suggests that the ancient Chinese enjoyed the tipple just as much. Archaeologists in China have found vintage wine thought to be more than 2,000 years old in a commoner's tomb. The liquid, measuring 300 millilitres, proves that ordinary people in the Qin Dynasty (221-207BC) enjoyed drinking alcohol, according to researchers. Chinese archaeologists have discovered a bronze vessel (middle) which contained alcohol The vintage tipple (right) is thought to be more than 2,000 years old and was found inside the perfectly sealed container (left) in a commoner's tomb from the Qin Dynasty (206BC-220AD) The ancient alcohol was discovered inside a bronze vessel by archaeologists from the Archaeological Research Institute of Shaanxi Province. From May, 2017, to January, 2018, researchers excavated a group of 56 ancient tombs for a new subway project in the Xixian New District in Shaanxi Province. The bronze vessel was found during the process and is thought to date back to Qin Dynasty, the first power-centralised dynasty on the Chinese history. Experts from the institute said the alcohol, now milky yellow, was a type of fermented alcoholic beverage. The container, called Zhong, appeared similar to those that were normally used during a sacrifice ceremony in ancient China. The institute called the discovery a 'surprise'. Apparently, the alcohol survived until today because the container had been sealed well. The vessel was covered by tough sack cloth which was tied with plant vines. Researchers have also unearthed a sharp sword (left) thought to date back nearly 3,000 years, as well as a turtle shell (right) believed to be used by a religious official for divination practices The vintage tipple was discovered in the Xixian New District in Shaanxi Province, China Among the 56 ancient tombs that were excavated, 49 were thought to have been built between the Warring States Period (475-221BC) and the Qin Dynasty, one from the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD) and six from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1914). More than 260 relics were unearthed in all of the tombs. Apart from the vintage tipple, archaeologists discovered an ancient sword believed to be nearly 3,000 years old. The 60cm-long (23in-long) blade, found in another tomb, was sharp and appeared to be well worn. More interestingly, archaeologists also found in a turtle shell in a smaller tomb. The shell, measuring 14cm (5.5in) long and 10cm (3.9in) wide, was believed to have been used by a local religious official for the purpose of divination. At least two people have been killed in Iran and six injured as deadly anti-regime protests entered a second day. Pictures shared on social media show upturned and burnt out cars and wounded activists amid violent scenes in the southern city of Kazerun. Witnesses say the streets looked 'war-torn' as hand-to-hand battles broke out between protesters 'chanting subversive slogans' and regime riot police. It comes just months after Iran's feared Revolutionary Guards declared an end to 'sedition' after a period of unrest led to 25 deaths and hundreds of arrests. At least two people have been killed in Iran and six injured as deadly anti-regime protests entered a second day Pictures shared on social media show upturned and burnt out cars and wounded activists amid violent scenes in the southern city of Kazerun Activists have posted pictures of crowds protesting in the southern Iranian city of Kazerun Iranian opposition group the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said anti-riot forces had been dispatched from Shiraz to quell the latest protest. Residents of Kazerun have held sporadic demonstrations for weeks against a government decision to establish a administrative division in the region. This week's unrest was the first reported unrest in the town in two weeks after a decision to shelve the reform initiative, Fars news agency said. According to the NCRI, a network of activists in the country described the city as being 'tense again' with streets leading to the main Kheyrat Square surrounded by security forces and anti-riot guards. Witnesses say the streets looked 'war-torn' as hand-to-hand battles broke out between protesters 'chanting subversive slogans' and regime riot police Iranian opposition group the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said anti-riot forces had been dispatched from Shiraz to quell the latest protest Protesters are said to have torched a regime police trailer, four police vehicles and piles of tyres with smoke filling the air and leaving the area looking 'war-torn'. Crowds gathered outside a police station demanding the release of arrested protesters and reportedly chanted 'Beware of the day we get arms,' they reportedly chanted.' In keeping with the unrest over December and January, restrictions have been placed on the use of mobile phones and Internet. Boris Johnson today insisted 'not a day goes by' when the government was not working to get Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe out of jail in Iran. The Foreign Secretary said everything possible was being done to secure the release of the British mother - as it emerged she is facing fresh charges of spreading propaganda against the regime in Tehran. The 39-year-old, from London, was arrested while on holiday with her daughter Gabriella in 2016, and is serving a five-year prison sentence after being convicted of spying charges. Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a dual British-Iranian citizen, was taken to court on Saturday and accused of spreading propaganda against Tehran's hardline Islamist regime. If she is convicted, the new charges could add another 16 years on her prison sentence. Charged: Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 39, who is already serving five years in Iranian jail for 'spying', has been charged with spreading anti-government propaganda Her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, said the mother-of-one had again denied committing any crime, and appealed for clemency and freedom so that she might be able to have a second child. She told the court: 'This year I am turning 40. I might only have a slim chance.' But Mr Ratcliffe said: 'She was told by Judge Salavati to expect that she will be convicted.' Speaking on a visit to Buenos Aires, Mr Johnson said:' I can tell you absolutely sincerely that there is not a day that goes by in which we are not working in the Foreign Office on every single one of the incredibly sad consular cases that we have - and particularly the difficult cases we have in Iran. 'But those cases do not benefit from public discussion.' Asked if Mr Ratcliffe could feel reassured by the attention the Foreign Office was giving to his wife's case, Mr Johnson replied: 'He really can, and to be fair I don't think he would deny that.' Last week, Mr Ratcliffe said his wife had been forewarned of the new charges, which could add 16 years to her sentence. He said she had told him she had 'no clue why they have started all this nonsense again' in a 5.30am phone call on May 14. Imprisoned: Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, pictured with her husband Richard and daughter Gabriella, is in prison in Iran on widely-questioned spying charges Fears: If Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, is convicted, the new charges could add another 16 years on her prison sentence, her husband says 'Please take me out of this, please,' he quoted her as saying. 'My parents have had enough. I want my daughter back. She needs both of us. So tell the world. Enough of this nonsense.' The couple's daughter Gabriella is seen wearing a pinafore made by Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe from the wool left behind by released prisoners Mr Ratcliffe says his wife's time in Tehran's Evin prison, which has included a period in solitary confinement, has left her with mental and physical health problems. The Free Nazanin Campaign said that on Sunday Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been able to telephone the British ambassador to Iran for the first time in more than two years. It said: 'She updated him on her case and situation, and requested that he try to visit. She also asked him to issue a formal diplomatic note protesting against the new charges and invented case against her. 'Nazanin discussed both with the judge and the ambassador a request for her to be released on furlough (temporary release) for Gabriella's birthday next month.' Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested during a visit to her home country to introduce her baby daughter Gabriella to her parents. Mr Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who works for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, is serving a five-year prison sentence over allegations, which she denies, of plotting to overthrow the Tehran government. She said in a statement released through the campaign to free her: 'Sometimes when I come back from the visit with Gabriella, after saying goodbye to her, I feel like I cannot live without her, I want to go back and hold her. Free Nazanin: Supporters hold a photo of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe during a vigil for British-Iranian mother outside the Iranian Embassy last year Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, pictured left on a visit to Argentina yesterday, said 'not a day goes by' when efforts were not made on behalf of Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe and other prisoners 'She kisses me so hard. It is hard to say goodbye to her. She blows kisses all the way as she goes up the stairs, and everyone stands there watching. 'After the news of a new court case again, yesterday was one of those days. I kept thinking, how did I survive without her for 26 months?' Mr Ratcliffe said: 'The UK needs to do better by British Iranians at the moment it is failing to protect them. 'UK policy is not making it safe for British citizens. Iranian policy is not making it safe for Iranian citizens.' 'We hope the Foreign Secretary visits Iran as soon as possible, for the safety of all British citizens. We hope this time a way can be found for him not to return again empty-handed.' Last week, Prime Minister Theresa May made a fresh appeal for Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe and other dual UK nationals in a phone call with counterpart Hassan Rouhani. She said the prisoners should be freed 'on humanitarian grounds'. Downing Street said Mrs May had 'raised the issue of consular cases relating to dual nationals currently held on charges in Iran' during her call with Mr Rouhani. She called for further progress to be made so individuals could be released on humanitarian grounds'. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday that the United States is prepared to level 'the strongest sanctions in history' on Iran if the Islamic nation's government does not reverse course on its nuclear ambitions. America's goal is to 'strangle' Iran's 'economic capacity to do harm,' he said, but President Donald Trump is willing to call off the dogs if the rogue nation turns over a new leaf on its own. 'We will apply unprecedented financial pressure on the Iranian regime. The leaders in Tehran will have no doubt about our seriousness,' Pompeo said. 'The sting of sanctions will be painful if the regime doesn't change.' 'These will indeed end up being the strongest sanctions in history when we are complete,' he warned. Pompeo outlined the rough contours of an uncompromising agreement that he said would allow Tehran to escape an economic chokehold that began to loosen with the adoption of an Obama-era deal that Trump withdrew from on May 8. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo threatened 'the strongest sanctions in history' on Monday, to 'strangle' Iran's terror-funding capacity, if Tehran doesn't end its nuke program permanently Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei presides over a regime that the Trump administration credits with outmaneuvering Barack Obama and John Kerry, getting the best of a 2015 deal that allowed Tehran to press 'pause' on its nuclear weapons program while changing nothing of significance Pompeo said the administration's preference would be to negotiate a binding treaty that would be submitted to Congress for ratification. But getting there, he warned, would require Iran's mullahs to walk away from a long list of activities that the U.S. considers deal-breakers. 'We didn't create the list. They did,' Pompeo declared, after rattling off a collection of demands. He promised that resistance from Iran 'will be met with steely resolve' from Trump. Central to the U.S. wish-list is the requirement that Iran must disclose everything about its nuclear weapons development program to the International Atomic Energy Agency 'and permanently and verifiably abandon it in perpetuity.' The IAEA, he said, must have 'unqualified access to all sites throughout the country.' The 2015 multinational deal allowed Tehran to press 'pause' on its development, resuming it a decade later. It also placed scant restrictions on Iran's ballistic missile program and did little to address its support for terrorism in the region. Trump called it a 'horrible, one-sided deal' with a built-in sunset date. Pompeo's demands, by comparison, are permanent. Included in his prohibitions are enrichment of uranium, 'reprocessing' of plutonium from fuel rods, and produciton of heavy water. Pompeo's 12-point list of 'basic requirements' also includes the release of U.S. citizens; and end to ballistic missile proliferation; cancelation of all support for Hizbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad; and an end to cooperation with Houthi militias in Yemen. He also conditioned the avoidance of future sanctions on Iran's willingness to end its support for the Taliban, cease harboring senior al-Qaeda leaders and end its persistent threats to destroy Israel. Pompeo singled out Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani (left), commander of the Quds Force within Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as a target of sanctions, saying the U.S. aimed to 'strangle' his ability to threaten Israel and cause havoc in the region Pompeo described previous U.S. and international sanctions relief as a boon to Iranian Quds Forces commander Qasem Soleimani, allowing him to fund 'malign activities' that destabilize the Middle East. And he said the U.S. is prepared to end all economic sanctions, reestablish diplomatic relations and support the modernization of Iran's economy but only if the oil- and terror-rich nation changes course dramatically. France, Germany and the United Kingdom are attempting to keep the Obama nuclear deal alive without the United States' involvement, largely because of the economic advantage of leaving Iran open for investment and commerce. The secretary of state said that U.S. firms, too, were chomping at the bit for access to the 'huge market.' 'But everyone's going to have to participate in this,' he said, tut-tutting Europe. 'Every country's going to have to understand that we cannot continue to create wealth for Qasem Soleimani.' 'That's what this is at the end of the day, this money has flowed to him. The economics have permitted them to run roughshod over the Middle East. Our effort is to strangle his economic capacity to do harm to the Middle East and to the world.' A British mother locked up in Iran amid claims she is a spy has pleaded with a judge to free her so she can have a second child 'before it is too late'. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 39, from London, was arrested in Iran with daughter Gabriella in 2016 and is currently serving a five-year sentence. But on Saturday she was taken back to court and accused of spreading propaganda against Iran's Islamist regime, which could see her jailed for another 16 years. Charged: Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 39, who is already serving five years in Iranian jail for 'spying', has been charged with spreading anti-government propaganda Her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, said the dual British-Iranian citizen had again denied committing any crime, and appealed for clemency and freedom so that she might be able to have a second child. She told the court: 'This year I am turning 40. I might only have a slim chance.' Speaking to Sky News, she added: 'There is something called clemency. Give me that for the sake of my baby. She hasn't seen her father for over two years now. 'I would ask the judge today to close this new case and give me parole, so that I can go home and have another baby and have a normal life.' But Mr Ratcliffe said: 'She was told by Judge Salavati to expect that she will be convicted.' He said she had told him she had 'no clue why they have started all this nonsense again' in a 5.30am phone call on May 14. 'Please take me out of this, please,' he quoted her as saying. 'My parents have had enough. I want my daughter back. She needs both of us. So tell the world. Enough of this nonsense.' Mr Ratcliffe says his wife's time in Tehran's Evin prison, which has included a period in solitary confinement, has left her with mental and physical health problems. Speaking on a visit to Buenos Aires, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said:' I can tell you absolutely sincerely that there is not a day that goes by in which we are not working in the Foreign Office on every single one of the incredibly sad consular cases that we have - and particularly the difficult cases we have in Iran. Imprisoned: Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, pictured with her husband Richard and daughter Gabriella, is in prison in Iran on widely-questioned spying charges Fears: If Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, is convicted, the new charges could add another 16 years on her prison sentence, her husband says 'But those cases do not benefit from public discussion.' Asked if Mr Ratcliffe could feel reassured by the attention the Foreign Office was giving to his wife's case, Mr Johnson replied: 'He really can, and to be fair I don't think he would deny that.' The couple's daughter Gabriella is seen wearing a pinafore made by Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe from the wool left behind by released prisoners The Free Nazanin Campaign said that on Sunday Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been able to telephone the British ambassador to Iran for the first time in more than two years. It said: 'She updated him on her case and situation, and requested that he try to visit. She also asked him to issue a formal diplomatic note protesting against the new charges and invented case against her. 'Nazanin discussed both with the judge and the ambassador a request for her to be released on furlough (temporary release) for Gabriella's birthday next month.' Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested during a visit to her home country to introduce her baby daughter Gabriella to her parents. Mr Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who works for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, is serving a five-year prison sentence over allegations, which she denies, of plotting to overthrow the Tehran government. She said in a statement released through the campaign to free her: 'Sometimes when I come back from the visit with Gabriella, after saying goodbye to her, I feel like I cannot live without her, I want to go back and hold her. Free Nazanin: Supporters hold a photo of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe during a vigil for British-Iranian mother outside the Iranian Embassy last year Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, pictured left on a visit to Argentina yesterday, said 'not a day goes by' when efforts were not made on behalf of Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe and other prisoners 'She kisses me so hard. It is hard to say goodbye to her. She blows kisses all the way as she goes up the stairs, and everyone stands there watching. 'After the news of a new court case again, yesterday was one of those days. I kept thinking, how did I survive without her for 26 months?' Mr Ratcliffe said: 'The UK needs to do better by British Iranians at the moment it is failing to protect them. 'UK policy is not making it safe for British citizens. Iranian policy is not making it safe for Iranian citizens.' 'We hope the Foreign Secretary visits Iran as soon as possible, for the safety of all British citizens. We hope this time a way can be found for him not to return again empty-handed.' Last week, Prime Minister Theresa May made a fresh appeal for Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe and other dual UK nationals in a phone call with counterpart Hassan Rouhani. She said the prisoners should be freed 'on humanitarian grounds'. Downing Street said Mrs May had 'raised the issue of consular cases relating to dual nationals currently held on charges in Iran' during her call with Mr Rouhani. She called for further progress to be made so individuals could be released on humanitarian grounds'. A senior Iranian military commander poured scorn on U.S. threats to tighten sanctions saying the Islamic Republic's people would respond by punching U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the mouth. Pompeo said on Monday Washington would impose new penalties if Tehran did not make sweeping changes, including dropping its nuclear program and pulling out of the Syrian civil war. Two weeks after President Donald Trump pulled out of an international nuclear deal with Iran, his administration has threatened to impose 'the strongest sanctions in history,' setting Washington and Tehran further on a course of confrontation. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the US impose will new penalties if Tehran did not make sweeping changes, including dropping its nuclear program and pulling out of the Syrian war 'The people of Iran should stand united in the face of this and they will deliver a strong punch to the mouth of the American Secretary of State and anyone who backs them,' said Ismail Kowsari according to ILNA. 'Who are you and America to tell us to limit the range of ballistic missiles? 'History has shown that with the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, America is the top criminal with regard to missiles,' he added. Qassem Soleimani, the head of the branch of the Revolutionary Guards that carries out operations outside Iran's borders, was singled out by Pompeo as a top troublemaker in the Middle East. Kowsari, deputy commander of the Sarollah Revolutionary Guards base in Tehran said, said that the Iranian people back Soleimani. 'Soleimani is not a single person. The great people of Iran support him,' Kowsari said. Ismail Kowsari said history has shown America is a 'top criminal' and Iranian people will ' deliver a 'strong punch to the mouth of the American Secretary of State' Separately, Iran's government spokesman said that the plan outlined by Pompeo would exacerbate the public's hostility to the United States. 'Do the Americans think that the silk glove that they've taken out and the iron hand that they've extended to the people, a hand that's backed by Israel and the [Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization], will make Iranian people think that America wants democracy?' Mohammad Baqer Nobakht said on Tuesday, according to state media. The Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) is an exiled Iranian armed opposition group which has called for the overthrow of the Iranian government for decades. John Bolton, the U.S. national security advisor, has been a supporter of the MKO, which the Iranian government sees as a terrorist group. More than 11 million people have been blocked from taking the train or plane in China because they were regarded as untrustworthy by the society. The ban has been imposed as a punishment after the individuals apparently performed poorly according to a social credit system China is building. The social system gives citizens scores based on their daily behaviour, and this could range from their bank credit to their social media activities. Over four million people in China have been banned from using high-speed trains (file photo) They have to opt for the slow trains as a punishment for their bad social credit (file photo) In short, everyone is expected to behave according to the social norms and rules deemed acceptable by the ruling Communist Party; otherwise restrictions would be imposed on their daily lives, such as choosing their means of transport. With a tagline of 'once discredited, everywhere restricted', it has vowed to punish unreliable citizens in as many ways as possible. As of the end of April, a total of 11.14 million Chinese people have been blacklisted from buying flight tickets and 4.25 million have been banned from buying high-speed train tickets - instead they would have to opt for the slow trains. The figures were announced last week by China's National Development and Reform Commission during a briefing on the development of the country's social credit system. Meng Wei, the spokesperson of the Commission, said the reward and punishment from the social credit system were gradually expanding. In addition, 11.14 million Chinese people have been blacklisted from flying (file photo) While the punishment was given examples, the reward was not specified. China plans to complete building the national social credit system by 2020 after having started out in 2014. It's currently being rolled out in 12 trial cities, including populous provincial capitals like Hangzhou, Nanjing, Chengdu and Suzhou. While the citizens financial credit would be supervised by banks, their online behaviour is due to be tracked by China's main technology companies, such as Tencent and Alibaba which owns substantial amount of personal data through their social media apps and e-commerce websites. Once built, the national system could determine how easy a citizen could rent a flat, buy travel tickets or pay for a cup of tea. So far, one of the most popular social credit raters is an app called Sesame Credit. Sesame Credit gives users a three digit score based on their purchasing and spending habits The app, developed by a financial firm affiliated to Alibaba, is one of the eight organisations approved by China's central bank to provide private credit scoring. It gives the user a three digit score ranging from 350 to 950 - the higher the better - by evaluating their purchasing and spending habits through the data owned by Alibaba. A good score means that the owner could potentially book hotel rooms without paying deposit or being allowed to use self-service vending machines. Nearly 300 million people have used Sesame Credit, according to latest statistics. However, critics have voiced concerns over China's social credit system, claiming it's a way for the government to invade citizens' privacy and restrict their freedom. Cheng Xiaonong, a US-based Chinese economist, told Radio Free Asia that banning people from travelling in a certain way is a 'misuse' of the social credit system. Cheng said if a person has behaved unreasonable on a plane, the airline could blacklist him or her in the future; but to restrict that person solely based on a low social score is not reasonable. And according to Human Rights Watch, a Chinese lawyer named Li Xiaolin was barred from buying a plane ticket in 2016 because a court had found his apology to be 'insincere'. Commenting on the case, the non-profit human rights organisation said: 'Chinese government authorities clearly hope to create a reality in which bureaucratic pettiness could significantly limit people's rights.' Although China hopes its social credit system could be be implemented in 2020, it remains unclear who would manage the system and how could citizens dispute scores. An image grab taken from the Syrian TV channel, Al-Ekhbariya Al-Souriya, on April 30, 2018 allegedly shows the scene of missile attacks targeting central Syria the previous night Missile strikes on central Syria killed 26 pro-regime fighters, most of them Iranians in a raid that bore the hallmarks of Tehran's arch-foe Israel. The Syrian regime, which denounced a 'fresh aggression' after the strikes, meanwhile continued to flush out armed groups from the capital with more deals to transfer fighters to the country's north. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, missile strikes hit two military targets in Aleppo and Hama provinces. The strike on Hama province hit a base known as the 47th Brigade where pro-regime fighters are stationed. Both hits destroyed surface-to-surface missiles, the monitor said. 'At least 26 fighters were killed, including four Syrians,' in the Hama strike, said Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Britain-based monitoring organiZation. 'The others are foreign fighters, a vast majority of them Iranians,' he told AFP. 'Given the nature of the target, it is likely to have been an Israeli strike.' Israeli Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz told army radio that he was 'not aware' of the latest strikes. But, he said, 'all the violence and instability in Syria is the result of Iran's attempts to establish a military presence there. Israel will not allow the opening of a northern front in Syria.' Israeli media reported that the security cabinet was due to hold an emergency session. The latest strikes came amid heightened tensions in Syria after Damascus and its ally Iran accused Israel on April 9 of conducting deadly strikes against a military base in the centre of the country. At least 14 soldiers, including seven Iranians, were killed in the strike on a military base in Homs province. Days later, on April 14, the United States, France and Britain bombarded several Syrian regime military positions in response to a suspected chemical attack on the rebel stronghold of Douma which killed dozens, according to rescue services. Syria remains technically at war with neighbouring Israel, which is concerned at the growing presence of Iranian forces and those of Tehran's Lebanese ally Hezbollah on Syrian territory. Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman vowed in an interview to strike at any attempt by Iran to establish a 'military foothold' in Syria. Iran has forces deployed in Syria to support the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, as well as supervising the involvement of several Shiite militia groups it sponsors, some of them from other countries such as Iraq or Afghanistan. There was no immediate comment from Tehran on the strikes, but the reformist-linked ILNA news agency quoted a security official who did not deny the strike and said any reports on the military situation in Syria should come from Damascus. 'The Syrians must announce the statistics as they are responsible. We are present in this country at the request of the government of Syria,' said Hossein Naghavi Hosseini, spokesman for parliamentary national security and foreign policy commission. The Syrian government has focused its efforts in 2018 on securing the capital Damascus, the heart of which was spared the worst of the seven-year-old conflict but was long surrounded by rebel-held pockets. Backed by massive Russian military support, the regime took full control of the Eastern Ghouta enclave. The sprawling semi-rural area east of Damascus had been home to thousands of armed Islamist and jihadist fighters, who were besieged for years but sporadically fired rockets and mortar rounds on the capital. Pro-regime forces are now battling jihadists from the Islamic State group and other armed groups in southern neighbourhoods of Damascus. After days of air strikes and heavy fighting, state media reported that those areas would be evacuated under deals similar to those that emptied other enclaves around Damascus in recent weeks. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned German Chancellor Angela Merkel today that Iranian meddling in the Middle East could touch off massive new refugee flows to Europe, as they clashed about the future of the nuclear deal with Tehran. At the start of a three-day European tour dominated by strategic differences on Iran, Netanyahu charged that Tehran has been able to bankroll a growing military presence in countries such as Syria and Yemen because sanctions had been lifted in exchange for its halt in nuclear enrichment activities. Iran wants to "basically conduct a religious campaign in largely Sunni Syria but try to convert Sunnis," he said at a joint press conference with Merkel. "This will inflame another religious war -- this time a religious war inside Syria and the consequences will be many, many more refugees and you know where exactly they will come," he said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began a three-day European tour in Berlin, meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel More than one million asylum seekers, with Syrians making up the biggest group, arrived in Germany since 2015, creating deep new political divisions in the country and shrinking Merkel's ruling majority in her fourth term. Germany, France and Britain are three of the signatories of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between world powers and Iran, aimed at keeping Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Benjamin Netanyahu told Angela Merkel that Iranian meddling in the Middle East risked causing a new wave of refugees to Europe Netanyahu, who has long railed against the deal, will continue on to Paris for meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday and British Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday. All three countries have vowed to try to salvage the hard-fought accord since President Donald Trump announced the US withdrawal from it last month. The European powers argue it is the best way to head off a regional arms race and have vowed with Russia and China, the two other signatory countries, to keep it alive. Merkel insisted that the Europeans and Israel were "united by the goal that Iran must never get a nuclear weapon" but acknowledged deep differences with Netanyahu on "how we can best achieve this". She defended the nuclear accord as ensuring "at least for a certain time, that Iran's activities are under control" noting that Tehran had been "on the brink of having a nuclear weapon" before the deal was signed. But she acknowledged that a supplementary deal with Tehran covering its ballistic missile programme as well as its interventions in countries such as Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen was needed. "But we believe that this can be achieved with tough negotiations," she said. Asked about Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei comments on Twitter Sunday calling Iran a "malignant cancerous tumour", Merkel said Germany and its partners had "repeatedly and with great clarity told Iran that we will stand up for Israel's right to security". Western powers view Iran's involvement in its neighbours affairs as destabilising for the region while Israel sees it as a direct threat to its existence. Foes Iran and Israel have been kept at bay for decades. However, an unprecedented May 10 escalation in Syria that saw Israel bomb alleged Iranian targets after blaming Tehran for a rocket barrage has sparked fears of open war. Israel is considered the leading military power in the Middle East and believed to be the only country in the region to possess nuclear weapons. The visit to Germany, traditionally Israel's closest European ally due to the enduring responsibility Berlin accepts for the Holocaust, comes at a time of further diplomatic tensions. Merkel has repeatedly criticised expanding Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory as destructive to long-thwarted hopes for a two-state solution. She nevertheless defended Israel's right to retaliate against rocket attacks from Gaza amid the worst military flare-up in the beleaguered Palestinian enclave since a 2014 war. Netanyahu thanked Merkel for her efforts to fight a resurgence of anti-Semitism in Germany stemming from homegrown extremists and the massive influx of Muslim asylum seekers since 2015. Alexander Gauland, a leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany, the biggest opposition party in parliament, unleashed a storm of protest at the weekend when he described the Nazi period and the Holocaust as little more than a "speck of bird shit in over 1,000 years of successful German history". Donald Trump blasted his predecessor on Thursday for sidestepping its own anti-Iran sanctions regime and helping the terror-sponsoring nation access international banking systems. 'The Obama Administration is now accused of trying to give Iran secret access to the financial system of the United States. This is totally illegal,' the president tweeted. 'Perhaps we could get the 13 Angry Democrats to divert some of their energy to this matter (as Comey would call it). Investigate!' The Obama administration secretly sought to give Iran access albeit briefly to the U.S. financial system by sidestepping sanctions kept in place after the 2015 nuclear deal, despite repeatedly telling Congress and the public it had no plans to do so. An investigation by Senate Republicans released Wednesday sheds light on the delicate balance the Obama administration sought to strike after the deal, as it worked to ensure Iran received its promised benefits without playing into the hands of the deal's opponents. Amid a tense political climate, Iran hawks in the U.S., Israel and elsewhere argued that the United States was giving far too much to Tehran and that the windfall would be used to fund extremism and other troubling Iranian activity. A new report found the Obama administration secretly sought to give Iran access - albeit briefly - to the U.S. financial system by sidestepping sanctions Trump's mention of '13 Angry Democrats' was his latest characterization of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe, which he contends was politically stacked against him from the beginning. His jab at Comey is a reference to the fired FBI director's Senate testimony last year that former Attorney General Loretta Lynch ordered him to publicly describe the 2016 federal probe of Hillary Clinton's classified emails as 'a matter' instead of 'an investigation.' The report by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations revealed that under President Barack Obama, the Treasury Department issued a license in February 2016, never previously disclosed, that would have allowed Iran to convert $5.7 billion it held at a bank in Oman from Omani rials into euros by exchanging them first into U.S. dollars. If the Omani bank had allowed the exchange without such a license, it would have violated sanctions that bar Iran from transactions that touch the U.S. financial system. The effort was unsuccessful because American banks - themselves afraid of running afoul of U.S. sanctions - declined to participate. The Obama administration approached two U.S. banks to facilitate the conversion, the report said, but both refused, citing the reputational risk of doing business with or for Iran. 'The Obama administration misled the American people and Congress because they were desperate to get a deal with Iran,' said Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, the subcommittee's chairman. The Obama administration secretly tried to help Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei's country get access to billions Issuing the license was not illegal. Still, it went above and beyond what the Obama administration was required to do under the terms of the nuclear agreement. Under that deal, the U.S. and world powers gave Iran billions of dollars in sanctions relief in exchange for curbing its nuclear program. Last month, President Donald Trump declared the U.S. was pulling out of what he described as a 'disastrous deal.' The license issued to Bank Muscat stood in stark contrast to repeated public statements from the Obama White House, the Treasury and the State Department, all of which denied that the administration was contemplating allowing Iran access to the U.S. financial system. Shortly after the nuclear deal was sealed in July 2015, then-Treasury Secretary Jack Lew testified that even with the sanctions relief, Iran 'will continue to be denied access to the world's largest financial and commercial market.' A month later, one of Lew's top deputies, Adam Szubin, testified that despite the nuclear deal 'Iran will be denied access to the world's most important market and unable to deal in the world's most important currency.' Yet almost immediately after the sanctions relief took effect in January 2016, Iran began to complain that it wasn't reaping the benefits it had envisioned. Iran argued that other sanctions such as those linked to human rights, terrorism and missile development were scaring off potential investors and banks who feared any business with Iran would lead to punishment. The global financial system is heavily intertwined with U.S. banks, making it nearly impossible to conduct many international transactions without touching New York in one way or another. Former Obama administration officials declined to comment for the record. However, they said the decision to grant the license had been made in line with the spirt of the deal, which included allowing Iran to regain access to foreign reserves that had been off-limits because of the sanctions. They said public comments made by the Obama administration at the time were intended to dispel incorrect reports about nonexistent proposals that would have gone much farther by letting Iran actually buy or sell things in dollars. The former officials spoke on condition of anonymity because many are still involved in national security issues. As the Obama administration pondered how to address Iran's complaints in 2016, reports in The Associated Press and other media outlets revealed that the U.S. was considering additional sanctions relief, including issuing licenses that would allow Iran limited transactions in dollars. Democratic and Republican lawmakers argued against it throughout the late winter, spring and summer of 2016. They warned that unless Tehran was willing to give up more, the U.S. shouldn't give Iran anything more than it already had. At the time, the Obama administration downplayed those concerns while speaking in general terms about the need for the U.S. to live up to its part of the deal. Secretary of State John Kerry and other top aides fanned out across Europe, Asia and the Middle East trying to convince banks and businesses they could do business with Iran without violating sanctions and facing steep fines. 'Since Iran has kept its end of the deal, it is our responsibility to uphold ours, in both letter and spirit,' Lew said at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in March 2016, without offering details. That same week, the AP reported that the Treasury had prepared a draft of a license that would have given Iran much broader permission to convert its assets from foreign currencies into easier-to-spend currencies like euros, yen or rupees, by first exchanging them for dollars at offshore financial institutions. The draft involved a general license, a blanket go-ahead that allows all transactions of a certain type, rather than a specific license like the one given to Oman's Bank Muscat, which only covers specific transactions and institutions. The proposal would have allowed dollars to be used in currency exchanges provided that no Iranian banks, no Iranian rials and no sanctioned Iranian individuals or businesses were involved, and that the transaction did not begin or end in U.S. dollars. Obama administration officials at the time assured concerned lawmakers that a general license wouldn't be coming. But the report from the Republican members of the Senate panel showed that a draft of the license was indeed prepared, though it was never published. Republican Senator Rob Portman said the Obama administration misled Congress because 'they were desperate to get a deal with Iran' And when questioned by lawmakers about the possibility of granting Iran any kind of access to the U.S. financial system, Obama-era officials never volunteered that the specific license for Bank Muscat in Oman had been issued two months earlier. According to the report, Iran is believed to have found other ways to access its money, possibly by exchanging it in smaller quantities through another currency. The situation resulted from the fact that Iran had stored billions in Omani rials, a currency that's notoriously hard to convert. The U.S. dollar is the world's dominant currency, so allowing it to be used as a conversion instrument for Iranian assets was the easiest and most efficient way to speed up Iran's access to its own funds. For example: If the Iranians want to sell oil to India, they would likely want to be paid in euros instead of rupees, so they could more easily use the proceeds to purchase European goods. That process commonly starts with the rupees being converted into dollars, just for a moment, before being converted once again into euros. U.S. sanctions block Iran from exchanging the money on its own. And Asian and European banks are wary because U.S. regulators have levied billions of dollars in fines in recent years and threatened transgressors with a cutoff from the far more lucrative American market. This is the remarkable moment a defiant woman fights back against Iran's stringent Morality Police after they confronted her about her clothes. The unnamed woman was caught on camera taking a stand against a gang of agents at the Darzaveh Zowlat metro station in Tehran, Iran. In the footage she can be seen booting one of three hijab-wearing policewomen after they took issue with her western clothing. 'I will wear whatever I like. It's none of your business. You aren't my parents,' she says in the clip as she chases them down the platform. The woman can be seen gesturing furiously at the three hijab-wearing female morality police officers As they get closer together the woman screams at them saying 'I will wear whatever I like' The enraged member of the public then clatters into the trio, giving one of the officers a vicious kick The enraged woman then boots one of the officers, sending her running away in fear before screaming at them: 'You've corrupted this society with your ways!' One of the morality police officers then screams at her - calling her a 'b****'. Eventually one of the male metro operators decides to intervene to help the woman, telling the morality police: 'You shouldn't intervene.' This is not the first time the Iranian morality police have been caught on camera trying to enforce strict religious clothing protocol. Last month, another woman was filmed being brutally beaten by a gang of agents after they deemed her red headscarf 'insufficient' coverage. While in February Iranian police arrested 29 women for appearing in public without a headscarf as protests as they protested against the dress codes which have been in force since the Islamic revolution of 1979. In a further show of defiance several Iranian women recently took to social media to pose in public without their headscarves. Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, a cleric who is considered a moderate within Iran's political system, has previously criticised the morality police for their brutal tactics. Another policewoman then steps in front of her and tries to push her away while the others scurry away down the platform One of the metro station's workers then steps in to help the woman as a group of men intervene to keep the peace The police force's stated mandate is 'promoting virtue and preventing vice.' But Rouhani warned; 'Grabbing people's collars to promote virtue will not work. 'You cannot do it by being aggressive.' The hijab and loose-fitting clothing became mandatory for all women in Iran in 1979. The Islamic code also forbids women touching, dancing or singing with men outside their families. In Tehran today, some fashionable young women wear tighter clothes with a scarf loosely covering their head, technically meeting the requirements of the law while drawing the ire of conservatives. Women arrested for showing their hair in public in Iran can receive jail terms of two months or less and face fines equivalent to $25. The mother of a murdered Brazilian woman has recalled the last words of warning she spoke to her daughter, only hours before she vanished. Milu Muller's last phone conversation with Cecilia Haddad, 38, was cut abruptly short by her daughter's ex-boyfriend knocking at the door, The Daily Telegraph reported. 'I was alarmed by what I was hearing. I said to her "be very careful with this man".' Mr Santoro reportedly flew to Rio de Janeiro to visit his sick father in the hours between Ms Haddad (pictured), 38, going missing and her body washing up on April 29 Mario Marcelo Santoro (pictured) is officially a suspect of interest the murder of Cecilia Haddad following a warrant for his arrest being secured by NSW Police, but no charges have been laid Her body was found floating by shocked kayakers in Lane Cove River in Woolwich, Sydney, on April 29 Police now suspect Ms Haddad was murdered in her apartment before her body was weighed down and dumped in a river. Her body was found floating by shocked kayakers in Lane Cove River in Woolwich, Sydney, on April 29. The next day her ex-boyfriend Mario Santoro - who is now a suspect - flew home to Brazil to visit his sick father, where he remains as police fight to extradite him with an arrest warrant. However, no charges have been laid. A photograph of taken on a Valentine's Day boat trip on Perth's Swan River in 2013 shows both Mr Santoro and Ms Haddad's ex-husband Felipe Torres. All five of the individuals pictured together allegedly studied engineering at the Pontifical Catholic University in Rio De Janeiro. They reportedly continues to maintain a close relationship, despite Haddad's divorce with her husband. In her final conversation with her daughter on April 28, Milu Muller said the mining executive was assisting her in filling in her tax returns. The conversation was abruptly interrupted by Mr Santoro banging on the front door. 'I heard Marcelo's voice outside, saying he wanted to come in,' Ms Muller said. 'Cecilia told him to go away, but he carried on banging and shouting for her to let him in. So she told him that if he didn't go away she would call the police.' 'After a while he stopped, then I heard Cecilia telling him: "Stop walking up and down the corridor, I can hear your footsteps".' Ms Haddad cut the conversation off shortly after the dispute, telling her mother she had to get ready for a lunch date with a friend. She never arrived, and friends reported her missing later that day. Detectives now suspect that Miss Haddad, 38, was killed in her unit (pictured) in Ryde, north-west Sydney Detectives are reportedly investigating several crime scenes including her unit, the building's garage and her red Fiat 500 car, which was found locked at West Ryde railway station. A witness has apparently given a statement to police in which they claim they saw Santoro throw a set of keys into the Parramatta River from Gladesville Bridge. Police divers are yet to find them. Santoro, 40, reportedly flew to Rio de Janeiro to see his sick father on the day Miss Haddad's body washed up. Police found Ms Haddad's distinctive red Fiat 500 parked at a train station near her home Police are understood to have submitted a request to the federal Attorney-General's Department to have Mr Santoro, 40, extradited. The federal government is also understood to have been asked for assistance to contact Brazilian authorities to see if they can help with the investigation. Santoro would now become a fugitive if he arrives in Australia. Complications surrounding Brazil and Australia's extradition agreement could draw out the process. Canberra is also understood to have been asked for assistance to contact Brazilian authorities to see if they can help with the investigation (crime scene where Ms Haddad's body was found) No charges have been laid against Santoro. He said last month from Rio De Janeiro that he had spoken with Australian police and told them he was 'at their disposal'. 'I have nothing to say about this, you will have to speak to my lawyer,' he said. Santoro and Ms Haddad had previously been in a relationship, but separated in the weeks before her death. His family this week told media Santoro would return to Sydney at some stage to answer questions from detectives. Police are understood to have submitted a request to the federal Attorney-General's Department to have Mr Santoro, 40, extradited (Ms Haddad pictured) Mr Santoro and Ms Haddad (pictured together) had previously been in a relationship, but separated in the weeks before her death Speaking to Daily Mail Australia exactly a month on from her death, Ms Haddad's friend told of her desperation for police to arrest the person responsible - and how she hopes Santoro will follow through and speak to detectives. 'I know he has stated that he (Mr Santoro) was making himself available to police, but to my knowledge that hasn't happened,' the friend said. 'We do hope he will come to talk to police and help us understand what happened... because obviously he plays a big part in explaining some of her last movements. 'As someone who has known her for over 20 years... you would hope he would invest his time and effort into helping police with their investigation. His family this week told media Mr Santoro would return to Sydney at some stage to answer questions from detectives (Mr Santoro and Ms Haddad pictured together) Ebony (right), a close friend of murdered Brazilian woman Cecilia Haddad (left), called on Mr Santoro to return to Australia to face police questions Dozens gathered by the water at Woolwich to share stories and throw flower petals into the river Ms Haddad and Mr Santoro had first met in 1995, studying together at a university in Brazil. Almost two decades later she moved to Australia with her husband Felipe Torres and took up a role with mining giant BHP. She lived in Western Australia for close to a decade before moving to Sydney in 2016. Friends, family and homicide detectives gathered on the banks of the Lane Cove River in Woolwich last month, for a final memorial to Ms Haddad. At the exact spot where her body was found they told stories and threw flower petals into the water. They also hope to one day have a plaque remembering her 'legendary smile and love'. But just hours later her ex-boyfriend's aunt went on the attack, accusing Ms Haddad of being involved romantically with other men and never actually dating her nephew. An Iranian general has accused Israel of stealing its clouds in order to manipulate weather and cause drought in the Islamic Republic. Brigadier General Gholam Reza Jalali, head of Iran's Civil Defence Organisation said that the changing climate in Iran is 'suspect'. 'Foreign interference is suspected to have played a role in climate change,' said Jalali, who insisted results from an Iranian scientific study 'confirm' the claim. Clouds move through the snow-covered peaks of the Alborz mountains in northern Iran 'Israel and another country in the region have joint teams which work to ensure clouds entering Iranian skies are unable to release rain,' he said. 'On top of that, we are facing the issue of cloud and snow theft.' Jalali cited a survey showing that above 7200 feet all mountainous areas between Afghanistan and the Mediterranean are covered in snow, except Iran. The claim was also made by former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad The head of Iran's meteorological service Ahad Vazife struck a sceptical note. He said that General Jalali 'probably has documents of which I am not aware, but on the basis of meteorological knowledge, it is not possible for a country to steal snow or clouds'. 'Iran has suffered a prolonged drought, and this is a global trend that does not apply only to Iran,' Vazife said. 'Raising such questions not only does not solve any of our problems, but will deter us from finding the right solutions'. The general's allegations of weather pilfering were not the first time an Iranian official has accused the country's foes of stealing its rain. Former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2011 accused Western countries of devising plans to 'cause drought' in Iran, He claimed 'European countries used special equipment to force clouds to dump' their water on their continent. 'Today our country is moving towards drought, which is partly unintentional due to industry and partly intentional, as a result of the enemy destroying the clouds moving towards our country and this is a war that Iran is going to overcome,' he said. The Iranian leader also accused Western states of creating the HIV virus to weaken the developing world and create a market for pharmaceuticals. An Iranian woman who protested the obligatory Islamic headscarf by removing it in public says she has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. Shapark Shajarizadeh, 42, was arrested in February after she was filmed standing on a traffic island in the Iranian capital Tehran, while waving her headscarf around on the end of a stick. This week, she posted on her personal website that she had been jailed for 'opposing the compulsory hijab' and 'waving a white flag of peace in the street.' Sentenced: Shapark Shajarizadeh, 42, says she has been jailed for 20 years for taking off her hijab in public in Iran's capital Fleeing: Ms Shajarizadeh said in the video she had fled Iran after being released on bail Shajarizadeh was released on bail in late April after Amnesty reported that she had been charged with 'inciting corruption and prostitution'. Her current whereabouts are unknown, and there has been no immediate comment from Iranian officials. In a video posted on Twitter, Ms Shajarizadeh said she had fled the country upon being released on bail because she feared for her own safety. In the month of February alone, Iranian police arrested 29 women for removing their headscarves in public as part of a campaign known as 'White Wednesdays.' Nasrin Sotoudeh, a prominent human rights lawyer who represented Shajarizadeh and other women, was arrested last month. Protest: Ms Shajarizadeh was arrested in February after she was filmed standing on a traffic island in the Iranian capital Tehran, while waving her headscarf around on the end of a stick The Islamic dress code, in place since the 1979 revolution, considers veiling obligatory for any female above 13 in Iran and says they should cover themselves from head to toe, while disavowing any figure-hugging clothes. Breaking the rules can result in fines of up to 500,000 rials (17) and up to two months in prison. President Hassan Rouhani, who came to power in 2013 promising a more moderate stance, has previously said it is not the job of police to enforce religious rules such as those forcing women to cover their hair. But in April 2016, officials said there were 7,000 undercover morality police reporting on things like 'bad hijab' - a blanket term usually referring to un-Islamic dress by women. Figures are rarely given, but Tehran's traffic police said in late 2015 they had dealt with 40,000 cases of bad hijab in cars, where women often let their headscarves drop around their necks. These cases generally led to fines and a temporary impounding of the vehicle. Former Labor powerbroker Graham Richardson has savaged former federal Labor leader Mark Latham for campaigning for Pauline Hanson during a heated TV clash that invoked the name of a convicted killer. Mr Richardson, who was a cabinet minister in the Hawke and Keating governments during the 1980s and 1990s, suggested ALP members at Green Valley in south-west Sydney who helped Mr Latham go through university would be 'rolling in their graves'. 'Or they're just shaking their heads if they're still alive,' he said during the clash on Sky News on Monday night. Graham Richardson, a fomer cabinet minister, suggested Labor members in south-west Sydney who helped Mark Latham go through university would be 'rolling in their graves' 'It's just a tragedy and it's just sad, Mark. You were once on a path to greatness. 'I don't know what happened.' Mr Latham hit back by highlighting Mr Richardson's ties with convicted murderer Ron Medich, a former Sydney eastern suburbs property developer who is serving a 39-year jail sentence for ordering a hitman to kill North Shore businessman Michael McGurk in 2009. 'I'll tell you what's sad, taking money from Ron Medich,' he said on the Paul Murray Live program. Mr Richardson replied he had 'stopped taking money from Ron Medich' before he was charged with murder, during an exchange where Mr Latham had also claimed the former senator had a Swiss bank account. Mr Richardson responded that he 'never had a Swiss bank account and that was proven'. Nonetheless, Mr Latham called his adversary an 'old rotten shyster' before the former minister, known in Labor circles as 'Richo', labelled him a 'king rat'. Mark Latham hit back by highlighting Mr Richardson's ties with convicted murderer Ron Medich, who is serving a 39-year jail sentence for ordering a hitman to kill Michael McGurk Graham Richardson (left) said it was 'sad' that Mark Latham (right) The 57-year-old former federal Labor leader didn't stop there, pointing out how Mr Richardson in 1991 had used his influence in the party's right-faction to ensure Lebanese-born publisher Eddie Obeid was given a winnable spot on the ALP's upper house ticket in New South Wales. Obeid, an influential Labor powerbroker who served one term as a minister in the Carr government, is now serving a five-year jail term for corruptly influencing bureaucrats to favour his family's business interests. Mr Latham, who led Labor from 2003 to 2005, has voiced robo call messages to voters in Brisbane's north on behalf of Senator Hanson's One Nation. In the 30-second automated phone message, Mr Latham says he has 'personal experience' with the 'dishonesty' of federal Labor leader Bill Shorten. Former federal Labor leader Mark Latham (pictured in 2004) is campaigning for Pauline Hanson by telling people to shun the party he once led 'He just lies and lies and lies,' he said in the message obtained by Sky News. Mr Latham slammed Mr Shorten for declaring in November last year that the ALP had the 'strictest vetting processes' and 'nothing to fear from greater transparency'. Despite that, three federal Labor backbenchers are facing by-elections on July 28, after their dual British citizenships meant they had to quit parliament. One of those contests is in Longman, in Brisbane's outer north, where former MP Susan Lamb, whose late father was Scottish-born, could struggle to win back her old seat against a challenge from the Liberal National Party. The 57-year-old crusader against political correctness and 'left lunatics' has voiced robo call messages to voters in Brisbane's north on behalf of One Nation leade Pauline Hanson In the 30-second automated phone message, Mr Latham says he has 'personal experience' with the 'dishonesty' of Bill Shorten (pictured with former dual citizen MP Susan Lamb) With One Nation preferences key to who wins the electorate, Mr Latham has called on Longman voters to support minor parties. 'The reason we're having the Longman by-election is because Shorten lied about the citizenship of his Labor MPs,' he said. 'Whatever you do, don't reward Shorten's dishonesty. Don't vote Labor.' Opposition Leader Bill Shorten hit back on Tuesday. 'Mark Latham used to be someone, he's not anymore, so I'm not going to waste time on the sideshows,' he told reporters. A ReachTEL taken late last month showed Labor narrowly trialling in the marginal seat of Longman, by 49 to 51 per cent after preferences against the Turnbull Government. If the result were to be replicated at the by-election, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull would make history as the leader of the first federal government since 1920 to win a seat off the opposition at a by-election. A poor result for Labor could put pressure on Mr Shorten's leadership. Mr Latham, who last year joined the libertarian Liberal Democrats, features in a robo call advertisement which has a disclaimer from Senator Hanson at the end. 'Authorised by P. Hanson,' she said. Boris Johnson's shock resignation has damaged efforts to release a British mother jailed in Iran, her husband has said. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 40, has been in prison and separated from her young daughter Gabriella, for nearly years on trumped up charges of trying to topple the Government. Her husband Richard Ratcliffe said he was expecting Mr Johnson to decide this week if Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe could be given diplomatic immunity and brought home to London. But his dramatic resignation as Foreign Secretary in a Brexit row risks delaying the decision yet again, her furious husband has warned. Mr Johnson has already faced fierce criticism over the case after he wrongly told MPs that she had been in Tehran training journalists. Richard Ratcliffe (pictured holding a photo of himself with his wife Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and their daughter Gabriella on the second anniversary of her detention in April) said Boris Johnson's departure could delay his wife being freed from jail His gaffe in front of British MPs saw Mrs Zaghari Ratcliffe slapped with new charges which could see her stuck in jail for many years to come. Mr Ratcliffe criticised Mr Johnson for abandoning his Cabinet role while his wife is still waiting to learn her fate - although he thanked him for the work he has done to fee his wife. NAZANIN ZAGHARI-RATCLIFFE TIMELINE April 2016: Arrested by the Revolutionary Guard in Tehran Airport after visiting her parents in Iran with her young daughter Gabriella. She was taken to prison and held in solitary confinement for 45 days before being moved to a women's wing. The mother-of-one was not given access to legal counsel or medical treatment, and the lights in her cell remained permanently switched on. As a result,Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe experienced problems walking, weight loss, and hair loss. September 2016: She was sentenced to five years in prison for spying following a trial campaigners have branded 'secret and unfair'. April 2017: Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe lost her appeal to overturn her sentence. November 2017: She is hit with fresh charges of spreading propaganda just days after Boris Johnson told British MPs she has been training journalists in Iran. Advertisement On being told the news on the phone, Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe said: 'I can't believe it what is going on in that country? 'I am so worried worried that the new Foreign Secretary will need to spend months first reading the file, and then wanting to build relations, and then make new visits. And I am left waiting.' Mr Ratcliffe said: 'We have been in discussions with the Foreign Office over the Government providing Nazanin with diplomatic protection since the Autumn, particularly given the targeting of her using the former Foreign Secretary's comments. 'We had submitted a number of legal opinions and letters over the past 10 months, and have been asking for the Foreign Secretary to give us a final decision since mid April. 'The resignation came at an unfortunate time for Nazanin since last week the file for the Foreign Secretary's final decision on providing Nazanin diplomatic protection had been finalised by FCO staff and put on the Foreign Secretary's desk. 'We had been hoping for a decision this week. 'However, the resignation came before this decision was made. 'We have been informed that a decision will no longer happen imminently.' Mr Ratcliffe thanked Mr Johnson for the work he had done to free his wife and urged the new Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt to meet them as soon as possible. Boris Johnson (pictured this morning leaving his home in Carlton Terrace) was expected to decide this week whether or not to give Nazanin Zaghari-Ratciffe diplomatic immunity in an effort to bring her back home to London Mr Ratcliffe said: 'While there were prominent mistakes made in Nazanins case, some of which had real consequences in the Autumn, and may still do, Mr Johnson was also genuine in their aftermath in his commitment to finally resolving her case. 'Even in the anger of the moment, when we finally met, it was clear to us all that he expressed a genuine willingness to leave no stone unturned, and for a few months we felt the momentum. 'At this point, the frustration is that those promises did not get delivered. But it is not personal. Complaints or otherwise, ultimately, our fight was not with the Foreign Secretary. 'The blocked progress since the Spring, the causes of Nazanins suffering and more recent revival of Nazanins court case all come from a different place. 'We wish him well.' President Donald Trump has issued a dire warning to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, escalating a war of words over looming sanctions against Tehran. Rouhani had warned Trump not to 'play with the lion's tail' before Trump let rip on Twitter late on Sunday night, saying: 'To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE.' 'WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!' But that only prompted Iran to further goad Trump, calling his reaction 'passive' and saying he 'won't dare' launch an attack. Trump and First Lady Melania are seen returning to DC on Sunday after the weekend. Trump issued the stark threat after he had arrived back at the White House Trump was responding to remarks by Hassan Rouhani (above), in which the Iranian President said 'war with Iran will be the mother of all wars' Trump unloaded on Rouhani in an all-caps tweet but the regime brushed aside his remarks as 'passive', adding that he 'won't dare' attack The regime also accused him of copying Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who in the past has warned the West to 'never threaten an Iranian.' Gen. Gholam Hossein Gheibparvar, the chief of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guards volunteer Basij force, added that Trump's tweet amounts to nothing more than 'psychological warfare' He said: 'We will never abandon our revolutionary beliefs. We will resist pressure from enemies... America wants nothing less than (to) destroy Iran ... (but) Trump cannot do a damn thing against Iran.' Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Trump's 'strong stance' against Iran and welcomed an end to world powers 'pampering' the regime. Rouhani had earlier warned America that 'Iran is the mother of all peace' before adding that 'war with Iran is the mother of all wars'. 'Don't play with fire, or you will regret [it],' he continued. 'Iranian people are the master and they will never bow to anyone.' Trump (pictured arriving in Washington DC from New Jersey) spoke out shortly after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo promised a 'maximum pressure' campaign against Iran Trump's war of words with Iran echo his threats of 'fire and fury' against North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un before their appeasement at the summit in Singapore Earlier this year, Trump tore up the nuclear agreement signed by predecessor Barack Obama by pledging to reinstate harsh sanctions against Iran Rouhani warned against any US attempt to destabilize the country by encouraging protests, saying: 'You are not in a position to incite the Iranian nation against Iran's security and interests.' US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hinted at such efforts on Sunday, promising unspecified backing for Iranian dissents as he referred to the country's leaders as a 'mafia'. Pompeo, in a California speech to a largely Iranian-American audience, dismissed Rouhani and his top ministers as 'merely polished front men for the ayatollahs' international con artistry.' Iran 'is run by something that resembles the mafia more than a government,' Pompeo said, citing what he called Iranian leaders' vast wealth and corruption. Pompeo said senior Iranian leaders had benefited from embezzlement, sweetheart deals and other ill-gotten gains. Iran's ayatollahs, he said, were 'hypocritical holy men' who 'seem more concerned with riches than religion.' In a move sure to anger Tehran, Pompeo announced that the US government is launching a 24-hour television, radio and digital information channel in Farsi to broadcast American propaganda across Iran. The information service would insure that 'ordinary Iranians inside Iran and around the globe can know that America stands with them', Pompeo said. The war of words grew to a fever pitch not long after Iran threatened to block international oil tankers from passing through the critical Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for Trump's looming sanctions. The vital strategic choke-point, just 29 nautical miles wide at its narrowest point, controls all ocean traffic to the Persian Gulf. About one-fifth of the world's petroleum passes through the strait. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California on Sunday, in a speech where he referred to the leadership of Iran as a 'mafia' Protesters against the current Iranian regime stand outside the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum where Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was speaking on Sunday Trump's words also echo his statements against North Korea's Kim Jong Un in August last year, in which he said: 'North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. 'They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.' Trump and Kim eventually buried the hatchet before sitting down for the first ever summit between the two world leaders in Singapore in June. Sanctions against Iran are set to come into play after Trump's decision to withdraw the United States from a 2015 international deal over Iran's nuclear program. The Trump administration initially planned to shut Iran out of global oil markets completely, demanding all other countries stop buying Iranian crude by November. But the US has somewhat eased its stance, saying it may grant sanction waivers to some allies that are particularly reliant on Iranian supplies. Rouhani scoffed at Trump's threat to halt Iranian oil exports and said Iran has a dominant position in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil shipping waterway. 'Anyone who understands the rudiments of politics doesn't say 'we will stop Iran's oil exports,'' Rouhani said, cited by the semi-official ISNA news agency. 'We have been the guarantor of the regional waterway's security throughout history.' Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei backed his president and said: 'If Iran's oil is not exported, no regional country's oil will be exported.' Iran has threatened to block oil tankers transiting through the Strait of Hormuz (above). The vitale choke-point controls all ocean traffic from the Persian Gulf 'If Iran's oil is not exported, no regional country's oil will be exported,' said Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (seen on Saturday) Pedestrians are seen walking beneath a mural of Iranian martyrs and late Ayatollah Khomeini (far left) in Tehran on Sunday. The war of words between Iran and the US has escalated Iranian officials have in the past threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil shipping route, in retaliation for any hostile US action. Khamenei used a speech to foreign ministry officials to reject any renewed talks with the United States after President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from a 2015 international deal over Iran's nuclear program. Khamenei added: 'The word and even the signature of the Americans cannot be relied upon, so negotiations with America are of no avail.' He claimed it would be an 'obvious mistake' to negotiate with the US as Washington was unreliable. A millionaire British expat has been stabbed to death at his Greek villa with local authorities hunting his son on suspicion of murder. Derek Arber, 65, was found dead at his home in the town of Agios Georgios on the island of Antiparos on Sunday - according to local media. Eyewitnesses who knew Mr Arber said he had been out for dinner on Saturday night with his son, who remains unnamed. Derek Arber (right) with his wife Lilly with whom he owned several properties on the Greek island of Antiparos They said the two of them seemed to have been engaged in a heated conversation which descended into a full-blown argument. Later on the two men were said to have left the restaurant together. Mr Arber's body was found the following morning, with police speculating he may have been stabbed with a screwdriver. Police have confirmed they have opened a murder investigation with his son as the main suspect. Authorities are speculating that the young man might have already left the island. Due to the severity of the case, the commander of the Paros Security Department traveled to the small Greek island of Antiparos to coordinate the investigations and to direct the forensic examination. Mr Arber was stabbed to death at his home in the town of Agios Georgios on the island of Antiparos, Greece Mr Arber and his wife are the owners of Lilly's Villas, a company which runs anumber of holiday properties on the island Derek Arber was well-known in the Antiparos business scene and was according to Greek media well liked by locals who praised his adventurous spirit and his intelligence. He owned Lilly's Villas with his wife Lilly Arber, which is a group of independent houses built in the style of a small village on the hills of the town of Agios Georgios. His residence was located within the complex of houses. Mr Arber had been living permanently on the island and was a British citizen. He reportedly also had a Greek passport. A spokesperson for the local police said: 'Police investigations are under way to investigate a murder case in Antiparos. 'Police investigations are under way to investigate the murder of a 65-year-old, who was found dead at his home in Antiparos this afternoon (July 22, 2018). Hewas allegedly injured in a deadly object. 'The Paramedical Police Department is conducting the preliminary investigation with the assistance of Criminal Services personnel will fly into the island for an autopsy, exploration and scientific investigation of the area.' Donald Trump's chief spokeswoman claimed on Monday that the president's apocalyptic allcaps warning to Iran is an example of 'peace through strength' following 'empty threats against America' from Tehran's mullahs. 'The only person that's inciting anything is Iran,' Sarah Sanders said on 'Fox & Friends,' adding that Trump 'is going to continue to be tough on this topic.' 'He's certainly not going to tolerate the leader of Iran making threats against Americans,' she added, warning that the president is 'not afraid to take tough steps if necessary' against Israel's mortal enemy. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had warned Trump not to 'play with the lion's tail' before Trump Tweeted an escalation of his war of words Sunday night over looming sanctions against Tehran. Sarah Sanders claimed Monday that Iran is the 'only' one issuing threats just hours after President Trump warned Tehran in an allcaps tweet that it could 'SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE SUFFERED' Trump and First Lady Melania are seen returning to DC on Sunday after the weekend. Trump issued the stark threat after he had arrived back at the White House 'To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE,' Trump blasted. 'WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!' That prompted Iran to goad Trump even more, calling his reaction 'passive' and saying he 'won't dare' launch an attack. The regime also accused him of copying Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who in the past has warned the West to 'never threaten an Iranian.' In a statement issued by the White House, National Security Advisor John Bolton said that he had spoken to Trump 'over the last several days,' and the president 'told me that if Iran does anything at all to the negative, they will pay a price like few countries have ever paid before.' Gen. Gholam Hossein Gheibparvar, the chief of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guards volunteer Basij force, claimed that Trump's tweet amounts to nothing more than 'psychological warfare.' Trump was responding to remarks by Hassan Rouhani (above), in which the Iranian President said 'war with Iran will be the mother of all wars' Trump unloaded on Rouhani in an all-caps tweet but the regime brushed aside his remarks as 'passive', adding that he 'won't dare' attack 'We will never abandon our revolutionary beliefs. We will resist pressure from enemies,' he said, adding that 'America wants nothing less than [to] destroy Iran ... [but] Trump cannot do a damn thing against Iran.' Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Trump's 'strong stance' and welcomed an end to world powers 'pampering' the regime. Rouhani had earlier claimed that 'Iran is the mother of all peace' before warning America that 'war with Iran is the mother of all wars.' 'Don't play with fire, or you will regret [it],' he continued. 'Iranian people are the master and they will never bow to anyone.' National Security Advisor John Bolton said Trump 'told me that if Iran does anything at all to the negative, they will pay a price like few countries have ever paid before' Trump (pictured arriving in Washington DC from New Jersey) spoke out shortly after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo promised a 'maximum pressure' campaign against Iran Trump's war of words with Iran echo his threats of 'fire and fury' against North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un before their appeasement at the summit in Singapore Earlier this year, Trump tore up the nuclear agreement signed by predecessor Barack Obama by pledging to reinstate harsh sanctions against Iran Rouhani warned against any U.S. attempt to destabilize the country by encouraging protests, saying: 'You are not in a position to incite the Iranian nation against Iran's security and interests.' Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hinted at such efforts on Sunday, promising unspecified backing for Iranian dissents as he referred to the country's leaders as a 'mafia'. Pompeo, in a California speech to a largely Iranian-American audience, dismissed Rouhani and his top ministers as 'merely polished front men for the ayatollahs' international con artistry.' Iran 'is run by something that resembles the mafia more than a government,' Pompeo said, citing what he called Iranian leaders' vast wealth and corruption. Pompeo said senior Iranian leaders had benefited from embezzlement, sweetheart deals and other ill-gotten gains. Iran's ayatollahs, he said, were 'hypocritical holy men' who 'seem more concerned with riches than religion.' In a move sure to anger Tehran, Pompeo announced that the U.S. government is launching a 24-hour television, radio and digital information channel in Farsi to broadcast pro-American messages across Iran. The information service would insure that 'ordinary Iranians inside Iran and around the globe can know that America stands with them', Pompeo said. The war of words grew to a fever pitch not long after Iran threatened to block international oil tankers from passing through the critical Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for Trump's looming sanctions. The vital strategic choke-point, just 29 nautical miles wide at its narrowest point, controls all ocean traffic to the Persian Gulf. About one-fifth of the world's petroleum passes through the strait. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California on Sunday, in a speech where he referred to the leadership of Iran as a 'mafia' Protesters against the current Iranian regime stand outside the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum where Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was speaking on Sunday Trump's words also echo his statements against North Korea's Kim Jong-un in August 2017, in which he said: 'North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. 'They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.' Trump and Kim eventually buried the hatchet before sitting down for the first-ever summit between the two world leaders in Singapore in June. Sanctions against Iran are set to come into play after Trump's decision to withdraw the United States from a 2015 international deal over Iran's nuclear program. The Trump administration initially planned to shut Iran out of global oil markets completely, demanding all other countries stop buying Iranian crude by November. But the U.S. has somewhat eased its stance, saying it may grant sanction waivers to some allies that are particularly reliant on Iranian supplies. Iran has threatened to block oil tankers transiting through the Strait of Hormuz (above). The vitale choke-point controls all ocean traffic from the Persian Gulf 'If Iran's oil is not exported, no regional country's oil will be exported,' said Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (seen on Saturday) General Gholam Hossein Gheibparvar said that Trump 'cannot do a damn thing' against Iran despite his Twitter threats Iran has hit back at Donald Trump after the President warned Tehran to 'never, ever threaten the US again' in an all-caps Twitter outburst that raised the specter of war. A top Iranian general bragged on Monday that America 'won't dare' attack despite Trump threatening 'consequences few throughout history have ever suffered' a tweet-storm late on Sunday night. General Gholam Hossein Gheibparvar, chief of the Revolutionary Guard's Basij force, dismissed Trump's message as little more than 'psychological warfare.' He added: 'We will never abandon our revolutionary beliefs. We will resist pressure from enemies. 'America wants nothing less than [to] destroy Iran ... [but] Trump cannot do a damn thing against Iran.' Iran's state-owned IRNA news agency further goaded Trump, describing his tweet as a 'passive reaction'. Trump lashed out at Rouhani on Twitter late on Sunday, warning of 'consequences the like of which few throughout history have suffered' The agency also accused Trump of copying Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who had in the past warned the West to 'never threaten an Iranian.' Trump's attack came after President Hassan Rouhani gave a speech in which he cautioned: 'Peace with Iran will be the mother of all peace, but war with Iran will be the mother of all wars.' That prompted Trump to write: 'To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. 'WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!' The message echoed remarks Trump made to North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un in August last year amid a flurry of missile tests. At the time, Trump told reporters: 'North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. 'They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.' Rouhani had earlier told Trump 'peace with Iran will be the mother of all peace, but war with Iran will be the mother of all wars' Trump's tweet came after Mike Pompeo promised a 'maximum pressure' campaign against the Iranian regime in echoes of the administration's strategy against North Korea Trump's remarks came after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pledged a 'maximum pressure campaign' against Rouhani and his government. The Trump administration described its approach to North Korea in the same terms. Pompeo branded Iran's leadership a 'mafia' and promised US backing to groups rebelling against the government, though did not name them. All of this comes after Trump effectively tore up the Iran nuclear agreement signed under predecessor Barack Obama by threatening tough new sanctions on Tehran. In response Iran threatened to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, which handles around 20 per cent of the world's oil shipments. The Trump administration initially planned to shut Iran out of global oil markets completely, demanding all other countries stop buying Iranian crude by November. But the U.S. has somewhat eased its stance, saying it may grant sanction waivers to some allies that are particularly reliant on Iranian supplies. A manhunt has been launched on a Greek island to find the son of a British property tycoon suspected of his murder. Expat Derek Arber, 65, was found with stab wounds in his back, suspected to be from a screwdriver, on Sunday morning. Police on the island of Antiparos are now hunting for his son, the main suspect in his death, who has not been seen since. Last night senior police officials said: The son was the last person with him and testimonies collected so far show that there was a heated argument between them. Derek Arber (right) with his wife Lilly. He owned several properties on the Greek island of Antiparos That he has gone into hiding, evading the authorities for over 24 hours, makes him the main suspect. Onlookers who knew Mr Arber said he had been out for dinner on Saturday with his son Robert, who The Times named as part of the murder investigation. Restaurant-goers said the pair seemed to have been engaged in a difficult conversation which descended into a full-blown argument. The two men then reportedly left the restaurant together. Mr Arbers body was found on Sunday by a woman believed to be a female relative, who called the police. A spokesman for the police said: We were notified of the crime by a family relative but when we got there the son had already left the island. Mr Arber was stabbed to death at his home in the town of Agios Georgios on the island of Antiparos, Greece Mr Arber and his wife were said to be well known among the local community on the island The father was lying in a pool of blood. They suspect a sharp object, most likely a screwdriver, was used to carry out the murder. The coastguard and the border police have also been called in to find the missing son, who, unlike his father, did not live full-time on the island. Mr Arber has two sons from his first marriage Robert and Paul. Pipinos Marianos, the owner of the tavern where the father and son were last seen, said: Robert didnt seem well. He left about 20 minutes earlier. Then Derek left to go to a friends house, a female neighbour. And then he went to his home. The following day, we were shocked to hear about the stabbing. Mr Marianos added: Derek was a nice, friendly man. Robert is Mr Arbers eldest son, travelling between Athens and the UK on an erratic schedule. We never knew where he was and he rarely visited. Mr Arber had built up a reputation on the Greek island for being intelligent, adventurous and the owner of a thriving decade-old property business. He had been living permanently on the island and was a British citizen. He reportedly also had a Greek passport. As part of his portfolio he owned a luxury villa complex in the town of Agios Georgios on Antiparos called Lillys Villas after his wife, Lilly Arber. He also has a daughter called Isabel who was spotted returning from a trip to Switzerland with her mother and Mr Arbers wife, Lilly, yesterday. Mr Arber and his wife are the owners of Lilly's Villas, a company which runs anumber of holiday properties on the island The exclusive accommodation offers guests the choice between four cliff-top houses named Bijou, Dream, Secret and Pretty. The homes overlook the Agios Giorgios countryside on the south east of the island and also have views of the Aegean Sea. Mr Arbers body was found at his home within a housing complex. A post-mortem examination was underway last night on the nearby island of Syros. A police spokesman said: That examination will determine how many times the victim was stabbed and what exact tool was used by the assailant. We suspect it was screwdriver but the coroners report will thoroughly document the sharp item that was used. Sarah Ferguson pledged to help victims of the Greek wildfires that have devastated the country and killed at least 82 people. The Duchess of York said she would provide 'every possible help' as she met with Greek tourism minister Elena Kountoura in Athens on Thursday. A prominent charity figure, Fergie expressed her deep sorrow and sympathy and praised Greeks coming together to help each other. Sarah Ferguson pledged to help victims of the Greek wildfires as she met with tourism minister Elena Kountoura in Athens The fires have have devastated the country and killed at least 82 people this week 'In deepest sympathy to all families in the tragedy of the fires in Greece,' she wrote on Instagram. 'Thank you to Elena Kountoura, the Greek people and services who are working tirelessly in such difficult circumstances.' Ferguson also encouraged Britons to visit Greece to stimulate its tourism industry to help it recover from the devastating fires and floods. 'In deepest sympathy to all families in the tragedy of the fires in Greece,' she wrote on Instagram with a picture of the pair meeting A prominent charity figure, Fergie expressed her deep sorrow and sympathy and praised Greeks coming together to help each other 'We are here to help. Greece is a very beautiful country and... people must come here and see how beautiful it is,' she told a press conference. The ex-wife of Prince Andrew was speaking from experience as she holidayed in the country with Kate Moss in 2016. Ms Kountoura thanked her and said the government was doing everything in could to help victims of the disaster. Terrifying footage shows the moment dozens of Greeks take refuge in the sea in a last ditch attempt to save themselves from blazing wildfires. Residents in Mati, east of Athens, were at the epicenter of the deadly fires with 83 people killed so far according to authorities. Video has emerged of dozens of people who fled into the sea to escape the flames of the fires. The footage, shot by a survivor on Monday July 23, showed people huddled together in the sea to save themselves from the flames. Dozens of scared people could be seen embracing one another in the water as the fires took hold Frightened people can be seen embracing one another in the water as smoke fills the air around them. The fires trapped people in cars and on the edge of cliffs, while others were forced to jump off to survive, or rush into the sea from the beach. At least 83 people were killed, a fire brigade spokeswoman said, and the death toll was expected to rise. Officials said more than 1,000 homes were destroyed or damaged and at least 300 vehicles were burned. Officials in Greece have said 30 of the 83 bodies recovered have been identified. Forensic experts who helped at major disasters, including the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, have flown to Athens to assist with the identification of the victims. The specialist team are from Germany's Federal Criminal Police People can be seen paddling around while the air above them is thick with smoke from the blaze Shocking aerial photos reveal the scale of the disaster. The fire ripped through the community in a matter of minutes They were involved in the 2004 Tsunami that claimed the lives of over 200,000 people and a 2002 mid-air collision of a Russian charter flight and a DHL cargo plane over southern Germany that killed 71 people. Relatives of the victims have been told to report to the city's mortuary until the weekend to give a DNA sample to help with the identification process. Formal identification of those who died is not expected until later next week. Athens Coroner Nikolaos Kalogrias said many of the bodies are burned beyond recognition. Members of the city's dental school have also been involved in the grim process of identification. Greek authorities are examining aerial photographs taken by US Naval planes and drones to see of the blaze in the forests above Mati, the worst affected area, were started deliberately. Workers carry bags with debris in the fire-ravaged town of Mati last night. There are fears the death toll from the disaster could yet climb higher Donald Trump said Monday that he is willing to personally hold direct talks with Iran's leaders and do it with 'no preconditions.' 'I would certainly meet with Iran if they wanted to meet,' the president said at the White House during a joint press conference with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. But 'I don't know if they're ready yet,' he added. 'No preconditions. If they want to meet, I'll meet. Whenever they want,' Trump offered, stressing that a summit would be 'good for the country, good for them, good for us, and good for the world.' Trump played an threatening game of international one-upsmanship with Iran's president Hassan Rouhani last week. The Islamist nation's government denies the right of Israel to exist and has staged demonstrations featuring 'Death to America' as a rallying cry. President Donald Trump said Monday that he is willing to personally hold direct talks with Iran's leaders and do it with 'no preconditions' Trump sparred with Hassan Rouhani last week about which country a hypothetical war with the U.S. would cripple more, with the Iranian president warning that 'war with Iran is the mother of all wars' But days later he was telling that Veterans of Foreign Wars convention that he was prepared to replace the Obama-era multi-nation nuclear deal with a new negotiated arrangement 'We're ready to make a real deal, not the deal that was done by the previous administration, which was a disaster,' he said a week ago. On Monday Trump held out the same improbable but self-promoting olive branch. 'They are having a hard time right now, but I ended the Iran deal. It was a ridiculous deal,' Trump said. 'If we could work something out that's meaningful not the waste of paper that the other deal was I would certainly be willing to meet.' 'Speaking to other people especially when you're talking about potentials of war, and death, and famine, and lots of other things you meet,' he said. 'There's nothing wrong with meeting.' President Trump has already had one unprecedented leader-to-leader summit, last month's meeting in Singapore with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. Trump made international waves with this allcaps tweet two Sundays ago, taunting Rouhani with threats of 'consequences the likes of which few throughout history have veer suffered before' This month Iran's state-run news agency claimed the White House had asked on eight separate occasions for leader-to-leader meetings, with Rouhani rebuffing each request. It was just two weekends ago that he blasted an allcaps warning about 'consequences' awaiting Tehran for its chronic anti-U.S. rhetoric. He tweeted to Rouhani: 'NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE.' Rouhani had claimed that 'Iran is the mother of all peace' before warning Trump that 'war with Iran is the mother of all wars.' By week's end the general in charge of Iran's elite paramilitary Quds Forces warned Trump that war with the Islamist country would eliminate his entire net worth suggesting terrorists aided by Iran's military are prepared to strike his real estate properties. 'You know that this war will destroy everything you own,' Major General Qassem Soleimani said during a speech in the central Iranian city of Hamedan. He also said the Red Sea is not secure while U.S. troops are deployed in the area: 'Trump should know that we are nation of martyrdom and that we await him.' 'We are near you, where you can't even imagine ... Come. We are ready. If you begin the war, we will end the war,' Soleimani boasted. Iranian Quds Forces commander Major General Qassem Soleimani warned the billionaire Trump in a speech last week that war with Iran would 'destroy everything you own' On Friday Australia's national broadcast network ABC reported that unnamed senior government figures claimed the U.S. was prepared to execute bombing raids in Iran as soon as next month. Australian defense facilities were said to be playing a role in identifying targets if that were to happen. A bewildered U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis dismissed the report as phony. 'I have no idea where the Australian news people got that information,' Mattis told reporters. 'I'm confident it is not something that's being considered right now, and I think it's a complete frankly, it's it's fiction. These are the first pictures of much-loved mother-of-two who died after eating just a few bites of uncooked chicken while on holiday in Greece. Natalie Rawnsley, 37, from Harpenden, was abroad with her husband Stewart and two young sons when she was struck down with severe food poisoning despite barely eating the food, an inquest heard. She rapidly deteriorated in just 36 hours after consuming the chicken at a hotel restaurant and Mrs Rawnsley, a triathlete, died after blood clots formed all over her body in August last year. Today it emerged her bereft twin sister Michelle Martin posted a heartbreaking tribute to her 'little angel' sibling on Facebook last summer when she died suddenly. She wrote on Facebook: 'My baby, my soul Mate, best big sister, best godmother, best aunty, best daughter, best wife and above all the best mother to my beautiful nephews!' Natalie Rawnsley, from Harpenden, was a much loved mother, wife, sister and friend who died aged 37 after being given uncooked chicken on a family holiday Natalie was given raw chicken at a hotel and buffet but only noticed after taking a bite. But by then it was too late and she later died Michelle Martin, the bereft twin sister of Natalie Rawnsley, 37, (right) posted this photo of her beloved sister with her niece Chloe Martin after her sudden and tragic death last year Her husband said that as she lay desperately ill in a hospital bed in Corfu, his insurance company insisted she should not be moved to the mainland. The coroner heard the Rawnsley family, from Harpenden, Hertfordshire, left for the Greek island on August 13 last year and were just beginning their second week when tragedy struck. Mr Rawnsley said: 'The hotel had two or three restaurants. It was a buffet or restaurant and we had all four of us eating together. 'I had both my boys with me, we had pasta, bread and sausages. Natalie had a completely different dinner which consisted of chicken, salad, prawns and vegetables. We were already at the table when Natalie came back with her food. 'Natalie started to eat hers and as she cut the chicken the chicken oozed red blood, at which point I commented it looked bloody. She got up, took it back, replaced the chicken with a different piece and came back and ate it. 'She had had a few mouthfuls of the other piece of chicken.' Mr Rawnsley said his wife had complained that evening of feeling unwell, but had not said anything specific about her symptoms. He was then woken up at 3am when she started being sick in the hotel bathroom. The sisters (pictured) were incredibly close and Michelle described Natalie as her best friend and soul mate Mrs Rawnsley was taken to the island's main hospital (pictured) in an ambulance that afternoon and died in intensive care The mum-of-two had been on holiday with her children and husband Stewart on the Greek island of Corfu (pictured) He told the inquest: 'The doctor came at around 7am. After he diagnosed gastroenteritis at that point he told us to separate to stop me and the kids catching it. I took the kids for breakfast, took them for a swim. 'At 11am I came back to check on her. She was still being sick and asked me to go back to the doctors and get more assistance.' Mrs Rawnsley was taken to hospital in an ambulance that afternoon. Her husband continued: 'At 11pm in the evening the first doctor ... knocked on my door and explained that I needed to get dressed and I needed to come to the hospital quickly. She was fully awake and aware, and happy to see me, but obviously distressed and concerned. 'There was pain in her legs and she had also had a number of red blotches all over her.' Mrs Rawnsley's brother and niece arrived later, the inquest heard, and her relatives gathered around her as she lay unconscious in the makeshift intensive care unit where she died. Assistant coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe recorded a verdict of death by the accidental consumption of E. coli-infected chicken. Animal rights activists filmed the moment they claim they were brutally attacked by donkey owners in Santorini for protesting the mistreatment of the animals. Members of the Athens branch of Direct Action Everywhere had gathered on the Greek holiday island for a peaceful protest last week. But the campaigners claim they hadn't even started their demonstration when a group of 30-strong donkey owners viciously kicked, punched, shoved and spat on them. A shocking video of the incident shows a heavyset Greek man chasing the protesters down narrow cobbled steps in the island's capital Fira. Animal rights activists filmed the moment they claim they were brutally attacked by donkey owners in Santorini Members of the Athens branch of Direct Action Everywhere had gathered on the Greek holiday island for a peaceful protest last week The man is seen grabbing their placards and hurling them to the ground before shoving and yelling at the activists. As the situation continued to escalate, the protesters claim they were unable to continue filming as they feared for their lives when the men continued to threaten and attack them. Some of their banners including one that showed a picture of an over-worked donkey and the words 'I need your voice were seen burned on the cobbled steps. Maria Skourta, 42, the leader of the Athens branch of the campaign group, said: 'I have been beaten up before, but never like that. 'As we started going down the stairs, they had already started to mock us. At first, they weren't violent but were just making fun of us. The campaigners claim they hadn't even started their demonstration when a group of 30-strong donkey owners viciously kicked, punched, shoved and spat on them The man is seen grabbing their placards and hurling them to the ground before shoving and yelling at the activists 'We kept walking and when we reached a point they considered safe, they ran behind us, grabbed our placards and burned them.' Then, she said, things took a violent turn. 'They started hitting us with their walking sticks,' Ms Skourta, a dancer, added. 'The two men of our group were thrown to the ground and got kicked. 'They were spitting on us and did not let us get our phones, they were also verbally violent. 'They were sticking their faces on our faces saying 'we are going to kill you.'' The activists were protesting the mistreatment of donkeys, which are made to carry tourists up the steep hills of Santorini One of the victims said a man had tried to throw her over a cliff until one of her fellow activists came to her rescue She added: 'They attacked me and pulled my hair. I even heard the hair coming out of my head and then threw me to the ground and started kicking me 'They grabbed my purse to get my phone. I quickly put it into my pocket.' Horrifying, she said that one of her attackers had tried to throw her over a cliff until one of her fellow activists came to her rescue. She said 'They threw my bag over the cliff and then lifted me up, ready to throw me too luckily one of the group came to save me. 'Even today I get anonymous calls saying ' I'm going to kill you and they'll never find you'. 'The next day we were walking in the centre and some of them kept threatening us saying 'you haven't learnt your lesson yet'. 'I have a pain in my back and my ribs because they were kicking me, and a headache but I was lucky in comparison to others. Members of the Athens branch of campaign group Direct Action Everywhere protest the vile treatment of Donkeys in Santorini 'They were chasing one of the poor girls she managed to escape after she gave her phone to a tourist to save the video.' Elisavet Chatzi, 45, from Athens, said the group of men even attacked her 16-year-old daughter. 'There were about 30 men that attacked us there was just 10 of us campaigners, most of us women,' she said. 'They were hitting us, punching us, kicking us, they even threw our phones and bags over the cliff. 'My 16-year-old daughter was with me and they even attacked her, she got punched in the face. 'One of the girls that was with us was on the ground, and they kept kicking her.' The plight of donkeys in Santorini was brought to light last week when an investigation revealed the animals were being crippled by overweight tourists She added that a disabled activist was hit so hard that she dislocated her shoulder that may require surgery. A spokesman for the Fira Police Department in Santorini said they were investigating the incident, but said the activists were only lightly injured. 'There hasn't been any official report to us,' the spokesman said. 'We went to the incident and questioned some people but since they haven't been arrested, we cannot charge them. 'We have spoken to the activists group, we informed them for their rights and heard their complaints. 'Other than that, we haven't had any communication with anyone about this incident.' Donkeys have traditionally been used to transport people over the areas which vehicles cannot access, such as in the capital One of the group's banners showed a picture of an over-worked donkey and the words 'I need your voice' The plight of donkeys in Santorini was brought to light last week when an investigation revealed the animals were being crippled by overweight tourists. Between the peak tourism months of May to October, up to five cruise ships a day bringing swarms of 1,200 tourists to the tiny island, which is known for its hilly terrain. Donkeys have traditionally been used to transport people over the areas which vehicles cannot access, such as in the capital. But animal rights campaigners claim with obesity on the rise, donkeys are being forced to carry ever-heavier loads up the steep cliffs of the idyllic island. Forced to carry tourists for seven days a week without shelter, rest and water is leaving them with spinal injuries and open wounds from ill-fitting saddles. The activists shared pictures showing the injuries they had been left with after the incident The activists said the donkey owners burned their banners on the cobbled steps in Santorini Charities also claim the rise of overweight tourists also means locals keen to get the most out of their animals are crossbreeding donkeys with horses to create mules, which are bigger and taller and can carry heavier loads. The protests and adverse publicity led to authorities in Santorini deciding to offer protection for the donkeys who carry tourists up a steep cliff, after facing. The town hall issued a statement Saturday saying a meeting had been held with animal rights groups and animal owners to ensure 'respect for the rights and well-being of donkeys'. After a video of an owner beating a donkey aired on social networks, four campaigning groups held a protest on Friday which ended in scuffles. Members of the Athens branch of Direct Action Everywhere pose for a picture on the holiday island before the incident A spokesman for the Fira Police Department in Santorini said they were investigating the incident, but said the activists were only lightly injured The town hall said all parties had accepted a series of measures including keeping the animals in the shade during rest periods and ensuring plenty of water and food. The load and hours of the donkeys would also be limited while owners who mistreat their animals would be banned. The statement said the rights activists 'declared themselves satisfied with these measures, as long they are followed'. Santorini, perched hundreds of metres above a bay in a volcanic crater, has struggled to cope with huge numbers of tourists who have flooded in over recent years. The town hall has imposed limits on the numbers of cruise liners and people allowed onto the island. The plight of donkeys in Santorini was brought to light last week when an investigation revealed the animals were being crippled by overweight tourists Heathrow Airport border staff have thwarted a suspected attempt to fly missile parts from Britain to Iran. The UK Border Force intercepted at least two 'O rings' being flown from the international airport. The 'O rings' - which can be used to form seals in warheads, were detected during an inspection of the shipment. Heathrow Airport border intercepted at least two 'O rings' being flown from the international airport. O rings can be used to seal warheads (file photo of a surface to air missile in Syria) The small and inexpensive rocket components are pieces of rubber that go between tubes to stops leakage. Despite being sent for use in the Iranian oil industry, Border Force staff stopped the shipment after they became suspicious of the intended use. The force speculated the real intention for the O rings was to use them for missiles. According to the Evening Standard, an investigation in to the shipment is now underway which could lead to criminal action against those responsible for sending the parts. Border force staff stopped the shipment after they became suspicious of the intended use. An investigation is underway which could lead to criminal action (file photo) Monique Wrench, the UK Border Force's deputy director at Heathrow said: 'It is a component part. It looked like it was going to an oil refinery. But the dots don't quite join up here. 'They can be used in oil, but they can also be used for warheads and the like.' Ms Wrench declined to comment if any arrests had been made and said the added that HM Revenue and Customs had now taken over the investigation. The sale, supply, or transport of missile-related goods or technology is banned in the UK. The penalty can carry a hefty fine as well as a prison sentence. Iran entered its third day of protests as furious citizens took to the streets to rail against the regime they blame for devastating the country's economy. Protests have broken out in a number of cities this week over the dramatic drop of the country's currency and other economic problems ahead of the imposition of renewed US sanctions. Videos shared online purportedly show some furious Iranians burning tyres and setting fire to police vehicles as demonstrations spun out of control. Referring to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, many chanted 'death to the dictator' at protests. 'The nation is forced to beg while the leader lives like God,' was also among the furious chants against the Iranian regime at protests, according to the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a political organisation founded to oppose the fundamentalist regime ruling Iran. Iran entered its third day of protests as furious citizens took to the streets to rail against the regime they blame for devastating the country's economy. Pictured, protesters were reportedly seen burning tyres during demonstrations against the regime On Tuesday and Wednesday, about 200 people demonstrated in the city of Karaj, west of Tehran, Iran's state-run news agency IRNA reported. Police said the demonstrators had attempted to damage public buildings, but were unable to. In videos circulated on social media and purporting to have been taken in the town of Gohardasht, a suburb of Karaj, dozens of demonstrators can be seen in the streets, setting fire to police vehicles and shouting 'death to the dictator.' Police responded with tear gas. Another video purportedly from Isfahan in central Iran showed protesters setting tyres ablaze in a bid to evade arrest. The authenticity of the videos could not immediately be verified. 'Scattered protests' of a few hundred people were reported by state news agencies on Thursday, which police had brought under control. About 100 people took to the streets in the northern city of Sari, as well as unspecified numbers in the cities of Shiraz, Ahavz and Mashhad, IRNA said. Videos posted on social media have shown days of demonstrations in Isfahan and minor protests in the capital on Thursday night. So far, they have not been on the scale of the violent unrest that gripped dozens of towns and cities in December and January. Another video purportedly from Isfahan in central Iran showed protesters setting tyres ablaze in a bid to evade arrest, bringing traffic on Khomeini Highway to a halt But anxiety is everywhere, especially over the collapse of the rial, which has lost nearly two-thirds of its value in six months. 'We are seeing protests and they will continue,' Adnan Tabatabai, head of the CARPO think tank in Germany, told AFP. 'The establishment knows they are legitimate but my biggest concern is they will be hijacked by groups inside and outside the country and turn violent.' All protests had taken place without official permission and were subsequently broken up by police, the agency said. A video from Shiraz, a city in south-central Iran, showed a seven-year-old boy who had reportedly had tear gas fired in his face by police. M. Hanif Jazayeri, with the NCR, who shared the video on Twitter, also shared clips of angry chants from protesters in Karaj. 'Mullahs must answer for wasting Iran's wealth on terror,' he added. Maryam Rajavi, NCR's president-elect, has said that Iran's economy will not recover until the regime is toppled. According to the NCR, the Iranian regime spent billions funding war in Syria and conflicts across the Middle East - as well as funding terrorism and supporting proxy groups 'that carry out criminal activities on its behalf. Protests have broken out in a number of cities this week over the dramatic drop of the country's currency and other economic problems Mrs Rajavi says the disastrous state of the economy in Iran is a direct result of the regime's policies. 'Protesters will not rest until the Iranian people and the nation are free,' she said. She added: 'Iran's risen and revolting cities are joining the protests, one after the other. 'The cry for freedom is becoming louder, and the uprising is expanding more and more every moment. 'There is no force more powerful than the united force of young people.' After protests broke out on Tuesday, she said: 'Today, the world can see that the voice of Iranians cannot be silence despite massive repression, and their uprisings are carrying on until victory. 'These are the blazing flames of resistance with over 100,000 martyrs, flaring up in the streets after forty years.' The Iranian rial has dropped to a new record low amid growing concerns of renewed American sanctions, due to kick in on Monday. 'Death to the dictator' and 'the nation is forced to beg while the leader lives like God,' were among the furious chants against the Iranian regime at protests Scattered protests broke out in several Iranian cities on Thursday to rail against the regime Earlier, Iranian protesters had clashed with police outside parliament as the plunging rial triggered three days of protests last month in Tehran. Iranians are hunkering down for the return of US sanctions with a run on gold and hard currency as they scramble to protect their savings, and sporadic protests over the already troubled economy. Many wealthy Iranians are leaving the country, while others have been gripped by a bunker mentality, stocking up on provisions, dollars and gold in order to ride out the storm. Customers were cheek-to-jowl in the narrow alleys of Tehran's Grand Bazaar this week. 'People are worried that if they don't buy things today, they won't be available tomorrow,' said Ali, who runs a kitchen store in the bazaar, adding that wholesalers were hoarding new stock while they waited to see how the crisis unfolded. Multinational firms that rushed to cash in three years ago - such as France's energy giant Total and carmakers Peugeot and Renault - are already packing up. A decision to fix the exchange rate in April and arrest unlicensed currency dealers backfired spectacularly and triggered a boom in the black market. About 100 people took to the streets in the northern city of Sari, as well as unspecified numbers in the cities of Shiraz (pictured) The consequences have sometimes felt absurd. One expat described having to meet a trader under a bridge in central Tehran to change $2,000 (1,700 euros). 'He told me to wear a red scarf and came up to me whispering: 'Show me the money' like we were in a spy film,' she said. The US walked out of the 2015 nuclear deal in May and is bringing back 'maximum pressure' sanctions for most sectors on August 6, and the energy sector on November 4. In May, President Donald Trump pulled the US out of a multilateral deal with Iran that was meant to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons. Trump denounced the deal, concluded before he took office, as one-sided in Iran's favour. The US is bringing back 'maximum pressure' sanctions for most sectors on August 6, and the energy sector on November 4. But on Monday, he declared that he would be willing to meet Iranian President Hassan Rouhani with 'no preconditions.' Trump said that as renewed sanctions kick in, he expected Iran would call and offer to return to the negotiating table, and that 'we're ready to make a real deal.' Cars drive by a poster depicting Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran on Tuesday Former President Barack Obama held a brief phone call with Rouhani in 2013, as the talks that led up to the nuclear deal were getting underway. It was the first time the presidents of the two countries had spoken since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the storming of the US Embassy, which led to the severing of diplomatic ties. Although Iran reacted skeptically to Trump saying that he's willing to negotiate with his Iranian counterpart 'anytime,' top officials did not reject a sit-down out of hand. Ali Akbar Nategh Nouri, a senior cleric and member of the influential Expediency Council, said Trump's suggestion that he would be willing to meet with Rouhani should not be categorically rejected. 'It should be discussed in the Supreme National Security Council,' said Nategh Nouri, who is also a former aide to the Supreme Leader. Nategh Nouri said 'we have to contemplate' the gesture, but also cautioned 'we should not rejoice over this offer and not get excited.' Donald Trump has once again offered to meet with Iranian leaders as the country braces for a new wave of harsh economic sanctions next week. The president tweeted Saturday afternoon: 'Iran, and it's economy, is going very bad, and fast! I will meet, or not meet, it doesn't matter - it is up to them!' The tweet echoed statements he made earlier in the week as the commander-in-chief pushes for a summit with Iranian president Hassan Rouhani. 'No preconditions. If they want to meet, I'll meet. Whenever they want,' Trump said Monday during a joint press conference with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, adding that a summit would be 'good for the country, good for them, good for us, and good for the world.' The offer is a surprise olive branch from the president who last week issued a threat to the Middle Eastern powerhouse in an inflammatory tweet. Scroll down for video Donald Trump has once again offered to meet with Iranian leaders in a tweet on Saturday Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to hold a summit with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, all of which have been turned down Tensions between the US and Iran have been mounting since Trump announced America's withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal in May - resulting in the reinstatement of 'maximum pressure' sanctions this coming Tuesday. Last month Iran's state-run news agency claimed the White House had asked on eight separate occasions for leader-to-leader meetings, with Rouhani rebuffing each request. That report also quoted the Iranian president as saying that 'Iran is the mother of all peace' before warning Trump that 'war with Iran is the mother of all wars'. Trump responded with an all-caps Twitter tirade threatening the 'consequences' awaiting Tehran for its chronic anti-US rhetoric. On July 22 he tweeted: 'NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE.' The following week Trump surprised even his own national security team by saying he was ready to meet with Iranian leaders to sort out a new deal. Trump made international waves with this allcaps tweet two Sundays ago, taunting Rouhani with threats of 'consequences the likes of which few throughout history have veer suffered before' US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on July 27 there was no policy that had been put in place with the goal of collapsing or changing the Iranian regime. 'We need them to change their behavior on a number of threats they can pose with their military, with their secret services, with their surrogates and with their proxies,' Mattis told Pentagon reporters. Experts see a number of possible outcomes for the current US policy toward Iran. Sanctions and diplomatic pressure could pile enough pressure on the regime that it comes to the negotiating table - something Trump has advocated for. The financial crisis in Iran could worsen to the point that mass protests make it impossible for the regime to hold on to power - though economic pressures risk galvanizing growing anti-American sentiment and support for hardliners. Or the regime could start to address what America calls its 'malign influence' in the region, including its support to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and threats to shut down the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for international oil supplies. 'I think [the Trump administration] would be pleased with any one of those end states,' Dubowitz said. Iran has confirmed that it had held war games in the Gulf over the weekend, saying they were aimed at 'confronting possible threats' by enemies. The drills, said to involve more than 100 warships, were carried out by Iran's Revolutionary Guards, a paramilitary branch of its army which is dedicated to protecting the country's Islamic system. U.S. officials reported last week that they believed Iran had started carrying out naval exercises in the Gulf, apparently moving up the timing of annual drills amid heightened tensions with Washington. It happened: Iran's Revolutionary Guards confirmed that it held war games in the Gulf this weekend. Pictured: Iranian navy vessels take part in a military exercise in the Strait of Hormuz in January 2012 Confirmed: US officials reported last week that ther had been an increase in naval activity in the Strait of Hormuz - a strategic waterway for oil shipments Iran has been furious over U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to pull out of an international nuclear deal and reimpose sanctions on Tehran. Senior Iranian officials have warned the country would not easily yield to a renewed U.S. campaign to strangle Iran's vital oil exports. 'This exercise was conducted with the aim of controlling and safeguarding the safety of the international waterway and within the framework of the programme of the Guards' annual military exercises,' Guards spokesman Ramezan Sharif said, according to Iranian state news agency IRNA. Guards commander Mohammad Ali Jafari 'expressed satisfaction over the successful conduct of the Guards naval exercise, emphasising the need to maintain and enhance defence readiness and the security of the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz and to confront threats and potential adventurous acts of enemies'. U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the drills appeared designed to send a message to Washington, which is intensifying its economic and diplomatic pressure on Tehran but so far stopping short of using the U.S. military to more aggressively counter Iran and its proxies. Iranian naval officers salute during the military exercises in the Persian Gulf in January 2012 The U.S. military's Central Command said last weak that it had seen increased Iranian naval activity in the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway for oil shipments the Revolutionary Guards have threatened to block. But Iran did not appear interested in drawing attention to the drills. Iranian authorities had not commented on them earlier and several officials contacted by Reuters this week had declined to comment. Last month, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei backed President Hassan Rouhani's suggestion that Iran may block Gulf oil exports if its own exports are stopped. Rouhani's apparent threat earlier in July to disrupt oil shipments from neighbouring countries came in reaction to the looming U.S. sanctions and efforts by Washington to force all countries to stop buying Iranian oil. Iran has accused the US of being 'isolated' in its hostility to the Islamic republic as it braced for the return of sanctions against a backdrop of political turmoil inside the country. Washington is set to reimpose sanctions on Iran on Tuesday following Donald Trump's decision to abandon the 2015 nuclear deal in May - a move opposed by all other parties to the agreement. But today, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said it was hard to imagine negotiating with the man who tore up an agreement on which Iran and world powers had spent the 'longest hours in negotiating history'. 'Do you think this person (Trump) is a good and suitable person to negotiate with? Or is he just showing off?' he said. Washington is set to reimpose sanctions on Iran on Tuesday following Donald Trump's decision to abandon the 2015 nuclear deal in May - a move opposed by all other parties to the agreement He added: 'Of course, American bullying and political pressures may cause some disruption, but the fact is that in the current world, America is isolated.' EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini in a statement jointly signed with the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany, said 'we deeply regret the re-imposition of sanctions by the US. 'We are determined to protect European economic operators engaged in legitimate business with Iran,' the statement added. But the renewed hostility has already sparked a run on Iran's currency, which has lost around half its value since Trump's announcement. And it has added to tensions inside Iran, which has seen days of protests and strikes in multiple towns and cities over water shortages, high prices and wider anger at the political system. Severe reporting restrictions have made it impossible to verify the swirl of claims coming through social media, but journalists did confirm a heavy build-up of riot police on Sunday night in the town of Karaj, just west of Tehran, that has been a focal point of unrest, and said mobile internet had been cut in the area. Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (pictured) said it was hard to imagine negotiating with the man who tore up an agreement on which Iran and world powers had spent the 'longest hours in negotiating history' Rouhani is due to give a televised address to the nation at 21.40pm on Monday to outline plans for tackling the currency decline and impact of sanctions. His government eased foreign exchange rules on Sunday, allowing unlimited tax-free currency and gold imports, and reopening exchange bureaus after a disastrous attempt to fix the value of the rial in April led to widespread black-market corruption. With senior religious authorities calling for a crackdown on graft, the judiciary said Sunday it had arrested the vice-governor of the central bank in charge of foreign exchange, Ahmad Araghchi, along with a government clerk and four currency brokers. Sanctions are due to return in two phases on August 7 and November 5 - with the first targeting Iran's access to US banknotes and key industries including cars and carpets. The second phase - blocking Iran's oil sales - is due to cause more damage, although several countries including China, India and Turkey have indicated they are not willing to entirely cut their Iranian energy purchases. After months of fierce rhetoric, Trump surprised observers last week when he offered to meet with Rouhani without preconditions. There have been ongoing rumours that Trump and Rouhani could meet in New York later this month, where they are both attending the UN General Assembly -- though Rouhani reportedly rejected US overtures for a meeting at last year's event. Over the weekend Trump once again floated the idea of meeting, tweeting 'I will meet, or not meet, it doesn't matter - it is up to them!' But that came less than a fortnight after a bellicose exchange between the two presidents, with Rouhani warning of the 'mother of all wars' and Trump responding with a Twitter tirade against Iran's 'DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE'. Trump has stated he wants a new deal with Iran that goes beyond curbing its nuclear programme, and ends what America calls its 'malign influence' in the region, including its support to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and militant groups in Lebanon and the Palestinian Territories. Iran hawks believe the pressure is already showing results, pointing to a surprising lack of harassment by Iranian naval forces against American warships in the Gulf this year. If Iran senses 'American steel they back down, if they perceive American mush they push forward - and right now they perceive steel,' said Mark Dubowitz, chief executive of Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington think tank that lobbied against the nuclear deal. Advertisement Models wearing burqas and niqabs have strutted down the catwalk at Copenhagen Fashion Week in protest of Denmark's ban on Islamic face coverings. Iranian-born designer Reza Etamadi caused a stir as he showed off his MUF10 brand on Wednesday, days after the law came into effect on August 1. 'I have a duty to support all women's freedom of speech and freedom of thought,' he said. Models wearing burqas and niqabs strutted down the catwalk at Copenhagen Fashion Week in protest of Denmark's ban on Islamic face coverings in public places His show included women in the full-body garments as well as a model wearing a hijab with sunglasses and a t-shirt with Arabic writing on it Mr Etamadi said that by enforcing the ban, authorities were violating women's rights and 'the free choice we in the Western world are known for and proud to have.' His show included women in the full-body garments as well as a model wearing a hijab with sunglasses and a t-shirt with Arabic writing on it. Beefy male models dressed as police were also part of the provocative display, either representing the enforcement of the law or the demonstrations the previous week. There was also a huge pile of flowers and two masked men sitting on the ground in handcuffs next to the policemen. There was also a huge pile of flowers and two masked men sitting on the ground in handcuffs next to the policemen At one point a female model dressed as a policewoman hugged one of the niqab-wearing women Mr Etamadi said that by enforcing the ban, authorities were violating women's rights and 'the free choice we in the Western world are known for and proud to have' At one point a female model dressed as a policewoman hugged one of the niqab-wearing women, possibly reenacting a similar scene during the protest. Denmark's much-debated 'Burqa Ban' prohibits burqas and niqab - a Muslim head and torso covering which only shows the eyes - in public places. Both are rare in the Scandinavian country. Protesters wearing niqab and body-length burqas marched in Copenhagen on August 1 to protest against the laws on the day they came into force. Hundreds of demonstrators, most with children, marched in solidarity with Muslim women despite risking fines of 1,000 kroner (120) or jail time. Non-niqab-wearing Muslim women and non-Muslim Danes with faces masked or covered also took part. The hug between the policewoman and niqab-wearing models was possibly reenacting a similar scene when protester Ayah, 37, wept as she was embraced by a police officer during a demonstration on August 1 Protesters wearing niqab and body-length burqas marched in Copenhagen on August 1 to protest against the laws on the day they came into force Denmark's face veil ban will affect Muslim women who argue the controversial law 'specifically targets a religious minority' Restrictions on Islamic face veils were approved by MPs in May after being brought forward by the country's centre-right coalition, known for tightening asylum and immigration rules in recent years. Anyone forcing a person to wear garments covering the face by using force or threats can be fined or face up to two years in prison. Austria, France and Belgium have similar bans, claiming they are not aimed at any religion in particular, and don't ban headscarves, turbans or the traditional Jewish skull cap. As of 2017, non-Western immigrants, about half of whom are Muslim, account for 8.7 percent of Denmark's 5.7 million population. With more than 1000 New Zealand ex-pats sent back to their homeland since 2014 the NZ Prime Minister is calling on Australia to put an end to the deportations. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern returned to parliament this week and addressed the rising tensions between New Zealand's justice minister Andrew Little and Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton. The deportation of New Zealand citizens back to their home country is viewed unkindly by lawmakers who say they are protecting the rights of New Zealand citizens. After more than 1000 New Zealand ex-pats were deported back to their homeland since 2014 the NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (pictured) is calling for Australia to stop deporting kiwis 'We will keep talking about citizenship, we will keep trying to protect the rights of New Zealanders who study, we will keep talking about deportation. None of it holds back the rest though,' Ms Ardern told AAP. 'The reason we raise it is because we hope for some change, but we also acknowledge it's their domestic policy and their right to set it.' Mr Dutton has been a leading advocate of deporting violent criminals back to their home countries and has taken to social media on a number of occasions to champion his stance. 'Deporting foreign criminals not only protects Australians, but new research shows that it saves money too,' he wrote on his Twitter. 'We saved $116 million from cancelling 184 visas of bikies and organised crime figures.' Mr Dutton spoke to The Herald Sun and said the move was a nationwide initiative. 'Right across our country weve been working with the state policing agencies to identify the top criminal targets,' he said. Mr Dutton has been a leading advocate of deporting violent criminals back to their home countries and has taken to social media on a number of occasions to champion his stance 'We saved $116 million from cancelling 184 visas of bikies and organised crime figures,' Mr Dutton said. 'Including outlaw motorcycle gang members who are peddling ice to our young people in rural communities and regional communities and we are cancelling those visas and deporting those people.' Mr Dutton said he has cancelled more visas of non-citizens who have been convicted of a crime in the last year than Labor did in six years. 'And that means that communities right across this country are safer.' Despite the contention between parliament offices Ms Ardern said the relationship between New Zealand and Australia would always be an important and strong one. 'We have the kind of relationship that means we can speak frankly with one another and I really value that,' she told AAP. 'I don't think that the fact we have different opinions on a few issues really holds us back.' The deputy head of Norway's anti-immigration party quit his post as Fisheries Minister after going on holiday with the former Miss Iran. Per Sandberg breached security protocol when he travelled with new girlfriend and beauty queen Bahareh Letnes, 28, to her native Iran in July. The 58-year-old failed to inform the prime minister's office in advance of his vacation and admitted taking his work phone with him. Progress Party deputy head Per Sandberg has quit following a holiday to Iran with his girlfriend Bahareh Letnes, a 28-year-old former beauty queen. Pictured: The pair at Mazandaran Province on Iran's southern coast Bahareh Letnes, who was denied asylum to Norway three times as a teenager, now owns two companies there, which specialise in the import and export of fish and gas between Norway and Iran Norway's intelligence agency regularly lists Iran as one of the countries most likely to carry out espionage, alongside China and Russia. Sandberg is number two in the Scandinavian country's Progress Party, which is part of the ruling coalition with Conservatives and Liberals. 'Per asked to step down, and I think it was the right decision,' said Conservative Prime Minister Erna Solberg about the scandal. 'He didn't show the necessary common sense when it comes to handling security issues,' she said. The story has been making headlines in Norway, fuelling criticism from members of the opposition and Sandberg's own party. Letnes had her asylum request rejected three times in Norway and was expelled. She finally obtained a residency permit on the grounds that she risked being subjected to a forced marriage in Iran. Dagbladet reported that Letnes represented Iran several times in beauty contests, including Miss Iran 2013, Miss Globe Iran 2014 and Miss Grand International Iran. She owns two companies which specialise in the import and export of fish and gas between Norway and Iran. Sandberg's Progress Party favours a strict immigration policy, calling for rejected asylum seekers to be expelled swiftly. It is also highly critical of foreigners who return to their native country after receiving asylum in Norway. Sandberg was rebuked by Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg who said he showed no common sense in visiting Iran Sandberg issued an apology in a bid to quell the criticism, but with new details emerging daily he ultimately decided to resign. Among other things, it emerged he had also broken security protocol in May when he took his work phone to China. 'It's sad,' he told reporters on Monday. 'I had hoped to finish up a few projects,' he added, refusing to comment on the personal aspects of the affair. Norwegian intelligence services have opened a probe into Letnes, who denies any ties to the Iranian regime. Sandberg will be replaced by Harald Tom Nesvik, a member of his own party, and has also stepped down as deputy head of the party. A 21-year-old British tourist is in critical condition in hospital in Cyprus, after allegedly being beaten up by a gang of his fellow countrymen. The unnamed man had reportedly been attacked by a gang of 12 British tourists in the popular party resort in Ayia Napa, in the early hours of Wednesday morning. The assault left the 21-year-old with a series of severe injuries, including a fractured skull, a haemorrhage and eye and nose trauma. The assault in Ayia Napa, Cyprus early this morning, left the 21-year-old Briton with a series of severe injuries, including a fractured skull, a haemorrhage and eye and nose trauma He was reportedly found in the street by passers-by who called an ambulance and he was then rushed to the emergency unit of the General Hospital of Famagusta. The victim was placed onto an IV drip and transferred to the hospital in the capital Nicosia where he has been sedated. His condition is described as severe. The perpetrators have not been identified but eye-witnesses and local media describe them as 12 British tourists. Police are carrying out an investigation in order to identify the perpetrators. No arrests have been reported. The unnamed man had reportedly been attacked by a gang of 12 British tourists in the popular party resort in Ayia Napa. Pictured is Nissi Beach at the resort The incident comes after a 24-year-old British tourist was hospitalised in July with serious head injuries following a brawl with another Brit in the Mediterranean resort of Ayia Napa. According to Cypriot police, the young man was attacked by another 24-year-old Brit while arriving at his hotel in the early hours of the morning. Following the altercation, the unnamed tourist was rushed to a nearby medical centre with head injuries. Doctors at the Amohostos General Hospital said that he had suffered a subdural hematoma, a blood clot near the brain. Iran has unveiled its first homemade fighter jet this morning - and boasted that the US would not dare attack the country because of its 'power'. The domestically built twin-seat Kowsar, which looks strikingly similar to the decades-old American F5, was displayed in a flypast in Tehran today. Iran already has US-made F4, F5 as well as F14 fighter jets and also Russian-made Sukhoi aircraft in service. This morning, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the Islamic Republic's military prowess was what deterred Washington from attacking it, adding that under President Donald Trump the United States was becoming isolated even from its own allies. Iran has unveiled its first homemade fighter jet (pictured) before boasting that the US would not attack the country 'because of our power' The domestically built twin-seat Kowsar, which has a striking resemblance to the decades-old American F5 (aircraft pictured in 1981), was displayed in a flypast in Tehran today Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the Islamic Republic's military prowess was what deterred Washington from attacking it, adding that under President Donald Trump the United States was becoming isolated even from its own allies 'We should make ourselves ready to fight against the military powers who want to take over our territory and our resources,' Rouhani said in a speech broadcast live on state television ahead of Wednesday's National Defence Industry Day. 'Why does the United States not attack us? Because of our power, because it knows the consequences,' Rouhani added. Last week, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also said the United States would avoid any military confrontation with Tehran because of Iranian military might. Khamenei has rejected Trump's offer of unconditional talks on a new nuclear deal, prompting Trump to tell Reuters in an interview on Monday: 'If they want to meet, that's fine, and if they don't want to meet, I couldn't care less.' Relations between Washington and Tehran worsened further after Trump in May took the United States out of an international deal that curbed Tehran's nuclear programme in return for an easing of economic sanctions. Trump branded that 2015 deal as flawed because it did not address Iran's missile programme or involvement in conflicts in Syria and Yemen, and he has reimposed U.S. economic sanctions. The aircraft is dubbed Kowsar, which in Islamic meaning refers to a river in paradise and is also the title of a chapter in the Muslim holy book, the Quran Footage of the Kowsar's test flights was circulated by various official media. But live footage of the plane taxiing along a runway at the defence show was cut before it took off Iran already has U.S.-made F-4, F-5 as well as F-14 fighter jets and also Russian-made Sukhoi aircraft in service Rouhani compared the sanctions on Iran with the U.S. trade war with China and its new tariffs on some imports from Turkey and European countries. 'It's not only us who do not trust America. Today even Europe and China do not trust them; even American allies like Canada have lost their trust,' he said. Earlier on Tuesday Rouhani attended a ceremony, broadcast by state TV, that included the fly-past of a new home-made fighter jet called Kowsar, which is capable of carrying various weapons, and will be used for short aerial support missions. Iran has sent weapons and thousands of soldiers to Syria to help prop up President Bashar al-Assad's forces, but had to rely on Russia for aerial support due to its own lack of a powerful air force. Irans air force has been limited to perhaps a few dozen strike aircraft using either Russian or ageing U.S. models acquired before the 1979 Iranian revolution. Iran unveiled in 2013 what it said was a new, domestically built fighter jet, called Qaher 313, but some experts expressed doubts about the viability of the aircraft at the time. Iran has developed a large domestic arms industry in the face of international sanctions and embargoes that have barred it from importing many weapons. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt is considering granting diplomatic protection to free a British charity worker jailed in Iran. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was sentenced to five years in prison in 2016, accused of spying. She denies the allegations, insisting she was on holiday visiting family with her baby daughter. Scroll down for video British-Iranian woman jailed in Iran for allegedly plotting to topple the Iranian government Mr Hunt said he had been going over the case in 'enormous detail' and considering her husband Richard Ratcliffe's request to grant her diplomatic protection a mechanism under international law where a state can help one of its nationals whose rights have been breached in another country. Mr Hunt said he had not 'come to a final decision'. Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 39, who works for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, is facing a further hearing over an unspecified security charge. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe with her husband Richard Ratcliffe and their daughter Gabriella Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe insists she was visiting Iran to introduce her daughter (right) to family A candle-lit vigil was held for the British mother who on her 800th day in jail - as her supporters claim she is being used as a 'political pawn'. The vigil was held outside the Foreign Office in London, where friends and family members lit the candles for Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe on her daughter Gabriella's fourth birthday. Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe's husband Richard, from West Hampstead, London, said: 'Part of the reason we're here in front of the Foreign Office is just to say 'listen, this is still going on. Please find a way to solve this.'' He said they have been seeking diplomatic protection for Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe from Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson. He added: 'There are clearly things going on between UK and Iran's relationship. That means that we are a political bargaining chip - partly because we're so high-profile.' Her husband said yesterday that Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was reaching the 'end of her patience' in the absence of any diplomatic progress to get her home to the UK. Facebook has identified and banned hundreds of accounts, groups and pages engaged in misleading political behavior, a far larger discovery than a 'sophisticated' effort it reported three weeks ago with great fanfare. The social network said Tuesday that it had removed 652 pages, groups, and accounts linked to Russia and, unexpectedly, Iran, for 'coordinated inauthentic behavior' that included the sharing of political material. Facebook has significantly stepped up policing of its platform since last year, when it acknowledged that Russian agents successfully ran political influence operations on its platform that were aimed at swaying the 2016 presidential election. The social network said Tuesday that it had removed 652 pages, groups, and accounts linked to Russia and, unexpectedly, Iran (Pictured: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg May 2018) The social site claimed the pages 'coordinated inauthentic behavior' that included the sharing of political material Other social media networks have done likewise, and continue to turn up fresh evidence of political disinformation campaigns. Facebook's action in late July against 32 accounts possibly linked to Russia generally involved U.S. political activity ahead of the midterm elections in November. By contrast, the latest group of apparently fake accounts appeared more intent on influencing U.S. foreign policy and regional politics in the Middle East. Shortly after Facebook's announcement, Twitter revealed that it had also suspended 284 accounts for 'coordinated manipulation,' many of them apparently originating from Iran. A day earlier, Microsoft also reported a new Russian effort to impersonate conservative U.S. websites , potentially as part of an espionage campaign. The social network said it had not concluded its review of the material and declined to say how or why the state-backed actors were behaving the way they did. But it said it has informed the U.S. and U.K. governments as well as the U.S. Treasury and State departments because of ongoing sanctions against Iran. 'There's a lot we don't know yet,' CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on a hastily called conference call with reporters Tuesday afternoon. 'You're going to see people try to abuse the services in every way possible ... including now nation states,' he said. Facebook said its latest action on Tuesday morning resulted from four investigations three involving Iran, one involving Russia (Pictured: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Russian President Vladimir Putin) He described the deception campaigns as 'sophisticated and well-funded efforts that aren't going to stop.' FireEye, a cybersecurity firm that alerted Facebook to some of this activity, noted that it 'does not appear to have been specifically designed to influence the 2018 U.S. midterm elections, as it extends well beyond U.S. audiences and U.S. politics.' Facebook said its latest action on Tuesday morning resulted from four investigations three involving Iran, one involving Russia. The first focused on a group called 'Liberty Front Press' that set up multiple accounts on Facebook and Instagram that were followed by 155,000 other accounts. Virginia Sen. Mark Warner (pictured), the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee stated Friday that 'The Iranians are now following the Kremlin's playbook' The group was linked to Iranian state media based on website registrations, IP addresses and administrator accounts, Facebook said. The first accounts were created in 2013 and posted political content about the Middle East, the U.K., and the U.S., although the focus on the West increased starting last year, Facebook said. 'The Iranians are now following the Kremlin's playbook,' said Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee. On Sept. 5, leaders of Facebook, Google and Twitter are scheduled to testify before the intelligence committee about their efforts to combat political disinformation on their social media networks. FireEye called the Liberty Front Press group an influence operation apparently aimed at promoting Iranian political interests 'including anti-Saudi, anti-Israeli, and pro-Palestinian themes' and support for the U.S.-Iran nuclear deal. President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from that agreement earlier this year. While that group did not appear to be attempting to influence the U.S. midterms, FireEye said its analysis 'does not preclude such attempts being made.' Several social media personas it found related to the group masqueraded as liberal U.S. activists who supported Sen. Bernie Sanders. One persona also used the Twitter handle '@berniecratss' and listed its location as the United States even though the phone number associated with it began with Iran's country code, +98. The group's activity included 'significant anti-Trump messaging,' but FireEye said in a detailed report 'the activity extends well beyond U.S. audiences and U.S. politics.' Microsoft also reported a new Russian effort to impersonate conservative U.S. websites , potentially as part of an espionage campaign The second group also had multiple accounts and 15,000 followers. The group was linked to 'Liberty Front Press' and attempted to hack people's accounts to spread malware. Facebook said it disrupted those attempts. A third group also operated out of Iran had as many as 813,000 followers, and also shared political content about the Middle East, the U.K. and U.S. In all the Iranian-linked groups spent some $12,000 in advertising and hosted 28 different events. A fourth group that attempted to influence politics in Syria and the Ukraine was connected to sources that Facebook said the U.S. had linked to Russian military intelligence. 'We're working closely with U.S. law enforcement on this investigation,' Facebook said in a blog post. In late July, Facebook also removed 32 apparently fake accounts on Facebook and Instagram that collectively had nearly 300,000 followers, including thousands that expressed interest in events they promoted. Expecting Venezuelan women are leaving their country due to lack of prenatal care, medicine and diapers and giving birth across the border in Brazil, where three Venezuelan babies are born every day. 'My baby would have died if I had stayed. There was no food or medicine, no doctors,' said Maria Teresa Lopez as she fed her daughter Fabiola. Fabiola was born on Monday night by caesarian section in the maternity hospital of Boa Vista, the capital of Brazil's Roraima border state. Maria Teresa Lopez, 20, a Warao Indian from Delta Amacuro state, uses a syringe to feed her one-day-old baby Fabiola, at a maternity hospital in Boa Vista, Brazil Fabiola was born on Monday night by caesarian section in the maternity hospital of Boa Vista Lopez, 20, hitched 800km from her home in the Orinoco river delta to the Brazilian border five months ago. She is one of several hundred thousand Venezuelans who have fled the economic and political turmoil in their homeland, mostly to neighboring Colombia. The massive influx of Venezuelans has overburdened social services in Roraima state and led to an increase in crime, prostitution, disease and incidents of xenophobia. Births of Venezuelan babies at the Boa Vista maternity hospital surged to 566 last year and 571 in the first half of 2018, from 288 in 2016 when the flow of Venezuelan refugees began, the Roraima health department said. There were no births in 2015, it said. Jackeline, 24, a Venezuelan from Bolivar state in Venezuela, holds her four-day-old baby Sofia at a maternity hospital in Boa Vista Carmen Jimenez, 33, arrived from Ciudad Bolivar eight months pregnant and gave birth in the Boa Vista hospital Roraima health safety coordinator Daniela Souza said the state has only one maternity hospital and it is being stretched to the limit, with patients sleeping on cots in the corridors. Syringes, gloves and other supplies are running out, she said. 'There are 800 people coming across the border every day and many of the women and children need medical care,' Souza said. The number of Venezuelans attended at the state's medical centers has risen from 700 in 2014 to 50,000 in 2017 and 45,000 in just the first three months of this year, she said. The Brazilian government and Venezuela's Information Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Irene, 23, a Venezuelan woman from Santa Elena city, holds her six-day-old baby Ashlei at a maternity hospital in Boa Vista Cecilia, a Venezuelan woman holds her baby at a maternity hospital in Boa Vista, Brazil Roraima's governor has asked Brazil's Supreme Court to close the border to be able to deal with the immigration crisis. The federal government in Brasilia has ruled that out on humanitarian grounds. Carmen Jimenez, 33, who arrived from Ciudad Bolivar eight months pregnant and gave birth in the Boa Vista hospital, said she was amazed to see so many Venezuelan mothers there. 'I won't go back to Venezuela until there is food and medicine, and the streets are safe again,' she said holding her 4-day-old daughter, Amalia. Ecuador to organise regional Venezuela migrant crisis meeting Ecuador will organise a meeting of 13 Latin American countries to discuss the Venezuelan migrant crisis, the country's top diplomat said. More than two million people have fled economic collapse in Venezuela during a four-year recession, according to the United Nations, piling pressure on neighboring countries as well as others further afield. Ecuador and Peru have announced tighter entry measures to control the influx of Venezuelans, leaving many stranded on those countries' northern borders with Colombia. The latter's migration director, Christian Kruger, on Tuesday called on Colombia's southern neighbors to agree on a common strategy to address the problem. Last week, both Ecuador and Peru announced they would require Venezuelans to show passports to enter their countries, but Kruger said he was 'worried about the consequences' as around half of Venezuelans heading south through Colombia are carrying only ID cards. Kruger told W Radio that while the migrant crisis 'isn't Peru, Ecuador and Colombia's responsibility' he wants the three to 'work together in a coordinated manner, employing similar policies to address this phenomenon.' Regional giants Brazil, Argentina and Mexico were among the invitees to the Ecuador meeting, as well as Venezuela itself. Others include impacted countries such as Colombia, Peru and Chile. Ecuador's deputy migration minister, Santiago Chavez said it was important to establish policies to 'confront in the best manner and most responsible way, the unusual flux of Venezuelan citizens.' Colombia has been flooded by more than a million Venezuelans over the last 16 months and Kruger was critical of the Peruvian and Ecuadoran moves last week. 'Asking for a passport isn't going to stop migration because they're leaving their country not out of choice but out of necessity,' he said. But Chavez insisted that 'the worst thing that can happen to the country is migratory chaos in which no one knows what happens to the foreign citizens that enter.' The UN's Refugee Agency says almost 550,000 Venezuelans have entered Ecuador since the start of the year but claims that only 20 percent of those remain, with the rest continuing on to Peru and Chile. Kruger, though, said the 'worst thing that can happen to a country is having an undocumented foreign population. 'We want this migration to take place in an orderly and secure fashion and the way to do this is to identify this population.' More than 800,000 Venezuelans have been given temporary residency in Colombia since the migrant crisis began, which Kruger blames on Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro practising a deliberate 'policy of expulsion' towards his own people in order to reduce the country's population and 'improve the distribution of resources.' Source: AFP Advertisement Jasmilfer, 23, a Venezuelan from Monagas state, holds her five-day-old baby Arjunea Lismaris, 21, a Venezuelan from Monagas state, holds her three-day-old baby Cecilia Lopez, a Warao Indian of the Orinoco delta, said she would only return to pick up her first daughter, who remained behind with her grandmother because she was too young for the arduous journey to the border. Brazil has received her well and her husband found work doing odd jobs, painting and mowing lawns, Lopez said, as she fed her baby milk with a large syringe. 'There is nothing left for us there,' she said. 'I did not get an ultrasound until I got to Brazil and it was free. I want to stay.' Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani is facing a fresh battle to stay in power after his economy minister was impeached yesterday, as critics said the president himself should be next. Rouhani has come under fire from all sides since Donald Trump withdrew from the West's nuclear deal with Tehran, battering Iran's economy with fresh sanctions. Lawmakers have summoned Rouhani to parliament to face questions over the collapsing value of Iran's currency, the country's stubbornly high unemployment and claims of corruption. They have already impeached his labour and economy ministers this month and Rouhani's rivals are threatening to remove the president himself. Hassan Rouhani (pictured) has come under fire from all sides since Donald Trump withdrew from the West's nuclear deal with Tehran, battering Iran's economy with fresh sanctions Iran says it 'has full control of the Gulf' in warning to Trump Iran has full control of the Gulf and the U.S. Navy does not belong there, the head of the navy of Iran's Revolutionary Guards has said. Tehran has suggested it could take military action in the Gulf to block other countries' oil exports in retaliation for U.S. sanctions intended to halt its sales of crude. Washington maintains a fleet in the Gulf that protects oil shipping routes. General Alireza Tangsiri said: 'We can ensure the security of the Persian Gulf and there is no need for the presence of aliens like the U.S. and the countries whose home is not in here. 'All the carriers and military and non-military ships will be controlled and there is full supervision over the Persian Gulf. Our presence in the region is physical and constant and night and day.' Separately, the head of the Revolutionary Guards, Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, said Iran's enemies would not prevail in a conflict. 'The enemies are strictly avoiding any conflict with Iran because they know that it will not be beneficial for them,' Jafari said, according to Tasnim. Senior U.S. officials have said they aim to reduce Iran's oil exports to zero. Advertisement Yesterday Elias Hazrati, of the reformist Hope faction in parliament, said the president should have been impeached but economy minister Masoud Karbasian was 'the only person we could get our hands on'. However Rouhani is protected by the fact that Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said he should see out his term to 2021, despite his own harsh criticisms of the president's policies. Many hardliners who opposed Rouhani's negotiations with the West have felt vindicated by the unravelling of the nuclear deal. They have led the charge against Rouhani's cabinet, and were on Monday seeking enough votes for impeachment proceedings against his industry and transportation ministers. Rouhani has also lost support among reformists who were key to his election victories in 2013 and 2017, after the movement was suppressed in the wake of mass protests in 2009. The president has failed to deliver on his promises of easing civil liberties, particularly his vow to release political prisoners and reduce censorship. Hazrati said yesterday: 'What have we done with this nation? We made them miserable and wretched.' Rouhani won two emphatic victories with pledges to rebuild Iran's foreign standing and attract investment, but the nuclear deal - they key part of that strategy - now lies in ruins. Many wealthier Iranians are trying to leave, while poorer areas have seen regular, low-level strikes and protests that have occasionally turned violent. The prices of essential goods are rising rapidly, and worse pain is to come when US sanctions on Iran's vital oil sector return in November. There had been talk of Rouhani as a possible successor to the ageing Khamenei. But he looks increasingly likely to follow the path of his two predecessors in the presidency, Mohammad Khatami and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who have been effectively silenced by the establishment. Iran's Economy Minister Masoud Karbasian speaks in parliament before a vote by lawmakers which saw him impeached Clement Therme, Iran research fellow for the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said: 'No one believes Rouhani will reform anything anymore. 'He was just a tool for the system, appearing to address people's demands for change without really changing anything. 'The supreme leader supports Rouhani going to the end of his second term because he wants stability 'But he thinks that if Rouhani delivers on his policies, it will mean the end of the system,' particularly by opening the country to Western cultural 'invasion'. An Afghan interpreter who risked his life to work for the British Army for three years is sleeping rough on the streets of Athens after his bid to live in the UK was rejected. Mohammed Nabi Wardak, 30, worked as a British Army interpreter between 2008 and 2011 and fled his homeland in 2016 after being threatened by the Taliban. But despite promises from the UK Government, the father-of-four has been told he and his family 'do not qualify' for relocation in the UK. Mohammed Nabi Wardak, 30 (pictured) worked as a British Army interpreter between 2008 and 2011 but he has been denied residency in the UK by the Home Office The Home Office claims it is because he left the Army on two occasions - once because his mother was seriously ill and the other because of heightened threats from Taliban forces. Afghan translator killed himself after being refused UK residency An interpreter who worked for British troops in Afghanistan killed himself in 2016 after being told he did not qualify for asylum in the UK and would be deported. Nangyalai Dawoodzai, 29, was said to have been 'deeply depressed' about the threat of being thrown out of the country despite working with British forces in Helmand. Fellow interpreters said he had spoken of suicide in the weeks leading up to his death in April 2016. He hanged himself at a friend's flat in West Bromwich before he could leave. Mr Dawoodzai had paid people smugglers to reach the UK after receiving Taliban death threats. But he was told he could not stay in Britain because he had been fingerprinted in Italy and had to claim asylum there. It is believed he did not qualify for the 'relocation scheme' because of its strict rules about working for the British in December 2012 and serving for 12 months in Helmand. Advertisement There has been outrage in the UK, after several translators were denied the right to settle on British shores, highlighted by the Daily Mail's Betrayal of the Brave campaign. Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson has been promising the introduction of new measures to ensure those who served with the Army in Afghanistan are given UK visas - but many are still fighting. But now charity Faith Matters is trying to bring Mohammed to the UK with an online petition on Change.org that has already accumulated 7,500 signatures. He told the Independent from Athens: 'The army said they liked me, that I did a good job. I saved lives in the battlefield, taking part in ambush operations. I did all I could, but they've left me behind. 'I feel betrayed. I worked for the UK. I am not a normal refugee. I sacrificed my life for them. 'They should protect my children. My children are in danger. I don't want them to be punished because of me. I left my house and my children for them, why are they forgetting that?' During his three years as an interpreter, Mohammed worked in conflict zones including Helmand, Musa Kala and the heavily fought over district of Kajaki. While working for the British Mohammed received several threats directed at him and his family, both in the form of letters and knocks on his door. He informed the military of the threats and was assured they had been acknowledged - but nothing was done. The threats later escalated and Mohammed was left fearing for his life after twice being contacted by senior Taliban operatives, who told him he was on their target list. In 2016, the Taliban took over areas around Mohammed's village and, fearing for his life, he fled for Turkey. Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson (pictured outside Downing Street) has been promising the introduction of new measures to ensure those who served with the Army in Afghanistan are given UK visas - but many are still fighting Mohammed is now pleading with the British government to reconsider his case, as he says his wife and children - aged eight, six, five and three - are in danger from Taliban insurgents. Mohammed has been trying to contact the United Nations Higher Commission for Refugees ever since - but to no avail. In May 2018, Mohammed crossed from Turkey into Greece, and has been sleeping rough in Athens since, where he has been assaulted and robbed multiple times. Hero translator fears for his life back in Afghanistan An Afghan translator credited with helping save the lives of dozens of British soldiers trapped for nearly two months by the Taliban has said that their fighters have been trying to hunt him down. Fardin, 37, said that twice in the past ten days a suspected Taliban fighter had been in his home neighbourhood of the Afghan capital Kabul asking neighbours and shopkeepers exactly where he lives with his wife and children. 'I am terrified,' he said. 'My wife is crying constantly. All the evidence is that they are searching for me and that can only be for one reason to kill me because I work for the British. They know what I look like, they know what I did for the British and they want revenge.' Fardin, who still works with British forces in Kabul, was one of three Afghan interpreters who were the 'eyes and ears' of 88 soldiers cut off and surrounded by 500 Taliban at the outpost of Musa Qala in Helmand for 56 days. He monitored Taliban radio signals, providing vital details of planned attacks. Despite his bravery and the fact he has worked with the British for more than a decade, he has been told he does not qualify for sanctuary in the UK because he did not spend a full year on the front line. The refusal to help Fardin and his family has outraged former soldiers. Sergeant Freddie Kruyer, 49, an ex-intelligence officer, said Fardin and his two colleagues were 'instrumental' in saving soldiers' lives a 'number of times' during the siege in autumn 2006. Advertisement Now, faith community organisation Faith Matters are working with Mohammed and an organisation in Athens to help bring he and his family safely to the UK. Fiyaz Mughal, founder of Faith Matters, wrote: 'We are disgusted that this brave man, who had to leave his country since he helped our military and became a target of the Taliban, is left to fend on the streets of Athens. 'Risking his life for us, he was told 'that he and his family do not qualify for relocation to the UK'. This simply cannot be right. 'This is an unacceptable situation where a man who helped our armed forces lives in a dire situation and has been left to fend for himself.' A Home Office spokesman said they did not comment on individual cases, but the newspaper: 'We recognise the vital role interpreters and local staff played in operations in Afghanistan. 'We are the only nation with a permanent expert team based in Kabul to investigate claims of intimidation, offering tailored security advice and support to individuals and their families. 'Over 1,200 former Afghan staff and their families have been relocated to the UK through our redundancy scheme. 'Those who have been offered relocation are the ones who have faced the greatest danger working alongside British troops in Helmand province. 'The defence secretary recently announced an expansion of the scheme allowing for a further 200 visas to be issued.' The Faith Matters petition reads: 'Please sign this petition to collectively send a message to the Government that this brave man who risked all for us, cannot be left to fend for himself, with his family also at risk. 'This Government talks much about tackling extremism and terrorism. The least we can do is to provide sanctuary to those who stood with us in the fight against it.' One signatory comment reads: 'I strongly believe we owe people who helped our armed services in conflict a debt and if life in their home country has become unsafe because of the help they gave we are obliged to give them a home in the UK.' Another wrote: 'I have signed this because this man has worked legally for the UK government in a dangerous situation which effectively continues for him, but can be removed by allowing him into the UK - the very country which he has helped.' A leading Conservative Party aide died on his stag do after falling when he got out of a taxi. Oxford Unversity graduate Ben Davies was just three weeks away from his wedding when he tragically died on the island of Mykonos. An inquest into his death heard he fell near to his hotel in Greece after 'alighting from a taxi'. Mr Davies, 32, was deputy chief of staff for the Conservative group sitting in the Welsh Government in Cardiff. Ben Davies and Emily Russ (both pictured) had just bought a house and were all set for married life when he died on his stag do The leading Conservative aide (pictured with his fiancee) died after falling out of a taxi on the party island He was due to marry fiancee Emily Russ and travelled to the party island with six close friends for the week. The inquest heard Mr Davies suffered a severe head injury in June last year and was rushed to hospital. After initial treatment on the island he was transferred to hospital in Piraeus on the mainland near Athens. Heartbroken Miss Russ, 31, flew to his bedside. At the time she posted on Facebook: 'Positivity is the way forward!! The boy is a fighter! Probably one of the main reasons why I love him so much!' Emily Russ (pictured with her fiance) wrote that he was a 'fighter' on Facebook when she flew out to be by his side But despite desperate efforts by medics he died of his injuries on July 3. The couple had just purchased their first house together in Cardiff ready for married life. Mr Davies studied history at the London School of Economics before going on to get an MSc in Russian and European Studies at Oxford. He worked as an advisor for the Liberal Democrats in the 2010 General Election, helping Duncan Hames get elected as Wiltshires first Liberal MP in 86 years. But he later volunteered for the Conservatives in London before landing a job with the Tory party in the Welsh Assembly. After his death, Cardiff Conservative councillor Jayne Cowan said: 'Ben was a great figure on the campaign trail, he was very bright and very articulate. 'He had this fascinating sense of humour, you remembered when youre in his presence even if theres 10 other people there. He was special, its absolutely tragic.' Friends and colleagues praised Mr Davies' sense of humour after his tragic death while on holiday on the Greek island Coroner Graeme Hughes recorded a conclusion of accidental death at the inquest in Pontypridd. Mr Davies attended the boarding school of Felstead in Essex before studying politics at Oxford University. It was at Oxford he met Dex Torricke-Barton, who described Ben as 'the realest person I ever met.' Communications executive Dex, a former speechwriter for Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg, was due to be an usher at Ben's wedding but couldn't attend the bash in Greece because of work commitments. The leading Conservative aide was just three weeks away from marrying his fiancee when he died on the island He said Mr Davies was looking forward to the wedding as fiancee 'made him truly happy for the first time.' Dex said: 'Ben was on his bachelor weekend in Greece when he had an accident. 'Doctors in Athens tried to save his life for a week, but his injuries were too severe. 'I was planning to fly to England in 2 weeks for his wedding, where I was going to be one of his groomsmen. Now he's having a funeral.' Dex said while studying Russian Politics at Oxford Mr Davies would 'smoke like a chimney'. Dex said: 'He was an awkward fit for Oxford, and sometimes he was sad that he couldn't better connect with people. But he didn't believe in changing himself or pretending to be more conventional to blend in with the crowd. 'Ben was the realest person I ever met. And now he's gone.' His love of smoking saw him dubbed 'The Noble Lord Cigarette' by peers at university. Ultan McCabe wrote online after his death: 'I am grateful for our friendship and to have been lucky enough to have enjoyed so, so many laughs with you over the years to the point of being in stitches, under clouds of your cigarette smoke. 'It is sickeningly sad that your life has been cut short. 'Life won't be the same without you and the number of laughs in the future for the many of us grieving for you will certainly be fewer, and of lesser quality.' Segregated swimming pools and university safe spaces could all be banned in Sydney next year. Former Labor leader Mark Latham stands a strong chance of being elected to the New South Wales Parliament in March 2019 as a One Nation candidate. Mr Latham, who is running for the upper house with the right-wing party, has released 10 key policies to overhaul state anti-discrimination laws. He has proposed 'creating a new criminal offence' for segregating people on the basis of race, gender, sexuality or religion in public spaces. Scroll down for video Segregated swimming pools, university safe spaces and gay-only nightclubs could all be banned in Sydney next year (pictured is the Ruth Everuss Aquatic Centre in Auburn) The policy manifesto referenced university 'safe spaces' and 'segregated municipal swimming pools'. One Nation's election policy has been released 18 months after Cumberland Council, in Sydney's west, introduced women's only sessions at the Ruth Everuss Aquatic Centre in Auburn. At the time, Mr Latham blasted the council for putting up curtains around Ruth Everuss Aquatic Centre in Auburn on Wednesdays in an area where Islam is practised by 43 per cent of residents. The One Nation policy document has accused the council of pandering to ultra-conservative Muslim values that were 'inconsistent with the values of Western civilisation'. One Nation's election policy has been released 18 months after Cumberland Council, in Sydney's west installed a curtain around its Auburn pool to shield Muslim women 'Public swimming pools have practised Sharia law, with curtained off areas for Islamic women,' it said. Mr Latham, a former western Sydney-based federal MP, who has campaigned against identity politics since leaving Parliament in 2005, has also taken aim at hard-left university students by proposing to ban 'safe spaces'. Minority students on campus have created so-called 'safe spaces' which ban people from expressing views deemed to be 'triggering'. This includes the University of Sydney's Queer Action Collective, which last year passed a motion backing 'safe spaces' on the grounds they provided 'an autonomous space for marginalised individuals to communicate regarding their oppressions and create a space void of harassment, violence, hate speech and anti-LGBTQIA+ rhetoric'. University safe spaces (like the one run by the University of Sydney's Queer Action Collective pictured) would be banned under the One Nation policy Releasing the One Nation policy document, Mr Latham said this kind of practice needed to be stamped out. 'We must bring people together, with the toughest possible laws against identity-based public segregation,' he said in the policy manifesto. The One Nation policy on eradicating segregation would make an exception for 'private commercial ventures such as female-only gyms'. To be elected to the NSW Legislative Council, Mark Latham (right with One Nation founder Pauline Hanson) ould only need to achieve a 4.22 per cent quota, after preferences The NSW Anti-Discrimination Act already has exemptions for gay sex-on-premises venues. To be elected to the NSW Legislative Council as a One Nation candidate, Mr Latham would only need to achieve a 4.22 per cent quota, after preferences, to serve an eight-year term. The Shooters Fishers and Farmers Party and the Christian Democrats already share the balance of power in the NSW upper house and have the power to amend government legislation. Mr Latham could combine with these minor parties, including veteran upper house MP Fred Nile from the Christian Democrats, to seek his own laws in exchange for passing Coalition or Labor policy. A pastor has found online fame after footage was shared of him swooping onstage to give his sermon using wires attached to the ceiling. Pastor Bartholomew Orr's grand arrival was met with laughs from the crowd at Brown Missionary Baptist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, and has been viewed millions of times on Facebook. Mr Orr said the cables were set up for the Church's Christmas production and he decided to try them out last week outside of service. The pastor posted a video of himself on the cables while the Church was empty and as a result many of his Church members asked him to fly in for the Sunday sermon. Pastor Bartholomew Orr's grand arrival was met with laughs from the crowd at Brown Missionary Baptist Church in Southaven, Mississippi 'This is why I believe God orchestrated it all because the idea fit with the passage of scripture I'm preaching,' the 49-year-old said. 'The passage says to "be patient for the Lord's coming is near" and it worked perfectly. 'Just as Christ's return is going to be unexpected, my flying in was unexpected.' The viral video was posted to Facebook by Zaknedria Webb, who said the preacher was trying to demonstrate 'when Jesus returns every eye will see him'. 'It wasn't nerve-wracking believe it or not, but wearing the harness was not comfortable to preach in,' added Mr Orr. The preacher said he kept the harness on throughout the two hour sermon because he used the cables again to fly off the stage at the end. Asked if he will fly again for a service, Mr Orr said: 'If the Lord leads me to use objects I will continue to use objects and so who knows what might be coming up. Pastor Bartholomew Orr has found online fame after footage was shared of him swooping onstage to give his sermon using wires attached to the ceiling Comments on the video of the sermon vary from 'he come floating in like he just getting in from heaven' to 'I was waiting on a flip and for Beyonce Baby Boy to come on.' Mr Orr, who marks 30 years as pastor at the Church in January, said despite some negative and mocking comments he is thankful for his religious message being spread. 'God, in a unique way has spoken to eight million folks, and told them Jesus is returning,' he said. 'At the end of the day that message is going forth and I'm all excited about that.' Mr Orr also gave a response to the attention in a speech to camera later posted on the Church's Facebook page, with the caption #theflyingpreacher. In the video, the pastor thanked Ms Webb, who was visiting the Church with her mother, for posting the video and 'getting the word out'. Former Biscayne Park Police Chief Raimundo Atesiano, 53, has been sentenced to three years in prison for framing innocent black men for burglaries and vehicle crimes in the small Florida community A former Florida police chief has been sentenced to three years in prison for instructing officers to frame innocent black men for burglaries. At a hearing Tuesday, ex-Biscayne Park chief Raimundo Atesiano claimed that he felt pressured to boost crime statistics in the small village of about 3,000 residents. 'When I took the job, I was not prepared,' the 53-year-old told US District Judge K Michael Moore in Miami federal court. 'I made some very, very bad decisions.' Three other former officers also pleaded guilty in the case which has tainted Biscayne Park force with allegations of racism in the mostly-white community. Atesiano pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge of depriving three suspects of their civil rights in September. His conviction carried a maximum sentence of 10 years. All three ex-officers implicated in the case cooperated with the FBI and prosecutors to reduce their prison time. Atesiano's lawyer claimed the victims - all three of them black - were selected because they were known to police as having criminal pasts. Atesiano, pictured at a press conference, allegedly instructed officers to pin unsolved burglary cases on black men in order to boost the department's arrest records Three other ex-officers who worked under Atesiano have also pleaded guilty in the case that has tainted the force with allegations of racism. The Biscayne Park police station is pictured In July an internal department probe revealed Atesiano, who resigned in 2014 when the probe began, and other high-ranking officers had pressured cops to make unwarranted arrests so that the department's crime stats would appear flawless, according to records obtained by the Miami Herald. At least four officers - who make up one-third of the small force - claimed that they were instructed to file false charges. Speaking with an outside investigator in 2014, officer Anthony De La Torre said he'd been told: 'If they have burglaries that are open cases that are not solved yet, if you see anybody black walking through our streets and they have somewhat of a record, arrest them so we can pin them for all the burglaries.' He added: 'They were basically doing this to have a 100 percent clearance rate for the city.' De La Torre was the only one of the four who said he was told to target black people. Atesiano pleaded guilty to conspiracy in September. At his sentencing hearing Tuesday he told the judge: 'When I took the job, I was not prepared. I made some very, very bad decisions' Courtesy WPLG The probe was called for by a former village manager who'd received letter from concerned cops. 'The letters said police were doing a lot of bad things,' Heidi Shafran told the Herald. 'It said police officers were directed to pick up people of color and blame the crimes on them.' In one of the letters officer Omar Martinez wrote: 'I will not arrest an innocent person to make the department look good.' In June, Atesiano and former officers Charlie Dayoub and Raul Fernandez were charged with framing a 16-year-old, 'T.D.', in four 2013 burglaries to improve arrest statistics. The indictment from the US Attorney's office claimed Atesiano 'caused and encouraged officers to knowingly arrest T.D. without a legitimate basis in order to maintain a fictitious 100 percent clearance rate of reported burglaries'. 'Atesiano, Dayoub and Fernandez knew there was no evidence and no lawful basis to arrest and charge T.D. with those crimes,' it said. Dayoub and Fernandez pleaded guilty in August and were sentenced to a year in prison each. A third officer, Guillermo Ravelo, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to deprive a person of his civil rights and deprivation of civil rights under color of law in July. Ravelo was accused of falsely arrested 35-year-old Clarens Desrouleaux in January 2013 for two residential burglaries, claiming at the time that he had confessed to the crime. He also allegedly falsely arrested 31-year-old Erasmus Banmah for five vehicle burglaries despite knowing there was no evidence that connected him to the crimes. Ravelo falsely claimed in paperwork that Banmah had taken him to the site and confessed to the items that he stole. The charges against both Desrouleaux and Banmah were later dropped, and Ravelo was sentenced to 27 months in prison. Atesiano resigned in 2014 after an internal probe into allegations of racist practices was opened. After his departure the department's crime-solving statistics dropped dramatically Atesiano was head of the Biscayne Park force for two years, during which time 29 out of 30 burglary cases were solved. He resigned in 2014 and the following year the department's success rate dropped dramatically, with zero out of 19 burglaries solved in 2015. Community leaders claim they've reformed the department since Atesiano's departure. Atesiano will remain free for two weeks so he can care for his mother, who is dying of leukemia, before he surrenders. A British schoolboy is trapped in a Middle East orphanage after refusing to return to live with his 'abusive' mother when she won custody from his father in the UAE. The nine-year-old, named as Jamie, who has family in Northumberland, went to visit his father, Charlie, in Dubai in August 2017. But he flatly refused to return when it was time to go back, Charlie's side of the family claims, because he was fearful of the 'mentally and physically abusive environment' at his mother's home in the Marseille area of southern France. On November 7, he was taken to an orphanage close to Dubai 'with only the clothes he stood in' amid alleged attempts by his mother and French authorities to force him to return to the country. Family members say the children's centre has 25ft high walls and that it has been described in the past as 'a cross between a jail and an orphanage'. A British schoolboy called Jamie (pictured) is trapped in a Middle East orphanage after refusing to live with his 'abusive' mother when she won custody from his father in the UAE The nine-year-old (pictured with his dog, Blue), who has family in Northumberland, went to stay with his father, Charlie, in Dubai in August 2017 They have begged Theresa May to intervene after launching a petition to 'save Jamie's life and bring him home to his loving family'. 'Jamie is desperate to stay with his loving dad, in their safe and familiar environment and country where his dad works and Jamie attends European school,' the family said in the petition. 'This is not war-torn Middle East. This is vibrant and modern Middle East, where millions of people come every year for holiday and work. Jamie's grandmother, Fiona Oomes, said the youngster was 'having to endure more than most adults would be able to cope with'. 'His physical health deteriorated considerably due to stress when incarcerated, and his mental health is fading. We are all desperately worried for his safety and his life.' Jamie's empty bed at home where he sleeps surrounded by his favourite toys Charlie, from Nothumberland, and the boy's mother are in the process of divorcing and he has faced the threat of arrest ever since his son refused to return to France. The unnamed mother is said to have claimed that her husband kidnapped Jamie and turned the youngster against her. She sought a French court order to force the child to return to France. But his aunt, Moira, based near Hexham in Northumberland, said she would be 'terrified for him if he goes back'. She said the youngster had told a counsellor that while in France there were times when 'he went to sleep at night and wished he wouldn't wake up in the morning'. She said 40-year-old Charlie, who works in shipping, would have been willing to go to one of UAE's prisons for his child - but realised he would not have been any help behind bars. Eventually, Charlie agreed to hand Jamie over to his estranged wife at a family centre court in the UAE in an attempt to 'keep on the right side of the law'. But the family said Jamie screamed as he was taken away, refused to go with his mother and was then taken into the orphanage. Mrs Oomes said: 'What is a father supposed to do faced with trying to keep on the right side of the law by trying to return his son to France, whilst also trying to respect Jamie's wishes to stay with him in Dubai, and of course protecting his son's right to live in a protective, loving and stable environment. 'This is not a custody battle situation. Jamie refused to return to France before any custody was sought through French courts following the parents' separation. 'This is about a nine-year-old child being locked away because his wish is to stay living in Dubai with his father. This is about the human rights of a British child being completely ignored. This is about saving the life of a child who is not able to cope with his current predicament. Family members have begged Theresa May to intervene after launching a petition to 'save Jamie's life and bring him home to his loving family' The family has said that the childrens centre near Dubai (file picture) has 25ft high walls and that it has been described by some as 'a cross between a jail and an orphanage' 'Following Jamie's refusal to return to the family home in France saying he was extremely frightened of his mother, the relationship between his parents deteriorated with Jamie's dad respecting Jamie's rights and wishes, and wanting to protect him by providing a loving and stable environment at his second home in Dubai.' Jamie has seen his father just once since then during a monitored visit and despite seeing his mother for the first ten days of his stay at the centre, remained adamant he would not return with her. The child, who has two younger siblings who live with their mother, had to be seen by medics because he could not stop being sick after one meeting with French officials, Moira said, adding hat she did not blame UAE authorities for the situation. The petition says: '(Jamie's) human rights are being violated by the French authorities - not the authorities where he is, who have always been correct to Jamie, but are obliged by a bilateral agreement to grant the requests from the French authorities. He has the right to life, liberty, and personal security.' A Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesperson said: 'Our staff are supporting the family of a British-French dual national child in the United Arab Emirates.' Mexican drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman was so rich, he had a private zoo where big cats roamed. So rich, he bought a $10 million beach house. And so rich, he traveled to Switzerland for an anti-aging treatment. Guzman's excesses were detailed during his U.S. trial on Tuesday by former cartel crony-turned-government witness Miguel Angel Martinez, who told jurors that a 'cocaine boom' in the early 1990s fueled the lavish spending spree. 'He had houses at every single beach,' said Martinez, formerly a close friend and top assistant. 'He had ranches in every single state.' The drug lord also gifted employees luxury cars. Martinez described how the Sinaloa cartel was smuggling tons of cocaine into the United States - through tunnels dug under the border, in tanker trucks with secret compartments, even in fake chili pepper cans. 'They [workers] got intoxicated because whenever you would press the kilos, it would release cocaine into the air,' Martinez told the jury in his colorful testimony. Alfredo Guzman, the son of El Chapo, posted this picture of his lion cub and his Bentley El Chapo's son, Ivan Guzman, posted this huge stash of cash to his Facebook page Ivan shared other photos showing his dad's excesses. A private plane is pictured above Ivan posted this picture of a gold-plated AK-47 in his Ferrari What came back in the other direction, he said, was tens of millions of dollars in cash. Much of it ended up in Tijuana, where Guzman would send his three private jets each month to pick it up, Martinez said. On average, each plane would carry up to $10 million, he said. The cartel used stash houses to hide much of the cash, Martinez said. Samsonite suitcases stuffed with U.S. currency also were taken to Mexican banks, where workers were bribed to exchange it for pesos, no questions asked, he said. Guzman also used his jets to fly aroundMexico with armed bodyguards to visit all his homes, including an Acapulco beach house featuring the zoo with a 'little train' used to ride around and see lions, tigers and panthers, he said. There also was a yacht docked there called 'Chapito,' he said. A handcuffed Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman is made to face the press as he is escorted to a helicopter by Mexican soldiers and marines at a federal hangar in Mexico City on January 8, 2016 Among his other expenses were 'four to five' women in Guzman's life, Martinez said with the defendant's wife listening from the gallery. 'We had to pay them all,' he said. Over time, the kingpin who grew up in poverty developed a taste for world travel, he said. His entourage visited Macau to gamble and Switzerland so he could get a 'cellular youth treatment,' he said. The good times were spoiled by a bloody turf war with a rival cartel that grew so heated it sent a team of hit men to an airport in Guadalajara to try to take out Guzman, Martinez said. They instead killed a Roman Catholic cardinal, outraging the Mexican public enough to touch off a massive manhunt for Guzman, who was arrested before carrying out a plan to hide out in El Salvador, he said. Ivan's Culiacan mansion in the heart of Sinaloa state has been paid for by his fathers cartel, which makes more than $3 billion annually from the narcotics trade in the United States alone Guzman was extradited to the U.S. last year from Mexico. He has pleaded not guilty to drug-trafficking charges, with his lawyers claiming he's being framed by shady cooperators. This undated handout photograph obtained from Brooklyn federal court on November 26 shows a photo of Mexican drug lord Guzman In opening statements, a defense attorney suggested Martinez couldn't be trusted as a witness, saying he had such a severe cocaine habit while he was working for Guzman that it damaged his nose. He admitted Tuesday that 'unfortunately' he was using up to 4 grams of coke each day at the time, but hadn't touched it for 20 years. Martinez was on the witness in the third week in federal court in Brooklyn, where there has been a minor stir over prosecutors accusing defense lawyers of violating strict security measures by providing Guzman's wife, Emma Coronel, access to a cellphone in the courthouse. The judge indicated Tuesday that any immediate concerns had been resolved. David Green, pictured covering his face as he leaves a magistrate's office in Pennsylvania, opened fire at the Paradise Township municipal building and shot 65-year-old Michael Tripus, police said A 72-year-old man has been charged with killing a local sewage official in Pennsylvania after battling with the township over mold and building work at his new house. David Green opened fire at the Paradise Township municipal building and shot 65-year-old Michael Tripus, police said. The gunman allegedly walked inside the building yesterday morning, asked for the victim by name, then shot him in the mouth in his office. Tripus, the township's sewage enforcement and building code officer, was declared dead at the scene. Green was arrested last night and covered himself with a yellow poncho as he was led into a magistrate's office, telling reporters, 'I'm really sorry for what I did.' He paced the hallway with his head in his hands until police arrived to take him into custody, authorities said. It was unclear exactly what motivated the shooting in the Pocono Mountains, about 100 miles north of Philadelphia. Court documents said Green, who was charged with homicide, told police he was under pressure and was having problems with his new house, including mold. But he said Tripus had nothing to do with the problems and acted professionally when he showed up unannounced Tuesday. Tripus himself told a co-worker before he was shot that he had 'no idea' who Green was, court documents said. A neighbor told police that Green was dealing with mold and a faulty septic system and was having difficulty obtaining certain township permits. 'As a result, there may be evidence in the residence as to the possible motive,' troopers wrote in an affidavit. Paradise Township is about 20 miles north of Ross Township, where a gunman opened fire at a Board of Supervisors meeting in 2013, killing three. 'As we have learned in the wake of the Ross Township shooting five years ago, township elected officials and employees serve on the front line of public service and sometimes find themselves in harm's way,' the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors said in a statement. 'In today's world, townships must balance the demands of community safety and public access.' An American fugitive wanted over an alleged hit-and-run crash which left a cyclist dead in California has been found living in the leafy suburbs of Adelaide. Businesswoman Andrea Dorothy Chan Reyes, 33, allegedly fled Los Angeles five days after mowing down and killing father-of-four Agustin Rodriguez Jr in January 2017. An international manhunt led the FBI to Asia, but Reyes, who was considered among America's most wanted, was later tracked to Paralowie in Adelaide, South Australia. Australian Federal Police acted on an FBI 'fugitive warrant' in April and swooped on her home - which she shared with a new boyfriend, The Advertiser reported. Andrea Dorothy Chan Reyes, 33, allegedly fled Los Angeles after mowing down and killing a cyclist. She is accused of living under several different aliases (left in 2010, right 2016) Father-of-four Agustin Rodriguez Jr (pictured) died in January 2017 after being struck by a car Reyes, who was born in the Philippinnes and works as a fraud auditor and financial analyst, is behind bars in Adelaide Women's Prison. She is expected to be extradited to Los Angeles. A family spokeswoman welcomed the arrest, as she remembered Mr Rodriguez for having a smile that 'could light up a room'. 'Not having any closure or information on what's going on with everything pretty much keeps that rawness of his death in our minds,' she told the paper. 'He is deeply missed by everyone who knew and loved him. He was a good man... He would give the shirt off his back to someone in need.' Rodriguez's niece told CBS Los Angeles earlier this year: 'He was definitely a family man, he was a gentle, kind person, there isn't a person who could say a bad thing about him.' Local police said Mr Rodriguez was struck head-on by a white Lexus while he was trying to cross a street. His bike is pictured at the scene Reyes is behind bars in Adelaide Women's Prison and is expected to be extradited to LA. The scene of the crash is pictured Local police said Mr Rodriguez was struck by a white Lexus while he was trying to cross a street in Whittier, Los Angeles County, before a female driver fled the scene. Court documents seen by Daily Mail Australia allege Reyes intentionally fled the US to avoid a charge of 'vehicular manslaughter' and one of hit-and-run driving. Local police said Mr Rodriguez was struck by a white Lexus while he was trying to cross a street in Whittier, Los Angeles County A witness told local police a white Lexus was travelling at speed when it slammed into the bicycle. 'The Lexus slowed down briefly and then sped up, dragging the bicycle rider under the Lexus,' FBI Agent Erik Arbuthnott alleged in the documents. 'The traffic collision investigation concluded that the Lexus drove into opposing lanes and was travelling at an unsafe speed, failing to yield to the bicycle rider.' A spokeswoman from the Australian Attorney-General's Department confirmed to Daily Mail Australia Reyes was arrested in Adelaide on April 17 at the request of US authorities. 'She is wanted to face prosecution in the United States for offences of vehicular manslaughter,' the spokeswoman said. 'As the matter is ongoing, it would not be appropriate to comment further.' Reyes, who The Advertiser alleges had been living under at least 11 different aliases, faces 15 years behind bars if convicted by a US District Court. Yazmin Juarez, 20, filed a claim Tuesday for $60milllion against multiple US agencies after the death of her daughter Mariee A Guatemelan mother whose toddler died weeks after being released from the nation's largest family detention center has filed a legal claim seeking $60million from the US government for her daughter's death. Attorneys for Yazmin Juarez, 20, submitted a claim against multiple US agencies Tuesday after Juarez's one-year-old daughter, Mariee, died in May. Juarez's lawyers said 19-month-old Mariee developed a respiratory illness while she and her mother were detained at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas. The girl died six weeks later in Philadelphia. After her release, Mariee was coughing, vomiting and battling a high fever and transferred to two different hospitals but died on May 10, 2018. They accused U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement of releasing the pair while Mariee was still sick. Juarez and her daughter were apprehended when they crossed the Rio Grande River in March 2018 from Mexico while trying to reunite with Juarez's mother in New Jersey. The 20-year-old Guatemalan migrant was detained in a South Texas facility with her one-year-old daughter Mariee in March Mariee died in May six weeks after developing a respiratory illness in detention at South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas Washington-based law firm Arnold & Porter said it will file a lawsuit if the government doesn't settle its claim. R. Stanton Jones, a lawyer at the firm, said the government has six months to respond before his firm can file suit. 'Having made the decision to jail small children, the U.S. government is responsible to provide living conditions that are safe, sanitary and appropriate,' Jones said A spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the agency wouldn't comment on pending litigation. Other agencies didn't immediately respond to messages. Jones has also submitted a $40million claim against the city of Eloy, Arizona, which officially operated the Dilley detention facility under a 'pass-through' agreement with ICE and the private prison company CoreCivic. ICE and CoreCivic replaced its agreement with Eloy in September with an arrangement made with the city of Dilley. Lawyers for the mother of a toddler who died several weeks after being released from the nation's largest family detention center have filed a legal claim seeking $60 million from the U.S. government for the child's death Advocates have long complained that medical care in Dilley is substandard and that detaining families damages their mental health. ICE has defended the care it provides at Dilley, saying detainees have access to medical professionals. Dilley is now being used to detain mothers and children, some of whom were reunited in detention after being separated earlier this year under Trump administration policy. 'Those responsible for providing safe, sanitary conditions and proper medical care failed this little girl, and it caused her to die a painful death,' attorney R. Stanton Jones said in a statement in August. 'Mariee Juarez entered Dilley a healthy baby girl and 20 days later was discharged a gravely ill child with a life-threatening respiratory infection,' he said. Arnold and Porter sent a notice of claim - a step prior to a lawsuit - on behalf of Juarez to Eloy, Arizona, an intermediary between the federal government and the private firm that operates the detention facility in Dilley. A millionaire property developer is suing the Spanish construction company behind Sydney's multi-billion-dollar light rail project after a pothole damaged his Mercedes. Theo Onisforou claims Accion caused $9500 worth of 'substantial damage' to his Mercedes by directing him to drive his car over a pothole caused by the light rail construction. He has since launched legal action against the company over the October 29 incident, the Daily Telegraph revealed. Theo Onisforou (pictured) claims Accion caused $9500 worth of 'substantial damage' to his Mercedes Mr Onisforou claims the pothole (circled) caused $9500 of damage to his car as he drove to see Dr Brian Jarvie Mr Onisforou, who was driving to visit Dr Brian Jarvie in Randwick at the time of the incident, claims there was a chain across the surgeon's driveway. He claims the chain was lifted by a light rail worker who allegedly directed him over the pothole and into the property. '(Acciona's) road works had exposed the manhole creating a dangerous protrusion in and above the road,' a statement of claim filed by Mr Onisforou reads. '(Acciona) was negligent in allowing the protrusion and not putting barriers over the protrusion, preventing vehicles to be able to drive over it. 'The defendant was well aware that the protrusion was dangerous, as two other parties had damaged their cars by driving over the protrusion in the previous 14 days.' '(Acciona's) road works had exposed the manhole creating a dangerous protrusion in and above the road,' a statement of claim filed by Mr Onisforou reads (stock) Mr Onisforou attempted to seek compensation straight from ALTRAC, which is developing the light rail in partnership with Accion. ALTRAC sent him an email saying they weren't providing him any compensation because they are 'unable to substantiate your assertion that the traffic controller instructed you to drive directly over the manhole', the publication reported. Dr Jarvie said the pothole had been a 'major problem' for several weeks. He told Daily Telegraph that he witnessed the incident and Mr Onisforou was one of three patients who had damaged their car on the manhole. The pothole has since been covered with asphalt. An ALTRAC Light Rail spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia they do not believe the damage was caused by the contractor. 'ALTRAC Light Rail confirms Mr Theodore Onisforou made a claim against ALTRACs construction contractor for minor damage to a motor vehicle,' the spokesperson said. 'The claim was assessed, where it was determined that the damage was not caused by the construction contractor. 'Mr Onisforou has now pursued the matter in the Small Claims division of the Local Court. 'The safety of the public and our workers are of utmost importance.' Dr Jarvie said the pothole had been a 'major problem' for several weeks (stock of Mercedes) A Venezuelan woman gave birth to a healthy boy on the ground beside a taxi in Colombia, just blocks away from the hospital. Jhoanis Corteles and her husband Abel Urbina hailed a yellow cab in Caribbean coastal city of Santa Marta on Sunday afternoon after the expecting mother began having contractions. Juan Carlos Alvarado was about to finish his shift but the 20-year taxi veteran decided to help out the family and weaved through traffic to a local medical center, according to Colombian news outlet HOY Diario del Magdalena. But at 5:30PM local time, little Albes Josue decided he had spent too much time inside his mother's womb. Jhoanis Corteles, who migrated from Venezuela with her husband months ago, went into labor in the backseat of a taxi in northeastern Colombia on Sunday. She gave birth to a healthy baby boy, Albes Josue Abel Urbina poses with his son, Albes Josue, moments after the boy was born on the side of a road in Colombia Corteles, who along with her husband has been living in Colombia for just a couple of months after fleeing Venezuela, went into birth in the backseat of the taxi. Alvarado was forced to stop his car on the side of the road when the woman screamed that she was giving birth. 'Because the journey between the area where they were and the health center was far, the woman could not stand it and it was necessary to stop the vehicle on the side of the road and advance the delivery there,' Alvarado told El Tiempo. With the umbilical cord still intact, the cabby placed Albes Josue on top of the mom's abdomen and took off for Fernando Troconis University Hospital and asked for a stretcher. Juan Carlos Alvarado (left) was behind the steering wheel of a taxi and was about to end his shift when a pregnant woman and her husband stopped in a street and urged him to take them to the hospital A doctor at a hospital in the Caribbean coastal city of Santa Marta gets ready to take a newborn baby (circled) inside the hospital moments after the umbilical was cut inside a taxi Doctors at the hospital quickly jumped into action outside the center's emergency entrance and completed the delivery inside the taxi instead of wheeling her inside the hospital. Video of the scene outside the hospital shows a doctor covering the baby with a white blanket and racing towards the hospital's entrance while another team of doctors stood behind to stabilize Corteles. The baby and his mother, who also has a two-year-old daughter, remained hospitalized for further evaluations. Alvarado and his fellow cab drivers have started raising money to help Albes Josue's parents. A U.S. Navy hospital ship docked off the coast of Colombia is treating refugees from Venezuela amid a spiraling migrant crisis in the region. The USNS Comfort has taken hundreds of patients on board during a four-day mission of health care relief, treating Venezuelan refugees and Colombians who have found their country's medics unable to cope with the pressure. Some three million Venezuelans have fled their country's economic and humanitarian crisis since 2015 and the U.S. government has linked the country to the migrant caravans which have been fiercely criticized by President Donald Trump. Migrants on the hospital ship were yesterday undergoing surgery for everything from tooth extractions to hernias. The USNS Comfort, pictured earlier this month, has taken hundreds of patients on board during a four-day mission to treat Venezuelan refugees and Colombians Colombian and Venezuelan patients rest after their surgeries on board the hospital ship USNS Comfort which is on a four-day mission to provide emergency health care relief Elvis Trazadania, from Venezuela, receives dental treatment from doctors working out of the USNS Comfort hospital ship in Colombia The ship's trip to Riohacha is part of a larger 11-week tour to several Latin American countries heavily impacted by the exodus of Venezuelans. Many of the migrants are driven to flee by lack of access to medicine and treatment in their home country. One patient, Niurka Roldan, said she left Venezuela with several decaying teeth and a jaw abnormality that she was not able to treat. During her two years in Colombia, she said she has struggled to make ends meet, let alone afford dental care. 'It was very frustrating not to be able to do this in my country, nor in Colombia,' she said. The Navy is taking patients needing surgery aboard the ship while also operating two concurrent land medical sites for minor conditions. In the first day of service on Monday, physicians tended to more than 700 patients and completed 39 surgeries. Captain Kevin Buckley said dental surgeries and operations to remove cataracts and hernias are among the most common procedures being performed. Colombian and Venezuelan patients walk towards a helicopter to be flown from the USNS Comfort hospital ship to Riohacha yesterday A member of the crew of the hospital ship USNS Comfort poses for a photo with Colombian patients Sebastian Moscote, left, and his brother Said after hernia surger A U.S. doctor from the USNS Comfort hospital ship examines Colombian national Oscar Ovalle before cataract surgery, on board the vessel which has taken hundreds of patients on board 'I feel like I'm a father watching my kid ride a bike for the first time,' he said of the joy of watching patients see and live without pain again. The ship's arrival comes at a tense time for U.S.-Venezuela relations, as President Nicolas Maduro's government becomes increasingly isolated amid mounting financial sanctions and international outcry over human rights violations. Socialist party leader Diosdado Cabello has likened the U.S. ship to a 'Trojan horse' designed to generate fear among the Venezuelan population. Venezuela's government allowed a Chinese hospital ship to visit the country in September, but generally denies that a humanitarian crisis is underway. Vice President Mike Pence said he had been told by Honduras' president thatthe caravan moving towards the U.S. was being organized by leftists financed by Venezuela. Between 2017 and 2018, the number of emergency room visits by Venezuelans in Colombia has increased by 202 per cent, according to officials. The vast majority have no medical insurance and must go through a lengthy process to qualify for treatment of chronic conditions. According to Colombia's National Institute of Health, over 2,000 Venezuelans have died thus far in 2018 from illnesses including malnutrition, malaria and transmittable diseases, among others - up from 863 such deaths in all of the previous year. Two men who picked up a drunk woman outside a pub and then took turns raping her in the back seat of a car three years ago have finally been sentenced after a retrial. Mohamed Al Maialy, 25, and Fahed Shgahy, 24, were each found guilty by a jury earlier this month of aggravated sexual penetration without consent in relation to the April 2015 incident in Perth. Al Maialy and Shgahy were each sentenced to five years in jail, the same sentence they received at their original trial in 2016 before their convictions were quashed earlier this year. The woman had been drinking at the Elephant and Wheelbarrow pub (pictured) in Perth when she was approached by Mohamed Al Maialy and Fahed Shgahy, who later raped her The WA Court of Appeal found that the original prosecutor made 'ill-advised' comments about the Middle Eastern offenders in his closing address, in which he likened the men to 'vultures' and 'hyenas on the savannah in Africa waiting to pick on the most vulnerable animal, helpless and alone', Perth Now reported. Former Chief Justice Wayne Martin found the comments had the capacity to 'evoke notions of racial prejudice against the accused and sympathy for the complainant'. Prosecutor Mark Hunter, who was not involved in the first trial, told the West Australian District Court during the sentencing retrial on Tuesday that there was a 'predatory aspect' to the men's offending. Judge Stephen Scott noted the woman had consumed a 'considerable amount of alcohol' on the night she was attacked and did not recall many details. She had been drinking at the Elephant and Wheelbarrow pub in Northbridge with friends, who had left by the time Shgahy and Al Maialy approached her outside. The woman, now aged 28, testified she sat in the back seat of the car and the next thing she remembered was a man lying on top of her at Kings Park. The woman was driven to Kings Park (pictured), where she was raped by the two men She said one man stood outside while she was raped, but she could not say how long it lasted and did not recall the second attack. Her next memory was looking for her phone in the back seat. Shgahy later found the woman's phone and kept it, the court heard. A third man came to the woman's aid after she was driven back to Northbridge, and took her to a police station where a urine sample recorded an alcohol reading of 0.292, almost six times the legal driving limit. Both men claimed the sex was consensual but Judge Scott described the woman as vulnerable and said it would not have been surprising that she sobered up when she realised what had happened to her. Former Chief Justice Wayne Martin (pictured) found the comments by the original prosecutor in his closing address at the 2016 trial had the capacity to 'evoke notions of racial prejudice against the accused and sympathy for the complainant' 'She was so intoxicated that she was incapable of giving consent,' he said. 'Rather than show any concern for her condition, for example, by calling her a taxi so that she might get home safely, you each seized upon the opportunity of having sex with her.' Judge Scott added that neither man was genuinely remorseful for their actions. In her victim impact statement, the woman said she was paranoid about going to places where she did not know anyone and her social life had been severely curtailed. She also said she now disliked being touched. Mohamed Al Maialy and Fahed Shgahy were sentenced to five years in relation to the rape of a woman in a car in Kings Park (pictured) in April 2015 Judge Scott said women were entitled to enjoy themselves without being preyed upon for their vulnerability if they drink. 'They should be able to socialise and if they have by chance had too much to drink they ought to be able to be transported home safely,' he said. 'Those who would prey upon their vulnerability can expect to be severely punished.' With time already served, Shgahy could be eligible for parole immediately. Al Maialy will remain behind bars until at least August 2020. The number of immigrants in the U.S. illegally has declined to its lowest level in more than a decade, according to a new report released Tuesday. The Pew Research Center estimates that 10.7 million immigrants lacked legal status in 2016, down from 11 million a year earlier and from a peak of 12.2 million in 2007 before the U.S. economy slumped. The latest figure is the lowest since 2004, the report said. After rising steadily from 1990-2007, the number of immigrants in the country illegally has declined over the past decade, according to Pew Research Center The decline stems largely from a drop in the number of Mexican immigrants living in the U.S. illegally to 5.5 million in 2016 from nearly 7 million in 2007. Some returned to their country to reunite with family, while others were deported. During the same period, the number of immigrants from Central America without legal status increased to nearly 1.9 million from 1.5 million. Now, the nation's current population of immigrants in the country illegally includes fewer new arrivals than it did 10 years ago. Two-thirds of adults who live in the country illegally have been in the U.S. for more than 10 years. The report comes as the Trump administration has cracked down on immigration and bolstered security on the Southwest border, where thousands of Central American families have arrived to seek asylum. As the number of immigrants in the country illegally declined, so too has fallen the number of unauthorized workers - and their share of the overall U.S. workforce. In addition, an increasing number of these immigrants live in households with U.S.-born children - 43 percent in 2016 compared to 32 percent in 2007. The Pew report is based on U.S. Census Bureau data. It also noted an increase in the number of immigrants without legal status from India and Venezuela and a decrease in those from Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Korea and Peru. Overall, immigrants without legal status are less likely to be recent arrivals, said D'Vera Cohn, who co-authored the report. The report also notes that the number of legal immigrants grew to 34.4 million from 28.3 million over the nine-year period, and that more than half of the country's legal immigrants in 2016 were naturalized U.S. citizens. Domestic flights across Australia are being cancelled due to Sydney's worst November storm in 44 years. Sydney was lashed by almost a month's worth of rainfall in just one hour on Wednesday morning causing widespread commuter chaos across the city. The conditions had an impact outside of the harbour city, with flights from Sydney to cities across the country delayed and cancelled as a result of the wild weather. Flights heading to Sydney from other Australian cities have also been delayed or cancelled. Scroll down for video Domestic flights across Australia are being cancelled due to Sydney's worst November storm in 44 years The unrelenting conditions have had an impact beyond the harbour city, cancelling and delaying flights to cities across the country (Sydney Airport pictured) Sydney Airport tweeted: 'Due to adverse weather conditions today, we expect that International and Domestic terminals will experience some flight delays and cancellations.' 'Please contact your airline for more information.' Sydney Airport had just one runway in use on Wednesday morning. Qantas, Virgin Australia, Emirates and China Southern flights from Sydney were among those cancelled. With heavy rain and strong winds expected to continue into the evening, passengers were advised to check websites and with their airline for delays. At least 10 flights bound for Brisbane have been delayed and Qantas, Virgin Australia, Tiger Air and Jetstar flights have also been cancelled Daily Mail Australia reporter Lauren Ferri, who was on a flight home to Sydney from Bali, described hectic scenes at the airport on Wednesday morning. 'We've been sitting on the tarmac for an hour, no one knows what's going on,' she said. 'Everyone's getting pretty frustrated. There's nowhere I want to be stuck more during a storm than Sydney Airport's tarmac in a big metal box.' The Hobart Airport website also shows some flights from Sydney have been cancelled A Sydney Airport spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia the weather was 'pretty intense'. 'We've had winds of up to 70km/h, when this happens we go down to a single runway,' she said. 'Passengers should check with airlines before coming to the airport, but due to the weather there will be delays and cancellations.' Travellers shared their updates on Twitter as they endured frustrating hold-ups. 'Flight out of Melbourne is super delayed thanks to #SydneyStorm and the kid chucking a quiet tantrum next to me is everyone's mood: ''I want to be at home in my BED'',' one person tweeted. 'My flight has been cancelled. Let the battle to get to Melbourne begin. #SydneyStorm,' shared another. Melbourne Airport's website lists that Qantas, Virgin Australia, Emirates and China Southern flights from Sydney have been cancelled Sydney's entire transport system was affected by the storm. The city's Light Rail service was cancelled on Wednesday morning. The State Emergency Service warned that intense bursts of rain would continue into the night and encouraged people to stay off the roads. A former Virginia Tech student has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for helping her friend plan the murder of 13-year-old girl. Natalie Keepers, 21, was sentenced on Tuesday for her role in the 2016 fatal stabbing of Nicole Lovell. Keepers was found guilty in September of being an accessory to first-degree murder and had earlier pleaded guilty to helping conceal Lovell's body. She helped her friend David Eisenhauer in planning Lovell's death by buying a shovel, assisting in picking out a spot to commit the murder and texting him about their plans. Natalie Keepers, 21, was sentenced on Tuesday for her role in the 2016 fatal stabbing of Nicole Lovell. She is pictured above during her trial in September Keepers, of Laurel, Maryland, and Eisenhauer, of Columbia, Maryland, were both freshmen engineering students at the time of the killing. Lovell was a Blacksburg middle school student. Eisenhauer is currently serving a 50-year sentence after pleading no contest earlier this year to first-degree murder. Prosecutors said Eisenhauer met Lovell online and talked to her for months before meeting her in person. They said he killed her because he feared she would expose their relationship. Lovell, who was a Blacksburg middle school student at the time, was stabbed and dumped in in North Carolina in 2016 Keepers helped her friend David Eisenhauer in planning Lovell's death. Eisenhauer is currently serving a 50-year sentence after pleading no contest to first-degree murder Keepers told police she and Eisenhauer talked about various ways to kill the girl. 'He was bouncing so many ideas off my head, I couldn't keep track of them all,' she said in police video clips. 'He was the one who officially developed the plan.' Keepers admitted that she later helped dump Lovell's body in North Carolina after Eisenhauer stabbed her. She insisted that she wasn't present for the actual killing. A medical examiner testified that Lovell had 14 stab wounds, including a lethal wound to her neck. Her remains were left beside a highway in North Carolina near the Virginia border. A large number of whales have beached themselves on the coastlines of Australia and New Zealand in the past week. On Sunday afternoon a passer-by discovered 28 beached whales at Croajingolong National Park in Victoria's far east, following two further beachings in New Zealand. The discoveries again raised the question of what causes such mass beachings and whether the incidences could be linked. Scroll down for video A large number of whales are mysteriously becoming beached on the Australian and New Zealand coastlines (Pictured: Beached whales at Mason Bay on Stewart Island) The discoveries are raising questions about why the mass beachings of the huge mammals are occurring and whether the separate incidents could be linked (pictured: Croajingolong National Park) A passer-by first spotted the beached whales at the Victorian national park around 4pm on Sunday afternoon and alerted authorities. A wildlife expert was flown into the area and pronounced most of the 28 stranded whales dead. The expert deemed it unlikely that any of the animals would survive. The Department of Environment Land Water and Planning and Parks Victoria attended to the stranded whales. Incident controller Michael Turner said 27 pilot whales and one humpback whale were found. Mr Turner said they had flown in experienced staff including a wildlife expert by helicopter to conduct an initial assessment late on Sunday afternoon. 'They have found that unfortunately most of the whales have died, with the few remaining not expected to survive,' Mr Turner said. Also on Sunday, ten Pygmy killer whales were found stranded at New Zealand's 90 Mile Beach in Northland (Pictured: Volunteers assisting a stranded pygmy killer whale) New Zealand's Department of Conservation (DOC) confirmed to Daily Mail Australia they have attempted to refloat six of the whales and their progress is being monitored A spokeswoman from New Zealand's DOC said they were in the process of collecting DNA from the beached whales in an attempt to determine the reason behind their behaviour (Pictured: Volunteers and DOC staff hold a pygmy killer whale in a stream) 'The whales are in a very remote part of the Croajingolong National Park that is only accessible on foot.' Also on Sunday, ten Pygmy killer whales were found stranded at New Zealand's 90 Mile Beach in Northland. Two of the whales had since died. New Zealand's Department of Conservation (DOC) confirmed to Daily Mail Australia they attempted to refloat six of the whales and their progress was being monitored. Why do whales beach themselves? In short, no one knows, but theories include: Navigational errors: Gently sloping coastlines and food rich ocean currents close to shore can lead to confusion. Toxic algae blooms: Along with viruses can cause mass sickness in pods and the animals may be too sick to swim. Shipping and military sonar interference: This can scare the animals and cause distress and even decompression sickness as they swim to the surface. Mass suicides: There is little evidence to support this theory. Advertisement A spokeswoman from New Zealand's DOC said they were in the process of collecting DNA from the beached whales, in an attempt to determine the reason behind their behaviour. On Saturday, an alarming huge mass beaching of up to 145 pilot whales occurred off New Zealand's South Island. Half of the whales had already died by the time they were found and the decision was made to euthanise the remainder due to the remote location. '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,' Department of Conservation Rakiura operations manager Ren Leppens said. 'However, it's always a heart-breaking decision to make.' In a separate incident, a 15 metre sperm whale became stranded at New Zealand's Tokerau Beach in Doubtful Bay on Friday afternoon. The whale died in the early hours of Saturday morning. The three recent beached whale occurrences in New Zealand were being treated as nothing more than 'coincidental', the DOC spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia. 'There are a number of different factors that could have caused the whale strandings,' she said. One reason why whales become beached on land was navigational errors, particularly around gently sloping seabeds that meet land. Another explanation was that the animals become too sick to swim. Viruses and toxic algae blooms can cause mass sickness within a pod. A spokesperson from the Government Department of Environment and Energy told Daily Mail Australia: 'We have a limited understanding of why whales strand. 'Pilot whales are a species that is more commonly involved in mass strandings. 'This may be due their behaviour being adapted to living in deep water, which increases their risk of stranding when they find themselves in shallow coastal waters. 'It has been suggested that weather conditions immediately prior to strandings may be a contributing factor.' Two of the whales have since died (pictured: Pygmy killer whale being pulled by a DOC vehicle) A baby girl (pictured) was still alive when she was allegedly tossed in a river by her 48-year-old father A baby girl found dead on a Gold Coast beach was still alive when she was allegedly thrown into a river by her father, it can be revealed. An autopsy on the nine-month-old's body found she was conscious at the time her homeless father, 48, allegedly 'sacrificed' her into the water wearing only a nappy, late on Saturday, November 17. Police sources told Daily Mail Australia the autopsy revealed drowning was the likely cause of the infant's death, and ruled out speculation she may have been dead prior to entering the water. Over the next 36 hours the little girl's body was washed 30 kilometres north, before being found in the shallows of a beach in Surfers Paradise, Queensland, by a passerby the following Monday. Late last week the baby's father was charged with her murder, with court documents revealing he allegedly lied to his 23-year-old partner about where he was taking their daughter. Scroll down for video The child was allegedly thrown into the water at Jack Evans Harbour in New South Wales late on Saturday, before washing up on a beach at Surfers Paradise, Queensland, on Monday Police will allege the baby's father (pictured) threw the child into the Tweed River while the infant was wearing only a nappy Court documents seen by the Gold Coast Bulletin detail the final hours of the child's life, as she travelled around the Gold Coast with her homeless parents. The homeless couple were visited by police in a park at Broadbeach about 3am last Saturday morning after reports of a domestic violence incident. According to the court documents, the officers who visited the pair raised concerns about 'their ability to provide care and shelter for their children'. Later that day the family, including their two-year-old son, made their way south and across the NSW border to Kingscliff, before catching a bus to Tweed Heads. They spent the remainder of the day in the vicinity of Jack Evans Harbour, at which time the couple reportedly asked another homeless woman to take the baby. Police will allege the man said to the child's mother: 'Let them have this time to themselves to get to know each other'. Police divers spent the weekend searching for evidence in the Tweed River, where the baby girl was allegedly dumped by her father The little girl was found dead by the water (pictured) at Surfers Paradise in the early hours of Monday morning, 30 kilometres north of where she was allegedly dumped in NSW After a short period with the girl, the woman allegedly handed her back and told the couple: 'I can't do it, I'm living on the street (too)'. A heavy downpour saw the parents and their two children flee to a shopping centre for protection from the rain. That night the family were captured on CCTV footage pushing a trolley with their two kids, who were both only wearing nappies. On Sunday the family were again spotted on CCTV in the Broadbeach area, this time without the baby girl. About 12.30am the next day the infant was found by a passerby in the surf of the popular beach. Before the baby's death, the family were living between a run-down van and a small shack made from twigs and sticks (pictured) The primitive living conditions (pictured) of the family led a number of women to offer to take care of the two children, but the parents declined Police took the child's parents into custody, before releasing the mother without charge on Tuesday. She is currently under watch in a mental health facility. The baby's father was charged with murder at Tweed Heads Local Court on Thursday just hours after being extradited from Queensland. He did not give an address as he appeared via videolink and did not enter a plea. He was remanded in custody until February 25. This is the adorable moment a young boy who was born with three holes in his heart is taken for a tour inside a garbage truck that has been named after him. Roman Hill was only one week old when doctors discovered three holes in his tiny heart, known as a ventricular septal defect. The condition meant Roman would get sicker than other children, be more susceptible to diseases, and not have enough energy, Perth Now reported. Roman Hill (pictured) was only a week old when doctors discovered three holes in his tiny heart, known as a ventricular septal defect The condition meant Roman would get sicker than other children, be more susceptible to diseases, and not have enough energy By the age of three, the young Perth boy required open-heart surgery - a quadruple bypass - to help him live a normal life By the age of three, the young Perth boy required a quadruple bypass to fix his heart. Despite all his medical troubles, Roman's developed a love of garbage truck drivers and their rubbish-collection vehicles. 'He literally plays with them all day, watches them on YouTube, sits in our driveways with us four times every Thursdays waiting for them and even gets them painted on his face,' Roman's mother Becky Hill wrote on Facebook. 'His favourite shirt is a bin truck shirt, his drink bottle is a bin truck drink bottle. 'His answer to everything like "what do you want for breakfast, Roman?" and his answer is bin truck'. Roman's obsession with watching and learning everything about garbage trucks is all-encompassing (Pictured: Roman's reaction after seeing garbage trucks in front of his house) Roman required open heart surgery when he was only three years old. His love for garbage trucks pulled him through A few days before his open-heart surgery, a friend of the family got in contact with the Cleanaway waste management company to ask if one of the drivers could slow down and wave at Roman. The team instead went ahead and brought 'three trucks and a a fleet of drivers rocked up on my street to give us tours, beep the horn and teach Roman about them'. Cleanaway had also teamed up with the City of Mandurah so they could surprise Roman with a garbage truck that had been named after him. 'The smile on Roman's face was unbelievable. It was a pleasure to meet such a huge truck fan, and make a wish come true,' Mandurah operations supervisor Brad Smith said. 'We were just excited to be able to brighten up young Roman's life for a little while he was having a really tough time,' Cleanaway regional manager Damien Moss told the publication. 'The way his eyes light up when he sees us going about what we do every day, it's just something else.' 'We were just excited to be able to brighten up young Roman's life for a little while he was having a really tough time,' Cleanaway regional manager Damien Moss said 'The smile on Roman's face was unbelievable. It was a pleasure to meet such a huge truck fan, and make a wish come true,' operations supervisor Brad Smith said A few days later on August 15, 2017, Roman had his open-heart surgery and it 'went without a hitch. Perfect, they said', his mother wrote on Facebook. He struggled with a few minor complications while he recovered in intensive care but was able to breathe on his own. Roman, who is now five years-old, 'had a wonderful year turning five'. 'He requested another bin truck cake for his birthday but this year he wanted blue like the #cleanaway trucks,' she wrote. 'Roman can blow balloons up by himself and ride his bike with no training wheels. He is enjoying the warmer weather giving him more time with his friends outside exploring. So proud of how well is he doing'. There has been a huge outpouring of support for a young Syrian refugee who was 'waterboarded' by a bully at his Yorkshire school. The 15-year-old was filmed being set upon by a schoolmate in Huddersfield in footage that has shocked the country and has led to thousands of pounds being raised to support his family. Thousands have flocked to support the teenager and bemoaned how he escaped war-torn Homs only to be abused by youngsters in the UK. A fundraising campaign for the boy and his family has soared past 108,000 in less than 24 hours. A shocking video of the assault sparked national outcry and a huge outpouring of support for the boy after it was shared thousands of times on social media. More than 108,000 has been raised for a teenage Syrian refugee after a video of him being bullied at school was posted online. The victim, in white and wearing a blue cast on his left arm, was approached on the school field as others looked on In the video, the attacker, carrying a water bottle, headbutts him, and pushes him to the ground The distressing clip, filmed at Almondbury Community School in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, shows an attacker telling his victim 'I'll drown you' before he launched into the sickening attack. This afternoon the total on the GoFundMe page had topped 108,000 and was continuing to rise. One woman who donated, named Rose, said: 'I struggle for words when I think about everything your family has been through escaping Syria and starting a new life in a country that treats you like this. I want to help in any way possible.' Another donor, Simon Porter, said: 'Syrian refugee children who have fled a war torn country being bullied in a UK school is unacceptable.' David Paton added: 'Poor boy. He manages to escape war and tyranny, only to be bullied by some low life thug in the UK. What an absolute disgrace this bully is, shame on you.' Mohammed Tahir, who set up the crowdfunding page for the bullying victim, said he had been overwhelmed by the support it had received. He said: 'I can't thank everyone enough for the generous donations they have made.' The bully then holds his victim's throat she her pours water over his face MP Nadine Dorries called for 'serious action' over the bullying and added the UK should 'open its arms' to those facing persecution It came as police said a 16-year-old boy is to be charged with assault as it emerged the victim's sister had her headscarf ripped off in another attack. West Yorkshire Police said the teenager has been interviewed and reported for summons over the incident on a school field and will appear before a youth court 'in due course.' The boy was quizzed over the footage in which the 15-year-old victim, whose arm is in a sling, is headbutted, then pinned down and squirted in the face with water. Today it also emerged the victim's sister, who fled the war torn city of Homs with her family, was assaulted on the same day the shocking video went viral on social media. The girl, who has been subject to so much playground abuse she once tried to kill herself by cutting her wrists with a shard of glass, was attacked yesterday by her tormentors. A lawyer for the family confirmed to MailOnline that the boy and his sister have been subjected to so much abuse that their investigators contacted police, the local council and the the local MP. Teenager accused of 'water-board' attack on 15-year-old Syrian refugee is 'a Britain First supporter' who has shared posts from Tommy Robinson on Facebook The schoolboy who allegedly 'waterboarded' a Syrian refugee on a school field shared posts from the Facebook page of EDL founder Tommy Robinson. The 16-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, also uploaded links to right wing organisation Britain First, it emerged today. In one he said the organisation 'do right' and re-posted links to Robinson mocking burkas. In another post he shared a link to an extremist blog that threatened to 'expose Islam' and alleged that Muslims claimed raping white British children was 'part of their culture'. He also shared a parody video with an actor dressed up as Adolf Hitler, titled 'Are you fed up with being labelled 'FAR-RIGHT'?' Another of the posts, shared from the page of English Defence League founder Robinson, apparently referenced comments by Boris Johnson about Muslim women wearing veils, read: 'Should Britain ban letterboxes because of all the trouble they're causing?' Robinson was jailed for contempt of court earlier this year after posting videos about a child grooming trial involving a group of Asian men from Huddersfield. He was later freed on appeal. West Yorkshire Police today said the teenager has been interviewed and reported for summons over the incident at Almondbury Community School in Huddersfield, and will appear before a youth court 'in due course.' The boy was quizzed over the footage in which the 15-year-old victim, whose arm is in a sling, is headbutted, then pinned down and squirted in the face with water. Advertisement Mohammed Akunjee, of Farooq Bajwa & Co, based in Mayfair, London, said: 'We have been investigating this since the family contacted us about the abuse they are receiving. 'The boy and his sister have been subjected to so much abuse that we decided to contact the MP in this case. 'The same day the video went viral on social media of [the boy] being attacked, his sister was also attacked. 'She had her headscarf ripped off in the playground. This is despite us complaining to the school about the abuse. 'She has also attempted suicide, and tried to cut her wrists with a shard of glass the level of bullying got so much.' Mr Akunjee said they have contacted the school and the local authority, but have not been given any information on what action was being taken. He did confirm that the attacker, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was excluded on November 20. Three other boys that appear in the video are being dealt with by the school. In statement West Yorkshire Police said a 16-year-old youth has been interviewed and reported for summons for an offence of assault. The statement said: 'The incident occurred on 25 October this year and has been subject to thorough investigation since it was reported to us the day after. 'The victim and his family are receiving ongoing support from police and other agencies. 'Safeguarding measures have been put in place for the victim and his family. 'A previous unconnected incident on 7 October, in which the victim suffered a wrist injury, was also fully investigated at the time. 'Three youths were interviewed. There was no further police action and the matter was referred to the school.' The family is believed to have fled from the Syrian city of Homs which was under siege from May 2011 to 2014 following protests against dictator Bashar al-Assad. The footage, filmed by a friend of the attacker, shows the victim, already with his arm in a plaster cast being targeted on the school field. The attacker then loosens his grip, the victim gets up and calmly walks away as other students watch on Police outside the Almondbury Community School in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire today, where the attack happened How did the youngster get to the UK? The family of the bullied boy are understood to have come to Britain under a UN resettlement programme after fleeing war-torn Syria. They are believed to have been living in the city of Homs, which has one of the highest death tolls of any city caught up in the conflict. It is said the boy's relatives were tortured and murdered by the Assad regime, causing them to escape the carnage of the country's civil war. They are understood to have got into neighbouring Lebanon - where there are a number of large refugee camps - from where they were given safe passage to Britain. In 2015, the Home Office announced plans to bring 20,000 displaced people from the region to the UK. Around 550 of those were placed in West Yorkshire and the boy's family are understood to have been among the 130 sent to the Kirklees area. At the time, a council spokesman said: 'The families who are escaping persecution in Syria were identified as being some of those most in need of support. 'The families were relocated to the area as part of the vulnerable persons relocation (VPR) scheme.' Advertisement The victim, who came to Huddersfield two years ago, is headbutted, dragged to the floor by his neck and then pinned down by his throat. The 16-year-old boy attacking him shouts: 'I'll drown you.' He then tries to force water from a bottle into the boy's mouth as his victim struggles underneath him. After the attack, the victim frees himself and calmly walks away. Despite a large crowd gathering, none of the other children follow him as he walks off, alone. The incident occurred last month but it has now been shared thousands of times on Facebook by people angry at a 'lack of action by school chiefs'. Locals named who they claimed was responsible for the attack online, and witnesses said police were at the teen's house last night. Family members of the supposed attacker were also named and received death threats online. A Facebook account believed to belong to the boy features numerous posts shared from the page of English Defence League founder Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon. One of those posts, apparently referencing comments by Boris Johnson about Muslim women wearing veils, read: 'Should Britain ban letterboxes because of all the trouble they're causing?' Robinson was jailed for contempt of court earlier this year after posting videos about a child grooming trial involving a group of Asian men from Huddersfield. He was later freed on appeal. In one post by the boy said to have carried out the attack, he said the organisation 'do right' and re-posted links to Robinson mocking burkas Another of the posts, shared from the page Robinson, referenced comments by Boris Johnson about Muslim women wearing veils, read: 'Should Britain ban letterboxes because of all the trouble they're causing?' Another showed images of riots, with the words: OUR WORLD TODAY the hell created by one evil ideology' Huddersfield goalkeeper invites bullied Syrian refugee to a game and MMA star offers to pay for martial arts class in national outpouring of support The video of the Syrian refugee being 'waterboarded' has sparked a wave of outrage across Britain and triggered a huge outpouring of support for the victim. Thousands have taken to social media to express their disgust at the incident after footage of the attack went viral. The Huddersfield Town Supporters' Association offered to host the victim and his family at a football match to show they are welcome in the town. It was also met with a call from the club's goalkeeper Jonas Lossl, who backed TV presenter Jake Humphrey in offering tickets to the next match. Humphrey wrote to the local MP: Please find out which football team he/they support and let me buy them an all-expenses paid trip to a game. Thanks. Lossl added: 'I completely agree with @mrjakehumphrey. 'I'd like to show my love to **** by inviting him and his family to a @htafcdotcom game as my guest. Meanwhile, others have offered lessons in martial arts and self-defense including John Kavanaugh, the coach of Irish fighting superstar Conor McGregor, who tweeted, 'He's free membership for life at @SBG_Ireland anyway if he can ever make it.' MMA fighter Joanne Doyle responded, 'He would also be welcome at our gym in Bradford @teamfulinkazan I will happily cover his training costs, also my head coach (Mark Spencer) teaches at @TheFightLab in Huddersfield. Hope he has the confidence to attend a class.' Advertisement The video has been viewed more than 27,000 times and attracted hundreds of comments of disgust from Huddersfield parents. Tory MP Tobias Ellwood was among those to share the footage, writing online: 'Absolute disgrace - Please retweet. 'This bully, his parents, the school where this occurs and the onlookers who fail to step in, all have big questions to answer. 'To the Syrian refugee - I say sorry. It's not the welcoming, friendly Britain we are supposed to be.' The footage was called 'heartbreaking' by presenter Jeremy Vine. He said on Twitter: 'I'm trying to resist naming the bully in this film. More important, is it possible to do anything for the victim? 'A Syrian refugee who already had a broken wrist, apparently from a similar attack. Heartbreaking.' Barry Sheerman, the Labour MP for Huddersfield, said he has been supporting the teenager's family. He said: 'Video of assault against one of my constituents absolutely shocking. 'Have been supporting the family since it was first brought to my attention. 'Understand from council that the school have taken strong action. 'Will be following up to ensure all available support is being given!' An outraged mother of another pupil at the school said the victim was a 'nice boy' who is 'never in trouble.' Shanaz Abdullah, 39 said her son Birayar, 17, played football with the victim in school last year. She said: 'I know what he has been through. The victim was much younger than my son but there was a group of them who were all from different countries. More than 100 Syrian refugees were brought to Huddersfield under a programme from 2015 Huddersfield's history of welcoming those from abroad The most recent census found that 79 per cent of the population in Kirklees, the area in which Huddersfield sits, are white, while around 16 per cent describe themselves as Asian or British-Asian. The population data is slightly diffent for school pupils, according to data from last year. That shows around 60 per cent of pupils are white British or white, while around 25 per cent are Asian of Pakistani heritage or Asian of Indian heritage. Around 53 per cent of people in Kirklees describe themselves as Christian, 15 per cent say they are Muslim and 24 per cent say they have no religion. In 2015, the Home Office announced plans to bring 20,000 displaced people from the region to the UK. Around 550 of those were placed in West Yorkshire and the boy's family are understood to have been among the 130 sent to the Kirklees area. Advertisement 'He struggled to speak English when he first moved here. I asked my son once 'why is the boy playing with you so much younger?' 'He told me it was because he was being bullied by other boys and they wanted him to play with them. He is such a nice boy. He is never in any trouble and would never cause anything.' Syrian journalist Danny Makki said on Twitter: 'Escapes death, destruction and violence in Syria only to be viciously attacked, waterboarded and bullied at school in the U.K. This makes my blood boil.' A woman added: 'One of the saddest things about that video is the way the lad gets up and walks away as if he's used to being treated like it... like it's normal. I hope karma is real.' On the GoFundMe page set up to raise money for the victim it said the family are 'refugees in the UK and they struggle to meet the basic necessities of life. It adds: 'We want to raise money for the family to ease their situation and hopefully they can use the funds to help improve their quality of life and to put a smile on their faces. 'Having left a war torn country, the least they deserve is to live in peace without being harassed. 'Please donate generously and let's change this horrible situation into a blessing in disguise for them.' Tobias Ellwood, Conservative MP for Bournemouth East, received criticism for retweeting the video of the attack on Twitter. Observers questioned whether Mr Ellwood made the right decision by sharing an unredacted version of a video which involves a physical altercation between minors. But last night Mr Ellwood defended himself and said he fears Britain is 'becoming a walk on by society where we're allowing space for these things to happen'. He told BBC Newsnight: 'I worry that we are becoming a 'walk on by' society where we're allowing space for these things to happen. 'We saw another event on the 17th of September where a female police officer was dragged across the ground. 'What did people do there? They laughed as they recorded it on social media. Cars drove by without stopping. That is absolutely wrong. It's that, that I want to challenge. It's that, that I want to change.' When challenged on retweeting the video, he replied: 'You seem to be condoning this behaviour. This is absolutely wrong. Somebody head-butting another child. Where does this bully get these ideas from? That is the question that we all need to pose ourselves. Let me explain. 'My little boy went to pre-school. Day one and he came back with a black eye. When I asked how he got this, he said he stepped in for his friend who was being beaten up by somebody else. Now I can't tell any parent what they should do with their children. 'You're right to mention the vigilantes. They're arguably as bad as the bullies themselves, and have taken these matters into their own hands. And you're also right to say I hope the majority of us do not participate in this behaviour. The point though is, if the majority of us walk on by, we're ignoring the problem. We need to own the problem and solve this. We can only do that if we move on from this walk on by society.' The victim's family fled the Syrian of Homs which was under siege from May 2011 to 2014 following protest against dictator Bashar al-Assad Why have refugees fled Homs for the West? Rebels and civilians withdrew from strongholds in Homs in May 2014, surrendering to President Bashar Assad. The city was once dubbed the 'capital of the revolution'. Few people have returned, and large parts of the once vibrant old city were abandoned and destroyed. Trouble in the western Syrian city began to face trouble in April 2011 when a huge 'sit-in' protest in the city's mains square against Bashar al-Assad's regime was disrupted by government security forces with 62 people killed. In December 2011 the city became a a major base for the Free Syrian Army and it came under siege by the Syrian Army and Hezbollah for three years, with frequent bombing and shelling attacks against the militants. In December 2016 than 2,000 rebels and their families began leaving the last insurgent-held area in the city following several years of combat after reaching a ceasefire with the government. Despite this, at least 32 people were killed and 90 injured in two bomb explosions in the Zahra district in the middle of the city days later, with ISIS claiming responsibility for the attacks. Homs has one of the highest death tolls in the conflict, with the Syrian Martyrs group predicting more than 17,000 deaths in the city, not including government forces. Advertisement Head teacher of Almondbury Community School Trevor Bowen said: 'The safety and welfare of students is of paramount importance to us and this was a very serious incident. 'We are not able to comment further as we are supporting the police with their investigation but I want to be clear that we do not tolerate unacceptable behaviour of any sort in our school.' In a letter to parents, Mr Bowen said: 'You will be aware of widespread media reports about an incident which took place in school. 'The incident happened on our Fernside site a number of weeks ago. 'The safety and welfare of students is our number one priority and I can assure you that this situation is being taken extremely seriously. 'The matter is subject to an ongoing police investigation and, as I am sure you understand, we must be guided by the authorities in the amount of detail we are able to provide. 'However, I can confirm we are working with the police to support their enquiries. 'Since the incident occurred in October, the school, the local authority and the police have all taken action. 'We must allow the legal process to take its course, but I want to be absolutely clear that we do not tolerate unacceptable behaviour of any sort in our school. 'I can also assure you that we are working very hard to ensure it is 'business as usual' across the school and that there is no disruption to the children's education. 'The wellbeing of students is of paramount importance to us and a high level of support is available to anyone who may need it.' A spokesman for Kirklees Council said on Twitter: 'A police investigation is underway into the video from a local school. 'Neither us nor the school condone violence in any form and behaviour like this will not be tolerated.' Waterboarding is used as a form of torture where water is poured over the face of the victim and their breathing passages causing the sensation of drowning. President Donald Trump is threatening to call off a meeting with Vladimir Putin at the G20 over Russian 'aggression' in the Ukraine in a major break with the leader he has tried to befriend. Trump said he's awaiting a 'full report' on Russia's seizure of three Ukrainian ships. The national security briefing will be 'determinitive' on whether he moves ahead with a planned meeting in Argentina with Putin. 'Maybe I wont have the meeting. Maybe I wont even have the meeting,' Trump told the Washington Post in an interview. 'I dont like that aggression. I dont want that aggression at all.' President Donald Trump is threatening to call off a meeting with Vladimir Putin at the G20 over Russian 'aggression' in the Ukraine in a major break with the leader he has tried to befriend U.S. ambassador Nikki Haley furiously condemned Russia at the United Nations this week for taking the ships their crews hostage. '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,' she said on Monday morning. Haley did not threaten new sanctions on Russia, and neither did Trump. She merely stated: 'As President Trump has said many times, the United States would welcome a normal relationship with Russia. But outlaw actions like this one continue to make that impossible.' Trump said he's awaiting a 'full report' on Russia's seizure of three Ukrainian ships. The national security briefing will be 'determinitive' on whether he moves ahead with a planned meeting in Argentina with Putin Sanctions on Russia for the 2014 incursion into Ukraine are still in place. 'The United States will maintain its Crimea-related sanctions against Russia. Further Russian escalation of this kind will only make matters worse,' Haley said on Monday. 'It will further undermine Russia's standing in the world. It will further sour Russias relations with the U.S. and many other countries,' Haley said. Six seamen were wounded when the Russian coast guard opened fire on and then seized three Ukrainian ships during the unprecedented stand-off. Footage has emerged of the Russian coast guard vessel ramming a Ukrainian navy tugboat under the orders 'squash him.' Crew on the Russian ship were told to 'hold on tight' as it plowed into the Ukrainian tug. The clash has raised fears of a wider military escalation and both NATO and the UN Security Council were holding emergency meetings to discuss the crisis on Monday. The 15-member UN Security Council has met dozens of times about the Russia-Ukraine crisis, but its powers have been rendered toothless as the nation is one of the panel's five permanent members status that comes with the power to veto resolutions. Now, Ukraine is preparing to defend itself from a possible invasion, even as Russia accuses Kiev of plotting with its Western allies to provoke a conflict. The Ukraine has imposed martial law on its borders in response. Britain and France immediately castigated Moscow, with British Prime Minister Theresa May called it an 'act of aggression' that provides 'further evidence of Russia's destabilising behaviour in the region.' Spain and Germany also joined EU calls for Russia to release the Ukrainian sailors and ships seized in the Sunday standoff. Trump said Tuesday that he doesn't like the 'aggression' and might not have a planned meeting with Putin. He has a full slate of meetings with foreign leaders when he's at the G20 in Argentina this week. None, save for a dinner with China's Xi Jinping, will be as closely watched, however, than his sit-down with the Russian leader, especially in the wake of the violence. The two leaders will talk about security issues, arm controls issues, and regional issues including Middle East, the president's National Security Advisor John Bolton said Tuesday before Trump's interview with the Post was released. Trump and Putin spoke briefly in France when both men were present for a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I. But they have not had a formal sit down since their July summit in Helsinki, Finland. There, Trump backed Putin's assertion that Moscow did not meddle in the 2016 presidential election, contradicting conclusions from every U.S. intelligence agency. The president later walked back his remarks, saying he meant to say he had no reason to believe U.S. intelligence was wrong and that he had no reason to believe that Putin was lying, as he played clean-up on a poorly-panned news conference. A grieving family has been left outraged after a newly deceased father was made the butt of a racial slur in a funeral notice. Aboriginal man John Hagan was a dedicated employee of Paroo Shire Council in south-west Queensland before he died, The Australian reported. However, his 20 years of service seemed to have been belittled when the council published a funeral notice saying Mr Hagan was 'known to all as "N****r Rat".' Aboriginal man John Hagan (right, with son Bruce) was a dedicated employee of Paroo Shire Council in south-west Queensland for 20 years Paroo Shire Council toook down the November 8 post from its Facebook page after a severe backlash and the threat of legal action from Mr Hagan's family 'Relatives and Friends of the late John Hagan known to all as "N****r Rat" are respectfully invited to attend his funeral service,' said the post made on November 8. Paroo Shire Council took down the notice from its Facebook page after a severe backlash and the threat of legal action from Mr Hagan's family. 'I have never heard anyone call him by the N-word,' Mr Hagan's son Bruce said. 'He worked for 45 years on the railway and then council, paid his taxes and I don't want my dad remembered that way, it's degrading.' Paroo Shire Council chief executive Oliver Simon said he was going to get to the bottom of the matter. However, when pressed, he provided no comment on whether it was appropriate to include racist terms in a funeral notice. On that score, he said the family of the deceased were 'usually consulted' before the funeral notice was put up. Mr Hagan's three children said they weren't aware of the council consulting any family member. They have since considered making a formal complaint under state and commonwealth anti-discrimination laws. Mr Hagan's first cousin, academic and Aboriginal activist Stephen Hagan, said there was no justification for using a racial slur. Paroo Shire Council chief executive Oliver Simon said he was going to get to the bottom of the fiasco He noted his cousin had been called a 'rat' and 'n****r', but the name surfaced at a time when 'Aboriginal people had no rights'. 'It is the most offensive word in the English language, and it says a lot about the casual racism that still exists and which allow something like this to be published,' he said. He told Daily Mail Australia that he was appalled and horrified. 'Unfortunately this goes to the heart of what I've been arguing for a while,' he said. Dr Hagan is one of Australia's first two indigenous diplomats, and has a long history of social advocacy. In 2008, the stand at the rugby league oval in Toowoomba, Queensland was renamed after Dr Hagan pushed to change its moniker from the E.S. 'N****r' Brown stand. Dr Hagan said his cousin was a 'popular fellow' and it showed at his funeral service on November 12. 'I was impressed with the council in terms that when you drove from the church to the cemetery at every intersection there were council members to stop traffic. 'It was a good gesture on the part of the council because he was popular.' But that gesture aside, Dr Hagan said racism had to be called out on all fronts. 'People don't believe they're racist. They think it's okay to have a golliwog as a toy, to eat c**n cheese, or to call a black cat n****r.' Dr Hagan confirmed a legal representative had sent a letter to Paroo Shire Council. A grieving mother has called on the Prime Minister to help her family get answers two years after her daughter's death in Mozambique. Elly Rose Warren, 20, was discovered by a fisherman in a toilet block near a market on Tofo Beach in Mozambique on November 9, 2016. Ms Warren was working volunteering for a marine conservation program in Tofo when her life was cut short just days before she was due to fly home. Her devastated parents Paul Warren and Nicole Cafarella still do not know how their daughter died. A recently launched online petition by her mother described Elly Warren (pictured) as a 'bright, happy, hard working, determined young girl with her whole life ahead of her, lost at the hands of a murderer for no apparent reason.' Mr Warren even visited Tofo in a desperate bid to find answers but found the police investigation was 'botched beyond repair'. Police recorded Ms Warren's death as a 'drug overdose' but Mr Warren says there was no evidence of drugs in her system. Her family believe she was murdered. Ms Cafarella recently launched a petition on Change.org which called n Prime Minister Scott Morrison's help in seeking justice for her daughter. The petition has so far received almost 46,500 signatures. '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, her death must be investigated solely by the Mozambique police,' the petition states 'We ask Scott Morrison 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 Elly's murder and give her some justice.' Elly Warren's body was discovered by a fisherman in the toilet block near a market on Tofo Beach (pictured) in November 2016 Many of the comments on the online petition were posted by Ms Warren's family, friends, former classmates and neighbours. 'I miss her so much It is so unfair that she is not able to live her dreams,' her grandmother Ellen Dickison wrote. 'The person responsible has no right to get away with murder as he may do this again. We all miss Elly so much and love her dearly.' Ms Warren had been in the country for six weeks as part of Underwater Africa, a conservation program that 'helps protect the oceans' and had left program the day before she was found dead. Elly Warren (pictured) was found dead just days she was due to fly home to Australia It's understood Ms Warren attended a party at a bar on the night she died before she walked back to her hostel alone. Tragically, she never checked in. 'Elly's extended family and friends still find it hard to accept that she is gone,' the petition states. 'A bright, happy, hard working, determined young girl with her whole life ahead of her, lost at the hands of a murderer for no apparent reason. 'Elly loved travelling, she loved Africa, the African people and marine life and wanted to make a difference in marine and wildlife conservation.' Multiple autopsies revealed Elly died of asphyxiation from sand and had suffered facial injuries. Toxicology tests revealed she had no drugs and a minimal amount of alcohol in her system. Elly Warren's parents still have little information about what happened to their daughter (pictured), two years after she was found dead Accompanied by 60 Minutes, Mr Warren recently made a heartbreaking visit to Tofo, where his daughter spent her final hours alive. 'In the short time that he was there, he was given various witness accounts in relation to her death, photographs and suggestions as to who may have been involved with her death, it wasn't difficult to obtain this information,' the petition states. 'Our concern is the lack of investigation from Mozambique police and the lack of support from the Australian Government in our quest to find Elly's murderer.' Elly's father Paul Warren (pictured) recently visited Tofo in a desperate search to find answers In Tofo, Mr Warren found a man who had a photograph of his dead daughter. Ms Warren was lying face down in the sand, her legs apart, her underwear around her knees, covered in black sand. 'Everybody that looks at it knows straight out that Elly was murdered,' he told 60 Minutes. Mr Warren also spoke to the woman who identified his daughter on the day her body was found. The woman said that Ms Warren's body had been moved after the initial discovery. 'It's more frustrating than anything else, that nothing's being done,' Mr Warren said. 'The only conclusion I keep coming back to in all of this is that the local police don't want to acknowledge this death as a murder because it'll damage the region's lucrative tourism industry.' The family of Elly Warren (pictured) have begged Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison for help as they continue to seek justice 'Elly (pictured) 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 It's been three weeks since the petition was launched and while federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has publicly pledged his support to help the family, there's still been no word from Mr Morrison. Mr Shorten has since written to Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade secretary Frances Adamson. It's understood a similar letter was directed to Australian Federal Police commissioner Andrew Colvin. A Change.or petition seeking justice for Elly Warren (pictured) has received almost 46,500 signatures 'I urge you to increase diplomatic attention and pressure to facilitate greater Australian involvement in further investigations,' Mr Shorten wrote. 'It is important that we are able to ensure complete confidence in the investigation of Elly's death, see that anyone involved is brought to justice, and provide certainty to Elly's family.' A woman has been dragged along the platform of a train station as thieves tried to steal her bag while she held on for dear life. CCTV footage of the incident at Fruitgrove Train Station, in the south Brisbane suburb of Runcorn, showed two men trying to snatch the tote bag from the woman. She refused to let go and was dragged for several metres along the platform before the men eventually wrestled the bag free. A young woman, who appeared to be friends with the thieves, watched the robbery before running off with the two men. The 19-year-old woman was approached from behind just before thieves tried to steal her bag She was dragged along the ground in circles at a Queensland train station at 10.45pm One of the men - who is described as white and wearing a red cap, shirt, dark pants and grey shoes - attempted to grab the victim's bag from behind at 10.45pm on November 19. A second man - described as white and wearing a black hat, clothes and red shoes - assisted the other man in trying to take the bag from the victim. A woman - described as white with light brown and blonde hair and wearing a pink jumper and black pants - was at the scene with the two attackers but did not physically engage in the robbery. The three fled the station with the bag through multiple sets of stairs as the victim chased after them. She reported the robbery to police immediately. The attackers fled the scene after the robbery by using multiple sets of stairs The 19-year-old was treated at the scene for minor injuries, which included cuts and bruises to her body. Queensland Police were yet to identify the three attackers and were seeking the assistance of the public to come forward with information. The relationship between Chris Watts' parents and his family prior to their murders was non-existent according to investigation documents obtained by DaiyMail.com. In a lengthy text message sent exactly one week before she was murdered, Shanann Watts detailed what had led to the end of her fraught relationship between Cindy and Ronnie Watts. Shanann wrote on August 4 that Cindy and Ronnie had cut off her and the girls because of her fury when she learned that they were serving ice cream with peanut chips in to to their children, despite Cece having a nut allergy. The couple subsequently blocked Shanann on Facebook and did not attend or even call their granddaughter on her birthday. At the same time, Shanann's own mother revealed that Watts' parents did not even attend their son's wedding to her daughter. Scroll down for video Family: Shanann Watts went after her in-laws in a lengthy text to husband Chris sent one week before he murdered her (Shanann above with her daughters) Anger: She called his parents 'evil and stupid' for giving their allergic daughter Celeste nuts and skipping her birthday party after Shanann took them to task over it (Ronnie and Cindy Watts above) The tension between Shanann and her in-laws reached a boiling point while she was in North Carolina for four weeks without Chris, who was working and enjoying time with his mistress back in Colorado. Celeste and Bella were at their grandparents one evening during that vacation when Cindy served ice cream - that allegedly contained peanut chips. 'You should call your dad and tell him you did not appreciate your mom putting your daughter at risk today, nor do you like that she teased our girls,' wrote Shanann to her husband in a text that day. 'You should also say you don't appreciate her saying they have to learn they can't always get what they want! They are 2 and 4!' Watts sided with his wife in his response, writing: 'l will call him and tell him what I think about this. lt's not f***ing cool at all because it is the kids. I will set this right.' Things later soured however when Watts arrived in North Carolina, and his parents opted not to attend Celete's third birthday party. It was too much for Shanann, and she went after her husband in a lengthy text. 'Truth came out last night. l didn't create no dagger between you and your dad. That was done by your mom and your dad and I won't change a thing,' wrote Shannan. 'My daughter's life is way more important and you better believe I wanted to say a whole lot more than I did, but I was being the bigger person and protecting Bella. 'l didn't tell your dad not to come to party. l didn't tell him not to text, or call your daughter, on her birthday. I didn't tell him to start acting like he only has two grandkids instead of 4. I didn't block your family on [Facebook], he did. Myself and your kids have nothing to say to them. They do. 'They owe your kids their life. Your parent's home isn't a safe zone. Your mom isn't safe! 'You can let them tell you what you want, but I didn't tell anyone to stop loving your kids, or stop acting like it. He did that not me. 'You can believe I created this dagger, but I didn't do that. I stood up for our kids, I advocated and protected our children. I don't ever want to hear "l'm sorry I killed your kid because I was stupid." That would kill me. 'These kids are my world and I have to protect them from the evil of the world. I shouldn't have to protect them from evil family. Our kids deserve the same love and attention the other kids get, nothing less. 'l'm not accepting l'm sorry from your mom, because she doesn't mean it and she knew what she was doing. I made it very clear not to eat it around Celeste, because she doesn't understand, way before that happened. 'She's evil and willing to risk your daughter's life just to get under my skin. You and your dad are no different if you are ok with her behavior. 'There's nothing wrong with me and l'm not crazy. I just love my kids way too much.' No-show: It was also revealed by Shanann's mother that Watts' parents did not attend their son's wedding (Watts above on November 19) That was just the first half of the message, with Shanann then going into the issues in their own relationship. 'From the day I left you never said I missed you before I said it. Something changed when I left. You may be happier alone and that's fine. You can be alone! 'This pregnancy, you have failed to acknowledge it, or to acknowledge how l'm feeling. The first trimester is the scariest and most dangerous yet we can lose this baby at any point till delivery. 'l'm not going to be treated this way for having the balls to protect our family and kids. I should get a gold f***ing medal for handling it the way I did, because I had a lot of choice words l wanted to say to her and your dad for his stupidity 'No one stands up to your mom and your dad for that. He's just as guilty by not doing anything. I have nothing to do with him stop sharing memories of his grandkids. What does that have to do with me? 'They are f***ing with our kids feelings and that l'm not ok with. I am their mother and I will protect them. I have enough to worry about with the world out there, l'm not going to worry about family. l will just remove it.' The report notes that this was the end of the first message, which was sent at 3:30 in the morning. There was soon another message from Shanann soon after that read: 'l also don't control what you do. lf you want to go hang out with your parents today, by all means do so, but without us. Don't put it on me why you can't go. You are your own person.' Watts in his initial response seem to be in agreement with his wife. 'These kids mean the world to me and always will. Yes, my mom truly screwed up in a huge way, more than a huge way. I don't know what I would've done if something happened to CeCe,' he wrote. 'These kiddos are the light of my life and seeing their sweet, incredible smiles and playfulness makes me smile every day. l'm sorry for the way l've been acting, it's just been in my head and I haven't been right at all.' Shanann continued on in her attack in a subsequent message, writing: 'I protected our daughter from their stupidity. They created that and you belong with them thinking otherwise. I didn't tell your dad to remove himself from the kid's life... I did and do not deserve to be treated the way you have. l defended our daughter.' Watts again tried to console his wife and defend his parents. 'Yes you protected our daughter and l thank you for that a million times a million. I don't think they are innocent in any of this. They do want to be in the kids' life and l'm not sure they even know how to right now,' wrote Watts. 'They should've swallowed whatever they needed to and came to Cece's Birthday Party and called her and shouldn't have blocked all social media contact with them. I don't care what they do with us, just as long as they love and respect the kids. l'm not use to not having a relationship with my dad. I should've just called him before it got to this point where it got in my head I didn't and that's my fault.' There was a different version of events however from what one Watts' friends told investiugators. He said that Cindy called him crying after her fight with Shanann and that Watts told him not to worrt because he was done with Shanann. That friend also said that Watts and his mother were 'sweet hearted people.' Ashley Reid and Jeffrey Pascarella, both 32, are suing Sandals Resorts for $30million A newlywed New Jersey couple are suing Sandals Resorts for $30million after a butler booked for their dream wedding molested the bride in her sleep. Ashley Reid, 32, and husband Jeffrey Pascarella, 32, were married at the luxury resort in the Bahamas in 2016. But Reid says she now suffers from PTSD after the resort butler assigned to the couple, Moral Adderley, snuck into their suite around 2am the night before the wedding. The bride-to-be was sleeping while her fiance was in the bathroom. That's when they say Reid was woken to find Adderley next to her with his hands down her pants. 'Something was prompting me to wake up, something was wrong,' Reid told the New York Post. 'As I started to wake myself up, I realized his hands were down my pants and I jumped out of bed. 'I screamed. He got up, he ran out of the room. I was just kind of disheveled and disoriented. I couldn't make sense of what just happened. I was in shock.' The groom-to-be ran out of the bathroom to check on Reid and then chased Adderley. The butler was arrested after the couple gave statements to resort security and the police. The butler assigned to serve them, Moral Adderley, snuck into their suite and molested Reid in her sleep The couple got married at a Sandals in the Bahamas in 2016 in a lavish wedding (stock image) Instead of canceling their lavish wedding, the couple decided to go through with the ceremony because they said they did not want to disappoint the 70 guests who flew to the Caribbean for their nuptials. Sandals claimed they had fired Adderley that same night, however the couple said the next morning the butler called their room to take her breakfast order 'as if the assault had never happened.' 'It was surreal. It just didn't feel like what you grow up imagining your whole life what your wedding would be like,' Reid said. Adderley pleaded guilty to indecent assault a week later after the couple insisted on involving the police despite the resorts objections, Pascarella said. Sandals offered to refund the newlyweds $15,000 for the event on the condition that they sign a nondisclosure agreement. They declined. 'Throughout the process, the [resort staff] were just very dismissive,' Pascarella told the Post. 'They didn't want us to call the police. I think they were just doing everything they could not to escalate this and just move on.' The bride (left) has been diagnosed with PTSD and has gone to therapy for two years Reid underwent two years of therapy following the traumatic assault. 'I was diagnosed with PTSD,' she added. 'This was a guy who came in and was assigned to them as a butler to make it a memorable wedding and indeed he did, but it is a ghastly memory for them,' the couple's lawyer, John Nicholas Iannuzzi, told The Post. A Sandals spokeswoman said in a statement: 'There is nothing more important than the safety and security of our guests, and we take allegations of criminal assault at our resorts seriously. 'We have worked tirelessly over decades to create a safe and enjoyable environment at our resorts, and our efforts include collaborating with various government and law enforcement resources to ensure we are among the safest resorts operating in the Caribbean.' Technology disasters at banks and finance firms have more than doubled amid an unprecedented wave of cybercrime, the City watchdog has warned. Overconfident bankers are making errors in crucial computer updates which cause chaos, the Financial Conduct Authority says. And many firms are woefully underprepared for hacking attacks putting their customers at risk. Overconfident bankers are making errors in crucial computer updates which cause chaos, the Financial Conduct Authority says (stock image) British lenders have suffered a wave of online failures and hacks over the past few years, from a blackout at TSB to a massive internet raid at Tesco Bank. Megan Butler, of the FCA, said there had been a 138 per cent rise in technology failures at finance firms during the year to October. This includes both hacking cases and problems of the firms own making. The number of cyber-attacks rose 18 per cent. She added: The FCA is deeply concerned that the number of technology incidents reported to us has increased. If your bank stops working, your life and business can be severely constrained a point that is especially true in the UK today with the decline in use of physical currency. FCA supervision director Miss Butler, speaking at an industry meeting in central London, believes many raids still go unreported so the true picture might be even worse. She said: All the trends were seeing at the moment suggest an increasing threat to UK customers, and financial markets, from technology outages and cyber-attacks. The regulator highlighted the huge failure earlier this year at TSB, which saw 1.9million customers locked out of their bank accounts, triggering a massive wave of fraud. Other lenders to have suffered brief outages in the past few months include Barclays and NatWest owner Royal Bank of Scotland. Visas payments system also went down across Europe for several hours in June. FCA supervision director Miss Butler, speaking at an industry meeting in central London, believes many raids still go unreported so the true picture might be even worse (stock image) Miss Butler added: We are worried that a lot of firms seem overly confident about their ability to manage flagship IT change programmes and keep systems up to date. This overconfidence bias does seem to be particularly characteristic in financial services. Another key failure singled out by Miss Butler happened at Tesco Bank in 2016, when hackers made fraudulent payments from hundreds of accounts. She said: They had specific warning of the threat and failed to put in place an effective defence, which left their customers in a vulnerable position for a significant period of time. Miss Butler warned there has been a sharp rise in hacks on firms with as many as four million attacks launched from one cybercrime website alone. It came as Paul Gillen, head of Barclays cyber security team, warned that the lender was fighting off attacks every day. The father of two men accused of a deadly Melbourne terror plot has pleaded with authorities to allow him to visit the pair in jail, more than a week after police smashed their way into several suburban homes. Armagan Eriklioglu - the father of Samed Eriklioglu, 26, and Ertunc Eriklioglu, 30, - told Daily Mail Australia that prison authorities have not allowed anyone apart from lawyers to visit his two sons. The men remain caged inside Melbourne Assessment Prison after police stormed their way into their homes in the dead of night last Tuesday. Pictured: Court sketch of Ertunc Eriklioglu, Hanifi Halis and Samed Eriklioglu Ertunc, of Dallas, his brother Samed, who lives with his parents in Campbellfield, and Hanifi Halis, 21, of Greenvale were arrested on Tuesday and have been charged with one count each of act in preparation for, or planning of terrorist acts. Following their arrest, Habiba Ba - the wife of Artunc - maintained the men were innocent and suggested they were pawns in a political game. 'It's been done to, you know, get votes,' she said. Premier Daniel Andrews won last weekend's election in a landslide victory. Ertunc Erikioglu following his arrest on terror charges last week Samed Eriklioglu, 26 (left) and his brother Ertunc Eriklioglu, 30, during a trip to an aquarium On Wednesday, Mr Erikioglu told Daily Mail Australia no-one apart from his sons' Victorian Legal Aid appointed lawyers had been allowed access to them. 'We just talked to them on the phone and they didn't let us see them as yet,' he said. The worried father said he was not told why he and his family had not been granted access to the prison to visit. Mr Erikioglu said he hoped his sons could be released on bail while they await a trial that is unlikely to commence until late next year at best. 'The (lawyers) are still trying to get them out on bail or something. They're talking about a few months,' he said. Mr Erikioglu said his sons were coping as well as they possibly could in jail, where they are being housed together. Meanwhile, his devastated family are struggling to come to terms with the allegations their loved ones were planning mass murder. 'It's still very hard,' Mr Erikioglu said. He said his sons still remain in the dark about the true extent of the case against them. 'They still haven't mentioned it,' he said. Habiba Ba (left) - the wife of Artunc - and her mother-in-law Yasemin Eriklioglu have protested the men's innocence The family maintain the men, including their friend Hanifi Halis, have committed no crime. Police allege the men planned to buy a black market semiautomatic rifle and carry out a Melbourne massacre. The men were allegedly using the encrypted app Telegram to communicate before police pounced when they allegedly attempted to buy the .22-calibre rifle. At a brief court hearing this week, it was revealed police had 17,000 telephone intercepts and 10,000 text messages to assess and 7800 hours of recordings captured on various listening devices to collate. Last week, Ms Ba described her husband as a decent, hardworking family man. 'He is a good father, a good husband, he's helpful and he was just praying. He didn't do anything. People just came and took him for no reason and now Allah give him justice upon him and Allah help our family,' she said. Police smashed their way into the mens' homes about 3am last Tuesday, turning over a garage the men used to pray in. The Dallas garage of Artunc after police raided the property last week The men used the garage as a place to gather for prayer Samed Eriklioglu, his father Armagan and brother Ertunc give a one-fingered salute Neighbours of the Dallas property of Artunc claimed it was an unusual practice, which began about a year ago. 'He keeps to himself. He doesn't speak to any of us. We thought it was strange that he was praying in the garage,' she said. Mr Erikioglu said his sons were not supporters of the terrorist group ISIS and refuted the allegations. 'No, they don't like Islamic State. They would never attack an Australian, no way,' he said. CNNs chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta returned to the White House briefing room for a news conference with Press Secretary Sarah Sanders - the first encounter between the two since the reporter was briefly banned earlier this month. Sanders convened her first press briefing since October 29 on Tuesday. She took questions from reporters after two of President Donald Trumps top aides - National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow and National Security Adviser John Bolton - addressed the media. Though Acosta did not ask any questions of Bolton and Kudlow, he did get to pose a few questions to Sanders. The CNN reporter asked Sanders about whether the White House would recommend that former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort should cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation. CNNs chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta returned to the White House briefing room for a news conference with Press Secretary Sarah Sanders - the first encounter between the two since the reporter was briefly banned earlier this month Muellers office told a federal judge on Monday that Manafort had breached his plea agreement by lying repeatedly to the FBI despite pledging to cooperate with the probe. In the same court filing, Manafort denied lying, but both sides agreed the court should move ahead and set a date to sentence him for his crimes. Prosecutors said they plan to file a report before sentencing laying out the alleged crimes Manafort committed after pleading guilty in September. We can only speak to what our role is in that process, Sanders told Acosta when asked if the President would advise Manafort to cooperate with Mueller. The President and the entire administration [has been] fully cooperative with the Special Counsels office. Acosta then asked Sanders a follow-up question about Trumps questioning reports by his own government agencies regarding climate change and the alleged murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Trump has said he doesnt believe a recently released federal report about the effects of climate change. While the Sanders-Acosta exchange was tense, it was nowhere near as explosive as the November 7 press conference in which Trump admonished the CNN reporter (above) After telling Trump that he wanted to 'challenge' him about his border policy, Acosta argued with him and remained standing with a White House microphone when the president told him his time was up. Acosta refused to surrender the microphone to a bewildered female intern He has also questioned the CIAs conclusion that Khashoggi, a U.S. resident who wrote for The Washington Post, was murdered on the orders of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS), a close ally of Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. As Acosta was asking his question, Sanders interjected: Thats not true. Unfazed, Acosta then continued to ask the question: Why doesnt [Trump] have faith in his advisors? To which Sanders replied: Thats not true. The President has a great deal of faith in the intelligence community and certainly in the team that he has assembled around him. When Acosta pressed Sanders about Trumps skepticism regarding the CIAs findings on Khashoggi, the Press Secretary replied: We havent seen definitive evidence from our intelligence community that ties [MbS] directly to that. What we have seen is a number of individuals that we know are tied to that and those individuals have been sanctioned. While the Sanders-Acosta exchange was tense, it was nowhere near as explosive as the November 7 press conference. Trump called the news conference at the White House the day after the midterm elections, when his party lost its majority in the House of Representatives though it did gain a couple of seats in the Senate. Acosta made a triumphant return to the White House, which restored his credentials last week after CNN filed legal action After telling Trump during a contentious news conference that he wanted to 'challenge' him about his border policy, Acosta argued with him and remained standing with a White House microphone when the president told him his time was up. Acosta also refused to surrender the microphone to a bewildered female intern. The White House then circulated a doctored video which was edited to make it appear as if Acosta initiated physical contact with the intern. The White House retaliated by revoking Acostas hard pass, prompting CNN to file legal action against the administration. Last week, the administration, realizing that it did not have a chance to legally bar Acosta from the White House, backed down and restored his credentials. The Acosta saga was just the latest blow-up in the long-running feud between his network, CNN, and the Trump administration. Throughout his election campaign and after he was elected President, Trump has lashed out at CNN, calling it 'fake news' and 'the enemy of the people.' President Donald Trump said for the second day in a row that he's skeptical about his own administration's conclusion that human-generated global warming is a threat to the nation and the world. 'One of the problems that a lot of people like myself, we have very high levels of intelligence but were not necessarily such believers,' Trump told The Washington Post on Tuesday. The president has been pressed for the past two days about a stunning report released Friday that said climate change will cost the U.S. economy hundreds of billions of dollars by the end of the century, damaging everything from human health to infrastructure and agricultural production. 'As to whether or not its man-made and whether or not the effects that youre talking about are there, I dont see it,' he told the Post. President Donald Trump said on Monday he doesn't believe a climate report out of his administration that warns of dire economic costs in the wake of climate change; he doubled down on Tuesday 'As to whether or not its man-made and whether or not the effects that youre talking about are there, I dont see it,' he said Tuesday about apocalyptic global warming predictions Sarah Sanders, Trump's main spokesperson, said Tuesday that the administration's climate report was based on computer models that relied on the 'most extreme' scenarios possible White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders attacked the climate report Tuesday afternoon during a rare press briefing. 'This report is based on the most extreme modeled scenario, which contradicts long-established trends,' she said, claiming that 'its not based on facts.' 'Wed like to see something that is more data-driven. Its based on modeling, which is extremely hard to do when youre talking about the climate,' Sanders added. 'The presidents certainly leading on what matters most in this process, and thats on having clean air, clean water,' Sanders told reporters. 'In fact, the United States continues to be a leader on that front.' Trump has in the past boiled ecology policy down to its simplest expression, frustrating environmentalists who have warned consistently for 40 years about a coming climate apocalypse. 'You look at our air and our water and its right now at a record clean,' he said Tuesday. The president was more succinct with his doubts on Monday. 'I don't believe it,' he told reporters at the White House before he left for campaign rallies in Mississippi. 'I've seen it, Ive read some of it, and its fine,' he added then. He also seemed to push the blame to other nations. 'You're going to have to China and Japan and all of Asia and all of these other countries, you know. ... if we're clean, but every other place on Earth is dirty, that's not so good,' he said. The bleak climate report came out on Black Friday, a holiday for most Americans and one of the busiest shopping days of the year, leading critics to charge Trump with trying to bury the findings under an avalanche of holiday cheer. The congressionally mandated report, written with the help of more than a dozen U.S. government agencies and departments, outlined the projected impacts of global warming in every corner of American society, in a dire warning at odds with the Trump administration's pro-fossil fuels agenda. 'With continued growth in emissions at historic rates, annual losses in some economic sectors are projected to reach hundreds of billions of dollars by the end of the century - more than the current gross domestic product (GDP) of many U.S. states,' according to the report. It said global warming would disproportionately hurt the poor, broadly undermine human health, damage infrastructure, limit the availability of water, alter coastlines, and boost costs in industries from farming to energy production. Trump's administration - through his EPA - has rolled back or repealed nearly every climate policy former President Obama put into place, including greenhouse gas rules for power plants, cars and oil and natural gas drillers. The president also took the United States out of the Paris Climate Accords. Trump and several members of his cabinet have also repeatedly cast doubt on the science of climate change, arguing the causes and impacts are not yet settled. Environmental groups said the report reinforced their calls for the United States to take action on climate change. The report came out on Black Friday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year, leading critics to charge Trump with trying to bury the findings 'This report makes it clear that climate change is not some problem in the distant future. It's happening right now in every part of the country,' said Brenda Ekwurzel, the director of climate science at the Union of Concerned Scientists and one of the report's authors. Previous research, including from U.S. government scientists, has also concluded that climate change could have severe economic consequences, including damage to infrastructure, water supplies and agriculture. Severe weather and other impacts also increase the risk of disease transmission, decrease air quality, and can increase mental health problems, among other effects. Thirteen government departments and agencies, from the Agriculture Department to NASA, were part of the committee that compiled the new report. A teenage girl was being chased on the night of her murder, an inquest into her death has heard. Brisbane Coroner's Court heard that Annette Mason, 15, was 'screaming for help' in the early hours of November 19, 1989 in Toowoomba, Queensland. But Miss Mason was denied entry to a home where she had sought safety because an extramarital affair was happening there. The teenager was found beaten to death in her home later that day. Annette Mason's brother Kevin (left) with their father Mick (centre) outside Brisbane Coroner's Court this week. The court heard Miss Mason was 'screaming for help' on the night she was murdered in November 1989 Karen Burge was in bed with person-of-interest Michael Laine when a panicked Miss Mason came knocking the night before she was found dead, Ms Burge's former schoolmate Judy Thompson has told the coronial inquest. Ms Thompson said Ms Burge made the admission at a BBQ eight years after Miss Mason's death in Toowoomba, after Laine threatened to expose the affair. Miss Mason (right) was allegedly 'being chased' but was denied entry to the house she sought safety in as the couple inside - Karen Burge and person-of-interest Michael Laine - were having an affair, the court heard 'She was just screaming out for help and she said she didn't let her in': Ms Burge made the admission at a BBQ eight years after Mason's death '(She said) "I have a threat on me. Michael Laine threatened me. He threatened to tell (Ms Burge's husband) Noel that he and I had an affair",' Ms Thompson testified on Tuesday. 'She told me that Annette had come and knocked on their door at night calling for help. She told me she didn't let her in because her and Michael were in bed at the time together. 'She was just screaming out for help and she said she didn't let her in.' Ms Burge claimed it appeared Miss Mason was being chased, according to Ms Thompson. An inquest two years after her death failed to find sufficient evidence to pin down her killer, and the current inquest is hearing new testimony. (Pictured, left: Miss Mason's sister Linda) Solicitor Leanne McDonald - who grew up in Toowoomba and is representing the family for free during the new inquest - said they were determined to find answers about the death of Annette Mason (pictured) An inquest two years after her death failed to find sufficient evidence to pin down her killer, and the current inquest is hearing new testimony. Solicitor Leanne McDonald grew up in Toowoomba and is representing the family for free during. Ms McDonald said Miss Mason's murder had a big impact on the local community. 'Toowoomba was tarnished and the murderer was out there walking the streets,' she said in a statement. 'What hurts the most for the Mason family is that 29 years later that person who robbed Annette of her life is still free. Justice hasn't been served.' Ms McDonald said they were determined to ensure someone was charged this time around. The inquest continues today. The mother of a young black man who was shot dead by police in a shopping mall in Alabama has said her son would still be alive if he had been white. Emantic Bradford Jr., known as EJ, was killed on Thanksgiving night by a police officer who mistook him for a shooter in Hoover, Alabama. His mother April Pipkins said 'the whole scenario would have played out differently' if her 21-year-old son had been white. Police initially blamed Bradford, who they said had a gun in his hand and was responsible for shooting two people at the mall, but later retracted the claim. Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford, Jr. (left), 21, was killed in a shopping mall in Alabama by a police officer who mistook him for a shooter. His mother April Pipkins (right) said her son would still be alive if he had been white The family's lawyer said there was a presumption that Bradford was the criminal because he was a black man. The lawyer, Ben Crump, said witnesses had contacted his law firm saying Bradford was trying to wave people away from the shooting. Pipkins described her son as a loving, friendly young man, saying he had gone to the mall with friends on Thanksgiving evening. She said the officer 'should be punished for what he did' after her son was killed last Thursday. Pipkins said she did not find out what happened to her son until Friday morning when she returned a call from one of his friends who had tried to reach her during the night. 'I can't get it out of my head. I cannot get the scene out of my head of my child laying there, nobody around him trying to help him, just laying like a piece of trash where everyone can walk around and parade and post pictures of him on social media,' she said. A crowd gathers at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, last night for a service following the death of EJ Bradford in a shopping mall on Thanksgiving Around 200 people attended a community vigil for Bradford on Tuesday night at Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church. Pipkins was greeted with a standing ovation but collapsed in tears onstage as she began speaking at the church vigil, and was taken to hospital. Speaking from the pulpit, regional NAACP field director Kevin Myles said Bradford's killing was part of a pattern of police killing black men without cause. 'This is our personal Katrina. The helicopters are not coming, nobody is coming to bring us water. If we are to be saved we will save ourselves,' he said, in an analogy to the devastating hurricane of 2005. Bradford's father, Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Sr., also was overcome with emotion moments earlier as he described the pain of losing his son. 'I can't hear him say `daddy' no more,' said Bradford, who is undergoing treatment for cancer. A controversial Greens councillor has called on residents to graffiti on advertising at bus shelters to hit back at 'corporate brainwashing.' Brisbane City Council's Jonathan Sri made the public appeal in chamber on Tuesday after slamming the decision to renew an advertising contract for bus shelters in the city's CBD. 'I'm not surprised when I hear that disgruntled residents are vandalising advertising on bus shelters across the city, in fact I wish it happened more often,' Mr Sri said, Quest Community News reported. Scroll down for video Brisbane City Council Greens Councillor Jonathan Sri (pictured) 'wished' more people would graffiti bus shelter advertisements after he slammed them for 'corporate brainwashing' Mr Sri reiterated his statement by saying that the majority of Brisbane residents did not want to see advertising at bus shelters (stock image) The renewed contract will see marketing company Adshel Street Furniture fill the bus shelter billboards with advertisements for the next 10 years. Deputy Mayor Adrian Schrinner condemned Mr Sri's appeal to the public to graffiti the bus shelters, saying he should be 'ashamed of himself'. He added that there was no legal way to vandalise and that it was still a crime and an offence. He said council spent $3.5million on graffiti removal every year and that many vandals smashed the glass panels that displayed ads. 'Not only does this come at a cost, but it also creates a potential public safety hazard,' Mr Schrinner said. Mr Sri reiterated his statement by saying that the majority of Brisbane residents did not want to see advertising at bus shelters. Deputy Mayor Adrian Schrinner (pictured) condemned Cr Sri's remarks, saying he should be 'ashamed of himself' for condoning graffiti 'You're denying them [residents] the freedom to travel through this city without being exposed to corporate brainwashing,' he said. Mr Sri then quoted infamous vandal and political artist Banksy to the Brisbane City Council chamber, referring to a statement that included the words 'f*** that' in relation to the negative effects of advertising. He then continued by telling council that they were selling out the city and giving it away to the highest bidder. Mr Sri later backtracked, saying that while he didn't support vandalism 'it's quite easy to vandalise advertising on bus stop shelters without vandalising the bus stop shelter'. The colourful Cr Sri has been long known for his controversial statements and bohemian lifestyle. The accomplished poet was caught living in an illegally overcrowded share house before moving onto a house boat after complaining his $150,000 a year salary wasn't enough to buy a house. His colourful attire also has a tendency to grab headlines after he was accused of hijacking Senator Larissa Waters' tearful resignation by wearing his signature rainbow scarf back in July. A Texas woman has met her biological father for the first time after a DNA home test kit uncovered that she was not related to the man who raised her. Sabrina Payne, 34, met her biological father Duane Kellems for the first time after contacting him on Facebook. Kellems, who lives in Indiana after serving in the military, even joined his daughter and her four children for Thanksgiving at her home. It was there that he also reunited with Payne's mother. Sabrina Payne, 34, met her biological father Duane Kellems for the first time in Indiana after contacting him on Facebook following a DNA home test kit Payne, who is an EMT in Houston, told Good Morning America that the meeting stemmed from a simple DNA test that she did at home. 'When you find out something that life changing, it's extreme,' she said. 'There was never any question about my paternity. 'When I figured out we weren't biologically-related, it was like somebody just punches you in the stomach.' Payne said she joined a Facebook group for people who have also found out from DNA tests that their parents are not biologically related. That support group, 'Not Parent Expected', helped her track down her biological father. Kellems, who lives in Indiana after serving in the military, even joined his daughter and her four children for Thanksgiving at her home. It was there that he also reunited with Payne's mother Kellems bonded with his four grandchildren over the Thanksgiving holiday after previously not knowing they existed 'I thought how do I tell this man, "Hey I think you are my biological father,"' Payne said. Payne eventually contacted Kellems on Facebook and asked if he had served in the U.S. military in Germany at the same time as the man who raised her. 'He realized it was possible [they were related]... He was very accepting from the beginning,' Payne said. The pair had their first emotional meeting just recently, saying they didn't want to waste another minute not knowing each other. Payne flew to Kellem's home and met her grandmother and sister. Kellems then spent Thanksgiving with Payne, her grandmother and four children. The pair had their first emotional meeting just recently, saying they didn't want to waste another minute not knowing each other Historian Sir Antony Seldon (above) says seeing the study of the arts as a disadvantage later in life is ruinously short-sighted Can it really be true that it is a disadvantage in life to study and learn the works of great writers such as John Milton and Charles Dickens? If you spend your time immersed in Shakespeare at university or in the great artists of the Renaissance, will it set you back? Certainly, at first glance, that's what new research suggests. A report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows that male creative arts graduates are likely to earn 14 per cent less than their peers who didn't go to university. To some, it will be seen as damning proof that an education in the arts is an expensive self-indulgence, a complete waste of time for any students who choose to pursue it. As a historian and as the vice chancellor of Buckingham University, I cannot help but despair at such a view. Seeing the arts in this way is not only woefully narrow- minded, it is ruinously short-sighted, ignoring the changing needs of Britain in the 21st century, a time when the vital skills students learn during an arts education will be more important than ever. The emotional tangles found in Jane Austen novels, for example, are a blueprint for diplomacy, sensitivity and realpolitik within a family (or business) as well as great tales of romance. A knowledge of great literature can offer an unequalled foundation for adult life, for it tells us so much about the human character and individuals' foibles and failings. A report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows that male creative arts graduates are likely to earn 14 per cent less than their peers who didn't go to university. Stock photo The point is that time at university is about far more than merely maximising a student's future earnings. It is about the development of more rounded, innovative, empathetic individuals. Beyond the preparation for a career, a successful university course should help students to have lives of fullness and meaning, no matter what they subsequently earn. Assisted by the best sort of teaching, they can learn how better to communicate, to relate to other people, to be more creative, and to manage their own mental health all critical skills in the new Britain now emerging. A utilitarian focus simply on earning capacity would create a stultifyingly dull society. We would become dominated by engineers, scientists, doctors and economists, because those are the disciplines that attract highest incomes. That would be sad for the students who are forced to limit their horizons, and sad for Britain, because so much of the vibrancy and humanity that enriches our lives and culture would be lost. Universities were founded as arenas to guide young people into making the widest possible contribution to society. Because they cover such a range of the human experience, the arts are uniquely equipped for the task. They can make their students better at communication, self-awareness and entrepreneurship qualities that will be even more important as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and technology grow in influence. A knowledge of great literature can offer an unequalled foundation for adult life. Pictured, Charles Dickens For in a world where algorithms prevail, there will be an even greater need for social interaction and creativity. Then there is the nature of post-Brexit Britain. We will almost certainly be leaving the EU in March, and if we are to make a success of it, we will have to exploit our nation's strengths. That has to mean making the most of Britain's global leadership in the arts. Where once our nation was the workshop of the world, we are now its creative hub, aided by our rich heritage and the dominance of English the main language of the planet. Our small islands have produced many of the greatest writers in history, as well as magnificent artists like Turner, pioneering architects such as Christopher Wren and more recently Richard Rogers, popular musicians like The Beatles and Adele, and universally admired actors like Anthony Hopkins and Judi Dench. The British arts must be treasured, not derided, as we begin a new chapter in our national life. All that said, arts teaching in higher education is not always as good as it could be. The fact is that the problems graduates can face in the workplace are too often compounded by the poor quality of the courses they studied. In some areas of life there is a profound disconnect between the real world of the commercial arts particularly the media, the theatre, publishing and the cinema and the modules taught on academic courses, which can be full of esoteric jargon and heavily politicised theorising. It is telling that many major media organisations would sooner recruit a science graduate than one with a degree in media studies from some institutions, partly because such courses are perceived not to provide rigorous grounding. These issues have grown worse in recent years as a host of other problems have undermined arts courses. To some, it will be seen as damning proof that an education in the arts is an expensive self-indulgence. Stock photo One is the low level of contact hours and tutorials on offer, which means that students are not receiving the personal guidance they need and have paid for. Another is the huge increase in class size and lectures, again leaving students isolated and lacking academic oversight and support. It is no wonder that, in this age of educational mass production, so many students complain about poor value for money. Given the levels of debt that they now incur, with tuition fees costing an annual 9,250, it would be irresponsible to ignore their concerns. But there is a straightforward solution. Due to rising tuition fees, the balance of power is gradually shifting from the institutions to the students who pay the bills. They are no longer willing to put up with shoddy teaching, poor employability, irrelevant modules or purposeless studies. That is a challenge for universities. But crucially it is also a great opportunity for the arts. Rather than serving as a threat, the establishment of this vibrant new culture ought to allow arts courses to reveal their true worth beyond simply this obsession with the money added to graduates' salaries. When properly delivered, such courses are invaluable because they can build better citizens, by improving empathy, resilience, understanding and personal responsibility. This is not some vision concocted by an out-of-touch don in an ivory tower, it is a reflection of what we can already see happening in workplaces up and down the country. The arts underpin entrepreneurship by encouraging original thought and innovative solutions. This will be more important as major corporations are replaced by start-ups and free-wheeling enterprises. That is exactly what we at Buckingham University have recognised. To reflect that, today our Entrepreneurship Centre is to be opened by Frank Field MP, the perfect guest on account of his reputation as one of the most independent-minded Members of Parliament. I believe passionately that the statistics about the future prospects of arts students should not be the death knell of arts teaching, but a clarion call for its growth. What's more, I believe, as we move towards the middle of the 21st century, every student in medicine, engineering or science should have some modules in the arts, just as every arts student must be armed with a level of numeracy and science. How appalling it would be if teaching was simply a matter of the size of their pupils' future salaries. n Sir Anthony Seldon is the author of The Fourth Education Revolution. The Lion Air jet that crashed into the sea killing 189 passengers was not in an airworthy condition even on its second-to-last flight, investigators revealed today. All 189 people on board the jet were killed when the plane crashed into the Java Sea off Indonesia on October 29 just minutes after taking off from Jakarta. Pilots experienced similar problems on an earlier flight to those on its doomed last journey, Indonesian investigators said. According to a technical log the Lion Air plane, which had only been in service a few months, suffered instrument problems the day before because of an 'unreliable' airspeed reading. Information retrieved from the flight data recorder showed the 'stick shaker' was vibrating the captain's controls warning of a stall throughout most of the flight. The captain was using his controls to bring the airline's nose up, but an automated anti-stall system was pushing it down. Investigator, Nurcahyo Utomo, holds a model of a Boeing 737 to show how the doomed jet crashed into the sea during a press conference in Jakarta today Parts of an engine of the ill-fated Lion Air jet were recovered from the sea during search operations in the Java Sea earlier this month Pilots flying the same plane a day earlier had experienced a similar problem, en route from Denpasar, Bali, to Jakarta, until they used switches to shut off the system and used manual controls to fly and stabilise the plane, Indonesia's transport safety committee (KNKT) said today. The pilots of that flight reported problems to Lion Air's maintenance team, which checked the jet and cleared it for take-off on the doomed flight the next morning. Contact with the jet was lost 13 minutes after it took off from the capital, Jakarta, heading north to the tin-mining town of Pangkal Pinang. In a preliminary report, the KNKT committee focused on the airline's maintenance practices and pilot training and a Boeing Co anti-stall system but did not give a cause for the crash that killed all 189 people on board. The report unveiled fresh details of efforts by pilots to steady the 737 MAX jet as they reported a 'flight control problem', including the captain's last words to air traffic control asking to be cleared to 'five thou' or 5,000 feet. The report said: 'The flight from Denpasar to Jakarta experienced stick shaker activation during the takeoff rotation and remained active throughout the flight. Members of the National Transportation Safety Committee lift a box containing the flight data recorder from a crashed Lion Air jet on board a rescue ship anchored in the waters of Tanjung Karawang, Indonesia, earlier this month Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) sub-committee head for air accidents, Nurcahyo Utomo, speaks at a press conference today 'This condition is considered as un-airworthy condition' and the flight should have been "discontinued".' After the crash, Lion Air instructed pilots to provide a 'full comprehensive description' of technical defects to the engineering team, KNKT said. In a statement, Boeing drew attention in detail to a list of airline maintenance actions set out in the report but stopped short of blaming ground workers or pilots for the accident. The company, which has said procedures for preventing an anti-stall system activating by accident were already in place, said pilots of the previous flight had used that drill but noted the report did not say if pilots of the doomed flight did so. Boeing's statement did not make any reference to a revised anti-stall system introduced on the 737 MAX which U.S. pilots say and Indonesian investigators say was missing from the operating manual. Boeing says the procedure for dealing with a so-called runaway stabiliser, under which anti-stall systems push the nose down even when the plane is not entering a stall or losing lift, had not changed between earlier version of the 737 and the newly delivered 737 MAX. Family members of the victims of Lion Air flight boarding a bus provided by Lion Air after their meeting with National Transportation Safety Commission (KNKT) officials in Jakarta yesterday A woman placing flowers on her husband's grave, who died in the ill-fated Lion Air flight JT 610, during the funeral in Bekasi, West Java province last week Pilots however say the control column behaves differently in certain conditions, which could confuse pilots who have flown the earlier model. Edward Sirait, chief executive of Lion Air, said he had not yet read the KNKT report but will comply with all of the investigators' recommendations. The report provided new recommendations to Lion Air on safety on top of earlier recommendations about the flight manual that have already been implemented by Boeing. The pilot of the doomed Lion Air flight was said to have fought continuously' against malfunctioning computers that were trying to force the plane's nose down before it crashed. The nose dipped more than a dozen times during the 11-minute flight on October 29, but the crew managed able to pull it up repeatedly before they finally lost control and the Boeing 737 crashed into the Java Sea. The information was taken from the flight data recorder and appeared to back investigators' theories that the on-flight computers were to blame for the tragedy. An official examines a wrecked turbine engine from Lion Air flight JT610, which crashed into the Java Sea on November 4 The software - called the manoeuvring characteristics augmentation system - is meant to stop the nose from rising too sharply and stalling the plane, according to an early report by Malaysian officials seen by the New York Times. 'The pilots fought continuously until the end of the flight,' said Captain Nurcahyo Utomo, the air accident investigator who is leading the probe. 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. The nose dipped more than a dozen times during the 11-minute flight on October 29, but the flight crew were able to pull it up repeatedly before they finally lost control. File photo Black box data showed the plane had an airspeed indicator issue on multiple earlier flights, investigators said. Concerns have been raised by news 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. 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. A paedophile actor who appeared on hit television shows including Neighbours, Underbelly and The X Factor was given the all-clear to work at a primary school polling booth during the Victorian election. Jeremy Kewley, 58, was in 2016 sentenced to 23 months behind bars after pleading guilty to indecent acts with children under 16 and making child pornography. On Saturday, the disgraced actor was employed to work at a polling station at Rutherglen Primary School in north-eastern Victoria, according to The Border Mail. The revelation prompted Liberal MP Bill Tilley to suggest electoral authorities needed to do more to stop criminals - especially paedophiles - working at polling booths. Jeremy Kewley, a paedophile actor who appeared on television shows including Neighbours and Underbelly, was allowed to work at a primary school polling booth during the Victorian election 'People on polling booths need to be screened, there should be police checks not just for child sex offenders but any conviction whether it be theft, fraud whatever,' Mr Tilley said. 'Polling station workers aren't hired in the last two minutes before the election, these are paid jobs and so the commissioner should ensure that all checks are done.' The Labor state government has asked the Victorian Electoral Commission to take action and review its processes 'to ensure this doesnt happen again'. A court was told Kewley sexually abused 16 young boys after luring them to his home for 'screen tests' and forcing them to wear tight Lycra costumes. Kewley (pictured left on The X Factor and right at a 2015 court appearance) worked at a polling station at Rutherglen Primary School in north-eastern Victoria on Saturday The soap star, who has also appeared in McLeod's Daughters and on The Footy Show, filmed the boys and touched them inappropriately, prosecutors said. Kewley abused the boys, aged between nine to 14, and took photographs of them in various poses over two decades from 1989 to 2003. The court heard that Kewley sexually assaulted his first victim, then 13, after meeting him on the set of Young Talent Time. He told the youngster he wanted the child to audition for an advertisement. Jeremy Kewley walks out of the Melbourne Magistrates courts after pleading guilty of child sex offences in November, 2015 The actor also indecently assaulted another boy in 1991 and two other boys in 2002 and 2003, the court heard. Some victims told the court about their suffering, crying as they described the impact Kewley's offending had on their lives. 'There are so many words I would like to say to you and many more to describe you,' one man said. 'But I can't and, at the end of the day, I'm better than that.' Advertisement An apartment in Sydney's trendy inner city has hit the market for less than $200,000 - but prospective owners should be warned it comes with a catch. The apartment in Surry Hills is just 1km from the city centre and a 5km drive from picturesque Bondi Beach. Measuring only 12 square metres, the property is crying out for a 'clever transformation' according to real estate agents Bresic Whitney. An apartment in Sydney's trendy inner city has hit the market for less than $200,000 - but budding owners should be warned it comes with a catch The apartment in Surry Hills is just 1km from the city centre and a 5km drive from picturesque Bondi Beach 'This strata apartment on the buzzing edge of Taylor Square is for short stays or a city crash paid,' the apartment's listing reads. 'Untouched, it awaits a clever transformation to maximise its functionality and footprint.' The apartment has an asking price of $185,000. The property sits in the Art Deco 'Belgenny' building and has a small bathroom, separate kitchenette and built-in wardrobe. With 'peaceful' views of lawns and trees and two 'bright' windows, the property is advertised as providing a 'walk-everywhere' position within the CBD providing easy access to all the city has to offer. Measuring only 12 square metres, the property is crying out for a 'clever transformation' according to real estate agents Bresic Whitney The apartment's asking price is well below the average in Sydney. As of last month, the median house value in the city was $972,250 according to the Reserve Bank of Australia's cash rate survey. That value was projected to decrease for the next three years, having dropped every month since reaching a high in August 2017. The Northwest Indiana chapter of the Hell's Angels were asked to leave the premises after showing up to a Walmart to serve as Salvation Army bell ringers while wearing racist insignia on their clothing. At least two men wore leather vests that included patches of the Confederate flag and the word 'Aryan' while attempting to collect money on behalf of the charitable organization on Friday, the Northwest Times reported. Customers reported the offensive attire to management at the Walmart in Valparaiso where the Hell's Angels were stationed, and the member of the motorcycle club (MC) were immediately asked to leave. 'We made the Salvation Army aware and they apologized,' a Walmart spokesperson said in a statement. 'The Salvation Army is responsible for screening its volunteers stationed outside our stores. Weve had a long history of supporting the Salvation Army and regret this isolated incident.' The Salvation Army of Porter County in Indiana has banned the Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club of Northwest Indiana from bell ringing after members showed up wearing racist patches to do the charity work on Friday at a Walmart in Valparaiso; The man shown above, second from the right, is wearing a patch that reads, 'Aryan' The Confederate flag, though debated by some in the South, is well understood to be a racist symbol, stemming from its use during and after the Civil War by those who supported slavery. The word 'Aryan' was widely used by Nazis in Germany during World War II. Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word as, 'used in Nazism to designate a supposed master race of non-Jewish Caucasians usually having Nordic features.' The Confederate flag, though debated by some in the South, is well understood to be a racist symbol, stemming from its use during and after the Civil War by those who supported slavery; The man shown at left is wearing a Confederate flag patch on his vest The Confederate flag patch is shown at left and the 'Aryan' patch is shown at right The word 'Aryan' was widely used by Nazis in Germany during World War II; A representative for the Hell's Angels NWI Region MC said that while some members may wear 'heritage-based' patches, such as Latinos wearing 'LATINO,' Japanese wearing 'BUSHIDO' and white people wearing 'ARYAN,' most members do not; The man shown here is wearing an 'Aryan' patch It's unclear how long the MC crew with these patches on their leathers was at the Walmart before being asked to leave, but the group was apparently able to collect a significant amount of money before being ousted. The bikers' club shared photos of the bell ringing crew with at least one man's 'Aryan' patch partially visible in two of the pictures, on its Instagram account on Saturday with the following caption: 'Thank you Valparaiso for showing your support for our less fortunate neighbors. You helped us fill 6 buckets fulla cash! Big thanks to the Salvation Army for the opportunity to help our community.' The bikers' club shared photos of the bell ringing crew with at least one man's 'Aryan' patch partially visible in two of the pictures, on its Instagram account on Saturday with the following caption: 'Thank you Valparaiso for showing your support for our less fortunate neighbors. You helped us fill 6 buckets fulla cash! Big thanks to the Salvation Army for the opportunity to help our community' Despite the money raised, the Salvation Army of Porter County was 'embarrassed' that it was 'unable to prevent this incident,' spokesperson and Lieutenant Christopher Nicolai said, adding that the Hell's Angels Northwest Indiana (NWI) Region would 'not be allowed to volunteer in the future.' 'Our commitment to nondiscrimination includes a dress code for bell ringers, requiring that they wear red Salvation Army aprons, and making it clear that no "symbol, marking, or lettering that is viewed as discrimination" may be worn,' Nicolai said. 'Clearly, the bell ringers in question did not comply with this dress code.' The group had already scheduled a date to ring bells for the charity again in December, but notified people through its Instagram account that the event had been canceled. 'Due to all the negative comments about our holiday charity work. The Salvation Army was forced to cancel our upcoming bell ringing date in December,' the MC wrote on Sunday, with a photo of The Grinch. 'We hope all that responded negatively, will donate their time ringing the bell for the Salvation Army.' The group had already scheduled a date to ring bells for the charity again in December, but notified people through its Instagram account that the event had been canceled In an additional response to the controversy, a representative for the Hell's Angels NWI Region MC provided a statement to the Northwest Times, noting that while some members may wear 'heritage-based' patches, such as Latinos wearing 'LATINO,' Japanese wearing 'BUSHIDO' and white people wearing 'ARYAN,' most members do not. 'Our worldwide multinational, multiracial motorcycle club excepts [sic] motorcyclists from all walks of life,' the spokesperson said. 'That's not what our clubs [sic] is about,' the representative said. 'However like all Americans, we love exercising our freedom. Sometimes freedom means you see and hear things you may not like. We accept that. The focus of today has nothing to do with freedom though. It has to do with charity and sacrificing for you community.' The spokesperson, who had just finished celebrating freedom of speech then went on to suggest that critics of the racist emblems should be the ones silenced. 'I'd suggest to those making negative comments that maybe a little less time should be spent exercising your freedom of speech and a little more be spent to making a positive difference in our society,' the statement said. A long-lost World War Two plane flown by a pilot who took part in the 'Great Escape' has been found embedded in a remote Norwegian mountainside bog. The Spitfire AA810 was shot down while on a mission to photograph World War Two German battleship Tirpitz on March 5, 1942. Pilot Lt. Alastair 'Sandy' Gunn, who was shot down by two German fighter planes, managed to get out of the downed plane but was captured by German forces. The plane was found near the village of Surnadal after Sussex-based researcher Tony Hoskins led a search to the suspected location of the Spitfire. The remains of Spitfire AA810 as flown by Alastair Sandy Gunn, as laid out in the Town Theatre in surnadal, Norway in July 2018.The remains of a Spitfire shot down while on a mi Lt Alastair 'Sandy' Gunn, was captured, interrogated, imprisoned and later executed after the Stalag Luft III 'Great Escape'. His plane, Spitfire AA810, is to be restored and flown again He led a group of locals who found aircraft parts at a peat bog, before a metal detector was used to indicated more of the plane was buried. After careful excavation of the plane, it's pieces were packed and sent back to the UK in August this year. Approximately 70 per cent of the aircraft managed to survive the crash and damage from being stuck in the bog. Now a 2.5 million restoration project is underway to restore it to its former glory and try to get it flying again by 2022. Mr Hoskins told Fox News: 'This Spitfire is one of the most significant recoveries, if not just in the last 20 years, then potentially ever,' 'Only a small handful of early Mk1 Spitfires exist, all but one of these have been restored from substantially less recovered wreckage than we recovered with AA810.' Alastair Gunn at Stalag Luft III. L-R Guy Griffiths, Unknown, Alastair, Wally Valenta, Des Plunket, Hubert Henderson, Dudley Davis DFC, John Boardman The rarity of the find and the link to the Great Escape only adds to the sheer gravity of the find. After surviving the crash of his plane, Lt. Gunn was interrogated and at times denied food- but refused to give details of any of his missions. He was later transferred to Stalag Luft III in Poland, and became a key figure in digging the escape tunnel. Alastair Gunn at a disperal hut at RAF Benson, 1941. The remains of a Spitfire shot down while on a mission to photograph the WW2 German battleship Tirpitz have been recovered from a Norwegian peat bog Lt Gunn, who had flown 32 operational missions, managed to escape but was later recaptured after two days on the run and executed. The plane, which was part of the Photographic Reconaissance Unit, was stripped of guns and used to scope out enemy territory. The pilots, like Lt Gunn, faced dire chances of survival on their missions from Scotland to Norway to photograph the Tirpitz. Historian Hoskins is publishing a book on the aircraft called Sandy's Spitfire and its pilots to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the Great Escape. A lucky family have splashed out $15.8 million on three sprawling rural properties at auction. Ray White Rural agent Peter Douglas sold the three large properties located on a sprawling estate around Beaudesert, Queensland. The unnamed Gold Coast family have purchased nearly 780 hectares of land and hope to create one big landholding. One of the three rural properties bought was a 556 hectare block for $11.5 million The unnamed Gold Coast family have purchased nearly 780 hectares of land and hope to create one big landholding 'I am simply ecstatic with the result,' said Mr Douglas. 'We sold like a train today.' The property was divided into three separate lots which sold for $11.5 million, $3.1 million and $1.2 million, respectively. The properties, located 60km from Southport and 70km from Brisbane, were described as a combination of large agricultural holdings and lifestyle properties. The property was divided into three separate lots which sold for $11.5 million, $3.1 million and $1.2 million, respectively The land is ideal for farmers with some strong river flats and excellent water storages The land is ideal for farmers with some strong river flats and excellent water storages. 'While each is different, they all enjoy stunning views and are characterised by soft rolling river country,' the listing states. 'They are lucky to be the winning bidders,' Mr Douglas told Daily Mail Australia. 'It's rare to be able to purchase such a large parcel of land and it's an ideal location close to the coast.' The properties were originally owned by the State Government, Mr Douglas said. 'Throughout the campaign we had buyers come from interstate but today all three sold to one Gold Coast based family who have bought them to turn into a farm,' he said. Two brothers abused by the same paedophile Christian leader have donned masks to confront him outside court. The brothers, known as 'A' and 'B', have struggled with the horrific abuse at the hands of Vivian Frederick Deboo which destroyed their relationship with their father, The Advertiser reported. Deboo appeared before the District Court in Adelaide on Wednesday for sentencing submissions after pleading guilty to multiple counts of indecent assault and gross indecency. This is the powerful moment two brothers, abused by pedophile Vivian Deboo in the 1990s, donned masks to confront the South Australian man they call a 'monster' The brothers, known as 'A' and 'B', have struggled with the horrific abuse which destroyed their relationship with their father A group of supporters for the two victims were also outside court with demands for Judge Simon Stretton to refuse defence requests for a home detention sentence and jail Deboo. In a recent victim impact statement, B called for Deboo to be shown 'justice in its full force' with a harsh jail term, and called him a 'monster'. 'You sit here today with but one supporter by your side, everyone else in your miserable life has abandoned you my brother and I stand here today with all these people,' he said. 'Our society now understands that no longer can any single person, Church or institution stand by, hide, shelter or support paedophiles.' Deboo appeared before the District Court on Wednesday for sentencing submissions after pleading guilty to multiple counts of indecent assault and gross indecency A group of supporters for the two victims were also outside court with demands for Judge Simon Stretton to refuse defence requests for a home detention sentence and jail Deboo A's statement ousted all those who supported Deboo, from his wife to the church, saying they were 'just as guilty as him'. 'I take comfort at the stark contrast to your own pitiful situation as I look around at the amazing group of family and friends that are here to support me today,' he said. 'They are my army and together, today, we have conquered the enemy.' Now 74, Deboo received a two-year non-parole period in 1996 for some of his crimes, and was jailed for six years with a two-year non-parole period for child sex offences for three boys between the ages of 14 and 16. The brothers did not come forward about their abuse until 2015. A body has been found in an area of North Carolina where searchers have been looking for a missing teenager for three weeks. The FBI said on Tuesday that authorities investigating 13-year-old Hania Aguilar's disappearance found the body at about 4.45pm near Lumberton. The body was found in an area off Wire Grass Road in Robeson County, which is just east of Interstate 95. Officials would not immediately say if the body was that of Hania. Hania Aguilar, 13, has been missing since November 5 when she was snatched from a mobile home park in Lumberton, North Carolina before school 'The body has not been positively identified, but agents were following leads related to the search for 13-year-old Hania Aguilar,' a tweet from FBI Charlotte read. 'Please continue to pray for Hania, her family and each other.' Hania was kidnapped on November 5 from a mobile home park after going outside to start a relative's SUV to prepare to leave for the school bus stop. Police said a man then forced the teenager into an SUV and drove off. The SUV was later found dumped in Lumberton, several miles from the mobile home park. In a bid to generate new leads into her disappearance, the FBI asked the public to be on the lookout for shoes belonging to Hania. The FBI said on Tuesday that authorities investigating 13-year-old Hania Aguilar's disappearance found the body at about 4.45pm near Lumberton (above) Hania was kidnapped on November 5 from a mobile home park. Police said a man forced the teenager into an SUV and drove off. The SUV was later found dumped several miles from the mobile home park The teen owned distinctive shoes that her kidnapper could have tried to get rid of, according to the FBI. The shoes are white Adidas sneakers with colorful stitching on the back heel. 'Think through what you've seen since November 5th, have you seen a discarded pair of shoes, did someone try to sell you shoes, did they show up in a donation bin? We want to make sure we draw attention to the shoes because they are distinctive and the kidnapper could try and get rid of them for that reason,' FBI Agent Andy de la Rocha said. In the weeks since Hania was kidnapped, the Lumberton Police Department and the FBI have followed more than 800 leads, interviewed more than 400 people and reviewed hours of surveillance footage. Hania is a Hispanic female, 5 feet tall, weighing approximately 126 pounds. She has black hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a blue shirt with flowers and blue jeans. In a bid to generate new leads into her disappearance, the FBI asked the public to be on the lookout for shoes belonging to Hania A No deal on Brexit would be catastrophic for Britain leading to factory closures that would cost thousands of jobs, motor industry chiefs warned last night. Car bosses said crashing out of the EU would have immediate and devastating impacts with border chaos severely disrupting UK car production. The withdrawal agreement negotiated between Theresa Mays government and the EU had brought Britain back from the brink of a cliff edge and should be supported because it gave a breathing space to thrash out more detailed plans for tariff-free frictionless trade deal, they said. But while insisting that No Deal is not an option car bosses conceded that the best Britain could hope for now from a Brexit deal was damage limitation. Car bosses have warned that failing to agree Theresa Mays Brexit deal would be catastrophic They said political allies were needed in Government and beyond to avoid catastrophe; to give us breathing space; and to deliver a competitive future. The warnings ahead of next months crucial Brexit vote in Parliament were given by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) at their annual dinner in London attended by Business Secretary Greg Clark and more than 1,000 business leaders. These included the bosses of major car-makers with factories in the UK including MINI, BMW, Nissan, Honda, Toyota, Peugeot-owned Vauxhall, Bentley, and Rolls-Royce. SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes rejected accusations by critics that car-makers were scaremongering and stressed instead: No deal would be catastrophic. Plants will close. Jobs will be lost. Three quarters of SMMT members believe a no deal Brexit will threaten their viability; 20% say theyve already lost business; one in 10 is cutting jobs, a fifth implementing contingency plans and some executing relocation plans. And we haven't left yet, said Mr Hawes adding: These are the actions of people who make things: cars, trucks, parts, buses, as distinct from those that make up the phrases that are painted on the side of some buses. SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes (pictured) rejected accusations by critics that car-makers were scaremongering Mr Hawes said: Brexit remains the biggest challenge for all of us. It is sapping time, energy, cash. It's putting the brakes on investment in technology, in people, in our future. The past weeks have crystallised the challenge facing Government; Deal or No Deal; transition or not; stability or strife. He rejected suggestions that the UK could operate happily under World trade organisation (WTO) insisting: We need a deal. Leaving is not what we wanted. For us, Brexit is about damage limitation. There is no Brexit dividend. So we need a deal now. And that deal must be ambitious for the future. We need frictionless trade with our most important market. Nothing less will do. The SMMTs Mr Hawes said: The Withdrawal Agreement which has been hard-fought delivers a transition period, which steps us back from the cliff edge. It is legally binding. The future framework is not. The work starts here and must start quickly. We need an ambitious future relationship. One that replicates the benefits of the customs union and the single market. No tariffs. No quotas. No Rules of Origin. No regulatory divergence. No border checks. Frictionless trade. He cited a direct correlation between friction and competitiveness: The more the friction, the weaker our competitiveness. But he also praised Business Energy and Industrial Secretary Greg Clark, who attended and spoke at the evening, as a politician who gets it. SMMT president and managing director of Toyota Motor Europes London Office Tony Walker told the audience: No deal is not an option. In the short term, crashing out of the EU would have immediate and devastating impacts, with border chaos disrupting the Just in Time basis on which our business depends. Disruption could last for weeks even months. The withdrawal agreement negotiated between Theresa Mays government and the EU had brought Britain back from the brink of a cliff edge, motoring executives said He said it was unimaginable implement full WTO import and export procedures overnight adding: For the longer term, a no-deal Brexit would harm our competitiveness, undermine sales and cost jobs. Future investment would be jeopardised. Mr Walker said: The Prime Minister has now negotiated a deal and this is what we have in front of us today. We need the certainty of a deal, not more uncertainty. It is vital we have free and frictionless trade, with zero tariffs and common technical standards. Without these we risk losing all we have achieved in building a world-class, competitive automotive sector. The UK automotive industry with an 82billion annual turnover employs 186,000 people directly in manufacturing and supports 856,000 jobs among 2,500 component suppliers, with 30 manufacturers making 70 vehicle models Last year the UK built 1.67million cars of which 80 percent are exported. Free fruit and veg given to millions of schoolchildren is often low quality, old and possibly laced with pesticides, it is claimed. The Soil Association food charity says pupils are being presented with produce so lacking in flavour and texture, it is teaching them to actively dislike or at least distrust fruit and veg. It is calling for a review of the School Fruit and Veg scheme, which costs taxpayers 40million a year and is aimed at improving childrens health in England. The Soil Association food charity says pupils are being presented with produce so lacking in flavour and texture A large amount of the produce is imported for example, only 13 per cent of apples and 5 per cent of pears are British. This means it is likely to have been harvested some time ago and lack freshness and vitamins. A report last year by the Pesticide Action Network also found the fruit and veg was more likely to carry chemical residues than items sold by supermarkets. Rob Percival, Soil Association head of food policy, said: The Government must re-specify the scheme so that a higher proportion of the produce is British, local and organic, and is therefore fresher, of known provenance, containing lower pesticide residues, and is more enjoyable for children. But the Department of Health said food under the scheme follows the same safety and quality legislation as all other fruit and vegetables supplied for consumption in the UK. Taxpayers could fork out up to 5million to protect Meghan and Harry's new home in the grounds of Windsor Castle, it is claimed. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are renovating 19th-century Frogmore Cottage before moving there from Kensington Palace in the spring. Plans will already be being formulated about how to secure the cottage grounds, which in places are only separated from public roads by a six-foot wall. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are to move into Frogmore Cottage, in the grounds of the Windsor Estate, after it was given to them by the Queen. Image undated Meghan and Harry, who are expecting their first child in April, are likely to arrive from Kensington Palace in the spring. They are seen on October 17 Former royal protection officer Ken Wharfe told The Mirror: 'The costs of building and security arrangements could balloon to 5million in the first year. 'There is no protection at Frogmore, there is no one living there. There are costs of at least two or three private protection officers and to make sure the estate is policed adequately by Thames Valley Police. 'There will have to be major reviews of the security surrounding that property, exposed on virtually every side.' The Grade-II listed cottage, near Frogmore House, is 200 yards from the publicly accessible Long Walk, increasing the need for tight security. Talks on security are believed to be underway between Thames Valley Police, the Metropolitan Police and Kensington Palace. The cottage has been used as rented accommodation for members of the royal staff and had fallen into disrepair. Frogmore Cottage in Windsor, which is located near Frogmore House on the Frogmore Estate, will be the new residence of Harry and Meghan from early 2019 The 19th century cottage has been used as rented accommodation for members of the royal staff and had fallen into disrepair. It is pictured in an undated archive photo Now a planning application for the building has been lodged with the council ahead of the move by Harry, 34, and Meghan, 37, who are expecting their first child in April. But security concerns mean the plans have been kept private. A 'special note' on the application states it contains 'sensitive information' and that the usual plans, architect's drawings and other documents have not been made public. Similar levels of secrecy surrounded plans for renovations at Anmer Hall in Norfolk before the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge moved into the Georgian manor on Sandringham Estate. Harry and Meghan held their wedding reception at Frogmore House, which overlooks the two-storey, stucco-faced cottage, and their engagement pictures were taken in the grounds. It is understood that the couple hope to turn Frogmore Cottage into a five-bedroom family home, with space for a nursery and a live-in nanny. They currently live in two-bedroom Nottingham Cottage at Kensington Palace. A Kensington Palace spokesman said the costs of any substantial building work would be covered by the Sovereign Grant, which is ultimately funded by the taxpayer. The newly married Duke and Duchess of Sussex leave Windsor Castle after their wedding to attend an evening reception at Frogmore House on May 19 Frogmore is currently divided into five flats, meaning there would be space for separate accommodation for Meghan's mother Doria Ragland (pictured at Cliveden on May 18) Decorative work inside the cottage is expected to be paid for by Harry and Meghan, whose wedding cost the public purse 3.4million. Frogmore is currently divided into five flats, meaning there would be space for separate accommodation for Meghan's mother Doria Ragland. The 62-year-old former social worker is expected to be a 'hands-on' grandmother, and to stay with the Sussexes on a regular basis. Frogmore is also less than half a mile from Windsor Castle, meaning the new baby's great-grandmother the Queen would be close at hand. Officials from the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead have already approved a planning application to refit the cottage and install two 'orangery' extensions. The plans, approved in July, also included permission for a bedroom to be built above a studio in the grounds of the cottage, meaning it could potentially be used as a luxury 'granny flat'. A further planning application was submitted in October after it was announced that the duchess was pregnant, and it has yet to be approved. Members of the Royal Family in the grounds of Frogmore House, Windsor, Berkshire. The photo on the left is undated, the one on the right was taken in 1965 The application seeks the council's permission for internal and external works at the cottage, and 'landscaping' in its grounds but no further details have been made public. A note on the file states: 'The application contains sensitive information and therefore the public register is not accompanied by any forms, drawings or supporting documents. The application will be advertised in the usual way but there is no additional information that is publicly disclosable.' A planning officer who approved the first application noted that parts of the cottage and the studio had fallen into disrepair. The official said original features including fireplaces had been removed and internal stud walls added to divide the cottage into five rented units, used by Royal Household staff. Mount Gambier has missed out on drug and alcohol funding from the federal government, despite once being dubbed 'Australia's ice capital'. South Australia's second largest city was not included in federal health minister Greg Hunt's recent $20 million funding announcement which will provide grants of up to $2.5 million to substance abuse services. The city in the state's south-east set the scene for virtual reality production Cold As Ice last year, where director Jamie Harding interviewed more than 60 ice addicts. Mount Gambier Councillor and former addict Kate Amoroso (pictured) is disappointed South Australia's second largest city missed out on federal funding for drug and alcohol services It also hosted the Federal Government's first national Ice Taskforce community meeting in 2015. Mount Gambier Councillor and former ice addict Kate Amoroso told Daily Mail Australia the federal funding snub was shattering and heartbreaking for the local community. 'It's a mix of emotions from anger and disappointment to heartbreak that Mount Gambier has missed out yet again on vital health funding,' she said 'The nearest drug rehabilitation centre from here is 500 kilometres away. Nor do we have a detox unit. 'My heart bleeds for these people.' Cr Amoroso (pictured) was battling an ice addiction four years ago Cr Amoroso told Daily Mail Australia she had to get help in Adelaide, which is 434 kilometres away when she was battling ice addiction. It's now been four years since she last touched the drug. 'I tried suicide several times. I was in an awful, awful dark place,' the former model previously recalled. 'The kids said I sat on the sofa for that whole time popping pills and smoking and injecting ice. It's just the initial rush that makes you feel like superwoman - that first breath is when you think that life is good but the come down is horrendous. I was mixing it with 12 different tablets that I was on four times a day for my conditions.' Mount Gambier (pictured) was once described as one of Australia's ice capitals 'It's a mix of emotions from anger and disappointment to heartbreak that Mount Gambier has missed out yet again on vital health funding,' Cr Amoroso (pictured) told Daily Mail Australia The local federal Liberal MP for the area has defended the minister's decision. Federal Barker MP Tony Pasin said the eight areas eligible for funding were identified by evidence-based research and were in 'most in need of this support.' They includes the Fleurieu region, Peterborough and Mid North, Port Augusta, Ceduna, Murray Bridge, Playford, Port Adelaide and Onkaparinga. Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt announced a $20 million funding boost for South Australia last week as part of the government's crackdown against ice (pictured) Mr Pasin suggested local services providers partner with organisations in areas that will receive funding such as Murray Bridge, which is 360 kilometres away. 'Local service providers, many of whom operate in areas of need like Murray bridge and Mount Gambier, can apply and they should,' Mr Pasin told the ABC. 'And I've been working with them in terms of applications.' Federal Barker MP Tony Pasin (pictured) has defended the minister's decision, despite his area missing out on funding which will provide grants of up to $2.5 million to substance abuse services Cr Amoroso believes partnering with services in other areas is unviable and accused Mr Pasin of having no compassion for the local community. 'Mr Pasin's comments are so off the mark, I don't know where he's coming from,' she told Daily Mail Australia. 'Other areas aren't going to be willing to share funding they've campaigned for and need. He should be fighting tooth and nail to get better services of the area he represents.' Carol Canala-Coleman who runs an inpatient rehabilitation clinic in the region also described the funding snub as 'appalling'. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Mr Pasin and the health minister's office for further comment. British factories producing cheap throwaway clothes including 3 dresses are blocking inspections, bullying and underpaying staff, MPs were told yesterday. Allegations of serious intimidation were revealed during evidence to an inquiry into waste and exploitation in the fast fashion industry. The environmental audit committee was taking evidence from bosses at online clothing giants Missguided, Boohoo and ASOS. MPs from all parties are concerned that the firms are encouraging people to buy throwaway fashions which are so cheap that no charity shop will accept them. MPs from all parties are concerned that the firms are encouraging people to buy throwaway fashions which are so cheap that no charity shop will accept them. Pictured: Model wearing a Boohoo dress Committee chairman, Labour MP Mary Creagh, told The Daily Telegraph: Charity shops cant be the dumping ground for the high streets little secret much of what they take they cant sell because of the quality, and its very difficult to recycle the fibres. They are turning it away as they cant sell it, so fabric either goes to Europe or the developing world. Its disrupting markets in other countries. Most of the companies rely on factories in Leicester to supply the clothes, alongside others in China, Pakistan and some parts of Eastern Europe. A senior executive at Missguided said some clothing factories refused to be inspected or answer questions, raising concerns they are exploiting staff and paying below the minimum wage. Paul Smith told MPs the company had dramatically scaled back the number of suppliers and factories it used in Leicester because it became too difficult to police them. The environmental audit committee was taking evidence from bosses at online clothing giants Missguided, Boohoo and ASOS (stock image) Suppliers are required to sign a code of conduct, promising to pay the minimum wage and ensure staff are treated properly. But Mr Smith this was difficult to enforce and members of his team had been threatened. He added: Two members of the Missguided team in the past 18 months have been threatened or actually physically assaulted in Leicester by factory owners because they did not want us to enter their premises. These were people who were not manufacturing for us, but we were scoping them out and they did not like the questions we were asking. Asked what he thought the factory bosses had to hide, he said: Underpayment of workers is usual. Australia's Qantas has been named airline of the year by industry specialists after the launch of a world-first route from Perth to London. At the CAPA Centre of Aviation Awards in Berlin on Tuesday evening, Qantas took the top prize, beating airlines across the globe. The annual awards ceremony is designed to reward airlines, airports and individuals that are 'not only successful but have also provided industry strategic leadership in an ever-changing environment'. CAPA Executive Chairman Peter Harbison said Qantas had had 'another remarkable year' and Qantas Group CEO Allan Joyce called the award 'truly special'. Mr Joyce made particular mention to the launch of its direct Perth to London route in March this year, the third-longest non-stop service in the world. 'One of the last frontiers in aviation, the only two continents on the globe that didn't have direct services,' he said. At the CAPA Centre of Aviation Awards in Berlin on Tuesday evening, Qantas took home the top prize, beating airlines across the globe. CEO Allan Joyce called it 'truly special' Mr Joyce made particular mention to the launch of its direct Perth to London route in March this year, the third-longest non-stop service in the world 'It was a particular pleasure for Qantas to put that service in place, and it grabbed the world's imagination.' The Qantas CEO also thanked CAPA for the award on behalf of the airline's 30,000 staff, who he said are the reason for the its success. He added that 2018 had recorded the best financial results in the airline's 98 year history, before disclosing plans for 2019. 'Probably the last frontier in aviation, the ability to fly from Melbourne and Sydney to London and to New York non-stop is viable,' he said. The Qantas CEO also thanked CAPA for the award on behalf of the airline's 30,000 staff, who he said are the reason for the its success 'We're so excited about working through 2019 with Boeing and Airbus and the regulators and our pilots to make that happen.' In August, Qantas Group posted a record-breaking $1.6 billion profit for 2018, up 14 per cent from last year. As well as its non-stop Perth to London route, Qantas also launched direct flights from Melbourne to San Francisco in September. It is an announcement seasoned commuters know means one thing: delays. And the autumnal train misery thanks to leaves on the line shows no signs of abating after a report revealed incidents have increased by two thirds since 2010. Officials also found the failure of Network Rail to keep on top of foliage along the 20,000-mile network could impact as much on safety and performance as on biodiversity. The autumnal train misery thanks to leaves on the line shows no signs of abating The report, commissioned by the Department of Transport, said the control of trees and other foliage by the tracks had been under-resourced for decades. In 2009-2010, there were 11,500 occasions where tree and branches fell onto the lines. But by 2017-18 the figure had leapt to almost 19,000, The Times reported. Last year, more than 1,750 trains were cancelled by fallen trees. About 50 million leaves are said to fall on the tracks every autumn. Separate figures revealed that foliage on the line caused 3,261 hours of delays last year, a rise of 70 per cent in the last decade. Several train operators have already blamed leaves for rail chaos. Last month, Northern said excess wet leaves had damaged the train wheels, resulting in several carriages being taken out of service. Greater London and Kent operator Southeastern introduced a reduced autumn timetable to cope with the issue, leaving commuters with longer waits and crowded services. There are around six million trees on Network Rail-owned land within 10m either side of the track, but the report said they were considered an afterthought. Greater London and Kent operator Southeastern introduced a reduced autumn timetable to cope with the issue, leaving commuters with longer waits and crowded services Despite spending 40million a year over the past four years on vegetation control an increase of 15million Network Rail still has a large backlog of work, the report concluded. It also said the rail infrastructure companys bosses could lose their bonuses for over-running engineering work. Senior staff could be forced to hand over a part of their performance-related pay, which came to more than 52million last year, to pay for rail improvements. Network Rail said it welcomed the report's conclusions. A Syrian refugee who spent seven months stranded in a Malaysian airport has arrived in Vancouver and embraced the woman who sponsored him for permanent residency in Canada. Hassan Al Kontar was stuck in Kuala Lumpur International Airport in March after his Malaysian tourist visa expired. He was not allowed to board a flight to another country and said he could not return to Syria because he refused to serve in the military. The 37-year-old's story gathered attention on social media where he shared pictures of himself surviving on donated airline meals and washing and giving himself a haircut in the bathrooms of Terminal 2. Malaysian officials had planned to deport him back to his war-torn homeland but he was brought to Canada by sponsor Laurie Cooper who picked him up at the airport and drove him to her home in Whistler. Hassan Al Kontar hugs Laurie Cooper, who brought him to Canada and raised almost 15,000 Canadian for his fresh start Hassan Al Kontar arrives in Vancouver after flying from Kuala Lumpur, where he had been stranded for seven months when his tourist visa expired On Monday night he arrived at Vancouver International Airport wearing flip-flops and a T-shirt, becoming a permanent resident because the country had already recognized him as a refugee. Kontar said he had been too excited since his arrival to sleep, saying: 'In real life, there are moments that are more beautiful than the dream itself.' 'For me, walking on the street again and smelling the fresh air, it's not a normal thing: It's the sound and smell of freedom.' 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.' Cooper drove him to her home in Whistler, British Columbia, where he is staying until he gets his bearings. With the help of a group of residents in the ski resort of Whistler and the British Columbia Muslim Association, Cooper raised almost 15,000 Canadian dollars for his fresh start. Kontar left Syria before the civil war began in 2011 and had worked in the UAE but had to leave after his visa ran out. He said he could not return to his homeland because he refused to serve in the military. In online posts he showed himself knitting, and celebrated when the sun peeked through the window or when, momentarily, a few fluorescent lights went off. Kontar was brought to Canada by sponsor Laurie Cooper, pictured embracing at the airport who picked him up at the airport and drove him to her home in Whistler Kontar tries to give himself a haircut in the bathroom at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, where he was stranded for seven months His plight caught the eye of Canadians who sought to privately sponsor him as a refugee. Documenting his ordeal 'was a need,' Kontar said on Tuesday, because people 'are in the dark when it comes to the refugee crisis.' Shawkat Hassan, of British Columbia's Muslim Association which helped to sponsor him, said: 'When we noticed he had this issue, he was stranded in the Malaysian airport and no place to go, nobody is accepting him, I offered. We have space. We can bring him in to sponsor him.' 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. 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. Millions of Syrians have fled a devastating seven-year civil war that has left more than 350,000 people dead. A British student who spent six months in a UAE prison on spying charges says he is going to sue the country for false imprisonment. Matthew Hedges, 31, was pictured back with wife Daniela Tejada after being flown into Heathrow Airport yesterday morning and praised her for her 'brave and strong' support. Now the Durham Phd student is now keen to clear his name and has hired a leading criminal law barrister to begin the process of overturning his conviction for spying, according to The Telegraph. In addition they will also attempt to sue the United Arab Emirates for unlawful imprisonment. Matthew Hedges elated wife, Daniela Tejada, 27, tweeted this picture of the couple with the words: 'I've been brought back to life' Jaber Al Lamki, executive director of media and strategic communication of national media announces the release of Matthew Hedges yesterday, but reiterated Mr Hedges was not going home an innocent man and was guilty of 'espionage' Rodney Dixon QC, who represented Mr Hedges wife, Ms Tejada, while he was imprisoned said: 'We are so very relieved Matthew is back home. 'In due course we will consider all legal options and remedies to clear his name of this false and unfounded conviction, and to obtain relief for his extended period of unlawful and arbitrary detention.' After Mr Hedges landed at Heathrow yesterday his wife Ms Tejada tweeted a photo with the message: 'Thanks for collectively helping me to bring back my husband. We've been through hell and back and would really appreciate having some space to catch up on much-needed rest.' Ms Tejada tweeted her thanks to everyone who has supported them, saying they had been 'to hell and back' Mr Hedges 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 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. 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 '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 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 '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.' Customers of Britain's biggest companies could be given a vote on the pay of their top executives under plans being considered by Labour to clamp down on boardroom excesses. A report commissioned by shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey and shadow chancellor John McDonnell has recommended the remuneration of executives at 7,000 large companies should be subject to an annual binding vote. It says that stakeholders in the business - including consumers and employees as well as shareholders - should be given a say in determining their pay packages. The report also proposes that all companies that have more than 250 employees would have to reveal the names of those paid more than 150,000 a year, according to The Guardian. Customers of Britain's biggest companies could be given a vote on the pay of their top executives under plans being considered by Labour. File photo Jeremy Corbyn's party said that it would 'look closely' at the findings of the report drawn up by a team led by Prem Sikka, professor of accountancy and finance at Sheffield University. Mr McDonnell said: 'The scale of bonuses and the opaque way they are paid should be a source of shame to those running our economy. 'The Government have shown no interest in tackling the causes of inequality in our society and we are grateful to Professor Sikka and his team for shining a light on the problem.' In other recommendations, the report calls for: - Executive pay contracts in large companies to be made publicly available; - Executive remuneration to be in cash as rewards in share options, shares and perks 'invite abuses'; - Pay differentials between executives and employees, analysed by gender and ethnicity, to be published; - Company law amended to give stakeholders the right to propose a cap on executive pay and bonus package. Shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey (pictured) welcomed the report The report argues the inequitable distribution of the wealth generated by 'the brawn and brains of employees' is a 'key social problem' in the UK, exacerbating inequalities. 'The challenge is not only to devise mechanisms that constrain undeserved executive pay in large companies but also create mechanisms to enable workers to secure an equitable share of income/wealth created with their own brain, brawn, sweat, commitment and energy,' it says. 'Customers are the backbone of all enterprises but are increasingly being poorly treated though profiteering by banks, gas, water, electricity and other companies. 'They should be empowered to penalise executives delivering poor goods/service and equally also reward those delivering high quality products and services.' Welcoming the report, Ms Long Bailey said: 'Whilst many of our businesses work hard to ensure that rewards and prosperity are fairly shared across their workforce, there continues to exist a pernicious corporate culture in some firms that many across Britain would view as immoral. 'It cannot be right that in just three working days, the UK's top bosses will have made more money than the typical full-time worker will earn in the entire year. 'Labour will look closely at the recommendations of this report as we seek to build on our existing policy of tackling pay inequality.' Stag do revellers have told how they drowned out vegan activists who tormented diners with the sound of cows being slaughtered by mooing at them and chanting '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, with a 250 Oompa Loompa 'impersonator' chained to groom David Elvin leading the fight-back. The salesman, 31, and his dozen friends were joined in the chants by other diners frustrated that their meal had been interrupted by the vegans. The group responded after demonstrators from Direct Action Everywhere entered Touro Steakhouse in Brighton and waved around signs and placards, with a 250 Oompa Loompa 'impersonator' chained to groom David Elvin (pictured) leading the fight-back The group of vegan activists stormed the 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 One of the revellers, Dan Holmes, 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'. What is Direct Action Everywhere Brighton? Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) is a describes itself as a campaigning organisation that uses direct action to 'bring animal rights onto the table'. Facebook profiles belonging to members of the Brighton branch suggest many are young, in their 20s and 30s, while several appear to be students. The group has boasted about its recent stunt on Facebook and hit back against criticism that their intervention was anti-social and unacceptable. 'Human beings sat in a restaurants munching on chopped up bodies is what's really extreme,' the group said. 'Legality does not equal morality and using animals in the way we do is not moral.' Advertisement '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 them was going round this table filming people eating and getting in their faces.' 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. 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. 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 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 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 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 The tear gas used on migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border at the weekend, which prompted criticism of President Trump, was also used almost 80 times under the Obama administration, according to Homeland Security data. Critics of Trump had denounced the action by federal agents as overkill when they used the tear gas to repel a crowd of migrants that included angry rock-throwers and barefoot, crying children. But figures from the Department of Homeland Security, which emerged on Tuesday, show that the same gas was used more than once a month during the later years of Obama's administration. Critics of Trump had denounced the action by federal agents as overkill when they used the tear gas to repel a crowd of migrants that included angry rock-throwers and barefoot, crying children on Sunday at the San Diego-Tijuana border crossing That tear gas, known as 2-chlorobenzylidene malononitrile, was used by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents a total of 126 times since 2010. The chemical was used at the border 26 times in 2012, 27 times in 2013, 15 times in 2014 and eight times in 2015. The data doesn't provide details of each incident, including the locations or size of the groups targeted. There is barely any footage or photos of the tear gas being deployed under the Obama administration. Trump faced backlash after photos emerged of migrants being targeted at the border, including a woman and two young children running from the tear gas. He kept to a hard line when defending its use at the San Diego-Tijuana border crossing on Sunday. '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.' Migrants run from tear gas launched by U.S. agents at the Mexico-U.S. border on Sunday. The same tear gas was used dozens of times under the Obama administration Trump faced backlash after photos emerged of migrants being targeted at the border, including a woman and two young children running from the tear gas At a roundtable in Mississippi later Monday, Trump seemed to acknowledge that children were affected. '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?' the president asked. He said it was 'a very minor form of the tear gas itself' that he was assured was 'very safe.' Without offering evidence, Trump claimed some of the women in Sunday's confrontation are not 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 border crossing has thrown into sharp relief two competing narratives about the caravan of migrants who hope to apply for asylum but have gotten stuck on the Mexico side of the border. 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 U.S. military said Monday that about 300 troops who had been deployed in south Texas and Arizona as part of a border security mission have been moved to California for similar work. The military's role is limited largely to erecting barriers along the border and providing transportation and logistical support to Customs and Border Protection. A Honduran migrant lies on the riverbank as Mexican police move away from tear gas fired by U.S. agents at the Mexico-U.S. border in Tijuana, Mexico on Sunday Democratic lawmakers and immigrant rights groups blasted the tactics of border agents. '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 full 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. McAleenan said four agents were struck with rocks but were not injured because they were wearing protective gear. Border Patrol agents launched pepper spray balls in addition to tear gas in what officials said were on-the-spot decisions made by agents. U.S. troops deployed to the border on Trump's orders were not involved in the operation. 'The agents on scene, in their professional judgment, made the decision to address those assaults using less lethal devices,' McAleenan told reporters. The scene was reminiscent of the 1980s and early 1990s, when large groups of migrants rushed vehicle lanes at San Ysidro and overwhelmed Border Patrol agents in nearby streets and fields. An elaborate hydroponic drug lab has been found at the home of a senior Bandidos bikie during a gun raid. A 41-year-old senior member of Bandidos outlaw motorcycle gang (OMCG) was arrested on Tuesday after police seized over 150 cannabis plants at a property in East Kurrajong, western Sydney, at about 7.30am. The drug lab was revealed after police located a hidden trapdoor which led to an underground bunker. An elaborate hydroponic drug lab (pictured) has been found at the home of a 41-year-old senior Bandidos bikie during a gun raid The bikie was arrested on Tuesday after police seized over 150 cannabis plants at a property in East Kurrajong, western Sydney, at about 7.30am (pictured: Bandidos bikie jacket) Officers from Strike Force Raptor attended the property to conduct a Firearms Prohibition Order (FPO) search as part of an ongoing investigation to target criminal networks operating in NSW. They spoke with the man, his partner and two children before they uncovered the drug lab. Police seized 164 cannabis plants at various levels of growth, two kilograms of dried cannabis and equipment used to cultivate the drug. The senior Bandidos bikie member was arrested and taken to Windsor Police Station where he was charged with enhanced indoor cultivation for a commercial purpose, two counts of supply prohibited drug, and operate drug premises. The drug lab was revealed after police located a hidden trapdoor which led to an underground bunker Police seized 164 cannabis plants at various levels of growth, two kilograms of dried cannabis and equipment used to cultivate the drug A crime scene was established and specialist forensic officers assisted to dismantle the drug lab. Officers were assisted at the property by an agronomist, Integral Energy, and Fire & Rescue NSW. The bikie was refused bail and will appear at Windsor Local Court on Wednesday. Anyone with information that may assist investigations, including relevant photos and videos, are urged to contact Strike Force Raptor through the online reporting page. A dementia patient has died after an alleged fight with another elderly man at a nursing home. Police were called to IRT Woonona in Wollongong, south of Sydney, at 7pm on Tuesday following reports of a physical stoush between two patients. Officers were told the 90-year-old man was unable to be revived after suffering serious injuries in the aged care home's high-dependency dementia ward. Wollongong Police District officers were called to a nursing home at IRT Woonona (pictured) in Wollongong, Sydney's south at 7pm on Tuesday The second person involved in the alleged altercation was a 77-year-old man. In a statement to Fairfax Media, IRT said they had notified the families of the men. 'Last night we became aware of an incident which we believe involved two residents in our dementia support unit of our aged care centre in Woonona in which one of our residents had passed away,' IRT said. 'Meanwhile the focus of our thoughts and care continues to be with our residents, their families and our staff.' Police established a crime scene on the night and inquiries are continuing. A report will be prepared for the coroner. Family members assisted police with their inquiries. Though meme culture took off nearly two decades after SpongeBob Squarepants first aired on Nickelodeon in 1999, images from iconic episodes still circulate on the internet with hilarious captions. The internet paid tribute to Stephen Hillenburg, the creator of SpongeBob Squarepants, after Nickelodeon announced his death Tuesday. He was 57. Hillenburg's creation has inspired countless memes using the show's legendary characters including Mr Krabs, Squidward, Patrick and the SpongeBob himself. 'Without #SpongeBob, we wouldn't have been able to enjoy these memes,' actor Philip Lewis Tweeted Tuesday. 'RIP Stephen Hillenburg. ' Stephen Hillenburg is the creator of Nickelodeon's animated hit SpongeBob Squarepants Stephen Hillenburg's death was announced in a tweet by Nickelodeon Tuesday The show launched in 1999 and nearly two decades later is a hit on the internet with countless memes being created Hillenburg died Monday of Lou Gehrig's disease, also known as ALS, the cable network said in a statement. Hillenburg conceived, wrote, produced and directed the animated series that began in 1999 and bloomed into hundreds of episodes, movies, a Broadway show and viral internet memes. 'We are sad to share the news of the passing of Stephen Hillenburg, the creator of SpongeBob SquarePants,' the network said in a tweet. 'Today, we are observing a moment of silence to honor his life and work.' One fan wrote on Twitter, alongside a picture of SpongeBob looking sad: 'RIP Stephen Hillenburg. My childhood is now officially dead.' Many of the SpongeBob memes took the internet by storm both on Instagram and Twitter. And fans paid tribute to the creator by sharing them on Tuesday. One popular meme in particular is of a 'mocking SpongeBob'. The meme comes from a 2012 episode in which SpongeBob clucks like a chicken and appears with a distorted face. The captions that followed the image typically depict a short conversation between two people in which one person says something and then another repeats them by using upper and lower case letters to display mocking. For example: 'Don't use that weird SpongeBob mocking meme.' 'Me: ''DonT uSe thAt WeIrd SpoNgEboB MoCkinG MEme,' Countless memes have been created with stills from classic episodes, such as this 2012 episode that was transformed into a 'mocking SpongeBob meme' Squidward Tenticles was turned into a meme with a split screen of his eyes One person depicted the price of college tuition using a still from an episode A tweet depicting two episodes of the classic animated series shows SpongeBob having two very different expressions An evil Patrick Star meme showed SpongeBob sidekick with an evil expression The program is one of the longest-running American television series as well as the highest-rated show ever to air on Nickelodeon. Its vast cast of oceanic creatures included SpongeBob's starfish sidekick Patrick, his tightwad boss Mr. Krabs, and his always-exasperated neighbor Squidward Tentacles. One viral still shows a split screen of Squidward Tentacles with his eyes closed, split with an image of them wide and intense. Memes for the image typically show someone suddenly remembering something important while trying to go to sleep. 'When you're about to go to sleep and you remember you have homework,' one reads. An image of SpongeBob's sidekick Patrick Star holding up $3 with the caption: 'I have three dollars' has also been turned into a meme. One caption reads: 'Hanging out with my friends like.' Another of Patrick shows him glaring down with an evil stare. 'Me leaving the pot in the sink because it ''has to soak''' it reads. SpongeBob's boss Mr Krabs is depicted daze and confused A broke Patrick became relateable to many on the internet who struggle with finances The madness of Black Friday shopping is depicted in this meme of Squidward Born at his father's army post in Lawton, Oklahoma, Hillenburg graduated from Humboldt State University in California in 1984 with a degree in natural resource planning with a marine emphasis, and went on to teach marine biology at the Orange County Marine Institute. That is where he wrote The Intertidal Zone, an informative comic book about tide-pool animals. He used the pictures to help educate his students. Stephen - who was a fan of French oceanographer Jacques Cousteau - was also behind two SpongeBob movies: The 2004 hit The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie and the 2015 sequel The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water. 'I make animation because I like to draw and create things. I have no real interest to be on camera or to be a celebrity. It's not that I don't like people, but I like having my privacy,' he said. A SpongeBob smooth around the edges is depicted in this funny meme about being 'refined' The man charged with sexually assaulting a little girl in a dance studio toilet received free meals from a homeless shelter located metres from a daycare centre. Anthony Peter Sampieri, 54, is accused of filming himself raping a seven-year-old girl in a public toilet near a dance studio at Kogarah, in Sydney's south, on November 16. On the opposite corner of the block where the horrific sex attack allegedly occurred, Sampieri was an occasional visitor to a homeless shelter where he received free coffee, meals and dessert. Staff at the Uniting Care Church said they were shocked when they recognised Sampieri's face following his arrest, and said they were particularly concerned to realise he had been so close to an early learning centre. Scroll down for video Anthony Peter Sampieri (pictured) has been charged with sexually assaulting a seven-year-old girl in the toilet of a dance studio at Kogarah, in Sydney's south, about 8pm on November 16 Sampieri, 54, received free meals from the Uniting Church Centre at Kogarah (back left) which is located just metres from a childcare centre (front right) 'He did come in here, not often but on the odd occasion,' an employee at the Uniting Care Church told Daily Mail Australia. 'When we saw his picture in the news we were shocked. Some of the regulars in here said they remembered seeing him come in for a tea or coffee. 'We have a lot of homeless people come in for a refreshment and once a week we do a morning tea and lunch.' Adjacent to the kiosk where those living rough pop in for a meal is the childcare centre, which is attended by dozens of children daily. Uniting Church's storehouse manager Lala Noronha said the daycare had a policy of not allowing children to go to the bathroom without supervision. 'It's scary to hear what happened but thankfully we keep them separate and the kids aren't allowed to go to the toilet without a supervisor,' Ms Noronha said. It comes just days after details of Sampieri's alleged attack were mentioned during a brief hearing at Waverley Local Court. Court papers revealed Sampieri allegedly choked the girl until she was unconscious before filming himself carrying out the sex attack in the toilet cubicle. Sampieri attended the homeless shelter on Gray St at Kogarah, which has an adjoining daycare centre. On the same block is located the dance centre where he allegedly raped the young girl Police will allege Sampieri waited in the bathroom (pictured), before choking the girl until she was unconscious at which point he sexually assaulted her and filmed part of his horrific attack Sampieri is led out of the dance studio by two police officers on the night of the alleged attack He is accused of choking the girl to 'render (her) incapable of resistance, done so with intent of enabling himself to commit another indictable offence, to wit, sexual assault'. Sampieri spoke twice while fronting court and consented to a police application for forensic procedures to be undertaken upon him. Those procedures included the taking of samples by swabbing, washing, 'vacuum suction', scraping or lifting by tape from Sampieri's genitals. His Ken Buckman lawyer did not apply for bail during the short hearing and the case was adjourned. Police allege Sampieri waited in a public toilet cubicle used by a dance studio before sexually attacking a young girl when she entered just after 7.30pm on November 16. Using a surgeon's scalpel he had with him, Sampieri allegedly held the girl at knife point and threatened her if she screamed. Sampieri (pictured, circled) was this week described as a 'loner' by ex-schoolmates at St Paul's Christian Brothers College in Manly, where he attended highschool in the late-1970s His former classmates from St Paul's told how a teenage Sampieri cried in class when the news of Elvis Presley's death came through. They also claimed he fell in with the wrong crowd in the late-1970s The alleged attack only ended when dentist Jeffrey Stack entered the toilet cubicle and caught Sampieri with his pants around his ankles, before attacking him. By this stage the young girl had been missing from the dance class for close to 30 minutes. As the scuffle unfolded Nick Gilio, who was one of a group of parents from the dance studio looking for the girl, heard the commotion and entered the toilets. After joining in the brawl Mr Gilio was stabbed multiple times in the torso and neck, while Sampieri was also left battered and bruised. The victim's mother was also allegedly injured when she encountered Sampieri. Sampieri is due to reappear in Sutherland Local Court on January 23, 2019. A judge has told a blind victim of alleged rape that she was at fault, suggesting she suffered 'buyers remorse'. Controversial magistrate Richard Pithouse told the woman she had 'put herself in that position' after she claimed she was raped by a man she met after a night of drinking at Melbourne's Crown Casino last year. Mr Pithouse used the adage 'you can't profit from your own malfeasance' to describe the woman's situation at the hearing on October 24, The Herald Sun reported. Controversial magistrate Richard Pithouse told the woman, who's legally blind, that she had 'put herself in that position' after she claimed she was raped by a man she met after a night of drinking at Melbourne's Crown Casino last year (stock image) The comments came during a hearing which was to determine whether the woman should receive financial aid as a result of her being a victim of crime. The woman said she woke up after the March 11 attack in the man's Yarraville home with vague memories of him assaulting her while she began to drunkenly pass out. She then called a crisis hotline and reported it to police before calling a doctor, and stayed in her clothes so she could be properly examined for forensic evidence. But despite hearing this, Mr Pithouse suggested that she was suffering from 'buyers remorse.' After the woman's lawyer disagreed with the judge's words, Mr Pithouse said that this was the purpose of the hearing but the woman 'might have to reconsider her opinion - it's part of life.' The woman has since complained about Mr Pithouse to the Judical Commission, saying he victim-blamed her. 'He pretty much said I provoked what happened,' the woman said after complaining about Mr Pithouse to the Judicial Commission 'He pretty much said I provoked what happened,' she said. The woman went on to say that this was the very reason she was reluctant to report the crime. 'I'd been out drinking alone and left with a man. I knew society's tendency to victim-blame,' she continued. A Magistrate's Court spokeswoman has since acknowledged the complaint on Tuesday night and said they were currently looking into it. Mr Pithouse's statements come after a series of controversies for the magistrate in recent years. In 2017, he told a victim of domestic violence that she wanted to be assaulted after failing to report it to the police straight away. In another case, he ordered a charged violent criminal to pay a measly $250 fine to the RSPCA instead of being sentenced. The woman's case did not proceed to a criminal trial, but she was encouraged to take her case to the Victims of Crime Assistance Tribunal, which handle applications for financial aid. Doctors are being ordered not to daydream about their patients as part of a new 'bonk ban'. The Medical Board of Australia is enforcing stricter rules in a bid to prevent doctors having sex with their patients. The guidelines have been set out in a code of conduct for doctors in Australia with the aim of maintaining sexual boundaries between GPs and patients. Doctors are being ordered not to daydream about their patients as part of a new 'bonk ban' (stock image) The new code of conduct is advising doctors against flirting with their patients via social media. According to the new policy, social media can 'blur' professional and personal boundaries, and doctors should politely decline any interaction on such platforms. In addition to social media, doctors are to be banned from sending sexually suggestive emails or text messages to their patients. The medical workers could even be found guilty of sexual harassment if they ask for details of a patient's sexual history which is not relevant to the patient's health. According to the new code of conduct, warning signs include 'a doctor who finds themselves daydreaming or fantasising about a patient,' or 'patients attempting to give gifts.' The new guidelines state that doctors' breaching of sexual boundaries is 'always unethical and usually harmful' for many reasons, including the 'inherently unequal' doctor-patient power balance, and the trust that patients place in their doctors that medical examinations are in their best interest and not for ulterior, sexual motives. While the guidelines state that it can in certain circumstances be acceptable for a doctor to date a former patient, a number of factors should be considered, including the length of time passed and the patient's vulnerability. Medical Board chairwoman Dr Anne Tonkin told the Courier Mail she was shocked that in 2018, the problem remained so widespread that the Medical Board had to issue guidelines. The chairwoman also stated that 10 doctors had been found guilty of serious acts of misconduct in the year 2017/18. The stricter rules will come into effect on December 12. Rudy Giuliani, the attorney for President Donald Trump, says his client is not ruling out a pardon for former campaign manager Paul Manafort. Right now would not be the time, the former New York City Mayor told The Wall Street Journal when asked if the President might pardon Manafort. Its my job as his private lawyer to tell him you should not even consider it now because it will be misunderstood, Giuliani said. That doesnt mean you give away your presidential prerogative to do it at the right time Manafort should get the same consideration as anyone else. Manafort has been accused by Special Counsel Robert Mueller of lying to federal investigators and violating his plea agreement requiring him to cooperate with the investigation into alleged Russian meddling. Rudy Giuliani (left), the attorney for President Donald Trump, says that his client is not ruling out a pardon for former campaign manager Paul Manafort (right) Manafort has been accused by Special Counsel Robert Mueller (above) of lying to federal investigators and violating his plea agreement requiring him to cooperate with the investigation into alleged Russian meddling Both Russia and the Trump campaign deny that they colluded with one another in the hopes of defeating Hillary Clinton in the 2016 elections. Manafort said in the same filing on Monday that he disagreed with Special Counsel Robert Muellers assertion that he had lied, but both sides agreed the court should move ahead and sentence him for his crimes. Without a pardon, the 69-year-old Manafort could spend the rest of his life in prison, experts said. The surprise development comes at a critical time for Mueller, who is expected to finalize 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. Without a pardon from Trump (seen above at the White House on Monday), the 69-year-old Manafort could spend the rest of his life in prison, experts said Giuliani on Tuesday slammed Mueller for his treatment of Manafort, who has been kept in solitary confinement as if he were the head of the mafia or a terrorist bomber, the former mayor said. It is unclear whether Manafort really is in solitary confinement. Giuliani's comments about a possible pardon for Manafort were just the latest developments in the Russia investigation. Documents made public earlier on Tuesday indicated that Mueller's team believes Jerome Corsi, a conservative author and conspiracy theorist, tipped off Trump confidant Roger Stone months before WikiLeaks released thousands of emails stolen from Clinton's campaign. The document, which was drafted as part of a plea offer to Corsi, provides an unprecedented window into an active part of Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference and possible coordination with Trump's associates. It reveals that Mueller is keenly focused on whether Americans close to the Trump campaign had any foreknowledge of WikiLeaks' plans to release hacked material during the 2016 presidential campaign. The document's contents were first reported by NBC News and a copy of it was posted online by The Washington Post. Corsi told The Associated Press on Tuesday evening that the document had been provided to his attorney by Mueller's team. Corsi said the document, which mirrors similar ones filed by Mueller in previous plea deals, contains portions of emails he exchanged with Stone in the summer of 2016 about WikiLeaks. But he denied that he intentionally lied to investigators about the emails, and said that was why he rejected the plea offer, which would have charged him with one count of making false statements. According to the document, in late July 2016, Stone asked Corsi to get in touch with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been living in Ecuador's Embassy in London since 2012, and to try to obtain emails the group possessed about Clinton. Documents made public earlier on Tuesday indicated that Mueller's team believes Jerome Corsi (above), an author and conspiracy theorist, tipped off Trump confidant Roger Stone months before WikiLeaks released thousands of emails stolen from Clinton's campaign According to the document, in late July 2016, Stone (above) asked Corsi to get in touch with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been living in Ecuador's Embassy in London since 2012, and to try to obtain emails the group possessed about Clinton The document says Corsi passed Stone's request to an 'overseas individual.' And on August 2, 2016, the document quotes Corsi's response to Stone. 'Word is friend in embassy plans 2 more dumps. One shortly after I'm back. 2nd in Oct. Impact planned to be very damaging,' wrote Corsi, who was in Europe at the time. He then told Stone it was time for Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta, to 'be exposed as in bed w enemy if they are not ready to drop HRC,' a reference to Clinton. On Tuesday, Corsi told the AP that the email he sent Stone - which accurately forecast that WikiLeaks would release derogatory information about Podesta in October - was based on his own deduction and not the result of any inside information or a source close to the group. He said he has never had contact with Assange and he didn't obtain any advance knowledge of WikiLeaks' plans. Stone has denied knowing about WikiLeaks plans' ahead of time. Earlier on Tuesday, Manafort staunchly denied ever meeting with Assange, after the Guardian newspaper published a story alleging the two met at least three times, including once in 2016. '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.' In a statement, a spokesperson for the Guardian said the 'story relied on a number of sources. We put these allegations to both Paul Manafort and Julian Assanges representatives prior to publication. Neither responded to deny the visits taking place. We have since updated the story to reflect their denials.' The magnificent Mandarin duck which has become a star attraction at Central Park is back in New York City on Tuesday after taking yet another weekend away, apparently in New Jersey. Where the beautiful bird has been going when not hanging out in Central Park Lake has been a question on many New Yorkers' minds, ever since it first showed up last month. Now video evidence has emerged that suggests the duck may be a commuter, spending the work week in the city and heading out to New Jersey every weekend to get away from the hustle and bustle of Manhattan. But one thing the 'Hot Duck' (called such for its striking looks) can't escape is the paparazzi, which has captured the wild animal on video in both Bergen, New Jersey and on the Jersey side of the Hudson River, with the New York City skyline in the background. The magnificent Mandarin duck which has become a star attraction at Central Park is back in New York City on Tuesday after taking yet another weekend away, apparently in New Jersey Males of the Mandarin duck species sport a colorful plumage in purple, orange, yellow and rust tones, so naturally this one stands out considerably in a crowd, so it's no surprise that Cole Baylis was drawn to the stunning bird when he turned up on October 12 on the Jersey side of the Hudson, and again on November 25 Males of the Mandarin duck species sport a colorful plumage in purple, orange, yellow and rust tones, so naturally this one stands out considerably in a crowd. It's no surprise then that Cole Baylis was drawn to the stunning bird when he turned up in October on the Jersey side of the Hudson. 'I've never seen one of those before,' Baylis can he heard saying from behind the camera in the video, which captured the living, breathing tourist attraction among a group of notably less flamboyant birds. Baylis told the Gothamist he saw the duck, which has been nicknamed 'Mandarin Patinkin' as tribute to the actor by the same name of 'Princess Bride' fame, while commuting to New York City by ferry during the morning of October 12, and again on November 25. 'He was swimming with some other ducks right in front of the UBS building close to the Lincoln harbor ferry station,' Baylis said. For those of you keeping track at home, October 12 was a Friday and November 25 was a Sunday, lending credibility to the theory that the city's new feathered friend is a weekend warrior, planning epic weekend adventures. For those of you keeping track at home, October 12 was a Friday and November 25 was a Sunday, lending credibility to the theory that the city's new feathered friend is a weekend warrior, planning epic weekend adventures. The duck is shown in Central Park The duck, whose species is native to East Asia, was first spotted taking up residence at the iconic New York park on a sunny October day. It was spotted by rare bird watcher David Barrett, who posted a video on Twitter via the handle @BirdCentralPark that went viral. The tos and fros of this stunning member of the anatidae family (which includes ducks, geese and swans) are tracked closely on Twitter. Another video has recently emerged of the duck swimming around with a pal at Woodcliff Lake in North Bergen, this time on October 19, which was also a Friday. On this occasion, the bird was spotted by New Jersey resident Ashley Hernandez and captured on camera by Brandon Munoz. Another video has recently emerged of the duck swimming around with a pal at Woodcliff Lake in North Bergen, this time on October 19, which was also a Friday 'For weeks now I have been speculating that when the Mandarin Duck disappears from Central Park, he flies west, to the Hudson River or even farther,' Barrett told Gothamist. 'This video supports my idea.' According to a local New Jersey Facebook group, the duck has also been to Edgewater, 'on a walkway by the Hudson River,' on October 23. This was a Tuesday, but it's possible the bird could have been on a long weekend, so the the weekend travel theory still holds up. Following that jaunt, the duck returned to the 79th Street Boat Basin before making it way back to Central Park Pond by October 28, a Sunday. The duck's movements are tracked closely on social media, and by paparazzi The duck stands out among other members of the anatidae family at a Central Park pond It's unclear exactly how he arrived here in the first place, with some speculating at first that he had escaped from a zoo, but no nearby cities have reported a missing duck. Others guessed he might have been abandoned by a family that kept him as a pet. Yet more suggested he came from lands beyond the US financial capital, where laws bar people from owning a duck. All the speculation has only helped fuel the duck's popularity. On Tuesday, he roamed about beyond the lenses of photographers on the lake in a southeastern corner of Central Park a stone's throw from the Plaza hotel, snacking on a few breadcrumbs thrown by onlookers. Rice University announced it has launched a formal investigation into a physics and bioengineering professor who assisted a Chinese scientist in creating what is believed to be the world's first genetically-modified humans. Dr Michael Deem worked in a lab in China with Dr He Jiankui (HEH JEE'-an-qway), who studied at Rice and Stanford before he returned to his homeland. Deem was his adviser at Rice in Houston. 'Regardless of where it was conducted, this work as described in press reports, violates scientific conduct guidelines and is inconsistent with ethical norms of the scientific community and Rice University,' the university said in the statement announcing the probe. 'We have begun a full investigation of Dr. Deems involvement in this research.' Dr He said Monday in Hong Kong that the DNA of twin girls was altered with a powerful new tool capable of rewriting the very blueprint of life. 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. The US scientist took part in the lab work in China, as this kind of gene editing is banned in the United States due to risks that altered DNA will warp other genes. The university confirmed it was not aware of the work. After his time studying in the US, Dr He returned to his homeland to open a lab at Southern University of Science and Technology of China in Shenzhen, where he has two genetics companies. Professor Deem holds what he called 'a small stake' in - and is on the scientific advisory boards of - Dr He's two companies. Scroll down for video Rice University has launched a formal investigation into a physics and bioengineering professor Dr Michael Deem (pictured) who assisted a Chinese scientist in creating 'the world's first genetically-modified babies' Dr Michael Deem worked in a lab with Dr He Jiankui (HEH JEE'-an-qway), who studied at Rice and Stanford before he returned to his homeland in China. Dr He said the DNA of twin girls was altered with a powerful new tool capable of rewriting the very blueprint of life Rice University (pictured) said in the statement: 'We have begun a full investigation of Dr. Deems involvement in this research' He Jiankui speaks during an interview at a laboratory in Shenzhen in southern China's Guangdong province. The Chinese scientist claims he helped make world's first genetically edited babies Gene editing is also banned in Britain and 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.' Dr Jiankui, of the Southern University of Science and Technology, in Shenzhen, said he altered embryos for seven couples during fertility treatments, with one pregnancy resulting thus far. 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 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 Monday in Hong Kong to an organizer 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.' 'If true, this experiment is monstrous,' said Professor Julian Savulescu, Director of the University of Oxford's Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics. 'These healthy babies are being used as genetic guinea pigs. This is genetic Russian Roulette.' However, one famed geneticist, Harvard University's Professor George Church, defended attempting gene editing for HIV, which he called 'a major and growing public health threat.' 'I think this is justifiable,' Professor 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, 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. In the US, it's not allowed except for lab research. China outlaws human cloning but not specifically gene editing. 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 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 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. 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, Dr 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. Dr 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. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE DOUBTS SURROUNDING DR HE'S CLAIMS? Several scientists reviewed materials that Dr 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, famed Harvard University geneticist Professor George Church said. Church and Dr Kiran Musunuru, a University of Pennsylvania gene editing expert, 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 you're exposing that child to all the unknown safety risks,' Dr 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 it's very treatable if it occurs, those other medical risks are a concern, Dr Musunuru said. There also are questions about the way Dr He said he proceeded. He gave official notice of his work long after he said he started it - on November 8, on a Chinese registry of clinical trials. It's 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 hospital linked to the controversial project denied approving the procedure and accused Dr He of forgery. Advertisement The researchers used a gene-editing tool called CRISPR-cas9 for their experiment, which makes it possible to operate on DNA. This image shows a video feed of a researcher in Dr He's team using the tool under a microscope Describing the work, Dr He said: '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,' Dr He said. WHAT IS CRISPR-CAS9? Crispr-Cas9 is a tool for making precise edits in DNA, discovered in bacteria. The acronym stands for 'Clustered Regularly Inter-Spaced Palindromic Repeats'. The technique involves a DNA cutting enzyme and a small tag which tells the enzyme where to cut. The CRISPR/Cas9 technique uses tags which identify the location of the mutation, and an enzyme, which acts as tiny scissors, to cut DNA in a precise place, allowing small portions of a gene to be removed By editing this tag, scientists are able to target the enzyme to specific regions of DNA and make precise cuts, wherever they like. It has been used to 'silence' genes - effectively switching them off. When cellular machinery repairs the DNA break, it removes a small snip of DNA. In this way, researchers can precisely turn off specific genes in the genome. The approach has been used previously to edit the HBB gene responsible for a condition called -thalassaemia. Advertisement 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, Dr 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 Dr 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. 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 you're 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. Zhou Xiaoqin removes the cryostorage sheath from a container for an embryo at Dr He's laboratory in Shenzhen in southern China's Guangdong province In this image an embryo is injected with proteins using the controversial Crispr-Cas9 technique 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 it's very treatable if it occurs, those other medical risks are a concern, Musunuru said. There also are questions about the way Dr He said he proceeded. He gave official notice of his work long after he said he started it - on November 8, on a Chinese registry of clinical trials. It's 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, Professor 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. Professor Deem said he worked with Dr He on vaccine research at Rice and considers the gene editing similar to a vaccine. 'That might be a layman's way of describing it,' he said. Both men are physics experts with no experience running human clinical trials. In this photo, Zhou Xiaoqin (left) loads Cas9 protein and PCSK9 sgRNA molecules into a fine glass pipette as Qin Jinzhou watches President Trump said in an interview published Wednesday that he's 'totally willing' to incur a government shutdown on December 7 if Senate Democrats don't agree to spend $5 billion on his long-promised border wall. 'We need border security in this country, and if that means a shutdown I would totally be willing to shut it down,' he told Politico. 'And I think it's a really bad issue for the Democrats.' The president insisted that with the midterm elections behind him, he's not playing politics. 'I don't do anything ... just for political gain,' he said. 'But I will tell you, politically speaking, that issue is a total winner. People look at the border, they look at the rush to the police, they look at the rock throwers and really hurting three people, these very brave border patrol folks I think that it's a tremendous issue.' Historically, Americans upset about government shutdowns tend to blame whichever party controls Congress, in this case the GOP. Trump inspected border wall prototypes in San Diego on March 13 In places like Tijuana, Mexico, tall border walls give way to shorter fences that require military guards to keep illegal immigrants out Senate Democrats say they're willing to put $1.6 billion on the table, a number that's far from what the White House wants. It will take 60 senators to approve a budget that would keep the government functioning. House Republicans are willing to green-light Trump's border wall proposal, but they will lose their majority status and with it the ability to move legislation when the new Congress is sworn in. That creates a narrow window of time for Trump to act. Not every federal agency would be covered by a shutdown. 'Essential' workers would continue on the job, along with military servicemen and women, postal employees, and Special Counsel Robert Mueller's operation, which is funded independently. Trump met Tuesday with Republican leaders to hash out a spending plan. He made the wall a centerpiece of his 2016 campaign and originally said Mexico would pay for it. Now he is stepping up pressure on Congress. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, called Tuesday's White House meeting 'very productive' and said Trump 'is very solid with where he wants to go and what he needs to have a secure border.' House Majority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana took a hard line on the negotiations, saying Democrats will soon face a crucial question: 'Are they going to shut down the government because they don't want to keep America safe?' Trump said he is considering a backup plan if Congress rejects his demand for the $5 billion, possibly including the continued use of troops and razor wire to prevent migrants from entering the country. He told The Washington Post that if he doesn't get the money, there are other ways he could get it done. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said the Trump administration hasn't even spent the $1.6 billion Congress approved in the current budget for the wall. Trump supporters in hard hats held signs reading 'Finish the Wall' at a Mississippi rally last month With Republicans in control of the presidency, the House and the Senate, 'a shutdown is on their back,' Schumer said Tuesday. 'Stick to the $1.6 billion.' Democrats and GOP leaders struck a deal earlier this year to fund nearly three-quarters of the government into next year. Left undone, however, is funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the border, and a few other agencies. They're now running on stopgap funds set to expire Dec. 7. Complicating border negotiations, Democrats also want to protect special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference and any possible coordination with Trump associates. 'I didn't know Robert Mueller needed protection,' McCarthy told reporters, adding that there's 'nothing out there' for Mueller or Democrats to fear from Trump or his administration. 'But I do know the southern end of our country needs protection.' McCarthy, whose party lost more than three dozen House seats in the midterm elections earlier this month, urged Democrats to work with Republicans on the wall and other legislation, including a long-stalled farm bill, a new tax cut package and criminal justice reform. 'The election is over. Let's put people before politics,' McCarthy said. 'We've got a problem before us. Let's solve that problem.' Schumer said Democrats support strong border security and believe that $1.6 billion for border security, including physical barriers and technology along the U.S. southern border, 'is the right way to go.' White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said Trump and GOP leaders discussed a range of legislative priorities, including the California wildfires, the farm bill and 'the great need for border security at this crucial time,' as well as prison reform and the budget. The group also talked about Monday's announcement by General Motors that it will shutter five plants and slash 14,000 jobs in North America, Gidley said. Stubborn residents refusing to evacuate a small town in the path of a deadly inferno have been warned they will 'burn to death' if they do not leave. Thick, billowing smoke is already surrounding Gracemere, west of Rockhampton, in Queensland as the blaze edges closer to homes and shopping precincts in the region. More than 8000 residents have fled but about 50 are standing their ground despite desperate pleas from frustrated emergency services. Flames are beginning to lick the perimeters of the small regional town known for its beef. 'People will burn to death,' Queensland's deputy police commissioner Bob Gee said. 'Their normal approaches probably won't work if this situation develops the way it is predicted to develop. 'It is no different to a Category 5 cyclone coming through your door.' 'If you have children with you, you need to think really hard about not losing a house, but losing the people you care most about.' The Queensland Fire and Emergency Services' Rural Fire Service has declared the Capricornia and Central Highlands and Coalfield regions a catastrophic fire danger, the highest level on the scale Rhonda Anderson evacuates herself and her horse to safety near Mount Larcom, Queensland The Queensland inferno is seen from above as it ravages dangerously close to properties The Queensland Fire and Emergency Services' Rural Fire Service has declared the Capricornia and Central Highlands as well as the Coalfield regions 'catastrophically dangerous' - the highest level available to them on the nationally recognised fire scale. Residents of Gracemere who responded to evacuation orders have been asked to relocate to the Rockhampton Showgrounds and register their home address. Emergency services and bus convoys have started evacuating elderly people from nursing homes in the area. Emergency Management Victoria have committed another 82 personnel to the region to help battle the blazes by Thursday afternoon to help local crews battle the blazes. Fire conditions in Larcom, Queensland, have been rated as catastrophic with over 140 fires burning around the state Officers are said to be doing one final sweep of the area of Deepwater but after that, residents will be on their own Interstate fire crews have been arriving over the course of the day as fires ravished the area. Further south of Rockhampton, more than 1000 people have also been forced to leave the region of Deepwater. Farmers in the small fishing village of Rules Beach are battering down the hatches of their sprawling orchards and are preparing to battle the blaze. Macadamia grower Robert Griffith said that flames are just three kilometres away from his property, but he is refusing to budge. 'The wind is hot and dry, you can smell the fire, you can see the embers flying across and the whole farm is littered with burnt leaves from the past couple of days,' he told The Courier Mail. Residents of Deepwater (pictured) are seen observing the fire as it comes dangerously close to their properties Residents of Deepwater are forced to flee by boat as conditions worsen 'As the crow flies it's only three kilometres away, we've probably got half an hour to an hour.' he said. Mr Gee said people in the path of the fire who are refusing to leave were playing Russian roulette. What they're saying about the QLD fires * 'If you have children with you, you need to think really hard about not losing a house, but losing the people you care most about. People will burn to death. The normal approaches probably won't work if this situation develops the way it is predicted to develop. It is no different to a Category 5 cyclone coming through your door.' Brian Smith, Regional Manager for the Rural Fire Services Central Region, says experts have predicted catastrophic conditions in the area south of Bundaberg. * 'This is something we don't want to overstate, but they're comparing this to the conditions in the Waroona fires in Western Australia, which completely wiped out a town a few years ago, and also to the recent California fires,' he told AAP. Fire and Emergency Services Minister Craig Crawford said the conditions reminded him of the Ash Wednesday fires in Victoria. * 'I'm sure that some people have probably got very good and elaborate systems of pumps and dams and systems and they believe that 'I'll be OK and I know what I'm doing and I've done this before'. Today is not one of those days. Today is different. We are expecting a firestorm.' Fire and Emergency Services Minister Craig Crawford warns conditions are so dangerous people could die. * 'What we're expecting in Queensland today is the kind of conditions (that other states) have seen in the past - these are the kind of days where people could lose their lives.' Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk warns people who refuse to leave might not be rescued. * 'We may not be able to rescue you once the fire reaches containment lines. Even if you are on the beach, the wind conditions are so dangerous we will not be able to send people in to remove you.' Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk Advertisement Officers are said to be doing one final sweep of the area but after that, residents will be on their own. On top of residents refusing to leave, authorities are now concerned about Hills Road Bridge, which serves as the only connection entrance to the area, will be destroyed by the fire, ultimately cutting off the only escape route for locals. As conditions worsen, the fires are already being compared to the devastating Malibu inferno in California, that destroyed hundreds of homes. Brian Smith, regional manager for the Rural Fire Services central region, said experts in fire behaviour had predicted catastrophic conditions would unfold in the area north of Bundaberg on Wednesday afternoon. 'This is something we don't want to overstate, but they're comparing this to the conditions in the Waroona fires in Western Australia, which completely wiped out a town a few years ago, and also to the recent California fires,' he said. He said the unpredictable fires were being fanned by gusty westerly winds, which started blowing at about midday. Existing fires in the Deepwater region, south of Agnes Water, have already started breaking containment lines. A new blaze is threatening properties at Ambrose, south of Rockhampton, and fire crews are trying to contain another blaze at Winfield, south of Baffle Creek. Residents of Deepwater, Baffle Creek, Rules Beach and Oyster Creek, Eungella and Dalrymple Heights have been ordered to evacuate before fires cut roads. 'I'm sure that some people have probably got very good and elaborate systems of pumps and dams and systems and they believe that 'I'll be OK and I know what I'm doing and I've done this before,'' Mr Crawford said. 'Today is not one of those days. Today is different. We are expecting a firestorm.' Firefighters are seen at a fire command post in Deepwater, Queensland As conditions worsen, the fires are already being compared to the devastating Malibu inferno in California, that destroyed hundreds of homes 'People will burn to death': Residents of Deepwater, Baffle Creek, Rules Beach and Oyster Creek, Eungella and Dalrymple Heights have been ordered to evacuate before fires cut roads The firestorm would likely create 'dead man zones' which would be impossible to survive, even in a car. More than 85 fires are burning across the state, but the Deepwater fire and another at Dalrymple, west of Mackay, are of the most concern. Interstate crews arrived on Tuesday to help fight the inferno in central Queensland that's destroyed homes and burnt through at least 20,000 hectares of bush and farmland since Saturday. Eight aircraft, including a massive water-bombing plane, which can dump 15,000 litres at a time, are also fighting the fire. Crews from South Australia are expected to arrive on Wednesday, with more from around Australia to arrive later this week. Ten alleged gang members have been charged for a spate of burglaries which happened at celebrity homes in Los Angeles earlier this year. Two of the men were among the four people who were charged in October but eight of them have been arrested in connection to the case for the first time. It is unclear which gang they are thought to belong to. Ten men aged between 18 and 25 have been charged for a spate of burglaries at celebrity homes in Los Angeles in October . The burglaries include one at the home of Dodgers star Yasiel Puig (above) In October, police announced they had arrested four people in connection with the burglaries. They shared evidence photographs and revealed pieces of jewelry they say were taken. Only two of the people arrested in October have been charged Some of the jewelry that was stolen in the burglaries from the homes of Rihanna and Christina Millian The two men who were arrested in October but who have been re-arrested now are Jshawne Daniels, 19; and Damaji Hall, 18. Daniels is accused of stealing jewelry from Rihanna's home while she was away. The eight new suspects were named by City News Service as Hassan Deontre Murphy, 19, Joseph Holley, 22, Lance Williams, 18, Devin Garner, 24, Ron Simmons, 20, Donnie Faizon, 21, and Elan Lamberto Gabourel, 25. They will make their first court appearance in Los Angeles on Wednesday at 8.30am local time. According to jail records, Murphy was arrested on October 30. He is being held on a $2,390,000 bond. Holley was taken into custody on November 15. His bail has been set at $1,440,000.00. Williams was arrested on October 30. His bond is $5,405,000.00. Garner was taken into custody on November 9th. His bond is $1.4million. Information for the other four was not immediately available. Simmons was arrested on November 8. He is also being held on a $1.4million bond. Details surrounding their arrests were sparse on Wednesday morning beyond the fact that they had been charged with conspiracy and numerous other counts including burglary and home-invasion robbery. The burglars were caught on surveillance cameras and doorbell cameras in sweatsuits leaving the homes. They will make their first court appearance on Wednesday morning Rihanna was among those targeted. Police also found a hit list which had the names of other stars including LeBron James and Matt Damon on it Among the stars targeted by the burglars were Dodgers star Yasiel Puig and Rams wide receiver Robert Woods. Surveillance footage taken inside some of the homes show them raiding the celebrities' bedrooms. As part of their investigation, police also found a list of intended targets which included Lebron James and Matt Damon. Officials say the victims were chosen when their social media postings and schedules indicated they'd be away from home. In October, Damaji Hall, 18, and his 34-year old mother Ashle were also arrested. They were released afterwards and have not been charged. The burglaries bear a striking resemblance to those carried out by the notorious Bling Ring, a group of seven youngsters from Calabasas who targeted celebrities including Paris Hilton to steal cash and jewelry in a string of burglaries in 2008 and 2009. Nancy Pelosi was nominated by fellow Democrats to be House speaker on Wednesday, but she still faces a showdown vote when the full House convenes in January. Pelosi entered the closed-door caucus election in an unusual position running unopposed for the nomination despite the clamor by some Democrats for new leadership. The lopsided 203-32 tally showed both the weakness of her opposition but also the challenges ahead. The California Democrat has been deftly picking off opponents - including nine who announced their support as voting was underway a trend she'll need to accelerate to reach the 218-vote threshold for election when Democrats take control of the chamber in the new year. 'Are there dissenters? Yes,' the California Democrat told reporters as the ballots were being counted. 'But I expect to have a powerful vote going forward.' Pelosi was nominated by Rep. Joe Kennedy of Massachusetts, with no fewer than eight colleagues seconding the choice, including Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, the civil rights leader, and three newly elected lawmakers. As House Democrats met in private in the Capitol, they faced a simple 'yes' or 'no' choice. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was joined Wednesday by Rep. Eric Swalwell of California (left) and Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio (right); she still faces a showdown vote for House speaker when lawmakers convene in January., but it may be a formality A sign of the party's mood emerged early as the House Democrats elected Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York as caucus chairman, elevating the charismatic 48-year-old from the Congressional Black Caucus as a new generation of leaders pushes to the forefront. His slim victory in that race, 123-113, over veteran Rep. Barbara Lee of California, another influential member of the Black Caucus, offered a window into the shifting landscape. \Flanked by top progressive leaders, Lee made her pitch during the closed session, drawing on the record number of women, including minority women, who ran for office and are entering the new Congress. The majority, though, went to Jeffries who used his speech to remind Democrats of their core accomplishments from passage of the Civil Rights Act to the Affordable Care Act before pivoting to his vision for the future. 'I'm focused on standing up for everyone white, black, Latino, Asian, Native American every single American deserves us, here in the United States Congress to work, Democrats and Republicans, on their behalf to make their life better,' he said afterward. Democrats voted to return their entire top leadership team, including Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland in the No. 2 spot as majority leader and Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina in the No. 3 spot as whip. They were running unopposed. 'The caucus is coming together,' Clyburn said. In a letter to colleagues ahead of voting, Pelosi gave a nod to those clamoring for change. Pelosi walked with Rep. G. K. Butterfield of North Carolina into the Democratic Caucus leadership elections, where she ran unopposed but still gave members the choice of voting 'yes' or 'no' 'We all agree that history is in a hurry, and we need to accelerate the pace of change in Congress,' she wrote, noting the 'historic' class of new first-term lawmakers, the largest since Watergate, who led Democrats to the majority in the midterm election. Pelosi's opponents had pledged to usher in a new era for Democrats. But one by one, the powerful California congresswoman picked off the would-be challengers and smoothed skeptics. Ahead of voting Wednesday, a deal was reached with the Problem Solvers Caucus, a bipartisan group whose nine Democratic members were withholding their support as they pushed for rules changes to allow a more open legislative process. But another group against her, led by Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio and Rep. Kathleen Rice of New York, left the leader's office empty-handed. They asked Pelosi to publicly release her plans to transition out of leadership before the end of the next term in 2020. She declined, they said. 'There has to be some succession plan,' Rice said. For now, there was no one willing, or able, to mount a serious campaign against her bid to reclaim the speaker's job, which she held from 2007 to 2011, before the GOP took back the majority. 'You can't beat someone with no one,' said Rep.-elect Jahana Hayes, D-Conn. She said she came to Washington eager to hear from colleagues and 'hopeful that many candidates would step up to the plate.' But 'the only person that declared their intentions, spoke to me about their vision and asked me for my vote is Nancy Pelosi.' Pelosi still lacks the votes she'll need in January, when the new Congress convenes, to ascend to the post. One member who signed a letter being circulated by opponents, Rep. Linda Sanchez of California, said the real fight will come in January. 'The battle is the floor,' Sanchez said. Those trying to oust Pelosi say they always knew the internal caucus election would fall in her favor. She only needed a simple majority of Democrats, who have a 233-seat majority, with several races still undecided, to win the nomination. But she'll need 218 votes in January, half the full 435-seat House, which is harder, if all Republicans vote against her, as is likely - though she could win with fewer votes if some lawmakers are absent or vote present. Opponents, who insist there will be more than enough votes to stop Pelosi in January, say only with a floor fight in view will new leaders emerge. They say there are plenty of Democrats who could step up to the job. But Pelosi's ability to stand unopposed Wednesday, despite the threats from within and reams of attack ads against her, showed the staying power of her brand of machine politics. She was the first female speaker and hopes to return to a role few men have reclaimed - most recently, legendary Speaker Sam Rayburn a half-century ago. 'The reality is there is no alternative,' said Rep. Brian Higgins, D-N.Y., who had signed on opposing her but reversed course. Between now and January, Pelosi will work the levers of power by doling out the many committee seat assignments, subcommittee chairmanships and other perks she is able to offer, or withhold, as incentives. 'She's making a lot of headway,' said Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio, an ally. 'Has she negotiated and given them some of the things that they want? Yes. But she's only giving things to people who can deliver. A Melbourne man who murdered three people by intentionally setting fire to the squat they lived in had previously threatened to set their makeshift home ablaze. Darren Patrick Clover, 53, initially claimed the petrol found at the Footscray rope factory was to be used for a barbecue. But he actually used it to ignite a small alcove where David Griffiths, Tanya Burmeister and her 15-year-old daughter Zoe were sleeping. Darren Patrick Clover, 53, initially claimed the petrol found at the Footscray rope factory was to be used for a barbecue In March 2017, Darren Patrick Clover, 53, set fire to an alcove at a Footscray rope factory, killing David Griffiths (pictured right), Tanya Burmeister (pictured far left) and her 15-year-old daughter Zoe (pictured left) Clover was angry and jealous when his former partner Ms Burmeister started a new relationship with Mr Griffiths and had threatened them, once saying words to the effect of: 'I am going to set the squat on fire,' prosecutor Ray Gibson said on Wednesday. On March 1 last year, Clover bought 1.6 litres of petrol from a nearby service station before setting fire to the former gas meter room just before 11.25pm. Witnesses, who called triple zero and tried to put out the intense flames with buckets of water, said they heard voices inside calling for help but they went quiet after explosions inside. The trio had chained the door from the inside, believing it would keep them safe. Clover denied responsibility until August this year, when he pleaded guilty to three charges of murder. The court received more than a dozen statements from family and friends of the victims. On Mark 1, 2017, Clover bought 1.6 litres of petrol from a nearby service station before setting fire to the former gas meter room (pictured) just before 11.25pm Ms Burmeister's father Brad said he regretted not helping more when she called him a month before her death. 'I can't help but feel I could have been more understanding about what she was going through. I thought there was time for that down the track,' he said. 'One good thing is I said 'I love you'. She said 'I love you too, dad'.' He said he imagined what Zoe might be like now 'because my imagination is all I have'. Alan and Gloria Griffiths said in their statement, read by family friend Terry McKay, their son had been almost ready to return to the family after a period away. 'The fact this turnaround was imminent made it even more difficult for our family to cope with his loss,' they said. 'We were robbed of the chance to see this change in him firsthand.' Clover's lawyer Daniel Gurvich QC said it was an undeniable reality Clover was responsible for the deaths, though he maintained he didn't know Zoe was inside when he started the fire. He claims he thought burning down the squat would leave the trio nowhere to stay and there's not a day he doesn't cry, knowing his actions killed them. 'I'd do anything to turn back time,' he said. Clover will be sentenced in the Supreme Court at a later date. A former aged-care nurse who claimed her barrister forced her into giving false evidence at her trial has lost an appeal against her two insulin-murder convictions and sentence. New South Wales woman Megan Haines also unsuccessfully claimed her barrister ignored instructions to contest the credibility of a witness, AB. The witness testified she told him she knew how to kill a person without being detected by using insulin so it looked like natural causes. Scroll down for video New South Wales woman Megan Haines (pictured) has unsuccessfully appealed her conviction for the murder of two patients at an aged care home in Ballina Marie Darragh (pictured with daughter Charli Matterson) died after being given a lethal dose of insulin Haines was jailed for at least 27 years in December 2016 after being found guilty of murdering Marie Darragh, 82, and Isabella Spencer, 77, in May 2014 at Ballina's St Andrew's Village in northern NSW. The now 51-year-old, who had previously been suspended after complaints about her in Victoria, was told Ms Darragh had complained about her refusing to give her a cream to soothe an itch, while Ms Spencer said she had refused to help her reach the toilet. The New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal on Wednesday dismissed her challenges against convictions and sentence, which she said was 'manifestly excessive'. Her conviction appeal grounds included a claim that her lawyers brought 'improper pressure' on her to sign a document making admissions, relating to her insulin medical knowledge, against her interests and her explicit instructions. Isabella Spencer, 77, (pictured) also died after being given an overdose of insulin before being found comatose the next morning 'Our firm conclusion in relation to (Troy) Edwards is that of a hardworking, conscientious barrister, who would not have made the intimidatory remarks which the applicant has attributed to him,' said Justices Clifton Hoeben, David Davies and Richard Button. They noted that Mr Edwards was able to persuade the Crown to confine AB's evidence to the one conversation about killing by insulin. If the parties had not agreed, AB's evidence 'was likely to include further references to killing using insulin and the euthanasia of old people. 'As it was, there was some benefit for the applicant in the evidence which was ultimately given in that it was capable of being substantially dismissed as the applicant showing off her medical knowledge on one occasion, rather than be indicative of a more sinister state of mind.' The judges also rejected a claim that the evidence was 'unsafe and unsatisfactory' and insufficient to secure a conviction. The Crown had produced a 'very cogent case' and the circumstantial facts were wide-ranging. 'Motive, opportunity and knowledge of the use of insulin were revealed by the evidence,' the court said. Although Covid-19, supply chain issues, inflation and labor shortages may slow or derail Texas economic train, State Comptroller Glenn Hegar is forecasting $24 billion in extra revenue during the current two-year budget period, The Texas Tribune reported. Candidates running for office will be able to point to the surplus as a way of funding proposals like lowering property taxes. What would be your priority for the states surplus funds? You voted: Victims of grooming gangs have rushed to the defence of Rotherham rape victim Sammy Woodhouse after a council told her abuser he had access rights to the child he fathered during a sex attack. Miss Woodhouse, a 33-year-old mother, waived her anonymity to identify herself as a rape victim, as she revealed she was left 'scared and angry' by the South Yorkshire town's council. Arshid Hussain, 43, the ringleader of the notorious grooming gang, was not named on her son's birth certificate and had no parental responsibility for the child, who was born after his mother was raped, aged just 15. He 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 child. After Miss Woodhouse told of her horror at the decision this morning, fellow Rotherham survivor Linzi Williams, who Arshid Hussain also impregnated when she was 15, told MailOnline the decision was 'absolutely disgusting'. 'I am speechless that this would be allowed to happen,' she said. 'Social services supposed to protect children and people from paedophiles and rapists not give them contact. Sammy Woodhouse told Good Morning Britain this morning of her mortification at the rapist being allowed access to her child 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 Arshid Hussain was jailed for 35 years after being convicted of raping Ms Woodhouse and assaulting young girls. He was shot in the stomach in 2005 and now uses a wheelchair 'It's just another massive betrayal by social services how are people supposed to start trusting in them when they do something as stupid as this?' And a survivor of the Telford grooming gang, who writes about her experience under the pseudonym Holly Archer, told MailOnline she fully supports Miss Woodhouse's push to change the law. Linzi Williams, also a survivor of the grooming gang, branded the decision 'absolutely disgusting' 'I fully support Sammys campaign, there are similar situations in Telford and across the rest of the country,' she said. 'Survivors of child sexual exploitation and child sex abuse risk having their children removed or their rights as a parent taken away from them and given to abusers and their families. 'This is a continuous cycle of abuse, when will it end? Using the most important thing in these survivors lives and passing it to men who systematically raped and abused them, is totally disturbing. 'How many children are being put in danger like this and how many brave survivors lives are these absurd rulings in the family court ruining? This forever punishing the victim has to change, and the time is now.' It came as Rotherham Council admitted that it was now seeking guidance from the Ministry of Justice after the government cast doubt on its decision. 'As the public would expect, we have already begun to review the specifics of the case,' the spokesman said. 'Concluding the review will take time, and we are asking the Ministry of Justice to work with us on this to ensure that it is completed thoroughly and properly,' he added. WHAT IS THE LAW? GOVERNMENT SAYS COUNCILS HANDS WERE NOT TIED Rotherham Council said it had a duty to comply with Family Court practice directions when care proceedings were enacted. The local authority in South Yorkshire says that directions include a requirement to notify 'every person whom the applicant believes to be a parent without parental responsibility for the child' of proceedings. But a government spokesman cast doubt on this interpretation 'Local authorities can apply to courts for permission not to notify parents without parental responsibility about care proceedings,' he said. 'Courts should consider the potential harm to the child and mother when making this decision.' Hussain has at no point had parental responsibility toward the child he fathered. But if a council does not apply for permission not to notify parents who have produced children by rape, the sex offender can be given access, which is why Sammy Woodhouse is campaigning for a change in law. Advertisement 'Furthermore, we are in contact with the Ministry of Justice about how Practice Directions which apply to cases in the Family Courts should be applied, and we will be seeking further conversations with government officials about this as a matter of urgency. 'It is imperative that clarity is realised as soon as possible, not just for Rotherham, but to ensure that other councils across the country who may face similar issues are able to act with certainty and no more survivors of abuse have to experience further trauma.' It comes after a Government spokesman yesterday suggested that existing court rules only required that people who have parental responsibility for the child need to be informed. The 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.' Rotherham Council's statement followed Sammy Woodhouse appearing on the Victoria Derbyshire this morning to talk about her case. 'As a rape victim Im constantly told hes got his human rights,' she told the BBC2 show. 'What about my human rights? My main issue is I have to fight every single day for something just to be treated like a human being.' She said the council should have opposed taking the step to give Hussain access as she fights for a change in the law to deny rapists access to children they have fathered in sickening attacks. They should've fought for that child,' she said. 'What they've done is hand my son over on a plate to a rapist.' This morning she also told Good Morning Britain she was 'mortified' at the decision to give Hussain access. Sammy Woodhouse (pictured on the Victoria Derbyshire show this morning) says Rotherham Council handed her son to the rapist on a plate Ms Woodhouse was horrified to find out that the council had said her rapist was entitled to access to his son The Rotherham sex abuse survivor was 'shocked and mortified' to find out about the decision The rape survivor told the show that she was shocked and mortified by the decision to approach her rapist and invite him to seek access 'I was completely shocked and mortified,' she said. 'I thought when I testified in court and he was sentence to 35 years I thought that was it, I can move on. 'Yet here I am within 12 months later knowing at any moment he could walk through that door.' She is calling for a change in the law so that no rapist is allowed to have access to children they father in sickening attacks. 'Gobsmacked' Miss Woodhouse said she wasn't even told that she was attending court to discuss access for her rapist. To then have a social worker say to me [at court] well actually he's not attending and I asked what he meant, and when he told me I was in complete shock. 'I proved he's a direct harm to my child, the fact they've done this - I'm in shock. Im quite fortunate in my case because he's refused to apply for custody.' 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' Ms Woodhouse has gone on to campaign for the rights of women who have been raped What were the offences Hussain was guilty of? Arshid Hussain (pictured), of East Cowick, Goole, was found guilty of: Three rapes Eleven indecent assaults One count of conspiracy to rape One serious sexual assault One count of procuring a girl under 21 to have unlawful sex with another One count of false imprisonment Two counts of procuring a woman under 21 to become a common prostitute One count of attempting to procure a girl under 21 to have unlawful sexual intercourse One count of abducting a 15-year-old girl One count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm He was cleared of two rapes, two counts of aiding and abetting rape and one of aiding and abetting a serious sexual assault at the end of the trial. He was also cleared of one count of abduction on the orders of the judge. His brothers Bannaras, 36, and Basharat, 39, were also sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court on the same day. The Hussains were found guilty of a range of offences earlier this week along with their uncle, Qurban Ali, 53, and two women - Karen MacGregor, 59, and Shelley Davis, 40. They targeted 15 vulnerable girls, one aged only 11, and forced them to perform horrific sex acts over a sixteen year period. Bannaras Hussain admitted ten charges - including rape, indecent assault and assault occasioning actual bodily harm - at the beginning of the trial. He was given a 19-year sentence. Advertisement '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 council's 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 Woodhouse's campaign to change the Children Act 1989, told The Times that the council's 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 worker's error or systemic failings. 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'. 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 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 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. There was an outpouring of support on social media as Miss Woodhouse told her horrific story on Good Morning Britain this morning 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'. Rotherham gang which groomed, raped and abused teenage girls is jailed for total of 102 years including 35-year term for ringleader 'Mad Ash' The Rotherham gang which groomed, raped and abused teenage girls were jailed for a total of 102 years. Brothers Arshid, 40, Bannaras, 36, and Basharat, 39, were also sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court today after a series of women told a jury how they were sexually, physically and emotionally abused in the South Yorkshire town when they were in their early teens. The Hussains were found guilty of a range of offences earlier this week along with their uncle, Qurban Ali, 53, and two women - Karen MacGregor, 59, and Shelley Davis, 40. Brothers Arshid (left), 40, and Basharat Hussain (middle), 39, committed multiple rapes and indecent assaults on teenagers in the South Yorkshire town. Their younger brother, Bannaras Hussain (right), 36, admitted ten charges - including rape, indecent assault and assault occasioning actual bodily harm The group targeted 15 vulnerable girls, one aged only 11, and forced them to perform horrific sex acts over a sixteen year period. Judge Sarah Wright told the gang: 'The harm you have caused is of unimaginable proportions.' Arshid and Basharat Hussain were found guilty of dozens of attacks between them. Arshid, the ringleader, has been jailed for 35 years, while Basharat was given 25 years. Bannaras Hussain admitted ten charges - including rape, indecent assault and assault occasioning actual bodily harm - at the beginning of the trial. He was given a 19-year sentence. The Hussain brothers' uncle, Qurban Ali (left), 53, was also found guilty of conspiracy to rape. Shelley Davies, (centre) 40, was found guilty of conspiracy to procure prostitutes and false imprisonment. Karen MacGregor (right) took in girls from children's homes purporting to give them a safe haven and support - only to then have them abused The brothers' uncle, Qurban Ali, 53, appeared alongside them in court. He too was found guilty of conspiracy to rape and has been jailed for 10 years. MacGregor and Davis were found guilty of conspiracy to procure prostitutes and false imprisonment. MacGregor was jailed for 13 years, while Davis was handed an 18-month suspended sentence. Shocking details emerged of an incident where police appeared to turn a blind eye to Bannaras Hussain receiving oral sex from a girl who was only around 12 or 13 at the time. Arshid Hussain (pictured) raped his young victims and subjected them to a catalogue of indecent assaults Bannaras abused the victim in a car park next to Rotherham Police Station. The prosecutor Michelle Colborne QC said: '(The girl) performed oral sex on Bannaras Hussain. 'When, shortly afterwards, a police car pulled up alongside them and asked what was going on, Bannaras Hussain shouted "she's just sucking my c***, mate". 'The police car drove off. He was indifferent to whether she consented or not.' The girl was beaten up by her own family when they found out she had been abused by the Rotherham grooming gang since she was 12. The prosecutor added: 'When her brothers found out, they were furious with her and would physically assault her because she was involved sexually with an Asian man.' As Judge Wright passed sentence on Arshid, there was a shout of 'Yes' and gasps from the packed public gallery. Some of the victims and their relatives who held hands on the balcony of the court hugged each other. Arshid was clearly visible on a big screen in court - appearing by video-link from Doncaster Prison. He showed no reaction at the sentence, barely opening his eyes for most of the hearing. The judge said: 'Each in your own way perpetrated or facilitated the sexual abuse of these young girls. 'Your victims were targeted, sexualised and in some cases subjected to acts of a degrading and violent nature. 'Many of the victims were subjected to repeated abuse. There was a pattern of abuse which was repeated over and over again. Some victims were groomed, some coerced and intimidated. 'They were made to feel that they could not report what was happening to them. 'Even if they did, no action was taken and you were free to continue your exploitation of them.' Addressing Arshid, she said: 'You and your brothers, Bannaras Hussain and Basharat Hussain, were well-known in the area - you drove distinctive cars and had a reputation for violence. 'There was a perception by some of your victims that you appeared, in their words, to "rule Rotherham". You exploited that to the full.' Two other men, Majid Bostan, 37 and Sajid Bostan, 38, also brothers, were cleared of all charges. Every Brexit option will make Britain poorer, the government admitted today as it released a new economic analysis while Theresa May scrambles to sell her deal. The PM's favoured plan will leave the economy 2.5 per cent smaller after 15 years than if the country had stayed in the EU. But crashing out without any agreement would be much worse - potentially meaning giving up 9.3 per cent of GPD over the period. There is a wide regional variation in how different deals hurt different parts of the country. London does best out of a no deal scenario, losing out on around 6 per cent of future growth - but worst from the Chequers deal, which excludes the service sector that dominates the capital's economy. The north east suffers most in a no deal, losing out on more than 10 per cent of economic growth. The best outcome for Wales and Scotland is a Chequers-based solution, which sees only a fractional loss in future growth. The absolute worst case scenario is a 10.7 per cent hit to the economy after no deal - equivalent to 200billion or 3,000 per person by 2035, according to Bloomberg analysis. The Canada-style relationship endorsed by many Brexiteers would result in a 6.7 per cent hit, while even a Norway model keeping similar free movement rules would entail a 1.4 per cent loss. There is a wide regional variation in how different deals impact parts of the country. London does best out of a no deal scenario (third from the top), losing out on around 6 per cent of future growth - but worst from the Chequers deal (bottom). Staying in the EEA for a Norway-style deal (second from the top) leads to lower growth everywhere but less than other scenarios. The Brexiteers favoured option of a Canada-style deal (top) is roughly half the cut to growth of no deal in most areas How would the economy fare under the Brexit options? The Government analysis predicts a negative hit to the economy in all Brexit scenarios The government analysis looked at how GDP would change over 15 years, compared to if we stayed in the EU. It assumed net zero immigration from the bloc - apart from in the case of a Norway-style model, where the UK would have to keep similar rules to free movement. Advertisement According to the analysis, if Mrs May secures her Chequers plan from July in full - including a bespoke trade deal and no free movement - the economy could be 2.5 per cent smaller. The figures represent billions of pounds in lost economic growth over the 15 years after Brexit, even though the economy will be bigger overall whatever happens. A smaller economy would also mean billions in extra borrowing - almost 120billion more in the worst case scenario. A raft of new trade deals - including with the United States, Australia and other countries in the Middle East and South America - gains back just 0.2 per cent of economic growth in all cases. The Government report insisted the figures were not a forecast and Brexit was not the only thing that would change the economy in the coming years. Today's report does not directly address how the actual deal negotiated by Mrs May will change the economy - partly because the future framework she negotiated offers only a range of outcomes and not a particular deal. It compares a no deal Brexit, a Canada-style trade deal and a Norway-style association with Europe against the Chequers plan. The figures published today reignited the bitter row about 'Project Fear' from the EU referendum campaign. Since the vote, Leave campaigners have seized on Treasury forecasts produced during the referendum that proved to be wrong. HOW WILL EACH BREXIT OPTION AFFECT YOUR JOB? Brexit holds different risks for each of the main sectors of the economy and people who work in them. Overall, a no deal Brexit suggests about 8 per cent less growth in the main sectors - but manufacturing of things like drugs and cars would be hardest hut. The Government data suggests a Chequers-style deal is best overall, closely followed in most cases by a Norway-style membership of the EEA. The impact of a Canada-style deal varies widely across the economy. It would still be very bad for some manufacturing - particularly chemicals and drugs - and almost as bad as no deal in the lucrative financial services sector. Brexit holds different risks for each of the main sectors of the economy and people who work in them with widely different outcomes depending on the deal Manufacturing - including pharmaceuticals, cars and machinery Manufactured goods make up 9 per cent of the UK economy, directly employs 2.4million people and in 2016 almost half of exports went into the EU. A no deal Brexit would disastrous for several sectors - particularly chemicals, pharmaceuticals and motoring which face plunging values of around 23 per cent. Other manufacturing faces an 11 per cent blow. The hammer blow is because throwing up barriers to Europe would ruin just-in-time delivery schedules. By contrast a Chequers-style deal that kept open the Channel routes would see manufacturing mostly continue unscathed. Agriculture and food Agriculture and food contributes 2 per cent of the UK economy and is responsible for 900,000 jobs. It traded 17billion into the EU in 2016 - almost three quarters of its exports. A no deal Brexit would see an 11 per cent hit to the sector and even a Chequers style deal would see it damaged by about 2 per cent, according to today's report. The analysis includes fisheries but does not take account of the political deal to address it separately to the main trading relationship. Services, including business, construction and public spending Services is the mainstay of the British economy, contributing 1.1trillion in 2016, accounting for 28 million jobs - 80 per cent of the entire jobs market. Britain traded 265billion in services with the EU in 2016, just over half of all exported services that year. Currently, the UK is home to four of the world's top ten law firms and six of the world's top ten accountants. Business services face a roughly 6 per cent cent hit in a no deal Brexit while services in areas such as public administration, defence and education are hit by almost 10 per cent. A Chequers-style deal reduces the damage to around 1 per cent across the sector - but is still equivalent to drag worth hundreds of millions of pounds because of its overall size. Financial services The financial services sector makes up another 7 per cent of the economy, worth 131billion - and employs 1.1million people. It also provides 18 per cent of corporation tax as it highly profitable. A no deal Brexit means a 9 per cent hit to the lucrative sector - and a Canada-style trade deal favoured by Leave supporters still means an 8 per cent hit. 'They ALWAYS get it wrong': Brexiteers lash out at 'Project Fear 2.0' after government unveils study claiming 'no deal' would cost each Briton 3,000 Furious Brexiteers accused the government of 'Project Fear 2.0' today over claims 'no deal' could cost every Briton 3,000. Theresa May stepped up the fight to sell her package by unveiling official analysis showing it will limit the economic fallout from leaving the EU. UK plc will be 2.5 per cent smaller after 15 years than if the country had stayed in the bloc, according to the estimate. However, it found crashing out without any agreement would be much worse -with the worst case a 10.7 per cent hit to GDP, equivalent to 200billion or 3,000. The claims immediately reignited the bitter row about the Treasury's 'Project Fear' forecasts from the EU referendum campaign. Former Brexit Secretary David Davis branded the new document a 'propaganda onslaught' in favour of the Government deal. And Boris Johnson raged: 'The British economic establishment always gets it wrong. Wrong about joining the ERM, wrong about leaving it, wrong about joining the Euro, wrong about Project Fear after the referendum. 'They can't forecast six months out - why should we believe them over 15 years?' Theresa May (pictured today in Glasgow) insisted at PMQs the report showed her deal would mean Britain was 'better off' after Brexit, insisting the package negotiated with the EU was the 'best available for jobs and the economy' The Prime Minister claimed victory in the negotiations by securing a political declaration open to a 'spectrum' of trade deal outcomes depending on how much Britain wants to change rules and regulations after Brexit. Based on the figures Mrs May told MPs at PMQs: 'Our deal is the best deal available for jobs and our economy, that allows us to honour the referendum and realise the opportunities of Brexit. 'This analysis does not show that we will be poorer in the future than we are today, no it doesn't, it shows we will be better off with this deal.' Graphs in today's report lay bare the Government findings on Brexit. Below the 0% line above are the hits to the economy caused by added costs and barriers to trade with the EU - ranging from -2.5% to -9.3% - while above the line are the gains from new trade deals and freedom to set UK regulations - worth about 0.2% extra to the economy This graph shows the impact of different Brexit deals. On the left are four examples of what happens in no deal, a Canada-deal, a Norway deal and the Chequers deal if migration from Europe continues at today's levels, and on the right are no deal, Canada-style and Chequers with a clamp down on migration. All are negative. Instead, she claimed, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and shadow chancellor John McDonnell were the 'biggest risk to our economy'. The Bank of England will also publish its own assessment of the potential outcomes. The findings allow Mrs May to say that her option is the least damaging available, while delivering the 'political benefits' of leaving the bloc. In his article, Mr Hammond wrote: 'Let me be clear, leaving the EU next year without a deal would be very bad for our economy, but perhaps more than that, it would further entrench the divides which have held us back over the last few years. 'Because while it is true that some would like to see us leave on these terms, most people can see the damaging economic impact this would have on our country. 'Equally, those calling for another referendum would achieve only more division and disunity. 'And those who dream of 'negotiating a better deal' are missing the point: this is the best deal that is negotiable.' There is a wide regional variation in how different deals hurt different parts of the country. The graph shows how no deal, a Canada-style deal, a Norway deal and the Chequers plan hits each major region and nation of the UK In a round of interviews ahead of the publication this morning, Mr Hammond said under the package the economy would be 'very very slightly smaller' in 15 years' time. 'If you look at this purely from an economic point of view there will be a cost from leaving the EU, because there will be impediments to our trade,' he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. 'What the PM's deal does is minimise those costs... while delivering the political benefits.' Ministers only agreed to comparisons of Mrs May's deal with staying in the EU in the face of a damaging Commons defeat if they refused. Having spent yesterday campaigning in Wales and Northern Ireland, Mrs May will use her visit to Scotland to argue that agreement offers the prospect of an 'unprecedented economic partnership' with the EU after Brexit. At the same time, she will emphasise that it will mean Britain leaves the Commons Fisheries Policy, enabling the country to decide who it allows to fish in UK waters. 'At long last, we will be 'an independent coastal state' again - taking back full sovereign control over our waters, and free to decide for ourselves who we allow to fish in our waters,' she is expected to say. 'The EU maintained throughout the negotiation process that it wanted to link overall access to markets to access to fisheries. It failed in the Withdrawal Agreement and it failed again in the Political Declaration. Former Brexit Secretary Mr Davis has said economic warnings from the Government were part of a 'propaganda onslaught' ahead of MPs voting on a Brexit deal 'I have been robust in defending the interests of Scottish fisherman so far - and I will always be so.' Ahead of her visit, Mrs May clashed with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon who released a report claiming her deal would cost people in Scotland 1,610 a year by 2030 people compared to if the UK had remained in the EU. Ms Sturgeon said the 'backstop' being put in place to prevent the return to a hard border in Ireland could leave Scotland at a 'serious competitive disadvantage' to Northern Ireland. 'In short, it will make us poorer,' Ms Sturgeon said. Analysis predicting the UK economy would be worse off under every Brexit scenario is 'more evidence about why we need another vote' on EU membership, according to campaigners Best For Britain. Labour MP David Lammy, a supporter of the group which backs a second referendum, said: 'These figures show that the government's stated policy is to make our economy smaller and weaker. 'The Government are showing starkly that their decisions will make everyone poorer. 'As the Prime Minister battles to save her deal, these figures are more evidence about why we need another vote. 'I cannot believe leave or remain voters both voted to make themselves and their families worse off.' Brexiteers reacted with fury to the report produced by the Government today. Former Brexit Secretary Mr Davis has said economic warnings from the Government were part of a 'propaganda onslaught' ahead of MPs voting on a Brexit deal. Parliamentary colleagues needed to be 'ready for project fear 2.0', he warned. 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 Mr Davis added: 'Treasury forecasts in the past have almost never been right and have more often been dramatically wrong.' He claimed predictions the UK economy would contract by 2.1% in the 18 months after a Brexit leave vote were unfounded, with it actually growing by 2.8%. Senior ERG member Steve Baker said: 'The reputation of government economics is in the gutter. That must change. 'It's time for the Chancellor to publish all his assumptions and full model documentation so we can begin the process of recovery.' Former Cabinet minister Priti Patel said: 'We've all had about enough of Project Fear. 'We were told during the referendum campaign that we'd each lose 4,300 and that there would be a recession and higher unemployment. And yet we've seen record wage growth and record employment levels. 'If ministers spent time preparing for a no deal scenario, rather than dreaming up silly scare stories, we could all make a success of our post-Brexit future. 'It's time our Government started betting on and believing in Britain. Let's be optimistic we have a great future ahead of us.' MP Simon Clarke said voters had already 'comprehensively rejected' Project Fear at the referendum. He said: 'The ingenuity, brilliance and creativity of the British people hasn't let us down before. Even the Chancellor said at the weekend that the fundamentals of the UK economy are strong. 'Why can't the Treasury follow his lead and start backing Britain?' Denying May's deal will fuel 'division', Philip Hammond warns in article for MailOnline It is no secret that the issue of our leaving the EU is one which has polarised opinion. It has divided the country between leavers and remainers; families, and, yes, political parties have all seen relationships strained by strongly held convictions on both sides. But now we have reached agreement with the EU, it is the time to heal those divides. A divided country is a poorer country, so let us end all talk of who 'won' or 'lost' in the referendum and work together in a spirit of compromise to secure Britain's future outside the European Union. The agreement reached between us and the 27 other EU countries at the weekend is a major milestone in securing a good Brexit deal for our country a deal to which we should all give our full support. It brings the country back together with a way forward that takes us out of the European Union and delivers on the result of the referendum, while protecting jobs, security and the integrity of the United Kingdom. But it also reassures those who were worried about leaving the European Union that we will have a close future trading, security and economic partnership with our nearest neighbours in Europe, protecting our prosperity and securing our country. Labour's approach would reignite debates that the country has moved beyond. Jeremy Corbyn admits he hasn't even read the Brexit deal and yet says he is opposed to it. He promised to respect the country's decision to leave, but is now opening the door to re-running the referendum. He says his party will put jobs and the economy first, but he has no alternative plan for a deal that honours the referendum. His approach would simply cause more division and uncertainty while the government's approach brings certainty with a deal that protects jobs and is good for the economy. Let me also be clear, leaving the EU next year without a deal would be very bad for our economy, but perhaps more than that, it would further entrench the divides which have held us back over the last few years. Because while it is true that some would like to see us leave on these terms, most people can see the damaging economic impact this would have on our country. Equally, those calling for another referendum would achieve only more division and disunity. And those who dream of 'negotiating a better deal' are missing the point: this is the best deal that is negotiable. Crucially, the deal which we have agreed with the European Union is one which delivers on the results of the referendum. The majority of this country voted to leave the EU, and we must deliver on that vote in the most sensible way possible. And that is what we are doing: we are regaining our sovereignty, but we are not cutting ourselves off from our neighbours. We are taking back control, but we are not doing so to the detriment of everything else. As Chancellor, I spend much of my time speaking to businesses big and small. As in the country, opinion amongst them on leaving the EU was divided. But overwhelmingly now, they tell me that the main thing holding this country back is uncertainty. They see the pragmatic approach the Prime Minister and her negotiators have taken and they want us to get on with things so they can get on with investing in Britain's future. And that is exactly what we will do. Now is the time to offer the hand of friendship across the country's divide; to reunite those who have been driven apart by Brexit; and to come together and work in the national interest. This is the best deal possible it will deliver Brexit while helping to heal the country, get businesses investing again, and set us on the path to a united, brighter future. Advertisement Former New South Wales Labor leader Luke Foley has announced he will not go ahead with legal action over claims he groped a reporter. Mr Foley resigned from his role on November 8 after allegations he had indecently groped ABC state political reporter Ashleigh Raper at a bar in 2016 surfaced. He released a statement on Wednesday saying he would not be going ahead with legal action for defamation in the wake of his resignation, 9 News reported. Former NSW Labor leader Luke Foley (pictured) resigned from his role on November 8 after allegations he had indecently groped a news reported on a night out in 2016 surfaced 'It's in nobody's interest for this matter to be the subject of long running court proceedings and I won't put everyone through this,' Mr Foley said. Mr Foley had held a brief press conference on November 8 insisting his innocence and said the claims were 'false'. 'Ive retained solicitors and senior counsel to advise of immediate commencement of defamation proceedings in the federal court of Australia,' Mr Foley had said. However, the ABC never received correspondence from Mr Foley's legal team. ABC state political reporter Ashleigh Raper (pictured) made the allegation in November and said Mr Foley had indecently groped her under her dress at a Sydney bar in 2016 Mr Foley is alleged to have groped Ms Raper at a Martin Place bar in 2016. Ms Raper said Mr Foley approached her at the bar and started to touch her inappropriately. 'He put his hand through a gap in the back of my dress and inside my underpants,' Ms Raper said in the statement. Before releasing her statement to the public, Ms Raper said she had a phone conversation with Mr Foley in which he said he was drunk at the party and had no memory of the incident. Mr Foley stepped down as leader of the NSW Labor Party shortly after the allegations were made public. The ABC has not released a statement about Mr Foley's decision to abandon legal action. The two lion cubs born on BBC's Dynasties this weekend have died, the film crew has revealed. Sunday's episode chronicling the life of the Marsh Pride in Kenya's Masai Mara saw two little lions born to its leader, single mother Charm. However, when the crew returned to Kenya after filming had ended, they discovered that the two lion cubs had not survived and may have been killed by predators. Heartbreaking: The two adorable baby cubs introduced in Sunday's episode of Dynasties died after filming ended, according to the crew David Attenborough's latest BBC One show Dynasties has five episodes, each focusing on a different animal, and on Sunday the turn had come to lions. The Marsh Pride is led by 14-year-old Charm and her cousin Sienna - two single mothers with four cubs each, the oldest three years old - the equivalent of a lion teenager. Having been abandoned by the males of the pride, it is down to Charm to protect and feed the clan, and on Sunday she could be seen fighting off a herd of buffalo on her own. Buffalo often kill lion cubs in a bid to weaken their predators, and the nail-biting scene saw a large herd approach as the two cubs cowered under a fallen tree. Charm was seen shielding her young with her body and scaring the buffalo off after a tense stand-off, foiling their attempts to trample the cubs to death. Circle of life: The two cubs, who were introduced to the pride aged just a few weeks, are likely to have been killed by predators or buffalo Family first: The Marsh Pride is led by 14-year-old Charm and her cousin Sienna, both single mothers with four cubs each after the males abandoned the pride Charm returns to her sick baby cub but she cannot remain with him or the others in the pack will starve without her But despite her brave defence of her little ones, the Dynasties film crew, who followed the pride for 18 months, recently discovered that the two cubs had not survived. 'The most likely explanation is that they were taken by hyenas or another predator or even trampled by buffaloes,' a show insider told The Mirror. 'No one can be sure, but what became clear was they were no longer with Charm, and there was no way they could have survived alone at a few weeks old.' However, the film crew also revealed that since the death of the male and female cub, Charm has given birth to two more. Dynasties, featuring Sir David Attenborough, pictured, follows true stories of five of the world's most celebrated, yet endangered animals Sunday's hour-long episode saw another heart-wrenching moment, when one of Charm's cubs was poisoned. Farmers in Kenya's Masai Mara sometimes use toxic meat where the lions graze, in a bid to kill them off and protect their livestock. In the show, Charm's one-year-old son was poisoned by the toxic meat and forced to leave him to die. It showed the emotional moment when Charm said goodbye to her young cub and walked away from him with the rest of the pride. The 18 months than the crew spent tracking the Marsh Pride saw them film the lions on a total of 420 days. The crew's average working week was a whopping 98 hours long - even though the average waking hours of the lions were only four to five hours per day. Attorneys representing Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort kept the President's team briefed on what he told the Mueller probe, it has emerged. Manafort's lawyers have 'repeatedly' reported back to the President's team for the last two months, the New York Times has revealed. Rudolph W. Giuliani, one of the president's personal lawyers, confirmed the conversations had taken place but defended them as a valuable insight into the Mueller inquiry on Tuesday. Legal experts believe the conversations may have been staged as an apparent bid from Manafort, 69, to obtain a presidential pardon or have any potential sentence reduced. Scroll down for video Manafort (pictured) is facing a jail sentence of up to 10 years on conspiracy charges and eight counts of financial fraud Trump himself appeared to indicate he had insider knowledge of meetings between Manafort and Mueller on Tuesday, as he tweeted: 'Wait until it comes out how horribly & viciously they are treating people, ruining lives for them refusing to lie.' And earlier this month he posted: 'The inner workings of the Mueller investigation are a total mess. 'They have found no collusion and have gone absolutely nuts. They are screaming and shouting at people, horribly threatening them to come up with the answers they want.' Manafort is facing up to 10 years in prison for two conspiracy charges and eight counts of financial fraud. Trump indicated he had insider knowledge of meetings between Mueller's team and Manafort in tweets posted this month But despite little being known about the conversations between his lawyer, Kevin Downing, and special counsel Mueller's team, it appears Manafort has not implicated the President in any wrongdoing. Giuliani said Manaforts lawyer Kevin M. Downing said prosecutors grilled Manafort over whether the president knew about the June 2016 meeting between his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. and Russian officials, in which they promised to give up compromising information about Hillary Clinton. 'He wants Manafort to incriminate Trump,' Giuliani said of Mueller. The revelation comes as Manafort was forced to deny meeting with Julian Assange, calling reports that he secretly visited the Wikileaks founder 'totally false.' Trump's lawyers said Kevin M. Downing (pictured right) told them Manafort was grilled over a June 2016 meeting between Donald Trump Jr and Russian representatives Manafort released a statement on Tuesday, hours afterThe 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. A mother-of-three died of a blood clot 17 days after having breast enlargement surgery. Louise Harvey, 36, died in hospital on July 5 this year just over two weeks after going under the knife to 'improve her appearance'. The beauty therapist, of Norwich, had decided she wanted to increase the size of her breasts and had the procedure done at a London clinic. But a fortnight later she started to feel short of breath and was rushed to Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital where medics found she had developed a blood clot. Louise Harvey, 36, of Norwich, died after developing a blood clot caused by breast enlargement surgery to 'improve her appearance' Beauty therapist Louise Harvey (pictured), of Norwich, had decided she wanted to increase the size of her breasts and had the procedure done at a London clinic Ms Harvey is pictured with her two sons Owen, 11, and Jackson, six on holiday The opening of her inquest revealed her cause of death was a pulmonary embolism following breast augmentation. Pulmonary embolisms occur when a blood clot gets caught in one of the arteries that go from the heart to the lungs. Patients who undergo surgery are at increased risk of developing them. Opening her inquest, area coroner for Norfolk, Yvonne Blake, said the beautician had undergone surgery to 'improve her appearance' but 17 days later collapsed at home complaining that she could not breathe. The inquest at Norwich Coroners' Court will take place on March 23 next year. Ms Harvey's friends have set up a JustGiving page to help raise money for her children, Kayleigh-Anne, 18, Owen, 11, and Jaxon, six. Just over two weeks after having the breast enlargement surgery, Ms Harvey (pictured) began to feel short of breath and collapsed at home The beautician was rushed to Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital where she died on July 5 this year Mark Hutson, who set up the page, said: 'Louise Harvey sadly passed away recently after a blood clot formed in her body. What is a pulmonary embolism? A pulmonary embolism is a blocked blood vessel in your lungs. It can be life-threatening if not treated quickly. Symptoms include: Pain in your chest or upper back Difficulty breathing Coughing up blood Pain, redness and swelling in the legs These are symptoms of a blood clot of one of the deep veins, usually found in your legs, which is also known as deep vein thrombosis (DVT). Blood clots can cause a pulmonary embolism. A pulmonary embolism commonly occurs when part of the blood clot dislodges itself from your leg and travels up to your lungs, causing a blockage. This can happen after long periods of being immobile, because when you start to move again your blood flow can be slower than usual. You are at heightened risk of developing DVT and therefore a pulmonary embolism if you: Have just had surgery/leg injury Been bed-bound for a long time Been on a long haul flight without moving for more than six hours Source NHS and British Lung Foundation Advertisement 'It has been a shock to us all that this beautiful, young devoted mother of three has been taken away from us so early and without warning when she had so much to live for. 'We have received an overwhelming response from family and friends offering their condolences and support and would like to contribute in some way to ease the suffering her death has caused. 'We have decided to set this Just Giving page up so people can make their donations if they want to. 'Our main priority now is providing a stable and happy future for her children, so all proceeds will go towards supporting Louise's three children; Kayleigh-anne (18), Owen (11) and Jaxon (6). 'Louise's legacy is her children, we only wish to provide them with the love and support that they need now and for the future.' Donating money and posting their condolences on her page, one person wrote: 'RIP Louise, sorry we couldn't be there to bid our farewells. Our thoughts are with Khailee, Owen and Jaxon.' Another posted: 'I'm so truly sorry for what's happened. So unbelievably sad. Such an amazing mum and just a kind soul. Really was.' Someone else wrote: 'We never spoke to Louise but we always saw her smiling. So sad to hear Louise's passing. Our thoughts are with her family xx' While another donor commented: 'Heart breaking life so cruel. Small donation towards this fund for her children. Thoughts with all her family hugs x' Professor Beverley Hunt, Medical Director of charity Thrombosis UK, said: 'This is an extremely sad and tragic event and our thoughts are with Louise's family. Friends and family of Louise Harvey (pictured) have been donating money to help support her three children 'Hospitalisation is the greatest risk factor for blood clots, also known as venous thromboembolism (VTE) or thrombosis, and usually diagnosed as a deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or pulmonary embolism (PE). 'Surgery of any kind increases a person's risk of suffering a blood clot. 'It is essential and mandated in England that every person admitted to hospital should be VTE-risk assessed and patients receive preventative measures if they have risk factors such as being overweight, over 60 and previous blood clots. 'Knowing the risk factors and how we can reduce these, such as the importance of keeping mobile, well hydrated and continuing with any treatment or medication advised by the healthcare professional, even when discharged from hospital, is vitally important in preventing a serious blood clot developing. 'All NHS England patients should receive information on thrombosis and advised to seek urgent medical attention if they should develop any symptoms, such as shortness of breath, unexplained pain, swelling or tenderness. 'The 'Let's Talk Clots' campaign is working to save lives through better awareness and increased understanding to prevent, protect and inform everyone about thrombosis.' Advertisement With Black Friday weekend behind us and Christmas Day less than a month away, some people are starting to get into the festive spirit - in a big way. A teenager in Cardiff has transformed her home into a glowing wonderland to make her disabled mother happy, a pub in Somerset has erected a 20-foot snowman made of empty bottles, a couple in Hove have strung up 30,000 fairy lights and a family in Essex have raised thousands of pounds for charity with their blinding decorations. Each Christmas, Jessica Pittard, 18, fills the family home with thousands of decorations, inside and out, to make her mother smile after 50-year-old Michelle was left in a wheelchair. The Pittard house in Llandaff North, Cardiff, is lit up each year with countless illuminated reindeer, Christmas trees, fairy lights and snowmen. It is so bright it can be seen from miles away, and is the work of 18-year-old Jessica Pittard - all done to put a smile on the face of her disabled mother Michelle, 50. Michelle Prittard, 50, (centre) and her daughter Jessica, 18, pictured in the family home in Wales which becomes a Christmas grotto each December. Jessica said her Christmases as a child were always 'ten out of ten' and since her mother's car crash 12 years ago she has taken over the festive decorative duties Christmas-loving Michelle is now basking in the glow of dozens of illuminated snowmen, reindeer and Father Christmases. The over-the-top decorations have become a tradition every year since Michelle was badly injured in a car crash 12 years ago and left in a wheelchair. Jessica said: 'When we were young she always made Christmas special... We always had 10 out of 10 Christmas Days. 'Because she is in pain it is very hard for her. She has a low quality of life. 'Christmas is one of those things that keep her going. She says she doesn't know what she would do without it.' And although Michelle is only able to walk a short distance she still instructs her daughter on where to place the lights. The 'Snowman' outside the Queen Victoria Inn in Priddy in Somerset is an engineering marvel made of 2,000 empty wine bottles which stands almost 20 feet tall. It is the brainchild of landlord Mark Walton and pub regular, engineer Ben Selway - who also designed the pub's spectacular Gingerbread house display. Pictured above: a pub regular salutes the snowman with a bottle while barman Henry Peacock poses with a life-size gingerbread man The Queen Victoria Inn in Priddy has transformed into a gingerbread spectacular for this festive season. It took three men and an electrician more than a week to create the snowman 'My mum is the creative brain behind it all. She is in a wheelchair and she directs it,' Jessica said. Jessica, who lives in the suburb of Llandaff North, Cardiff, says the neighbours love it. She said: 'We don't do it for the compliments but I know how happy it makes my mum when people say nice things about it. 'We had a car slam on the brakes as she was driving past and she shouted at us that we had made her really excited for Christmas. 'At night you can actually see the house from a few streets away.' Single mother Michelle said: 'I love it - I'm so proud of her.Our electricity bills go up a ridiculous amount. We have to save up for it - but it is worth every penny.' Around the corner from its snowman the Queen Victoria Inn's walls are festooned with candy canes, gingerbread men, donuts, ice-cream cones... and even a fried egg Passers-by pose with three-foot-wide chewy Drumsticks, and seven-foot-tall gingerbread men outside the Queen Victoria - now transformed into The Gingerbread Inn for the festive season Once the fairy lights are turned on The Queen Victoria - or rather, The Gingerbread Inn - sparkles almost as brightly as the Prittard family home across the Bristol Channel in Cardiff Proud pub landlord Mark Walton greets visitors to the Queen Victoria Inn in Priddy. In previous years he has built a festive bottle tree with 1,100 empties wrapped in almost 1,000ft of fairy lights Across the Bristol Channel in Somerset, there is another property starting to stand out like a Christmas star - the Queen Victoria Inn, in Priddy. Visitors to this village inn will get a Christmas welcome with a difference this year, from a giant snowman made from thousands of the pub's empties. The massive glass snowman, made from over 2000 wine bottles, was created by landlord Mark Walton and pub regular Ben Selway - who also designed the pub's spectacular Gingerbread house display. Mr Walton said: 'Ben is a very talented engineer and this is the result. It took three people and an electrician well over a week to get it all in place. 'There's been lots of responses - lots of people stopping to take a look.' In previous years the pub installed a 15ft festive bottle tree made from 1,100 glass bottles wrapped in almost a thousand feet of fairy lights. Daniel Gibbs has spent more than 5,000 on Christmas lights over the years but he and his family in Benfleet, Essex, have raised around 8,000 for a local hospice from their festive decorations Over in Benfleet in Essex, the Gibbs family have decorated their house with hundreds of festive lights and decorations which light up the whole street. Forty-eight-year-old Daniel Gibbs has spent around 5,000 decorating his house in the past three years, and has raised over 8,000 for Little Havens Children Hospice. He lives with his wife Kathryn and daughters Beth, 21, and Chloe, 16, along with their three Labradors at the house in Jotmans Lane. Bethsaid: 'It started off years ago when we were little and we literally started off with two plastic little figures of a snowman and a Father Christmas. 'Over the years, the collection has got bigger and bigger and has grown to what it is now. We buy the lights at the end of every year in the sales to contribute to next year's lights. 'My dad says that, over the last few years, he has probably spent 5,000 and we have around 50,000 lights on at the house. 'He used to do it for me and my sister when we were little as he used to love seeing our faces light up, but as we got older, as much as we still love it, we decided that we should do some good out of it and started raising money for Little Havens Hospice.' In 2015, the Gibbs family raised an impressive 1,760 for Little Havens Hospice, before raising 3,674 the following year. Last year they added 2,743 and are striving to take it even further this year via their justgiving page. A Barclays customer was tricked into transferring 8,000 by fraudsters posing as his banks' customer service department, following a disgruntled Twitter post. Mike Tinmouth was left furious with the process and time it had taken to open a business account with Barclays. The writer took to Twitter to express his anger in a public tweet, which was seized on by lurking fraudsters who posed as his bank in a bid to con him out of his savings. Barclays customer Tim Monmouth, who posted an angry Tweet, was targeted by online criminals who used information online along with details of his complaint to try to fleece him of 8,000. The writer took to Twitter to express his anger in a public tweet, which was seized on by lurking fraudsters who posed as his bank in a bid to con him out of his savings Mr Tinmouth had wanted to open the business account to deal with his income and outgoings on some of the properties he was letting to tenants. But after applying to Barclays, he became frustrated at the drawn-out process and eventually complained on Twitter. Fraudsters targetted Mr Tinmouth after he posted an email that he received from the bank which he felt was unprofessional and wanted to confirm was genuine. The subsequently bank urged him to delete this public post because of the sensitive date available to others. But the amount of information along with some readily available information about Mr Tinmouth online was enough for the criminals to pose as the bank and appear to know details of the case. 'They targeted me because they are monitoring the big banks' customer support Twitter channels where they can get enough information on name, location, and photo to then be able to track down further information,' Mr Tinmouth told the BBC. Mr Tinmouth had wanted to open the business account to deal with his income and outgoings on some of the properties he was letting to tenants. But after applying to Barclays, he became frustrated at the drawn-out process and eventually complained on Twitter Shortly after the Twitter exchange, he received another email, this time apologising for poor service and offering to deal with his case. However, this was the fraudsters posing as the bank. Eventually he was provided with details of his 'new' account, and began to transfer his savings from his personal account with a different bank. The transfer was blocked, saving Mr Tinmouth from losing the 8,000 he intended to store away for savings. Barclays's website encourages customers to be careful about posting sensitive details online, and a spokesman said customers should never transfer money to a new account without having all the relevant paperwork and access to the account. 'In this case, we advised Mr Tinmouth on the process he should follow to speak to us about his query. However while we were in contact, he engaged with an unverified email address and provided personal information to scammers, which led to him being targeted,' a spokesman said. Piers Morgan has waded into the row between a group of vegan activists who stormed a steakhouse and a stag party after chanting 'stand up if you love red meat!' The Good Morning Britain presenter was throwing his support behind the stag party which started the chant when demonstrators from Direct Action Everywhere played the sounds of cows being slaughtered at Touro Steakhouse in Brighton. Members of the stag party, including a 250 'Oompa Loompa impersonator', started singing to drown the noise out and even persuaded fellow diners to join in during the incident over the weekend. Piers Morgan has waded into the row between a group of vegan activists who stormed a steakhouse and a stag party after chanting 'stand up if you love red meat!' This morning, just five minutes into the show, host Morgan stood up and began chanting 'stand up if you love red meat, stand up if you love red meat' while fist pumping. He later took to Twitter, where he added: 'Stand up if you love red meat! Millions of insects are murdered during the process of making wheat. Vegans dont care about insects. I do.' Most of the diners at the Brazilian-themed restaurant appeared unmoved by the vegan 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. Several videos have since emerged from the incident on Saturday night, with some filmed by the activists and others by bystanders. The Good Morning Britain presenter was throwing his support behind a stag party who started the chant when demonstrators from Direct Action Everywhere played the sounds of cows being slaughtered at Touro Steakhouse in Brighton 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. 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 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 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. 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 As they left, disgruntled diners are again heard booing, whistling and chanting 'you're not singing anymore' at the departing group. 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 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.' 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. 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 '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 Civil rights groups fear that Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's announced plans to create a 'death squad' targeting suspected communist rebels, will worsen the 'calamity' triggered by his deadly war on drugs. The Philippines' 50-year fight against communist militants, one of Asia's oldest insurgencies, long pre-dates his anti-narcotics crackdown that has killed thousands and drawn international censure. Duterte ditched negotiations with the communists last year after soldiers and police came under a series of deadly attacks from the rebels. Like previous governments, the President initially held peace talks with the communists. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is waging war against communist rebels after a series of deadly attacks on soldiers and police In a speech on Tuesday night, Duterte took aim at the communist rebels' hit squads known as 'sparrow units'. He said: 'What I lack is my own sparrow. That is where they (communists) have an edge... So I will create my own sparrow, Duterte Death Squad against the sparrow.' 'I will match their talent also for assassinating people,' he added. Philippine Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said on Wednesday that his team will study the plan. Lorenzana said regarding the hit squad: 'Who will compose it, who will supervise it, who will be the targets,' adding there was 'great danger of abuse'. Since negotiations with the rebels broke down, Duterte also formally designated the Communist Party of the Philippines and its 3,800-member armed wing the New People's Army (NPA) as terrorist organisations. The low-level, simmering insurgency has claimed 30,000 lives by the government's count. Duterte's death squad have killed 5000 drug users The founder of the Communist Party, Jose Maria Sison, said on Wednesday that 'sparrow units' only existed in the 1970s and 1980s at the height of the insurgency. 'He is inventing so many sparrow units to justify his own death squads which are illegal,' Sison told ABS-CBN television. The president's announcement drew immediate concerns from campaigners, who said the death squad would worsen the already lethal environment encouraged by the drug war. Police say they have killed nearly 5,000 alleged users and pushers, while rights groups say the toll is at least triple that and could amount to crimes against humanity. 'His (Duterte's) statement is a declaration of open season against rebels, leftists, civilians, and critics of the government,' Human Rights Watch said in a statement. 'This new policy will only worsen the ongoing drug war-fueled human rights calamity in the Philippines.' Amnesty International also expressed alarm, citing the practice of labelling government critics as communist rebels or sympathisers. 'What is scary is that anyone can be a target,' the group's human rights officer Wilnor Papa told AFP. The best bang for your buck! This option enables you to purchase online 24/7 access and receive the Sunday, Tuesday & Thursday print edition at no additional cost * Print edition only available in our carrier delivery area. Allow up to 72 hours for delivery of your print edition to begin. Print edition not available for Day Pass option. It is no secret that the issue of our leaving the EU is one which has polarised opinion. It has divided the country between leavers and remainers; families, and, yes, political parties have all seen relationships strained by strongly held convictions on both sides. But now we have reached agreement with the EU, it is the time to heal those divides. A divided country is a poorer country, so let us end all talk of who 'won' or 'lost' in the referendum and work together in a spirit of compromise to secure Britain's future outside the European Union. The agreement reached between us and the 27 other EU countries at the weekend is a major milestone in securing a good Brexit deal for our country a deal to which we should all give our full support. It brings the country back together with a way forward that takes us out of the European Union and delivers on the result of the referendum, while protecting jobs, security and the integrity of the United Kingdom. But it also reassures those who were worried about leaving the European Union that we will have a close future trading, security and economic partnership with our nearest neighbours in Europe, protecting our prosperity and securing our country. Chancellor Philip Hammond went into bat for Theresa May's Brexit deal in an article for MailOnline today Labour's approach would reignite debates that the country has moved beyond. Jeremy Corbyn admits he hasn't even read the Brexit deal and yet says he is opposed to it. He promised to respect the country's decision to leave, but is now opening the door to re-running the referendum. He says his party will put jobs and the economy first, but he has no alternative plan for a deal that honours the referendum. His approach would simply cause more division and uncertainty while the government's approach brings certainty with a deal that protects jobs and is good for the economy. Let me also be clear, leaving the EU next year without a deal would be very bad for our economy, but perhaps more than that, it would further entrench the divides which have held us back over the last few years. Because while it is true that some would like to see us leave on these terms, most people can see the damaging economic impact this would have on our country. Equally, those calling for another referendum would achieve only more division and disunity. And those who dream of 'negotiating a better deal' are missing the point: this is the best deal that is negotiable. Crucially, the deal which we have agreed with the European Union is one which delivers on the results of the referendum. The majority of this country voted to leave the EU, and we must deliver on that vote in the most sensible way possible. And that is what we are doing: we are regaining our sovereignty, but we are not cutting ourselves off from our neighbours. We are taking back control, but we are not doing so to the detriment of everything else. As Chancellor, I spend much of my time speaking to businesses big and small. As in the country, opinion amongst them on leaving the EU was divided. But overwhelmingly now, they tell me that the main thing holding this country back is uncertainty. They see the pragmatic approach the Prime Minister and her negotiators have taken and they want us to get on with things so they can get on with investing in Britain's future. And that is exactly what we will do. Now is the time to offer the hand of friendship across the country's divide; to reunite those who have been driven apart by Brexit; and to come together and work in the national interest. This is the best deal possible it will deliver Brexit while helping to heal the country, get businesses investing again, and set us on the path to a united, brighter future. Terminator Salvation depicts military science fiction in film. The Vatican has called for a complete ban on 'killer robots' or autonomous weapons, before they become a reality of wars in the future. The comments were made by Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic before a group of experts at the United Nations (UN) in Geneva, on Thursday. Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS) have been on the UN's agenda for five years, with discussions centered on legal and ethical implications, according to Crux. The Vatican observer to U.N. agencies in Geneva commenting on robotic weapons said: 'They have the capacity of altering irreversibly the nature of warfare, becoming more detached from human agency, putting in question the humanity of our societies.' Land mines were the first autonomous weapons used and kill approximately 20,000 each year. With rapid advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning there is increased potential for weapons with extensive autonomy from human decision-making. Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic spoke on November 22 at a meeting of parties to the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects. The Archbishop added during the discussions: 'Various proposals for possible concrete outcomes have been put forward; what these proposals have in common is the underlying need for a multilateral approach and the need to retain the human person at the heart of decisions exerting injurious or lethal force.' The International Committee of the Red Cross has defined LAWS as being 'any weapon system with autonomy in its critical functions.' This includes a weapon system that can select and attack targets without human intervention. 'The Holy See has expressed its concerns on several occasions' about this deadly form of weapons system, the archbishop said. Vladimir Putin's new robot tanks are seen vapourizing a military target The Vatican have called for a complete ban on 'killer robots' or autonomous weapons The Archbishop explained that the Vatican advocates the attitudes of precaution and prevention as being 'the only options that will ensure a sound and lasting outcome.' He added: 'In order to prevent an arms race and the increase of inequalities and instability, it is an imperative duty to act promptly: Now is the time to prevent LAWS from becoming the reality of tomorrow's warfare,' he said. The convention's parties 'should make a courageous and enlightened decision of prohibiting LAWS like it did in the past concerning other types of weapons,' Jurkovic said, like with the international ban on land mines and the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi told Trump adviser Roger Stone about a planned Wikileaks dump of Democratic emails two months before it happened, Robert Mueller's investigation has claimed. Corsi is alleged to have told Stone in August 2016 that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was planning two 'very damaging' releases before the presidential election. Stone, who worked for Donald Trump during his presidential campaign, is facing claims that he worked with WikiLeaks and right-wing writer Corsi to damage Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. He has denied co-ordination with WikiLeaks but the latest claims, reported by NBC News, suggest he asked Corsi to get in touch with Assange's organization. Jerome Corsi, a former Washington bureau chief at InfoWars, allegedly told Trump adviser Roger Stone about a coming WikiLeaks release of Democratic emails in 2016 The special counsel is looking into Stone's activities as part of his investigation into the Trump campaign. In one email on July 25, 2016, Roger Stone told Corsi - a former Washington bureau chief at InfoWars - to 'get to [Assange] at Ecuadorian embassy in London'. Corsi replied on August 2, saying: 'Word is friend in embassy plans 2 more dumps. One shortly after I'm back. 2nd in Oct. Impact planned to be very damaging.' The 'friend in embassy' is a reference to Assange who has been living there for almost six years in a bid to avoid extradition. Corsi went on to suggest making attacks on Clinton over her health, a favorite theme of conspiracy theorists. 'Would not hurt to start suggesting HRC old, memory bad, has stroke - neither he nor she well,' he wrote. WikiLeaks did release hacked emails from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta in October 2016, shortly before she lost the election to Trump. Republican operative Roger Stone, pictured, has denied co-ordination with WikiLeaks but the special counsel investigation claims he was told about an impending dump On Tuesday, Corsi said that the email he sent to Stone was based on his own deduction and not the result of any inside information. 'It's all a guess. That email - 'word is' - is 100 percent speculation on my part, a package so that Roger's not going to dismiss it because I'm real sure I'm right,' he said. He said he had told Mueller's investigators that he 'figured it out' rather than having advance knowledge. Stone has also come under scrutiny for a tweet on August 21 in which he said it would soon be 'Podesta's time in the barrel'. Corsi said on Monday that he had refused a deal from Mueller's team to plead guilty to a single count of perjury. Stone said that his friend Corsi was at risk for prosecution 'not for lying but for refusing to lie.' Fox News Channel claim they are disciplining employees involved in an email exchange with former Trump administration environment chief Scott Pruitt. The emails showed a Pruitt aide suggesting the interview, passing along 'talking points' and approving a script written to introduce Pruitt. The environment chief's press representative, Amy Graham, tells producers 'we really need to stick to this topic' - referring to criticism of the Obama administration. Pruitt resigned in July after a string of stories about ethical lapses including excessive spending for travel and security, trying to get his wife a job and circumventing the White House to get raises for top aides. Hosted by Ainsley Earhardt (centre), Steve Doocy (left) and Brian Kilmeade (right), Fox and Friends Former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt appears before a Senate subcommittee in May 2018 In May 2017, former Environmental Protection Agency press representative Amy Graham wrote to Fox and offered them an opportunity to interview her boss while he was in New York about communities poorly served by the Obama administration. 'Pruitt has been outspoken about the lack of environmental accomplishments under the Obama administration, calling President Obama 'no environmental savior' and he would like to expand on these comments,' Graham wrote. 'Fox & Friends' producer Andrew Murray agreed to the interview. When Graham wrote back that 'we really need to stick with this as the topic' and needed confirmation that would be the case, Murray agreed. He assigned the segment to another producer, Diana Aloi. Aloi asked for 'bullet points' on what Pruitt would like to discuss and Graham wrote back with several. Later, Aloi sent her a four-paragraph introductory script, asking 'would this be OK as the setup to the segment?' The script talked about a new direction at the EPA 'after the Obama administration left behind a huge toxic mess. More than 1,300 Superfund sites, which are heavily contaminated, still require clean-ups. So why was President Obama touted as an environmental savior if all these problems still exist?' Graham wrote back, 'Yes - perfect.' The messages were uncovered through a Freedom of Information Act request by the environmental organization the Sierra Club, first reported by The Daily Beast. Pruitt testifying at a Senate subcommittee in May 2018 It is another example of closeness between Fox News and the Trump administration, where the president's communications director is a former Fox executive. Fox's most popular personality, Sean Hannity, appeared onstage at a Trump rally shortly before the midterm election. Fox would not say who was being disciplined, noting that it was a personnel matter, and what that discipline involved. Earlier, the network had said that 'this is not standard practice whatsoever and the matter is being addressed internally with those involved.' It's not uncommon for journalists and representatives for newsmakers to talk in advance about topics that may be covered in an interview. Promises not to address certain subjects are considered off limits by most reporters, with script approval an even greater ethical lapse. When Pruitt appeared the next day, 'Fox & Friends' host Brian Kilmeade said that 'President Trump is doing his best to drain the swamp and much of that draining happened at the Environmental Protection Agency after the Obama administration left behind - get this - a huge toxic mess.' Host Ainsley Earhardt continued, 'more than 1,300 Superfund sites, which are heavily contaminated, still require cleanup.' The third host, Steve Doocy, said to Pruitt, 'the press made President Obama out to be the environmental savior and yet when you look at the number of toxic dumps left on your plate, it's a big number.' 'Absolutely,' Pruitt said. During congressional testimony earlier this year, Pruitt said that Trump's EPA in 2017 had removed more polluted sites across the country than the previous administration had the previous year. The EPA had declared seven Superfund site cleanups to be complete in 2017, compared to two in 2016. Yet records showed that construction work at all seven of those sites were completed years before Pruitt became EPA chief in February 2017. At one point in the interview, Earhardt said that 'we're talking about memos and what's happening in the White House. This is what the American public really needs to be focused on, right? Jobs, our personal safety, protecting our kids from cancer.' It wasn't exactly clear what she was referring to, although on the day the interview was arranged a big story was about a memo former FBI director James Comey had written to himself about Trump asking him to stop an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Kilmeade did end the interview with a question that had not been discussed during the arrangements, about the Trump administration and its views about the Paris climate change accord. A television advert featuring model Kelly Brook has been cleared of 'objectifying' women despite a string of complaints. Watchdogs launched an investigation into the promotion for American footwear brand Skechers after three people complained that it was 'offensive.' But the ad, which featured two men bumping into each other after being distracted by the pin-up, was cleared of any wrongdoing by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The clip, first screened in August, featured the 39-year-old walking along a pavement wearing an off-the shoulder jumper, jeans and a pair of Skechers knitted trainers. She said: 'I like my clothes form fitting, but not my shoes. Watchdogs launched an investigation into the promotion for American footwear brand Skechers starring Kelly Brook (pictured) 'That is why I wear Skechers knitted footwear. So I look and feel my best. People tend to notice things like that.' In the same shot a man carrying a box of oranges was distracted by Kelly and crashed in to his colleague, causing them both to drop the contents of the boxes they were carrying. A male cyclist passed the TV presenter and looks back at her, and a driver is heard to crash his car. Clearcast, which pre-approves most TV advertising, said it did not consider the ad to be 'socially irresponsible' or that it objectified women. In one shot a man carrying a box of oranges is distracted by Kelly and crashed in to his colleague, causing them both to drop the contents of the boxes they were carrying Another scene shows a cyclist turning his gaze away from the road to look at the model ITV said that it did not consider the ad or its placement to be inappropriate. The broadcaster said that the clip was a 'harmless pastiche' of a typical urban environment focusing on the perceived attractiveness of the footwear. The ASA investigated the promotion under rules governing social responsibility plus harm and offence, but found that it did not breach any of them. An ASA spokesman said: 'We considered that the outfit was not revealing and nothing about Kelly Brook's behaviour was sexualised or objectifying. But moments later he crashes his bike into a table and chairs at a restaurant A driver also shifts his eyes away from the road to look at the model - before his car can be heard crashing in the background 'We noted that the men in the ad did notice the presenter and that their reactions in doing so were exaggerated. 'However, we did not consider that the ad contained anything which pointed to an exploitative scenario or tone. 'We concluded that the ad did not objectify or degrade women and therefore was not socially irresponsible and unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence.' A university student took her own life while grieving over the death of her father who was struck down with terminal cancer just two weeks into her first year at college. Jenny Harrison, 19, who was studying Geography at Lancaster University, had been extremely close to her father, Mark, and struggled to deal with his worsening condition as he fought the illness for 20 months. On one occasion she made a heartbreaking phone call to her family in which she pleaded with him not to die. Jenny Harrison, 19, who was studying Geography at Lancaster University, had been extremely close to her father, Mark, and struggled to deal with his worsening condition On June 29 this year, two months after Mr Harrison passed away, Jenny was found hanged on the 560 acre campus by two other students walking back to their halls of residence. She was taken to hospital but died later that day. Inquiries later revealed she had previously tried to take her own life and had been admitted to A&E but had told doctors she was 'happy to be alive' and dismissed her thoughts as 'irrational.' An inquest heard in the months before Jenny died she had approached a porter at the university and told she was having a suicidal thoughts but was 'calmed down' and offered counselling. Staff were unaware of her previous hospital admissions and at the time of her death Jenny was due to embark on a student work experience scheme in Amsterdam under the university Erasmus Programme. On June 29 this year, two months after Mr Harrison passed away, Jenny was found hanged on the 560 acre campus by two other students walking back to their halls of residence The Lancaster hearing was told how Jenny was described by her family an 'intelligent and very compassionate young woman' who had helped her high school in Derby raise money and renovate a school and orphanage in Uganda when she was just 16 - even attending an after school club and learn about bricklaying. She was also a keen ballerina and had a Saturday job as hotel waitress whilst studying her A Levels before she enrolled at the university's Environment centre in September 2016. Her mother Alison Harrison said: 'She was positive about going to uni but Mark's illness was confirmed after she started her first year. 'He was diagnosed when she had been there for two weeks. I think it was a combination of the diagnosis of Mark's illness and being at uni for a couple of weeks which added to her depressive illness. Jenny was a keen ballerina and had a Saturday job as hotel waitress whilst studying her A Levels before she enrolled at the university's Environment centre in September 2016 'Mark's diagnosis was painful for her and we had a distressing call from her saying she cut her wrists and she was talking about her feelings. 'She didn't have her friends from home around and the others didn't empathise with her. She tried to take her own life and was in hospital for five days. 'Her friend picked her up from the hospital and brought her back home, but it wasn't long before she wanted to go back to uni. 'She was offered group counselling, and she saw a doctor who diagnosed her with depression and after six weeks she started antidepressants. 'She visited regularly to spend time with Mark, he became worse over Christmas. 'She called Mark and pleaded with him not to die. In February Mark's prognosis was really bad and he was admitted to hospital. She had a few weeks away from uni to spend time with Mark but he sadly passed away. Her mother Alison Harrison told the inquest: 'She was positive about going to uni but Mark's illness was confirmed after she started her first year' 'Jenny was involved with the funeral for Mark and for some friends and family, it was the last time they saw Jenny before she returned to uni. Jenny said she was doing well and that she was dealing with what was going on. I'm aware she was getting ready to go to Amsterdam and she had to take some exams for this and I think she was a bit concerned. 'I know she liked to go out with her friends at uni, I'm aware they were celebrating that night. The next thing I remember was receiving a difficult phone call on 29 June and being told she had been taken into intensive care. 'But sadly the damage had been done and she passed away. She had a special way with words, she was unique. It just a shame. I feel she felt she was treading water.' The Lancaster hearing was told how Jenny was described by her family an 'intelligent and very compassionate young woman' Mrs Harrison added: 'I was worried about Jenny after her dad died. They had such a close relationship and she was so close to him - she couldn't admit she needed the help.' Mental Health practitioner Susanne Gilford who treated Jenny for an an overdose in October 2017 said: 'She described feeling overwhelmed and anxious and had a tendency to overthink things but she expressed she was happy to be alive. 'She said she was using YouTube videos as a distraction and she accepted her thoughts could be irrational.' Jenny's GP Dr Kirsten Wong added: 'She was a young, intelligent woman who was sensitive to others and other people's perception of her. She did tell me about her dad and about his diagnosis and I think it did have an effect on her. I was aware her dad died at Easter this year but she seemed to be OK and she said the medication started to work and she was still going out with friends and enjoying time at uni. I believe the self harm attempts were impulsive.' Kelly Robinson, head of counselling at Lancaster University said: 'We were aware of one incidence of overdose in October 2017 for which Jenny received NHS treatment and returned home for a period.' 'The service saw Jenny again on 10th November 2017 and were unaware of any further incidents indicating there was a risk of harm to the student after this date. 'From the information she gave at assessment, she indicated she had joined the hiking society and the gym, which indicated progress.' 'If there was immediate risk to her safety, we would have phoned her parents. On June 29 she came to the Porter in the student accommodation at university and spoke to them and said she was feeling distressed and had suicidal thoughts.' 'The Porter spoke to her in the early hours of the morning and calmed her down. Based on the assessment she did not show intent at the time, she denied any kind of intent. She said she could keep herself safe. At that time she wasn't a risk to herself or others. 'The Counselling and Mental Health Service assessed her that day and she did not show intent to end her life at the time. The student and wellbeing officer made a plan that Jenny would seek support over summer when she returned home and will meet at the start of the next academic year.' 'On 10th November, Jennys needs were assessed and clinical questionnaires were used as an aid during the assessment, these questionnaires indicated mild symptoms of depression and anxiety at the time. In agreement with Jenny, she was offered a group programme which helps students to develop healthier coping strategies, as an alternative to self harm. This group is run by two Mental Health Advisors at the University.' Recording a conclusion of suicide, Coroner James Newman said: 'Jenny was a person who was there for others but sadly she was unable to help herself, and that is not a criticism of her. 'Her character was being there for others. She was a young lady who was incredibly intelligent but mental illness is one of the greatest demons of our time. 'I believe she acted on impulse. When she wanted to do something, she did it in a spur of the moment. 'I believe she did it spontaneously but she did intend to take her own life. 'I wish what I could say would wave a magic wand and make it better, but it doesn't, I can only imagine how difficult today has been.' For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch, see Samaritans.org for details A previous version of this article stated that Kelly Robinson, head of counselling at Lancaster University said: 'We were unaware of the previous attempts to take her own life.' We can now clarify that Lancaster University were aware of one incidence of overdose in October 2017 for which Jenny received NHS treatment and returned home for a period. They were not aware of Jenny being referred to hospital in November. China has rolled out the red carpet for David Cameron in Beijing just as Theresa May is facing chaos at home over her Brexit plans. The former PM jetted 5,000 miles to sit down for talks with the Chinese PM Li Keqiang - a privilege rarely given to former leaders. While his wife Samantha, who is a fashion designer, was thrown a lavish banquet by Vogue in the same city. Their jaunt to China comes as Mrs May is facing a titanic battle to get her Brexit deal through the Commons amid a barrage of criticism from all sides. Mrs May, who became PM after Mr Cameron quit after losing the Brexit referendum, is travelling across the UK to try to drum up support for her under-fire deal. The former PM jetted 5,000 miles to sit down for talks with the Chinese PM Li Keqiang - a privilege rarely given to former leaders (pictured together yesterday) China has rolled out the red carpet for David Cameron (pictured left) in Beijing just as Theresa May is facing chaos at home over her Brexit plans. While his wife Samantha (pictured right in Beijing yesterday with fashion investor Wendy Yu) was also given the star treatment But as she tries to fend off opposition from Labour, SNP and over 90 of her mutinous Tory MPs, Mr Cameron and his wife were given the star treatment in China. While in office, Mr Cameron and his Chancellor George Osborne courted China and hailed the 'golden era' in relations. Hammond admits every Brexit option will make the UK poorer Philip Hammond today admitted that every Brexit option will make the UK poorer - but he insisted Theresa May's deal minimises the hit and delivers 'political benefits'. The Chancellor said staying in the EU was best from a 'purely economic point of view' and highlighted the dangers of a chaotic departure from the bloc. But he insisted GDP would only be 'very very slightly' smaller over a 15-year period under the PM's plan, and it allowed the country to regain control over borders and laws. In a stark warning to mutinous MPs ahead of a titanic Commons showdown, he also lashed out at 'dreamers' who think they can get a better Brexit deal than Mrs May, describing it as the 'best deal that is negotiable'. In an exclusive article for MailOnline, Mr Hammond said blocking the settlement in the crunch vote on December 11 will fuel division in the country. The intervention comes as the government is due to publish estimates of the economic impact of leaving the EU on various different terms. Advertisement China's state news agency hailed the visit as evidence that Beijing and the UK are both committed to 'free trade and multilateralism'. This could be interpreted as a swipe at Donald Trump, whose trade war with China has seen tariffs slapped on a range if imports including steel, rice and handbags. And as the UK is being rocked by the Brexit debate, the future of UK-EU relations also featured in the talks. The Chinese premier said Beijing would like to see both Britain and the EU peaceful, stable, prosperous and open. Mr Cameron was last year handed a leading role in an investment fund called the UK China Fund. It is unclear if the ex PM was visiting the country for his role in the fund, and his spokesman did not return MailOnline's request for comment. Chris Bryant, a Labour MP and member the Commons foreign affairs committee, told The Times: 'David Cameron was utterly naive about China and for that matter Russia when he was PM and it's clear he has learnt nothing. 'The last thing the UK needs now is a dilettante on the make in China.' Crispin Blunt, a former Tory chairman of the committee, told the newspaper: 'The plain fact is that China is going to again be the preeminent global power by 2050. 'It must be right for former prime ministers to use their influence to help China invest in global security and free trade.' As the Camerons were given the star treatment in Beijing, the British Government has admitted every Brexit option will make the UK poorer. The Chancellor Philip Hammond said staying in the EU was best from a 'purely economic point of view' and highlighted the dangers of a chaotic departure from the bloc. But he said that the PM's deal minimises the hit and delivers 'political benefits'. Theresa May (pictured yesterday in Wales) , who became PM after Mr Cameron quit after losing the Brexit referendum, is travelling across the UK to try to drum up support for her under-fire deal Chancellor Philip Hammond (pictured today) has delivered a stark warning that the PM has secured the 'best deal that is negotiable' as the government steps up its push ahead of a titanic Commons showdown He insisted GDP would only be 'very very slightly' smaller over a 15-year period under the PM's plan, and it allowed the country to regain control over borders and laws. In a stark warning to mutinous MPs ahead of a titanic Commons showdown, he also lashed out at 'dreamers' who think they can get a better Brexit deal than Mrs May, describing it as the 'best deal that is negotiable'. In an exclusive article for MailOnline, Mr Hammond said blocking the settlement in the crunch vote on December 11 will fuel division in the country. The intervention comes as the government is due to publish estimates of the economic impact of leaving the EU on various different terms. A Nepalese man has died and an Indian man suffered serious injuries after their paraglider broke mid-air in Kalimpong, West Bengal. Tourist Gaurav Choudhary, 32, captured the moment their glider aircraft snapped and he and pilot Purushottam Timsina, 22, suddenly plummeted to the ground. The footage filmed on his selfie stick shows Mr Choudhary's smile turn into a look of horror, as Mr Timsina desperately holds on to him as they start to spin. Mr Timsina's actions likely saved Mr Choudhary's life, as the tourist from Patna, in Bihar, northeast India escaped with a broken leg. The video clip initially shows Mr Choudhary screaming with joy as the pair glide towards the ground. But just seconds later a chord snaps and the paraglider enters a terrifying spin towards the ground. The duo take just seconds to fall hundreds of feet out of the sky as Mr Timsina desperately tries to hold on to Mr Choudhary. Initial joy: Gaurav Choudhary, 32, films the paragliding experience on a selfie stick, showing pilot Purushottam Timsina, 22, in the background Going down: The tourist continues to film as their glider aircraft snaps mid-air in Kalimpong, West Bengal, India Crash: The footage shows them spinning to the ground before landing on a roof top Hero: The 22-year-old Nepalese pilot died in the incident, and Mr Choudhary was hospitalised with a broken leg Crash: The video also show the pair having crashed onto a roof, a part of the glider seen above them in the sky They fall on the rooftop of a house and the camera captures the a part of the paraglider still drifting in the sky. Friends of Mr Choudhary, who had accompanied him to Kalimpong for the trip, filed a complaint with the police. 'Organisers ignored even basic safety measures. The pilot was not even wearing a helmet,' said a friend, who did not want to be identified. Dhrubajyoti De, Kalimpong police superintendent said: 'We are probing the incident and have registered an unnatural death case.' Harry Leslie Smith, the political activist and second world war veteran who survived the Great Depression, has died in Canada, aged 95 - after sharing one last beer from his hospital bedside with his son. Mr Smith, who rose to fame in 2014 after giving a powerful speech at the UK Labour Party's convention, was hospitalised in Ontario, Canada since November 14. While his father was unwell, his son John Smith took over his Twitter account, which has more than 254,000 followers around the world. Scroll down for video Harry Leslie Smith, the political activist and second world war veteran who survived the Great Depression, has died in Canada aged 95, after sharing one last beer from his hospital bedside with his son At around 8:30 GMT today, John Smith tweeted: 'At 3:39 this morning, my dad Harry Leslie Smith died. I am an orphan. #istandwithharry'. Hours earlier, he had tweeted saying Harry had 'a good night' but appeared to be 'very tired'. Mr Smith had been touring the world's refugee hotspots when he fell ill before his flight back to the UK, his family two weeks ago. After a fortnight of ailing health, the veteran activist, who once told then prime minister David Cameron to 'keep your mitts off my NHS', finally succumbed having sipped on a final beer with son just a few hours prior. Born in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, Mr Smith served with the RAF in Germany and in recent years campaigned on behalf of the NHS. Mr Smith survived Britain's post-First World War recession in abject poverty and spent much of his later life campaigning to ensure others did not experience the same, his son said. The nonagenarian documented his fight for social justice in a podcast called 'Harry's Last Stand.' Mr Smith had been touring the world's refugee hotspots when he fell ill before his flight back to the UK, his family two weeks ago. After a fortnight of ailing health, the veteran activist, who once told then prime minister David Cameron to 'keep your mitts off my NHS', finally succumbed having sipped on a final beer with son just a few hours prior Besides healthcare and refugee advocacy, Mr Smith had written several books since turning 87. At the age of 91, Mr Smith broke into the political mainstream with a barnstorming speech at the Labour Party conference, where he described life in Britain before a national health service, and the squalor he and his generation endured post-war. While offering medical updates, John opened up about the closeness he shared with his father, writing: 'Since my brother Pete's death, 9 years ago, I have been at Harry's side and never absent from him for more than a day. 'We laughed, we argued, we learned from each other. I became his friend while still letting him remain my dad.' RAF veteran Harry Leslie Smith is critically ill in a Canadian hospital. His son John has been tweeting from the 95-year-old's bedside about his condition following a fall yesterday Besides healthcare and refugee advocacy, Mr Smith has written several books since turning 87 At the age of 91, Mr Smith broke into the political mainstream with a barnstorming speech at the Labour Party conference, where he described life in Britain before a national health service, and the squalor he and his generation endured post-war On hearing that Mr Smith had died, Jeremy Corbyn said: 'We will all miss Harry Leslie Smith - he was one of the giants whose shoulders we stand on. 'A World War Two veteran who dedicated his life to fighting for our National Health Service, a peaceful world and for countries to meet their moral responsibility by welcoming refugees.' Former Labour leader Ed Miliband tweeted: 'Very sad to hear of the death of Harry Leslie Smith. He was one of a kind who never wavered in his fight for equality and justice. We should all carry his passion, optimism and spirit forward.' Former Labour leader Ed Miliband tweeted: 'Very sad to hear of the death of Harry Leslie Smith. He was one of a kind who never wavered in his fight for equality and justice. We should all carry his passion, optimism and spirit forward' The political commentator grew up in poverty in Barnsley, Yorkshire before serving in the RAF in World War II Labour MP Jonathan Ashworth wrote on Twitter: 'RIP Harry Leslie Smith will always remember this wonderful speech on the NHS you gave at Labour Conference.' Labour MP Luke Pollard also paid tribute, tweeting: 'RIP @Harryslaststand. Harry Leslie Smith came to #plymouth ahead of the 2015 General Election. 'He was old and frail but full of life. His encouragement and positivity was a true inspiration. RIP Harry' A family restaurant is to trial a ban on mobile phones at the table, as a nationwide study found seven in ten children wish their parents would spend less time on their phones and more time talking to them. The poll found one in ten children (eight per cent) have tried to hide a parent's handset in a bid to get attention. Nearly twice that many (15 percent) said their parent's phone 'addiction' made it seems their parents prefer to be on their phone than to talk their children. So for the next week Frankie and Benny's waiters and waitresses will ask diners to hand over their phone when they enter any one of the chain's 250 restaurants - and for those who do, children will eat for free. Frankie and Benny's staff will be 'actively encouraged' to get diners to hand over their phones The No Phone Zone box will keep distracting smartphones hidden away while parents and their children chat and play and do colouring-in at the dinner table The campaign comes after a poll found seven out of ten children wish their parents would spend less time on the phone and more with them The business says the 'No Phone Zone' campaign is a bid to get the nation to embrace and celebrate family time. Shoebox-sized receptacles will be provided for each table and staff will be 'actively encouraged' to get diners to participate. The campaign starts tomorrow and will run until Friday December 7. Frankie and Benny's will offer games including colouring kits for children and their parents to have fun together at the dinner table. A spokesman said: 'Our staff will be actively encouraging customers and families to take part in the initiative but of course, we can't force them to hand over their phones. 'If the initiative is a success we'll certainly be looking at ways to activate it on a more permanent basis.' During the promotion diners up to 14 years of age will be able to eat from the restaurant's children's menu free of charge, with paying parents, if the family surrender their mobile devices. A poll found 46 per cent of children thought adults spent too much time on their phones over dinner Restauarnt chain Frankie & Benny's will allow children under 14 to eat for free for the next week if everyone at the table puts their phones in a No Phone Zone box The campaign was inspired by a poll of 1500 children and parents, which found 56 per cent of British children said they would like to have more conversations with their parents. According to the study the main time mobiles get in the way is during dinner times, when 46 per cent of kids would like to take the device away, followed by family movie or TV time (29 per cent) and holidays (24 per cent). Parenting expert Susan Atkins said: 'I am delighted to see Frankie & Benny's are leading the way by banning screens at the table. 'We live in a busy, fast paced 24/7 digitally connected world, unless we consciously plan not to be, so I love the idea of families sitting together, eating and chatting together away from screens. 'Parents are role models in everything that they do and in everything that they say, so by managing their own screen time parents are teaching their kids by example about when and where technology use is appropriate.' The Christmas 'no phone zone' campaign might be extended if it is well received A spokesman for the restaurant (Crawley branch pictured above) said it would not force diners to surrender their mobile devices but staff would be encouraged to get customers to participate in the scheme A spokesperson for Frankie and Benny's added: 'We looked at various ways we could encourage people to engage more at the dinner table, and we've found giving families the chance to part with their devices for a mere couple of hours is a great way to bring them closer and embrace family time.' The concerns are also shared by guilty parents. Seventy-seven per cent of the parents polled felt guilty about the amount of time they spend on the phone and exactly two thirds (67 per cent) said their phone has come between them and their family. Over a quarter (26 percent) check their phones during family mealtimes while 23 percent check while their child is talking about their day, and seven percent even admit to looking at their screen while driving their kids around. 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. Drugs, weapons and a luxury car worth upwards of $200,000 were among some of the items seized by police in a slew of raids in Melbourne. Officers raided nine homes across the city on Wednesday, in the suburbs of Fawkner, Campbellfield, Brunswick West, Coburg, Pascoe Vale, Hadfield, Sunshine and Keilor. After an extensive investigation into drug and firearms trafficking, detectives seized 11 firearms, about 1kg of methamphetamine, two ballistic vests, tasers, swords, allegedly stolen property, more than $190,000 and an Audi R8. Drug paraphernalia, weapons and an Audi R8 (pictured) were among some of the items police confiscated in a slew of raids across Melbourne They also arrested 11 people during the raids. Chemicals and lab glassware were found at some of the properties, police said, while officers removed false identification and equipment used to manufacture fraudulent documents from another property. Steroids were also found among ammunition. The individuals who were arrested have all been charged with multiple offences. Chemicals and lab glassware were found on some of the properties, police said, while officers removed false identification from others Police arrested and charged 11 people following the raids on Wednesday Eleven firearms were found across properties that were raided in a co-ordinated operation in Melbourne Charges include trafficking of firearms and a commercial quantity of drugs, as well as the possession of both weapons and drugs. A man was escorted from one of the homes that was raided in footage released by Victoria Police, before they proceeded to remove weapons from the property. Those arrested are aged between 27 and 53-years-old. This is the shocking moment a black man is arrested after helping his drunk neighbor get back to his house. A viral clip, posted on YouTube shows Samir Ahmed, 23, being put in handcuffs by cops in Silver Spring, Maryland as friends explain he was only trying to help his neighbor. According to Ahmed, he had been locked out of his house on November 17 and was waiting for a lift when he noticed the man stumbling down the street. Ahmed, a sound engineer from the small town just outside Washington DC, then offered to help him home after the man told him he only lived 10 doors down. A viral video posted on YouTube shows several officers putting Ahmed in handcuffs after the incident Ahmed, 23, (pictured) is a sound engineer in Silver Spring, Maryland where the incident took place When he had finished dropping the man off he returned to the spot he had been waiting in and was soon confronted by several police officers. The officers told him they had been called out to reports of an 'intoxicated man in need of medical attention' and reportedly became suspicious of Ahmed after smelling marijuana. 'Apparently before I had seen the drunk guy he was unconscious in somebody's lawn,' Ahmed said. According to Ahmed he then explained to the officers how he had carried the man home and even showed his ID to prove he lived in the house he was standing in front of. 'They then asked where the drunk guy lived and I refused to tell them which infuriated them,' Ahmed wrote alongside the 18-minute video of the confrontation. 'She then said "I think you are the intoxicated one". Which I just laughed off.' The clip, which was filmed by a neighbor, shows cops Ahmed being restrained after the search After conducting a search, officers found marijuana but, according to Ahmed, it 'was such a small amount that I didn't even know I had it'. The 23-year-old, who is the son of Ethiopian immigrants, doesn't deny having marijuana but told HuffPost that 'race played a factor' in his arrest. Ahmed was then arrested despite the protestations of several of his neighbors and said that many of the people who live nearby witnessed the incident. His family and neighbors can be seen in the video gathered outside his home, screaming: 'He helped the man. He helped him! Y'all got him detained for absolutely nothing!' A Montgomery County police officer can be heard telling the crowd that another cop speaking to Ahmed had 'smelled an odor of marijuana coming from him.' The policeman then claimed: 'He [Ahmed] didn't want to allow her to search him.' Charging documents revealed by the Washington Post later showed police had found a plastic bag containing 'suspected marijuana' in Ahmed's coat pocket. Ahmed was charged with resisting arrest, failure to obey a reasonably lawful order, obstructing and hindering, and disorderly conduct - according to Maryland court records. Ahmed is now facing a criminal trial having been charged with resisting arrest, failure to obey a reasonably lawful order, obstructing and hindering, and disorderly conduct In a statement released Wednesday morning, the Montgomery County Police Department told the Post it is 'aware of the concerns voiced by some community members' about Ahmed's arrest'. 'The Department is reviewing the circumstances surrounding the arrest to determine if any Department policies, procedures or laws were violated during the incident,' the statement read. Ahmed was also issued a civil violation for possession of less than 10 grams of marijuana, according to the statement. However, his attorney, J. Wyndal Gordon, told the Post: 'We vehemently dispute that the officer smelled marijuana; you can't smell marijuana in a baggie inside of his left coat pocket that hasn't been burned,' Gordon said. 'It's a very negligible amount, if anything,' he added. 'He's a Good Samaritan being converted to a criminal defendant,' Gordon said. The intoxicated man was eventually located by police but not arrested. Ahmed is scheduled to appear in court in January. The US ambassador today tried to defuse the bitter row over Donald Trump's Brexit deal attack - insisting he is 'enthusiastic' about a trade agreement with the UK. Woody Johnson tried to cool the spat that erupted after the president's extraordinary jibe at the package thrashed out with Brussels. Mr Trump risked throwing Theresa May into chaos by saying it looked like a 'great deal for the EU', and suggesting it will torpedo UK trade ties with the US. The intervention drew a frosty response from the PM, with Mrs May insisting Britain will have an 'independent trade policy' after leaving the bloc. Downing Street also made clear her anger by declaring that the two leaders will not be holding bilateral talks at the G20 summit this week. Writing in The Times today, Mr Johnson signalled that the US believes trade links can be stronger after Brexit. He hopes there will be room for an ambitious trade deal with the United States,' Mr Johnson wrote. 'The Prime Minister shares this goal and has pledged that the UK will be free to negotiate its own trade deals as soon as you leave the EU. Woody Johnson (pictured) tried to cool the spat that erupted after the president's extraordinary jibe at the package thrashed out with Brussels President Trump told reporters outside the White House last night that the deal 'looks great the EU' as he warned about the impact it could have on UK-US trade Speaking to reporters in Washington on Monday night, Mr Trump jibed that the agreement was 'great' for the EU - an institution he has accused of being a protectionist cartel. In a barb that struck at the heart of Mrs May's vision for the UK's future outside of the bloc, he added: '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. 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. '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.' Senior Tories and Eurosceptics seized on the 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 yesterday, 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. The intervention came just hours after the Prime Minister (pictured at a winter fair in Powys today) spoke in the Commons to defend the withdrawal agreement, which was signed off by the EU on Sunday As the government reeled from the blow yesterday, one minister highlighted a tweet claiming Mr Trump wanted to 'finish off' Mrs May, while Cabinet Office minister David Lidington said bluntly that he was 'wrong'. Asked if Mrs May would try to explain the situation to Mr Trump at the summit on Friday and Saturday, the PM's spokesman said she would hold bilateral talks with other leaders, but had 'none planned' with the US commander-in-chief. '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.' John Westwood, pictured, 57, has been found guilty of assault and harassment after he planted a tracking device on his ex-partner and grabbed her when trying to get it back A security expert hid a tracking device in the lining of his ex-girlfriend's handbag after becoming jealous when she met a man on Tinder, a court heard. John Westwood, 57, planted the small surveillance gadget to track the movements of former long-term partner Hazel Burnett shortly after the breakdown of their 12-year relationship. He later assaulted her when she discovered the tracker and tried to keep it from him, with the attack only ending when her teenage son hauled him off her. Poole Magistrates' Court heard when Ms Burnett, 40, initially found the device she confronted Westwood, who admitted it was his but denied putting it in the bag. Days later when Westwood was moving his belongings out of their home in Bournemouth, Dorset, he tried to take it with him. Ms Burnett feared he would throw the 'evidence' out of the window and so took the device from off a shelf. Westwood grabbed her by the shoulders and forced her against a bedroom window. Ms Burnett suffered bruises and other minor injuries to her shoulder and upper arm in the attack. The incident came to an end when Ms Burnett's 18-year-old son entered the room and jumped onto Westwood's back, grabbing him in a headlock. The police were called and Westwood was arrested for assault. The court heard he had also harassed John Major, the man his ex-partner had been seeing. Westwood contacted his love rival via Facebook, followed the taxi driver in his car and turned up at Mr Major's ex-wife's house. He denied charges of assault and harassment but was found guilty following a trial. Westwood, who runs a security company, had been with Ms Burnett for 12 years but the couple split up in May this year. She then began a brief relationship with Mr Major after seeing him online. Ms Burnett said Westwood was constantly asking for details about her new partner. She said she found the covert device in August inside the seam of her handbag, adding 'the fabric had been cut and it was under the lining'. There was some lettering on the front of it which she then Googled to find out what it was. She said she believes the tracker was place in her bag to try and find out more about what she was doing. When asked why she was so keen to get hold of the tracker ahead of Westwood, Ms Burnet told the court she had viewed it as her 'only piece of evidence' to what had been going on. Hazel Burnett, 40, left, found the device in her handbag and tried to keep it as evidence, claiming Westwood was trying to find out details of her dates with John Major, right, whom she met on Tinder Nicola Peach, prosecuting, said: 'The crown says these are the actions of a jealous man.' Westwood denied placing the tracker in her handbag. He added: 'The device she claimed was in her bag was basically a box measuring two inches round. 'That particular model also has be recharged every 12 hours. 'There are trackers that are much smaller and only need to be charged every five years, so why would I use the one she claims?' Westwood admitted putting his hands on Ms Burnett but claimed he was 'just trying to calm her down'. He claimed she suffered her injuries as a result of her son jumping on his back, causing all three of them to fall in a heap. Mike Flynn, defending, said: 'He was just trying to diffuse the situation and calm her down. 'There was no way an assault took place.' Westwood, from Christchurch, was found guilty of assaulting Ms Burnett and the harassment of Mr Major and will be sentenced on December 17. Ministers were today warned they could be held in 'contempt of Parliament' after refusing to publish the full legal advice on Theresa May's Brexit deal. The views of Attorney General Geoffrey Cox on whether the UK will be locked into the so-called Irish border 'backstop' are thought to have been crucial in the package being passed by Cabinet. Earlier this month the Commons endorsed a 'Humble Address' tabled by Labour demanding the opinion be released. But Chancellor Philip Hammond insisted today that only a summary of the advice will be released, warning it would be 'impossible for the Government to function' if such confidential material was made public in full. Labour has appealed for Speaker John Bercow to intervene - and he said this afternoon that he will consider whether Parliamentary rules have been broken. The views of Attorney General Geoffrey Cox (pictured right) on whether the UK will be locked into the so-called Irish border 'backstop' are thought to have been crucial in the package being passed by Cabinet. Philip Hammond (left) said the full advice would not be released Both Labour and Tory Brexiteers have been urging the release of the advice in full as they try to sink the package thrashed out by Mrs May with Brussels. Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer today asked the Speaker what he could do to force the Government to play ball - and said he was 'deeply concerned' at the refusal to comply. Mr Bercow said Labour should write to him 'to suggest the House has been or is about to be subject to a contempt'. He added: 'I will decide - and I will not linger - whether there is an arguable case that a contempt has been committed and therefore whether an appropriate motion should be put urgently to the House.' Earlier, Sir Keir said the summary would not be 'good enough'. 'Parliament won the right to see the full legal advice and that is precisely what we expect to see. Labour will not let ministers off the hook,' he said. He has written to ministers demanding the information is published soon. Veteran Tory Eurosceptic Sir Bill Cash said a 'reasoned political statement' would not be enough. 'The position, in a nutshell, is going to be about the question of whether or not the EU has a veto over our leaving the backstop in Northern Ireland. 'This is absolutely crucial because if that were to be the case and the EU does have a veto, then we'll never be able to leave the EU or strike trade deals. 'So, it's that important.' Sir Bill rejected the idea that publishing the full legal advice on the Brexit deal could have a 'chilling effect' on future advice given by the Attorney General. The Tory MP said there were lots of precedents where the full reports were published, such as in the run-up to the Iraq War. However, asked on BBC Radio 4's Today programme if it was right to release the full comments, rather than a shortened summary, Mr Hammond said: 'No, there's a very important principle here, that the Government must be able to commission impartial legal advice which absolutely tells it like it is to enable it to shape its decisions, while always complying with its legal obligation in the negotiations. Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said the summary would not be 'good enough' 'It would be impossible for Government to function if we create a precedent that the legal advice that the Government receives has to be made public. 'We must have, as every other citizen has, the right to take privileged legal advice which remains private between the lawyer and the client. 'So the client has the ability to ask the difficult questions, to receive full and frank legal advice, and then to make a decision based on that full and frank advice.' The Prime Minister's official spokesman said yesterday that the Government's position had not changed. '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 spokesman said. 'The commitment remains as set out a couple of weeks ago.' 'Giving Machines' have been put outside the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Manhattan for the festive period. The clever machines allow people to donate to charities and receive a physical representation of their donation dropped from the vending machine. Instead of buying a chocolate bar or soda, customers can choose to give a goat, an eye exam, new school shoes or clean water, to disadvantaged people across the world. The festive machines allow people to donate to charities and receive a physical representation of their donation dropped from the vending machine The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Lincoln Square, Manhattan where the machines have been set up over the festive period A customer browses the selection available and the prices, as the machine is stacked with charitable opportunity The Mormon church distributes the funds donated at the vending machines through their partners, including UNICEF and Water Aid. The church say on their website, 'These vending machines symbolically illustrate how easy it is to donate to charities by allowing donors to instantly give instead of receive. 'Using credit cards, people can purchase representations of items like a goat or a chicken, socks, a new pair of school shoes, an eye exam, clean water, baby supplies, first aid kits, medication, and food.' Amid the hustle and bustle of Christmas shoppers in Manhattan the machines provide an easy way for people to carry out their Christian duty The machines which are part of the church's 'Light the World' campaign can be found in Manhattan, New York, in Salt Lake City, Utah, Gilbert, Arizona, in Hyde Park, London and in Manila, in the Philippines. The Mormon 'Light the World' initiative strives to get people to act with generosity every week throughout the year in new ways. Police have hit back at Labour's Diane Abbott after she criticised the Met for knocking moped yobs off their bikes. Scotland Yard was praised by Londoners last week after it released footage of its new 'tactical contact' method of catching scooter criminals. Detectives explained they only use the technique - which involves tipping thieves onto the ground by driving into their bikes - when the riders become a danger to the public. But Shadow Home Secretary Ms Abbott, who will be in charge of policing if Labour win the next election, was unimpressed by the footage. Diane Abbott provoked anger online when she criticised the police's new methods of stopping moped thieves by knocking them over Camden Police said it is their responsibility to protect the public from dangerous criminals John Apter, national chairman of the Police Federation, branded her comments 'unhelpful' Critics expressed concern that the views came from the politician who could be in charge of policing after the next election Ms Abbott tweeted: 'Knocking people off bikes is potentially very dangerous. It shouldn't be legal for anyone. Police are not above the law.' The Labour frontbencher, who is MP for Hackney, a borough plagued by moped crime, waded into the debate four days after the police announcement. Stats released earlier this year show her constituency has seen more than 3,000 moped-enabled crimes in the last five years. But the Labour party appears to back her views, with a spokesman saying: 'Major operational changes by the police that affect public and police officer safety need to have clear oversight and follow due process, especially where there is a potential impact for legal ramifications.' But her comments aroused an angry response from both the public and police, who insisted her interpretation of the law was incorrect. John Apter, National Chair of the Police Federation, tweeted: 'My colleagues are doing the best they can to prevent robberies, violent attacks and muggings. All their decisions will be based on a wide range of information but they need the law to support them. This is very unhelpful.' Ms Abbott was responding to footage released by police of 'tactical contact' stop methods Victims of moped attacks, and even Labour supporters, said they disagreed with Ms Abbott Camden Police replied: '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.' Home Secretary Sajid Javid added: 'Risk-assessed tactical contact is exactly what we need. Criminals are not above the law.' What is police guidance on 'tactical contact'? Police said guidance on the use of vehicles in stopping mopeds is similar to that surrounding the use of force by officers on foot. Officers are told they can only use force when it is 'absolutely necessary, reasonable and proportionate'. Police car drivers have to keep this in mind when deciding whether to crash into a fleeing moped mugger. Whereas police may have been more reluctant to chase robbers without helmets in previous years, the spike in moped crime has concentrated the minds of Scotland Yard chiefs. More training for 'scorpion' drivers and the increasingly dangerous tactics used by muggers has led to the method being more widely used. Advertisement Londoners also defended the police's new methods and accused Ms Abbott of being 'on the side of criminals'. Charlie Mullins, head of Pimlico Plumbers, wrote: 'It is also dangerous when these moped thieves rob people. Let's hope when they get knocked off the mopeds they never get on them again, Diana Abbott you need to get a proper job.' A Twitter user who had witnessed one of the crimes, added: 'Sorry Diane, you're wrong on this one. I've seen them mount the pavement to rob people while wearing bandanas and no helmets. They're a nuisance and they're breaking the law. If they don't stop when requested to by the law then they'll have to be stopped forcibly!' The Met revealed on Friday that specially-trained drivers are tipping criminals on to the ground or on to the bonnets of their cars to get them off the streets. Extraordinary dashcam footage showed suspects being sent flying into the air, with one telling officers: 'I took my helmet off so I thought you'd stop chasing me.' Scotland Yard said the tough new tactics cut crimes linked to two-wheeled machines by a third, from 19,000 offences to 12,500. They are being rolled out across the country to stop mopeds being the transport of choice for reckless career criminals with no regard of the law. Some areas of London saw the number of moped crimes increase three-fold last year Force chiefs have said there is no maximum speed for police cars to hit mopeds, and that it is a common misconception among moped thieves that officers will end their pursuit if the suspect drives dangerously or removes their helmet. Commander Amanda Pearson said: 'Offenders on mopeds and motorcycles who attempt to evade the police are making a choice that puts themselves and others at risk. 'So our message is clear: We can, we will and we do target those involved in moped and motorcycle crime at every opportunity.' The new tactics have however led to police groups calling for protection for officers who use 'tactical contact' in high speed chases. Ken Marsh, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, asked: 'Will they be backed? Or will they be left to the mercy of the courts? Will their livelihood and liberty be put at risk? Because that is the reality and our major concern.' Walden (left) was said to have been frustrated at Bowman (right) because the baby wouldn't go to sleep A daycare worker has pleaded guilty to killing an eight-month-old girl by smothering her with a blanket because she wouldn't go to sleep. Leah Walden, 24, admitted the murder of little Reese Bowman, at Rocket Tiers Learning Center, Baltimore in May 2017, at a court hearing on Tuesday, wbaltv reports. Walden was sentenced to 70 years in prison for the horrifying killing by Judge Althea Handy who sobbed as she handed it down. In heartbreaking scenes, Reese's father Justin Bowman wept as he told the court: 'I will never see my girl take her first steps, hold her, kiss her, comfort her when she's scared, hear her say "I love you". I am devastated.' Turning to Walden and pointing he said: 'Reese Annette Bowman accomplished more in her short life than this woman ever will.' Walden tried to explain her actions by saying she had snapped and had not been given appropriate training or assistance for her job. Assistant State's Attorney Anne Colt Leitess said Walden had told a co-worker, 'Girl, I'm frustrated. I'm sick of this little b****. I hate this little b****. She makes me want to punch her in the face.' Eight-month-old Reese Bowman was smothered to death by daycare worker Leah Walden in May last year The baby was being cared for at the daycare alongside her older brother when she was killed Her parents Justin and Amy have spoken of their heartbreak at her senseless killing The court heard that Walden returned from lunch and became frustrated that baby Reese would not sleep. She then slapped her and pinned her down before piling blankets over her face and suffocating her. Walden initially claimed she had fed the baby and put her in a crib for a nap before coming back 45 minutes later to find the girl unresponsive. But her argument unraveled after the center's CCTV revealed the truth. Walden was seen covering the baby with 'excessive blankets for long periods of time'. She was also filmed covering the child's face with a pillow, violently snatching the baby and slapping her. CCTV footage played in court showed the baby kicking wildly as the enraged daycare worker smothered her with a blanket. Reece's parents Amy and Justin Bowman moved out of their home and left their jobs after their daughter's murder - unable to stay in the city and be reminded of the horror crime The Rocket Tiers Learning Center in Baltimore where the incident took place has since shut down Judge Handy broke down as she watched the CCTV video of the baby's murder shortly after the young daycare worker entered the court. Composing herself, she said: 'I'm just reflecting on everything I heard. There are tears everywhere in this courtroom.' Walden accepted that the murder was premeditated but said: 'There was not a time in my heart that I wanted this to happen.' Her sister Samantha Carlton told the court: 'She's not a monster. She's not an evil person. She was frustrated.' Then she turned to the Bowmans and said: 'I'm so sorry. With all my heart, I'm sorry.' Mr Bowman told the court that Reese's older brother Sawyer also attended the center and was upstairs when she was killed. Mourners left bouquets of flowers outside the day care center when the murder took place Hundreds of people gathered for a memorial service in a fire station in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania to mourn the death of eight-month-old Reese in May last year Walden spoke of her childcare experience on the daycare's website and said she liked to care for 'babies who love me as much as I love them' Stanley Bradford, head of Baltimore's homicide unit called the killing 'just evil' in a statement on Tuesday He said the family had been forced to sell their house, leave their jobs and move away from Baltimore after the murder. It has left them 'devastated'. An obituary written by Reese's parents, posted shortly after her death read: 'Dearest baby, please know that our greatest blessing was having you.' 'This beautiful, happy, loving child entered the world on September 4, 2016, being the first girl born into the Bowman family in 47 years. 'She had recently began chattering, clapping and crawling. She lit up and laughed every time her brother, Sawyer, was nearby. Taken way too soon from all those who love her, her spirit and memory will remain in our hearts eternally.' The city's Criminal Investigations Chief Stanley Bradford told the Baltimore Sun how Walden was seen 'violently snatching the child out of the crib with one arm, swinging at the baby as if she was slapping her, and placing pillows over the baby's face.' He added: 'Watching that video is disturbing. Reese Bowman, in my opinion, was tortured.' Rocket Tiers was shut down after Reese's death and a crowdfunding campaign to pay for the Bowman's funeral costs raised over $50,000. In a statement at the time of the incident last year, Baltimore Police said it appeared the baby was awake at the time of the assault. Stanley Bradford, head of Baltimore's homicide unit, said: 'To me, and all of us who are parents, when we look at something like that, there's no explanation to give. 'It's just evil. I mean what motive is there to treat a baby that way? 'From what I saw, why would you treat an 8-month-old baby, or any child for that matter, in that manner?' Bradford added: 'Watching that video is disturbing. Reese Bowman, in my opinion, was tortured.' Her family released a statement saying losing her had caused 'tremendous pain' and said their 'hearts are broken'. They added: 'No family should ever have to experience the loss of a child under any circumstances.' A man has been rushed to hospital after a potential shark attack at a popular Sydney beach. The shark alarm was sounded at Manly Beach on Wednesday evening after the man emerged from the water saying he had bitten while surfing. The man, aged in his late 20s, was seen hobbling on the beach just after 6.30pm with a massive wound to his leg. A man has been rushed to hospital after a possible shark attack at a popular Sydney surf beach The surfer was taken to hospital to be treated for an 8mm cut to his foot, an ambulance spokesman told Daily Mail Australia The man in his late 20s had been surfing at Manly beach (pictured) when he was bitten A witness said they saw a 'bloke hobbling out of the water saying he'd been bitten'. The attack happened about 20metres from shore and lifesavers were quick to sound the shark alarm. Surfers were forced to flee the water once the shark alarm was activated. The surfer, who had a deep 8mm cut to his foot, was quickly treated at the scene, an ambulance spokesman told Daily Mail Australia. He was taken to Northern Beaches Hospital where he is believed to be in a stable condition. The activation of the shark alarm comes after several shark sightings at Australian beaches in recent days. A witness said they saw a 'bloke hobbling out of the water saying he'd been bitten' on Wednesday night Police and ambulance crews were called to Manly Beach about 6.40pm on Wednesday after reports a man was attacked by a shark A four-metre long shark was seen 150 metres offshore of Maroubra Beach, in Sydney's eastern suburbs, on Saturday, forcing the beach's closure. Days earlier, another 4.6 metre great white was hauled in from the same beach. That shark was captured by Trapman Bermagui, also known as Jason, who shared the details of the find on social media last Monday. 'A 4.6m Great White Shark was caught in the beach shark net,' he posted on Facebook. Also on Saturday, a two-metre long shark was been spotted lurking inside a shark net at a popular family beach, forcing swimmers out of the water. Swimmers at Middleton Beach in Albany, Western Australia spotted the shark which was believed to be a bronze whaler. And on Tuesday, video emerged of lifeguards coming to the aid of a Port Jackson shark that washed up on a Sydney's Bondi Beach and paddled it back out to sea. An Anthropologist has revealed how he survived meeting the Neolithic tribe that killed a US missionary earlier this month. Indian TN Pandit travelled to visit the isolated inhabitants of North Sentinel Island in the Indian Ocean between the 1960s and 1990s. The 84-year-old first set out to see the hunter-gathering tribe in 1967 when the trips were sanctioned by police - but revealed his team of experts always backed off when they were threatened by the 'peace-loving' people. Earlier this month, US missionary John Allen Chau, 27, was killed with arrows as he illegally set foot on the territory after paddling there in a kayak. Pandit said the American 'made a mistake' during his trip to the remote island and 'paid with his life'. Indian Anthropologist TN Pandit (pictured) has revealed how he survived a meeting with the Neolithic tribe that killed a US missionary earlier this month TN Pandit travelled to visit the isolated inhabitants of North Sentinel Island in the Indian Ocean between the 1960s and 1990s. He is pictured handing a coconut to one of the island's hunters in 1991 US missionary John Allen Chau (pictured), 27, was killed with arrows as he illegally set foot on the territory after paddling there in a kayak earlier this month He told the BBC: 'During our interactions they threatened us but it never reached a point where they went on to kill or wound. Whenever they got agitated we stepped back. 'I feel very sad for the death of this young man who came all the way from America. 'But he made a mistake. He had enough chance to save himself. But he persisted and paid with his life.' Pandit has said he was never allowed to venture on to the island itself. Instead, they would approach in boats and then stand in the water off the shore to hand over gifts. On one encounter, a young tribesman brandished a knife at him in a warning him to stay off the island. Pandit quickly retreated to his boat. In the years since those encounters, the island has been protected by Indian laws which ban any contact with the indigenous people. He told the BBC: 'When I was giving away the coconuts, I got a bit separated from the rest of my team and started going close to the shore. 'One young Sentinel boy made a funny face, took his knife and signalled to me that he would cut off my head. I immediately called for the boat and made a quick retreat. The gesture of the boy is significant. He made it clear I was not welcome.' The Sentinelese tribe has attacked almost everyone who has entered their territory. Pictured, the tribes people are seen wielding arrows on the island The Sentinelese attracted international attention in the wake of the 2004 Asian tsunami, when a member of the tribe was photographed on a beach, firing arrows at a helicopter (pictured) The Sentinelese tribe are an indigenous tribe who live on North Sentinal Island, lies around 450 miles from the coast of Thailand and more than 745 miles from mainland India Despite Chau's recent death Pandit says he would not label the tribe as hostile, insisting they are 'peace-loving'. He told the Indian Express: 'We are the aggressors here. We are the ones trying to enter their territory.' He said officials hoping to recover Chau's body might have more chance travelling in the afternoon or evening when tribesman are not normally on the shore - and to take gifts of coconuts and iron. But advocacy group Survival International has urged authorities to 'abandon efforts' to recover the missionary's body. Chau is believed to have been killed after travelling to North Sentinel - part of the archipelago of Andaman and Nicobar, in the Bay of Bengal - to try to convert the tribe to Christianity. The death has sparked calls to better protect indigenous people from increasing pressure to free up their land for tourism, mines and highways. The Sentinelese are generally considered the last pre-Neolithic tribe in the world, and the Indian government has for years protected them by declaring the island off-limits to visitors. The world's most isolated tribe: Who are the Sentinelese and why are they hostile to outsiders? The Sentinelese tribe has attacked almost everyone who has entered their territory and their continued hostility to outsiders may lie in its history. An armed British expedition led by 20-year-old Maurice Vidal Portman the British Officer in Charge of the Andamanese landed on North Sentinel Island in January 1880 searching for natives. They found recently abandoned villages and paths, but the Sentinelese were nowhere to be seen they had disappeared into the forest. After days of searching, they found six of them: an elderly couple and four children. They were transported to Port Blair, capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, 'in the interest of science,' according to Survival International, an organization that campaigns for the rights of tribal people. Portman noted that the six 'sickened rapidly, and the old man and his wife died, so the four children were sent back to their home with quantities of presents.' The tribe (pictured) shun all contact with the outside world and are known to be hostile to any encroachers According to Survival, it is likely that the children would have passed on their diseases and the results would have been devastating. But how many Sentinelese became ill as a result of this 'science' is not known. But because of their rejection of the outside world, little is known about them - including what they call themselves. What is known has been gleaned from viewing them from boats moored far enough away from the tribesmen, who carry spears, bows and arrows, or from the few times the tribe allowed authorities to come close enough to hand over coconuts. But they were also observed engaging in group sex on a beach on March 29, 1970, according to Indian anthropologist, Triloknath Pandit. He wrote of the scene: 'They all began shouting some incomprehensible words. We shouted back and gestured to indicate that we wanted to be friends. The tension did not ease. 'At this moment, a strange thing happened a woman paired off with a warrior and sat on the sand in a passionate embrace. This act was being repeated by other women, each claiming a warrior for herself, a sort of community mating, as it were. 'Thus did the militant group diminish. This continued for quite some time and when the tempo of this frenzied dance of desire abated, the couples retired into the shade of the jungle.' But the common thread in most encounters is that the Sentinelese have always been hostile to any encroachers and attacked many of them. They stabbed to death an escaped Indian convict who washed up on their shore in 1896. A film crew were greeted with a hail of arrows in 1974. The Sentinelese attracted international attention in the wake of the 2004 Asian tsunami, when a member of the tribe was photographed on a beach, firing arrows at a helicopter that was checking on their welfare. 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 when their boat broke loose and drifted onto the shore. An Indian Coast Guard helicopter sent to retrieve the bodies was repelled by a volley of arrows from the community. Today, the island is out of bounds even to the Indian navy in a bid to protect its reclusive inhabitants who number only about 150. Campaigns by non-profit and local organizations have led the Indian government to abandon plans to contact the Sentinelese. Survival International works to ensure that no further attempts are made to contact the tribe. They say the Sentinelese have thrived on the small forested island, which is approximately the size of Manhattan, for up to 55,000 years. The women wear fibre strings tied around their waists, necks and heads. The men also wear necklaces and headbands, but with a thicker waist belt. From a distance, they appear healthy and thriving and observers have noted many children and pregnant women at times. The Sentinelese hunt and gather in the forest, and fish in the coastal waters by make narrow outrigger canoes (pictured) According to Survival, the Sentinelese hunt and gather in the forest, and fish in the coastal waters by make narrow outrigger canoes, which can only be used in shallow waters as they are steered and propelled with a pole like a punt. Indian authorities made a few trips to the island a bid to befriend the tribe in the 1970s. On one trip, two pigs and a doll were left on the beach. The animals were speared by the tribe and buried along with the doll. More regular visits occurred in the 1980s which saw teams try to land and leave gifts of coconuts, bananas and bits of iron. Sometimes, the Sentinelese appeared to make friendly gestures but other times, they would take the gifts into the forest and then fire arrows at the outsiders. But in 1991, there appeared to be a breakthrough. When officials landed on the island, the tribe gestured for them to bring their gifts and for the first time, approached without weapons. However, they resumed their hostility again once they attacked a wooden boat with their adzes, a stone axe for cutting wood. The gift-giving missions stopped in 1996, but periodic checks are made from boats anchored at a safe distance from the shore to ensure that the Sentinelese appear well and have not chosen to seek contact. Officials made two checks following the 2004 tsunami and then declared that no further attempts would be made to contact the tribe. It is now illegal to have any contact with the tribe and last year, the Indian government said even taking photographs or making videos of aboriginal Andaman tribes would be punishable with imprisonment of up to three years. Advertisement But earlier this year, the government issued a notification exempting foreign nationals from needing special permits to visit more than two dozen islands, including North Sentinel and others inhabited by indigenous people. Conservationists say the easing of restrictions could signal that these islands may be opened up for tourism, which would be damaging for the aboriginal people. Pandit believes there should be no rush to make contact with the Sentinelese. 'Of the four Andaman tribal communities, we have seen that those in close contact with the outside world have suffered the most. They have declined demographically and culturally,' he told Down To Earth magazine in a recent interview. The Sentinelese 'are a highly vulnerable population and would disappear in an epidemic,' he added. 'The government's responsibility should be to keep a watch over them in the sense (that) no unauthorised people reach them and exploit them. Otherwise, just leave them alone.' A cheeky deaf boy got an audience with the Pope by climbing on stage and running up to the pontiff as his was about to start his address. The youngster escaped from his mother and brazenly walked in front of Pope Francis during the address at Paul VI hall at the Vatican today. Pope Francis was sitting down on stage when the child ran towards him, as his mother chased after him. A monsignor was addressing the packed hall in German as the small boy casually wandered up the white marble steps towards the pontiff. When he got to the top he paused, looked at the Pope who then burst out laughing, before the boy walked towards a guardsman. Scroll down for video. Here I come: The boy casually walked up the steps of the stage while a monsignor addressed the crowd What's this?: The youngster grabbed a guardsman's hand as the Pope laughs at his antics Pope Francis watched on as Prefect of the Papal Household, Archbishop Georg Ganswein, talked with the boy who jumped from the audience At one point the boy knelt down on one knee in front of a Swiss Guard as Archbishop Ganswein watched on After going back into the crowd, Pope Francis kissed the autstic boy on the head after he climbed the stage The crowds clapped as the youngster then ran off again. The young boy, who has the same home country of Argentina as the Pope, broke free of his mother's clutches to play with Pope Francis, much to the pontiff's delight. Swiss Guards and Vatican gendarmes stood by and gamely let the young boy run around Francis as monsignors read out his catechism lesson in various languages in the Vatican audience hall. The boy ran around the guardsmen, tugged on a gloved hand, even gripping onto a lance at one point, then fiddled with his uniform and stood behind the Pope's chair. The boy's antics drew smiles from Archbishop George Gaenswein, who was sitting next to Pope Francis. The Pope then beckoned the boy and his mother over so he could speak to them, before chatting to the boy and his mother as he stroked his head. 'Give me a kiss', the pontiff said, as the boy's mother rushed on stage to try and catch him, before Francis told her to let him be. The child's antics drew applause from the crowd and smiles from the Pope as well as Archbishop George Gaenswein The child played with a Swiss Guard's uniform before running around the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican during the weekly address Cheeky: Pope Francis praised the boy's freedom, telling the crowd, 'Am I so free before God?' As the boy's mother finally caught up with him, they were beckoned over by the pontiff so he could chat to them 'We should all ask ourselves, am I as free in the face of God? We should all be as free before God as a child before his father. 'Let us ask for the grace for this child to speak', he said, as the 7,000 or so faithful present burst into applause. The Prefect of the Pontifical Household, Georg Gaenswein, who was sitting next to the pope, turned to him and joked that the boy 'is Argentinian, he's unruly'. As the monsignor continued his address the boy ran in circles behind the Pope and a security guard tried to get him to come to the side of the stage. At one point he was joined by a little girl, who seemed reluctant to be there, as the pair played behind the Pope. When Francis took the microphone, he explained in Spanish to the crowd that the child was hearing and speech impaired. 'This boy cannot speak, he is mute', Francis told those gathered for his weekly general audience, after the boy's mother apologised and explained to the pope that her son was autistic, Italian media reported. He added: 'But he knows how to communicate, to express himself.' After running around the Pope's chair the boy knelt on the floor and grabbed a Swiss Guardsman's pike After a brief conversation, he was taken away after getting up to the area where Pope Francis was sitting Before being taken off stage the boy was joined by a little girl and the pair ran behind the Pope's chair as a monsignor addressed the packed hall The boy ignored numerous attempts to get him to leave the stage, until he got to meet Pope Francis, who then addressed the crowd in Spanish Pope Francis praised the freedom - albeit undisciplined - of the child as he climbed onto the stage without worrying about the formality of the occasion. He said: 'And he has something that made me think: He's free. Undisciplined-ly free, but he's free. It made me think, 'Am I so free before God?'' As the crowd applauded, Francis ended by praying for the boy. The Pope's weekly general audience is an address given by the Holy Father, usually in different languages. It is not a mass but the Pope gives a themed speech, followed by prayers, a homily, and singing. He also sometimes blesses babies that people from the crowd hold up for him. A pregnant woman in China yesterday delivered a 7lb baby girl on the platform of a subway station. The mother went into labour unexpectedly at the Nanmengdou Station in Fuzhou, Fujian province, as she was on her way to the hospital to give birth. Staff at the station put a large screen around a bench to create a temporary ward on the platform while seeking passing medical professionals for help through announcement, according to Fuzhou Subway Operation Group. Workers at China's Nanmengdou Subway Station check on the pregnant woman, who is sitting on the bench and accompanied by her family members yesterday morning in Fuzhou Workers use a screen to create a temporary ward for the woman to give birth on the platform The woman was accompanied by three family members, who called for an ambulance after seeing her in great agony at around 11:40am, a supervisor at Fujian subway system told China News. When the paramedics arrived, they found out the woman's water had broken and the baby's head had come out. Dr Li Quanrong from Fujian Medical University Union Hospital told China News: 'There was no time to take her to the hospital under the circumstances. Therefore, we decided to help her give birth on site.' Two subway station workers stand outside the makeshift ward while the mother is giving birth A paramedic holds the seven-pound baby girl after it was born at around noon yesterday The mother went into labour unexpectedly at the Nanmengdou Station (pictured) in Fuzhou The medical process was carried out inside the screen. The paramedics were assisted by the director of the subway station Wang Lei and a station cleaner. Two other subway station workers were tasked to guard the screen and divert other passengers on the platform. Dr Li said the woman was a second-time mother and the delivery was 'very smooth'. The baby was said to be born 'within minutes' at 12:02pm. She weighed 3,200 grams (seven pounds) and was said to be 'healthy' and 'pretty'. Both the mother and the girl were taken to the hospital by the ambulance afterwards. They were in stable condition. Kadi-Al-Shamari, 29 (pictured outside court in August) met Moeen Al-Hamiri met in a London cafe in 2015. After they started a relationship she defrauded him out of 250,000 on the premise she could get him UK residency A woman who conned her UAE businessman boyfriend out of 250,000 claiming she could get him UK residency has been jailed. Kadi-Al-Shamari, 29, met Moeen Al-Hamiri met in a London cafe in 2015 and the pair quickly started a relationship. The businessman invited Al Shamari, of Acton, west London, on a three-week holiday to Dubai where she managed to spend 10,000 a week. They talked of marriage and children, with Mr Al-Hamiri paying for her rent, expensive clothes and two credit cards with a 7,000-a-day limit. She told him she could get him permanent right to remain in the UK but she would need 250,000 to sort it out with the Home Office. He gave her 100,000 in one day to 'finalise the papers', but soon became suspicious when he realised he hadn't seen any Home Office documents and there were spelling mistakes in the copies she gave him. Sobbing and in a wheelchair after a back operation, Al-Shamari was jailed for fraud for two and a half years yesterday. During her trial at Southwark Crown Court, jurors were told the fraud took place between July 1 2015 and October 31 2016. Judge Nicholas Wood told her: 'The jury found you guilty of defrauding Mr Al-Hamiri out of 250,000 on the pretence you were organising his right to remain in the United Kingdom. 'Having presided over the trial it is clear to me you were not the only person involved in this. 'It may well not have been your idea originally, but you were at the heart of the fraud and played a vital role. 'It was a cynical, deceitful, heartless course of conduct. It was clear to you that he was falling for you and that he was generous and would be generous to you. 'He thought you were in love with him and you played with that. You discussed starting family.' Sobbing and in a wheelchair after a back operation, Al-Shamari was jailed for fraud for two and a half years at Southwark Crown Court (pictured) yesterday Judge Wood read from Mr Al-Hamiri's statement in which he said: 'I feel so hurt that she could take me for such a fool. Unfortunately, I did not see it coming.' Earlier Tyrone Silcott, prosecuting, told the court: 'Back in 2015 Mr Al-Hamiri was on holiday in the UK and he met the defendant in a cafe in London. 'They had a very pleasant conversation, they exchanged telephone numbers- the pair began a relationship.' Al-Hamiri visited Mr Al-Hamiri in Dubai in April 2015 and they discussed starting a family. 'Mr Al-Hamiri will tell you that the defendant suggested that he apply for indefinite leave to remain in the UK so they could see more of each other. The defendant will tell you it was his suggestion. 'What we do know is that she returned to the UK in May 2016 and she contacted him in July telling him that she had arranged an application with a solicitor and she needed 5,000 for the consultation with the solicitor which he duly sent via Western Union. 'The defendant sent him photographs which appeared to show letters from the Home Office regarding the progression of his case. One such document requires the payment of 100,000 to finalise the papers. 'Mr Al-Hamiri sent this money over two transfer services. Eventually, because large amounts of money were being transferred they blocked her from receiving such large money transfers as they were concerned about money laundering. 'So, he then sent his bank card to her allowing her to draw money directly from his bank account. He sent two bank cards with the ability to withdraw 7,000 a day. 'Later that year he became suspicious as he had not received any original documentation he had only received copies.' But the documents contained spelling mistakers and grammatical errors, the court heard. Al-Shamari claimed she had contacted two firms of solicitors to help with the application. But Mr Silcott said one of the firms 'Shaheen Solicitors' does not exist according to Solicitors Regulation Authority. The second company, 'Aman Solicitors', denies the paperwork is theirs. Al-Shamari was arrested by police at home on 5 December 2015 and interviewed under caution, telling officers: 'He was a man that who would look after me, spend on me, buy me expensive things and make me to travel you know in business class or wherever. 'He used to buy me expensive things and spend on me if I need anything he used to give me money yeah (sic)'. Mr Silcott added: 'The Crown say that by the jury's verdict this appears to be something which was planned pretty much from the very beginning, and that is an aggravating feature and Mr Al-Hamiri's generosity and gullibility is matched only by this defendant's greed and dishonesty during that period..' Brian Russell, defending Al-Shamari, said: 'There is an argument that this was anything other than sophisticated. 'One only has to look as those letters at the start. Anyone looking at these letters should have been on notice within minutes that there was something wrong with the whole scheme. 'They came from no official source, certainly not from the Home Office.' Mr Russell said Al-Shamari had an operation on her lower back to remove a tumour and has been wheelchair-bound since September. Mr Russell added: 'We say from that same letter she is the primary carer for her mother and the difficulties they have with her younger brother. 'Were as to most of us 250,000 would represent a significant detriment, of course this is a man where it did not. 'I cannot claim she is remorseful, because she had her trial and maintains she did not commit this offence.' Al-Shamari was jailed over two counts of fraud, which she denied. A young American will spend the rest of his life with facial scars and a glass eye after he was pinned to a wall and glassed in the face in a brutal racist attack in a Birmingham club. Jonathan Hockaday, 20, from Ohio, was visiting family in the Midlands this April when a thug smashed a pint glass in his face in the course of a lengthy assault in which Mr Hockaday tried to protect his brother. His assailant is serving 12 years for causing grievous bodily harm with intent, but customer service worker Mr Hockaday will have scarring and numbness for life. Ohioan Jonathan Hockaday, 20, was pinned to a wall and glassed in the face by a racist thug in a Birmingham club after he tried to protect his brother He has set up a GoFundMe page to try to cover the spiralling medical bills of repeated surgeries - none of which succeeded in saving the sight in his left eye. Mr Hockaday said: 'The attack happened around midnight, in the early hours of April 14 when my brother, cousin and I were at a local club for the night. 'It seemed that the assailant wanted a fight and he began to antagonise me for being from a different country.' Mr Hockaday, whose father is English, grew up in the USA and has an American accent and dual nationality. He had come to the UK to celebrate his birthday with his extended family. He continued: 'He attacked me and then he turned to also attack my brother. 'I interfered to protect my brother and so the assailant came at me with a pint glass. 'He pinned me against the wall and smashed the pint glass on the left side of my face.' Jonathan Hockaday with his sister Kirby before the attack by an 'animal' in a club in Birmingham which left his disfigured Jonathan Hockaday, right, with his sister Kirby and his brother Jonathan (right) with his cousin at the beginning of the night of the attack in April. Hours later he would be rushed to hospital with glass shards in his eye Other clubbers ran to stop the bleeding and paramedics rushed Mr Hockaday to hospital where, over a series of surgeries, surgeons worked to remove the shards of glass from his cheek, nose, and eyelid, and to try to save the sight in his 'mangled' eyeball. They even placed a protective eye shield between his eyeball and his eyelid. But ultimately their work was in vain. Mr Hockaday said: 'I underwent multiple surgeries to remove the glass and to attempt to salvage my eye as well as my eyesight. 'My condition was very bad - my eyeball was mangled from the impact of the glass and I completely lost all vision on my left side. 'So, I had to relearn a lot of daily tasks due to the change in depth perception. 'I also had lacerations on the back of my head, shoulder blade and cheek. 'Even today I have scarring across the left side of my face. 'The intense nerve damage has left me numb from my eyebrow up onto my scalp and towards the back of my head.' Mr Hockaday was rushed to hospital where surgeons tried in vain to save his eyeball He remained positive during his convalescence, saying: 'I hope people remember the importance of staying strong. Your life can change drastically and unexpectedly but don't let that get you down' Three months later, after his return to America, the swelling on his face and eyelids had gone down enough for Mr Hockaday to be fitted with a prosthetic eye. He cannot see through it, but it has helped his confidence. He said: ' To have that in made me feel better because I felt like I appeared normal to strangers. 'The prosthetic eye can't be taken out too often, but I aim to remove it every two months and I have to have it polished once a year. 'Then it will need completely replacing every five years. 'Putting it simply, I don't have an eye now. I've lost something that I was born with.' Until three months had passed the swelling in Jonathan's face had not reduced enough for him to be fitted with a prosthetic eye (horizontally-flipped selfie photo appears to show damage to right eye) Upbeat Jonathan posted this photo online with a caption reading 'Eye doing much better'(horizontally-flipped selfie photo appears to show damage to right eye) Day-to-day life is more challenging now for the office worker, who is trying to adapt to life without binocular vision. He said: 'I've had to approach everyday tasks with a new perspective and change how I do them to accommodate for the loss I suffered. 'My balance is off now because of the imbalance of my vision, so walking around is a conscious effort. 'I also struggle to pick up and put down items and to catch now because of a lack of depth perception.' Now he has had a prosthetic eye fitted Jonathan Hockaday says he feels much more comfortable and confident because he feels he appears 'normal' to strangers (horizontally-flipped selfie photo appears to show damage to right eye) Mr Hockady and his family started a GoFundMe page shortly after the attack occurred to help pay for the mounting medical bills, travel expenses and the prosthetic eye. He said that knowing some of his bills would be covered by the kindness of strangers alleviating his stress enormoudly. Mr Hockaday added: 'Despite what I went through, of course I would still return to the UK because I love the country and the people there. I choose to focus on the people who helped me during that time and not to focus on the animal who did this to me. The UK will always be a second home to me. 'I hope people remember the importance of staying strong. Your life can change drastically and unexpectedly but don't let that get you down. 'Always try to focus on the positives in your life, no matter what.' China has started building its third aircraft carrier, state media reported, marking the first official Chinese media confirmation of the warship's construction. 'A new generation aircraft carrier is being built on the slipway,' state-run Xinhua news agency said in an article on Sunday celebrating the sixth anniversary of the first takeoff and landing of the J-15 fighter jet on the China's first carrier, the Liaoning. Military experts told the Global Times that the new aircraft carrier might need about two and a half years to be built because of its bigger size, meaning it could be launched in 2021. China's potential third aircraft carrier was pictured in the background of a conference among China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC) executives in Wuhan city in June. State-run Xinhua news agency confirmed 'a new generation aircraft carrier is being built on the slipway' In the picture released in June, the new unnamed aircraft carrier is seen flanked by Liaoning, China's first aircraft carrier, and Type 001A, the country's first domestically developed carrier China's third aircraft carrier: What we know so far China's third aircraft carrier reportedly will have a displacement of more than 80,000 tonnes The new warship is equipped with a flat-top flight deck and an electromagnetic aircraft launch system Three catapults shown on board the carrier would mean high speed launch capabilities, high frequency take-offs and quick responses Construction has started last year in Shanghai and sea trials are expected to begin in three years Advertisement Wang Yunfei, a naval expert and retired PLA Navy officer told reporters the Xinhua report shows construction of the warship has now begun and is 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, he said. China currently has two aircraft carriers: Liaoning, a refitted Soviet ship it bought from Ukraine that went into service in 2012, and Type 001A, the country's first domestically designed and built carrier. The Type 001A has been running through sea trials over the course of 2018, and entry into service is 'just around the corner', the Xinhua report added, without elaborating on the size or capabilities of the 'new generation aircraft carrier'. Liaoning (pictured) was commissioned to the China's People's Liberation Army Navy in 2012 Liaoning arrived in Hong Kong waters on July 7 last year (pictured). China plans to have four aircraft carrier battle groups in service by 2030, say experts Previous state media articles have speculated the new aircraft carrier is being constructed at the Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai. The third warship is expected to be 'bigger and mightier' than the Liaoning and Type 001A, the China Daily reported. Speculation of the warship's construction was prompted by an image accidentally revealed by the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation in June. While its predecessors are equipped with angled, jump-rack decks, the new mysterious warship has a flat-top flight deck, making an electromagnetic aircraft launch system possible, according to an earlier report on the English website of the Chinese People's Liberation Army citing Global Times. China's first home-built aircraft carrier Type 001A, towed by several towboats, sets for sea trial at Dalian shipyard in August in Dalian, Liaoning province The Type 001A has been running through sea trials over the course of 2018, and entry into service is 'just around the corner', the Xinhua report on Sunday added Aerial view on the The Spratly Islands, one of the major archipelagos in the South China Sea. China has been rapidly expanding its naval capabilities to increase its influence abroad, especially in the disputed waters of the South China Sea Additionally, three catapults shown on board the carrier would mean high speed launch capabilities, high frequency take-offs and quick responses, according to military expert Song Zhongping. A giant 'island', or command centre on the deck, could indicate that the warship is a conventionally-powered carrier rather than a nuclear-powered one, the report added. China has been rapidly expanding its naval capabilities to increase its influence abroad, especially in the disputed waters of the South China Sea. Naval experts claimed that Beijing plans to have four aircraft carrier battle groups in service by 2030, according to South China Morning Post. A grandfather's dreams of spending Christmas in the Big Apple are in tatters after he accidentally branded himself a terrorist on a visa form. John Stevenson, 70, and wife Marion, 71, planned to fly to America on December 3, and splashed out 2,000 on flights and accommodation. But taxi driver John mistakenly clicked the wrong box on the 'Esta' visa form - and now the couple fear they may have to cancel the trip. A grandfather's dreams of spending Christmas in the Big Apple are in tatters after he accidentally branded himself a terrorist on a visa form. John Stevenson, 70, and wife Marion, 71, planned to fly to America on December 3, and splashed out 2,000 on flights and accommodation The Esta form reads 'Do you seek to engage in or have you ever engaged in terrorist activities, espionage, sabotage, or genocide?' and the 'yes' box was ticked in error. In a bid to rectify the situation, John called U.S officials to convince them he was not a criminal - and the only time he has been in court was on jury service. John said: 'I even called border control in the US and gave them my passport details - they looked up my Esta number and said 'you're a terrorist'. 'I told them that I was 70 years old and I don't even recognise what that means. It the biggest nightmare I've ever had. My phone could be getting tapped - I don't know.' Marion, 71, added: 'We were meant to be going away on December 3. It's terrible, it's shocking and so stupid. 'I don't know why that question is on the form in the first place.' In order to rectify the situation, the couple, from Greenock, Inverclyde, would have to email the embassy in London to arrange an appointment, costing $100, before John would be quizzed by officials. The Esta form reads 'Do you seek to engage in or have you ever engaged in terrorist activities, espionage, sabotage, or genocide?' and the 'yes' box was ticked in error. In a bid to rectify the situation, John called U.S officials to convince them he was not a criminal - and the only time he has been in court was on jury service They booked the holiday through United Airlines, which told them there was a possibility of a refund for accommodation and transfers - but not the cost of the flights. John added: 'My wife and I have been to New York and America before but we always wanted to see the lights. 'You see it in all the films and we thought this is maybe the last time we will be able to go as we not getting any younger. 'We were filling out the visa form and it kept timing out before we could tick all the boxes, then it crashed and when it came back up, you start where you finish off. In order to rectify the situation, the couple, from Greenock, Inverclyde, would have to email the embassy in London to arrange an appointment, costing $100, before John would be quizzed by officials 'My wife's form came back and it was fine but I was told the visa had been refused because I was a terrorist. 'One of the questions ask if you are a terrorist and it must have jumped from No to Yes without me knowing. 'I'm devastated. I've never been in trouble in my life. The only time I've been in court was for jury service and now I've been treated like a criminal.' He added: 'Marion is sick about it. 'We can't even reschedule because I don't know if I'll ever get back into America.' A mother has been left heartbroken after her four-year-old son died from suspected sepsis less than 24 hours after being sent home from hospital. Katrina Farnell, 23, took 'joyful little boy' Sheldon to Sunderland Royal Hospital last Friday after he had a viral infection. He spent two days on a ward but was discharged on Sunday hours before his blood tests were returned with the family claiming they showed something was 'not right'. Sheldon's condition deteriorated at home and the youngster was unable to stand, dizzy, had pain all over his body, had diarrhoea and was being sick. Miss Farnell rushed him back to hospital where he was put on life support, but he died on Monday morning. Sheldon Farnell, four, pictured right and left with uncle Daniel Robson, died of suspected sepsis less than a day after he was discharged from hospital in Sunderland His mother Katrina, 23, pictured, is demanding answers as to why her son was discharged after spending two days in Sunderland Royal Hospital with a viral infection His grieving mother said: 'I blame the hospital for Sheldon's death. They should have saved him. 'If they had given us his blood test results in an hour like they said he would still be here. 'My little boy died. They couldn't care less... doctors and nurses are meant to help people not fob them off. He was in so much pain and they didn't do enough. 'They came in on Sunday morning to say he had a viral infection, gave him an iron infusion and said we could take him home, and to give him Calpol if I thought he needed it. 'I asked them to check his back again. A doctor came in touched his back and said it was okay. 'He was talking rubbish, he was shaking and his arms and face were swollen. I asked them to check the needle in his foot because he said it hurt and the nurse said it doesn't hurt once it's in but Sheldon was crying. 'I knew he wasn't well. I didn't want to go. They shouldn't have let him go. They practically let my baby boy die.' She added: 'Sheldon was my life, he was my world. I should have been spending money to give him a good Christmas but now I will be spending on a funeral. All I can do is to get justice for him now.' Sheldon's family, pictured, described him as a 'joyful little boy' and the 'star of their lives' Miss Farnell said she felt 'fobbed off' because she is a young mum, saying: 'Whenever my mum was in the room they would address her, not me, as if she was his mum.' The youngster's grandmother Nicola Farnell, 46, who Sheldon would lovingly call 'Mommor', said: 'Sheldon was a very fun, loving, caring, joyful little boy. 'He went on life support and his heart just stopped and they tried to get him back. 'They were doing heart massages and his pulse was so slow and then it stopped again. 'Katrina just said 'mam he's gone' - and he died in our arms.' Sheldon's grandfather, Gary Farnell, said: 'He had the rest of his life ahead of him and it has been taken away from him. 'I used to say to him 'God help you when you get older and the girls are chasing after you'. 'He was a bonny little boy and he loved everyone. He was the most polite little boy. 'He loved everybody and he adored everyone. We're a close family and we're always together and we've just lost the best thing in our lives. 'The house is just too quiet now.' Grandfather Gary Farnell, pictured with Sheldon and cousin Violet-Mae, said the house is 'too quiet' after his death and added Sheldon should not have been sent home until the results of blood tests came back The close-knit family have gathered at Gary and Nicola's home in Houghton le Spring, Sunderland, where Miss Farnell lived with Sheldon, to support each other and grieve. They said Sheldon will be missed by all who knew him including his best friends Jack, nine, and Olly, four, who are the children of Katrina's partner Holly Keegan. Sheldon's aunt, Rachael Farnell, who Sheldon used to call 'Aunty Hurry', said: 'He would take the mick out of you in any little way possible - he's exactly like mam in that way.' His uncle and Rachael's partner, Daniel Robson, who Sheldon used to call 'Uncle Havier', said: 'The doctor had come round and taken samples of blood on Friday - they told Katrina they would be back in an hour with his results. 'She kept asking every hour but nothing came back, [the results] didn't come back until Sunday night and in the meantime, Sheldon had been discharged.' 'He'd had a lumbar puncture and he couldn't even walk - for that alone he shouldn't have been discharged. 'He did have all the signs of sepsis. He was yellow, he was being sick and he had diarrhoea.' Concerning blood results came back after Sheldon, who attended Nesham Nursery in Houghton, was discharged. Sheldon's grandfather said the family are now demanding answers from hospital bosses over what happened. Sheldon, pictured left and right with uncle Daniel Robson, was suffering with symptoms including vomiting, diarrhoea, dizziness and being unable to stand He said: 'He should never have been sent home at least until they got them blood tests. 'We've lost our beautiful grandson. He was the star of our lives. We're just broken hearted all of us - he just made everyone laugh.' An inquest to determine the cause of Sheldon's death will be opened in due course. Ian Martin, Medical Director at City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust said: 'We offer our heartfelt condolences to Sheldon's family for their tragic loss and are offering all the support we can to his loved ones at this very sad and difficult time. 'Due to patient confidentiality, we are unable to discuss details of Sheldon's treatment, however we can confirm that we have already started our robust internal review process so that we can fully understand the circumstances around his care. 'As with any unexpected death, the coroner will also be undertaking a full and thorough investigation and we are offering our full co-operation and support of this process. 'We will continue to keep Sheldon's family fully updated and are unable to comment any further at this time.' Clive Shaw, 56 (pictured outside court in London at a previous hearing last month) has been told he will have to leave his home and will not be allowed to inherit his family's farm in Lincolnshire because he 'didn't work hard enough' A dairy farmer's 'disappointing' son will be thrown out of his home and banned from inheriting the family business because he 'hates cows'. Clive Shaw, 56, claimed he was put to work on his family's 1million farm in New York, Lincolnshire, from the age of seven and believed it would be his one day. But after a falling out at Christmas in 2016 he was written out of his parents Walt and Gill's will. The couple, both 78, claimed he hadn't worked hard enough on the farm, couldn't be trusted to get up on time for work, and 'hated cows' because they 'made him nervous'. He tried to fight their decision with a High Court case, but it has been thrown out and he and his partner Leslie Hollis have just six weeks to leave their home on the farm. Judge John Linwood said Mr Shaw had been told he would inherit Whaley Farm by his parents, but only on the condition he worked for it. Judge Linwood told the court: 'Clive was promised the farm would be his inheritance from about 1978 onwards, but those assurances were conditional upon Clive working properly on the farm in the manner of a dedicated, long-term farmer. 'However, Clive was not sufficiently interested and his lifestyle choices were such that he did not want to take on the farm and dedicate himself to it, as his interests were elsewhere, in driving and engineering. 'Sadly for Walt, Clive I find was never going to be the farmer Walt thought and hoped he would be and take over the running of the farm.' Earlier the court heard that despite the family fall out, Mr Shaw and his partner Miss Hollis continued living in a caravan on the farm, only yards from his parents' farmhouse. Mr Shaw took the case to the High Court in a bid to force them to follow through with the promises he said they made to him. He insisted he worked long and hard enough during the years when he was at the farm full-time and returned to help out whenever free afterwards. But his sister, Cheryl Hughes, 43, told how he would often say things like cows were 'stinking, horrible, rotten creatures'. Although Mr Shaw admitted he 'didn't like' the cows, he denied hating them - but Judge Linwood was convinced that was not the case. 'He has tried to downplay this but I accept the evidence of Cheryl that he hated the herd and they were nervous of him,' said the judge. After a falling out at Christmas in 2016 Mr Shaw was written out of his parents' Walt and Gill (pictured outside court in London at a previous hearing last month) will '[His other sister] Teresa also says Clive hated the herd and that he had 'no empathy with animals'.' The parents told the judge it would have been their 'biggest dream' if Mr Shaw had eventually taken over the farm and continued a long family tradition. The Shaw farming business dates back to the days of Walt Shaw's grandfather and at its height covered 250 acres of Lincolnshire countryside. Mr Shaw senior said the cows were the family's 'pride and joy', having topped the Lincolnshire Herd Competition 27 years in a row, but Clive was not interested. He eventually stopped working on the farm and now splits his time between a show-truck business which he runs from the land, and engineering work abroad. Mr Shaw junior's barrister, Leslie Blohm QC said he had performed 'arduous' work for relatively little money over many years on the understanding that he would eventually inherit the business. 'He cannot go back and have his life again,' he told the judge, adding: 'He should therefore be entitled to the farm and the farmhouse.' But the judge continued: 'There was a family expectation that Clive, as the eldest child and only son, would inherit the farm - in the sense of it being a family business - not purely as an asset, but as a working farm, to be inherited by Clive as a farmer. 'Walt assumed that his daughters would all marry, follow their husbands and thereby move away from the farm. 'Walt invested considerable trust, effort and money over many years in the hope Clive would respond by farming with enthusiasm, effort and application..' The Shaw farming business (Whaley Farm pictured) dates back to the days of Walt Shaw's grandfather and at its height covered 250 acres of Lincolnshire countryside He said it would be 'improbable' that a lifelong farmer like Walt would promise his son the land unconditionally, whatever Clive did or did not do. 'Any assurance by Walt was conditional and Clive failed to meet the conditions,' he continued. 'Clive made lifestyle choices which suited him over the years; he never took an interest in farming. He did what he wanted to do as his life went on.' He rejected Mr Shaw's claim and said he and Miss Hollis would have to leave the land, taking their horses and trucks with them, in six weeks. The judge also ordered him to pick up the lawyers' bills for the dispute, which are estimated to be at least 100,000. The Russian beauty queen who became the real thing after marrying the King of Malaysia, has been whisked away to a German fertility clinic as the couple prepare to have children, it was revealed today. Oksana Voevodina married Sultan Muhammad V of Kelantan, 49, in a lavish royal wedding ceremony in Moscow last week, after reportedly converting to Islam earlier this year. The 25-year-old doctor's daughter, who won Miss Moscow in 2015, is 24 years younger than the sultan, whose full name is Tengku Muhammad Faris Petra ibni Tengku Ismail Petra. Sultan Muhammad V is 'very much concerned' about starting a family, as his first marriage which ended in divorce produced no children, sources say. Royal wedding: Oksana Voevodina, 25, married Malaysia's Muhammad V of Kelantan, 49, in a lavish royal wedding ceremony in the Russian capital last week The couple reportedly met 18 months ago, while Ms Voevodina worked as a model promoting luxury watches in Europe New image: Ms Voevodina, pictured with her new husband, converted to Islam this year The ceremony took place on November 22 in a concert hall in the upscale Moscow suburb of Barvikha, reported Islam News. Beauty contest director Tatiana Andreeva said the pair met 'in Europe' when Ms Voevodina was promoting elite watches. 'Oksana is a model. She worked a lot abroad, so an encounter of such a level is quite predictable,' she said. 'She met Muhammad 18 months ago in Europe. 'Oksana worked at a watch display and she was standing by a poster and advertising the goods.' She added: 'Oksana's parents were present at the wedding, they support their daughter in everything.' 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 The ceremony took place on November 22 in a concert hall in the upscale Moscow suburb of Barvikha, reported Islam News 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 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 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. 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. Russian beauty queen Oksana Voevodina (pictured) has become the first lady of Malaysia after marrying the country's 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 Reports in Kuala Lumpar say she will be known in future as Rihana Oxana Gorbatenko 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 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. 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. Arlene Foster has furiously dismissed suggestions her DUP party could be 'brought off' to back Theresa May's Brexit deal - branding the claim 'offensive'. The DUP leader has lashed the deal, which she says breaches her 'blood red' line that Northern Ireland cannot be treated any different to the rest of the UK. And she has declared her 10 MPs who are propping the Tories up in No10, will not back the deal when it comes for its crunch parliamentary vote next month. Mrs Foster spoke out after holding talks with Mrs May at Stormont yesterday, where she again urged the PM to tear up the EU Withdrawal Agreement and renegotiate. It comes amid calculations that the PM could lose the parliamentary vote on her deal by a staggering 200 votes in what would be a devastating humiliation for No10. Mrs May last year agreed to pour an extra 1billion into Northern Ireland as part of her confidence and supply deal with the DUP. Arlene Foster (pictured yesterday in Stormont with Diane Dodds) has furiously dismissed suggestions her DUP party could be 'brought off' to back Theresa May's Brexit deal - branding the claim 'offensive' The PM was in Wales yesterday (pictured), and will then travel to Scotland later as she appeals over the heads of MPs to ordinary voters to support her plan Asked if she would take a 'bribe' to back the deal, Mrs Foster said: 'We didn't take a bribe in the first place - the confidence and supply agreement was for all of the people of Northern Ireland. Treasury analysis shows every Brexit option will make Britain poorer Chancellor Philip Hammond (pictured today) has delivered a stark warning that the PM has secured the 'best deal that is negotiable' as the government steps up its push ahead of a titanic Commons showdown Every Brexit option will make Britain poorer, the government admitted today as Theresa May scrambles to sell her deal. The PM's favoured plan will leave the economy 2.5 per cent smaller after 15 years than if the country had stayed in the EU. But crashing out without any agreement would be much worse - potentially meaning giving up 10 per cent of GPD over the period. Unveiling the analysis today, Chancellor Philip Hammond conceded that staying in the EU was best from a 'purely economic point of view'. But he insisted GDP would only be 'very very slightly' smaller over a 15-year period under the PM's plan, and it allowed the country to regain control over borders and laws. In a stark warning to mutinous MPs ahead of a titanic Commons showdown, he also lashed out at 'dreamers' who think they can get a better Brexit deal than Mrs May, describing it as the 'best deal that is negotiable'. In an exclusive article for MailOnline, Mr Hammond said blocking the settlement in the crunch vote on December 11 will fuel division in the country. Advertisement 'Some of that money has already been delivered. We look forward to the rest of that money being delivered for all of the people of Northern Ireland.' Mrs Foster added: 'It is very offensive to raise this in terms of money. We are talking about the constitutional and economic long-term future of Northern Ireland - so the answer is no.' The DUP leader repeated her demand that the PM ditch the Irish backstop proposal in her Brexit plan. The backstop would see the UK ties to the EU customs union and Northern Ireland have to carry out additional single market checks, if no trade deal is done in time to keep a soft Irish border. Mrs Foster said: 'With no enthusiasm amongst parliamentarians for the Withdrawal Agreement, it seems destined to be rejected by the House of Commons. '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. 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.' She said there is 'another way' but lashed the Government for not putting nay pressure on Brussels to change their position despite overwhelming opposition in the UK. As Mrs Foster tried to turn the screw on Mrs May, Treasury analysis shows that every Brexit option will make Britain poorer. The PM's favoured plan will leave the economy 2.5 per cent smaller after 15 years than if the country had stayed in the EU. But crashing out without any agreement would be much worse - potentially meaning giving up 10 per cent of GPD over the period. Unveiling the analysis today, Chancellor Philip Hammond conceded that staying in the EU was best from a 'purely economic point of view'. But he insisted GDP would only be 'very very slightly' smaller over a 15-year period under the PM's plan, and it allowed the country to regain control over borders and laws. In a stark warning to mutinous MPs ahead of a titanic Commons showdown, he also lashed out at 'dreamers' who think they can get a better Brexit deal than Mrs May, describing it as the 'best deal that is negotiable'. In an exclusive article for MailOnline, Mr Hammond said blocking the settlement in the crunch vote on December 11 will fuel division in the country. He wrote: 'Let me be clear, leaving the EU next year without a deal would be very bad for our economy, but perhaps more than that, it would further entrench the divides which have held us back over the last few years. 'Because while it is true that some would like to see us leave on these terms, most people can see the damaging economic impact this would have on our country. 'Equally, those calling for another referendum would achieve only more division and disunity. 'And those who dream of "negotiating a better deal" are missing the point: this is the best deal that is negotiable.' Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR is holding talks with the German EWE on buying its Turkish assets, Public Relations Head at Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR Ibrahim Ahmadov told Trend. He was commenting on Turkish media reports, which said that the companies have already signed a purchase and sale agreement. As it was earlier reported, we are holding talks with this company. However, no final agreement has been signed yet, said Ahmadov. Turkish media reported that EWE Turkey Holding, subsidiary of EWE, has sold its shares in Bursagaz, Kayserigaz, EWE Enerji and Enervis to SOCAR. Reportedly, the cost of the agreement is estimated at $140 million. Earlier, EWE told Trend that the decision about the possible sale of its assets in Turkey is related to the optimization of the company's activity. In the past 10 years, EWE has built up valuable companies in Turkey, which are able to manage investments entirely on their own, EWE said. Nevertheless, EWE regularly reviews whether all current measures ensure sustainable growth for the Group in the defined future areas. Therefore, we conducted a market investigation for our Turkey business, the company said. We noticed that there are some interested parties for this business. If a prospective customer wants to continue this business and offers us an acceptable price, EWE will divest this business. Egypt has announced plans to send 4,100 stray dogs and cats abroad sparking fears the animals will be sent to countries where they could be slaughtered and eaten. Activists were left outraged over reports the Egyptian government had authorised the rounding-up and export of thousands of strays to other nations. Liverpool's Egyptian star Mo Salah was among those who spoke out against the plans. Egypt has announced plans to send 4,100 stray dogs and cats abroad amid fears the animals will be sent to countries where they could be slaughtered and eaten (file picture) 'Cats and dogs will not be exported anywhere. This won't happen and can't happen,' he tweeted, alongside pictures of his pet cats. Stray cats and dogs are widespread in Egypt. Reports started to emerge last week that the agriculture ministry had given the green light for more than 4,000 to be sent abroad. Newspaper reports in the country suggested health certificates were being issued for the export of some 2,400 cats and 1,600 dogs. A spokesman for the ministry then insisted the strays had been vaccinated against disease and would be exported in line with legal procedures. Liverpool's Egyptian star Mo Salah was among those who spoke out against the plans. 'Cats and dogs will not be exported anywhere. This won't happen and can't happen,' he tweeted, alongside pictures of his pet cats (above) It is not yet clear which countries the animals would be sent to and officials have not revealed what would happen to them on arrival. But there was anger among activists who fear they could end up in nations where they could be used as food. One MP is pushing for a bill to criminalise such exports. Officials in Egypt denied that the government itself would be sending the animals abroad. Instead, authorities were granting licences so others could export them, they said. Government spokesman Hamed Abdel Dayem told al-Hadath al-Youm slammed as 'baseless' reports that the strays would be sent to countries where they could be eaten. Neighbours have claimed a 90-year-old widower's body was left in the middle of a busy road for six hours after he was hit and killed by a car. Barrie Taylor was on his way home from his daily visit to his wife Kath's grave on Saturday afternoon when he was struck by a black Honda CRV. Residents who live near the busy trunk road in Blaenporth, near Cardigan in Wales, claim his body was left in the road from 3pm to 9pm and have slammed emergency services' behaviour as 'disgusting'. Neighbour Mac Allen said: 'The accident happened at around 3pm, but it must have been around 9pm before Barrie was finally moved. 'Someone came out and put a blanket over him, but there are houses on both sides of the road so people could see everything.' The pensioner is believed to have died instantly after being hit on the A487 in Blaenporth, leaving behind a 'heartbroken' community. He is survived by two daughters, a step-son and a step-daughter. Neighbours have slammed the emergency services claiming they left Barrie Taylor's body in the road for six hours after he was hit and killed by a car in Blaenporth, Wales on Saturday Councillor Rosemarie Chaffers-Jones said: 'The biggest shock was that the police just left poor Barrie lying in the road with just a blanket over him. 'You'd have thought they'd have put up a screen or something - there was absolutely no respect. All of us are heartbroken. 'Barrie had been to visit the grave of his late wife, as he did every day, when this terrible accident happened. 'The driver of the car stopped at the scene and was apparently very upset. 'He kept sobbing: 'Why did he do it?' over and over again.' Mr Allen's wife, June, said the amount of time it took emergency services to respond was 'absolutely disgusting'. She said: 'We're used to getting a very good service from Dyfed-Powys Police but they've let themselves down badly on this occasion - what on earth were they playing at? 'Residents around here are used to PCSO Matt Kieboom looking after us but unfortunately he was off sick at the weekend. 'Barrie was a very popular and cherished member of the community and for him to be left lying in the road like that for such a length of time is absolutely disgusting.' The car was travelling north from Cardigan towards Tan-y-Groes when Mr Taylor was struck at 2.45pm. His family said in a statement: 'We would like to thank everyone, especially the local community and neighbours for their help and support during this very difficult time. 'Barrie was well known and well thought of in the community and will be missed by all.' A year and a half ago Cllr Chaffers-Jones created a petition calling for traffic-calming measures following a fatality on the same stretch of road. 'Barrie was struck within the 40mph speed zone which is sandwiched between 60 mph zones,' she said. 'Cars go screaming into the 40mph zone and come screaming out of it. 'We've had cars flipping over and there isn't even a bus stop for protection at the bottom end of the village. 'Traffic whizzes through so fast that pedestrians really feel they're taking their lives in their hands.' Pictured: Barrie Taylor died after being hit by a car on the A487 in Blaenporth in Wales A Dyfed-Powys Police spokesman said: 'This is understandably a very difficult and upsetting time for the family and the local community. 'Due to the nature of this tragic incident, it was vitally important that the scene was preserved whilst specialist officers conducted a thorough investigation in an attempt to establish the facts of the collision. 'Officers preserved the dignity of the pedestrian to the best of their ability, he was covered at all times and not left on view to the public. 'The road closures were maintained until 9pm to ensure members of the public could not access the scene. 'Unfortunately, due to the location of the collision, some local residents did have direct view of the scene. 'Officers liaised with some of those residents on the night and the local Neighbourhood Policing team has been in the community to offer support and reassurance to those affected by the incident. 'We have appointed a family liaison officer to support the family at what is understandably a very difficult time for them. 'Officers are continuing to investigate the circumstances around this collision and encourage anyone who may of witnessed the incident to please contact Dyfed-Powys Police on 101 quoting incident number DP-20181124-154.' The Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust has been contacted for comment. An Australian politician has praised the remote tribe which killed an American missionary for their strict immigration policy. Right-wing One Nation party leader, Pauline Hanson, praised the isolated southern Asian island tribe for protecting their way of life 'through the enforcement of strong border protections'. The populist leader has moved a motion in the Australian Senate 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. One Nation is a nationalist party co-founded by Hanson in 1997 after she was disendorsed as a federal candidate by the Liberal Party for comments she made about indigenous Australians. 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 In April after the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony in the Gold Coast she criticised the use of indigenous performers as 'not what Australia is about'. Days after police identified the area where the American evangelist 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 homeless man who grabbed a 12-year-old girl on her way to school in a sexually-motivated attack has been sentenced to 20 months in prison. David Carlisle Beckwith, 53, was under the influence of alcohol and cannabis when he forcefully grabbed the girl's hand on June 7 last year but had first spotted her two days earlier, the West Australian District Court heard on Wednesday. During the attack, Beckwith called the Perth-based schoolgirl a sl*t and a whore as she struck out at him and tripped him. A homeless man who grabbed a 12-year-old girl on her way to school in a sexually-motivated attack has been sentenced to 20 months in prison (stock image) He then grabbed her leg hard enough to hurt her but she was able to push him away and flee. 'She was understandably frightened and she reacted in self-defence, fighting as hard as a 12-year-old girl could,' Judge Troy Sweeney said. 'The inference is irresistible that you had formed a sexual attraction to her and were viewing her in a sexual context.' Judge Sweeney said the crime did not have 'the flavour of a kidnapping' and the attack was brief due to the girl's resistance. David Carlisle Beckwith, 53, was under the influence of alcohol and cannabis when he forcefully grabbed the girl's hand on June 7, the West Australian District Court (pictured) heard 'I am satisfied the nature of your intention was sexual and that either some sexual act was going to be inflicted upon her against her will, or some sort of grooming conversation was going to occur in the hopes of persuading her to some sort of sexual conduct,' she said. Referring to the victim impact statement, Judge Sweeney said the girl was clearly traumatised. 'It left her scared afterwards to walk to school or to be at home. She was also the subject of some bullying,' the judge said. 'At least one positive is that she is proud of herself for fighting back and she says her parents have been supportive.' Beckwith, who was found guilty after a trial of deprivation of liberty, will be eligible for parole after serving 10 months behind bars. A lost drawing by Leonardo Da Vinci which was found among a book of unsigned sketches in Paris could be sold for as much as 53million. The drawing, which is believed to date from between 1482 and 1489, was discovered in March last year in a portfolio of drawings by a retired French doctor. The lost two-sided drawing, which the doctor inherited from his father, was taken into a Paris auction house. It depicts the martyred Saint Sebastian tied to the trunk of a tree and is inscribed 'Michelange' (Michelangelo) on the mount. On the back of the 7ins by 5.5ins sheet there are two smaller scientific drawings accompanied by notes. Saint Sebastian is often depicted in art as being tied to a tree with arrows shot through him, even though he was said to have been saved from the post, before later being clubbed to death for warning Emperor Diocletian about his sins. One side of the 7ins by 5.5ins sheet depicts the martyred Saint Sebastian tied to the trunk of a tree with the inscription 'Michelange' (Michelangelo) on the mount In 2016 the Parisian auction house, Tajan, valued the discovery at between 15 million and 20 million euros, but after the last year's sale of Da Vinci's 'Salvator Mundi' painting for $450.3million (350million), the value of his work is being reassessed. Rodica Seward, chairman of Tajan, said he is hoping to get a price between 30 million and 60 million euros (53m) for the drawing. Christies in New York sold the much-restored panel masterpiece entitled 'Salvator Mundi' in November 2017, but scholars have become concerned it has been 'lost' as it has not been seen in public since Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman 'acquired' it. The price, paid by the Saudi royal family on behalf of the Louvre Abu Dhabi, was the highest for any work of art ever offered at auction. Tajan, previously attempted to sell the drawing at auction last year, but were denied an export licence by the French government who gave it 'national treasure' status. According to rules protecting French heritage, a national museum has 30 months to acquire the drawing, although they would be required to pay its market value. However, this deadline will elapse in June next year, at which point the drawing can be sold on the open market. The back of the double-sided sketch shows small scientific drawings accompanied by notes Thaddee Prate, director of the old masters department at Tajan, said: 'The drawing was discovered in 2016 when a retired French doctor came into our Paris auction house with some drawings in a portfolio he had inherited from his father. 'There was one drawing which immediately was of great interest so I consulted with expert Patrick de Bayser. 'The first thing we noticed was that the drawing was done by a left handed artist. With Da Vinci this was the case but there are not so many left handed artists. 'Also, the movement you see in pictures, with the many different positions for the arms and legs, was typical Da Vinci. 'We wanted to authenticate the drawing further so we took it to Dr Carmen Bambach, curator at the New York Metropolitan Museum, and she immediately recognised it was a Da Vinci drawing. 'She was shocked that a Da Vinci could just appear from nowhere.' Italian artist, architect, engineer and scientist Leonardo da Vinci who was born in 1452 and died in 1519 Da Vinci, who was born in 1452 and died in 1519, was an Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect and engineer whose paintings of His Last Supper and Mona Lisa are among the most popular and influential paintings of the Renaissance. It is believed that this drawing is one of eight he did of St Sebastian, with two other known versions residing in museums in Bayonne in south west France and Hamburg, Germany. Tajan is proceeding with the sale as they have been given assurances the drawing will be allowed to leave the country if a museum is not successful in the bidding process. Prate added: 'We initially applied for an export licence to sell the drawing but this was denied as the French government listed it as a national treasure. 'This allowed a French museum to buy it within 30 months but they must pay the market value of the drawing. The painting by Leonardo da Vinci entitled 'Salvator Mundi' before it was auctioned in New York in November last year 'However, we've now received assurances we can sell the drawing next June when that time period has elapsed. 'A French museum will still be able to bid for it then but if they are unsuccessful we will be granted an export licence for it to leave the country. 'The sale of this drawing will be a historic event on the global art market. 'It will constitute a lifetime opportunity for important institutions, passionate art lovers and dedicated collectors to acquire a rare masterpiece of the most important artist in history.' The sale, which is to takes place on June 19 next year, will come almost 500 years after da Vinci died, in May 1519, at Amboise, France. Ivanka Trump said in an interview broadcast Wednesday that her use of a private email account for some government business is nothing like Hillary Clinton's, insisting that 'there's no connection' between the two cases. In a 'Good Morning America' interview she brushed aside concerns about her legal exposure in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's expansive Russia probe, and said she 'frequently' disagrees with her father on policy issues but defended his action in the face of 'heartbreaking' photos of migrants at the U.S.-Mesico border. The first daughter has come under fire for some emails she sent and received during the early tumultuous weeks of the administration and the weeks leading up to Inauguration Day. President Donald Trump spent nearly two years blasting Clinton, his 2016 opponent, for a far broader arrangement that used a private home-brew email server in her basement for tens of thousands of emails during the four years she was secretary of state. 'All of my emails are stored and preserved. There were no deletions. There is no attempt to hide,' Ivanka said. 'There's no equivalency to what my father's spoken about.' Ivanka Trump says her use of a private email account for some government business is nothing like Hillary Clinton's The president's elder daughter told 'Good Morning America' that while images of migrants storming the border with their children are 'heartbreaking,' there are also 'people in the caravan who are not so innocent' She also confirmed that none of the emails that have generated snickers and finger-wagging from congressional Democrats this month contained classified information. Clinton maintained the same thing for months in 2016. But 110 examples were later discovered of material sitting on her unsecured server, open to prying eyes, that was classified when she sent it. Ivanka said commingling personal and government material wasn't strictly prohibited, citing legal advice about an easy and common way to remedy it. 'There is no restriction of using personal email,' she said. 'In fact, we're instructed that if we receive an email to our personal account that could relate to government work, you simply just forward it to your government account so it can be archived.' ABC News correspondent Deborah Roberts interviewed Ivanka Trump on Tuesday in Idaho The president has defended his daughter, pointing out that while Clinton and her attorneys deleted more than 33,000 emails messages they deemed 'personal' before eventually turning the rest over to State Department record-keepers, Ivanka's have already been made part of the government's records. Congressional Democrats are crying foul, suggesting that they'll launch an investigation in 2019 after they take over control of the House of Representatives. Ivanka may also face scrutiny from Special Counsel Robert Mueller as he moves forward with a Russia probe that Ivanka said he should wrap up soon. 'I think it should reach its conclusion,' she said. 'I think it's been a long time that this has been ongoing, but I want it to be done in a way in which nobody could question that it was hurried or rushed.' But 'we're well beyond that point,' she added. Ivanka says Special Counsel Robert Mueller should wrap up his expansive Russia probe Maryland Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings is set to take over the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in January, and he's promising an investigation into Ivanka's email use The first daughter insisted, however, that she isn't worried about how Mueller's findings might impact her. 'I know the facts as they relate to me and my family, and so I have nothing to be concerned about,' she said. As one of two members of the president's family who advises him day-to-day the other is her husband, Jared Kushner Ivanka said her father always 'knows exactly where I stand on any issue,' and she 'frequently' disagrees with him in private. But in the face of 'heartbreaking' images of Central American migrants desperately trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border amid a hail of tear-gas canisters, she said she's standing behind her dad. 'I think, like any other person with a heart, it's devastating to see the images and seeing children put at risk. Running towards the border is heartbreaking,' Ivanka said. 'But there are people in the caravan who are not so innocent ... [the president] has to protect our country's security.' Ivanka visited Wilder Elementary School in Wilder, Idaho on Tuesday with Apple CEO Tim Cook to trumpet her workforce development initiative promoting science, technology, engineering and math education Ivanka's lawyer Abbe Lowell has already dismissed comparisons between her email situation and Hillary Clinton's. 'Ms. Trump did not create a private server in her house or office, no classified information was ever included, the account was never transferred at [the] Trump Organization, and no emails were ever deleted,' Lowell's spokesman Peter Mirijanian told reporters last week. Clinton similarly denied having classified emails on her private server. 'I did not send classified material, and I did not receive any material that was marked or designated classified,' she said on the campaign trail in August 2015. White House ethics officials learned of Ivanka Trump's personal email use when reviewing emails gathered last fall by five Cabinet agencies to respond to a public records lawsuit, sources familiar with the matter told The Post. Trump said she was not familiar with all the rules. The private email account came from a domain she shares with Kushner. They set up personal emails with the domain 'ijkfamily.com' through a Microsoft system in December 2016, after Trump won the presidency and the couple was preparing to move to Washington D.C. Bargain retailer Poundland today released the first of its naughty elf-themed Christmas adverts, despite the campaign being banned by the Advertising Standards Authority last year for being too lewd. The 2017 Christmas campaign on the retailer's Twitter and Facebook pages, which gave the business its most successful December since it began trading in 1990, received 85 complaints for ads which included images of a toy elf playing strip poker, sitting in a tub with naked dolls, and offering 'free moustache rides'. This year 'Elife' has returned with a female sidekick 'Elivie' who is sitting on a piano in the first advert, with her partner's face between her open legs, in a tweet captioned 'It's a little bit f*nny'. It would seem to be a parody aimed at John Lewis' 2018 campaign fronted by Elton John, which contains many shots of the Your Song star at a piano. The advert released at noon today seems to take a swipe at John Lewis' Christmas campaign fronted by Elton John singing Your Song. The risque caption 'It's a little bit f*nny' is a sexually-themed reference to the opening lyric of the 1970 hit The plastic toys' pose was deemed so naughty by Twitter that users had to click to see the 'sensitive material' For the first time the campaign will have an offline element, starting at 5pm today in Poundland's Birmingham Corporation Street store where actors dressed as the naughty elves will act out the scene live in the window. Poundland's MD Barry Williams said: 'We're spreading festive cheer without breaking the bank or spending obscene amounts of cash on advertising. 'And while we fully intend to raise eyebrows as well as a smile, we know our customers will appreciate our refusal to waste their money on expensive Christmas ads.' The company claims its seasonal ad blitz will cost just 76.59, leaving it more money to spend on delivering good value to customers and to re-invest in creating Christmas gifts. It contrasted its frugality with the 6.5bn set to be spent by larger rivals which Poundland says could fund 43,000 secondary school places or 44,500 NHS hospital beds at 400 per day. Online reaction was predictably strong but complaints don't seem to have started rolling in just yet. Delighted Twitter users reacted with glee at the launch of the rude campaign Amid an outpouring of hundreds of likes and positive responses, one Twitter wrote: 'This is horrible. Sexual assault statistics are at their highest ever and you think it's a joke. Never shopping there again. Disgusted.' But it is not clear whether the comment was from a parody account. A comment from user RaineDEER was more representative: 'I love the naughty Poundland elves on my timeline at this time of year. Please never stop.' A spokesman for the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) told MailOnline: 'The ASA set out clearly why Poundlands previous Christmas elf ad campaign broke the advertising rules. 'Whether its latest campaign warrants formal action is something well assess carefully (in light of any complaints we receive). 'In the first instance, our advice to anyone who may not like their posts is to block and to not visit the companys social media feeds. Last year the ASA received 85 complaints that the Elf ads were offensive for their depiction of toy characters and other items in a sexualised manner and were unsuitable to appear where children could see them. Poundland's 2017 Christmas adverts: the Advertising Standards Agency ruled they were 'irresponsible and likely to cause serious or widespread offence' Poundland's 2017 Christmas adverts: a depiction of the elf playing strip poker with dolls was ruled to have 'presented the female dolls in a manner which could be seen as demeaning to women' Poundland's 2017 Christmas adverts: Poundland claimed that children would not have been able to understand its double-entendres. The ASA pointed to this as one of several ads which children, they thought, probably could understand Poundland's 2017 Christmas adverts: One image showed the red and white stuffed toy drawing a suspiciously-shaped cactus with the caption, 'That's one prickly Christmas tree' Poundland said the double entendres used throughout the 2017 campaign would not have been understood by children, adding that Twitter and Facebook had policies preventing under-13s from creating accounts with them. But the ASA noted Poundland's Facebook and Twitter pages could be seen by children and that campaign images, including a pair of breasts drawn on a car windscreen, the elf beside a sketch of a penis-shaped tree and the elf waving a vibrator, were obvious sexual references. It also noted that the images including the Elf playing strip poker with unclothed dolls presented the female dolls 'in a manner which could be seen as demeaning to women'. It said: 'We considered these ads were irresponsible and likely to cause serious or widespread offence by depicting a child's toy in relation to such sexual acts, therefore breaching the Code.' It ruled that the ads must not appear again and told Poundland to ensure that their advertising was presented with 'a sense of responsibility and did not cause serious or widespread offence'. In a statement on behalf of its 'naughty elf', Poundland said last year: 'Britain's the home of saucy postcards, Carry On films and panto, so I'm sad the ASA found my double entendres hard to swallow. 'At least it's only 84 people who had a sense of humour failure compared to the tens of thousands who got the joke and liked and shared my posts online. Police discovered the decomposing bodies of a mother and her autistic son alongside a handwritten note warning them about toxic chemicals in their Florida home. Cops believe Leslie McKinley, 47, murdered her son 14-year-old Kody Larue by making him inhale the lethal chemicals, before taking her own life, around two weeks ago. Neighbors finally called 911 on Monday to complain of a suspicious smell at their Azalea Park home in Orange County, Florida. On Monday cops found the bodies of Leslie McKinley, 47, and her son Kody Larue, 14, in their Orange County, Florida home (above) Deputies are waiting for final confirmation from the medical examiner before ruling it a murder-suicide. Officials believe McKinley killed her son then took her own life, both by inhaling toxic chemicals Firefighters forced entry into the home around 4.30pm on Monday and were confronted with the overwhelming smell of decomposing bodies. They found a handwritten note warning of 'toxic chemicals' inside a bedroom, where the mother and son were discovered, according toThe Orlando Sentinel. Heeding the note's warning, an Orange County Fire-Rescue hazmat team checked the air quality of the home but found nothing hazardous, according to spokesman Mike Jachles. 'The remains of two bodies in advanced state of decomposition were located inside the bedroom. It is believed the chemicals were inhaled by the victims,' Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Jane Watrel said to Fox35. Neighbors said they hadn't seen the mother and her autistic son for two weeks and the McKinley was going through a 'challenging time' and isolated herself over the past couple of months Investigators believe McKinley killed her son then took her own life, both by inhaling the chemicals. Officials added the toxins may have dissipated before authorities arrived to the home. Neighbors say they hadn't seen McKinley, who appears to have been single, or Larue emerge from their home in about two weeks. The Sheriff's Office says they're waiting on a final confirmation from the medical examiner before ruling it a murder-suicide. Cops do not have any suspects and said there is no threat to the community. A neighbor described McKinley as a woman that kept to herself and her son had autism. Another neighbor said she was experiencing a challenging time in her life and isolated herself over the past couple of months, according to WFTV. According to records someone with the surname McKinley owned the home for 14 years until a bank took it over in June. Vladimir Putin has dropped a hint that he could stay in power after his term runs out in 2024. The Russian President said 'what's the hurry? I'm not planning to go anywhere' after being asked about his succession plans. Putin, who has dominated Russian politics for 18 years, won a fourth term in office with nearly 77 per cent of the vote in March. Speaking at an annual investment forum, the 66-year-old said: 'What's the hurry, I'm not planning to go anywhere for now'. Vladimir Putin (pictured today) has dropped a hint that he could stay in power after his term runs out in 2024 The Russian President said 'what's the hurry? I'm not planning to go anywhere' after being asked about his succession plans Putin served two presidential terms between 2000-2008, then shifted into the prime minister's seat because of term limits. But he continued to call the shots while his ally, Dmitry Medvedev, served as placeholder president. Medvedev had the presidential term extended to six years and then stepped down to let Putin reclaim the presidency in 2012. Putin's thumping victory in March gave him a clear mandate to pursue his nationalist policies for another six years. The other seven candidates were far behind Putin in the polls. Observers reported widespread ballot-stuffing and unprecedented pressure on Russians to vote, but that is unlikely to seriously damage Mr Putin given his popularity and his tight control over Russian politics. Mr Putin's most serious rival, opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was barred from the race because of a fraud conviction widely seen as politically motivated. The electoral commission said official turnout was 67 per cent, but the figure was marred by widespread accounts of workers being coerced to vote and numerous incidents of ballot-stuffing. Putin (right) served two presidential terms between 2000-2008, then shifted into the prime minister's seat because of term limits. But he continued to call the shots while his ally, Dmitry Medvedev (left), served as placeholder president Mr Putin has never faced a serious threat to his rule since he came to power on the eve of the new millennium. He won 53 per cent of the vote in the 2000 presidential election, 71 per cent in 2004 and 64 per cent in 2012. The massive victory gave Mr Putin new confidence to stand up to the West. The election came amid escalating Cold War-like tensions, with accusations that Moscow was behind the nerve-agent poisoning of a former Russian double agent in Britain and that its internet trolls had waged an extensive campaign to undermine the 2016 US presidential election. The accusations ultimately bolstered Mr Putin among a populace that sees him as their defender against a hostile outside world and the embodiment of Russia's resurgent power on the world stage. The election was such a foregone conclusion that Mr Putin gave only a perfunctory victory speech and said nothing about what he will do for his country. 'We are bound for success,' he told chanting crowds near the Kremlin at the time. Mr Putin's electoral power has centred on stability, a quality cherished by Russians after the chaotic break-up of the Soviet Union. But that stability has been bolstered by a suppression of dissent, the withering of independent media and the top-down control of politics called 'managed democracy'. In his next six years, the president is likely to assert Russia's power abroad even more strongly. Earlier this year, he announced that Russia has developed advanced nuclear weapons capable of evading missile defences. The Russian military campaign that bolsters the Syrian government is clearly aimed at strengthening Moscow's foothold in the Middle East, and Russia eagerly eyes any reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula as an economic opportunity. Theresa May's task of getting her Brexit deal past the House of Commons is looking near-impossible as opposition mounts. The 'meaningful vote' promised to MPs will happen on December 11 and is the single biggest hurdle to the Brexit deal happening - as well as being the key to Mrs May' fate as PM. But despite opinion polls suggesting the public might be coming round to her deal, there is little sign of a shift among politicians. Remainers have been stepping up calls for a second referendum in the wake of Sam Gyimah's resignation as universities minister over the weekend - while Brexiteers including Boris Johnson have accused Mrs May of betrayal. Mrs May needs at least 318 votes in the Commons if all 650 MPs turns up - but can probably only be confident of around 230 votes. The number is less than half because the four Speakers, 7 Sinn Fein MPs and four tellers will not take part. The situation looks grim for Mrs May and her whips: now the deal has been published, over 100 of her own MPs and the 10 DUP MPs have publicly stated they will join the Opposition parties in voting No. This means the PM could have as few as 225 votes in her corner - leaving 410 votes on the other side, a landslide majority 185. This is how the House of Commons might break down: Mrs May needs at least 318 votes in the Commons if all 650 MPs turns up - but can probably only be confident of around 230 votes. Mrs May needs at least 318 votes in the Commons if all 650 MPs turns up - but can probably only be confident of around 230 votes. The Government (plus various hangers-on) Who are they: All members of the Government are the so-called 'payroll' vote and are obliged to follow the whips orders or resign. It includes the Cabinet, all junior ministers, the whips and unpaid parliamentary aides. There are also a dozen Tory party 'vice-chairs and 17 MPs appointed by the PM to be 'trade envoys'. How many of them are there? 178. What do they want? For the Prime Minister to survive, get her deal and reach exit day with the minimum of fuss. Many junior ministers want promotion while many of the Cabinet want to be in a position to take the top job when Mrs May goes. How will they vote? With the Prime Minister. European Research Group Brexiteers demanding a No Confidence Vote Who are they: The most hard line of the Brexiteers, they launched a coup against Mrs May after seeing the divorce. Led by Jacob Rees-Mogg and Steve Baker. How many of them are there: 26 What do they want: The removal of Mrs May and a 'proper Brexit'. Probably no deal now, with hopes for a Canada-style deal later. How will they vote: Against the Prime Minister. Other Brexiteers in the ERG Who are they: There is a large block of Brexiteer Tory MPs who hate the deal but have so far stopped short of moving to remove Mrs May - believing that can destroy the deal instead. They include ex Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith and ex minister Owen Paterson. Ex ministers like Boris Johnson and David Davis are also in this group - they probably want to replace Mrs May but have not publicly moved against her. How many of them are there? Around 50. What do they want? The ERG has said Mrs May should abandon her plans for a unique trade deal and instead negotiate a 'Canada plus plus plus' deal. This is based on a trade deal signed between the EU and Canada in August 2014 that eliminated 98 per cent of tariffs and taxes charged on goods shipped across the Atlantic. The EU has long said it would be happy to do a deal based on Canada - but warn it would only work for Great Britain and not Northern Ireland. How will they vote: Against the Prime Minister. Remain including the People's Vote supporters Who are they: Tory MPs who believe the deal is just not good enough for Britain. They include the group of unrepentant Remainers who want a new referendum like Anna Soubry and ex-ministers who quit over the deal including Jo Johnson and Phillip Lee. How many of them are there: Maybe around 10. What do they want? To stop Brexit. Some want a new referendum, some think Parliament should step up and say no. A new referendum would take about six months from start to finish and they group wants Remain as an option on the ballot paper, probably with Mrs May's deal as the alternative. How will they vote? Against the Prime Minister. Moderates in the Brexit Delivery Group (BDG) and other Loyalists Who are they? A newer group, the BDG counts members from across the Brexit divide inside the Tory Party. It includes former minister Nick Boles and MPs including Remainer Simon Hart and Brexiteer Andrew Percy. There are also lots of unaligned Tory MPs who are desperate to talk about anything else. How many of them are there? Based on public declarations, about 48 MPs have either said nothing or backed the deal. What do they want? The BDG prioritises delivering on Brexit and getting to exit day on March 29, 2019, without destroying the Tory Party or the Government. If the PM gets a deal the group will probably vote for it. It is less interested in the exact form of the deal but many in it have said Mrs May's Chequers plan will not work. Mr Boles has set out a proposal for Britain to stay in the European Economic Area (EEA) until a free trade deal be negotiated - effectively to leave the EU but stay in close orbit as a member of the single market. How will they vote? With the Prime Minister. The DUP Who are they? The Northern Ireland Party signed up to a 'confidence and supply' agreement with the Conservative Party to prop up the Government. They are Unionist and say Brexit is good but must not carve Northern Ireland out of the Union. How many of them are there? 10. What do they want? A Brexit deal that protects Northern Ireland inside the UK. How will they vote? Against the Prime Minister on the grounds they believe the deal breaches the red line of a border in the Irish Sea. Labour Loyalists Who are they? Labour MPs who are loyal to Jeremy Corbyn and willing to follow his whipping orders. How many of them are there? Up to 250 MPs depending on exactly what Mr Corbyn orders them to do. What do they want? Labour policy is to demand a general election and if the Government refuses, 'all options are on the table', including a second referendum. Labour insists it wants a 'jobs first Brexit' that includes a permanent customs union with the EU. It says it is ready to restart negotiations with the EU with a short extension to the Article 50 process. The party says Mrs May's deal fails its six tests for being acceptable. How will they vote? Against the Prime Minister's current deal. Labour Rebels Who are they? A mix of MPs totally opposed to Mr Corbyn's leadership, some Labour Leave supporters who want a deal and some MPs who think any deal will do at this point. How many of them are there? Maybe 10 to 20 MPs but this group is diminishing fast - at least for the first vote on the deal. What do they want? An orderly Brexit and to spite Mr Corbyn. How will they vote? With the Prime Minister. Other Opposition parties Who are they? The SNP, Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru, Green Caroline Lucas and assorted independents. How many of them are there? About 60 MPs. How will they vote? Mostly against the Prime Minister - though two of the independents are suspended Tories and two are Brexiteer former Labour MPs. By 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. A Massachusetts town is apologizing to its residents after many complained that a holiday card revamping a popular Bing Crosby song implied that they advocating for gentrification and racism. The Dorchester Historical Society apologized on Tuesday for the card that they sent to families that read: 'We're dreaming of a white Dorchester.' 'We are very truly sorry about our graphic used for this event,' they said on Twitter. 'This was an unfortunate oversight on our part and the event photograph has been removed from our social media. 'We were simply changing the words to the classic Christmas carol and did not think it through properly.' The card had been pulled from the town's social media accounts after the image was circulated and viciously critiqued. The Dorchester Historical Society apologized on Tuesday for the card that they sent to families that read: 'We're dreaming of a white Dorchester' 'We are very truly sorry about our graphic used for this event,' they said on Twitter. 'This was an unfortunate oversight on our part and the event photograph has been removed from our social media. We were simply changing the words to the classic Christmas carol and did not think it through properly.' '@dothistorical looks like some one did not proof this,' said the Independent Resister in the post that was referenced by the society. 'The message of a white Chrismtas implies others are left out. Maybe not intentional but not how it appears. Faux Paux' 'Language matters, words matter and it was a poor choice of words,' Lauren Sampson, civil rights fellow with the Lawyers for Civil Rights Boston, explained to the Boston Herald. 'Even if it wasn't intentional, it can be disheartening to people that live in that community.' Sampson added that the city's 'beautiful diversity' should have been highlighted - the town is predominantly black and has pockets of whites, Latinos and Asians. '@dothistorical looks like some one did not proof this,' said the Independent Resister in the post that was referenced by the society. 'The message of a white Chrismtas implies others are left out. Maybe not intentional but not how it appears. Faux Paux' The card had been pulled from the town's social media accounts after the image was circulated and viciously critiqued The sentiment was shared by Twitter users who added: 'Probably just goes to show you don't have any minorities on your board or communications team....might be time to start incorporating some diversity in your team since they would've noticed this insensitivity.' The message was a play on Bing Crosby's (pictured) classic festive song White Christmas, the Society said The Historical Society asserted that the message was a play on Bing Crosby's song 'White Christmas' referring to his wish for snow on Christmas Day. But the Historical Society was defended by several local politicians who implied that it was simply an 'honest mistake.' 'They wouldn't send out a racial card,' said Dorchester City Councilor Frank Baker. 'We should just cut them some slack. It is unfortunate because you have to make sure these things are right before they go to press.' Mayor Martin J. Walsh added that the volunteers who made the graphic had made a slight error. 'They are good people at Dorchester Historical Society, they certainly didn't mean anything vicious or racist about it,' he added. Worried friends and family are on the hunt for an Ohio National Guardsman who went missing the day after celebrating Thanksgiving at an alternative club night. Jordan Middlebrooks, 21, departed a friend's residence in Cincinnati's College Hill neighborhood around 10.47am last Friday and concerned loved ones believe he was walking back to his vehicle parked at a Taco Bell In Covington, Kentucky. But the Army specialist's car which was found by volunteers Sunday only with his cell phone inside was waiting a two-and-a-half hour walk away from the apartment building he was last seen leaving on security footage. Ohio National Guardsman, Jordan Middlebrooks, went missing on Friday He was last seen leaving a friend's residence around 10.47am last Friday Friends think he was going back to his car at a Taco Bell In Covington, Kentucky It's believed Middlebrooks was traveling on foot never made it back to his motor that day. It was discovered with a dusting of snow two days later. A car journey may have taken approximately 15 minutes or it could have been one hour via public transportation. The friend he stayed with said he was still there when he left for work Friday morning. Jacob Baker of the 5300 block on Hamilton Avenue told WLWT.com: 'The best we could maybe figure is he was trying to get back to his car from there and maybe gotten lost or something happened along the way.' It's believed Middlebrooks was traveling on foot never made it back to his motor that day Aunt, Nicole Moyer added that Middlebrooks' parents are worried about what could have happened to their son Around 45 people signed up to join a Facebookorganized search party for the man which was scheduled to take place on Monday. A description on the event page describes how anxious friends and relatives are not sure how he traveled to the bar celebration last Thursday with his vehicle left in the fast food joint's parking lot, nor why he didn't seem to have his mobile device with him. 'It is believed he was traveling from Hamilton Ave. on foot heading to his car in Covington but never made it to his car,' the author stated, adding that a police report had been issued for him. 'How he got to Northside for Mixwells that night or why he left his car and phone in Covington we do not yet know.' The 21-year-old celebrated Thanksgiving at a Cincinnati bar on Thursday night His vehicle was found empty on Sunday with only his cell phone inside Concerned friends and family held a search party Monday along the route he's believed to have taken From 9pm to 2am, Mixwells - described as 'Cincinnati's longest-running industrial/goth/alternative club - was hosting their regular event Darkotica on the night Middlebrooks attended. Speaking about Middlebrooks is a valued member of his community, the event hosts added how the National Guardsman was also known for his creative side. He regularly carried his camera with him to the Spring Grove Avenue club night on the Northside of town and was known for making people feel 'seen and cared for'. 'Jordan Middlebrooks is a beloved, active and well known person in the Northside alternative community,' the page reads. 'He is best known for his photography work he does cataloging events across the city. He is active in the community, and is the gentlest soul you will ever meet.' According to Cincinnati.com, Middlebrooks' mother spent 10 hours searching for him this weekend and went to his car to charge his phone in hope he will return to it. 'We're hoping for the best,' Naj Jabari, a friend, told WCPO. 'My hope is that we find him safe and sound, no matter where he is. ... I know everyone's just wanting to give him a big ol' hug. 'He's the sweetest soul. He's the sweetest guy. He's always around, bringing a smile to everyone around him. I just want to say 'hi' to Jordan again and see that smile of his.' His mother is especially concerned because he has a shy and quiet demeanor Middlebrooks was last seen wearing black clothes. He is a black male with short black hair, 5ft 9in and 120lbs, and wears glasses If you have any information, please call Columbus Police at 614-645-4545 Aunt, Nicole Moyer added that Middlebrooks' parents are worried about what could have happened to their son too. His mother is especially concerned because he has a shy and quiet demeanor, reports WLWT.com. Based in Columbus, they plan on traveling through Ohio to help with his search this week. 'It's been very difficult not knowing [where he is]. Both of his parents are very concerned,' Moyer told WCPO. 'I really hope Jordan returns knows how much he is loved and we really want him just to come home safely.' Middlebrooks was last seen wearing black clothes. He is a black male with short black hair, 5ft 9in and 120lbs, and wears glasses. If you have any information, please call Columbus Police at 614-645-4545. Police would like to speak with the man pictured to assist with their investigation after a father was punched during a savage road rage attack A child was left terrified during the daily school drop-off after her father came under attack in a savage road rage incident. The 38-year-old father-of-two was beaten and punched in the face and arms in the violent attack near a school in Dandenong North, Melbourne's south-east. A passenger in the car recorded the commotion as the man attempted to shield himself from the onslaught, with the footage obtained by 7News. A child could be heard in the background of the recording screaming as her father was ordered to 'get out of the car' repeatedly. The man had approached the victim and his family from a car that was stopped in front of them and returned to the vehicle after the brazen daylight attack. A child was left terrified during the daily school drop-off after her father came under attack The man could be seen in the footage lunging at the victim through the driver's side door as the girl continued to scream in the background. Police allege the passenger of an older model white Commodore sedan with a rear spoiler got out of the vehicle he was travelling in and assaulted the father, who was the driver of the car behind. They have since released an image of a man who they would like to speak with to assist with their investigation. Police urge anybody who recognises the man to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 and quote incident number 180386916. Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones has told the inquest into the death of Carl Sargeant that he received an anonymous letter saying the politician was 'not fit to be around women'. Mr Sargeant, 49, was found hanged at his home in Connah's Quay, Deeside, on November 7, 2017, just four days after he was sacked from his role as cabinet secretary for communities and children. Mr Jones was called to give evidence on the third day of the inquest into the death of Welsh Assembly Member Mr Sargeant, who he sacked following the surfacing of rumours about his behaviour. Welsh Assembly member Carl Sargeant, 49, (pictured left) was found hanged at the family home in Connah's Quay last year. Today Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones (right, pictured today) told the inquest that allegations about Mr Sargeant 'could not be ignored' The father-of-two was also suspended from the Labour Party over allegations of 'unwanted attention, inappropriate touching or groping'. But while rumours in political circles about his behaviour were surfacing, it was dismissed as 'tittle tattle' until a formal written complaint was made by a woman, known only as Miss A. It was after that, on November 1 last year, the First Minister decided Mr Sargeant could not serve in his cabinet and he decided to sack him in a forthcoming government re-shuffle two days later. Mr Sargeant, was found dead at the family home by his wife Bernadette four days after the sacking. Mr Sargeant's wife Bernie and his son Jack have been attending an inquest into his death Mr Jones said he received an anonymous letter in 2014 from an Alyn and Deeside Labour Party member which said Mr Sargeant was 'not fit to be around women'. He said he showed the letter to Mr Sargeant and told him to 'be careful'. 'There is obviously somebody who is watching you and watching your behaviour so be careful and be careful where you go and how much you drink,' he said. In 2017 he heard there were rumours of Mr Sargeant behaving inappropriately with women and later received written statements from two complainants. When asked how he felt when he heard the rumours he said: 'Disappointment, really.' Mr Sargeant's wife and son, Jack, sat alongside lawyers listening as Mr Jones began his evidence shortly before the lunchtime adjournment at the hearing at Ruthin County Hall. The inquest heard a decision to remove Mr Sargeant from government because of the allegations came at the same time as the First Minister planned a cabinet re-shuffle. Mr Jones said: 'During the course of discussions about having a general re-shuffle, the allegations came forward regarding Carl and they could not be ignored as part of a re-shuffle. 'At that stage, I found myself in a position where during the course of discussions of what was going to be a general re-shuffle I then had a written complaint regarding conduct of one minister. 'There was no way of divorcing one from the other.' Mr Jones said he had not intended to make public the fact there were allegations against Mr Sargeant at the time of the cabinet reshuffle. But, he said, Mr Sargeant posted a tweet saying he had been removed because of personal conduct. He said: 'By volunteering information in the way he did he spiked the media interest.' Mr Jones told the inquest he could not have given Mr Sargeant details of the allegations because it was important to protect the identity of the complainants. The inquest has heard that at least three women had spoken of inappropriate conduct by Mr Sargeant, between 2015 and 2016. Neither the identity of the women involved nor the exact nature of the alleged misconduct has been revealed during the inquest. None of the allegations were put to Mr Sargeant directly before he was sacked and he shook his head and denied them in the meeting with the First Minister on November 3 last year, the hearing was told. Mr Sargeant was also not told exactly what he was being accused of. Donald Trump is speaking openly about keeping Paul Manafort's presidential pardon hopes alive after prosecutors accused the former campaign chairman of breaking his plea agreement by lying to investigators. The president publicly acknowledged the possibility of using his virtually unchecked pardon authority even as newly empowered Democrats are warning that any attempt to use the power to try to sway a potential witness could amount to obstruction of justice. Although special counsel Robert Mueller's investigators apparently have soured on Manafort, they wanted him enough as a cooperating witnesses that they agreed to a deal that would have allowed for reduced jail time despite his conviction on corruption charges. 'It was never discussed, but I wouldn't take it off the table. Why would I take it off the table?' Trump said of a pardon, speaking in a sit-down interview with the New York Post. Trump indicated he had insider knowledge of meetings between Mueller's team and Manafort in tweets posted this month Trump's casual talk about a potential pardon came hours after White House press secretary Sarah Sanders tried to avoid the topic. And it came despite explicit warnings from Democrats and legal experts that the president could face personal legal exposure if he is seen as using a power to try to interfere with a witness while federal prosecutors investigate Russian election hacking. Incoming House Judiciary chairman Rep. Jerold Nadler told CNN this week Trump 'should understand that even dangling a pardon in front of a witness like Manafort is dangerously close to obstruction of justice and would just fortify a claim or a charge of obstruction of justice against the President.' Manafort (pictured) is facing a jail sentence of up to 10 years on conspiracy charges and eight counts of financial fraud Sanders said at one of her increasingly infrequent White House briefings Tuesday when asked about it: 'I'm not aware of any conversations for anyone's pardon involving this process.' Trump also expanded on his relentless attack on Mueller from Wednesday morning, where he accused prosecutors of pressuring key witnesses to lie following developments that could land Manafort in jail for the rest of his life. 'If you told the truth, you go to jail, Trump vented. 'You know this flipping stuff is terrible. You flip and you lie and you get the prosecutors will tell you 99 percent of the time they can get people to flip. It's rare that they can't,' Trump said. ATTACK MODE: Trump went after the media and prosecutors on Wednesday He has complained in the past about the ways prosecutors entice witnesses to cooperate, using the jargon 'flipping' that is used by mobsters and shows up in legal thrillers. The president also identified the three people he was complaining about in an earlier tweet where he went after Mueller and the media. 'But I had three people: Manafort, Corsi I don't know Corsi, but he refuses to say what they demanded. Manafort, Corsi and Roger Stone,' Trump said, identifying the people he claims were pressured by prosecutors, without providing specifics. Corsi is a reference conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi. Trump, who has repeatedly called the Mueller Russia probe a 'witch hunt' and attacked the special counsel as 'conflicted,' on Twitter alleged prosecutorial misconduct but without saying against whom or providing evidence. 'While the disgusting Fake News is doing everything within their power not to report it that way, at least 3 major players are intimating that the Angry Mueller Gang of Dems is viciously telling witnesses to lie about facts & they will get relief,' the president claimed on Twitter Wednesday. 'This is our Joseph McCarthy Era!' Trump charged, invoking the Wisconsin senator known for his leveling charges of communist infiltration without providing evidence. Trump's outburst at prosecutors came amid new twists in the Mueller probe including prosecutors claiming in a court filing that Trump's former campaign chair Paul Manafort committed 'lies' contrary to a plea agreement even as he remains confined in a Virginia jail. If a judge agrees with prosecutors and finds him in breach of his cooperation agreement, he could be looking at an extended prison sentence or face additional charges. It also emerged attorneys representing Manafort kept the President's team briefed on what he told the Mueller probe, it has emerged. Rudolph Giuliani, one of the president's personal lawyers, confirmed the conversations had taken place but defended them as a valuable insight into the Mueller inquiry on Tuesday. Although the president didn't specify which three people he was referring to, one likely figure is conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi, who gave media interviews Tuesday blasting Mueller's investigators. Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort's lawyers 'repeatedly briefed the President's team on what he told Mueller probe investigators' Attorneys representing Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort kept the President's team briefed on what he told the Mueller probe, it has emerged. Manafort's lawyers have 'repeatedly' reported back to the President's team for the last two months, the New York Times has revealed. Rudolph W. Giuliani, one of the president's personal lawyers, confirmed the conversations had taken place but defended them as a valuable insight into the Mueller inquiry on Tuesday. Legal experts believe the conversations may have been staged as an apparent bid from Manafort, 69, to obtain a presidential pardon or have any potential sentence reduced. Trump himself appeared to indicate he had insider knowledge of meetings between Manafort and Mueller on Tuesday, as he tweeted: 'Wait until it comes out how horribly & viciously they are treating people, ruining lives for them refusing to lie.' And earlier this month he posted: 'The inner workings of the Mueller investigation are a total mess. 'They have found no collusion and have gone absolutely nuts. They are screaming and shouting at people, horribly threatening them to come up with the answers they want.' Manafort is facing up to 10 years in prison for two conspiracy charges and eight counts of financial fraud. But despite little being known about the conversations between his lawyer, Kevin Downing, and special counsel Mueller's team, it appears Manafort has not implicated the President in any wrongdoing. Giuliani said Manafort's lawyer Kevin M. Downing said prosecutors grilled Manafort over whether the president knew about the June 2016 meeting between his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. and Russian officials, in which they promised to give up compromising information about Hillary Clinton. Advertisement Corsi says prosecutors want him to agree to a plea deal and admit to perjury, but he told NBC he would ''rather sit in prison and rot' than admit to a lie he says he didn't commit. The network obtained a document laying out some of the information prosecutors had obtained, including emails from Stone and Corsi. In one email on July 25, 2016, Roger Stone told Corsi - a former Washington bureau chief at InfoWars - to 'get to [Assange] at Ecuadorian embassy in London'. Corsi replied on August 2, saying: 'Word is friend in embassy plans 2 more dumps. One shortly after I'm back. 2nd in Oct. Impact planned to be very damaging.' WikiLeaks released thousands of Democratic emails during the 2016, dramatically upending the race. The third figure Trump may have been referring to is his former campaign chair Paul Manafort, whose lawyers have been passing information to Team Trump drawing charges that he may be clamming up in hopes of securing a presidential pardon. Meanwhile, attorneys representing Manafort kept the President's team briefed on what he told the Mueller probe, it has emerged. Manafort's lawyers have 'repeatedly' reported back to the President's team for the last two months, the New York Times has revealed. Rudolph W. Giuliani, one of the president's personal lawyers, confirmed the conversations had taken place but defended them as a valuable insight into the Mueller inquiry on Tuesday. Legal experts believe the conversations may have been staged as an apparent bid from Manafort, 69, to obtain a presidential pardon or have any potential sentence reduced. Trump himself appeared to indicate he had insider knowledge of meetings between Manafort and Mueller on Tuesday, as he tweeted: 'Wait until it comes out how horribly & viciously they are treating people, ruining lives for them refusing to lie.' And earlier this month he posted: 'The inner workings of the Mueller investigation are a total mess. 'They have found no collusion and have gone absolutely nuts. They are screaming and shouting at people, horribly threatening them to come up with the answers they want.' Manafort is facing up to 10 years in prison for two conspiracy charges and eight counts of financial fraud. But despite little being known about the conversations between his lawyer, Kevin Downing, and special counsel Mueller's team, it appears Manafort has not implicated the President in any wrongdoing. Giuliani said Manafort's lawyer Kevin M. Downing said prosecutors grilled Manafort over whether the president knew about the June 2016 meeting between his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. and Russian officials, in which they promised to give up compromising information about Hillary Clinton. 'He wants Manafort to incriminate Trump,' Giuliani said of Mueller. The revelation comes as Manafort was forced to deny meeting with Julian Assange, calling reports that he secretly visited the Wikileaks founder 'totally false.' Manafort released a statement on Tuesday, hours afterThe 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. A millionaire Florida gym owner who killed an 82-year-old Uber driver with his yellow Lamborghini after a boozy lunch has been sentenced to two years of house arrest but no jail time as part of a plea deal that sparked outrage from the victims widow. Roger Wittenberns, 62, learned his fate on Tuesday, after pleading guilty to counts of DUI manslaughter and DUI with property damage in the September 2016 death of J. Gerald Smith in downtown Delray Beach. Under the plea agreement, the wealthy businessman was originally supposed to serve two years in the county jail, but a judge agreed to let Wittenberns serve out the term at his $2million home, followed by ten years of probation, owing to the defendant's advanced age and failing health. Florida businessman Roger Wittenberns, 62 (left), was sentenced Tuesday to two years of house arrest and 10 years' probation after pleading guilty to DUI manslaughter in the 2016 death of Gerald Smith (pictured right with wife Eloise) Wittenberns crashed his yellow Lamborghini Murcielago into Smith's Uber car in Delray Beach, killing the 82-year-old driver Police are seen inspecting the damage on the gym owner's luxury vehicle just after the crash Smith's Buick took a direct hit on the driver's side, causing the SUV to spin out His lawyer said Wittenberns had suffered three heart attacks and has chronic back problems, reported Palm Beach Post. 'This man will probably die in jail because hell never get the medical care he needs,' defense attorney Marc Shiner told the court. Wittenberns, who founded the Lady of America fitness club franchise, must also pay $20,000 in restitution to Smith's family, perform 150 hours of community service and submit to random drugs and alcohol testing at his own expense, WPTV reported. The victims widow, Eloise Smith, expressed her dismay upon hearing the terms of the plea deal. There was no justice today, the mother-of-three and grandmother told the Sun-Sentinel after Wittenberns sentencing. 'This man killed my husband. He was drunk. And because hes rich, hes getting away with it.' Two months after her husband's death, Mrs Smith filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Wittenberns, which settled out of court last year for an undisclosed amount. 'Money can never give me back my husband,' Eloise Smith said. 'This man destroyed our life.' Prosecutors explained their decision not to take the case to trial, saying that it would have been difficult to successfully prove that Wittneberns was speeding at the time of the crash, according to CBS12. Had he been found guilty of the charges against him at trial, Wittenberns could have been looking at up to 15 years in prison. Eloise and Gerlad's three grown sons could not attend Tuesdays hearing in person because they live in Canada, but a prosecutor read in court their victim impact statement. Our family misses him deeply every day. We miss his voice laughter and his joy, the letter read. His [Wittenberns] actions caused deep sorrow in our family. Smith, a retired real estate agent, had become an Uber driver to help pay his wife's medical bills. On the late afternoon of September 21, 2016, he was on his way home to have dinner with Eloise when Wittenberns' Lamborghini Murcielago slammed into the driver's side of his Buick Enclave at the intersection of Federal Highway and Northeast First Street. As part of his plea deal, the millionaire (left and right in mugshot) was originally supposed to serve two years in the county jail, but a judge agreed to let Wittenberns serve out the term at home because of his medical conditions Police said Wittenberns was doing 75mph before crashing into Smith's SUV. According to a report, a blood test performed less than an hour after the collision showed that the health club mogul had blood alcohol content nearly twice the legal limit. Another blood test taken nine hours after the crash showed no traces of alcohol in his system. When given a chance to speak on Tuesday, Wittenberns, dressed in a pin-striped suit and teal tie, with his graying hair swept back, read aloud a letter of apology, expressing remorse for getting behind the wheel of his car after sharing a dozen drinks with his then-girlfriend over lunch. 'I should not have been drinking any alcohol and then getting behind the wheel of my car, he said in court. 'I am extremely apologetic for all the days Mr. Smith will be missing with his children and grandchildren.' Wittenberns took responsibility for his actions that day, admitting that he was the only person responsible for the crash. I will carry this burden with a heavy heart for the rest of my life. I took a life. No words or actions will ever be enough to show sorrow and remorse, his statement read. God knows my heart and soul. I am truly sorry for what I have done. After reading his sentence, Judge Laura Johnson addressed the defendant directly, telling him: 'I hope you appreciate the grace you've been shown by the smith family.' The former Attorney General of Pennsylvania, Kathleen Kane, has been given less than two days to surrender to jail. Judge Wendy Demchick-Alloy said there is no longer any reason for Kane to remain free, one day after the state Supreme Court declined to take up her appeal against the perjury conviction she received two years ago. Kane, the first Democrat and first woman AG of the state, has been out on $75,000 bail since her October 2016 sentence of 10 to 23 months for leaking grand jury information and lying about it. Former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane leaves court in handcuffs after her sentencing in October 2016 'Given that the rationale for (the) defendant remaining at liberty pending appeal has expired, post-sentence bail is revoked,' the judge wrote, imposing a 9am Thursday deadline for Kane to report to the Montgomery County Correctional Facility. Kane's lawyer, Joshua Lock, has not responded to multiple messages seeking comment. Demchick-Alloy directed the Lackawanna County sheriff to serve a copy of her order on Kane, who lives in Scranton. 'Two different appellate courts have reviewed her case, yet her judgment of sentence remains,' wrote District Attorney Kevin Steele. 'She received a fair trial, her guilt was proven beyond a reasonable doubt and now it is time for her to serve her sentence.' Steele's bail revocation motion to the judge anticipated that Kane may have argued the judge had discretion to keep Kane out on bail while she 'seeks further state review.' 'The Pennsylvania Supreme Court's denial of discretionary review should be considered the conclusion of (Kane's) avenues for direct appeal in state court,' Steele argued. Kane was convicted of two counts of felony perjury and seven misdemeanors, including obstruction and conspiracy. She resigned from office after her conviction. Kathleen Kane arrives for her sentencing hearing at Montgomery County courthouse on October 24 2016; she made an appeal bid which was rejected by the state Supreme Court yesterday Kane, a full-time mom who made the move into politics in 2012 with the backing of her businessman husband, enjoyed mostly good press early on. But turmoil inside the office became her undoing as top deputies and career prosecutors quit due to her paranoiac leadership style. Her feud with prosecutor Frank Fina, who helped run the Penn state sexual assault investigation, led to the leak. Kane had a campaign consultant pass confidential files to a reporter about a corruption case Fina had declined to charge before he left the office. She then tried to frame someone else for the leak, aides testified at the perjury and obstruction trial. In her appeal she had argued before Superior Court that she should have been allowed to use evidence of a pornographic email scandal that rocked the state's judicial community as well as evidence related to the Jerry Sandusky case. The lower appeals court also rejected her argument that she should have been allowed to prevent all Montgomery County judges from handling her case, as well as her claims that evidence against her was illegally obtained and that she had been the victim of selective and vindictive prosecution. A couple seen unloading a trolley-load of baby formula into their car boot has clashed with a passerby after being confronted. The pair was spotted with about 30 tins outside Koala Kingdom exporters in Sydney's Hurtsville. The passerby named Anthony began filming them as they packed the tins before a heated exchange unfolded. A couple has been caught unloading a bulk load of baby formula into their car from a shopping trolley outside an export shop 'I'll call the police,' the man yelled at Anthony. He chased after Anthony, telling him to stop as he grabbed his phone from his pocket. The man then told Anthony to wait as he called the police. 'Don't touch me,' Anthony can be heard saying in vision of the exchange. Anthony shared the footage with 2GB, telling them he thought it was unfair that much-needed baby formula was being sent overseas when Australian families were struggling to find it. 'I just started filming him and then he just went off, he went crazy,' Anthony said. Demand for Australian formula has skyrocketed after an estimated 54,000 Chinese babies were hospitalised in 2008 due to contaminated Chinese formula. Coles and Woolworths both have a two-tin baby formula limit for customers due to the popularity of 'daigou shoppers' buying bulk numbers of Australian baby formula to sell for a profit online to China. A staff member from Koala Kingdom told News.com.au the issue was with the manufacturers not being able to meet demand, not exporters. He said he sends orders overseas when asked to by clients. 'Most people buy from Coles and Woolies and post it from here,' he said. Demand for Australian formula has skyrocketed ever since an estimated 54,000 Chinese babies were hospitalised in 2008 due to contaminated Chinese formula A pregnant woman has been jailed for two months for opening a tube of Pringles at a supermarket without paying for them. Newlywed Kathleen McDonagh was sentenced for criminal damage after taking the lid off the crisp container at a Tesco in Ireland. The 25-year-old was banned from the store as a result of previous offences when she opened the 1.50 tube, a court was told. A judge at Cork District Court said McDonagh had 31 previous convictions and suspended sentences did not seem to work for her, the Mirror reported. Newlywed Kathleen McDonagh was sentenced for criminal damage after taking the lid off the crisp container at a Tesco in Ireland (file photo) The court heard McDonagh picked up the crisps and went to pay for them when she was spotted by staff who knew about her ban. The supermarket workers told her to leave but she instead took the lid off the can and unwrapped the foil. She reportedly told staff: 'I opened it so you have to let me pay for it.' McDonagh pleaded guilty to criminal damage as the 1.50 (1.32) tube could not be put back on sale. Her lawyer told the court that the hairdressing student was five months pregnant and had suffered from anxiety-related issues. But the judge said the collection of previous offences meant a jail sentence was required. A Brexit deal showdown between Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn could air before the I'm A Celebrity final. ITV is said to be the favourite to land the clash in the run up to the historic Commons vote on December 11. Labour is on board with a plan to stage the event in primetime on Sunday, December 9 - just before the climax of the hit show. TheBBC and Sky News have also put in proposals. But Downing Street again made clear that Nicola Sturgeon should not be allowed to join the face-off. Mrs May laid down the gauntlet to Mr Corbyn this week as she battles to get her controversial package through the Commons. Jeremy Corbyn (left) and Theresa May (right) have both agreed in principle to a TV debate on the Brexit deal Downing Street has again made clear that Nicola Sturgeon (pictured in Edinburgh yesterday) should not be allowed to join the face-off She said she would prove: 'I have got a plan, he hasn't got a plan'. However, the idea has been thrown into doubt again after Ms Sturgeon and a slew of other leaders of smaller parties said they wanted - with the prospect of legal challenges if broadcasters leave them out. Boris Johnson has also waded into the row, saying a genuine Brexiteer must be included. The former foreign secretary tweeted that if a head-to-head happens it will offer the public a 'false choice' between two visions 'neither of which are Brexit'. 'There is no point having a debate with two people who voted Remain & deals that dont take back control,' he said. '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.' A No 10 spokesman said the debate was on as far as Downing Street was concerned but there were a range of dates being considered. He said: It will be between the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. Those two parties represent nine out of 10 of the number of MPs the House. Asked if Nicola Sturgeon should take part, the spokesman said: The meaningful vote is for MPs and the last time I checked, Nicola Sturgeon did not fit that description. Mrs May and Mr Corbyn faced off as usual at PMQs today - but could be doing so on primetime TV before the crunch Brexit vote By 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. President Trump retweeted a series of posts Wednesday morning from a fan account on Twitter, seemingly agreeing with a false claim about federal welfare benefits going to illegal immigrants, and sharing a Photoshopped collage of nine of his Democratic opponents in prison. The cartoonish image also depicts Special Counsel Robert Mueller joining them behind bars, along with the nation's deputy attorney general. 'NOW THAT THE RUSSIA COLLUSION IS A PROVEN LIE, WHEN DO THE TRIALS FOR TREASON BEGIN,' its caption reads. Among the 'imprisoned' Democrats in the collage are former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton; Hillary Clinton, her former campaign chairman John Podesta and top aide Huma Abedin; and former Attorney Generals Loretta Lynch and Eric Holder. Also joining them are current Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, fired FBI Director James Comey and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. President Trump used his Twitter account on Wednesday to forward posts from a fan account, including a graphic that depicted his Democratic opponents in prison This image, from 'The Trump Train,' includes 9of Trump's partisan opponents behind bars, and shows Special Counsel Robert Mueller and Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein joining them Another tweet from the same account that the president forwarded to his 56 million followers claimed that illegal immigrants in the U.S. 'can get up to $3,874 a month under Federal Assistance program[s].' 'Our social security checks are on average $1200 a month,' the message said, asking for retweets 'if you agree: If you weren't born in the United States, you should receive $0 assistance.' The $3,784 figure comes from a September 2017 Facebook post that quickly went viral because it showed a document listing government benefits extended to a non-native family of five in Canada. The president retweeted a claim from the same fan account that 'Illegals can get up to $3,784 a month under Federal Assistance Program[s] That claim referred to a single case in Canada that concerned a refugee family of five, and most of the expenses were one-time startup costs The total amount listed by Canada's Refugee Resettlement Agency applied to five people; most of it was not paid monthly. $1,960 was classified as 'start-up allowances.' Another $375 was designated a loan for an apartment security deposit. And $150 was called a 'school start-up allowance' for dependent children. In all, $1,399 was terms 'regular monthly benefits.' Those figures, first unraveled by the Snopes website, were in Canadian dollars. In two more posts that the president retweeted, the nameless owner of the 'Trump Train' account vented about General Motors' plant closures and news coverage of the migrant crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border. 'Will CNN ever ask Border Patrol agents how they felt having large rocks chucked at them by criminal illegals?' one asks. The other criticizes the Detroit automaker for depending on the federal Treasury for its recovery after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2009. 'If GM doesn't want to keep their jobs in the United States, they should pay back the $11.2 billion bailout that was funded by the American taxpayer,' the writer jabbed. A Central American man, who was previously deported from the United States, was arrested near a border crossing in California after he admitted to being an active member of the MS-13 gang while planning to seek asylum. Officers at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection station in Calexico, California, approached Jose Villalobos-Jobel on Saturday and detained him after he was suspected of being in the United States without legal documentation, according to CBS affiliate KESQ. The 29-year-old, who traveled through Mexico after joining the migrant caravan in his native country of Honduras, confessed to border patrol agents from the Calexico Port of Entry that he belonged to the notorious criminal organization. A Las Vegas immigration judge in 2006 handed down a deportation order for the Honduran man, who was 'physically removed via escort flight' to his homeland. It iss not known why he was deported. Jose Villalobos-Jobel was arrested by order agents arrested after he admitted being a member of the MS-13 gang and trying to apply for asylum Trump claimed on Wednesday he will shut the government down if he doesn't get $5 billion for his border wall The arrest of Villalobos-Jobel comes after President Donald Trump' claimed that members of the gang would try to infiltrate the caravan in the hope of being granted asylum. Trump was criticized in May when he attacked all immigrants and labeled them as 'animals' before he said he was talking about the gang that was started in Los Angeles in the 1980s. "I'm referring and you know I'm referring to the MS-13 gangs that are coming in. I was talking about the MS-13. And if you look a little bit further on in the tape, you'll see that," Trump told reporters during a May 17 press conference in California. "MS-13 - these are animals. ... We need strong immigration laws. ... We have laws that are laughed at on immigration. So when the MS-13 comes in, when the other gang members come into our country, I refer to them as animals and guess what, I always will," Trump added. More recently, following Sunday's border clash between U.S. agents and members of the caravan, Trump went on Twitter and re-ignited his attack. '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!' 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 Trump said in an interview published Wednesday that he's 'totally willing' to incur a government shutdown on December 7 if Senate Democrats don't agree to spend $5 billion on his long-promised border wall. 'We need border security in this country, and if that means a shutdown I would totally be willing to shut it down,' he told Politico. 'And I think it's a really bad issue for the Democrats.' A spokesperson with the U.S. Border Patrol in the El Centro Sector told DailyMail on Wednesday that Villalobos-Joel was traveling alone when he was apprehended by the immigration unit patrolling the southern border area. According to an immigration report filed during his interrogation, Villalobos-Joel said he 'joined the caravan because it was safer to make the trip from Honduras'. Villalobos is the second MS-13 admitted gang member who has been detained since October by agents from the El Centro Sector. Villalobos is the only known MS-13 gang member tied to the migrant caravan that has been appended by the officers assigned to the same border patrol division in southern California. A migrant woman and her children flee tear gas in front of the Tijuana-San Diego border A caravan migrant hurls a rock toward U.S. border patrol on Sunday An estimated 7,000 migrants have traveled 2,000 miles through the length of Mexico from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador since mid-October. The Trump administration is defending the southern California border and insisting Mexico deport anyone trying to sneak across. Thousands of migrant have settled in recent weeks across Mexican border towns, especially Tijuana, a city popular with American tourists that tend to trickle across the border crossing. But the city, know for it's wild nightlife, was also the site of an ugly clash Sunday that pitted U.S. border agents against migrants desperately looking to cross into the United States. 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. Borders agents responded to the rock-throwing migrants by firing tear gas and rubber bullets in the chaotic event. The group was stopped by a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire and the border agents who unloaded their weapons to keep them at bay. At least one man was wounded. Mexico since then has deported scores of Central American migrants arrested after hundreds forced their way through a Mexican police blockade. 'The U.S. Border Patrol does not process Asylum cases. Detainees that are seeking Asylum make a Credible Fear Claim to the Border Patrol and those cases are referred to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), who will then process the Asylum Claim,' the El Centro Sector Border Patrol said in a separate statement to DailyMail.com. John McDonnell today said Labour will back a second referendum if Theresa May's deal fails and there is not another General Election. Labour have previously said that 'all options' are on the table if the Brexit divorce deal is voted down, as expected, next month. But going further, the shadow chancellor said if Mrs May's government does not collapse triggering another election, it is 'inevitable' Labour will throw its support behind another referendum. In a sign of splits at the heart of Labour over Brexit, a senior party spokesman today said Jeremy Corbyn is keeping 'all options' on the table. And he also said for the first time that 'Remain' should be on the ballot paper if there is another vote - while no deal should not be. His remarks appear to set the stage for Labour to back a vote which would see Britons asked if they back the PM's deal or want to stay in the EU. Speaking to the BBC today, Mr McDonnell admitted that the chances of another election being called are low because of the Fixed-terms Parliaments Act, which stipulates that elections must be held every five years. John McDonnell (pictured today on the BBC) said Labour will back a second referendum if Theresa May's deal fails and there is not another General Election He said: We want a deal which will protect jobs and the economy. If the Government cant achieve that we think we can but if the government cant achieve that we should have a General Election. 'You know as well as I do thats very difficult to do because of the nature of the legislation that David Cameron brought forward. 'If that is not possible we will be calling on the Government then to hold a public vote. 'It is difficult to judge at each stage, but that is the sequence that we will inevitably go through over this period.' Asked if he was saying it is 'inevitable' that another referendum will be held if the PM's government does not collapse, he agreed. He said: 'Thats right. Our policy is that if we cant get a general election our policy is another referendum, which we have kept on the table a People's Vote.' And speaking at a Guardian Live event in London last night, Mr McDonnell also said he thinks Remain should be on the ballot paper, according to the newspaper. He said: 'We can't have no deal on the ballot paper. 'There's an overwhelming majority in parliament against that happening, because of the damage.' Theresa May (pictured in Glasgow tonight) faced her critics in Parliament for PMQs just as official analysis revealed that Britain wil be poorer under every Brexit outcome He said: 'All through that, we will be calling for a general election. Whether and when we put a vote of no confidence down will be a tactical decision. We'll want a maximum effect. 'If we can't get a general election, people's vote is on the table and that might be an option we seize upon.' He also admitted meeting leading figures from the People's Vote anti Brexit campaign, including Alastair Campbell and Ed Miliband's former adviser Tom Baldwin. A Labour spokesman insisted said the party was determined to see its jobs first Brexit put on the table but refused to discuss the parliamentary tactics to get it there. He insisted Mr Corbyn remained committed to trying to secure an early election but that if it proved impossible, all options including a new referendum are on the table. All options do not include a no deal outcome which Labour believes is not viable for Britain. The spokesman refused to say what Mr Corbyn wanted on the ballot paper were any referendum held. Democratic State Rep Stephanie Kifowit is being slammed for saying she wanted to poison her Republican colleague's family with a 'broth of Legionella' during a heated debate on the Illinois House floor A Democratic lawmaker is in hot water for saying that she wanted to poison her Republican colleague's family with a 'broth of Legionella'. State Rep Stephanie Kifowit directed the remark at Rep Peter Breen during a heated debate on the Illinois House floor over a bill aimed at helping families whose loved ones died or were sickened by a Legionnaires' outbreak at a state-run veterans home. The Republican had raised questions about the financial ramifications of the plan, which would raise the cap on damages the state could pay in civil cases from $100,000 to $2million. 'And, yes, we know the personal injury lawyers are going to make out like bandits, which they tend to do anytime they come to the General Assembly,' Breen said of the bill co-sponsored by Kifowit. The Marine Corps veteran hit back by saying: 'To the representative from Lombard, I would like to make him a broth of Legionella and pump it into the water system of his loved one so that they can be infected, they can be mistreated, they can sit and suffer by getting aspirin instead of being properly treated and ultimately die.' Republicans on the floor erupted in outrage at the perceived threat as Breen accused Kifowit of wishing death on his family. The perceived threat to Rep Peter Breen was made after the Republican raised questions about a bill co-sponsored by Kifowit that is aimed at helping families whose loved ones died or were sickened by a Legionnaires' outbreak at a state-run veterans home Kifowit later clarified her comments on Twitter, claiming that they'd been misinterpreted. 'Just to stem the lies - we were discussing restitution for the families of our Veterans who died of Legionella. It's been revealed that the state knew it pumped a 'broth of Legionella' of 1,600 gallons into the Quincy Veterans Home,' she wrote. 'In response to remarks against giving restitution by Rep Breen I stated 'imagine if it was your family' as a hypothetical because it did happen to families. I never stated anything to wish his family death. Breen (pictured) accused Kifowit of wishing death on his family as Republicans on the House floor erupted in outrage 'My words were twisted and misrepresented but keep in mind - he was angry at the thought. For the families of the Veterans who died and the individuals that were sickened - this is reality.' The Illinois Republican Party quickly called for Kifowit's resignation. 'There is no place for @RepKifowit's extreme rhetoric in our public discourse,' the group wrote on Twitter. 'Wishing death upon political opponents and their families undermines our democracy. Peter Breen and his family deserve an apology from Kifowit. She should be ashamed.' Republican Rep Jeanne Ives told the Chicago Tribune: 'How dare you. How dare you concoct up some sort of story about brewing up some batch of Legionella and having him feed it to his family.' She continued: 'How dare you take the discussion and the debate about a very serious bill that has a huge cost consequence on both sides, both for the victim and the state taxpayers. 'How dare you take an honest debate about an issue and then wish death on my colleague Peter Breen, his wife and his two adopted kids.' The Illinois Republican Party slammed Kifowit on Twitter after she made the incendiary remark Kifowit later clarified her comments on Twitter, claiming that she'd been misunderstood Gov Bruce Rauner vetoed the bill in question, but the Illinois House of Representatives voted 71-36 to override the veto. The bill passed earlier this year is meant to help the families of 14 people who died and dozens of others who became ill from a Legionnaires' outbreak at the Illinois Veteran Home in Quincy. A least a dozen lawsuits claiming that the state was negligent have been filed since the outbreaks began in 2015. King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands has surprised passengers on a scheduled flight to Turkey by turning up as the plane's co-pilot. The Dutch monarch was the co-pilot on duty on KLM flight 1613 from Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport to Ataturk Airport in Istanbul on Saturday. Only the KLM crew were notified in advance of the king's appearance on the Boeing 737-800 flight, which took two hours and 50 minutes. However, some passengers recognised the 51-year-old Dutch royal when they boarded the aircraft. King Willem-Alexander of The Netherlands looks out of the window of a KLM plane at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport (file photo). He was the co-pilot on a flight to Istanbul last week Passenger Can Unsalan said: 'It is not every day you are piloted by a king. It will be an unforgettable memory for me.' He said he was 'a bit concerned' knowing that King Willem-Alexander is a part-time pilot only, but said that both the take-off and landing were 'good' and that he 'wrote him a letter, thanking him'. All 131 passengers were eventually notified on landing that the pilot on the flight was the Dutch king. The king also flew the return journey from Istanbul back to Amsterdam, according to reports. It emerged last year that Willem-Alexander had been quietly flying for KLM for more than 20 years. The monarch - who succeeded his mother Beatrix on the Dutch throne in 2013 - has frequently captained his own royal plane, formerly a Fokker 70, when going on state visits abroad. Willem-Alexander (right), pictured in the cockpit of a KLM plane, said most passengers do not notice him since cockpit security was tightened after the 9/11 attacks in the United States The monarch, pictured wearing sunglasses in the cockpit on an earlier flight, will continue flying for KLM to reach the 150 yearly flight hours needed for his licence As those hours in the sky were not enough to get his licence, he agreed with national airline KLM to fly to European destinations with the airline's Fokker 70s. The Fokkers were later discontinued and the Dutch government bought a new Boeing 737 to be converted into a royal plane for 2019, forcing the king to get a new licence. It is expected that the Dutch king will continue flying for KLM to reach the 150 yearly flight hours needed. Willem-Alexander has previously said he is rarely recognised by passengers in his uniform, especially since security was tightened on board planes in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. He said: 'Before September 11, the cockpit door was open. People regularly came to have a look and thought it was nice or surprising that I was sitting there.' KLM also uses its Boeing 737 to fly to many British destinations such as London, Newcastle, Manchester and Glasgow. Mexico's outgoing government says it will bestow the country's top honor for foreigners on Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, a decision that was quickly met with derision by critics on social media. Kushner, who serves as a senior White House adviser, will be admitted to the Order of the Aztec Eagle because of 'his significant contributions' to a new North American trade pact agreed to in August, the government said in a statement. Kushner has often played a key diplomatic role in Trump's administration, meeting with Mexican and other foreign leaders and helping broker the deal to update the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement that Canada joined in September. But Mexican people are outraged by Kushner's award in light of the President's controversial comments about the country and it's people. People took to Twitter to slam both Kushner, his father-in-law President Trump and outgoing President of Mexico Enrique Pena Nieto. Jared Kushner (right, pictured Wednesday) was chosen by outgoing President of Mexico, Enrique Pena Nieto (left) to receive the prestigious Aztec Eagle Award The Aztec Eagle Award (pictured) is the highest distinction a foreign dignitary can be given by the government of Mexico 'Mexico is giving Jared Kushner their highest honor The Order of the Aztec. When his father in law president Trump has been sh***ing on Mexican people calling them rapist and murderers. Why! don't get it,' tweeted Paul L. Diaz. 'What the hell for! What does Jared Kushner actually do besides work on behalf of his own interests and that of the Donald Trump family. I watch the News everyday and this guy is virtually invisible,' shared William Mitchell. The award is expected to be formally presented to Kushner on Thursday by President Nieto on the sidelines of the G-20 summit of world leaders in Buenos Aires, Mexican newspaper Reforma reported on Tuesday, citing unidentified government sources. The summit is also where the leaders of Mexico, the United States and Canada are expected to sign the revamped regional trade deal. The honor bestowed on Kushner was a trending topic on Twitter, where it appeared to be mostly criticized by prominent Mexicans. Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal (pictured) also lashed out at the decision to honor Kushner, calling it 'tremendously shameful' 'Giving him the Aztec Eagle reflects a supreme attitude of humiliation and cowardice,' Mexican historian Enrique Krauze wrote in one post, noting that Trump called Mexican migrants murderers and rapists during his 2016 presidential campaign. Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal wrote that the decision to honor Kushner was 'tremendously shameful.' The Foreign Relations Department said Kushner earned the award 'for his significant contributions in achieving the renegotiation of the new (trade) agreement between Mexico, the United States and Canada.' Once known as the North American Free Trade Agreement, the pact was renegotiated this year and is now called the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA. Several people took to Twitter to express their disappointment regarding the selection of Jared Kushner for the Aztec Eagle Award Kushner 'played a fundamental role during the whole process, displaying decisive support for the trade talks ... thus achieving satisfactory results,' the department said in a statement. Past Order of the Aztec Eagle honorees include Colombian Nobel literature laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez and former South African President Nelson Mandela. Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will be inaugurated on Saturday after winning a landslide election victory in July. Kushner's wife, Ivanka Trump, is expected to attend the swearing-in along with other U.S. officials, including Vice President Mike Pence. This is the scary moment two brown bears start fighting violently in a forest. Footage shows one of the bears walking calmly until it gets next to another beast. As the big animal walks into the shot, it becomes clear it is stalking another bear. They quickly come face to face, growling loudly until one of them attacks the other. Hot steam bursts from their moves as the animals wrestle and bite each other. One of the bears then sinks its jaws into the other animal's neck. Daniel Ludin, who filmed the video in the forests north of Kuusamo, Finland, managed to keep calm despite the violent scrap that started right in front of him. Daniel said: 'I was stunned by the show of strength and the force they both exerted. 'That was the first time Id ever seen anything this impressive. The two bears start growling loudly until one of them sinks its jaws into the other's shoulders 'I was only about 30metres away from the action, so you could feel the power. 'They carried on for two minutes in total and impressively there didnt seem to be any injuries incurred.' After the fight, the two bears calm down and seem to be taking different directions. Kuusamo is a beloved destination for holidaymakers loving animals and the nature. Bear watching experiences are the most common tourist activities in the area. The bears were trying to show their dominance by acting aggressively against each other BearSmart say bears' dominance hierarchy is based on age, size and temperament. Mature males, that are at the top of the hierarchy, establish their social position and maintain their dominance by posturing or acting aggressively. Single females are almost always submissive to mature males, but they appear to have a less rigid hierarchy within their own group. A Florida man coming home early from a Tinder date got the shock of his life when he discovered two of his roommates stuffing a mutilated body into plastic bags. Jake Bilotta, 22, and Ian McClurg, 21, allegedly lured a former roommate into their home and stabbed him to death because they thought he stole their PlayStation 4. They have both been charged with first-degree murder. Their new roommate, Walter Johnson -who only moved in last week - had unexpectedly returned to his Maitland home during his date on Monday when he saw McClurg holding a 7-inch chef's knife, police said. Ian McClurg, 21, (left) and Jake Bilotta, 22, (right) were arrested after they allegedly killed a former roommate because they believed he stole their PlayStation 4 Meanwhile, Bilotta was stuffing a dead body into plastic bags, according to the Orlando Sentinel. Johnson told investigators he also saw Bilotta rummage through a backpack next to the body, telling McClurg: 'Give the (expletive) some credit, he put a good fight'. He also spotted a mop and duct tape nearby. Johnson immediately ran back to his car, where his Tinder date was still waiting for him, and called police around 11pm. Authorities found McClurg barricaded in the bathroom, while Bilotta ran barefoot out of the back door of the home. Officers found Bilotta 30 minutes later and took him into custody. There was still blood on his hands and feet, as well as his clothes. McClurg and Bilotta's new roommate called police when he walked in on the horrific murder scene while coming back from a Tinder date. Pictured is their home in Maitland, Florida Authorities found McClurg barricaded in the bathroom, while Bilotta ran barefoot out of the back door of the home. Pictured is a chopper spotting Bilotta Officers found Bilotta 30 minutes after they arrived at the scene and took him into custody. There was still blood on his hands and feet, as well as his clothes Authorities said that Bilotta and McClurg coaxed their victim back to the house by promising to take him to a party before they attacked him Bilotta and McClurg believed that the victim - who has not yet been identified - broke into their home last week and stole a PlayStation 4, according to Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma. 'The report, from Ian, was Jake was so upset earlier in the day he was punching holes in the walls,' Lemma said. 'He was doing whatever he could to get this individual back over there so he could take revenge out on the burglary.' The victim had lived at the home with Bilotta and McClurg for only two weeks before he was evicted two weeks ago. Johnson then moved in to replace him. The boys had believed their victim broke into the house last week to steal their PlayStation 4 (pictured in a file photo) It remains unclear why the victim was kicked out of the home. Lemma said that Bilotta and McClurg coaxed their victim back to the house by promising to take him to a party. Bilotta then allegedly stabbed the victim multiple times while McClurg blocked his ability to escape, according to WKMG. 'They lured him back there for revenge,' Lemma said. 'It's just absolutely bizarre.' 'It is the most bizarre and disgraceful act that one can imagine, over these gaming systems and things that have little value, definitely no association with human life whatsoever.' Lemma said McClurg and Bilotta had planned to stuff their victim's body in multiple plastic bags and dump them. It is unlikely that they thought Johnson or their other roommate - who was at work at the time - was going to walk in during the attack, he added. Lemma said drugs were also found in the home, but police do not believe they were a motive in the attack. John Chau, 27, was killed on North Sentinel Island earlier this month by a tribe he was hoping to spread the word of God among The Christian group which sent the American missionary to the island where he was killed by a protected tribe insisted on Wednesday that he would have gone to there with or without their help and had been planning the trip since he was a teenager. John Chau, 27, was killed when he approached North Sentinel Island earlier this month. He was trying to spread the word of God to the Sentinelese people who have lived separately from society for 30,000 years. Chau had paid local Indian fishermen to take him as far as he could then he kayaked towards the island himself. His body is still there and police are yet to determine how they will get it back. On Wednesday, All Nations, the Kansas City missionary group he was a part of, eschewed responsibility for his death. Its leader, Mary Ho, said he had paid for the trip himself, had been planning it for years and was 'very well prepared', implying that he knew the risks of venturing towards the island. 'He was just emotionally, culturally, physically, intellectually very, very well prepared. 'He was a young man who, from the time he was about 18 years old, went on a mission trip and knew that he was called to be a missionary. 'Even as a young man, before we met him, every decision he made, every step he took, was to share the love of God with the North Sentinelese. 'Knowing John, he would have pursued this calling no matter what,' she told The Kansas City Star. Her message came as friends shared their view that he may still be alive. 'I think there's a possibility he may have survived - I wouldn't rule it out,' his friend John Middleton Ramsey told The Sun Online. He added that John's mother Lynda was a Christian and 'believed' he was still alive. 'His mother is a Christian too and she has said that in her prayers that she had feelings that John might still be alive. 'And there werent a whole lot of eyewitnesses and so since his body hasnt been found we shouldnt rule it out - even if it is a small chance,' he said. Chau was representing All Nations, a missionary group based in Kansas City, Kansas. He had been training with them for a year and its leader, Mary Ho (pictured center in white) said he was 'well prepared' for the journey Chau was killed by the Sentinelese people who local fishermen say they saw drag his body across the island. They have lived independently for 30,000 years The Sentinelese tribe are an indigenous tribe who live on North Sentinal Island, lies around 450 miles from the coast of Thailand and more than 745 miles from mainland India In a letter home, Chau told his parents not to blame the tribe if they killed him and that he believed the risk of losing his life was worth it. Ho told how Chau kept a diary to prepare for the mission. 'He was trained to be prudent, to take certain precautions, to understand culture, to understand languages, to understand what others have done before that may have worked,' she said. He met the group more than a year before he made the journey. Other groups are now urging Indian police not to try to recover his body. Not only is it clearly dangerous for anyone to approach the island, but if they do get onto it they risk exposing the tribe to pathogens to which they have no immunity because they have lived independently for so long. In a statement earlier this week, the group Survivor International, said: 'Its not impossible that the Sentinelese have just been infected by deadly pathogens to which they have no immunity, with the potential to wipe out the entire tribe. 'The Sentinelese have shown again and again that they want to be left alone, and their wishes should be respected. 'The British colonial occupation of the Andaman Islands decimated the tribes living there, wiping out thousands of tribespeople, and only a fraction of the original population now survive. Chau, according to the missionary group he was working with, knew he wanted to spread the word of God when he was 18 'So the Sentinelese fear of outsiders is very understandable,' the group said in a statement. Indian authorities have already filed a murder case against the tribe and they are holding some of the fishermen who helped Chau get there on other charges. His family in Washington State has urged them to release the fishermen, claiming their son's death was no one's fault but his own. A hospital patient has been left disgusted after being attacked by bed bugs and told 'it was all in her head'. Claire Alderson, 28, was an inpatient at Southend Hospital when the pests set upon her in her bed during a stay for treatment for gastritis, which causes severe stomach pain. She claims hospital staff in the Essex facility fobbed her off, denying the bugs were a problem and that she was forced to leave to escape the infestation. Recalling the unpleasant experience, which began last Thursday morning, she said: 'I can't believe how dismissive some of the staff were, it took them the full day to even acknowledge any bed bugs. 'I felt so dirty and helpless, they made me feel like I was crazy and nothing was wrong.' Claire Alderson , 28, of Westcliff-on-Sea, was an inpatient at Southend Hospital in Essex when she was plagued by an infestation of bedbugs Lifelike 3D rendering of a bedbug. A hospital whistle blower revealed two wards in Southend Hospital have been blighted by the pests, including the Eastwood ward which specialises in gynaecology. She added: 'There were other patients in that ward, but they didn't move anyone off. 'Anyone could have been bitten. By the time I left this week I was covered in bites.' Mrs Alderson, of Westcliff-on-Sea, was an inpatient for three weeks. A whistle blower has revealed two wards have been blighted by bed bugs - including the Eastwood ward which specialises in gynaecology. The hospital has confirmed there is an infestation in a 'small area' in two wards. It is understood the hospital has hired fumigators in a bid to combat the problem and patients had to be moved. Mrs Alderson ended up covered in bites all over her body after spending time in the infested ward. She said staff initially fobbed her off, saying: 'they made me feel like I was crazy' She took this photo of one of the offending insects, which set upon her during a three-week stay to treat gastritis An employee who did not wish to be named said: 'Everyone is concerned because the problem still seems to be spreading and people could end up taking them home with them if it isn't sorted soon. 'They had pest control in a couple of weeks ago but the wards are still infested with them.' A spokesman for the hospital said the team were sorry to hear of Mrs Alderson's experience. Denise Townsend, director of nursing at Southend Hospital, said: 'Our infection prevention team has spoken at length with Ms Alderson about her concerns providing reassurance and advice on how to minimise the risk of spreading bedbugs between people. 'The team also advised Ms Alderson that leaving the hospital site while she is an inpatient can increase the risk of spread.' 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. She had applied for the civil service position in 1997 when she made the forgery The cleaner was charged with misleading the public and caged for ten years Dimitra Tsiantaki said she will need time to recover after three weeks in jail A Greek cleaner caged for 10 years for forging her elementary school certificate to earn a state-paid job has been released on compassionate grounds. Dimitra Tsiantaki, a 53-year-old kindergarten cleaner was jailed after claiming she had spent six years at elementary school instead of five in a case which drew public anger. The Greek supreme court's prosecutor is now investigating her conviction for misleading the public. Dimitria Tsiantaki, 53, speaking with broadcaster Skai TV after her release granted by a courthouse in the city of Larisa today Dimitria Tsiantaki told the news anchor that she had worked for 20 years as a state-paid cleaner before she was sacked for a forgery of a certificate for her elementary school studies Her lawyer, Giorgos Sinelis, said the ruling by the court in the city of Larisa will allow her to stay out of prison pending a decision by the supreme court on her appeal against the conviction. 'I am confident that the supreme court will accept' the appeal, Sinelis said. Ms Tsiantaki, said her three-week incarceration had been a major shock. 'It will take me a little while to recover,' she told private broadcaster Skai TV. The municipal employee quit elementary school after completing fifth grade and obtained her civil service position in 1997, having submitted a forged certificate that she had finished sixth grade - the minimum education requirement for state-employed cleaners. 'She was a cleaner,' said Sinelis, the lawyer. 'Therefore whether she finished fifth or sixth grade has nothing to do with whether she performed her job.' She was initially sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment, later reduced to 10 years. Ms Tsiantaki said in her TV interview that she had faked the certificate because she had been unemployed and needed work to prevent social services from taking away her two children - adding that she herself had grown up in an orphanage. 'I know what orphanages are like, and I didn't want my children to go through what I went through,' she said. 'We were nine brothers and sisters and my parents couldn't bring us up.' Dimitria Tsiantaki said she grew up in an orphanage and wanted to work hard to prevent the same happening to her children; she added she has since completed her sixth-grade-studies The courthouse in Larisa which ordered Ms Tsiantaki's release pending investigation by the Greek supreme court's prosecutor Ms Tsiantaki said she had worked for 20 years as a municipally-employed cleaner, and was sacked after the forged certificate was discovered. She added that she has since completed her sixth-grade studies. Critics of her incarceration included Greece's governing left-wing Syriza party. A prisoners' rights group said the decision to jail her had been 'legally and morally groundless.' '(The conviction) highlights the persisting problems in Greece's system of awarding so-called justice, which leads thousands of socially vulnerable people to prison with crushing convictions,' the Initiative for Prisoners' Rights said. Four metal detectorists are facing up to seven years in jail after uncovering a haul of Anglo-Saxon and Viking treasure and selling it on the black market, a court has heard. George Powell, 37, Layton Davies, 50, Paul Wells, 59, and Simon Wicks, 56, are accused of digging up the hoard of artefacts in 2015 and failing to declare it as treasure. The relics found near Leominster, Herefordshire, included gold and silver coins, a gold ring, a gold arm bracelet and a crystal sphere as well as silver ingots. Layton Davies (left), 50 and from Pontypridd, Mid Glamorgan, and Simon Wicks (right), 56 and from Hailsham, East Sussex, are both facing up to seven years in jail for selling unreported treasure on the black market The four men, including George Powell (pictured hidden by his umbrella), appeared at Worcester Crown Court where they spoke only to confirm their names during a 25 minute hearing It is the legal responsibility of the finder of any precious metal objects that are over 300 years old to report them to the local coroner as possible treasure under the terms of the Treasure Act (1996). Today the four men appeared at Worcester Crown where they spoke only to confirm their names during a 25 minute hearing. Powell, of Pill, in Newport, Shrops., Davies, of Pontypridd, Mid Glamorgan and Wicks, of Hailsham, East Sussex, all pleaded not guilty to dealing in tainted cultural objects. What is the Treasure Act (1996) and how could it land you in jail? It is an Act of Parliament designed to deal with finds of treasure in England and Wales. Should you find any treasure, you must report it to your local coroner within 14 days. Failure to do so could lead to an unlimited fine or imprisonment of up to three months. The four face a longer prison sentence as they are also being charged under the Dealing in Cultural Objects Offences Act 2003. This carries a maximum sentence of seven years if someone is found to have sold a 'tainted cultural object' on the black market. An item such as this is described in law as being an 'object of historical, architectural or archaeological interest.' Advertisement Wells, of Rummney, Cardiff, was not asked to enter a plea after requesting the prosecution to review his case on the basis he handed the coins to police before he was charged. If found guilty they could face a maximum prison sentence of seven years as well as a fine under the Dealing in Cultural Objects Offences Act 2003. A 'tainted cultural object' is described in law as being an 'object of historical, architectural or archaeological interest.' Judge Jim Tindal told the quartet that their trial will last for four weeks and begin on September 30 next year. He said: 'Clearly this complicated case. 'Each of you will have time with your lawyers to discuss the case. 'For the moment the next hearing you must attend is your trial on September 30, 2019. 'If you fail to attend, the trail will go on within your absence.' The group were given unconditional bail and a pre-trial review will take place on March 15 at Worcester Crown Court West Mercia Police said due to the complexity of the investigation, the force had enlisted the help of multiple agencies including both local and national archaeological authorities and experts from the British Museum. Stephen Belafonte has revealed the truth behind sordid sex tapes Mel B claims her ex was threatening to release during their ten-year marriage - insisting the Spice Girl was often behind the camera. In part two of an exclusive interview with DailyMailTV, Belafonte also reveals the shocking depths of Mel's alcohol and drug use and claims he filmed her snorting lines of cocaine in front of their children. The 43-year-old businessman says his former wife went to great lengths to protect her public image while partying, having promiscuous sex and doing drugs - meanwhile his reputation is in tatters from the myriad of 'horrific' allegations of domestic violence and abuse she made against him. 'I do not know who I was married to, at all. It is a person who had the capability of probably slitting my throat if it protected her as an addict,' he said. 'What she has said to protect her own image, to play the victim was nasty and horrific. I'm dumbfounded.' Stephen Belafonte has responded to ex-wife Mel B's claims that he drugged her, forced her into threesomes and secretly filmed their trysts The 43-year-old businessman says the former Spice Girl went to great lengths to protect her public image while partying, having promiscuous sex and doing drugs - while his reputation was destroyed Belafonte says it's 'disgusting' how Mel reveals all about her cocaine use and her insatiable appetite for sex in her new book Brutally Honest. 'She blames me for her cocaine use, she blames me for the sexual stuff, it's just disgusting,' he explains. 'I don't know why a person who cares about their daughters, who is girl power, would ever in a million years want this to be out there for your younger daughters to read.' In the book, Mel talks of having a threesome - which she admits was her idea - with her husband and another woman early in their marriage. But she claims she woke the next day in 'shock' when she recalled how Belafonte had filmed the encounter. 'Remembering that it had been videoed I jolted awake, a video, a sex video,' she wrote. She added: 'I felt as if I was falling in slow motion down a black hole like a little girl in a nursery rhyme. 'What if the video gets leaked,' I thought, "What have I done?"' In court, Mel used the existence of 64 sex tapes to claim Belafonte had drugged her and secretly filmed their steamy sessions in a bid to hold them over her head. But defiant Belafonte, who has broken his silence after two years, hits back: 'She said that I had sex tapes, she had the world thinking that I filmed pornography, you know, sex tapes of my wife without her knowing. 'My wife was filming me. I want to show the videos of her filming me. She's completely dressed and turns the video on herself and talks about, "hmm it's so sexy" and continues filming me with another person having sex.' By November 2017, as part of a mediation settlement, Mel claims in her book that she agreed to drop domestic violence charges against Belafonte if none of the sex tapes were played in open court. Mel B released her new book, Brutally Honest on Tuesday, in which she tells of her 10-year marriage and claims Belafonte secretly filmed her having sex. Belafonte says the sex tapes were consensual and slammed his ex-wife for documenting her sex life and drug use in a book their daughters will read Belafonte has called accusations that he and nanny Lorainne Gilles (center) threatened to release the sex tapes, 'crazy' and said he would never want to subject their daughters to scandal Mel eventually admitted to having a sexual relationship with Gilles that included threesomes with Belafonte. He also claims she convinced the nanny to get a tattoo near her privates saying 'Property of Mel B' Belafonte claims she was much more likely worried about the videos of her snorting cocaine in front of her kids would be aired. During the divorce battle, their former nanny Lorraine Gilles claimed that she and Mel had a five-year sexual relationship that included three-ways with Belafonte. Mel accused her husband of conspiring with German born Gilles, 27, and threatening to release the sex tapes. But Belafonte calls the allegations 'crazy' and cites strict California laws against revenge porn. 'I'd have to be crazy to even think about releasing any of the sex tapes publicly and why would I want to subject my daughters to that anyway?' he said. The movie producer also points out that if he was the controlling, dominant 'monster' in the marriage and he was conspiring with Gilles, then why did Mel convince the nanny to get a tattoo near her privates saying 'Property of Mel B'. Gilles is currently suing Mel for defamation after she branded her a 'prostitute' and 'home-wrecker' in court papers. Belafonte admits that he did film some consensual sex tapes with Mel and he also filmed her when she was drunk or drugged up. 'But there was a reason,' he explains. 'The videos were taken to give to her therapist. So Melanie would take accountability. Melanie does not take accountability for anything. If I were to say, "why were you doing cocaine in front of the kids?" She would say, "you're yelling at me." And I'd go, "I know I'm a little pi**ed off. You were doing cocaine in front of the kids," and she would never deal with the underlying issue.' He claims he wanted to show therapist Dr Charles Sophy that Mel was in a bad place. Belafonte also shut down allegations that Mel was a prisoner in her marriage by claiming he caught her having an affair with actor Tamer Hassan in 2010 At the time a series of photos emerged of Mel sitting on Dead Man Running star Hassan's lap and kissing him 'Not hidden videos, directly (to her). Videos where I'm acknowledging her and saying, why are you doing cocaine around the kids? Why are you drinking so much that you can't stand up now? Why are your friends giving you all of these drugs.' Belafonte says he enjoys a glass of Scotch whiskey but never did drugs with Mel. He says he left drug-taking behind in his youth. 'I never did drugs with my wife,' he insists. 'We never had that relationship. We had drinks together. The drinking is bad. It's the chemical imbalance of Melanie's brain once drinking starts.' Mel's ex admits that during one blazing row he threatened to call Child Services on his wife if he ever caught her taking drugs in front of the kids again. But he says when he asked Dr Sophy, what to do, he was advised against it. 'Dr Sophy said you may lose your children and it's a can of worms that you may open up, that you may regret,' Belafonte recalled. 'So I tried to work with our therapist who then prescribed Melanie with shots of Antabuse and other medicines where she could not take the drugs or alcohol.' Texts submitted to the court during their case revealed how Mel agreed to take a daily dose of prescription drug Antabuse to tackle her alcoholism, which according to Dr Sophy, would prove she would be 'safe' around her kids. Antabuse is a drug used in the treatment of chronic alcoholism by producing an acute sensitivity to ethanol (drinking alcohol), making the user vomit. In her book Mel paints herself as a victim, a survivor of domestic abuse - a woman who turned to drink and drugs to numb the pain of an abusive marriage. But Belafonte says Mel has been drinking and doing drugs her whole adult life, since she was 17 or 18-years-old, and certainly since the Spice Girls days. And in another damning claim, Belafonte reveals that Mel's long time friend Rusty Updegraff, who recently called her out over her drink and drug binges, told him that she had asked him for cocaine while in a hospital bed shortly after the birth of daughter Angel, now 11. Court documents revealed Mel agreed to take a daily dose of prescription drug Antabuse to tackle her alcoholism, to prove she would be 'safe' around her kids. Belafonte says he once e threatened to call Child Services on his wife if he ever caught her taking drugs in front of the kids again 'So you start learning all these things that it didn't start with me.' he said. 'It's been going on prior to me. And then I talked to some other people and people got in contact with me and it's just crazy... to know that you don't know who you've been with for 10 years. And I do not know who I was married to at all.' Belafonte blames a 'chemical imbalance' in Mel's brain for her problems with alcohol and recounts stories of how Mel would sometimes drink vodka shots during the day. He said his wife wasn't 'emotionally available' for their children when she was drinking, but adds that she wasn't a danger. 'She wasn't, you know, beating our children. She wasn't starving them or locking them in a room,' he said. 'The biggest problem was just having our children around the craziness that came from Melanie when she would be doing her drugs and drinking.' Belafonte is also keen to point out that far from being a prisoner in her 10-year marriage, he allegedly caught Mel cheating behind his back. As for the violence, Belafonte says anybody who has met his wife knows she wouldn't stand for it. 'Melanie is a Leeds firecracker. Who is Melanie scared of, there was no fear,' he said. 'To be honest with you. I feel like Melanie is projecting... she needs me to be this horrible, abusive, controlling, piece of dog crap in order to justify the things that Melanie had going on in our relationship.' He added that they lived their life in the public, always visible, so he questions where are the witnesses who saw the abuse. 'Listen, we had a reality show, we were on Instagram. We had people in our house every day. We had meetings and Melanie was flying by herself. I was running a restaurant, I was making movies, I was doing things and what Melanie described in her book is what real domestic violence looks like. 'She took a snapshot of it and tried to insert it into her life and it doesn't fit well.' Reps for Mel B did not respond to DailyMail.com's requests for comment. Despite their divorce being final in December 2017, trying to settle complicated issues between them mostly over children and money, dragged on for another nine months and the warring couple didn't settle until August this year. Earlier this month they finally reached an agreement that brought to an end their vicious battle. The pair has been ordered to stay 200 yards away from each other. And Mel must cough up $350,000 for Belafonte's legal fees and pay him an additional $5,000 a month in child support for Madison. Belafonte is desperate to move on with his life and spend more time with his daughters. He has biological daughter Madison, seven, with Mel but he also helped raise Mel's daughter with Eddie Murphy, Angel, 11, from birth. He also has another daughter Gisele from a previous relationship. His only regret is not being able to see Angel - and for that he blames his ex. 'I lost was my stepdaughter and I couldn't see her because I didn't have parental rights. And that hurt me the most. What type of mother does that? She rips them away. For what reason?' A mystery green fireball seen glowing above Russia's high-tech 'scientific city' has puzzled scientists. The bright flash and streaking tail was spotted by stunned motorists close to research town Akademgorodok, on the edge of regional capital Novosibirsk in southern Siberia. The research institutes in the area have been dubbed Vladimir Putin's 'secret weapon'. The images were caught on dashcams in the early-morning darkness on Tuesday and have prompted a range of explanations. The green fireball is caught by a dashcam in southern Siberia. It has sparked a range of explanations including an unexpected meteor or a secret weapons test The state-run Russia Today described it as a meteor but acknowledged that astronomers were 'somewhat bewildered' by the sight. The pictures have sparked rumours that Russia was testing 'extremely advanced weapons' while others suggested it was a UFO. Ilya Orlov, deputy director of the Big Novosibirsk Planetarium, hailed the 'beautiful phenomenon' but he could not certain what caused it. 'Most likely, this is a flash of bolide, that is, the fall of a bright meteor with a flash,' he said, saying it would be unusual. 'It is all the more surprising because there are no active meteor showers now. It can be either the tail of a [Leonid] meteor shower or a lone meteor. We need to find out.' A bolide is a very bright meteor that explodes in the earth's atmosphere. No traces of space rock was found on the snowy ground, it was reported. There were no reported rocket launches or missile tests when the fireball appeared early on Tuesday, which sometimes account for 'UFO sightings' in Siberia. The fireball is seen from a snow-covered road in Siberia. Russia's state broadcaster described it as a meteor but astronomers said there were no meteor showers expected The fireball is seen with its tail next to a van in Russia. The research institutes in the area have been dubbed President Vladimir Putin's 'secret weapon' The spooky incident was close to Akademgorodok, set up by the Kremlin in 1957 as a base to hothouse Soviet scientists in Siberia - far from the prying eyes of the West. It is now home to many of Russia's leading researchers and academics specialising in all branches of sciences including military and space developments. It houses dozens of scientific institutes and has been called the cradle of the Kremlin's high-tech innovation. The site is just six miles away from Koltsovo, home of a secretive repository of the planet's most deadly diseases and viruses. The Russian State Research Centre of Virology and Biotechnology, called Vector, is a highly guarded institute which in Soviet times was at the forefront of deadly weapons programmes. In recent years Vector has been involved in efforts to find cures and antidotes to killers such as bubonic plague, anthrax, hepatitis B, HIV and cancer. The research centre holds one of the last two samples of smallpox in the world, with the United States retaining the other. President Donald Trump and his legal team have been operating under a joint defense agreement with Jerome Corsi, a conspiracy theorist who claims prosecutors are pressuring him to lie. Corsi, who ran the D.C. bureau for the InfoWars conspiracy website, has promoted birther conspiracies about President Obama, which Trump pushed at the start of his political career. Corsi, 72, referenced the joint defense deal in a forthcoming book where he attacks special counsel Robert Mueller and the 'deep state.' It was confirmed by Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, the Daily Beast reported. Jerome Corsi, a former Washington bureau chief at InfoWars, allegedly told Trump adviser Roger Stone about a coming WikiLeaks release of Democratic emails in 2016. He has a joint defense agreement with President Trump's lawyers Giuliani told the publication Trump 'vaguely knows' Corsi, who this week said he was offered a plea deal by Mueller's team that would have him admit to a count of perjury. But Corsi told NBC he would 'rather sit in prison and rot' than say he lied, Giuliani says Trump 'doesn't remember the last time' he and Corsi spoke. The former New York mayor confirmed the agreement with another Trump lawyer, Jane Raskin. The agreement was confirmed following revelations that lawyers for former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort continue to pass information to Trump's lawyers despite Manafort's conviction on conspiracy and financial fraud charges. Manafort is currently doing time in a jail in Virginia. Prosecutors this week filed a document stating he was in breach of a cooperation agreement with the government due to his 'lies,' despite his pledge to truthfully answer their questions. LET'S COOPERATE: Manafort (pictured) is facing a jail sentence of up to 10 years on conspiracy charges and eight counts of financial fraud. His lawyers have been revealed to have been in contact with Trump's legal team even after his conviction The New York Times reported that Manafort's lawyer continued to brief Trump's team on developments even after he reached his cooperation agreement with prosecutors two months ago. Giuliani told the paper Manafort's lawyer Kevin M. Downing conveyed that investigators had hammered away with questions about whether or not Trump new about the infamous Trump Tower meeting in 2016 that included Donald Trump Jr. and Russians. Corsi referenced the joint agreement in his forthcoming book, 'Silent No More: How I Became a Political Prisoner of Mueller's 'Witch Hunt,' the Daily Caller reported this week. 'After debating the pros and cons, we had decided that anytime we could get the attorney for the president of the United States to offer assistance to us, we needed to say to be thankful and accept,' Corsi writes. Joint defense agreements are fairly common when multiple defendants face prosecution on related charges, though it is notable for a president to have such an agreement to someone convicted of federal crimes who is cooperating with the government. According to the Times, the ongoing discussions led to a 'deteriorating relationship' between Manafort and prosecutors who began to suspect he was 'holding out' on them. Mueller's team interviewed Corsi about his contacts with longtime Trump advisor Roger Stone, who has not been interviewed by Mueller and who has predicted he will be indicted. One alleged email between them that has emerged has Corsi reportedly advising stone on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and predicting the release of hacked Democratic emails. 'Word is friend in embassy plans 2 more dumps,' Corsi wrote Stone. 'One shortly after I'm back. 2nd in Oct. Impact planned to be very damaging.' A Canadian schoolteacher and her 10-month-old daughter were mauled to death by a grizzly bear this week while taking a walk outside their remote cabin, where the family had been staying during her maternity leave. Gjermund Roesholt returned to the cabin near Einarson Lake in the Yukon territory at around 3pm Monday to find the lifeless bodies of his partner, 37-year-old Valerie Theoret, and their baby girl, Adele Roesholt. CBC News reported that the bear that killed Roesholt's family was still roaming about and charged at him, prompting the man to shoot and kill the animal. Canadian schoolteacher Valerie Theoret, 37, was mauled to death by a bear along with her 10-month-old daughter, Adele Roesholt The mom and baby were out for a walk near their cabin on Einarson Lake (pictured) in the Yukon territory when the grizzly bear attacked A grizzly bear is seen catching salmon in a river in British Columbia, Canada (stock image) The Yukon Coroner's Office stated in a press release that the mother and daughter were likely attacked while out for a stroll, sometime between 10am and 3pm. At the time of her death, Theoret, a sixth-grade French teacher, was on maternity leave (pictured with her baby as a newborn) Theoret's friend Remy Beaupre told the station Valerie had been on maternity leave, and the family had spent the last three months at the cabin, engaging in animal trapping in the heavily wooded area. Roesholt told the authorities said he had spent Monday morning and afternoon trapping away from home. As he was approaching his cabin, at that point still not knowing what had happened to his girlfriend and daughter, the grizzly bear lunged at him. After killing the bear, Roesholt came upon Valerie and baby Adele's bodies. About three years ago, she and Roesholt bought the cabin near Einarson Lake, some 250 miles northwest of their hometown of Whitehouse, planning to spend as much time there as possible. Beaupre, the family friend, said both Theoret and her boyfriend had ample experience surviving in the wilderness, were well-prepared for emergencies and loved the great outdoors. According to a spokesperson for Environment Yukon, a necropsy will be performed on the grizzly bear that killed the mother and baby in an effort to determine the cause of the attack. When Theoret's boyfriend (left) returned, the same bear attacked him as well, but Gjermund Roesholt was able to kill the animal. He then found the bodies of Valerie (right) and their baby A friend said both Theoret )pictured) and her boyfriend were trappers with ample experience surviving in the wilderness Bear conflicts resulting in human fatalities are rare in the territory: in more than 20 years, there have been just three. Bears only attack humans defensively, if they feel threatened of to protect their cubs, or as predators if they don't have enough fat stores for the winter, are injured, sick or starving. According to information available on the environmental agency's website, grizzly bear population in Yukon is estimated at 6,000-7,000 animals. A man has been sentenced three years and two months in prison in China after seizing the steering wheel from a bus driver in order to get off the vehicle by force. The man, known by his surname Chen, also dragged the driver's arms and squeezed him by his neck when the bus was travelling in downtown Yinchuan in Ningxia province, according to the court. The court said the passenger was under the influence of alcohol when he carried out the assault last October. The news emerged a month after a brawl between a passenger and a bus driver in another Chinese city caused the bus to veer off course and plunge off a high bridge, killing at least 13 on board. The man in China tries to open the bus doors by force to get off the vehicle between stops He then grabs the steering wheel from the driver before launching a physical assault on him Chen attacked the driver on bus number 101 when it reached Beijing Road at around 2pm on October 10 last year, said Yinchuan Intermediate People's Court. The man had demanded the driver let him off the bus between two stops and the driver had refused. Infuriated, the passenger first tried to pull open the rear doors of the bus by force before going up to confront the driver. Chen argued with the driver, dragged his arms before grabbing the steering wheel from his hands in order to force him to stop the vehicle. The court also said Chen squeezed the driver's neck during the process. At one point, the passenger even squeezes the driver by the neck in a bid to force-stop the bus The incident took place in Yinchuan, the provincial capital of north-western Ningxia, last year The driver, who remains unidentified, had to apply emergency brake under attack. Two other passengers were injured when the bus came to a sudden stop. In August, Chen was convicted of the crime of endangering public safety by dangerous means. Yinchuan Intermediate People's Court sentenced him three years and two months in prison in the first instance. Chen appealed against the ruling. During the second trial last Wednesday, the court affirmed the original judgment, calling it appropriate. The court said the judgement was made based on sufficient evidence and clear facts. Li Gang, a deputy judge, told China Central Television Station: 'As an adult, (Chen) should have predicted that the act of dragging the driver's arm could cause the bus to lose control and lead to the serious consequences of endangering the lives and health of multiple people as well as the loss of public and private assets.' Li Tao, a director at Yinchuan Public Transport Company, warned passengers not to have 'impulsive behaviour'. 'Public safety is everybody's responsibility,' Li Tao told the reporter. A bus crashes into the opposite lane before plunging off a bridge into the Yangtze River, killing at least 13. The accident last month was caused by a brawl between a passenger and the driver Late last month, a passenger fought with the driver of a bus in Chongqing during a journey. The brawl caused the vehicle to veer into the wrong lane before falling into the Yangtze River. Police said the female passenger started quarrelling with the driver after she had missed her stop. None of the 15 passengers on the bus is believed to have survived. In a latest report, the official Xinhua News Agency said 13 bodies had been retrieved from the river and two others remained missing. A British former deputy headmaster has been arrested after allegedly sexually abusing schoolboys in Cambodia by luring them to his house with gifts. Steve Loryman, 57, had been volunteering in the south east Asian country with his wife Alison since June 2017. Police said they received a complaint from a mother of one of the boys claiming he was being abused by Loryman. According to social media, Loryman previously volunteered with a Christian mission in Sierra Leone. A picture released by Cambodian police which appears to show three boys seated on the floor and one behind Steve Loryman at his rented home in the capital Phnom Penh, in Cambodia Another picture from Cambodian police shows Steve Loryman seated at a desk with smartphones, a tablet and USB flash drives laid out on evidence bags In another photo the Cambodian authorities search through a suitcase as Loryman watches on The Brit, who taught at a school in Bradford, West Yorkshire, was arrested at his rented home in the capital Phnom Penh on Sunday at around 1pm. Police claim there were four boys all under the age of 15 with him at the time. Police photos show three of the children sitting on the ground while another sits on a chair behind him. A statement from the Cambodian General Commissariat of National Police said that Loryman had been sent to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court today. They said: 'Police of the Anti-Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection Department on 28 November 2018 sent a British suspect to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court to enforce the legal procedure involving child prostitution under 15 years of age.' Lieutenant Colonel Lal Lin, the chief of the child protection department, said that the suspect had been renting a plot of land in the Khan Chbar Ampov district. Steve Loryman sits with his hands in his pockets in this picture released by Cambodian authorities This picture was released by the Cambodian police after they arrested Loryman on Sunday Newspaper cuttings show that Loryman was a former deputy headmaster at Eastwood Primary School in Keighley, Bradford Lt. Col. Lal Lin said: 'On November 25, 2018, at 12:30 am, the suspect brought four boys to his rented home. 'On suspicion, the police reported to the Deputy Prosecutor requesting to check the above rental address. 'In monitoring and with the cooperation of relevant authorities, police found that there were four children with the suspect, and the police followed the procedure and brought the suspect and some electronics and four children to the department for questioning.' The statement said that 'according to the victim's comments', Loryman 'used various means to attack the child. For example, by donating money, buying a phone, buying food, taking a walk, buying clothes, buying school supplies, buying bicycles and so on.' Police said that there were complaints from a mother and her child, which lead them to take action. The statement added: 'It is concluded that the suspects sexually assaulted and molested the children by using money and materials to attract them. 'It is decided to build a case to send the suspects to the Phnom Penh Court for disciplinary action and to follow the appropriate legal process.' According to Loryman's social media entries from 2012, he had been working in Sierra Leone since 2006 with a Christian based charity called Mission Direct. In 2012 he self-published a fiction book called 'Kissy Boys' which tells the story of a child 'abducted from his home and destined to be used for body parts or as a sacrifice in a ritual.' Reports in Keighley News say that Loryman was a former teacher and then deputy head at Eastwood Primary School in the town of Keighley in Bradford, West Yorkshire. British police will find it harder to track down and prosecute terrorists and criminals if there is a no deal Brexit, officials today warned. UK agencies would no longer be plugged into systems to allow for the swift exchange of data on known and suspected suspects. This includes information criminal records, alerts on wanted suspects, DNA, fingerprints and airline passenger information. Without these EU systems, the British authorities would find it harder and slower to track down suspects. The warning is contained in a paper entitled EU Exit - assessment of the security partnership - Whitehall's most thorough assessment of the security fall out of a no deal Brexit. British police will find it harder to track down and prosecute terrorists and criminals if there is a no deal Brexit, officials today warned. The warning will alarm Home Secretary Sajid Javid (pictured in Downing Street) who is in charge of maintaining law and order It states: 'A no deal scenario would not provide the same levels of capabilities envisaged in the deal scenario - many of which would require formal agreements with the EU - and would risk increasing pressure on UK security, law enforcement and judicial authorities. 'In the event of no deal, the UK would no longer have any access to EU data platforms, or have guaranteed channels for obtaining law enforcement information.' The paper highlights a number of EU-wide systems which Britain currently uses to stop criminals and terrorists sneaking into the country. Currently the UK and EU have agreed to passenger name records (PNR) to detect, identify and track suspected terrorists and serious criminals. But if there is a no deal Brexit, there is no existing alternative mechanism to allow for cooperation - meaning it will be harder to track down criminals. The UK would also drop out of the Prum system - which allows countries to DNA, fingerprint and vehicle registration data. The document states: 'This capability, once fully implemented by the UK, will help to bring criminals and terrorists to justice. 'There is no direct non-EU comparator system to Prum. In a no deal scenario, an alternative in some cases would be to make manual requests through Interpol, which is less efficient and takes longer.' Britain is also in Europol which allows countries across the continent to work together to find criminals. The document states: 'Cooperation with these agencies assists the fight against serious cross-border crime and terrorism. 'In a no deal scenario, the UK would have no formal relationship with Europol and Eurojust with a loss in cross-border operational capability.' Chancellor Philip Hammond (pictured today) has delivered a stark warning that the PM has secured the 'best deal that is negotiable' as the government steps up its push ahead of a titanic Commons showdown The paper added: 'This means that any operational cooperation that relies on EU tools and instruments at the point of exit, would stop. 'This would create immediate legal and operational uncertainty with the risk of operational disruption and potential security implications.' The stark warning comes as Treasury analysis shows that every Brexit option will make Britain poorer. The PM's favoured plan will leave the economy 2.5 per cent smaller after 15 years than if the country had stayed in the EU. But crashing out without any agreement would be much worse - potentially meaning giving up 9.3 per cent of GPD over the period. There is a wide regional variation in how different deals hurt different parts of the country. An iconic scene from Star Trek 50 years ago changed the way Americans view interracial relationships, critics claim, but if it wasn't for William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols purposely messing up it may not have aired in its entirity. The sci-fi show included footage of characters locking lips on November 22, 1968, and the gesture helped move the country and the world into a greater acceptance of the US Supreme Court declaring interracial marriage legal the year before. Despite taking the bold move to film the scene, showrunners later grew concerned about the reaction from Southern television stations and opted to obscure the action with the back of Nichols' head. But she said Nichols said in her book, Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories, that she and Shatner deliberately flubbed lines to force the original take to be used. 50 years ago - one year after US Supreme Court declared interracial marriage legal - Star Trek featured an interracial kiss Nichols said she and Shatner deliberately flubbed lines to force show makers to use the version that showed their lips touch 'Setting Star Trek three hundred years in the future allowed (Roddenberry) to focus on the social issues of the 1960s without being direct or obvious,' Shatner said in his book Now it's believed the Plato's Stepchildren episode that helped move us into current times. Speaking about the kiss between Captain James T. Kirk and Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, national television critic for National Public Radio Eric Deggans said the action made the nation feel like it wasn't 'such a big deal'. 'The characters themselves were not freaking out because a black woman was kissing a white man ... In this utopian-like future, we solved this issue. We're beyond it. That was a wonderful message to send,' Deggans said. Although it wasn't a romance scene between where the white captain and black communications officer went in for a peck, it's believed the notion helped ease viewers into the idea during a time where civil rights was still very much a struggle. In fact, the episode's smooch stemmed from aliens forcing the pair to kiss. Dressed as ancient Greeks that torture the crew with their telekinetic powers, the aliens force the two USS Enterprise crew members to pucker up. Captain James T. Kirk, played by Shatner (right) and Lieutenant Nyota Uhura was played by Nichols (left) Despite concerns from executives, Plato's Stepchildren aired without blowback. In fact, it got the most 'fan mail that Paramount had ever gotten on Star Trek for one episode,' Nichols said in a 2010 interview with the Archive of American Television. Officials at Paramount, the show's producer, 'were just simply amazed and people have talked about it ever since,' said Nichols. While inside the show things were buzzing, the episode passed by the general public and the TV industry at that time almost without comment, said Robert Thompson, a Syracuse University professor of television and popular culture. 'It neither got the backlash one might have expected nor did it open the doors for lots more shows to do this,' Thompson said. 'The shot heard around the world started the American Revolution. The kiss heard around the world eventually did ... but not immediately.' In 1967, the year before Plato's Stepchildren aired, the Supreme Court struck down nationwide laws that made marriage illegal between blacks and whites, between whites and Native Americans, Filipinos, Asians and, in some states, 'all non-whites'. Only 3 percent of newlyweds were intermarried that year. In 2015, 17 percent of newlyweds - or at least 1 in 6 of newly-married people - were intermarried, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of US Census Bureau data. Most television - outside of the news - was escapist fare and not willing to deal with the raucous atmosphere in the 1960s, Thompson said. 'It was so hard for television in the 60s to talk about the 1960s,' he said. 'That kiss and that episode of Star Trek is an example of how every now and again television in that period tried to kick the door open to those kinds of representations.' Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek's creator, and his team had more leeway because he was writing about the future and not current life, experts said. 'Setting Star Trek three hundred years in the future allowed (Roddenberry) to focus on the social issues of the 1960s without being direct or obvious,' Shatner said in his book Leonard: My Fifty-Year Friendship with a Remarkable Man. A later episode entitled Let That Be Your Last Battlefield highlighted the folly of racism by showing a generations-long battle between two people from the same planet who thought each other to be subhuman - one was black-skinned on the left side and white on the right, while the other was the opposite. Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek's creator, and his team had more leeway because he was writing about the future and not current life, experts said Throughout the ensuing decades, interracial relationships with black and white actors became more prevalent on television, spanning multiple genres. From comedies like The Jeffersons and Happy Endings, to dramas such as Parenthood, Six Feet Under and Dynasty, and back to sci-fi with the short-lived Firefly. The trend is still not without its detractors. In 2013, a Cheerios commercial featuring an interracial couple and their daughter drew thousands of racist comments online. Historians have noted that interracial kisses between blacks and whites happened on British television during live plays as early as 1959, and on subsequent soap operas like Emergency Ward 10. In the US, interethnic kisses happened on I Love Lucy between the Cuban Desi Arnaz and the white Lucille Ball in the 1950s and even on Star Trek in 1967 with Mexican actor Ricardo Montalban kissing Madlyn Rhue in the Space Seed episode. Other shows like Adventures in Paradise and I Spy featured kisses between white male actors and Asian actresses, and Sammy Davis Jr. kissed Nancy Sinatra on the cheek on a December 1967 episode of her televised special Movin' with Nancy. Whether another kiss came first doesn't really matter. 'For whatever reason, that one between Captain Kirk and Lieutenant Uhura seems to be the one that is marked as the milestone,' Thompson said. It stands out because it had a profound effect on viewers, Nichols said in 2010. 'The first thing people want to talk about is the first interracial kiss and what it did for them. And they thought of the world differently, they thought of people differently,' she said. By Trend Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov received the newly appointed Ambassador of South Korea to Azerbaijan Kim Tong-op, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said in a message Nov. 27. At the meeting the sides highly appreciated the current level of bilateral relations between the two countries and noted the importance of increasing the volume of trade turnover. To this end, the importance of earliest holding the Joint Commission between the government of Azerbaijan and the government of South Korea on the economic cooperation was emphasized. Stressing the mutual exchange of high level visits between Azerbaijan and South Korea, the sides underlined the importance of further cooperation in this direction. Mammadyarov informed the ambassador about the major infrastructure projects realized with the initiative of Azerbaijan and reiterated that the South Korean side might also benefit from these opportunities. Ambassador Kim Tong-op presented the copy of his credentials to Mammadyarov. Minister Elmar Mammadyarov wished the newly appointed Korean ambassador every success in his diplomatic activities. Furious Brexiteers accused the government of 'Project Fear 2.0' today over claims 'no deal' could cost every Briton 3,000. Theresa May stepped up the fight to sell her package by unveiling official analysis showing it will limit the economic fallout from leaving the EU. UK plc will be 2.5 per cent smaller after 15 years than if the country had stayed in the bloc, according to the estimate. However, it found crashing out without any agreement would be much worse -with the worst case a 10.7 per cent hit to GDP, equivalent to 200billion or 3,000. The claims immediately reignited the bitter row about the Treasury's 'Project Fear' forecasts from the EU referendum campaign. Former Brexit Secretary David Davis branded the new document a 'propaganda onslaught' in favour of the Government deal. And Boris Johnson raged: 'The British economic establishment always gets it wrong. Wrong about joining the ERM, wrong about leaving it, wrong about joining the Euro, wrong about Project Fear after the referendum. 'They can't forecast six months out - why should we believe them over 15 years?' Boris Johnson, pictured in the Commons this week, said: 'They can't forecast six months out - why should we believe them over 15 years?' Mr Johnson made his views clear on the government estimates as he took to Twitter today Theresa May (pictured today in Downing Street) insisted at PMQs the report showed her deal would mean Britain was 'better off' after Brexit, insisting the package negotiated with the EU was the 'best available for jobs and the economy' Stepping up her campaign today, Mrs May insisted her deal would mean Britain was 'better off' after Brexit. But unveiling the new analysis, Chancellor Philip Hammond conceded that staying in the bloc was best from a 'purely economic point of view'. He insisted GDP would only be 'very very slightly' smaller over a 15-year period under the PM's plan, and it allowed the country to regain control over borders and laws. In a stark warning to mutinous MPs ahead of a titanic Commons showdown, he also lashed out at 'dreamers' who think they can get a better Brexit deal than Mrs May, describing it as the 'best deal that is negotiable'. How would the economy fare under the Brexit options? The Government analysis predicts a negative hit to the economy in all Brexit scenarios The government analysis looked at how GDP would change over 15 years, compared to if we stayed in the EU. It assumed net zero immigration from the bloc - apart from in the case of a Norway-style model, where the UK would have to keep similar rules to free movement. No deal -9.3 per cent Canada -6.7 per cent Norway -1.4 per cent Chequers -2.5 per cent Advertisement In an exclusive article for MailOnline, Mr Hammond said blocking the settlement in the crunch vote on December 11 will fuel division in the country. According to the analysis, if Mrs May secures her Chequers plan from July in full - including a bespoke trade deal and no free movement - the economy could be 2.5 per cent smaller. The figures represent billions of pounds in lost economic growth over the 15 years after Brexit, even though the economy will be bigger overall whatever happens. A smaller economy would also mean billions in extra borrowing - almost 120billion more in the worst case scenario. A raft of new trade deals - including with the United States, Australia and other countries in the Middle East and South America - gains back just 0.2 per cent of economic growth in all cases. There is a wide regional variation in how different deals hurt different parts of the country. London does best out of a no deal scenario, losing out on around 6 per cent of future growth - but worst from the Chequers deal, which excludes the service sector that dominates the capital's economy. The north east suffers most in a no deal, losing out on more than 10 per cent of economic growth. The best outcome for Wales and Scotland is a Chequers-based solution, which sees only a fractional loss in future growth. The Government report insisted the figures were not a forecast and Brexit was not the only thing that would change the economy in the coming years. Today's report does not directly address how the actual deal negotiated by Mrs May will change the economy - partly because the future framework she negotiated offers only a range of outcomes and not a particular deal. It compares a no deal Brexit, a Canada-style trade deal and a Norway-style association with Europe against the Chequers plan. The Prime Minister claimed victory in the negotiations by securing a political declaration open to a 'spectrum' of trade deal outcomes depending on how much Britain wants to change rules and regulations after Brexit. Based on the figures Mrs May told MPs at PMQs: 'Our deal is the best deal available for jobs and our economy, that allows us to honour the referendum and realise the opportunities of Brexit. 'This analysis does not show that we will be poorer in the future than we are today, no it doesn't, it shows we will be better off with this deal.' Graphs in today's report lay bare the Government findings on Brexit. Below the 0% line above are the hits to the economy caused by added costs and barriers to trade with the EU - ranging from -2.5% to -9.3% - while above the line are the gains from new trade deals and freedom to set UK regulations - worth about 0.2% extra to the economy There is a wide regional variation in how different deals hurt different parts of the country. The graph shows how no deal, a Canada-style deal, a Norway deal and the Chequers plan hits each major region and nation of the UK Instead, she claimed, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and shadow chancellor John McDonnell were the 'biggest risk to our economy'. The Bank of England will also publish its own assessment of the potential outcomes. The findings allow Mrs May to say that her option is the least damaging available, while delivering the 'political benefits' of leaving the bloc. In his article, Mr Hammond wrote: 'Let me be clear, leaving the EU next year without a deal would be very bad for our economy, but perhaps more than that, it would further entrench the divides which have held us back over the last few years. Former Brexit Secretary Mr Davis has said economic warnings from the Government were part of a 'propaganda onslaught' ahead of MPs voting on a Brexit deal 'Because while it is true that some would like to see us leave on these terms, most people can see the damaging economic impact this would have on our country. 'Equally, those calling for another referendum would achieve only more division and disunity. 'And those who dream of 'negotiating a better deal' are missing the point: this is the best deal that is negotiable.' In a round of interviews ahead of the publication this morning, Mr Hammond said under the package the economy would be 'very very slightly smaller' in 15 years' time. 'If you look at this purely from an economic point of view there will be a cost from leaving the EU, because there will be impediments to our trade,' he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. 'What the PM's deal does is minimise those costs... while delivering the political benefits.' Ministers only agreed to comparisons of Mrs May's deal with staying in the EU in the face of a damaging Commons defeat if they refused. Labour MP David Lammy, a supporter of the group which backs a second referendum, said: 'These figures show that the government's stated policy is to make our economy smaller and weaker. 'The Government are showing starkly that their decisions will make everyone poorer. 'As the Prime Minister battles to save her deal, these figures are more evidence about why we need another vote. 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 'I cannot believe leave or remain voters both voted to make themselves and their families worse off.' Brexiteers reacted with fury to the report produced by the Government today. Former Brexit Secretary Mr Davis has said economic warnings from the Government were part of a 'propaganda onslaught' ahead of MPs voting on a Brexit deal. Parliamentary colleagues needed to be 'ready for project fear 2.0', he warned. Mr Davis added: 'Treasury forecasts in the past have almost never been right and have more often been dramatically wrong.' He claimed predictions the UK economy would contract by 2.1% in the 18 months after a Brexit leave vote were unfounded, with it actually growing by 2.8%. Senior ERG member Steve Baker said: 'The reputation of government economics is in the gutter. That must change. 'It's time for the Chancellor to publish all his assumptions and full model documentation so we can begin the process of recovery.' Former Cabinet minister Priti Patel said: 'We've all had about enough of Project Fear. 'We were told during the referendum campaign that we'd each lose 4,300 and that there would be a recession and higher unemployment. And yet we've seen record wage growth and record employment levels. 'If ministers spent time preparing for a no deal scenario, rather than dreaming up silly scare stories, we could all make a success of our post-Brexit future. 'It's time our Government started betting on and believing in Britain. Let's be optimistic we have a great future ahead of us.' MP Simon Clarke said voters had already 'comprehensively rejected' Project Fear at the referendum. He said: 'The ingenuity, brilliance and creativity of the British people hasn't let us down before. Even the Chancellor said at the weekend that the fundamentals of the UK economy are strong. 'Why can't the Treasury follow his lead and start backing Britain?' Denying May's deal will fuel 'division', Philip Hammond warns in article for MailOnline It is no secret that the issue of our leaving the EU is one which has polarised opinion. It has divided the country between leavers and remainers; families, and, yes, political parties have all seen relationships strained by strongly held convictions on both sides. But now we have reached agreement with the EU, it is the time to heal those divides. A divided country is a poorer country, so let us end all talk of who 'won' or 'lost' in the referendum and work together in a spirit of compromise to secure Britain's future outside the European Union. The agreement reached between us and the 27 other EU countries at the weekend is a major milestone in securing a good Brexit deal for our country a deal to which we should all give our full support. It brings the country back together with a way forward that takes us out of the European Union and delivers on the result of the referendum, while protecting jobs, security and the integrity of the United Kingdom. But it also reassures those who were worried about leaving the European Union that we will have a close future trading, security and economic partnership with our nearest neighbours in Europe, protecting our prosperity and securing our country. Labour's approach would reignite debates that the country has moved beyond. Jeremy Corbyn admits he hasn't even read the Brexit deal and yet says he is opposed to it. He promised to respect the country's decision to leave, but is now opening the door to re-running the referendum. He says his party will put jobs and the economy first, but he has no alternative plan for a deal that honours the referendum. His approach would simply cause more division and uncertainty while the government's approach brings certainty with a deal that protects jobs and is good for the economy. Let me also be clear, leaving the EU next year without a deal would be very bad for our economy, but perhaps more than that, it would further entrench the divides which have held us back over the last few years. Because while it is true that some would like to see us leave on these terms, most people can see the damaging economic impact this would have on our country. Equally, those calling for another referendum would achieve only more division and disunity. And those who dream of 'negotiating a better deal' are missing the point: this is the best deal that is negotiable. Crucially, the deal which we have agreed with the European Union is one which delivers on the results of the referendum. The majority of this country voted to leave the EU, and we must deliver on that vote in the most sensible way possible. And that is what we are doing: we are regaining our sovereignty, but we are not cutting ourselves off from our neighbours. We are taking back control, but we are not doing so to the detriment of everything else. As Chancellor, I spend much of my time speaking to businesses big and small. As in the country, opinion amongst them on leaving the EU was divided. But overwhelmingly now, they tell me that the main thing holding this country back is uncertainty. They see the pragmatic approach the Prime Minister and her negotiators have taken and they want us to get on with things so they can get on with investing in Britain's future. And that is exactly what we will do. Now is the time to offer the hand of friendship across the country's divide; to reunite those who have been driven apart by Brexit; and to come together and work in the national interest. This is the best deal possible it will deliver Brexit while helping to heal the country, get businesses investing again, and set us on the path to a united, brighter future. Advertisement A student has survived being shot in the head in Amsterdam when a stray bullet smashed through the window of her eighth-floor flat. The 23-year-old woman had been watching Netflix on her laptop while sitting on her bed when she suddenly felt a sharp pain in the side of her head. She thought she had been struck by a falling bedside lamp but found she was bleeding before one of her flatmates spotted a bullet hole in the window and curtain of her eighth-floor room in Amsterdam. The student was rushed to hospital in a state of shock, but had no lasting injuries as the bullet had only grazed the side of her head. The bullet hole in the window of the student flat, where a 23-year-old woman was hit in the head by a stray gunshot while she sat watching Netflix on her laptop The bullet, believed to have been fired from more than 300 yards away, made a hole in the window (pictured) and the curtain of the eighth-floor student flat However the woman, an international student, was said to be so disturbed by the incident that she dropped her studies and returned to her home country. Her name and nationality have not been revealed. Police believe she was hit by a stray bullet which officers have determined was fired from more than 300 yards away. Just an inch of difference in the shot's trajectory or her position in bed could have killed her, investigators said. A police spokeswoman said: 'She felt something against her head and first thought it was a lamp falling down. 'But some time later blood was dripping down her face. 'If she had sat down just slightly different, it could have ended completely differently.' She added that the distance involved meant that the student was almost certainly not the target of the shot and had just been unlucky. 'Most likely the shots were fired from the street or a car. You have to be able to aim very well if you want to hit someone on purpose at such an height,' she said. A diagram of the area in Amsterdam where the freak accident occurred. Investigators believe the shot was fired from the area circled in yellow, a distance of more than 300 yards away The bullet hole can be seen in the curtain near the bed where the 23-year-old student was sitting with her laptop when she was struck A bank has gone to court to hide the fact it paid out bonuses, in a move described as 'astonishing' by a judge. The unnamed bank is bidding to keep its identity out of a lawsuit brought by Credit Suisse in the UK, over fears the cash sums paid to employees could be made public. Swiss bank Credit Suisse is currently challenging a 50 per cent bankers' tax levied in 2009, in the wake of the 2008 crisis. Credit Suisse claims it paid out 320 million on the tax introduced by then Labour chancellor Alistair Darling- but chiefs believe that other banks paid significantly less than it did and that six banks escaped the tax altogether. The bank wants to see HMRC documents that would show how much each of the other banks paid, and would name those which paid nothing. The disclosures may then become public. Zahra Al-Rikabi, a lawyer for the bank that wants to keep its name secret, told a court: 'We don't want anyone to know we paid this tax because we don't want anyone to know we were paying bonuses.' Major banks were forced to pay millions out as a bumper 50% tax was levied on bonuses (pictured: Canary Wharf) Credit Suisse wants to claw back millions after it was hit by a super-tax in Britain in 2009 Zahra Al-Rikabi, an attorney for the mystery bank, said: 'We don't want anyone to know we paid this tax because we don't want anyone to know we were paying bonuses' Judge Matthew Marsh responded 'Is that a serious submission?'. Al-Rikabi confirmed that it was and acknowledged that it was 'odd'. Credit Suisse wants hundreds of millions in compensation after arguing the tax levied in the wake of the global financial crisis by Mr Darling should not have included its employees. It stated Credit Suisse did not require a government bailout during the financial crisis and therefore questioned whether the tax should be viewed as 'state-aided' measure. The bank is demanding both repayments and damages from HM Revenue and Customs, citing the 'arbitrary impact' of the levy, according to Wealth Manager. The Credit Suisse lawsuit is bidding to recoup money paid under a levy that raised some 3.4 billion The Credit Suisse lawsuit could reveal new details about events at the height of the financial crisis and refocus attention on bankers' pay by revealing details of how much each bank paid under the levy. Judge Marsh gave Al-Rikabi 48 hours to make a formal application to have the bank's name hidden from court documents. However, even Credit Suisse does not know the name of the bank, the Swiss bank's attorney Aidan Robertson said in court. Some have already objected to bonus figures being released, George Peretz, HMRC's lawyer, told the court. 'The events of 2008 to 2009 remain a matter of deep public controversy,' he said. Judge Marsh said his 'judicial eyebrows were raised' by the claims that details of taxes paid almost ten years ago could be 'somehow confidential and revelatory' - potentially undermining the unnamed bank's case. Judge Marsh asked attorney Robertson during the hearing whether his bid for documents was a 'fishing expedition'. Robertson said it was not and that his clients needed to know how much other banks paid under the tax in order to present its case in a trial scheduled for next year. Marsh told HMRC to give banks a deadline of December 17 to raise any objections to a redacted form of a spreadsheet held by the tax authority, containing some details of banks' payments of the tax, being disclosed. They'll get the opportunity to object in court if they want to, he said. The tax authority had argued that such details should be disclosed confidentially, or with banks' names anonymised, because taxpayer confidentiality is 'critical to the operation of the tax system.' The trial is scheduled to take place in summer of 2019. Two Iranian computer hackers were charged Wednesday in connection with a multimillion-dollar cybercrime and extortion scheme that targeted government agencies, cities and businesses, the Justice Department said. Faramarz Shahi Savandi, 34, and Mohammad Mehdi Shah Mansouri, 27, are accused of creating ransomware known as SamSam that encrypted data on the computers of more than 200 victims, including the cities of Atlanta and Newark, New Jersey. Starting in January 2016, the hackers were able to exploit cyber weaknesses, gain access to the victims' computers and install the ransomware remotely, prosecutors said. The hackers would then allegedly encrypt the files on the computers and demand that the victims pay a ransom in bitcoin in order to have their data unlocked. Iranian computer hackers Faramarz Shahi Savandi, 34, and Mohammad Mehdi Shah Mansouri (left), 27, were charged in connection with extorting more than $6M from victims across North America, officials said Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein speaks during a news conference announcing the indictment against the alleged international computer hackers The hackers, who are not believed to be connected to the Iranian government, were able to make about $6million and caused the victims of the scheme to lose more than $30million, prosecutors said. Other victims included the Colorado Department of Transportation, the Port of San Diego and six health care companies across the US, according to the Justice Department. 'SamSam ransomware is a dangerous escalation of cybercrime,' said Craig Carpenito, the US attorney for New Jersey, where Wednesday's indictment was unsealed. 'This is a new type of cybercriminal. Money is not their sole objective. They are seeking to harm our institutions and our critical infrastructure.' The Justice Department would not say whether any of the municipalities paid the ransom. In April, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Atlanta entered into emergency contracts worth $2.7million to help restore the city's computer network after the attack. The hackers, who are not believed to be connected to the Iranian government, were able to make about $6million and caused the victims of the scheme to lose more than $30million, prosecutors said. Rosenstein is seen Wednesday announcing the charges The hacking scheme was sophisticated not only because it targeted public institutions but because the hackers targeted the entities after business hours and used European-based servers to launch the remote attacks, Carpenito said. The two men remained fugitives and were believed to be in Iran. Although the US does not have an extradition treaty with Iran, the Justice Department expressed some confidence that the men may one day face the inside of a US courtroom. 'American justice has a long arm and we will wait and eventually we're confident that we will take these perpetrators into custody,' Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosentein said. While some of us occasionally enjoy feeding seagulls and pigeons with whatever leftovers, a man in China went above and beyond to provide hundreds of gulls an extravagant feast. The man was spotted feeding seagulls along the eastern shore of Dianchi Lake in Yunnan province - wearing sunglasses, a mask and a cape made of dozens of bread buns sewn onto a net. His outfit was completed with a crown - also made of bread. A video of the generous bird feeder, who has since been nicknamed 'brother bread', shows the man tearing small pieces of bread and throwing it in the air for the hungry gulls. A man was spotted feeding seagulls along the eastern shore of Dianchi Lake in Yunnan province - wearing sunglasses, a mask and a cape made of dozens of bread buns sown onto a net. His outfit was completed with a crown - also made of bread A video of the generous bird feeder, who has since been nicknamed 'Brother Bread', shows the man tearing small pieces of bread and throwing it in the air for the hungry gulls The man went viral on social media after the video was first shared by a Weibo user on Nov 17. He told video news site Pear that he had purchased the buns from a stall at the tourist spot, which allows visitors to feed the red-billed gulls. 'I love seagulls and I just want to be with them,' he said, adding that he had hoped his costume would attract the birds. 'I love seagulls and I just want to be with them,' the man said, adding that he had hoped his costume would attract the hungry birds The lakeside boulevard in Kunming city offers beautiful scenery of the waters and iconic Western Hills of Yunnan province, and is bombarded by thousands of red-billed gulls Another clip shows the man collecting the crumbs scattered on the ground and cleaning up the area with a broom. The lakeside boulevard in Kunming city offers beautiful scenery of the waters and iconic Western Hills, and is often bombarded by thousands of migrating red-billed gulls due to the province's mild climate during winter. There is an increasing number of seagulls wintering in the city in recent years, the local forestry bureau said, with a record number of 40,500 gulls sighted last December. In 2015, the number of seagulls which arrived at Kunming for the winter exceeded 40,000 He told video news site Pear that he had purchased the buns from a stall at the tourist spot, which allows visitors to feed the red-billed gulls. He then sews the buns on a net The gulls mainly migrate from Lake Baikal in Russia, Uvs Nuur Basin in Mongolia, and Bosten Lake in far west Xinjiang region, and will usually leave in February 'The rising number of migrating birds shows the micro climate and environment at Dianchi Lake is improving,' said Yang Ming, deputy secretary general of the society, cited by Xinhua news agency. In 2015, the number of seagulls which arrived at Kunming for the winter exceeded 40,000 for the first time, setting a 31-year record. The gulls mainly migrate from Lake Baikal in Russia, Uvs Nuur Basin in Mongolia, and Bosten Lake in far west Xinjiang region, and will usually leave in February. A six-year-old boy was forced to appear in immigration court by himself after being separated from his father under President Donald Trump's zero tolerance policy nearly six months ago. Wilder Hilario Maldonado Cabrera was called up in front of a judge in San Antonio just before Thanksgiving, accompanied only by an attorney who volunteered to accompany him after he entered the courtroom alone. According to ProPublica, the young boy from El Salvador is one of the last children left in government custody following the Trump administration's immigration policy, which saw the separation of more than 2,600 children from their parents. Wilder's legs swung beneath him as he did his best to answer questions from Judge Anibal Martinez in Spanish, as he does not know any English. When Martinez asked whether the boy's father was still detained, the prosecutor said he didn't know. A six-year-old boy from El Salvador appeared in immigration court by himself last week in San Antonio after being separated from his father under President Trump's zero tolerance policy nearly six months ago. He is one of more than 2,600 children affected by the policy Wilder and his father, Hilario Maldonado, were separated on June 6 after they crossed the border illegally and sought asylum, ProPublica reports. Authorities determined that they did not qualify for asylum and refused to reunite Maldonado with his son while the decision was appealed because he had an old warrant for a DUI when he lived in Florida over a decade ago. Officials say that while a federal court ordered the discontinuation of the zero tolerance policy, it exempted cases involving parents who posed security risks to their child. Immigration lawyers say many of those cases involve minor, nonviolent criminal offenses such as Maldonado's. The father is currently in federal custody at an immigration detention facility less than an hour's drive from the court. He and Wilder have only been able to speak on the phone sporadically since they were separated. Wilder's mother, Maria Elida Cabrera, is still in a remote mountain village in El Salvador with the couple's three other children. She told ProPublica that she has struggled to feed the family on her own because Maldonado was the breadwinner, and that she's scraped by with help from immigrant advocacy groups familiar with Wilder's case. Wilder is one of the last children still in custody under the immigration policy (file photo) As the six-year-old entered the courthouse he froze in front of the metal detector, unsure what to make of the foreign contraption. The bailiff had to nudge him through, telling him: 'No seas nervioso,' - 'don't be nervous'. The attorney helped Wilder put on his headphones so he could hear the court translator during the proceedings, which he likely didn't understand anyway. She then asked Judge Martinez to set postpone any decisions regarding the boys asylum claim until he could arrange to have his own lawyer. The judge agreed, saying: 'Wilder, I wish you well. Well see you soon.' Before he left the courtroom the huge Spider-Man fan waved at Martinez and pretended to shoot spiderwebs from his wrists. He also waved at the bailiff and said: 'Bye policia.' Wilder was the youngest defendant to appear on the docket that day as the court was filled with other minors, most of them teens who had migrated to the US on their own. Most of the children detained under the zero tolerance policy in place from April to June have been reunited with their relatives. Wilder is one of about 120 children still in federal custody because their parents are either detained or have been deported. The girlfriend of the Rite Aid shooter took her own life after she told authorities she deeply regretted she's been unable to stop her partner committing the shooting spree that killed three people. On September 20 Snochia Moseley, 26, opened fire at a Rite Aid drugstore distribution center in Harford County, Maryland, where she murdered three people, wounded three others, then turned the gun on herself. Her girlfriend Sharon Forrest, 34, told sheriff's office detectives Moseley, who was transgender, was prone to violent outbursts, heard voices in her head, owned a gun, and even 'pulled it on her' a few months prior to the incident. Forrest killed herself six weeks after the warehouse shooting on Halloween but told officials prior she wished she could have been awake when Moseley returned home from work to retrieve her gun on the morning of the shooting 'so she could have stopped her'. Sharon Forrest, 34, (left) told police she wished she could have stopped her transgender girlfriend Snochia Moseley, 26, (right) from launching her shooting spree on September 20 Forrest died of asphyxia and her death was ruled a suicide, according to the Chief Medical Examiner Office in Maryland. A witness said she seemed 'unstable at times' following Moseley's death and was getting evicted from her apartment. Cops found text messages on her cellphone addressed to her dead girlfriend saying 'she was going to be with her soon', according to the report. In conversations with police prior to her suicide, Forrest described how Moseley grappled with mental illness and would become violent at times. 'Forrest advised that Moseley was a kind person until she was manic then she was physically and emotionally violent,' a report released by the sheriff's office on Tuesday to AP said. 'Forrest advised that she thought sometimes that Moseley may have wanted to kill herself but did not believe that Moseley could kill anyone else,' it added. Moseley was diagnosed with acute schizophrenia, according to the Harford County Sheriff's Office. Forrest said her girlfriend was depressed due to her financial problems and didn't appear to be taking any medication for her mental illness. On September 20 Moseley opened fire at a Rite Aid drugstore distribution center in Maryland (pictured) where she killed three people, wounded three others, then turned the gun on herself Forrest said her girlfriend had violent outbursts, heard voices in her head, and once pulled a gun on her. The night before the shooting Moseley said she was saying a final prayer. SWAT team, pictured above, scaling the Rite Aid distribution center during the shooting Forrest said she wish she woke up an hour earlier to stop Moseley (left and right) from launching the deadly shooting spree. When she woke up and saw TV news reports of the shooting she knew it was Moseley and found her gun missing Moseley once texted Forrest 'talking about getting a machete to cut up people', but Forrest dismissed it saying she talked 'open ended like that a lot' and didn't believe she'd act on it. She legally purchased the 9mm Glock in March and answered 'no' when asked if she had been diagnosed with a mental illness, according to Major William David of the Sheriff's Office. A mental illness doesn't disqualify someone from legally purchasing a gun in Maryland. Buyers can't pass a background check if they were either involuntarily committed for any period of time or voluntarily admitted to a psychiatric facility for at least 30 consecutive days. Forrest said when she woke up on September 20 and saw TV news reports on the shooting that unfolded just one hour before she woke up, she immediately suspected Moseley was behind it and called her. 'Forrest said she went to the closet to check for Moseley's gun, found the empty case, and Forrest said she just knew Moseley was involved with the emergency,' the report says. She saw a text message Moseley sent just before the shooting. It told her she could pick up her car at the warehouse facility. Left to right: Sunday Aguda, 44, Brindra Giri, 41, and Hayleen Reyes, 21 were shot and killed by their co-worker at a Rite Aid distribution center Forrest said she didn't notice anything unusual about Moseley's behavior in the days before the shooting, but she recalled Moseley saying something to herself just before they went to bed on the night before the shooting. 'Forrest asked what she was saying and Moseley responded, "Just saying my last prayer." Forrest believed Moseley meant for the day, but now believed she may have meant for good,'the report says. Moseley killed workers Brindra Giri, 41, of Baltimore; Hayleen Reyes, 21, of Baltimore; and Sunday Aguda, 45, of Dundalk in the shooting, then shot herself twice in the head. Giri, a mother of two, had recently moved to the U.S. from her homeland of Nepal to join her husband. Aguda, a native of Nigeria, had married his wife in February and had been working at the facility for only three weeks, according to the Baltimore Sun. Reyes had moved to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic five months before the shooting and had lived with her father and her one-year-old daughter, the newspaper reported. Moseley, a temporary employee who had worked at the Rite Aid facility for just over two weeks, arrived at work at 6.30am on the morning of the shooting. Warehouse surveillance video shows her leaving at 7.20a.m. before returning and re-entering the building at 8:53 a.m. The gunfire erupted at 9:07 a.m., sending dozens of workers running. If you are experiencing suicidal thoughts, call National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 800-273-8255. For confidential support, call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local branch. See www.samaritans.org for details. LIFELINE: 13 11 14 www.lifeline.org.au . Suicide Call Back Service: 1300 659 467 Police in California have arrested Mayra Berenice Gallo, 24, for the alleged assault Police in California have arrested a woman who was caught on surveillance footage attacking the manager of a McDonald's after becoming upset over missing packets of ketchup. Mayra Berenice Gallo, 24, allegedly became enraged when she discovered there was not enough ketchup in the order she had placed, on October 27. When the store's manager told the woman that she couldn't be in the building, Gallo suddenly became combative. According to the Santa Ana Police Department, the suspect entered the restaurant through the back door used by employees and asked for some sauce. Gallo was wanted for allegedly beating and choking a Santa Ana McDonald's manager in a dispute over ketchup In the shocking footage, the woman is seen pushing, punching and choking the manager near the restaurant's drive-thru window Another employee (pictured in black) is also seen in the video trying to pull the woman off of the manager After ordering via the drive-thru of the McDonald's she then decided to go into the restaurant through the employee entrance searching for extra packets. The manager told her she couldn't be in the building and Gallo allegedly 'became combative' and started pushing, punching and choking the manager. Video then shows how another employee tried to intervene and called on other workers to help. A man who was believed to be with Gallo is credited with stopping the attack after he pulled the woman off the manager. A man, who doesn't appear to be an employee, is later then seen entering the back door of the restaurant. He has not been identified but is believed to have been with Gallo He immediately walks up to the attacker, grabs her and leads her out the door (both pictured) as other employees look on He immediately walked up to the attacker, grabbed her and led her out of the door as other employees looked on. Police said they received numerous tips from the public about the woman's identity which led them to Gallo who was arrested on Tuesday on a $15,000 warrant at her home in Santa Ana. She was booked on suspicion of assault. A Kansas mother has pleaded guilty to murder and other charges in the abuse and death of her three-year-old son, whose body was found encased in concrete in the laundry room of their Wichita home. Miranda Miller, 37, tortured her son Evan Brewer for months before his death in May 2017, prosecutors say. A cache of 16,000 photos and videos, most of them taken from a home surveillance system, captured the abuse by Miller and her boyfriend, 41-year-old Stephen Bodine. Among the evidence against the couple was footage of Evan chained and naked in a basement, being berated by Miller and Miller, and forced to stand in a corner for hours. The toddler's body was found in September 2017, two months after Evan was reported missing when his biological father was granted full custody and the couple refused to turn the boy over. Miranda Miller, 37, (left) pleaded guilty Wednesday to murder and other charges in the abuse and death of her three-year-old son Evan Brewer (right), whose body was found encased in concrete in the laundry room of their home in Wichita, Kansas, in September 2017 Courtesy of KAKE Miller pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping, child abuse and aggravated child endangerment on Wednesday and will likely face 29 years in prison per a deal with prosecutors. Bodine was convicted of first-degree murder last month and faces a possible life sentence at a December 17 hearing. Miller had testified against Bodine in exchange for the chance to plead guilty to a less serious charge in Evan's death. Miller's boyfriend Stephen Bodine, 41, (pictured) was convicted of first degree murder in Evan's death last month and faces the possibility of life in prison According to Miller's testimony at Bodine's trial, Bodine had been punishing Evan for not eating on May 19, 2017, when he took the screaming boy into the bathroom. She said he soon came out with her son's wet and lifeless body in his arms. Miller said Bodine mixed up several bags of concrete and buried the boy's body in it. Evan's father, Carlo Brewer, had been seeking custody of his son, and authorities had been alerted at least six times that the boy was being abused. Four months after Evan's death, Miller was arrested on a charge of aggravated interference with parental custody. Bodine faced additional charges for threatening Brewer with a hatchet when the came to the couple's rental home looking for Evan. The body was found days after Miller's arrest when her landlord, who was cleaning out the property, 'alerted police to a suspicious concrete structure emitting an odor in the house'. By the time Evan's body was chipped out of the concrete block, it was so badly decomposed that an autopsy could not determine how the boy died. He had Benadryl in his system, and Miller said she thinks Bodine sickened him in the days leading up to his death by force-feeding him large amounts of salt. The boy was the grandson of former Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer. Authorities have raided the offices of a major Catholic archdiocese in Texas and seized so-called 'secret archives' related to a priest charged with sexual abuse. About 60 armed agents showed up unannounced and executed a search warrant on Wednesday at the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, which overseas Catholic churches in the major city. The raid was related to a criminal case against a priest named Manuel La Rosa-Lopez, who is charged with four counts of indecency with a child. La Rosa-Lopez is accused of sexually abusing a teenage boy and girl between 1998 and 2001. About 60 armed agents showed up unannounced and executed a search warrant on Wednesday at the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston and seized documents related to a priest charged with sexual abuse. Photo courtesy of CBS Montgomery County District Attorney Brett Ligon, whose office conducted the search Wednesday, said authorities were looking for employment records and disciplinary records related to La Rosa-Lopez, along with anything that might lead to the discovery of other potential crimes. Officers from the Texas Department of Public Safety and federal agencies joined the search. 'This is not a search warrant against the Catholic Church,' Ligon said. 'We're going to go wherever the investigation requires us to go.' The archdiocese that was raided is led by Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, who is heading the Roman Catholic Church's response in the US to sexual misconduct. The intensifying investigation has raised questions about how DiNardo and his staff dealt with complaints against Rosa-Lopez. Both of Rosa-Lopez's alleged victims told the Associated Press that they met with DiNardo but felt he didn't take their complaints about the priest seriously. The raid on Wednesday was related to a criminal case against a priest named Manuel La Rosa-Lopez, who is charged with four counts of indecency with a child Authorities were looking for employment records and disciplinary records related to La Rosa-Lopez, along with anything that might lead to the discovery of other potential crimes Officers from the Texas Department of Public Safety and federal agencies joined the search The archdiocese said it reported both accusations to authorities and 'continues to cooperate, as we have since the outset, with this process.' It also stressed in a statement that 'secret archives' was merely a term indicating 'confidential documents kept in a secure manner for the protection of the privacy of individuals - not unlike medical records.' Authorities have now executed four search warrants in the ongoing investigation, according to the district attorney's office. Prosecutors have already searched the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Conroe, where La Rosa-Lopez was assigned when the abuse allegedly occurred; the Shalom Center in Splendora, where church officials acknowledged La Rosa-Lopez received treatment; and St. John Fisher Catholic Church in Richmond, where La Rosa-Lopez was a priest until his arrest. Ligon said his office had spoken to the local US attorney, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment about whether it was also investigating the archdiocese. La Rosa-Lopez's attorney, Wendell Odom, said the priest has denied the sexual abuse allegations. Odom questioned why prosecutors conducted an on-site search instead of requesting documents through a subpoena, calling it 'a little bit alarming.' The archdiocese that was raided is led by Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, who is heading the Roman Catholic Church's response in the US to sexual misconduct Facing mounting criticism since the arrest, DiNardo wrote a piece published Monday in the Houston Chronicle saying he removed La Rosa-Lopez from ministry after meeting with one of the accusers in August. That accuser said in September that he felt DiNardo was dismissive and said: 'You should have told us sooner.' DiNardo's column did not address the allegations of the other accuser, a woman now in her 30s who said she met with DiNardo shortly after discovering in 2010 that La Rosa-Lopez had become the archdiocese's vicar for Hispanic ministry - a position he held at the time of his arrest eight years later. Her family had reported La Rosa-Lopez in 2001 after he allegedly fondled her several times and led her to believe they had a secret relationship. She said DiNardo, who came to Houston in 2004, and other church officials told her then that La Rosa-Lopez had received psychiatric treatment and would no longer be allowed to work with children. Michael Norris, head of the Houston chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said the documents seized on Wednesday could be crucial to understanding the archdiocese's handling of La Rosa-Lopez's case over two decades. 'This is going to force DiNardo to be truly transparent,' Norris said. 'Now we're going to know everything.' 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. Footage shared on social media shows witnesses of the deadly Alabama mall shooting, where law enforcement officers mistakenly killed a black man they thought had shot two people, were immediately convinced the victim was innocent. Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr. was gunned down Thursday evening at Riverchase Galleria Mall and apparently unaware he was a soldier, officers initially stated he was 'brandishing' a weapon. However those who saw the incident take place seemed to think Bradford was innocent and likely obtained a permit to hold a firearm, as heard in a video from the night that has circulated on Facebook. Emantic Bradford Jr, 21, was mistaken for a shooter and killed by police at an Alabama mall on Thursday night The soldier was shot by cops and witnesses immediately believed he was innocent. Passersby filmed scenes and are heard saying how he was killed for 'no reason' in the Facebook clip Police initially said Bradford had shot two people but later retracted the claim 'They just killed that man in cold blood. They just seen that man had a gun on him. They shot that man down for no reason,' someone in the video posted by Noland Moore can be heard saying in the clip. He then adds: 'The police see that boy had a gun. He probably got a gun license and everything. 'He just walked passed us and they've probably just seen that man's gun and shot him... they just killed that black boy for no reason.' Witnesses can be heard talking among themselves as they watch the life leaving Bradford's body, describing him as 'bleeding out'. Some passersby ask if the witnesses saw what happened. One woman responds: 'That's not right. Ain't nobody filming this?' The caption for the video reads: 'Damn I just look back its sad that they didnt try to help him look at the dot'. Father Emantic Bradford Sr. (left), his family's attorney Benjamin Crump (center) and mother April Pipkins (right) appeared at a community vigil at Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Tuesday Pipkins collapsed at the civil rights landmark in Birmingham and was taken to hospital Bradford, 21, was armed with a gun at the Hoover shopping center but also had a concealed weapons permit. His family is demanding surveillance footage of the incident is released and also wish to see body-cam footage from the officers responding to an incident where an 18-year-old man and a 12-year-old girl were shot by a suspect who is still on the loose. Around 200 people turned up for a community vigil at Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham Tuesday to show support for Bradford's mother April Pipkins. The distraught parent received a standing ovation but collapsed at the civil rights landmark, still in disbelief her son died on Thanksgiving Day, and was taken to hospital. Like many others, Pipkins believes Bradford was gunned down without a second thought simply because of the color of his skin. She had previously said 'the whole scenario would have played out differently' with Hoover police if her son were white. Around 200 people showed up to support the family after Bradford was killed by cops 'I have to go bury my baby boy,' CBS News reports father Emantic Bradford Sr. said. 'And it hurts me to the core because being at home every day ain't going to be no fun because I can't talk to my child.' Bradford, who is undergoing treatment for cancer, added: 'I can't hear him say 'daddy' no more.' The family's lawyer said that despite talk that more Americans should be armed to ensure their safety, this incident proves that's not the case. 'There's some suggestion that to stop the bad guys with guns we need to have the good guys with guns. Well, EJ Bradford was a good guy with a gun,' Benjamin Crump said. The lawyer said witnesses had contacted his law firm saying Bradford was trying to wave people away from the shooting. Pipkins described her son as a loving, friendly young man, saying he had gone to the mall with friends on Thanksgiving evening. Bradford, Jr. (left), 21, was believed to be waving people away from the shooting scene when he was gunned down. Pipkins (right) said her son would still be alive if he had been white She said the officer 'should be punished for what he did' after her son was killed last Thursday. Pipkins said she did not find out what happened to her son until Friday morning when she returned a call from one of his friends who had tried to reach her during the night. 'I can't get it out of my head. I cannot get the scene out of my head of my child laying there, nobody around him trying to help him, just laying like a piece of trash where everyone can walk around and parade and post pictures of him on social media,' she said. Speaking from the pulpit, regional NAACP field director Kevin Myles said Bradford's killing was part of a pattern of police killing black men without cause. 'This is our personal Katrina. The helicopters are not coming, nobody is coming to bring us water. If we are to be saved we will save ourselves,' he said, in an analogy to the devastating hurricane of 2005. French film director Luc Besson (pictured in February) has been accused of sexual harassment and abuse by five more women, according to French media reports Five more women have come forward to accuse French film director Luc Besson of sexual harassment. The claims come following a rape complaint by Belgian-Dutch actress Sand Van Roy, and sexual misconduct claims by three other women in France. Now five additional women have come forward with accusations of sexual abuse and harassment against him, French magazine Mediapart reported. In an eerie echoing of disgraced Miramax producer Harvey Weinsten, who has been accused of raping and sexually harassing dozens of women, Besson would often ask for meetings in his private hotel suites, according to the outlet. In the Mediapart report, a former student at Bessons school, lEcole de la Cite, alleged that she was sexually harassed by Besson in 2015 while on an internship with him after her second year in the school. She was later hired by Besson to work as an assistant. The young woman claimed that she endured unwanted kiss and hugs. She is the only one of the five women in the new report to have spoken to police, which happened in mid-July, Mediapart said. French media reports state that in total nine women who have accused the director of sexual crimes, ranging from rape to inappropriate behavior. Another accuser said she was hired by Besson to assist him at EuropaCorp in the 2000s. The woman claims she was forced into a sexual relationship with him at a time when she was struggling financially. Another assistant, who chose to remain anonymous, detailed three sexual encounters with Besson as well as a pattern of harassment at work. At the time of the alleged harassment, she confided in another employee. She also provided Besson's agenda and a note from Hotel Meurice in Paris which was allegedly written by the director, in which she was instructed to take a bath and called a 'princess'. Karine Isambert, a former model who met Besson for what she thought was an audition at his hotel room, back in 1995, said that he sexually harassed her during their meeting and grabbed her against her will. Mediapart has also reportedly obtained video of a hotel room casting of a 16-year-old girl in 2003. Karine Isambert (right) and Sand Van Roy (left) are the only women to have publicly made allegations against the film director In May, Sand Van Roy, 27, accused Valerian director Besson of raping her at the Le Bristol hotel in Paris. French media reported that Van Roy was in a relationship with Besson, 59, for around two years - but claimed she felt pressured into physical intimacy because for professional reasons. Besson has denied any wrongdoing and his lawyer dismissed the allegations as 'fantasist accusations'. He has yet to respond to requests for comment on the new allegations. Luc Besson has written and produced a number of action films, including Taxi, The Transporter, Jet Li films Kiss of the Dragon and Unleashed/Danny the Dog. He also wrote the Taken series, starring Liam Neeson. Taken 2 was the largest-grossing export French film at the time. Besson went on to win Best Director and Best French Director for The Fifth Element and was later nominated for a Cesar Award for Leon: The Professional and The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc. Italian anti-terrorism police on Wednesday arrested a Lebanese man suspected of planning a poison attack in the name of the Islamic State jihadist group. The suspect Alhaj Ahmad Amin, who has Palestinian roots, was apprehended for links to international terrorism and is accused of 'having joined the terrorist, Islamic pseudo-state, IS,' anti-mafia and terrorism chief Federico Cafiero de Raho told reporters. After an IS member was arrested in Lebanon in September for plotting to poison the drinking water of the Lebanese army, it emerged he had a cousin in Italy who 'had the idea to carry out a similar operation in Europe', police said. A 38-year-old man was arrested in Macomer for allegedly planning an attack in a locality of Sardinia. The arrest was conducted by the Nuoro Digos Italian authorities were alerted by Interpol, who learned of the threat from Lebanese authorities when Amin's cousin, 27, was arrested. Officials then arrested the 38-year-old in Macomer. Amin had been planning to put ricin or anthrax in the water supply in the central Sardinian town of Macomer as well as a nearby military base, de Raho said. It emerged that he had wanted to carry out the attack on an Italian public holiday. Numerous references to IS and the use of poison had been found on the man's smartphone. The streets around the centre of Macomer were blocked off and police dogs were present to prevent the suspect from getting away, according to local media reports. Officials arrested the 38-year-old in Macomer, where he had been living with his partner and her four children He was clapped in handcuffs as he came out of his house and got into his van. Police confirmed that Amin has an Italian residency visa, having arrived from a refugee camp in Lebanon several years ago. He lived in Macomer with his partner, who denies knowledge of the poisoning plot, and her four children. Two Detroit men who have spent nearly two decades in prison for the 1999 killing of a mother today were exonerated thanks to the boyhood memory of the victim's son. The Wayne County prosecutor's office said on Wednesday it is dropping murder charges against Justly Johnson, 43, and Kendrick Scott, 39, four months after the Michigan Supreme Court said the men deserved a new trial. Lisa Kindred, 35, was fatally shot through the heart by a lone gunman while sitting in a van on Mother's Day in 1999. Justly Johnson (left), 43, and Kendrick Scott (right), 39, have been exonerated in the 1999 murder of a mother-of-three in Detroit after spending nearly 20 years in prison According to court documents, investigators believed the mother-of-three was killed as part of a murder-for-hire plot. Her son, Charmous Skinner Jr, was eight years old and also in the vehicle with his dying mother. Lisa Kindred, 35, was shot through the heart on Mother's Day in front of her three children as part of a suspected murder-for-hire plot His recollection of the shooter - mid-30s, big nose, short hair - is different than the evidence offered at trial against Johnson and Scott., who were both in their early 20s in 1999. Skinner, who is now 27 and lives in Pennsylvania, was never interviewed by police or defense attorneys, reported The Detroit News. Johnson and Scott were convicted mostly on the testimony of two people, Antonio Burnette and Raymond Jackson, who were under the influence of alcohol and drugs on the night of the killing. They later recanted, claiming that they were pressured into giving false testimony. According to the University of Michigan law schools Innocence Clinic. Scott Lewis, now a private investigator, began investigating the case for Johnson when he was a WXYZ-TV reporter in 2009. He interviewed Skinner in 2011, and that prompted efforts to reopen the case. After listening to Skinner, a Wayne County judge had rejected a request for new trials, saying the boy probably was asleep in the van and that his testimony was 'almost impossible to believe.' Her son Charmous Skinner Jr, was eight years old at the time (left), and it was his recollection of the gunman that played a key role in Wednesday's exoneration. Skinner is now 27 and lives in Pennsylvania (right) But Michigans highest court in July of this year ruled said Judge James Callahan made the wrong call. 'When considering Skinners testimony in its entirety, it is clear that his testimony is not wholly incredible,' said Justice Richard Bernstein, writing for the majority. In court Wednesday, Johnson and Scott, dressed in green jail garb, smiled broadly when it was announced that all charges against them have been dismissed. Their families and friends were on hand in the audience to witness their exoneration. Scott's wheelchair-bound mother, Earnestine Smith, exclaimed: 'he's coming home!' Defence minister Tobias Ellwood has blamed dramas like The Bodyguard for 'perpetuating negative stereotypes' about veterans. The former Army Officer and Veterans Secretary - who was praised for battling to save the life of police officer Keith Palmer in the Westminster terror attack - made the remarks at the launch of a study aimed to entice people into the military. Speaking at launch of the 'Veterans Work: Moving On' report, Ellwood said people's negative perceptions were 'perpetuated by shows like BBC's hit drama the Bodyguard'. Tobias Ellwood made the remarks at the launch of a new military report Tobias Ellwood, Minister for Defence People and Veterans, who was a Captain in the Royal Green Jackets Regiment, added: 'Those who have served in our armed forces leave with a fantastic range of transferrable skills, including leadership, team work and resourcefulness. 'Organisations can benefit significantly from their experience, and so it's important we dispel the myth that veterans are somehow damaged by their service. We will continue to support our service leavers in whichever route they choose to take, through initiatives such as our Career Transition Partnership.' Research found the public held negative connotations with veterans, with people tending to think they were in some way damaged after leaving the military. Independent study from the Veterans Work Consortium found, contrary to popular belief, that veteran employment rates are at 81 per cent, while the national average is just 75.5 per cent. The 'Veterans Work: Moving ON' report surveyed 1,786 UK veterans who had transitioned out of the military in the past 10 years. The Consortium's research found that 62 per cent of veterans identifying as having a mental health disability are in employment. The Consortium's research found that 62 per cent of veterans identifying as having a mental health disability are in employment (stock image) Yet employment rates for those identifying as having a mental health disability across the working age population of the UK are much lower at just 25 per cent. Experts from Deloitte, the Armed Forces charity the Officers' Association and The Forces in Mind Trust (FiMT), all worked in tandem to produce the report. A separate poll of 2,849 UK civilians, conducted in June of this year, revealed a startling disconnect between perception and reality when it comes to the mental state of veterans and their chances of employment as they re-enter the workplace. The YouGov poll commissioned by FiMT and the Ministry of defence, found that an alarming 64 per cent of civilians think that veterans are more likely to suffer from more mental, physical and emotional issues than those who have never served. The YouGov report also found that 39 per cent of employers believe veterans are more likely to be 'institutionalised'. Additionally, 30 per cent thought that serving in the Armed Forces 'damages people'. Chris Recchia, Partner at Deloitte and Chair of the Veterans Work Consortium also criticised The Bodyguard in the light of the reports findings. He said: 'There is no doubt The Bodyguard was a great watch and very entertaining. But if you look at it, two of the main characters were both veterans who were struggling with serious mental health conditions that were a result, in the drama, of their service in the military. 'These negative stereotypes clearly influence the public perceptions of veterans which is clearly inaccurate and in some ways potentially unhelpful. 'Persistent negative stereotypes do unfortunately affect wider societal perception of the veteran community. While it is absolutely true that some veterans have suffered and continue to suffer, this does not reflect the experiences of the majority.' Argentina is going ahead with a war crimes case against Saudi Arabia's crown prince Mohammed bin Salman - as he jetted into Buenos Aires for the G20 summit. Human Rights Watch asked Argentina on Monday to use a war crimes clause in its constitution to investigate any involvement by the crown prince in possible crimes against humanity in Yemen and journalist Jamal Khashoggi's murder. The advocacy group wrote to the federal prosecutor arguing that the Argentinian courts should prosecute 33-year-old Prince Mohammed under Argentinian law. On Wednesday, Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW's executive director in the Middle East and North Africa, announced on Twitter that Argentina is proceeding with the case. She added that the prosecutor has asked the judge to request information from Yemen and Saudi Arabia's governments about the alleged crimes. Scroll down for video Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrives at Ministro Pistarini in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Wednesday Earlier, a representative of the federal prosecutor's office that has been assigned the case told Reuters on Wednesday that the prosecutor was still reviewing the request. But after revealing Argentina would be moving forward with the case, HRW executive director Ken Roth said: 'The Argentina judiciary, by taking steps toward a formal investigation into Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is sending a clear message that even powerful officials are not above the law and will be scrutinized if implicated in grave international crimes.' He added: 'World leaders would do well to think twice before posing for pictures next to someone who may come under investigation for war crimes and torture.' HRW's announcement on Wednesday came shortly after Prince Mohammed landed in Buenos Aires for the G20 summit of industrialized nations, a visit fraught with controversy over the killing of the Saudi journalist. He arrived in Buenos Aires from Tunisia, where he was met by protesters who denounced him as a murderer for the killing of Khashoggi. He was greeted by Argentine foreign minister Jorge Faurie. Argentinian Foreign Minister Jorge Marcelo Faurie (R) welcomes Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (L) at an airport on the outskirts of Buenos Aires on Wednesday Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman shakes hands with Saudi Arabia's embassy official as Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Faurie watches The killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and a critic of the crown prince, at the Saudi 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, the kingdom's de facto ruler, had no prior knowledge of the murder. Western nations are also calling for an end to the Saudi-led military campaign in neighboring Yemen, which was launched by Prince Mohammed, as a humanitarian crisis there worsens. The G20 leaders summit begins on Friday. Meanwhile, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who is seeking an end to the war in Yemen, said he is willing to meet with Prince Mohammed when he attends the summit. 'I think we are close to (creating) the conditions for the possibility for (Yemen) peace talks to start,' he said on Wednesday. 'And of course Saudi Arabia is absolutely crucial for that purpose, and I'm ready to discuss it with the crown prince or with any other Saudi officials because I believe it is a very important objective at the present moment.' At the summit, Prince Mohammed is expected to represent Riyadh in the face of a global outcry over Khashoggi's murder. He is likely to face Turkey's Erdogan, who has kept international pressure mounting on the kingdom over the grisly killing in a Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2. The summit would also be an opportunity for the prince to discuss energy markets with leaders of other top oil producers - notably Russia and the United States - amid the current slump in oil prices. Saudi Arabia is set to host the G20 summit in 2020. The writ presented by HRW was received at the court of federal judge Ariel Lijo, who forwarded it to federal prosecutor Ramiro Gonzalez. Argentine lawmakers and the prosecutor had to try to decide whether Prince Mohammed 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 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. '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 Macri's office Monday declined to comment on the request for Mohammed bin Salman's arrest should he land on Argentinian soil. 'We can make no comment on that. All we can say is that Mohammed bin Salman's attendance remains confirmed, we have received no contrary information so far,' the source told the Guardian. A second victim impregnated by a Rotherham rapist said it was 'absolutely disgusting' the family of the attacker were told he had access rights to the child he fathered during a sex attack with another woman. Linzi Williams spoke out in defence of mother Sammy Woodhouse, 33, who waivered her right to anonymity after she was left 'scared and angry' by South Yorkshire town's council ruling. Ms Williams, who Arshid Hussain also impregnated when she was 15, said: 'I am speechless that this would be allowed to happen. Linzi Williams (pictured) spoke out in defence of Sammy Woodhouse. The pair were both raped by Arshid Hussain 'Social services supposed to protect children and people from paedophiles and rapists not give them contact. 'It's just another massive betrayal by social services how are people supposed to start trusting in them when they do something as stupid as this?' Hussain, 43, was the ringleader of the notorious grooming gang and was not named on Miss Woodhouse's son's birth certificate. He had no parental responsibility for the child, who was born after his mother was raped, aged just 15. Ms Williams was impregnated by Hussain when she was just 15-years-old He 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 child. Ms Williams has spoken previously about the abuse she suffered at the hands Hussain and the depraved sex gang operating in the Yorkshire town. She told Channel 4 of the agonising decision she had to make about whether to keep the baby, and admitted she still sees girls that she instantly knows are living the same horror she had to. She said: 'It was torture, I couldn't tell anyone I was pregnant because he was older. I think I told a couple of friends, but one minute I was wanting to keep it because I thought "oh he's going to be with me and everything's going to be fine" - obviously it wouldn't have been.' She added: 'We know it's still happening. You drive down the town centre road and you see the men in their cars with the girls.' 'It's hard to trust anybody or get close to anyone. I've got attachments problems, not just with relationships, but everyone else in your lives. It does get better, though. 'We've had to support each other through court and everything. We've had it easier because I've been able to speak to her and she fully understands. If I can't explain myself right, she knows what I'm trying to say and how it feels, and the same vice versa.' Ms Woodhouse is now fighting to have the law changed to deny rapists access to children they fathered in depraved attacks. 'As a rape victim Im constantly told hes got his human rights,' she told the BBC2 show. 'What about my human rights? My main issue is I have to fight every single day for something just to be treated like a human being.' Arshid Hussain was jailed for 35 years after being convicted of raping Ms Woodhouse and assaulting young girls. He was shot in the stomach in 2005 and now uses a wheelchair 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 She said Rotherham council should have opposed taking the step to give Hussain access to her child. They should've fought for that child,' she said. 'What they've done is hand my son over on a plate to a rapist.' 'I was completely shocked and mortified,' she said. 'I thought when I testified in court and he was sentence to 35 years I thought that was it, I can move on. 'Yet here I am within 12 months later knowing at any moment he could walk through that door. '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 council's decision to contact him was criticised as 'perverse' and 'ridiculous' by victims' charities and campaigners. At least 10 people were killed and 19 were wounded in an attack on a compound of British security group G4S in the Afghan capital Kabul today. A spokesman for Afghanistan's Interior Ministry, Najin Danish, said Taliban insurgents targeted a security firm in the eastern part of the capital Kabul. He added a suicide bomber detonated his explosives and then other insurgents started a gun battle with forces in the area. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack. An Afghan injured man receives medical care at Wazir Akbar Khan hospital after a car bomb blast which targeted a British security contractor group G4S in Kabul, Afghanistan Security forces block a road at the site of a suicide bomb attack in Kabul, Afghanistan today A young Afghan boy wounded receives treatment. Basir Mujahid, spokesman for the Kabul police chief, says the target of the attack was security company G4S Basir Mujahid, spokesman for the Kabul police chief, says the target of the attack was security company G4S. He said the company offers training for Afghan security forces. The complex attack on a well-protected site underlines how insecure Kabul remains despite efforts by the United States and the Afghan government to open peace talks with the Taliban to end more than 17 years of war. The insurgents' main spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the attack had caused heavy casualties and had been launched in retaliation for casualties caused by security forces in the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar. An Afghan injured man receives medical care at Wazir Akbar Khan hospital after a car bomb blast which targeted a British security contractor group G4S G4S, one of the world's biggest security groups, is one of a number of foreign security contractors operating in Afghanistan and provides guards for the area around the British embassy. 'We can confirm that there has been an incident at one of our locations in Kabul. The situation is ongoing and we are coordinating with Afghan authorities to bring it to a conclusion,' a statement from G4S said. An official from the public health ministry said 11 wounded had been taken to city hospitals and reporters saw at least one dead body but gathering accurate casualty figures was hampered by the continuing fighting. An Afghan injured man receives medical care in hospital. Last week, more than 50 people were killed in Kabul when a suicide bomber targeted a banquet hall Earlier the president, who faces a re-election battle next year, told a U.N.-sponsored conference in Geneva of plans to appoint a team to seek a peace deal, which he said would take at least five years to implement. Efforts to open talks with the insurgents have picked up following the appointment of U.S. special peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, but the violence that kills thousands every year has continued. Three U.S. service members were killed close to the central city of Ghazni on Tuesday and at least 30 Afghan civilians were killed in a U.S. air strike overnight, officials and local residents said. Last week, more than 50 people were killed in Kabul when a suicide bomber attacked a banquet hall where a meeting of religious leaders was taking place. Security officials have warned that violence is likely to escalate alongside peace moves as the Taliban seeks to strengthen its position before any formal negotiations. Five inmates in South Carolina extorted some $560,000 from hundreds of service members by using contraband cellphones to pose as underage women on dating sites, authorities say. Standing in front of a state prison on Wednesday in Columbia, US Attorney Sherri Lydon told reporters that Antwine Lamar Matthews, Rakeem Spivey, Jimmy Dunbar Jr, Wendell Wilkins and David Paul Dempsey had been indicted on federal charges including extortion and wire fraud. Ten others throughout the Carolinas have been charged with helping the inmates collect extortion payments via services including Western Union or PayPal. According to court documents, inmates used contraband phones to join dating websites, pretending to be women as they contacted and exchanged nude images with military personnel throughout the country. Once the targets had been reeled in, inmates then posed as an authority figure, such as a father or police officer, claiming the girl with whom the victim had been communicating was underage and demanding money to keep the exchanges private, according to Drew Goodridge of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Fearful they'd be accused of disseminating child pornography, possibly losing their military careers, more than 442 service members handed over more than $560,000 total between September 2015 and January 2018, authorities said. Five inmates at a South Carolina prison have been indicted on federal charges after authorities say they extorted $560,000 from at least 442 military service members by posing as underage women on dating websites. Pictured clockwise from top left are Wendell Wilkins, Jimmy Dunbar Jr, Rakeem Spivey, Antwine Matthews and David Dempsey The inmates involved were identified in five federal indictments released Wednesday, according to WIS10. The indictments are outlined below: Between September 2015 and December 2017, victims wired more than $29,000 to Malcom Cooper, Andreika Mouzon and Flossie Brockington, who transferred the money to Antwine Lamar Matthews and other inmates, sometimes taking a cut Roselyn Pratt helped inmate Rakeem Spivey fraudulently collect more than $5,000 in 2016 Mitchlene Padgett helped inmate Jimmy Dunbar Jr extort nearly $30,000 between May 2016 and December 2017 Jalisa Thompson, of Spartanburg, and Tiffany Reed, of Charlotte, helped inmate Wendell Wilkins obtain at least $80,000 from military personnel between February 2016 and January 2018. Thompson and Reed, as well as Brandon Thompson and Laben McCoy, then laundered the money Edgar Jermaine Hosey, of Aiken, helped inmate David Paul Dempsey extort money from military personnel between May 2016 and December 2017 US Attorney Sherri Lydon (pictured center) announced the charges during a press conference in front of a state prison in Columbia, South Carolina, on Wednesday Lydon said the victims come from all branches and ranks of the military. According to Goodridge, more than 250 other cases were being investigated for potential extortion as part of 'Operation Surprise Party,' which his agency began in January 2017. 'This operation will continue until we break the back of these criminal networks,' he said. Inmates aren't allowed to have cellphones behind bars, although thousands are smuggled inside each year. Corrections Director Bryan Stirling has long called illegally obtained cellphones the No. 1 security threat inside his institutions, as they allow inmates the unmonitored ability to communicate and potentially continue their criminal endeavors. Officials have said a deadly riot earlier this year at Lee Correctional Institution was in part a turf war over contraband including cellphones. 'We do not lock up criminals only to have them go to prison and continue their criminal conduct,' Lydon said. 'It is the unfettered use of contraband cellphones that allows inmates to continue harming the citizens of South Carolina.' President Donald Trump on Wednesday continued his rant against General Motors and issued a new warning: a threat to expand the 'chicken tax' from its tariffs on light-duty trucks to cars and auto parts. Trump argued that the expansion of the Cold War-era tax would ensure more cars would be built in the United States and that GM 'would not be closing their plants.' 'The reason that the small truck business in the U.S. is such a go to favorite is that, for many years, Tariffs of 25% have been put on small trucks coming into our country. It is called the 'chicken tax.' If we did that with cars coming in, many more cars would be built here..... .....and G.M. would not be closing their plants in Ohio, Michigan & Maryland. Get smart Congress. Also, the countries that send us cars have taken advantage of the U.S. for decades. The President has great power on this issue - Because of the G.M. event, it is being studied now!,' he wrote in a pair of tweets. President Trump has been railing against General Motors ever since it announced the closure of U.S. auto plants and worker layoffs He's now threatening to expand the 'chicken tax' to the auto industry He argues it would help build more cars in America and keep GM plants open The chicken tax is a 25 percent tariff placed on imported light-duty trucks in the U.S., which was initially created in response to France and West Germany's taxes on imported chicken from the U.S. Started by President Lyndon Johnson, the original tax included potato starch, dextrin, and brandy. Those were eventually dropped, leaving the tariff on light-duty trucks to protect U.S. automakers from car makers overseas. Trump has threatened in the past to increase tariffs on cars and auto parts. But the auto industry objects to the proposal out of fears it would increase production costs in the United States and launch a trade war that would decimate their industry. The administration had appeared to sideline the idea but it could revive a move after GM's startling announcement, which rattled the industry and gives the president some potential political problems. And Trump took to Twitter on Wednesday to tout proof his tariffs work, using the steel industry as an example. 'Steel Dynamics announced that it will build a brand new 3 million ton steel mill in the Southwest that will create 600 good-paying U.S. JOBS. Steel JOBS are coming back to America, just like I predicted. Congratulations to Steel Dynamics!,' he tweeted. Steel Dynamics, a Fort Wayne, Ind.-based company, said on Monday it was investing as much as $1.8 billion to construct a new steel mill in the southwestern U.S. The new mill - expected to begin construction in 2020 - would create 600 new 'well-paying' jobs, the company said. Earlier this year, President Trump imposed 25 percent tariffs on steel imports in order to boost the industry. Trump has been railing against GM ever since the U.S. automaker announced on Monday it would close five auto plants and put 14,700 people out of work in Detroit, in Ohio, and near Toronto in a move designed to cut costs. But the 'chicken tax' may not be the answer as some automakers had found a way around its tariffs. Ford, for example, shipped some of its delivery vans as 'wagons' with seats and windows in the back. Upon arrival in the U.S., those items are ripped out. While the process costs the company hundreds, the import tax falls dramatically to 2.5 percent from the 25 percent under the 'chicken tax,' saving the car company thousands of dollars. Mercedes-Benz was building complete vans in Germany, disassembling them, shipping them in pieces to the United States, where they are reassembled by American workers and become 'locally made' - thus not falling under the 'chicken tax.' GM announced plant closures and layoffs on Monday Trump touted the success of his steel tariffs in helping that industry Trump has threatened other punitive measures against GM. He threatened to yank subsidies for electric cars as GM seeks to reconfigure its supply chain, jettison unpopular models, and refocus on vehicles it thinks will sell in the future. '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. Trump also told The Wall Street Journal that the company should stop making cars in China, and instead bring its American factories up to full capacity. 'They better damn well open a new plant there very quickly,' the president said, adding: 'I love Ohio.' GM will stop producing cars and transmissions at the plants through 2019. In all, six car models were scrapped - the Chevrolet Volt, Chevrolet Cruze, Chevrolet Impala full-size car, Cadillac XTS, Buick LaCrosse and Cadillac CT6. This leaves the company with nine remaining car models. And the Cadillac CT6 will be killed off in the U.S. after mid-2019, though it will continue to be sold in China. Trump said he spoke Monday with GM's CEO, Mary Barra, and 'I told them, 'you're playing around with the wrong person'.' He told reporters as he left the White House for a pair of political rallies in Mississippi that the United States 'has done a lot for General Motors. They better get back to Ohio, and soon.' The president won the Buckeye State by 8 percentage points in 2016; his re-election push is likely to focus on a strengthened economic recovery. Given Democrats' built-in advantages in the Electoral College, the proportional voting scheme that actually elects U.S. presidents, it's difficult for Republicans to win without prevailing in Ohio. Light duty trucks are protected by tariffs under what is known as the 'chicken tax' GM claims its moves will save company $6 billion In addition to trimming its workforce, GM said Monday that it would eliminate some models whose sales have underperformed expectations. The reduction includes 8,100 white-collar workers, some of whom will take buyouts and others who will be laid off. Most of the affected factories build cars that won't be sold in the US after next year. They could close or they could get different vehicles to build. They will be part of contract talks with the United Auto Workers union next year. About 6,000 factory workers could lose jobs in the US and Canada, although some could transfer to truck plants. The plan will help save the company $6billion by 2020, according to GM. Azerbaijan will chair the 53rd session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PABSEC), the Azerbaijan Press Council said in a message Nov. 28. Thus, the 53rd session of the PABSEC will be held in Baku June 2019. This decision was made at the 52nd session of the PABSEC held in Yerevan. On Nov. 28, the 52nd plenary session of the PABSEC, which started Nov. 27 in Yerevan, continued its work. The session is attended by Eldar Guliyev, deputy chairman of the agriculture policy committee of the Azerbaijani parliament, and Aflatun Amashov, MP, chairman of the Azerbaijan Press Council. At the event, the sides discussed the role of the organization in strengthening economic relations in the region, the influence of trade unions on society, the tourism potential of the region and its prospects. At the session, Eldar Guliyev made a report on the topic The role of parliaments in the development of regional economic cooperation, while Aflatun Amashov made a report on the topic State support for the development of small business in Azerbaijan. The chairmanship in the PABSEC is passed on the rotation principle in alphabetical order for a period of six months. In accordance with the rule, the PABSEC is chaired by the head of parliament of the country that hosts the event, so for the next six months, Speaker of the Azerbaijani Parliament Ogtay Asadov will be the chairman of the PABSEC. Billionaire hedge fund manger Jeffrey Epstein was given a sweetheart deal by Miami prosecutors to do just 13 months in jail for sex crimes against minors that could have landed him behind bars for life President Trump's Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta allegedly played a critical role in securing a plea deal for for the billionaire accused pedophile Jeffrey Epstein to serve just 13 months behind bars over breakfast with Epstein's lawyer, a former colleague. Despite Epstein, 65, facing a 53 page federal indictment that could have seen him in prison for the rest of his life, the billionaire instead quietly did 13-months behind bars in the Palm Beach County Jail. He was handed the sweetheart deal sentence a decade ago in 2008. The Epstein deal was developed over a breakfast between Miamis then-top federal prosecutor, Acosta, and a former colleague, Washington, D.C., attorney Jay Lefkowitz, according to the explosive three-part report in the Miami Herald. According to the Miami Herald, Acosta and Lefkowitz met for breakfast at a Marriott in West Palm Beach where they discussed Epstein's case in seclusion. The Herald say they agreed a deal that morning, which was called a non-prosecution agreement and which would also be kept secret from other victims. The agreement effectively shut down an FBI investigation into whether there were other sexual assault victims. Prosecutors alleged the minors would be lured with the promise of a couple hundred dollars to give an older man a massage. According to police, the victims have for the large part all told the same stories. He would be ready for the massage before things turned to a sexual nature. Some of the alleged abused victims were sexually assaulted. Trump's current Labor Secretary Alex Acosta (right) was the top federal prosecutor in Miami that allegedly brokered the deal to have Epstein serve just over a year behind bars where possibly over 100 sex crime victims were involved. Otherwise, Epstein could have been facing life behind bars The underage girls were allegedly lured to Epstein's mansion in Florida with the lure of a couple hundred dollars to give him a massage- he allegedly sexually assaulted many of them Once that deal was approved by a judge, it was sealed and stopped any chance that the girls or anyone else who could show up in court and try to derail it. Epstein agreed to plead guilty to two prostitution charges in state court. His four potential accomplices were also immune from prosecution under the deal. So that granted immunity to 'any potential co-conspirators'and those potentially involved were not named in court documents. That stipulation led to the inference that possibly other influential people could have been having sex with underage girls at Epstein's various homes or on his plane. The eccentric hedge fund manager had friends in high places far and wide including the likes of former President Bill Clinton, future President Donald Trump and Prince Andrew. Acosta is in Trump's cabinet as U.S. Secretary of Labor, role which includes overseeing international child labor laws and human trafficking. He is touted as a possible successor to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who resigned in early November. This July 30, 2008 file photo shows Jeffrey Epstein in custody in West Palm Beach, Florida Two looming court cases should cast some new light on the tangled web of litigation. In two unrelated civil cases, one set for trial on December 4, is aiming to reveal more about Epstein's crimes. The Dec. 4 case, is in Palm Beach County state court. The case is particularly of note since it will be the very first time Epstein's victims will have their day in court, with several of them scheduled to testify. A second lawsuit, known as the federal Crime Victims' Rights suit, is pending in Florida, which seeks to invalidate the non-prosecution agreement and send Epstein to federal prison. Alleged victims of billionaire 'serial sex abuser' Jeffrey Epstein - some as young as 13 when they claim he molested them - hope two new civil cases will finally bring them justice Over a hundred women who were minors as young as 13-years-old are hoping to see justice in their case against billionaire 'serial sex abuser' Jeffrey Epstein in two upcoming civil cases. These two new pending civil cases include alleged victims who seek to rectify the sweetheart plea deal from 2008. One alleged victim, Virginia Roberts, says she was 16-years-old and working at Trump's Mar-a-Largo resort as a spa locker room attendant. She was lured by an associate of Epstein's, and then groomed to give massages, but to then sexually pleasure them and others. 'It started with one and it trickled into two and so on,' Roberts told the Herald. 'And before you know it, I'm being lent out to politicians and academics and royalty.' 'His appetite was insatiable. He wanted new girls, fresh, young faces every single day that was just the sickness that he had,' Roberts said. Girls would be offered cash and come at all hours of the day and night. They were told they were giving an old man a massage and they might be asked to get down to their underwear or naked. Often the encounters led to masturbation, oral sex, intercourse and other sex acts, police and court records show. Virginia Roberts, pictured in 2011, says she was 16 and working at Trump's Mar-a-Largo resort when she was lured into Epstein's world and groomed for sexual pleasure not only for him, but also his powerful friends as well Another alleged victim, Michelle Licata, was 16-years-old when she came to his home to give him a massage, according to a bombshell three part report by the Miami Herald. 'I don't think anyone has been told the truth about what Jeffrey Epstein did,' said Licata, now 30. 'He ruined my life and a lot of girls' lives. People need to know what he did and why he wasn't prosecuted so it never happens again.' Licata's account mirrors the accounts of many others who have come forward to the FBI, both a decade ago and in the following years since. She arrived to his Palm Beach mansion, walked past walls plastered with photographs of naked girls and arrived at a room, she says. He appeared dressed in only a towel, and laid down for a massage. As he continued a phone conversation he directed Licata to rub his back, legs and feet. He told her to undress. She had never been naked in front of anyone before. Billionaire hedge fund manger Jeffrey Epstein was given a sweetheart deal by Miami prosecutors to do just 13 months in jail for sex crimes against minors that could have landed him behind bars for life Afraid and shaking she took off her jeans and stripped down to her underwear. He set a timer for 30 minutes and unhooked her bra and touched her while he masturbated. 'I kept looking at the timer because I didn't want to have this mental image of what he was doing.' 'He kept trying to put his fingers inside me and told me to pinch his nipples. He was mostly saying 'just do that, harder, harder and do this,' according to the bombshell Herald report. Once he ejaculated he stood up and walked to the shower and the ordeal was over. When she first recounted her story to the FBI she was referred to as Jane Doe 2 to protect her identity as a minor. There would be several Jane Does, and in the following years the number reached as high as 103. The allegations against Epstein date back as far as 2001. 'Jeffrey preyed on girls who were in a bad way, girls who were basically homeless. He went after girls who he thought no one would listen to and he was right,' said Courtney Wild, who was 14 when she met Epstein. 'I can't remember how I found out that he had taken a plea,' said Courtney Wild. 'We were purposefully misled into believing that his sentencing [in state court] had nothing to do with the federal crimes he committed against me or the other girls.' Now, with two looming court cases in the tangled web of litigation that happened over a decade ago, the victims are still hoping to see justice served. In two unrelated civil cases, one set for trial on December 4, is aiming to reveal more about Epstein's crimes. The December 4 case, in Palm Beach County state court, is particularly of note since it will be the very first time Epstein's victims will have their day in court, with several of them scheduled to testify. A second lawsuit, known as the federal Crime Victims' Rights suit, is pending in Florida which seeks to invalidate the non-prosecution agreement and aims to finally send Epstein to federal prison. The shameless bully who 'waterboarded' a young Syrian refugee at his Yorkshire school has denied it was a racially-aggravated attack and bizarrely boasted he was only charged with common assault. The 16-year-old claimed he had not been bullying his classmate before the incident and was previously on 'good terms' with him. A sickening video showed the 15-year-old being set upon by an attacker who dragged him to the floor and said 'I'll drown you' before pouring a bottle of water on his face as others watched on. The handwritten note released by the alleged attacker in which he claimed the incident 'was not racial' The teenager charged over the attack issued a handwritten statement to the Sun Online. 'I regret [the incident] but wish to make it clear I was not responsible for breaking his arm, nor had I been bullying him over a period of time as has been reported,' he wrote. He continued: 'The incident was isolated and came about from an altercation between us earlier that day. The incident was not racial as up to that time we had been on good terms. 'I have now been charged with common assault, not racially-aggravated as has been reported.' Thousands have flocked to support the teenager and bemoaned how he escaped war-torn Homs only to be abused by youngsters in the UK. A fundraising campaign for the boy and his family has soared past 80,000 in less than 24 hours. More than 80,000 has been raised for a teenage Syrian refugee after a video of him being bullied at school was posted online. The victim, in white and wearing a blue cast on his left arm, was approached on the school field as others looked on In the video, the attacker, carrying a water bottle, headbutts him, and pushes him to the ground The bully then holds his victim's throat she her pours water over his face One woman who donated, named Rose, said: 'I struggle for words when I think about everything your family has been through escaping Syria and starting a new life in a country that treats you like this. I want to help in any way possible.' Another donor, Simon Porter, said: 'Syrian refugee children who have fled a war torn country being bullied in a UK school is unacceptable.' David Paton added: 'Poor boy. He manages to escape war and tyranny, only to be bullied by some low life thug in the UK. What an absolute disgrace this bully is, shame on you.' Mohammed Tahir, who set up the crowdfunding page for the bullying victim, said he had been overwhelmed by the support it had received. He said: 'I can't thank everyone enough for the generous donations they have made.' MP Nadine Dorries called for 'serious action' over the bullying and added the UK should 'open its arms' to those facing persecution Others also took to social media to back the victim and called the incident 'shameful' Tory MP Nadine Dorries called for 'serious action' over the bullying and added the UK should 'open its arms' to those facing persecution West Yorkshire Police today said they had charged a 16-year-old boy with assault as it emerged the victim's sister had her headscarf ripped off in another attack. Officers said he had been interviewed and reported for summons over the incident on a school field and will appear before a youth court 'in due course.' Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who wrote critically of the kingdom's policies and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was killed in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. Turkish officials say a 15-men team tortured, killed and dismembered the writer, while Saudi Arabia says he died in a 'fistfight.' Here are some key moments in the slaying of the Washington Post columnist: BEFORE HIS DISAPPEARANCE September 2017: The Post publishes the first column by Khashoggi in its newspaper, in which the former royal court insider and longtime journalist writes about going into a self-imposed exile in the U.S. over the rise of Prince Mohammed. His following columns criticize the prince and the kingdom's direction. September 28, 2018: Over a year after the Post published his first column, Khashoggi visits the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, seeking documents in order to get married. He's later told to return October 2, his fiancee Hatice Cengiz says. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says a plan or a 'road map' to kill Khashoggi was devised in Saudi Arabia during this time. September 29: Khashoggi travels to London and speaks at a conference. October 1: Khashoggi returns to Istanbul. At around 4.30pm, a three-person Saudi team arrives in Istanbul on a scheduled flight, checks in to their hotels then visits the consulate, according to Erdogan. The Turkish president says another group of officials from the consulate travel to a forest in Istanbul's outskirts and to the nearby city of Yalova on a 'reconnaissance' trip. Jamal Khashoggi (right) arriving at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul on October 2 THE DAY OF HIS DISAPPEARANCE 3.28am, October 2: A private jet arrives at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport carrying some members of what Turkish media will refer to as a 15-member Saudi 'assassination squad.' Other members of the team arrive by two commercial flights in the afternoon. Erdogan says the team includes Saudi security and intelligence officials and a forensics expert. They meet at the Saudi Consulate. One of the first things they do is to dismantle a hard disk connected to the consulate's camera system, the president says. 11.50am: Khashoggi is called to confirm his appointment at the consulate later that day, Erdogan says. 1.14pm: Surveillance footage later leaked to Turkish media shows Khashoggi walking into the main entrance of the Saudi Consulate. No footage made public ever shows him leaving. His fiancee waits outside, pacing for hours. 3.07pm: Surveillance footage shows vehicles with diplomatic license plates leaving the Saudi Consulate for the consul general's home some 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) away. 5.50pm: Khashoggi's fiancee alerts authorities, saying he may have been forcibly detained inside the consulate or that something bad may have happened to him, according to Erdogan. 7pm: A private plane from Saudi Arabia carries six members of the alleged Saudi squad from Istanbul to Cairo, the next day returning to Riyadh. 11pm: Seven members of the alleged Saudi squad leave on another private jet to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which the next day returns to Riyadh. Two others leave by commercial flights. Erdogan confirms reports that a 'body double' - a man wearing Khashoggi's clothes, glasses and a beard - leaves the consulate building for Riyadh with another person on a scheduled flight later that day. CCTV images showed a a private jet alleged to have been used by a group of Saudi men suspected of being involved in Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi's death INITIAL REACTION October 3: Khashoggi's fiancee and the Post go public with his disappearance. Saudi Arabia says Khashoggi visited the consulate and exited shortly thereafter. Turkish officials suggest Khashoggi might still be in the consulate. Prince Mohammed tells Bloomberg: 'We have nothing to hide.' October 4: Saudi Arabia says on its state-run news agency that the consulate is carrying out 'follow-up procedures and coordination with the Turkish local authorities to uncover the circumstances of the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi after he left the consulate building.' October 5: The Post prints a blank column in its newspaper in solidarity with Khashoggi, headlined: 'A missing voice.' October 6: The Post, citing anonymous Turkish officials, reports Khashoggi may have been killed in the consulate in a 'preplanned murder' by a Saudi team. October 7: A friend of Khashoggi tells the AP that officials told him the writer was killed at the consulate. The consulate rejects what it calls 'baseless allegations.' October 8: Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Turkey is summoned over Khashoggi's disappearance and alleged killing. LEAKED FOOTAGE October 9: Turkey says it will search the Saudi Consulate as a picture of Khashoggi walking into the diplomatic post surfaces. October 10: Surveillance footage is leaked of Khashoggi and the alleged Saudi squad that killed him. Khashoggi's fiancee asks President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump for help. October 11: Turkish media describes Saudi squad as including royal guards, intelligence officers, soldiers and an autopsy expert. Trump calls Khashoggi's disappearance a 'bad situation' and promises to get to the bottom of it. October 12: Trump again pledges to find out what happened to Khashoggi. October 13: A pro-government newspaper reports that Turkish officials have an audio recording of Khashoggi's alleged killing from his Apple Watch, but details in the report come into question. INTERNATIONAL UPROAR October 14: Trump says that 'we're going to get to the bottom of it, and there will be severe punishment' if Saudi Arabia is involved. The kingdom responds with a blistering attack against those who threaten it, as the manager of a Saudi-owned satellite news channel suggests the country could retaliate through its oil exports. The Saudi stock exchange plunges as much as 7 percent at one point. Khashoggi (pictured), went missing after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul October 15: A Turkish forensics team enters and searches the Saudi Consulate, an extraordinary development as such diplomatic posts are considered sovereign soil. Trump suggests after a call with Saudi King Salman that 'rogue killers' could be responsible for Khashoggi's alleged slaying. Trump says Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will travel to the Mideast over the case. Meanwhile, business leaders say they won't attend an economic summit in the kingdom that's the brainchild of Prince Mohammed. October 16: A high-level Turkish official tells the AP that 'certain evidence' was found in the Saudi Consulate proving Khashoggi was killed there. Pompeo arrives for meetings in Saudi Arabia with King Salman and Prince Mohammed. Meanwhile, Trump compares the case to the appointment of now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing, saying: 'Here we go again with you're guilty until proven innocent.' October 17: Pompeo meets with Turkey's president and foreign minister in the Turkish capital, Ankara. Turkish police search the official residence of Saudi Arabia's consul general in Istanbul and conduct a second sweep of the consulate. October 18: A leaked surveillance photograph shows a member of Prince Mohammed's entourage walked into the consulate just before Khashoggi vanished there. October 20: Saudi Arabia for the first time acknowledges Khashoggi was killed in the consulate, claiming he was slain in a 'fistfight.' The claim draws immediate skepticism from the kingdom's Western allies, particularly in the U.S. Congress. October 22: A report says a member of Prince Mohammed's entourage made four calls to the royal's office around the time Khashoggi was killed. Police search a vehicle belonging to the Saudi consulate parked at an underground garage in Istanbul. CCTV emerges showing a Saudi intelligence officer dressed in a fake beard and Jamal Khashoggi's clothes and glasses on the day he went missing. October 23: Erdogan says Saudi officials murdered Khashoggi after plotting his death for days, demanding that Saudi Arabia reveal the identities of all involved. October 25: Changing their story again, Saudi prosecutors say Khashoggi's killing was a premeditated crime. November 2: Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claims the order to kill Khashoggi came from the highest levels of the Saudi government. Earlier the same day, Yasin Aktay, a ruling party adviser to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said he believed the body had to have been dissolved in acid. November 4: Khashoggi's sons Salah and Abdullah Khashoggi issue appeal for his remains to be returned so that he may be buried in Saudi Arabia. November 10: President Erdogan says Turkey gave the audio recordings linked to the murder to 'Saudi Arabia, to Washington, to the Germans, to the French, to the British'. November 13: Turkish media reports that the luggage carried by the Saudi 'hit squad' included scissors, defibrillators and syringes that may have been used against Khashoggi. November 15: Saudi Arabia's public prosecutor announces that he is seeking the death penalty for five out of 11 suspects charged in the murder. Shalaan al-Shalaan said the person who had ordered the killing was the head of the negotiating team sent to repatriate him, and exonerated Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. On the same day, the U.S. Treasury announces sanctions against 17 Saudi officials, including the Consul General in Turkey, Mohammed Alotaibi. November 16: A CIA assessment reported in the Washington Post finds that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the assassination. November 18: Germany bans 18 Saudi nationals believed to be connected to the murder from entering Europe's border-free Schengen zone. Berlin also announces it has as halted previously approved arms exports to Saudi Arabia amid the fallout. NPR has fired their film critic contributor David Edelstein after he inappropriately joked about a scene from Last Tango in Paris where the actress said she 'felt raped'. In a scene from the 1972 film, Late actress Maria Schneider revealed decades later that during the infamous 'butter scene' in the 1972 movie - in which the product is used as a lubricant - she was genuinely crying. She disclosed that director Bernardo Bertolucci conspired with actor Marlon Brando to spring the unscripted non-consensual sex scene on her at the last moment. After Bertolucci died aged 77 Monday, Edelstein shocked fans by posting an image from that moment between Brando, 48, and Schneider, 19, on Facebook and captioned it: 'Even grief is better with butter.' David Edelstein posted a still from a non-consensual sex scene from Last Tango in Paris on his Facebook page Monday and received a backlash for his caption. Marlon Brando, then 48, appeared with Maria Schneider, then 19 David Edelstein was axed after he said following director Bernardo Bertolucci's death Monday: 'Even grief is better with butter' Schneider (pictured in 2010) told the Daily Mail in 2007 that she 'felt raped' after the butter scene which was not scripted NPR, the network behind the WHYY-produced Fresh Air radio show Edelstein appears on, said Tuesday that the post regarding the character's rape was 'offensive and unacceptable'. The statement continued: 'Today we learned about film critic David Edelstein's Facebook post in response to the death of film director Bernardo Bertolucci. 'The post does not meet the standards that we expect from Fresh Air contributors, or from journalists associated with WHYY or NPR. We appreciate the apology David posted, but we have decided to end Fresh Air's association with him, and have informed David accordingly.' Among the backlash before he was axed, actress Martha Plimpton called for Edelstein to be fired. She tweeted alongside a grab of his original post: '*warning: rape JFC, David Edelstein. All day I've avoided noting this mans death precisely because of this moment in which a sexual assault of an actress was intentionally captured on film. And this a**hole makes it into this joke. Fire him. Immediately.' Edelstein said he was unaware of Schneider's earlier comments about what she went through while portraying Parisian girl Jeanne and apologized, saying he now realized the joke was 'grotesque'. Among the backlash actress Martha Plimpton called for Edelstein to be fired Many social media users were shocked that Edelstein had made the joke Others said that he should be forgiven for the mistake But some claimed that as a film reviewer he should have known better than that NPR tweeted Tuesday that he was not longer working on their Fresh Air radio program He removed the post and said: 'I didn't remember (the scene) as a rape and I didn't know the real-life story about Maria Schneider. 'The line was callous and wrong even if it had been consensual, but given that it wasn't I'm sick at the thought of how it read and what people logically conclude about me. I have never and would never make light of rape, in fiction or in reality.' While NPR has opted to let him go, New York Magazine where he is a member of staff, is taking more time to think about the next step. 'We take David at his word that he was not aware of Maria Schneider's comments about the making of Last Tango in Paris but we're reviewing the matter internally,' a magazine spokesperson told The Hill in a statement. Bertolucci won notoriety due to its lurid depictions of sex in the controversial movie. Much of the film's controversy centered on the suggestion of anal rape, with Brando's character - expatriate hotel owner Paul - using butter in one of its most notorious scenes. Schneider said she was unaware of the controversial scene and said 'Marlon didn't console me or apologize' after the performance Schneider pictured with director Bertolucci at the Paris premiere of Last Tango In Paris in 1972 Outrage: Last Tango In Paris was banned in Italy just after its release in 1972, and was not released again until 1987 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. Schneider told the Daily Mail in 2007 interview that the simulated sex scene was unscripted, that she felt bullied by Bertolucci and unsupported by her co-star Brando. Throughout the film they engage in some steamy clinches, the most famous involving Schneider face down on the apartment floor while Brando applies butter to her nether regions and performs a sex act on her. Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci died aged 77, his publicist confirmed on Monday The open coffin of Bertolucci was seen at Rome's Capitol Hill on Tuesday 'That scene wasn't in the original script. The truth is it was Marlon who came up with the idea,' she revealed when she was 55-years old. 'They only told me about it before we had to film the scene and I was so angry. 'I should have called my agent or had my lawyer come to the set because you can't force someone to do something that isn't in the script, but at the time, I didn't know that.' Schneider added that she had always had a bad feeling about the motion picture because of its sexual content and her being too young to understand it. She told the Daily Mail that after the movie she tried to take her own life and spiraled into drug abuse. Due to the film's nature, it was banned in many places all over the world but also received Academy Award nominations. 'Marlon said to me: "Maria, don't worry, it's just a movie," but during the scene, even though what Marlon was doing wasn't real, I was crying real tears. 'I felt humiliated and to be honest, I felt a little raped, both by Marlon and by Bertolucci. After the scene, Marlon didn't console me or apologize. Thankfully, there was just one take.' Schneider died of breast cancer in 2011. Two years later, Bertolucci admitted the scene had been sprung on her. He said he 'wanted her reaction as a girl, not as an actress'. He added: 'I think she hated me and also Marlon because we didnt tell her that there was that detail of the butter.' Bertolucci admitted that not telling Schneider the plan was 'horrible'. But he had no regrets though Schneider hated me for her whole life' as a result. When a video of this interview came to light in 2016, there was outrage. There were calls for Bertolucci to be prosecuted and both he and Brando to have their film awards rescinded. The director retorted there had been a 'ridiculous misunderstanding', claiming: 'We wanted her spontaneous reaction to that improper use [of butter]. 'Someone thinks Maria had not been informed about the violence on her. That is false!' He added: 'Maria knew everything because she had read the script, in which it was all described. The only new thing was the idea of the butter. 'It was this, I learned many years later, that upset Maria, and not the violence.' Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is claiming an unauthorized person gained access to his Twitter account and retweeted a post attacking General Motors. President Donald Trump retweeted the same post, by an anonymous user identified only as The Trump Train hours later raising questions about how the post might have been circulated internally. 'A retweet was posted last night on @stevenmnuchin1 by someone other than the Secretary or an individual with authorized access to his account. As such, the retweet is being deleted,' said a statement posted on Mnuchin's account. That statement apparently wasn't written by Mnuchin, as it referred to him by his title in the third person. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's twitter account sent out an attack on General Motors, but it now claims an unauthorized person gained access to the account The statement did not state whether the account was hacked externally but the wording suggests the possibility it was a Treasury employee who sent out the retweet just not an official who was 'authorized' to access the account. The agency is investigating the matter. The post itself went after the automaker after it announced this week it would reduce its workforce by 15 per cent. The layoffs also strike a blow in Trump country, including in Ohio and Michigan, two states Trump carried, despite his promise to bring back manufacturing jobs. 'If GM doesn't want to keep their jobs in the United States, they should pay back the $11.2 billion bailout that was funded by the American taxpayer,' according to the post. The tweet on Mnuchin's account was by a person who did not have 'authorized access to his account' Mnuchin's account initially retweeted the attack on GM by @The_Trump_Train President Donald Trump retweeted the self-described 'fan' account's attack on General Motors The government plowed about $50 billion into the automaker during the financial crisis, and in exchange ended up owning a 61 per cent stake in the company. When the feds sold back shares, the government ended up with an $11.2 billion loss, however the bailout is credited with helping preserve the U.S. auto industry. Trump's retweet going after the automaker was in keeping with his earlier threat that: 'They better open a plant in Ohio' after the firm announced the closures. But it would be more unusual for the treasury secretary to attack a company so long identified with the fortunes of the U.S. economy. The same Trump Train account that went after GM also put forth a tweet that Trump retweeted that pictured nine Democratic rivals behind bars along with special counsel Robert Mueller and Trump's deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein. 'Now that Russia Collusion is a proven lie, when do the trials for treason begin,' the post asked. The Trump Train account describes itself by saying: 'Welcome to the #TrumpTrain, the greatest political movement in history. Proud American. RT'd by @realDonaldTrump *Fan account*' A small Texas town has backed a teacher who was criticized for having her students recite a Bible verse daily. First-grade teacher, Susan Schobel, of Smithville, came under fire earlier this month after a video of her students reading a verse from a passage in the New Testament book of Romans, was shared on social media. In the now-deleted video, the Brown Primary School children are gathered in a circle in their classroom and can be heard saying: 'Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good.' Shortly after Schobel's video was shared on Facebook, several supporters shared their thoughts on the post. A small Texas town has backed first-grade teacher, Susan Schobel (center, in white), who came under fire earlier this month for having her students recite a Bible verse Schobel, of Smithville, came under fire earlier this month after a video of her students (pictured) reading a verse from a passage in the New Testament book of Romans, was shared on social media Shortly after Schobel's video was shared on Facebook, several supporters shared their thoughts on the post (pictured) One of those supporters, Dane Garrison, started the hashtag #IStandwithSusan on Facebook that was accompanied by a t-shirt (pictured) that was created to raise funds for the Smithville Born Again Emporium 'I've been wanting to do this my whole teaching career, but thought I couldn't You are amazing!' one supporter wrote. Another said: 'As a parent I love it! I got your back!' In response to her supporters, Schobel said in a now-deleted post: 'If I get fired teaching my children about Jesus then I'm getting fired for a great reason!' One of those supporters, Dane Garrison, started the hashtag #IStandwithSusan on Facebook that was accompanied by his support for Schobel. 'I believe everyone has a right to stand up for what they believe in. So do I.. #istandwithsusan I believe in love and kindness being taught in our classrooms,' Garrison wrote. 'She has touched and enriched the lives of so many children over the years,' Garrison added. Garrison's Facebook post was also accompanied by black t-shirts with the hashtag on the front and the Romans verse, 12:9-10, on the back. 'Any and all proceeds will be given to the Smithville Born Again Emporium. These people spread the love of God each week in our community!' Garrison said of the shirts. One parent told Fox 7 that he doesn't have anything against religion, but he doesn't believe it belongs in the classroom. One parent said he doesn't have anything against religion, but it doesn't belong in the classroom. 'I actually love Jesus. I love his teachings, his practices, and it's been a big impact in my life, but I don't believe that belongs in the public school system,' Charlie Lucko (above) said Superintendent Cheryl Burns said in a statement that the district welcomes 'the diversity of thought, worship, ideas and speech in our community'. Pictured is Brown Primary School And according to religion experts, the teacher violated a 1963 Supreme Court ruling. Bible (file image) readings and prayer in public schools became unconstitutional following the Abington School District vs. Schempp ruling 'I actually love Jesus. I love his teachings, his practices, and it's been a big impact in my life, but I don't believe that belongs in the public school system,' parent Charlie Lucko said. And according to religion experts, the teacher violated a 1963 Supreme Court ruling. Bible readings and prayer in public schools became unconstitutional following the Abington School District vs. Schempp ruling. Superintendent Cheryl Burns said in a statement that the district welcomes 'the diversity of thought, worship, ideas and speech in our community'. 'We support the right of students to express themselves. We support our employees' free speech and free exercise rights as well, while being mindful of their on-duty responsibilities.' President Donald Trump let first lady Melania Trump do the honors and light the National Christmas on Wednesday evening as some members of the Trump family looked on. 'Let's light the tree. The first lady will do the honors,' he said, gesturing to his wife, standing next to him in a white coat with a white turtle neck underneath, white leather gloves, white boots, and with her hair in an updo. Melania Trump was wearing her coat - a $4,150 Max Mara Beaver Belted Wrap Coat - instead of draping it over her shoulders - one of her signature fashion moves - in the 35 degree weather. President Trump and Melania Trump lit the National Christmas tree Wednesday evening The president let the first lady do the honors and flip the switch Host Antonio Sabato Jr. helped the first lady light the tree while the president looks on The National Christmas tree sits in the President's Park near the White House with 56 smaller trees surrounding it From left, Tiffany Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle wait for the lightening ceremony to begin 'Merry Christmas. Thank you,' the president said. He wore a dark overcoat, red tie and black leather gloves. Joining the couple were Donald Trump Jr and his girl friend Kimberly Guilfoyle. Also spotted were Trump's son Eric, his daughter in law Lara Trump and daughter Tiffany Trump. At last year's Christmas tree lighting, Donald Trump Jr. was joined by his wife Vanessa and their family. Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, who attended last year's' ceremony with their three children, were not spotted this year. In remarks during the festive program, the president gave thanks to the military and asked Americans to remember their fellow citizens who had survived wildfires and hurricanes in the past year. 'At this time of the year, we renew the bonds of affection between our fellow citizens, and we awaken the faith in our hearts that calls each of us to action. As we gather loved ones, our thoughts turn to those who are rebuilding their lives after devastating wildfires, destructive hurricanes, and terrible tragedy,' the president said. 'We are one American family. We hurt together, we heal together, and we will always pull through together. This is the United States of America. We are the best in the world, and theres nobody close,' he said. 'Tonight, we honor the first responders who risked their lives to save the lives of others. And all of America sends our profound gratitude to the incredible men and women of the United States Military. And Im proud to say our military right now is stronger than ever before.' Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle arrive the lighting of the National Christmas Tree Last year, Donald Trump Jr., and his wife Vanessa Trump and their family watched the ceremony together Trump added: 'Their families are all our families, and we thank them so much for their greatness and for the incredible job they do. Thank you to the United States Military. Thank you very much. We ask God to watch over this nations heroes, and to shed his almighty grace upon our nation. And we pray that Americas light will shine more brightly and stronger than ever. And it will. On behalf of Melania and myself and the entire Trump family - many of whom are with us tonight - I want to again wish you all a very, very Merry Christmas.' Host Antonio Sabato Jr. introduced the first couple for their ceremonial duty of lighting the tree. The first couple then walked off the stage - with the president helping the first lady down the stairs - and presumably sat down in seats with the Trump family. Christmas carols played. Lighting the National Christmas Tree is one of the presidency's oldest traditions. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump attend the National Christmas Tree lighting ceremony The National Christmas Tree on Wednesday before the lighting ceremony The tree after the first lady lit it Donald Trump Jr. brought Kimberly Guilfoyle to the lighting ceremony Lara Trump attended the tree lighting with her son; Tiffany Trump walked in behind her The festive atmosphere features Christmas carols and special musical guests as part of the official White House holiday celebrations. The first lighting took place 96 years ago on Christmas Eve in 1923, when President Calvin Coolidge lit a Christmas tree in front of 3,000 spectators on the Ellipse of the White House). Since then, each succeeding president has carried on the tradition. This year's ceremony was hosted by Antonio Sabato Jr., a longtime Trump supporter who spoke at the Republican National Convention. Singer Abby Anderson was one of the performers. The National Christmas Tree is a living Colorado blue spruce from Virginia, which can be seen year-round in Presidents Park, the grassy area adjacent to the White House grounds. Surrounding the National Christmas Tree are 56 smaller trees with one-of-a-kind ornaments, representing every U.S. state, territory and the District of Columbia. Schools from around the country contributed ornaments. 'A very special recognition to the students who designed stunning ornaments to decorate 56 different Christmas trees here in Presidents Park. Thank you, students. I hear you out there,' the president said in his remarks. The National Tree's official twitter account shared pictures of them and the students who worked on them. Eric Trump and Tiffany Trump welcome their father, President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump to the 2018 National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony Abby Anderson performs during the lighting of the National Christmas Tree Students from South Dakota painted ornaments with horses and water ways from the state Nevada's ornament has the date it became a state and Alaska's has a fish Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway was on hand for the celebration Students in Roosevelt High School in Sioux Falls painted ornaments to represent South Dakota. The ornaments were painted with items the state is known for including horses, cattle, flowers and rivers. Students in Norfolk, Va., contributed ornaments that feature the Virginia state seal and a bright-red cardinal. Students in Nevada included the date their state joined the union on their ornament while Alaska's ornament has a fish. Young people at risk of becoming jihadis will be given free tours of cultural landmarks to stop them from becoming radicalised. The plan comes after Prime Minister Scott Morrison met with prominent Muslim leaders following the horrific Bourke St attack in Melbourne on November 9. Wannabe jihadis will be taken to Sydney's Opera House and Harbour Bridge, as well as Melbourne's Federation Square and the Islamic Museum. The tour also includes the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the War Memorial in Canberra and state parliament houses, Daily Telegraph reported. Scroll down for video Young people at risk of becoming jihadis will be given free tours of cultural landmarks to stop them from becoming radicalised The plan comes after Prime Minister Scott Morrison met with prominent Muslim leaders A spokesman for the Prime Minister said Mr Morrison (pictured) has encouraged the ideas Another suggestion included a hotline where members of the community could express concern and 'dob in' family, friends, or community members who were showing signs of radicalisation. A second proposal was enlisting prominent community leaders to mentor youths at risk. Dr Jamal Rifi, who was awarded Australian of the Year in 2015, and is a distinguished leader within the Muslim community and suggested the ideas to the prime minister. He said the national landmarks proposal would include free vouchers for parents and their children to help them identify the signs of radicalisation, the publication reported. 'Mr Morrison said it was a thumbs-up in principle and the proposals were music to his ears,' Dr Rifi said. 'If we foil one terror attack and catch one lone wolf, it will be work and money well spent.' Dr Jamal Rifi, who was awarded Australian of the Year in 2015, is a distinguished leader within the Muslim community and suggested the ideas to the prime minsters The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the Hall of Memory at the Australian War Memorial With security risks at the forefront of the plan, Nick O'Brien, associate professor of counter terrorism at Charles Sturt University, told the publication the proposals should be assessed, stating interest factor is the 'biggest problem'. 'What young person wants to visit a museum? That's not a way to engage someone who feels disconnected.' Nearly 10,000 people have been told to flee immediately as more than 100 fast-moving blazes tear through Queensland amid the state's bushfire crisis. Thousands of people were evacuated from communities in central Queensland after catastrophic fire conditions on Wednesday. Early on Thursday, residents of two more communities - Campwin Beach and Sarina Beach south of Mackay - were woken by police and emergency text messages telling them they were in danger and to move to safety immediately. About 140 bushfires were burning across an almost 2,000km stretch from Yungaburra, south of Cairns, to Mount French, west of the Gold Coast. Nearly 10,000 people have been told to flee immediately as more than 100 fast-moving blazes tear through Queensland as the state's bushfire crisis rolls on QFES Assistant Commissioner Gary McCormack warned anyone who had not yet left to evacuate immediately About 140 bushfires are burning across an almost 2,000km stretch from Yungaburra, south of Cairns, to Mount French, west of the Gold Coast QFES Assistant Commissioner Gary McCormack warned anyone who had not yet left to evacuate immediately. 'Leaving their home is the safest option, for them and their families. They need to take advice as given,' he told the Nine Network on Thursday. Reports emerged on Thursday morning of looting in at least one community. The Queensland Fire and Emergency Service said homes and lives were under threat, with firefighters struggling to have any effect on the blaze. A firefighter is seen feeding water to a dehydrated puppy on Queensland on Wednesday Thousands of people were evacuated from communities in central Queensland after catastrophic fire conditions on Wednesday. However, favourable conditions overnight allowed firefighters to make some progress. Roughly 8,000 people were ordered out of Gracemere, near Rockhampton, on Wednesday, with hundreds of them spending the night in an evacuation centre at the Rockhampton showgrounds. Thick, billowing smoke surrounded the town, as the blaze edged closer to homes and shopping precincts in the region. 'People will burn to death,' Queensland's deputy police commissioner Bob Gee warned on Wednesday. Rhonda Anderson evacuates herself and her horse to safety near Mount Larcom, Queensland 'Their normal approaches probably won't work if this situation develops the way it is predicted to develop. 'It is no different to a Category 5 cyclone coming through your door.' 'If you have children with you, you need to think really hard about not losing a house, but losing the people you care most about.' Dangerous conditions prevailed again on Thursday. But authorities expected they won't rival what was seen on Wednesday, when Queensland's fire danger rating reached catastrophic for the first time in the state's history. There are currently 140 fires burning across the state, but favourable conditions overnight allowed firefighters to make some progress Firefighters have been brought in from interstate to deal with the crisis, which is far from over with hot conditions expected to continue for days There had been no reports so far of property losses in Gracemere, but firefighters say the battle was not over. Overnight, police declared an emergency for the Sunshine Coast community of Little Creek, after a fire threatened homes there. But that was revoked about 3am on Thursday. The communities of Deepwater, Baffle Creek, Rules Beach and Oyster Creek, halfway between Gladstone and Bundaberg, remained under evacuation orders. Firefighters were brought in from interstate to deal with the crisis, which was far from over, with hot conditions expected to continue for days. Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner Katarina Carroll said people must not try to return to their homes until they were told that it was safe to do so. 'Do not be complacent, we are not through this yet,' she said. This is the colossal cockerel who is believed to be the biggest chicken in the world. Merakli, who lives on a farm in Kosovo, is 3ft tall and weighs a whopping 7.7kg. The Brahma chicken became an online sensation after footage of him strutting around his pen went viral last year. Now, his owner Fitim Sejfijaj has revealed Merakli has settled down with two hens. Scroll down for video Merakli, a Brahma chicken who lives on a farm in Kosovo, is 3ft tall and weighs a whopping 7.7kg 'He is a very loving and happy bird,' the farmer told The Sun. 'He has two hens with him and is very well treated.' Brahma chickens are a large breed of chickens developed in the United States from birds originally imported from China. The average weight for a Brahma cockerel is 5.5kg. When footage of Merakli first emerged online, commenters suggested the clip was faked. Some even went as far as to suggest it was a man in a chicken suit. The Brahma chicken became an online sensation after footage of him strutting around his pen went viral last year News of Merakli's latest antics come after the story of a giant cow made headlines. The 1,400kg cow called Knickers avoided the abattoir because he is simply too large to be processed. The 6ft 4 ins tall steer has become a star after making his way into the record books. 'He's gone from being a production animal to I guess some sort of star,' cattle farmer Geoff Pearson said. Knickers the steer, center back, grazes in paddock with a herd of cows in Lake Preston, Australia 'We always got comments from anyone who saw him but he's rapidly becoming a local celebrity now. I'm not sure how we will handle his newfound popularity.' Mr Pearson added that he had no plans yet to use Knickers to increase the exposure of his farm, in Lake Preston, Australia, but he would see what happened down the track. 'He's just getting on with his job, which is basically just eating and sleeping,' he said. By 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) Actor Gerard Depardieu has been quizzed by police in France over allegations he raped a young actress, a police source said. The 69-year-old attended a police interview in Tuesday. He was able to leave the questioning at any time, according to reports. After the actress filed a complaint against him in August, his lawyer Herve Temime said: 'Gerard Depardieu absolutely denies any attack, any rape. 'I regret the public nature of this process which is doing major harm to Gerard Depardieu, whose innocence will certainly be proven.' Gerard Depardieu attended a police interview on Tuesday but is not being kept in custody. Pictured: The French actor in September 2017 Depardieu was accused of raping and assaulting the woman at his mansion in Paris between August 7 and 13 this year. His alleged victim filed her complaint in Provence, southern France, and local prosecutors immediately opened an investigation. French newspapers had reported the alleged victim is an actress and dancer in her twenties who had sought career advice from the veteran actor. The accusations leveled against Depardieu are the latest in a string against famous men worldwide in the wake of the rape and assault accusations against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein. French director and producer Luc Besson, most famous for international hits such as 'The Fifth Element', was questioned last month over allegations that he also raped a young actress. Five more women accused Besson of sexual assault and harassment on Wednesday, bringing the total number to nine women who have made complaints about him. Among the complaints include his former personal assistants who told the French investigative website Mediapart that she felt forced into having sex with him in luxury hotels across the French capital. Besson's lawyer and his production company EuropaCorp declined to comment on the new claims when contacted by AFP. His former assistant said that he had invited her to dinner in his suite in the Meurice hotel when she was homeless and had put out an appeal to friends looking for a job. He said he would be her 'protector' and asked her to sit on his lap and give him 'a little kiss'. 'I don't know why I let it happen to me' she said of the non-consensual sex she claimed that followed. Depardieu was accused of raping and assaulting the woman at his mansion in Paris between August 7 and 13 this year The accusations leveled against Depardieu are the latest in a string against famous men worldwide in the wake of the rape and assault accusations against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein (pictured) 'I was petrified,' she told Mediapart. 'I had such a positive idea of him at the time, for me he was a kind of living god.' Besson has categorically denied the claims, which his lawyer Thierry Marembert has denounced as 'fantasist accusations'. In July, a casting director who often worked with Besson told Mediapart that he assaulted her 'every time I took the lift with him', and that he also demanded sexual favours from her on set. Two other women also said that Besson 'behaved inappropriately' with them, with one actress claiming she had to escape from a casting in his Paris office on her hands and knees. Among the new allegations, theatre producer Karine Isambert said she was grabbed during a meeting in a London hotel room in 1995 when she was a model hoping to start an acting career. Two former students of Besson's Cite du Cinema film school also accused him of harassment and a former employee of his EuropaCorp company said he had kissed and acted inappropriately with her. A former prep school star student who was convicted of sexually assaulting a classmate is back in court to demand a new trial over claims his legal team were 'ineffective'. Owen Labrie, 23, of Tunbridge, Vermont, was acquitted in 2015 of raping his 15-year-old classmate as part of 'Senior Salute,' a game of sexual conquest, at St. Paul's School, but was convicted on a felony computer charge and several misdemeanors. But Labrie's new lawyer argued that he never should have been found guilty of the felony charge of using a computer to lure a 15-year-old classmate into having sex with him.The conviction came with a year in jail and a lifetime on the sex offender registry. On Wednesday, attorney Christopher Johnson argued that the trial lawyers for the former St. Paul's Prep student had failed to mount a defense against the computer charge. He said they didn't make it clear to the jury that the law relied on a suspect's intent to 'seduce, solicit, lure, or entice a child' in order to commit sexual assault. Johnson said Labrie had no intention of having sex with Chessy Prout when he sent her the messages. Owen Labrie, 23, of Tunbridge, Vermont, appeared in court on Wednesday to ask for a new trial Labrie was acquitted in 2015 of raping a 15-year-old classmate as part of 'Senior Salute,' a game of sexual conquest, at St. Paul's School The lead trial lawyer, J.W. Carney Jr., is a well-known defense attorney whose clients included the late Boston gangster James 'Whitey' Bulger. 'A defense attorney obligation is to have a strategy and execute that strategy reasonably,' Johnson told the court. 'These lawyers, as shown in their post-conviction testimony, recognized the mental state was the place where they wanted to stake their defense. The problem was they totally failed to execute that theory.' Two years ago, Prout spoke publicly about the assault for the first time. Prout, now 20, has since become an advocate for sexual assault survivors and co-wrote a memoir, 'I Have The Right To: A High School Survivor's Story of Sexual Assault, Justice, and Hope,' with Boston Globe journalist Jenn Abelson. Christopher Johnson, a lawyer for Labrie, argued Wednesday his trial lawyers were ineffective in defending him, prompting them to seek retrial Two years ago, victim Chessy Prout spoke publicly about the assault for the first time. Prout, now 20, has since become an advocate for sexual assault survivors and co-wrote a memoir, 'I Have The Right To: A High School Survivor's Story of Sexual Assault, Justice, and Hope,' with Boston Globe journalist Jenn Abelson Labrie has been wearing an ankle monitor for two years Assistant Attorney General Sean Locke told the court that Labrie's trial lawyers did a good job, since their client was found not guilty on the charges of rape that would have carried a prison sentence of 30 years to 60 years. He also argued Labrie's push for a new trial hinges on his presenting the case as if the computer charge was the most important of all of them - since it requires him to register as a sex offender. 'The defense counsel focused their argument on the most serious charges and this mirrored what the state did in its argument,' Locke said. 'In so doing, they didn't provide ineffective counsel, particularly because the defendant was acquitted of the most serious charges he was facing.' Several judges appeared to be sympathetic to that argument, questioning whether this was more a complaint about the trial strategy undertaken by Carney - focused on the credibility of Prout and Labrie's intentions - than his skills as a lawyer. After the trial, Carney asked a judge unsuccessfully to set aside the guilty verdict on the computer charge. He said it never occurred to him that it was an issue worth exploring before the trial. Supreme Court chief justice Robert Lynn asks a question during Owen Labrie's appeal to the court on Wednesday Labrie, who was in court, did not speak to reporters. This is the second attempt by Labrie to seek a new trial after the Supreme Court earlier this month upheld his convictions on the computer charge. The court dismissed arguments by Labrie's lawyers that prosecutors failed to prove intent in his use of the computer and also that the law was meant to be used to target sexual predators and pedophiles combing the internet, not in cases like this. Along with his appeals for a new trial, Labrie is asking that a judge to suspend the remainder of his one-year jail sentence. No hearing has been set on that request. Labrie served two months in jail for curfew violations in 2016. His lawyer said he's complied with his bail conditions, which included a stringent curfew and electronic monitoring. If his sentence is not suspended, Labrie's lawyer wants him to be allowed to attend a work release program or home confinement. He recently found a full-time job. Prosecutors want Labrie to serve the rest of his term. They said they also contacted the victim's family, which objected to the sentence proposal. This is the second attempt by Labrie to seek a new trial after the Supreme Court earlier this month upheld his convictions on the computer charge The parents of a Indiana teen who killed himself after he given an two-hour in-school suspension are suing his high school alleging the intense punishment drove him to his death. On October 6, 2016 high school junior Patrick McCalley, 17, got in trouble for a Snapchat message showing a noose around the neck of an African-American classmate at Carmel High School in Hamilton County, Indiana. As punishment he was escorted from the school and isolated in a two-hour suspension where he was questioned by the school's assistant principal about the Snapchat. There he wrote a 'self-incriminating' statement, and signed an affidavit that threatened 'penalties for perjury' if his statement wasn't true, and was told he'd be expelled or suspended, according to the lawsuit filed last month. Parents Chris and Marilyn McCalley are suing the Carmel-Clay School District in Indiana for inflicting 'excessive fear and distress' on their 17-year-old son that led him to commit suicide two years ago following an in-school suspension Indiana High school junior Patrick McCalley, 17, killed himself on October 6, 2016 after he got in trouble at his school for sending a racist Snapchat After he was released the boy went home and killed himself with a self-inflicted gunshot wound shortly after leaving the school at 3.36pm. He was declared dead by suicide in a hospital at 5.07pm that same day. Parents Chris and Marilyn McCalley are now suing the Carmel-Clay School District, Carmel High's assistant principal Toby Steele, school resource officer Phil Hobson and former district superintendent Nicholas Wahl on eight counts including intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligence, according to The Indy Star. McCalley started his day on a good note after receiving an email from the U.S. Air Force, where he was hoping to enlist. 'When Patrick awoke on October 6, 2016, he was a happy, well-adjusted boy and had just received email correspondence from a representative of the United States Air Force and was excited for the future when he left his home for school, the lawsuit says. But by the end of the school day the excitement over his future career was dashed. The lawsuit alleges the administration led him to suffer 'extreme, intolerable and excessive fear and psychological distress' that led to his death. 'Patricks father, Christopher McCalley, arrived at the home shortly after Patrick but was too late to prevent Patrick from shooting himself out of the despair caused by Defendants actions at school that day,' the lawsuit says. 'When Christopher McCalley saw Patrick, he called 911 and tried to stop Patricks bleeding. When law enforcement officers responded to his 911 call, Christopher told them this had to be because of whatever just happened to Patrick at school,' it adds. The parents claim they received a call that their son was in trouble but had no idea of the extent the school went to punish him. 'We should have been called as soon as he had admitted it. We should have been involved,' Patrick's mother said. 'I'm a teacher. We tell parents all the time what makes schools successful is parent involvement. That doesn't mean parent involvement when all is going great -- that means parent involvement when your child needs you. Patrick was not afforded that,' she added to RTV6. Despite the allegations, it seems administrators at Carmel High followed the school policy in disciplining McCalley by giving him a meeting with an administrator and explaining the charges against him prior to suspending him. Carmel High pictured above The lawsuit alleges that administrators receive training on teen suicide and should have been aware of the 'prevalence of suicide in teenagers who are in a state of emotional distress'. Carmel Clay Schools released a statement on Monday saying: 'The facts we have gathered in reviewing this tragedy are very different from what is being portrayed in the lawsuit.' 'We will follow the legal process to appropriately respond to these accusations. We are fortunate to have tremendous leadership focused on providing a safe learning environment for all of our students at Carmel Clay Schools,' the district said to the Indy Star. Despite the allegations against the school, administrators seemed to have followed the school policy in disciplining McCalley on October 6, 2016. He was given a meeting with an administrator prior to suspension and was given a 'written or oral' statement of the charges and evidence against him explaining why he was being suspended. In Indiana there is also no law stating a parent needs to be alerted before a student is questioned by school staff. Family and friends said that McCalley was a happy boy who was active in his high school marching band and was fascinated by airplanes and dreamed to join the Air Force. The McCalleys are suing for damages including for the 'loss of love and companionship of Patrick' as well as his medical, burial and legal expenses. The lawsuit moved to federal court November 1 and a pretrial conference is scheduled for January 28 at 11am. If you or someone you know may be struggling with suicidal thoughts, call the suicide prevention hotline at 800-273-8255 Upmarket department store giant David Jones is targeting children as it aims to lure customers ahead of the Christmas shopping rush. The chain's flagship Elizabeth Street store in the Sydney CBD has undergone a Disney-themed makeover, complete with a Winnie the Pooh-themed woodland installation, Star Wars spaceship cockpit and a princess carousel. David Jones CEO David Thomas said the design was aimed at encouraging young families with children to shop at the store. Upmarket department store giant David Jones is targeting children as it aims to lure customers ahead of the Christmas shopping rush The chain's flagship Elizabeth Street store in the Sydney CBD (pictured) has undergone a Disney-themed makeover Walt Disney Company Australia and New Zealand managing director Kylie Watson-Wheeler said she hoped the elaborate installations would entertain customers as they shopped. 'There's nothing like this in Australia and probably the world. I certainly think other Disney markets will be inspired by what they see here - it's very special and different, and there's a real opportunity... to inspire customers,' she told News.com.au. 'It's the opportunity to immerse yourself into a space and connect with characters and storytelling that really can't be replicated.' Earlier this year, David Jones' South African owners Woolworths Holdings announced they would spend $200million refurbishing the 12 floors of the Elizabeth Street store. The store now features a Winnie the Pooh-themed woodland installation, Star Wars spaceship cockpit (pictured) and a princess carouse The top floor, which for 90 years has hosted monthly board meetings of David Jones' directors, will be turned into a champagne bar overlooking Hyde Park, as four floors now used for storage and administration are converted into upmarket retail space. This new area will also be home to bars and cafes. The revamped Elizabeth Street store will have 40 per cent more retail space, as the menswear section moves from Market Street into a new area with two floors for suits and male fashion. David Jones has hailed the inclusion of luxury brands Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Gucci in their boutique stores as a 'first for Australia'. One Delta passenger got a cheeky surprise when he received a message on the dating app Grindr during his flight. But JP Thorn, 27, was shocked to see that the message wasn't from just any ordinary guy - it was from the pilot of his flight. 'I see you're on my flight,' the message read. 'Enjoy the ride to Chicago.' Thorn had been flying from Saint Paul, Minnesota to Chicago and had just touched down on the tarmac when he got a notification about the new message. JP Thorn, 27, (pictured) was shocked to see that his pilot had messaged him on the dating app Grindr during his flight from St Paul to Chicago Thorn saw that the message (pictured) had been sent 30 minutes before the plane landed during the 90-minute flight And, at first, Thorn wasn't flattered. 'My reaction was I knew I needed to get off this plane as fast as I can,' Thorn told the New York Post. 'I've had some weird experiences with proximity stuff on Grindr.' Thorn saw that the message had been sent 30 minutes before the plane landed during the 90-minute flight. He checked out the pilot's profile, which said he was 90 feet away and featured a picture of the sky clearly taken from a cockpit. 'My deductive reasoning led me to believe that he was the pilot,' Thorn said. 'I messaged him back and he told me that he was one of the pilots.' Thorn said the pilot asked him about how the flight was and made a joke about turbulence After they started talking, Thorn's feelings toward the pilot began to change. 'He asked me about our flight, how it was on the way, and [the conversation] was really standard,' Thorn said. 'I said there was no turbulence, then he made a joke about turbulence.' Thorn said the pilot was a 'nice guy' and that he would have happily met with him if he didn't have a connecting flight to catch. 'I meet up with people all the time from Grindr,' he said. 'I think I totally would have met him for coffee.' Thorn said the Delta pilot was a 'nice guy' and that he would have happily met with him if he hadn't needed to catch a connecting flight (file photo) Thorn has since deleted his Grindr app and is no longer in touch with the pilot. But he saved a screenshot of their exchange and posted it on Twitter over the weekend, writing in the caption: 'Remember when my pilot messaged me on Grindr at 30,000 feet in the air'. The post has since gone viral, receiving more than 30,000 retweets and more than 200,000 likes. 'I got a lot of people saying I should've met up with pilots because they make a lot of money,' Thorn said. 'That was pretty funny.' And Thorn said he has no problem flying with Delta again. 'It's the only airline I tend to use,' he added. 'I don't think they get into too much controversy.' An eight-year-old girl has died after being struck by a car in Melbourne's suburbs. The young pedestrian was believed to have been hit while attempting to cross Victoria Street in Doncaster in the north-east of the city at about 6.30pm on Wednesday. She was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries. Police confirmed this morning the young girl later died in the Royal Children's Hospital. An eight-year-old girl has died after being hit by a car and crossing a pedestrian The woman in the vehicle, 64, stopped at the scene and offered assistance The driver of the vehicle, a 64-year-old woman from Doncaster East, stopped at the scene and offered assistance, Victoria Police said. Six police cars and two ambulances arrived at the intersection, reports The Herald Sun. Victoria Street was blocked until 9pm. Brandon Currigan, a local, said the intersection of Victoria and George Streets were notorious for crashes. He said cars often went above the 60km/h speed limit when heading downhill and approaching the traffic lights, towards George Street. 'You see crashes all the time,' he said. 'It happens like once a month.' A bus stop was situated at the intersection of Victoria Street and George Street, with parklands on both sides. Emergency crews appeared to be gathered at the Ruffey Creek Trail, said Mr Currigan. She was taken to the Royal Children's Hospital in a critical condition where she later died Six police cars and two ambulances arrived at the intersection of Victoria Street and George Street John Grouios, who lives 100 metres from where the crash occurred, said he heard a 'big thud' from inside his house and walked out to see what was wrong, reports The Age. 'There was a girl who was distraught and another girl lying on the grass who was in a bad way,' said Mr Grouios. The intersection was not busy when the crash occurred at 6.30pm, meaning the cars would be going faster down the hill, said Mr Grouios. Another nearby local Joe Stafrace said he was urging for VicRoads to install speed cameras at the site. 'If you just watch the intersection you'll notice someone will be in the left hand lane to go straight, and another in the right hand turning lane,' he said. 'But sometimes they don't know it is right turn only, and both cars go straight and race to get into one lane.' Both men said they had never seen a fatality like this one despite witnessing several accidents, which occurred frequently. One man, who has been a resident in the area for over 40 years, told 3AW there was a crash or a close collision every few weeks. 'It's a very, very bad intersection ... something must be done,' he said. Police were keen to speak to anyone who witnessed the pedestrian prior to the crash, or anyone who may have dash cam footage. Two men were arrested tonight for the brutal murder of British radio presenter Gavin Ford, security sources have revealed. The suspects, both Syrian, were detained in the Bekaa Valley, a notoriously lawless area in the east of Lebanon. A source close to Lebanon's Internal Security Force told MailOnline: 'Two men have been arrested for the murder of the Radio One presenter Gavin Ford. 'The man, who are Syrian, were detained in the Bekaa Valley.' Two men were arrested tonight for the brutal murder of British radio presenter Gavin Ford (pictured), security sources have revealed Gavin Ford, 53, was found bludgeoned and choked to death at his luxury home in the early hours of Monday morning, investigators believe. His lifeless and bloodied body was discovered next to a four-poster bed after police broke down the front door of in his exclusive apartment in the mountain village of Broumana, that overlooks Beirut. Signs of a potential struggle could be glimpsed through the windows of his apartment today. A pair of blue Superdry shorts hang on a radiator. Music CDs are strewn across the floor. Cushions are spread across an unmade bed. There is gold-colour statue and a bust of a mannequin with black hair and a beard inside the room. Mr Ford's body was discovered at his apartment in the suburbs of Beirut on Tuesday morning His lifeless and bloodied body was discovered next to a four-poster bed after police broke down the front door of in his exclusive apartment But the DJ's dog Fred had not raised the alarm in the early hours of Monday morning and was taken away by investigators. The Labrador bitch is now being looked after by his friends. Colleagues at Beirut's Radio One raised the alarm when he failed to turn up for work on Monday morning. A police source said: 'We don't know the cause of death yet but it is likely that he was choked and death and he suffered a head wound. 'The murder is being investigated by the Internal Security Force's Information Branch, the top investigation team. Yesterday neighbours told of their shock that such a grisly murder had taken place in the luxury mountain enclave. 'This is just so horrible,' one neighbour told MailOnline. 'To live here when such as terrible thing has happened is so shocking.' Another neighbour told how Mr Ford had lived in the apartment, which has a huge balcony with a view over the Mediterranean Sea for the past 15 years. '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 Colleagues at Beirut's Radio One raised the alarm when he failed to turn up for work Monday She said: 'Gavin was a lovely guy, quiet and friendly. 'He left early in the morning for work but he was not trouble. There was never any noise or problems.' The murder comes just months after the shocking rape and murder of British aid worker Rebecca Dykes in December last year. Uber driver Tarek Hawchieh has been charged with her murder and is awaiting trial. British Ambassador to Lebanon Chris Ramply has told of his shock at Mr Ford's murder. He said: 'I am shocked and deeply saddened by the death of Gavin Ford, one of Lebanon's most popular morning breakfast hosts. Radio One Lebanon confirmed his death in a statement on the station's Facebook page on Tuesday Gavin Ford was famous as the host of 'Gavin Ford in the Morning', said to be Lebanon's most listened to breakfast show 'The thoughts of all at the Embassy are with his family, friends and colleagues at this terribly difficult time.' Beirut's Radio One have paid tribute to the British presenter who had become part of city's fabric through his 20-year career in Lebanon. In a statement the radio statement said: 'We are heart-broken to announce the passing of our dear friend 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. 'Rest In Peace Gavin.' The producer of his show, Gavin In The Morning, Olga Habre, added in a FaceBook post: 'Yes it's true and I'm heart-broken. #ripgavinford.' A 23-year-old man has been charged with murder after he allegedly stabbed a 38-year-old father to death. Erol Tokcan was threatened and stabbed when a trio stormed his home in Dharruk, western Sydney, at about 9.45pm on March 9. The group of men fled the scene, leaving Mr Tokcan's traumatised girlfriend to watch her partner die after reportedly witnessing the brazen attack. Erol Tokcan (pictured) was threatened and stabbed when a trio stormed his home in Dharruk, western Sydney, at about 9.45pm on Friday March 9 The group of men fled the scene, leaving Mr Tokcan's traumatised girlfriend to watch her partner die after reportedly witnessing the brazen attack Mr Tokcan received treatment from paramedics before he was transported to Westmead Hospital, where he later died. His girlfriend was heard screaming 'they'd better hurry up or he's going to die' as the father-of-one was packed into the ambulance, Seven News reported. When the ambulance drove away, his distraught girlfriend yelled: 'I love you'. A crime scene was established by officers from Mount Druitt and the Homicide Squad. Following an investigation, officers arrested a 23-year-old man at a home in Whalan, western Sydney, at about 3.55pm on Wednesday. They also executed a search warrant at a home in Toongabbie where a number of items were seized. The arrest comes two weeks after Mr Tokcan's family pleading with the community to help track down his killer (pictured) The arrest comes two weeks after Mr Tokcan's family pleaded with the community to help track down his killer. 'He is an adored uncle, and father of his 18-month-old daughter,' his younger sister Fatosh Tokcan said in a statement on Thursday November 15. 'We cannot believe he has been taken from us in such a violent and senseless way.' Ms Tokcan said the death left the family 'shattered'. Mt Druitt crime manager David Goddard said detectives had been working tirelessly to track down the trio. The 23-year-old was refused bail and will appear at Mt Druitt Local Court on Thursday (pictured: Mr Tokcan) 'We firmly believe there are people in our local community who know what happened and who is responsible,' Detective Chief Inspector Goddard said. 'This was a violent attack, on a vulnerable man with a brain injury, within his own home. This attacked resulted in the death of this young father.' The 23-year-old was refused bail and will appear at Mt Druitt Local Court on Thursday. Police investigations continue. Aurthamis Burch, aka Tank, 46, of Snellville, Georgia, a letter carrier assigned to the Doraville Post Office is one of those charged Sixteen U.S. Postal Service workers in Atlanta have been sentenced for delivering cocaine in exchange for bribes. Some of the workers were happy to deliver the drugs for a little as $250. All of the men have now been sent to federal prison between three and nine years for accepting the bribes according to the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia. The Feds first learned of the crimes in 2015 while investigating a drug trafficking organization in Atlanta. Drug traffickers then bribed the postal workers to deliver the drugs because they believed they were less likely to be caught by law enforcement officials. But in order to catch the postal workers in the act, federal agents posed as drug traffickers themselves according to the AJC. They approached the postal workers and pretended they were looking for postal employees to deliver packages of cocaine in exchange for money. To apprehend the 16 people, agents had posed as traffickers seeking postal employees while law enforcement officials recorded the interactions All the while, law enforcement officials were recording the interactions. In exchange for the bribes, the workers allegedly provided special addresses that the drug traffickers could use to ship the packages of cocaine. The defendants then intercepted the packages and delivered them to the drug traffickers. Aurthamis Burch is one of sixteen U.S. Postal Service workers are charged with accepting bribes to deliver cocaine in a sting operation Unbeknownst to them, the drug traffickers were all part of the sting operation and the packages they were delivering contained fake drugs. Some of the postal employees event went on to recruit additional USPS employees to join the criminal scheme, and accepted additional money for drug packages delivered by their recruits. 'Postal employees are entrusted to perform a vital service as they travel through our communities, often visiting our homes and interacting personally with our citizens,' said U.S. Attorney John Horn. 'The defendants in this case allegedly sold that trust out to someone they knew to be a drug dealer, and simply for cash in their pockets they were willing to endanger themselves and the residents on their routes and bring harmful drugs into the community.' The allegations contained in these federal indictments are disturbing to say the least. The blatant abdication of the public trust through the criminal conduct of these sixteen U.S. Postal Service employees, absolutely stains the established trust of their peers and those that went before them at the U.S. Postal Service. 'While it is hoped that this extensive joint investigation and resulting federal prosecution will serve as a deterrent for others, the FBI makes it clear that public corruption remains our number one criminal program priority and, as such, we have dedicated significant resources toward the identification, investigation, and presentation for prosecution of any individuals involved in similar such conduct, said David J. LeValley, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Atlanta Field Office. Traffickers believed the postal workers were less likely to be caught by authorities Rotherham grooming survivor Sammy Woodhouse warned last night that secretive family courts are allowing rapists access to the children they fathered with their victims up and down the country. She spoke out after it was revealed this week that her abuser Arshid Hussain, 43, was given the chance to see her son by council officials. The mother-of-two was just 15 when she was groomed and made pregnant by Hussain, ringleader of a notorious gang in the South Yorkshire town, and later helped blow the whistle on the scandal. 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 He is serving 35 years in jail for sex offences against multiple victims, some as young as 11. Miss Woodhouse, 33, who has waived her right to anonymity, told BBC Radio 5 Live that the same thing was happening to victims across the UK. She called for a change in the law to stop rapists having access to children conceived through sexual abuse. She said she was fed up with hearing about their human rights and blamed the secretive family court system for discouraging women from complaining for fear of breaking the law. Police handout photo issued by South Yorkshire Police of Arshid Hussain, who raped Sammy Woodhouse Its not just happening to me, its happening all over the country, she said. With the family court system, women arent allowed to speak about it until the child turns 18. But I want a way for mothers to come forward to tell the Government whats happening and for them to be protected. I am fortunate, the rapist doesnt want contact so my son doesnt have to see him. But other women have had children removed, they have to go to support centres, sit there and share access [with the person who raped them]. On her case, Miss Woodhouse said: Not one social worker can make this decision management would have been involved, legal teams involved and courts involved. I want to know who and why and for what reason they thought it would be okay to hand my son over to a serial rapist. I want those people held to account. Arshid Hussain was jailed for 35 years after being convicted of raping Ms Woodhouse and assaulting young girls. He was shot in the stomach in 2005 and now uses a wheelchair Rotherham Council has offered the man that raped me to apply for custody so he could make decisions and basically have full control over my son or what happens in his life. After everything my son and I have been through, all the failings of Rotherham Council, here we are again. They offered my son on a plate to this dangerous man. He is a proven risk, its outrageous. All I hear is, he has human rights, but what about our human rights? Rotherhams Labour MP Sarah Champion said ministers could change the law now but were passing the buck to local authorities. They then sit back and go, Its up to the councils, they interpreted it wrong, she said. It shouldnt be about interpretation, it should be black and white. Sammy Woodhouse, a survivor of the Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal, who has called for a law change amid claims that the father of her child, who raped her as a teenager, was invited by a council to play a role in her son's life It is understood officials told Hussain of his rights last year when they applied with the consent of Miss Woodhouse to take her son, now a teenager, into care. She was struggling with his complex needs and agreed he would receive greater protection in a residential placement. By law, councils are obliged to notify all respondents of such proceedings, including those with parental responsibility. Despite acknowledging in writing that he had no parental responsibility for the boy and that Miss Woodhouse had been emotionally, sexually and physically abused by him when pregnant, the council named Hussain as a respondent. They informed him of his rights and promised to keep him informed of all future court proceedings. Miss Woodhouse, who helped convict Hussain by testifying against him, was even told he could be allowed to attend hearings. This would have left her facing her abuser in court for a second time. He could have also requested visiting rights or for her son, who wanted nothing to do with his fathers family, to be placed into the custody of his relatives. However, Hussain opted not to become involved with the boy. A council spokesman said it was reviewing the specifics of the case and seeking urgent talks with government officials about how family court directions should be applied. She added it had never been the intention to put any child at risk. Rotherham Council was slated over its inaction when an estimated 1,400 girls in the town were abused by sex gangs over 16 years to 2013. By Trend Iran and the EU are cooperating in stress testing of the Bushehr nuclear power plant, Head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi said, IRNA reported. He was speaking in Brussels at the 3rd EU-Iran High-Level Seminar on International Nuclear Cooperation. Salehi said the science meetings between the two sides after the 2nd EU-Iran High-Level Seminar on International Nuclear Cooperation in Isfahan helped implement a road map for R&D cooperation. Nuclear safety is our priority, he said. Recent achievements are very important, because they help increase the safety. Iran intends to continue and expand constructive nuclear cooperation with the EU, he noted. Progress in this area will benefit both sides and the international community, Salehi added. Britain has secured an open skies agreement with the US to continue flights between the two countries after Brexit. Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said the deal, which replaces the existing EU aviation pact, was a mark of the countries special relationship. Eight other post-Brexit aviation deals have been reached, including with Switzerland, Israel, Iceland, Albania, Georgia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Morocco, the DfT said. Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said the deal - which replaces the existing EU aviation pact - was a mark of the countries special relationship Mr Grayling added that the agreements offered proof the UK will still be a major player on the world stage after Brexit. Britain will lose membership of the blocs open skies agreements in March next year. However, Theresa Mays deal ensures that flights to Europe will continue after Brexit. Advertisement With perfect poise and elegance this is 11-year-old Charlie Tait achieving her dream of dancing with the stars of the Royal Ballets The Nutcracker. It is a remarkable achievement, but what makes it even greater is that she has overcome kidney cancer. As a baby Charlie was diagnosed with nephroblastoma and had a kidney removed and underwent chemotherapy. Scroll down for video Eleven-year-old cancer survivor Charlie Tait, who has achieved her dream of dancing with stars from The Royal Ballet Aged three, she started ballet to help her gain strength and is in her third year as a junior associate at the Royal Ballet School. She has been working with the Prince, played by Benjamin Ella, and Yuhui Choe (the Sugar Plum Fairy) to mark the launch of the Cancer Research UK Kids & Teens in partnership with TK Maxx Star Awards. Her mother, Dr Merran Tait, from Sevenoaks, Kent, said: Charlie has always been strong, and she always seems to be able to draw on that strength when she needs it like when she dances on stage. We really treasure moments like these. Charlie shows her impressive form alongside the Royal Ballet's Benjamin Ella and Yuhui Choe Undoubtedly it is one of the most iconic images from the past two centuries, adorning countless biscuit tins, whisky bottles, butter wrappers, tea towels, and soup tins. But while most of us surely recognise this glorious oil painting of a red stag standing imperiously in front of the distinctive Scottish Highlands, very few know of the heartbreaking love affair behind The Monarch Of The Glen, or the troubled soul of the man who painted it Sir Edwin Landseer. On one level, the painting which goes on display in London this week for the first time since 1982 captures a simple wildlife setting. The iconic painting The Monarch of the Glen (above) was acquired by the National Galleries of Scotland But when one knows the full story, it is possible to appreciate that the picture, far from being the mere depiction of a majestic animal, is a devastating portrait of isolation by an artist who never achieved the romantic fulfilment or social acceptance he so desperately craved. There is no doubt that Landseer was one of the finest painters of his generation. Born in London, the son of an engraver, and a phenomenally gifted draughtsman from boyhood, Landseer was just 24 when elected to the Royal Academy in 1826. His paintings of animals made him a favourite among the aristocracy. Queen Victoria was such a huge fan that she arranged for Landseer to give her and her husband Prince Albert regular drawing lessons. As well as his artistic talent, what also made Landseer popular among the upper echelons of society were his exceptional good looks and charm, as well as his abilities as a raconteur. His eyes sparkled when he told a good story, observed one besotted female aristocrat. He was witty and brought forth wit in others and was the very Prince of story-tellers, with a dramatic power of narration and incomparable mimic of both human beings and animals. One of those whom Landseer enchanted was the wife of his first major patron, John Russell, the 6th Duke of Bedford. Landseer (pictured above) was one of the finest painters of his generation Although, at 42, she was twice Landseers age when they first met, Georgina, Duchess of Bedford, clearly captivated the young artist. While not conventionally beautiful, she appears to have been immensely attractive, with even one venerable vicar remarking: I am forced from time to time to read over my papers of holy orders to prevent myself from admiring her too much. Landseer, however, could not resort to such a solution because he was commissioned by the Duke to paint Georgina, which of course meant that he had to spend hours admiring her. When the portrait was finished, Landseer refused to charge the full fee. But the Duke insisted this was quite ridiculous, and insisted on paying the artist at least 50 worth some 5,000 today. It is not clear whether Landseer accepted the money, but what is uncontested is that the artist and the Duchess soon embarked on an affair that would last until Georginas death 30 years later. Landseer would endlessly sketch his lover, capturing her in all her daily activities. And if any proof were needed that their relationship was sexual, then a drawing of the Duchess reclining with one exposed breast emphatically supplies it. Landseers sketches were like a modern photo album, aimed at capturing precious moments between them, observes Rachel Trethewey, Georginas biographer (who has also written Before Wallis, a new history of Edward VIIIs girlfriends). They were not intended as a serious record, but the tenderness and love felt by the artist for his subject is plain for all to see. As well as falling deeply in love with Georgina, Landseer also formed an attachment to the Scottish countryside through her. The couple spent many weeks hidden away in various Highland boltholes, living relatively modest lives. As well as falling completely under the spell of his lover, Landseers soul, claimed one critic, was possessed by the majesty and beauty of Scotch scenery to a far greater extent than would be traceable from his pictures alone. But what of the Duke? Surely he would have been rankled by the obvious love affair going on beneath his nose? Georgiana, Duchess of Bedford (pictured above) was twice Landseer's age when they met As it happened, he appears to have accepted that there were three in this marriage, and he and Landseer even became good friends. Since the Duke was 15 years older than his wife, and not in the best of health, it is likely that Landseer was supplying the passionate Georgina with something her husband was unable to provide. For a while, all seemed well, and then came an almost inevitable crisis the Duchess fell pregnant. The baby Georginas tenth was conceived in the Highlands towards the end of September 1825, and there was little doubt that Landseer was the father. When the child was born the following June she was, to Landseers dismay, called Lady Rachel Russell, not Rachel Landseer. The artist doted on the child, but it broke his heart that she would never be publicly acknowledged as his. Georgina was keen to avoid scandal, and had no intention of relinquishing her status as a Duchess to marry a commoner. This didnt deter Landseer from frequently sketching Rachel, although he would express his bitterness in a different medium poetry. With his daughters name meaning ewe lamb in Hebrew, Landseers anger was all too apparent when he wrote: The great man should forthwith be taught, That he has quite unfairly bought, The Ewe lamb of a small [man], If after that, he still holds out, I should consider him a lout, And no great man at all. The Monarch Of The Glen was eventually sold to the Scottish National Gallery (pictured above) for a modest 4 million in 2016 Despite Landseers anger, the affair continued, and was so widely known that it was mentioned in the Press. When the Duchess was recovering from a fall from her carriage in 1833, one newspaper wryly observed that she required strong draughts of medicine, and Edwin Landseer is her Graces draughtsman! Six years later, the Duke died, and Landseer saw an opportunity to marry his great love. It seems that in the spring of 1840 he proposed, but was rejected. Perhaps Georgina did not wish to relinquish her status as a Duchess, or it is possible that she felt that Landseer was more of a lover than a husband. Whatever the reason, the effect on the artist was immediate he had a breakdown, and was, in his own words, full of terror and horror. His doctor advised him to go travelling to calm his nerves, and Landseer toured Europe for six weeks, which somewhat alleviated his symptoms but failed to remedy them completely. On his return, Landseer went to Scotland, as the guest of Lord and Lady Abercorn. It was at their estate in Ardverikie in the autumn of 1842, still recovering from his breakdown, that he started sketching drafts of the The Monarch Of The Glen, using just a piece of charcoal from the fireplace. Although the masterpiece would not be completed until 1851, Landseers melancholy endured. Initially, the paintings reception matched its creators mood. In 1848, a depiction of a hunters pursuit of a deer had been commissioned by the Fine Art Commission to be displayed in the refreshment room of the House of Lords. Queen Victoria (pictured above) was a big fan of Landseer But Landseer had ideas of his own, and informed the committee that not only had he already chosen his subject, but that it would also look out-of-place in the Lordss pristine relaxation quarters. Landseer refused to amend his design and it was eventually sold privately. It journeyed from private collection to private collection, before being bought and sold on by a number of drink companies including whisky distillers John Dewar and Sons in 1916 which wanted to use its image for branding purposes. The Monarch Of The Glen was eventually sold to the Scottish National Gallery for a modest 4 million in 2016. Largely out of the public eye, the painting has echoed its painters isolation. At the time of its creation, he was still separated from his lover, who had rejected his marriage proposal, and his only child was still not acknowledged as his. Worse still, he was taking refuge in drink a form of medicine that he was unable to kick until his dying day. Nevertheless, the love affair with the Duchess endured, although the dynamic was changing. Georgina had become somewhat plump and was approaching her 60s, while Landseer was not yet 40. Yet Georgina, who had become a domineering mother figure, kept Landseer at her beck and call. Their relationship suffered further when Landseer fell from his horse in 1844, and suffered head injuries. Any mental equilibrium he had manage to maintain crumbled. Until her death in 1853, even the Duchess struggled to accommodate his volatile moods. Landseer survived her for another two decades, and became a grand old man of British art. He had other affairs, but never married. Indeed, he never found the idyllic family life he had once thought possible with Georgina and their daughter. His last few years were spent in a haze of mental illness and alcoholism. Queen Victoria observed after his death in 1873: Poor Landseer, the last three years of his life were really dreadful. Despite all the acclaim he received, Landseer was in many ways just like the stag in his most famous painting magnificent and surrounded by beauty, but ultimately alone. Landseers The Monarch Of The Glen is at the National Gallery, London, from today to February 3. Margaret Thatcher, if TV cameras were nearby, would occasionally seize a shopping basket and dart into a supermarket in search of provender. We were encouraged to see the then prime minister as a shopper-gatherer, a Cerberus of the household accounts, poring over price tags to make sure that she bought the best-value tin of grapefruit segments. And all poor Denis wanted was some cheese balls to accompany his evening snifter. Modern Westminster women being less keen on grocery-shopping, Theresa May has generally resisted this impulse and seldom plays the domestic tartar. But at PMQs yesterday she used the idea of her weekly shopping jaunt to goodish effect. She and Jeremy Corbyn were arguing about guess what? Brexit. To see these two disagree over our EU departure is an odd thing, since neither of them really seems to want it. Two vegetarians squabbling over the last sausage on the plate. Mrs May noted that Labours big policy on Brexit at present is to keep mentioning its six tests for a good deal. Six bullet points! she snorted. My weekend shopping list is larger than that. This ignited great fnarrs in the House. Many MPs seemed amused by the idea of Mrs May having a weekly shopping expedition. Does she keep kicking the cans down the aisles? Can she ever decide which loo roll to buy? Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May rowed with Jeremy Corbyn in Parliament on Brexit Mrs May made a joke about her weekly shopping list being longer than Labour's Brexit bullet points Mr Corbyn had a wisecrack of his own. Mrs May described her withdrawal agreement as the best possible deal the only deal. With an uncharacteristic leap of logic, Mr Corbyn concluded: Its not hard to be the best deal if it is the only deal. By definition, it is also the worst deal. This line may have been prepared for Mr Corbyn by his sous-chef Seumas Milne, a Wykehamist. Mr Milne, sitting upstairs, permitted himself a ghostly smile. I once did a diploma course (in archaeology) on which I was the only student. I thus came top of the class. And bottom. But not in the middle. Bad place to be, the centre. Philip Hammond, Chancellor, was not in his usual place alongside Mrs May. Perhaps he was busy. Or perhaps he was keen not to have to answer an urgent question on Government Brexit forecasts which was scheduled to follow PMQs. That task was entrusted to another Treasury minister, Mel Stride, who is regarded as more reliably pro-May than Treasury Chief Secretary Liz Truss (also absent). Mr Corbyn made some light hay of Mr Hammond not being there. Mrs Mays efforts to win her backbenchers support for her Brexit deal bore little evident fruit. Douglas Ross, a new chap from Moray, was worried about fishing rights. Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Con, Berwick-on-Tweed) said wed be better off spending the 39 billion pound divorce payment on a clean, global Brexit. Jeremy Corbyn fought back over the break from the European Union in Parliament Corbyn said Mrs May's deal was the best available for Brexit - because it was the only one being put on the table Sir David Amess (Con, Southend W), a Brexiteer but no troublemaker, was unexpectedly withering, saying her deal was the work of largely unelected people and has a distinct remain flavour. Mrs May somehow kept her temper. Her equanimity is, in itself, striking. He might not be surprised if I do not quite share that analysis, she murmured. Sir Desmond Swayne (Con, New Forest W) may be a vigorous Brexiteer but he is also a Christian and he took pity, so asked her about religious intolerance in the Holy Land and a coming visit by the Patriach of Jerusalem. If Mrs May spoke with rare feeling about persecution, that was perhaps not surprising. On the front bench alongside her? Quite a few 2nd XI figures. In addition to the absent Hammond and Truss and Health Secretary Hancock who was standing at the far end with pink shoe laces there was no Gove, Williamson, Gauke, Fox or Grayling. Foreign Secretary Hunt and International Aid Secretary Mordaunt looked far from zesty. I left them to it and headed for Windsor to see Basil Brush in panto. Perhaps we need Basil in the Cabinet. GCHQ yesterday admitted it does not always tell firms and the public about cyber security issues. The spy agency says it sometimes withholds the information so it can be used to tackle terrorists, hostile states and web paedophiles In a post on its website, GCHQ said: Weve discovered vulnerabilities and informed the vendors of every major mobile and desktop platform for over 20 years. GCHQ, based in the offices above in Cheltenham, admitted it sometimes withholds information about cyber security issues from the public 'This work plays an important role in helping to secure the technology which underpins our economy and the everyday lives of millions of people in the UK and abroad. However, we do not disclose every vulnerability we find. In some cases, we judge that the UKs national security interests are better served by retaining knowledge of a vulnerability. It said keeping the breach secret allowed it to be used to gather intelligence and disrupt the activities of those who seek to do the UK harm, including terror groups, serious and organised crime gangs, and malign states. The practice of stockpiling knowledge of cyber security flaws sparked controversy last year following the WannaCry attack in the US. Information used to carry out the attack had been stolen from the National Security Agency. Microsoft president Brad Smith used a blog post to call for governments to be forced to report any security flaws to the companies involved. He said: Repeatedly, exploits in the hands of governments have leaked into the public domain and caused widespread damage. Dr Ian Levy (pictured), of the National Cyber Security Centre, which is part of GCHQ, said that if a WannaCry-style flaw was discovered in the future it would almost certainly be flagged up The governments of the world should treat this attack as a wake-up call. They need to take a different approach and adhere in cyberspace to the same rules applied to weapons in the physical world. We need governments to consider the damage to civilians that comes from hoarding these vulnerabilities and the use of these exploits. GCHQ insisted it did not stockpile cyber security flaws and said information on vulnerabilities was reviewed at least every year to check it still needed to be kept secret. Dr Ian Levy, of the National Cyber Security Centre, which is part of GCHQ, said that if a WannaCry-style flaw was discovered in the future it would almost certainly be flagged up. He said Britain would push for a disclosure because such bugs are highly wormable capable of being turned into a malicious program that spreads itself. If NCSC experts cannot agree on whether to keep the flaw secret the case goes to the GCHQ equity board, which includes representatives from other government agencies and departments. If no agreement can be reached the Foreign Secretary has the final say. The City watchdog warned on Tuesday that technology disasters at banks and finance firms have more than doubled amid an unprecedented wave of cybercrime. Overconfident bankers are making errors in crucial computer updates which cause chaos, the Financial Conduct Authority says. And many firms are woefully underprepared for hacking attacks putting their customers at risk. Lenders have suffered a wave of online failures and hacks over the past few years, from a blackout at TSB to a massive internet raid at Tesco Bank. A Mexican former pilot and one-time friend of Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman has told the drug lord's New York trial that he ordered him dead four times. Miguel Angel 'El Gordo' Martinez was extradited to the United States in 2001 and was subpoenaed to testify at Guzman's federal trial in Brooklyn on Wednesday. Martinez, a former assistant to Guzman who is now a prosecution witness, testified in dramatic detail how he survived four attempts on his life that he claimed were ordered by Guzman. The final attempt on his life was preceded by a mariachi band serenading him all night from outside the prison where he was held before a hitman threw a grenade in his cell, Martinez said. A Mexican former pilot and one-time friend of Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman (above in 2017 following his arrest) has told the drug lord's New York trial that he ordered him dead four times He claimed that he fought 'tooth and nail' against his extradition and that while he insists he never once betrayed his former friend, the paranoid Guzman ordered hits on his life. 'I never mentioned Mr Guzman, I never failed him, I never stole from him, I never betrayed him, I took care of all his family and the only thing I got from him is four attacks against me,' he told jurors. Martinez worked for Guzman in the Sinaloa cartel as a drugs big-wig in Mexico City, earning at least $3 million and in the process becoming so addicted to the class A drug that his nose had to be repaired. The bulky witness in his 60s, with a bald head and mustache, said he was testifying against his will, fearing that Guzman could order a fifth attempt on his life. The terms of his witness protection program affording him a new identity in the U.S. require him to cooperate with the government. Martinez testified that he became a loyal servant of Guzman and helped him arrange the massive shipments of cocaine flown in from Colombia that made his boss a fortune. The two became so close, he said, that Guzman was the godfather to his son. The testimony came in the third week of the trial at a New York City courthouse where Guzman has pleaded not guilty to drug-trafficking charges. Guzman is pictured above in a courtroom sketch Martinez told the jury that after Guzman landed in prison in 1993, he tried to look after his friend's family and handle his legal fees. That was before his own arrest, which started a behind-bars nightmare. He said the four attempts on his life took place in Mexican prisons between his arrest in 1998 and his arrival in the United States in 2001. In the first jail in Mexico City where he was locked up, he was cornered in his cell by other prisoners and stabbed 15 times, he said. After he was released from the hospital, he was returned to very same cell - with the same cellmates. He said at night 'I actually heard them polishing their knives, their blades'. He survived a second knife attack before he was transferred to another jail, where the interest in his shoe size made it clear there that anyone who killed him would get money from the cartel, he said. He was stabbed again while making a phone call, treated again and put in solitary confinement for his protection. One night, Martinez said, he heard a band outside the jail playing a favorite 'corrido' folk song of Guzman's - 'Un Puno De Tierra' - over and over, through the night. The song was about living life to the fullest because 'once you die, you can't take anything with you,' he said. The next morning, someone armed with a pistol and a grenade appeared outside his cell, he said. The would-be assassin struggled with a guard who refused to open the cell before tossing the grenade inside. He survived the explosion, he said, by taking cover in the cell's bathroom. Martinez was eventually extradited to the U.S., where he pleaded guilty to drug charges and began cooperating in other U.S. drug-smuggling cases to a degree that earned him a reduced sentence, cash payments and entry into a witness protection program. The testimony came in the third week of the trial at a New York City courthouse where Guzman has pleaded not guilty to drug-trafficking charges that could land him in a U.S. prison for life if he is convicted. His defense says he is being framed by Martinez and other cooperators. Meanwhile, Guzman's attorneys are trying to stop his previous relationships being discussed during the trial because it could reveal potentially damaging information to jurors. Defense lawyer William Purpura met with the judge on Tuesday, according to the New York Daily News. 'I'm not sure of the relevance of other wives. The fact that he might have three other wives at the same time he was married to Griselda, there's no relevance to that,' Purpura said. 'The status of the objection is that the court is going to allow over objection the introduction of multiple wives, which obviously looks like bad acts.' Guzman married Alejandrina Maria Salazar Hernandez in 1977 and then Griselda Lopez Perez in the mid-80s. His current wife, Emma Coronel - who is a 29-year-old former beauty queen - has been at Guzman's trial in New York supporting her husband. Theresa Mays Brexit plan won crucial support last night from a senior Cabinet Eurosceptic. In a key intervention, Andrea Leadsom said she was backing the withdrawal agreement struck with Brussels because it delivered on the referendum result. She warned its defeat on December 11 could put Brexit at risk. Mrs Leadsom, who is Leader of the House of Commons, admitted she had reservations about the agreement, fearing the UK could be trapped in the Northern Ireland backstop. But she said it still offered the route to a good future relationship and was the only deal on the table. Andrea Leadsom (right) said she was backing Prime Minister May's (left) agreement The comments her first intervention since the plan was approved by EU leaders on Sunday were published in a letter to constituents last night. It came as Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell appeared to shift Labour closer to backing a second referendum, saying this looked inevitable if Mrs May lost the meaningful vote. Mark Carney further electrified the debate by issuing a dramatic warning about the risks of leaving without a deal. The Bank of England governor said it could trigger the worst recession in 100 years, put a million people on the dole, spark a run on the pound and cause a 30 per cent crash in house prices. Hours earlier the Treasury published an analysis suggesting no deal could deliver a 200billion hit to the economy over 15 years equivalent to 3,000 a head. In other developments: Mrs May warned MPs they risk chaos and uncertainty if they reject her plan on December 11; Chemicals giant Ineos and aerospace firm Airbus publicly backed the Prime Ministers strategy; Theresa May (second left) speaking in the House of Commons. Andrea Leadsom (left) was in attendance as was Philip Hammomd, Gavin Williamson and Stephen Barclay (right of May) Mr Hammond left the door open to the Government adopting a soft Norway-style Brexit, which would preserve free movement; John Bercow warned ministers could be found in contempt of parliament over their refusal to publish full legal advice on the deal; Mrs May brushed aside a plea from Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon to take part in a televised Brexit TV debate; MPs will be able to put down six amendments to the Governments key Brexit motion. Mrs Leadsoms intervention is important because she has been seen as one of the most likely to quit the Cabinet over Mrs Mays plans. She has also been named as a member of the pizza club of Cabinet Brexiteers, who are said to have been meeting in private to discuss their response to the withdrawal agreement. In her letter to her South Northamptonshire constituents, Mrs Leadsom wrote: We have to make sure that nothing happens that can stop Brexit. This has been a challenging journey for many of us, and compromises had to be made on both sides. However, two things are certain first, that this is the only deal on the table, and second, that it means we will leave on 29th March 2019. I believe the political declaration offers the route to a good future relationship, and therefore my conclusion is that I must support the deal, and our Prime Minister. The endorsement by Mrs Leadsom, who finished second in the Tory leadership contest in 2016, will be welcomed in Downing Street. Aides will hope it proves a turning point in efforts to swing the dozens of Brexiteer Tory MPs who have said they will vote against the withdrawal agreement. One of them, Chris Davies, who represents Brecon and Radnorshire, said yesterday he would vote with the Government. Chris Davies (pictured above), who represents Brecon and Radnorshire, said yesterday he would vote with the Government As a Brexit supporter I believe we have no alternative but to accept, with all its misgivings, this Brexit deal, for the sake of the country, he wrote on Facebook. Commons Speaker John Bercow will select the amendments to be debated by MPs. They will be heard ahead of the scheduled December 11 vote on the Governments motion backing Mrs Mays plan. The Commons will debate the EU agreement on December 4, 5, 6, 10 and 11 under business proposals set out by the Government. An official analysis warned last night that foreign criminals and terrorists will find it easier to sneak into the UK if there is a no deal Brexit. Police, border officials and the security services would be unable to check crucial EU crime-fighting databases, the Government paper claimed. Separately, Professor Malcolm Chalmers, of the Royal United Services Institute think-tank, said that proposed security arrangements hold out the possibility of close cooperation. But he added: In order to maintain close-to-existing levels of operational cooperation, the UK will have to become a rule-taker. The mother of a 14-year-old boy killed in a car crash during Sydney's huge storm promises their 'special bond' will never be broken. Dylan Langhorne died during a nightmare commute to Pennant Hills High School in the city's Hills district about 9.30am on Wednesday. He was being driven by his brother Isaac, 17, when their Toyota Corolla, bearing P-plates, crashed into a Land Rover on The Esplanade in Thornleigh. Dylan Langhorne, 14, (pictured with his father Shane Langhorne) died in a car crash during Sydney's wild storm on Wednesday The Toyota Corolla (pictured) driven by his brother Isaac, 17, crashed into a Land Rover and two parked cars on the way to Pennant Hills High School in the city's Hills district The car then collided with two parked cars as it span out of control on the flooded streets as heavy rain battered down across Sydney. Isaac and the 50-year-old Land Rover driver were taken to Westmead Hospital in stable conditions. Dylan's mother Janda Thompson wrote a heartbreaking tribute to her third son, promising their family would never forget him. 'If only I could hold my boy another time. I will never forget our special bond we had and you could tell me anything,' she said. 'Love you my darling, and if you could see the most amazing support we are getting today, which you would hate. 'You will always be by my side and I will always say I have five beautiful, gorgeous children.' Dylan's mother Janda Thompson wrote a heartbreaking tribute to her third son, promising their family would never forget him Ms Thompson also told her husband Shane Langhorne (pictured carrying Dylan on his back) 'we were the best parents and he knew it'. Ms Thompson then turned to her tribute to her husband Shane Langhorne, telling him 'we were the best parents and he knew it'. The devastated mother thanked many of the dozens of friends who sent their best wishes, and noted that many of them had visited to console the family. Pennant Hills High, where Dylan was a Year 8 student, expressed its own sorrow over the loss of a 'dearly loved student'. 'Today our hearts broke as we learnt about the passing of one of our dearly loved students,' the school said in a statement. 'We cannot begin to explain the heart-break this has brought upon our school and its community. 'Our thoughts, hopes & prayers are with the family, friends, students and teachers who are grieving' The Land Rover the car carrying Dylan and his brother collided with on The Esplanade in Thornleigh about 9.30am on Wednesday The school said there was support available for students who were affected by Dylan's death. 'In times like these, we are not torn apart, we unite and are only brought closer together. We will find the strength to get through these incomprehensible times,' it said. Thornleigh was one of the worst-hit areas in the storm that wreaked havoc on Sydney for most of Wednesday, dumping two months worth of rain in hours. It was the city's worst November storm in 34 years as 120mm fell after 5.30am and gale-force winds ripped off roofs and downed trees and power lines. Parts of the city received almost two months' worth of rainfall since 5.30am in what was described as a 'once in every 100 years' event Flash flooding hit many suburbs and police told motorists to avoid driving where possible Emergency services labelled the conditions some of the worst they had ever seen in Sydney There is no respite in sight for the city as more downpours and wild winds lash Sydney on Thursday morning, but they are expected to clear by Friday The 84.6mm average rainfall for the whole month had already fallen before 7am and more rain fell over the course of the day than since 1984. Emergency services labelled the conditions some of the worst they had ever seen in Sydney. Traffic was at a standstill, more than 130 flights were cancelled due to only one runway being open at Sydney Airport, and trains had huge delays. Dylan was one of three people killed and several others injured as falling trees and terrible visibility made life difficult for drivers. A 40-year-old State Emergency Service volunteer suffered a heart attack as he was clearing debris with a crew in Shellharbour in the Illawarra. In another crash, a male driver died when his car smashed into a pole on Old Prospect Road at South Wentworthville in Sydney's west about 7pm. Bercow, 55, claimed a total of 17,103 in travel expenses between January and September Condemned in a parliamentary report for failing to root out the bullying of staff at Westminster, John Bercow has been making the most of his time as Speaker of the House of Commons. Details just published disclose that Bercow, 55, claimed a total of 17,103 in travel expenses between January and September. He enjoyed trips to Latvia and Switzerland costing 1,172 and 389.68 but really hit his stride with the G7 Speakers Conference in Nova Scotia, for which he had two business class flights from the UK for 10,782.82. Perhaps Nova Scotia gave him a fresh sense of perspective: he also claimed 1,570.89 for two premium economy return tickets. Back in the UK, he spent 1,368 on flights and hotel rooms for three people for the Glasgow funeral of former Commons Speaker Lord Martin of Springburn. Police say there are 'widespread reports' of abduction attempts involving a white van across Greater Manchester. Numerous incidents are understood to have been reported in Wigan, but according to officers, similar reports have been 'mirrored' elsewhere throughout the region. A post on Facebook by Greater Manchester Police (GMP) stressed that no one has actually abducted, but urged people to be vigilant and not to walk alone. Officers said a 'massive amount of information' relating to reported incidents has been shared on social media, but has not been passed to the police. A post on Facebook by GMP Leigh, Atherton and Hindley stressed that no one has actually abducted, but urged people to be vigilant and not to walk alone The post read: 'Locally we have received reports of a white van, acting in suspicious circumstances and being involved in attempts to abduct pedestrians. 'These matters are currently under investigation. 'Such reports are being mirrored across the whole of the Greater Manchester area, with widespread reports of similar offences. 'In addition to this across social media there is a massive amount of information being shared about such activity - a lot of which is not being reported to the police. 'It is important to note that at this time no person has actually been abducted.' Police issued the following advice to residents: Remain vigilant at all times and please report any suspicious activity to the POLICE - we can't act if we don't know about it. If possible make sure family and/or friends are with you when you are making journeys on foot. When this is not possible make sure that you keep in touch with friends or family to let them know when you have arrived safely at your destination. Remain conscious of your surroundings and try to avoid being distracted by your phone/listening to music etc. Officers added: 'It is important to note that there are thousands of white vans in use across our communities and that the vast majority of these are involved in normal work and leisure activities and should not be viewed with suspicion simply because of the type of vehicle they are. 'Should your suspicions be raised please contact the police and allow us to take appropriate action rather than taking matters into your own hands.' Kazakhstan and Russia, for the first time, started cooperating in the field of export credit activity. Now part of the risks of insuring short-term receivables of Kazakh exporters is covered by KazakhExport Export Insurance Company JSC, according to the website of the company. In Moscow, within the framework of the 13th International Conference on Eurasian Economic Integration, a reinsurance agreement was signed between KazakhExport and the Russian Agency for Export Credit and Investment Insurance (EXIAR). This agreement combines the financial instruments of the two companies to support Kazakh-Russian joint ventures, as well as exports of goods to third countries. The agreement is the result of a memorandum of cooperation between Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus and Armenia signed in 2017. The memorandum identified the key parameters and principles on which the joint work is now being built. During the conference, issues of trade financing were also discussed, in particular, support for mutual trade. KazakhExport Chairman of the Board Ruslan Iskakov informed about future plans for the development of the company. The international conference also touched upon the strengthening of the role of national currencies in payments for exports and imports within the EEU and Greater Eurasia, the EEU single capital market and ways of promotion. The mission of KazakhExport is to support the rise in exports of non-primary goods and services in priority sectors of the economy and to develop the practice of financial-insurance and non-financial support of Kazakhstan enterprises. By 2023, KazakhExport plans to become the key development institution in the implementation of the state foreign economic policy of Kazakhstan in the Central Asian region and the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union. WHAT'S BURNING IN QUEENSLAND? There were 87 fires burning across Queensland, - eight of serious concern, and two of "extreme concern" at 1100 AEST. The "exceptional" heat and fire event will continue for days from Cooktown to Gladstone. THE WORST FIRE IS STILL AT DEEPWATER Residents of Deepwater, Baffle Creek, Rules Beach and Oyster Creek, Eungella and Dalrymple Heights have been ordered to evacuate before fires cut roads. Houses could be lost as the intense fire travels south. Authorities have warned those who stay are risking death. WHERE ARE THE OTHER DANGEROUS FIRES? * Eungella (Formerly the Finch-Hatton fire) Residents have been told to evacuate before the fire impacts the town. WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST DANGERS? * Unprecedented conditions not seen before in Queensland, particularly in the Capricornia region, mean the fire is very unpredictable * Extreme temperatures, low humidity and strong winds are creating "firestorms" that could change direction at any time * Storms with dry lightning strikes and very little rain are forecast and could spark more blazes * Residents in the direct path of the blaze are ignoring evacuation orders WHO IS BATTLING THE BLAZES? * Queensland Fire and Emergency Services are deployed at fires across the state * More than 100 NSW firefighters are deployed in Agnes Water, with another 100 to arrive in coming days * 100 SA firefighters are expected to arrive on Wednesday * 220 firefighters requested from other Australian states * Multiple water-bombing craft, including the NSW-based 737 Large Air Tanker Gaia IS EVERYONE OKAY? * No one seriously injured but two people treated on Sunday for smoke inhalation, and two on Tuesday night for heat-stress * Two homes confirmed destroyed in Deepwater with reports of another two razed in the same area * Around 1500 people evacuated Source: AAP * 'If you have children with you, you need to think really hard about not losing a house, but losing the people you care most about. People will burn to death. The normal approaches probably won't work if this situation develops the way it is predicted to develop. It is no different to a Category 5 cyclone coming through your door.' Brian Smith, Regional Manager for the Rural Fire Services Central Region, says experts have predicted catastrophic conditions in the area south of Bundaberg. * 'This is something we don't want to overstate, but they're comparing this to the conditions in the Waroona fires in Western Australia, which completely wiped out a town a few years ago, and also to the recent California fires,' he told AAP. Fire and Emergency Services Minister Craig Crawford said the conditions reminded him of the Ash Wednesday fires in Victoria. * 'I'm sure that some people have probably got very good and elaborate systems of pumps and dams and systems and they believe that 'I'll be OK and I know what I'm doing and I've done this before'. Today is not one of those days. Today is different. We are expecting a firestorm.' Fire and Emergency Services Minister Craig Crawford warns conditions are so dangerous people could die. * 'What we're expecting in Queensland today is the kind of conditions (that other states) have seen in the past - these are the kind of days where people could lose their lives.' Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk warns people who refuse to leave might not be rescued. * 'We may not be able to rescue you once the fire reaches containment lines. Even if you are on the beach, the wind conditions are so dangerous we will not be able to send people in to remove you.' Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk A group of Chinese villagers have travelled to the Netherlands to demand a Dutch collector return a Buddha statue that contains the remains of a 1,000-year-old monk. The villagers claimed that the statue was of Zhanggong Zushi, a respected Buddhist Master, and it was stolen from their local temple in south-east China in 1995. The Dutch collector, named Oscar van Overeem, said he was willing to return the statue and the remains, but he had failed to reach an agreement with the Chinese on the terms of the return, according to media reports. The golden Buddha statue has been the centre of an international dispute for two years A CT scan in 2015 revealed the statue (left) contained the remains of a mummified monk (right) Scientists in the Netherlands were shocked by the result of the scan which showed the remains The trial of the lawsuit started on July 14 in Amsterdam. HOW ARE MONKS MUMMIFIED IN CHINA? According to Master Du at China's Dinghui Temple, ancient Chinese monks preserve their master's body using natural means. Master Du said usually a Buddhist master could feel it when he is about to pass away. He would then tell his disciples if he would like his body to be cremated or preserved. After the master passes away, the disciples would put his remains inside a large ceramic jar filled with natural anti-corrosive substances. After three years, the disciples would remove the body from the jar. If the master had reached a certain spiritual level, his body would not rot. The disciples would then cover the body with a special paste made with stick rice to produce a so-called 'meat body Buddha'. Advertisement The Chinese villagers said the statue and remains of Zhanggong Zushi had been the pride and joy of the village of Yangchun until it was stolen 22 years ago, according to NL Times, quoting a report from Dutch website Volkskrant. Mr van Overeem, however, told the court that he was willing to return the relic, but the Chinese did not agreed to his request of receiving 'reasonable compensation', said the same report. He also said that there could be a mistake in identifying the statue and the statue might not be the one that was stolen from Yangchun. The art collector added that he had exchanged the statue and the mummified remains for a number of other statues' with an unidentified businessman because the case had cost him 'a lot of negative energy, money and business'. Liu Yang, who successfully led a Chinese legal team in recovering relics looted from the Old Summer Palace in Beijing, is representing the villagers in fighting for the Buddha. Mr Liu is apparently confident to win the case. He told The telegraph ahead of the trial: 'The statue belongs to the villagers, and I think the Dutch owner should act in a graceful way to take himself out of a predicament.' A woman looks at a Buddha statue at the Natural History Museum in Budapest in March, 2015 Controversy arose after a Chinese villager saw the statue being displayed in Budapest on TV The Buddha at the centre of the lawsuit is around 1,000-years-old and measures 1.2 metres tall (3.93 feet). A CT scan in February, 2015, revealed that the golden statue concealed the remains of a mummified monk. Controversy about the Buddha arose in 2015 after a villager of Yangchun saw it on TV as the statue was being displayed at the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Budapest. In 2015, Mr van Overeem said he bought the statue for 40,000 guilders (around 16,000) in 1996 from another collector, who had acquired it from a Chinese artist friend in late 1994 or early 1995, according to a report on DutchNews. Pictured right is a Buddha once displayed at the temple in Yangchun village. Locals believe it was the same statue (left) previously owned by the Dutch collector Oscar van Overeem The mummified body inside the golden statue is said to be that of Zhanggong Zushi, a local monk who helped treat disease and spread Buddhist belief. When he died at the age of 37, his body was mummified and placed inside the statue during China's Song Dynasty (960-1279). Villagers in Yangchun believe the statue was stolen in 1995. The only thing that was left behind was the hat and clothes which are still in the temple. Finding a property that needs updating is one way of making your house buying budget stretch a little further. If you don't mind putting in the work, it could mean that you end up with a dream home that you could not otherwise afford. But such homes can be hard to come by, so new research by property website Zoopla has identified the areas where there is most likely to be a renovation project for sale. Top of the list is Slough, in Berkshire, where properties are more than three times as likely to be in need of renovation as in the rest of Britain. Zoopla looked at properties for sale around the country that require updating A total of 3.32 per cent of all properties for sale in the town require work, compared to only 0.86 per cent nationally. It is followed by Plymouth, in Devon, at 2.55 per cent and Redruth, in Cornwall, at 2.54 per cent. In terms of parts of the country, Scotland has the most properties that could do with a spruce up, followed by Wales, while the East Midlands has the least, followed by London. Zoopla based the research on a selection of property listing keywords to reveal which regions and towns have the highest properties that retire renovation. This one-bed maisonette in Slough, Berkshire, requires updating and is for sale for 190,000 via Express estate agency This one-bed flat in Plymouth, Devon, requires updating and is for sale for 50,000 via estate agents Connells REGIONS RANKED BY PROPORTION OF PROPERTIES THAT REQUIRE WORK Rank Region Percentage of properties that require work (%) Ratio versus national average of 0.86% Average value for region 1 Scotland 1.49% 1.73 / 1 194,219 2 Wales 0.98% 1.14 / 1 189,410 3 South West England 0.92% 1.07 / 1 306,137 4 North East England 0.84% 0.98 / 1 191,857 5 Yorkshire and The Humber 0.83% 0.97 / 1 179,120 6 West Midlands 0.82% 0.95 / 1 231,841 7 East of England 0.81% 0.94 / 1 357,959 8 North West England 0.76% 0.88 / 1 196,415 9 South East England 0.76% 0.89 / 1 410,476 10 London 0.62% 0.72 / 1 656,217 11 East Midlands 0.57% 0.66 / 1 209,572 Source: Zoopla Looking at a regional level, Scotland takes the top spot, with an average of 1.49 per cent, almost twice as high as the national average. In second place is Wales with an average of 0.98 per cent, followed by South West England at 0.92 per cent. By contrast, the East Midlands is the region with the lowest proportion of fixer-uppers with an average of just 0.57 per cent, followed by London with 0.62 per cent and the South East of England with 0.76 per cent. This two-bedroom detached bungalow in Cornwall's Redruth requires work and is on the market for 185,000 via estate agents Redwood TOP 10 LONDON BOROUGHS FOR HIGHEST PROPORTION OF PROPERTIES REQUIRING WORK Rank London borough Percentage of properties that require work (%) Ratio versus London average of 0.62% Average value for London borough 1 Redbridge 1.52% 2.45 / 1 464,373 2 Newham 1.25% 2.02 / 1 381,058 3 Lewisham 1.04% 1.68 / 1 475,193 4 Havering 0.96% 1.55 / 1 389,326 5 Enfield 0.87% 1.40 / 1 471,600 6 Bexley 0.86% 1.39 /1 367,328 7 Hounslow 0.82% 1.32 / 1 554,450 8 Haringey 0.81% 1.31 / 1 655,299 9 Barking and Dagenham 0.79% 1.27 / 1 297,571 10 Barnet 0.76% 1.23 / 1 652,874 Source: Zoopla In the capital, the London borough of Redbridge is comfortably the capital's top renovation potential hotspot with 1.52 per cent of properties for sale requiring work. It is more than twice the London average of 0.62 per cent, according to Zoopla. In second place is the London borough of Newham at 1.25 per cent, followed by Lewisham at 1.04 per cent. By contrast, Waltham Forest has the smallest proportion of properties that need updating at 0.48 per cent. Greenwich holds the second lowest average, with 0.52 per cent and the borough of Kensington and Chelsea is third with 0.56 per cent. Zoopla's Lawrence Hall said: 'It's interesting to see which areas of the country have the most properties for sale that are in need of work. 'Whether it's in the Midlands, Scotland or in London, there are clearly hotspots to be found in all regions. 'It's worth bearing these locations in mind if you're considering moving to a new area and don't mind putting some work into a property to turn it into your dream home.' Advertisement The 3,500-year-old tomb of a Minoan man surrounded by funerary possessions including an ancient wine mixing vessel has been found on the island of Crete. The Minoan civilisation arose on the Mediterranean island of Crete in approximately 2600BC and flourished for 12 centuries until around 1400BC. It was discovered by British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans who unearthed Knossos, The Minoan capital city, in 1900. Knossos is believed to have been the home of the legendary King Minos, who commissioned the Labyrinth to contain the Minotaur, a terrifying hybrid born of a union between his wife and a bull. The Late Minoan grave - which was inadvertently discovered by a local resident - was in an underground cavern sealed with clay and contained an adult's well-preserved skeleton. It is believed it dates to the Bronze Age, some time between 1,400 and 1,200 BCE. Scroll down for video The 3,500-year-old tomb of a Minoan man surrounded by funerary possessions (pictured) has been found on the island of Crete. The Minoan civilisation arose on the Mediterranean island of Crete in approximately 2600BC and flourished for 12 centuries until around 1400BC The burial was found eight feet (2.5 metres) below the ground and contained funerary possessions such as a cup, a wine mixing vessel and fifteen amphorae containers. The grave was found in an olive grove near the town of Ierapetra. The tomb was discovered via a vertical channel and was divided into three chambers, according to the Greek ministry of culture. The Minoans are perhaps best known for the myth of the Minotaur, a story that was keenly encouraged by Sir Evans. It was said that Queen Pasiphae, the wife of King Minos, slept with a bull sent by Zeus and then gave birth to the Minotaur. The King did not want to kill the Minotaur but he was incredibly embarrassed. He ordered the inventor Daedalus to build a labyrinth to house the monstrous half-bull, half-man. Every year the defeated Athenians were forced to send seven boys and seven girls into the labyrinth, to be eaten by the Minotaur. One year, King Minoss daughter Ariadne helped Theseus, son of the King of Athens, to kill the Minotaur by supplying him with a sword and a red thread, to help him retrace his footsteps. We still know little about this ancient civilisation and the origins of the Minoan and Mycenaean peoples have puzzled archaeologists for more than 100 years. The tomb was discovered via a vertical channel and was divided into three chambers, according to the Greek ministry of culture. The origins of the Minoan and Mycenaean peoples have puzzled archaeologists for more than 100 years Last year it was revealed that these civilisations were descended from early Neolithic farmers who migrated from Anatolia to Greece and Crete. Modern Greeks, in turn, are largely descendants of the Mycenaeans, the study found. The finding could end more than a century of speculation about the origins of the two cultures, which many believed had separate roots. An international team of researchers undertook the first genome-wide DNA sequence data on the Bronze Age inhabitants of mainland Greece, Crete, and southwestern Anatolia. The Late Minoan grave - which was inadvertently discovered by a local resident - was intact and contained an adult's well-preserved skeleton. It is believed it dates to the Bronze Age, some time between 1,400 and 1,200 BCE It was found eight feet (2.5 metres) below the ground and also contained funerary possessions such as a cup, a wine mixing vessel and fifteen amphorae containers. The grave was found in an olive grove near the town of Ierapetra WHO WERE THE MINOANS? The Minoan civilisation arose on the Mediterranean island of Crete in approximately 2600BC and flourished for 12 centuries until around 1400BC. The origins of the Minoan and Mycenaean peoples have puzzled archaeologists for more than 100 years. Last year it was revealed that the Minoans and Mycenaens were descended from early Neolithic farmers who migrated from Anatolia to Greece and Crete. Modern Greeks, in turn, are largely descendants of the Mycenaeans, the study found. Experts from the University of Washington, the Harvard Medical School and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, together with archaeologists and other collaborators in Greece and Turkey, gathered data from the region. The results showed that Minoans and Mycenaeans were genetically highly similar, but not identical. The early Neolithic farmers they descended from likely migrated thousands of years prior to the Bronze Age from Anatolia. While both Minoans and Mycenaeans had both 'first farmer' and 'eastern' genetic origins, Mycenaeans traced an additional minor component of their ancestry to ancient inhabitants of Eastern Europe and northern Eurasia. Back in 2013 it was revealed that weapons that dominated Europe for more than 3,000 years were introduced by the ancient Minoan civilisation. Swords, metal battle axes, long bladed spears, shields and possibly even armour were brought to Europe by the Minoans who ruled Crete. Since towns and palaces in Crete, the home of the mythical Minotaur, were first dug up and studied a century ago the Minoans have been widely regarded by archaeologists as an essentially peaceful people. But a reassessment of the role of warriors and weapons in Ancient Crete, which was at its peak from 1900BC to 1300BC, now concludes that the Minoans were a violent and warlike people. Advertisement Experts from the University of Washington, the Harvard Medical School and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, together with archaeologists and other collaborators in Greece and Turkey, gathered data from the region. The results showed that Minoans and Mycenaeans were genetically highly similar, but not identical. The early Neolithic farmers they descended from likely migrated thousands of years prior to the Bronze Age from Anatolia. While both Minoans and Mycenaeans had both 'first farmer' and 'eastern' genetic origins, Mycenaeans traced an additional minor component of their ancestry to ancient inhabitants of Eastern Europe and northern Eurasia. Pictured is the top half of a Minoan fresco commonly known as the 'Prince of the Lilies'. While both Minoans and Mycenaeans had both 'first farmer' and 'eastern' genetic origins, Mycenaeans traced an additional minor component of their ancestry to ancient inhabitants of Eastern Europe and northern Eurasia WHAT WAS THE MINOTAUR? Knossos, which was excavated by British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans, had largely been heralded as the home of the legendary King Minos of Crete. Queen Pasiphae, the wife of King Minos, slept with a bull sent by Zeus and then gave birth to the Minotaur. The King did not want to kill the Minotaur but he was incredibly embarrassed. He ordered the inventor Daedalus to build a labyrinth to house the monstrous half-bull, half-man. Every year the defeated Athenians were forced to send seven boys and seven girls into the labyrinth, to be eaten by the Minotaur. One year, King Minoss daughter Ariadne helped Theseus, son of the King of Athens, to kill the Minotaur by supplying him with a sword and a red thread, to help him retrace his footsteps. Advertisement This type of Ancient North Eurasian ancestry is one of the three ancestral populations of present-day Europeans and is also found in modern Greeks. George Stamatoyannopoulos, professor of genome sciences and of medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine and the study's senior author, said: 'For over 100 years, many hotly contested theories have circulated concerning the origin of the inhabitants of Bronze Age, Classical, and modern Greece. 'This including the so-called 'Coming of the Greeks' in the late second millennium and the 'Black Athena' hypothesis of the Afroasiatic origins of Classical Greek civilisation. 'The notorious theory of the 19th century German historian Fallmerayer popularised the belief that the descendants of the ancient Greeks had vanished in early Medieval times.' Back in 2013 it was revealed that weapons that dominated Europe for more than 3,000 years were introduced by the ancient Minoan civilisation. Swords, metal battle axes, long bladed spears, shields and possibly even armour were brought to Europe by the Minoans who ruled Crete. Bull-leaping shown in a Minoan fresco was a skill that would have been prized by a military elite. Swords, metal battle axes, long bladed spears, shields and possibly even armour were brought to Europe by the Minoans who ruled Crete WHAT WIPED OUT THE MINOANS? The Minoans were believed to be wiped out by the ancient eruption of Thera. The 'cataclysmic' eruption was one of the largest in the history of the planet and decimated fledgling societies across the Mediterranean. The volcanic activity also triggered an earthquake and a tsunami in the region. Folklore claims the eruption kickstarted a wave so big it drowned an entire city, creating the mythical realm of Atlantis. It is now believed the eruption took place between 1,627 and 1,600 BCE, more than a century earlier than the 1,500 BCE date previously suggested by archaeologists. Advertisement The finding overturns the popular perception originally put forward by archaeologists that Ancient Crete was one of the most peaceful civilisations in history. Since towns and palaces in Crete, the home of the mythical Minotaur, were first dug up and studied a century ago the Minoans have been widely regarded by archaeologists as an essentially peaceful people. But a reassessment of the role of warriors and weapons in Ancient Crete, which was at its peak from 1900BC to 1300BC, now concludes that the Minoans were a violent and warlike people. Dr Barry Molloy, an archaeologist at the University of Sheffield, carried out the study and concluded that there was a staggering amount of violence in Minoan society. Their world was uncovered just over a century ago, and was deemed to be a largely peaceful society, he said. In time, many took this to be a paradigm of a society that was devoid of war, where warriors and violence were shunned and played no significant role.' Twitter has removed another batch of accounts from its platform for participating in what it calls 'coordinated manipulation.' The social media giant announced late Monday that it had suspended another 486 accounts believed to be linked to Iran's disinformation campaign, bringing the total number of deleted accounts to 770. Last week, Twitter announced it had taken down 486 accounts that were tied to Iran. Scroll down for video Twitter has removed another batch of accounts from its platform for participating in what it calls 'coordinated manipulation.' It removed an additional 486 accounts from its site 'Since our initial suspensions last Tuesday, we have continued our investigation, further building our understanding of these networks,' Twitter's safety division wrote in a tweet. 'In addition, we suspended an additional 486 accounts for violating the policies outlined last week. 'That bringing the total suspended to 770,' they continued. Most of the suspended accounts are believed to be from Iran. Fewer than 100 were located in the US and they tweeted about 867 times, were followed by 1,268 accounts and had joined Twitter less than a year ago. As with much of the content discovered from fake accounts, they were sharing content meant to sow division between Americans, often touching on inflammatory political issues. Interestingly, unlike other disinformation campaigns that have involved far-right themes, the content removed by Twitter involved anti-Trump rhetoric. Other disinformation campaigns have involved far-right themes, but the content removed involved anti-Trump rhetoric. Pictured are examples of tweets from suspended accounts As with much of the content discovered from fake accounts, they were sharing content meant to sow division between Americans, often touching on inflammatory political issues For example, one post states 'The exact moment American stopped being "great," and shows a photo of President Donald Trump being sworn in. Another one of the identified accounts claimed the FBI was blackmailing Trump. 'We identified one advertiser from the newly suspended set that ran $30 in ads in 2017,' Twitter's safety unit noted. 'Those ads did not target the US and the billing address was located outside of Iran. 'We remain engaged with law enforcement and our peer companies on the issue,' they continued. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey recently admitted in an interview with CNN that the company hasn't 'figured out' fake news yet, noting that policing false information is a difficult task The move comes after Twitter announced last week that it had suspended 284 accounts from its platform, also for engaging in 'coordinated manipulation.' Shortly before it, Facebook said it had removed 652 pages, groups and accounts that were tied to Russia and Iran. Facebook and Twitter worked with cybersecurity firm FireEye to identify the suspicious accounts. 'These were networks of accounts that were misleading people about who they were and what they were doing,' CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a call with reporters. 'We ban this kind of behavior because authenticity matters. People need to be able to trust the connections they make on Facebook.' Google also removed 58 accounts from YouTube, Google+ and other sites that were linked to Iran. WHAT ARE TWITTER'S POLICIES? Graphic violence and adult content The company does not allow people to post graphic violence. This could be any form of gory media related to death, serious injury, violence, or surgical procedures. Adult content - that includes media that is pornographic and/or may be intended to cause sexual arousal - is also banned. Some form of graphic violence and adult content is allowed in Tweets marked as containing sensitive media. However, these images are not allowed in profile or header images. Twitter may sometimes require users to remove excessively graphic violence out of respect for the deceased and their families. Unlawful use The platform is not allowed to be used to further illegal activities. Badges Users are not allowed to use badges, including but not limited to the 'promoted' or 'verified' Twitter badges, unless provided by Twitter. Accounts using unauthorised badges as part of their profile photos, header photos, display names, or in any way that falsely implies affiliation with Twitter or authorisation from Twitter to display these badges, may be suspended. Usernames Users may not buy or sell Twitter usernames. Username squatting - when people take the name of a trademark company or a celebrity - is not allowed. Twitter also has the right to remove accounts that are inactive for more than six months. Abusive behaviour Context matters when evaluating for abusive behaviour and determining appropriate enforcement actions. Factors we may take into consideration include whether the behaviour is targeted at an individual; the report has been filed by the target of the abuse or a bystander or the behaviour is newsworthy and in the legitimate public interest. Users may not make specific threats of violence or wish for the serious physical harm, death, or disease of an individual or group of people. This includes, but is not limited to, threatening or promoting terrorism. Users may not promote or encourage suicide or self-harm. Users may not promote child sexual exploitation. Users may not direct abuse at someone by sending unwanted sexual content, objectifying them in a sexually explicit manner, or otherwise engaging in sexual misconduct. Users may not use hateful images or symbols in your profile image or profile header. Private information Users may not publish or post other people's private information without their express authorisation and permission. Users may not post or share intimate photos or videos of someone that were produced or distributed without their consent. Users may not threaten to expose someone's private information or intimate media. Source: Twitter Advertisement Domain ownership information and other evidence was 'strongly linked' to Iran's state broadcaster, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, the firm said. It comes as Twitter, Google, Facebook and others face growing scrutiny from users, experts and lawmakers to ramp up security efforts ahead of the 2018 midterm elections. All of them have struggled to deal with the spread of false information and fake accounts on their platforms. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey recently admitted in an interview with CNN that the company hasn't 'figured out' fake news yet, noting that policing false information is a difficult task. Additionally, Dorsey is set to testify before a U.S. House of Representatives committee on Sept. 5 about how Twitter monitors and polices content. Countries must triple their efforts to cut emissions to prevent global temperatures rising beyond dangerous thresholds, a UN report warns. The emissions gap report says that global efforts to tackle climate change as economic growth is responsible for the first rise in four years. This followed three years of carbon pollution from energy and industry being relatively flat, which prompted hopes emissions were peaking. But in 2017 these emissions went up by 1.2 per cent pushed along by higher gross domestic product (GDP). Commitments made by nations in the Paris climate deal will not be met unless governments introduce urgent measures to cut down on greenhouse gases. The current plans under the deal, which came into effect in 2016, say that countries need to curb temperature rises to 2C (3.6F) above pre-industrial levels. Scroll down for video Countries must massively ramp up their action to cut emissions to prevent global temperatures rising beyond dangerous thresholds. warns the UN. We must also triple cuts to greenhouse gases compared to current plans under the Paris agreement (stock image) Leading climate scientists recently said that a more stringent aim in the deal of curbing temperature rises to 1.5C (2.7F) is needed to avoid more extreme climate damage. Levels of ambition on cutting emissions must increase five-fold to prevent the worst affects of climate change, the UN Environment study said. The report examines the emissions gap the difference between where the world is likely to be in terms of cutting pollution in 2030 and where it needs to be. This year's report records the largest gap yet between where we are and where we need to be. It found that global greenhouse gases rose in 2017 to new highs of 53.5 billion tonnes. Global emissions must peak by 2020 and decline significantly by 2030 to meet global goals to limit temperature rises to 1.5C or 2C (2.7F or 3.6F) On current trends, emissions will not even peak by 2030, the study warned. Increased emissions and lagging action means the gap between what is likely to happen and what needs to be done is larger this year than ever. It is still possible to keep global warming to 2C (3.6F) but the 'technical feasibility' of meeting the tougher 1.5C (2.7F) goal is dwindling, UN Environmentalists said. And if the emissions gap is not closed for 2C (3.6F) by 2030, even the less stringent target for curbing global warming is likely to slip out of reach, it said. Global emissions must peak by 2020 and decline significantly by 2030 to meet global goals to limit temperature rises to 1.5C or 2C above pre-industrial levels, to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, the report said (stock image) The UN Environment annual emissions gap report comes after a major study from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned of the need for 'unprecedented' action to slash carbon emissions by nearly half by 2030 to curb temperature rises to 1.5C (2.7F) and to zero by 2050. The IPCC review found that limiting temperature rises to 1.5C (2.7F) would make the impacts of climate change, from droughts to rising seas and destruction of coral reefs, less extreme than global warming of 2C (3.6F) or more. UN Environment deputy executive director Joyce Msuya said: 'If the IPCC report represented a global fire alarm, this report is the arson investigation. 'The science is clear; for all the ambitious climate action we've seen governments need to move faster and with greater urgency. 'We're feeding this fire while the means to extinguish it are within reach.' 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 Leading economies can strengthen action by steps such as reducing fossil fuel subsidies and supporting renewable heating, while there is also potential to close the gap with wind and solar power, energy efficient appliances and cars and planting forests and preventing them being cut down. The report also highlights the potential of businesses, regions and cities to deliver needed emissions cuts, financial reforms such as putting a price on carbon and speeding up technological innovation. Richard Black, director of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), said while the growth of emissions in 2017 was a major challenge to governments, the report also showed 'decoupling' of emissions from economic growth was continuing, with pollution growing by much less than the global economy. 'So while some may see this as yet more doom and gloom, it's clear that governments can make global carbon emissions peak and decline soon if they simply do more of what's proven to work, such as cutting energy waste and switching from coal to clean energy,' he said. Advertisement An interactive map reveals medieval London's meanest streets by detailing the locations and often gruesome methods of more than 140 murders in the city between 1300 and 1340. The map, based on an analysis of of 14th century scrolls, shows Britain was up to 20 times more violent in medieval times than it is today. One man was shot with an arrow during a student street brawl, while another was beaten to death for littering with eel skins, the records show. In the square mile (2.6 square kilometres) of the City of London between 1300 and 1340 there were 142 murders, and researchers discovered that more took place in religious buildings such as churches than in brothels. Rather than gangs of youths from rival postcodes fighting one another, in the 14th century the records show that medieval guilds often resolved disputes with violence, with many victims dispatched in colourful ways. Scroll down for video Click on the locations dotted across this medieval map for information on the date and method of murders in the City of London between 1300 and 1340 In one feud in 1325, members of the Goldsmith guild walked down Cheapside to beat up members of the Saddlers guild. A similar row broke out between the Skinners and the Fishmongers guild. One saddler, John of Vyse, was beheaded with a sword, beaten with a staff and had his leg cut off with an axe. Death could be a protracted business. One saddle-maker who had his fingers cut off by a rival died of his wounds - and consequently became a murder victim - a full three weeks later. Cambridge University criminologist Professor Manuel Eisner plotted all cases of murder from surviving coroners rolls onto a digital map of the city. An interactive map reveals medieval London's meanest streets by detailing the locations and often gruesome methods of more than 140 murders in the city between 1300 and 1340 The research is a fascinating look into the days, times and favoured methods - and is available online for people researching their family trees. Estimates for London populations in the 14th century range from 40,000 to 100,000. Assuming a city of 80,000, Professor Eisner suggests that medieval London murder rates were about 15-20 times higher than we would expect to see in a contemporary UK town of equivalent size. UNUSUAL MURDER CASES UNCOVERED BY THE RESEARCHERS Vicious attack for dropping eel skins outside a shop - August 15, 1326 Roger Styward of Hamptone, was attacked by Simon de Peckham for throwing down eel skins in the Church of St Mary Le Bowe. De Peckham punched Mr Styward in the back of the head, till he fell to the ground and then gave him a kicking. Valentine's day killing - February 14, 1325 Alan de Hacford, a priest, became jealous after he found his mistress, Alice de York, sitting with another man. De Hacford stabbed Mr de Anne to death with a sword known as a misericord, with Alice aiding and abetting, inflicting a mortal wound three inches long 'reaching to the bowels.' Alan and Alice fled the scene and were never found. Advertisement Professor Eisner said; 'Following notification of a violent death, the Coroner and Sheriffs would summon a jury from the local area to investigate, then record all the findings. 'The events described in the Coroners' Rolls show weapons were never far away, male honour had to be protected, and conflicts easily got out of hand. They give us a detailed picture of how homicide was embedded in the rhythms of urban medieval life. 'By digitally mapping these murder cases, we hope to create an accessible resource for the public to explore these remarkable records,' he said. Users can also select two variations of the map, one based on a 1560 Braun and Hogenberg map, and another on 1270 Historic Towns Trust map (pictured) The two main murder 'hot spots' that emerge is the stretch of Cheapside from St Mary le Bow church to St Paul's Cathedral and the second is the triangle of streets around Gracechurch, Lombard and Cornhill streets, around Leadenhall market. The research found 68 murders took place in London's busy streets and markets, with 21 per cent occurring in private residences. Religious buildings (six murders) appear to have been more dangerous than brothels (two murders). Killing were more common on the weekend - as is also the case now - with a third of murders (31 per cent) taking place on a Sunday. Pictured is a record entry detailing the murder of a man with a quarter staff on Bread Street. Thick 'quarter staff' poles designed for close combat were used in 19 per cent of cases plotted on the map 'Sunday was the day when people had time to engage in social activities, such as drinking and gaming, which would often trigger frictions that led to assault,' Professor Eisner said. Around 77 per cent of murders were committed between early evenings, 'around the hour of vespers, and the first hours after curfew'. Daggers and swords dominate the list of murder weapons, used in 68 per cent of all cases. Thick 'quarter staff' poles designed for close combat were used in 19 per cent of cases. Around 92 per cent of killers were men. In only four cases, a woman was the only suspect. One 1323 entry shows that a man was killed in public using a small knife after winning a game of backgammon. Researchers found that social activities, such as drinking and gaming, would often trigger frictions that led to assault About a third of the cases had more than one suspect, with a number of murders involving brothers or servants helping masters. Professor Eisner said comparisons with modern society are problematic. 'We have firearms, but we also have emergency services. It's easier to kill but easier to save lives,' he added. 'Over 18 per cent of victims survived at least a week after the initial trauma, probably dying eventually from infections or blood loss. 'The trend in London is in line with the long-term decline of homicide found across cities in Western Europe, a decline that led to the pacified spaces that were essential for the rise of urban life and civility in Europe.' The outer layer of the Earth, the solid crust we walk on, is made up of broken pieces, much like the shell of a broken egg. These pieces, the tectonic plates, move around the planet at speeds of a few centimetres per year. Every so often they come together and combine into a supercontinent, which remains for a few hundred million years before breaking up. Scroll down for video Researchers say the next supercontinent will form in 200-250m years. The most likely is Novopangea, pictured, where the Americas collide with the Antarctica, and into the already collided Africa-Eurasia. HOW DO SUPERCONTINENTS FORM? Earth's tectonic plates, move around the planet at speeds of a few centimetres per year. Every so often they come together and combine into a supercontinent, which remains for a few hundred million years before breaking up. The plates then disperse or scatter and move away from each other, until they eventually after another 400-600 million years come back together again. Advertisement The plates then disperse or scatter and move away from each other, until they eventually after another 400-600 million years come back together again. The last supercontinent, Pangea, formed around 310 million years ago, and started breaking up around 180 million years ago. It has been suggested that the next supercontinent will form in 200-250 million years, so we are currently about halfway through the scattered phase of the current supercontinent cycle. The question is: how will the next supercontinent form, and why? There are four fundamental scenarios for the formation of the next supercontinent: Novopangea, Pangea Ultima, Aurica and Amasia. How each forms depends on different scenarios but ultimately are linked to how Pangea separated, and how the world's continents are still moving today. The breakup of Pangea led to the formation of the Atlantic ocean, which is still opening and getting wider today. Consequently, the Pacific ocean is closing and getting narrower. The Pacific is home to a ring of subduction zones along its edges (the 'ring of fire'), where ocean floor is brought down, or subducted, under continental plates and into the Earth's interior. There, the old ocean floor is recycled and can go into volcanic plumes. The Atlantic, by contrast, has a large ocean ridge producing new ocean plate, but is only home to two subduction zones: the Lesser Antilles Arc in the Caribbean and the Scotia Arc between South America and Antarctica. EARTH'S NEW SUPERCONTINENT: HOW IT COULD LOOK 1. Novopangea If we assume that present day conditions persist, so that the Atlantic continues to open and the Pacific keeps closing, we have a scenario where the next supercontinent forms in the antipodes of Pangea. The Americas would collide with the northward drifting Antarctica, and then into the already collided Africa-Eurasia. The supercontinent that would then form has been named Novopangea, or Novopangaea. Of the four scenarios researchers believe that Novopangea is the most likely 2. Pangea Ultima The Atlantic opening may, however, slow down and actually start closing in the future. The two small arcs of subduction in the Atlantic could potentially spread all along the east coasts of the Americas, leading to a reforming of Pangea as the Americas, Europe and Africa are brought back together into a supercontinent called Pangea Ultima. This new supercontinent would be surrounded by a super Pacific Ocean. Subduction in the Atlantic could potentially spread all along the east coasts of the Americas, leading to a reforming of Pangea 3. Aurica However, if the Atlantic was to develop new subduction zones something that may already be happening both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans may be fated to close. This means that a a new ocean basin would have to form to replace them. In this scenario the Pan-Asian rift currently cutting through Asia from west of India up to the Arctic opens to form the new ocean. The result is the formation of the supercontinent Aurica. Because of Australia's current northwards drift it would be at the centre of the new continent as East Asia and the Americas close the Pacific from either side. The European and African plates would then rejoin the Americas as the Atlantic closes. 4. Amasia The fourth scenario predicts a completely different fate for future Earth. Several of the tectonic plates are currently moving north, including both Africa and Australia. This drift is believed to be driven by anomalies left by Pangea, deep in the Earth's interior, in the part called the mantle. Because of this northern drift, one can envisage a scenario where the continents, except Antarctica, keep drifting north. This means that they would eventually gather around the North Pole in a supercontinent called Amasia. In this scenario, both the Atlantic and the Pacific would mostly remain open. Amasia is a scenario where the continents, except Antarctica, keep drifting north Advertisement Of these four scenarios we believe that Novopangea is the most likely. It is a logical progression of present day continental plate drift directions, while the other three assume that another process comes into play. There would need to be new Atlantic subduction zones for Aurica, the reversal of the Atlantic opening for Pangea Ultima, or anomalies in the Earth's interior left by Pangea for Amasia. Investigating the Earth's tectonic future forces us to push the boundaries of our knowledge, and to think about the processes that shape our planet over long time scales. It also leads us to think about the Earth system as a whole, and raises a series of other questions what will the climate of the next supercontinent be? How will the ocean circulation adjust? How will life evolve and adapt? These are the kind of questions that push the boundaries of science further because they push the boundaries of our imagination. A creepy medical tool developed by Amazon uses artificial intelligence to mine your medical data. The project, called Amazon Comprehend Medical, scans through your medical records for key data points and this can be used by medical professional customers to look out for illnesses. This means it can detect patterns in the data much faster than a doctor, potentially indicating underlying conditions. The use of health records by companies - now a market worth $3.2 trillion (2.5tn) - has been heavily criticised over privacy concerns. However, developers say the data processed by the firm's algorithms is encrypted and will only be seen by customers and not shared with Amazon Web Services. Scroll down for video Amazon is working on creepy new software that reads patient medical records and then tells doctors what illnesses to look out for (stock image) According to the firm, Amazon Comprehend Medical means doctors could access medical information on specific conditions, dosage, strength and frequency. The language processing AI scans information like doctor's notes, clinical trial reports and patient health records. In order to use the service, which is currently not available commercially, users will have to upload their health records to Amazon's cloud service. The software then runs through this information and analyses the data, which according to the firm is only shared with the customer. 'Additionally, the service identifies the relationship among the extracted medication and test, treatment and procedure information', the developers said. 'For example, the service identifies a particular dosage, strength, or frequency related to a specific medication from unstructured clinical notes.' Now more than 80 per cent of US hospitals have electronic health records, compared to just 10 per cent in 2008, according to Wall Street Journal. 'The majority of health and patient data is stored today as unstructured medical text, such as medical notes, prescriptions, audio interview transcripts, and pathology and radiology reports', Dr Matt Wood, general manager of artificial intelligence at Amazon Web Services, wrote on a blog post. Amazon Comprehend Medical claims to help medical experts identify these reports 'with high accuracy', he said. During tests, the software was reported to work better than other published efforts. An Amazon spokesperson clarified that results of the data analysis `are not shared with the patient, it is provided to the customer.' The spokesperson added: `Amazon is not accessing or using healthcare records. Again, customers maintain complete control of their data, which is all encrypted and secured. AWS [Amazon Web Services, a business unit within Amazon.com] does not have access to this information. AWS also does not store any data processed by Comprehend Medical and once analysis is complete, the output is delivered solely back to the customer.' `Customers dont necessarily have to upload health records, they can select sections of information they want to analyse/understand.' `Comprehend Medical is HIPAA eligible and is covered by the AWS Business Associate Agreement (BAA), which is an AWS contract that is required under HIPAA rules to ensure that AWS appropriately safeguards protected health information (PHI). The BAA also serves to clarify and limit, as appropriate, the permissible uses and disclosures of Protected Health Information (PHI) by AWS, based on the relationship between AWS and our customers, and the activities or services being performed by AWS.' Amazon is one of many firms increasingly showing an interest in the lucrative market of health care. Earlier this month french concerns about patient data were raised after Google announced plans to bring the health division of its DeepMind artificial intelligence company more closely under its control. The move means Google will manage the subsidiary's Streams app, which processes NHS patient data to alert doctors if someone is at risk of developing kidney disease, potentially saving half a million hours of paperwork and helping to detect illness quicker. UK-based DeepMind came under scrutiny last year after UK data watchdog the Information Commissioner's Office ruled that the Royal Free NHS Foundation Trust illegally provided the data of around 1.6 million patients as part of a trial. 'The staff of DeepMind Health promised they wouldn't give data to Google, so the owners of DeepMind handed the Health team to Google, data included,' said Phil Booth, co-ordinator of medConfidential, a campaign group for confidentiality and consent in health and social care. The project, which is called Amazon Comprehend Medical, uses language processing AI to pick out key data points from digitised medical notes (file photo) 'DeepMind repeatedly, unconditionally, promised to never connect people's intimate, identifiable health data to Google,' tweeted New York University Law and Tech researcher Julia Powles. 'Now it's announced exactly that. This isn't transparency, it's trust demolition.' A few months ago it was revealed a secretive unit of Amazon is believed to be focusing on a variety of health issues, including cancer research and medical records, as well as other areas like logistics,CNBC reported, citing sources close to the situation. The team is being referred to internally as 'Grand Challenge', but also operates under the monikers '1492' and 'Amazon X'. It's being spearheaded by the creator of Google Glass, Babak Parviz, as well as slew of Google X engineers and executives from health startups, according to CNBC. The group has grown swiftly, adding more than 50 people to its ranks since 2014. Little is known about what Grand Challenge is working on, though a few details have trickled out. It's been charged with working on a variety of ambitious ventures, as evidenced by a an internal job posting, which quotes astronomer Carl Sagan, saying: 'Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known'. At a recent health care conference, Parviz alluded to a project that's been in the works 'for some period of time and...relates to what happens to older people'. The team is working with the Fred Hutchinson Center in Seattle to devise ways that machine learning can be used to help prevent and cure cancer. By Trend Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov received CEO of Buried Hill Energy Peter Kallos, the Turkmenistan State News Agency reported. The sides discussed the results of joint work and prospects for cooperation, including in the field of exploration and development of oil and gas fields in the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea. In this context, the parties noted significance of the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea signed in August this year, which opened up new opportunities for enhancing mutually beneficial cooperation of coastal states with the world business community. The dynamic pace of economic development of Turkmenistan, a member of a number of world energy powers with enormous reserves of oil and gas, as well as favorable investment climate - all this creates prerequisites for the efficient operation of foreign companies and the implementation of major joint projects in various fields for the benefit of the two countries, Kallos said. The oldest whisky still in the world has been uncovered at a medieval abbey where William Wallace took refuge after defeating the English in battle. Archaeologists found what they believe to be an installation used for the distillation process at Lindores Abbey in Fife. The first ever written record of Scotch whisky distillation took place in the abbey in 1494, according to the exchequer rolls of King James IV. Scroll down for video The oldest whisky still in the world (pictured) has been uncovered at a medieval abbey where William Wallace took refuge after defeating the English in battle Lindores Abbey was founded in 1191 by David Earl of Huntingdon on land given to him by his brother King William. It is believed William Wallace rested in the abbey after the Battle of Black Earnside in 1298 with 300 of his soldiers after they defeated the English. In 1305 Wallace was captured in Robroyston near Glasgow. He was handed over to Kind Edward I who had him hanged, drawn and quartered just by Smithfield market in London. The abbey's whisky heritage continues to the modern day, with Lindores Abbey Distillery on the site, crafted from original Abbey stone. A Glasgow-based company called Rebecca Shaw Archaeological Services was brought in to survey the area on behalf of the distillery. Archaeologists found the structure's features are characteristic of traditional kiln stills of the medieval era. The residue found within is in keeping with brewing and distilling practices of the time. They discovered traces of charcoal, barley, oats, wheat and pottery dating back to medieval times, when the monks first began to distil their 'bols of malt' which referred to the liqueur they made - known to modern drinkers as Scotch whisky. Archaeologists uncovered what they believe to be an installation used for the distillation process at Lindores Abbey in Fife The first ever written record of Scotch whisky distillation took place in the abbey in 1494, according to the exchequer rolls of King James IV. Pictured is the site It is believed William Wallace (artist's impression) rested in the abbey after the Battle of Black Earnside in 1298 with 300 of his soldiers after they defeated the English The stone structure was unearthed next to the site of the original grain store, suggesting that grain was essential for its function. Stills are still used to distil alcoholic spirits such as whisky or cognac. They are typically made from copper and come in a range of shapes and sizes depending on the type of spirit. A scotch whisky must be produced at a distillery in Scotland from water and malted barley (to which only whole grains of other cereals may be added - such as maize or rye). All of which must have been processed at that distillery into a mash - crushed and boiled grant then fermented in production with the addition of yeast. The stone structure was unearthed next to the site of the original grain store, suggesting that grain was essential for its function. Stills (stock image) are still used to distil alcoholic spirits such as whisky or cognac Lindores Abbey (pictured) was founded in 1191 by David Earl of Huntingdon on land given to him by his brother King William Pictured is a trench on the site of a dig at Lindores Abbey close to where the oldest whisky still was found. The abbey's whisky heritage continues to the modern day, with Lindores Abbey Distillery on the site, crafted from original Abbey stone Stills (pictured, left) are typically made from copper and come in a range of shapes and sizes depending on the type of spirit Depending on the type of whisky being made, different types of stills are used to optimise flavor. Drew McKenzie Smith, MD and founder of Lindores Abbey Distillery, said: 'It is hard to overestimate the potential significance of this discovery. 'Many signs point towards this being one of the earliest stills ever discovered, and this is almost certainly the site referenced in the Exchequer Rolls of 1494 that include the first ever written record of aqua vitae or whisky, as we know it today. 'Lindores Abbey is the spiritual home of Scotch whisky, and this discovery underlines the historical importance of this site.' Architect Douglas Spiers said: 'It would be fair to say that the archaeological structures and environmental deposits that have been found are commensurate in character with distilling. 'They have also been found at a medieval monastery known, from historical records, to have been distilling on an industrial scale in the late medieval period. 'The evidence is however also commensurate with brewing, cooking, and baking which were practised at the Abbey.' The structure's features are characteristic of traditional kiln stills of the medieval era. The residue found within by archaeologists is in keeping with brewing and distilling practices of the time Researchers discovered traces of charcoal, barley, oats, wheat and pottery dating back to medieval times, when the monks first began to distil their 'bols of malt' - known to modern drinkers as Scotch whisky Eight pharaonic-era mummies have been discovered by archeologists as Ancient Egypt continues to reveal its hidden treasures. They were found in the same pyramid as King Amenhoth II located in Dahshur, near the Great Pyramids of Giza west of capital Cairo. Eight limestone coffins were discovered as part of an excavation project and was covered with a layer of coloured cardboard in the form of a human. An expert from Egypt's Antiquities Ministry revealed three of the mummies are in excellent condition and date from the 'late era' of Ancient Egypt which spanned from 1085-332 BC. Scroll down for video Eight limestone coffins were discovered as part of an excavation project and was covered with a layer of coloured cardboard in the form of a human (pictured) The Egyptian archaeological expedition was unearthing the southeast corner of the pyramid of King Amenhoth II when they uncovered the remains. Dr Mustapha Waziri, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities and head of the mission, said that the mission began its work in August. He revealed that the coffins are now being sent for restoration. The 'late era' included the last six dynasties of native Egyptian rulers and ended when the Persian Empire, led by Alexander the Great, conquered the land and established the Ptolemaic dynasty. Another Ancient Egyptian discovery was announced last week when a 3,000-year-old woman was found almost perfectly preserved. The sarcophagus was one of two found in an ancient tomb in El-Asasef, Luxor, on the bank of the River Nile near the Valley of the Kings. The first one had been opened earlier and examined by Egyptian antiquities officials and contained a priest who oversaw the embalming of pharaohs. 'One sarcophagus was rishi-style, which dates back to the 17th dynasty, while the other sarcophagus was from the 18th dynasty,' Minister of Antiquities Khaled Al Anani said. 'The two tombs were present with their mummies inside.' The Egyptian archaeological expedition was unearthing the southeast corner of the pyramid of King Amenhoth II when they uncovered the remains Dr Mustapha Waziri, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities and head of the mission, said that the mission began its work in August. He revealed that the coffins are now being sent for restoratio An expert from Egypt's Antiquities Ministry revealed three of the mummies are in excellent condition and date from the 'late era' of Ancient Egypt which spanned from 1085-332 BC They were found in the same pyramid as King Amenhoth II located in Dahshur, near the Great Pyramids of Giza west of capital Cairo The archaeological site outside Cairo revealed the limestone coffins. Mummies were found in the pyramid of Amenhoth II who reigned in 1400 BC The Eighteenth Dynasty dates back to the 13th century BC, a period noted for some of the most well known Pharaohs, including Tutankhamen and Ramses II. It was the first known time that authorities had opened a previously unopened sarcophagus before international media. Authorities also revealed in the same area the tomb of the overseer of the mummification shrine identified as Thaw-Irkhet-if. The tomb contained five coloured masks and some 1,000 Ushabti statutes - the miniature figurine of servants to serve the dead in the afterlife. Another Ancient Egyptian discovery was announced last week when a 3,000-year-old woman was found almost perfectly preserved. Skeletons were found in the ancient tomb in El-Asasef, Luxor, on the bank of the River Nile near the Valley of the Kings Three-hundred meters of rubble were removed over five months to uncover the tomb, which contained coloured ceiling paintings depicting the owner and his family. The tomb, which also contains mummies, skeletons and skulls, dates back to the middle-kingdom almost 4,000 years ago, but was reused during the late period. Ancient Egyptians mummified humans to preserve their bodies for the afterlife, while animal mummies were used as religious offerings. Egyptian archaeologists move the cover of an intact sarcophagus, inside Tomb TT33 in Luxor, containing the 'perfectly intact' 3,000-year-old woman last week 'Digital smell' technology could mean people are soon able to send all kinds of odours via messaging and dating apps. Researchers in Malaysia claim to have created fruity, woody and minty electric fragrances by putting electrodes inside participants' nostrils. They stimulate weak electrical currents behind the nostrils that in turn excite neurons that fed the brain with various smells, scientists claim. Scroll down for video 'Digital smell' technology could mean people are soon able to send all kinds of odours to friends and family via online chats (stock image) 'It is part of a whole, integrated virtual reality or augmented reality', lead researcher Adrian Cheok who is the director of the Imagineering Institute in Malaysia told NBC. 'So, for example, you could have a virtual dinner with your friend through the internet. You can see them in 3D and also share a glass of wine together', he said. Researchers created ten different odours for the 31 participants involved in the research. Dr Cheok believes that one day odours will be sent in digital form over the internet - although he says that it might still be decades away. The recipient could receive them by wearing glasses or goggles with electrodes in them. 'The next stage is to produce it in a more controlled manner, and this will allow for people to develop software and products to generate electric smell', Dr Cheok says. He believes it could also restore smell to people who have lost it due to illness or an accident. However, critics say that smells might not have been created by electricity. Joel Mainland, a neuroscientist at the Monell Chemical Senses Centre told NBC that although it could be possible to create odours using electrical stimulation that might not have happened in this study. 'If you are asking someone if something smells, they have a strong bias to say yes even where there is no odor', he said. Researchers in Malaysia claim to have created fruity, woody and minty 'electric smells' by putting electrodes inside participants' nostrils (stock image) Earlier this week, scientists said that zapping the brain by placing electrodes inside the nostrils could bring back someone's lost sense of smell. Being able to regain smell would be a breakthrough for millions, as figures estimate up to five per cent of people are unable to process scents. Doctors at Massachusetts Eye and Ear tested the method on five patients who could already smell. It is the first time the sense has been stimulated this way. The scientists believe the results open the door for a cochlear implant for the nose. By placing electrodes in the nose, the nerves in the olfactory bulb were stimulated, and information was sent to the deeper regions of the brain. Some cases of loss of smell can be treated by caring for an underlying cause, such as blocked sinuses or swelling, where the nasal passage is obstructed and smells can't reach the brain. In more complicated cases, the sensory nose may be damaged due to head injury, a virus or ageing, which can lead to anosmia - complete loss of smell. There are currently no proven therapies for this, but the study proves there are options on the horizon. Insects preserved in amber for millions of years reveal that blood-sucking bugs were spreading malaria as far back as the Jurassic era. The disease, which kills an estimated one million people per year, may have wiped out some species of prehistoric animal, say scientists. Microorganisms that cause a variety of modern illnesses were discovered during a study of perfectly preserved parasitic insects and ticks. Mosquitoes, fleas, sand flies, ticks and biting midges are rarely found in amber, and so evidence of the diseases they carried is extremely rare. Scroll down for video Pictured is a black fly preserved in amber. Researchers analysed insects and ticks encased in the Dominican, Mexican, Baltic, Canadian and Burmese amber that dated to between 15 million and 100 million years ago Amber discovered in five different regions around the world contained bloodsuckers carrying preserved pathogens and parasites. The insects and ticks encased in the Dominican, Mexican, Baltic, Canadian and Burmese amber dated to between 15 million and 100 million years ago. Scientists at Oregon State University found evidence of microorganisms that cause Lyme disease, malaria, lupus, sleeping sickness and several other modern illnesses. Study coauthor Professor George Poinar said: '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.' Among the insects studied were mosquitoes, sand flies, biting midges, bat flies, black flies, fleas, kissing bugs and ticks. Mosquitoes, fleas, sand flies, ticks and biting midges are rarely found in amber, and so evidence of the diseases they carried is extremely rare. Pictured is a flea analysed as part of the study Professor Poinar believes the microorganisms first infected blood-sucking insects. They later adapted to hop between the bugs and the vertebrate mammals that they preyed upon. 'Numerous malaria species parasitise vertebrates today,' Professor Poinar said. 'We now know that over the past 100 million years, malaria was being spread by mosquitoes, biting midges, bat flies and ticks.' The study was published in the journal Historical Biology. Google is making headway on a landmark project that hopes to one day rid the world of disease-carrying mosquitoes that can be a nuisance to some regions and dangerously fatal to others. The 'Debug Fresno' project, launched by Google parent company Alphabet's Verily life sciences unit, has been releasing millions of Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes in northern California's Fresno county. Approximately 80,000 of the tiny, engineered mosquitoes, which have a wingspan of just a few millimeters, are set free from a roving van using a 'mosquito cannon' after being infected with a bacteria in the hopes of killing off the entire mosquito population in that area. Scroll down for video The 'Debug Fresno' project, launched by Alphabet's Verily unit, has been releasing tens of thousands of Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes (pictured) in northern California's Fresno county WHAT IS THE AEDES AEGYPTI MOSQUITO? The Aedes aegypti has white markings on its legs and a marking in the form of a lyre on the upper surface of its thorax. The mosquito originated in Africa but is now found in tropical and subtropical regions throughout the world. Only the female bites for blood which she needs to mature her eggs. What is Dengue? Dengue causes high fever, severe headaches and joint pain. The illness can progress to a hemorrhagic fever during which patients experience more bleeding and persistent vomiting. If not treated it can progress to shock and death. What is Zika? Zika consists of a mild fever, rash, joint pain and red eyes. Some babies with Microcephaly, a condition where a baby's head is much smaller than expected, have been reported among mothers infected with Zika virus while pregnant. Advertisement The male Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes have been infected with a naturally-occurring bacteria called Wolbachia back in Verily's high-tech labs in San Francisco. Once they're released, they'll attempt to mate with other female Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes and the bacteria will effectively result in them producing dud eggs, with the hopes of causing the population to taper off over time. This process is referred to as the sterile-insect technique, where a population is killed off by limiting its ability to reproduce. So far, the project has been successful. Over the past six months, the firm has released more than 15 million mosquitoes and managed to cut the female mosquito population by two-thirds. Verily announced earlier this month that the Debug project has slashed the number of 'biting, female' Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes by 95 percent. 'In April 2018, we hatched the first batch of eggs, fueled up the release vans, and embarked on a plan to conduct the worlds largest study of Wolbachia-based Sterile Insect Technique targeting Aedes Aegypti,' Verily explained in a blog post. 'Aedes Aegypti is not just a nuisance, but also a potential public health threat to the people of the Central Valley of California and actively dangerous to millions of others around the world. 'We are energized by what we achieved this year and look forward to bringing this technology to communities most burdened by Aedes Aegypti throughout the world,' the firm added. This bodes well for future research that Verily hopes to conduct. Approximately 80,000 of the tiny mosquitoes, which have a wingspan of just a few millimeters, are set free from one of Verily's roving vans after being infected with a bacteria in the hopes of killing off the entire mosquito population in that area Over the past six months, the firm has released more than 15 million mosquitoes and managed to cut the female mosquito population by two-thirds, achieving a 95% reduction It's unclear if the firm will sign on for another season for Fresno, but there's also a second project in Australia and Verily hopes to bring the technology to other, more vulnerable parts of the world, Bloomberg noted. The Australia project, located in Innisfail, had a similarly promising rate of success, reducing the mosquito population there by 80 percent. Verily's Debug project begins at the company's futuristic laboratories, where automation keeps the rearing process going. Robots package containers of larvae that are filled with water and air, in addition to feeding them and keeping the specimens warm, according to Bloomberg. Automated sorters move trays of mosquito larvae into a rack at the Verily labs in San Francisco. The robots are in charge of taking care of the specimens by feeding them and warming them Pictured are the mosquito specimens collected in Verily's labs in San Francisco. Before they're released, the mosquitoes are tagged with a digital identifier so that they can be tracked Another set of robots sort the mosquitoes by sex, size and other identifiers. Before they're released, the mosquitoes are tagged with a digital identifier that allows the scientists to track them using a GPS coordinate. The vans that disperse the mosquitoes also rely on lasers to count the bugs as they're released, as well as software that determines which areas they should be released in. A researcher sits in the passenger seat of the van and gently blows into a tube that releases the mosquitoes out the window and into Fresno's suburban neighborhoods, Bloomberg said. HOW DOES IT WORK? The so-called good bugs are infected with the naturally-occurring bacteria called Wolbachia to target the invasive Aedes aegypti mosquito. This species is known to carry an array of potentially deadly diseases such as Zika, dengue, and chikungunya. When released across Fresno to mate with the wild populations, these sterile males and wild females will not be able to successfully breed. Instead, the 'bad bugs' that mate with the 'good bugs' will produce eggs that cannot hatch. This means each generation will subsequently be smaller than the one before it, until 'all of the bugs are practically gone.' Advertisement Mosquitoes reportedly became a massive problem in Fresno beginning in 2013, as they breed in places with small amounts of standing water and, thanks to their small size, which makes them nearly invisible, they're able to hide discreetly inside homes. It's unclear where they came from, as the mosquitoes are traditionally native to warmer and wetter climates, Bloomberg said. While they don't carry deadly diseases in Fresno, they do in other regions. Aedes Aegypti have proven to be one of the world's deadliest species, carrying diseases like Dengue fever, chikungunya and Zika, which can kill up to thousands of people each year. Verily is working to make its sterile-insect technique easy to replicate and cheap so that it can sell it to other parts of the world. Aedes Aegypti have proven to be one of the world's deadliest species, carrying diseases like Dengue fever, chikungunya and Zika, which can kill up to thousands of people each year Jacob Crawford, a senior scientist at Verily, displays a demo box of sterile, male mosquitoes. The mosquitoes are bred in Verily's high-tech laboratories in San Francisco 'The key part is trying to be able to do a program like this in a very affordable and efficient way,' Jacob Crawford, a senior scientist at Verily, told Bloomberg. 'So that we can go to places where there isn't a lot of money.' It comes as other tech luminaries are exploring the eradication of deadly mosquitoes, including Bill Gates, who has promised to spend $1 billion on technology that could wipe out malaria. He's also exploring research around creating genetically modified mosquitoes. Climate change threatens to bring widespread droughts and wildfires across the globe, as well as rising sea levels that could see millions forced from their homes. And now scientists reveal that global warming also jeopardises the future of a staple British dish. Cod and chips, a favourite of seaside eateries across the country, is under threat if global temperatures rise 1.5C (2.1F) above their pre-industrial levels. Cod is a cold-water fish, and will struggle to reproduce as Earth's oceans heat up, killing off up to 60 per cent of some populations, experts found. They say that meeting the targets set out by the Paris Climate Agreement may be the only way to save two species of the fish. Scroll down for video Climate change may threaten the traditional cod and chips, as numbers of the fish will drop as Earth's oceans heat up, say scientists (stock image) Researchers at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven, Germany, examined how ocean warming affects cod eggs. They studied the impact that as small rise in ocean temperatures would have on the offspring of two species - the Atlantic and Polar cod. The Atlantic cod is a popular food fish in supermarkets and eateries all over Europe. In both species, even a small rise in temperature caused eggs to die or produce deformations in the larvae. During this stage of development, the fish are especially sensitive to changing environmental conditions, which climate change could realistically produce. Under conditions of further global warming, the species would be forced to look for new habitats in the far north. Their populations could dwindle. Researchers say that meeting the targets set out by the Paris Climate Agreement may be the only way to save two species of the fish (stock image) Researchers predict that populations in some areas could decline up to 60 per cent if global temperatures rise 1.5C (2.1F) above their pre-industrial levels. If so, this could be disastrous, as the polar cod is the most important food source for Arctic seals and seabirds. In addition, fishers could lose the world's most productive area for catching Atlantic cod, located to the north of Norway. Acidification, in which carbon dioxide leaks from the atmosphere into the ocean, would also impact the fish's capacity to lay eggs, scientists found. 'That means Atlantic cod and polar cod will be doubly stressed in the future: their habitat will simultaneously grow warmer and more acidic,' said study author Flemming Dahlke. Researchers said that meeting the Paris Climate Accords targets of keeping warming below 1.5C (2.1F) could save the fish. Study coauthor Daniela Storch said: 'Achieving the climate goals of 1.5C can prevent the worst, maintaining important spawning areas and minimising the risks of both species.' Sweden is heading towards becoming a completely cash-free society but the country is being urged to keep producing physical cash by financial authorities. Half the nation's retailers are expected to completely reject cash by 2025. Financial authorities in the country are lobbying for the continued production of notes and coins until the government fully understands the ramifications of going completely cash-free. Young people and the elderly are likely to be the most at-risk to the eradication of physical cash as it is replaced with card and mobile payments. Scroll down for video Sweden is heading towards becoming a completely cash-free society but the country is being urged to keep producing physical cash by financial authorities. Half the nation's retailers are expected to completely reject cash by 2025 (stock) Sweden's central bank is experimenting with a central online currency, known as e-krona, to keep firm control of the money supply. 'When you are where we are, it would be wrong to sit back with our arms crossed, doing nothing, and then just take note of the fact that cash has disappeared,' said Stefan Ingves, governor of Sweden's central bank, known as the Riksbank. 'You can't turn back time, but you do have to find a way to deal with change.' Sweden is one of the world leaders in the adoption of emerging technology, with many adopting a progressive approach towards technology. A fifth of Swedes do not use automated teller machines and more than 4,000 natives have microchips embedded under their skin. These allow for personal data to be stored to replace and enable easy access to buildings, bank accounts, social media and even paying for food and rail tickets. Many businesses in the Scandinavian nation are now entirely cashless. Bills and coins represent just 1 per cent of the economy, compared with 10 per cent in Europe and 8 per cent in the United States, according to a report in the Financial Post. The revolution away from cash is startling among millenials and Gem z individuals as almost 95 per cent of their purchases are made via debit card or a smartphone app called Swish, a payment system set up by Sweden's biggest banks. A trial done by Ikea found that less than one per cent of all transactions used cash and yet employees were spending 15 per cent of their time taking, counting and handling it. Sweden's central bank is experimenting with a central online currency, known as e-krona, to keep firm control of the money supply. it could make physical cash transactions obsolete (stock) Although the younger generations are embracing the change, the third of the country over the age of 55 and the immigrants in the nation are less willing to shun cash altogether. 'We need to pause and think about whether this is good or bad, and not just sit back and let it happen,' said Mats Dillen, the head of a Swedish Parliament committee studying the matter. 'If cash disappears, that would be a big change, with major implications for society and the economy.' Patric Burstein, a senior manager at the furniture firm, said the test allowed staff to spend more time being productive on the shop floor. He said: ' So far, around 1.2 of every 1,000 customers have been unable to pay with anything but cash and mainly in the cafeteria where people tend to spend change. 'Rather than bother with bills, Ikea has been offering those customers freebies. 'We're spending a lot of resources on a very small percentage that actually need the service,' he said. Sweden's National Pensioners Organisation, however, has a contrasting opinion and has led demonstrations against the project. 'We have around 1 million people who aren't comfortable using the computer, iPads or iPhones for banking,' said Christina Tallberg, 75, the group's national president. 'We aren't against the digital movement, but we think it's going a bit too fast.' For honeybees, reproduction isnt a simple question of mother and father. Instead, researchers say honeybees offspring can be something of a mosaic. A new study has discovered a honeybee that has both male and female tissue, and was born from two fathers, with no mother. According to the researchers, the motherless bee was created through the fusion of two sperm cells and, despite what would be expected from the process, it turned out to be female. Honeybees are whats known as haplodiploid, in which females arise from fertilized, diploid eggs, and males arise from unfertilized, haploid eggs. A new study has found that this can give rise to offspring with both male and female tissue In a paper published to the journal Biology Letters, researchers from the University of Sydney have revealed new insight on the remarkable nature of honeybee 'gynandromorphs'. Honeybees are whats known as haplodiploid, in which females arise from fertilized, diploid eggs, and males arise from unfertilized, haploid eggs. This form of reproduction means theyre capable of creating male and female offspring, as well as gynandromorphs. Unlike hermaphrodites, which have male and female sex organs but are one gender, gynandromorphs contain both male and female tissue throughout the body. The new study on the genome of 11 gyandromorph honeybees from one colony revealed most have normal sex organs. Five of the bees in the study had normal ovaries, while three had those resembling that of the queen. One had normal male sex organs. But, the team also found that two had only partial sex organs. In a paper published to the journal Biology Letters, researchers from the University of Sydney have revealed new insight on the remarkable behaviour of honeybee gynandromorphs, which contain both male and female tissue And, thats not all. Of the batch, several of the gynandromorph bees had more than one father. In the past, its been suggested that gyandromorph bees are the result of mutations that occur after multiple males mate with the queen, allowing more than one sperm to fertilize one egg. WHAT IS THE HONEYBEE CRISIS? Honeybees, both domestic and wild, are responsible for around 80 per cent of worldwide pollination, according to Greenpeace. But bee colony collapses across the globe are threatening their vital work. Bees are dying from a combination of pesticides, habitat destruction, drought, nutrition deficit, global warming and air pollution among other factors. The global bee crisis can potentially be solved if dangerous pesticides are eliminated, wild habitats are preserved and ecological agriculture is restored, according to Greenpeace (file photo) Greenpeace has reported: 'The bottom line is that we know humans are largely responsible for the two most prominent causes: Pesticides and habitat loss.' This is important for a number of reasons, chief among them the amount of work bees put into our food production. Vegetables, nuts and fruits are pollinated by bees. Of the top human food crops, a whopping 70 of 100 are pollinated by the creatures, which account for as much as 90 per cent of global nutrition. Greenpeace has suggested the following solutions to the problem: The preservation of wild habitats in order to protect pollinator health The restoration of ecological agriculture The elimination of the world's most dangerous pesticides Advertisement In this case, the team found the bees had as many as three fathers, and in one instance, no mother. Ten bees were gynandromorphs with one to three distinct paternal origins, the researchers wrote in the paper. Remarkably, one bee carried no maternal alleles. This bee had female organs throughout, and arose from the fusion of two sperm nuclei. According to the researchers, this is the first time this phenomenon has been observed, with sperm fusion resulting in a female. Google chief executive Sundar Pichai will testify at a congressional hearing next week where he will be questioned on 'transparency' and 'filtering practices' used by the internet search giant, lawmakers said Wednesday. The House Judiciary Committee hearing follows complaints by President Donald Trump and some lawmakers of 'bias' by internet firms and unsubstantiated claims of suppression of conservative voices. Pichai declined to appear at a Senate hearing in September on online foreign influence campaigns, prompting lawmakers to leave a 'Google' sign in an empty seat reserved for the company. Scroll down for video Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google, will testify at a congressional hearing weeks after lawmakers left an empty seat for the key internet executive WHAT WILL SUNDAR PICHAI BE ASKED? The House panel said in a statement that next week's hearing 'will examine potential bias and the need for greater transparency regarding the filtering practices' of Google. Committee chair Bob Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican, said the hearing would look at how internet firms may 'suppress particular viewpoints and manipulate public opinion.' Advertisement The House panel said in a statement that next week's hearing 'will examine potential bias and the need for greater transparency regarding the filtering practices' of Google. Committee chair Bob Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican, said the hearing would look at how internet firms may 'suppress particular viewpoints and manipulate public opinion.' 'Americans put their trust in big tech companies to honor freedom of speech and champion open dialogue, and it is Congress' responsibility to the American people to make sure these tech giants are transparent and accountable in their practices,' Goodlatte said in a statement. House majority leader Kevin McCarthy repeated claims that Google, which accounts for nearly 90 percent of worldwide search traffic, may be biased in how it presents search results. 'Recent reports suggest Google might not be wielding its vast power impartially,' McCarthy said in the statement announcing the hearing. 'Its business practices may have been affected by political bias. ' Additionally, reports claim the company is compromising its core principles by complying with repressive censorship mandates from China.' Google and other internet firms have long faced complaints about search results, which are based on algorithms that can take into account user browsing history, location and other factors. But technology and media analysts say there is little evidence to suggest Google skews results for political reasons. And if they did, the government would have little recourse under the constitution's free speech protections. Google has also faced pressure -- including a petition signed by hundreds of its employees -- to shut down its efforts to create a search engine that could be acceptable to Chinese filtering, a project the company says is in very early stages. Advertisement You might need plenty of festive cheer if you're travelling through Beijing in the run up to Christmas - that's because the Chinese city's international airport is set to be the busiest in the world during this time. According to a new study there will be a staggering 1.69million departing and arriving passengers passing through between December 21 and December 25 - out of a worldwide total of 69,330,024. The research has also revealed that the second and third busiest airports in the world based on passenger numbers will be Dubai International and HartsfieldJackson Atlanta International Airport, with London Heathrow coming 11th in the ranking. Scroll down for video Beijing Capital International Airport, pictured, which is set to process the most passengers between December 21 and 25 THE TOP TEN BUSIEST AIRPORTS IN THE WORLD THIS CHRISTMAS BY PASSENGER NUMBERS Beijing Capital International - 1,688,391 passengers Dubai International - 1,581,362 Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson - 1,485,065 Tokyo Haneda - 1,445,600 Los Angeles International - 1,403,650 Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta - 1,297,949 Hong Kong International - 1,261,443 Chicago O'Hare - 1,222,973 Shanghai Pudong - 1,215,000 Singapore Changi - 1,191,979 London Heathrow - 1,188,741 Source: OAG using arrivals and departures booking data for December 21 to 25 Advertisement A table compiled using OAG data showing the airports that will handle the most departing passengers between December 21 and 25 A table compiled using OAG data showing the airports that will handle the most arriving passengers between December 21 and 25 The ranking is based on the number of seats booked on departing and arriving aircraft and the study - commissioned by Buyagift using data from OAG, a flight intelligence service - shows 1,581,362 passengers will travel through Dubai International and 1,485,065 through Atlanta. The fourth busiest airport at Christmas is set to be Tokyo Haneda International with 1,445,600 departing and arriving passengers followed by Los Angeles International with 1,403,650. The rest of the top ten busiest airports ranking by passenger numbers is made of up Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta (1,297,949 passengers), Hong Kong International (1,261,443), Chicago O'Hare (1,222,973), Shanghai Pudong (1,215,000) and Singapore Changi (1,191,979). Eleventh-placed Heathrow will see 1,188,741 departing and arriving passengers in the run-up to Christmas Day. Figures show 1,581,362 passengers will travel through Dubai International, pictured, between December 21 and 25 The third busiest airport in the run up to Christmas will be HartsfieldJackson Atlanta International Airport, pictured. It will process 1,485,065 passengers in the run-up to Christmas day The fourth busiest airport is set to be Tokyo Haneda, pictured, with 1,445,600 departing and arriving passengers The top five busiest airports in the world this Christmas in terms of the number of aircraft taking off and landing are all in the US, with figures showing 5,404 departures and 5,460 arrivals at Chicago O'Hare International between December 21 and 25. In second place is HartsfieldJackson Atlanta, which will see 5,210 departures and 5,253 arrivals. LAX is third with 4,250 departures and 4,269 arrivals. In fourth place is Dallas Fort Worth (4,182 departures/4,239 arrivals) and in fifth place is Denver International (3,752 departures/3,819 arrivals). A table showing the top 11 busiest airports in the world this Christmas based on departing and arriving aircraft. Eight of those airports are in the US New figures from flight intelligence service OAG have shown that Chicago O'Hare airport, pictured, is set to be the busiest in terms of departing and arriving aircraft There will be 4,250 departures leaving Los Angeles International, pictured, and 4,269 arrivals, according to the figures from OAG The fourth busiest airport in the run up to Christmas by aircraft numbers will be Dallas Fort Worth, pictured, which will have 4,182 departures and 4,239 arrivals The top-ranking non-US airport for flight numbers is Beijing Capital International, which comes in at sixth place with 3,740 departures and 3,623 arrivals. Its placing on this ranking indicates that it generally operates bigger planes. Meanwhile in the UK, Heathrow will have 2,762 departures and 2,795 arrivals in the run-up to Christmas. OAG also has data for other UK airports and it's London Gatwick that will be the second busiest airport with 1,471 flights leaving (285,982 seats) and 1,479 flights arriving (287,540 seats.) The third busiest is Manchester, the only airport outside of London in the top five, which will see 994 departures (175,297 seats) and 991 departures (156,673 seats). London's Heathrow Airport, pictured, will be the busiest in the UK in the run-up to Christmas by aircraft numbers and passenger numbers. It will handle 2,762 departures (591,682 seats) and 2,795 arrivals (597,113 seats) A table showing the top 10 busiest airports this Christmas based on the number of departing and arriving flights A table shows the top 10 busiest UK airports based on departing and arriving passenger numbers, using booking data In fourth place is London Stansted (856 departures/156,713 seats and 856 arrivals/156,673 seats) and in fifth is London Luton (594 departures/111,226 seats and 594 arrivals/111,226 seats). In terms of the busiest cities this Christmas for air travel, New York is No1 in the world, with 7,667 departures and 7,596 arrivals. In second place is Chicago, which will see 6,686 departures over the five-day period and 6,678 arrivals. Third place is London with 6,071 departures in the lead-up to Christmas as well as 6,007 arrivals. Atlanta is in fourth place (5,264 departures/5,254 arrivals) and Dallas is in fifth (5,169 departures/5,157 arrivals). Also making the top ten are Shanghai (sixth place, 4,600 departures/4,402 arrivals), Moscow (seventh, 4,489 departures/4,379 arrivals), Paris (eighth, 4,348 departures/4,287 arrivals) and Bangkok (ninth, 4,274 departures/4,087 arrivals). The busiest city for departing and arriving flights at Christmas will be New York, followed by Chicago and then London Tied in 10th place are Los Angeles (4,239 departures/4,269 arrivals) and Tokyo (4,239 departures/4,114 arrivals). When it comes to the busiest countries for air travel this Christmas, it is no surprise that the US will be the busiest with 118,071 departures and 118,844 arrivals. In second place is China (53,704 departures/52,037 arrivals) followed by India (16,765 departures/16,339 arrivals) in third place. Indonesia (14,487 departures/14,158 arrivals) is in fourth place, followed by Canada (14, 257 departures/14,202 arrivals) and Japan (14,106 departures/13,926 arrivals). The rest of the top ten are Brazil (seventh, 12,018 departures/12,040 arrivals), UK (eighth, 10,994 departures/10,888 arrivals), Germany (ninth, 10,149 departures/10,133 arrivals) and Spain (tenth, 10,129 departures/10,030 arrivals). Unsurprisingly, the country with the most flights in the run-up to Christmas is the USA, followed by China and India. The United Kingdom is in eighth place Carolina Mather at OAG commented: 'Christmas is globally one of the peak periods for scheduled airlines, and OAG's dynamic schedules database and flight status systems highlight the sheer size and scale of passengers moving at this busy time of year. 'With schedules changing daily keeping a track on flights and expected arrival times makes Christmas seem that little bit nearer. While Dan Mountain, CEO at Buyagift, which has created incredible time-lapse videos that visualise Christmas air traffic around the world (above), added: 'We understand giving loved ones something special at Christmas is an essential part of the festive season but spending time with our nearest and dearest is priceless. 'We wanted to visualise just how important this is around the world, showing just what the sky will look like five days head of Christmas as everyone heads home to be with their loved ones for the most magical time of the year.' Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov has received renowned US religious figures, Rabbi Abraham Cooper and the representative of the evangelical community Johnnie Moore, Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan said in a message. During the meeting, Rabbi Abraham Cooper noted that he was received by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and expressed satisfaction over visiting Azerbaijan again. Minister Elmar Mammadyarov noted that peaceful coexistence of various religious communities, including the Jewish community historically in Azerbaijan is a clear example that Azerbaijan attaches particular importance to the tolerance and preservation of inter-religious relations. Stressing the importance attached to the development of bilateral relations and multilateral cooperation with the international community he emphasized that tolerance and multiculturalism in Azerbaijan have become a state policy. Therefore Azerbaijan has hosted numerous international events on inter-civilizational dialogue and tolerance. In his turn, Rabbi Abraham Cooper noting the great achievements of Azerbaijan in the field of multiculturalism expressed his appreciation for the respect for religious and spiritual values, intercultural dialogue, as well as tolerance traditions in Azerbaijan. He noted that Azerbaijan is a bright example in terms of tolerance and multiculturalism to the entire world. At the meeting, inter-religious relations, global and regional issues were discussed. Advertisement History is traditionally a dull subject but these photographs bring it to life in jaw-dropping fashion. They are the winners and short-listed entries in the second Historic Photographer of the Year Awards. This years competition - run by Trip Historic, an online travel guide to the worlds historic sites - has attracted astonishing entries from amateurs and professionals who have climbed, hiked and trekked their way to snap stunning historic places from every corner of the globe, from iconic landmarks to far-flung forgotten ruins. The overall winning image of the medieval island commune of Mont-Saint-Michel was shot by Daniel Burton. He takes home the 1,000 prize. Entries were judged on originality, composition and technical proficiency alongside the story behind the submission and its historical impact. The judging panel of experts included broadcaster and historian Dan Snow, who said that this years winning entries and submissions perfectly showcase just how stunning the history all around us can be. Scroll down to see the winners and our pick of the short-listed entries. This shot of Mont-Saint-Michel by Daniel Burton was declared the overall winner. He said of his amazing picture: 'It is one of the most recognisable and visited historical landmarks in the region [of Normandy]. The surrounding bay provides more peace, however. This photograph, taken during the spring tide in early March 2018, shows the curious land formations known locally as Les Meandres. The channels fill up in late afternoon and reflect the setting sun to create a mirror pool effect' In this short-listed image by Juan Pablo Lasterra, dense smoke clouds produced by a forest fire on Mount Vesuvius hang over the ruins of Pompeii, Italy The Santa Catalina Arch in Guatemala's city of Antigua is an icon of a lost colonial masterpiece, says Daniel Burton, who took this short-listed image of it. He added: 'The city was founded by conquistadors in 1543 and later became one of the most celebrated in the Spanish indies. It lies in the shadow of Volcan Agua, but a series of brutal earthquakes decimated the settlement, causing its abandonment in 1773. Antigua Guatemala lay in ruins until it was declared a national monument in 1944. It is now the darling of the tourist trail, and the arch its centrepiece' Ben Nazarko was short-listed for this ethereal image of the West Pier ruins in Brighton. He says: 'This iconic pier sadly tells of past glories but remains the main focal point of Brighton Beach' This image of the fortress at Enisala in Romania by Diana Buzoianu was short-listed. She says: 'The first sight of Enisala can make any passerby wonder about its history. With a flourishing city that was part of the Northern Loop of the Silk Road, Enisala was a vibrant place on a commercial route, with a strategic fortress to guard it closely. Today you can still hear the tales of the merchants in the whispers of the wind and that famous Silk Road is now visited by thousands of birds after a long migration, eager to have a rest and a well deserved break in one of the most beautiful surroundings of the region of Dobrogea in Romania' This image of the amazing, other-worldly Second World War forts in the Thames Estuary - known as Maunsell Forts - by Mark Edwards scooped him the gong in the English History category David Ross scooped first prize in the Ancient History category for this beautiful shot of the Callanish Stone Circle on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland. He says: 'I've always loved the atmosphere of prehistoric sites, and I made a special trip to the Isle of Lewis in the hopes of good weather to photograph the stone circle at Callanish. To say I was lucky is an understatement! My first evening on Lewis was clear and there was no one else visiting the stones. I was able to catch this photo just before the sun sank below the horizon. It was a magical moment and one that I will always treasure' The photographer who took this amazing shot of Beverley Minster in Yorkshire - known only as 'Andy' - said that it took him almost 10 years for the right conditions to materialise. It was taken from Westwood Common and was short-listed This short-listed image by Rose Atkinson is of Vicars' Close in Wells. She explains that it was built over 650 years ago to house the Vicars Choral (the men of the Wells Cathedral choir) and has since been continuously inhabited by their successors. It's the most complete example of a medieval close in the UK and is said to be the oldest purely residential street in Europe This picture of Broadway Tower in Chipping Campden was short-listed. The photographer, 'Ellie', says that on a clear day from this vantage point it's possible to see across 16 counties This image by Jonathan Reid of Donnington Castle was short-listed. Mr Reid says: 'I was struck by the beauty of the ruins, enhanced even further by the autumn colour and surrounding countryside' This moody image of Dunluce Castle on the north Antrim coast of Northern Ireland was short-listed. The first castle on this site was built in the 13th century by Richard Og De Burgh, the 2nd Earl of Ulster This short-listed picture offers a unique view of the House of Commons chamber in the Palace of Westminster. It was taken from the Press Gallery above the Speaker's Chair Amitava Chandra took this striking image of the backside of the Taj Mahal mausoleum and was short-listed in the competition Mark Edwards snapped this short-listed picture of the remains of the 19th-century Norwegian ship the SS Nornen, which lies in Berrow, Somerset Jasmine Pope took several images over the course of three hours to produce this mesmerising image of 14th-century Bodiam Castle in East Sussex, which was short-listed. She says: 'Bodiam Castle has always fascinated me and I wanted to capture the castle at night when it is not often seen by the general public. In post-processing I stacked the images to create the star trails seen above' Sara Rawlinson snapped this short-listed image of the angel atop the organ screen in King's College Chapel, Cambridge, by ascending to a lofty vantage point in a cherry picker Sara Rawlinson's picture of the King's College Library, looking towards the 18th-century Gibbs' Building and the back of King's College Chapel, built in 1515, earned her a commendation from the judges The creepy attic room of 14th-century Headstone Manor in London, captured by Duncan Shields. He says: 'It was the former London residence of the archbishops of Canterbury and was a former possession of Henry VIII. It has been recently restored from almost total dereliction by a heritage Lottery Fund grant into a thriving museum. Seen here is the attic room of the manor house before restoration, showing just how far from grace the magnificent building had fallen' The picture on the left is a short-listed twilight shot of the grade II-listed Alexandra Road Estate in London, also known as the Rowley Way Estate. Photographer Chris London says that it's a 'fine example of 70's brutalist architecture'. The picture on the right is of Whitby Abbey, and earned Alan Baxter the honour of being short-listed. He said he took two shots - one exposed for the masonry, the other for the sky. He then merged them in Photoshop This short-listed image by Chris London is of The Grand Shaft in Dover, built, as Mr London explains, to assist the movement of troops between the barracks at the top of the cliff and the town and harbour below. It was completed in 1807 This image of the majestic Queen's Bath in the Unesco-listed Hampi in Karnataka, India, was rewarded with short-listed status in the competition On the left is a short-listed image of the iconic Wheal Coates Tin Mine in Cornwall, which shut down in 1913. On the right is a short-listed image of a whaler's hut in Svalbard, Norway. Sites like this are extremely fragile and must not be approached too closely, photographer Chris Dobbs says This short-listed image was taken by George Ledger in the grade II-listed Tyne Pedestrian and Cyclist Tunnel in Newcastle, which is currently closed for alterations. The photograph shows a wooden escalator, which is reputably the longest wooden escalator in the world This striking image of Newark Castle by David Ross was short-listed. He remarks that the river was so still that it produced a mirror image of the site Australian comedian and former radio host Hamish Blake is regularly seen posting funny snaps and videos on his Instagram account. But nothing could have prepared his 877,000 followers when he posted a clip of himself in tiny denim budgie smugglers while on vacation inGreece on Wednesday. The hilarious footage shows the 36-year-old parading around his hotel room in extremely tight speedos, exposing his slender pale frame. 'Graphic Warning': Zoe Foster Blake is left in shock as husband Hamish strips down to tiny denim budgie smugglers and shows off his pale frame during trip to Greece in hilarious video He then hides behind a corner to sneak up on his wife Zoe Foster Blake before asking her: 'Hey honey, what do you think of these?'. A shocked Zoe, 37, is seen covering her mouth in horror before breaking out in hysterics. 'Touch them,' Hamish says while moving closer towards her. 'No... no, I won't,' she giggles. Revealing too much? A goofy Hamish is seen dancing around the hotel room leaving his wife in stitches A little flustered? 'I think we have different ideas of what treats are' Zoe tells Hamish in the clip A goofy Hamish is then seen dancing around the hotel room while taking part in some hilarious stretches, showing off a bit too much than his followers (and his wife) may have bargained for. 'I didn't really want anyone to see them,' he jokes, adding, ''theyre for you only its a husband treat.' Trying to contain her laughter Zoe says: 'I think we have different ideas of what treats are.' Family goals! The family are having an absolute ball in Greece, with Zoe posting some loved-up snaps of the couple in a bar in Mykonos on Tuesday It seems the family are having an absolute ball in Greece, with Zoe posting some loved-up snaps of the couple in a bar in Mykonos on Tuesday. The pair looked to be enjoying the 36 degree weather, cooling down with some alcoholic beverages on a sunbed on a beach. Hamish and Zoe brought their two children with them on their island escapade, Sonny, four and Rudy, who just turned one. His daughter Chloe welcomed son Jayden with the model just nine weeks ago. And Phillip Green proved Jeremy Meeks was a fully-fledged part of their family on Saturday, during a relaxing boat trip in Mykonos, Greece. The Arcadia chairman, 66, was seen giving the 'Hot Felon', 34, a somewhat awkward high-five, as they cruised around the island with Chloe and his wife Tina. High five! Phillip Green proved Jeremy Meeks was a fully-fledged part of their family on Saturday, during a relaxing boat trip in Mykonos, Greece Loved-up: Phillip's daughter Chloe, who welcomed a son with Jeremy in May, also joined them for the boat trip, as well as the chairman's wife Tina The pair proved their close bond during the trip as they high-fived each other upon arrival at the dock. Laughing and joking together, heiress Chloe could not contain her beaming smile as she looked on proudly at the scene. After arriving at the seaside town by boat, the group then disembarked the vessel to explore the local sights by foot. Bonding: The Arcadia chairman, 66, was seen giving the 'Hot Felon', 34, a somewhat awkward high-five, as they cruised around the island Smitten: After arriving at the seaside town by boat, the group then disembarked the vessel to explore the local sights by foot Chloe showed off incredible post-baby body in a figure-hugging denim playsuit with the back cut-out and flared sleeves. She looked every inch the yummy mummy as she styled her brunette locks into a tousled halfback hairdo and added a pair of diamond framed round sunglasses. Chloe also flaunted a jaw-dropping diamond ring on her wedding finger, after she was previously seen with the item of jewellery earlier this month. Sweet: The Topshop heiress couldn't resist holding hands and getting cosy with her 'Hot Felon' beau, 34 Stylish: Chloe showed off incredible post-baby body in a figure-hugging denim dress with the back cut-out and flared sleeves as she joined her father Sir Philip for an afternoon outing She accessorised her look with white espadrilles and a straw clutch bag for her afternoon outing. Meanwhile, her 'Hot Felon' beau looked handsome in an unbuttoned white linen shirt with blue shorts, he accessorised with cobalt blue coloured suede boat shoes. He added a collection of gold jewellery including necklaces and bracelets. The family appeared care-free as Sir Philip, the 3.6billion former owner of BHS, cut a casual figure in a light blue t-shirt and matching coloured swimming trunks. Chic: She looked every inch the yummy mummy as she styled her brunette locks into a tousled halfback hairdo and added a pair of diamond framed round sunglasses Handsome: Meanwhile, her beau looked handsome in an unbuttoned white linen shirt with blue shorts, he accessorised with cobalt blue coloured suede boat shoes Stylish: He added a collection of gold jewellery including necklaces and bracelets Out at sea: The trio appeared to be thoroughly enjoying the sunny climes of Mykonos as the boat prepared to set off The smitten couple took to Instagram in June to reveal that their first child together, a baby boy called Jayden Meeks-Green, had been born on May 29th, as they shared a sweet photo of them holding hands with him. Chloe had kept her pregnancy under wraps until June, when she unveiled her eye-popping baby bump during a holiday on her father Sir Phillip's super yacht in Monaco, confirming the baby rumours. Meanwhile, more recently, the loved-up duo have sparked rumours they're engaged after the 27-year-old was spotted flashing a jaw-dropping diamond ring on her wedding finger earlier this month, which she wore again on Saturday. Relaxed: The family appeared care-free as Sir Philip cut a casual figure in a light blue t-shirt and matching coloured swimming trunks Engaged?: More recently, the duo have sparked rumours they're engaged after the 27-year-old was spotted flashing a jaw-dropping diamond ring on her wedding finger Eye-catching: The Topshop heiress' enormous rock could not be missed as it glistened in the sunshine during her stroll Just jewellery?: Chloe and Jeremy have previously denied that they are engaged, after Chloe was spotted wearing another dazzling diamond ring on numerous occasions The Topshop heiress' enormous rock could not be missed as it glistened in the sunshine during her stroll around the centre of the Mediterranean resort town, as she hunted down baby clothes for her little boy. Chloe and Jeremy have previously denied that they are engaged, after Chloe was spotted wearing another dazzling diamond ring on numerous occasions. However, this new, much larger sparkling rock will surely set tongues wagging once again. MailOnline has contacted representatives for Chloe Green and Jeremy Meeks for comment. Family: The smitten couple took to Instagram in June to reveal that their first child together, a baby boy called Jayden Meeks-Green, had been born on May 29th She has been busy overseeing the progress of her newly-opened resort, Lohan Beach House. But Lindsay Lohan treated herself to much-needed break on Monday, as she headed out with a gal pal in Mykonos. The actress, 32, looked typically chic in a plunging Grecian maxi dress as she embarked on her glamorous night out on the island. Girls' night: Lindsay Lohan headed out with a gal pal in Mykonos on Monday, after a busy few weeks overseeing the progress of her new island resort, Lohan Beach House The Mean Girls star was effortlessly stylish in the halterneck dress, which plunged deeply at the chest before it cascaded all the way to the floor. The frock maintained its Grecian style with a tan rope belt, while Lindsay accessorised with glittering gladiator sandals, in keeping with her surroundings. Leaving her hair in its everyday style and sporting minimal make-up, the redhead proved her striking natural beauty to all as she headed out with her friend, clad in an equally glamorous red mini dress. Goddess: The actress, 32, looked typically chic in a plunging Grecian maxi dress as she embarked on her glamorous night out on the island Having been in the industry since she was 12 years old, the screen star was seen happily signing autographs for fans, before heading off to dinner with her company. Lindsay spends much of her time in Mykonos, after opening her new resort, Lohan Beach House, on the island. She also recently announced she will be starring in a reality series about the club, which will follow her antics as the owner and her future business ventures. According to Page Six, the show aims to be 'a cooler, hipper, edgier Vanderpump Rules', with a 'European flavour' running throughout. Leading lady: Lindsay spends much of her time in Mykonos, after opening her new resort on the island, as well as a branch in Rhodes The show marks the Freaky Friday star's first foray into reality television, while her mother Dina and sister Ali starred in their own E! series Living Lohan back in 2006. Lindsay launched beach resorts in both Mykonos and Rhodes in May, two years after opening Lohan Nightclub in Athens. Speaking to The New York Times last month, the Parent Trap star revealed she's relishing in life as a businesswomen, since leaving the States for Europe. She said: 'Theres a business side to my life now, but Im not in America, so no one knows about it, which is nice for me. Because I get to actually focus on the result of things.' She's been enjoying a romantic holiday with her beau Dan Edgar ahead of TOWIE's series 23 premiere. And Amber Turner turned up the heat as she shared a series of sizzling snaps during her sun-soaked getaway with her boyfriend in Crete, Greece on Wednesday. The reality star, 25, set pulses racing as she sported a scanty yellow bikini, before tapping into full relaxation mode on a pool float. Ooh-la-la! Amber Turner turned up the heat as she shared a series of sizzling snaps during her sun-soaked getaway with her boyfriend Dan Edgar in Crete, Greece on Wednesday Ensuring all eyes were on her envy-inducing frame, the bombshell's bikini top boasted her incredibly perky cleavage, while her skimpy thong gave onlookers a glimpse of her slender waist and washboard abs. Amber opted for her trademark sultry appearance as she wore false lashes, heavy strokes of foundation and nude lipgloss for an enhanced pout. The fashion blogger injected even more glamour into her look as she styled her platinum locks into voluminous waves. Living it up: The reality star, 25, set pulses racing as she sported a scanty yellow bikini, before tapping into full relaxation mode on a pool float Meanwhile, fellow TOWIE star Dan, 28, showcased his muscular upper body and toned midsection as he enjoyed a drink by the pool. The former electrician was every inch the doting boyfriend as he massaged sunscreen into Amber's peachy derriere and lean legs. Things between Amber and her on-off beau Dan have been going from strength to strength - with the couple recently rekindling their relationship after a year of casually dating and much heartache. Having fun: Meanwhile, fellow TOWIE star Dan, 28, showcased his muscular upper body and toned midsection as he enjoyed a drink by the pool Cheeky! The former electrician was every inch the doting boyfriend as he massaged sunscreen into Amber's peachy derriere and lean legs Lapping it up: The star topped up on her tan during her idyllic break in the Greek island The blonde beauty had her heart set on the hunk since she first joined the TOWIE cast with then-boyfriend Jamie Reed in 2017. The television personality was unable to resist the dark-haired hunk's advances as she cheated on Jamie with Dan during the cast break in Tenerife. Amber then embarked on a turbulent romance with Dan - with the pair splitting up and reconciling numerous times. After more than a year of on-off romance, the Lothario was finally ready to commit to the reality star as they made things official on TOWIE's series 22 finale in May. They jetted off to Macedonia on a family holiday last week. Now lovebirds Sam Wood and Snezana Markoski have taken time off parenting duties to spend some quality time together, leaving their kids in Macedonia. Sam Wood took to his Instagram on Monday to share a busty snap of his soon-to-be wife Snez holding a bottle of French champagne and rose. Busting out! Bachelor Sam Wood's fiancee Snezana Markoski flaunts eye-popping cleavage in a skimpy yellow ensemble on a family holiday in Europe She wore a cleavage-baring yellow crop top and matching high-wasted skirt. 'Drink responsibly,' the caption read. Snez, 38, also shared some tropical holiday snaps getting cosy with her fitness instructor beau, some of which they were seen holding hands and enjoying the beautiful Greece weather at the popular Mykonos hot-spot Nammos. In another series of pics they are seen attempting a good snap but struggled with the wind, leaving Snez's hair to blow over her face. 'When you say 'do not MOVE or I'll kill you' and he literally stands still for 100 pics because he can't wait for it to be over,' she captioned the series of snaps followed by the boyfriends of Instagram hashtag. The look of love: Now lovebirds Sam Wood and Snezana Markoski have taken time off parenting duties to spend some quality time together, leaving their kids in Macedonia Stunning: Snezana stunned in a yellow ensemble while having lunch at the popular lunch spot Nammos in Mykonos The cute social media snap comes after rumours circulated the pair were heading to Macedonia to tie-the-knot. Sam, took to his Instagram story last Wednesday to document his genetically-blessed brood packing for their upcoming overseas jaunt. The first video he posted to the photo-sharing-app showed his stunning bride-to-be, 38, cuddling the couple's 10-month-old daughter Willow. Relaxed: They were seen getting cosy while enjoying lunch at Nammos on Sunday The tiny tot appeared to be distracting the duo from their task at hand as fans could see an empty suitcase in the background. 'Packing for Macedonia and someone (is) making it very difficult!' Sam captioned the video. The hunk also posted a sweet snap of his beaming daughter sitting in an opened suitcase. Adorable: Sam, took to his Instagram story last Wednesday to document his genetically-blessed brood packing for their upcoming overseas jaunt 'Carry on...?' he captioned the cute snap. Elsewhere, Sam filmed the Macedonian-born beauty packing a bag of baby essentials for Willow. 'What are you two doing? Look at this bag...formula, nappies, baby wipes and those little biscuit things that she eats...Willow is this your bag?' he exclaimed in the clip. Sam and Snezana welcomed daughter, Willow, in October 2017. They fell in love on the 2015 season of The Bachelor and the pair became engaged at the end of that same year. She regularly fills her Instagram feed with racy bikini-clad photos while documenting her enviable travels across the globe. And Kimberley Garner, 28, was back to her figure-flaunting tricks as she showcased her enviable figure in a daring two-piece during her idyllic breakaway to Mykonos in Greece. The former MIC star looked sensational as she displayed her svelte frame in a mismatched red and white bikini while enjoying a quick swim in the sea. Walk this way: Kimberley Garner, 28, was back to her figure-flaunting tricks as she showcased her enviable figure in a daring two-piece during her idyllic breakaway to Mykonos in Greece Her white bikini top highlighted her ample bust and drew attention to her incredible taut midriff. The E4 star continued to set pulses-racing as she slipped into a pair of minuscule red thong bikini bottoms which showcased her slender pins and displayed her pert posterior. Keeping to her glamorous ways, she worked her honey-hued locks into a tousled style and donned a pair of circular shades for her afternoon along the idyllic shore. Later in the day, Kimberley was spotted enjoying a dip in the crystal clear sea before continuing her sun bathing session. Cheeky: The E4 star continued to set pulses-racing as she slipped into a pair of minuscule red thong bikini bottoms which showcased her slender pins and displayed her pert posterior Cooling down: The former MIC star looked sensational as she displayed her svelte frame in a mismatched red and white bikini while enjoying a quick swim in the sea Since starting up her own luxury swimwear line Kimberley London, the Chelsea beauty often spends her time jetting to a number of countries. Last month during her Greek break, the swimsuit model topped up her tan when she relaxed with pals - and she was even seen topless sunbathing beside her ex-boyfriend. However, when contacted by MailOnline, Kimberley insisted the pair have remained 'good friends', but are 'not together'. Ab-solutely: Her white bikini top highlighted her ample bust and drew attention to her incredible taut midriff Mane thing: Later in the day, Kimberley was spotted enjoying a dip in the crystal clear sea before continuing her sun bathing session Remaining tight-lipped on his identity, she revealed she broke up with her former beau after a 'wonderful' three years together. Kimberley shot to fame when she starred in Made In Chelsea in 2012 as a love interest of Richard Dinan. Recently, she was forced to deny claims she had gone under the knife when she shared an Instagram snap in recent weeks. Shore thing: Since starting up her own luxury swimwear line Kimberley London, the Chelsea beauty often spends her time jetting to a number of countries Then: Last month during her Greek break, the swimsuit model topped up her tan when she relaxed with pals - and she was even seen topless sunbathing beside her ex-boyfriend She wrote: 'For all the gossip, no I have not had a boob job, and no I have not had a butt job! (Which still comes as a very weird concept to me)' 'Womens bodys change, sometimes Im a little chubbier and sometimes too skinny, its just natural and so important to love our bodys, whatever the phase - but thanks for all the gossip I have heard over the past year, it has really made me laugh.' 'ps I have been learning some butt exercises, will make a video, incase you want a fake butt ;) (sic).' Ryan Serhant and his wife Emilia Bechrakis are enjoying their two year wedding anniversary in Greece. The New York-based couple looked to be having the time of their life as they soaked up the sun on a yacht anchored off the coast of an island. The two wed in July 2016 in Greece and have since been trying to start a family with the help of IVF. Gong strong: Ryan Serhant and his wife Emilia Bechrakis are enjoying their two year wedding anniversary in Greece Swimming around: The New York-based couple looked to be having the time of their life as they had fun on a yacht anchored off the coast of an island Goofy twosome: She threw up her arms as she posed shirtless on the yacht Ryan, 34, looked to be in excellent shape as he posed in blue board shorts while on the back of the large yacht. His spouse threw up her arms and kicked up her heels as she soaked up the sun while in a purple flamingo floatie. He was also seen jumping off the yacht into the crystal blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea. In one of her Instagram captions, she wrote, 'Found me a Texan and a flamingo. Its a good life.' Pure joy: The beauty wore a bikini as she rested on the purple floatie She said she loved her floatie: Emilia joked that she had a boat of her own when she road in this blow-up bird The star was also on vacation in April. The cover girl traveled to Key Biscayne, Florida where she was again spotted on a yacht. And the business woman looked very in shape as she modeled a green string bikini that made the most of her slender frame. The yacht life: The star was also on vacation in April. The cover girl traveled to Key Biscayne, Florida where she was again spotted on a yacht Party on: And the business woman looked very in shape as she modeled a green string bikini that made the most of her slender frame The two have shared with their fans that they definitely want to start a family. On his show Million Dollar Listing New Year, the reality TV star asked his wife, 'Are you ready to go down the IVF steps?' Emilia is seen saying, 'I've been looking forward to being a mom but I just always expected that it was going to be easy.' That is when Serhant says, 'Are you ready to go down the IVF steps?' Earlier this year Ryan told DailyMail.com exclusively that he and his wife 'talk about kids all the time.' He loves to enjoy the money he earns: Ryan has become a millionaire from real estate; here he is seen at the table waiting for a meal He also seemed clearly in love. 'I do it all for her, she is the love of my life,' said the real estate wiz. 'She is everything to me, she is everything I work for. She makes me better every day. She keeps me grounded and happy and pushes me. She is tough in all the right ways.' And married life is turning out to be great. 'She a better wife than I ever could have imagined,' the Hamilton college graduate gushed. They met at a Hannukah party and hit it off. And though she didn't even live in New York at the time, he pursued her. Serhant proposed in Times Square in 2015, closing the busy NYC area for an hour. 'It's only happened once before, for the movie Vanilla Sky. It took six months to plan,' he said. And they wed the following year in Greece. Emily Atack's ex Jack Vacher has thrown his support behind his former flame to be crowned the queen of the jungle on this year's I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here. The model, who dated the actress for five years before they split last year, revealed he was convinced his ex-girlfriend would do well in the Australian jungle. Jack's first words over Emily's jungle experience were very telling as he exclaimed to The Mirror: 'I'm sure she'll do great!' Close bond: Emily Atack's model ex Jack Vacher vowed to back the actress to win jungle crown as he gushed over how 'great' she'll do on the show Previously, Emily confessed she found it awkward standing next to her beau for photographs because of how handsome he was in an unearthed 2016 interview. She explained her feelings: '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.' No hard feelings: The model, who dated the actress for five years before they split last year, revealed he was convinced his ex-girlfriend would do well in the Australian jungle Emily had been referring to a picture of them taken at the Dad's Army premiere, the film version of the iconic BBC comedy series which she had starred in. Notably Jack's Twitter page still features a header image of himself posing with his actress ex Emily. Jack, who is a part-time model and has worked for Abercrombie & Fitch while working in real estate, has moved on with Madison Ellen, according to The Sun. Speaking out: Jack's first words over Emily's jungle experience were very telling as he exclaimed to The Mirror : 'I'm sure she'll do great!' Heartbreaking: Meanwhile, Emily's social media is still littered with images of the duo together which suggests they had an amicable split Meanwhile, Emily's social media is still littered with images of the duo together which suggests they had an amicable split. Emily tugged on viewers' heartstrings when she shared the painful details of her heartbreak as she discussed what happened when her five-year romance ended. In tender scenes on the show, the actress confided in Noel Edmonds about her 'difficult' start to the year as she struggled to come to terms with the break up. Painful: Emily tugged on viewers' heartstrings when she shared the painful details of her heartbreak as she discussed what happened when her five-year romance ended Lost love: Notably Jack's Twitter page still features a header image of himself posing with his actress ex Emily She told her fellow camp mate: 'Im soul searching. I had a difficult start to the year. I had a break-up after being with someone five years. 'Id go into the habit of needing that security, love and acceptance from a guy to make me happy.' There have already been some victories in the jungle for Emily, who is giving the Bushtucker Trials all she has got, as she recently celebrated her weight loss. Small wins! There have already been some victories in the jungle for Emily, who is giving the Bushtucker Trials all she has got, as she recently celebrated her weight loss Sizzling: The Inbetweeners star flaunted her slimmed-down physique when she stripped down to her bikini to take a dip in the lake The Inbetweeners star flaunted her slimmed-down physique when she stripped down to her bikini to take a dip in the lake. During Sunday's show, Emily was so excited she had shed the pounds as she can over-indulge over the festive season when she returns to home turf. She told the Bush Telegraph: 'These were tight when I came in here. I just want to lose a bit of weight so that when I get home and it's Christmas I have a bit of room and can put it back on again. 'I love food so much, I love cheese and champagne and salads, fries, yum.' Amazing: During Sunday's show, Emily was so excited she had shed the pounds as she can over-indulge over the festive season when she returns to home turf Hilarious: Ahead of the jungle stint, Noel Edmonds donned a very similar shimmering blue ensemble to Emily's bikini on Tuesday's episode It is also reported that Medic Bob encourages to campmates to drink at least three litres of water of day, further limiting their food consumption. MailOnline has previously contacted representatives for I'm A Celebrity for comment. Ahead of the jungle stint, Noel Edmonds donned a very similar shimmering blue ensemble to Emily's bikini on Tuesday's episode. The Deal or No Deal legend showcased his muscular physique in hot pants and a bra for a cheeky photo shoot. Her husband Oliver Curtis was convicted of insider trading in June 2016. And in a surprising confession, Roxy Jacenko has revealed that she concealed $500 cash in the lining of his jacket before he went off to prison. 'You've got to do what you've got to do,' the Sweaty Betty PR founder, 38, told Nova FM's Fitzy & Wippa on Wednesday. Scroll down for audio 'You do what you've gotta do!' Roxy Jacenko (left) has admitted to sewing $500 into the lining of her husband Oliver Curtis' jacket before he went off to prison. Pictured right: Oliver leaving the Supreme Court in Sydney on June 2, 2016 following his insider trading trial 'A friend of mine did tell me actually that having some money in prison when you first get there is very beneficial,' Roxy said. 'So I may have put a couple of $100 [notes], well stitched them, into the lining of his jacket.' Roxy later revealed the exact figure was $500, adding that the money was intended for 'buy-ups' in prison. 'It's for a doona, it's for food. For him, he likes to read the newspaper,' she said. Spare cash: 'A friend of mine did tell me actually that having some money in prison when you first get there is very beneficial,' Roxy (pictured) said on Wednesday Daily Mail Australia has contacted NSW Corrective Services for comment. Oliver, 32, spent one year behind bars after being convicted of conspiracy to commit insider trading. The former investment banker served the majority of his time at Cooma Correctional Centre, before his release in June 2017. In February this year, Oliver compared prison to boarding school. Felon: Roxy explained the money was for 'a doona, food and newspapers'. Pictured: Oliver leaving the Supreme Court following his conviction He told Kyle and Jackie O: 'I was a border at school and it's funny, every time someone came in and visited me, I'd sit down and say, "Actually it's really just boarding school but you're with drug dealers and murderers". 'You end up getting the discipline and it's all just about routine and regiment and all that sort of thing.' Oliver, who once had to share a cell with eight people, added: 'You've got to get on with everybody, you've just got to adapt and roll.' The Abu Dhabi Executive Council has approved a resolution to exempt all new economic licences issued in the Emirate from all local fees for two years, effective from the date of issue, a media report said. The move comes under the directives of Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, reported Emirates news agency Wam. The Council has also approved another resolution exempting and reducing the fees of 98 basic services charged by the Abu Dhabi Municipalities on the private sector. The two resolutions are aimed to facilitate economic activities in Abu Dhabi as part of the initiatives and incentives provided to the private sector companies and enterprises operating in the emirate. Coming into force by December 1, the two resolutions are part of the Abu Dhabi Government Accelerators Programme Ghadan 21 which is aimed to enhance the competitiveness of Abu Dhabi in business, investment, society, knowledge innovation, and lifestyle. The resolution of exempting new licenses from local government fees covers all commercial activities in Abu Dhabi and the Emirate's free zones. The second resolution cancels the fees of 75 basic services provided by the Abu Dhabi Municipalities and reducing the fees of 23 services by 10-50 per cent of the total fee of each service. The first trailer for the much-anticipated Disney screen adaption of Artemis Fowl has arrived. It opens with aerial views of a vast green forest and a bustling metropolitan city full of skyscrapers as star Judi Dench gives a menacing and foreboding narration. 'Our world has never been more in danger. Human greed is what drove us underground all those years ago.' First look: Disney released a teaser for the screen adaption of Artemis Fowl on Tuesday The imagery then turns to the seaside home of genius Artemis Fowl II, a 12-year old boy, played by newcomer Ferdia Shawn, who's a descendant of a long line of criminals. 'To Escape from your rapacious appetite,' Dench ominously adds with indie-rock band Radiohead's haunting song Decks Dark playing in the background. Things then turn dark with pictures of a massive tree at night and the silhouettes of Artemis and his butler/bodyguard. The creepy narration ends with: 'I warn you boy. You are not prepared for the truth-- behind what you seek.' Painting a picture: The trailer begins with an aerial view of a vast green forest Creepy: 'Our world has never been more in danger. Human greed is what drove us underground all those years ago,' actress Judi Dench narrates over more aerial shots Seaside abode: Viewers also get a look at the home of Artemis Fowl II, a 12-year old genius, who is the descendant of a long line of criminals Fantasy ride: Modern day imagery transforms to a brief and colorful tour of an underground world full of magical creatures As the trailer moves along, the imagery of the modern day world we all recognize abruptly transforms into a brief and colorful tour of an underground world full of sprites, trolls, elves, goblins and LEPrecon, the fairy law enforcement Reconnaissance unit led by Dench's character Commander Root. The story focuses on Artemis and his search for his missing father, and eventually leads him to stumble upon the many magical creatures and LEPrecon Captain Holly Short, played by Lara McDonnell. The film, which also stars Josh Gad, Tamara Smart, Hong Chau and Nonzo Anozie, was directed by Kenneth Branagh. It's based on the first two, of eight, bestselling fantasy novels written by Irish author Eoin Colfer. Artemis Fowl will hit theaters August 9, 2019. Colorful: The underground world is full of sprites, trolls, elves and goblins Mystical: Artemis goes on a journey with his butler/bodyguard Magical and haunting: The duo are confronted by many obstacles Emily Blunt has confessed that she didn't watch the 1964 original version of Mary Poppins after landing the titular role in the sequel. Speaking to Harpers Bazaar magazine, the 35-year-old actress revealed that she didn't want to feel 'intimidated' by Julie Andrew's iconic portrayal so decided to just put her own stamp on things. She wasn't able to fully distance herself from the Disney classic, however, as she did watch the film in her childhood. Kept her distance: Emily Blunt has confessed that she didn't watch the 1964 original version of Mary Poppins after landing the titular role in the sequel Emily revealed: Even though Id seen the film as a child, I decided not to watch it when prepping. 'She was so clear to me from reading that I decided not to be intimidated by the iconic Julie Andrews in the iconic role, and just approached it as I would any other part.' Whilst Julie will not be making a cameo in the sequel, Mary Poppins Returns, Dick Van Dyke - who played Bert in the original - was on hand to ease any concerns Emily had. Iconic: The 35-year-old actress revealed that she didn't want to feel 'intimidated' by Julie Andrew's iconic portrayal so decided to just put her own stamp on things Recalling working alongside the acting legend, Emily mused: Yes, hes 92 years old, but the eyes, and the smile, are seared into your memory. 'It was terribly moving having him there. Obviously hed be exhausted by the end of the day, but between takes, hed put his hand on my arm and sing, Its a jolly holiday with Mary. In the sequel, Emily stars as Mary Poppins, who returns to the Banks family in their time of need, after a personal loss, along with the lamplighter Jack (Lin-Manuel Miranda). One to watch: In the sequel, Emily stars as Mary Poppins, who returns to the Banks family in their time of need, after a personal loss, along with the lamplighter Jack (Lin-Manuel 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. The story is set in 1930s London, the same time period used in the original novels by P.L. Travers. The film will hit US screens on December 19 and the UK on December 21. Stammered: Emily - who has two children with her husband John Kraskinski - also admitted to Harper's that she used to suffer with a stammer Meanwhile, Emily - who has two children with her husband John Kraskinski - also admitted to Harper's that she used to suffer with a stammer. Out soon: Read the full interview in the January issue of Harpers Bazaar UK Revealing that she taught herself to overcome her speech impediment through acting, she recalled: Because I couldnt speak fluently, I watched and listened Theres always been a natural desire to walk in the shoes of others 'It started quite young, because it was the only tool I had to speak properly. I was that kid, upstairs in my room, trying out stuff in the mirror. But Id never tell anyone about it. It was always very private. Read the full interview in the January issue of Harpers Bazaar UK on sale 4 December. Despite suffering a broken orbital bone in a domestic violence incident, mixed martial artist Rachael Ostovich has been cleared to fight Paige VanZant. Ostovich, 27, took to her Instagram story to share a pic of herself and VanZant, 24, along with 'Thank you Jesus' and a prayer hands emoji, along with a tweet from ESPN reporter Brett Okamoto which broke the news. VanZant also took to her own Twitter page to share the news, revealing, 'FIGHT STILL ON!!!!! I couldnt be more great full to @rachaelostovich.' Fight is back on: VanZant also took to her own Twitter page to share the news, revealing, 'FIGHT STILL ON!!!!! I couldnt be more great full to @rachaelostovich.' 'Yes we are going to war with each other in the cage, but I stand by her side with her ongoing battle at home. Lets put on a fight and show these people how strong we are,' VanZant added. The fight, scheduled for January 19, was initially cancelled due to Ostovich's injuries, which were sustained in an alleged attack by her husband, another MMA fighter, Arnold Berdon, in Hawaii. While the fight was cancelled, Ostovich's manager Brian Butler-Au told ESPN that the fighter sought a second opinion on her injuries, and she was cleared this week. Ostovich vs VanZant: Ostovich, 27, took to her Instagram story to share a pic of herself and VanZant, 24, along with 'Thank you Jesus' and a prayer hands emoji, along with a tweet from ESPN reporter Brett Okamoto which broke the news 'She never really wanted to be off of this fight,' Butler-Au said. 'When everything happened, it was very emotional.' 'The injuries were significant enough that, combined with the emotions of everything that was going down, we made a decision to pull out of the fight,' Butler-Au continued. 'Now that things are settling out and the swelling of the injury is going down, Rachael got a second opinion and everything will work out to where she can keep this fight.' Fight back on: 'She never really wanted to be off of this fight,' Butler-Au said. 'When everything happened, it was very emotional.' Ready to fight: 'Yes we are going to war with each other in the cage, but I stand by her side with her ongoing battle at home. Lets put on a fight and show these people how strong we are,' VanZant added ESPN also confirmed with UFC president Dana White that the fight is back on for January 19. Berdon was taken into custody by Honolulu police last week and charged with second-degree assault, and his next court hearing will be December 18. Ostovich was also granted a restraining order against Berdon. Happier times: Berdon was taken into custody by Honolulu police last week and charged with second-degree assault, and his next court hearing will be December 18 The Ostovich/VanZant fight is part of the UFC Fight Night lineup at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The January 19 fight will be the first event as part of a new five-year deal between the UFC and ESPN, with the fight airing on the network's new ESPN+ streaming service. Ostovich has a 4-4 mixed martial arts record and is 1-1 in two UFC fights, while VanZant has a 7-4 record and is coming off a one-year injury hiatus. Fight-ready: The Ostovich/VanZant fight is part of the UFC Fight Night lineup at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York All smiles: Ostovich has a 4-4 mixed martial arts record and is 1-1 in two UFC fights, while VanZant has a 7-4 record and is coming off a one-year injury hiatus John-David Duggar savored his first kiss with new wife Abbie as their whirlwind romance culminated with a wedding on Tuesday's episode of Counting On. The 28-year-old pious reality star after being pronounced as 'husband and wife' and given permission to kiss the bride surprised everyone by kissing her left hand. John then kissed her other hand and then each shoulder. First kiss: John-David Duggar extended his first kiss with new wife Abbie as their whirlwind romance culminated with a wedding on Tuesday's episode of Counting On 'You're so silly,' Abbie told him while standing at the alter. John then proceeded to kiss her forehead and her cheeks before finally locking lips with Abbie for the first time. The long kiss earned an applause from the audience and a smile from Abbie. The episode opened with a flashback showing John declaring that he was going to be a 'bachelor to the rapture'. Newly married: Abbie raised her arms and John smiled after they exchanged vows Multiple kisses: The pious reality star kissed Abbie on her hands and shoulders Forehead action: John kissed Abbie on her forehead and then kissed her cheeks First time: Abbie and John finally kissed for the first time and their long smooch earned an applause His younger sister Jessa, 26, said she knew that wouldn't be the case with John. John admitted that he had a 'very quick transition from bachelor status to very much not a bachelor'. The couple met at a church in Oklahoma where John's parents Jim Bob, 53, and Michelle, 52, were speaking and signing books. Younger sister: Jessa said she knew that John wasn't going to be a 'bachelor to the rapture' Quick transition: John revealed that he made a 'quick transition' from bachelor to fiance Abbie also comes from a large family of eight children, but not as big as John whose devout Baptist parents had 19 children. She's a geriatric nurse who decided to specialize in helping elderly patients after caring for her grandparents. A producer asked the couple to describe their relationship in one word and John answered 'romantic' while Abbie chose 'whirlwind'. Health worker: Abbie is a geriatric nurse who met John at a church in Oklahoma One word: The couple was asked to describe their relationship in one word They started texting after meeting and two weeks later in May she was being introduced to the Duggar family as John's girlfriend. John's twin sister Jana admitted that she wondered if John would ever get married. 'She's just perfect for him,' Jana said as she gave twin approval. Twin sister: Jana gave twin approval of Abbie John and Abbie adhered to strict courtship standards and didn't even hold hands as they agreed not to kiss until they were married. They courted for two months before getting engaged in Texas and exchanged wedding vows within six months of meeting. Abbie and John said they were both looking forward to her wedding march. Strict courtship: John and Abbie adhered to strict courtship standards and neither kissed nor held hands before getting married 'It's the best day of my life. I'm afraid I'm going to cry,' said Abbie as her father John Burnett prepared to walk her down the aisle. Josiah Duggar, 22, and his new bride Lauren sang during the wedding and Abbie's wedding ring was delivered via drone. Counting On is a spin-off of 19 Kids And Counting that was cancelled in 2015 after the Duggars' eldest son Josh, 30, publicly apologized following reports that he molested five girls while he was a teenager. Aisle walk: John Burnett escorted his daughter Abbie down the aisle He lends his voice to black panther Bagheera in the new Mowgli movie. And on Tuesday, Christian Bale arrived back in Los Angeles after a trip to India to promote the Andy Serkis-directed film. The actor, 44, was spotted at LAX with his family - wife Sibi, 48, daughter Emmeline, 13, and son Joseph, four. Back home: Christian Bale was spotted at LAX Tuesday with his family - wife Sibi, 48, daughter Emmeline, 13, and son Joseph, four, after a trip to India to promote the movie Mowgli Bale pushed his youngest child in a stroller as they exited the airport with his wife and daughter following behind. The chiseled Welshman packed on 40 pounds to play former US Vice President Dick Cheney in the upcoming Adam McKay biopic Vice. But he's since lost the extra weight and looks slimmer than ever. Thin again: The chiseled Welshman looked slimmer than ever after shedding the 40 pounds he piled on to play former US Vice President Dick Cheney in the upcoming biopic Vice Family man: Bale, 44, pushed his youngest child in a stroller as they exited the airport with his wife and daughter following behind Gracious: The actor, who has starred as Batman and won an Oscar for the 2010 film The Fighter, paused to greet fans and sign autographs The film, which The Big Short's McKay directs from his own script, follows the rise of Cheney from his early days in the Nixon White House to his unprecedented power during the Bush administration. Sam Rockwell plays Bush, Steve Carell is Donald Rumsfeld, Tyler Perry is Colin Powell and Amy Adams plays Lynne Cheney, the VP's ambitious and supportive wife. Dick Cheney served as Vice President to President George W. Bush for two terms. My turn: Bale patiently made his way down the line of eager autograph hunters Pot belly: Bale became unrecognizable as he packed on the pounds for his role as Cheney in the film that reunited him with his The Big Short director Adam McKay Meaty role: Amy Adams, 44, plays Lynne Cheney, the ambitious and supportive wife of Dick Cheney who served as Vice President to President George W. Bush for two terms Bale told The Hollywood Reporter that despite repeated attempts and even enlisting some of Cheney's friends, he never got to meet or even speak with the former vice president. 'I would greatly have liked to have met with him, if only to have him insult me and kick me out of his house. To me, that's honorable,' the British actor said. 'I spoke with some [of Cheney's] friends who would say, 'Let's get Dick on the phone,' and they would call. And the phone would be ringing and I would be thinking, 'I'm 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,' he explained. Cheney's lawyers told Bale that he was not to attempt to contact Cheney who is now 77 and lives in the suburbs of Washington, DC. 'I would like to be able to sit and look Cheney in the eye and say why I feel like it's justified to tell his story. And I hope I will do it one day,' Bale added. Long-haul flight: His wife Sibi and daughter Emmeline were dressed for comfort in sweats and held hands as they walked His boy: Bale was dressed in a loose shirt, baggy trousers and trainers while Joseph had on a colorful long-sleeved top and Bugs Bunny-themed gray sweats with Velcro-fastened shoes Let's go: The actor was every inch the doting father as he made his way across the airport with his son She has a wardrobe packed full of decadent designer items. And Petra Ecclestone went for full-blown glamour on Tuesday, as she stepped out in a pair of 600 of python skin boots by Yeezy - Kanye West's fashion label. The Formula One heiress, 29, ensured she turned heads as she teamed her statement footwear with a skintight pair of leather trousers during her outing with art curator boyfriend Sam Palmer in Los Angeles. Looking good: Petra Ecclestone stepped out in a pair of 600 of python skin boots by Yeezy - Kanye West's label, as she headed out in Los Angeles with boyfriend Sam Palmer on Tuesday The mother-of-three completed her look with a white cropped sweater and tied a denim shirt around her waist. The socialite and philanthropist added some bling to her laid-back ensemble with gold hoop earrings and a delicate necklace. Styling her golden tresses in a simple middle-parting, Petra shielded her eyes behind a fashion-forward pair of square-frame shades. Sam looked casual in an all black ensemble as he strolled behind his girlfriend. Chic: The Formula One heiress, 29, ensured she turned heads as she teamed her statement footwear with a skintight pair of leather trousers during her outing in Los Angeles Turning heads: The blonde beauty completed her look with a white cropped sweater and tied a denim shirt around her waist Petra is mother to three children; daughter Lavinia, five, and twin sons, Andrew and James Junior, three, whom she shares with her billionaire ex-husband James Stunt, 36. The former couple finally reached a settlement in October last year following six years of marriage and a bitter 5.5billion divorce. Speaking exclusively to MailOnline last month, Petra confessed that she felt 'lonely and isolated' following her divorce from Stunt, but is 'happier than ever' after finding love with new beau Sam. She admitted it wasn't easy adjusting to life as a single mother, stating: 'It was lonely. It definitely was an isolating experience. [Being a mother] takes over your whole day and life. Going for gold: She added some bling to her laid-back ensemble with gold hoop earrings and a delicate necklace Glam: Styling her golden tresses in a simple middle-parting, Petra shielded her eyes behind a fashion-forward pair of square-frame shades 'I feel like I am in a good place. The kids are doing well and they're not in nappies now, they're growing up. 'We're all having a really nice time and living in LA, so there's lots of sunshine.' Petra has previously spoken about her wish to have six children, and is keen to adopt. 'I still want that,' she told MailOnline.'I really want to adopt. I don't mind from which country but I do not I don't want to adopt a baby as so many people want to do that. 'There are so many older kids who need a home and get overlooked, so that's what I want to do. Being with me, Sam went from having zero kids to three kids overnight.' Nice surprise: Petra is currently dating Sam Palmer and called their romance 'totally unexpected' - the duo met through her sister Tamara's husband Jay Rutland She credited her brood for distracting her from the very public split, adding: 'I had to wake up for them. They kind of pushed me through it.' Petra and billionaire James were granted a quick divorce after a five minute hearing last year. It came six years after they tied the knot in a 12million ceremony held in a castle in Italy. While no details of the settlement were released, it was reported that James signed a 16 million prenuptial agreement, with Petra also awarded sole custody of the couple's three children in January. Mrs Wilson, BBC One Rating: Ghosts of the years two best espionage dramas haunted the edges of Mrs Wilson (BBC1), an evocative true story of suburban spies in the Sixties. Fiona Shaw, who played coquettish spymistress Carolyn Martens in the psycho-chic thriller Killing Eve, was a shadowy officer in the Special Operations Executive during World War II, still handling agents 20 years later. And Keeley Hawes, last seen as an oversexed Home Secretary in Bodyguard, was lurking in the background, turning up at restaurants and funerals to observe wordlessly. Ruth Wilson (left) played her own real-life grandmother Alison a mother of two teenage boys in 1963, married to the dashing undercover agent who had been her commanding officer (and lover) during the war. Calam Lynch (right) plays Gordon Wilson Their presence alone was enough to promise a first-rate mystery, but this complex blend of deception and romance proved to be even better than hoped. Ruth Wilson played her own real-life grandmother, Alison a mother of two teenage boys in 1963, married to the dashing undercover agent who had been her commanding officer (and lover) during the war. When husband Alec (Iain Glen) dropped dead from heart failure, his first wife Gladys turned up to claim the body, saying they were still married. He had often come home to live with her, she insisted. Stated so bluntly, the story sounds too extraordinary to be believable. Its as though John le Carre turned his hand to a Barbara Cartland novella. Meticulous attention to detail by the props department helped us to accept this truth stranger than fiction. Alison prepared tea on the fold-out kitchen table with its blue Formica top, polishing the Pyrex cookware with a teatowel, in their pebble-dashed semi. Friendly neighbours brought round shepherds pie in casserole dishes. The narrative kept switching back to the Blitz, as Alison and Alec fell in love good news for the many fans of heart-throb Iain Glen. Hes usually cast as a doomed mercenary (Game Of Thrones) or a grizzled private eye (Jack Taylor): when he appeared in crisp WW2 Army uniform, you could hear a million women swoon. Fiona Shaw (pictured above) plays Coleman who is the head of MI6 in the 1940s, overseeing the work of both Alison and Alec By the end of the hour, we began to suspect that Alec was a conman, explaining away his double life by pretending to be an international spy. Alison copied his wiles, forging a divorce certificate and keeping the truth about their father from their sons. Cad or hero, it will be fascinating to discover which he was and to see how long Alison can deceive herself and the world. I cant wait for the next part. Egyptian Tomb Hunting, C5 Rating: The second half of Sir Tony Robinsons adventures with mummies and pharaohs, Egyptian Tomb Hunting (C5), cant come too soon, either and handily, its being screened tonight. For history enthusiasts, the Blackadder stars archaeology shows are always absorbing and entertaining, but this one was often jaw-dropping, too. Sir Tony Robinson (pictured above) outside Karnak Temple in Luxor, Egypt The actor and Egyptology buff joined a dig with tomb hunters John Ward and Maria Nilsson at Gebel el-Silsila, the quarry where slaves hewed the stone 3,500 years ago for the temple at Luxor. A newly discovered doorway was being excavated, and Robinson was the first to crawl into the chamber which was infested with snakes. More dramatic still, he helped drain water from a shaft in the rock and climbed down to explore a series of connected tombs, unseen for millennia. Crawling on his hands and knees, he found bones floating in the brackish water. Its human soup, he gulped. This was such remarkable television that it was a pity to leave the site. Instead of visiting other digs and antiquities, however worthwhile, we could have spent the whole show in this one incredible location. Tony winner Alan Cumming got extremely intimate with his pretty castmate Bojana Novakovic while shooting the 13-episode second season of CBS' Instinct in lower Manhattan on Tuesday. The 53-year-old Scotsman - who came out as bisexual in 1998 - passionately embraced and kissed the Serbian-born, Aussie-raised 37-year-old beside a chain-link fence. 'My sexuality has never been black and white; it's always been gray. I'm with a man, but I haven't closed myself off to the fact that I'm still sexually attracted to women,' the Spice World alum told The Advocate in 2015. INSTICT duo: Tony winner Alan Cumming got extremely intimate with his pretty castmate Bojana Novakovic while shooting the 13-episode second season of CBS' Instinct in lower Manhattan on Tuesday PDA: The 53-year-old Scotsman - who came out as bisexual in 1998 - passionately embraced and kissed the Serbian-born, Aussie-raised 37-year-old beside a chain-link fence 'I feel that's what I am. I see a worrying trend among LGBT people, that if you identify yourself in just one way, you close yourself off to other experiences.' But it was all acting on Tuesday as Alan and Bojana were in character as Dr. Dylan Reinhart and NYPD detective Elizabeth 'Lizzie' Needham, who team up to solve bizarre cases. In between takes when the cameras weren't rolling, Cumming warmed up beneath a pair of black ear muffs. The Spice World alum told The Advocate in 2015: 'My sexuality has never been black and white; it's always been gray. I'm with a man, but I haven't closed myself off to the fact that I'm still sexually attracted to women' He continued: 'I feel that's what I am. I see a worrying trend among LGBT people, that if you identify yourself in just one way, you close yourself off to other experiences' Coy smiles: But it was all acting on Tuesday as Alan and Bojana were in character as Dr. Dylan Reinhart and NYPD detective Elizabeth 'Lizzie' Needham, who team up to solve bizarre cases In between takes: When the cameras weren't rolling, Cumming warmed up beneath a pair of black ear muffs The They'll Love Me When I'm Dead narrator later changed out of brown double-breasted blazer and blue slacks in favor of a bright red double-breasted coat over a grey suit. The I, Tonya actress - who dated Come Sunday star Jason Segel from 2013-2014 - swapped her red pants for black skinny jeans, a belted puffer, red scarf, and motorcycle boots. The two-time Golden Globe nominee had an elderly beagle on leash as Novakovic drove off on a motorcycle for the police procedural based on James Patterson's 2017 novel Murder Games. Costume change: The They'll Love Me When I'm Dead narrator later changed out of brown blazer and blue slacks in favor of a bright red double- breasted coat over a grey suit Blonde ambition: The I, Tonya actress - who dated Jason Segel from 2013-2014 - swapped her red pants for black skinny jeans, a belted puffer, red scarf, and motorcycle boots Easy rider: The two-time Golden Globe nominee had an elderly beagle on leash as Novakovic drove off on a motorcycle for the police procedural Hours later, Alan joined his husband, artist/illustrator Grant Shaffer, for a hot date at some sort of performance inside a church. Cumming and the San Fracisco-born 53-year-old originally met in 2005 and they tied the knot twice - a 2007 civil partnership in London and a legal 2012 marriage in New York. Before the School of Visual Arts professor, the Show Dogs star enjoyed a six-year relationship with theatre director Nick Philippou. 'Look where I am on a school night!' Hours later, Alan joined his husband, artist/professor Grant Shaffer, for a hot date at some sort of performance inside a church Male ex: Before the San Fracisco-born 53-year-old, the Show Dogs star enjoyed a six-year relationship with theatre director Nick Philippou (L, pictured in 2003) Female exes: The LGBTQ activist also romanced his Circle of Friends co-star Saffron Burrows (L) for two years, and he was married to his The High Life castmate Hilary Lyon (R) for eight years (pictured in 1996 and 1993) The LGBTQ activist also romanced his Circle of Friends co-star Saffron Burrows for two years, and he was married to his The High Life castmate Hilary Lyon for eight years. On Sunday night, Alan played the over-the-top King James I in the 1612-set episode of BBC/Amazon series Doctor Who titled 'The Witchfinders' - opposite Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor. Cumming will next take his Legal Immigrant show to Florida's Kravis Center in West Palm Beach on December 9. 'The Witchfinders': On Sunday night, Alan played the over-the-top King James I in the 1612-set episode of BBC/Amazon series Doctor Who She produces and stars in a sequel to the The Wonderful World Of Disney film Life-Size that aired on TV in 2000 and starred Lindsay Lohan. And on Tuesday night, Tyra Banks headlined a special screening of the TV movie Life-Size 2 in Hollywood. The former model and TV personality, 44, looked fabulous in a hot pink ensemble. She's the boss: Tyra Banks chose a hot pink ensemble as she headlined a special screening in Hollywood Tuesday night of the TV movie Life-Size 2, that she produces and stars in Tyra wore a mini dress with attached long panels that fell from the waist at the sides. She added over-the-knee plush boots. The America's Got Talent host wore her long hair loose along with a top knot ponytail. She was made up with lashings of black mascara and kohl with pink lip color and accessorized with pink pendant earrings. In the pink: Tyra, 44, wore a mini dress with attached long panels that fell from the waist at the sides. She added over-the-knee plush boots and pink pendant earrings Fun night: The former model and TV perosnality posed for pics with her co-star Francia Raisa, 30, who opted for a patterned mini dress and black heels Big role: Francia's dress had one cold shoulder and was cinched at the waist. She wore ankle bracelets and styled her brunette locks in a sleek bob Tyra reprises her original role as a Barbie-like doll called Eve who comes to life to help a young girl cope with the death of her mother. This time around, the plot revolves around Grace, played by Francia Raisa, whose late mother had been CEO of the company that created the Eve doll. Grace has inherited the company but is dealing with a quarter-life crisis ate the age of 25, leading Eve to return to help her out. Life-Size 2 is set to air on ABC's Freeform and will premiere on December 2. On trend: Castmember Shanica Knowles, 28, shone in a shimmery green and black one-sleeve mini dress that she paired with thigh-high black boots Teen star: Alison Fernandez, 13, rocked a burgundy frock with patterned gray tights and dark red lace-up ankle boots Looking good: Castmember Hank Chen, 29, was suave in a yellow two-piece suit paired with a black and red patterned shirt. He was accompanied by actress Kara Wang who put on a sexy show in a black jumpsuit that she wore off the shoulder Tyra and Francia were joined at the screening by supporting castmembers including Shanica Knowles, Alison Fernandez and Hank Chen. Shanica, 28, shone in a shimmery green and black one-sleeve mini dress that she paired with thigh-high black boots. She added statement chandelier earrings along with shimmery green eye-shadow and ruby red lip color. Fernandez, 13, rocked a burgundy frock with patterned gray tights and dark red lace-up ankle boots. Chen, 29, was suave in a yellow two-piece suit paired with a black and red patterned shirt. He was accompanied by actress Kara Wang who put on a sexy show in a black jumpsuit that she wore off the shoulder. Say cheese: The group got together for a cast selfie on the carpet Stylish: Shadowhunters actress Katherine McNamara, 23, showed up to support the screening, looking stylish in a sleeveless white crop top and skinny tartan pants Christian Wilkins and Andrew Kelly are known for their outrageous red carpet outfits. And the pair lived up to their reputation for flamboyant fashion at the ARIA Awards in Sydney on Wednesday. Christian made a style statement in a ruffled pink sleeveless shirt, which he left unbuttoned below the collar. Scroll down for video It's fashion, darling! Christian Wilkins and Andrew Kelly are known for their outrageous red carpet outfits, and they certainly lived up to their reputation at Wednesday's ARIA Awards He also wore a long, monochrome skirt and black combat boots, and decorated his arms with temporary tattoos. Meanwhile, Andrew turned heads by sporting a pink wig featuring jet black roots. Channeling early '90s grunge, he paired an untucked checkered shirt with heavy duty footwear. Interesting! Christian made a style statement in a pink sleeveless shirt and monochrome skirt, while Andrew turned heads in a checkered shirt, floral blazer and matching wide-legged pants The details: Christian decorated his arms with Hello Kitty temporary tattoos Andrew completed his look with a floral blazer and matching wide-legged trousers. At one point, the pair gazed lovingly into each other's eyes. Later on, Christian played up for the cameras by twirling in his skirt while surrounded by other more conservatively dressed guests. Sweet moment: At one point, Christian and Andrew gazed lovingly into each other's eyes It comes after the couple told Daily Mail Australia at the Melbourne Cup that they were looking forward to attending the wedding of Karl Stefanovic and Jasmine Yarbrough in Mexico next month. Christian, who is the son of Karl's Today show colleague Richard Wilkins, said that he expects lots of 'tequila' at the Cabo San Lucas ceremony. Andrew added: 'I just think it will be a really beautiful celebration for all of us to come together as one big beautiful dysfunctional loving family and celebrate a lot of love.' Emaar Development, the build-to-sell property development business of Emaar Properties, has partnered with Noor Bank to offer an exclusive, fast-track home financing programme for UAE residents and international investors. A leading sharia-compliant bank in the UAE, Noor Bank said it will provide guaranteed sharia-compliant home finance of up to Dh5 million ($1.36 million) for investors with extended tenor of up to 25 years covering 50 per cent of the total value of off-plan property in Dubai at best in class rates. The facility is available across an extensive range of residences in Downtown Dubai, Dubai Creek Harbour, and Dubai Hills Estate that are offered for sale with a 50:50 payment plan. Under the scheme, investors have to pay 50 per cent before handover with the remaining 50 per cent to be paid conveniently through the home finance offer by Noor Bank, upon handover. Emaar Properties Managing Director Ahmad Al Matrooshi said: "Dubais strong fundamentals make investment in the citys real estate sector a promising value proposition for investors. With significant interest among international investors in purchasing Emaars residences in Dubai, the new guaranteed mortgage for expatriates and global investors will make their home financing requirements effortless." "The financing program is available for homes in some of the most desirable destinations in the city including in Downtown Dubai, Dubai Creek Harbour and Dubai Hills Estate, which are conveniently located and have world-class amenities that add to the quality of life of the residents," stated Al Matrooshi. Mufazzal Kajiji, the head of retail banking at Noor Bank, said: "Our home finance partnership for Emaars investors is a landmark step forward. Noor Bank is committed to providing innovative sharia-compliant home finance solutions, and offering unmatched convenience, flexibility and value to the investors targeting investments in iconic Emaar projects." "We are confident that this partnership will also go a long way in positively contributing to the future growth of the real estate sector in Dubai," he stated. Girish Advani, the head of assets (retail banking) at Noor Bank, said: "We are extremely pleased with this partnership with Emaar. As Dubai underlines its credentials as a global investment hub attracting numerous investors each year, we have curated an attractive proposition allowing residents and non-residents to secure adequate home finance solutions for a plethora of Emaar projects in Dubai. "Noor Home finance solution for Emaar is open for all residents in the UAE and international investors who are less than 65 years of age. The special program allows salaried and self-employed investors to get quick financing of up to 50 per cent of the total value with hassle-free documentation," he added.-TradeArabia News Service DJ Havana Brown has hinted at a secret wedding with manager Vince Deltito. While attending the ARIAs on Wednesday, she was asked by Daily Mail Australia when she plans to tie the knot and the 33-year-old replied: 'it's already been!' It is unclear whether the recording artist was joking and a secret wedding wouldn't be too far fetched, as the couple have been engaged for three years. ARIA Awards 2018: Is Havana Brown secretly married? Aussie DJ hints she has tied the knot with manager Vince Deltito The couple quietly announced their engagement in August 2015. Havana recently gushed about her husband online, writing: 'It's a dream to be with someone who is as beautiful as you are.' She also told Daily Mail Australia she has finished her next album and will be releasing music in the new year. Are congratulations in order? While attending the ARIAs on Wednesday, she was asked by Daily Mail Australia when she plans to tie the knot with her fiance Vince Deltito (left) and the 33-year-old replied: 'it's already been!' It appeared the beauty took some unlikely inspiration from Sharon Stone's character Catherine Tramell in 1992 movie Basic Instinct at the ARIA Awards. Dressed in a near identical white satin dress with matching blonde hair at the ceremony on Wednesday, the 33-year-old looked like Sharon's movie doppelganger. Where as Sharon's character was dubbed 'Devil in a White Dress' in the neo-noir erotic thriller film, the same can't be said for Havana. So much going on! The happy news isn't the only thing Havana is celebrating, also telling Daily Mail Australia she has finished her next album and will be releasing music in the new year Rather than slicking her hair back like virtual villain Catherine, Havana's luscious wavy blonde locks flowed freely as she posed on the red carpet. With a bold red lip and styled in sparkling diamond jewellery, the beauty looked elegant. Killer look! Havana Brown channeled Sharon Stone's iconic Basic Instinct character at the ARIA Awards 2018 in Sydney on Wednesday 'I've always just wanted to wear skanky outfits all of the time. That's what I love to wear [laughs],' she said of her ARIAs look. 'I've always felt I can wear whatever I want. I get to dress up and enjoy being a performer, people are going to criticise it but you can't please everybody.' Her comments came while discussing if she has ever felt pressured to look or dress a certain way as a prominent female in the music industry. Turning heads: With a bold red lip and styled in sparkling diamond jewellery, the beauty looked elegant Despite being one of the first to arrive at the star-studded ceremony, Havana's preparation was thrown in the chaos just hours before. As storms battered Sydney from the early hours, the star took to Instagram to reveal her beauty squad were stranded and unable to make it to the NSW capital. 'Ahh my hair and makeup [artists] flights have been cancelled. So I currently have no glam team for the ARIAs,' she wrote online next to several crying emojis. Thankfully there was no sign of those emoji tears as she stepped on to the carpet and stunned among the stars, despite the slow start. They left fans 'sickened' by travelling on a private Boeing 747 to a far-away destination. And Kim Kardashian and her husband Kanye West have now arrived safe and sound to Tokyo, Japan - where they met with contemporary artist Takashi Murakami at his studio. Taking to Instagram, Takashi took several photos with the couple - including a playful one of the trio striking a pose alongside his artwork. Work of art! Kim Kardashian and her husband Kanye West have now arrived safe and sound to Japan - where they met with contemporary artist Takashi Murakami at his studio 'Mr. Kanye West & @kimkardashian came to my studio this morning,' he captioned the snap. In the photo, Takashi placed his hand against his chin while Kim cosied up to her husband, who was crouched down between the artist and the reality star. Kim posted one of herself flashing two peace signs alongside Kanye, Takashi, and makeup mogul Kristen Noel Crawley. She posted the photo onto Twitter, where she wrote, 'Tokyo w @takashipom.' Peace out! Kim posted one of herself flashing two peace signs alongside Kanye, Takashi, and makeup mogul Kristen Noel Crawley Clad in a backless tank top and PVC trousers, Kim looked stylish as usual as she spent some time with the wildly popular Japanese artist. Takashi is a prominent contemporary artist who has drawn comparisons to Andy Warhol. Not only has Takashi's works been on display all around the world, but he has also previously worked with Kanye. Takashi designed the cover and interior artwork for Kanye's album Graduation, and earlier this year paid tribute to the rapper's I Love It music video by posting a photo of himself wearing the same boxy outfit the hit-maker did in his video. Prominent: Takashi is a prominent contemporary artist who has drawn comparisons to Andy Warhol Collaborated: Takashi designed the album artwork for Kanye's album Graduation The outing comes just hours after Kim left fans divided when she revealed she would be travelling on a private Boeing 747 with just a handful of people. Kim gave fans a tour of the plane via her Instagram stories, where she raved, '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!' But Kim's travel arrangements upset some fans, who were sickened by their lack of consideration for the environment. Thinking outside the box: Earlier this year paid tribute to the rapper's I Love It music video by posting a photo of himself wearing the same boxy outfit the hit-maker did in his vide The original: Kanye wore a boxy outfit in his music video, I Love It Outrage: The outing comes just hours after Kim left fans divided when she revealed she would be travelling on a private Boeing 747 with just a handful of people One wrote, 'All I'm thinking is what a waste of jet fuel, resources, environmental harm, etc etc etc. Smh. So obnoxious and unnecessary.' Another wrote, '@KimKardashian @kanyewest renting an entire 747 for themselves is so unbelievably wasteful it makes me sick. Leaving a much larger carbon footprint than they need to. You have the power and wealth to travel sustainably, and instead you do the opposite.For what? An instagram flex?' While some fans expressed outrage, others were envious of the couple's spacious accommodations. It's unclear if the company chartered the plane for the rapper for a promotional tour of his Yeezy brand. But the plane is believed to have been chartered through Aura Jets or serviced by the Atlantic Aviation Company and Kim noted that it was going to be a 'long flight.' Elton John did not get to work his magic in Orlando Tuesday. The Grammy-winner, 71, had to cancel his show at the Amway Center in Florida as he was dealing with an ear infection that left him unable to perform, with the show called off just 20 minutes before it was about to commence, according to the Orlando Sentinel. 'The rescheduled Orlando date, a stop on Elton's Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, will be announced in the near future so please hold onto your tickets,' the venue said on its Twitter page its announcement. Scroll below for video Under the weather: Elton John, 71, had to cancel his show at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida as he was dealing with an ear infection, with the show called off just 20 minutes before it was about to commence. He was snapped playing in Sunrise, Florida earlier this month The last minute cancellation drew the ire of many fans who had cleared their schedules - and spent money on tickets and high-priced concessions - to catch the English rock icon in concert. One attendee, Kelly Krupinski, told the newspaper that there was a palpable disbelief in the stands when the cancellation was announced so close to showtime. 'We thought it was a joke, we didn't think it was real; so did the people behind us,' she said. Another attendee, Tampa native Rob Remy echoed such sentiments: 'I first thought it was a joke, some kind of pre-concert joke and then was in shock.' Feedback: A number of attendees shared their experiences on the night, with one grousing to the venue about shelling out for concessions in the absence of a show Recuperating: Elton has also cancelled a Wednesday gig slated for Tampa's Amalie Arena Remy told the paper he's 'never seen anything like that before.' One fan who said they were 'so disgusted with the way Amway Center handled this' groused to the venue on Twitter about the timing of the announcement, asking, 'Are you going to refund us or provide gift cards/credit for all we spent on parking, merchandise, food, and drinks in the 2 hours you left the doors open with this information?!' The venue responded that the Rock N' Roll Hall of Famer 'was in the building and the news was shared with us immediately prior to the PA announcement being made,' adding that parking passes would be honored for the makeup show. Elton has also cancelled a Wednesday gig slated for Tampa's Amalie Arena. Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan were all smiles on Tuesday at a screening of their new film Wildlife in New York City. The 33-year-old English actress beamed while taking part in a panel discussion as part of MoMA's The Contenders series of film screenings. Carey sported short blonde hair and wore a long black and white dress to the event at MoMA Titus One. Good times: Carey Mulligan beamed while taking part in a panel discussion at a screening of her new movie Wildlife in New York City She portrays Jeanette Brinson in the drama based on the 1990 novel of the same name by author Richard Ford, 74. Zoe, 35, co-wrote the script for Wildlife along with her partner Paul Dano, 34, who also made his directorial debut with the movie. She wore a short-sleeved floral print dress with sheer panels by Markus Lupfer to The Contenders screening series that honors recent innovative films. Paul kept it casual in a dark blue shirt, dark trousers and sneakers. Fun event: Zoe Kazan who co-wrote the screenplay for Wildlife also was all smiles while attending MoMA's The Contenders series of film screening Director and writers: Paul Dano made his directorial debut with Wildlife and co-wrote the script with his partner Zoe Special screening: The Los Angeles native wore a floral print dress by Markus Lupfer to the event Cracking up: Carey enjoyed a laugh while participating in the panel talk Jake Gyllenhaal, 37, who plays Carey's husband Jerry Brinson also attended the screening. He looked sharp in a long black overcoat, grey vest and white T-shirt along with black trousers. Wildlife premiered in January at the Sundance Film Festival and was released in October in the US and on November 9 in the UK. Film stars: Carey stars along with Jake Gyllenhaal in the drama co-written by Zoe Happy moment: Jake, Zoe and Paul smiled while talking about Wildlife Directorial debut: Paul made his directorial debut with Wildlife based on the 1990 novel of the same name and discussed the film with MoMA moderator La Frances Hui Wildlife also screened at the Cannes Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, the New York Film Festival, the Woodstock Film Festival and the New Orleans Film Festival. The movie also starring 17-year-old Australian actor Ed Oxenbould has received widespread acclaim with critics in particular praising Carey and Jake's performances. Paul and Zoe have been in a relationship since 2007 and they have three-month-old daughter Alma together. Chloe Green enjoyed a night out with her mum Tina in London's Annabel's members club on Tuesday amid her father Philip's ongoing harassment scandal. The 27-year-old former Made In Chelsea star and her glamorous mother appeared carefree as they hit the town in style with Chloe opting for an edgy ensemble comprising of fishnet stockings and faux fur. It was a mummy's night off for Chloe, who welcomed her son Jayden with felon beau Jeremy Meeks in May and has kept a low profile since the arrival of her tot and her father's scandal which has seen him accused of various cases of misconduct. Darling daughter: Chloe Green enjoyed a night out with her mum Tina in London's Annabel's members club on Tuesday amid her father Philip's ongoing harassment scandal Chloe was shirking her father's woes to enjoy a festive night on the town with her mother who was putting on an equally glam display. The mother-of-one ensured she looked sensational in a skimpy black mini paired with the illusion tights which gave the look of fishnets and stockings. Flaunting her sensational post-baby body, she was strutting her stuff yet kept out the winter chill with the addition of her fur coat and short length. Her silky locks were worn in tumbling curls over her shoulders while her make-up was flawlessly applied with a glossy lip and strong brow. Moving on: The family have remained united in the face of the accusations (pictured in 2017) Hold me close: The 27-year-old former Made In Chelsea star and her glamorous mother appeared carefree as they hit the town in style with Chloe opting for an edgy ensemble comprising of fishnet stockings and faux fur Trouble ahead: It was a mummy's night off for Chloe, who welcomed her son Jayden with felon beau Jeremy Meeks in May and has kept a low profile since the arrival of her tot and her father's scandal which has seen him accused of various cases of misconduct Tina looked stunning in head-to-toe black with a poloneck and trousers and glammed up the look with dripping diamonds. The mum-daughter outing comes after Philip was outed in Parliament as the tycoon who tried to stop bullying accusations being made public. He denied all allegations. The billionaire, who owns the Arcadia Group, vigorously denies the allegations of unlawful sexual or racist behaviour, saying any remarks had been 'banter'. Out and a pout: Chloe was shirking her father's woes to enjoy a festive night on the town with her mother who was putting on an equally glam display Strutting her stuff: The mother-of-one ensured she looked sensational in a skimpy black mini paired with the illusion tights which gave the look of fishnets and stockings While he has been engulfed in the sexual harassment scandal his friends have distanced themselves from him despite his repeated denials. The mogul, 66, was identified last month by former cabinet minister Lord Hain using parliamentary privilege. He strongly denies the claims made against him and said at the time that he had suffered 'the worst week of my life'. He was last week identified as the man who had taken out an injunction preventing publication of allegations about harassing staff - allegations which he vigorously denies. Happy days: Chloe and Jeremy welcomed their son Jayden in May and have kept a low profile since, yet enjoyed a night at the National Day Celebrations Gala, Monaco last week (pictured) Stand by your man: Tina has stood by him. He met his twice-married wife at a party in 1985, and her first opinion of the businessman was that he 'was dreadful' Tina has stood by him. He met his twice-married wife at a party in 1985, and her first opinion of the businessman was that he 'was dreadful'. The next night the couple met at another party, where she claims she 'fell in love at that moment'. Soon the divorcee, whose failed marriage with a jazz drummer spawned two children named Stasha and Brett, would give up her job as the owner of a boutique in Knightsbridge. Her love: The next night Tina and Philip met at another party, where she claims she 'fell in love at that moment' He directed and co-starred in horror film A Quiet Place alongside his wife of eight years. And John Krasinki revealed family comes first as he lifted the lid on his life with Emily Blunt during his appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Tuesday. On the show, the screen star, 39, revealed he became emotional alongside Matthew McConaughey during their wives U.S. citizenship's ceremony in 2015. Smitten: John Krasinki revealed family comes first as he lifted the lid on his life with Emily Blunt during his appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Tuesday Emily, 35, and Camila Alves, 36, were supported by their husbands John and Matthew, 49, as they took part in their VIP legal oath ceremony alongside at the United States Court House in Los Angeles in August 2015. The Hollars star John recalled the ceremony: 'The funny thing is, when she became a citizen, I told her about the wonderful things, but I didn't know the best and most wonderful thing would be the ceremony. 'When her ceremony took place, the only other people there were Matthew and his wife, and I'd never met them before.' Family affair: Emily, 35, and Camila Alves, 36, were supported by their husbands John, 39, and Matthew, 49, as they took part in their VIP legal oath ceremony alongside at the United States Court House in Los Angeles in August 2015 (pictured) In his true comedic fashion, he added: 'The best joke I've never told is when the Bailiff came out and I thought, "All Rise, All Rise, All Rise". Before it came out I stopped myself. John went on to share details on how he celebrated Thanksgiving this year: 'We had a nice relaxing holiday. Thanksgiving in our family is the best holiday because it's always about family. 'Emily is British so she didn't get a chance to celebrate Thanksgiving until she became a citizen here. It's become a bonus holiday for her and it's her favourite holiday now.' Proud moment: 'I didn't know the best and most wonderful thing would be the ceremony', the director recalled Family man: Sharing details on how he celebrated the national holiday, John revealed: 'We had a nice relaxing holiday. Thanksgiving in our family is the best holiday' Working together: Earlier this year, John released critically acclaimed horror film A Quiet Place, which also stars wife Emily Earlier this year, John released critically acclaimed horror film A Quiet Place, which also stars wife Emily. The film follows the story of the Abbott family, who lead a quiet life in the woods, evading alien creatures that hunt by sound. Grossing $340 million dollars, the License to Wed star revealed there will be a sequel. Impressive: Grossing $340 million dollars, the License to Wed star revealed there will be a sequel 'Yes, there will be a sequel. I'm writing it right now. I knew the studio wanted to do it and they were looking for someone else to do it. 'They asked me if I had any ideas and I did, but I didn't think it would amount to anything. Three weeks later, I said this small idea could become something big.' Proving to be quite the busy bee, Emily stars in fantasy film Mary Poppins Returns, set to hit cinemas in the US on December 19. Exciting: Proving to be quite the busy bee, Emily stars in fantasy film Mary Poppins Returns, set to hit cinemas in the US on December 19 Praising his wife on her leading role, John recalled the first time he watched the film. 'They screened it for my family over the holidays, and provided us with tissue boxes. Within the first 25 minutes, I stood up and went to the back of the room. 'Emily asked whether I liked it or not and in fact, I stood up in the search of more napkins. I needed anything to stop myself from crying. I was crying nonstop. 'I blew through the tissue box and then the napkins, so i used my sweater. She did a great job. Honestly it's one of the best films I've ever since, truly beautiful and amazing for the holidays. 'I cried nonstop': Praising his wife on her leading role, John recalled the first time he watched the film John, who has honed his figure with exercise for acting roles in the past, recently visited Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson's gym. Branding his lavish room as an 'alien spaceship', he said: 'He had 40 pieces that I've never seen before! As time went on, we got more comfortable in the gym.' Meanwhile, Emily recently teased that more Mary Poppins movies are in the pipeline. Chatting to American Vogue, Emily - who takes over the role of the iconic nanny from Dame Julie Andrews 54 years after the first movie - has said there 'are more stories to tell' and that she'd be more than open to another film. 'It was like an alien spaceship!': The star, who has honed his figure with exercise for acting roles in the past, recently visited Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson's gym 'Oh, I would pay Rob [Marshall, director] to do it again with me,' she gushed to the publication for their December issue. 'Yeah, I would. Definitely. More stories left to tell.' Mary Poppins originates from a series of books by P L Travers, whom Emma Thompson portrayed in the 2013 film Saving Mr Banks, about the author's concerns about selling the movie rights of the stories to Disney. There were eight books in the series, published between 1934 and 1988. Marry Poppins the movie - released in 1964 - was based on books 1-4, while the forthcoming Mary Poppins Returns is said to be an amalgamation of books 2-8, expanding the story beyond Travers' original stories. Long-term couple: The pair tied the knot in July 2010 and share daughters, Hazel, four, and Violet, two Echoing his comments on his the show, John previously revealed that he and Emily are so inseparable that while shooting his TV series Jack Ryan, he would travel 6000 miles every weekend to be with the actress and their two children. 'Family for me, its a non-negotiable thing. I was shooting 6,000 miles away from them, and I flew back every single weekend,' the actor told People. The pair tied the knot in July 2010 and share daughters, Hazel, four, and Violet, two. He recently broke his silence on a 'difficult' split from wife Grace Hightower. But Robert De Niro left fans stunned on Monday as he visited an Italian restaurant in Halifax, West Yorkshire. The 75-year-old Hollywood superstar was spotted meeting staff at the village eatery Ricci's Place, with the star guest enjoying a private dining experience before appearing at the Armouries Museum in Birmingham later in the evening. Superstar: Robert De Niro left fans stunned on Monday as he visited an Italian restaurant in Halifax, West Yorkshire, a day before confirming his split from wife Grace Hightower Ricci's Place owner Michael told BBC News he was only told about the surprise customer five or six weeks before, and he was forced to keep it a secret from the entire team of staff to ensure the evening ran smoothly. He said: 'When we were approached and asked to put a menu together, we put it to his team and they liked the sound of it. 'We didn't even tell the staff, we just said we've got a private dinner for a special person. He was very humble and said he loved the food, he loved the coffee.' Shocking: In snap's posted to the restaurant's social media, the 75-year-old actor made his entrance to enjoy a private dinner on Monday Big star: Owner Michael Ricci told BBC News he had to keep Robert's reservation a secret from the entire team, as they closed the restaurant especially for his arrival Legendary: The owner also revealed that Robert dined on a fillet of dry-aged beef and braised short rib, followed by New York cheesecake, Amalfi lemon tart and tiramisu for dessert According to the publication, Robert dined on a fillet of dry-aged beef and braised short rib, followed by New York cheesecake, Amalfi lemon tart and tiramisu for dessert. The Oscar-winner enjoyed a private dinner before heading to Birmingham NEC for a private An Experience With talk about his illustrious Hollywood career. Interviewed by Life On Mars star Dean Andrews, Robert spoke candidly about his life in the spotlight, and even answered some questions from fans. Robert also revealed that he's in the UK to film a new advert, believed to be with Warburton's Bread after Sylvester Stallone starred in a similar campaign last year. Iconic: The Oscar-winner enjoyed a private dinner before heading to Birmingham NEC for a private talk about his illustrious Hollywood career Open: Interviewed by Life On Mars star Dean Andrews, Robert spoke candidly about his life in the spotlight, and even answered some questions from fans New venture: Robert also revealed that he's in the UK to film a new advert, believed to be with Warburton's Bread after Sylvester Stallone starred in a similar campaign last year Speaking out: It was a world first for Robert to sit down and speak so openly about his career, in his first outing since confirming he had split from wife Grace Jovial: After the talk Robert was seen making a low-key exit from the NEC in Birmingham It was a world first for Robert to sit down and speak so openly about his career, in his first outing since confirming he had split from wife Grace, 63, after 21 years of marriage. The Raging Bull star released a statement to People a week after it was reported that he and Grace were no longer living together. It said: '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. '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.' Done: His outing came just a day after Robert confirmed he had split from wife Grace after 21 years of marriage, calling the split 'difficult' in a statement Page Six was first to report on November 20 that the couple had separated. The star, who shares 20-year-old Elliot and six-year-old Helen with his wife, was spotted on the red carpet last week at a MoMa event in New York City without the former flight attendant by his side. The duo were last pictured on the red carpet in June at the 72nd Annual Tony Awards in New York City. '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.' De Niro said in the statement to People It is not the first split for the couple, who were wed in 1997, before Robert filed for divorce two years into their union however the arrangement was never finalised. Robert and Grace eventually reunited, renewing their marriage vows in 2004 in front of an A-list crowd such as Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep and Ben Stiller. The actor is notoriously private about his relationship with Grace but the pair are outspoken about their belief that their son Elliot's autism is linked to vaccinations. Going it alone: De Niro is pictured solo at a New York City event on November 19 just before reports of the split emerged Explaining how Grace believes that his son 'changed overnight' after being vaccinated as a child, Robert told Today in 2017: 'The vaccines are dangerous to certain people who are more susceptible... 'Nobody seems to want to address that, or they say they've addressed it and it's a closed issue but it doesn't seem to be.' 'There are many people who will come out and say I saw my kid change overnight. I saw what happened, I should have done something and I didn't. There's more to this than meets the eye, believe me.' Family matters: [L-R] Scott J. Campbell, Jarrod Spector, Jessica Keenan Wynn, Robert De Niro, daughter Helen Grace De Niro, Chilina Kennedy, Liz Larsen, Paul Anthony Stewart and Grace Hightower in 2015 Daughter: Drena De Niro seen here in 2016. She was adopted by Robert while he was married to her mother, Diahnne Abbott The Meet The Parents actor had previously been married to actress Diahnne Abbott, from 1976 to 1988. The pair had a son, Raphael, in 1976 while the Oscar-winning actor adopted Abbott's daughter Drena from a previous relationship. The Mean Streets star also has two children with ex Toukie Smith, twin boys Aaron and Julian. Early days: Robert and Grace seen here at the premiere of Ronin in 1998 The twins: Robert's twin boys Aaron and Julian are seen here in 1998 De Niro spoke about his feelings on marriage in a 2013 interview with Katie Couric. The star of The Godfather Part II said that the secret to a happy union involved 'a lot of give and take, standing your ground, because then you keep the respect you started out with.' However, he shared some rather more cautious advice with The Independent in 2014, saying: 'The only thing I would say is that if you get married, it's easier probably not to have children if you're going to split up it makes life simpler.' She was busy filming scenes as her character Kayla Pospisil for the upcoming Roger Ailes movie earlier in the day. And Margot Robbie made a quick outfit change to attend Nissan Futures' global forum at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles on Tuesday. The actress, 28, cut at stylish figure in a nude PVC jumpsuit as she took to the stage to talk about her commitment to sustainability and experience as an electric vehicle owner. Fashion maven: Margot Robbie looked effortlessly stylish as she attended Nissan Futures' global forum at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles on Tuesday The nude jumpsuit, which featured an elegant button design on the trousers and a collared shirt, sheathed over Margot's trim frame. She added a boost to her height with black strappy sandals and kept accessories to a minimum with gold studded earrings. Styling her blonde locks in loose waves, the Wolf Of Wall Street star accentuated her natural beauty with deftly touches of make-up. Stunning: The actress, 28, cut at stylish figure in a nude PVC jumpsuit as she took to the stage to talk about her commitment to sustainability and experience as an electric vehicle owner Earlier in the day, the Suicide Squad star was spotted on the set of the upcoming film about Roger Ailes - the disgraced former boss of Fox News. The actress was seen making a phone call as she filmed scenes in downtown Los Angeles. In the film, Margot plays Kayla Pospisil, a fictional associate producer for Fox News. The movie - said to be called Fair and Balanced, boasts an all-star cast that includes John Lithgow as Roger Ailes and Nicole Kidman as Gretchen Carlson. Busy-bee: Earlier in the day, the Suicide Squad star was spotted on the set of the upcoming film about Roger Ailes - the disgraced former boss of Fox News. Charlize Theron is playing Meghan Kelly and is also producing the film. Connie Britton, Allison Janney and Kate McKinnon are all set to co-star in the upcoming Jay Roach-directed film, about the women who decide to take on the Fox News boss and the toxic male culture which presided. As chairman of the network, Ailes helped launch the careers of Kelly and Carlson. However, as several reports of Ailes' sexual misconduct toward Kelly, Carlson and more surfaced, the powerful media mogul was forced to resign in 2016. Meanwhile, Margot is also promoting her role as Elizabeth First in period drama Mary Queen of Scots with Saoirse Ronan, as well as many films in which she'll reprise her role as the villainous Harley Quinn, including The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, Birds of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) and an untitled project featuring Quinn and the Joker. She is also set to reunite with Leonardo DiCaprio for Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. She recently revealed she avoids reading news articles about herself. And on Wednesday, Nigella Lawson opted for a chic black ensemble as she left her Sydney hotel. The 58-year-old appeared makeup-free and dressed for comfort in a long cardigan and baggy trousers. Makeup-free Nigella Lawson cuts a relaxed figure in a black outfit with white sneakers as she checks out of her luxury hotel in Sydney She elevated her look with a pair of white platform sneakers with red accents. Nigella toted a small white cross-body bag and accessorised with a pair of stylish sunglasses. The British chef recently travelled Down Under months ahead of her Australian tour, which is set to kick off at the end of January in Perth. Chic: The 58-year-old dressed for comfort and hid her curves under a long cardigan and baggy trousers. She elevated her look with a pair of white platform sneakers with red accents An Evening With Nigella Lawson will allow fans to interact with the culinary star, while also hearing stories about her illustrious career. In a recent interview with Sunrise 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.' 'I don't really pay attention to any of it': In a recent interview with Sunrise to promote her upcoming tour, Nigella revealed she tries to avoid reading media stories about herself Back in October she shared her excitement of returning Down Under again for her on-stage cooking show called An Evening With Nigella Lawson. She told Confidential, 'I love the food and the people, and so I am delighted to be touring the country, meeting audiences and sharing our culinary stories.' The mother-of-two will kick off her tour Down Under in Adelaide on January 27th, and then head to Perth, Sydney, Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne and Brisbane. Tickets to An Evening With Nigella Lawson can be purchased at the official tour website. Iain Lee said he wanted to quit his 's**t' radio show but can't due to mounting debts caused by his ongoing divorce in an on-air meltdown on Tuesday. The former I'm A Celebrity star, 45, ranted about declining numbers of listeners and the lack of originality of his nightly show, The Late Night Alternative on TalkRADIO before admitting he felt like he was 'treading water'. As his aghast co-host Katherine Boyle attempted to talk to him, the comedian went on to slam 'the same old callers' who contact the show before saying if he didn't have to shell out 3,000 a month, he would quit. Rant: Iain Lee said he wanted to quit his 's**t' radio show but can't due to mounting debts caused by his ongoing divorce in an on-air meltdown on Tuesday (stock photo) 'Nothing new': The former I'm A Celebrity star, 45, ranted about declining numbers of listeners and the lack of originality of his nightly show, The Late Night Alternative on TalkRADIO before admitting he felt like he was 'treading water' He said: 'I don't know what to do. 24 minutes in, I don't know where to take it As Katherine said: 'Hmmm shall we go straight to air for a bit' to which he responded: 'Well no, no-one's phoning in. I'll tell you what. I've been so close recently to quitting this job 'So close to quitting it, because I just feel I am repeating the same old s**t that we've been doing for years and it's not going anywhere. 'We're getting the same old callers, it's great that you guys call in. It feels like the same handful of people who are calling. Fury: As his aghast co-host Katherine Boyle attempted to talk to him, the comedian went on to slam 'the same old callers' who contact the show before saying if he didn't have to shell out 3,000 a month, he would quit (stock photo) 'We've got Alan, we've got Nigel, we've got Alistair, we've got the same five six people calling in for three years, which is great. 'But I feel I have extracted as much as I can from that, from them, I don't feel that we're doing anything different, or unique or new . 'I listen to all the other radio stations that do phone-ins (sorry headphone this is bulls***) and this doesn't fit in with anything.' 'Alistair's calling in now, I don't know why, it's probably to have a go at me. The father of two, who is going through a divorce from wife Helena, then said: 'I swear to god, if I wasn't up to my eyeballs in debt and didn't have to pay a huge amount of money every month for my divorce and for my house I'd quit because it feels like we're just treading water. On-air: He said: 'So close to quitting it, because I just feel I am repeating the same old s**t that we've been doing for years and it's not going anywhere' (stock photo) Divorce: The father of two, who is going through a divorce from wife Helena, then said: 'I swear to god, if I wasn't up to my eyeballs in debt and didn't have to pay a huge amount of money every month for my divorce and for my house I'd quit (February 2018) 'I swear to god if I didn't have to pay three grand every month I would quit because this is not fun for anybody. 'It feels like there's nothing new, I've run out of ideas.' The brave star, who placed third on last year's I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! has spoken openly about his battle with depression, revealing in May that he was sexually abused as a child, which he believed was a trigger. MailOnline has contacted representatives for Iain and talkRADIO for comment. Speaking about the listener figures, he continued: 'I've run out of ideas. This can't be fun for the listener, our listening figures are the lowest they have ever been 'So the difference that I'm trying to do is obviously not working so we might as well let someone else come in. Brave: The brave star, who placed third on last year's I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! has spoken openly about his battle with depression, revealing in May that he was sexually abused as a child, which he believed was a trigger Trying to alleviate the situation, Katherine said: 'Well you say that but last week there were a couple of nights when you said it was great, we had a really good time we had fun. 'We've had a really good run. You get so disheartened when we have a slight lull because compared to busy nights, it makes a difference.' An increasingly irate Iain said: 'People have been tweeting me saying I prefer George Galloway any day of the week. The pair then went on to discuss Twitter trolls, which seemed to upset Iain further As Katherine said: 'That's the problem, we talk like this and people smell blood and stick their oar in. With tension rising, Iain said: 'Don't say that because [this listener] phones up every single night, I saw him there and I thought we'll have him so that's not me smelling blood, that's me letting him on Radio: Speaking about the listener figures, he continued: 'I've run out of ideas. This can't be fun for the listener, our listening figures are the lowest they have ever been (pictured in Augsut 2018) 'What you're saying is, so the point you're making is invalid in that case so don't pull that face.' Earlier this month Iain revealed coming off anti-depressants had left him feeling suicidal in a heartbreaking tweet. The presenter was inundated with support from followers after he admitted he was in a 'f*****g dark' place and pledged support to others going though the harrowing experience. He wrote: 'Coming off anti-depressants. Sweet lord. It's hard. Harder than coming off a coke binge. Much harder. More emotional. Longer. Drawn out. So f*****g dark. The comic, who shot to fame alongside Ricky Gervais on Channel 4s The 11 OClock Show in 1998, admitted that, on leaving the jungle last year, he had begun seeing a therapist with a view to coming off his anti-depressants. He said at the time: 'I saw my psychiatrist today, because ITV are paying for three sessions with my psychiatrist. 'I want to come off my antidepressants, because there was a minor relapse a few weeks ago with stuff going on. The jungle was weird and had a profound effect on me.' 'The best way I can describe it... after I took LSD for the first time, and I've only done it a handful of times, for the next year at least I saw and perceived everything differently.' In May the star revealed that he was sexually abused as a child by a Scout leader. Iain added that he believes the abuse triggered his depression and even caused him to consider suicide, after grappling with the ordeal since the age of 8. He made the shocking admission while appearing on Channel 5s Me and My Mental Health documentary, which airs on Thursday, and explained that his abuse has 'weighed' on him for 35 years. Tweet: Earlier this month Iain revealed coming off anti-depressants had left him feeling suicidal in a heartbreaking tweet (pictured in Dec 2017) He said: 'A lot of my depression comes around self-loathing, shame and guilt. How do I say this? There was a bit of sexual abuse that went on as a kid. A scout master and stuff, which kind of weighed heavily on me. 'It is the most horrendous messed-up scenario, it was humiliating and it was shameful, and I remember getting home to my mum and dad and never telling them. I never told them. He added: 'I think it certainly played a part in my depression, what happened to me at the age of eight. I can see that as the starting point for it. Because up until then the memories I do have are generally quite happy. 'Now I feel embarrassed and ashamed talking about it, it was 35 years ago.' Having never told his parents about the abuse, the comedian revealed that staying silent forced him to contemplate taking his own life. For confidential support call the Samaritans in the UK on 08457 90 90 90, visit a local Samaritans branch or click here for details. For confidential support for adults who suffered any type of abuse in childhood call NAPAC on 0808 801 0331, free from landlines and mobiles, or click here for details Arkad, a leading engineering and integrated projects company based in Saudi Arabia, said it has signed an strategic co-operation agreement with global engineering and industrial solutions powerhouse Bilfinger to help accelerate growth and drive localisation in the kingdom. The agreement, in harmony with the Vision 2030, paves the way to harness the opportunities in the oil and gas industry along with chemical, petrochemical, nuclear and renewable energy sectors with advanced solutions and services, while aiming at developing the local value chain and creating employment opportunities for Saudi workforce. Arkad is a fully integrated EPC contractor offering innovative solutions to the hydrocarbon and energy sector across the kingdom. Headquartered in Al Khobar, Arkad has grown significantly over the last decade, with a 9,000-strong work force and a substantial asset portfolio and world-class competencies in EPC in the kingdom and within the region. Arakd said the co-operation addresses strategic elements such as engineering technology, innovative asset life cycle solutions, in-kingdom fabrication and modularisation and environmental solutions. Bilfinger Middle East President and CEO Ali Vezvaei dubbed the partnership as a strong strategic fit, leveraging the two leading companies' portfolio of solutions and services, while uniting them around the joint commitment to support the Kingdom's Vision 2030. "We will together focus on delivering value to our customers by localizing advanced solutions, productivity and efficiency that will create unparalleled value-add for the Kingdom's massive industrial sector," he stated. Hani Abdulhadi, the member of management board of Arkad, said: "Today we are pleased to establish such a partnership with a leading company like Bilfinger." "We strongly believe that our local knowledge, capabilities and skilled resources coupled with the strong technical know-how and pioneering solutions of Bilfinger enable us to provide the market with cutting edge services and solutions and boost local content and employment opportunities, in line with vision 2030," he added.-TradeArabia News Service There are already two inches between them, but fans claimed Joe Swash made himself look notably taller than Declan Donnelly as they appeared on Tuesday nights edition of Im A Celebrity: Extra Camp. Swash, 36, propped himself up with the aid of a yellow cushion while chatting with the diminutive Donnelly and his co-host Holly Willoughby on the show, an ITV2 spin-off to long-running reality show Im A Celebrity Get me Out Of Here! The decision gave Swash, who ordinarily stands at five feet seven inches tall, an added height advantage over the Geordie star, whose own height is comparatively short five-feet five inches. Height difference: There are already two inches between them, but fans claimed Joe Swash made himself look notably taller than Declan Donnelly by sitting on a cushion as they appeared on Tuesday nights edition of Im A Celebrity: Extra Camp And viewers were ready with the banter as they referenced the cushion, notable because Joel Dommett and Scarlet Moffatt - Swash's Extra Camp co-hosts didn't use one. Taking to Twitter, one joked: 'why does Joe always sit on a pillow on the sofa?? Why not just get him a booster seat.' While a second added: 'Love how joe always sits on a cushion to make him look taller.' A little help: Swash, 36, propped himself up with the aid of a yellow cushion while chatting with the diminutive Donnelly and his co-host Holly Willoughby on the show, an ITV2 spin-off to long-running reality show Im A Celebrity Get me Out Of Here! Here we go: Viewers were ready with the banter as they referenced the cushion, notable because Joel Dommett and Scarlet Moffatt - Swash's Extra Camp co-hosts didn't use one Pint sized: The cushion gave Swash, who ordinarily stands at five feet, seven inches tall, an added height advantage over the Geordie star, whose own height is comparatively short five-feet five inches Swash was back on the show after being rushed to a local hospital, where doctors worked to remove a large cockroach that had burrowed itself into his right ear. Referencing the incident, a third fan quipped: 'Why is Joe always sitting on an extra cushion, did they remove the cockroach the long way?' The presenter previously took to Instagra to document his ear getting syringed by a specialist after the cockroach found itself lodged there during a jungle trial. Nasty: Swash was back on the show after being rushed to a local hospital, where doctors worked to remove a large cockroach that had burrowed itself into his right ear 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 showed off. Entomologists have previously explained that the orifice provides the perfect living conditions for the bugs - who are also attracted to the scent of earwax. I'm A Celebrity's veteran presenter Declan Donnelly has mocked his new co-host Holly Willoughby for her extensive and pricey entourage. Poking fun at his colleague and friend, he touched on the reports that bosses are spending 'a fortune' in maintaining Holly's crew 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 and tutors. Shock: I'm A Celebrity's veteran presenter Declan Donnelly has mocked his new co-host Holly Willoughby for her extensive and pricey entourage While chatting to Scarlett Moffatt and Joel Dommett, the duo were discussing the rickety set on Extra Camp which led to Dec's hilarious comment. Holly could not stop laughing as her pal made the cheeky joke about her crew yet she seemed to have shaken off the controversy with ease. 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. 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. Hold it down: Poking fun at his colleague and friend, he touched on the reports that bosses are spending 'a fortune' in maintaining Holly 's crew while she resides Down Under 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 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. 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. Ant McPartlin is the process of sorting the financial arrangements and final details surrounding his divorce from estranged wife Lisa Armstrong. Divorce proceedings to end their 12-year marriage began at a 30-second hearing in October after McPartlin, 43, admitted adultery with Anne-Marie, his former personal assistant. Court documents revealed that he had 'committed adultery' and that his estranged wife found it 'intolerable to live with' the troubled star. All over: Ant McPartlin is the process of sorting the financial arrangements and final details surrounding his divorce from estranged wife Lisa Armstrong. Under divorce laws, McPartlin technically had to admit adultery because he was still married when the relationship began. Professional make-up artist Lisa is expected to receive a generous settlement from the presenter - worth an estimated 62million. The eventual finalization of their divorce will pave the way for McPartlin to marry Anne-Marie, should they wish to exchange vows. Moving on: The eventual finalization of their divorce will pave the way for McPartlin to marry girlfriend Anne-Marie Corbett, should they wish to exchange vows The news comes some 10-months after the presenter - currently taking a hiatus from all TV commitments following a second spell in residential rehabilitation - confirmed he and Lisa had separated. His spokesman confirmed to MailOnline: 'In response to the recent speculation in the media, Ant is very sad to announce that, after 11 years, he is ending his marriage to Lisa McPartlin. 'Ant asks for privacy at this difficult time, for both himself, Lisa and their immediate families. No further statement will be made.' Old times: McPartlin and Armstrong married at Cliveden, a Buckinghamshire country house, in 2006 Speaking shortly after the separation a source close to Ant told The Sun: 'This was a tough decision for Ant but he has to do the right thing for his health. The marriage has effectively been struggling for eight months. He's given it a good go. 'Ant's big concern in the whole thing is Lisa and making it as easy as possible for her.' McPartlin and Armstrong have known each other for 23 years after meeting at a road-show in his native Newcastle. They later exchanged vows at Clivedon, a stunning country house in Buckinghamshire, in 2006 Faryal Makhdoom has slammed trolls accusing her of being a 'bad Muslim' on Instagram. The entrepreneur, 27, uploaded a snap of herself and husband Amir Khan from the OK! Beauty Awards on Monday, however her followers were none too pleased about her glamorous display days after she completed Umrah - the holy Islamic pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. Firing back at a critic's usage of Drake lyrics, the mother-of-two noted that his music was 'haram (sinful) too', before going on to call out another commenter for 'judging her'. Not standing for it: Faryal Makhdoom, 27, has slammed trolls accusing her of being a 'bad Muslim' on Instagram Proving their union was stronger than ever following a temporary split last year, Faryal cut an incredibly striking figure as she cosied up with Amir on the red carpet days earlier. Faryal teased her cleavage in a stunning monochrome gown, which featured a black satin skirt with a split. And while the raven haired stunner was clearly feeling her look, it wasn't without criticism as one person commented: 'One day in allah's house wearing nikab and the next with her legs out. Drake wrote 0-100 real quick for you sister.' 'Don't be listening to Drake boo, it's haram too,' Faryal quipped back to the message which pointed out the difference in her attire compared to her head to toe covered up look during her pilgrimage last week. Divisive: The entrepreneur uploaded a snap of herself and husband Amir Khan from the OK! Beauty Awards - however her followers were none too pleased about her glamorous display 'Legs out next day': Faryal's followers appeared furious she attended a red carpet display just days after completing Umrah - the holy Islamic pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia Not having it: Firing back at a critic's usage of Drake lyrics, the mother-of-two noted that his music was 'haram (sinful) too', before going on to call out another commenter for 'judging her' Not selling for another comment which read: 'Sad am not judging but you just wasted yr time n money', the Pakistani beauty replied: 'That's definitely not judging babe.' While Faryal was swamped with negative comments, others ensured to leave positive comments in her defence: 'If only you know the commenters are embarrassing Islaam waaaaaaaay more then what she wears or does. Anyone seeing this will never even consider that your religion teaches one to be kind and non judgemental and to MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS.' 'Stunning! What a beautiful looking couple MashaAllah! ... Please ignore the haraam police. They talk as if they are free of sins and the purest of Muslims. Enjoy your life to the fullest girl! Much love and duas. ' '@faryalmakhdoom how old are you, Faryal? You are a mother of two. You are married. You represent Pakistan. You represent Islam. You want to call out an individual on Instagram and compare you coming back from Umrah and wearing a mini skirt to a girl listening to drake? Have some etiquette. You live in the UK and arent even as wealthy as the Royals yet that Non Muslim family has far better decorum than you.' Blasting trolls: Faryal couldn't resist quipping back to people who pointed out the difference in her glam attire compared to her head to toe covered up look during her pilgrimage last week 'Jealousy is the biggest sin of all': While Faryal was swamped with negative comments, others ensured to leave positive comments in her defence 'Women should empower one another and accept one another regardless of the choices they make. Instead of being hateful and envious. Envy and jealousy is the biggest sin of all!!!' Faryal and Amir, who tied the knot back in 2013, 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'. Family: Faryal and Amir, who tied the knot back in 2013, welcomed their new bundle of joy, daughter Alayna on April 24, a sister for their firstborn Lamaisah, now four 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. Viewers have taken to Twitter to praise Love Island star Chris Hughes's bravery for having a testicular examination live on This Morning on Wednesday. The 25-year-old was keen to raise awareness of testicular cancer and other related issues and lowered his pants in order that Dr Chris Steele, 76, could show how an examination takes place. Chris happily showed off a long scar on his own testicle as he spoke about his own shock health scare and telling Phillip Schofield, 56, and Rochelle Humes, 29, about what his male relatives went through. Raising awareness: Love Island's Chris Hughes was praised by fans for having a testicular examination LIVE on This Morning on Wednesday... following his own shock health scare (MailOnline has pixellated) Personal woes: Chris told Phillip Schofield and Rochelle Humes that his male relatives have also had issues with their manhood, including cancer and infertility He said: 'I was diagnosed with two separate conditions, I had operations but there was no long term damage. Chris explained, 'I was around 14 and I noticed like a build up of veins and eventually got it looked at [six years later, aged 20] and they referred to hospitals and I ended up having three operations on my left testical, and that was more down to safety with infertility, because the veins take oxygen. 'My sperm count was quite low, I have had a hydrocele. I have had four operations on them.' No need to be shy: Chris revealed he had his own sperm frozen after having operations on the varicocele on his left testicle - he noticed at it 14 but didn't get it checked until he was 20 He added: 'My two brothers are completely infertile but one managed to have a miracle baby. My one brother Will has not one sperm in his body' Chris also told Dr Steele: 'My cousin had testicular cancer. It was only when he got major stomach cramps where the cancer had eaten into it, he was diagnosed' Chris previously said that he waited until he was 20 to see a doctor because he felt embarrassed, but he has since realised he needn't have been. SIGNS OF TESTICULAR CANCER During the early stages, testicular cancer typically presents as a hard lump or swelling in a testis. The lump is usually painless and can vary considerably in size but is typically the size of a pea and located on the front or side of the testicle. Not all individuals with testicular cancer will present with a lump in their testicles. Any enlargement or change in the way the testicle looks or feels A sensation of heaviness in the scrotum A dull ache in the testicle, lower abdomen (stomach) or groin region A collection of fluid in the scrotum. Symptoms can be subtle and therefore easily missed which is why it is so important to familiarise yourself with how your testicles feel when they are healthy. If the cancer is not detected early, it may spread to other parts of the body and you may develop symptoms in parts of the body other than the affected testicle. These include: Back pain Shortness of breath A decreased libido Fatigue A cough Swelling and tenderness in the chest However the good news is testicular cancer is very treatable, with around a 95 per cent cure rate. Source: The Josh Carrick Foundation Advertisement He continued: 'It surrounded my left side and I had keyhole [surgery] in my hip region but that didnt work and I have a big scar across my pubic region where theyve cut in and coiled the veins off in that area to hopefully settle them down slightly.' Explaining how he froze his sperm at the same time, Chris said, 'I did. My two brothers are completely infertile although one brother does have a child now, it was a miracle child. 'But my other brother, Will, does not have a sperm in his body. My count was quite low but I did get some frozen. 'Altogether Ive had four operations [on my testicles]. And my cousin had testicular cancer. It was secondary because he only discovered [he had a problem] after suffering with awful stomach cramps' Cancer Research UK figures show there are around 2,400 men are diagnosed with testicular cancer each year across the home nations. Twitter went wild and once they had got over the shock of the nakedness of Chris's appearance on daytime TV, they praised his actions. They wrote: 'Fair play @chrishughes_22 that takes a lot of balls to do that and raise awareness. #thismorning #punintended.' 'So much respect for @chrishughes_22 telling his story and doing a live examination on @thismorning #Movember2018.' '@chrishughes_22 brave move on #thismorning today Chris. Well done you. Show these chaps theres nothing to fear or feel embarrassed by.' 'Massive respect for Chris Hughes getting his bits checked on this morning to help men know what they are looking for. Potentially saving lives.' '@chrishughes_22 Well Done for raising awareness today on #thismorning Even if you inspire one more guy to be brave enough to get checked out, youve done a great job.' Phillip praised Chris for his bravery and Rochelle asked him why he thinks more men don't get properly checked. Supportive: Twitter was awash with comments about how brave Chris had been to strip off in order to raise awareness about health issues He has done well: Phillip praised Chris for his bravery and asked him why he thinks more men don't get properly checked as it's so important Chris responded: 'Everyone thinks they know their body and its so easier to brush over that fact. 'You wash yourself but you dont use your fingertips in the right way. He said: 'Yes, theres a website you dont need to go to a GP you can go to movember.com and theres plenty of information there. 'Its a shame people are so shy, doctors have seen everything.' See https://uk.movember.com/ for more information. HOW TO EXAMINE YOUR TESTICLES... Dr Steele explained how to examine the testicles to check for cancer, showing men should put their fingers behind the testicle with their thumb on the front. Using the pads of the fingers and thumb instead of the tips, the thumb should be gently rolled from the top to the bottom of the testicle on the front and side, then back up. This should be done on both sides and the testicles should feel smooth and firm. But if a lump can be felt possibly the size of a pea and firm that is something a doctor needs to take a look at. Dr Steele said the simple, 10-second exam is easy to do and is typically how testicular cancer is detected. Chris noticed a varicocele when he was just 14 years old. These occur when the veins within the loose bag of skin that holds the testicles enlarge and have been described as looking like a 'bag of worms'. Varicoceles are a common cause of low sperm production, which can lead to infertility. They can also cause testicles to fail to develop normally or shrink. They often have no symptoms but may cause a sharp or dull pain that is worse when standing and becomes progressively more uncomfortable throughout the day. Although unclear what causes them exactly, varicoceles usually develop during puberty and are thought to be due to impaired blood flow within the testicles. Treatment is not always necessary, with many patients going on to father children. However, surgery can redirect blood flow within the testicles, which may relieve infertility. Advertisement He's one of Hollywood's busiest leading actors. And Matt Damon has proved he is still every inch the family man as he went for a stroll with wife Luciana Barroso and their daughter Gia, 10, in Los Angeles on Tuesday. The Bourne Identity star, 46, cut a casual figure as he walked hand-in-hand with his daughter to a friend's house. Family man: Matt Damon has proved he is still every inch the family man as he went for a stroll with wife Luciana Barroso and their daughter Gia, 10, in Los Angeles on Tuesday The actor donned a black hoodie and matching T-shirt, paired with slim-fitting blue jeans and black and white trainers. He topped off his attire with a black cap and carried his daughter's schoolbag on his back. Gia, 10, followed her famous dad's casual look, wearing a raglan t-shirt with grey tracksuit bottoms and box fresh white trainers as she accompanied Matt on the stroll. Luciana, 42, walked behind the pair as she appeared to check her phone. Adorable: The Bourne Identity star, 46, cut a casual figure as he walked hand-in-hand with his daughter to a friend's house The Argentinian beauty was dressed for LA's sun-kissed weather, showing off her lithe frame in a white, v-necked string top, blue jeans and white trainers. Matt is stepfather to Alexia, 20, from Luciana's first marriage and the pair are also parents to Isabella, 12 and Stella, eight. The Good Will Hunting star and his other half have been together since 2003 when they met while the actor was starring in the comedy film Stuck On You in Miami and Luciana was working as a bartender. Matt popped the question in September, 2005 and the couple had a whirlwind engagement, tying the knot that December in a private civil ceremony in New York City. Matt previously admitted he wasn't sure if he would ever be able to settle down when he was in his twenties. Speaking to The Telegraph, he compared meeting Luciana to being 'struck by lightning'. He said: 'When I was in my twenties, I wondered if I would ever be able to settle down. 'But I found the right person and it was like getting struck by lightning literally, everything changed in my life. 'Now I find the prospect of being single terrifying. My life is so much easier because of my wife and my marriage. Everything makes sense.' Despite his hectic career, Matt is a family man at heart and has a special rule to ensure he and Luciana keep the romance alive. 'We have a two week rule. I'm not away for more than two weeks,' he told YourTango. 'I think you need to be with the person you love as much as possible. My wife is my soul mate. I don't like being apart from her.' EastEnders fans have blasted BBC Studios bosses after Barbara Windsor was left off the cover of a new Best Bits DVD. Taking to Twitter, viewers of the TV mainstay have accused producers of snubbing the 81-year-old soap star, who is now battling Alzheimers disease. Barbara played the legendary Queen Vic landlady Peggy Mitchell for more than 20 years, departing the soap for good in 2016 when her character was killed off. Controversial: EastEnders fans have blasted BBC bosses after Barbara Windsor was left off the cover of a new Best Bits DVD The DVD - produced by BBC Studios - is described as 'the ultimate collection of the shows most iconic moments', featuring all manner of stars from the show's 34 year history. Released on Monday, it is narrated by veteran Albert Square resident Adam Woodyatt who has played Ian Beale since its inception in 1985. On the cover, all manner of characters feature, including the late Leslie Grantham as Dirty Den, June Brown's Dot Cotton, Kat (Jessie Wallace) and Alfie Moon (Shane Richie) and Danny Dyer's Mick Carter. Eclectic: The DVD - produced by BBC Studios - sees all manner of characters from the show feature prominently on the cover, though Peggy was noticeably absent Band of brothers: Fans pointed out that most of the Mitchell clan were absent from the cover, including brothers Phil and Grant, played by Steve McFadden and Ross Kemp (above in 1990) But many fans were quick to point out that most of the Mitchell clan were absent from the cover, including the famed brothers Phil and Grant, played by Steve McFadden and Ross Kemp respectively. Among those was former soap star Danniella Westbrook, who played Peggys daughter Sam Mitchell. Retweeting a snap of the cover she wrote: 'Wish Babs was on the cover x' Another posted: 'Peggy was the Queen Vic she should be centre Ethel too.' 'Barbara should have been on the cover,' a third irate fan posted. Irate: Among those asking why Peggy did not appear on the cover was former soap star Danniella Westbrook, who played Peggys daughter Sam Mitchell Annoyed: Other viewers were also quick to slam her absence, though a spokesperson for BBC Studios said Barbara appears on the DVD's back cover But a spokesperson for BBC Studios told MailOnline that Barbara does in fact feature on the DVD, and appears on the back cover and sleeve. They said 'The Mitchells, including some of Peggys most memorable moments, feature prominently in the DVDs content and on its sleeve.' MailOnline has contacted representatives for Barbara Windsor for comment. It comes as Barbara continues to battle with the incurable Alzheimer's disease, with her husband Scott Mitchell providing regular updates on her condition. Iconic: Barbara played the iconic Queen Vic landlady Peggy Mitchell for 20 years, making her last appearance in 2016 In an emotional recent appearance on Loose Women, he stressed he has no regrets about going public with her condition as 'it couldn't be hidden anymore'. Talking about the day the star got her diagnosis, Scott said: 'It wasnt for maybe 18 months, two years, her neurologist did the final test and called us in. From that day life changed.' He added: 'We were sitting down and Dr Kennedy said, "Look Im really sorry but it is Alzheimers that youve got". She looked at me and said, "Im so sorry".' Scott finally went public with Dame Barbara's illness on social media in May, and insists placing it in the public forum was the right thing to do. 'Its only been a positive experience since [sharing the diagnosis],' he said. 'For me, it was four years that we kept this quiet. The relief when I finally did do the interview with Jane [Moore] was just incredible.' She's a prominent DJ and socialite. And after attending the ARIA Awards on Wednesday, DJ Havana Brown offered fans a glimpse inside her goodie bag. Taking to her Instagram Stories, the 33-year-old shared a clip of the gifts she received. A bottle of Moet, Panadol and Berocca: DJ Havana Brown offers fans a look inside the 2018 ARIA Awards goodie bags Pulling out a bottle of Moet Chandon champagne, Havana said: 'I will be drinking, they know all to well we're gonna need that.' The stunner then revealed a packet of Panadol tablets, Kettle Sea Salt chips and two bottles of Evian water. 'I don't know how they know us so well!' she said. 'I'm hoping this is gonna save me tomorrow morning cause I have an early flight,' Havana said while unveiling a packet of Berocca performance tablets What's inside the 2018 ARIA Award goodie bags? A bottle of Moet Chandon champagne A packet of Panadol tablets Kettle Sea Salt Chips Two bottles of Evian water Lindt Dark Chocolate block Berocca Performance tablets Low-carb food snacks Advertisement Havana also uncovered a block of Lindt Dark Chocolate and a couple of low-carb snacks. Holding a small packet of Berocca performance tablets, Havana stated: 'I'm hoping this is gonna save me tomorrow morning cause I have an early flight. 'Don't you just love a record label that understands you?' she added. Presents! The stunner then revealed low-carb snacks, Kettle Sea Salt chips (pictured here) and two bottles of Evian water And it appeared the beauty took some unlikely inspiration from Sharon Stone's character Catherine Tramell in 1992 movie Basic Instinct at the ARIA Awards. Dressed in a near identical white satin dress with matching blonde hair at the ceremony on Wednesday, Havana looked like Sharon's movie doppelganger. Rather than slicking her hair back like virtual villain Catherine, Havana's luscious wavy blonde locks flowed freely as she posed on the red carpet. Killer look! Havana Brown channeled Sharon Stone's iconic Basic Instinct character at the ARIA Awards 2018 in Sydney on Wednesday With a bold red lip and styled in sparkling diamond jewellery, the beauty looked elegant. 'I've always just wanted to wear skanky outfits all of the time. That's what I love to wear [laughs],' she said of her ARIAs look. 'I've always felt I can wear whatever I want. I get to dress up and enjoy being a performer, people are going to criticise it but you can't please everybody.' Her comments came while discussing if she has ever felt pressured to look or dress a certain way as a prominent female in the music industry. Turning heads: With a bold red lip and styled in sparkling diamond jewellery, the beauty looked elegant Despite being one of the first to arrive at the star-studded ceremony, Havana's preparation was thrown in the chaos just hours before. As storms battered Sydney from the early hours, the star took to Instagram to reveal her beauty squad were stranded and unable to make it to the NSW capital. 'Ahh my hair and makeup [artists] flights have been cancelled. So I currently have no glam team for the ARIAs,' she wrote online next to several crying emojis. Thankfully there was no sign of those emoji tears as she stepped on to the carpet and stunned among the stars, despite the slow start. Advertisement She's been busy filming scenes for The Crown's hotly-anticipated third series, set for release next year. And Helena Bonham Carter continued to channel the late Princess Margaret as she joined Ben Daniels, who plays husband Lord Snowdon, on the set of the drama series in Galicia, Spain. While recreating a visit to Los Angeles, the actress, 52, was keen to capture the exciting moment as she took a snap of her co-star Ben, 54, on her iPhone, despite the film being set in the 70s. Retro: Helena Bonham Carter continued to channel the late Princess Margaret as she joined Ben Daniels, who plays husband Lord Snowdon, on the set of the drama series in Galicia, Spain Oozing vintage glamour, screen star Helena looked the picture of elegance in a rich blue co-ord, featuring a sophisticated blazer and matching skirt. The King's Speech actress complemented her striking appearance with a floral print scarf, which she wrapped around her head to embrace 70s fashion. Maintaining her stylish display, Helena accesssorised with cat-eye sunglasses, a straw handbag and a bedazzled wedding ring. Back in the day: While recreating a visit to Los Angeles, the actress, 52, was keen to capture the exciting moment as she took a snap of her co-star Ben, 54, on her iPhone, despite the film being set in the 70s Elegant: Oozing vintage glamour, screen star Helena looked the picture of elegance in a rich blue co-ord, featuring a sophisticated blazer and matching skirt All in the details: The King's Speech actress complemented her striking appearance with a floral print scarf, which she wrapped around her head to embrace 70s fashion Real life: Helena and Ben mimicked the royals trip to America in 1965, which saw the pair visit the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles (pictured here) She continued to nail pin-up chic as she styled her tresses into a sleek ponytail with a curly side fringe, while opting for pink-toned lipstick. Meanwhile, House Of Cards star Ben looked every inch the gentleman in a crisp grey suit, teamed with a striped shirt and blue tie. Displaying the pleasant times of Margaret and Antony Armstrong-Jones' marriage, the stars appeared in high spirits, giggling and engaging in a cosy conversation. Touch of pazzazz: Maintaining her stylish display, Helena accesssorised with cat-eye sunglasses, a straw handbag and a bedazzled wedding ring Radiant: She continued to nail pin-up chic as she styled her tresses into a sleek ponytail with a curly side fringe, while opting for pink-toned lipstick Tumultuous: Fans will get to see the turbulent journey in Margaret and Lord Snowdon's marriage, eventually leading to their split in 1978 - a controversy among the royal family at the time The pair looked in the throes of love while cruising down the streets in a vintage cream car, complete with twin Union Jack flags. Fans will get to see the turbulent journey in Margaret and Lord Snowdon's marriage, eventually leading to their split in 1978 - a controversy among the royal family at the time. Margaret's marriage to Lord Snowdon was seen by fans in the show's second series, as she fell in love with the dashing aristocrat and decided to marry him in what proved a surprise to some. Looking good: Meanwhile, House Of Cards star Ben looked every inch the gentleman in a crisp grey suit, teamed with a striped shirt and blue tie Beaming: Displaying the pleasant times of Margaret and Antony Armstrong-Jones' marriage, the stars appeared in high spirits, giggling and engaging in a cosy conversation Riding in style: The pair looked in the throes of love while cruising down the streets in a vintage cream car, complete with twin Union Jack flags Despite a few years of happiness, the marriage disintegrated, with Lord Snowdon uninterested in settling down as a Royal husband, and spent much of their relationship travelling as a photographer. Earlier this month, Olivia Colman and Josh O'Connor recreated Prince Charles' 1969 investiture ceremony at in Caernarfon Castle. In May 1969, just two months before his investiture, Charles, then just 20 years old, received a note from his grandmother Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother in which she expressed her support. Getting ready: The star opted for comfort with her footwear as she donned platform sandals in between takes Protection: The Exorcist star protected himself from the sun rays under a white umbrella Loved-up: Margaret's marriage to Lord Snowdon was seen by fans in the show's second series, as she fell in love with the dashing aristocrat and decided to marry him in what proved a surprise to some Behind the scenes: Helena and Ben's car moved along the set with the help of a truck She wrote: 'My darling Charles, I can't tell you what charming and heart-warming things I am always hearing about you. Everyone loves you and is proud of you and I absolutely know you will be able to do wonderful things for this country. 'Not only in leadership but by being your own kind-hearted, loving and intelligent and funny self.' The ceremony saw Prince Charles receive the title the Prince Of Wales and Earldom of Chester, which 500 million people watched on TV in Britain and around the globe. Exciting: Helena is set to take over the role from Vanessa Kirby, who played Elizabeth's sister in the first two seasons of the show Different appearance: Helena looked worlds away from her regular kooky fashion sense while channeling the Queen's sister Speaking out: The actress recently admitted she and her co-stars Olivia Colman and Tobias Menzies - who will replace Matt Smith as Prince Philip - are feeling the pressure to follow on from the 'successful' first two series of the Netflix drama Honest: 'I think we're all completely terrified. I think also because the first two seasons were such a success, we have the onus of inheriting the responsibility of doing justice to all these genuinely famous people', she told Variety Impressive: The first series of The Crown was one of the most critically acclaimed dramas of 2016 - winning two Golden Globes and two SAG awards, and being nominated for four BAFTAs Wow: The show is the most expensive television series ever made - with the first series costing $100million Oops! Ben appeared to scratch his nose in between takes Talent: He's best known for his role in All My Sons, in which he won the 2001 Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor It was in effect Charless first public step towards the Throne, and during the event the Letters Patent were read in Welsh before the Queen invested him with the girdle, sword, coronet, ring, rod and kingly mantle. The third and fourth series of The Crown, which is set to follow the monarch's rule across the 1960s and 1970s, will see an older Prince Charles played by Bafta nominee Josh, 28. Broadchurch star Olivia has taken over the lead role from Claire Foy and was confirmed to be playing Queen Elizabeth II in October. Efforts: It was recently reported that Helen hired a psychic to contact Princess Margaret Desperate times: The actress enlisted the help of a clairvoyant to speak to Queen Elizabeth's sister, who died in 2002 aged 71, from beyond the grave to ensure she researched the role with 'as much depth as possible' Delighted at her casting, Olivia said at the time: 'I'm so thrilled to be part of The Crown. I was utterly gripped watching it. 'I think Claire Foy is an absolute genius - she's an incredibly hard act to follow. I'm basically going to re-watch every episode and copy her.' Helena is set to take over the role from Vanessa Kirby, who played Elizabeth's sister in the first two seasons of the show. Details: Speaking to The Sun, a source said: 'She always likes to research her roles with as much depth as possible - and is always prepared to go that extra mile Positive: The Harry Potter star, who will appear alongside Olivia, in the third series of the Netflix drama, is said to have received 'positive feedback' from the princess Beyond the grave: The TV insider added: 'She is naturally spiritual and open-minded and is delighted shes had such positive feedback from the late royal' The actress recently admitted she and her co-stars Olivia and Tobias Menzies - who will replace Matt Smith as Prince Philip - are feeling the pressure to follow on from the 'successful' first two series of the Netflix drama. She told Variety: 'I think we're all completely terrified. I think also because the first two seasons were such a success, we have the onus of inheriting the responsibility of doing justice to all these genuinely famous people. 'Then on top of it, inheriting them from this previous generation of actors who've done such good jobs. Makes sense: A number of the stars, including protagonists Claire Foy and Matt Smith, were replaced by older actresses and actors for authenticity as the third season moves into the later years surrounding the royals' lives 'None of us look at all like our previous generation. We don't actually look like our real people either. I don't look like Margaret. I don't think Olivia looks particularly like the queen, but it's interesting. We just have to try and create some sort of essence.' The first series of The Crown was one of the most critically acclaimed dramas of 2016 - winning two Golden Globes and two SAG awards, and being nominated for four BAFTAs. It was recently reported that Helen hired a psychic to contact Princess Margaret. Awards: Additionally, the first two seasons have collectively bagged a whopping 26 Emmy nominations over the last two years Focus point: The second series dealt with the scandal surrounding Margaret and Lord Snowdon, as well as swirling affair and divorce rumours between Elizabeth and Phillip In good company: The pair were joined by a legion of crew who ensured their scenes were shot to perfection The actress enlisted the help of a clairvoyant to speak to Queen Elizabeth's sister, who died in 2002 aged 71, from beyond the grave to ensure she researched the role with 'as much depth as possible'. Speaking to The Sun, a source said: 'She always likes to research her roles with as much depth as possible - and is always prepared to go that extra mile. 'So if that means using someone with supernatural powers to speak to a character who is now on the other side then Helena has no problems with doing that.' The Harry Potter star, who will appear alongside Olivia, in the third series of the Netflix drama, is said to have received 'positive feedback' from the princess. The TV insider added: 'She is naturally spiritual and open-minded and is delighted shes had such positive feedback from the late royal.' The stars of I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here are reportedly in danger of 200 bush fires as they lead nearby towns to be evacuated, according to The Mirror. A source told the publication that bosses are working with the local fire services to ensure that the camp can be evacuated if the blazes move any closer, as towns mere miles away have already been cleared. It comes three years after a Dingo Dollar challenge was abandoned and the entire camp was evacuated after an enormous rain storm flooded the main camp, leading the celebrities to take shelter in the Bush Telegraph. Scary: The stars of I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here could reportedly be engulfed by a staggering 200 bush fires, according to The Mirror A source said: 'We speak to the fire services regularly and we are also monitoring the bushfires today in Oxenford and Wongawallan. 'There is no immediate danger but the safety and the welfare of our cast and crew is our number one concern, and so we will continue to watch how the fires develop. 'We are really hoping they don't get any closer to camp.' When contacted by MailOnline a representative for I'm A Celebrity said: 'We speak to the Fire services regularly and as standard practice would of course be monitoring the bush fires in Oxenford and Wongawallan.' In danger: A source told the publication that bosses are working with the local fire services to ensure that the camp can be evacuated if the blazes move any closer It comes as up to 200 wildfires are waging across the region of Queensland, including the towns of Oxenford and Wongawallan, which are mere miles away from the famous jungle camp. Murwillumbah, where I'm A Celebrity is filmed on the border of Queensland and New South Wales, is in the line of the fires if they move south thanks to the warm and dry weather. So far in the area of central Queensland, 8,000 residents in the town of Gracemere have been evacuated from their homes - the first time in the area's 150 year history. The larger town of Rockhampton has also been under threat, with around 80,000 under warning of being evacuated, and the Bureau of Meteorology declared a 'catastrophic fire danger' in the state. Scary: It comes as up to 200 wildfires are waging across the region of Queensland, including the towns of Oxenford and Wongawallan, which are mere miles away from the jungle camp Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, the head of government in the state told BBC News on Wednesday: 'We have never, ever in this state been in this situation before. 'We have not had a catastrophic level. This is uncharted waters.' The publication also reported that plans are in place should the camp need to be evacuated, either due to bush fires or extreme flooding. Of course this is not the first time I'm A Celebrity bosses have had to organise a surprise evacuation, as the camp was evacuated in 2015 after being hit by a heavy storm. Celebrities including Vicky Pattison, Ferne McCann and George Shelley took refuge in the Bush Telegraph after the heavy rain took out the camp's power, while a Dingo Dollar Challenge was forced to be abandoned. I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here continues on Wednesday 28th November at 9pm on ITV. The connected technology such as the Internet of Things (IoT) will be the key to achieving GCC sustainability targets through better climate management, said leading global construction industry experts at the HVAC R Expo in Dubai. A leading industry dedicated event in the region, HVAC R Expo hosts over 200 exhibitors, presenting products including Air Conditioning and Ventilation, Heating and Refrigeration Systems, as well as increasingly popular measuring technology and climate control solutions. The expo has been launched for the first time as part of The Big 5 construction expo in Dubai. Hosting more than 20 free-to-attend CPD workshops, the event runs at Dubai World Trade Centre until tomorrow (November 29). According to HVAC R Expo intelligence partner, BNC Network, the GCC urban sector currently consists of 18,000 projects and accounts for 49 per cent of the regions $2.3 trillion construction market. Undoubtedly one of the main solutions for providing comfort in the arid built landscape, leaders in the industry have gathered at HVAC R Expo to showcase the latest indoor climate innovations and techniques. Faisal Rashid, the director of demand side management at the Supreme Council of Energy, Dubai, said: "HVAC R accounts for heavy usage of energy in buildings or industries, representing 70% of the total energy consumption of on average." "It is logical to assume that HVAC R can yield to the greatest saving potential of any sector of the economy," he stated. Offering a one-stop shop for all things construction related from concept through to design, HVAC R Expo runs as part of The Big 5 along with The Big 5 Solar, the Urban Design & Landscaping Expo, Middle East Concrete and The Big 5 Heavy. HVAC R Expo is a leading networking platform for the project and design engineers, consultants, facilities and operation managers, he added. Colin Bridges, the business development director at exhibiting company Belimo Automation, said: "The Internet of Things (IoT) technology is a major opportunity in the GCC construction industry, where data driven smart devices are being increasingly used to improve and enhance performance of cooling systems. Global market leader in HVAC R solutions, Belimo Automation FZE commits to investing in new technology to help push the industry. The company is showcasing its latest Energy Valves at the expo, offering 'total visibility by monitoring and storing data and making it available for recording, analysis, and trending reports'. "The integrated logic helps to manage circuit performance, save money and improve efficiency," observed Bridges. In a further bid to push the industry forward, HVAC R Expo is also hosting 20 free-to-attend CPD (continuing professional certified) workshops. The HVAC R Talks are delivered by some of the most prominent industry names, yet to update attendees on the most recent and upcoming industry regulations, as well as give insight into ventilation design for super-tall buildings. Saziye Dickson, the senior market research consultant at BSRIA (Building Services Research & Information Association) has covered "HVAC R market drivers and challenges today and beyond 2020" at the HVAC R Talks. "Over the past three years we have seen a trend towards implementation of smarter HVAC R systems thanks to advances in smart controls. As the systems and requirements of them become ever more sophisticated, the use of smart controls is having a significant impact in reducing energy consumption," remarked Dickson. Dr Omar Abdelaziz, the Ashrae Global Training Center instructor, said: "HVAC R Expo brings a much-needed exposure of the state-of-the-art to the GCC HVAC R industry." "It provides an opportunity to learn about the newest commercial HVAC product offering for the GCC market with a special emphasis on hot climate conditions, while offering free-learning," he added. HVAC R Expo enjoys support from Founding Partners Fawaz, SKM Air Conditioning LLC, and Trox, Air Conditioning Partner, Finpower, Ducting Solutions Partner, Khansaheb and Lanyard Sponsor, Technalco. In addition the event has backing from Rehva, Arabian Business Community, Ahri, Ashrae and BSRIA.-TradeArabia News Service Jennifer Aniston split from her second husband, Justin Theroux, in February. And the 49-year-old Friends vet told the Hollywood Foreign Press recently she got over the heartbreak with frequent therapy sessions, according to UsWeekly. 'It takes a lot of therapy but you do absolutely get over it,' she was heard saying. A source for the magazine added that she was very careful to 'take care of herself' after the split. She leaned on her therapist: Jennifer Aniston split from her second husband, Justin Theroux, in February. And the 49-year-old Friends vet told the Hollywood Foregign Press recently she got over the heartbreak with tons of therapy, according to UsWeekly. Seen in July 2017 Happy as a single woman: The Emmy winner dazzled on the red carpet in June In 2015 Aniston told The Hollywood Reporter she had it rougher when she split form husband Brad Pitt because her therapist had died, 'It was at a crazy time, right when we were going through our divorce and everything,' said the blonde beauty. 'But I learned so much in the four years I worked with her, that when she did pass away I remember thinking, "Wow, everything that we talked about and discussed, it's allowed me to be really peaceful about it all."' The beauty - who is starring in the new movie Dumplin' - added that all the scrutiny that came with the split from Theroux - who has since moved from LA to NYC - was hard to deal with. Healthy solution: 'It takes a lot of therapy but you do absolutely get over it,' she was heard saying. A source for the magazine added that she was very careful to 'take care of herself' after the split. Seen in January 2016 And now it's worse with social media, especially earlier this year when haters said she could not stay married. 'I don't love being famous because I don't love the negativity and judgment that comes along with it. 'I don't know if that's the internet and faceless people being able to have have a platform but I think it just makes it grow like cancer.' And she told InStyle, 'There are definitely moments of not being balanced and poised, but I do that all in my own personal space. For the most part I can sit back and laugh at the ridiculous headlines because they have gotten more and more absurd. I guess theyre feeding into some sort of need the public has, but I focus on my work, my friends, my animals, and how we can make the world a better place. That other stuff is junk food that needs to go back in its drawer.' Don't judge her! The beauty - who is starring in the new movie Dumplin' - added that all the scruntiny that came with the split was hard to deal with. And now it's worse with social media, especially earlier this year when haters said she could not stay married. Seen in February 2017 A source said these days Jen is just fine. 'Shes doing her thing exactly the way she wants to do it and really enjoying life,' the insider noted. And Aniston, who used to be married to Brad Pitt before he met Angelina Jolie, 'believes that whatever her path is, it will present itself the way it should.' It was added, 'She's all about taking care of herself.' So far she has not seemed to date anyone while Justin has been linked to several women such as Laura Harrier. Close to home: In her next movie, Dumplin', she plays a mom obsessed with beauty who ignores her daughter Like her mom? Jennifer has said that her mother was a beauty queen and cared too much about looks, so it was easy for her to relate to the character Aniston spoke out about the split to InStyle this summer: 'First, with all due respect, Im not heartbroken. And second, those are reckless assumptions. 'No one knows whats going on behind closed doors. No one considers how sensitive that might be for my partner and me. They dont know what Ive been through medically or emotionally.' Her new movie Dumplin' hits close to home: she has said that like her beauty pageant star mother, her own mom was obsessed with beauty and things that were not important: 'She was very critical of me. Because she was a model, she was gorgeous, stunning, I wasn't - I never was.' Their relationship is one of the few Love Island romances to have endured outside of the villa. And Zara McDermott and Adam Collard cemented their lovebird status as they moved into their sparsely furnished first home this week. The smitten couple, whose romance ignited back in July, shared a series of candid snaps of their new abode, which appeared to be lacking in many key pieces of furniture. Love Island success story: Zara McDermott and Adam Collard cemented their lovebird status as they moved into their sparsely furnished first home this week Lovebirds: The smitten couple, whose romance ignited back in July, shared a series of candid snaps of their new abode, which appeared to be lacking in many key pieces of furniture Flaunting their immaculate home on Instagram, Adam, 23, and Zara, 21, looked proud as they posed up a storm at their gorgeous marble table. which was surrounded by plush leather and mahogany chairs. The light and airy home features wooden flooring and high ceilings, with a cream colour scheme running throughout. Skylights and chic glass panels were also seen in the home, with a modern white and chrome kitchen proving to be an elegant centrepiece for the property. Adam showed off his smouldering good looks as he relaxed on a plush silver sofa, with furry white cushions adding extra comfort. Wow factor: The light and airy home features wooden flooring and high ceilings, with a cream colour scheme running throughout Spacious: Despite the lack of furniture Adam looked delighted to be in the dream flat Hunky: Adam showed off his smouldering good looks as he relaxed on a plush silver sofa, with furry white cushions adding extra comfort Lavish: Skylights and chic glass panels were also seen in the home, with a modern white and chrome kitchen proving to be an elegant centrepiece for the property Throwing themselves into unpacking, Adam shared a video of his mounds of clothing and possessions on the floor. Brunette beauty Zara also revealed that Adam was being a domestic god as he dutifully vacuumed the kitchen. The couple have gone from strength-to-strength since their exit from the Spanish villa, after lothario Adam changed his ways and went for the woman of his dreams. The Newcastle native was a late entrant into the Love Island villa, where he became something of a villain due to his womanising ways, after racking up an incredible list of conquests including Rosie Williams, Darylle Sargeant, Kendall Rae-Knight and Zara. After being booted off the show, he pursued his romance with Zara and the duo have been displaying their loved-up status on social media ever since. Help! Throwing themselves into unpacking, Adam shared a video of his mounds of clothing and possessions on the floor She strutted down the red carpet in an ethereal mint green gown for the Bird Box premiere in Berlin on Tuesday night. And ahead of the grande unveiling of the film, Sandra Bullock was spotted arriving in the capital with her long-term boyfriend Bryan Randall and her daughter Laila, six. The actress, 54, nailed airport chic as she donned a stylish red teddy bear coat and gold framed aviators. Family trip: Sandra Bullock was spotted arriving in Berlin with her long-term boyfriend Bryan Randall and her daughter Laila, six ahead of the Bird Box premiere The Gravity star layered the cosy coat atop of a black jumper, pairing the statement outerwear with skinny jeans and black heeled boots. She accessorised her ensemble with brown-tinted sunglasses and complemented her youthful visage with a rosy make-up look. The mum-of-two was joined by Bryan, who looked every inch the doting dad as he cradled a tired Laila in his arms following the long-haul flight. Fashion maven: The actress, 54, nailed airport chic as she donned a stylish red teddy bear coat and gold framed aviators, while Bryan cradled a tired Laila in his arms The actress touched down in Berlin to attend the European premiere of her new movie Bird Box at Zoo Palast cinema. Sandra has reunited with her Ocean's 8 co-star Sarah Paulson for the new Netflix film. It concerns a mysterious force that is decimating the worlds population, when only one thing is certain: if you see it, you take your life. Facing the unknown, Sandra's Malorie must flee with her two young children 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. Star of the show: Sandra strutted down the red carpet in an ethereal mint green gown for the Bird Box premiere in Berlin on Tuesday night The Oscar winner leads an all-star cast that includes John Malkovich in the thriller from director Susanne Bier. Netflix released a thrilling three-minute trailer on Wednesday to build early anticipation for the movie, which is due out on December 21. 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. 'Sandra Bullock and her family have reached out to other nonprofit organizations both during this incident and in the past,' the organization wrote on their Facebook page. '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.' Sandra has been in a relationship with Bryan since 2015 and adopted her eight-year son Louis and daughter Laila respectively. She has spoken openly about her love of her children and motherhood numerous times over the years. Back in March, she spoke with InStyle about the phrase 'adopted child', saying: 'Let's all just refer to these kids as "our kids". Don't say, "my adopted child". No one calls their kid their "IVF child" or their "Oh, s**t, I went to a bar and got knocked up child". Let's just say, "our children".' She recently vowed to never pose topless again for the sake of her new husband Oliver Mellor. But that doesn't mean former glamour girl Rhian Sugden has retired from sexy shoots altogether, with the blonde beauty sharing some sizzling behind-the-scenes pictures from her latest project. The 32-year-old star showed off her ample cleavage in a bright red bra featuring a black lace trim. Pin-up: Rhian Sugden has been sharing some sizzling behind-the-scenes pictures from her latest project Rhian's push-up number was paired with matching high-waisted briefs, highlighting her hourglass figure. The star captioned the image: 'Look in the mirror baby #BTS from todays shoot (Yep I just quoted a Simply Red song)'. She also uploaded a seductive swimsuit shot, showing her posing in a hot pink one-piece. The blonde beauty piled her locks up in a messy ponytail and was given a glamorous beauty look for the shoot. Wow: The glamorous blonde also uploaded a seductive swimsuit shot, showing her posing in a hot pink one-piece Breast in peace: Rhian recently vowed to never pose bare chested again as a sign of respect to her new husband The Manchester-born glamour model, who tied the knot with Coronation Street star Oliver last year, will make her final braless appearance in her 2019 calendar. The voluptuous blonde, who made her topless debut in the Sun in 2006, told the paper 'Now I'm married, I don't enjoy topless modelling any more. 'It's not like Oliver is bothered by me doing it but I think it's a sign of respect to him. They are his now! 'There's nothing wrong with it but I'm busy with other stuff. I needed to put a cap on it.' She added there's 'only so many pictures of her boobs that need to be shown' and that there were 'so many on the internet'. Loved up: The voluptuous blonde, who made her topless debut in the Sun in 2006, told the paper 'Now I'm married, I don't enjoy topless modelling any more Taking a break: The busty blonde said of her topless modelling 'There's nothing wrong with it but I'm busy with other stuff. I needed to put a cap on it.' The beauty has displayed confidence in her body plenty of times on social media in the past, uploading pictures of herself looking incredible in bikinis, most recently on her Turkish honeymoon. And the outspoken star has recently slammed people for asking when she is going to have a baby, just weeks after her dream wedding. The glamour model unleashed her fury on Twitter, where she admitted 'it's not that easy' aged '30+', along with a meme of Christina Aguilera reading 'please stop.' She wrote: 'If one more person asks me when I am going to have babies my head is going to explode!! Loved up: Rhian wed Oliver, 37, her boyfriend of six years, in a blissful ceremony by the Mediterranean sea in Turkey, with their close friends and family in attendance 'Do people think they grow on trees or that I can just pick one up from Tesco?? For some people its not that easy!! Dont ask 30+ women when the babies are coming!' She was inundated with support from her followers with one writing: 'Or the fact its now 2018 & women arent on this planet to bear child after child. 'Yup, we have wombs but we also have a brain & the ability to use it to decide whats best for ourselves.' Another wrote: 'Once you get married, IT.NEVER.STOPS.' while one fan added: 'Rhian this is the best advice you will get on the matter! Fury: The outspoken star has recently slammed people for asking when she is going to have a baby, just weeks after her dream wedding 'You need to relax about the matter, dont worry about it when the time is right it will happen, the more you worry the more your body will resist it.' Rhian wed Oliver, 37, her boyfriend of six years, in a blissful ceremony by the Mediterranean sea in Turkey, with their close friends and family in attendance. Guests were reduced to tears as Oliver's sister Kate read an emotional poem while the couple read their own vows. The bride chose a gorgeous dress with a figure-hugging bodice in delicate white. A simple silver pendant was the only bit of bling the low-key bride needed, while her blonde locks were styled into loose curls and pinned back with a glittering diamante hair clip. Oliver proposed at a sold-out Manchester theatre in 2014. Before she met Oliver, Rhian was involved in a scandal with Vernon Kay, with the starlet first coming to the forefront when she went public with several racy messages sent by the married TV presenter in 2010. Putting the past behind her: Before she met Oliver, Rhian was involved in a scandal with Vernon Kay, with the starlet first coming to the forefront when she went public with several racy messages sent by the married TV presenter in 2010 It was then revealed the pair had got back in touch in 2015, with Vernon sending hundreds of texts asking to 'reconnect' with the model. After a break of six years, the busty blonde candidly and shockingly admitted that it felt like an 'old friendship coming back'. The blonde beauty recently claimed however that she had been treated as 'the villain' in the light of the sexting scandal, while the radio host has had a career boost. The 44-year-old was famously forced to make an apology to his wife Tess Daly on BBC Radio 1 following the sexting scandal. Vernon went on to promise live on air that he would no longer contact Rhian or the four other women he had been caught messaging at the time. Robin Wright and her husband Clement Giraudet met the Pope on Wednesday as they attended the General Audience in Aula Paolo VI at the Vatican. The Hollywood actress, 52 and her partner, 34, looked humbled to be among Pope Francis' listeners for his weekly meeting, which focused on the Ten Commandments. Following the service, Robin chatted to Archbishop Georg Gaswein and beamed as she shook hands with fellow members of the congregation. Poignant moment: Robin Wright and her husband Clement Giraudet met the Pope on Wednesday as they attended the General Audience in Aula Paolo VI at the Vatican The Forest Gump star cut a sophisticated figure in a tailored beige coat and black pashmina scarf. She wore her blonde locks in a sleek straight do and complemented the look with deftly touches of make-up. Meanwhile, model Clement looked dapper in a black suit blazer and polo neck and appeared intrigued as he animatedly pointed to Robin ahead of taking their seats. Eye-opening: The Hollywood actress, 52 and her partner, 34, looked humbled to be among Pope Francis' listeners for his weekly meeting, which focused on the Ten Commandments Stylish display: The Forest Gump star cut a sophisticated figure in a tailored beige coat and black pashmina scarf Youthful: She wore her blonde locks in a sleek straight do and complemented the look with deftly touches of make-up Happy: Meanwhile, model Clement looked dapper in a black suit blazer and polo neck, with the couple smiling as they chatted to fellow church-goers On The Late Show with Stephen Colbert show last month, Robin discussed the latest season of House Of Cards in which her character, Claire Underwood finally becomes President of the United States. She surprised the host when she revealed that she had wanted him to take on a role in the series - specifically her Press Secretary. 'Did I say no? I take it back if I said no. I say yes,' Stephen fired back. Following the service, Robin chatted to Archbishop Georg Gaswein and beamed as she shook hands with fellow members of the congregation She replied: 'I heard a rumor that you wouldnt audition, that "youd have to offer it to me. Laughing, he quipped: 'No, I wont audition.' Robin avoided the question as the audience laughed, however she couldn't resist the chance to lay an insult on Trump. 'I was like, yeah, I'm the first female President of the US but I know nothing about politics but that's kinda close to home.' 'Yes,' Stephen agreed. 'It's no longer a requirement for the job - it's all on-the-job training.' Denzel Washington showed his generous side on Tuesday when he left a restaurant in Beverly Hills. Clearly already in the festive spirit the 63-year-old actor, who was with his family, gave a hefty tip to one of the valet staff at Madeo. The Training Day star had a $100 bill folded up ready to hand to the valet when he left the eatery with some leftovers in hand. Big tipper: Denzel Washington generously gave a valet person $100 as he left Madeo restaurant in Beverly Hills on Tuesday night Festive cheer: Denzel, 63, was leaving the restaurant with family and had the $100 bill folded in his hand ready Denzel kept it casual in a dark blue tracksuit, sneakers and a New York Yankees cap. Generous: Waiting photographers caught the moment the actor handed over the cash He was accompanied by his family including his son John David Washington, 34, who stars in BlacKkKlansman. In a recent interview the family man - who has been married to wife Pauletta since 1983 - said he would break the backs of anyone who messes with his daughter. The actor's daughter Olivia has moved into the movie business and speaking about her burgeoning career in relation to the MeToo movement, Denzel had a warning for anyone considering harassing the up-and-coming 27-year-old star. Asked whether Hollywood has changed in light of last year's sex scandal, Denzel said: 'I hope so. I think there are just more rules in place. Time will tell on this one but it's good right now.' Family night: The Training Day star kept it casual in a dark blue tracksuit and sneakers with Yankees cap The Academy Award-winning actor feels like the industry has become a safer place for women since news of the sex scandal first emerged. But he warned other people in the business not to 'mess' with his daughter. Asked if he feels Olivia is safeguarded as a young women in the industry, Denzel - who also has kids Katia, 31, and Malcolm, 27 - told The i newspaper: 'Yes, plus I will break somebody's back if they mess around with my daughter. Let that be the message to put out there. Their back will be broken.' Longtime love: Denzel has been married to wife Pauletta since 1983. They are pictured in 2017 at the 89th Oscars Despite being one of the movie industry's best-known stars, Denzel admitted his life could have easily taken a very different turn. The actor spent a sizeable part of his teenage years around three friends - one of whom died of Aids and two who spent time in prison - but his mother and a high school counsellor helped to steer him onto the right path. He recalled: 'Charles, Roy and Carl were in the same grade as me at school and my mother could see where it was heading. 'My counsellor in high school said, "He's a smart kid - get him out of here" and they were right. I would have ended up with them.' Katie Price's toyboy beau Kris Boyson has reportedly asked her dying mother Amy for permission to marry the businesswoman. It would be the fourth time the mother-of-five, 40, has walked down the aisle after her three failed marriages to Peter Andre, Alex Reid and Kieran Hayler. Despite the 29-year-old good intentions to make Katie a good husband, Amy is said to be hesitant about her daughter getting married according to The Sun. 'She's not his number one fan': Katie Price's toyboy beau Kris Boyson, 29, asked terminally ill Amy permission to MARRY the mother-of-five, 40 The insider told the publication: 'Kris asked Amy for Katie's hand in marriage as he knows she's not exactly his number one fan. 'Kris bought the ring ages ago and he's now waiting on the perfect moment to propose. Now it's just a matter of waiting for the happy news. The last thing Amy wants is for Katie to get married again. 'She wants Katie to be happy, of course, but the men in her life have been nothing but trouble and she doesn't want her to go through anymore heartbreak let's face it, they've all ended in complete disaster.' MailOnline has approached Katie Price and Kris Boyson's representatives for comment. Mother's concerns: Despite Kris' good intentions to make Katie a good husband, Amy is said to be hesitant about her daughter getting married according to The Sun (June 2018) It comes after Katie reportedly blamed her famous exes for her financial ruin and she is thought to have paid thousands of pounds to them collectively. The bombshell will declare herself bankrupt in emotional scenes set to air on My Crazy Life next week. The former glamour model, who was once worth 45million, allegedly insisted bankruptcy is 'not that bad' and she has 'nothing to be ashamed of' while filming footage this week. 'I will be out of bankruptcy in a year. It's not that bad,' she will say on her Quest reality show, according to The Sun. Revealed: It comes after Katie reportedly blamed her famous exes for her financial ruin and she is thought to have paid thousands of pounds to them collectively (Kieran Hayler) The mother-of-five has already spent 300k on cars, gifts and holidays on Kris, according to The Sun. Katie was married to first husband Peter Andre from September 10, 2005 - 8 September, 2009. In 2009, it was reported that Peter was likely to be awarded 6million, half of the 12million the pair earned while they were married. He did not ask for any of the 28million that she reportedly earned as Jordan, which she earned before they got together. In 2011, it was reported that Alex Reid valued his brief reunion with Katie at 6million. They were married from February 2, 2010 - March 20, 2012. They've got history: Katie was married to first husband Peter Andre from September 10, 2005 - 8 September, 2009 (pictured in November 2018) The cagefighter was said to have demanded the large settlement from the glamour model, who thought 700,000 is a more adequate reflection of their short time together. Katie offered to buy him a 500,000 property. In July this year, it was reported that Kieran wanted a slice of Katie's fortune because he had stopped working in order to take care of the family. But let's not forget that Katie is said to have spent 40k on sex addiction therapy for Kieran after discovering he had slept with two of her best friends, according to The Sun. The couple were married on January 16, 2013. He apparently turned down a quickie 300 online divorce. Estimates over the Loose Women star's total debts have ranged from 250,000 to 500,000. The reality star is due to appear in court on December 4 where she will reportedly say she can't keep up with the repayments needed to get rid of her debt. Megan Fox goes alone on vacations even though she has a husband, Brian Austin Green of Beverly Hills, 90201 fame and three sons, Bodhi, aged four, Noah, aged six, and Joutney, aged two. That's because the 32-year-old Transformers star does not want to uproot the kids that go to school in Los Angeles and have their own routines, she told UsWeekly. 'They're very young. I mean, the baby's 2, so anyone that's ever had a 2-year-old and put them on an airplane knows it's not fun, and I try to avoid that whenever we can. And the older one is in school now and I can't just take him with me wherever I go,' said the lingerie model. Solo flier: Megan Fox has said that she travels alone because it's too hard to take husband Brian Austin Green with her; seen in 2014 Not a good idea: The beauty also does not take her three sons with her because one is in school and the other have their routines; seen in October The subject of travel came up because she is hosting the four-episode Travel Channel series about archaeology called Legends Of The Lost With Megan Fox, which debuts on December 4. The first episode will be about the 'healing stones,' the second is Viking Women Warriors, the third is about the Trojan War and the fourth is America's lost civilization. Megan and Green have been wed since 2010. Fun with her little ones: Fox dressed up as Harry Potter on Halloween; she said she is a hands-on mom who reads to her kids Fun outdoors: The famous couple and their kids play at the park in Malibu, California But they rarely have alone time together. 'We have no time,' she told the site. 'I mean, we haven't even driven to Vegas or flown to Vegas! We don't do any of that. We don't prioritize taking vacations together.' When at home in Los Angeles they try to stay close to their kids. The have story time and turn their phones off. New show: The subject of travel came up because she is hosting the four-episode Travel Channel series about archaeology called Legends Of The Lost With Megan Fox, which debuts on December 4 Adventure: The first episode will be about the 'healing stones,' the second is Viking Women Warriors, the third is about the Trojan War and the fourth is America's lost civilization 'I'm not someone who gets 10,000 emails a day that I have to stay on top of and I'm not someone who, obviously, is very active on social media,' she said. 'The only time I use the internet is if I need to shop for something and I think it's important for them. 'I don't want them to see me with a screen in front of my face all the time, because I don't want them to have screens in front of their faces all the time. I want to have an organic, human connection to my children that lasts for the rest of our lives.' Working her magic: On Wednesday Megan was seen heading to an interview in NYC to plug the show Great legs: The movie icon had on a short dress with Mary Jane heels and carried a black coat And as far as letting her three sons watch her movies, it's not going to happen anytime soon. 'They of course think that movies are real,' she told Us. 'So I haven't let them watch anything that I'm in because I feel like they might be really worried or stressed for me, because there's always some point in the movie where a ninja has kidnapped me or a robot is trying to crush me.' Legends Of The Lost With Megan Fox premieres on Travel Channel Tuesday, December 4, at 8 p.m. ET. On Wednesday Megan was seen heading to an interview in NYC to plug the show. The movie icon had on a short dress with Mary Jane heels and carried a black coat. Katie Holmes and Jamie Foxx are set to get married in Paris after years of keeping their relationship a secret according to a new report. The 39-year-old mother to Suri Cruise and 50-year-old Oscar winner are planning to tie the knot in City of Light claims a source for Radar Online on Wednesday. Their insider said: 'Paris is the city where they decided to go public with their romance after years of sneaking around. Interesting: Katie Holmes and Jamie Foxx - pictured in January - are set to get married in Paris after years of keeping their relationship a secret according to a new report from Radar Online 'Jamies been a handful ever since they started secretly dating in 2013 but Katies convinced him to settle down, and theyre ready to make it official.' It has been long rumored that the two have been an item for year. Holmes split from Tom Cruise back in 2012. 'Katie has waited a long time to marry Jamie, and shes now made it clear where she wants to get married and when,' the source told Radar Online. 'Shes desperate for a winter wedding in the City of Light.' This comes just weeks after rumors swirled that they were engaged after Holmes was spotted wearing a diamond ring on her pinky earlier this month. 'Theyre ready to make it official': Said the insider for the publication as they have long been rumored to be in a relationship for years However those claims were shot down by her reps, claiming the ring was only a movie prop for her new film The Secret. But later she was seen with a huge smile on her face as she laughed with friends. Foxx kept it casual as well in an all black ensemble of sweatshirt and matching pants. 'Katie's not engaged to anyone besides her fictional movie fiance, played by Jerry O'Connell,' her publicist told PEOPLE. And the next day the actress was spotted with no rings as she was on set. Moving on: Holmes split from Tom Cruise back in 2012, as they are pictured together with daughter Suri in New York back in December 2011 The Dawson's Creek alum is starring in the film adaptation of the iconic self-help book The Secret alongside Jerry O'Connell. The film, will carry the popular book's central tenet of the power of positive thinking throughout a story about a young family. 'A young widow with three children who hires a handyman to fix her house, only to realize that, as he grows closer to the family, he carries a secret connection to her past,' said The Hollywood Reporter. The actress has been quietly dating Oscar winner Foxx for the last five years. Foxx, coincidentally, is nearby his love in the Bayou while shooting his latest Netflix film, Power. Tekashi 6ix9ine is still a force in the music world even as he sits in jail. The beleaguered rapper dropped his highly-anticipated album Dummy Boy on Tuesday and it's already dominating the charts. Four of Tekashi's tracks were in the top 5 on iTunes - with two more at the 8 and 9 spot - as the 22-year-old awaits trial after he was arrested on an array of federal charges last week. Music mogul: Tekashi 6ix9ine dropped his highly-anticipated album Dummy Boy on Tuesday and it's already dominating the charts. (pictured at his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court in July 2018) The whole album is also topping the charts and his mixtape Day 69 - released earlier this year - has re-emerged at No. 51 on the chart. The albums first track Stoopid is a duet with rapper Bobby Shmurda, who also is in prison on murder-conspiracy and weapons charges until at least late 2020. Other artists featured on the album include Kanye West, Nicki Minaj, A Boogie Wit da Hoodie, Tony Lanez, and Lil Baby. Tekashi pleaded not guilty to federal racketeering and firearms charges in New York on Monday morning. Chart topper: Four of Tekashi's tracks were in the top 5 on iTunes - with two more at the 8 and 9 spot - as the 22-year-old awaits trial after he was arrested on an array of federal charges last week Making waves: The whole album is also topping the charts and his mixtape Day 69 - released earlier this year - has re-emerged at No. 51 on the chart A pre-trial conference is set for January 22 and the trial is scheduled for September. Meanwhile, inmates at the prison facility where Tekashi 6ix9ine is housed are complaining the rapper is receiving special treatment, according to a new report. According to TMZ, several inmates have been screaming their displeasure after observing how the facility had been treating Tekashi, whose real name is Daniel Hernandez. Upon the rapper's arrival, the dormitory he was set to be staying out reportedly removed all inmates with gang affiliations. Not happy: Inmates at the prison facility Tekashi 6ix9ine is housed at are complaining the rapper is receiving special treatment, according to a new report The dormitory ordinarily houses high-profile inmates, dirty cops, and child predators, but now Tekashi, age 22, shares the room with 11 other inmates who have been described as 'docile', according to TMZ. Tekashi was also reportedly 'clowned' by an inmate by his dorm, who sang a song about a child predator. The rapper pleaded guilty to one felony count of using a child in a sexual performance in 2015. Lance Lazzaro, Tekashi's lawyer, told the website he doubts the rapper has been receiving any special treatment. Upon the rapper's arrival, the dormitory he was set to be staying out reportedly removed all inmates with gang affiliations Tekashi is currently sitting with neutral inmates at a federal facility after being discharged from Metropolitan Detention Center on Wednesday. Records show that Tekashi 6ix9ine was discharged from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn on Wednesday, just days after a grand jury indicted him and five other members of the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods on racketeering charges. There was no transfer facility listed however for Hernandez, as is standard when a prisoner is released from the MDC. The FeFe rapper has not been cleared however in that racketeering case, and is still facing six counts and a sentence of 25 years to life in prison for his alleged involvement in multiple acts involving murder, robbery, extortion, and distribution of controlled substances. Records show that Tekashi 6ix9ine was discharged from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn on Wednesday, just days after a grand jury indicted him and five other members of the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods on racketeering charges DailyMail.com reached out to Hernandez's lawyer Lance Lazzaro over the holiday, who did not respond to a request for comment. There were conflicting reports as to where Hernandez had been moved at the time. TMZ first broke the story on Thursday and reported that the rapper was being housed in a facility for individuals who agree to cooperate with authorities. Soon after DJ Akademiks, who worked with Hernandez on his now-delayed album Dummy Boy, offered up his own theory. He posted a lengthy diatribe on his YouTube channel in which he conjectured that Hernandez may have been used as a pawn to get the other five defendants indicted on RICO charges. DailyMail.com reached out to Hernandez's lawyer Lance Lazzaro over the holiday, who did not respond to a request for comment The producer cited the decision by law enforcement officials to quickly indict the group and pointed out that it all happened after Hernandez disbanded his team, a move that would have made it harder to show the connection between members of the group. That would ultimately make it difficult to prosecute on racketeering charges, so his belief is that prosecutors are hopsing hernandez will flip and therefore put him in a ghang-free facility. The indictment alleges that 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. Hernandez was initially held without bail after an initial appearance before a Manhattan federal magistrate judge Monday. Last week the rapper revealed in an Instagram clip that he had dismissed his entire staff, including his manager and booker On Wednesday, defense attorney Lance Lazzaro said in a statement that his client was 'completely innocent of all charges.' 'An entertainer who portrays a "gangster image" to promote his music does not make him a member of an enterprise,' said Lazzaro. 'Mr. Hernandez became a victim of this enterprise and later took steps by firing employees and publicly denounced this enterprise through a morning show. Threats were then made against his life which resulted in this case being brought immediately.' At Monday's hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Longyear pointed out that the rapper did not renounce his membership in the gang while appearing on a radio show last week. He said Hernandez would have been arrested this week anyway, but the timetable was speeded up when authorities learned that he planned to go to a Connecticut casino where it would be harder to protect him from the threats. Longyear said the threats were overheard on phone calls intercepted Saturday by investigators, including one in which an individual was heard saying that gang members wanted to 'super violate him.' The prosecutor noted that violence seemed to surround the entertainer. He said 10 shots were fired into a Beverly Hills, California, home where he was filming a music video a week ago. Hernandez had previously been kidnapped outside his Brooklyn residence as well in a bizarre incident this past July in which three men alleged robbed and beat him before making off with $750,000 worth of jewelry and $35,000 in cash. His ex-manager Kifano Jordan, aka Shotti,Faheem Walter, aka Crippy, Jamel Jones, aka Mel Murda, Jensel Butler, aka Ish, and Fuguan Lovick, aka Fu Banga, were also indicted. Prosecutors described Nine Trey as a 'criminal enterprise involved in committing numerous acts of violence, including shootings, robberies, and assaults in and around Manhattan and Brooklyn'. 'Members and associates of Nine Trey engaged in violence to retaliate against rival gangs, to promote the standing and reputation of Nine Trey, and to protect the gang's narcotics business,' the press release continues. The group 'enriched themselves by committing robberies and selling drugs, such as heroin, fentanyl, furanly fentanyl, MDMA, dibutylone, and marijuana.' Nine Trey was established in the early 90s at Rikers and operates in other areas of the country, including California. In 2015, Hernandez pleaded guilty to one felony count of using a child in a sexual performance. Authorities said the rapper had sexual contact with a 13-year-old girl when he was 18 and distributed videos of the incident online. Hernandez recently pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in Brooklyn Criminal Court in connection with a May traffic stop. Last week the rapper revealed in an Instagram clip that he had dismissed his entire staff, including his manager and booker. 'I fired everybody on my team,' the Gummo artist said in the clip, imploring his fans that he was not going to be performing live in the near future, even in cases where he might be advertised. 'I don't got no manager, I got no booking agent, no PR, no publicist, I don't got nobody on my team - it's just me.' Leading facilities management (FM) company Farnek has opened a new help desk and customer service centre in Fujairah as part of its strategy to support the local economy and help boost Emiratisation in the northern emirate. The contact centre is expected to manage over 200,000 inbound and outbound calls, in its first year alone, said a statement from Farnek. The contact centre executives will attend to their customer's needs by providing technical and general assistance before, during and after service delivery, on behalf of both Farnek and its home and property maintenance division, Hitches and Glitches. The new facility employs more than 30 executives, of which over two thirds are local Emiratis, who were selected from over 200 applicants, after walk-in interviews were arranged in conjunction with the UAE Ministry of Human Resources. "We have managed to attract some exceptional talent, millennial graduates who are fluent in both Arabic and English and with the help of ongoing training and evaluation, will add considerable value to our operation here," remarked Farnek CEO Markus Oberlin. "We wanted to give opportunity to local Emiratis and in doing so, not only offer rewarding jobs and career opportunities, but also to support the local community and its economy," he noted. "And as our business grows in the Northern Emirates, there will be further opportunities for career progression," he stated. "Farnek has been applauded by the ministry for its positive strategy towards Emiratisation and was awarded with Platinum membership of the national employment - Tawteen Programme," he added. The initiative was launched in December 2016 by the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE), to encourage the employment of UAE nationals within specified occupations across the private sector. It can be difficult to find employment when living in relatively isolated areas on the UAEs east coast. It is changing especially with the hospitality sector opening up, but for some the only viable alternative is commuting to Ras Al Khaimah, Sharjah, or even Dubai, something that their families naturally want to avoid, added Oberlin. The new centre in Fujairah was set up to support Farneks central contact centre in Dubai, which was successfully certified last year, after complying with International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) 18295.-TradeArabia News Service Sam Wood and Snezana Markoski will get married in Byron Bay, NSW, almost three years after becoming engaged. The reality TV lovebirds, who met and fell in love on The Bachelor in 2015, will exchange vows against the stunning backdrop of rolling hills and ocean views at the award-winning Fig Tree Restaurant. They had previously planned to tie the knot in Italy last year, but the wedding was postponed when Snezana, 38, became pregnant with the couple's first child. Happily ever after! The Bachelor 2015's Sam Wood and Snezana Markoski are tying the knot in Byron Bay, almost three years after getting engaged. Pictured in The Bachelor finale Fitness entrepreneur Sam, also 38, told Thursday's issue of Who magazine that the hardest part of organising their wedding was 'writing the [guest] list'. Snezana added that her wedding dress is being made by Paddington-based bridal boutique Pallas Couture. 'We've been putting our heads together trying to figure it out and making sure it's "me",' said the mother-of-two. She has also partnered with Edward Meller to design her own customised heels for her wedding day. Converted farmhouse: The reality TV lovebirds, both 38, will exchange vows against the backdrop of rolling hills and ocean views at the award-winning Fig Tree Restaurant (pictured) The perfect day: The Fig Tree Restaurant (pictured) is a popular wedding venue known for its coastal charm and panoramic views overlooking Byron Bay Sam and Snezana fell in love on the third season of The Bachelor, in 2015. They were engaged by the end of that year and welcomed their first child together - daughter Willow - in October 2017. The personal trainer is also a stepfather to his fiancee's daughter from a previous marriage, 13-year-old Eve. Reality TV lovebirds: Sam and Snezana fell in love on the third season of The Bachelor, in 2015 Family: After getting engaged in late 2015, Sam and Snezana welcomed their first child together - daughter Willow - in October 2017. The former Bachelor is also a stepfather to his fiancee's daughter from a previous marriage, 13-year-old Eve (right) It was previously rumoured that the couple were planning to marry in Snezana home country of Macedonia. And back in July, fans speculated they had eloped while on their babymoon in Hawaii after Sam shared a photo of the pair kissing below an archway. He captioned the snap, 'You may now kiss the...', but a spokesperson later confirmed to Daily Mail Australia they didn't tie the knot. 'You may now kiss the...' Back in July, fans speculated the couple had eloped while on their babymoon in Hawaii after Sam shared this photo of the pair kissing below an archway Justin Bieber and Hailey Baldwin 'want to start a family soon'. The couple, who married at a New York courthouse in September, celebrated Thanksgiving together at their home in Ontario, Canada along with Justin's mom and dad and Hailey's dad Stephen Baldwin. 'Hailey did cook, but they all chipped in,' a source told UsWeekly. 'It's going to happen': Justin Bieber and Hailey Baldwin 'want to start a family soon' sources claim 'Theyre very much in love. They get along so well. They want to start a family soon.' they added. The source added that Hailey isn't pregnant right now, but 'it's going to happen.' On Friday Justin shared a Thanksgiving note to Instagram about married life. 'Happy late thanksgiving to everyone. First thanksgiving as a married man, first time hosting thanksgiving. First time both sides of the family has come together. Thanksgiving also marked Hailey's 22nd birthday and Justin's mom gushed about the model on Instagram 'Relationships are hard and love isnt always easy but thank you Jesus for showing me how! Every day is a learning process, trying to be more like him, patient, kind, selfless, boy I got a long way! But gods grace is sufficient.' Thanksgiving also marked Hailey's 22nd birthday and Justin's mom gushed about the model on Instagram. Pattie Mallette wrote on Twitter: 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY @haileybaldwin !! I LOVE YOU!! Im SO #THANKFUL to have you as a daughter!!!' On the cards: The source added that Hailey isn't pregnant right now, but 'it's going to happen.' On November 16 Hailey made things official as Justin's wife as she changed her handle on Instagram to Hailey Bieber. The couple are living full-time at their home in Ontario, according to reports. 'That's their home base,' a source told UsWeekly. 'Justin has a huge home up there 9,000 square feet, 1,000 acres, on a lake. He loves it up there and so does Hailey.' 'Justin loves being in Canada because its very peaceful. He can take Hailey out and its not a mess with photographers. They are much more left alone. They seem very happy together.' an insider told People. Faryal Makhdoom defiantly made another glamorous red carpet appearance after vile trolls labelled her a 'bad Muslim' for dressing up in the aftermath of Umrah. After hitting back at the comments, Faryal proved she wasn't going to be hiding away as she attended the Creed II premiere at BFI IMAX in London on Wedneaday. Cosying up to her husband Amir Khan, the 27-year-old model was a vision of beauty as she posed up a storm on the night. Stepping out; Faryal Makhdoom defiantly made another glamorous red carpet appearance with husband Amir Khan at the Creed II premiere in London on Wednesday Dressed to impress for the event, Faryal donned a cropped wrap around blouse that flashed a hint of her taut torso. She teamed the garment with satin trousers, whilst a pair of heeled ankle boots boosted her petite frame. Glamorous as ever, the mother-of-two lined her eyes with a thick rim of kohl, and wore her glossy chestnut locks in loose waves. Stylish: Vile trolls labelled her a 'bad Muslim' for dressing up in the aftermath of Umrah, but Faryal brushed off the remarks as she hit the red carpet again in a cropped wrap blouse The outing came after Faryal slammed trolls who had accused her of being a 'bad Muslim'. The entrepreneur, 27, uploaded a snap of herself and husband from the OK! Beauty Awards on Monday, however her followers were none too pleased about her glamorous display days after she completed Umrah - the holy Islamic pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. Firing back at a critic's usage of Drake lyrics, the mother-of-two noted that his music was 'haram (sinful) too', before going on to call out another commenter for 'judging her'. Proud: Amir looked smitten as he gazed adoringly at his wife, and looked dapper in a black satin shirt Proving their union was stronger than ever following a temporary split last year, Faryal cut an incredibly striking figure as she cosied up with Amir on the red carpet days earlier. Faryal teased her cleavage in a stunning monochrome gown, which featured a black satin skirt with a split. And while the raven haired stunner was clearly feeling her look, it wasn't without criticism as one person commented: 'One day in allah's house wearing nikab and the next with her legs out. Drake wrote 0-100 real quick for you sister.' 'Don't be listening to Drake boo, it's haram too,' Faryal quipped back to the message which pointed out the difference in her attire compared to her head to toe covered up look during her pilgrimage last week. Divisive: The entrepreneur uploaded a snap of herself and husband Amir Khan from the OK! Beauty Awards - however her followers were none too pleased about her glamorous display 'Legs out next day': Faryal's followers appeared furious she attended a red carpet display just days after completing Umrah - the holy Islamic pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia Not having it: Firing back at a critic's usage of Drake lyrics, the mother-of-two noted that his music was 'haram (sinful) too', before going on to call out another commenter for 'judging her' Not selling for another comment which read: 'Sad am not judging but you just wasted yr time n money', the Pakistani beauty replied: 'That's definitely not judging babe.' While Faryal was swamped with negative comments, others ensured to leave positive comments in her defence: 'If only you know the commenters are embarrassing Islaam waaaaaaaay more then what she wears or does. Anyone seeing this will never even consider that your religion teaches one to be kind and non judgemental and to MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS.' 'Stunning! What a beautiful looking couple MashaAllah! ... Please ignore the haraam police. They talk as if they are free of sins and the purest of Muslims. Enjoy your life to the fullest girl! Much love and duas. ' '@faryalmakhdoom how old are you, Faryal? You are a mother of two. You are married. You represent Pakistan. You represent Islam. You want to call out an individual on Instagram and compare you coming back from Umrah and wearing a mini skirt to a girl listening to drake? Have some etiquette. You live in the UK and arent even as wealthy as the Royals yet that Non Muslim family has far better decorum than you.' Blasting trolls: Faryal couldn't resist quipping back to people who pointed out the difference in her glam attire compared to her head to toe covered up look during her pilgrimage last week 'Jealousy is the biggest sin of all': While Faryal was swamped with negative comments, others ensured to leave positive comments in her defence 'Women should empower one another and accept one another regardless of the choices they make. Instead of being hateful and envious. Envy and jealousy is the biggest sin of all!!!' Faryal and Amir, who tied the knot back in 2013, 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'. Family: Faryal and Amir, who tied the knot back in 2013, welcomed their new bundle of joy, daughter Alayna on April 24, a sister for their firstborn Lamaisah, now four 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. They are fast approaching their dream wedding in the Maldives which is just more than six months away. Things got tense between Billie Faiers and her fiance Greg Shepherd when they fought over their lack of wedding plans during The Mummy Diaries on Wednesday. The businessman scolded his fiancee for not getting her act together with the wedding plans and he threatened to take over if she left it any longer. Scroll down for video Mummy Diaries: Billie Faiers and her fiance Greg Shepherd fought as they made NO progress with wedding plans (and it's nearly 6 months until the big day) on Wednesday He said: 'I honestly think this will be our last big holiday before the Maldives. We need to start sorting this wedding out. We've got no where at the moment. 'Minute I get back from Vegas, I'm going to be in wedding mode. You've had long enough now.' However, Billie tried to cool off the argument when she confessed she knew things would be left until 'last minute'. The Mummy Diaries star explained she hadn't got round to tackling the wedding plans because there were 'so many distractions'. 'We've got no where': The businessman scolded his fiancee for not getting her act together with the wedding plans and he threatened to take over if she left it any longer Billie added: 'We've got more than six months. It's fine. So many distractions at the moment, that's when I can really concentrate on the wedding there's only so much I can do at the moment anyway.' But Greg countered Billie's claims as he pointed out she hadn't been making the necessary contacts they need to pull off a show-stopping wedding in the Maldives. He said: 'You're not making contacts on the island. You need to talk to people on the island who are doing things. Can't sort it out when we get there. We need to take a bit more time. You haven't even asked for the guy's email.' War of words: Greg countered Billie's claims as he pointed out she hadn't been making the necessary contacts they need to pull off a show-stopping wedding in the Maldives Billie replied: 'It's all under control.' Elsewhere in the episode, Greg complained it was 'doom and gloom' when he returned with Paul Knightley from his boozy stag do in Las Vegas. Billie's love enthused he was 'free' to do whatever he wanted in the gambling city but he confessed he missed his kids. Greg said: 'I am FREE! I need to grow up. Now I miss the kids but they'll be there when I get back.' Elsewhere in the episode, Billie's daughter Nelly stole the show as she picked out her school uniform and she staunchly objected to not having a pink ensemble. Supportive: Billie's daughter Nelly stole the show on Wednesday night's episode of the ITVBe programme as she picked out her school uniform - however she staunchly objected to not having a pink ensemble The four-year-old, who has been in the spotlight her entire life, showed off her touch of drama as she demanded to know why she could not have a pink uniform. Billie shares Nelly and her 20-month-old son Arthur with fiance Greg Shepherd and they recently sent their eldest to school for the first time. In a sweet clip from the episode, Billie heads to the school suppliers to help choose the perfect uniform for her beloved daughter's big day. As they stood in the shop, Nelly asked: 'Why don't they have pink?', before Billie assured her: 'Not many people wear pink to school!' The disgruntled tot said to her mum: 'Pink is my favourite colour... pink and purple are my favourite colour', while Billie then said off camera: 'Nelly's talking about getting a pink school uniform which obviously isn't going to happen'. Adorable: The four-year-old, who has been in the spotlight her entire life, showed off her touch of drama as she demanded to know why she could not have a pink uniform In September, Billie shared a gushing post ahead of her eldest child's first day at primary school before she later posted a snap of Nelly clad in her eventual school uniform. The star posted a cute snap of her little one wearing her new school's blazer, grey pinefore and black school shoes. Upping the cuteness factor, Nelly sported a bright red beret and held onto her matching school bag while she posed for a photo. Brimming with pride, Billie wrote alongside the photo: 'We are beyond proud of you our little darling Nelly, we all love you so much.' Stoic: In a sweet clip from the forthcoming episode, Billie heads to the school suppliers to help choose the perfect uniform for her beloved daughter's big day The former TOWIE star's sweet photo comes a day after she shared an emotional post on her social media as she lamented Nelly's first day in Primary school. The reality star cuddled up to a sleeping Nelly in a heartwarming selfie as she discussed her big day at school and how she's excited for her little one's journey. Captioning the shot, she wrote: 'Our last story and cuddles before my little darling goes to big school tomorrow... 'I cant even describe the emotions... where has time gone, but Im so excited for my little ladys new adventure ps. Good luck to all the mummys and daddys whos little ones are starting too' (sic.). Enraged: As they stood in the shop, Nelly asked: 'Why dont they have pink?', before Billie assured her: 'Not many people wear pink to school!' Her gushing post comes six months after fans watched her breakdown while choosing Nelly's school The Mummy Diaries' last series. Making an online applications, Billie sat at a laptop, filling out the school forms when she clicked 'submit' and immediately bursts into tears. She said: 'It's the pressure!' Trying to console his future wife, Greg explained: 'Shell be fine whatever school she goes to.' 'It's just a reality check of how important this is to me,' Billie adds through tears. 'I just feel so nervous about the whole thing. Its so stupid.' Adorable: Earlier this year, Billie shared an emotional post on Instagram as she lamented daughter Nelly's first day in Primary school He's best known for playing the grim 'Winter Soldier' Bucky Barnes in Marvel's Avengers films. But on Wednesday, Sebastian Stan showed off his playful side -and plenty of skin- as the actor rode a scooter through the streets of Athens, Greece while stark naked. The 36-year-old actor was joined by an equally nude Denise Gough, 38, as they filmed a racy scene from their forthcoming film, Monday. Bucky naked: On Wednesday, Sebastian Stan showed off his playful side -and plenty of skin- as the actor rode a scooter through the streets of Athens, Greece while stark naked. Behind him is co-star Denise Gough The I, Tonya actor gritted his teeth as he rode through the chilly conditions in the Greek capital. His Irish co-star clung to Sebastian for warmth as they sped along on the yellow scooter, which was mounted on the back of a trailer. They were joined by over half a dozen crew members - all of whom were rugged up against the bitter cold in warm clothing, including gloves and beanies. According to IMDb, Monday is the story of 'two self-destructive Americans, living across Athens and the Greek islands who plunge into a tsunami of a romance.' The winter rider: The I, Tonya actor gritted his teeth as he rode through the chilly conditions in the Greek capital Hold on tight: His Irish co-star clung to Sebastian for warmth as they sped along on the yellow scooter, which was mounted on the back of a trailer Little help please? They were joined by over half a dozen crew members - all of whom were rugged up against the bitter cold in warm clothing, including gloves and beanies Plot: According to IMDb, Monday is the story of 'two self-destructive Americans, living across Athens and the Greek islands who plunge into a tsunami of a romance' The Romanian-born actor is currently involved in another film which happens to be shooting in far warmer climes. In Untitled Drake Doremus Project, Sebastian stars alongside Shailene Woodley and Jamie Dornan. The drama is being filmed in Los Angeles, California. His day job: The Romanian-born actor is currently involved in another film which happens to be shooting in far warmer climes That's what I call moonlighting: In Untitled Drake Doremus Project, Sebastian stars alongside Shailene Woodley and Jamie Dornan According to that film's synopsis, it tells the story of 'a 30-something woman navigating through love and heartbreak over the course of one year.' 'During that time, she will unlock the secrets to her life in a sudden turn of events and in the most surprising of places.' It is not yet known which part Stan will play in the film. Two brothers, abused by pedophile Vivian Deboo in the 1990s, have donned masks to confront the South Australian man they call a "monster". Deboo is appearing before the District Court on Wednesday for sentencing submissions after pleading guilty to multiple counts of indecent assault and gross indecency. A group of supporters for the two victims were also outside court as calls grow for Judge Simon Stretton to refuse defence requests for a home detention sentence. In a recent victim impact statement, one of the brothers called for Deboo to be shown "justice in its full force" with a harsh jail term. The prosecution has also argued against any home detention penalty. Now 74, Deboo received a two-year non-parole period in 1996 for some of his crimes but his current accusers did not come forward about their abuse until 2015. Czech President Milos Zeman (L) gestures near Israeli parliament (Knesset) speaker Yuli Edelstein (R) during a session at the Knesset in Jerusalem on November 26, 2018 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. A Mandarin duck nicknamed Mandarin Patinkin has made a big splash for bird watchers and the general public at New York's Central Park A magnificent Mandarin duck has become a star attraction at Central Park, traveling from unknown lands to mingle with the most banal of mallards, attracting crowds and the paparazzi along the way. It's unclear how the duck landed in Central Park The duck, whose species is native to East Asia and sees males sport a colorful plumage in purple, orange, yellow and rust tones, landed at the iconic New York park on a sunny October day. He was spotted by rare bird watcher David Barrett, who posted a video on Twitter via the handle @BirdCentralPark that went viral. The tos and fros of this stunning member of the anatidae family are tracked closely on Twitter, and he even got his moment of fame in The New York Times. The duck's movements are tracked closely on social media -- and by paparazzi It's unclear exactly how he arrived here. Some speculated at first that he had escaped from a zoo, but none of the city's reported a missing duck. Others guessed he might have been abandoned by a family that kept him as a pet. Yet more suggested he came from lands beyond the US financial capital, where laws bar people from owning a duck. The duck stands out among other members of the anatidae family at a Central Park pond All the speculation has only helped fuel the duck's popularity. Mystery abounds when he surreptitiously takes flight for missions that can sometimes last two weeks. He was spotted several times in New Jersey -- on the other side of the East River -- with a telling band on his right leg, but it's unclear whether he swam or flew to the other side. The duck has become a star, nicknamed Mandarin Patinkin by local media as a tribute to actor Mandy Patinkin of "Princess Bride" fame. On Tuesday, he roamed about beyond the lenses of photographers on the lake in a southeastern corner of Central Park a stone's throw from the Plaza hotel, snacking on a few breadcrumbs thrown by onlookers. In this file picture taken on September 13, 2017, an Iraqi man checks an electricity generator grid in Baghdad Iraq's broken electricity sector is planning a long-awaited overhaul to both meet US pressure to halt Iranian power imports and head off summertime protests over chronic cuts. With a freshman at the helm, the electricity ministry is exploring options including revamping stations and lines to cut waste, importing power, and improving bill collection to boost revenues. Baghdad hopes it will generate enough megawatts to feed demand by summer, when cuts can leave millions powerless for up to 20 hours per day. But it also has an earlier deadline to meet. When Washington reimposed sanctions on Tehran in November over the latter's nuclear programme, it granted Iraq a 45-day waiver to produce a roadmap to stop using Iranian electricity and gas. Iraq pipes in up to 28 million cubic metres of Iranian gas daily to feed its stations, and also directly imports up to 1,300 megawatts of Iranian-produced electricity. Now, Baghdad's power ministry has outlined a plan to wean off Iranian electricity within 18 months and resolve some decade-old problems, said spokesman Musab al-Mudarris. "In the coming two weeks, we will submit to the Americans a five-year plan including yearly assessments," he told AFP. If the US approves, it may extend the waiver for "a year or two". Iraq is looking to revamp power stations and lines to cut waste, as well as import power and improve bill collection to boost revenues "But there are no quick fixes," Mudarris insisted. Iraq sits on 153 billion barrels of proven crude reserves, but it needs higher quality fuel and gas for power turbines. Mudarris admitted that while Iraq could do without Iran's electricity, it needed Iranian gas until it could extract its own or capture flares from oil drilling. - Bright ideas - Using its own fuel plus Iranian gas, Iraq can produce a total of around 16,000 megawatts of electricity. That is far below demand, which hovers around 24,000 MW but can jump to 30,000 in summer, when temperatures reach a sizzling 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit). Much of the shortfall is technical: when Iraq transmits power, 30 to 50 percent gets lost to poor infrastructure, according to the Iraq Energy Institute (IEI). Some of that is age, but pipelines and stations were also attacked by the Islamic State group before Iraq beat it back last year. Rehabilitation is a key element of the ministry's plan. A man in Baghdad checks a electricity generator in this file photo taken on September 13, 2017 Mudarris pointed to recent memorandums of understanding with Siemens, worth $10 billion, and General Electric, at $15 billion, to fix infrastructure. Together, they could add up to 24,000 MW within five years: "That would bring us to 40,000 MW," Mudarris said. Electricity Minister Luay al-Khateeb has also asked Siemens and GE for "fast-track" plans to boost power generation by summer. Baghdad is finding ways to fund these efforts, including a $600 million finance deal between GE, the Trade Bank of Iraq, and Standard Chartered announced in late November. Another ministerial initiative involves swapping Iranian power for imports from other neighbours, Mudarris said, including 300 MW each from Turkey, Jordan, and Kuwait, plus Saudi solar power. In a possible omen, new Iraqi President Barham Saleh visited Amman, Kuwait, and Riyadh in his first regional trip since assuming power. Finally, Baghdad wants to recover money lost by the ministry's poor collection service. "We are losing about 60 percent of our revenues to people who don't pay. If we can cut those losses, we can stop relying on Iran," said Mudarris. - 'Doomed to fail'? - Last year, Iraq began privatising by hiring collection services to ensure households paid power bills. Samir Hussein, a 20-year employee of the ministry's distribution department, said privatised collection has already reduced outages in Baghdad. "Those who pay cut their usage by half, which allows me to redirect megawatts to other neighbourhoods, preventing cuts there," he told AFP. But obstacles remain, including overdue bills to Iran for previous imports. Protesters erect a makeshift barricade during clashes with Iraqi security forces after a demonstration against corruption and lack of basic services including electricity in the southern city of Basra A draft 2019 budget shows Iraq allocating some $800 million for "Iranian gas arrears" and around $350 million for Iranian electricity backpay, according to an IEI analysis. Another issue is Iraq's bloated electricity ministry, said energy expert Harry Estepanian. Neighbouring Kuwait generates around the same amount of electricity as Iraq, but its ministry employs 12,000 compared with Iraq's roughly 140,000, he said. The body is also accused of widespread corruption, which technocrat and first-time minister Khateeb pledged to investigate this week. "Whatever he is planning is doomed to fail if he does not reform," Estepanian told AFP. And Iraq's five-year plan must account for skyrocketing consumption as cities are rebuilt post-IS. "Right now Mosul, Anbar, Salahaddin probably don't have high demand. Once reconstruction starts, demand will start to go up by around seven to 10 percent," Estepanian said. "The gap between supply and demand is widening. It's not like it was in 2003 or 2013, and it won't be the same in 2023." Emirates SkyCargo won the Cargo Airline of the Year award at the Global Freight Awards ceremony organised by Lloyds Loading List, a renowned freight publication. The award was accepted by Ross Barnett, Emirates cargo manager, UK, at the Royal Lancaster London in front of an audience drawn from the global freight and transport community. The Global Freight Awards are held annually to recognise and reward innovation and achievement in the global freight industry and the award for the Air Cargo Carrier of the Year was finalised following a two-stage voting process open to the global readers of Lloyds Loading List. The freight division of Emirates received the largest number of votes from the publications readership of freight forwarders and shippers for Air Cargo Carrier of the Year. This is a clear indication of positive customer sentiment towards Emirates SkyCargo as well as a strong measure of the successes of the carriers innovative and sector focused products and services. Honours in Portugal For the sixth consecutive year, Emirates SkyCargo won the award for the Best Cargo Airline- Middle East, Asia and Pacific 2018 at the awards hosted by Transportes e Negocios, a leading transport publication in Portugal. The air cargo carrier has been facilitating international trade between Portugal and the rest of the world since 2012 by transporting export commodities such as electronic equipment, automotive components, footwear, textiles and clothing from Lisbon in the belly hold of its now double daily Boeing 777 passenger service. Our recent award wins in the UK and Portugal are a confirmation that our customer-first strategy is working. It is also an endorsement of the efforts invested by our team both in Dubai and around the world. We are truly honoured to receive this recognition from our customers and stakeholders in the market, said Jeffrey Van Haeften, Emirates vice president- Cargo Global Sales & Commercial- Europe. In a resounding validation of excellent air cargo services it offers to customers, Emirates SkyCargo won the Cargo Airline of the Year award at the Global Freight Awards ceremony organised by Lloyds Loading List, a renowned freight publication. The award was accepted by Ross Barnett, Emirates Cargo Manager, UK, at the gala dinner held on 16th November at the Royal Lancaster London in front of an audience drawn from the global freight and transport community. TradeArabia News Service Bangladesh's jailed opposition leader Khaleda Zia has now been banned from standing for election Bangladesh's imprisoned opposition leader has been barred from contesting next month's general election against her arch-rival Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the country's attorney general said Wednesday. Khaleda Zia is serving 10 years for graft but her supporters, who have appealed the charges, had clung to hopes the 73-year-old would be acquitted before the December 30 poll. But the Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a ruling from a lower court that nobody sentenced to more than two years jail or awaiting appeals could run for election. Zia's supporters had unsuccessfully appealed that decision by the High Court on Tuesday. "Following this judgement, she cannot take part in the elections," Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told AFP on Wednesday. The Bangladesh National Party (BNP), the opposition movement Zia leads from behind bars, had protested the court's ruling as a "reflection of the government's wishes". "This ruling is not acceptable to us at all. We are aggrieved and are protesting it strongly," said BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir. Zia had hoped to contest three parliamentary seats despite being incarcerated in Dhaka on corruption charges the BNP says were designed to keep her from challenging Hasina. Bangladesh has been led by either Zia or Hasina since the 1990s and the two powerful women have turned from close allies to fierce foes. Just a month from the polls the BNP has not announced an alternative candidate to run against Hasina, who is seeking a third-consecutive term in office. She was elected uncontested in 2014 after the BNP boycotted the ballot, saying it was not free and fair and rigged against Zia. The opposition has demanded Hasina stand down ahead of the election and allow a caretaker government to oversee the country, but the prime minister has refused. The BNP has accused her ruling Awami League party of detaining 5,000 opposition activists ahead of the December poll to cripple the party's grassroots base. Zia's son, a potential heir to the BNP throne, was sentenced in absentia to life behind bars in October. He lives in exile in London. Three warrants had been issued for the arrest of Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne, but he had refused to surrender Sri Lanka's highest-ranking military officer was remanded by a court Wednesday after weeks evading arrest for allegedly protecting the chief suspect in the murder of 11 people during the civil war. The Colombo Fort magistrate ordered that Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne, the country's military chief, be held in custody for a week pending investigations into the abduction and murder of the young men between 2008 and 2009. The magistrate denied bail for Wijegunaratne after it emerged he tried to abduct a key witness over the weekend, and sought to have an investigator removed from the case. "I am denying bail because in your position you are able to influence witnesses and disrupt the investigations," Magistrate Ranga Dassanayake told a packed courthouse. Wijegunaratne, who appeared in full military regalia, has denied any connection to the murders. Wijegunaratne's bodyguards earlier shoved journalists trying to photograph the chief of defence staff as he entered the courtroom. Earlier in the day, Wijegunaratne surrendered after weeks of ignoring court summons. Investigators told the court that Wijegunaratne protected the main accused in the high-profile murders, naval intelligence officer Chandana Prasad Hettiarachchi. He was arrested in August over the killings in the closing stages of Sri Lanka's bloody separatist war that ended in May 2009. Three warrants for Wijegunaratne's arrest were issued earlier this month but he ignored them, even travelling to Mexico while investigators were seeking a statement from him. Police believe the 11 victims were killed while in the illegal custody of the navy. Their bodies were never found. Military figures were accused of abductions and extrajudicial killings during the 37-year war against the Tamil Tiger separatist movement. Several intelligence officers are facing prosecution over the murder of journalists critical of Mahinda Rajapakse, the former president whose tenure was marred by allegations of war crimes and grave rights abuses. His recent controversial appointment as prime minister by Sri Lanka's president has plunged the country into crisis, with parliament twice voting against the war-era strongman ruler taking over government. Rajapakse, who has refused to step aside as Sri Lanka drifts in a power vacuum, and several members of his family are being investigated for fraud and murder during his 10-year presidency. But those inquiries were thrown into doubt after his surprise return to the helm of government in an alliance with President Maithripala Sirisena. Rajapakse lead Sri Lanka as government troops defeated the Tamil insurgency in May 2009, ending years of bitter and brutal fighting. The final days of the offensive were marked by major abuses, according to rights groups. A UN panel has said 40,000 civilians may have been killed in the final stages of the war. The Kurdish-Arab fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces face their "most treacherous" battle of their campaign against the Islamic State group in Deir Ezzor, according to analysts The Islamic State group has fiercely defended its last holdout in eastern Syria against a more than two-month military offensive by a Kurdish-Arab alliance backed by a US-led coalition. After the Syrian Democratic Forces alliance successfully expelled the jihadists from other parts of war-torn Syria, why is this latest battle in the far east taking so long? Who is inside the holdout? Hundreds of fighters are believed to be inside the pocket, which lies in the oil-rich province of Deir Ezzor near the Iraqi border. East Syria The US-led coalition has estimated some 2,000 fighters to be present in the holdout, which includes the towns of Hajin, Sousa and Al-Shaafa. According to SDF commanders on the front line, a great number of those combatants are likely to be non-Syrians. The SDF has said it believes "major leaders" of IS are hiding inside the pocket, where most front line commanders are Iraqis. Nicholas Heras, an analyst at the Center for a New American Security, says "a mini army of several hundred fighters... has been assembled by IS there, including some of its best snipers." The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, says IS family members are also inside the embattled jihadist holdout. Why the tough IS fightback? IS overran large parts of Syria and neighbouring Iraq in 2014, declaring a "caliphate" across territories it controlled. But various offensives in both countries have routed the jihadists from most of that land, crushing their dreams of statehood. The Syrian Democratic Forces gather in Sousa, near the border with Iraq, where the US-backed fighters are battling to oust the Islamic State group from its last holdout in eastern Syria In Syria, the extremists saw their dominion shrink to an eastern pocket around Hajin, although they also have a presence in the country's vast Badia desert. On September 10, the SDF launched an offensive supported by coalition strikes to expel IS from the Hajin patch on the Euphrates River's eastern bank. Syria analyst Tore Hamming said that, after years of defeats, battle-hardened IS fighters in that last redoubt were likely determined to fight to the bitter end. "They know that they will either be killed by an air strike, or captured and put into prison," he said. "IS knows the area extremely well, having been operating there for more than five years now and arguably has some level of local support." What are the complications? Analysts say the battle to expel IS from the Hajin pocket will be tough. In recent weeks, the jihadists have taken advantage of low visibility in bad weather to launch vicious counter-attacks. Under cover of sand storms, and using suicide bombers, they last month managed to reverse all SDF advances inside the pocket. Most recently, IS fighters have burst out of the fog, killing 92 US-backed fighters since Friday, according to the Observatory. Mourners carry the coffin of a commander from the Syrian Democratic Forces, killed in battles against the Islamic State group in the town of Hajin More than 450 SDF fighters have been killed since the start of their offensive on September 10, the monitor says, while more than 730 jihadists have also died. SDF spokesman Kino Gabriel said key obstacles to defeating IS included bad weather, and IS using "all types of weapons, car bombs, and civilians as human shields". On the opposing side, the SDF is "using all its capacities including special forces, heavy weapons and all military units that are present", he said. Heras said the remaining battle in Deir Ezzor would be "the most treacherous of the entire campaign" against IS. "The SDF is relying on local Arab tribal fighters to wage the war against IS there, and these local fighters do not want to take casualties," the analyst said. "IS has turned this area into a deathtrap, and the SDF's (local) fighters are well aware of this." All this makes "the fight there slow-moving and tortuous, which is putting pressure on the SDF to hurry things up," he said. The coalition remains optimistic. "At this point in the operation, there are not enough IS (fighters) to make any significant or lasting gains," coalition deputy commanding general Christopher Ghika said on Sunday. The coalition says IS has lost most of its financial resources, and is instead relying on improvised explosive devices and cave complexes "to retain their shrinking influence". Nigeria's Guardian newspaper is one of at least 15 news organisations working together on CrossCheck Nigeria, a project to investigate and disprove erroneous claims, particularly on social media At least 15 Nigerian news organisations joined forces Wednesday to fight misinformation ahead of February's elections in a collaborative first as the country's main political parties trade accusations of fabrication and exaggeration. The CrossCheck Nigeria project aims to get normally competing newsrooms to work together to investigate and disprove erroneous claims, particularly on social media. Completed investigations will appear on a central platform only when at least five partners have approved the work, in a move designed to improve public understanding and trust. Nigerians go to the polls on February 16 to elect a new president and parliament, while gubernatorial and state assembly elections take place two weeks later. President Muhammadu Buhari, 75, is seeking a second, four-year term but facing a strong challenge from former vice-president Atiku Abubakar. The race is predicted to be close given dissatisfaction with Buhari and his record on improving national security and the economy, plus tackling corruption. His ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has been accused of plagiarising its "Next Level" slogan and design for the re-election campaign. Abubakar's Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been criticised for using photos of dead African Union troops for Nigerian soldiers killed in a recent Boko Haram attack. CrossCheck Nigeria involves about 50 journalists from local print, broadcast and online media, plus AFP, supported by academic partners at the University of Lagos. The public will be able to provide tips via WhatsApp. Cross-checked claims will appear on www.crosschecknigeria.org. - Social media: The misinformation highway - The Abuja-based International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) will coordinate the project, which follows similar initiatives in Brazil and France. ICIR executive director Dayo Aiyetan said Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp had become "avenues for politicians to spread misinformation, rumour, falsehood and fake news". "The media bears responsibility to verify information being churned out on social media to ensure that they are true," he added in a statement. Aiyetan later criticised US President Donald Trump for his repeated attacks on the media and allegations about "fake news" which have generated public suspicion of the media. But he told a news conference: "In the US there is just one President Trump. The problem in Nigeria is that fake news, misinformation, is pervasive. "There are a million Trumps in Nigeria that can do damage with weaponised information." - A fake Buhari? - One of the most-shared online rumours suggested that Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari, seen here in September, had died in London in 2017 and been replaced by a Sudanese lookalike One of the most-shared rumours spread online is that Buhari, who spent months receiving treatment in London in 2017 for an unspecified illness, actually died. Supporters of pro-Biafran separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu in southeast Nigeria have claimed Buhari, a former military ruler, has been replaced by a lookalike from Sudan. Those involved in the CrossCheck Nigeria initiative said given the avalanche of misinformation, journalists needed to work together, using the same technology to fight it. "It's not the time for competition," said Martins Oloja, editor at The Guardian newspaper in Nigeria. First Draft, a British non-profit which aims to tackle misinformation around the world, is providing the technology and research expertise for the project. Jenni Sargent, managing director at First Draft, said the Nigeria project and others like it were designed to help the public make informed political choices. "This transparency is essential to maintaining trust and credibility in this age of misinformation," she added. Villages like Ouad Initi are at the centre of a push to win hearts and minds in remote Mauritania The sleepy Mauritanian village of Ouad Initi is about to get a makeover: a bigger school, a health centre, and more running water. All part of internationally-backed efforts to win over hearts and minds and stop the spread of jihadism. A lean, wrinkled man in sky-blue robes, the village chief, with several curious children at his heels, emerges to greet a posse of visitors -- European Union workers out on a reconnaissance mission. Remote villages like Ouad Initi, near the border with Mali, have long been neglected by authorities, making them easier prey for jihadists and other armed groups that have proliferated in Africa's Sahel region. Now they are at the heart of a push to win over grassroots support in Mauritania with authorities ramping up both security operations and infrastructure development to stop the spread of extremism. "What is boosting confidence and stopping Al-Qaeda recruiting is continuity in governance," a senior Mauritanian official told AFP. The European Union has earmarked 13 million euros ($14.7 million) of aid to boost Mauritania's development and security at the same time. "This type of joint civilian-military action is pioneering for the EU," said Francois-Xavier Pons, the project's head of mission. "We know very well that development allows for progress on the security front, encouraging people's loyalty to the state." The vulnerability of remote villages is also a major concern for the five nations of Africa's fledgeling G5 Sahel anti-jihadist force, which groups Mauritania with four others along the Sahara's southern rim: Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad. The five, which have been battling jihadists from Boko Haram and the Islamic State group, will seek funding for 40 projects in border areas at a conference in Mauritania's capital Nouakchott on December 6. - Preventing a rural exodus - Villagers in Ouad Initi, where cows and camels graze among rudimentary houses dotting a rocky landscape, have already provided valuable intelligence in the fight against extremism. In 2010 they warned officials that suspected militants had been passing through the area on their way to Nema, capital of the southeastern region. This led authorities to a plot to attack a barracks in Nema, which on Wednesday was to host celebrations for Mauritania's national day. Infrastructure workers on the ground say strengthening the farming economy is key to preventing a rural exodus which would make such territory an easier target for jihadists. Farming and animal husbandry are crucial to the local economy on Mauritania's border with Mali "There is a clear link between the difficulties affecting farming and the development of illegal activities such as jihadism locally," said Abder Benderdouche, who works on agricultural projects. Agriculture is the regional economy's lifeblood, he stressed, and encouraging it will help make remote areas more secure. "Areas in the Sahara and Sahel hold the region's meat reserves. That's worth its weight in gold," Benderdouche said. - Camel-back missions - Heavily-hit by jihadist attacks and the kidnapping of foreigners during the 2000s, Mauritania has been waging major efforts to improve security in recent years. It has sought to strengthen its army while boosting aid to remote areas where the state's grip had grown shaky, especially on the border with Mali. Last week, President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz said efforts to engage with "young people who were lost" had stopped "waves of Mauritanians" leaving to join jihadist groups. The military's Nomad Group (GN), which includes camel-back units, is a prime example of the two-pronged approach fusing security operations with infrastructure development. The GN has been growing in clout with support from the EU, which is set to buy 250 more camels for the force. "Where the state doesn't have any infrastructure in remote and isolated areas, we're coming to help in terms of sanitation and education," said GN commander, Colonel Abderrahamane El Khalil. "My men can help to dig a well, but they're also there to collect information, thanks to their proximity to the population." On camel-back, GN members can travel up to 70 kilometres (43 miles) a day, roaming villages for up to four weeks at a time. Mauritania is waging a two-pronged approach to boost security while building trust among local communities The construction of a G5 outpost 25 kilometres from the Malian border, meanwhile, will also be accompanied by measures to boost the economy and win locals' trust. In Nbeikit Lehouache, two hours into the desert from Nema by road and dirt track, cash from the project will allow for a mobile hospital that will treat locals as well as G5 troops. "Here, a box of paracetamol is welcomed with joy. Imagine a hospital capable of performing operations," said Pons. A magistrate decided Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne had intimidated witnesses Sri Lanka's military chief was remanded by court Wednesday after weeks evading arrest over the alleged cover-up of the abduction and murder of 11 young men during the island's civil war. Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne is the highest-ranking military officer ever held by a court over alleged crimes from Sri Lanka's wartime past, when the armed forces were accused of grave abuses against civilians. The powerful Chief of the Defence Staff was detained after revelations he attempted to abduct a key witness over the weekend and have a police detective removed from the case. "I am denying bail because in your position you are able to influence witnesses and disrupt the investigations," Magistrate Ranga Dassanayake told a packed courthouse in Colombo. Wijegunaratne, who arrived at court flanked by military personnel, has denied protecting the chief suspect in the high-profile murders -- a navy intelligence officer -- or attempting to cover-up the crimes. Wijegunaratne, who was chosen by the president, appeared in full military regalia, earning a rebuke from Magistrate Dassanayake who suggested he was trying to intimidate the court. Earlier, his entourage attacked journalists trying to photograph Wijegunaratne as he arrived at court. A navy officer was later arrested by police for assault. Wijegunaratne is accused of protecting the chief suspect in the murder of 11 people during the civil war Three arrest warrants were issued for Wijegunaratne this month but the top military appointee refused to surrender, even travelling to Mexico as an envoy for the president. Senior military figures have been accused of serious crimes and civilian abuses during Sri Lanka's decades-long war, but have broadly enjoyed impunity from prosecution. - Grave abuses - Investigators told the court that Wijegunaratne helped the chief accused in the murders -- Chandana Prasad Hettiarachchi, a naval intelligence officer. He was accused of abducting and killing the wealthy men in their late teens and early 20s for ransom in the final days of the war that ended in 2009. Their bodies were never found. Wijegunaratne, who is not directly tied to the murders, allegedly helped Hettiarachchi travel to Malaysia to evade arrest. The naval officer returned and was detained in August. Military officials were accused of kidnapping and holding civilians for cash ransom during the war, among other major abuses documented by rights groups. Several intelligence officers are facing prosecution over the murder of journalists critical of Mahinda Rajapakse, the former president whose tenure was marred by allegations of war crimes and grave rights abuses. His recent controversial appointment as prime minister by Sri Lanka's president has plunged the country into crisis, with parliament twice voting against the war-era strongman ruler taking over government. Rajapakse, who has refused to step aside as Sri Lanka drifts in a power vacuum, and several members of his family, are being investigated for fraud and murder during his 10-year presidency. But those inquiries were thrown into doubt after his surprise return to the helm of government in an alliance with President Maithripala Sirisena. Rajapakse led Sri Lanka as government troops crushed the Tamil insurgency in May 2009, ending 37 years of bitter and brutal fighting. The final days of the offensive were marked by major abuses, according to rights groups. A UN panel has said 40,000 civilians may have been killed in the final stages of the war. Defeating Boko Haram is "a must-win war," Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari told troops at an army conference in Maiduguri Nigeria's Muhammadu Buhari urged troops to show more commitment in fighting Boko Haram despite scores of losses in a recent assault as he visited the northeastern city of Maiduguri on Wednesday. The visit came a day before Buhari heads to NDjamena to hold talks on the Boko Haram conflict with his counterparts from Niger and Chad, his office said. Addressing delegates at an army conference in Maiduguri, the epicentre of the jihadist insurgency, Buhari acknowledged the military had done a lot to secure the volatile region. "There has been a remarkable improvement in the security situation in the northeast since 2015 when this administration came to power and you are part of it," he said. But defeating Boko Haram was "a must-win war," insisted the 75-year-old retired general who will seek a second four-year term in February's elections. "Our troops must not be distracted. They should be committed to the task of eliminating Boko Haram from the face of the earth." The conference had initially been due to take place in Benin City in the south, but it was moved to Maiduguri to honour the soldiers that were killed 10 days ago in an attack on a nearby military base, he said. There has been an upsurge in deadly attacks on both military and civilian targets in recent months, despite government claims the jihadists are on the verge of defeat. 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. In the latest attack on November 18, at least 43 soldiers were killed in Metele, although troops who survived put the death toll at more than 100. Buhari praised the fallen soldiers for their "heroic sacrifices" and pledged work with partners in the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJT) to end the conflict. The MNJT comprising Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Benin was set up to fight the Islamists in Lake Chad. Nigerian Defence Minister Mansur Dan-Ali said he was in Chad and Niger this week for talks with his counterparts on the Boko Haram issue. "My recent visit to Niger and Chad... was to meet with their defence ministers on how to strengthen the operational capabilities of the MNJT to achieve peace and security of the countries in Lake Chad," he said in Maiduguri. Dan-Ali said the MNJT would address the circumstances that led to the attack in Metele and come up with "new ideas and strategies" to prevent a recurrence. Security analysts say there must be a change of tactics if the fight against the jihadists is to succeed. They believe Nigeria's regional partners are not doing enough to secure their common frontiers against the insurgents. The nine-year Boko Haram jihadist rebellion has claimed more than 27,000 lives and forced at least 1.8 million to flee their homes, sparking a dire humanitarian crisis in the region. KATOWICE, Poland (AP) - Electronics salesman Leszek Jaworowski says he can't discuss Poland's coal mining with his father. They end up at loggerheads, just like many families in the southern mining region of Silesia. Unlike his father Edward, Jaworowski defied the area's centuries-old tradition and didn't become a miner. The 42-year-old believes it's time for Poland, heavily dependent on coal, to move away from the dangerous, costly and polluting industry. But to those working in the mines, coal lies at the very core of Silesia's identity, despite the huge safety and health hazards that it brings. "Coal mines should be shut, Silesia doesn't need them anymore," said Jaworowski Jr. "They're destroying the region, the air and the people. The heaps of money pumped into maintaining them should be better used for creating jobs in innovative and clean industries like IT." Not everyone thinks that way. Tomasz Mlynarczyk, 43, who operates heavy extraction machinery at the Wujek mine in Katowice, thinks coal is a "treasure." In this Nov. 21, 2018 photo a miner passes by a lorry at at the Wujek coal mine in Katowice, in Poland's southern mining region of Silesia. The mining industry has long been a source of pride and employment for generations of Silesians. For decades, its rich seams of hard, black coal were used to heat homes and provide electricity across Poland. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski) "If there was no coal there would be no jobs," he said. "If we close the mines, then everything around goes bankrupt - shops and other firms that produce and deliver goods to the mines." Poland has chosen to host this year's global climate summit in Silesia's main city, Katowice. The two-week conference starting Dec.2 will see governments, scientists and activists from around the world haggle over how to implement the Paris climate accord. The 2015 agreement set a goal of keeping global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), ideally no more than 1.5 C, an effort that experts say will require sharp cuts in carbon emissions that can only be achieved by ending coal-fired power plants in the coming decades. To spur the negotiators, Greenpeace activists on Tuesday climbed a 180-meter (590-foot) smokestack at Europe's largest lignite power plant in Belchatow in central Poland. The protest aimed to stress the harmful effects that burning coal has had on the world's climate and the pressing need to phase out the fossil fuel. Global pressure is also on other coal-burning countries like China, India, Australia, Germany, Colombia and the United States, where President Donald Trump says he is opting out of the Paris climate accord to avoid curbing industry. The Polish government argues that Katowice is a showcase for how a colliery center can be transformed into a modern, environment-friendly city. The venue is a closed mine turned into a museum and culture center. But despite the creation of a green technology hub and numerous new parks in recent years, coal's grip on Katowice and its surroundings remains firm - as evidenced by the smog that envelops the region for much of the year. The mining industry has long been a source of pride and employment for generations of Silesians. For decades, its rich seams of hard, black coal were used to heat homes and provide electricity across Poland. At the end of Poland's communist era almost 30 years ago, some 400,000 people were employed in 70 collieries. Miners earned twice the national average, and their feast day of Catholic St. Barbara, known as "Barborka," was renowned across the country. Critics argue that coal's mythical image was maintained by covering up the industry's deadly accidents and downplaying the environmental damage caused by mining. Whole neighborhoods in some towns such as Bytom have been abandoned due to environmental concerns. From 1990, Poland's transition to a market economy forced the closure of many heavily subsidized, unprofitable mines. Ensuing layoffs were met with violent protests by miners that prompted costly government programs that included payments for miners retiring early or moving into other fields, and financial incentives to attract foreign manufacturing firms such as German Opel carmaker. Today, about 30 mines provide jobs to some 83,000 people in Poland. Despite the retrenchment, Poland is Europe's largest source of coal. In 2016, some 70 million tons of coal were produced, or 70 percent of the European Union's output, according to the Energy Ministry. Still, the cutbacks have helped Poland slash its carbon emissions by 30 percent - much more than the 20 percent cut the European Union promised to achieve by the year 2020. But, like neighboring Germany, Poland cannot do without coal. Some 80 percent of Poland's energy still comes from coal. "We, as the government, want to have Polish coal for the Polish energy system," said Deputy Energy Minister Grzegorz Tobiszowski, who is in charge of restructuring coal mining. Consecutive Polish governments have assured miners in Silesia, home to 4 million people, that coal will remain an important energy source for decades to come. In 2040, the proportion of Poland's energy coming from coal should decrease to 50 percent, with the rest coming from renewable and nuclear sources, Tobiszowski said. While the government concedes that coal's role will diminish over time, Poland's rollout of renewables - which provides about 15 percent of electricity - has stalled - partly due to legislation that protects traditional, state-owned energy companies. "It is not Poland's fault that we have such rich deposits of fuels. The point is to use them in the most efficient way and to have them in our energy mix and to work on reducing the pollution, the emissions," said Michal Kurtyka, a senior official at Poland's environment ministry who will chair the climate talks in Katowice. To reduce harmful emissions, some 7.2 billion zlotys ($1.9 billion) are to be invested through 2022 into modern, cleaner coal technologies. Like the Jaworowski family, opinions on the future of coal are split largely along generational lines. To younger Poles, the prospect of going deeper and deeper underground holds little relish. The coal industry has had to hire workers from neighboring Ukraine. Patryk Bialas, an engineer and environmental activist, plans to drive home that message during the upcoming U.N. climate conference. "The move away from coal can be done faster than it is being done, but there needs to be a political will," Bialas said. "We just need to sit down and discuss the future, because coal is finished." A Greenpeace activist looks at a chimney in the Belchatow power plant, the world's largest lignite-fired power station, in Belchatow, Poland, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2018. A group of environmentalists has climbed a smokestack at Europe's largest lignite power plant in central Poland to spurr politicians to action at the global climate summit that the country will host next month. (AP Photo/Greenpeace via AP) The Nov. 20, 2018 photo shows disused lift and buildings of the closed 'Katowice' coal mine which was turned into the Museum of Silesia that neighbors the venue of the Dec. 2-14 global climate summit in Katowice, in Poland's southern coal mining region. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski) In this Nov. 21, 2018 photo miners leave the shaft after an underground shift at the Wujek coal mine in Katowice, in Poland's southern mining region of Silesia. The mining industry has long been a source of pride and employment for generations of Silesians. For decades, its rich seams of hard, black coal were used to heat homes and provide electricity across Poland. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski) In this Nov. 21, 2018 photo a miner puts away the equipment after an underground shift at the Wujek coal mine in Katowice, in Poland's southern mining region of Silesia. The mining industry has long been a source of pride and employment for generations of Silesians. For decades, its rich seams of hard, black coal were used to heat homes and provide electricity across Poland. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski) In this Nov. 21, 2018 photo a mining rescue team arrive for their regular shift at the Wujek coal mine in Katowice, in Poland's southern mining region of Silesia. The mining industry has long been a source of pride and employment for generations of Silesians. For decades, its rich seams of hard, black coal were used to heat homes and provide electricity across Poland. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski) In this Nov. 21, 2018 photo an employee walks by shelves of air filters used underground by the miners of the Wujek coal mine in Katowice, in Poland's southern mining region of Silesia. The mining industry has long been a source of pride and employment for generations of Silesians. For decades, its rich seams of hard, black coal were used to heat homes and provide electricity across Poland. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski) The Nov. 21, 2018 photo shows Tomasz Mlynarczyk, who operates heavy machinery to extract coal at the Wujek coal mine in Katowice, in Poland's southern mining region of Silesia. Coal is a 'treasure' for the 43-years-old miner. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski) The Nov. 20, 2018 photo shows disused lift and buildings of the closed "Katowice" coal mine which was turned into the Museum of Silesia that neighbors the venue of the Dec. 2-14 global climate summit in Katowice, in Poland's southern coal mining region. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski) HONG KONG (AP) - A Chinese researcher who claims to have helped make the world's first genetically edited babies says a second pregnancy may be underway. The researcher, He Jiankui of Shenzhen, revealed the pregnancy Wednesday while making his first public comments about his controversial work at an international conference in Hong Kong. He claims to have altered the DNA of twin girls born earlier this month to try to make them resistant to infection with the AIDS virus. Mainstream scientists have condemned the experiment, and universities and government groups are investigating. The second pregnancy is in a very early stage and needs more time to be monitored to see if it will last, He said. Leading scientists said there are now even more reasons to worry, and more questions than answers, after He's talk. The leader of the conference called the experiment "irresponsible" and evidence that the scientific community had failed to regulate itself to prevent premature efforts to alter DNA. Altering DNA before or at the time of conception is highly controversial because the changes can be inherited and might harm other genes. It's banned in some countries including the United States except for lab research. He Jiankui, a Chinese researcher, speaks during the Human Genome Editing Conference in Hong Kong, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018. He made his first public comments about his claim to have helped make the world's first gene-edited babies. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung) He defended his choice of HIV, rather than a fatal inherited disease, as a test case for gene editing, and insisted the girls could benefit from it. "They need this protection since a vaccine is not available," He said. Scientists weren't buying it. "This is a truly unacceptable development," said Jennifer Doudna, a University of California-Berkeley scientist and one of the inventors of the CRISPR gene-editing tool that He said he used. "I'm grateful that he appeared today, but I don't think that we heard answers. We still need to understand the motivation for this." "I feel more disturbed now," said David Liu of Harvard and MIT's Broad Institute, and inventor of a variation of the gene-editing tool. "It's an appalling example of what not to do about a promising technology that has great potential to benefit society. I hope it never happens again." There is no independent confirmation of He's claim and he has not yet published in any scientific journal where it would be vetted by experts. At the conference, He failed or refused to answer many questions including who paid for his work, how he ensured that participants understood potential risks and benefits, and why he kept his work secret until after it was done. After He spoke, David Baltimore, a Nobel laureate from the California Institute of Technology and a leader of the conference, said He's work "would still be considered irresponsible" because it did not meet criteria many scientists agreed on several years ago before gene editing could be considered. "I personally don't think that it was medically necessary. The choice of the diseases that we heard discussions about earlier today are much more pressing" than trying to prevent HIV infection this way, he said. If gene editing is ever allowed, many scientists have said it should be reserved to treat and prevent serious inherited disorders with no good alternatives, such as sickle cell anemia and Huntington's disease. HIV is not an appropriate candidate because there are already safe ways to prevent transmission, and if contracted it can be kept under control with medications, researchers said. The case shows "there has been a failure of self-regulation by the scientific community" and said the conference committee would meet and issue a statement on Thursday about the future of the field, Baltimore said. Before He's talk, Dr. George Daley, Harvard Medical School's dean and one of the conference organizers, warned against a backlash to gene editing because of He's experiment. Just because the first case may have been a misstep "should in no way, I think, lead us to stick our heads in the sand and not consider the very, very positive aspects that could come forth by a more responsible pathway," Daley said. "Scientists who go rogue ... it carries a deep, deep cost to the scientific community," Daley said. Shortly after his talk, He canceled a planned appearance in a Thursday session on embryo gene editing, according to the Royal Society, one of the conference organizers. Regulators have been swift to condemn the experiment as unethical and unscientific. The National Health Commission has ordered local officials in Guangdong province to investigate He's actions, and his employer, Southern University of Science and Technology of China, is investigating as well. On Tuesday, Qiu Renzong of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences criticized the decision to let He speak at the conference, saying the claim "should not be on our agenda" until it has been reviewed by independent experts. Whether He violated reproductive medicine laws in China has been unclear; Qui contends that it did, but said, "the problem is, there's no penalty." The U.S. National Institutes of Health said Wednesday there should be international intervention. "Without such limits, the world will face the serious risk of a deluge of similarly ill-considered and unethical projects," the agency said in a statement. Meanwhile, more American scientists said they had contact with He and were aware of or suspected what he was doing. Dr. Matthew Porteus, a genetics researcher at Stanford University, where He did postdoctoral research, said He told him in February that he intended to try human gene editing. Porteus said he discouraged He and told him "that it was irresponsible, that he could risk the entire field of gene editing by doing this in a cavalier fashion." Dr. William Hurlbut, a Stanford ethicist, said he has "spent many hours" talking with He over the last two years about situations where gene editing might be appropriate. "I knew his early work. I knew where he was heading," Hurlbut said. When he saw He four or five weeks ago, He did not say he had tried or achieved pregnancy with edited embryos but "I strongly suspected" it, Hurlbut said. "I disagree with the notion of stepping out of the general consensus of the scientific community," Hurlbut said. If the science is not considered ready or safe enough, "it's going to create misunderstanding, discordance and distrust." Jennifer Doudna and David Liu are paid by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which also supports AP's Health & Science Department. ___ Marilynn Marchione can be followed on Twitter: @MMarchioneAP ___ This Associated Press series was produced in partnership with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. He Jiankui, a Chinese researcher, speaks during the Human Genome Editing Conference in Hong Kong, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018. He claims that he helped 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. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung) He Jiankui, a Chinese researcher, center, speaks during the Human Genome Editing Conference in Hong Kong, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018. He made his first public comments about his claim to have helped make the world's first gene-edited babies. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung) A screen shows information of genomic data while He Jiankui, a Chinese researcher, speaking during the Human Genome Editing Conference in Hong Kong, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018. A Chinese researcher claims that he helped 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. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung) He Jiankui, a Chinese researcher, speaks during the Human Genome Editing Conference in Hong Kong, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018. He made his first public comments about his claim to have helped make the world's first gene-edited babies. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung) TBILISI, Georgia (AP) - A French-born former foreign minister of Georgia celebrated what she claims is her victory in a tight presidential runoff Wednesday that marks the last time Georgians elect their head of state by popular vote. An exit poll conducted by Edison Research for Rustavi 2 television showed the 66-year-old Salome Zurabishvili backed by the ruling Georgian Dream party winning 55 percent of the vote, while her rival, the 60-year-old Grigol Vashadze, who was supported by a coalition of opposition forces, was trailing behind with 45 percent. The Central Election Commission said that with just over half of all the precincts counted, Zurabishvili was leading with 58 percent while Vashadze had 42 percent of the ballot. Polls opened at 8 a.m. (0400 GMT) and closed at 8 p.m. (1600 GMT). Edison Research interviewed 15,000 voters across 115 precincts in Georgia. It said its poll had a margin of error of 3 percentage points. Vashadze, who also served a stint as Georgia's foreign minister, refused to concede defeat, saying he would wait for full preliminary results, which are expected Thursday. Salome Zurabishvili, former Georgian Foreign minister and presidential candidate, speaks to the media at her campaign headquarter in Tbilisi, Georgia, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018. the French-born former foreign minister of Georgia Zurabishvili celebrated what she claims is her victory in a tight presidential runoff Wednesday that marks the last time Georgians elect their head of state by popular vote. (AP Photo/Shakh Aivazov) Georgia, a nation of nearly 4 million people in the volatile Caucasus region south of Russia, is transitioning to a parliamentary republic. Presidential powers have been substantially reduced with the prime minister becoming the most powerful figure in the country. After the new president's six-year term ends, future heads of state will be chosen by delegates. "Our choice is peaceful Georgia, united country and of equal citizens," Zurabishvili said after seeing the exit poll showing her victory. "Our choice is the dialogue with those parts of the society who today has not voted for me and who today don't agree with us. But we all are citizens of one country." Though the election lacks the usual importance, it is seen as a crucial test for Georgian Dream that is led and funded by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili who made his fortune in Russia. It has dominated the nation's political scene since defeating former president Mikheil Saakashvili's United National Movement in 2012. Ivanishvili briefly served as prime minister in 2012-2013 and has remained a prominent force in Georgian politics ever since. After the polls closed, Saakashvili spoke on Rustavi 2 television, claiming that the vote was rigged and calling for protests to annul the results. Zurabishvili ran as an independent but was backed by Georgian Dream, while Vashadze was supported by a coalition that includes the United National Movement. They won 39 and 38 percent respectively in the first round last month. Zurabishvili was born in France and served as French ambassador to Georgia until becoming Georgia's foreign minister in 2004. She was fired the following year and some Georgians still look at her foreign background with suspicion and criticize her for her contention that Georgia started the 2008 war with Russia. Zurabishvili's opponents cast her as a pro-Russia candidate - the claim she and Georgian Dream strongly denied. Zurabishvili argued that her background is a strong qualification for serving as Georgian president as the country seeks closer ties with the European Union. "Diplomatic work in France for me was also a work for Georgia," Zurabishvili said. "Everyone knew that I am Georgian who fights for its country. I knew very well the price of independence and freedom, because I am the child of the country whose ancestors have sacrificed themselves for the independence and freedom." Vashadze, who served as Georgia's foreign minister in 2008-2012, vowed to re-establish control over the breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia by peaceful means. Georgia entirely lost control over both provinces after the war with Russia a decade ago, which erupted when Saakashvili made a failed attempt to reclaim sovereignty over South Ossetia. "Georgia has outlived many empires and will definitely outlive the current Russian empire," Vashadze said. He also vowed to pardon Saakashvili, who was stripped of his citizenship in 2015 and sentenced in absentia for abuse of power. Observers saw the vote as a key test before the 2020 parliamentary election. "For Georgian Dream, the stakes are especially high and it struggles very much ... to win in the second round," said Gia Nodia, the founder of the Caucasus Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development, an independent think-tank. Earlier this month, the Georgian government announced that a charitable foundation controlled by Ivanishvili promised to write off the debts of 600,000 people, a move described by critics as an attempt to buy votes before the runoff. Grigol Vashadze, Georgia's former foreign minister and presidential candidate, reacts at his campaign headquarters following the presidential election in Tbilisi, Georgia, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018. Two of Georgia's former foreign ministers are facing off against each other Wednesday in a tight runoff that will mark the last time Georgians elect their head of state by popular vote. (AP Photo/Shakh Aivazov) Grigol Vashadze, Georgia's former foreign minister and presidential candidate, exits a booth during the presidential election at the polling station in Kutaisi, Georgia, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018. Two of Georgia's former foreign ministers are facing off against each other Wednesday in a tight runoff that will mark the last time Georgians elect their head of state by popular vote. (Zurab Tsertsvadze, Grigol Vashadze's press office pool via AP) An elderly man exits a polling booth during the presidential election in Tbilisi, Georgia, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018. Two of Georgia's former foreign ministers are facing off against each other Wednesday in a tight runoff that will mark the last time Georgians elect their head of state by popular vote. (AP Photo/Shakh Aivazov) Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili speaks to the media outside a polling station in Tbilisi, Georgia, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018. Two of Georgia's former foreign ministers are facing off against each other Wednesday in a tight runoff that will mark the last time Georgians elect their head of state by popular vote. (AP Photo/Shakh Aivazov) A man gets out of a polling booth during the presidential election in Tbilisi, Georgia, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018. Two of Georgia's former foreign ministers are facing off against each other Wednesday in a tight runoff that will mark the last time Georgians elect their head of state by popular vote. (AP Photo/Shakh Aivazov) A woman fills in her ballot during the presidential election at the polling station in Tbilisi, Georgia, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018. Two of Georgia's former foreign ministers are facing off against each other Wednesday in a tight runoff that will mark the last time Georgians elect their head of state by popular vote. (AP Photo/Shakh Aivazov) A woman gets out of a polling booth during the presidential election in Tbilisi, Georgia, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018. Two of Georgia's former foreign ministers are facing off against each other Wednesday in a tight runoff that will mark the last time Georgians elect their head of state by popular vote. (AP Photo/Shakh Aivazov) Salome Zurabishvili, former Georgian Foreign minister and presidential candidate, exits a polling booth as she prepares to cast her ballot during the presidential election at the polling station in Tbilisi, Georgia, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018. Two of Georgia's former foreign ministers are facing off against each other Wednesday in a tight runoff that will mark the last time Georgians elect their head of state by popular vote. Georgia, a nation of nearly 4 million people in the volatile Caucasus region south of Russia, is transitioning to a parliamentary republic. (AP Photo/Shakh Aivazov) Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili casts his ballot for the presidential election in Tbilisi, Georgia, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018. Two of Georgia's former foreign ministers are facing off against each other Wednesday in a tight runoff that will mark the last time Georgians elect their head of state by popular vote. (AP Photo/Shakh Aivazov) A group of maritime companies from Monaco recently visited Dubai, UAE, to learn about its pioneering maritime experience, innovative, technology-driven, comprehensive offerings in the maritime sector. The delegation included leaders of the yacht and ship industry in Monaco such as Espen Oeino, chief executive officer of Espen Oeino International for Yacht and Ship Manufacturing; Sabrina Monteleone, chief executive officer of Sabrina Monte Carlo; and Rainer Behne, chief executive officer of Behnemar, said a statement. The delegation praised the emirate for its strong international presence driven by its competitive and world-class advantages, it said. Representatives from the visiting maritime companies met with the officials of the Dubai Maritime City Authority (DMCA) to know more about its pioneering initiatives to make the local sector an influential force particularly on the maritime leisure tourism map, it added. The initiatives were launched to attract international investors, create a business-friendly environment, and build advanced maritime infrastructure and logistics according to the needs of the 21st century. Senior DMCA officials headed by Ali Al Daboos, executive director for operations, and Nawfal Al Jourani, director of Dubai Maritime Cluster Office, said the visit reflected the confidence of the international community in Dubai, which was recently named one of the top five cities in the International Shipping Centre Development Index (ISCD). Dubai is also one of worlds most competitive, integrated, and attractive maritime clusters with the most attractive business environment for maritime activities. During the meeting, the DMCA officials also shed light on the emirates policies on maritime safety, operational efficiency, and safe navigation as part of its efforts to meet the evolving current and future needs of the global maritime industry. Further, the visiting delegates took note of Dubais valuable contributions to the global yacht industry, which is poised to grow to $74.7 billion by 2022. They underscored the need to strengthen further the relations between Dubai and Monaco to reach their common vision of becoming a leader in the world of luxury yachts and other maritime segments. A robust cooperation between them will open up new investment opportunities, particularly in leisure maritime tourism, which is considered vital to their economic growth. Amer Ali, executive director of DMCA, said: The future holds promising prospects for building strong strategic partnerships between maritime pioneers in the UAE and Monaco as both take on the path towards growth and sustainability. As for maritime leisure, Dubai and the UAE have been taking key steps to accelerate its bid to become a hub for luxury yachts. Under the guidance of the wise leadership, investments in projects related to leisure industry has already reached $1.5 billion, placing the UAE in the ninth slot in terms of the number of luxury yachts manufactured so far this year, he said. Ali continued: We thanked the delegation from Monaco for visiting Dubai and exploring the many opportunities here. During the visit, the delegates learned about Dubais leading experience and efforts to consistently enhance its maritime infrastructure, update its policies and regulatory frameworks, and improve its licensing procedures to meet the needs of owners and operators of yachts and luxury boats according to the highest standards of efficiency and reliability. We are honoured to explore ways to build constructive relationships with Monaco, which is a key destination for luxury yachts lovers. We aim to consolidate all communication channels to promote the luxury yacht and leisure maritime tourism industries based on our growth targets and sustainability goals, he added. Ali further stated: The international communitys growing confidence in Dubai is driving us to further launch qualitative initiatives to attract more investors and increase the local sectors global competitiveness, particularly in the maritime licensing procedures and other services related to the operations and maintenance of vessels and ships in line with the goal of Dubai Plan 2021 Plan to make the city a global leader in tourism, trade, transport, and finance. The visit was an opportunity to showcase DMCAs major endeavours. The Dubai Maritime Virtual Cluster (DMVC) is one of DMCAs initiatives designed to bridge gaps and encourage positive participation of maritime leaders through the use of a virtual platform. The DMVC, a comprehensive information and knowledge portal and a virtual centre for innovation, research and development, and training, is equipped with interactive features. Another is the Innovation Quay, which provides integrated services and exceptional opportunities to enable developers, innovators, and researchers to transform their proposals on strengthening Dubais global status into actual projects. The visitors commended DMCA for its policies and efforts to forge global cooperation with entities associated with maritime affairs such as free zones ports. Dubai is home to more than 7,400 companies operating 13,000 maritime and investment activities. The maritime industry has generated over 76,000 jobs. TradeArabia News Service WASHINGTON (AP) - A rash of American combat deaths in Afghanistan is putting a spotlight on a stalemated 17-year war that is testing President Donald Trump's commitment to pursuing peace with the Taliban. Trump has acknowledged that his original instinct was to withdraw from Afghanistan, but last week he suggested he is willing to stick it out, asserting that the U.S. is in "very strong negotiations" - an apparent reference to U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad's efforts to get the Taliban to agree to peace talks. On the other hand, Trump indicated he had little confidence the talks are going to succeed. "Maybe they're not. Probably they're not," he said. The human cost of the conflict rarely makes headlines in the U.S., leaving Trump with political room to maneuver. But that might be changing. In early November, Brent Taylor, the mayor of North Ogden, Utah, and a major in the Utah National Guard, was killed by an Afghan soldier in Kabul. Last Saturday, Sgt. Leandro Jasso, a 25-year-old Army Ranger from Leavenworth, Washington, was mortally wounded in southern Afghanistan. On Tuesday, U.S. officials said they had determined that Jasso probably was accidentally shot by an Afghan soldier during battle with an al-Qaida fighter. The U.S. military headquarters in Kabul announced Tuesday that three U.S. servicemembers were killed and three wounded by a roadside bomb in Ghazni province, south of Kabul, where the Taliban has been resurgent. It was the deadliest attack on U.S. forces in Afghanistan this year. In this Nov. 26, 2018, photo, a U.S. Army carry team moves a transfer case containing the remains of Sgt. Leandro A. Jasso, at Dover Air Force Base, Del. A rash of American combat deaths in Afghanistan puts a spotlight on a stalemated 17-year war that is testing President Donald Trump's commitment to pursuing peace with the Taliban. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) The Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan before U.S. forces invaded in October 2001, carry out near-daily attacks on Afghan army and police 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 because of security worries. Voting there has been postponed for a year. Stephen Biddle, a professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University who has closely tracked the war from its beginning, said little that has happened in Afghanistan in recent years has grabbed the American public's attention, including a death toll since 2001 that now exceeds 2,400. "The war hasn't produced torch-lit marches on the Pentagon or for that matter any meaningful effect on any election campaign," Biddle said. "What (the uptick in casualties) could do is change the mind of Donald Trump. At a minimum, he is erratic and clearly doesn't like the war." In a Washington Post interview Tuesday, Trump called the latest deaths "very sad" and said he was keeping troops there only because "experts" told him it was necessary. In Geneva on Wednesday, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani urged a gathering of U.S., Russian and other diplomats to continue support for his government, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov expressed hope for an "end to this fratricidal war." In Ghani's absence, Kabul, the Afghan capital, was hit Wednesday by a coordinated insurgent attack against security forces, and in the southern province of Helmand, local officials said at least 30 civilians and 16 Taliban fighters were killed in overnight fighting. Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, ended the U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan in 2014 with the aim of compelling the Afghans to provide for their own defense. Trump came to the White House having called the war a waste, but in August 2017, he announced he was recommitting U.S. forces to winning in Afghanistan while revealing that his first instinct had been to pull the plug. Over several months, the Pentagon sent an additional 3,500 troops and changed the way it advises Afghan forces. There are now about 15,000 U.S. troops in the country. Trump's strategy in Afghanistan is built on hope that the Taliban can be drawn into peace talks. That has not yet happened, but some U.S. analysts say prospects are better than at any time in the war. A second pillar of the strategy, ending Pakistan's tactical support for the Taliban, has proved ineffective. David Sedney, who has worked on Afghan issues as a diplomat and civilian policy official since the war began, said he believes the chances for successful peace talks with the Taliban are low but are better than at any other time in the long conflict. Sedney said he heard encouraging words from Afghans - supporters of the government as well as those who favor the Taliban - during a visit to the county in late October and early November. "There's a growing expectation that peace is possible," Sedney said. Further complicating the outlook is the presence in eastern Afghanistan of an Islamic State affiliate. Both the Taliban and the IS affiliate want to overthrow the Afghan government and impose a harsh form of Islamic rule. But they are bitterly divided over leadership, ideology and tactics. Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said earlier this month that efforts to draw the Taliban into peace talks are being made "below the surface." But he indicated that progress is insufficient. "We're a long way from where we could say that we're on the right path," Dunford said at the Halifax International Security Forum, referring to effectively combining military, political and social pressure on the Taliban. Noting that U.S. officials as recently as a year ago called the war a stalemate, Dunford said "it hasn't changed much" since. BAGHDAD (AP) - The tattoos across Saad Khudeir's body conceal the Iraqi soldier's scars and reveal his unseen wounds. The face of his fiancee, who was killed in a car bomb near his Baghdad home in 2008, looks up from his right arm. Four years later, a suicide bomber rammed his army convoy in Fallujah, leaving burns across 70 percent of his body. He survived both bombings, but was left with gruesome scars. "People stared at me, and sometimes I felt they were scared of me at the swimming pool," the 36-year-old said. So over the next four years he spent some $2,500 on tattoos, which now cover most of his body. There is a cross and a staircase, and above it a man representing Jesus flanked by two angels. There are flames and Japanese letters. "Through Christian icons, I want to say that there is no difference between Muslims and Christians," said Khudeir, who is a Muslim. "The flames express the fire still raging inside me for my loss." In this Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2018, photo, Iraqi soldier Saad Khudeir displays his tattoo on his leg covering scars of the burns he suffered in a car bomb attack, in Baghdad, Iraq. The tattoos run all over his body. They are not only to hide his war scars, but also to document his emotional ones.(AP Photo/Hadi Mizban) Years of war and unrest have inflicted physical and emotional scars on countless Iraqis. Aboud Abbas, who owns a tattoo studio in Baghdad, said around 20 people have come in this year asking for tattoos to conceal their scars, a 30 percent increase from last year. ___ Follow Associated Press photographers and photo editors on Twitter at www.twitter.com/AP_Images and on Instagram at www.instagram.com/apnews . ___ Associated Press writer Sinan Salaheddin in Baghdad contributed to this report. In this Saturday, Oct. 20, 2018, photo, Iraqi soldier Ziad Emad gets a tattoo on his arm to cover the wounds he suffered in the battle to oust the Islamic State group from Mosul, at a tattoo studio in Baghdad, Iraq. Aboud Abbas, who owns a tattoo studio, said he receives an average of 20 persons a year who want to cover their scars with tattoos, a nearly 30 percent increase from last year. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban) In this Wednesday. Oct. 24, 2018, Iraqi soldier Saad Khudeir displays tattoos on his body to cover scars of the burns he was injured in a car bomb, in Baghdad, Iraq. In 2008, Khudeir lost his fiancee and suffered burns on his body when a car bomb went off near his home in Sadr City, a district on the eastern side of the capital. Four years later, he endured burns in nearly 70 percent of his body when a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into his convoy in the then restive city of Fallujah.(AP Photo/Hadi Mizban) In this Tuesday. Oct. 23, 2018, photo, Zuhair Atwan displays tattoo of his brother, who was killed in sectarian violence, in a tattoo studio in Baghdad, Iraq. The Arabic sentence on his arm reads, "Oh life, where is my brother? Your absence hurts me, oh Abbas." (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban) In this Monday. Oct. 22, 2018, Iraqi soldier Saad Khudeir displays his tattoo on his body to cover scars of the burns he suffered from a car bomb, in Baghdad, Iraq. In 2008, Khudeir lost his fiancee and suffered burns on his body when a car bomb went off near his home in Sadr City, a district on the eastern side of the capital. Four years later, he endured burns in nearly 70 percent of his body when a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into his convoy in the then restive city of Fallujah.(AP Photo/Hadi Mizban) In this Tuesday. Oct. 23, 2018, photo, a man gets a tattoo on his arm in a tattoo studio in Baghdad, Iraq. One tattoo shop owner said he receives an average of 20 persons a year who want to cover their scars with tattoos, a nearly 30 percent increase from last year.(AP Photo/Hadi Mizban) In this Wednesday. Oct. 24, 2018, photo, Iraqi soldier Saad Khudeir displays tattoos on his leg to cover scars of the burns he suffered in a car bombing, in Baghdad, Iraq. "People stared at me and sometime I felt they were scared of me at the swimming pool," Khudeir, 36, told The Associated Press, recalling how he decided to cover up his scars to for a better appearance. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban) KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - Ukraine's president donned combat fatigues to implement martial law in much of the country on Wednesday, a move Russia denounced as a cynical political trick as both sides ratcheted up tensions after a weekend standoff in the Black Sea. Each side blamed the other for the bellicose turn of events, with Ukraine saying Russia is preparing for a full-scale invasion and Moscow calling it a political stunt by an unpopular president facing tough elections. In Sunday's confrontation, three Ukrainian naval vessels were heading from the Black Sea into the Sea of Azov when they were blocked by the Russian coast guard near the Kerch Strait between Russia's mainland and the Crimean Peninsula it annexed from Ukraine. After many tense hours of maneuvering, the Russians opened fire and seized the Ukrainian vessels and crew. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko responded by ordering martial law in much of the country, a move that went into effect with parliamentary approval. Poroshenko toured a military training center Wednesday in the Chernihiv region bordering Russia, one of the areas where martial law was imposed. Speaking to reporters as smoke billowed from a nearby shooting range, the camouflage-clad president pledged "not to allow the enemy to attack Ukraine" and announced a hike in salaries for servicemen. Poroshenko initially sought to impose martial law for two months, a move that would have meant presidential elections scheduled for March would have to be scrapped due to election rules. Facing criticism in parliament, he halved the martial law time frame to a month, which would allow the election to go ahead as planned. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko speak to soldiers during a visit to a military base in Chernihiv region, Ukraine, Wednesday, Nov, 28, 2018. Russia and Ukraine traded blame after Russian border guards on Sunday opened fire on three Ukrainian navy vessels and eventually seized them and their crews. The incident put the two countries on war footing and raised international concern. (Mykola Lazarenko, Presidential Press Service via AP) In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin bluntly accused his Ukrainian counterpart of provoking the naval incident in order to shore up his sagging popularity and sideline competitors ahead of the March election. "The Black Sea incident certainly was a provocation organized by the sitting government, including the incumbent president ahead of the presidential vote in March," Putin said, alleging that Poroshenko wanted to "exacerbate the situation and create obstacles for his rivals." Ukraine has insisted that its vessels were operating in line with international maritime rules, while Russia claimed they had failed to get permission to pass through a Russia-controlled area. 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 in 2014 and has sought to assert greater control over the passage. On Wednesday, Ukraine released what it said was the exact location where its ships were fired on by Russia, saying they were in international waters west of the Kerch Strait. Putin, meanwhile, insisted the Ukrainian vessels were in Russia's territorial waters and refused to communicate with the Russian coast guard or accept a Russian pilot to guide them through the narrow strait. "What were the border guards supposed to do?" the Russian leader said Wednesday. "They fulfilled their duty to protect the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation. If they had done something differently, they should have been put on trial for that." Kurt Volker, the U.S. special envoy on Ukraine, told reporters in Berlin that Washington sees no reason to doubt the information from Kiev that its vessels were operating in line with international maritime rules. "There's no conceivable justification that we can think of for the use of force in this scenario," he said. Ukraine, which insists its seamen are prisoners of war, has asked the International Red Cross to arrange a visit to see them. It said six of the sailors were wounded by Russian fire, while Russia said three Ukrainian crewmen were slightly injured. A court in Crimea's regional capital, Simferopol, has ordered all 24 Ukrainian crewmen to be held in custody for two months on charges of violating the Russian border pending trial. They face up to six years in prison if convicted. The incident marked the first overt collision between Russian and Ukrainian militaries since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. It has fueled fears of a wider conflict and has drawn strong criticism of Russia by the U.S. and its allies. U.S. President Donald Trump, in an interview with The Washington Post on Tuesday, said he might cancel a sit-down with Putin during the G20 summit in Argentina over the Russian action. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday that the meeting is on and that Russia has not received "any other information from our U.S. counterparts." Amid the tensions, the Russian military announced Wednesday that it would beef up its forces in Crimea with another batch of the long-range S-400 air defense missile systems to Crimea. The showdown came amid the long-simmering conflict between the two countries, in which Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and supported separatists in Ukraine's east with clandestine dispatches of troops and weapons. That fighting has killed at least 10,000 people since 2014 but eased somewhat with a 2015 truce. __ Vasilyeva reported from Moscow. Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and David Rising in Berlin contributed to this report. The damage on one of three Ukrainian ships is seen docked after been seized ate Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018, 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) Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at an annual VTB Capital "Russia Calling!" Investment Forum in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018. Putin has laid the blame for a standoff with Ukrainian vessels in the Black Sea on the Ukrainian president and his desire to get re-elected. (Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) A Ukrainian sailor, second right, is escorted by Russian intelligence agency FSB officers from a court in Simferopol, Crimea, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018. Ukraine released what it said was the exact location where its ships were fired on Sunday by Russia, showing that they were in international waters approaching Kerch Strait from the west, not from the east, as Putin suggested. (AP Photo) Ukrainian national guard soldiers and a police officer stop a car to check documents at the checkpoint near the city of Mariupol, south coast of Azov sea, eastern Ukraine, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2018. Russia and Ukraine traded blame after Russian border guards on Sunday opened fire on three Ukrainian navy vessels and eventually seized them and their crews. The incident put the two countries on war footing and raised international concern. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka) One of the captured Ukrainian sailors speaks in a court room in Simferopol, Crimea, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2018. A Crimean court has ordered one of the Ukrainian seamen captured by Russia at the weekend held in custody for the next two months. The seamen and their vessels were captured by Russian border guards late on Sunday as they were about to make their way through the Kerch Strait near Crimea. (AP Photo) Ukrainian national guard soldiers and a police officer stop a car to check documents at the checkpoint near the city of Mariupol, south coast of Azov sea, eastern Ukraine, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2018. Russia and Ukraine traded blame after Russian border guards on Sunday opened fire on three Ukrainian navy vessels and eventually seized them and their crews. The incident put the two countries on war footing and raised international concern. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka) A concrete block is placed to limit traffic at the checkpoint near the city of Mariupol, south coast of Azov sea, eastern Ukraine, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2018. Russia and Ukraine traded blame after Russian border guards on Sunday opened fire on three Ukrainian navy vessels and eventually seized them and their crews. The incident put the two countries on war footing and raised international concern. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka) A Ukrainian sailor, center, is escorted by Russian intelligence agency FSB officer, left of him, to a court room in Simferopol, Crimea, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2018. The Russians seized the ships and their crews, who are expected to face a court hearing later Tuesday in the Crimean capital of Simferopol. (AP Photo) Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, second from right, speak with soldiers during a military training at a military base in Chernihiv region, Ukraine, Wednesday, Nov, 28, 2018. Russia and Ukraine traded blame after Russian border guards on Sunday opened fire on three Ukrainian navy vessels and eventually seized them and their crews. The incident put the two countries on war footing and raised international concern. (Mykola Lazarenko, Presidential Press Service via AP) A Ukrainian sailor, center, is escorted by a Russian police officer from a court in Simferopol, Crimea, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018. Ukraine released what it said was the exact location where its ships were fired on Sunday by Russia, showing that they were in international waters approaching Kerch Strait from the west, not from the east, as Putin suggested. (AP Photo) MOSCOW (AP) - The Latest on raised tensions between Russia and Ukraine (all times local): 9:30 p.m. U.S. President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have spoken on the phone to express their concerns about the Russia-Ukraine clash in the Kerch Strait and Russia's detainment of three Ukrainian ships and 24 crew members. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders says the two spoke on the phone Wednesday about Sunday's incident in which Russian border guards fired on the Ukrainian vessels and seized the ships. She says the two leaders agreed to meet later this week at the Group of 20 meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to discuss this and other issues. ___ Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at an annual VTB Capital "Russia Calling!" Investment Forum in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin) 9 p.m. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claims that detained Ukrainian officers from a boat confiscated by Russian forces secretly sought to break through the Russian-controlled Kerch Strait between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Russia's top diplomat spoke Wednesday at a briefing with his Swiss counterpart, Ignazio Cassis, after a bilateral meeting in Geneva, where Lavrov was attending a U.N.-backed conference on Afghanistan. Lavrov said Russian border agents and interrogators turned up documents that "clearly show that these ships had been ordered to not inform the authorities of Kerch Strait and to try and break into the Sea of Azov secretly." Ukraine on Wednesday listed the exact location where its three ships were in international waters when they were seized Sunday by Russia. ___ 6:35 p.m. Turkish officials say President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has discussed tensions between Russia and Ukraine during a phone call with President Donald Trump. The officials from Erdogan's office said that the Turkish leader on Wednesday briefed Trump about separate phone conversations that he held with the presidents of Russia and Ukraine earlier in the day. The Turkish and U.S. presidents also discussed bilateral ties and agreed to meet during a Group of 20 meeting in Buenos Aires this week. The officials provided the information on condition of anonymity, in line with government rules. Tensions between Russia and Ukraine flared on Sunday, when Russian border guards fired on three Ukrainian vessels and seized the ships and the crew. --By Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey. ___ 4:10 p.m. Turkish officials say President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has urged the presidents of Russia and Ukraine to overcome their dispute through diplomatic channels. The officials from Erdogan's office said that the Turkish leader held separate telephone conversations on Wednesday with Russia's Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. The officials said that during the phone calls Erdogan "listened to both sides" and expressed Turkey's concerns over the standoff in the Black Sea that has raised the specter of a major conflict. Russian border guards on Sunday fired on three Ukrainian vessels and seized them and their crews. The Turkish officials provided the information on condition of anonymity in line with government rules. ___ 3:25 p.m. The U.S. special envoy for Ukraine says Washington sees no reason to doubt information from Kiev that its vessels were operating in line with international maritime rules when they were fired on and seized by Russian border guards. Kurt Volker told reporters in Berlin on Wednesday that the Ukrainian vessels were on their way back to Odessa "when the Russian vessels then pursued them and attacked them." He says "there's no conceivable justification that we can think of for the use of force in this scenario." Ukrainian authorities have released what they say is the exact location where the ships were fired on, indicating they were in international waters. Volker says he does not have an independent U.S. assessment, but that "the data the Ukrainians have provided is quite clear." ___ 3:20 p.m. The European Union is insisting that Russia restore freedom of passage in the disputed Kerch strait between Russia and the annexed Crimean peninsula to guarantee eastern Ukraine a sea opening into the Black Sea and beyond. EU Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said Wednesday that "international law obliges the Russian Federation ensures unhindered and free passage of all vessels through the Kerch Strait. Therefore we expect Russia to restore the freedom of passage." Russia has begun prosecuting the crew of Ukrainian navy vessels it captured over the weekend in a confrontation off Crimea, which the EU and Western allies still recognize as Ukrainian. Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for Sunday's clash in the Kerch Strait, which links the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Dombrovskis called the Russian action "unacceptable, and we expect Russia to immediately release the vessels and the crew and ensure the needed medical assistance to the Ukrainian servicemen." ____ 3:10 p.m. Russian President Vladimir Putin has laid the blame for a standoff with Ukrainian vessels in the Black Sea on the Ukrainian president and his desire to get re-elected. It is the first time that Putin has commented on the incident near Russia-occupied Crimea on Sunday that raised the specter of a full-blown conflict between the two neighbors. Putin said in a televised speech on Wednesday that the incident was entirely provoked by the Ukrainian vessels, which refused to communicate with Russian border guards. Putin laid the blame on Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, saying that he ordered the navy to provoke the standoff with the sole purpose of scoring political points and getting re-elected next year. Putin also said the Ukrainian vessels violated the territorial waters off southern Russia - which is the internationally recognized border. This appears to run counter to the claims of the Ukrainian government, which said the ships were approaching from another direction and were firmly in international waters. ___ 1:25 p.m. Estonia has summoned the Russian ambassador to Tallinn over Russia's use of military power against Ukrainian sailors and vessels in the Kerch Strait. The Estonian Foreign Ministry says Aleksandr Petrov was told that Russia must immediately return the three vessels and release the crew. The ministry said Wednesday that under international law, Russia must ensure that vessels from any countries can pass through the strait unhindered. Estonia, a former Soviet republic, has reacted sharply to the events near Crimea, with President Kersti Kaljulaid saying Tuesday the attack constitutes "war in Europe." After Moscow's 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. ___ 12:30 p.m. Ukraine has released what it says is the exact location near Crimea where its vessels were fired on and seized by Russia over the weekend, showing that they were in international waters. The statement by Ukrainian officials contradicts Russia's argument that it was chasing the ships because they were violating its territorial waters. Russia considers Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, part of its country. The Ukrainian ministry in charge of occupied territories on Wednesday published what it claimed were the exact coordinates of where the military vessels "Berdiansk", "Nikopol", and "Yany Kapu" were when they were attacked by Russia, putting them outside the 12-mile zone of territorial waters. Russian border guards have captured the vessels and the crews. Officials say they will try the seamen for violating the Russian border and that they do not consider them prisoners of war. ___ 10:20 a.m. A military official says Russia will boost the defense of the occupied Crimean peninsula with more anti-aircraft missiles. The Interfax news agency on Wednesday quoted Col. Vadim Astafyev, the top Defense Ministry official in Russia's south, as saying that Russia will add one S-400 anti-aircraft missile system to the three already deployed in the peninsula. The announcement comes three days after Russian border guards fired on three Ukrainian vessels and seized them and their crews. The first overt military confrontation between the two neighboring countries has raised the specter of a major conflict. Ukraine said its vessels were operating in line with international maritime rules, while Russia alleged they had failed to get permission to pass. A Ukrainian sailor, right, is escorted by a Russian intelligence agency FSB officer to a court room in Simferopol, Crimea, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2018. The Russians seized the ships and their crews, who are expected to face a court hearing later Tuesday in the Crimean capital of Simferopol. (AP Photo) The damage on one of three Ukrainian ships is seen docked after been seized ate Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018, 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) Ukrainian national guard soldiers and a police officer stop a car to check documents at the checkpoint near the city of Mariupol, south coast of Azov sea, eastern Ukraine, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2018. Russia and Ukraine traded blame after Russian border guards on Sunday opened fire on three Ukrainian navy vessels and eventually seized them and their crews. The incident put the two countries on war footing and raised international concern. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka) One of the captured Ukrainian sailors speaks in a court room in Simferopol, Crimea, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2018. A Crimean court has ordered one of the Ukrainian seamen captured by Russia at the weekend held in custody for the next two months. The seamen and their vessels were captured by Russian border guards late on Sunday as they were about to make their way through the Kerch Strait near Crimea. (AP Photo) Ukrainian national guard soldiers and a police officer stop a car to check documents at the checkpoint near the city of Mariupol, south coast of Azov sea, eastern Ukraine, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2018. Russia and Ukraine traded blame after Russian border guards on Sunday opened fire on three Ukrainian navy vessels and eventually seized them and their crews. The incident put the two countries on war footing and raised international concern. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka) A concrete block is placed to limit traffic at the checkpoint near the city of Mariupol, south coast of Azov sea, eastern Ukraine, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2018. Russia and Ukraine traded blame after Russian border guards on Sunday opened fire on three Ukrainian navy vessels and eventually seized them and their crews. The incident put the two countries on war footing and raised international concern. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka) WARSAW, Poland (AP) - The Polish government said Wednesday that a letter from the U.S. ambassador that took it to task over its treatment of a U.S.-owned television station and misspelled the prime minister's last name won't spoil "very good" bilateral ties. The letter from Ambassador Georgette Mosbacher to Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki circulated in Polish media Tuesday, drawing angry comments from politicians and ordinary Poles who found its tone and the mistakes disrespectful. But some praised Mosbacher for defending media freedom. Mosbacher wrote to express "deep concern" over the right-wing government's criticism of TVN, a Polish broadcaster owned by the U.S. company Discovery. TVN is seen in Poland as being critical of the conservative government. Government spokeswoman Joanna Kopcinska said in a statement that Poland and the U.S. enjoy "very good relations and one incident will not change that." She said the government wouldn't comment on the letter's content or it being leaked to the media. "In our opinion diplomacy calls for calm and prudence," the statement said. FILE - In this Sept. 6, 2018 file photo, Georgette Mosbacher stands next to an American flag after receiving her credentials as new United States ambassador to Poland in Warsaw. Moshbacher has triggered anger on social media on Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2018, with a letter allegedly sent to Poland's prime minister that takes his government to task over its treatment of a U.S.-owned independent television station. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski, File) Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak called it a "misunderstanding" resulting from businesswoman Mosbacher's lack of experience in diplomacy. Poland and the U.S. have close military ties and Blaszczak said his cooperation with Mosbacher, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, was "very efficient" as Poland is lobbying to host a U.S. military base that it has promised to call "Fort Trump." Mosbacher tweeted Wednesday to confirm that ties are "very good" and that her priority was to strengthen bilateral "friendship." But she stressed that the freedom of speech, of the media and of the intellectual discourse were of very high importance to the U.S. and to her personally. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said that Mosbacher is doing a "great job" of representing the U.S. in Poland and that she "represents our ideals and values." Support for Mosbacher came also from Poland's democracy icon and former president, Lech Walesa, who said she was right to react to the pressure on journalists because the government's methods are "terrible." "She had the right to write this letter," Walesa told Wirtualna Polska news site. "She should get glory, not insults for that," he said, adding that he has met Mosbacher in person and knows her to be Poland's friend. Kopcinska's statement insisted that Poland wasn't curbing media freedom and that it also values freedom of speech. But government plans to change the media law have alarmed its critics and have recently drawn disapproving comments from Mosbacher. Prosecutors are looking into undercover footage broadcast in January by TVN showing members of a Polish neo-Nazi group celebrating Adolf Hitler's birthday last year. Poland bans the propagation of Nazi ideology. In 2016, TVN was bought for $2 billion by the U.S. company Scripps Networks Interactive in the largest U.S. investment ever in Poland. Scripps has since been bought by Discovery, Inc., based in Silver Spring, Maryland. ___ A previous version of this story was corrected to show that Heather Nauert is spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department, not the White House. UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The United Nations is close to creating conditions for the start of peace talks in Sweden between Yemen's warring parties December but there is no agreement yet, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday. The U.N. chief told reporters this is "a very crucial moment in relation to Yemen." U.N. envoy Martin Griffiths has been engaged in shuttle diplomacy, talking to Yemen's internationally recognized government backed by a Saudi-led coalition and Houthi Shiite rebels who control the capital Sanaa, Guterres said. The current diplomatic initiative is being driven by the increasing threat of famine in Yemen, but also by international outrage over the murder of U.S.-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi on Oct. 2 in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul which has put a spotlight on Saudi Arabia's role in the country's war. Griffiths announced on Nov. 16 that the warring parties had agreed to attend talks. He initially tried to bring the government and Houthis together in early September, but the Houthis didn't show up in Geneva, saying they didn't have guarantees for their safe return. Guterres said Wednesday: "I believe there is a chance to be able to start effective negotiations in Sweden early in December, but we are not yet there." UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is seen on a TV screen while delivering a speech during the United Nations Conference on Afghanistan at the UN Offices in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018. (Fabrice Coffrini/pool photo via AP) He said starting talks "would be an extremely important objective," and stressed, "If we are able to stop the Yemeni war, we will be stopping the most tragic humanitarian disaster we are facing in today's world." The conflict in Yemen began with the 2014 takeover of the capital of Sanaa by the Iranian-backed Houthis, which toppled the government of Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. The Saudi-led coalition has been fighting the Houthis since 2015. Saudi-led airstrikes have hit schools, hospitals and wedding parties, and the Houthis have fired long-range missiles into Saudi Arabia and targeted vessels in the Red Sea. Tens of thousands of people are believed to have been killed in the war and U.N. food agency chief David Beasley said last week that as many as 12 million of the 28 million Yemenis "are just one step away from famine." Guterres is heading to the summit of the Group of 20 economic powers in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Friday and Saturday and he told reporters he is ready to discuss peace talks to end the Yemen conflict with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and any other Saudi officials attending the meeting. Guterres has called for an independent and transparent investigation into Khashoggi's murder and when asked whether he would also raise that issue with the crown prince, he said: "I have never a problem in saying publicly and privately the same thing." Meanwhile, members of the U.N. Security Council are still holding consultations on a draft resolution urging Yemen's warring parties to relaunch negotiations to end the conflict and take urgent steps to tackle the humanitarian crisis - including by agreeing to a cease-fire around the key port of Hodeida, which is vital to delivering aid and commercial goods. No vote has been scheduled and council diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because talks have been private, said some members want to wait until after a meeting of the warring parties in Sweden. My heart feels like its beating on the outside of my chest. Im anxious, out of my depth and I sound like Darth Vader. But for the first time in my life, Im snorkelling. As I plunge my face into the sea and force my body to relax so my limbs can actually float, the stress starts to fade away. As a weak swimmer whos afraid of the ocean, I never thought Id be able to do this. I never thought Id go to Oman, either. But here I am, snorkelling. And for anyone in need of some winter sun, its a destination that surprisingly takes some beating. (Thinkstock/PA) Sitting at the foot of the Arabian Peninsula, Oman is part of the Middle East Id always lumped in with Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Theyre places that have no real appeal to me, because I associate them with being man-made and money-orientated. But Oman, Im discovering, is very different. Its beautiful, for starters. The terrain encompasses desert, riverbed oases and lengthy coastlines on the Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman. Far from being a flat, bland blanket of desert, the countrys Al Hajar mountains rise into the clear blue sky, making almost every vista an appealing one. The skyline, Im told by my guide, Niaz, wont ever be filled with flashy, high-rise hotels, because no building is allowed to be taller than the 91.5-metre Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque (which is considerably shorter than the 828-metre high Burj Khalifa building in Dubai). The people here seem uber-friendly too; they care about their city and culture, and genuinely want to share it with the rest of the world. Omans popularity is definitely increasing, made possible thanks to the bigger New Muscat International Airport, which opened this year, and the fact you can now apply for visas online. The Shangri-La Al Husn Resort & Spa, in Omans port capital of Muscat, has noticed a shift. Fully booked when I visit in March, Im told 40% of its (mostly UK) customers are returning visitors. And theyve also noticed travellers are keen for more experiential trips, featuring a little bit of luxury and a dollop of wellbeing. Here are five that will blow your mind 1. Snorkel for turtles with Omans only turtle ranger Mohammed - Omans only turtle ranger As dream jobs go, being a turtle ranger has definitely got to be up there, and Mohammed Al Hasani is Omans only one. Hes worked for Shangri-La since 2005 and has helped more than 70,000 baby turtles start a brand new life. I find him at Al Husns private gem of a beach. Mohammed patrols the shores during hatching season (January-August) and if he spots a nest, he places sticks around it to protect the babies. The turtles dig a hole half a metre down in the sand which can take them up to an hour and a half and lay over 100 eggs. And then Mohammed makes a road down to the sea, so they can get there more easily, like a red carpet, he says with a smile. Taking the plunge, we grab our snorkels and flippers, with many of us opting for the full face mask. This is the one that makes you sound like the Sith Lord, but it means you can just breathe in and out normally, so its perfect for beginners, and anyone who gets a bit nervous in the water. Mohammed directs the stronger swimmers straight into the path of a hawksbill turtle one of five varieties spotted here gliding through the water without a care in the world. I swim back to where my feet feel safer where I can just touch the bottom and float around while fish swim right up to me. Sinking my face into the salty sea, I spot slow, black butterfly fish, hanging out at the bottom of the rocks. A shoal of slim wrasse shimmy past and I follow the parrotfish and angelfish, all under the watch of a small heron. There are few better ways to start the day, and its completely free for hotel visitors. Speak to concierge for more information. 2. Visit the beautiful Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque (Claire Spreadbury/PA) I wander slowly, mouth agog, at the sheer beauty that exudes from Muscats Grand Mosque. Completed in 2001, its modern Islamic architecture at its finest, gifted to the nation to celebrate Sultan Qaboos 30th reining year. Free to get in, every inch of the 416,000 square metre site is exquisite. The amount of twinkle in the gloriously oversized chandeliers is something thats only visible to the naked eye. The 4,263 square metre Persian carpet, Im told, is the second-largest handloomed Iranian carpet in the world, created by hundreds of women over four long years. Words can barely describe the vibrancy of the pure turquoise green in the intricately-detailed tiling, and the stunning stained-glass windows. Theres unbelievable craftsmanship in the shape, cornicing and painting of the dome, and anyone going to Muscat would be mad to miss out on such a visual feast for the eyes. Strict rules apply here, though: All the body must be covered by clothing, including wrists and ankles, and headscarves for women are a must. 3. Eat edible flowers with the hottest new farmers in town The Al Said brothers on their farm (Shangri-LA/PA) Visiting a farm isnt an especially typical holiday excursion, but as one of Shangri-Las more experiential offerings, heading over to Yuzu to meet the Al-Said brothers, is a real treat. Omar, Adam and Fahar grew up in Oman but were educated in London, where they quickly became foodies. But back at home, good restaurants can be hard to find. Around 80-90% of food is imported here which they believe is the problem. Their parents had an almost unused farm, so the boys set about becoming farmers with a lot of help from Google. The brothers giggle as they tell their story. It sounds like theyre winging it, when in actual fact, theyve nailed it. The flavours that pour out of the best-tasting tomatoes Ive ever eaten are tantalising (they have 10 varieties). The red lace mustard leaves taste like potato to start with, before the mustard comes through, and they almost dont want us to try the wasabi mustard leaves, because the spicy kick at the end is so punchy. Who knew the dianthus flower was so delicious? Went to an amazing farm today, tasting all sorts of different leaves and flowers, and the inspiring young farmers are three brothers who fancied a career change. They learned everything from YouTube #modernlifeisnotrubbish #Oman pic.twitter.com/YPqjBEBbmJ Claire Spreadbury (@PA_Features) March 6, 2018 We learn all about edible flowers including the fennel flower, which were told has taken over from saffron as the most expensive ingredient in the world, the tea-flavoured snapdragons and the pretty pink dianthus, which tastes a bit like cloves. Theyre already supplying around 12 hotels with their ingredients and are a genuinely exciting new start-up. Tour and lunch costs OMR 75 (around 150). 4. Swim in a fresh water wadi for views youll never forget If you go to Oman, the one thing everyone should do is go to a wadi an oasis. We take a drive up into the mountains, passing two ladies dressed in colourful robes, walking along the road carrying their shopping on their heads. Rusty soil tracks lead the way, while giant rocks threaten to drop down and fall on us at any moment, though Im assured that definitely wont happen. The colours and textures of the mountains change dramatically as you drive through them. Thundering great red and grey boulders soon turn to messy shale, and mossy, sandy ridges. Every shade of green, red, grey, brown and orange flashes past the windscreen. Long-haired black and white mountain goats looking like prettier, perky Border Collies block our road for a few moments while they shimmy their shaggy coats, but a gentle beep of the horn sends them hopping off and out of our way. Beautiful craggy rouged rocks lead us up to the wadi as we drive through splashy puddles of water. The rubbly mountains are sliced like a loaf of bread and, deep in the valley, is a clear pool of water just begging to be dipped into. Beneath a canopy, chefs are barbecuing meat for our outdoor feast and after a swim, we sit on cushions on the floor, on a giant traditional rug. We eat a variety of mezze salad, hummus, samosas, rice, flatbreads and meat. Its the perfect way to spend the day, exploring the real beauty of Oman. Wadi Arbeyeen Tour costs OMR 120 (around 245) per person. Lasts from 9am-3pm and includes an authentic BBQ lunch, drinks, and Champagne on arrival back at the hotel. 5. Book a massage in Omans first LOccitane spa (LOcittane/Shangri-La/PA) Back at Shangri-Las Al Husn hotel, LOccitanes only spa in Oman opened earlier this year. Book into the indulgent, adult-only Hareer Spa a soothing space to take time out, all decked out in neutral tones and shades of lavender paying homage to the colours of Provence, where the brand first started out. Have all your stresses stroked away as you indulge in the signature treatment, designed exclusively for the spa by LOccitane. The Omani Heavenly Honey treatment (OMR 70/140 for 90 minutes) begins with a delicious, softening scrub, before moving into a deeply relaxing massage, easing tension and calming the mind, whilst leaving skin enveloped with the sweet scent of Omani honey something the region is famous for. How to get there Shangri-Las Al Husn Resort & Spa (shangri-la.com/alhusn) offers rooms from OMR 250 (approx 505) per night, from October to April. British Airways return flights from London Heathrow to Oman start at 349. The Chinese ordinarily do not show in their body language that they are rattled or upset by any untoward happening including terror attacks. They try to put up a brave face against opposition of any kind. However, it was not the case when their much-guarded consulate in the commercial city of Karachi came under deadly attack by the terrorists on November 23. They were surely unnerved and rattled putting them to severe unease and it was more than visible. Three terrorists with strong links to Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) have also claimed responsibility for the lethal assault. They were all killed on the spot foiling an almost possible plan to enter inside the visa hall and cause a mayhem. Two visa seekers from Quetta were killed as a result of the action though it is not yet established whether this casualty was due to police firing or by an act on part of the terrorists. Consequent to the devastating terror misadventure, two policemen also perished who were immediately declared as martyrs. Two policemen also perished in the deadly attack on the Chinese consulate in Karachi. (Photo: Reuters) From the police point of view, its significant that a young woman police officer rose to the occasion by confronting the terror challenge by leading the force from the front and neutralised the terrorists. All said the important aspect which is noteworthy is that why would the Pakistanis target a Chinese consulate? After all, China and Pakistan are all-weather friends and very recently, Prime Minister Imran Khan visited the country on an official visit ostensibly to seek monetary help for Pakistan's depleted coffers. Security analysts reckon that Balochistan, which is in way of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), is not happy with the project as it feels that Beijing is eyeing huge coal reserves in Balochistan. Meanwhile, a segment of the Pakistan polity is also opposed to the ambitious Chinese project of connecting Gwadar port on the Arabian Sea to the Chinese province of Xinjiang. This province is always in the news for the presence of Muslim Uighurs who are often targeted by the Chinese government alleging that they foment Islamic terrorism and demand a separate autonomous region. The attack on the Chinese consulate must compel China to introspect its own anti-terror policy and cooperate with the international fraternity to condemn terrorists patronised in Pakistan. Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) head Masood Azhar and Lashkar-e-Toiba (Let) chief Hafiz Sayeed are more than glaring examples of Chinese officials not condoning their terror acts even after a UN resolution. One hopes that in the aftermath of the Consulate incident, China will review its terror policy and collaborate to contain the terrorists acts to stop further terrorist activities. Three terrorists with links to Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) have claimed responsibility for the lethal assault. (Photo: Reuters) Let's go back to an incident dating back 11 years. In 2007, the famous Lal Masjid siege in Pakistan saw a deadly hostage situation and Chinese intelligence tipped of President Pervez Musharraf giving out pointed information about the Uighurs directly complicit in the Lal Masjid siege. Consequently, the Uighurs were identified and duly handed over to the Chinese as a gesture of friendship and goodwill. It is suspected that they were later executed by the Chinese. Double standards are seen on part of Pakistan as well as China in dealing with terrorists when their own interests are harmed . However, contrary to expectations, Pakistan would never hand over terrorists to India despite specific information to the former about the Pakistani perpetrators. They are harboured out of a well crafted nefarious design and China supports that indifference and silence on part of Pakistan. 26/11 terrorists sheltered in Pakistan are the best illustrations . Now the question is who could be behind this lethal attack on the consulate? It's understandable that the Balochs nurture an anger towards their own federal government for abject neglect of the province for many, many years. Seething because of this extraordinary neglect, indifference and ostrich like attitude, Balochistan has been witnessing rebellious acts of violence. The Pakistani government conveniently blames India for sponsoring terror in Baluchistan. Significantly, Balochistan remains vulnerable and fraught with violent dissent and natural hatred for the Chinese. As such, an act by a rebel militant group to stun attack a well fortified Chinese consulate in the port city of Karachi is not altogether surprising. For China, abundant caution is called for. (Photo: Reuters) In a related development, Pakistan Foreign Minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi disclosed that the terrorists wanted a hostage like situation because they were possibly opposed to the just concluded trade agreements between China and Pakistan during Imran Khans recent visit to Beijing. The foreign minister also blamed, in a veiled reference, powers responsible to derail the growing strategic relationship between China and Pakistan. Could it be a reference towards India? Its in a subdued and restrained manner perhaps to take forward the Kartapur link as well as the recent invitation to PM Modi for the SAARC summit. It could possibly be to bring in a thaw which is, however, likely to be short lived as seen in the last several decades . However, what is clear is that China has to face this music of its own creation. Karachi being notorious for extreme violent activities with least tolerance for outsiders including the Pashtuns could be a formidable launching pad. Hence, the Chinese are likely to be the prime target for obvious reasons. Abundant caution is called for. Also read: Why CPEC could be the end of China-Pakistan relationship Three judges of the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court have recused themselves from hearing a petition filed by Advocate Satish Uke alleging that Judge BH Loya, who was presiding over the trial in the alleged fake encounter of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, was "poisoned" with a radioactive isotope. Two days after Justice SB Shukre and Justice SM Modak recused from hearing the petition filed by Uke, the same petition came up before the bench of Justice PN Deshmukh and Justice Swapna Joshi on Wednesday, the court stated in its order: "Not before the bench of Justice Swapna Joshi". Earlier on Monday when the petition came up before them for hearing, Justices Shukre and Modak had stated: "Not before us". All the three judges have not assigned reasons for recusing themselves from hearing the Justice Loya death case. It is being surmised in the legal circles that Justice Shukre's decision to recuse himself from hearing the Justice Loya death case might be attributed to the fact that he had spoken to an English national newspaper earlier and stated among other things that there was nothing suspicious behind Judge Loya's death and that doctors had done their best to save him. Secondly, Justice Modak was staying with Judge Loya along with another Judge Shridhar Kulkarni at Ravi Bhavan Guest House in Nagpur's civil lines area. Judge Loya was staying with them he had gone to Nagpur to attend his colleague's daughter. However, the reason for Justice Swapna Joshi's recusal from the case was not immediately known. Incidentally, the names of Justices Shukre, Modak and Joshi feature in the reported sequence of events leading up to Loya's death in Nagpur on December 1, 2014. It may be recalled that Justice Loya (48) had died of a "heart attack" on December 1, 2014 when he had gone to attend the wedding of a colleague's daughter. At that time, Justice Loya was hearing the alleged Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case in which BJP's current national president Amit Shah was one of the accused. Justice Loya's family had earlier raised several questions about the circumstances leading to Loya's sudden death. There were also reports in a section of the media raising suspicions over the cause Judge Loya's death. In his petition before the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court, Advocate Uke has alleged BJP president Amit Shah, one of the key accused in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case who was discharged later, had met Ratan Kumar Sinha, then Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, during the latter's (Shah's) visit to Nagpur in March 2015 for three days. Uke has alleged that all official records regarding this meeting have been wiped out. Uke has also alleged that the meeting between Sinha and Shah, "is an indication that Loya was ultimately poisoned with a radioactive isotope". In his petition, Advocate Uke has made a case for the safe custody of records in the controversial case of Judge Loya's death. Among other things, Uke has also alleged in his petition that his former colleagues, retired district judge Prakash Thombre and advocate Shrikant Khandalkar, had told him that Loya died due to poisoning from a radioactive isotope. Thombre and Khandalkar have died since in allegedly mysterious circumstances. Uke has also alleged that before their death, Thombre and Khandalkar had informed him that records at Ravi Bhavan had been manipulated "to shield the real perpetrators of the crime". Uke has also stated in his petition that in the second week of October 2014, Loya had reached out to him through Thombre and Khandalkar saying that he was being "pressured" in the Sohrabuddin "fake encounter" case to give a judgement in favour of Shah. He has stated while he never met Loya, he had spoken to him on video call sometime in October 2014. In that purported video call, Loya allegedly told Uke that Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was pressuring him to give a favourable outcome in the matter. Loya also allegedly told Uke about a certain Shubhanshu Joshi from Nagpur who would pay him the bribe. Uke has stated in his petition, Loya had admitted to him that he had already written a draft judgment giving Shah a clean chit. Uke stated that he along with Thombre and Khandalkar had travelled to Delhi with draft agreement and met advocate Prashant Bhushan who at that time had felt that there was no sufficient evidence to pursue the matter. The Government plans to appoint an Officer on Special Duty (OSD) of a Director General rank officer in the CBI if the Supreme Court decides for a further probe against incumbent Alok Verma against whom the CVC has recorded very uncomplimentary findings with regard to allegations of corruption. Sources said the move is being mulled amid a policy paralysis in the CBI that is now headed by Joint Director rank officer M Nageswara Rao. The SC has barred Rao from taking any major policy decision till a decision is taken on Vermas petition challenging the Governments move to send him on forced leave and divesting him of supervisory role in the agency in view of the CVC probe against him on a complaint from Special Director Rakesh Asthana. The appointment of an OSD does not require nod of the collegium headed by the PM and comprising the Chief Justice of India and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha. The OSD, sources said, will continue till the collegium finalises a name for heading the CBI, the sources further said. The sources said names of two DG rank officials who are currently heading the Central paramilitary forces are being considered for the post of OSD. With chiefs of Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) retiring next month, the Centre is also short-listing officials for these posts. Two top RAW officials in the rank of Special Secretary R Kumar and K Ilango are in the fray for the RAW chief post. Ilango had to be recalled by the Centre at the behest of the Sri Lankan Government following his controversial moves and meddling in the Sri Lankan politics during his stint as Station Commander in Colombo. Following embarrassment due to Ilango, the National Secretary Advisor Ajit Doval had to intervene to salvage the situation. Other contender Samant Kumar Goel, also a Special Secretary in RAW is out of the fray after his name surfaced in the CBIs bribery case against Asthana. IB Special Director Arvinda Kumar, a 1984-batch Bihar cadre officer and Madhya Pradesh DG RK Shukla are frontrunners for top post. RAW is Indias external Intelligence agency and IB is the covert agency for internal intelligence. Liberty Automobiles Company, a leading UAE automotive dealer since 1976, has announced the appointment of Nassim Mourani as its new group general manager. Liberty Automobiles is the exclusive dealership for Cadillac in the UAE, and the General Motors (GM) dealer for Chevrolet, Opel and AC Delco. Mourani is a dynamic, motivated, hands-on entrepreneur and a C-level corporate leader with over 25 years of managerial experience in the automotive industry across UAE and Saudi Arabia. Sheikh Zayed Bin Khalid Al Qasimi, group deputy chairman of Liberty Investment Company, the Holding Company of Liberty Automobiles, said: The appointment of Mr Mourani, an experienced industry professional, to the senior role at Liberty Automobiles highlights our focus on taking our company to the next level. It is also an opportunity to drive the companys innovation and sustainable development through elevating customer service, enhancing operational excellence and establishing more prestigious partnerships. We are confident that we will achieve a transformational growth that adds value to our valued customers and ensures the satisfaction of all stakeholders. Mourani said: Liberty Automobiles raised the standards in customer service excellence by bringing exceptional automotive experiences through the international brands it represents in the region. My goal is to build on the success achieved by Liberty Automobiles and continue to delight our customers by extending enhanced support to the roll out of new models of the automotive brands we represent such as Cadillac, Chevrolet and Kawasaki. We will also support the sustainable development goals of the nation by popularising electric vehicles. In key growth initiatives for the coming months, Liberty Automobiles will extend further support to Cadillac in its plans to launch five new models by 2020, starting with the XT4, its first-ever compact SUV, in the first quarter of 2019. The XT4 model will feature advanced technologies such as Active Fuel Management and the next-generation Electronic Precision Shift, in addition to leading-edge connectivity features. Liberty Automobiles achieved several milestones in recent months including the enhancement of its AC Delco Service Centre in Rashidiya, Dubai, which now offers RTA-certified vehicle licensing, registration and testing services for all GM models. Supporting the Clean Energy Strategy 2050 of the UAE, Liberty Automobiles launched its Chevrolet Bolt EV and also installed a Chevrolet Bolt EV charging station for its customers. TradeArabia News Service India's public healthcare system is sick. In late September, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration launched Ayushman Bharat, meaning Long Life India, to address this illness. This initiative, which has been described as the "world's biggest healthcare programme" will insure more than 500 million Indian citizens who currently have no coverage. Will "Modicare", as the programme has been labeled, cure what ails India's public health care system? The answer is maybe. That answer must be equivocal because of the enormity of India's healthcare needs, concerns regarding the adequacy of funding to address those needs, and uncertainty regarding Modicare's implementation. Healthcare in India today is tale of two groups. The first group is the wealthy and upper middle-class who receive their healthcare primarily from private sector providers. Overall, that healthcare is of good quality and easily accessible but can be expensive. The second group is the lower middle-class and the poor who receive their healthcare primarily from public sector providers. Overall, that healthcare is of poor quality, difficult to access and the money spent on it is insubstantial. In 2015, India's public expenditure on public healthcare was approximately one per cent of its GDP. This compares quite unfavorably to other countries who provide some form of universal healthcare coverage. For example, Singapore expended 2.2 per cent of its GDP, South Korea expended 4.2 per cent and the United States expended 8.5 per cent. India's small expenditures are reflected in its healthcare performance. Some of the deficiencies of the current system are: * The per capita insurance expenditure on healthcare is one of the lowest in the world. Over 75 per cent of Indians have no health insurance. * Because the states carry the primary burden for healthcare coverage, there is a significant difference in the scope and nature of that coverage across the country. * There is a huge rural-urban disparity in terms of the quantity and quality of coverage. * Compared to the rest of the world, India has an average number of doctors but they attend to only one third of the Indian population. * The lack of adequate insurance coverage and availability of public sector health care causes Indians to have to cover more than 60 per cent of their expenses personally. Ayushman Bharat is structured to address these conditions. It provides poor families insurance of up to $6,950 (nearly Rs 500,000) for hospitalisation, calls for the establishment of 150,000 health and wellness centres to provide primary care throughout India and emphasises holistic healthcare ideas such as yoga as part of this intervention. The programme will expand the public health network far beyond the existing governmental hospitals. It will pay public and private sector facilities a fixed rate for covered services. To date, 15,000 hospitals have applied to be certified providers. This appears to be a solid framework for launching this new initiative. The government has appropriated $1.5 billion for Modicare health insurance for 2018-19 and 2019-20. Of this, $300 million is allocated for the first year of the programme. This seems like a lot of money. But, $1.5 billion divided by 500 million covered lives means this is only $3,000 per individual -- a very modest amount. The total allocation also seems insufficient when unknowns are considered: What percentage of the-newly insured will take advantage of their coverage in year one? Who provides payment when an insured individual or family exceeds it coverage? To what extent will private sector providers deliver their services at fixed rates to public sector patients, if they can get full payment from more affluent clients? Another problem is the issue of implementation and roll-out. The new scheme looks good on paper. But establishing 150,000 health and wellness centres is much easier said than done. This is especially true given that doing this will require extensive collaboration and coordination with India's 29 states and seven Union Territories which have varying levels of capacity and competence. In sum, this is not a negative or pessimistic perspective on India's new healthcare programme, but a realistic one. Modicare represents a beginning and an initial step that must be taken to bring India's healthcare system into the 21st century. Some have criticised the introduction of this new programme as a political stunt designed to influence the results of the national elections to be held in 2019. Regardless of why it was done, this action was essential given the sad and sorry state of India's current public healthcare system. The challenge and opportunity is to continue to move the healthcare ball up the field. The goal for whomever becomes the next Prime Minister should be to make India's healthcare programme not only the "world's biggest" but also among its finest. Accomplishing this will help to move India from a developing to a developed nation and bring it closer to becoming a full-fledged world leader. (Frank F. Islam is an entrepreneur, civic and thought leader based in Washington, D.C. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at ffislam@verizon.net) Since, there has been rise of around 3 per cent in the polling per cent in the Assembly elections, both the major political parties are claiming that this is in their favour. PCC Chief Kamal Nath has claimed that this increase in vote percentage is in favour of the Congress, because people came out to vote against the BJP. He claimed that Congress would win 140 seats and the decision on who would be the chief minister, would be taken by AICC Chief Rahul Gandhi. Polling concluded in Madhya Pradesh assembly elections on Wednesday and the fate of the candidates has been sealed in the EVMs. Conventionally, it had been believed that more voting percentage favour the BJP. However, this has not been tested completely all the time. In 2003, when people had voted BJP to power, the polling percent was around 67.25, which was around 7 per cent more than previous 1998 polls. Later, in 2008, the poll per cent was 69.28 (around 2 per cent more than 2003) and in 2013, it was recorded at 72. 66 per cent (around 3.5 per cent more than 2008). This suggested that there has been continuous rise in the polling per cent and thus the present increase in the vote per cent cannot be attributed to any particular party. Against the claims of Nath, resentment among voters like 2003 was not witnessed among the voters. The voters remained silent and quietly exercised his franchise. This is for the first time in the State, much enthusiasm was not visible among the voters. Particularly in Bhopals seven constituencies, the voter turnout was at around 62.5 per cent, which is quite low. Since, the elections for Rajasthan and Telangana are scheduled on December 7, it is expected that the exit polls would start pouring in from evening of December 7 and they would indicate which party is going to form government in Madhya Pradesh. The Delhi Police Special Cell has busted an international syndicate which was allegedly involved in procuring and pumping in of fake currency notes into India. Four men have been arrested and such notes with a face value of Rs 8.48 lakh in a denomination of Rs 2000 notes have been seized. The fake currency notes were pushed into India through Nepal and Bangladesh from Indo-Bangla border in Malda district of West Bengal. The accused were arrested after they already circulated more than 60-70 lakh fake Indian currency notes (FICNs) in different parts of country, including Bihar, Haryana, Delhi-NCR The arrested persons have been identified as Farooq (27), Shariful Islam (21) both residents of district Malda (West Bengal), Asif Raj (27) resident of Motihari (Bihar) and Mukhtiar Ahmed (28) a resident of village Birgha Chapkaiyan in Parsha district of Nepal. According to Pramod Singh Kushwaha, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Special Cell, they have received a specific input regarding the international syndicate of FICN operations following which inputs were gathered and after four months of surveillance on their movement and operations when finally on November 21, one of the key member of syndicate Farooq was arrested from Siri Fort bus stand in Delhi. "On his instance, other members were also nabbed by the team with fake currency mounting to Rs 8.48 lakh in their possession. During interrogation, it has been revealed that accused Farooq and Shariful are partners in this syndicate. Arrested persons have been indulging in FICN circulation for the last about 8 years," said the DCP. "Accused Shariful disclosed that he collected the FICN of Rs 6 Lakhs from his contact in District Malda and came to Delhi to deliver the same to Farooq at Siri Fort Road and also to one Asif Raj. Accused Farooq and Shariful used to visit Bangladesh Border for procuring FICNs from their Bangladeshi counterparts. Mukhtiar Ahmed used to handover the consignments of FICN to Shariful and Asif in Raxual, near Indo-Nepal border. Mukhtiar Ahmed used to get supply of FICN from two persons of Beerganj (Nepal)," said the DCP. "At the first sight, it is difficult to distinguish the recovered fake currency notes with the original ones as they even have security features like water marks," said the DCP adding that further interrogation is going on. Ruckus was created by BJP party workers led by Mayor Alok Sharma and BJP candidate from Bhopal North Fatima Sidiqui, at DIG Bungalow road and Gautam Nagar police station after two workers of BJP were attacked by a mob at Arif Nagar which was opposed from entering a polling booth. Heavy security was deployed at Gautam Nagar police station where large number of BJP party workers barged and gheraoed police station and blocked traffic at DIG Bungalow. The swift action taken by police prevented untoward action after the clash occurred at around 5 pm in Arif Nagar. Case would be registered after the preliminary investigation, said police. Police said that in the incident, the two workers including Pankaj Chouksey and Rajesh Kanojia sustained severe injuries and they were taken to a nearby hospital where their condition is reportedly stable. BJP corporator Manoj Rathore alleged that the two party workers were trying to control the mob which had women in big numbers as there has to be discipline and decorum at the polling booth but they went the other way and attack the BJP party workers. The scenes which were created emerged after Pankaj and Rajesh engaged into scuffle with supporters of Arif Aqeel and were stone pelted as they over numbered the two. Soon after receiving the information BJP candidate Fatima Siddiqui and City Mayor Alok Sharma reached the spot and took stock of the situation. The BJP party workers which gathered in large number at Gautam Nagar police station demanded to lodge a complaint against Congress candidate Arif Aqeel. Defending the attack on the two injured Congress corporator Najma Ansari said that the attack was fuelled only after the Congress supporters were manhandled. As Gwalior went to polls on Wednesday, extensive malfunctioning of EVMs emerged to be the biggest story from the polling arena in the early hours of the polling. The polling per cent in the district was recorded at 62.64, till the filing of the report. Malfunctioning of EVMs has been reported from many polling booths in the Gwalior-Chambal Division where the polling for the Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha began at 8 am. As per reports the number of EVM failures grew as the day progressed. EVM machines failure has been reported from Polling Booth No 170 at Khetapati Colony, No 178 at Dabra, Booth No 72 at Bhind and 114 at Gohad. EVM malfunctioning has also been reported from many other booths in the 6 constituencies. There have been reports that many of the polling officers and observers could not be reached as they had switched off their mobiles. The helpline number of the Chief Election Commissioner of India, 1950 too was unreachable. Long queues could be seen in the polling booth in Khetapati in the early hours as polling could not start on time due to the malfunctioning of the machine. Congress Campaign Committee Chief, Jyotiraditya Scindia cast his vote at AMI Shishu Mandir at 10.30 in the morning. Coming out of the polling booth he told the waiting pressmen that the exit of the corrupt and inefficient BJP government is a foregone certainty. He also hugged and touched the feet of his aunt and BJP Minister Maya Singh when they met outside the polling booth.Scindia appealed to the CEC of India to immediately look into the matter of EVM malfunctioning across the state. In his letter he said that the number of EVM malfunctioning cases is a matter of great concern. Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minster cast his vote in the morning. Afterwards he told the media persons that BJP will win with a thumping majority. By and large the election day passed off peacefully in Gwalior as no major incidence of violence or turbulence was reported from anywhere in the city or surrounding areas. The District Administration and the Police had made elaborate security arrangements to enable the public to cast their votes. However, according to reports three people were arrested in connection with firing outside a polling booth in the Bhind Assembly constituency. There are also reports that some mischief makers had broken an EVM machine at one of the polling stations in Bhind. Firing in the air by miscreants at Jauri village in Morena district too has been reported. Jointly organised by Sparsh Ganga and Namami Gange project, a cycle rally was taken out on Wednesday from Rishikesh to Haridwar with the participation of school students, armed forces personnel, members of the religious fraternity and others. The jawans cycled from Triveni Ghat in Rishikesh downstream to Haridwar and pledged people to keep the Ganga clean. Speaking on the occasion, Swami Chidnand Saraswati of Parmarth Niketan said that Sparsh Ganga campaign had been initiated on Ganga ghats by BJP veteran Lal Krishna Advani and Tibetan leader Dalai Lama aside from the prominent members of the religious fraternity during the Kumbh Mela 2010. I am grateful to all who have contributed to the great cause of the Ganga over the past eight years, he said. He further said that the Ganga was not just the lifeline of the people but the precious heritage of India. It is the bounden duty of all living in the country to keep it clean and to ensure that it flows unimpeded, he said that added that it is the collective duty of all. Vigorous participation of all the organisations and the people is an imperative for the success of the movement for the cause of Ganga, he said. Addressing the students, he urged them to adopt the four Ts-time, talent, technology and togetherness. Swami Hansdevacharya said that the Ganga was the glorious identity of the hoary land. It flows in the heart of the people and it is thus the responsibility of us all to keep it clean, he said. The former Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank who was also present along with his daughter urged everyone present not to dump solid waste or polythene in the Ganga. Hundreds of students present on the occasion pledged not to pollute the Ganga and not to allow it to be polluted by others as well. They also pledged to plant trees in every village and city to help conserve the environment now facing threat from several quarters . At the end of the rally, a disabled Jawan who participated in it was offered Rudrakh sapling. Haryana appoints registrars for Chandigarh: Haryana Government on Wednesday appointed Registrars of two Universities of the State Chaudhary Bansi Lal University, (CBLU) Bhiwani, and Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU), Rohtak. Two Hry IAS officers transferred Chandigarh: Haryana Government on Wednesday issued transfer and posting orders of two IAS officers with immediate effect. Rajiv Arora, Additional Chief Secretary, Public Health Engineering Department and Chief Resident Commissioner, Haryana Bhawan, New Delhi, has been given additional charge of Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Family Welfare Department. missing kid reunites with parents Chandigarh: An 11-year-old mentally-challenged boy, who went missing from Patiala, was reunited with his parents by a team of Haryana Police Crime Branchs anti-human trafficking unit (AHTU). The team also traced a six-year-old boy who went missing from Ludhiana. sewa kendras given over 3 lakh services SAS Nagar: Mohali Deputy Commissioner Gurpreet Kaur Sapra on Wednesday said that this year, till now, more than 3,12,043 services were provided by Sewa Kendras in SAS Nagar (Mohali) district. UT joins Googles Neighbourly app Chandigarh: Google on Wednesday announced expansion of a new app from its Next Billion Users team called Neighbourly, which helps people source local information from their neighbours. Vogue Show in UT from Dec 1 Chandigarh: Vogue India announced the Vogue Wedding Trunk Show at Chandigarh at the Hyatt Regency on December 1 and 2 which will showcase trousseau, bridal wear, gifting, jewellery, menswear and beauty consultancy under one roof. HARTEK bags 400-KV Power Grid order Chandigarh: Hartek Power, the EPC arm of the Chandigarh-based Hartek Group, has bagged a prestigious order for augmenting an extra high-voltage 400-KV substation project spread over three states. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal has urged the Union Railways Minister Piyush Goyal for replicating the innovative elevated railway track of Rohtak on Narwana-Kurukshetra Railway Line in Kaithal also instead of construction of three Railway Over Bridge (ROB) or Railway Under Bridge (RUB). The State Government and Railways have earned significant goodwill due to the construction of Elevated Rail Track in Rohtak, the first of its kind in the country, and more requests for replication of this projects elsewhere in the state have been received by the state government. In a letter addressed to the Union Railways Minister, Manohar Lal said that three important roads namely Kaithal-Karnal State Highway No-8, Cirucular road Kaithal around Kaithal town and Thanesar-Dhand-Kaithal road cross the Narwana-Kurukshetra Railway line in Kaithal town at railway RD 38/4/5 (LC 33), RD 39/4/5 (LC 34B) and RD 40/1/2 (LC 34A) respectively. All these level crossings qualify for the construction of ROBs/RUBs. The Chief Minister assured the Union Minister that Haryana Government will bear 50 per cent of the cost. He said that as these level crossings are located in built up areas with substantial traffic movement due to major government offices, private establishments and the bus stand being in the close vicinity, construction of these ROBs in these locations would not be feasible due to difficulties of land acquisition. Therefore, elevating the railway track instead of construction of three ROBs/RUBs would make a lot of economic sense, he added. As anticipated, the State Government has revoked the suspension of Indian Administration Services (IAS) officer Chandresh Kumar Yadav. He had been suspended in the National Highway ( NH)-74 land acquisition and disbursal of compensation scam on September 11. In an order issued on Wednesday, the additional chief secretary Radha Raturi said that the suspension of the Yadav has been conditionally revoked on the order of the Governor. The order mentions that after suspension, a charge sheet against Yadav was filed on September 28. On his part, the officer had submitted a detailed explanation regarding the charges levelled against him to the State Government on September 17 and based on it, the suspension order of Yadav has been revoked. However, the revoking of suspension of the officer would remain conditional. In the order, the ACS has clearly said that revoking of suspension would not affect in any way the ongoing administrative inquiry into the matter. After revoking of suspension, the State administration is now expected to hand over some responsibilities to the IAS officer. Notably, the multi-core NH-74 scam had occurred during the years 2011 to 2016 when the work on widening the Haridwar-Bareilly National Highway (NH74) was underway. As per the allegation, many times more compensation was provided to the farmers whose lands were acquired. The scam had been detected first by then Kumaon commissioner D Senthil Pandian after which the Trivendra Singh Rawat Government had ordered a special investigation team (SIT) headed by then Senior Superintendent of Police of Udham Singh Nagar Sadanand Date. The SIT had arrested two dozen officers and employees of revenue and administration and sent them to jail in connection with the scam. On the basis of inquiry by the SIT, the Trivendra Singh Rawat Government had initiated a bold move of suspending two IAS officers-Pankaj Kumar Pandey and Chandresh Kumar Yadav-for their questionable role as arbitrators of land acquisition and compensation for NH-74 when both of them were the District Magistrates of Udham Singh Nagar district. More than 400 companies supplying 24 commodities are currently partners in Saudi Aramcos In-Kingdom Total Value Add (IKTVA) programme. The companies work with the energy and chemicals giant to drive domestic value creation for mutual benefit. Saudi Aramcos IKTVA programme is designed to locally source the companys massive supply chain by incentivising investment by international and local equipment and service providers, and small and medium enterprises (SMEs). There are many success stories related to this unique programme. The following are some of them, showcasing how localisation positions partners for competitive advantage, while it helps build a more diversified economy, a stronger workforce, and greater innovation and R&D capabilities. Baker Hughes: 80 years of partnership Baker Hughes, a GE company (BHGE), has been operating in the kingdom for more than 80 years, beginning with the discovery of Dammam Well No. 7, or Prosperity Well, in 1938. BHGE operates more than 10 manufacturing, assembly, maintenance and research and development facilities aimed at boosting local potential and capabilities. BHGEs vital facilities in the Kingdom include a drill bit plant that has locally manufactured and exported an unprecedented 10,000 drill bits to more than 40 countries since 2011. Its holdings also include a pressure control facility that is one of Baker Hughes largest companies worldwide, and the Dhahran Global Technology Center at Dhahran Techno Valley that works with customers to address unconventional reservoir challenges. BHGE employs more than 2,650 employees in the kingdom, of whom more than 1,400 are Saudis, and more than 36 per cent are women in science and engineering positions. BHGE is committed to helping build a solid supply chain the kingdom, given that its supplier base includes more than 1,350 local suppliers and its spending on local procurement exceeds SR300 million ($) annually. At BHGE, localisation is more than a commitment to meet the set targets, as the company seeks to establish connections covering all facets of the local economy through technology and knowledge transfer, local and global job opportunities, value addition across the local supply chain, and a local manufacturing base. Affirming its commitment to the Vision 2030 and IKTVA, BHGE developed a strategy to invest in significant projects such as the King Salman Energy Park (Spark), Jubail Industrial City (JIC), and Dammam Second Industrial City. Schlumberger: Quantum leap in local content Schlumberger, a global leading oil and gas technology provider, significantly contributes to promoting local content and effectively aligned with IKTVA to bring about a quantum leap in its operations, as the companys strategy is centred on doubling its local procurement by 2021, hitting 70 per cent job localisation by 2020, promoting local industries, and embarking on exportation. During 2015-2017, Schlumberger hired roughly 470 Saudis in engineering and administrative positions, and more than 260 Saudis during Q1 2018. Last year, Schlumbergers procurement from the Saudi market made up more than 37 per cent of its total sales during the same period. In line with plans to add new industries boosting local content, Schlumberger has leased 500,000-sq-m in King Salman Energy Park (Spark) to set up an industrial complex serving local and regional markets. Construction commenced in early 2018, and with completion of second phase by late 2019, Schlumberger will be the first drilling-rig builder in the kingdom. ADC: An IKTVA award winner The Arabian Drilling Company (ADC), incorporated in 1964, highlights IKTVAs role in fostering localization in onshore and offshore oil and gas exploration. Since its inception, ADC has developed a creative localisation, Saudisation and training strategy focusing on quality employment and innovative training to develop and retain high-calibre Saudi workers. Though ADC has received two IKTVA award over the past two years the Best Staff Recognition Employer in 2016 and Best Staff Training and Development Employer in 2017 the companys ambition knows no bounds as it works consistently to meet IKTVAs ambitious ratios. ADC has hired around 2,400 Saudis since 2015, and will graduate around 450 apprentices from its diverse in house apprenticeship programmes. ADCs spend on local procurement to total procurement increased from dramatically from 42 per cent in 2014 to 72 per cent in 2017. AZR Technologies Expands in Localisation and Procurement Backed by Wa'ed, Saudi Aramcos entrepreneurship centre, AZR Technologies seeks to be a key enabler in the Saudi oil and gas industry, a pacesetter in localisation, and an innovator of high tech services and industries. AZR Technologies is the first Saudi company to provide oil and water well downhole inspection services. AZR Technologies has been significantly supported by IKTVA, which helped create a business enabling environment where leading companies can synergise with new startups, as AZR has become able to add value to those startups and provide training opportunities for their employees. With plans to align with IKTVA through 2021, AZR Technologies seeks to further localise its operations and procurement from its current 65 per cent spending on local procurement, further diversify and export its well downhole inspection services to neighbouring markets, and create hundreds of job opportunities and professional training for talented Saudis. Though still under incorporation, AZR Technologies has localised 70 per cent of all positions in oil well inspection, and provided more than 900 training hours to its employees in certified training institutes not to mention in house and on job training. Innosoft: A digital transformation pacesetter Innovative Software (Innosoft) serves as a role model for entrepreneurship. The vibrant technology company presents an opportunity to add much value to economic diversification, and actively contribute to the roll-out of innovative, industry specific technological solutions. Incorporated in early 2011, this Saudi organisation acts as a think tank designed to provide groundbreaking technological solutions to the biggest challenges facing businesses and the local market. Driven by its position in Waeds Network of Entrepreneurs, Innosoft earned the prestigious Dr Ghazi Al Gosaib Award for Best Promising Enterprise, was rated among the kingdoms top 100 innovative and leading enterprises by Forbes, and earned Saudi Aramcos IKTVA Award for the Best SME in 2017. Innosoft pursues expansion and wider contribution in digital transformation and local production by relying primarily on the talented Saudis who make up 80 per cent of its manpower. In addition, Innosoft holds annual undergraduate training and development programmes as part of its administrative and professional training programme. With 85 per cent of Innosofts requirements procured locally, the company is in the process of offering more new services and products, including digital transformation, to the local market over the next few years. Innosoft currently exports 5 per cent of its services and products, it stated. TradeArabia News Service BAE Systems plc provides defense, aerospace, and security solutions worldwide. The company operates through five segments: Electronic Systems, Cyber & Intelligence, Platforms & Services (US), Air, and Maritime. The Electronic Systems segment offers electronic warfare systems, navigation systems, electro-optical sensors, military and commercial digital engine and flight controls, precision guidance and seeker solutions, military communication systems and data links, persistent surveillance systems, space electronics, and electric drive propulsion systems. The Cyber & Intelligence segment provides solutions to modernize, maintain, and test cyber-harden aircraft, radars, missile systems, and mission applications that detect and deter threats to national security; systems engineering, integration, and sustainment services for C5ISR systems and enterprise IT networks; and solutions and services to enhance the collection, analysis, and processing of data across the US civilian and military intelligence communities. It also offers data intelligence solutions to defend against national-scale threats, protect their networks, and data against attacks; security and intelligence solutions to the United Kingdom government and allied international governments; anti-fraud and regulatory compliance solutions; and enterprise-level data and digital services. The Platforms & Services (US) segment manufactures combat vehicles, weapons, and munitions, as well as provides ship repair services and the management of government-owned munitions facilities. The Air segment develops, manufactures, upgrades, and supports combat and jet trainer aircraft. The Maritime segment designs, manufactures, and supports surface ships, submarines, torpedoes, radars, and command and combat systems; and supplies naval gun systems. It also supplies naval weapon systems, missile launchers, and precision munitions. The company was founded in 1970 and is headquartered in Farnborough, the United Kingdom. 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 Texas Pacific Land Corp. operates as a landowner in the State of Texas. Its surface and royalty ownership allow revenue generation through the entire value chain of oil and gas development, including through fixed fee payments for use of the firm's land, revenue for sales of materials used in the construction of infrastructure, providing sourced water and treated produced water, revenue from its oil and gas royalty interests, and revenues related to saltwater disposal on land. The company also generates revenue from pipeline, power line and utility easements, commercial leases, material sales and seismic and temporary permits related to a variety of land uses including midstream infrastructure projects and hydrocarbon processing facilities. The company operates through following segment: Land and Resource Management and Water Services and Operations. The Land and Resource Management segment focuses on managing oil and gas royalty interest and surface. The Water Services and Operations segment offers operators an unparalleled breadth of service across the majority of the Permian Basin. The company was founded in April 2020 and is headquartered in Dallas, TX. Read More 35 minutes ago 'Get up!' Pope prays that Lebanon can get back on its feet ROME (AP) Pope Francis told Lebanons prime minister on Thursday that he was praying that God would help Lebanon get up and get back on its feet following an unprecedented economic crisis that has Read Article Grand City Properties S.A. engages in the residential real estate business in Germany, the United Kingdom, and internationally. The company invests in, manages, and rents real estate properties in North Rhine-Westphalia and Berlin; metropolitan regions of Dresden, Leipzig, and Halle; and the cities in the north of Germany, Bremen, Hamburg, and Hannover, as well as other urban centers, such as Nuremberg, Munch, Mannheim, Frankfurt, and London. Grand City Properties S.A. was founded in 2004 and is based in Luxembourg. Read More 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 Preparations are underway in the UAE for Hitec Dubai, the Middle Easts largest hospitality technology exhibition and conference, which will be inaugurated by Dubai Tourism on December 5. Co-produced by Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP) and Naseba, the two-day trade show will be held on December 5 and 6 at the Madinat Jumeirah Dubai. The annual business-to-business (B2B) exhibition will give Middle East buyers, currently worth over $75 billion, access to the worlds leading technology solution providers and experts in the hospitality sector. Commenting on the critical role technology is playing in driving tourism, Issam Kazim, CEO, Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DCTCM), stated: Dubai is a global hub of innovation with the ongoing development of technology at the centre of our strategy. Disruptive technologies are creating new opportunities for our industry while re-engineering the marketplace, and Dubai is at the forefront of capitalising on these emerging technologies to optimise travellers journey. We will continue our focus on harnessing the power of data to redefine the customer journey whilst strengthening developments of advanced technology solutions as we invest in entrepreneurship and environmental sustainability that sets a new benchmark for global travel. As such, we are delighted to support Hitec Dubai as the tourism sector continues to lead the way when it comes to evolving technology. Dubai Tourism is the destination partner for Hitec Dubai 2018 that will feature regional and international case studies, thought-provoking panel discussions and technology demonstrations from 70+ solution and service providers. Frank Wolfe CAE, CEO of HFTP, said: Its an honour to receive DTCMs endorsement to Hitec Dubai for the second consecutive year and have their CEO Issam Kazim lead the shows official opening ceremony. DTCMs support reemphasizes the governments commitment to transform the hospitality industry through proactive adoption of innovative and intuitive technology, and further position the UAE as a regional driver of innovation. Few industries have felt the impact of enabling technology like hospitality. Hitec Dubais advisory council chairperson Laurent A. Voivenel, senior vice president, operations and development for the Middle East, Africa and India for Swiss-Belhotel International, said: Technology holds the key to a more advanced, sustainable and smart future which is revolutionising the hospitality sector like every other industry. Tech-savvy tourists are demanding more from hotels and therefore it is essential to give them the enhanced experiences they crave. Internet of Things, Cloud Technology, Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Blockchain, etc are all paving the way for the future of technology in the hospitality sector and Hitec Dubai will be a great platform to see the latest developments transforming our industry. - TradeArabia News Service 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. Lilis Energy, Inc., an independent oil and natural gas company, engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, and production of conventional and unconventional oil and natural gas properties. Its total net acreage in the Delaware Basin is approximately 20,400 acres. The company's oil and natural gas properties are located in the Delaware Basin in Winkler, Loving, and Reeves counties, Texas; and Lea County, New Mexico. As of December 31, 2018, it had proved reserves of 42,707 million barrels of oil equivalent. The company was formerly known as Recovery Energy, Inc. and changed its name to Lilis Energy, Inc. in December 2013. Lilis Energy, Inc. was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. Read More Melrose Industries PLC engages in the aerospace, automotive, powder metallurgy, air management, and other industrial businesses in the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, North America, and internationally. Its Aerospace segment provides airframe and engine structures, and electrical interconnection systems for the aerospace industry in civil airframe and defense platforms. The company's Automotive segment designs, develops, manufactures, and integrates driveline technologies; and epowertrains and intelligent all-wheel drive systems. Its Powder Metallurgy segment offers precision automotive components and components for industrial and consumer applications; metal powder for powder metallurgy; and additive manufacturing parts for prototypes. The company's Nortek Air Management segment manufactures and sells ventilation products for the professional remodeling and replacement, residential new construction, and consumer DIY markets. This segment also manufactures and sells split-system and packaged air conditioners, heat pumps, furnaces, air handlers, and parts for the residential replacement and new construction markets; and custom designed and engineered products and systems for non-residential applications. Its Other Industrial segment provides turbo generators, transformers, and switchgears; develops and manufactures security, home automation, and access control technologies for the residential and commercial markets; and designs, manufactures, and distributes ergonomic products for use in a various working, learning, and healthcare environments. The company was formerly known as New Melrose Industries PLC and changed its name to Melrose Industries PLC in November 2015. Melrose Industries PLC was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Exxon Mobil: AKG Marketing Company Limited, Aera Energy LLC, Al-Jubail Petrochemical Company, Ampolex (Cepu) Pte Ltd, Ancon Insurance Company Inc., Barnett Gathering LLC, Barzan Gas Company Limited, Caspian Pipeline Consortium, Celtic Exploration Ltd., Coral FLNG S.A., Cross Timbers Energy LLC, Ellora Energy Inc., Esmeroon Oil Transporta Imperial Oil Limited, Esso (Thailand) Public Company Limited, Esso Australia Resources Pty Ltd, Esso Deutschland GmbH, Esso Erdgas Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Esso Exploration Angola (Block 15) Limited, Esso Exploration Angola (Block 17) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Angola (Overseas) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Chad Inc., Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria (Deepwater) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria (Offshore East) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited, Esso Exploration and Production UK Limited, Esso Global Investments Ltd., Esso Italiana S.r.l., Esso Nederland B.V., Esso Norge AS, Esso Petroleum Company Limited, Esso Raffinage, Esso Societe Anonyme Francaise, Exxo Holdings Inc., Exxon Azerbaijan Limited, Exxon Chemical Arabia Inc., Exxon International Finance Company, Exxon Luxembourg Holdings LLC, Exxon Mobile Bay Limited Partnership, Exxon Neftegas Limited, Exxon Overseas Corporation, Exxon Overseas Investment Corporation, ExxonMobil (China) Investment Co. Ltd., ExxonMobil (Taicang) Petroleum Co. Ltd., ExxonMobil Abu Dhabi Offshore Petroleum Company Limited, ExxonMobil Alaska Production Inc., ExxonMobil Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., ExxonMobil Australia Pty Ltd, ExxonMobil B Resources Company, ExxonMobil Capital Finance Company, ExxonMobil Capital Netherlands B.V., ExxonMobil Central Europe Holding GmbH, ExxonMobil Cepu Limited, ExxonMobil Chemical France, ExxonMobil Chemical Gulf Coast Investments LLC, ExxonMobil Chemical Holland B.V., ExxonMobil Chemical Services (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., ExxonMobil China Petroleum & Petrochemical Company Limited, ExxonMobil Development Africa B.V., ExxonMobil Development Company, ExxonMobil Egypt (S.A.E.), ExxonMobil Exploracao Brasil Ltda., ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Malaysia Inc., ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Norway AS, ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Romania Limited, ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Tanzania Limited, ExxonMobil Finance Company Limited, ExxonMobil Financial Investment Company Limited, ExxonMobil France Holding SAS, ExxonMobil Gas Marketing Europe Limited, ExxonMobil General Finance Company, ExxonMobil Global Services Company, ExxonMobil Golden Pass Surety LLC, ExxonMobil Holding Company Holland LLC, ExxonMobil Holding Norway AS, ExxonMobil Hong Kong Limited, ExxonMobil International Services SARL, ExxonMobil Iraq Limited, ExxonMobil Italiana Gas S.r.l., ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Inc., ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Ventures Inc., ExxonMobil LNG Services B.V., ExxonMobil Lubricants Trading Company, ExxonMobil Oil Corporation, ExxonMobil PNG Limited, ExxonMobil Petroleum & Chemical BVBA, ExxonMobil Petroleum & Chemical Holdings Inc., ExxonMobil Pipeline Company, ExxonMobil Production Deutschland GmbH, ExxonMobil Production Norway Inc., ExxonMobil Qatargas (II) Limited, ExxonMobil Qatargas Inc., ExxonMobil Ras Laffan (III) Limited, ExxonMobil Rasgas Inc., ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company, ExxonMobil Russia Kara Sea Holdings B.V., ExxonMobil Sales and Supply LLC, ExxonMobil Technology Finance Company, ExxonMobil Ventures Finance Company, ExxonMobil Ventures Funding Ltd., Fujian Refining & Petrochemical Co. Ltd., Golden Pass LNG Terminal Investments LLC, Golden Pass LNG Terminal LLC, Gulf Coast Growth Ventures LLC, Imperial Oil Limited, Imperial Oil Resources Limited, Imperial Oil Resources N.W.T. Limited, Imperial Oil/Petroliere Imperiale, Infineum Italia s.r.I., Infineum Singapore Pte. Ltd., InterOil Corporation, Jurong Aromatics Corporation Pte Ltd, MPM Lubricants, Marine Well Containment Company LLC, Mobil Australia Resources Company Pty Limited, Mobil California Exploration & Producing Asset Company, Mobil Caspian Pipeline Company, Mobil Chemical Products International Inc., Mobil Corporation, Mobil Equatorial Guinea Inc., Mobil Erdgas Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Mobil Exploration & Producing Australia Pty Ltd, Mobil International Petroleum Corporation, Mobil Oil Australia Pty Ltd, Mobil Oil Exploration & Producing Southeast Inc., Mobil Oil New Zealand Limited, Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited, Mobil Producing Texas & New Mexico Inc., Mobil SerLimited, Mobil Venezolana De Petroleos Inc., Mobil Yanbu Petrochemical Company Inc., Mobil Yanbu Refining Company Inc., Mountain Gathering LLC, Mozambique Rovuma Venture S.p.A., Palmetto Transoceanic LLC, Papua New Guinea Liquefied Natural Gas Global Company LDC, Permian Express Partners LLC, Phillips Exploration LLC, Qatar Liquefied Gas Company Limited, Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company Limited, Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company Limited (II), SPI Limited, Saudi Aramco Mobil Refinery Company Ltd., Saudi Yanbu Petrochemical Co., SeaRiver Maritime Inc., South Hook LNG Terminal Company Limited, Tengizchevroil LLP, Terminale GNL Adriatico S.r.l, Trend Gathering & Treating LLC, Wolverine Pipe Line Company, XH LLC, XTO Delaware Basin LLC, XTO ENERGY, XTO Energy Canada, and XTO Holdings LLC. There is not enough analysis data for Healthier Choices Management. 4.9 Community Rank Outperform Votes Healthier Choices Management has received 82 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.) Underperform Votes Healthier Choices Management has received 30 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.) Community Sentiment Healthier Choices Management has received 73.21% outperform votes from our community. MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about Healthier Choices Management and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe HCMC will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe HCMC will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days. Previous Next Dubais growing business events sector, a key contributor to the emirates economy, is being showcased this week to an audience of international meetings industry professionals at the ongoing IBTM World in Barcelona, Spain. Dubai Business Events (DBE), the citys official convention bureau, kicked off its participation along with partners and stakeholders at the annual trade show being held from 27-29 November. With over 15,000 industry professionals in attendance, IBTM World, held annually at Fira Gran Via in Barcelona, is one of the largest and most significant trade events globally. The 2018 edition of IBTM World serves as a global platform for DBE to showcase Dubais latest offerings for the business events industry, which directly contributes to the overall growth and strength of the citys economy and global knowledge exchange ambitions. DBEs presence at IBTM World is part of a year-round calendar of activities aimed at engaging with the wider global meetings community. DBE has been joined by 27 co-exhibitors from across Dubai, including hotels, venues, attractions, airlines and destination management companies. Key partners and stakeholders present alongside DBE at IBTM World this year include Emirates Airline, Dubai Parks and Resorts, Dubai World Trade Centre, and Expo 2020 Dubai. Issam Kazim, chief executive officer of Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing, said: The business events industry plays a crucial role in our efforts to further transform Dubai into a global knowledge hub, and events such as IBTM World are a key part of realizing this ambition. They also make a significant contribution to the emirates economy, bringing visitors from around the world, often experiencing Dubai for the first time. The ability to showcase the citys world-class business events offerings and infrastructure, engage with global meeting industry professionals, as well as our commitment to the growth of the industry, makes for yet another successful participation in Barcelona. DBEs participation at IBTM World follows from the success of the 57th annual ICCA Congress, which was held this month for the first time in Dubai and the region. The Congress attracted more than 1,150 senior meetings industry professionals and association planners from over 75 countries, further cementing Dubai as a hub for business event with world-class meeting facilities. As part of DBEs strengthened presence at IBTM World, the convention bureau is meeting with existing and future partners from around the world, as well as hosting a networking event offering attendees a unique opportunity for deeper engagement with key Dubai stakeholders. At the trade event, DBE is also highlighting its key achievements and activities in 2018, including the study missions and site inspections hosted in the city, as well as the year round calendar of roadshows and activations around the world, including at other major trade shows. Earlier this year DBE announced strong results for the first half of 2018, securing 125 business events in the first six months of the year, all of which are set to attract over 65,000 delegates to Dubai from around the world, with an expected economic impact of approximately Dh500 million ($136 million). The number of business events secured reflects a 29 per cent increase from the same period last year. TradeArabia News Service TransMontaigne Partners L.P. provides integrated terminaling, storage, transportation, and related services. The company operates through Gulf Coast terminals, Midwest terminals and pipeline system, Brownsville terminals, River terminals, Southeast terminals, and West Coast terminals segments. It offers its services for companies engaged in the trading, distribution, and marketing of light and heavy refined petroleum products, crude oil, chemicals, fertilizers, and other liquid products. The company operates 8 refined product terminals in Florida with approximately 7.0 million barrels of aggregate active storage capacity; a 67 mile interstate refined products pipeline; 2 refined product terminals with approximately 5 million barrels of active storage capacity; and 5.4 million barrels of aggregate storage capacity. It operates 1 crude oil terminal in Cushing with an aggregate active storage capacity of approximately 1.0 million barrels; 1 refined product terminal located in Oklahoma City with aggregate active storage capacity of approximately 0.2 million barrels; 1 refined product terminal located in Brownsville with an aggregate active storage capacity of approximately 0.9 million barrels; and a 16 mile LPG pipeline from its Brownsville facility to the U.S. border. In addition, the company operates a 174 mile bi-directional refined products; 7.1 million barrel terminal facility on Houston Ship Channel; 12 refined product terminals with approximately 2.7 million barrels of aggregate active storage capacity, as well as operates a dock facility; 22 refined product terminals located along Colonial and Plantation pipelines with an aggregate active storage capacity of approximately 11.9 million barrels; and 2 refined product terminals with active storage capacity of approximately 5.0 million barrels. TransMontaigne Partners L.P. was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Read More Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc. engages in the manufacture of thermoplastic corrugated pipe, which provides suite of water management products and drainage solutions for use in the construction and infrastructure marketplace. It operates through the following segments: Pipe, Infiltrator, International, and Allied Products & Other. The Pipe segment manufactures and markets thermoplastic corrugated pipe throughout the United States. The Infiltrator segment provides plastic leachfield chambers and systems, septic tanks and accessories, primarily for use in residential applications. The International segment manufactures and markets pipe and allied products in regions outside of the United States. The Allied Products & Other segment manufactures and markets products throughout the United States. Products include StormTech, Nyloplast, ARC Septic Chambers, Inserta Tee, water quality filters and structures, Fittings, and FleXstorm. The company was founded in 1966 and is headquartered in Hilliard, OH. Read More Concord Medical Services Holding Ltd. engages in the operation of radiotherapy and diagnostic imaging centers. It provides radiotherapy and diagnostic equipment leasing services to hospitals; and sale of medical equipment and the provision of radiotherapy and diagnostic equipment leasing and management services to hospitals, It operates through Network Business and Hospital Business segments. The company was founded on November 27, 2007 and is headquartered in Beijing, China. Read More Royal Jordanian (RJ), the national flag carrier, is celebrating its 55th anniversary on December 15 by offering a special sales promo for its guests: Buy and Fly with RJ at very attractive prices. Travellers can book their tickets on RJs global route network between November 28 and December 14 this year for travel to take place next year between January 11 and May 22, with the exception of Easter time, between April 12 and May 5. Those taking advantage of this sales promo can enjoy a maximum stay of 30 days and a minimum stay of three days at their destinations. The round-trip ticket prices, including taxes, range between JD39 ($55) to Aqaba and JD499 to New York, Chicago, Detroit and Montreal. Fares to Larnaca and Athens are down to JD169, to Iraq, UAE, Kuwait and to Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam to JD179, to Tunis, Algiers and Khartoum to JD239, to Europe to JD289 and to Bangkok, Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur to JD329. Passengers coming from different RJ destinations to Amman, or via Amman, are offered similar attractive ticket fares, which vary by destination. Travelers buying their tickets during this sales promo can purchase checked baggage allowance (up to 23 kg per bag) for cheap prices. The anniversary campaign also gives Royal Club members the possibility to add a percentage of tier miles and flight segments to their accounts, part of the added benefits offered by the new Royal Club program. RJ President/CEO Stefan Pichler said: We invite you to celebrate with us the anniversary of Jordans national carrier, a special occasion that is cherished by every proud Jordanian. On the occasion, we are glad to offer our customers amazing fares to our destinations that span four continents. We have always nurtured the ambition of enabling everyone to fly onboard our aircraft and enjoy a compelling travel experience, and we were able to make this come true through our super low fares that are made available to the public around the world on the occasion of special events. This time, the occasion is not like any other, it is our birthday! TradeArabia News Service 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. Atlas Energy Group, LLC, through its subsidiaries, develops and produces natural gas, crude oil, and natural gas liquids in the United States. The company has interests in the Eagle Ford Shale in southern Texas; the Marble Falls play in the Fort Worth Basin in northern Texas; and the Mississippi Lime play in northwestern Oklahoma. It also focuses on investing in master limited partnership qualifying energy-related businesses and assets. The company was founded in 2011 and is based in Fort Worth, Texas. Read More The Bank of Nova Scotia provides various banking products and services in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Colombia, the Caribbean and Central America, and internationally. It operates through Canadian Banking, International Banking, Global Banking and Markets, and Global Wealth Management segments. The company offers financial advice and solutions, and day-to-day banking products, including debit and credit cards, chequing and saving accounts, investments, mortgages, loans, and insurance to individuals; and business banking solutions comprising lending, deposit, cash management, and trade finance solutions to small businesses and commercial customers, including automotive financing solutions to dealers and their customers. It also provides wealth management advice and solutions, including online brokerage, mobile investment, full-service brokerage, trust, private banking, and private investment counsel services; and retail mutual funds, exchange traded funds, liquid alternative funds, and institutional funds. In addition, the company offers international banking services for retail, corporate, and commercial customers; and lending and transaction, investment banking advisory, and capital markets access services to corporate customers. Further, it provides Internet, mobile, and telephone banking services. The company operates a network of 952 branches and approximately 3,540 automated banking machines in Canada; and approximately 1,400 branches, 5,200 ATMs, and 22 contact centers internationally. The Bank of Nova Scotia was founded in 1832 and is headquartered in Halifax, Canada. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Prudential Financial: 210-220 E. 22nd Street SSGA Owner LLC, AIG Edison, AIG Star, AREF Cayman Co Ltd., AREF GP II Pte. Ltd., AREF GP Ltd., ASPF II - Feeder Fund GmbH, ASPF II - Verwaltungs - GmbH & Co. KG, ASPF II Management GmbH, ASPF III (Scots) L.P., ASSURANCE, AST Investment Services Inc., Adlerwerke CB Investment LLC, Administradora de Fondos de Pensiones Habitat S.A., Administradora de Inversiones Previsionales SpA, Aoba Life Insurance Company, Asia Property Fund III GP S.a.r.l., Assurance IQ LLC, Assurance Intelligence LLC, BSC CP LP, Braeloch Holdings Inc., Braeloch Successor Corporation, Brazilian Capital Fund GP Limited, Broad Street Global Advisors LLC, Broome Street Holdings LLC, CB German Retail LLC, CLIS Co. Ltd., COLICO INC., Campus Drive LLC, Capital Agricultural Property Services Inc., Chadwick Boulevard Investment Holdings Co. LLC, Cibecue LLC, Coconino LLC, Colico II Inc., Columbus Drive Partners L.P., Commerce Street Holdings LLC, Commerce Street Investments LLC, Coolidge LLC, Coral Reef GP, Coral Reef L.P., Coral Reef Unit Trust, Cottage Street Investments LLC, Cottage Street Orbit Acquisition LLC, DHFL PRAMERICA LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY LIMITED, DICKENS AVENUE HOLDINGS VI LLC, DICKENS AVENUE PARTNERS VI (Ireland) L.P., DICKENS AVENUE PARTNERS VI (US) L.P., Don Cesar Investor LLC, Dryden Arizona Reinsurance Term Company, Dryden Finance II LLC, EVP II GP S.a r.l., EVP II Sweden Resi I GP S.a r.l., Edison Place Senior Note LLC, Essex LLC, EuroCore GP S.a r.l., European Value Partners GP S.a.r.l., Everbright PGIM Fund Management Co. Ltd., Flagstaff LLC, GA 1600 Commons LLC, GA 333 Hennepin Investor LLC, GA BV LLC, GA Bay Area GP LLC, GA Bay Area Investor LLC, GA Belden LLC, GA CLARENDON LLC, GA Cal Crossings LLC, GA Collins LLC, GA E. 22nd Street Apartments Holdings LLC, GA East 86 Street LLC, GA JHCII LLC, GA MENLO PARK INVESTOR LLC, GA Manor at Harbour Island LLC, GA Metro LLC, GA Mission LLC, GA TRITON INVESTOR LLC, GA W Paces LLC, GA/MDI 333 Hennepin Associates LLC, GIBRALTAR BSN HOLDINGS SDN BHD, GIBRALTAR INDIA SOLUTIONS LLP, Gateway Holdings II LLC, Gateway Holdings LLC, German Retail Income CP LP, Gibraltar BSN Life Berhad, Gibraltar International Insurance Services Company Inc., Gibraltar International Service LLC, Gibraltar Reinsurance Company Ltd., Gibraltar Universal Life Reinsurance Company, Glenealy International Limited, Global Portfolio Strategies Inc., Gold GP Limited, Gold II L.P., Gold L.P., Graham Resources Inc., Graham Royalty Ltd., Green Tree GP, Green Tree L.P., Greenlee LLC, Halsey Street Investments LLC, Hirakata LLC, IVP Fund GP LLC, Impact Investments Bridges UK S.a.r.l, Inter-Atlantic G Fund L.P., Inversiones Previsionales Chile SpA, Inversiones Previsionales Dos SpA, Ironbound Fund LLC, Jennison Associates LLC, Kyarra S.a r.l., Kyoei Annuity Home Co. Ltd., LINEUP LLC, Lake Street Partners IV L.P., MC GA COLLINS HOLDINGS LLC, MC GA COLLINS REALTY LLC, MC Insurance Agency Services LLC, Manor at Harbour Island LLC, Marble Canyon LLC, Maricopa LLC, Market Street Holdings IV LLC, Morenci LLC, Mulberry Street Holdings LLC, Mulberry Street Investment L.P., Mulberry Street Partners LLC, Mullin TBG Insurance Agency Services LLC, MullinTBG Insurance Agency Services, National Family Assurance Group LLC, New Savanna, Orchard Street Acres Inc., PAI Bay Farm LLC, PAI Bayrock Groves LLC, PAI Belvidere Farms LLC, PAI Big Cypress Farm LLC, PAI Corcoran 640 Ranch LLC, PAI DeKalb Farm LLC, PAI Delano 1500 Ranches LLC, PAI Flicker Orchard LLC, PAI Good Hope Farm LLC, PAI Hawk Creek Ranch LLC, PAI Hills Valley Ranches LLC, PAI Holly Hill Groves LLC, PAI Hunt Farm LLC, PAI Jackson Bayou Farm LLC, PAI Lake Placid Groves LLC, PAI Wallula Gap Vineyard LLC, PCP V Cayman AIV GP L.P., PEREF II Co-Invest 1 GP S.a r.l., PEREF II GP S.a r.l., PEREF II PV S.r.l, PFI EM-Tech Fund I LLC, PG Business Service Co. Ltd, PG Collection Service Co. Ltd., PGA Asian Retail Limited, PGA European Limited, PGI Co. Ltd, PGIM (Australia) Pty Ltd, PGIM (Hong Kong) Ltd., PGIM (Scots) Limited, PGIM (Shanghai) Company Ltd., PGIM (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., PGIM AVP IV GP S.a r.l., PGIM Advisory (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., PGIM Agricultural Investments GP LLC, PGIM Agricultural Investors LP, PGIM Broad Market High Yield Bond Fund L.P., PGIM Broad Market High Yield Bond Partners LLC, PGIM Capital Partners Management (Feeder) VI LLC, PGIM Capital Partners Management Fund VI L.P., PGIM European Financing Limited, PGIM European Services Limited, PGIM Financial Limited, PGIM Fixed Income Alternatives Fund II L.P., PGIM Fixed Income Alternatives Fund L.P., PGIM Fixed Income Alternatives GP LLC, PGIM Fixed Income Alternatives II GP LLC, PGIM Foreign Investments Inc., PGIM Holding Company LLC, PGIM INDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT PRIVATE LIMITED, PGIM INDIA TRUSTEES PRIVATE LIMITED, PGIM Inc., PGIM International Financing Inc., PGIM Investments LLC, PGIM Japan Co. Ltd., PGIM Korea Inc., PGIM LTIF Berlin GP S.a r.l., PGIM LTIF Berlin MLP S.ar.l., PGIM LTIF GP S.a.r.l., PGIM Limited, PGIM Loan Originator Manager Limited, PGIM M Campus GP S.a r.l., PGIM Management Partner Limited, PGIM MetaProp Investor LP LLC, PGIM Netherlands B.V., PGIM Overseas Investment Fund Management (Shanghai) Company Ltd, PGIM Private Capital (Ireland) Limited, PGIM Private Capital Limited, PGIM Private Placement Investors Inc., PGIM Private Placement Investors L.P., PGIM REF EUROPE SCSp, PGIM REF Europe GP S.a r.l., PGIM REF Europe Member LLC, PGIM REF Intermediary Services Inc., PGIM Real Estate (Japan) Ltd., PGIM Real Estate (UK) Limited, PGIM Real Estate CD S.a.r.l., PGIM Real Estate Capital VII GP S.a r.l., PGIM Real Estate Carry & Co-Invest GP LLC, PGIM Real Estate Carry & Co-Invest GP S.a r.l., PGIM Real Estate Carry & Co-Invest L.P., PGIM Real Estate Carry & Co-Invest SCSp, PGIM Real Estate Co-Invest Holdings LLC, PGIM Real Estate Debt GmbH, PGIM Real Estate Finance Holding Company, PGIM Real Estate Finance LLC, PGIM Real Estate France SAS, PGIM Real Estate Germany AG, PGIM Real Estate Global Debt GP LLC, PGIM Real Estate Inmuebles S. de R.L. de C.V, PGIM Real Estate Italy S.r.l., PGIM Real Estate Loan Services Inc., PGIM Real Estate Luxembourg S.A., PGIM Real Estate MVP Administradora IV S. de R.L. de C.V., PGIM Real Estate MVP Administradora V S. de R.L. de C.V., PGIM Real Estate MVP Inmuebles IV S. de R.L. de C.V., PGIM Real Estate MVP Inmuebles V S. de R.L. de C.V., PGIM Real Estate Management Luxembourg S.a.r.l., PGIM Real Estate Mexico S.C., PGIM Real Estate S. de R.L. de C.V., PGIM Real Estate U.S. Debt Fund GP LLC, PGIM Senior Loan Opportunities Management (Feeder) I LLC, PGIM Senior Loan Opportunities Management Fund I L.P., PGIM Strategic Financing LLC, PGIM Strategic Investments Inc., PGIM USPF VI Manager LLC, PGIM Warehouse Inc., PGLH of Delaware Inc., PIFM Holdco LLC, PIIC Limited, PIISC Holdings (UK) Limited, PIM KF Blocker Holdings LLC, PIM KF Blocker V Holdings LLC, PIM USPF V Manager LLC, PLA Administradora Industrial SRL, PLA Administradora LLC, PLA Administradora S. de R.L. de C.V., PLA Asesoria Profesional II S. de R.L. de C.V., PLA Asesoria Profesional S.de R.L. de C.V., PLA Co-Investor LLC, PLA Mexico Industrial Manager I LLC, PLA Mexico Industrial Manager II LLC, PLA Mexico Residential Manager I LLC, PLA Residential Fund III Aggregating Manager LLC, PLA Residential Fund III Limited Manager LLC, PLA Residential Fund III Manager LLC, PLA Residential Fund IV Aggregating Manager LLC, PLA Residential Fund IV Manager LLC, PLA Retail Fund I Blue LP, PLA Retail Fund I LP, PLA Retail Fund I Manager LLC, PLA Retail Fund I Red LP, PLA Retail Fund II Aggregating Manager LLC, PLA Retail Fund II LLC, PLA Retail Fund II LP, PLA Retail Fund II Manager LLC, PLA Retail Fund II U.S. Carry/Co-Invest LP, PLA Services Manager Mexico LLC, PLAI Limited, PMCF Holdings LLC, PMCF Properties LLC, PPPF General Partner LLP, PR GA SCP Apartments LLC, PRAMERICA PRECAP VI GP (SCOTS FEEDER) LLP, PRAMERICA PRECAP VI GP LLP, PRECO ACCOUNT III LLC, PRECO ACCOUNT PARTNERSHIP III LP, PRECO Account IV LLC, PRECO Account Partnership IV LP, PRECO III GP LLP, PREFG Hanwha Manager LLC, PREI Acquisition I Inc., PREI Acquisition II Inc., PREI Acquisition LLC, PREI HYDG LLC, PREI International Inc., PRIAC Property Acquisitions LLC, PRICOA Management Partner Limited, PRISA Fund Manager LLC, PRISA II Fund Manager LLC, PRISA II Pooled Manager LLC, PRISA III Fund GP LLC, PRISA III Fund PIM LLC, PRREF II Fund Manager LLC, PRU 3XSquare LLC, PRUCO LLC, PRUDENTIAL CAPITAL ENERGY PARTNERS MANAGEMENT (FEEDER) LLC, PRUDENTIAL MORTGAGE SKP MEMBER LLC, PRUDENTIAL MORTGAGE SKP REIT LLC, PRUDENTIAL MORTGAGE SKP VENTURE 2 LLC, PRUDENTIAL MORTGAGE SKP VENTURE LLC, PT PFI Mega Life Insurance, Passaic Fund LLC, Pine Tree GP, Pine Tree L.P., Platinum GP Limited, Platinum II L.P., Platinum L.P., Pramerica (Hong Kong) Holdings Limited, Pramerica (Luxembourg) CP GP S.a.r.l., Pramerica (Scots) CP GP LLP, Pramerica Business Consulting (Shanghai) Company Limited, Pramerica EVP CP LP, Pramerica Financial Asia Headquarters Pte. Ltd., Pramerica Financial Asia Limited, Pramerica Fixed Income Funds Management Limited, Pramerica Fosun Life Insurance Co. Ltd., Pramerica General Partner LLP, Pramerica Holdings Ltd, Pramerica Insurance Agency (China) Company Ltd., Pramerica PRECAP I GP LLP, Pramerica PRECAP II GP LLP, Pramerica PRECAP III GP LLP, Pramerica PRECAP IV GP LLP, Pramerica Pan European Real Estate (Scots) LP, Pramerica Property Partners Fund (Scotland) Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital I (Scotland) Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital I GP (Scots Feeder) LLP, Pramerica Real Estate Capital II (Scots) Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital III (Scots) Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital IV (Scots) Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital IV GP (Scots Feeder) LLP, Pramerica Real Estate Capital IV GP Limited, Pramerica Real Estate Capital V (Netherlands) GP LLP, Pramerica Real Estate Capital V (Scots) Limited Partnership, Pramerica Real Estate Capital VI (Scots) Limited Partnership, Pramerica SGR S.p.A, Pramerica Systems Ireland Limited, Preco III (Scotland) Limited Partnership, Pru 101 Wood LLC, Pru Alpha Partners I LLC, Pru Fixed Income Emerging Markets Partners I LLC, PruVen Capital Partners Fund I L.P., Pruco Assignment Corporation, Pruco Life Insurance Company, Pruco Life Insurance Company of New Jersey, Pruco Securities LLC, Prudential 900 Aviation Boulevard LLC, Prudential Affordable Mortgage Company LLC, Prudential Agricultural Property Holding Company LLC, Prudential Annuities Distributors Inc., Prudential Annuities Holding Company Inc., Prudential Annuities Inc., Prudential Annuities Information Services & Technology Corporation, Prudential Annuities Life Assurance Corporation, Prudential Arizona Reinsurance Captive Company, Prudential Arizona Reinsurance Term Company, Prudential Arizona Reinsurance Universal Company, Prudential Bank & Trust FSB, Prudential Capital Energy Opportunity Fund L.P., Prudential Capital Energy Partners L.P., Prudential Capital Energy Partners Management Fund L.P., Prudential Capital Partners Management Fund IV L.P., Prudential Capital and Investment Services LLC, Prudential Chile II SpA, Prudential Chile SpA, Prudential Commercial Property Holding Company LLC, Prudential Customer Solutions LLC, Prudential Equity Group LLC, Prudential Financial Securities Investment Trust Enterprise, Prudential Fixed Income Global Liquidity Relative Value Partners LLC, Prudential Fixed Income U.S. Relative Value Partners LLC, Prudential Funding LLC, Prudential General Services of Japan Y.K., Prudential Gibraltar Agency Co. 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Ltd., Prudential Trust Company, Prudential Universal Reinsurance Company, Prudential Workplace Solutions Group Services LLC, Prudential do Brasil Seguros de Vida S.A., Prudential do Brasil Vida em Grupo S.A., Prudential/TMW Real Estate Group LLC, Pruservicos Participacoes Ltda., QMA JP EM All Cap Equity Partners LLC, QMA LLC, QMA Wadhwani LLP, Quartzsite LLC, Residential Services Corporation of America LLC, Rio CP LP, Rock European Real Estate Holdings S.ar.l., Rock Global Real Estate LLC, Rock Kensington Limited, Rock Marty GP S.a r.l., Rock Oxford S.a r.l., Rock UK Real Estate Holdings S.ar.l., Rock UK Real Estate II S.a.r.l., Rockstone Co. Ltd., Rosado Grande LLC, Ross Avenue Energy Fund Holdings LLC, Ross Avenue Minerals 2012 LLC, SCP Apartments LLC, SENIOR HOUSING PARTNERS VI GP LLC, SENIOR HOUSING PARTNERSHIP FUND VI GP LLC, SHP IV Carried Interest LP, SHP V Carried Interest L.P., SMP Holdings Inc., SVIIT Holdings Inc., Sanei Collection Service Co. Ltd. (Kabushiki Kaisha Sanei Shuuno Service), Senior Housing Partners IV L.L.C., Senior Housing Partners V LLC, Senior Housing Partnership Fund IV L.L.C., Senior Housing Partnership Fund V LLC, Sterling Private Placement Management LLP, Stetson Street Partners L.P., Strand Investments Limited, TBG Insurance Services Corporation, TENSATOR HOLDINGS LTD, TF Proveedora S.C., TMW ASPF I Verwaltungs GmbH & Co. KG, TMW ASPF Management GmbH, TMW Management LLC, TMW Real Estate Group LLC, TMW Realty Advisors LLC, TMW USPF Verwaltungs GmbH, TRGOAG Company Inc., The Gibraltar Life Insurance Co. Ltd., The Keynes Dynamic Beta Strategy (US) Fund GP LLC, The Prudential Assigned Settlement Services Corp., The Prudential Brazilian Capital Fund LP, The Prudential Gibraltar Financial Life Insurance Co. Ltd., The Prudential Home Mortgage Company Inc., The Prudential Insurance Company of America, The Prudential Life Insurance Company Ltd., The Prudential Real Estate Financial Services of America Inc., The WMF Group, Thurloe Commercial Guernsey Limited, Times Square Center Associates, USPF V - Verwaltungs - GmbH & Co. KG, USPF V Carry LLC, USPF V Co-Invest LLC, USPF V Investment LP, United States Property Fund VI GP S.a r.l., Vailsburg Fund LLC, Vantage Casualty Insurance Company, Wabash Avenue Holdings V LLC, Wabash Avenue Partners V L.P., Wadhwani Capital Limited, Waveland Avenue Holdings I LLC, Waveland Avenue Partners I (Ireland) L.P., Waveland Avenue Partners I (US) L.P., Wellness Services Ecossistema De Bem Estar Ltda., Wellness Services SRL, Yamato Life, and Yavapai LLC. 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 Turkish Airlines and Havelsan have signed a new agreement under which Havelsan will produce full-flight simulators with international D-level certification for the airlines Boeing 737MAX and Airbus A320CEO/NEO type aircrafts. The agreement was signed by Turkish Airlines chairman of the Board and the Executive Committee M Ilker Ayc and Havelsan board chairman Prof Dr Hac Ali Mantar. Already having 14 simulators in its fleet, Turkish Airlines will receive international D-level certified five 'Full Flight Simulators' and two Boeing 737MAX and three Airbus A320CEO/NEO, and six Flight Training Devices from Havelsan to be set into operation in 2020 and 2021, according to the agreement. Thus, while the number of Full Flight Simulators in Turkish Airlines Flight Training Center will reach 28 with the other simulators to be received in 2021, the first domestic production of Boeing 737MAX and Airbus A320CEO/NEO type simulators will also be included in this number. Within the scope of this initiative, EASA D-level certified full flight simulators which enable Turkish Airlines pilots to get their adaptation, evaluation, and renewal trainings at low costs and in a realistic manner, will be delivered to Turkish Airlines ever-expanding fleet. Ilker Ayc said; As the two major players of Turkish Civil Aviation, Turkish Airlines and Havelsan, we are very excited to have launched such a meaningful cooperation today. With the awareness of being the national flag carrier of our country, as Turkish Airlines, we are proud to have further developed our support for the domestic and national production, by turning towards the domestic resources. These new simulators to be delivered in forthcoming years, will enable Turkish Airlines pilots to continue their training at the best standard, and also be experienced by the pilots of foreign airlines who prefer our flight training center for their refresher trainings. These simulators, which will have been seen also in the global market in this way, will also play a remarkable role in further increasing the global recognition of Turkish Airlines flight experience, which has already been a highly prestigious aviation brand today. Prof. Dr. Hac Ali Mantar said: Now our country has made a distinguished name for itself around the world with the investments it has made in the areas where it has gained technological superiority. We believe that our cooperation with our flag carrier airline, Turkish Airlines, will grow rapidly in the environment of trust and solidarity. Thanks to these new flight simulators and training systems to be designed and produced by Havelsan, we will be able to satisfy the needs in this regard by turning towards domestic resources instead of foreign resources. At the same time, we will have the opportunity to export both system and training to the world airline simulator market with this project. TradeArabia News Service Brookfield Asset Management Inc. is a publicly owned asset management holding company. The firm specializes in early stage, acquisition, distressed investments, short-term financing to mid-market companies, corporate carve-outs, recapitalizations, convertible, senior and mezzanine financings, operational and capital structure restructuring, strategic re-direction, turnaround, and under-performing midmarket companies. The firm invest in attractive businesses through the public debt and equity markets or by providing financing. The firm invest in Business services, Industrials and Residential sectors. Through its subsidiaries, the firm invests in the property, power, and infrastructure sectors. Its property business includes owning and managing office properties, developing master planned residential communities, and offering clients bridge and mezzanine lending, alternative assets funds, and financial and advisory services. Through its subsidiaries, the firm operates hydroelectric power facilities, interconnections and transmission facilities in Northeast North America, and development of wind power in Canada. Through its subsidiaries, it invests in specialty funds including private equity and makes direct investments in real estate, energy, and resource assets. The firm launches and manages equity and fixed income mutual funds. It also manages real estate and hedge funds. The firm invests in equity and fixed income markets across the globe. It also invest in British Columbia, United States, Brazil, Australia, Chile, Uruguay, New Zealand. It prefers to invest between $2 million and $500 million in its portfolio companies. The firm also prefers to take both minority and majority stakes in its companies. It was formerly known as Brascan Corp. Brookfield Asset Management Inc. is based in Toronto, Canada with additional offices in Bogota, Colombia, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Calgary, Canada, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Gatineau, Canada, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, London, United Kingdom, Melbourne, Australia, Montreal, Canada, Mumbai, India, New York City, Perth, Australia, Shanghai, China, and Sydney, Australia. Read More Fortis Inc. operates as an electric and gas utility company in Canada, the United States, and the Caribbean countries. It generates, transmits, and distributes electricity to approximately 433,000 retail customers in southeastern Arizona; and 98,000 retail customers in Arizona's Mohave and Santa Cruz counties with an aggregate capacity of 3,233 megawatts (MW), including 59 MW of solar capacity. The company also sells wholesale electricity to other entities in the western United States; owns gas-fired and hydroelectric generating capacity totaling 65 MW; and distributes natural gas to approximately 1,048,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers in British Columbia, Canada. In addition, it owns and operates the electricity distribution system that serves approximately 572,000 customers in southern and central Alberta; owns 4 hydroelectric generating facilities with a combined capacity of 225 MW; and provides operation, maintenance, and management services to five hydroelectric generating facilities. Further, the company distributes electricity in the island portion of Newfoundland and Labrador with an installed generating capacity of 143 MW; and on Prince Edward Island with a generating capacity of 130 MW. Additionally, it provides integrated electric utility service to approximately 67,000 customers in Ontario; approximately 270,000 customers in Newfoundland and Labrador; approximately 31,000 customers on Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands; and approximately 15,000 customers on certain islands in Turks and Caicos. The company also holds long-term contracted generation assets in Belize consisting of 3 hydroelectric generating facilities with a combined capacity of 51 MW; and the Aitken Creek natural gas storage facility. It also owns and operates approximately 91,000 circuit Kilometers (km) of distribution lines; and approximately 49,500 km of natural gas pipelines. Fortis Inc. was founded in 1885 and is headquartered in St. John's, Canada. Read More 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 SPDR Gold Shares' stock was trading at $153.93 on March 11th, 2020 when Coronavirus (COVID-19) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization. Since then, GLD shares have increased by 8.6% and is now trading at $167.12. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. Gandhinagar,(IANS) 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 Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama said here on Tuesday. The Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Board (GSHSB), which comes under the Gujarat governments Education 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. Support TwoCircles 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 Education 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 governments 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 governments policies for post-metriculation scholarships or any other schemes for Muslim students, Kauser Ali said. 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 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 American Consumer News, LLC dba MarketBeat 2010-2021. All rights reserved. 326 E 8th St #105, Sioux Falls, SD 57103 | U.S. Based Support Team at contact@marketbeat.com | (844) 978-6257 MarketBeat does not provide personalized financial advice and does not issue recommendations or offers to buy stock or sell any security. Our Accessibility Statement | Terms of Service | Do Not Sell My Information 2021 Market data provided is at least 10-minutes delayed and hosted by Barchart Solutions. Information is provided 'as-is' and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice, and is delayed. To see all exchange delays and terms of use please see disclaimer. Fundamental company data provided by Zacks Investment Research. Taqdeer-e-Umam Kya Hai, Koi Keh Nahin Sakta Momin Ki Firasat Ho To Kafi Hai Ishara Who knows the nations fates? But signs abound, If Muslims are wakeful -Allama Iqbal By Sheikh Khurshid Alam for TwoCircles.net This is the first of a two-part series on understanding the role of Islamic faith-based organisations in West Bengal along with analysing what ails the community in the state especially in their quest for education. My parents hail from a remote village of East Uttar Pradesh (U.P) and they moved to West Bengal for a better life prospect. A lawyer by training, I was brought up in Kolkata. During the course of legal practice in West Bengal, it so happened that my client base was predominantly from the Muslim community, with whom I had worked very closely and assisted them with the registration and management procedure of their Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO). Therein, I was exposed to some of the existing legal challenges of such NGOs. I used to work at such places which have been referred to as Indias Muslim ghettos and among such people who have been called people without history, in the book People without History: Indias Muslim Ghettos by Jeremy Seabrook and Imran Ahmed Siddiqui. The people who came to me for advice regarding the formation of NGOs had different objectives behind such initiative. It came to my knowledge that most of my clients had the desire to contribute to the welfare of the society at large by being inspired with their religious teachings. It was encouraging to see the zeal in my clients, but at the same time I wondered whether the people were carrying out the developmental activities only because of their religious values and faith or were they compelled to do so because of other reasons! Out of all the developmental works in various sectors like livelihood, health and education, my clients were more interested in the education sector. I used to ask my clients as why did they want to work in the education sector and not any other. To which, almost everybody answered by quoting the first revealed verses of the Quran, which said, Read in the name of thy Lord who created; [He] created the human being from blood clot. Read in the name of thy Lord who taught by the pen: [He] taught the human being what he did not know. (The Quran, Chapter 96 Verses 1-5). They told me that Quran encourages reading, so whoever works in the education sector, Allah bestows His blessing upon them. Support TwoCircles Throughout my law school from 2006-2011, I was exposed to the findings of the Sachar Committee Report in the form of seminars, articles, discussions and debates, which had made me aware about the social status of the Muslims, illiteracy being the main concern for me. The disturbing question before me was why was there so much illiteracy among the Muslims even though their Quran encouraged them to read? Through this article, I intend to find answers to some questions which bothered me during my years of study and practice of law. Islamic faith-inspired organisations in West Bengal Substantial research is available in the field of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) in India, but it is felt that there is paucity of research on the operations of Faith Inspired Organisations (FIO). Surinder S Jodhka and Pradyumna Bora made an attempt at broad mapping of faith-based organisations in Pune and Nagpur. They too cite the lack of documentation of the Faith Based Organisations (FBO). Their study states, A great deal of scholarly research has been done in India on religion and democratic political processes and religious conflicts. Similarly, the development activities and other aspects of the secular non-profit sector have been documented by some scholars (Sethi 1993; Kudva 2005; PRIA 1991; Webster 2002; Gellner 2009). However, we know very little about the nature of work that FBOs have been doing at the grass roots or their participation in development activities. The present article is an attempt to study the Islamic FIOs in West Bengal, an Indian state with substantial number of Muslim population. In order to understand the current status of the Muslim community and their organisations in West Bengal, it will be apt to refer to the 2006 High Level Committee under the chairmanship of Justice Rajinder Sachar which is popularly known as Sachar Committee Report (SCR), which presented a very depressing picture of the community on all the fronts; social, economic and educational. Since the release of SCR, a lot has been discussed in the academia about the educational, social, cultural and political conditions of the Muslims and a plethora of literature is available on the same but what is found lacking is any substantial and exclusive study about Muslim managed NGOs or Islamic FIOs and their challenges. Pointing towards the noteworthiness and challenges of the Muslim NGOs, the SCR observed in its recommendation, Credible NGOs, with necessary expertise, from the Muslim community are few and far between. But many face problems in getting their organisations registered. The registration of trusts set up by the community, such as Waqf institutions and mosque committees, should be facilitated. These institutions, being closer to the community can indeed play an important role as intermediaries between policy programmes announced by the government and their beneficiaries within the Muslim community. (Sachar Committee Report, Ch.12, para 3.4, pg 253) SCR has acknowledged the deficiency of credible organisations in the Muslim community and recommended the establishment of Waqf institutions, mosque committees, and civil society organisations as a measure to address the despondency of the community. In a report dated 29th September 2014, the Post-Sachar Evaluation Committee headed by Professor Amitabh Kundu, it was stated, As far as 2011-12 levels are concerned, Muslims stand better than Hindus only in MP and Maharashtra. In Assam and UP, they do worse than SCs and STs, and slightly worse than STs in West Bengal. The said committees evaluation compliments the findings of SCR and at the same time confirms the status quo of the Muslims in West Bengal. Again, in 2014, some eight years after the release of SCR, several members of West Bengals civil society which included Association SNAP, Guidance Guild and Pratichi Institute, came out with another report LIVING REALITY OF MUSLIMS IN WEST BENGAL: A REPORT. In regards to the SCR, the Hindu had reported, Justice Sachar report, released in 2006, collected its data from secondary sources as the committee did not receive much information from the then Government of West Bengal, the Committees member-secretary told this correspondent earlier. But the report of 2014 by Association SNAP and others claimed to be more in-depth and comprehensive than the SCR. The said report challenged various stereotypes surrounding the Muslim community and brought out the living reality of the Muslims in West Bengal with sound empirical data. So far all these studies have concentrated only on the conditions of the Muslims and paid very less attention towards making any observation in regards to the Muslim managed NGOs or Islamic FIOs of West Bengal. NGOs AND FIOs In this particular section I examine the difference between secular NGOs and FIOs. In describing the characteristics of FIO, which is relevant for this study, I allude to the concept of Ummah in Islam and highlight the inspiration of such concept upon the Islamic FIOs in India. FIOs are also known as FBOs or Religious Non-Governmental Organizations (RNGOs). Gerard Clarke has made an interesting observation in defining the complex world of the FBOs. He has identified five types of FBOs namely; representative organisations or apex bodies, charitable or development organisations, socio-political organisations, missionary organisations and illegal or terrorist organisations. Clarkes typology of the NGOs can be called exhaustive as it encompasses all the types of FIOs which can be found today. Julia Berger made the first systematic attempt at an analysis of RNGO at the international level. Berger has defined RNGO as, formal organizations whose identity and mission are self-consciously derived from the teachings of one or more religious or spiritual traditions and which operates on a non-profit, independent, voluntary basis to promote and realize collectively articulated ideas about the public good at the national or international level. World Faiths Development Dialogue (WFDD) utilizes the term faith-inspired organization (FIO) and takes a fairly broad and inclusive approach in defining this term. FIOs are understood here to be any organization involved in development, charity, relief, or community support work that falls under one of the following criteria: Formally linked to a religious denomination or congregation Mission is inspired by religious teachings or mandates Founded or headed by a religious leader History is deeply connected with a religious denomination or leader Robert Leurs, in 2012, made a comparative study of secular NGOs and FIOs in Nigeria and had some astute findings. His analysis tells us that the activities carried out by organisations inspired by both Islam and Christianity is embedded in their faith whereas the NGOs aspire towards the secular ethos. He says, The main difference, not surprisingly, was that NGO aims, values, and development practice are couched in secular humanitarian development terms that reflect the international development discourse, whereas the aims, values, and activities of FBOs are couched in the discourses of their own faith/religion, and are often remarkably similar for Christian and Muslim organisations. There are instances when the objectives of an NGO and a FIO cross paths but that dont make the definitions of NGO and FIO interchangeable. In India, FIOs have either one or more than one or all the characteristics as explained and defined by WFDD. Article 3 of the Constitution of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) states, The basic creed of the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind is La Ilaha Illallahu Muhammadur Rasulullah, i.e. the Divine Being is solely Allah, there being no god except Him, and that Muhammad (Allahs blessings and peace be on him!) is Allahs messenger. This makes JIH an FIO which is formally linked with a religious denomination and is inspired by the religious mandate, i.e Islam. Similarly, history is deeply connected with Sufi orders like Chishtiya, Rahmani, Ghaosiya etc, which had a long lasting impact on the populace in India. One such FIO from West Bengal, The Sirri Saqti Foundation attains inspiration from the teachings of Sirri Saqti. Hazrat (Revered) Sirri Saqti (May God be pleased with him) was a great Sufi Saint who lived in the 8th Century A.D. in Iraq. His famous message that inspires us is: be like the sun which sheds its light on all; be like the earth which sustains the burdens of all; be like the water which enlivens hearts of all. Ummah and Islamic FIO The concept of FIO among Muslims generally spring from the idea of Ummah or an Islamic Society, which is an integral part of Islam. For the Indian Muslims, India is neither Darul Islam (Islamic State) nor Darul Harb (State against Islam); for them India is Darul Aman (Abode of peace). Ali Shariati, for example, has defined a Muslim society or Ummah as a number of people, or individuals, possessing a common faith and goal, who come together in harmony with the intention of advancing and moving toward their common goal. Similarly, Al-Faruqi has used the term Ummah to refer to the society in Islam. He defined the Ummah as a universal society whose membership includes the widest possible variety of ethnicities or communities, but whose commitment to Islam binds them to a specific social order. This shows that faith and Divine Law bind the individuals, Muslims, and these are the cardinal features of an Islamic society. Sayyid Mawdudi, an Islamic scholar and the founder of JIH, while highlighting the characteristics of an Islamic society says, Similarly, in assessing the standards of good and bad in the collective behaviour of society as a whole, only those societies have been considered worthy of honour, which have possessed the virtues of organisation, discipline, mutual affection and compassion and which have established a social order based on justice, freedom and equality. Disorganisation, indiscipline, anarchy, disunity, injustice and social privilege have always been considered manifestations of decay and disintegration in a society. Imteyaz Anwar, ex-city president of JIH, Kolkata says, His (Mawdudi) emphasis on organisation and discipline among the Ummah resulted in the establishment of an organisation (JIH) of upright people, with the objective of amr bil maroof wa nahi anul munkar(invitation towards good deeds and discouraging bad deeds). Therefore, it can be understood that without understanding the concept of Ummah in Islam, the understanding about the Islamic FIOs will be incomplete. Two fine works, Jeffrey Haynes book titled Religion and Development conflict or cooperation and Severine Deneulin with Masooda Banos book Religion in Development rewriting the secular script on the theme of religion and development have informed the subject in context to India. These works focus on the contribution of four major religions, one being Islam, to specific development sectors as well as address broader concerns around the role of religion in development. Banos work relies on a variety of empirical material and the key argument is that development and religion cannot be separated. The book says, there is no separation between religion and developmentIt is not easy to separate the development activities (schools, hospitals, political protests, and so on) from the religious activities (such as prayer and worship). In countries where Islam is the official religion, in such countries Islamic FIOs can function within the classical concept of Ummah but in a country like India, which does not subscribe to any religion, here the Islamic FIOs, theoretically, have to submit their commitments towards the constitution first and Islam next. Though, this submission to the constitution does not prevent the citizens to follow their personal laws and is not a hindrance to practice and propagate the religion of their choice, but this freedom of religion does not fulfil the demands of the Ummah in its entirety. The law of the land does not stop the Muslim community to enact the demands of Ummah in their personal lives as long as their activities are limited to marriage, divorce, question of inheritance and adherence to certain rites like offering prayers, going for hajj, paying zakat, observing sawm, etc but for example, the moment the Muslim community harbours a dream of running a bank on Islamic principles, it is struck down by the authority of law. Islamic FIOs have been running advocacy campaigns for years to introduce Islamic banking in India as an alternative to the interest-based banking but they had to face disappointment when Reserve Bank of India rejected the idea. RBI said that the decision was taken after considering the wider and equal opportunities available to all citizens to access banking and financial services. What the RBI calls the wider and equal opportunities is not fully true in terms of access to facilities of financial institutions because of the existence of exclusive tax benefits to Hindu Undivided Family (HUF). Though the Muslims of India have the equal opportunity to access financial institutions, such institutions function against the tenets of Islam and having no other options, the Muslims have to submit themselves before such institutions. The Islamic FIOs are at a loss because they cannot run Islamic banking services without the approval of RBI. I believe that a Pan-India broad mapping of Islamic FIOs is the need of the hour, and that is a pre-requisite in identification of the obstacles in the performance of Islamic FIOs. The author is a Kolkata-based lawyer. The following companies are subsidiares of Franklin Resources: AdvisorEngine, AdvisorEngine Inc., Alumcreek Holdings LLC, Athena Capital Advisors, Balanced Equity Management, Balanced Equity Management Pty. 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Ltd., Legg Mason Partners Fund Advisor LLC, Legg Mason Royce Holdings LLC, Onsa Inc., RARE IP Trust, RARE Infrastructure Limited, REDROSE Caesar S.a r.l., Random Forest Capital, Random Forest Capital LLC, Rensburg Sheppards plc, Riva Financial Systems Limited, Royce & Associates GP LLC, Royce & Associates LP, Royce Fund Services LLC, Royce Management Company LLC, TSEMF III (Jersey) Limited, TSEMF IV (Jersey) Limited, Templeton Asset Management (Labuan) Limited, Templeton Asset Management (Poland) TFI S.A., Templeton Asset Management Ltd., Templeton Global Advisors Limited, Templeton Global Holdings Ltd., Templeton International Inc., Templeton Investment Counsel LLC, Templeton Restructured Investments III Ltd., Templeton Restructured Investments IV Ltd., Templeton Restructured Investments L.L.C., Templeton Turkey Fund GP Ltd., Templeton Worldwide Inc., Templeton do Brasil Ltda., Templeton/Franklin Investment Services Inc., WHITEROSE Caesar S.a r.l., Western Asset Holdings (Australia) Pty Ltd, Western Asset Management (Brazil) Holdings Limitada, Western Asset Management (Cayman) Holdings Limited, Western Asset Management Company Distribuidora de Titulos e Valores Mobiliarios Limitada, Western Asset Management Company LLC, Western Asset Management Company Limited, Western Asset Management Company Pte Ltd., Western Asset Management Company Pty Ltd, and Winfield & Company. There is not enough analysis data for Rare Element Resources. 4.7 Community Rank Outperform Votes Rare Element Resources has received 56 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.) Underperform Votes Rare Element Resources has received 24 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.) Community Sentiment Rare Element Resources has received 70.00% outperform votes from our community. MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about Rare Element Resources and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe REEMF will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe REEMF will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days. Previous Next - T. S. Eliot Thoughts After Lambeth "The World is trying the experiment of attempting to form a civilized but non-Christian mentality. The experiment will fail; but we must be very patient in awaiting its collapse; meanwhile redeeming the time: so that the Faith may be preserved alive through the dark ages before us; to renew and rebuild civilization, and save the World from suicide." By Priyanka Ishwari, TwoCircles.net Pictures of his brother lying in a pool of blood flash on the massive screen before him. His mother Saira is talking into the camera about the apathy of the onlookers who refused to come forward to help her sons. The brother, Junaid, was killed one and a half years ago, a few days before Eid. All the accused in the case roam about freely, having been granted bail by the courts while Hashim awaits justice for his younger sibling Junaid who was lynched on a train in June 2017. 15-year-old Junaid was on his way home from Delhi, with his friends and brothers including Hashim on a Mathura-bound train when they were attacked by a mob. Support TwoCircles As the legal process continues to test their patience, Hashim and his family members have found new hopes in a documentary film. I appreciate the hard work of the filmmakers who compiled this film, maybe after watching the film some goons might have a change of heart Hashim remarks after watching Lynch Nation at its first press screening in the Press Club in Delhi last week. Directed by budding journalists Ashafaque EJ and Shaheen Ahmed, the 44-minute film documents seven incidents of mob lynching, capturing testimonies of the victims families and survivors of mob attacks. As I watched the film it felt as if the incidence was taking place in front of me once again. I was reliving it all over again says a choked-up Hashim. The tremors of Junaids death hadnt shaken just his family but had evidently affected many. It was Junaids tragic death which pushed the duo to start working on the film. In most cases of lynching, even in those included in the film, the crimes were committed under the garb of protection of cows. But there was no cow involved in Junaids case; He was just a boy who had done nothing wrong and was killed only for his identity, Ashfaque puts it boldly for the audience. Having resolved to make what is arguably one of the first films on lynchings in India, Ashafaque and Shaheen-both residents of Kerala-reached out to other people for help. Having roped in journalist Amit Sengupta (Ashafaques former teacher from Indian Institute of Mass Communications as a mentor) they were joined by their friends Furqan Faridi and Vishu Sejwal as they travelled across North India covering Dadri, Alwar, Latehar, Ramgarh, Bhaivratpur, Ballabgarh and Una. As they travelled with their crew across several North Indian states, they received help from members of Not In My Name Campaign, United Against Hate Campaigns, local activists and people for their crowdfunded project. But it wasnt all a rosy picture. The crew was always worried about their safety and the hostility that they could face from fringe groups. We were extremely precautious throughout our entire journey. For example, we steered away from Jharkhand during Ramnavami when local activists warned us that the environment could be communally charged, Shaheen told this reporter. We were scared throughout the filmat one point we thought that we were being followed and all our movements were under watch. But thankfully, nothing big happened. There are still other causes for worry for the young filmmakers. Even as filmmaker and member of the Not in My Name campaign, Rahul Roy termed the film quiet and largely observational in its approach, he was certain the film could not be screened at many public spaces like Delhi University without coming under attack from right-wing groups. To be on the safe side and be able to take the film to as many people as possible the filmmakers said they would apply for certification from the Censor Board. The filmmakers believe that lynchings have become a routine affair in the country and see their film as a fight against the increasing normalisation of such events in the media and the mainstreaming of the ideology which promotes it. Talking about what the film sets out to achieve, Ashfaque said, We might not be able to counter the growing hate with this film but we hope that somewhere we are able to prick peoples conscience. We want people to connect to the families who lost their loved ones and feel their pain. Everytime a Pehlu Khan is killed or a Ummar Khan is killed or a Junaid is killed, we want people to feel that their own brother died. Apart from what the film can achieve, the film itself was seen as an achievement of sorts by the likes of Prof Apoorvanand who attended the inaugural screening of the film. It is no coincidence that the filmmakers are young Muslims, which is extremely important and necessary. Its important in the context of Muslims reclaiming their rightful share of spaces, fighting for themselves and not being represented by other groups argued the Delhi University teacher. iShares MSCI EAFE ETF's stock was trading at $56.05 on March 11th, 2020 when COVID-19 reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization. Since then, EFA stock has increased by 41.4% and is now trading at $79.26. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. New Media Investment Group Inc. invests in, owns, and operates local media assets in the United States. The company's principal products include 146 daily newspapers with total paid circulation of approximately 1.5 million; 323 weekly newspapers with total paid circulation of approximately 268,000 and total free circulation of approximately 1.4 million; 132 shoppers with total circulation of approximately 3.1 million; and 581 locally-focused Websites, including Internet and mobile devices with approximately 364 million page views per month. Its principal products also comprise 77 business publications; and UpCurve Cloud and ThriveHive, which provides digital marketing and business services. In addition, the company produces niche publications that address specific local market interests, such as recreation, sports, healthcare, and real estate. Further, it offers print and online products that offer local market news and information on various topics comprising local news and politics, community and regional events, youth sports, opinion and editorial pages, local schools, obituaries, weddings, and police reports, as well as commercial printing services for publishers; and prints commercial materials, including flyers, business cards, and invitations. Additionally, the company produces approximately 350 annual events with a collective attendance approximately 400,000, such as themed expo, signature event, endurance event, and white label event services; and provides digital and print advertising services. It reaches approximately 22 million people per week; and serves approximately 199,000 business customers. New Media Investment Group Inc. was founded in 1997 and is based in New York, New York. Read More WellCare Health Plans, Inc. provides government-sponsored managed care services. The company operates in three segments: Medicaid Health Plans, Medicare Health Plans, and Medicare Prescription Drug Plans (PDPs). The Medicaid Health Plans segment offers plans for beneficiaries of temporary assistance for needy families, supplemental security income, and aged blind and disabled residents; and other state-based programs, such as children's health insurance programs and long-term services and supports programs for qualifying families who are not eligible for Medicaid. The Medicare Health Plans segment provides Medicare, a federal program that provides eligible persons aged 65 and over, as well as some disabled persons with a range of hospital, medical, and prescription drug benefits; Medicare Advantage, a Medicare's managed care alternative to the original Medicare program, which offers individuals standard Medicare benefits directly through Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services; and coordinated care plans that are administered through health maintenance organizations and require members to seek health care services and select a primary care physician from a network of health care providers. The Medicare PDPs segment provides Medicare part D PDP plans to Medicare-eligible beneficiaries. Its PDP plans offer national in-network prescription drug coverage, including a preferred pharmacy network. As of December 31, 2018, the company served approximately 5.5 million members in the United States. WellCare Health Plans, Inc. was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Tampa, Florida. Read More Uprooted Palestinians are at the heart of the conflict in the M.E Palestinians uprooted by force of arms. Yet faced immense difficulties have survived, kept alive their history and culture, passed keys of family homes in occupied Palestine from one generation to the next. Invesco BulletShares 2021 High Yield Corporate Bond ETF's stock was trading at $23.11 on March 11th, 2020 when COVID-19 reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization. Since then, BSJL stock has decreased by 0.6% and is now trading at $22.98. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. The following companies are subsidiares of NOV: AG Holding UK, APL France SAS, APL Management Pte Ltd, APL Norway AS, APL do Brasil Ltda., ASEP Group Holding B.V., ASEP Otomotiv Sanayi Ticaret Ltd., Ackerman Holdings C.V., Ackerman Holdings GP LLC, Ackerman International Holland B.V., Advanced Production and Loading, Advanced Wirecloth, Aggregate Plant Products Co., American Pipe and Construction International, Ameron B.V., Ameron Holdings Pte. Ltd., Ameron International, Ameron International Corporation, Ameron Pole Products LLC, Ameron Polyplaster Industria E Comercio de Tubos Ltda., Ameron Singapore Holding, Ameron Singapore Poly Holdings Pte. Ltd., Ameron Trading Holdings Pte. Ltd., Andergauge Limited, Andergauge Redback, Andergauge USA, Arabian Rig Manufacturing Company, Axiom Process Limited, Belco Manufacturing Company, Big Red Tubulars Limited, Bondstrand Ltd., Bowen Downhole Inc., Bowen Downhole LLC, Brandt Interests, Brandt Oilfield Services (M) Sdn. 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Ltd., Fiberspar Corporation, Fiberspar Linepipe Canada Ltd., Fibra Ingenieria y Construccion S.A., FidService, Fjords Processing (Shanghai) Co., Fjords Processing 1 AS, Fjords Processing AS, Fjords Processing Australia Pty Ltd, Fjords Processing France SAS, Fjords Processing Korea Co. Ltd., Fjords Processing Limited, Fjords Processing UK Ltd., Fryma S.a.r.l., GOT German Oil Tools GmbH, GP USA Holding LLC, GPEX, German Oil Tools (Middle East) FZE, Grant Prideco (Jiangsu) Drilling Products Co., Grant Prideco (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Grant Prideco AB TCA Holding LLC, Grant Prideco European Holding, Grant Prideco Holding, Grant Prideco III C. V., Grant Prideco Inc., Grant Prideco Jersey Limited, Grant Prideco L.P., Grant Prideco Mauritius Limited, Grant Prideco Netherlands B.V., Grant Prideco PC Composites Holdings, Grant Prideco S. de R.L. de C.V., Grant Prideco USA, Grant Prideco de Venezuela, Greystone Technologies Pty. Ltd., GustoMSC B.V., GustoMSC U.S., Hebei Huayouyiji Tuboscope Coating Co., Hitec AS, Hydralift AmClyde, Hydralift France SAS, Hydralift Holdings UK Limited, Inspecciones y Pruebas No Destructivas, IntelliServ Norway AS, Intelliserv, Intelliserv GP Holdings LLC, Intelliserv International Holding, Intelliserv LLC, Interval LLC, JiangYin Tuboscope Tubular Development Co., Merpro Group Limited, Merpro Products Limited, Merpro Tortek Limited, Midsund Bruk AS, Mono Group Pension Trustees Limited, Mono Pumps New Zealand Company, Monoflo NOV S.A.I.C., Moyno Inc., Moyno de Mexico S.A. de C.V., NKT Flexibles I/S, NOV (Asia), NOV (Barbados) Holding SRL, NOV (Barbados) SRL, NOV (Caymans), NOV (Malaysia) Sdn. 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Bhd., NOV Process & Flow Technologies Pte. Ltd., NOV Process & Flow Technologies UK Limited, NOV Process & Flow Technologies US, NOV Rig Solutions Pte. Ltd., NOV Romania, NOV Saudi Arabia Co. 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Ltd., National Oilwell Varco Rig Equipment Trading (Shanghai) Co., National Oilwell Varco Romania S.R.L., National Oilwell Varco Solutions, National Oilwell Varco UK Limited, National Oilwell Varco Ukraine LLC, National Oilwell Varco de Bolivia S.R.L., National Oilwell Varco de Chile - Servicios Limitada, National Oilwell Varco do Brasil Ltda., National Oilwell de Venezuela, National-Oilwell Pte. Ltd., National-Oilwell Pty. Ltd., PT Fjords Processing Indonesia, PT H-Tech Oilfield Equipment, PT NOV Oilfield Services, PT National Oilwell Varco, PT PROFAB INDONESIA, Pesaka Inspection Services SDN.BHD., Pipex Limited, Pipex PX Limited, Pipex Structural Composites Limited, Pridecomex Holding S. de R.L. de C.V., Pridecomex TA Industries, Procon Engineering Ltd., Profab Engineering Pte. Ltd., Profab Services Pte Ltd, Quality Tubing FSC, R&M C.V., R&M Canada Cooperatief U.A., R&M Energy Systems Australia Pty Ltd., R&M Energy Systems de Argentina S.A., R&M Energy Systems de Venezuela, R&M Environmental Strategies, R&M Singapore Holding LLC, R&M UK Holding LLC, RE.MAC.UT. S.r.l., RHI Holding LLC, ReedHycalog, ReedHycalog International Holding, ReedHycalog LLC, ReedHycalog UK Limited, Robannic Overseas Finance A.V.V., Robbins & Myers, Robbins & Myers (Suzhou) Process Equipment Company Limited, Robbins & Myers B.V., Robbins & Myers Foundation, Robbins & Myers GP LLC, Robbins & Myers Holdings, Robbins & Myers Holdings UK Limited, Robbins & Myers Inc, Robbins & Myers Italia S.R.L., Robbins & Myers N.V., Rodic S.A. de C.V., Romaco S.a.r.l., STAR Sudamtex Tubulares S.A., STBH2O TUNISIE, STSA, Screen Manufacturing Company Unlimited, Seabox AS, Slip Clutch Systems Limited, Smart Drilling GmbH, Soil Recovery A/S, South Seas Inspection, Subseaflex Holding ApS, T-3 Energy Preferred Industries Mexico, T-3 Energy Services, T-3 Energy Services Cayman, T-3 Energy Services Cayman Holdings, T-3 Energy Services India Private Limited, T-3 Energy Services Mexico, T-3 Investment Corporation IV, T-3 Mexican Holdings, TVI Holdings, Telluride Insurance Limited, Tianjin Grant TPCO Drilling Tools Company Limited, Tube-Kote, Tubo-FGS, Tuboscope & Co. LLC, Tuboscope (Holding U.S.) LLC, Tuboscope Brandt de Venezuela, Tuboscope Machining Services AS, Tuboscope Norge AS, Tuboscope Pipeline Services Inc., Tuboscope Services, Tuboscope Vetco (Deutschland) GmbH, Tuboscope Vetco (France) SAS, Tuboscope Vetco (Oesterreich) GmbH, Tuboscope Vetco Canada ULC, Tuboscope Vetco Capital Limited, Tuboscope Vetco Moscow CJSC, Tuboscope Vetco de Argentina S.A., Tubular Coatings Solutions Ltd., Tucom Composites Polyester Sanayi Ticaret Ltd., Varco BJ B.V., Varco CIS, Varco Canada ULC, Varco I/P, Varco International de Venezuela, Varco L.P., Varco US Holdings LLC, Vetco Coating GmbH, Vetco Enterprise GmbH, Vetco Saudi Arabia Ltd., Visible Assets, Wilson International, Woolley, XL Systems, XL Systems Antilles, XL Systems Europe B.V., XL Systems International, voestalpine Middle East Free Zone Establishment, voestalpine Tubulars Corporation, voestalpine Tubulars GmbH, and voestalpine Tubulars GmbH & Co KG. 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 The following companies are subsidiares of Sonoco Products: AMGH, APEI UK Limited, APEI Unlimited IOM, Associated Packaging Technologies Inc., Beteiligungen Sonoco Deutschland Vermogensverwaltungsgesellschaft mbh, CP Acquisition LLC, Can Packaging, Can Packaging SAS, Cap Liners Limited, Capseals Limited, Capseals Liners Limited, Cascades Sonoco Inc. (fka Cascades Conversion Inc), Clear Lam Flexible Films (Nanjing) Co. Ltd., Clear Lam Packaging Inc., Clear Pack Co., Clear Pack Company, Colombiana P.M. LLC, Conitex Sonoco (BVI) Ltd., Conitex Sonoco (Mexico) S. de R.L. de C.V., Conitex Sonoco Hellas S.A., Conitex Sonoco Holding B.V., Conitex Sonoco Inc., Conitex Sonoco India Pvt. Ltd., Conitex Sonoco N.V., Conitex Sonoco Shanghai Ltd., Conitex Sonoco Suzhou Co. Ltd., Conitex Sonoco Taiwan Ltd., Conitex Sonoco USA Inc., Convex Mold Inc., Corenso Holdings America Inc., Corenso North America, Corenso Richmond LLC, Corepak Limited, CorrFlex Graphics LLC, Demolli Industria Cartaria S.p.A., Engraph Inc., Engraph Puerto Rico Inc., Fair Lawn Packaging Services LLC, Friarsgate Studio Limited, Graffo Paranaense De Embalagens S.A., Graffo Paranaense de Embalagens S/A, Grove Mill Paper Company Limited, Gunther of America Inc., Hartsville Corrugating LLC, Hayes Manufacturing Group, Heathfield Reels Limited, Highland Packaging Solutions, Highland Packaging Solutions LLC, Industrial Machine Co. Inc., Inversiones Sonoco Limitada, Italtubetti SpA, Laminar Medica, Laminar Medica (CE) s.r.o., Laminar Medica Limited, Manufacturas Sonoco S.A. de C.V., Matrix Packaging Inc., Nathaniel Lloyd & Company Limited, OOO Sonoco Alcore (fka ZAO Sonoco Alcore), Ontario Inc., PT Conitex Sonoco, PT Papcor Asia Pacific, PT Papertech Indonesia, PT Sonoco Indonesia, Packaging Holdings Inc., Papcor (Dezhou) Packaging Material Co. Ltd., Papertech Dezhou Co. Ltd., Papertech SL, PenPack LLC, Peninsula Packaging Company, Peninsula Packaging LLC, Penpack S. de R.L. de C.V., Phoenix Packaging Corp., Plastique Holdings LTD, SAS Du Lagon, SCI Lagon Quest, SMB GmbH, SPC Capital Management Inc., SPC Liquidation LLC, SPC Management LLC, SPC Resources Inc., SR Holdings of the Carolinas LLC, Sebro Plastics Inc., Sonoco (Shanghai) Co., Sonoco (Taicang) Packaging Co., Sonoco (Weifang) Packaging Company Ltd., Sonoco Absorbent Technologies LLC, Sonoco Absorbent Technologies Limited, Sonoco Alcore - Demolli S.r.l., Sonoco Alcore AB, Sonoco Alcore GmbH, Sonoco Alcore N.V., Sonoco Alcore Nederland B.V., Sonoco Ambalaj Sanayi Ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Sonoco Asia Holding S.a.r.l., Sonoco Asia L.L.C., Sonoco Asia Management Company L.L.C., Sonoco Australia Pty Ltd, Sonoco Board Mills Limited, Sonoco Bonmati S.A.U., Sonoco Canada Corporation, Sonoco Capseals Liners Limited, Sonoco Comercial S. de R.L. de C.V., Sonoco Consumer Products Dordrecht B.V. (fka Dorpak B.V.), Sonoco Consumer Products Europe GmbH (fka Weidenhammer Packaging Group GmbH), Sonoco Consumer Products Hellas S.A. (fka Weidenhammer Hellas S.A.), Sonoco Consumer Products Limited, Sonoco Consumer Products Mechelen BVBA (fka Weidenhammer Belgium BVBA), Sonoco Consumer Products Montanay SAS (fka Neuvibox SAS), Sonoco Consumer Products Poland Sp. Z.O.O., Sonoco Consumer Products SAS, Sonoco Consumer Products South Africa (PTY) Ltd., Sonoco Consumer Products Zwenkau GmbH (fka fka Weidenhammer Plastice Packaging GmbH), Sonoco Cores and Paper Limited, Sonoco D & P LLC, Sonoco D and P York LLC, Sonoco Deutschland GmbH, Sonoco Deutschland Holdings GmbH, Sonoco Development Inc., Sonoco Display and Packaging LLC, Sonoco Elk Grove Inc., Sonoco Embalagens Ltda. (fka Sonoco Embalagens S.A.), Sonoco Europe Limited, Sonoco Flexible Packaging Canada Corporation, Sonoco Flexible Packaging Co. Inc., Sonoco Graphics India Private Limited, Sonoco Hickory Inc., Sonoco Holdings Inc., Sonoco Holdings UK Limited, Sonoco Hutchinson LLC, Sonoco IPD France SAS, Sonoco Iberia S.L.U., Sonoco International Holdings GmbH, Sonoco JV GmbH & Co. KG, Sonoco Kaiping Packaging Co. Ltd., Sonoco Limited, Sonoco Luxembourg Holding S.a.r.l., Sonoco Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Sonoco Milnrow, Sonoco Netherlands Holding II BV, Sonoco Netherlands Holding III BV, Sonoco New Zealand Limited, Sonoco Operadora S. de R.L. de C.V., Sonoco Packaging Limited, Sonoco Packaging Tapes Limited, Sonoco Paper Mill & IPD Hellas SA, Sonoco Paperboard Group LLC, Sonoco Partitions Inc., Sonoco Phoenix LLC, Sonoco Pina S.A.U., Sonoco Plastics B.V., Sonoco Plastics Canada ULC, Sonoco Plastics Germany GmbH, Sonoco Plastics Inc., Sonoco Poland Holdings B.V., Sonoco Polysack A/S Inc., Sonoco Polysack Limited, Sonoco Products Company UK, Sonoco Products Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Sonoco Protective Solutions Inc., Sonoco Recycling - International Trade Group LLC (fka Reparco USA Inc.), Sonoco Recycling LLC, Sonoco Reels Limited, Sonoco Retail Packaging S. de R.L. de C.V., Sonoco S.A. de C.V., Sonoco SAS, Sonoco Saudi Limited Company, Sonoco Services LLC, Sonoco Singapore Pte. Ltd., Sonoco TEQ Holdings Ltd, Sonoco TEQ LLC, Sonoco TEQ Ltd, Sonoco TEQ Sp. Z.o.o, Sonoco Taiwan Ltd, Sonoco Thailand Ltd, Sonoco UK Leasing Limited, Sonoco Venezolana C.A., Sonoco Venture International Holdings GmbH, Sonoco Ventures UK Limited, Sonoco Wisconsin Rapids Core Plant LLC, Sonoco Wisconsin Rapids Inc., Sonoco Wisconsin Rapids Paper Mill LLC, Sonoco Yatai Pinghu Packaging Co Ltd, Sonoco de Colombia Ltda, Sonoco do Brasil Participacoes Ltda, Sonoco do Brazil Ltda, Sonoco of Puerto Rico Inc., Sonoco-Alcore AS, Sonoco-Alcore Ou, Sonoco-Alcore Oy, Sonoco-Alcore S.a.r.l., Sonoco-Alcore Sp. Z.O.O., Sonoco-Engraph Puerto Rico Inc., TPT Board Mills Limited, TPT Limited, Tegrant Alloyd Brands Inc., Tegrant Corporation, Tegrant International Inc., Tegrant Property Holdings LLC, Tegrant de Mexico S.A. de C.V., ThermoSafe Brands Asia PTE LTD., ThermoSafe Brands Europe Ltd., Thermoform Engineered Quality LLC, Trident Graphics Canada Corporation, Trident Graphics NA LLC, U.S. Paper Mills Corp., Unit Reels & Drums Limited, Weidenhammer Chile Ltda., Weidenhammer Packaging Group, Weidenhammer UK Ltd., and Wisenberg U.S. Inc.. Thomson Reuters Corporation provides business information services in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. It operates in five segments: Legal Professionals, Corporates, Tax & Accounting Professionals, Reuters News, and Global Print. The Legal Professionals segment offers research and workflow products focusing on legal research and integrated legal workflow solutions that combine content, tools, and analytics to law firms and governments. The Corporates segment provides a suite of content-enabled technology solutions for legal, tax, regulatory, compliance, and IT professionals. The Tax & Accounting Professionals segment offers research and workflow products focusing on tax offerings and automating tax workflows to tax, accounting, and audit professionals in accounting firms. The Reuters News segment provides business, financial, national, and international news to professionals through desktop terminals, media organizations, and industry events, as well as directly to consumers. The Global Print segment offers legal and tax information primarily in print format to legal and tax professionals, governments, law schools, and corporations. The company was formerly known as The Thomson Corporation and changed its name to Thomson Reuters Corporation in April 2008. The company was founded in 1851 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Thomson Reuters Corporation is a subsidiary of The Woodbridge Company Limited. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of SAP: Abakus, Abakus Europe Limited, Abakus Ukraine Limited Liability Company, Adatfeldolgozasban Informatikai Kft., Altiscale, Ambin Properties Proprietary Limited, AppGyver, Ariba, Ariba Czech s.r.o., Ariba Inc. Palo Alto, Ariba India Private Limited, Ariba International, Ariba International Holdings, Ariba International Singapore Pte Ltd, Ariba Slovak Republic s.r.o., Ariba Software Technology Services (Shanghai) Co., Ariba Technologies India Private Limited, Ariba Technologies Netherlands B.V., Beijing Zhang Zhong Hu Dong Information Technology, Business Objects, Business Objects Holding B.V., Business Objects Option LLC, Business Objects Software Limited, CNQR Operations Mexico S. de. R.L. de. C.V., Callidus Software, CallidusCloud, Christie Partners Holding C.V., Clear Standards, ClearTrip Inc., ClearTrip Inc. (Mauritius), Cleartrip MEA FZ LLC, Cleartrip Private Limited, Coghead, ConTgo Consulting Limited, ConTgo Pty. Ltd., Concur (Austria) GmbH, Concur (Canada), Concur (France) SAS, Concur (Germany) GmbH, Concur (Japan) Ltd., Concur (New Zealand) Limited, Concur (Philippines) Inc., Concur (Switzerland) GmbH, Concur Czech (s.r.o.), Concur Holdings (France) SAS, Concur Holdings (Netherlands) B.V., Concur Technologies (Australia) Pty. Limited, Concur Technologies (Hong Kong) Limited, Concur Technologies (India) Private Limited, Concur Technologies (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Concur Technologies (UK) Limited, Concur Technologies Inc. Bellevue, Contextor, Coresystems, Crystal Decisions (Ireland) Limited, Crystal Decisions Holdings Limited, Crystal Decisions UK Limited, Emarsys, EssCubed Procurement Pty. Ltd., Extended Systems, Factory Logic, Fedem Technology AS, Fieldglass Europe Limited, Financial Fusion, FreeMarkets Ltda., Frictionless Commerce, Gigya, Gigya Australia Pty Ltd, Gigya Ltd., Gigya UK Ltd, GlobalExpense Limited, Highdeal, Hipmunk, Hybris (US) Corp., Hybris GmbH, Inxight Federal Systems Group, KXEN, Khimetrics, LLC "SAP Labs", LLC "SAP Ukraine", LLC SAP CIS, MaXware, Merlin Systems Oy, Multiposting Sp.z o.o., Nihon Ariba K.K., OpTier, OutlookSoft, OutlookSoft Deutschland GmbH, PLAT.ONE, PT SAP Indonesia, PT Sybase 365 Indonesia, Pilot Software Inc., Plat.One Inc., Plat.One Lab Srl, Plateau Systems LLC, Quadrem Africa Pty. Ltd., Quadrem Brazil Ltda., Quadrem Chile Ltda., Quadrem Colombia SAS, Quadrem International Ltd., Quadrem Netherlands B.V., Quadrem Overseas Cooperatief U.A., Quadrem Peru S.A.C., Qualtrics, Recast.AI, Right Hemisphere, Roambi, Ruan Lian Technologies (Beijing) Co., SAF, SAP (Beijing) Software System Co., SAP (Schweiz) AG, SAP (Schweiz) AG Biel, SAP (UK) Limited, SAP (UK) Limited Feltham, SAP AZ LLC, SAP America, SAP America Inc. Newtown Square, SAP Andina y del Caribe, SAP Argentina S.A., SAP Asia (Vietnam) Co., SAP Asia Pte Ltd, SAP Australia Pty Ltd, SAP Australia Pty Ltd. Sydney, SAP Belgium NV/SA, SAP Beteiligungs GmbH, SAP Brasil Ltda, SAP Brasil Ltda Sao Paulo, SAP Bulgaria EOOD, SAP Business Compliance Services GmbH, SAP Business Services Center Nederland B.V., SAP CR, SAP Canada, SAP Chile Limitada, SAP China Co., SAP China Co. Ltd. Shanghai, SAP China Holding Co., SAP Colombia S.A.S., SAP Commercial Services Ltd., SAP Concur, SAP Costa Rica, SAP Customer Experience, SAP Cyprus Limited, SAP Danmark A/S, SAP Deutschland SE & Co. KG, SAP Deutschland SE & Co. KG Walldorf, SAP Dritte Beteiligungs- und Vermogensverwaltungs GmbH, SAP EMEA Inside Sales S.L., SAP East Africa Limited, SAP Egypt LLC, SAP Erste Beteiligungs- und Vermogensverwaltungs GmbH, SAP Espana - Sistemas Informatica, SAP Estonia OU, SAP Fieldglass, SAP Financial, SAP Finland Oy, SAP Foreign Holdings GmbH, SAP France, SAP France Holding, SAP France Levallois Perret, SAP Global Marketing, SAP Hellas S.A., SAP Holdings (UK) Limited, SAP Hong Kong Co., SAP Hosting Beteiligungs GmbH, SAP Hungary Rendszerek, SAP India (Holding) Pte Ltd, SAP India Private Limited, SAP India Private Limited Bangalore, SAP Industries, SAP Industries Inc. Newtown Square, SAP International, SAP International Panama, SAP Investments, SAP Ireland Limited, SAP Ireland US - Financial Services Designated Activity Company, SAP Israel Ltd., SAP Italia Sistemi Applicazioni Prodotti in Data Processing S.p.A., SAP Italia Sistemi Applicazioni Prodotti in Data Processing S.p.A. Vimercate, SAP Japan Co., SAP Japan Co. Ltd. Tokyo, SAP Kazakhstan LLP, SAP Korea Ltd., SAP Labs, SAP Labs Bulgaria EOOD, SAP Labs Finland Oy, SAP Labs France SAS, SAP Labs India Private Limited, SAP Labs Israel Ltd., SAP Labs Korea, SAP Latvia SIA, SAP MENA FZ L.L.C., SAP Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., SAP Malta Investments Ltd., SAP Mxico S.A. de C.V., SAP National Security Services PA, SAP Nederland B.V., SAP Nederland B.V. s-Hertogenbosch, SAP Service and Support Centre (Ireland) Limited, SAP SuccessFactors, SAP d.o.o., SeeWhy, Signavio, SuccessFactors, SuccessFactors Inc. South San Francisco, Sybase, Syclo, TopTier Software, Triversity, Vimercate, Virsa Systems, Visiprise, Wicom Communications, and conTgo limited. 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 Guess?, Inc. engages in designing, marketing, distributing and licensing of contemporary apparel and accessories for men, women and children that reflect the American lifestyle and European fashion sensibilities. It operates through the following segments: Americas Retail, Americas Wholesale, Europe, Asia, and Licensing. The Americas Retail segment includes the Company's retail and e-Commerce operations in North and Central America and its retail operations in South America. The Americas Wholesale segment consists of the Company's wholesale operations in the Americas. The Europe segment comprises the Company's retail, e-commerce and wholesale operations in Europe and the Middle East. The Asia segment refers to the Company's retail, e-commerce and wholesale operations in Asia and the Pacific. The Licensing segment includes the worldwide licensing operations of the Company. The company was founded by Paul Marciano and Maurice Marciano in 1981 and is headquartered in Los Angeles, CA. Read More William Lyon Homes (NYSE:WLH) issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November, 6th. The construction company reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the Zacks' consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.07. The construction company had revenue of $466.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $487.15 million. William Lyon Homes had a net margin of 3.04% and a trailing twelve-month return on equity of 6.98%. The firm's quarterly revenue was down 12.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.68 EPS. View William Lyon Homes' earnings history. Cenovus Energy Inc., together with its subsidiaries, develops, produces, and markets crude oil, natural gas liquids, and natural gas in Canada, the United States and the Asia Pacific region. The company operates through Oil Sands, Conventional, and Refining and Marketing segments. The Oil Sands segment develops and produces bitumen in northeast Alberta. Its bitumen assets include Foster Creek, Christina Lake, and Narrows Lake, as well as other projects in the early stages of development. The Conventional segment holds assets primarily located in Elmworth-Wapiti, Kaybob-Edson, and Clearwater operating areas of British Columbia and Alberta, as well as various interests in natural gas processing facilities. The Refining and Marketing segment transports and sells crude oil, natural gas, and NGLs. This segment owns a 50% ownership in Wood River and Borger refineries located in the United States; and owns and operates a crude-by-rail terminal in Alberta. Cenovus Energy Inc. was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada. Read More Iranian social media users attacked a meme by government-run media quoting Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif saying that Iran will survive the US sanctions reimposed after President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the nuclear deal. Al Monitor reports in its article Irans foreign minister criticized for saying well survive sanctions that at Rome Med 2018Mediterranean Dialogues, a conference held Nov. 22-24, Zarif was reminded, Youve insisted many times that Iran has survived since 1979, which prompted him to respond, We havent survived since 1979, weve survived 7 millennia. To the laugher and applause of the audience, he added, jovially, Im in Italy, so I can say that Italians and Iranians have had empires that have lasted longer than the entire life of some countries. In a more serious tone, Zarif continued, Weve survived, and weve progressed. Come to Iran today and see that we have progressed in many areas. Of course, we lack in some areas. There has been pressure on Iran. There are problems, economic problems, economic hardship for our population. Sanctions, as you know, always target ordinary people. At the end of the day, those are the people who suffer from sanctions. And that is the purpose of these sanctions, and that is the purpose of the previous sanctions. Weve been under sanctions for 40 years. And that point that I made about the depth of our history gives us this perspective that we should not submit to bullying. The response by Zarif, who has been traveling extensively trying to salvage the nuclear deal with European countries while simultaneously projecting a brave face on sanctions, might have been quickly forgotten or buried by other stories from around the world, but Pad, the official Twitter account of the media office of President Hassan Rouhani's administration not only tweeted a video of that segment of the Rome Med conference but also posted a picture of a defiant and stoic Zarif with the text, Well survive. As is often the case with government-handled messaging, the effort by the administration to highlight Zarifs comment backfired. Social media users soon began tweeting variations of the hashtag Well survive, applying it to any number of situations and issues. Some used it to raise awareness about the Haft Tapeh sugarcane factory workers and Ahvaz steel workers, who are currently on strike. Others used the hashtag to highlight womens rights protests and opposition to mandatory veiling. A number of anonymous accounts tweeted with the hashtag in support of regime change. Even those not supportive of regime change conceded that the attempt to turn Zarifs statement about surviving into a meme had gone awry. Its understandable why some who are also patriotic object to well survive, tweeted one user. In this very administration next to Zarif are people like [Mohammad Reza] Nematzadeh and [Mohammad] Shariatmadari. Nematzadeh, a former minister of mines, industry, and business, and Shariatmadari, current minister of cooperatives, labor, and social welfare, have both had accusations of corruption leveled against them, and Rouhani has continued to stand by them. BBC News Persian addressed the survival issue in a segment, inviting two guests from Iran to comment on Zarif's remarks. Both agreed that although Iran will survive, and indeed had survived worse during the Iran-Iraq War, domestic conditions today are different from what they were in the 1980s. The Mahindra Alturas G4 is the biggest SUV of the three in every proportion and by quite a margin. On paper, the new Mahindra Alturas G4 has the specifications to go head to head with its body-on-frame rivals like the Endeavour and the Fortuner. But how does it compare to the unibody (monocoque) 7-seater SUVs in the market? We find out. Dimensions Mahindra Alturas G4 Skoda Kodiaq Honda CR-V Length 4850mm 4697mm 4592mm Width 1960mm 1882mm 1855mm Height 1845mm 1676mm 1679/1689mm Wheelbase 2865mm 2791mm 2660mm Ground Clearance 244mm (unladen) 188mm NA Kerb Weight 2050kg/ 2150kg 1799kg 1666kg/ 1725kg Longest: Mahindra Alturas G4 Widest: Mahindra Alturas G4 Tallest: Mahindra Alturas G4 Longest wheelbase: Mahindra Alturas G4 Highest ground clearance: Mahindra Alturas G4 The Mahindra Alturas G4 is the biggest SUV of the three in every proportion and by quite a margin. The Honda CR-V is the smallest of the trio in terms of length, width and wheelbase, although it is taller than the Kodiaq. Engines Diesel - Since the Alturas G4 is available with a diesel engine only, were comparing it only with the diesel-powered CR-V. Mahindra Alturas G4 Skoda Kodiaq Honda CR-V Engine 2.2-litre 2.0-litre 1.6-litre Power 180PS 150PS 120PS Torque 420Nm 340Nm 300Nm Transmission 7-speed AT 7-speed AT 9-speed AT Drivetrain 4x2/4x4 4x4 2WD/AWD Kerb Weight 2050kg/2150kg 1799kg 1666kg/ 1725kg Most powerful: Mahindra Alturas G4 Torquiest: Mahindra Alturas G4 Heaviest: Mahindra Alturas G4 The Alturas G4 has the biggest engine with the highest power and torque figures. The CR-V has the smallest engine of the trio and also offers the least performance. The Kodiaq is available only in 4x4 variant while the other two cars are offered in both 4x2 and 4x4 variants. However, the Mahindra SUVs body-on-frame design makes it the heaviest car here, the 4WD Alturas G4 being heavier than the AWD CR-V by 425kg and the Kodiaq by 351kg. This added weight could almost nullify the power advantage of the Alturas G4. FEATURES Standard features: All three of these 7-seater SUVs are in the premium price category and therefore they offer a host of features as standard. The list of common features includes electric sunroof, driver seat with memory profile, mood lighting, cruise control and multiple AC vents for the rear rows of seats. Seating: The Honda CR-V is the only one of these three whose second row of seats slide and recline. The Mahinda Alturas G4s middle row seats have a recline function but do not slide while the Skoda Kodiaqs middle row slides and only offers a one-step recline. In the case of the Alturas G4 and the CR-V the middle row can be folded 60:40 split while the third row can be split folded 50:50 or put flat down for more boot space. The Kodiaq, however, does not allow split folding for the final row while the second row can be split folded 40:20:40. The front seats in the Skoda also offer 12-way adjustment with lumbar support. Safety: The Alturas G4 is tied with the Kodiaq for number of airbags (9), while the CR-V gets six airbags. Features like ABS with EBD, ISOFIX anchors, traction control and stability programs are common to all. However, the Skoda does not get hill descent control. Both the Kodiaq and the CR-V get rear-view camera functionality while the Skoda has parking sensors both front and back. The Alturas is a step ahead with its 360-degree surround view camera and front and rear parking sensors but its the Kodiaq that comes equipped with hands-free parking. Infotainment: Both the Alturas G4 and the Kodiaq offer an 8-inch touchscreen infotainment unit while the CR-V gets a 7-inch touchscreen. All of them feature smartphone compatibility via Android Auto and Apple CarPlay for various functionalities. The Mahindra SUV has a 6-speaker audio system, the CR-V has 8 while the Kodiaq has a 10-speaker setup. Comfort and Convenience features: The Mahindra Alturas G4 SUV is the only one here to offer ventilated seats in the front row. Its also equipped with adjustable vents for the third row of seats, same as the Honda CR-V, and both offer dual-zone climate control as well. The Skoda Kodiaq only offers an adjustable AC vent for the middle row while offering three-zone climate control. The Alturas G4 also has a feature called Easy access mode which moves the front seats back when you open the door for easier ingress. All these SUVs offer multiple 12V charging sockets while the Mahindra and the Skoda also offer an automatic electronic tailgate. Price Model Mahindra Alturas G4 Skoda Kodiaq Honda CR-V Price (ex-showroom, Delhi) Rs 26.95 lakh to Rs 29.95 lakh Rs 34.84 lakh to Rs 35.99 lakh Rs 30.65 lakh to Rs 32.75 lakh Mahindra is offering the Alturas G4 SUV at the lowest price while the Skoda Kodiaq is the most expensive car in this comparison. The Honda CR-V with its smaller engine and fewer features is still priced higher than the top-spec Alturas G4. Disclaimer: This article has not been edited by Deccan Chronicle and is taken from a syndicated feed. Photos: CarDekho. New Delhi: Blaming Reliance Jio for financial woes of the telecom sector, employee unions of BSNL on Wednesday alleged that the government was favouring the latest entrant over other firms and said they will go on an indefinite strike from December 3. The employee unions claimed that the government has not allotted spectrum for 4G services to BSNL in order to prevent it from competing against Reliance Jio. Reliance Jio did not comment on the allegations. "As of now, the whole telecom industry is gripped with a crisis...All these have happened due to the predatory pricing of the Mukesh Ambani owned Reliance Jio. The whole game plane of Reliance Jio is to wipe out its competitors, which includes the state owned BSNL," BSNL unions said in a joint statement. All Unions and Associations of BSNL (AUAB) alleged that with its huge financial muscle, Reliance Jio is offering services at 'below-cost' rates. It said that private telecom companies like Aircel, Tata Teleservices, Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Communications and Telenor have already closed their mobile service businesses. It alleged that Reliance Jio will steeply raise call and data tariffs once the entire competition is wiped out. "It will loot the people by steeply raising the call and data charges. It is a matter of deep concern that, Reliance Jio is being openly patronised by the Narendra Modi government," the statement said. No immediate comments were received from the Prime Minister's Office. AUAB said the public sector firm has been demanding allotment of 4G spectrum but "the government has turned a deaf ear to this demand, with the ulterior motive of preventing the public sector company from putting up an effective competition to Reliance Jio". All officers and workers of BSNL are going on an indefinite strike from December 3, 2018, the AUAB said. "Demands of the strike include the immediate allotment of 4G spectrum to BSNL for rolling out its 4G service, implementation of the government rule in respect of payment of pension contribution by BSNL, wage revision of the employees and pension revision of the retirees, from January 1, 2017," the statement said. It also alleged that whosoever tried to act against Reliance Jio had to pay the price, including former telecom secretary J S Deepak. "JS Deepak wrote to the Trai demanding action on Reliance Jio, for adopting predatory pricing. As a result, JS Deepak was instantaneously shunted out of the DoT... This was a clear signal given by the Narendra Modi government, as to what would happen to any one who dares to speak against Rliance Jio," the unions alleged. Deepak was named India's Ambassador to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) when he was abroad to attend the Mobile World Congress 2017 in Spain. The unions said that BSNL was in a loss of more than Rs 8,800 crore in 2011-12 but due to the combined efforts taken by the employees and the management, the PSU posted an operating profit of Rs 672.57 crore in 2014-15. "BSNL's improved performance is reflected in the expansion of it's customer base also. It must be remembered that all these achievements are made by BSNL without 4G technology and with only 2G and 3G technologies, while all the private companies are armed with 4G technology," the statement said. Apart from the allotment of 4G spectrum, the AUAB is also demanding the implementation of the government's rule in the matter of BSNL's payment of pension contribution. "It is atrocious that, the Narendra Modi government is violating it's own rule, and is fleecing a huge amount from BSNL every year, in the name of Pension Contribution. This is seriously affecting the financial health of the Company," the unions said. China has a bunch of little, nagging problems that will slow its economy in the months ahead. Whether its cracking down on crazy loans from small, muni lenders, to real estate developers run amok andhow can anyone forgetTrumps trade war, Chinas famous 6.5% GDP growth target will be missed next year, according to Forbes and its article China Stimulus May Not Be Enough To Boost Economy. It is hard not to be a bit bearish, says Janet Mui, a global economist with Cazenove Capital in London. If you look at things like property investment, fixed-asset investment numbers declining and trade tensions, its not a good base case. Our base case is for a full-blown trade war, she says. If that happens, they lose 1% of their GDP. There are definitely downside risks to investing in China. Chinas mainland stock market indexes in Shanghai and Shenzhen have been in a bear market since the summer. Chinas growth trajectory has been on a downward trend since 2011, but it was the trade tariffs imposed in the first quarter and then again in June that sent the A-shares into bear territory. All of this is happening at a time when Chinas government no longer has the penchant for massive stimulus programs, and the economy is slowing from nearly 10% growth in 2011 to 6.5% growth currently. China has not managed to bust through its coveted 6.5% target, despite tax cuts and other stimulus measures. China is undergoing a structural downturn. It is moving away from being the worlds low-cost producer to being a consumer-driven economy whose locals are paying more attention to things like health. Which means China cannot pollute like it used to, and that brings in stricter environmental laws that can also hamper growth. Yet, even without the trade war, BNP Paribas economists said recently that they expect Chinas growth to slow down in tandem with a synchronized global downturn anyway in 2019. Chinas share of the global export market has been declining since 2016, with its market share dropping from 13.7% in 2015 to 12.7% in 2017. The turn in the manufacturing investing cycle, meanwhile, looks unsustainable, BNP Paribas economists led by Jacqueline Rong wrote in a note to clients published Nov. 16. Monetary policy tightening saw new home sales volume growth decelerate to 2.2% annualized in October from 8.2% in 2017. Property investment growth is still solid at 9.7% annualized as of September. I think the near-term uncertainty is distracting investors from the longer-term opportunity in China, says Stephen Kam, co-head of product management at Schroders, a global investment firm with $44 billion at work in Asia ex-Japan. Investors like Mui, however, seem to be digging for reasons to remain sour on China. They all point out that Singles Day shopping festival sales on November 11while a record-breaking $30-billion-plus in goods were soldonly grew by 23.7% from last year instead of the previous growth rates of 42.3%. Octobers retail sales growth was 8.6% year over year compared to 9.2% in September. Its the slowest pace in the past five months and the second-slowest reading since 2004, but it is nearly three times larger than the U.S. retail sales growth rate. China bears point out that the retail data showed barely any boost from the cut in the personal income tax that took effect last month. The general slowdown in demand, both external and domestic, could cloud the prospects of the manufacturing sector. Any rebound in infrastructure investment growth is likely to be constrained by funding challenges as Beijing is putting a lid on reckless spending at the municipal level. If China opened its economy more to allow for foreign direct investment to take a larger share of the economy, then investors are likely to move into the bullish camp. Also, if Trump says that there will be no extra tariffs, that would also stop the bloodletting in the A-shares market. Trump and Xi Jinping will meet on November 30 at the G20 Summit in Buenos Aires. Investors will also wait for new reform plans to be unveiled at the 4th Plenum of the 19th Party Congress, which is expected sometime within in the next four weeks. One thing is for sure: Xis government is not keen on throwing money at every problem in the economy. That means the scope for countercyclical measures is slim, following several years of Wall Street-loving China stimulus measures. Debt-fueled stimulus is hampered by the already high level of debt. Conventional stimulus in the form of subsidies would be challenging in the face of U.S. criticism of Chinese state support to favored sectors. Countercyclical policy measures might cushion the speed of growth deceleration but would be unlikely to reverse the downward trend in the economy, says BNP Paribas Rong. We expect a progressive decline in Chinas growth rate. Malayalis have seen many child actors grow up in front of their eyes to become successful actors. Sanusha, who is still remembered for her solid performances as a child actor, is one of them. She has matured as an actor and her performance has improved with each movie, so much so that it was not a surprise for the audience when they saw her in a bold avatar in Zachariyude Garbhinikal, playing a pregnant teen who refuses to abort her illegitimate child. The actor has made a mark in Tamil and Telugu movies as well. However, despite having a strong base in Malayalam cinema, Sanusha doesnt have many movies to her credit. She says she has not gone anywhere, and has a convincing answer. I was always associated with Malayalam movies. Its just that I am adamant about the quality of the roles I take up. I am a familiar face to the Malayali audience, but I do not want to do movies for the sake of it and just to be in the limelight. I am sure that they will give me the same amount of love even if I do movies occasionally, provided it is a good role. I have never felt the need to keep on doing movies, especially Malayalam movies, because I want my audience to say Sanusha has lived up to our expectations, every time they leave the theatre after watching my movies, she says. She adds that the two-year break was an intentional one, during which she was busy with her studies. Asked about her upcoming movies, Sanusha gets vocal. She says, I have now decided to concentrate on movies alone. I am reading scripts in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. As of now, its a Telugu movie that will release next. However, Malayalam is definitely my first priority and I will not miss a chance to accept an offer which excites me and gives me a feeling that it is meant for me. Sanusha is of the opinion that the expectations of the audience make an actor feel more responsible towards the kind of work he/she is doing, precisely because the audience easily get disappointed and it is very difficult to regain their love and support. The actor says she would love to become part of the movies that propagate a social cause and have fresh ideas. Being a part of the Malayalam film industry for a long time, I feel that this is one of the most crucial times for Malayalam cinema because it is evolving at a good pace. The cliched scripts have given way to new and fresh ideas, making it challenging for the actors as well. Nowadays, filmmakers do proper research about the subject as to how the audiences will react to it. Therefore, it is important that the actors, too, give convincing performances. Commenting on the changes that the actor in her has undergone, Sanusha says that being in the industry for all these years has taught her how to approach a movie in a professional manner, irrespective of the duration of the role one is handling in that particular movie. It doesnt require a full-length role for the actor to get applauds. Even if it is a small one, it depends on how much hard work he/she puts in to make that character the best. If an actor is willing to work hard, without any inhibitions, success is definite. Sanusha adds that her brother Sanoop, who is younger to her, is a perfect example she can quote for the same. I was really surprised to see the amount of hard work he puts in even while dubbing for a movie. He actually enacts the scene again while he is dubbing as he feels it provides life to the character, and that sitting on a chair and just paying attention to the lip sync will ruin its essence. I was really happy to see the amount of dedication he has. I am glad I belong to an era where actors are actually passionate about cinema and are ready to strive hard to carve a niche of their own. I dont want to be left behind. I strongly believe that I am on the right track, she concludes. While Chiranjeevi and Prabhas are not competing with each other, both are keen on releasing their respective films Sye Raa and Sahoo on August 15, next year. Chiranjeevi is pushing for the shoot to be completed by the end of May, next year, so that the film can be released on August 15. The film is about freedom fighter Narasimha Reddy, so Chiru thought that it would be good to release the film at that time, says a source. The team is working around the clock to complete everything, including the graphics. Prabhas is also eyeing the August 15 date for Saaho. But they dont want to compete with Chiru, though they will be able to complete the film. If Chiru announces August 15 as his release date, Prabhas would then adjust his films release date before or after it, says a source. So, only the film that is completed first will get the coveted date. Parents who wait to start the crib-to-bed transition until toddlers are 3 years old may find that both they and their children get better sleep, researchers say. In a survey of parents and caregivers across five countries, those who delayed the transition from crib to bed longer were more likely to report less resistance at bedtime, fewer night awakenings and longer sleep duration for children, the study authors report in the journal Sleep Medicine. Research during the last decade has shown how important healthy sleep is across the lifespan, but especially during childhood, said lead study author Ariel Williamson of Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania. In previous studies, Williamson and colleagues have found that toddlers deprived of sleep tend to have a more difficult time with tasks, temper tantrums and self-regulating behaviors. At this age, parents and caregivers are the ones paying attention to, and being affected by, their toddlers sleep, Williamson told Reuters Health by phone. Its important to record a caregivers report as much as objective measures of sleep. Williamson and colleagues collected data from 1,983 caregivers with toddlers aged between 18 and 36 months living in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. The data was submitted by caregivers using the Johnsons Bedtime baby sleep app, a free smartphone application offered by Johnson & Johnson. J&J Consumer Inc also funded the study. The research team found that rates of crib-sleeping decreased steadily with age, with 63 percent of toddlers sleeping in a crib from ages 18 to 24 months, as compared to 34 percent still in a crib at 24 to 30 months and 13 percent from 30 to 36 months. Crib sleeping was associated with going to bed earlier, falling asleep sooner, waking up less often during the night, sleeping for longer stretches during the night and resisting less at bedtime. What stuck out to us was how remarkably consistent the benefits were at each toddler age group, Williamson said. This is what we see clinically as well. In future studies, Williamson and the research team will use the app to investigate how parents start the crib-to-bed transition and what motivates them. In some cases, parents with another baby on the way begin to move their toddler to a bed so they can use the crib again. Others start the transition because their toddler climbs out of the crib or seems physically too big to stay in the current crib. Adults tend to see cribs as cages, but thats not how children see them, said Lisa Meltzer, a pediatric psychologist at National Jewish Health in Denver, Colorado, who wasnt involved in the study. Children like small spaces as they feel safe and comfortable with them, she said by email. If you watch young children play, they like to play under the table or in large boxes. Other researchers are interested in developing a protocol that helps families make the crib-to-bed transition, since it could cause some sleep problems that didnt exist previously. Some strategies that already exist for helping kids to stay in bed, such as role-playing games, could also prepare children for that transition, said Sarah Honaker, a sleep psychologist at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis, Indiana, who wasnt involved in the study. Sleep experts and pediatricians tend to recommend an adjustable crib that transitions lower to the ground as the child ages, Honaker said. This helps the toddler get comfortable with a sleeping arrangement that feels more like a bed and reduces injuries and falls if the child tries to climb out of the crib. A 3-year-old is more likely to have the cognitive development to remember the rules of staying in bed, she said in a phone interview. Buying a crib with an adjustable mattress can prevent parents from having to make a transition that their child may not be developmentally ready to make. Fathima, along with a woman journalist, had gone to the Sabarimala Temple in October. (Photo: ANI) Pathanamthitta: The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) on Tuesday suspended model and woman activist Rehana Fathima from the post of telecom technician after she was arrested by the Pathanamthitta Police for allegedly hurting the religious sentiments of people. On September 30, Fathima had posted a picture on Facebook, dressing up like an Ayyappa devotee with the caption 'Thathvamasi'. The Kerala police registered a case against her on October 30 after the Sabarimala Samrakshana Samithi, a group that claims to fight for Sabarimala's traditions, accused her of insulting the Hindu beliefs with what they described as her "provocative" social media posts. Fathima, along with a woman journalist, had gone to the Sabarimala Temple in October. However, she had to return halfway due to protests. Later, her house was allegedly vandalised by some unidentified men. So far, no woman has entered the holy shrine despite Supreme Court's September 28 order that lifted the ban on the entry of women of menstruating age inside the temple. Sidhu congratulated his 'friend' Khan for the initiative and hoped that there will be love and peace between both the nations. (Photo: ANI/Twitter) Kartarpur: Violence must be stopped and peace should be restored between India and Pakistan, Punjab cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu said Wednesday as he described the Kartarpur Corridor as a major opportunity to open the hearts of the people in the two neighbouring countries. Sidhu, who attended the groundbreaking ceremony of the Kartarpur Corridor on the Pakistani side, said both the governments should realise that they have to move forward. Prime Minister Imran Khan Wednesday laid the foundation stone for the corridor linking Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan's Kartarpur - the final resting place of Sikh faith's founder Guru Nanak Dev - to Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India's Gurdaspur district. Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan is located across the river Ravi, about four kilometres from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine. 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. The Kartarpur Corridor, which will facilitate the visa-free travel of Sikh pilgrims on both sides, is expected to be completed within six months. Sidhu congratulated his 'friend' Khan for the initiative and hoped that there will be love and peace between both the nations. He said there had been enough bad blood and that the corridor would be a major opportunity to open the doors of the hearts of the people. "Violence must stop and peace should return to the region," he said. Sidhu said that both the nations should seek a path of brotherhood and live in harmony without any fear with the blessing of Guru Nanak Dev. Sidhu said that if the borders between both countries opened, it would be possible to transport goods to different parts of Pakistan and even others countries. "This is my hope, this is my dream ... While there is blood in my veins, I will continue to thank both governments," he said. "My father used to tell me that Punjab Mail went till Lahore, I believe that it can go further till Peshawar, till Afghanistan," he said. He said his "big-hearted" friend Khan has kept his promise and ended 70 years of wait for the corridor. "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," he said ahead of the ceremony. Justice R K Gauba dismissed their 22-year old appeals against conviction by a trial court and asked all the convicts to surrender forthwith to undergo the prison term. (Photo: PTI) New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday upheld the conviction of around 80 people and awarded them five year jail term for rioting, burning houses and violation of curfew during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Justice R K Gauba dismissed their 22-year old appeals against conviction by a trial court and asked all the convicts to surrender forthwith to undergo the prison term. The convicts had challenged the August 27, 1996 judgement of a Sessions Court which had convicted 88 out of the 107 people arrested on November 2, 1984 for rioting, burning houses and curfew violation in Trilokpuri area of East Delhi. After the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984, the next couple of days witnessed widespread rioting and killings of Sikhs in the national capital. According to the FIR lodged in connection with the Trilokpuri incident, 95 people had died in the rioting and 100 houses were burnt, said senior advocate H S Phoolka, who has been representing the riot victims in various matters. Of the 88 convicts who moved the high court, several have died during the pendency of their appeals and the case against them has abated, police had earlier said. Virali Modi, 27, narrated her ordeal on Twitter and said the incident happened on Monday, when she reached the airport to catch a flight to London. (Photo: Facebook Screengrab/ @viralimodi1) Mumbai: A disability rights activist has alleged that she suffered "major cramps" after she was forcefully lifted from her wheelchair by a CISF personnel at the Mumbai airport, a charge denied by the paramilitary force, saying the checks were carried out on her in accordance with the procedure. Virali Modi, 27, narrated her ordeal on Twitter and said the incident happened on Monday, when she reached the airport to catch a flight to London. "I'm travelling to London from Mumbai via @jetairways and I had the most horrible experience with the CISF staff. After scanning my wheelchair, this insensitive woman was forcing me to stand up, even when I told her repeatedly that I couldn't. Im traveling to London from Mumbai via @jetairways and I had the most horrible experience with the CISF staff. After scanning my wheelchair, this insensitive woman was forcing me to stand up, even when I told her repeatedly that I couldnt. Pt. 1 Virali Modi (@Virali01) November 26, 2018 She kept forcing me to stand up and then she went on to say that she'd 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 wrote on her Twitter handle. 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. Pt. 2 Virali Modi (@Virali01) November 26, 2018 The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) that guards the Mumbai airport reacted on its official handle on the micro-blogging website, saying the woman staffer "was carrying out mandatory pre-embarkation security check and she was polite too during interaction". "On seeing the lady concerned, CISF officers arrived at the spot, pacified her and explained the situation," it added. Virali Modi, in a series of tweets, described her agony, saying, "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?" 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? Pt. 3 Virali Modi (@Virali01) November 26, 2018 She alleged that the CISF personnel was "incredible insensitive" and the way she was treated was "NOT how you treat a disabled passenger!" She was incredible insensitive, and this is NOT how you treat a disabled passenger! Every other international airport has chemical strips to check the wheelchair and shoes, a disabled passenger doesnt need to get out of their wheelchair. So why in Mumbais International Airport? Virali Modi (@Virali01) November 26, 2018 "Every other international airport has chemical strips to check the wheelchair and shoes, a disabled passenger doesn't need to get out of her wheelchair. So why in Mumbai's International Airport?" On its part, the CISF said the "check was carried out as per procedure and any inconvenience meted out was unintentional. Security is of prime importance, at the same time, CISF takes care of specially-abled/needy passengers in a dignified manner". CISF officials said Virali Modi was asked to move to a nearby frisking area at the airport as her wheelchair was large and could not be scanned in the x-ray machine, but they denied any forceful or rude conduct by the security personnel who cleared the passenger to board the flight. Virali Modi, who described herself as a disabled rights activist on Twitter, said the incident was not about a woman not understanding a woman's trouble, but about human rights. "Forget about a woman not understanding, this is basically about human rights and disability rights. This is not how a disabled passenger should be treated. Simple," she said. CISF officials said the personnel deployed at the airports were trained to render specialised assistance to specially-abled passengers who were either wheelchair-bound or had implants in the body. Union minister Jayant Sinha took to Twitter and said, "Really sorry for the suffering that you went through." Sinha, the minister of state for civil aviation, tagged #AirSewa for response. Air Sewa is a digital platform launched by the aviation ministry for improved traveller experience for passengers. Top LeT commander Naveed Jutt alias Abu Hanzalla is reported to be among two militants killed in a gunfight with security forces in J&K's central district of Budgam on Wednesday. (Photo: File | PTI) Srinagar: Top Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) commander Naveed Jutt alias Abu Hanzalla was with another militant killed in a gunfight with security forces in Jammu and Kashmirs central district of Budgam on Wednesday. Three security personnel were injured during the clash, the officials said. The police said that Jutt was a member of the same group of LeT cadres which also included the 26/11 terror attack convict Ajmal Kasab. He was involved in a series of attacks on security forces and civilian atrocities including the murder of journalist Shujaat Bukhari, it said. Officials said that the gun fight broke out during a cordon-and-search operation launched by the Armys 50 Rashtriya Rifles, J&K polices counterinsurgency Special Operations Group (SOC) and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Budgams Kuthipora, Chattergam area following credible inputs about the presence of LeT militants in a private house. Jutt was a Pakistani national from Sahiwal (Multan). He had on February 6, 2018 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 was since known to be active mainly in south Kashmir. He had been arrested by the Army from Kulgam district of south Kashmir earlier in June 2014 and had been lodged in Srinagars high security central prison. In a statement, the J&K police said that Jutt was part of the same LeT group which also included Mumbai terror attack convict Ajmal Amir Kasab who was hanged to death in Pune's Yerawada Central Jail in November 2012 and that both had received arms training at a madrassa in Pakistan. Jutt along with his associates sneaked into J&K in October 2012 and had a long history of terror crime records since. The police also said that since Jutt was a Pakistani national, it will follow the procedure so that the concerned authorities in New Delhi take up the matter with Islamabad for handing over his body to the neighbouring country. The police had in June this year alleged that Jutt was part of an LeT group which killed journalist and Rising Kashmir editor Syed Shujaat Bukhari earlier that month. 50-year-old Bukhari was gunned down along with two police guards outside his office in Srinagars Mushtaq Press Enclave on June 14 evening. Two weeks later, J&K police had claimed that the conspiracy to kill him was hatched by LeT militants based in Pakistan and executed by its three cadres including two locals and Pakistani national Jutt in Srinagar. Inspector General of Police (Kashmir range) S.P. Pani told the media that before targeting Bukhari, a malicious campaign was spearheaded against him by the LeT through social media from the neighbouring country. He had also said that among the conspirators was Sheikh Sajjad Gul, a resident of Srinagars Zainakote area, who is now based in Pakistan and that the crime was executed by LeT operatives Azad Ahmed Malik alias Dada alias Zaid, Muzaffar Ahmed Bhat and Muhammad Naveed Jutt alias Abu Hanzalla. Azad Malik, a resident of Arwani area of Anantnag, was among six militants killed on November 23 in a fierce gunfight with security forces the districts Bijbehara belt. The police had constituted a Special Police Investigation Team (SIT) under Deputy Inspector General of Police (Central Kashmir) V K Virdhi to probe the gruesome murder of Bukhari. But it has, so far, not been able to file chargesheet against the accused in the court. The LeT had strongly denied its involvement in the journalists killing and in its counter charge blamed Indian intelligence agencies. The killing of Jutt and another militant sparked off protests and clashes between stone-throwing youth and security forces at Kuthipora of Budgam, leaving eleven persons including two CRPF jawans injured, reports said. Later on Wednesday, a short video appeared on social media showing a militant with an assault rifle emerging out of the debris of a private house destroyed in the fire fight unharmed. The purported video, which has gone viral since, also shows a bearded man who is wearing a black colour pheran (traditional Kashmiri cloak) being helped by a group of youth to come out of the rubble. He can also be seen being quickly escorted to some unknown place by these youth. A screengrab from the purported video. (Photo: Greater Kashmir) Chief electoral officer V Kantha Rao said voting will begin at 8 am and end at 5 pm. (Photo: ANI | Twitter) Bhopal: Over 5 crore voters will vote to elect legislators for the 230-seats strong Madhya Pradesh Assembly on Wednesday. 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. 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 seats are likely to witness the presence of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the Samajawadi Party (SP), the Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP), the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) besides those contesting independently. Chief electoral officer V Kantha Rao said voting will begin at 8 am and end at 5 pm. Here are the updates from Madhya Pradesh Assembly election: 18:15 pm: 74.61 per cent voter turnout recorded till 6 pm in Madhya Pradesh. Voting is still underway. 03:20 pm: 50 per cent voter turnout recorded till 3 pm. 02:45 pm: 34.99 per cent voting recorded till 2 pm 01:42 pm: Kamal Nath, Congress on showing his election symbol after casting his vote in Chhindwara said, I had already cast my vote. When the media asked me whom I have voted for, I showed this (palm). What else should I have done? Show a lotus? (Photo: ANI/Twitter) 12:20 pm: 21 per cent voting recorded till 11 am, reported ANI. 12:10 pm: "There have been many complaints of EVM's malfunctioning, have written to Election Commission. We have written to the Election Commission and requested that voting time in these polling booths should be extended to compensate for the delay," said Jyotiraditya Scindia. 11:25 am: 6.32 per cent voting recorded till 9 am, reported PTI. 11:20 am: BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya on his way on a horse chariot to cast his vote in Indore. (Photo: ANI/Twitter) 11:04 am: "I assure you that on 11th December, Congress will form the government with the blessings of the people," said Jyotiraditya Scindia after casting his vote at a polling booth in Gwalior. (Photo: ANI/Twitter) 10:35 am: One Election Commission official in Guna, and two in Indore have passed away due to cardiac arrest. Election Commission announced Rs 10 lakh each compensation for the kin of the EC officials who passed away while on election duty. 10:10 am: A 101-year-old woman after casting her vote in Agar Malwa. (Photo: ANI/Twitter) 09:48 am: Police seizes campaign material from BJP's polling agents from a polling booth in Saint Mary's, Bhopal as it was within 200 meters of a polling booth. One person was taken to custody. Police seizes campaign material from BJP's polling agents from a polling booth in Saint Mary's, Bhopal as it was within 200 meters of a polling booth. One person taken to custody. #MadhyaPradeshElections2018 pic.twitter.com/EvqxqyW4bv ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 09:27 am: Two faulty EVMs in Ujjain have been replaced, 11 VVPAT machines in Alirajpur, 5 VVPAT and 2 EVMs in Burhanpur also replaced. 09:24 am: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan said, "Were 100% certain that BJP will form a government with an absolute majority. We have set a target of 200 seats and our lakhs of volunteers are working to make it a reality." (Photo: ANI/Twitter) 09:09 am: First-time voters after casting their votes at a polling booth in Bhopal First time voters after casting their votes at a polling booth in Bhopal #MadhyaPradeshElections pic.twitter.com/9Tn9Mi7ySs ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 08:38 am: Madhya Pradesh Minister Yashodhara Raje Scindia casts her vote at a polling station in Shivpuri. She is up against Congress' Siddharth Lada. Madhya Pradesh Minister Yashodhara Raje Scindia casts her vote at a polling station in Shivpuri. She is up against Congress' Siddharth Lada. #MadhyaPradeshElections2018 pic.twitter.com/FrpyOXfZ7m ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 08:37 am: Congress leader Kamal Nath casts his vote in Chhindwara (Photo: ANI/Twitter) 08:33 am: EVM is not working at polling booth number 178 in Dabra, Gwalior district #MadhyaPradeshElections2018 EVM is not working at polling booth number 178 in Dabra,Gwalior district pic.twitter.com/efO5S6fDPZ ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 08:11 am: Congress leader Kamal Nath offers prayers at a Hanuman temple in Chhindwara. Congress leader Kamal Nath offers prayers at a Hanuman temple in Chhindwara #MadhyaPradeshElections2018 pic.twitter.com/tjdOwNrwtJ ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 08:07 am: Voting for 230 assembly seats underway Voting underway for 230 assembly seats in #MadhyaPradeshElections, visuals from a polling booth in Indore pic.twitter.com/jxvUY9xVCl ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 08:00 am: Kamal Nath says, "I have full faith in the people of Madhya Pradesh, they are simple and innocent people who have been robbed for a long time by BJP." (Photo: ANI/Twitter) 07:50 am: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan prays on the banks of Narmada river, in Budhni. Voting in the state is underway. (Photo: ANI/Twitter) 07:25 am: Polling for 227 constituencies in the state will begin at 8 am, while voting for 3 constituencies has already begun. 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. (Photo: File) New Delhi: Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari on 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. Exit polls from Georgias presidential runoff on Wednesday showed the ruling party-backed candidate, who favours balancing the ex-Soviet republics relations with Moscow and the West, beating a rival who advocates a stronger pro-Western line. A Gallup poll for the pro-government television station Imedi suggested Salome Zurabishvili, a former French career diplomat who served as Georgias foreign minister from 2004-2005, won with 58 percent of the vote. Her opposition rival, Grigol Vashadze, also a former foreign minister, got 42 percent, it showed. The Central Election Commission (CEC) plans to announce the first preliminary results in the early hours of Thursday. As Reuters writes in an article "Exit polls show ruling party candidate winning Georgia presidential runoff", the second round of voting was under close scrutiny by opposition and international observers for any sign that the ruling Georgian Dream party is using its control of state machinery to help Zurabishvili win. The opposition said there have been attacks on its activists during campaigning and complained there were many irregularities during the vote, including attempts to pressure voters and manipulation of voter lists. The ruling party has denied attempting to influence the outcome of the vote unfairly. International observers said the first round of voting last month had been competitive, but had been held on an unlevel playing field with state resources misused, private media biased, and some phoney candidates taking part. Vashadze had been expected to use the presidencys limited powers to send a vocal message of integration with the U.S.-led NATO alliance and the European Union sensitive issues in the South Caucasus country that fought a war in 2008 with its neighbour Russia. Georgian Dream and Zurabishvili take a more pragmatic line, balancing the countrys aspirations to move closer to the West with a desire to avoid antagonising the Kremlin. Zurabishvili won 38.6 percent of the vote in the first round on Oct. 28. That was just one percentage point ahead of Vashadze, who was a foreign minister in 2008-2012 in a resolutely pro-Western government that was in power when the conflict with Russia broke out over a Moscow-backed breakaway Georgian territory. Georgian Dream was founded by billionaire banker Bidzina Ivanishvili, the countrys richest man, and critics say he rules the country from behind the scenes. Zurabishvilis supporters say she would bring international stature to the presidency. But her opponents have criticised her for statements that appeared to blame Georgia for the 2008 war and remarks about minorities that some see as xenophobic. Constitutional changes have reduced the authority of the president, and put most levers of power in the hands of the prime minister, a Georgian Dream loyalist. The election was the last in which the president will be selected by popular vote. From 2024, presidents will be picked by an electoral college of 300 lawmakers and regional officials. Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday performed the ground-breaking of the four kilometers long Kartarpur Corridor to facilitate the Indian Sikh community more than seven decades after the Partition. The corridor will be completed by November next year and will allow visa-free entry to Indian Sikhs to the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur on the banks of the Ravi river, in Pakistan, where Guru Nanak Dev spent 18 years. Addressing the cheering Sikh yatris (pilgrims), Prime Minister Imran Khan said he supported good ties with India. The only issue between Pakistan and India is Kashmir, he said, adding all it needs is just two capable leaderships to resolve this issue. Just imagine the potential we have if our relationships get strong. If India takes one step forward, we will take two steps forward in friendship. An Indian delegation, including minister for food Harsimrat Kaur Badal, minister for housing Hardeep S Puri, Punjab minister for local government, Navjot Singh Sidhu and several Indian journalists attended the historic event. Chennai: Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Chennai, directed Metropolitan Transport Corporation to pay a compensation of Rs 39.28 lakh to family members of a 35-year old data entry operator, who died in an accident caused by an MTC bus five years ago. In the petition, S. Kasthuri submitted that her husband E. Sudharsan Prabhu, 35, was employed as data entry operator in Government Hospital of Thoracic Medicine and received a salary of Rs 12,000 per month. In addition to this, he was also doing part time catering and earning Rs 10,000 per month. On November 28, 2013, at about 7.20 pm he was riding pillion on a bike from Kilpauk to Chintadripet. An MTC bus, which was driven in a rash and negligent manner, dashed against the motorcycle. As a result both rider and pillion rider sustained serious injuries. Sudharsan Prabhu was admitted to Government general hospital, Chennai, and shifted to private hospital and underwent some risky surgical procedures. Later, he was shifted to GH, where he succumbed to injuries. She said the family members lost breadwinner and hence sought direction to the MD. MTC, to pay a compensation of Rs 51 lakh to her family members. In its reply, the MD, MTC said the MTC bus driver was obeying traffic rules. The accident took place due to the negligence of bike rider. The bus was on its trip from Anna Square to Koyambedu. When the vehicle reached Ulagappa street and Arunachalam street junction, the two wheeler came from the Ulagappa street in a rash and negligent manner and crossed the junction without seeing the traffic including the bus. The rider lost control and two-wheeler dashed against the front bumper of the bus and as a result duo sustained injuries. Hence the MTC was not liable to pay any compensation to the petitioners. The judge, Small Causes Court III, S. Umamaheswari, said considering oral and documentary evidence the tribunal holds that the accident took place due to rash and negligent driving of the bus driver. The judge directed the MD to pay a compensation of Rs.39,28,000. to the family members of the deceased with interest of 7.5 per cent per annum. Hyderabad: An Indian Air Force trainer aircraft crashed on the city outskirts shortly after take-off on Wednesday afternoon. The pilot, Yogesh Yadav, was flying solo and ejected before the aircraft crashed. He is said to have sustained injuries to his forehead. Sources said that the aircraft took off from the Hakimpet IAF station on a routine training mission and crahsed 50 km away at Bahupeta of Yadadri district. Yogesh Yadav, who was flying the aircraft was doing his Stage-2. The aircraft bursting into flames after crashing on a patch of barren land. Locals alerted the police who informed the IAF authorities. The Kiran aircraft was charred and the pilot was airlifted to a hospital. This is the third aircraft in a span of 15 months from the IAF Hakimpet station to have crashed. A Court of Inquiry (CoI) will investigate into the cause of accident, a defence spokesperson said. The HJT-16, Kiran, is a two-seater intermediate jet trainer aircraft and is used to train pilots to transition from piston-engined aicraft to jet aircraft. They are manufactured by the Hindustan Aeronautical Limited, Bengaluru. The recent models have been fitted with an imported engine. The HAL has built around 250 aircraft for the IAF Wing Commander T.J. Reddy (retd) said the cause for the crash may be the trainee pilots fault or the age of the aircraft. Trainees have to fly 10-15 hours during their Stage-2 training at the Hakimpet station. The Kirans require stringent maintenance, but because of constant use they are getting only 80 per cent of maintenance which is a concern, he said. He said the Kiran aircraft are flown on three to four sorties a day throughout the year. Since the weather was perfect on Wednesday, the crash may be the result of poor maintenance or the fault of the trainee. IAF trainees are required to fly much more demanding manoeuvres than civilian pilots. The IAF pilot trainees and aircraft are subjected to much greater stresses than their civilian counterparts, such as those at the Rajiv Gandhi Flying Academy which lost an aircraft last week. The Kiran Mk II aircraft are ageing. Defence historian K.S. Nair said the final deliveries of the aircraft were in 1989, so the aircraft in service were at least 29 years old, and some much older. The Kirans have been generally reliable, and have trained two generations of IAF pilots. They have been used by aerobatic teams of the IAF (the Suryakirans) and the Navy (Sagar Kirans), but they are ageing. Young pilots should not be given aircraft that have been exhaustively sued. The IAF should think of procuring new jet intermediate trainers, he said. Hyderabad: Congress president Rahul Gandhi said there is a threat to the nation from the RSS and the BJP, and the TRS and MIM are supporting and helping them. Addressing a public meeting at Karwan, Mr Gandhi termed the Assembly elections as the semifinal ahead of the 2019 general elections. We are united to defeat the RSS and the BJP. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is dividing the nation and spreading hatred, he said. He said Mr Modi and Telangana Chief Minster K. Chandrasekhar Rao had been encouraging corruption and were looting the country. KCR is getting a commission by restructuring projects and enhancing the costs. He said KCR stood for Khao Commission Rao. Mr Rahul Gandhi said that Mr Modi earlier had said Acche din aayenge (good days will come). Modi asked the people not to elect him as Prime Minister but as chowkidar and now people are saying that Chowkidar is a chor. Earlier, he was talking about corruption, unemployment and farmers and now he is maintaining silence on these topics, the Congress president pointed out. He asked when Mr Modi had waived liabilities up to Rs 30 lakh crores payable by 15 persons, he should have waived the loans of farmers as well. He promised that the Congress would waive the loans of farmers in Telangana state if voted to power. Referring to the Rafale deal, Mr Rahul Gandhi said Mr Modi had allowed Anil Ambani to gain `30,000 crore benefit from the deal. Mr Modi had removed the CBI director at midnight. He has degraded constitutional institutions like CBI, RBI, ECI and Supreme Court by inducting RSS people, Mr Rahul Gandhi said. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu said that the TD which had fought with the Congress for three decades was unitiing with it in the interest of the nation. The NDA government has destabilised constitutional institutions. In the Modi regime minorities were feeling insecure and harassed, he said. He pointed out that the TD and Congress had opposed the instant triple talaq bill but the TRS had supported it. Likeminded parties are uniting against the NDA while MIM is supporting TRS which in return is supporting BJP, he said. Vijayawada: Representatives of the Amaravati Partnership Office, Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI), Singapore, visited the heritage structures of the medieval fort at Kondapalli on Wednesday, as part of their study of the development taking place in the new capital region of Andhra Pradesh. Well-known historian and Cultural Centre of Vijayawada and Amaravati (CCVA), CEO, Dr E. Sivanagi Reddy accompanied the visitors and briefed them on the historical and heritage significance of the Kondapalli Fort. He revealed that the history of Kondapalli traces back to the 9th century AD and the fortification on the hill top was initiated by Anavema Reddy of the Kondaveedu Dynasty in 1364 AD and strengthened during the rule of the Gajapatis of Odisha. Dr Reddy briefed the team on the siege of the fort by Sri Krishnadevaraya, the mighty Vijayanagara Emperor after a great fight of three months from January to April in 1516 AD and then how the fort passed into the hands of the Bahmanis, Qutub Shahis, Asaf Jahis, East India Company, French and the British. The team led by Amaravati Partnership Office director Eric Tan, teachers of the Millennia Institute, David D Souza, John Goh, Terrene, Tamilselvi Siva and Xin Sin comprised 22 students of history and visited various heritage structures including the Court Hall, Diwan-I-Am, Diwan-i-Khas, Queens Palace, Royal Harem, market place, prison, barracks, elephant and horse stables, mother-in-law and daughter-inlaw water tanks, 18 bastions and the entrances to the three-level stone fortification walls and the mud fort at the foot of the Kondapalli hill guided by Dr Reddy. The team enjoyed the beauty of the environs and lauded the aesthetics of the Kondapalli Fort and took aerial view photographs of the fort and the surrounding villages. SRINAGAR: Top Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) commander Naveed Jutt alias Abu Hanzalla was killed in an encounter with security forces in Jammu and Kashmirs central district of Budgam on Wednesday. Three security personnel were injured during the clash, the officials said. The police said that Jutt was a member of the same group of LeT cadres which had on it also 26/11 terror attack convict Ajmal Kasab. He was involved in a number a series of attacks on security forces and civilian atrocities including the murder of journalist Shujaat Bukhari, it said. Pakistan-born Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Naveed Jhatt, who was wanted in connection with the assassination of journalist Shujaat Bukhari and escaped from custody in February, was gunned down in Jammu and Kashmirs Budgam district on Wednesday, police said. In a major success for the security forces, most wanted Jhatt, who was an associate of 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab, was killed along with an accomplice in an encounter in a village in central Kashmirs Budgam area, officials said. Three Army personnel were injured in the encounter that claimed the life of the terrorist who had slipped away from the police dragnet at least six times and was involved in multiple attacks in the Valley over the years. The LeT terrorist was a Pakistani national and due process would be followed, Director General of Police Dilbagh Singh said. Well be writing to the Ministry of Home Affairs to inform Pakistan to take the body, Singh told PTI. The endgame for Jhatt, alias Hanzalla, started in the early hours of Wednesday when a special operations group of the Jammu and Kashmir police cordoned off a house at Kuthpora Chattergam area of Budgam following an intelligence input about the presence of militants, officials said. A gun battle broke out when those holed up inside the house fired at security forces, they said, detailing the events leading to Jhatts killing. The forces retaliated and the firing intensified as the terrorists moved from one house to another. During this process, the militants fired at the police and army teams, leading to minor injuries to the armymen who were shifted to hospital. PTI The angry relatives refused to listen and beat up the junior doctors and damaged equipment in the hospital. (Representional Image) Hyderabad: A junior doctor was injured at the Government Medical College in Nizamabad as attendants entered the operation theatre and damaged the anaesthesia equipment at 3.30 am on Wednesday. A mother in severe labour pains came to the hospital on Tuesday night and doctors found that the umbilical cord was already out. This led to reduce heart beat of the baby in the womb. The patients attendants were explained about the high-risk of conducting a C-section operation as the heart beat of the child had already reduced. The attendants agreed and an emergency C-section operation was performed. But, the child could not be saved. The angry relatives refused to listen and beat up the junior doctors and damaged equipment in the hospital. The junior doctors and senior residents protested against the behaviour of the patients kin and demanded that an FIR be lodged with the police due to this unruly behaviour. The director of health and medical education, K. Ramesh Reddy, also spoke to the Nizamabad police as such incidents were occuring frequently and making it difficult for doctors to take up high-risk emergency cases. This incident has once again brought out the issue of security in emergency wards as patients with extreme high risk situations are not willing to cope with the tragedy and blame the doctors instead. The Indian Medical Association (IMA) of Telangana stated that the attacks have become frequent and that the government is not taking steps to protect the doctors. The IMA along with other medical associations will discuss the steps that have to be taken in the emergency wards in all hospitals across the state to protect the young doctors. Political leaders join residents of Arilova Colony in their protest against acute water shortage in the area, in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday. (DC) Visakhapatnam: Women residents of Arilova Colony on Wednesday took out a rally from American Hospital to the GVMCs Kalyana Mandapam with empty pots to register their protest against the severe drinking water crisis in the area. The rally was organised by YSRC leader Vamsikrishna Srinivas. He had earlier also started a water tanker for the convenience of the locals. Many YSRC leaders and party workers took part in the rally. The residents blamed the local MLA for ignoring the acute water shortage in the neighbourhood. They alleged that the minister has set up several liquor shops, at least one in each street, during the past ten years, but has failed to provide drinking water. Owing to heavy consumption of ground water by the hospitals at Health City, the residents of Arilova Colony and other surrounding areas have been facing severe water shortage. The situation turned worse in the recent times forcing them to purchase water from private tankers. The Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation has not restricted the usage of groundwater by the corporate hospitals in Health City. The locals alleged that the corporate hospitals have sunk bore wells till 1,000-1,600 feet depth. Without procuring water in bulk, the hospitals in the Health City have been using groundwater for commercial purposes, the locals say. They are concerned about the rapidly dwindling groundwater resources. The condition may become critical in the coming summer season, locals say. The residents of Arilova Colony and Visalakshi Nagar have lodged numerous complaints with GVMC authorities against the heavy usage of groundwater by corporate hospitals, but say that their protests have fallen on deaf ears. On July 30, the court had refused to grant any interim relief to Vedanta, which had challenged the Tamil Nadu government's order to permanently shut down the Sterlite plant, even as the firm termed the government action "political". New Delhi/Chennai: A committee constituted by the National Green Tribunal to decide mining major Vedantas petition against the Tamil Nadu Government order closing down its Sterlite copper plant at Tuticorin has held that the plant shut-down is not sustainable as it is against the principles of natural justice. The committee, headed by former Meghalaya High Court Chief Justice Tarun Agrawal, said no notice or opportunity of hearing was given to Vedanta before ordering the closure. The impugned orders cannot be sustained as it is against the principles of natural justice. No notice or opportunity of hearing was given to the appellant. The grounds mentioned in the impugned orders are not that grievous to justify permanent closure of the factory. Other issues raised also do not justify the closure of the factory even if the appellant was found to be violating the conditions/norms/ directions, the committee told a bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel. Taking note of the Goel report, the NGT directed that the soft copy of the report be furnished to counsel for the company, Tamil Nadu, Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) and the Central Pollution Control Board by an email. The interveners would be at liberty only to assist the State Counsel and not to individual hearing. At this stage only a copy of the report be furnished, as earlier directed. It will be open to the parties to file any submissions with respect to the report or otherwise, within one week from today. The parties may exchange their respective submissions, the bench said. The matter is now listed for consideration on December 7. The panel also said that in the event the tribunal is of the opinion that the factory should commence production, the committee is of the opinion that it should be directed to monitor ground water quality, including heavy metals such as Arsenic, Cadmium, Silver, Copper, Fluoride in and around the factory premises and nearby villages once a month and such report should be furnished to the TNPCB. The sampling of the above should be taken in the presence of an official from TNPCB. In addition, the sampling of effluent/emission and solid waste should also be done by a monitoring group to be constituted by TNPCB comprising a representative of the district collector, an official of TNPCB, NGOs and academicians. "Both the reports should be sent by TNPCB to CPCB for analysis. Recommendations made by CPCB should be followed. Copper slag dumped at all the 11 sites, including the Upper River, should be removed. If Copper slag has been used for landfill purposes, then the excess amount of the slag over and above the level of ground would be removed and thereafter the landfill should be compacted with one feet of soil so that the Copper slag is not blown away by the strong winds," the committee said. The panel also recommended that the company before disposing Copper slag, gypsum, any other waste product will seek previous permission from the TNPCB. "Application of the company for obtaining valid authorisation for disposal of hazardous waste under the Hazardous and Other Wastes (Management, & Transboundary Movement) Rules, 2016 should be disposed of by the TNPCB in a time-bound manner," the panel said. The NGT had earlier said a credible mechanism, through which rival contentions can be balanced and final view taken, has to be evolved. The green panel had said the committee, which include representatives of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and the Ministry of Environment and Forests, may visit the site and consider technical data. It had noted in its order that it cannot be ignored that the Copper smelting plant contributed to Copper production in the country and employed 1,300 people. The green tribunal had asked the committee to submit its report and said the matter be listed for hearing on receipt of report of the panel. It had directed TNPCB to provide logistic support to the committee and said their remuneration would be determined by the state. On August 9, the tribunal had allowed Vedanta to enter the administrative unit inside its Sterlite copper plant at Tuticorin, observing that no environmental damage would be caused by allowing access to the section. The green panel had, however, said the plant would remain closed and the company would not have access to its production unit and directed the district magistrate to ensure this. On July 30, the court had refused to grant any interim relief to Vedanta, which had challenged the Tamil Nadu government's order to permanently shut down the Sterlite plant, even as the firm termed the government action "political". On July 5, the tribunal had issued notices to the state government and the pollution board seeking their responses after Tamil Nadu raised preliminary objections with regard to the maintainability of Vedanta's plea. The Tamil Nadu government had, on May 28, ordered the state pollution control board to seal and "permanently" close the Sterlite plant following violent protests over pollution concerns. Earlier in April, TNPCB had rejected Sterlite's plea to renew the 'Consent To Operate' certification, saying the company had not complied with the stipulated conditions. At least 13 people were killed and several injured on May 22 when police opened fire on a huge crowd of protesters at Tuticorin demanding closure of the Sterlite plant for alleged environment pollution. Hyderabad: Union external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday said that India would not respond to Pakistans invitation to attend the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit in Pakistan because terror and talks dont go together. Addressing the media in Hyderabad, Ms Swaraj said, I have already visited Pakistan, but what happened after that? Pathankot and Uri happened due to which we have decided not to respond to invitations from Pakistan to our Prime Minister. For many years, the Indian government had been asking for the Kartarpur corridor, and only now Pakistan has responded positively. It doesnt mean bilateral dialogue will start because of this; terror and talks cant go together. Unless and until Pakistan stops terror activities in India, there will be no dialogue and we will not participate in SAARC, Ms Swaraj added. On the campaign in Telangana, she said, Telangana was carved out for the people of the state, not for the five-member family of caretaker chief minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao. KCR is a chief minister, his son is a minister, and his nephew is a minister, she said. She said though about 2,000 students committed suicide for the formation of Telangana, the caretaker chief minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao recognised only 400. Ms Swaraj was also unhappy with the language used by Mr Rao against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. KCR speaks a language that is similar to the AIMIMs. Though we are rivals in elections, we dont become enemies. But even enemies dont speak this language. She denied rumours about BJPs tie-up with the Telangana Rashtra Samithi. These rumours are being spread by those who want to damage the BJPs credibility, but whatever we do we do it openly, she declared. The external affairs minister further added, Telangana Movement leader Kodandaram started his own party, the Telangana Jana Samiti, and joined the Congress in an alliance while MLAs who opposed the formation of Telangana state are not a part of the TRS. It is only the BJP that has clarity and credibility, and this time Telangana election is between credibility versus incredibility, and BJP is credible and very committed to Telangana. Unless the Bharatiya Janata Party is voted to power, Telangana cannot be reconstructed, she said. Recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed in a telephone conversation the dangerous incident that took place in the Sea of Azov Black Sea area on November 25. Putin said that Ukraine's actions were provocative, leading to gross violations of international law by its warships, which deliberately disregarded the rules of innocent passage in the territorial sea of the Russian Federation. He also expressed over Kievs decision to put its armed forces on combat alert and impose martial law. Moscow believes that the Ukrainian authorities bear full responsibility for creating yet another conflict situation and for the attendant risks, all this has been clearly done in the context of the election campaign in Ukraine. Putin expressed hope that Berlin would use its influence on the Ukrainian authorities to stop it from taking further reckless steps. "The Kerch strait confrontation is extrapolated to the entire European security system, which is very shaky, and we should not shake it up further," the head of the Center for International Security at Institute of World Economy and International Relations, professor at the Moscow State University Sergei Oznobishchev believes. "Unfortunately, in recent years, Europe has evolved from a rather calm and stable in terms of security continent to a virtually hot spot - something happens every day there. We must preserve the security structure, the system of agreements on arms limitation and reduction, the achievement of which took many decades by the parties' huge efforts. Today it is, first of all, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. The United States hasn't said the last word yet, so we can continue our dialogue," the expert is confident. He focused on the fact that it was stressed during U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton's recent visit to Moscow, who traditionally advocates lifting restrictions in this area, that President Trump has the last say on the INF Treaty. "Perhaps there will be some good news at the upcoming Putin-Trump meeting. But Europe has a very important role in maintaining the INF Treaty, preserving the entire system of arms limitation and reduction. Trump will not be a political leader forever. Perhaps, he will win a second term in office, but it will be six years of completely unusual, unforeseen security concerns at most, because Trump surprises us almost every day. But political leaders are never perfect. There's always something wrong for us. We should be working to find loopholes and expand our opportunities," Oznobischev said. He called on Europeans to raise the issue of inability and undesirability of deploying any nuclear missile systems in Europe. "Initially, it was said that the European missile defense is not deployed against Russia, but against single random launches of third countries, primarily Iran. Since then, we have very seriously moved towards closing Iran's nuclear combat program, if they had such. If we continue on this path, then limitations of its missile programs also cannot be ruled out. We all welcome the determination with which the Europeans stood up for the JCPOA, when Washington put this plan at risk." ADILABAD: BJP national president Amit Shah on Wednesday said the credit for his free entry without a passport into Adilabad district from Maharashtra will go to Adivasi leader Komuram Bheem who fought against the Razakars. Mr Shah said that the lotus will blossom in Adilabad as it is an entry point to Telangana from Maharashtra side and the BJP is in the power in Maharashtra. Last week, the BJP president said that one would have needed a passport to Telangana if not for Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel who forced Hyderabad state to join the Union of India. Mr Shah has been trying to stimulate feelings of Swabhiman Telangana and Telugu pride among his audiences in the state by talking about how Hyderabad Liberation Day is not being celebrated because the Majlis-e-Ittihadul Muslimeen (MIM) does not want it, and appeasement of the minorities with special welfare schemes. Interestingly, the MIM, on the eve or Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit, said that all the CMs bow to the party. ...Right from Rajasekhar Reddy to Kiran Reddy and even KCR.. all of them listen to us..., MIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi had said. Mr Shah said that neither Prof. Kodandarams party nor the Communists, the Telugu Desam or the Congress, dares to celebrate to Hyderabad Liberation Day. The lotus will blossom in Telangana state from Adilabad (where BJP candidate Payal Shankar is contesting) which is an entry point to Telangana from Maharashtra where BJP government is ruling, Mr Shah said. However, no BJP candidate was elected as MLA so far from old Adilabad district but this time BJP is giving tough fight to the ruling TRS and Congress in Adillabad, Nirmal, Khanapur, Mudhole constituencies. Hyderabad: MIM president Asaduddin Owaisi stoked a controversy saying he would ask TS Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao to send BJP president Amit Shah some biryani. Mr Owaisi in a rally at Kukatpally on Tuesday night, said, BJP president Amit Shah is saying that Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao is sending biryani to Muslims in the state. I didnt know that Amit Shah liked biryani. If he is jealous that he has not been given biryani and the chief minister gave biryani to Asaduddin Owaisi, then I will call up Mr Rao now and ask him to send a parcel of kalyani (beef) biryani to Amit Shah before he leaves for New Delhi. Mr Owaisi stated, If someone else is eating why is your stomach aching? You can eat too. Mr Owaisi said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had gone to Pakistan to attend the wedding of then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifs daughter. He said, He was not even invited for the wedding. Begani shaadi meih Abdullah dewana. Who knows what the PM ate over there? In the meeting of the Majlis on Wednesday at Mallepally, Mr Owaisi targeted both the Congress and BJP parties stating that they were an unconquered force. Mr Owaisi said, It is a fact that the venom has increased and it has become difficult to differentiate between the BJP and the Congress. Leaders of the Congress are trying to show that they are more communal than Narendra Modi. Congress leaders are claiming that Rahul is Janeu-dhari Hindu and even Congress president is showing his lineage and claiming that his gotra is Dattatreya. What is the purpose of highlighting such personal issues in public? Mr Modi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi are focusing more on Hyderabad and Telangana to defeat us. Both leaders are working hard to defeat the Majlis and for that reason Rahul Gandhi addressed a meeting in Charminar, he said on Wednesday. Mr Shah in his speech had stated that he would wipe out the Majlis in Telangana. Mr Owaisi said, Both parties have a single agenda and want to check the Majlis before entering the Assembly. The president of the Bihar unit of AIMIM Akhtarul Iman, and Shoukat Ali, president of Uttar Pradesh and party candidate Jafar Hussain were present at the meeting. ADILABAD: BJP president Amit Shah on Wednesday came down heavily on the TRS and Congress for appeasing the minorities with exclusive welfare schemes and offering 12 per cent reservations. He said these days, the Congress was ahead of the TRS in appeasing the minorities. Addressing at a public meeting in Adilabad town as part of the BJPs election campaign, Mr Shah claimed that the Congress led by Rahul Baba was reportedly going to offer reservations to minorities in contracts and special hospitals, Urdu teachers quota for minorities and Rs 20 lakh financial assistance for higher studies of minority students and free power supply to masjids and churches but not to Hindu temples. Mr Shah said the TRS and Congress were supporting illegal migrants from Bangladesh. He said an English news channel had leaked information regarding special schemes to be offered to minorities. He said whatever the Congress and TRS were doing to appease the minorities was against the Constitution and law. Development of the people should not be based on their religion but on poverty, he said. No one other than minorities will get contracts if the Congress manifesto was implemented. The people of other communities must learn Urdu language to get teacher jobs in schools, he said. Mr Shah claimed that former prime minister Manmohan Singh had said that minorities had a right on the the countrys budget resources, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said the poor had the right on Budget resources. That is the difference between the Congress and BJP towards development, he said. The BJP chief asked the people to support Swabhiman Telangana and to fight against the MIM by bringing the BJP to power in the state. Hyderabad: BJP president Amit Shah on Wednesday said it was the fear of defeat in caretaker Chief Minister and TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao which compelled him to go for midterm elections to the Legislative Assembly. Addressing the gathering in Choutuppal, Mr Shah said, They opted for simultaneous elections as the Modi wave was spreading all over the country. Thinking that he might also lose the elections because of the same, he (KCR) went in for early elections. He is dreaming of bringing his party back to power by cheating the people and making his son the Chief Minister. He made Telangana a debt-ridden state. He is trying to keep Telangana Pride as the mortgage to Muslims. Mr Rao said we did not agree when he asked the Central government for 12 per cent reservation to Muslims. Yes, we will not give reservation to Muslims. Quoting the comments of the MIM that everyone should fall at their feet, Mr Shah asked the audience whether they want to oblige by voting for MIM, TRS and Congress. The influence of the Congress influence is declining in the country. They are being forced to join regional parties. Not even a single promise which was made in the election manifesto of previous elections was fulfilled. They told that they would make a Dalit the Chief minister. They also promised to give three acres of land for Dalits, but forgot that. They even failed to implement the Central government schemes. The TRS government is an anti-farmer government, he said, adding that because of this, 135 farmers committed suicide in the Chief Ministers Gajwel constituency. Mr Shah also promised to find a permanent solution to the fluoride problem in Nalgonda if his party came to power in Telangana. Hyderabad: Caretaker Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao continued his verbal attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Telugu Desam president N Chandrababu Naidu for the second consecutive day on Wednesday in his public meetings in Medak district. Referring to Mr Modis remarks against the TRS government in Nizamabad on Tuesday, Mr Rao told the Prime Minister to get his eye tested under the state-sponsored Kanti Velugu scheme, if he is unable to see the development which the state has witnessed under the TRS rule. The Chief Minister addressed public meetings in Narayankhed, Jukkal, Zaheerabad, Andhole, Zaheerabad, Sangareddy and Narsapur constituencies. He said that from Mr Modi to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi to TD president N. Chandrababu Naidu and the Left parties, all of them had ganged up to defeat a lone and lean man. He said, all these political parties are targeting me since I am a stubborn and straight-forward person who will not give up until he achieves what I desire for the people of Telangana state. Criticizing the NDA government for refusing to approve the hike in reservations for STs and minorities, he said, We wrote over 30 letters to Mr Modi and even met him personally. Rather than heeding our requests, they are stating that they will not allow us to implement it. He asked: Is this country your jagir or your fathers? This is democracy. You will not be in control forever. Stating that both BJP and Congress want to implement feudal control over the states from Delhi, he said I have been speaking against them and demanding for devolution of certain subjects to the States and they want to suppress my voice which will not be possible. He announced that he would set out to take on Congress and BJP in the national politics after the Assembly elections. Terming TPCC president Uttam Kumar Reddy as an incapable fellow, Mr Rao reminded that he had not participated in the debate on irrigation projects in the Assembly. Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu blasted Telangana caretaker Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao for alleging that he had stifled Telanganas development. Mr Naidu along with Congress president Rahul Gandhi participated in the election campaign at Sanathnagar on Wednesday. Mr Naidu questioned his Telangana counterpart: Did I obstruct you from making a Dalit the Chief Minister? Did I obstruct you from constructing double bedroom houses? Did I obstruct you from inducting a woman into the cabinet? Did I obstruct you from cleaning Hussainsagar? Did I obstruct you from making Hyderabad as global city? Did I obstruct you from DSC recruitment? Mr Naidu said for decades the Telugu Desam and Congress parties had put in their best efforts to build Cyberabad and now Mr Rao and his son K.T. Rama Rao want to steal the credit. Mr Naidu got a warm reception here as many migrants from Andhra Pradesh have made Sanathnagar their home. There were slogans saying We miss you and We are here because of you. Mr Gandhi said Mr Naidu had joined hands with the Congress in the interests of the nation. He recalled that in the 2004 election campaign, he had said that Mr Naidu had worked well as Chief Minister. KCR has not challenged or questioned Mr Modi for his failures because he is backing the chowkidar, Mr Gandhi said. He pointed out that the BJP-led NDA Government is misusing institutions and anti-crime investigating agencies such as the Central Bureau of Investigation and income tax department and using them against TD party leaders. KCR abuses leaders of the opposition and causes communal and caste fights. Though the TD was our opponent for decades in United AP, never did the Congress abuse Mr Naidu. In fact, we appreciated his efforts in building Hyderabad. But KCR only knows how to abuse and cause unrest, Mr Gandhi said. Spilling the beans Mr Naidu revealed that during the final TS assembly session in August 2018, adviser to the government and former Chief Secretary Rajeev Sharma went to Delhi and met the Union Home and Finance ministers. The sequence of events that followed was that bureaucrats were transferred, and then on September 2 the TRS held a massive rally and indicated that early elections would be held. On the 6th the assembly was dissolved and elections were announced. Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh IT minister and Telugu Desams national general secretary Nara Lokesh is yet to join the party campaign for the TS Assembly elections. In the 2014 Assembly elections, Mr Lokesh had campaigned in Telangana and later in 2015, he also toured many districts of the state in the name of reviving the old glory of the party. However he is yet to visit Telangana for campaigning for Telugu Desam. At a recent press conference in Visakhapatnam, Mr Lokesh had said, If the party high command wants, I am ready to campaign in Telangana for the Assembly elections. In AP, several MLAs and party leaders requested Mr Lokesh to visit their constituencies. But in Telangana no such request was made by any TD candidate or party leaders. When Lokesh took charge as the coordinator of TD Workers Welfare Fund in June 2014 at NTR Trust Bhavan, he had said that the party has launched the fund to help the party workers who are in need, irrespective of their Telangana, Rayalaseema or Coastal Andhra origin. In the Telangana Assembly elections, the TD is contesting in 13 constituencies. Moreover in Kukatpally Assembly constituency, his relative Nandamuri Suhasini is in fray. While the TD leaders are talking about campaigning by Junior NTR, they are not so keen about Mr Lokesh. A senior TD leader said, We are not concerned about Lokesh. We are concerned about Junior NTR whether he will campaign or not. After the announcement of Ms Nandamuri Suhasini as TD's Kukatpally candidate, there were discussions even in the social media whether her brothers Junior NTR and actor Nandamuri Kalyan Ram would campaign for her or not, Mr Lokesh. VISAKHAPATNAM: Virtually setting the tone for 2019 elections, YSR Congress president Mr Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has appealed to the people to reject BJP, Congress, TD and Jana Sena parties as they were all part of the great betrayal during the division of the state depriving the new state of AP of Special Category Status (SCS). We have to now sweep all the MP seats for better bargaining power, he said. Addressing a mammoth public meeting at Palakonda in Srikakulam district on Wednesday as part of the Praja Sankalpa Yatra, Mr Reddy said that, During the state division, Congress had written that SCS shall be given instead of a definite should be given, while during 2014 elections, Narendra Modi, Chandrababu Naidu and Pawan Kalyan had also said that the special status for the state would be given much before. All of them have betrayed us! Terming the BJP and TD as anti-people parties, Mr Reddy said that there was no need to further believe them. Simply reject them at hustings and give YSR Congress a full mandate, he said and added that, We will give support to any dispensation that categorically gives a written assurance of according SCS which will result in more investments coming in, more industries coming up and employment opportunities growing immensely that will be beneficial to the youth in a big way. Mr Reddy said that the chief minister had been busy moving around to various places and the script was the same in the ensuing 2019 polls as it was in the 2014 polls. 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. 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. 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 Vestnik Kavkaza interviewed Alexei Kondratyev, a member of the Federation Council Committee for Science, Education, and Culture, the Tambov Region senator, about current events and prospects of the Russia-West agenda. - How do you assess the incident of violation of the Russian border by Ukrainian ships two days ago? - It was a clearly directed well-planned provocation. Its confirmed by the followed developments when Poroshenko imposed martial law without Verkhovna Radas vote to influence upcoming presidential elections and the political situation in Ukraine. We have to understand that its not hysteria or whipping up military tension but thoughtful steps on implementation of certain plans toward Russia. As Kiev denounced the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation, and Partnership between Ukraine and the Russian Federation, it was an unfriendly act and reluctance to admit their mistakes. The situation led to the attempt to flex muscles; however, not their muscles but muscles of the international community, i.e. the West which took a pro-Ukrainian position without investigation of the conflict or clear marking a guilty side. As Russian citizens and common people, we are pretty concerned about the event which has taken place ahead of the U.S. steps on denunciation of the INF treaty and whipping up military hysteria in Europe. Kievs decision to impose martial law will be followed by Western economic sanctions and intensification of Ukrainian military actions. We are indignant and very concerned about the step. One should note that the Ukrainian governments first step was a consultation with the American side. Even before the end of the maneuvers, the Ukrainian ambassador to Washington consulted to representatives of the U.S. state services. It meant the Americans knew about everything and could directly influence made decisions and developments in the Black Sea. - Do you agree with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov who said that the steps could lead to the point of no return in Russia-West relations? - Since Obama times, we havent seen improvement in our relations with the West; they are progressively going worse and worse. There are no positive signs from the American side and the West in general. Instead of them, incidents are happening which are met with raised eyebrows (for example, last-year developments in our consulate-generals in the U.S.). Our embassy in Kiev and consulate-general in Lviv were pelted by flares and smoke candles. However, the outraged behavior, absolutely unacceptable in bilateral relations, wasnt criticized either by Western diplomacy or by the international community in general. They got it into the habit. How can we speak about any relationships or some positive steps if diplomacy is replaced by molestations? We need clear limits, rules, and standards of behavior which used to exist and be developed for centuries. Then, a compromise could be found. According to the normal diplomatic practice, an investigation must be set and a certain decision must be made. Moreover, a guilty side must submit apologies. Unfortunately, its a modern trend to accuse Russia immediately of everything. We could see that in Boeing MN-17 case and Skripal case there are no proves but Russia is pigeonholed. It would be a different matter if it touched only social opinion. However, the West takes such unfriendly steps as economic sanctions influencing our domestic economy, prosperity of our citizens, and the populations confidence in the future. It causes only indignation. At the same time, they try to provoke dissatisfaction and mistrust to the Russian authorities through various NGOs. It makes us clear that these are directed well-prepared actions of influence on the internal political situation in Russia, i.e. direct intervention in the domestic affairs of the Russian state. - Considering that, what can we expect from the upcoming meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in G20 summit in Argentina? - The meeting itself is a positive event. Today, we have unsolvable problems in global security and nonproliferation of nuclear weapons, in imposing groundless sanctions against Russia based on empty statements on supposed intervention of Russian hackers in American elections, in compensation of lost economic benefits, and so on. At the same time, we have some spheres to negotiate, primarily our joint struggle against terrorism in Syria. We can see now that our positive steps are usually crashed by political and military actions of the coalition headed by the U.S. We are also concerned about the American support of the so-called moderate opposition which consolidates with terrorists and participate in provocations in Idlib, Deir ez-Zor, Al-Tanf, and along the Euphrates eastern bank. We have certain questions on political support of the processes in Ukraine. It would be much better for the U.S. to help us to settle Ukrainian tensions, to build normal relations with Ukraine which is like-minded for us, a sister republic where a lot of Russian-speaking people live. The issue of further economic partnership, investments, long-term financing in various joint projects from space to modern technologies is also very important. Of course there are many problems and we hope for a common sense and Trump who is a serious leader resisting political groups and blocs in the U.S. Congress trying to influence him and is able to make decisions by his own, according to interests of the American people and interests of the Russian-American relations. We should maintain remains of our good relations built in previous decades. the Dutch Data Protection Authority imposed a fine of 600,000 euros (USD 678,780.00) on Uber. British and Dutch regulators on Tuesday fined ride-hailing service Uber Technologies Inc for failing to protect customers personal information during a 2016 cyber attack involving millions of users. The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) in Britain slapped a 385,000 pound (USD 490,759.50) fine on the firm, while the Dutch Data Protection Authority imposed a fine of 600,000 euros (USD 678,780.00) on Uber. 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. But Google refused to take chances at a time when gender issues are reshaping politics and society. 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 scrutinising potential biases in artificial intelligence like never before. Not all screw-ups are equal, Lambert said. Gender is an 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 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. 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 per cent 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. Googles decision to play it safe on gender follows some high-profile embarrassments for the companys predictive technologies. 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 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 allows 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. 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 summarise 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 per cent correct. Yet, imperfections remain. Predictive keyboard tools developed by Google and Apple Inc 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 Corp. Amazon.com Inc 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. 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. Concerns over the social media giants practices, the role of political adverts and possible foreign interference in the 2016 Brexit vote and US elections are among the topics being investigated by British and European regulators. (Photo: AP) 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. A campaigner from a political pressure group wears an oversized mask 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 US 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. 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 US 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. 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. Bolton said the Trump-Abe bilateral meeting would expand into a trilateral meeting with Prime Minister Modi. (Photo: PTI) Washington: US President Donald Trump will have a trilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi 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 Argentina. 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 Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. 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 Modi. "He is going to meet with President Macri, the host government of Argentina, he'll meet with President Moon of South Korea, he'll meet with President Erdogan of Turkey, Prime Minister Abe of Japan, that will transform at some point during that meeting a trilateral meeting with the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, Bolton said. "The president will meet with President Putin and have a working dinner with President Xi," he said. Azim Premji, philanthropist and Chairman of Wipro Limited, on Wednesday received the highest French civilian distinction, Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour) from Ambassador of France to India Alexandre Ziegler. Speaking on the occasion at the Wipro campus, Ziegler said the award was bestowed on Azim Premji for his outstanding contribution to developing the information technology industry in India. "Also, for his economic outreach in France, and his laudable contribution to society as a philanthropist through the Azim Premji Foundation and Azim Premji University," he said. TheLegion d'Honneur , instituted in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte, is the highest civilian award given by the French Republic for outstanding service to France, regardless of the nationality of the recipients. The President of the French Republic is the Grand Master of the Order of the Legion of Honour. In his acceptance speech, Premji said he is extremely honoured by the award bestowed on me. "The vibrancy of the French democracy and its diversity is an inspiration to all across the world," he said. Wipros association with France spans over 15 years and the company enjoys a close relationship with several French organizations. Nearly 65% of Wipros employees in France are locals. France is a key market for Wipro and the company is committed to continues investments there. Large French digital companies already have a strong footprint in India, employing over 1.3 lakh people at their R&D centres and facilities. John Chau, killed by members of the Sentinelese tribe on an island in the Andaman Sea, is the latest in a long line of American missionaries who voyaged to the world's most isolated regions to spread Christianity. The first Christian missionaries set sail from the United States for Asia more than 200 years ago, according to Dr Todd Johnson, director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at the Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts. Adoniram Judson and his wife, Ann, left Salem, Massachusetts, in February 1812 for India but eventually ended up in Burma, where Adoniram spent most of the next four decades. "That's the beginning and then there were several other mission agencies that grew up after that," Johnson said. Also read: Abandon recovering US man's body: Tribal body to India There were more than 127,000 Americans working abroad as Christian missionaries in 2010, according to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity. "It's gone up a little bit since then," Johnson said, adding that the figure includes "Christian missionaries of all kinds" -- Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Catholics, Protestants and others. "Historically, Catholics have had quite a large portion of that, but Mormons I think probably have the single largest number of any group," he said. The 26-year-old Chau was exceptional in that he appeared to be a "complete lone ranger type of missionary," Johnson said, not sponsored by a particular church or organization. Chau received missionary training from a Kansas City, Missouri-based group called All Nations, but his ill-fated voyage to remote North Sentinel island where he was killed appears to have been his own initiative. Also read: Police face-off with tribe in missionary killing On its website, All Nations says its mission "is to make disciples and train leaders to ignite church planting movements among the neglected peoples of the Earth." "All Nations aspires to see disciple making movements in every people group of the world so that Jesus may be worshipped by every tongue, tribe and nation," it says. Chau has been compared to Jim Elliot, an American killed in Ecuador in 1956 along with four other missionaries while attempting to evangelize the Huaorani people. "But Jim Elliot and his four other companions were part of a mission agency, an institutional agency that sent them out," Johnson said. "We're not hearing about any agency behind (Chau)," he said. "We're hearing about his courage and his drive to go where no one else had gone before and that kind of thing. "It's all part of the missionary narrative but it's unusual in the sense that you're talking about an individual," Johnson said. Also read: US man's body could be lost to preserve Sentinelese American Christian missionaries abroad are involved in a wide range of activities aside from proselytizing, including medical missions. "Catholic missions have sent people to hospitals and schools and that sort of thing," Johnson said. "That's really a longstanding mission strategy." He said that word proselytizing is "kind of a harsh word." "I was reading about John Chau -- that he went to convert the Indians -- which is kind of strong language," he said. "I think what he went to do was to preach, or let them know what the good news was," he said. "Whether or not they'd be interested is a completely different subject. "Certainly converting, that's not a good word in India because there are anti-conversion laws and all of that," he said. Johnson said most Christian missionaries "wouldn't use that language, wouldn't say 'I'm going to convert.' They would say 'I'm going to introduce people to Christ.' "They would use language that is more religious freedom language -- that everybody has a choice they can make." Johnson said missionary work has been hampered somewhat because fewer countries nowadays are issuing what he called "missionary visas." "You could get a visa to go somewhere as a missionary and those are disappearing," he said. "India, for example, had missionary visas during the colonial period," he said. "India received lots of missionaries with that particular visa. "And now there's no such thing." Johnson said that while most American missionaries abroad are linked to established institutions, there has been a rise in the number of smaller churches engaged in what he called "direct sending." "Where, let's say, an independent charismatic church, maybe 1,000 members in Louisiana, they're sending missionaries to Siberia," he said. "There are many, many people in that category, which is really different than John Chau," he said. "They do have an institution behind them, but it's a local church, not a mission agency." Johnson said another trend is for there to be fewer white missionaries from the United States. "It's more diverse," he said. "They might be US citizens but they might be originally from Africa, or Latin America or Asia." As the election process for five states enters its final phase, and Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram go to polls on Wednesday, this spell of polls, touted the semi-final before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, will be remembered for its controversial and at times atrocious comments from all sides. Madhya Pradesh, which goes to polls after an almost month-long high voltage campaigning, in particular saw a vitriolic war of words between the Congress and BJP. From nobody knows Modis father and isko thokho (hit her) to Mr Stupid and Mafia from Italy, the remarks reverberated during the campaign. Congress leader Raj Babbar dragged Modis mothers name, likening the falling rupee value to her age. Hum toh yeh kehna chahenge ki rupaya aapki pujaniye mataji ki umr ke kareeb neeche girna shuru ho gaya hai aaj kal (We will only say that the value of rupee is now inching closer to your mothers age), he said. The BJP called it repulsive and slammed Babbar. Campaigning in Indore, senior Congress leader and Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu attacked the woman mayor of the city, Malini Lakshmansingh Gaur, over a demolition drive and said Taali thoko aur iske sath mahapaur ko bhi thoko, (clap your hands and also hit the mayor). BJP reacted sharply and sought an apology while its spokesperson, Meenakshi Lekhi, called Sidhu Mr Stupid. Union minister Giriraj Singh said, take Kamal Nath to Tihar jail. Congress can elect its desired candidate from there while reacting to the video in which Nath asked for 90% voting at the Muslim booths. BJPs most sought-after campaigner, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, in an election rally, said, Kamal Nathji, aap ko yeh Ali mubarak, hamare liye Bajrang Bali paryaapt hongey (I want to say, Kamal Nathji, keep your Ali, our Bajrang Bali is enough for us). Ali is Prophet Mohammads successor and Hindu god Hanuman is called Bajrangbali. Congress MLA Jitu Patwari got into a controversy over his remark that women voters take bribes during the election time and sell their votes. Women hide bribe in their blouses, he had said, evoking strong reactions from women who asked him to stop defaming women. In Indore,Yogi Adityanath said, I do not understand what Rahul Gandhi says. Sometimes it is difficult to understand if he is speaking in India or in Pakistan. The only thing that Congress got from Italy is the mafia. In the other states, the scenario was the same. A major controversy began after a video of former Union minister Vilas Muttemwar surfaced in which he was heard asking who knew Modi before he became the prime minister and who knows even now the name of his father. Who knew you (Modi) before you became the prime minister? Even today nobody knows your fathers name. Everyone knows Rahuls father name Rajiv Gandhi, Muttemwawr said during a meeting in Rajasthan. BJP called the statement crass and shameless. Former Union minister C P Joshi got a notice from Election Commission for lashing out at PM Modi and Union Minister Uma Bharti in Rajasthans Nathdwara for saying only Brahmins know enough to talk about Hinduism. After a snub from Rahul Gandhi, Joshi apologised. Addressing an election rally in Jashpur in Chhattisgarh, Yogi Adityanath said agents imported from Italy undertook anti-national activities. The statement is purpotedly an attack on Sonia Gandhi, who has Italian origins, and she was alleged to have been indulging in religious conversion. With days left for the campaigning to end, the states are bound to see a lot more muck. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Wednesday that India will not attend the Saarc summit in Pakistan unless it stops sponsoring terror activities. We are not responding to the invitation for the summit, she said in a rebuff to Pakistan a day after Islamabad said it would invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the summit. She also said the Kartarpur corridor initiative was not connected with the dialogue process with Pakistan. Sushma said talks can start the moment Islamabad stops terror activities in India. Reiterating Indias stand, she said talks and terror cannot go together. India has been asking for a corridor, which will facilitate visa-free travel of Indian pilgrims to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur. And I am happy that Pakistan has, for the first time, responded positively, she said. Construction of Kartarpur Sahib corridor between India and Pakistan should be seen as an event in isolation, Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat said on Wednesday. He advised against lowering of guards against the enemy across the border. Everybody talks about giving peace a chance. This (Pakistan's move to build corridor) is to be seen in isolation. It shouldn't be linked to anything else, Gen Rawat cautioned when asked to comment on the construction of the corridor for Sikh pilgrims. We have to put sustained pressure on (Pakistan-based) terrorists. This is what we are doing at the moment. If you have one successful year and then you said, lets give peace a chance, it would be a mistake because that would give terrorists a chance to regroup, he said. The army chief was responding to queries after delivering a talk at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses in New Delhi. Army sources said that in 2018, as many as 226 terrorists (up to November 25) were eliminated, this included the 32 terrorists who were killed in November. The count includes several local commanders of militant units. In comparison, 2017 saw killing of 213 terrorists and 141 were neutralised a year before. On Wednesday, Jammu and Kashmir police claimed gunning down Lashker-e-Toiba senior commander Naveed Jatt, reportedly one of the assassins of journalist Shujaat Bukhari, who was gunned down in June outside his office in Srinagar. Asked about where India lags in its counter-terrorism efforts, Gen Rawat flagged the government's inability to utilise its soft power and propaganda machinery to the maximum extent as the areas of concerns. Such deficiencies, he pointed out, left enough opening for the other side to brainwash the youngsters in Jammu and Kashmir. We do have a shortfall on propaganda and social media issues that influences the younger generation in Jammu and Kashmir. There is a gradual transformation of the mosques in J&K with outsiders. The psychological warfare now has to be taken to the next level with the involvement of all agencies to counter such influences, he said. Radicalisation of the youth was happening because a lot of falsehood was being pushed through social media, the army chief pointed out. Gen Rawat also advocated that India use its legal share of Indus water. We should not shy away from using the Indus water, which is legally available to us. India uses much less water than it was legally entitled under the Indus Water Treaty (IWT). The Article III of the IWT permits India to use waters of Chenab, Jhelum and Indus, known as western rivers in the Indus system, for generation of hydro-power as well as for domestic, non-consumptive and agricultural use. According to the IWT, India can use the water in the western rivers to irrigate up to 13,43,477 acres of agricultural land. But India uses the water to irrigate only 7,92,426 acres of land at the present moment. Though the IWT allows India to construct reservoirs on the western rivers with maximum total storage capacity of 3.6 million acre feet; New Delhi is yet to build any such storage facility. Seven accused - all officers and men from the Gujarat and Rajasthan police - who deposed before a special CBI court on Tuesday, claimed that evidences against them were fabricated and they are suffering because of rivalry and politics of top cops. Then deputy superintendent of police M L Parmar, then inspector Balkrishna Choubey, police constable Ajay Parmar and police constable Shantaram Sharma - all from Gujarat police and senior inspector Abdur Rehman, then sub-inspector Himanshu Singh Rajawat, then sub-inspector Shyam Singh - all from Rajasthan police deposed before additional sessions judge Sunil Kumar Sharma, who presides over a special CBI court, for recording of statements under section 313 of Code of Criminal Procedure. The judge conducting the trial of twin encounters of Sohrabuddin Shaikh and Tulsiram Prajapati and mysterious rape and murder of Kauser Bi - is recording statements of accused before defence witnesses are called in. "The case is a result of rivalry among top police officials and charges are politically motivated," said Parmar, who was the investigating officer to probe the encounter of Sohrabuddin Shaikh, a gangster with links to Laskar-e-Taiba. According to him, after the encounter, he received instructions from his superior officers DG Vanzara and Rajkumar Pandian to take up the investigations. In his deposition, Singh said that the case is a result of senior police officers of Gujarat eyeing top posts. "I have not taken part in any such operation of the ATS (of Gujarat police)... I never did anything wrong. I was falsely chargesheeted...," said Chaubey. On his part, Rajawat said that the case is because of the rivalry of top officers and the political situation of that time. "Facts were twisted (before the Supreme Court)," he said. 'CBI made me accused' The owner of Arham farm, Rajendra Jirawala, where Kausar Bi was abducted and kept, said that he extended full cooperation but framed. "The Gujarat CID made me a witness but CBI made me an accused," he said, adding that he was outstation for the marriage of his daughter. Rajendra was brother of Surendra Jirawala, a BJP corporator. The Arham farm is located between Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar. Prove innocence The Armenian prosecutor generals office finds it necessary to keep former Armenian president Robert Kocharyan in detention at the current stage of investigation, Prosecutor General Arthur Davtyan said. Davtyan noted that he personally has filed motion to court with appropriate argumentation. The Prosecutor General also said he has been present at yesterdays court session, since he has found it necessary to describe all the problems personally and intends to be present at todays court session. "I think today we will go to the enquiry, and we will present either our stance on the key charge or our detention-related arguments. Todays evidential base on the March 1 case differs from that of 2008," ARKA cited him as saying. "The received evidence gives absolutely different information, and in these conditions, the charges launched against Kocharyan dont contradict the court acts based on the evidence obtained in 2008," Davtyan added, The prosecutor general said the new evidence will lead to revision of particular court conclusions related to this case. Kocharyan was arrested on July 27 for two months by a local court. He was charged with violating Armenia constitutional order in March 2008, when in a post-election standoff eight civilians and two police officers were killed. Later, Kocharyan was released from custody on travel restrictions, after Armenias Court of Appeals ruled that he could not be prosecuted for the post-election violence. Jammu and Kashmir police on Wednesday said that they will write to the Union Home ministry to inform Islamabad to take the body of Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT) commander Naveed Jatt, who was killed earlier in the day in Budgam. Addressing a hurriedly called press conference, here, state police chief Dilbagh Singh said they will approach Pakistan through competent authorities and ask them to claim the body of Jatt. Sources said the police will take up the matter of handing over the body of Jatt with Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of External Affairs, who in turn could take it up with Pakistani High Commission. This is for the second time that state police has decided to approach Pakistani authorities to take back the body of a militant since the eruption of militancy in 1990 during which hundreds of Pakistani and other foreign militants were killed in encounters with security forces in the state. Earlier in August 2017, the J&K police had also tried to send back the body of another Pakistani militant affiliated with LeT, Abu Dujana, in a similar manner. However, it didnt happen as Pakistan didnt respond, they said. After the refusal from Pakistan, Dujana was buried in Uri area of Baramulla district as has been the practice of police with non-local militants over the past few years. The bodies of foreign militants were handed over to local Auqaf committees for burial in the valley. However, after the killing of top LeT Abu Qasim in October 2015 in Kulgam district, thousands of people turned up at his funeral as police handed over his body to locals for burial. Taking a cue from the large participation of people in Qasims funeral, police decided not to hand over bodies of foreign militants to locals. Since 2015, the body of not a single foreign militant was handed over to locals. Instead, they are being buried silently at Boniyar, Uri near Line of Control, a source in police said. Jatt from Pakistan was one of the longest surviving foreign militants and was wanted in connection with the assassination of journalist Shujaat Bukhari. A Ridley Park chiropractor has been charged with writing fraudulent painkiller prescriptions for patients, including Percocet, Xanax and Oxycodone. Marc Steven Persson, 40, of the 600 block of Academy Road in Swarthmore, is charged with six counts each of delivery and criminal attempt to deliver a controlled substance, as well as seven counts each of forgery and procuring a drug by fraud. Every day, opioids are killing our loved ones across the state, and the abuse of prescription drugs still remain a risk factor when it comes to heroin use and addiction, said Delaware County District Attorney Katayoun Copeland in a release. While the majority of practitioners here in Delaware County are law-abiding professionals who care deeply about their patients, the reckless and careless actions of Mr. Persson show a complete disregard for the well-being of his patients who he put in grave danger. Ridley Township officers were dispatched to Perssonal Health Chiropratic at 100 E. Chester Pike May 9, 2017, where they spoke to two of Perssons employees, according to an affidavit of probable cause written by Ridley Detective Shawn McGee. The employees said they became suspicious after getting multiple notifications from local pharmacies that Perssons patients were presenting prescriptions that were being rejected and flagged as fraudulent, according to the affidavit. Persson had previously been partners with a medical doctor who provided prescriptions for Perssons chiropractic patients, according to the affidavit. The doctor left around March 2017 and another doctor came in for one day to fill the spot. The affidavit states that the employees received notice from a local pharmacy April 7, 2017, that one of Perssons patients had presented a prescription for 90 pills of 5 mg Percocet written on a pad belonging to the former partner, but signed by the second doctor. After reviewing the signature, the employees identified it as Perssons handwriting, according to the affidavit. The doctor also confirmed he had not written the prescription, the affidavit says. The employees were notified by another pharmacy May 9 that someone posing as the former partner had called in a prescription for another patient, but provided an incorrect Drug Enforcement Agency number for that doctor. That prescription was for Xanax and the nerve pain medication Gabapentin. The same patient had previously filled a prescription fraudulently signed by the replacement doctor for 120 pills of 5 mg Oxycodone, according to the affidavit. At least two other patients were also able to fill allegedly fraudulent prescriptions for the narcotics Hydromorphone and Oxycodone-Acetomenaphine. The employees said they recalled Persson specifically requested that they pull the charts for five patients April 6, 2017, including those identified in the affidavit. McGee and Ridley Detective Sean Brydges spoke with Persson last May. During that interview, Persson at first stated that he had used his former partners prescription pad to provide the April 7 Percocet prescription, but had signed the prescription using his own name, according to the affidavit. He allegedly said he believed it was OK for him to do that because the patient had received the same prescription from the second doctor before. When presented with the prescription bearing the second doctors forged signature, Persson allegedly admitted that he had forged the signature and had fraudulently written or called in prescriptions for at least three other patients. Persson stated that he may have written/forged more, however, he could not recall how many prescriptions but stated there were more, according to the affidavit. Perssons wife, also an employee of the practice, additionally told investigators that her husband had been writing or calling in fraudulent prescriptions after the doctors stopped working there, according to the affidavit. Investigators interviewed one former patient who indicated he had seen a doctor at the chiropractic office in January 2017, who wrote him a prescription, but had not seen one there since March. There were no doctors writing the prescription, as soon as I would come in he (Marc Persson) would hand me my prescription and I wouldnt ask questions, just think it was normal routine, the patient said, according to the affidavit. Detectives also interviewed both doctors. The former partner said he had requested that Persson return all of his prescription pads left at the business, but could not confirm that was done. The second doctor also said he had not given Persson permission to use his name, signature or DEA number, according to the affidavit. Online court records indicate Persson was preliminarily arraigned Nov. 13 before Magisterial District Judge Philip S. Turner and released on $50,000 unsecured bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Dec. 3 before Turner. Deputy District Attorney Sharon McKenna, chief of the Narcotics Unit, is prosecuting the case. It was unknown Wednesday whether Persson has an attorney. He did not respond to a call seeking comment. Armenian President Armen Sarkissian had a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, News.am reported citing the press service of the President of Armenia. Welcoming the Armenian Presidents visit to Germany, Angela Merkel said she has very good memories from her recent trip to Armenia. Merkel said she was particularly impressed by the TUMO center for creative technologies and the German side is discussing the opportunities of cooperation. Armenia sees Germany as an important political and economic partner and friend, President Sarkissian said. He said to be glad for another opportunity to meet and continue discussions on the expansion of Armenian-German relations. According to him, the two countries can successfully cooperate in the fields of high and information technologies, where Armenia has a great potential. Our country can serve as a platform for different startups, Armen Sarkissian said. Editor's note: Read more stories from the 2018 American Family Survey. SALT LAKE CITY It's just a ditty that children sing on the playground, but for years, the "Kissing Song" was prophetic of the typical American family: "First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in the baby carriage." Rewritten today, the song might lead with a couple living together and establishing a career with good health insurance before having a baby. Americans say they still value the traditional order of steps in building a family, according to new findings of the American Family Survey. But there's a difference in what they see as an ideal path and what they actually do. More couples are living together before getting married and having children, according to the survey, a joint project of the Deseret News and the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy at Brigham Young University. They believe that being in a committed relationship is more important than a wedding ring. And often, it's money, not love, that governs a couple's decision about when to have their first child, since the poll reveals that most Americans believe it's important to earn a college degree, establish a career and become financially secure before having a baby. The relaxing standards about cohabitation before marriage might be linked to a decline of religious affiliation among young adults, said Christopher Karpowitz, co-director of the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy and, along with Jeremy Pope, a principal investigator of the survey. Individual experiences vary, and there are many people who still experience the more traditional ordering of these relationship milestones, but on average, the patterns are clear, Karpowitz said, adding, "It seems to be a cultural change that is occurring." Individual experiences vary, and there are many people who still experience the more traditional ordering of these relationship milestones, but on average, the patterns are clear. It seems to be a cultural change that is occurring. Christopher Karpowitz, co-director of the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy But the survey also shows that economic pressure is shaping American families and how they are formed. When asked what's the most important issues facing families, more than a third said it's the cost of raising children. The American Family Survey, in its fourth year, is a nationally representative poll of 3,000 adults. This year's questions addressed public spending, immigration, parental fears for their teens, and other issues related to marriage and parenting. The findings reveal a nation that still cherishes traditional ideals even as the beliefs and practices of the youngest and most liberal Americans are eroding longstanding norms. And while there are partisan divides, Republicans and black Democrats are similar in what they hold as ideals, even if their actual practice looks more like that of white Democrats. What comes before baby The experience of Jodi Ross, 50, a stay-at-home mom in Kent, Ohio, is emblematic of how Americans value marriage, even as they increasingly choose to live together without getting married, at least for a while. Ross was divorced with two children when she met her current husband, who had three children of his own when they began dating. The two eventually moved in together without getting married. But when Ross became unexpectedly pregnant and an ultrasound revealed two heartbeats they were man and wife within four months. The twins are now 7, and Ross, who once wasnt sure if she wanted children, finds herself the mother of seven. She has taken a break from her career as an educator to care for her family. Before having children, she'd hoped to do a lot of traveling. That didnt take place, but I still feel very fulfilled, she said. In her desire to travel, Ross aligned with the 44 percent of American Family Survey respondents who said that its extremely or somewhat important for a person to be able to travel before having their first child. But more important than seeing the world is earning money and establishing a career before buying that first crib, Americans say. The most important thing is being financially stable (67 percent say this is extremely important); the second most important thing is having a good health insurance plan (57 percent say this is extremely important). Having an established career is somewhat or extremely important to 91 percent of respondents, while 66 and 67 percent, respectively, rate buying a house and graduating from college as somewhat or extremely important. As to the relationship status of the parents, more respondents (64 percent) believe it is extremely important to be in a committed relationship than in a marriage (42 percent) before having a baby. With 57 percent of respondents saying that having a good health insurance plan is extremely important, that means more Americans believe it's more important to have health insurance before having a baby than to be married. Karpowitz cautions there may be an underlying kindness in some of the responses. "People are trying to not be judgmental" of people who have children without marrying, he said. Of the 3,000 people in the survey, conducted by YouGov between Aug. 3 and 14, 47 percent were married, 11 percent were cohabiting, 6 percent were in a relationship, and 35 percent were not in a relationship. Of those who were married, the average age at the time of marriage was 24, and the average number of children they have is 1.6. In practice, the respondents' average number of children was less than their ideal. Fifty-five percent said two children are ideal for a family; 24 percent said three. No money, no family? There are demographic differences in how people view the importance of marriage before becoming a parent. Younger Americans and white Democrats, for example, are more likely to both endorse cohabitation and to practice it; while older and more religious people along with African-American Democrats are more likely to say its important to be married before having a baby. When ranking the ideal sequence of relationship milestones, most Republicans and black Democrats said marriage should come first, then cohabitation and sex, with children later. White Democrats, however, chose sex first, then cohabitation, then marriage, then children. "In other words, white Democrats are the only group for whom their ideal relationship sequence matches their actual behavior (at least on the group level)," the report says. But all respondents stress the importance of financial stability, even over a relationship, across all demographic lines, Karpowitz said. "When we analyze by household income, there are few differences between the poorest and richest respondents: financial stability is valued highly, no matter how much money the respondent makes," the report says. Respondents were asked whether they agree or disagree with the statement The cost of raising children is affordable for most people." More than half said they somewhat or strongly disagree. Thirteen percent said they somewhat or strongly agree. When Karpowitz and Pope analyzed the financial status of the respondents' households, they learned the concerns are not unfounded. Parents suffer financial hardships in greater numbers than people who have no children, the survey reveals. Nearly three-quarters of people with children still living at home said they were worried about paying at least one bill every month, compared to a little more than half of people without children at home. More than one-quarter of respondents with children at home said they had failed to pay an important bill in the past year, twice as many as respondents who are not currently raising children. Moreover, more than 1 in 5 respondents with children at home said they had borrowed money to pay bills, compared to 16 percent of those without children in the home. And 44 percent of families with children said they had experienced a significant economic crisis in the past year, compared to 30 percent of those without children. Veronica Banton, a mother of two in Columbia, South Carolina, said she and her husband have struggled financially through much of their 10-year-old marriage. Banton was on Medicaid when her first child, a daughter, was born when she was 20. And she received government benefits for food while her children were young. Theres definitely something to be said for having enough money that all your bills are paid, she said. The couple didnt marry for a year after their daughter was born, and then, it was primarily for the financial benefits. Both Banton and her husband had parents who divorced when they were in their teens, so they didnt want to marry unless they had a good shot at making it last. Stephanie Coontz, a marriage historian and the director of research at the Council on Contemporary Families, said that the survey findings reflect the economic changes that have occurred since the 1950s and 1960s when most couples married young, "before even the man, much less the woman, had a steady job. In fact, the job wasn't necessary for the woman and wouldn't have done the family all that much good. "Today, by contrast, it takes two earners to achieve financial security, and even two earners are not going to be secure if they don't have health insurance, haven't paid off their debts, and don't have a steady job," said Coontz, who is also a history professor at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. Moreover, many couples, such as the Bantons, delay marriage because of this financial insecurity, Coontz added. "People do think a committed relationship is highly desirable, but even in a committed relationship, they may hesitate to actually marry until they have achieved financial security and paid off their debts," she said. "But in the long run, ironically, they often end up having a child before they have met their economic security goals, either because accidents happen during the waiting period or because a woman thinks she may never find a man who will be a real economic and emotional partner but doesn't want to give up on the meaning and commitment that a child provides.'' Karpowitz, at Brigham Young University, said the survey makes clear that Americans worry about the high cost of having children, and that economic instability, real or perceived, affects peoples willingness to have children. One of the things that many demographers have been worried about is the declining birth rate. Some of that is related to modern society and the challenge of creating financial stability, he said. And its notable, I think, that those sorts of financial worries are top of mind for many Americans even in the midst of what, by many indicators, at least, is a booming economy. Were in economic good times and Americans are still reporting a great deal of concern about those sorts of financial stressors. 'Life just happens' Now 31, Banton graduated from college earlier this year, defying the sequencing of major life events that most Americans prefer. Looking back on the past 10 years, she says she wishes she had traveled and earned her degree before becoming a mom. For example, as a child and family studies major at Columbia College, Banton learned about best developmental practices, such as the importance of reading to your children regularly when they are young. The information I have now would have helped very much my ability to parent, she said. But even though the couple wasnt financially secure not even close when they had their first child, Banton sees the good in those years. Neither of my pregnancies were planned, and we werent financially stable during either of our pregnancies, but we were happy, and we got through it, she said. Worried demographers may derive hope from the finding that, like Banton, Americans still believe children are a societal good. Fifty-seven percent of respondents either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement Raising children is one of lifes greatest joys. Also, despite changes in how Americans build their families, every demographic group still believes that having children should be last in the sequence. We havent found any groups that place having children, say, before marriage, even though that occurs for many people. Thats notable, Karpowitz said. People still believe that the ideal is for children to be raised in the context of marriage, or at least in the context of a very committed relationship between the parents. And Ross, the mother of seven in Kent, Ohio, says that no matter what people achieve or want to achieve before having their first child, it will never be enough. I feel like you can never really prepare yourself (for parenthood), she said. I could have waited forever and never been ready. Life just happens. Fog in channel, Continent cut off, is an old British joke about a newspaper headline about the weather over the English Channel. Current developments regarding the European Union underscore the enduring reality that Britain is in but not of Europe. On Nov. 25, at a summit meeting in Brussels, the EU representatives formally confirmed the negotiated departure of Britain, known as Brexit. President Jean-Claude Juncker of the European Commission expressed diplomatic sadness at the prospect. Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands spoke favorably of the Brexit agreement as the best we can get. Historically, the smaller nations of the EU have been most committed to ambitious supranational integration. The withdrawal agreement reached between the British government and the EU is both long and complex. The 599-page document is guaranteed to keep lawyers, diplomats and political staffs (and politicians who do their own reading) up late. The main elements include concessions by Prime Minister Theresa Mays government in Britain, reflecting understanding the reality that the nation is part of Europe. The new treaty guarantees EU citizens free movement within the United Kingdom (i.e. England, Scotland and Wales the regions comprising Britain, plus Northern Ireland). Likewise, UK citizens will have the same rights within the EU. There is explicit agreement that Britain will leave the EU on March 29, 2019, but with flexible conditions. The nation will remain inside the important customs union that was the initial basis of European integration. This transition period will last until December 2020, and longer if both sides agree that is necessary. Additionally, Britain has agreed to pay approximately 39 billion pounds to cover employee pension costs and other financial commitments already made to the EU. Northern Ireland is especially important, and the agreement includes a guarantee to avoid any hard border separating that volatile region from the rest of Ireland. Imposition of any restrictive border controls could spark renewed violence by the Irish Republican Army. Now Britains beleaguered, dedicated May must persuade her nations Parliament to accept the agreement, and that may prove impossible. Some members of her Conservative Party as well as the other parties in the House of Commons oppose the terms. Brexit has been at the center of the nations political debate for 2 years. In June 2016, a referendum initiated by Prime Minister David Cameron resulted in a narrow 51.9 percent of those voting opting to leave the union. In the face of this surprise result, Cameron resigned as head of the government. May called a general election for early June 2017. In another surprise, the Conservatives lost their narrow House of Commons majority. The party has governed since by cooperating with the right-wing Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland, also opposed to the Brexit accord. In recent decades the Conservative Party, which led Britain into the European community, has shifted position. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was famously a Eurosceptic. The 1997 general election brought into Parliament a younger generation of Conservative politicians who reflected her views, including May. Britain stayed aloof from the original European Economic Community, founded in the 1950s. However, since World War II the nations trade and investment have become heavily concentrated in Europe. That fact of life will not change, inside or outside the EU. British pragmatism and the importance of that economy to the rest of Europe likely will result in a workable agreement eventually. Yerevan is hosting the 52nd Plenary Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PABSEC) General Assembly, and will last until November 29, the Azerbaijan Press Council said. 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 which he touched upon issues of economic and humanitarian security, information security, measures to combat international terrorism, drug trafficking, environmental problems in the region. He also 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. The chairman of the Azerbaijan Press Council, MP 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, Trend reported. SALT LAKE CITY Salt Lake City will host its largest international event since the 2002 Olympics when thousands of people come to town for a United Nations conference on pressing world issues. An estimated 3,000 to 6,000 people representing more than 300 nongovernmental organizations, known as NGOs, in 100 countries are expected to descend on the city for 68th U.N. Department of Public Information/NGO Conference. NGOs are typically nonprofit agencies engaged in humanitarian, educational, health, human rights and environmental endeavors. It will mark the first time the event will be held outside U.N. headquarters in the United States. Paris, Mexico City and Melbourne, Australia, are among cities that have hosted the conference. "We certainly have a community that loves to come together and really showcase who we are and the rich cultural experience that one can have in coming to Utah and experiencing this place we call home," Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski said at new conference Tuesday announcing the conference. The three-day event next August will focus on U.N. Sustainable Goal No. 11 sustainable cities and communities. In 2015, the U.N. General Assembly adopted 17 sustainable development goals, including ending hunger and poverty, reducing inequality, and promoting decent work and economic growth. "They are not political goals. They are goals meant to secure our future to live in peace and prosperity between different nations but also to live at peace with the planet," said Maher Nasser, director of the outreach division in the U.N. department of public information. "We only have one planet," he said. "There is no planet B." Nasser said achieving the U.N. goals can't be left just to government "because this is on all of us." Biskupski said there is no better place than Salt Lake City to tackle issues such as sustainability, homelessness, gender equality and advocacy. The city, she said, is setting standards for how to address climate change with its move toward 100 percent renewable energy. "I have to believe this area was chosen, at least in part, for its example in this regard," said Ahmad Corbitt, a director in the public affairs Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "Sustainable cities just don't happen. Urban atrophy is more the rule in many cases." Corbitt said cities are sustained first and foremost by residents' willingness to give of themselves. U.N.-affiliated LDS Charities helped "our brothers and sisters not of our faith" in 191 countries, he said. Corbitt said the church looks forward to welcoming people from many of those countries next year. Because the conference has never been held in a U.S. city outside New York, "we, therefore, have our city, our state and our nation counting on us to get it right on this historic first and to set a powerful precedent," he said. Biskupski and others credited Utah Valley University chief international officer Baldomero Lago with broaching the idea of bringing the conference to Salt Lake City. The Orem-based school's Office for Global Engagement became affiliated with the U.N. a year ago. As U.N. officials began looking for a 2019 host city abroad, he made a case for Salt Lake City. "Everybody looked at me like, 'Oh my goodness. No. That can't happen. That has to happen on U.N. soil, right?'" he said. Lago contacted the mayor's office and eventually the U.N. accepted the city's proposal. He said he believes the state's humanitarian work played a large role in Salt Lake City being selected. "We talk about sustainability, but it is the humanity that actually makes things happen to sustain the world that we live in," Lago said. "I think the humanitarian component will embrace everyone, not only in the city but also throughout the state as well as throughout the world." SALT LAKE CITY An advocacy group has warned Indian authorities not recover the body of a missionary who died on an Indian island thats inhabited by the Sentinelese, USA Today reports. What's going on: Survival International has warned authorities about trying to recover the body of an American missionary named John Allen Chau, who reportedly died on the remote North Sentinel Island earlier in November after he was killed by tribespeople. Chaus body is believed to be buried on the island. "We urge the Indian authorities to abandon efforts to recover John Allen Chaus 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 Internationals director Stephen Corry said in a statement, which was released Monday. Why?: Corry said in the statement that the remote tribe should be left alone since any interactions could lead to a risk of flu, measles and other diseases. Experts said the tribe hasnt been exposed to the outside world. Any contact with outsiders could create health problems for them. Context: Chau traveled to the island in the Bay of Bengal, which is off-limits, back in November with the help of some local fishermen, according to The Associated Press. SALT LAKE CITY With the holiday shopping season officially underway, Utah consumers are bullish on their economic prospects for the coming weeks. The Zions Bank Utah Consumer Attitude Index remained unchanged to register at 120.5 from October to November the 30th consecutive month above 110, which indicates optimal economic sentiments from Utah consumers. However, year over year, the index lost 3.9 points. Nevertheless, according to the index, more than 70 percent of Utahns plan to spend as much or more than they did last year on holiday shopping. "Nationally, indications are that this (past) weekend was strong with Mastercard estimating a 9 percent increase in total year-over-year Black Friday sales," explained Chad Berbert, principal with Cicero Group. "Much of those sales include significant online sales, which were up over 23 percent in 2018." Just over half of holiday spending is expected to be done online, compared to 44.5 percent at brick-and-mortar stores, he said. Households in Utah plan to spend an average of nearly $1,100 on holiday shopping this year, he added. In comparison, the national Consumer Confidence Index declined 2.2 points to register at 135.7 this month. The Utah Present Situation Index which examines current economic conditions rose 2.6 points month-to-month to register at 133.7 while the Utah Expectations Index a measure of future economic conditions decreased 1.8 points to register at 111.7 for the period. Berbert noted that local sentiment on current job availability is nearly as positive as it has ever been, with 63 percent of Utahns surveyed feeling jobs are plentiful. Consumers also feel optimistic about the future with 64 percent believing business conditions are good the highest level recorded since Zions Bank began tracking the overall index in 2011. That measured optimism should bolster consumer spending this holiday season, he said. "When people are confident about jobs, they tend to spend more," he said. "This is a pretty good measure of where Utahns are at." Berbert said Utahns are also anticipating a tempering of housing prices, with 53 percent feeling housing prices will increase over the next 12 months the lowest percentage since December 2015. "Generally, Utahns have seen this year such an increase in housing prices that expectations of an (added) increase are diminishing," Berbert said. "It will remain to be seen what happens next year. We continue to have very strong job growth, strong population growth both of those things tend to put pressure on the housing market." The positive outlook from consumers continues to support the state's robust economic fortunes, one analyst said. The fact that so many are still confident that housing prices will still increase and that a 401(k) investment will increase in value suggests that Utahns are confident that economic fundamentals are strong and that the economy will continue to grow, said Randy Shumway, chairman and partner of Cicero Group. The Zions Bank Consumer Attitude Index is based on a representative sample of 500 Utah households surveyed by Cicero Group using a confidence interval of plus or minus 4.38 percent at a 95 percent confidence level. The results are compared to both overall index data from Utah and U.S. data from previous months to identify key consumer sentiment trends across the state. Meanwhile, David Deull, principal economist with U.K.-based data analysis firm IHS Markit, stated Americans views on the job market strengthened further in November and the Consumer Confidence Index report bodes well for consumer spending this holiday season. "The tight labor market continues to drive consumers strongly positive views on the present situation," he said. "The unemployment rate is the lowest in decades, jobs are easier to find, job security is higher and real disposable income growth is spreading to lower-income households." Utah Lake is no stranger to harmful algae blooms. These toxic, smelly cyanobacteria have made headlines as they have become more rampant in the past few years and made hundreds of people sick, in addition to causing environmental devastation to the lake itself. But with this notoriety, why have we not seen any fixes for the problem? Shockingly, there is very little being done to minimize the repercussions that these harmful algae blooms have on Utah Lake. In fact, there is even a privately funded Utah Lake Restoration Project in the works that plans to develop islands made of dredged sediments smack in the middle of Utah Lake, where people can buy waterfront homes. A further look into the issue shows it is far more complicated than we know. Harmful algae blooms, or HABs, are toxic cyanobacteria that congregate on the surface of the water and feed off different nutrients, most notably phosphorus. Harmful algae bloom formation is caused by nutrient pollution, which acts as a catalyst for the naturally occurring cyanobacteria to grow rapidly. This consequently creates algae that produce cyanotoxins with the potential to kill humans and other animals. That being said, HABs are a devastating environmental issue for Utah Lake that can destroy ecosystems and animal populations and impede recreation accessibility. However, efforts to deal with the problem by environmental agencies here in Utah seem minimal at best. I spoke with an environmental scientist for the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food. When I asked about current or potential research of the HAB problem in Utah Lake, I was told, There is little funding for these projects and few principal investigators interested in doing the work for tiny pots of funding. We have started some initial discussions with the EPA about conducting the kind of research that we would need, but it is far too early to know whether they are interested or not yet. I also spoke to Benjamin Holcomb, who is the coordinator of HAB programs for the Utah Division of Water Quality, who told me about a study the Utah Department of Water Quality did in 2007, showing that the biggest contributor to phosphorus input into Utah Lake was wastewater treatment plants, not fertilizer runoff, as the public has been taught since this problem first arose. The Utah Lake Restoration Project could be a viable solution, as its website shows plans to implement new treatment facilities around Utah Lake. However, the Provo wastewater treatment facility near Utah Lake is in the process of renovations because of the Utah Water Quality Board's adoption of a new rule in 2015 that mandates that wastewater treatment facilities can only output 1 milligram of phosphorus per liter of water. The Provo treatment facility currently outputs 2 to 3 milligrams of phosphorus per liter. This facility is aging and in desperate need of upgrades to adhere to the new environmental standards, but these come at a massive cost. In 2017, the city of Provo asked for a grant of variance to the deadline for these phosphorus output limits to be implemented, stating, Such improvements cannot be completed prior to January 1, 2020, despite Provos diligence. With this many complications related to upgrading the old wastewater treatment plant, why would the privately funded Utah Lake Restoration Project not work with Provo to create a new, environmentally safe treatment plant to begin restoration of Utah Lake? PARK CITY Mary Chamberlain was just 36 years old when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. After completing chemotherapy, she was barely more than 100 pounds, her hair was falling out in clumps and, to her dismay, her eyelashes vanished too. I really thought I got lucky that (my eyelashes) didn't fall out during chemotherapy and then all of a sudden within a period of two days, they just all came out. I was feeling pretty low then, Chamberlain said in an interview with the Deseret News. It was during this time that Chamberlain got word of Dana Kleins work at an Image Reborn retreat. Klein is a local photographer from Park City who started Project Shine back in 2012, which in her words is just women helping women. I like to describe Project Shine (as) giving, creating and inspiring, Klein said. I give no-cost makeover photo shoots to women who have been diagnosed (with breast cancer), I create storytelling art with uplifting messages, and hopefully it's going to inspire other survivors when they see these messages of hope and strength and resilience. Project Shine was born shortly after Klein witnessed her close friend, Deb Bailey, begin her breast cancer treatment, which resulted in a double mastectomy, hysterectomy and becoming completely bald not to mention she had recently given birth to her second child. I just tried to put myself in her shoes, Klein explained. I was worried about how she was feeling internally the emotional effects of what shed been through. Though Klein didnt know what it was like to have breast cancer, she did know how to make beautiful images, so she invited Bailey to do a photo shoot with her. I brought her to my studio to show her the images and she just broke down in tears because she didn't look at herself as still being beautiful and feminine because so much has been taken from her, Klein said. After seeing how much this meant to Bailey, Klein knew this could play a powerful role in the healing process of other survivors. It was then through word of mouth that Chamberlain and Deb DeKoff, a Park City-based breast cancer survivor and educator, both reached out to Klein and volunteered to be photographed. For Klein, this project, which is hoping to find a corporate sponsor, is more than helping women feel beautiful on the outside it's about hearing their stories and healing their emotional scars. With that, Klein ensures that every participant has a word associated with their images that symbolize their experience. Attached to DeKoffs photos is the word Free, which she interprets as meaning free to live. So often, cancer patients are so wrapped up in the cycle of treatment that we forget to live, DeKoff told the Deseret News. To see myself through Dana's eyes was magical, she continued. Her images are powerful and offered a quiet confidence. Women who have undergone breast cancer surgery, chemo, radiation and adjuvant therapies often feel less than beautiful. The psychological issues are as strong as the physical. The rewarding part was in letting go and trusting in Dana, due to her artistic competency, genuine care and kindness. After speaking with Chamberlain, Klein helped her come up with the idea of Rebirth as a representation of her journey. Even though (I was) shedding things like hair and eyelashes, it was kind of a new beginning, coming out of (my) cocoon and emerging with these beautiful wings again, Chamberlain said. They braided my hair in a way that you couldnt see my bald spots I just felt like myself again. Its really about helping them see themselves in a different light and the end result when they do see themselves differently is very empowering. Dana Klein While both DeKoff and Chamberlain currently have no signs of cancer, Chamberlain is especially wary of using the term in remission. I think the term remission is a bit outdated because its a false sense of hope, Chamberlain said. I want to be realistic that there is a possibility I could battle this again. Despite that difficult reality, it is people like Klein who are essential in helping survivors regain their physical and emotional stability. Its really important for me to sit down and really dive into each woman's story, Klein said. I like to talk to those women who don't feel good about themselves, the ones that are a little more hesitant to even get in front of the camera. Its really about helping them see themselves in a different light and the end result when they do see themselves differently is very empowering. Both DeKoff and Chamberlain are involved in the breast cancer community. DeKoff has launched herself into breast cancer research work with Project Lead and Chamberlain has found fulfillment in mentoring women who have been recently diagnosed. (Recently) I was on the top on Angels Landing and three years ago at this time, I didnt know if I was going to live or die, Chamberlain said. You have to encourage people to get through the challenges that they have because there is life after cancer. SALT LAKE CITY Salt Lake City has been named the No. 1 city in the country for having the most diverse job market, according to a new report from LinkUp, a job search engine. Most: Heres a quick breakdown of the top five diversified job markets: 1. Salt Lake City 2. Buffalo, New York 3. Jacksonville, Florida 4. Raleigh, North Carolina 5. Austin, Texas Bigger picture: Markets like Salt Lake City and Buffalo have consistently been among the top five in all three quarters this year because they are able to maintain an even distribution regardless of whether job openings are increasing or decreasing in their markets, according to the report. Least: The report also listed the least diversified job markets. 46. Cleveland 47. Atlanta 48. New York 49. Chicago 50. Detroit Provo: The Provo-Orem area ranked No. 2 among mid-market diversification. Spokane, Washington, was the only city to rank ahead of it. Utah overall: The report said Utah and California showed the highest diversification scores across all states. Markets in Utah and California continued to show some of the highest job market diversification scores driven by consistent distribution of job openings across industries, companies and occupations, according to the report. Meanwhile: The Rust Belt states in the Midwest and the East Coast had some of the lowest diversification scores. Method: LinkUp created a metric that calculates diversity of job openings by measuring job openings in specific categories. SALT LAKE CITY A retired Army officer from Utah accused of spying for China and selling classified national defense information talked to FBI agents for seven minutes without any attorney after his arrest last June. Federal prosecutors argued in court Tuesday that Ron Rockwell Hansen's statements during that time were voluntary and should be admissible as evidence at trial, and U.S. District Judge Dee Benson agreed. "They appear to be the epitome of voluntariness," the judge said. What exactly Hansen, of Syracuse, told agents in that brief exchange is unclear. Prosecutors did not reveal his comments in the hearing, though they included minimal details in court documents. But Benson said he watched a video of the interview, and "from my view not much happened." "I'm having a hard time seeing how they were confessions," he said. Hansen is a former Defense Intelligence Agency officer. He retired from the U.S. Army, where he served for 20 years as a warrant officer with a background in signals intelligence and human intelligence. He speaks fluent Mandarin-Chinese and Russian. A four-year investigation culminating with a sting operation led to Hansen's arrest as he prepared to board a flight in Seattle to China on June 2. Hansen is charged with attempting to gather or deliver defense information; being an unregistered agent of a foreign government; three counts of bulk cash smuggling; eight counts of structuring money transactions; and two counts of smuggling goods from the U.S. Hansen, who is being held in the Salt Lake County Jail, pleaded not guilty. He faces life in prison if convicted. FBI special agent Jeff Carter testified Tuesday that he read Hansen his Miranda rights at the time of the arrest and again at the FBI office in Seattle, where Hansen invoked his right to an attorney. As agents were leaving the room, Hansen asked if he could speak to them. After consulting with assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Lund, agents advised Hansen of his rights a third time before he signed a waiver relinquishing his right to counsel, Carter said. Hansen, 58, then began to explain his actions related to the sting operation, according to court documents. "Mr. Hansen began to contend that the concept of passing classified information originated with the confidential human source (CHS)," court documents say. "Being aware of the recorded conversations between Mr. Hansen and the CHS, the agents confronted Mr. Hansen regarding the veracity of his account, and Mr. Hansen ceased offering any further explanation and again invoked his right to counsel." Agents say they ended the interview at that point. At the court hearing, Hansen's attorney, Jamie Johnson, questioned Carter about displaying his gun, apparently to imply intimidation on his part as well as other agents on the scene. Carter testified that he carried the gun openly on his hip but did not remove it from the holster. He said he didn't coerce, threaten or offer Hansen any incentives to talk without a lawyer. Hansen was hired by Defense Intelligence Agency as a civilian intelligence case officer in 2006. As part of his position, he held top-secret clearance for many years, the charges state. During his military service, the U.S. government entrusted Hansen with access to sensitive government materials, including closely held national defense information and classified documents and materials, according to the charges. Between 2013 and 2017, investigators allege Hansen regularly traveled between the U.S. and China attending military and intelligence conferences, and then provided information he learned at the conferences to contacts in China who were associated with the People's Republic of China's intelligence service, prosecutors say. Hansen was paid at least $800,000 over the years, including receiving a $300,000 "consulting" fee, according to the charges. Court records show Hansen had also accumulated a lot of debt. He had built up about $200,000 in personal debt since 2012, the charges state. And his business, Nuvestack a company that provided cloud computing information technology services reported more than $1 million in losses in 2014, then failed to file taxes in 2015 and 2016, the charges state. SALT LAKE CITY Cindy Gust-Jenson, the Salt Lake City Council's longtime executive director, said in her 30-plus years of experience with the city, she knows how touchy the topic of self-enacted pay raises can be to council members. "This is the least favorite topic of any elected official," Gust-Jenson said as a preface to a discussion about a possible Salt Lake City Council member pay increase in Tuesday's council meeting. And that's why, Gust-Jenson said, the council's compensation has over the years gradually lost pace compared with the mayor's full-time pay, according to a recent salary survey conducted by city council staff. Now before the Salt Lake City Council is a proposal to increase council members' individual annual pay from about $26,000 each to potentially about $35,700, depending on what pay structure is favored by council members. "You could tell us to take a hike and say, 'Thanks but no thanks,'" Gust-Jenson told the council, but she noted that the council's work has evolved over the years and the argument could be made the current pay rate hasn't kept pace with the demands of the job, and perhaps could block regular Joes from serving on the council if they can't afford to take time away from their day jobs. Expressing concerns about limiting access to Salt Lake City's legislative body, the Salt Lake City Council gingerly discussed the possibility of giving themselves a pay raise after Gust-Jenson's report Tuesday. Though it's not yet clear exactly what council members will do, those who spoke Tuesday were supportive of a pay increase, including Salt Lake City Council Chairwoman Erin Mendenhall. "I know that a value of our council and this city is diversity," Mendenhall said. "And yet, we may inadvertently be limiting the pool of people, limiting the diversity that can access (these positions)." Mendenhall noted that she's been told by people in her district who have been interested in serving on the council that they realized their families couldn't afford the time commitments away from their regular work. "I think it's important in terms of access to democracy serving in this office that we make it more accessible," Mendenhall said. Mendenhall thanked Gust-Jenson for providing context to the "awkwardness of the political conversations of adjusting one's own pay." Mendenhall also noted that as she reviewed the Council office's budget this year, she saw an "opportunity" for a pay increase without upping the office's existing budget. Gust-Jenson in her report to the council noted the council's positions were intended to be "truly part-time," originally set to be 25 percent of the mayor's salary, with the expectation council members would meet roughly 10 hours per week in the evenings. Since then, evening meetings have been replaced with all-day meetings that extend to the evening, requiring more time away from full-time jobs. In 1980, council members started making about $9,700 each, compared to the mayor's $39,000 a 4-to-1 ratio. Since then, both salaries have increased over time to about $26,000 for council members and $143,700 for the mayor in 2018, a more than 5-to-1 ratio, according to council staff's analysis Gust-Jenson said past councils have agreed to increases to the mayor's salary as a full-time position, but not to an increase to themselves, so the mayor's salary has increased at a rate 97 percent faster than the council's. As a comparison, Gust-Jenson said staff checked with the Salt Lake County Council's compensation: about $40,000 a year, which is more than $14,000 more than Salt Lake City Council's compensation. Several City Council members on Tuesday remained silent about the potential of a pay raise, but no one spoke against it. Councilman Andrew Johnston noted he's "sensitive to the nature" of the issue, as well as any unintended consequences of keeping pay low, including potentially blocking average people from serving on the council. The issue is scheduled to come before the council on Dec. 11. Mendenhall urged Salt Lake City residents to come to a public hearing that day to share their thoughts. RIVERTON The Jordan School District Board of Education voted 5 to 1 Tuesday to support an agreement that will extend Merit Medical Systems Inc.'s economic incentives for 15 years under an agreement with the South Jordan Redevelopment Agency. The school board authorized its representatives on a Taxing Entity Committee to vote in favor of the project. A supermajority of committee members must approve extension of the agreement. Other governmental entities include South Jordan City, Salt Lake County and special service districts. The request for an extension comes as Merit Medical's current 15-year tax increment incentives are expiring, which board member Bryce Dunford acknowledged was concerning to some taxpayers and school board members "at the time the windfall should be falling." However, "Merit Medical has established a very high bar," Dunford said. To any other business contemplating asking for an extension of its economic development area and associated tax increment incentives, "you need need to have done for our community and for the school district what Merit Medical has done for our community and our school district," he said. Dunford added: "This is one-time extension to Merit Medical. We believe they are worthy of that." South Jordan Mayor Dawn Ramsey was more to the point. "If this doesn't happen, we'll lose Merit Medical," she said. Ireland has offered Merit Medical a free building to expand its business there, she said. Merit Medical Systems is a leading manufacturer and marketer of disposable medical devices used in interventional, diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, particularly in cardiology, radiology, oncology, critical care and endoscopy. Earlier this month, Merit Medical announced expansion plans, which will produce $71 million in state revenue and an estimated $505 million in capital investment, according to a Economic Development Corporation of Utah press release. Rusty Cannon, vice president of the Utah Taxpayers Association, spoke in support of the extension, noting the expansion will create 2,400 jobs, at least 1,000 that will pay "higher than the Salt Lake County wage." In a letter to the school board, Merit Medical officials wrote that it would not seek any additional extension beyond "2037 or additional tax increment dollars beyond the $38 million budget." Board member Darrell Robinson, who cast the lone no vote, said Merit Medical is a great neighbor. But after looking at its most recent quarterly earnings, he concluded "this company can pay taxes." "I can't vote for this. I think it sets a bad precedent," Robinson said. SALT LAKE CITY Utah Sen. Mike Lee is part of a congressional delegation that will visit Mexico this weekend to attend the inauguration of the country's new president, as the two nations search for an answer to the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border. The White House announced Monday that President Trumps daughter Ivanka Trump, along with Vice President Mike Pence, would attend the inauguration of incoming Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in Mexico City on Saturday. Pence's plans to attend the inauguration were announced in October. In an interview with the Deseret News Tuesday afternoon, Lee said he would be attending the inauguration as part of a bipartisan congressional delegation composed of at least eight House members including Texas congressman Michael McCaul, R-TX, Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security. The list was not yet finalized as of Tuesday evening. The announcement comes just days after the migrant caravan descended on the border, prompting the Trump administration to put forward 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 Lee floated earlier this month in a visit to Mexico. The status of the proposal has been 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 theyd signed off on an agreement. Despite the back and forth, Lee said he was very optimistic about the outcome of the negotiations between the U.S. and Lopez Obradors government. When asked if the purpose of Pences visit to Mexico was to broker a deal, Lee said he didn't know, but added, I suspect he will be advocating for it. Id be shocked if he wasnt intending to help move that along. After the inauguration, Pence and Lopez Obrador are expected to have some sort of informal discussion about the situation on the border over lunch, a senior White House official told Politico. The Trump administration's proposal closely resembles a plan Lee said he discussed in early November with officials in Obradors administration, as well as those in the administration of Enrique Pena Nieto, the outgoing president of Mexico. Lee said he also met with Olga Sanchez Cordero, the incoming interior minister, during his trip. She was very eager to find a solution, Lee said, She was open to the idea of either of a Safe Third Country Agreement or alternatively something that would involve requiring asylees crossing through Mexico en route from Central American countries to stay in Mexico while any asylum applicants in the United States were pending. A Safe Third Country Agreement was a version of the Trump administration plan that was discussed extensively with the government of outgoing President Enrique Pena Nieto, according to the Post. It would have barred Central Americans from applying for asylum in the United States, on the grounds they would no longer face persecution after arriving in Mexico. A similar agreement exists between the United States and Canada. But after Lopez Obradors landslide July 1 victory, senior members of Obradors transition team told the Post that a Safe Third Country Agreement with Mexico was unlikely. Thats where the Trump administration's new plan, known as Remain in Mexico, comes in. Some experts have called it Safe Third Country-lite, in which Central American asylum seekers would be required to wait in Mexico until their asylum status is granted. Lee told the Deseret News earlier this month that this type of agreement could help sort out those who need help from those who present a national security risk. Only those who had been granted aslyum would then be admitted to the United States, without overwhelming our system with the need to process thousands of asylum claims on U.S. soil. Lee said while the Trump administration would have preferred the full Safe Third Country Agreement, which would have kept Central American aslyum seekers in Mexico permanently, officials in the Obrador administration appear more open to the Remain in Mexico plan, which would keep migrants in Mexico temporarily while asylum is sought in the U.S. Mexico is willing to consider the plan, Lee says, because the country does not want to be the landing strip for people...to enter the United States illegally. Lee added that its important to find a solution out of respect for the American rule of law. We cannot, as a country, allow for mob behavior and manifested overt disrespect and contempt for our laws and basic principles of orderliness to intimidate us into just saying, never mind, these rules have no consequences. Never mind, these boundaries dont mean anything. We cant do that, Lee said. If we do that we will have lost something, not only for the people who are already here, but also the people who would like one day to come here. But some experts said it is just that -- America's rule of law -- that protects asylum seekers' right to cross the border and claim asylum in the first place. What is good for our country is that we respect our own rule of law, says David Leopold, past president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. And our own rule of law is that people can apply for asylum in this country. If they want to change that, they can go to Congress." In fact, Congress wrote a specific clause into U.S. asylum law to ensure that everyone, regardless of immigration status and whether or not they cross the border at a port of entry, would have a right to seek asylum, says Stephanie Leutert, Director of the Mexico Security Initiative at the University of Texas at Austin. She said that the Remain in Mexico plan could put migrants at risk. A July 2017 report by Human Rights First states that migrants and refugees face acute risks of kidnapping, disappearance, sexual assault, and other grave harms in Mexico. Whatever plan emerges, both sides of the border appear to be working toward a compassionate solution to a difficult problem. Its not good for Mexico, its not good for the United States, and its not good for the economic and diplomatic relations between the two countries, Lee continued. Thats why both countries are eager to address this problem. Yalli (Kochari, Tenzere), traditional group dances of Azerbaijans Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, have been included in the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding. According to a joint statement by Azerbaijans Ministry of Culture and the Foreign Ministry, this decision was made at the 13th session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, held November 26-December 1 in the capital of Mauritius, Port Louis. The nomination document was submitted jointly by Azerbajans Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Azerbaijan to UNESCO. The mentioning of namely Nakhchivan in the document is aimed at promoting on a global scale the traditional culture and folk art of the population living in this ancient historical region of Azerbaijan, and at the same time is aimed at protecting these traditions at the UNESCO level. Armenia's provocative attempts regarding the nomination of Yalli (Kochari, Tenzere) traditional group dances of Nakhchivan were suppressed just like in cases with other cultural heritage nominations of Azerbaijan. In anticipation of the session, the relevant state bodies of Azerbaijan conducted the necessary work, and during the session, the Azerbaijani delegation gave a worthy response in this regard to the Armenian side, AzerTAc reported. With the support of Azerbaijans first vice-president, president of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, UNESCO and ISESCO Goodwill Ambassador Mehriban Aliyeva, who has a crucial role in developing cooperation with UNESCO, preserving and promoting the cultural heritage of Azerbaijan on a global scale, the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity has also included the art of crafting and playing kamancha, the tradition of cooking and serving dolma, the performance of Azerbaijani mugham, the tradition of cooking and serving lavash, Lahij copper craft, ashig art, Novruz holiday, the art of carpet weaving, kelaghayi, the art of playing tar. In addition, Chovqan, the traditional Karabakh horse-riding game, has been included in the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding. The American Family Survey is an annual, nationwide study of 3,000 Americans by the Deseret News and the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy at Brigham Young University. See full survey report. Editor's note: Read more stories from the 2018 American Family Survey. SALT LAKE CITY Republicans and Democrats heartily disagree whether naturalized citizens should be able to sponsor their grandparents to come to Ameirca. Nearly two-thirds of Democrats say yes, while nearly the same number of Republicans say no. The break is nearly the same on sponsoring siblings. And only a minority of either party support bringing aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins. But despite those differences, the majority of Americans agree that citizens should be able to bring their children, spouses and parents to America. And they overwhelmingly support keeping children with their asylum-seeking parents, rather than splitting families up to discourage immigration. That's according to the American Family Survey, an annual, nationally representative survey of 3,000 people conducted by YouGov for the Deseret News and the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy at Brigham Young University. The 2018 survey, fielded in August, is the fourth time it has been conducted. More than 80 percent of respondents believe members of migrant families who cross the border without a visa to seek asylum should be kept together, though there are partisan differences about where these families should be kept and what process should be imposed. Most of those who want families maintained intact say they should be allowed into the country "subject to an asylum hearing." A third believe the would-be immigrants should be held together in a detention center. Immigration continues to flumox policymakers and the public is grappling with a number of related issues and events, often dividing along partisan lines. A series of policy decisions have fanned controversy, drawing both praise and condemnation. Among them: The Trump administration vowed to end so-called "chain migration" by narrowing the list of relatives a naturalized citizen can sponsor. The separation earlier this year of would-be immigrant children and parents at the U.S. border with Mexico, a measure administration officials said would discourage immigrants from coming to the United States. Some families are still waiting to reunite. Clashes at the U.S.-Mexican border this month after some members of a caravan of asylum seekers from Central America reportedly rushed the border to enter the United States. Most of those surveyed believe citizens should be able to bring their children, spouses and parents to this country. More Democrats favor extending the opportunity to siblings and grandparents, compared to Republicans. "Majorities of all partisan stripes oppose extending the circle to other extended family members," the survey report noted. However, single adults who don't have kids are somewhat more likely to support allowing a broader circle of family including aunts, uncles, siblings, nieces, nephews and cousins to immigrate compared to married respondents with children. The questions about immigration and how those questions were asked point out the common ground among differing opinions. In public policy discussions, it's easy to overemphasize polarity, said Jeremy C. Pope, who co-wrote the study and co-directs the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy with Christopher F. Karpowitz. "We forget we have a lot in common," he said. Different lives and views "We knew immigration was going to be a big issue going into the survey," Karpowitz said. "Our focus was trying to understand this topic in relationship to the family, so asking the question about who naturalized citizens should be able to sponsor is unique. It's certainly the case that Americans tend to want immigrants to have that opportunity, although most don't want that to be just open-ended for any family member." Pope said people who are married with kids tend to focus on their nuclear family, which becomes "really prioritized." The survey makes clear that life experience helps shape opinion, says Richard Reeves, senior fellow in economic studies at Brookings Institution and an adviser to the survey. But that doesn't reveal what actual policies people support. Rather, "it helps to delineate the space within which a lot of the policy conversation needs to take place," he said. In other words, while family roles don't settle tricky questions like immigration policy, they do help explain the window through which people view them. And at a time when politics and partisanship dominate many conversations and people seem to want to pigeon-hole each other, it's a reminder, Reeves said, that people are much more likely to call themselves "a father" or a "wife" than to describe themselves as "evangelical" or "white" or from "Nebraska. The survey found nearly half of those polled believe families seeking asylum should be allowed into the country while they wait for an asylum hearing. Critics, including the Trump administration, have said immigration officials could lose track of them. Pope noted that most, historically, do show up for their hearings. Another 37 percent said parents and children should be together in a detention facility. Just 17 percent believe parents and children should be separated. Changing policy The Trump administration has made significant immigration-related policy changes, according to the Migration Policy Institute, beginning with a travel ban involving eight countries and followed by reducing refugee admissions, beefing up arrests of unauthorized immigrants, cancelling the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program and ending temporary status designations for immigrants from Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan, among others. Since his presidential campaign, Trump has pushed for a wall along the Mexican border and recently ordered the arrest of any who cross into the United States to petition for asylum outside of established checkpoints. Until 1965, America employed country-of-origin quotas. Then the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 placed high value on admitting people with highly developed, desirable skills, as well as those with family members in the United States. A majority of Americans polled by Gallup back then thought skills and family ties were both important in deciding who could come to the United States. One consideration has long been the ability to support oneself, so immigrants are barred from receiving safety net benefits, including food stamps, Medicaid or money for child assistance for at least five years after they arrive. Citizens who sponsor family members agree to accept some financial responsibility if that proves to be a problem. Congress has a history of promoted keeping immigrant families together. Examples include the 1907 Gentlemen's Agreement with Japan, which while trying to curb immigration from Japan still allowed Japanese men in America to send for their wives. The War Brides Act of 1945 let U.S. soldiers bring their foreign-born spouses, and didn't count them in existing quotas. Allowing people to bring loved ones has also been used to attract immigrants with high skill levels. Separating children from parents and debate over concerns about chain migration are quite recent. "It's a long tradition in our country and it's pretty new in the policy world to be questioning the value of family migration. There have been debates about specific categories and numbers, but I think the level of skepticism is something that's new, Migration Policy Institute senior policy analyst Julia Gelatt told the Deseret News. MIDVALE The mother of Lisa Vilate Williams the woman who was allegedly shot and killed over the weekend by her boyfriend's ex-wife described her daughter as kind and generous. "My beautiful Lisa, she was murdered while decorating a Christmas tree with the homemade ornaments she was making with the kids," Tawny Williams wrote in a Facebook post Tuesday. "She was so kind, sweet, generous, loving, and brought joy and excitement to every aspect of life. Please share the beauty of her life rather than the monster that ripped her from ours," Williams said. "She was magic, and I want her remembered for how she lived and not for how she was killed." The tragic incident unfolded Sunday evening when Chelsea Watrous Cook, 32, of Herriman, went to an apartment at 7690 S. Center Square to drop off cold medicine to one of her children, according to police. Cook went into the apartment while her ex-husband was in the parking lot. "(Cook) was told to leave the apartment, but she refused to listen. (She) remained unlawfully inside of the apartment during this time. (She) then locked herself in the bathroom while (she) was on the phone with the 911 operator," a Salt Lake County Jail affidavit states. Cook then came out of the bathroom, walked to her coat, grabbed a handgun and fired three to five rounds at Williams, according to the report. Williams died shortly after in a local hospital. Cook's and her ex-husband's twins, both 3 years old, were "present during the entire ordeal," the report states. On Tuesday, Cook's family offered their condolences to the Williams family. "No words can express our sorrow over the loss of your daughter, Lisa Vilate Williams. She brought great joy to Travis Cook and his children, and her light and beauty will never be forgotten or replaced," said the family's spokeswoman, Kimberly Jensen, Cook's aunt. "We cannot make sense of this senseless act of violence. We are deeply shocked and saddened. We grieve alongside you during this tragic time." Cook was a health and yoga teacher at Skyridge High School in Lehi, according to the school's website and Cook's Facebook page. By midmorning Monday, Cook's profile had been removed from the high school's website. A spokesman for the Alpine School District said Cook was immediately fired. Unbeknownst to the district, Cook was already facing three misdemeanor charges stemming from an Oct. 16 incident that happened at her apartment in Herriman. The Herriman Police Department investigated the case that resulted in Cook being charged with two counts of domestic violence in the presence of a child and one count of assault. The victim in the case was an adult male who lives at a separate residence, according to Lt. Cody Stromberg. As a licensed school teacher, Cook should have reported the charges to the school district within 48 hours or as soon as possible, according tothe Utah Administrative Code. But an Alpine School District spokeswoman said the school district was not made aware of the charges. "We should have been made aware so that proper steps could have been taken," said Kimberly Bird, assistant to the superintendent at Alpine School District. "We would have followed the process and made sure that everybody was safe." "Any charges of that nature you must self-report," Bird said. As of Tuesday evening, the district had still not received the report from state officials about the October charges, even though Cook already appeared in the Herriman Justice Court on Nov. 13 for an arraignment, where she entered pleas of not guilty on all three charges. A representative for Utah's Department of Public Safety said the Bureau of Criminal Identification received Cook's paperwork from the Herriman Police Department in the beginning of November, according to Marissa Cote, Department of Public Safety public affairs director. However, it wasn't processed until Monday because an electronic version wasn't filed first, she said. Had Herriman Police submitted Cook's citation electronically, Alpine School District would have been alerted to the charges in early November. A Go Fund Me memorial account was established Tuesday for Lisa Vilate Williams. "She loved all of the small things and was enamored with making every little thing special and beautiful," her family wrote. "From our Parisian themed dates to finding the saddest plant in the store as a project to bring back to life she made everything better, she sought out life. We all miss her so much; her spirit was magic and we can only hope to feel it again." SALT LAKE CITY Sen. Mike Lee blocked a bipartisan attempt to force a Senate vote on legislation designed to protect special counsel Robert Mueller. Citing late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, the Utah Republican argued that passing the bill would create a "de facto fourth branch of government, fundamentally undermining the principle of separation of powers that is so core to our liberty." "And on that basis, madam president, I object," he said. Lee said the "prosecutorial authority of the United States belongs to the Department of Justice," and the DOJ and its officers, after Senate confirmation, answer to the president. It only takes one objection under Senate rules to block a request for unanimous consent to bring legislation forward. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill in April that would shield Mueller from any attempt by President Donald Trump to fire him. Lee and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, voted against the measure, arguing it was unconstitutional. Both, however, have said the Mueller investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election should be allowed to run its course. On Wednesday, Republican Sen. Jeff Flake, of Arizona, and Sens. Chris Coons, D-Del., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., pushed for a floor vote on the bill. "The findings of the investigation are too important for our national security and well-being of democratic institutions to be halted or watered down," Flake said. "Mr. Mueller must be able to preserve the work he has done by completing this very thorough investigation and for his findings to be made public." Flake, one of Trump's most vocal critics who is not returning to the Senate, said the bill would ensure that happens. The legislation, he said, would protect the integrity of the special counsel's investigation and prevent the executive branch from "inappropriately interfering" in independent investigations in the future. Flake said the bill was also blocked several weeks ago and that he, Booker and Coons would continue to push to bring the bill to the Senate floor. In response to a question on the floor from Coons, Lee acknowledged the Scalia opinion he cited was the minority opinion. "At the time it was written, it was somewhat novel, somewhat new. Since then it has become a widely adopted view, a view adopted by people across the political spectrum regardless of their ideology," he said. "I challenge every one of you to read it. It's right." NEPHI A man booked into jail for investigation of murder last month is now out of jail as the investigation into the woman's death continues. Cody Alexander Young, 42, was booked into Juab County Jail on Oct. 13 after the body of Jan Pearson-Jenkins, 64, was found on a sagebrush hillside about a mile from where the two of them are believed to have gone camping last month in the Silver City area of Juab County. Sheriff's deputies at the time believed he was responsible for her death. But no formal criminal charges connected to her death have been filed against him. We know there is a deceased individual, but we want the expertise and the final report from the medical examiners office to help us make that final determination of the charges, said Juab County Sheriff Doug Anderson. Young was charged last month with possession or use of a controlled substance and unlawful purchase or transfer of a dangerous weapon, both class A misdemeanors. He pleaded guilty as charged a week or two ago. The judge released him at the request of the defense. I objected to that, said Juab County Attorney Ryan Peters. Young was released and ordered to wear a GPS ankle monitor and is required to remain in Utah until he is sentenced in that case in January. Peters said if the autopsy results support criminal charges in Jenkins' death, Young can be prosecuted. Investigators say Young went camping with Jenkins, but left her stranded. Her nude body was later found about a mile away from where the two had been camping. Jenkins' brother said Young sent him text messages on Oct. 5 saying the two had been in an argument and that he left her in the Silver City/Eureka area. About two hours after the body was found, rangers at Yuba State Park spotted Young and his van near Yuba Lake, about 45 miles from the campsite. He was questioned by detectives and arrested in connection with Pearson-Jenkins' death. The van the two were camping in remains in police custody as potential evidence. Jenkins' family is very anxious for the report from the medical examiner and still hopes to see justice in Pearson-Jenkins' death. We want to be able to give as much accurate information back to the family as we can, and we want an accurate and a complete and a thorough resolution of the case, Anderson said. The sheriff said a final report from the medical examiner should be available in a few weeks. WEST JORDAN The city is asking for residents input on the types of amenities they would like to see on the new Wild West Jordan Playground at Veterans Memorial Park. The survey can be found on the citys website at www.westjordan.utah.gov. The Western-themed playground, which is nearly 14 years old, was closed Nov. 13 after two independent evaluations found major deficiencies and safety concerns. According to the city, the majority of the playground materials are wood-based and have not survived the heavy use and Utahs harsh winters. As a result, structural portions are failing, wood is splitting and rotting, and the playground has become unsafe. In addition, the current playground is not inclusive for children of all abilities. The independent evaluations also found that even extensive repairs in the $500,000 range would not significantly extend the life of the playground, nor would they address safety concerns, such as numerous blind spots make it difficult for parents to keep track of children. After evaluating different options, the city decided to replace the playground with a state-of-the art playground that incorporates the Wild West theme and uses the latest materials and design to create an all-abilities playground. The new playground, which is expected to cost between $750,000 and $800,000. is slated to be installed between February and April 2019. The official grand opening is planned for spring 2019. City officials say the money will come from Parks Improvement Fund and no new taxes will be required. SALT LAKE CITY Dominion Energy and Smithfield Foods are joining for a venture to convert methane emissions from hog farms into clean renewable energy for residential home heating and power for local businesses. Announced in a news release Tuesday, the gas company and pork producer formed Align Renewable Natural Gas, with projects slated for North Carolina, Virginia and Utah. Renewable natural gas is produced from the methane generated from hog or dairy farms, landfills, wastewater treatment plants and food processing facilities, the news release stated. Capturing the methane from hog farms reduces the use of traditionally sourced natural gas and prevents greenhouse gas from entering the atmosphere. Im excited about the technological advances for capturing methane that escapes into the atmosphere from farms, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said. That methane which we call renewable natural gas can be used to heat our homes, generate low-carbon electricity and drive industry. This bodes well for Utahs environmental health and economic development. The new joint venture will leverage Smithfields relationships with contract farmers and the time the company has spent studying 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, the release stated. Once collected at the farms, the natural gas will then be transported to a central conditioning facility where it will be converted into renewable natural gas. Our companies recognize the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for the future of our planet. (Renewable natural gas) 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 Farrell, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Dominion Energy. The companies are jointly investing at least $250 million in the initiative over the next decade, with the initial application going to a Utah farm at Milford, Beaver County, two larger farm clusters in Duplin and Sampson Counties, North Carolina; and to a site in Waverly, Virginia. Construction of the facilities is expected to begin in late 2018 with the first projects scheduled to be in-service in late 2019. 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 Kenneth Sullivan, president and chief executive officer of Smithfield Foods. Farmers who participate in the program will be paid for the energy their farms produce through long-term contracts, the release stated. In a couple weeks Ill be sitting at a table with my partner, Aaron, signing the barrage of paperwork that comes with purchasing a home. And boy, is it a good one. With 22-foot ceilings and a lofted kitchen/second living area, the space is a perfect blend of our respective styles. Not only is it modern enough for him, but it has the original details Ive always craved as well. Our lofts location cant be beat either, but the fact that we found a space we both aesthetically love is hands down the reason were purchasing it. When asked why they chose their home, architect Catherine and tech consultant Tony of Brisbane, Australia had a different reason: The house was in our price range! Without a doubt, this was due to the 1930s-era cottages age and condition. Before they worked their magic on it the home was small and had a kitchen that wasnt easy on the eyes or the cook. In fact, it was barely functional. That was 12 years ago, and the couple has since given their cottage many nips and tucks the most noticeable of which have been made to the rear of the home. In this portion they added just enough square footage to accommodate a larger living area and fully renovated kitchen. Perhaps the best feature of this new addition, though, is the window seat and adjoining veranda. Both sit amongst frangipani trees and all manner of wildlife. The renovation overall was quite involved, but Catherine and Tony did strive to stay true to their homes humble beginnings. No change was made just for looks or to erase the spaces original charms, and not one bit of the cottages history has been compromised. This is a house that not only toes the line between urban and rural living, but also seamlessly mixes both retro and current designs. Scroll down to take a peek. Enjoy! Garrett Photography by Rachael Honner Image above: The house sits near a bowling alley. While out on the veranda, you can hear the faint cracks of bowling balls knocking down pins. 1/15 The familys home is in a leafy valley tucked in-between two big shopping areas. Catherine says, A creek runs by a couple of houses down, pythons curl up in our frangipani tree and kookaburras wake us pre-dawn! 2/15 Catherine and Tonys Queensland worker cottage was built around 1930. According to House Histories and My Family Home Experts, these homes are elevated, typically quaint, feature a veranda and are oftentimes made of timber. 3/15 The original plan for the back deck was to build it out of inexpensive timber and then paint the pergola white. When the builder showed up with this rich, red timber, however, the couple was hooked and changed their entire concept. 4/15 Tony and Catherine met 22 years ago in Paris, France. Their two children Josh and Lily are 13 and 11, respectively, and they both absolutely love sports. 5/15 This nook in the living room has a magical effect on people. The second anyone sits down, theyre quickly horizontal and nodding off to sleep. All the windows can be opened up and you are lying literally in the frangipani tree! Catherine explains. Design Tip: Take time living in [your home] before you renovate. If you can, live through each season! 6/15 In the newest part of the home the combination living room/kitchen wall art takes a backseat to the view of the surrounding valley. 7/15 Before the addition, the couple struggled with their tiny kitchen. It had minimal storage, an odd layout and was barely functional. Their new one features a peninsula with seating to keep everyone out during prep time, abundant storage and soft-close drawers. Together these elements make cooking so much more enjoyable for the family. 8/15 The new kitchen highlights how to successfully use two countertop colors. If the peninsula counters had been black, the kitchen wouldve run the risk of appearing bulky. 9/15 When it comes to older houses, Catherine and Tony urge homeowners to make updates that improve the functionality not simply the look of their space. They walked the walk and talked the talk when they removed the too-tiny kitchen that sat here and installed that larger one at the top of the stairs. 10/15 Before converting Joshs old room into this proper dining area, Catherine, Tony and their kids were in need of a dedicated space for enjoying meals together. They used to belly up to a makeshift table made out of wooden planks. It barely fit all four of them and was mounted to a wall uncomfortably close to the bathroom. 11/15 The dining areas cutouts help this space flow into the combination living room/kitchen. I can also keep an eye on the kids doing their homework [at] the dining room table while I am working in the kitchen, Catherine says with a wink. 12/15 Tony and Catherine took their time decorating, so for a while the home was very sparse. Back then, Catherines dad an aficionado of secondhand shops and antiques used to bring his daughter decorations he came across to give it some life. 13/15 The couples bedside bookshelf came from a secondhand shop around the corner from their house. 14/15 The bathrooms greenery is yet another example of how Catherine and Tony help their house blend into the surrounding landscape. 15/15 I love the way our house moves from the old part with its private quiet rooms, to the new extension that opens up in space & peels back the walls to our own little green jungle in the backyard. Catherine Woodward After a maternity break, Jodha Bai of small screen, Paridhi Sharma is back with a bang. After wowing us with her portrayal of the royal queen in the immensely popular TV show Jodha Akbar and her chemistry with co-actor Rajat Tokas, who portrayed the role of Mughal king Akbar, became the talk of the telly town almost instantly. Paridhi is all set to make a comeback with Patiala Babes and from the looks of it, it is surely going to mimic the success of Jodha Akbar. From a small town in Madhya Pradesh to becoming the 'queen' of Indian television, Paridhi's journey has truly been an amazing one. Here are a few facts that you have to know about TV's Jodha Bai, Paridhi Sharma. EXCLUSIVE: Kedarnath Producer Pragya Kapoor Talks About Making Kedarnath In A Chat With Sandip Pal Directed by Abhishek Gattu Kapoor, the film Kedarnath will showcase the massive destruction that took place in the Kedarnath valley due to the cloudburst and the flash floods in the year 2013. Much has been said about the scale of the film and the VFX incorporated in the film. However, until I delved deeper into the meshes of the film; all of this noise sounded pretty unconvincing to my prying soul. That is why, I got in touch with Pragya Kapoor who happens to be one of the producers of the film alongwith Ronnie Screwala. Well, just before I got on the call a thought that ran across my mind was nothing can be better for a director husband to be supported by his own wife in the production of the film! And especially when the wife has so much conviction in the story and a transparent soul and a clear thought process ! Pragya, are you listening? Abhishek (Gattu) Kapoor has made the film of his life and his wife stands as the backbone of the film. I had to know how the film came into being especially because personally I am so one with the place at hand - This made the conversation even more than mandatory! Excerpts from the conversation - Pragya, since the flash floods and the upheaval that the valley faced, a lot has changed. I had been to Kedarnath before the flash floods and therefore I am completely aware of the terrain and how things were just washed away. For instance, Rambara was earlier a bustling market and now Rambara doesnt even exist. So, tell me, how many people went up there for the shoot because unlike the time prior to the destruction, now whoever visits or undertakes the trek has to get duly registered. What was it like to shoot up there given the fact that the climate over there is also not consistent at all. Was it really an uphill task (Pun intended)? You are very right and you know a lot! I was having a detailed conversation with some of the media people about the inconsistent climate because people do not really know much about this. To answer your question, about 200 to 220 people had been there, and yes, we all had to get registered. Having said that, it was very systematic and easy. It wasnt a difficult process. We had to go through the whims of the climate there. We were well prepared with what we wanted shoot there. We were there for more than a month. We just moved with the weather. Everyone was on their toes. We had to go according to the weather. Just before our shoot started, we had built a little bit of a shoot over there. The entire thing just gave away due to the rains and some landslide in the area. But the fact that we were prepared really helped us. We are talking about a far-flung stretch of the country where people are not quite accustomed to see a shoot happening on a daily basis unlike here in Mumbai or the other metropolitan cities of the country. How difficult was it top manage the crowd and yet keep shooting?And given the hilly terrain, how was the camera manipulated? Was there a lot of handheld and drone shots or you got enough space for a tripod or a jib? - We all know the place doesn't have broad roads like Bombay. We couldnt even get vanity vans out there. It is not a shooting friendly area at all. We had to hang costumes on the tree to make sure that they arent wrinkled. Yes, that's right - a lot of shots were handled, some were done by Steadicam, drone shots were obvious and a lot of it was live. If you see in the background, the yatra was going on and the shooting was on. But there was no interference as such. The yatris were on their own journey they were not much interested in the shoot. People were very accommodating and helpful there. It is tough, my light men were running up and down, my costume people were running up and down. There was barely any internet in the hotel we were staying in. People really gave it their all. As I said earlier, the entire terrain is completely transformed post the flash floods, did you shoot on the 16 kilometre stretch between Gaurikund and Kedarnath Dham? Its not what it used to be prior to the calamity and the film shows the area before the cloudburst happened, so how much of the originality was retained? Yes, a lot of the film has been shot on the stretch you are talking about. We shot it in the new yatra marg, but it will look like the old yatra. We shot in Chopta but everything as you said is changed. It doesnt look like what it used to look before. We shot of it there, we shot a lot of it live. Smaller portions were shot in Bombay. We had tried our level best to recreate what it would look like. Because you have been there personally, it will surely give you a nostalgia of what it was like. Pragya, I dont know whether you were there right from the time the script was being written and the screenplay was being done. But didn't the fact that the film is so similar to Satyam Shivam Sundaram and its main nuances, ever cross your mind? The fact that in both the films the woman cursed and the catastrophe befell, in both the films, logic is well-defined behind the calamity that occurs, in both the films the ending too is similar as in how the couple manages to hold on to something religious to get saved. I have been there since the seed was sown in Gattus head. I have never thought of it. This is quite a revelation. It is such a beautiful parallel that you have drawn, I have been taking to different people, journalists, no one has drawn this parallel. It is quite commendable that you saw the similarity and in such a beautiful manner. We made the film but we never thought of it. Now, when you are drawing this parallel, I think it is quite beautiful. But let me tell you it is not inspired from Satyam Shivam Sundaram. It is inspired from whatever happened in Kedarnath. But from what and how you have narrated it. It is really looking similar! Tell me, what were the parts that you shot in the real locations and how much of the valley or the temple had to be recreated in the Bombay sets because in my knowledge, shooting is probhibited near the temple premises. Yes, shooting is prohibited in the temple premises. But having said that we didn't even want to seek permissions to shoot in the temple area. We didn't want to disturb the aura of the place. We have shot on live locations in Kedarnath and as I have said earlier, it is a lot of live action that has been mixed with VFX. Since you have seen it, it will sound a little unrealistic in anyway. However, having said that, I think it will merge very beautifully. We havent been there before the floods. It has completely changed. It is different now. As you said Rambara doesnt even exist now. It has been recreated to a certain extent. It doesnt look the way it used to look like. The temple had to be recreated. There was no other way to look before. Like I said, it is a mix of real locations, mix of VFX. The KEdarnath temple as I said was recreated and when the localites used to pass the set, they used to fold their hands in reverence! To them that was their Kedarnath darshan. So how many points would you like to give to your art director? How did he recreate PRe-flood look of Kedarnath in a Bombay studio? Did he ever visit the place before the calamity? Or did he take references from the internet or he perhaps studied a place of a similar topography? I would give my art director a 100 out of 100. His name is Mayur Sharma, I have a soft spot for him because he did my wedding as well. I am very biased but he is incredible and you will see it on the big screen. I dont think he has visited before the calamity, we all went together after the film was planned. However, he has done a lot of research work and if you meet and speak to him, you will realise that he has a very keen eye. He has done a fabulous job. Pragya, we are talking about a place where the sunlight and the intensity of it is quite different from what we have in our part of the country. The sunlight quality over there is very dazzling. How was that managed on the camera? So, another person who has a soft spot in my heart is my gaffer. You are talking about all my favourite people. His eye for light is incredible and of course my DOP Tushar Kanti Ray. They just know their craft! How were Sushant and Sara, given the fact that the place has a different aura to it and it is not your regular shooting friendly locale. Did they have any issues there? Our actors Sushant and Sara are very passionate people and are very dedicated. They just overlooked any problem that came their way. And I am not sugar-coating things at all. I am being absolutely honest with you. The people that I have worked with are incredible human beings, they are so supportive. It happened because all of them. They werent there for themselves, they were there for the film. I am so lucky that I have these people around me. Upcoming Rajinikanth and Akshay Kumar starrer 2.0 has come under fire from the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) for promoting Anti-scientific attitudes regarding the alleged harmful effects of electromagnetic field (EMF) emissions from mobile phones and towers. The film produced by Dharma Productions and directed by S Shankar is a sequel to 2010 movie Enthiran. It is the most expensive film made in India till date and the ninth-most expensive non-English-language film by production cost ($75,000,000). From the looks of the trailer, the sci-fi movie shows Akshay Kumar play Dr Crow, a person who studies birds and the negative effects of electromagnetic field emissions from mobile towers and mobile phones on birds. COAI as a body has always been a strong proponent of the theory that EMF emissions do not cause any harm to humans or animals. The industry body often cites a WHO research report which states - "Considering the very low exposure levels and research results collected to date, there is no convincing scientific evidence that the weak RF signals from base stations and wireless networks cause adverse health effects." COAI has now alleges that the movie 2.0, including its teasers, trailers and other promotional videos, depict mobile phones and mobile towers in a defamatory manner. The promotional videos are based on the theme that electromagnetic field (EMF) emissions from mobile phones and towers are harmful to living creatures and the environment including birds and human beings which will create unfounded fear and mass paranoia by spreading misinformation about the adverse impact of mobile towers and mobile phones, Rajan Mathews, Director General, COAI wrote in a press statement. COAI has alleged this is defamatory to the industry body and its members. The body that represents all of Indias telecom operators further noted that the film 2.0 endangers public order, presents anti-scientific attitudes, constitutes offences including under various sections of the IPC and is in violation of the provisions of the Cinematograph Act, 1952. It is against the public interest as it constitutes offences under section 268 (public nuisance), section 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) and section 499 (defamation) of the IPC and stands to prejudice the ongoing proceedings before the Honble Supreme Court of India over whether or not mobile towers have any harmful effects. Citing the above reasons COAI has requested the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) to revoke the certification already granted for the teaser, trailer and other promotional video and Tamil language version of the film. The representative body has also requested that the exhibition of the movie be suspended pending review and that a copy of the film should be provided to COAI for further assessment and examination. Image Courtesy: Still from 2.0 trailer Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev congratulated national artist Tahir Salakhov on his 90th birthday, official website of the head of state reported. "I would like to congratulate you - great master and famous public figure - on your 90th birthday. I wish you good health and success in your activities," Ilham Aliyev said. "As an outstanding representative of modern art school, you have written new pages of rich chronicle of our culture with your art that will forever have an important place in our national art, President of Azerbaijan stressed. "Your works, which are exhibited in prestigious museums, famous galleries of the world and kept in private collections, play a huge role in promoting Azerbaijani culture far beyond borders of our country. Your help in shaping young masters for future development our national art deserves huge praise," Ilham Aliyev said. "I'm sure that as a creator and a person who has a huge role in shaping current appearance of our culture and development of world art, you will continue and help to bring fine art of Azerbaijan to new heights," he concluded. Tahir Salahov is a Soviet, Azerbaijani and Russian painter and draughtsman. He studied at the Azimzade Art College in Baku in 19451950 and the Surikov Moscow Art Institute in 19511957. Salahov won an early recognition: his diploma work, The Shift is Over, was exhibited in 1957 at the Moscow All-Union Art Exhibition and received public and critical acclaim. He became one of the leading representatives of the so-called "severe style", a trend in Soviet art of the 1960s that aimed to set off a hard, publicist, realist view. FSi consulting engineers Spears Medina Douglas Lim Himmel In Seattle, FSi consulting engineers hired Rick Himmel as a senior associate, Ellisa Lim and Sam Douglas as mechanical engineers, and Barbara Medina as an intern. Byron Spears joined FSi as a senior mechanical engineer in Baltimore. Himmel has 34 years of experience, with recent projects for Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon and Overlake Hospital. He is working on a facility for 3D printing of aircraft components. Lim has nine years of experience focused on energy-saving retrofits for clients, including the city of Seattle, University of Washington and the state of Washington. Douglas has five years of experience and is working on the expansion of King County Transit's South Base. Medina has bachelor's degrees in mechanical engineering and teaching from Seattle University. Spears has 26 years of experience and is working on upgrades to the Cardinal Laminated Glass Plant in Ocala, Florida. FSi provides mechanical engineering, with an office also in Spokane. Subscriber content preview OLYMPIA (AP) Washington state House Speaker Frank Chopp says he will step down from his leadership post next spring, but will continue to serve in the chamber. The Seattle Democrat announced his decision Tuesday, spokesman Jim Richards said. A new speaker will be chosen by the caucus and voted on by the full chamber sometime before the end of the 105-day legislative session that begins in January. . . . L&I bans company from public jobs TUMWATER A Bonney Lake construction firm and its owner have been permanently banned from bidding or working on public projects in Washington, according to the state Department of Labor & Industries. The state said the ban comes from a settlement over wage violations and false reporting of payroll records by I&C Northwest and owner Jim Lingnaw. The company did pipe insulation work on a warehouse and 14 schools across Western Washington in 2015 and 2016. I&C is one of the worst examples of a contractor taking advantage of workers, public agencies, taxpayers and fellow contractors, said Jim Christensen, L&I Prevailing Wage Program manager, in a news release. It is a privilege to build public works projects, not a way to collect taxpayers' money and stiff workers on the wages they're owed. L&I says Lingnaw also agreed to pay more than $200,000 in back wages and penalties for the violations. The firm will repay $153,000 in wages to nine employees, each of whom worked on several of the projects. Subscriber content preview SEATTLE The Department of Neighborhoods is seeking community members to provide feedback on projects at Seattle Central College. As members of the Seattle Central College Standing Advisory Committee, participants would ensure that development projects comply with the plan. . . . Govt to sell Air India's ground handling arm to pare Rs50,000-cr debt A ministerial panel led by finance minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday decided to sell 100 per cent of Air Indias ground handling subsidiary, Air India Air Transport Services Ltd (AIATL), and use the proceeds to retire a part of the national carriers huge debt pile of around Rs50,000 crore. The government plans to hive off AIATL into a special purpose vehicle (SPV), which is directly owned by the government. Once the transfer is completed, expressions of interest in the company will be invited, civil aviation secretary RN Choubey told reporters after the meeting. The proceeds of the sale will be used to retire part of Air Indias accumulated debt of over Rs48,000 crore while also helping the airline to improve its operational efficiency under a turnaround and generate investor interest the loss-making national carrier. The approval is part of the governments plan to sell off some of Air Indias non-core assets, in order to revive the fortunes of the national carrier. The Alternative Mechanism on Tuesday approved EoI (Expression of Interest) together with Preliminary Information Memorandum for sale of Air India Air Transport Services Limited (AIATSL), according to civil aviation ministry sources. The meeting was attended by Jaitley and civil aviation minister Suresh Prabhu, among others. The ministerial panel also decided to go ahead with Pawan Hans sale for which a request for proposals has already been floated. Incorporated in June 2003, AITSL provides all types of services at airport, including ground handling services connected with passenger, ramp, security and cargo for Air India. The ministerial grouping had decided to revive Air India after the government's strategic stake sale offer failed to attract any bidders earlier this year. The latest strategic sale plan follows a decision by the ministerial panel in June to make Air India competitive, by cutting down debt and raising resources by selling land assets and other subsidiaries. Naresh Goyal offers to sell controlling stake in Jet Airways: report Jet Airways promoter Naresh Goyal is reported to have agreed to sell his controlling stake in Jet Airways, but on condition that he retains a minor stake and a seat on the airlines board. Goyal, who owns 51 per cent stake in Jet Airways, has communicated his intent to sell his controlling stake and giving up operational control to the investment bankers and to the strategic investors, CNBC-TV18 reports. The founder-chairman has, however, sought to retain a minority stake of below 5 per cent and a board seat on the Jet Airways. This is because Goyal is now convinced that not just Tata Group, no investor would want to invest in Jet if Goyal retains his control over the company - operationally and in equity ownership, the report quoted sources familiar with the development as saying. Goyal is reported to have communicated his intention to sell controlling stake in the company to three prospective strategic investors, including Tata Group, Etihad and a consortium of Air France, KLM & Delta. Goyal, the airline's founder, is badly in need of cash, but does not want to let go the airline off his hands and intends to retain a minority stake of below 5 per cent and a board seat. Jet Airways, which is partially owned by Etihad Airways of Abu Dhabi, has about $1.1 billion in debt and needs $300 million of immediate cash infusion. The Jet Airways promoter had initially sought investment from investor firms to recapitalise the struggling carrier, but the plan flopped as no investor was willing to buy into a losing carrier. Most of the private equity players were interested in Jet Privilege Pvt Ltd, its frequent flyer programme, and not in the airline. And with the debt burden increasing and the cash crunch becoming severe, Goyal thought of an investor who would stand with him. Earlier this month, Indian conglomerate Tata Sons Ltd said it was in preliminary talks with debt-laden Jet, but has not made a proposal to acquire a stake. Unilever, Nestle in close fight to acquire Horlicks from GSK Unilver plc is reported to be vying with Nestle to acquire GlaxoSmithKline plc's malt-based health drink brand, Horlicks that could give a boost to the companies nutrition business in India, even as some reports claimed the Europe food giant Nestle is in the lead position for acquiring the popular health drink brand. Nutrition business in India children's Horlicks will extend the Swiss giant's dominance in India's processed food market. Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant Unilever plc is reported to have emerged as the leading bidder for GSKs Horlicks nutrition business in India, reports quoting two people familiar with the situation said. Nestle has been in talks with GlaxoSmithKline India's consumer healthcare division that includes the Horlicks brand, which is the dominant children's malt-based health drink in India. GSK is looking at carrying out a strategic review and expects to conclude that by year-end, according to some reports. After the acquisition, Nestle is unlikely to merge GSK with its own India subsidiary whose major brands include market leaders like the Maggi noodles and other products, according to Economic Times. Nestle's own Milo and Nesquick brands will have to compete with Horlicks if the acquisition goes through. Horlicks, whose sales topped $700 million last year with a 44 per cent market share of nutritional drinks, is the main attraction in GSK's India business, valued at $4.2 billion. GSK, which owns 72.5 per cent of Indian business GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare Ltd, and Unilever were in exclusive talks, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the sales process. GSK exited its Horlicks franchise in the UK last year but has held on to the brand in India where it has a special place as a nutritional supplement for children. Global food giants have been eyeing the emerging market in India because of its growth potential when compared to China with a comparable population. Indian processed food market is now only one-fifth of the Chinese market but growing income profiles are changing consumption patterns. Pak PM Imran Khan lays foundation stone for Kartarpur Corridor In a historic initiative that would facilitate Sikh pilgrimage to one of the holiest Gurudwaras, the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan's Kartarpur district right across the international border, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan today laid the foundation stone for the Kartarpur Corridor. The groundbreaking ceremony for the Kartharpur Corridor on the Pakistan side comes three days after India performed the groundbreaking ceremony on its side for the initiative to connect Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Punjab's Gurdaspur district to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan, the final resting place of Sikh religions founder Guru Nanak Dev. The distance between Gurdwara Darbar Sahib and Dera Baba Nanak shrine is just about four kilometres. India was represented by union ministers Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Singh Puri, and Punjab cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu at the ceremony at Narowal in Kartharpur that was attended by Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and other officials. While union ministers Badal and Puri reached Pakistan today to attend the groundbreaking ceremony of Kartarpur Corridor, Punjab minister Sidhu had reached Kartarpur yesterday. External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, who was invited by the Pakistan government for the ceremony, had expressed inability to travel and instead nominated Puri and Badal to attend the ceremony. Both the union ministers crossed over into Pakistan at the Attari-Wagah border in Punjab earlier today. Puri expressed gratitude to the Pakistani government before stepping foot on the Pakistani soil for the foundation-laying ceremony. I feel extremely grateful and privileged to be able to make this pilgrimage. This was a long-standing demand of the Sikh community. Express gratitude also to the Pakistan government, he said. The Kartarpur Corridor will allow visa-free travel for Indian Sikh pilgrims to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib. The foundation stone for the corridor was laid in Punjabs Gurdaspur district on Monday by Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu. Puri said the Indian government hopes to complete construction work for the Kartharpur Corridor in about 5-6 months. Depending on Pakistan completing work at its end, pilgrims from India would be able to pay obeisance at Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan, which is also close to the border. Pakistan foreign office spokesperson Muhammad Faisal said work on the corridor will be over in time for the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev in November next year. The proposal to build the Kartarpur Corridor was mooted by India around 20 years ago. However, it was last week that both Pakistan and India announced the move to develop the corridor on their sides of the border. Criticism of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which will allow Russia to bypass Ukraine in transporting gas to Europe, has not affected Germanys view of the project, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said. He added that it remained the case that Ukraine should still be a transit country for gas from Russia to Europe, Reuters reported. Earlier, Ukraines ambassador to Germany had said the project, which Germany is committed to, should be put on hold after Russia seized three Ukrainian ships near Crimea on Sunday. Assembly polls over in Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh; counting on 11 Dec MP, Mizoram election voting 2018 LIVE updates: Polling in 227 constituencies of MP began at 8 am while polling in three seats started at 7 am. In Mizoram, voting started at 7 am and will conclude at 4 pm. Voting for assembly elections concluded in Mizoram and Madhya Pradesh by the evening today, with North-Eastern state recording higher voter turnout than the Hindi heartland. The election in the two states is being conducted in a single phase. The counting of votes will be held on 11 December. In MP, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is fighting to retain power for a fourth consecutive time, while opposition Congress party is trying to wrest power it lost in 2003. In Mizoram, Congress is in a crucial battle to save its last bastion in the North-East, while the Bhartiya Janata Party is trying to win over a Christian dominated state. Incumbent chief minister Lal Thanhawlas tenure ends on 15 December. Congress, the Mizo National Front (MNF), the Zoram People's Movement (ZPM), and the Bharatiya Janata Party are the main political parties in the battle for Mizoram. Average polling in Madhya Pradesh was around 63.7 per cent past 4:00 pm while in Mizoram polling was over 70 per cent. While no cases of violence was reported, media inputs showed that three employees have died due to health complications while on poll duties since morning in Guna, Dhar, and Indore. Over three lakh government employees, including nearly 45,000 women, have been entrusted with poll duty across the state. About 745 EVMs and VVPAT machines were replaced in MP, where voting for the assembly elections is underway, a senior poll official said. Speaking on EVM malfunctions, Chief Election Commissioner O P Rawat said there were some complaints on malfunction of some EVMs and VVPAT machines and theyve been replaced. If it's observed that voters left due to malfunction, we can consider re-polling at that particular polling station, he said. On allegations of violation of model code of conduct for elections, Congress leader Kamal Nath said "I had already cast my vote. When people from the media asked me who did I vote for, I showed this (palm). What else could have I done? Show a lotus?" Yes Bank's promoter groups yet to find common ground Talks between warring promoters of Yes Bank looks set to hit a deadlock after reports that the Rana Kapoor camp had to shell off Rs400 crore to pay off two mutual funds, even as the office of the managing director and chief executive of the bank saying that settlement talks are at an "advanced stage." However, there was no clarity 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. It now seems the battle between the two promoter groups will not end so soon as more time may be needed for a consensus to emerge. The Rana Kapoor camp said as per draft consent terms under discussion both the groups will be treated as "equals", while the Madhu Kapur family maintained that discussions are still on. Rana Kapoor and the entities linked to his family own 10.7 per cent in Yes Bank, while Madhu Kapur, widow of the founder chairman Ashok Kapur, owns 9.8 per cent in the bank. Entities linked to Rana Kapoor, the chief executive of Yes Bank, are reported to have paid Rs400 crore to two mutual funds from whom they had raised funds by pledging shares. The Kapoor family paid Rs200 crore each to Reliance Mutual Fund and Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund, reports said, adding this was a prepayment of the due amount. With the share price of the bank more than halving after the Reserve Bank of India curtailed Rana Kapoors tenure as MD & CEO to 31 January 2019, mutual funds became apprehensive of losing money since the shares were the primary security against which the loans were given. With this payment, the overall outstanding of the promoter groups borrowing has come down to Rs1,400 crore, reports said. Kapoor invited regulatory ire after the bank underreported NPAs worth more than Rs10,000 crore in FY16 and FY17. The overall security cover is valued at Rs5,000 crore at the current stock price, which is over three times the outstanding, the people claimed though it is not exactly known at what price the shares were trading, when they were pledged or when the money was raised. Kapoor had said he did not intend to sell his holding in the bank, even after he leaves the bank. The promoter group entities are understood to have borrowed by pledging shares for investing in other ventures and have paid off once the adequate liquidity was available, they said. On Monday, global rating agency Moody's Investors Service downgraded Yes Banks rating citing concerns on corporate governance. The rating downgrade comes a fortnight ahead of the crucial board meeting on 13 December, which may recommend a new chief executive officer and non-executive chairman for Yes Bank. On Monday, Yes Bank shares fell 3.9 per cent to Rs187.95 on the BSE while the benchmark Sensex rose 1.07 per cent. The exhibition route starts with the birth of Brazilian modernism in 1928, which illustrates the relation between indigenous culture and a desire for progress. This moment in time was crowned by the 1943 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Brazil Builds. In 1951, Lina Bo Bardi writes in her essay Beautiful Child: The new Brazilian architecture has many flaws: it is young, it hasnt had much time to stop and reflect, but came into being all of a sudden, as a beautiful child. (1) The construction in 1960 of the capital Brasilia, an endeavour by the then Brazilian President Juscelino Kubitschek executed to a master plan by Lucio Costa, is recounted as an almost mythical exploit in the countrys history. The military junta that came to power in 1964 took possession of Brasilia, and an extensive period of infrastructure building began. In 1969, the dictatorship removed the right of the architects Joao Vilanova Artigas and Paulo Mendes da Rocha to work in the public sphere, meaning they were prevented from teaching and designing. When the regime fell in 1985, the fragile democracy enabled work that favoured shared social ideals. These were the years of experimentation by Joao Lele Filgueiras Lima, and the arrival of postmodernism in a country otherwise condemned to modernity as stated in the exhibition (quoting the Brazilian critic Mario Pedrosa). 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. 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. The sailors, including the commander of a small Ukrainian gunboat, will be held under formal arrest in a detention center in Simferopol until January 25, the judge ruled. The other 12 sailors are expected to appear before the court on November 28, RFE/RL 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. O Fiaich College were presented this week, with their Wellread Award in City West Hotel and Convention Centre. Students from O Fiaich College along with their teachers Ms. Everitt and Ms. Rennick joined twenty other schools from all corners of the country at this prestigious award ceremony hosted by the Profession Development Service for Teachers. The ceremony began with an exhibition of all the Wellread portfolios from successful schools this year- during which O Fiaich College received a lot of attention and positive feedback from the awarding body and other schools alike. Following the exhibition, there was an opening address and a reading of a selection of the winning poems by students who were successful in the PDSTs annual Write A Poem Competition. O Fiaich College students and teachers alike were astounded by the talented young poets work. After the poetry awards were bestowed, it was time for the Wellread Schools to receive their awards, which O Fiaich College students were delighted to receive. O Fiaich College succeeded in their campaign for this award through a number of initiatives centred on the promotion of reading. The Wellread national award will foster and nurture a reading culture in our school and aims to bring about an overall improvement in students literacy skills in a fun and engaging way. Some such activities last year included a teacher swap box for books, themed displays in their newly refurbished library, a Book in the Bag campaign, a visit to the local library, parents swap box at parent teacher meetings, a week devoted to reading in school, staff Buns nBooks morning, constant updates of their library collection, a Christmas tree of books, World Book Day celebration, students made and hung little libraries and a reading challenge with a local primary school. This year, the college aims to build on their success by continuing the promotion of reading throughout the school community. They have already enjoyed another delivery of updated titles in their library, a visit from award winning Irish author Kevin Mc Dermott and an interview on Dundalk FM to share their success and inspire others. O Fiaich College believes that reading for pleasure is a vital aspect of our school community for a number of reasons. There is strong evidence linking reading for fun and educational outcomes. Reading for pleasure can result in increased empathy, improved relationships with others and improved wellbeing. In addition to the educational and health benefits, reading for pleasure has social benefits and can improve our sense of connectedness to the wider community. Reading increases our understanding of our own identity, improves empathy and gives us an insight into the world view of others. All of which are upheld in O Fiaich College as being fundamental to young people. Follow their Wellread journey on their Facebook page and with the #ofiaichisreading. Gardai investigating the fatal road traffic collision that occurred in Castleblayney last night have named the deceased as Stephen Marron, 47 years old, from Castleblayney. Garda Michael Devlin, 31 years old, who was injured has now been discharged from Hospital. Garda Devlin is stationed in Monaghan Garda Station. The incident occurred at around 11.30pm last night. Shortly before the crash a Garda had attempted to stop a silver Audi A6 close to Castleblaney Garda Station. This car drove off and the Garda was dragged by the car for about 500m before it crashed into another car, a Skoda Octavia, on Main Street. The driver of the Skoda was pronounced dead at the scene. His body has been taken to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital Drogheda where a post-mortem examination will be carried out by the State Pathologist. The driver of the silver Audi, a man in his 40s, was arrested at the scene and is detained at Carrickmacross Garda Station under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984. A 34-year-old male who was arrested at the scene remains in custody at Carrickmacross Garda Station under the provisions of Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984. Gardai wish to renew their appeal for witnesses that may have been in or around Castleblaney last night at the time of the collision to contact Carrickmacross Garda Station on 042 9690190, The Garda Confidential Telephone Line 1800 666 111, or any Garda Station. A new permanent flood relief scheme will be of great support to businesses and community groups in Louth according to Fine Gael Councillor John McGahon. The Government has approved the establishment of a permanent flood relief scheme for small businesses, community, voluntary and sporting bodies affected by flooding. A new permanent flood relief scheme will be of great support to businesses and community groups in Louth, helping them to deal with the aftermath of the flood events we know will become increasingly common", said Cllr McGahon on Tuesday. My Fine Gael colleagues, the Minister with responsibility for Defence, Paul Kehoe, and Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys, sought Cabinet approval for the measure today (Tuesday) and I am delighted that it has been given the green light. The target group for this scheme are sole traders and small businesses with a small number of employees, as well as voluntary, community and sporting bodies. It will be demand-led when these groups experience flood damage as a consequence of a severe weather event to their premises and where they have been refused flood insurance. Successful applicants will receive a "quick" payment which will be capped at an upper limit of 5,000. While the cap of 5,000 is likely to meet the requirements of the majority of applicants there is scope for a further payment of up to 15,000 after a more detailed assessment of the loss incurred. In the past, the Department of Defence operated temporary humanitarian support schemes in conjunction with the Irish Red Cross following incidents of flooding. Four such schemes have been opened since 2015 (Storm Desmond, Storm Eleanor, flooding in Donegal and Laois). The establishment of these schemes have operated on an ad-hoc basis. The Irish Red Cross will continue to administer applications for assistance in accordance with a memorandum of understanding due to be agreed with the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation. This new scheme will put these supports on a permanent footing giving assurances to businesses and community and sporting groups in Louth", Cllr McGahon concluded. A team of researchers of Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), dredging firm Van Oord and Australias national science agency CSIRO travelled to healthy coral parts of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia for the large scale collection of coral eggs. At some time following the full moon in November there is a single moment that all the coral releases eggs, the coral spawning. The researchers want to be there when the spawning takes place, to collect the floating clouds of eggs and bring them to places where the reef needs to grow. Ship with pumps and tanks on its way to the spawning area (TU Delft/Instagram). Fragile coral eggs Working with coral larvae has been tried and tested on a small scale and in special tanks. The researchers will now be investigating on location whether this process can be upscaled by collecting the fragile coral eggs on a much larger scale, using adapted pumping installations that can be used on dredgers for example. Aerial surveillance Shortly after the spawning, the eggs float to the water surface where they accumulate depending on the current. The researchers locate these floating clouds of eggs from the air using a small aircraft. "It's an exciting proces", says Professor Mark van Koningsveld from TU Delft, "because we then have to get to the eggs really quickly by boat, containing our pumping and research equipment, so we can do our tests; the next opportunity to test this process in the wild isn't for another 12 months, when the coral spawns again." Manual collection during earlier transportation tests of coral eggs.Top photo shows spawning near Heron Island (both photos: Citizens of GBR/Gary Cranitch). Optimise pump systems It is important that the fragile eggs are still alive when they reach the storage tank. To make their journey as smooth and safe as possible, TU Delfts and Van Oords researchers have spent the past few months optimising the pumping systems. For example, the pump needs to cause no eddies during suction and has to stay floating on the surface of the water. Also, the type of pump turned out to play an important part in the design. The researchers will be testing two types of pumps and two types of storage tanks in Australia. During lab tests in the Netherlands, alternatives were used to mimic the structure of coral eggs as closely as possible, such as fish spawn, peas, blueberries and little balls of gel. The research project is subsidised by the Australian and Queensland Governments and is part of the Advance Queensland SBIR initiative. This news item was originally published on the website of Delft University of Technology. Read also on this website Van Oord wins DPC Innovation award 2017 for its reclamation projects in the Maldives, 1 December 2017 Research team uses specially-made GPS trackers to chart Irrawaddy river, Myanmar, 31 January 2017 Expertise: Enabling delta life Country: Australia More information Delft University of Technology Faculty Civil engineering/water resources Delft, the Netherlands +31 15 278 16 46 www.citg.tudelft.nl Van Oord Rotterdam, the Netherlands +31 88 8260000 www.vanoord.com Video of spawning of coral in a tank. Test of underwater pump system with coloured balls of gel. With Christmas time coming up- its easy to just focus on the task ahead. But its also important to make sure your business is future-proofed. Dynamic Business asked founders what their businesses are doing to make sure they are future proof. Jake Colvin, Co-Founder, Director of International Operations, Owlet Baby Care: The best method for future-proofing your business is to create gold standard products or services that meet the needs of your target audience. At Owlet, weve spent tens of thousands of hours researching, developing and testing products with new and expecting parents to ensure our offering delivers more than our competitors. Speak with your customer community and understand what they care about now and anticipate what their needs will be in a few years. Above all, listen to feedback. Ask what your customers would improve about your product and then align their suggestions with third-party research results (i.e. your Net Promoter Score) to prioritise the list of actions. By continuously learning, iterating and watching for market opportunities youll be in a greater position to ensure business longevity. Sam Allert, Chief Executive Officer, Reckon Australia: Your business needs money to survive. As such, steady cash flow should be the first move to improve resilience. Regular cashflow forecasts are important to keep track of what is going in and out, and its particularly important to leave room for late payments or unexpected repairs. Even if your business is profitable, a lack of cash in the bank can cause problems. Tracking physical cash is particularly difficult, meaning digital payments are the best option where possible. Online tools can be used to automatically record financial activity, making it much easier to forecast goals and identify financial challenges before they exacerbate. Resilience also relies on adaptability. Cloud tools are a great option for growing businesses, as users can benefit from a pay-as-you-go model. When it is time to expand, cloud subscriptions can be grown in tandem with the pace of the business or dialled down during more challenging periods. Dr Aron DSouza, Founder and Managing Director, Sargon: Future-proofing a business requires looking at the future in a very different way. Its not as much about what might happen in the next five years, but rather the next twenty to fifty years. So, a truly future-proofed strategy prepares companies to disrupt themselves, before others disrupt them. Our business, Sargon, is disrupting an industry whose incumbents are more than a century old. We have developed defensible competitive advantages and allocated capital to innovation. It has required us to think, and act, like entrepreneurs. Disruption does not happen overnight. Amazon planned and executed their strategy for twenty years before its power to disrupt truly came to the fore. Salesforce, AirBnB and Netflix have similar stories to tell. Creative destruction is the true motor of capitalism. Companies must look through the uncertainty, towards the far future, with plans that recreate themselves to continually drive the process of value creation. Yanir Yakutiel, CEO, Lumi: Ensuring business longevity and sustainability demands a long term approach and making sure that we are never too settled on our laurels, particularly given the increasingly saturated nature of the small business lending market here in Australia. Clayton Christensen coined the term disruptive innovation back in the 1990s and he used it to describe the emergence of a unique technology which allows a whole new population of consumers at the bottom of a market access to a product or service that was historically only accessible to consumers with a lot of money or a lot of skill. This resonates strongly with our core team philosophy in bringing to market a compelling and sophisticated lending solution for small business owners. At Lumi, we are constantly looking at how we can disrupt the landscape for small business lending in Australia and our customer-first approach combined with our intelligent credit-decisioning means we are able to provide fast and secure loans quicker and more effectively. By continuing to invest in our platform and team, we are driving an ambitious growth strategy that will see us continue to grow and thrive in the next five years. Stuart Craig, Chief Executive Officer, Asia Pacific, Crestron: Whether youre in IT or interior design, the key thing to making sure your business remains relevant is ensuring youre always ahead of the customers needs. At Crestron, we have made it our mission to help our customers stay ahead of the curve. Being solution orientated and offering bespoke solutions is key to ensuring our business is around in the next five years. Staying in touch with what our customers want is important, but it is also vital that we keep an eye on the future. Our role as a tech leader is to make sure that we are anticipating the needs of our customers, then setting and creating both the trends and technology that will be the norm in most businesses and homes within the next few years. Looking forward, we anticipate a wealth of changes lead by IoT innovation, big data analytics and Artificial Intelligence to keep challenging us and our customers, as we all look for greater efficiencies and collaboration at work and at home. Our dedicated research and development team is constantly listening to customer feedback and exploring market forecasts to evolve our technology offerings and help keep us one step ahead. We are also actively identifying opportunities to offer our services to new vertical markets and working with our extensive technology partners to broaden our channel and customer pipelines. Sabri Suby, founder and Head of Growth at King Kong, King Kong: My business, King Kong, is in a service based business, so a lot of our business strategy is team. To future-proof we make sure we have a great team and that we always have a core of potential candidates. The first part of that is providing a really good workplace for our team to work, making sure it is a really good environment. Also upskilling them and teaching them more than any of our competitors are willing to do.That reputation gets out there its a small circle. We take groups of people with no or intermediate knowledge and put them through our online training at King Kong academy to turn them into seasoned marketers. That allows us to future-proof the business in terms of always having a highly skilled team to be able to carry out the work and have the King Kong way embedded in the way they carry out tasks. George Lucas, CEO, Raiz Invest: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has spoken out in favour of wider use of national currencies in trading with other countries, speaking at the Economic and Trade Cooperation Committee of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in Istanbul. "The use of the own currency in mutual payments is crucially important. There is no other way but to make use of our own national currencies. Otherwise we will continue to be under pressure from currency rates," Sputnik cited the Turkish leader as saying, Erdogan stressed that as soon as the U.S. increased customs duties, "the whole world started to search for some defence mechanisms." In March, Washington imposed 25% tariffs on steel imports and 10% on aluminium imports, initially exempting an array of countries from the new regulation. However, since 1 June, the decision has been in effect with regard to all the states, including the European Union, Mexico and Canada. On 10 August, U.S. President Donald Trump separately authorized the doubling of steel and aluminum tariffs on Turkey, up to 50 and 20%, respectively, which led to the Turkish lira falling to a historic low. Deputy Interior Minister of Georgia Natia Mezvrishvili says the presidential election runoff is being conducted in a largely calm environment, but that 11 cases of possible election-related violations are being investigated, involving both the ruling party and the opposition, Agenda.ge reports. Mezvrishvili did not confirm the oppositions allegations that an individual opened fire at opposition supporters in the village of Chumlaki of eastern Georgia today. The individual was drunk and the incident had no link to politics. The individual is now at the police station, Mezvrishvili said. Mezvrishvili said that Interior Ministry operative groups have been mobilized around the country to prevent confrontations. We are reacting to any incident which is within the scope of our competence in an urgent manner and local and international observers are being informed regarding our activities on election day, Mezvrishvili said. Welcome Remarks Remarks by Benoit Cure, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, at the Foreign Exchange Contact Group meeting, Frankfurt, 28 November 2018 I am very pleased to welcome you here today to the Foreign Exchange Contact Group (FXCG) meeting. Thank you for coming to Frankfurt to share your views and insights with us. In my short introductory remarks, I would like to address the importance of strengthening the foundations of the foreign exchange (FX) market. I will argue that we all have a role to play here, and that adopting and adhering to the FX Global Code (the Code) is a powerful way to support change and engage non-signatories in the change process. Let me start by briefly illustrating a few of the most notable changes to the FX market structure in recent years. Since our market contact group was set up in 1999, the FX market landscape has undergone a deep and broad structural evolution, which has gained significant momentum in recent years. On the sell side, one of the most notable changes relates to the execution of trades. FX trading has become increasingly electronic and automated, reflecting technological advances. The share of spot FX trading that is conducted electronically has almost doubled in the past ten years and now constitutes a substantial majority of daily turnover. The process of growing digitalisation coincided with the emergence of new market participants, trading venues and innovative services. Despite these developments, however, liquidity provision has become more concentrated. Today, fewer market participants account for an increasing share of FX turnover. We have observed similar changes in market structure on the buy side. For instance, over the past few years asset managers have generally increased their activities in FX-related products and have, over time, collectively emerged as important players in the FX industry. Together, these structural evolutions have had implications for how the market functions and how central banks monitor the FX market. On the monitoring side, one tangible implication was the need to broaden the FXCGs outreach to appropriately reflect the new, and more diverse, investor landscape. The ECBs market contact groups are open to all interested market participants that apply for membership. It is important for us to follow a transparent application and governance framework. This is why the FXCG terms of reference, application forms and meeting material, such as agendas, the list of participants, presentations and summaries of our and other ECB market contact groups discussions, are available to the public via the ECBs website. Only if we reach out to all relevant stakeholders can we hope to improve our understanding of the functioning of the market and of new or emerging trends in exchange rate developments. The proper functioning of the market is particularly important for us, of course. The Global Foreign Exchange Committee (GFXC), which was established last year, is a forum that is exclusively dedicated to promoting the highest standards of conduct and a robust, fair, liquid, open and appropriately transparent FX market. Integrity, compliance and accountability have become even more important as the set of market players has grown more diverse. Responsible investment is critical for financial markets to be able to fulfil their important social role of facilitating the flow of capital across the globe and to support trade, investment and, ultimately, growth and employment. So Im pleased that all of you have signed up to the Code. Effective change can only come from within. The industry has to lead this process. And the Code provides the benchmark around which market participants can discuss what is acceptable behaviour, and what is not. The fact that all of you are signatories to the Code not only promotes the effective functioning of the FX market, it also sends an important signal about the integrity of euro area financial markets. I welcome this. But acceptance is increasing globally, too. The Statement of Commitment, which was developed as a way for market participants to voluntarily demonstrate their adherence to the Code, now has more than 500 adherents from all over the world.[1] Of these adherents, the majority are banks, while nearly 10% are central banks and a further 10% are buy-side institutions. In order to foster further buy-side adoption of the Code, the GFXC agreed to establish a working group on buy-side outreach. This working group is led by the ECB and aims to enhance transparency around the benefits for buy-side institutions of adopting the Code. This process will be facilitated by the first tangible improvements following the implementation and adoption of the Code, improvements that are becoming increasingly visible. We have seen examples of improved execution quality, as evidenced by reduced rejection rates and hold times. Improved disclosures increasingly allow market participants to make more informed decisions. And we have seen a higher degree of transparency as market participants are now more comfortable in judging what information to share and how. The Code also reflects a much broader movement in financial markets towards fair and ethical trading practices. Consider the traction that sustainable investment has gained within the financial markets industry in recent years. Green finance is no longer a niche market. The ECB is therefore also supporting work on sustainable finance-related topics in various fora, including at the level of the G20. All of this means, and with this I would like to conclude, that adhering to the Code has benefits that go well beyond the FX market. As signatories, you are ambassadors for responsible investment. We need broad and active engagement, and the contribution of the entire FX industry, to continue ensuring that the Codes principles appropriately reflect the structure of the FX market. In this respect, we rely on you, our Foreign Exchange Contact Group members, to do your utmost to fulfil this expectation and support us in driving this process forward. Thank you. I dont know how to describe this exactly. It may be the most insulting thing anyone in the Trump administration or campaign has done to Jewish Americans. Mike Pence invited Rabbi Loren Jacobs to give the invocation at his Michigan campaign stop today. Jacobs is actually a Christian who leads a group who call themselves Messianic Jews. He spent eight years with the group Jews for Jesus. In his blessing, he actually says hes not Jewish: God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, God and Father of my Lord and Savior Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah, and my God and Father, too. For Messianic Jews, Yeshua = Jesus. (More on Jacobs HERE.) Maybe this tweet best describes it in terms Christians might better understand: Imagine inviting an imam to do a eulogy for slain Christians, dressing him up as a priest, and have him start with a prayer to Allah. That's basically what Pence just did. https://t.co/boUe3nxdo4 Greg Fish (@GregAFish) October 29, 2018 Or this: For the gentiles who follow me: this is like inviting someone in blackface up to offer solidarity for the African-American community. Fuck this horrible administration. https://t.co/YOv1lcq65m Barry Caro (@BarryCaro) October 29, 2018 Click the image below to play the video Coming the day after the horrific right wing extremist terrorist attack on the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, its hard to comprehend but given Pences evangelical approach to all things, its hard to see this as an accident. Jewish people are responding with outrage around America. This is disgusting. Messianic Jews are an evangelical-backed movement meant to convert Jews who are disengaged with Judaism to Christianity. They're a missionary movement, and a predatory one at that. https://t.co/duBcj0ZodE Aleksei Vampire-tin (@ai_valentin) October 29, 2018 UPDATE: Vice President Pence is blaming Lena Epstein, a Jewish Republican who is running for Congress in Michigans 11th Congressional District against Democrat Haley Stevens, who he said invited the rabbi: Team Pence says: "He was invited by Lena Epstein to offer a prayer at the event, which he did early in the program. The VP invited him back on stage to deliver a message of unity. He was not invited by the VPs office to speak on behalf of the Jewish community. Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) October 30, 2018 Despite throwing Epstein under the bus, heres Pence introducing Jacobs as a leader in the Jewish community to give a prayer for the actual Jewish people who were slaughtered in Pittsburgh: Statement on Jewish Faith and Religious Tolerance: pic.twitter.com/QUxYG3ZIh5 Lena Epstein (@LenaEpstein) October 30, 2018 Epstein is either falling on her sword for Pence or is admitting she invited a fake rabbi widely despised by actual Jews to give a prayer honoring actual Jews who were murdered only a couple days before by a vicious anti-Semite. Either way, she has certainly doomed her campaign and Haley Stevens will be the woman, a Democrat, who replaces the odious David Trott, a Republican, in Michigans 11th Congressional District: UPDATE 3: Despite the fact that Jacobs was there ostensibly to say a prayer for the people murdered in Pittsburgh, he was mostly there to play politics: He did not name the individual victims of the Pittsburgh massacre, but named four Republican candidates, including Epstein. I pray for them and for the Republican Party and its candidates so that they would honor you and your ways, that you might grant them victory in this election, he said from the stage. UPDATE 4: The Jewish Democratic Council of America released the following powerful statement: Statement by Jewish Democratic Council of America Executive Director Halie Soifer WASHINGTON, D.C. After Saturdays horrific massacre in Pittsburgh, all Americans have an obligation to speak out against anti-Semitism and hatred. On Monday, Mike Bishop and Lena Epstein did the opposite, demonstrating a failure of leadership when they stood by as a Messianic Jewish preacher invoked Jesus at a campaign rally with Vice President Pence. So-called Messianic Jews are not a part of the Jewish community, and espouse views considered deeply offensive. In choosing this individual to give a unity prayer at the Pence campaign rally, Epstein demonstrated that she lacks both the judgment and understanding to lead Michigans 11th Congressional District. Epstein and Bishop are out of touch with interests and values of the Jewish community and many of their constituents, who would like to see leadership in the face of adversity and division. On Monday, Epstein and Bishop silently stood on the wrong side of history at a critically important time, which is yet another reason the Jewish Democratic Council of America strongly supports and endorses their opponents, Elissa Slotkin and Haley Stevens. UPDATE 5: Hold the presses. Turns out Jacobs isnt a fake rabbi. Hes just a fake. Even his own organization disowned him: Loren Jacobs was stripped of his rabbinic ordination by the UMJC [Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations] in 2003, after our judicial board found him guilty of libel, Monique Brumbach said in an email. [] Meanwhile, mainstream Jewish leaders and experts on the faith said they could not fathom why GOP congressional candidate Lena Epstein, herself a longtime member of a Detroitarea synagogue, invited Jacobs at all to her rally Tuesday because in their eyes hes not even a real Jew, let alone a rabbi. We dont even recognize him as a rabbi, Rabbi Marla Hornsten, past president of the Michigan Board of Rabbis, told NBC News. Even to call him a rabbi is offensive. Better roads. Cleaner water. Real Democracy. This post is part of a new project at Eclectablog called A Fresh Michigan. Our goal is to help people understand the astonishing impact they can have on the future of our state by supporting the three statewide ballot proposals along with Sam Bagenstos and Megan Kathleen Cavanagh for the State Supreme Court. You can read more about this project HERE. Check out and share our non-partisan voter guide for a new Michigan at AFreshMichigan.com. Now heres the kicker. Passing Proposal 1, Proposal 2 and Proposal 3 are essential for transforming this state, but these victories for democracy could mean less than nothing unless we send BOTH Megan Kathleen Cavanagh and Sam Bagenstos to Michigans Supreme Court. These are the stakes There is a VERY good chance that these popular ballot initiatives particularly 2 & 3, which will up update our electoral system for the 21st century will be challenged in court by the same billionaires and outside groups who could not defeat them at the polls. And when they are challenged, the case will most certainly end up before the State Supreme Court. At the moment, Republicans enjoy a solid 5-to-2 majority in Michigans top court. Its a majority theyve held for all but a short period of time for decades. If that doesnt change on November 6, any one of our 2018 ballot proposals could be stamped null and void. However, if we elect both Democratic Party-endorsed candidates, Megan Kathleen Cavanagh and Sam Bagenstos, progressives would have a 4-to-3 majority and we could ensure that the transformational change voters seem poised to enact on November 6th is solidified. And because Proposals 2 and 3 are amendments to the constitution, Republicans cant do what they did when our Emergency Manager law was crushed at the polls and simply pass a bill that completely ignores the voters will. A Republican-controlled Michigan Supreme Court is the GOPs ace in the hole. It can overturn the actions of a Democratic Governor, Secretary of State, and Attorney General, as well as block access to the ballot for proposals and undermine proposals which the voters adopt, former Michigan Democratic Party Chair and badass progressive attorney Mark Brewer told us. This is why EVERYTHING that we care about is on the ballot when we vote for the candidates running for Michigans Supreme Court. Dark money gets what it pays for You know who doesnt have to be convinced Michigans Supreme Court matters? Corporate interests and outside groups. Shady, anonymous special interests have spent tens of millions keeping our Court in Republican hands for decades. For the 2010, 2012 and 2014 campaigns, the Brennan Center for Justice found that Michigan was home to the most expensive and least transparent Supreme Court campaigns, according to the Michigan Campaign Finance Network. And the only reason that wasnt true in 2016 was because the races werent competitive, yet outside groups still spent millions. When it comes to dark money that cant be traced back to its sources and the buying of Justice, Michigan is like no other state, the MCFN argues. And the payoff for corporations has been huge. [T]he Michigan Supreme Court has handed down staunch conservative rulings in recent environmental and labor cases, The New Republics Matt Ford reports in a must-read piece Can State Courts Save the Liberal Agenda? While the right has largely been interested in using their majority to enable polluters and limit workers rights, the battles on the state level will become even more intense now that there is unshakable conservative majority on the United States Supreme Court. If a case rises to the U.S. Supreme Court that leads the justices to overturn the landmark case that legalized abortion in 1973, Michigan would revert to the last abortion law on the books a 1931 law that made performing an abortion a felony, unless it was to save the life of the mother, Kathleen Gray of the Detroit Free Press reported. The law has no exceptions for rape or incest. Even same-sex marriage and adoption could eventually fall back to the states. But the issue that will almost certainly be taken up by our states Supreme Court is partisan gerrymandering. Just this week, the U.S Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge to an electoral map Pennsylvanias Supreme Court issued to replace an illegal GOP gerrymander. By turning down the GOPs appeal, the U.S. Supreme Court has shown the way forward to stop gerrymandering at the state level: elect progressive state supreme courts in states that hold judicial elections, and elect Democratic governors who can appoint progressive justices in the states that dont elect them directly, Wrote Daily Kos Stephen Wolf. Again and again, Democrats have won nearly as many or more votes than Republicans and the GOP still managed to capture super majorities thanks to maps that contort the will of the public. This crime against democracy could end by the time the next maps are drawn after the 2020 census. But only if we have four Supreme Court justices that owe their positions to the voters and not their donors. Here they are. Megan Kathleen Cavanagh A lifelong Michigander, Megan Kathleen Cavanagh has been one of our states top appellate court for the past fifteen years. Like her father, former Michigan Supreme Court Justice Michael Cavanagh, her overarching interest is to ensure that ALL people who enter the judicial system receive fair treatment and, toward that goal, serves as a councilperson for the Negligence Section of the State Bar of Michigan which she describes as a diverse group of plaintiff and defense attorneys dedicated to finding consensus on important issues affecting citizens fair and equal access to the courts. Unlike her two Republican-endorsed opponents who were both appointed by Republican governor Rick Snyder and who have sought and received the endorsement of Right to Life, Cavanagh has been endorsed by Planned Parenthood and nearly every labor union in the state. When asked about her work as appeals attorney, Cavanagh is clear: EVERYONE deserves fair access to our judicial system. I have committed my career to being an advocate for an open, fair and honest justice system because, she says, I firmly believe that that is the best way to advocate for every citizen who is affected by or works within that system. Visit her campaign website at CavanaghForSupremeCourt.com. Sam Bagenstos Its easy to think of everything we lost on November 8, 2016 when Donald Trump won Michigan and the electoral college by edging out Hillary Clinton in three Great Lake States. But we gained the motivation to reform our democracy and we gained the candidacy of Sam Bagenstos for Supreme Court Justice. The Free Press called him the most qualified candidate to seek a seat on the court in recent memory, which may be an understatement. If Clinton had won, Sam Bagenstos could very well have ended up on her short list of potential Supreme Court nominees. His campaign calls him a Fighter for Justice and his career illustrates thats not just good copy again and again. A Harvard Law graduate and former clerk for Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Bagenstos helped rebuild the civil rights division of the Justice Department after eight years of George W. Bush. Hes argued before the Supreme Court four times and is representing the citizens of Flint in class action lawsuit. His victories for Americans with disabilities and for pregnant workers have been cheered by both the left and the right. His willingness to run for this office in Michigan now is a recognition that conservative takeover of the federal courts demands that progressives refocus on what we can accomplish in a state where weve lived through a dark age of unrepresentative right-wing rule. We have come to rely in the civil rights world on the federal courts as the place that we can go to enforce our basic rights, and I think we have to face the reality that thanks to Donald Trump the federal courts are going to be closed for business for the protection of our basic rights for the next generation, he said. Im not being hyperbolic here. With Bagenstos leading a Democratic majority, Michigan will be a state where our rights are not for sale. Visit his campaign website at BagenstosForJustice.com. We need them both These two great progressive candidates give us the opportunity to completely transform our states highest court. And we have to elect BOTH Megan Kathleen Cavanagh and Sam Bagenstos. Otherwise, as Cavanagh said in a recent forum, Whoever gets elected wont be able to do anything but craft beautiful dissents, worthy of framing and little else. Fighting with Trump with what he hates most women, weed and democracy Michigan finally has a ballot we deserve and Michiganders are rushing to vote, possibly at record numbers. To be fair, Florida probably has the best ballot in the nation, in a year that offers so many fine choices in contrast to so many terrible alternatives. And Floridas ballot isnt stellar just because Andrew Gillum, a proven progressive who cares about the changing climate that threatens his states survival, could become the states first black governor. With 60 percent voter support of one ballot measure Amendment 4 Floridians can approve the biggest increase of new voters since the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Overturning this Klan-era restriction on people with felony records and restoring voting rights to 1.4 million Americans wouldnt be an unabashed rebuke to a racist president cheers on voting suppression. It would signal a new era in the nations most important swing state a state where the modern era of voter suppression began after cronies of Governor Jeb Bush help steal the state for his brother George W., with the help of the Supreme Court. At just 537 votes or 0.009%, the margin of victory in Florida in 2000 was the closest for any state in presidential election history (and dont forget that 22 times that number of Florida voters were improperly purged from the roles by state Republicans). But heres why Michigan is a close second to Florida. Trumps 2016 10,704-vote or 0.23% win in Michigan may be the second narrowest win in modern presidential history. While Floridians took almost two decades to fight back against Republicans assaults on democracy with even more democracy, the Mitten through a variety of separate but like-minded efforts has come together to avenge one most shameful days in our history in less than two years. The idea that Republican efforts to subvert the truth and public need to be countered with reforms that expand and enhance the power of voting is at the core of Greg Sargents great new book An Uncivil War: Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics. A pair of the key solutions he suggests are on the ballot on November 6. And if these proposals win, Michigan not only has a chance to mostly keep the Trumps out of our state in 2020 but to take this state back from the DeVoses and other rich conservatives whose rotting polices would never survive democracy that actually works for the people and not the donors. 1. Expanding democracy and ballot access. Sargent talked to us on the GOTMFV show about how automatic voter registration isnt just a key reform because registration deadlines are fundamentally and unnecessarily suppressive. It also frees up campaigns to do what campaigns should do activate and persuade voters. Proposal 3 in Michigan institute automatic registration, same-day voter registration an absentee ballot for any voter who wants one. Necessary reforms in the state with the 6th highest cost of voting in the nation. 2. Stopping politicians from picking their voters. Proposal 2 creates an independent gerrymandering commission as Sargent recommends in a state Republicans gerrymandered for their pleasure and electoral dominance despite a 50/50 voter turnout at best. And watching this entire process from signatures to likely victory has been one of the most reassuring civic events Ive witnesses in my lifetime. Volunteer support is everywhere and the billionaire-led opposition is comical. As Chris notes, Gerrymandering isnt just unfair, it is anathema to democracy and harmful to our country. You cant have a representative democracy when your representatives know their districts have been designed so their re-election doesnt depend on their representation. 3. Women leading the charge. Michigan Democrats have fielded, by happy accident, a ticket that is all-women with the welcome exceptions of Garlin Gilchrist, nominee for Litenaunuet Governor, and Sam Bagenstos, an extraordinarily qualified or given our current court overqualified candidate for Michigan Supreme Court. This is a record year for women who have outvoted men since the 1960s and just the appearance of a Democratic woman on the ballot is often seen as a rebuke to Trump, who bragged about his penchant for sexual assault. If there is a pink wave, as our Susan J. Demas named it, it will crest in Michigan. 4. Taking our back the Supreme Court. A Republican-controlled Michigan Supreme Court is the GOPs ace in the hole. It can overturn the actions of a Democratic Governor, Secretary of State, and Attorney General, as well as block access to the ballot for proposals and undermine proposals which the voters adopt, former Michigan Democratic Party Chair and badass progressive attorney Mark Brewer told us. Republicans have controlled our court for decades. And workers and the environment have paid. We need to elect Megan K. Cavanaugh and Sam Bagenstos because without them on our Supreme Court to apply justice, all our victories could be meaningless. 5. Filling potholes with pot. Its an idea whose time as come in 1977. Thats when John Sinclair, a Michigander sentenced to ten years for selling two joints in 1969, expected pot to be legal. Though it will still be federally banned, Michiganders will have a chance to sell marijuana if Proposal 1 passes. Our schools, cities and roads will benefit. And most importantly we can reduce or eliminate 20,000-cannabis related arrests a year and let these people live productive lives while the authorities focus on preventing violence. 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. This week marks the painful beginning of the lame duck (or, as I call it, enflamed duck) session in the Michigan State legislature. With a Democratic governor about to take the reins, Republicans are hell-bent to pass as much regressive legislation into law as they can before Gov. Gretchen Whitmer moves into her new office. One of the worst is an effort to stop union leaders from being able to take paid leave to do their jobs as union stewards, etc. The bill being considered is Senate Bill 796, introduced by Republican Senator Marty Knollenberg. Its hard to state the intent of this bill better than Democratic Senator Vincent Gregory did: Bills like this only serve one purpose theyre just another step in the systematic destruction of unions and workers rights, said Sen. Vincent Gregory, a Southfield Democrat and retired sheriffs detective who was a union leader. He said union leave time arrangements are an efficient, cost-effective way to quickly resolve employee disputes, disciplinary issues and other matters, and they help not just workers but also management. The amount of money this saves is trivial (less than $3 million a year statewide) but the true hypocrisy is revealed not by who it hurts but by who it protects: The proposed restriction would not apply to police, firefighters, corrections officers and employees of a transit authority that seeks or receives federal funding. Knollenberg said the work scope for teachers differs from the job functions of law enforcers and emergency responders, who must react at a moments notice while educators can handle collective bargaining issues any time after classroom hours are over. Opponents counter, however, that the legislation would make scheduling meetings between teachers and administrators more challenging, adding that release time saves districts on human resources costs. If this was being done as a matter of some convoluted principle that union leaders should have to do their work on their own dime, this legislation would be applied to ALL union members. However, as they have done nearly every other time when they attack workers (like when they made Michigan a Right to Freeload/Right to Work for Less state), Republicans carve out exceptions for groups they feel will support them politically in the future. So this is purely an attack on teachers and other government employees. Republicans even rejected a reasonable amendment by Democrat David Knezek: State Sen. David Knezek, D-Dearborn Heights, proposed a rejected amendment that would only allow school employees to use release time for union business that involves collective bargaining, grievances or labor-management meetings to address workplace issues. Knezek said he had no problem codifying a ban on using public dollars for political purposes, which is already illegal. But allowing union representatives to help settle workplace grievances during business hours can help save money, he argued. In other words, there is no principle involved here other than the well-established Republican principle of diminishing the ability of workers to collectively bargain for decent wages, working conditions, and benefits. They already have workers fighting for these things with one hand tied behind their back. This legislation lops off one of their feet, too. The bill has already passed the state Senate where every single Democrat voted against ti. It is now in the House Committee on Education Reform. The fact that this is in THAT committee just proves that this is a blatant attack on teachers. Make sure you contact your state Senator and state House Representative today and tell them to vote NO on SB 796. You can do that HERE. Attorney General Bill Schuette has been part of the team running the state of Michigan for the past 8 years. Why anyone would think he has suddenly come up with some new, out-of-the-box ideas on how to improve the states schools, just because hes now running for governor, is simply beyond me. But the good folks over at Bridge took one for the team, and spent an hour with Mr. Schuster, asking him some softball questions about public education in our state as part of their series of interviews with the candidates for governor recently. Here are Mr. Schuettes answers to some questions about education in Michigan, with a comment or two and a final grade on each answer from me 1. On how Michigan funds schools: He called for a review of state K-12 education spending, adding we need to focus on outcomes. Calling for a review is what politicians say when they dont know how to answer the question. The guy is running for governor, and has no idea what hed do about funding the states schools. Also, all weve heard from Schuette and Company for the past 8 years has been outcomes. Turn the page, Bill. How about some actual ideas for improving funding for the states schools? Like revisiting Proposal A, which switched school funding from a system based on property taxes to a foundation allowance; sending more money to schools with a higher proportion of students living at or below the poverty line; expanding funding for early childhood education, wraparound services, more school counselors, social workers, school nurses, and psychologists, restoring art, music, and physical education positions that have been cut over the past decade or so, especially in urban schools. Come on, Mr. Schustershow some imagination. Grade: F 2. On whether schools serving children with greater needs should get more funds: (W)e have to look at how we can provide greater training for teachers and for those who have a challenge in terms of their student population. Again with the we have to look at that nonsense. Its a pretty simple question, Billand the answer is yes. Theres no greater measure of a societys decency than how they treat those among their population with the greatest needs. This should have been a slam dunk. Instead, its another whiff. Grade: F. 3. On school accountability: Schuette called for an A to F grading system that would lead to improving schools getting extra funds. I believe in incentives, he said. Grades are not incentives, Bill. Incentives are carrots; grades are sticksyou dont start with the stick. And external incentives, like merit pay, dont work with higher-order tasks that require critical thinkinglike teaching. So Schuettes entire approach here is based on treating teachers like lazy bums who arent already giving their best effort every day. Which, if you know any teachers, is a ridiculously insulting way to approach working with teachers in our state, who have been treated like garbage by Mr. Schuettes party for the past 8 years, and even worse by Schuette himself, who fought to deny Michigan teachers the 3% that had been stolen from them by the Snyder administration for several years. So, even though assigning each school in the state an A to F grade is a simplistic solution to a complicated questionin the spirit of Bills thinking about school accountabilityGrade: F. 4. On whether Michigan should provide pre-K to all 4-year-olds: He said hell consider it. We ought to look at every idea and if it doesnt work then try something else, he said. One of the real no-brainers in education circles is that if you want the most bang for your educational buck, then directing spending at our youngest learners is the way to go. Universal pre-K makes so much sense, and would be such a boon to the states families, children, and economy, that it should come as no surprise that the best Bill Schuette can do here is another tepid suggestion to consider it. Which in Schuette-ese, is an unequivocal No freakin way! That would divert precious school tax dollars from charter schools, or private school vouchers, or closing public schools to open casinos, or private prisons, or for-profit brothels! Grade: F. Final Assessment: Its hard to imagine that a candidate for governor would have given so little thought to basic, obvious questions about a topic as important as educationbut here we are. In all of his public comments about education policy, Schuette has shown himself to be monumentally uninterested in the issues surrounding kids, teachers, and schools in our state. If you thought Rick Snyder and Betsy DeVos have been a disaster for Michigans schools (Narrator: And they have), Bill Schuette would make Snyder look like the love child of John Dewey and Diane Ravitch. Who, by the way, if she or he existed, would make an awesome State Superintendent of Public Education! If you care even a smidgen about public education, Bill Schuette would be the worst possible choice to be the states next governor. Hes earned the grade of F for his curious combination of disinterest and active hostility when it comes to education in our state. Michigans schools are not failingMichigans political leaders have failed our schools, our teachers, and our children. We can do better, and that starts tomorrow. Vote like your childrens education depends on itbecause it does. REMINDER: Our Eclectablog/GOTMFV Show fundraiser is Friday, November 30th at The Corner Brewery in Ypsilanti. Please join us and support the blog and pod. Sponsorships are ENCOURAGED! All the details are HERE. Rebecca Vallas on Twitter: @RebeccaVallas The Off Kilter Show on Twitter: @OffKilterShow MUST LISTEN episode of the Off Kilter Show (referenced heavily during the interview with Rebecca): Christopher Zarva at The New York Times: The Assault Against Science Continues at the E.P.A. Gretchen Goldman from the Union of Concerned Scientists: Can the EPA Protect Us from Ozone and Particulate Pollution Without Its Experts? What to Watch Jason Plautz at Reveal News: Trumps air pollution adviser: No proof cleaning up smog saves lives Progressives Everywhere with Jordan Zakarin: Where the minimum wage is rising and where the fight continues Jordan also has an ActBlue page where you can support several of the special elections going on around America HERE. Give us a five-star review at iTunes! The GOTMFV Show Facebook page is HERE! Music clips Intro and transition music: You Dress Like an Asshole by Not The 1s Progressives Everywhere intro/outro: Theyre Everywhere by Jims Big Ego Flint Water Crisis Update intro: Unclaimed by Mike Wagner/Total Strangers Outro music: Complain (from the movie Bob Roberts) by David Robbins & Tim Robbins So what does that mean for 2020, huh? You cant clone Jon Tester or Joe Manchin. And you probably wouldnt want to or youd get a bunch of mini-Manchins shooting holes in whatever happens to be the least popular policy of the moment. But we may want to clone Tammy Baldwin. In addition to the biggest Democratic House wave since Watergate, Democratic U.S. Senate candidates victories in at least seven states trump won in 2016 Arizona, Michigan, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and West Virginia. And this may be the promising sign from the midterm elections as we look ahead to 2020 especially when you consider that Republican Senate candidates won zero races in the states Clinton carried. However, despite these wins, Trump is still has a very good chance of winning a second election, argues Dr. Benjamin Waddell. He credits this advantage to the current White House occupants demographic advantage, which is a nice way of saying the states likely to decide the next presidential race are filled with a lot of white people. According to the Census Bureau, 76 percent of the population in Michigan is white, 82 percent in Wisconsin and 78 percent in Pennsylvania, Waddell writes. These numbers grow when we look at voting-age populations. Whites account for 79 percent of the voting-age population in Michigan, 86 percent in Wisconsin and 81 percent in Pennsylvania. His analysis is complicated by what actually happened in these states on November 6th. Democratic gubernatorial candidates in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin also won with, respectively, 53.3, 57.7 and 49.6 percent of the vote. These three states gave Trump his slight, fluke electoral college win in 2016, as he pulled in just 47.5, 48.2 and 47.2 percent of the vote. So Trumps party lost three governors races and Senate races in the three states he needs for reelection. And one Democratic candidate for Senate Tammy Baldwin actually got 66,620 more total votes in an off-year year election than Trump did in a presidential year. Thats almost three times Trumps 22,748 margin of victory over Clinton in the state. Waddell focuses his analysis mostly on the states Democrats lost this year Indiana, Missouri and North Dakota. These are states where Trump is popular and Democrats are not and they have not been for a while. Trump is far more unpopular in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, mostly because he was never that popular here and only eeked out wins by depressing the vote and giving voters the false impression that it was safe to vote third party. But Waddell is right to note that Trump and the GOPs hold on the whiter states of America is tight and unlikely to be broken by current political trends. Whats also worth noting is that while Trumps racist anti-immigration policies, which sparked a backlash in the suburbs, fare far better in these less diverse states, Democratic policies are also very popular with these mostly white voters. And its not just Medicaid expansion, which keeps seeping into red states. Winning these voters over is definitely possible while still firmly rejecting Trumps nativism, but it does require Democrats recognizing that Republicans havent just gerrymandered our electoral maps, theyve gerrymandered our language. The word conservative is almost synonymous with Christian in many parts of America. Just saying small government invokes an entire worldview complete with some of dog whistles that invoke Americas worst traditions. This is no accident. This ceaseless brainwashing is built on the conscious effort of half a century of some of the most successful, invidious marketing ever. For hard core racists, nothing a party that stands for a more inclusive America says can win them over but few Americans admit to this sort of racism, even to themselves. Instead the scam of conservative marketing creates a culture that traps tens of millions of Americans into a political movement thats determined to work them until they die. Democrats can mock or shrug away the power of metaphor and repetition but then were just denying science the science of how brains work. In the latest FrameLab podcast, pioneering linguist George Lakoff makes the case that Democrats need to repeatedly invoke their values so voters can understand how progressive policies hang together in a coherent worldview. What values do Democrats offer voters? Lakoff nails it down to: In a democracy, you need a government that is of, by and for the people. And private life depends on public resources. Listen to the whole show to understand why this matters so much. And while Democrats shouldnt clone John Tester or Joe Manchin and their more conservative appeals to extremely Republican states, they have to look at what Tammy Baldwin pulled off in 2018, handily winning a swing state ripe with voter suppression whose voters are nearly 9 in 10 white. Targeted early with millions in outside spending by the Koch network, Baldwin ran as pragmatic progressive favoring Medicare for All along with other methods of expanding Medicare and our current health care system. And while Medicare for All isnt itself a statement of values it does summon to mind one of the most popular Democratic policies in American history and a key differentiator between the two parties only one is for all. Im not saying this is the simple solution to Democratic expanding their appeal. Im just saying Tammy Baldwin is definitely on to something and we should probably figure out what it is. [Image by WisPolitics.com] Germany and France have spoken against toughening of sanctions against Russia after the Kerch Strait confrontation, the German newspaper Welt reported with reference EU diplomatic sources. Both countries said at an in camera session of European diplomats in Brussels that now it is necessary to develop "measures to consolidate confidence." The newspaper added that sanctions are not related to it. On November 25, three Ukrainian naval ships breached the Russian state border in the Kerch Strait. The Ukrainian ships did not respond to the legitimate demands coming from the vessels of the Border Service of the Russian Security Service (FSB) and the Black Sea Fleet that had pursued them in order to stop them immediately and thwart their dangerous maneuvers. Because of their blatant refusal to submit to the order, gunfire had to be used to stop the intruding Ukrainian ships. Three Ukrainian servicemen were lightly injured and later received medical treatment. In addition, the ships were detained. A criminal case was launched into the breach of the Russian state border. Later in the day, following Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenkos order, the Council of National Security and Defense of Ukraine decided to impose martial law in the country. The biggest and most profound victory in Michigan on Election Day was, for me at least (and LOLGOP chides me about mentioning this on the pod all the time) that Michigans Bigot-in-Chief, Bill Schuette is being replaced as Attorney General by lesbian attorney Dana Nessel. Dana is the amazing woman who helped bring marriage equality to the USA, something Schuette used OUR tax dollars to fight tooth and nail. Then he went on to get crushed by another incredible Democratic woman, Gretchen Whitmer. Having Jocelyn Benson as our new Secretary of State is icing on that very delicious cake. Early on, we said we wanted to have the next governor of Michigan on the pod and we did. Twice. Two other very sweet victories (both women who have been on the pod) are those of Elissa Slotkin in MI-08 and Haley Stevens in MI-11. Flipping the 8th Democratic and sending Mike Bishop, a bought-and-paid-for corporatist shill, into retirement as a pocket lint wrangler for Matty Moroun is a truly wonderful thing. The 8th hasnt had a Democratic member of Congress since Debbie Stabenow won in 1998. Flipping the 11th Democratic after two years of it being held by foreclosure vulture David Trott is also a truly wonderful thing. Trott made all the government connections he needed to make and then retired to go back to preying on the most vulnerable people in Michigan. The 11th hasnt had a Democratic member of Congress since Raymond Clevenger won it in 1965 (aside from two months when David Curson was elected in 2012 to fill a two-month vacancy when weirdo Thad McCotter resigned after engaging in election fraud.) The biggest loss for me was Sam Bagenstos, the incredible candidate for the State Supreme Court, who couldnt survive a wave year for women. Megan Cavanaghs victory is wonderful and that is a Democratic pick up for the Supreme Court. But we still have a Republican majority on the State Supreme Court now and, as Megan told a forum I recently moderated, without a majority, the best shell be able to do is craft beautifully-written dissents. The delightful and decisive passage of Proposal 18-2 (the screw gerrymandering proposal) and Proposal 18-3 (the easy AF voting in Michigan proposal) are both threatened by Sams loss because they will certainly be challenged in the courts and will end up at the State Supreme Court. However, theres no denying that, in the state legislature at least, the Democratic electoral blue wave in Michigan crashed hard on the breakwall of incredibly effective Republican gerrymandering. In 2014, Democrats got around 30,000 more ballots than Republicans in the State House races, but Republicans maintained a 63-47 majority. In Congressional races that year, Dems got 50,000 more votes but only 5 of the 14 Congressional seats. In 2016, Republicans did a bit better by getting 3,000 more votes the Democrats but they still held onto that 63-47 majority. This year was no different: In state House of Representatives races, 52 percent of Michigan voters voted for Democrats and 47 percent of Michiganders voted for Republicans. But Republicans kept a 58-52 majority. Likewise, Democrats picked up additional seats in the state Senate, but still found themselves on the minority end of a 22-16 split. Thats despite Democratic candidates besting Republicans 51 to 47 percent on the aggregate. Theres no question that Proposal 2 will change this if it survives a court challenge. Even conservative water-carrier Ingrid Jacques basically admitted in a silly little essay that Democrats loved Proposal 2 because it levels the playing field and Republicans hate it for precisely the same reason. But heres the bad news: that change wont happen until 2022, the first election cycle after that post-Census redrawing of the maps. Well have to wait four years before theres a level playing field with fair maps unless a court challenge thats underway and headed up by liberal attorney Mark Brewer is successful in the interim. Democrats won every statewide election. not just the top statewide races, but all eight of the education boards, and Democrats still could not even get a tie, let alone control of the Legislature, he told Bridge Magazine. Yet in the face of effective gerrymandering, we still managed a Democratic wave election. Even at the federal level, Democrats did better in the U.S. Senate than anyone would have thought possible given how many seats they were defending. And 2020 looks a LOT better for Democrats there. We also retook the U.S. House of Representatives, of course, a key victory in stopping the most outrageous actions of Republicans and the first real chance to hold Donald Trump accountable for his immorality and ethical vacancy. In 2008, my wife Anne and I helped run a GOTV operation in Milan that was exhilarating, exhausting, and impressive beyond words. We had hundreds of volunteers making calls and running canvass packs. Then in 2010, we did it again, this time out of an empty duplex unit with me sitting alone sending out canvass packs from a folding chair and card tables we loaned the campaign. It could not have been more depressing. We had only two people knocking doors that year: Anne and the boyfriend of my OFA Field Organizer at the time. I was a one-man phonebanker. The contrast was stark and the results put me on the couch getting drunk for two days and our country into a downward spiral that culminated in the election of Trump 6 years later. This year, though. Damn. THIS felt like a presidential year. Our volunteers in Washtenaw County, both within the County Party itself and from people new to politics, was nothing short of phenomenal. To give you an idea of just how big the turnout of Democrats was this year (a midterm year), here are some historical results from Washtenaw: 2008: Barack Obama got 130,578 votes 2010: Virg Bernero got 59,829 votes (midterm) 2012: Barack Obama got 120,890 votes 2014: Mark Schauer got 68,275 votes (midterm) 2016: Hillary Clinton got 128,483 votes 2018: Gretchen Whitmer got 124,894 votes (midterm) In Washtenaw County, without hyperbole, we crushed it. And this happened all over the state and all over the country. This election was a necessary first step toward even more positive outcomes for Democrats in 2020. Republican gerrymandering will force us to work harder and smarter and to continue to elect high quality candidates. But we can at least see the light at the end of the tunnel now. And if Barack Obama taught us anything, he taught us that having hope is crucial in changing things for the better. His administration is behind an bombshell on protections for pre-existing conditions thats set to go off right after the elections As many as 1 in 2 Americans could lose access to health care if a Republicans lawsuit backed by Trump Administration prevails and almost no one is talking about. As Donald Trump tries to gin up a racist fervor at a group of starving migrants that wont get here, if they ever do, until late November, the press is largely ignoring what may be biggest risk Americans health care since the GOPs last attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The Texas judge whos primed to eliminate the ACAs protections for preexisting conditions has been sitting on his opinion for six weeks now, Michigan law professor Nicholas Bagley tweeted last month. My money? The judge is waiting until after the midterms because he knows that bad ACA headlines would hurt Republicans at the polls. The lawsuit filed in February of this year by 20 Republican governors and attorneys general seeking to invalidate the entire law could result in a national injunction that rolls back protections for pre-existing conditions for people who get their coverage through the ACAs marketplaces and their employers insurance, depending on state laws. In June, the U.S. Department of Justice weighed in Sabrina Corlette, Maanasa Kona,and Justin Giovannelli reported. While it did not ask the court to block the whole ACA, the administration urged the court to strike down the laws guaranteed issue, preexisting condition exclusion, and community rating provisions. Estimates of how many Americans have some sort of condition insurers could use to deny coverage range from 50 to 129 million, enough to touch almost every family in the country. Trump like many other Republicans wont stop lying about protections for pre-exisiting conditions for two simple reasons. People want the protections the ACA gave them and Republicans want to take them away. Also theres this: On Wednesday, Trump was asked about the lawsuit by ABCs Jon Karl and the president denied that his Department of Justice is suing to end pre-exisiting conditions, which it is. Trump then offered a mangle of slurs that accused Democrats of bad things about health care, all of which more accurately described the policies hes actually backed. Instead of following up about the lawsuit, Karl asked another question that allowed to attack Democrats some more. The result? The president flagrantly lied yesterday about Republicans support for protections for preexisting conditions in a deliberate effort to dupe millions of voters in the upcoming midterms, Nicholas Bagley tweeted. So the lead story at @ nytimes is naturally about [checks notes] George Soros. There is no Republican plan to cover pre-existing conditions because the ACA is the only thing that has ever come close, by ending insurers ability to discriminate and put lifetime caps on coverage. The Trumpcare bill House Republicans passed and celebrated seemed designed to leave cancer survivors uninsurable. The Congressional Budget Office in a 2017 analysis said that less-healthy people, including those with pre-existing conditions, would ultimately be unable to buy individual health insurance (policies not tied to an employer) at premiums comparable to those under the Affordable Care Act, if they could purchase it at all,' Politifact reported. More Republicans are running on lies to defend the victories of Obamacare than the Republican tax cuts. And unless we can get the press and the nation to focus on whats actually at stake while Trump is trying to distract and divide us, they may get away with it. 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. Several us have become increasingly concerned about the lack of ethics on the part of market-leading companies at the moment. Kara Swisher's New York Times column is an eye opener, considering that she concluded that "too many digital leaders have lost their minds." She cited some frightening examples of poor leadership -- ranging from Saudi funding (concerning given the alleged murder of a reporter); to Facebook's Portal device, which appears designed to violate user privacy; to Elon Musk's increasing insanity; to Google's recent coverup of a massive user data breach that forced it to close Google+. Swisher's column points to the solution adopted by Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, who hired a chief ethical officer -- but I think that would just repeat the mistake we made with chief risk officers around a decade ago. In response to her piece, Scott Cleland, who runs Precursor Watch, commented that these huge firms and their CEOs have ethics problems following them around like the dirt that followed Pigpen in the Peanuts comic strip. These firms, through Section 230 of the U.S. Code, largely have been given immunity to civil law, which appears to have promoted wrong, unjust, dishonest, unethical, and/or uncivil behaviors by the firms' employees and leaders. While I think Cleland overemphasizes the impact of Section 230, which detracts from what is more likely a practice of hiring people who think ethics is optional, his proposed solution should work. He suggests these firms and executives need to be held more aggressively to the same laws we all must follow. I'll share my views on that and then close with my product of the week: a new video-conferencing solution that could evolve to make most business trips obsolete. Power Corrupts I'm sure you've all heard the saying, "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely," but I often think that as they come up the ranks, executives view this as a goal and not a warning. It is clear that at some point executives feel they have reached a level of power where the rules their companies have just don't apply to them. In a way I was lucky -- or unlucky, depending on how you look at it -- to have an extremely unethical father. I was lucky in that I saw the damage it did to his marriages, finances, opportunities and the quality of his life. I was unlucky because I was often collateral damage, as were my brothers, sister, and his wives. The amount of damage this behavior can cause, once it is discovered, can be devastating. It can wipe out the companies and the executives' personal fortunes, and in some cases it can even land them in prison. The thing is, it isn't as if these folks weren't already wealthy -- but it becomes a competition as to who has the most expensive car, the most yachts, the biggest island, or the prettiest mistress (even if she is an employee). They lose perspective -- placing physical things, often inanimate, as higher priority over the things they really should care about: their families, employees, image/reputation, and even their continued freedom. Ethics Officer Won't Work Over a decade ago, companies became concerned about taking on too much risk, and they came up with the not-so-brilliant plan of hiring risk officers. These folks had staff and were given the responsibility to ensure that the companies, generally financial institutions, didn't take on excessive risks. Instead, it was if these institutions suddenly felt that any risk was acceptable, and the U.S. market crashed catastrophically as a result of loans that weren't properly secured. What happened was that the risk managers had responsibility but no real authority, so while they were viewed as some kind of shield, they were in effect more like sacrificial goats. They became blame magnets, which actually didn't really work well either. Since they had no authority, the blame still flowed to the idiots making the bad decisions. Hiring ethics officers won't work either, because they won't have enforcement authority. Often, they won't have the necessary visibility into company practices to ensure that the firm complies with policies and laws -- let alone behaves ethically. If the government comes calling due to a CEO misdeed, there might be an attempt to throw the ethics officer under the bus, but law enforcement -- as with the risk managers -- likely will go after the decision maker and not the sacrificial goat ethics officer. Appointing an ethics officer might have the unintended impact of convincing the other executives that ethics is no longer their concern, and they might go off the ethical rails even more than before -- similar to what happened with financial institutions after they got risk officers. That, of course, most likely would be catastrophic, because governments and investors eventually react poorly to out-of-control CEOs. In fact, they tend to overreact with company-killing regularity. Internal Audit I think a better solution would to be to reinstate, fund, and once again empower internal audit operations in these firms, allowing auditors to function much as they did when internal auditing first came to be, largely after the market crash in the first half of last century. Internal audit can, and often does, operate like internal affairs in police departments. However, both of those operations often have been gutted over time, losing qualified people, funding and authority. Today -- particularly in some newer firms -- those functions are either nonexistent or assigned to an ineffective department of employee rejects who comply with the letter but not the intent of their mandate. Staffed, funded, and with adequate authority, internal audit not only would have the experience to root out bad behavior but also the ability to terminate those exhibiting it. The internal audit department also would have the added benefit of ensuring the quality of operations, something that firms like Tesla currently need badly. (Its plants are so badly run, the firm is hemorrhaging money.) When properly set up, internal audit's ability to prevent behavior ranging from just bad management to embezzlement and sexual harassment largely would be unmatched and could go a long way toward ensuring that a firm isn't taken out by its own employees. Wrapping Up Whether we are talking about the book Brotopia, which focuses mostly on misogyny at scale, or Technically Wrong, which focuses on idiotic product development practices, or on a slew of recent articles on related subjects, the common message is that these firms are largely out of control. Given that a number of us believe they are massively overvalued as well, the potential for a catastrophe driven by bad executive behavior is almost a given. Such a catastrophe could reset the market, likely wiping out jobs, 401Ks and savings tied to the segment. I think internal audit is the only type of organization that could be capable of fixing this problem in a timely way, and that the interim use of ethics officers actually would do the exact opposite of what was intended. I don't expect this will end well at all. I've been involved with video conferencing in some shape or form going well back to the 1960s, when I first saw the video call demonstration at Disneyland as a child. I was part of a joint Apple/IBM trial in the 1980s, which ended badly, and I've been involved with the technology since the mid-90s as an analyst. Generally, the cycle goes like this: The market gets really excited about technology that could reduce plane travel and increase employee collaboration, everyone and their brother jumps into it, companies buy the products, the employees avoid using them, the market consolidates, and in around five to 10 years, the market forgets and starts the cycle over. One of the more interesting recent attempts were telepresence robots with tablets that could display the faces of those remotely using them. They weren't that successful, even though they did attempt to deal better with creating the impression that the remote worker was there. Spatial, which launched last week, has an idea that, while not yet mature, could get us far closer to where we need to go. It uses augmented reality to create ghost-like avatars of the remote people, who then can move around the room and interact with others as if they were present. The remote workers also get avatars of those in the conference room, almost as if they dropped into the workers' homes to collaborate with them. Spatial Mission Planning Even though the technology is raw now, I can see that the increased application of artificial intelligence tech, better AR glasses, and improved rendering capability -- like what exists in the new Nvidia RTX platform -- could make this experience far more realistic. Even in its raw form, an impressive number of companies have seen the value and have signed up, because it seems to work better for a number of interactions than the technology they have. I really hate getting on planes, and I live in a resort town now, which means that I'm going to love anything that has the potential to make most of my air travel obsolete. As a result, Spatial is my product of the week. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ECT News Network. Rob Enderle has been an ECT News Network columnist since 2003. His areas of interest include AI, autonomous driving, drones, personal technology, emerging technology, regulation, litigation, M&E, and technology in politics. He has an MBA in human resources, marketing and computer science. He is also a certified management accountant. Enderle currently is president and principal analyst of the Enderle Group, a consultancy that serves the technology industry. He formerly served as a senior research fellow at Giga Information Group and Forrester. Email Rob. VANCOUVER Perhaps for the first time, sustainable solutions are starting to be scaled-up in the textile industry, but is there really enough investment capital available to ensure they succeed? Mike Schragger talks with Fashion for Goods Rogier van Mazijk at the last Planet Textiles event in Canada about the innovation process, new sustainable solutions that could help the fashion industry, and the need for billions, if not trillions of dollars to ensure these innovations can flourish. By Shawn Olson-Hazboun and Hilary Boudet A year after Washington state denied key permits for a coal-export terminal in the port city of Longview, the Army Corps of Engineers announced it would proceed with its reviewessentially ignoring the state's decision. This dispute pits federal authorities against local and state governments. It's also part of a larger and long-running battle over fossil fuel shipments to foreign countries that stretches up the entire American West Coast. We are sociologists who have studied how people respond to news about plans for big energy facilities in their communities. With President Donald Trump pushing hard for more fossil fuel production and exports, we believe it could get significantly harder for local communities to have a say in these important decisions. Access to Asia Oil and gas exports have dramatically increased nationwide over the past decade, ever since technological advances turned the U.S. from a top importer of these fuels to a growing exporter. Energy companies have sought more access to West Coast ports for decades for routes to Asia and Australia. The region's deepwater ports, railroad and pipeline networks, and proximity to some of the nation's most productive oil, gas and coal fields make it particularly attractive for export terminals. In some cases, exporting through the West Coast is the only economically viable option, as longer overland transportation routes would be too costly. Moreover, shorter trips by sea to reach China and other growing Asian markets cut costs. Yet Western ports do not export as much crude oil as other American coastal areas. Chart: The Conversation, CC-BY-ND Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration In addition, there are no facilities yet in California, Oregon or Washington for exporting liquefied natural gas, a form of the fuel that has been cooled to very low temperatures for easier storage and shipping. This is not for lack of trying. All the numerous export terminals energy companies have proposed for liquefied natural gas up and down the West Coast have faced significant public opposition that made securing permits hard if not impossible. Chart: The Conversation, CC-BY-ND Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration Likewise, relatively small volumes of coal are being shipped abroad from ports on the West Coast despite efforts to build new export terminals there. Chart: The Conversation, CC-BY-ND Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration Energy Dominance With his "energy dominance" policy, Trump has emphasized expanding production and export of fossil fuels and weakening environmental regulationsincluding those that address climate change. His administration is siding with energy companies and landlocked states like Wyoming and Colorado angling to ship coal, oil and natural gas mined and drilled within their borders to lucrative and growing Asian markets. At the same time, many local and state governments on the West Coast are on board with demands made by environmental activists for renewable energy development and advocates for more local control over development. Local supporters of fossil fuel exports point to the positive local effects these facilities can have. Labor unions, county governments, business councils and ports frequently argue that bolstering fossil fuel exports would create jobs, entice investment and increase the tax base. Opponents argue that transporting, storing, handling and shipping fossil fuelsvia railroads, pipelines and shipsendangers nearby communities and contributes to climate change. They point to oil train derailments, the public health perils of increased diesel fumes and coal dust, and pipeline explosions and leaks. They also highlight the climate implications of shipping fossil fuels abroad that may affect the carbon footprints of other countries, where the fuel would be burned. These people have maintained a virtual blockade against new export facilities so far. But in our study of this issue, we have found it remains unclear if the federal government will overturn or override local and state decisions to deny permits. Chart: The Conversation, CC-BY-ND Source: Shawn Olson-Hazboun and Hilary Boudet Mobilization Public opinion research indicates both support and opposition for fossil fuel export depending on fuel type. Our 2017 national survey showed that about a third of U.S. citizens sampled opposed exporting natural gas, while about half supported it and almost a fifth were undecided. Our forthcoming survey of Washington residents found similar levels of opposition to natural gas exports. We also detected higher rates of disapproval of oil and coal exports, with about half of residents opposing them. Activists in the Pacific Northwest have established what they call a "thin green line" of resistance against any big new fossil fuel infrastructure. Their protests have contributed to state and local decisions to deny permits, as well as the passage of ordinances and resolutions limiting such development. Cities like Portland, Oregon, have banned these projects altogether. Tribal governments have actively opposed many of these proposals, too. For example, the Lummi Nation played an essential role in stopping the Gateway Pacific coal terminal proposed for Bellingham, Washington. Legal fights have ensued. After Washington denied the permit for the Millennium Bulk Terminals coal export proposal, six interior states and several industry groups joined the company in a lawsuit. They allege that the state's decision violated the Constitution's commerce clause, which grants Congressnot statesthe power to regulate trade. In some cases, the courts have determined that local bans are not allowed. In others, companies have simply withdrawn proposals, especially after sustained public protests. Silencing Local Voices The administration is pursuing multiple workarounds for expanding fossil fuel export, including a recent proposal to set up export facilities on retired military bases. Energy companies and energy-producing states are trying to capitalize on the fossil-friendly administration. For example, senators from Texas, Colorado and Montana have encouraged Trump to use his authority under the North American Free Trade Agreement, or the deal that may replace it, to override Washington state's denial of the coal export permit. These moves at the federal level appear to be restricting opportunities for public participation in siting decisions, a development we find troubling. In the case of the Jordan Cove natural gas export project in Oregon, the federal agency with permitting authority over the proposal used a new process for soliciting public comments in 2017. Instead of taking part in a hearing where those attending could hear all comments, members of the public met one-on-one with agency staff and a stenographer. In previous research, we have shown how public hearings on energy projects are critical to the formation of active community groups, who use these opportunities to connect with like-minded individuals. While one-on-one meetings may seem more efficient and less prone to conflict, they may also stifle important local debates on these issues. And they could potentially push activists toward more confrontational tactics because they do not feel their voices are adequately heard through official channels. In addition, some companies have used existing permits and zoning to start handling a different fuel or expand facilities without undergoing environmental review and associated public comment processes. Despite years of successfully blocking fossil fuel exports from the West Coast, whether the thin green line will hold is far from clear. Its resilience will partly depend on what happens with global fossil fuel markets and the success of export proposals in Canada and Mexico. Its resilience will also depend on how hard the Trump administration is willing to push and how hard the West Coast is willing to push back. Reposted with permission from our media associate The Conversation. Irans top political and religious leader, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, told the countrys naval commanders on Wednesday that Tehran should boost its military capabilities in order to deter the countrys enemies, The Times of Israel reported. Increase your capability and readiness as much as you can so Irans enemies will not even dare threaten this great people, Khamenei said, according to the Reuters news agency, citing Khameneis official website. The Islamic Republic does not intend to start war with anyone, he added. Testing. Standards. Teacher evaluation. School turnarounds. Those were the issues that dominated education policy for decades. But they took a back seat in most places in the 2018 midterm elections. And experts expect that could be the case again in the ideas primary for the 2020 presidential race, which is expected to feature an unwieldy Democratic field. At the state level, candidates for governor were far more likely to have touted career and technical education, STEM, expanding early-childhood education, social and emotional learning, and especially, education funding, as opposed to issues like accountability, and even charter schools. Thats according to an analysis of candidate websites by the American Enterprise Institute, a right-leaning think tank. That evolution makes political sense, said Frederick Hess, the director of education policy studies at AEI. School reform the way its been understood in the Bush-Obama years became narrower and narrower and more and more removed from a lot of families concerns, he said. Over time you saw that the stuff of that agendatesting, accountability, teacher evaluationhas no constituency anymore. Instead, in his view, candidates are pivoting to politically safer topics that impact a broader range of children. And they are choosing to emphasize issues that arent well-defined and which have widespread support, he added. These things are pretty amorphous so its easy to make them sound nice without offending anybody. But Charles Barone, the chief policy officer at Democrats for Education Reform, a national group that advocates for charter schools and stringent school accountability among other policies, said he would never expect candidates to emphasize policies like testing on the campaign trail. When did people ever run on things like accountability? asked Barone, who served as an aide to Democrats on the House education committee. The reality is you have a very different set-up in each state or locality, you cant make sweeping generalizations. He noted that candidates who are fans of charter schools and strong accountability ran and succeeded in Colorado, the District of Columbia, and elsewhere. It wouldnt make sense, he said, for candidates to run on issues like the Common Core State Standards when most states have already figured out their standards and dont want to open them back up. Right now, he said, supporters of education redesign are pushing for things like ensuring that disadvantaged students have access to rigorous coursework and other issues that more directly affect teaching and learning. Thats the kind of hard work that is going to need to take place now, he said. Its just not the kind of change thats easy to explain in a stump speech. The DeVos Factor Democratic candidates for governor, in particular, were more likely to focus on early-childhood education and education spending, including increasing teachers salaries, AEIs analysis found. Those ideasalong with expanding career and technical education, offering all students free lunch and breakfast, improving school climate, and overhauling school facilitieswere featured prominently in a list of great education policy ideas for progressives in 2018" published by the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank that was closely associated with the Obama administration. CAPs list did not mention testing, accountability, or dramatic school turnarounds. Talking about things like early-childhood education and workforce preparation isnt just about avoiding controversyits about capturing the imagination of voters, said Lisette Partelow, the director of K-12 strategic initiatives at CAP. Its a campaign, youre talking about big exciting ideas, she said. They are future-thinking visions. That doesnt mean that many Democrats are going to suddenly stop supporting, say, the Common Core State Standards, she said. I dont think that means that there is a big shift in focus when it comes to policymaking. To be sure, the shift away from a political emphasis on accountability, standards, and testing is partly a function of the Every Student Succeeds Act, which turned major policy decisions over to states, said Elizabeth DeBray, a professor of lifelong education, administration, and policy at the University of Georgia. Congress really designed ESSA to be politically palatable to the states, and I think what youre seeing is that, by and large, it is, she said. Whats more, lawmakers at the federal level havent focused much on these issues since passing ESSA. Democrats, in particular, have generally been attempting to push back on the agenda of U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, not arguing the finer points of state accountability plans, she said. The secretary has helped bridge long-standing political divides in the Democratic community between civil rights groups, which favored strong accountability measures to help disadvantaged students, and teachers unions, which worried about the impact of those measures on teaching and learning, said Tamara Hiler, the deputy director of education at Third Way, a think tank in Washington that champions center-left ideas. Betsy DeVos is sort of a uniter in a way, on the left, Hiler said. Democrats had a lot more infighting when their party was in power. Its easy to be anti-Betsy DeVos. It made some of the infighting that we used to see a little bit less of an issue. 2020 Implications The lack of talk about testing and accountability doesnt mean though, that the so-called reform wing of the Democratic party is no longer influential, Hiler said. She pointed to two gubernatorial victories by education-redesign-minded Democratscharter school fan Jared Polis, a Colorado congressman who won his race for governor, and Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, who has clashed with teachers unions and was re-elected this year. But some candidates seemed to make headway running against Obama-era education redesign. Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat who was just elected governor of New Mexico, sought to get rid of the states AF grading system and ditch the PARCC tests, which were designed using a grant from Obamas Education Department. And she called for scrapping the states tough teacher-evaluation system, another policy pushed by Obama and company. Richard Woods, the newly re-elected Republican state schools chief in Georgia, turned an endorsement from Obamas long-serving education secretary, Arne Duncan, against his opponent, Otha Thornton. Duncan touted Thorntons advocacy for rural students. But Woods said Duncan was for high-stakes testing, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. The change in tone on accountability opens up the question of whether Democratic presidential candidateswho will be fighting for airtime in the runup to the 2020 contestwill decide to take on the issue of annual standardized testing. After all, ESSA is technically up for reauthorization in 2019, and Congress could use that opportunity to back away from the requirement. The Democrats that Ive heard talking about testing are not talking about testing in an equity way, but more of an opt-out way, said Andrew Saultz, an assistant professor and program director of educational leadership at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Ore. Who are the interest groups that are really going to go out and fight for accountability policy and testing policy? And absent the kind of wonky policy folks and researchers, I dont see the public saying, This is really important for our kids. Theyre saying, Can you believe they have another test? But, even given that, Saultz doesnt expect that proposals to ditch standardized testing will get much traction, in part because ESSAs predecessor, the No Child Left Behind Act, helped focus attention on achievement gaps. I dont think theyd go away from that requirement, he said. Introduction Hope Derry and Janett Nunez Meza are not a threatening pair. Derry is an unassuming 30-year-old from Ohio, and Nunez Meza is a 40-year-old originally from Nicaragua. The two work for the Bladen County, N.C., migrant education department, recruiting migrant students into the program and working with older youths who are not in school to help them get their General Educational Development credentials or learn English. Its their job to show up at farmworker camps and talk with workers. The first time they came to Thunder Camp, one of the camps that house migrant workers at a nearby farm, they encountered a group of workers in their late teens and early 20s. One task that migrant education recruiters have to do when signing up migrant workers for their programs is ask their names and where theyre coming from. One said he had to get his ID because he didnt know his birthday. (Out-of-school youths must prove they are between 18 and 21 to join the educational program for older youths.) He never came back. He had jumped out the window and run away, Derry said she later learned. The anecdote illustrates one of the challenges of providing educational services to migrant farmworkers: gaining their trustespecially now as anti-immigrant rhetoric escalates at the national level. Other challenges abound: disrupted schooling, competing with the lure of paid work, language barriers. These difficulties add up and are reflected in poor academic outcomes for this vulnerable group of students. Less than a third of migrant students score at or above proficient levels on their states annual reading and language arts assessments. In this part of the country, migrant workers pick blueberries, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and tobacco, work on Christmas-tree farms, or have other jobs that require them to move from county to county and state to state. North Carolina is a stop on a typical migrant-worker route. Workers might start on the East Coast in Florida, picking tomatoes, oranges, or any number of other crops; pass through to North Carolina, where they may work with tobacco or blueberries; and end up in Michigan, harvesting everything from arugula to zucchini before starting over again. Inevitably, some of these workers bring their families, which means migrant students are going in and out of school districts around the country as their parents move for work. Map: A Typical Circuit On the East Coast, many migrant workers start their work year in Florida, pass through to North Carolina in the spring, and then head to Michigan in late summer and fall. Then they repeat the circuit the next year. Overall, more than 840,000 immigrant students are in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Education, and many migrant students are a subset of this group. About 302,000 children and youths were eligible for migrant education services in the United States for the 2016-17 school year, according to the most recent data from the Education Department. Of those, about 28,000 are out-of-school youths. Some of these young people came directly from other countries, either alone or with parents. Some are American-born children of parents who immigrated here to do migrant work. Some are here undocumented, and some arrive on H-2A visas for temporary agricultural workers. The out-of-school-youth program serves students who are of an age to qualify for migrant education services but are doing migrant work rather than going to school. Migrant education departments provide services in hopes of helping them finish high school, get a GED, maybe start thinking about college, or, at least, get some supplementary education help, such as learning English. The state migrant education programs are essentially part of the federal migrant program . They receive their funding directly from the federal government, though it is up to the state to decide how the program should be run. Some school districts serving this population can also use federal Title I funds targeted to schools with high percentages of low-income children. One of the main goals of migrant education services is to get and keep children in school. Because of the educational disruptions that come as students move between school systems, learning is even more difficult than for the typical student. Meanwhile, the attraction of work is always there. Often, students drop out of school to labor in the fields full time. Thats what happened to Rosalva Salazar. Salazar lives in family housing at a work camp in Bladen County with her parents, sister, husband, and two childrenages 5 and 3. The family migrates from Florida to North Carolina and then to Michigan, before repeating the trip all over again each year. Salazars parents made the same trip when she was a child. Salazar said she used to like Florida, because thats where she started the school year. By the time she got to North Carolina, though, she would often find that she was being taught what she had already learned in Florida. That seemed like a waste of time to her. Whats the point of school? she remembers thinking. She dropped out in 9th grade and started doing migrant farmwork full time. In retrospect, she said the decision wasnt well thought out. I just didnt want to go to school anymore. I already knew how to work. I didnt mind working, Salazar said. She regrets it now. At 24, she is too old to qualify for North Carolinas migrant education program, but she is still trying to get her GED. Last spring, I was at the Oklahoma state capitol with thousands of other Oklahoma teachers. Schools had closed as teachers left their classrooms and banded together, demanding that lawmakers take action to fund a long overdue teacher pay raise and provide additional funding for Oklahoma students. It was a time of optimism and hope for teachers who had long endured some of the lowest wages in the country and had not seen an increase in funding for classrooms in 10 years. The collective feeling was that finally the voices of teachers would be heard, and we would bring about change for the good of the profession, and most importantly, for the good of our students. At the time of the walkout, I was in the middle of my student-teacher training. (Im now a certified high school English teacher.) My path to becoming an educator was not linear in its courseIm in my 30s and a first-year teacher. I come from a family of professional teachers going back several generations, but I entered the field of education somewhat reluctantly. Although I loved working with kids and had witnessed firsthand how transformative education could be, I was reluctant to pursue teaching because of the low pay and disrespect Oklahoma teachers have suffered. I will finish my masters degree in education from the University of Oklahoma this year, and throughout my time in the program, I have seen many talented and capable colleagues recruited by school systems in surrounding states. Many teachers would love to stay here, but Oklahoma ranks 49th in teacher compensation . Higher pay and better resources entice too many trained and talented educators to leave the state and pursue positions where they feel more valued and fairly compensated. Transitioning into professional teaching has been a joy, but also an incredible challenge. When I saw my blank canvas of a classroom in July, I knew it was my responsibility to create a space where students could grow as a community and learn effectively. The creative part was exciting, but the financial obligation to make that happen was less than thrilling. I outfitted my classroom and have bought books and curriculum for the benefit of my students out of my own pocket. In addition to the financial burden, the hours of extra work I have put in to be at the top of my game in the classroom have also been a surprise. I come in early and stay late and have worked through the weekends. I work with kids before school, after school, and during my lunch break in an effort to help them be successful. I have learned that teaching doesnt stop when the kids go home. Theres planning to do, papers to grade, parents to contact, and meeting after meeting to attend. Teaching is not for the faint of heart especially in Oklahoma. Remember in November The efforts teachers made for themselves, their students, and the good of the profession were not fruitless. After nine days out of the classroom and at the capitol, teachers came away with a modest pay raise . The walkout also forced lawmakers to approve additional classroom funding for the first time in 10 years. But, tired of scraping the bottom of the barrel, Oklahoma teachers wanted more. We wanted to make a living commensurate with the effort and investment we have put into our education and training. We wanted smaller class sizes and more resources for our students. We wanted to be able to attract and retain talented, dedicated, and trained teachers that have been bleeding into Texas and Kansas and other surrounding states. When the walkout finally ended, we felt we were going back to the classroom with scraps fallen from the table. However, Oklahoma teachers were not pacified, and a new motto emerged: We will remember in November. Teachers would use their votes to effect change that was so sorely needed. Oklahoma teachers largely united around Drew Edmondson, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate. He was with teachers at the capitol each day of the walkout and had a plan to increase education funding by raising the ridiculously low gross production taxes on the oil and gas industry, adding taxes on tobacco, and eliminating capital gains tax deductions. Widespread support of the teacher walkout and dissatisfaction with Republican Gov. Mary Fallins administration and other GOP lawmakers made it seem possible that Edmondson could be competitive in Oklahoma. Edmondson believed that the $6,000 raise for teachers was just the first step in the process of Oklahoma becoming competitive with surrounding states in recruiting and retaining skilled educators. There was hope that this election would be the turn of the tide for Oklahoma education. Edmondson was opposed by Republican candidate, Kevin Stitt, who followed the popular narrative of being a businessman political outsider. Stitt opposed the teacher walkout and pay raise, supported Oklahoma Taxpayers Unite, an anti-tax group, and had no plan to increase funding and teacher pay other than auditing and oversight of current spending that has already been cut to the bone. It was abundantly clear that he was not a candidate who would be a champion for public education. Looking for Reasons to Hope The election results in the gubernatorial race were not what the majority of teachers wanted for Oklahoma education. Stitts victory was a slap in the face because our fellow citizens voted for leadership that was blatantly opposed to public education. Political tribalism has resulted in public education being torn apart and the good folks of Oklahoma have forgotten that their real tribe is their local school, their local hospital, their local place of worship not a cable TV network. This election cycle has made me question my future as an Oklahoma teacher. Is this a career I could see myself thriving in long term? I think it is. However, I am not quite as sure that I could continue being a teacher in Oklahoma for years to come if the outlook for the profession in our state does not improve. The amount of work that dedicated and trained Oklahoma teachers put into their jobs is staggering. They deserve to be compensated fairly. Although the result of the governors race was a crushing defeat for Oklahoma education, there is still reason to hope. The teacher walkout spurred an influx of pro-education teacher candidates and six classroom teachers won their races . Sixteen members of the Oklahoma teachers unions education caucus, current or former educators and support staff, were elected to the state House and Senate . Governor-elect Stitt claims that one of his main priorities as governor is making Oklahoma a top 10 state for education. Although this is a goal that all educators can rally behind, many remain skeptical. In one of his first interviews as governor-elect, Stitt remarked that teachers would not be controlling the narrative when it comes to public education. As a public school teacher, I am anxious to know who will be. To build the largest and most complete Amateur Radio community site on the Internet - a "portal" that hams think of as the first place to go for information, to exchange ideas, and be part of whats happening with ham radio on the Internet. eHam.net provides recognition and enjoyment to the people who use, contribute, and build the site. This project involves a management team of volunteers who each take a topic of interest and manage it with passion. The site will stand above all other ham radio sites by employing the latest technology and professional design/programming standards, developed by a team of community programmers who contribute their skills to the effort. The site will be something of which everyone involved can be proud to say they were a part. We welcome your comments. The eHam.net Team, Revision 07/2020. La Paz, Nov 28 (epa-efe).- As a gesture of love, a group of activists gathers outside slaughterhouses in Bolivia to comfort cattle during their last minutes of life just before they proceed to their fatal destination. With a glance, a gesture of affection or a simple hug to the trucks transporting the animals, activists with The Save Movement aim to provide a little bit of calm and affection to the living beings that will face death in the coming minutes. "It is the only gesture of love that they will feel and receive in their lives as they are animals that are considered products and not beings that feel," Nevenka Potocnik, one of the activists who came from Argentina to participate in a series of vigils at Bolivian slaughterhouses, tells EFE. The Save Movement is an international network that started in Toronto, Canada, and operates in at least 60 countries around the world where activists hold vigils outside slaughterhouses to give animals a little love and be witnesses to the animals' suffering, the activist says. The movement also promotes veganism, abstinence from consuming animal products and peaceful activism based on love and respect for all living creatures. "The only difference between a dog and a cow is our perception, why do we love some and eat others?" Potocnik asks. A handful of activists gathers outside the municipal slaughterhouse of La Paz waiting for the trucks transporting the animals to talk to the drivers and ask them for permission to approach the truck for a few minutes and say goodbye to the animals. "The approach is totally peaceful, we talk to the truck driver and ask him for two minutes and tell him we want to see and say goodbye to the animals," Maureen Lomez, the organizer of the movement in Argentina, says. The activists also visit slaughterhouses for pigs and chickens to provide them with a little water. They take photographs and videos of their activities to upload them to the movement's social media with an eye toward encouraging more people to join the cause and have a closer look at this reality. The activists have saved at least 10 animals that were taken to a kind of natural "sanctuary" where they can live free and without the risk of being taken back to a slaughterhouse. Lomez says that they managed to save calves, chickens and lambs at vigils held in Argentina, Spain and Costa Rica. UCM awarded Government training contract University College Isle of Man have been awarded the contract to provide training for a government business program. The education provider will run the Micro Business Grant Scheme. Laurence Skelly MHK, Minister for Enterprise, commented: We are delighted to be working in partnership with such a prestigious and reputable education provider. We believe the UCM team are fully committed to providing course participants the best learning experience possible. The UCM training model covers all the key components that applicants need to start a business.' Last year, the scheme trained 160 individuals and helped create a record number of 88 new businesses. UCM will help applicants to consider their business idea, determine the viability of the business and develop their business plan. Jo Pretty, Principle at UCM commented: We are delighted to have been chosen as the training provider for the Micro Business Grant Scheme. This is a fantastic opportunity for UCM and the Department for Enterprise to support the development of new small businesses and entrepreneurship across the Island. We hope training will provide the business acumen and necessary skill set needed to get applicants businesses off the ground. The international meeting on Syria held in Kazakhstans capital, Astana, will help its participants to achieve progress on the issue of Syrian regulation and creation of an infrastructure to facilitate the return of the refugees, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated on Wednesday, TASS reported. "Another meeting in Astana has begun literally today. It will last for two days, and I hope that on the outcomes of this meeting, we will find new grounds for progress on the solution of the issues in the sphere of military and political stabilization, as well as in the area of increasing humanitarian aid, and cooperating in the modernization of the infrastructure necessary for the refugees return. Of course, within the political process on preparing for the negotiations under the aegis of the UN in Geneva," Lavrov noted. The international meeting on Syria is taking place in Astana on November 28-29. A plenary session is set to take place on November 29. French government faces looting and riots Protests turned to chaos in France with riots and looting as thousands of demonstrations protests against Macrons fuel taxes. The unrested protests which on Saturday left some Parisian boulevards transformed into battlefields. Police forces fired tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets at thousands of protesters who trashed restaurants and shop-fronts and set wheelie bins ablaze on Pariss streets. Macron warned his cabinet on Monday that the protests could tarnish Frances image and congratulated police forces for their efforts. French government faces looting and riots WATCH French president insisted he would not be bounced into changing tack in his push for a transition towards cleaner energies or alter policy because of street violence. The yellow vest protests have blocked roads across the country, impeding access to fuel depots, out-of-town shopping malls and factories. Looting and riots break out over Macron's statements. Several luxury shops were pillaged. Azerbaijans First Vice-President, President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, UNESCO and ISESCO Goodwill Ambassador, Mehriban Aliyeva, congratulated national artist Tahir Salahov on his 90th birthday. "Today Azerbaijan celebrates a significant date - birthday of great artist, remarkable teacher and public figure Tahir Salakhov," AzerTac quoted Mehriban Aliyeva as saying. "Dear Tahir Teymurovich, you're rightfully called living classic and one of the pioneers of an entire art style. Your works are part of the world culture's treasury. They mark an entire era in development of Azerbaijan and the world's art... A true art, which lives for centuries," she stressed. "Perhaps those who claim that true artist should love the world in which he lives are right. The world of your art is bright and diverse. Its distinguishing feature is true patriotism, deep and sincere love for your native country - Azerbaijan," Mehriban Aliyeva noted. First Vice-President of Azerbaijan wished Tahir Salakhov good health and well-being, peace and new achievements that will make admirers of his great talent happy. Tahir Salahov is a Soviet, Azerbaijani and Russian painter and draughtsman. He studied at the Azimzade Art College in Baku in 19451950 and the Surikov Moscow Art Institute in 19511957. Salahov won an early recognition: his diploma work, The Shift is Over, was exhibited in 1957 at the Moscow All-Union Art Exhibition and received public and critical acclaim. He became one of the leading representatives of the so-called "severe style", a trend in Soviet art of the 1960s that aimed to set off a hard, publicist, realist view. Pieces of Gypsy Girl' mosaic returned home Stolen pieces of the Gypsy Girl' mosaic, one of the most famous artifacts unearthed in the southern Turkish province of Gaziantep, arrived in Turkey aboard a Turkish Airlines (THY) flight yesterday. Missing pieces of the famous 'Gypsy Girl' mosaic arrived in Turkey from the US on Tuesday via Turkey's flag carrier Turkish Airlines. 12 PIECES WERE SENT BACK Under a protocol signed this May by Turkeys Culture and Tourism Ministry and Bowling Green State University in the US, 12 pieces of the Roman-era mosaic were sent back to Turkey from an airport in Chicago, Illinois. The pieces landed at Ataturk Airport in Istanbul to be taken to the southeastern Gaziantep province via another plane, but they are expected to reach the city early Wednesday, as some flights were canceled due to fog at Gaziantep Airport. According to reports, the pieces will be temporarily exhibited in a special case at the Zeugma Mosaic Museum in Gaziantep. Later, they will be restored to their original place among the larger mosaic, famed for the ancient girl's haunting eyes. Gypsy Girl was discovered in the early 1960s during unauthorized excavations in the ancient Roman town of Zeugma, and the parts were smuggled abroad. Years later, the pieces turned up on exhibit at Bowling Green State University, after the university bought the mosaics for $35,000. President Erdogan to start three-nation South America tour As Turkey seeks to strengthen economic relations with South America, President Erdogan will visit Argentina, Paraguay and Venezuela. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit three South American nations from Nov. 30-Dec. 3, an official statement said Tuesday. Turkish President will attend the G20 summit in Argentina and then visit Paraguay and Venezuela on Dec. 2-3. The summit will discuss trade, growth, climate change, migration, terrorism and other issues of global importance. On the sidelines of the summit, Erdogan is expected to hold bilateral meetings with other leaders and representatives of international organizations. These will be the first visits to Paraguay and Venezuela on the presidential level. 'Reform in the structure of the UN Security Council is a must' Addressing at the meeting of OICs Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation,Erdogan expressed that international organizations have disappointed Muslims over Palestine and civil wars President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued statements at the 34th Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (COMCEC) meeting in Istanbul on Wednesday. "As long as Muslims and people defend justice and freedom, Palestine will continue to exist," Erdogan told the meeting. He said Turkey will encourage its people to visit Jerusalem "so occupiers will not dim the lights of the holy city". "NATIONAL CURRENCIES ARE IMPORTANT FOR LIBERATION" President also expressed that international organizations have disappointed Muslims over Palestine and civil wars, although Muslims pressed them for solutions. "From Syria to Iraq, Yemen, Palestine, the crisis and the bloodshed in the region stem from the lines drawn after World War I. We should not fall into trap of those who give more weight to a drop of oil than a drop of blood," Erdogan said. "If millions are poor and starving in Yemen, Muslims are responsible for that and not others," he added. Regarding the national currency using in the bilateral trades, "Using national currencies in trade among Islamic countries is important for liberation from imperialist shackles," he said, underlining that increasing trade among members of the OICs economic cooperation committee makes them strong. The Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (COMCEC), established in 1981, is one of four standing committees of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). UK rejects extradition of FETO suspects A British court on Wednesday rejected Turkeys request for extradition of three suspects linked to the Fetullah Terror Organization. Turkey has a right to appeal the courts verdict within 14 days. Turkey's extradition request for fugitive Gulenist Terror Group (FETO) suspect and businessman Hamdi Akn Ipek was rejected. The Westminster Magistrates Court said former Koza Holding director Hamdi Akn Ipek and two other defendants -- Talip Buyuk, the alleged imam of the terror group in Iraq, and Bank Asya director Ali Celik -- are not to be extradited to Turkey, but the verdict is open to appeal. IPEK MAY FACE UP LIFE SENTENCES IN TURKEY Ipek was detained in May after Turkey's request for his extradition over charges related to the coup attempt. Ipek, accused of attempting to overthrow Turkeys government and violating the Constitution, may face up to two aggravated life sentences. Hamdi Akn Ipek He also faces a possible 132 years in prison for setting up an armed terror group, military and political espionage, forging documents, and money laundering in Turkey. A court confiscated his passport and banned him from leaving London but released him on a 50,000 ($66,000) bail, a common procedure in extradition cases in the U.K. Hazelnuts, like olive oil, cheese and other agricultural products, differ in flavor depending on their geographic origin. Because consumers and processors are willing to pay more for better nuts -- especially in fine chocolates and other delicacies -- testing methods are needed to reliably authenticate the nuts' country of origin. Researchers now report in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry that NMR analysis could fill the bill. People have eaten hazelnuts since at least the Mesolithic era. Today, they're the third most commonly grown nut, after almonds and walnuts. Italian hazelnuts fetch the highest price, followed by those from Turkey, the U.S., Georgia and Azerbaijan. A few previous studies evaluated analytical techniques for chemically profiling hazelnuts, but they focused either on a small region or on particular hazelnut varieties. Thomas Hackl and colleagues wanted to find a method that could pinpoint geographic origin regardless of variety. The researchers ground up 262 nut samples from different regions around the world and extracted the metabolites, which they identified with proton NMR spectroscopy. The spectra showed that nuts from different regions had different metabolite profiles, with certain compounds proving distinctive for specific areas. For example, the amount of betaine, an amino acid derivative, varied significantly in nuts from different countries. Thus, betaine could potentially be a good biomarker in a future test to identify the source of a particular batch of nuts, the researchers say. For an even more accurate determination, the team's new NMR method -- which had an accuracy of 96 percent -- could be used in combination with a previously devised test that assessed a different group of hazelnut metabolites using liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry. ### The research was supported by the University of Hamburg. The abstract that accompanies this study is available here. The American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society, is a not-for-profit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS is a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. ACS does not conduct research, but publishes and publicizes peer-reviewed scientific studies. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio. To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact newsroom@acs.org. Follow us on Twitter | Facebook Russian President Vladimir Putin has held a telephone conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Kremlins press-service said. Putin and Erdogan have discussed the situation in Syria, particularly in Idlib, during the telephone call. "It has been agreed to beef up joint efforts aimed at the implementation of a memorandum on stabilization of the situation in Idlib, signed in Sochi on September 17, including the fight against terror groups," the statement reads. The president also emphasized the importance of work of the guarantor countries of the Astana process in promoting inter-Syrian dialogue. In addition, there was an exchange of opinion on matters of stability and security in the Black Sea Region in the context of the incident in the Kerch Strait area. Today, scientists can sift through quadrillions of genetic sequences in open-access databases, searching (free-of-charge) for new ways to engineer crops, develop medicines or even create synthetic organisms. But a controversial proposal that aims to share the benefits of digitized DNA could affect scientists' ability to use these data, according to an article in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society. In late November, representatives from 110 countries will meet in Egypt to consider whether genetic data should be subject to the Nagoya Protocol. This international agreement, ratified in 2010, was designed to combat biopiracy by requiring users of genetic resources to obtain consent from and share benefits with the country of origin. However, until now the Nagoya Protocol has applied only to biological material, such as the leaves or roots of plants, and not to digitized DNA sequences, writes Senior Correspondent Cheryl Hogue. If the proposed changes to the pact are approved, scientists might have to pay fees to donor countries for commercial products developed from the genetic sequences. Applying the Nagoya Protocol to genetic resources is controversial. Proponents, many from developing countries, argue that the change will provide financial incentives to conserve biodiversity. On the other hand, many industry and academic groups argue that barring access to genetic sequence information would discourage innovation, hinder R&D and even endanger public health by increasing the cost and time to bring therapeutic drugs and vaccines to market. Some are hoping for a compromise that will provide financial benefits to donor countries for conserving biodiversity, while also minimizing costs for users of the genetic data. ### The article, "Countries debate plan to equate digitized DNA data to biological material," is freely available here. The American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society, is a not-for-profit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS is a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. ACS does not conduct research, but publishes and publicizes peer-reviewed scientific studies. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio. To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact newsroom@acs.org. Follow us on Twitter | Facebook When you think of China, do you think of potatoes? Maybe not, but in the Loess Plateau region of northwestern China, potato is the main food crop. Even though it is such an important crop there, potato yields are lower than they could be. The area has a dry climate with uneven precipitation. Droughts are common, especially in the spring when crops are just starting to emerge. If soil moisture was more reliable, the potato crops would do better. Rong Li and colleagues at Ningxia University in Yinchuan, China set out to discover if different tilling and mulching practices could improve soil moisture--and crop yields--in the Loess Plateau. The researchers studied three tillage options (conventional, no-till, and subsoiling) combined with three mulching options (no mulch, straw mulch, and plastic film). Usually, the Loess Plateau fields are plowed, or tilled, after the harvest and left bare until spring planting. This is known as conventional tillage. Conservation tillage can mean not tilling the soil at all between crops (no-till). Another conservation option is subsoiling: deeply breaking the soil with a long blade, without turning it. Tillage helps water soak into the soil and improve water storage within the soil. Li said, "We didn't know whether tillage with varied mulching practices would improve drought resistance during the potato seedling stage in these dryland farming areas." The team studied the same field over two years--a relatively dry year followed by a wet year. For each combination of soil management options, they measured topsoil temperature, soil water content, seedling emergence rate, and marketable yield of potato tubers. Plastic mulch warmed the soil more than the other mulching options. Straw mulch had a cooling effect compared with no mulch. However, all three options produced soil temperatures in the right range for rapid potato germination. So it seemed that topsoil temperature was not the key factor for early seedling growth. Rather, the team concluded that drought was the main factor limiting crop production. Soil moisture during the seedling period is essential for crop success. Techniques that maintained soil moisture improved both the emergence rate and strong seedling establishment. Both are essential for good tuber formation and marketable yield. Other findings include: Seedling emergence was lowest with conventional tillage and no mulch compared to other treatments. The highest emergence rates occurred when subsoiling was combined with plastic mulch. Within the same tillage option, seedlings in mulched plots were much taller than those without mulching. Straw mulched plots had the highest potato tuber yield, followed by plastic mulch. Conservation tillage (both no-till and subsoiling) with straw mulch led to higher potato yields and marketable tuber rates compared to other treatments. The highest marketable potato tuber yield was found in the combination of subsoiling with straw mulch. This yield was 14.9% higher compared to conventional tillage with no mulch. Li and his team concluded that if the main goal is to increase soil moisture, straw mulch should be selected. Straw is also relatively low-cost and environmentally friendly, while plastic mulch can cause pollution problems and is a less sustainable method. "We recommend conservation tillage combined with straw mulch as a more favorable farming practice for drought resistance in potato seedlings," Li said. "This combination has great potential for greater crop production in our region and similar semi-arid dryland farming regions of the world." In the Loess Plateau, where the potato is king, these findings may prove to be truly royal. ### Read more about this research in Agronomy Journal. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. WASHINGTON, November 28, 2018) -- Researchers have developed a way to grow human platelets in the laboratory from stem cells derived from fat tissue. The achievement, reported today in the journal Blood, suggests manufactured platelets could eventually reduce the reliance on donated platelets to help patients with cancer and other disorders. Platelets are a component of blood that helps with clotting. Platelet transfusions can be life-saving for patients dealing with cancer or the effects of chemotherapy, infections, immune disorders, or platelet disorders. Over 4.5 million platelet units of plasma are transfused every year worldwide, a need that currently must be met by human donors. Because donated platelets have a shelf life of less than a week, supplies often fall short of patient needs. In addition, donated platelets are subject to inherent safety risks due to infection from the donor and immune response in the recipient. In the new study, researchers led by Yumiko Matsubara, PhD, of Keio University School of Medicine in Tokyo, Japan, built on previous efforts to prove that fat (adipose) tissue could be used to create a stem cell line that yielded functioning platelets in just 12 days. "By removing the donor from the equation, adipose-derived stem cells could be used to provide a ready supply of safe, tolerable platelets to meet an ever-changing demand," said Dr. Mastubara." Researchers initially sought to derive platelets from two other types of stem cells including one known as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS). They noticed adipose-derived cells, which were being used as a negative control in the experiments, had produced megakaryocyte- and platelet-sized cells that naturally expressed several genes important to producing platelets. After refining methods for coaxing adipose-derived stem cells to produce platelets, the researchers conducted a series of tests to determine whether the manufactured platelets would function similarly to natural human platelets. They verified that the lab-grown platelets contained hallmark proteins found on the surface of natural platelets, as well as granules that are key to the clotting process. Blood clotting simulations and experiments using mice confirmed that the platelets behave like donated platelets, gathering together into clumps to form clots. "Though more expensive to harvest compared to donor-derived platelets, this research demonstrates that platelets can be produced from adipose-derived cells by a rather simple method," said Matsubara. "Now that we have established an efficient manufacturing process to yield a large number of adipose-derived platelets, we next plan to perform preclinical studies using animal models to demonstrate efficacy and safety, followed by clinical trials in human patients." ### This study was funded by the Translational Research Network Program of Japan's Agency for Medical Research and Development. Blood, the most cited peer-reviewed publication in the field of hematology, is available weekly in print and online. Blood is a journal of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), the world's largest professional society concerned with the causes and treatment of blood disorders. ASH's mission is to further the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disorders affecting blood, bone marrow, and the immunologic, hemostatic, and vascular systems by promoting research, clinical care, education, training, and advocacy in hematology. blood is a registered trademark of the American Society of Hematology. A major international collaboration headed by researchers from the Danish iPSYCH project, the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Massachusetts General Hospital, SUNY Upstate Medical University, and the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium has for the first ti A major international collaboration headed by researchers from the Danish iPSYCH project, the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Massachusetts General Hospital, SUNY Upstate Medical University, and the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium has for the first time identified genetic variants which increase the risk of ADHD. The new findings provide a completely new insight into the biology behind ADHD. Our genes are very important for the development of mental disorders - including ADHD, where genetic factors capture up to 75% of the risk. Until now, the search for these genes had yet to deliver clear results. Researchers from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium have compared genetic variation across the entire genome for over 20,000 people with ADHD and 35,000 who do not suffer from it - finding twelve locations where people with a particular genetic variant have an increased risk of ADHD compared to those who do not have the variant. The results of the study have just been published in the scientific journal Nature Genetics. "The large amount of data enabled us to find, for the first time, locations in the genome where people with ADHD stand out from those who are healthy. The search for such genetic risk variants for ADHD has spanned decades but without obtaining robust results. This time we really expanded the number of study subjects substantially, increasing the power to obtain conclusive results significantly. In particular, we included a large number from the Danish iPSYCH cohort representing more than 2/3 of the total international study sample," explains Associate Professor Ditte Demontis from Aarhus University. She along with Raymond Walters of Massachusetts General Hospital are the lead authors of the study, working as part of the ADHD group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, an international consortium of researchers dedicated to uncovering the genetics factors that give rise to ADHD. These genetic discoveries provide new insights into the biology behind developing ADHD. For example, some of the genes have significance for how brain cells communicate with each other, while others are important for cognitive functions such as language and learning. "Overall, the results show that the risk variants typically regulate how much a gene is expressed, and that the genes affected are primarily expressed in the brain," explains Professor Demontis. The same genes affect impulsivity in healthy people In the study, the researchers have also compared the new results with those from a genetic study of continuous measures of ADHD behaviours in the general population. The researchers discovered that the same genetic variants that give rise to an ADHD diagnosis also affect inattention and impulsivity in the general population. "The risk variants are thus widespread in the population. The more risk variants you have, the greater your tendency to have ADHD-like characteristics will be as well as your risk of developing ADHD," says Professor Anders Brglum from Aarhus University. He is research head at iPSYCH and one of the leading researchers who directed the study along with Professors Stephen Faraone of SUNY Upstate Medical University and Benjamin Neale of Massachusetts General Hospital and the Broad Institute. "We also studied the genetic overlap with other diseases and traits. Through this we found a strong negative genetic correlation between ADHD and education. This means that on average genetic variants which increase the risk of ADHD also influence performance in the education system negatively for people in the general population who carry these variants without having ADHD," says Ditte Demontis. Conversely, the study found a positive correlation between ADHD and obesity, increased BMI and type-2 diabetes, which is to say that variants that increase the risk of ADHD also increase the risk of overweight and type-2 diabetes in the population. "These findings and results also underscore the importance of collaboration to advance discovery efforts. It is only through data sharing and working together that we were able to find these regions of the genome," explains Dr. Benjamin Neale. "The new findings mean that we now - after many years of research - finally have robust genetic findings that can inform about the underlying biology and what role genetics plays in the diseases and traits that are often cooccurring with ADHD. In addition, the study is an important foundation for further research into ADHD. We can now target our studies, so we can achieve a deeper understanding of how the risk genes affect the development of ADHD with the aim of ultimately providing better help for people with ADHD," says Anders Brglum. "We have laid the foundation for future work that will clarify how genetic risks combine with environmental risks to cause ADHD. When the pieces of that puzzle come together, researchers will be able to improve the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD" says Professor Stephen Faraone. ### The research results - more information Type of study: The genetic risk variants for ADHD can be found by screening the entire genome in a large number of people with ADHD and comparing them with healthy individuals. If a genetic variant is found to be sufficiently more common in people with ADHD compared with healthy individuals, the researchers can conclude that the variant most likely affects the risk of suffering from the disorder. A total of 20,183 people with ADHD and 35,191 control subjects were examined, including a substantial contribution from iPSYCH which collected genetic information from 14,584 people with ADHD and 22.492 people in a control group. External funding: The Lundbeck Foundation and several international foundations including the Stanley Foundation, NIH/NIMH and the EU. Partners: Many ADHD researchers from around the world who are organised in The Psychiatric Genomics Consortium. Read the complete scientific article in Nature Genetics. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-018-0269-7 Further information: Ditte Demontis Aarhus University, iPSYCH, Denmark (+45) 2853 9746 ditte@biomed.au.dk Anders Brglum Aarhus University, iPSYCH, Denmark (+45) 6020 2720 anders@biomed.au.dk Stephen Faraone SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY, USA sfaraone@childpsychresearch.org Benjamin Neale Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA E-mail: bneale@broadinstitute.org A technique to get more information from the blood of cancer patients than previously possible has been developed. The discovery could potentially accelerate early diagnosis, speed up drug discovery and lead to advancements in personalised medicines. The Cancer Research UK-funded study* is published in Advanced Materials today (Wednesday). The scientists, from the University of Manchester, collected blood samples from women with advanced ovarian cancer who were treated with a type of chemotherapy called CAELYX. This chemotherapy drug** is contained in a soft, lipid-based nanoparticle, called a liposome, which acts as a vessel to help minimise side effects***. Women gave a sample of blood, following an injection of CAELYX over a course of 90 minutes as part of their treatment. By extracting the injected liposomes, the scientists were able to detect a wide variety of biomolecules that stuck to the surface of the liposome - called the 'biomolecule corona'. Professor Kostas Kostarelos, lead author from the University of Manchester, said: "We're astonished at how rich the information was on the surface of the liposomes taken from the blood. We hope this technique could be a springboard for further research, from monitoring disease progression or recurrence, to identifying which treatment is best for each patient and potentially finding new biomarkers for early diagnosis." This is a step forward in developing a better technique to gather information from patients' blood - a 'halo effect' of biomolecules sticking to the liposomes has been seen before, but only after dipping the nanoparticles in blood samples in a tube outside the patient's body. Dr Marilena Hadjidemetriou, study author from the University of Manchester, said: "The blood is a potential goldmine of information, but there's a challenge to amplify cancer signals that would otherwise be buried within the 'noise'. "More abundant proteins mask rarer and smaller molecules that could be significant in helping us to understand disease progression or finding potential new drug targets. This technique overcomes this challenge." Professor Caroline Dive, Cancer Research UK's expert in liquid biopsies, said: "Finding a test to help diagnose, track and treat cancer is something many scientists are pursuing. Liquid biopsies are quicker, cheaper and less invasive than many other tests, and this technique is an important early step in developing such a test. Further work will reveal what the information captured using liposomes can tell us about the disease." The researchers now hope to use this technique in mice to help find the best patterns of biomarkers to identify cancers in the early stages of disease as part of their Cancer Research UK Pioneer Award****, which funds innovative ideas from any discipline that could revolutionise our understanding of cancer. ### Peer-reviewed Experimental Study Humans For media enquiries contact Catherine Pickworth in the Cancer Research UK press office on 020 3469 6910 or, out of hours, on 07050 264 059. Notes to editor: *Hadjidemetriou et al. The human in vivo biomolecule corona onto PEGylated liposomes: a proof-of-concept clinical study. Advanced Materials. ** doxorubicin *** Liposomes are regularly used to help reduce the side effects of chemotherapy, by acting as a vessel for the drugs. They are the most common nanoparticles used in the clinic, making them excellent candidates to use as a tool to help scientists make biomarker discoveries. ****Our Pioneer Award funds innovative, higher risk ideas, from any discipline, that could revolutionise our understanding of cancer. Individuals or teams, from any background, including commercial organisations, can apply. For more information visit: https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/funding-for-researchers/our-funding-schemes/pioneer-award About Cancer Research UK Cancer Research UK is the world's leading cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research. Cancer Research UK's pioneering work into the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer has helped save millions of lives. Cancer Research UK receives no funding from the UK government for its life-saving research. Every step it makes towards beating cancer relies on vital donations from the public. Cancer Research UK has been at the heart of the progress that has already seen survival in the UK double in the last 40 years. Today, 2 in 4 people survive their cancer for at least 10 years. Cancer Research UK's ambition is to accelerate progress so that by 2034, 3 in 4 people will survive their cancer for at least 10 years. Cancer Research UK supports research into all aspects of cancer through the work of over 4,000 scientists, doctors and nurses. Together with its partners and supporters, Cancer Research UK's vision is to bring forward the day when all cancers are cured. For further information about Cancer Research UK's work or to find out how to support the charity, please call 0300 123 1022 or visit http://www.cancerresearchuk.org. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Japanese computer scientists have succeeded in developing a special purpose computer that can project high-quality three-dimensional (3D) holography as a video. The research team led by Tomoyoshi Ito, who is a professor at the Institute for Global Prominent Research, Chiba University, has been working to increase the speed of the holographic projections by developing new hardware. Holography has a long history. Since 1960 when the first laser was invented, many works involving laser holograms have been produced. For digitalizing these analog technologies and developing electron holography techniques to project 3D holography images as video, computing powers with more than 10 frames per second and 1 trillion pixels per frame are required. Therefore, hardware development, as well as corresponding software development, represents some of the biggest challenges for researchers in this field. Also, to make a 3D object from two-dimensional (2D) data, it is necessary to properly consider several factors including the binocular parallax, motion parallax, convergence angle, focus adjustment, and estimates made based on human experience. Currently, general 3D televisions (TVs) use the binocular parallax for the stereoscopy, but children cannot use this technology because it has the potential to damage their health, a risk that is related to the difference between the distances that a brain perceives and those that the eyes' focus on. Many researchers in various countries around the world, including Ito in Japan, have been investing in video holography, which may allow more people to enjoy 3D TVs safely. Ito, who is an astronomer and a computer scientist, began working on specially designed computers for holography, called HORN, in 1992. The HORN-8, which adopts a calculation method called the "amplitude type" for adjusting the intensity of light, was recognized as the world's fastest computer for holography in a publication in the international science journal Nature Electronics on April 17, 2018. With the newly developed "phase type" HORN-8, the calculation method for adjusting the phase of light was implemented, and the researchers were successful at projecting holography information as a 3D video with high-quality images. This research was published in Optics Express on September 28, 2018. "We have been developing the high-speed computers for 3D holography by implementing the knowledge of information engineering and the technology of electrical and electronic engineering and by learning insights from computer science and optical methods," Ito reflected. "This is a result of the interdisciplinary approach of our research that has been conducted for over 25 years with the commendable effort by our students who have been studying at our lab." Takashi Nishitsuji, a former student of Ito's lab and now assistant professor at Tokyo Metropolitan University, who led the experiment, said "HORN-8 is the fruit of many people's wisdom, skills, and efforts. We want to continue the research of HORN and try other methods from various perspectives for its practical application." In the latest phase type of HORN-8, eight chips are mounted on the FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) board. This enables one to avoid a bottleneck problem for the processing speed with the calculation method, by which the chips are prevented from communicating with each other. With this approach, HORN-8 increases the computing speed in proportion to the number of chips, so that it can project video holography more clearly. ### REFERENCE (1) Takashige Sugie, Takanori Akamatsu, Takashi Nishitsuji, Ryuji Hirayama, Nobuyuki Masuda, Hirotaka Nakayama, Yasuyuki Ichihashi, Atsushi Shiraki, Minoru Oikawa, Naoki Takada, Yutaka Endo, Takashi Kakue, Tomoyoshi Shimobaba and Tomoyoshi Ito, "High-performance parallel computing for next-generation holographic imaging", Nature Electronics, vol. 1 issue 4, April 2018, pp. 254-259, doi: doi.org/10.1038/s41928-018-0057-5, [Preprint Version is in Chiba University Repository: https://opac.ll.chiba-u.jp/da/curator/105754/ (2) Takashi Nishitsuji, Yota Yamamoto, Takashige Sugie, Takanori Akamatsu, Ryuji Hirayama, Hirotaka Nakayama, Takashi Kakue, Tomoyoshi Shimobaba, and Tomoyoshi Ito, "Special-purpose computer HORN-8 for phase-type electro-holography", Optics Express Vol. 26, Issue 20, pp. 26722-26733, September 2018, doi: doi.org/10.1364/OE.26.026722 WEBSITES ITOT Lab: http://www.te.chiba-u.jp/~brains/en/index.html Institute for Global Prominent Research (IGPR), Chiba University: http://igpr.chiba-u.jp/global/ CONTACTS Saori Tanaka Research Administrator for Communications Institute for Global Prominent Research, Chiba University Saori.Tanaka@chiba-u.jp +81 (0)43 290 3022 ABOUT the Institute for Global Prominent Research (IGPR) To accelerate integrated research beyond the borders of academic disciplines, the IGPR was founded as a core institution at Chiba University in 2016. Aiming at fostering seeds and delivering the fruits to the world, IGPR has been actively supporting research projects with potential impact as a global hub for top-class research. The institute is also focused on developing young human resources who will lead new research fields in the next generation. Currently, IGPR is supporting more than 20 research projects in diverse areas such as neutrino astronomy and the interdisciplinary science for the End-of-Life Care. The complex network of interdependencies between plants and animals multiplies the species at risk of extinction due to environmental change, according to a JRC study. In the case of global warming, predictions that fail to take into account this cascading effect might underestimate extinctions by up to 10 times. As an obvious, direct consequence of climate change, plants and animals living in a given area are driven to extinction when the local environmental conditions become incompatible with their tolerance limits, just like fish in an aquarium with a broken thermostat. However, there are many elusive drivers of species loss that go beyond the direct effects of environmental change (and human activity) which we still struggle to understand. In particular, it is becoming clearer that co-extinctions (the disappearance of consumers following the depletion of their resources) could be a major culprit in the ongoing biodiversity crisis. While the concept of co-extinction is supported by a sound and robust theoretical background, it is often overlooked in empirical research because it's extremely difficult to assess. New JRC Study on Co-Extinctions A new study led by the JRC took on this challenge in order to determine the importance of co-extinctions in conditions of environmental change. JRC scientist Giovanni Strona, in collaboration with Professor Corey Bradshaw from Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, constructed 2000 "Virtual Earths", which they populated with thousands of plants and animals organized into a global system of inter-connected food-webs. They then subjected the virtual Earths to extreme trajectories of environmental change, consisting in either a "global warming", i.e. a linear, monotonic increase in temperature, or a "nuclear winter", i.e. a progressive cooling, such as that which could follow multiple nuclear detonations or an asteroid impact. They then tracked the loss of species diversity within two separate scenarios up to complete life annihilation. In the first scenario, they only accounted for the extinction of a species when the temperature became too high or too low for that species to tolerate. In the second scenario, starting from the extinctions triggered by the mismatch between local temperature and species tolerance limits, they also simulated co-extinction cascades. By comparing the two scenarios, the scientists were able to provide a quantitative estimate of the relative importance of co-extinctions in planetary biodiversity loss. They found that failing to account for interdependencies between species led to underestimation of the magnitude of mass extinctions triggered by climate change by up to 10 times. Giovanni reflects that "conservationists and decision makers need to move fast beyond a species-specific approach, and look with increasing attention at species interaction networks as a fundamental conservation target. Whenever a species leaves our planet, we lose much more than a name on a list". Global Warming: IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5C confirms the utmost urgency to act The study also explored the worst possible scenario of temperature change due to global warming. According to the simulations, 5-6C of warming would be enough to wipe out most life on the virtual Earths the scientists created. Giovanni recognises that "there are obvious limitations in our ambitious model, due to the multiple challenges of building realistic global ecological systems. On the one hand, our results are consistent with real-world patterns for which we have empirical evidence. This make us confident that the many assumptions we had to take in order to build a functional model are sound. On the other hand, however, it would be misleading to just focus on raw numbers." What is clear is that a warming Earth will put increasing pressure on the planet's biodiversity, and co-extinctions will add to that impact. While it is unlikely that the Earth will become 5-6C warmer in the near future, it is quite likely that global temperatures will continue to increase. ### Read the full Scientific Report in Nature: Co-extinctions annihilate planetary life during extreme environmental change https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-35068-1 Brazil reports more than 7,000 cases a year of poisoning as a result of the bite of the brown recluse spider; there are also reports of occurrences in North America and Europe. The bite from a brown recluse spider (Loxosceles) can cause skin necrosis, renal failure, and even death. A new ointment is being tested in Brazil, however. Its effects have already been proven in tests conducted in cell cultures and animal models. Now the ointment will have its immunomodulatory action tested on humans in Phase III clinical trials, and it may be included in the treatment protocol for patients who develop lesions caused by the spider bite. The trial has started in October. "There was extensive research into the action of the venom before development of the ointment. We were able to isolate and sequence the most important protein of the brown recluse spider venom for the first time 20 years ago. That allowed us to study the venom molecular action mechanisms and develop inhibitors, now patented, that can be used in studies of structure and function, and possibly as therapy," said Denise Tambourgi researcher at the Butantan Institute, in a talk given at Sao Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP Week New York/. The meeting, held at the City University of New York (CUNY) November 26-28, 2018, involves Brazilian and U.S. researchers with the aim of strengthening research partnerships. Clinical trials to verify the action of the ointment have just begun in Santa Catarina - a Brazilian state with a high incidence of brown recluse spider bites. "Clinical trials will be conducted on 240 people. Of this total, 120 will receive a placebo and the other 120 will be treated with the ointment. That will enable us to compare the results," said Tambourgi who is also one of the principal investigators at the Center for Research on Toxins, Immune-Response and Cell Signaling - CeTICS, one of the FAPESP-funded Research, Innovation and Dissemination Centers - RIDCs. Tetracycline, a substance used as an antibiotic, forms the basis of the ointment. "We utilized a concentration lower than a microbicide, but at a dosage able to modulate the activity of the protease that is involved in the process of tissue inflammation and destruction. Since tetracycline has already been tested in several clinical trials, it did not have to undergo tolerance phases (phases I and II). In fact, we are giving the substance a new use," she said. Cutaneous effect, systemic effect In addition to causing cutaneous lesions - which could take months to heal - in some cases, the bite of a brown recluse spider also causes systemic effects such as hemolysis, platelet aggregation, renal inflammation and failure that can result in patient death. There have been reports of accidents involving Loxosceles in South, Central, and North America. In recent years, however, cases of brown recluse spider bites have also occurred in Europe, with reports of cases in countries such as Spain, France, Portugal and Italy, a country that registered one case of fatal loxoscelism. According to the Brazilian Ministry of Health's National Disease Notification System - SINAN in 2016, there were 173,630 cases of accidents with venomous animals in Brazil, 7,441 of which were due to brown recluse spider bites. Cutaneous loxoscelism occurs in nearly 80% of the cases. Less frequent but much more dangerous are the systemic effects that affect nearly 20% of patients bitten by the brown recluse spider. Because the bite of the brown recluse spider is painless and reaction at the site does not appear immediately, victims only seek help when the skin lesion has already established itself. "Tissue necrosis is a result not just of the venom, but also of the cascade of reactions by the body itself, activated by the toxin's main protein," said Tambourgi. For years, the Butantan Institute has produced limited quantities of serum for brown recluse spider bites. "They are small spiders, measuring 3 centimeters at most, from which we can extract little venom. We need hundreds of specimens to produce the serum," Tambourgi said. Secondary reactions Studies to determine the key components of the brown recluse toxin have been conducted since 1994. The team of researchers from the Butantan Institute inserted a spider gene into the bacterium Escherichia coli, thus creating a biofabric of sphingomyelinase D (SMase D), the protein that is the core component of the toxin. "During that entire process of research, we discovered that the venom of the brown recluse spider can cause secondary reactions that are triggered mainly by the protein. I often say that the toxin just begins the process and that the protein alters the cells. Later, deregulation of the body occurs, leading to the production of proteases - enzymes whose function is to break the peptide bonds of other proteins. These proteases are what the ointment has to inhibit," she said. Therefore, the ointment acts on the so-called secondary effect. "In experimental models both in vitro using human skin cells as well as in animal models, it was possible to reduce the size of the lesion by nearly 80%," she said. The study led by Tambourgi has determined the mechanism of action of the venom released by the brown recluse spider as well as the systemic and cutaneous form of the disease. "We were able to develop the ointment by building the mechanism that leads to the dermonecrotic lesion. However, because the poisoning is caused by what the protein induces in the body, we are attacking the secondary effects of the toxin. We have to await the results of the clinical trials, but I am confident because tests performed in cell cultures and animal models have been very promising," she said. ### About Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) The Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) is a public institution with the mission of supporting scientific research in all fields of knowledge by awarding scholarships, fellowships, and grants to investigators linked with higher education and research institutions in the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil. FAPESP is aware that the very best research can only be done by working with the best researchers internationally. Therefore, it has established partnerships with funding agencies, higher education, private companies, and research organizations in other countries known for the quality of their research and has been encouraging scientists funded by its grants to further develop their international collaboration. For more information: http://www.fapesp.br/en. Scientists have discovered the signals that determine the fate of immature cells in the pancreas. The research shows that they are very mobile and that their destiny is strongly influenced by their immediate environment. This breakthrough published in the journal Nature will facilitate the manufacturing of pancreatic islet cells from stem cells and might help combating type 1 diabetes. Prof. Dr. Henrik Semb who led the study recently joined Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen. Follow the link to see Henrik Semb explaining the paper in a nutshell: https://vimeo.com/303012751 Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease destroying the insulin-producing beta cells in the patient's pancreas. Current approaches for replacement therapies aim to generate insulin-producing beta cells from human pluripotent stem cells. Until now, the engineering of specialized cells from pluripotent stem cells has largely been based on empirical knowledge of what works. "We have now been able to map the signal that determines whether pancreatic progenitor cells will become endocrine, such as insulin-producing beta cells or duct cells", says Prof. Dr. Henrik Semb. He is the Director of the Institute of Translational Stem Cell Research at Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen as well as Professor and Executive Director of the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Biology (DanStem) at the University of Copenhagen. "The cells are analogous to pinballs, whose ultimate score is based on the sum of pin encounters. They are constantly moving around within the developing pancreas, leading to frequent environmental changes. We show that the exposure to specific extracellular matrix components determines the ultimate destiny of the cells", Semb explains. The matrix determines the destiny Progenitor cells are similar to stem cells since they can both self-renew and differentiate into mature cell types. However, their self-renewal capacity is generally limited compared with that of stem cells. The dynamic behaviour of progenitors during organ formation makes them difficult to study. To overcome this obstacle, the scientist seeded human stem cell-derived progenitors on glass slides micropatterned with different matrix proteins. Using this approach, the researchers could study how each progenitor, without the influence of neighbouring cells, reacts to its surroundings. "This enabled us to discover something very surprising. Our investigation revealed that interactions with different extracellular matrix components change the mechanical force state within the progenitor. These forces result from interactions between the extracellular matrix, which is outside the cell, and the actin cytoskeleton, which is within the cell." Pancreatic endocrine cells include all hormone-producing cells, such as insulin-producing beta cells and glucagon-producing alpha cells, within the islet of Langerhans, whereas the duct cells are epithelial cells that line the ducts of the pancreas. "The experiments show that exposure to the extracellular matrix laminin instructs the progenitor cells towards an endocrine fate by reducing mechanical forces within the cells. Vice versa, exposure to fibronectin results in a duct fate because of increased mechanical forces." Mechanism facilitates exploitation Through the detailed analyses by the two first authors from DanStem Drs. Anant Mamidi and Christy Prawiro the researchers then uncovered the molecular details of the respective signaling pathway* and were even able to validate the physiological relevance in vivo during pancreas development. "We can now replace significant numbers of empirically derived substances, whose mode of action in current state-of-the-art differentiation protocols is largely unknown, with small molecule inhibitors that target specific components of the newly identified mechanosignalling pathway", Henrik Semb explains. With this new strategy, insulin-producing beta cells can now be more cost-effectively and robustly produced from human pluripotent stem cells for future treatments against diabetes. "Our discovery breaks new ground because it explains how multipotent progenitor cells mature into different cell types during organ formation", Semb says. "It also gives us the tools to recreate the processes in the laboratory, to more precisely engineer cells that are lost or damaged in severe diseases, such as type 1 diabetes and neurodegenerative diseases, for future cell replacement therapies." ### Further Information * They showed that components in the extracellular matrix trigger a signal into the cell via an integrin receptor, resulting in changes in mechanical forces transmitted through the actin cytoskeleton. The yes-associated protein (YAP) then senses these forces to turn on and off specific genes. This cascade determines the ultimate fate of the progenitor cell. "Perhaps the most astonishing achievement is that our data answer an enigma that has puzzled the field for decades", Henrik Semb says. "How some progenitors mature into duct cells, whereas others become endocrine cells via Notch signals." The researchers show that the seemingly stochastic regulation of Notch function is in fact mediated by the progenitor's encounters with extracellular matrix interactions via the force-sensing gene regulator protein YAP. Original Publication: Mamidi, A. & Prawiro, C. et al. (2018): Mechanosignalling via integrins directs fate decisions of pancreatic progenitors. Nature, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0762-2 The Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen, the German Research Center for Environmental Health, pursues the goal of developing personalized medical approaches for the prevention and therapy of major common diseases such as diabetes, allergies and lung diseases. To achieve this, it investigates the interaction of genetics, environmental factors and lifestyle. The Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen is headquartered in Neuherberg in the north of Munich and has about 2,300 staff members. It is a member of the Helmholtz Association, a community of 18 scientific-technical and medical-biological research centers with a total of about 37,000 staff members. http://www.helmholtz-muenchen.de/en The objective of the Institute of Translational Stem Cell Research (ITS) is to develop a stem cell-based replacement therapy in type 1 diabetes. The scientists aim to develop safe approaches for up-scaled production of insulin-producing beta cells from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs). An important milestone in the short term is the proper production of the cells following defined standards of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP). To this end, the ITS works closely together with the University of Copenhagen. http://www.helmholtz-muenchen.de/its Contact for the media: Department of Communication, Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen - German Research Center for Environmental Health, Ingolstadter Landstr. 1, 85764 Neuherberg - Tel. +49 89 3187 2238 - E-mail: presse@helmholtz-muenchen.de Scientific contact at Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen: Prof. Dr. Tor Henrik Semb, Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen - German Research Center for Environmental Health, Institute of Translational Stem Cell Research, Ingolstadter Landstr. 1, 85764 Neuherberg - Tel. +49 89 3187-49133 - E-mail: henrik.semb@helmholtz-muenchen.de Children with cancer are to benefit nationally from a service which for the first time will allow doctors to personalise their treatment. The therapeutic drug monitoring service, developed by Newcastle University experts, allows clinicians to obtain vital information about how much chemotherapy individual young patients should receive. Youngsters diagnosed with cancer, including infants in the first weeks of life, can be particularly hard to treat as it is difficult to know how much chemotherapy to give. Doctors sometimes have to make tough decisions about the most appropriate dose of a drug, without enough scientific information to help them decide on the best course of action. Drug monitoring The service was set up at the request of doctors at the Great North Children's Hospital, in Newcastle, UK, and other childhood cancer primary treatment centres around the UK. It works by collecting blood samples after chemotherapy is administered on the first day of treatment. The samples are analysed in real-time to measure individual patient drug exposure, with the results generated used to adjust dosing accordingly. The amount of chemotherapy given over subsequent days is then set to ensure that the patient receives a dose that is most likely to be effective but without causing too much toxicity, such as sickness and diarrhoea. Professor Gareth Veal, from the Northern Institute for Cancer Research at Newcastle University, is leading the programme which is already benefitting many patients. He said: "Establishing the correct dose of cancer treatment for very young patients has long presented a major clinical challenge as developmental physiological changes can markedly impact on the effect of a drug once it has been administered. "If the patient is under-dosed then the tumour may not respond to treatment, whereas if the patient is overdosed then they are likely to experience more unwanted side effects of the drugs. "It is difficult to predict what happens to a drug following administration in terms of how efficiently it is broken down and removed from the body. "Our therapeutic drug monitoring service involves measuring drug levels in individual childhood cancer patients during treatment and modifying the dose of drug that they are given to help provide the best clinical outcome." Need for service Before the service, clinicians would work out the infant or child's chemotherapy dose by the patient's weight and age, with a 'one size fits all' model Dr Gail Halliday, Consultant Paediatric Oncologist at Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: "The therapeutic drug monitoring service has transformed the way young cancer patients are treated and the positive outcomes they have. "Before it was something of a guessing game as to the most appropriate dose of chemotherapy for each child, whereas now we can be rest assured that what we are giving is correct. "In the past, the risk factors were you either under-dosed and if the tumour came back it would be more difficult to cure, or you overdosed and the child suffered lasting effects from the toxicity. "It is vital that we do everything we can to give each patient the best chance of responding effectively to treatment, whilst minimising the chances of experiencing unwanted drug side effects. "Now there is real confidence that we're achieving a gold standard of care and it is thanks to the Newcastle University team that this is possible." Further research The service has been running at the Great North Children's Hospital for the past few years, but now the National Institute for Health Research has provided funding to Newcastle University to run a three year study to expand the service nationally. Professor Veal said: "This will not only positively impact on patients recruited to the study, but will also generate data which will have a significant impact on future patient treatment through the provision of national guidelines for anti-cancer drugs in defined patient populations." The therapeutic drug monitoring service is a finalist in the Bright Ideas in Health Awards, which celebrates the achievements of those within the NHS, industry and academia to improve patient care, with the awards evening being held later this week. Patient's story Little Blazej Sarnicki is lucky to be alive after the most challenging few years of his young life. The five-year-old was diagnosed with aggressive Wilms' tumours in both kidneys in 2016 and is now on dialysis three times a week after both organs were removed to save his life. The youngster has been in intensive care at the Great North Children's Hospital a number of times and it was touch and go as to whether he would survive. In the future he will need a kidney transplant. Blazej was among the first to benefit from the therapeutic drug monitoring service as he required intensive chemotherapy and doctors needed to tailor his dose to his individual medical needs. His mother, Monika, 38, a teacher, said: "It is fantastic to see how well Blazej is doing and it's thanks to the treatment he received that he's doing so well. "We were devastated when Blazej was diagnosed with Wilms' tumours as we had never heard of the disease and there were times when we thought we'd lose him. "I know that the therapeutic drug monitoring service helped to give him the best personalised treatment, and the medical team have worked incredibly hard to help Blazej. "To have a service like this based in Newcastle is of great benefit to the North East and further afield." Blazej is back at school and enjoying life with his twin brother, Oliwier, sister, Julia, nine, and parents Monika and Grezegorz. ### Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak met Russian oil companies on Tuesday to discuss cooperation between OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers. Reuters reported this citing two sources who were informed that the meeting was taking place. Why does second-hand experience of neighborhood violence affect some youth, but not others? EVANSTON, Ill. --- Neighborhood violence has been associated with adverse health effects on youth, including sleep loss, asthma and metabolic syndrome. Yet some youth living in high-crime neighborhoods manage to avoid these effects. A new Northwestern University study aims to answer a resilience puzzle: Why does a second-hand or indirect experience of neighborhood violence affect some youth, but not others? "Little is known about the brain networks that are involved in shaping these different outcomes, a problem we pursue here," said Gregory E. Miller, lead author of the study and professor of psychology in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern. "Like previous studies, we find that youth living in neighborhoods with high levels of violence have worse cardiometabolic health than peers from safer communities," said Miller, also a faculty fellow with the University's Institute for Policy Research. "Extending this knowledge, we show this connection is absent for youth who display higher connectivity within the brain's frontoparietal central executive network (CEN), which facilitates efforts of self-control as well as reinterpretation of threatening events and suppression of unwanted emotional imagery." Drawing on knowledge of the brain's intrinsic functional architecture, the researchers predicted that individual differences in resting-state connectivity would help explain variability in the strength of the association between neighborhood violence and cardiometabolic health. The researchers tested 218 eighth-graders from the Chicago area for factors related to metabolic health, including obesity and insulin resistance. Assessing neighborhood factors, including murder rates, the researchers also conducted functional MRI (fMRI) scans of the brains of the study participants. Consistent with predictions, resting-state connectivity within the central executive network emerged as a moderator of adaptation. Across six distinct outcomes, a higher neighborhood murder rate was associated with greater cardiometabolic risk, but this relationship was apparent only among youth who displayed lower CEN resting-state connectivity. No such correlation was apparent, however, in youth that displayed high-resting functional connectivity in the same brain network. According to the researchers, the results suggest a role for the central executive network in adaptability and resilience to adverse events. The study, due to its design (cross-sectional and observational), cannot claim a causal link between neighborhood violence and health, and the authors conclude that a longitudinal, multi-wave study is needed to track neighborhood conditions, brain development and cardiometabolic risk across childhood to establish causality. "For basic scientists, these findings provide clues about the neural circuitries that facilitate or undermine adaptation," Miller said. Further study could lead to possible interventions, which their preliminary evidence suggests could be "network training" programs to modulate the functional connectivity of the brain's CEN network. These network training programs can enhance "self-control, threat reappraisal and thought suppression" to lower at-risk teens' engagement in drug use, overeating and other reactions to such stress. ### "Functional connectivity in central executive network protects youth against cardiometabolic risks linked with neighborhood violence" was published recently in PNAS. Additional co-authors include Edith Chen, Northwestern University; Casey C. Armstrong, Northwestern University; Ann L. Carroll, Northwestern University; Sekine Ozturk, Northwestern University; Kelsey J. Rydland, Northwestern University; Gene H. Brody, University of Georgia; Todd B. Parrish, Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine; and Robin Nusslock of Northwestern University. More Oregonians are making their end-of-life wishes known through forms known as Physician Order for Life-Sustaining Treatment, or POLST, according to research published in the Journal of Palliative Medicine. After comparing a database of Oregon POLST forms and state death certificates, OHSU researchers found 45 percent of Oregonians who died between 2015 and 2016 had filled out a POLST form, compared with about 31 percent between 2010-11. Oregon first started using POLST forms in the 1990s, but a central, statewide POLST database wasn't established until 2009. Researchers also found how people are using the form is changing. The length of time between when people filled out the form and died increased from an average of five weeks to 21 weeks. We learned that patients with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's often complete POLST forms earlier in their disease then their final year of life, according to study co-author Susan Tolle, M.D., director of the OHSU Center for Ethics in Health Care and professor of medicine (general internal medicine and geriatrics) in the OHSU School of Medicine. While the oldest Oregonians increased their POLST usage the most, there was also a rise in POLST use by middle-aged Oregonians. The total number of people aged 95 and older who died and used POLST forms increased 83 percent between 2010-11 and 2015-16, while those aged 45 to 64 used the forms about 19 percent more during the same timeframe. The data also indicated more Oregonians who die are indicating via POLST that they want more extensive medical care. For example, about 13 percent of POLST forms completed by those who died between 2015-16 requested CPR, compared with about 8 percent in 2010-11. And about 11 percent in 2015-16 requested full medical treatment, compared with about 6 percent in 2010-11. Other options on the form include declining resuscitation and requesting limited treatment or comfort-focused care. The POLST form was created after a group of ethics leaders convened by OHSU to ensure the end-of-life health care wishes of those with advanced illness or frailty would be followed. POLST-like programs have been adopted or are in development in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., and they are associated with reducing unwanted hospitalizations near the end of life. Separate from POLST, advanced directive forms share a patient's end-of-life philosophy and preferences, but they do not provide actionable medical orders for emergency medical service personnel such as EMTs to follow. ### The study's authors receive support from The Denison Family Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation, The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, The John A. Hartford Foundation and The Kinsman Foundation. Related OHSU news stories: 6/15/17, "End-of-life-care wishes can be overlooked in forms can't be found in a crisis," https://news.ohsu.edu/2017/06/14/end-of-life-care-wishes-can-be-overlooked-if-forms-cant-be-found-in-a-crisis 3/15/17, "Care received at end of life varies drastically by state," https://news.ohsu.edu/2017/03/15/care-received-at-end-of-life-varies-drastically-by-state Links: Oregon POLST website: https://oregonpolst.org/ 7/19/18, Health Affairs blog post, "Counting POLST Form Completion Can Hinder Quality," https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20180709.244065/full/ The funerary complex of the first Chinese emperor of the Qin dynasty (3th century BC) is one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world. This is of course due to the discovery of the statues of the terracotta army, intended to accompany the emperor in the afterlife. Much less known than the statues is the fact that tomb proper (still not excavated) lies beneath a gigantic, artificial hill of rammed earth. This hill has a square shape, a base side of more than 350 meters and is over 40 meters high, so that it can easily be called a pyramid. Even less known is the fact that also all the emperors of the subsequent dynasty, the Western Han, chose to be buried under similar pyramids. These mausoleums are visible still today within the rapidly developing landscape of the northwestern surroundings of Xian along the Wei River. Including also the tombs of the queens and other members of royal families, there are over 40 of such "Chinese pyramids". Of these, only two have been (partly) excavated. The new study is part of an extensive program of research on the role of astronomy and of the traditional doctrine of "feng shui" in the Chinese imperial necropolises and has just been published in the academic journal Archaeological Research in Asia. In the work simple techniques based on satellite images are used, together with field surveys, to collect a large number of new data and, in particular, to study the orientation of the pyramid bases. It is in fact well known that, for example, the Egyptian pyramids are oriented with great precision to the cardinal points, by virtue of the very strong bonds of the funerary religion of the Egyptian pharaohs with the sky and in particular with the circumpolar stars. Although - of course - there is no connection with the Egyptian pyramids, also the Chinese emperors credited their power as a direct mandate of the heaven, identifying the circumpolar region as a celestial image of the imperial palace and its inhabitants. It was therefore natural to expect the Chinese pyramids, tombs of the emperors, to be oriented to the cardinal points. In this connection, the results of the new study are in part surprising. It turns out that these monuments can be classified according to two "families". One such families comprises monuments oriented with good precision to the cardinal points, as expected. In the other family there are significant deviations from the true north, all of comparable and all on the same "hand "(to the west of the north looking towards the monument). It is out of the question that this second family may have been due to errors of the Chinese astronomers and architects. One could think of the use of the compass, which was invented in China in a somewhat rudimentary form at that time, but there is no correspondence with the paleomagnetic data. The explanation proposed in the article is thus astronomical: the emperors who built the pyramids of the "family 2" did not want to point to the north celestial pole, which at the time did not correspond to any star, but to the star to which the pole would be approached in the future: Polaris. All this discourse may look strange at first sight, but it must be remembered that there is a phenomenon, the precession of the earth's axis, which slowly but constantly moves the position in the sky in which the earth's axis points, and therefore the celestial pole. The Chinese astronomers were almost certainly aware of this. Nowadays we are used to identify the north celestial pole with Polaris (although in reality the correspondence is not perfect) but at the time of the Han emperors the pole was still far from Polaris, and with a distance in degrees approximately equal to the deviation of the Chines pyramids from the geographic north. ### A new study from Stanford University suggests that the kind of hot, dry conditions that can shrink crop yields, destabilize food prices and lay the groundwork for devastating wildfires are increasingly striking multiple regions simultaneously as a result of a warming climate. According to the researchers, climate change has doubled the odds that a region will suffer a year that is both warm and dry compared to the average for that place during the middle of the 20th century. It's also becoming more likely that dry and severely warm conditions will hit key agricultural regions in the same year, potentially making it harder for surpluses in one location to make up for low yields in another. "When we look in the historical data at the key crop and pasture regions, we find that before anthropogenic climate change, there were very low odds that any two regions would experience those really severe conditions simultaneously," said climate scientist Noah Diffenbaugh, the Kara J. Foundation professor in Stanford's School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences (Stanford Earth) and senior author of the study published Nov. 28 in Science Advances. The study is titled "Multi-dimensional risk in a non-stationary climate: joint probability of increasingly severe warm and dry conditions." "The global marketplace provides a hedge against localized extremes, but we're already seeing an erosion of that climate buffer as extremes have increased in response to global warming," said Diffenbaugh, who is also the Kimmelman Family senior fellow in the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. The new study points to a future in which multiple regions are at risk of experiencing low crop yields simultaneously. That's because, while some crops can thrive in a warm growing season, others - particularly grains - grow and mature too quickly when temperatures rise, consecutive dry days pile up and warmth persists overnight. As a result, hot-dry conditions tend to produce smaller harvests of major commodities, including wheat, rice, corn and soybeans. The implications extend beyond agriculture. Those same hot, dry conditions can also exacerbate fire risk, drying out vegetation in the summer and autumn and fueling intense, fast-spreading wildfires like those that burned through more than 240,000 acres in California in November 2018. Moving targets The basic trend of global warming - 1 degree Celsius or 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit since the late 19th century - lends an intuitive logic to the study's core findings. "If it's getting warmer everywhere, then it's more likely to be hot in two places at once," Diffenbaugh explained, "and it's probably also more likely to be hot when it's also dry in two places at once." Yet despite that simple intuition, accounting for ongoing, interdependent changes in both precipitation and temperature in different locations through time presents a statistical challenge. As a result, many past analyses have looked at warm and dry events as independent phenomena, or at different regions as independent from one another. That approach may underestimate the added risk due to human-caused global warming, as well as the social, ecological and economic benefits of curbing emissions. "When these extremes occur simultaneously, it exacerbates the adverse impacts beyond what any of them would have caused separately," said Ali Sarhadi, the study's lead author and a postdoctoral scholar in Diffenbaugh's Climate and Earth System Dynamics Group at Stanford Earth. Extremes becoming normal The new study used historical data from the past century to quantify the odds that different regions experience hot and dry conditions in the same year. The analysis shows that before 1980, there was less than a 5 percent chance that two region pairs would experience extreme temperatures in a year that was also dry in both regions. However, in the past two decades, the odds have increased to as much as 20 percent for some region pairs. For example, the odds that China and India - two of the world's largest agricultural producers and the two most populous nations - both experience low precipitation and extremely warm temperatures in the same year have gone from less than 5 percent before 1980 to more than 15 percent today, Diffenbaugh said. "So, what used to be a rare occurrence can now be expected to occur with some regularity, and we have very strong evidence that global warming is the cause." In addition to their analyses of historical data, the authors also analyzed climate model projections of possible future global warming scenarios. They found that within a few decades, if the world continues on its current emissions trajectory, the odds that average temperatures will rise well beyond the range normally experienced in the middle of the 20th century could climb upward of 75 percent in many regions. But achieving the goals outlined in the United Nations' Paris climate agreement is likely to substantially reduce those risks, Sarhadi said. While the White House has announced its intention to withdraw the United States from the agreement, the study shows that achieving the emissions reduction targets in the 200-nation pact would allow the world to dramatically reduce the likelihood of compounding hot, dry conditions hitting multiple croplands across the world. "There are still options for mitigating these changes," he said. Planning for real risks The framework built for this study represents a vital step in pinning down the risk associated with multiple climate extremes coming together in one region, where they can often compound one another. What were the chances, for example, that high temperatures, high winds and low humidity combined to create mega fire conditions in the past, and how have those odds changed as a result of global warming? That's the sort of question the team's framework will be able to answer. It's a gravely urgent one for officials now reckoning with fires of historic scale and intensity in California. "A lot of the events that stress infrastructure, and our disaster prevention and response systems, occur when multiple ingredients come together in the same place at the same time," Diffenbaugh said. High storm surges and wind speeds with heavy rain can make the difference between a passing storm and a calamitous tropical cyclone; wind patterns and moisture levels in different parts of the atmosphere influence the severity of a rainstorm and associated flood risk. A key challenge for decision-makers is understanding what to expect in a changing climate. That means honing in on joint probabilities, which are at the core of calculations that engineers, policy-makers, humanitarian aid providers and insurers use to allocate resources, set building codes and design evacuation plans and other disaster responses. "People are making practical decisions based on the probabilities of different combinations of conditions," Diffenbaugh said. "The default is to use the historical probabilities, but our research shows that assuming that those historical probabilities will continue into the future doesn't accurately reflect the current or future risk." ### Diffenbaugh is also an affiliate of the Precourt Institute for Energy. Study co-author Danielle Touma is a doctoral candidate in Earth System Science at Stanford Earth. Additional co-authors are affiliated with Universidad Carlos III de Madrid in Spain. The work was funded by the Department of Energy and Stanford University. Every summer in Southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland, tons of brown trout perish. An interdisciplinary team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now discovered the culprit of the mysterious dying afflicting brown trout. It is triggered by a previously unknown virus, which is related to a virus that infects salmon in the North Atlantic and the Pacific. The setting is always in the same river sections. And the victims are always brown trout. Within a matter of days, their skin turns dark and the animals perish. Researchers and authorities have been hunting down the cause of this mysterious mass mortality for decades - unsuccessfully, until now. Using cutting-edge analysis methods, Prof. Ralph Kuhn and a research team from the Technical University of Munich have now identified the pathogen that triggers the proliferative darkening syndrome (PDS) in brown trout. From the river to the lab "The biggest challenge was identifying a pathogen nobody knew. At the outset, it was not even clear whether it was a bacterium, a virus, a parasite or an environmental toxin," recalls the biologist. Ten years of scientific detective work followed. The researchers set up two experimental stations at the Iller river - one in the headwaters, near Obersdorf, where the fish disease had never been observed; a second one in the lower course near Kempten, where brown trout die every summer. At both stations, the researchers set up aquariums fed with river water. From May to September they observed the fish in the aquariums and took tissue samples that were frozen and sent to the TUM laboratory for analysis. Searching for clues with next generation technology The observations indicated that PDS advances in three phases. Initially, the fish look healthy. Then changes in internal organs such as the liver and kidneys appear. In the third phase, the brown trout skin turns dark and the animals die shortly thereafter. "The progression of the disease quickly led us to suspect that PDS was a viral disease," says Kuhn. To detect the virus in the samples, the researchers deployed a set of modern molecular genetic procedures, known as next generation technology. Genomes can be analyzed rigorously using these procedures. First, the progression of the disease in the fish was characterized at the gene response level. Subsequently, the researchers looked at animals with a similar immune response to determine the nucleotide sequence of all inherited genetic material - of the fish and its possible pathogens. The needle in a genetic haystack The researchers deployed computer programs to pinpoint the pathogenic virus in this mountain of genetic data. Using deep bioinformatic processing, they successfully identified parts of the pathogen's genetic profile and compared them to the profiles of known viruses. Extended, virus-specific sequencing led to the determination of the viral genome. The result: The culprit behind the demise of the brown trout is a piscine reovirus. It is related to the virus that infects salmon in the North Atlantic and the Pacific, where it causes significant economic damage. In the next step, the researchers hope to grow the virus in the laboratory and investigate why it only occurs in certain sections of the Alpine rivers and to what extent global fish trade facilitates its spread. ### Further information: The project of the TUM consortium Brown Trout Dying (Department of Zoology, Department of Aquatic Systems Biology, Department of Animal Physiology & Immunology) was funded by the Bavarian State Office for the Environment and the Bavarian State Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Forestry. Another co-operation partner was the Advisory Service for Fishery Lower Bavaria in Landshut (Bavaria). Publication: Identification of a piscine reovirus-related pathogen in Proliferative Darkening Syndrome (PDS) infected brown trout (Salmo trutta fario) using a next-generation technology detection pipeline Ralph Kuhn, Bernhard C. Stoeckle, Marc Young,, Lisa Popp, Jens-Eike Taeubert, Michael W. Pfaffl, Jurgen Geist PLOS ONE, 22.10.2018 - DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0206164 Two researchers at the University of Konstanz, Urs Fischbacher in the Department of Economics, and Iain Couzin in the Department of Biology, have been named in the annual Highly Cited Researchers 2018 List. Now in its fifth year, the list by Clarivate Analytics (formerly Thompson Reuters) recognizes researchers whose citation records position them in the highest ranks of influence and impact as determined by their peers around the globe. Fischbacher and Couzin were identified by the citation analysis for publishing leading peer-reviewed papers that rank in the top 1% most-cited in their respective fields over a decade--revealing the value of the work and extent to which the Konstanz researchers have influenced the work of other scientists in their fields. Urs Fischbacher is an experimental and behavioural economist whose research focuses on social preferences and processes of economic decision making; the latter often in interdisciplinary collaborations with psychologists. He developed the z-Tree, a toolbox for readymade economic experiments and introduced influential experiments, for example on conditional cooperation or honesty. He was awarded the Joachim Herz Economics Prize in 2016. He belongs to the 1% of most highly cited economists, according to Research Papers in Economics (RePEc), and has been named on the Global Highly Cited Researchers List in 2014 and 2016. Iain Couzin is Chair of Biodiversity and Collective Behaviour at the University of Konstanz, and also Director of the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Department of Collective Behaviour. His work aims to reveal the fundamental principles that underlie evolved collective behaviour, and he has pioneered the study of leadership, decision-making and collective sensing in animal groups. In recognition of his research he has been awarded the Searle Scholar Award in 2008, Popular Science Magazine's "Brilliant 10" Award in 2010, National Geographic Emerging Explorer Award in 2012 and the Scientific Medal of the Zoological Society of London in 2013. Couzin and Fishbacher, together with Professor Oliver Deussen in the Department of Computer and Information Science, have also been successful with their recently funded Cluster of Excellence "Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour". Backed by a 30-million euro investment, the Centre will create a global hotspot for the study of collective behaviour. With the aim of establishing collective behaviour as an integrative field, the Centre will bring scholars from the diverse disciplines of biology, computer science, social psychology, physics, and behavioural economics together to create a globally unique interdisciplinary environment for the study of collective behaviour. Professor Kerstin Krieglstein, rector of the University of Konstanz says: "Two researchers from the University of Konstanz are among the world's most influential researchers. I am so pleased and congratulate Iain Couzin and Urs Fischbacher on this honour and on the recognition of their top-level research. Together with our two new Clusters of Excellence, their achievement testifies to the University of Konstanz's global standing in research excellence, and its continued investment into recruiting top talent to build on our outstanding interdisciplinary research." Placement on the list has been recognized as a significant achievement for those named. The 2018 list includes over 4000 Highly Cited Researchers in 21 fields of science and social science, and places Germany fourth on the list of countries with the most Highly Cited Researchers. The Web of Science serves as the basis for regular listings of researchers whose citation records position them in the top 1% by citations for their field and year. 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. Key facts: Urs Fischbacher in the Department of Economics, and Iain Couzin in the Department of Biology, have been named in the annual Highly Cited Researchers 2018 List by Clarivate Analytics List recognizes researchers whose citation records position them in the highest ranks of influence around the globe - those who have consistently won recognition by having published a high number of papers that rank in the top 1% most-cited in their respective fields over a decade The Web of Science serves as the basis for regular listings of researchers whose citation records position them in the top 1% by citations for their field and year. The full Highly Cited Researchers 2018 list and executive summary can be found online at https://clarivate.com/hcr/. Twitter @WebofScience #HighlyCited2018 / Facebook.com/clarivate ### Further information: https://www.uni-konstanz.de/collective-behaviour/ http://collectivebehaviour.com/ https://www.wiwi.uni-konstanz.de/fischbacher/members/urs-fischbacher/ Contact University of Konstanz Communications and Marketing Phone: + 49 7531 88-3603 E-Mail: kum@uni-konstanz.de PHILADELPHIA - Why do humans have hair on our arms and legs but not on the palms of our hands and the soles of our feet? It's a fundamental question in human evolution that researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania say they've found clues to in a new study. Their findings reveal the existence of a naturally-occurring inhibitor secreted in developing hairless skin which blocks a signaling pathway, known as the WNT pathway, that controls hair growth. Cell Reports published the study today. "We know that WNT signaling is critical for the development of hair follicles; blocking it causes hairless skin, and switching it on causes formation of more hair," said the study's co-senior author Sarah E. Millar, PhD, the Albert M. Kligman Professor in Dermatology and Director of the Penn Skin Biology and Diseases Resource-based Center. "In this study, we've shown the skin in hairless regions naturally produces an inhibitor that stops WNT from doing its job." That natural inhibitor is Dickkopf 2 (DKK2) - a protein that is found in specific embryonic and adult tissues where it plays a variety of roles. Researchers tested plantar skin from mice - roughly the equivalent of the underside of the human wrist - and found that DKK2 was highly expressed. Furthermore, when they genetically removed DKK2, hair began to grow in this normally hairless skin region. "This is significant because it tells us WNT is still present in hairless regions, it's just being blocked," Millar said. Some mammals, such as rabbits and polar bears, naturally develop hair in their plantar skin. Millar's research group found that, unlike in mice, DKK2 is not expressed at high levels in rabbit plantar skin, explaining why hair can develop there. These findings suggest that production of DKK2 in specific skin regions has been altered during evolution to allow different patterns of hairless or hairy skin to form according to the needs of the animal. Hair follicles develop during fetal life, but their production stops after birth. As a result, hair follicles fail to re-grow after severe burns or extensive, deep wounds in the skin. Millar and her team are now investigating whether secreted WNT inhibitors suppress hair follicle development in these scenarios. While some regions of the human body are naturally hairless, others become so due to a variety of diseases. According to the American Academy of Dermatology, more than 80 million people in America have androgenetic alopecia, also called male- or female-pattern baldness. Genome-wide association studies have identified DKK2 as a possible candidate gene associated with this condition, suggesting it as a potential therapeutic target. "We hope that these lines of investigation will reveal new ways to improve wound healing and hair growth, and we plan to continue to pursue these goals moving forward," Millar said. ### Mingang Xu, PhD, a senior research investigator in Millar's Lab, was the co-senior author on the study. The lead author was Yaolin Song, a visiting graduate student from China working in Millar's lab. This study was supported by the National Institutes of Health (R37AR047709, P30AR057217, P30AR069589), a scholarship from the China Scholarship Council, and a Dermatology Foundation Career Development Award. Penn Medicine is one of the world's leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $7.8 billion enterprise. The Perelman School of Medicine has been ranked among the top medical schools in the United States for more than 20 years, according to U.S. News & World Report's survey of research-oriented medical schools. The School is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $405 million awarded in the 2017 fiscal year. The University of Pennsylvania Health System's patient care facilities include: The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center -- which are recognized as one of the nation's top "Honor Roll" hospitals by U.S. News & World Report -- Chester County Hospital; Lancaster General Health; Penn Medicine Princeton Health; Penn Wissahickon Hospice; and Pennsylvania Hospital -- the nation's first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional affiliated inpatient care facilities and services throughout the Philadelphia region include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, a partnership between Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network and Penn Medicine, and Princeton House Behavioral Health, a leading provider of highly skilled and compassionate behavioral healthcare. Penn Medicine is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities. In fiscal year 2017, Penn Medicine provided more than $500 million to benefit our community. Want bigger, faster-growing blueberries? New research shows wild bees are an essential secret ingredient in larger and better blueberry yields - producing plumper, faster-ripening berries. The study, led by University of Vermont scientists, is the first to successfully reveal that wild bees improve not only blueberry quantities, but also size and other quality factors. It finds that wild bees provide major benefits for berry farmers, including: greater berry size (12%), quantity (12%), size consistency (11%), and earlier harvests - by two and a half days. "Other studies have explored bees' effects on blueberry yields, but this is the first to show that pollinators can improve the quality of crops as well," says Charles Nicholson, who led the study as a PhD student in UVM's Gund Institute for Environment and Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. The study is published in Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment. Of the nine berry farms studied across the state of Vermont, the researchers calculated that wild bees could boost production up to 36%, or roughly $136,000 per year, on one mid-sized berry farm alone. On other farms, researchers determined wild bees' potential benefits to production as roughly 6% on average. "This study highlights the undervalued work that wild bees do," says Nicholson, noting that two-thirds of the world's most important crops benefit from bee pollination, including coffee, cacao (for chocolate) and many fruits and vegetables. "Without them farmers need to find pollination somewhere else, by paying high rental fees to bring in honeybees, for example." The findings offer a farm-scale perspective to recent global estimates of wild bees' economic benefits in the billions, annually - roughly equal to that of honeybees, with less associated costs. Unique research location Because honeybees visit Vermont blueberries much less often than in other blueberry growing regions, the Green Mountain State is a perfect location to isolate the value of wild bees to berry farmers, researchers say. "Most pollination research occurs in regions awash in honeybees," says co-author Taylor Ricketts, Director of UVM's Gund Institute for Environment. "That makes it difficult to really see the job that wild bees can do for farmers." The team painstakingly hand-pollinated blueberry plants in all nine research sites - using electric toothbrushes to mimic the buzz pollination of bumblebees, and then painted the collected pollen on over blueberry 5,000 flowers with small brushes. They compared production on these flowers, which received near-perfect pollination, to the naturally pollinated branches. The difference between the two conditions revealed each farm's "pollination deficit", the amount by which production could be improved with an increase in wild pollinators. "Many farmers don't realize they can be limited by not enough pollinators just like they can be limited by water or nutrients," says Nicholson. This study highlights the importance of wild bees to global agriculture, yet the first study to map wild bees across the U.S. - by Ricketts and colleagues - suggests wild bees declined in abundance by 23% between 2008 and 2013, especially in key U.S. agricultural areas. Another Ricketts study recently found that climate change could reduce areas available for coffee production by 88% in Latin America, as well as the bees numbers available to pollinate coffee. Another reason to protect wild pollinators - for berry lovers, at least - is that wild bees, especially bumblebees, are better at pollinating blueberries than honeybees. Bumblebees have evolved the ability to "buzz pollinate," vibrating blueberry flowers at a specific frequency to efficiently release showers of pollen. Honeybees are unable to do this, and must instead use less effective techniques to pry pollen from the flower. What can farmers and policymakers do to protect wild bees? The UVM team has found that maintaining a high proportion of natural bee habitat around farms can help, as well as spraying less pesticides. Small actions by homeowners can help too, such as mowing less, planting native wildflowers, and putting out 'beeboxes,' which are like birdhouses, but for wild native bees. "This study shows, yet again, that protecting wild bee populations offers important benefits to our agricultural economy," adds Ricketts. "Maintaining healthy ecosystems can be as important as providing fertilizer or water." ### Stem-cell transplantation is an effective form of therapy to fight leukemia. In many cases, however, the transferred immune cells of the donor also attack the recipients' healthy tissue - often with fatal consequences. Researchers at the University of Zurich have now identified a molecule that plays a key role in this process. Blocking this molecule could significantly improve the outcome of patients receiving stem-cell transplants. Stem-cell therapy offers people suffering from leukemia or bone-marrow cancer the chance of full recovery. This requires eliminating the affected cells using chemo or radiation therapy and then replacing them with the blood stem cells from a healthy donor. The donor cells not only produce new blood cells, but also attack the other cancer cells in the patient's body and prevent them from suffering a relapse. Dangerous response However, this form of therapy is not without its risks: In 30% to 60% of cases, the donor cells also attack the recipients' healthy tissue - the liver, intestine and skin, in particular. In about half of affected patients, such graft-versus-host responses even have fatal consequences. This is why doctors try to suppress this type of response with drugs that inhibit the immune system. But this procedure has a drawback, since it also diminishes the donor cells' anti-cancer effect on cancer cells in the rest of the body. "There is an urgent need to understand how to reduce graft-versus-host responses without losing the anti-cancer effects of the transferred cells," says Burkhard Becher, professor at the Institute of Experimental Immunology of UZH. Cytokines responsible for attack His team, in collaboration with the UniversityHospital Zurich and the University Medical Center at the University of Freiburg in Germany, has now demonstrated that the production of a cytokine called GM-CSF is a decisive factor in graft-versus-host pathology. This cytokine, produced by a specific group of white blood cells, helps fight infections in healthy people. The researchers used a mouse model to show that transplanted cells produce large amounts of GM-CSF during graft-versus-host responses. If the mice were given donor cells that were unable to produce GM-CSF however, they were protected against the lethal response. "Targeting this cytokine is therefore a very precise and specific form of immunosuppression, designed to stop the tissue damage caused by graft-versus-host responses," says Becher. Retaining the anti-cancer effect The team of immunologists was initially concerned that neutralizing GM-CSF would also diminish the donor cells' anti-cancer effect; however, further tests showed that this wasn't the case. "This finding really surprised us," says Sonia Tugues, one of the study's first authors, "since both types of immune response were previously thought to be mediated through the same mechanisms." The researchers thus believe that they have discovered a method that will allow them to separate the desired from the undesired processes in the donor cell. Translating the results from mice to humans In a next step, the researchers checked whether GM-CSF plays the same key role in humans as it does for mice. They did this by analyzing patient samples that had been affected by a graft-versus-host response. It emerged that these samples also had elevated levels of the cytokine - the stronger a patient's graft-versus-host response, the higher the amount of CM-CSF that was measured. The researchers now want to run a clinical trial to test whether the blocking of GM-CSF can prevent the graft-versus-host response after stem-cell transplantation. To this end the immunologists have already contacted a company that has developed a monoclonal antibody against GM-CSF. "If we can stop the graft-versus-host response while preserving the anti-cancer effect, this procedure can be employed much more successfully and with fewer risks to the patient," says Becher. "This therapeutic strategy holds particular promise for patients with the poorest prognosis and highest risk of fatality." ### GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (Nov. 28, 2018) -- A powerful new biochemical platform is fueling the study of a family of enzymes that are promising targets for cancer treatment. Published today in Science Advances, the new method provides a high-resolution view of how these enzymes, called lysine methyltransferases, selectively mark proteins with chemical tags that alter their function. Because of their central role in all aspects of health and disease, proteins and the molecules that edit and interact with them often are targets for therapeutic development. The platform was developed by Van Andel Research Institute's Scott Rothbart, Ph.D., in collaboration with EpiCypher, Inc. "This technology helps us to determine protein interaction networks for this understudied enzyme family based on chemical tagging," said Rothbart. "Several inhibitors of these enzymes are currently in the clinical development pipeline for cancer therapy. Defining the spectrum of their activity is critical for understanding exactly how these drugs work and for selecting reliable biomarkers to track their activity in patients." Humans have approximately 20,000 genes that contain the instructions for making proteins, the molecular workhorses that are responsible for carrying out every process in the human body, from aiding in food digestion to managing communication between cells. Once a protein is constructed, its function is often modified by the addition of small chemical tags, which instruct proteins where to go in the cell and when to perform their job. There are more than 100 different types of these tags, including the addition of methyl groups to the amino acid lysine. Using their new technique, the team found that many more proteins may be tagged by lysine methylation than previously thought. "Our study suggests that what we currently know about lysine methylation is just the tip of the iceberg," said Evan Cornett, Ph.D., the study's first author and a postdoctoral fellow in Rothbart's laboratory at the Institute. "The method we developed will allow us to identify new targets across the full set of lysine methyltransferases in humans and, in doing so, help us and others determine which cancers and other diseases could benefit from treatments targeting this class of enzymes." This technology is the latest advance stemming from a collaboration between Rothbart's lab and EpiCypher. Their work was supported by several National Institutes of Health (NIH) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awards. Commonly known as America's Seed Fund, SBIR provides federally funded research grants to small businesses in an effort to invest in American-led discovery. The SBIR program supports small businesses in the biotechnology sector, with a focus on strategies that have a high potential for significant impact and successful commercialization in the medical field. SBIR grants advocate for increased academic-industry partnerships to bridge the gap between basic science and clinical advancements, and are important stimulators of technological innovation. "The beauty of this technology is its simplicity and throughput, which is staggering compared to current mass spectrometry-based approaches," said Martis Cowles, Ph.D., EpiCypher's Chief Business Officer and study co-author. "We are excited to use this technology to help drug developers identify new therapeutic targets and even identify optimal target substrates for high-throughput inhibitor screening." ### In addition to Rothbart, Cornett and Cowles, authors include Bradley M. Dickson, Ph.D, Robert M. Vaughan, Kevin M. Shaw and Philip P. Versluis, of Van Andel Research Institute; Krzysztof Krajewski, Ph.D., of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Nicholas Spellmon, Ph.D., and Zhe Yang, Ph.D., of Wayne State University School of Medicine; Andrew Umstead and Irving E. Vega, Ph.D., of Michigan State University; Zu-Wen Sun, Ph.D., of EpiCypher; and Joseph Brunzelle, Ph.D., of Argonne National Laboratory. Research reported in this publication was supported by Van Andel Research Institute and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under award numbers R35GM124736 (Rothbart), R43GM110869 (Sun) and R44GM112234 (Sun). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official view of the National Institutes of Health. ABOUT VAN ANDEL RESEARCH INSTITUTE Van Andel Institute (VAI) is an independent nonprofit biomedical research and science education organization committed to improving the health and enhancing the lives of current and future generations. Established by Jay and Betty Van Andel in 1996 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, VAI has grown into a premier research and educational institution that supports the work of more than 400 scientists, educators and staff. Van Andel Research Institute (VARI), VAI's research division, is dedicated to determining the epigenetic, genetic, molecular and cellular origins of cancer, Parkinson's and other diseases and translating those findings into effective therapies. The Institute's scientists work in onsite laboratories and participate in collaborative partnerships that span the globe. Learn more by visiting vari.vai.org. 100% To Research, Discovery & Hope ABOUT EPICYPHER A pioneer in the field of epigenetics and chromatin biology, EpiCypher is a biotechnology company developing transformative technologies for researchers and drug developers worldwide. EpiCypher manufactures and sells a series of products and assay platforms that use recombinant "designer" modified nucleosomes (dNucs), including the SNAP-ChIP product family for quantitative ChIP applications and the EpiDyne product family for nucleosome remodeling assays, as well as recombinant histone binding proteins and enzymes, peptides and antibodies, and offers a broad range of custom substrate manufacturing and assay development services. Russia's Central Bank chairperson Elvira Nabiullina told about the bank's mechanisms of key rate decisions, speaking at the Russia Calling! business forum. According to her, there are several principles that are important here. "First, we decide basing on a forecast. And a three-year forecast is of significant importance here if we dont want our monetary policy to react late, because all monetary policy measures have an impact with a lag," PRIME cited her as saying. Nabiullina added that the Russian Central Bank also bases its decisions on stable tendencies, on long-term factors. In the late 1980s, more than three-quarters of the winter flounder caught in Boston Harbor--one of the most polluted harbors in America--showed signs of liver disease, many of them with cancerous tumors. But now, a scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has documented a dramatic rebound in flounder health spurred by decades of remediation efforts, including a $3.8 billion project to construct a sewage treatment plant and a 9.5-mile discharge tunnel with a 6,600-foot-long outfall diffuser. The findings appear in the Nov. 20, 2018 issue of the journal Diseases of Aquatic Organisms. "The last tumor we've seen in a winter flounder from Boston Harbor was back in 2004," said Michael Moore, a biologist at (WHOI). "The fish aren't getting liver tumors anymore." The turnaround, Moore said, is attributed to a number of major, long-term environmental cleanup efforts to reduce sewage sludge, nutrients, and toxins in the harbor and adjacent waters, including construction of the outflow discharge tunnel completed in 2000. The tunnel is wide enough to fit two semitrailers side by side and channels millions of gallons of effluent each day from the Deer Island Treatment Plant on Boston Harbor into Massachusetts Bay 9.5 miles offshore. Moore has collaborated with the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA), Battelle Norwell, and most recently, Normandeau Associates, to monitor the health impacts of contaminants on flounder since 1986 through annual fish surveys in and around Boston Harbor. The fish are caught, dissected, and their liver tissues are examined for signs of disease. When the monitoring program began, the Harbor's water quality suffered from a persistent buildup of pollutants: nitrogenous wastes, petroleum and pesticide chemicals, metals and nitrates from homes, commercial buildings, and industries were all discharged in millions of gallons of wastewater into the harbor each day. The toxic soup caused a spike in liver disease among flounder, and Boston Harbor, with its brownish tint and choked-off oxygen supply, became regarded as the "dirtiest harbor in America." Mounting pressure from local politicians, scientists, and residents to clean up the harbor led to a lawsuit filed by the city of Quincy, Mass., against local agencies responsible for sewage operations in the Greater Boston area. The landmark 1984 Boston Harbor Cleanup Case decision resulted in the creation of a new agency charged with the court-mandated, multibillion-dollar public works project aimed at improving sewage and runoff handling in the harbor. The harbor's water quality began responding within months of the first cleanup efforts as organic matter, nutrient and chemical loading into the harbor dropped, and dissolved oxygen levels climbed. During its monitoring, the MWRA noticed other signs that the harbor was starting to breathe easier: Fewer contaminants were penetrating sediments on the ocean floor where flounder live, and the quality of water, harbor bottoms, and beaches all improved. "In government, you often debate shades of gray," said MWRA's executive director Fred Laskey. "But in this case, the empirical data are irrefutable. The clean-up of Boston Harbor is the greatest environmental achievement of this generation." Moore said that pesticides and other chemicals of particular significance to the flounder liver disease decreased, resulting in healthier fish. The liver tumor prevalence was also a good indicator that the harbor cleanup reduced human health risk, especially for seafood consumers. Moore said that the goal of cleaning up toxic chemicals in the harbor has been met. Importantly, while the health of flounder in the Harbor has improved, there has been no decline in the health of winter flounder caught near the long outfall. In fact, levels of disease associated with contaminant exposure are lower in flounder caught near the outfall than they were in the early 1990s. "The amount of human endeavor that went into the project was staggering," he said. "You don't often see such a clear justification of the tax-payer cost for a public benefit when it comes to environmental protection, but the results of this study validate the idea that long-term investments in improving regional environmental quality actually work." ### This research was funded by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority. The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a private, non-profit organization on Cape Cod, Mass., dedicated to marine research, engineering, and higher education. Established in 1930 on a recommendation from the National Academy of Sciences, its primary mission is to understand the oceans and their interaction with the Earth as a whole, and to communicate a basic understanding of the oceans' role in the changing global environment. For more information, please visit http://www.whoi.edu. Sociedad Los Testigos de Jehova se reunen con Bolanos y agradecen la acogida en Espana de miembros de su confesion perseguidos BREAKING: The British Pound is tipped to crash 25 % against the euro (EUR), US dollar (USD) and other major currencies in the event of a disorderly Brexit, said Mark Carney, BoE Governor in a press conference today. The Bank of England believes that a rapid increase in the risk premium priced into Pound (GBP) exchange rates could be seen and ultimately crush Sterling a total of 34% lower since the 2016 inflation report, In the disorderly Brexit scenario, the term premium on UK government bond yields rises by 100bp. And as the sterling risk premium increases, sterling falls by 25%, in addition to the 9% it has already fallen since the May 2016 Inflation Report. Watch live below: Bank of England's scenarios under a "disorderly" Brexit: Britain's GDP drops 8% House prices plunge 30% Commercial property falls 48% Pound slides 25%, beneath $1 Unemployment rises to 7.5% Inflation accelerates to 6.5%https://t.co/HnxGBOWEMl Bloomberg Brexit (@Brexit) November 28, 2018 UK Bank Stress Tests in Event of Brexit Following this mornings publication of the Governments long-term economic analysis assessing the impact of several potential Brexit scenarios, the Bank of England have this afternoon published the results of their Bank Stress Tests alongside their own Financial Stability Report, outlining the financial policy committees stance on the current stability of the UK financial system. In determining banks stability and capital reserve adequacy in the face of synthetic market conditions the BoE results find that the, UK banking system is resilient to deep simultaneous recessions in the UK and global economies that are more severe overall than the global financial crisis and that are combined with large falls in asset prices and a separate stress of misconduct costs. With specific regards to the impacts of Brexit, UK banks are prepared and strong enough to continue to serve UK households and businesses even through a disorderly Brexit. The Financial Stability reports The FPC judges that, apart from those related to Brexit, domestic risks remain at a standard level. Going on, the report outlines that demand for credit has been muted amidst the ongoing uncertainty but overall the FPC will maintain their countercyclical capital buffer (CCyB) rate at 1% with the possibility of revising this up or down as the risk environment evolves. With BoE Governor Carney due to hold a press conference imminently, investors will be keen to hear the take-away messages from the Financial Stability Report and any findings in agreement or contradiction of the Governments earlier impact assessment. For the Sterling, its been yet again a tumultuous day in the FX markets, with the Pound seeing gains against both the U.S. Dollar (GBP/USD) and Euro (GBP/EUR) throughout the morning session before a lunchtime reversal and relinquishing of pips throughout the afternoon. Whilst the reversion to the short term mean has left the Sterling U.S. Dollar exchange rate virtually unchanged since the start of todays trading, the Sterling Euro exchange rate is still up (currently at 1.1303) despite the dismal afternoon. Government Reports in all scenarios the economy will continue to grow With the Governments release of a 90 page long-term economic analysis of the impacts of various Brexit scenarios and a 79 page supplementary technical reference paper, theres a lot of information for investors to ingest. However, the initial market reaction has seen the Sterling climb against both the U.S. Dollar (GBP/USD) and Euro (GBP/EUR). The report covers four potential scenarios but points out that the FTA, EEA and no deal scenarios are for for reference only as they do not deliver the Government's policy objectives. Scenario 1: Modelled White paper The policy position set out by the Government in the July 2018 White Paper on The future relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union Scenario 2: Modelled Average FTA A hypothetical Free Trade Agreement (FTA), with zero tariffs, reflecting average FTA non-tariff costs such as being outside the Customs Union and standard customs arrangements with the EU, regulatory barriers and other costs Scenario 3: Modelled EEA-Type An EEA(European Economic Area)-type scenario, which reflects being outside of the Customs Union and as such primarily reflects the costs of standard customs arrangements with the EU. Zero tariffs are applied Scenario 4: Modelled No Deal A no deal scenario based on an assessment of average non-tariff barriers (NTBs) between countries trading on non-preferential World Trade Organization (WTO) terms and applying EU applied Most Favoured Nation (MFN) tariffs With Low Expectations, Brexit Scenarios May Posit a Choice Between the Lesser of Several Evils While the Pound Sterling exchange rates have remained particularly volatile in recent sessions amidst ongoing uncertainty surrounding the economic implications of the UKs withdrawal from the wider EU with, or without, PM Mays EU-approved withdrawal bill, investors today should get an indication of what to expect in the weeks, months and even years ahead under a range of different scenarios (deal or no deal) as the Government lays down their analysis of the economic impact of Brexit. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Phillip Hammond is set to share treasury analysis covering a range of scenarios later today (11.30am GMT). If the Chancellors comments last night to the BBC are anything to go by, the implication seems to be that the UK economy will be heavily impacted by both the current deal (although to significantly lesser extent) and a no-deal/hard Brexit in the scenario PM Mays Brexit Withdrawal Bill fails to see domestic ratification. Chancellor Philip Hammond says every possible Brexit scenario will make the UK poorer. Just let that sink in. #r4today Kevin Schofield (@PolhomeEditor) November 28, 2018 Regardless of which scenario unfolds, Mr Hammond commented, If you look at this purely from the economic point of view, there will be a cost to leaving the EU because there will be impediments to trade. Unsurprisingly, Mr Hammond took the opportunity to reiterate the lesser impact of the Brexit deal on the table, the prime ministers deal minimises the economic impact while providing political benefits and commenting on the likely implications of the deal being rejected by parliament, that is not something that anybody would like to see it is not a good outcome. In an article by the Daily Telegraph, the expectation is that the economic impact report will indicate the UK to be 40bn worse off under the current deal versus 150bn worse off in a no deal scenario (in 15 years). Researchers from the London School of Economics, Kings College and the Institute of Fiscal Studies have also laid out their predictions for UK economy with and without the current Brexit deal, In a no deal scenario the cost to the public finances would be between 1% and 3.1% of GDP, and between 0.4% and 1.8% if the deal was implemented. This is even after taking account of the long-term saving on the UKs net EU contributions of 0.4% of GDP. Outwith deal and no-deal scenarios, the report will also contain an assessment on the economic impact if the UK were to reverse the Brexit process and remain in the European Union. With regards to this, the European Court of Justice are currently deliberating on whether or not the UK can, if it chooses to, unilaterally reverse the triggering of Article 50 and halt the Brexit process altogether. With Bank Stress test findings and the BoEs Financial Stability Report also due today (4.30pm), ahead of BoE Carneys Press Conference (4.45pm) Sterling FX markets are likely to be volatile throughout the day. Deal, No deal, Norway Model or Second Referendum? Uncertainty Remains Rife Ahead of Meaningful Vote Following the European Councils approval of the Brexit Withdrawal Bill and Political Declaration, PM May has returned home to a relentless barrage of criticism for the current deal, from Tory's and opposition MPs alike, ahead of the expected 11th December meaningful vote in the House of Commons. Given the number of members from her own party indicating they will not support the deal is above 80 and the staunch objection its facing from opposition parties as well as the co-aligned DUP, the chances of pushing the deal through Parliament on its first pass seem slim to say the least. With this in mind we take a look at the likely (and less likely) outcomes in the weeks ahead with regards to Brexit. 1. The House of Commons Approves the Brexit Deal on First Pass Given the odds stacked against PM May ahead of the 11th December vote this, the admittedly smoothest scenario, seems increasingly unlikely. PM May is today travelling to Scotland to attempt to garner support from north of the border but it seems nothing short of a PR miracle or dramatic interim developments will see MPs back the current deal. In the event that the deal does pass the vote, UK lawmakers would then begin the task of passing the terms of the deal into law. 2. Parliament Approves PM Mays Deal After Initial Rejection The TARP Plan. Reminiscent of the market turmoil which prompted support from Congress for the U.S. Governments bank bailout plan during the financial crisis of 2008, if PM Mays deal is shot down in the first instance by a reasonably small margin, the likely dramatic effect on the Sterlings FX value alongside other negative economic indicators may be enough to cow MPs into changing their minds, allowing PM May a second run at the House of Commons. 3. Deal Voted into Oblivion Hard-Brexit and Political Turmoil Ensue Should PM Mays deal fall flat on its face in the initial vote, by a margin of 70 or more, the case for a second vote to be called will be significantly weakened. In such a scenario the likelihood of the vote of no confidence which has until now remained uncalled may resurface as MPs all but lose their faith in PM Mays leadership abilities. A Tory leadership contest would follow bringing with it all associated political in-fighting while Brexit heads towards an increasingly likely no-deal scenario. Labour at this point could put lay down their own cross-party Brexit agenda or even try to bring about an early election by seeking a motion of no confidence in the current government. 4. Parliament Rejects Deal, Opts for Norway Model Given the EUs stance on the approved deal being the only deal possible the likelihood of once again opening negotiations over the terms of the UKs withdrawal from the EU are slim. Nonetheless, should PM Mays deal be off the table either through an initial hammering or 2 consecutive failings in the House of Commons and with no alternative plans put forward by opposition MPs, the UK may attempt to pursue the Norway model which would see the UK remain in the European Economic Area and represent possibly the softest of Brexits. 5. A Second In/Out EU Referendum With the European Court of Justice considering a case put forward by Scottish MPs and MEPs on whether or not the UK can unilaterally trigger the reversal of the Brexit process, thus halting the UKs exit altogether and maintaining EU membership in its form this scenario may soon be off the table. Regardless, should PM Mays deal be voted down initially, she may bow to cross-party pressure calling for a second in/out referendum with the terms of the current deal now known. Ahead of the meaningful vote in the House of Commons, its hard to predict which, if any, of these scenarios will unfold. What is predictable however is that the extreme volatility weve seen in Sterling FX pairs lately is likely to continue and uncertainty still remains at an all-time high regarding the future outlook for the currency. 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. Russia is taking part in developing a European counterpart of the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT), the European Commissions press service said. According to the EC's spokesperson, the purpose of the new platform is to ensure legitimate cash turnover with Iranian companies in spite of Washingtons sanctions against Tehran. The system is aimed at maintaining cooperation with the Islamic Republic in the oil, gas and financial sectors, as well as in trade, investment and transport, the Izvestia newspaper reported. The parties to the nuclear deal, specifically, Russia, China, the UK, France and Germany, are involved in efforts to create a mechanism that would allow transactions with Iran to skirt US sanctions, the European Commissions spokesperson told the paper. Other EU members have also been invited to join the venture. The head of the department of stock markets and financial engineering of the Faculty of Finance and the Banking Business of RANEPA, former deputy chairman of the Central Bank of Russia Konstantin Korischenko, speaking with Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that the euro-SWIFT system can be used by Russia as an alternative if it is disconnected due to sanctions, however, it will depend on whether the EU countries decide to join the U.S. anti-Russian sanctions. "In general, the EU countries are creating an alternative payment system. It may be an alternative for Russia, but everything depends on whether the European regulator will impose any sanctions on Russian financial institutions. That is, the main thing is the decision of the relevant state bodies of Europe or the U.S.," Konstantin Korishchenko stressed. The professor at the department of the stock market and investments at the Higher School of Economics, Alexander Abramov, in turn, noted that the introduction of the European analogue of SWIFT will require so much time that tension around Iran may come to an end by this time. "Now they consider it more as a kind of backup option that the EU still needs. Developing a SWIFT standard is not a fundamentally difficult task, it can be solved, but now its not clear whether the project will eventually be implemented or not," he said. The economist agreed that the euro-SWIFT may not protect Russia from sanctions. "If it comes to the situation of disconnecting Russia from SWIFT, our European partners will think what to do in this case, since maintaining such contacts with Russia should be somehow agreed with the U.S. Developing a SWIFT standard is almost free and not very difficult work. But if the United States disconnects Russia from the common system, it will be impossible to predict the behavior of European partners, because they will be under strong pressure from Washington," Alexander Abramov warned. Wednesday, November 28, 2018 Henry Ford II tried to buy Ferrari in 1963 and had the door slammed in his face by Enzo Ferrari. Embarrassed by the failed offer, Ford vowed to set his minions to work making a new endurance racer that could win the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Europes most important race, and defeat Ferrari in the process. Photo before the start of the 24 Hours of Le Mans 1966. Five men walk towards the starting line with the official black and white checkered flag that starts the race. Among them is the honorary starter, Henry Ford II Fords point man, Don Frey, assigned Roy Lunn, a native British engineer, to head up development of the endurance racer. The car was called the GT40, a nickname derived from it being 40.5." tall. The engine was a 260 cubic inch Ford with an aluminum block. Oddly, though Carroll Shelby, an automotive visionary, had driven the winning Aston Martin at Le Mans in 1959, Ford figured they didnt need this rubea failed Texas chicken farmer who took up racing in the 50sin the initial stages of the GT40 development. In 1964, Ford felt they needed expertise in managing an International race team. They hired ex-Aston Martin team boss John Wyer, who had been in charge of Astons racing program when Shelby won the race for them in 59. During the 1964 season, not a single Ford GT40 finished a race. Ford turned to Kar-Kraft, a secret race shop his company often used in Dearborn, Michigan. Though Wyer was technically still in charge of building the cars, Carroll Shelby was told to join the Le Mans effort. Shelby brought along his racing mechanics, including some of the good ol California hot rodders, like Phil Remington, to get the job done. Shelby and the Exciting GT40 Change the World of Car Racing The racing world saw the changes that Shelby made to the car when Ken Miles (featured in Ford v. Ferrari) and Lloyd Ruby finished first in a MkII GT40 at the 1965 Daytona Continental race. However, the success of the car didnt last long. At the 12 hours of Sebring race, Miles and the GT40 placed a respectable second place, but at the Le Mans 24-hour race, all five GT40s failed to finish. It was deja vu all over again for Ford. After the 65 Le Mans failure, Ford sent a few memos down from his executive office to the race team. One succinct note simply read, Win or else.." And by early 1966, with Ken Miles again at the wheel of a GT40, Ford won at Sebring. Fords warnings seemed to have worked. In 1966, Ford came back to the Le Mans 24-hour race with several teams, only one run by Shelby. That allowed for different management styles. Ford spared nothing, arriving with a racing crew of 100 men, nine cars (including a spare), seven additional engines, and 21 tons of spare parts. Ford attended the race and kept constant pressure on Leo Beebe, head of Fords racing program. GT40 Domination for Success at the Lemans Race That year Ferrari claimed Fords cars were overweight, clumsy, and unreliable, and Italian sophistication would dominate. In this race, however, Ferrari cars fell by the wayside, and for 24 hours Ford was on top. During the last couple laps, Ford began to move the positions of their racers so that on Fords orders, there would be a memorable finish, three cars coming across the finish line at once, all Fords. The famous 1-2-3 finish at Le Mans produced a photo that would become the centerpiece for the Ford marketing team to use in promotions. Ford may have spent a fortune, but he achieved his goal to beat Ferraris ass.." And it wasnt a flash in the pan either. Ford would go on to win the Lemans 24-hour race for the next three years in a row. Its hard to believe, but Ferrari has never won Le Mans since the 1965 season when Luigi Chinetti privately entered a 3.3-liter V12 Ferrari 250 LM and won the race. It will be exciting to see how the movie portrays the rivalry and battle between Ford and Ferrari. Whatever Hollywood does, the racing should be thrilling. If you have comments or a story about Formula One racing, or any other classic car story, please share it with us here. Be sure to attach photos as well. Thank you to author Wallace Wyss, noted historian on the Ford v. Ferrari era, and a fine artist of canvas giclee print paintings, for writing most of this post. His work can be reviewed and ordered by contacting him at Photojournalistpro2@gmail.com. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Today over 1500 refugees and migrants have arrived at the U.S. Mexican border in the city of Tijuana. They claim they are fleeing poverty in their home countries of Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. Meanwhile, about 6000 troops sent by President Trump are waiting for them on the U.S. side of the border, after building concrete barriers and putting up barbed wire fences to keep them out. So you might say that the two sides are poised for a show-down, or what some might dub a "Mexican stand-off" -- literally. Now the question is what to do about the would-be immigrants? Let them in? Keep them out? Or work out some procedure for selecting a small subset of the migrants to let in and send the others back? The debate about what to do is raging furiously, with conservatives generally wanting them to be kept out and liberals wanting to let some or most of them in. It is a conflict that criminal justice expert Paul Brakke has examined closely in his book Dealing with Illegal Immigrants and the Opioid Crisis, written primarily for law enforcement professionals and academics, and in a chapter of his new book for the general public Crime in America, which provides an overview of crime and the criminal justice system. Brakke writes from a conservative perspective, so he is in agreement with many other conservatives who are wary about the dangers of letting large numbers of immigrants enter the country, especially without sufficient time to vet them. There is also a danger of letting in younger refugees and asylum seekers, because younger immigrants have a higher rate of crime than other Americans of the same age. As Brakke points out in both books, "the data shows that illegals add to the crime rates, if only because their younger age makes them more prone to crime." Accordingly, in his books, Brakke offers several suggestions for fixing the illegal immigration mess, which would apply to deciding how to deal with about 4000 to 5000 refugees and migrants who are arriving in several caravans, many now driven by trucks to speed their journey. Among his suggestions are these: 1) Secure the border with a combination of walls, fences, greater patrols, drones, and more border security agents. This effort can be especially important now in that many individuals may take advantage of their growing numbers to seek alternate pathways into the United States. They might be willing to risk an illegal entry rather than wait for the possibility of a slow entry for a very small number of individuals in the caravan. 2) Discourage illegal immigration by eliminating the access of illegal immigrants to most services provided by city, state, or local governments, which might lead many such immigrants to leave the country voluntarily. Yes, they may be fleeing from some very bad conditions in their home countries. But the U.S. does not have the resources to accommodate a large influx of immigrants, especially since it is now suffering from a variety of homegrown problems, most notably the effects of hurricanes and other storms in the Eastern Seaboard, fires in California, and over 300 mass shootings all over America so far this year. 3) Monitor immigrant crime more closely by requiring the local and state criminal justice departments at all levels -- from the local police to the state attorney general's office and courts -- to keep accurate records of all crimes. They should also include information to indicate whether the person who has been arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to prison is a legal or immigrant and from what country. Then, this data will provide a clear picture of the extent to which illegal immigrants are involved in criminal activity across the country. 4) Institute strict penalties and deportations for crimes committed by illegal immigrants. Perhaps tag those deported with microchips so they can be more readily identified if they attempt to re-enter the United States. 5) Encourage community members to cooperate to support the arrest or deportation of illegal immigrants engaged in criminal activity. 6) Limit the number of legal immigrants allowed into the U.S. each year and be more selective about the immigrants admitted in order to select those who offer the most skills and education, and therefore are better able to contribute to American society. Certainly Brakke sympathizes with the tragic situation of the migrants and refugees having to flee their country. But this migration is part of a much larger problem of over 65 million displaced persons, including over 25 million refugees, worldwide due to wars, poverty, and turmoil within their countries. Unfortunately, these people have few options and most of them are ending up in refugee camps and tent cities or becoming homeless. Even so, as much as one might sympathize with their plight, it just is not possible for other countries to incorporate this many displaced persons into their countries, especially when these refugees speak another language. The danger is destabilizing the host country and creating an even greater risk of crime and disorder in that country. The same is true for the migrants and refugees trying to get into America. It is simply not possible to take in the vast majority of them without creating even more crime and dissension within the U.S. To learn more about Brakke's views on immigration, you can now get a free review copy of Crime in America, which includes a chapter on the subject. The book is available for preorder, too. Brakke is offering these books for free to anyone who wants to review and comment on the book. Also, copies are available for government officials who might turn some of these suggestions for reducing crime and fixing the criminal justice system into legislation. Members of the media are additionally invited to request copies of the book. To help draw attention to these suggested fixes in the book, Brakke has launched a video and social media campaign with five new videos each day. The first 10 videos are featured on his American Leadership Books' YouTube channel. Among the most recent videos are "The Wall" https://youtu.be/ReMs1d3GF74 and "The Immigration Debate" https://youtu.be/a5BjvJUQzqY Brakke brings to this discussion of crime and immigration in American society an extensive background in researching the subject as the publisher of American Leadership Books and the author of seven books. Six of them deal with what to do about crime in America, and one deals with understanding and healing the great national divides in America. Other past books include: The Price of Justice in America and Fixing the U.S. Criminal Justice System. Since these first books were designed especially for law enforcement professionals, government officials, and academics, Brakke is now adapting these books for a general audience and will be bringing out his next books -- Fractured America, Prisons in America, and Immigration and Crime in America -- in the next few months. Copies of Crime in America for review are available to the general public at no charge at www.crimeinamericathebook.com. For media copies of the book, along with additional information on American Leadership Books and Paul Brakke, and to set up interviews, please contact: Jana Collins Jones & O'Malley Toluca Lake, California jana@jonesomalley.com (818) 762-8353 A scarcity of workers, political upheaval and trade-war tariffs slowed Texas manufacturing growth in November, according to executives surveyed by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. While the states factory activity continued to expand in November the production index has been positive since July 2016 shipments and new orders fell to 20-month lows. The steel and aluminum tariffs are a drag! one manufacturer told the Dallas Fed, referring to the global tariffs President Donald Trump announced in March. READ ALSO: Cornyn talks new NAFTA pact, tariffs on Toyota anniversary visit A maker of metal products said that with domestic steel prices rising, foreign markets continue to have an advantage, especially when supplemented by foreign governments. A transportation-equipment manufacturer feared an anti-business bias among House Democrats looking to promote a progressive agenda. Democrats captured control of the U.S. House in the Nov. 6 elections. Overall, people are still relatively bullish they hope things are going to continue, said Tony Bennett, president of the Texas Association of Manufacturers. I did notice there was kind of a down tick. I dont know what you would attribute that to, whether its the way the stock markets behaving. Theres just a little bit of reservation there. Bennett said the petrochemical industry, where tens of billions of dollars worth of new Gulf Coast petrochemical plants depended heavily on steel supplies, are worried about the tariffs. But he said concerns overall havent gotten to the crescendo that people think. Its still a ways off, depending on what industry sector youre talking about, he said. Rey Chavez, CEO of the San Antonio Manufacturers Association, said local manufacturers were anxious about Democrats controlling the House of Representatives. The overall game plan from manufacturers is theyre just going to hunker down and wait and see what happens, he said. READ ALSO: Dallas Fed: Texas manufacturing activity expands, but tariffs increase uncertainty If Congress pushes new government mandates such as increasing the minimum wage Chavez said they could have a strong effect in the San Antonio region, where 80 percent of the manufacturers are small- to medium sized businesses with 50 employees. Theyre struggling to make payroll, meet the production, meet the requirements for what supplies and resources cost, he said. For now, Texas historically low unemployment rate of 3.7 percent means finding qualified workers may be manufacturers biggest problem. Results from the manufacturing, service-sector and retail outlook surveys showed 66 percent of companies had problems finding qualified workers. Some genius told everyone to go to college 40 years ago and now the average electrician is 56 years old, an appliance and electrical equipment manufacturer told the Dallas Fed. More than two-thirds of manufacturers reported increasing wages and/or benefits to recruit or retain workers compared with 49 percent a year ago. Anybody worth their salt is already hired, Chavez said. Anybody else thats left out there, is in my discussions with some manufacturers, just not totally sold on being a 100 percent full-time employee. The United States could become a net exporter of petroleum in less than five years, the first time the country would achieve such a feat since at least 1949, according to a new report. The shift from importer to exporter is driven by the surge in U.S. oil production that has followed the unlocking of crude reserves from shale formations, according to the report by the research firm IHS Markit. U.S. oil production grew to 9.4 million barrels a day in 2017, nearly double the 5.1 million barrels a day produced a decade earlier. Since then production has only accelerated: the Energy Department last week estimated that U.S. output has reached 11.7 million barrels a day. Since a ban on crude oil exports was lifted at the end of 2015 oil exports have more than doubled from 465,000 barrels a day in 2015 to nearly 1.2 million barrels in 2017. Through August, oil exports have averaged 1.8 million barrels a day. READ ALSO: U.S. crude oil inventories increase more than 10 million barrels In making its forecast, IHS Markit included all petroleum products, including fuels, natural gas and petrochemicals. IHS Markit projects that as these exports increase, crude imports will decrease, turning the U.S. from a net importer to a net exporter by 2022. The transformation could happen even sooner perhaps by 2020, said Per Magnus Nysveen, an analyst with the research firm Rystad Energy. With crude from Canada, the largest source of U.S. oil imports, the U.S. could soon satisfy its thirst for oil solely from North American sources, Nyvseen said. Politically of course it is just a completely different situation that the U.S. doesnt need the Middle East oil, said Nysveen. That is an extremely important implication. Texas has led the U.S. production boom, accounting for about 40 percent of the nations production. Energy companies have invested billions of dollars in pipelines to move oil from the Permian Basin in West Texas, as well as other oil fields, to the Gulf Coast for export to foreign market. On the coast, meanwhile, companies are also rushing to expand and built export facilities to handle some of the worlds largest oil tankers. Enterprise Products Partners of Houston wants to build an offshore crude oil loading terminal 80 miles off the coast near Galveston, while Swiss commodities trader Trafigura wants to build one 15 miles offshore near Corpus Christi. READ ALSO: Crude oil exports to double by 2020 The Port of Corpus Christi is pursuing its own $1 billion onshore export terminal on Harbor Island, near Port Aransas, with support from Washington investment firm The Carlyle Group. Meanwhile, the Oklahoma pipeline company Magellan Midstream Partners said it is evaluating building its oil export terminal on Harbor Island. Moda Midstream of Houston recently bought an oil loading terminal at Ingleside from the Houston oil company Occidental Petroleum. JupiterMLP, a Houston energy transportation company, has also said it wants to build a terminal by the Port of Brownsville, near the border with Mexico. Growing U.S. shale oil and natural gas production lowered the trade deficit by an estimated $250 billion in 2017, according to the IHS Markit reports. In 2017, the United States was a net exporter of natural gas, natural gas liquids such as propane and butane, and refined products, such as gasoline, according to IHS Markit. Crude oil imports declined from more than 10 million barrels a day in 2007 to 7 million barrels a day in 2017. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman received a personal welcome yesterday from Tunisias president Beji Caid Essebsi, who greeted his guest at the airport after two days of protests in the capital that reflected international concern about the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Essebsi honored the prince with a rare display of high protocol from a salute to the flags to the sound of the national anthems before the two reviewed troops. They then headed to the presidential palace in Carthage, outside Tunis, for closed-door talks, the only scheduled activity during the brief visit by the prince, who was on a tour of Arab countries before heading to the Group of 20 summit in Argentina, Reuters reported. San Antonios All American Oil & Gas is accused of improperly directing millions of dollars to company insiders, shareholders, various professionals and creditors ahead of its bankruptcy filing earlier this month. Managements efforts to push as much cash and current assets out the door (or hide them) was so extreme that it jeopardized (AAOGs) ability to function, according to a Monday court filing by Kern Cal Oil 7, AAOGs lender and largest creditor. Kern Cal Oil 7, or KCO, based in Santa Monica, Calif., alleges AAOG made more than $20 million in disbursements prior to filing for bankruptcy reorganization Nov. 12. READ ALSO: San Antonio oil and gas company enters bankruptcy KCO is asking a bankruptcy judge to appoint an independent examiner to investigate whether any fraud or mismanagement occurred at AAOG. It marks the latest salvo in an escalating feud between AAOG and KCO. Deborah Williamson, a San Antonio bankruptcy lawyer for AAOG, disputed the need to appoint an examiner. KCOs request distorts and mischaracterizes the facts to allege improprieties where none exist, Williamson said in an email. Stephen Warren, a Los Angeles lawyer for KCO, didnt immediately respond to a request for comment. READ ALSO: Battle shaping up over AAOG bankruptcy Privately held AAOG is the parent company of exploration and production company Kern River Holding Inc. and power company Western Power and Steam Inc., both of which also filed for bankruptcy. Kern River has a 215-acre lease in the Kern River Oil Field near Bakersfield, Calif., where the company operates more than 180 wells. AAOG has blamed its bankruptcy filing on KCO, which last month acquired $142 million in loans made to AAOG. KCO is attempting to strip AAOG and its subsidiaries of their equity as part of a predatory loan to own strategy, AAOG President Patrick Morris said in a previous bankruptcy court filing. KCO countered that the bankruptcy is the result of AAOGs inability to repay the loans. AAOG made and received a flurry of payments to and from a variety of insiders, professionals and unsecured creditors, KCO alleges. At a minimum, these payments reflect irregularity in the management of (AAOGs) affairs and may be evidence of more serious self-dealing and other misconduct, KCO adds. KCO describes as unusual various payments AAOG made in the 75 days leading up to its bankruptcy: More than $5 million in retainers to various professionals, including law firms. (Almost $1.7 million was later returned to the companies for unspecified reasons, KCO says.) The payments were not proportionate to the amount of work expected in connection with the bankruptcy, KCO adds. About $164,000 that appears to be a full years worth of fees paid to AAOG directors. READ ALSO: Bankruptcy judge OKs Alamo Towers sale More than $12 million in other payments to unsecured creditors, including several million that appear to be advances or payments made well ahead of their due date. KCO cites a $1 million payment to the law firm Ropes & Gray, which was hired to investigate allegations made by some of the companies stakeholders about management and board-approved insider payments. KCO notes $900,000 was returned to the companies just before their bankruptcies. Williamson said payments to vendors were for normal operating expenses and were fully in compliance with the loan agreements. The payments to directors were for ordinary course 2018 compensation. The same amount was paid to directors last year, she added. Two San Antonio nonprofits will receive matching grants from Social Solutions Global to offset part of the cost of the Austin firms software, which the groups say will help them improve their programs and better serve clients. The grants to Prospera Housing Community Services and SA Youth draw on funding from the Ballmer Group, an organization co-founded by civic activist Connie Ballmer and her husband and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. The couple announced in August that they were investing $59 million over five years in Social Solutions to use in developing their product and making their software more financially feasible for nonprofits. Social service organizations can often be 20 years behind the private sector in the availability and use of data and technology, and so in order to help nonprofits and the families they serve, we want to support leaders in this field like Social Solutions, Connie Ballmer said in a statement. The matching grants will cover half of the licensing costs for Social Solutions software. The company declined to disclose the match amount. Nonprofits often dont have room in their budget to invest in new software, and many still are using pen and paper to track information, said Alexis Zotalis, director of education solutions for Social Solutions. Grants they receive usually have specific requirements around how they can use the money, she added. Prospera, which provides affordable housing and and support services for adults and youths, plans to use the software to track factors such as students GPAs, said Carmen Hancock, vice president of resident services. It hopes to eventually work with school districts to create a well-rounded picture of each youth and how theyre doing in and out of school, she said. Another goal is integrating the new software with their existing property management program to cut down on evictions. The nonprofit also plans to use it to help capture impacts that were making on social determinants of health outside of the health care realm, she said. The software is a lifesaver for SA Youth, president and CEO Asia Ciaravino said. With it, the nonprofit can merge the data it collects through several systems into one database, and based on the information it has for each kid, it can customize programming, she said. The software also cuts down on the time staff might have to spend researching and compiling information. Without it, we would be back in the Dark Ages, Ciaravino said. In deciding which cities and organizations to work with, Social Solutions looked at factors like total student body population and the concentration of nonprofits that serve students and provide youth services, Zotalis said. Social Solutions came up with a list of cities with the least friction, which included San Antonio, Zotalis said. Prosperas and SA Youths missions also aligned with Social Solutions and the Ballmer Group, she added. They plan to use the funding to provide grants to organizations in other cities as well. We really want to help them maximize their impact, Zotalis said. madison.iszler@express-news.net Senior Border Patrol and Homeland Security officials pushed back again Tuesday at accusations that authorities used excessive force when they lobbed tear gas into Mexico, targeting crowds of migrants, including women and children, who rushed the border fence Sunday. Video of the fracas show young men throwing rocks toward U.S. border agents before the first wisps of gas appear, though those scenes have been overshadowed by a single photograph of a woman and her barefoot, diapered children fleeing the chaos. The image has renewed scrutiny of policies espoused by the U.S. Border Patrol, an agency that in recent years has recorded a significant decline in use of lethal force by its agents, statistics show. Incidents involving firearms fell from a high of 55 in 2012 to 17 last year, the result, senior officials say, of improved training, greater restraint and the kinds of tools and tactics deployed Sunday to subdue a frenzied, desperate crowd without causing any significant injuries. Yet critics of the Trump administration, as well as Mexican officials, have questioned the use of tear gas in the presence of children and the decision to fire canisters over the border fence. "I can't imagine firing tear gas into a foreign country," Gil Kerlikowske, the commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection from 2014 until the end of Barack Obama's presidency, told The Washington Post. "It's really a very indiscriminate method, and if you're firing into Mexico, where there are young families and children, you can't distinguish if anyone there might have a breathing problem." Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has said the migrants involved in Sunday's incident were mostly men and that the caravan's organizers encouraged women and children to go forward, treating them as "human shields." Border Patrol agents in 2013 used tear gas to disperse a smaller rock-throwing crowd in Tijuana, but Kerlikowske, who oversaw a broad overhaul of the agency's use-of-force policies, said he could not recall any such incident during his tenure as commissioner. He said "pepper ball" munitions - which agents also deployed at the border Sunday - were a safer, more precise option because they could be fired directly at bad actors and fence-climbers. Kerlikowske, a former Seattle police chief, said the use of tear gas in U.S. cities occurs under much different circumstances. "When you use tear gas for crowd control, you have fire [trucks], EMS, ambulances, because it can affect some people more severely than others," he said. President Donald Trump, who weeks earlier had suggested that American troops might use lethal force against rock-throwers, has claimed falsely that agents used a less-potent form of gas on the migrants. But Homeland Security officials have since acknowledged that the CS gas they used is the standard-issue variety wielded by police departments and federal agencies in the United States and by authorities around the world. Last week, the White House issued an order authorizing military personnel to use deadly force in the defense of CBP personnel. On Tuesday, an Army spokesman said that, at the border, only military police who carry firearms as part of their normal duties will be armed and involved in "providing emergency backup," if asked. The 1,000 or so people who approached the border fence were a fraction of the more than 5,000 mostly Honduran migrants who have arrived in Tijuana as part of caravans in recent weeks. They have settled there in a squalid campground, with the sinking realization that months could pass before they are allowed to approach the U.S. border crossing to request asylum. Rodney Scott, the Border Patrol chief for the agency's San Diego sector, said Tuesday that at the time tear gas was fired, agents had been facing "a direct and immediate threat" from 50 to 100 migrants "throwing rocks and chanting." Authorities revised the number arrested from 69 to 42. "The agents responded with the least amount of force that we possibly could," he said. "We tried the best that we could to target specific instigators we saw throwing rocks or bottles, but I cannot emphasize enough that these were large, moving crowds. . . . This was a very chaotic situation." The current CBP commissioner, Kevin McAleenan, said the agency would conduct a standard review of the use of force, but he too has defended the use of tear gas and praised the border agents' response as effective. Mexican authorities also called on U.S. officials to investigate the incident, and senior members of the incoming administration of President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who takes office Saturday, have also objected. Homeland Security officials say that parents should not have taken their children to a place where out-of-control crowds were trying to force their way into the United States and were attacking U.S. agents. Those families were in the wrong place but were not targeted, said Tyler Houlton, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security. "Border Patrol targeted the violent men who were assaulting officers, destroying federal property and attempting to illegally enter our country," Houlton told reporters Tuesday. "Others in the area who willingly joined a violent mob committing federal crimes may have been affected by the tear gas unintentionally." Kerlikowske, the former CBP commissioner, said he thinks agents should move back from the border fence, away from rock-throwers, whenever possible, rather than engage them. But Scott said his agents were determined to stand their ground. U.S. courts have repeatedly upheld agents' use of force in circumstances where they felt their lives were at risk. Last week in federal court in Arizona, agent Lonnie Swartz was acquitted in the death of a 16-year-old boy he shot through the border fence after coming under attack by rock-throwers. Swartz fired 14 to 30 rounds through the fence, striking the teen 10 times. He argued that he had feared for his life. --- The Washington Post's Missy Ryan contributed to this report. Good help is hard to find, especially when the talent pool is near empty. Employers advertised 7.1 million job openings in August, the largest number since the Department of Labor began keeping records in 2000. But only 6.2 million Americans are looking for work. The U.S. labor deficit is holding back economic growth. Only one solution can meet the needs of American businesses and strengthen the economy: wholesale immigration reform. Wholesale means keeping the workers we have and recruiting more. Mathematics, not politics, makes the case. Demand for labor is too high, and there are not enough U.S. citizens to fill these jobs. Companies are expanding at a record pace, hiring a record 5.78 million people in August, the latest statistics available. And yet there are about 1 million more job openings than citizens in the workforce, and most unemployed Americans would have a job if they had the right skills. Critics will point out that there are far more than 6.2 million unemployed people in the critical 25-54 prime working-age group. Federal statistics show about 18 percent of prime working-age Americans are currently unemployed, which leaves about 12 million people who dont have jobs and are not looking for one. Many of these people are so-called discouraged workers. Economists believe that when unemployment rates drop and wages go up, discouraged workers will rejoin the labor market. But a large portion of the 12 million are not discouraged. They are doing other things. About 4.8 million stay home and care for children or disabled family members because they cannot afford hired help. Approximately 4 million are on disability and will likely never return to work. Almost a million are in school acquiring new skills, according to federal surveys and research by Brookings, a Washington think tank. The most you might squeeze back into the workforce is another 1 million workers, but 57 percent of them have only a high school diploma. And a good portion have a drug addiction or mental health problems. Aggravating matters, the workforce is shrinking as baby boomers retire faster than young people are entering the workforce. This structural deficit could last a decade, with the biggest impact in skilled trades, manufacturing and health care. If were down a million workers, we cannot afford to start deporting workers, even if they did not enter the country legally. More than 1 million workers currently employed in the U.S. are so-called Dreamers, immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children. The Trump administration has canceled the Obama-era program to allow them to remain in the country. Another 8 million workers also crossed the border illegally to work in the U.S. as adults. These immigrants came to fill a shortage of people in the skilled trades, such as carpentry, welding and construction work. They were also ready to fill the jobs Americans did not want, such as kitchen help and farm work. If President Donald Trump and other Republican leaders keep their promises to deport all workers in the country illegally, about 9 million jobs would come open in addition to the current 1 million vacancies. The U.S. economy would collapse into a depression. Mass deportations would paralyze vast sectors of the U.S. economy, particularly agriculture, construction and food service. Texas would lose 9 percent of its workforce at a time of 4 percent unemployment. The United States is fundamentally out of people, Tom Donahue, president and CEO of the conservative U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said in a major policy speech last month. We need to come up with a tough but fair process for the millions of undocumented people living in the U.S. to have the opportunity to earn a legal status. The American economy will likely need an additional million more immigrants. By 2024, the U.S. will need 438,000 more food service personnel, 348,000 home health aides, 248,000 more janitors and maids, 147,000 more construction workers, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This argument is about math, not politics. Yet politicians hold the answer. Trump built his career demonizing immigrants who came to this country illegally. But there is a small window between now and his re-election campaign for him to strike a deal and claim that he fixed Americas immigration problem. The approach, though, must come from businesspeople, not the opposition party. Donahue suggests a deal that includes a path to residency if companies agree to use an electronic system to verify immigration status and Congress decides to spend more on border protection. Thats a deal every business leader should support. Chris Tomlinson writes commentary about business and economics. chris.tomlinson@chron.com twitter.com/cltomlinson The second round of presidential elections has started in Georgia. Today voters will have to vote for their favorite candidate between the two who have succeeded in the first round of presidential elections on October 28. During the election runoff voters will have to make choice between the independent candidate Salome Zourabichvili supported by the ruling Georgian Dream party and the candidate of United National Movement Grigol Vashadze. In the first round of the presidential elections Zourabichvili has received 38.64% of total votes, while Vashadze had been supported by 37.74% of voters. The election turnout was 45.4%. The president will be elected to a six-year term: this is also the last time the president will be elected by direct vote. Since 8:00am, 3 703 Polling stations are open for voters, including 55 abroad. 3,528,658 voters are included in the official voters list published by the Georgian Central Election Commission (CEC). The polling stations will be closed at 8pm in Georgia and at 00:00 abroad. More than 49,000 observers from local and international organisations are observing the election runoff in Georgia. The head of the Institute of Management Strategy, Petre Mamradze, speaking with Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that today we should expect spontaneous self-mobilization of the population for the elections to vote against Vashadze, not in order to support Zurabishvili. "People understood that Saakashvilis protege may return to power. More than half of the voters did not go to the polls in the first round, many voters voted both against Saakashvili and the Georgian Dream then, which disappointed citizens expectations - but now the same people say they will vote against Saakashvili," he explained. "Major rallies were held in Tbilisi, not attended by the Georgian Dream and Zurabishvilis team, where people said that they were dissatisfied with the existing government, but still it's nothing compared to Saakashvili's anti-state regime. I also participated in some events and heard people say directly that going to the second round and cross out both candidates is impossible, because it's about Georgias national security. It can determine the outcome of the election in favor of Zurabishvili," Petre Mamradze stressed. The political scientist Giorgi Nodia agreed that the election campaign eventually degenerated into agitation against Mikhail Saakashvili. "In fact, 90% of its rhetoric was that the UNM, represented by Vashadze, is presented as an absolute evil, and people must say 'No!' to this absolute evil. It was the essence of almost entire campaign of the Georgian Dream, which has ceased to be de facto campaign in support of Zurabishvili," he said. "The result of the first round was unsatisfactory for Zurabishvili, so the campaign against Vashadze was very active. Many talk about pressure on the population, about mass bribing of voters through writing-off debts of 600 thousand people. And Zurabishvili was transferred to the shadow to avoid her interference with the campaign. Her posters didn't contain her photo, showing portraits of Bidzina Ivanishvili and other leaders of the Georgian Dream instead. That is, the campaign changed completely after the first round, because the government tried to attract additional votes," Giorgi Nodia concluded. Mike Frisbie, the longtime director of San Antonios Transportation and Capital Improvements Department, is leaving the post to become the chief operating officer at the San Antonio Water System. Frisbie was hired in 2007 from the private sector by City Manager Sheryl Sculley, who pulled him from Phoenix, where shed previously worked as an assistant city manager. SAWS CEO Robert Puente is looking to Frisbie to fill some big shoes. Its never easy to replace a legend in the industry like Steve Clouse, who is retiring at the end of the year, he said. But we look forward to Mike Frisbie joining the SAWS team and helping lead the organization into the future. Frisbie will report directly to Puente. An engineer, Frisbie is well-versed in development issues in San Antonio and will help guide SAWS through its interactions with expansion as the area continues to grow. Puente said Frisbie will oversee massive capital projects in the coming years. The utility has some $375 million in planned projects for 2019 and $600 million in 2020 projects. Thats nearly $1 billion in projects and $125 million more than the citys 2017-2022 bond program, totalling $850 million. At the city, Frisbie oversees nearly 900 employees and is the point person for San Antonios municipal bond programs, which undertake hundreds of capital projects in five-year cycles. In 2014, his department also absorbed the citys Public Works Department, which handles things such as road maintenance. Frisbies base salary as the TCI director is $216,000. Hell earn $265,000 as the COO of SAWS. SAWS is owned by the city but has its own board of trustees and is semi-autonomous. Councilman Manny Pelaez said Frisbies departure is a loss for San Antonio. I am sad to see him go, he said. I really like him a lot and enjoy working with him. Frisbie sent a letter of resignation to Sculley dated Nov. 28. He will work through Dec. 14, according to the letter, and will be available to help with a transition to a new director. My family and I came to San Antonio over 11 years ago because of you, Sheryl, and the tremendous opportunity you provided, his letter says. COSA has collectively accomplished so much during your tenure and much transformation has occurred. This momentum will continue. Sculley had high praise for Frisbie. Of the dozens of executives Ive recruited and appointed during my tenure, Mike is easily one of the best, she said Wednesday. His fingerprints are all over San Antonio, having delivered nearly $2 billion in capital projects through the largest voter-approved bond programs in our citys history. He is widely respected by so many in his industry, and San Antonio is lucky to keep his talent here. SAWS is getting a great COO, and I wish Mike and his family the best in this new venture. In a letter to the mayor and council, Sculley said she will appoint an interim director next week and that the city would conduct a national search for a permanent replacement. Josh Baugh is a staff writer in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | jbaugh@express-news.net | Twitter: @jbaugh City Manager Sheryl Sculley has delivered a political hot potato to City Council members that they ordered up a self-evaluation of her 2018 performance thats the first step in deciding her annual bonus, which could be as much as $100,000. She filed the glowing 15-page memo on Monday, the deadline set by Mayor Ron Nirenberg on Nov. 15. Each council member has until Friday to submit their own assessment of Sculleys performance. We are going to follow the process outlined at the beginning of the year to evaluate the manager and the other City Council-appointed positions in a professional manner that is defensible and meets the increased standards for transparency that we established at the beginning of the year, Mayor Ron Nirenberg said in an interview late Wednesday. We are going to follow the process and it will be above reproach. The mayor dodged questions about the uncomfortable position he and his colleagues are in as they contemplate how much extra in taxpayer dollars Sculley should receive for her 2018 performance. She is paid a base salary of $475,000. READ HER FULL ASSESSMENT: 2018 Performance Measures and Special Initiatives Just a few weeks ago, voters sent a loud and clear message to City Hall by overwhelmingly approving Proposition B, which places limits on the compensation and tenure of future city managers. Though it doesnt apply to Sculley, the charter amendment pushed by the San Antonio Professional Fire Fighters Association was widely seen as a proxy referendum on Sculleys compensation, long a source of controversy. Now Playing: In this interview with the Express-News, City Manager Sheryl Sculley explains why she likes the job of city manager. Video: San Antonio Express-News Nirenberg, the fourth mayor Sculley has worked for, has been a steadfast supporter. Our city manager has done a great job maintaining our AAA bond rating, ensuring efficient city services and being a fiscal steward of taxpayer resources, Nirenberg said. It is one of the reasons that San Antonio continues to be the best run big city in the country. In his mid-November memo to the council, Nirenberg laid out the annual process for determining Sculleys bonus. She is evaluated on seven general measures: professional skills, organizational staffing, relations with City Council, fiscal management, community relations, ethics and individual characteristics and crisis and disaster-response management. Each council member rates her up to 10 points for each category. In addition, there are 14 initiatives specific to 2018 that could earn up to an additional 70 points from each council member, for a maximum of 140 points per council member. Sculleys rating would be the average of all 11 evaluations. Nirenberg can omit the highest and lowest rankings to estimate a more accurate average of council scores. The amount of the bonus depends on the rating. Nirenberg said the council members assessments will inform discussions to be held in executive session, meaning behind closed doors. Despite the potential political fallout, council members said they arent shying away from their duties. Voters sent me to City Hall to deliver on a promise of leadership. Leadership is a lot of things, but rarely is it convenient or comfortable, Councilman Manny Pelaez said. People expect us to evaluate our city managers performance every year. She expects it, too. We have a contract with Sheryl and we honor our contracts. My obligations as one of Sheryls 11 employers havent changed, he said. If the firefighters wanted to force us not to conduct annual evaluations or to breach our contractual obligations, they could have written Prop B accordingly but they didnt. Councilman Greg Brockhouse, a frequent Sculley critic who is seen as a potential challenger to Nirenberg in the 2019 race, said the council should act quickly and publicly on the matter. We need to have the conversation on the city managers role and performance immediately. I called for this discussion months ago so we could have had a public discussion, with time to plan for the future, he said. No backroom discussions on the pay and bonus. Lets do this in the public. The citizens spoke on Nov. 6 about this issue. They deserve to hear what our plan is. Brockhouse said the council shouldnt be rushed into discussing Sculleys performance evaluation, bonus and potential contract amendments at the end of the year. I think its more than uncomfortable. Its problematic, he said. We should have addressed this with ample time. Nirenberg countered that this councils handling of Sculley is standard operating procedure. I think you could look over the 13 years the city manager has been here and see that nothing is different than the way its been handled in the past, he said. Without exception, these discussions take place at the end of the year, and sometimes even into January and February of the following year. Sculleys self-evaluation provides a detailed assessment of each the categories and initiatives, which she and the council laid out in March, when they established her performance metrics for the year. Right out of the gate, Sculley reminded her bosses that shes the best at what she does. As the most experienced City Manager of any large city in the country, I utilize my nearly 40 years of experience managing local government to address the challenges facing San Antonio on a daily basis, she wrote. She cites having made several executive appointments and promoted diversity among the municipal ranks. Sculley notes that she appropriately manages sometimes conflicting interests among council members and has maintained the citys AAA bond rating for the ninth consecutive year. The memo highlights the breadth of Sculleys portfolio and says that she pushed to integrate technology through the Smart Cities initiative, oversaw the renovation of both City Hall and the Frost Tower, implemented the councils equity policies regarding services across the city and worked on the Alamo Master Plan and a climate-action plan. It makes no mention of a potential credit downgrade because of the passage of the two charter amendments in November, the one that places a salary cap and term limit on future city managers and the one that gives the fire union the unilateral power to call for binding arbitration on a new labor contract. The city faced the Nov. 6 charter election in large part because it continued to pursue a lawsuit against the San Antonio Professional Fire Fighters Association over an evergreen clause in its contract that keeps the agreement in place for up to a decade while a new one is being negotiated. Sculley and Nirenberg continued to forge ahead with the suit, even after the previous administration agreed to an eight-year evergreen clause with the San Antonio Police Officers Association. In her self-evaluation, Sculley lays out her efforts with regard to the court battle, noting it came about after years of unsuccessful efforts to encourage the fire union to come to the table. She refers to the citys request that the Texas Supreme Court take up the issue and the hig courts decision not to hear the case. As as result, the city has prepared a joint motion to dismiss the lawsuit, she said, which is pending. Along with the list of projects shes shepherded, Sculley wrote about her character and ethics. I hold myself to the highest standards of excellence. I am fully accountable for the execution of city initiatives, and nobody holds me to a higher standard than I hold myself. The breadth of issues that I must have a grasp of grows daily, and this job requires tremendous mental and physical stamina, she wrote. I believe that I demonstrate on a daily basis my commitment to the job and to the residents of San Antonio. Few decisions are easy in this role, but I believe my track record is one of good judgment and a willingness to adapt and evolve as the circumstances warrant. How the council ultimately handles Sculleys bonus could be a litmus test on her future as the city manager. While her employment agreement doesnt have a specific end date, it has exhausted its built-in salary increases and bonus structures. Theres no clarity on what the mayor and council might do with Sculleys employment agreement. Options include doing nothing, which means she would continue to earn her current base salary and be eligible for a bonus, or amending her contract, which could mean increasing her compensation. Voters will decide by way of council elections in May if they think that goes too far. Nirenberg wouldnt speculate on the outcome of the councils decision on Sculleys bonus, much less the future of her contract. I think we have to let the process be handled professionally in accordance with the standards that were set to meet the highest levels of transparency and professionalism, he said. To speculate on what that outcome looks like at this point would be premature. Josh Baugh is a staff writer in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | jbaugh@express-news.net | Twitter: @jbaugh A big fundraiser will be held for Rey Saldana at the Pearl in two weeks. The funds raised that night wont be for a specific campaign. Thats because no one, least of all Saldana, knows exactly what his next political move will be. The fundraiser is more of a general investment in the future of someone long viewed as the Council Member Most Likely to Break Out in a Big Way. With a little more than five months left in his fourth and final term, Saldana is both the elder statesman and the youngest member of the council. At the politically tender age of 32, he will be only the second person after Ray Lopez to be term-limited off the council since San Antonio voters passed term-limit extensions in 2008. READ ALSO: Medina's 2017 mayoral coalition resurfaced in charter-amendment fight The December 13 Rally4Rey carries with it the open-ended sense of possibility and uncertainty surrounding Saldanas immediate political future. Its called the Onward and Upward Farewell Fundraiser the end of one clearly defined phase and the beginning of a murkier one. The fundraiser was the brainchild of Saldanas friend DeMonte Alexander, a consultant and former City Council aide. He reached out and said, Hey, Ive got a few friends of ours, we dont know what youre doing, but we want to put a fundraiser together for you, Saldana said. Ive learned enough as a politician to know that if somebody offers to throw a fundraiser for you, you should probably say yes. So I said, Sure, why not? READ ALSO: Prop B paves the way for a mayor-council form of government I thought it was going to be a small coffee with a few of our friends. A few days later, I saw that it was a Facebook public post. I said, I didnt realize thats what you meant, but Ill go along with it and see how it goes. Plenty of local political watchers also will be curious to see how it goes, because were only 22 weeks away from our next mayoral election and Saldana is the undisputed X-factor in the race. Its all but certain that Mayor Ron Nirenberg will face a challenge from his persistent nemesis, District 6 Councilman Greg Brockhouse, who will rely on the same anti-City Hall resentment that recently fueled passage of two out of three fire-union charter amendment propositions. There is a popular view out there that if Saldana concluded that he was the only hope of blocking the election of Brockhouse, he would enter the fray. Saldana wouldnt express his thinking that way, exactly, but he does say, If it was a choice between Greg Brockhouse and no one else, I would take that shot. As it stands, he sounds reluctant to run in 2019, but not quite ready to shut the door. The design for me is not 2019, but circumstances may change. The design for Saldana, as he sees it, is for him to bide his time until he can launch the kind of galvanizing campaign that shifts the tectonic plates of a political scene. His big inspiration is the 1981 mayoral candidacy of Henry Cisneros, who, at the age of 33, became the first big-city Latino mayor in U.S. history and drew a record turnout of more than 156,000 voters (43 percent of registered San Antonians). Saldana, who devoted a September TEDx talk to the self-perpetuating cycle of people in neglected communities staying home on election day while politicians neglect to ask them for their votes, wants to break that cycle. If Im shooting toward a target, its to try to get that (Cisneros) level of excitement and engagement, regardless of who Im running against, he said. And the question for me is, Can I build a (2019) campaign, can I build the infrastructure to accomplish that in the time thats left? Thats the bigger question for me, because you want that kind of mandate when youre in the seat. READ ALSO: Ex-Mayor Castro 'hoping' to run for president Its worth pointing out that Cisneros faced a temptation to run two years earlier. He believed he had an understanding from then-Mayor Lila Cockrell that she would not seek a third term in 1979. When she ran, he was disappointed, but he held off for two more years, rather than challenge her. Saldana finds himself in a similar situation, except for the fact that he unlike Cisneros wont have a council seat to keep him busy for the next couple of years. That means hell probably devote his time to advocating for public schools, while weighing requests that he run in 2020 for the Texas Senate seat that Pete Flores, a former law enforcement director for the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, flipped to the Republican column in a September special election. All the speculation about his political future is helping him to stay relevant as a council member and avoid the lame-duck syndrome. Nirenberg, mindful of the threat Saldana could pose to him, suggested a year ago that Saldana step down from the council to become the chair of VIA Metropolitan Transit. That offer could pop up again as Saldana nears the end of his council tenure. For now, Saldana simply hopes that the attendees of his upcoming fundraiser understand his political uncertainty. I dont want people to be disappointed, he said, that I dont have some grand announcement for them. @gilgamesh470 Gilbert Garcia is a columnist covering the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | ggarcia@express-news.net | Twitter: @gilgamesh470 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. For someone trying to demonstrate that the judiciary is not political, getting into a political fight with the president sure is a funny way to do it. After President Trump called a judge who ruled against him an Obama judge, Chief Justice John Roberts issued an extraordinary public rebuke of the president, declaring in statement We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges. Roberts was not only wrong to speak out, but also his claim that there are no Obama judges or Trump judges was wrong. If we do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, then why did Senate Republicans block President Barack Obamas nomination of Merrick Garland to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia in the final year of Obamas term? And why did Democrats filibuster Trumps nominee, Neil Gorsuch, to fill Scalias seat? Even Robertss fellow justices know there is a difference. If there were no Obama judges or Trump judges, then why did Anthony Kennedy wait for Trumps election to announce his retirement? And why doesnt Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg just retire now and let Trump nominate her replacement? Because they both want a president who would appoint a successor who shares their judicial philosophy. (And, lo and behold, Trump appointed a former Kennedy clerk, Brett Kavanaugh, to succeed him). The American people know that Roberts is wrong. In the 2016 election, exit polls showed that 70 percent of voters said Supreme Court appointments were either the most important or an important factor in deciding their vote. And polls show that Republicans expanded their Senate majority in 2018 in large part because conservative voters were angered over the lefts brutal campaign of character assassination against Kavanaugh. Roberts is correct that we should not have Trump judges or Obama judges. It would be better for the country if every judge, regardless of which president nominated him or her, strictly interpreted our laws and the Constitution. But the reality is that not all do. While conservative presidents tend to nominate judges who exercise a philosophy of judicial restraint follow our laws as written liberal presidents tend to nominate judicial activists who legislate from the bench and shape the law to reach their preferred outcomes. The left believes in a living Constitution, which can be interpreted to mean whatever they want it to mean without being formally amended. Democratic presidents have been much more successful than Republicans in nominating judges who hew to their judicial philosophy. Over the past three decades, nearly half of all Republican Supreme Court nominees have either become swing votes (Sandra Day OConnor, Kennedy) or defected to the courts liberal bloc entirely (David Souter). Even Roberts has joined the courts liberal bloc at key times, abandoning his judicial philosophy that judges should not legislate from the bench to provide the swing vote to uphold Obamacare. By contrast, not one liberal justice during the past three decades has defected to the conservative bloc or turned into a regular swing vote. What is true of the Supreme Court applies even more to the appellate courts. Trump is right, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit is a disgrace. This is the court that ruled that the phrase under God in the Pledge of Allegiance was unconstitutional, that the Second Amendment doesnt recognize an individual right to bear concealed arms and that bans on assisted suicide are unconstitutional. This is why it is so important that Trump has nominated, and the Senate has confirmed, a record number of district and circuit court judges and why liberals are aghast at the pace of Trumps judicial confirmations. As former Hillary Clinton adviser Ronald Klain complained, Trumps judicial nominees will be deciding the scope of our civil liberties and the shape of civil rights laws in the year 2050 and beyond. Everyone, left and right, knows that Roberts is wrong. We do have an independent judiciary. Judges are not beholden to any president, including the one who appoints them. The judiciary plays a key role in our system of checks and balances. Trump judges should rule against Trump when he is wrong. That is why it is so important for the chief justice stay above politics. Roberts is right that our independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for. Rolling around in the rhetorical mud with Trump is not just bad form; it also undermines the very judicial independence Roberts is seeking to uphold. Follow Marc A. Thiessen on Twitter, @marcthiessen. # 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 The war in Iraq was still in its first year when Patti Patton-Baders son, a soldier there, told her that he was one of the few service members he knew who was getting care packages. Patton knew what to do. She got some of her friends and neighbors to send packages to Staff Sgt. Brandon Varns platoon. That was just the start. More requests came in from soldiers, combat support hospitals and families of troops who were in the theater of war. READ ALSO: Will the troops be home for Christmas? Army backtracks on timetable What happened from there explains how Soldiers Angels evolved into a volunteer network of people in 50 states and 31 countries, all toiling to support troops, their families and veterans of all eras. Patton created a system that matched the needs of troops overseas with people back home wanting to help. A few months later, she was one of thousands of Angels, as theyre now called, supporting troops overseas. San Antonio-based Soldiers Angels has sent a total of 851,000 care packages to deployed troops in the years since. More Information How to help Soldiers' Angels is a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides aid and comfort to the men and women of the United States Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, their families, and veterans. Contact Soldiers' Angels at (210) 629-0020 or email info@soldiersangels.org to learn more about how to support their many programs and services that help active-duty service members, wounded heroes, veterans and their families. The group's web site is www.soldiersangels.org See More Collapse As the holidays near, the nonprofit group, whose slogan is May No Soldier Go Unloved, is operating on a $22 million annual budget that utilizes only $2 million or so in cash. Everything else consists of in-kind contributions fueled by a volunteer base that tops 20,000 people. We just have an amazing group of volunteers, thousands and thousands of volunteers and so were able to do so much with such a large footprint, said Amy Palmer, Soldiers Angels president and CEO. And that alone is important to me because were able to do a lot with a little bit of money. READ ALSO: Protesters say Christmas tree should be at the Alamo Soldiers Angels does more these days than put together care packages for soldiers, veterans and their families. Volunteers gathered 17,000 pounds of candy before Halloween for the groups Treats for Troops campaign. As Thanksgiving approached, volunteers at the groups San Antonio offices off Northeast Loop 410 were among the roughly 1,000 nationwide who were stuffing holiday stockings, planning to send out around 14,000 of them, many to veterans hospitals around the country. As the U.S. military footprint has shrunk overseas, the group has seen a rising need among veterans here in the United States, particularly the homeless and those on the margins. Soldiers Angels is also doing an Adopt-A-Family program for the holidays that is open to relatives of deployed service members and low-income chronically homeless people. The program reaches out to families nationwide, some in San Antonio, by giving them toys and a gift card for a holiday meal. A toy party for low-income families is planned Dec. 14 at Audie L. Murphy Memorial VA Hospital. In 2017, the group provided veterans and families with 120,200 items ranging from blankets and box lunches to hygiene supplies at VA medical facilities. It helped more than 22,100 veterans get food assistance in cities across the nation last year, and is one of the militarys largest volunteer networks. Soldiers Angels says it is so efficient that 98 cents of every $1 goes to programs. The group maintains a GuideStar Platinum Seal of Transparency and has been named a Top-Rated Nonprofit by GreatNonprofits and a four-star charity from Charity Navigator. It also meets all 20 standards for accountability from the Better Business Bureau. The organization can be reached at (210) 629-0020 or by email to info@soldiersangels.org. Care packages for deployed service members have been a Soldiers Angels trademark from the start, and include snacks, hygiene products, games, and such comfort items as socks and hats. Hygiene kits containing shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, lotion and toothpaste help make veterans stays at VA hospitals more comfortable. READ ALSO: At 50, Elf Louise Project continues spreading Christmas cheer Those stays can be long and involve multiple appointments. Some veterans may not be able to spend money on cafeteria food while at the VA, which is why Soldiers Angels provides box lunches consisting of chicken salad and tuna, granola bars, fruit cups and snacks. We packed 5,000 of those at the 15th anniversary and theyre almost gone, Palmer said. Those are specifically used for low-income veterans that cant afford to eat in the cafeteria of the hospitals or veterans that are homeless. And so we go through thousands of those a year. This year, 15,000 box lunches were served. Next year, theyll start offering vouchers to some patients so they can eat in hospital cafeterias, allowing the group to focus more on feeding homeless veterans. Other programs are on tap for the coming year as well. The group will put together kits of basic home essentials bed covers, pots and pans, dishes, sheets and pillow cases, and shower curtains for families moving into homes under HUDs Veterans Affairs Subsidized Housing program. They also will provide bus passes and vouchers for veterans who dont have a way to get to their appointments. Soldiers Angels boils down its mission to its trademarked motto. May no soldier go unloved, May no soldier walk alone, May no soldier be forgotten, Until they all come home. Turkey's National Security Council held a meeting in Ankara yesterday, where it was stressed that the biggest threat to a political solution in Syria is the terrorist presence east of the Euphrates River. The statement "strongly emphasized" that Turkey would not be indifferent to the terrorist PKK/PYD-YPG changing the demographic makeup in areas bordering Turkey through persecution and forced migration. It was also stressed that Turkey will continue its determined fight against terrorism to protect its people from threats arising from terror groups along its borders with Syria and Iraq. The statement said that "some countries failing to list terrorist groups such as the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) and the PKK/KCK's Syrian branch the PYD/YPG as terror groups hurts counter-terrorism efforts. "To find a lasting solution in Syria, a constitutional committee, working under United Nations observation, should be established as soon as possible," Anadolu Agency cited the declaration as saying. Low cost carrier Eurowings, which has expanded significantly across Croatia over the past few years, has applied stickers to one of its Airbus A320 aircraft promoting Croatian tourism. The Dusseldorf-based jet will fly across Europe featuring the special markings this winter season advertising both Croatia and Kvarner. The jet landed in Rijeka several days ago and was greeted with a water cannon salute. Eurowings has previously also promoted Croatian tourism with special markings. Hedge fund Land & Buildings is continuing its push for sweeping changes at retailing giant Hudsons Bay Co., arguing in a new letter that the embattled Canadian company should sell its Lord & Taylor and Saks Fifth Avenue brands. Selling the marquee brands, including the flagship Saks store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, could double or triple the companys underperforming share price, Stamford-based Land & Buildings founder and chief investment officer Jonathan Litt wrote in an open letter to shareholders on Wednesday. He also recommended that the Brampton, Ontario-based firm sell its remaining 50 percent stake in its European Galeria Kaufhof business and sublease spare space in its Bay department stores in Canada. Land & Buildings, as a long-term significant shareholder of Hudsons Bay, continues to believe that the companys stock is egregiously undervalued, Litt wrote. In our view, there are numerous pathways that Hudsons Bay should be pursuing to unlock shareholder value. Unfortunately, the company has failed to take the decisive actions necessary to achieve this goal. Hudsons Bay officials declined to comment on Litts letter. As it grapples with the ongoing migration of shoppers to online platforms, the company has started restructuring under recently installed CEO Helena Foulkes. Earlier this year, the company announced it planned to close through 2019 up to 10 of its approximately 50 Lord & Taylor stores. Hudsons Bay is selling its flagship Lord & Taylor store, on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, which is scheduled to close after the holiday season. The fate of other Lord & Taylor stores is unknown. In southwestern Connecticut, there are Lord & Taylor locations at 110 High Ridge Road in Stamford, the Danbury Fair mall and Westfield Trumbull mall. Among other major changes, Hudsons Bay announced last month that it would sell its flash-sales site Gilt Groupe to a rival, Rue La La. This customer-focused mindset will dictate how we think about key functions of the business, Foulkes, who was appointed to the position in February after previously serving as executive vice president at CVS Health, said in June. I see opportunity to dramatically improve our marketing and digital operations while also refining companywide processes that impact our end-to-end customer experience. For its second quarter of this year, Hudsons Bay recorded a loss of about $200 million. In the letter, Litt also renewed his criticism of the Hudsons Bay board, citing its appalling track record. The board has overseen approximately $1.5 billion worth of shareholder value destruction, with a 60 percent share price decline during the past three years, while comparable department stores shares have risen 25 percent in 2018, according to Litt. He floated the possibility of calling a special meeting of shareholders and running a slate of candidates for the companys board that would likely include an unnamed former Hudsons Bay executive. We believe that change on the board is urgently needed to ensure that the board listens to its shareholders and takes the steps needed to truly maximize value for all shareholders, Litt said. His letter did not disclose the size of Land & Buildings current ownership stake in Hudsons Bay. Alongside his activism as a Hudsons Bays shareholder, Greenwich resident Litt was elected in May by shareholders to a seat on the board of the company that owns the Stamford Town Center mall. The win culminated Litts second campaign for a spot on the panel overseeing the Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based Taubman Centers. Litt said he ran because he saw Taubman as a business beset by poor governance and, consequently, underperforming earnings but one that still owns quality properties. pschott@scni.com; 203-964-2236; Twitter: @paulschott STAMFORD The woman whose untimely death Tuesday morning sparked a criminal investigation has been identified by police as Olga Iris Lopez, the wife of a man currently being held on cruelty charges because police say he did not get her medical help in time before she later died at Stamford Hospital. Lopez, 36, was diagnosed at Stamford Hospital with a massive brain bleed on Monday evening just two hours after medics picked her up lying unconscious on a floor of a Southwood Square apartment, according to a police report. Lopez also had dozens of bruises all over her body, police said. Hector Collazo-Lopez, 42, was arrested Tuesday in connection with Lopezs death, charged with withholding medical treatment. Police said he did not call an ambulance to his mothers single bedroom apartment on Pequot Drive where he and Lopez were were living with their three children, in time to save her life. An autopsy performed on Lopez Wednesday was unable to determine the cause and manner of death, so police cannot be sure whe Lopezs passing was a homicide or because of natural causes. Detective bureau Lt. Tom Scanlon said the Office of The Chief Medical Examiner said their determination is pending further study. A police report of the incident says Hector Lopez has an extensive history with the Stamford Police Department that includes numerous domestic violence arrests for charges including assault, breach of peace, criminal mischief, violation of judges protective orders, violation of probation, stalking, threatening, creating a public disturbance and interfering with police. He has served sentences in prison as long as a year and as short as 30 days, and in some cases received suspended sentences, his court record shows. He also has been arrested for interfering with police, violating probation, stalking and violating judges criminal protective orders. Lopez is also known to the SPD as someone with an extensive history as a domestic violence perpetrator, the arrest report from this week states. In a press release Scanlon said the three children are now being cared for by the state Department of Children and Families. An investigation into the death of Lopez is continuing, he said. This is an ongoing investigation and Major Crime Investigators would like to speak with anyone that has information of the events that led to the death of Olga Lopez. Investigators would also like to speak with anyone that has information regarding any previous reported or non-reported incidents of family violence involving Olga and Hector Lopez, Scanlon said in the release. Hector Lopezs mother told police that she had heard her daughter-in-law vomiting between 4 and 5 a.m. Monday, which she attributed to heavy drinking over the weekend. More for you Stamford police investigate suspicious West Side death Mercedes Collazo Martinez, 60, told police that before she went to work on Monday, the woman was complaining about a headache and she gave her some medication. But when Martinez came home late Monday afternoon, she found the woman unconscious on the living room floor. At about 5:45 p.m. Monday, Martinez called for an ambulance, according to the report. Lopez was also charged with criminal trespass because he had been ordered to leave and not return to the Pequot Drive complex where his mother was living. Once she was at Stamford Hospital, police were told by medial staff that the woman was suffering from the massive brain bleed and doctors also found 30 to 40 new and old bruises on her body, the police report said. Shortly after 8 p.m., about two hours after arriving at the hospital, police were told that the woman was rapidly declining. The next morning she was dead. When the lead investigator in the case, Broems, talked to Martinez she said Lopez and her son had been drinking heavily over the past three months. Whenever Lopez got drunk, she had a habit of falling all over the place, she told police, according to the report. At about 9 a.m. Monday, Martinez said she heard Lopez vomiting again and falling in the bathroom. At that point she said Lopez was full of bruises and frothing at the mouth, and she was unable to wake her. Martinez said she suggested to her son that they should call an ambulance, but he refused, saying he was concerned he would be suspected of inflicting the bruises on his wife, the report states. Martinez said she last saw Lopez at 10:30 a.m. Monday and that she was breathing. She said she told her son to let her rest, believing she was only drunk. She said her son called her at 4:30 p.m. Monday and asked her to come home during her break and keep an eye on Lopez because she was not looking very good. When she retured home Martinez called for an ambulance. Police found Hector Lopez at his mothers apartment Monday night. When police examined him they found dark purple bruising under his left bicep, a minor cut on the side of his left wrist and the appearance of small rashes through out his stomach region, the police report states. At Hector Lopezs arraignment Wednesday, judge Bruce Hudock said that Lopez remained under criminal investigation and ruled that he would be held on $250,000 court appearance bond. Anyone with information on the case is asked to call Sgt. Broems at 203 977 4420. Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story, citing a police report, stated Hector Collazo Lopez was previously arrested for failing to register as a sex offender. Lopez has never been arrested on that charge. Police say that arrest belongs to another man with the same name and birth year. jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.com GREENWICH The streets of downtown Greenwich will be decked out with greenery for the holidays, thanks to the hard work of dozens of volunteers. For 31 years, Greenwich Green & Clean has assembled holiday baskets to place along Greenwich Avenue and its side streets to bring the spirit of the holidays to the downtown area. This years crew of volunteers constructed 121 baskets all of which will be hung up later this week. People feel better in the middle of beauty and cleanliness, Mary Hull, Greenwich Green & Cleans executive director, said Tuesday afternoon. It has been proven all over the world that it works. It matters. It matters for the emotions. Beauty is crucial in our lives. The work began on Monday to make the holiday bows. Then on Tuesday, the basket-making began in earnest at Sam Bridge Nursery & Greenhouses on North Street. Nearly 25 volunteers were on hand for the assembly work, packing the baskets with soil and four kinds of greens: juniper, douglas, cedar and pine. They are all very hearty kinds of greens, Hull said. Theyre going to last. Some are fluffy and some are nicely thick. These are going to be beautiful baskets that will be seen by drivers going past in their cars and by walkers on the street. They have to be pretty from the bottom to the top. Once the greens were in place, pine cones and berries were added. And to make the basket complete, it was all wrapped up with a bow. Kanako MacLennan, a member of Green & Cleans board of directors, has been a part of the project for nearly a decade. She oversaw all of the work by the volunteers all of whom were Japanese residents of Greenwich, some of whom have been volunteering for years and some who are new to town. Old friends bring in new friends, MacLennan said of the volunteers. Many of the volunteers were recruited through networks of parents from the towns public and private schools. For her part, MacLennan said its great to be part of the long-standing Greenwich tradition. This is such an important tradition in the community, she said. It is not always easy for a new Greenwich resident to find a volunteer opportunity to give back to the community, and this is a great way for us to participate. Everyone is so enthusiastic about doing this. The volunteers have it down to a formula, setting up several tables as teams construct the baskets in an assembly-line fashion. She said they all know just how much green to put in each basket. We have a lot of years of experience knowing how to make them look nice, MacLennan said. Hull and MacLennan credited Sam Bridge for helping by allowing volunteers to use its greenhouse space and donating manpower too. A two-person crew and a truck from the business will head out later this week to hang the baskets downtown. The town once did the basket project, but it was eliminated for budget reasons. Luckily, Sam Bridge came to us and said they would do it, Hull said. They go out in the morning in a small truck and they go down the Avenue and its just wonderful. It makes such a big difference. Longtime supporters of Green & Clean including Terry Betteridge, the Bridges and the Mitchell family help make the public-private partnership work. Wed never be able to do this without Sam Bridge, and they ask for nothing in return, Hull said. They have been so helpful with everything we need, MacLennan said. All you have to do is ask them and you have it immediately. Maggie Bridge, Sam Bridges manager of sales and marketing, said they were proud to take part in the effort. We love being a part of this community and having those beautiful baskets from Green & Clean is one of the great things about this community, Bridge said. We really value plants and green space, so why not support a wonderful cause like Greenwich Green & Clean. kborsuk@greenwichtime.com Nuveen AMT-Free Quality Municipal Income Fund is a closed-ended fixed income mutual fund launched by Nuveen Investments Inc. The fund is co-managed by Nuveen Asset Management, LLC and Nuveen Fund Advisors LLC. It invests in the fixed income markets of the United States. The fund primarily invests in undervalued municipal bonds that are exempt from federal income taxes, including the alternative minimum tax. It seeks to invest in securities that are rated Baa/BBB or better by S&P, Moody's, or Fitch. The fund's investment portfolio comprises investments in various industries, which include transportation, healthcare, utilities, housing/multifamily, and water and sewer. It was formerly known as Nuveen AMT-Free Municipal Income Fund. Nuveen AMT-Free Quality Municipal Income Fund was formed on November 21, 2002 and is domiciled in the United States. Read More New Jersey Resources Corp. is a holding company. The firm provides safe and reliable natural gas and clean energy services, including transportation, distribution, asset management and home services. It operates through the following segments: New Jersey Natural Gas, NJR Clean Energy Ventures, NJR Energy Services, NJR Midstream, and NJR Home Services. The New Jersey Natural Gas segment provides regulated retail natural gas service to residential and commercial customers in central and northern New Jersey. The NJR Clean Energy Ventures segment invests in, owns and operates solar projects. The NJR Energy Services segment manages a diversified portfolio of natural gas transportation and storage assets and provides physical natural gas services in the U.S. and Canada. The NJR Midstream segment serves customers from local distributors and producers to electric generators and wholesale marketers. The NJR Home Services segment provides heating, ventilation and cooling service, sales and installation of appliances services to its customers, as well as solar installation projects, and is the primary contributor to home services. The company was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Wall, Read More Inphi Corporation provides high-speed analog and mixed signal semiconductor solutions for the communications and computing markets in China, the United States, Thailand, and internationally. Its analog and mixed signal semiconductor solutions offer high signal integrity at various data speeds and reduce system power consumption. The company's semiconductor solutions address bandwidth bottlenecks in networks, maximize throughput and minimize latency in computing environments, and enable the rollout of communications and datacenter infrastructures. Its solutions provide a high-speed interface between analog and mixed signals, and digital information in high-performance systems, such as telecommunications transport systems, enterprise networking equipment, and data centers. The company also provides 25G to 600G high-speed analog and mixed semiconductor solutions for the communications market. Its products perform a range of functions, such as amplifying, encoding, multiplexing, demultiplexing, and retiming signals at speeds up to 400 Gbps. Inphi Corporation sells its products directly through its sales force, as well as through a network of sales representatives and distributors to original equipment manufacturers. The company was formerly known as TCom Communications, Inc. and changed its name to Inphi Corporation in February 2001. Inphi Corporation was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in San Jose, California. Read More Aviation fans will have the rare opportunity to take seat inside the cockpit of the Cold War era British Aircraft Corporation TSR2 and get a close look inside the unique WWII Junkers Ju 88R-1 night fighter at the final 100 Cockpits and Cabs event, taking place at the Royal Air Force Museum Cosford on Friday December 7th. The event will take place between 6:00 and 9:00pm and cost 13.50 per person The event which has celebrated the Royal Air Force Centenary throughout 2018 at both its Cosford and London sites has given ticket holders exclusive access to 100 aircraft and vehicles, spanning the services entire career. The series of events concludes at Cosford in December, themed around aircraft and vehicles from the Museums Test Flight and War in the Air collection. From the Test Flight collection and for the first time ever, visitors can enjoy on-board access to the British Aircraft Corporation TSR2, the only complete airframe remaining and one of only two examples in the world. Although never developed beyond the prototype stage, the TSR2 was one of the most exciting and controversial British combat aircraft designs of the 1960s. The increasing sophistication of air defence systems led the RAF to consider the procurement of a high speed, low level strike and reconnaissance aircraft to replace the English Electric Canberra. Christened the TSR2 (Tactical Strike and Reconnaissance Mach 2), eleven prototypes were ordered in October 1960, with the first maiden flight in September 1964. Initial reports indicated that the TSR2 was an outstanding technical success, however, political opposition to the project led to it being cancelled by April the following year. The cancellation of the project is a subject of great debate to this day. Other Test Flight aircraft and vehicles open on the night include the sole example British Aerospace Experimental Aircraft Programme (EAP) (close view only). Built as an advanced technology demonstrator, many of the features pioneered by EAP, including the wing layout, were later refined for the Eurofighter Typhoon, in service with the RAF today. Also included in the event is the Bristol Type 188, Short Brothers SB5 WG768 (close view only) and the Hunting H126. The event theme also extends to include a selection of the Museums War in the Air aircraft and vehicles and for the first time ever the Junkers Ju 88R-1 will be open for close viewing. The Ju 88 was the most versatile German combat aircraft of WWII, beginning life as a bomber, before becoming a night fighter and intruder. The type also undertook anti-shipping operations and flew long-range reconnaissance missions as well. It was during the Battle of Britain, that Ju 88s played a major role in a number of daylight actions against British radar stations, airfields and ports. The aircraft was reasonably maneuverable for its size, and could take a great deal of punishment, however its lack of armored protection and insufficient defensive armament meant that it was relatively easy prey for British fighters. At the time of the Battle of Britain, the Ju88 was at the beginning of its service career and its remarkable adaptability, particularly as a night fighter, had still to be exploited by the Luftwaffe. Also open on the night in War in the Air hangar will be fellow German fighter the Focke Wulf FW190A-8/R6, the Hawker Hurricane IIc (close view only), Sopwith Pup (close view only), Boulton Paul Defiant Mk1 (close view only), Crossley Ptn 1940 and the Museums latest arrival the Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR3. To ensure visitors get the most out of the event, there will be a large team of Volunteers manning each aircraft or vehicle who will be available to answer any questions. A total of 300 tickets are available for the event taking place on Saturday 7 December and aviation fans will have up to three hours to enjoy the exclusive after-hours access from 6pm-9pm. The Museum will close at 4pm, however the Visitor Centre and Refuel Restaurant will remain open for ticket holders, before doors to the aircraft and vehicles open at 6pm. Plus, visitors can also enjoy perusing the Museum Shop from 4.30pm and take advantage of their 10% off discount voucher! Tickets are now available to purchase through the Museums website www.rafmuseum.org/cosford and cost 13.50 per person which includes parking (minimum height restrictions apply). Attending the exclusive Open Cockpits and Cabs events is an opportunity to raise vital funds for the RAF100 Appeal, which is a joint venture between the Royal Air Force and the four major RAF charities the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund, the Royal Air Forces Association, the Royal Air Force Charitable Trust and the Royal Air Force Museum. The aim of the Appeal is to raise money for the RAF family and to create a lasting legacy as we celebrate 100 years of the Royal Air Force. iShares Latin America 40 ETF's stock was trading at $22.49 on March 11th, 2020 when COVID-19 (Coronavirus) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, ILF stock has increased by 9.1% and is now trading at $24.54. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. TalkTalk Telecom Group PLC provides telecommunications services to consumers and business to business customers in the United Kingdom. It offers fiber, broadband, landline, TV, and mobile services under the TalkTalk and TalkTalk Business brands. Its products include HomeSafe, a home filtering service for residential customers; WorkSafe that provides protection for internet devices to business customers; SuperSafe, which offers protection from viruses and malwares; CallSafe, a security feature that screens inbound calls; and TalkSafe, a way of identifying a customer when they call using their voice. TalkTalk Telecom Group PLC was founded in 2002 and is based in Salford, the United Kingdom. Read More iShares MSCI United Kingdom ETF's stock was trading at $25.60 on March 11th, 2020 when Coronavirus (COVID-19) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization. Since then, EWU shares have increased by 29.4% and is now trading at $33.12. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. Bank of Cyprus Holdings Public Limited Company, through its subsidiaries, provides banking, financial, and insurance services to individuals, small and medium sized enterprises, and corporate customers. It offers current, savings, notice, instant access, and fixed term deposits; housing, student, consumer, business, syndicated, project, and shipping finance; and debit, credit, and prepaid cards. The company also provides hire purchase, factoring, guarantee, insurance, asset and wealth management, investment banking and brokerage, custody and depository, transfers and payment, and digital banking services. In addition, it is involved in property trading and development activities; land development and operation of a golf resort; management administration and safekeeping of UCITS units; administration of guarantees and holding of real estate properties; collection of the existing portfolio of receivables, including third party collections; and provision of card processing transaction, auction, and secretarial services. As of March 30, 2021, it operates through a network of 95 branches in Cyprus, as well as representative offices in Russia, Ukraine, and China. The company was formerly known as Bank of Cyprus Public Company Ltd and changed its name to Bank of Cyprus Holdings Public Limited Company in January 2017. Bank of Cyprus Holdings Public Limited Company was founded in 1899 and is headquartered in Nicosia, Cyprus. Read More Tahoe Resources Inc., together with its subsidiaries, acquires, explores for, develops, and operates mineral properties in the Americas. It explores for silver, gold, lead, zinc, and copper deposits, as well as precious metals assets. The company holds interest in the La Arena gold mine located in the Huamachuco district of northern Peru; Shahuindo mine located in the province of Cajabamba in northern Peru; and La Arena II, a copper-gold porphyry deposit located in Peru. It also holds interest in the Timmins mines, including the Bell Creek and Timmins West mines, the Fenn-Gib project, the Juby project, the Vogel project, and the Gold River project located in Timmins, Ontario. The company was formerly known as CKM Resources Inc. and changed its name to Tahoe Resources Inc. in January 2010. Tahoe Resources Inc. was incorporated in 2009 and is headquartered in Reno, Nevada. Read More A group of over 40 cereal farmers have helped boost farmland wildlife by devoting 30 percent of their land to nature. Farmers who supply cereal company Jordans work on over 15,500 hectares, providing almost 4,600 hectares for wildlife. Birds such as linnets, butterflies like the silver-washed fritillary, and brown hares are returning to farms in the Jordans Farm Partnership. Nature is also thriving in hedgerows, field margins and ponds, creating corridors to enable wildlife to spread out and move through the landscape. The new Jordans and Wildlife Trusts' report shows that cover crops are sown to provide winter food for farmland birds, winter stubble is also left in fields for corn bunting, linnet and tree sparrow. Long grass has been allowed to grow around field edges, encouraging voles to thrive and provide good hunting grounds for barn owls. Grass margins also supports insects which feed on crop pests. Insect larva are food for partridge, lapwing and yellowhammer chicks. 'Give back to the landscape' Guy Tucker, a third-generation farmer who farms at Greenhall Farm, Hertfordshire, said he wanted to give back to the landscape thats given my family a livelihood for decades. He started supporting wildlife on his land back in 2003. Mr Tucker has planted wildflower areas for pollinators like bees. Following a farmland bird survey, he discovered earlier this year that his farm boasted the largest flock of linnets, and bramblings recorded in Hertfordshire. The report shows that on Halls Farm in Suffolk, Stephen Honeywood lets hedges thicken to create nesting spaces and produce berries for an autumn wildlife feast. He sows large areas of the farm with cover crops for wild birds and puts up barn owl boxes. On an adjacent farm which he also manages, Mr Honeywood is ensuring silver-washed fritillary butterflies, a species of conservation concern, flourish in the woodland. The new Jordans Farm Partnership/Wildlife Trusts impact report shows how farmers are working for wildlife throughout the UK across a diverse range of habitats: 768 km of hedgerow, 485 ha of field margins, 954 ha of woodland, 131 km of waterways and 94 ponds. Solar and battery storage are looking increasingly attractive as capital costs decline and energy prices rise, but farms should beware mis-selling in the market. The cost of solar technology has fallen by over 30% this year and will drop further following the EUs abolition of its minimum price for Chinese imports. Alongside more than an 80% rise in wholesale energy costs since 2016, this has made investment increasingly viable for farming businesses. According to power and energy consultancy Roadnight Taylor, generating power on-farm could pay back in as little as seven years, even without Government support. Installing batteries to absorb and deliver energy can also pay back quickly. Hugh Taylor, Chief Executive of Roadnight Taylor said: As well as benefiting from considerable energy cost savings, rural businesses can generate income by storing electricity to sell back into the grid during price spikes, and also by helping the National Grid balance supply and demand in real time. However, not all situations will be viable yet so its important to understand the intricacies of a specific project before committing to it. Mr Taylor said farmers should profile the energy demands on-site both on a half-hourly basis and throughout the year to ascertain the feasibility and the correct size of any installation. Some solar and battery installers are recommending that landowners install much larger schemes than would be appropriate, falsely justifying investment in larger schemes and inflating income projections for nonviable sites, he said. There are many sites which are not yet financially viable, but as technology prices drop and energy prices rise, many are likely to become so in the next few years, so its important to know where your site stands. To help farmers who are considering such projects, Roadnight Taylor has developed a TrafficLight study, which profiles the energy demand, considers generation volumes and tariff structures, and ascertains the viability of a project based on energy market projections. A green result means its worth investing, amber means it is likely to be viable within three years, and red means its unlikely to be viable within that time. Any new environmental scheme post-Brexit must provide certainty and resilience for the arable sector, especially in periods of volatile prices and low crop yield, the NFU says. The Government has made it clear that its direction of travel for a new agricultural policy is about moving to a system of paying public money for public goods. Defra's recent Health and Harmony consultation paper spelled out the desire to phase out direct payments to farmers and shift funding into new Environmental and Land Management (ELM) schemes. It said the aim of the new programme will be to deliver benefits such as improved air, water and soil quality, increased biodiversity, climate change mitigation, cultural benefits and to better protect the historic environment. But the NFU has said if the Government is to deliver a Green Brexit then new schemes must encourage productivity and build resilience in businesses, as current direct payments play a huge role in underpinning farming businesses. Farmers in England and Wales will see their direct payments phased out over a 7-year transition period. Direct payments will be be phased out from 2021. NFU chief combinable crops adviser, Jack Watts said: The new ELM schemes, which will be implemented over the course of the agricultural transition period, are an opportunity to refine the payments system to ensure that farmers are paid for fair reward. In the arable sector, farmers face volatile markets and uncertain crop yields. Since 2012 we have seen four years where the average cereal farm actually lost money on crop production, and financial support was critical in keeping businesses afloat. Mr Watts added: The NFU is urging Government to ensure the ELM schemes are straightforward, compatible with food production and build financial resilience so the arable sector can continue to produce quality, affordable food for the British public while delivering important environmental benefits. The Government is set to look at new payment mechanisms in order to achieve environmental outcomes and improve value for money. Instead of offering set payments for set options, it will consider payment by results or holding reverse auctions which would involve landowners submitting individual bids in order to allow them to adopt a new land management practice that bring environmental benefits. Defra will also look at the use of conservation covenants which would enable a landowner to dedicate land to long-term conservation purposes in return for payment. The Fauquier Times is honored to serve as your community companion. To say thank you, we are excited to offer 4 weeks FREE Digital & Print access to all subscribers new and returning alike. We are dedicated to continuing providing reliable, high quality journalism. This is possible with the trust and support of our subscribers in the community we are proud to serve. Category Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release SubCategory Select Sub-Category Rumours were rife that Anil Kapoor was upset with Ranveer Singh as he was neither invited to his Haldi ceremony nor to his Italy wedding. According to In.com, "Anil Kapoor and family are rather upset about being excluded from the celebrations in spite of them being family to Ranveer Singh." The source had further added, "What could have been more upsetting is that the Kapoors were not even invited to the haldi ceremony which was right here in Mumbai. In fact, someone like YRF casting director Shanoo Sharma too was invited to the haldi while the Kapoors weren't." But when Anil Kapoor was asked about the same at IFFI, he rubbished the rumours and said, "I don't know where the news of me being upset with Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone for not calling me came from. I am going to their reception on the 1st December and I am looking forward." For the unversed, Deepika & Ranveer are throwing a grand reception party on December 1, 2018 for all of his Industry friends and we hear it is going to be one epic night as who's who of the B-town will be seen in attendance. From the Bachchans to Khans, all the top celebs are expected to grace DeepVeer's reception. Rajinikanth & Akshay Kumar Starrer 2.0 FIRST REVIEW Out! Coming back to Anil Kapoor, he will be next seen in Karan Johar's Takht. The film will also cast Ranveer Singh, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Alia Bhatt, Vicky Kaushal, Bhumi Pednekar and Janhvi Kapoor. The year so far has witnessed the arrival of some fascinating Malayalam movies, which took the film industry to another level with their quality content and innovative style of presentation. One among those movies is Ee Ma Yau, directed by Lijo Jose Pellissery. The movie was one among the movies to get selected in the competition section at the IFFI. Lijo Jose Pellissery, the director of Ee Ma Yau and Chemban Vinod Jose, the lead actor of the movie has won top honours at the IFFI 2018. Lijo Jose Pellissery has bagged the award for the best director whereas Chemban Vinod Jose has won the award of the best actor (male). It is for the first time that a Malayalam director is winning the top honours at IFFI. In the previous year, Parvathy had won the award for the Best Actress for her performance in the film Take Off. Well, this indeed is a great achievement for the director and the actor as they have competed with some of the finest talents of the world cinema. Ee Ma Yau had hit the theatres in the month of May 2018. The film had won a lot of praises upon its release in the theatres. Earlier, Lijo Jose Pellissery had won the award for the Best Director at the Kerala State Film Awards. Erica Fernandes faints on the sets of Kasautii Zindagi Kay 2; Here's Why | FilmiBeat There's some sad news for Prerna Sharma's fans. Actors are often seen complaining about their busy schedules and long hours' shoot. Recently, Erica Fernandes who is seen playing the role of Prerna Sharma fainted on the sets just before she was supposed to shoot a scene. According to SpotboyE's latest reports, the actress was already sick when she reached the sets of her show. She apparently wanted to finish the shoot and head home, but the unfortunate incident occurred before that. A source told the publication, "Erica was unwell ever since she reached the set. She wanted to finish her work and get back home soon. Erica couldn't take a day off from work because of broadcast issues. However, her health did not support the exertion and she fainted while shooting." Well, there's nothing to worry as such because Erica gained consciousness after a while and returned to shoot the scene. However, the shoot was delayed for a bit until she recovered. That tells us how dedicated Erica is towards her work. We wish her a speedy recovery. The actress seems to be achieving great heights not only in her professional life, but on the personal front too. Erica recently bought a house. She took to her Instagram handle to share the good news with her fans. She shared a picture of herself holding the keys to her new house, looking absolutely delighted. MOST READ : Yeh Hai Mohabbatein's Divyanka Tripathi Arrives In Bhopal To Cast Her Vote; Fans Praise Her Erica Aka Prerna has managed to received a lot of love and appreciation from her fans for her brilliant acting in Kasautiii Zindagi Kay 2. She is seen romancing Parth Samthaan who plays the hearth robe Anurag Basu. Fans are awaiting to watch their new love track on the show! Yeh Hai Mohabbatein fame Divyanka Tripathi has flown down to Bhopal early morning today. The actress who was recently chosen as the 'State Icon' for election campaign in Madhya Pradesh, has arrived in her hometown to cast her vote. She shared a selfie from the plane upon reaching the destination. Divyanka is all excited to be back in her hometown and also requested her fans to not let their vote go waste. The actress her posters placed all over Bhopal as the brand ambassador of the Assembly elections. In a recent interview, Divyanka had said that people shouldn't treat voting day as a holiday. She further added that the stigma associated with politics needs to be broken. Divyanka has always been vocal about social issues. Previously, she had raised her voice against potholes and bad road conditions in Mumbai. Upon learning that Divyanka is in Bhopal for voting, fans' comments began to pour in, which were all about praising her for being a responsible citizen. A fan said, "Aaj Bhopal me vote hai please vote dena. div di itni busy hone k bad bhi vote dene gaye gai to aap ka bhi farz hai.....so please vote kariye" - (sic) MOST READ : BB12: Surbhi Accuses Romil Him Of 'Buri Nazar On Girls'; Jasleen Calls It Character Assassination Another commented read, "Feeling proud of u..for understanding importance of right to vote.....I m preparing for mppsc exams....n I can really tell how much it is I for every MP wasi to use this right " - (sic) Television actress Kajol Srivastava, who was last seen on Karamphal Daata Shani (as Yami), got engaged to an IT professional, Ankit Khare in her hometown, Bandra (UP) on November 24, 2018. The engagement was attended by the couple's close friends and family members. The wedding will be held on February next year (2019), in Ankit's hometown (Madhya Pradesh). The actress says that she is extremely happy and adds that her finace is more excited than her! The actress was quoted by TOI as saying, "We wanted to keep this ceremony as private as possible. Also, not many of my industry friends in Mumbai would have been able to come to Bandra for the function as it is quite far off from there. But yes, I had my close friends from school and college and my cousins from Lucknow attending it. The wedding will now take place early next year." On how she met Ankit, she said, "My fiance Ankit is actually my real sister's devar and initially I wasn't even thinking about getting married to him. In fact, it was Ankit's mother, who, when saw me, proposed this idea, to which I was hesitant to accept initially. When I started talking to him and when I got to know him, he came across as a really good man. In fact, even though he is living in the US, he has told me to continue working on TV post marriage and that he would work things out for us. He is really caring and loving." The actress further added, "I am extremely happy. In fact, Ankit is more excited than me. I had originally planned to get married after five years, but Ankit's confidence and persistence made me realise that we could take the relationship ahead." When asked whether she would move to the US, post wedding, she said, "I haven't decided on that. I will stay back if I take up a show, or, I will keep going there for short breaks. But I am definitely not quitting the industry." We congratulate the newly engaged couple! Most Read: Raj Kundra Comments 'Epic' On Sreesanth's Confession Video; Fans & Sree's Wife Lash Out At Him! Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Shareholders, I would firstly like to thank you for your support and your confidence as, on Monday November 19, 2018, between 89.44% and 94.56% of you voted in favor of the 24 resolutions submitted to the General Meeting, as recommended by the Board of Directors, and appointed new members to the Board of Directors, after which the Board of Directors appointed me as Chairman and CEO. I know it has not been easy to be an Auplata shareholder over the last few years. Admittedly, the company has not been able to deliver value to its shareholders, as it was expected to do, despite the vast and varied geological resources of its mining assets. The absence of solid corporate governance, constant changes in strategy, poor execution and lack of technical knowledge are the cause of the current situation. However, from a more positive standpoint, the reserves and gold resources are still available, ready to be mined, and offer a promising outlook in a world where demand for gold and precious metals is greater than ever. Due to constant improvement in mining techniques, deposits can be mined more and more effectively, at the same time as respecting the environment. The regulatory framework of the key markets in which we operate has been considerably strengthened over the last few years, thereby allowing working methods to be effectively adapted to experience in the field. Thus, we are contemplating an in-depth, cross-functional restructuring of Auplata, as we believe this will enable us to deliver value to the shareholders in a fast, effective and professional manner, in a sector that is more and more demanding in terms of environmental protection. It would be pretentious of me to present a long-term strategy only a few days after my appointment. Therefore, for the time being, I would like to give you our priorities for the first six months. The points set out below will provide our shareholders with a sort of roadmap to enable them to assess the progress made. 1 - Proposed merger with BGPP - Release by the AMF from the obligation to launch a public takeover bid The merger has been approved by a majority of the shareholders (93.65% with a quorum of 30.08% - 89.44% with a quorum of 33.77%). One of the two conditions precedent to be fulfilled prior to February 11, 2019 has been fulfilled on November 27, 2018, as the French securities market authority (AMF) today released Brexia International from the obligation to launch a public takeover bid, for which Auplata and Brexia International are very grateful: the remaining condition precedent is the Mining Ministry's approval, which must be obtained prior to February 11, 2019 to enable the completion of the merger. The application has been officially filed with the Ministry concerned and we are confident that it will support the completion of the transaction. We will provide all the required follow-up. Until the second condition precedent is fulfilled, the two entities (BGPP and Auplata) will continue to operate separately. However, the roadmap set out below includes both companies' milestones and a joint task force of experts from the two companies has already started mapping synergies and organizing the integration of the two companies so that we can get down to work as soon as the second condition precedent is fulfilled. 2 - Corporate governance The Board of Directors, composed of Brexia International SA represented by Mr. Jose Maria Aragone (new director) and Messrs Alex Van Hoeken (new non-executive director), Paul-Emmanuel de Becker Remy (historical, non-executive director), Miguel de Pombo (new director) and myself, intends to have more oversight over matters such as compliance, remuneration, audits and operations. In the next few months, we will discuss the potentiality of appointing two additional board members with specific technical capabilities to strengthen our expertise. 3 - People, talents and organisation Mr Didier Tamagno, former CEO, has resigned from all his positions within Auplata and its subisidiaries effective November 19, 2018; I will replace him in all his board positions within Auplata and its subsidiaries. Mr. Frederic Saada, CFO, will leave the company on January 3, 2019, in accordance with his wishes and further to a mutual agreement; his replacement will be announced in due time. Mr. Karim Robo will assume the position of Vice-President of Mining and Exploration. He will be in charge of developing the various companies' mining assets. Mr. Peter Verde will assume the position of Operations Manager. He acquired hands-on experience of operations management while managing plants in Peru, notably the Minas Buenaventura cyanidation plant. Mr. Vincent Combe, who has been working for Auplata for over five years, is appointed as Senior Geologist. Mr. Pierre Gibert, who has been working for Auplata for over 10 years, is appointed as Mining Supervisor and Controller. Mr. Emre Pehlivan will assume the position of Treasurer. He currently works for the Tribeca fund as Junior Investment Manager. Mr. Guerric Eber will assume the position of Technical Director We invite you to visit our website at www.Auplata.fr in the next few days for further details on our senior executives: www.auplata.fr/en. 4 - Production The table below shows BGPP and Auplata production from January 1 to October 30, 2018: BGPP Auplata Consolidated Processed (t) Recovery Production Processed (t) Recovery Production Recovery Production ZINC, Zn (t) 89,903 87.55% 4.55 N/A N/A N/A 87.55% 4.55 LEAD, Pb (t) 91.43% 3.08 N/A N/A N/A 91.43% 3.08 SILVER, Ag (Kg) 71.38% 4.81 N/A N/A 1.10 71.38% 5.91 GOLD, Au (Kg) 76.31% 55 N/A N/A 18.60 76.31% 73.60 For the Dieu Merci cyanidation plant, Cold Commissioning (C2) tests were carried out on Thursday November 22, 2018 with the following results: all mechanical processes were successfully completed and tested; all electrical processes were successfully completed and tested; operational tests of the various systems were successfully completed with water. The Elution Units and Grinders have been ordered to ensure that the plant is in line with its technical specifications. The following Hot Commissioning (C3) tests will begin soon; the plant should be operational at the beginning of April 2019 and should be running at full capacity as from June 2019. The table below shows BGPP's and Auplata's production objectives for the 1st semester of 2019: BGPP Auplata Consolidated Processed (t) Recovery Production Processed (t) Recovery Grade (g/t) Production Recovery Production ZINC, Zn (t) 53,000 87.55% 2.80 N/A N/A N/A N/A 87.55% 2.80 LEAD, Pb (t) 91.43% 1.80 N/A N/A N/A N/A 91.43% 1.80 SILVER, Ag (Kg) 71.38% 3.00 N/A N/A N/A N/A 71.38% 3.00 GOLD, Au (Kg) 76.31% 33.00 18,000 90.00% 3.52 57.02 N/A 90.02 In Peru on the El Santo site, we will take the necessary measures to begin recuperating the copper (Cu), which is currently not extracted. During the same semester, we will work on increasing the plant's production capacity from 300 to 350t/day. The El Santo Mine currently operates with electric power generators that are fairly costly to run; we therefore intend to connect the El Santo mine to the public power network, which will allow us to make substantial savings on energy. In Suyckutambo, we will resume operations since anomalies with high gold grades have been discovered. This will enable us to maintain and even improve the concentration of gold in our concentrates. Furthermore, we have just obtained a license to store non-mineable ore at the mine, which will avoid having to transport it to the plant. Our costs in terms of logistics should therefore be significantly reduced. 5 - Tailings Assessment of Auplata's Mineral Resources - updated on November 23, 2018: Cut off (g/t) Ore (t) Average (g/t) Au (Kg) 2 153,898 3.52 542 2.5 116,373 3.99 464 Out of a total of 9 known tailing ponds, 8 have been prospected and assessed, of which: 5 are considered as being representative as mineral resource assessments and are included in the process; 3 are considered as being non-representative due to sampling insufficiency and have not yet been prospected but will be soon. However, according to our assessment model, the tailings are limited to a cutoff of 2 g/t and an average grade of 3.5 g/t, corresponding to approximately 18 months of production on the plant. As from January 2019, we will launch an exploration campaign to increase available resources and we will carry out a more thorough exploration of all the tailing ponds This exploration will probably require a recalculation of the resources and result in significantly broadening them. 6 - Reserve certification YAOU - French guiana The calculation of the reserves in Yaou, in accordance with the NI 43-101 standard (Canadian international standard for calculating reserves) dates back to 1998 and requires an update to be valid again. We will therefore reassess the core samples stored at the Yaou site and a new estimate of the resources will be issued in accordance with the NI 43-101 standard in April 2019. EL SANTO - Peru The results of the calculation of reserves, in accordance with the NI 43-101 standard, in the scope of the exploration campaign currently conducted at El SANTO, will be published in the first quarter of 2019, based on the following schedule: Between December 15 and December 30, 2018 our QP, INNOVEXPLO, will carry out the necessary verifications and complete the NI 43-101 document. On December 30 or 31, 2018, INNOVEXPLO will deliver a preliminary report pursuant to the Canadian 43-101 Regulation governing the NI 43-101 standard. Within 45 days of delivery of the preliminary report, the final report will be delivered. 7 - Exploration Guiana - Geophysics campaign (hereinafter, "IP" Campaign): In Dieu Merci, the initial work to be carried out is a compilation of "Big Data" based on historical data; a first IP campaign will be conducted in order to identify the underlying structures and the root of the mineralization. The 100-meter geophysical spacing grid could enable us to highlight any anomalies; the exploration program provides for 2,000m of drilling to validate the targets identified. From a geological point of view, the Dieu Merci mine has historically produced more than 10 tons of gold produced mainly from surface deposits up to 30m deep (so-called saprolite) in several small open pits. In future, the strategy for finding more resources will be to use the "Big data" and mine deeper. In Couriege, Research work was carried out by TEXMINE in collaboration with Guyanor, SMSE (private company) and ASARCO (multinational copper group), based on the work done by BRGM (Bureau des Recherches Geologiques et Minieres), the French national geological department. The Trench dug Auplata's exploration team (in 2014-2015) revealed a mineralization that appears to extend more than 3 km. These works gave rise to the mapping of a study area of approximately 3 km2. In certain key areas where the lateritic profile is completed by a red crust, a layer of pisolitic laterite and a layer of spotted clays, the exploration of these trenches did not result in saprolite: the latter would only result from a potential mineralization at depth. The Couriege Project has the same mineralization trend as Dieu Merci. The trench assessments carried out have produced very good results, as shown below. Grades above 3g/t Drill Nb. From To Au 5 (g/t) (1,5m) DM-10-238 0 1.5 8.29 DM-10-241 0 1.5 39.23 DM-10-241 3 4.5 12.8 DM-10-242 19.5 21 3.33 DM-10-242 22.5 24 18.36 DM-10-243 24 25.5 33.15 DM-11-353 13.5 15 3.95 DM-11-355 1.5 3 5.25 DM-11-355 3 4.5 12.81 An IP Campaign will be completed, followed by 2,000 m of drilling located precisely on the anomalies. In Yaou, there is a mining permit (PEX) with 1.4 Moz Au inferred resources. Mining on the site commenced in 2006, after the permit was obtained. Between 2006 and 2013, 37,541oz Au were produced on this site through gravimetry. Mining has been suspended currently and the tailing pond is assessed at 1t Au. The program will include an initial validation phase focused on resampling all the core samples, followed by an infill drilling campaign of approximately 5,000m by the second semester of 2019. In Dorlin, there is a JV with Reunion Gold, one of the shareholders of which is the world's No.1 gold producer: Barrick Gold. Good results have been achieved from approximately 6,000 m of drilling. We hope we will have a feasibility study available within the next two years. Concerning Iracoubo Sud and Bon Espoir, the results will be analyzed with Newmont. The exploration results will be communicated to the shareholders as regularly as possible. Concerning El Santo, 3,000 m of drilling is planned: the main objective is to ensure the renewal of the resource in order to supply the plant and prepare the future. Furthermore, we are waiting for a license to explore the S.104 plot adjacent to the S.105 plot on which we extract the ore and supply it to the plant. In Suyckutambo, we will continue exploration to increase the high gold grade resources. This will have a direct impact on the value of our polymetallic concentrates. On the San Miguel site, where a very promising anomaly has been discovered, our legal department is working on obtaining an exploration permit and thus begin drilling as soon as possible. In Condoroma, we will continue analyzing the copper tailings to assess the feasibility of potentially mining on the site. In Ivory Coast, mapping in Adzope, a diamond drilling campaign and a compilation will be carried out to get a better understanding of the situation. 8 - Security Security measures have been taken to ensure the safety of our personnel on location in Guiana. A new security company will be on site as from December 15, 2018 to secure the site, especially the cyanidation plant. A tender was launched for the safety of the entire plant as of the start of production. The safety of our employees is our main priority. 9 - Permits and licenses The renewal of all permits and licenses has been applied for and will be regularly followed up. We will endeavor to carry out prospection and expand our mining portfolio as much as possible. 10 - Finance, reporting requirements We will implement strict reporting requirements for operating and financial information to facilitate decision making. A pro-forma report on the consolidated accounts will be produced on April 20, 2019. I expect our administration team to produce quarterly reports no later than 10 days after the end of each quarter. Financial needs for the next six months will be covered but, in future, Auplata will have to plan and organize itself to cover its needs in the long-term. 11 - Shares and share price evolution We consider that the share price should reflect the intrinsic value of the company and follow the evolution thereof. We will work tirelessly to create value for our shareholders and we will communicate as effectively as possible to ensure that the market is properly informed and can have rational insight into future events. The company needs to regain the market's trust and provide tangible and detailed information. In the coming weeks, more details will be made available on our efforts to comply with the roadmap in order to increase our transparency and accountability towards the market. Meanwhile, we invite you to regularly visit our new website at www.Auplata.fr or follow us on our official Twitter account @AUPLATA1. Furthermore, to enable Auplata's shareholders, the majority of whom reside in Europe, to attend the General Meeting, the next meeting will be held in Paris. 12 - Acquisitions The merger with BGPP also includes a cash contribution that will serve to acquire a controlling stake in Compagnie Miniere de Touissit (CMT), Morocco's largest producer of Zinc (Zn) and Lead (Pb). Accoordingly, we will endeavor to pursue any external growth opportunities that may arise in order to strengthen our development. Further details will be provided at the appropriate time. 13 - Bio diversity and environmental protection We are strongly committed to protecting the environment and preserving our planet's bio-mass and bio-diversity. To this end, we intend to deploy a best-in-class environmental strategy, as approved by our business partners. For the time being, our objective for the next six months will be the recovery of 127.5 ha through the mining of alluvial deposits, 13.5 ha through primary pits and the planting of 1,340 trees with full respect for the local biodiversity and fauna. The above 12 points are the commitments that the team and I make towards the shareholders for the next six months and that will enable Auplata to be operational and financially sound. At the same time, we will work to define a strategy for the group, which will consist in creating mining assets that are driven by a set of core values, permanently ensuring a good level of performance and highlighting our passion for delivering environmentally responsible mining to raise awareness in people. To be successful in these commitments, we will need, in addition to our dedication and our passion for serving Auplata, our shareholders, on whom we count to support our efforts. It is a collective endeavor. Our success will be your success. Thank You. Luc Gerard Nyafe Chairman and CEO of Auplata ------------------------ 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-0-56136-auplata_pr_shareholder-letter_20181128_en-vdef.pdf 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 LONDON, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Consulting magazine has named Beatriz Sanz Saiz, EY Global Data Analytics Leader, Advisory, as one of its Global Leaders in Consulting for 2018. Beatriz was recognized for her Excellence in Influence among more than 200 applicants. Consulting magazine's Global Leaders in Consulting annual award recognizes consultants worldwide who display outstanding leadership qualities and capabilities and exert extraordinary influence in their firms, for clients and over the entire consulting profession. The award, launched last year, recognizes the global nature of the consulting business and highlights the impact that industry leaders have worldwide. Beatriz Sanz Saiz, EY Global Data Analytics Leader, Advisory, says: "I am delighted to receive the Global Leaders in Consulting award. I share this with the diverse group of people with whom I work - global teams, clients, and EY people - and of course all the people who have supported and inspired me throughout my career. With data and artificial intelligence (AI) at the core of this transformative age, it is enormously satisfying to see the positive impact of EY teams with EY clients across society." Norman Lonergan, EY Global Vice Chair - Advisory, says: "We are thrilled that Consulting magazine named Beatriz as a Global Leader in Consulting. Beatriz and her team work with clients around the world to help them enhance their businesses through data and innovation, leveraging analytics to drive competitive differentiation. Through her leadership, Beatriz and her team are helping clients unlock the value of data and artificial intelligence. Their focus on helping clients navigate the challenges, opportunities and ethics behind AI, data analytics and other technologies is key to the growth of the EY Advisory service line." Beatriz has been a partner with Ernst & Young Global Limited for more than 15 years. She served in various roles within EMEIA and Asia-Pacific. In her current role as EY Global Data Analytics Leader, Advisory, she leads more than 9,000 professionals and is driving the strategy to infuse analytics and AI into EY services. Beatriz says: "Through the dynamic EY wavespace global growth and innovation centers - with a number of centers across the globe that are focused on AI - EY teams are helping clients reinvent and transform their business to stay at the edge of innovation, productivity and customer satisfaction, while building trust and ethics into AI. With the growth of emerging technologies such as AI, I feel a great responsibility to keep driving change and disruption for the good of society." During her career, Beatriz has held senior positions with leading companies in financial services, where she was responsible for establishing analytics and innovation as core competencies. When Beatriz joined Ernst & Young EMEIA Limited as the youngest partner in Spain, it launched her career in data analytics. Two years later, she was named EY Global Customer Leader for Advisory Services and became the youngest member of the Global Advisory leadership team. Following this role, she returned to the financial services industry, expanding her career in the area of disruptive innovation. She held senior positions with leading companies, establishing analytics and innovation as core competencies. She then rejoined as EY Oceania Customer Leader, Financial Services Organization, and was based in Australia. When she adopted her second child from Ethiopia - she recently adopted a third child, from China -- Beatriz returned to the EMEIA area to drive data analytics in the EY Financial Services Organization and establish the first EY wavespace in Madrid, focusing in artificial intelligence. Two years later, she became the EY Global Data Analytics Leader for Advisory Services. Beatriz holds a master's degree in Mathematics and Statistics from Complutense de Madrid and serves as professor at IE Business School at the International Masters of Big Data & Analytics. She is regular speaker at international industry conferences and has been featured in Forbes and the Financial Times. Barbara Burgess Aparna Sankaran EY Global Media Relations EY Global Media Relations +1 212 773 1652 +44 748 024 5082 barbara.burgess@ey.com aparna.sankaran@ey.uk.com Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/790302/EY___Beatriz_Sanz_Saiz.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/708904/EY_Logo.jpg LONDON, November 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Droit Financial Technologies ("Droit") has extended its award winning Adept platform to support a UK/Brexit Rulebook, with initial delivery made to several global financial institutions. The successful industry adoption of the Droit Adept platform has been further recognised with Risk announcing that it has won 2019 MiFID II Product of the Year. The expected Brexit regulatory scenario of EU regulations such as EMIR and MiFID2/MIFIR initially transposed into UK domestic law, with transparency divergence expected, is now supported within Droit's Adept platform. Within client systems the Rulebook operates alongside existing support for EMIR and MiFID2/MIFIR regulatory decision making and ESMA reference data services. These extensions include the necessary preparation for the creation of FCA transparency and liquidity reference data sources. They incorporate the digitisation of relevant regulations, directives and RTS's and linking the new FCA mandates to their UK legal sources as and when published. "Within our global bank client community, there is a clear desire for a comprehensive, cost-effective and timely Brexit solution. This extension to the Droit platform enables our clients to have a fairly seamless migration to the UK Rulebook in terms of real-time per-trade decision making," Keith Tippell, Head of Business Development, Europe and APAC at Droit. Droit enables financial institutions to implement a multi-jurisdictional, cross asset class and cost-effective approach to regulatory pre-trade decision making and the accurate execution of pre- and post-trade obligations, including regulatory reporting. MiFID II is one of 18 global regulations currently supported by Droit. "Droit is proud to be a critical component of a successful MiFID II implementation for a wide range of global banks, processing millions of trades per day. We support all current G20 regulatory regimes, with logic representing industry consensus, generating the full global cross-regulatory implications and obligations of a trade in real-time. Our platform provides complete auditability and traceability through to fully digitised regulatory text: our clients find it invaluable to prove to themselves and regulators that their decision making for each transaction is accurate and complete with respect to the laws in force at that time," Joceline Zheng, Head of Product at Droit. About Droit Droit automates global regulations and market micro-structure within real-time trading systems, creating intelligence platforms merging finance and computational law. In December 2016, Droit announced a $16 million Series A investment from Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, DRW Trading and Pivot Investment Partners. The firm was founded in 2012 by a team of veteran derivative traders, quants, ecommerce specialists and technologists with front-line experience and expertise with products, markets, regulations and systems. Droit has offices in New York City and London. For more visit http://www.droit.tech. If you would like to schedule a demo or obtain more information about Droit's products please contact us using sales@droitfintech.com. Media inquiries, please contact: media@droitfintech.com AEDAS Homes'gross margin is 29%, which is on the upper end of the estimated range The residential developer reported revenues worth 55.4 million thanks to the delivery of housing units and the sale of non-strategic land The gross margin of these transactions is 15.8 million These figures cement the developer as an attractive investment opportunity, unanimously backed by analysts' consensus November 2018- AEDAS Homes (https://www.aedashomes.com/), a leading developer in Spain's new real estate cycle, has increased its gross margin over its IPO forecast, according to the latest results. Between January and September 2018, the developer reported revenues of 55.4 million, with 86% coming from the delivery of housing units and 14% from the sale of non-strategic land. The gross margin for these transactions is 15.8 million or 29%, a figure on the upper end of the estimated range in the developer's October 2017 IPO prospectus. This means that the company has surpassed its gross margin target, which had been set at 22%. These numbers cement the developer as an attractive investment option, which has been confirmed recently in statements released by analysts on the potential value of the company's share price following the publication of its third quarter results. In fact, the seven entities, which include Goldman Sachs, UBS and Banco Santander, unanimously have given AEDAS Homes a Buy rating. AEDAS Homes will continue to maintain these margins in the coming months despite increasing construction costs across the sector. This is due the fact that sales prices for the developer's homes are rising more than construction costs, meaning that this variable will not affect its economic and profitability targets. Additionally, AEDAS Homes has launched several initiatives aimed at maintaining margins, such as forming strategic partnerships with contractors to encourage economies of scale and implementing industrialized, or pre-cast, solutions early in the design phases so as to reduce reliance on labor. Sales In terms of sales, as of October 31, the company had sold 1,852 units, with an estimated GDV of 648 million. By region, sales were very strong in the Center (29%), followed by the East and Balearic Islands (26%), and Catalonia (21%). As of October 31, the company had 2,260 units under construction, out of a total 2,638 units with planning permission already secured (including completed units). In the past eight months, construction permit applications for an additional 3,009 units have been made, further improving the developer's visibility over its 2020 and 2021 delivery targets. It is worth noting that construction works on the Nou Eixample Mar development in Vilanova i la Geltru (Barcelona) were extremely efficient and completed ahead of schedule, making it possible to move up the delivery of some units to the end of 2018, instead of in 2019 as planned. About AEDAS Homes The developer AEDAS Homes became a listed company on October 20, 2017, in Madrid, with a market capitalization of over 1.5 billion. AEDAS is an industry leader at the national level and plays an important role in the new cycle of the Spanish real estate sector, which must be marked by professionalism and an adherence to rigorous standards. AEDAS Homes has the highest-quality land bank in Spain, according to analysts, since most of this land is classified as ready-to-build. The company has a portfolio with more than 1.5 million square meters to build over 14,500 homes in the nation's key markets and their surrounding areas (both in terms of real estate and finance): the Center, Catalonia, the East and Balearic Islands, Andalusia and Costa del Sol. Press Release (http://hugin.info/176480/R/2227157/874291.doc) 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: AEDAS Homes S.A.U. via Globenewswire Opens London office offering on-the-ground support and regional hosting to UK law firms, corporates, and government agencies OAKLAND, Calif., Nov. 28, 2018, the developer of the cloud-based litigation platform, today announced it will open a new office in London to expand its services into the UK and continental Europe. Everlaw already offers local European hosting for customers, such as London-based law firm Macfarlanes and consulting company Mott Macdonald. Macfarlanes is part of the Silver Circle, which comprises the UK's leading corporate law firms. With the expansion, Everlaw will add a UK-based hosting option and offer local customer support. Everlaw's UK presence will expand security, privacy, and compliance options for customers based in the UK and Europe. Data can now be hosted and retained within the UK in addition to continental Europe. Everlaw is SOC-2 certified for Security, Availability, Confidentiality , and Privacy in the US, EU, Canada, and Australia. Prior to its overseas expansion, Everlaw took a leadership role in helping organizations prepare for the rollout of GDPR. "We're excited to bring our committed team and first-class software experience to serve more customers in the UK and the European Union in 2019," said Everlaw CEO AJ Shankar. "Everlaw has always been committed to making legal professionals' experience as user-friendly and collaborative as possible." Everlaw's first UK office will be in London's Shoreditch neighborhood, home to many major law firms and its "Silicon Roundabout" tech hub. The expansion follows Everlaw's recent relocation to major new headquarters in Oakland, California. Everlaw is participating in the following London events: Future Legal Technology Forum (November 27-28, 2018) LegalWeek Connect (November 28-29, 2018) Corporate Legal Operations Consortium London (January 21-22, 2019) Everlaw's technological innovations have recently been recognized by the Financial Times. This year, Everlaw was nominated for two Financial Times Intelligent Business Awards for its use of legal technology and as a legal technology company. Everlaw was named one of Inc. Magazine's Best Workplaces in 2018, highlighting its ongoing ability to execute, not only at building the best software for the legal sector but also at crafting a strong and enduring culture. About Everlaw Everlaw blends modern design with cutting-edge technology to help corporations, law firms, and government entities solve the toughest problems in the legal industry. Our cloud-based litigation platform features drag-and-drop uploading, flexible productions, blink-speed search, automatic predictions based on machine learning, and robust real-time collaboration so legal practitioners can focus on what they do best. Everlaw's clients include eight of the top ten class-action law firms, corporate counsels, and is used by U.S. state attorneys general in every state. Based in Oakland, California, Everlaw's investors include Andreessen Horowitz and Menlo Ventures. Learn more at http://www.everlaw.com. Media Contact Maura Lafferty Firebrand Communications +1.415.405.5631 maural@firebrand.marketing KRAKOW, Poland, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Codewise, the industry's first provider of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered online ad measurement and management solutions for digital marketers, recognized by the Financial Times as one of the fastest-growing companies in Europe in 2017 and 2018, today announced that it has joined the European Internet Forum (EIF) as a business member. Founded in March 2000 by Members of the European Parliament (MEP), EIF's mission is to help provide European political leadership for the development of European and multilateral public policies responsive to the political, economic and social challenges of the worldwide digital transformation and to support MEPs from all political groups to ensure that Europe remains at the forefront of this transformation, benefitting fully from it through enhanced global competitiveness and social progress. "We are very pleased to welcome an innovative company like Codewise to the European Internet Forum. We acknowledge the rapid growth of new services and solutions enabled by Artificial Intelligence in various industry sectors and the importance of including a new generation of digital policy stakeholders in our membership," said Maria Rosa Gibellini, Director General of the European Internet Forum "We are looking forward to contributing to the unique ecosystem of public-private cooperation that EIF has been building and nurturing since its foundation," said Dr. John Malatesta, Codewise CEO and President. "The numerous challenges faced today by the Internet industry are overshadowed only by the abundance of opportunities it offers, and we are excited to pledge our support to the organization that has done so much to enable a successful digital transformation in Europe. EIF's work is essential for boosting Europe's competitiveness on the global stage and empowering European legislators to handle the issues and opportunities lying ahead of us in the most effective way possible." About the European Internet Forum Founded and led by Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), EIF is a cross-party, not-for-profit association with the mission to help provide European political leadership for the development of European and multilateral public policies responsive to the political, economic and social challenges of the worldwide digital transformation and to support MEPs from all political groups to ensure that Europe remains at the forefront of this transformation, benefitting fully from it through enhanced global competitiveness and social progress. EIF membership includes a variety of leading companies and organizations, which together encompass a broad range of interests and actors in the vanguard of internet and ICTs. EIF focuses on issues and actions at the top of the political agenda and on emerging future trends at both the European and the global level. Through a continuous program of live debates and special projects featuring open and inclusive dialogue, EIF creates a space for a greater understanding of the digital world. Learn more at www.eifonline.org . About Codewise Founded in 2011, Codewise is the industry's first provider of AI-powered online ad measurement and management solutions for digital marketers. In 2017 and 2018, Codewise was recognized as one of the fastest-growing technology companies in Europe, according to the Financial Times, Statista, and Deloitte. Codewise's solutions help thousands of businesses in 190 countries track, measure and optimize billions of dollars of advertising spending, boosting their efficiency and ROI. Codewise is currently tracking over $2.5 billion of digital ad spending for some of the world's largest brands and ad agencies, including $400 million of ad spending on Facebook. Learn more at www.codewise.com . PR Contact: media@codewise.com Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/789965/EIF.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/659010/Codewise_logo1_Logo.jpg GRAZ, Austria, November 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- MEMS speaker company, USound, raises $20M growth investment to support the worldwide market penetration of its smart MEMS audio products. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/790790/USound_Logo.jpg ) USound has developed and industrialised the smallest loudspeakers in the world, safeguarded by over 150 patents. USound's smart digital micro speakers are based on innovative MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) technology that enables extreme miniaturisation, distinctive sound quality as well as highest levels of energy efficiency. USound micro speakers are currently deployed in a vast array of applications: Smartphones, earbuds, audio modules for augmented reality and virtual reality glasses, numerous consumer wearables, as well as 3D surround sound headphones perfect for an immersive gaming experience. Together with strong global production partners like STMicroelectronics, Flex and AT&S, USound has implemented a qualified semiconductor supply chain and is fulfilling all requirements for this dynamic and high-volume market. "Our smart silicon micro speakers will impact many aspects of life. We have triggered a paradigm shift for the whole audio industry," explains USound CEO Ferruccio Bottoni. This paradigm shift was confirmed by Frost & Sullivan, who has awarded the European Technology Innovation Award to USound for its breakthrough MEMS audio technology in October in London. The investment round was led by Austrian venture capital firm eQventure together with the British-Austrian venture capitalist Hermann Hauser, who co-founded ARM. About USound: USound is a fabless audio semiconductor company offering high-performance silicon speakers and high-quality sound solutions based on MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) technology. 60 employees in Graz, Vienna, San Francisco and Shenzhen serve international customers, enabling them to create totally new smart audio applications with MEMS speakers. Learn more: https://www.usound.com/ About eQventure: eQventure provides Austrian high-tech companies growth capital as well as a strong network and straight forward support in all situations from launching their business up to accelerating growth. eQventure is backed by successful entrepreneurs who invest their own money and know-how in growth-oriented high-tech companies. About Hermann Hauser: Entrepreneur and venture capital investor Hermann Hauser has been active in the global tech industry for more than four decades. One of his biggest successes is the British chip developer ARM, whose chip design is nowadays found in every smartphone. In 2016 ARM was sold for 31,4 billion dollars to the Japanese tech giant Softbank. 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. Accessible within all EU countries, Europe's hardworking people will have greater access to Carhartt's premium workwear AMSTERDAM, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Carhartt, America's premium workwear brand since 1889, is expanding access to its durable, functional products for the hardworking men and women of Europe with the launch of its newest e-commerce site. Throughout the European Union (EU), consumers will be able to purchase the brand's iconic men's and women's workwear styles through www.carhartt.com/eu/en-eu. "With the launch of this new e-commerce site, the hardworking people of Europe will now have direct access to Carhartt's premium workwear products," said Albert Foppen, EMEA managing director at Carhartt. "We're very proud to bring the brand American workers have relied on for nearly 130 years to Europe's blue-collar men and women." With a Netherlands-based distribution center, Carhartt's European e-commerce site will service consumers in all 28 EU countries, greatly expanding Carhartt's global reach. The site currently supports English, Dutch, and German languages, with a commitment to add additional languages in the near future. The site is capable of meeting the needs of consumer transactions in Euros (EUR) and Pounds (GBP), and it is optimized for a quality user experience regardless of the device used to shop www.carhartt.com/eu/en-eu. Carhartt first launched its EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) division in 2000 with a European headquarters based in Amsterdam. Before the launch of Carhartt's European e-commerce site, Carhartt's business in Europe was focused on building consumer loyalty through its partners in the workwear distribution channels. Carhartt was established in 1889 in Detroit by Hamilton Carhartt, and today, its headquarters is based in Dearborn, Michigan. With more than 5,100 associates worldwide, Carhartt remains family-owned and managed by the descendants of the company's founder to ensure his mission is carried through in every garment it produces. About Carhartt, Inc. Established in 1889, Carhartt is a global premium workwear brand with a rich heritage of developing rugged products for workers on and off the job. Headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, with more than 5,100 associates worldwide, Carhartt is family-owned and managed by the descendants of the company's founder, Hamilton Carhartt. For more information, visit www.carhartt.com. Contact: Marga Stehmann Erica Salomon Carhartt, Inc. EMEA Carhartt, Inc. +31 (0)20 7150283 (313) 749-6632 mstehmann@carhartt.com esalomon@carhartt.com Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/160569/carhartt_logo.jpg LONDON, November 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Designed for Business Competition finalists and key names from the design business community and academia will gather at the House of Commons, Westminster, Thursday evening for a glittering prize-giving ceremony, the culmination of the year-long competition that involved the leading schools across the country that teach creative disciplines. It is a unique collaboration between The Society of British & International Design (SBID) and BE OPEN, the humanitarian think tank founded by international philanthropist and entrepreneur Elena Baturina. SBID and BE OPEN created the competition in a bid to showcase emerging talent in each industry, to promote equal opportunities and to nurture relationships between students and the working world. Both the teams were delighted with the enthusiastic response to the competition from both students and creative course leaders at leading universities. Hundreds of graduate students put forward submissions for five different award categories: Interior Design, Interior Decoration, Fashion, Art & Design and Product Design over the course of the summer. Expert judges from relevant industries and academia, including Trustee of the Design Museum in London Sebastian Conran, Jane Hay, International Managing Director of Christie's Education, Guangci Qu, a contemporary Chinese sculptor and Philippa Newman, Design Manager at John Lewis, looked for qualities, such as originality of expression, individualism, creative use of materials and presentation skills. As well as the overall winner leaving with a cash prize of 30,000, winners from each category will receive 1,000, plus recognition for their university. SBID founder Dr Vanessa Brady OBE, says: "SBID has been running student competitions for several years and it has been proven that students have the talent, training and tenacity to achieve great things. Yet what students need is a job and money; with this competition someone could become instantly debt-free, or in the position to create business start-up self-funded - it may inspire a generation of creatives." BE OPEN founder Elena Baturina, says: "I am thoroughly impressed by the calibre of entries and the thinking behind each of the finalists' works. I'm hoping that this partnership with SBID will help to drive more engagement with young designers from the businesses that will be relying on their creativity in the years to come. I'm very excited to see what our winner and finalists will achieve next." NEW YORK, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Training The Street ( www.TrainingTheStreet.com ), the leading corporate training provider for Wall Street firms and top-tier business schools, today announced that Zane Hurst has been promoted to Head of European Operations. A valued Training The Street (TTS) instructor for more than nine years, UK-based Hurst teaches accounting, capital markets, financial modeling and corporate valuation. Before joining TTS, Hurst worked in the London office of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he served as Vice President in the firm's EMEA Loan Execution and Management division. Hurst has also worked in the New York and London office of JPMorgan Chase initially working in their Financial Sponsors team, a Training Instructor in their Analyst and Associate Investment Banking Training Program and then in their EMEA Loan Restructuring & Asset Recovery division. "Zane has been instrumental in helping TTS build and expand its European footprint," said Scott Rostan, founder and CEO of TTS. "We look forward to even greater contributions from Zane as we continue to grow throughout Europe." SAN FRANCISCO, November 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The global biobanks market size is expected to reach USD 74.54 billion by 2025 at a 4.5% CAGR over the forecast period, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Growing need for sample collection to support and facilitate clinical trials for novel therapies, which are developed for treatment of chronic conditions, is anticipated to boost the market. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/661327/Grand_View_Research_Logo.jpg ) Different biospecimens stored at biobanks are witnessing significant demand owing to advancements in cell-based research activities. Rising demand from different end users has led to establishment of a substantial number of population-based and disease-based banks in recent years. Population-based banks are established to support precision medicine research initiatives, whereas disease-specific biobanks provide resources to research communities to enable a better understanding of disease etiology. Furthermore, there has been a rapid increase in number of biobanks over the recent past, which can be attributed to perpetual developments in cell-based therapies, such as advent of stem cells and regenerative medicine. Thus, competition among biobanks is observed within for-profit biostorage entities that provide open access to researchers and hospitals. Increase in efforts undertaken by life science industries for collaboration with biobanks to support life science research programs is expected to further boost the market. In addition, regional biobank networks are being established to enhance accessibility to biospecimens and promote international sharing of these samples. Few examples of such networks are BBMIR-ERIC, Asian Network of Research Resource Centers, and Asian Consortium for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Microbial Resources. Increase in number of clinical trials for new drug candidates has spurred demand for biobanking services. Major challenges in biobanking operations include sustainability, limited access, and information sharing. However, technology advancements aid in overcoming these hurdles. Owing to introduction of novel applications of stored cells and biospecimens in drug development, leading economies such as U.S. and U.K. are revising their regulatory policies and guidelines pertaining to biobanking operations. Browse full research report with TOC on "Biobanks Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Product (LIMS), By Service (Cold Chain), By Biospecimen Type, By Biobank Type (Virtual), By Application, And Segment Forecasts, 2018 - 2025"at:https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/biobanks-industry Further Key Findings From the Report Suggest: Biobanking equipment held the dominant share by product in 2017. High cost of equipment, coupled with rapid increase in number of biobanks, is attributive to its leading revenue share The LIMS segment is projected to witness lucrative growth over the forecast period owing to rise in efforts undertaken for improvement of sample quality to suit international standards North America dominated the global market in 2017 owing to high demand for biosamples. This increase in demand is attributive to rapid advancement of genomics, bioinformatics, and translational research dominated the global market in 2017 owing to high demand for biosamples. This increase in demand is attributive to rapid advancement of genomics, bioinformatics, and translational research Asia Pacific is projected to exhibit the fastest growth due to rapid progress of Asian countries in healthcare, drug discovery, and scientific research is projected to exhibit the fastest growth due to rapid progress of Asian countries in healthcare, drug discovery, and scientific research Some of the major companies offering biobanking products are QIAGEN; Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.; Agilent Technologies, Inc.; and Merck KGaA. VMR International, Charles River , Lonza, Biovault, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Fisher BioServices), and Virgin Health Bank are among prominent companies engaged in offering biobanking services. Browse related reports by Grand View Research: Molecular Biology Enzymes And Kits & Reagents Market - The global Molecular Biology Enzymes And Kits & Reagents market size was valued at USD 5.77 billion in 2016 Transplantation Market - The global transplantation market size was estimated at USD 23.5 billion in 2016. Cancer Biomarker Market - The global cancer biomarker market size was valued at USD 10.3 billion in the year 2016 and is estimated to reach a value of USD 33.7 billion by 2025, growing with CAGR of 14.3 %. Pharmaceutical Filtration Market - The global pharmaceutical filtration market size was estimated at USD 13.7 billion in 2016 Grand View Research has segmented the global biobanks market on the basis of product, service, biospecimen type, biobank type, application, and region: Biobanks Product Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) Biobanking Equipment Temperature Control Systems Freezers & Refrigerators Cryogenic Storage Systems Thawing Equipment Incubators & Centrifuges Alarms & Monitoring Systems Accessories & Other Equipment Biobanking Consumables Laboratory Information Management Systems Biobanks Service Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) Biobanking & Repository Lab processing Qualification/ Validation Cold Chain Logistics Other Services Biobanks Biospecimen Type Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) Human Tissues Organs Stem Cells Adult Stem Cells Embryonic Stem Cells IPS Cells Other Stem Cells Other Biospecimens Biobanks Type Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) Physical/Real Biobanks Tissue Biobanks Population Based Biobanks Genetic (DNA/RNA) Disease Based Biobanks Virtual Biobanks Biobanks Application Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) Therapeutics Drug Discovery & Clinical Research Clinical Diagnostics Other Applications Biobanks Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) North America U.S. Canada Europe Germany U.K. Asia Pacific Japan China Latin America Brazil Middle East & Africa South Africa Explore the BI enabled intuitive market research database,Grand View Compass, by Grand View Research, Inc. About Grand View Research Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare. Contact: Sherry James Corporate Sales Specialist, USA Grand View Research, Inc. Phone: +1-415-349-0058 Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519 Email: sales@grandviewresearch.com Web: https://www.grandviewresearch.com ROCKVILLE, Maryland, November 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Reciprocating pumps market is projected to witness a significant growth, according to a latest report by Fact.MR. The reciprocating pumps market growth is being influenced by rising demand for oil and gas worldwide, especially in the petrochemical industry. The growing oil and gas demand is creating substantial opportunities for a range of industrial goods, including reciprocating pumps. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/713666/FactMR_Logo.jpg ) Reciprocating pumps are also being deployed for pumping fluid in wells at high pressure for fracking process and to transfer extracted oil and gas to the processing facility. Reciprocating pump sales are also influenced by prevailing trends, including steadily growing adoption of smart pumping systems. Sensing the evolving trends, reciprocating pump manufacturers are focusing on integrating sensors in the pumps to capture various parameters including liquid levels, temperature, and pressure. Request For Sample Report-https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=2396 Asia Pacific Largest Market for Reciprocating Pumps Market, followed by North America The demand for reciprocating pumps is likely to grow significantly in the APEJ region, with total sales expected to surpass US$ 1,000 million by the end of 2018. China and India are among the most attractive markets for reciprocating pumps in APEJ. Reciprocating pump sales in APEJ are likely to benefit from macroeconomic trends, notably growing investment in energy generation. The Government of India is adopting several policies to meet the increasing demand for oil and gas in the country. The gas pipeline infrastructure is also growing with the rise in manufacturing units and facilities in India. With the government allowing 100% FDI in natural gas, refineries, and petroleum products, foreign investors have started investing in refineries and petrochemicals projects in India. Macroeconomic trends are also impacting market growth in the Americas. The growing demand from offshore and onshore fields in the Gulf of Mexico is creating opportunities for reciprocating pump industry. Moreover, growing emphasis on developing unconventional resources in the US and Canada is driving the demand for oil and gas pumps including reciprocating pumps in North America. The demand for plunger pumps is increasing in oilfield applications, especially, in petroleum transfer operations, in secondary and tertiary injection wells, and at refineries. Browse Full Report on Reciprocating Pumps Market with TOC-https://www.factmr.com/report/2396/reciprocating-pumps-market Growth in Chemicals Industry Accelerating Demand for Diaphragm Pumps According to Fact.MR's analysis, demand for diaphragm pumps are likely to remain the preferred choice among end-users owing to their enhanced features, such as flexibility and isolation of the fluid chamber. Fact.MR estimates global sales of diaphragm pumps to surpass 2,000,000 units by the end of 2018. Increasing production of aggressive chemicals is resulting in the surging demand for Air Operated Double Diaphragm (AODD) pumps. Electric double diaphragm pump combining energy-saving benefits of electric device with the diaphragm pump technology has also been introduced for chemical pumping application. Large adoption of this technology is expected in the chemical sector in the near future as it helps in reducing operating cost and energy consumption. The reciprocating pumps across industries are used and run at a very low speed as compared to the centrifugal pumps. The biggest reason is to protect and increase packing and sealing life of the machine. Manufacturers in various industries use reciprocating pumps with the flow rate of up to 100 m/h thereby improving reliability and increasing plunger life. The overall outlook of the reciprocating pumps market is anticipated to be positive. The demand for reciprocating pumps is expected to expand at a 5.6% CAGR in terms of value throughout the forecast period, 2018-2027. To Buy Reciprocating Pumps Market Report, Check-https://www.factmr.com/checkout/2396/S PopularIndustrial Goods Market Reports by FMR: Coal Handling System Market Forecast, Trend Analysis & Competition Tracking - Global Market Insights 2018 to 2028 - https://www.factmr.com/report/1237/coal-handling-system-market - https://www.factmr.com/report/1237/coal-handling-system-market Railcar Spill Containment Market Forecast, Trend Analysis & Competition Tracking - Global Market Insights 2018 to 2027 - https://www.factmr.com/report/2306/railcar-spill-containment-market - https://www.factmr.com/report/2306/railcar-spill-containment-market Pneumatic Rollers Market Forecast, Trend Analysis & Competition Tracking - Global Market Insights 2018 to 2028 -https://www.factmr.com/report/1913/pneumatic-rollers-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: sales@factmr.com Web: https://www.factmr.com/ Blog: https://factmrblog.com/ Read Industry News at - https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/ Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 28, 2018) -EMX Royalty Corporation (TSXV: EMX) (NYSE American: EMX) (the "Company" or "EMX") is pleased to provide an update on advancements of the Company's royalty and mineral property portfolio that totals over 90 projects on five continents. These assets provide revenue from royalty, pre-production and other payments, as well as upside optionality from operator funded projects. EMX's diversified business model of royalty generation, royalty acquisition, and strategic investment provides multiple avenues for growing the Company's portfolio and building shareholder value. Please see the global portfolio map below and www.EMXroyalty.com for more information. (Figure 1) Note: Annotated projects with stars are discussed in this news release. To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/1508/41299_d258ece7349f59b2_002full.jpg IG Copper Strategic Investment EMX received its initial cash distribution of US $65.15 million from IG Copper LLC's ("IGC") sale of the Malmyzh project ("Malmyzh" or the "Project") located in Far East Russia[1]. EMX's strategic investment in IGC resulted from the Company's recognition of Malmyzh in 2011 as an early-stage copper-gold porphyry opportunity with excellent discovery potential. EMX took a disciplined investment approach by backing IGC's steady advancement of the Project over the years. This work included the early-stage exploration work that led to the discovery of the Malmyzh district, and the drill intensive programs that progressed the Project through resource definition and approvals in the Russian Federation. The execution of these programs, with strong financial and management backing from EMX, culminated in the sale of Malmyzh to Russian Copper Company for US $200 million, of which US $190 million has been released from escrow. The remaining US $10 million from the sale is being held in escrow, and subject to certain conditions, cash distributions of up to US $4 million will be made to EMX as funds are released over the next 12 months. Royalty and Royalty Generation Properties EMX's royalty property interests include Leeville in Nevada, the Timok Project's Cukaru Peki deposit in Serbia, and properties being advanced by operating companies in Turkey, the western U.S., and Scandinavia. EMX's royalty generation programs are filling the mineral property pipeline with new acquisitions on open ground in geologically prospective regions. North America. There are 38 properties in the portfolio, of which fifteen are royalties or optioned for an EMX royalty interest, as well as other consideration to the Company's benefit. The Company advances the western U.S. royalty generation portfolio through its wholly-owned subsidiary Bronco Creek Exploration ("BCE"). (Figure 2) To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/1508/41299_d258ece7349f59b2_003full.jpg EMX's Leeville 1% gross smelter return royalty covers portions of Newmont Mining Corporation's ("Newmont") Northern Carlin Trend underground mines, including the Leeville and Turf operations. Newmont produced ~358 royalty gold ounces from Leeville in Q3 providing production royalty revenue to EMX of ~US $435,500. Royalty production was sourced from Leeville (65%) and Turf (35%). Newmont is exploring a trend of gold mineralization that extends southeast from the Leeville mining complex, and is partially covered by EMX's royalty position. As discussed by Newmont, this trend, which includes the Rita K and Full House projects, is an important contributor to its Northern Carlin Trend underground resource and reserve development strategy. In addition, Newmont has highlighted "strong results South and West of Four Corners" and the "NE upside potential subparallel to the West Bounding Fault", both of which include areas covered by the Leeville royalty property [2] . . EMX has a 2% net smelter return ("NSR") royalty covering the Hardshell Skarn claim block, which is part of South32 Limited's ("South32") Hermosa property in southern Arizona. The Hermosa property's Taylor zinc-lead-silver carbonate replacement development project is directly north of EMX's Hardshell Skarn royalty claim block. In Q3, the project's previous owner, Arizona Mining Inc. ("AMI"), announced the completion of the plan of arrangement whereby South32 acquired all of the issued and outstanding common shares of AMI [3] . South32 expects to invest approximately US $100 million at the Taylor project in the 2019 fiscal year [4] . To date, two angle diamond drill holes have intersected high grade polymetallic zinc-lead-silver mineralization within EMX's royalty claim block [5] . . South32 expects to invest approximately US $100 million at the Taylor project in the 2019 fiscal year . To date, two angle diamond drill holes have intersected high grade polymetallic zinc-lead-silver mineralization within EMX's royalty claim block . Anglo American concluded phase I reconnaissance drilling at the Copper Springs property in Arizona, which is under an option agreement with EMX. The program consisted of four holes totaling over 5,700 meters that tested concealed porphyry targets. The alteration and mineralization assemblages observed from bedrock intercepts are encouraging. Anglo American advises that it is planning a phase II follow-up program of additional geophysics and drilling. EMX optioned Copper Springs to Anglo American for cash payments and work commitments, and upon Anglo American's earn-in for 100% interest in the project EMX will receive additional payments and retain a 2% NSR royalty interest [6] . . EMX's option agreement for the Greenwood Peak project in Arizona with a wholly owned subsidiary of Antofagasta plc ("Antofagasta") was terminated in Q3. Earlier in 2018, Antofagasta concluded a three hole, 1,035 meter reconnaissance drill program to test a concealed porphyry target, and intersected weak alteration in bedrock. EMX has dropped the property due to a lack of encouraging results. EMX's generative work focused on new copper and gold targets in Arizona, the Great Basin, and Wyoming. The Company also completed property reviews with potential partners, and is in discussions with several groups for the available North American projects, as well as for regional generative alliances. Turkey. EMX holds five royalty properties, including Akarca, Balya, and Sisorta, as well as two available royalty generation projects in Turkey's Western Anatolia and Eastern Pontides mineral belts. (Figure 3) To view an enhanced version of Figure 3, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/1508/41299_d258ece7349f59b2_004full.jpg Ciftay Insaat Taahhut ve Ticaret A.S. ("Ciftay"), the owner of the Akarca gold project, made the fourth pre-production payment of ~US $610,000 to EMX (the cash equivalent of 500 troy ounces of gold) in Q3. Receipt of this payment leaves a pre-production total of 5,000 ounces of gold (or the cash equivalent) to be paid to EMX by Ciftay on a schedule of 500 ounces every six months. EMX retains a sliding scale royalty (subject to certain deductions) ranging from 1% to 3% for gold production from the property [7] . Ciftay advises that a scoping study is underway that includes diamond drill results announced earlier in 2018, such as 9.5 meters averaging 50.30 g/t gold and 29.2 g/t silver in the Arap Tepe "Zone C" area (true width ~85-95% of intercept length) [8] . Ciftay advises that its follow-up 2018 exploration programs are awaiting drill permits. . Ciftay advises that a scoping study is underway that includes diamond drill results announced earlier in 2018, such as 9.5 meters averaging 50.30 g/t gold and 29.2 g/t silver in the Arap Tepe "Zone C" area (true width ~85-95% of intercept length) . Ciftay advises that its follow-up 2018 exploration programs are awaiting drill permits. At the Balya lead-zinc-silver royalty property, Turkish owner Dedeman Madencilik San ve Tic. A.S. ("Dedeman") advised that it is continuing with its ~25,000 meter step-out drill campaign to fill in a ~500 meter long corridor between mineralization at Hastanetepe, where underground development work has been concentrated, and the Southern Zone target area. Dedeman provided EMX with initial results from the program, which included 12.75 meters averaging 11.39% lead, 5.92% zinc and 225.18 g/t silver in hole DB108-B (true width ~95% of intercept length), as well as other intercepts in nearby holes at Hastanetepe [9] . EMX has an uncapped 4.0% NSR royalty interest covering Balya. . EMX has an uncapped 4.0% NSR royalty interest covering Balya. The Sisorta gold project's Turkish owner, Bahar Madencilik Sinayi ve Ticaret Ltd Sti ("Bahar"), advised Environmental Impact Assessment ("EIA") work is ongoing under the mine permitting process in Turkey. Once complete, Bahar intends to continue applying for the permits necessary for project development. EMX has an uncapped 3.5% to 5.0% NSR royalty interest covering Sisorta. Serbia. EMX has a 0.5% NSR royalty covering the Timok Project's Cukaru Peki copper-gold deposit[10]. Nevsun Resources Ltd ("Nevsun") controls the Timok Project's high-grade Upper Zone (characterized by epithermal-style mineralization), and is in a joint venture with Freeport-McMoRan on the Project's Lower Zone (characterized by porphyry-style mineralization). Nevsun announced a friendly, all cash agreement in Q3 to be acquired by Zijin Mining Group Co. Ltd. of China for US $1.41 billion[11]. (Figure 4) To view an enhanced version of Figure 4, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/1508/41299_d258ece7349f59b2_005full.jpg Nevsun filed a technical report on the initial inferred resource for the Lower Zone porphyry project of 1.659 billion tonnes averaging 0.86% copper and 0.18 g/t at a "dollar equivalent" cut-off of US $25/tonne[12]. The Lower Zone porphyry "ranks high in grade, size and contained metal for porphyry copper deposits worldwide" according to Nevsun. Nevsun's technical report also included the previously announced Upper Zone Pre-Feasibility Study that outlined a 10 year mine life yielding approximately 1.7 billion pounds of payable copper and 516 thousand ounces of payable gold[13]. Initial Upper Zone production is estimated by Nevsun to be in 2022. Nevsun has stated that "There are multiple high grade Upper Zone style exploration targets above the Lower Zone and our exploration licenses have the potential to host entirely new porphyry systems with associated high grade Upper Zone style mineralization." EMX's royalty properties in the Timok Magmatic Complex add significant upside potential from one of the world's top copper development projects. Scandinavia. EMX's portfolio in Scandinavia totals over 35 royalty and royalty generation properties in Sweden and Norway. The Company has converted multiple properties to royalty and equity interests, while adding value via early-stage exploration to royalty generation properties that are available for partnership. (Figure 5) To view an enhanced version of Figure 5, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/1508/41299_d258ece7349f59b2_008full.jpg EMX has eight royalty properties sold to, and operated by Boreal Metals Corp. ("Boreal") and Boreal Energy Metals Corporation ("BEMC"), a subsidiary of Boreal. The sale of the properties included uncapped 3% NSR royalty interests, equity interests in Boreal and BEMC, annual advance royalty payments, and other consideration to EMX's benefit. The properties consist of polymetallic, cobalt, nickel, and copper projects. In Q3, Boreal a) commenced exploration programs at the Tynset volcanic massive sulfide ("VMS") project in Norway, b) identified prospective geophysical targets at the Gumsberg VMS project in Sweden, and c) commenced a 1,000 meter reconnaissance diamond drill program at the Burfjord copper-gold project in Norway [14] . EMX provided technical assistance for this work on a 100% reimbursed consulting basis. . EMX provided technical assistance for this work on a 100% reimbursed consulting basis. At the Riddarhyttan iron oxide copper-gold ("IOCG") and massive sulfide project in Sweden, which is optioned to South32, EMX conducted geologic mapping, geochemical sampling, and geophysical surveys during Q3 on a 100% reimbursed basis. The geophysical work included high resolution VTEM TM (airborne time-domain electromagnetic) and aeromagnetic surveys over the entire Riddarhyttan license area. These new data are being used to generate drill targets on the project. Riddarhyttan was optioned to South32 for cash payments and work commitments to earn a 100% interest in the project, and upon earn-in, EMX will receive annual advance royalty and milestone payments in addition to a 3% NSR royalty interest [15] . Riddarhyttan is the locality where the element cobalt was first discovered and recognized, and is also the type locality of certain rare earth elements and related minerals. (airborne time-domain electromagnetic) and aeromagnetic surveys over the entire Riddarhyttan license area. These new data are being used to generate drill targets on the project. Riddarhyttan was optioned to South32 for cash payments and work commitments to earn a 100% interest in the project, and upon earn-in, EMX will receive annual advance royalty and milestone payments in addition to a 3% NSR royalty interest . Riddarhyttan is the locality where the element cobalt was first discovered and recognized, and is also the type locality of certain rare earth elements and related minerals. Geochemical sampling and geophysical surveying was conducted in Q3 at the Slattberg nickel-copper-cobalt project in Sweden, which is optioned to Sienna Resources Inc. ("Sienna"). This work followed-up on Sienna's earlier drill program that returned intercepts including 2.8 meters averaging 1.05% nickel, 1125 ppm cobalt and 0.79% copper in hole SIE-18-3 (true width 60-70% of reported interval length) [16] . Slattberg was optioned to Sienna for share equity in Sienna, and upon Sienna's earn-in through work commitments for 100% interest in the project, additional share equity will be due and EMX will retain a 3% NSR royalty on the project [17] . . Slattberg was optioned to Sienna for share equity in Sienna, and upon Sienna's earn-in through work commitments for 100% interest in the project, additional share equity will be due and EMX will retain a 3% NSR royalty on the project . Geochemical sampling and geophysical surveys were completed over a number of EMX's "Gold Line" licenses in the Skelleftea area in central Sweden. Multiple geochemical sampling techniques were tested in orientation surveys across several areas with historic, drill-defined zones of gold mineralization. Results are pending, but this work is intended to identify methods appropriate for recognizing additional zones of gold mineralization hidden beneath shallow glacial till cover. Ground based magnetic surveys and extensive stream sediment sampling surveys were also conducted across the project areas. Preliminary stream sediment data have highlighted drainages with newly recognized anomalous gold signatures. Follow-up work, including additional geophysical surveys and surface sampling and mapping, will take place in the winter months and into the spring and summer of 2019. Other Assets. EMX's portfolio in Australia and New Zealand consists of orogenic gold, epithermal gold-silver, sediment hosted stratabound copper, and copper-zinc skarn royalty and royalty generation projects. EMX's organically generated 0.5% NSR royalty portfolio in Haiti covers gold and copper exploration properties held by Newmont Ventures Limited, as well as the Grand Bois project which is controlled by a privately held Nevada corporation. Other Company News. EMX is pleased to announce the appointment of Lori Pavle as Corporate Secretary, taking on the position previously held by Marien Segovia. EMX thanks Ms. Segovia for her service to the Company, and extends best wishes for her future endeavors. Ms. Pavle has over 20 years of experience in the administration of natural resource companies listed on the TSX and TSX Venture exchanges, with appointments that included Corporate Secretary, Corporate Administrator, and Legal Assistant. The Company welcomes Lori to the EMX team. Pursuant to the Company's Stock Option Plan, an aggregate of 60,000 incentive stock options, exercisable at a price of CDN $1.57 per share for a period of five years, has been granted to Ms. Pavle along with a signing bonus, through the issuance of an aggregate of 21,000 common shares, subject to any applicable stock exchange approvals and vesting requirements. The Company also announces that upon successful completion of the sale of the Company's interest in the Malmyzh Project in Russia, a discretionary cash bonus has been allocated in an aggregate amount of US$3.8 Million to executive directors, officers, employees and consultants of the Company. About EMX. EMX leverages asset ownership and exploration insight into partnerships that advance our mineral properties, with EMX receiving pre-production payments and retaining royalty interests. EMX complements its royalty generation initiatives with royalty acquisitions and strategic investments. The recent advancements of the Company's asset portfolio underscore EMX's focus on steadily increasing global revenue streams from strategic investments, royalties, and other payments. The Company's goal is to substantially grow our cash flowing royalty portfolio while providing multiple opportunities for exploration and production success. Mr. Dean D. Turner, CPG, a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and consultant to the Company, has reviewed, verified and approved the disclosure of the technical information contained in this news release. -30- For further information contact: David M. Cole President and Chief Executive Officer Phone: (303) 979-6666 Email: Dave@EMXroyalty.com Scott Close Director of Investor Relations Phone: (303) 973-8585 Email:SClose@EMXroyalty.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Statements This news release may contain "forward looking statements" that reflect the Company's current expectations and projections about its future results. These forward-looking statements may include statements regarding perceived merit of properties, exploration results and budgets, mineral reserves and resource estimates, work programs, capital expenditures, timelines, strategic plans, market prices for precious and base metal, or other statements that are not statements of fact. When used in this news release, words such as "estimate," "intend," "expect," "anticipate," "will", "believe", "potential" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, which, by their very nature, are not guarantees of the Company's future operational or financial performance, and are subject to risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause the Company's actual results, performance, prospects or opportunities to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and factors may include, but are not limited to: unavailability of financing, failure to identify commercially viable mineral reserves, fluctuations in the market valuation for commodities, difficulties in obtaining required approvals for the development of a mineral project, increased regulatory compliance costs, expectations of project funding by joint venture partners and other factors. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this news release or as of the date otherwise specifically indicated herein.Due to risks and uncertainties, including the risks and uncertainties identified in this news release, and other risk factors and forward-looking statements listed in the Company's MD&A for the quarter ended September 30, 2018 (the "MD&A"), and the most recently filed Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2017, actual events may differ materially from current expectations.More information about the Company, including the MD&A, the 20-F and financial statements of the Company, is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the SEC's EDGAR website at www.sec.gov. [1] See EMX news releases dated October 30, 2018. [2] See Newmont Investor Presentation - August 2018. [3] See AMI news release dated August 10, 2018. [4] See South32 Financial Results & Outlook Year Ended 30 June 2018 dated August 23, 2018. [5] See EMX news releases dated August 30, 2017. [6] See EMX news releases dated February 28, 2017. [7] See EMX news release dated August 8, 2016. [8] See EMX news release dated April 17, 2018. [9] See EMX news release dated August 13, 2018. [10] Note: EMX's 0.5% NSR royalty is subject to reduction only as provided in the royalty agreement. [11] See Nevsun news release dated September 5, 2018. [12] See Nevsun news release dated August 7, 2018 and Sedar filed Technical Report. [13] See Nevsun news releases dated March 28, 2018. [14] See Boreal news releases dated July 4, September 19, and September 26, 2018. [15] See EMX news release dated April 19, 2018. [16] See Sienna news release dated May 17, 2018. [17] See EMX news release dated December 4, 2017. LONDON, November 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Infobip, global communication platform for businesses, has won multiple awards at the 2018 Messaging & SMS Global Awards hosted by Capacity Media. Infobip walked away as the big winner of the awards ceremony, acquiring four awards. The awards received were: Best Messaging API, Best Messaging Innovation-Carrier Solution, Best Anti-fraud Innovation, and Best SMS/A2P Provider for the EMEA region. "These four awards present a true celebration of our dedication of building world class messaging solutions. We have proven to the industry that we are offering superior mobile messaging solutions to businesses globally where safety is always a top priority. Although leaders in our industry, we are constantly evolving, focusing on innovation enhancing our cloud communications platform further, always delivering to the needs of today's enterprises. I am incredibly proud of the Infobip teamwork, our wide range of talent within our company that contribute to the acknowledgement of these awards. It truly inspires us to continue pushing for new breakthroughs in mobile communications," said Silvio Kutic, CEO of Infobip. The Messaging & SMS Global Awards unites international industry leaders to celebrate and acknowledge the high achievements within the Messaging and SMS eco system. Sophia Simpson, conference producer for Capacity Media, hosted the awards alongside Capacity deputy editor James Pearce. "I'd like to congratulate all of our winners and thank you to all of those who submitted entries this year, we had some excellent submissions," said Sophia Simpson. About Infobip Infobip powers enterprises to deliver messages across any channel, any device, at any time and anywhere worldwide. Infobip's technology creates seamless mobile interactions between businesses and people as well as simplifying the integration of almost all communication capabilities. With over a decade of industry experience, Infobip has expanded to include 60 offices on six continents offering in-house developed messaging platform with the capacity to reach over six billion mobile devices in 190+ countries connected to over 800 telecom networks. The company serves and partners with leading mobile operators, messaging apps, banks, social networks, tech companies, and aggregators. Expansion of Duco continues with a new technical and services hub in Wroclaw. Duco will tap into the city's rich talent base in response to strong demand for the firm's self-service data quality and reconciliation solutions. Duco, the global provider of enterprise data quality and reconciliation services, today announced that it had officially opened new offices in Wroclaw, Poland. The new office, headed by Aleksandra Mlodecka, will support the rapidly growing demand for Duco's services, ensuring customers globally receive Duco's superior level of customer service. Wroclaw is the latest office to open amid rapid growth and adoption of Duco's self-service, data agnostic platform. Duco is used by financial institutions all over the world to accelerate data quality transformation programs, and to solve a range of data integrity and reconciliation challenges across multiple departments. The Wroclaw office will comprise IT development, technical operations, global services, customer success, as well as finance and administration resources. "At Duco, our goal is to make managing data easy," said Christian Nentwich, Founder and CEO. "We have seen significant demand for our services and solutions and needed a strong talent base to support our rapid growth. We are excited to have opened another office and to welcome Aleksandra as our Country Manager. She has an impressive track record and we look forward to benefiting from her expertise as we build out our new offices in Wroclaw." Phil Jeffery, Vice President of Engineering, commented, "We are innovators and are focused on leveraging machine learning and artificial intelligence to solve long-standing data problems that have traditionally suffered from manual and legacy point solutions. Wroclaw has emerged as one of Europe's most important financial support centres. We were drawn to its strong base of technical and financial expertise as we continue to help clients improve data quality while automating operational processes." Julian Trostinsky, Vice President of Global Client Services, added, "In response to the ever-growing data quality challenges and backlog of reconciliations continuously increasing within the financial industry, Wroclaw is the perfect location to set up a dedicated, talented global services team to provide world class service and support our growth trajectory." About Duco Duco's mission is to make managing data easy. Financial services firms rely on us to reduce costs and dramatically improve efficiency in reconciliation and other data quality controls. Our self-service, cloud-based tools empower users to aggregate, normalise and reconcile any type of data on demand. Customers are live in 24 hours, with results in 7 days and tangible business value in 30 days. Headquartered in London, with offices in New York, Luxembourg, Edinburgh, Wroclaw and Singapore, Duco's customers include global banks, brokers, asset managers, exchanges and middle and back office outsourcers. For more information go to www.du.co. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181128005368/en/ Contacts: Chris Peacock press@du.co +44 (0)20 3111 9294 Potential Breakthrough for Dementia Treatment Clinical Studies in Patients using IB1000s with Lewy Body Dementia and Fronto-Temporal Dementia Showed Marked Improvement in Quality of Life, Cognition, Mobility, Speech, and a Disease-Modifying Effect OXFORD, UK / ACCESSWIRE / November 28, 2018 / IntraBio Inc., a late-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapies for common and rare ("orphan") neurodegenerative diseases, announced results for its lead compound series (IB1000s) for the treatment of dementia, including positive clinical results from compassionate-use studies in patients with Lewy Body Dementia and Fronto-Temporal Dementia, and from pre-clinical studies in Alzheimer's Disease. Recent compassionate-use studies with IB1000s in patients with Lewy Body Dementia and Fronto-Temporal Dementia showed meaningful improvement in quality of life, cognition, mobility, speech, and a disease-modifying effect. Clinical examinations and gait analysis revealed marked improvement in gait and balance, and neuropsychological testing revealed measurable improvement of psychomotor function, alertness, and attention. Additional pre-clinical in vivo studies (in Npc1-/- mouse model) investigating the effect of IB1000s on Alzheimer's Disease Pathology were highly supportive of the treatment's effect, demonstrating a statistically significant improvement in two critical biomarkers: Microtubule-associated protein 1A/1B-light chain 3-phosphatidylethanolamine conjugate (LC3-II) was reduced by 68%, and Amyloid Precursor Protein C-Terminal Fragments (APP-CTFs) was reduced by 28%. The discovery of IB1000s' symptomatic and neuroprotective properties and disease-modifying potential could be a breakthrough for patients suffering from a broad range of neurodegenerative diseases, including dementia. "While the initial sample size is small, to have such a drug with a long-term excellent safety profile showing promising effects in these intractable diseases is a very exciting and an important development," commented Professor Antony Galione FRS FMedSci, Statutory Professor of Pharmacology, University of Oxford and Founding Scientist of IntraBio. Alzheimer's Disease, Lewy Body Dementia, and Fronto-Temporal Dementia together account for an estimated 85-90% of all dementia cases, affecting more than 50 million people worldwide, and are expected to increase in prevalence over the next decades to affect more than 100 million people in 2050. They are progressive neurological disorders in which abnormal deposits of proteins accumulate in areas of the brain that regulate cognition, behavior and movement. As a consequence, they present with a wide range of cognitive, behavioral, and physical symptoms, in particular problems with memory, thought, sleep, motor function, and changes in behavior. IntraBio, with its collaborators, has evaluated the effect of IB1000s in compassionate-use studies in over 175 patients, forming the scientific basis for IB1000s to be further investigated for the treatment of 18 indications, including neurodegenerative diseases and lysosomal storage disorders. Future opportunities to develop the IB1000s series further in additional indications include Parkinsonisms, Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS), Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), and Multiple Sclerosis (MS), all of which of have high-unmet medical needs. IntraBio is currently in the process of applying for multi-national clinical trials with its lead asset (IB1001) for the treatment of Niemann-Pick disease Type C (NPC), GM2 Gangliosidosis (Tay-Sachs and Sandhoff disease) and certain inherited Cerebellar Ataxias (CA). About Lewy Body Dementia Lewy Body Dementia (LBD) is a progressive brain disorder in which Lewy bodies (abnormal deposits of a protein called alpha-synuclein) build up in areas of the brain that regulate behavior, cognition, and movement. Progressively debilitating, LBD can present with a range of typically severely fluctuating symptoms including problems with thinking, memory, moving, sleep and/or changes in behavior. LBD also affects autonomic body functions, such as blood-pressure control, temperature regulation, and bladder and bowel function. About Fronto-Temporal Dementia Fronto-Temporal Dementia (FTD) refers to a group of disorders caused by progressive nerve-cell loss predominately in the brain's frontal lobes and its temporal lobes. FTD can have significant impact on patient's everyday life, altering personalities and behavior and severely impairing language skills, speaking, writing and comprehension. FTD used to be called Pick's disease after Arnold Pick, M.D., a physician who in 1892 first described a patient with distinct symptoms affecting language. Some doctors still use the term "Pick's disease." About IntraBio IntraBio Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company with a late-stage drug pipeline including novel treatments for common and rare neurodegenerative diseases. IntraBio's platform results from decades of research and investment at premier universities and institutions worldwide. Its clinical programs leverage the expertise in lysosomal function and intracellular calcium signaling of its scientific founders from the University of Oxford and the University of Munich. IntraBio's management team and consultants have vast commercial experience and a successful track record of drug development in the USA and Europe. Together, IntraBio's team translates innovative scientific research in the fields of lysosomal biology, autophagy, and neurology into novel drugs for a broad spectrum of genetic and neurodegenerative diseases so to significantly improve the lives of patients and their families. IntraBio Inc. is a US corporation with its principal laboratories and offices in Oxford, United Kingdom. For further information please contact: Cass Fields ccfields@intrabio.com www.intrabio.com SOURCE: IntraBio Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/529134/IntraBio-Announces-Clinical-Results-for-Treatment-of-Dementia HOUSTON, TX / ACCESSWIRE / November 28, 2018 / Cub Energy Inc. ("Cub" or the "Company") (TSX-V: KUB), a Ukraine-focused upstream oil and gas company, announced today its unaudited financial and operating results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2018. All dollar amounts are expressed in United States Dollars unless otherwise noted. This update includes results from KUB-Gas LLC ("KUB-Gas"), which Cub has a 35% equity ownership interest, Tysagaz LLC ("Tysagaz"), Cub's 100% owned subsidiary and CNG LLC ("CNG"), which Cub has a 50% equity ownership interest. Mikhail Afendikov, Chairman and CEO of Cub said: "We are pleased to report Kub-Gas successfully recompleted the O-3 well to a "behind pipe pay" zone. This is the second successful recompletion performed by Kub-Gas after the successful O-9 recompletion in the second quarter. We believe the recompletions offer shareholders the best return on capital which resulted in a 5% increase in production in the third quarter of 2018 as compared to the second quarter of 2018. We also wish to report net income $2.5 million or $0.01 per share during the nine months ended September 30, 2018. During the nine months ended September 30, 2018, the Company received $3.8 million in dividends and a further $1.8 million subsequent to the quarter end from its eastern Ukraine investment." Operational Highlights During the three months ended September 30, 2018, Kub-Gas successfully recompleted the Olgovskoye-3 ("O-3") well to a "behind pipe pay" zone designated as the Bashkirian-1b ("B1b"). Although the well initially tested at higher rates, the production has been stabilized at 1.4 million cubic feet per day ("MMcf/d") since October. During the nine months ended September 30, 2018, Kub-Gas recompleted the Olgovskoye-9 ("O-9") well to a "behind pipe pay" zone designated as the Bashkirian-3 ("B3"). During a standard multi-rate test, the zone was tested up to 2.5 million cubic feet per day ("MMcf/d") and was put into production at a stable rate of 1.7 MMcf/d since June. Achieved average natural gas price of $7.73/Mcf and condensate price of $50.07/bbl during the three months ended September 30, 2018 as compared to $6.02/Mcf and $70.73/bbl for the comparative 2017 period. Production averaged 841 boe/d (97% weighted to natural gas and the remaining to condensate) for the three months ended September 30, 2018, which increased 5% from the 800 boe/d for the second quarter ended June 30, 2018. The increase was due to the success of the O-9 re-completion. On January 1, 2018, royalties on new wells drilled in Ukraine after January 1, 2018 were reduced to 12% from 29% for a minimum period of five years. On March 1, 2018, a new law was passed in Ukraine intended to simplify regulatory procedures for the oil and gas sector which should increase the speed and efficiency of approvals. The new Nitrogen Rejection Unit ("NRU") is nearing completion and is expected to be operational in 2019. However, due to continued construction delays, on November 19, 2018, the Company filed a claim with American Arbitration Association ("AAA"), seeking $0.3 million (plus interest and attorney fees) from the NRU manufacturer in contractual delay damages. The Company and its partner plan to start a three well exploration program at Uzhgorod in the first half of 2019, dependent on timing of permitting and weather conditions in the field. Financial Highlights The Company reported net income of $2.5 million during the nine months ended September 30, 2018 as compared to $0.9 million in the comparative 2017 period. Netbacks of $28.69/boe or $4.78/Mcfe for the three months ended September 30, 2018 as compared to netback of $23.50/Boe or $3.92/Mcfe for the comparative 2017. During the nine months ended September 30, 2018, the Company received $3.8 million in dividends from KUB Holdings as compared to $1.7 million in dividends in the comparative 2017 period. Subsequent to the nine months ended September 30, 2018, the Company received a further $1.8 million in dividends. The National Bank of Ukraine ("NBU") eased certain capital controls by allowing limited dividends. The Company expects to continue to repatriate dividends to the extent possible and allowed by the NBU, although there are no assurances the NBU will continue to ease restrictions indefinitely. The Company repaid $1.1 million of its loan to KUB-Gas during the nine months ended September 30, 2018 in conjunction with its maturity. (in thousands of US Dollars) Three Months Ended September 30, 2018 Three Months Ended September 30, 2017 Nine Months Ended September 30, 2018 Nine Months Ended September 30, 2017 Petroleum and natural gas revenue 50 - 68 24 Pro-rata petroleum and natural gas revenue(1) 3,698 3,270 10,479 10,676 Revenue from gas trading(2) 4,848 3,107 13,597 9,142 Net income 1,133 17 2,508 948 Income per share - basic and diluted 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.00 Funds generated from operations(3) 1,079 (456 ) 2,072 (1,102 ) Capital expenditures(5) 8 231 219 1,041 Pro-rata capital expenditures(5) 599 1,036 1,460 3,724 Pro-rata netback ($/boe) 28.69 23.50 27.22 24.29 Pro-rata netback ($Mcfe) 4.78 3.92 4.54 4.05 September 30, 2018 December 31, 2017 Working capital (deficit) (4,568) (478) Cash and cash equivalents 4,944 6,190 Long-term debt - 5,451 Notes: 1. Pro-rata petroleum and natural gas revenue is a non-IFRS measure that adds the Company's petroleum and natural gas revenue earned in the respective periods to the Company's 35% equity share of the KUB-Gas natural gas sales that the Company has an economic interest in. 2. During the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018, the Company recorded $4,848,000 (2017 - $3,105,000) and $13,597,000 (2017 - $9,142,000) in revenue for gas trading and $4,481,000 (2017 - $3,051,000) and 12,874,000 (2017 - $8,909,000) for the cost of the sales for a net profit from gas trading of $367,000 (2017 - $56,000) and $723,000 (2017 - $233,000), respectively. 3. Funds from operations is a non-IFRS measure and is defined as cash flow from operating activities, excluding changes in non-cash working capital. 4. Pro-rata funds from operations is a non-IFRS measure that adds the Company's funds from operations in the respective periods to the Company's 35% equity share of the KUB-Gas and 50% equity share of CNG Holdings funds from operations that the Company has an economic interest in. 5. Capital expenditures includes the purchase of property, plant and equipment and the purchase of exploration and evaluation assets. Pro-rata capital expenditures are a non-IFRS measure that adds the Company's capital expenditures in the respective periods to the Company's 35% equity share of the KUB-Gas and 50% equity share of CNG Holdings capital expenditures that the Company has an economic interest in. Outlook The Company expects KUB-Gas to complete additional recompletion operations given the success of the O-3 and O-9 recompletions and may drill one additional well in 2019. KUB-Gas is also planning a 3D seismic program on the WO Licence to delineate known structures found from 2D seismic. In western Ukraine, the Company is purchasing a new NRU with a goal of resuming production at the RK field which is estimated to be in 2019. Also, in western Ukraine, the Company and its partner plan to start a three well exploration program at Uzhgorod in the first half or 2019. Earlier this week, as a result of the Russian conflict, Ukraine's Parliament imposed martial law for 30 days (through December 27, 2018) in 10 Ukrainian regions in the interest of national security, which covers the Company's eastern Ukraine operations at KUB-Gas. Ukraine Ministry of Economic Development and Trade issued a statement that martial law does not impose any restrictions on economic activities and the NBU does not anticipate any interruption of banking operations. Supporting Documents Cub's complete quarterly reporting package, including the unaudited interim financial statements and associated Management's Discussion and Analysis, have been filed on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) and has been posted on the Company's website at www.cubenergyinc.com. About Cub Energy Inc. Cub Energy Inc. (TSX-V: KUB) is an upstream oil and gas company, with a proven track record of exploration and production cost efficiency in Ukraine. The Company's strategy is to implement western technology and capital, combined with local expertise and ownership, to increase value in its undeveloped land base, creating and further building a portfolio of producing oil and gas assets within a high pricing environment. For further information please contact us or visit our website: www.cubenergyinc.com Mikhail Afendikov Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (713) 677-0439 mikhail.afendikov@cubenergyinc.com Patrick McGrath Chief Financial Officer (713) 577-1948 patrick.mcgrath@cubenergyinc.com Oil and Gas Equivalents A barrel of oil equivalent ("boe") or units of natural gas equivalents ("Mcfe") is calculated using the conversion factor of 6 Mcf (thousand cubic feet) of natural gas being equivalent to one barrel of oil. A boe conversion ratio of 6 Mcf: 1 bbl (barrel) or a Mcfe conversion of 1bbl: 6 Mcf is, based on an energy equivalency conversion method primarily applicable at the burner tip and does not represent a value equivalency at the wellhead and is not based on either energy content or current prices. While the boe ratio is useful for comparative measures, it does not accurately reflect individual product values and might be misleading, particularly if used in isolation. As well, given that the value ratio, based on the current price of crude oil to natural gas, is significantly different from the 6:1 energy equivalency ratio, using a 6:1 conversion ratio may be misleading as an indication of value. The disclosure in this press release is prepared in accordance with NI 51-101 standards. Test results are not necessarily indicative of long-term performance or of ultimate recovery. The test data contained herein is considered preliminary until full pressure transient analysis is complete. Reader Advisory With the current cash resources, negative working capital, suspension of the RK field, uncertainty surrounding the successful installation of the NRU, dividend restrictions, currency fluctuations, reliance on a limited number of customers, and impact on carrying values, the Company may not have sufficient cash to continue the exploration and development activities. These matters raise significant doubt about the ability of the Company to continue as a going concern and meet its obligations as they become due. 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" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. Cub believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable; however there can be no assurance those expectations will prove to be correct. We cannot guarantee future results, performance or achievements. Consequently, there is no representation that the actual results achieved will be the same, in whole or in part, as those set out in the forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is 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 anticipated in the forward-looking information. Some of the risks and other factors that could cause the results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking information include, but are not limited to: general economic conditions in Ukraine, the Black Sea Region and globally; political unrest and security concerns in Ukraine including the recent introduction of Martial Law in the Company's operating regions,; industry conditions, including fluctuations in the prices of natural gas and foreign currency; governmental regulation of the natural gas industry, including environmental regulation; unanticipated operating events or performance which can reduce production or cause production to be shut in or delayed; failure to obtain industry partner and other fourth party consents and approvals, if and when required; competition for and/or inability to retain drilling rigs and other services; the availability of capital on acceptable terms; the need to obtain required approvals from regulatory authorities; stock market volatility; volatility in market prices for natural gas; liabilities inherent in natural gas operations; competition for, among other things, capital, acquisitions of reserves, undeveloped lands, skilled personnel and supplies; incorrect assessments of the value of acquisitions; geological, technical, drilling, processing and transportation problems; changes in tax laws and incentive programs relating to the natural gas industry; failure to realize the anticipated benefits of acquisitions and dispositions; and the other factors. Readers are cautioned that this list of risk factors should not be construed as exhaustive. This cautionary statement expressly qualifies the forward-looking information contained in this news release. We undertake no duty to update any of the forward-looking information to conform such information to actual results or to changes in our expectations except as otherwise required by applicable securities legislation. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE: Cub Energy Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/529190/Cub-Energy-Inc-Announces-Q3-2018-Financial-and-Operational-Results Company's New Guided Diuretic Therapy is in Development for the Optimization of Fluid Management for Patients with Heart Failure Reprieve Cardiovascular, a pioneering medical device company focused on improving outcomes for patients suffering from acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF), will be featured in major presentations at several upcoming prominent heart failure conferences. Reprieve-Guided Diuretic Therapy will be the subject of two presentations at ICI 2018, the Premier International Meeting for Innovation in Cardiovascular Systems, held December 2-4, 2018 in Tel Aviv, Israel. The company's technology will be featured in the conference Innovation Pavilion: Dr. Howard Levin, Chief Medical Officer, Reprieve Cardiovascular, will present "Optimizing Volume Removal in Diuretic-Resistant Patients," as part of the conference session Developing Technologies in Heart Failure Diagnosis and Management Jim Dillon, President and CEO, Reprieve Cardiovascular, will participate in the conference Technology Parade with the presentation of "Reprieve-Guided Controllable Diuresis for Acute Heart Failure Patients," an overview of the company's proposed therapy currently under investigation. Additionally, Professor Piotr Ponikowski, Professor of Cardiology at Wroclaw Medical University, 4th Military Hospital in Wroclaw, Poland, will present an update on the TARGET STUDY The Poland Experience, using Reprieve-Guided Diuretic Therapy at Device Therapies in Heart Failure (D-HF), an international conference that takes place December 14-15, 2018 in Frankfurt, Germany. Initial feasibility results of this study were presented at Heart Failure 2018 in May. The goal of the TARGET Study is to demonstrate the use of Reprieve Cardiovascular's Guided Diuretic Therapy to optimize fluid management in ADHF patients while alleviating related symptoms. "We continue to monitor the results from Professor Ponikowski's study, and look forward to his update at the upcoming Devices in Heart Failure conference in December," said Jim Dillon, President and CEO of Reprieve Cardiovascular. "Our Guided Diuretic Therapy has the potential to establish a new front-line standard of care for heart failure patients, allowing physicians to maximize fluid removal while protecting patients from the potential negative impact of excessive fluid loss when receiving diuretics. We look forward to continuing our discussions with leaders in this important field at both D-HF and at ICI in December." Reprieve Cardiovascular utilizes the RenalGuard platform, marketed by RenalGuard Solutions, Inc. For more information about Reprieve Cardiovascular and its Guided Diuretic Therapy, ICI and D-HF attendees are encouraged to visit the exhibits area at each conference. The Reprieve Cardiovascular management team will also be attending the 37th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, January 7 10, 2019 in San Francisco, Calif. About Reprieve Cardiovascular's Guided Diuretic Therapy Reprieve Cardiovascular's Guided Diuretic Therapy is designed to manage fluids during diuretic therapy for patients with Acute Decompensated Heart Failure (ADHF), and may relieve a number of symptoms related to this condition. The therapy has the potential to enable precise and predictable management of a patient's fluid levels, guarding against dangerous fluid imbalances and enabling better control over diuretic therapy, thus increasing the diuretic efficiency a patient experiences. Potential benefits include speeding decongestion while protecting core organ function, lessening of symptoms of CHF, such as shortness of breath, ascites, and swelling, reduced time in hospital, reduced readmission rates, and a better quality of life for the patient. About Reprieve Cardiovascular Reprieve Cardiovascular is a pioneering medical device company focused on innovative fluid management technologies for congestive heart failure. The company's Reprieve technology is being investigated as an innovative fluid management treatment. Providing clinicians with the ability to precisely control a patient's fluid volume may both enable improved cardiac care, as well as be instrumental in the decongestion of acutely decompensated heart failure patients (ADHF). Reprieve Cardiovascular, Inc. and RenalGuard Solutions, Inc. are subsidiaries of parent company CardioRenal Systems, Inc. For more information, visit www.reprievecardio.com and follow Reprieve Cardiovascular on Twitter at @ReprieveCardio. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181128005248/en/ Contacts: Jana Chow 925-324-9846 Jana@healthandcommerce.com JACKSONVILLE, Fl. / ACCESSWIRE / November XX, 2018 / ARC Group, Inc. (OTC: ARCK ), the owner, operator and franchisor of the Dick's Wings & Grill and Fat Patty's concepts, today announced that it will be presenting at the 11th Annual LD Micro Main Event on Thursday, December 6, 2018 at 8:30 AM PST at the Luxe Sunset Boulevard Hotel in Los Angeles, CA. Richard Akam, Chief Executive Officer, and Seenu Kasturi, President and Chief Financial Officer, will be presenting, as well as meeting with investors. 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 ARC Group, Inc. ARC Group, Inc., headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, is a holding company with a focus on the quick serve restaurant industry. ARC is the owner, operator and franchisor of Dick's Wings & Grill, a family-oriented restaurant chain with locations in Florida and Georgia. Now in its 23rd year of operation, Dick's Wings serves over 25,000 wings daily, and prides itself on its award-winning chicken wings, hog wings and duck wings spun in its signature sauces and seasonings. ARC operates four company-owned restaurants, three company-owned concession stands, and has 17 franchised locations. ARC also owns the Fat Patty's franchise, with four locations in West Virginia and Kentucky. Fat Patty's offers a number of specialty burgers and sandwiches, wings, appetizers, salads, wraps, and steak and chicken dinners in a family friendly, casual dining environment. 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: David Waldman / Natalya Rudman Crescendo Communications, LLC Tel: 212-671-1020 Email: arck@crescendo-ir.com Source: ARC Group, Inc. via LD Micro View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/529243/ARC-Group-Inc-To-Present-at-the-11th-Annual-LD-Micro-Main-Event CHICAGO, November 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the new market research "Polymer Binders Market by Type (Acrylic, Vinyl Acetate, and Latex), Form (Liquid, Powder, and High Solids), Application (Architectural Coatings, Adhesives & Sealants, Textile & Carpets, Paper & Board, and Construction Additives), and Region - Global Forecast to 2023", published by MarketsandMarkets, the Polymer Binders Market is projected to grow from USD 24.1 billion in 2018 to USD 35.0 billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 7.8% during the forecast period. The growth of the polymer binders market can be attributed to the rising per capita paint consumption in APAC and the global growth in the construction industry. In addition, the increased demand for technical textiles is expected to drive the demand for polymer binders, globally. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/660509/MarketsandMarkets_Logo.jpg ) Don't miss out on business opportunities in Polymer Binders Market. Speak to Our Analyst and gain crucial industry insights that will help your business grow. https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/speaktoanalystNew.asp?id=80334872 Browse in-depth TOC on"Polymer Binders Market" 69 - Tables 42 - Figures 152 - Pages View detailed Table of Content here - https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/polymer-binder-market-80334872.html The growing construction industry globally to drive the polymer binders market during the forecast period. Polymer binders are mainly used as mortar additives for the performance modifications of mortars. It is also used in paint & coating formulations. Growth in the construction industry drives the demand for architectural coatings and mortar which will have a positive impact on the growth of the polymer binders market. The global construction output will grow by 85% to reach USD 15.5 trillion by 2030. China, the US, and India, three major countries, are expected to contribute more than 50% to the overall growth of the construction industry due to economic growth in these economies. According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), based on the current growth rate of APAC, the region requires an investment of USD 1.7 trillion till 2030 for its infrastructure. This scenario is favorable for the growth of the polymer binders market. Vinyl acetate is projected to be the fastest-growing type segment of the polymer binders market. The vinyl acetate type segment of the Polymer Binders Market is projected to register a higher CAGR between 2018 and 2023. The growth of the vinyl acetate segment can be attributed to its excellent pigment binding capacity and excellent oil & grease and dust resistance. This polymer binder is efficient in terms of performance as compared to acrylic, owing to which vinyl acetate has high demand in the adhesives & sealants, carpet backing, and paper binding applications. Apart from these applications, it is also used in the architectural coatings, paper & board, and construction additives applications. Request for Free Sample Report @https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestsampleNew.asp?id=80334872 APAC to be the fastest-growing regional segment of the Polymer Binders Market. APAC is projected to be the fastest-growing polymer binders market. The growth of the APAC polymer binders market can be attributed to the presence of the largest textile producing countries, such as India, China, and South Korea. Additionally, the increasing demand for architectural coatings from the rapidly growing construction industry is expected to drive the APAC polymer binders market during the forecast period. Most active players in the Polymer Binders Market: BASF (Germany), DowDuPont (US), Celanese Corporation (US), Arkema (France), Wacker (Germany), Trinseo (US), Taogosei (Japan), Synthomer (UK), Dairen Chemical (Taiwan), and OMNOVA (US) are the leading players operating in the polymer binders market. This research report categorizes the polymer binders market based on type, form, application, and region. Based on type, the polymer binders market has been segmented into acrylic, vinyl acetate, latex, and others. Based on form, the market has been segmented into liquid, powder, and high solids. Based on application, the market has been segmented into architectural coatings, adhesives & sealants, textile & carpets, paper & board, and construction additives. Based on region, the polymer binders market has been segmented into North America, APAC, Europe, South America, and the Middle East & Africa. Browse Adjacent Markets @Specialty Chemicals Market Research Reports & Consulting Related Reports: Acrylic Emulsions Market by Type (Pure Acrylic, Polymer & Copolymer), Application (Paints & Coatings, Paper Coating, Construction Additives, Adhesives & Sealants), and Region - Global Forecast to 2022 Paints & Coatings Market by Resin (Acrylic, Alkyd, Epoxy, Polyurethane, Polyester), Technology (Water-Based, Solvent-Based, High Solids, Powder), Application (Architectural & Industrial), and Region - Global Forecasts to 2022 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/polymer-binder-market.asp Visit Our Website: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com DETROIT, November 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Stratview Research announces the launch of a new research report on Automotive Composite Liftgate Market by Vehicle Type (Hatchback, SUV, and Others), by Manufacturing Process Type (Compression Molding, and Injection Molding), and by Region (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the World), Trend, Forecast, Competitive Analysis, and Growth Opportunity: 2019-2024. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/660595/Stratview_Research_Logo.jpg ) This market report, from Stratview Research, studies composite liftgate market in the global automotive industry over the trend and forecast period of 2013 to 2018 and 2019 to 2024, respectively. The report provides detailed insights on the market dynamics to enable informed business decision making and growth strategy formulation based on the opportunities present in the market. Automotive Composite Liftgate Market: Research Highlights Liftgate is generally made of steel by auto OEMs themselves; however, with the advent of lightweight components, composites have been in limelight and have already become successful in making a remarkable presence in liftgate of vehicles. Composites play a vital role in contributing to weight reduction without compromising the strength and performance of the overall system. This is attracting tier players as well as raw material suppliers including resin, fiber, and coating suppliers, to tap the growing opportunity of composites in the automotive liftgate market. Composite liftgate is among the list of few automotive components that are experiencing staggering growth. Composite liftgate account for less than one-fifth of the overall liftgate market at present but forays huge growth potential in the coming years. Stringent regulations imposed by governments of many countries are putting pressure on the automakers to curb the overall vehicle weight to increase fuel efficiency or reduce carbon emissions. Liftgates could not escape itself from such regulations and experienced a significant change in the selection of materials over the period. As per Stratview Research, the automotive composite liftgate market is likely to experience excellent growth over the next five years to reach an estimated value of US$ 1,183.3 million in 2024. Increasing automotive production, increasing share of SUVs in the overall vehicle production, and increasing demand for lightweight liftgate over bulky metallic liftgate are some of the key factors proliferating the growth of the automotive composite liftgate market. Ford Motor Company, Nissan Motor Co. Ltd., BMW AG, Groupe Renault, Group PSA, and The Volvo Group are some of the major OEMs that have switched towards composite liftgate in some of their mass-selling vehicle models. Register here for a detailed TOC of the report The author of the report cited that hatchback is likely to remain the most dominant vehicle type segment over the next five years; however, SUV is likely to be the fastest-growing segment during the same period. Renault Clio and Megane; Peugeot 308 and 508; and BMW i3 are some key hatchback models that contain composite liftgate. As per the study, injection molding is expected to remain the most dominant manufacturing process over the next five years, whereas compression molding is likely to experience higher growth during the same period. Sheet molding compound (SMC) and long-fiber-reinforced thermoplastic (LFRT) compounds are the major types of composites being processed for fabricating composite liftgates. Register here for a free sample of the detailed report In terms of region, Europe is expected to remain the largest automotive composite liftgate market during the forecast period. European OEMs, such as Group PSA, Groupe Renault, and BMW AG, have been early movers in adopting composite liftgate, which led to the dominance of region in the global market. However, Asia-Pacific is likely to be the fastest-growing region in the market, driven by China. Major automotive composite liftgate manufacturers are Plastic Omnium Group, Magna International Inc. and Trinseo S.A. Development of lightweight composite liftgates, targeting untapped vehicle models, execution of mergers & acquisitions, and formation of long-term contracts with OEMs are the key strategies adopted by the major players to gain a competitive edge in the market. Report Features This report provides market intelligence in the most comprehensive way. The report structure has been kept such that it offers maximum business value. It provides critical insights on the market dynamics and will enable strategic decision making for the existing market players as well as those willing to enter the market. The following are the key features of the report: Market structure: Overview, industry life cycle analysis, supply chain analysis Market environment analysis: Growth drivers and constraints, Porter's five forces analysis, SWOT analysis Market trend and forecast analysis Market segment trend and forecast Competitive landscape and dynamics: Market share, product portfolio, product launches, etc. Attractive market segments and associated growth opportunities Emerging trends Strategic growth opportunities for the existing and new players Key success factors This report studies composite liftgate market in the global automotive industry and has segmented the market in three ways, keeping in mind the interest of all the stakeholders across the value chain. Following are the three ways in which the market is segmented: Automotive Composite Liftgate Market by Vehicle Type: Hatchback SUV Others Automotive Composite Liftgate Market by Manufacturing Process Type: Compression Molding Process Injection Molding Process Automotive Composite Liftgate Market by Region: North America (Country Analysis: The USA and Others) (Country Analysis: The and Others) Europe (Country Analysis: France , Germany , The UK, and Rest of Europe ) (Country Analysis: , , The UK, and Rest of ) Asia-Pacific (Country Analysis: China , Japan , and Rest of Asia-Pacific ) (Country Analysis: , , and Rest of ) Rest of the World (Country Analysis: Brazil and Others) Stratview Research has several high value market reports in the global automotive industry. Please refer to the following link to browse through our reports: Click Here for Other Reports from Stratview Research in the Automotive Industry Some of our other premium reports in the automotive industry: Automotive Liftgate Market by Vehicle Type, by Material Type, by Manufacturing Process Type, and by Region, Trend, Forecast, Competitive Analysis, and Growth Opportunity: 2018-2023 Automotive Engine Cover Market by Vehicle Type, by Material Type, by Manufacturing Process Type, and by Region, Trend, Forecast, Competitive Analysis, and Growth Opportunity: 2017-2022 About Stratview Research Stratview Research is a global market intelligence firm providing wide range of services including syndicated market reports, custom research and sourcing intelligence across industries, such as Advanced Materials, Aerospace & Defense, Automotive & Mass Transportation, Consumer Goods, Construction & Equipment, Electronics and Semiconductors, Energy & Utility, Healthcare & Life Sciences, and Oil & Gas. We have a strong team of industry veterans and analysts with an extensive experience in executing custom research projects for mid-sized to Fortune 500 companies, in the areas of Market Assessment, Opportunity Screening, Competitive Intelligence, Due Diligence, Target Screening, Market Entry Strategy, Go to Market Strategy, and Voice of Customer studies. Stratview Research is a trusted brand globally, providing high quality research and strategic insights that help companies worldwide in effective decision making. For enquiries, Contact: Stratview Research E-mail: sales@stratviewresearch.com Direct: +1-313-307-4176 Azim Premji, Chairman of Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT, BSE: 507685, NSE: WIPRO), a leading global information technology, consulting, and business process services company, today received the highest French civilian distinction, Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour), from the Ambassador of France to India, H.E. Alexandre Ziegler. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181128005432/en/ Azim Premji, Chairman of Wipro Limited receiving Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour) from the Ambassador of France to India, H.E. Alexandre Ziegler (Photo: Business Wire) Speaking on the occasion, Ambassador Ziegler said, "The award was bestowed on Azim Premji for 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." The Legion d'Honneur (the Legion of Honour), instituted in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte, is the highest civilian award given by the French Republic for outstanding service to France, regardless of the nationality of the recipients. The President of the French Republic is the Grand Master of the Order of the Legion of Honour. In his acceptance speech, Premji said, "I am extremely honored by the award bestowed on me. The vibrancy of the French democracy and its diversity is an inspiration to all across the world." Wipro's association with France spans over 15 years and the company enjoys a close relationship with several French organizations. Nearly 65% of Wipro's employees in France are locals. France is a key market for Wipro and the company is committed to continued investments there. About Wipro Limited Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT, BSE: 507685, NSE: WIPRO) is a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company. We harness the power of cognitive computing, hyper-automation, robotics, cloud, analytics and emerging technologies to help our clients adapt to the digital world and make them successful. A company recognized globally for its comprehensive portfolio of services, strong commitment to sustainability and good corporate citizenship, we have over 175,000 dedicated employees serving clients across six continents. Together, we discover ideas and connect the dots to build a better and a bold new future. Forward-looking and Cautionary Statements Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects are forward-looking statements, which involve a number of risks, and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in our earnings, revenue and profits, our ability to generate and manage growth, intense competition in IT services, our ability to maintain our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which we make strategic investments, withdrawal of fiscal governmental incentives, political instability, war, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, unauthorized use of our intellectual property, and general economic conditions affecting our business and industry. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. We may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. We do not undertake to update any forward-looking statement that may be made from time to time by us or on our behalf. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181128005432/en/ Contacts: Vipin Nair Wipro Limited vipin.nair1@wipro.com Officials get a first look at how the Redkite WAMI system can support their diverse ISR missions Logos Technologies announced today that it successfully demonstrated its Redkite wide-area motion imagery (WAMI) sensor to a large number of representatives from several Defence, Security, Law Enforcement, and Civilian agencies in The Netherlands in partnership with AEC Air Support BV at their Bosschenhoofd airfield. The flights mark the first time any European government officials have seen the lightweight WAMI system in operation. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181128005100/en/ Redkite Wide-Area Motion Imagery Pod on AEC Air Support's Stemme S-15 powered glider (Photo: Business Wire) Housed in a platform-agnostic pod, Redkite has been specifically designed to support a wide variety of defense, border security, public safety, and humanitarian assistance missions. At the AEC Air Support facility, Redkite was integrated onto a Stemme S-15 powered glider in combination with a Wescam MX-15 full motion video (FMV) turret camera, and the complete system was demonstrated for several days. "The opportunity to partner with such a highly respected company as AEC Air Support, and be able to demonstrate the Redkite WAMI system to so many representatives from different government agencies of The Netherlands was tremendous," said Alan Murdoch, VP of International Programs for Logos Technologies. "Briefing charts can communicate only so much information. For our guests to be able to see how small the Redkite sensor really is, how easy it is to integrate and operate, and how powerful WAMI can be in operation, was invaluable." Weighing less than 35 pounds (16kg) in the pod format, Redkite continuously images a city-sized area, or 12 square kilometers, in medium resolution, all at once. It automatically processes the images into an orthorectified, georegistered, time-referenced series of images (a "video"), which is refreshed twice a second. This allows WAMI operators to detect and track all significant movers in the entire scene. The Redkite system can record and archive up to 8 hours of imagery in the airborne sensor pod, as well as provide multiple WAMI operators on the ground immediate access to all imagery-allowing them to perform real time forensic analyses that can uncover previously unknown activities, relationships and/or locations of interest. Additionally, should an operator need a closer look at a specific location in real-time, Redkite can also semi-automatically task other sensors on the aircraft, such as the FMV turret camera, while continuing to maintain situational awareness of the whole area. "We are excited to work with Logos Technologies to bring their state-of-the art WAMI sensor capability to our customers here in Europe," said Michel Versteeg, CEO of AEC Air Support BV. "The Logos WAMI technology adds a tremendous complimentary capability to our company's portfolio." As part of its family of WAMI sensors, Logos Technologies also offers the Redkite-I, which has been specifically designed to integrate into the Insitu Integrator Group 3 UAS and has completed final flight testing with Insitu earlier this year. The Redkite series of WAMI sensors offers an unparalleled complimentary ISR capability to a wide diversity of users worldwide. About Logos Technologies Founded in 1996, Logos Technologies LLC is a diversified science, engineering, and technology company specializing in the fields of advanced sensors, wide-area motion imagery, advanced analytics, and processing of large, multisource datasets. Logos serves government customers, including the Department of Defense, Intelligence Community and Department of Homeland Security, as well as a range of customers in commercial and international markets. Learn more at www.logos-technologies.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181128005100/en/ Contacts: Media Contact for Logos Technologies: Susan Kerin Director of Communications skerin@logos-technologies.com +1 703-237-6550 NEW YORK, November 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Military Antennas Market Revenue Driven by Growth in the Global Defense Sector Sales of Military Antennas to Reach US$ 1 Billion by 2018 End The highly fragmented military antennas market is primarily driven by a growing thrust on military operations across the globe. There is an increasing dependency by the global military on advanced wireless technologies and this is anticipated to propel revenues in the global military antennas market, as per a new research study released by Persistence Market Research (PMR). The report forecasts a steady decadal growth rate of 4.9% for the military antennas market, with revenue slated to reach US$ 986.8 Mn by the end of 2018. PMR Recommends Manufacturers of Military Antennas to Target the Lucrative Markets in Asia The Asia Pacific region is witnessing significant growth in advanced military technology and rapid developments in defense infrastructure across key countries in the region. There is very high demand for technical capabilities in the military sector in Asia and this can present lucrative growth opportunities for manufacturers in the global military antennas market. The last few years have witnessed increasing spending in the defense sector in certain countries of Southeast Asia such as India, Singapore, and the Philippines. Increasing security concerns across Asia makes it an attractive option for manufacturers of defense equipment. This is propelling sales of military antennas across the region - providing immense revenue growth opportunities to key players in the global military antennas market. Request Sample Report @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/13372 Deployment of Unmanned Vehicles Trending the Global Military Antennas Market There has been a steady increase in the adoption of unmanned vehicles in the global military sector as well as in agricultural and disaster relief operations. Given the rapid advancements in military technology, unmanned vehicles are fast moving towards the fully autonomous type from the conventional manual controlled vehicles. This is boosting demand for and adoption of advanced unmanned vehicles, thereby fueling growth in sales of military antennas. Military antennas Market Research Report Overview @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/military-antenna-market.asp PMR throws light on the key factors responsible for growth in revenue of the global military antennas market. One of the chief drivers pushing sales of military antennas is the need for high quality communication solutions in the defense sector. Military communication systems need to highly secure and reliable and manufacturers of military equipment are focusing on providing technologically advanced and secure communication solutions to global military forces. Military antennas have evolved into advanced systems that facilitate seamless communication between military forces. A growing reliance by the military on advanced wireless technologies is further fueling revenues in the global military antennas market. Wireless military communication systems operate in all kinds of weather conditions and provide enhanced levels of security, allowing for safe dissemination of sensitive information. Governments are relying on advanced wireless communication technologies in the military sector and this is pushing revenues in the global military antennas market. Download and View Report TOC, Figures and Tables @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/methodology/13372 There is also a growing demand for satellite communication equipment to increase agility in military operations. PMR predicts swift growth in sales of military antennas on account of the rapid growth in satellite communication equipment. The military uses mobile command systems to operate in remote, hostile locations. There is a growing demand for solutions providing command and control capabilities that help military forces easily and securely gather military intelligence and disseminate information to the concerned authorities. This is driving demand for mobile command systems, in turn boosting adoption of military antennas. The integration of the Internet of Things (IoT) in military operations is another key growth driver for the global military antennas market. IoT is finding swift adoption in military operations, facilitating the deployment of robust, energy efficient, and powerful military communication devices. This growing adoption of IoT in military systems is boosting growth in sales of military antennas. Key Segmental Insights on the Military Antennas Market, as Forecasted by PMR Ultra high frequency military antennas are anticipated to witness high demand in the coming years Airborne platforms are projected to be the most attractive in the global military antennas market The application of military antennas for communication purposes is slated to soar in the coming years Get full Report Now @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/13372 More from PMR'sIndustrial Automation Market Intelligence: Stretch Wrap Machines Market : Segmentation By Product Type - Turntable, Rotary Arm, Robotic, Others; By Automation Level - Manual, Semiautomatic, Automatic; By End Users - Food & Beverage, Pharmaceutical, Consumer, Construction, Chemical, Automotive, Industrial: https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/stretch-wrap-machines-market.asp : Segmentation By Product Type - Turntable, Rotary Arm, Robotic, Others; By Automation Level - Manual, Semiautomatic, Automatic; By End Users - Food & Beverage, Pharmaceutical, Consumer, Construction, Chemical, Automotive, Industrial: https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/stretch-wrap-machines-market.asp Fastening Power Tools Market: segmentation By Product Type - Rebar Tier , Corrugated Fasteners, Nailer Machine, Screw System, Hog Ring tool, Stapler; By Technology - Electric, Corded, NiCd Cordless, NiMH Cordless, Li-on Cordless, Pneumatic; By Mode of Sales - Retailers, Distributors, Online; By End-use Application - Industrial, Construction, Woodworking & Framing, Household & DIY, Others: https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/fastening-power-tools-market.asp segmentation By Product Type - , Corrugated Fasteners, Nailer Machine, Screw System, Hog Ring tool, Stapler; By Technology - Electric, Corded, NiCd Cordless, NiMH Cordless, Li-on Cordless, Pneumatic; By Mode of Sales - Retailers, Distributors, Online; By End-use Application - Industrial, Construction, Woodworking & Framing, Household & DIY, Others: https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/fastening-power-tools-market.asp Vertical Lift Module Market: Segmentation: By Height - <10 mts, 10mts to 15mts, >15 mts; Bay Type - Interior Picking, External Picking; Delivery Type - Single Delivery Type, Dual Delivery Type; Per Tray Load Capacity - Upto 300 Kgs, 300 kgs to 500 kgs, >500 kgs; End Use - E Commerce, Automotive, Machinery and Heavy Equipment, Food & Beverages, Chemicals, Healthcare, Electronics & Semiconductors, Aviation, Others: https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/vertical-lift-module-market.asp Persistence Market Research Overview Persistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance. To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes. Contact Persistence Market Research U.S. Sales Office: 305 Broadway, 7th Floor New York City, NY 10007 +1-646-568-7751 United States USA - Canada Toll-Free: 800-961-0353 Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com PMR Latest News: https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/news Virgin Hyperloop One will be showcased at event centered on mobility innovations transforming the global future First of its kind interactive exhibit will demonstrate how it would feel to move people and goods at unprecedented levels of efficiency and speed in a hyperloop pod DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Virgin Hyperloop has been chosen by the U.S. Department of State to represent the United States in the first World's Fair to be held in the Middle East, Expo 2020. Billed as "a festival of human ingenuity," the event will highlight global innovations in the fields of opportunity, mobility, and sustainability - pillars that will usher in a new period of social and economic advancement in the region. The exhibit and experience design will be curated by Michigan-based George P. Johnson Experience Marketing . "Expo 2020 follows on a rich 150-year-old global tradition of World Expos that have had a significant positive impact on transformative technologies and global cultural symbols," said Jay Walder, CEO for Virgin Hyperloop One. "The Eiffel Tower, the Seattle Space Needle, the telephone, and the television were all former showcase items. However, Expos are not just about iconic buildings and innovations, but gatherings where nations come together to with the common goal of bringing innovation to the masses." The design plan for the U.S. Pavilion will be based on the theme "What Moves You" and will feature the power of technological innovation in mobility and diverse commercial opportunity throughout the United States with Virgin Hyperloop One as one of the core components. This particular part of the exhibit will feature pods that physically simulate how it would feel to ride a Virgin Hyperloop One system. This experience, the first its kind, will give participants the chance to interact with the pods which will resemble the ones that will be used in commercial operations. "We couldn't be more pleased to have California based Virgin Hyperloop One join the U.S. Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai as one of our flagship experiences," said Frederick Bush, Lead for Pavilion USA 2020. "During the next "world's fair," the United States will feature many of the ways we are leading the world in mobility innovation. This partnership will give millions their first glimpse into the emerging hyperloop industry and make all Americans proud of the role we continue playing in moving the world forward. I cannot think of a single technology more poised to change the world and no company better positioned to showcase it." In addition, DP World, the largest investor in Virgin Hyperloop One and third-largest port authority in the world, will be featured next to the U.S. Pavilion as the Expo's Premier World Trade Partner. They will build out an exhibit to feature DP World Cargospeed, the cargo brand under Virgin Hyperloop One. "Historically, cargo has always driven innovation in transportation and we see hyperloop technology as absolutely essential to the expanding market of on-demand, sustainable global shipping," said Sultan bin Sulayem, Chairman of DP World and Virgin Hyperloop One. "Having Virgin Hyperloop One featured as a prominent symbol of global innovation at Expo 2020 is thrilling for us since we are so invested in the company - not just financially, but as believers in their unique technology." Virgin Hyperloop One is active with projects in the Middle East, Europe, India, and in the United States of America. With a mission to create the first revolution in mass transportation in over a century, Virgin Hyperloop One will help these countries realize their social and economic visions of the future. TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / November 28, 2018 / Wi2Wi Corporation ("Wi2Wi" or the "Company"), a leading global developer and manufacturer of end to end Wireless Connectivity Solutions, high precision Frequency Control, Timing, and Microwave Filter devices announces that Mr. Francesco Ferlaino joining the board, election of Mr. Gary DuBroc as the chairman of the board and the resignation of Mr. Michael Pesner and Mr. Harry Bloomfield from the board of directors. Mr. Francesco (Frank) Ferlaino has been appointed to the Board of directors. Mr. Ferlaino is a retired executive from the cosmetic and personal care industry. Frank spent over 28 years with the L'Oreal group starting in 1977 and had various roles during that time. He began his L'Oreal career overseeing sales for the Consumer Products Division of L'Oreal Canada. In 1980, he was appointed as the General Manager of the Division then ultimately to CEO of L'Oreal Canada in 1996. During his tenure as CEO, he oversaw the acquisition and introduction of a number of new brands and restructured corporate manufacturing activities which along with increased sales and marketing efforts allowed L'Oreal Canada to become the leader in the Canadian cosmetic industry and one of the most profitable subsidiary of the L'Oreal Groupe. In late 2000, Frank accepted the role of President of L'Oreal Brazil with a clear mission to accelerate growth through internal and external activities. During his 4 years in Brazil, L'Oreal Brazil became a high profile subsidiary of the L'Oreal Group due to new brand launches, including La Roche, Vichy and Garnier and by further expanding its manufacturing activities. Prior to his time with the L'Oreal group, from 1975-1977 Frank was the Chief Financial Officer for Vanier UniverselleLtee., a private Canadian cosmetic company. Prior to his time at Vanier, he was a Corporate Credit officer for Scotia Bank. Frank holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Montreal and a MBA from the Bordeaux Ecole de Management. Currently, Frank is serving on the Board of Directors of Radient Technologies Inc. as the Chairman of the Board of Directors. 'The Company welcomes Mr. Francesco Ferlaino to the board of directors. The Board expresses its profound appreciation to Mr. Michael Pesner and Mr. Harry Bloomfield for their vision and business expertise they brought to the board of directors over the past several years and their help in the growth of the company.' said the Chairman of the Board Mr. Gary DuBroc. 'The Company thanks Mr. Bloomfield and Mr. Pesner for their guidance in growing the Company. We will continue to seek their advice and guidance in the future.' said Zachariah Mathews, the President and CEO of the Company. For further information, please contact: Dawn Leeder Chief Financial Officer 608 203 0234 dawn_l@wi2wi.com About IoT and M2M Essentially, IoT and M2M describe the network of physical objects or "things" embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity, which enables these objects to collect and exchange data. Driven by several factors including the growth in the availability of Broadband Internet, which reduces the cost of connecting, and the related increase in Wi-Fi capabilities as well as sensors built into myriad technologies, this has been described as the 'perfect storm' for the IoT. Almost any device with an on and off switch that can be connected to the Internet (and/or to each other) - anything from cell phones, coffee makers, washing machines, headphones, lamps, wearable devices, cars, as well as machine components in the engine of a jet airplane or the drill of an oil rig. According to analyst firm Gartner, by 2020 there will be over 26 billion connected devices. Others think this figure could be too conservative by a factor of four. About Wi2Wi Corporation Wi2Wi is a vertically-integrated technology company which designs, manufactures and markets high performance, low power wireless connectivity solutions, global navigation satellite system (GNSS) modules, and frequency control devices. The Company's products and services address numerous applications in the markets of Internet of Things (IoT), Machine to Machine (M2M), Avionics, Space, and Government Sponsored Projects. Wi2Wi's products and value-added services provide highly integrated, rugged, robust, and reliable multiprotocol wireless actuators with embedded software, along with customized timing and frequency control devices for customers, worldwide. The Company was founded in 2005 and is strategically headquartered in San Jose, California with satellite offices in Middleton, Wisconsin and Hyderabad, India. Wi2Wi's manufacturing operations, its laboratory for reliability and quality control, together with design and engineering for timing and frequency control devices are located in Middleton, WI. The branch office, located in Hyderabad, India, focuses on the development of wireless connectivity; both hardware and software. Wi2Wi's strategic objective is to service the unique needs of each customer by providing end to end wireless integration solutions and highly customizable timing and frequency control devices. Wi2Wi distinguishes itself from commodity grade products, with best in the market performance, highly reliable, low power wireless connectivity products with integrated software that supports broader temperature ranges and a longer product life cycle. Furthermore, Wi2Wi's end to end product solutions helps the customer substantially reduce their end product expense, certification cost, and overall R&D investment, in addition to substantially reducing the time to market. Wi2Wi has partnered with best in class global leaders in technology, manufacturing, and sales. The Company uses a wide network of manufacturer's representatives, worldwide, to promote its products and services, and has partnered with world class distributors for the fulfillment of orders along with direct sales. Forward-Looking Statements: This news release contains certain forward-looking statements, including management's assessment of future plans and operations, and the timing thereof, that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the Company's control. Such risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, risks associated with the ability to access sufficient capital, the impact of general economic conditions in Canada, the United States and overseas, industry conditions, stock market volatility. The Company's actual results, performance or achievements could differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these forward-looking statements and, accordingly, no assurances can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will transpire or occur, or if any of them do so, what benefits, including the amount of proceeds, that the Company will derive there from. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. Additional information on these and other factors that could affect the Company's operations and financial results are included in reports on file with Canadian securities regulatory authorities and may be accessed through the SEDAR website (www.sedar.com). Forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, estimates and opinions on the date the statements are made and the Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements and if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change, except as required by applicable law. All subsequent forward-looking statements, whether written or oral, attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. Furthermore, the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as at the date of this news release and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or to revise any of the included forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable securities 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. SOURCE: Wi2Wi Corporation View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/529195/Wi2Wi-Announces-the-Resignation-of-Messrs-Harry-JF-Bloomfield-and-Michael-Pesner-from-the-Board-of-Directors-and-Appointment-of-Mr-Francesco-Ferlaino-to-the-Board-of-Directors Seattle, Washington--(Newsfile Corp. - November 28, 2018) - CFN Media Group ("CFN Media"), the leading agency and financial media network dedicated to the North American cannabis industry, announces publication of an exclusive executive interview with Grown Rogue International Inc. (CSE: GRIN) Chief Strategy Officer Jacques Habra to discuss the company's approach to the legal cannabis market. The company went public on November 26, 2018, following its reverse takeover of Novicius Corp. on November 16. Grown Rogue is a premier vertically-integrated, multi-state brand specializing in "seed to experience" products, with an experienced management team, state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities, and a proprietary distribution platform featuring an exclusive partnership with Microsoft 365. Cannot view this video? Visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTuRcstnuP0 "We're very thankful to our team and shareholders who have supported our growth and helped us accomplish this major objective of becoming a publicly-traded company," said Co-Founder and CEO Obie Strickler. In this article, we will take a look at what sets Grown Rogue apart from the competition and why investors may want to consider the newly public stock. Unique Focus on Quality Grown Rogue has experienced tremendous growth over the past couple of years-but not by accident. The company has invested in becoming the highest-quality producer of cannabis in Oregon by partnering with academic research psychologists and plant scientists to quantify the effects of cannabis and match those to its branding strategy. The goal is to create an unparalleled experience for consumers that may not know where to start. A great example of this commitment to excellence is its ongoing research study. Customers can sign up to participate in anonymous surveys about their cannabis usage to assist in classifying cannabis strains. In exchange, customers receive a free pre-roll or 10 percent off their next flower purchase (up to $10.00) for each five surveys. The data is used to improve the company's products and ensure consumers get what they need. Strong Footprint in Oregon and Multi-State Obie and Sarah Strickler founded Grown Rogue back in 2016 after spending more than a decade in the medical cannabis space. With 90,000 sq. ft. of canopy across two outdoor farms and one state-of-the-art indoor facility, the company is licensed for 3,000 kilograms of annual production with a library of over 80 genetics. These attributes set it apart from many other smaller scale producers with limited IP portfolios. The company's growing line of premium products include premium flower, patent-pending nitrogen-sealed pre-rolls, unique concentrates, and cartridges that are designed to stand apart from the competition. In the near-term, the company plans to launch a new line of award-winning edibles produced with a world-renowned chocolatier. These products are already available in over 220 of Oregon's top dispensaries. Ambitious Expansion Plans Grown Rogue has recently focused its efforts on expanding into the neighboring California market. The company owns a 14,000 sq. ft. micro-business facility in Eureka, California and established a distribution partnership spanning San Francisco to Los Angeles. Management believes that the company's premium Oregon brands will translate well in the nascent California market, and eventually the Nevada market. "As we continue to expand into new states and regions, we will continue to maintain the core values of integrity and excellence in product development and community relations that have driven the company to success," said Chief Strategy Officer Jacques Habra. So far, this reputation has helped the company achieve a 27.6 percent month over month sales growth for fiscal 2018, or the year ending October 2018. Looking Ahead Grown Rogue International may be a newly public company, but it's brand has been established for many years. With existing revenue and ambitious expansion plans, investors have an opportunity to buy into one of the most established cannabis brands in the Western United States. The fully-integrated operations and multi-state footprint also provide significant economies of scale moving forward. Sign up to follow the latest Grown Rogue developments on the Investors page. Please follow the link to see the interview and read the full article: http://www.cannabisfn.com/cfn-media-exclusive-executive-interview-grown-rogue-goes-public/. About CFN Media CFN Media (CannabisFN) is the leading agency and financial media network dedicated to the global cannabis industry, helps companies operating in the space attract investors, capital, and publicity. Since 2013, private and public cannabis companies in the US and Canada have relied on CFN Media to grow and succeed. 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Please follow the link below to view our full disclosure outlining our compensation: http://www.cannabisfn.com/legal-disclaimer/ Frank Lane 206-369-7050 flane@cannabisfn.com Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 28, 2018) - Contact Gold Corp. (TSXV: C) (the "Company" or "Contact Gold") is pleased to report that exploration drill results from an additional 13 holes drilled along the margins of the West Zone discovery, have extended the strike length of the West Zone to 2.3 km at the Pony Creek gold property ("Pony Creek"). Pony Creek is located on the Carlin Trend in Elko County, Nevada, adjacent to Gold Standard Ventures' ("GSV") Railroad-Pinion Project. The Company announced the discovery of gold at the West Zone in August 2018. Drill Highlights - West Zone: 0.33 g/t oxide Au over 92.97 metres from surface including 0.6 g/t oxide Au over 13.7 metres in hole PC18-51 0.26 g/t oxide Au over 50.29 metres from surface in hole PC18-50 in hole PC18-50 0.31 g/t oxide Au over 39.62 metres from surface in hole PC18-49 in hole PC18-49 0.38 g/t oxide Au over 15.24 metres oxide from 71.63 metres, and 0.28 g/t oxide Au over 9.14 metres from 7.62 metres, in hole PC18-41 from 71.63 metres, and from 7.62 metres, in hole PC18-41 0.70 g/t oxide Au over 6.10 metres from surface in drill hole PC18-40 Additional assays are currently pending for three drill holes from the southeast edge of the Bowl Zone. "These additional drill holes, containing oxide gold mineralization extending from surface, at Contact Gold's new West Zone discovery further demonstrate the substantial and growing footprint of near-surface gold mineralization at Pony Creek. Drill hole PC18-051 is a clear example of this, returning a 90 meter intercept with a grade thickness value of 30 gram-meters from surface and cyanide versus fire assay recovery of 92%. As we continue to better understand the structural controls to mineralization, we will apply that knowledge to focus drilling on specific structural/stratigraphic contacts to vector into the higher grade portions of this very large, newly discovered Carlin-type gold system." stated Vance Spalding, VP Exploration for Contact Gold. West Zone Highlights 22 of 23 drill holes to date have intersected long runs of near surface and oxidized gold mineralization, with numerous individual assays ranging from 0.6 g/t Au to 1.1 g/t Au. Drill hole PC18-051 returned a 90 metre intercept beginning at surface with a grade thickness value of 30 gram-meters, and cyanide versus fire assay recovery of 92%. The West Zone currently measures 2.3 km north-south by 400 meters east-west as defined by 23 widely spaced drill tests, and remains completely open for expansion, particularly to the north and south. Average grades and metallurgy produced in this year's drill program continue to exceed cut off grades used at several economic mines in Nevada, including Kinross' Bald Mountain Mine (0.14 g/t Au). Gold mineralization at the West Zone is associated with a large, silicified, north-striking rib of Pennsylvanian-Permian aged calcareous conglomerate (the same host at GSV's North Dark Star deposit to the north of Pony Creek) and jasperoid formed in a calcareous sandstone with fossil hash limestone interbeds. Gold grades are enhanced where multiple cross cutting NW and NE striking faults intersect the North-South conglomerate ridge that lies within the north striking, Emigrant-Dark Star-Dixie-Pony Creek structural corridor. "The discovery of the West Zone is extremely exciting for Contact Gold, validates our targeting approach, and reinforces the potential of Pony Creek to host multiple, and large Carlin-type gold systems. These additional holes at the West Zone further demonstrate that Pony Creek has a growing footprint of near-surface gold mineralization." stated Matt Lennox-King, Contact Gold's President & CEO, "I look forward to testing the other high conviction, never-before-drilled targets the team has generated at Pony Creek, such as Moleen, and Elliott Dome, located between the West Zone and Gold Standard's Jasperoid Wash and Dixie targets." For a map of the Pony Creek target areas and drill collar locations, please click: http://www.contactgold.com/_resources/news/Pony-Creek-Plan-Map-20181128.jpg For a table of all 2018 West Zone drill intervals, please click: http://www.contactgold.com/projects/pony-creek/ For a detailed plan map of the West Zone, please click: http://www.contactgold.com/_resources/news/West-Zone-November2018.jpg Table of 2018 West Zone Drill Results: Area Drill Hole From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Au (g/t) West Zone PC18-36 22.86 27.43 4.57 0.20 West Zone PC18-37 10.67 15.24 4.57 0.16 West Zone PC18-38 3.05 13.72 10.67 0.24 19.81 22.86 3.05 0.26 West Zone PC18-39 No reportable Intercepts West Zone PC18-40 7.62 13.72 6.10 0.70 70.10 73.15 3.05 0.23 92.97 96.00 3.05 0.14 West Zone PC18-41 27.43 36.58 9.14 0.28 47.42 54.86 7.62 0.17 71.63 86.87 15.24 0.38 94.49 97.54 3.05 0.37 123.45 126.49 3.05 0.27 West Zone PC18-42 3.05 6.10 3.05 0.21 West Zone PC18-43 9.14 18.29 9.14 0.35 51.82 56.39 4.57 0.19 74.68 79.25 4.57 0.17 86.87 89.92 3.05 0.20 108.21 111.25 3.05 0.16 118.87 121.92 3.05 0.24 West Zone PC18-44 228.60 231.65 3.05 0.18 West Zone PC18-48 0.00 27.43 27.43 0.20 West Zone PC18-49 1.52 41.15 39.62 0.31 51.82 56.39 4.57 0.55 West Zone PC18-50 0.00 50.29 50.29 0.26 117.35 120.40 3.05 0.14 West Zone PC18-51 0.00 92.97 92.97 0.33 including 16.76 30.48 13.72 0.60 Pony Creek is an early stage exploration property and does not contain any mineral resource estimates as defined by National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"). There has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource estimate at Pony Creek. It is uncertain if further exploration will result in targets at Pony Creek being delineated as a mineral resource. There are no assurances that the geological similarities to projects mentioned herein operated by GSV or Kinross Gold, or other project along the Carlin Trend, will result in the establishment of any resource estimates at any of the Company's property interests including Pony Creek, or that the Pony Creek can be advanced in a similar timeframe. Additional information about Pony Creek is summarized in the NI 43-101 Technical Report entitled "NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Pony Creek Project, Elko County, Nevada, USA" prepared for Contact Gold, with an effective date of October 16, 2018, and dated October 22, 2018, as prepared by Vance Spalding, C.P.G; VP Exploration of Contact Gold, and can be viewed under Contact Gold's issuer profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. The scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Vance Spalding, CPG, VP Exploration, Contact Gold, who is a "qualified person" within the meaning of NI 43-101. Drill intercepts were calculated using a minimum thickness of 3.05 metres averaging 0.14 ppm gold and allowing inclusion of up to 4.57 metres of material averaging less than 0.14 ppm gold for low grade intervals and higher grade intervals were calculated using a minimum thickness of 3.05 metres averaging 1.00 ppm gold and allowing inclusion of up to 4.57 metres of assays averaging less than 1.00 ppm gold. Gravimetric assays are used for all Fire Assays above 4.00 ppm gold. True width of drilled mineralization is unknown, but owing to the apparent flat lying nature of mineralization, is estimated to generally be at least 70% of drilled thickness Quality Assurance / Quality Control consists of regular insertion of certified reference standards, blanks, and duplicates. All failures are followed up and resolved whenever possible with additional investigation whenever such an event occurs. Multi element geochemical assays are completed on composites using the MEMS 61 method. All assays are completed at ALS Chemex; an ISO 17025:2005 accredited lab. Check assays are completed at a second, reputable assay lab after the program is complete. About Contact Gold Corp. Contact Gold is an exploration company focused on producing district scale gold discoveries in Nevada. Contact Gold's extensive land holdings are on the prolific Carlin, Independence and Northern Nevada Rift gold trends which host numerous gold deposits and mines. Contact Gold's land position comprises approximately 212 km2 of target rich mineral tenure hosting numerous known gold occurrences, ranging from early- to advanced-exploration and resource definition stage. Additional information about the Company is available at www.contactgold.com. For more information, please contact: +1 (604) 416-0576 John Glanville - Director Investor Relations Chris Pennimpede - Corporate Development E-mail: info@ContactGold.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 of this release. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as "expects", or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", "budget", "scheduled", "forecasts", "estimates", "believes" or "intends" or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results "may" or "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. In this news release, forward-looking statements relate, among other things, to the anticipated exploration activities of the Company on the Pony Creek property. These forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions and estimates of management of the Company at the time such statements were made. Actual future results may differ materially as forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to materially differ from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors, among other things, include; business integration risks; fluctuations in general macroeconomic conditions; fluctuations in securities markets; fluctuations in spot and forward prices of gold, silver, base metals or certain other commodities; fluctuations in currency markets (such as the Canadian dollar to United States dollar exchange rate); change in national and local government, legislation, taxation, controls, regulations and political or economic developments; risks and hazards associated with the business of mineral exploration, development and mining (including environmental hazards, industrial accidents, unusual or unexpected formations pressures, cave-ins and flooding); inability to obtain adequate insurance to cover risks and hazards; the presence of laws and regulations that may impose restrictions on mining; employee relations; relationships with and claims by local communities and indigenous populations; availability of increasing costs associated with mining inputs and labour; the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development (including the risks of obtaining necessary licenses, permits and approvals from government authorities); and title to properties. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management of the Company believes, or believed at the time, to be reasonable assumptions, the Company cannot assure shareholders that actual results will be consistent with such forward-looking statements, as there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release. The Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 28, 2018) -AXMIN Inc. (TSXV: AXM) ("AXMIN" or the "Company") announces its financial and operating results for the three months ended September 30, 2018. All amounts included in this news release are in United States dollars Highlights During the three months ended September 30, 2018, the Company reported royalty income of $147,488 from Gora Projects, compared with $273,516 for the same time period of 2017. The net income for the three months ended September 30, 2018 was $310,826 compared to $206,789 in the same period of 2017. LIQUIDITY AND CAPITAL RESOURCES At September 30, 2018 the Company had cash on deposit in the amount of $2,250,907, accounts and other receivables of $153,047, and prepaid expenses of $2,105. Royalty income receivable of $147,487 has been received subsequent to the period ended September 30, 2018. Net assets increased to $777,226 at September 30, 2018 compared to negative $1,215,536 at December 31, 2017. OUTLOOK The Company is very pleased with the progress made to strengthen the balance sheet by settling the long-standing accounts payable. AXMIN is looking forward to becoming operational again in the Central African Republic (CAR) as soon as conditions allow. RESIGNATION OF CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Ms Jin Kuang has tendered her resignation and Mr David de Jongh Weill has been appointed as the Chief Financial Officer effective from November 15, 2018. In addition to having already served as Chief Financial Officer of a listed public company, Mr Weill has served as Chairman of 4 companies listed in Toronto, London and Sydney. Mr Weill commented, 'It is a privilege to serve AXMIN as Chief Financial Officer at this exciting time as we are making the requisite preparations to become operational again in the CAR. I believe that the duly elected government has laid a strong foundation for peace and stability in the country and that it is now only a question of time for our Company to be back on site and operational once more at the Passendro asset.' About AXMIN AXMIN is a Canadian exploration and development company with a strong focus on the African continent. AXMIN continues to closely monitor the political situation at its Feasibility Stage Passendro Gold Project in the Central African Republic. For more information regarding AXMIN visit our website at www.axmininc.com. For additional information, please contact AXMIN Inc.: Lucy Yan Chairman and CEO ceo@axmininc.com AXMIN Inc. General Enquiries David de Jongh Weill Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary dweill@patrimoine.asia +65 9781 8281 Investor Relations ir@axmininc.com www.axmininc.com This press release includes certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All information, other than statements of historical fact included herein, including without limitation, information regarding the future option grant plans and objectives of AXMIN, are forward-looking information that involves various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from AXMIN's expectations have been disclosed under the heading "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in AXMIN's documents filed from time-to-time with the TSX Venture Exchange and other regulatory authorities. AXMIN disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information whether resulting from new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc / Index: AIM / Epic: EOG / Sector: Oil & Gas 28 November 2018 Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc ('Europa' or 'the Company') Update on Wressle, North Lincolnshire Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc, the UK and Ireland focused oil and gas exploration, development and production company, notes today's update from Egdon Resources ('Egdon') that its application for planning consent for the development of the Wressle oil field on PEDL 180 in the East Midlands ('the Application') was refused at today's meeting of the North Lincolnshire Council Planning Committee ('the Committee'). The application had been recommended for approval by North Lincolnshire County Council's planning officers. Egdon, with the full support of its partners, intend to appeal the decision without delay and will begin preparing the appeal documentation on receipt of the Committee's decision notice. Europa has a 30% working interest in Wressle alongside Egdon (operator, 30%), Union Jack Oil (27.5%), and Humber Oil & Gas Limited (12.5%) ('the Joint Venture partners'). Europa's CEO, Hugh Mackay, said: "Located in the heart of the East Midlands Petroleum province, recommended for development by the Council's own Planning Officer as well as independent consultants, and with the potential to generate meaningful production revenues for Europa, we believe the case for bringing the Wressle discovery into production is strong. We therefore fully support the operator's continued efforts to advance Wressle, starting with the preparation of the appeal documentation as soon as possible." Egdon's RNS published today is as follows: Egdon Resources plc (AIM:EDR) advises that its application for planning consent for the Wressle Development was refused at today's meeting of the North Lincolnshire Council Planning Committee ("the Committee"). The application had been recommended for approval by North Lincolnshire County Council's planning officers. Mark Abbott, Managing Director of Egdon Resources plc, said: "The decision of the Committee, whilst not entirely unexpected, is nonetheless disappointing given that the application had been recommended for approval by North Lincolnshire Council's own professional planning officer who had the benefit of a positive assessment by specialist independent technical consultants. We agree with the conclusion of the planning officer and the independent consultants and strongly believe the new application for the development of the Wressle oil field fully and comprehensively addresses the reasons for the refusal of the original planning applications and the subsequent appeals and therefore intend to appeal this decision without delay. We will begin preparing the appeal documentation on receipt of the Committee's decision notice." Planning history: On 11 January 2017, North Lincolnshire Council refused planning consent for the original application for the development of the Wressle Oil Field at Lodge Farm, Wressle, North Lincolnshire. On 7 February 2017, Egdon announced that it would both appeal the decision of 11 January 2017 and in parallel submit a new Planning Application for the Wressle development which would include even more detailed information to address the specific concerns outlined by North Lincolnshire Council in their refusal. On 11 April 2017, Egdon submitted an appeal against North Lincolnshire Council's decision to refuse planning consent. On 28 April 2017, Egdon submitted a new application for the Wressle Development including additional detailed information to address the specific concerns raised by North Lincolnshire Council in its 11 January 2017 decision to refuse the original application for the development of the Wressle Oil Field. On 19 May 2017, Egdon announced the issue by the Environment Agency of the variation to the Mining Waste Permit for the planned Wressle field development and associated operations. On 3 July 2017, the new planning application was also refused. The variation of the existing planning for the site requesting a twelve month extension was also refused at the same meeting. During November 2017, a planning inquiry was held to consider the two appeals for development approval and the appeal of the variation of the existing planning for the site. On 5 January 2018, we announced that the Inspector had rejected the appeals by Egdon against the two planning refusals by North Lincolnshire County Council's Planning Committee. However, the Planning Inspectorate did uphold Egdon's appeal against the decision to refuse the application to retain the existing planning for the well site, which is was retained until the 28 April 2018. A new application to extend the current planning consent was submitted on 13 April 2018 and refused 1 August 2018 and the company announced its intention to appeal the decision On 5 July we announced the submission to North Lincolnshire Council of a new planning application for the development of the Wressle oil field. The information communicated in this announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014. * * ENDS * * For further information please visit www.europaoil.com or contact: Hugh Mackay Europa + 44 (0) 20 7224 3770 Phil Greenhalgh Europa + 44 (0) 20 7224 3770 Matt Goode finnCap Ltd + 44 (0) 20 7220 0500 Simon Hicks finnCap Ltd + 44 (0) 20 7220 0500 Frank Buhagiar St Brides Partners Ltd + 44 (0) 20 7236 1177 Susie Geliher St Brides Partners Ltd + 44 (0) 20 7236 1177 Notes Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc has a diversified portfolio of multi-stage hydrocarbon assets that includes production, exploration and development interests, in countries that are politically stable, have transparent licensing processes, and offer attractive terms. In 2018 Europa produced 94 boepd. Its highly prospective exploration projects include the Wressle development in the UK (targeting production start-up in 2019 at 500 bopd gross) and six licences offshore Ireland with the potential to host gross mean un-risked prospective resources of 6.2 billion barrels oil equivalent and 2.5 tcf undiscovered GIIP across all six licences. SpendEdge, a well-known procurement intelligence solution provider, has announced the completion of their price fluctuation analysis for a pharma industry client. The client is a leader in the pharmaceutical industry, with an annual revenue of over USD 40 billion. Headquartered in San Francisco city, the company is a pioneer in developing and producing drugs and vaccines for a broad range of medical disciplines. With the rising uncertainty over the ever-escalating prices of pharmaceutical products, the pharma client wanted to leverage price fluctuation analysis to keep abreast of the pharmaceutical industry trends in terms of pricing. Moreover, they wanted to discover suitable pricing strategies and identify the potential factors that could be affected by the variations in pricing. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181128005515/en/ Price fluctuation analysis for a pharma industry client (Graphic: Business Wire) Businesses must steadily assess price fluctuations to maximize profit levels while keeping development strategies in check. The volatility in prices has boosted the need for adequate price fluctuation techniques to analyze pricing structures, as pricing is the key to improve profitability. Request a free demo see for yourself why we're the preferred partner for leading Fortune 500 companies when it comes to price fluctuation analysis and procurement intelligence. According to the procurement experts at SpendEdge, "Price fluctuation assessment helps businesses improve their pricing decisions. The price fluctuation assessment offered by SpendEdge's experts helped the pharma industry client redesign their business system by improving their pricing strategies. This helped them identify the possible factors that could be affected by the changes in pricing. This subsequently helped them discover suitable pricing strategies and supported them keep abreast of the pharmaceutical industry trends in terms of pricing. Moreover, with the price fluctuation assessment, the client improved pricing decisions across the pharma industry. To know more about the complete scope of this engagement and the real benefits of price fluctuation analysis for businesses, request a proposal SpendEdge's price fluctuation analysis strategies helped the client to: Devise a price simulator that allowed them to set future prices based on distributor segment, discounts, price, and other variables Establish a centralized and consistent approach to the ongoing setting and managed distributor pricing To know more about the price fluctuation analysis strategies followed by different firms, Talk to an analyst The price fluctuation engagement also offered predictive insights on: Improving pricing decision across the pharma industry Identifying current pricing trends and rebuilding their market position Read the complete article to know more: https://www.spendedge.com/casestudy/price-fluctuation-assessment-helped-pharmaceutical-industry Are you interested in purchasing procurement reports? Our subscription platform, SpendEdge Insights, provides ready-to-use procurement market research reports for multiple categories. Now access latest supplier news, innovation landscape, markets insights, supplier tracking, and much more at the click of a button. Start your 7-day FREE trial now About SpendEdge: SpendEdge shares your passion for driving sourcing and procurement excellence. We are the preferred procurement market intelligence partner for 120+ Fortune 500 firms and other leading companies across numerous industries. Our strength lies in delivering robust, real-time procurement market intelligence reports and solutions. To know more, https://www.spendedge.com/request-free-proposal View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181128005515/en/ Contacts: SpendEdge Anirban Choudhury Marketing Manager US: +1 630 984 7340 UK: +44 148 459 9299 https://www.spendedge.com/contact-us SOITEC REPORTS FIRST HALF RESULTS OF FY'19 Growth in sales: up 36% at constant exchange rates and perimeter [1] to 186.9m Current operating income up 85% to 41.6m Electronics EBITDA[2] margin[3] up to 32.8% of sales from 24.4% in H1'18 Net profit up 41% to 32.6m Positive Electronics net operating cash flow of 8.1m Electronics capex at 65.2m in line with expected FY'19 capex of approximately 120m 150m convertible bonds (2023 OCEANEs) issued at zero coupon FY'19 guidance unchanged: sales growth expected above 35% at constant exchange rates and perimeter1 and Electronics EBITDA2 margin3 expected around 30% Bernin (Grenoble), France, November 28th, 2018 - Soitec (Euronext Paris), a world leader in designing and manufacturing innovative semiconductor materials, today announced its first-half results for the fiscal year 2019 (period ended on September 30th, 2018). The financial statements[4] were approved by the Board of Directors during its meeting today. Paul Boudre, Soitec's CEO, commented: "We achieved strong revenue growth and further increase in profitability during the first half of the year, in line with our full-year guidance. Positive operating cash-flow and a timely convertible bonds issue allowed us to finance a high level of capital expenditure, repay our credit lines and end up the semester with a strong cash position. In the second part of the year, we will carry on with the ongoing capacity investments that are being conducted at our existing production sites, both in France and in Singapore. These investments are key to support customer demand and they reflect our confidence in our growth prospects as evidenced by the confirmed adoption of RF-SOI and FD-SOI by our customers. In the meantime, we are working on turning the acquisition of Dolphin Integration assets into an effective strategic opportunity to accelerate FD-SOI adoption in major market segments by packaging a full IP and service offering to support chip design on FD-SOI dedicated to energy efficient solutions," added Paul Boudre. Strong revenue growth and significant improvement in operating profitability As previously reported, Soitec's refocus on Electronics operations decided in January 2015 was nearly completed on March 31, 2016. Consequently, the H1'19 residual income and expenses relating to Solar and Other activities are reported under 'Net result from discontinued operations', below the 'Operating income' line, meaning that down to the line 'Net result after tax from continuing operations', the Company consolidated income statement fully and exclusively reflects the Electronics activity as well as the Company's corporate functions expenses. This was already the case in H1'18 financial statements. Consolidated income statement (part 1) (Euros millions) H1'19 H1'18 % change Sales 186.9 143.0 +31% Gross profit 66.1 46.3 +43% As a % of sales 35.4% 32.4% Research and development expenses (8.3) (9.5) -13% Selling, general and administrative expenses (16.2) (14.2) +14% Current operating income 41.6 22.5 +85% As a % of sales 22.2% 15.8% EBITDA1 (continuing operations) 61.4 34.9 +76% As a % of sales 32.8% 24.4% The Company uses financial hedging instruments in order to hedge foreign exchange risk. End of March 2017, Soitec decided to apply the hedge accounting under IFRS for the hedging campaign the Company implemented for its flows related to FY'18 and FY'19 sales. The amounts recognized in H1'19 result, after deferred taxes, are a decrease of 8.4 million Euros in Other items of comprehensive income, and an increase of 1.8 million Euros in sales. For the full-year of FY'19, US-dollar-denominated sales have been hedged at an average rate 1.20 US$ for 1 Euro. Consolidated sales for the first half of FY'19 came to 186.9 million Euros, a 31% increase (+36% at constant exchange rates and perimeter1), compared with the previous fiscal year: 200-mm wafer sales reached 102.0 million Euros (55% of sales), recording further steady growth (up 13% at constant exchange rates and perimeter 1 ); this growth reflects higher volumes thanks to outsourced production and a more favorable product mix. It was supported by the sustained demand for radiofrequency (RF-SOI) and power electronics applications (Power-SOI) in the mobile and automotive markets. 300-mm wafer sales amounted to 80.6 million Euros (43% of sales); 300-mm sales were the main driver of Soitec's total revenue growth as they went up 87% at constant exchange rates and perimeter 1 . This results from higher volumes, but also, to a lesser extent, from a more favorable product mix. By product type, the sales increase essentially reflects a very strong surge in both FD-SOI and RF-SOI 300-mm wafers; sales of Imager-SOI and Photonics-SOI were both lower than in the first half of FY'18, whilst sales of legacy PD-SOI products came a bit higher. Total Royalties and other revenues stood at 4.3 million Euros (2% of sales) compared with 4.2 million Euros in the first half of FY'18. This reflects a 21% decrease at constant exchange rates and perimeter1 attributable to lower revenues from royalties and intellectual property. Such decrease was offset by the first consolidation of revenues generated by Frec|n|sys and that of Dolphin Integration assets which were respectively acquired by Soitec in October 2017 and August 2018. Gross profit reached 66.1 million Euros (or 35.4% of revenues) in the first half of FY'19, up from 46.3 million Euros (or 33.4% of revenues) in the first half of FY'18. This is mainly due to higher sales which led to a better absorption of production costs despite unfavorable forex impact, higher bulk material prices and higher expenses incurred by the restart of Singapore facility. Indeed, Bernin I plant (200-mm wafers), which is running at full capacity, benefited from greater productivity due to a better mix with higher value-added products. In the meantime, the level of capacity utilization at the Bernin II facility (300-mm wafers) has continued to increase from an average of slightly above 30% in the first half of FY'18 to an average of nearly 60% in the first half of FY'19, thanks to significant volume increase in both FD-SOI and RF-SOI 300-mm wafers. Bernin II gross margin also benefitted from a more favourable product mix. Net R&D expenses decreased from 9.5 million Euros in the first half of FY'18 to 8.3 million Euros in the first half of FY'19. Gross R&D costs increased from 22.3 million Euros to 24.0 million Euros. The level of subsidies and research tax credits received increased from 9.1 million Euros to 10.1 million Euros. Prototype sales increased from 3.7 million Euros to 5.6 million Euros. Selling, general and administrative expenses (SG&A) increased from 14.2 million Euros in the first half of FY'18 to 16.2 million Euros in the first half of FY'19, mainly as a result of a moderate increase in expenses as well as of charges related to the share incentive plan implemented for all staff. As a percentage of sales, SG&A expenses went down from 10.0% in the first half of FY'18 to 8.7% in the first half of FY'19. Current operating income increased by 85% to 41.6 million Euros i.e. 22.2% of sales compared to 15.8% of sales in the first half of FY'18. In the meantime, Soitec's total headcount went from 950 at the end of September 2017 to 1 200 at the end of September 2018, including 80 new staff in Singapore. In addition, another 155 people were included in the Group's headcount in August 2018 as a result of the acquisition of Dolphin Integration assets. The EBITDA2 from the continuing operations (Electronics) increased by 76% to 61.4 million Euros, or 32.8% of sales. This compares with an EBITDA2 of 34.9 million Euros, or 24.4% of sales in the first half of FY'18. Sharp increase in net profit despite lower financial result and higher income tax Consolidated income statement (part 2) (Euros millions) H1'19 H1'18 % change Current operating income 41.6 22.5 +85% Other operating income and expenses (0.0) (0.1) Operating income 41.6 22.5 +85% Net financial result (0.4) 4.5 Income tax (5.2) (2.6) Net profit from continuing operations 35.9 24.4 +47% Net profit / (loss) from discontinued operations (3.3) (1.2) Net profit 32.6 23.2 +41% The Company recorded no other operating income or expenses. As a result, the operating income was equal to the current operating income, at 41.6 million Euros, also up 85% compared to the first half of FY'18. Net financial result came to a loss of 0.4 million Euros compared to a net income of 4.5 million Euros in the first half of FY'18 which was including a 4.6 million Euros financial income resulting from the early repayment of a guarantee cash deposit related to Touwsrivier solar power plant bonds. It should be noted that the 150 million Euros which have been raised in June 2018 through issuing a new OCEANE bear no interest and that all credit lines except for those related to research and job competitiveness (CICE) tax credit receivables have been fully redeemed. Income tax increased to 5.2 million Euros compared to 2.6 million Euros in the first half of FY'18. Soitec therefore recorded a net profit from continuing operations of 35.9 million Euros in the first half of FY'19, compared with a net profit of 24.4 million Euros in the first half of FY'18. The net result from discontinued operations includes the residual income and expenses related to the Solar activities. It represents a net loss of 3.3 million Euros that essentially reflects the decline of the South African currency against the Euro. This compares with a net loss from discontinued operations of 1.2 million Euros in the first half of FY'18. As a result, the consolidated net profit for the first half of FY'19 amounted to 32.6 million Euros, up 41% compared with a net profit of 23.2 million Euros recorded in the first half of FY'18. Strong EBITDA2 from continuing operations translates into positive net cash generation from operating activities H1'19 consolidated cash-flows (Euros millions) Continuing operations Discontinued operations Total Net profit 35.9 (3.3) 32.6 Depreciation and amortization 10.6 10.6 Other items[5] 14.9 1.8 16.7 EBITDA2 61.4 (1.5) 59.9 R&D redeemable advance reversal to income 0.2 0.2 Change in working capital (53.5) 1.1 (52.4) Net cash generated by / (used in) operating activities 8.1 (0.4) 7.7 Net cash generated by / (used in) investing activities (64.9) 0.0 (64.9) Net proceeds from 2023 OCEANEs issued 147.6 147.6 Debt cost and repayment (including finance leases) (38.5) (38.5) Net financial (charges) / income 0.0 0.1 0.1 Net cash generated by / (used in) financing activities 109.1 0.1 109.2 Impact of exchange rate fluctuations 2.6 - 2.6 Net change in cash 54.9 (0.3) 54.6 Depreciation and amortization relating to the continuing operations amounted to 10.6 million Euros in the first half of FY'19. Taking into account other items totaling 14.9 million Euros that include in particular share-based payment for 8.5 million Euros and income tax for 5.2 million Euros, the EBITDA2 from the continuing operations (Electronics) stands at 61.4 million Euros, or 32.8% of sales. The change in working capital from continuing operations was negative by 53.5 million Euros. This is a reflection of the higher level of activity, including an increase in inventories and in trade receivables. As a result, net cash generated by continuing operating activities reached 8.1 million Euros in the first half of FY'19. A net amount of cash of 64.9 million Euros was used in investing activities related to the continuing operations. Such amount reflects capital expenditure carried out to start bringing Bernin I capacity from 900,000 to 950,000 wafers (200-mm); to extend the FD-SOI capacity from 100,000 to 350,000 wafers and to conduct ongoing capital expenditure in Bernin II; to continue the installation of the FD-SOI pilot line and start adding refresh and epitaxy in Singapore; as well as 0.2 million Euros cashed out in connection with the acquisition of Dolphin Integration assets. Net cash generated by financing activities related to the continuing operations amounted to 109.1 million Euros. This is essentially resulting from net proceeds of 147.6 million Euros raised through a new convertible bond issue (2023 OCEANEs) partly offset by the repayment of credit lines for an amount of 29.8 million Euros as well as the reimbursement of a factoring credit line for 6.9 million Euros. Taking into account a positive foreign exchange impact of 2.6 million Euros, the net generation of cash related to continuing operations amounted to 54.9 million Euros. Net cash used in the first half of FY'19 by discontinued operating activities reached 0.3 million Euros. In total, Soitec's cash position has increased by 54.6 million Euros during the first half of FY'19. Solid financial position Soitec's shareholders' equity increased by 49.8 million Euros over the first half of FY'19. This is mainly explained by the 32.6 million Euros increase in retained earnings thanks to the net profit generated during the period as well as by 20.4 million Euros recognized as equity out of the 150 million Euros 2023 OCEANEs issued. The capital increase related to share-based payments amounted to 8.5 million Euros. On the other hand, the revaluation of the fair value of hedge instruments translated into a decrease of 12.6 million Euros. Financial debt increased by 115.2 million Euros during the first half of FY'19 (from 78.3 to 193.5 million Euros). Out of the 150 million Euros 2023 OCEANEs issued, 128.3 million Euros (net of issuing costs, and including financial interest) were recognized as debt. In the meantime, 29.8 million Euros of credit lines have been redeemed during the period. Finance lease increased by 5.5 million Euros. With the first-time application of IFRS 16, 4.4 million Euros lease debt was also recognized. In addition, the put option granted to MBDA related to its 40% interest in Dolphin Design - the entity that acquired Dolphin Design assets, which is 60% held by Soitec - constituted a debt valued at 7.7 million Euros. Cash and cash equivalents reached 174.6 million Euros on September 30th, 2018 compared to 120.0 million Euros on March 31st, 2018. The net debt position[6] consequently ended at 18.9 million Euros on September 30th, 2018 compared to a net cash position6 of 41.7 million Euros on March 31st, 2018. Recent industry developments confirm FD-SOI and 300-mm RF-SOI momentum Over the past few months, new developments were achieved in the adoption of FD-SOI technology: Arm and Samsung Foundry announced in June the industry's first embedded MRAM (eMRAM) compiler, which will be built on Samsung Foundry's 28FDS FD-SOI process technology. In July, GlobalFoundries announced that its 22nm FD-SOI (22FDX) technology has delivered more than two billion dollars of "client design win" revenue, representing more than 50 total client designs. In September, Blink, specialized in home security systems and now part of Amazon, announced that they just taped out a new chip on Samsung's 28FDS FD-SOI technology. Samsung also revealed in September that they have just taped out their first 5G mmWave cellular chip on 28FDS. GlobalFoundries recent AI design win includes a low-power 22-nm FD-SOI accelerator for neural networking taped out by Synaptics. In November, Renesas announced an innovative energy-harvesting embedded controller that overcomes the energy constraints of IoT devices by eliminating the need to use or replace batteries. Developed on Renesas' breakthrough SOTB (silicon-on-thin-buried-oxide) process technology, the new embedded 65nm ultra low power energy harvesting chipset is using a special version of FD-SOI wafer product line. In the meantime, new milestones were reached in the ramp-up of RF-SOI 300-mm technology: In June, TowerJazz announced a ramp for its RF-SOI 65nm process in its 300-mm Japanese production site. This announcement was supported by the signing of an agreement with Soitec guaranteeing the supply of tens of thousands RF-SOI 300-mm wafers. In September GlobalFoundries announced that its mobile-optimized 8SW 300-mm RF-SOI technology platform has been qualified and entered in production. GlobalFoundries has indicated that several of its clients were currently engaged for this RF-SOI 300-mm process, tailored to accommodate aggressive LTE and Sub-6 GHz standards for front-end module applications, including 5G IoT, mobile device and wireless communications, while Soitec is a key partner to GlobalFoundries, providing high volumes of RF-SOI wafers. FY'19 outlook Soitec confirms that FY'19 sales are expected to grow by more than 35% at constant exchange rates and perimeter1. Sustained demand is expected in RF-SOI (200-mm) and Power-SOI (200-mm) leading Bernin I production site to continue operating at full capacity, whereas Soitec will continue to marginally benefit from outsourced capacity. In the meantime, Soitec's 300-mm business is expected to continue to grow further in the second half of FY'19 thanks in particular to further increase in FD-SOI and in 300-mm RF-SOI wafer sales. Consequently, Soitec continues to expect its Bernin II production site to reach a capacity utilization rate close to 100% towards the end of FY'19 or the beginning of FY'20. Soitec is also confirming that its FY'19 Electronics EBITDA2 margin3 is expected to reach around 30%. Operating profitability will continue to benefit from the strong operating performance of Bernin I production site, whereas the higher utilization rate foreseen at Bernin II production site will translate into a higher operating leverage. However, as expected, the Singapore fab will generate higher operating expenses whilst sales will still be marginal. In the second half of FY'19, Soitec will carry on its ongoing investment plan, confirming that capital expenditure will reach approximately 120 million Euros in FY'19: Soitec will continue with its plan to increase by 50,000 wafers (200-mm) the annual capacity of Bernin I in order to reach 950,000 wafers and achieve some process optimization. At Bernin II, preparatory works will start in relation with an extension of the existing building with a view to subsequently bring total capacity from 650,000 to 800,000 wafers (300-mm) per year. In Singapore, investments will continue to be dedicated to the completion of the installation of FD-SOI pilot line as well as to adding some refresh and epitaxy capacities. These investments are part of the plan to reopen the plant with a view to potentially reach a production capacity of 800,000 wafers per year (300-mm) in order to support long-term demand for FD-SOI and RF-SOI 300-mm wafers. As previously indicated, the gradual roll out of the capacity investments will be triggered by customer commitments. Finally, following the announcement in August of the acquisition of Dolphin Integration assets through a dedicated entity called Dolphin Design that is 60% owned by Soitec and 40% owned by MBDA, Soitec will be supporting the plan to turn Dolphin Design into a leading provider of energy efficient semiconductor design and silicon IP solutions and SoC (System-On-Chip) for low power applications. Meanwhile, Soitec will be benefitting from Dolphin Design's skillset to provide a full IP and service offering related to energy efficient solutions for chip design on FD-SOI, which is expected to be a key accelerator of FD-SOI adoption in major market segments. As a first step, Dolphin Integration announced in October the qualification of the first wave of Power Management IPs on GF's 22nm FD-SOI (22FDX) process technology, which will help to accelerate and secure the cost-effective design of energy-efficient SoCs. Disclaimer This document was prepared by Soitec (the "Company") on November 28th, 2018 in connection with the announcement of the first half of fiscal year 2018-2019 ("FY'19") results. This document is provided for information purposes only. It is public information only. The Company's business operations and financial position is described in the Company's Document de Reference 2017-2018 registered by the Autorite des marches financiers (the "AMF") on June18th, 2018 under visa D.18-0586 (the "Document de Reference") and in the Company's FY'19 half-year report. Copies of the Document de Reference are available in French and English languages through the Company and may as well be consulted on the AMF's website ( www.amf-france.org ). The Document de Reference and of the FY'19 half-year report can also be downloaded on the Company's website (www.soitec.com). Your attention is drawn to the risk factors described in Chapter 4 of the Document de Reference. The document contains summary information and should be read in conjunction with the Document de Reference and the FY'19 half-year report. In the event of a discrepancy between this document and the Document de Reference or the FY'19 half-year report, the Document de Reference or, as the case may be, the FY'19 half-year report, shall prevail. The information contained in this document has not been independently verified. No representation, warranty or undertaking, express or implied, is made as to, and you may not rely on, the fairness, accuracy, completeness or correctness of the information and opinions contained in this document. The information contained in this document is provided only as of the date hereof. Neither the Company, nor its shareholders or any of their respective subsidiaries, advisors or representatives, accept any responsibility or liability whatsoever for any loss arising from the use of this document or its contents or in connection whatsoever with this document. This document contains certain forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements relate to the Company's future prospects, developments and strategy and are based on analyses of earnings forecasts and estimates of amounts not yet determinable. By their nature, forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties as they relate to future events and are dependent on circumstances that may or may not materialize in the future. Forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of the Company's future performance. The Company's actual financial position, results and cash flows, as well as the trends in the sector in which the Company operates may differ materially from those contained in this document. Furthermore, even if the Company's financial position, results, cash-flows and the developments in the sector in which the Company operates were to conform to the forward-looking statements contained in this document, such elements cannot be construed as a reliable indication of the Company's future results or developments. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update or make any correction to any forward-looking statement in order to reflect an event or circumstance that may occur after the date of this document. In addition, the occurrence of any of the risks described in Chapter 4 of the Document de Reference may have an impact on these forward-looking statements. This document does not constitute or form part of an offer or a solicitation to purchase, subscribe for, or sell the Company's securities in any country whatsoever. This document, or any part thereof, shall not form the basis of, or be relied upon in connection with, any contract, commitment or investment decision. Notably, this document does not constitute an offer or solicitation to purchase, subscribe for, or sell securities in the United States. Securities may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an exemption from the registration under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"). The Company's shares have not been and will not be registered under the Securities Act. Neither the Company nor any other person intends to conduct a public offering of the Company's securities in the United States. Agenda Q3'19 sales are due to be published on January 21st, 2019 after market close. About Soitec Soitec (Euronext, Tech 40 Paris) is a world leader in designing and manufacturing innovative semiconductor materials. The company uses its unique technologies and semiconductor expertise to serve the electronics markets. With more than 3,000 patents worldwide, Soitec's strategy is based on disruptive innovation to answer its customers' needs for high performance, energy efficiency and cost competitiveness. Soitec has manufacturing facilities, R&D centers and offices in Europe, the U.S. and Asia. Soitec and Smart Cut are registered trademarks of Soitec. For more information, please visit www.soitec.com (http://www.soitec.com) and follow us on Twitter: @Soitec_EN Investor Relations: Steve Babureck +33 6 16 38 56 27 +1 858 519 6230 steve.babureck@soitec.com (mailto:steve.babureck@soitec.com) Media Contact: Erin Berard +33 6 80 36 53 40 erin.berard@soitec.com (mailto:erin.berard@soitec.com) Isabelle Laurent +33 1 53 32 61 51 isabelle.laurent@ddbfinancial.fr (mailto:isabelle.laurent@ddbfinancial.fr) Fabrice Baron +33 1 53 32 61 27 fabrice.baron@ddbfinancial.fr (mailto:fabrice.baron@ddbfinancial.fr) # # # Soitec is a French joint-stock corporation with a Board of Directors (Societe Anonyme a Conseil d'administration) with a share capital of 62,762,070.50, having its registered office located at Parc Technologique des Fontaines - Chemin des Franques - 38190 Bernin (France), and registered with the Grenoble Trade and Companies Register under number 384 711 909. # # # Consolidated financial statements for H1'19 Consolidated income statement H1'19 H1'18 (Euro Millions) (ended Sept. 30, 2018) (ended Sept. 30, 2017) Sales 186.9 143.0 Cost of sales (120.8) (96.7) Gross profit 66.1 46.3 Sales and marketing expenses (4.2) (3.5) Research and development expenses (8.3) (9.5) General and administrative expenses (12.0) (10.7) Current operating income 41.6 22.5 Other operating income / (expenses) (0.0) (0.1) Operating income 41.6 22.5 Financial income 1.2 6.0 Financial expenses (1.6) (1.5) Financial income / (expense) (0.4) 4.5 Profit before tax 41.2 27.0 Income tax (5.2) (2.6) Net profit from continuing operations 35.9 24.4 Net profit / (loss) from discontinued operations (3.3) (1.2) Consolidated net profit 32.6 23.2 Non-controlling interests - - Net profit, Group share 32.6 23.2 Balance sheet at September 30, 2018 Assets Sept. 30, 2018 March 31, 2018 (Euro Millions) Non-current assets: Total intangible assets 27.2 8.2 Property, plant and equipment 204.3 134.3 Non-current financial assets 9.1 9.1 Other non-current assets 49.2 44.9 Deferred tax assets 17.6 19.0 Total non-current assets 307.4 215.5 Current assets: Inventories 59.2 40.0 Trade receivables 90.8 56.8 Other current assets 12.1 10.7 Current financial assets 2.9 12.8 Cash and cash equivalents 174.6 120.0 Total current assets 339.5 240.2 Assets held for sale and related to discontinued operations 18.1 24.0 Total assets 665.0 479.7 Equity and liabilities Sept. 30, 2018 March 31, 2018 (Euro Millions) Equity: Share capital 62.8 62.8 Share premium 61.2 61.2 Treasury shares (0.4) (0.4) Retained earnings 203.6 148.7 Other reserves 1.2 6.3 Equity, Group Share 328.4 278.6 Total consolidated equity 328.4 278.6 Non-current liabilities: Long-term financial debt 174.9 59.6 Provisions and other non-current liabilities 15.0 11.4 Total non-current liabilities 189.9 71.1 Current liabilities: Short-term financial debt 18.6 18.6 Trade payables 48.8 42.4 Provisions and other current liabilities 70.0 56.8 Total current liabilities 137.4 117.8 Liabilities related to discontinued operations 9.3 12.2 Total equity and liabilities 665.0 479.7 Consolidated cash-flows H1'19 H1'18 (Euros millions) (ended Sept. 30, 2018) (ended Sept.30, 2017) Consolidated net profit / (loss) 32.6 23.2 of which continuing operations 35.9 24.4 Depreciation and amortization expenses 10.6 9.3 Provisions, net (0.1) 0.9 Provisions for retirement benefit obligations 0.5 0.4 Income on assets disposals 0.0 0.0 Income tax (credit) / expense 5.2 2.6 Financial (income) / expense 0.4 (4.5) Share-based payments 8.5 1.8 IFRS 15 first-time application 0.4 - Non-cash items related to discontinued operations 1.9 (0.9) EBITDA1 59.9 32.8 of which continuing operations 61.4 34.9 R&D redeemable advance reversal to income 0.2 0.3 Increase / (decrease) in cash relating to: Inventories (19.6) (0.7) Trade receivables (28.4) (1.0) Other receivables (5.4) (2.6) Trade payables 5.7 (13.2) Other liabilities (5.9) (11.8) Change in working capital requirement on discontinued operations 1.1 0.0 Change in working capital (52.4) (29.3) of which continuing operations (53.5) (29.3) Net cash generated by / (used in) operating activities 7.7 3.8 of which continuing operations 8.1 5.9 H1'19 H1'18 (Euro Millions) (ended Sept. 30, 2018) (ended Sept.30, 2017) Net cash generated by / (used in) operating activities 7.7 3.8 of which continuing operations 8.1 5.9 Purchases of intangible assets (9.8) (0.8) Purchases of property, plant and equipment (56.3) (9.5) Proceeds from sales of intangible assets and property, plant and equipment 0.9 0.0 Acquisition of a subsidiary, net of cash acquired 1.8 - (Acquisitions) and disposals of financial assets (1.5) 8.0 Flows from (investing) / divestment activities on discontinued operations 0.0 0.4 Net cash generated by / (used in) investing activities (64.9) (1.9) of which continuing operations (64.9) (2.3) Proceeds from shareholders: capital increases and exercise of stock options - 0.0 Net proceeds from 2023 OCEANE bonds issued 147.6 0.0 Repayment of borrowings (including finance leases) (38.5) (9.6) Interest received 0.3 0.5 Interest paid (0.3) (1.3) Financing flows related to discontinued operations 0.1 1.2 Net cash generated by / (used in) financing activities 109.2 (9.1) of which continuing operations 109.1 (10.3) Effects of exchange rate fluctuations 2.6 (3.0) Change in net cash 54.6 (10.2) of which continuing operations 54.9 (9.6) Cash at beginning of the period 120.0 109.3 Cash at end of the period 174.6 99.1 [1] At constant exchange rates and comparable scope of consolidation; scope effects relate to the acquisitions of Frec|n|sys in October 2017 and Dolphin Integration assets in August 2018, both included in the segment Royalties and other revenues. [2] The EBITDA represents the current operating income (EBIT) before depreciation, amortization, non-monetary items related to share-based payments, and changes in provisions on current assets and provisions for risks and contingencies, excluding income on asset disposals. The impact in equity of the first time application of IFRS 15 is included in EBITDA. This alternative indicator of performance is a non-IFRS quantitative measure used to measure the company's ability to generate cash from its operating activities. EBITDA is not defined by an IFRS standard and must not be considered an alternative to any other financial indicator. [3] Electronics EBITDA margin = EBITDA from continuing operations / Sales. 4 The consolidated accounts and the half year accounts have been audited and the certification reports are in process. [5] See detail page 15; Other items include other non-cash items (provisions), income on asset disposals, income tax, financial result, share-based payments and first time application of IFRS 15. [6] The net cash position represents Cash and cash equivalents less financial debts. Net debt represents financial debts less cash and cash equivalents. Download the press release in PDF (http://hugin.info/143589/R/2227221/874334.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: SOITEC via Globenewswire PARIS, November 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Government of Japan has hosted a business roundtable in Paris with French and Japanese business leaders, entrepreneurs and innovators to discuss the opportunities for French startups to take advantage of Japan's evolving startup ecosystem and changing corporate innovation environment. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/790959/Government_of_Japan_Logo.jpg ) (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/790960/J_Startup_Logo.jpg ) (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/790961/Japan_France_business_start_up_roundtable.jpg ) (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/790962/Joanna_Kirk.jpg ) Titled "Open for Business: Taking Advantage of Japan's Growth Opportunities," the event was supported by the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) Paris and held in collaboration with Tech In France. The engaging roundtable discussion was moderated by journalist Christine Colmont, and featured Ren Ito, Chief Executive Officer of Mercari Europe; Kei Shimada, Director of Innovation and Leader of Digital Makers Lab, IBM Japan; and Joanna Kirk, co-founder of Startup Sesame, one of the largest alliances of Tech events in Europe. More than a dozen entrepreneurs and leaders from France's startup scene joined the conversation with their counterparts from Japan. The group discussed how Japan's startups are evolving and corporations are striving to strengthen their ecosystem for increasingly global collaboration, as well as how French startups can take advantage of the changing business climate in Japan. As the world's third largest economy, Japan has focused on strengthening innovation ecosystems to incorporate external dynamism beyond its borders. The business-friendly Abenomics policy initiative has developed a more effective regulatory environment for corporate transformation and startup support. This year, the Government of Japan also launched the startup support program named J-Startup, aiming to promote overseas development of Japanese startups and creation of unicorns. As demonstrated by the success of Mercari, a J-Startup company, Japan's startup scene is changing. Open innovation has been accelerated across the globe and IBM Japan, a J-Startup supporter company, is also taking actual steps by building a collaborative innovation ecosystem to supercharge the growth of global startups by matching their innovative products with IBM assets such as cognitive, analytics and cloud services, to cater to the needs of clients around the globe. The J-Startup program not only incubates globally competitive startups, but also invites and supports inbound startups and entrepreneurs. It aligns with the cooperative commitment to support startups signed in July 2018 between the Japanese and French governments. Ren Ito, Chief executive Officer, Mercari Europe, comments: "When Mercari was founded there was no large consumer to consumer market, so our approach was to create this new market and identify our core users. Working in partnership with these new markets and being part of an ecosystem where businesses could easily collaborate supercharged our growth. Our customers now spend as muchtime on our app as they do on social media, so we've become not just being a transaction site but also a social network where we add unique value to the consumer journey." Kei Shimada, Director of Innovation, Leader of Digital Makers Lab, IBM Japan, comments:"In addition to our highly successful accelerator IBM BlueHub, which is a partner in the J-Startup initiative, IBM Japan's newest innovation arm called Digital Makers Lab is now igniting a startup collaboration program, eyeing a holistic partnership with accelerators, venture capital firms and universities from around the globe to co-create new solutions for our clients. As France has a head start in nurturing startups that have global competitiveness, we look forwards to exploring opportunities that will mutually benefit clients in both countries as well as its startups." Joanna Kirk, Co-founder of Startup Sesame, Managing Director of StartHer and Chapter lead at Techfugees France, says: "The French start-up ecosystem is incredibly exciting. Paris has put itself on the map when it comes to startups and innovation, which is partly due to a change of mindset from French entrepreneurs and the business community and the many initiatives put in place by public organisations and the tech community. There is a real opportunity for increased business partnerships between French and Japanese startups, especially by building communities to coordinate key strengths and better understand new audiences and markets." The Government of Japan continues to transform its market into a high-quality business environment to meet the needs of worldwide businesses by providing world-leading, high-value business environment that enables companies to expand and thrive. The country is generating new and exciting opportunities in an economy that is aligning its regulations with those of other advanced economies to enable seamless transition for companies ready to expand into new growth markets. Please click here to learn more about the Government of Japan. Opening of the Advanced Perception Lab to strengthen BALYO's technological lead in robotic solutions for unpredictable environments Dr. Nizar Ouarti, a researcher in motion perception at the Sorbonne and the Pierre and Marie Curie University, has joined BALYO to oversee research in this field Singapore: a strategic location in the heart of the world's connected mobility ecosystem Regulatory News: BALYO (Paris:BALYO)(FR0013258399, Ticker: BALYO, eligible for the PEA-PME plan), a technological leader in the design and development of innovative robotic solutions for material handling trucks, announces today the launch in Singapore of the Advanced Perception Lab, a research lab dedicated to bolstering BALYO's technological lead in the field of robotic perception for unpredictable environments, and the hiring of Dr. Nizar Ouarti who will be responsible for the research strategy in this field. Fabien Bardinet, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, stated: "Thanks to the Advanced Perception Lab, BALYO will bolster its technological lead. Its location in the heart of a unique hub specialized in 3D perception, next to international leaders in autonomous connected mobility is a key advantage. It will ensure the integration of the latest robotic perception technology developments into our solutions, thereby significantly improving the safety of complex warehousing operations and the productivity of our customers' operations. Opening of the Advanced Perception Lab to strengthen BALYO's technological lead in robotic solutions for unpredictable environments BALYO's robotic solutions enable the autonomous, optimized navigation of trucks in diverse industrial environments thanks to the company's unique geoguidance navigation technology, with no added infrastructure required. BALYO's core technology is based on an algorithm that instantaneously calculates the robot's position using the data collected from a navigation laser. Over recent years, BALYO has acquired unique experience from the deployment of its technologies and a large number of robots. When combined with this unique localization technology for closed environments, 3D vision and perception techniques allow the robotic trucks to recognize objects and avoid obstacles. These features, based on a new generation of 3D sensors and BALYO's unique expertise that relies on an image-processing algorithm, provide the robots with even greater performance. 3D perception also improves "smart" safety by boosting the robots' ability to recognize the type of pallets. Additionally, this process a true breakthrough for the future enables the navigation of robots in environments that are increasingly unpredictable. The goal of the Advanced Perception Lab, BALYO's new ground-breaking lab, is to explore further technological development that may be possible in this field to constantly improve the operational performance of its robotic solutions. Singapore: a strategic location in the heart of the world's connected mobility ecosystem Singapore is often called a "smart city" as it is renowned for its leadership in cutting-edge technologies. In particular, it is considered one of the major hubs for robotics across the planet. This expertise is based on a dense network of academics and private operators. In recent years, Singapore has seen the emergence of many innovative projects, such as Dassault Systemes' 3D city modeling and the presence of NuTonomy, a company specialized in driverless vehicles, which results from a technology transfer from MIT acquired by the automotive supplier Delphi. In terms of academia, two Singaporean universities (NUS and NTU) are regularly ranked amongst the world's Top 20 most advanced in technology. Dr. Nizar Ouarti, a researcher in motion perception at the Sorbonne and the Pierre and Marie Curie University, has joined BALYO to oversee research in this field Dr. Nizar Ouarti is a renowned international researcher in the field of visual perception. He defended his doctoral thesis on this topic at the College de France. After a number of years at the French Institute for Intelligent Systems and Robotics (ISIR), a joint UPMC-CNRS multidisciplinary research center, Dr. Nizar Ouarti worked on the development of an autonomous robot to navigate inside trains in Singapore in partnership with the National University of Singapore (NUS). At BALYO, Dr. Nizar Ouarti will be responsible for research in the field of 3D perception and the management of related academic theses in Singapore. These theses will be supervised in partnership with Singaporean universities and state institutions as well as French universities and labs. Dr. Nizar Ouarti stated, "It is an honor to join BALYO, the leader in innovative robotic solutions for material handling trucks. The worldwide deployment of these trucks in the warehouses and factories of major industry leaders offers a unique opportunity for me to contribute my scientific expertise in visual perception, which I have acquired through my scientific and operational work. I am familiar with all of the stakeholders, both in academia and industry, in the world of connected autonomous mobility, which will help me productively head the Advanced Perception Lab in Singapore and ensure it is a key driver in the development of BALYO's cutting-edge technology. ABOUT BALYO BALYO transforms standard forklift trucks into standalone intelligent robots thanks to its breakthrough proprietary Driven by Balyo technology. The geoguidance navigation system developed by BALYO allows vehicles equipped with the system to locate their position and navigate autonomously inside buildings. Within the automated handling vehicle market, BALYO has entered into two strategic agreements with Kion Group AG (Linde Material Handling's parent company) and Hyster-Yale Group, two major operators in the material handling sector. BALYO is present in three major geographic regions (Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific). Its sales revenue reached 16.4 million in 2017. For more information, please visit our website at www.balyo.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181128005573/en/ Contacts: BALYO Stanislas Piot Financial Director investors@balyo.com NewCap Financial Communication and Investor Relations Louis-Victor Delouvrier/Thomas Grojean Tel: +33 1 44 71 98 53 balyo@newcap.eu LUXEMBOURG, Nov 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Millicom, a leading provider of cable and mobile services that operates under the TIGO brand in Latin America, recently commissioned a study about its socio-economic impact in the countries where the company has a presence. The study, which was conducted by Copenhagen Economics, showed that the company has invested over US$ 3.7 billion in Central and South America from 2014 to 2017, which represents 4.4% of the combined direct foreign investment in those countries(1). Today, TIGO operations are deeply integrated in the economies, leading to a $5 billion contribution to Central and South America's combined GDP and $0.9 billion in taxes in 2017, which corresponds to the annual salary of 115,000 teachers in public schools in the region. What's more, it was evidenced in the study that for each direct job, TIGO generates 10 indirect jobs in the region. "We have invested in bringing connectivity and technology to emerging markets in Latin America for more than 25 years", said Rachel Samren, EVP Chief External Affairs Officer at Millicom. "A study like this one really illustrates the tremendous overall positive impact we have, beyond our business, in helping drive socio-economic growth in the countries where we operate". "One of the big data points that derived from the study has to do with how Millicom is promoting the development of the communities", said Christian Jervelund, partner at Copenhagen Economics. "It is bringing new technology to urban and remote areas that connects users and promotes economic growth. At the same time, it outsources a great deal of labor intensive work to be carried out by local contractors, which creates economic activity and ripple effects through the entire economy". Also related to the development of local communities is Millicom's corporate responsibility program. Only in 2017, TIGO operations devoted $9 million to social impact projects, an amount that was allocated to digitally connect more than 1,000 schools, train more than 50,000 women in the use of technology, and to benefit one million kids, teachers, parents, and entrepreneurs with education and technology tools. The study also shows that Millicom is empowering more than 5 million people with Tigo Money in the region, who otherwise would not be included in the local economy. (1)The study included the following countries where TIGO has an active presence: Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Colombia, Bolivia and Paraguay. The basis for the analysis developed by the research firm included specific data on Millicom's economic activity in each of the seven countries, as well as relevant information from the GTAP (Global Trade Analysis Project), a global network of researchers that produces and tracks quantitative analysis of international economic policy issues, and National Statistics from sources such as the World Bank Database. To learn about specific data from each country, visit www.millicom.com. For further information, please contact Media: Vivian Kobeh, Corporate Communications Director +1-305-476-7352 / +1-305-302-2858 press@millicom.com Investors: Michel Morin, VP Investor Relations +352-277-59094 investors@millicom.com Mauricio Pinzon, Investor Relations Manager Tel: +44-20-3249-2460 investors@millicom.com This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com http://news.cision.com/millicom-international-cellular/r/new-study-underscores-millicom-s-socio-economic-impact-on-latin-america,c2684958 The following files are available for download: Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - November 28, 2018) - Pelangio Exploration Inc. (TSXV: PX) (OTC Pink: PGXPF) ("Pelangio" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that, further to Pelangio's news release of October 29, 2018, at the special meeting of shareholders (the "Meeting") of 2522962 Ontario Inc. ("5SD Capital") held earlier today, holders of common shares of 5SD Capital approved the amalgamation (the "Amalgamation") of 5SD Capital and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pelangio. Pelangio intends to acquire 5SD through the amalgamation with Pelangio's subsidiary. It is expected that the Amalgamation will be completed on or before December 7, 2018. About Pelangio Pelangio acquires and explores large land packages in world-class gold belts in Canada and Ghana, West Africa. In Canada, the company is focusing on the 25 km2 Birch Lake Property located in the Red Lake Mining District and the Dalton Property located 1.5 km from the Hollinger mine in Timmins. In Ghana, the Company is focusing on two 100%- owned camp-sized properties: the 100 km2 Manfo Property, the site of seven recent near-surface gold discoveries, and the 264 km2 Obuasi Property, located 4 km on strike and adjacent to AngloGold Ashanti's prolific high-grade Obuasi Mine. Ghana is an English-speaking, common law jurisdiction that is consistently ranked amongst the most favourable mining jurisdictions in Africa. For additional information, please visit our website at www.pelangio.com, or contact: Ingrid Hibbard, President and CEO Tel: 905-336-3828 / Toll-free: 1-877-746-1632 / Email: info@pelangio.com Forward Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this news release constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information can be generally identified by the use of words such as "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "expected", "intend", "may", "will", "project", "plan", "should", "believe" and similar expressions. In particular, this news release contains forward-looking information concerning the anticipated timing of the completion of the Amalgamation. Forward-looking statements are based upon the opinions and expectations of management of Pelangio and 5SD Capital as at the effective date of such statements. Although Pelangio and 5SD Capital believe the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that those expectations will prove to have been correct. Forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or outcomes to differ materially from those anticipated or implied by such forward-looking statements. Readers should not place undue reliance upon the forward-looking statements contained in this news release and such forward-looking statements should not be interpreted or regarded as guarantees of future outcomes. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof neither Pelangio or 5SD Capital undertake any obligation to update or to revise any of the included forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable securities laws in force in Canada. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. 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 "Europe Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Market By Type (Tubular Planar), By Application (Stationary, Transportation, Portable), By Country (Germany, United Kingdom, France, India, Russia, Italy Others), Competition Forecast and Opportunities, 2013-2023" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Europe solid oxide fuel cells market is projected to grow at a CAGR of more than 15% by 2023 Growth in the market can be attributed to rising focus on research development for making electricity generation economical coupled with growing demand for energy efficient power generation among different end users. Additionally, various public-private partnerships have been undertaken to promote the use of solid oxide fuel cells, which is further expected to positively influence Europe SOFC market during the forecast period. Europe Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Market, 2013 2023 discusses the following aspects of solid oxide fuel cells market in Europe: Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Market Size, Share Forecast Segmental Analysis By Type (Tubular Planar), By Application (Stationary, Transportation, Portable), By Country (Japan, South Korea, China, India, Australia, Others) Competitive Analysis Changing Market Trends Emerging Opportunities Why You Should Buy This Report? To gain an in-depth understanding of solid oxide fuel cells in Europe To identify the on-going trends and anticipated growth in the next five years To help industry consultants, solid oxide fuel cells distributor, 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 Few of the major players operating in Europe solid oxide fuel cells market include: LG Fuel Cell Systems Inc. Fuel Cell Energy SOLIDpower Group Hexis AG Key Topics Covered: 1. Product Overview 2. Research Methodology 3. Analyst View 4. Global SOFC Market Outlook 4.1. Market Size Forecast 4.1.1. By Value 4.1.2. By Power Generation 5. Europe SOFC Market Outlook 5.1. Market Size Forecast 5.1.1. By Value 5.1.2. By Power Generation 5.2. Market Share Forecast 5.2.1. By Type (Planar, Tubular) 5.2.2. By Application (Stationary, Portable Transportation) 5.2.3. By Country 5.3. Market Attractiveness Index 5.3.1. By Country 6. Europe Countries SOFC Market Outlook 6.1. Germany SOFC Market Outlook 6.2. United Kingdom SOFC Market Outlook 6.3. France SOFC Market Outlook 6.4. Russia SOFC Market Outlook 6.5. Italy SOFC Market Outlook 7. Market Dynamics 8. Market Trends Developments 9. Competitive Landscape 10. Strategic Recommendations For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/db4zn3/europe_solid?w=4 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181128005627/en/ Contacts: ResearchAndMarkets.com Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 Related Topics: Fuel Cells Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 28, 2018) - Vanity Capital Inc. (TSXV: VYC) (the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has entered into a binding letter of intent dated Nov. 27, 2018, (the "Letter of Intent") with Akseera Pharma Corp., a private Canadian corporation ("Akseera"), in connection with a proposed reverse take-over of the Company (the "Proposed Transaction") subject to approval of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "Exchange") to list the shares of the resulting entity (the "Resulting Issuer") on the Exchange. The Resulting Issuer will operate as a life sciences issuer continuing the business of Akseera. Proposed Transaction The Letter of Intent provides that the Company and Akseera will negotiate and enter into a definitive agreement in respect to the Proposed Transaction on or before Dec. 31, 2018 (the "Purchase Agreement"). The Proposed Transaction will be carried out by way of a three-cornered amalgamation which will result in Akseera combining its corporate existence with a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company. The Proposed Transaction will constitute a reverse takeover under Policy 5.2 - Changes of Business and Reverse Takeovers of the Exchange ("Policy 5.2"). Subject to regulatory and other required approvals, and the satisfaction of other conditions contained in the Purchase Agreement to be entered into, the Company will acquire all the issued and outstanding Akseera common shares. Former Akseera shareholders will receive two (2) Resulting Issuer shares in exchange for each Akseera common share held by them (the "Exchange Ratio"). There are currently 10 million Akseera common shares issued and outstanding, excluding shares (210,625) to be issued to certain debenture holders ($192,500). All outstanding options and other convertible securities of Akseera (100,000 stock options to advisory board members) will be exchanged at the Exchange Ratio for options and convertible securities of the Resulting Issuer having the same economic terms or will be adjusted pursuant to the terms governing such options or convertible securities, as applicable. An additional 50,000 stock options will be issued at the close of the transaction to Dr. Neepa Patel. Each option will be exercisable for one common share of the Resulting Issuer at $1 per share and vest over a three-year period. The Proposed Transaction will be an Arm's Length Transaction as defined by Policy 1.1 of the Exchange. No director, officer or majority shareholder of the Company has any direct or indirect interest or other relationship in Akseera. The Company has agreed to pay an arm's-length party finder's fee to Alixe Cormick consisting of non-transferable common share purchase warrants to purchase up to 2,065,000 common shares at an exercise price per share equal to the greater of the per share transaction price and the market price of Vanity's shares the day before this announcement ("Finder's Warrants"). The Finder' Warrants are exercisable during a period of five years after the closing of the Proposed Transaction. Any shares issued pursuant to the exercise of the Finder Warrants will be subject to a four-month hold period from the date of issuance. The Finder Warrants and underlying shares may also be subject to resale restrictions by the Exchange. A filing statement will be prepared and filed in accordance with Policy 5.2 of the Exchange. The Proposed Transaction is subject to a number of conditions including the completion of an Offering (described below), receipt of all required regulatory approvals including the approval of the Exchange, completion of satisfactory due diligence reviews, satisfaction of the initial listing requirements of the Exchange and all requirements under the policies of the Exchange relating to the completion of the Proposed Transaction and the execution of the Purchase Agreement. Concurrent Financing As a condition to the completion of the Proposed Transaction, the Company will complete a non-brokered private placement financing for aggregate gross proceeds of a minimum of $2 million and up to $5 million through the issuance of common shares at a price of $1 per share (the "Offering"), subject to the rules of and approval by the Exchange. Upon completion of the Proposed Transaction, the proceeds of the Offering will be used in the following manner: $410,000 to further develop, launch and conduct research on the resulting issuer's natural health products; $560,000 on pre-clinical research programs related to developing cannabis-derived pharmaceuticals; $100,000 for investment in a cannabis and hemp grow company in India to provide material for the resulting issuer's research programs; $145,000 to cover transaction cost of the RTO and accounting and legal costs of the next year; $100,000 on marketing and travel; $310,000 on salaries, management and consultants; $50,000 for patent costs; $75,000 for insurance; $50,000 for rent; and $200,000 for working capital. The foregoing assumes only the minimum amount is raised in the Offering. There may be circumstances where, for sound business reasons, a reallocation of funds may be necessary. Additional funds, if any, raised beyond the minimum will be used to expand the Resulting Issuer's pre-clinical research programs, manufacturing, distribution and marketing of its natural health product and the acquisition or lease of a manufacturing facility to produce the natural health products of the resulting issuer. (At this time, management plans on using co-packing facilities to manufacture, package and ship its natural health products.) Capitalization of the Resulting Issuer As of today's date, the Company has 10,080,265 common shares, 1,610,000 stock options and 1,025,000 warrants issued and outstanding. On close of the Proposed Transaction, the minimum Offering, and conversion of the convertible debentures of Akseera, the Resulting Issuer is expected to have 32,290,890 common shares issued and outstanding, 1,860,000 stock options and 3,090,000 common share purchase warrants. All securities held by principals of the Resulting Issuer (17,720,000 common shares and 550,000 stock options) will be subject to Exchange surplus or value escrow requirements unless a waiver is provided by the Exchange. Additional securities issued to the former shareholders of Akseera will be subject to the Exchange's seed-share resale restrictions in accordance with section 10.9 of Policy 5.4 of the Exchange. On close of the Proposed Transaction, the directors and officers of the Resulting Issuer, as a group, will beneficially own - directly or indirectly - or exercise control or direction over an aggregate of 12,510,000 common shares, representing 38.83 percent of the issued and outstanding common shares on an undiluted basis. One other former shareholder of Akseera, Yadvin Grewal (a resident of Surry, British Columbia), will hold 16.13 percent of the Resulting Issuer. The holding of each director and officer is set out in the section below. Proposed Board of Directors and Officers and Insiders of Resulting Issuer At the close of the Proposed Transaction, the board of directors of the Company will be Messrs. Harry Miller and Manit Patel, Ms. Karen Tamaki and Drs. Shreema Merchant-Patel and Neepa Patel. The officers of the Company will be Mr. Manit Patel, Chief Executive Officer; Dr. Shreema Merchant-Patel, President; Mr. Harry Miller, Chairman and Vice President Corporate Affairs; and Mr. David Cross, Chief Financial Officer. The following represents an overview of the experience of the proposed board members of the Resulting Issuer: Manit Patel, CEO and director, has over 10 years' experience in highly regulated health industry medical devices, food and pharmaceuticals, including leadership in medical cannabis research. Manit brings his business networks from India and North America in the pharmaceutical and medical device space. Manit has an MBA in finance and entrepreneurship from Queensland University of Technology, Australia, and an undergraduate degree in pharmaceutical sciences from ICT. He will lead the Resulting Issuer team, providing strategic direction and executing the research plan. Manit dedicates 100 percent of his time to Akseera. He will hold 5,120,000 (15.86 percent) of the commons shares of the Resulting Issuer. Mr. Patel resides in Surrey, British Columbia. Dr. Shreema Merchant-Patel, president and director, is a life science professional with international experience in tech development, transfer and commercialization. She has excelled in previous leadership positions within the industry and academia in Canada, India and Australia. Shreema has played key roles in the research and development of rapid diagnostic techniques, tech commercialization and curriculum development for Life Science programs. She has a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the Queensland University of Technology, Australia, and a master's in biotechnology from the University of Mumbai. With extensive experience in research and tech commercialization, Shreema is well-positioned to obtain funding for the research and project administration. She dedicates 100 percent of her time to Akseera. She will hold 5,120,000 (15.86 percent) of the common shares of the Resulting Issuer. Dr. Merchant-Patel resides in Surrey, British Columbia. Harry Miller, Chairman, VP of corporate affairs and director, is an independent business person with over 50 years of experience in the management of public companies in Canada and the United States. He has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of British Columbia, received in 1957. He is the former senior advisor and corporate secretary of Clifton Star Resources Inc. from November 2011 to December 2013 and the former president, CEO and director of Clifton Star Resources Inc. from October 2007 to November 2011. Mr. Miller obtained his Bachelor of Commerce - Manufacturing from the University of British Columbia in 1957. He will hold 1,630,000 (5.05 percent) of the common shares of the Resulting Issuer. Mr. Harry Miller resides in Bellevue, Washington. Dr. Neepa Patel, director, is a movement disorders neurologist at the Henry Ford Hospital, Michigan, USA, with over 10 years of experience in neurology; with specialization in neurophysiology and movement disorders. She has been involved with several clinical trials for Parkinson's Disease, dystonia and movement disorders. She has also been involved in clinical activities like deep brain stimulation surgical programs. She graduated with honors from Wayne State University School of Medicine with a residency in neurology at the Boston Medical Center, Massachusetts, and completed the Movement Disorders Fellowship program at Baylor College of Medicine, Texas. She is also an assistant professor in neurology and has published several peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. She will hold 490,000 (1.52 percent) of the common shares of the Resulting Issuer. Dr. Neepa Patel resides in Detroit, Michigan. David Cross, chief financial officer, is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA)/Certified General Accountant (CGA) in British Columbia. Since July 2010, Mr. Cross has been a partner at Cross Davis & Company LLP which focuses on providing accounting and management services for publicly listed entities. From September 2005 until May 2010, Mr. Cross was employed as an accountant/ manager at Davidson & Company LLP, Chartered Accountants. Mr. Cross acts as a chief financial officer and financial consultant to several public companies listed on the TSX Venture Exchange and Canadian Securities Exchange. Mr. Cross obtained his designation as a Certified General Accountant in 2004. Mr. Cross obtained a diploma in financial management from British Columbia Institute of Technology. Mr. Cross will not own any shares in the Resulting Issuer. Mr. Cross resides in Vancouver, British Columbia. Karen Tamaki, director, is a financial specialist with Maui Metropolitan Planning Organization in Hawaii. She is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA)/Chartered Accountant (CA) in British Columbia. She is also a former barrister and solicitor (February 1993 to December 2016). During her 23-year career as a lawyer, she acted as corporate and securities legal counsel to private and publicly listed companies. Ms. Tamaki obtained her Bachelor of Commerce Juris Doctorate from the University of British Columbia. She is a member of the Institute of Chartered Professional Accountants of British Columbia and a retired member of the Law Society of British Columbia. She will hold 150,000 (0.46 percent) of the common shares of the Resulting Issuer. Ms. Karen Tamaki resides in Kihei, Hawaii. As one of the co-founders of Akseera, Yadvinder Grewal will be a principal shareholder of the Resulting Issuer. He works in the film industry with IATSE 891 Union (September 2015 to present) and was a self-employed general contractor from July 2008 to July 2015. Mr. Grewal obtained a diploma as an industrial electrician apprentice from British Columbia Institute of Technology in 1997. He will hold 5,210,000 (16.13 percent) of the common shares of the Resulting Issuer. Mr. Grewal resides in Surrey, British Columbia. Principal Security Holders The following persons will own of record or beneficially (directly or indirectly) or exercise control or direction over the common shares carrying more than 10 percent of all of voting rights attaching to the outstanding common shares of the Resulting Issuer: Name and Municipality of Residence Nature of Ownership Number of Resulting Issuer Common Shares Owned Percentage of Common shares (1) Manit Patel, CEO and Director Surrey, BC Direct 5,120,000 15.86% Dr. Shreema Merchant-Patel, President and Director Surrey, BC Direct 5,120,000 15.86% Yadvinder Grewal, >10% shareholder Surrey, BC Direct 5,210,000 16.13% Notes: (1) Based on 32,290,890 Common Shares issued and outstanding on close of the Proposed Transaction and Offering. More information about each principal security holder of the Resulting Issuer is available under the heading Proposed Board of Directors and Officers and Insiders of Resulting Issuer in this news release. Sponsorship The Company intends to apply for a waiver of the sponsorship requirement. There is no assurance that a waiver from this requirement can or will be obtained. Shareholder Approval Not Required The Company will not be obtaining shareholder approval in connection with the Proposed Transaction and is not required to do so by the Exchange, because: (i) the Proposed Transaction is not a Related Party Transaction and no other circumstances exist which may compromise the independence of the Company or other interested parties (in particular, the Company's directors and senior officers) with respect to the Proposed Transaction and all Non-Arm's Length Parties to the Company and Akseera have been disclosed to the Exchange; (ii) the Company is without "active operations" (as set forth in Policy 5.2) prior to the Proposed Transaction; (iii) the Company is not subject to a cease trade order and will not otherwise be suspended from trading on completion of the Proposed Transaction; and (iv) shareholder approval in respect of the Proposed Transaction is not required under applicable corporate and securities laws. Trading Halt Trading will remain halted until the Proposed Transaction is accepted by (or satisfactory documentation has been filed with) the Exchange pursuant to Section 2.5 of Policy 5.2. About Akseera Pharma Corp. Akseera was incorporated on Jan. 30, 2015, under the Business Corporations Act (British Columbia) under the name Sterkem Science Ltd. Akseera changed its name to Akseera Pharma Corp. on July 29, 2016. Akseera is not a reporting issuer anywhere in Canada. Akseera is focused on the research, development and commercialization of natural health products and therapeutic pharmaceuticals containing cannabinoids and other medicinal plant-based elements to treat unmet medical and natural health needs. Through its subsidiary, Akseera intends to commercialize several natural health products aimed at the pharmacy self-care or over-the-counter (OTC) market in North America. The initial formulations include caps, tabs, strips and chews containing a variety of dosages of the main ingredient. Akseera believes it will begin receiving revenue from sales of its natural health products in 2019. The principal business of Akseera is the development and commercialization of cannabinoid-based products for the prescription drug market. On June 1, 2018, Akseera entered into a sponsored research agreement with Simon Fraser University to test the effects of CBD/THC in prostate cancer cells. On May 7, 2016, Akseera and Sterkem Pharma Pvt. Ltd. ("Sterkem") entered into a research agreement with ICT to conduct research on the therapeutically active compounds from cannabis that reduce spasticity, among other things. Sterkem is a private corporation established in 1974 in Mumbai, India. Manit Patel, the CEO of Akseera, owns 32.5 percent of Sterkem. At this time, Akseera is also in discussions with other North American organizations to enter into research agreements and establish pre-clinical safety and the efficacy of select cannabinoid-based therapeutics targeting spasticity movement disorders including epilepsy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease. It will take one or more years before Akseera will have a cannabinoid-based therapeutics pharmaceutical product on the market. Akseera's current business activities are in Canada and India. Management of Akseera anticipates that it will spend 90 percent of the total funds available on close of the Proposed Transaction in Canada and 10 percent in India. Management of Akseera expects that it will enter research agreements with research institutions in the United States when these institutions have approval from all federal and state regulatory bodies to conduct research activities that align with Akseera's interests. At this time, management of Akseera expects it will not have any operations in the United States until 2020 or later. Selected Consolidated Financial Information of Akseera Pharma Corp. The following selected consolidated financial information of Akseera has been supplied to the Company by Akseera for purposes of inclusion herein in accordance with Exchange requirements: Year Ended July 31, Income Statement 2018 (unaudited) $ 2017 (unaudited) $ Revenue Nil Nil Total Expenses 150,105 73,241 Net Income (Loss) (150,105) (73,241) Balance Sheet Current Assets 29,531 4,257 Total Assets 49,531 19,257 Current Liabilities 60,775 35,610 Total Liabilities 133,274 35,610 Shareholders' Equity (Deficiency) (122,458) (16,353) Previous Business of Vanity Capital Inc. The Company's previous business was as a junior mining exploration company engaged in the acquisition, exploration and development of mineral resource properties in Canada. During the year ended Feb. 28, 2018, the Issuer notified IAMGOLD that it would not proceed with the Option it had obtained from IAMGOLD on Aug. 18, 2016, for the Porcupine Property in Quebec. As a result, the Company has written off the property in its entirety. During the year ended Feb. 28, 2018, the Company decided to return the claims under an option agreement entered into on Feb. 15, 2017, to the vendors of certain mineral claims in the Kenora area (the "Kenora Property"). The Company holds a number of claims it had staked in February 2017 in the Phillips Township, Kenora District, Ontario (the "Phillips Property"). The Company staked these claims in support of its interest in the Kenora Property. The Company intends to turn over these claims to the vendors of the Kenora Property for nominal consideration. Additional Information The common shares of the Company are currently halted from trading pending completion of the Proposed Transaction. Cautionary Note Completion of the transaction is subject to a number of conditions including but not limited to Exchange acceptance and, if applicable, disinterested shareholder approval. Where applicable, the transaction cannot close until the required shareholder approval is obtained. There can be no assurance that the transaction will be completed as proposed or at all. Investors are cautioned that, except as disclosed in the management information circular or filing statement to be prepared in connection with the transaction, any information released or received with respect to the transaction may not be accurate or complete and should not be relied upon. Trading in the securities of Vanity Capital Inc. should be considered highly speculative. The TSX Venture Exchange Inc. has in no way passed upon the merits of the proposed transaction and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release. Neither the Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Exchange) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release. The common shares of the Company have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933 as amended and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirement. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws relating to the Proposed Transaction including statements regarding the terms and conditions of the Proposed Transaction and the Letter of Intent, as well as information relating to Akseera. The information about Akseera contained in the press release has not been independently verified by the Company. 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 risks that the parties will not proceed with the Proposed Transaction and the Letter of Intent; that the ultimate terms of the Proposed Transaction and the Letter of Intent will differ from those that currently are contemplated; and that the Proposed Transaction and the Letter of Intent will not be successfully completed for any reason (including the failure to obtain the required approvals or clearances from regulatory authorities). The terms and conditions of the Proposed Transaction may change based on the Company's due diligence and the receipt of tax, corporate and securities law advice for both the Company and Akseera. The statements in this press release are made as of the date of this release. The Company undertakes no obligation to comment on analyses, expectations or statements made by third parties in respect of the Company, Akseera, their securities or their respective financial or operating results (as applicable). CONTACT INFORMATION Harry Miller, CEO (425) 453-0355 Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - November 28, 2018) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a self-described penny stock promoter and an entity he controlled with orchestrating a scheme to manipulate trading in at least 97 microcap stocks. According to the SEC's complaint, Eric Landis of Charlottesville, Virginia, falsely claimed to third-party media buyers for microcap companies that he would distribute promotional materials for the stocks via email lists with tens of thousands of subscribers. In reality, his distribution lists were a sham. To generate trading volume and create the false impression that he was drumming up investor interest, the SEC alleges that Landis traded thousands of microcap shares himself using brokerage accounts in his own name, in the name of an entity he controlled, Ridgeview Capital Partners LLC, and in the names of several third parties. Altogether, the SEC alleges that Landis placed thousands of manipulative trades over three years, including approximately 1,300 "matched trades," which involved simultaneously selling and buying stocks in the microcap companies he was paid to promote. "Microcap investors should know that sometimes market volume in a particular stock can be driven by a single fraudulent actor, as alleged here," said Paul Levenson, Director of the SEC's Boston Regional Office. "Our thorough analysis allowed us to detect thousands of manipulative trades by Landis." The SEC's complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, charges Landis and Ridgeview with violating the antifraud and market manipulation provisions of the federal securities laws. The SEC seeks a permanent injunction against future violations, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains plus prejudgment interest, monetary penalties, and a penny stock bar. Landis was previously found liable in a lawsuit brought by the SEC and convicted of related criminal charges based on his role in a prior market manipulation scheme. Before investing, microcap investors should review the investor-education materials available at Investor.gov. The SEC's case is being handled by Trevor Donelan, Jonathan Allen, Eric Forni, Kathleen Shields, J. Lauchlan Wash, Rebecca Israel, David Scheffler, and Amy Gwiazda of the SEC's Boston Regional Office and assisted by Alex Lefferts in the SEC's Office of Market Intelligence and coordinated with the Enforcement Division's Microcap Fraud Task Force. The SEC appreciates the assistance of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts, and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Pioneering Higher Education Cybersecurity Operations Center Recognized for Innovative Use of the Elastic Stack to Detect and Analyze Threats Elastic N.V. (NYSE: ESTC), the company behind Elasticsearch and the Elastic Stack, is pleased to recognize its customer, OmniSOC, has been honored with a 2019 CSO50 Award from IDG's CSO. This prestigious honor is bestowed upon a select group of organizations that have demonstrated that their security initiatives have created outstanding business value and thought leadership. Based at Indiana University, OmniSOC is the first higher education joint cybersecurity operations center that brings together expertise and resources from its founding five universities to reduce the time from first awareness of a cybersecurity threat to mitigation. OmniSOC uses the Elastic Stack as its security analytics platform, utilizing Elasticsearch, Kibana, Beats, Logstash, and critical features like security, alerting, and machine learning. The Elastic Stack ingests, correlates, and analyzes vast quantities of information from thousands of systems across all of its member institutions in order to detect security breaches and cybersecurity threats. OmniSOC security engineers then provide rapid, actionable intelligence back to its members so that they can mitigate risks, close security gaps, and prevent future attacks. "OmniSOC's innovative use of the Elastic Stack to proactively hunt down threats and malicious activity is a pioneering effort that will serve as a model for security in higher education and beyond," said Shay Banon, founder and chief executive officer at Elastic. "We congratulate the OmniSOC team for this well-deserved recognition from CSO." "Higher education faces a unique set of cybersecurity challenges-securing hundreds of thousands of devices and tens of thousands of students and faculty members in an economically efficient way. The Elastic Stack gives us extremely fast access to the data we need to protect our member universities," said Tom Davis, OmniSOC founding executive director and chief information security officer. "We're honored to be recognized by CSO for this innovative joint cybersecurity initiative." "Amid the seemingly constant stream of news-making security breaches, vulnerabilities introduced by new technologies and increased attention from company boards, today's security leaders have their plates more than full," said Amy Bennett, executive editor of CSO. "Our annual CSO50 awards shine a light on projects that enhance an organization's security posture and also deliver measurable ROI. We are pleased to give them the recognition they deserve." About the CSO50 Awards The CSO50 Awards recognizes 50 organizations for security projects and initiatives that demonstrate outstanding business value and thought leadership. The CSO50 Awards are scored according to a uniform set of criteria by a panel of judges that includes security leaders and industry experts. The 2019 awards will be presented at the CSO50 Conference Awards, April 8-10, 2019, at the Talking Stick Resort, Scottsdale, Arizona. About Elastic Elastic is a search company. As the creators of the Elastic Stack (Elasticsearch, Kibana, Beats, and Logstash), Elastic builds self-managed and SaaS offerings that make data usable in real time and at scale for search, logging, security, and analytics use cases. Elastic is a distributed company with Elasticians working in countries around the world. Learn more at elastic.co. Elastic and associated marks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Elastic N.V. and its subsidiaries. All other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181128005761/en/ Contacts: Deborah Wiltshire Elastic press@elastic.co LAGUNA HILLS, California, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Adagio Medical, Inc., developer of the iCLAS technology, the company's ultra-low temperature intelligent continuous lesion ablation system for the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias, announces updates to its ongoing cryoablation study for Persistent Atrial Fibrillation (PsAF). The study is currently being conducted at two clinical sites in Europe and two additional sites are expected to be added in early 2019. To date, twenty-five patients have been treated for Persistent and Long-Standing AF. The treatment gives the EP the option to create lesions to isolate the pulmonary veins, the posterior wall of the left atrium and the cavo-tricuspid isthmus. Adagio's AF cryoablation catheter uses pre-shaped stylets to enable the clinician to adjust the sizes and shapes of the linear lesions to adapt to the patient's unique cardiac anatomy without requiring multiple catheter exchanges. Temperatures at the freezing element of the catheter reach -190C with the use of the iCLAS cryoablation console. The ability of the catheters to adapt to a patient's anatomy combined with the power of the iCLAS console are key to the creation of transmural lesions necessary for the isolation of these critical targets. In early follow-up data, over 90% of patients remain free of AF at six months following a single procedure. The nine- and twelve-month data show freedom from AF at a rate which represents a significant improvement over the current industry standard. "The ability of Adagio's technology to effectively isolate the pulmonary veins and the posterior wall of the left atrium is impressive. Seeing single treatment efficacy that is better than that of other devices with two ablations is indeed a bonus," says Prof. Lucas Boersma, Principal Investigator at St. Antonius Hospital, Nieuwegein, The Netherlands. "The data so far are extremely encouraging." "A dedicated team of engineers and scientists led by our Chief Technical Officer, Alex Babkin, PhD, has developed a cryoablation system capable of transforming how electrophysiologists manage this challenging patient population," states Hakon Bergheim, Chief Operating Officer, of Adagio Medical. "Our vision is to provide the EP with the ability to create true continuous, transmural lesions anywhere in the heart with a single catheter. The efficacy from the ongoing European trials is very encouraging, and we are looking forward to starting a US study early in 2019." About Adagio Medical Adagio Medical, Inc. (www.adagiomedical.com) is a privately held company located in Laguna Hills, California developing innovative cryoablation technologies that create continuous, linear, transmural lesions to treat cardiac arrhythmias, including paroxysmal and persistent atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter and ventricular tachycardia. Adagio Medical, Inc. is a Fjord Ventures portfolio company. For additional information please send an email to info@adagiomedical.com. Weekly net asset value ("NAV") is calculated as of the close of business on each Tuesday and posted on the following business day. In the event that Tuesday is not a business day, the Company will calculate the close-of-business NAV as of the business day immediately preceding that Tuesday. The end-of-month NAV is calculated as of the close of business on the last day of the month and posted on the following business day. For weeks that include a month-end NAV report, PSH will provide only the month-end NAV and not report the Tuesday NAV. Monthly NAVs are published in accordance with the Decree on Conduct of Business Supervision of Financial Undertakings under the Wft (Besluit Gedragstoezicht financiele ondernemingen Wft). Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / November 28, 2018 / Exro Technologies Inc. (OTCQB: EXROF; CNSX: XRO) ("Exro"), today announced that it will be presenting at the 11th annual LD Micro Main Event on Tuesday, December 4 at 8:00 AM PST / 11:00 AM EST. CEO of Exro, Mark Godsy 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. View Exro's profile here: https://www.ldmicro.com/profile/XRO.CN Profiles powered by LD Micro - News Compliments of Accesswire About Exro Exro Technologies Inc. offers the potential to accelerate the transition to clean energy by intelligently managing the efficiency and reliability of various power systems, including fuel-powered electric motors and generators, which make up about half the worldwide market for electric power. Exro's patented coil technology works for various energy systems, dynamically adapting input and output with the goal of achieving specific, measurable performance gains in applications ranging from electric cars, UAVs, pumps, ship drives, industrial motors, vacuums and all other applications that require smart energy conversion. Please visit our website at www.exro.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: Name: Exro Technologies Inc Phone: 604-674-7746 Address: 1400-1111 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 4M3 Email: IR@exro.com SOURCE: Exro Technologies Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/529288/Exro-Technologies-Inc-to-Present-at-the-11th-Annual-LD-Micro-Main-Event Burlington, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - November 28, 2018) - GTA Resources and Mining Inc. (TSXV: GTA) ("GTA") and CBLT Inc. ("CBLT") have signed a definitive agreement (the "Sale Agreement") by which GTA will sell all its mining assets ("the Assets") to CBLT. GTA has previously announced it had received gross proceeds of $425,000 (four hundred twenty-five thousand dollars) pursuant to a loan (the "Loan") from an arm's length party (the "Lender"). GTA has used those funds in part to honour its outstanding 'flowthrough' obligations. GTA also announced that it and the Lender were in discussions whereby GTA would sell all its mining assets and then acquire assets in another industry (the "Change of Business"). The Sale Agreement for all GTA's mining assets is part of the Change of Business. In consideration for the Assets, CBLT will pay $1,050,000 to GTA, by way of 21,000,000 Units to be issued from CBLT's treasury at five cents per Unit. Each Unit will consist of one common share and one full common share purchase warrant (the "Warrants"). Each Warrant shall have a two-year term and be exercisable at $0.08 (eight cents), and shall have an acceleration clause triggered if the closing price for CBLT's shares exceeds $0.16 (sixteen cents) for 20 (twenty) consecutive trading days. Following closing on the Sale Agreement, GTA intends to distribute the Units to its shareholders pro rata, in furtherance of the Loan and the Change of Business. GTA's shareholders will continue to have exposure to the Assets as a result of such distribution. "GTA's shareholders have the potential to win twice," said Peter M. Clausi, GTA's CEO. "Their new ownership of CBLT shares and warrants after the expected dividend will give them an upside on exploration, and their continuing ownership of their GTA shares provides exposure to what should be a higher-growth industry outside of mining." There is no standstill agreement or break fee in the Sale Agreement. Since first announcing the possible sale of the Assets to CBLT, GTA has entertained formal and informal expressions of interest from other persons for the sale of part of the Assets, but has received no offer or expression of interest for all the Assets. In the opinion of the board, no other expression of interest offers the same or better value as does the transaction contemplated in the Sale Agreement. Gravitas Securities Inc. is a member firm in the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, and has provided an opinion (the "Opinion") to the Board of Directors of GTA that, as of the date of such opinion and based upon and subject to the scope of review, assumptions, limitations, qualifications and other matters described in such opinion, the consideration to be paid by CBLT in connection with the proposed transaction is fair, from a financial point of view, to GTA's shareholders. GTA has called a shareholder meeting for January 7, 2019 to consider the Sale Agreement, the de-listing from the TSX Venture Exchange as part of the Change of Business, the Sale Terms and other matters. A copy of the Opinion will be enclosed with the materials sent to shareholders for that meeting, and will be available at www.sedar.ca as a schedule to the information circular. CBLT is a Canadian reporting issuer in good standing (symbol "CBLT" on TSX Venture Exchange). GTA and CBLT are non-arm's length as they have a Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer in common, both of whom are also directors of both GTA and CBLT. Each of CBLT and GTA has taken steps to manage all conflicts of interest. ABOUT GTA RESOURCES - GTA is a publicly traded company with roughly 51,000,000 shares outstanding. GTA has disclosed its intention to exit the mining sector and enter another as-yet unidentified sector. On behalf of the board of directors, GTA Resources and Mining Inc. "Peter M. Clausi" President and CEO +1 289-288-3255 Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release. This press release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities laws. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein, including statements regarding the potential transaction with CBLT, the expectation regarding the receipt of the Opinion, the consummation of the transactions referred to herein and the timing and receipt of shareholder approval in connection therewith, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as: believe, expect, anticipate, intend, estimate, postulate and similar expressions or are those which, by their nature, refer to future events. Although GTA believes that such statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. GTA cautions investors that any forward-looking statements by GTA are not guarantees of future performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual events and results to differ materially from GTA's expectations include those related to weather, equipment and staff availability; performance of third parties; risks related to the exploration stage of GTA's projects; market fluctuations in prices for securities of exploration stage companies and in commodity prices; and uncertainties about the availability of additional financing; risks related to GTA's ability to identify one or more economic deposits on the properties, and variations in the nature, quality and quantity of any mineral deposits that may be located on the properties; risks related to GTA's ability to obtain any necessary permits, consents or authorizations required for its activities on the properties; and risks related to GTA's ability to produce minerals from the properties successfully or profitably. Trading in the securities of GTA should be considered highly speculative. All of GTA's public disclosure filings may be accessed via www.sedar.com and readers are urged to review these materials, including the latest technical reports filed with respect to GTA's mineral properties. This press release is not and is not to be construed in any way as an offer to buy or sell securities in the United States. Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - November 28, 2018) - Argo Gold Inc. (CSE: ARQ) ("Argo Gold" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it intends to complete a private placement offering of up to 2,777,778 units ("Units") at a price of $0.18 per Unit, for gross proceeds of up to $500,000 and up to 4,545,455 flow through shares ("Flow Through Shares") at a price of $0.22 per Flow Through Share, for gross proceeds of up to $1,000,000 (the Units and the Flow-Through Shares, the "Offering"). Paul Poggione, Vice-President Corporate Development, commented, "This offering will fund the upcoming drill program, slated for January-March 2019 at Argo Gold's flagship Woco property. It has been 25 years since the last drilling was done at Woco in 1994 where 139 g/t gold over 2.1M was identified. There is been increased interest in the Woco Gold Project due to recent success at Great Bear Resources Dixie Project - located 75 kilometres west - given both projects have high-grade gold mineralization in the Confederation volcanics proximal to a major regional structure." Each Unit will consist of one common share (a "Common Share") of the Company and one-half of one common share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a "Warrant") with each Warrant entitling the holder thereof to purchase a Common Share at an exercise price of $0.25 for a period of twelve (12) months following the closing of the Offering. All securities issued under the Offering are subject to a four-month and one day statutory hold period. The gross proceeds from the Offering will be used for Canadian Exploration Expenses, and will qualify as "flow-through mining expenditures," as defined in the Income Tax Act (Canada). Finder's fees may be payable to qualified individuals (the "Finder") pursuant to which the Finder may receive a finder's fee equal to 7% of the gross proceeds of the Offering and finder warrants ("Finder Warrants") entitling the Finder to purchase that number of common shares of the Company equal to 7% of the aggregate number of Units and/or Flow-Through Units sold by such Finder under the Offering at a price of $0.25 per common share for a period of twelve (12) months from the date of closing of the Offering. The closing of the Offering is anticipated to take place on or about December 14, 2018, or such other later date as the Company may agree. The closing is subject to certain conditions including, but not limited to, the receipt of all necessary approvals including the approval of the Canadian Securities Exchange. About Argo Gold Inc. Argo Gold is listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the ticker ARQ. Argo Gold is focused on gold exploration projects central and northwestern Ontario. All of Argo Gold's projects are 100% owned. Argo Gold's website is www.argogold.ca. For more information please contact: Judy Baker President (416) 786-7860 jbaker@argogold.ca NEITHER THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATIONS SERVICES PROVIDER HAVE REVIEWED OR ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE. Forward-looking Information Cautionary Statement Except for statements of historic 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" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates 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 anticipated in the forward-looking statements including, but not limited to delays or uncertainties with regulatory approvals, including that of the CSE. There are uncertainties inherent in forward-looking information, including factors beyond the Company's control. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change except as required by law. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Additional information identifying risks and uncertainties that could affect financial results is contained in the Company's filings with Canadian securities regulators, which filings are available at www.sedar.com. 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. Mumbai: 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 percent of the fabrics produced by the company are converted into garments and it aims to convert nearly 50 percent 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. the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recalled at least 117 medical devices that were distributed globally after concluding that they led to serious health issues Prime Minister Narendra Modi is proud at having tamed multinational prostheses manufacturers at least partially. For instance, the price of a coronary stent that is often used as an effective substitute for a more invasive bypass surgery has been capped at Rs 35,000. The jury is still out on whether it was a right move as some of the reputed brands have voted India with their feet saying it is unviable for them to sell at such a ridiculous price. But the governments argument was patients and their families in distress were taken for a ride by the hospitals. Hence it went for the hospitals jugular by assuming that all, in any case, would go for the affordable. But doctors counter this by saying there are stents in the market with bioresorbable ones being hailed as the most compatible. Naturally, these would be expensive in the range of Rs 2 lakh to Rs 3 lakh. But the price is not the only counter when it comes to health. Quality matters too. Over two years, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recalled at least 117 medical devices that were distributed globally after concluding that they led to serious health issues, including death in several cases. At the time of recall, at least 57 of these devices were being marketed in India. Johnson & Johnson leads the pack with faulty knee and hip implants. It has had the mortification of paying compensation in millions of dollars in other parts of the globe including Australia but has been looking askance at India thanks to a weak regulatory oversight. It has taken the US market watchdog, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), to confront a prostheses manufacturer, Stryker that has offices in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. Apart from selling knee and other implants to Indian hospitals and through them to gullible patients, it has also been bribing the system. In a filing two months ago, the SEC ordered the worlds leading manufacturer of orthopaedic implant devices, Stryker, to pay $7.8 million (over Rs 55 crore) in settlement for violating the country's corruption norms in India, China and Kuwait. These underhand and stealthy payments were revealed in an audit ordered by the SEC when Stryker was at its wits end explaining the hefty but dubious payments. Its brazenness in playing ball with Indian hospitals also consisted of obliging them with inflated bills, an obvious way for Indian promoters to make money through over-invoicing. Needless to say, the promoters of Indian hospitals would have been given matching kickbacks through dubious foreign bank accounts. The US has strong laws that frown on bagging businesses abroad through stealth and corruption. The Indian government must immediately swing into action taking a cue from the SEC initiative. For all one knows Indian hospitals succumbing to foreign companies overtures might have also agreed to compromise on quality. It is not as if the Indian regulators havent had a clue about the modus operandi of the foreign medical devices companies. In 2012, the anti-monopoly regulator, Competition Commission of India (CCI), fined an authorised distributor of Stryker India and two other firms Rs 3 crore for allegedly rigging bids, manipulating tenders and forming a cartel to sell equipment to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and Safdarjung Hospital, two of the largest government hospitals. Alas if only it had alerted its fellow regulator on the technical and quality front the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO). We suffer from the right-hand left-hand syndrome. CIC ought to have taken a more holistic view and suspected foul play on other fronts too including quality. (The author is a senior columnist and tweets @smurlidharan) Pranab Mukherjee said he was the signatory to WTO document and agreement on behalf of India Bengaluru: Former President Pranab Mukherjee on 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. Investors warn continued government support for fossil fuel increases risk of creating stranded assets within the energy sector and can also decrease the competitiveness of key industries. New Delhi: Global investors and insurers with more than $742 billion in assets under management on Wednesday urged the G20 to end fossil fuel subsidies by 2020, warning about the severe risks this continued government support brings to the financial sector. The group of nine investors, including Aviva and Sarasin & Partners, have signed a joint statement calling for G20 governments, meeting in Argentina this week, to set a concrete timeline to end all forms of government support to fossil fuels by no later than 2020. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be taking part in the 13th G20 meeting in Buenos Aires during which he will have several bilateral meetings, including with Chinese President Xi Jinping. In a statement to IANS, investors warn that continued government support for fossil fuel increases the risk of creating stranded assets within the energy sector and can also decrease the competitiveness of key industries, including low-carbon businesses. New research published on Wednesday by International Institute for Sustainable Development, the Overseas Development Institute, Oil Change International and Fundacion Ambiente y Recursos Naturales shows some G20 governments have made progress in shifting support away from fossil fuels and increasing taxation of fossil fuels. However, the report "Stories from G20 Countries: Shifting public money out of fossil fuels" warns this shift must accelerate significantly if the G20 is to meet the Paris Agreement targets and the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. The report includes examples from around the world of where progress has been made and where countries could do more like Indonesia saved $15.6 billion by cutting back on inefficient subsidies for petrol and diesel in 2015. India collected $12 billion in revenue between 2010 and 2018 through taxing coal production. And since 2011, Canada has either completely phased out or reformed seven policies that subsidised the production of oil, gas and coal. Steve Waygood, chief responsible investment officer at Aviva Investors, said: "Governments beginning to take stock of their commitment to Paris are falling at the first hurdle if they refuse to factor in fossil fuel subsidies for producers, including tax concessions and placing the burden of decommissioning the sector's infrastructure on taxpayers." "As corporates are being asked to disclose the potential impact of climate risk on their balance sheets, we as investors are also asking governments to disclose the impact that fossil fuel subsidies have at country balance sheet level, providing us with useful information so that we can support economies as they make this important change." Investors and insurers Aviva, CCLA Investment Management, Earth Capital, Environment Agency Pension Fund, Glenmont Partners, Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, Sarasin & Partners, USS and WHEB Asset Management have $741,535.68 billion in assets under management. In comparison, 14 gold-linked ETFs had witnessed a withdrawal of Rs 422 crore in the first seven months of 2017-18, latest data with industry body Amfi showed. New Delhi: Gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs) continued to lose steam, with investors pulling out Rs 290 crore during the April-October period of the current fiscal. In comparison, 14 gold-linked ETFs had witnessed a withdrawal of Rs 422 crore in the first seven months of 2017-18, latest data with industry body Amfi showed. The assets under management (AUM) of gold funds went down by 8 percent to Rs 4,621 crore at the end of October this year from Rs 5,017 crore a year ago. Gold ETF trading has been tepid during the last five financial years. It saw an outflow of Rs 835 crore in 2017-18, Rs 775 crore in 2016-17, Rs 903 crore in 2015-16, Rs 1,475 crore in 2014-15 and Rs 2,293 crore in 2013-14. However, the segment had witnessed an infusion of Rs 1,414 crore in 2012-13. Industry experts said smart returns given by the equity market have resulted in Indian investors largely staying away from investing in gold ETFs. In fact, redemptions have been seen in the last five years. They said that Indian investors have traditionally preferred to hold gold in physical form, rather than ETFs which are actually a better form of holding from an investor's perspective. Ideally, investors should look to allocate 5-10 percent of the portfolio towards gold, which works as a portfolio hedge and helps reduce overall portfolio volatility. Gold ETFs are passive investment instruments that are based on price movements and investments in the metal. On the other hand, equity and equity-linked savings scheme (ELSS) saw an infusion of over Rs 75,000 crore in the April-October period of the ongoing fiscal (2018-19). This included over Rs 14,000 crore in the last month alone, according to the data. Overall, mutual fund schemes witnessed a net inflow of Rs 81,000 crore in April-October period of the current fiscal. Jet Airways' financial woes have been worsened by rising crude oil prices and intense pricing competition in the domestic aviation industry Shares of Indias Jet Airways Ltd rose sharply on Wednesday following a report that founder Naresh Goyal has agreed to sell his controlling stake and give up operational control of the struggling carrier. Although Goyal has been reluctant to relinquish his controlling stake in the 25-year-old airline, he is said to have met all three prospective buyers - Tata Group, Etihad Airways and a consortium of Air France - KLM and Delta Air Lines Inc, television news channel CNBC TV18 reported, citing multiple sources familiar with the matter. Goyal has agreed to sell controlling stake in the company to an investor and has communicated the same to three strategic investors they are talking to at this point, the report quoted the sources as saying. The report did not say whether a specific buyer was chosen. Goyal has, however, laid out certain conditions including retaining a minority stake of below 5 percent and a board seat on the firm, the report added. The carriers financial woes have been worsened by rising crude oil prices and intense pricing competition in the domestic aviation industry. Investors welcomed the news, sending the airlines shares up by nearly 9 percent in their biggest intraday percentage gain in nearly two weeks. The stock saw a surge in its volume, falling just short of the 30-day average amount of shares - 15.5 million - in the first half of session. About 14 million shares changed hands in the first half of session, compared with the 30-day average of 15.5 million. Jet, which is 24 percent owned by Etihad Airways, did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment. An estimated $1.6 tonnes of counterfeit goods are sold every year which is increasing at a very fast rate The e-commerce market in India is growing at a fast pace with the penetration of smartphones and the Internet. According to a report by Admitad, in 2017, 37 percent of the population comprised of internet users, 14 percent of whom made online purchases regularly. This population's share of internet users is expected to grow to 45 percent by 2021. Along with the rise, a disturbing trend that is being witnessed is the rise in counterfeit products. Around 38 percent of consumers out of 6,923 respondents said they had received a counterfeit product from an e-commerce site in the past one year, a survey by LocalCircles revealed, according to The Economic Times report. As per an ASSOCHAM-Resurgent joint study, online shopping is expected to clock annualised growth of 115 percent this year, aided by fast-increasing data consumption and improvement in logistics, along with a number of offers presented by e-commerce platforms. The dangers of fake products will only increase given the rapid rise in e-commerce shopping in India. Focusing on how to eliminate counterfeiting of products, three friends from Pune Nitin Gupta (39), Yogesh Miharia (30), Abhishek Agarwal (29), have launched a startup that provides a digital solution to detect counterfeits. Called NeuroTags -- Neuro is derived from neuron in the neural network as we feel the future of the fight against counterfeit will rely on machine Learning a lot. And our internal algorithms are modelled on it. The startup was conceived in early 2017 and was launched in January 2018 with seed money of $300,000 from the three founders' personal savings and a consulting firm, Tezminds (started by the trio six years ago.) The idea was to help the manufacturers keep the track on their products and save it from counterfeiting, says Nitin Gupta- Co-founder, CEO and CTO. With the help of NeuroTags, companies can also acquire their offline end customers product interaction data, he said. How it works NeuroTags provides algorithmically coupled tags, namely open and protected. The open tag is visible on the product and can be scanned by anyone with a smartphone to get the information about the product and an indication of authenticity with a certain probability. Once a product is purchased, the buyer has access to the protected tag, which is shielded by a scratch layer or is kept inside the product seal. After scanning the protected tag, the user gets the authenticity information with certainty. The user may also avail warranty, loyalty and referral points after scanning this tag. The tags are connected, monitored and protected by algorithms and Artificial Intelligence on the cloud servers in such a way that, if anyone tries to replicate the tags, it gets caught and the copied product gets invalidated. Gupta said Neuro Tags did a study for a year before launching the startup which revealed that close to one million people die every year because of fake medicines. An estimated $1.6 tonnes of counterfeit goods are sold every year which is increasing at a very fast rate, said Gupta. With e-commerce, it is becoming very easy for the counterfeiters to penetrate the supply chain and contaminate the complete market, he said. Yet, he said it was difficult to convince the companies, as nothing has been done like this before. The startup has six clients so far. The startup plans to introduce the pay-per-use model. Based on the number of items where NeuroTags are applied we plan charge a very small fee per item, said Gupta. The startup hopes to breakeven in two years and is in talks with some investors who would like to join them as business partners in the venture. 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. New Delhi: With an aim to reduce trading costs, 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 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 June 1, 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, SEBI said the transaction charges levied need to be clearly identified and made known to the participants up front. As per SEBI, 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, CCPs need to exchange margins and other financial resources on a reciprocal basis based on mutually agreed margining models. However, 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 the deployment of adequate servers at each of the linked trading venues. The exchanges will have to ensure that stockbrokers 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 Securities and Exchange Board of India (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. Wipro Lighting will sell Schreder's 'smart city' products and 'beyond lighting solutions', which use Internet of Things-based applications in smart cities and smart campuses. Bengaluru: The consumer care and lighting business of Wipro Enterprises will offer Belgian lighting manufacturer Schreder's smart lighting solutions in India, the company said on Wednesday. "As part of the agreement, Wipro Lighting will market Schreder's lighting products and solutions in India," said the city-based Wipro czar Azim Premji-owned company in a statement here. Wipro Lighting will sell Schreder's 'smart city' products and 'beyond lighting solutions', which use Internet of Things (IoT)-based applications in smart cities and smart campuses, under the agreement, the statement said. As a pioneer in smart lighting products in the country, Wipro arm provides lighting solutions for indoor and outdoor across industry verticals, including retail, commercial offices and healthcare. Founded in 1907, Brussels-based Schreder has been designing lighting solutions for motorways, tunnels, residential streets and monuments across the world. The Belgian firm, present in about 35 countries globally, uses street lighting to support connectivity in smart cities. "Smart street lights are the gateway to a smart city and the company (Schreder) uses this infrastructure in towns and cities to provide people-centred smart devices with no investment," the statement added. "India is growing at a fast pace and urbanisation is transforming the country. Lighting plays an important part in urban development and helps cities and localities become safe and smart," said Wipro commercial lighting business head Anuj Dhir on the occasion. Through the partnership, Wipro Lighting can bring to India Schreder's 'Smart Streetlights', 'Smart Poles' and much more, to empower smart cities of the sub-continent, Dhir added. According to Schreder's chief regional officer for Asia, Middle East and Africa Carl Watson, the two lighting technology companies can together offer advanced smart lighting solutions to India. "The scope to share ideas and develop new products and technologies with Wipro will be beneficial to the customers," Watson said in the statement. Yes Bank reiterated that it is on track to find a successor to MD and CEO Rana Kapoor New Delhi: Yes Bank Wednesday said its board on 13 December will recommend names for a new chairman to be approved by the RBI as well as consider the appointment of independent directors. The private sector lender, which is grappling with governance as well as NPA issues, has seen resignations of three independent directors, including Chairman Ashok Chawla. In a regulatory filing, the bank said its Nomination & Renumeration Committee (N&RC) of the board and the board of directors are scheduled to meet on 13 December. During the meetings, they would consider proposals for appointment of independent directors and also recommend name(s) of the new chairman for approval of the RBI, it added. Yes Bank also reiterated that it is on track to find a successor to MD and CEO Rana Kapoor and said the resignations of the three board members will have no impact on the succession plan. Chairman Ashok Chawla, Vasant Gujarathi and Rentala Chandrashekhar have quit the bank on various reasons including on governance issues. In the meantime, the bank inducted Uttam Prakash Agarwal in its board taking the current strength to seven members. Yes Bank's Search & Selection Committee (SSC) and the N&RC are scheduled to meet on 12 December to discuss the final shortlist for the new MD&CEO appointment. In September, the RBI decided against any extension for Rana Kapoor to continue as MD and CEO beyond 31 January, 2019 and asked the bank to find a replacement. According to sources, the RBI did not want him to continue on the position due to under-reporting of bad loans as well as laxity in corporate governance. The stock of Yes Bank was trading at Rs 162.55, down 11.25 percent, on BSE. The Delhi High Court has asked all the accused in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case to surrender soon. The Delhi High Court on Wednesday upheld the conviction of all 88 people found guilty in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case by the trial court, ANI reported. The court, dismissing the plea of all 88 convicts who were held guilty of rioting in East Delhi's Trilokpuri area and told them to surrender soon. CNN-News18 reported only 47 out of the 88 accused are alive. The 88 convicts were sentenced to five years by the trial court. The convicts challenged the 27 August, 1996, judgment of a sessions court which convicted 88 out of the 107 people arrested on 2 November, 1984, for rioting, burning houses and curfew violation. HS Phoolka, the advocate representing the victims and their families, told reporters the court criticised the delay in the case and recommended several measures to counter the violence arising from the riots. Phoolka also said that according to the FIR lodged in connection with the Trilokpuri incident, 95 people died in the rioting and 100 houses were burnt. "Their punishment is the same. They will have to complete their sentence. They have to surrender, Phoolka added Phoolka also said some of the convicted are Congress workers, but no Congress leaders were involved in this case. He also stated that the victims and their families expect justice in the cases of Congress leader Sajjan Kumar. Earlier on 20 November, a Delhi court pronounced death penalty to Yashpal Singh and life imprisonment to Naresh Sehrawat for killing two Sikhs during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. The court also slapped Rs 35 lakh fine on each of them. 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. Turning down the opposition's demand for a CBI probe into the recent attack on an RTI activist, Meghalaya home minister James K Sangma said on Tuesday that the government has decided to form a fact-finding committee to carry out an independent investigation into the incident. Shillong: Turning down the opposition's demand for a CBI probe into the attack on an RTI activist, Meghalaya home minister James K Sangma said on Tuesday that 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 8 November. 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 in Shillong. "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," James told a special session of Assembly. 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 a reassessment of the compensation paid to the two victims by the district administration. Kharshiing and her aide were paid Rs 12,700 each as compensation by the East Jaintia Hills district administration, last week. James, 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 to get "victimised". The system of parliamentary democracy in India largely runs on the basis of caste and communal vote banks, but these feudal forces that divide our people and keep us backward. They must be destroyed if we are to progress, but parliamentary democracy further entrenches them. Elections are being held for five state assemblies in India, and the parliamentary polls are due around May next year. Speculation is intense on who will win the Congress, BJP or other parties. However, a much more crucial yet seldom discussed question is whether the system of parliamentary democracy is at all suited to India, and if not, what is the alternative, and how can it be achieved? There is no doubt in my mind that the present system of parliamentary democracy and the state of affairs in India cannot continue for long as they are entirely unsuited to our country. Regardless of whether the BJP wins, or the Congress, or any other party, it will make no difference to the lives of our people. Let me explain. Our national goal must be to transform India into a modern, highly industrialised state, where our people can enjoy a high standard of living. We have two of the three requirements to bring about such transformation a huge pool of technical talent in the form of thousands of bright engineers, technicians, scientists, managers, doctors, etc; and immense natural resources. (India is not a small country like England or Japan but a sub continent.) However, the third requirement, which is the struggle for transformation by a broadly united citizenry, is unfortunately missing. It is this third, therefore, on which we must focus. Unfortunately, the system of parliamentary democracy adopted in India largely runs on the basis of caste and communal vote banks. Casteism and communalism are feudal forces that divide our people and keep us backward. They must be destroyed if we are to progress, but parliamentary democracy further entrenches them. Historically, all great transformations have been the work of the masses, who are the real creators of history. All great modern revolutions the British in the 17th Century, the American from 1775 to 1781, the French in 1789, the Russian in 1917 and the Chinese in 1949 were the work of the masses. But the problem in India is this: How can we rely on the Indian masses when they are deeply divided on the basis of caste, religion, language, race and region? How can we expect great deeds from them when to many, cow protection, "ghar wapasi" and building a Ram Mandir are more important than abolishing poverty, unemployment, child malnourishment, lack of healthcare and good education, among other necessities? On one hand, we need to rely on the masses to bring about a historical transformation in India, turning our country into the modern, scientific region, and on the other, the polity in India is led by casteism and communalism. How can this contradiction be broken? To my mind, there is only one solution to this, though it will need a lot of time and patience to achieve: We must first explain to the small, modern-minded section of our intelligentsia that our goal must be to establish a country where our people have a high standard of living. In other words, we must first educate the "educated" in our country. Intellectuals are the eyes of society, and without intellectuals, a society is blind. Unfortunately, most of the so-called intellectuals in India today academics, writers, mediapersons, etc are not genuine intellectuals; their minds are full of arrogance and bookish knowledge. But there is a small minority among them who are sincere and modest, with a genuine desire to learn. We must focus on them and educate them, for they will be leaders in times to come. However, since it is the people who create great historical transformations, we have to patiently wait until the masses recognise their true leaders from experience and unite behind them. Presently, most agitations in India are either casteist like the ones launched by the Patels, Jats or Dalits or communal, like the demand to build the Ram Mandir. However, even as the farmers' agitation cuts across caste and communal lines, it has no leaders with intellectual probity and is, therefore, bound to fail. It takes little time for an earthquake to make its effects felt, but an eternity for it to build momentum. The author is a former Supreme Court judge and former chairman for the Press Council of India Jatt spent most of his time in Kashmir emphasising on Jihad but his mission was cut short when he was arrested in 2014 from Shopian by Kulgam police. Srinagar: Often considered as an apt fulfilment of the void created by the killing of Lashkar-e-Taibas well-known Kashmir face Abu Dujana, the elimination of Naveed Jatt alias Abu Hanzullah alias Munnu alias Chotu on Wednesday has created the vacuum yet again for the terror outfit. On Wednesday, Jatt was killed in Chatergam area of Budgam district early morning when a team of Rashtriya Rifles, Kashmir Police and CRPF cordoned off the house he was trapped in. He was one among the two militants killed during the gunfight that ensued. Two soldiers were also injured in the encounter. "He was operating for many years in the Valley. It is a big achievement since it was on his instructions so many atrocities were committed against civilians. He also forced young boys into militancy," said Jammu and Kashmir, Director General of Police, Dilbag Singh. The son of a Multan trucker in Pakistan, Jatt was LeTs deputy chief at the time of his arrest in 2014, which was termed as a major breakthrough by the forces. He was booked in FIR No 42/2014 under sections 302 of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC) and Section 27 Arms Act and Section 14 of The Foreigners Act. He was involved in the killing of an ASI in Pulwama and a CRPF man in 2013, police record reveals. He was also involved in another attack in which five policemen and two civilians were seriously injured. Besides, he has also been involved in many rifle snatching attempts. A police officer who interrogated Jatt in 2014 terms him as the trained to the hilt combatant, who could have killed anyone with his bare hands. Jatt spent most of his time in Kashmir emphasising on Jihad but his mission was cut short when he was arrested in 2014 from Shopian by Kulgam police. But Jatts boy-faced simplicity simply betrayed his ruthlessness as a militant in Kashmirs new age militancy, which was ably sparked by many Pakistan-based militants, some of whom later became poster boys. After Abu Qasim and Abu Dujana, Naveed Jatt was the familiar face from the other side active in the Valley. It was his dramatic escape from the police custody early this year on 6 February that created sensational headlines. Not only he escaped from Srinagars SMHS Hospital, but he also ended up killing two constables. Perhaps, in post-2010 Kashmir insurgent history, Jattt escape easily fared as the most rattling insurgent event. And even before the police would activate its men and machinery to nab him, he was well-placed in Kashmirs deep south, where he clicked pictures with Hizbs former charismatic commander, Saddam Padder. His killing is a shot in the arm for us, said a top police officer. Problem is militants of his sway and stature work like catalysts in Kashmir. They motivate young impressionable boys to pick up arms and go for the suicidal trip. In the busy world of counterinsurgency in Kashmir, the likes of well-trained militant like Jatt are often passed as some competition as compared to his ill-trained and ill-equipped Kashmiri counterparts. And therefore his killing is being termed as a departure from the routine killing of local militants in Kashmir. After top LeT commander Azad Maliks recent killing in an encounter in Anantnag, Jatt is the second prime accused in Bukhari's assassination to be killed. Bukhari was leaving his office in Srinagar, when three assailants riding on a motorcycle shot him and his two bodyguards on 14 June this year. Despite being named by the police as the editors assassin, Jatts popularity as a militant grew with his regular gun-salute appearances on militant funerals. A close aide to Abu Qasim, Jatt was operating in the Valley since 2012. He had infiltrated into Kashmir along with seven other militants between October and November that year. They entered through Athmuqam Farkian area in Kupwara sector, a police report said. Jatt and 22 other terrorists hid in Bandipora jungle for over six months between December 2012 and May 2013 before he was sent to Pulwama along with Ashiq Lone, another militant. They were equipped with mobile phones and SIM Cards, and taught how to contact Pakistan-based terrorist leaders through Skype, the report said. Charged under the Arms Act, Jatt was initially lodged in the Kathua jail, before shifted to Srinagar Central Jail in 2017. During interrogation, Jatt had confessed to being trained at the LeT headquarters of Muridke besides Muzaffarabad. He even confessed to his meeting with Mumbai attacker Ajmal Kasab at a training camp, a police officer said. Now, with his killing, the Pakistan-based terror outfits have lost their poster boy in Kashmir. Two soldiers were injured and two militants, including Jatt, were killed in the Budgam encounter, which broke out during a cordon and search operation being run by security forces. Director General of Police (DGP) of Jammu and Kashmir Dilbagh Singh on Wednesday confirmed that top Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Naveed Jatt a prime suspect in the murder of senior Kashmiri journalist Shujaat Bukhari on 14 June was one of the two terrorists killed in the Budgam encounter earlier in the day. Two soldiers were injured and two militants, including Jatt, were killed in the Budgam encounter. The gunfight broke out as a cordon and search operation was launched after security forces received specific information about the presence of militants in the district's Kuthpora Chattergam area. As the search party closed in on the militants, they opened fired on the security forces, triggering the encounter. Naveed Jatt alias Hanzalla "was known as the commander of proscribed terror outfit LeT", the Jammu and Kashmir Police said in a statement. "He was wanted by law for his complicity in a series of terror crimes, including the killing of noted journalist Shujaat Bukhari, attacks on security establishments and many other civilian atrocities." The police said Jatt was "part of terrorist Ajmal Kasab's group at a madrassa in Pakistan, where he had undergone arms training". He infiltrated the Valley "along with his associates" in October 2012, "as per police records". Jatt has a long list of crimes since 2012. The police had managed to take him into custody in 2014, but he escaped from custody in February 2018 while being taken to SMHS hospital in Srinagar for medical treatment from the Central Jail Srinagar. Two policemen were killed in the firing that ensued. ANI quoted Singh saying: "Those involved in the killing of innocent people in the Kulgam, Pulwama and Shopian belt were neutralised. As per ground verification, top LeT commander Naveed Jatt was one of the two terrorists killed today." At a press conference in Srinagar, Singh told reporters Jatt's killing was good news for the people of the Valley. "People were being inconvenienced. Youth were either lured into terrorism, or killed by terrorists. I am sure people will now breathe a sigh of relief," he added. Singh also told the press that the Budgam encounter was a joint operation of the Indian Army, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the Jammu and Kashmir Police. The bodies of the militants have been retrieved from the site of the encounter. The police said they had recovered incriminating materials, including arms and ammunition, from the location. A case has been registered, and an investigation has been initiated. Meanwhile, authorities have suspended mobile internet services in Budgam and Pulwama districts. Jatt, along with two local terrorists were accused of killing Bukhari, editor-in-chief of English daily Rising Kashmir, on 14 June. Jatt is believed to have been one of the three bike-borne individuals who had gunned Bukhari down outside his office at Press Enclave in Srinagar. According to the police, he was also involved in the killing of an assistant sub-inspector in Pulwama on May 2013, a series of grenade attacks on security forces and the killing of CRPF personnel at Awneera Shopian in August 2013, among several other such crimes in Jammu and Kashmir. According to reports, more than 220 terrorists have been killed in Kashmir Valley in 2018 under Operation All Out. On Tuesday, three militants, including two militants of the terror group Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT) and one from Ansar Ghazwatul Hind, an Islamic State offshoot, and a soldier were killed. Two jawans suffered injuries in two separate encounters in Jammu and Kashmir's Kulgam and Pulwama districts, the police said. In the Kulgam encounter, two militants of the terror group Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT) were killed, while the one killed in Pulwama belonged to the Ansar Ghazwatul Hind, an Islamic State offshoot, they said. On Sunday, an Indian Army soldier and six terrorists were killed in an encounter in Kapran Batagund area of Shopian district. A civilian was also killed in the clashes that followed, while four other local residents were injured in the crossfire near the site of the encounter, triggering further clashes between groups of youth and security forces in the area. With inputs from agencies Under the direction of the prime minister, central ministers, since assuming office in 2014, have been visiting the North East 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. Shillong: Congress legislator HM Shangpliang on Tuesday took a jibe at the frequent visits of central ministers to the North East, 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 prime minister, central ministers, since assuming office in 2014, have been visiting the North East 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. 28 November, 2018: Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram will go to polls today; Chandrababu Naidu will campaign with Rahul Gandhi in Telangana today; Narendra Modi will address political rallies today in Rajasthan; here are the top stories for the day Madhya Pradesh goes to polls today: 2,899 candidates in fray for 230 seats 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. As many as 2,899 candidates, including 1,094 independents are in the fray. The state has 5.04 crore voters. 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 has started at 7 am and continue till 3 pm. Mizoram votes today, over 7.68 lakh expected to exercise right to franchise After high-octane campaigning, Assembly election in Mizoram is set to take place on Wednesday with as many as 209 candidates in fray for the 40-member Legislative Assembly. The state will be witnessing a single-phase election and results will be declared on 11 December. The Congress party, which has been in power in Mizoram since 2008, is eyeing a third consecutive term in the state. In the previous election in 2013, Congress had fielded 40 candidates and won 34 seats whereas Mizo National Front (MNF) secured only five seats after contesting in 31 seats. Mizoram People's Conference (MPC) had contested in eight seats but it managed to bag only one. Both Congress and MNF are contesting all 40 constituencies this time while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is fighting in 39 seats. Mizoram has 7,70,395 registered voters who will cast their franchise in 1,164 polling booths across the state. The authorities have decided to connect all polling booths through wireless communication for the first time leaving no "shadow areas" at all. Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan to lay foundation stone for Kartarpur Corridor on Wednesday Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday will lay the foundation stone for the much-awaited corridor linking Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan's Kartarpur the final resting place of Sikh faith's founder Guru Nanak Dev to Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India's Gurdaspur district to facilitate visa-free movement of Indian Sikh pilgrims. The Kartarpur Corridor, which will facilitate the visa-free travel of Indian Sikh pilgrims to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, is expected to be completed within six months, Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal said on Tuesday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday hoped that the Kartarpur Corridor would act as a bridge between the people of India and Pakistan that might lead to a better future as he referred to the fall of the Berlin Wall to underline the importance of people-to-people contact. Union ministers Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Singh Puri will attend the groundbreaking ceremony of the corridor in Kartarpur. Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu has also arrived in Lahore for the ceremony. On Monday, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh laid the foundation stone of the corridor in Gurdaspur. Narendra Modi to address series of rallies in Rajasthan Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address rallies in poll-bound Rajasthan on Wednesday. The rallies will take place in Nagaur and Bharatpur. The 200-member Rajasthan Assembly will go to polls on 7 December and the results will be announced on 11 December. Modi on Tuesday, while addressing a rally in Telangana lacerated Telangana's ruling TRS and the Congress for perpetuating "family rule" and pursuing "vote bank" politics that harm development like "termites". Chandrababu Naidu to campaign with Rahul Gandhi in Telangana today TDP president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu will campaign for the Telangana Assembly polls along with Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday, TDP sources had said. Naidu would take part in the electioneering along with Gandhi on 28 and 29 November, the sources had said. TDP and Congress are contesting the 7 December polls in Telangana as part of the "grand alliance" which also comprises the CPI and Telangana Jana Samiti (TJS). Naidu, who has been making efforts to put together an anti-BJP front, had met Gandhi earlier this month. Realme U1 featuring a MediaTek Helio P70 chipset to launch at 12.30 pm today Realme is expected to launch the first smartphone sporting a MediaTek Helio P70 chipset, the Realme U1 on Wednesday at an event which is expected to begin at 12:30 pm. Not a lot is known about the phone, but Realme claims that device will sport the "most powerful selfie camera ever." Now, that statement is obviously to be taken with dollops full of salt but one does get the drift. Based on what can be made of the teasers so far, the U1 is also expected to feature a display with a waterdrop notch. Film industry needs to pay writers more, says Aamir Khan Aamir Khan feels the Hindi film industry needs to pay more to writers, who are a fundamental part of the moviemaking process. "I choose my film on the basis of scripts, so I think writers are the most important aspect of filmmaking because a story is the origin of a film. When a writer writes a good script, after that we all associate with that project. In that sense, a writer is actually the fundamental person in this whole process," he said. Aamir said he is trying to create a revenue model for writers in the industry, in collaboration with writers and producers. Delhiites woke up to a thick haze hanging over the city as the air quality was recorded in the 'very poor' category. The overall air quality index (AQI) of Delhi was recorded at 316, according to Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data. New Delhi: Delhiites woke up to a thick haze hanging over the city as the air quality was recorded in the 'very poor' category. The overall air quality index (AQI) of Delhi was recorded at 316, according to Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data. Thick haze envelopes Delhi, air quality 'very poor'; wind speed and ventilation index 'extremely unfavourable' The level of PM2.5 particles in the air with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometres was recorded at 159 and the PM10 level was recorded at 316, it said. In NCR, Ghaziabad, Faridabad and Noida recorded 'very poor' air quality while Gurgaon recorded 'poor' air quality, the CPCB data showed. An AQI between 0 and 50 is considered 'good', 51 and 100 'satisfactory', 101 and 200 'moderate', 201 and 300 'poor', 301 and 400 'very poor', and 401 and 500 'severe'. The CPCB said 22 areas of Delhi recorded 'very poor' air quality while 13 areas recorded 'poor' air quality. According to the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, a haze has engulfed Delhi and the wind speed and ventilation index are "extremely unfavourable" for dispersion of pollutants. Ventilation index determines how fast pollutants can get dispersed. The ventilation index of around 6,000 sqm/second gets rid of pollutants, but it came down to 1,500 sqm/second on Tuesday in the city. "The air quality is very poor and as expected, gradual increasing trend is noticed," the Centre-run System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting (SAFAR) said. "It is likely to remain very poor with a gradual increasing trend till Wednesday without any major episode and then likely to decline, but (will) continue to remain in very poor (category)," it said. The agrarian crisis did not happen overnight. The problem started after 1991-92 until then, both farm and non-farm sectors grew at the same level. Editor's note: This article is the second 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. The agrarian crisis did not happen overnight. As a Niti Aayog report shows, the problem started after 1991-92 until then, both farm and non-farm sectors grew at the same level. After 1991-92, the non-farm sectors took off to a higher growth trajectory (following economic liberalisation) to more than 8 percent while the farm sector remained stuck, with the long-term growth trend of a mere 2.8 percent. Liberalisation opened up agriculture trade but did little else. Broadly speaking, three key policy challenges were identified for this: a sharp decline in output growth, steady decline in public sector investment in agriculture and a need to improve competitiveness in the agro-food chain by enhancing efficiency in production, marketing and agro-processing. The decline in investment is arguably the most critical part. Starting with the National Agriculture Policy of 2000, several policy measures have been taken to improve investment, particularly encourage private investment, but the decline continues. The Agriculture Statistics of 2017 shows that while public investment has remained more or less static between 2011-12 and 2016-17 0.3 to 0.4 percent of GDP (based on 2011-12 series, at market price) private investment has progressively gone down from 2.7 to 1.8 percent, dragging the overall investment from 3.1 percent of GDP in 2011-12 to 2.2 percent in 2016-17. One of the policy measures adopted to overcome this has been to improve credit supply to agriculture. The Economic Survey of 2014-15 showed that agriculture credit increased substantially since the turn of the century annual growth rate going up from 8 percent in 1981-91 to 17.8 percent in 2001-2011 but it also pointed out that there has been a sharp increase in the share of large-sized loans...which warrants scrutiny. Study of the RBI data by R Ramakumar of TISS showed that the share of direct agriculture loans of less than Rs 2 lakh (in the total amount disbursed) progressively went down from 86.2 percent in 1990 to 44.3 percent in 2010. At the end of March 2017 (up to which data is available), the RBI data shows that this has gone further down to 40.28 percent meaning that a larger share of credit continues to go to rich farmers and agri-businesses, rather than small and marginal farmers which is the policy objective of liberalising credit disbursement norms. While we are on loans to farmers, here is some food for thought. Every time farmers loans are waived, bankers and economists go ballistic. No less than RBI governor Urjit Patel reacted sharply to it by saying (in April 2017) that farm loan waivers undermine an honest credit culture, increasing cost of borrowing for others and eventually affect national balance sheet. In sharp contrast, no one of any significance has ever uttered such harsh words when corporate loans are written off as NPAs which is routine and much higher in magnitude and thus pose a far greater risk to the economy and credit culture, by Patels own logic. Here is how. According to the RBIs 2017 report Operations and Performance of Commercial Banks, agricultures share in the total bank NPAs stood at a mere 8.3 percent (or Rs 60,200 crore) while that of the non-priority sector (industry and infrastructure) was a whopping 76.7 percent (Rs 5,58,500 crore) at the end of March 2017. At the end of March 2016, the situation was similar agricultures share of NPAs was a mere 8.6 percent (Rs 48,800 crore) against that of the non-priority sectors 75.2 percent (Rs 4,25,700 crore). So, which loan waiver should raise the eyebrows of policy makers, economists and bankers farm or non-farm? Another key policy thrust in agriculture has been to provide crop insurance to protect farmers from natural calamities another major cause of farm distress. The Centre for Science and Environment assessed the flagship Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) and found several flaws sum insured is substantially lower than the scale of finance (cost of cultivation plus some profit) reducing farmers claims; inadequate and delayed claim payment; delayed payment of premium by states; negligible coverage of sharecroppers and tenants etc. There is yet another issue. In the last two years, 2016-17 and 2017-18, the difference between the premiums received and the compensations paid by the insurance companies amounts to Rs 16,000 crore according to the Union agriculture ministry data accessed through an RTI. Farmers pay only 1.5 to 5 percent of the premium while the rest is shared equally by the Centre and states. The question is: Should this money not be put to better use by investing in agriculture instead of handing over to the insurance companies (all of which are now private) as profit? Raising farmers income is yet another policy debacle. On multiple occasions, the Niti Aayog has said the avowed policy of the government to double it by 2022 is not possible and that the real income of farmers has been declining between 2011-12 and 2015-16. Doubling the income would require output growth to be accelerated by 33 percent and a higher price realisation the Niti Aayog said in its policy paper of 2017. The rise in minimum support price (MSP) as a direct method of higher price realisation has not kept pace with the rise in input costs for years and hence, the demand to implement the Swaminathan Commission formula continues. Moreover, in absence of commensurate public procurement, market prices remain below MSP, both post-kharif and post-rabi harvests, making a mockery of higher MSP. A recent report (there are, in fact, many such reports throughout this year) shows that the prices of cereal, paddy, oilseed and cotton crashed in more than 1,700 markets in October. This also demonstrates that the market reforms have failed to bring better price realisation to farmers. On the other hand, input costs have been going up. Except for urea, which is under government control, the prices of other fertilisers, seeds, herbicides, pesticides and diesel routinely go up and the government can do nothing about it, having de-controlled these items as a part of the liberalisation process. How does one increase farmers income if neither input costs nor output prices can be managed by the government or market? This leaves another critical issue: land. The overwhelming presence of small and marginal landholdings and landless (92.82 percent as per the last NSSO data) which are on a nosedive are not only bad for productivity but also bad for institutional credit, insurance and other government support. To overcome this, the Niti Aayog has come out with a model agricultural land leasing law for the states to follow (T Haque committee report). Implementing this model law would need the states (land is a state subject) to amend their land laws, particularly those relating to tenancy rights. So far, this is a non-starter and the future does not seem particularly bright since hardly any farmer with surplus land is expected to risk giving land on long-term lease (which is essential to make an investment on land for better productivity). Who will guarantee that the tenancy rights will not be restored in the long term? The only meaningful land reform attempted after zamindari was abolished, land ceiling was imposed and surplus and wasteland was distributed among the landless in the first three decades after independence is the Forest Rights Act of 2006. It gave ownership rights over the forest land and forest resources to the tribals and other forest dwellers, who have been residing in these forests for generations but their rights have not been officially recorded. It should have been implemented in two years (by 2008). But, according to the latest update from the tribal affairs ministry, as on 31 August, 2018, only 44.6 percent of claims have been granted so far not to talk of the potential lost due to lack of awareness among the tribals about their rights (particularly the community forest rights) and reluctance of the state governments and their forest departments to do an honest job of it. To conclude, the above narration is by no means exhaustive but is an attempt to provide a big picture to put the agrarian crisis in perspective and highlight the inadequacies of the policy responses to it. Evidently, sops, half-hearted measures or political skulduggery would make no difference. What is needed is a macroeconomic vision, accompanied with appropriate policies, plans and strategies. This would essentially involve an overhauling of the existing mechanisms which have spectacularly failed to take care of half of Indias workforce and more than two-thirds of its population who are agriculture dependent. Until that happens, farmers, landless and tribals have no option other than periodically marching to the seats of power. Click here to read Part 1 Farmers plan march in New Delhi: Agrarian crisis is deep and pervasive, but not fully appreciated or remedied Though the exact cause of fire is yet to be ascertained, officials suspect that it could have spread due to LPG gas cylinder explosions A major fire broke out at Patil Estate lane near Shivajinagar in Pune on Wednesday afternoon, media reports said on Wednesday. #Visuals from Maharashtra: Fire has broken out in a slum area at Patil Estate Lane no 3, near Shivajinagar in Pune. 6 fire tenders have been rushed to the spot. More details awaited. pic.twitter.com/6qGprKqZ3R ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 At least 30 fire tenders were rushed to the spot to douse the flames. No casualties have been reported so far but several houses were damaged in the inferno. The blaze could not be brought under control for nearly three hours. Though the exact cause of fire is yet to be ascertained, officials suspect that it could have spread due to LPG gas cylinder explosions. A huge cloud of smoke was seen billowing out of the lane where the fire engulfed some houses. Quoting fire brigade officials, Hindustan Times reported the fire first broke out in lane number 3 of the slum area and then spread to other parts. The report further said that the road traffic was affected in the area due to the presence of fire tenders. Vehicular movement was stopped on the Wakdewadi bridge towards Pune railway station. This is the second such incident to have taken place in Maharashtra this week. On Tuesday, three people, including a fire official, were injured after a fire broke out in a slum in Shashtri Nagar area in Mumbai. In October this year, two people were killed when a fire broke out in another slum area of Pune. That time it was caused due to a gas cylinder explosion in a shanty located at Dalvinagar in Pimpri Chinchwad area on the citys outskirts. With inputs from ANI The Opposition has launched an offensive on Narendra Modi and his government, alleging corruption and favouritism in the Rs 58,000-crore Rafale fighter jet deal Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) CEO R Madhavan in an interview answered questions over the Rafale deal negotiations with Dassault Aviation, saying that the deal breaker was because of disagreement over technology transfer and that HAL man hour rates are lower than global rates. The CEO also asserted that the focus must be on the final cost. The clarifications came from the CEO after BJP minister Babul Supriyo on 27 September had indicated that HAL lost on the Rafale deal because it quoted 2.57 times more man-hours to build fighter jets. In an interview with CNN-News18, Madhavan also said that HAL is not actively looking for any offset business offers and said that "we work in offset business if it is in our domain." Madhavan had further stated that HAL is primarily engaged in manufacturing aircraft and it has technology transfer agreement with foreign original equipment manufacturer (OEM) but as far as offset is concerned, "we are not going to actively pursue offset deal." While talking about the deal with Dassault, he said that first quote by the French aviation firm was 170 percent higher. HAL was to produce 108 fighter jets locally in a joint venture with French firm Dassault Aviation in the deal for 126 Rafale jets that the previous UPA regime had negotiated. The state-owned firm, however, was left out in the deal as the present government signed to buy 36 fighter jets in 'fly-away' condition from France, reported PTI. In an interview with news agency ANI, Dassault CEO Eric Trappier was questioned about the initial agreement with HAL and the subsequent breakdown of talks with the Indian PSU for production of Rafale jets. Trappier had said that if the initial deal of 126 jets went through they would not have hesitated to work with HAL and Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance. "It's because the 126 didn't go smooth that the Government of India had to reconfigure to urgently acquire 36 from France. And then I took the decision to continue with Reliance, and HAL even said in the last few days that they were not interested to be part of the offset. So, it has been done by my decision and the decision of Reliance to invest in a new private company," added Trappier. With inputs from PTI Astha Sarmah, a 18-year-old girl from Jorhat, Assam, stormed the Internet by taking on Donald Trump over the latter's mocking the phenomenon of global warming Guwahati: A teenaged 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 21 November in Washington, Trump had tweeted "Brutal and Extended Cold Blast could shatter ALL RECORDS Whatever happened to Global Warming?" To the tweet, 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 US appreciating the teenager for her reply to the US President. 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 climate change on the Arabian Sea. ABC/Adam RosePharrell Williams has teamed with the British rock band Coldplay to release the first single from the Global Citizen EP1 called E-Lo featuring Jozzy. Coldplay recorded the song under the pseudonym Los Unidades. The Afro-beat track is one of four songs on the EP which will be released Friday. Proceeds from the EP will support Global Citizens campaign to end extreme poverty. Pharrell will be among the performers at the Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100 concert on December 2 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Trevor Noah will host the event which will also feature Jay-Z, Beyonce, Usher, Naomi Campbell, Gayle King, and Tyler Perry. At the event, Oprah Winfrey will give a special keynote address honoring the legacy of South Africas first black president, Nelson Mandela. Mandela was born in 1918 and would have turned 100 this year. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Research like gene-edited babies is prohibited in China, an official of The Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of China said on Tuesday. [Photo:VCG] A report published on Monday raised a heated discussion around the world about gene modification. He Jiankui, a Chinese scientist who works at the Southern University of Science and Technology, helped create the world's first babies whose genes have been genetically edited to be resistant to the deadly HIV/AIDS viruses. The Ethical Guiding Principles for the Research of Human Embryonic Stem Cell which was published by the Chinese government in 2003 states that scientists are allowed to conduct genetic editing to human embryos only for research purposes, but the time for their in-vitro breeding shall not exceed 14 days from the date of fertilization or nucleus transplant. "We don't know if this work is real or fake. If it's real, then this is certainly banned in China. Xu Nanping, Vice Minister of MOST, said in an event held by the State Council Information Office of China on Tuesday. [Photo:VCG] Scientists and researchers in China are strongly opposed to the use of gene-editing technology on human embryos. China's Genetics Society and the Chinese Society for Stem Cell Research said in a statement that He 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. The Chinese Union of Life Science Societies said in a statement released on Tuesday that they absolutely oppose illegal research on gene-edit babies and will investigate and punish the institution involved. BIpin Rawat's statement came amid Prime Minister Imran Khan pitching for better ties with India during the corridor's ground breaking ceremony in Pakistan. New Delhi: Army Chief Bipin Rawat said Tuesday the Kartarpur Sahib corridor should be seen in isolation and not be linked to anything else. His statement came amid Prime Minister Imran Khan pitching for better ties with India during the corridor's ground breaking ceremony in Pakistan. "Everyone says give peace a chance, something should happen. What has our government said today? Our government has said this (the Kartarpur Sahib corridor) is to be seen in isolation. "Do not link it to anybody else. This is a one-sided decision and it has no link to any other thing," Rawat told reporters in New Delhi. Rawat was responding to media queries on Khan's appeal and Khalistani Gopal Chawla being seen with Pakistan Army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa during the ceremony. Earlier in the day, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said in Hyderabad that there will be no dialogue with Pakistan unless it desists from terrorist activities against India. She also said the Kartarpur corridor initiative connecting Sikh faith's founder Guru Nanak Dev's final resting place in Kartarpur to the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India's Gurdaspur district was not linked to the dialogue process with Pakistan. The Human Freedom Index 2017 compiled annually by the Cato Institute named Switzerland, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Finland, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom as the most-free nations. India ranked 102nd, behind Indonesia and Turkey. The Human Freedom Index 2017 compiled annually by the Cato Institute named Switzerland, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Finland, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom as the most-free nations. India ranked 102nd, behind Indonesia and Turkey. The absolute bottom of the list is brought up by nations like Angola, Burundi and Congo. Which side of the list would we rather be? Obviously the top, but that cannot happen in the dearth of freedom. Nations that allow freedom of speech tend to be wealthy. Reporters Without Borders annually compiles a World Press Freedom Index that looks at how free the media are. The top 10 nations here are Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland, Switzerland, Jamaica, Belgium, New Zealand, Denmark and Costa Rica. India, again, is ranked towards the bottom, clubbed with Pakistan, China and other nations where there is free speech in theory but not in practice. There is a direct correlation between free speech and wealth, free speech and power, and free speech and prosperity. Journalist Abhijit Iyer Mitra has been in jail since 20 September for the sarcastic tweets he put out on temples in Odisha. He has accepted he said what he said, and he has apologised for it. The state government, however, has been unforgiving and so, unfortunately, have the courts. On the subcontinent, we have regressed on the matter of free speech and religion. People had more freedom to say what they wanted to half a century ago. This is remarkable but it is true. On 27 May, 1953, the Tamil reformer EV Ramaswami Naicker, known as Periyar, smashed an idol of Lord Ganesha in public at the Town Hall maidan in Tiruchirapalli. Naicker, who was angered by Hinduisms caste system, made a speech announcing his intention to do this before breaking the idol. Veerabadran Chettiar, an offended Hindu, filed a case under two laws, Section 295 (injuring and defiling a place of worship) and 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings). The first charge jailed for up to two years whoever destroys, damages or defiles any place of worship, or any object held sacred by any class of persons. The second gave three years to whoever, with deliberate and malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings of any class of citizens of India, by words, either spoken or written, or by signs or by visible representations or otherwise, insults or attempts to insult the religion or the religious beliefs of people. The Tiruchirapalli magistrate dismissed the petition. On the first charge, he said that simply because the mud figure resembled Lord Ganesha it cannot become an object held sacred. He accepted an offence was made out on the second charge (295A), but that law required government sanction for the case to be registered, which had not come. He dismissed that also. The petitioner appealed. The sessions judge dismissed the appeal. He agreed with the magistrate, saying the idol was the private property of those who broke it. It is difficult to imagine this happening in India today, and we are not alone here. Only seven cases of blasphemy were registered in undivided India and Pakistan from 1927 to 1986, according to a study. Pakistan's National Commission for Justice and Peace says that after 1986, there were 1,058 cases of blasphemy registered. What changed in 1986? Pakistan made blasphemy punishable by death. Till that year, India and Pakistan had identical laws, Section 295 and 295A, covering the offence, originally written by Thomas Babington Macaulay. The harsher punishment produced more reckless allegations. Of the accused, 456 were Ahmadis, 449 were Muslims, 132 were Christians and 21 were Hindus. Non-Muslims, who are four percent of Pakistans population, are 57 percent of those charged with blasphemy. This indicates that the law is used to go after the vulnerable. The other aspect is that, by far, the majority of cases are filed in Pakistans Punjab. It was in that state that a Christian woman Aasia Bibi was sentenced to death and spent years in jail before being acquitted by the Supreme Court. The cold facts are that we have regressed as people on the issue of free speech generally and free speech and religion in particular; and this is holding us back as a nation, as the rankings of nations quite clearly show. If we cannot let Iyer Mitra and others like him speak freely, we offend against ourselves in the long run. The author is the Executive Director of Amnesty International India The key to the winning formula is to neutralise far more terrorists than can be recruited in Jammu and Kashmir. That, coupled with effective outreach and quality governance, will ensure a peaceful future in the Valley. The 50 Rashtriya Rifles is one of the most prolific units of the Indian Army deployed in a crucial part of the counter-terror grid in South-Central Kashmir. It is responsible for the security of the corridor along the Nowgam-Pulwama Road between Pampore and the airport, extending to the east of the national highway. Here, in its area of responsibility a veritable hell-hole as far as terrorist concentration is concerned Naveed Jatt was reported to be hiding. A swift operation conducted in coordination with the Jammu and Kashmir Police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) ensured that two terrorists were killed at Chattergam in Budgam district, including Jatt. Who is Naweed Jatt? A top Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander who has been operating in the Valley since 2012, he shot to prominence after his daring escape from the Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Civil Hospital in Srinagar on 6 February, 2018, where he had been taken for medical treatment under police escort after his arrest in 2014. But much more importantly, Jatt was identified as the man who, after his escape, led the hit squad that gunned down prominent journalist and chief editor of Rising Kashmir, Shujaat Bukhari, on 14 June. Security forces, with some excellent coordination between the Rashtriya Rifles, the Special Operations Group of the state police and the CRPF, have eliminated as many as 222 terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir this year. This was not by any new strategy but a continuation of the basics in a far more refined and coordinated manner. Operation All Out, which commenced last year, set a high in the joint strategy of the security forces. The 222 figure is the best security forces came to in the past decade in the Valley. For interest, it is good to know that in 13 days since 15 November, 22 terrorists have been neutralised in Jammu and Kashmir. In the same month in 1999, a total of 45 terrorists had been gunned down in the same areas of South Kashmir. However, to the credit of the current campaign, the strength of terrorists in the Valley is estimated to be not more than 300 to 350, with the majority of them in South Kashmir. In 1999, their strength was anywhere between 2,000 to 3,000 terrorists. The creditable aspect here is the fact that security forces did not lose their focus from eliminating terrorist leaders with regularity. On 27 November, Shakir Hassan Dar, deputy to high-profile terrorist Zakir Musa, who is the head of al Qaeda-affiliate Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, was killed at the core centre of terror in Kashmir, Pulwama district's Tral sector. Elimination of terrorist leaders puts the cadres in a quandary as most of them are greenhorns who do not have much idea about planning and executing such operations. They become easy prey to the operations of the security forces. In 2011, one of the longest-surviving LeT terrorist leaders, Abdulla Uni, was killed in a focused operation in Sopore, in which a joint team had tracked him for some time. His elimination created a major flux in terrorist ranks, as did the killing of 18 other leaders that year, leading terrorist leaders to make desperate attempts to infiltrate the Valley. Many of them were eliminated in counter-infiltration operations along the LoC. Security forces have used the same strategy most effectively the past two years with good results. The high achievement in terms of anti-terrorist operations could not have been possible without the continuous flow of actionable intelligence. To offset such exchange of information, terror groups initiated a campaign to target Special Police Officers (SPO), most of whom live in villages and are the eyes and ears of the Jammu and Kashmir Police the main intelligence provider because of its connect with local residents. A large number of SPOs and former SPOs were abducted and killed to create a fear psychosis in the police ranks. When this did not entirely succeed, the terror groups, in the past couple of weeks, switched their focus on the local youth, who they suspect have been instrumental in the flow of intelligence. It is to the credit of the local youth that despite intimidation attempts through social media video posts of abducted youth being executed, the flow of intelligence has not dried up. The recent successes in anti-terror operations are a result of these intelligence sources. In the dynamic environment of the security situation in Kashmir, terrorists, under the guidance of their handlers across the LoC, change their strategy from time to time, but they don't lose their initiative. However, if the coordination and cooperation between security forces is of a high order, counter-measures are usually speedily adopted. Since 2015, the phenomenon most noticeable has been the attempt to intimidate security forces once they are informed about the presence of a terrorist hideout. To prevent the forces from closing in on the target hideout, mobs are gathered through social media and the forces are subjected to stone-pelting. The CRPF handles this attempt at intimidation and has become proficient in it. It is also good to be aware that in nearly all operations, the terrorists are given a chance to surrender before the forces begin their process of neutralisation. In a recent operation in Kulgam, a young local terrorist was convinced to surrender, even as the Pakistani terrorist holed up with him refused to do so and was killed. While these operations are achieving significant results, it must be remembered that more efforts need to be made to prevent local recruitment. As many as 164 local youth picked up the gun this year. Coupled with some successful infiltration from across the LoC, the vacuum created by the 222 terrorists killed has nearly been filled, thus allowing the terror movement to continue. The key to the winning formula is to neutralise far more than can be recruited or infiltrated into Kashmir. That, coupled with effective outreach and quality governance, will ensure a peaceful future in Jammu and Kashmir. Phule is regarded as an important figure of the Social Reform Movement in Maharashtra. On Wednesday, leaders across party line paid tribute to Jyotiba Phule on his 128th death anniversary. Jyotirao Govindrao Phule, also known as Mahatma Phule, was an activist, thinker, social reformer and writer from Maharashtra and was known for his efforts towards social reform, women empowerment and education. Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said on social media that he and Maharashtra Council Chairman Ramraje Nimbalkar and Assembly Speaker Haribhau Bagde paid tribute to Mahatma Phule at the Vidhan Bhavan. Paid humble tributes to Mahatma Jyotiba Phule on his PunyaTithi at Vidhan Bhavan, this morning. Maharashtra Council Chairman Ramraje Nimbalkar ji, Assembly Speaker Haribhau Bagde ji and my colleague Ministers were present too. pic.twitter.com/O4EnHZc73N Devendra Fadnavis (@Dev_Fadnavis) November 28, 2018 The Congress Party also remembered the social reformer: Jyotirao Phule was one of the most prolific social reformers in our history. He consistently fought for the rights of minority communities & advocated against untouchability & for women's emancipation. pic.twitter.com/SknSxSD6p1 Congress (@INCIndia) November 28, 2018 Congress leader Ashok Gehlot tweeted: My tributes to Mahatma Jyotiba Phule. He was one of the foremost champions of social justice, who strived for equal rights for all regardless of caste n creed. He dedicated his entire life for upliftment of downtrodden n for women's education. Let us follow the path shown by him. pic.twitter.com/pkSpRnnwi0 Ashok Gehlot (@ashokgehlot51) November 28, 2018 Union minister for Commerce and Industry and Civil Aviation Suresh Prabhu tweeted: "Remembering the social reformer, visionary and writer from Maharashtra, Mahatma Jyotiba Phule ji on his death anniversary. His contribution towards the upliftment of the marginalised sections of the society is an inspiration for future generations." Champion of underprivileged Phule was born on 1 April, 1827, and died on 28 November, 1890. He worked towards eradicating untouchability and the caste system, emancipating women and the reform of Hindu family life. In September 1873, Phule, along with his followers, formed the Satyashodhak Samaj (Society of Seekers of Truth) to attain equal rights for economically-disadvantaged and people from the lower castes. Phule is regarded as an important figure of the Social Reform Movement in Maharashtra. He and his wife, Savitribai Phule, were pioneers of women's education in India. He is most known for his efforts to educate women and those from the lower castes. Phule opened the first school for girls in India in August 1848 and later started schools for children from Dalit castes of Mahar and Mang. He championed the remarriage of widows and started a home for lower and upper caste widows in 1854, as well as a home for new-born infants to prevent female infanticide. Phule tried to eliminate the stigma of social untouchability surrounding the lower castes by opening his home and the use of his water-well to members of the lower castes. With inputs from ANI The Congress on 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. New Delhi: The Congress on 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 kilometre-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 26 November 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. Navjot Singh Sidhu and two other Indian politicians attended Kartarpur Corridor ground-breaking ceremony, at which Imran Khan laid the foundation stone. It will facilitate the visa-free travel of Sikh pilgrims from both sides. Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan laid the foundation stone of the Kartarpur Corridor in Pakistan on Wednesday. Imran was accompanied by Pakistan Army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa and Indian politicians Navjot Singh Sidhu, Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Singh Puri. Imran laid the foundation stone for the corridor to link the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur in Pakistan's Punjab province the final resting place of Sikh faith's founder Guru Nanak Dev to the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district in India's state of Punjab. Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan is located across the river Ravi, about 4 kilometres from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine. It was established by the Sikh Guru in 1522. The first gurdwara, Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib, was built in Kartarpur, where Guru Nanak Dev is believed to have died. The Kartarpur Corridor, which will facilitate the visa-free travel of Sikh pilgrims from both sides, is expected to be completed in six months. At the ground-breaking ceremony, Imran addressed a gathering of ministers, diplomats and journalists. He called the Kartarpur Corridor a great victory for unity, adding that it was a historic day for both India and Pakistan. Imran also pledged to improve the facilities at the shrine. Talking about the rocky India-Pakistan relationship, Imran said: "If France and Germany can live in peace, why can't India and Pakistan?" He pointed out that Kashmir was the only bone of contention between the neighbours, and that the dispute could be resolved if there was a strong-willed leadership on both sides of the border. "There is immense potential waiting to be unleashed if our borders are opened and free flow of trade is allowed," Imran said, adding that Pakistan was ready to take the double initiative to resolve the conflict if India takes a step ahead for peaceful dialogue. Addressing the pilgrims present at Kartarpur, the Pakistani prime minister said: "The happiness I saw today was like of those Muslims who are standing 4 kilometres away from Mecca Madina on the other side of the border, but are unable to visit it, and when they get chance to visit it, the happiness they get is the happiness you are relishing today." Towards the end of his speech, Imran talked about the criticism his "friend' Sidhu" received for his previous visit to Pakistan. "I heard there was a lot of criticism of Sidhu when he went back (to India) after my oath-taking ceremony. I don't know why was he criticised. He was just talking about peace and brotherhood." Imran then went ahead and invited Sidhu to contest elections in Pakistan, saying that he would surely win if he did. He concluded his address saying, "I hope we don't have to wait for Sidhu to become India's prime minister to have an everlasting friendship between our nations." Sidhu, who attended the ground-breaking ceremony of the Kartarpur Corridor on the Pakistani side amid a controversy in India for accepting the invitation, said both the Indian and Pakistani governments should realise that they have to move forward. He said violence must be stopped and peace should be restored between the two countries. The Punjab minister and Congress leader said there had been enough bad blood between India and Pakistan, and that the corridor would be a major opportunity to open the doors of the hearts of the people. "Violence must stop and peace should return to the region," he said. Sidhu added that both nations should seek a path of brotherhood and live in harmony without any fear with the blessings of Guru Nanak Dev. If the borders between both countries opened, Sidhu noted that it would be possible to transport goods to different parts of Pakistan and even others countries. "This is my hope, this is my dream... While there is blood in my veins, I will continue to thank both governments," he said. "My father used to tell me that Punjab Mail went till Lahore. I believe that it can go further till Peshawar, till Afghanistan." Sidhu thanked his "big-hearted" friend Imran fpr keeping his promise and ending the 70-year wait for the Kartarpur Corridor. "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," he said, ahead of the ceremony. With inputs from PTI The corridor will link Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan's Kartarpur the final resting place of Sikh faith's founder Guru Nanak Dev to Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India's Gurdaspur district to facilitate visa-free movement of Indian Sikh pilgrims. At the groundbreaking ceremony for the Kartarpur corridor project on Wednesday, Indian Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu shared the front seat with Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan and his foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi. India's Union ministers Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Puri also attended the ceremony as representatives after crossing over to Pakistan through the Attari-Wagah joint check post between the two countries. Congress MP from Amritsar Gurjeet Singh Aujla and Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) chief Gobind Singh Longowal were also present at the ceremony. The Pakistani media widely covered the event, with news channels like the State-owned PTV, GeoTV, Express News broadcasting a common coverage of the ceremony. Pakistan's oldest newspaper Dawn ran a live blog on its website, like many other prominent news portals. It carried detailed quotes from Khan's speech and noted that Sidhu was "among the prominent guests" invited to the ceremony. After Khan laid the foundation stone, the Indian guests including Harsimrat sprinkled "amrat jal" the holy water from the Golden Temple in Amritsar. In its live blog, The Express Tribune noted that Gurjeet Singh Aujla walked barefoot to Lahore "as a mark of respect." However, it claimed that the Narendra Modi government was earlier "in a quandary, displeased with" the development on the project but was "unwilling to alienate the Sikh sentiment". "Finally, it accepted the proposal; announcing it would construct the road on its side, and send two ministers to the groundbreaking ceremony by Imran Khan on Pakistans side," the live blog said. During his speech, Imran Khan said that Pakistan wants to "move forward in our relations with India". He said: "Our political leaders, our army, and all other institutions are all on one page. We wish to move forward, we want a civilised relationship. We have just one problem, Kashmir. If man can walk on the moon, what problems are there that we cannot resolve?" After the event wrapped up, a news anchor on PTV said that Imran Khan gave an "open-hearted" speech, while claiming that the Pakistani prime minister had shown the entire world that his country doesn't just want harmony, but also peace. She further said that his words might have struck a chord with the Indian leadership. "But it remains to see how they respond," she said. The corridor will link Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan's Kartarpur the final resting place of Sikh faith's founder Guru Nanak Dev to Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India's Gurdaspur district to facilitate visa-free movement of Indian Sikh pilgrims. Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan is located across the river Ravi, about four kilometres from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine. 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. The gurdwara, which fell in Pakistan territory following the Partition of India in August 1947, has big significance in Sikhism and history. For the past over 71 years, ever since Partition, Sikhs have been offering prayers near the international border while seeing the gurdwara from a distance. With inputs from agencies Madhya Pradesh Assembly Elections LIVE updates: Atfter 12pm, the EC officials in MP said that around 250 EVMs had been replaced in the ongoing elections. At least 1,545 VVPATs also had to be replaced. Auto refresh feeds The voting has begun for Madhya Pradesh Assembly Elections in three Assembly segments in Naxal-affected Balaghat district Lanji, Paraswada and Baihar. The voting time will be from 7 am to 3 pm. Polling for 227 of the 230 seats up for grabs in Madhya Pradesh will begin at 8 am, while the voting at three naxal-hit states are already underway. 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. Voting in 227 out of the 230 constituencies began at 8 am. The polling was started one hour early at three naxal-hit seats in Balaghat district. The polling will conclude at 4 pm. As polling kick started in Madhya Pradesh, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was seen praying at the banks of Saryu river with his wife Sadhna Singh. Meanwhile, Congress' Kamal Nath was seen praying at the Hanuman temple in Chhindwara. Both parties have high-stakes in the state polls. While Shivraj seeks a fourth consecutive term, a victory for Congress would mean it can negotiate from a better position while forging a mahagathbandhan ahead of 2019 polls. Voters were seen queuing up to exercise their franchise since early morning. This picture was taken at a ward in Neemuch district. As polling kick started in Madhya Pradesh, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was seen praying at the banks of Saryu river with his wife Sadhna Singh. Meanwhile, Congress' Kamal Nath was seen praying at the Hanuman temple in Chhindwara. Both parties have high-stakes in the state polls. Another Congress candidate from Rau constituency Jitu Patwari went to seek his mother's blessings, as he stepped out to cast his vote early morning. His mother conducted an Aarti before she let him step out of his house. Large number of women voters have turned up to vote at the Awan Palsoda polling booth in Neemuch district. These women are farmers and will return to their fields after voting. In Paraswada seat in Balaghat district, a good number of people have turned up to vote. Polling picked up early in these parts, where voting started at 7 am, an hour before the rest of the state. In 2013, this number stood at 407 or 16 percent out of 2,494 candidates, and 263 or 11 percent nominees had a record of serious criminal cases. Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), an NGO that works for electoral and political reforms, and Madhya Pradesh Election Watch have said in a report that 464 candidates (or 17 percent) of those in the fray have declared criminal cases against them and 295 (or 11 percent) of the total candidates have been charged with serious criminal cases. There are a total of 5,03,94,086 eligible voters in MP, with approximately 2,40,76,693 female voters and 1,410 transgender person voters. 65,367 polling booths have been set up, with special pink booths designated to encourage women voters. Around 3,046 booths will be secured by an all-womens force. The Electronic Voting Machines have reportedly developed technical snag at a few places. The polling at booth number 204 Mahirishi Vidya Mandir in Mandla was halted after the polling machine stopped working. ANI reported that another voting machine at polling booth number 178 at Dabra seat in,Gwalior district was also not working. The only issue that consume young voters in Madhya Pradesh is lack of employment opportunities in mind. More than 19 per cent of Madhya Pradeshs 70 million population is in the job-seeking age group of 15-24 years, according to the 2011 census. As we spoke to some of the first time voters who had queued up to exercise their franchise, job security was the predominant theme, with little to no exception. Here is what Seema Patidar, a first time voter from Neemuch had to say. Borgaon polling booth in the Naxal-infested village in Balaghat saw an encouraging turnout early in the morning. Women were also seen turning up in large numbers. Reports said that polling was peacefully underway in two other Nacal-hit constituencies. "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. According to State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) VL Kantha Rao, out of the 65,341 polling stations across MP, 17,000 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. He said 78,870 EVMs will be used during the poll. Speaking to reporters outside the polling booth in Gwalior, Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar said that he was confident that Shivraj Singh Chouhan will be blessed with a consecutive fourth term. Tomar urged the voters to support the BJP in Madhya Pradesh and further strengthen the party. Polling, Shivraj Chouhan said, will determine the future of MP and its future generations. "Your vote today will help the farmers and the poor. This vote is not for an individual but for the whole of Madhya Pradesh," he said. "Were 100 percent certain that the BJP will form government with an absolute majority. We have set a target of 200 seats and our lakhs of volunteers are working to make it a reality," Chouhan said after casting his vote in Budhni. The police have detained BJP and Congress candidates from Ater in Bhind, Arvind Singh Bhadauriya (BJP) and Hemant Katare (Congress), to prevent any kind of untoward situation. They have been kept at the circuit house. Kailash Patel, a teacher at Utkrisht Vidyalay, Mhow who was deployed at Deepika Bal Mandir in Nehru Nagar in Indore-5 constituency suffered an attack at 6:50 am. He was rushed to Shalby hospital where he was declared dead. The collector announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the deceased. Sohan Lal Batham, an Election Commission official, died due to cardiac arrest in Guna. Following this, reports came that another government employee at polling duty in Mhow also passed away after he took ill while on duty. The Madhya Pradesh Police has seizes campaign material from BJP's polling agents in Saint Mary's area in Bhopal as it was within 200 meters of a polling booth. The police also detained one person following the incident. Voters have boycotted polling in Madai village in Madhya Pradeshs Satna district over the unavailability of schools in the village. Meanwhile, two faulty EVMs in Ujjain, 11 VVPAT machines in Alirajpur, 5 VVPAT and 2 EVMs in Burhanpur also had to be replaced. The voting process was halted for about 40 minutes at booth number 96 in Harda due to a technical glitch in the EVM, while it remained affected for about an hour at polling booth number 168. Reports of EVM malfunctioning have been filtering in consistently. In some places, like in Tilak Nagar polling booth in Indore-5 constituency, the polling remained halted for over two hours due to EVM malfunction. Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee president Kamal Nath said he has received reports of long queues at MP polling booths due to faulty EVMs. He said that these technical glitches are stalling the polling process and the Election Commission should immediately take action on this. The police had earlier, detained BJP and Congress candidates from Ater in Bhind, Arvind Singh Bhadauriya (BJP) and Hemant Katare (Congress), to prevent any kind of untoward situation. They have been kept at the circuit house. Around 10 candidates, including those of Congress and the BJP in five seats of Bhind district have been put under house arrest. Sources say this move has been put in place as a precautionary measure as Bhind remains a sensitive region prone to political violence during election season, reports said. After the initial probe, allowed Parihar to leave. This angered Congress workers who then blocked roads and staged protests against BJP's 'corrupt tactics' to lure voters with money and violating the rules set by the Election Commission. They alleged the police was colluding with Parihar and letting him go without facing any action. There were reports of angry farmers also holding a separate protest over the incident. State minister and senior BJP leader Devraj Singh Parihar was caught carrying approximately Rs 10 lakh in his car which the Congress alleges was meant for cash for vote, ABP News reported. Parihar is managing BJP MLA Rajesh Sonkars electoral campaign in Sanwer Assembly seat. The matter was reported to the police by Congress workers who reportedly waylaid Parihars vehicle to catch him 'red handed' with the notes. The police had earlier, detained BJP and Congress candidates from Ater in Bhind, Arvind Singh Bhadauriya (BJP) and Hemant Katare (Congress), to prevent any kind of untoward situation. They have been kept at the circuit house. Reports said that around 10 candidates, from five seats in the senistive Bhind district were detained together in view of maintaining the law and order situation. Sources say this move has been put in place as a precautionary measure as Bhind remains a sensitive region prone to political violence during election season, reports said. Ambalal Patidar, Gopal Patidar, farmers in Mandsaur blame the current government for the problems farmers face in MP. They hold the current government responsible for the police excesses on protesting farmers last year in Mandsaur and state that they want to overthrow the government. Madhya Pradesh has the second largest population of Patidars after Gujarat, with nearly 60 lakh voters belonging to the community, out of which 40 lakh are from the Malwa region itself. Also, out of the 230 seats in contention, the fate of around 34 would be predominantly decided by a majority of Patidar voters present in these constituencies. Althoiugh he conceded that this could be within the margin of error, but added that the Congress' lead will "go over 5 percent". Most opinion polls have suggested a lead, albeit a very narrow one, for the BJP in Madhya Pradesh. However, Shashank Shukla, the national coordinator for the Congress data analytics team supervising the party's campaign in Madhya Pradesh told NDTV that the party has edged past the BJP. Shukla said that the Congress was in a lead by 2.8 percent. In Madhya Pradesh's Shahdol district, voters in Vicharpura village have boycotted the elections due to lack of availability of basic facilities like water and road infrastructure. Voters in Madai village in Satna district had also boycotted the polls over the unavailability of schools in the village. Meanwhile, Congress party raised questions over these issues. Party's state president Kamal Nath said that the glitches were thwarting the polling process. Reports of EVM snags continue to filter in. According to latest reports, at least 250 EVMs and several more VVPATs have been replaced so far. Polling remained halted at several booths for hours, owing to these technical glitches. The Madhya Pradeh elections say around 22 percent voter turnout till 12 pm today. Highest voter turnout of 34.68 percent was reported in Agar Malwa district and lowest turnout of 14.56 percent was recorded in Rewa district Political pundits decipher a good voter turnout as either a sign of a favourable wave for one of the contesting parties, or conversely it reflects strong anti-incumbency sentiment. In Mandsaur district of Madhya Pradesh, which recorded 33.23 percent turnout till noon, the latter seems to be the case rather than the former, given the place's history. Mandsaur was the epicentre of agrarian protests last year which resulted in the deaths of six farmers in police action. And while these deaths, including four from the dominant Patidar community in the area, remains a sore point, the falling prices of crops have only added to farmer woes.. Satish Chouhan runs a barber shop in Indore. He is offering free services to customers who have voted today. When asked about how he would cover up losses, he says that his primary goal is the betterment of the nation, and if through this small gesture he could motivate more voters, he would be a good citizen. Voters need to only show their inked fingers, and they would get a free shave. "There have been many complaints of EVM's malfunctioning, have written to Election Commission. We have requested that voting time in these polling booths should be extended to compensate for the delay in polling. As Reports of EVM snags continue to filter in, Congress leader Kamal Nath alleged that the voting seems to be getting affected only in regions which were Congress' stronghold. While Nath said that the poll panel should consider holding re-polls if the polling cannot continue in an uninterrupted fair way, his party colleague Jyotiraditya Scindia demanded that polling time be extended to compensate for the lost time. Scindia had written to Rawat seeking an extension in polling time, stating that no voter should be left out because the Electronic Voting machines were not in order. Responding to Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia's demand to extend polling time in booths where EVM malfunction thwarted voting, Chief election Commissioner OP Rawat said that there are provisions for extension of time in the law, and the local officers can take a call on it. In 2013, BJP had won 20 seats in the region followed by 12 by the Congress. The BSP had managed to win two seats here. The district is located in the Gwalior-Chambal region. The region is expected to witness tense contest between BJP and Congress. The region has a total of 34 seats. Incidences of violence have been report from Bhind district today. Gunshots were fired in front of two polling booths. Sources said that the assailants have fled the spot and the firing was done with the intention of disrupting the polling exercise. Up till 1.30 pm, a total of 31.33 percent voters have cast their votes in the Madhya Pradesh elections with over 1.58 crore votes polled. The highest voter turnout was recorded in Anuppur 47.29%, while Dindori recorded the lowest turnout with just 20.77 percent coming out to cast their vote. "I had already cast my vote. When people asked me when those from media asked me whom I have voted for I showed this (palm). What else could have I done?Show a lotus?" Kamal Nath, said on allegations that he showed his election symbol after casting his vote in Chhindwara. Senior Congress leader Kamal Nath found himself surrounded in controversy after he flashed his party's election symbol (palm) to media after casting his vote. Congress workers claimed that name of hundreds of voters is missing from the voters' list at booth no. 278 in ward number 30 of Bhopal North constituency. All these people reportedly belong to Congress and they allege that the local BJP MLA has hatched a conspiracy. Pradeep Singh Bhadauria, polling agent of the Congress candidate in Mehgaon Assembly constituency, was shot at and is reportedly seriously injured. He was rushed to a hospital in Gwalior, Hindustan Times reported. A total of 37.26 percent were polled in Madhya Pradesh till 2.30 pm. Kamal Nath's home district Chhindwara saw the maximum turnout with 45.62 percent votes polled, while Morena was the district with the lowest voting percentage at just 29.78 percent turnout. Ninety four percent voting was recorded in the Kalaria village till 14.30 hrs. There are 571 voters in the village and 537 out of them have exercised their franchise. Likewise, the villagers of Patpara, Tikra Maheshpuri, Khalhe and Maheshpuri Chirapani in Dindori district have not voted yet. They are boycotting the elections over water problems In Harda as well, villagers of Piliyakhal ward number 35 have boycotted the elections over lack of road and electricity facilities. The villagers of Govindgarh and Janakpur which fall under the Bhander Vidhan Sabha in Datia have also boycotted the polls over the demand of canal and road. Only four votes have been polled till now. The villagers of Ruparel village which falls under the Sunser Vidhan Sabha seat in Agar Malwa, have boycotted the elections and not even a single vote has been polled yet. There are around 283 voters in the village and they are boycotting the elections over no roads in their village. Entire villages in Madhya Pradesh stayed away from the polling exercise as they were protesting against the lack of basic amenities. People in the Majesara village of Mandsaur have boycotted the elections due to the problem of corruption in their area. There are 856 voters in their village. In Shahdol, voters in Vicharpura village have boycotted the elections protesting against the lack of availability of basic resources/facilities like water and road infrastructure. The voting has concluded for Madhya Pradesh Assembly Elections in three Assembly segments in Naxal-affected Balaghat district Lanji, Paraswada and Baihar. The voting time was held between 7 am to 3 pm. Fifty percent voter turnout was recorded in Madhya Pradesh till 3 pm. The voting is likely to pick up with only one hour left before polling closes. The three Maoist-affected seats in Madhya Pradesh Baihar, Lanjhi and Paraswada reported encouraging voter turnout. According to reports, 66 percent turnout was recorded in Baihar, 64 percent in Lanjhi, and 68 percent polling was reported in Paraswada. Three people have been arrested in connection with the firing outside polling booth number 72 in Bhind Assembly constituency. Earlier, it was reported that some miscreants even broke an EVM at one of the polling stations. Pradeep Singh Bhadauria, polling agent of the Congress candidate in Mehgaon Assembly constituency, was shot at and is reportedly seriously injured. He was rushed to a hospital in Gwalior, Hindustan Times reported. A total of 37.26 percent were polled in Madhya Pradesh till 2.30 pm. Kamal Nath's home district Chhindwara saw the maximum turnout with 45.62 percent votes polled, while Morena was the district with the lowest voting percentage at just 29.78 percent turnout. Ninety four percent voting was recorded in the Kalaria village till 14.30 hrs. There are 571 voters in the village and 537 out of them have exercised their franchise. Likewise, the villagers of Patpara, Tikra Maheshpuri, Khalhe and Maheshpuri Chirapani in Dindori district have not voted yet. They are boycotting the elections over water problems In Harda as well, villagers of Piliyakhal ward number 35 have boycotted the elections over lack of road and electricity facilities. The villagers of Govindgarh and Janakpur which fall under the Bhander Vidhan Sabha in Datia have also boycotted the polls over the demand of canal and road. Only four votes have been polled till now. The villagers of Ruparel village which falls under the Sunser Vidhan Sabha seat in Agar Malwa, have boycotted the elections and not even a single vote has been polled yet. There are around 283 voters in the village and they are boycotting the elections over no roads in their village. Entire villages in Madhya Pradesh stayed away from the polling exercise as they were protesting against the lack of basic amenities. People in the Majesara village of Mandsaur have boycotted the elections due to the problem of corruption in their area. There are 856 voters in their village. In Shahdol, voters in Vicharpura village have boycotted the elections protesting against the lack of availability of basic resources/facilities like water and road infrastructure. The voting has concluded for Madhya Pradesh Assembly Elections in three Assembly segments in Naxal-affected Balaghat district Lanji, Paraswada and Baihar. The voting time was held between 7 am to 3 pm. Fifty percent voter turnout was recorded in Madhya Pradesh till 3 pm. The voting is likely to pick up with only one hour left before polling closes. The three Maoist-affected seats in Madhya Pradesh Baihar, Lanjhi and Paraswada reported encouraging voter turnout. According to reports, 66 percent turnout was recorded in Baihar, 64 percent in Lanjhi, and 68 percent polling was reported in Paraswada. Three people have been arrested in connection with the firing outside polling booth number 72 in Bhind Assembly constituency. Earlier, it was reported that some miscreants even broke an EVM at one of the polling stations. Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly Election LATEST updates: After 12pm, the EC officials in MP said that around 250 EVMs had been replaced in the ongoing elections. The number is expected to increase as reports pour in. At several places, even the replaced machine did not function properly, and had to be replaced yet again. At least 1,545 VVPATs also had to be replaced. Meanwhile Congress leader Kamal Nath alleged that the voting seems to be getting affected only in regions which were Congress' stronghold. A total of 37.26 percent were polled in Madhya Pradesh till 2.30 pm. Kamal Nath's home district Chhindwara saw the maximum turnout with 45.62 percent votes polled, while Morena was the district with the lowest voting percentage at just 29.78 percent turnout. Incidences of violence have been report from Bhind district today. Gunshots were fired in front of two polling booths. Sources said that the assailants have fled the spot and the firing was done with the intention of disrupting the polling exercise. Responding to Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia's demand to extend polling time in booths where EVM malfunction thwarted voting, Chief election Commissioner OP Rawat said that there are provisions for extension of time in the law, and the local officers can take a call on it. As Reports of EVM snags continue to filter in, Congress leader Kamal Nath alleged that the voting seems to be getting affected only in regions which were Congress' stronghold. While Nath said that the poll panel should consider holding re-polls if the polling cannot continue in an uninterrupted fair way, his party colleague Jyotiraditya Scindia demanded that polling time be extended to compensate for the lost time. According to latest reports, at least 250 EVMs and several more VVPATs have been replaced so far. Polling remained halted at several booths for hours, owing to these technical glitches. Patidar voters and farmers have openly expressed their displeasure with the ruling government. Farmers have also not forgotten the Mandsaur protests where two farmers were killed allegedly in police firing. "Bhav lenge, Bhavantar nahi (we want right price for our produce and not the difference in market price from the government)," is the dominant sentiment amid voters queuing outside polling booths. Voting was halted at polling booths number 39 and 40 after unidentified persons broke the EVM machines. Around 10 candidates, including those of Congress and the BJP in five seats of Bhind district have been put under house arrest. Sources say this move has been put in place as a precautionary measure as Bhind remains a sensitive region prone to political violence during election season, reports said. At least four EVMs and 14 VVPAT machines have been replaced in polling booths across Madhya Pradesh since polling began. The polling at booth number 204 Mahirishi Vidya Mandir in Mandla was halted after the polling machine stopped working. ANI reported that another voting machine at polling booth number 178 at Dabra seat in,Gwalior district was also not working. The only issue that consume young voters in Madhya Pradesh is lack of employment opportunities in mind. More than 19 per cent of Madhya Pradeshs 70 million population is in the job-seeking age group of 15-24 years, according to the 2011 census. As we spoke to some of the first time voters who had queued up to exercise their franchise, job security was the predominant theme, with little to no exception. Congress leader Kamal Nath cast his vote from Madhya Pradesh's Chhindwara. He had earlier offered prayers at a Hanuman temple in the city. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan offered prayers at the banks of Saryu river with his family, and later conducted an aarti before proceeding to cast his vote. Large number of women voters have turned up to vote at the Awan Palsoda polling booth in Neemuch district. These women are farmers and will return to their fields after voting. As polling kick started in Madhya Pradesh, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was seen praying at the banks of Saryu river with his wife Sadhna Singh. Meanwhile, On the other hand, Rahul Gandhi had penned an open letter to voters. The voting has begun for Madhya Pradesh Assembly Elections in three Assembly segments in Naxal-affected Balaghat district Lanji, Paraswada and Baihar. The voting time will be from 7 am to 3 pm. 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 Madhya Pradesh politics. The state has 5.04 crore, eligible voters. Addressing a press conference Tuesday, State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) VL 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 minibuses 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. The LeT militant, who gave security forces a slip at several encounters before he was killed at Chattergam in Budgam district on Wednesday, had also appealed to the high court seeking release on the grounds that he was 'illegally detained'. Top commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) Naveed Jutt, who the Jammu and Kashmie Police suspect was responsible for the killing of Rising Kashmir editor-in-chief Shujaat Bukhari, as well as of a number of government forces, was in touch with his parents in Pakistan while he was in detention in the state. The LeT militant, who gave security forces a slip at several encounters before he was killed at Chattergam in Budgam district on Wednesday, had also appealed to the high court seeking release on the grounds that he was "illegally detained". According to police records, on the basis of which they pressed charges of murder against Jatt, it was revealed that the high court had quashed his detention order under the Public Safety Act (PSA) as he had complained that his trial was being delayed in the cases registered against him at various police stations in Kashmir. Jatt managed to get his Class 5 certificate from his parents in Pakistan to file a petition before the Jammu and Kashmir High Court challenging his "illegal" detention under the PSA as he was a minor at the time of his arrest in 2014. The certificate, which was issued by the Punjab Examination Commission, shows that he passed the exam in 2010. He used to write to his parents and had even sought to have the charges against him under the PSA quashed so that he could be deported to Pakistan. However, authorities continued to keep him under detention and charged him under the Act again after the high court quashed the charges. The detention documents of the LeT militant identify him as a resident of the Pindi Bori area of Multan in Pakistan. His father, according to the documents, was a retired driver of the Pakistani Army. The police, in a statement, revealed that Jatt was trained at a madrassa in Pakistan as well as at militant training camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Before Jatt escaped from police custody at the Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital in Srinagar in February, he was booked in seven cases at various police stations, including in South Kashmir's Shopian, Bijbehara and Anantnag. In the detention orders against him, the government had said it was issuing the PSA orders against Jatt to "regulate his continued presence in the state. In the PSA detention order that was issued by the state Home Dpartment on 17 March, 2015, it was noted that he was being detained "for a period of six months with effect from 18 March, 2015, or till the arrangements for his deportation from the state to his native country are made, whichever is earlier". Jatt was shifted from the Kathua district jail to the central jail in Srinagar after he had pointed out to the high court that he was a minor. His lawyer, advocate Shafaqat Hussain, said he had moved a petition before the high court highlighting that he was being "denied justice". "When Naveed was arrested for the first time in 2014, we was a minor at that time. But the state detained him under the PSA, which was in violation of the law. Under the PSA, a minor can't be detained. He should have been kept at a juvenile justice home. Instead, he was kept at the district jail Kathua," Hussain said. The advocate said it was only after the high court's "intervention" that Jatt was shifted from the district jail in Kathua to the central jail in Srinagar as the trial of the cases pending against him was on in courts in Kashmir. The petition Jatt filed had noted: "After the expiry of the period of detention, the detune was not shifted out of the preventive custody but continued to be lodged at the district jail in Kathua." It further pointed out that the LeT militant's six-month-long "detention order expired in 2015" but "he continued to be in custody at the Kathua district jail illegally, and on 16 March, 2016, the respondents passed the impugned order of detention and directed the lodgement of the detune at the district jail in Kathua". In an order earlier issued by Justice Hasnain Masoodi of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, it was noted that the detention order against Jatt had "lost its force for a period of six months with effect from 17 March, 2015". When Naveed had complained that the trial in the cases against him was delayed, the court had directed that the "investigation be carried out expeditously so that the outcome of the investigation is laid before the competent court and trial concluded without delay". A joint andolan for jawans and kisans planned for Thursday and Friday in New Delhi will be the precursor to the major nationwide call to arms over OROP. A joint andolan for jawans and kisans planned for Thursday and Friday in New Delhi will be the precursor to the major nationwide call to arms over OROP and other related issues on 2 December at Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan. The aim of the rally is to underscore unity and solidarity to the cause of members of the defence family, according to Major General Satbir Singh, chairman of the Indian Ex-Servicemens Movement (ESM). The main issues will centre on actual OROP implementation, the promise of a second career till the age of 60 years, an end to what is seen as the degradation and downgrading of defence forces and a call for establishing an ESM Commission, to be headed and manned by ESM personnel. Linking up with the farm lobby is seen as a strategic step towards a partnership closer to the elections when the two lobbies can merge into a singular entity and place pressure on the BJP in the hustings. Issues for the farmers include waiver of loans, subsidy for crops and a mandatory procurement of crops by government, and an acceptance of the MSP-C2+50 percent equation for assessing the minimum price of crops, with C2 being the sum of paid out costs, imputed value of family labour, interest on the value of owned capital assets, rent paid for leased-in land and the rental value of owned land. That, in any case, is the core of the current intent, buoyed as the ESM is by the Supreme Court decision to not throw out the case on OROP as requested by the government earlier this month. It is slated for a final hearing in February, that much closer to election day. The march on Thursday will converge from four points close to the capital namely Ghaziabad, Sonipat, Bahadurgarh, Gurgaon and make for the Ramlila Grounds. On Friday, the march will begin from the Ramlila Grounds and snake its way to India Gate, where the rally will be held. The social media platforms are being heavily put into action and the message to ex-servicemen and their families is explicit: All ESM, our members of the defence families and our supporters are requested to attend the joint actions by Jawans and Kisans on 29 and 30 Nov 2018 in large numbers to showcase solidarity with the cause of soldiers. ESM who can't attend both days are requested that they must attend on 30 Nov 2018. ESM are requested to wear caps and ribbons. If possible wear your mufti and sweater. Administrative arrangements as hitherto are being made. No one from NCR should stay back at home except persons on bed rest. Request maximum attendance from all states." A retired colonel who is part of the ESM spearhead said that although there is a perception that OROP has been activated fairly, the former armed forces personnel and even those in service believe many issues stay unresolved. We know that there is little interest in the media or the country in helping us but that will not stop us. The re-invigorated movement might well begin to send out anti-Modi signals across the country, seeing as how it has a much stronger network now than in 2014, an influence the BJP may not be taking as seriously as it should. The politics of it and the threat to go all out nearer to the elections aside, in the end, it is all about the money. Out of the Rs 8,298.65 crore calculated and checked by Manohar Parikkar (when he was defence minister) required to fulfill OROP fully, Rs 5,500 crore was sanctioned, leaving a paltry amount of Rs 2,800 crore. According to an ESM assessment, nowhere near the Rs 22,000 crore reportedly spent on the civil 'servants' for their NFFU or Non-Functional Financial Upgradation. The contention is that four serious remaining anomalies still remain. The Koshiary Committee of the Rajya Sabha had defined OROP as automatic increase in pension of ESM equal to the pension of those of the same rank and service retiring currently, so that no junior gets more pension than his senior whether retired before him. This was iterated by a BJP minister in the Lok Sabha. The government changed it later, so the very soul of OROP has been lost. 1. Instead of basing pension on the maximum of the scale, they have taken it on the average of the scale, which is lower. 2. Equalisation is to be done after every five years instead of automatically annually. This means that those retiring for the next five years will get successively more pension. Due to increase in DA every year (or six months), those retiring every year later will get that much more pension, till it is equalised after five years. So, juniors will get more pension than their seniors. 3. Base year is taken as 1 July, 2013 instead of 1 July, 2014, which means one increment and corresponding pension less. This has a cascading effect and resulted in the 7th Pay Commission pensions of ESM being lowered. 4. It was implemented on 1 July, 2014 instead of 1 April, 2014, on the specious plea that on 1 April, the UPA government was in power. The grim humour doing the rounds centres on the fifth anamoly: an IAS officer posted to Guwahati (a state capital) gets Rs 56,000 per month hardship allowance because, ha ha, no one wants to go there!" An all-India service, is it not?! But a Brigadier in Siachen gets a hardship allowance of Rs 35,000 maybe because they thought hes very keen to go there! The Army Chief Bipin Rawat credited the locals for successful operations against militants in Kashmir, saying they were providing 'hard intelligence'. New Delhi: Pakistan has altered the demography of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) and the identity of Kashmiris on that side has been systematically eroded, Army Chief Bipin Rawat said on Wednesday. He disapproved of suggestions about sending back security forces "to barracks" whenever there is "a little bit of peace" in Kashmir, saying it will give militants time to revamp their networks and asserted that there was a need to maintain sustained pressure "to control the situation". Rawat, who was delivering the Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial Lecture, also expressed concern over allowing funeral processions of terrorists, saying they glorify militants as martyrs and are "possibly encouraging more people to join the terrorist ranks". Referring to PoK, Rawat said, "Pakistan has very cleverly changed the demography of so-called Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan. So, one is not very sure who is an actual Kashmiri. "Is he is a Kashmiri or a Punjabi who has come in there and occupied that area. People from Gilgit-Baltistan are also now being taken over gradually. So, if there is an identity between our side of Kashmiri and the other side, then the identity thing has gradually been eroded. That is an issue we have to look at," he said. The Army chief credited the locals for successful operations against militants in Kashmir, saying they were providing "hard intelligence". "Things will be brought into control and are being brought under control, but sustained pressure needs to be maintained. It should not happen that little bit of peace that we see and say, Oh, it is hunky dory and it is now time to return to the barracks and let things happen. This time will be used for revamping the network of the terrorists," he said. Rawat said the situation needs to be brought to a level where the terror groups are not able to revamp. "You have to bring them to a level where they (terrorists) are not able to revamp, get the leadership out and make sure they have very few weapons left with them and they do not have opportunities to carry out conglomeration and get together wherever they want to," the Army chief said. He also pointed out that the funeral processions that glorify terrorists as martyrs should be addressed. "In a funeral procession when you make a martyr of a terrorist is what is possibly encouraging more people to join the terrorist ranks," he said. "These are some of the issues which we are gradually addressing," Rawat said noting that the Army does not want to deal with a heavy hand and allow that to become a trigger for violence in the Valley. Rawat stressed on the need for a greater positive engagement with the youth to motivate them to remain off the street and the "gun culture". He said the Army will also take maulvis from Kashmir on Sadbhavna yatras to places like Ajmer Sharif, Agra and show them that there is no persecution of any religious minorities in India. Reports from Pakistan suggest that the Foreign Ministry is preparing to invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the upcoming SAARC summit in Islamabad, possibly early next year. This decision comes a day after India hit out at Pakistan for harbouring terrorists responsible for the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Almost a month after asserting in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) that Pakistan will try resuming efforts to improve ties with India after the 2019 elections, prime minister Imran Khan seems to have been seized the 'Kartarpur moment'. Now, reports from Pakistan suggest that the Foreign Ministry is preparing to invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the upcoming SAARC summit in Islamabad, possibly early next year. This decision comes a day after India hit out at Pakistan for harbouring terrorists responsible for the 2008 Mumbai attacks. If Pakistan follows up on this decision and there are enough reasons to be sceptical about it (remember Imran Khan swearing-in fiasco), it will be a masterstroke from Imran Khan albeit not exactly sufficient to win the match. Even after the embarrassment of 2016, when India and several other nations pulled out of the SAARC Summit scheduled to be held in Pakistan citing the unfavourable regional security situation and for India, specifically the issue of cross-border terrorism, Pakistan always wanted to push for eventually holding the summit. Yet, the current push for SAARC may have just come as a surprise for India as this puts New Delhi in a rather tight spot. If India decides to turn down the invite, Islamabad will be more than happy to offload the blame on New Delhi for the latters refusal to engage and take forward regional integration process. This will be similar to the strategy adopted by India all these years where it blamed Pakistan time and again for not reciprocating Indias willingness to have a dialogue and holding SAARC hostage to bilateral ties. Remember this time, the first move has come from Pakistan, unlike previous instances where India used to make the first move and therefore had the moral high ground to retract citing either unfavorable circumstances or terrorist violence. If India does decide to accept the invite, then the government will have to mount a solid justification domestically about why is it willing to give second chance to Pakistan. Such a move carries risk in an election year where the BJP would be more than willing to adopt a tough posture towards its opponents with its politics centred around jingoism and against 'anti-national' elements. The riskiness of such a move becomes even more apparent if one considers the possibility of anti-India terrorist groups carrying out an attack to sabotage the dialogue. Therefore it will be a difficult choice for India and by putting New Delhi in a tight spot, Imran Khan has got an advantage. Yet, this advantage is only a temporary as it will yield only limited dividends for Pakistan. There are other SAARC members Afghanistan and Bhutan who may just like last time announce a boycott of the SAARC Summit. Islamabad currently does not enjoy the greatest of relations with Kabul. Hence such a move on the part of Kabul or Thimphu will actually help India to avoid the ignominy of turning down Pakistans invite. Secondly, in the race of regional integration, SAARC is more like a dead horse amidst the sprinting contenders like BIMSTEC and SCO. In fact, it was India's planned strategy in the last few years to focus on regional integration without Pakistan and hollow out SAARC. The focus was on the Eastern flanks to take more willing neighbours and carve out initiatives like BIN and BIMSTEC, which fitted nicely with Indias 'Act Easts policy. Therefore, Pakistans strategy to reinvigorate SAARC is a good optic but lacks substance. More importantly, at a time when Pakistan has become an international pariah state barring for China and Saudi Arabia with United States' reoriented approach and FATF grey listing, it will take more than putting India in a spot, to restore Pakistan's credibility in South Asia and globally. But at present, the ball is in Indias court and the world will be keenly watching what will be our response as and when the Pak invite comes. Perhaps New Delhi may take a calculated risk and turn down the invite. Or perhaps it may go by the spirit of 'Kartarpur moment' and pertinently Modi's 'Berlin walls comment and dispatch the vice-president or a senior minister, citing prime minister's hectic schedule in an election year. 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 24 March, 1971 as the cut off date for deportation of all illegal immigrants irrespective of religion. 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 24 March, 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 RSS on Tuesday demanded an ordinance or a law to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya at the earliest, saying that the Supreme Court's decision to defer the hearing in the land dispute case 'hurt' Hindu sentiments. The Supreme Court had put the case to January 2019. They said they have own priorities, said RSS national executive member Indresh Kumar, questioning the apex court's decision. Chandigarh: The RSS on Tuesday demanded an ordinance or a law to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya at the earliest, saying that the Supreme Court's decision to defer the hearing in the land dispute case "hurt" Hindu sentiments. The Supreme Court had put the case to January 2019. 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 11 December, 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. Maybe some people will go to the Supreme Court after that to challenge it and maybe 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 the 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 16 December in Delhi. The Kerala High Court on Tuesday ruled that there should be no more protests at the Sabarimala temple during the ongoing pilgrimage season. Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Tuesday ruled that there should be no more protests at the Sabarimala temple 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 28 September verdict of the Supreme Court 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 PR Ramachandran Menon ruled the order after hearing around 30 petitions that came up before it. It directed the Kerala government 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 30 November. 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 16 November, 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 Bharatiya Janata Party 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. Sabarimala row: Several Opposition members protested in the well of the Kerala Assembly on Wednesday against the prohibitory orders imposed at the temple complex Several Opposition members protested in the well of the Kerala Assembly on Wednesday, against the prohibitory orders imposed by the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in the temple town of Sabarimala. MLAs belonging to the BJP and Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) parties carried placards and banners, reports said. Kerala Janapaksham chief PC George and BJP MLA O Rajagopal arrived at the Assembly in a black attire typical of Lord Ayyappa devotees. Congress MLAs protest in the well of Kerala assembly over #SabarimalaTemple issue pic.twitter.com/GC2h9SVqc9 ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 The Sabarimala temple has seen an uproar of protests over the past two months, with devotees and politicians demonstrating against the Supreme Court's 28 September verdict which allowed women between the ages of 10 and 50 to enter the temple. Traditionally, women of menstruating age have been barred from access to the temple, of which Lord Ayyappa is the deity. Several people have been detained since the temple opened on 16 November, for violating the Supreme Court orders. At least 60 pilgrims were detained for breaching the security zone near Sabarimala's 'Vavarunada' area on Sunday. According to IANS, the disruption will last until the Pinarayi Vijayan-led government agrees to withdraw the prohibitory orders being implemented by the police. The UDF had, in fact, called for action to stall proceedings of the 13-day-long Assembly session during a meeting on Tuesday. "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 UDF convenor Benny Behanan. On Tuesday, the Kerala High Court refused to lift the prohibitions and had demanded an end to protests and demonstrations in and around the temple complex. However, the court ruled that devotees must be allowed to chant hymns, and also that the handling of pilgrims by the police must be done in an orderly manner. The high court's refusal to lift the prohibitions comes a day after the state police imposed Section 144 of the CrPC in the area, which is expected to last till 30 November. The section restricts more than four people from gathering together at a place. With inputs from agencies A three-judge bench comprising justices Kurian Joseph, Deepak Gupta and Hemant Gupta commuted the death sentence of a man and gave him life term for murdering three persons, including two women. New Delhi: Has death penalty in the statute served as a deterrent for heinous crime? A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court in a verdict on Wednesday expressed different opinions on this with one saying that the provision of capital punishment has failed to become a deterrent and the other two holding that a larger bench had already decided its continuance in the rarest of rare cases. A three-judge bench comprising Justices Kurian Joseph, Deepak Gupta and Hemant Gupta commuted the death sentence of a man and gave him life term for murdering three persons, including two women. Though the three judges differed on the applicability of death penalty, they were unanimous in commuting the death sentence of Chhannu Lal Verma. Joseph, who is to superannuate on Thursday, while pronouncing the verdict, read his views on the applicability of death sentence. Referring to the 262nd report of the Law Commission, Joseph said, "The constitutional regulation of capital punishment attempted in Bachan Singh versus State of Punjab in 1980 has failed to prevent death sentences from being 'arbitrarily and freakishly imposed' and that capital punishment has failed to achieve any constitutionally valid penological goals, we are of the view that a time has come where we view the need for death penalty as a punishment, especially its purpose and practice." He also said that till the time death penalty exists in the statute books, the burden to be satisfied by the judge in awarding this punishment must be high. According to Justice Joseph, the irrevocable nature of the sentence and the fact that the death row convicts are, for that period, hanging between life and death are to be duly considered. "Every death penalty case before the court deals with a human life that enjoys certain constitutional protection and if life is to be taken away, then the process must adhere to the strictest and highest constitutional standards. Our conscience as judges, which is guided by constitutional principles, cannot allow anything less than that," Joseph, who wrote judgment for the bench, said. Justices Deepak Gupta and Hemant Gupta gave divergent opinion on the views expressed by Joseph on applicability of death sentence and said a five-judge Constitution bench in Bachan Singh versus State of Punjab in 1980 had already held the constitutional validity of death penalty provided in Indian Penal Code. "In our view, since the Constitution Bench in Bachan Singh versus State of Punjab, has upheld capital punishment, there is no need to re-examine the same at this stage," Deepak Gupta and Hemant Gupta said. Joseph, who wrote the verdict for the bench, also voiced his "anguishing concern" with regard to public discourse on crimes which have an impact on the trial, conviction and sentence in a case. "The court's duty to be constitutionally correct even when its view is counter-majoritarian is also a factor which should weigh with the court when it deals with the collective conscience of the people or public opinion. After all, the society's perspective is generally formed by the emotionally charged narratives. Such narratives need not necessarily be legally correct, properly informed or procedurally proper," he said. Joseph, while referring to the law commission report said that the court plays a counter-majoritarian role in protecting individual rights against majoritarian impulses. "In this context, we may also express our concern on the legality and propriety of the people engaging in a 'trial' prior to the process of trial by the court," he said. Joseph said that it has almost become a "trend" for the investigating agency to present their version and create a cloud in the collective conscience of the society regarding the crime and the criminal. "This undoubtedly puts mounting pressure on the courts at all the stages of the trial and certainly they have a tendency to interfere with the due course of justice," he said. The three judges were unanimous on their view that the Chhattisgarh High Court in the case at hand has erroneously confirmed death penalty on the man without correctly applying the law laid down in Bachan Singh and other cases. "The decision to impose the highest punishment of death sentence in this case does not fulfil the test of rarest of rare case where the alternative option is unquestionably foreclosed," the bench said. It said that no evidence as to the uncommon nature of the offence or the improbability of reformation or rehabilitation of the appellant has been adduced. It noted that the superintendent of the jail has given a certificate that his conduct in jail has been good during the pendency of his appeal in apex court for past four years. "Thus, there is a clear indication that despite having lost all hope, yet no frustration has set on the appellant. On the contrary, there was a conscious effort on his part to lead a good life for the remaining period. A convict is sent to jail with the hope and expectation that he would make amends and get reformed," it said. 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. Varanasi: 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 25 November 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 25 to 27 November. 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. Many scientists across the world are trying to bring back lost species, like the mammoth, passenger pigeon and even the dinosaur, to life. Torill Kornfeldt, a Swedish science journalist, visited many of these scientists in their laboratories to find out how far they had reached in their individual quest. Many scientists across the world are trying to bring back lost species, like the mammoth, passenger pigeon and even the dinosaur, to life. They are doing this with the help of fossils and cutting-edge genetic technologies. In 2015, Torill Kornfeldt, a Swedish science journalist, visited many of these scientists in their laboratories to find out how far they had reached in their individual quest. Her travels took her from some of the coldest places in Siberia to labs in Harvard, USA. She narrates these fascinating experiments and the emotions she went through in her book, The Re-Origin of Species: A Second Chance for Extinct Animals. Over a Skype call, Kornfeldt spoke to Firstpost about how she stumbled on the idea for the book, some of the experiments she witnessed, if any of this is a good idea and the most fun she had during her research. Following are the edited excerpts from the interview: How did you come up this idea? There are two stories to that. I was working in the Swedish public radio service (Sveriges Radio), like the BBC. They had a science department and I worked in the daily news. So I sat in a river of science news coming in every day and as an editor, it was my job to pick which ones we were going to cover. I saw this shift happen with CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) and new genetic technology, where the news kept coming faster and was more and more diverse. It was such a huge shift and we couldnt cover it all in the news. It was starting to get frustrating that I couldnt do this in a broader sense. And then I was home sick with a really bad cold. I saw a TED talk by one of the researchers (Stewart Brand, describing the mammoth experiment) whom I later interviewed for the book, that talked about bringing back extinct species. At that moment I realised that this was a really interesting subject. At first, I had an almost childish reaction at that how is this possible! But it was also a subject where I could talk about the on-the-edge science and also get into societal, philosophical and ethical questions, and create that larger perspective. The moment I heard the idea I fell in love with it and wanted to do something about it. Also because everything I heard or saw about bringing back species was so optimistic and was so positive and over the top. So I had to balance that off. Could you describe some of the experiments that you witness in your travels? For the mammoth, it is a really interesting situation because you find these beautifully preserved carcasses of them. And they look amazing but they are several thousand years old. A few scientists hope that they can find a few living cells within them, but to be honest, the possibility of that is zero because they have disintegrated so much. But you can find DNA. You find these minute pieces of DNA, like a giant jigsaw puzzle, then the cells. And so far scientists have been actually able to sequence that to put it together in order, which means that you have a synthetic or digital copy of the DNA. So by now, the scientists are fairly certain that they have a good grip on the genes of the mammoth. And what you do after that is you start looking for genes that arent too different from the Asian elephants, who are their closest relative, and also look like genes that you know the function of in other species. So you think, okay this gene is the one that does fur in mice and we can see that it is different in the mammoth and the Asian elephant. We then make a synthetic copy of that specific genes and then convert it into cells. George Church in his lab in Harvard, they have about 30 genes within cells of elephants. So that is where the science is at. It is amazing in many ways that you can do that and integrate into genes. The big question that remains is once you create an organ using STEM cells or you start creating a baby, are these genes functioning as they should or are they doing what they are supposed to. But those are kind of questions that need to be answered along the way. Also, for mammoths questions, how do you do IVF in an elephant? How do you get a baby born? Which was your personal favourite experiment that youd like to come to fruition? My strongest emotional connection was with Northern White Rhino. It was really touching to meet Nola who was one of the last individuals of the species. For me, it was one of those species where it became stark that this isnt just scientific curiosity but also a way of reversing the crisis that is currently happening. (Nola died a few months after Kornfeldt saw her and at the beginning of this year, the last male white rhino died. There are still two females alive but they wont be able to carry the species on. To some extent, the species had already died when Kornfeldt saw Nola. The thing is there are a lot of species like that around the world which has a few individuals left. You see the benefits that you get from genetic technologies in such sort of situations, says Kornfeldt.) How far back in time should we go to resurrect species? If you have recently extinct species generally they would fit back into the ecosystem and things would work out without any unintended consequences. With that said, some of the older species that scientists have been working on as well could be really beneficial. For example, having something like the Aurochs back in the landscapes from where it went extinct would be really beneficial. Passenger pigeons might have been gone for almost 150 years now but we need them in the ecosystem. The ecosystem has found a new balance, so some could be disruptive the further back you go. Some of this disruption might be good but it is going to be a major change. Which of the experiments you describe is most likely to see the light of the day? I would say there are three projects that are very close and most likely see the light of the day. These are the chestnut trees in the United States, Northern White Rhinos and the Aurochs. The rhino because they have the cells and all of the pieces needed to bring them back; chestnut because they have the genetic technology which is well developed, so all they need is the public support for this idea and the legal framework to figure things out; and the Aurochs basically because they dont have to fiddle with genetic technology that much. For most of the other species, there is one or more science hurdle to get over before they can reach the reintroduction stage. For dinosaurs, there are over 100 possible hurdles. But for mammoth and the passenger pigeons, it is not unlikely but there are specific things that we need to get past. But the interesting thing is there could be a paper published tomorrow that solves one of the many hurdles and wed get a lift. What were the most difficult parts of doing this book and what were the most fun things you got to do? I think the most fun and the most difficult part was the trip to Chersky in Siberia. That was lunatic but it was also amazing. I really loved it. It was quite hard to get to eastern Siberia. When I arrived in Chersky in a tiny plane with no other people in it, men in uniforms came aboard the plane to look at my papers. They were like you stay on the plane. So I sat quietly. The research station was absolutely amazing and I had a great time there. The researchers would gather every night to play guitar and drink vodka. Fishermen would drop by to drink some more vodka every now and then. It was a specific life in a peculiar place. I kept going through this emotional back and forth. All of the researchers I met and talked to, on the one hand, were so extremely aware of the constant crisis of extinction, climate change, all of these things. But they were so idealistic but optimistic and hopeful about creating a future, so we might get to a place where we have at least the ability or the possibility to solve these problems. So for me, it was transformational as I would pick up the optimism when I would talk to the researchers, but when I would go home the realities would strike. So it was an emotional experience to be surrounded by people who had no illusions of the problems but were still optimistic. That ended up being my view of the world as well. I am still conflicted about a lot of these projects but Ive also reached a point where I am a lot more hopeful about the future. If you had the magic wand, which is the one creature you would like to bring back to life? There are a few. I have this excitement of a ten-year-old kid. But I am really fascinated by some of the megafaunas that were lost from South America. Some amazing animals there, it is so fascinating. So, there are animals like the Giant Sloth which was nearly the size of the polar bears. That would be my pick. It is hard not to pick the dinosaurs or the tyrannosaurus, of course. Is this essentially a good idea to bring back species from the past? I think that it is essentially a good idea to try. I think it is a good idea in the same way that the moon landing was a good idea. I think pushing science forward by posing these clear concrete questions of how do you build a spaceship or how do you bring back a mammoth pushes science forward in a way that produces amazing results. So it is an amazing idea from that point of view to use this as a way of trying new things and just follow that expedition of curiosity. Whether or not is it a good idea to actually release these animals in nature is another question. That has to be answered case by case. There are certain species where I am quite convinced it is a good idea, some where I am on the fence and some I am certain would be a bad idea, like the dinosaurs, if we ever made them of course. I think it is useful to separate the science of trying things from the idea of actually releasing the animals. What could be some of the drawbacks of bringing back species? The drawbacks of doing the actual science are ethical concerns, including those for the animals. You have to make sure that if you include animals in this sort of research, you have to treat them well in every way you can. And you have to take into account what stress for the animals is worth what sort of knowledge. If you introduce some species from the past in nature, maybe the net effect in nature is positive but there are going to be some species that suffer, you are going to have some species that disappear because of this shift in the ecosystem. You cant have your cake and eat it too! You are also going to get unintended consequences, you are never going to be certain of exactly what happens. What were some of your biggest learnings in the process of this book? And how did you digest this information that you were coming across? I think my major takeaway has been the kind of clear-eyed hopefulness that these solutions inspire. These may not be the solutions, but we can find them. What I love about being a science journalist is this sense of the world constantly growing inside your head and understanding complexities. That has stuck with me, that this world is more fascinating and complex than when I first started this project. The Re-Origin of Species: A Second Chance for Extinct Animals is distributed by Context of Westland Books in India, and is available on Amazon. Originally written in Swedish by Torill Kornfeldt, it is translated in English by Fiona Graham. Beginning 22 June, Firstpost embarks on an 8 week-long journey of poetry. Featuring poets who write in English and Hindi, this project is meant to both showcase their art as well as their individual creative processes. These poets write for the page and for the stage, and the themes of their works range from love and friendships to how power-hungry human society can be. Their verses, expressed in the 'spoken word' format, are brought to life by visuals and supported by music. Presenting The Firstpost Poetry Project. This is the fourth poet featured in this series. *** Ankita Shah | 25 "What according to you is the mark of a good poem?" "Absolute, absolute honesty." Ankita Shah is one of the most significant young voices of Mumbai's poetry scene. She co-founded The Poetry Club in 2013 with Trupthi Shetty, but she began taking an interest in poetry many years before this. "My school teacher, who inculcated in me empathy for people and the environment, would nudge us to express ourselves through art. She made me write my first ever poem about endangered Olive Ridley turtles when I was 12 years old." Ankita and Trupthi began The Poetry Club while they were studying to become chartered accountants. They realised they both wrote poetry and wanted to find others who shared their interests. "So there could be an exchange of ideas and stories, and we could nurture a sense of community and belonging, all along making sure we were creating a space for more direct and honest criticism and learning," Ankita explains. Setting up the club and running it gave her the chance to interact with people who wrote in several languages, to discover stories, narratives and styles different from her own, and to have conversations that shaped both her thinking and craft. "Everyone who has ever attended our sessions led us into a wild, untouched forest, where creatures wed never seen before existed. Of course, I mean poems when I say 'creatures'. To write better, you need to read better, allow yourself to wander in this wild forest." Ankita says that the collective is made of so many distinct people and works, that eventually, the conversations transcended the collective to become something more. "Id say communities like The Poetry Club are initiators of new ideas. But they also have an important role to play in creating a safe space. Because of the power they hold, its their responsibility to also represent the voice of the individuals that make them, in every way possible," she says. Ankita believes that performing a poem adds a different dimension to it. "As a craft, poetry has so much to do with sound the sounds of the words you choose to write or choose to make a part of your poem, the metre, the rhythm that your poem carries, and of course, the whole tone of your poem... The very act of writing the poem is a very personal exercise that the poet engages in. To take that whole process and show it to an audience in the way it was supposed to be is extremely crucial. It adds a lot of value to how poetry is valued and experienced." With every poem, Ankita hopes that she can make the reader feel the way she did when she was putting her pen to the paper. "If someone reads or hears my poems, I want them to like the process of unlayering it. What the process of writing evokes in me, is what I want it to evoke in the reader. I cannot exactly point out what those emotions are; it involves a quiver, thats all I can say." A(f)fair Warning I On a blue-skied, moonlit, summer evening of Delhi, inside a warm, multi-hued shop down the road of Paharganj, I set my heart on a peacock-colored shawl. I bargained too little and beamed too much, I was sold a pashmina that wasn't. II You are Daryaganj, in camaraderie, with Wilde and Manto, Kafka and Premchand. You are Ghalibs final wager at Ballimaran - which he has so since won each time Urdu slips into verses of another tongue. You are Agrasen's baoli burning bare and empty quenching its thirst off conversations of lovers it knows will leave. You, the plebeian Indian Coffee House atop the princely expanse of Connaught Place that makes delectable omelette toast and debates on politics. You are the pashmina and the momos of Paharganjs firangi galli - overpriced and untrue to their promise, yet warm with familiarity. You are the Dilli of weekend vanishing acts from wintry literature festivals and summer training The Dilli, Ive been warned I wont love as much if I started to live in it. Vulture Do you remember the poem where house was a metaphor to mean you and I, was determined to burn it? That poem, when it set out, was a sunbird, yellow-bellied, purple-rumped, upside down on a flower, hung with a mouth that yearned to swallow the sky. But on the page, when it perched, it preyed for a cold and bitter July. It wanted words thinned out to the last layer of their skin, holding within a meaning fermented to putrid perfection. "FOR A VERY LONG TIME, my body and mind felt like they belonged to two different people, says Santa Khurai, a 30-something transgender activist from Manipur. "By the time I hit puberty, I started feeling a strong sense of shame, fear and insecurity. I was scared of having an erection and contemplated cutting my penis off. On the other hand, I yearned for breasts," she recounts. "I had no knowledge of hormone replacement therapy back then... A friend suggested I squeeze the bark of a tree on my chest, and I did so. (Above photo: Santa Khurai) Santas story is one of resistance, rebellion, hope and persistence. Growing up in Imphal, like many boys with gender dysphoria, Santa endured bullying, ridicule, isolation and harassment in school. At home, her family members refused to acknowledge that gender could be anything other than binary. As the first male child in the family, Santa had many obligations to fulfill; her erratic behaviour was scorned. Her father coerced her to complete her education, and Santa is now thankful for that. But their conflicts continued, right until his death. Santa hadnt spoken to him for a while; she didnt shed any tears at his funeral. I think I was angry because he didn't accept me for who I am, and he left me alone in this world. It hurt so much that I refused to cry, Santa says. (Above photo: At Jenny's Beauty Parlour) *** Through her childhood, the conflict between how she felt inside and the gender she was assigned at birth, was disorienting. The disgust she felt for her genitalia, and the social ostracism she was subjected to, left Santa battling feelings of anxiety, self-rejection, depression, low self-esteem and suicidal tendencies. These feelings worsened when she was raped at the age of 11-12 by a male neighbour. I don't think I understood what had happened but was terrified by the intense pain, says Santa. She remembers standing by an open pit latrine, with blood trickling down her leg, crying. The neighbour told Santas mother that she was having trouble defecating, hence the blood. Since then, Santa has heard of many accounts of the rape and sexual violence experienced by transwomen. In her 20s, when Santa began to identify publicly as trans, a group of underground activists beat her brutally. Santa says they smashed bricks on her long fingernails, forced her to shout that she was a boy. I had to scream that I have a d**k and can have sex with girls. I was supposedly bringing disgrace to the entire Meitei community by choosing to be a transgender person, Santa says. Considering the odds, its a surprise Santa didnt give in. Instead, she set up a dance troupe called the Seven Sisters, comprising other transwomen. She completed her graduation from Imphal College. She was the first runner-up in a state beauty pageant in 1995. She set up San Jen, the first community-run beauty parlour in Manipur back in the 90s, when most transpeople were earning their livelihood through sex work. (Today, there are more than 30 such transpeople-run salons in Manipur.) And by 2009, Santa was leading the All Manipur Nupi Maanbi Association (AMANA), a body that works towards affirming the rights of transgender community. *** Im happy I paved the way for my community to find financial security by helping them set up beauty parlours. But that also meant that many of them drop out of school to become beauticians, so Im not completely sure its a good idea Santa says one evening, as we speak with the other trans women working as beauticians at Jennys Beauty Parlour in the Khurai Bazaar region. Khurai (a locality in Imphal) seems to be most friendly and enabling for transgender people, with many of them taking up weaving, farming, designing or the beauty business. However, name calling and harassment is prevalent too; one often hears people calling transgender people homo, a derogatory term used for homosexuals. (Above photo: Santa's friend Ningol) Nupi-manbi (transwomen) and Nupa-manba (transmen) in the Meitei community an indigenous ethnic group in Manipur have a unique identity. The hierarchical Guruma gharana system of the hijra community practiced in other parts of the country, isnt followed here. They may not be accepted, but many transgender individuals continue to live at home with their families. While there is no written evidence of a transgender community in Manipur, oral histories and folklore confirms the existence of feita, a person with gender non-conforming identity, who advised the Meitei society on pertinent state decisions. The traditional practice of transgender shamans (priests) conducting rituals for Meitei gods is also still prevalent in some parts. (Seen here: Boipu Kipgen) *** The Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) gives the armed forces in Manipur extraordinary powers, including immunity from legal action and the licence to arrest people without obtaining warrants. This often spells trouble for transgender individuals. Then there are the many underground outfits with their demands, who also make it difficult for the trans community to freely express their gender choices. Santa says one of her transgender friends was forced by paramilitary personnel to have serial sex. Can you believe that people actually get away with gang rape here? This is what happens when some people have no voice and some others have too much power to do what they want! she says. Like Santa, Boipu Kipgen too was attacked by an underground activist group. Boipu was the first person in Senapati district to publicly identify as OLA a term used to describe transgender people among the Kuki tribes of Manipur. Her family encouraged her to express her gender identity, and Boipu celebrated her femininity, dressed as a woman, and participated in beauty contests. Abruptly, an underground group attacked Boipu, accusing her of tarnishing the image of the village by having sexual intercourse in the army camps. Boipu was beaten, her head shaved; she was humiliated in front of the entire village. The incident paralysed her psychologically. She developed depression and an alcohol dependency, other physical ailments followed. Boipu doesnt dress in a feminine style any more, and she keeps a low profile. Making our way to Boipus hut in the village, Santa told me, She was off for a long time after. I think she is still disoriented. She didnt recognise me the last time I visited her. **** Back in Imphal, education has given some transgender individuals the strength to assert their choices. Rocky (born Pukhrambam Rocky Meitei) is a 24-year-old transgirl from the Khurai region, currently pursuing her MSc in Organic Chemistry from Manipur University while also preparing for a Phd. She dreams of taking up research studies at an IIT on earning her doctorate. (Above: Premjit Lal Saleem aka Kalu) While the University has been very supportive, Rockys family has not. Ousted from her family home, Rocky at first stayed with her sister, then with friends; she took tuition classes and sold handmade stools to fund her education. Her strong worldview is shaped by the marginalisation she and the trans community face on a day-to-day basis. I want to marry someday. But I think the boy might eventually fall out of love with me if he finds a real girl. So its better I stay single and focus on contributing to my community in whatever way I can, Rocky says. While education has given Rocky the identity she seeks, fashion and design have helped Premjit Lal Saleem (who prefers to go by the nickname Kalu) find her path. Kalu, who is a well-established designer in Manipur today, earned a diploma in fashion designing at the International Centre for Fashion Studies in Delhi in 1998. She was named Best Designer at the FABECO Miss Manipur Contest in 1999 and 2000. While her talent helped her find a market in Imphal, back home, her father was unsupportive, and her friends mocked her for being effeminate. In the 90s, internet access was nonexistent, so there were no online forums for the communitys members to meet and socialise. Instead, theyd meet up secretly near the polo grounds, exchange stories, build a support system. Kalu may now have the resources and freedom to do as she wants, but feels its too late for hormone replacement therapy now. She now employs more than 20 women and transwomen in her startup that works with traditional handloom and imported fabrics. She is happy to be a role-model of sorts for the transpeople aspiring for careers in the fashion business. *** People like Santa, Kalu and Rocky seem to have chanelled the negative experiences theyve lived through, towards positive outcomes. But most others find it difficult to cope. A 2017 study by the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal, found high prevalence of comorbid psychiatric disorders in the transgender community, of which substance abuse ranked highest. About 62.5 percent of them had abused alcohol, while 46.8 percent of them were abusing other non-alcoholic psychotropic drugs. Other psychiatric disorders such as anxiety (affecting 37.5 percent of the population), depression (31.2 percent), and suicidal risk (41.2 percent) were also found to be higher among this group. Ningol, a friend of Santas, admits she turned to alcohol to cope with the challenges of everyday life. Ningol works in the fields during the day to make ends meet; farming doesnt give her enough to live on independently, so she stays with her brothers family. Alcohol eases her pain and humiliation. Im truly happy and peaceful only when I dress up as woman and spend time laughing with my friends from the community, Ningol says. *** The 2014 judgement recognising the transpeople as the third gender has helped in many ways. The government of Manipur constituted a 16-member Transgender Welfare Board in August 2016, the first Northeast state to do so. AMANA was also able to facilitate free legal aid from the Manipur State Legal Services Authority for the transgender community, back in 2013.There have been small successes like the setting up of a separate toilet for transgender people during the Sengei festival, based on AMANAs proposal. Sensitisation workshops, community-led advocacy, and partnership with government bodies, health and media stakeholders to influence change, have helped the transgender community immensely. Over the years, Santa has become more vocal. Her work with AMANA let her to become a Northeast steering committee member of SAHRA (South Asia Human Rights Association) in Bangkok in 2013. That is when she resolved to start her transition, using hormone therapy. When I met her in 2017, her body was still a work in progress. However, from associating her body with shame in her teens to embracing nudity with pride, she had come a long way! Posing for and seeing the photographs of her body, stripped of any censorship or shame, was a cathartic experience for her. Through these photographs she hopes to reclaim her identity, challenge the stigma around gender fluidity and raise her voice against the violence perpetrated on the transgender community in the Northeast. (Above photo: Rocky) In September 2018, she underwent SRS (sex reassignment surgery) in Puducherry. While I have always been a woman, the surgery has given me a sense of being a complete person. It's a new me all over again clearly the gender affirming surgery is much more than physical, she said. While Santa had made peace with her two brothers and their families and even lived with them, she had to walk away when she met the love of her life. She was skeptical of trusting men and never wanted to fall in love, given her past experiences. But when she met Riyaz, from Lakhimpur in Assam, her world turned topsy turvy. He isnt literate. He is from a conservative Muslim family. There were these stereotypes in my head. He broke them all. He took me home and announced that I was his wife, Santa says. They had a beautiful nikah, with the whole village wishing them happiness for life. Im living a fairytale I didn't want to dream of. I experience a sense of calm and security with him, she says. Santa now lives at her sisters house, along with Riyaz and her nephew. She dreams of starting a rehabilitation home someday, to support transgender individuals who deal with the psychological trappings of abuse and ostracism. If I can be a small part of their journey in affirming their real self, my job is done, she says. One can clearly see that Santas profound voice in the struggle against homophobic, patriarchal and heteronormative mindsets will continue to push boundaries for the transgender community in Manipur and the Northeast. All photos by Sindhuja Parthasarathy Since last Wednesday evening, Satya Pal Malik has been all over the media: print, TV and digital, speaking at length to try to justify why he dissolved the Assembly. It was only three months ago, on 21 August to be precise, that the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi surprised the nation by appointing Satya Pal Malik as governor of Jammu and Kashmir. Privately, many in the ruling BJP asked one question: Why him? But then all such discussions ended with the belief and hope that it must have been decided after due deliberations at the highest level for the greater good. Three months later, Governor Malik has been pulling off one surprise after another. He has been talking non-stop. All he needs is an audience: either directly, on the phone or the mike of a TV channel. His latest outburst is the most interesting: claiming he is now faced with the "threat of transfer" by the ruling dispensation, which over 90 days ago, thought it prudent to give him command of this critical state. However, Malik still thinks that he wouldnt or couldnt be removed, that he will continue to enjoy position and perks of a being governor at a different Raj Bhawan, perhaps at a less scenic and less important state. Speaking at an event in Jammu Tuesday, Malik said: "As long as I'm here it's not in my hands I don't know when I will be transferred. I will not lose my job, but the threat of transfer is there. As long as I'm here, I assure you people that whenever you call me, I will come here to pay tribute." Malik is in the eye of a political storm, not because he dissolved the Jammu and Kashmir Vidhan Sabha at 9 pm on 21 November, a holiday on account of Eid Milad ul-Nabi, the birthday of Prophet Muhammad, but because what he said in an interaction in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh while giving a rationale for his controversial decision. "Had I looked towards Delhi (the Centre), I would have been compelled to invite Sajad Lone to form the government," Malik said. "Then I would have gone down in history as unscrupulous. But I ended the whole thing. Those who want to abuse me can do so, but I am convinced I did the right thing." The facts of the case remain unknown. Who spoke to whom, who said what and what he wanted to say. But surely governance and decision-making on subjects as sensitive and critical as formation of an alternative government in a House under suspended animation or its dissolution is complicated and confidential to the core among participants, also filtered at various levels. Malik is wittingly or unwittingly letting out things that are making the situation extremely difficult for the BJP, the Modi government and Lone. Malik's statement embarrassed the government. Malik, 72, has been in political life long enough to understand the implications of the statements he's made these past few days. Since last Wednesday evening, Malik has been all over the media: print, TV and digital. He has been speaking at length to try to justify why he dissolved the Assembly. And while Malik was hogging the headlines, there was concern in New Delhi's corridors of power that Malik was talking too much and to too many people. Malik has now proved those concerns were not without merit. Malik, a late entrant to the BJP, is not used to the ruling party's discipline. Apparently, the socialist in him is still alive: speak first and think about the consequences later. The turn of events suggest that Malik was trying to keep around him a halo, portraying himself as a righteous man defying his political bosses and employer to protect the dignity of his post. Malik may not have had any staff at Raj Bhawan to serve him food or to attend the fax machine when most urgent and important letters were sent by a former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister because it was a holiday. But a social media alert made him work overtime in the loneliness and solitude of his majestic residence and inspired him to work in the best interests of the state and the nation and abruptly dissolve the Assembly over two years ahead of schedule. Malik was attempting to let the public know that he didn't care whether he had any staff to assist in this most defining task of his governorship. He also didn't care whether he landed from Delhi only hours ago, was tired and it was time for him to relax, but the call of duty told him that he must act and act fast, sign the Assembly dissolution order and have it released to the world. If Malik is removed or transferred now, as he fears, fingers would be pointed at the Centre. Malik has played his card. Its now Centres turn. Malik knows a governors term is five years, but as per provisions of the Constitution, he holds his office at the pleasure of the president. Malik's continued tenure may no longer please President Ram Nath Kovind. What perhaps gives Malik confidence of holding his seat is his social roots. Malik is a Jat from Uttar Pradesh's Baghpat. Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP would not like to get on the bad side of the Jat community, given its penchant for reacting emotionally. Goa is in the 'ICU', state Congress committee chief Girish Chodankar said. Parrikar, 62, has been recuperating at his private residence near here since 14 October, when he was discharged from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi. Panaji: The Goa Congress will launch a statewide agitation on Friday to demand a "full-time" chief minister for the state in place of the ailing Manohar Parrikar, a senior party leader said Wednesday. Goa is in the "ICU", state Congress committee chief Girish Chodankar said. Parrikar, 62, has been recuperating at his private residence near here since 14 October, when he was discharged from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi. Last week, hundreds of people, including some Congress leaders, had marched to Parrikar's residence, demanding his resignation and a "full-time" chief minister for Goa. "We have now decided to go to people with the issue and launch a taluka (administrative division)-wise agitation," Chodankar told PTI. The Congress will begin its agitation from Bicholim on 30 November, followed by Pernem on 1 December. All the talukas will be covered subsequently in due course of time, he said. The party will hold "awareness campaigns" across the state, Chodankar said. "We will expose this (Bharatiya Janata Party-led) government...we will highlight how Goa has suffered due to the absence of a full-time chief minister. The last cabinet meeting was also not chaired by the chief minister. Goa is in the ICU (intensive care unit)," he said. The Congress leader said they are demanding restoration of governance in the state. "We want a full-time chief minister who will hold regular cabinet meetings and advice Goa governor. Right now, nobody knows what is happening. Who is running the government in the chief minister's name? We don't know who is signing the documents and who is taking the decisions," he said. It is clear from the photographs released recently by government that Parrikar is not in a position to take any decision, Chodankar claimed. He said the Congress' agitation on this issue started long back when they observed a "century" (100 days) without the chief minister. The state Congress leaders had also protested when BJP president Amit Shah was in Goa and met the governor four-five times, he noted. Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday claimed that the Hindu deity Hanuman belonged to the Dalit and tribal communities during his political rally in Rajasthan. Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday claimed that the Hindu deity Hanuman belonged to the Dalit and tribal communities during his political rally in Rajasthan. Adityanath has, in the past, seamlessly dropped names of Hindu gods in a bid to garner votes in poll-bound states like Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. Adityanath, who has reportedly been of the BJP's star campaigners during the ongoing season of Assembly polls, was campaigning in the Malpura constituency. The chief minister said, Hanuman was a tribal, a forest dweller and was deprived. Bajrang Bali worked to connect all Indian communities together, from north to south and east to west. This was his resolve as it was Lord Rams wish. Just like him, we should also not rest till we fulfil that wish." Adityanath also said that only those worship Ravana, the antagonist from the Ramayana, would vote for the Congress. He added that all "Ram-bhakts" should vote for the BJP. Incidentally, this is the second time that Adityanath has mentioned Hanuman as part of his election campaign speech. He had spoken about the deity being a Dalit tribal in the tribal-dominated state of Chhattisgarh too, ahead of the elections. He had said, "Hanuman sabse bade Adivasi hain, vanvasi hain...," and added, "When Lord Ram was on vanvaas, he helped the local tribals from the terror of demons. Just like Ram did in Treta Yug, the BJP is also aiming to bring Ram Rajya in the state." A report by News18 said, "Analysts see this as BJPs two-pronged strategy to appeal to a wide base of voters Adityanath is employed to reinforce Hindutva narrative while Prime Minister Narendra Modi projects himself as the man for development." According to the report, Adityanath's exponential mentions of Hindu deities has been proportional with saffron organisations' efforts for the Ram Mandir in Uttar Pradesh's Ayodhya. In Madhya Pradesh, Adityanath kept up his divisive diatribe in response to a video of state Congress chief Kamal Nath asking for Muslim leaders to ensure that 90 percent of the community votes for the Congress. Adityanath, in a blatantly communal comment, said that the Congress could "keep their Ali", while "Bajrang Bali was enough" for the saffron party. According to reports, he also said, "I recently read a statement by Kamal Nathji that the Congress does not need SC/ST votes. The Congress only wants Muslim votes." In his speeches during the run-up to Chhattisgarh's Assembly elections, Adityanath targetted the Congress and accused the party of favouring Maoists, who have caused disruptions with violence for decades. He also said that the Congress had supported "forced conversions" of the people by Christian missionaries, and engaged in corruption and terrorism during its tenure. On the 10th anniversary of the 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai, Adityanath said that the Congress was responsible for an alleged rise of terrorism in the country. During a rally in Rajasthan, which will vote in Assembly elections on 7 December, Adityanath said, "Congress has done divisive politics. As a result of that, terrorism was at its peak in the country (during Congress rule). Today, you can see that the terrorists who were fed with biryani by the Congress are now being gunned down by us." Adityanath held significant number of public meetings in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan individually. The Uttar Pradesh chief minister addressed 11 public meetings in Rajasthan over the course of two days. A report by LiveMint quoted a BJP official who said, "Well he is an asset for us in these Hindi speaking states, especially in those parts which border Uttar Pradesh. In fact, many candidates in these states and even in Telangana have preferred Yogi ji to even Modi ji because Hindutva matters more in their constituencies than development," who added that Adityanath's appeal as a campaigner was noticed by the party during the Karnataka elections in May 2018. With inputs from agencies Though voting is conducted electronically, hundreds of electors returned after waiting for hours, when Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) malfunctioned. Bhopal: Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday reflected the paradoxes that the Hindi heartland lives by. Though voting is conducted electronically, hundreds of electors returned after waiting for hours, when Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) made by BEL, Bangalore and ECIL, Hyderabad malfunctioned. After 15 years of one party rule, the state also had entire villages boycotting the election citing a lack of basic amenities. Another significant voter section, Madhya Pradeshs farmers, made their unhappiness with the Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led government abundantly clear. Spurts of violence also broke out in Bhind and Mehgaon regions, which was resolved by security personnel. The state recorded 74.61 percent voting till 6 pm, higher than the 72.07 percent voting recorded in 2013 Assembly polls, according to Chief Electoral Officer for Madhya Pradesh VL Kantha Rao, who had to wait for a while due to malfunctioning EVM units before he could cast his vote at the Char Imli VVIP polling booth in Bhopal. Neemuch and Shajapur districts recorded highest voting percentage (81 percent). Three Maoist-affected seats Baihar, Lanjhi and Paraswada reported encouraging voter turnout. According to reports, 66 percent turnout was recorded in Baihar, 64 percent in Lanjhi, and 68 percent polling was reported in Paraswada. With heavy security assigned, voting was carried out peacefully in these areas. A total of 1,545 of VVPAT units, 563 Ballot Units and 583 Control Units were replaced till 3 pm, including the 732 VVPAT units, 352 BUs and 369 CUs that had to be replaced during mock polls. Villages boycott polls In Majesara village of Mandsaur, 856 voters boycotted the elections citing corruption. In Vicharpura village of Shahdol, a lack of water and road infrastructure led voters to call a boycott. Not a single vote was polled in Ruparel village under Sunser Assembly Constituency in Agar Malwa. Villagers were protesting a lack of roads leading to the village. Villagers of Piliyakhal in Harda and Govindgarh and Janakpur in Bhander AC also took the boycott route. They demanded electricity, canals and roads. Water woes kept villagers of Patpara, Tikra Maheshpuri, Khalhe and Maheshpuri Chirapani in Dindori district away from polling booths. Vandalism in Bhind, Mehgaon Pradeep Singh Bhadauria, polling agent of the Congress candidate in Mehgaon Assembly constituency, was shot and is reportedly seriously injured. According to reports, he was rushed to a hospital in Gwalior. Incidents of violence were also reported from Bhind district, where gunshots were fired in front of two polling booths. Sources said the assailants immediately fled, and the firing was done with the intention of disrupting the poll process. Mehgaon is located in the Gwalior-Chambal region. The region has 34 seats and is a tense contest is expected between the BJP and the Congress. In 2013, the BJP won 20 seats, followed by Congress 12. The BSP had managed to win two seats. 'Want to overthrow govt' Madhya Pradesh has the second largest population of Patidars after Gujarat, with nearly 60 lakh voters belonging to the community, of which 40 lakh are from the Malwa region. Of the 230 seats in contention, the fate of around 34 would be predominantly decided by a majority of Patidar voters in these constituencies. Ambalal Patidar and Gopal Patidar, farmers in Mandsaur, blame the present dispensation for the problems farmers face. They hold the government responsible for the police brutality on protesting farmers last year in Mandsaur, and state that they want to overthrow the government. Also on Wednesday, four polling officials passed away due to cardiac arrest while on Election Commission duty. The EC announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh for the kin of three EC officials: one from Guna and two from Indore. The fourth official passed away in Dhar district. Are state governors in India mere political pawns? Jammu and Kashmir governor Satya Pal Malik's recent confession that he fears a transfer out of the Raj Bhawan for dissolving the state Assembly appears to indicate just that. Are state governors in India mere political pawns? Jammu and Kashmir governor Satya Pal Malik's recent confession that he fears a transfer out of the Raj Bhawan for dissolving the state Assembly appears to indicate just that. Malik had said he was not sure when will he be transferred from Jammu and Kashmir, but the "threat of a transfer is there". Although he is not the first governor (and likely not the last) to have found himself in the middle of a political controversy, but his statement has revived the debate on the role of a governor and if at all it's possible for the constitutional head of a state to act without fear and favour and without being influenced by the powers that be. Earlier, Malik had implied that the Centre had wanted him to give People's Conference chairman Sajad Lone a chance to form the government in Jammu and Kashmir. Lone, whose party had only two seats in the Assembly, reportedly has the support of BJP legislators as well as some rebel MLAs of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). But he was not the only one staking claim to form the state government. PDP chief and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti had also said she had sent a letter to Malik, claiming that her party has the support of the required number of MLAs backed by Omar Abdullah's National Conference and the Congress to form government in the conflict-torn state. Malik, however, had rejected both claims and dissolved the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, forcing fresh elections in the state in the next six months. His decision received a sharp reaction, with most critics accusing the governor of acting as a puppet of the BJP-ruled Centre and not giving Mufti a chance to form the government in the state. While Mufti and her supports claim that Malik had acted in an "unconstitutional" manner because BJP-backed Lone didn't have the numbers, it is also believed that the NC-Congress-PDP alliance caught the Centre off guard, and since it didn't want Mufti back in office, dissolving the Assembly eventually served the BJP well. The Jammu and Kashmir governor also claimed that he dissolved the Assembly because Mufti was never interested in forming the government and wanted fresh polls. He said the alliance would not be stable for the state, even though it is not his job to test the future stability of the government nor is he qualified to make such as judgement. Malik's actions and his revelations from earlier this week have shown that the position of a governor can easily be compromised to serve the Centre's political interests, though he said he was not afraid of a backlash from those who had installed him in the Raj Bhawan in the first place. But can all claim to act without personal prejudice and in favour of the state? The spats between the Arvind Kejriwal-led government in Delhi and the Lieutenant-Governor is well documented. Similar issues have also been witnessed in Puducherry, where the chief minister of the Union Territory is locked in a bitter battle over powers with L-G Kiran Bedi. While much of these power tussles have been about the authorities themselves, history in states shows a completely different ball game. In 2016, Arunachal Pradesh governor JP Rajkhowa had triggered a constitutional crisis in the notheastern state by unlawfully advancing the Assembly session, which had led to the imposition of Presidents Rule in the state. In Tamil Nadu, then governor C Vidyasagar Rao was often accused of not performing his constitutional duties and for allowing the political crisis that followed former chief minister J Jayalalithaa's death, the subsequent arrest of her aide Sasikala and the split in the AIADMK to get out of hand. In an ideal situation, a governor is supposed to be anything but a political pawn. The qualities and qualifications for a governor listed out by the Sarkaria Commission say: "The governor should be eminent in some walk of life and from outside the state. He should be a detached figure without intense political links or should not have taken part in politics in the recent past. Besides, he should not be a member of the ruling party." But these rules are hardly followed anymore in choosing a governor. Karnataka governor Vajubhai Vala was a member of the BJP and is a staunch supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In fact, Vala had even vacated his seat for Modi. That intense political links are still present became apparent when Vala had called on Karnataka BJP chief BS Yeddyurappa to form the state government even though he lacked majority support in the Assembly. Although a governor is the Centre's representative at the state level, according to Article 159 of the Constitution which lists out the oath of the governor, s/he should "devote himself to the service and well being of the people of state". A governor must work towards the benefit of the people of the state, not towards a party, an ideology or association, or a government. More often than not, governors have done the latter, be it the UPA or NDA at the Centre. This then pleads a question was Malik thinking about the people of Jammu and Kashmir when he dissolved the Assembly? Did he have them in mind when he said he fears he might get transferred for not having listened to the Centre's diktat? Congress leader Pratap Singh Bajwa also expressed delight over the opening of the historic Kartarpur corridor, calling it a 'happy day for the entire Sikh community.' New Delhi: Congress leader Pratap Singh Bajwa on Wednesday defended Punjab Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu's visit to Pakistan for the groundbreaking ceremony of the Kartarpur corridor, saying that Sidhu visited Pakistan in his personal capacity and the onus of what he says there lies on him alone. Speaking to ANI, Bajwa said: "Navjot Singh Sidhu went there on a personal invitation because he is a friend of Imran Khan. He didn't go there in an official capacity as a Minister. This has also been clarified by the Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh. The onus of whatever he says there in his personal capacity lies on him alone." Bajwa further said, "Sidhu went there for the second time in three-four months. Who issued him the visa? Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) did. First, you issue him a visa and then you talk about what he did and what he said there. Navjot Singh Sidhu's visit to Pakistan has no link with Punjab government and Congress," Bajwa said. He also expressed delight over the opening of the historic Kartarpur corridor, calling it a "happy day for the entire Sikh community." "Today is a very happy day for all Sikh community and for people from different religions, who believe in Guru Nanak Dev Ji. We thank our government, Punjab government and most importantly Pakistan government to felicitate this corridor," the Congress leader said. He refused to credit any political party for the corridor, saying: "The credit goes to only Guru Nanak Dev Ji. I believe that credit of this happiness goes to Guru Nanak Dev Ji. It has become possible because of his blessings. It is a moment of happiness and we should not ruin this happiness with any political comment or any kind of controversy." Earlier today, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan performed the groundbreaking ceremony of much-awaited Kartarpur corridor. Several Pakistani dignitaries including Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi were present at the occasion. The Indian representatives included Minister for Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri, who crossed the Wagah Border to attend the inauguration ceremony. What makes Shivraj Singh Chouhan's task a bit easier is the clear distinction between the BJP and the Congress: while the former is firing on all cylinders, the latter is awaiting a windfall On my trip from Indore to Bhopal, I was given an eye-opening lesson in sociology and politics by Roop Singh, the driver of my hired Innova. What he told me was so nuanced and deep that it made me not only understand the current election in a new light, but also helped me figure out why touring journalists seldom read polls right. The general wisdom among political pundits is that this time around, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is on a sticky wicket because of, among various other reasons, the fact that BJP's traditional upper caste support base is upset. Word is they are angry with Chouhan for his alleged bias towards Dalits and OBCs. So, I lobbed the question to Roop. Pat came his answer: You see, sir, upper castes are like frogs on a taraju (weighing scale). They jump from one scale to the other habitually just to disturb the scale. He was using a modified muhavra (adage) which talks about the impossibility of weighing frogs on a scale and felt the need to explain it. I do not know to which caste you belong, he said. I am a Thakur and assuming that you are also a Thakur. But what is common between you and me? What he left unsaid was: "Then why do you expect me to vote like you?" He was right. Even if I were a Thakur, I'm not, there would be nothing even remotely common between the two of us. Using a simple adage, he was educating me on why urban India should not treat caste as a homogenous group: one that eats, lives, behaves and votes as one. In an urban, each-one-to-their-own milieu, class divisions obfuscate and even override caste similarities. In his view, a section of the rich upper castes, guided by the frog-in-the-balance-syndrome, was trying to disturb the political scale for their self-interests. Contrast this with the behaviour of Muslims, and you will find them sitting tight on one of the scales, he added. Roop is a BJP supporter. But what was significant in his formulation was the underlying theme of communal division. Given the presence of the BJPs robust organisational structure in the state, Hindutva seems to have permeated deeply into the states body politic. It is not without reason that even top Congress leaders are running from Datia Pitambara Peeth to the Mahakal temple in Ujjain to seek divine blessings. Congress chief Rahul Gandhi led this show to establish the partys pro-Hindu credentials. But that seems not only too little too late, but also an obsolete idea. In the past, the Congress was for long regarded as more pro-Hindu than the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS). This was all the more true when Dwarka Prasad Mishra was chief minister from 1963 to 1967. Even during Indira Gandhis time, the party was never regarded with the slightest bit of suspicion by Hindus, though the RSS-BJS had a strong presence in the state. This situation reversed only during Digvijaya Singhs second stint (1998 to 2003) when he embraced a brand of secularism which was projected as a tactic of minority appeasement. What compounded the Congress folly was its reliance on the premise that the socially-marginalised groups would not join the Hindutva fold, which was largely perceived as pro-upper castes. Digvijaya successfully stalled the BJPs march in 1998 on account of his pro-poor approach that roped in the socially-marginalised sections to the Congress fold. However, his over-reliance on this strategy proved counter-productive in 2003 when bijli, sadak and paani (electricity, road and water) became the reigning slogan for the people. Though the BJP projected Uma Bharti as its chief ministerial candidate, it did not harp on Hindutva. It promised basic amenities to lure in voters. Since then, the Congress has been unable to find its feet on the state's electoral ground. And it is unlikely the Congress can do so this time either, despite a propitious political circumstance. The reason is not far to seek. The state government has been recklessly overindulgent on social spending to mitigate rural distress. Take, for example, the Rs 600 crore worth purchase of onions to assuage farmers plight. Or the introduction of Bhavantar scheme under which farmers are directly paid the difference between the minimum support price (MSP) and the actual market price, in case the latter is higher. In many of these schemes, there is a huge potential for irregularities. Yet, spending has invariably benefitted local traders and farmers and substantially mitigated the anger against the government. At the same time, rapid urbanisation and expansion of the irrigation network has brought prosperity and lifted a substantial section of the poor above the distress level. This improvement in the economic profile has resulted in a sea change in the state's social complexion. Even the upper castes that migrated to urban areas in search of jobs are more aligned to class division than caste allegiance. That is what Roop explained so beautifully in his own way. That does not mean that Chouhan will have a cake walk. He is certainly encumbered by indiscretions of his own government; in the Vyapam scam, and other scams in social welfare spending, giving free rein to mining mafias and others. Add to that the unbridled hubris of BJPs local cadre and leaders. But what makes his task a bit easier is the clear distinction between the BJP and the Congress: while the former is firing on all cylinders to win, the latter is awaiting a windfall. Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were first deployed by the Election Commission of India in 1999 during Goa Assembly elections. Two decades later, every time India votes, it still somehow begins with complaints related to faulty or malfunctioning EVMs which leads to loss of crucial voting hours. Bhopal: Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were first deployed by the Election Commission of India in 1999 during Goa Assembly elections. Two decades later, every time India votes, it still somehow begins with complaints related to faulty or malfunctioning EVMs which leads to loss of crucial voting hours. On Wednesday, even as the excited lot of early electorates in Madhya Pradesh reached their respective polling booths, not everyone had a smooth run at voting. Videos were shared from various polling booths showing voters waiting for Election Commission officials to fix the malfunctioning EVMs and VVPAT machines. Chief Electoral Officer for Madhya Pradesh, V L Kantha Rao, got a first hand experience of the persistent trouble with electronic voting apparatus when he had to wait for half an hour before casting his vote at the Char Imli VVIP polling booth in Bhopal. While widespread failure of EVMs during mock polls delayed the start of voting process in many constituencies by half an hour to two hours, a proportional number of technical snags were reported while voting was in process until 3 pm. Addressing media at 3 pm, CEO Rao said that a total of 1,545 of VVPAT units, 563 Ballot Units and 583 Control Units were replaced till 3 pm, including the 732 VVPAT units, 352 BUs and 369 CUs that had to be replaced during mock polls. 20 percent units replaced in Satna Satna district, where 20 percent EVM units had to be replaced, was the worst affected, said Rao, and added that extra units had to be brought in from neighbouring district Rewa when Satna ran out of stock. Hundreds of voters returned to their homes in the district after waiting over an hour. The state recorded 50 percent voting till 3 pm, and Rao claimed the final turnout was expected to touch the target figure of 80 percent. After 12 pm, the Election Commission officials in Madhya Pradesh said at least 250 EVMs had been replaced in the ongoing elections. The number is likely to increase as reports of more such instances pour in. At several places, even the machines that were substituted did not function properly, and had to be replaced. The areas that reported technical snags in EVMs included Mandla, Char Imli, Betul, Harda, Indore, Bhopal and Satna, among other constituencies. While poll officials at polling booth 42 in Rampur Baghelan, Satna, were waiting for new machines to arrive as allotted EVMs malfunctioned, the voters had started to return without casting their votes after having waited for hours. Wednesday morning polling could only start after a delay of two to three hours at several polling booths after the glitch was reported. For example, voting at the Tilak Nagar booth in Indore-5 constituency, where first vote was cast at 10.54 am, was halted after a glitch was reported. At booth no: 96 in Harda, crucial 40 minutes were lost due to a technical snag. Voting process had to be halted due to EVM glitches in at least 26 booths across Bhopal, according to reports till 1pm. Videos from the Pusali village in Betul constituency showed voters squatted on the ground around the polling booth as they waited for polling to resume. We have been waiting for two hours but the machine is not working, said one irate male voter upon noticing a mobile camera approaching him. Congress calls for 'repoll' State Congress president Kamal Nath alleged that the voting seemed to be affecting areas which were Congress stronghold and suggested that the Election Commission must consider re-polling in constituencies where fair practice was questionable. His party colleague and Guna MP Jyotiraditya Scindia wrote to the Chief Election Commissioner seeking an extension of polling time at the booths where voting hours were lost due to EVM and VVPAT malfunctioning. CEC O P Rawat responded saying that it was up to the local officers to take a call on extending polling time. Congress leader Digvijaya Singh tweeted that EVM malfunctioning was being reported from polling booths that had a favourable mood towards Congress. He advised Congress polling agents to note down the number of the changed machines and check the machine by casting 50-100 votes as mock poll. Congress candidate from Bhopal-Madhya, Arif Masood filed a written complaint with the Election Commission stating that voting begun late by at least two hours at more than two dozen polling booths in his constituency and urged the Election Commission to give additional time to voters. Many women voters left polling booth 159 in Burhanpur without casting their vote as the process was halted for about one and a half hours despite the Collector and the SP reaching the spot to resolve the issue. Political analyst C K Naidu said that EVMs developing faults on polling day might have a direct impact on voting percent as lot of voters return back after waiting for hours. Reports came from Bhind that voters had created ruckus after waiting in queue for a long time. "The election commission should also be questioned as to what preparations were done after large scale reporting of EVM faults in by-election in Uttar Pradesh," said Naidu. No EVMs for LS 2019? West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has been reportedly leading a pack of Opposition parties that sought from the EC a reversal to ballot paper voting instead of EVMs for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Several petitions have been filed by political parties at various courts, including the Supreme Court, against the possibility of tampering of EVMs. Responding to these petitions, the EC on its website said the credibility, reliability and robustness of EVMs has been validated by various high courts in all the cases after detailed analysis of various aspects of technological security and administrative safeguards around use of EVMs. In response to a FAQ about EVMs that go out of order, the EC said: If an EVM of a particular polling station goes out of order, the same is replaced with a new one. The votes recorded until the stage when the EVM went out of order remains safe in the memory of the Control Unit and it is perfectly fine to proceed with the polling after replacing the EVM with new EVM and there is no need to start the poll from the beginning. On counting day, votes recorded in both Control Units are counted to give the aggregate result of that polling station. The EVMs have been devised and designed by the technical experts committee of the ECI in collaboration with Bharat Electronic Limited, Bangalore and Electronic Corporation of India Ltd, Hyderabad, the two public sector undertakings that manufacture the device. CEO Rao informed that 78,870 ballot units (BU) and 65,367 control units (CU) are being used during polls besides 65,367 VVPAT machines. Moreover, 15,548 BU, 12,248 CU and 13812 VVPATS are kept in reserve. About five lakh employees have been engaged to conduct voting at 65,341 polling booths across 230 constituencies in Madhya Pradesh where about 5.04 crore voters will exercise their franchise on Wednesday. Voting was to be conducted between 8am and 5pm in all constituencies barring three that fall under naxal-affected Balaghat district, including Baihar, Lanji and Paraswada. Here, voting hours were from 7 am to 3 pm. With inputs from Shahroz Afridi Madhya Pradesh is all set to vote on Wednesday to elect a 230-member Assembly, two days after acrimonious campaigning for the high-stakes polls ended. Madhya Pradesh is all set to vote on Wednesday to elect a 230-member Assembly, two days after acrimonious campaigning for the high-stakes polls ended. As many as 2,907 candidates are in the fray. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress chief Rahul Gandhi were the star campaigners for BJP and Congress respectively and addressed a number of poll rallies across the state. National and state issues, including the Rafale deal, demonetisation, development, GST, corruption, dynastic politics and the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government's performance, among others, prominently figured in their speeches. Key candidates and constituencies Chief Minister Shivraj Singh 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. 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. 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. Digvijaya 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. 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 Uminister 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 KL 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 transgenders contesting the polls, prominent are former MLA Shabnam Mousi, who is fighting from Kotma seat in Anooppur district, and Neha Kinnar from Ambab seat in Morena district. Campaigning The bitter campaigning in Madhya Pradesh saw BJP and Congress engage in some nasty mud-slinging. Modi and Rahul freely exchanged barbs and traded charges, raising the political temperature in the central state. In the final days of electioneering, Modi crisscrossed the state and addressed 10 public meetings. Rahul, during his whirlwind electioneering tour of the state, held 12 public meetings and roadshows this month. Amit Shah camped in Madhya Pradesh, where he addressed public meetings and held roadshows. The BJP chief held a roadshow in Indore hours before the campaigning ended. Besides Modi, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj and Smriti Irani also addressed rallies in support of BJP candidates. During the electioneering, Rahul announced his party will waive the loans of farmers in 10 days of coming to power. Modi, speaking at one of his rallies, said farmers were in debt due to the "wrong policies" of the previous Congress governments and maintained the Centre was working on doubling income of cultivators by 2022. The BJP primarily focused on the 10-year "misrule" of former Congress chief minister Digvijaya Singh and listed the achievements under Chouhan. The ruling party said Madhya Pradesh shed the 'BIMARU' (laggard) tag under Chouhan and saw all-round development under his leadership. A purported video of Kamal Nath on Muslim votes went viral during the last leg of electioneering with the BJP accusing the main Opposition party of dividing society for electoral gain. Security arrangements in place More than 1.80 lakh security personnel were deployed ensure peaceful polling. As many as 2,899 candidates, including 1,094 independents, are in the fray for the 230 seats. The state has 5.04 crore eligible voters. Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) VL 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 differently-abled 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. "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 are 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). The BSP has fielded 227 candidates, while the SP is contesting on 52 seats. AAP, contesting the Madhya Pradesh elections for the first time, has fielded 208 candidates. With inputs from PTI Nearly 55 percent of voters exercised their franchise till 3.30 pm Wednesday in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections which were marred by complaints of faulty Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and stray incidents of violence. Nearly 74.61 percent of voters exercised their franchise till 6 pm Wednesday in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections which were marred by complaints of faulty Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and stray incidents of violence. According to latest updates, 745 EVMs and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines were replaced after complaints of technical snags, Madhya Pradesh's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) VL Kantha Rao said. The number may go up as reports of technical glitches have continued to pour in. This may result in repolling at several booths following complaints of malfunctioning of EVMs, as senior Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia demanded the Election Commission make up for the time wasted in replacing faulty EVMs by extending the polling time in concerned booths. "I want the EC to compensate for the time lost in replacing the EVMs. It should extend voting time at places where EVMs failed to work," Scindia told reporters after landing in Gwalior to cast his vote. "I have already spoken to Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat and Madhya Pradesh chief electoral officer VL Kantha Rao over the phone," the Lok Sabha member from the state's Guna seat said. Scindia said he wanted maximum people to cast their vote. The poll panel said it may reconsider conducting a re-poll if the officers report that people were unable to cast vote due to technical glitches. "Our polling agents have been constantly observing and interacting with voters to record all grievances and the rate at which EVMs are malfunctioning is alarming, Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat said. On the extension of poll time, Rawat said, "There are provisions for extension of time. Local officials can take a call as they see fit. The matter does not need to be handled by the election commission." State Congress chief Kamal Nath also expressed concern over complaints of technical snags in EVMs. "Several reports are coming from across the state that EVMs are not working. This has been affecting the polling. Long queues are being witnessed in the city. EC should immediately take decision. The EVMs should be changed," he said in a tweet. Polling was held from 8 am to 5 pm in 227 seats, while in three Assembly segments of Lanji, Paraswada and Baihar in the Naxal-affected Balaghat district, the voting hours were from 7 am to 3 pm. Two polling officials died due to health issues while performing their duties in Indore and Guna districts, Rao said. The families of these employees would be given an ex-gratia of Rs 10 lakh each, he said. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the Bharatiya Janata Party's candidate from Budhni seat, and his wife Sadhana Singh cast their votes at his native village Jait, which is part of his Assembly constituency. Earlier, Chouhan also offered prayers at a local temple. The Congress fielded former Union minister Arun Yadav against Chouhan. Kamal Nath cast his vote in Chhindwara district while the party's campaign committee chief Scindia exercised his franchise in Gwalior. Rao said polling was going on peacefully in all the Assembly constituencies and long queues were seen in the Naxal-affected seats and other places. However, some disturbance was reported from Bhind and Morena districts. Reports said three people were arrested after gunshots were fired outside a polling both in Bhind. Meanwhile, reports said around 10 candidates from five seats in the sensitive Bhind district were detained in view of maintaining law and order. The police earlier detained BJP and Congress candidates from Ater in Bhind, Arvind Singh Bhadauriya (BJP) and Hemant Katare (Congress), to prevent any kind of untoward situation. They have been kept at the circuit house. The district is located in the Gwalior-Chambal region. The region is expected to witness tense contest between BJP and Congress. The region has 34 seats. Meanwhile, in Morena, a Congress polling agent was shot and rushed to a hospital in Gwalior in a critical state. In Bhopal North, BJP-Congress workers clashed in Kotwali area following reports that Rs 10 lakh cash was recovered from a BJP minister's car. However no action was taken against Devraj Singh Parihar, a senior BJP leader and a state minister, after initial inquiry. 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 Madhya Pradesh politics. The state has 5.04 crore eligible voters. Over three lakh government employees, including nearly 45,000 women, are on poll duty. As many as 1.80 lakh security personnel, including those drawn from central paramilitary forces, have also been deployed to ensure free and fair poll, Rao said. With inputs from PTI and Team 101 Reporters 11,100 security personnel, comprising central paramilitary and state security forces, were deployed to avoid any untoward incidents during the Mizoram Assembly elections on Wednesday. Polling for 40-member Mizoram Assembly began at 7 am on Wednesday amid very tight security. Officials said that voting concluded at 4 pm. According to the election commission seventy-five percent voter turnout was recorded till 5 pm. According to senior police officials in the state, at least 11,100 security personnel, comprising central paramilitary and state security forces, were deployed to ensure safety during polling hours. The official sources from the EC office said that at least 40 companies of the Central Armed Police Force, in addition to the state police force, were deployed to ensure free and fair polling. Other than the 1,164 polling stations already present across the state, an additional 15 booths were created at Kanhmun village in Mamit district for the Bru refugees coming from six camps in Tripura. Kanhmun is a village along the Mizoram-Tripura border, to facilitate voting by Reang tribal refugees, sheltered in Tripura for the past 21 years. Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Ashish Kundra said that around 40 polling stations, all managed by women, were also set up across the constituencies where the entire polling staff, including the police and security personnel, are women. Altogether, 47 of 1,179 polling booths were classified as 'critical', and as many as 'vulnerable', by the Election Commission. 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. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi were among the political leaders who urged Mizoram voters to cast their ballots. Where Congress has fielded 40 candidates, the BJP had fielded 39. 67% voter turnout till 3 pm Mizoram saw a strong start to polling, with a voter turnout of 29 percent recorded within the first four hours. It shot up to 40.68 percent by 12.30 pm, with the Champhai South constituency recording an even higher participation of 56.31 percent. By 2.30 pm, Tuikum saw 56 percent turnout, Hrangturzo 55 percent and Thorang 59 percent. The overall voter turnout was 67 percent till 3 pm, while polling was held till 4 pm. Zoranthanga said MNF will win in landslide victory; Thanhwala says no post-poll alliance with BJP Former chief minister Zoramthanga, who was in power from 1998 to 2008, cast his vote and said that he was confident that his party MNF would win this time in a landslide victory. Zoramthanga is MNF's candidate from the Aizawl East- I constituency. Other candidates from the constituency are Laldinliana Sailo from the BJP, Lalrinpuii from NCP, K Vanlalrawna from INC, and independent candidates K Sapdanga and Zosangliana. Zoramthanga also ruled out the possibility of a hung Assembly, adding that he was confident enough to form the party. He also said that one of the promises that the party would keep is the ban of liquor. "Congress had failed the Church and the people by selling liquor," Zoramthanga said. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla cast his vote at Zarkawt at around 12.15 pm, expressing hope of winning a simple majority by bagging more than 27 seats. Thanhawla said the Congress would not forge a post-poll alliance with the BJP. Polling hampered by EVM malfunctions, polling officials being caught inebriated Mizoram's Joint Chief Electoral Officer Zorammuana told IANS that "a few EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines) and VVPAT (Voters Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) devices were malfunctioning." Forty-two VVPATs, 25 ballot units and 19 control units were replaced following the malfunctions at various polling stations across Mizoram, Kundra said. In a separate incident, three polling officials, including two presiding officers, in Mizoram's Lunglei district were removed from their duties after they were allegedly found in an inebriated state, attempting to assault other officials. The three persons were removed from the election duties with immediate effect and authorities concerned were asked to initiate departmental enquiries against them, a senior official at the office of the Chief Electoral Officer said. Those who faced action include James RT Khuma, an Associate Professor at Government J Buana College, who was the presiding officer at a polling station in Lunglei South assembly seat. "He was found to be intoxicated in the DC office premises, was behaving in an extremely unruly manner and attempted to physically assault a senior officer in the presence of others," Lunglei Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Returning Officer Ankita Chakravarty said in an order. Polling booths connected via wireless communication Gearing up its entire machinery for assembly polls in Mizoram, authorities decided to connect all polling booths through wireless communication for the first time leaving no "shadow areas" at all. "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," Mizoram Deputy Inspector General of Police (Training & Armed Branch) Joseph Lalchhuana told PTI in an interview. 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. With inputs from agencies Mizoram Assembly elections updates: 56 percent voter turnout was recorded at Tuikum as of 2.30 on Wednesday afternoon, a spokesperson from the Election Commission said. Hrangturzo recorded 55 percent, South Tuipui 51 percent, and Thorang 59 percent, the official said. Auto refresh feeds Polling for the Mizoram Vidhan Sabha elections began at 7 am on Wednesday, with 7,075 electoral officials engaged to conduct the elections. "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," Mizoram Deputy Inspector General of Police (Training & Armed Branch) Joseph Lalchhuana told PTI in an interview. 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. As polling began in Mizoram on Wednesday, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah took to Twitter to encourage citizens to come out and vote. "Your one vote will lay the foundation of a prosperous and corruption free Mizoram," he tweeted. Click here to check out the other key candidates contesting the elections The Christian-majority state has always had Congress in power since it became a full-fledged state in 1987, except for a 10-year gap between 1998 to 2008. The MNF is an integral regional party which was in power for two terms between 1998-2003 and 2003-2008. The state's electorate is 7,68,181. Polling started for the Mizoram Assembly election at 7 am on Wednesday. The total number of candidates this time is 209, almost 67 more than 2013. Mizo National Front (MNF) Leader Zoramthanga will cast his vote at Aizwal's Ramhlun Venglai. Kundra appealed to all voters of Mizoram to exercise franchise on Wednesday. Kundra said preparations have been made for 12,026 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 people of Kanhmun village have even erected a welcome gate at the border expressing heartiest welcome to Bru voters," he said. The election machinery is fully prepared to conduct free and fair polls to the 40-member Mizoram Legislative Assembly on Wednesday, the state's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Ashish Kundra said Monday. "Preparations have been made for facilitating differently-abled people with ramps and wheelchairs," he said. Eight parties are in the fray for the 40-member Mizoram Assembly. He also said that one of the promises that the party would keep is the ban of liquor. "Congress had failed the Church and the people by selling liquor," Zoramthanga said. Former chief minister and MNF leader Zoramthanga rules out the possibility of a hung Assembly, adding that he was confident enough to form the party. Of the 209 candidates in the fray for the Mizoram Vidhan Sabha elections, only 15 are women , according to officials from the state election department. While that figure is more than double of the 2013 state polls, when only six women candidates ran for office unfortunately none were successful the number of women competing for seats amounts to merely seven percent of the total candidates. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday morning took to Twitter to request Mizoram's young voters to come out. "I request my sisters and brothers of Mizoram, particularly the dynamic youth of the state, to turnout in large numbers and vote," he tweeted. With a total of 209 candidates fighting to be part of the 40-member Mizoram Assembly, here is a breakdown of the parties contesting the elections, along with the number of seats being contested. The Forum's General Secretary Bruno Msha said that the election commission has been made aware of the demand on Tuesday. However, chief electoral officer Ashish Kundra confirms that there are 12,026 Bru voters coming from relief camps in Tripura. Mizoram Bru Displaced People's Forum demanded setting up a special polling station in a relief camp in Tripura's Kanchanpur to help pregnant women, senior citizens and differently abled people to cast their votes. "People need to carry a permit to purchase alcohol in the state for personal bonafide consumption," he said, adding that he hopes "God-fearing people" will be elected this time. The MNF is completely against alcohol and shared plans on several occasions to ban it if they come to power. Lalsiamliana, a voter from Thentlang village, said that he is against the Mizoram Liquor (Prohibition and Control) Act 2014, which permits liquor to be sold in the state. Prohibition in Mizoram is a big issue in the state, and the first liquor store opened in 2015. Of the 865 voters at this polling station, 107 voters have so far cast their votes since 7 am. The area's sitting Congress MLA Lal Thanzara, who also holds the health portfolio, cast his vote at 7 am as well. He was tipped against MNF nominee C Lalmuanpuia, BJP's VL Awia, ZPM candidate C Lalhmingthanga and Zoramthar Lalremsiama Ralte. Incumbent chief minister Lal Thanhawla is also slated to cast his vote at Zarkawt-II in Aizawl, which falls under Aizawl North-III constituency. Lalthanfela, a differently-abled first-time voter cast his vote at Zarkawt-II in Aizawl, and said that he hopes that Congress retains power in Mizoram. Young voters in the state want infrastructure development, improvement of road and education system. Each constituency has one polling booth exclusively for women voters, manned by women polling and security personnel. These booths have been named after a flower called 'Dingdi'. The election office sources said 40 companies of the central armed police force, in addition to the state police force, have been deployed to ensure free and fair polling. Altogether, 47 of 1,179 polling booths have been classified as 'critical' and as many as 'vulnerable' by the Election Commission. Mizoram witnessed a 15 percent voter turnout till 9 am, as per the Chief Election Commission. The voting process started at 7 am and will continue till 4 pm. Polling for Bru refugess will end at 3 pm. Click here to read more about the issues that plague the Bru community, and their demands. The place of voting for members of the Bru community has been a controversial topic leading up to the elections, triggering various protests in the Congress-ruled state. The issue led to the appointment IAS officer Ashish Kundra as the new chief electoral officer in place of SB Shashank, just two weeks before polling began. Click here to read more about the factors that can impact the Congress' chances of winning Congress is trying to retain its grip on its last bastion in the North East during the Mizoram Assembly elections. However, the BJP has reason to be optimistic. From anti-incumbency to unemployment and alcohol, a variety of factors could make the Congress' quest to retain its hold on power more difficult. Rallying votes for the grand old party, which has been in power since 2008 and is eyeing its third consecutive term, Rajasthan Congress president Sachin Pilot on Wednesday called on voters in Mizoram to vote "for continued stability and prosperity of the state." "Like previous elections, polling was absolutely peaceful. As Mizo society is very disciplined and Church guided, electioneering has always been incident-free in the state," he said. "Except for a few EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines) and VVPAT (Voters Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) devices malfunctioning, no untoward incident was reported so far. Around 25 percent of the 7,68,181 voters cast their votes by 10 am, Deputy Additional Chief Electoral Officer CC Lalchhuangkina told IANS over the phone, quoting reports from all eight districts. "Conducive situation and favourable weather helped the people to exercise their franchise smoothly," he added. Men and women dressed in traditional attires were seen queued up outside polling stations well before voting began at 7 am Brisk polling is underway in Mizoram with nearly 25 percent of 7.68 lakh voters casting their votes in the first three hours on Wednesday, an official said. The overall voter turnout for the 40-member Mizoram Assembly polls was recorded at 29 percent until 11 am. Until 10.30 am on Wednesday, 664 Bru voters cast their votes at Kanhmun in Mizoram's Mamit district. The remaining five women candidates who are contesting the election are independent. The Mizo National Front (MNF), a significant regional party in Mizoram, has no women representation in this election. The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have fielded one woman, each. The Zoram People's Movement (ZPM), a regional party in the state, has named two woman candidates. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is contesting in 39 out of 40 seats in the state, has fielded six female candidates. Where the number of female candidates has never exceeded eight in past elections in Mizoram, this year's election has 15 women contesting. This year's Assembly election will witness the highest number of women candidates contesting from the state. In a state where the number of women candidates has never exceeded eight in past elections, this year at least 15 women are contesting. The NGO Coordination Committee had sought Shashank's exit from the state shortly after the Election Commission (EC) removed the state's principal secretary (Home) Lalnunmawia Chuaungo. They alleged that Shashank hurt the sentiments of the Mizo people by his "pro-Bru" stance for conducting the elections. Mizoram recorded a turnout of 82.35 percent in the 2008 elections, which rose to 83.41 percent in 2013. 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). While 2,55,917 voters (44.63 percent) across constituencies voted for the Congress in 2013, the MNF got 1,64,305 votes (28.65 percent) overall. RECAP: A look at the party-wise vote share in the 2008 and 2013 elections Inspite of contesting in 39 seats, BJP will not win more than five seats in Mizoram this time, vice-president of BJP's Mahila Morcha in Mizoram Vijay Lakshmi Rai said. "BJP's campaign was better this year but due to this 'Hinduva' tag on the party, we are going to lose in many seats. BJP has never won a seat here, so winning even 2-3 seats is good for us. I hope my party forms government with the help of other like-minded parties after the result," Rai said. Other candidates from the constituency are Laldinliana Sailo from the BJP, Lalrinpuii from NCP, K Vanlalrawna from INC, and independent candidates K Sapdanga and Zosangliana. Former chief minister of Mizoram Zoramthanga, who was in power from 1998 to 2008, said that he was confident that his party MNF would win this time in a landslide victory. Zoramthanga is MNF's candidate from the Aizawl East- I constituency. Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla cast his vote at Zarkawt at around 12:15 pm. He is hopeful to win simple majority by bagging more than 27 seats. Thanhawla said the Congress would not forge post poll alliance with the BJP. 29% voter turnout till 11 am: Here is the break up The Election Commission said that the polling percentage in Mizoram until 1 pm was 49 percent. Voter turn out was recorded at 45 percent in Aizawl district and at around 55 percent in Serchhip, chief electoral officer Ashish Kundra said. He said that the overall voter turnout in Mizoram was recorded at 50% till 1.30 pm. Forty-two VVPATs, 25 ballot units and 19 control units were replaced, following malfunctions at various polling stations across Mizoram, Chief Electoral Officer Ashish Kundra said. How much do you know about the Mizoram Assembly polls? He added that there is "big anti-incumbency" in the state, which is why he is confident about winning the elections. "Many people say the Congress will not even get 10 seats. All political pointers are also indicating as such," he said. "Because of the lack of development and the lifting of prohibition and allowing the sale of liquor as well as the mismanagement of the financial position, people are really fed up of the present government," he said. In an interview with Firstpost , former Mizoram chief minister and Mizo National Front (MNF) leader Zoramthanga talked about his electoral prospects as well as about issues in the state such as anti-incumbency and liquor sales. A Pink polling station at Aizawl South-II can be seen, where only women officials are on duty. Each constituency has one polling booth exclusively for women voters, manned by women polling and security personnel. These booths have been named after a flower called 'Dingdi'. Forty-two VVPATs, 25 ballot units and 19 control units were replaced, following malfunctions at various polling stations across Mizoram, Chief Electoral Officer Ashish Kundra said. A 106-year-old woman after casting her vote in Kawrthah. #MizoramElections (Pic courtesy: Office of the Chief Electoral Officer) pic.twitter.com/OSd47D4Adb Polling officials can be seen helping a stroke patient at a polling station in Pukpui. How much do you know about the Mizoram Assembly polls? He added that there is "big anti-incumbency" in the state, which is why he is confident about winning the elections. "Many people say the Congress will not even get 10 seats. All political pointers are also indicating as such," he said. "Because of the lack of development and the lifting of prohibition and allowing the sale of liquor as well as the mismanagement of the financial position, people are really fed up of the present government," he said. In an interview with Firstpost , former Mizoram chief minister and Mizo National Front (MNF) leader Zoramthanga talked about his electoral prospects as well as about issues in the state such as anti-incumbency and liquor sales. Countering the charge, the BJP said it was a propaganda of the Congress to tarnish the image of the party. "The BJP can cause damage to the soul, spirit and body of the Christians in Mizoram," Lallianchhunga, also the party's media cell chairperson, said in a statement. "The Congress should win with a comfortable margin as a fractured mandate would pave way for the BJP to go for a post-poll alliance with the MNF," state Congress spokesperson Lallianchhunga said. The ruling Congress in Mizoram on 31 October had urged people of the Christian-dominated state to support the party in the assembly election, alleging that the entry of BJP might hurt their religious freedom. RECAP: Congress claims 'BJP can cause damage to the soul, spirit and body of the Christians' A Pink polling station at Aizawl South-II can be seen, where only women officials are on duty. Each constituency has one polling booth exclusively for women voters, manned by women polling and security personnel. These booths have been named after a flower called 'Dingdi'. Mizoram Assembly elections updates: 56 percent voter turnout was recorded at Tuikum as of 2.30 on Wednesday afternoon, a spokesperson from the Election Commission said. Hrangturzo recorded 55 percent, South Tuipui 51 percent, and Thorang 59 percent, the official said. Forty-two VVPATs, 25 ballot units and 19 control units were replaced, following malfunctions at various polling stations across Mizoram, Chief Electoral Officer Ashish Kundra said. Voter turn out was recorded at 45 percent in Aizawl district and at around 55 percent in Serchhip, chief electoral officer Ashish Kundra said. He said that the overall voter turnout in Mizoram was recorded at 50% till 1.30 pm. Former chief minister of Mizoram Zoramthanga, who was in power from 1998 to 2008, said that he was confident that his party MNF would win this time in a landslide victory. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla cast his vote at Zarkawt at around 12:15 pm. He is hopeful to win simple majority by bagging more than 27 seats. Thanhawla said the Congress would not forge post poll alliance with the BJP. Inspite of contesting in 39 seats, BJP will not win more than five seats in Mizoram this time, vice-president of BJP's Mahila Morcha in Mizoram Vijay Lakshmi Rai said. "BJP's campaign was better this year but due to this 'Hinduva' tag on the party, we are going to lose in many seats. BJP has never won a seat here, so winning even 2-3 seats is good for us. I hope my party forms government with the help of other like-minded parties after the result," Rai said. The overall voter turnout for the 40-member Mizoram Assembly polls was recorded at 29 percent until 11 am. Until 10.30 am on Wednesday, 664 Bru voters cast their votes at Kanhmun in Mizoram's Mamit district. Brisk polling is underway in Mizoram with nearly 25 percent of 7.68 lakh voters casting their votes in the first three hours on Wednesday, an official said. Men and women dressd in traditional attires were seen queued up outside the many polling stations in all districts well before voting began at 7 am. Around 25 percent of the 7,68,181 voters cast their votes by 10 am, Deputy Additional Chief Electoral Officer CC Lalchhuangkina told IANS over the phone quoting reports from all eight districts. "Conducive situation and favourable weather helped the people to exercise their franchise smoothly," he added. "Except for a few EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines)- VVPAT (Voters Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) device malfunctioning, no untoward incident was reported so far. "Like previous elections, polling was absolutely peaceful. As Mizo society is very disciplined and Church guided, electioneering has always been incident-free in the state," he said. Congress has been trying to retain its grip on its last bastion in the North East. The grand old party has been in power since 2008 and is eyeing its third consecutive term, is being led by Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla, who in recent elections thwarted the BJP's attempts to gets its lotus to bloom in the Vidhan Sabha of this Christian-majority state. However, the BJP has reason to be optimistic. From anti-incumbency to alcohol, a variety of factors could make the Congress' quest to retain its hold on power more difficult. Mizoram witnessed a 15 percent voter turnout till 9 am, as per the Chief Election Commission. The voting process started at 7 am and will continue till 4 pm. Polling for Bru refugess will end at 3 pm. Mizoram's international borders with Myanmar and Bangladesh, as well as state borders with Tripura, Assam and Manipur, have been sealed since Sunday in view of the polls. Lalthanfela, a differently-abled first-time voter cast his vote at Zarkawt-II in Aizawl, and said that he hopes that Congress retains power in Mizoram. Young voters in the state want infrastructure development, improvement of road and education system. Incumbent chief minister Lal Thanhawla is also slated to cast his vote at Zarkawt-II in Aizawl, which falls under Aizawl North-III constituency. Of the 865 voters at this polling station, 107 voters have so far cast their votes since 7 am. The area's sitting Congress MLA Lal Thanzara, who also holds the health portfolio, cast his vote at 7 am as well. He was tipped against MNF nominee C Lalmuanpuia, BJP's VL Awia, ZPM candidate C Lalhmingthanga and Zoramthar Lalremsiama Ralte. Altogether, 47 of 1,179 polling booths have been classified as 'critical' and as many as 'vulnerable' by the Election Commission. The election office sources said 40 companies of the central armed police force, in addition to the state police force, have been deployed to ensure free and fair polling. Each constituency has one polling booth exclusively for women voters, manned by women polling and security personnel. These booths have been named after a flower called 'Dingdi'. Mizoram Bru Displaced People's Forum demanded setting up a special polling station in a relief camp in Tripura's Kanchanpur to help pregnant women, senior citizens and differently abled people to cast their votes. The Forum's General Secretary Bruno Msha said that the election commission has been made aware of the demand on Tuesday. However, chief electoral officer Ashish Kundra confirms that there are 12,026 Bru voters coming from relief camps in Tripura. Former Mizoram chief minister and MNF leader Zoramthanga rules out the possibility of a hung Assembly, adding that he was confident enough to form the party. He also said that one of the promises that the party would keep is the ban of liquor. "Congress had failed the Church and the people by selling liquor," Zoramthanga said. Eight parties are in the fray for the 40-member Mizoram Assembly. Polling started for the Mizoram Assembly election at 7 am on Wednesday. The total number of candidates this time is 209, almost 67 higher than 2013. Mizo National Front (MNF) Leader Zoramthanga will cast his vote at Aizwal's Ramhlun Venglai. The MNF is an integral regional party which was in power for two terms between 1998-2003 and 2003-2008. The state's electorate is 7,68,181. 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," Mizoram Deputy Inspector General of Police (Training & Armed Branch) Joseph Lalchhuana told PTI in an interview. 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 DGP 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. 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 paramilitary 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-kilometre unfenced borders with Bangladesh and 510-kilometre 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 am to 4 pm Chief Electoral Officer Ashish Kundra said in Aizawl 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 15 December. 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 11 December along with four other poll-bound states Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Chhattisgarh. Mizoram went to polls on Wednesday with 7.7 lakh names in the electoral rolls, including 3.9 lakh women and 32,545 first-time voters. Mizoram went to polls on Wednesday with 7.7 lakh names in the electoral rolls, including 3.9 lakh women and 32,545 first-time voters. The overall voter turnout in the state until 6 pm was 73 percent. In 2013, when the turnout was over 83 percent. With 209 candidates in the fray, Mizoram is likely to witness a closely fought battle. While the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Mizo National Front (MNF) have 40 candidates each, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded 39, the Zoram Peoples Movement (ZPM) has 36, and Zoram Thar has 22 candidates vying for a win. The Peoples Representation for Identity and Status of Mizoram (PRISM), former Aizawl-based anti-corruption watchdog which launched a political party last year, has fielded 13 candidates. The National Peoples Party, which launched its Mizoram unit in late September this year, has nine candidates while the National Congress Party (NCP) has five candidates. Five independents have also thrown their hats in the ring this time. Glimpses of D-Day Members and volunteers of the Mizoram Peoples Forum (MPF) were spotted on election duty in Mizoram. MPF was founded in Mizoram in 2007 to ensure free and fair elections, says Joe RZ Thanga, an MPF volunteer. The initiative is active only during the elections and is supported by the Young Mizo Association (YMA), which is in turn backed by the Presbyterian Church in Mizoram. The volunteers were seen helping the elderly, the differently-abled and others in need of assistance. Lalthanfela, a differently-abled first-time voter, was casting his vote at Zarkawt-II in Aizawl. Lalthanfela was quite candid about his pick for the government. I hope the Congress retains power in Mizoram. The focus should be on infrastructure development, improvement of roads and education, he said. The election day also saw Brus arriving in large numbers from six refugee camps in Tripura to Kanhmun in the Mamit district to cast their votes amid tight security. The total number of Bru voters in the electoral rolls was 12,026, according to the Chief Election Officer (CEO). Fifteen polling booths had been arranged for Bru voters who were coming from Kanchanpur in Tripura. Up until 4 pm, the polling percentage was 52 percent in Kanhmun, as opposed to 11 percent in 2013. Mizoram Bru Displaced Peoples Forum (MBDPF) had also demanded setting up of a special polling station in a relief camp area in Kanchanpur in Tripura to help old, pregnant women and differently-abled voters cast their votes. Bruno Msha, the forums General Secretary, said that they had communicated their demand to the Election Commission on Tuesday. The Brus and the Mizos have shared a complicated history in the state, with no love lost between the two communities. Sentiments against the minority Chakma community and Bru refugees had flared up once again ahead of the elections. Earlier this month, student associations and civil society groups had demanded the removal of former Chief Election Officer (CEO) SB Shashank for allegedly favouring the Brus and determining how to conduct the elections. Ashish Kundra is the current CEO who replaced SB Shashank. But for some voters, this may just be the deciding factor. Lalrinawma Pachuau from Thentlang Village in the Serchhip district says that he is concerned about the Chakma and the Bru issue more than developmental issues in the state. I want a government that is strong and capable to safeguard Mizoram from illegal voters and immigrants, he says. While the issue of illegal immigrants is playing on the minds of some voters, there are others who want alcohol prohibition in the state. Prohibition Lalsiamliana, a voter from Thentlang village, says that he is against the Mizoram Liquor (Prohibition and Control) Act (MLPC) 2014, which permits sale of liquor in the state. I hope God-fearing people are elected this time to keep a check on alcohol in the state, he says. The Congress government had lifted the ban on sale of alcohol in 2014, replacing Mizoram Liquor Total Prohibition Act of 1995 with the MLPC Act, 2014. MNF has promised prohibition in the state if voted to power. But Lalsiamlianas sentiment is not shared by Thasiama from the same village, who says that Congress should come to power for a third term. I dont have to worry about drinking spurious alcohol because we are allowed to drink. I want Congress to win, he says. Key constituencies The key constituencies in the state are Serchhip, Tawi, Aizawl East-I, Aizawl East-II, Palak, Tuichawng, Hachhek, Aizawl West- I & II, Chalfilh. According to political observers in the state, among leaders who stand a good chance of winning are Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla from Serchhip and Champhai South, Zoramthanga (MNF chief) from Aizawl East-I, Lalduhoma (ZPM CM candidate) from Serchhip and Aizawl West-I, JV Hluna (BJP chief) from Tawi, R.Lalzirliana (MNF, former home minister) from Tawi and Hiphei (BJP, former Assembly speaker) from Palak. Lal Thanhawla cast his vote at Zarkawt at around 12.15 pm. He said he is hopeful that Congress would win by bagging more than 27 seats. He also ruled out Congress entering a post-poll alliance with the BJP. Vice-president of BJPs Mahila Morcha in Mizoram Vijay Lakshmi Rai admitted that chances of BJP winning more than five seats in the state were slim. The BJPs campaign was better this year but due to the Hindutva tag attached to the party, we are going to lose in many seats. But the BJP has never won a seat here, so winning even three seats is good for us. She hinted that the BJP was open to lending support to other like-minded parties in forming the government. Woman candidate from Aizawl South-III constituency, Mrs F Lalremsangi, says, "BJP is a new party in Mizoram and we fought well. Now, if the result doesn't come in our favour, we'll not feel disappointed. If we can reach out to such a large number of people with less than a year, the party will perform far well in the future." The BJP had six women candidates this time out of a total of 15. Former chief minister of Mizoram Zoramthanga from the MNF cast his vote at Aizawl East-I constituency. Zoramthanga is also the MNFs candidate from the Aizawl East-I constituency. He is confident of a landslide victory this time. Congress spokesperson Lallianchhunga says that the party was confident of winning in five constituencies within Aizawl district. In Kolasib district, we will win Kolasib and Tuirial seats. In Champhai district, we will win at least one seat while we are expecting to win two out of three seats in Serchhip, he says, adding that Congress was likely to win Hachhek and Mamit seats in Mamit district. Congress has 50 percent chance of winning Dampa while West and East Lawngtlai will also fall in Congress kitty, he says. With just 15 women among the 200 candidates contesting the Mizoram Assembly polls, women's representation in politics is among the lowest in the northeastern state Aizawl, Mizoram: Walking through the streets of Mizoram, a common visible trend is that most shops, vegetable and fish markets, and countryside restaurants are mostly run by women. Like other tribal states in the North East, women play a dominant role in Mizoram society as well. However, their participation in politics doesnt reflect this trend, with women comprising only 15 out of the 200 candidates contesting the state Assembly polls. This, however, is still the highest number in Mizorams history, where the number of female candidates has never exceeded eight. The question here is: does this minimal participation in politics reflect women empowerment in the state? There are approximately 7,68,181 eligible voters in Mizoram, out of which 3,93,685 are women, as per the election commission data. The BJP, which is contesting in 39 out of 40 seats in the state, has fielded six female candidates. The Zoram People's Movement (ZPM), a regional party in the state, has named two woman candidates, while the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have fielded one woman, each. The Mizo National Front (MNF), a significant regional party in Mizoram, has no women representation in this election. The remaining women candidates who are contesting the election are independent. At present, Vanlalawmpuii Chawngthu from Congress is the only woman in the state Assembly. Chawngthu won the Hrangturzo constituency bye-election in May 2014, after Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla vacated this seat to keep the Serchhip Assembly constituency with him. He had contested and won both the seats in the 2013 polls. Vanlalawmpuii holds the portfolio of fisheries, sericulture and cooperation, and is only the fourth woman ever to have been elected as an MLA in Mizorams state assembly. She is re-contesting from Hrangturzo constituency this election. The first woman legislator to be elected in Mizoram was Thanmawii in 1978, followed by K Thansiami in 1984 and then Lalhlimpuii Hmar in 1987. No women were elected between 1987 and 2014. 'Cong, MNF ignored women's issues?' Chawngthu believes that women in the state are struggling with several issues like in other parts of the country, but that these can be solved only by equal representation of both genders. "Our government has implemented the Mizo Marriage, Divorce and Inheritance of Property Act to protect the rights of women and uplift their socio-economic status. There was a plan to create a women and child development department in the state. The government has also given certain rights and privileges to women by providing seat reservation in local bodies, like the village council, local council and municipality council. Mizoram is a tribal state where both men and women are deprived of many facilities which people of other parts of the country enjoy. But there is no direct link between development and participation of women in politics. Also known as O.Pi by her friends and family, the minister is an advocate for women empowerment. She is currently the Chairperson of the Mizoram State Commission for Women and previously held the post of president of the Mizoram Pradesh Youth Congress Committee. Her father, C Chawngkunga, is a senior Congress leader and a former minister. Chawnghthu mentioned that apart from government effort, social organisations like Mizo Hmeichhe Insuihkhawm Pawl (MHIP) have also been engaging in activities for the development of women. They fight against atrocities committed against women, extend help to the destitute and on various occasions, provide family counseling to women, all with the support of the government. She adds that the government has taken effort to empower and uplift the status of women in every sphere of life. F Lalremsangi, BJP's candidate from Aizawl S III, a Scheduled Tribe (ST) reserved seat, says that the the state Assembly needs more female representation to bring balance in different sectors. Women in Mizoram are deprived in each and every sector. There's a need for more women in the Assembly to address those issues. When we look at basic sectors like health, employment, etc, women are far behind than men. Both Congress and MNF have ignored womens issues, and the lack of women leaders in both parties is one of the reasons behind this," she claims. Women could be more efficient administrators Talking about the difference between women in Mizoram and other parts of the country, Lalremsangi said, Women here are brave and independent. Six women are contesting from BJP, but many more are campaigning for us. We read in newspapers that BJP is against beef, but in Mizoram we eat beef and the party doesnt have an issue with this. We are free to express ourselves and this is going to reflect in the Assembly if we all win. Apart from basic development, Mizoram is struggling with drug addiction as well. Social activist and a member of BJP, Vijay Lakshmi Rai believes that these issues can be solved by women more efficiently. "Drug addiction is an international issue and Mizoram is no exception. A large section of the youth are getting addicted, they get easy access to drugs because our state shares a border with countries like Myanmar and Bangladesh. The lawmakers of Mizoram are busy with other issues, but they arent aware of the fact that drug addiction is destroying our backbone," she said. President of the National Mahila Congress, Sushmita Dev, says that an increase in womens participation in politics is extremely important, as they are known to deliver better governance. However, she blames the BJP government at the Centre for poor participation of women in Mizoram polls, saying that the BJP government had majority in the Lok Sabha, and if it wanted it could have passed the Women's Reservation Bill. The bill was passed in 2010 in Rajay Sabha, but remained stuck in the Lok Sabha, because of differences between Congress and its allies. It feels good that more women are contesting this year in Mizoram, but with the (Women's Reservation) bill, there would have been a stronger number of women candidates in Mizoram and other parts of the country, she added. With inputs from Ezrela Dalidia Fanai The authors are freelance writers and members of 101Reporters.com, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters Click here for live updates on Mizoram Assembly polls In all, 7,68,181 voters, including 393,685 women, would decide the fate of the 209 candidates in Mizoram, of whom 15 were women Aizawl: Brisk polling is underway in Mizoram with nearly 25 percent of 7.68 lakh voters casting their votes in the first three hours on Wednesday, an official said. Men and women dressed in traditional attires were seen queued up outside the many polling stations in all districts well before voting began at 7 am. Around 25 percent of the 7,68,181 voters cast their votes by 10 am, Deputy Additional Chief Electoral Officer C C Lalchhuangkina said, quoting reports from all eight districts. "Conducive situation and favourable weather helped the people to exercise their franchise smoothly," he added. "Except for a few EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines)- VVPAT (Voters Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) device malfunctioning, no untoward incident was reported so far. "Like previous elections, polling was absolutely peaceful. As Mizo society is very disciplined and Church guided, electioneering has always been incident-free in the state," he said. The nine-hour long polling would draw to a close at 4 pm. Bordered with Myanmar (510 km) and Bangladesh (318 km), mountainous Mizoram is the Congress' last bastion among the eight Northeastern states The ruling Congress led by incumbent Chief Minister and state party chief Lal Thanhawla is determined for a third consecutive term against a stiff challenge mounted by the main opposition Mizo National Front (MNF) headed by former Chief Minister Zoramthanga. Both the Congress and MNF have fielded candidates to all the 40 Assembly constituencies. The Congress has been in power, except for 10 years, since Mizoram became 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. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is also trying to make its presence felt in the last non-saffron party dominated state and fielded 39 candidates, its highest ever. Many regional parties have fielded candidates in most of the 40 seats. They include People's Representation for Identity and Status of Mizoram (PRISM), Zoram People's Movement (ZPM) and Meghalaya's dominant ruling party National People's Party (NPP). Like the previous polls, women voters once again outnumbered the men in Mizoram. There are 3,93,685 women and 3,74,496 men and they will decide the fate of 209 candidates, 15 of whom are women. 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 this election. "In view of the Assembly polls, the BSF (Border Security Force) and Assam Rifles troopers have been asked to further tighten the security along Mizoram's borders with Bangladesh and Myanmar to prevent any kind of cross-border movements by inimical elements," Mizoram's Joint Chief Electoral Officer Zorammuana said. He added, "Following the directions of the Election Commission, the authorities also asked the security forces to strengthen the security along Mizoram's inter-state borders with Tripura, Assam and Manipur. "No movement other than those associated with the election process would be allowed at the inter-state borders." Vote will be counted on December 11 along with four other poll-bound states Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Chhattisgarh. Peoples Conference chairman Sajad Lone belongs to new generation of political leaders in Jammu and Kashmir. Peoples Conference chairman Sajad Lone belongs to new generation of political leaders in Jammu and Kashmir. Lone was confident that although he had only two seats in the Assembly, he could have won over disgruntled elements from the Peoples Democratic Party to achieve his ambition and become chief minister. This, he believed, would have come his way: apart from of course enjoying the support of the BJP MLAs. Fearing this would result in horse-trading, Jammu and Kashmir governor Satya Pal Malik put paid to Lone's ambitions and dissolved the Assembly. Malik claimed he took such a step because he did not want to go down in history as 'unscrupulous'. Lone, in an interview, talks about his struggles in politics, taking on the 'dynasties' in the Valley and Governor Malik. Why did Satya Pal Malik not entertain your fax? I dont know. The governor should answer that question. But he's presenting a new version every day. Today, he's come up with yet another version. To set the record straight, on that particular day, ( 21 November), I spoke to him on the phone and conveyed I wanted to stake a claim to form the government. He told me to send a fax. I tried, but did not succeed. I called his secretary, who said he was putting me through, but the governor did not take my call. This went on for three hours. We could not get through to any of the Raj Bhawan numbers. Finally, I sent my letter on WhatsApp. An hour-and-a-half later, Mehbooba Muftis letter staking a claim to form the government popped up on Twitter. Someone must have passed on the information that we were staking a claim, which is why she put up her letter on Twitter. But you have only two members in the Assembly. How would you have put together the numbers? I was going to stake a claim within the ambit of the Constitution. I would not do something outside its ambit. If I didn't have the numbers, I would not have been allowed to form the government. After all, an anti-defection law is in place. I'm not mad. A huge group within PDP approached me. They wanted to join me, I did not go to them. Was veteran PDP leader Muzaffar Hussain Baig among them ? He has referred to you as his son... He was not involved, but there were many others. When these three parties National Conference, Peoples Democratic Party and Congress were coming together to stake a claim, did they consult their legislators? They did not. The days of herding your legislators are in the past. There is decision-making at the macro levels and decision-making at the micro level. But legislators are not being taken into confidence at the micro level. Unfortunately, these parties did not involve them at the micro level and this led many MLAs to gravitate towards me. I had the support of the BJP and would have raised required numbers. How can this be called horse-trading ? The governor should be more careful about what he is saying. He (governor) should know when to keep his mouth shut. But the governor is going against me hammer and tongs. Does the governor want to get me finished? There are violent elements across the Valley and we have to be careful about what we say. The misrepresentation of facts is also going on in the media and this vilification campaign needs to end. Kashmir has a long history of unfortunate incidents. Everyone knows what happened at the polls in 1987. Elections have been blatantly rigged. This is nothing new: be it the National Conference or the Congress. Look how these parties rigged the 1987 elections. As a result, more than 1 lakh people have died in the Valley. The 2002 elections, when the PDP managed to get 15 MLAs, were no better. And 1996, when Farooq Abdullah came to power, was no election, but a selection done with the connivance of the Centre. This time around, those belonging to dynastic politics ganged up against me. Both dynasties, Mufti and Abdullah, were in cahoots to keep me out. Sometimes, I get the impression that the governor is acting at the behest of these parties. I regret to say that he (governor) is the setting sun whereas my career in politics is on the ascendancy. But aren't you a product of dynastic politics? Your father, Hurriyat leader Abdul Gani Lone, founded a political party in Kashmir... I am not part of any dynasty. I have been struggling for the past sixteen years. Everyone knows the circumstances under which my father was killed. The next day, I was appointed chairman of the Peoples Conference. One year later, I was kicked out by Hurriyat separatists. Both Mehbooba and Omar Abdullah have been groomed by their fathers and all the uncles and aunties they know in Delhi. They have a great network. I've had to learn from my mistakes. They dont want any challenge, and I have shown the courage to challenge them. When Mehbooba tied up with the BJP, it was alright but when I make a similar attempt, we are labelled 'RSS'. When they tie up with the BJP, then it is alright. They don't want to see a "commoner" as chief minister. Are you oversimplifying the problem? No. This is the crux of the matter. I went to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union ministers after they won the 2014 elections and they (Mehbooba and Omar) found this unacceptable. Why should someone else create his own sphere? No doubt, they had their fathers to help them. Are you blaming these two families for what is happening in Kashmir? They have been at the helm for most of the time. The tipping point was 1987 and for the last 30 years, our state has not been able to come out of this vortex of violence. This is not to say this violence will not end. It will happen, but there can be no short-term solutions. Are there apprehensions about the inroads RSS is making in the Valley? Assuming there are apprehensions, all political parties have been with them (BJP) at one time or another. Mehbooba was with them for three years. Omar received his baptism in politics when he was made the poster boy of the NDA under the leadership of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. In today's Kashmir, we are apprehensive about everybody. Today, they are calling me names but tomorrow these same parties will not hesitate to join hands with the BJP for power. Politics is the art of the possible and we cannot have a situation where there are different rules for different people. Campaigning in Telanganas Kosgi, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi dismissed Narendra Modi's comments on Tuesday that TRS and Congress were 'two sides of the same coin'. A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) supremo and caretaker chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao an apprentice of Sonia Gandhi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on KCR by calling TRS a B team of the BJP. TRS is not Telangana Rashtra Samiti, it is Telangana Rashtriya Sangh Parivar, the Congress president said. Campaigning in Telanganas Kosgi, the Congress chief dismissed Modi's comments on Tuesday that TRS and Congress were "two sides of the same coin". He also asked people if they had heard KCR attacking Prime Minister Modi. "Listen to him. He never attacks or criticises Modi," he quipped. Telangana and Rajasthan are the last two states which will go to polls in the last phase of the election season. While Modi is hitting the campaign trail in Rajasthan, Rahul and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) supremo Chandrababu Naidu shared the election dais, the first time that leaders of the two parties shared the stage, in Telanganas Khammam on Wednesday. "Chief minister KCR had promised 22 lakh houses but the reality is only 5,000 were built. He also failed to fulfil the promise of land to SC/ST communities. Our coalition government will fulfil these promises," Rahul said. He also went on to accuse KCR of imitating PM Modi by creating unemployment, in Telangana, which was carved out of Andhra Pradesh in 2014 and elected KCR as its first chief minister. "KCR government promised 1 lakh jobs. But how many jobs did he really create? He has only employed his family and stole the future of four crore people. Every person in Telangana has Rs 60,000 debt on them. But KCR's son's income increases by 400 percent," said Rahul, before going on to add, "Five years ago, the people of Telangana had hoped for a new state. You had dreamt of Neellu, Nidhulu, Niyamakaalu. People believed that KCR will fulfil their dreams but this trust was broken by the KCR government." He further said, "Women are the backbone of Telangana. So the Congress government will provide Rs 1 lakh grant to every Self-Help Groups and Rs 500 crore will be allocated to women entrepreneurs. Our top priority is to create jobs and we will provide Rs 3,000 as unemployment allowance." Congress, he said, will defeat TRS in Telangana and the BJP in Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan and then in Delhi in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Reuters Amazon said on 27 November 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 worlds 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, 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 US Department of Defence. 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. Amazons 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 countrys telescopes. The company already provides a cloud platform for the Hubble Telescopes data and the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research in Australia. tech2 News Staff Facebooks problems just keep coming to the surface on almost a daily basis. The social media giant in its ambition to get more users and engagement has been found guilty of playing fast and loose with user data. And yet another revelation puts a question mark on how Facebook handles user data. According to a report in Vice News, Russian operatives were found accessing up to three billion data points on a daily basis, an activity that was reported by an engineer as far back as October 2014. Internal emails, obtained by the UK Parliament committee (which was questioning Facebook on its handling of the fake news menace as part of the International grand committee on disinformation and fake news) showed that an engineer had flagged that an entity with a Russian IP address that had been using a Pinterest API key to access three billion data points a day using Facebooks ordered friends API. A Russian entity pulling down so many data points a day should have raised some suspicions ideally. But it looks like Facebook didnt give it much of a thought. These email documents were obtained from a US app developer which is suing Facebook. These documents, which are protected by the California court, were obtained by UK parliamentarians using a parliamentary mechanism to obtain sealed documents. The social media giant tried very hard to keep these documents from coming out. On being questioned by British lawmaker Damian Collins about whether Facebook was aware of this and decided to keep quiet about it, Facebook VP of public policy, Richard Allan gave a very vague answer. An engineer at Facebook notified the company in October 2014 that entities with a Russian IP address were pulling 3 billion data points a day [from your website]. pic.twitter.com/32Q8V1dBX6 (@Patrickesque) November 27, 2018 There is, as I understand, a partial set of information that was obtained by a hostile litigant who is seeking to overturn the very changes, to restrict access to data, that you as a committee and others would want us to see happen, said Allan claiming that the data accessed via the email cache was at best partial and at worst misleading. The British lawmaker clearly didnt seem to be buying that line of argument which put the blame on a litigant rather than Facebooks lack of internal policies in place to take action on these assessments. According to a response by Facebook to Vice News and Buzzfeed News, the engineers who had indeed flagged these concerns, eventually on further investigations found no evidence of Russian activity. This coming from Facebook, which has been firefighting the allegations coming in daily, doesnt seem too convincing either. The hearing took place in the British Parliament. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was summoned for this committee, but he refused to show up, so there was an empty chair beside Allan with Zuckerbergs name. Lawmakers from not just the UK, but also Canada, Brazil, Latvia, Argentina, Ireland, Singapore, France and Belgium had convened to discuss the shortcomings of Facebook and how it was affecting due processes in the said countries. Collins has said that he would go through the secret email cache before publishing them next week, to redact sensitive information. He has also asked Facebook to release the documents themselves before he goes ahead. Indo-Asian News Service 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. 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. tech2 News Staff Data privacy online has become a massive talking point since last year after scandals started unfurling, which connected Facebook and a data-harvesting firm Cambridge Analytica. Europe has been loosening the vice-like grip that major tech companies such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and more have had over user data with its GDPR regulations. In the US, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was summoned for a congressional hearing to explain the misuse of user data of nearly 87 million people by Cambridge Analytica. In September another hearing was scheduled where Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Larry Page were asked to come along with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. However, neither Pichai nor Page showed up. Now it seems that Pichai has no choice. Google has been hit with a lot of criticism off late for alleged political bias in search results. Donald Trump tweeted that Google's search results are "rigged," and that it is "suppressing voices of Conservatives". The Washington Post has reported that on 5 December Sundar Pichai will be testifying in front of Congress. As per the report, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and GOP lawmakers are interested in Google' search engine algorithm and how it promotes stories. Recently a bug was discovered which had exposed personal data of hundreds of thousands of users on Google+. After it was revealed that Google accidentally exposed private information of as many as 5,00,000 users, Google decided that it was time to pull the plug on Google+. It's incidents like these which have certainly lead many people to question the data privacy policy of Google. FactChecker 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 hearing the first such cross-border event in London since 1933. They want to scrutinize Facebook over its handling of data privacy, most notably involving consultancy Cambridge Analytica's improper use of information from more than 87 million Facebook accounts to manipulate elections. British select committees are used to investigate major issues and have the powerful from CEOs to government officials explain 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. 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." 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. Reuters Furhat tilts his or her head, smiles, exudes empathy and warmth, and encourages us to open up. The robot, a three-dimensional bust with a projection of a human-like face, aims to build on our new-found ease talking to voice assistants like Siri and Alexa, by persuading us to interact with it as if it were a person, picking up on our cues to strike up a rapport. Yet precisely because it isnt human, and is, therefore, free from bias, the robot can spur people to engage more honestly, its creator says, making it useful in situations such as screening for health risks where people often lie. Weve seen research that shows that in certain situations people are more comfortable opening up and talking about difficult issues with a robot than with a human, said Samer Al Moubayed, chief executive of Furhat Robotics. Thats because a robots personality can mirror the personality of the person interacting with it and because people dont feel judged, he added. The robot has been used in Frankfurt airport as a multi-lingual concierge, helping travellers find their way, but also for customer services training simulating irate shoppers for example. Science and technology firm Merck and Furhat Robotics on 28 November unveiled a robot in Stockholm which will ask people about their health and lifestyle and screen them for risk of diabetes, alcoholism and hypothyroidism. If necessary, the robot will advise them to go for a blood test or to a doctor. Every robot needs a different personality depending on the job its going to do, said Moubayed. Furhat can be male or female, old or young, wisecracking or serious. One of the barriers that robots have had ... is the issue with expressivity being able to move like us, (with) very smooth, very expressive facial movements, eye movements, head movements, said Moubayed. Reuters Tesla Incs vehicle sales in China sank 70 percent last month from a year ago, the countrys passenger car association told Reuters on Tuesday, underscoring how the Sino-U.S. trade war is hurting the U.S. electric carmaker. Teslas share price fell 1.8 percent on Tuesday morning following the report which came out during the Asian business day. Hours later, the company responded from its headquarters in California, calling the industry groups report wildly inaccurate. An official from China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) said data from the industry body showed Tesla sold just 211 cars in the worlds largest auto market in October. Tesla representatives in China did not respond to repeated calls and written requests for comment during the Asia work day. Later, a California-based spokesman issued a written statement saying Tesla disputed the CPCAs data, but he did not provide internal sales figures. This is wildly inaccurate. While we do not disclose regional or monthly sales numbers, these figures are off by a significant margin, he said in the statement. The electric carmaker, which imports all the cars it sells in China, said in October that tariff hikes on auto imports were hammering its sales there. In July, Beijing raised tariffs on imports of U.S. autos to 40 percent amid a worsening trade standoff with the United States. While so-called new-energy vehicle sales have continued to climb in China, wider auto sales have slowed sharply since the middle of the year, taking the market to the brink of its first annual sales contraction in almost three decades. Tesla, led by billionaire CEO Elon Musk, said last week it was cutting the price of its Model X and Model S cars in China in a shift in strategy to make the cars more affordable and absorb more of the hit from higher tariffs. Tesla recently secured the site for its first overseas factory in Shanghai that will help it avoid the steep tariffs. The Associated Press The ride-hailing service Uber has been fined the equivalent of nearly $1.2 million by British and Dutch authorities for failing to protect customers' data during a cyber attack in 2016. Britain's Information Commissioner's Office said on 27 November that it fined the company 385,000 pounds ($491,000) and Dutch officials imposed a 600,000-euro ($679,000) fine for violating Dutch data protection laws. British officials cited a series of "avoidable data security flaws" that allowed personal data for roughly 2.7 million UK customers to be downloaded by hackers during an incident in October and November 2016. The information commission's director of investigations, Steve Eckersley, said Uber had shown a "complete disregard for the customers and drivers whose personal information was stolen" after the substantial security breach. "At the time, no steps were taken to inform anyone affected by the breach, or to offer help and support," he said. "That left them vulnerable." Dutch officials say Uber did not report the data breach to authorities within 72 hours as required by regulations. The Dutch Data Authority says 57 million users worldwide and 174,000 Dutch citizens were affected by the data breach. The US-based company said in a statement that Uber is "pleased to close this chapter on the data incident from 2016." It said a number of technical improvements have been made to the security system since then. "We learn from our mistakes," the company said. The statement also cites a number of changes to the senior management team that have been made in the last year. Reuters A much-anticipated bill that may give the US government the ability to collect civil penalties if a company misuses consumer data on the internet or allows it to be stolen could be drafted early next year, a lawmaker said on 27 November. A subcommittee of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee discussed elements of the bill on 27 November, including the possibility that the Federal Trade Commission could be given the authority as enforcer to oversee telecommunications companies and non-profits, exact civil penalties and create regulations. There is no agreement on the language of the bill, which was motivated by massive breaches of data privacy that compromised the personal information of millions of US internet and social media users. These include notable breaches at large retailers and credit reporting agency Equifax. Members of US Congress from both parties have criticized Facebook, Alphabet's Google and Twitter over data breaches, a lack of online privacy options and concern about political bias. Republican Senator Jerry Moran, chairman of the consumer protection, product safety, insurance and data security subcommittee, said although he supported privacy rules he was not sure about imposing civil penalties. Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, said at the hearing he hoped a draft would be finished early in the session (next year). I have been working with Sen. Moran on a bipartisan privacy bill that I hope will make very good progress very soon, he said. Senator John Thune, who chairs the Commerce Committee, said his committee was also exploring privacy legislation but did not give details. One unresolved question is whether the federal bill will pre-empt a California law signed by Governor Jerry Brown in June giving consumers more control over how companies collect and manage their personal information, including allowing consumers to request data be deleted and to opt out of having data sold to third parties. The rules follow stringent European privacy regulations that went into effect in May. Democrats, including Blumenthal, oppose pre-empting the California bill. Big technology companies support the idea. By Tom Miles and Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) - Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani has formed a 12-strong team to negotiate peace with the Taliban, but he warned on Wednesday that implementation of any deal will take at least five years. Ghani was speaking at a U.N. By Tom Miles and Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) - Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani has formed a 12-strong team to negotiate peace with the Taliban, but he warned on Wednesday that implementation of any deal will take at least five years. Ghani was speaking at a U.N. conference on the 17-year-old war between Afghan security forces and the Taliban, which is fighting to drive out international forces and establish their version of strict Islamic law. The gathering of Afghan leaders and international diplomats coincides with U.S. efforts to push for peace with the group even while violence rages across Afghanistan.. "We seek a peace agreement in which the Afghan Taliban would be included in a democratic and inclusive society," Ghani said, adding that any deal must fulfil certain conditions, including respecting the constitutional rights of women. However the Taliban, who were not at the Geneva talks and have refused to deal directly with the Kabul government, dismissed Ghani's call, saying they would negotiate only with the United States. In a statement, the movement said that talking to "powerless and foreign-imposed entities" was a waste of time. "The entire world understands that more than half of Afghanistan is under the control of the Islamic Emirate whereas the Kabul administration is installed by the Americans." Ghani, facing a war-weary public back home, called on Afghans to back his peace push in an election next April. "Presidential elections in the spring are key to successful peace negotiations. The Afghan people need an elected government with a mandate to obtain ratification (and) implement the peace agreement and lead the societal reconciliation process," he said. "Implementation will take a minimum of five years to reintegrate six million refugees and internally displaced people," he said. The two-day Geneva gathering is intended to help resolve the quagmire created by the war, a development that would pave way for the withdrawal of foreign troops. TECHNICAL FLAWS Ghani said his chief of staff would lead a negotiating team including women as well as men, and an advisory board would provide input into the negotiations. U.S. Under Secretary of State David Hale said he was encouraged by the plan for talks and the formation of a negotiating team. "The time has come to plan for an Afghanistan of peace," he told the conference. Hale urged the Taliban to commit to a ceasefire and appoint their own negotiating team, but also warned that the presidential election needed to be run better than parliamentary elections last month. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov echoed the concerns about the elections and called for a broad intra-Afghan dialogue, saying Moscow was worried about the worsening military and political situation. There should be closer cooperation against the Afghan wing of Islamic State, which threatened the whole region, Lavrov said. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Islamic State's presence and radicalisation of local groups was a new challenge, but a foreign military presence always caused instability and served as a recruiting ground for extremists. He warned that nobody would gain from introducing extremists into Afghanistan as in Syria and Iraq. "This horrific trend needs to be arrested before it reaches catastrophic proportions," Zarif said. Afghanistan's chief executive Abdullah Abdullah said the peace process would start with an intra-Afghan dialogue, followed by discussions with Pakistan and the United States, then regional actors, the Arab world and finally NATO and non-NATO countries. (Additional reporting by James Mackenzie in KABUL; Editing by Stephanie Nebehay, Matthew Mpoke Bigg, William Maclean and David Stamp) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Bangladesh's imprisoned Opposition leader has been barred from contesting next month's general election against her arch-rival Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Dhaka: Bangladesh's imprisoned Opposition leader has been barred from contesting next month's general election against her arch-rival Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the country's attorney general said on Wednesday. Khaleda Zia is serving 10 years for graft but her supporters, who have appealed the charges, had clung to hopes the 73-year-old would be acquitted before the 30 December poll. But the Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a ruling from a lower court that nobody sentenced to more than two years jail or awaiting appeals could run for election. Zia's supporters had unsuccessfully appealed that decision by the high court on Tuesday. "Following this judgment, she cannot take part in the elections," Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told AFP on Wednesday. The Bangladesh National Party (BNP), the Opposition movement Zia leads from behind bars, had protested the court's ruling as a "reflection of the government's wishes". "This ruling is not acceptable to us at all. We are aggrieved and are protesting it strongly," said BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir. Zia had hoped to contest three parliamentary seats despite being incarcerated in Dhaka on corruption charges the BNP says were designed to keep her from challenging Hasina. Bangladesh has been led by either Zia or Hasina since the 1990s and the two powerful women have turned from close allies to fierce foes. Just a month from the polls the BNP has not announced an alternative candidate to run against Hasina, who is seeking a third-consecutive term in office. She was elected uncontested in 2014 after the BNP boycotted the ballot, saying it was not free and fair and rigged against Zia. The Opposition has demanded Hasina stand down ahead of the election and allow a caretaker government to oversee the country, but the prime minister has refused. The BNP has accused her ruling Awami League party of detaining 5,000 opposition activists ahead of the December poll to cripple the party's grassroots base. Zia's son, a potential heir to the BNP throne, was sentenced in absentia to life behind bars in October. He lives in exile in London. Predictably, Western media has been complaining again about Russian aggression, a gift that keeps on giving. Or blaming Russia for its over-reaction, overlooking the fact that Ukraines incursion was with military vessels, not fishing boats. Russian resolve was quite visible, as powerful Ka-52 Alligator assault helicopters were promptly on the scene.Washington and Brussels uncritically bought Kievs Russian aggression hysteria, as well as the UN Security Council, which, instead of focusing on the facts in the Kerch Strait incident, preferring to accuse Moscow once again of annexing Crimea in 2014.The key point, overlooked by the UNSC, is that the Kerch incident configures Kievs flagrant violation of articles 7, 19 and 21 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. By Michael Martina WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China will retaliate 'in proportion' if the United States sanctions its top official in the restive region of Xinjiang over alleged human rights abuses, China's ambassador to the United States said on Tuesday, adding that Beijing's policies in the region are to 're-educate' terrorists. By Michael Martina WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China will retaliate "in proportion" if the United States sanctions its top official in the restive region of Xinjiang over alleged human rights abuses, China's ambassador to the United States said on Tuesday, adding that Beijing's policies in the region are to "re-educate" terrorists. Chinese Ambassador to Washington Cui Tiankai told Reuters in an interview that China's efforts to combat international terrorism are held to a double standard, comparing Chinese actions in Xinjiang to U.S. troops battling Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. "Can you imagine (if) some American officials in charge of the fight against ISIS would be sanctioned?" Cui said, adding "if such actions are taken, we have to retaliate." Cui did not elaborate on specific actions China might take. Beijing has faced an outcry from activists, academics, foreign governments and U.N. rights experts over mass detentions and strict surveillance of the mostly Muslim Uighur minority and other Muslim groups in Xinjiang. In August, a United Nations human rights panel said it had received many credible reports that a million or more Uighurs in China are being held in what resembles a "massive internment camp that is shrouded in secrecy". U.S. officials have said the Trump administration is considering sanctions targeting companies and officials linked to China's crackdown on minority Muslims, including Xinjiang Party Secretary Chen Quanguo, who, as a member of the powerful politburo, is in the upper echelons of China's leadership. Cui said that while the United States was using missiles and drones to kill terrorists, "we are trying to re-educate most of them, trying to turn them into normal persons (who) can go back to normal life," Cui said. "We'll see what will happen. We will do everything in proportion," he said, responding to a question on how China would retaliate to possible U.S. sanctions on Chen. Cui's comments are the strongest response yet to U.S. threats on the issue. Any such U.S. sanctions decision against so senior an official as Chen would be a rare move on human rights grounds by the Trump administration, which is engaged in a trade war with China while also seeking Beijing's help to resolve a standoff over North Korea's nuclear weapons. U.S. sanctions could be imposed under the Global Magnitsky Act, a federal law that allows the U.S. government to target human rights violators around the world with freezes on any U.S. assets, U.S. travel bans, and prohibitions on Americans doing business with them, U.S. officials have said. Chinese authorities routinely deny any ethnic or religious repression in Xinjiang. They say strict security measures likened by critics to near martial law conditions, with police checkpoints, the detention centres, and mass DNA collection are needed to combat the influence of extremist groups. After initial blanket denials of the detention facilities, officials have said that some citizens guilty of "minor offences" were sent to vocational centers to improve employment opportunities. At a briefing in Washington on Monday, a Uighur woman, Mihrigul Tursun, 29, told reporters she had experienced physical and psychological torture, including electrocution while strapped to a chair, during 10 months in Xinjiang detention centers. Tursun, who wept and shook as a translator read her prepared statement, said her three children were taken from her while she was in detention and that her four-month-old son had died without explanation in government custody. Rejecting Chinese government claims that the detention facilities serve vocational purposes, she said many of the dozens of other women in her cell were "well-educated professionals, such as teachers and doctors." Tursun said she witnessed nine women die during one three-month period she spent in detention, including from sickness after being denied medical treatment. Reuters could not independently verify her account, though numerous former detainees have begun to share similar first-hand details with media. China's embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tursun's statement. Independent assessments of the conditions in Xinjiang are nearly impossible given restrictions on journalists from openly reporting from the region. U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet has called on China to allow monitors in Xinjiang, though Beijing has responded by telling her to respect China's sovereignty. (Reporting by Michael Martina; additional reporting by David Brunnstrom and Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Claude Levi-Strauss was an eminent figure in French philosophy who considerably altered the then-prevalent Western outlook towards culture and civilisation Often referred to as one of the fathers of modern anthropology, Claude Levi-Strauss was an eminent figure in French philosophy who considerably altered the then-prevalent Western outlook towards culture and civilisation. 28 November, 2018 marks the 110th birth anniversary of this anthropologist, who rose to prominence after the publication of his work Tristes Tropiques (A World on the Wane) in 1961. Through his writings, he described culture as a phenomenon with certain underlying structures and behaviours uniform across communities, irrespective of other societal differences. His works were greatly influenced by notable figures such as the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure and the anthropologist Franz Boas. Born in Belgium on this day in 1908, Levi-Strauss was raised in Paris and attended Sorbonne where he studied philosophy and law. After a brief sojourn in Brazil, he enlisted in the French army during World War II. He migrated to the New York City in 1941 following France's capitulation. Among his notable works include Myth and Meaning, and his early work, The Elementary Structures of Kinship and Structural Anthropology. Levi-Strauss was bestowed with an honorary doctorate from Ivy League universities such as Harvard, Yale, Oxford and Columbia, and was also the recipient of the Erasmus Prize in 1973. He was also a honoured with the Grand-croix de la Legion dhonneur, the Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres and the Meister-Eckhart-Prize, among other awards. Levi-Strauss passed away in France on 30 October 2009, a few weeks before his 101st birthday. The contents of two of US President Donald Trump written answers to special counsel Robert Mueller were revealed in a CNN newsbreak Wednesday. CNN is reporting, citing sources, that Trump told Mueller that Roger Stone did not tell him about WikiLeaks, nor was he told about the 2016 Trump Tower meeting between his son Donald Trump Jr, campaign officials and a Russian lawyer who promised dirt on Hillary Clinton. New York: The contents of two of US President Donald Trump written answers to special counsel Robert Mueller were revealed in a CNN newsbreak Wednesday. CNN is reporting, citing sources, that Trump told Mueller Republican operative Roger Stone did not tell him about WikiLeaks, nor was he told about the 2016 Trump Tower meeting between his son Donald Trump Jr, campaign officials and a Russian lawyer who promised dirt on Hillary Clinton. Trump's oldest son, Donald Trump Jr. has said he agreed to the meeting after being promised damaging information on Hillary Clinton, Trump's arch rival in the 2016 election. Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and senior campaign aide Paul Manafort also took part in the 9 June, 2016, meeting. Trump, who has repeatedly denied any collusion between his campaign and Moscow, has said publicly he had no prior knowledge of the June 2016 meeting. U.S. intelligence agencies have said Russia interfered in the election with the aim of tipping it towards Trump and away from Clinton. Russia has denied any interference. Wednesday's reveal comes as suspense grows about Robert Muellers endgame, which most pundits say is nearing. Talk about a final report from Mueller is on the boil as Trump ramps up attacks on the Mueller "witch hunt", with a unusual degree of specificity in the past several weeks. Trump last week finally turned in long pending (written) answers to Muellers investigators and that piece is now locked in despite all of Trump's railing about the Mueller probe being a "disgrace" at an enormous public charge. Trumps written answers could be subject to criminal charges, if proven false. CNN, in its latest reporting, clarified that its version of Trumps answers to Mueller were not basis a full readout, that Trump offered no quotes and and that Trump said he was answering to the best of his recollection. This, analysts say, is a classic lawyers town tactic to avoid being caught out for outright lies. In a court filing Monday, Mueller's team alleged that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort had lied to investigators and asked the judge to go ahead with a sentencing. On the same day, Mueller's team also said it would provide a detailed sentencing submission, which included the nature of the defendants crimes and lies. Reading between the lines, a big Mueller report is due anytime now and it will have more dirt on all actors than we know so far. Muellers courtroom strategy has been all but flawless, say Russia probe obsessives. Mueller's prosecutors have fought off challenges and notched up a steady stream of guilty pleas. After nearly four months of almost complete silence from the Mueller team, the stage seems set for an explosive report. Manafort's backing away from a plea deal and news just out that his lawyers were in constant touch with Trump's legal team about Mueller are all signs that we're close to the finish line here. Legislation hoping to protect special counsel Robert Mueller was blocked on Wednesday for a second time in the past month. Russia probe fatigue is high and 2020 is effectively only a year away. There is no deadline to finish the probe that has run 18 months but something in the air says this is the final bend. Heres what to watch out for in the coming days: Manafort in court this Friday How much has Paul Manafort told investigators before he went rogue on plea agreement with Mueller? Details could surface by this Friday at a court hearing for a case update and likely sentencing. Manafort's continued cooperation with Trump sparked speculation that he might be hoping for a presidential pardon. Worst case is that he may spend the rest of his life behind bars. Manafort, Trump's former campaign chairman, has been a key figure in the probe because he attended a June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower with Russians. Flynn to be sentenced 18 December Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 18 after he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia during the presidential transition. Jerome Corsi expects to die in prison Jerome Corsi, a conspiracy theorist and Roger Stone associate, also expects a possible indictment after he rejected a plea deal Monday with Mueller saying he didn't lie to investigators. Corsi told NBC News Monday that he initially told investigators that he had no communication with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange ahead of its release of Democratic emails. But he changed his testimony after being confronted with a collection of his own emails from 2016. Corsi had said in a livestream this month that he expects to be indicted and that he expects to "die in prison". Will Roger Stone be indicted? Roger Stone, a Republican political operative known to be close to Trump, has said he could be indicted after being mentioned in the indictment of Russian hackers already charged by Mueller with hacking Democratic computers before the 2016 election. Stone has repeatedly denied doing anything illegal but prosecutors have been trying to find out if Stone knew of the Democratic camp email hack by the Russians. By Cindy Silviana and Fergus Jensen JAKARTA (Reuters) - A Lion Air jet that crashed into the sea off Indonesia last month was not in a safe condition on its second-to-last flight, when pilots experienced similar problems to those on its doomed last journey, Indonesian investigators said on Wednesday. A preliminary report unveiled fresh details of efforts by pilots to steady the jet as they reported a 'flight control problem', including the captain's last words to air traffic control asking to be cleared to 'five thou' or 5,000 feet. Indonesia's transport safety committee (KNKT) focused on airline maintenance and training and the response of a Boeing anti-stall system to a recently replaced sensor but did not give a cause for the crash that killed all 189 people on board. By Cindy Silviana and Fergus Jensen JAKARTA (Reuters) - A Lion Air jet that crashed into the sea off Indonesia last month was not in a safe condition on its second-to-last flight, when pilots experienced similar problems to those on its doomed last journey, Indonesian investigators said on Wednesday. A preliminary report unveiled fresh details of efforts by pilots to steady the jet as they reported a "flight control problem", including the captain's last words to air traffic control asking to be cleared to "five thou" or 5,000 feet. Indonesia's transport safety committee (KNKT) focused on airline maintenance and training and the response of a Boeing anti-stall system to a recently replaced sensor but did not give a cause for the crash that killed all 189 people on board. "At this stage I do not have the answer," KNKT investigator Nurcahyo Utomo told reporters. Contact with the Boeing 737 MAX jet was lost 13 minutes after it took off on Oct 29 from the capital, Jakarta, heading north to the tin-mining town of Pangkal Pinang. The brand-new airplane had suffered a sequence of problems in cockpit readings since Oct 26, culminating in a decision to change a key sensor known as the angle-of-attack probe before the penultimate flight from Denpasar to Jakarta. During the fatal night-time flight, a "stick shaker" was vibrating the captain's controls, warning of a stall throughout most of the 13 minutes aloft based on what investigators believe to have been erroneous data on its angle to the oncoming air. That angle is a key flight parameter that must remain narrow enough to preserve lift and avoid an aerodynamic stall. The airplane's anti-stall system repeatedly pushed the nose down, which is how pilots usually get air under the wings. But the system experienced an over-reaction known as a runaway, prompting an eight-minute battle between the captain pulling the nose back up and computers holding it down. Pilots flying the same plane on its penultimate flight a day earlier had experienced a similar problem, en route from Denpasar, Bali to Jakarta. But they used switches to shut off the system and then flew on manual controls, KNKT said. Although that flight landed safely, the continued shaking of the control column meant the plane was considered "un-airworthy" and the flight should have been discontinued, the report said. Lion Air CEO Edward Sirait rejected reports that the Boeing 737 MAX had not been airworthy since its previous flight, telling reporters it had been cleared by engineers. "I think pilots can judge for themselves whether to continue," Lion Air Managing Director Daniel Putut, a former pilot, added. BOEING SHARES HIGHER The report set out a sequence of glitches and incomplete debriefings as well as a mix-up over paperwork over the number of cabin crew on board when Flight JT610 plunged into the sea. Utomo said the agency had not determined if a new version of the anti-stall system, which was not explained to pilots in manuals, was a contributing factor. "We still don't know yet if it contributed or not," he said when asked about the new software patch on the Boeing 737 MAX. "It is too early to conclude." Shares in Boeing, which had come under pressure when word of the undocumented new system first emerged, rose 4.5 percent. "While the flight control problem appears important, crews have been reminded how to address it, and the fix may well be a software change," said Bernstein analyst Douglas Harned. "There appears no reason to expect a MAX fleet grounding, impact to demand, or other significant programme implications." The world's largest planemaker has 4,542 of the upgraded 737 jets on order from airlines, worth over half a trillion dollars at list prices, or about half that after typical discounts. In a statement, Boeing threw the focus on a list of airline maintenance actions set out in the report but stopped short of blaming ground workers or pilots for the accident. It did not make any reference to the revised anti-stall system introduced on the 737 MAX, which investigators and U.S. pilots say was missing from the operating manual. Boeing says the procedure for dealing with a so-called runaway remains unchanged from previous 737 models. Pilots however say the control column behaves differently in certain conditions, which could confuse pilots who have flown the earlier model. Indonesia's director general of aviation, Polana Pramesti, told Reuters the agency planned to require pilots in Indonesia to be trained on simulators for the MAX series rather than the solely computer-based conversion course for 737 pilots. Wednesday's report provided new recommendations to Lion Air on safety on top of earlier recommendations about the flight manual that have already been implemented by Boeing. Authorities are meanwhile still looking for the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) believed to be lying among oil pipelines. Indonesia plans to deploy a ship from Singapore capable of staying in position without dropping anchor in the risky zone. Asked what was needed from the CVR, Utomo said: "A lot. Discussions between the left and right pilots were about what? What procedures did they carry out. Were there any strange noises?" Without it, he added, there would be "a lot of guessing". (Reporting by Cindy Silviana and Fergus Jensen; additional reporting by Tim Hepher in Paris, David Shepardson in Washington, Tracy Rucinski in Chicago, Eric M Johnson in Seattle and Gayatri Suroyo in Jakarta; Writing by Ed Davies, Jamie Freed, Tim Hepher; Editing by Darren Schuettler, Nick Macfie and David Evans) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. 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 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 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 defence 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) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. By Sarah N. Lynch WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, staunchly denied ever meeting with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Tuesday, after the Guardian newspaper published a story alleging the two met at least three times, including once in 2016 By Sarah N. Lynch WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, staunchly denied ever meeting with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Tuesday, after the Guardian newspaper published a story alleging the two met at least three times, including once in 2016. 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. 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. In the same court filing, Manafort denied lying, but both sides agreed the court should move ahead and set a date to sentence him for his crimes. Prosecutors said they plan to file a report before sentencing laying out the alleged crimes Manafort committed after pleading guilty in September. The surprise development came as Mueller is working toward finalising a report on his probe into whether Russia and Trump's campaign colluded in the 2016 presidential election. Part of that probe has involved looking into whether any of Trump's associates may have had advance notice before WikiLeaks published emails stolen by Russian hackers from Democratic computer networks to damage Trump rival Hillary Clinton. In recent months, Mueller's team has subpoenaed associates of Trump's political adviser and Manafort's former business partner, Roger Stone, who has denied having access to the emails. In the Guardian's story published on Tuesday, the paper reported that Manafort held secret talks with Assange in Ecuador's embassy in London in 2013, 2015 and March 2016 - before the damaging emails were released months later. WikiLeaks also denounced the story on Twitter Tuesday, saying it was "willing to bet the Guardian a million dollars and its editor's head that Manafort never met Assange." It also reported that it has launched a legal fund to sue the newspaper for publishing a "fabricated story." (Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; editing by Jonathan Oatis) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Bartolome Esteban Murillo was the most popular Baroque painter in 17th century Spain. Today's Google doodle commemorates 400 years of Murillo. Spanish Baroque painter Bartolome Esteban Murillo's 400th birth year has been marked with a Google doodle on 29 November 2018. The doodle depicts one of Murillo's iconic paintings: 'Two Women At A Window', painted circa 1655-60, and currently in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC. Born in Seville in late December 1617 (the exact date is unknown, although he was certainly baptised in January of 1618), Murillo began learning art under his uncle. The J Paul Getty Museum notes that young Murillo would sell his devotional images at local fairs. Later, he served as an apprentice to other artists. His early paintings followed a highly realistic style, and encompassed predominantly religious subjects (as was the convention at the time), and he had his first major successes by 1645. (Possibly in response to commissions from Flemish merchants who travelled to Seville) Murillo also began painting scenes of everyday Andalusian life: urchins and people on the street, portraits that were highly idealised, and characterised by the soft luminosity that marked so many of his canvasses. 'Two Women At A Window' the painting used in the Google doodle to commemorate Murillo is a wonderful example of his oeuvre: of the two women, one is young, the other considerably older. The older woman covers her mouth with a cloth, seemingly stifling her laughter at the scene unfolding outside the window. The young girl looks on at the same scene with a smile; there's a wistful expression on her face, perhaps indicating she wants to join in the fun outside. At one time, the Getty Museum notes, "the market for Bartolome Esteban Murillo's pictures was so large and lucrative that the king refused to allow their export from the country. Murillo himself never left Spain." Of particular note were his renditions of the Immaculate Conception, a cornerstone of Baroque painters. Murillo died in Seville in 1682. He had produced over 400 paintings in his lifetime, and mentored many pupils. The 19th century saw the popularity of his art deemed "overly sentimental" and "kitschy" nosedive. However, there has been a renewed appreciation for his contributions to the world of Spanish art, and his skills at portraiture and as a draughtsman. Several exhibitions of his work have been organised to mark the 400th centenary of his birth. By Kim Kyung-Hoon TIJUANA (Reuters) - After nearly two weeks of documenting the harrowing journey of a caravan of mostly Central American migrants headed towards the U.S.-Mexican border, I snapped a picture I will never forget. In the shot, taken on Sunday, you can see Honduran mother Maria Meza, 35, grabbing the thin arms of her two 5-year-old twin daughters Cheili and Saira as they frantically run from a tear gas canister spewing fumes By Kim Kyung-Hoon TIJUANA (Reuters) - After nearly two weeks of documenting the harrowing journey of a caravan of mostly Central American migrants headed towards the U.S.-Mexican border, I snapped a picture I will never forget. In the shot, taken on Sunday, you can see Honduran mother Maria Meza, 35, grabbing the thin arms of her two 5-year-old twin daughters Cheili and Saira as they frantically run from a tear gas canister spewing fumes. Cheili is seen in diapers, Saira barefoot, while their mother wears a t-shirt showing the smiling sisters from the Disney hit "Frozen," a movie I've seen many times with my own daughter. Mesa's 13-year-old daughter, Jamie, is behind her mother in the photo, also running away from the approaching gas. In the frantic moments after the canisters hit the ground, the acrid smell was everywhere and I could see children crying, their eyes stung by the gas. "I thought I was going to die with them because of the gas," Meza told my Reuters colleagues a day later, adding that she was shocked U.S. border agents would fire the canisters near women and children. The U.S. government said the customs officers had fired off the canisters after a group of migrants had attempted to cross the border violently, throwing projectiles at them. Meza's family had made it to the El Chapparal border crossing, which straddles the Mexican city of Tijuana and San Diego on the U.S. side, after leaving their home in the violent city of San Pedro Sula in northern Honduras two months ago. Sunday's incident happened after a group of migrants in Tijuana rushed at the border fencing. Just before the tear gas was fired, I had followed some of the migrants as they approached a section of the border fence recently reinforced with razor-studded coils. U.S. border agents warily eyed the group from the other side. Meza and her children said they had already spent a week at a Tijuana shelter, but they will likely have to wait much longer for a chance to ultimately plead their case. 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. Photo essay: https://reut.rs/2Q0pnVp (Editing by David Alire Garcia and Rosalba O'Brien) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. US President Donald Trump's administration is threatening to veto a Senate resolution that would halt U.S. involvement in the Saudi-led war in Yemen. The White House is issuing the veto threat as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary James Mattis are on Capitol Hill briefing senators who are increasingly uneasy with the U.S. response to Saudi Arabia after the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Washington: US President Donald Trump's administration is threatening to veto a Senate resolution that would halt U.S. involvement in the Saudi-led war in Yemen. The White House is issuing the veto threat as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary James Mattis are on Capitol Hill briefing senators who are increasingly uneasy with the U.S. response to Saudi Arabia after the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The Senate is considering a vote on the resolution as soon as Wednesday. The White House says the resolution would "harm bilateral relationships in the region and negatively impact the ability of the United States to prevent the spread of violent extremist organizations." Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is warning senators that U.S. national security interests are at stake as they consider a vote to halt U.S. involvement in the Saudi-led war in Yemen. In prepared remarks released ahead of a closed-door Senate briefing on Wednesday, Pompeo says diplomatic efforts to end the conflict are ongoing and argues that without U.S. involvement in Yemen, civilian casualties there would be much worse. "The suffering in Yemen grieves me, but if the United States of America was not involved in Yemen, it would be a hell of a lot worse," Pompeo says. It's unclear if that message will be enough for senators, who have grown increasingly uneasy with the U.S. response to Saudi Arabia after the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The briefing with Pompeo and Defense Secretary James Mattis could determine how far Congress goes in punishing the longtime Middle East ally. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says "some kind of response" is needed from the United States for the Saudis' role in the gruesome death. While U.S. intelligence officials have concluded the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, must have at least known of the plot, the CIA's findings have not been made public and President Donald Trump has equivocated over who is to blame. McConnell said on Tuesday that "what obviously happened, as basically certified by the CIA, is completely abhorrent to everything the United States holds dear and stands for in the world. We're discussing what the appropriate response would be." The resolution needs just a simple majority to advance, but a vote is not certain this week. It could launch a process for amending the bill that could play out for days in the Senate. It could end up being a largely symbolic move as House Republican leaders have given no indication they would take up the war powers measure before the end of the year. Pompeo says U.S. involvement in the Yemen conflict is central to the Trump administration's broader goal of containing Iranian influence in the Middle East. "The first mission is to assist the Saudis and the Emiratis in their fight against Iranian-backed Houthi fighters. This conflict isn't optional for Saudi Arabia, and abandoning it puts American interests at risk, too," he says according to the prepared remarks. Much will depend on what senators hear from Mattis and Pompeo. Administration officials were able to stall a Senate effort earlier this year against the Saudi-backed conflict in Yemen, when the resolution from Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, fell just six votes short of passage. It drew a mix of Democrats and Republicans who have grown uneasy with U.S. involvement in the Saudi-led campaign against the Houthis in a war that human rights advocates say is subjecting civilians to indiscriminate bombing and wreaking havoc on the country. That was long before the Oct. 2 death of Khashoggi, the U.S.-educated journalist who was publicly critical of the Saudi crown prince. Senators are increasingly frustrated over the administration's response to that killing and are particularly upset that no one from the intelligence community is attending Wednesday's briefing. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, one of 10 Democrats who declined to join the earlier effort against the Saudis, said Tuesday he was reconsidering his position. "Things changed," Manchin said. "The whole thing with Khashoggi is very much concerning. It's not who we are as a country. It's not who we should have as allies and not condemn that." Khashoggi was killed in what U.S. officials have described as an elaborate plot at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, which he had visited for marriage paperwork. Trump has said it may never be known who was responsible for the killing, and in public comments and a long and unusual statement last week he reinforced the United States' long-standing alliance with the Saudis. Trump has praised a pending arms deal with the kingdom that he says will provide the U.S. with jobs and lucrative payments, though some outside assessments say the economic benefits are exaggerated. Several GOP senators, including key allies Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Rand Paul of Kentucky, have publicly questioned Trump's handling of the situation. Paul is trying to block the arms sale. "If you don't draw the line here, where do you draw the line?" Graham asked reporters Tuesday. He, too, supports blocking the arms sale and said giving the crown prince "a pass on murdering a critic doesn't make the world a safer place." US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo briefed Senators in the US Congress Wednesday ahead of a vote they're expected to take on military aid to Saudi Arabia, saying there's 'no direct reporting linking the Saudi crown prince to the brutal killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October that set off global outrage. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo briefed Senators in the US Congress Wednesday ahead of a vote they're expected to take on military aid to Saudi Arabia, saying there's "no direct reporting linking the Saudi crown prince to the brutal killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October that set off global outrage. Although Pompeo's remarks were on expected lines, CIA Director Gina Haspel's absence became a sore point across the aisle; Haspel is the sole official in the trio that includes Mike Pompeo and James Mattis to have listened to the audio that allegedly depicts the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. Reporting by CBS suggests that Haspel was blocked by the White House from attending the hearing. "What is the White House trying to hide?!" critics of the Trump government's response to the Khashoggi murder railed on Wednesday in reaction to Haspel's glaring absence. Pompeo stuck to the weird Donald Trump playbook in Wednesday's Senate hearing. Trump's version of the Khashoggi murder has disputed that U.S. intelligence officials had concluded that the de facto leader of American ally Saudi Arabia ordered the killing of a U.S.-based journalist critical of the kingdom's royal family. Citing vehement denials by the crown prince and king that they were involved, Trump said "maybe the world should be held accountable because the world is a vicious place. The world is a very, very vicious place." The divergence of the CIA and State Department on Khashoggi is not atypical. These two agencies have long had a complicated relationship. Diplomats and spies work together but are often chasing different ends; diplomats cultivate relationships and spies extract information. In the Trump-Mohammad bin Salman-Jared Kushner triage, extracting information is the last thing this White House wants. American intelligence agencies have concluded that the crown prince ordered the killing in the Saudi Consulate in Turkey but Trump has spun the story into one that prioritises "America First" because there's "billions of dollars" and "jobs" for Americans at stake. In what analysts are calling an "extraordinary" op-ed, published in the Wall Street Journal ahead of the Senate hearing, Pompeo accused lawmakers of "caterwauling" about Saudi Arabia's human-rights record and ignoring the kingdom's pivotal role in sidelining Iran. "The Trump administrations effort to rebuild the U.S.-Saudi Arabia Arabia partnership isnt popular in the salons of Washington, where politicians of both parties have long used the kingdoms human-rights record to call for the alliances downgrading," Pompeo wrote. Sen. Flake: "I wish she [Gina Haspel] would have been there. A lot of us were frustrated that she wasn't." https://t.co/ixxYL5ybfK pic.twitter.com/uD1ms4zceO CBS News (@CBSNews) November 28, 2018 "The suffering in Yemen grieves me, but if the United States of America was not involved in Yemen, it would be a hell of a lot worse," Pompeo said in prepared remarks released today. In his own prepared remarks, Mattis said that "we must maintain our twin requirements of holding those responsible for the murder to account, while recognizing the reality of Saudi Arabia as a necessary strategic partner." "We cannot be deflected from using all our influence to end this war for the good of innocent people in trouble, and ultimately the safety of our own people, and this includes our military engagement," Mattis said. The White House issued a veto threat of a possible Senate resolution even as Pompeo and Mattis briefed the senators. A vote could happen later Wednesday but not certain. Now that the Republicans have lost the House majority by a huge margin after the 2018 midterms, Trump is likely to lean even more on methods like veto and executive orders to bide the remaining time until the 2020 election season comes around - with primaries that begin early that year. Zamorano University may be regarded as one of the crown jewels of Latin American higher education, particularly in the areas of agriculture, environmental management, and food science, but this idyllic campus excels for more reasons than simply academics. Zamorano happens to be incredibly birdy. Not only that, but the university retains on faculty a bona fide authority on the regions avifauna: Professor Oliver Komar is the co-author of the Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Northern Central America and as brilliant a field birder as Ive ever met in the Neotropics. To this tasty tropical cocktail concocted in July 2018, we added one more volatile ingredient in the form of a contingent of Americans and Hondurans sponsored by the Honduras Institute of Tourism. Add bins and coffee, shake well, and you have the recipe for bird watching nirvana! CAMPUS Just walking the gorgeous Zamorano campus immerses you in the typical species of this region, from constant Clay-colored Thrushes, Great-tailed Grackles, White-winged Doves, and Tropical Kingbirds to the usual vultures and grassbirds found in fields and towns. Also, youre never far from a charming, conspicuous Rufous-naped Wren around here. Further exploration of academic facilities, experimental fields, and random trees can produce some exciting sightings, from flocks of Crested Caracara to ridiculously confiding Ferruginous Pygmy-Owls. You know these owls are chill, if I can snap a shot this good (pardon the epiphyte!) ECO-SENDERO Oliver, along with Yobani A. Peraza of Xukpi Tours, led our group along the cleverly-designed eco trail that crosses many parts of the campus. The eco-sendero, which was built entirely by students, traverses fields, cuts through forest, and traces the length of a waste water system that runs sewage through a series of wetland filters to produce clean water. Considering the kinds of birds these unsavory places attract, we were glad to overlook a few malodorous scents for a shot at certain rarities. Case in point, this trail is extremely reliable for Ruddy Crake: Ruddy Crake Oliver Komar We pulled all manner of common and uncommon species along the eco-sendero, including crowd-pleasers like Nuttings Flycatcher, Rufous-browed Peppershrike, Turquoise-browed Motmot, and Striped Cuckoo. Had we visited during winter, the rainforest portion would almost certainly have yielded tons of warblers; winter residents include Kentucky, Blue-winged, and Golden-winged Warblers along with both waterthrushes. The trail also passes a number of lagoons reputed to be the best chance in Honduras for Anhinga. We missed the snakebird but had no problems seeing Black-bellied Whistling Duck, Least Grebe, Northern Jacana, Green Heron, Neotropic Cormorant, and both Amazon and Green Kingfisher. Spot-breasted, Streak-backed, and Altimira Orioles all nest in these areas with a host of different flycatchers. All in all, a few kilometers of easy birding along the eco-sendero yielded an impressive list of species. UYUCA One of the many research stations owned by Zamorano lies high in the mountains on the way to Tegucigalpa. Reserva Biologica Uyuca, which hosts a wide array of scientific research, is frankly phenomenal for Pacific Slope highland specialties. Considering what we saw in three hours on site, Id love to stay there three weeks! Uyuca stands out as a cinch spot for Green-breasted Mountain Gem, a hummingbird restricted to certain Northern Central American highlands. We had no problem finding these particular mountain-gems, though they were sometimes difficult to spot amidst the clouds of Azure-crowned and White-eared Hummingbirds. While that may be a slight exaggeration, its no lie that I may have never before heard so many hummers buzzing around an area without feeders. Besides the common ones, Uyuca also welcomes rarer hummingbirds. Exploring this tranquil mountain paradise also yielded altitude-appropriate specialties like Rufous-browed Wren, Rufous-collared Robin, and Mountain Thrush. The deep woods rang with the fluting songs of Ruddy-capped Nightingale-Thrushes and Slate-colored Solitaires. Though we saw plenty, the higher portions of the reserve promised much more (quetzal!) than we had time to attempt. We even missed a few easy species for this site, such as Blue-and-white Mockingbird. Nonetheless, Uyuca gave everyone far more than we could have anticipated; some of our group even got photos of Jaguarundi!! DRY FOREST A sprawling agricultural campus like Zamorano encompasses a rich diversity of habitats, the most fascinating of which may be dry forest. This ecosystem supports cool birds like Banded Wren, Lesser Ground-Cuckoo, and White-lored Gnatcatcher. In a very short time in the Masicaran Dry Forest Reserve, we easily found the first, heard the second, and mostly whiffed on the last. But during that span, we also heard Crested Bobwhites everywhere while picking out interesting species like Stripe-headed Sparrow, White-throated Magpie-Jay, and White-tailed Kite. PLANNING Just 30 km from Tegucigalpa, Zamorano deserves attention from visiting birders. Not only does the campus list exceed 350 species, but the university hosts a surprisingly well-appointed hotel that I found both beautiful and comfortable. The cafeteria serves good food, while the presence of so many serious studentsin the standard Zamorano uniform of blue jeans and blue shirtscan be inspiring. This would be an ideal starting point for birders flying into Tegus, as the grounds and outlying reserves allow for easy viewing of so many species. That said, one cannot simply stumble onto campus, bins in one hand and a beer in the other. For one, Zamorano is a dry campus. In addition, the school takes security seriously. The only way to access any of the campus grounds, including Uyuca, is to call ahead and arrange an approved guide. Sure, these additional steps may seem cumbersome to travelers already juggling extensive logistics, but these understandable precautions are minor hurdles to a major birding experience. I may not have earned any credit, but I learned quite a bit about Honduran birding at Zamorano University. US President Donald Trump will have a trilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires on 30 November and 1 December, the White House said on Tuesday. Washington: US President Donald Trump will have a trilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires on 30 November and 1 December, the White House said on 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 G20 Summit in Argentina. 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 Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Briefing reporters ahead of the G20 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 Modi. "He is going to meet with President Macri, the host government of Argentina, he'll meet with President Moon of South Korea, he'll meet with President Erdogan of Turkey, Prime Minister Abe of Japan, that will transform at some point during that meeting a trilateral meeting with the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, Bolton said. "The president will meet with President Putin and have a working dinner with President Xi," he said. By Andrew Osborn and Anton Zverev MOSCOW/KERCH, Crimea (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday shrugged off a threat from U.S. President Donald Trump to cancel a meeting with him due to Moscow's seizure of three Ukrainian navy ships, and accused Ukraine's president of orchestrating the crisis. Russia seized the Ukrainian vessels and their crews on Sunday near Crimea, the Ukrainian region which Moscow annexed in 2014, over what it said was their illegal entry into Russian waters, which Ukraine denies. By Andrew Osborn and Anton Zverev MOSCOW/KERCH, Crimea (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday shrugged off a threat from U.S. President Donald Trump to cancel a meeting with him due to Moscow's seizure of three Ukrainian navy ships, and accused Ukraine's president of orchestrating the crisis. Russia seized the Ukrainian vessels and their crews on Sunday near Crimea, the Ukrainian region which Moscow annexed in 2014, over what it said was their illegal entry into Russian waters, which Ukraine denies. The episode has raised fears in the West of a wider conflict between the two countries, and Trump said on Tuesday that he might cancel a planned meeting with Putin at the G20 summit in Argentina later this week as a response to "aggression". Some of Ukraine's Western allies have also raised the possibility of imposing new sanctions on Russia over the episode, which could deliver a blow to the Russian economy. But Putin, in his first public comments on the Black Sea incident, said that the Ukrainian vessels had clearly been in the wrong, dismissed the clash as a minor border issue, and accused Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko of having orchestrated the crisis in order to boost his dire ratings. Putin said he also still hoped to meet Trump at the G20, while the Kremlin said the meeting was still being prepared and Washington had not informed Moscow it was off. "It was without doubt a provocation," Putin told a financial forum in Moscow of the incident. "It was organised by the president ahead of the elections. The president is in fifth place ratings-wise and therefore had to do something. It was used as a pretext to introduce martial law." Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he was saddened by what he asserted was Washington's willingness to encourage Ukraine's "provocation". Putin said the West was willing to forgive Ukrainian politicians because it bought into their anti-Russian narrative. Trump has been briefed on the situation as he considers whether to cancel the Putin meeting but no decision has been made, White House officials said on Wednesday. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Russia's action shows it cannot be counted on to keep its word. "It was obviously a flagrant violation of international law. It was, I think, a cavalier use of a force that injured Ukrainian sailors," he told reporters at the Pentagon. Kiev has introduced martial law in parts of the country, saying it fears a possible Russian invasion. Speaking in northern Ukraine, Poroshenko, who has accused Moscow of naked military aggression, talked up his country's readiness to respond to any future Russian military action. "It's important to keep our powder dry and be ready at any moment to push back the aggressor," said Poroshenko, adding that he had received offers from hundreds of Ukrainian war veterans who said they were ready to return and defend the country. MISSILES FOR CRIMEA The United States and the EU have both imposed sanctions on Russia over its conduct towards Ukraine since 2014, when Moscow seized and annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula after a pro-Russian leader was toppled in Kiev. Moscow later backed pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine in a conflict in which more than 10,000 people have been killed. Major fighting ended with a 2015 ceasefire but deadly exchanges of fire are still frequent. A Kremlin aide said on Wednesday that Putin had rebuffed an initiative from Poroshenko for the two men to speak by phone. Vadim Astafyev, a spokesman for Russia's southern military district, was cited by Russian news agencies as saying that a new battalion of advanced S-400 surface-to-air missiles would be delivered to Crimea soon and become operational by year's end. The deployment is likely to have been long-planned, but the timing of the announcement appeared designed to send a message to Ukraine and the West that Russia is serious about defending what it regards as its own territory and waters. Crimea already hosts three battalions of the anti-aircraft missile systems which have a range of up to 400 km (250 miles) allowing Russia to control large swaths of the skies above the Black Sea. The new missile deployment to Crimea would allow Russia to increase its air defence coverage area. Separately, a Reuters correspondent in Crimea on Wednesday observed a Russian navy minesweeper ship, the Vice-Admiral Zakharin, heading in the direction of the Sea of Azov. The sea is home to major ports of both Russia and Ukraine, and can be reached only through the Russian-controlled Kerch Strait near where Sunday's incident took place. A court in Crimea's capital Simferopol on Wednesday ordered nine of the 24 captured Ukrainian sailors - including senior Ukrainian naval officers and at least one member of Ukraine's SBU intelligence agency - held for a period of two months. The same court ordered the other 15 sailors on Tuesday to be detained for two months pending a possible trial. All of the sailors face jail terms of up to six years if found guilty of what Moscow says was a plot to illegally cross the Russian border by trying to pass through the strait without advance notice and ignoring calls to stop. Ukraine said its ships did nothing wrong and have every right to use the strait without Russian permission. (Reporting by Andrew Osborn and Anton Zverev; Additional reporting by Polina Nikolskaya, Daria Korsunksaya, Tom Balmforth, Polina Ivanova, Vladimir Soldatkin, Katya Golubkova, Gleb Stolyarov and Oksana Kobzeva in Moscow, Pavel Polityuk in Kiev and Stephanie Nebehay, Tom Miles in Geneva, Steve Holland and Idrees Ali in Washington; Writing by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Christian Lowe, Peter Graff and Lisa Shumaker) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. The court was informed that Wijegunaratne shielded a naval intelligence officer accused of 11 murders in the final stages of the civil war with the Tamil rebels that ended in 2009. Colombo: Sri Lanka's highest-ranking military officer Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne on Wednesday surrendered before a local court which remanded him in custody for a week in a case of abduction of 11 youths during the last phase of the bloody civil war with the LTTE in 2009. Chief of Defence Staff Admiral Wijegunaratne appeared before the Fort magistrate court in full military uniform and his army commando security. The court was informed that Wijegunaratne shielded a naval intelligence officer accused of 11 murders in the final stages of the civil war with the Tamil rebels that ended in 2009. The court remanded him in custody until 5 December. Admiral Wijeguneratne denies the allegations. Navy personnel had been arrested for abductions and disappearance of 11 youth in 2009 apparently for ransom. A special police team informed the court that Wijegunaratne had facilitated the main suspect Chandana Prasad Hettiarachchi, a lieutenant commander of the navy, to flee the country to avoid legal proceedings. Wijegunaratne had concealed information to the court over Hettiarachchi's whereabouts, the police team said. The court wanted him to appear before it, but Wijegunaratne managed to avoid doing so. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which led the separatist war for a separate Tamil homeland for three decades in the island nation, was finally crushed by the Lankan military in 2009 with the death of its leader V Prabhakaran. The UN Human Rights Council has called for an international probe into the alleged war crimes during the military conflict with the LTTE. According to the government figures, around 20,000 people are missing due to various conflicts including the 30-year-long separatist war with Lankan Tamils in the north and east which claimed at least 100,000 lives. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he may cancel his scheduled meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in Argentina because of Russia's maritime clash with Ukraine WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he may cancel his scheduled meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in Argentina because of Russia's maritime clash with Ukraine. In an interview with the Washington Post, Trump said he was awaiting a "full report" from his national security team Tuesday evening about Russias capture of three Ukrainian naval ships and their crews on Sunday. "That will be very determinative," Trump told the Post. "Maybe I won't have the meeting. Maybe I won't even have the meeting ... I don't like that aggression. I don't want that aggression at all," he said. Trump is due to meet Putin on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, which convenes on Friday and Saturday. The Trump-Putin meeting will cover security issues, arms control, and issues in the Middle East and Ukraine, White House national security John Bolton told reporters. 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. The U.S. State Department urged European nations on Tuesday to do more to assist Ukraine in its standoff with Russia. (Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Tom Brown and James Dalgleish) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. 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. Moscow: 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. In the latest addition to gaffes by former UK foreign secretary Boris Johnson, the BBC released footage of Johnson in Portugal trying to film an introductory video for his official Twitter feed, and getting it wrong. In the latest addition to gaffes by former UK foreign secretary Boris Johnson, the BBC released footage of Johnson in Portugal trying to film an introductory video for his official Twitter feed and getting all the facts about the southern European nation completely wrong. In the video, which was released as part of BBC's show 'Inside the Foreign Office', Johnson messes up facts which range from the UK's role during World War II, to the birthplace of popular character James Bond. As Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson was encouraged by the #ForeignOffice to post regularly on social media. pic.twitter.com/6G9m3PnpKo BBC Two (@BBCTwo) November 26, 2018 In the video, the former Mayor of London said, Im here in Lisbon in Portugal to celebrate what is the oldest alliance and friendship in diplomatic history, going back to 1386, going forward through the Napoleonic Wars through to the Second World War, when of course this was a place that, was He then asked his aides,"Im trying to think what happened in the Second World War, cut this for a second, what did we do in the Second World War. It was neutral, wasnt it?" Johnson tried another line about the two countries' trade equation and seamlessly claimed that Portugal is the UK's fourth largest trading partner. The aides had to point out that the fact was actually the other way around, with the UK being Portugal's fourth largest trading partner. Eventually, moving on from politics, Johnson attempts to highlight the closeness of the relationship between the two countries by claiming that James Bond was born in the town of Estoril. However, he missed the mark again, as aides corrected him to say that the character was conceptualised by author Ian Flemming in Estoril. The video has garnered shocked responses from social media users, as they question Johnson's capability and wondered if he was at all suitable to occupy the office of foreign secretary which he once did. In the past, Johnson has made several faux-pas of a similar nature, for instance when he uttered racial slurs calling people of colour flag-waving piccaninnies with watermelon smiles, or when he compared the European Union (EU) to the Nazi Germany regime. He had said that the EU was using methods from the Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, as the organisation shared the aim of unifying Europe under one authority. A report by The Independent said, "At the Conservative Party conference Johnson was widely condemned after claiming the Libyan city of Sirte would have a bright future as a luxury resort once they cleared the dead bodies away". The rise and relevance of F&B products that carry a health halo association are unmistakable, and has been particularly poignant over the past 18 months. In light of... Read More Protect human rights defenders from judicial harassment (Bangkok, November 28, 2018)Thai authorities and Thammakaset Company Limited should immediately drop criminal and civil defamation complaints against two human rights defenders for their involvement in activities related to a Fortify Rights film, Fortify Rights said today. The Bangkok Criminal Court is scheduled to hold preliminary hearings on the criminal defamation complaints on December 3. These complaints are a form of judicial harassment and should be dropped immediately, said Amy Smith, Executive Director of Fortify Rights. Instead of allowing companies to target and attack human rights defenders, the Thai authorities should protect and promote human rights defenders. The complaints, filed by Thammakaset in October 2018, relate to a 107-second film published by Fortify Rights on October 4, 2017 that called on the Thai authorities to drop criminal defamation charges against 14 migrant workers at the Thammakaset-operated chicken farm in Lopburi Province and to decriminalize defamation in Thailand. In the film, three former workers describe how Thammakaset brought criminal defamation charges against them after the workers reported labor violations to the Thai authorities, including unlawfully low wages, failure to pay overtime wages, and confiscation of their identity documents, including passports. Woman human rights defender Sutharee Wannasiri speaking at a Fortify Rights press conference, FortifyRights, Oct 2018. Former Fortify Rights Human Rights Specialist Sutharee Wannasiri is facing criminal defamation under sections 326 and 328 of the Thailand Criminal Code for a social media posting of the Fortify Rights film. Human rights defender and former employee of Thammakaset Nan Win, who is featured in the film, is also facing criminal defamation under sections 326 and 328 of the Thailand Criminal Code. If convicted, both human rights defenders face up to two years in prison and fines of up to 200,000 Thai baht (US$6,050). In a separate civil complaint, Thammakaset is also seeking five million Thai baht (US$151,400) from Sutharee Wannasiri for alleged damages to companys reputation for her social media post. Thammakaseta Thai-owned poultry company in Lopuri Provincepreviously brought criminal defamation complaints against 14 migrant workers in October 2016 and against labor rights activist Andy Hall in November 2016. The company brought further charges against two migrant workers in August 2017 for alleged theft and similar alleged theft charges against woman human rights defender and coordinator of the Migrant Worker Rights Network (MWRN) Suthasinee Kaewleklai. Thai courts struck down these previous criminal complaints. Apart from dismissing the fresh complaints brought by Thammakaset, the Thai government should also decriminalize defamation, said Fortify Rights. Former Thammakaset employee Nan Win, who is now facing a criminal defamation complaint by the company for bringing attention to labor rights violations. Fortify Rights, 2017 Under international law, imprisonment is considered a disproportionate punishment for acts of defamation. The 2017 Constitution of Thailand protects the right to freedom of expression as does Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Thailand is a state party. Judicial harassment in the form of SLAPP (Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation) lawsuits is common in Thailand. There is no room for complaints like these in the Thai justice system. If the Thai authorities are genuine about their commitments under international and domestic law, they should prevent further spurious complaints by taking legislative action, Amy Smith said. Anti-SLAPP legislation would protect human rights defenders and promote responsible, rights-respecting businesses in the country. The Internet is a space for ideas to be pooled and shared and issues to be highlighted and discussed. There are various platforms that enable these often communal activities and one of the most popular pedestals is forums. Such a forum is Cokoye.com. Its an open forum that caters to the people of the African continent Cokoye.com provides an opportunity for the people of the African nations to connect and discuss issues and the goings-on in the microcosms. Cokoye.com provides the number one African information hub and forums for open discussions. Information that revolves around the African countries that is expanded and enriched by feedback by the people of Africa gives an opportunity for the African people to connect and propose solutions by Cokoye.com. People from Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Namibia, Gambia, Algeria Cote dIvoire, Botswana, Angola, Mozambique, Malawi, etc are all welcome to join the discussions already started on Cokoye.com or create new ones and get people talking about things they care about. Cokoye.com is also open to people across the globe who take an interest in the issues, happenings and developments in Africa to discuss about them, indulging in fact and opinion sharing in a civil and friendly way. Cokoye.com is a great channel for anyone to discuss, learn and share everything African Cokoye.com is committed to keep the forum transparent and impartial to everyone participating. For limitless posting of series of discussions on matters concerning Africa and general issues as well, all one needs to do is register at Cokoye.com and then start participating in the informative and engaging discussions on issues that are close to the African homes and hearts. Join the discussion today by registering at https://cokoye.com Media Contact Company Name: Cokoye Contact Person: Buchi Email: Send Email Country: Nigeria Website: www.cokoye.com Companion Diagnostics Market Global Companion Diagnostics 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. Global Companion Diagnostics Market Overview Companion Diagnostics is the as a bio-analytical method designed for the assessment of the patient to check whether patient responds to a specific medical treatment or not. Companion diagnostics are used to determine which patients are benefited from a certain type of medication or which therapies are best suited for the patients with certain medical conditions. The Global Companion Diagnostics Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 15.4% during forecasted period 2017-2023. Companion diagnostics involves tests and devices or tools which provide information about the safe and effective use of the specific therapeutic product. It not only provides information about the efficacy of the drugs but also the side effects that are associated with the drug. To control the rising cost of the drug discovery and development for the deadly and chronic diseases, the need for companion diagnostics is increasing; and with the increasing demand for the companion diagnostic tools and techniques, the global market for the companion diagnostics is growing. Among all the regions in the world, the U.S. has been the first choice for a suitable deployment of companion diagnostic solutions due to the availability of established healthcare system and technological advancement. Request Sample copy at https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/3077 Moreover, a number of CDx initiatives, research & development programs, product launch and diagnostic tools have emerged and lot many are still in the pipeline. The U.S. has gained significant pharmaceutical developments along with FDA approvals; patents and licensing that enable it to position itself in the global companion diagnostic market. Key Vendors: Abbott Agilent Technologies ARUP Laboratories Myriad Genetics QIAGEN N.V. And others. Companion Diagnostics Market Segmentation: The global companion diagnostics market has been segmented on the basis of technology which comprises of Polymerase chain reaction (PCR), In-situ hybridization, and immunohistochemistry. On the basis of application, market is segmented into cancer, infectious diseases, cardiovascular diseases, CNS diseases, and others On the basis of end user, market is segmented into pharmaceutical & biotech companies, clinical laboratories, CRO, and other. Companion Diagnostics Market Regional Outlook Geographically, the regional market is segmented into America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa. The North America includes the U.S., and Canada; and presently, they together dominate the global companion diagnostic market. Further, South America comprises of countries such as Brazil, Peru, Columbia, and Panama among others, and they all contribute a very small share in the global companion diagnostic market. Europe, accounts for the second largest, in the global companion diagnostics market. The European region includes both Western and Eastern European countries which are involved in development of companion diagnostics. The major countries in the Western Europe are Germany, France, UK, Italy, and Spain. These companion diagnostic solutions are increasing the efficiency of the healthcare workforce and systems driven by the increasing adoption of precise diagnostic tools, electronic healthcare records and drugs prescribed particularly for a disease. Asia-Pacific region is estimated to be the fastest growing market due to continuous developments in developing countries like India and China. Major TOC of Companion Diagnostic Market Research Report- Global Forecast to 2023: 1 Report Prologue 2 Market Introduction 3 Research Methodology 4 Market Dynamics 5 Market Factor Analysis 6 Global Companion Diagnostics Market, By Technology 7 Global Companion Diagnostics Market, By Application 8 Global Companion Diagnostics Market, By End User 9 Global Companion Diagnostics Market, By Region 10 Competitive Landscape 11 Company Profile 12 List of Tables 13 List of Figures Browse Complete 107 Pages Premium Research Report Enabled with 126 Respective Tables and Figures at https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/companion-diagnostic-market-3077 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. Media Contact Company Name: Market Research Future Contact Person: Abhishek Sawant Email: Send Email Phone: +1 646 845 9312 Address:Market Research Future Office No. 528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, Hadapsar City: Pune State: Maharashtra Country: India Website: https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/companion-diagnostic-market-3077 Executive Care Set to Open First Ohio Office Home health care company serves seniors, disabled and recovering individuals with first location in Avon Lake November 28, 2018 // Franchising.com // HACKENSACK, N.J. - With an aging population that requires help with daily activities or with managing health, in-home care has become a popular solution. Looking to help manage the rising demand for such services, Executive Care, one of the nations leading providers of skilled home health care, is set to open its first office of Ohio in Avon Lake. Slated to open early-December, the new business will be located at 32730 Walker Road in Avon Lake and will service the Cleveland metro area, including: Cuyahoga, Lorain, Medina, Huron, Erie, Ashland and Holmes Counties. It is the first sister-duo office, Molly Foos and Sarah Reed, will open and operate. My sister and I grew up in this community. We have family members here and can see the need for this service. We share a passion in caring for others which led to our partnership with Executive Home Care, whose understanding of the critical role home care plays in the lives of millions of Americans has led it to become a leading home care provider, said Molly Foos. I truly believe in Executive Cares mission, and I have faith that the business will bring an improved and personal level of care to the area, providing comfort and peace of mind for local families and loved ones. Prior to teaming up with Executive Care, Foos worked in the life and health insurance field. Before that, she was the Executive Director for a non-profit for the last several years. Reed was the Senior Advisor for a home health care agency and previously had a successful career in the social service field. Their uncle, James Schack has teamed up with the sisters to open up their family operated Executive Care. Founded in 2004, Executive Care offers a variety of caregiving and skilled services to help families often overwhelmed with the responsibility of providing care to a loved one all while ensuring the patient remains in the comfort of his or her own home. Services range from companionship and help with meal preparation and household chores to help with bathing, personal hygiene and personal care. Executive Care also serves individuals recovering from illness, injury or surgery. To guarantee the highest quality, Executive Care requires all prospective caregivers to undergo an intensive pre-employment screening process, including a criminal background investigation, verification of references and an employment history check. All caregivers are insured, experienced and undergo skills tests and continuing education training. Care Coordinators closely supervise and monitor all staff, conducting periodic evaluation assessments. As Executive Care continues to increase our footprint from coast to coast, we are excited to enter Avon Lake and continue providing an alternative to a nursing home or other type of senior care facility, said Todd Leonard, Vice President of Operations and Development at Executive Care. We are pleased with the rapid growth we are experiencing, and know we will continue to have prosperous locations by partnering with people like Molly and Sarah, who truly have a passion for the industry About Executive Care Founded in 2004 and based in Hackensack, NJ, Executive Care is a full-service home health care company serving seniors, disabled and recovering individuals. The company also provides staffing in hospitals, nursing homes, and other facilities. Recently ranked #249 in Entrepreneur magazines Annual Franchise 500, Executive Care continues to expand its national footprint with fourteen locations in nine states, and several locations in various stages of development in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Kentucky, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Washington. For more information, visit http://executivehomecare.com/ Media Contact: Gabriela Gutierrez Franchise Elevator PR (847) 239-8171 ggutierrez@franchiseelevator.com SOURCE Executive Care ### Comments: Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. Disqus SuperGreen Solutions Expands to Maritimes Canada Barry Gallant is Welcomed as the Newest Master for SuperGreen Solutions WEST PALM BEACH, FL - November 28, 2018 /24-7PressRelease/- SuperGreen Solutions is proud to welcome Barry Gallant of Maritimes, Canada as the newest Master Franchisee to join its network. SuperGreen Solutions (SGS) is the world's premier sustainability advisors, helping businesses lower costs and drive revenues through green certification. It is a member of the United Franchise Group that has more than 1,600 franchises in 80 countries. "Sustainability has always been a passion of mine; I am a big advocate of renewable energy. I've been following SuperGreen Solutions for a couple of years now and have been thoroughly impressed by their progressive sustainability measures." Said Gallant. "When looking for a new business opportunity, the decision to own a SuperGreen Solutions franchise was a no brainer." With a background in civil structural engineering, Gallant joins SuperGreen Solutions with a wealth of knowledge and insider's perspective of the innovations wrapped around "going green". "Going from early adopters to the masses, the green movement has caught the attention of the Canadian government and businesses across our country." States Gallant. "While Canada - and the entire world - is becoming more green-conscious, now is the ideal time to get in the sustainability market. I am proud to own a business in which I can make a large impact, to the local community, and the environment." Gallant has plans to expand across eastern Canada, adding SuperGreen Solutions operations across Halifax, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick over the next five years. About SuperGreen Solutions SuperGreen Solutions, with 80 operations in 18 countries, is the world's premier local business partner for driving revenue and lowering costs through green initiatives; offering the exclusive SGS ISO 14001 Sustainability Certification, designed specifically for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and guiding clients through all steps towards their certification achievement. SGS offers the Green Compass Sustainability Award program which promotes the client's sustainability commitment and accomplishments to its audience. The overall program generates four benefits to the client: reduced costs; improved operational performance and employee morale; competitive differentiation, leading to revenue enhancement; and establishment as a market leader. To learn about SuperGreen Solutions visit www.SuperGreenSolutions.com. About United Franchise Group "The Global Leader for Entrepreneurs," United Franchise Group is a group of affiliated companies and brands. Led by CEO Ray Titus, United Franchise Group is home to a variety of internationally recognized brands including Signarama, Fully Promoted, Experimac, Jon Smith Subs, Venture X, SuperGreen Solutions, Transworld Business Advisors, Accurate Franchising, Network Lead Exchange and The Great Greek Mediterranean Grill. With more than three decades in the franchising industry and more than 1,600 franchises in 80 countries throughout the world, United Franchise Group offers unprecedented leadership and solid business opportunities for entrepreneurs. Media Contact: Andrea Kimpel SuperGreen Solutions Voice: 561-812-6052 SOURCE SuperGreen Solutions ### Comments: Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. Disqus AGM Address to Shareholders Sydney, Nov 28, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Cobalt Blue Holdings Limited ( ASX:COB ) ( OTCMKTS:CBBHF ) provides the Company's AGM Address to Shareholders.Good morning, I would like to welcome all COB shareholders and guests to our 2018 AGM.The last 12 months has been a significant period of development for the business and we have taken important steps progressing the Thackaringa Cobalt Project.Cobalt Blue delivered a Scoping Study in mid-2017. The study outlined several potential processing pathways, including roasting, pressure oxidation leaching and pyrolysis, of which pyrolysis presented the most desirable commercial and economic outcome.In July 2017 we welcomed a new director to our Board, Matt Hill, an experienced investment and mining professional who has added considerably to the board's capabilities. In June 2018, Trangie Johnston resigned from the Board and we thank him for his dedication and service to Cobalt Blue.Field work over FY18 was extensive - with 12,500 metres of total drilling on site - representing the largest single campaign in Thackaringa's history. This resulted in a significant upgrade for the project - a 31% increase in resource (to 72 million tonnes total) of which 72% was brought into the Indicated Resource Category.In addition to the drilling work, we also commissioned a major heliborne geophysical survey designed to locate pyrite style anomalies. This work identified multiple large exploration targets which are currently the subject of further examination.Cobalt in pyrite is a common mineralisation within the Broken Hill district and we were pleased to sign a cooperation MOU with Havilah Resources to better understand the potential fit of our processing technology with their Mutooroo ore. Results to date have been very positive.From mid FY18 we announced a series of metallurgical processing breakthroughs. Firstly, our technical team achieved a 92% cobalt recovery from a simple crush and gravity circuit. This was a tremendous achievement as only 20% of mined ore would need to be processed further. In other words, the refinery was only 1/5 of the size of the Thackaringa mine. Secondly, the team was able to recover 96% of the cobalt from this concentrate into a battery ready cobalt sulphate. This demonstrated our ability to take Thackaringa ore and produce a high value product.Today, the rapidly evolving battery market demands cobalt as a key pre cursor ingredient. Parallel to these developments, battery makers are "thrifting" cobalt, in order words using less cobalt to make each battery. This transition, however, requires a higher-grade cobalt product, which remains a key focus for our business.Commercially, our relationships now span the key cobalt refining countries of China, Japan and Korea which have been optimising the processing of cobalt for in excess of 50 years. We were delighted to introduce LG International as a cornerstone commercial partner via our First Mover Program. LGI has provided us with financial assistance and, looking forward, will assist technically in making the right specification of cobalt sulphate. We look forward to advancing this relationship.We are also examining processing alternatives that enable the production of elemental sulphur. This would displace costly imports when used as a feedstock for fertiliser. Cobalt Blue aims to produce sulphur, with direct sales into the domestic Australian market, which currently imports more than one million tonnes per annum.In late June 2018 COB delivered a Pre-Feasibility Study that outlined the world class characteristics of the Thackaringa Cobalt Project. As a result, COB achieved a 70% Joint Venture equity stake in the project.I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the Cobalt Blue management team and my fellow directors for their hard work and commitment during this year.Australia remains well endowed with cobalt resources but produces only 6% of global supply. There is little doubt that we have plenty of potential, particularly considering our stable jurisdiction and ethical credentials. Cobalt Blue looks forward to closing this cobalt gap.To view the presentation, please visit:About Cobalt Blue Holdings Limited Cobalt Blue Holdings Ltd (ASX:COB) is an exploration and project development company focussed on green energy technology. Work programs are advancing to enable an upgrade of the Mineral Resource at the Thackaringa Cobalt Project in New South Wales to include Measured Resources. Cobalt is a strategic metal in strong demand for new generation batteries, particularly lithium-ion batteries now being widely used in clean energy systems. Potential to extend the Mineral Resource at Pyrite Hill, Big Hill, Railway and the other prospects is high. Numerous other prospects within COBs tenement package are at an early stage and under-explored. The death toll from a chemical truck explosion in north China's Hebei Province has climbed to 23 after another body was found during the rescue work, local authorities said. Photo taken on Nov 28, 2018 shows the blast site near Shenghua chemical plant in Zhangjiakou city, North China's Hebei province. [Photo: Xinhua] A truck carrying combustible chemicals exploded in Qiaodong District in the city of Zhangjiakou at around 0:40 a.m. early Wednesday morning, causing a series of blasts of nearby vehicles. Another 22 were injured after the blasts, according to the city's fire department. The Ministry of Emergency Management has sent a work team to the site to guide rescue work, while the local government is verifying the identities of the victims. The injured have been sent to local hospitals for treatment. According to a preliminary investigation, the truck carrying acetylene exploded when entering the Haipo'er New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., near Hebei Shenghua Chemical Industry, a big chemical enterprise. The blast ignited 38 trucks and 12 cars nearby. The blasts and fire also damaged a high-voltage power line, leading to a power outage at four communication base stations and several companies including Haipo'er New Energy Technology. Rescue work and further investigation are underway. Expands into New Zealand Medicinal Cannabis Market Sydney, Nov 28, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - THC Global Group Limited (THC Global or the Company) ( ASX:THC ) ( OTCMKTS:HDRPF ) has secured exclusive rights to import Endoca's CBD products into New Zealand and has established a supply chain to patients through a strategic partnership with DATAPHARM.Key Points:- Strategic expansion of THC Global's international footprint into emergent NZ market- Endoca CBD+CBDa Products to be imported by THC Global for sale in New Zealand- Partnership with industry leading pharmaceuticals supply chain company DATAPHARM- NZ Cannabidiol (CBD) product market has simple prescription process and few existing competitors - potential rapid market growth for THC GlobalThrough its operating subsidiary in New Zealand, THC Pharma (NZ) Limited, the Company will commence the importation of Endoca's unique CBD and CBD+CBDa products from Europe.New Zealand regulations allow prescriptions for CBD products such as those imported by THC Global to be made by doctors without Government Approval as is required under Australian regulations, which allow for access to products by a far larger patient population.The expansion into New Zealand represents a significant step in the Company's global approach to vertically integrated revenue generation.Market Potential in New ZealandThe Company has been advised by Endoca that they have received strong interest from over a thousand patients in New Zealand seeking their product. THC Global will seek to take advantage of this existing demand, in addition to continuing to build on its prescriber and pharmacy engagement programs to ensure that THC Global is able to build a strong prescriber, pharmacy, and patient base in New Zealand.With the support of DATAPHARM, THC Global will also commence seeking MedSafe approval from the New Zealand government for the Endoca products which, although not required to commence supply to patients, will add further credibility and attest to the safety and quality of the already GMP certified Endoca product range.The only other MedSafe approved cannabis-based medication in New Zealand currently costs patients $14,000 per year. THC Global anticipates supplying Endoca CBD products to NZ patients at a substantially lower price, addressing a major barrier to patient uptake, and increasing accessibility for patients.Favourable Regulatory ConditionsTHC Global have identified New Zealand as an attractive market due to favourable regulatory conditions, as New Zealand regulations allow products with over 98% CBD such as the Endoca range to be prescribed by medical practitioners including GPs without the need for special authorisation as is required in Australia.The Company expects that this will result in rapid revenue generating sales as the Company commences supply to patients in New Zealand. THC Pharma (NZ) is required to seek importation permits to commence importing Endoca products and is seeking those permits on an expedited basis.Chief Executive Officer of Endoca, Henry Vincenty, commented:"We are excited to be able to expand our collaboration with THC following their successful launch as the exclusive distributor of Endoca products in Australia. We will continue to seek further opportunities to collaborate and expand on our partnership with THC in the near term".THC Global Chief Executive Officer, Ken Charteris commented:"We look forward to our first orders in New Zealand in the coming weeks as we continue to expand our global footprint in the medicinal cannabis market, both in the Asia Pacific and in North America."The expansion into New Zealand represents the next step in the development of THC Global as a significant participant in the global medicinal cannabis market".EndocaEndoca's primary focus is to research and develop innovative cannabis extracts that can help to balance the human Endocannabinoid system making them accessible world-wide. Through targeting the human Endocannabinoid System many people can be helped to restore their internal balance. Endoca is dedicated to producing the finest and purest quality products like CBD oil while never compromising on quality. Endoca also produces other cannabinoids as there are over 80 different in nature.DATAPHARMDATAPHARM creates value by building connections between suppliers, channel partners and their mutual customers. It does this with innovative product offerings such as pharmacyEXTRA.com, introducing companies looking to import or export products into / from New Zealand and consulting to the pharmaceutical and aligned industries.About THC Global Group Limited THC Global Group Limited (ASX:THC) (OTCMKTS:HDRPF) (FRA:9TH) operates under a 'Farm to Pharma' pharmaceutical model, now holding all three key cannabis licences being a Cannabis Research Licence, a Medicinal Cannabis Licence (Cultivation), and a Manufacture Licence through its domestic medicinal cannabis subsidiaries THC Pharma and Canndeo. THC Global has secured a significant cannabis growing capacity over multiple cultivation projects and owns a pharmaceuticals bio-manufacturing facility with attached testing and product development laboratory. THC Global is in prime position to commence medicinal cannabis production to service both domestic patients and the global export market. THC Global is active globally with operations in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada and partnerships across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. In addition to its core Australian medicinal cannabis assets, THC Global has a significant Canadian presence both in cannabis and in hydroponics equipment. THC Global's Canadian cannabis operation, Vertical Canna, holds property in Nova Scotia, Canada being developed into a large scale cannabis production site. THC Global's hydroponics equipment division, Crystal Mountain, is a revenue generating manufacturer, wholesaler, and retailer of hydroponic equipment and supplies. Australian digital bank, Goldfields Money partners with fintech disruptor, Ivy Koin LLC, to explore blockchain validation solutions to legitimise digital currency transactions Strategic Alliance with Ivy Koin LLC Perth, Nov 28, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Australia's new revolutionary digital bank, Goldfields Money Limited (Goldfields Money or the Company)( ASX:GMY ) is pleased to announce a strategic partnership with Los Angeles-based Ivy Koin LLC (Ivy), a developer of blockchain-based solutions for financial institutions to validate and cater to compliance needs for fiat & digital currency business transactions.Under the agreement Goldfields Money & Ivy will be working closely together to commercialise the use of blockchain technology in banking to validate and legitimise digital currency to fiat transactions in the traditional banking framework.Goldfields Money has recently revamped its digital banking platform and has a modern mindset working to cater for the needs of technology savvy consumers. Ivy's technology is a perfect solution to explore new digital currency markets.Ivy uses blockchain and utility tokens to provide an innovative solution for validation. These tokens will carry "Know your Customer" (KYC) and "Know your Transaction" (KYT) information, critical for financial institution validation and will allow Goldfields Money to open new revenue streams from digital assets and meet Anti-Money Laundering, KYC and other regulatory requirements.Simon Lyons, Managing Director of Goldfields Money said "The technology behind digital currencies really can't be ignored.""The biggest issues for the traditional banking sector in dealing with digital currencies are ensuring that financial institutions meet their compliance obligations and are able to adequately identify the source of funds, the identity of an account holder and verify other aspects of these transactions.""We are excited to be working with Ivy to pioneer solutions to ensure compliant validation occurs that meets the stringent regulatory requirements required of banks."Ivy President, Ash Shilkin said "Digital currencies are now being adopted into the mainstream. Blockchain-based products can help drive not only the payments but also the underlying verification required by banks for the transactions to be deemed bankable as well as meeting the standards of regulators."This opens up new customer and revenue opportunities for banks like Goldfields Money."As our banking partner in Australia, Goldfields Money will make it easier and safer for Australians to switch between digital and fiat currencies."This announcement comes during a time of increased interest in KYC and KYT technologies, as they are necessary for banks, financial institutions and exchanges to meet regulatory requirements. The partnership between Ivy and Goldfields Money is a step toward further integration of blockchain technology into other established financial institutions.About Ivy Koin LLCIvy Koin LLC provides blockchain-based technology for fiat & cryptocurrency business transactions which require extensive verification in the international monetary system. The Ivy network utilises ivyKoin (IVY) tokens which carry KYC & KYT data points critical for financial institution validation. In November, in partnership with Hive Empire Trading Pty Ltd Ivy launched 'IvyPay, a service for Australians to use their cryptocurrency to pay bills or to turn it into cash and deposit it in their Australian Bank account.For more information on the Ivy Project, or the partnership between Ivy and Goldfields Money, visit www.ivyproject.com or follow the company at @ivykoin across social media.About Goldfields Money Ltd Goldfields Money (ASX:GMY) is Australia's new revolutionary digital bank, distributing first class products through a largely branchless distribution network. A bank without the bank. This digital banking platform is built on the recently implemented mobile first, world class core banking system provided by Temenos and our proprietary mortgage distribution software "Loankit". Goldfields is ASX listed (ASX:GMY) with two key divisions: Banking (operates under "Goldfields Money" and "Better Choice" brands) - an APRA regulated bank that offers deposit and loan products that are funded either on-balance sheet or off-balance sheet through a range of third party lenders. Our deposits are all guaranteed by the Australian Government Deposit Guarantee for up to $250,000 per customer. We are the new approach to banking in Australia, we're honest, with transparent bank practices and a straightforward approach to you and your money. It's all yours, honestly. Mortgage Aggregation (operates under "Finsure" and "Loankit" brands) - an ASIC regulated mortgage aggregation and software technology platform with over 1,475 loan writers as of 31 August 2018. Finsure puts brokers first and is a leader in the market in offering a diverse lending panel, flexible commission models, training, lead generation, proprietary SaaS and mortgage broker support services. Finsure was also recently named Aggregator of the Year for 2017 at the Australian Mortgage Awards. You can read more about us at www.goldfieldsmoney.com.au and www.finsure.com.au. Chairman's Address to Shareholders Sydney, Nov 28, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Lithium Power International Ltd ( ASX:LPI ) ( OTCMKTS:LTHHF ) provides the Company's Chairman Address to Shareholders.Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Lithium Power International Limited's Annual General Meeting for 2018.My name is David Hannon and I will chair the meeting today.I would like to introduce you to the Company's Executive Directors:- Cristobal Garcia-Huidobro;- Richard Crookes;- Andrew Phillips;And its Non-Executive Directors- Russell Barwick;- Ricky Fertig; and- Martin BordaI would also like to introduce you to Scott Nichols representing the Company's auditors EY.This is my second Annual General Meeting as Chairman of the Company and over the past twelve months, LPI's primary focus has been on the exploration and development of our flagship Maricunga project through our joint venture company MSB.The Company has contributed significant funds throughout the year to MSB to complete the earn-in to the Maricunga project.In January 2018 we released the Preliminary Economic Assessment Study (PEA). Due to the excellent results documented in the PEA the decision was made to bring forward the Company's final earn-in payments, under the Investment Agreement.This, in effect, allowed the Company to complete its earn-in obligations and make us a fully paid up 50% shareholder of MSB in February 2018.In August 2018 LPI acquired an additional 1% of MSB, bringing our interest to 51% showing our commitment to the joint venture company.MSB submitted the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for Maricunga in September 2018. This moved through the first part of the approval process on 26 November 2018 and now enters into the more comprehensive "page by page" approval process. With 11,400 pages to review, an approval will follow a comprehensive review process.We are on track to complete the Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) in December 2018.We made positive steps toward the awarding of all required licences, and other strategic relationships within the Chilean business environment which will further enhance and de-risk the Maricunga project. As with all corporate to corporate and corporate to government negotiations, these things take time but we anticipate these to be finalised in the first half of 2019.Outside the Chile project, we have finalised a 70/30 joint venture for our Argentine Centenario Salar project, with Centenario Lithium Limited. We have completed a pre-drilling exploration program accompanied with all the necessary permitting requirements relating to the Centenario Project and expect to commence a drilling program in 2019.Our Western Australian properties show promise, particularly Tabba Tabba and the Pilgangoora. We have completed extensive assessments for possible exploration drilling targets and further announcements will be made in early 2019.In October 2018 we were pleased to announce the appointment of Non-Executive Director Cristobal Garcia-Huidobro as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Company. Mr Garcia-Huidobro will continue as the CEO and Director of MSB. Mr Garcia-Huidobro has an excellent reputation and a strong network in Chile and his appointment has been approved by LPI's joint venture partners in MSB.We were also delighted to announce the appointment of Richard Crookes as Executive Director - Corporate Finance in October 2018. Mr Crookes is a highly regarded and well-known resource industry and investment professional in Australia, with more than 30 years' experience in the mining and finance sectors. He has a unique blend of broad resource industry operations experience coupled with a successful career in mining finances and investment management.The Company also added Mr Martin Borda to its Board in September 2018, in order to further enhance its relationship with MSB. Mr Borda is the owner of LPI's Chilean joint venture partner. LPI will continue to put the right people in the right place at the right time as the Company advances the Maricunga Project and its other assets.We would like to acknowledge the efforts of our founding CEO, Martin Holland, who departed the Company in June 2018. Martin was instrumental to the growth and success of the Company. We would also like to acknowledge the efforts of Dr Luis Ignacio Silva, who resigned from the Board in September 2018.In the new year we will update the market on a number of strategic and operational matters that both LPI and MSB have underway. LPI looks forward to an exciting 2019.To view Annual General Meeting and Investor Meetings Presentation, please visit:About Lithium Power International Ltd Lithium Power International Limited (ASX:LPI) is a pure-play lithium explorer and developer, focusing on developing and fast-tracking to production the high-grade Maricunga lithium brine project in Chile. LPI has a well-known performing technical team with the experience to take the Maricunga project all the way through the development stages to production. The regions that LPI is currently focused on are: 1. Maricunga JV (Chile) - Located within the "Lithium Triangle", Maricunga is Chile's highest grade and most advanced lithium project outside the Salar de Atacama. The project lies 170 km northeast of Copiapo and 250 km from the port of Caldera. 2. Pilbara (Western Australia) - LPI has three granted exploration tenements covering 203 km2 in the Pilbara region of northern Western Australia. The largest granted exploration tenement is the Pilgangoora tenement which is 2-3 km west of the Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS) and Altura Mining (ASX:AJM) lithium deposits. 3. Greenbushes (Western Australia) - LPI has two granted exploration tenements covering 400 km2 in the Greenbushes area of southern Western Australia. The tenements are adjacent to the world's largest hard rock lithium mine owned and operated by Tianqi/Talison. 4. Centenario (Argentina) - Through its Argentinian subsidiary, Lithium Power holds a total of seven granted tenements in the Centenario lithium brine salar within the Salta province of the Puna Plateau. In total, the seven granted tenements cover an area of 68.46 km2. With the exception of the Maricunga JV, all tenements are 100% owned by LPI or LPSA (including rights to the Centenario tenements). Galveston, TX (77553) Today Periods of rain, heavy at times early. High 74F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph, becoming NNW and increasing to 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall may reach one inch. Locally heavy rainfall possible.. Tonight Overcast skies and windy. Slight chance of a shower throughout the evening. Low 51F. Winds N at 20 to 30 mph. Increase in Measured and Indicated Resources at Yangibana Project Sydney, Nov 28, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - The Directors of Hastings Technology Metals Limited ( ASX:HAS ) are pleased to announce a 6.7% increase in Measured plus Indicated Resources at the Yangibana Project compared to the most recent JORC Mineral Resource estimate in November 2017 (ASX release titled "Final 2017 JORC Resource Update including Auer and Auer North Results" 22nd November 2017). Measured plus Indicated Resources now stand at 13.38 million tonnes within a total resource of 21.67 million tonnes. The total resource now hosts more than 80,000 tonnes of neodymium and praseodymium oxide, the Company's main economic driver.- Measured plus Indicated Resources increased by 6.7% to 13.38 million tonnes- Total Resources increased to 21.67 million tonnes- Contained neodymium and praseodymium oxide exceeds 80,000 tonnes in total resources- Programmes in place for next drilling phase in 2019JORC Mineral ResourcesAn updated JORC Mineral Resource estimation has been completed by independent consultant Lynn Widenbar and Associates incorporating the recent drilling results from Bald Hill, Fraser's, Auer and Auer North deposits.The bulk of the near surface mineralisation (at least to 100m vertical depth) throughout the Yangibana Project is hosted by iron oxides and hydroxides termed ironstone, being the alteration products of the primary hosts - ferrocarbonatite and phoscorite intrusive veins. The main rare earths-bearing mineral is monazite which has locally undergone alteration at shallow depths (to 25m depth) to its hydrous equivalent rhabdophane and to rare earths-bearing Al-phosphates such as florencite.The deposits occur as narrow but strike extensive veins that have a range of dips from almost horizontal (10-20o) to sub-vertical. The Fraser's deposit has the most extreme range from 5o in portions towards its northeastern end to 65o at its southwestern end. Average true thickness varies from 2.2m to 3.5m throughout the Yangibana deposits although locally true thicknesses in excess of 20m occur.Hastings has completed eight drilling programmes comprising both reverse circulation (RC) and diamond drilling totalling more than 1,500 holes for 80,000m. Of these 127 holes for 7,485m are diamond holes.Holes were initially drilled at 50m spacings along strike and down dip. Infill drilling in areas with resource potential has been undertaken at 37.5m spacing, although this has been constrained by access in places and drill spacing is often less than that figure.RC holes have been drilled using a nominal 51/4 inch diameter face-sampling bit. Samples have been collected through a built-in cyclone with a triple-tier riffle-splitting system providing a large sample of approximately 25kg and a sub-sample of 2-4kg of which selected samples were sent for analysis, from each metre drilled. Field duplicates, blanks and Reference Standards were inserted at a rate of approximately 1 in 20.Diamond core has been drilled at HQ size. The core is logged and prospective zones are sawn into half and one half is then quartered with one quarter sent for analysis. Assayed intervals are based on geology with a minimum length of 0.2m.Samples were routinely sent to Genalysis in Perth for analysis using techniques considered appropriate for the style of mineralisation. Samples were analysed for the range of rare earths, rare metals (Nb, Ta, Zr), thorium and uranium and a range of common rock-forming elements (Al, Ca, Fe, Mg, Mn, P, S, Si, Sr). Duplicate samples have been sent to SGS Laboratories for cross-checking.Most drillholes were vertical, subject to access availability, with holes into the steeper mineralised zones (Auer, Auer North, the southeastern portion of Fraser's) being at -60o or -70o. Internal surveys were carried out at 30m intervals downhole by the drilling contractors using a Reflex electronic single-shot camera within a stainless-steel drill rod.Collar surveys were carried out by the Company using a Trimble RTX R1 GNSS receiver, with accuracies of approximately 50cm. The high-resolution DTM commissioned by the Company has been used as the topographic control for all drillholes. A Relative Level (RL) was assigned to each drillhole collar based on the high-resolution DTM using Mapinfo Discover 3D.Once assay data were returned, the elemental values were converted to oxides using standard factors. Interpretations were carried out initially on sections using logged geology and then a nominal 0.2%Nd2O3+Pr6O11 cut-off to define the mineralisation of interest. With current commodity prices of US$59/kg for praseodymium oxide and US$48/kg for neodymium oxide (BAIINFO Rare Earth Weekly, Nov 15 2018) and predicted to increase over the coming years (Adamas Intelligence, July 2018), this cut-off is considered reasonable for both downhole intersections and resource estimation.This cut-off correlates extremely well with the visual estimation based on geology. At a later stage, flitch plans and footwall and hangingwall contour plans were prepared to confirm interpretation. There is, therefore, a high confidence in the geological interpretation.Following validation of the database all information was imported into Micromine Mining software where validation routines were run to check validity of all data.The Micromine models were sent to the resource consultant (Lynn Widenbar) and statistical analysis and variography was undertaken to define parameters for an Ordinary Kriging estimation. Estimations were carried out using Micromine software (MM 2016 Sp5) with Nd2O3 and Pr6O11 used to define kriging parameters. Estimations were carried out for all assayed variables. Each deposit was initially drilled at 50m intervals along strike and down dip, testing the areas with better outcrop and their extensions. Infill drilling was then undertaken to close the drill-spacing to around 37.5m as suggested by the variography. In certain areas drill spacing is highly variable due to access considerations. Despite this variable spacing, in general the resource blocks are 12.5m along strike by 10m down dip by 2.5m across strike. The block models have been validated by several methods.Bulk density has been measured by either the Company or at independent laboratories on core from each of the main deposits. Samples from each of the oxidised, partially oxidised, and fresh mineralisation have been tested with results feeding into the resource estimations based on weathering surfaces as defined by the Company.Based on previous and ongoing mining studies, a 0.5m dilution skin has been added to both the footwall and hangingwall of the interpreted mineralisation. This dilution material is independently interpolated and the results are subsequently added to the mineralised domain to provide a diluted resource as reported.The mineral resources have been classified in the Measured, Indicated and Inferred categories, in accordance with the 2012 Australasian Code for Reporting of Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves (JORC) by the Competent Person. A range of criteria has been considered in determining the classification including geological and grade continuity, data quality, drill hole spacing, and modelling technique and kriging output parameters.As a general rule, the following spacings characterise the resource classification.- Infill drilling between 20m by 20m and 35m by 35m - Measured- Drill spacing 50m by 50m - Indicated- Drill spacing 100m by 50m to 100m by 100m - InferredThe shallow nature of the mineralisation tested by Hastings to date (almost all within 120m of surface) and the high potential value of the mineralisation at the selected (and geologically sensible) cut-off grade used supports the classification of the resources.Metallurgical testwork has established a viable processing route for the majority of the deposits tested to date. Variability testwork is continuing to confirm this.The total resources as at October 2018 are as shown in Table 1. Note that in all resource tables rounding errors may appear. The resources are based on a, with a minimum width of 1.0m. 0.5m of dilution at grade from both the hangingwall and the footwall is incorporated into the estimation.These figures represent a modest increase in total tonnes compared to the previous estimate from 20,996,000 (+3.2%), but a significant increase in Measured plus Indicated Resources (+6.7%), particularly in the Measured category that has increased by 21.1%.Resources from the deposits that are planned for early development - Bald Hill and Fraser's - are shown in Tables 2 and 3. Both deposits are within granted Mining Leases held 100% by Hastings.Following the recent drilling at Auer and Auer North (ASX Release titled "Successful Infill and Extension Drilling at Auer, Auer North" 5th October2018) , the main increases in total resources are at these deposits as shown in Tables 4 and 5. Both deposits are within Exploration Licences held 100% by Hastings and the Company will make application for a Mining Lease in the near future.Longitudinal sections of Auer and Auer North showing accumulation (metre % Nd2O3+Pr6O11) are shown in Figures 1 and 3 showing good potential for additional resources particularly at depth along the length of Auer and at Auer North Zone 1. Figures 2 and 4 show the resource categorisation for the two deposits.JORC Mineral Resources for Yangibana, Yangibana West, and Yangibana North are shown in Tables 6, 7 and 8 respectively.Of the total resources at Yangibana, 1,900,000 tonnes are within Mining Lease 09/165 held 100% by Hastings and 269,000 tonnes are within Mining Lease 09/163 in which Hastings holds a 70% interest.Yangibana West lies within Mining Lease 09/160 held 100% by Hastings. The mineralisation is part of a continuous deposits that extends into Mining Lease 09/159, in which Hastings holds a 70% interest, as Yangibana North.JORC Mineral Resources at Simon's Find are shown in Table 9. These resources are located within Mining Lease 09/158 and Exploration Licence 09/1943, both held 100% by Hastings. Additional drilling and metallurgical testwork will be undertaken prior to the application for a second Mining Lease.JORC Inferred Mineral Resources at Gossan, Lion's Ear, Hook and Kane's Gossan are shown in Table 10. These deposits are all within Mining Lease 09/159 in which Hastings holds a 70% interest.A proposed drilling programme for 2019 has been established and will commence with holes testing the large aeromagnetic anomaly reported recently (ASX Release titled "Major Aeromagnetic Target Identified at Yangibana" 8th August 2018).TERMINOLOGY USED IN THIS REPORTTotal Rare Earths Oxides, TREO, is the sum of the oxides of the light rare earth elements lanthanum (La), cerium (Ce), praseodymium (Pr), neodymium (Nd), and samarium (Sm) and the heavy rare earth elements europium (Eu), gadolinium (Gd), terbium (Tb), dysprosium (Dy), holmium (Ho), erbium (Er), thulium (Tm), ytterbium (Yb), lutetium (Lu), and yttrium (Y).To view tables and figures, please visit:About Hastings Technology Metals Ltd Hastings Technology Metals Ltd (ASX:HAS) (FRA:5AM) is advancing its Yangibana Rare Earths Project in the Upper Gascoyne Region of Western Australia towards production. The proposed beneficiation and hydro metallurgy processing plant will treat rare earths deposits, predominantly monazite, hosting high neodymium and praseodymium contents to produce a mixed rare earths carbonate that will be further refined into individual rare earth oxides at processing plants overseas. Neodymium and praseodymium are vital components in the manufacture of permanent magnets which is used in a wide and expanding range of advanced and high-tech products including electric vehicles, wind turbines, robotics, medical applications and others. Hastings aims to become the next significant producer of neodymium and praseodymium outside of China. Hastings holds 100% interest in the most significant deposits within the overall project, and 70% interest in additional deposits that will be developed at a later date, all held under Mining Leases. Numerous prospects have been identified warranting detailed exploration to further extend the life of the project. Brockman Project The Brockman deposit, near Halls Creek in Western Australia, contains JORC Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resources, estimated using the guidelines of JORC Code (2012 Edition). The Company is also progressing a Mining Lease application over the Brockman Rare Earths and Rare Metals Project. Hastings aims to capitalise on the strong demand for critical rare earths created by the expanding demand for new technology products. According to Paul Houghton, partner and head of trustee consulting at Barnett Waddingham, the catalyst for the overhaul of consultant relationships has been the changing dynamics within the industry. The UK pension industry is experiencing a structural shift as defined benefit (DB) schemes reach mature status. As the number of pensioners increases, schemes cashflow is becoming restricted, often negative, and trustees need to start planning for their schemes end. This change is influencing the way trustees manage their schemes and has led many to seek a new type of actuarial consultant. Relationships under threat The report states that looking for a new actuarial consultant is, historically, an irregular occurrence. Houghton explains: Schemes have been slow to change their actuarial consultant it is often the longest-established professional relationship unless there has been a breakdown in the relationship or they consider the level of fees to be poor value for money. However, the research shows a high number of respondents (61%) are changing or have already changed their actuarial consultant recently or are considering a change now. A further 9% are likely to consider a change in the near future. A new direction Houghton believes the dramatic re-evaluation of long-standing consultant relationships is down to a heavy focus on major structural change and realignment of strategy. Scheme maturity and a focus on the potential end game of risk reduction, leading towards buyout, a consolidator or running without risk, is a major driver to revaluating these relationships. Trustees and scheme managers now face the end game of securing benefits for their members and this can require a complete reconsideration of strategy. he said. This is underlined by the report which shows the majority (58%) of respondents are looking to increase their focus on their transition between LDI and the ultimate end game stage as a priority, while 26% are currently considering it. There is also evidence schemes feel their present incumbent may not have the necessary fit a combination of approach, culture and skills but in particular, the ability to think freely and offer genuinely strategic advice to rise to the challenges a scheme considering its end game strategy now faces. The days of a one-size-fits-all, product led approach are no longer applicable as shortened time horizons mean that schemes need to reflect their own unique circumstances he added. Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2021. Uber Eats is teaming up with Maccas to bring you the new Cookie Time McFlurry! From today, Uber Eats users can be the first to experience the Cookie Time McFlurry a unique Kiwi spin on one of the worlds most popular desserts. And we can promise you... It's lit! The all-new Cookie Time McFlurry is exclusively available on Uber Eats from 28 November to 4 December 2018, before it arrives in McDonalds stores across New Zealand from 5 December 2018 for a limited time. If you wanna get ya hands on one, just jump on your UberEats app and click away! TAKE. OUR. MONEY. NOW. Da-Chire- Georgian sweet you must try - GeorgianJournal Realme U1 launch: Watch the live streaming here News oi-Vivek Realme U1 will be available exclusively on Amazon Realme is all set to launch the world's first smartphone based on the MediaTek Helio P70 SoC in India on the 28th of November at 12:30 PM. Here are the complete details on how to watch the live streaming of the launch event for the Realme U1, the first selfie-centric smartphone from the company, which is known to offer premium mid-tier smartphones at an affordable price tag. Watch the live presentation of the Realme U1 here Realme U1 features and specifications Realme has already confirmed about the chief specifications/features of the Realme U1. The smartphone will be powered by the MediaTek Helio P70 SoC, which is the latest flagship chipset from MediaTek based on the 12nm FinFET manufacturing process with a dedicated APU to offer improved AI performance. Just like the Realme 2 Pro, the Realme U1 will have a big display with a water drop notch, offering higher screen to body ratio. As of now, there is no information on the actual screen size or the screen resolution of the smartphone. Considering the chipset capability, the Realme U1 could be the most powerful smartphone from the company. The Realme U1 is touted to be the selfie-centric smartphone, and the smartphone is expected to feature a high-resolution front-facing camera with enhanced AI capabilities. Along with the launch of the Realme U1, the company is also expected to launch a bunch of accessories including earphones, backpacks, and smartphone cases. In fact, the CEO of the Realme Madhav Sheth has officially confirmed the launch of Realme accessories in India, and the launch is expected to happen along with the Realme U1. Coming to the pricing and availability, the Realme U1 will be available exclusively on Amazon, and is expected to be priced under Rs 20,000 price point. Let us wait until 12:30 OM to know more about the next smartphone from Realme. Best Mobiles in India Sony Xperia XZ4 3D leaked 3D renders suggest a triple camera setup with taller display News oi-Vivek Sony Xperia XZ4 is expected to launch at MWC 2019 It looks like Sony is finally catching up with the other smartphones OEMs. The Sony Xperia XZ4, the upcoming flagship smartphone from Sony has surfaced online, revealing the design and the specifications of the next big innovation from Sony. Here are the complete details on the Sony Xperia XZ4. According to a report from MySmartPrice, the Sony Xperia XZ4 will be the first smartphone from the brand with a triple camera setup and a 21:9 aspect ratio display, which makes it the tallest display, as most of the modern smartphones come with either 19:9 or 18:9 aspect ratio. Sony Xperia XZ4 design Just like the Xperia XZ3, the Xperia XZ4 has a premium design with a glass and metal build. The smartphone has a notch-less design with trimmed down bezels on the top and the bottom portion of the smartphone. The smartphone is expected to come with a 6.5-inch display with FHD or QHD resolution. As the phone has a glass build, the smartphone is expected to support wireless charging and IP rating for water and dust resistance. The rear-case has a triple camera setup with an LED flash, and the fingerprint sensor is embedded into the frame of the smartphone with volume, power, and a dedicated camera trigger button. The SIM slot is on the top of the smartphone. Depending on the market, the smartphone will be able to accept either one or two SIM cards. Though we have learned that the Sony Xperia XZ4 has a triple camera setup, there is no information on the actual camera implementation. Considering the other smartphone, the smartphone is most likely to feature a telephoto, super wide-angle, and a high-resolution primary RGB sensor. The Sony Xperia XZ4 does not have a 3.5 mm headphone jack, whereas the phone has a USB type C port, which will support fast charging and audio out. If everything goes as expected, the Sony Xperia XZ4 will be officially unveiled at the Mobile World Congress 2019 with Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 SoC. 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 Sever & Esther Enkerud Nursing Scholarship Established The FMDH Foundation's "Tree of Life" has become an annual holiday tradition in our community. The Tree was lit on Nov. 24 and will remain so until New Years. During this time we invite you to support the FMDH Foundation while remembering loved on... Global Hawk testers raise their hand By Carlie Mensen, 412th Test Wing Hustle Squad Innovation Team / Published November 27, 2018 EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AFNS) -- At the commander's call on Edwards Air Force Base, California, Brig. Gen. E. John Teichert stated that "Innovation is an Airmen, at any level, raising their hand to say, 'I've got a better way to do business.'" The 452nd Flight Test Squadron is currently in the process of challenging the way the base performs flight test. Originally, remotely piloted aircraft used the same control rooms as traditional aircraft, but new technology brings new opportunities. Realizing the physical distance between the control room and the flight crew restricted communication, Maj. James Gresham and Capt. Evan Glowiak raised their hands. They developed an in-depth concept for future operations and a deployment plan to co-locate the Global Hawk control rooms directly behind the Global Hawk's new mission control station cockpit upgrade. The MCS is the Remotely Piloted Aircraft equivalent to a cockpit in traditional, manned aircraft. The Global Hawk's enhanced MCS offers new technology. Not only does it have an updated user interface, it can also control two aircraft at the same time. It is predicted that the ability to directly observe cockpit conditions with the ability for the test director to physically walk into the MCS and communicate face-to-face will help mitigate technical risks while improving the quality of flight test data. While future flight tests with the co-located control rooms and MCS will tell if the relocation was a success, the willingness to raise your hand to initiate this type of change is what the 412th Test Wing commander is encouraging to build a "culture of innovation." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address U.S. Setting Up Observation Posts in Syria to Keep ISIS From Entering Turkey Nov. 27, 2018 By Terri Moon Cronk Defense.gov WASHINGTON -- U.S. forces are establishing observation posts in Northeast Syria to further deny escape routes to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve told Pentagon reporters today. Army Col. Sean Ryan, speaking via teleconference from Baghdad, updated reporters on ongoing operations in Iraq and Syria to defeat ISIS. The spokesman said the observation posts will be set up to deter ISIS fighters that try to flee the middle Euphrates River valley into Turkey to the north. "These observation posts will provide additional transparency and will better enable Turkey's protection from ISIS elements," Ryan said. Defense Secretary James N. Mattis announced the observation posts last week in a press briefing with Pentagon reporters. The move follows close consultation and collaboration with Turkey, both at the military and State Department levels, according to a DOD News report. ISIS Operative Arrested Also in Syria, the Syrian Democratic Forces arrested a senior ISIS official accused of involvement in the assassination of Sheikh Bashir Faysal al-Huwaidi, an Arab chieftain in Raqqa, Ryan said. "This targeted operation undermines the enemy's ability to operate in the shadows, and allows the SDF to ultimately eliminate sleeper cells that continue to threaten civilians and prolong their demise," the spokesman added. The U.S.-led coalition and its partners will continue to fight the terrorists and degrade their capabilities, he said. "It's important to take the fight to the enemy [and] we must continue to consolidate our considerable gains," Ryan said. Near Manbij, the alliance between Turkish and U.S. forces in the Combined Joint Patrols allows forces to continue to deny terrorists access to the area, he added, and noted that over time, it has become a community that is thriving. "This stability is the direct result of the focus of our NATO ally Turkey and through cooperation with local officials from Manbij," the spokesman said. ISIS remnants are fortifying their positions and digging in for a protracted campaign, Ryan said. "We should remain patient [because] fighting will continue to be intense as we continue to pressure the enemy into smaller and smaller spaces," he said. "This is the last real physical terrain held by enemy forces, and they will continue to wage a resistance as they steadily lose relevance." Iraq Border Security Along the Syria-Iraq border, the 8th Iraqi Army Division continues to reinforce border security by engaging and repelling ISIS militants as they try to flee the offensive in the middle Euphrates River valley, Ryan said. "Iraqi units continue to conduct coordinated strikes even as ISIS elements probe border positions with vehicle-borne [improvised explosive devices], motorcycles, small-arms fire and mortars," he added. The Iraqi air force on Nov. 20 launched two airstrikes targeting an ISIS weapons facility and a building that housed 30 ISIS fighters, Ryan said, adding, "This operation also signifies the ability of the Iraqi security forces to protect its border and uproot cells." In Mosul, Iraqi forces, backed by coalition air support carried out a security operation in Menkar village that resulted in five enemy fighters killed. "[This] operation demonstrated ISF are strengthening their intelligence gathering to disrupt enemy operations and protect the Iraqi citizens from bombings and kidnappings," the spokesman said. Another successful ISF operation resulted in the death of an ISIS senior leader, code-named Katkut, Ryan said, adding that the operative was known to have planned and conducted attacks in Hadr, southwest of Mosul. He was killed in Saladin province after fleeing from the scene of an attack earlier in the week. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address S. Arabia bombs BTS towers in northern Yemen IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, Nov 27, IRNA -- Saudi Arabia has bombarded the base transceiver stations (BTS) in Saada Province, northern Yemen, Yemeni Media 'Al-Masirah' reported. According to Al-Masirah TV Channel, Saudi-American jetfighters have targeted BTS and communication networks in Haydan and Sahar districts for twenty times. The aggressors coalition has increased air attacks on infrastructures in Saada Province. 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. Earlier the spokesman for Yemen's Ansarullah Movement said the escalation of attacks by Saudi coalition on Al Hudaydah will result in weakening efforts made by Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen Martin Griffiths for establishing peace. The contiguous attacks on civilians' houses in Al Hudaydah is the blatant violation of truce, he added. 9376**1771 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Yemen targets Saudis' positions with missiles IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, Nov 27, IRNA -- The Yemeni army and popular committee targeted Saudi forces' positions in Taiz, southwestern Yemen with missiles, Yemeni TV Channel 'Al-Masirah' reported. The Yemeni army has shot a Zelzal-1 missile to Saudis' positions in Al Ma'afer District, Yemeni media reported. Some of the Saudi forces that aimed to penetrate into Al Ma'afer District were killed and injured by three bombs. 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 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. 9376**1771 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Yemeni forces foil Saudi attack on Al Hudaydah Port IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, Nov 27, IRNA -- The Yemeni forces foiled Saudi-led coalition attack on southern parts of Al Hudaydah Port and inflicted heavy damages on them, Arab media 'Al Mayadeen' quoted a Yemeni military source as saying. Speaking to Al Mayadeen on the condition of anonymity, he said in an operation held by Yemeni army and popular committees in Ad Durayhimi District Saudi military forces were killed. Meanwhile, the Yemeni artillery unit targeted Saudi positions in western Yemen and killed and injured some of them. The sources also said that some Saudi mercenaries were killed or injured in a conflict with Yemeni forces in Hays District. 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. Earlier the spokesman for Yemen's Ansarullah Movement said the escalation of attacks by Saudi-led coalition on Al Hudaydah will result in weakening efforts made by Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen Martin Griffiths for establishing peace. The continuous attacks on civilians' houses in Al Hudaydah is the blatant violation of truce, he added. 9376**2050 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Saudi Arabia, Egypt to continue diplomatic, trade boycott against Qatar Iran Press TV Tue Nov 27, 2018 06:03PM [Updated: Tue Nov 27, 2018 06:14PM ] Saudi Arabia and Egypt have jointly announced that the ongoing Saudi-led diplomatic and trade boycott against Qatar, which they imposed on the energy-rich Persian Gulf kingdom in June 2017, would remain in effect until further notice. During a meeting between visiting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi at the Ittihadiya Presidential Palace in Cairo on Tuesday, the pair reiterated their refusal to "make any concessions" to the Doha government, Saudi-owned and Dubai-based al-Arabiya television news network reported. They also stated that both countries will continue to confront what they described as Iranian "interference" in the region. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt all cut off diplomatic ties with Qatar on June 5 last year, after officially accusing it of "sponsoring terrorism." The administration of the Saudi-backed and former Yemeni president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, Libya, the Maldives, Djibouti, Senegal and the Comoros later joined the camp in ending diplomatic ties with Doha. Jordan downgraded its diplomatic relations as well. Qatar's Foreign Ministry later announced that the decision to cut diplomatic ties was unjustified and based on false claims and assumptions. On June 9, 2017, Qatar strongly dismissed allegations of supporting terrorism after the Saudi regime and its allies blacklisted dozens of individuals and entities purportedly associated with Doha. Later that month, Saudi Arabia and its allies released a 13-point list of demands, including the closure of Al Jazeera television network and downgrade of relations with Iran, in return for the normalization of diplomatic relations with Doha. The document containing the demands by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain also asked Qatar to sever all ties with the Muslim Brotherhood and the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement. Qatar rejected the demands as "unreasonable." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Yemeni ballistic missiles hit military targets in Saudi regions of Asir, Jizan: Report Iran Press TV Tue Nov 27, 2018 05:00PM [Updated: Tue Nov 27, 2018 05:25PM ] Yemeni army forces, supported by allied fighters from Popular Committees, have hit two military targets in Saudi Arabia's southwestern regions of Asir and Jizan with domestically-manufactured ballistic missiles in retaliation for the regime's campaign of military aggression against the impoverished nation, a report says. Yemen's official Saba news agency, citing unnamed military officials, reported on Tuesday that a Zelzal-1 (Earthquake-1) missile successfully hit a gathering of Saudi-led mercenaries off Qais Mountain in Jizan and another missile of the same type hit a gathering of mercenaries in Wawa area of Asir with precision. It added that both projectiles left an unspecified number of Saudi-led forces either killed or wounded. Meanwhile, Yemen's Arabic-language al-Masirah television network reported that the Yemeni forces also hit another gathering of Saudi-led mercenaries and militiamen loyal to Yemen's former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi in the Helm military base near the city of Qa'atabah in the central province of Dali' with another Zelzal-1 missile. Additionally on Tuesday, Yemeni soldiers, backed by fighters of the Houthi Ansarullah movement, launched an attack against positions held by Saudi-led forces in the southwestern province of Ta'izz, inflicting casualties on them. Leading a coalition of its allies, most prominently the UAE, Saudi Arabia invaded Yemen in March 2015 in an attempt to reinstall Hadi, who had resigned amid popular discontent and fled to the Arab kingdom. The aggression initially consisted of a bombing campaign but was later coupled with a naval blockade and the deployment of ground forces to Yemen. Since the onset of the imposed war, the Yemeni army, backed by fighters of the country's popular Houthi Ansarullah movement, has been defending the impoverished nation against the brutal aggression. The coalition is also resolute to crush the movement as another goal in its war on Yemen, which is teetering on the edge of famine. More than three and a half years into the war, Saudi Arabia has achieved neither of its objectives. Riyadh had declared at the start of the invasion that the war would take no more than a couple of weeks. Back in June, the Emirati forces, backed by armed militia loyal to Hadi, launched a full-scale offensive against the Houthi-held Hudaydah, which is currently under a tight siege imposed by the invaders. The so-called liberation operation, however, failed to achieve its objective, which is overrunning the vital port and defeating Houthi fighters, backed by those from the Popular Committees. Over the past several months, humanitarian organizations have warned that military operations against Hudaydah threaten to cut off essential supplies to millions of Yemeni people. More than 70 percent of Yemen's imports pass through Hudaydah's docks. The coalition claims Houthis are using Hudaydah for weapons delivery, an allegation rejected by Ansarullah fighters. The Saudi-led war has also taken a heavy toll on the country's infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The UN has already said that a record 22.2 million Yemenis are in dire need of food, including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger. According to the world body, Yemen is suffering from the most severe famine in more than 100 years. A number of Western countries, the United States and Britain in particular, are also accused of being complicit in the ongoing aggression as they supply the Riyadh regime with advanced weapons and military equipment as well as logistical and intelligence assistance. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address At least 3 US troops killed in bomb attack in central Afghanistan Iran Press TV Tue Nov 27, 2018 01:03PM [Updated: Tue Nov 27, 2018 03:41PM ] At least three US servicemen have been killed and three others wounded when an improvised explosive device went off in central Afghanistan, the NATO mission in the war-torn country says. A brief statement by the NATO-led Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan released on Tuesday added that the incident took place near the central Afghan city of Ghazni earlier in the day. The statement further noted that a US civilian contractor had also been injured in the blast. The identity of the soldiers and further details of the incident were not immediately released by the NATO mission. The deaths are the latest in an increasing toll on the American forces in Afghanistan. On Saturday, a US army soldier was shot dead following a purported operation against the Takfiri al-Qaeda terrorist group in the southwestern province of Nimruz. The NATO mission said in a statement that the trooper had been accidentally killed by a member of Afghan partner forces. A recent report showed that the US forces were losing ground to Taliban militant group despite their 17 years of presence in the militancy-infested country. According to the iCasualties website, 3,555 US-led troops, including 2,414 American soldiers, have been killed since the onset of the aggression on Afghanistan some 17 years ago, following the 9/11 terror attacks. The US, along with a number of fellow-NATO members, invaded Afghanistan in 2001, toppling a Taliban regime in control of most of the country at the time, but it has failed to restore security in the country plagued by militancy and terrorism. The administration of US President Donald Trump is now negotiating with the Taliban group, excluding the Kabul government. Over 8,000 people lost their lives or were wounded in Afghanistan between January and September this year, with the country on track to be deadlier than Syria in 2018. Kabul blames the Taliban militant group for the bulk of the deaths. Last year, Washington added thousands of additional troops to its forces in Afghanistan. The White House claims the American troops are deployed in Afghanistan to train Afghan forces and conduct counterterrorism missions against militant groups. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Three U.S. Soldiers Killed In Afghanistan Blast November 27, 2018 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 Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/three-us-soldiers-killed- in-afghanistan-blast/29624051.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 EU Announces $500 Million In New Funds To Afghanistan At Donors Conference By RFE/RL November 27, 2018 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 Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/afghanistan- international-donors-meet-in-geneva-for-two- day-conference/29624226.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 U.S. Prosecutor Says Manafort Violated Cooperation Deal In Russia Probe By RFE/RL November 27, 2018 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 he's 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 Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/us-special-counsel-mueller-accuses- former-trump-campaign-chairman-manafort- violating-cooperation-agreement-lying -to-investigators/29622972.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 Hungary Denies Extradition Of Suspected Russian Arms Dealers To U.S. By RFE/RL November 27, 2018 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. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/hungary-denies -extradition-of-suspected-russian- arms-dealers-to-u-s-/29624067.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 Split Ticket? Noncandidate Looms Large In Georgia's Presidential Runoff By Alan Crosby, RFE/RL's Georgian Service November 27, 2018 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. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/split-ticket -noncandidate-looms-large-in-georgia-s-presidential -runoff/29624381.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 Montenegro Seeks Serbian Explanation For Coup Suspect Fleeing To Embassy By RFE/RL's Balkan Service November 27, 2018 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. Montenegro's 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. Podgorica's High Court ordered Milic detained, but the accused later surfaced at the Serbian Embassy. The Montenegrin Foreign Ministry's 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." Milic's defense lawyer, Jugoslav Krpovic, urged authorities to provide guarantees that the "psychological violence" against her client ends. "She didn't 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 Montenegro's 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 nation's 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 Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/montenegro-seeks -serbian-explanation-for-coup-suspect -fleeing-to-embassy/29623502.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 Ex-Trump Aide Manafort Held Secret Talks With Assange Reports Sputnik News 20:08 27.11.2018(updated 23:37 27.11.2018) On Monday, Trump's former campaign manager was lambasted in a court hearing file over his alleged lying to both the FBI and the special counsel's office, which is something the ex-aide instantly denied. Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort engaged in covert talks with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been residing within the walls of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012, and the visit came around the time Trump employed him to work for his 2016 presidential campaign, The Guardian reported, citing a number of sources. WikiLeaks later announced on its twitter page that it was launching legal fund to sue the Guardian for publishing the "entirely fabricated story." The Guardian sources specified that there were multiple visits, with the first one taking place in 2013, then subsequently in 2015 and the following year. In spring 2016, he was notably Trump's key ally and confidante, as he joined Trump's campaign management, while the visit to Assange was tentatively dated in the report to March 2016. The Guardian also cited a separate internal document written by Ecuador's intelligence agency Senain, which lists 'Paul Manaford [sic]' spelled with an orthographic mistake as one of several well-known guests to the embassy, with the visitors' list also including 'Russians'. Having subsequently been to the embassy in 2015, as confirmed to the British broadsheet by two sources, Manafort is said to have paid a sole 40-minute visit in 2016. He reportedly exited the embassy in sandy-coloured chinos, a cardigan and a light shirt. Although visitors normally register with embassy security guards and show their passports, sources in Ecuador remarked that Manafort had not been registered with the staffers, becoming aware of the potential leverage that Manafort's visit might have only later. Manafort later said that the reports about meeting Assange were "totally false," noting that he was considering "all legal options" against the Guardian. "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." In summer 2016, WikiLeaks published tens of thousands of Democrats' emails. The DNC subsequently alleged they could have been hacked by Russian intelligence services, with Trump's Democratic rival in the presidential race, Hillary Clinton, blaming her defeat squarely on the hack. The Kremlin denied the accusations, saying that it never colluded with either candidate and never meddled in the US elections. Paul Manafort, 69, is meanwhile being closely scrutinized by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team, who are investigating the alleged collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, with both mentioned parties vehemently denying it. Trump has even called the probe on more than one occasion 'a despicable witch hunt'. In the most recent development, the special counsel's office alleged in a court file on Monday that since his guilty plea earlier in September, Manafort has lied to investigators, which constituted a breach of his deal with Mueller. Trump's former aide denied the claims shortly afterwards. Manafort was convicted by a Virginia jury of several crimes relating to fraud, but he was never charged with any crimes related to the alleged collusion between members of the Trump campaign and the Russian government. After he was found guilty, he issued a guilty plea to separate charges in Washington, DC. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Stephen Hillenburg, who used his dual loves of drawing and marine biology to spawn the absurd undersea world of "SpongeBob SquarePants," has died, Nickelodeon announced Tuesday. Hillenburg died Monday of Lou Gehrig's disease, also known as ALS, the cable network said in a statement. He was 57. Stephen Hillenburg attends 'The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water' world premiere at AMC Lincoln Square Theater in Manhattan on January 31, 2015. [Photo: IC] He had announced he had the disease in March 2017. His death comes just weeks after the passing of another cartoon hero in Marvel creator Stan Lee. Hillenburg conceived, wrote, produced and directed the animated series that began in 1999 and bloomed into hundreds of episodes, movies and a Broadway show. The absurdly jolly SpongeBob and his yell-along theme song that opened "Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?!" quickly appealed to college kids and parents as much as it did kids. "The fact that it's undersea and isolated from our world helps the characters maintain their own culture," Hillenburg told The Associated Press in 2001. "The essence of the show is that SpongeBob is an innocent in a world of jaded characters. The rest is absurd packaging." Its vast cast of oceanic creatures included SpongeBob's starfish sidekick Patrick, his tightwad boss Mr. Krabs, squirrel pal Sandy Cheeks and always-exasperated neighbor Squidward Tentacles. While Hillenburg introduced and popularized exotic creatures like the sea sponge (which in the real world is not square,) Bikini Bottom was a realm like no other, real or fictional. SpongeBob can play his nose like a flute and could not possibly be happier to work his fast-seafood job of flipping Krabby Patties. But he has his troubles, too. He constantly fails his boat-driving test, forcing his frightened blowfish teacher to inflate. In one episode he suffers a broken butt and is afraid to leave his pineapple home for days. "I don't want to face my fears," SpongeBob, voiced by Tom Kenny, says in another episode. "I'm afraid of them!" Born at his father's army post in Lawton, Oklahoma, Hillenburg graduated from Humboldt State University in California in 1984 with a degree in natural resource planning with an emphasis on marine resources, and went on to teach marine biology at the Orange County Marine Institute. While there he drew a comic, "The Intertidal Zone," that he used as a teaching tool. It featured anthropomorphic ocean creatures that were precursors to the characters on "SpongeBob." Hillenburg shifted to drawing and earned a master of fine arts degree in animation from the California Institute of the Arts in 1992. That same year he created an animated short called "Wormholes" that won festival plaudits and helped land him a job on the Nickelodeon show "Rocko's Modern Life," where he worked from 1993 to 1996 before he began to build SpongeBob's undersea world of Bikini Bottom, which showed off his knowledge of marine life and willingness to throw all the details out the window. "We know that fish don't walk," he told the AP, "and that there is no organized community with roads, where cars are really boats. And if you know much about sponges, you know that living sponges aren't square." The show was an immediate hit that has lost no momentum in the nearly 20 years since its creation and helped define the culture of Nickelodeon. "He was a beloved friend and long-time creative partner to everyone at Nickelodeon, and our hearts go out to his entire family," Nickelodeon's statement said. "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." Its nearly 250 episodes have won four Emmy Awards and 15 Kids' Choice Awards, and led to an endless line of merchandise to rival any other pop cultural phenomenon of the 2000s. "When you set out to do a show about a sponge, you can't anticipate this kind of craze," Hillenburg told the AP in 2002. In 2004, the show shifted to the big screen with "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie" and a 2015 sequel, "The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water." Intensely involved in every aspect of the show initially, Hillenburg after the 2004 film stepped back into an executive producer role on the show, where he remained for the rest of his life. A musical stage adaptation bowed on Broadway in 2017, with music from such stars as Steven Tyler, Sara Bareilles and John Legend. It earned 12 Tony Award nominations, including one for best performance by a leading actor for Ethan Slater. "I am heartbroken to hear of the passing of Stephen Hillenburg," Slater said in an email Tuesday. "Through working on 'SpongeBob,' I got to know him not only as a creative genius, but as a truly generous and kind person. He warmly embraced us on Broadway as the newest members of his wonderful 'SpongeBob' family, and made it so clear from the get-go why he is so beloved: genuine kindness." Hillenburg is survived by his wife of 20 years Karen Hillenburg, son Clay, mother Nancy Hillenburg, and a brother, Brian Kelly Hillenburg. Maldives Seeks Indian Assistance in the Face of Mammoth Chinese Debt Sputnik News 17:55 27.11.2018(updated 18:50 27.11.2018) Faced with an acute budgetary deficit due to mounting foreign debts, the new government in the Maldives, led by President Abdulla Solih, is looking to India for financial support to help the island nation achieve its development goals. It has announced the revival of its 'India First' policy without affecting its engagement with China. Maldives Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid has said that the new government in the island nation is still accounting the volume of Chinese debt and that the uncertainty arose only because of the 'secret' style of functioning of the former government led by Abdulla Yameen. The Maldives is said to owe at least 70% of its external debts to China. 'The former president was shrouded in secrecy. He did not share details with the public accounts committee of the Parliament. We are not commenting on the exact amount of debt with China because we are yet to ascertain it. We are reconciling with accounts', the Maldivian foreign minister said in New Delhi on Tuesday. Three ministers of the new Maldivian government, including Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid, Minister of Finance Ibrahim Ameer, and Minister of Economic Development Fayaz Ismail, were in India on a two-day official visit as a precursor to President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih's visit on December 17. This will be Solih's first foreign visit as President of the island nation. The island nation has hinted that it is looking to India for help in bridging any budgetary shortfall that may arise in the initial days of governance while announcing that it will pursue 'India first policy'. 'India is a natural and time-tested friend. We have recommitted ourselves to reigniting India-Maldives friendship to explore newer horizonsWe are immediately looking at budgetary constraints. We need help from India for helping and diversification of our economy. We wish to vigorously engage with the Indian business community in this process', Abdulla Shahid told the media in New Delhi. The Maldivian foreign minister, however, asserted that the Maldives' India First policy would be pursued without constraining its engagement with China. 'Former President Abdulla Yaseen tried to play China against India and India against China. I must say he failed miserably. One must not try to play one country against other. We have a strong India first policy but will engage all countries in Maldives' development', Abdulla Shahid added. The visiting ministerial delegation also made it clear that restarting stalled projects would be the primary agenda for the president's upcoming visit. 'The Advance Light Helicopters will continue its presence in the Maldives and apart from that we are ready to receive the Dornier gifted by India as soon as it is released', Maldivian minister said, signalling greater defence cooperation between India and the strategically important Maldivian island located in the Indian Ocean. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Hungary: Lyubishin Extradition Press Statement Heather Nauert Department Spokesperson Washington, DC November 27, 2018 The United States 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. The United States is disappointed in the Hungarian government's decision to extradite the Lyubishins to Russia. The United States had a strong case, built in cooperation with members of Hungarian law enforcement. Hungary is a partner and friend of the United States, but this 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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Treasury Targets Nicaraguan Vice President and Key Advisor over Violent Response to Protests U.S. Department of the Treasury November 27, 2018 Designations Represent U.S. Commitment to Address the Ortega Regime's Violence and Corruption WASHINGTON Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) took action pursuant to a new Executive Order (E.O.) targeting the Ortega regime and its supporters, who continue to engage in rampant corruption, dismantling of democratic institutions, serious human rights abuse, and exploitation of the people and public resources of Nicaragua for private gain. Under the newly issued E.O., 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. "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. 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," said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. "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." Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an E.O. declaring a national emergency with respect to the Government of Nicaragua's violent response to protests that began on April 18, 2018 and the Ortega regime's systematic dismantling and undermining of democratic institutions and the rule of law, its use of indiscriminate violence and repressive tactics against civilians, as well as its corruption leading to the destabilization of Nicaragua's economy. The E.O. provides for the imposition of sanctions on actors engaged in these malign activities. As a result of today's actions, any property or interests in property of those designated by OFAC, within or transiting U.S. jurisdiction or the possession or control of a U.S. person must be blocked and reported to OFAC. OFAC's regulations generally prohibit all transactions by U.S. persons within (or transiting) the United States that involve any property or interests in property of the designated persons, including entities 50 percent or more owned by designated persons. Further details on these designations are included below. Rosario Maria Murillo De Ortega Murillo is being designated for being an official of the Government of Nicaragua on or after January 10, 2007. Elected as Vice President in 2016 and inaugurated in 2017, Murillo has been the de facto co-president of Nicaragua since 2007, when President Daniel Ortega proclaimed he would share "50 percent of power" with her. Murillo is also a leader with access and influence over the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN)'s youth organization, known as the Sandinista Youth, and the Nicaraguan National Police (NNP). The Sandinista Youth and the NNP are entities that have, or whose members have, engaged in serious human rights abuse in Nicaragua. According to public reports, the NNP have been part of "Death Squads" that have engaged in extrajudicial killings, torture, and kidnapping, while Sandinista Youth paramilitaries, armed and paid by the FSLN, have been implicated in serious human rights abuses related to the ongoing protests against the Nicaraguan government, including attacks on protesters. Further, in June 2018, masked gunmen, accompanied by individuals identified by witnesses as Nicaraguan police, reportedly set fire to a family home in Managua, killing six, including two young children. Finally, Murillo has a long history of engaging in acts of corruption related to Nicaragua. Nestor Moncada Lau Moncada is being designated for acting for or on behalf of Vice President Murillo. Moncada has been described as a national security advisor to President Ortega and Vice President Murillo, and has been relied upon to carry out their orders. In addition, Moncada is an experienced former official of the State Security of the Ministry of Interior, with strong ties of loyalty to Ortega and Murillo. Following Ortega's return to power in 2007, Moncada reportedly assumed a prominent role as Ortega and Murillo's liaison and FSLN Secretariat power operator over multiple Nicaraguan government entities. Moncada disbursed payments to counter protesters on behalf of Ortega and Murillo and, through his various intelligence roles, worked to bribe and blackmail individuals to obtain their support or prevent them from voicing opposition to Ortega's government. In addition, Moncada has engaged in acts of corruption on behalf of Ortega and Murillo. In at least one case, Moncada worked with President Ortega to cover up Ortega's sexual conduct with a minor. For identifying information on the entities designated today. #### NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Despite violence, 'tremendous hunger' for peace in Afghanistan: top UN official 27 November 2018 - A high-level international conference on Afghanistan got underway at the UN in Geneva on Tuesday to show solidarity for the war-torn country's people and help strengthen Government efforts to promote development, along with wider peace and security. Speaking to journalists at the start of the two-day meeting at the Palais des Nations, senior UN official Toby Lanzer, Deputy Special Representative for the UN Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), said that everyone he had met wanted a solution to stop the violence. The UN would do what it could to help them, with the support of the international community, he insisted, noting that the question of peace would be "quite naturally" a component of discussions. "2019 will mark the 40th anniversary four decades of instability - in Afghanistan," he said. "For the vast majority of the country, they have grown up knowing conflict and nothing else, so there is a tremendous and you will know this better than me - there is a tremendous hunger for peace. I have only met people in Afghanistan who want the violence to end so the United Nations will be doing what it can and offering its support in that regard." One of the aims of the conference - which is being attended by Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani, its Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, together with numerous foreign ministers, including from Russia, Turkey and the EU is to emphasise the importance of development to securing peace and security. The Geneva meeting will also provide an opportunity to measure what has been achieved in Afghanistan after the international community committed $15.2 billion to the country as part of a four-year plan, in 2016. "Whether it's peace, whether it's security, whether it's development, whether it's trade, things need to be Afghan-owned and Afghan-led," Mr Lanzer said, before noting that progress had been "quicker and better" than might have been expected not least in reform of the Government security sector. International Monetary Fund (IMF) benchmarks "have not only been met, they've been exceeded", the UNAMA official continued, before listing a series of areas where reform could be assessed, from investing in "the basic services" of health and education, to enabling the private sector by passing key legislation and combating corruption. Current humanitarian needs in the country are at emergency levels for millions of people, the result of one of the worst droughts in living memory that has destroyed crops and livestock, hitting the mainly rural population hardest. With 3.6 million living with chronic food insecurity, Mr. Lanzer said that "to be clear, it's one step away from famine. That's how hard this drought has struck during 2018." In addition to delivering food to those in need, providing shelter to people who have been displaced by the famine - or who are returning to Afghanistan remains among the most urgent humanitarian challenges in the country, before winter sets in. "This year so far, 675,000 people have returned from Iran to Afghanistan", Mr. Lanzer said. "And at the same time, half a million people have been forced from their homes in the country. Why? Because of ongoing violence and because of the drought." Elections on course for April Amid reports that Afghanistan's 2019 presidential election may be postponed, the UN official said that no change in date had been conveyed to him by the country's Independent Election Commission (IEC). "We are working on the information that we have which is that presidential elections are currently scheduled to take place on 20 April (2019)", he said, "and that's the date that we're still discussing with the authorities." Mr. Lanzer noted that the recent Parliamentary elections marked an important moment because they took place "without massive organizational support from the international community". It was also very significant at the end of February this year that the Government of Ashraf Ghani had said it was ready for "talks without preconditions" with Taliban armed groups without preconditions, the UN official explained. This new approach has been accompanied by a "more concerted effort by the international community to lend a hand to that process", Mr. Lanzer added, making this "an apt moment to get together to reaffirm our commitments and support to Afghanistan". NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Afghan Conference Seeks Solidarity for Peace, Development By Lisa Schlein November 27, 2018 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 country's 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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Manafort Denies Report He Met With WikiLeaks Founder By VOA News November 27, 2018 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 they'd 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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Kerch / Sea of Azov Dispute On Sunday 25 November 2018, three Ukrainian ships - the Berdyansk and Nikopol gunboats and the Yany Kapu tugboat - crossed into Russian territorial waters in the Kerch Strait and were detained by Russia. The incident marked a significant escalation of tensions and the first time since Russia's unrecognized annexation of Crimea four years ago that Moscow has publicly acknowledged opening fire on Ukrainian forces. Thus began a dramatic political escalation between the two countries, including Ukraine declaring martial law. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has called Russian actions "unprovoked and crazy" and called on his allies to provide military assistance to "deter the aggressor". 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. Twenty-four sailors were detained and "courts" in Russian-occupied Crimea ruled that they be detained for two months, pending trial. "This is certainly a provocation organized by the current government, I think, including the current president, on the eve of presidential elections in Ukraine in March next year. The current president is about fifth in [presidential] ratings, and there is a chance he won't make it to the second round, so he needs to do something to aggravate the situation and create insurmountable obstacles for his competitors, first of all, from the opposition," Putin said at the 10th annual VTB Capital " Russia Calling!" Investment Forum. "There are clear signs of a provocation prepared in advance in order to use this as a pretext to introduce martial law in the country. This has nothing to do with any attempts to improve the Russian-Ukrainian relationship. This is an attempt to raise stakes." The Ukrainian and Russian versions of events differ, with each blaming the other for instigating the incident. Russian officials said the Ukrainian ships were maneuvering dangerously, requiring the strait to be temporarily closed for security reasons. Moscow later announced the reopening of the strait after using a cargo ship to block passage beneath a new bridge connecting Russia with occupied Crimea. The block ship may be one give-away as to which side initiated the incident, since the block ship was either amazing improvization, or something that had been prepared in advance. Another indication was the remarkably comprehensive coverage on Russia's Sputnik outlet. Russian state media gave generous coverage to the incident, devoting several live TV debates to the issue. Moscow maintained it acted within the limits of international law as well as a treaty between the nations governing traffic in the narrow Kerch Strait, which separates the Sea of Azov from the Black Sea. The area in which the Ukrainian ships were detained lies within Russian territorial waters, and those waters were temporarily closed for traffic, Russian officials said. The FSB has claimed in a statement that the naval standoff in Crimean waters was a provocative act of the Ukrainian Navy executed upon direct orders by the government in Kiev. A further incident on Monday 26 November 2018 saw two Ukrainian vessels steaming "at full speed" from the port city of Berdyansk in the Sea of Azov towards the Kerch Strait, prompting Russia to deploy its own naval vessels as well as Sukhoi Su-25 ground attack aircraft to patrol the area of the Crimean Bridge, about 100 miles south of Berdyansk. The Kerch Bridge spans the 8.5-mile-wide gap between Crimea's eastern-most point and mainland Russia's Krasnodar Krai. The road portion of that bridge opened in May 2018. Ukrainian commercial vessels have the right to pass through the strait to reach the important port of Mariupol', which the 2003 bilateral treaty between Russia and Ukraine delineates, albeit according to specific protocols to ensure safety as well as that the interests of both countries are protected. Through the strait also lies the Russian port city of Rostov-on-Don, only 100 miles east of Mariupol'. Under a maritime protocol, all ships passing through the busy, narrow Kerch Strait should send notifications and report their route. While Kiev says it notified Russian authorities in advance that its navy ships would be sailing through the area, Moscow denies that it was given warning. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that an act of Russian aggression against Ukrainian ships in the Kerch Strait was aimed at depriving Ukraine of autocephaly and blocking international support. "Why has Putin done this right now? Not to let [Ukraine] have the tomos [an official document on the Ukrainian-based church's independence], to make the church think that if there's martial law, then His Holiness will not give us anything. He's miscalculated. We'll be praying, and everything will be fine," Poroshenko said 28 November 2018. "And the second reason is to deprive us of international assistance. Supposedly, a country that is at war will not get financing. Yesterday I conducted intensive international consultations and stated it is not us who are at war. We are doing our duty to protect our native land. And we heard the answer: 'Mr. President, we believe you,'" Poroshenko said. The east of Ukraine and especially Donetsk and Mykolayiv region depend on the ports of Mariupol and Berdyansk, it means there will be economic damage to these cities and to these regions. It means that the populations will be unhappy with that, demand some action from the government in Kyiv. In a mid-July 2013 incident with Ukrainian fishermen and Russian border guards, only one fisherman survived after a collision between his boat and a Russian border patrol vessel. The incident claimed the life of four out of five Ukrainians who were on a boat in the Sea of Azov From 2015 onwards it was reported that Russia, which now controls both banks of Kerch Strait, made Ukrainian vessels subject to an authorization requirement for passage through the Kerch Strait. The situation escalated further after the adoption of an Order of the Russian Ministry of Transport of 7 July 2017 which enables the competent Russian authorities to deny any vessels except Russian warships access to the Sea of Azov during certain specified time spans. The United Kingdom called on Russia to stop denying Ukrainian and international ships access to the Sea of Azov, the UK Foreign Office said in a statement, released on 20 November 2018, following a EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting. "Russias continued disruption of ships attempting to access Ukrainian ports in the Sea of Azov is destabilising the regional economy. Restrictions on freedom of passage have been accompanied by an increase in Russias military presence in the sea," the statement read. According to the UK, Russia disrupts Ukrainian and international shipping in the Sea of Azov via conducting stop and search operations for cargo ships arriving at and leaving from Ukrainian ports in the sea. "This is causing delays, significant increases in shipping costs, and a reduction in income to Ukraines ports. So far, more than 200 vessels have been affected, in a policy which is damaging Ukraines economy and undermining its sovereignty," a spokesperson of the office said, as quoted in the statement. The statement said that so far, more than 200 vessels had been affected and that the policy is damaging Ukraine's economy and undermining its sovereignty. According to an FCO spokesperson, "Russia and its security forces continue to disrupt Ukrainian international shipping calling at Ukrainian ports in the Sea of Azov. In March Russia opened an unlawfully constructed bridge across the Kerch Strait connecting Russia to the illegally annexed Crimean Peninsula." President Petro Poroshenko signed the law "On the adjoining area of ??Ukraine", adopted by the Verkhovna Rada on 06 December 2018. This law will double the zone of Ukrainian control in the Black Sea. The purpose of the law is to "harmonize the maritime legislation" of Ukraine with the legislation of other Black Sea states and other states parties to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The law is also aimed at preventing smuggling and illegal ship activities in closed ports of the occupied territories of Ukraine. In accordance with the law, the adjacent zone of Ukraine is an open sea zone adjacent to the territorial sea of ??Ukraine and the external border of which is at a distance of not more than 24 nautical miles, measured from the outgoing lines, from which the width of the territorial sea of ??Ukraine is measured. "In its adjacent zone Ukraine carries out the control necessary to prevent violations of customs, fiscal (tax), immigration (migration), sanitary legislation of Ukraine within the territory of Ukraine, including its internal waters, or the territorial sea", - the statement reads. In accordance with the law, the authorized body, which guarantees the integrity of the state border and the protection of sovereign rights of Ukraine in its adjacent and exclusive (marine) economic zones, may stop vessels; inspect them; detain or arrest vessels and / or their crew members, except for warships and other state vessels used for non-commercial purposes. According to the law, if a vessel violates Ukrainian legislation and attempts to disappear, the authorized body has the right to "pursue such a ship in hot pursuit" in order to detain and bring to justice under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. According to military expert Lieutenant-General Igor Romanenko, there are three possible routes that can be taken in addressing the present conflict. First, on the premise of how the borders were arranged during the time of the Ukrainian SSR, and RSFSR, which both were part of the Soviet Union. However, Russians do not recognize that distribution. The second option is to reaffirm the Sea of Azov as internal waters, but mark the border from the coast along a middle line. However, according to this option, Ukraine again gets a significant part of the sea, so Russia will not agree to this. In Romanenkos view, the most acceptable option is the third - not to recognize the sea as internal, but to consider it to be international waters. This will automatically determine the 12-mile strip along the Ukrainian coast as Ukrainian territorial waters. The main thing is that foreign warships can enter the Azov Sea. But, having discussed such variants for 12 years, no conclusions were drawn. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address China launches work on third aircraft carrier: media report People's Daily Online By China Daily (China Daily) 08:26, November 27, 2018 China has launched work on building its third aircraft carrier, Xinhua News Agency reported on Sunday. 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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Beijing Eyes Building Underwater AI Base in Disputed South China Sea - Report Sputnik News 22:00 27.11.2018 Officials from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing have set off to uncharted territory as researchers consider building an underwater sea base in the South China Sea for unmanned submarine science and possibly defense operations. First reported on by the South China Morning Post on Monday, the project, which saw its beginnings earlier this month at the Beijing academy, is expected to cost Chinese taxpayers an estimated $160 million. The AI-powered base will be used to survey seabeds, collect mineral samples and record underwater life forms, the Post reported, noting that the base will be connected via cables to a ship or platform on the water's surface as a means to collect energy. All samples will be examined by artificial intelligence in the base before full reports are transferred to officials. Considering that the base will likely be situated in the hadal zone, the deepest portion of the ocean with depths ranging between 19,685 feet and 36,100 feet, one of the top priorities for engineers is developing materials that will be able to withstand intense water pressure. "It is as challenging as building a colony on another planet for robotic residents with artificial intelligence," an unidentified scientist who is involved in the project told the Post. "The technology can change the world." As for a location, Yan Pin, an academy researcher with the Key Laboratory of Ocean and Marginal Sea Geology in Guangzhou, told the publication that the Manila Trench has potential. "It is the only place in the South China Sea with a depth exceeding [16,000 feet]," he said. However, the trench is also known for being one of the world's biggest quake zones, as it is where the Eurasian and Pacific tectonic plates meet. Rumblings aside, this shouldn't deter researchers from using the area for the new base, according to Yan. Acknowledging that the trench is also close to the Scarborough Shoal, a disputed territory claimed by both China and the Philippines, Yan suggested that Beijing could tout the mutual benefits of its yet-to-be developed base to convince Manila to get on board with the project. "China and the Philippines should sit down and discuss it," he told the outlet. "A tsunami [warning] is a big selling point. Data collected by the station would benefit all countries in the region." "It could save many lives," he stressed. Researchers reportedly jumped on the project after Chinese President Xi Jinping made a trip to the sciences institute in April, urging them to do something that hadn't been done before. The latest project comes months after China made its interests in building a floating nuclear power plant known. Beijing's nuclear power barge would include 20 nuclear reactors, with the goal of primarily providing power to residents living in the Sansha city in China's Hainan Province, the People's Daily reported at the time. The deployment of such a vessel is expected in 2020. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Hong Kong Democrats Eye Rural Political Reform By Erin Hale November 27, 2018 Hong Kong's pro-democracy camp is hoping to infiltrate one of the city's most opaque yet powerful institutions, its rural governance committees, by running four candidates in upcoming village elections, whose nomination period ended late last week. Around 1,400 village representative slots are up for grabs over two weekends of polling in January that will determine the local leadership of the New Territories, a peninsula of rural land and dozens of outlying islands that makes up 86 percent of the city's territory. While some slots represent small and remote hamlets, other seats carry significant power in areas eyed by developers and the government to meet ever-growing demand for housing, one of Hong Kong's most pressing social issues. The representatives also make up the foundation of a much more powerful system as they sit on influential Rural Affairs Committees. The chairmen of those committees in turn get a seat on Heung Yee Kuk, a century-old rural advisory body with the ear of Hong Kong's top leaders. While their numbers are small, pro-democracy legislator Eddie Chu, who represents the New Territories West in the city's Legislative Council, says it's the first step in transforming a system that is often more associated with corruption and land grabbing in the local media than grassroots democracy. "Since it is a colonial creation, this kind of three tier [organization] is actually quite intact as a representative system. The problem we are having is nobody dare run in the village representative election from democratic camp since all of us are afraid of gangsters [and] threats," said Chu, who received death threats in 2016 following a campaign promise to "clean up" rural politics. "And then there are villagers who are supportive of, for example, preservation of farmland and the environment. There are some areas that can be reformed to make this whole thing a positive power to us towards our environmental movement and democratic movement," he said. Neither the Heung Yee Kuk nor its chairman, Kenneth Lau, replied to VOA requests for comment. Lau also declined to be interviewed following a phone call to his office at Hong Kong's Legislative Council. Chu is not alone among Hong Kong politicians or interest groups pushing for reform of the Heung Yee Kuk, with calls coming even from some its members, such as pro-Beijing legislator Junius Ho. Chu and the candidates, however, have one the most explicit aims of reforming the governance system from within by running outsiders in the elections, as each village has two representatives, one indigenous and one non-indigenous. Some of their long-term concerns include opening up meeting records to the public and diversifying the leadership to include more women and non-indigenous villagers. Many leaders remain in their position for years, including Heung Yee Kuk chairman Lau Wong-fat, father of the current chairman, who held his position for 35 years. Local leaders also wield enormous influence over daily life. Village representatives often have a say in issues like parking, garbage collection, sites for local industry, and even road access, as many roads in the New Territories run across private land. The most difficult issue at stake, though, and one that will take more than a few elections to resolve, is the right of each male "indigenous" villager to build a personal "small house." While designed as a way to improve rural living conditions, it has been warped by some into a means of building housing developments, an extremely lucrative industry in one of the world's most expensive real estate markets, according to groups like Liber Research Community, a local NGO that studies rural land dealings. Paul Zimmerman, a Dutch national who has lived in Hong Kong since the 1980s, is one of the four candidates running with the explicit aim of reforming rural politics He said the key to change is for non-indigenous residents to become more active in voting and running for local office, as many are unaware they qualify. While there are a number of restrictions on who can become a village voter, only 86,384 non-indigenous residents are registered to vote this year, compared to 109,092 indigenous voters. The population of the New Territories, meanwhile, is over 3.6 million. "This is a first attempt. There are very few non-indigenous people active in those village elections. There is one [foreigner] in Sai Kung in one village who has been elected several times... but this is extremely exceptional," he said. "That's going to be a very long process, so this is kind of a first poke at it and it's really to demonstrate that it's possible to people," he said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran's President Works To Further Isolate Iranian Regime From Both World and Iranian People Press Statement Michael R. Pompeo Secretary of State Washington, DC November 26, 2018 Iranian President Rouhani has once again called for the destruction of Israel. He referred to it as a "cancerous tumor" and a "fake regime." Such statements inflame tensions in the region by seemingly calling for war. At an international conference on Islamic unity, Rouhani also encouraged Muslims worldwide to unite against the United States. This is a dangerous and irresponsible step that will further deepen Iran's isolation. The Iranian regime is no friend of America or Israel when they repeatedly call for the death of millions, including Muslims. The Iranian people know better and do not agree with their government, which has badly represented them to the world for 39 years. The people have suffered under this tyranny for far too long. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Nuclear chief warns EU: Iran's Patience running out IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, Nov 27, IRNA -- Iran's nuclear chief said on Tuesday that he was warning the European Union's top diplomat that Iranian patience was running out on the bloc's pledges to keep up oil trade despite US sanctions. Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said the Islamic Republic could resume enriching uranium to 20 percent purity--seen as well above the level suitable for fuelling civilian power plants--if it fails to see the economic benefit of the 2015 deal that curbed its nuclear program, Reuters reported. "If we cannot sell our oil and we don't enjoy financial transactions, then I don't think keeping the deal will benefit us anymore," Salehi told Reuters ahead of a meeting with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini in Brussels. "I will pass certainly a word of caution to her (Mogherini): I think the period of patience for our people is getting more limited and limited. We are running out of the assumed timeline, which was in terms of months." Following the meeting, Mogherini said she and Salehi remained committed to safeguarding the nuclear accord. "They equally expressed their determination to preserve the nuclear agreement as a matter of respecting international agreements and a key pillar for European and regional security," Mogherini's office said in a statement. It said Mogherini also repeated the EU stance "on issues of concern such as Iran's role in the region" - alluding to Iranian involvement in Middle East conflicts from Yemen to Syria. In Brussels for talks on civilian nuclear cooperation that EU officials intended as a signal support for the accord, Salehi said the bloc's efforts were encouraging but added: "We have not yet seen any tangible results." He welcomed an EU plan to establish a special financial vehicle for non-dollar trade with Iran but only if it could preserve Iranian oil exports - Tehran's economic lifeline. "It (the SPV) could be helpful in keeping the deal alive," he said. "If there is nothing to reap, then what is the purpose of us staying in because voices in Iran are day by day becoming more against the deal." 8072**2050 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran's nuclear chief warns patience is running out on EU pledges Iran Press TV Tue Nov 27, 2018 06:06PM [Updated: Tue Nov 27, 2018 06:42PM ] Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi has warned that Tehran's patience is running out over the failure of the European Union's economic pledges to deliver any "tangible results." Salehi, who is in the Belgian capital of Brussels to attend the third seminar on peaceful nuclear cooperation, made the remarks in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday ahead of a meeting with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini in Brussels. He said the EU's efforts were encouraging but added: "We have not yet seen any tangible results." "So, they [Europeans] are promising us that they are doing their best to be able to translate all that they have said in political terms and to turn it into realization, in other words, to materialize what they have said," Salehi said. "So, we wait and see. But I will pass certainly a word of caution to her (Mogherini) that I think the period of patience for our people is getting more limited and limited," he added. "We are running out of the assumed timeline, which was in terms of months." US President Donald Trump withdrew his country in May from the multilateral nuclear agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and decided to re-impose unilateral sanctions against Tehran. Under the deal, reached between Iran and six major powers - the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China - Tehran agreed to put limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions. Earlier this month, the Trump administration announced the re-imposition of the "toughest" sanctions ever against Iran's banking and energy sectors with the aim of cutting off the country's oil sales and crucial exports. A first round of American sanctions took effect in August, targeting Iran's access to the US dollar, metals trading, coal, industrial software, and auto sector. The US administration hoped to get the other parties to the deal with Iran to likewise scrap the deal, but instead, they stressed that not only would they stick to the agreement, but they would also work to sustain it in the face of increased US pressure. Europeans believe that the nuclear deal is an important element of international security. The Iranian nuclear chief further warned that Tehran has the technical capacity to resume its 20 percent uranium enrichment if it fails to enjoy the economic benefit of the JCPOA. "It is very easy for us to go back to what we were before - even to a better position," he said. "We can start the 20 percent enrichment activity. We can increase the amount of the enriched uranium." Salehi noted that Iran is currently limited to 300 kilograms enriched uranium but can increase the amount, adding, "And so, there are so many other things we can do, but I wish that we never reach that stage." Under the 2015 nuclear agreement, Iran stopped producing 20 percent enriched uranium and gave up the majority of its stockpile. Elsewhere in the interview, the AEOI head said Iran welcomes EU efforts to establish a special financial vehicle for non-dollar trade with Tehran but only if it could preserve the country's oil exports. 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. "It (the SPV) could be helpful in keeping the deal alive. If there is nothing to reap then what is the purpose of us staying in because voices in Iran are day by day becoming more against the deal," Salehi said. "If we cannot sell our oil and we don't enjoy financial transactions, then I don't think keeping the deal will benefit us anymore," he pointed out. Addressing the nuclear cooperation seminar on Monday, Salehi criticized the US administration's efforts to prevent the implementation of the historic nuclear agreement 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," the AEOI head said. Salehi and Mogherini are expected to meet on Tuesday afternoon, with no media statements expected afterwards. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Japan to seek extension of US waivers for Iran oil imports Iran Press TV Tue Nov 27, 2018 10:50AM [Updated: Tue Nov 27, 2018 11:47AM ] Japanese buyers will seek an extension of the waiver from US sanctions on Iranian oil imports after the initial 180-day exemption is over, the Petroleum Association of Japan (PAJ) said on Tuesday. The United States granted exemptions to Japan and seven other countries on Nov. 5, allowing them to continue buying Iranian oil. As Japan sees Iran as an important crude supplier, local refiners plan to request the government to secure extension at the earliest, president of Petroleum Association of Japan (PAJ) Takashi Tsukioka told reporters in Tokyo. Refiners in Japan and South Korea are reportedly looking to resume Iranian oil imports. Tsukioka said first Japan's shipments are about to take place around end-December. Oil loadings in January-March are likely to be heavy, he added. Among the importers of Iranian crude is Japan's second-biggest refiner Idemitsu Kosan which hopes to buy the remainder of its contractual volumes of Iranian oil during the exemption period, said Tsukioka which also serves as the company's chairman. Iran's biggest oil client is China which is also the world's largest energy consumer. Chinese refiners imported 247,160 barrels per day (bpd) of Iranian oil in October, data cited by Reuters showed. For the January-October period, imports from Iran fell 3.4 percent from 2017 to 25.54 million tonnes, or 613,300 bpd, it said. China is allowed to buy 360,000 bpd of oil from Iran for at least 180 days from the imposition of sanctions, but Beijing has pledged to continue Iranian shipments. For that matter, private companies are likely to follow US instructions but state-owned refiners have signaled to remain non-committal. China's crude import demand hit an all-time high in October and is reportedly expected to stay strong to year-end. A simmering trade dispute between Washington and Beijing over President Donald Trump's sanctions prompted Chinese firms to stop importing US crude oil around August and September. Russian exporters rushed in to fill the gap, shipping record volumes of crude oil to China in October. According to the General Administration of Customs data, about 1.73 million bpd of Russian crude was shipped during the period, up 58 percent from a year earlier. China is also eyeing to tap Iran's massive gas resources the world's biggest. On Sunday, Iran's Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh said China's state-owned energy giant CNPC has officially replaced Total in a multibillion-dollar South Pars gas project. "China's CNPC company has officially replaced Total in phase 11 of South Pars, but it has not started work practically," he said. Iran now wants to hold talks with CNPC to determine when it will start its operations, the minister added. The project is seen to come on stream in 2021 at around 2 billion cubic feet per day of gas and 70,000 barrels per day of condensate. Total withdrew from the $4.8 billion project earlier this year despite having initially pledged to stand its ground against US sanctions. The withdrawal will raise CNPC's stake in the project to around 80 percent, with the remaining 20 percent to be held by National Iranian Oil Company subsidiary PetroPars. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Japan Set to Massively Expand F-35 Fleet - Report Sputnik News 22:08 27.11.2018 Japan is planning to announce a massive purchase of fifth-generation F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft next month in response to Beijing's military buildup, Japanese media reported Tuesday. Japan will buy 100 F-35s in a deal worth nearly $9 billion, according to reports. The Japanese government will formally approve and make public the decision to buy more F-35s in mid-December, Nikkei Asian Review reported, citing sources. Japan has so far signed on to buy 42 F-35 aircraft. Japan has about 200 aging F-15s, and up to 100 of these aircraft cannot be modernized. The plan is to buy F-35s to replace the F-15s that cannot be enhanced. The remaining F-15s will be improved and remain deployed for service. All of the F-35s Japan has agreed to procure until now were F-35A conventional takeoff variants. While it remains to be seen what the exact composition of the next F-35 order will look like, the Nikkei Asian Review confirmed that Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force is retrofitting the JS Izumo helicopter carrier in order to accommodate the short-takeoff vertical lift F-35B. In addition to China's rapidly expanding naval capabilities, Beijing's stealthy J-20 deployed in February, and some experts expect the Chinese arsenal of stealthy fifth-generation jets to reach 250 by 2030. In what will probably become fodder for US President Donald Trump to boast about, the Japanese move is considered a nod to Trump's sales pitch for countries to buy American military equipment, Nikkei Asian Review noted. Two months ago, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told his American counterpart that "introducing high-performance equipment, including American [material], is important for our country to strengthen its defense capabilities." Trump has called for Tokyo to buy more American products to relieve the trade imbalance between the two countries. Trump was reported to have eagerly cast his gaze upon Tokyo as the target of a new trade fight in September, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. The reported $9 billion purchase of high-tech aircraft would put a significant dent in Washington's trade deficit with Tokyo, which has reached $50 billion in 2018, according to the US Census Bureau. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Myanmar seizes more Rohingya Muslims fleeing Rakhine Iran Press TV Tue Nov 27, 2018 08:49AM [Updated: Tue Nov 27, 2018 09:09AM ] Myanmar's authorities have intercepted a boat with 93 Rohingya Muslims who were fleeing apartheid conditions at internal displacement camps in Rakhine State and heading to Malaysia. Moe Zaw Latt, director of the government office in the southern coastal town of Dawei, said on Tuesday that Myanmar's navy had seized the vessel and detained the 93 people on board on Sunday after they received a tip from fishermen about a "suspicious" vessel. According to the official, the 93 people said they had come from the Thae Chaung camp in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State. "They said they ran away from the camp. They said they intended to go to Malaysia," said Moe Zaw Latt. The official added that the authorities were preparing to send them back to Sittwe on Tuesday. For years, the persecuted Rohingya in Myanmar have embarked on dangerous journeys aboard rickety vessels to Thailand and Malaysia, fleeing state-sponsored violence. Most of the voyages have taken place in the dry months between November and March, when the sea is calm. The UN refugee agency has urged Myanmar to "address the root causes of displacement," including the lack of citizenship for the minority Rohingya Muslims in the majority-Buddhist country. Tens of thousands of Rohingya have been languishing in internal displacement camps since a previous wave of violence in 2012. Thousands of Rohingya Muslims were killed, injured, arbitrarily arrested, or raped by Myanmarese soldiers and Buddhist mobs mainly between November 2016 and August 2017, when the surviving members of the community started fleeing to Bangladesh en masse. The Rohingya Muslims, who have lived in Myanmar for generations, are denied citizenship and are branded illegal emigrants from Bangladesh, which likewise denies them citizenship. Government officials from Bangladesh and Myanmar announced last month that they had struck a "very concrete" repatriation deal for the return of the Rohingya refugees who have fled the military crackdown. UN officials and aid agencies have condemned the plan, saying the Muslims still faced violence in Myanmar. The boat seized on Sunday was the third to be intercepted in less than a month. Last week, over 80 people were arrested off the coast of southern Rakhine as they were trying to reach Malaysia. On November 16, Myanmar arrested 106 Rohingya Muslims on a boat near Yangon who were also heading to Malaysia. All of the detainees were returned to camps. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address South Korea to Buy Updated Missile Defense Radar Systems from Israel Sputnik News 22:05 27.11.2018 South Korea is pressing ahead with plans to buy two Israeli early warning radar systems, announcing on Tuesday it would buy the updated Green Pine radars for $292 million. South Korea's Defense Acquisition Programs Administrations (DAPA) announced Tuesday it would buy two Green Pine Block C radar systems from Israel's ELTA Systems, a subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries. A Defense Ministry official later confirmed to Reuters the order was worth 330 billion won, or $292 million. The missile system, an update of the Green Pine radars South Korea previously purchased in 2009, will boost the nation's ability to "identify and track ballistic missiles from a remote distance shortly after launch," according to a DAPA statement. The systems should be deployed by the early 2020s. Reuters noted that the South Korean Defense Ministry pledged in December 2017 to buy more early warning radars, not long after North Korea successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile and announced the completion of its "state nuclear force." However, there was no mention of South Korea's socialist neighbor in the Tuesday statement. The EL/M 2080 Green Pine system was developed to operate with the Arrow theater missile defense system, produced by Israel in tandem with the US since 1986 as a response to the increasing missile capabilities of rival Arab states. It's since been sold to Azerbaijan and India in addition to South Korea. Green Pine is believed to be more effective than the AN/MPQ-65, the radar at the heart of the US' MIM-104 Patriot anti-air system, possibly because while the Patriot system uses a passive electronically scanned array, Green Pine uses an active array. The chairman of the Israeli Space Agency told Space News in 2011 that Arrow also has the capability to shoot down satellites. Block C, the system's third iteration, is believed to have an improved operational range as well as the ability to track up to 30 targets simultaneously, the Times of Israel notes. The radar's range has been variously reported as 800 kilometers by the Times and 500 kilometers by Arutz Sheva. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address European politicians call for new sanctions on Russia over Ukraine crisis Iran Press TV Tue Nov 27, 2018 04:57PM [Updated: Tue Nov 27, 2018 05:01PM ] The European Union says it will consider further sanctions against Russia next month following the seizure of three intruding Ukrainian military vessels in Russian waters. Senior politicians from Germany, Austria, Poland and Estonia on Tuesday signaled a tougher line towards Russia over the latest flare-up in the conflict. Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, also raised the possibility of new EU sanctions during a press briefing with her German counterpart Heiko Maas in Berlin. Kneissl said the EU would consider sanctions depending "on the exposition of facts and the further conduct of both parties". "On the issue of further sanctions, time will tell - we have a summit in December," she told reporters, adding, "Everything depends on the accounts of events and the actions of both sides. But it will need to be reviewed." Maas, for his part, repeated Berlin's call for Russia to release the seized ships and sailors "as soon as possible". The top German diplomat went onto say the latest escalation showed "that the annexation of Crimea... is also a problem for the security of us all in Europe". "Both sides must now do their part for deescalation," he added. Norbert Roettgen, a member of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union and a leading Merkel ally, said Europe may need to toughen sanctions against Moscow. Polish President Andrzej Duda said his country was ready to back new sanctions. Estonian Defense Minister Juri Luik called sanctions "probably the most potent way to signal to the Russian leadership that we are serious". The United States and EU have already imposed sanctions on Russia over the ongoing Ukraine crisis. The developments come as Kiev's Western allies have accused Moscow of using force without justification in the recent naval confrontation through the Kerch Strait in the Azov Sea . Merkel, an important voice in any future EU decision to impose more sanctions, on Monday spoke by phone to both Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Both Russia and Ukraine are trying to cast the other side as being in the wrong. Putin told Merkel by phone on Monday that Moscow was ready to provide more details to bolster Russia's version of events. Moscow says Ukraine deliberately provoked Russia to trigger a crisis. Ukraine, which on Monday night introduced martial law for 30 days in parts of the country, said its ships did nothing wrong. Russia's FSB security service however 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. Some of the more than 20 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. Separately, the United Nations' secretary general on Tuesday urged Russia and Ukraine to use "maximum restraint" and avoid further escalation after a confrontation in the Black Sea. Antonio Guterres spokesman said in a statement that he was "greatly concerned" about the incident near the Crimea peninsula near the Kerch Strait, calling on "both parties to exercise maximum restraint and to take steps without delay to contain this incident and reduce tensions." 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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address 'US pullout from Russia treaty to have global consequences' Iran Press TV Tue Nov 27, 2018 08:04AM [Updated: Tue Nov 27, 2018 07:11PM ] A senior Russian official has cautioned the United States against a plan to withdraw from a landmark Cold War-era nuclear arms control treaty with Russia, saying such a move would have grave consequence for the world. US President Donald Trump announced last month that Washington would withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), which was signed toward the end of the Cold War in 1987 by then-President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. The treaty seen as a milestone in ending the Cold War arms race between the two superpowers banned ground-launch nuclear missiles with ranges from 500 kilometers to 5,500 kilometers and led to the elimination of nearly 2,700 short- and medium-range missiles. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told a news briefing on Monday that leaving the treaty would provoke "a new round of arms races." "This is our judgment based on the US's non-constructive policies," he said, explaining that Moscow had been "asking the US to respond to our regular concerns, including the INF Treaty, over the past several decades." "And our concerns are usually more serious and more legitimate. Even so, we didn't shut the door for dialog nor announce a withdrawal from the treaty," Ryabkov said. Trump cited Russia's "violations" of the deal as the reason behind the plan to exit the INF. Russia, however, rejected the claim and reaffirmed Moscow's commitments to its obligations under the treaty and its intention to keep doing so. Russia has previously warned that it would take corresponding measures against the US's withdrawal. But Ryabkov said much will depend on Washington's next steps. He further said that the crisis of confidence will exceed all limits and further complicate the prospects of launching any systemic talks on strategic problems and arms race prevention. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Arms For All? Khodorkovsky Says Russians Need Guns By Timur Olevsky, Tony Wesolowsky November 27, 2018 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 Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/arms-for-all -khodorkovsky-says-russians-need -guns/29624355.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 Russia Targets Google For Not Deleting Banned Groups From Search Results By RFE/RL November 27, 2018 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 Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-targets -google-not-deleting-banned-groups-search -results-roskomnadzor/29623051.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 US Lawmakers Seethe Ahead of Briefing on Saudi Arabia By Michael Bowman November 27, 2018 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." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Saudi Crown Prince Visiting Arab Allies By Edward Yeranian November 27, 2018 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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Military launches naming contest for its new jets ROC Central News Agency 2018/11/27 13:34:31 Taipei, Nov. 27 (CNA) Taiwan's military is launching a contest to come up with a new name for its advanced military supersonic jet trainer aircraft currently under development. The Taichung-based Aerospace Industrial Development Corp. (AIDC) is scheduled to deliver 66 advanced trainer aircraft to the government by 2026 to replace the Air Force's aging AT3 trainers and F5 fighters, according to the Ministry of National Defense (MND). The government-funded AIDC previously named the new jets "Blue Magpie," after the birds that are endemic to Taiwan. But when asked at a press conference on Tuesday to announce the contest why the military was ditching the name, Maj. Gen. Tang Hung-an (), the head of the Air Force Command's Planning Division, sidestepped the question. He would only say that the military wanted to allow public participation in the naming process. Only ROC citizens are allowed to take part in the contest, and the names they submit must consist of two Chinese characters and be accompanied by an explanation of no more than 100 words, according to Tang. The winner of the contest will be awarded a NT$50,000 cash prize, while the runner-up and third-place finisher will win NT$30,000 and NT$20,000, respectively, Tang said. On June 1, AIDC began assembly of the first of the 66 advanced jet trainers. Ground testing of the aircraft is scheduled for September 2019, and the first test flight is to take place in June 2020, according to the MND. Tang said the project is going smoothly and remains on schedule. AIDC so far has completed around 15 percent of its scheduled plan, he said. The company has completed more than 10,000 blueprints of the jet and signed 122 contracts with subcontractors to build some of the systems being used inside the plane, he added. The modernization and production of indigenous aircraft and submarines has been high on the agenda of President Tsai Ing-wen's () administration since she came to power in May 2016. (By Joseph Yeh) Enditem/ls NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Cross-strait policy is the responsibility of central government: Tsai ROC Central News Agency 2018/11/27 22:09:33 Taipei, Nov. 27 (CNA) All matters pertaining to Taiwan's cross-strait policy remain under the authority of the central government, President Tsai Ing-wen () said Tuesday in response to Kaohsiung's plan to set up a new working platform to deal with China. "It is still unclear how they plan to do it," Tsai told reporters after a meeting with Chen Chi-mai (), who lost the mayoral race in the city, run by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for nearly 20 years, to the Kuomintang's Han Kuo-yu () by more than 150,000 votes last Saturday. During the election campaign, the mayor-elect said he agreed with the "1992 consensus" and that he would set up a cross-strait working group to promote bilateral trade once he takes office. The consensus, reached by Taiwan and China in 1992, is a tacit agreement that there is only one China, with Taiwan and China free to interpret what that means. However, the ruling DPP has long refused to recognize this agreement and relations have soured since President Tsai came to power in May 2016. There has always been an official agency responsible for the nation's cross-strait policies, Tsai said without further elaborating. Asked about Han's comments, Premier Lai Ching-te () responded that everyone is entitled to their opinion, but declined to discuss the matter further. (By Chen Chi-fong and Ko Lin) Enditem/AW NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Taiwan scraps nuclear-free deadline in wake of referendum ROC Central News Agency 2018/11/27 22:51:33 Taipei, Nov. 27 (CNA) Taiwan will no longer aim to become nuclear- free by 2025, following the result of the recent referendum related to nuclear power, Cabinet spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka said Tuesday. Last Saturday, Taiwanese voted in 10 referendums alongside local government elections, including one that pertained to the abolishment of nuclear energy-based power-generating facilities by 2025. The referendum result showed that 59.5 percent of the nearly 10 million who voted are against abolishing nuclear power, according to Central Election Commission (CEC) figures. The Executive Yuan respects the result and will work with relevant ministries to re-evaluate the country's energy policies, Kolas said. As such, the government will no longer see 2025 as the deadline, she said. The spokeswoman went on to explain that after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, public opinion took a strong turn against nuclear energy, leading the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to promise an end to nuclear power in Taiwan by 2025. And although nuclear energy produces less air pollution, the problem of handling and storing nuclear waste will remain a serious issue for Taiwan, she said. But as a response to the referendum outcome, Taiwan will drop 2025 as the deadline for closing all of its nuclear power plants, she said, although she added that the plan for a non-nuclear homeland will nevertheless remain the government's goal in the foreseeable future, Kolas said. (By Ku Chuan and Ko Lin) Enditem/J NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address UK government rejects Trump's criticism of Brexit deal Iran Press TV Tue Nov 27, 2018 06:44PM [Updated: Tue Nov 27, 2018 07:37PM ] The British government has furiously reacted to remarks by US President Donald Trump about a European Union withdrawal agreement, saying it was wrong to say that London will not be able to reach its own trade arrangement with Washington under the deal reached between Britain and the EU last week. "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," a UK government spokesperson said Tuesday. Downing Street also suggested Trump's comments were contradicted by the behavior of the US administration, which many say has become more unilateralist over the past two years. Cabinet Office minister David Lidington also said bluntly that Trump was "wrong" in his way of looking to the Brexit deal. "The United States is a tough negotiator ... President Trump's always said very plainly 'I put America first'. Well, I'd expect the British prime minister to put British interests first," Lidington told BBC Radio, adding that Trump was aiming to "finish off" May. In remarks late on Monday, Trump slammed the Brexit deal and said it would benefit the EU while damaging the UK's ability to trade with the US. "Sounds like a great deal for the EU" he said at the White House, before adding "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." The remarks encouraged some senior lawmakers from May's Conservative Party and other Eurosceptics to seize on the extraordinary intervention from the White House with glee. Jacob Rees-Mogg, a leading Brexit advocate said Trump was stating an "obvious" fact. Others said Trump's expression of concern about the Brexit deal could not be "brushed off" and May must reopen negotiations with Brussels. The comments came after May fought off criticism of her Brexit deal from lawmakers on all sides of the House of Commons on Monday, insisting the agreement would allow the UK to regain control of laws, money and borders. She has challenged opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn to a high-stakes TV debate on Brexit in a bid to turn the tide, and will try to get back on to the front foot today by visiting Wales and Northern Ireland to win public support. However, defeat is looking near-inevitable in the looming Commons vote on the withdrawal agreement, now confirmed as happening on December 11. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Ukrainian army on full combat alert over tensions with Russia in Sea of Azov People's Daily Online (Xinhua) 07:34, November 27, 2018 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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Putin voices 'serious concern' over martial law in Ukraine Iran Press TV Tue Nov 27, 2018 09:22AM [Updated: Tue Nov 27, 2018 09:29AM ] Russian President Vladimir Putin has voiced "serious concern" over Ukraine's recent move to impose martial law in the country following the seizure of three intruding Ukrainian military vessels in Russian waters. Putin conveyed his concern in a phone call to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the Kremlin announced in a Tuesday statement. Putin "expressed a serious concern over Kiev's decision to put its armed forces on alert and to introduce martial law," read the statement, which said the Russian president also urged Merkel to restrain Ukrainian authorities from engaging in further provocation and military measures. The Russian leader further told Merkel that he hoped "Berlin could influence the Ukrainian authorities to dissuade them from further reckless acts." The latest hostilities between Moscow and Kiev unfolded on Sunday when Russia's naval forces intercepted and seized three Ukrainian vessels after they illegally entered Russian waters off the coast of Crimea in the Sea of Azov. The Kremlin has said the seizure of the ships was lawful because they were trespassing. Ukraine's lawmakers later adopted a martial law measure in the border regions of the country for 30 days during a Monday vote in the parliament. The martial law gives Ukrainian officials the power to mobilize citizens with military experience, control the media, and impose restrictions on public rallies. Some countries have claimed Russia is seeking to assert its dominion over the Sea of Azov. German FM urges Moscow to stick to international law Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas called on Moscow to abide by international law and respect the territorial sovereignty of neighboring countries. "The aim must be that Russia sticks to international rules again and that it does not violate the territorial sovereignty of its neighbors," Maas said during a Tuesday speech in Berlin. To achieve this, he said, Germany and its European allies need clear principles and a "true dialog" on common security in Europe. Some European politicians have renewed calls for imposing further sanctions on Russia over the incident. "So far, there are no talks about tougher sanctions, but I generally would not rule this out," said Norbert Roettgen, who chairs German parliament's foreign affairs committee, during an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio. "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." According to local press reports, while Merkel has stressed the need for dialog, the European Union, Britain, France, Poland, Denmark, and Canada have all censured what they referred to as Russian aggression. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russian Court Jails Captured Ukrainian Sailors For Two Months By Crimea Desk, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service November 27, 2018 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 Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/west-rallies-behind-ukraine -calls-on-russia-release-detained- sailors-kerch-azov/29623124.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 Russia Rejects $1.3 Billion International Arbitration Ruling In Ukraine Bank Case November 27, 2018 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 Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-rejects -1-3-billion-international-arbitration-ruling-in -ukraine-bank-case/29624188.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 Russia Moves Fast to Deepen Kerch Crisis By Jamie Dettmer November 27, 2018 Russia's 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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Crimean Court Orders Captured Ukrainian Sailors Detained By Margaret Besheer November 27, 2018 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 country's 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 Kyiv's 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 Ukraine's 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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address VANCOUVER, November 28, 2018 - Nevada Clean Magnesium, Inc. (TSXV: NVM; Frankfurt-M1V; OTCQB: MLYFF) (the "Company") today announced that has increased its non-brokered private placement (the "Offering") originally announced September 14th, to $700,000. The terms of the Offering will remain the same and is subject to the final approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. The Offering The Offering is for gross proceeds of up to $650,000. The Offering is not subject to any minimum aggregate subscription. Each Unit will consist of one Common Share at $0.05 in the capital of Nevada Clean Magnesium (the "Common Shares") and one Common Share Purchase Warrant (the "Warrants"). Each Warrant will be exercisable into one Common Share for a period of two years at a price of $0.08/share. An acceleration clause is included with the Warrants such that the Company has the right, on thirty days' written notice, to require a Holder to exercise the Warrants so long as the closing trading price of the Company's common shares on the Company's principal trading market exceeds $0.10 per share for at least ten consecutive trading days at any time prior to the date of the Call Notice. The Warrants will terminate on the date that is thirty days from the date of the Call Notice in the event that the Holder has not exercised the Warrants in accordance with the terms of the Call Notice by such date. The securities issued in connection with the Offering will be subject to a hold period expiring four months and one day from the date of issuance of the securities. The completion of the private placement and payment of any commission and fees remains subject to the receipt of all necessary approvals, including the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. Proceeds from the Offering will be used for working capital. 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. Forward-Looking Statements Statements in this news release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements in this news release include that we will conduct and close a private placement and that we can become a a major U.S. producer and distributor of primary, high grade, low cost magnesium metal. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors, including the Company's dolomite reserves may not be mined because of technical, regulatory, financing or other obstacles, the market price for magnesium may make our resources uneconomic, we may not be able hire and retain skilled employees, and other risks associated with being a mineral exploration and development company. We may not be able to close with interested investors on our intended private placement because of perceived risks or market conditions. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information except as required by law. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release. To Reach Nevada Clean Magnesium Please Contact: John Ulmer at (604) 210-9862 For additional information please visit our website at http://www.nevadacmi.com or view our profile at http://www.sedar.com. You may also follow us on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. Copyright (c) 2018 TheNewswire - All rights reserved. Flattening year-over-year growth in gasoline demand in the United States, combined with high levels of refinery output, have contributed to low or negative motor gasoline refining margins for refiners along the East and Gulf Coasts, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). Gasoline refining marginsthe difference between the spot price of gasoline and the Brent crude oil spot pricehave been on a downward trend since August, and these margins have been at some of their lowest October and November levels in the past five years. At the same time, strong growth in distillate demand has driven increased distillate prices and refining margins. This combination of low gasoline and high distillate refining margins may signal a shift by refiners to maximize diesel fuel production instead of gasoline production, EIA said. The crack spreads in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) region of Europe and in Singapore, two global refining and distribution hubs, suggest markets in these regions are experiencing similar trends. Crude oil processed through a US refinery typically yields about twice as much motor gasoline as distillate fuels. As a result, although gasoline margins have been low recently, refiners cannot completely stop making gasoline in favor of other petroleum products, such as distillate. High refinery runs (driven by increased distillate demand) combined with lower demand for gasoline contributes to the high gasoline inventory levels, which have been higher than their recent five-year range since mid-August. Higher gasoline prices in 2018 have contributed to flattening S gasoline demand growth. Combined with increased levels of refinery output driven by strong demand for diesel fuel, gasoline production has outpaced demand, and inventories have increased beyond their normal seasonal levels, lowering gasoline prices and, as a result, gasoline margins. Through the first three weeks of November, estimated monthly gasoline consumption (which EIA measures by proxy as product supplied) averaged 9.2 million barrels per day (b/d)a decrease of 262,000 b/d from November 2017. Conversely, US distillate fuel oil product supplied increased 216,000 b/d through the first three weeks of November, largely because of economic activity and increased freight and trucking activity. High levels of US gasoline production in 2018 have outpaced gasoline consumption growth in 2017, leading to average inventories in November that are 14.8 million barrels higher than at the same time in 2017. Conversely, inventories of distillate have fallen in November and are 5.8 million barrels lower than at the same time in 2017. In Japan, Mazda Motor Corporation hosted the world premiere of the all-new Mazda3. The fully redesigned model will be rolled out to global markets starting from North America in early 2019. The all-new Mazda3 will be on display at the Los Angeles Auto Show. The all-new Mazda3 adopts Mazdas new Skyactiv-Vehicle Architecture, designed to enable people to make the most of their natural sense of balance. The powertrain lineup comprises the latest Skyactiv-X (Mazdas Spark Controlled Compression Ignition (SPCCI) engine, earlier post), Skyactiv-G and Skyactiv-D engines, each of which provides responsive speed control in any driving situation. Mazda has enhanced the cars fundamental driving attributes such that accelerating, turning and braking feel completely natural. All-new Mazda3 is the first production car to offer Mazdas innovative Skyactiv-X engine. Running on regular gasoline, SPCCI works by compressing the fuel-air mix at a much higher compression ratio, with a very lean mix. The SKYACTIV-X engine uses a spark to ignite only a small, dense amount of the fuel-air mix in the cylinder. This raises the temperature and pressure so that the remaining fuel-air mix ignites under pressure (like a diesel), burning faster and more completely than in conventional engines. Features include superior initial response, powerful torque, faithful linear response and free-revving performance. The engine is assisted by Mazdas intelligent new M Hybrid system, which supports greater gains in fuel economy, and achieves higher levels of driving pleasure and environmental friendliness. 5-, 2.0- and 2.5-liter versions of the latest Skyactiv-G comprise the gasoline engine lineup for the new Mazda3. All three adopt optimized intake ports and piston shape, split fuel injection and a coolant control valve to deliver higher levels of dynamic performance, fuel economy and environmental friendliness. The Skyactiv-D 1.8 is the diesel engine offering for the new Mazda3. Incorporating ultra-high-response multi-hole piezo injectors allows the engine to utilize high-pressure, precisely controlled multi-stage injection. This realizes a finer balance of enhanced fuel economy, quietness and reduced exhaust gases, while also delivering smoother, more robust performance. Mazdas evolved i-Activ AWD newly adds four-wheel vertical load detection and works in harmony with G-Vectoring Control Plus (GVC Plus) to control torque distribution between the front and rear wheels. As a result, it is fully capable of responding faithfully to the drivers intentions, regardless of the driving scene. It also reduces overall mechanical loss by approximately 60% over the previous model and contributes to improved fuel economy. G-Vectoring Control Plus (GVC Plus) adds direct yaw moment control via the brakes. This enables the car to better handle emergency avoidance maneuvers and offers more confidence-inspiring controllability in various situations, including lane changes at high speeds and driving on slippery roads. Having sold over 6 million units since its 2003 debut, the all-new Mazda3 is a global strategic model that has driven Mazdas growth from both a brand and business perspective. The Arkansas Sons of Confederate Soldiers had a float in the November 24 Christmas Parade of the Ozarks in Springdale, Arkansas. Its members claim it is a patriotic organization and is not in the business of promoting racism. But some disagreed. The Dorchester Historical Society in Dorchester, Massachusetts recently ran a promotional piece for its holiday party that read, "Dreaming of a white Dorchester." The words were changed from the classic Christmas song to have a more local meaning, and were accompanied by the lyric, "May your Dorchesters be merry and bright." On November 26, the ad was pulled and an apology was granted for the "oversight." This raises several questions. Have we become so hypersensitive about racism that we are constantly on the alert seeking to find any whiff of bigotry? Why it is okay to have a gay float in the St. Patrick's Day Parade but not a Confederate float in a Southern Christmas parade? Why are we told that clear instances of anti-Catholic art have multiple meanings and should not be considered as bigoted, but Confederate displays have only one meaning? Why is the term "Black Friday" not seen as racist by the sensitivity police? Is the song, "White Christmas," a testimony to racism? Notice, too, the sensitivity cuts only one way. How many filthy movies have been made trashing Christmas, yet are always seen as funny, not bigoted? They just don't get it. One hundred years ago, just two weeks after the end of World War One, Billie Carleton, a 19-year-old actress staring in Londons West End, died of a drug overdose. The ramifications of her death lasted for decades. The gulls tory is a cracking read. By way a taster, heres an extract from the story from the brilliant Flashbak.com: The time was ripe for a moral panic, and in February 1916 cocaine was again mentioned in the newspapers when Horace Kingsley, an ex-soldier and ex-convict, and Rose Edwards, a London prostitute, were each given six months hard labour for selling cocaine to Canadian soldiers at a military camp in Folkestone. The day after the verdict, the Times medical correspondent came down hard on the drug: Cocaine is more deadly than bullets, he wrote an extraordinarily crass thing to write when in the preceding month alone about 10,000 British men had perished on the Western Front, many by bullets. The ignorant stupidity continued when he added that most cocainomaniacs carry a revolver to protect themselves against imaginary enemies. A few days later an H. C. Ross wrote to the same newspaper about small silver matchboxes he had seen in well-known West-End jewellers that were designed to be sent to friends and loved ones on the front and which contained three tubes filled with tablets of morphine hydrochloride, to be taken when severely wounded. The letter concluded, Morphiomania is a terrible malady. Which indeed it is, but possibly not of undue concern to a soldier who has just had his leg shot off. The Times, ironically, had recently been carrying advertisements for preparations of morphine and cocaine by Harrods and Savory & Moore (Mayfair chemists and suppliers to King George V), describing them as a useful present for friends at the front. In February 1916, both stores were found guilty of selling morphine and cocaine contrary to restrictions contained in the 1908 Poisons and Pharmacy Act. The prosecutor, Sir William Glyn-Jones, secretary of the Pharmaceutical Society and practising barrister, made a point of saying that it was an exceedingly dangerous thing for a drug like morphine to be in the hands of men on active service it might have the effect of making them sleep on duty, or other very serious results. Both Harrods and Savory & Moore were fined, albeit nominal amounts. In July 1916 Regulation 40B of the Defence of the Realm Act came into effect, which criminalised the possession or sale of opium or cocaine by anyone except licensed chemists, doctors and vets. Further domestic legislation followed after the war when the Treaty of Versailles contained a clause requiring signatories to introduce domestic drugs legislation. In Britain this evolved into the Dangerous Drugs Act 1920; this Act changed drug addiction to a penal offence, though up to then, within the medical profession, it had been treated as a disease. Carletons death, seemingly of cocaine, and the subsequent inquest and court cases often featured on the front pages until April 1919, and both The Times and the Daily Express used the case as an excuse to run an investigation into Londons illicit drug trade The Fairfield County area could rank among the three most-improved markets in the country for home sales, according to Realtor.com estimates published Wednesday predicting gains in transactions and prices. The Bridgeport-Stamford area could see a 5 percent increase in sales and a 4 percent bump in prices next year, Realtor.com forecasts, with only two other markets in line for bigger increases across both measures in Chattanooga, Tenn. and Lakeland, Fla. Among major Northeast markets, only Boston is positioned for a bigger increase in prices at 4.6 percent, with no Northeast community seeing a bigger gain in sale transactions than southwestern Connecticut. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee wading into primaries in swing districts caused months of angry grumbling from the left, including a public rebuke from Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez and an onslaught of negative coverage from left-leaning outlets like The Intercept. But the leaders of the party committee cared more about winning the House majority than ruffling feathers, and it's becoming clearer as the dust settles that their strategy succeeded. Two contests in California illustrate how the approach paid dividends. Earlier this year, several Democrats were fighting to take on Rep. Jeff Denham, R, in a Sacramento-area district. But there was no credible challenger against Rep. David Valadao, R, in a Central Valley district farther to the south. Hillary Clinton had carried both places in 2016 but, because Valadao had still prevailed by double digits, serious candidates with the ability to raise big money weren't stepping up. The DCCC convinced one of the Democrats running against Denham, T.J. Cox, to run against Valadao instead, promising national party support if he did, and prodded Emilio Huerta, the Democrat who was running and had lost badly last time, to drop out. The state's jungle primary system also means that the top two finishers in June, regardless of party, face off in November. Private polling showed Democrats there was a real chance that they'd be frozen out against Denham if Cox stayed in because a second GOP candidate was pulling in the double digits. Democratic venture capitalist Josh Harder wound up winning the second slot and defeated Denham earlier this month. Cox, an engineer who founded a nut-processing company and is now president of a community investment fund, trailed Valadao by over 4,000 votes on election night, but with the latest batch of mail-in ballots counted, he's now ahead by 436 votes. A Fresno Bee analysis of the thousands of ballots that are still outstanding suggests Cox will likely prevail, though the race has not been called. Fresno County is expected to announce fresh numbers later today that could prove decisive. California helps tell the story of how Democrats won the House. For Nancy Pelosi, poised to win her party's support today to become speaker, her home state is also the gift that keeps on giving. Democrats have already flipped six GOP-held seats in California, including all four in the longtime GOP stronghold of Orange County. The Valadao seat would be the seventh - and their 40th pickup. The GOP had to defend 25 House districts where President Donald Trump lost to Clinton in 2016. If Valadao goes down, Republicans will only hold three of those 25 seats next year. The three incumbents who survived the blue wave are Will Hurd in Texas, Brian Fitzpatrick in Pennsylvania and John Katko in New York. Katko beat Dana Balter in a Syracuse-area district that Clinton carried by six points. She was one of only two Democratic nominees for the House this fall who defeated a candidate formally backed by the DCCC in the primary. The other was social worker Kara Eastman, who defeated former congressman Brad Ashford in an Omaha district Trump had won by running on Medicare-for-all. Eastman lost to Rep. Don Bacon, R, in the general election by 3 percent. The most famous example of the DCCC's intervention came in February in the Democratic primary to take on Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas. The committee generated a firestorm by publishing opposition research on Laura Moser, a liberal candidate who had momentum because of support from national progressive groups. Operatives concluded that Moser couldn't win the general election in the suburban Houston district. Among other things, she had written a piece for Washingtonian magazine in 2014 that said she'd "sooner have my teeth pulled out without anesthesia" than move to her grandparents' home in rural Texas. Their intervention allowed Lizzie Fletcher to prevail in the primary runoff. She beat Culberson this month by five points. California shows that Democrats weren't always so heavy handed in clearing the field. After agreeing to switch races, for example, the DCCC added Cox to their "Red to Blue" program on March 22, which provided an infrastructure for significant national fundraising. Cox outraised Valadao in the second quarter, pulling in about $700,000 despite the incumbent benefiting from a high-dollar fundraiser hosted by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who represents a nearby Bakersfield-area district, and Trump himself. Cox raised another $930,000 in the third quarter. The DCCC also agreed to split the costs 50-50 to run a series of TV ads. Cox, in concert with the DCCC, went on the air Aug. 7, five weeks before Valadao began running his own ads on broadcast television. They went on Spanish-language TV in late September. All told, the DCCC spent about $700,000 on the joint ads. All the spots linked Valadao to Trump in a district that the president had lost by 16 points and where the majority of the population is Latino. The spots pointed to a FiveThirtyEight analysis that showed the congressman voted with the president 99 percent of the time. Valadao tried to focus his campaign on his efforts to bring home the bacon with his seat on the Appropriations Committee and to scale back environmental protections so farmers would have more access to water. He also hammered Cox for being from outside the district and owning a home in Maryland. On the campaign trail, he accused the DCCC of elevating a "Washington insider" over a local resident. But Trump's unpopularity overshadowed all of that. A Republican strategist who was involved in the race, speaking on the condition of anonymity to offer a candid assessment, argued that Cox was a subpar candidate and Valadao ran a textbook campaign, but that races have become so nationalized in this environment that it was impossible for him to survive with the president so unpopular locally. To illustrate this point, GOP operatives note that Cox ran for Congress in the Central Valley back in 2006 against GOP Rep. George Radanovich. It was another good year for Democrats, but he still lost by 20-plus points. "There's plenty of seats they can take credit for, but this isn't one," the Republican strategist said of the DCCC. "This was all environment." Cox said he performed well because of his focus on issues like better health care and good jobs. "Here in the Central Valley, we are often underestimated and counted out," Cox said in a statement after the latest election results came out. "But while the national spotlight focused elsewhere, our hard-working communities came together to fight for . . . more opportunities." Dan Sena, the executive director of the DCCC, emphasized in an interview that half the Democratic pickups came in districts Trump won in 2016. He said surviving primaries and building bridges between the establishment and grass-roots activists was essential to expanding the battlefield. During a wide-ranging conversation in his office last week about the lessons of 2018, he noted that there were about 40 viable House races in 2016, but the committee invested in 89 districts this year. He noted that a lot of veteran Democratic operatives told him that several of the Clinton districts they wound up picking off were not winnable because the incumbent was too popular. Valadao was among them. "There were multiple paths to the majority," said Sena. "When Donald Trump shakes the snow globe, we weren't sure what was ultimately going to happen. . . . We didn't have a lot of mulligan candidates. A lot of our first-time candidates didn't make freshman mistakes." The committee made a big bet on California, setting up an office in Orange County for operatives back in April 2017. "We made a strategic decision to elevate the West," he said. Local field staffers were hiredearly, and they were urged to cultivate relationships with the resistance groups that were popping up organically around the country so that Democratic House candidates could capitalize on their energy. Sena privately dubbed this "arming the rebels." Social media is now a foundation of digital marketing strategy, but its a bit difficult to incorporate when the worlds largest social media platform doesnt allow people to search for your products or services. Thats been the case with Facebook when it comes to cannabis-related businesses. The social media giant continues to allow people to post fake news at alarming rates, but until recently wouldnt allow someone to search for marijuana products -- even if they are legal in their state. But that all changed this fall. Related: State Regulators Consider Better Ways to Determine Who Controls Cannabis Business About-Face for Facebook For months, Facebook blocked cannabis-related pages from user search results. The intent was to keep people from selling illegal products through the platform. However, it also led to them blocking such sites as the California Bureau of Cannabis Control and advocacy groups including the Marijuana Policy Project and the National Cannabis Industry Association. According to Market Watch, you also had situations where you could search MPP and find the Marijuana Policy Project page, but not if you actually searched for Marijuana Policy Project. Facebook finally decided in October to allow pages that have been verified by Facebook to appear in search results. That process involves an assessment of the company by Facebook and verification standards such as a publicly listed phone number. Related: Pass the Cannabis, Please: Marijuana Among Restaurant Trends for 2019 Appease the gods. In Facebooks defense, it is caught up in a situation that snags many other businesses -- marijuana remains illegal at the federal level even as more states legalize it. Banks, for example, wont extend financial services to marijuana companies. However, even with the new compromise, issues remain. Cannabrand CEO Olivia Mannix told Cannabis Business Times that it remains difficult to get verified by Facebook. She also said, The way that Im interpreting it is that you will be able to search for cannabis-related companies, [but] I dont know if thats actually going to alleviate any of the issues with cannabis-related companies getting flagged and shut down. Perhaps the most practical outlook came from social media consultant Amy Donahue, who told Cannabis Business Times, To me, business should be verified on Facebook anyway -- that just makes you look more professional. And if thats what Facebook wants, then sometimes we have to appease the gods and do what they say. Getting verified by Facebook involves supplying proof of business registration, validation of a business address or phone number, and proof of association with your business. Facebook provides a rundown of how to get verified here. Follow dispensaries.com on Instagram to stay up to date on the latest cannabis news. Related: Conquering the Blogging Game: Tips & Trick from One Blogger to Another Facebook Now Allows Marijuana Businesses to Appear in Searches Why You Should Use Messenger Chatbots for Marketing Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved Huddersfield racism: the right-on race to ruin a boys life Today Twitter invited the morally good and knowing to pile in on a 16-year-old twat. Lots of people were excited by a video of a school playground incident at Almondbury community school on 25 October 2018. We see a bigger white boy apparently grab a smaller darker skinned boy and pull him to the ground. The bigger lad then pours water into the smaller lads face. Someone filmed it. Lots of other kids of all colours, genders and sizes just stood about doing nothing. The 30 seconds-long video wound up on Twitter and in the midst of lots of misinformation about it taking place in Sheffield its Huddersfield and calls to name the bigger lad and tell us where he lives, West Yorkshire police got involved. Police say the 16-year-old boy will be charged with assault on the 15-year-old. Reports say the alleged bully and his family have been moved from their home for their own safety after vigilantes harassed them. The Sun highlights one Facebook post in which a man threatens to stab him, saying: Ill be there tomorrow with a knife, ready to stab the c***. Should we hate the minor? If youre still in doubt as how best to answer that, the Mail adds: Teenager accused of water-board attack on 15-year-old Syrian refugee is a Britain First supporter who has shared posts from Tommy Robinson on Facebook. Thats the same Tommy Robinson who appears on BBC news shows. And if a newspaper puts something in inverted commas its means it might not be true. So why say it? It then turned out that the alleged victim is a Syrian refugee. Tasnime Akunjee, a solicitor representing the boys family, said they were considering moving away from the area and had received offers to be rehoused in Oxford. Last week a student at the school who forcibly removed the boys sisters hijab was expelled. A fundraising page for the boy and his family has received more than 77,000 in donations since it was launched yesterday. Mohammed Tahir, who set up the page, says: Im overwhelmed by the support that weve received and I cant thank everyone enough for the generous donations they have made. I am working alongside GoFundMe so we can make sure every last penny gets to the family and I want to thank them for their support. Best of luck with that GoFundMe is a profit making business, taking 5 percent fee on transactions. As for the police, well, they tell everyone: The incident occurred on 25 October this year and has been subject to thorough investigation since it was reported to us the day after. The alleged victim and his family are receiving ongoing support from police and other agencies. Fair enough. And good that the school condemns bullying and racism. Not all schools punish the racist by removing them from the group. Full disclosure: my own child was the victim of (alleged) racism at her school. The perpetrator was not excluded. They didnt even get a detention. But we never shouted about it. Life goes on. Resilience matters. And the prat in this video needs the chance to apologise and not have the nastiness define their life. (We never got an apology. But the daughter learned a lesson about self-reliance. Shes strong and stood up for herself. Good-oh.) Now can we adults talk about something else? Like, say, the war in Syria? Anorak Posted: 28th, November 2018 | In: Key Posts, News Comment | TrackBack | Permalink GREENWICH Sentencing for Andrew Schmidt, who pleaded guilty to a hit-and-run fatality in September, was postponed to Dec. 11. Schmidt, 19, was due to appear in Superior Court in Stamford Wednesday morning for sentencing, but last-minute legal issues arose, and the case was put off until next month. Gionee is on the verge of bankruptcy after owing money to financial institutions, suppliers, and advertising and marketing agencies. The total debt is around CNY17 billion (about $2.45 billion), not without the handy help of its chairman Liu Lirong, who lost CNY1 billion while gambling in a casino. In a meeting between company representatives and suppliers, Gionee reportedly stroke a deal with major suppliers, but nearly 400 smaller companies are yet to hear what will happen with the money they are owed. If restructuring is not a viable option, Gionee will go into liquidation. Beijing Youth Daily reported the meeting is happening after 20 major suppliers filed a lawsuit with the Shenzhen Peoples Court for missed payments from Gionee. The partners lost any trust in the smartphone manufacturer after reports that the founder was losing money at a rate from 1 to 200 million per month. Liu Lirong said in his defense that the company is his only source of income and it is inevitable that there will be some public activities, funded by the company. Other reports from China claim the gambling debt is around CNY 10 billion, with the other 6 billion being misappropriated in other ways. There is also some operative loss. Although the company is in shambles, devices are still selling both at T-Mall and offline retailers. Resellers told the publication that the Gionee M7 is still the most purchased device from the company and they will keep issuing standard warranty until units are sold out. Source (in Chinese) HMD Global has just announced an event in India on December 6, for which it's already started sending out media invites. The event comes just one day after another one that the company is hosting in Dubai, where it's expected to unveil three smartphones. At least one of those will probably also be introduced in India the following day. Rumor has it that it will be the Nokia 7.1, but the Nokia 7.1 Plus was also seemingly teased by HMD's Indian arm, so both could be in the mix. Note that the Nokia 7.1 Plus is supposedly going to be the global version of the China-only X7, but may end up being called Nokia 8.1 just to make things even more confusing. Nokia 7.1 The Nokia 7.1 was initially announced last month, and it's already available in some international markets. It has a 5.84-inch 19:9 touchscreen with 1080x2280 resolution and a notch, the Snapdragon 636 chipset at the helm, 3/4GB of RAM, 32/64GB of expandable storage, and a 3,060 mAh battery. There's a 12 MP camera on the back paired with a 5 MP depth sensor, while on the front you get an 8 MP shooter for selfies. The Nokia 7.1 runs Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box but the update to Android 9 Pie is out now. On the other hand, the Nokia X7 has a larger 6.18" display with the same resolution, is powered by the Snapdragon 710, and has a bigger 3,500 mAh battery. It has 4/6GB of RAM and 64/128GB of storage, a 12 MP + 13 MP dual rear camera system, and a 20 MP selfie snapper. It runs Android 8.1 Oreo. Via Three months after being banned from developing 5G networks in Australia, Huawei received a new blow, this time from New Zealand. The intelligence agency of the Pacific country denied Spark from using the already set 5G equipment, citing concerns about national security. Spark is one of the major carriers in New Zealand and the first to file a request to start using the next-gen connectivity. General Andrew Hampton, Government Communications Security Bureau Director, said that a significant network security risk was identified. Huawei replied with the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang expressing serious concern and underlining that more than 20 5G contracts across the globe are already signed and there is nothing to worry about. Huawei has been developing New Zealand communication networks since the implementation of 4G, investing NZD400 million, or over $270 million. Intelligence services minister Andrew Little said the difference between 5G networks and conventional 4G and 3G networks is the configuration. With the new technology, every component of the new network can be accessed. Spark rival 2degrees stated that if there is a similar impact, it will be a real disappointment for competition, while Vodafone New Zealand declined to comment on the matter. Source Since the official stable version of the Android Pie with Samsung's brand new One UI on top is coming in January, the company's developers are working hard on the beta release to squash all the bugs. Today the second update to the Android Pie beta is being pushed to a number of Galaxy S9 and S9+ devices with some improvements to the front shooter. The changelog says that since the last update, Samsung has been working on improving the front camera experience, especially when it comes to faces in backlit conditions and overall software stability improvements. However, the patch is pretty hefty at around 700MB so we assume there's more to it than meets the eye. Oh, and Google's November security patch is in there as well. Galaxy Note9 owners should expect an open beta program launched pretty soon and rumor has it, the Galaxy S8-series and the Note8 are next on the list. (ANSA) - Rome, November 28 - Italian and other dry-stone walls were added Wednesday to UNESCO's list of the world's intangible heritage of humanity. The UN cultural agency announced the news on Twitter Wednesday. UNESCO thanked the countries that presented the bid: as well as Italy, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Slovenia, Spain and Switzerland. UNESCO recognised the art of dry-stone walls and the way in which they are built with stones piled onto others without using any other material except dry earth. It is a technique that dates back to prehistoric times and is indicative of the harmonious relationship between humans and the natural world. The committee which oversees the declarations said that the dry-stone nomination is in accordance with criteria of intangible cultural heritage. These include the technique being a "living" one, i.e. it is still very much in use, and the fundamental role it plays in maintaining the environment and landscape. UNESCO was particularly impressed by the international collaboration in exchanging best practices for the continuance of the technique. Haiti - FLASH : PM open to bring former Presidents into his cabinet Prime Minister Jean-Henry Ceant who advocates dialogue and reconciliation between all political actors, is ready to go very far in terms of openness if we believe his response to a listener on a radio station of the Capital asking if he was ready to appoint in his cabinet as Minister, Mirlande Manigat or Jean-Bertrand Aristide... "If they want to join me in the governance of the country, what's more beautiful to have Manigat or Aristide gathered in council to share their experiences. They are Haitians who have served their country [...] we must take advantage of their experiences if the opportunity arises. Whether it be Mirlande Manigat, Boniface Alexandre, Ertha Pascale Trouillot, Prosper Avril, Jean-Bertrand Aristide or Michel Martelly, the State must be able to count on their reflections on the political situation ." Note that Ceant caresses the project to create a Club of the former Presidents of Haiti "This is one of the things I want to introduce into the dialogue, a Club of Past Presidents that will facilitate the smooth functioning of the State" affirming to be in discussions on this subject with President Jovenel Moise. TB/ HaitiLibre Haiti - Security : Nearly one Haitian woman out of 3 has already suffered physical violence As part of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Gender, the Haitian branches of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), UN Women, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reiterated their commitment to work with Haitians in Haiti to end the abuse whose women and girls in Haiti are victim In Haiti, recent data from the Mortality, Morbidity and Service Utilization Survey (EMMUS-VI 2016-2017) reveal that 29% of women aged 15-49 have been physically abused since the age of 15 years. One out of 8 women (12%) reported experiencing sexual violence at some point in their lives, with intimate partners being the most common perpetrators. Among non-single women, 34% reported having experienced, at some point, various forms of physical, emotional or sexual violence. Of this group, 45% of the violence was perpetrated by the husband or their current partner. Studies have clearly established that violence against women affects all aspects of women's lives, as well as the well-being of their families and society more globally. These international organizations point out that by working to reduce violence in Haiti, they work to ensure that women enjoy their human rights. See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-25374-haiti-flash-17-of-haitian-women-agree-to-be-beaten-by-their-husbands.html S/ HaitiLibre Haiti - Malpasse : The death toll becomes heavier, a 5th customs agent found dead Tuesday, following the riot of November 24 at the border point of Malpasse in Haiti, which killed 6 including 4 customs agents https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-26214-haiti-flash-angry-mob-attacks-the-customs-of-malpasse-at-least-6-dead.html , the authorities confirmed to have found the body in Lake Azuei of a fifth customs officer, bringing to 7 the total number of dead. Events that provoked a strong reaction from the Head of State who declared "Customs agents and citizens were killed in inhumane conditions on the Malpasse border. Justice must do everything to arrest, judje and condemn the perpetrators and co-perpetrators of this shameful and barbarous crime..." The customs authorities accused the police of having failed in its mission while Malpasse customs officers had begun to call reinforcements after the confrontation at 9:00 am between the Haitian drivers of 2 vehicles returning from the Dominican Republic and a agent of the customs, Philippe Axiliere who demanded a second control of vehicles that caused the shooting death of one of the drivers and was the beginning of a chain of dramatic events that culminated around 3:00 pm without the reinforcements of the PNH to be at the scene... In a note, Ronald Decembre, the Minister of the Economy and Finance who learned with dismay of the incidents that occurred on November 24 "bows to the remains of the victims and condemns, with the utmost vigor, these acts of an extreme atrocity. The seriousness of such acts requires that their perpetrators and accomplices be prosecuted quickly to avoid repetition. The Minister December offers his condolences to the families, collaborators and friends of customs agents, victims in the exercise of their function and wants to assure them of his support in these regrettable and difficult circumstances. He invites customs personnel to calm and discipline pending the outcome of investigations." In addition, Jean Bridgens Aristil, spokesman for the mayor of Ganthier, announced that at least two people had already been arrested in this case. According to our information, the customs officials' funeral will be held this Wednesday at the Parc du Souvenir. See also : https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-26239-icihaiti-security-victims-burned-the-police-will-act-with-the-last-rigor.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-26230-haiti-flash-incident-in-malpasse-8-policemen-find-protection-in-dr.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-26214-haiti-flash-angry-mob-attacks-the-customs-of-malpasse-at-least-6-dead.html SL/ HaitiLibre Haiti - Economy : CCIHC condemns the current situation affecting the country's economy In a press release, Claude Martin Jr., President of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIHC) "condemns with the utmost vehemence the acts of intimidation, violence and terror to which the country is confronted now and that have paralyzed life for several days. We are saddened to see the many losses in human lives and the destruction of property aggravating an already fragile socio-economic environment." Faced with this situation the CCIHC : Encourages the Government to take all measures available to remedy this situation. The restoration of public order, Peace and stability remain indispensable to the business development and foreign investments that our economy badly needs. Moreover, it is essential that the corruption characterizing public spending be combated and the guilty punished in accordance with the law. Congratulates the Haitian National Police (PNH) for its handling of the crisis and asks it to do everything possible to guarantee the safety of life and property. The Prime Minister, as President of the Superior Council of the National Police (CSPN), must put the means at the disposal of the PNH so that it can carry out this heavy task. Reiterates its attachment to the constitutional mandates of elected officials and republican institutions while recognizing the right of everyone to the free expression recognized by the Constitution and the freedom of the press. However, it strongly condemns all public incitement to violence, aiming to put the sons and daughters of the Nation against each other and calls on those responsible for Justice to crack down on their perpetrators with the utmost rigor. Believes that any solution to the end of the crisis must be the subject of a binding and sincere dialogue between the various actors of national life, without exception, in order to allow genuine inclusion. Claude Martin, asks its members to remain calm and not give in to provocation from wherever it comes. HL/ HaitiLibre Haiti - News : Zapping... One hundred weapons and thousands of ammunition seized Robert Conand Masse, Director of Legal Affairs at Customs, reports that more than 100 firearms of all caliber and tens of thousands of ammunition have been seized since the beginning of the year in ports, airports and at land borders. The Clifford Brandt trial postponed The new trial of Clifford Brandt, scheduled for Tuesday at the Criminal Court of Gonaives, was postponed to eight days, December 4 due to the absence of Clifford Brandt in court. 2nd Voluntary Return Flight from Chile A new group of 170 Haitian volunteers from Chile arrived at the Toussaint Louverture airport on November 26th. It was the second flight under the orderly return plan put in place by President Sebastian Pinera. They were 170 aboard the military plane that landed at Toussaint Louverture airport on Monday night. See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-26212-haiti-social-2nd-voluntary-return-flight-from-chile-170-haitians-expected.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-26085-haiti-social-return-from-chile-difficult-for-176-compatriots.html Increase of 200% of the customs deductibles Tuesday, Romel Bell, the Director General of the General Administration of Customs, revealed that the amount of customs exemptions granted by the State during the financial year 2017-2018 amounted to 19 billion, almost double the 10 billion granted during the previous financial year (2016-2017). If the NGOs are pointed out by the Senator Youri Latortue, President of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Committee of the Senate, these represent only 30% of the amount of the franchises granted. Senator Latorture requires a list of all NGOs and businesses in Haiti that have benefited from these franchises. Radios incite to violence The Economic Forum regrets that some radio stations in the country, during broadcasts, allow listeners to make statements inciting violence and hatred in total violation of the CONATEL regulation, which categorically prohibits the broadcast on the airs of threatening to the lives of citizens and inciting the destruction of private and public property." Senate hit by crisis The country's socio-political and economic situation continues to worsen. The crisis marked by violent demonstrations across the country also affects the functioning of Parliament. During the period from 12 to 23 November, the Senate was unable to hold a plenary session for lack of a quorum ... HL/ HaitiLibre Published on 2018/11/28 | Source Jung Woo-sung poses with a Yemeni child at a refugee shelter in Djibouti on Nov. 20. /Courtesy of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Advertisement Actor Jung Woo-sung, who has been a goodwill ambassador for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees since 2014, has spoken out for continuing to accept refugees in Korea. "Some politicians are trying to abolish the asylum laws, but they need to be able to explain why they are trying to do that", Jung told the Chosun Ilbo last week. "Politicians need to think about what kind of relationship future generations will form with other countries and should not make such narrow-minded choices and be so insular". Korea has taken in a minute number of refugees compared to many other countries even if North Korean defectors are included. Yet recently the main opposition Liberty Korea Party formed a committee opposing asylum rights after 500 Yemenis entered Jeju Island on a visa waiver and applied for refugee status. There have been a series of rallies in downtown Seoul on weekends opposing Korea's policy of welcoming refugees. Jung spoke to the Chosun Ilbo by telephone from the tiny African nation of Djibouti, where he met with Yemeni refugees. "The situation facing refugees is no different from the painful past of our own people", he said. "Many people died during the Korean War, including many innocent people. I understand the perplexity and concerns over many refugees arriving on Jeju out of nowhere, but the refugees I met up close are just like us and they only suffer from war or other extreme circumstances". Some of the Yemenis were eventually granted temporary permission to stay but were not recognized as refugees despite the civil war and famine devastating their country. Jung urged Koreans to reflect on their xenophobia. "Our country is not a military or economic powerhouse by global standards", he said. "I don't want to imagine Korea facing a crisis, but we too could end up requiring the help of the international community, and if we keep that in mind we shouldn't be so hostile to refugees". "I think my role is to try and change these negative views toward refugees into positive ones", he added. (ANSA) - Washington, November 28 - EU-Italy budget talks are among the sources of risk in today's global economy, Fed chief Jerome Powell said Wednesday. He said they were "among the sources of risk that can trigger situations of stress at any moment". Speaking to the Economic Club of New York, Powell also cited Brexit and trade tariffs starting from US-China talks, as well as cyberattacks. Published on 2018/11/27 | Source "Hymn of Death" came out on the 27th. Lee Jong-suk and Shin Hye-sun play the characters genius playwright Kim Woo-jin and Joseon's first soprano, Yoon Sim-duk. Advertisement In the first episode, Kim Woo-jin and Yoon Sim-duk met while studying abroad in Tokyo. Hong Nan-pa (Lee Ji-hoon) suggested Yoon Sim-duk for Lee Woo-jin's latest play, and Yoon Sim-duk set an agreement that she was only going to sing and she'll quit if the play risks her safety. The first encounter wasn't so pleasant. Kim Woo-jin wanted to show the people that their mother land Joseon still existed, but Yoon Sim-duk didn't approve of that. She was also upset at him for not reacting to her singing. Then the police raided and Kim Woo-jin was taken. Yoon Sim-duk waited for him for several days and was shocked to see him again, but covered in blood. Lee Jong-suk's performance was outstanding and his narration at the end of the episode left a lingering message. Shin Hye-sun did a good job as well, but some say she looked awkward when she sang. According to TNMS media data, the drama rated 5.9% and 6.5%, coming in first. Press release The Montana Parks in Focus Commission will host a public meeting Thursday and Friday, Dec. 13-14, in Great Falls. The public meeting is the last of four meetings held at state parks across Montana to gather public input and develop recommendations to sustain and strengthen Montanas state parks system. The north-central region of Montana is home to five unique parks in the Montana state parks system, including Ackley Lake, First Peoples Buffalo Jump, Giant Springs, Sluice Boxes and Tower Rock. Giant Springs, the states most visited park, is home to the largest freshwater spring in the country. The Parks in Focus Commission has been working all year to understand and address the most pressing issues facing state parks, said Stace Lindsay, chair of the Parks in Focus Commission. We look forward to visiting Great Falls and meeting at First Peoples Buffalo Jump State Park to share our findings and recommendations. Were optimistic that in partnership with other leaders in the state we can build the state parks system Montanans want and deserve. The Parks in Focus Commission was created in January by Gov. Steve Bullock to strengthen Montanas state parks system and to ensure the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks has the resources, capacity and expertise to implement the Montana State Parks and Recreation Strategic Plan. The commission consists of 12 volunteer professionals with backgrounds in business, local government, education, tourism and health care. The first of four commission meetings was held in Three Forks in February. The second meeting was held in Kalispell in April. The third meeting was in Glendive in September. This meeting at First Peoples Buffalo Jump State Park near Great Falls is the final meeting of the Parks in Focus Commission. The commission is tasked with providing recommendations to the governor, state Legislature and Fish, Wildlife and Parks on three strategies that emerged from the state parks strategic planning effort: growing strategic partnerships, building an engaged constituency and diversifying revenue. The Parks in Focus Commission and Montana State Parks Foundation are co-hosting a welcome reception Thursday, Dec. 13, at the Ursuline Center from 5:30 to 8 p.m. with light food, drinks and a discussion about how parks connect us, build community, and keep us healthy and happy. The agenda for Friday, Dec. 14, includes a morning tour of First Peoples Buffalo Jump State Park as well as a drum circle and blessing from local tribal members and formal commission meeting from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at First Peoples Buffalo Jump Visitor Center. Commission encouraged members of the public to join the meeting, which is an opportunity to provide input on creating a robust and relevant state parks system for Montana. The commission is approving its final recommendations at the Dec. 14 meeting. To view the Parks in Focus Commission meeting agenda or to learn more, visit http://www.chartinganewtomorrow.com/parks-in-focus/. Recently re-elected U.S. Senator Jon Tester, D-Mont., talked Tuesday about his concerns with the ongoing trade war and tariffs during a telephone press conference from Washington. "We need a solution and we need it quickly," Tester said. "The president must stop using farmers and ranchers as pawns in a trade war. We cannot afford to begin another growing season with this cloud of uncertainty." Tariffs are a self-inflicted problem that has no end in sight, he said. The trade war has already taken a toll on Montana producers as well as farmers and ranchers across the country, Tester said. He added that many grain producers still have some of last season's grains "in the barrel" because of the loss of markets. The tariffs have caused commodity prices to fall and filled family farmers and ranchers with uncertainty, Tester said, making it difficult to plan the next growing season. If the tariffs cause the country to permanently lose access to some of these international markets, it could be the "death nail in the coffin" for many rural communities across the country, he added. Montanans raise the best products in the world, Tester said, and access to these international markets assures that producers get the best return on everything they raise. Tester said he will continue to push the Trump administration for a quick fix to this growing problem because it is critically important to maintain Montana's top industry and to secure the future of the state. "China has been a bad actor, and we need to hold their feet to the fire," Tester said, "but there are ways we can do it without cutting off markets." "If I was doing this," he added, "I would try to do it through our financial system. Putting financial restrictions, getting our allies in the region, because we are not the only ones that they have treated poorly. ... I think it is much more difficult to do it with tariffs, especially as they are moving away from this country for some of their feedstock, for their people and their livestock." Tester said financial restriction would reduce the flow of international money to China. He said this method would be quicker in bringing about a solution because "money talks." This method would also make it difficult for China go to other markets successfully, he added. Tester said he wants to continue working on veterans' issues. He said he hopes to get his Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act passed before the end of the year. The bill has bipartisan support, he added, and would help provide care and benefits to Blue Water veterans who served off the shores of Vietnam during the Vietnam War and were exposed to toxins such as Agent Orange. Tester said some misguided rules prevent Blue Water veterans from receiving benefits because they never set foot on an actual battlefield. He added that these veterans deserve the same benefits as the other veterans who served during that same time. Tester said his bill would tear down the barriers to veteran care and insure that they receive the treatment and benefits that they earned while serving this country. This bill will also extend benefits to the veterans and their families who served near the perimeter of military bases near Thailand during that same era, he said. "I've met with dozens and dozens of Blue Water Navy veterans across Montana," Tester said. "They all sacrificed greatly for our country, and I think that it is time that we do right by these heroes and get this bill passed into law." Tester said the only main road block for this bill is the Trump administration. He said this administration doesn't want to pass the bill due to the cost. "The fact is, taking care of our veterans is the cost of war, and, as a country, we need to do right by our veterans," Tester said." Tester added that other bills need to be voted on before Dec. 7 of this year. Some of these bills include the remaining seven appropriation bills, which are needed to fund the government, he said. The appropriation bills are critically important to Montana, Tester said. "When it comes to crafting budgets, Washington has a habit of kicking the can down the road," he said. "The businesses need long-term certainty, farmers and ranchers need long-term certainty, our men and women in uniform need long-term certainty." He added that he will be calling both sides together to avoid another government shutdown. These appropriation bills also provide one last opportunity to sign important legislation into law before the new Congress begins Jan. 3, Tester said. "I think there is a real opportunity here to get some bipartisanship in Washington," he said. He added that he thinks the campaign season pulls the nation to the extremes, to the far left and far right. He said he has already worked with some Republicans since the election to get some things done. "There's good people on both sides of the aisle that can really have good common sense," Tester said. "We can work together to get some things done. If we are willing to put the petty partisanship away and make it so that negotiation and compromise is not a dirty word, then I think we can do some good stuff." "I am very hopeful this next session will result in some good bipartisan victories," he added. "I want to thank the people of Montana for entrusting me to a third term," Tester said. "I am humbled by the support and honored to fight for our state every single day. There is a lot of work to do." A lot of attention is paid in litigation to the job descriptions specified in contracts of employment, as a key issue in any case will be identifying the essential aspects of the role in order to determine whether or not the core components could in fact be undertaken by the employee. Practically speaking, this can present a problem for employers, as job descriptions are often not provided at all, or if they are, their content is vague and ambiguous and in practice they are often overlooked as a crucial component of the documentary hygiene of an employment relationship. Consequently, much of Evans counsel in such matters is directed at identifying exactly what the role involves and reconciling this with (often) conflicting medical opinions, in conjunction with exploring options for potential accommodation of the afflicted employee. Its rare to see a comprehensive job description, as no one pays any attention to job descriptions, and yet theyre scrutinised in these proceedings. Consequently, theres often a need to call extensive sworn evidence to establish what are the crucial elements of a role, as distinct from what is desirable (or sometimes, from whats been thrown together and rolled out just before the matter has gone before a court or tribunal) So, its better when we get these cases to assist an employer to thoroughly evaluate: What is the role? What are the physical and/or psychological components? What are the doctors saying? What does your documentation say and where are the gaps? Whats the best outcome here for both the business and the employee? Because if you do decide to terminate without a rigorous process and comprehensive medical evidence theres a significant risk they could be reinstated because you havent actually identified and addressed some of these key issues at the stage prior to termination. What if there are conflicting medical assessments?\ But what if there are conflicting accounts as to the nature of the injury? What if an employees own doctor says one thing and the independent specialist says another? What if two experts disagree? This is a common issue and the approach to the treatment of such evidence has been the subject of considerable debate in recent Fair Work Commission decisions. In CSL Limited T/A CSL Behring v Chris Papaioannou [2018], the Full Bench stated that the tension between the previous Lion Dairy and Drinks Milk Ltd v Norman [2016] and Jetstar Airways Ltd v Neeteson-Lemkes [2013] (Jetstar) decisions was to be resolved in favour of the approach in Jetstar. That is, where considering a dismissal related to a persons capacity, the A former director of a Sydney newspaper publisher has been fined after threatening and dismissing a journalist who sought assistance from the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO). Theodore Skalkos, sole director of F.L. Press Pty Ltd, has been ordered to pay $27,500 in penalties to a former employee of the Novosti newspaper by the Federal Circuit Court. The journalist contacted the FWO for assistance in 2010 after F.L. Press announced his full-time employment would be converted to part-time, moving from five days to two days per week. He reported at Novosti between 2003 and 2011. The employee informed Skalkos of the FWOs advice in relation to the changes, which included redundancy for the full time role and payment in lieu of notice of termination. The Court found Skalkos threatened not to pay the employees entitlements unless the worker signed a statement saying he agreed to the change in his working conditions. Moreover, during this period, Skalkos told the journalist he would be dismissed entirely if he did not complete both his own duties and those of an editor who was on leave, inside his normal hours. The company dismissed the journalist in January 2011 for various reasons, including requesting assistance from the FWO. Skalkos argued that the dismissal was due to the pending closure of the Novosti but the newspaper continued to operate. Judge Robert Cameron found the threats and final dismissal were adverse action, describing Skalkoss conduct as bullying and intimidatory behaviour. It is important that employees be able to report matters to the Ombudsman without fear of the sort of threats of reprisal which [the employee] suffered and in which Skalkos was personally involved, said Judge Cameron. Ombudsman Sandra Parker said serious conduct like this undermines the workplace relations system. Under the Fair Work Act, it is clearly unlawful to take adverse action against a worker for seeking assistance from the Fair Work Ombudsman, said Parker. This legal action is a warning to all employers that we will not tolerate any intimidation of employees who exercise their rights. The symptoms of anxiety can be hard to detect. Here are the ones you need to pay attention to, and how to know if you may have an anxiety disorder. (ANSA) - Rome, November 28 - The cabinet on Wednesday gave the green light to a bill for a new system under which reports of cases of violence on women would be given 'red-rating' priority status. The legislation will see reports of abuse, rape, persecution and aggravated domestic violence taken directly to prosecutors, who should speak to the woman within three days. The bill was signed by Justice Minister Alfonso Bonafede and Civil Service Minister Giulia Bongiorno. There has been a spate of shocking femicides - cases in which women are murdered, usually by their current or former partners - in Italy in recent years. A 63-year-old woman who assaulted three gardai while they were arresting her son said she saw red and her "maternal instincts" kicked in. Mary Finnegan kicked out at one garda, struck another on the wrist and shin, and struck a third officer on the back of the head. The mother-of-two said she had been taking prescribed sleeping tablets and went out for the evening but had only one drink - causing her to react the way she did. She had worked all her life but retired three years ago and was "very embarrassed" by her behaviour, Balbriggan District Court heard. The defendant, of St Catherine's Park, Rush, north Co Dublin, pleaded guilty to assaulting Garda Arron Shanahan, Garda Aidan O'Halloran and Garda Kevin Fitzpatrick on August 26, 2017, at Upper Main Street in Rush. She had no previous convictions. Sergeant Eoin McDonnell gave evidence that at 2am, while Rush Harbour Festival was taking place, gardai attended Main Street to arrest Finnegan's son. "The defendant then interfered with the arrest of her son and assaulted three gardai," said Sgt McDonnell. "She kicked out at one garda, struck another on the wrist and shin and struck a third garda in the back of the head." The officers were "not seriously injured" and were able to resume duty a short time later. Defence solicitor Fiona D'Arcy said her client, who has two sons aged 35 and 32, was "very embarrassed". "She has prepared three letters of apology for the gardai, which have been handed over to the sergeant," she added. Ms D'Arcy said the defendant went out on the night to socialise but had been taking prescribed sleeping tablets and "only had one drink". Destroyed "Because of the way her son was behaving he was arrested. She saw red and her maternal instincts kicked in," she said. "She couldn't believe she behaved in the way she did. "She is normally a peaceful citizen and her retirement has been destroyed by this for the past 15 months." Judge Paula Murphy warned Finnegan that the offences "carry a headline sentence of 12 months", and ordered a probation report before adjourning the case until next year for sentencing. Gerard Furlong was found not guilty of assaulting neighbour Peter Lambe with a screwdriver during a row A householder has been found not guilty of "stabbing" a neighbour in the leg with a screwdriver during a row outside their homes. Gerard Furlong had been charged with assaulting and injuring Peter Lambe, who also said he had a tooth broken in the confrontation. Concussion Noting that witnesses had not seen a screwdriver, Judge Paula Murphy said the case was not proven beyond reasonable doubt and dismissed it. Mr Furlong (62) had denied assault causing harm to Mr Lambe at Arran Road, Drumcondra, on March 4, 2016. Mr Lambe (50), a tradesman, said he was at his van when Mr Furlong got out of his own car and approached. "I said, 'we need to have a talk about your wife', because she kept making faces at me," Mr Lambe told Dublin District Court. "He grabbed me by my jacket and swung me across the street." He alleged Mr Furlong picked up a screwdriver and stabbed him. Mr Lambe initially thought the screwdriver was his own, but it was not. He said he was treated in hospital for a stab wound and concussion. In cross-examination, Mr Lambe denied he was a "difficult neighbour". He claimed Mr Furlong's wife had been "making faces at my family for years" and this was "an ongoing issue" between the families. He said days earlier "she had blocked me in with her car", but gardai would not give her a ticket and "she seemed to think this was very funny". Mr Furlong told the court Mr Lambe had approached and said: "I want to talk to you." He replied that he did not want to talk and went to move away but Mr Lambe went to kick him, he alleged. Mr Furlong said he caught his foot and pushed him back, after which he said Mr Lambe grabbed and "punched" him. He said he fell to the ground, his glasses broke and he was left with facial injuries. He denied stabbing Mr Lambe and did not see a screwdriver. Witnesses said he was badly bruised, cut under one eye and bleeding. Judge Murphy dismissed the case against Mr Furlong. Mr Lambe, meanwhile, is charged with assaulting Mr Furlong. He denies the charge and his case was adjourned for hearing next month. A judge has jailed a young woman for two months for causing criminal damage to a 1.50 tube of Pringles. Judge Brian O'Shea sentenced 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 during Christmas 2016. Security McDonagh, of Inchera, Mahon, Cork, pleaded guilty to causing criminal damage to the 1.50 cylinder 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 shop at the time. However, she entered the supermarket, took the tube of crisps from a display shelf and proceeded to a self-checkout. Security staff walked over to make her aware of the fact she was barred. As they approached, she opened the crisp container in front of them. "[She said] 'I opened it so you will have to leave me to pay for it'," Insp Kenneally told the court. Because the packet had been opened and could not be resealed, it could not be sold. Judge O'Shea was told the defendant had more than 30 previous convictions, including theft, criminal damage and handling stolen property. The judge heard the defendant had co-operated fully with gardai and flagged her guilty plea at the earliest possible opportunity. The young woman had recently got married and had a history of anxiety problems. She is currently taking 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, but Judge O'Shea said the offence had to be viewed in context against what he termed the defendant's "smart aleck" behaviour and her history of previous convictions. The judge said her behaviour toward the shop's personnel was an aggravating factor. 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. Recognisances were set in case of an appeal. A dispute between a property company of former presidential candidate Sean Gallagher and Nokia Ireland has come before the High Court. Nokia Ireland is seeking various orders against its landlord, Clyde Real Estate Blanchardstown, in a dispute over heating and cooling systems for a Dublin premises. The application opened yesterday, when Ms Justice Teresa Pilkington heard claims by Nokia that conditions in its office, where 100 people work, were described as "Arctic" and difficult to work in due to the alleged failure to provide proper heating services. In a sworn statement, Mr Gallagher, the chief executive of Clyde Real Estate, disputed this and said that the temperatures in the office had been recorded by experts as being acceptable for an office, pending the installation of a replacement heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system in January. Breach Nokia says it had complained about excessively hot and cold temperatures since 2016. The communications firm initiated proceedings in June, when Ireland was experiencing a heatwave, claiming Clyde was in breach of a lease agreement of March 2015. Opening the case, Michael Howard, for Nokia, said his client's workers had been enduring office temperatures far below the accepted 18-23C. On dates in October and early November, counsel said, workers were sharing portable heaters to stay warm, and had to wear their jackets indoors. His client does not accept Clyde's claims that the new HVAC system will be up and running early in the New Year. Clyde does not dispute its responsibility to provide a HVAC system, and said it will replace the current one in January. It claims that under a proper construction of the lease agreement, the electricity and gas consumed in operating an HVAC was the responsibility of Nokia as a tenant. Nokia disputes this. The hearing continues. Arlene Foster has described any suggestion DUP support for the Brexit withdrawal agreement could be bought with further major investment pledges for Northern Ireland as "offensive". At Stormont for talks with British Prime Minister Theresa May, the DUP leader was asked at a press conference whether another "bribe" would win her party round - a reference to the 1bn (1.13bn) secured by the DUP as part of its confidence and supply deal with Mrs May's Tories at Westminster. "We didn't take a bribe in the first place - the confidence and supply agreement was for all of the people of Northern Ireland," she said. "Some of that money has already been delivered. We look forward to the rest of that money being delivered for all of the people of Northern Ireland. Ditches "It is very offensive to raise this in terms of money. We are talking about the constitutional and economic long-term future of Northern Ireland - so the answer is no." Ms Foster suggested opposition to the deal at Westminster was "coalescing" around the Border backstop proposal. "So if she ditches the backstop there is every reason to believe that this withdrawal agreement could go through," she added. All five of the main Stormont parties held talks with Mrs May at Stormont House yesterday. It is feared there could be as many as a dozen other victims of serial sex offender Patrick Nevin, the Herald has learned. Nevin (37) was jailed for five-and-a-half years yesterday for sexually assaulting a Brazilian woman he met on the Tinder dating app. Nevin, who has been listed on the Sex Offenders Register, was also ordered to stay away from the internet for the purpose of meeting anyone unknown to him for two years after he is released. However, gardai believe "there could up to 12 more victims out there who had interaction with Nevin". "Some of these victims have previously come forward but would not make statements to gardai to enable their cases to go to the DPP," a source said. "Separately, there is also a firm belief that there are other victims based on the amount of his activity on Tinder." Expand Close One of Nevin's Tinder pictures / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp One of Nevin's Tinder pictures Jailing Nevin at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, Judge Cormac Quinn told him that "contact on Tinder did not give consent in any way to a sexual assault". Wearing a long-sleeved white and blue checked shirt, the defendant did not react when he was sent down. In June, Nevin admitted raping a woman in Bellewstown, Co Meath, on July 12, 2014, as well as sexually assaulting a second woman at an unknown place in Co Meath on July 16, 2014. The defendant met all the women through Tinder and the three attacks all took place within 11 days. During the June hearing, the court heard that Nevin boasted to gardai that he had "thousands of matches" on Tinder and had met up with "hundreds of women". He is due to be sentenced on those matters in December. Last November, Nevin was also found guilty of sexually assaulting a Brazilian woman at University College Dublin (UCD) in July 2014. Sentencing him on that matter yesterday, Judge Quinn said the evidence was that Nevin forcibly kissed the victim and in her words "turned into a monster". He pulled her dress down and exposed her breast. There was a struggle and the victim's elbow made contact with Nevin's face. He then punched her. Secluded Judge Quinn said the aggravating factors were that the victim was a vulnerable young woman who had very little English. Nevin took her to a secluded place at UCD, where he sexually assaulted and abandoned her. He had also used force, with the judge noting that Nevin was a "well-built man" while the victim was of "petite build". Nevin had eight previous convictions and received a seven-year sentence in 2001 for a serious assault on his then partner and for killing their two dogs. Judge Quinn said the mitigating factors were the defendant's age and personal circumstances, and that he had previously used his time in custody to complete a degree. He also noted that Nevin was in the Midlands Prison, and a governor's report said he had enhanced privileges and worked in the computer shop. The judge backdated the five-and-a-half-year sentence to September 2014, when Nevin went into custody. He also ordered two years post-release supervision, saying Nevin was not to use the internet or any electronic device to make contact with persons unknown to him. Monster The victim, now 36, told the court last Friday that it had been very hard for her to travel back to Ireland 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". Reading from her victim impact statement, she said: "Initially I blamed myself for everything. I'm afraid of people's 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 as it reminds her of the attack. However, she said she still dreamt of returning to live here. She said Ireland taught her "to say please, sorry and thank you for everything" and she tells herself nowadays that most people are good. Nevin was identified as a suspect after gardai checked the records of the car caught on UCD's automatic number plate recognition system. Patrick McGrath SC, defending, said his client did not accept the jury's verdict. From left, nurse Margaret McGovern, clinical paediatric nurse specialist Fiona McHugh and nursing lecturer Mary Fitzgibbon at a press conference at the Merrion Hotel in Dublin Nurses and midwives who have a conscientious objection to pregnancies being terminated are still in the dark about how their jobs will change, it has been claimed. The new law, which is due to be rolled out within weeks, will allow health staff the option of not participating in abortion if it conflicts with their beliefs. However, there is concern about nurses and midwives who not only want to opt out owing to freedom of conscience, but also object to directing a woman to an abortion provider. The issues were raised yesterday by the Nurses4Life group, which produced a petition signed by some 350 registered nurses for Health Minister Simon Harris, asking to protect their freedom of conscience. Margaret Fitzgibbon, a lecturer in nursing, said staff shortages meant that all the nursing staff rostered on a maternity unit may hold the same pro-life view when an abortion is scheduled, plunging them into an uncomfortable dilemma. She warned that duties placed on nurses under the new law could "involve supervision, delegation, planning or supporting of staff involved in termination of pregnancy". "We do not want to be discriminated against by our employers or victimised as employees if we exercise our freedom of conscience," she said. Two other members, Fiona McHugh, a clinical paediatric nurse specialist, and Margaret McGovern, a general nurse, also highlighted how the issue had not been raised at hospital level by senior nursing managers. Debated A spokeswoman for Mr Harris said last night: "Regarding conscientious objection, it is important to state this legislation does not require medical practitioners, nurses or midwives to do anything new, or indeed anything more than they are already ethically required to do under their own professional guidance." The legislation is to be debated in the Dail this evening. (ANSA) - Rome, November 28 - Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said Wednesday that Italy will not take part in an intergovernmental conference in Marrakech next month to adopt the United Nations Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. "Just like the Swiss, who carried forward the Global Compact up until yesterday and then said 'everyone stop', the Italian government will not sign anything and will not go to Marrakech," Salvini told the Lower House. "The floor of parliament must debate it. The Italian government will allow parliament to decide". Premier Giuseppe Conte also said the government will not do anything until parliament has expressed a view. "The Global Migration Compact is a document that raises issues and questions that many citizens have strong feelings about," Conte said. "Therefore, we consider it right to put the debate in parliament and subject any final decision on the outcome of that debate, as Switzerland has done. "So the government will not participate in Marrakech, reserving the option to adopt the document, or not, only when parliament has expressed its opinion". Star Wars filming concludes in Wadi Rum Exotic landscape chosen as location of far away galaxy (ANSAmed) - AMMAN, November 28 - The breathtaking area of Wadi Rum, south Jordan, has witnessed the filming of the epic American blockbuster movie Star Wars in a major boost for Jordan's desert as a top filming and tourism destination. Director J.J. Abrams concluded filming the exciting conclusion to the Skywalker saga-- Star Wars: Episode IX for the film that began shooting three years ago, the Royal Film Commission (RFC) said on Wednesday. Abrams chose Jordan's Wadi Rum and Shakriah landscape as an exotic, epic locale for a galaxy far far away, said the RFC in an official statement. "Wadi Rum is breathtakingly beautiful and the perfect location for our film," says Abrams. "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 couldn't have had a better experience. We are enormously grateful," said RFC in a statement posted on its website. Jordan has mobailized the army and an large number of local producers to asses in the production of the famous film, which would further enhance Waid Rum as a main filming destination for Hollywood and other filming industries. Star Wars: Episode IX benefitted from the Jordan Film Incentive Programme, which provides cash rebate on expenses in the Kingdom. During the three-week shoot the production worked with more than 250 Jordanian crew across every department including camera, costume, creatures, special effects and stunts. The Jordanian Army also provided logistical support that was key to the success of the shoot. "The unique timeless and diverse landscape of Jordan, along with its highly motivated production crews, makes it an ideal destination for filming. Having the latest episode of Star Wars shot here is a true testament to that. As a lifelong fan, it is a great honor! May the force be with you!" said Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein, Chairman of the Board of Commissioners - The Royal Film Commission - Jordan. Star Wars: Episode IX includes returning cast members Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong'o, Domhnall Gleeson, Kelly Marie Tran, Joonas Suotamo, and Billie Lourd, with veteran Star Wars actors Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels, and Billy Dee Williams also appearing in the saga's final chapter. Principal photography of Episode IX began in August 2018 at Pinewood Studios in London, England. Release is scheduled for December 2019. Jordan's southern region, including Wadi Rum and Petra have featured in some of the famous international films such as the Laurence of Arabia, Indiana Johns, the Martian for Mat Demon as well as the latest film of Alladin for Willy Smith. (ANSAmed) Uh-oh! It could be you, or it could be us, but there's no page here. Gaza: at least one dead in apartment building blast Others wounded (ANSAmed) - GAZA, NOVEMBER 28 - A strong explosion was reported on Wednesday at an apartment building in the low-income district of el-Boureij in Gaza, local sources said. Rescue officials said one person died and others were wounded in the explosion while rescuers are still looking for missing people. Images from el-Boureij showed a high cloud of grey smoke over the building, which could be a sign that the blast was caused by explosive material. (ANSAmed) Houthis agree to UN negotiations for Hudaydah 80% of humanitarian aid passes through port (ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, NOVEMBER 28 - Houthi rebels in Yemen have agreed to negotiate with the United Nations to allow for UN humanitarian agencies to manage the port of Hudaydah, where 80% of aid passes to the war-torn people of Yemen. The news was announced by the office of the UN mediator for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, currently visiting Yemen and Saudi Arabia, cited on Wednesday by pan-Arab media. Saudi Arabia leads the military coalition, which includes the United Arab Emirates, against the insurrection in Yemen of the Houthis, who are considered to be backed by Iran, which is a rival of Riyadh. The port of Hudaydah is controlled by Houthis but has been under siege for months by pro-Yemeni forces supported by the Arab coalition. Military action against the Houthis on the Red Sea has intensified in recent weeks. Saudi Arabia confirmed on Wednesday that the Houthis' decision to negotiate is a sign that they are having difficulty maintaining control of the port. The Houthis said they have no interest in controlling the flow of humanitarian aid to civilians and that the Arab coalition wants to take control of the port so it can also condition the provision of essential services to civilians.(ANSAmed). It's our second pandemic Thanksgiving. How's it affecting you? It's Thanksgiving Day, and while it's the second COVID-19 Thanksgiving, more of us are traveling to celebrate the holiday with family and friends. (ANSAmed) - AMMAN, NOVEMBER 28: Jordan announced it has retrieved dozens of smuggled antiquities seized by Canadian authorities during a botched attempt of smuggling at Toronto airport, highlighting difficulties of the kingdom in preserving its ancient artifacts and looming threats of cross border smuggling. Authorities have received a total of, 67 that belong to various ancient eras, Petra news agency, quoted Jordan ambassador to Canada Reem Alaa Al Din today. The Jordanian diplomat was authorized by the government to receive the antiquities and return it to the kingdom, said Petra. The antiquities included oil lamps, pottery, glass jars and statues dating back to various eras of Jordan's history. Officials and scholars believe that the threat of organized crime in smuggling artifacts is difficult to stop due to involvement of influential figures including diplomats and well connected syndicates. Experts told ANSAmed it is hard to determine the typical route for illegally excavated archaeological materials, but recently authorities seized at crossing between Jordan and Israel a stash of coins and statues, which were hidden in a diplomatic vehicle. "The smuggling of ruins is difficult to control or stop because foreign diplomats sometimes hide these goods in their own personal belongings. Sometimes relatives of the diplomats use the vehicles to cross the borders," said an official who requested anonymity due to sensitivity of the subject. Jordan is known to have a rich presence of ancient civilization including Roman, Byzantine, Othoman and Islamic Era and a wide range of artifacts across its territories. A growing unemployment and poverty has lead to rise in number of attempts by local communities to dig for ancient ruins and gold on hope for a quick money. Authorities have imposed heavy laws to thwart stealing of artifacts, but experts say the law is being implemented selectively. (ANSAmed) Saudi Prince bin Salman in Tunis to strengthen relations Met with President Essebsi. Protests against visit (ANSAmed) - TUNIS, NOVEMBER 28 - A statement from the office of Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi detailed elements of a meeting Essebsi held with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman at Carthage Palace on Tuesday. The statement said the meetings, which involved delegations from both countries, dealt with "the constant evolution of relations between the two countries following Essebsi's visit to Riyadh in December 2015 and its fruitful results, which have had positive effects on bilateral cooperation". In particular, the meetings tackled ways to strengthen this cooperation in key sectors, such as the economy and finance, security and military cooperation to fight the dangers of extremism and terrorism, as well as the exchange of experiences and knowledge in the scientific and cultural sectors, the statement said. The meeting focused on the current status and outlook of bilateral cooperation, the various questions of common interest on the regional and international level as well as that of Arab countries and preparations underway for the 30th Arab League Summit scheduled for Tunis in March 2019. "This visit is part of consolidating historic privileged relations established between Tunisia and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and of the shared desire to reaffirm them and develop them in different sectors for the well-being and in the interests of the two friendly peoples," it said. Following the meeting, Essebsi held a state dinner in honour of bin Salman and his delegation, attended by Tunisian Prime Minister Youssef Chahed and Tunisian Parliament Speaker Mohamed Ennaceur. Hundreds of Tunisians marched on Tuesday in the city centre to demonstrate their opposition to the arrival of bin Salman in Tunisia. In particular, the Union of Tunisian Journalists (SNJT) expressed its opposition in an open letter to the head of state, in which it said it strongly opposed the visit, calling it "defiant" in that it constitutes a "clear violation of the principles of the 2011 revolution". Many civil society associations also opposed the visit, as well as the National Union of Tunisian Women (UNFT). Tunisia is the last stop on a regional tour that has taken bin Salman to the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt, prior to flying to Argentina for the G20 summit.(ANSAmed). Syria: Russia, Iran, Turkey talks start in Astana To focus on truce in Idlib (ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, NOVEMBER 28 - Political-military talks are starting Wednesday in Astana, in Kazakhstan, between Russia, Iran and Turkey, the countries that have been dividing up control of the western regions of the war-torn nation since 2017. The talks, which will continue until tomorrow and will focus on the truce in place in the Idlib region, will also be attended by delegations of the Syrian government and exiled oppositions. UN mediator for Syria, Staffan De Mistura, who is about to leave his position to his successor, Geir Pedersen, has also been invited. It had been previously reported from Geneva that the meeting in Astana would be the first attended by Pedersen but the experienced Italian-Swedish diplomat will instead be at the talks for the last time as UN envoy. The US, which attended previous meetings in Astana as observers, will not be at the meeting. Jordan, which shares a long border with Syria, will attend as an observer. (ANSAmed) Yellow vests: premier open to meeting, rejects requests Movement says it wants to organize demo on Saturday (ANSAmed) - PARIS, NOVEMBER 28 - French Premier Edouard Philippe says he is ready to meet with a delegation of representatives of the 'yellow vests' movement which has reached the 12th day of mobilization against the French government. Meanwhile the movement's spokesman confirmed last night, at the end of a meeting with the minister for ecological transition, Francois De Rugy, the intention of organizing a new demonstration in Paris Saturday on the Champs-Elysees. Interviewed this morning by RMC-BFM-TV, Philippe said the government will carry on as planned, meaning there is no possibility it will accept the demonstrators' request to withdraw an increase on diesel fuel taxes as of January 1. (ANSAmed) Political parties across the board have one mantra once elections are declared: winnability. During my years in the Election Commission, I asked many leaders why they gave tickets to contestants with criminal antecedents and did not prefer clean candidates. They would avoid my question or say they would be prepared to discuss it after elections were over. According to the figures compiled by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), the ongoing elections display the same trend. Criminality among candidates continues in the elections underway in five states. ADR has compiled figures for three. In Chhatisgarh, 130 candidates of 1079 face criminal cases, of whom 90 have been involved in heinous crimes. In Madhya Pradesh, 41% of recontesting Congress candidates and 71% of BJP face criminal cases. In Mizoram, 4% of the candidates have declared their criminal cases, of which half are for serious offences. When I was CEC, in preparation for the 2009 general elections, the commission established a number of non force steps to create a level playing field, and keep violence and intimidation at bay. Not all candidates belonged to established political parties that had electoral machines backing them. Independent candidates, too, required the protection of the commission. These included a first time use of extensive videography. Whichever candidate, irrespective of party, pointed to polling stations where they harboured fears of intimidation or trouble, the commission reviewed the ground situation. If they were categorised as sensitive, we provided video cameras to record the entire polling process on polling day. Over 80,000 cameras were used during the five weeks of polling in 2009. Similarly, over 51,000 still cameras were also employed to photograph all those who entered sensitive polling stations. This comprehensive record of events was used as evidence in the event of any election petition that was filed. The Returning Officers/ District Magistrates were made to ensure that all films or photographic evidence remained safe in their protective custody for six months after the election. Nor was this all. We also devised a new strategy of placing micro observers at very sensitive polling stations, where candidates apprehended that there may be trouble. These micro observers were placed under the charge of senior Observers. It may be recalled that the Observers, senior officials of the rank of Joint secretary to the Government of India, were first deployed by TN Seshan. For the 2009 general elections, almost 2000 observers were posted on duty almost one month before election day. Micro-observers were junior government servants usually drawn from the state (but not from the districts where the elections were taking place). They were stationed at a single (or a small cluster) of booths, for the entire duration of polling day, where the commission apprehended that there may be violence or large scale impersonation or some other equally disturbing development. Observers are invariably drawn from other states and, therefore, have no local ties. We employed over 2000 observers and over 50000 micro-observers during the polls. If 2009 was deemed both nationally and internationally as a peaceful election, then these were some of the contributing factors. Importantly, these measures undertaken continue to be maintained by the commission. Political parties and candidates alike are availing of them. There was another non-force option that had been tried and tested to good effect. In the commission, we called it vulnerability mapping. Its genesis was as follows. During the course of our preparations for the Assembly election in UP in 2007, our officials reported that there were several pockets of persons that were unable to vote in earlier elections. We dispatched observers to find out why. The reason actually stared us in the face, but we had not recognised it. It was caused thus. The locality in question often belonged to scheduled caste dwellers. The polling station was often at the other end of the village or in another village. Since they had to walk through upper caste areas, they were often intimidated on the way. We prepared a survey in the run up to the Assembly election and found that about 25000 hamlets, or parts of them, were not casting their votes. We had the two choices. The first was to relocate the existing polling station to a more central spot. But a shift required the approval of all in the fray. The second was to allow the poll station to remain, and instead create an auxiliary station on the doorstep of the deprived areas. This is what we did. Many families voted without fear for the first time in years. We perfected this. By the 2009 general elections, we put up over 100,000 auxiliary stations throughout the country. It created a quiet revolution. The commission tries hard to level the playing field, by upholding the Model Code of Conduct as a fair umpire should. It has tried over long years to ban criminality from the electoral maidan, but that requires laws to be amended. Only Parliament can do that. Till that happens, the commission had been successful in outlawing erstwhile practices of booth capturing and violence. Navin B Chawla is former chief election commissioner. His book Every Vote Counts will be released in January 2019 The views expressed are personal Social media can be a harrowing experience even for the tough ones. Trolling can occur for the most unexpected of reasons. That is exactly what Anshula Kapoor, sister of Arjun Kapoor, must have realised. However, not everyone believes in taking things lying down, certainly not Arjun. The Namaste England actor has lashed out at trolls for targeting his sister Anshula over the recent episode of Koffee With Karan which featured siblings, Janhvi Kapoor and him. Taking to Twitter, he wrote: Something I assumed was an absolute non issue on Koffee with Karan has escalated into @anshulakapoor being abused & I cant be bothered by protocol anymore. F**k all those trolls who wish harm to my sister. I hope ur mom or sister never have to go thru what u have put us thru... Something I assumed was an absolute non issue on Koffee with Karan has escalated into @anshulakapoor being abused & I cant be bothered by protocol anymore. F**k all those trolls who wish harm to my sister. I hope ur mom or sister never have to go thru what u have put us thru... Arjun Kapoor (@arjunk26) November 27, 2018 During a game similar to fastest finger first both the guests were required to call someone and ask that person to say: Hey Karan, whats up? Whoever managed to say it first, his/her caller won the point. Janhvi called sister Anshula while Arjun called dad Boney. Arjun blackmailed Anshula saying that he wouldnt return home if she said the golden words. Anshula failed to say so and point went to Arjun, as his father did say the magic words. As ill-luck would have it, Anshula couldnt do the needful as she couldnt hear Janhvi well over the phone. Subsequently, trolls got after Anshula and harassed her, even sending her rape threats. According to Janhvi, who was a part of live-athon on Facebook with Priyanka Chopra and Ishaan Khatter, Janhvi revealed that Anshula even got rape threats. Priyanka had revealed how she was told that she looked like her dog Diana, whose pictures she often shares. Meanwhile, the latest episode of Koffee With Karan was interesting, with fans getting a peek into Janhvis lively personality while Arjun acknowledged being in a relationship but nothing more, even as both Karan and Janhvi ragged him on the matter. He is rumoured to be in a relationship with actor Malaika Arora. The duo also got after Janhvi and teased her about her first co-star Ishaan. Follow @htshowbiz for more A week after their Bengaluru reception, newlyweds Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh are set to throw their second wedding reception in Mumbai on Wednesday. The newlyweds had flown to Mumbai a day after the lavish reception in Bengaluru for a bash which was hosted by Deepikas parents Ujjala and Prakash Padukone. While several sportspersons and family members had attended that function, the couple have invited the Indian media for their first Mumbai reception, which will only have their close family members in attendance. Invite and venue The white and gold reception invite is simple and classy and bears the names of the two families as the hosts of the evening. The guests have been invited to arrive for the reception from 8pm onwards at The Grand Hyatt hotel. It is to be noted, the post-wedding party hosted by Ranveers sister Ritika Bhavnani was also held at the same hotel, which will continue to remain the venue of their third wedding reception for the film fraternity on December 1. What the newlyweds will wear Looking at Ranveer and Deepikas recent fashion choices, one can only wonder what the couple will choose to don for their second reception. But going by Deepikas fascination for Sabyasachis designer wear, we expect her to wear one of his classy creations for this one too. For the record, Deepika had pulled off a Frida Kahlo in a Sabyasachi Dil Guldasta lehenga at their post-wedding dance party in Mumbai on Saturday. The couples Sikh wedding ensembles and jewellery were also from the same designer. Ranveers attire and Deepikas jewellery for their Konkani wedding ceremony were also his creations. Ranveer and Deepika at their post-wedding party in Mumbai. (Instagram) Ranveer and Deepika during their Anand Karaj ceremony in Italy. (Instagram) The second Mumbai reception The newlyweds will host their third wedding reception for their industry friends on December 1. According to a report in Spotboye.com, Ranveer has also invited Tiger Zinda Hai actor Katrina Kaif on text. For the uninitiated, Katrina is the former girlfriend of Deepikas ex-boyfriend Ranbir Kapoor. A host of actors, co-stars, filmmakers and friends are expected to attend the do. Follow @htshowbiz for more Priyanka Chopra is currently on everyones social media feeds, as the bride-to-be gets ready to tie the knot with fiance Nick Jonas in a lavish Jodhpur wedding. But other than the wedding talk, the actor is also in news for her appearance on popular celebrity chat show, Koffee With Karan 6. According to a news report in Pinkvilla, Priyanka is set to share the Koffee couch and sip some coffee with Kareena Kapoor Khan. The shows host, filmmaker Karan Johar, has reportedly invited Kareena and Priyanka to shoot together for an episode for of Koffee With Karan 6 in the second week of December, after the bride-to-bes December 2 nuptials at Umaid Bhawan Palace. Priyanka is currently busy with her wedding prep. She was first going to shoot with Kareena for Koffee With Karan after her wedding on December 6. But now, it has got postponed to the second week of December. The final date hasnt been locked yet, but it is sometime around December 14 or 15, a source told Pinkvilla. Another source added that Karan wanted to complete filming all episodes in the first week of December but he made the exception for Priyanka because of her wedding. Priyanka is too occupied with her wedding so it was difficult for her to take out time for the shoot. So she requested Karan to push it by a week. Also, Kareena Kapoor is available for the said date too so the trio together has finalised for the second week of December, the source was quoted as saying. Priyanka Chopra sat on the Koffee With Karan couch with her then rumoured boyfriend, actor Shahid Kapoor. (File Photo) In 2010, Kareena Kapoor Khan appeared on the show with now-husband, actor Saif Ali Khan. (File Photo) Kareena and Priyanka starred with Akshay Kumar in 2004 film Aitraaz and had made some unpleasant comments about each other on the Karan Johar show in the previous seasons. In 2010, Kareena appeared on the show with now-husband, actor Saif Ali Khan, where she took a dig at Priyanka, saying, Where does she get that accent from? A couple of episodes later, when Priyanka sat on the Koffee With Karan couch with her then rumoured boyfriend, actor Shahid Kapoor, also Kareenas ex-boyfriend, she reacted to Kareenas comment, saying The same place where her boyfriend gets it from. Meanwhile, Nick Jonas and his family have touched down in India ahead of his impending wedding. Priyanka and Nicks wedding festivities kickstarted with a Mumbai party on Monday, with close friends and family, including Nicks brother Joe Jonas and his fiancee Sophie Turner, as well as actors Alia Bhatt and Parineeti Chopra. Meanwhile, Kareena was busy promoting Mowgli: Legend Of the Jungle in Mumbai at back-to-back events. Follow @htshowbiz for more Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh are set to host their second wedding reception in Mumbai on November 28. Interestingly, Deepikas Bajirao Mastani co-star Priyanka Chopra is also set to tie the knot with beau Nick Jonas on December 2 and the pre-wedding celebrations have already begun with a puja. This has been keeping the fans of Nickyanka on their toes as they wait to grab the last piece of information about the grand wedding. With the arrival of celebrity guests Nicks brother Joe Jonas and fiance Sophie Turner, the hype is building over the next big Bollywood wedding of the year. However, an inside picture from Deepikas pre-wedding celebrations made its way to the internet and was definitely worth the wait. In the picture that surfaced on one of the fanpages, Deepika can be seen having a hearty laugh in a light-weight baby pink ensemble, along with her sister Anisha Padukone and other guests. It seems the picture is from the private sangeet ceremony that was hosted separately by her family at Villa dEste. However, this hasnt been confirmed officially. Sabyasachis red bridal lehenga by Sabyasachi, which she had worn during the Anand Karaj ceremony, had also caught the attention of her fans. The quote Sada Saubhagyavati Bhava which translates to May you be blessed by good luck in your married life was etched on the border of the bridal dupatta. The designer shared the video of the making of the beautiful lehenga and how it came to life. Ranveer had also worn a red printed sherwani along with a red turban for the Sikh rituals. His look and Deepikas bridal jewellery were also from the same designers collection. The designer also shared a video to throw light on the making of Ranveers wedding ensemble. The couple tied the knot in a lavish wedding ceremony at Lake Como in Italy. While the Konkani wedding took place on November 14, the Anand Karaj ceremony took place the next day. The actors ensured heavy security to keep their wedding a private affair. After sharing only two pictures on their wedding day, they went on to share several pictures a few days later. The couple then hosted a lavish reception in Bengaluru which was followed by a fun-filled post-wedding bash in Mumbai hosted by his sister Ritika. After their second reception on November 28, the couple will throw a grand reception for their industry friends on December 1. Follow @htshowbiz for more Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas are set to tie the knot twice on December 2, just like her friends Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh who tied the knot in Konkani and Sikh wedding ceremonies in Italy. The grand wedding celebrations at Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur will begin on November 29 and will culminate on December 2, post which the couple will also throw a lavish reception in Delhi for their family members. According to a report in DNA, the mehendi and sangeet ceremony will be held on November 29 at the Umaid Bhawan and will be a fun affair. Earlier it was reported that while Nick will perform a medley of his songs, Priyanka will be performing a few of her hit dance numbers. The report also suggests that the couple will also recreate their first date at the event. The pre-wedding ceremonies will continue with a haldi ceremony on November 30. A cocktail party has also been organised for the two families, relatives and friends before the big day. The report suggests that the lovebirds will take their wedding vows in a Christian ceremony which will then be followed by a Hindu ceremony in the later part of the day. The couple who have reportedly chosen colour coordinated wedding ensembles will change their attire for the Hindu wedding. Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas are set to tie the knot at the Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur on December 2. A source has claimed that the family will fly from Mumbai to Jodhpur in a chartered flight from where they will reach the Umaid Bhawan Palace in a chopper. The newlyweds will leave Jodhpur in a chopper on December 3 and the families will also fly to Delhi the same day. As per the report, a grand reception will be held at the Taj Palace Hotel in Delhi the next day. The couple and their families will then return to Mumbai where a grand reception is expected to take place for the film fraternity in the second week of December. Priyanka, who recently took out time amid her wedding preparations for a live-athon at Facebooks Mumbai office on Tuesday, November 27, will take off to Sikkim on December 6 along with her mother Madhu Chopra. The two will attend the press conference of their regional production Pahuna. The guests for the bit fat Indian wedding have already arrived in India to witness it. Nicks brother Joe Jonas along with fiance and Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner had landed in India on Monday and partied hard with the couple in Mumbai. 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 Womens 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 womens emancipation. Feminist values 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 Womens 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 todays 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. Overturning religious orthodoxy 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 Womans 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. Geneva theology professors Elisabeth Parmentier (L) and Lauriane Savoy pose under the reformation wall with a edition of "A Women's Bible." (AFP) 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 Womens 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. Lingering patriarchal readings 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. This is a fundamental character, but she is described as a prostitute, ... and even as Jesuss 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. Its 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. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday described the recovery of a bullet from a visitor to Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwals Janta Darbar as another attempt on the CMs life. The party, while accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of indulging in petty politics, said the government at the Centre was behind the attacks. The BJP, however, blamed the AAP for hiding the facts of the case. The party said they condemn the attacks on the CM but added that AAP should not play politics over it. AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said, Its a 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 the elected CMs security. Mohammad Imran, a 39-year-old caretaker of a mosque, was arrested after a bullet was found from his purse during frisking at the CMs residence on Monday. AAP leaders said it was shocking that the man was arrested on the same day when the Assembly was discussing series of attacks on the CM, including the one in which a man was held while trying to attack Kejrwal with chilli powder in Delhi secretariat. What if a firearm may also have been taken inside the CMs house? All the five attacks so far on the CM have links with BJP, said AAP spokesperson, Raghav Chadha. Leader of the Opposition in Delhi Assembly and senior Delhi BJP leader Vijender Gupta accused AAP of hiding the facts about the attacks on Kejriwal. We condemn the attacks on CM. But doing politics on it is unacceptable. They (AAP) are yet to explain who allowed Anil Sharma inside the secretariat with chilli powder, said Gupta, the BJP MLA from Rohini. The Delhi government on Tuesday released a draft policy which seeks to kick-start the adoption of electric vehicles (EV) in the capital. In five years, the policy targets 25% of all new vehicle registrations in the city to be electric. Officials said the draft policy is one of the 26 commitments made under the 2018-19 green budget in order to combat the rising air pollution in the city. Officials from Delhi governments transport department said that the Delhi Electric Vehicle Policy 2018 recognises that a new approach is required to kick-start EV adoption in Delhi and therefore seeks to put in place measures that address key hurdles in that direction. About 30% of particulate pollution in winter is caused by vehicles. Rapid adoption of zero-emission electric vehicles is therefore of great importance here, said Kailash Gahlot, Delhi transport minister on Monday after the policy was released for public comments. Recognising the need for a new approach to kick-start electric vehicle adoption, we have drafted this comprehensive policy with an aim to make Delhi a leader in adoption of EVs. We believe that going electric and breathing better are two sides of the same coin, Gahlot said. The primary objective of the policy is to improve Delhis air quality by bringing down emissions from transport sector. To do so, this policy will seek to drive rapid adoption of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) in a manner where they contribute 25% of all new vehicle registrations by 2023, reads the draft policy. The policy envisages creation of a corpus of funds to incentivise every vehicle segment using electricity. All incentives, government officials said, are in addition to the incentives offered by the Government of India as part of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles (FAME India) notified in 2015. We knew that Delhi needed an EV push through a policy because Centres FAME India could not take off as intended. A few states like Maharashtra and Telangana have a policy. But our policy is more comprehensive, said Jasmine Shah, vice-chairman of Delhi Dialogue Commission. Experts welcomed the move, though some questioned about the availability of EV-related infrastructure in the city. This is a welcome move, but a lot of issues particularly that of infrastructure would have to be addressed. Cars in Delhi wont just ply within the city. Will there be enough infrastructure outside Delhi as well? Then there would be issues of battery, technology and maintenance. The government needs to come up with adequate infrastructure and attractive incentives for the users to buy such electric cars, said Ravindra Kumar, head of transportation planning and environment at CSIR-CRRI. Anjan Ray, director of Indian Institute of Petroleum, a government-funded research organisation which has retrofitted two cars and has transformed them into EVs, said the government would need to ensure that the mistakes made during the adoption of CNG are not repeated. The government needs to make sure that infrastructure wont be a problem, which was seen when CNG was rolled out. There were huge queues outside CNG stations. Multi-level car-parking areas in Delhi could be used as charging stations. This would also attract users to park their cars in the parking areas, he said. The policy commits to strengthen the infrastructure for battery swapping and charging to provide access within 3km range from anywhere in Delhi. Additional fees on non-EVs will fund the bulk of corpus created to incentivise the adoption of electric vehicles, the draft reads. This policy will also seek to promote large-scale job creation in driving, selling, financing, servicing and charging of electric vehicles, said an official. The government will gather public comments before presenting the policy before the Cabinet in a month. Gear up for long queues at some Metro stations as the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has imposed multiple security checks, a practice usually adopted near Republic Day or Independence Day, following threats of terrorist attacks in the national capital. At stations with high footfall like Rajiv Chowk, Kashmere Gate, Central Secretariat, Chandni Chowk, Anand Vihar, every passenger is being frisked twice before they can head towards the turnstiles, a senior CISF official, who did not wish to be identified, said. Passengers are also being stopped randomly to check their baggage. Senior officers said that the practice was started after the Intelligence Bureau (IB) conveyed a possible threat from the terror module Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM). CISF officials said earlier this month, they received an alert that a Pakistani national has circulated a message in a WhatsApp group that JeM is planning to strike sensitive locations in Delhi to avenge the killing of its commander Usman alias Huzaifa in Tral, Kashmir, on October 30. The IB had circulated the top priority alert, dated November 13, with various security agencies in the country, the CISF official said. Hindustan Times has a copy of the letter circulated within the CISF to alert officers following the threat. CISF assistant inspector general Hemendra Singh confirmed the new security measures. Our main focus are major stations which witness high footfall. The checks have been increased by many folds and passengers travelling in the peak hours are therefore requested to arrive at stations three to five minutes early, the AIG said. Another CISF officer said that they have also increased the frequency of anti-sabotage drives and sweeping by dog and bomb squad. We have also increased random checking. Based on suspicion, any passenger can be stopped even after he is through the basic security check. Our men are on double shifts and many leaves have been temporarily cancelled. After Metro operations are shut for the day, we scan the stations and even the tunnels, the officer said. CISF officers have also started keeping a watch in the areas around the Metro stations as well, the officer said. Our flying squad is deployed in the periphery of the some stations to keep an eye on any suspicious activity, the officer said. Come 2019, the Union government may have some answers on the number of jobs it has created over the past few years both in the formal as well as informal sectors. It is likely to unveil a series of employment generation data collected from industries and households, as well as small businesses that have taken out Mudra loans from the government, said three government officials, requesting anonymity. The spadework is over, and final back-end work is on. Once the assembly elections to the five states, and the winter session of Parliament are over, the survey results will be unveiled, said the first official. Counting of votes for the assembly elections are to be held on 11 December, while the winter session of Parliament ends on 8 January 2019. The three surveys are the employment and unemployment survey by the labour bureau, the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) findings on jobs, and the survey on employment outcome of the Mudra loans also carried out by the labour bureau. The labour ministrys quick employment survey is also awaiting a go-ahead from the government-appointed jobs panel. Job creation has been a subject of heated debate. The current level of employment generation has not kept pace with the 12 million people entering the labour market each year. In 2015, Indias unemployment rate was 5% and joblessness among graduates and above in the 18-29 age group was 18.4%, according to labour bureau data. Though the government said 14.5 million workers joined the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) in the 12 months ending 31 August 2018, its data also showed 9.1 million leaving formal jobs. The EPFO data, however, has its limitations and suffers from duplication. While the employment and unemployment survey, and NSSO findings are all household surveys, the one related to Mudra loans is a review of the informal sector. The quick employment survey will gauge the actual number of jobs added by companies. Of all the surveys, the labour bureau-conducted employment survey is the largest which will give a comprehensive picturefrom unemployment rate to womens labour force participation rate and youth unemployment, among others. It has taken a sample size of 150,000 households, the second official said, adding that the NSSO has a slightly smaller sample size but its outcome is well-regarded. A spokesperson for the labour ministry declined to comment. The second official said the survey to gauge employment generation from Mudra loans started in May-June this year and that the groundwork for most of it is over. We have taken a sample size of 125,000 Mudra loan beneficiaries to show how a scheme has helped in creation of jobs in the informal sector. The third official said the outcome of the survey will give a sense of jobs created in India in the last few years both in the formal and informal sector. It will also arm the ruling coalition in the centre with indisputable data before the general elections, he said, adding whether these jobs in the informal sector are decent work or not is a different debate. When it comes to lavish celebrity weddings, 2018 has definitely delivered. In one of the most high-profile weddings of the year, actors Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh were married on November 14-15 in Lake Como, Italy. But theres one celebrity wedding on the horizon that seems to have eclipsed all others, were assuming youve guessed by now, but well say it anyway: Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas. The countdown to the much talked-about wedding in Jodhpur kickstarted with Wednesdays family puja at the Mumbai home of Priyankas mother, Madhu Chopra, also attended by Nicks brother Joe Jonas and his fiance Sophie Turner. From an over-the-top bridal shower and an epic bachelorette trip to Amsterdam to the wedding location -- Jodhpurs Umaid Bhawan Palace -- Priyanka is sparing no expense for her fairy-tale wedding. With mere days left for Priyanka and Nicks December 2 wedding ceremony, we cant help but discuss Priyankas wedding lehenga possibilities. According to new reports, Priyanka has chosen designer duo Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla for her bridal lehenga. Designers Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla are a surprisingly apt choice for Priyanka -- they designed the yellow anarkali she now-famously wore for her engagement and roka ceremony in August. Priyankas friendship with the designers has gotten even stronger recently -- she wore a figure-flattering red saree with a shimmery blouse by Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla at Akash Ambani and Shloka Mehtas engagement party in June -- perfect timing for her wedding. Considering the designers set some pretty aspirational wedding fashion goals -- with Kareena Kapoor Khans sexy and exotic bridal lehenga from Veere Di Wedding and Sonam Kapoors gorgeous ivory and gold look from her mehendi -- we dont think its a stretch to say they will dress Priyanka in sexed-up glamour, lavish embellishments. The couturiers also have strong ties to several celebrity families (the Bachchans, Ambanis, Kapoors are staunch fans), and are known for their flamboyant lehengas and anarkalis. Their regal designs would go well with Umaid Bhavan Palaces lavish surroundings. Featuring shimmery bead work to intricate hand-embroidered detailing and a lot of adornment, we picked some show-stopping Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla lehengas that are perfect for Priyanka Chopras wedding: Follow more stories on Facebook and Twitter The family of Sunil Kumar (23), who is accused of raping and murdering 15 minor girls in Gurugram, Gwalior and Jhansi, said on Tuesday that they had to vacate their shanty in Gurugram and move to their village in Jhansi as they feared for their safety. According to the family members, their neighbours, upon learning of Kumars arrest on November 20, allegedly barged into their shanty and asked them to leave the area. The family had called the police, fearing mob action, but was advised by the police to go to their village for safety reasons. We did not even have time to pack our belongings. We did not get a chance to change clothes and had to leave within minutes, in the same clothes we were wearing. The neighbours did not let us pick our stuff and dragged us out of the hutments, said Sita, elder sister of the accused. She said she was scared when people entered their house. Sita, who works as a domestic help, said she called her employers for help but her efforts were in vain. A few families told me that the mob would kill us. I feared for the safety of my eight-month-old daughter and decided to leave the place. I called the police for protection and the officers reached in 15 minutes, but they said it would be best for us to leave to avoid any escalation. People wanted to attack us and take revenge for the acts committed by my brother, said Sita. The police said that a team from the Sector 65 police station had reached the spot and tried to reason with the crowd. People were threatening to beat them up, alleging that they were also involved in the crime. For half an hour, the team spoke to a section of the slum dwellers and controlled the situation by pacifying them. But what can you do if the rest of them go on a rampage? There were so many people and more kept pouring in. There was so much commotion. The team advised them to leave the area for their safety and security, said Shamsher Singh, assistant commissioner of police (crime). The family members of the accused said they didnt know of Kumars involvement in rapes and murders. He never shared anything with them and remained aloof. Whenever he visited us, he hardly spoke and remained out for most of the day. He was a daily wager and used to come here to mostly sleep. He sometimes went incommunicado for months, said Kumars brother-in-law. The family members met Kumar in police custody before leaving the city, but he did not say anything. I asked him if he had committed the crime but he did not say anything. I cried, but he showed no emotion, said 53-year-old Lilawati, Kumars mother. She said that the police had brought Kumar to the village to recover the clothes he was wearing during Fridays crime, but they refused to meet him. Marvel fans are accustomed to Mark Ruffalos bloopers, whether is it inadvertently streaming portions of Thor: Ragnarok or blurting out Avengers spoilers during interviews. On Tuesday, the Hulk actor tweeted that he had misplaced his backpack in New York City and was offering a reward to anyone who could help him find it. Fans immediately began poking fun at him for having messed up again, and some even asked him if valuable Avengers-related information was in the bag. Update: Ruffalo tweeted on Wednesday that the bag has been found. UPDATE: it was found! Thank you for all of your help https://t.co/ddSjjANuAb Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) November 28, 2018 New Yorkers that I love so much, please help me find my backpack... I left my black w/ red trim Topo backpack in a yellow cab tonight (looks like the one in the pic) in UWS of NYC with no way to contact the cab & dont know the #. Reward if found, Ruffalo tweeted alongside an image of the backpack. One person replied, Does it have the title of Avengers 4 in it? Check out more reactions here: Does it have the title of Avengers 4 in it? travis kirkman (@tkirkman24) November 28, 2018 Retweeted. Right now Feige is scrambling wondering "Oh s***, what did you leave lying around this time, Mark?" Alexander Cass (@AlexDCass) November 28, 2018 Can I find #Avengers4 title and teaser release date in it Balaji (@5241a4a207fc461) November 28, 2018 How many spoilers did you leave in the bag, Mark? Dan Kurtz (@HeyDanKurtz) November 28, 2018 Another responded, How many spoilers did you leave in the bag, Mark? Raffalos tendency to reveal secrets about the Marvel Cinematic Universe films became so notorious that Infinity War and Avengers 4 directors, Joe & Anthony Russo, fake fired him from the movies for revealing too much. In one instance, the actor had blurted out - a year before release - that everyone dies at the end of Avengers: Infinity War. The video resurfaced post the films release, when fans found out that almost every major character had indeed perished. Ruffalo had fun with this reputation when he revealed the super-secret title of Avengers 4 on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Avengers 4 has been scheduled for a May, 2019 release and will serve as a finale to this phase of the MCU. The films first trailer, which will double as the title reveal, is expected to arrive in the next few days. Marvel president Kevin Feige had previously said that the trailer would be unveiled before the end of the year. Follow @htshowbiz for more At least eight people died and more than a dozen were hospitalised in West Bengals Nadia district on Tuesday night after they consumed hooch suspected to be laced with methanol, officials said on Wednesday, prompting the Trinamool Congress government to order a probe. The incident happened at Nrisinghapur village, about 100km from state capital Kolkata. Nadia district magistrate Sumit Gupta had earlier said that at least seven persons had died and a medical team sent to the village along with the sub-divisional officer and the block development officer, while he was at the hospital. Those dead were identified as Bhaloya Mahato (40), Dularchand Mahato (41), Sunil Mahato (35), Buto Mahato (35), Kashinath Mahato (55), Munna Roy (35), Goutam Sharma (24) and Basudev Mahato (43). The deaths were reported from the Kalna hospital in Burdwan district and three at Shantipur State General Hospital. As many as 30 were admitted to Kalna hospital and 14 were in Shantipur. We suspect methanol poisoning, Dr Jayanta Biswas, superintendent of the hospital in Shantipur, said. Methyl alcohol, or methanol, is toxic but it is mixed with hooch to increase the intoxicating power of the drink. District police superintendent Rupesh Kumar said that of the six persons named in the FIR, police have arrested four. CID will investigate the tragedy, state finance and excise minister Amit Mitra said. The government would also pay Rs 2 lakh as compensation to the families that have lost a member. Investigation is on to find out whether the toxic alcohol was imported to Bengal from Bihar or Jharkhand, Mitra said. Zilla sabhadhipati or the president of Nadia district council Rikta Kundu said about 40 people had consumed hooch on Tuesday night. There are a few sellers of hooch in the village. They are in the business over the past two-three years, Ramabati Mahato, a homemaker, said while referring to the Tuesday night tragedy. Two villagers Ramkrishna Mahato and Kartik Mahato told the media from Shantipur hospital that they rushed to the hospital after they heard that a few fellow villagers had died after consuming hooch. We are not feeling unwell but came here as a precautionary measure, said Ramkrishna. Located by the Hooghly river, the village is a poor one where most earn their living as brickfield workers, small farmers and agricultural labourers. The deaths triggered a torrent of criticism from the opposition. Unable to check the menace of spurious liquor, the Bengal government has created a fund for insurance for liquor-related deaths. If compensation has to be given at all, the amount should be deducted from the salary of the state ministers including the chief minister, the Bharatiya Janata Partys national secretary Rahul Sinha said. The state government should concentrate on tracking the brains behind the supply of toxic alcohol. Who are patronising them? Congress Rajya Sabha MP Pradip Bhattacharya asked. Can the government squander taxpayers money for this purpose? Samik Lahiri, former Lok Sabha MP from the CPI(M), questioned. The tragedy comes two months after a court convicted four people in the toxic liquor case of December 2011 that killed 172 and blinded several others in South Parganas districts Sangrampur village. Complaints of malfunctioning Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) and sporadic incidents of violence marred polling day in Madhya Pradesh, which recorded a voter turnout of 74.61%, as of 10pm Wednesday. The figure may be higher, as the voting time was extended in 250 polling booths. In 2013, the voter turnout was 72.13%. The Congress complained of malfunctioning EVMs and delayed polling with state Congress chief Kamal Nath demanding a re-poll in booths where EVMs had malfunctioned. Campaign committee chief Jyotiraditya Scindia wrote to chief election commissioner O P Rawat complaining about delayed voting and faulty EVMs. The rate at which EVM machines are malfunctioning is alarmingseveral voters are de-motivated when they experience incomplete arrangements and may lose faith in this exercise if they come across allegations of tampering with EVM machines, the letter stated. The Congress did not specify in how many constituencies it demanded a re-poll. BJP spokesperson Rajneesh Agrawal said the Congress was preparing the grounds to explain its loss. Read: 10 factors that may influence MP polls outcome According to chief election officer V Kantha Rao, 2,126 Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail machines (VVPAT) or 3.25% of the total number, 881 control units and 883 ballot units were replaced. The number of malfunctioning units is not abnormal2% VVPAT machines in the recently held Chhattisgarh election malfunctionedRao said. He said they were likely to take a decision about re-polling late on Wednesday. Shivraj Singh Chouhan has made Madhya Pradesh the rape capital of the country. There are one crore unemployed youth in the state. It is not a wave, but a storm against the BJP and its fate has been sealed. You will find out on December 11, Scindia told reporters. Three poll officials died during polling duty, reportedly due to cardiac arrest. Incidents of firing were reported in Morena and Bhind. Rao said seven people have been arrested, while 386 complaints have registered. The highest turnout was recorded in Shajapur, 82%, and the lowest was in the tribal-dominated district of Alirajpur, 63%. In the epicentre of farm distress, Mandsaur, 81.27% polling was reported. In Chhindwara, a small controversy broke out after Nath showed his palm after voting, prompting the BJP to complain that the leader was trying to influence voters. Read| How Madhya Pradesh voted in the 2013 assembly elections After India and Pakistan laid the foundations for the Kartarpur Corridor for Sikh pilgrims, former J&K chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday urged the two countries to facilitate pilgrimage to the Sharda Peeth in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir also. Sharda Peeth, which has ruins of a temple to Hindu goddess Saraswati (also known as Sharda), is located close to Kishen Ganga river in the Neelam Valley in PoK, around 150 km from Muzaffarabad. The site is very significant for Kashmiri Pandits, who have long been demanding they be allowed to visit it. Kartarpur is a great example of how religion can bring people together instead of dividing them. It is a path envisioned by PDP founder Mufti Sb to end the turmoil in Kashmir. #SelfRule. After Kartarpur, Delhi and Pakistan must facilitate Sharda Peeth pilgrimage for Kashmiris, Mehbooba Mufti said in a tweet. Kartarpur is a great example of how religion can bring people together instead of dividing them. It is a path envisioned by PDP founder Mufti Sb to end the turmoil in Kashmir. #SelfRule After Kartarpur, Delhi and Pakistan must facilitate Sharda Peeth pilgrimage for kashmiris . Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) November 28, 2018 Her Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has also been seeking opening of Sharda Peeth for several years now. During the PDP-Congress coalition government (2002-2008) when the SrinagarMuzuffarabad bus service was started in 2005, it had called for more meeting points along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. Kashmiri Pandits had also been demanding that they should be allowed to travel to PoK on a simple permit like that for the cross- LoC bus passengers. The community had been seeking same facilities as passengers on the weekly Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus, which is still considered one of the biggest confidence-building measures in Kashmir. A delegation of the Kashmiri Pandits had met Mehbooba Mufti last year when she was chief minister of the state to seek start of the pilgrimage either through Kaman or Kargil in Kashmir division. The Congress, the Trinamool Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) - arch rivals in the political theatre of West Bengal - have come together to oppose amendments to the Citizenship Act that aims to allow non-Muslims from three neighbouring countries to become Indian citizens. Their demand is that no further changes should be allowed in the law. The amendments relax the deadline for minorities - Hindus, Sikhs and Christians - from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, who have taken shelter in this country to become Indian citizens. According to the original law, only those minorities who came to India from these countries before 1958 are eligible to become Indian citizens. During the Assam Accord in 1985, the deadline for minorities from Bangladesh to register was extended to March 25, 1971. Then came the new amendment. The new law allows citizenship for immigrants who have come till December 31, 2014, said an Opposition leader. The bill, pending before Parliament, also aims to amend the current acts section 2 by adding the a proviso. Also read | TMC to start special schools in tribal villages to curb dropouts The proviso is: Provided that persons belonging to minority communities, namely, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. shall not be treated as illegal migrants for the purposes of this act- in clause (b) sub-section (1). It also reduces the time that the migrant has spent in India from the mandatory 12 to six years. The three Opposition parties have decided to jointly demand the exclusion of the term minority communities (and the bit about Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan) from the bill. The phrase minority community is the core of the bill and removal of this term effectively means that the bill is rendered useless, said a senior member of the Trinamool Congress, which wants the bill to be scrapped. The three Opposition parties are also opposed to the bill because they believe any effort to pass it may create a volatile situation in Assam. In Assams Brahmaputra valley, there have been widespread protests against the bill because locals are apprehensive that citizenship to Bangaldeshi Hindus might distort the social fabric of the state that is already battling the large-scale influx of people from across the border. But the Barak valley, or the lower part of the state which has a substantial Bengali-speaking population of Hindus from Bangladesh, wants the citizenship law. You may also like | TRS, Congress playing friendly match in Telangana, says PM Modi The whole edifice of Indian Constitution and its democratic fabric is based on the notion of citizenship being decided not on the basis of any religious background. The BJP now wants to grant citizenship on the basis of religious identity and that will be inimical to the legacy of freedom struggle. We will oppose the bill tooth and nail, said CPI(M) politburo leader Nilotpal Basu. The Trinamool leader added, We dont want the specific community names such as Christians or Hindus to be part of the bill. This is a polite way of rejecting the entire bill. Wherever possible, we will move amendments. Opposing the very idea of the bill, senior Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said, The proposed amendments go against the roots and identity of India. We were created out of partition as we refused to accept a theological identity. Today, if you define citizenship on basis of religion, then you defeat the very idea of our Constitution. While the three Opposition parties have decided to move amendments to the bill, the Biju Janata Dal has decided to oppose the inclusion of Bangladesh. We have toured different border states and the sense is that states such as Rajasthan or Punjab are ready to welcome any immigrants from Pakistan and Afghanistan but Assam is dead against immigration from Bangladesh. So, I will move an amendment to exclude Bangladesh and include Sri Lanka in this bill, said Bhartruhari Mahtab, BJDs Lok Sabha floor leader. A government official refused to comment saying that the bill is in Parliament. Earlier, the BJP had planned a campaign across the states in support of the bill. In the last Budget session, minister of state for home affairs Kiren Rijiju informed Rajya Sabha that, Though India is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol thereon, its track record in dealing with or providing protection to refugees has been internationally acclaimed. There is a provision for grant of Long Term Visa (LTV) under various instructions issued by the government from time to time. As per the available information, 486 Myanmar nationals (Rohingyas) and 2,154 Afghanistan nationals are staying in India on LTV as in 2016. The Rajya Sabha was also informed that more than 11,000 Pakistani nationals have been granted LTVs by the government during the last four years. Former parliamentary affairs secretary Afzal Amanullah maintained that the government should not rush into passing the bill but try to build a consensus. If there are serious objections to the bill that deals with immigration, it is always beneficial to have a wider consultation with stakeholders and try to push the bill only through a political consensus. The Delhi government has, for the first time, fixed an upper age limit for admission to nursery, kindergarten and Class 1 in around 1,700 private, unaided and recognised schools in the national capital, according to a circular issued on Tuesday by its Directorate of Education (DoE). The admission process for these classes for the academic session 2019-20 will begin on December 15. According to the circular, DoE has fixed an upper age limit of 4, 5 and 6 years as on March 31, 2019, for admission in nursery, kindergarten (KG) and Class 1, respectively. The minimum age for admission in these classes is 3, 4 and 5 years as of March 31, 2019 respectively. In previous years, only minimum age was specified. With a cap on maximum age, children who could not get admission last year and have now crossed the age limit of 4 years will not be able to enrol in nursery. They will now have to seek admission directly to kindergarten. Schools have also been given autonomy to decide their own criteria for admission, and upload them on DoEs website by December 14. But the directorate warned schools not to include 62 listed criteria that were abolished by the Delhi government in 2016, including parents education, profession, income, food habits, and written or oral interviews of both students and parents. The directorate on Tuesday released the schedule for admission in the 75% general category entry-level seats available in the private unaided and recognised schools in Delhi. The forms will be available on the websites of schools from December 15 and the last date for submission of forms is January 7, 2019. The first list of selected candidates will be uploaded by the school websites on February 4, 2019. The schedule for the remaining 25% seats reserved for the economically weaker section (EWS) and disadvantaged (DG) categories will be announced in the coming weeks. The department also warned schools not to fix their entry level seats as less than the highest number of seats in these classes during the last three academic sessions. It was observed last year that some private schools had fixed lower number of entrylevel seats to avoid less EWS/ DG admissions in their schools. The department has warned the schools against it, an official at the DoE said, requesting anonymity. For the upper age limit, the DoE said it first made the announcement last year to give appropriate time to parents to plan the admission of their children. Last year, the court upheld the notification and allowed the DoE to implement it. According to experts, the decision could particularly hit students from economically weaker sections. The upper age limit will not make any difference for general category students because they will not apply for nursery or KG at the age of 6. They must already be studying somewhere else. Its more applicable for those seeking admission under EWS/DG category because they do not have many options, said Amita Wattal, principal, Springdales School. The department said it will also set up grievance redressal and monitoring cells in all districts to ensure transparent admission process. The parents can take up their queries with these cells between February 5 and February 12, 2019. The Delhi High Court on Wednesday upheld the conviction of 88 convicts in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi, news agency ANI reported. The 88 convicts had been arrested in East Delhis Trilokpuri area and had been sentenced to 5-year jail terms each by a trial court in 1996. The 88 convicts had been held guilty of rioting, burning houses and curfew violations by the trial court. Justice RK Gauba, who was hearing the case, has directed all the 88 convicts to surrender within four weeks. The convicts had challenged the August 27, 1996 judgement of a Sessions Court which had convicted 88 out of the 107 people arrested on November 2, 1984 for rioting, burning houses and curfew violation in Trilokpuri area of East Delhi, PTI reported. Dismissing their petition, the Delhi High Court said that all those convicted must serve the 5-year jail term. Speaking to the media after the court hearing, lawyer HS Phoolka said that the court was critical of the fact that despite 95 bodies being recovered from the area, charges of murder under section 302 of the IPC had not been levied against the convicts. He said that the court also directed the Police Commissioner to identify 22 of the recovered bodies and to lodge cases of murder. Phoolka said that the court also recommended that the Commission of Inquiry Act be amended to ensure justice is provided to victims of criminal violence cases. He said that the court observed that whenever the name of a politician gets involved in such cases, the inquiry usually gets derailed or is not done properly. He said that the court recommended that legal aid services also be provided to victims of criminal violence. 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 infants 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 Hibas 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 Hibas 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 been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.) The Visva Bharati University has asked all the departments not to hold any programme which could be against the ethics of the institution set up by Rabindranath Tagore. The directive came in a notification following the lungi dance controversy over the Teachers Day celebration at the music department of the central university. It has come to the notice of the competent authority of the university that an incident took place at Sangeet Bhavan, Visva Bharati at the time of celebration of Teachers Day, on September 5, 2018, the notification read. In order to avoid repetition of the said incident, it is directed to convey for information of all concerned that no Bhavana/Vibhaga, Department, Centre of the university shall conduct such programme which is against the ethics and dignity of the university, the November 25 notification, which was available on Tuesday, said. The notification urged everyone concerned to strictly comply with the directive as the matter of dignity and glory of the University is involved. A video purportedly showing some teachers joining students in dance to the beats of Hindi film song Lungi dance during a game of musical chair at the Sangeet Bhavan (music department) has gone viral on social media. Following this, there was criticism in some quarters questioning how such a song was played in the university set up by Tagore. A section of students and teachers counter-argued that it was not an official programme and there cannot be any curb on the private space of any individual, including teachers. The much talked about meeting of opposition leaders that was originally expected to take place on November 22 could now happen in the second week of December and see the parties discuss ways to strategise a plan for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Senior leaders from opposition parties said on Tuesday that plans are afoot for a meeting on December 10 after the polling in the ongoing assembly elections are over. Results are due on December 11. Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar, among others, are expected to attend the meeting. Also Read: Mamata Banerjee looks to unite opposition on donation to CM relief fund Chandrababu had called me and told me other leaders have agreed to come on December 10..., said Yechury. The leaders, who asked not to be identified, pointed out that they had learnt from past mistakes and do not want to impose a date on othersone of the reasons why Andhra CM Naidus proposed meeting on November 22 failed to take place. Chandrababu had consulted, primarily, leaders like Pawar, HD Kumaraswamy and MK Stalin and decided to hold a meeting this month. But when BSP chief Mayawati was approached, she refused to sit with Congress leaders amid elections in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, a senior opposition leader said. Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav was also not available for the meeting as his birthday fell on November 21. ...West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee was preoccupied with other engagements, added this person. This time, leaders were consulted and it was unanimously decided to hold the meeting after the assembly elections. With the electoral bitterness and campaign against each other getting over, opposition parties can now sit together and hammer out a joint strategy for the larger goal of defeating the BJP in next years poll, said a Congress leader. As for the alliance for 2019, the leaders said, while both Yechury and Banerjee are of the firm opinion that any national alliance should be formed only after the general election is over, the December meeting will stress the need for state-specific, regional pacts to maximise opposition votes against the BJP. The bypolls in Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka have showed us the way to take on the BJP, said a leader, pointing to the results of the Gorakhpur, Phulpur and Kairana by-elections in UP and Ballari in Karnataka where united opposition candidates managed to defeat the BJP in the latters bastion. The proposed meeting will also possibly indicate how many parties are keen to strike an understanding with the Congress. Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Naveed Jatt, who according to Jammu and Kashmir police was the prime accused in the killing of senior journalist Shujhaat Bukhari, and another militant were killed in a gun battle with security forces in central Kashmirs Budgam. Bukhari, the 50-year-old editor-in-chief of the Rising Kashmir newspaper, was attacked by three motorcycle-borne gunmen while he was entering his car in the Press Enclave area of Srinagar on June 14 this year. Jatt, the son of a truck driver, was one of the three people named by the state police in Bukharis killing. A police spokesperson confirmed that two militants were killed in the encounter in Chattergam. One of the militants has been identified as Naveed Jatt alias Hanzulla, the spokesperson said. States director general of police Dilbag Singh said Jatt was one of the prime accused in the killing of Bukhari. If we would have caught him alive, we could have gathered more information about other people involved in the killing of Bukhari, Singh said. He said that more than two dozen militants have been killed in south Kashmir in the recent days. Also read | Trained at Lashkar HQ, entered India in 2012: All we know about Naveed Jhatt, the Pakistani terrorist who escaped The graph has come down after a successful operation, recruitment in militant ranks is less from last two months there is no information that any fresh recruit has joined the militant ranks, the top official said. Singh said they will try to hand over the body of Jatt to Pakistan through the competent authorities. He said the other militant who was killed in the operation has not been identified. He was really a headache for the forces and several operations were launched to trap him. Finally, we trapped him in central Kashmir, a top police officer said. Jatt had escaped from the Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital in Srinagar this February. Two policemen were also killed during Jatts escape from the hospital. His escape was termed as a big security breach and officials had apprehensions that he was trying to re-energise militancy in south Kashmir. Jatt, a resident of Chak No 421 in Pakistans Vehari Multan, was detained in south Kashmirs Kulgam four years ago when he was acting as the district commander of Lashkar. Officials said before his arrest he was the close aide of Abu Qasim and Abu Dujana, two top Lashkar commanders before they were killed in Kashmir. Jatt, as per the police records, had joined Lashkar in 2011 and sneaked into Kashmir in autumn of 2012. Police said Jatt was involved in three murders in 2013 in Pulwama and was facing trials in many cases. Soon after his escape from the Srinagar hospital, he was spotted in south Kashmir along with the commanders of Hizbul Mujahideen. Before his arrest in 2014, Jatt was active in south Kashmir for two years and had a good network of sources who helped him to hide after his escape. Jatt was spotted at several funerals of militants and even circulated his pictures carrying weapons in different parts of south Kashmir. Also read | Shujaat Bukhari, journalist who championed peace in Kashmir for 30 years Police said an operation was launched at around 3am on Wednesday on the specific intelligence-based information about the presence of two to three militants in Chattergam. As the forces began the operation, militants opened fire resulting in an encounter which ended at 11am. Clashes erupted in the area as villagers tried to move closer to the site to help militants escape. However, police used tear smoke shells to disperse the protesters. Police later recovered the bodies of the militants from the site. Authorities have suspended mobile internet in Budgam and Pulwama districts. Security forces had killed three militants, including a close associate of militants Jatt and Azad Dada, on Tuesday in separate gun battles in south Kashmirs Kulgam and Pulwama districts. A soldier of the Indian Army was also killed in the gun battle in Kulgam. Jatts associate Ajaz Ahmad Makroo was killed in Redwani area of Kulgam and police said that several cases of terror were registered against him in Kulgam. You may also like | Journalist Shujaat Bukhari was killed because he tried to find a middle path: Jitendra Singh Over 75 per cent of the electorate in Madhya Pradesh and 80 per cent in Mizoram voted on Wednesday in the assembly elections in the two states where the BJP and the Congress are seeking a fourth and third term in power respectively. Around 75 per cent of Madhya Pradeshs over 5 crore voters - 2,63,01,300 men, 2,41,30,390 women and 1,389 of the third gender - cast their ballot till 6 p.m. in 227 assembly constituencies against 72.13 per cent recorded in the 2013 assembly polls, Election Commission officials said in New Delhi. In three Maoist-affected constituencies - Baihar, Lanji and Paraswada - in Balaghat district, polling figures were 78 per cent, 79.07 per cent and 80.06 per cent respectively. The polling in these three constituencies began at 7 a.m. and finished at 3 p.m. Polling was largely peaceful but violence was reported in a few places in Bhind district. Two persons were arrested in a firing incident near an election booth in Bhind, police said. Several Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) malfunctioned, which were replaced by the poll panel officials. The Election Commission also announced that Rs 10 lakh each would be paid to its officials who died during the voting exercise. The highlight of the day was a 101-year-old woman coming out to vote in Agar Malwa district. The contest in the state is mainly between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress, though the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) are also in the fray. There were a total of 2,907 candidates. The BJP has fielded candidates for all the seats, while the Congress is contesting for 229 seats leaving one in Jatara in Tikamgarh district, for Sharad Yadav-led Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD). The BSP had fielded 227 candidates and the Samajwadi Party is contesting 51 seats. There were 1,102 Independent candidates. In the 2013 elections, the BJP won 165, Congress 58, BSP four and Independents three. Mizoram, which is the only state under Congress rule in the northeast, witnessed 80 per cent turnout of its 7.7 lakh voters while collection of figures continued. Election officials had said that the polling percentage to elect the new 40-member assembly would go up as they had not received the actual figures from many constituencies which lacked communication facilities. In 2013, Mizoram witnessed 83.41 per cent polling and 82.35 per cent voter turnout in 2008. EVMs were used in the state after 2003. According to officials, over 10,000 elderly voters, including a 108-year old man, a 106-year old woman on wheel chair and 103-year-old man, came out to vote. In its last northeastern bastion, the Congress is facing a stiff challenge from the Mizo National Front (MNF) headed by former Chief Minister Zoramthanga, while the BJP is also seeking to make its presence felt. The Congress and the MNF had fielded 40 candidates each while the BJP was contesting in 39 constituencies. A total of 209 candidates are in the fray. Counting of votes in both states will be held on December 11, along with Chhattisgarh where polling was held in two phases on November 12 and 20, and Rajasthan and Telangana where voting will be held on December 7. (With IANS inputs) A three-member committee of the National Green Tribunal has found no grounds for the closure of Sterlites controversial copper plant in Thootukodi, Tamil Nadu, in a move that puts the state government, which ordered the shutdown, in a spot. The move was welcomed by the company. The government will take all necessary legal steps to ensure that the factory, closed for causing pollution, remains closed. There is no change in the governments position, Tamil Nadu industries minister MC Sampath told HT. Sterlite vice president D Dhanavel saw NGTs decision as a moral victory for the company and said the companys copper unit wasnt responsible for the pollution in and around it. On-and-off protests against the plant that had been going on for decades exploded in May when, during a massive protest rally, police firing resulted in the death of 13 people. The government, under criticism for seemingly supporting the company by attacking protestors, ordered the closure of the plant. Activists say NGTs report isnt a clean chit for Sterlite. The committee headed by Tarun Agarwal has also recommended monitoring of water and air pollution. This is indicative of the fact that Sterlite is causing pollution... Even earlier, the Supreme Court had imposed a penalty of Rs 100 crore on Sterlite.., said B Sundar Rajan of the NGO Poovulagin Nanbargal. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president MK Stalin tweeted. This is a shame upon Tamil Nadu for which the (state) government is squarely responsible. It has not approached the issue with seriousness and passed a cabinet resolution on closing the Sterlite plant, he said. It is neither surprising nor shocking, said MDMK chief Vaiko, claiming the panel was biased. Activist Henry Tiphagne of Peoples Watch expressed hope that this was not the final word on Sterlite. s This corridor holds promise, the promise to bring two neighbours closer, said Punjab minister Navjyot Singh Sidhu at the function to lay the foundation stone for the Pakistan leg of the Kartarpur corridor linking Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistans Kartarpur, the final resting place of Sikhisms founder Guru Nanak Dev, to Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Indias Gurdaspur district in Punjab. Among those present on the occasion were Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, his senior ministers, Union ministers from India Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Puri and scores of Sikh pilgrims from both countries. Introduced by the anchor as sixer Sidhu whose friendship outclassed hate, the Congress politician was seen speaking animatedly with the Pakistan prime minister seated in the front row with other dignitaries. And when he spoke, the loudest and the most frequent applause was for him. Read: Cant move forward by blaming, scoring points over each other, says Pakistan PM Imran Khan at Kartarpur event In his speech filled with poetry and religious couplets, Sidhu showered praise on Khan saying history will remember him for bridging the gap between the two neighbours and for ending the 70-year wait of the Sikhs of India. Bloodshed must end, pain must end, peace must returnWe have paid a big price, someone has to douse this fire. This corridor is full of promise, it will bring the two countries close, he said. In an emotional speech, Sidhu said his parents used to see Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, which is just 4 km from the Gurdaspur border, from a distance and return with tears in their eyes as they could go no further . My friend Imran Khan has wiped the tears of lakhs of Sikhs, he added. Imran Khan, reciprocated the praise in equal measure when it was his turn to speak. Hailing the Indian cricketer-turned-politician, Khan said, Sidhu saab, if you come and fight elections in Pakistans Punjab, you will win. Speaking on the occasion, Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal praising the Modi government said, our government has worked hard for this day. Sikhs all over the world had been waiting for this day, she added. Earlier, Pakistan minister for Religious Affairs and Inter-faith Harmony Noorul Haq Qadri, in an oblique reference to the Sidhus hug controversy, said more hugs from you will solve more problems. Sidhu had drawn criticism back home when he hugged the Pakistan Army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa at Imran Khans swearing in ceremony earlier this year. #WATCH Pakistan PM Imran Khan: I don't know why was Sidhu criticised (in India). He was just talking about peace. He can come and contest election here in Pakistan, he'll win. I hope we don't have to wait for Sidhu to become Indian PM for everlasting friendship b/w our nations. pic.twitter.com/yPdWCJDYAr ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 Qadri said Pakistan plans a grand celebration next November for Baba Guru Nanaks birthday and also had plans to turn Gurduwara Darbar Sahib into the state of the art place of worship. Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said Baba Nanak cannot be confined to one nation, his influence is evident from Taxila to Harapppa, from Mohenjo Daro to Kartarpur. This corridor will bring prosperity to not just India and Pakistan but the entire sub-continent, he added. Kartarpur is located beside the River Ravi in Narowal district, some 120km from Lahore and only about 3-4km from the border with India. Settled in 1521 by Baba Guru Nanak, the village is famous for its white-domed Gurdwara Kartarpur Darbar Sahib, which holds religious significance for the Sikh community. Kartarpur is where Baba Guru Nanak settled down after his travels as a missionary. He lived there for 18 years until his death in 1539. Gurdwara Kartarpur Darbar Sahib was built by Sardar Bhupindar Singh, the Maharaja of Patiala, between 1921 and 1929. Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had likened the decision by the two countries to the fall of the Berlin Wall, indicating that the project may ease simmering tension between the two countries. Pakistan on Wednesday justified its army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa greeting pro-Khalistan leader Gopal Singh Chawla on the sidelines of the Kartarpur corridor groundbreaking ceremony after a video emerged of the two men shaking hands. Chawla, known to be one of the main propagators of the Sikh movement that seeks a separate homeland for the community, has earlier stopped Indian diplomats from visiting a gurudwara in Lahore. He is believed to have ties to terrorist Hafiz Saeed, who is wanted in India. A spokesperson for the Pakistan army said Bajwa met all guests at the venue irrespective of identity. On Twitter, the militarys media wing spokesperson, Major General Asif Ghafoor, said: Indian media taking a myopic view is selectively showing Mr Gopal Chawla meeting COAS. Army Chief met all guests at the venue irrespective of identity. A peace initiative should not be subjected to propaganda. Chawla is a senior leader of the Pakistan Sikh Gurudwara Prabhandak Committee (PSGPC), and he was invited to all events involving the Sikh community, a Pakistani official told news agency Press Trust of India. The groundbreaking ceremony in Pakistans Punjab province was attended by federal and provincial ministers and foreign dignitaries. In Canada, the pro-Khalistan group, Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), has announced that it plans to hold a convention to espouse the secessionist 2020 Referendum campaign, announced in London in August this year, at Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan if the proposed corridor for Sikh pilgrims between India and Pakistan is functional by then. While the original plan was to hold a major event at Nankana Sahib, the birthplace of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, SFJs legal advisor Gurpatwant Pannun told Hindustan Times that the opening of the corridor will allow the group access to a much larger number of pilgrims from India at Kartarpur Sahib than would be possible at the more distant Nankana Sahib. Because now they have given access, people will come to Kartarpur Sahib. They will not be allowed to visit Nankana Sahib so we will have to do the convention at Kartarpur Sahib, Pannun said. In case the corridor is not open, SFJ will revert to the original plan of holding the convention at Nanakana Sahib. The convention is being timed to coincide with the 550th birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Nanak. Read: Kartarpur event a showcase for Navjot Sidhu-Imran Khan bromance Indian officials refused to formally comment on this latest provocative move by SFJ, but said this was part of a game being played by Pakistan and rued that a religious occasion of such significance was being manipulated for such a purpose. SFJs office in Lahore will coordinate registration of voters for the non-binding referendum on creating a separate nation of Khalistan. SFJ also plans to sponsor and host 10,000 Sikhs from Punjab at the convention to be educated and informed about Sikhs right to self-determination under the UN Charter and Conventions and to serve as ambassadors for the separatist referendum. Pannun said in a statement, Kartarpur Sahib Convention is pivotal to referendum campaign as this will be the first ever global gathering of the Sikh separatists from foreign countries with the Sikh people from Punjab (With inputs from Anirudh Bhattacharyya) Pakistans prime minister Imran Khan on Wednesday laid the foundation stone for the construction of the corridor linking Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, the final resting place of Sikhisms founder Guru Nanak Dev, to Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district of Indias Punjab, which will help lakhs of Indian Sikh pilgrims visit the holy place throughout the year without a visa. India was represented by Union ministers Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Singh Puri at the event. Congress leader and Punjab cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu also present at the ceremony. My friend Imran Khan has ended the 70 years of wait. Imran has fulfilled our wishes. My parents used to see it from a distance and return with tears in their eyes. The Indian government and Imran Khan have fulfilled our wishes and connected us to our roots, the cricketer-turned politician said after the ceremony. We have paid a big price for bloodshed and someone has to douse this fire. This corridor is full of promise, it will connect the two countries. History will remember Imran and the Indian government for bringing the two countries together with this, Sidhu said. Read live coverage of the event here Kartarpur Sahib in Narowal district of Pakistans Punjab province is located across the Ravi River and is about four kilometres from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine. It was established by the Sikh Guru in 1522. The demand to build a corridor linking Indias border district of Gurdaspur with the historic gurdwara in Pakistan has been a long-pending demand of the Sikh community. Thousands of Sikh devotees from India visit Pakistan every year to celebrate the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak. The Kartarpur corridor is expected to be completed within six months. The decision to build the corridor by both the countries comes ahead of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak next year. The issue of Kartarpur Sahib came into focus after Sidhu visited Pakistan in August to attend the oath-taking ceremony of his cricketer-turned-politician friend Khan as the prime minister of that country. Sidhu said after his return that Pakistan army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa, who was present during Wednesdays ceremony, had told him that Pakistan may open a corridor to Kartarpur Sahib. India had proposed the corridor to Pakistan around 20 years ago. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while participating in the Gurpurab celebrations on November 23, had said that Kartarpur corridor could be a reason to connect people, adding that the incidents of 1947 should be left behind. He had also added that if the Berlin Wall, which restricted the relationship between the people of East and West Germany could be pulled down, then the Kartarpur corridor between India and Pakistan can also promote people to people contact. The decision to build the corridor from Dera Baba Nanak to the International Border was taken on November 22 by the Union Cabinet. On the same day, Pakistans foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had announced that Pakistans prime minister Imran Khan would be breaking the ground for the Kartarpur corridor on November 28. Pakistan extended an invitation on November 23 to external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh and Sidhu for the groundbreaking ceremony of the Kartarpur corridor on November 28. The invitation was, however, declined by Swaraj citing her prior commitments pertaining to election campaigns. The Punjab chief minister also said he would not attend the ceremony citing terror attacks by Pakistan. Ties between the two neighbours have been strained in recent years and no bilateral talks have been held. India had pulled out of the 19th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit that was to be held in Islamabad in 2016 after the deadly terrorist attack on an Indian Army camp in Jammu and Kashmir Uri in September that year. And on Wednesday, Swaraj said India will not attend the SAARC summit to be held in Pakistan unless the neighbouring countrystops sponsoring terror activities. India on Wednesday termed Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khans statement on Kashmir, during the inauguration of the Kartarpur corridor, as deeply regrettable saying it was unfortunate the country chose to politicize the pious occasion, meant to realise the long pending demand of Sikh community. Deeply regrettable that Pakistan PM chose to politicise the pious occasion meant to realise the long pending demand of Sikh community to develop Kartarpur corridor by making unwarranted reference to J&K which is integral & inalienable part of India, The ministry of external affairs said in a statement. India also reminded Pakistan to fulfill its international obligations and take effective and credible action to stop providing shelter and all kinds of support to cross border terrorism from territories under its control. In a reference to relations between India and Pakistan, Imran Khan said that it is unwise for two nuclear powers to go to war and therefore resolve impending issues, including that of Kashmir, through dialogue. I am saying that my party, I and my army are all standing together to on one page. We want to move forward. We want a civilised relationship. But we have one problem, that of Kashmir. I ask you, we have reached the moon, why cant we solve this one issue. All we need is just two leaderships on both sides of the border to solve this issue. But it needs determination and a dream, he said. A three-day Param Dharma Sansad was held in Varanasi, where seers opposed the Uttar Pradesh governments proposal to install a 221-metre statue of Lord Ram on the bank of the Sarayu river in Ayodhya. Terming the Vishwa Hindu Parishads (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 governments 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 peoples faith. Advocating the cause of a Ram temple in Ayodhya, Saraswati claimed that no mosque ever existed at Lord Rams 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. The Supreme Court on Wednesday handed over all 16 Bihar shelter home abuse cases to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), rejecting state governments contention that such a move would cast a doubt on states ability. This takes up the number of cases CBI is probing to 17 as the agency is already probing the Muzaffarpur shelter home case. The 17 shelter homes were indicted in a study by Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Social Sciences. But, the state government registered criminal cases against only 10 shelter homes. Over the last few weeks, the Supreme Court has taken the Bihar government to task on several occasions for its handling of the probe. On Wednesday, CBI informed the court it had no objection in taking up the cases. This came after the top court rapped the agency whose lawyer told the court that interim director of the CBI M Nageswar Rao was unable to give a view on the matter as he had been barred from taking any major policy decision. The order in Vermas case doesnt mean that investigations in cases by CBI will stop, the court said asking the CBI lawyer to seek instructions on phone. Rao, who was appointed as interim chief of CBI after the government divested director Alok Verma and his deputy Rakesh Asthana of duties of all responsibilities, was directed by the Supreme Court to perform routine functions, but not take any major decisions. Also read | Shameful, inhuman: SC raps Bihar over rule violations in 17 shelter homes Setting the stage for formation of a grand alliance of anti-BJP parties at the national level, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N Chandrababu Naidu came together on the dais today to kick-start their joint campaign for the December 7 Telangana assembly elections with a massive public meeting at Khammam. Burying their three-and-a half decades old political rivalry, both parties have joined hands along with two other parties Communist Party of India and Telangana Jana Samithi to form a Praja Kootami (Peoples Front) to take on the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) headed by K Chandrasekhar Rao in the assembly elections. While Naidu described the alliance of opposition parties as a historic necessity, Gandhi said the alliance was not just for Telangana elections, but a beginning of a massive movement that would decide the future of the country. He said while Narendra Modi government at the Centre had systematically ruined all constitutional institutions including Supreme Court, the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Reserve Bank of India and the Election Commission, the TRS government in Telangana had made miserable the lives of every section of the people including farmers, youth, women and students. So, there is an urgent need to bring down these two governments. First, we shall defeat the TRS, which is nothing but a Team B of Narendra Modi, in the coming assembly elections and then march ahead to pull down the Team A, Gandhi added. Dismissing Prime Minister Modis claims that the TRS was a byproduct of the Congress, he alleged that it was in fact a secret ally of the BJP, citing how it supported the Modi government on demonetization, GST, the President and Vice-Presidents election and even during the no-confidence motion against the NDA government. This is despite the fact that the Modi government had failed to implement the provisions of the AP Reorganisation Act, which had made certain assurances to both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The people must question him why KCR had supported the NDA government, Gandhi asked. The Congress president alleged that the KCR government had completely ignored the promises he had made before 2014 assembly elections. Instead, he and his family looted public money in the name of redesigning of irrigation projects like Kaleshwaram. He pushed the state into debt trap by resorting to borrowings to the tune of Rs 2 lakh crore. Farmers continued to commit suicides, while unemployed youth are still agitating for jobs, he said. Earlier, Naidu said the TDP and the Congress had been enemies for several decades, but they were compelled to join hands only for the sake of people. He alleged that the Modi government had failed miserably on all fronts and had become a threat to democracy in the country. He said the TDP was founded to uphold the dignity and self-respect of the Telugu people. Having developed Telangana in various fields in my earlier regime, I strongly wished that the Telugu people should remain united despite geographically divided into two states, I have no interest whatsoever in ruling Telangana, he said. The AP chief minister refuted the allegation levelled by the TRS leaders that the TDP had been conspiring to stall irrigation projects in Telangana. In fact, several irrigation projects took shape during my regime. As a lower riparian state, I cannot stall any projects upstream. I only wanted that both the states should go by the Godavari and Krishna water tribunal recommendations, so that it would benefit people on either side, he said, signing off his speech with Jai Telangana slogan. TRS is Telangana Rashtriya Sangh Parivar Earlier, addressing a Congress rally at Kodangal, the Congress president described the TRS as Telangana Rashtriya Sangh Parivar, which had supported the BJP-led NDA in Parliament on various occasions. When I confronted TRS MPs in Parliament and asked them why they had supported the bills introduced by BJP, they said KCR had asked them to do so. I want to know why KCR never said anything about Rafael deal, attacks on minorities and the weaker sections, he asked. Gandhi said he saw a wind of change in Telangana and said that the current wave will decimate the TRS. This time the Peoples Front will come into power in Telangana, he said. He assured voters particularly the migrant labour, that the Congress led alliance will full the dreams of those who fought for Telangana. This country isnt run by one person: Rahul Gandhi On Independence Day, PM Modi said India was sleeping before I became Prime Minister, every Telangana farmer was sleeping, every small shopkeeper was sleeping.. he insulted every person of Telangana by saying that. This country isnt run by one person: Rahul Gandhi This country is run by the countrys people, the youth, the people of Hyderabad: Rahul Gandhi This isnt just election of Telangana, this is the semi-finals: Rahul Gandhi This is not just the election of Telgangana, this is the semi-finals... we will beat the B team which is TRS and C team is MIM. And in Delhi, Congress will beat the A team: Rahul Gandhi KCR means Khao Commission Rao: Rahul Gandhi KCR means Khao Commission Rao: Rahul Gandhi Congress party is going to beat Narendra Modi in 2019: Rahul Gandhi Congress party is going to beat Narendra Modi in 2019, claims Rahul Gandhi at Nampally in Telangana. TRS should make it clear if its BJPs B team: Rahul Gandhi TRS should make it clear if its BJPs B team.. if they are not then why did they support demonetisation: Rahul Gandhi In 2019, this alliance will beat BJP and Modi: Rahul Gandhi After defeating TRS here, in 2019, this alliance will beat BJP and Narendra Modi: Rahul Gandhi Slogan has changed from achee din to Chowkidar chor hai: Rahul Gandhi In four years, the slogan achee din has now become Chowkidar chor hai and with this chowkidar stands CM KCR, said Rahul Gandhi. Nowadays Narendra Modi doesnt talk about corruption: Rahul Gandhi Nowadays Narendra Modi doesnt talk about corruption, jobs or employment, says Rahul Gandhi. Modi govt has completely destroyed Indias institutions Congress party has always protected Indias institutions. Modi govt has completely destroyed these institutions today. For the first time 4 SC judges came out to the public for help: Congress President Rahul Gandhi said, BJP presidents name appears in Judge Loyas murder and the 4 Supreme Court judges seek public help as they are not allowed to look into this issue. There was respect between TDP and Congress in 2004: Rahul In 2004, we had the relationship of opposition but there was also a relationship of respect: Rahul Gandhi Wherever PM Modi goes, he spreads hate: Rahul Gandhi Wherever PM Modi goes, he pitches one religion against other, one state against another... He spreads hate: Rahul Gandhi. Everyone lives in Hyderabad in peace and brotherhood: Rahul. First of all, I want to thank Chandrababu Naidu for coming here. Hyderabad is known all over the world. That was done by CM Naidu and Congress: Rahul Gandhi Hyderabad is not an ordinary city, US president had said that only China and India can fight 21st centurys America. That had happened due to cities like Hyderabad and Bengaluru: Rahul Gandhi . The Congress president said Hyderabad has set an example for communal harmony. Chandrababu Naidu addresses rally in Sanathnagar Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu public meeting at Sanathnagar in Hyderabad Rahul Gandhi, Chandrababu Naidu in Sanath Nagar Congress President Rahul Gandhi & Andhra Pradesh CM and TDP Chief Chandrababu Naidu in a corner meeting in Sanath Nagar, Hyderabad. #TelanganaAssemblyElections2018 pic.twitter.com/mJNIwLqNTT ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 Naqvi alleges Congress,TRS, AIMIM deleted names from voters list There are 2 very important issues.Congress,TRS and AIMIM together deleted large number of voters in Telangana from voter list on grounds of their community. Genuine voters from a particular community and supporting a specific party have been deleted under planned conspiracy: Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi He said, Names of several fake voters included in list. 700-800 voters have same address. Names of Rohingyas have been included in list,they shouldnt be allowed to cast votes. We demanded EC to remove the loopholes before election&take action against officers involved. TRS is helping the BJP, says Rahul Gandhi TRS supported demonetisation, in no-confidence motion, in Presidents election, in Gabaar Singh Tax and Congress fought the BJP: Rahul Gandhi. TRS is engaged in helping the BJP. TRS want that BJP wins again: Rahul Gandhi Alliance will eventually beat the govt at Centre: Rahul Gandhi After winning in Telgangana,the alliance will win in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and eventually the alliance will beat the government at the Centre: Rahul Gandhi PM Modi is destroying all institutions: Rahul Gandhi In the Centre, PM Modi is destroying all institutions: Rahul Gandhi By your enthusiasm, it seem alliance will come in Telangana: Rahul Gandhi The alliance in Telangana, the public meeting that followed is a historic meeting: Rahul Gandhi By your enthusiasm, it looks like Telangana alliance will come in the state: Rahul Gandhi If Swaminathan Commission was implemented 10 years ago... farmers wouldnt be in debt: PM Modi If Swaminathan Commission was implemented 10 years ago... farmers wouldnt be in debt. You and your previous generations, they are responsible for the dismal state of farmers: PM Modi Naamdar ke darbaari shamelessly call Maoists revolutionaries: Modi Eliminate the Congress party that calls Maoists and Naxals as revolutionary: PM Modi The naamdar ke darbaari shamelessly call Maoists and those involved in violence as revolutionaries, says Modi. Terrorists confined to Kashmir after 2014: PM Terrorists confined to Kashmir after 2014, blasts often took place before BJP government; this is power of your vote, PM tells gathering in Rajasthan. Raag darbari of namdar say Maoists are revolutionaries: PM Raag darbari of namdar say Naxals, Maoists are revolutionaries, says PM Modi in a rally in Rajasthans Bharatpur town. PM Modi addresses public meeting in Rajasthans Bharatpur PM Modi is addressing a public meeting in Rajasthans Bharatpur. Congress and TRS have surrendered before Owais but we havent: Shah Akbaruddin Owaisi claimed that whoever becomes the chief minister of Telangana will have to bow before them. The Congress and TRS have surrendered before Owais but we havent, says Amit Shah. Development cant happen based on religion: Amit Shah In their manifesto, Congress has promised a slew of benefits for the minorities. They promised free electricity to Masjid and Churches and not temples. Development cant happen based on religion, says Shah KCR responsible for depriving Telanganas people from benefits: Shah KCR is responsible for depriving people of Telangana from the benefits of the pro-poor schemes of the centre, says Amit Shah in Adilabad. Not a single poor family in Telangana has benefitted from PMAY: Shah Not a single poor family in Telangana has benefitted from PMAY of the centre. Whereas in the neighbouring state Maharashtra, around 1.18 lakh poor families now have a home under the scheme , says Shah TRS promised to build a town hall which is nowhere to be seen: Amit Shah TRS promised to build a town hall which is nowhere to be seen. They also promised to spend 80 crore for the people belonging to ST, but not a single penny has been spent, says Amit Shah The entry of Lotus will be through Adilabad: Amit Shah The entry of Lotus will be through Adilabad, known as the gateway of Telangana, says Amit Shah. Amit Shah is addressing public meeting in Adilabad, Telangana BJP chief Amit Shah is addressing a public meeting in Adilabad, Telangana. Aim of TRS and AIMIM is to see Congress is not able to defeat BJP: Rahul Aim of TRS and AIMIM is to see Congress is not able to defeat BJP at the national level, Rahul Gandhi says at poll rally in Telangana. KCR failed to fulfil promise of land to SC/ST communities: Rahul Chief Minister KCR had promised 22 lakh houses but the reality is, only 5,000 were built. He also failed to fulfil the promise of land to SC/ST communities. Our coalition government will fulfil all these promises, says Rahul Gandhi. Our top priority is to create jobs: Rahul Our top priority is to create jobs. We will also provide Rs 3,000 unemployment allowance, says Rahul Rs 500 crore will be allocated to women entrepreneurs: Rahul Women are the backbone of Telangana, so Congress government will provide Rs1 lakh grant to every Self Help Groups and Rs 500 crore will be allocated to women entrepreneurs, says Rahul Gandhi. KCR has only employed his family and stole future of 4 crore people: Rahul The KCR government promised 1 lakh jobs. But how many jobs did he really create? He has only employed his family and stole the future of 4 crore people, Rahul Gandhi says in Mahbubnagar. Telangana peoples trust was broken by KCR: Rahul 5 years ago, people of Telangana had hoped for a new Telangana. You had dreamt of Neellu, Nidhulu, Niyamakaalu. People believed that chief minister KCR will fulfil their dreams and this trust was broken by KCR Govt: Every person in Telangana has Rs 60,000 debt on them: Rahul Every person in Telangana has Rs 60,000 debt on them, but KCRs sons income is increases by 400%, says Rahul Gandhi. KCR govt imitating PM Modi by creating unemployment: Rahul While the educated graduates in Telangana are desperately looking for jobs, the KCR government has been imitating PM Modi by creating unemployment, says Rahul Gandhi TRS means Telangana Rashtriya Sangh Parivar: Rahul TRS means Telangana Rashtriya Sangh Parivar, says Rahul in Mahbubnagar. Telangana has a soaring crime rate under the regime of KCR: Rahul A new state, rather than soaring to heights, has a soaring crime rate under the regime of KCR. Telangana, its time for change, says Rahul. KCR has failed to honour any of his promises: Rahul KCR has failed to honour any of his promises to the people of Telangana, says Rahul Gandhi in Mahbubnagar. Both Modi and KCR have no vision for Telanganas future: Rahul Modi and KCR are two sides of the same coin. Both these leaders have no vision for the future of Telangana, says Rahul Gandhi. Rahul Gandhi addresses a public gathering in Telanganas Mahbubnagar Congress president Rahul Gandhi addresses a public gathering in Mahbubnagar. My mothers struggle with chulha inspired me for Ujwala Yojana: PM Naamdaar doesnt know how a chulla works, how the smoke burns. While growing up, I saw my mother use the chulha. Her eyes used to tear up due to the smoke. I have seen her struggle and that inspired me to start the Ujwala Yojana. PM Modi attacks Congress dynasty Those whose four generations have had no connect with public cannot understand your pain: PM Modi says in Rajasthan rally. Seeking votes for your welfare: PM Modi We are not seeking votes for our grandsons or granddaughters but for your welfare and to help fulfil your dreams, says PM Modi in Nagaur. PM Modi address a public meeting in Nagaur. ( ANI/Twitter ) Raje government provided irrigation facilities in 1.5 lakh hectare area: PM Water big problem for Rajasthan, Raje government provided irrigation facilities in 1.5 lakh hectare area, says PM in Rajasthan rally. People with no understanding of seeds, pulses talking about farming: PM People who dont understand the difference between various seeds and pulses are talking about farming, PM Modi says addressing a public meeting in Rajasthans Nagaur. Till we dont work to uplift the poor, the country wont develop: PM Till we dont work to uplift the poor, the country wont develop, says PM Modi in Nagaur. PM Modi pays his tribute to Mahatma Jyotirao Phule on his death anniversary I pay my tributes to Mahatma Jyotirao Phule on his Punyatithi today. The path he showed us for the welfare of the poor and underprivileged inspires us to serve them, says PM Modi. Kaamdar is in fight against naamdar here: PM Modi Kaamdar is in fight against naamdar here; I am like you people, have not been born with a golden spoon, says PM Modi in Rajasthan rally. Neither you nor I was born with a silver spoon: PM Neither you nor I was born with a silver spoon, says PM Modi. Sabka saath sabka vikas is our motto: PM Our only mantra is sabka saath, sabka vikas, inspired by social reformist Jyotiba Phule and B R Ambedkar, says PM Modi PM Narendra Modi addresses public meeting in Rajasthans Nagaur Prime Minister Narendra Modi is addressing a public meeting in Rajasthans Nagaur. KCR afraid of Razakars party AIMIM: Amit Shah BJP president Amit Shah Sunday hit out at Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for not taking action against AIMIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi in connection with a hate speech. Amit Shah to address public meetings in Telangana BJP chief Amit Shah will address public meetings in Telangana. TRS, Congress perpetuating family rule in Telangana Prime Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday lacerated Telanganas ruling TRS and the Congress for perpetuating family rule and pursuing vote bank politics that harm development like termites. KCR seeking second term as chief minister TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao, also known as KCR, is seeking a second term as chief minister after dissolving the 119-member assembly in September. KCRs party TRS is fighting in all seats, while the TDP has joined hands with Congress, CPI and Telangana Jana Samiti to form a grand alliance Mahakutami. Chandrababu Naidu to campaign for Telangana polls with Rahul Gandhi Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu would campaign for the Telangana assembly polls along with Congress president Rahul Gandhi today and tomorrow, TDP sources said. Rahul Gandhi to address public meetings in Telanganas Kosgi and Madhira Congress president Rahul Gandhi tweets, I am in Telangana on a two day tour. Today I will address public meetings at Kosgi & Madhira. There are also corner meetings scheduled at Sanat Nagar and Nampally. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday asked people in Rajasthan to vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to ensure a continuance of double engine growth by having the same partys rule at the Centre and state. The elections are a direct contest between the Congress and the BJP, which swept the last polls in 2013 by winning 163 out of the 200 assembly seats. No ruling party has been able to retain power for the second time in the state for 25 years. Let us imagine if they [the Congress] form the government, what will happen? They will keep fighting with Delhi [the Centre] and it will not do any good for Rajasthan, he said at a rally in Nagaur ahead of the December 7 Rajasthan assembly elections. Modi, whom the BJP is banking on to overcome anti-incumbency, said there would be no fighting if chief minister Vasundhara Raje returns to power. Lotus [BJPs election symbol] brand engine at Delhi and lotus brand engine in Rajasthan will work as double engine and Rajasthan will witness maximum development. Modi accused the Congress leaders of repeatedly abusing him and his family. He said it was a fight between naamdaar [dynast] and kaamdaar [people who work] and that he has lived like any ordinary person. Neither you nor I was born with a golden spoon. Your parents have never ruled nor have mine, he told the rally. He attacked the Congress for claiming that four generations of the Gandhi family have contributed a lot for the countrys development. He [Congress president Rahul Gandhi] does not know whether moong is a plant or tree and the difference between moong and masoor. Modi said the Gandhis are cut off from the ground reality. Their four generations do not have anything to do the ground reality, so they cannot understand the pain and cannot address it. Modi rejected the Congresss criticism that the BJP government has not done anything for farmers. He blamed the Congress for sitting for 10 years on the Swaminathan Commission recommendation to give minimum support price 1.5 times of the production cost. Modi credited his government with implementing it. He said the farmers situation would have been better had the countrys first home minister Vallabhbhai Patel become the countrys first prime minister instead of Rahul Gandhis great-grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru. Modi said votes have helped elect an honest government, which has worked tirelessly for the peoples welfare. He added 12.5 million houses, including 700,000 in Rajasthan, have been built for the poor under the Prime Minister Avas Yojana (housing scheme). External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said on Wednesday India will not attend the SAARC summit in Pakistan and unless the neighbouring country stops sponsoring terror activities even as she welcomed Islamabads decision to build the Kartarpur corridor. We are not responding to it (the invitation by Pakistan for the summit) positively because as I said unless and until Pakistan stops terror activities in India, there will be no dialogue, so we will not participate in SAARC, she said while speaking to reporters in Hyderabad. Swaraj, who declined Islamabads invite to witness the ground-breaking ceremony for the corridor and deputed two ministers to represent India at the event, said the corridor had been a long awaited. For many years the Indian government has been asking for this (Kartarpur) corridor, only now Pakistan responded positively. It doesnt mean the bilateral dialogue will start because of this, terror and talks cant go together, she said in Telangana where she is campaigning ahead of the Telangana assembly elections on December 7. The moment Pakistan stops terrorist activities in India, dialogue can start. But the dialogue is not connected with only the Kartarpur corridor, Swaraj said. Pakistans prime minister Imran Khan is scheduled to lay the foundation stone at the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the corridor linking Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistans Kartarpur, the final resting place of Sikhisms founder Guru Nanak Dev, to Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Indias Gurdaspur district in Punjab. Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu is already in Pakistan to attend the event. Union ministers Hardeep Puri and Harsimrat Badal have also reached Pakistan. Swarajs statement comes a day after Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Mohammad Faisal said on Tuesday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be invited to that country for the SAARC summit. India had pulled out of the 19th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit that was to be held in Islamabad in 2016 after the deadly terrorist attack on an Indian Army camp in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir in September that year. It was called off after Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan also declined to attend. The Maldives and Sri Lanka are the other two members of the regional grouping. No summit meeting of SAARC has happened ever since. The Vishwa Hindu Parishads demand telling Muslims to surrender land for construction of Ram temple before the BJP government brought an ordinance has not found many takers in the minority community. At its Virat Dharam Sabha held in Ayodhya on Sunday, the VHP had resolved for construction of Ram temple at any cost and urged the Muslims to surrender land for the Ram temple before the BJP brought an ordinance or else the issue concerning Kashi Vishwanath temple (Varanasi), Krishna Janm Bhoomi (Mathura) and other temples (razed by Mughal rulers) will be brought back on its agenda. Ram Mandir and Babri Masjid issue are to be resolved by the government. I dont want to say anything on the VHPs demand and stir another controversy. Aftab Aam, resident of Ayodhya Besides asserting that there is nothing new in the VHPs legally untenable call and terming the demand as politically motivated, those representing the Muslim community feel recent developments in Ayodhya reflects on how two ideologically closer outfits (Shiv Sena and VHP) are in competition with each other to get hold of the Ram temple movement. The VHP has been raising these issues in the past too. So, there is nothing new in it. The VHP cannot raise these issues in the backdrop of The Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 that provides for maintenance of religious character of any place of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947. The VHPs demand is legally not tenable and so the organization will not be able to get any relief on these issues, said Zafaryab Jilani, convenor of the Babri Masjid Action Committee. About Mathura (Krishna Janmbhoomi) issue, Jilani said a compromise had been reached in 1958 and the same has been followed there. A petition had been moved in a district court in Varanasi about the Kashi Vishwanath temple too and the issue is pending in court, he said. Jilani said both of these places were covered by the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991. About the demand for an ordinance, Jilani said, The Supreme Court will take up the Ram Janmbhoomi-Babri Masjid issue in January 2019. The union government is, however, free to bring an ordinance on the issue. It is for the union government to bring an ordinance. We will challenge it. Iqbal Ansari, petitioner in the Ram Janmabhoomi Babri Masjid case, said: It is for the government to take note of the VHPs demand. I am not concerned about the VHPs demand. I am thankful to the state government for proper security arrangements in Ayodhya and peaceful completion of the VHPs event, Ansari added. Another petitioner in the case and Ayodhya resident Haji Mahboob said VHPs demand held no ground. The Acquisition of Certain Area At Ayodhya Act framed on January 7, 1993, clearly stated that no other mosque would be considered for acquisition, he added. The Ayodhya Act was to acquire the disputed and adjacent land for construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. Aftab Alam, 44, resident of Ayodhya, said: Ram Mandir and Babri Masjid issue are to be resolved by the government. I dont want to say anything on the VHPs demand and stir another controversy. Maulana Khalid Rasheed Firangi Mahali of Lucknow said Muslims had nothing to do with whatever had happened in Ayodhya in the past two days. It appears two organisations following the ideology of RSS are in completion with each other to gain control on the temple moment. The Allahabad HCs verdict has proved that Muslims are one of the legal owners of the land. The court has given one part of the land to Sunni Waqf Board. The VHP is not a party to the case and has no claim, said Khalid Rasheed. As Madhya Pradesh began voting early on Wednesday morning, BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya protested the Congress party using social media to continue its campaign. He said that the Congress was violating rules by campaigning on Twitter even as voting had started in Indias largest state. Attaching screenshots of two tweets posted earlier today from Congress official handle, he asked the Election Commission to look into the matter. Congress continues to campaign in Madhya Pradesh on the day of polling in gross violation of The Representation of the People Act. Election Commission must take note, Malviya tweeted. Congress continues to campaign in Madhya Pradesh on the day of polling in gross violation of The Representation of the People Act. Election Commission must take note. pic.twitter.com/HQJxCzeE9J Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) November 28, 2018 Click here for Madhya Pradesh assembly elections 2018 live updates Voting began in Madhya Pradesh today at 7 am in three Naxal affected seats with the remaining 227 seats casting their votes 8am onwards. The two tweets, posted from the Congress handle are aimed at farmers and women. In one tweet, the Congress is offering various sops including loan waivers etc to farmers. The second tweet that Malviya attached with his post, is aimed at addressing women and their problems. Both tweets are accompanied by the hashtag #VoteCongress. Also read | Sops, freebies dominate BJP, Congress promise to Madhya Pradesh farmers Candidates from all walks of life are contesting the assembly election in Madhya Pradesh and are out all to convince voters in their own ways. Independent candidate Bala Vaishwara is one such candidate. I dont have a family. For people like me, the public is my family, Vaishwara, a transgender contesting from Indore-2, tells voters. And her election plank is poverty. I, like you, know what it is like to be poor, Bala didi, as the 28-year-old is called, said. Im not saying dont vote for a man or a woman. Im saying, vote for a good candidate. According to Rani Thakur, a 36-year-old housewife, she said the right thing. For her, the public is the only family she has. Kinnars must be given a chance to come forward. Kinnar is one of the many socio-cultural communities of transwomen in the subcontinent. Wherever Vaishwara goes, people seek her blessing, as a kinnars good wishes are considered auspicious. Politicians touch peoples feet during elections, but people here are touching mine, she says. Indias first transgender politician was from Madhya Pradesh in 1998, Shabnam Mausi Bano was elected MLA from Sohagpur constituency. Two transgender women were elected mayors in 1999 and 2009, but the courts declared their win void, as they had won from seats reserved for women. After a 2014 judgment by the Supreme Court, which granted legal recognition to the third gender and held that transpersons have the right to self-identify their gender, this round of elections has seen an upswing in the number of transwomen candidates. A Bharatiya Janata Party stronghold since 1993, Indore-2 saw incumbent Ramesh Mendola win by a record margin in 2013. The Congress candidate is Mohan Singh Sengar. You first have to get people to stop thinking only in terms of two parties to vote for, 40-year-old Radha Hariyale, a resident of Raghunandan Bagh, tells Vaishwara. Youve tried both parties. Youve tried men and women, now try me, she replies. Vaishwaras support comes from Shram Andolan, a group of unions of handcart pullers, domestic workers and auto rickshaw drivers. Anil Yadav, a member of the autorickshaw drivers union, said he supported her because he thinks she will bring the change the area needs. Sharad Singh Kumar of the Rashtriya Aamjan Party is contesting on the election symbol of a shoe and has garnered attention owing to his unique style of campaigning. Singh is polishing shoes of people and says he will make use of his unique election symbol to turn it into a blessing. It was a free poll symbol that no one was willing to take. We took it and we will turn it into a blessing, he said, according to news agency ANI. Madhya Pradesh will go to polls to elect legislators for its 230 constituencies on November 28. Results will be declared on December 11. Madhya Pradesh with a bipolar polity faces a straight battle between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress. But it is also a large and complex state with various regions, caste groups, economic and political factors. Based on interaction with voters across 15 districts, 10 variables emerge that are likely to influence the Madhya Pradesh election. Shivraj Singh Chouhans record The chief minister is seen as having delivered on infrastructure, especially roads and electricity, agricultural growth and welfare schemes. Even his critics acknowledge that. These accomplishments helped him win the 2008 and 2013 state elections, since he first became chief minister in 2003. Will MPs voters reward him again or do their aspirations exceed his delivery? This time around, Chouhan must also battle the perception that power is tightly controlled by members of his family and select bureaucrats, besides corruption scams like Vyapam (the scam involved politicians and bureaucrats securing government jobs for undeserving candidates through cheating and bribe). Read | Vote share of parties in the 2013 Madhya Pradesh assembly elections Anti-incumbency In 2013, the BJP swept the polls with over 160 of the 230 assembly seats. Now, there is resentment against many incumbent legislators for not doing enough for their constituencies, for being partisan to certain caste groups, and not bringing vikas (development). Anti-incumbency may play a role in what appears to be a hyper local election. The BJP however, hopes its formidable organisational apparatus, and the concerted assistance of all Sangh affiliates, will offset the local disillusionment. Agrarian distress The BJP government delivered high rates of agricultural growth, but farmers have not got the prices they aspired for. The issue took centre stage during the protests in Mandsaur last year, in which farmers died due to police firing. The Chouhan government responded with a slew of benefits, such as the Bhavantar scheme in which the government either meets the gap between the market rate and Minimum Support Price (the price at which the government acquires farm produce, effectively setting a base price) or provides a flat bonus. The scheme has worked in some pockets; in others, there are complaints of delay in payments and procedural difficulties. The Congress meanwhile has tapped into this discontent and promised a loan waiver. Will farmer anger undo the Chouhan government? Congress and badlav In MP, a range of factors, including 15 years of rule by one party , has led voters to seek badlav (change). But will the yearning for change be cause enough to effect a reversal in the house arithmetic? The BJP can lose 40 seats and yet win this election. The Congress can gain 50 seats and yet lose this election. Converting the sentiment for change into enough votes is a test that Congress faces. Read| How Madhya Pradesh voted in the 2013 assembly elections Congresss internal matrix Factionalism is a key reason for consecutive defeats of the Congress in MP. Rahul Gandhi dealt with this by appointing senior leader Kamal Nath as the party chief and Jyotiraditya Scindia as the campaign committee chief, not declaring a CM, and keeping the third leader, former CM Digvijaya Singh in the background. The three factions are not sabotaging each other, but beneath the united front, there is underlying tension. Candidates are seen as associated with one or the other leader rather than the party, and there is an undercurrent of competition among supporters to project the leader they are loyal to as the potential chief minister. Caste contradictions A substantial proportion of upper castes, OBC (Other Backward Classes) caste groups, adivasis and a segment of Dalits voted for BJP. This election, some are upset with the centre restoring the original provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, others are upset with the Chouhans support for SC/ST reservations in promotions in government jobs, and the business community is still reeling from the impact of demonetisation and the implementation of the new Goods and Services Tax. Will the BJPs careful social engineering succeed? Has the Congress been able to get both, upper castes and segments of the BJPs loyal OBC base on its side? In the heartland state where caste is often a determinant of political choice, this will be a key variable. A Hinduised polity The fear of being seen as a pro-Muslim party, and the BJP exploiting that to convert the election into a Hindu versus Muslim one, meant that the Congress has extensively played up its Hindu association. From frequent temple visits by Gandhi, Nath and Scindia to a manifesto that takes a pronounced position in favour of what are perceived to be Hindu causes such as cow protection, the Congress has competed with the BJP in telling Hindu voters that their concerns will be taken care of. The Congress will also rely on the consolidation of the states 7% Muslim population. Perhaps because it has adopted this strategy, polarisation in this election is neither as pronounced nor as much of a factor on the ground. Read| List of Madhya Pradesh MLAs with criminal cases against them State versus general election Madhya Pradeshs voters have made a clear distinction between the state and general elections. This is why Modis campaign has not had the same impact as in previous state polls. On the other hand, those veering towards Congress are also not doing so because of Gandhis campaign. State issues, state leaders and local factors dominate. And that is why it would be a mistake to extrapolate the outcome of December 11 to what could happen in general elections of 2019. Welfare Indias politics on the ground remains dominated by both promise and delivery of welfare. Chouhan is banking on schemes for unorganised labour and small farmers, reduction in electricity bills, and allowances for families of those dying below 60. The Congress is relying on farm loan waivers, social security pensions and financial assistance for the marriage of daughters of small cultivators. Irrespective of who wins, welfare will be the matrix of governance. Jobs Across adivasi villages in Malwa belt, buses ferry young men in search of work to Gujarat. Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan are favoured destinations across the Bundelkhand belt or in Gwalior-Chambal. The state has held investor summits and claimed advances in industrialisation. The Congress has alleged that this is not reflected on the ground and promised policies to create jobs. Who the young trust more will eventually determine MPs outcome. Read| Urban vs Rural: Voting patterns in Madhya Pradesh Personal attacks and digs were rampant during the election campaign in Madhya Pradesh this time, even as development issues seemed take a back seat. The state goes to poll on Wednesday. Talking about the rise of fuel price last week, film actor-turned-politician Raj Babbar compared Prime Minister Narendra Modis mothers age to the falling value of Indian rupee. Bharatiya Janta Party spokesperson Sambit Patra made an issue of Congress president Rahul Gandhis gotra, after the latter visited Ujjains famed Mahakal temple. Political analysts say that as poll campaign gained momentum in the state, discussion on development took a back seat. GP Nema, a retired professor of political science at Dr Hari Singh Gour University said, It has almost become a fashion to raise such issues which are hardly related to people. Also read | Madhya Pradesh is the most crucial among the five states going to the polls The election campaign came to an end on Monday evening. BJP leaders criticised Gandhi for visiting temples during his campaign and for the hoardings in Bhopal and Rewa (where Brahmans dominate political equations) that referred to him as Shivbhakt and Pundit. They said that these descriptions misled voters. Gandhi visited Bhopal soon after his pilgrimage to Kailash-Mansarovar. The 48-year-old, who calls himself a devotee of Shiva, tweeted photos of his journey from there. State Congress Committee president Kamal Nath was ridiculed for his age, health and alleged proximity to industrialists, while CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan was called a madari (street performer), and linked to Vyapam and e-tendering scams. The Central Bureau of Investigation gave a clean chit to the CM last year while filing a chargesheet in the Vyapam scam. Chouhan took potshots at unnamed Congressmen who were ministers in the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government, and said that they were known as Mr 10 Per Cent. State Congress media in charge Shobha Oza said, Our state president Kamal Nath ji asked more than 40 specific questions related to farmers, women, traders, government employees, and law and order , but there was no response from the BJP on a single question. The Congress hardly indulged in any below- the-belt attacks. State BJP spokesperson Rajneesh Agrawal said, Congress was hardly serious in raising development issues. Their only goal was how to tarnish the image of the CM by using several adjectives for him. You may also like | Madhya Pradesh assembly elections 2018: 656 crorepati candidates in fray, BJP has most For full coverage on Madhya Pradesh assembly elections 2018 click here The Congress will be seeking to prise open the ironclad grip of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Madhya Pradesh and maintain its own sway over Mizoram, its last bastion in the northeast, as the two states vote on Wednesday in the middle stretch of assembly elections that will lead up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The BJP, under long-time chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, will be up against the anti-incumbency factor in Madhya Pradesh, which it has ruled for three successive terms. In Mizoram, the Congress, under veteran Lal Thanhawla faces a tough challenge from the Mizo National Front (MNF) headed by former chief minister Zoramthanga as it attempts to win a third successive term in the Christian-majority state. For Live updates on Madhya Pradesh assembly elections, click here. Mizoram is one of only three states apart from the Union territory of Puducherry where the Congress remains in power. Punjab and Karnataka, where it is in a coalition with the Janata Dal (Secular), are the others, and the current round of assembly elections are a litmus test of its ability to stage a comeback. Polling has been completed in Chhattisgarh; Rajasthan and Telangana will vote on December 7 and the results in all five states will be declared on December 11. Watch: What angry Mandsaur farmers could mean for the BJP in Madhya Pradesh [ The one-day poll for Madhya Pradeshs 230 assembly seats is essentially a direct fight between the BJP and the Congress, although Mayawatis Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Akhilesh Yadavs Samajwadi Party(SP) are also in the fray. More than 50 million people are eligible to vote in the state to decide the fate of 2,899 candidates. The BJP has fielded candidates for all 230 seats while the Congress is contesting 229, leaving one seat, Jatara in Tikamgarh district, for the Sharad Yadav-led Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD). Chief electoral officer V Kantha Rao said voting will begin at 8 am and end at 5 pm. Both the Congress and BJP, whose charge was led by party president Rahul Gandhi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, respectively, expressed confidence that they would win. BJP president Amit Shah, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley also campaigned for the BJP in the state. Gandhi sought to rejuvenate the state unit by appointing veteran Kamal Nath as the Madhya Pradesh party chief in April this year and naming Jyotiraditya Scindia as the campaign leader. BJP spokesperson Rajneesh Agrawal said the work done by chief minister Chouhan and Prime Minister Narendra Modis campaign appearance in the state were the partys main assets. Congress spokesperson Shobha Oza said the party would win, claiming the BJP in the state appeared rattled. Madhya Pradesh polls: 656 crorepati candidates in fray, BJP has most Gandhi attacked Modi and his government for alleged corruption and failure to fulfil promises made in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and by Chouhan in 2013, and has promised a farm loan waiver within 10 days if the Congress is voted to power. Modi attacked the Congress for alleged corruption during its years in power and accused it of promoting dynastic politics Security has been tightened along the Nadha Pradesh-Uttar Pradesh border, especially in Bhind and Morena in Chambal division and Satna and Rewa in the Vindhya region, and also in Mandla and Bhalaghat, where Maoist rebels have a presence. In Mizoram, the fight is largely between the Congress and the MNF although the BJP is also seeking to make its presence felt. The BJP has made deep inroads in the northeast since the Modi government came to power at the Centre in 2014 and its performance in the Christian-majority state will be keenly watched. In the battle for the 40-member Mizoram assembly, chief minister Lal Thanhawla of the Congress is seeking a hat-trick. As many as 209 candidates are in the fray in Mizoram. The Congress has fielded 40 candidates while the BJP and MNF are contesting 39 and 40 constituencies respectively. Around 770,000 voters will decide the fate of 209 candidates. Madhya Pradesh polls: Sops, freebies dominate BJP, Congress promise to Madhya Pradesh farmers In earlier polls, there was a clear fight between Congress and the MNF, but this time we have the BJP, the Zoram Peoples Movement and the National Peoples Party as well, which could win a few seats. So theres a possibility of a hung assembly, said J Doungel, professor of political science at Mizoram University. In keeping with past trends, a high voter turnout is expected in Mizoram in the eighth assembly polls since it was declared a state in 1987. The state had recorded 83.41% polling in 2013. We are all set for polling. We hope people will turn up in large numbers to cast their votes. We also expect the tradition of free, fair and peaceful polls in the state to continue, said chief electoral officer Ashish Kundra. To ensure smooth polling, 40 companies of central paramilitary forces have been deployed in the eight districts of the state along state police personnel. For full coverage on Madhya Pradesh assembly elections, click here. Mizoram recorded 80% voter turnout In a peaceful poll, Mizoram recorded 80% voter turnout. Serchhip with 81% recorded the highest turnout among all eight districts, while Aizawl with 65% was the lowest, said chief electoral officer Ashish Kundra. The coter turnout was 83.41 per cent in 2013. In the 2008 assembly polls, it was 82.35 per cent, the poll panel said. 3046 women managed polling booths in Mizoram: EC official There were 3046 women managed polling booths in Mizoram, says EC official 75% turnout in Mizoram till 5 pm 75% turnout in Mizoram till 5 pm, reports ANI. There were only 3 MCC violation cases that were reported. 108-yr-old man turns up to vote Rochhinga, aged 108, was considered to be the oldest voter in Mizoram as the election to the 40-member state Assembly ended peacefully on Wednesday. 71% polling recorded till 4 pm 71% polling recorded in Mizoram till 4 pm. Although polling closed as 4 pm those voters who are in queue at polling booths will be allowed to vote. 58% voting in Mizoram till 3 pm 58% voter turnout recorded till 3 pm in Mizoram according to the office of the chief electoral officer: Mizorams 108-year-old voter 108-year-old Upa Rochhinga casts his vote in Zemabawk North. 106-year-old woman casts her vote in Kawrthah 106-year-old Darrokhumi cast her vote in Kawrthah. She was carried to the polling station in a wheelchair. A 106-year-old woman after casting her vote in Kawrthah. #MizoramElections (Pic courtesy: Office of the Chief Electoral Officer) pic.twitter.com/OSd47D4Adb ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 49% polling till 1 pm 49% polling recorded in Mizoram till 1 pm, say election officials. Faulty VVPATs delay voting in some booths Voting in some booths delayed due to fault in 42 VVPATs, 19 control units and 25 ballot units. All-women polling booths Mizoram has one all-women polling booth in each of its 40 constituencies this time. All-women polling station at Phuken under Chalfilh assembly constituency in Aizawl district. All 40 assembly seats have one all-women polling station in Mizoram this time 29% polling till 11 am 29 per cent polling reported in Mizoram till 11 am. 25% polling till 10 am Around 25 per cent of the 7,68,181 voters cast their votes by 10 am, deputy additional chief electoral officer CC Lalchhuangkina told IANS over phone quoting reports from all eight districts. Key candidates this time As polling in Mizoram is underway, heres a look at the key candidates: How parties fared in 2013 As polling in Mizroram is underway, heres a look at how the parties fared in 2013 assembly elections As polling in #Mizroram is underway, here's a look at how the parties fared in 2013 assembly elections Follow live updates: https://t.co/A5imnBSqRU#MizoramElections #ElectionsWithHT pic.twitter.com/qc7U5PGcp5 Hindustan Times (@htTweets) November 28, 2018 Bru voters cast their votes under tight security Bru voters queue up outside a polling booth at Kahnmun in Mizoram. ( Priyanka Deb Barman/HT Photo ) More visuals from Kahnmun Bru voters queue up outside a polling booth at Kahnmun in Mizoram. ( Priyanka Deb Barman/HT Photo ) 15% turnout till 9 am 15 per cent turnout reported till 9 am, according to Election Commission officials. Rahul Gandhi appeals people to vote My appeal to the voters of Mizoram: Your vote is not just your constitutional right, it is a blessing & a weapon. Use it wisely today! Vote for peace, prosperity and progress. My best wishes and warmest regards to all my brothers & sisters in Mizoram: Rahul Gandhi tweets Visuals from Mizoram Unlike many other states, provision is made for voters to sit outside polling booths while waiting for their turn to vote. Amit Shah appeals people to vote As voting in Mizoram begins, I appeal all my sisters and brothers of state to turn out in record numbers and vote. Your one vote will lay the foundation of a prosperous and corruption free Mizoram: Amit Shah Visuals from Kahnmun Elderly Bru voter shows her inked finger after casting her vote at Kahnmun. Visuals from a polling booth in Kanhmun Voting underway in Mizoram, visuals of people queuing up to vote at a polling station in Kanhmun #MizoramElections pic.twitter.com/VykFjNTYEm ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 Visuals from Zarkawt-II, Aizawl Polling underway in Mizoram, visuals of voters in Zarkawt-II, Aizawl #MizoramElections pic.twitter.com/Ji45y7B2XE ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 Polling peaceful so far Bru voters queue up outside a polling booth. Visuals from Mizoram An elderly voter goes through an instruction poster at a polling station in Mizoram before casting his vote. PM Modi urges voters to turn out in large numbers I request my sisters and brothers of Mizoram, particularly the dynamic youth of the state, to turn out in large numbers and vote: PM Narendra Modi Bru voters make their way to polling station Bru voters cross the bridge to Kanhmun. BJP appeals people to vote Visuals from Mizoram Mizoram: Visuals from a polling station in Zarkawt, Aizawl. Polling for the 40 constituencies in the state will begin at 7 am. #MizoramElections pic.twitter.com/BnKJsWf36E ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 Anti-incumbency not a factor: CM Lal Thanhawla Congress veteran and chief minister Lal Thanhawla, who has been at the helm since 2008, is confident that the grand old party will become the first to win three elections in a row in Mizoram. Theres no anti-incumbency wind, not to speak of wave. We are quite confident of retaining power, said Lal Thanhawla, who is the only Congress chief minister at present to also head the partys state unit. In the 2013 polls, Congress came to power by winning 34 of the 40 seats in the assembly. But in recent months, five of those legislators , including party vice-president and home minister R Lalzirliana, have left the party to join rivals. BJP in centre, state will take Mizoram to new heights: PM Modi While campaigning in the state, Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused Congress of corruption and nepotism and assured fast-paced development if BJP is voted to power. Modi accused the Congress of spreading fear to protect its state governments which are mired in corruption and nepotism and urged voters to get rid of the party. BJP looks to uproot Congress from last bastion in northeast 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. The party has been contesting polls in Mizoram since 1993, but has failed to win any seat in the state. The Congress and the 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. Read: BJP has never recorded a win in Mizoram but its a poll issue this time High-octane battle expected between Congress, MNF 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. The Zoram Peoples Movement (ZPN) is an alliance formed by two political parties and four groups. 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. How Mizoram voted in 2013 In the 2013 elections, the Congress had won 34 seats, while its main opposition, the Mizo National Front (MNF), got five and the Mizoram Peoples Conference bagged one seat. See vote share of parties in 2013 Mizoram election Bru refugees living in Tripura to vote in inter-state village 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. 209 candidates, over 7.7 lakh voters 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. This poll is expected to see voting by nearly 11,000 Bru voters, living in six relief camps in Tripura. Read: Womens big fight for political space in Mizoram Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 27) China Telecom-led Mislatel Consortium promised to deliver 27 megabits per second (mbps) of internet speed in its first year. "We are not burdened by obsolete technology. We will be bringing in new technology, the latest, most innovative technology. In fact, we are looking to bring in 5G," Mislatel spokesperson Adel Tamano said. Tamano earlier said current major telecommunications players Globe and Smart only bring an average of 10 mbps to its millions of subscribers. Mislatel is 40 percent owned by Chinese state-run China Telecom and the rest is owned by Davao City business tycoon Dennis Uy's Udenna Corporation and Chelsea Logistics. The consortium also vowed to top the coverage of Globe and Smart after three years. "Globe and Smart, now in their 20 years of operations, up to now they only covered up to 70 percent of the country," Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Acting Secretary Eliseo Rio said. The third major telco player committed to cover 37 percent of subscribers on its first year, up to 84 percent in its fifth year. It also promised to put up a thousand cell sites in a year. Former Smart executive Rogelio Quevedo, however, doubted Mislatel's commitment. "Maybe I can believe that you can put up 200 cell sites in one year. But with due respect I highly doubt that you can put up 1,000 cell sites," he said. The DICT also said it will forfeit Mislatel's 24-billion performance bond if it will be unable to deliver its promises. A political group in Mizoram is banking on godliness to win the November 28 assembly polls in the Christian majority hill state. We are not asking people for votes. We are merely saying if you stand for truth, for godliness, then stand by us, said Zaichhawna Hlawndo, president of Zoram Thar, a political group which shies from calling itself a political party. Zoram Thar or New Mizoram, which is not a recognised political party, has fielded 18 candidates in 23 constituencies, with some candidates contesting from more than one constituency. For Live updates on Mizoram election, click here. Read: In a first, all Mizoram polling booths to be covered by wireless technology Among the five woman candidates the group has fielded are Hlawndos two evangelist daughters Lalhrilzeli, and Lalruatfeli. All the candidates are contesting as independents but on a common symbol a ring. It signifies a vow, a commitment. It is a commitment between the voters and god, Hlawndo said. Hlawndo is contesting from two constituencies, Aizawl West I and Serchhip, where he faces chief minister Lal Thanhawla of Congress. Watch: I will win, says BJPs lone Muslim candidate[ We are not against any political party or political leader. I prayed to god and asked where should I contest from, and he told me I should go to Serchhip, Hlawndo said, but did not explain his second choice Aizawl West I. We are just a group of people, we are servants of god, said Hlawndo, who was a lecturer in a Bible college in the UK and a pastor before he returned to Mizoram. I had a revelation back in 2012 and god told me I should return to my native place. God said he will transform and reform the native place, said Hlawndo, describing how he returned to Mizoram in 2016 and took the plunge into politics. An earlier version of Zoram Thar was founded in 1993 and it had contested the 1998 Assembly polls. Read: BJP looks to uproot Congress from last bastion in northeast The group has a 10-point agenda to transform Mizoram, with Church reforms on the top of its priorities. People follow different denominations. There is one god. We need to be united. We want a church council, Hlawndo said. Yet, Hlawndo said he does not want to promote Christianity. It is just godliness that we want to spread, he said. Prohibition in Mizoram is another of his priorities. The Bible prohibits drunkenness. Why do people need to consume alcohol when there are other options like orange juice and apple juice? he asked. A church leader said he had just heard about the new group and said he was not sure if they would make a dent. A government official in Aizawl said the group is at best a fringe which will manage a few hundred votes. But Hlawndo is confident. God promised he is going to bear the nation. We will win 21 seats. And if god says you will be the chief minister, I will take it, he said. For full coverage on Mizoram assembly elections, click here. Tripura-settled Bru refugees who had fled violence in their native Mizoram 21 years ago, set foot in their native place for the first time in two decades to participate in Mizorams state assembly polls on Wednesday. Bru refugees voted at 15 polling booths at Kahnmun in Mamit district of Mizoram, close to the border. Of the 11,987 registered Bru voters, 56.46% voted. A day before the poll, Bru voters sounded dissatisfied with the polling stations in Kanhmun village along the Mizo-Tripura border. But to everyone's surprise, even veteran Bru voters and nursing mothers were seen standing in long queues to exercise their franchise for change. in their lives. The fragrance of khichdi and non-vegetarian fare cooked by delegates of the Young Mizo Association wafted through the polling complex, as volunteers handed food packets to voters leaving the booths. " It is quite difficult to travel at this age.The camp would have been the best place to vote for us. But my nephew helped me walk to the polling booth, said 64-year-old Sourbino Reang, a resident of the Naisingpara camp. Read| 80% turnout in Mizoram, slight dip compared to 83.41% in 2013 Sandoulani Reang, a 25-year-old mother of a baby, feels that the BJP could change her life in such a way that she and her infant will no longer have to live in a camp. Many other motheres were seen carrying their children on their backs to cast their vote. Some like 37-year old Ashapara resident, Rasmohan Reang who is originally from the Mamit district where the voting booths were located, still dream of unfulfilled demands. Others like 27-year old Murenjoy Molshoy has no recollection of when he fled to the camps along with his parents. Still, Murenjoy has learnt the importance of voting. " We have the right to vote and a change is required, he said. Mizoram Bru Displaced People's Forum ( MBDPF) vice president, V Laldungliana said there were some inconveniences , like inexperienced drivers and breakdowns along the route and a lack of drinking water. But of 541 vehicles arranged to carry Bru voters from the camps to the polling stations and back, 433 were used, indicating a strong desire to vote, at all costs, for a change . For more on Mizoram elections, read here As the countdown begins for the November 28 elections for the 40-member state assembly, two organistaions have come out with the list of candidates facing criminal cases. Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla is among the nine of the total 200 candidates in the fray facing criminal charges, according to two civil society organisations. Mizo National Front (MNF) president and former chief minister Zoramthanga is another bigwig fighting criminal charges, the report of the Mizoram Election Watch (MEW) and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said. It is based on affidavits filed to the Election Commission by the aspirants. Read: How Mizoram voted in 2013 assembly election The others facing criminal charges are V Malsawmtluanga (Independent), Vl Zahawma Chawngthu (BJP), Rasik Mohan Chakma (MNF), Lalduhpuii (BJP), James Thanghmingmawia (Congress) and R Lalthangliana (MNF). Out of the nine contestants, only four are facing serious criminal cases, it said. While the Congress and the MNF are contesting all 40 constituencies this time, the BJP is fighting in 39 seats with an aim to opening its account for the first time in Mizoram. The Congress is also going all out to retain its last bastion in the Northeast. For full coverage on Mizoram assembly elections 2018 Polling counters opened on Wednesday in Mizoram, where Congress, which is in power since 2008 in the northeastern state, is facing a stiff battle from the Mizo National Front for the 40 assembly seats. Around 770,000 voters will decide the fate of 209 candidates,18 of whom are women, as the state goes to polls for the eighth time since it was declared a state in 1987. Experts say Mizoram could have its first hung assembly this time as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is also seeking to make its presence felt. The BJP has made deep inroads in the northeast since the Modi government came to power at the Centre in 2014 and its performance in the Christian-majority state will be keenly watched. The state had recorded 83.41% polling in 2013. Five years ago, the figure stood at 80% and in 2008 the state had witnessed 78.65% polling. For Live updates on Mizoram assembly election, click here. Read: How Mizoram voted in the 2013 assembly elections To ensure smooth polling, 40 companies of central para-military forces have been deployed in all the eight districts along with state police personnel. Congress, which is in power since 2008, is facing a stiff battle from the Mizo National Front for the 40 assembly seats. With BJP and other smaller parties putting up a strong campaign, some say Mizoram could have its first hung assembly this time. Watch: I will win, says BJPs lone Muslim candidate In earlier polls, there was a clear fight between Congress and the MNF, but this time we have the BJP, the Zoram Peoples Movement and the National Peoples Party as well, who could win a few seats. So theres a possibility of a hung assembly, said J Doungel, professor of political science in Mizoram University. The Congress and the MNF are contesting from all 40 seats, while BJP has put up candidates in 39 seats and the ZPM in 35 seats. NPP, which is in power in Meghalaya and is part of the ruling coalition in Nagaland and Manipur, is contesting 9 seats. Read: High-octane battle expected between Congress, MNF in Mizoram A total of 209 candidates, 18 of whom are women, are in the fray. The state will have 1,164 polling stations across all eight districts. For the first time the states 4,363 service voters have been issued electronic ballots. So we will get electronically-transmitted postal ballots. Special provisions have been made at polling stations for 3,915 physically-challenged voters, Kundra said. Watch: What angry Mandsaur farmers could mean for the BJP in Madhya Pradesh Every constituency will have an all-women polling station and there will be web streaming of polling from 41 polling stations. Instructions in Braille have also been made for visually-challenged voters in some polling stations. All eyes will be on Kanhmun village in the Mamit district close to the border with Tripura, where some of the nearly 11,000 of the registered Bru voters living in relief camps in the neighbouring state, are expected to vote. Read - Urban vs Rural: Voting patterns in Mizoram Thousands of Brus had fled Mizoram in 1997 following ethnic clashes and have been living at six relief camps in Tripura ever since. Efforts to resettle them in Mizoram have failed. 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. For full coverage on Mizoram assembly elections, click here. The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) junction, one of south Mumbais busiest, is all set to become pedestrian-friendly, on the lines of New Yorks Times Square. The National Association of City Transportation Officials (NATCO) Global Designing Cities Initiative (GDCI), which is undertaking this project, transformed the Mith Chowki junction in Malad in 2017. Under GDCI, spaces will be demarcated for pedestrians and motorists at CSMT using paint and barricades. The plan has been modelled on the lines of a similar project undertaken at Times Square, which sees more than three lakh pedestrians an hour. The project, spearheaded by Janette Sadik-Khan, former commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation, carried out between 2007 and 2013 led to creation of special arrangement for visitors, blocking of vehicular traffic, among other changes. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has approved the plan for CSMT. Pedestrians will get proper refuge islands with grass patches, and the unused road space will be put to better use, without altering the number of lanes for motorists. Food plazas, too, will be set up at demarcated spaces, to ensure they dont block the subway entrance. A selfie point already exists outside the BMC headquarters. We intend to create more such spaces for pedestrians. We will create a separate lane for cyclists, said Abhimanyu Prakash, project director of GDCI. More than 80% of the CSMT road is used by pedestrians and cyclists and public transport, while 20% by motorists. The new design aims to return to pedestrians the space that motorists have encroached upon, said Skye Duncan, who transformed the Mith Chowki junction. Duncan has worked with the New York City Department of City Planning for seven years before taking on as the director at GDCI. Apart from CSMT junction, ten of the 19 junctions across the city will be transformed over the next few months. Prakash said, After the monsoon, we surveyed the 19 shortlisted junctions and submitted designs to BMC and traffic police for approval. Ten of them have got the nod. The NACTO-GDCI, under the Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety, started a project, Reclaiming Streets for Mumbai with the Global Street Design Guide, to set guidelines for Indian cities to address challenges owing to rapid urbanisation. In 2014, Bloomberg Philanthropies announced a new phase of the foundations Global Road Safety Initiative, committing $125 million to reducing fatalities and injuries from road traffic crashes in ten cities in the world, including Mumbai. We are excited to have additional municipal commissioner Vijay Singhal endorse the Global Street Design Guide, demonstrating Mumbais commitment to safer, more sustainable streets. This guide gives cities like Mumbai permission to innovate with proven, evidence-based designs for urban streets. Mumbai has now joined over 80 global cities and organisations that are taking back their streets with designs that put people first, said Khan. With just two days for the winter session of the state legislature to end, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in Maharashtra is racing against time to finalise the percentage reservation to be accorded to Marathas. The community has demanded a 16% reservation in jobs and education. A senior minister, who did not wish to be named, said the government is looking at three options 12, 14 and 16%. The final decision on the quantum of the quota will be taken tomorrow [Thursday] morning, the minister said. If not 16%, we want to fix it at 14%. There are inherent problems in justifying quota in the absence of caste census. Currently, reservations in Maharashtra add up to 52%, which is more than the Supreme Court-mandated cap of 50%. The minister said the government is taking into consideration opinion of legal experts, who have suggested fixing the quota at less than 16% to make it legally more sound. The state agreed to the quota demand after the Maharashtra State Backward Classes Commissions report endorsed the Maratha communitys social, educational and financial backwardness. The commission has not recommended quantum of quota. The question is how to justify 16%, as the population estimate of Marathas being around 32% is dated and not verified, said a senior government official, on the condition of anonymity. Further, nearly half of the Marathas come under the category of kunbis (a sub-caste) and already get reservation under Other Backward Classes (OBC) quota, the minister said. If we clear 16 per cent reservation, there will be demands from other groups such as the OBCs to increase their quota on the basis of their population. So, we need to deliberate on this and find a sound basis. Delay over the decision, however, meant the government could not table the Action Taken Report (ATR) on the commissions report on Wednesday. The ATR has been finalised in the meeting of the sub-committee late on Wednesday. It will be tabled in the Assembly tomorrow [Thursday], said Girish Mahajan, BJP minister and member of the cabinet sub-committee. Another member of the sub-committee and Shiv Sena minister Eknath Shinde said the percentage of the reservation will be finalised in the meeting to be held on Thursday morning. We have finalised the final draft of the bill prepared by rounds of consultations with legal experts. The percentage of the reservation will be decided in the meeting tomorrow, he said. The government had sought opinion from legal experts as well as states advocate general Ashutosh Kumbhkoni on the legal aspects of the quota, as it could prove to be legally untenable and pose the biggest hurdle for the new law. The cabinet sub-committee headed by revenue minister Chandrakant Patil met twice on Wednesday to finalise the draft of the bill. After consulting legal experts on its panel, officials from the law and judiciary department held meetings with Kumbhakoni again, after it found a few technical glitches in it. The government is expected to run the final draft past the experts again before the proposal is brought before the cabinet for nod on Thursday. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had earlier announced that Marathas should celebrate the reservation on December 1, a day after the winter session concludes. Meanwhile, various organisations representing the OBCs have given a call for a protest at Azad Maidan on Thursday. The organisations have expressed fear of encroachment on their reservation owing to the inclusion of Marathas in SEBC. The state assembly on Tuesday cleared an amendment in the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act that authorises the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to levy an additional one per cent on stamp duty as surcharge, to fund major urban transport projects. The state government expects the move which will make buying property more expensive for Mumbaiites to generate more than 1,000 crore in revenue. This provision in the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act was passed in the lower house on Tuesday during pandemonium concerning the Backward Class Commission report, which recommends reservation for the Maratha community. The amended bill states the BMC may levy an additional surcharge of one per cent on stamp duty. The revenue generated from this will be used to fund projects like the Metro, the monorail, freeways and other public transport systems. The bill will now be placed before the legislative council for approval. Once approved, stamp duty (excluding registration fees) in Mumbai will increase to six per cent of the property transaction amount, which means buying real estate will become more expensive for Mumbaiites. Nitin Kareer, principal secretary, state urban development department, said, A similar provision has already been made for funding Metro projects coming up in cities such as Pune and Nagpur. Chief economist and national director of the property consultancy Knight Frank India, Samantak Das said that the timing of the amendment was not ideal. Any sort of increase in taxes or stamp duty is an additional burden for all buyers. At a time when the real estate industry is observing some kind of traction, coming back after so many years, I think this will not augur well as far as buyers and sales are concerned, Das said. Even though the Maharashtra government is facing a cash crunch, it has begun work on expensive projects in Mumbai like nine Metro corridors, the coastal road and the Versova Bandra Sea Link (VBSL), which will cost more than 1 lakh crore. Many of these will be funded with loans from international funding agencies, but the state must give funds as viability gap funding (VGF).The state recently sought special grants of 50,000 crore from the 15th Finance Commission to complete Mumbais infrastructure projects. Mumbai When 16-year-old Adityavijay Patel, a student at Vile Parles Jamnabai Narsee International School, visited a school for underprivileged students, he was shocked to see their struggle to live a dignified life. Thanks to a crowd-funding initiative, Patel and 113 other students of Class 9 and Class 11 in the school have raised 24 lakh to fund the education of 115 underprivileged students for two years. I approached my family, friends and relatives and urged them to donate. It was a pleasant surprise to see so many people donate generously, said Patel, who has raised 1.31 lakh so far. The campaign initiated by fueladream.com, online crowd-funding platform, is supported by the Nargis Dutt Foundation and will be on till December 7. Ranganath Thota, founder of fueladream.com, said, The students of Jamnabai have made a massive impact for an important cause. We hope that they would take up the medium to support other causes. While most students were asked to collect at least 20,000, many managed to collect huge sums. Jasmine Madhani, school head, said, Through the crowdfunding initiative, students will learn to be responsible and sensitive citizens. They will be equipped with the right modern tools to make a social impact. Fourteen-year-old Veer Agarwal, a student of American School of Bombay at Bandra-Kurla Complex, raised 14 lakh to donate around 300 prosthetic legs and wheelchairs to physically challenged people from rural Maharashtra. When Agarwal was three years old, a road accident fractured his thigh bone, leaving him bedridden for more than two months. A metal rod had to be inserted in his thigh. He is now helping the physically challenged to stand on their feet. He posted an appeal on vhelptowalk.org and got 16 donors within a month. Once the amount was collected, Agarwal got in touch with Seth Bhagwandas J Agrawal Charitable Trust, an organisation working in the field of health and education in rural Maharashtra for the past 20 years. With the help of his parents, he organised a camp with the Trust at Washim district. My agonising experience always haunted me and motivated me to do something for physically challenged people from financially weak background. I started researching on how I can help them experience the joys of walking and running again. That is when I learnt about Jaipur Foot, said Agarwal. He came to know about the physically challenged in rural Maharashtra who could not afford a prosthetic limb. We organized four camps at Risod village of Washim district and it was fulfilling to see all of them walk again, Agarwal added. Mumbai currently has 525 unsafe, dilapidated buildings, while Thane has 72, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis told the state Assembly in a written reply on Tuesday. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in a survey in April found that 688 buildings were in the C-1, dangerously dilapidated, category. Of them, 163 have been demolished till October, according to the reply. The civic body has disconnected the water and power supply of 147 of the 525 buildings, while the process has been initiated in 133 buildings. BMC has managed to get 174 buildings vacated. The issue was raised by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Raj Purohit during the question hour on Tuesday. He sought a detailed reply from the state government over the action taken by the civic body against the dangerously dilapidated buildings. The responsibility of shifting the residents of such buildings is of the owner. The civic body, too, takes up the responsibility of shifting the residents if they own the building, said the chief minister. The residents of 167 buildings have approached court to escape BMCs action and 37 cases have been referred to the technical advisory committee of BMC, Fadnavis informed the lower house. Of the 95 dangerously dilapidated buildings in Thane, 23 have been razed and the process of demolishing the rest is on, stated the reply. Also, 114 buildings need structural repairs that can be done only after evacuation, while 2,260 buildings need structural repairs that can be done without evacuation. The remaining 2,236 buildings need minor repairs, stated the CMs reply. The Mumbai civic body, in June, declared a new policy to resolve disputes between tenants and owners that often lead to a delay in vacating a dilapidated building and redevelopment stuck for years. There have been cases of tenants living in transit camps for long, even though buildings are ready and flats are sold in the open market. Now, it is must for owners to enter into an agreement with tenants and assure them alternative accommodation if their building is slated for redevelopment. The policy mandates an agreement between tenants and owners to protect the rights of the former, and scientific structural audits. According to the rules, the BMC will not issue commencement certificate, if the said agreement is not produced. Members of the UK-based parkour collective Storror were detained on Tuesday after a housing society complained about the stunt theyd performed in a Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) compound in Dadar. No case has been registered against them, but the parkour athletes were being questioned late into Tuesday night. The police said the special branch would be informed and that detained foreigners movement may be restricted. Storror, whose parkour videos have garnered over 67 million views online, is in Mumbai to take part in a conference. On Monday afternoon, the Storror team entered Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Nagar Society and filmed a stunt in which one of them leaped from the roof of one 14-storey building to another. President of the society Jayant Nate said, They came in the afternoon and went to the 14th floor to perform the stunt. He said the group had not asked for any permissions. After we came to know about the fact, we along with our watchmen and other society members approached the Dadar Police on Tuesday, said Nate. After a complaint was filed on Monday night, the police found Storrors video online. Having identified the group, the police located the members in a five-star hotel. The members of Storror were then taken for questioning and their statements have been recorded, said Mumbai Police. The police have not registered any case against Storror, but has recommended their movements be restricted. Storror are scheduled to participate in a conference on December 2. Storror is considered one of the most iconic parkour brands and have a global fan following. Their YouTube channel has more than a million subscribers. One of their recent stunts involved crossing from Europe to Asia by free-running through Istanbul and leaping across rooftops and on ferries. The seven-member Storror will be holding a press conference on Wednesday. YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. US President Donald Trump said he may cancel the upcoming meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Argentina due to the situation in the Kerch Strait, TASS reports. That will be very determinative, Trump said in an interview to The Washington Post. Maybe I wont have the meeting. Maybe I wont even have the meeting I dont like that aggression. I dont want that aggression at all. Trump said he was awaiting a "full report" on the incident from his national security team. US National Security Advisor John Bolton said earlier in the day that during their meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Argentina, the two leaders would discuss the entire range of bilateral issues, including arms control. On November 25, three Ukrainian warships en route from Odessa in the Black Sea to Mariupol in the Sea of Azov illegally crossed Russias state border, entered Russias territorial waters and started performing dangerous maneuvers. Despite repeated warnings and demands to stop, the Ukrainian vessels continued their way, forcing Russia to use weapons. The three Ukrainian ships were detained in the Black Sea and taken to the port of Kerch. Three Ukrainian servicemen were slightly wounded and received medical assistance, and their lives are out of danger. A criminal case has been launched over the violation of Russias state border. Police arrested a 24-year-old commerce student on Tuesday morning for allegedly stalking a woman television news anchor and pestering her on social media for months. According to police, Gulshan Kashyap, a third year BCom student of Maharshi Dayanand University in Rohtak, was arrested by a team of the Sector 20 police station from near Sab Mall in Sector 27 of Noida on Tuesday. Kashyap is a resident of Devi Lal Colony in Gurugram and, according to police, he was stalking the woman both online and offline for the past many months. A complaint was lodged at our police station on November 6 regarding Kashyap harassing a TV news anchor. We booked him under the Indian Penal Code sections 354 (d), 507 and 509 (stalking a woman, criminal intimidation through anonymous communication and insulting the modesty of a woman) and under Section 66 of the IT Act. We received information that he will be present at the Sab Mall on Tuesday and a team picked him up, Manoj Pant, station house officer, Sector 20 police station, said. According to police, Kashyap was obsessed with the news anchor and started stalking her on social media platforms initially. Later, he started frequenting Noidas Film City where the news channels office is located. The man appears to be obsessed with the woman and he started sending her messages on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. After the complainant blocked his different accounts, he started sending her intimidating messages. He also posted lewd messages on her social media profiles using fake accounts. He also threatened to kidnap her and said that he will not allow her to be with another man, Pant said. Government Railway Police (GRP) men on Tuesday arrested a suspected corpse smuggler and recovered from him 50 human skeletons at Chapra railway station in Bihars Saran district. The arrested man, identified as Sanjay Prasad, was travelling in Balia-Sealdah Express. GRP official suspect that the skeletons, being brought from Balia in Uttar Pradesh, were meant to be smuggled to China via Bhutan. Prasad was being interrogated and his mobile contacts were also being scanned, they said. Sonepur deputy superintendent of police (rail) Mohammad Tanvir said the GRP men also recovered Nepal and Bhutan currencies, many ATM cards, two identity cards and SIM cards with Nepal mobile phone numbers from his possession. One of the identity cards had address of Paharpur in West Champaran while the second card was issued from New Jalpaiguri in West Bengal, the DSP said. The GRP will seek the remand of the arrested person when he is produced in a court on Wednesday, Tanvir said. Another officer, requesting anonymity, said there was a huge demand for skeletons among medical students. The arrested man was being interrogated to find out details of other persons involved in the smuggling of skeletons and whether he had links with people in Nepal and Bhutan, he said. The seizure of foreign currency is a definite indication that the racket may have its tentacles spread to foreign countries, the officer said. In 2009, Saran police had seized more than 67 human skulls from a bus and arrested a smuggler. In April 2004, 1000 skulls and other parts of human carcass were seized near Falgu river in Gaya. Also read: Gurugram serial killer leads police to skeleton of second victim in Gwalior Leader of the opposition in Bihar legislative assembly on Tuesday sought to downplay his brother Tej Pratap Yadavs petition seeking divorce from Aishwarya Rai, saying they were adults and capable of taking a decision about their life. Both Tej Pratap and Aishwariya are adults and know what is good for them, said Tejashwi, younger son of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad, adding that family matters should not be highlighted in public. If personal matters are highlighted in public, many top political leaders of the country would land in trouble, he said. Tejashwis observation appears to be an indication that efforts of the RJDs first family had failed to mollify the quarrelling couple. Tej Pratap, an MLA and a former Bihar health minister who is believed to be in Vrindavan, has said he would not come to Patna till his family backed his decision to divorce his wife of six months. He recently tweeted that a relationship once broken cannot be mended, indicating that the Yadav scion was adamant on pursuing his separation from his wife. Tej Pratap keeps family on tenterhooks, Rabri hopeful for settlement Tej Pratap had filed for divorce from Aishwariya, daughter of RJD MLA Chandrika Rai and grandchild of former Bihar chief minister Daroga Prasad Rai, on November 2 citing compatibility issues. All eyes are on November 29 when a family court in Patna will hear the divorce petition. Tej Pratap, in his media interactions, said he had married Aishwariya an MBA graduate in May this year under pressure from his parents and could not adjust with her as she came from a different background. However, Tej Prataps mother and former chief minister Rabri Devi recently expressed hope that her elder son would soon return home and patch up with wife. Enthused by the significant public response to Prime Minister Narendra Modis four rallies in the state, the Rajasthan unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wants him to participate in a total of eight rallies, two more than the initial plan of six. Meanwhile, the partys president Amit Shah has decided to spend all his time from now on till election day, December 7, in Rajasthan. He and chief minister Vasundhara Raje will address, independently, several meetings across the state as the party seeks to fight off anti-incumbency. Even the partys ideological parent the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is now fully backing its chief ministerial candidate Vasudhara Raje after the Congress threat to ban the Sanghs shakhas in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, where voting is taking place on November 28, if it comes to power. People within the party say the BJP has regained lost ground and improved its position in the two-way race from what it was just a month ago, and that it is now in a fighting position. The involvement of the RSS cadre has helped, a senior state BJP functionary admitted. It is now a survival issue for them. The RSS cadre has now given up its indifference towards CM Raje and plunged headlong into the election battle. Other leaders say the party has benefited from the fact that it has been able to manage dissidence better. Both the BJP and the Congress have had to deal with leaders disappointed at not being fielded in the elections, and who have threatened, sometimes, to contest as independents. On Tuesday, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley and Raje released the partys manifesto. Talking to the Hindustan Times after releasing the state party manifesto, finance minister Arun Jaitley said: The party is all set to turn anti-incumbency to pro-incumbency with Congress not even declaring its chief ministerial candidate for a fear of caste backlash. The BJP has been able to control dissidence better with lesser number of rebels than the Congress. The divisions within the Congress leadership and suspicion among caste leaders will help the BJP. BJPs Rajasthan election in-charge and Union human resource development minister Prakash Javadekar says that the party has recovered lost ground in the past weeks and is now fighting for a number in the three digits (the Rajasthan assembly has 200 seats). PM Modis election rallies have been big and have managed to lift the election for the party, he told Hindustan Times. Bikaner MP and minister of state for water resources Arjun Meghwal also said that the party had gained rapid ground in the past weeks and was back in the reckoning to return to power in the state. Click here for complete coverage of Rajasthan Assembly Election 2018 More than a dozen school girls of Saint Ignatius High School at Vijaygiri in Tamar block, around 80km from the state capital, were allegedly directed to tend to crops in the headmasters agricultural fields on Monday evening. I saw the girls harvesting crops. As they all appeared to be minor schoolgirls, I stopped my vehicle and enquired the reason. They all said that the field belonged to headmaster Father John. They were asked to cut the crops after school hours by the headmaster, said Tamar MLA Vikas Kumar Munda, who was passing by the Vijaygiri area on Monday evening. Munda said he immediately informed the district authorities, including circle officer Rajesh Kumar. The CO confirmed that the schoolgirls were tending to crops after receiving directions from the headmaster. He said not only was it violation of the sanctity of teacher-student relationship, but also an offence under law for employing child workers. Circle officer Rajesh Kumar said that around 15 school girls were working in the field. The girls told that the headmaster asked them to cut the crops after school hours. They revealed that the headmaster often employed the schoolchildren in agricultural and daily wage works. The headmaster was reprimanded and let-off after a warning. The authorities would ensure strict action if they receive any such complaint in future, Kumar said. However, the headmaster denied having directed the girls to work in the field. One had to understand that it is an impoverished village, where schoolchildren often had to work after school hours to support their families. Many school children worked in various agricultural fields for which they were provided food or money, he said. But, in this case the schoolgirls had volunteered to cut the crops, he said. Despite my refusal, they engaged in the work. I never asked any school children to cater to my personal needs. The issue has been blown out of proportion, he said. It was Rahul Gandhis turn to rip into Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao or KCR, by labelling the latters Telangana Rashtriya Samiti the BJPs B team, while campaigning in the states Kosgi today. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had yesterday called KCR Sonia Gandhis apprentice. Telangana votes for a new assembly on December 7 and several big guns from all parties are out campaigning as the election battle heats up. While PM Modi addressed two rallies yesterday, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, his ally in the state N Chandrababu Naidu of the Telugu Desam Party and BJP chief Amit Shah are campaigning today. Narendra Modiji says the Congress and TRS are alike.... But Modi never said this (KCR and Congress were on the same side) before the elections, Rahul Gandhi said, also accusing KCR of imitating PM Modi by creating unemployment, in Telangana, which was carved out of Andhra Pradesh in 2014 and elected KCR as its first chief minister. (Live updates) KCR, he told his audience, had helped PM Modi whenever the Congress fought the now-scrapped land acquisition law that would allow governments to take away farm land. Gandhi said the TRS stands for Telangana Rashtriya Sangh Parivar, speaking in Hindi while a translator relayed his words in Telugu to his audience. The Congress president went on, asking people to think if they had really heard KCR attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Listen to his speeches... KCR never attacks, or criticises Modi, he said. How many times did your Chief Minister about Rafale, he asked, referring to the governments decision to buy 36 fighter jets from French aviation manufacturer, Dassault. The Congress alleges corruption in the deal. Rahul Gandhis counter came a day after PM Modi accused KCR of playing a friendly match with the Congress in the assembly elections. The chief minister was a Union minister in the UPA government which was remote-controlled by madam (Sonia Gandhi). After he came into power did he destroy the state or not? His entire education was in the Congress, and those who taught him have a PhD in it, PM Modi said in Nizamabad, taking the battle to Raos turf. KCR, he alleged, was an apprentice of Sonia Gandhi, who is Rahul Gandhis mother and predecessor and also the chairperson of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance or UPA. The TRS government in Telangana had barely finished four years of its term when KCR dissolved the assembly opting for elections over a year ahead of schedule. The Congress has partnered with the TDP, which rules neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and which was till March this year an ally of the BJP. Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, whose parties are in an alliance formed to take on the Telangana Rashtra Samiti for the December 7 polls, will address meetings together in Telangana on Wednesday. The public meetings and roadshows are going to create a storm in the ensuing elections in Telangana, TDP spokesperson Lanka Dinakar told ANI. The two leaders will share stage in three rallies at Khammam, Sanathnagar and Asif Nagar. TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao, also known as KCR, is seeking a second term as chief minister after dissolving the 119-member assembly in September. KCRs party TRS is fighting in all seats, while TDP (Telugu Desam Party) has joined hands with Congress, CPI and Telangana Jana Samiti (TJS) to form a grand alliance Mahakutami . Click here for Live updates on Telangana assembly elections campaign 2018. Telangana is the first electoral outing for the Mahakutami and a stepping stone for the Lok Sabha elections. Naidu, who parted ways with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in March this year over the Centres refusal to grant special status to Andhra Pradesh, has been gathering Team Opposition against the ruling BJP for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Read: KCRs home seat of Gajwel is a study in contrast Telangana is witnessing a vigorous campaign with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah and UPA chairperson, cabinet ministers and Opposition leaders holding campaign rallies in the state. In a recent meeting, Modi took a dig at KCRs promise to turn Nizamabad into London. While coming here I asked pilot (of the chopper) to take a round to see if he has done this. I found that towns in states with relatively weak economy are better than Nizamabad, he said. In its response, KCR termed as the biggest lie Modis claim that people of Nizamabad are facing electricity problem. He also remarked that he had never seen such an ignorant Prime Minister. Read: Grand alliance formed to save people from K Chandrashekar Raos dictatorship, says Telangana TDP chief Sonia Gandhi, who visited Telanagana for the first time on Friday, in an emotional pitch said, It is an emotional moment for me, as I feel like a mother who is meeting her children after several years. She called upon the people of the countys newest state to teach a fitting lesson to TRS for completely shattering their hopes and aspirations in the four-and-a- half years of its rule. Click here for full coverage on Telangana assembly elections 2018. Transgender Muvvala Chandramukhi, who is contesting the Telangana assembly elections from Goshamahal constituency in Hyderabad, was not kidnapped but went underground on her own, the police said on Wednesday. However, the Hyderabad high court took serious note of her disappearance and asked the Banjara Hills police to produce her before the court by Thursday morning. The 32-year old transgender, who is contesting on a Bahujan Left Front ticket, went missing on Tuesday morning. Following a complaint from her colleagues, the Banjara Hills police registered a case later in the evening and launched a search for her. Her mother, Muvvala Anithamma, filed a habeas corpus petition before the High Court on Wednesday. The high court expressed surprise over the missing of the contesting candidate and directed the cops to bring her to the court. West Zone Deputy Commissioner of Police A R Srinivas told the media that a close look at the CCTV footage revealed that Chandramukhi had left her home at Banjara Hills voluntarily in the early hours of Wednesday. She even wore a mask on her face so that she could not be recognised. She made a last call to her transgender friend before switching it off, he said, adding that the police were on the lookout for her. The police brought the same to the notice of the court, which directed that the police should trace her and produce her by Thursday. The bench took the issue very seriously. We hope the police will bring Chandramukhi before the court tomorrow, her lawyer MA Shakeel said. A car bomb exploded near to a security contractors compound in the Afghan capital Kabul on Wednesday, sending a thick plume of smoke into the night sky and officials reported gunfire in the wake of the blast. There was no immediate claim of responsibility and no word on casualties. A senior security official said the blast happened close to a compound of British security contractor group G4S, near an industrial park on the main road leading out of Kabul towards eastern Afghanistan. The explosion came only hours after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani told a UN-sponsored conference in Geneva of plans to seek a peace agreement with the Taliban. As efforts to open peace talks with the Taliban have picked up following the appointment of US special peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, there has been no slackening in the violence which kills thousands of people in Afghanistan every year. Three US service members were killed close to the central city of Ghazni on Tuesday and at least 30 Afghan civilians were killed in a US air strike overnight, officials and local residents said. US President Donald Trump warned on Tuesday that he could cancel a planned summit with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin due to Russias attack on Ukrainian ships last weekend. Trump told The Washington Post that he was waiting for a report from national security advisors on Sundays incident in which Russian naval forces seized three Ukrainian vessels. That will be very determinative, Trump said. Maybe I wont have the meeting. Maybe I wont even have the meeting. I dont like that aggression. I dont want that aggression at all The two leaders were due to meet on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires later this week and discuss security, arms control, and issues in Ukraine and the Middle East after the meet convenes on Friday, national security adviser John Bolton told reporters. The US has also urged European states to do more to support Ukraine. Read: Russia seizes Ukrainian ships near annexed Crimea after firing on them, wounding several Russian coastguard ships opened fire on Sunday as two Ukrainian gunboats and a tug sailed through the Kerch Strait off the coast of Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014. Twenty-four Ukrainians were detained and at least three were wounded in the incident. Ukraine described it as an act of aggression but Russia said the ships had illegally entered its waters. A Crimean court later ordered that 12 of the Ukrainians be detained for 60 days. On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said there was a threat of full-scale war with Russia, a day after Kiev imposed martial law for a 30-day period from November 26 in 10 border regions, the BBC reported. The number of (Russian) tanks at bases located along our border has grown three times, he said. Five of the 10 regions border Russia while two are adjacent to Moldovas breakaway Trans-Dniester region, where Russian troops are stationed. The other three regions border the Black Sea or Sea of Azov close to Crimea. YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. Authorities still dont disclose details over the lawmaker who is said to be under a criminal investigation in a massive bribery case. National Security Service director Artur Vanetsyan told reporters today that they will give details after officially receiving important documents. Wait for a brief period of time, and we will announce everything. I cant give any information at this moment, he said. Earlier in October, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced in parliament that a Member of Parliament is under investigation for bribery. He said that this will be the largest bribery case in the history of the country. Pashinyan had said that the authorities are waiting for an official response regarding a document from another country. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan When Mark S Luckie wrote a lengthy internal memo, explaining how difficult it was to be black and employed at Facebook Inc., he expected some sort of change -- or at least a reply from the CEO or COO. Facebooks disenfranchisement of black people on the platform mirrors the marginalization of its black employees, he wrote. Racial discrimination at Facebook is real. Instead, he got a private message from Ime Archibong, one of the highest-level black employees at Facebook, saying Luckies experience may not be representative, and taking it personally. I guess Im just confused and pretty hurt because I voted for your hire, was inspired by your willingness to strengthen the community, and that post just seems so out of character, Archibong wrote. Read more: Microsoft surpasses Apple to becomes worlds most valuable company Frustrated, Luckie went public. He posted both his memo and Archibongs response on social media Tuesday, feeling that it would be impossible to change Facebook without more pressure. Now, he said, hes leaving the technology industry and moving to Atlanta. Im tired, he said in an interview. Ive been hired at these companies because I bring experience and perspective and productivity and insight into these underrepresented communities. But every time I get in, theres no line for me to actually do what I want to get done. In the post, Luckie, who worked as a Partnerships Manager for a year, described the ways in which the social network excludes black users and employees. Read more: Facebook knew of Russian data gathering in 2014, UK lawmaker says Current and former workers at big technology companies are increasingly willing to speak out publicly about perceived missteps by their employers and unjust policies. This has gathered steam in recent months as the industry has been accused of abusing its power. Google staffers signed an open letter on Tuesday urging the company to scrap plans for a Chinese search product that would censor results. Facebooks top executives didnt respond to Luckie, but they have had to handle other workforce blowups this year. Employees were frustrated when a public policy executive made a show of support for Brett Kavanaugh in a contentious Senate hearing on Kavanaughs Supreme Court nomination. And in a recent Q&A with company leadership, workers quizzed management about a report that the company paid a firm to conduct opposition research on billionaire George Soros. Read more: UK parliament seizes confidential Facebook documents from developers of now-defunct bikini app Facebook released a statement on Tuesday addressing Luckies memo. 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, Facebook spokesman Anthony Harrison said. 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. Archibong later posted on Twitter, too: We all have diverse experiences and I cant speak for your personal experience at FB -- but your experience is not my experience and not that of many others here. Four percent of Facebooks U.S. workforce is black, the company said in July, up from two percent in 2014. In technical roles, that drops to 1 percent. Facebook published its first workplace diversity report in 2014 alongside a post that said the company was absolutely committed to achieving greater diversity in its workforce and across the industry. In his post, Luckie said he felt like an outsider on Facebooks campus, an experience that included racial profiling by security guards. Many black employees can recount stories of being aggressively accosted by campus security beyond what was necessary, he writes. 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. Luckie criticized Facebook human resources for failing to take action when employees complained of mistreatment, which contributed to low morale among some black employees. His essay reflects the bind that Facebooks black employees have sometimes felt: Excitement about the job tempered with feelings of isolation. 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 wrote. We want to fully support all employees when there are issues reported and when there may be micro-behaviors that add up, Facebooks spokesman also said on Tuesday. We are going to keep doing all we can to be a truly inclusive company. Luckies experiences arent unique. Only 2.5 percent of Googles workers are black, up from 2 percent in 2015. At Twitter, where Luckie previously worked, 3.4 percent of workers are black, according to data through 2017. Facebooks issues with race extend beyond its workforce to its users, Luckie writes. There is a prevailing theory among many black users that their content is more likely to be taken down on the platform than any other group, he writes. He also claims the company doesnt include black people in industry events or promote them on Instagrams influential Explore tab. The company should take these issues more seriously, Luckie said, noting that black people in the U.S. are more avid users of Facebook and Instagram relative to white people. We need black employees, women, and people of color to feel good about working at this company, Luckie wrote. Facebook cant engender the trust of its black users if it cant maintain the trust of its black employees. 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 the jet experienced malfunctioning data readings, 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. 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. An award-winning Chinese photographer, who focussed on social, health and environmental issues in China, has been detained in Xinjiang, several reports said on Wednesday. Lu Guang was on a tour of the remote northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) in early November when his wife Xu Xiaoli lost contact with him. The 57-year-old was scheduled to meet a friend in Sichuan on November xx but did not show up, Xu was quoted in media reports. He was taken away by security agents in Xinjiang, Xu was quoted by The Guardian as saying. A friend of Xu helped her inquire about her husbands whereabouts in his home province of Zhejiang, where authorities said Lu and a fellow photographer had been taken away by Xinjiang state security, The Guardian report said. However, Lu never had problems with the police before, according to Xu, who added that she was not aware of any photo projects he had planned for his Xinjiang trip, the report said. It wasnt immediately clear if he was working on any photography project in Xinjiang where several thousand from the Muslim Uyghur community have been interred in camps. Also read | Explosion near chemical plant in China leaves 22 dead, injures several Lu is known for focusing on the poor and those left behind - or affected - by Chinas march towards economic prosperity. A freelance photographer since 1993, Lu Guang has developed major documentary projects in China, all at his own initiative, focusing on some of the most significant social, health, and environmental issues facing his country today, the World Press Photo website said about Lu. His photographic work includes stories on gold diggers, local coal miners, the SARS epidemic, drug addiction along the Sino-Burmese border, Aids villages in Henan Province, the environmental impact of the Qinghai-Tibet railway, industrial pollution and the medical effects of schistosomiasis (bilharzia), the website said. In October, China sought to legalise the controversial re-education camps in the province as vocational training institutes where inmates influenced by religious extremism will be reeducated and transformed. The vocational training institutes will also psychologically treat the camp inmates to be more patriotic, the revised law said. The move was Beijings effort to counter international criticism about the camps in the Xinjiang, which are said to be targeting the Muslim Uyghur community. The government has said the vocational training institutes focus on teaching Chinese language, law and anti-extremism to the inmates. China has detained several artists and a Nobel Laureate in the past. Ai Wei Wei, a contemporary artist and painter, was arrested in 2011 following criticism of the ruling Chinese Communist Party. He lived under house arrest in Beijing for four years until 2015, when he was allowed to leave for Germany. Ai had designed the famous Birds Nest Stadium of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games but fell out with the authorities soon after. Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo was arrested in 2008 after co-writing Charter 08, a bold petition that called for the protection of basic human rights and reform of Chinas political system. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison in December 2009 for subversion. At the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo in 2010, he was represented by an empty chair. Liu died in July last year while still in custody following a battle with cancer after officials ignored international pleas to let him spend his final days free and abroad. The prominent democracy advocate died aged 61, more than a month after he was transferred from prison to a heavily-guarded hospital to be treated for late-stage liver cancer. Also read | China orders investigation after scientist claims worlds first gene-edited babies Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Tuesday warned of the threat of full-scale war and said Russia had sharply increased its military presence on their shared border as tensions escalate between the ex-Soviet neighbours. Threat of full-scale war with Russia, warns Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko The crisis also threatened growing diplomatic fallout with US President Donald Trump warning that he may cancel a long-awaited summit with Russias Vladimir Putin. Trump is scheduled to meet Putin at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires at the end of this week, but he told The Washington Post that it would depend on the results of a report about the incident being prepared by his national security advisers. Maybe I wont have the meeting. Maybe I wont even have the meeting, he said. In Ukraine, Poroshenko warned that the clash at sea could herald more drastic developments in the simmering Ukraine-Russia military standoff. I dont want anyone to think this is fun and games. Ukraine is under threat of full-scale war with Russia, the president said in an interview with national television. 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. Also read | Dont want that aggression, Donald Trump says could cancel Putin meet due to Ukraine attack He spoke after Russian forces seized three of Kievs 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 on Tuesday termed Russias 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 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. Putin on Tuesday warned Ukraine against any reckless acts after Kiev declared martial law in response to Moscows seizure of the navy vessels. The Ukrainian parliament late on Monday voted in favour of Poroshenkos 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. Also read | Russia seizes Ukrainian ships near annexed Crimea after firing on them, wounding several 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 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. Putin said Kievs actions were clearly taken in view of the election campaign in Ukraine. Sundays 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 late on Monday aired footage of some of the captured sailors being questioned by Moscows 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. Ukraines 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 on Tuesday called for maximum restraint, urging both sides to take steps without delay to contain this incident and reduce tensions. You may also like | Trump faces China trade showdown, Russia, Saudi tensions at G20 Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will be holding a rare and their first trilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Argentinas Buenos Aires later this week. The trilateral was announced by US national security adviser John Bolton at a White House news briefing on Tuesday along with other world leaders that President Trump will meet separately on the sidelines of the summit. It includes a working dinner with Chinas Xi Jinping to thrash out a trade deal, which has looked increasingly improbable. There have been two ministerial level and nine official level trilateral meetings of India, the US and Japan so far. This will be the first of their top leaders for Modi, Trump and Abe who have met several times but always in bilateral or multilateral settings but never in a trilateral format. Bolton announced the trilateral meeting updating a list that was announced earlier in the briefing by press secretary Sarah Sanders, who had not mentioned a Trump-Modi meeting, nor a trilateral. Her list of meetings was of Trump with the leaders of Argentina, Turkey, Russia, South Korea and Japan. The national security adviser updated that list saying the Trump-Abe bilateral meeting will transform at some point into a trilateral meeting with Modi joining them. This will be Modis second trilateral on the sidelines of the Buenos Aires G-20. He is also meeting Chinese president Xi and Russian president Vladimir Putin for a separate trilateral. President Trump had earlier said during a Diwali event at the White House to the Indian ambassador to the US Navtej Sarna that he looked forward to speaking to Prime Minister Modi, but neither side had since announced a meeting or an interaction, which can also take the form of less formal and less formatted pull-asides. There was no word on the agenda for the trilateral. But officials expect the three leaders to discuss regional connectivity, the Indo-Pacific region and related issues that have come up in trilateral discussions between the three countries at ministerial and official levels. There have been two rounds of ministerial-level trilateral meetings so far, the most recent of them was held in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meetings in September 2017. External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj had met US secretary of state Rex Tillerson and Japanese foreign minister Taro Kono. The ministry of external affairs had said the three ministers had discussed maritime security, connectivity and proliferation issues broadly. And, they had emphasized the need for ensuring freedom of navigation, respect for international law and peaceful resolution of disputes, language that has come to describe Chinese aggression in the region and beyond. On connectivity initiatives, the importance of basing them on universally recognised international norms, prudent financing and respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity was underlined. And the Indian external affairs ministry had also raised the issue of North Koreas proliferation linkages, a thinly veiled reference to Pakistan that gave nuclear technology to Pyongyang. Swaraj had sought these links to be explored and those involved be held accountable. At the ninth trilateral meeting of officials from the three countries, hosted by New Delhi in April, discussions had taken place on cooperation in the areas of connectivity and infrastructure development; counter-proliferation; counter-terrorism; maritime security, maritime domain awareness and HA-DR (Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief), according to a statement issued then by the Indian external affairs ministry. The officials had also agreed to continue to collaborate to promote increased connectivity in the Indo-Pacific. All sides agreed to remain engaged and strengthen cooperation in support for a free, open, prosperous, peaceful and inclusive Indo-Pacific region through the partnership with countries in the region, the statement had added. YEREVAN, NOVMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. Republican candidate for parliament Davit Shahnazaryans accusations against caretaker Deputy PM Tigran Avinyan are completely made up and false, caretaker First Deputy PM Ararat Mirzoyan told reporters today. Shahnazaryan had earlier claimed that Pashinyan will not succeed in eradicating corruption as long as caretaker Deputy PM Tigran Avinyan isnt behind bars, referring to the fact that Avinyans factory has received a grant from the Agricultural Development Fund. Avinyan had later said that he received the grant before he took office, and that his company had applied for the project back in February. Frankly speaking I was puzzled when I learned that Davit Shahnazaryan is in the electoral list of the Republican Party. And I am puzzled now too, when I see with what kind of a fervor a man that was once waiving the opposition flag has assumed the role of an attorney of a criminal regime, he said, adding that Shahnazaryans claim has nothing to do with reality. He said that Shahnazaryan is consciously defending the wrong side. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan Off to NYC? His minimalist three-bedroom Bel Air home has a space-themed room for relaxing and looking up at the stars, plus an outdoor bar and hot tub. Rumour has it that he wants to focus on making things work with on/off girlfriend Gigi Hadid, and spend more time with her in New York. > Read more Pacific Union (Los Angeles) A s the March deadline nears, the London property market is shrouded in Brexit uncertainty. There are pockets of the capital that are thriving but it is erratic at best, with dramatic swings in sales month to month, says Featherstone Leigh estate agent Oscar Doyle. He is expecting a muted first quarter of 2019 an opinion widely shared. Expensive new homes in the very best locations are shifting, at Southbank Place next to the London Eye for example. But mostly it is a bit of a slog selling high-end flats. WHERE DOES THE MARKET STILL HAVE A BUZZ? Hackney remains vibrant and buoyant, measured by economic growth, employment figures, house price and rental rises, according to research exclusive to Homes & Property. Its followed by Tower Hamlets, Westminster, Haringey and the City of London, says property group CBRE, with Islington, Richmond, Southwark and Newham next in line. Other boroughs such as Waltham Forest are highlighted for their high employment levels. START-UPS: ARE THEY A GOOD SIGN FOR BUYERS? Fledgling companies that can afford to pay London business rates and rents are a sign of footfall and an active community for prospective home buyers perusing the neighbourhood. Clusters of small independent businesses are another indicator of prosperity. Haringeys Blue House Yard creative hub: affordable work and events space / Jan Kattein Architects When small businesses thrive, local economies thrive, says Michelle Ovens, director of the government-backed scheme Small Business Saturday UK. Small businesses employ locally, support local supply chains and bring prosperity and life to a community, she adds. It is always great to see lots of independent traders on local high streets, as it can really help increase the appeal of a community, which can often lead to increased house prices as an area becomes more attractive. LOOKING FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH? TRY HACKNEY Hackneys strong economic performance is down to the development of Tech City, the cluster of digital companies that started on Old Street Roundabout and spread, according to CBREs Jennet Siebrits. She predicts growth in local GDP of 18 per cent over the next four years the highest across the capital. Hackney is one of the biggest success stories of the regeneration of the East End of London, she says. The cost of a home there has risen 4.5 per cent over the last year to reach 583,331, while major housing development has also brought jobs to the borough. There are nearly 3,000 new homes under construction. Berkeley Homes demolished the old tower blocks by the West Reservoir they were used in the film Schindlers List to depict the Warsaw ghettos and is building Woodberry Down, with 5,500 homes plus cafes, shops and a community centre. Prices start at 580,000 for a one-bedroom apartment. Call 020 8108 1612. LAUNCHING A SMALL BUSINESS? TRY RICHMOND Richmond has seen 5.7 per cent house price growth over the last 12 months, taking the typical value to 688,578. Average earnings, meanwhile, are second highest in London, behind Westminster. As a result, small independent businesses that develop a loyal local customer base do well while many of the bland chains fold. Rock & Fairy hair salon in nearby St Margarets is a favourite, as is Debraggio Italian deli near Richmond Green. Its also home to personalised stationery start-up Martha Brook. Martha Keith started the business in 2013 after she made her husband a box containing 10 little love notes. Noteworthy: Martha Keith with some of her team at Richmond-based personalised stationery brand Martha Brook / Tom Horna Richmond is a very local market and families moving out of London often skip over it and head down the A3 to Esher and Cobham or the M3 to Wentworth, says local Featherstone Leigh estate agent Oscar Doyle. But if people do land here they seldom move on. I have repeat clients who I see on their way up the ladder and back down again. Surrounded by protected parkland, big new developments are hard to come by in leafy Richmond, while small boutique schemes tend to be expensive, such as the plush apartments at Richmond Brewery Stores, a converted beer bottling factory. Featherstone Leigh is selling one for 1.35 million. LOOKING FOR BIG CHANGE? TRY HARINGEY On the cusp of change, Haringey offers the opportunities that come with transformation. Rents in the borough have climbed seven per cent in 12 months, the highest rise in any London borough, proving Haringey is in demand among young tenants. The local economy is forecast to expand by 14pc by 2022, while the population is set to grow by 11 per cent and the average house price is now 550,415. Its a borough of change, says CBREs Jennet Siebrits. Shes referring to the regeneration of the Upper Lea Valley and the new 56,250-seater stadium for Tottenham Hotspur FC, along with 579 homes. Part of the Haringey Heartlands Regeneration, Clarendon by St William will deliver 1,714 flats plus business and community space, shops and a cultural quarter. From 335,000 for a studio flat. All in the game: Cakes & Ladders, a free community board game cafe and taproom in Haringeys Blue House Yard creative hub (Ben Broomfield) / Ben Broomfield University friends Hywel Sedgwick-Jell and Ruth Knox are the founders of Cakes & Ladders, a free board game community cafe and taproom based in a double-decker bus in Blue House Yard, a creative hub in a former car park and converted disused council building in Haringey. Providing affordable work and events space on the site, Meanwhile Space has set up brightly coloured smart sheds. 'WE UNLOCK UNDERUSED SPACE IN HARINGEY' Emily Berwyn runs Meanwhile Space. Her 740 tenants include a shop that sells fleeces for dogs and a vegan, plastic-free convenience store bringing choice to Londons high streets. Emily Berwyn, 36, runs Meanwhile Space She has helped to transform Blue House Yard, a former car park in Haringey. We unlock underused space for the benefit of the community, finding wasted space, transforming unloved visible, interesting, dilapidated, difficult buildings into something useful, explains Emily, 36. WANT A STRONG JOBS MARKET? TRY WALTHAM FOREST Florist Layla Husseyin, 34, started Bloom of the Block as part of an incubator scheme run by meanwhilespace.com and has recently opened her own shop in Walthamstow, where she also lives. Blooming business: Florist Layla Husseyin has recently opened her own shop in Walthamstow / Adrian Lourie With a background in furniture design, she prides herself on creating bold and modern bouquets, but puts much of her success down to her choice of area. YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. Speaker of the Parliament of Armenia Ara Babloyan issued a statement over certain developments being registered during the ongoing campaign of the early parliamentary elections, the Parliament told Armenpress. Speaker Babloyan says nearly 30-year history of the Republic of Armenia has proved that there are values which are not subject to any speculation, abuse or bargaining, as well as these values cannot be lowered to the level of personal or political pre-election interests. And Artsakh has its unique place in these values. Ara Babloyan called on all to unite over a unified position on the Artsakh issue. The Speakers statement says: Dear colleagues, dear friends, I could not remain indifferent towards certain developments being noticed during the pre-election campaign. These developments forced me to once again apply to you with the right of a senior friend. Nearly 30-year history of the Republic of Armenia has proved that there are values which are not subject to any speculation, abuse or bargaining, as well as these values cannot be lowered to the level of personal or political pre-election interests. And Artsakh has its unique place in these values. Just two years ago, in April, we all once again affirmed and were convinced that the security of Artsakh and the right of our compatriots living in Artsakh to self-determination are under our care. Each of us showed that he/she stands with Artsakh and its resident, proved that all our strength is directed for the defense of Artsakh and its resident. There must be no blacks, reds, whites or greens among us regarding the Artsakh issue. Let the divisions of political colors, if we cannot refuse from them, spread exclusively on the political fight, but Artsakh and Armenia have just one single color, and that is the Armenian flag. Moreover, what I say equally refers to all political forces. Dear friends, the flag is common like the security of Artsakh and Armenia, as well as their future. Therefore, I urge you to unite across one single position over the Artsakh issue and to agree to completely remove the topic of Artsakh or the name Artsakh from the pre-election speeches and debates. I apply to my Artsakh brothers and sisters, Please refrain from commenting on some statements during these days, which, most probably, are a result of incorrect formulations of thoughts. As I said, the security and prosperous future of Artsakh and the Republic of Armenia are our common goal. Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan Amid record financial results and strong demand, Turkey's flag carrier adds three Boeing 777 Freighters Turkish's freight business growing by double digits; aims to be one of the world's largest cargo carriers Boeing to open engineering center in Istanbul, expanding strategic partnership with Turkey Boeing [NYSE: BA] and Turkish Airlines yesterday announced an order for three 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 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. ?lker 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 Erdo?an 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 specialize 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. Daily News Delivery Join your colleagues and stay up to date on the latest Hotel industry news and trends. Subscribe 2021 Hotel News Resource He joins HGV from Virgin Hotels North America in Miami, Florida, where he was CFO since 2016. Hilton Grand Vacations Inc. (NYSE: HGV) announces the appointment of Daniel J. Mathewes as chief financial officer (CFO). Mathewes will lead HGVs finance, accounting, portfolio, treasury, tax and investor relations departments. He brings extensive global finance experience to the company and will serve a critical role as a business partner across the executive team to develop and implement HGVs corporate and financial strategies to continue to grow revenue and expand globally. After a thorough search process, we are thrilled to have Dan join us, says Mark Wang, HGVs president and chief executive officer. His deep financial background and experience in hospitality and real estate are a great fit with HGV. Im confident Dan will be an outstanding addition to our executive leadership team. Dans passion for excellence and his enthusiasm for what were creating embodies the best of Hilton Grand Vacations. Mathewes has more than 20 years of diverse, global finance experience with both public and private multi-national companies in the hospitality and real estate industries. He joins HGV from Virgin Hotels North America in Miami, Florida, where he was CFO since 2016. As part of their executive team, Mathewes led all aspects of financial management, tax and treasury, as well as long-term, strategic planning. Prior to that role, Mathewes was CFO of The World and previously served as senior vice president of finance and treasury for Kerzner International. During his career, Mathewes also worked in multiple financial leadership capacities with NCL Corporation and Royal Caribbean Cruises. He began his career with PricewaterhouseCoopers upon graduating Summa Cum Laude from Florida State University with a degree in accounting and economics. Mathewes is a certified public accountant. I am honored to be joining Hilton Grand Vacations, says Mathewes. Their dynamic and passionate team have driven tremendous growth over the years, and I am excited to help drive further growth and value creation. Daily News Delivery Join your colleagues and stay up to date on the latest Hotel industry news and trends. Subscribe 2021 Hotel News Resource Scheduled to open in Q1, 2019, the 200-room Park Inn by Radisson Iloilo enjoys a prime location next to SM City Iloilo in Mandurriao. The hotel is a 20-minute drive from Iloilo International Airport and is strategically located near the city's main commercial district, tourist attractions, museums and historical landmarks. Radisson Hotel Group continues to expand its footprint in the Philippines with the signing of another Park Inn by Radisson hotel in Iloilo with SM Hotels and Conventions Corp (SMHCC). A third Park Inn by Radisson hotel in the country. Scheduled to open in Q1, 2019, the 200-room Park Inn by Radisson Iloilo enjoys a prime location next to SM City Iloilo in Mandurriao. The hotel is a 20-minute drive from Iloilo International Airport and is strategically located near the city's main commercial district, tourist attractions, museums and historical landmarks. "We are delighted to partner and continue to seek opportunities with SMHCC as we expand our footprint in the Philippines. Park Inn by Radisson is an exceptional brand that promises world-class hospitality, delivering on positive, vibrant and stress-free experiences. The brand is a perfect fit for the market which is rapidly growing its tourism landscape. Park Inn by Radisson Iloilo will provide a great option for guests seeking high levels of convenience and connectivity," said Katerina Giannouka, President, Asia Pacific, Radisson Hotel Group. "SMHCC's long-time partnership with Radisson Hotel Group will be further strengthened with this agreement and reflects a strong mutual intent to grow the brand in the country. As owners, SMHCC looks forward to benefitting from RHG's vast global resources that have helped make Radisson Hotel Group one of the most progressive hotel companies in the world," says SMHCC President, Elizabeth Sy. "We are thrilled with this new milestone between SMHCC and RHG. We are confident that this new landmark in our partnership starting with Park Inn by Radisson Iloilo, will add to the vibrant tourism landscape to the city and set a new benchmark in hospitality in the Visayan region," adds SMHCC Executive Vice President, Peggy Angeles. Each of the rooms at Park Inn by Radisson Iloilo will offer a vibrant ambiance and complimentary high-speed Internet for unlimited connectivity. Its all-day dining restaurant, provides a hip setting in which groups can meet over exciting various food and beverage options. This includes a convenient self-serve section which offers busy travelers a variety of ready-to-eat choices that can be consumed on-the-go. "The Living Room" concept allows guests at the lobby to socialize and provides an intimate space for individuals who wish to unwind through reading or surfing the net. For recreation, the hotel has a gym as well as a swimming pool for both adults and children. Park Inn by Radisson Iloilo will also provide choice venues for meetings and social events. It's main function room can accommodate a maximum of 100 guests which makes it an ideal venue for small to mid-sized events while an al-fresco facility by the poolside caters to relaxing early evening functions. The signing of Park Inn by Radisson Iloilo forms part of a major strategic expansion of the Park Inn by Radisson brand across the Asia Pacific region. The brand is currently present with 22 hotels in operation and under development. Daily News Delivery Join your colleagues and stay up to date on the latest Hotel industry news and trends. Subscribe 2021 Hotel News Resource The 4- story, 106-suite Home2 Suites by Hilton, part of Hilton's (NYSE: HLT) All Suites portfolio, is located at 230 Veterans Way. Sigma Hospitality Group, a leading hotel development and management company, announced the opening of its newly-built hotel in Warminster. The 4- story, 106-suite Home2 Suites by Hilton, part of Hilton's (NYSE: HLT) All Suites portfolio, is located at 230 Veterans Way. The new hotel is just minutes from Horsham and a short drive from Philadelphia. Guests will enjoy close proximity to numerous corporate business parks as well as attractions such as Mercer Museum, Peddler's Village, and Sesame Place. The hotel is also within walking distance of the SEPTA Warminster Regional Rail Line. Home2 Suites by Hilton Warminster-Horsham offers all-suite accommodations with fully-equipped kitchens and modular furniture, providing guests the flexibility to customize their suite to their style and preference. The hotel also features complimentary Internet, inviting communal spaces, and trademark Home2 Suites amenities such as Spin2 Cycle-- a combined laundry and fitness area, Home2 MKT for grab-and-go items, and the Inspired Table, a complimentary breakfast that includes more than 400 potential combinations. Guests can also enjoy an indoor saline pool, outdoor grill area, as well as a separate outdoor lounge with built-in fire pit. "We are delighted to provide business and leisure travelers in the Bucks, Montgomery, and Philadelphia County areas with this fresh, new approach to all-suites lodging," said Pinank Patel, President, Sigma Hospitality Group. "Our Home2 Suites by Hilton property is a wonderful new lodging option to Warminster, offering value-added amenities to help guests feel at home whether they are with us for one night or an extended stay." Daily News Delivery Join your colleagues and stay up to date on the latest Hotel industry news and trends. Subscribe 2021 Hotel News Resource With 18 individual properties throughout New Zealand, Heritage worked with HEBS Digital to launch a new, multi-property website on the smartCMSA platform, allowing for full control of each siteAs content in one place. Heritage Hotels in New Zealand is an experience out of the ordinary. A healthy indulgence, and a refreshing contrast, to everyday life. You might seek calm of Kaikoura, the bustle of the city in Wellington, a conference in Queenstown, or a party in Paihia. With Heritage Hotels, the experience is up to the traveler. With 18 individual properties throughout New Zealand, Heritage worked with HEBS Digital to launch a new, multi-property website on the smartCMS platform, allowing for full control of each sites content in one place. Users can now access the Destinations page, where theyll find an interactive map and details on cities and regions each property is located. With a custom Venue Showcase, all relevant information for event planners is easily accessible. These features and more create an improved, seamless user experience for all types of website visitors. Were delighted to launch our new website. Heritage Hotels now has leading-edge digital technology to encourage direct bookings. The HEBS Digital content management system is user-friendly for our marketing team, and our team was very efficient in creating the new website that encompasses our 18 properties as well as the overarching brand, says Graham Yan, Chief Executive of Heritage & CityLife Hotels and Heritage Collection. Innovative functionality in the HEBS solution allows reservation recovery, where a booking may not have occurred. The abandonment application solution and Heritages marketing program are 100% focused on delivering strong growth in direct bookings for Heritages properties. Over the next few months, we are rolling out our new rewards program and on-property guest portals, as part of our focus on T.H.E. Heritage Experience ensuring guest are recognized as well as experiencing a user-friendly engagement when on the Heritage Hotels website, adds Graham Yan. Explore this project by visiting the new Heritage Hotels website. Daily News Delivery Join your colleagues and stay up to date on the latest Hotel industry news and trends. Subscribe 2021 Hotel News Resource Every week, we bring a new artist through to our office and put their skills on the mic to the test. Some artists have come through and demolished the microphone while others have fallen short, to say the least. After launching the series last fall, artists like G-Herbo, Trae Tha Truth, Anoyd, Bandhunta Izzy, Jacquees and more and flexed their skills on the microphone. This week, Band Gang Lonnie links up for the latest HNHH Freestyle Session. Band Gang Lonnie came through for the latest HNHH Freestyle Session. DMac provides a piano-laden beat for Lonnie who blesses the microphone with some bars. Although relatively quiet in his delivery, Lonnie delivers some vivid imagery about the things he witnessed in Detroit throughout his life. Band Gang Lonnie is currently fresh off the release of his joint project with Shredgang Mone, Rastas which features Waka Flocka Flame and Tooda Man. Prior to that, he released his project, The Get Back in March. Peep Band Gang Lonnie's freestyle below and subscribe to HNHH TV for more exclusive content with your favorite artists. Quotable Lyrics Shook my whole city up when this wave hit it My n***as known for taking lives and your chain wit it We the reason why our farm don't got pain killas N***a don't bluff, better bust, we hate fake killas There's been a lot of talk surrounding the "King Of NY," although many of the people contributing to these conversations seem to forget that Jay-Z is still alive and well. In a recent interview with Bootleg Kev, French Montana made it clear that no one else can claim the title of King Of NY as long as Jay-Z is still breathing. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo0ZMC5DLbW French Montana sat down for a recent interview and dispelled anyone's claim that they're the King of NY if their name isn't Jay-Z. "First of all, you can't say you the King Of New York when Jay-Z's still alive," he said. "I feel like where he at, he reminds me of me and Max B during out Coke Wave days." French Montana continued to explain how 6ix9ine and Max B's situations are similar before revealing that Fat Joe gave him similar advice that he gave 6ix9ine a few months ago. Although French actually listened to Fat Joe's advice, he doesn't blame 6ix9ine for not doing the same "I don't blame 6ix9ine because you know, once you start getting a bag, it's hard for you when you just came from like you can't afford to even, like, support your family," he explained. "Then you start getting a bag and then it's just like everybody's coming at you because, you know, whatever situation it is. Now, you feel like you gotta protect yourself, now you feel like you gotta, you know, let the vibe be known that you really that guy." Peep the clip below with the 6ix9ine comments coming around the 7:25 min. Kanye West and Kim Kardashian embarked on a most luxurious flight that earned them scornful messages from social media users. The couple had booked their very own Boeing 747 to fulfill their needs during what Kardashian deemed as a "long" flight. Turn out, they were destined for Japan. The Wests touched down in Saitama to visit Ye's longtime associate, Takashi Murakami, a famed international artist. https://www.instagram.com/p/BqtmtrpFS0S According to Murakami's socials, his America friends sung by his art studio. The reason for their visit might simply amicable, but some business might have also been discussed. Takashi is opening a souvenir shop on December 1, in Tokyo's famed shopping complex Nakano Broadway. The Japanese artist was recently in New York to attend the collaborative exhibition he created with Ye's good friend, Virgil Abloh. The show entitled "America, Too" went down at the Gagosian Gallery. Kanye may have linked up with Takashi at that time. https://www.instagram.com/p/BpynC4IlQ8q Old Kanye has already worked with the visual artist in the past as well. Takashi designed Ye's Graduation album cover and also directed the music video for his track "Good Morning," an animation production. He still holds a soft spot for Kanye's creativity. Check out his "I Love It" Cosplay below. https://www.instagram.com/p/BpiotHFFl2a [via] Kevin Gates has been feeding the streets with a ton of new music recently, sharing Luca Brasi 3 and songs like Federal Pressure & What I Did to name a few, but it doesn't like the Louisiana spitter is ready to slow down anytime soon. In the early scary hours of Tuesday morning, Gates decided to give his fans something to look forward to by sharing some unreleased music thats on the way. Released via four IG clips, Gates rolled around the streets and played the song while in the car, giving fans a strong listen into whats on the way. and it sounds fire. Switching up his melodic flow & delivery, Gates raps about the streets & stacking his paper, among other things. But its the melodic delivery and cadence that highlights the song. No word yet what the song is called or when we might be able to hear the full thing, but we definitely can't wait to hear this in official quality. In addition to that, he also shared a second preview of another song, which you can see in the last IG clip below. Check them out and let us know what you think. Well keep you posted once the song(s) surface online. Paige VanZant vs Rachael Ostovich is back on for UFC Fight Night in Brooklyn on January 19. It was believed that Ostovich would be unable to compete after reportedly suffering a broken orbital bone earlier this month at the hands of her husband, but she has since sought a second opinon, according to ESPN's Brett Okamoto. VanZant posted the following on twitter: "FIGHT STILL ON!!!!! I couldnt be more great full to @ rachaelostovich Yes we are going to war with each other in the cage, but I stand by her side with her ongoing battle at home. Lets put on a fight and show these people how strong we are. # GirlPower # UFC." The highly anticipated January 19 card will mark the UFCs debut on ESPN+. https://twitter.com/_/status/1067545873205256192 According to TMZ Sports, Ostovich was hospitalized last weekend with serious injuries, including a broken orbital bone. Ostovich's husband, MMA fighter Arnold Berdon, was later arrested on attempted murder charges. Hawaii News Now reported that Ostovich described how Berdon punched her repeatedly on the head, face, and ribs during the attack which left her gasping for breath. Also in the temporary restraining order, obtained by Hawaii News Now, Ostovich wrote how she had to escape through the balcony and that she coughed up blood and vomited several times. Despite all of that, she never wanted to pull out of the VanZant fight which is the biggest bout of her career. According to MMA site Bloody Elbow, Ostovich is currently 1-1 in the UFC, and 4-4 overall. VanZant, 24, has not fought since she broke her arm in a loss to Jessica Rose-Clark last January. https://twitter.com/_/status/1067544091976552448 Jordan Brand still has plenty of highly anticipated sneaker releases to get off in 2018 including, but not limited to, the Air Jordan 3 "Mocha," Air Jordan 10 "Orlando" and Air Jordan 11 "Concord." That said, we're just weeks away from the new year and some of Jordan Brand's 2019 releases have leaked, such as this all-new "Laney" Air Jordan 5. (Air Jordan 5 JSP "Laney": Photo courtesy of @HanZuYing) Inspired by the colors of Michael Jordan's high school, the kicks are decked out in a blue suede accompanied by yellow accents. Additional details include a grey midsole with a blue and yellow speckle, an icy blue outsole and a yellow, chenille Jumpman logo on the grey tongue. Additionally, there's also a varsity maize "Laney" Air Jordan 5 in the works, though images have not yet surfaced. The kicks are expected to launch on January 19 for the retail price of $190, though it remains to be seen how many pairs will be available. Check out some of the early images of the new 5s in the IG posts embedded below. Dozens of people clutched burning candles, sheltered underneath umbrellas as steady rain glistened San Franciscos Harvey Milk Plaza on Tuesday night the 40th anniversary of the assassinations of city supervisor and civil rights icon Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone. They prepared to march to City Hall, with wet rainbow flags that hung heavy. Mayor London Breed welcomed the crowd and introduced friends of Milk and Moscone, who took turns grabbing the microphone and sharing memories. If you were vulnerable, under attack, he was there for you, said Cleve Jones of Milk. He was never a single-issue candidate. He understood the commonality of our struggle. Gay, straight. Young, old. Black, brown and white. Immigrant and native born. The crowd cheered. Fists pumped in the air. Phones were held high to capture Jones booming speech. There were hugs and head nods. Now Playing: Remembering Milk and Moscone Video: San Francisco Chronicle Debra Jones, a San Francisco State University student and an intern with Milk at City Hall in the 1970s, told the crowd that, while she worked under his guidance, He talked about coming out, but as a straight kid, I was already out but I thought about what that means in a different context. Its about being our real, authentic selves. Now Playing: Politicians are marking the 40th anniversary of Harvey Milk and George Moscone's assassinations on Tuesday with ceremonies in San Francisco and Oakland. Christien Kafton reports Video: KTVU Milk was known as the first openly gay elected leader in California. As a San Francisco supervisor, he represented the Haight-Ashbury and upper Market Street neighborhoods. He championed many causes, from affordable housing to public transportation. But he was perhaps best known for helping to usher in San Franciscos gay rights ordinance and defeat a California initiative that would have required the firing of gay teachers. On Nov. 27, 1978, former San Francisco supervisor Dan White fatally shot Milk and Moscone with a .38-caliber revolver. He was later convicted of voluntary manslaughter. On Tuesday night, officials with the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club hosted the march to reflect on the political assassinations. Anne Kronenberg, Milks campaign manager and legislative aide, remembered standing up at his funeral, throwing her fist in the air and telling mourners, We will overcome. Forty years later, standing in Harvey Milk Plaza, Kronenberg said, We have overcome. The bullet through his brain broke open all the closet doors and there are now millions of Harveys in the world and people speaking out for what Harvey believed in, she said. We will keep Harveys spirit alive. Earlier in the day, Breed led a solemn remembrance for the two slain leaders outside her office at City Hall, proclaiming that what came out of that tragedy was two amazing legacies. A vibrant evidence of those legacies, she noted, surrounded her as she stood at her mobile podium. On either side of the mayor were dozens of city and state officials who represented a veritable rainbow of different backgrounds. They (Moscone and Milk) paved the way for so many of the leaders standing here today, representing so many diverse backgrounds, Breed said. Also joining Breed were Jonathan Moscone, the late mayors son, and Stuart Milk, the late supervisors nephew. Moscone advised the crowd not to mourn the past, but to take stock of the future, which he hoped would be filled with a greater spirit of togetherness and help for the downtrodden. Thats the future I hope for San Francisco, and I believe my dad would have hoped for the same, he said. Chronicle Staff Writer Kurtis Alexander contributed to this report. Lauren Hernandez and Kevin Fagan are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: lauren.hernandez@sfchronicle.com; kfagan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @LaurenPorFavor @KevinChron The arrival of NASAs InSight lander on Mars is a significant milestone in space exploration. But the way Virgin Galactic CEO George T. Whitesides sees it, perhaps even more significant were the small satellites sent to Mars to transmit data back to Earth. Why is this so exciting? Because it arguably is reducing the cost of planetary exploration, Whitesides said Tuesday at the Space Commerce Conference and Exposition in Houston. The recurring cost of building more of these small satellites, the first of their size to reach deep space, could be just hundreds of thousands of dollars, Whitesides said. And that could make it possible to launch many of these so-called cubesats to explore far-flung destinations such as the asteroid belt. Big things are happening now, he said. There is a revolution going on in space, both in space access and in space capability. SpaceCom is an annual event at the George R. Brown Convention Center that looks at the business of space and the cross-pollination of ideas between aerospace and terrestrial industries, such as the energy, medical and manufacturing sectors. Last year, revenues from the global space economy reached $348 billion. Most of that came from satellites, said Carissa Bryce Christensen, CEO of space analytic consulting firm Bryce Space and Technology. But looking beyond satellites, she said theres increased interest in low-Earth orbit, the area where the International Space Station circles the Earth. These interest areas include manufacturing, research, mining and space tourism. The latter is one of Whitesides areas of expertise. Virgin Galactic, the space tourism company founded by billionaire Richard Branson, is working to give people suborbital flights that provide views of the Earth and the blackness of space as well as several minutes of weightlessness. Virgin Galactics spaceflight system has two parts. WhiteKnightTwo is a custom-built, dual-fuselage jet aircraft. Attached to its belly is the SpaceShipTwo, where passengers will sit. WhiteKnightTwo will carry the spaceship to about 50,000 feet before releasing it. SpaceShipTwos rocket motor will then ignite and take travelers into weightlessness. On Tuesday, Whitesides said that its WhiteKnightTwo had flown about 260 times. And its VSS Unity, Virgin Galactics current operational SpaceShipTwo, has flown 14 times. Its last supersonic flight went at speeds of Mach 2.49, more than twice the speed of sound, and to a height of 170,000 feet. Its positive momentum for the company, which has been rebuilding since an accident in 2014 that killed the spaceships co-pilot and seriously injured the pilot during a rocket-powered test flight. Virgin Galactic resumed supersonic rocket-powered test flights earlier this year. Next year, Whitesides said it could be one of four companies taking humans into space from the U.S. What a year I think it will be next year as we and others begin commercial human spaceflight from American soil again, he said. And were looking forward to carrying on in some small, very modest way the legacy of the space shuttle, having a horizontal landing for our customers. Whitesides also outlined work by Virgin Galactics sister manufacturing organization, The Spaceship Co., which is building the next two spaceships for Virgin Galactic. And earlier this month, small satellite launch company Virgin Orbit had a successful test. A modified 747-400 plane think of it like a flying launch pad successfully carried a 70-foot-long rocket. The test proved that the companys two-stage carbon-fiber rocket works as a pair with the former passenger aircraft. The company intends to launch these rockets from the plane as its flying. Such endeavors could contribute to the space economy blossoming into a $1 trillion economy. Kevin OConnell, director of the Commerce Departments Office of Space Commerce, discussed the building blocks needed to reach that milestone. Keep in mind, and everyone in this audience knows this: Nothing here is automatic, and there will be both speedbumps and failures along the way, he said. The first step toward $1 trillion is continued innovation and disruption in the industries already using space: weather, communications, navigation and remote sensing, which involves using satellites to obtain information about objects or areas on the Earth. Growth in these more traditional segments would then allow other commercial services to mature, including additive manufacturing, space debris removal and space tourism. Avoiding heavy-handed regulations and developing a robust, agile finance and insurance sector will be key. Space situational awareness and traffic management will likewise be needed to get to $1 trillion, as well as a larger, more diverse talent pool. But its not just future space workers who need to be educated, OConnell said. The public needs to understand how the final frontier affects humans day-to-day actions. Folks do not fully understand the impact of space on their lives, he said. We need to do a better job at explaining it and understanding it. andrea.leinfelder@chron.com twitter.com/andrearumbaugh courtesy of Business Wire Houston Independent School District students and chefs will be workshopping new school lunch recipes Dec. 3-6 in cooperation with the Schwan Co. The activities HISD students and 12 chefs from the school district will participate in are part of the Minnesota-based frozen foods supplier's Schwan's Chef Collective's annual K-12 Kitchen Collaborative. READ MORE: Jiffy Lube raises $600K for MDA during annual month-long donation drive "We're thrilled to welcome the Schwan's Chef Collective to our schools," HISD nutrition services officer Betti Wiggins said in a statement. "Between the collaboration amongst our staff, students and the chefs, the Schwan's Chef Collective is helping us spread the 'good food' message we're trying to communicate." The Schwan's Chef Collective will feature Food Network chefs Jet Tila and Todd Erickson and, from the "Top Chef" competitive reality series, contestants Adrienne Wright and Stephanie Cmar. READ MORE: Halliburton employee volunteers help at-risk families get ready for back to school Activities will include a taste tour of Houston, classroom question-and-answer sessions, and making recipes implementing existing school pantry ingredients. The events will conclude with the Mystery Ingredient Cook-Off, at which students will act as judges during a team competition. In its third year, K-12 Kitchen Collaborative has been previously held in Wayzata, Minn. and Albuquerque, N.M. The Texas economy, once growing at a blistering pace, is showing signs of slowdown, according to surveys by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. While both the manufacturing and retail activity continued to expand in November, they advanced at a notably slower pace, according to surveys of businesses in those sectors. The Dallas Feds manufacturing index, which measures activity based on the survey, fell in November, as did the retail sales index. The retail employment index, which looks at whether retailers added more employees compared to the previous month, fell to a 10-month low. The Texas economy, still one of the fastest growing in the nation, has slowed in recent months, in part because it just couldnt maintain the sizzling pace of earlier this year as labor markets have tightened and made it more difficult to find workers. Manufacturers also cited political uncertainty after Democrats won control of the U.S. House, and tariffs imposed on steel and aluminum imports the Trump administration as weighing on their outlook. The steel and aluminum tariffs are a drag! said one respondent involved in primary metal manufacturing The states factory activity continued to expand in November, but at a markedly slower pace, according to the Dallas Fed survey. The production index has been positive since July 2016, but shipments and new orders fell to 20-month lows. Among manufacturers responding to the survey, more than two-thirds said just they werent getting qualified applicants. About two-thirds also said they have had to increase pay and benefits to recruit or retain workers, compared to 49 percent a year ago. Overall, people are still relatively bullish they hope things are going to continue, said Tony Bennett, president of the Texas Association of Manufacturers. I did notice there was kind of a down tick. I dont know what you would attribute that to, whether its the way the stock markets behaving. Theres just a little bit of reservation there. Retailers were also less optimistic, according to the Dallas Fed. While their overall outlook remained positive, the indexes that measure future expectations declined. Seventy percent of the 50 retailers polled by the Dallas Fed said they are have difficulty finding qualified employees. More than three-quarters said it was hard to find workers to fill middle skills positions, which usually require some college or technical experience. More than half the retailers said they were raising wages and benefits and intensifying recruiting efforts. There is significantly more difficulty in hiring in major metropolitan areas like Houston, one retail executive told the Dallas Fed. George Kelemen, CEO of the Texas Retailers Association, a trade group, said retailers have raised wages and benefits and started advertising for seasonal employees early on. All employers, but retailers included, have had to compete for available talent, Kelemen said. lbrezosky@express-news.net miszler@express-news.net A dire government report on the far-reaching impact of climate change could increase pressure on the energy industry to curb greenhouse gas emissions and political leaders to act more decisively to reduce the use of fossil fuels, analysts said. No one expects such actions while Republicans control the White House and the Senate. President Donald Trump quickly dismissed the report produced by his own administration telling reporters Monday, I dont believe it. But, analysts said, the reports uncompromising findings that the pace of global warming is accelerating and human activity the burning of fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas is most responsible will make it harder for the Trump administration to roll back Obama-era restrictions aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emission from power plants and oil and gas drilling. The 1,656-page report, required by Congress, offers the most comprehensive scientific study yet of climate changes impact on the U.S. economy, public health, coastlines and natural resources. Its message is clear: Climate change, in the form of increasingly devastating hurricanes in the Southeast, deadly wildfires in California, and more intense heat waves, already have pummeled the country. And more climate change catastrophes are coming. Billions of dollars of damage in Texas The direction of climate change policies, of course, have large implications for Houston, whose economy is driven by the oil and gas industry. The sector accounts for more than 200,000 energy-related jobs and supports thousands of other jobs that provide goods and services to the industry and its workers, according to the Greater Houston Partnership, a business-financed economic development group. On HoustonChronicle.com: Following Democratic victories, states up ante on clean energy Rising sea levels and hurricanes on the Texas Gulf Coast could threaten much of the nations energy refining capacity and inflict as much as $20.9 billion in coastal property damage from flooding by 2030, the report said. By 2050, about $30 billion of property along the Gulf Coast will be under the high-water mark. The report underscores the unique position of Texas. It produces more carbon emissions than any other state, but also ranks among the most vulnerable to extreme weather events, such as Hurricane Harvey, and other climate disasters, noted Katharine Hayhoe, co-author of the report and professor Texas Tech University. Hayhoe is one of hundreds of scientists who worked on the climate assessment, including government scientists from 13 federal agencies. Many energy terminals and refineries along the coast are at risk of storm surges, the report said. Globally sea levels are expected to rise 1 to 4 feet, but that the Texas Gulf Coast could see double the average increase in sea levels. Even as energy companies face threats to their own facilities from climate change, Hayhoe said, the number one reason why climate is changing is because were digging up and burning coal, gas and oil. Climate change is potentially an existential issue for oil industry. Companies have already come under pressure from shareholders, calling on executives to account for the impact of climate change on their businesses and plan for policies aimed at addressing it. The New York Attorney General recently sued Exxon Mobil, alleging that the company misled investors on how climate change would affect the company a claim that Exxon Mobil denies. Environmental and other groups have filed lawsuits seeking to hold fossil fuel companies responsible for climate change and the damage it causes. The climate report estimated that climate change could drain hundreds of billions of dollars from U.S. economy every year, starting in the second half of the century. In the worst case scenario, the costs could reach 10 percent of the nations annual economic output which today would equal about $2 trillion. Delaying or stopping rollbacks Analysts said the new climate report and its unequivocal conclusions could bolster legal arguments in climate change cases, particularly in challenges to the Trump administrations moves to undo Obama-era rules around fuel efficiency standards, power generation and methane emissions from oil and natural gas production. Victor Flatt, an environmental law professor at the University of Houston, said that these and other regulations are based on the EPAs finding that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases pose a danger to public health and safety. That requires the federal government to control greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, stationary sources (including power plants and some drilling) as well as from sources already regulated under the Clean Air Act. The governments climate assessment could support the legal underpinnings of the endangerment finding which makes it harder to get rid of any existing regulation on climate change, Flatt said. It should also provide ammunition for Democrats after they regain control of the House of Representatives in January. Democrats are expected to scrutinize the Trump administrations efforts to unravel environmental regulations and cast doubts on climate science. On HoustonChronicle.com: EPA moves ahead on methane rule rollback Luke Metzger, executive director of Environment Texas, said energy companies should plan on stricter pollution reduction requirements. I do expect the House (to have) vigorous oversight that might lead to some of these rollbacks being delayed or stopped. Metzger noted that major energy companies such as Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron that have announced efforts to cut methane emissions from oil and gas production. Methane, one of the most powerful greenhouse gases, is released in the air when producers burn excess gas in a process called flaring or when it leaks at wells, pumps and pipelines. Companies such as Shell, Exxon and BP have voiced their support of carbon tax initiatives, a market-based approach to provide incentives to choose fuels that produce less carbon dioxide. Exxon, the largest U.S. oil company, donated $1 million toward backing a carbon tax advocacy group, although it is fraction of what the company spends on lobbying. A case for carbon taxes Flatt said the governments climate assessment could build the case for carbon taxes by providing specific estimates for economic costs of climate change and continue to put pressure on at least setting the tax to reflect that (cost). That could accelerate the industrys shift to natural gas. The worlds biggest oil companies already are investing billions of dollars to produce, process and transport natural gas, which emits fewer greenhouse gases than coal or oil-based products. The American Petroleum Institute pointed to government findings that North American emissions from fossil fuel combustion dropped by an average of 1 percent annually over the last decade, largely because of the shift from coal to natural gas as a major power source and better fuel efficiency standards in cars and trucks. The bottom line is that natural gas and oil production in America is among the cleanest in the world, said Kyle Isakower, vice president for Regulatory and Economic Policy at the American Petroleum Institute, in a statement. Our industry continues to demonstrate that meeting record demand and protecting the environment are not mutually exclusive, John Tintera, president of Texas Alliance of Energy Producers, didnt think report would be a turning point for climate policy. but that it would add to the growing body of research available to regulators. There is no way -- without doing severe harm to quality of life -- that you could simply make oil and gas industry not function. The negative impact on society would be horrendous, Tintera said. Over the next five to 10 years oil and gas (industry leaders) are going to demonstrate how helpful it can be as part of the solution. marissa.luck@chron.com @marissaluck7 The recent plunge in oil prices is bringing back some bad memories. Since the beginning of October, crude oil has suffered its longest losing streak in history 12 consecutive trading sessions and its biggest one-day sell-off since the oil bust days of 2015. Reinel Solano has been through this before. He worked more than 14 years as a reservoir engineer. But as oil prices slide, hes feeling pretty good these days. He gave up on the industry in 2016 and launched his own business one he says is doing quite well. "It gives me comfort that I made the right decision," Solano said. Solano is one of the tens of thousands of energy workers who lost jobs in the brutal oil bust that began in late 2014 and reach its low point in early 2016, when oil prices hit $26 a barrel from more than $100. The industry then struggled for more than year through a painfully slow recovery. Solano is also among the thousands for whom the last oil bust never really ended even was worries grow about another. Oil has fallen by about 30 percent since hitting a recent peak above $76 a barrel into the low $50s, with parallels to the conditions of 2014: record production, rising inventories, slowing demand. In 2015, Solanos job was eliminated. After about six months of frustrating interviews each followed by rejection, Solano took his severance pay and used it to buy a flooring franchise in 2016. "When I started looking for jobs (as a reservoir engineer), it was about 100 applicants per position," Solano said. "By the end of the year, it was about 500." Solano said sales have doubled at this his company, Floor Coverings International Houston Heights, which does commercial and residential design and installation services of flooring products such as hardwood, carpet, stone, and tile. He's even hired another out-of-work reservoir engineer as his project manager. Solano keeps in touch with several engineers who continue to look for work and out of habit and he still watches the ups and downs of the price of crude oil. Solano knows many out-of-work engineers in the area. Some, he says, have lost their savings and even their homes. A handful of others, like him, have successfully started a small business. In all, the Houston area lost around 86,200 energy-related jobs from December 2014 to December 2016, and has only recovered about a fraction on them, according to data provided by the Greater Houston Partnership, the region's business advocate. The partnership estimates that the region has about 230,000 energy-related jobs now. Bill Gilmer, an economist at the University of Houston, forecasts oil and gas-related jobs in part by analyzing rig counts and oil prices. He doesnt foresee a return to the industrys peak employment of about 300,000 energy -elated jobs in Houston anytime soon. With a prolonged period of $100 oil, Gilmer said, We could get back to 275,000 jobs. Solano wont be included in those numbers. He said he enjoys owning a business and is not looking to get back into the industry. He also thinks Gilmers forecast is optimistic. I don't think it will get back to those levels," said Solano. john.roper@chron.com Actor Matthew McConaughey, photographer Mark Seliger and artist Trenton Doyle Hancock have been announced as additional honorees of the Texas Medal of the Arts Awards. The three will be honored in February in Austin, joining previously announced honorees: fashion designer Brandon Maxwell, writer Stephen Harrington and architects Craig Dykers and Elaine Molinar. The South Korean film Burning might have been more accurately called Slow Burn as it takes nearly 2 hours for it to fully ignite. Yet this absorbing, if fitfully frustrating, portrait of love, obsession and jealousy is rarely less than fascinating. Its also a fine showcase for Korean-American actor Steven Yeun (The Walking Dead), who proves hes much more than a Happy Meal for zombies. Jong-su (an impressive Yoo Ah-In) is a struggling, working-class young man living on his own on a rundown farm outside Seoul. He gets by doing odd jobs as a day worker, his father is in prison and he seems to have no friends. The one thing that gets him through is his dream of being a writer. One day he runs into the flirty Hae-mi (Jong-seo Jeon), who remembers him from childhood in their old neighborhood. Jong-su is smitten but the mysterious Hae-mi confounds him, letting him into her life only so far. How does she really support herself? Whats up with her interest in mime? Why does she say she has a cat that no one ever sees? Shes either an enigmatic tease, a straight-up liar or both. The picture gets murkier after she returns from an African vacation with the suave Ben (an excellent Yeun) in tow, a man thats everything Jong-su is not. With his English name, black Porsche, urbane friends and cool apartment in one of Seouls swankiest neighborhoods, hes totally Gangnam Style, living the Korean high life that Psys 2012 hit song of that name celebrated. Burning Unrated (but has scenes of sex and an act of violence) Running time: 148 minutes In Korean with English subtitles 4 stars (out of five) See More Collapse Yet, like Hae-mi, exactly how he maintains this lifestyle is opaque. Not to mention he has a strange, disturbing hobby that alternately alarms and intrigues Jong-su. If Jong-su is the old Korea his ramshackle farm sits near the DMZ, so hes constantly bombarded with North Korean propaganda blaring across the border Ben is the new, so deep into his upscale world and globe-trotting internationalism, he probably wouldnt know North Korea existed until troops or bombs landed on his sleek doorstep. Yet, as much as Burning can be viewed through the prism of class in contemporary South Korea, its actually based on a Japanese short story, Barn Burning, from author Haruki Murakami which is, in turn, based on a William Faulkner story of the same name. Its also a riff on F. Scott Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby, which similarly is built around a triangle of envy and desire. Burning is certainly more than its literary heritage, though. Its visually striking, and director Lee Chang-dong whose work is not that well-known outside South Korea, though that might change now slowly ramps up the tension so that the film only occasionally feels ponderous, despite its running time. But, keep in mind, though Burning has thriller elements, this isnt a Hollywood action film with predictable beats and climaxes. Burning, South Koreas official entry for the foreign-language film Oscar category this year, has broken out of the Korean-language theater circuit in the U.S. and into the art-house mainstream. And the mainstream is all the richer for it. cary.darling@chron.com White House national security adviser John Bolton on Tuesday defended his decision not to listen to the tape of journalist Jamal Khashoggi's murder, telling reporters at the White House, "I don't speak Arabic." CIA Director Gina Haspel has listened to the tape, according to U.S. officials. But others, such as Bolton and President Donald Trump himself, have not. Trump said earlier this month that there was "no reason" for him to hear the recording, which was provided by Turkey and captures Khashoggi being killed by a Saudi hit team moments after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. Khashoggi was a prominent critic of Saudi leaders and a contributing columnist to The Washington Post. "No, I haven't listened to it, and I guess I should ask you, why do you think I should?" Bolton said Tuesday, turning a question back on a reporter during an appearance in the White House briefing room. "What do you think I'll learn from it?" He went on to ask how many in the room spoke Arabic, prompting a contentious back-and-forth. "Do you have access to an interpreter?" the reporter asked. "You want me to listen to it?" Bolton responded. "What am I going to learn from - I mean, if they were speaking Korean, I wouldn't learn any more from it, either." Later in the briefing, another reporter again asked Bolton why he did not choose to listen to the tape with the help of an interpreter. "People who speak Arabic have listened to the tape and they have given us the substance of what's in it. . . . I'm very satisfied that we know what the tape picked up, and it was factored into the president's decision and he's announced his position very clearly," Bolton said. Members of Congress from both parties have called for the Trump administration to take a harder line against Saudi Arabia in the wake of Khashoggi's killing, and tensions are likely to be on full display Wednesday when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis brief lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Bolton's remarks prompted criticism from some Democrats on Tuesday, including Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio. He noted in an appearance on CNN that Haspel, who has listened to the tape, will not be present at Wednesday's briefing. Bolton on Tuesday dismissed reports that the White House had blocked Haspel from attending. "This is just a bad movie," Brown said. "You have John Bolton refusing to listen to a tape because he doesn't speak Arabic. . . . He should want more information, not less." Brown added that a number of lawmakers will likely ask for the tape at Wednesday's briefing. He also took aim at what he described as the Trump administration's "arrogance," accusing the president of "throwing in with the world's dictators." "They're the only people he doesn't criticize," Brown said. WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump said he is considering a backup plan if Congress rejects his demand for $5 billion in funding for his border wall, potentially including the continued use of troops and razor wire to prevent migrants from entering the country. Trump's remarks, made Tuesday during an Oval Office interview with The Washington Post, are a sign that he could be softening his position on the issue ahead of a Dec. 7 deadline. Trump has previously declared that he is willing to force a partial government shutdown if lawmakers do not agree to the $5 billion figure. Republicans control both the House and Senate until the new Congress convenes in January. "We need Democrat votes to have a wall," Trump said. "Now, if we don't 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, with the barbed wire and the fencing, and various other things." Trump has deployed roughly 5,800 troops to the U.S. border with Mexico, and more than 12 miles of razor wire have been set up in recent weeks, including at the San Ysidro crossing, where U.S. border agents on Sunday fired tear gas at Central American migrants attempting to cross into the country from Tijuana. Images of mothers and children fleeing the tear gas have prompted outrage in recent days. But Trump said he thought he had the political upper hand, suggesting that footage of crowds of migrants rushing the border would sway public opinion against Democrats. "We desperately need a wall," Trump said. "I think that's been shown better than ever in the last short period of two weeks. I see the Democrats are going to want to do something. They understand, too. Those pictures are very bad for the Democrats." While most of the federal government is funded through next fall, the Department of Homeland Security and several other agencies will shut down at the end of next week if Congress and the president do not act. Democrats and a number of Republicans have balked at the prospect of spending billions of taxpayer dollars on a border wall that Trump pledged during the 2016 campaign and in the early days of his presidency would be paid for by Mexico. He has since dropped that claim and said Congress should fund the barrier. Earlier this year, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., agreed to $25 billion for new border security measures in exchange for legal protections for immigrants enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. But Schumer rescinded the offer amid pushback from Democrats who urged him to take a harder line in negotiations with the president. Trump said Tuesday that "we were very close to having a deal" and predicted that the fate of DACA, which his administration has unsuccessfully sought to end, would ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court. "The Democrats never thought they were going to win that, and then you had another couple judges rule, and then you had judges rule the other way," Trump said, referring to a series of rulings by courts around the country. "It's going to be settled I assume in the Supreme Court." Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday that negotiations with Democrats as well as the administration on the issue of border wall funding were ongoing and that "we're trying to get the president the money he would like for the wall." Senate Democrats, meanwhile, held to their support for a bipartisan $1.6 billion deal agreed to earlier this year. "We believe that is the right way to go," Schumer said. "If there's any shutdown, it's on President Trump's back." He declined to say whether Democrats would agree to $5 billion spread over two years, an option that has been under consideration. House Republican leaders sought to increase the pressure on Democrats to agree to more funding, pointing to the recent clash between migrants and Border Patrol officers. "The real question is, do Democrats want to shut the government down over whether or not to keep America safe? That's a serious question they're going to have to ask at a time when there are people attacking our own law enforcement agents at the border," said House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., who met with Trump Tuesday afternoon along with other House Republican leaders. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who also attended the meeting with Trump, told reporters that the president was "very solid with where he wants to go" on the funding. "It's the way our government works that you have to find compromise," McCarthy said. "And I think what the president's saying [with] $5 billion, he's finding compromise there. But we need that to secure the border." - -- The Washington Post's Erica Werner contributed to this report. 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 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 previous 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? Age was the most common cause (22%), followed by ethnicity (18%) and gender (18%). The person most likely to be discriminating was a manager (65%) followed by a peer (21%). Sadly, of those respondents who had personally experienced discrimination, 92% said it happened more than once. Wade said everyone has the right to feel safe at work and employers should be setting a high bar. Its not about pointing the finger but the data is overwhelming in both the extent of the issue and the desire for improvement. The results also found 62% of Kiwis agree more could be done to promote this. 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 iciHaiti - Beaumont : Angry mob attack and set fire to the police station Tuesday evening in the locality of "Ti Ginen", during an operation of the National Police of Haiti (PNH), a motorcycle taxi driver was killed in unsolved circumstances. The popular clamor accuses a police officer of being responsible for the death of the driver. Following the death of the driver, the angry population attacked and set fire to the Baumont police station. PNH officers on the premises fled to avoid being lynched by a furious crowd. Agents of the Departmental Law Enforcement Unit (UDMO) based in Jeremie had to intervene in reinforcements to regain control of the situation and restore public order and avoid the destruction of the police station which was partially burned in this beginning riot. Although the calm returned to Beaumont, the tension remained palpable within the population. TB/ iciHaiti iciHaiti - Politic : Demonstrations may seriously affect the results of State exams Senator Nippes Denis Cadeau (Bouclier), Chairman of the Commission "Education and Vocational Training" is concerned about the loss of school days and the disastrous consequences of the demonstrations on the results of the already weak State exams in "Normal situation". He regrets that Haiti is the only country in the Caribbean to have less than 200 days of classes per year... The Senator Cadeau urges the Ministry of National Education to take measures to allow students to recover lost school days and asks the National Police Superior Council (CSPN) to take all necessary steps to ensure an indispensable security climate for the smooth running of school activities. Finally, the Senator challenges the opposition and asks it to make a truce and think about the education and the future of our children by allowing classes to continue in classrooms throughout the country. PI/ iciHaiti African fishing communities under threat as blue economy grows, experts warn November 27,2018 | Source: BusinessDay Coastal African fishing communities are at greater risk of extinction as countries eye look to tourism, industrial fishing and exploration revenue to launch their blue economies, according to UN experts and activists. The continents 38 coastal and island states have in recent years moved to tap ocean resources through commercial fishing, marine tourism and sea-bed mining, said the UN Economic Commission for Africa (Uneca). There is a great risk and a great danger that those communities will be marginalised, said Joseph Zelasney, a fishery officer at the UNs Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). The resources that they depend on will be decimated, he said on Monday at a side event at the Blue Economy Conference organised by Kenya, Canada and Japan in Nairobi. The worlds poorest continent hosts a blue economy estimated at $1-trillion but loses $42bn a year to illegal fishing and logging of mangroves along the coast, according to Uneca estimates. Seismic waves generated by prospectors to search for minerals, oil and gases on the ocean floor had scared away fish stocks, said Dawda Saine of the Confederation of African Artisanal Fishing in the Gambia. 2018 tiso blackstar group Theme(s): Communities and Organisations. US-Philippines $25-mn fisheries partnership launched in Iloilo November 28,2018 | Source: Panay News To promote sustainable fisheries, a partnership program between the United States and Philippine governments was launched here recently. The $25-million Fish Right program will be implemented over a period of five years by the University of Rhode Island in collaboration with six implementing partners in the Philippines in three program sites Visayan Sea, Calamianes Island Group and south Negros. The launching on Nov. 20 was attended by US Embassy deputy chief of mission John Law, among others. He said the program has the potential to be extraordinarily life-changing for so many people. The coastal and marine biodiversity in the Philippines is one of the most distinguishing characteristics of the country. (It) is one of the most important fishing countries in the world; so many Filipinos make their livelihood based on fishing, he noted. Law added that 60 percent of the Philippines population lives within or around coastal areas, so they depend on coastal resources for their livelihood. The project will focus on ecosystem approach to fisheries management (EAFM) to promote the sustainable use and resilience of critical coastal and marine resources and institutionalize capacity building initiatives for sustainable fishing, Law said. 2018 Panay News Philippines Theme(s): Fisheries Development and Aquaculture. Bangladesh saves its favourite fish by Mohammad Al-Masum Molla Gone are those days when Sharmin Rahman used to worry about getting Hilsa to treat her guests. She now finds the national fish of Bangladesh almost round the year. Just a few years ago, I had often to buy other fish as there was hardly any Hilsa available in the market. But now I get the fish almost every time, said the homemaker from Mirpur in Dhaka. The favourite fish of Bengalis, the Hilsa is an integral part of the Bangladeshs culture and heritage. Be it fried or cooked with mustard, Hilsa is a must in many celebrations including Pahela Baishakh, the first day of Bengali New Year. Thanks to conservation efforts taken by the government in the last several years, the production of Hilsa has increased manifold. The government now puts more focus on Hilsa research and improving the livelihood of the fishermen. It is now framing a policy to provide the fishermen with life insurance, micro-credit and compensation. Narayon Chandra Chanda, minister of ministry of fisheries and livestock, told thethirdpole.net, We are now focusing more on how we can improve our conservation initiative which method will be more sustainable and how we can maximise benefits. Eco-Business 20092018 Theme(s): Fisheries Resources. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 27) The government has agreed to pursue projects under China's multi-billion dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with "the strictest respect for national laws, rules, regulations, and policies." This commitment was made in a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the two countries which was finally released by Malacanang on Monday. The document states that it is only a "an expression" of the common aspiration of both nations and "does not create legally binding obligations." In the MOU, the Philippines and China agreed to cooperate in infrastructure, trade, investment development, interconnectivity in the transportation, telecommunication, energy sectors, and other areas of mutual interest. It also allowed the use of the local currencies of both nations in bilateral trade and investment transactions. The two countries also agreed to hold regular dialogues on "key macroeconomic policies and development strategies" and work to develop socio-cultural exchanges by promoting "people-to-people exchanges, cultural cooperation, education, travel, and stronger communication between their people." The MOU is effective until 2022 and may be renewed for another four years. It was among the 29 documents signed during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to the Philippines on November 20 and 21. Introduced by Xi in 2013, the BRI is China's global initiative to revive its ancient Silk Road by connecting over 60 countries from different continents through infrastructure investments. President Rodrigo Duterte is expected to attend the second edition of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in April 2019 in Beijing on Xi's invitation. The President also attended the first Forum. But while the MOU is seen to boost the government's ongoing infrastructure program, some sectors have expressed concern that the country may fall into a so-called "debt trap" with Beijing just like other countries that failed to pay their debts to the Asian power. Sri Lanka, for example, handed over its Hambantota port to China in December 2017 for failing to pay decades-long lease. Such concerns have been dismissed by both Philippine and China government officials. READ: 'No strings attached' in Chinese grants to PH Centre, state ministers in race for top post. Panaji/ New Delhi: After the ongoing Assembly polls in five states, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) 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 Pramod Sawant and Ramkrishna 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 as the health situation of Parrikar. The Chief Minister is battling from 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 Opposition and ruling coalition allies have been demanding the resignation of the Chief Minister, claiming that the administration has come to a standstill due to Mr Parrikars long absence. The Goa Assembly has a strength of 40 legislators. The BJP has been leading a coalition government in the state with its 14 MLAs, three from Goa Forward Party, three from Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and three independent legislators. The point was also made in the manifesto released on Tuesday by the ruling party in Jaipur ahead of the Assembly polls. New Delhi: Launching a full-blown attack on the Congress in the run-up to the Assembly polls in Rajasthan, BJP chief Amit Shah said on Tuesday that the Opposition party has no leadership and no programme. Union home minister Rajnath Singh also took on the main Opposition party, saying that the Congress has not declared a chief minister candidate for the state because they know that they will lose if they do so. With polls in Rajasthan scheduled for December 7, both the BJP and the Congress have stepped up the gas and are aggressively campaigning for their respective candidates in the state. Mr Shah, while addressing a rally in Jalore, said that the Congress has no leadership and no programme, while reiterating that the BJP government was committed to sending back illegal migrants. The point was also made in the manifesto released on 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, Mr Shah said. The Congress is just dreaming of forming the government but the party has no leadership and no programme, he added. He said the BJP will also retain power in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Praising chief minister Vasundhara Raje for financial management, the BJP president said the BJP government increas-ed the states revenue and put it on the path of growth and development. The Congress did nothing to address the issue of illegal migrants, he said. Mr Singh, meanwhile, mocked the Congress party by comparing its condition in the upcoming Rajasthan Assembly elections to a marriage procession without a groom. 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? Rajnath Singh said, while addressing a public rally in Dholpur. He further said Congress had not declared a chief ministerial candidate for the state because they knew their party would lose if they do so. Congress cannot name their leader because they know that the day they tell a name, their party in the state will be broken into pieces, he added. Imperial Valley News Center What It Will Take to Prevent Deadly Wildfires Washington, DC - Within minutes of the deadly Camp Fires ignition, several acres were ablaze as fire spotters stood by helplessly. While Capt. Matt McKenzie of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection responded quickly, firetrucks were unable to reach the blaze and helicopters and air tankers were grounded due to the timing and weather, according to a report. Within two hours, the fire tore through the towns of Concow and Paradise before it raged on, claiming thousands of structures and dozens of lives. President Donald Trump and I both saw the devastation of the fire on our recent trips to California: piles of rubble recognizable as houses only by their chimneys and charred appliances, and vehicles melted to the pavement in pools of molten aluminum. We also saw the heroism of firefighters, first responders and volunteers working together to battle the blaze and help the community. Read the full op-ed. This article was published in CNN on November 26, 2018. The report Imperial Valley News Center Remarks by Vice President Pence at the Hidden Heroes 3rd Annual National Convening Washington, DC - Remarks by Vice President Pence at the Hidden Heroes 3rd Annual National Convening: THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you all for that warm welcome. Senator Dole and distinguished guests, it is my great honor in fact, it is humbling for me to be here at the Hidden Heroes 3rd Annual National Convening. (Applause.) And before I get started, I want to bring greetings from a friend of mine who I just spoke to on Air Force One, and a great champion of our heroes, and a great admirer of our Hidden Heroes, I bring greetings from the 45th President of the United States of America, President Donald Trump! (Applause.) You know, the Old Book says: If you owe debts, pay debts; if honor, then honor; if respect, then respect. And I just had to come by today, on behalf of your Commander-in-Chief and the American people, to pay a debt of gratitude to all of you who have stepped up to care for our best and our bravest, Americas military and veteran caregivers. Give yourselves a round of applause. (Applause.) Senator Dole and I were just talking backstage about our veteran caregivers all across this country. Military and veteran caregivers are, in many cases, just everyday Americans. But as you all have been celebrating all day today, our caregivers are out there doing extraordinary work each and every day. Its amazing to think that today there are more than 5.5 million Americans providing care each and every day, Hidden Heroes all. They spread to literally every corner of the United States. Theyre moms and dads; theyre husbands and wives; theyre sons and daughters; and neighbors and friends; and they are all Hidden Heroes to the American people. (Applause.) While the stories are different, the calling is the same. Its the calling that our 16th President described so eloquently to care for them that shall have borne the battle. And its a noble calling indeed. Our caregivers, our Hidden Heroes, sacrifice every day to support the men and women who carry wounds or disabilities during or after their service in the Armed Forces of the United States. And we owe our heroes a debt of gratitude, and we owe these Hidden Heroes an equal measure. The caregivers work is constant, as you in this room know, and oftentimes very demanding. Waking up early in the morning, staying up late at night, working tirelessly in the hours in between, our Hidden Heroes tend to the injuries or illnesses of their loved ones, both visible and invisible. And whatever our wounded hero needs, the caregiver does without a second thought. They give veterans rides to the VA. They manage medications and medical appointments. They assist with activities on a daily living basis. And sometimes our caregivers take time out of their day just to be there to lend a supporting shoulder or a listening ear. In most cases, they werent asked to do it, but they do it selflessly and gladly, with a caring heart and a helping hand. Just like the heroes that they support, these extraordinary men and women stand ready to help whenever and however they can. And thats why our military and veteran caregivers truly are Americas Hidden Heroes, and I thank you all for recognizing their contribution to the life of this nation. (Applause.) We thank our Hidden Heroes today, but I also want to thank a great leader and a friend of mine whose vision and compassion brought us here to give these Hidden Heroes the attention that they deserve. Shes an extraordinary American. Im honored to call her a friend. And her contributions to the life of this nation are almost too many to count. Join me in thanking Senator Elizabeth Dole (applause) once again for her incredible leadership for Americas heroes and Americas Hidden Heroes! (Applause.) And when you think about the work of this organization now for some half a dozen years, its no real surprise that Senator Dole led the effort. Frankly, shes led a life of service. Served in five different presidential administrations. And she was President Reagans Secretary of Transportation. She was the first President Bushs Secretary of Labor. And she was the first female president of the American Red Cross since its founder a century before. I had the privilege of serving in the United States Congress at the time that she was elected to represent her home state of North Carolina as its first female senator. And she also knows the challenges that our wounded heroes face firsthand. She was inspired, as we all know, by one of the most well-known and courageous and inspiring wounded warriors in American history, her husband of 43 years, the remarkable Senator Robert Dole. (Applause.) Its amazing to think, just a few weeks before the end of World War II in Europe, Bob Dole was injured in the foothills of Italy while trying to save a member of his platoon. But like many of the heroes that we remember today, he came back to the United States and endured the long and arduous journey back to wholeness. He lived for 39 months in hospitals around the country, and endured countless hours of surgery and rehabilitation. In fact, I witnessed some of the evidence of that recently, when on a visit to the National World War II Museum and, Senator, I dont know if I told you, but literally as I was in the vault of the museum down in New Orleans, I came across a medical log that was proudly open to the page that described Bob Doles treatment in the hand of his physician. I was so moved by it that I sent Bob a photo of the page. I thought it was one more evidence of how the people of this country are so grateful for Bob Doles leadership and equally grateful for the incredible leadership of his wonderful wife, Senator Elizabeth Dole. Join me in thanking both of them again one more time, would you? (Applause.) But their examples of personal and physical courage and compassion are really what bring us all here today. On both sides, we celebrate our heroes and our Hidden Heroes. Because the truth is, Bob Doles story is a story of someone who served his country in the highest distinction and with the greatest evidence of courage. And his long journey back, and the support of caregivers, shows the important role that the caregivers that we celebrate in this great organization are so important. And thats why Senator Elizabeth Dole is today helping to tell their stories with your help all across America. Senator Dole established this foundation after her husband was hospitalized in 2011. We were just talking about it a few minutes ago. The sole purpose of this group, as you all know, is to empower, support, and honor military and veteran caregivers by providing encouragement and assistance, sponsoring research, raising awareness about the obstacles they face and the support they need. And our administration, as I expect you heard in detail this morning, through our Department of Veterans Affairs, couldnt be more proud to partner with Elizabeth Dole Foundation to co-host this Third Annual National Convening and to work with you every day for our heroes and our Hidden Heroes. (Applause.) Working with this organization, and through Elizabeths leadership, were shining a light on our nations caregivers. And were really proud to partner with this foundation in developing a critical tool that Im told was just unveiled today a resource thats going to help caregivers understand the road ahead, and help others come alongside them with the right support at the right time. Would you join me in congratulating the VA, the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, and all of our private partners for completing the first-ever Military and Veteran Caregiver Experience Map? (Applause.) This is a vital tool. Its a vital tool that will help build on all the progress that weve made. And the truth is, it will help people understand the path that lies before theme even better. And that, I think, is what was most encouraging to me when I first heard about the map. Because I expect, for many families that find themselves in these circumstances, its the unknown thats most frightening; its not knowing whats around the next corner; its not having a sense of the proportion and the size and the dimensions of the challenge. But I think like anything else in life, if we can see it all at once, then we can begin to prepare, in our hearts and minds, for it. And thats what this new and innovative tool will do for families and caregivers all across this country. And I want to promise I want to promise each and every one of you, and I hope you can see it as you look back over the past two years, that for our caregivers, our veterans of our armed forces, for our heroes and our Hidden Heroes, you have no better friend than President Donald Trump. (Applause.) This President and our entire administration care deeply about the men and women of our armed forces and their families. And weve been putting feet on that commitment every single day since Inauguration Day 2017. I mean, if you look at the actions this President has taken this year alone, its remarkable. For nearly a decade, the VA has provided crucial support to caregivers of veterans who were seriously injured on or after September the 11th, 2001. But just a few short months ago, with the strong support and the energetic efforts of the Elizabeth Dole Foundation and Elizabeth Dole Congress passed, and the President signed, the VA Mission Act, which extends this program to veterans from every era in America. (Applause.) And thanks to your support, and thanks to Elizabeths energetic and tenacious leadership, the United States of America will now support caregivers for all seriously injured veterans, no matter when or where they served. Our administration is also implementing this program as we speak. And the VA is working, as you heard this morning, to make the application process smoother and shorter for military and veteran caregivers. Our veterans and their loved ones deserve to get the care they need as soon as possible, and we are going to see to it in this administration. And thats a promise. (Applause.) In addition, our administration has also launched the new Center of Excellence for Veteran and Caregiver Research. This initiative, which Secretary Wilkie announced in September, will leverage research and expertise from across the country to ensure that caregivers have the tools and resources they need to support their loved ones. And because of her leadership on this vital issue, Im pleased to announced the VAs new center will be named after Senator Elizabeth Dole. (Applause.) Well deserved. And we know that we support our military and veteran caregivers by supporting their loved ones directly. And thats why, since day one of this administration, President Trump has taken decisive action to give Americas best Americas best. We know that veterans benefits in this administration are not entitlements. Veterans benefits are the ongoing compensation that was earned in the uniform of the United States of America. (Applause.) And we will keep our promises to Americas veterans. When President Trump expanded support for military and veteran caregivers, Im pleased to report he also gave our veterans access, finally, to the real-time, world-class healthcare that they earned in the uniform of the United States. Veterans Choice is now a permanent part of Americans veterans healthcare law, and so it will stay. (Applause.) Were expanding telehealth options. Weve opened a brand new White House VA Hotline, run by veterans and their families, for veterans and their families. And weve made it easier for Americas veterans to access the mental health services they need to treat the invisible wounds of war. And President Trump has also taken decisive action to restore accountability to the VA. Over the past two years, Im pleased to report, with new and renewed authorities given to us by the Congress of the United States and signed into law by the President, today more than 4,200 VA employees have been suspended, fired, or demoted for negligent behavior. We are going to make sure Americas best get Americas best. (Applause.) Weve also brought the VA appeals process into the 21st century, giving our nations heroes the answers they need on a timeline they deserve. And over the last year, the VA has already identified and paid over $115 million in retroactive benefits to Americas veterans. And our administration has also made historic progress toward ending veteran homelessness. Thanks to our reforms at the VA and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, last year alone nearly 54,000 veterans found permanent housing and access to supportive services. (Applause.) Weve also been working hard to help Americas veterans readjust to civilian life. We eliminated the expiration date for GI benefits so our veterans can get the education they need, when they need it, at any point in their lifetime. And thanks to the pro-growth policies of this administration, were especially proud of the fact veteran unemployment reached its lowest level in nearly 20 years. (Applause.) I know we honor our veterans by guaranteeing and ensuring that they receive the benefits that theyve earned and that their caregivers have the support that they deserve. But I know you all in this room agreed, especially those who have worn the uniform, that we also honor them by supporting the men and women who are serving, at this very hour, in the uniform of the United States. And I couldnt be more proud, as the father of a United States Marine, to serve alongside a President who signed the largest increase in our national defense since the days of Ronald Reagan. (Applause.) Were rebuilding our military and restoring the arsenal of democracy. And Ill make you a promise: Were going to continue to stand by the men and women who are wearing the uniform of the United States. And were once again going to give our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and Coast Guard the resources and the training that they need to accomplish their mission and come home. Under President Trumps leadership, Ill make you all a promise: Well always fight for those who fight for us, especially to those who fought for us. And we will never take our military, our veterans, heroes all, or our Hidden Heroes for granted. You know, over the past few years, Ive had the privilege to spend time with veterans all across this country and their families, and also met with active-duty military personnel as we traveled around America and traveled around the world. And its always a very humbling experience for me. Im struck by what that Kansas family said to the local newspaper about feeling humbled. And I understand and appreciate that respect for the office. But I must tell you, its always very humbling for me to be around men and women who served in the uniform of this country and their families that have served alongside them, labored at home in prayer, and then particularly those that patiently serve along with them as they recover from injuries that they endured in battle. Ive met some remarkable people, and Ive met one extraordinary couple on a number of occasions. They exemplify, really, the best of our nation. Theyre an inspiration not only to Karen and me, but I know theyre an inspiration to everyone gathered here. The husband was an Army infantryman with the 82nd Airborne Division. In 2010, he deployed to Afghanistan and was hit by an IED. And by the grace of God, he survived and quickly returned to duty, only to be hit by another IED just two weeks later. Through his injuries, he lost an arm and a leg, suffered traumatic brain injury. And while his doctors didnt expect him to live, that warrior thought otherwise. I recently saw him again at Walter Reed Hospital, where hed undergone another surgery. It was the latest of literally 100 surgeries since returning home from combat. And there, as is always the case, from the first time Karen and I met them, was his wonderful wife at his side. Always with a bigger smile than his. Always radiating in optimism and in determination that explains a lot about that hero and that family. She stood like our Hidden Heroes do, she stood by her husband. She fought for him and their beautiful young family. She started her own nonprofit to support our nations wounded warriors by giving them medical care and the financial support that they need. Hes a hero; shes a Hidden Hero. And Mike and Sarah Verardo are here with us today, and I couldnt be more humbled to be here with you (applause) and to serve a country that has families like yours. (Applause.) Amazing people. Really amazing. And I expect Ill get a little bit of an eye-roll from them when I go around to say hello before I leave, because theyre not really about the attention. But they are who they are, just inspiring Americans one in uniform and one beside the one in uniform. And your work in this great organization recognizes that both of them serve. I know that courageous husband of hers feels that every day. And I just want to thank you. I want to thank you not only for the opportunity to address you today, but I just want to thank you for standing by our heroes and by our Hidden Heroes. The debt that we owe to the men and women who served in uniform, in combat, who have endured physical and mental injuries as a result of their sacrifice; the debt we owe to their families that have stood beside them before, during, and after, we can never fully repay. And your efforts in this organization give evidence of the fact that you know that and that youre determined to lift up these heroes and these Hidden Heroes. And on behalf of their Commander-In-Chief, and on behalf of my little family, I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for all that youve done at here and at the Hidden Heroes 3rd Annual National Convening. I want to thank again Senator Elizabeth Dole for her great leadership, for the generosity of so many people and organizations represented here today. Lets just each and every one of us leave here today with a burden on our hearts to do more, whatever weve done before, for these extraordinary men and women, these extraordinary heroes and families. Lets find a way to help more. Lets find a way to lift up even more. Lets find a way to make sure that they know that the heart of every American is filled with gratitude for their service and sacrifice. Then, and only then, will we be able to say that weve done our duty for our heroes and our Hidden Heroes. So thank you all. God bless you for your work. And God bless the United States of America. Imperial Masonic Lodge donates $2,500 dollars to local Red Cross Emergency Response Vehicle Fund El Centro, California - The Masons of Imperial Lodge No. 390 are pleased to announce that they have donated $2,500 to the American Red Cross of San Diego and Imperial Counties. This donation will be used for the local American Red Cross Emergency Response Vehicle (ERV) Fund, for the Imperial Valley Service Center. Brothers Dave Cisneros, an American Red Cross Disaster volunteer, and Brother Thomas Remington will present the check on Thursday, November 29th, at 10:00 AM. The Emergency Response Vehicle fund will assist the American Red Cross in carrying out their critical missions of disaster relief throughout Imperial Valley. The check donation will take place at 10:00 AM at the Imperial Valley Service Center at 742 Main Street in El Centro, California. Editor's note: On Thursday, December 6, Lyft said it had confidentially filed a draft registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, indicating the company plans to file an initial public offering, the Wall Street Journal reports. The IPO is expected to take place during the first half of 2019, though the number of shares that will be offered and the price range have yet to be determined. Not every company can go up against the biggest kid on the playground and hold its own--but Lyft has done that and more. The second-biggest ride-hailing company in America has faced cease-and-desist letters from local governments, lawsuits, and political and regulatory battles in addition to its never-ending mano-a-mano with chief rival Uber. But by September 2018, six years after Lyft launched, the San Francisco ride-hailing company, which is now valued at $15 billion with approximately 35 percent of the ride-hail market, announced it hit over 1 billion rides. "If you look back to the first four or five years of Lyft, we were in survival mode--the odds were stacked against us. But now we've increased market share significantly, we've raised the resources to build out the team we need, and we finally have a year that we're able to be in offense mode," says John Zimmer, co-founder and president of Lyft. A Year of Growth Indeed, with 1.4 million drivers across all 50 states, the company Zimmer co-founded in 2012 with Logan Green has notched impressive milestones. It announced that it surpassed $1 billion in revenue in 2017; it continues to make strides in its driver-less car program. It also increased its market share to 35 percent and doubled its valuation from just over $7 billion last year to $15.1 billion after raising $600 million from Fidelity Investments, hedge fund Senator Investment Group, and others. What's more, in July it announced plans to acquire the country's biggest bike-share operator, Motivate. The deal gives Lyft domain over 80 percent of all bike-share rides in the U.S., including programs like Citi Bike in New York, Ford GoBike in the San Francisco Bay area, Divvy in Chicago, and others in Boston, D.C., Portland, and elsewhere. "This year is all about putting our vision into action, which is to offer a more affordable alternative to car ownership," says Zimmer, who has long envisioned a world that's less reliant on cars. In 2008, he started a carpooling company with Green called Zimride. A World With Fewer Cars Bikes are a natural growth area for Lyft. The company's second non-car foray came in September when it edged into the already heated e-scooter war. That battle is currently being fought across the U.S. by startups like Lime and Bird, each worth over a $1 billion. Lyft launched its first fleet of 250 pay-by-the-minute electric scooters in Denver this September and expanded to Santa Monica, California, and Washington, D.C. Lyft is planning to go public in 2019, as is rival Uber. According to the Information, which obtained confidential financial data, Lyft increased its gross profit margin to 45 percent in the third quarter of 2018, up from 38 percent during the same period last year. Further, within the first nine months of 2018, Lyft more than doubled its revenue to reach $1.47 billion from last year. Lyft is not stopping at e-scooters, bikes, and going public. Lyft's autonomous vehicle project is in beta and its self-driving cars already cart some employees to and from the Palo Alto, California, train station and Lyft's office. In the future that Zimmer and Green are building, people will buy a miles plan from Lyft, like the monthly subscription model the company recently launched, and stop using their cars entirely. Some trips will be operated by human drivers, others will be autonomous. To be sure, building a world that's less reliant on cars is naturally risky for a company that's reliant on them. Zimmer is undeterred by the prospect, however. The future of cod fisheries looks uncertain as warming oceans kill young fish and drive remaining populations into ever smaller areas, according to a new study. Up to 60 per cent fewer are expected to hatch in key fishing grounds around Iceland and Norway if greenhouse gas emissions continue at current levels, the team of researchers from The Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven, Germany, suggested. As these cold-loving fish are pushed further north, they will also be hit by oceans turning acidic as excess CO2 from the atmosphere dissolves in the water, they wrote in their findings published in the journal Science Advances. Recommended Hundreds of fish species forced to move north to escape climate change After a warning from the United Nations (UN) that world leaders need to amplify their climate commitments, the scientists behind the latest research say only the strictest global warming targets will keep cod populations stable. Until recently, stocks of North Sea cod were in danger of being wiped out after numbers plummeted by more than 80 per cent in four decades. Since then, efforts to tackle overfishing have led to a gradual recovery. The fish was labelled as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council last year for the first time in 20 years. 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Show all 10 1 /10 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A group of emperor penguins face a crack in the sea ice, near McMurdo Station, Antarctica Kira Morris 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Floods destroyed eight bridges and ruined crops such as wheat, maize and peas in the Karimabad valley in northern Pakistan, a mountainous region with many glaciers. In many parts of the world, glaciers have been in retreat, creating dangerously large lakes that can cause devastating flooding when the banks break. Climate change can also increase rainfall in some areas, while bringing drought to others. Hira Ali 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Smoke filled with the carbon that is driving climate change drifts across a field in Colombia. Sandra Rondon 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Amid a flood in Islampur, Jamalpur, Bangladesh, a woman on a raft searches for somewhere dry to take shelter. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable places in the world to sea level rise, which is expected to make tens of millions of people homeless by 2050. Probal Rashid 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Sindh province in Pakistan has experienced a grim mix of two consequences of climate change. Because of climate change either we have floods or not enough water to irrigate our crop and feed our animals, says the photographer. Picture clearly indicates that the extreme drought makes wide cracks in clay. Crops are very difficult to grow. Rizwan Dharejo 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Hanna Petursdottir examines a cave inside the Svinafellsjokull glacier in Iceland, which she said had been growing rapidly. Since 2000, the size of glaciers on Iceland has reduced by 12 per cent. Tom Schifanella 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A river once flowed along the depression in the dry earth of this part of Bangladesh, but it has disappeared amid rising temperatures. Abrar Hossain 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A shepherd moves his herd as he looks for green pasture near the village of Sirohi in Rajasthan, northern India. The region has been badly affected by heatwaves and drought, making local people nervous about further predicted increases in temperature. Riddhima Singh Bhati 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A factory in China is shrouded by a haze of air pollution. The World Health Organisation has warned such pollution, much of which is from the fossil fuels that cause climate change, is a public health emergency. Leung Ka Wa 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Water levels in reservoirs, like this one in Gers, France, have been getting perilously low in areas across the world affected by drought, forcing authorities to introduce water restrictions. Mahtuf Ikhsan However, climate change is now presenting another major challenge to global fish stocks, and hundreds of species are expected to be forced northwards in search of cooler waters. Cod in particular need to spawn at temperatures approaching freezing in order for their eggs to develop properly. Combining their expertise in fish development with models of climate conditions, the scientists behind this latest study predicted survival rates for hatching cod. They show that, for the business-as-usual scenario, conditions for the young Atlantic cod will especially deteriorate in the North Atlantic near the end of this century, said lead author Flemming Dahlke. In the regions around Iceland and Norway, up to 60 per cent fewer cod larvae will hatch from their eggs. The fish are especially sensitive during these early stages, and even small changes in temperature can cause eggs to die or produce deformations in the larvae. Polar cod are particularly vulnerable to temperature changes. They already live in the extreme north and will therefore have nowhere to migrate as oceans warm. Meanwhile their Atlantic cousins may no longer be able to spawn north of the Arctic Circle by 2100. Despite their gloomy predictions, the scientists found that if global warming was limited to 1.5C above preindustrial levels, the more ambitious target set by the Paris climate agreement, most of the harmful effects to cod could be avoided. The detrimental environmental effects of fast fashion are well documented, but now MPs are claiming that the nations penchant for cheap, trend-driven clothing is taking a toll on charity shops, which are being inundated with low-quality items to the extent that they are turning down donations. Shoppers are buying clothes for very low prices and looking to dispose of them after just a couple of wears so they can make room for new items, claims Labour MP Mary Creagh, chairwoman of the environmental audit committee. This results in more clothes being sent to landfill sites, with 235 million garments going to waste in 2017 alone, evidence submitted to the committee reveals. Charity shops cant be the dumping ground for the high streets dirty little secret much of what they take back they cant sell because of the quality and its very difficult to recycle the fibres, Creagh told The Daily Telegraph. They are turning it away as they cant sell it so fabric either goes to Europe or the developing world. Its disrupting markets in other countries. A spokesperson from Oxfam added that their stores have seen a surge in donations in recent years. They think this may be due to the rise of fast fashion, which sees shops selling individual items of clothing for as little as 2. Fashion bosses from leading luxury and high street retailers were asked to explain what they were doing to promote sustainability in a hearing in the House of Commons yesterday. Executives from Primark, Topshop, Boohoo, Asos, Burberry and Marks and Spencer gathered to address some of the most pressing concerns and, according to Creagh, they have a long way to go if the UK is ever to achieve an eco-friendly fashion industry. Evidence we heard today justifies our concerns that the current system allows fashion retailers to mark their own homework when it comes to workers rights, fair pay and sustainability, she said in a statement. Marks and Spencer are supposed to be a leading light in corporate responsibility, but even they pulled out of a scheme seeking to achieve living wages for garment workers through collective bargaining. The MP added that the committee was particularly unimpressed that Missguided CEO Nitin Passi refused to attend Parliament in person to answer questions about his supply chain. Frankie and Bennys is the first family restaurant in the UK to implement a ban on mobile phones. The Italian-American chains decision comes after new research revealed that 72 per cent of children wish their parents would spend less time on their phones, while a further 70 per cent said they thought their parents enjoyed more screen time than them. Upon entering the restaurant, diners will be asked to deposit their phones in a designated no phone zone box at the table with the intention of keeping it there for the duration of their meal. Recommended Bali resort bans mobile phone use around swimming pool The initiative is part of the restaurants No Phone Campaign, which aims to champion families spending time together without the interruption of buzzing smartphones and runs from 29 November to 7 December. As for whether or not the ban will be upheld after this period, a spokesperson for Frankie and Bennys told The Independent that this will depend on the success of the trial, which will be judged on customer reactions. From Thursday, diners will be able to opt-in to the campaign and will be offered free kids meals as an incentive. Our staff are actively encouraging customers and families to take part in the campaign, but of course, we can't force them to hand over their phones, the spokesperson clarified. If the initiative is a success we'll certainly be looking at ways to activate it on a more permanent basis. The campaign came about after bosses looked into ways they could encourage people to engage more with one another at the dinner table. We've found giving families the chance to part with their devices for a mere couple of hours is a great way to bring them closer and embrace family time, reads a statement from the restaurant. Parenting expert Susan Atkins concurs that eating away from screens will help foster family bonding. I am delighted to see Frankie and Benny's are leading the way by banning screens at the table, she comments. We live in a busy, fast paced 24/7 digitally connected world, unless we consciously plan not to be, so I love the idea of families sitting together, eating and chatting together away from screens. Atkins added that parents who reduce the amount of time they spend on their phones will help set an example for their children about when and where technology use is appropriate." Hanukkah, the Jewish festival that commemorates the miracle of a menorah burning for eight full days after the desecration of the Temple of Jerusalem, is upon us once more. Starting on Thursday 10 December, the Jewish Festival of Lights is celebrated by lighting a menorah, or a hanukkiah, for eight days and exchanging gifts with loved ones. Its also observed by eating a gargantuan amount of delicious, mouth-watering food, much to the delight of celebrants around the world. From jam-filled doughnuts to chocolate coins, sumptuous potato latkes and more, the food thats served during Hanukkah is undoubtedly one of the highlights of the jubilant festival. Heres everything you need to know about Hanukkah food. Chag Sameach (Happy holiday)! Latkes (Getty Images (Getty Images) When the Jewish people reclaimed the Temple in Jerusalem from the King Antiochus and his troops, as the story of Hanukkah goes, they could only find enough oil in the temple to light the menorah for one day. However, when the menorah (a candelabra) was lit with the oil, it somehow managed to carry on burning for eight full days, hence the eight-day duration of Hanukkah. To commemorate the miracle of the tiny amount of oil transcending expectations to light the holy menorah, during the Festival of Lights Jewish people eat a lot of food thats been fried in oil. One of the most popular foods eaten during Hanukkah are latkes, which are fried potato pancakes. Some Jewish people eat latkes sweet, accompanied with apple sauce, while others prefer them savoury, served with sour cream. Either way, theyre a treat for the taste buds. Sufganiyot (Getty Images/iStockphoto (Getty Images/iStockphoto) A sufganiyah, or sufganiyot for plural, is a round, deep-fried doughnut typically filled with strawberry jam thats eaten on Hanukkah. Topped with powdered sugar, these delectable treats are one of the most recognisable foods affiliated with the Jewish festival. In recent years, Jewish people in Israel and around the world have become more experimental with their sufganiyot fillings. You can now choose from an array of flavours, including chocolate cream, vanilla cream, caramel and cappuccino. Many bakeries also offer miniature-sized sufganiyot, so you can tuck into a selection of different flavours without going overboard (although if you do, who can blame you). Gelt (Getty Images/iStockphoto (Getty Images/iStockphoto) On Hanukkah, children are often given chocolate money in celebration of the festival. In Yiddish, a language that the Jewish people began using in Europe around 1,000 years ago, the translation of money is gelt. The chocolate coins given out on Hanukkah are wrapped in silver or gold foil and eaten in abundance by children and adults alike. According to Rabbi A. P. Bloch, the custom of giving out gelt on Hanukkah began in 17th Century Poland, when Jewish parents would give their children money to give to their teachers. In time, as children demanded their due, money was also given to children to keep for themselves, he says. Bloch explains that according to 17th Century Rabbi Magen Avraham, poor yeshiva students would visit the homes of Jewish benefactors who would then give them Hanukkah money. The rabbis approved of the custom of giving money on Hanukkah because it publicised the story of the miracle of oil, Rabbi Bloch writes. Beef brisket (Getty Images/iStockphoto (Getty Images/iStockphoto) Beef brisket is a delicacy thats served at many Jewish festivals, including Rosh Hashanah, Passover and Hanukkah. It first became popular in eastern Europe when Jewish living the region werent able to afford more expensive cuts of meat. The often-impoverished Jews of eastern Europe could rarely afford to live high on the cow - to buy the more tender cuts from the rib and chuck, Gil Marks writes in Encyclopedia of Jewish Food. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events [So] they learned how to make do with the cheaper, less desirable parts. Brisket is taken from the chest of the cow, and is often made the day before its eaten. It can be served with side dishes such as potato latkes or roasted vegetables. Google has been attacked over reported plans to launch a "censored" search engine in China. Amnest International has launched a petition against the plans, arguing that the apparently launch should be cancelled. Human rights campaigners claim developing a specifically censored search engine would be in conflict with the company's values and that it will limit freedom of expression. They also point out that Google's own staff appear to disagree with the plans. 11 hidden Google Chrome features you didn't know existed Show all 11 1 /11 11 hidden Google Chrome features you didn't know existed 11 hidden Google Chrome features you didn't know existed Easter Eggs There are a lot of Easter Eggs hidden in Chrome, and more and more are discovered each year. One of our favourites is the dinosaur game. The next time you fail to connect to the internet on Chrome, tap the spacebar. Its also worth Googling barrel roll, zerg rush, super mario bros (and clicking the question mark graphic), festivus, recursion, askew and atari breakout (and then clicking Images). 11 hidden Google Chrome features you didn't know existed Pin tabs If you tend to browse with a lot of tabs open at once, you can clear up the clutter by pinning the ones youre least likely to close. Right-click them and select Pin Tab. Theyll automatically shrink and slide left. 11 hidden Google Chrome features you didn't know existed Save battery You can save some battery life by sacrificing performance. In Settings, scroll down to the System section and uncheck the box reading Continue running background apps when Google Chrome is closed. We wouldnt recommend having this feature enabled all the time, but it could come in handy if youre nowhere near a charger. 11 hidden Google Chrome features you didn't know existed Browse faster There are loads of Chrome Extensions available, but one of the most useful is Googles Data Saver. It compresses the pages you visit to reduce data usage and speed up loading times. 11 hidden Google Chrome features you didn't know existed Make multiple profiles If you use multiple Google accounts, for work and for personal use, for instance, you can keep your bookmarks and browsing history for each account separate by creating individual profiles. Go to Settings, Manage People and Add Person. This is also handy for when you lend your computer to a friend, and you dont want them to have access to your internet history. 11 hidden Google Chrome features you didn't know existed Downloads Many users would prefer it if Chrome downloaded files straight to the desktop, but by default it sends them to your Downloads folder. You can change this by going to Settings, opening the Show Advanced Settings menu, clicking Downloads and choosing your preferred destination. 11 hidden Google Chrome features you didn't know existed Extra info To see cookies and permissions for every site you visit, click the View Site Information symbol on the left-hand edge of the omnibar. It will also let you quickly control things like Popup and Location settings. 11 hidden Google Chrome features you didn't know existed Task manager You can quickly find out which pages are using up the most memory and slowing down your browsing experience by opening the burger menu, going down to More Tools and opening the Chrome Task Manager. 11 hidden Google Chrome features you didn't know existed Calculator When youre online and need to do a quick sum, you dont have to hunt down your computer calculator or whip out your phone. Just type it into the Chrome omnibar and hit Enter. 11 hidden Google Chrome features you didn't know existed Startup If theres a certain set of pages you always open when you turn your computer on, you can get Chrome to open them automatically when you launch the browser. In Settings, click Set Pages in the On Startup section, and choose the ones you want. 11 hidden Google Chrome features you didn't know existed Search Gmail from omnibar You can search your gmail inbox directly from the omnibar by going to Settings, Manage Search Engines, scrolling to the bottom and pasting https://mail.google.com/mail/ca/u/0/#apps/%s into the box on the right-hand side. The human rights charity has claimed the technology giant's development of such an app for the country is against the company's values and does not have the support of Google's own staff. A report by The Intercept in August claimed the internet firm was developing a version of its search services for the country which would not display information blocked by the Chinese government. Amnesty protesters gathered outside Google offices around the world on Tuesday, encouraging staff to sign a petition that calls on Google to drop the plans - known as Project Dragonfly - which the charity claims would involve blocking search terms such as "human rights". The charity's researcher on technology and human rights Anna Bacciarelli said: "Google staff don't want to be part of the great firewall of China. "It was Google staff who originally blew the whistle on plans to submit to China's draconian censorship rules. "This move would fly in the face of the company's professed values and its founding motto 'don't be evil'. "Google employees are not happy about compromising principles for profit. The people we met on their way to work this morning were supportive of our campaign and more than one of them told us to keep up the good work. "We hope it won't be long until we can say the same to them. Sundar Pichai should listen to his own workforce and drop Dragonfly now." In response, Google said its work on such a project remained "exploratory" and any discussion of a new search tool launching was premature. "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," a company spokesman said. "But our work on search has been exploratory, and we are not close to launching a search product in China." Google has not offered search services in China since it left the country in 2010 over Chinese state censorship of searches inside the country. Additional reporting by Press Association Despite not being mentioned in the Torah, Hanukkah is one of the most highly anticipated and joyous Jewish festivals of the entire year. The Festival of Lights tells the story of the Maccabees, an army of rebels in Israel who revolted against the Seleucid Greek King Antiochus, who was trying to kill all the Jewish people. While the exact historical truth of the series of events that led to the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem is a topic of debate, every year Jews around the world celebrate the victory of the Maccabees over their oppressors and the miracle of the temples menorah burning brightly for eight full days. So when does Hanukkah start, whats the significance of the festival and how is it celebrated? Heres everything you need to know: When does Hanukkah start? This year, Hanukkah starts on Sunday 28 November. The festival is celebrated for a duration of eight days, ending on Monday 6 December. Unlike Christmas, which has a fixed date in the Gregorian calendar every year, the date of Hanukkah depends on the Hebrew calendar, which is lunisolar. Hanukkah takes place every year on the 25th day of the month of Kislev in the Hebrew calendar. The last time Hanukkah overlapped with Christmas was in 2016, when the first night of the festival took place on Christmas Eve. Whats the significance of the festival? The story of Hanukkah that Jewish people are taught tells the tale of the Maccabees, who somehow managed to defeat King Antiochus mighty troops. In doing so, they also reclaimed the Temple in Jerusalem, which had been left in a desecrated state. Muslim man comforts elderly Jewish woman in symbol of Manchester unity Show all 4 1 /4 Muslim man comforts elderly Jewish woman in symbol of Manchester unity Muslim man comforts elderly Jewish woman in symbol of Manchester unity A Jewish woman named Renee Rachel Black and a Muslim man named Sadiq Patel react next to floral tributes in Albert Square REUTERS Muslim man comforts elderly Jewish woman in symbol of Manchester unity REUTERS Muslim man comforts elderly Jewish woman in symbol of Manchester unity REUTERS Muslim man comforts elderly Jewish woman in symbol of Manchester unity REUTERS To celebrate their victory, the Jewish people attempted to carry out a ritual lighting of the seven-pronged menorah, a candelabra, in the temple. However, they only managed to find enough oil to light the menorah for one day. Miraculously, the oil somehow lasted for eight days, hence the eight-day duration of the "Festival of Lights". As the story of Hanukkah took place after the Torah was written, it isnt specifically mentioned within the holy text. How is Hanukkah celebrated? Jewish people commemorate Hanukkah by lighting a menorah, otherwise known as a hanukkiah, every day for eight days. While the original menorah that was lit in the Temple in Jerusalem had seven prongs, the menorahs typically used nowadays in Jewish homes for Hanukkah have eight, with a ninth prong, called the "shamash", in the middle. Every night on Hanukkah, the shamash is the first candle on the menorah thats lit. The shamash is then used to light each of the other candles, with one candle being lit on the first night of Hanukkah, two on the second and so on. Jewish people are encouraged to place their menorahs in the front windows of their homes so that others can witness their celebration. Furthermore, public lightings of menorahs also take place. The food thats served during Hanukkah is one of the most long-awaited aspects of the festival. Potato latkes, sufganiyot (jam-filled doughnuts), gelt (chocolate money) and beef brisket are all eaten in abundance to mark the occasion. BJP MP pens book on Indias rural society and economy, criticises river-linking project. New Delhi: At a time when the farmers are up in arms and marching to Delhi from across the country, BJP MP Varun Gandhi will be releasing his book A Rural Manifesto: Realising Indias future through her villages. On the issue of impact of rural distress on elections, Mr Gandhi said that rural distress actually is a big electorate issue and strong rural performance has actually led to pro-incumbency in some cases. At the same time, he claimed that farmers do not vote in a block. Personal identity is not a monolith, but a complex dissemination of various factors and thus remains subject to caste and religious considerations. Mr Gandhi linked farmers suicide to rural distress. This is primarily because of rural distress. With the average land holding size decreasing and average input prices rising, the cost of cultivation has increased and with it, margins associated with farming have reduced. He felt that the situation is getting increasingly desperate with most farmers wishing that heir sons do not take up farming. Mr Gandhi claimed that about 30.5 million peasants quit farming between 2004-05 and 2010-11 and the size of agricultural workforce is expected to shrink to ~200 million by 2020. For him; average growth in minimum support prices of kharif crops has been 4%, compared to the ~13-15% growth seen between 2010 and 2013. He argued that the rural indebtedness could be countered not merely by loan waivers but also by offering greater subsidies on the purchase of agricultural equipment, fertilisers and pesticides. He further argued that the scope of MNREGA could be increased, allowing marginal farmers to be paid for tilling their own fields could reduce their input costs. Mr Gandhi also claimed that the institutional will to execute reforms enabling better food delivery nationally has been mostly missing and Indias lopsided food policy has made cereals more widely available over other foods. He also said that the low social status of women has kept them mostly ill-nourished, with open defecation and bad sanitation taking its toll. Mr Gandhi said that our budget needs to bolster a long term rural credit policy, offering flexibility for droughts and flooding events. Crop insurance, as proposed by the government, would be a welcome move to institutionalise the habit of insuring against market and weather volatility. He was also critical of river linking project. The project would have large environmental costs, destroying a significant chunk of limited remaining high density forests, while leaving millions in need of rehabilitation. According to him this project could potentially strain our relationships with our riparian neighbours Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and cause untold social unrest due to forced resettlement of people. Asked many people in his constituency, Sultanpur might not even read his book, what was the purpose of writing it Mr Gandhi said: If we dont invest our time and energy in exploring, learning about issues that form the national fulcrum, how can we improve the lives of our countrymen when we get the opportunity. Mr Gandhi then felt that the nation still needs building and rebuilding as ever before. Speaking to this newspaper, Mr Gandhi also spoke of political policies leading to long term damage by increasing in efficiency in usage of natural resources. Citing examples he argued: our tubewell subsidy culture, entrenched through political patronage, has contributed to unsustainable extraction and misuse of our groundwater resources. He further pointed out that free or cheap electricity and state agricultural produce procurement policies have incentivised farming of water-intensive crops in regions with limited groundwater availability and facing risk of aridity. On increasing employment in rural India, Mr Gandhi spoke of promoting handicrafts and to focus on leather and textiles two sectors with high employment potential. For him, Tax rationalisation (already introduced through GST) and labour law reform can further add to job creation potential... Christmas lights may already be strung around the city, but the holiday season in New York City wont be officially underway until the Rockefeller Tree is lit today. The iconic tree lighting in Rockefeller Centre has drawn the attention of New Yorkers and visitors alike who gather to experience the heartwarming tradition since it first started in 1931. This years ceremony will take place Wednesday, November 28. Recommended Donald and Melania Trump receive White House Christmas tree The 86th annual lighting will be made even more special with performances from stars including Diana Ross, Tony Bennett, Brett Eldredge, and John Legend. Fortunately, for those who cant experience the lighting in person, or want to avoid crowds, the event will be broadcast live on TV - as it has been since 1951 - and streamed online. How to watch the 2018 Rockefeller Centre Christmas Tree Lighting live on TV If you decide to opt out of the cold and watch the lighting from home, you can view the entire event, hosted by Today anchors Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb, Al Roker, and Craig Melvin, on NBC at 8pm ET. The actual lighting is set to occur around 9pm. The broadcast is expected to conclude at 10pm, and will include the lighting and all musical performances. This year's tree is 72 feet tall (Getty) For coverage ahead of the tree lighting, you can watch a pre-show hosted by Mario Lopez, Stefan Holt, and Natalie Pasquarella at 7pm and following the show, John Legend and Chrissy Teigens Christmas Special A Legendary Christmas with John and Chrissy will air at 10pm. How to watch the lighting online For those who dont have TV or cable access, the lighting will be available for viewing on the NBC mobile app which can be downloaded for free on your phone. Rockefeller Christmas tree lights up in New York If you do have cable, you can also follow along with the festivities by signing in to your cable provider and streaming the event on NBC on your computer. Who is performing The list of performers includes: Diana Ross, John Legend, Tony Bennett, Diana Krall, Brett Eldredge, Darci Lynne Farmer, Martina McBride, Pentatonix, and Kellie Pickler. What to know about the tree This years Christmas tree is a 75-year-old Norway Spruce tree named Shelby. The tree, which is 72 feet tall, came from Wallkill, New York, and was donated by Shirley Figeuroa and Lissette Gutierrez. 12 Best Christmas Trees 2015 Show all 10 1 /10 12 Best Christmas Trees 2015 12 Best Christmas Trees 2015 12 Best Christmas Trees 2015 12 Best Christmas Trees 2015 12 Best Christmas Trees 2015 12 Best Christmas Trees 2015 12 Best Christmas Trees 2015 12 Best Christmas Trees 2015 12 Best Christmas Trees 2015 12 Best Christmas Trees 2015 12 Best Christmas Trees 2015 During the holiday season, the tree will be lit every day from 5.30am to 11.30pm until January 6. On Christmas Day, the tree will be ablaze for 24 hours. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events After January 7, the last day visitors can see the tree in Rockefeller Centre, the tree will be donated to Habitat for Humanity. The Government released its long-awaited Brexit economic scenarios on Wednesday. This comes after other scenarios from the National Institute for Economic and Social Research (Niesr) and the UK in Changing Europe think tank earlier this week. What do they all show? Why are they different? And what is the overriding message about the economic consequences of Brexit? What does the Governments exercise show? It suggests that the Brexit (broadly) embodied in Theresa Mays preferred Brexit deal and the Governments plans to cut back migration from Europe would knock 3.9 per cent hit off UK GDP, relative to staying in the EU, over the next 15 years. There would, under the Governments modelling exercise, be a small boost to UK GDP from new trade deals. Yet these gains would be more than offset by the economic costs of new trade barriers with the EU and a hit from lower net migration. A no-deal Brexit, on the other hand, where we merely trade with the European Union on bare World Trade Organisation rules is seen knocking 9.3 per cent off the UKs GDP over the same period. A simple Canada-style free trade deal is also negative, seen as holding back GDP growth by 6.7 per cent. What do the other forecasts show? Niesrs exercise pointed to a 3.9 per cent hit to the UKs GDP by 2030 from Theresa Mays Brexit deal, bang in line with the Governments. It also saw a hit to growth from the no deal scenario of 5.5 per cent over that time, which is less damaging than the Governments estimate. Economists from the UK in Changing Europe projected a 5.5 per cent hit to GDP per capita (the size of the economy divided by the size of the population) from Theresa Mays Brexit by 2030. This is higher than the 1.2 to 2.7 per cent hit to GDP per capita indicated by the Governments analysis. Why are they different? All three exercises used different modelling techniques and assumptions. The Government and the UK in Changing Europe both used Computable General Equilibrium models, but different varieties. Niesr used its NiGEM model, which is less strict on microfounding the behaviour of economic agents. The input assumptions were different too. The Governments exercise modelled the Chequers White Paper on Brexit and then added some assumptions of trade frictions on top, rather than explicitly modelling the Withdrawal Agreement and the Political Declaration. The modellers also had to make judgements about how much new trade friction is implied by Ms Mays somewhat vague proposals. They all stress the inherent uncertainty involved in their estimates. But whats the overall message? It is the opposite to the one implied by Theresa May, who told the Commons on Wednesday that analysis of the impact of leaving the EU does not show we will be poorer. In fact the Governments own analysis does show precisely that. Relative to staying in the EU we will be worse off due to Brexit and this is true even of her favoured deal. And this official analysis is broadly in line with the credible analysis done by independent outside experts. The fact that they all produced similar results despite using different modelling techniques reinforces that message. All the credible modelling evidence suggests that leaving the EU, from an economic perspective, is a damage limitation exercise. There is no upside. For over two years, public debate has been dominated by talk of cliff edges. The cliff edge of no deal, or trading with the EU on World Trade Organisation terms. As the date on which the UK is meant to leave the European Union approaches, and as the terms of the deal negotiated by Theresa May have been released, a raft of new economic forecasts has appeared. We at the UK in a Changing Europe have contributed our own assessment. But what do the forecasts say? And, more importantly, what do they mean? First, the top line results. Our findings are based on considering the impacts of the deal on trade and immigration, and forecasting their effect. Our analysis suggests that the Brexit deal negotiated by the Prime Minister could reduce UK GDP per capita by between 1.9 per cent and 5.5 per cent by 2030, compared to remaining in the EU. The cost to the public finances would be between 0.4 and 1.8 per cent of GDP over the same period, with the corresponding figures for a no-deal Brexit 1 to 3.1 per cent. So far so economicky. But what, exactly, do these figures mean? Well, to get a sense of the scale of the fiscal impact, the deal negotiated by the Prime Minister would reduce tax receipts by some 9bn by 2030 more than the entire budget for GPs in England. And this is the low end of the range. The worst case is a hit of some 37bn almost equivalent to the current entire health and social care budget. And to compare to a recent economic crisis. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has estimated that the impact of the financial crisis on the economy was 300bn over a decade. The equivalent forecast from our study for the withdrawal deal is a range between 40bn and 110bn. This is a large range, obviously, but it does underline that the scale of the hit will be smaller than that inflicted after 2008. But, of course, our economy has been seriously weakened already by the financial crisis, making it less resilient to another shock. The next question, then, is how the Brexit impact will reveal itself. Which brings us back to cliff edges. The problem with this analogy is that the implications of leaving the European Union will not be felt overnight. Rather, as John Springford has pointed out, they are already being felt, and will continue to be so over time as we actually leave the single market and introduce friction to our trade with our largest and closest trading partner. A better analogy is a slow puncture. For two reasons. First, it can take a while to notice a slow puncture. And, second, it is hard, once it has become apparent, to remember when and where you picked it up. When it comes to the politics of the economic impact, in other words, the simple causal story that Brexit has made us poorer may be harder to tell than many Remainers think not least given the lack of faith in forecasts that was one result of the referendum campaign itself. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Talking of the politics, we could do with a bit more honesty from both big parties about what Brexit might mean. Perhaps the most depressing thing among many competitors at the last election was the way the manifestos seemed to assume that, post-Brexit, it would be business as usual. It wont. The public finances will be even more stretched and the economy will not grow as fast as it would have done. At the very least, some planning for this eventuality would be most welcome. Obviously, economic modelling is not an exact science, and in order to produce the analysis set out in our report, we have had to make a large number of assumptions, some of them subjective. Moreover, economic models provide at best an imperfect map of the world. For example, our model requires us to transform the legal language of the Withdrawal Agreement into assumptions about percentage changes in non-tariff barriers. This is relies on informed judgment more than scientific measurement. Equally, there is insufficient detail in the Withdrawal Agreement to know exactly how the customs backstop would operate or the extent of future regulatory divergence between the UK and the EU. This introduces additional uncertainty into our assumptions. Yet all this notwithstanding and it is important to accept the limitations of this kind of work these findings represent our best judgement about the impact of the deal. That does not mean they will be correctindeed, they almost certainly will be inaccurate to some extent but we would maintain that are our broad conclusions are credible. Brexit will inflict some harm on our economy. Which is not necessarily a compelling case against it. But is something we, and our political leaders, should be honest about. Anand Menon is director and Matt Bevington a policy researcher at The UK in a Changing Europe The UK boss of European plane manufacturer Airbus has said its investments in the UK could be unlocked if Theresa May's deal with Brussels is passed. Katherine Bennett told the Commons Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee that the company has been in a holding pattern with nothing new invested in the UK over the past year. Asked if this strategy is likely to continue during a transition period following the UK's withdrawal from the EU, Ms Bennett replied: What we said was that if there is a chaotic Brexit or no deal, that is why our investments were put on hold. If the withdrawal agreement is successful in some form or another, then Airbus would consider continuing to invest as the company has done over many years. We have great capability ... but obviously because of the uncertainty, which we want to see reversed, that is why investments have been put on hold. Ms Bennett described the agreement as a welcome first step amid Airbus's concerns about uncertainty and a lack of clarity. She said there are a lot of benefits in the agreement but noted that some of the customs issues etc are quite complicated. Paul Everitt, chief executive of ADS Group, which represents the UK aerospace, defence and space sectors, told the committee the withdrawal agreement definitely doesn't take us back to business as usual. He continued: For us it's not as good as it is today and it won't ever be as good as it is today. But it is an awful lot better than the chaos that we would see leaving the EU without a deal. PA The catastrophic impact of a no-deal Brexit on the UKs car industry has been laid out in a new survey which found that three quarters of companies in the sector fear a no-deal Brexit will hurt them. Less than 7 per cent said leaving the EU with no agreement in March would be beneficial. The figures emerged on Tuesday as deepening political divisions looked to have scuppered the prime ministers doomed Brexit deal. More than half of companies polled by the Society of Motoring Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) have begun executing their Brexit contingency plans with 12.4 per cent saying they are relocating operations overseas. Fully 55 per cent of firms say they have already been negatively affected with close to a third having postponed or cancelled UK investment decisions while one in five have lost business. Almost seven in 10 respondents predicted that their profitability would be negatively affected by a no-deal scenario and 53.9 per cent saying they will be less likely to win new overseas business. Half said no deal would make it harder for them to maintain their existing staff. Leaving without a deal would be catastrophic plants will close; jobs will be lost, said SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes. He added that the transitional period included in Ms Mays proposed deal was "crucial" because it allows the industry to step back from the cliff edge. We need a deal now, and we need an ambitious deal for the future that guarantees frictionless trade with our most important market nothing else will do, and we urge all parties to remember whats at stake. The latest warning from car manufacturers comes as Ms Mays Brexit deal was denounced as the worst of all worlds by Sir Michael Fallon, once considered one of the prime ministers closest allies. The former defence minister said he would not vote for the doomed deal in a Commons showdown next month. Crashing out of the EU without an agreement puts the future of one of Britains most successful sectors in doubt. Annual car production has risen by a third to 1.67 million since 2010 with 80 per cent of those vehicles destined for export, the majority of them going to the Continent. The industry now employs 856,000 people but it depends heavily on parts crossing the border without checks or delays. No deal is not an option, said Tony Walker, Toyota Managing Director and SMMT president. In the short term, crashing out of the EU would have immediate and devastating impacts, with border chaos disrupting the Just in Time basis on which our business depends. Disruption could last for weeks even months. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Some MPs have attempted to play down the impact that leaving without a deal would have, pointing to the option of trading under World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules. But Mr Walker said it was "unimaginable" that car manufacturers could implement WTO import and export procedures overnight. He added: For the longer term, a no-deal Brexit would harm our competitiveness, undermine sales and cost jobs We need the certainty of a deal, not more uncertainty, and we need the smooth transition period based on current trading conditions It is vital we have free and frictionless trade with common technical standards. Without these, we risk losing all we have achieved in building a world-class automotive sector. As World Aids Day marks its 30th anniversary, it is worth examining the scale of a global epidemic that has killed 35.4 million people since the early 1980s. The CIA World Factbook lists Swaziland, Lesotho, Botswana, South Africa and Namibia as the countries worst affected by HIV at present, with 27.2 per cent of the population carrying the disease in Swaziland. Despite advances in medical treatment since Aids was first identified, 940,000 people died from related illnesses in 2017, according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). This nevertheless represents a 51 per cent drop from its peak of 1.9 million in 2004. As of 2017, there are currently 36.9 million people living with HIV around the world, 1.8 million of whom are children aged under 15 and another 1.8 million who are newly infected. Of that total, only 21.7 million are currently accessing antiretroviral therapy but that is up by eight million since 2010, an indication that awareness is growing and people are more proactively getting themselves tested and seeking help. Recommended Everything you need to know about World Aids Day 2018 New HIV infections have dropped by 16 per cent since 2010 and 47 per cent since the peak of the crisis in 1996, when 3.4 million people globally were diagnosed. UNAIDS's findings identify men who have sex with other men as the group most likely to contract HIV, being 27 times more vulnerable than average. People who take drugs via a hypodermic needle are 23 times more likely to catch it and female sex workers 13 times more likely. Here's the full international breakdown of the international HIV/Aids picture by region: Eastern and South Africa People living with HIV: 19.6 million New infections: 800,000 Aids-related deaths: 380,000 People accessing treatment: 12.9 million Asia Pacific People living with HIV: 5.2 million New infections: 280,000 Aids-related deaths: 170,000 People accessing treatment: 2.7 million Western and Central Africa People living with HIV: 6.1 million New infections: 370,000 Aids-related deaths: 280,000 People accessing treatment: 2.4 million Latin America People living with HIV: 1.8 million New infections: 100,000 Aids-related deaths: 37,000 People accessing treatment: 1.1 million The Caribbean People living with HIV: 310,000 New infections: 15,000 Aids-related deaths: 10,000 People accessing treatment: 181,000 World Aids Day 2017: in pictures Show all 18 1 /18 World Aids Day 2017: in pictures World Aids Day 2017: in pictures World Aids Day - UK Prince Harry and Meghan Markle take part in a discussion with HIV consultant doctor Laura Waters during their visit to the Terrence Higgins Trust World AIDS Day charity fair Getty Images World Aids Day 2017: in pictures World Aids Day - Brazil Red balloons are released to mark the World AIDS Day in Sao Paulo REUTERS World Aids Day 2017: in pictures World Aids Day - France A nurse takes blood for a HIV test for French President Emmanuel Macron as he visits the Delafontaine Hospital Reuters World Aids Day 2017: in pictures World Aids Day - India A student displays his face and hand painted with messages in Chandigarh, India REUTERS World Aids Day 2017: in pictures World Aids Day - UK Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrive at the Nottingham Contemporary to attend a Terrence Higgins Trust World AIDS Day charity fair, on their first official engagement together. PA World Aids Day 2017: in pictures World Aids Day - South Africa Members of the 21 South African Infantry Battalion march to mark the World AIDS Day in Soweto AP World Aids Day 2017: in pictures World Aids Day - India A childhas their face painted to spread awareness about HIV/AIDS on World AIDS day in Jammu Rex Features World Aids Day 2017: in pictures World Aids Day - Kenya Free HIV testing booths are installed during the World AIDS Day event at University of Nairobi AFP/Getty Images World Aids Day 2017: in pictures World Aids Day - China Students use candles to form a large ribbon at a primary school in China REUTERS World Aids Day 2017: in pictures World Aids Day - India Commuters walk past a message on the World AIDS Day near Howrah Bridge, on the bank of river Ganges in Calcutta EPA World Aids Day 2017: in pictures World Aids Day - India An volunteer lights candles placed on the ground in the shape of a red ribbon during an awareness rally on the eve of World Aids Day in Agartala AFP/Getty Images World Aids Day 2017: in pictures World Aids Day - China Students of Yangzhou University Medical College standing in the shape of a red ribbon VCG via Getty Images World Aids Day 2017: in pictures World Aids Day - China Students hold red ribbons at a high school in Hefei, Anhui province, China REUTERS World Aids Day 2017: in pictures World Aids Day - Mexico The "Diana La Cazadora" monument is illuminated in red on the eve of World Aids Day in Mexico City AFP/Getty Images World Aids Day 2017: in pictures World Aids Day - India Sand art on the Bay of Bengal Sea's eastern coast beach at Puri. Sand artist Sudarshan Patnaik created the piece on the eve of World AIDs Day . Rex Features World Aids Day 2017: in pictures World Aids Day - India People hold candles around a ribbon during a ceremony to create awareness about HIV/AIDS in Ahmedabad, India REUTERS World Aids Day 2017: in pictures World Aids Day - Ukraine A woman has a HIV/AIDS blood test in a mobile laboratory in Ukraine AP World Aids Day 2017: in pictures World Aids Day - China The two towers of the Global Harbor shopping mall in Shaghai are illuminated with huge red ribbons Rex Features Middle East and North Africa People living with HIV: 220,000 New infections: 18,000 Aids-related deaths: 9,800 People accessing treatment: 63,200 Eastern Europe and Central Asia People living with HIV: 1.4 million New infections: 130,000 Aids-related deaths: 34,000 People accessing treatment: 520,000 Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Western Europe and North America Why we should all use Instagram on holiday Cathy Adams It all started on 3 January 2012. That was the date of my first ever Instagram upload. It was of a saucer of tea in some dingy burlesque club near Chancery Lane. It got zero likes probably because who drinks tea at a burlesque club? Things got better from there. Harry Leslie Smith was the much-loved political commentator who counted the leading lights of the Labour Party among his fans not least Jeremy Corbyn. Smith, who has died aged 95, came to prominence after earning a standing ovation, and moving many delegates to tears, at the Labour Party conference of 2014. He recounted the story of his sister Marion who died of tuberculosis aged 10 because his parents had no access to healthcare. Her body was dumped in an unmarked paupers pit, he said. Mr Cameron, he added, keep your mitts off my NHS. Smith drew on his experiences of the Second World War he was stationed with allied forces in Hamburg to highlight the plight of refugees, raising more than 55,000 through his GoFundMe page for the Harrys Last Stand Refugee Tour. In 2016 he visited the Jungle in Calais and was keen to visit other refugee camps around the world. Remarkably, it was in his eighties that he decided to take the path that would make him a celebrated left-wing pundit. In 2008, spurred on by the financial crisis which animated memories of the Great Depression and fears of a return to Dickensian poverty, he made it his mission to act as a conduit to the past a living bridge as he put it. Smith at the Labour conference in Manchester in 2014 where his speech moved many to tears (Getty) Smith was born in Barnsley, Yorkshire, to Albert Smith and his mother Lillian Dean in 1923. Albert was an unemployed coal miner who would seek shifts at the local Weetabix factory. Sometimes he sent Harry their alone to come back with bars of the cereal which they would have with water instead of milk. The working class, he said, had been reduced to beggary. The writer and broadcaster connected with a young audience (Rex) My family were nomads. We flitted from one dosshouse to the next, trying to keep ahead of the rent collector, he once wrote. Eventually his mother left his dad for another man. At the age of 10 Harry was delivering coal, and in his teens he worked as a grocers assistant. His clarion call to young people was expressed in a series of memoirs, culminating in last years prophetically titled cri de coeur, Dont Let My Past Be Your Future. Keeping an impossibly busy schedule for someone of his age, he appeared on The Russell Howard Hour last year to implore young people to get together, form groups, join anything that lets you discuss whats happening today in order to save the NHS and the welfare system. With Andy Burnham at Labour conference in 2014 (Getty) This world of media engagements was far removed from the decades in which he ran a business importing carpets in Belleville, Ontario he moved to Canada in 1953 with his wife (nee Elfriede Edelmann) who faced prejudice as a Jerry or a Nazi in England, where with functional literacy they both had attended night school. Theirs was a forbidden love in pursuing it he showed a dogged spirit that would serve him in campaigning decades later. As British soldiers, he told a newspaper in 2016, We couldnt walk or talk with any German girl or any German. But I used to wander the streets when I was off duty. Thats when I saw this girl. Full of beer, he asked her out. I felt she was my destiny. Unable to speak each others language, the couple communicated using hand gestures and a small German-English dictionary Smith had. Friede, however, was not convinced their love affair would work with all the restrictions on fraternisation so Smith sought the permission of no less than the mayor of Hamburg. Harry and Friede on their wedding day in 1947 (HLS) Shortly after they were married on 16 August 1947 and he was excommunicated from the Catholic Church he was devastated to learn that the RAF wanted to relocate him to Manchester. His reluctance to return to the country of his birth, which he associated with hard times, was replaced by dread. Apart from England being a land abundant in rain, shoddy housing, limited opportunities and soot he would lose his status as part of a conquering army in Hamburg. Sure enough at RAF Ringway in the UK, military life left him disillusioned tasks he performed included days of smashing up disused transistor radios: what was essential during the war was expendable now. Harry and Fried in a Manchester nightclub (HLS) To add to his woes, his other sister Alberta Mary Smith who lived in Halifax was not too welcoming of the filthy European he had married. You are welcome in my house, even if you wed a German, she wrote. But itll cost you 10 shillings a week plus your food. RAF officers had no more sympathy for his efforts to bring the Jerry he had married to the UK. They mocked him for being one of the lefties responsible for the new Attlee government. Smith took it all on the chin for he wanted to use the RAFs leverage to win Friede the permit to leave British-occupied northern Germany. Only then did he break it to his supercilious superiors that he was quitting. He pointed out that he was entitled to do so as he had yet to complete six months of his latest contract by two days. They relented and he was discharged. Everything was done with as much emotion as if they were shipping a lorry full of beans back to the factory rather than discharging a human being from their service. The shibboleths of nationhood, whether it was the military or the royals, were never viewed with rose-tinted goggles by Smith, who in later life sought to use his experiences of an era well beyond the reach of most peoples memory as a weapon. Writing in a newspaper in 2013, Smith sparked outrage when he declared himself a conscientious objector to poppy-wearing. Smith accused politicians of exploiting remembrance to justify our folly in Iraq, our morally dubious war on terror and our elimination of ones right to privacy. He did not welcome the advent of Brexit and Trumps presidency which for Smith marked the beginning of the end of civilisation. He argued that the untrammelled greed of baby boomers was trampling the prospects of young people. Writing for The Independent in June he said: The United States under Donald Trump cages refugee children, pulls out of the UN Council and uses dehumanising terms about other races; doing so has, from Nazi Germany to Rwanda, always been a harbinger of genocide. He also lambasted Conservatives over tuition fees and expressed empathy with young people kept off the housing ladder and facing high rents. His earthy language came in handy on Twitter where he accrued more than 250,000 followers. (He also ran a podcast.) After watching the then health secretary on The Andrew Marr Show last year he tweeted: If a dogs arse could talk, it would sound like Jeremy Hunt. Ever keen to scold the far right and never one to mince his words in May he tweeted: Lets be clear if you support #TommyRobinson you dont respect me, my generation, Great Britain, yourself or anything decent. What you respect is hate and ignorance. And you as a human being are better than that and if youre not well then youre just shit on the pavement. He is survived by his sons Michael and John. I am no historian, he once said, but I am history. Harry Leslie Smith, writer and political activist, born 25 February 1923, died 28 November 2018 A controversial baby gene-editing programme in China has been halted following both domestic and international outcry over the procedure. The Chinese scientist responsible for the programme found himself at the centre of an ethics debate over what he claims are the world's first genetically edited babies. He Jiankui, an associate professor at Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China, had used gene-editing technology known as CRISPR-Cas9 to alter the embryonic genes of twin girls born this month. The process allows scientists to essentially cut and paste DNA, raising hope of genetic fixes for disease and Mr Jiankui said the gene editing would help protect the girls from infection with HIV. 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 Chinese government denounced the work and a hospital linked to his research suggested its ethical approval had been forged. More than 100 scientists, most in China, said in an open letter the use of CRISPR-Cas9 technology to edit the genes of human embryos was dangerous and unjustified. Following the widespread outrage the work has now been stopped. "I must apologise this result was leaked unexpectedly. The clinical trial was paused due to the current situation," he said at the Human Genome Editing Summit at the University of Hong Kong. Mr Jiankui said his work was self-funded and shrugged off concerns that the research was conducted in secrecy, explaining that he had engaged the scientific community over the past three years. He said he practised editing mice, monkey and human embryos in the lab for several years and has applied for patents on his methods. Mr Jiankui initially said he was proud of the work and added that a second volunteer was pregnant. "For this case, I feel proud. I feel proudest," He said, when challenged by several peers at the conference. "This study has been submitted to a scientific journal for review," he said. He did not name the journal and said his university was unaware of his study. Science news in pictures Show all 20 1 /20 Science news in pictures Science news in pictures Pluto has 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen Pluto has a 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen that is doing strange things to its surface, Nasa has found. The mysterious core seems to be the cause of features on its surface that have fascinated scientists since they were spotted by Nasa's New Horizons mission. "Before New Horizons, everyone thought Pluto was going to be a netball - completely flat, almost no diversity," said Tanguy Bertrand, an astrophysicist and planetary scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center and the lead author on the new study. "But it's completely different. It has a lot of different landscapes and we are trying to understand what's going on there." Getty Science news in pictures Over 400 species discovered this year by Natural History Museum The ancient invertabrate worm-like species rhenopyrgus viviani (pictured) is one of over 400 species previously unknown to science that were discovered by experts at the Natural History Museum this year PA Science news in pictures Jackdaws can identify 'dangerous' humans Jackdaws can identify dangerous humans from listening to each others warning calls, scientists say. The highly social birds will also remember that person if they come near their nests again, according to researchers from the University of Exeter. In the study, a person unknown to the wild jackdaws approached their nest. At the same time scientists played a recording of a warning call (threatening) or contact calls (non-threatening). The next time jackdaws saw this same person, the birds that had previously heard the warning call were defensive and returned to their nests more than twice as quickly on average. Getty Science news in pictures Turtle embryos influence sex by shaking The sex of the turtle is determined by the temperatures at which they are incubated. Warm temperatures favour females. But by wiggling around the egg, embryos can find the Goldilocks Zone which means they are able to shield themselves against extreme thermal conditions and produce a balanced sex ratio, according to the new study published in Current Biology journal Ye et al/Current Biology Science news in pictures Elephant poaching rates drop in Africa African elephant poaching rates have dropped by 60 per cent in six years, an international study has found. It is thought the decline could be associated with the ivory trade ban introduced in China in 2017. Reuters Science news in pictures Ancient four-legged whale discovered in Peru Scientists have identified a four-legged creature with webbed feet to be an ancestor of the whale. Fossils unearthed in Peru have led scientists to conclude that the enormous creatures that traverse the planets oceans today are descended from small hoofed ancestors that lived in south Asia 50 million years ago A. Gennari Science news in pictures Animal with transient anus discovered A scientist has stumbled upon a creature with a transient anus that appears only when it is needed, before vanishing completely. Dr Sidney Tamm of the Marine Biological Laboratory could not initially find any trace of an anus on the species. However, as the animal gets full, a pore opens up to dispose of waste Steven G Johnson Science news in pictures Giant bee spotted Feared extinct, the Wallace's Giant bee has been spotted for the first time in nearly 40 years. An international team of conservationists spotted the bee, that is four times the size of a typical honeybee, on an expedition to a group of Indonesian Islands Clay Bolt Science news in pictures New mammal species found inside crocodile Fossilised bones digested by crocodiles have revealed the existence of three new mammal species that roamed the Cayman Islands 300 years ago. The bones belonged to two large rodent species and a small shrew-like animal New Mexico Museum of Natural History Science news in pictures Fabric that changes according to temperature created Scientists at the University of Maryland have created a fabric that adapts to heat, expanding to allow more heat to escape the body when warm and compacting to retain more heat when cold Faye Levine, University of Maryland Science news in pictures Baby mice tears could be used in pest control A study from the University of Tokyo has found that the tears of baby mice cause female mice to be less interested in the sexual advances of males Getty Science news in pictures Final warning to limit "climate catastrophe" The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued a report which projects the impact of a rise in global temperatures of 1.5 degrees Celsius and warns against a higher increase Getty Science news in pictures Nobel prize for evolution chemists The nobel prize for chemistry has been awarded to three chemists working with evolution. Frances Smith is being awarded the prize for her work on directing the evolution of enzymes, while Gregory Winter and George Smith take the prize for their work on phage display of peptides and antibodies Getty/AFP Science news in pictures Nobel prize for laser physicists The nobel prize for physics has been awarded to three physicists working with lasers. Arthur Ashkin (L) was awarded for his "optical tweezers" which use lasers to grab particles, atoms, viruses and other living cells. Donna Strickland and Gerard Mourou were jointly awarded the prize for developing chirped-pulse amplification of lasers Reuters/AP Science news in pictures Discovery of a new species of dinosaur The Ledumahadi Mafube roamed around 200 million years ago in what is now South Africa. Recently discovered by a team of international scientists, it was the largest land animal of its time, weighing 12 tons and standing at 13 feet. In Sesotho, the South African language of the region in which the dinosaur was discovered, its name means "a giant thunderclap at dawn" Viktor Radermacher / SWNS Science news in pictures Birth of a planet Scientists have witnessed the birth of a planet for the first time ever. This spectacular image from the SPHERE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope is the first clear image of a planet caught in the very act of formation around the dwarf star PDS 70. The planet stands clearly out, visible as a bright point to the right of the center of the image, which is blacked out by the coronagraph mask used to block the blinding light of the central star. ESO/A. Muller et al Science news in pictures New human organ discovered that was previously missed by scientists Layers long thought to be dense, connective tissue are actually a series of fluid-filled compartments researchers have termed the interstitium. These compartments are found beneath the skin, as well as lining the gut, lungs, blood vessels and muscles, and join together to form a network supported by a mesh of strong, flexible proteins Getty Science news in pictures Previously unknown society lived in Amazon rainforest before Europeans arrived, say archaeologists Working in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, a team led by archaeologists at the University of Exeter unearthed hundreds of villages hidden in the depths of the rainforest. These excavations included evidence of fortifications and mysterious earthworks called geoglyphs Jose Iriarte Science news in pictures One in 10 people have traces of cocaine or heroin on fingerprints, study finds More than one in 10 people were found to have traces of class A drugs on their fingers by scientists developing a new fingerprint-based drug test. Using sensitive analysis of the chemical composition of sweat, researchers were able to tell the difference between those who had been directly exposed to heroin and cocaine, and those who had encountered it indirectly. Getty Science news in pictures Nasa releases stunning images of Jupiter's great red spot The storm bigger than the Earth, has been swhirling for 350 years. The image's colours have been enhanced after it was sent back to Earth. Pictures by: Tom Momary A leader of an international conference on gene editing said the work showed a failure of self-regulation among scientists. Nobel laureate David Baltimore said the work would "be considered irresponsible" because it did not meet criteria many scientists agreed on several years ago before gene editing could be considered. Mr Baltimore spoke at an international conference in Hong Kong, where the Chinese scientist, Mr Jiankui, made his first public comments since his work was revealed. He added that he did not think it was medically necessary and that the case showed "there has been a failure of self-regulation by the scientific community". Agencies contributed to this report Vegan activists stormed a steakhouse and disrupted diners meals by playing recordings of animals being killed in an effort to convince people to stop eating meat. Around 20 demonstrators chanted: Its not food, its violence, and held placards showing farm animal slaughter to highlight what they called the unsustainable and unethical exploitation and suffering in the meat industry. The protesters, from a network called Direct Action Everywhere, initially entered the Touro Steakhouse in Brighton quietly while customers ate steaks. One activist gave a speech urging customers to question their food choices, saying: No good person could look into the eyes of an animal and think that a meal was more important than their suffering. Most of the customers at the Brazilian-themed restaurant tried to ignore the protest, continuing to talk and eat. But one started jeering the speech, and another mimicked a cow mooing. The protest went on for up 20 minutes as the cow slaughter recordings were played to force diners to listen to the screams. Some of the activists chanted: Theres no excuse for animal abuse. Legality does not equal morality

Direct Action Everywhere spokeswoman

Waiters argued with the demonstrators and urged them to leave, as diners started booing and shouting. Madsu Sudan Galtam, the restaurant manager, said: They didnt do anything aggressive but it was a bit annoying because it disrupted everyone. The police were called but did not come, he added. As the demonstrators left the steakhouse to protest outside, the meat-eaters were heard whistling and chanting back: Youre not singing any more. A spokeswoman for Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) Brighton said: In a time when 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. DxE actions are about disrupting normalised activities that depend on animal exploitation and suffering in a very public and non-violent way. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Human beings in restaurants munching on chopped up bodies is whats really extreme. Legality does not equal morality." The group said the protest was not targeting individuals in the steakhouse but was to promote the message in the wider media. Cant shun China, says foreign minister. New Delhi: India will give immediate assistance of US$ 25 million to the Maldives to ensure budgetary stability of its tiny maritime south-western neighbour, sources said on Tuesday, even as Maldivian foreign minister Abdulla Shahid said his country cant shy away from China, adding that this was the current reality. Emphasising the Maldives India First policy, the Maldivian foreign minister however pointed out that his country had benefited from Chinese generosity for the past 50 years and that the Maldives would continue to engage with China. Nevertheless, after the change of government in the archipelago nation, both India and the Maldives are the closest of friends once again. India will give immediate assistance of US$ 25 million to the Maldives (for budgetary stability). Other aspects of assistance are being worked out, Indian government sources said on Tuesday. New Delhi is also ready to deliver a Dornier maritime surveillance aircraft to the Maldives. It may be recalled that China had undertaken high-profile infrastructure projects in the archipelago nation during the tenure of former president Abdulla Yameen and the Maldives is now reportedly under a huge financial debt to China. The new Maldivian government under President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih is currently examining just how much of foreign debt they owe to China. Meanwhile, at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, Maldivian foreign minister Shahid said, China has been generous to us (Maldives). The country (Maldives) has benefited from the generosity of China for the last 50 years. The Maldives cant shy away from China. This is the current reality. We will continue to engage with China. Mr Shahid is also expected to visit China soon apart from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Japan. The Maldives is, however, reviewing its Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with China. Mr Shahid said the new Maldivian government is reviewing the FTA document. He said the FTA document was pushed through Parliament during Mr. Yameens tenure. Lambasting Mr Yameen whom he said tried to play India against China, Mr Shahid said Mr Yameen thought of himself as a puppet-master and India and China as puppets whom he could control. On the volume of debt owed to China, Mr Shahid said that Mr Yameen had objected to sharing with the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Maldivian Parliament the amount of debt that the Maldives owed to foreign countries. The Maldives is also seeking changes in the currency swap agreement with India for enhancement of reserves beyond US$ 200 million. Asked about the menace of terrorism, Mr Shahid said it was a fact that some Maldivians had been involved in terrorist acts. The Home Office has made no attempt to inform people deported to Commonwealth countries that the Windrush taskforce exists, prompting concerns that people who were wrongly removed do not know they can have their cases looked into. The immigration minister admitted the department had made no specific attempt to inform 49 people confirmed to have been removed to Nigeria and Ghana last year that the Windrush settlement scheme had been established. Caroline Nokes said individuals who believe they qualify under the Windrush criteria could access the relevant information on the government website, saying it was regularly updated with information about how to apply for status. Campaigners said it was ridiculous to expect people who had been wrongly deported to visit the governments website without being notified about it, and accused ministers of having learnt nothing from the Windrush crisis. People from Nigeria and Ghana are among the Commonwealth nationalities that have been caught up in the scandal, which has seen people who were invited from former British colonies to live and work in the UK after the Second World War targeted by immigration enforcement despite living in the country for decades. The Independent recently revealed that nearly half of overseas enquiries to the governments Windrush taskforce are from countries outside the Caribbean, indicating that the immigration issues span beyond the West Indies. Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, who obtained the response from Ms Nokes in a written question, said: It doesnt seem much to ask for the government to tell people theyve kicked out of the country that the Windrush taskforce exists. Ministers know their treatment of the Windrush generation is a national disgrace. That they havent bothered to contact people whove been deported suggests the government hasnt learnt anything from the public backlash against its hostile environment. Windrush campaigner and ex-Labour councillor Patrick Vernon said the response from Ms Nokes showed the Home Office was failing in its commitment to resolve the Windrush issue. After the scandal broke, ministers apologised and pledged to right to wrongs, saying people who have been deported should be given the option of coming back and being recognised as part of the compensation scheme, he said. Theyre not righting the wrongs, and theyre failing in their commitment to resolve the Windrush scandal. Its not just people who have been treated shoddily in the UK. Its people who have been deported or refused entry back into the country. All of them should be treated on equal footing. There might be people out there now who do have the right to be here but dont know. This raises fundamental issues about the lack of commitment and urgency in this scandal. He added: With all due respect, if youre living in a community in the middle of Nigeria, are you going to go onto the UK government website and do a search under Windrush? Lets be real. To expect people to do a search on Google and find the government website link, without being told they should do so, is just ridiculous. Mr Vernon added that while Caribbean leaders had been made very aware of the issues, there had been considerably less effort from the UK government to reach out other Commonwealth countries in Africa, which many people left for Britain in the 1960s. Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Show all 15 1 /15 Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK The ex-troopship 'Empire Windrush' arriving at Tilbury Docks from Jamaica, with 482 Jamaicans on board, emigrating to Britain. Getty Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Jamaican immigrants being welcomed by RAF officials from the Colonial Office after the ex-troopship 'Empire Windrush' landed them at Tilbury. PA Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Alford Gardner who arrived in Britain in 1948 on the first Windrush ship to dock in Tilbury, Essex, speaking at his home in Leeds PA Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Alford Gardner in Leeds shortly after he arrived in Britain in 1948 on the first Windrush ship to dock in Tilbury, Essex PA Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Gardner was 22 years old when he boarded the ship in Kingston, Jamaica, with his brother Gladstone before they and hundreds of Caribbean migrants called on to rebuild post-war Britain disembarked the ship in Tilbury Docks PA Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Alford Gardner (right), during his RAF service in 1947 PA Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK The son of Ruth Williams, a Windrush-generation immigrant, wants to the leave the country after threats of deportation. According to his mother, Mr Haynes applied for British citizenship in 2016 but was rejected, despite Ms Williams having lived in the UK almost permanently since arriving from St Vincent and the Grenadines in 1959. Ruth Williams, 75, said she felt "betrayed" by Britain after the Home Office twice turned down applications for her 35-year-old son, Mozi Haynes, to remain in the country. Ms Williams is understood to have cancer and said she relies heavily on her son for support. PA Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK The British liner 'Empire Windrush' at port in 1954. Getty Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Ruth Williams, 75, with her British passport. "I feel betrayed and a second class citizen in my own country," she said. "This makes me so sad and the Home Office must show some compassion. "I am unwell and almost 75, I live on my own and I need my son to stay here. I need my family around me and I cant face being alone. He has applied to the Home Office and been refused twice." PA Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK From the top, hopeful Jamaican boxers Charles Smith, Ten Ansel, Essi Reid, John Hazel, Boy Solas and manager Mortimer Martin arrive at Tilbury on the Empire Windrush in the hope of finding work in Britain. Getty Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Jamaicans reading a newspaper whilst on board the ex-troopship 'Empire Windrush' bound for Tilbury docks in Essex. Getty Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK After half a century in Britain, Anthony Bryan decided it was time to go abroad. But the decision set off a nightmare that saw him lose his job, detained twice and almost deported to Jamaica. AFP/Getty Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Jamaica-born Anthony Bryan poses outside his home in Edmonton, north London. Now 60 and a grandfather, Bryan thought the issue could be resolved swiftly, as he legally moved to Britain with his family as part of the Windrush generation of Caribbean migrants after World War II. In 1948, the ship Windrush brought the first group of migrants from the West Indies to help rebuild post-war Britain, and many others followed from around the Commonwealth. A 1971 law gave them indefinite leave to remain, but many never formalised their status, often because they were children who came over on their parents' passports and then never applied for their own. AFP/Getty Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Three Jamaican immigrants (left to right) John Hazel, a 21-year-old boxer, Harold Wilmot, 32, and John Richards, a 22-year-old carpenter, arriving at Tilbury on board the ex-troopship 'Empire Windrush', smartly dressed in zoot suits and trilby hats. Getty Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK Newly arrived Jamaican immigrants on board the 'Empire Windrush' at Tilbury in 1948. Getty Although the focus has been on the Caribbean, this is about black migration and other migrants from different parts of the former colonies who came here decades ago, he said. Theyve defined the issue very narrowly around the Caribbean community, and by doing that theyre creating a divide-and-rule scenario whereby they say the Windrush scandal is only Caribbean-related. A Home Office spokesperson said: Any individual who believes they are protected under the provisions of the 1971 Immigration Act is able to contact the Windrush taskforce, who will help to identify their current status. Close Jeremy Corbyn: 'It's not hard to be the best deal if its the only deal. It's also the worst deal' Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn clashed at Prime Minister's Questions just minutes after the government published its economic analysis of the proposed Brexit deal. The forecasts suggested the UK economy would be 3.9 per cent smaller under Ms May's plan than it would if the country remained in the EU. However, the prime minister denied her plan would make Britain poorer, insisting the economic analysis "does not show that we will be poorer than the status quo". Later in the day, separate analysis from the Bank of England said the pound would crash, inflation would soar and interest rates would have to rise if Britain crashes out of the EU without a deal. A disorderly Brexit could see the economy shrink by more than 10 per cent compared to current trends, it said. Ms May has embarked on a two-week campaign to persuade the country to back her plan, before it is put to the Commons on 11 December. But she faced a fresh row after ministers confirmed they were planning to ignore a Commons vote demanding they publish the full legal advice they have receive on Brexit. Instead, only a summary will be released. John Bercow, the Commons Speaker, said he was willing to consider whether a contempt of Parliament had been committed and encouraged Sir Keir Starmer, Labour's shadow Brexit secretary, to write to him about the matter. As it happened... Please allow a moment for the live blog to load Can MPs amend the motion to make ratification conditional on a new referendum? The motion that will be voted on will be classed as substantive, meaning that it can in theory be amended. Despite a row over when amendments might be made, the government has now conceded that alterations to the motion can be suggested before it is voted on. This is significant because it means that MPs may tag conditions on to the motion, that if it is passed it requires a referendum to be held, for example, or if it is not passed, that the UK enters a Norway-style relationship with the EU as a backup. There is a catch however, while the substantive motion itself is legally binding on the government, the amendments are not, so theoretically the government could ignore them once the main motion is passed. Politically the consequences of doing this could be catastrophic however. Exactly, which amendments are chosen to be voted on by MPs and the order in which they are voted on could come down to a decision of the Commons Speaker John Bercow. More voters would opt to stay in the European Union if there was a fresh referendum than accept Theresa Mays Brexit deal, a new poll shows. As the prime minister steps up efforts to sell her blueprint, a survey found that 46 per cent of people would prefer to remain in the bloc compared to 37 per cent who would choose Ms May's deal, if asked to pick in a new public vote. The Survation poll, for the Daily Mail, also found that half of voters would opt to stay in the EU compared to 40 per cent who would support a no-deal, if those were the two options on the ballot paper. Some 48 per cent would back offering the people a final say on the prime minister's Brexit deal - which The Independent is campaigning for - while around a third of voters (34 per cent) would oppose a fresh vote, the snap poll on Tuesday found. Voters appear to have shifted towards Ms May's deal, with 37 per cent backing it, compared to 35 per cent opposing it. This compared to 27 per cent backing it and 49 per cent opposing it in a similar poll on November 15, In a boost for the prime minister, some 41 per cent believe MPs should back the deal, while 38 per cent think they should vote it down. It comes as the government was expected to publish stark economic analysis of the prime ministers Brexit deal, as Ms May steps up her efforts to sell the blueprint to the public. Whitehall officials have scrutinised the economic impact of Ms Mays deal and compared it to various scenarios, including staying in the EU or a Canada-style free trade deal - the Brexiteers preferred option. The prime minister is likely to use to findings to persuade MPs to back her plan in a crunch Commons vote in two weeks time, where she is facing defeat at the hands of Tory rebels in both Brexiteer and pro-EU factions. In a blitz of media interviews, Philip Hammond admitted that "in pure economic terms" the UK will be worse off under all possible Brexit outcomes. Asked directly if the UK will be poorer under Mrs May's deal, Mr Hammond said: "The economy will be slightly smaller in the prime minister's preferred version of the future partnership." The chancellor said analysis published today looks at the next 15 years, and shows the impact on the economy will be "very small", insisting it will still grow in that period. But he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I'm the Chancellor so of course I look at the economy as being of overriding importance, but there are other considerations. 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" "And I recognise that many people feel very strongly about the need to leave the European Union to regain control of our fishing waters, to regain control of migration and control of our borders, to have the right to do third-country trade deals. "These are things which have value to people, and it is true that the economy will be very slightly smaller if we do the deal the way the Prime Minister has set out and negotiated, but the impact will be entirely manageable." Asked if the UK would be better off staying in the EU, he agreed that remaining in the single market "purely on the economics" would give the country an advantage. :: Survation interviewed 1030 people aged 18+ living in the UK online on 27 November John McDonnell has suggested a second referendum now seems "inevitable" if MPs reject Theresa May's Brexit deal. In a significant intervention, the shadow chancellor also said Labour would call on the government to "join us" in a public vote if Labour cannot secure a general election - the party's preferred option. Labour's official position is to keep all options on the table, including the prospect of a second referendum, but Jeremy Corbyn has made it clear he disapproves of a new public vote. Mr McDonnell told the BBC: "We want a deal that will protect jobs and the economy. If we can't achieve that - the government can't achieve that - we should have a general election but that's very difficult to do because of the nature of the legislation that David Cameron brought forward. "If that's not possible, we'll be calling upon the government then to join us in a public vote. "It's difficult to judge each stage, but that's the sequence I think that we'll inevitably go through over this period." Asked if it was "inevitable" that there would be another vote, he said: "That's right. Our policy is if we can't get a general election, then the other option which we've kept on the table is a people's vote." Labour MP Stephen Doughty said his comments were very welcome", adding: "It would be good to see this repeated and reinforced as it becomes clearer by the hour that we need a way through this Brexit chaos. "It's clear that it is the will of Labour members and voters across the country. The Independent has launched a campaign for a Final Say referendum on Ms Mays Brexit deal, which has attracted more than a million supporters so far. In a separate interview, Mr McDonnell also said for the first time that staying in the bloc should be one of the alternatives offered to the public in the event of a public vote. He came under fire at the party's annual conference when he said Labour would go for a people's vote if MPs rejected Theresa May's deal but without the option to halt Brexit altogether. Pro-EU MPs were dismayed by his comments, with one MP telling The Independent that denying voters the choice to remain in the EU as "farcical". Mr McDonnell told a Guardian event: "If we cant get a general election, peoples vote is on the table and that might be an option we seize upon." The Labour frontbencher said he would vote to remain in a fresh poll and dismissed the idea of presenting the public with the option to crash out of the EU without a deal. We cant have no deal on the ballot paper, Mr McDonnell 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" Theres an overwhelming majority in parliament against that happening, because of the damage. He said MPs were likely to vote down the prime minister's deal, forcing Ms May to return with a tweaked blueprint that would be rejected as well. Mr McDonnell said: All through that, we will be calling for a general election. Whether and when we put a vote of no confidence down will be a tactical decision. Well want a maximum effect. He said that Labour had been meeting with the SNP, the Lib Dems and Green MP Caroline Lucas to discuss. It emerged at the weekend that Mr McDonnell had met with former Labour spin doctors Alastair Campbell and Tom Baldwin, who are senior figures from the Peoples Vote campaign for a fresh referendum. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events However sources close to Mr McDonnell advised that Labours policy had not changed and that he was still pushing for a general election. Meanwhile, Mr Corbyns spokesman told reporters that Labour would oppose the Brexit deal on offer, adding: If that deal falls our position is that a general election would be the best outcome. If we are unable to get a general election all options would be on the table, including the option of supporting a public vote. Britain will be poorer if MPs back Theresa Mays Brexit deal, Philip Hammond has admitted, as he prepared to publish new official forecasts. In an extraordinary interview, the chancellor acknowledged that remaining in the single market rejected by the prime minister was the best way to secure the countrys economic future. Asked if the fresh analysis would show that leaving the EU would be detrimental, he replied: Yes, you are right in that analysis. Mr Hammond said: Purely from an economic point of view, there will be a cost to leaving the European Union, because there will be impediments to our trade. And, asked if the forecasts would show it was better to stay in the EU, he added: If you look purely at the economy, remaining in the single market would give us an economic advantage, yes. The comments come after Ms May tried to argue the UK could still be better off outside the EU under her withdrawal plans ahead of a landmark vote by MPs on 11 December Chancellor Philip Hammond: Brexit deal has many critics but its the best plan available to protect the economy jobs and businesses Mr Hammond also appeared to acknowledge that parliament would dictate what happened next, if as seems certain the deal is rejected. We will have to look at the parliamentary arithmetic, look at the decision parliament has made and decide what is the best way to proceed, he told BBC Radio 4s Today programme. 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 The prime minister used to insist that rejection of her deal would mean the UK crashing out of the EU with no agreement, but has recently admitted there could be no Brexit at all. The government analysis is expected to say that GDP will be 1-2 per cent lower after 15 years of the prime ministers proposals, compared with Britain staying inside the EU. A Norway-style relationship, remaining in the single market, would deliver a similar economic hit, while a Canada-style free trade deal would swipe about 5 per cent from GDP. The statistics could allow Ms May to argue that her deal offers very similar economic benefits to a Norway-style deal, while ending free movement of EU citizens. They are also expected to show that a no-deal Brexit would leave GDP 7.6 per cent lower equivalent to 150bn over 15 years. In the interview, Mr Hammond argued Ms Mays deal offered other benefits, including control of borders, the ability to sign independent trade deals and fishing rights. And, arguing Ms Mays deal would minimise the economic impact and be entirely manageable, he said: The economy will be slightly smaller in the prime ministers preferred version of the future partnership. The economy will continue to grow throughout that period because of fundamental strengths this is a very modest impact. Refusing to concede that the deal was doomed to defeat, Mr Hammond added: Nobody has yet come up with a better plan this is by far the best way. The chancellor also said Downing Street was right to ignore a Commons motion to publish the full legal advice on the Brexit deal, saying it would be "impossible for the Government to function" if such confidential material was made public. Mr Hammond was speaking after leading Tory Brexiteer Sir Bill Cash backed Labour's call to reveal what attorney general Geoffrey Cox told the cabinet about the legal implications of the draft withdrawal agreement. Saudi Arabias controversial Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman faces the possible wrath of an Argentinian prosecutor as well as the potential cold shoulder from world leaders during a G20 summit in Buenos Aires this week that marks his first foray outside the Arab world after the 2 October murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi allegedly at the hands of agents within his political and security entourage. The prince arrived in Buenos Aires on Wednesday, landing in the city after an official visit to Tunisia, amid calls for his prosecution for war crimes by human rights organisations over his handling of the war in Yemen. Late on Wednesday, Human Rights Watch declared that the Argentinians are moving ahead with a case against him, asking a judge to begin collecting evidence from Saudi and Yemeni sources and the countrys diplomats to render an opinion on his diplomatic status. The 33-year-old crown prince could have cancelled the trip, and it carries some risks. But hes betting his gamble will pay off. Argentina, which suffered through its own long night of brutal dictatorship at the hands of thuggish generals, has a constitutional clause allowing for prosecution of international figures on war crimes charges, though it remains unlikely that Argentinian judges indict him, or that Buenos Aires centre-right government would implement any ruling. G20 summits are generally an opportunity for leaders of the worlds richest, their chief bankers and finance ministers to discuss trade and the management of the global economic system. Last year, Saudi King Salman cancelled his trip to the G20 summit in Hamburg, dispatching his finance minister and another top official instead in the wake of the crisis surrounding the ongoing blockade against Qatar Amid continuing global uproar over the killing and dismemberment of the Saudi journalist, Prince Mohammad too could have easily cancelled dispatching another official in his place. Instead, he arrived a day or two early. The summit may present some awkward moments at the seaside Costa Salguero convention centre, where the event will be held. It will be the first time the prince will confront Justin Trudeau, prime minister of Canada, with which Riyadh cut trade ties over a tweet by Ottawas foreign minister calling attention to human rights abuses in the kingdom, in what was seen as an epic temper tantrum by the young would-be monarch. Recommended Saudi crown prince Mohammad bin Salman a lightning rod of division German chancellor Angela Merkel and the Dutch premier Mark Rutte, who have both suspended weapons sales to Saudi over the Khashoggi killing and the Yemen war, will also be attending the leaders summit, which begins on Friday. The Saudi crown prince is going to be keen to make this trip as an expression of him having weathered the storm following the Khashoggi affair but a real test of that is going to be whether or not world leaders will actually have their pictures taken with him, shaking his hand, said HA Hellyer, senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute and Atlantic Council. Theres still a lot of domestic anger about the Khashoggi affair in a lot of western capitals. As always, huge and raucous demonstrations are planned against the gathering of the world leaders, and protesters will likely invoke Prince Mohammads name and image as a trope to underscore a capitalist system they consider brutal and exploitative. But the prince probably calculate that the prestige of appearing among world leaders in photos and handshakes outweighs the risks of encountering protesters or snubs, or the relatively minuscule possibility of being arrested on charges of war crimes against Yemeni civilians. World leaders at least years G20 summit in Hamburg (Wikimedia Commons) Being photographed shaking hands with world leaders not only solidifies his international stature and quells any doubts about whether hes become a pariah to lawmakers in the US considering punishments against him; it may also subdue any talk of replacing him as heir to the Saudi throne at home. The administration of Donald Trump, who has described Prince Mohammad as the cornerstone of his ill-defined vision to secure a Middle East peace and confront Iran, has already done its part to launder his image. In a widely derided piece that included several inaccuracies, secretary of state Mike Pompeo described critics of the crown prince as appeasers of Iran. Abandoning or downgrading the US-Saudi alliance would also do nothing to push Riyadh in a better direction at home, he wrote in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. The crown prince has moved the country in a reformist direction, from allowing women to drive and attend sporting events, to curbing the religious police and calling for a return to moderate Islam. Hillary Clinton says Trump is part of the coverup in Khashoggi killing during speaking tour Even Turkeys Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has spearheaded the effective campaign of leaks that have kept the Khashoggi matter in world headlines for nearly two months, has insisted hes willing to meet with Prince Mohammad at the summit. The prince has asked Erdogan about the possibility of a meeting in Buenos Aires. Erdogans answer was: Well see, Turkeys foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told the Suddeutsche Zeitung on Monday. Mr Erdogan has all but accused the prince of ordering the killing of Khashoggi, insisting the murder came at the behest of the highest levels of the Saudi government, while absolving King Salman. On Wednesday, more possible evidence tying Prince Mohammad to the murders emerged in a report by the newspaper Milliyet, alleging that the team of killers dispatched from Riyadh initially planned to be killed in two villas in the northwestern Turkish province of Yalova owned by two Saudi businessmen, Mohammad Ahmed al-Fozan and Abdulaziz Ibrahim al-Omary, it described as friends of Prince Mohammad. Mr Erdogan has repeatedly insisted he wont allow Khashoggis killers to get away unscathed. But there are also indications that the Khashoggi affair is falling off Turkeys agenda. A number of conscientious journalists and human rights activists continue to follow up the savage murder, columnist Deniz Zeyrek wrote in the opposition newspaper Sozcu on Tuesday.But at the government level we dont hear the same determination and loud voice of 10 days ago. The Senate has delayed a vote on Donald Trumps pick to lead the nations's Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The move comes amid scenes of high drama on the US-Mexico border where border guards fired tear gas at hundreds of migrants who pushed past Mexican police and ran towards the fence. Yet politicians on Capitol Hill, said the delay was to allow the Senate Homeland Security committee do more due diligence on Ronald Vitiello, following his 15 November confirmation hearing. Senators expressed concerns after receiving a from agency staff, Republican Senator Ron Johnson said. Unions representing ICE employees, said in a letter to the committee, Mr Vitiello "has only been with ICE for a short period of time, and while this letter neither supports nor opposes his nomination to be our director, we are aware of several matters that give us serious concern about him. Mr Vitiello is currently the acting commissioner of the agency, but requires Senate confirmation to assume the role in full. Among the concerns, is Mr Vitiellos social media activity, such as his sharing of images comparing Mr Trump to the cartoon character Dennis the Menace, the Washington Post reported. The tweet, posted on a now-private account, was sent on 4 March 2016 with the text This I can tell you! 100%, accompanying an image of the president and the character making the same impression. Shepard Smith on immigration: 'There is no invasion. No one is coming to get you. There is nothing at all to worry about.' He also came under fire during his confirmation hearing, about a 2015 tweet in which he suggested alternate names for the Democratic Party could be "liberalcratic party or the NeoKlanist party". Mr Vitiello started in his current position in July 2018, just after calls for abolishing ICE were made by several members of congress in light of the controversial family separation policy instituted by the Trump administration. Despite an executive order ending the practice of arresting and detaining parents and guardians in separate facilities from children, during his confirmation hearing Mr Vitiello did not rule out the possibility it could be reinstituted. Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Show all 14 1 /14 Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Immigrant children, many of whom are separated form their parents, are housed in Texas' tent city Reuters Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border A two-year-old Honduran asylum seeker cries as her mother is searched and detained near the US-Mexico border Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Undocumented migrants ride on the top of a freight train referred to as the beast, or La Bestia Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border A cage inside a US Customs and Border Protection detention facility in Texas Reuters Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US Border Patrol Academy All new agents must complete a months-long training course at the New Mexico facility before assuming their posts at Border Patrol stations, mostly along the US-Mexico border Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US-Mexico border fence A group of young men walk along the Mexican side of the US-Mexico border fence in a remote area of the Sonoran Desert Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US-Mexico border fence in the US Man looks through US-Mexico border fence into the US in Tijuana, Mexico Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US-Mexico border fence US Border Patrol agent Sal De Leon stands near a section of the US-Mexico border fence while stopping on patrol on in La Joya, Texas Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US Border Patrol Academy US Border Patrol instructor yells at trainees after their initial arrival to the academy Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Memorial service in Guatemala Families attend a memorial service for two boys who were kidnapped and killed in San Juan Sacatepequez, Guatemala. Crime drives emigration from Guatemala to the United States, as families seek refuge from the danger Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Arrests on the border Undocumented immigrants comfort each other after being caught by Border Patrol agents near the US-Mexico border Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Detention holding facility A boy from Honduras watches a movie at a detention facility run by the US Border Patrol Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Mexican farm workers Mexican migrant workers harvest organic parsley at Grant Family Farms in Wellington, Colorado Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Mexican family in Arizona A Mexican immigrant family sits in the living room of their rented home in Tuscon, Arizona. The family that Arizona's new tough immigrant law had created a climate of fear in the immigrant community. Getty Well get less people bringing their children, he said, adding: It is an option. The administration had floated the idea of giving migrant families who are seeking asylum 20 days to make the choice between staying in detention with their children until deportation hearing or letting their children be kept in a separate facility so relatives already in the US can come claim custody of them. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events During the hearing, Mr Vitiello did note the administration was not prepared for the near-universal outcry over family separation. He said they never contemplated on having the systems work backwards. Nobody in the discussions that I was involved in were contemplating that these people would be separated forever. Wed like to be in a place where lots of people didnt bring their kids to the border and try to cross illegally, but thats the situation were faced with now, he added. There is no date yet set for the confirmation vote. The US Senate has voted to debate ending US support for the Saudi-led coalition's war in Yemen, amid growing resistance to the conflict. After a behind-closed-doors update from Mike Pompeo and James Mattis, in which disappointment was the common theme, the Senate passed a resolution 63-37 to begin officially debating the matter on the floor. A number of senators sought the vote, over US support for the war against Houthi rebels in Yemen as part of a pushback against Donald Trump's stance. At least 10,000 civilians have died in the conflict, which began in 2015. A new poll shows the majority of Americans oppose US support for the war. The murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October has sparked outrage around the world and piled pressure onto Riyadh's royal family. But Mr Trump has dismissed a reported CIA assessment that is said to assert with "high confidence" that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is linked to the killing of Khashoggi. Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican who is often strongly allied with Mr Trump, voted to move forward with the resolution and said he would insist on a briefing from CIA director Gina Haspel. He even threatened to withhold his vote on key measures if that did not happen and declared: "I'm not going to blow past this." If you don't draw the line here, where do you draw the line?" he added. Recommended Saudi agent spoke of hiding Khashoggi remains say prosecutors Saudi officials have repeatedly denied that Crown Prince Mohammed is connected in any way to the murder, which Riyadh's public prosecutor has blamed on a "rogue" squad of kidnappers looking to take Mr Khashoggi - a critic of the royal family - back to Saudi Arabia. I am not going to be denied the ability to be briefed by the CIA, that we have oversight of, about whether or not their assessment supports my belief that this could not have happened without MbS knowing, Senator Graham told reporters, using a shorthand for the Saudi crown prince's initials. Secretary of State Pompeo stuck close to Mr Trump in speaking to reporters after the behind-closed-doors Senate briefing. There is no direct reporting connecting the crown prince to the order to murder Jamal Khashoggi, Mr Pompeo said, after he and Defence Secretary Mattis told senators that weakening US-Saudi ties over the killing would be a threat to national security. Mr Trump has said that he does not want to risk millions of dollars in arms deals with Saudi Arabia over the killing, and has said that the CIA's assessment is not a conclusive view on the matter. National Security advisor John Bolton hasn't listened to Khashoggi tape: 'Unless you speak Arabic what are you gonna get from it?' "Whether he did or whether he didnt, he denies it vehemently. His father denies, the king, vehemently," Mr Trump said recently. The CIA doesnt 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 didnt," he said. Senators are clear that they want to hear CIA officials views on the killing before a decision is made on a full US response to Mr Khashoggi's 2 October murder, being particularly angry that neither CIA Director Gina Haspel or Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats were present. MbS has not taken ownership of the death, Senator Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said after the briefing. Children suffering from acute malnutrition in Yemen Show all 17 1 /17 Children suffering from acute malnutrition in Yemen Children suffering from acute malnutrition in Yemen Doctors take some blood of Yemeni Yousef Abdullah Bakhit Ali, 13, suffering from severe acute malnutrition. With ongoing and unending conflict in Yemen, humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate across the country Unicef/Huwais Children suffering from acute malnutrition in Yemen A doctor weighs Yemeni baby Yahya Hamoud Ali Al Huzef, 9 months suffering from malnutrition Unicef/Huwais Children suffering from acute malnutrition in Yemen Ali Mohammed Ahmed Jamal,12 years old and suffering from severe acute malnutrition. He arrives with his family at a Unicef supported treatment centre in a hospital in Sanaa Unicef/Huwais Children suffering from acute malnutrition in Yemen A doctor measures the arm of Yemeni Ali Mohammed Ahmed Jamal, 12, who is suffering from malnutrition at a treatment centre in a hospital in Sanaa Unicef/Huwais Children suffering from acute malnutrition in Yemen There are over 400,000 severely malnourished children in need urgent lifesaving assistance in Yemen Unicef/Abdulhaleem Children suffering from acute malnutrition in Yemen Ali Mohammed Ahmed Jamal is weighed Unicef/Huwais Children suffering from acute malnutrition in Yemen A doctor measures the arm of baby Yahya Hamoud Ali Al Huzef Unicef/Huwais Children suffering from acute malnutrition in Yemen Unicef are currently working to reach 275,000 malnourished children with critical life-saving supplies and care for over 5 million people with safe and clean water to stop the spread of life-threatening diseases Unicef/Huwais Children suffering from acute malnutrition in Yemen Yahya Hamoud Ali Al Huzef with his family in his house in the outskirts of the capital Sanaa Unicef/Huwais Children suffering from acute malnutrition in Yemen The country is on the brink of famine and children's chances of survival are becoming slimmer by the day Unicef/Abdulhaleem Children suffering from acute malnutrition in Yemen Ali Mohammed Ahmed Jamal has his arm measured Unicef/Huwais Children suffering from acute malnutrition in Yemen Unicef are currently working to provide nearly 1 million children with vaccines and healthcare Unicef/Huwais Children suffering from acute malnutrition in Yemen Unicef/Huwais Children suffering from acute malnutrition in Yemen Unicef are working with partners around-the clock to save children suffering from malnutrition and disease Unicef/Abdulhaleem Children suffering from acute malnutrition in Yemen Unicef are currently working to provide 9 million people with emergency cash assistance to help families buy basic commodities so they can survive Unicef/Huwais Children suffering from acute malnutrition in Yemen Ali Mohammed Ahmed Jamal is suffering from malnutrition Unicef Children suffering from acute malnutrition in Yemen Unicef/Abdulhaleem Addressing the possibility of a full Senate vote on ending US support for the war in Yemen, where millions are facing famine, Mr Pompeo argued the humanitarian crisis would be a hell of a lot worse" without US involvement. Mr Pompeo argued all we would achieve from an American drawdown is a stronger Iran and a reinvigorated Isis and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) before adding: Try defending that outcome back home. Mr Mattis made the point the US is "seldom free to work with unblemished partners," according to an excerpt of his statement released by the Pentagon. Long-standing relationships guide but do not blind us. Saudi Arabia, due to geography and the Iranian threat, is fundamental to maintaining regional and Israeli security, and to our interest in Mid-East stability," he said. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, in a rare moment of publicly disagreeing with the president, said there has to be some kind of response from the US on the matter. Khashoggi worked for The Washington Post and was a green card holder for several years. He was a fierce advocate for amplifying regular Arab voices and wrote often about freedom of speech. "What obviously happened, as basically certified by the CIA, is completely abhorrent to everything the United States holds dear and stands for in the world," Mr McConnell said. "We're discussing what the appropriate response would be, he noted. The resolution to end American involvement in the Yemeni conflict was brought by Senators Bernie Sanders and Republican Mike Lee earlier in the year but initially fell short by just six votes. Our support for the Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen has created a humanitarian crisis. Call your Senators and tell them to support S.J. Res. 54, my bill with @SenSanders and @SenMikeLee to end U.S. involvement in the war in Yemen. pic.twitter.com/VDTHONaEpJ Mr Trump may meet with Crown Prince Mohammed at the upcoming G20 meeting and has said he may discuss Mr Khashoggi's death. The Republican senator for Mississippi has been re-elected following a bitterly divisive runoff which evoked the states history of racist violence. Cindy Hyde-Smith survived the controversy caused by her racially charged comments to defeat Democrat Mike Espy, who had hoped to become the states first African-American senator for more than 130 years. Ms Hyde-Smith, first appointed to the seat in April, had initially been comfortable favourite to win the race until footage emerged of her saying about a supporter at an 11 November rally: If he invited me to a public hanging, Id be on the front row. The comment provoked anger in a state where hundreds of people black people were lynched between the American Civil War and 1968. Ms Hyde-Smith said the remark had been an exaggerated expression of regard for a fellow cattle rancher. During a televised debate nine days after the video was publicised, she apologised to anyone that was offended by my comments but also claimed the remark was being used as a weapon against her. The Republican prompted further controversy when she was caught on video saying it was a great idea to make it harder for liberal folks to vote, a remark she later dismissed as a joke. Moment Republican senator says it's a 'great idea' to make it harder 'for liberal folks to vote' Some corporate donors, including Walmart, requested refunds on their campaign contributions to Ms Hyde-Smith after the controversial videos surfaced. Bubbling racial tensions burst to the fore this week when nooses were found hanging on trees in Mississippi. They were accompanied by signs reading: Were hanging nooses to remind people that times havent changed. Speaking after her win, Ms Hyde-Smith insisted she would fight for everyone in the state when she goes to Washington. The 59-year-old told supporters: I want everybody to know, no matter who you voted for today, Im going to always represent every Mississippian. I will work very hard and do my very best to make Mississippi very proud. 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 Shortly after the win on Tuesday, Donald 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! The Republican inherited the seat in April after long-time predecessor Thad Cochran retired amid health concerns. Ms Hyde-Smiths election makes her the first woman to be voted into the Senate in Mississippi. Addressing his supporters following his defeat, Mr Espy, 64, 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 organisation our state has seen in a generation. The candidates were forced to contest the runoff after neither polled 50 per cent of the vote in the midterm elections earlier this month. The prime contest is likely to be between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition Congress in 190-odd seats. Chief electoral officer V Kantha Rao said voting will begin at 8 am and end at 5 pm. (Photo: ANI | Twitter) Bhopal: Over 5 crore voters will vote to elect legislators for the 230-seats strong Madhya Pradesh Assembly on Wednesday. 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. 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 seats are likely to witness the presence of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the Samajawadi Party (SP), the Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP), the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) besides those contesting independently. Chief electoral officer V Kantha Rao said voting will begin at 8 am and end at 5 pm. Here are LIVE updates: 18:15 pm: 74.61 per cent voter turnout recorded till 6 pm in Madhya Pradesh. Voting is still underway. 03:20 pm: 50 per cent voter turnout recorded till 3 pm. 02:45 pm: 34.99 per cent voting recorded till 2 pm 01:42 pm: Kamal Nath, Congress on showing his election symbol after casting his vote in Chhindwara said, I had already cast my vote. When the media asked me whom I have voted for, I showed this (palm). What else should I have done? Show a lotus? (Photo: ANI/Twitter) 12:20 pm: 21 per cent voting recorded till 11 am, reported ANI. 12:10 pm: "There have been many complaints of EVM's malfunctioning, have written to Election Commission. We have written to the Election Commission and requested that voting time in these polling booths should be extended to compensate for the delay," said Jyotiraditya Scindia. 11:25 am: 6.32 per cent voting recorded till 9 am, reported PTI. 11:20 am: BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya on his way on a horse chariot to cast his vote in Indore. (Photo: ANI/Twitter) 11:04 am: "I assure you that on 11th December, Congress will form the government with the blessings of the people," said Jyotiraditya Scindia after casting his vote at a polling booth in Gwalior. (Photo: ANI/Twitter) 10:35 am: One Election Commission official in Guna, and two in Indore have passed away due to cardiac arrest. Election Commission announced Rs 10 lakh each compensation for the kin of the EC officials who passed away while on election duty. 10:10 am: A 101-year-old woman after casting her vote in Agar Malwa. (Photo: ANI/Twitter) 09:48 am: Police seizes campaign material from BJP's polling agents from a polling booth in Saint Mary's, Bhopal as it was within 200 meters of a polling booth. One person was taken to custody. Police seizes campaign material from BJP's polling agents from a polling booth in Saint Mary's, Bhopal as it was within 200 meters of a polling booth. One person taken to custody. #MadhyaPradeshElections2018 pic.twitter.com/EvqxqyW4bv ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 09:27 am: Two faulty EVMs in Ujjain have been replaced, 11 VVPAT machines in Alirajpur, 5 VVPAT and 2 EVMs in Burhanpur also replaced. 09:24 am: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan said, "Were 100% certain that BJP will form a government with an absolute majority. We have set a target of 200 seats and our lakhs of volunteers are working to make it a reality." (Photo: ANI/Twitter) 09:09 am: First-time voters after casting their votes at a polling booth in Bhopal First time voters after casting their votes at a polling booth in Bhopal #MadhyaPradeshElections pic.twitter.com/9Tn9Mi7ySs ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 08:38 am: Madhya Pradesh Minister Yashodhara Raje Scindia casts her vote at a polling station in Shivpuri. She is up against Congress' Siddharth Lada. Madhya Pradesh Minister Yashodhara Raje Scindia casts her vote at a polling station in Shivpuri. She is up against Congress' Siddharth Lada. #MadhyaPradeshElections2018 pic.twitter.com/FrpyOXfZ7m ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 08:37 am: Congress leader Kamal Nath casts his vote in Chhindwara (Photo: ANI/Twitter) 08:33 am: EVM is not working at polling booth number 178 in Dabra, Gwalior district #MadhyaPradeshElections2018 EVM is not working at polling booth number 178 in Dabra,Gwalior district pic.twitter.com/efO5S6fDPZ ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 08:11 am: Congress leader Kamal Nath offers prayers at a Hanuman temple in Chhindwara. Congress leader Kamal Nath offers prayers at a Hanuman temple in Chhindwara #MadhyaPradeshElections2018 pic.twitter.com/tjdOwNrwtJ ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 08:07 am: Voting for 230 assembly seats underway Voting underway for 230 assembly seats in #MadhyaPradeshElections, visuals from a polling booth in Indore pic.twitter.com/jxvUY9xVCl ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 08:00 am: Kamal Nath says, "I have full faith in the people of Madhya Pradesh, they are simple and innocent people who have been robbed for a long time by BJP." (Photo: ANI/Twitter) 07:50 am: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan prays on the banks of Narmada river, in Budhni. Voting in the state is underway. (Photo: ANI/Twitter) 07:25 am: Polling for 227 constituencies in the state will begin at 8 am, while voting for 3 constituencies has already begun. Robert Mueller's office is aware of emails sent to Trump confidant Roger Stone tipping him off about "very damaging" data dumps Wikileaks released during the 2016 presidential election, a draft court document has revealed. The emails, detailed within in draft court documents, were sent by right-wing commentator Jerome Corsi to Mr Stone who was serving as a campaign adviser to Donald Trump two months before the data dumps were published online. The correspondence forms part of Mr Mueller's broader investigation into Russian election meddling and any possible collusion with Trump campaign officials. "Word is friend in embassy plans 2 more dumps," one email written on 2 August says. "One shortly after Im back. 2nd in Oct." He added, "Impact planned to be very damaging." Mr Stone has denied any involvement in the release of the emails. The emails appear to reference Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who has been living inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London for six years in order to avoid an international arrest warrant about a case in Sweden. US intelligence services believe Russias intelligence agencies were behind the hacking of the emails released by Wikileaks - which were taken from the Democratic National Committee. Russia denies the allegation. 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 The draft court documents, first reported by NBC News and later posted online by the Washington Post, were also provided to Mr Corsi and his attorneys by the special counsels office. However, it is still unclear whether there was any potential coordination between the presidents campaign and Wikileaks or other entities. The latest court documents were filed as part of a plea deal Mr Muellers office has sent Mr Corsi, effectively allowing him to request a sentence of probation so long as he pleads guilty to one count of lying to federal investigators. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Mr Corsi has rejected the deal, however, saying the emails were based on speculation. Its all a guess. That email word is is 100% speculation on my part, he said. I made it sound maybe like I had a source, but I didnt. And I dont think Stone ever believed me. Mr Corsi told the Associated Press Mr Muellers team responded to his public rejections of the plea deal by saying, Well take it from here. Donald Trump has said he does not believe in manmade climate change because Americas water and air is right now at a record clean. Asked why he was sceptical of a global warming report published by his own government, the US president gave a rambling response, much of it not backed by evidence, in which he blamed forest management, small oceans and China over the issue. One of the problems that a lot of people like myself - we have very high levels of intelligence, but were not necessarily such believers, Mr Trump told The Washington Post. You look at our air and our water, and its right now at a record clean. But when you look at China and you look at parts of Asia and when you look at South America, and when you look at many other places in this world, including Russia, including - just many other places - the air is incredibly dirty. And when youre talking about an atmosphere, oceans are very small. And it blows over and it sails over. I mean, we take thousands of tons of garbage off our beaches all the time that comes over from Asia. It just flows right down the Pacific, it flows, and we say where does this come from? And it takes many people to start off with. The US government climate report, made public last week, warned America faced devastating economic and health impacts from climate change by the end of the century. Trump attacks CNN's Jim Acosta in angry White House press conference Show all 10 1 /10 Trump attacks CNN's Jim Acosta in angry White House press conference Trump attacks CNN's Jim Acosta in angry White House press conference Donald Trump launched an extraordinary tirade against CNN reporter Jim Acosta during a press conference following the midterm elections Reuters Trump attacks CNN's Jim Acosta in angry White House press conference The US president ordered the journalist to put down his microphone and just sit down AFP Trump attacks CNN's Jim Acosta in angry White House press conference The row began following a question about the migrant caravan approaching the US, when Mr Trump was asked by CNNs Jim Acosta if he thought he had demonised migrants by calling the group an invasion EPA Trump attacks CNN's Jim Acosta in angry White House press conference I think you should let me run the country, you run CNN, and if you did it well, your ratings would be much better, said the President AFP/Getty Trump attacks CNN's Jim Acosta in angry White House press conference After Mr Acosta attempted to follow up his question with a second on Robert Muellers Russia probe, Mr Trump added, pointing angrily: Thats enough. Thats enough. Thats enough. Excuse me, thats enough. Mr Trump said he was not concerned about anything because the investigation was a hoax. Continuing to berate Mr Acosta, he added: Thats enough. Put down the mic. As the reporter continued to quiz him, Mr Trump became more agitated and stepped away from the podium. EPA Trump attacks CNN's Jim Acosta in angry White House press conference Returning to the podium, Mr Trump said: Ill tell you what, CNN should be ashamed of itself having you working for them. You are a rude, terrible person. You shouldnt be working for CNN REUTERS Trump attacks CNN's Jim Acosta in angry White House press conference Trump continued: 'The way you treat Sarah Huckabee is horrible and the way you treat other people are horrible. You shouldnt treat people that way. She was sitting in the room listening on REUTERS Trump attacks CNN's Jim Acosta in angry White House press conference A second reporter, Peter Alexander, was called on by the president and said: In Jims defence Ive travelled with him a lot, hes a diligent reporter. EPA Trump attacks CNN's Jim Acosta in angry White House press conference Mr Trump cut him off, telling the NBC News journalist that Im not a big fan of yours either, prompting laughter in the room AP Trump attacks CNN's Jim Acosta in angry White House press conference Mr Acosta continued to try to ask questions without his microphone, causing Mr Trump to tell him: Just sit down, please. When you report fake news no when you report fake news, which CNN does, a lot, you are the enemy of the people. REUTERS It predicted the countrys economy would see economic losses in the hundreds of billions by 2100, and stated there was no convincing alternative explanation for climate change besides human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases. Dismissing the report, Mr Trump continued: Number two, if you go back and if you look at articles, they talked about global freezing, they talked about at some point the planets could have freeze to death (sic), then its going to die of heat exhaustion. There is movement in the atmosphere. Theres no question. As to whether or not its manmade and whether or not the effects that youre talking about are there, I dont see it not nearly like it is. Do we want clean water? Absolutely. Do we want clean air to breathe? Absolutely. Mr Trump next moved unprompted on to Californias forest fires, again falsely blaming a lack of forest management and suggesting raking the earth could solve the issue. The president said earlier this month Finland prevented forest fires by raking, a claim that left many Fins bemused. The fire in California, where I was, if you looked at the floor, the floor of the fire, they have trees that were fallen, they did no forest management, no forest maintenance, and you can light you can take a match like this and light a tree trunk when that thing is laying there for more than 14 or 15 months, Mr Trump said. And its a massive problem in California. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events He continued: You go to other places where they have denser trees its more dense, where the trees are more flammable they dont have forest fires like this, because they maintain. And it was very interesting, I was watching the firemen, and theyre raking brush you know the tumbleweed and brush, and all this stuff thats growing underneath. Its on fire, and theyre raking it, working so hard, and theyre raking all this stuff. If that was raked in the beginning, thered be nothing to catch on fire. Its very interesting to see. A lot of the trees, they took tremendous burn at the bottom, but they didnt catch on fire. The bottom is all burned but they didnt catch on fire because they sucked the water, theyre wet. You need forest management, and they dont have it. Donald Trump has said he may be willing to pardon Paul Manafort amid new reports alleging his former campaign chairman lied to Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Speaking in the Oval Office, the president said a pardon was never discussed, but I wouldn't take it off the table". Mr Trump also kept up his recent attacks on Mr Mueller's Russia probe, comparing it to the 1950s era of Joseph McCarthy. "We are in the McCarthy era. This is no better than McCarthy. And that was a bad situation for the country. But this is where we are. And its a terrible thing, Mr Trump said. Recommended Mueller has emails suggesting Stone was tipped off about Wikileaks Mr Trump, speaking as part of an interview with The New York Post, went on to describe Manafort, as well as long-time confidant Roger Stone and right-wing commentator Jerome Corsi as actually very brave. All three of said to be of interest to Mr Mueller's investigation into Russian election meddling and possible collusion with Trump campaign officials Prosecutors for the special counsel said in a court filing on Monday that Manafort had lied to them, breaching a plea agreement signed after he was found guilty of eight counts of financial crimes in August. Those charges related to political lobbying work in Ukraine.. In its court filings, the special counsel wrote Manafort committed federal crimes by lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Special Counsels Office on a variety of subject matters. Manafort said in the same filing that he disagreed with the special counsels allegation. His legal team said they believed he had given truthful answers to all questions. 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 Mr Trump's interview followed a report in The New York Times that Manafort's attorney has been briefing Mr Trump's lawyers about what Manafort has been telling federal investigators. Such conversations are unusual but not illegal. Manafort was likely facing about 10 years in prison for the eight guilty counts in the Virginia case, sentencing experts have said. Under the terms of the plea agreement, Manafort plead guilty in September to two charges of conspiracy. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events The president has been vocal in his support for Manafort, lauding him as a very good person during the Virginia trial. Meanwhile, key Democrats have rejected the notion Mr Trump may pardon his former campaign chairman. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, described the potential move as a blatant and unacceptable abuse of power in a tweet following the presidents interview. The pardon power is not the Presidents personal tool for protecting himself and his friends, the senator wrote. Reuters contributed to this report. Donald Trump has suggested he may cancel a planned meeting with Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in response to Russias seizure of three Ukrainian naval ships. The US president said he would make a decision on the sit-down after receiving a full report on the situation from his national security team. Maybe I wont even have the meeting, he told The Washington Post. I dont like that aggression. I dont want that aggression at all. The comments were Mr Trumps strongest criticism of the Kremlin since Russian border forces shot at and seized the Ukrainian vessels in the Black Sea on Sunday. Mr Trump had previously implied both countries were to blame for tensions around the Crimean peninsula, telling reporters on Monday: We do not like whats happening either way. But Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko said the US had pledged to do what we [need] to do to protect Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity, including military assistance. Kiev has since released what it says is the exact location where its vessels were fired on, apparently showing that they were in international waters. The disclosure contradicts Moscows claim that the ships entered its territorial waters. Russian officials have vowed to prosecute the vessels crews for allegedly violating the border and said they do not consider the seamen prisoners of war. 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 Mr Putin on Wednesday accused Ukraine of provocation, claiming Mr Poroshenko wanted to inflame tensions with Russia to boost his waning support ahead of elections next year. He added: I hope I can talk to Trump in Argentina. I hope we can discuss trade barriers. Trump in general has a positive attitude. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that the meeting between Mr Putin and Mr Trump was still on. He told reporters that Russia was aware of the US presidents latest remarks but had not received any other information from our US counterparts. White House aides were also continuing to plan for the talks in Buenos Aires. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events The meeting between the two presidents is set to be just one of several high profile foreign policy engagements for Mr Trump on a hectic two-day visit to Argentina. The US leader will have dinner with Chinese president Xi Jinping on Saturday evening, a meeting that could prove pivotal in determining if and how the ongoing trade dispute between their two countries can be resolved. National security adviser John Bolton said Mr Trump would also be meeting German chancellor Angela Merkel, Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, Argentinian president Mauricio Macri, South Koreas Moon Jae-in, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi. White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders described the trip as an opportunity for the president to cement relations with other world leaders and advance a global economic system based on free, fair and reciprocal trade. Donald Trump has retweeted a mocked up image of a range of people the president considers enemies behind bars, including the US deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein. The tweet, which was posted by an account called The Trump Train, also includes Barack Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Robert Mueller, with the caption: "Now that Russia collusion is a proven lie, when do the trials for treason begin?" Minutes earlier, Mr Trump posted on the social media platform to attack the mainstream media and Mr Mueller's investigation into possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia. From left to right: Robert Mueller, John Podesta, Rod Rosenstein, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Eric Holder, Huma Abedin, James Clapper, Bill Clinton, James Comey and Loretta Lynch (Twitter) "While the disgusting Fake News is doing everything within their power not to report it that way, at least 3 major players are intimating that the Angry Mueller Gang of Dems is viciously telling witnesses to lie about facts & they will get relief," he wrote. "This is our Joseph McCarthy Era!" Rumours were rife before the midterms that Mr Trump was set to fire Mr Rosenstein, who was charged with overseeing Mr Mueller's investigation, after the then-attorney general Jeff Sessions recused himself. Mr Trump has publicly railed against Mr Rosenstein's refusal to end the probe in the past, but said last month he had a "great" meeting with the lawyer aboard Air Force One. The president also retweeted three further posts by the Trump-supporting Twitter account, which included attacks on illegal immigrants, CNN, and General Motors (GM). One particularly inflammatory tweet Mr Trump shared said: "Illegals can get up to $3,874 a month under Federal Assistance program. Our social security checks are on average $1200 a month. "RT if you agree: If you weren't born in the United States, you should receive $0 assistance." It is not clear where the claim about illegal immigrants receiving thousands in federal assistance comes from, but it could originate from a widely debunked allegation about refugees receiving the payment in Canada. The president's sharing of the tweet also suggests he believes only people born in the US should receive government financial assistance. Brian Klaas, an American political scientist at University College London, told The Independent Mr Trump's "pushing for political rivals to be jailed" was an escalation in his "dangerously authoritarian behaviour". Trump defends use of tear gas "Rod Rosenstein has been a bulwark of the rule of law against Trumps attempts to politicise it as a weapon to prosecute his opponents and protect his political allies," he said. "And now, simply for properly doing his job, the president is pushing the message that Rosenstein should be in jail. Its extremely dangerous for the foundations of American democracy to politicise rule of law like this." Trump attacks CNN's Jim Acosta in angry White House press conference Show all 10 1 /10 Trump attacks CNN's Jim Acosta in angry White House press conference Trump attacks CNN's Jim Acosta in angry White House press conference Donald Trump launched an extraordinary tirade against CNN reporter Jim Acosta during a press conference following the midterm elections Reuters Trump attacks CNN's Jim Acosta in angry White House press conference The US president ordered the journalist to put down his microphone and just sit down AFP Trump attacks CNN's Jim Acosta in angry White House press conference The row began following a question about the migrant caravan approaching the US, when Mr Trump was asked by CNNs Jim Acosta if he thought he had demonised migrants by calling the group an invasion EPA Trump attacks CNN's Jim Acosta in angry White House press conference I think you should let me run the country, you run CNN, and if you did it well, your ratings would be much better, said the President AFP/Getty Trump attacks CNN's Jim Acosta in angry White House press conference After Mr Acosta attempted to follow up his question with a second on Robert Muellers Russia probe, Mr Trump added, pointing angrily: Thats enough. Thats enough. Thats enough. Excuse me, thats enough. Mr Trump said he was not concerned about anything because the investigation was a hoax. Continuing to berate Mr Acosta, he added: Thats enough. Put down the mic. As the reporter continued to quiz him, Mr Trump became more agitated and stepped away from the podium. EPA Trump attacks CNN's Jim Acosta in angry White House press conference Returning to the podium, Mr Trump said: Ill tell you what, CNN should be ashamed of itself having you working for them. You are a rude, terrible person. You shouldnt be working for CNN REUTERS Trump attacks CNN's Jim Acosta in angry White House press conference Trump continued: 'The way you treat Sarah Huckabee is horrible and the way you treat other people are horrible. You shouldnt treat people that way. She was sitting in the room listening on REUTERS Trump attacks CNN's Jim Acosta in angry White House press conference A second reporter, Peter Alexander, was called on by the president and said: In Jims defence Ive travelled with him a lot, hes a diligent reporter. EPA Trump attacks CNN's Jim Acosta in angry White House press conference Mr Trump cut him off, telling the NBC News journalist that Im not a big fan of yours either, prompting laughter in the room AP Trump attacks CNN's Jim Acosta in angry White House press conference Mr Acosta continued to try to ask questions without his microphone, causing Mr Trump to tell him: Just sit down, please. When you report fake news no when you report fake news, which CNN does, a lot, you are the enemy of the people. REUTERS Mr Trump later retweeted a pair of month-old posts accusing Ms Clinton, his Democratic opponent in the 2016 presidential election, of racism. One tweet, by right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, said: "Hillary said 'all black people look the same' - incredibly racist thing to say Hillary!" The post was accompanied by a video in which Ms Clinton mocked an interviewer for confusing former attorney general Eric Holder and senator Cory Booker, who are both black. The comment was widely reported at the time. He also shared a post from a mock Mike Pence Twitter account, which read: "I'm thankful for every day Hillary Clinton is not President!" Recommended Trump interrupts press conference with threat to cut GM subsidies Mr Trump next turned to attacking GM for its plans to halt production at a number of factories in three states - two of which opted for the billionaire in the last election. "The reason that the small truck business in the US is such a go to favorite is that, for many years, Tariffs of 25% have been put on small trucks coming into our country," he wrote. "It is called the 'chicken tax.' If we did that with cars coming in, many more cars would be built here and G.M. would not be closing their plants in Ohio, Michigan & Maryland." "Get smart Congress. Also, the countries that send us cars have taken advantage of the U.S. for decades. The President has great power on this issue - Because of the G.M. event, it is being studied now!" The White House has been contacted for comment. The European Unions climate change chief has called for the bloc to bring its greenhouse gas emissions down to net zero by 2050 to tackle climate change. The proposal by climate commissioner Miguel Arias Canete would make Europe the worlds first major economic to go fully carbon neutral. Speaking on Wednesday, Mr Arias Canete said while the EU already had the worlds most ambitious climate change policies, they were clearly not sufficient to limit global warming in light of new evidence. The European Commission has unveiled a new strategy assessing options to achieve the goal, laying out a series of scenarios to be considered by member states. National governments will have to agree a final approach next year. That will be submitted to the United Nations in 2020. Agreement on the issue will be hard, however, with some countries like Poland and Germany struggling to meet their commitments, and others such as Denmark, Sweden and Spain seeking a more ambitious commitment. In October, the IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] special report on 1.5C made it clear that emissions need to be reduced with far more urgency than previously anticipated and that limiting climate change to 1.5C is necessary to reduce the likelihood of extreme weather events. This has been a wake-up call, he told reporters in Brussels. The announcement comes ahead of the COP24 UN summit in Katowice, Poland, where it is hoped the implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate change will be finalised. Under current policies the EU is expected to cut emissions by about 60 per cent by 2050 compared to 1990 levels, with most of the work done by new energy efficiency and renewable energy targets. But to meet the Paris Agreement and keep warming below 2C or ideally 1.5C, the Commissions report accepts that more action is needed. The Commission says going carbon-neutral will also have other significant benefits, such as cutting premature air pollution deaths by 40 per cent and adding 2 per cent to the EUs economies by 2050, while reducing energy imports by over 70 per cent and saving up to 3bn a year. The EU is already being hit by climate change, with the worst wildfires on record in Greece this summer killing 99. The EU has already started the modernisation and transformation towards a climate neutral economy, Mr Arias Canete said. Glacier collapse shows climate impact Show all 20 1 /20 Glacier collapse shows climate impact Glacier collapse shows climate impact An iceberg floats in a fjord near the town of Tasiilaq Reuters Glacier collapse shows climate impact Meltwater pools on top of the Helheim glacier near Tasiilaq Reuters Glacier collapse shows climate impact Safety officer Brian Rougeux works with student Febin Magar to assemble a radar dome while working in a science camp on the side of the Helheim glacier Reuters Glacier collapse shows climate impact Airplane Mechanic, David Fuller, left, works with a local worker to move a Nasa Gulfstream III during a pre-flight inspection before a flight to support the Oceans Melting Greenland research mission Reuters Glacier collapse shows climate impact Meltwater pools on top of the Helheim glacier Reuters Glacier collapse shows climate impact Earth Science Flight Programs Director at Nasa, Eric Ianson, looks out at the Greenland ice sheet Reuters Glacier collapse shows climate impact Glacial ice is seen from the window during the Nasa flight Reuters Glacier collapse shows climate impact Oceanographer David Holland's science camp on the side of the Helheim glacier Reuters Glacier collapse shows climate impact An iceberg floats in a fjord near the town of Tasiilaq Reuters Glacier collapse shows climate impact A large crevasse forms near the calving front of the Helheim glacier Reuters Glacier collapse shows climate impact Safety officer Brian Rougeux uses a drill to install antennas for scientific instruments that will be left on top of the Helheim glacier Reuters Glacier collapse shows climate impact Tabular icebergs float in the Sermilik Fjord after a large calving event at the Helheim glacier Reuters Glacier collapse shows climate impact Radar Engineer, Ron Muellerschoen, monitors data collection inside a NASA Gulfstream III flying above Greenland to measure loss to the country's ice sheet Reuters Glacier collapse shows climate impact GPS tracking equipment is left on top of the Helheim glacier REUTERS Glacier collapse shows climate impact Sunshine lights up the Helheim glacier Reuters Glacier collapse shows climate impact A glacial terminus above the east coast of Greenland REUTERS Glacier collapse shows climate impact Student Febin Magar watches as leftover wood burns in a research camp Reuters Glacier collapse shows climate impact Tabular icebergs float in the Sermilik Fjord after a large calving event Reuters Glacier collapse shows climate impact Oceanographer David Holland repairs a broken GPS module at his research camp Reuters Glacier collapse shows climate impact An iceberg floats in a fjord near the town of Tasiilaq Reuters And today, we are stepping up our efforts as we propose a strategy for Europe to become the worlds first major economy to go climate neutral by 2050. Going climate neutral is necessary, possible and in Europes interest. It is necessary to meet the long-term temperature goals of the Paris Agreement. It is possible with current technologies and those close to deployment. And it is in Europes interest to stop spending on fossil fuel imports and invest in meaningful improvements to the daily lives of all Europeans. No European, no region should be left behind. The EU will support those more impacted by this transition so that everyones ready to adapt to the new requirements of a climate neutral economy. A man suspected of planning a biological or chemical attack in Sardinia has been arrested by Italian anti-terrorism police. Lebanese national Amin Alhaj Ahmad researched ricin and anthrax and looked at information about Isis on his smartphone, investigators said. The 38-year-old who is a legal immigrant and married with three children, was arrested in the Sardinian town of Macomer by hooded police, who forced him from his car as he left his home. He is accused of association with the aim of international terrorism. Police said they had been tracking him since September, after his cousin was detained in Lebanon where he was accused of trying to poison a water tank used by the army. They said the man referred to his cousins purported plans to carry out a toxic attack in Italy during a confession. Amin had tried to buy poison over the internet, police said, but there was no evidence he had actually managed to purchase the materials. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events The Lebanese man of Palestinian descent had recently withdrawn all his money from the bank and was searching for his passport, said Italys chief anti-terrorism prosecutor, Federico Cafiero De Raho. He must have been close to doing something, he added. Care about being a researcher for your community. You have to document your ancestors and their lives here in this village from before the occupation. You have the right and you must prove that the occupation doesnt have the right to be here the occupiers want to displace you. Defend your rights to be here by giving evidence that documents your heritage. These are the words of a 21-year-old youth researcher from the South Hebron Hills and they herald a new form of resistance, one that may help to protect vulnerable communities. The Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar, in the West Bank, is currently at risk of demolition by Israeli bulldozers. The UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Nickolay Mladenov, called on the Israeli authorities in September 2018 to halt the proposed demolition, while the UN human rights office has also denounced its planned destruction as breaching international humanitarian law. The Israeli supreme court, however, has defied the UN and twice ruled in favour of demolishing the village. Its fate is now on a knife edge. The crisis in Khan al-Ahmar has once again highlighted the precarious lives faced by Bedouin communities in the occupied Palestinian territory. Marginalised within both Palestinian and Israeli society, and repeatedly displaced from their lands the Bedouins in Khan al-Ahmar, for example, originally were expelled from the Nakab desert in 1948 these communities are fighting for their very survival. An act of remembering But perhaps all is not lost. Against this backdrop, some young researchers working in the occupied territory have been developing creative and non-violent ways to help their communities survive by restoring their cultural heritage. An Israeli bulldozer works on a wastewater pond in Khan al-Ahmar last month (Reuters/Mohamad Torokman) (REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman) As academic and author Edward Said said: It is what one remembers of the past and how one remembers it that determine how one sees the future. Now, these researchers hope that by taking care of their communities heritage they will be better placed to resist displacement from their lands. Aged between 18 and 26, they have been documenting the often intangible cultural heritage of their communities Bedouin-populated villages sometimes so small that even Palestinian civil servants in nearby Hebron havent heard of them. This heritage is at risk of disappearing under the stresses of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Communities such as At-Tuwani, Susya, Al Mufagara and Tuba, in the South Hebron Hills, face eviction as illegal Israeli settlements, guarded by Israeli military forces, continue to encroach on them. Life is hard; residents are restricted from accessing basic services due to the constraints placed on them by the Israeli military. Palestinians await Israeli demolition of their homes in the West Bank Show all 7 1 /7 Palestinians await Israeli demolition of their homes in the West Bank Palestinians await Israeli demolition of their homes in the West Bank Children play as their parents prepare for their homes to be destroyed (Bel Trew) Bel Trew/The Independent Palestinians await Israeli demolition of their homes in the West Bank A toddler plays in the dirt of Khan al-Ahmar village (Bel Trew) Bel Trew/The Independent Palestinians await Israeli demolition of their homes in the West Bank Palestinian flags festoon the Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar as they await eviction (Bel Trew) Bel Trew/The Independent Palestinians await Israeli demolition of their homes in the West Bank Children play as their parents brace themselves for the bulldozers (Bel Trew) Bel Trew/The Independent Palestinians await Israeli demolition of their homes in the West Bank Iman, 7, says she does not want to leave her home (Bel Trew) Bel Trew/The Independent Palestinians await Israeli demolition of their homes in the West Bank The demolition order includes the villages school, which provides education for some 170 children from five different Bedouin communities. (Bel Trew) Bel Trew/The Independent Palestinians await Israeli demolition of their homes in the West Bank The playground of the school which will likely be demolished in the coming days (Bel Trew) Bel Trew/The Independent Given the daily hardships they face, preserving cultural heritage has, perhaps unsurprisingly, long taken a back seat in communities like these. But the young researchers have now collected evidence of songs sung during ploughing or at weddings, and traditional place names, farming practices, crafts, stories, recipes and much more, all tied to their communities and the land. They have used these histories to develop heritage trails, exhibitions and guides in their communities. While many of these young people previously have been active in initiatives to support their communities, this is the first time they have engaged in a cultural heritage-based approach. And as one researcher from At-Tuwani put it: The importance of heritage on a political level is that it helps us prove that this is our land and that we own it and we lived on it. The risks Bedouin communities in the occupied territory are all too aware of the risks of losing their cultural heritage. They fear that as it is lost, the Israeli government will have more pretexts to displace them from their land. They understand the value of this heritage as both economic, with the potential to provide valuable income in vulnerable communities, and social, sustaining links between communities stretched to breaking point. Bedouin communities in the occupied territory find themselves disconnected as a result of the conflict. They are prevented from practising traditional cultural practices or from sharing this knowledge with future generations. Old and young have become divided. By carrying out more than 75 interviews with the oldest community members, the researchers have helped to reestablish these lost connections, revitalising relationships between young and old community members. Sameeha, a youth researcher from At-Tuwani, explained how this process has affected her: When you speak to an older man or woman in your area and they tell you a story you never heard before ... for me that was an amazing feeling. To feel pride in your past, to share in the joy of your communitys heritage, is surely an act of resistance in itself. But the youth researchers have also started to forge ties with Bedouin communities in other parts of the occupied territory and Israel. They are sharing their findings and research methods, and learning how these communities have used heritage-based approaches to support their own social and economic development. Together, they are becoming stronger. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Could this approach now help the people of Khan al-Ahmar? The youth researchers have shown how cultural heritage can strengthen communities and their ties to the land they live on. The researchers repeatedly talked about putting their villages on the map, and making them part of a wider Bedouin community which extends through both time (to previous and future generations) and space. They have become visible to local, national and international audiences. All this provides a platform for solidarity from which oppression can be resisted without violence. Cultural heritage, and the actions taken to protect it, become a resource both to encourage equality and to share a different vision of what life could be in these embattled communities. Elly Harrowell is a research associate and Patricia Sellick is a senior research fellow at Coventry University. This article first appeared on The Conversation (theconversation.com) It will be one of the least frequent flights in the world but a new, monthly Latam service from Sao Paulo via Cordoba to the Falkland Islands is seen as a great leap forward for Anglo-Argentinian relations. The jet will operate weekly from Brazils largest city to Mount Pleasant airport, 33 miles from Port Stanley on East Falkland. And once a month it will touch down en route at Cordoba in Argentina the nations second city, 400 miles northwest of Buenos Aires Argentina has a long-standing claim on the islands it calls Las Malvinas, and invaded and occupied the archipelago in 1982. A start date for the new link from the aviation hub of South America to the disputed islands has not yet been announced. Latam currently operates a weekly flight from Santiago in Chile via the southern Chilean city of Punta Arenas. It occasionally also calls at Rio Gallegos in Argentina. But a direct flight from a key Argentinian city is seen as a significant gain. Negotiations for the air link have taken over two years. The UKs minister for the Americas, Sir Alan Duncan said: The announcement of a new flight from South America to the Falkland Islands shows real progress, particularly ahead of the G20 in Argentina. This news highlights our closer relationship with Argentina and that, despite our differences on some areas, we can work together on issues that benefit all. The choice of Cordoba rather than Buenos Aires as the en-route stop is significant. Flying via the capital would be much shorter, and provide a greater range of connections, including BA's nonstop flight to Heathrow. But it is believed that a direct link from Buenos to RAF Mount Pleasant the main airport in the Falklands, and also a military base was felt to be politically unacceptable. The chosen route via Cordoba is 2,660 miles, over 400 miles further than a journey via Buenos Aires, and 600 miles longer than the direct track from Sao Paulo to the Falklands. The overall journey time from the Brazilian airport is expected to be around eight hours, including an hour on the ground in Cordoba. Nonstop flights between Sao Paulo and the Falklands will take around five hours. The new link could trigger a surge in tourism from the UK to the Falklands. At present the main approach is on the twice-weekly RAF flight from Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, with a refuelling stop in Cape Verde. The fare is 2,222 return, and citizens of 10 countries, including China, Egypt and Russia, are banned from the service. Fares from the UK to Sao Paulo are widely available at under 600 return. Even if the new flight costs the same amount again despite being much shorter it would still cut 1,000 from the Brize Norton option. As British families with expensive trips planned to Lapland wait anxiously for a heavy snowfall in northern Finland, a leading holiday firm has withdrawn a misleading claim about Santas location. Thomas Cook is one of several firms that offers day trips to the city of Rovaniemi, the largest settlement in Finnish Lapland. Its first departure is on Saturday 1 December. Until this week, the holiday company described Rovaniemi as Far inside the Arctic Circle, where the snow is thick and sparkling". Recommended Eight of the best Arctic adventures In fact, Rovaniemi is slightly outside the Arctic Circle. The latitude of the city that calls itself The Official Home of Santa Claus is 66.5 degrees north placing the centre five miles outside the Arctic Circle. After The Independent pointed out the misleading assertion, Thomas Cook changed its description to: Close to the Arctic Circle, where the snow is white and sparkling. Many day trips include Santa Claus Village, which is north of the city and straddles the Arctic Circle. Thomas Cook gives a certificate to all customers who make the official crossing by foot. The most pressing concern with families who have paid around 500 per person for a day trip to Rovaniemi is the weather. While Finnish Lapland had a good covering of snow in October, unseasonably warm weather meant that it has melted away. There has been a light dusting of snow in the past week in Rovaniemi. Two other holiday companies, Transun and Tui, have cancelled their day trips for the coming weekend. But a spokesperson for Thomas Cook said: We can assure customers that all included activities will go ahead as planned despite the current weather concerns. We are in touch with Father Christmas and his elves who are helping to make sure everything is ready for our guests arrival, and we are contacting customers to help with any questions they may have. Circle line: the claim, now withdrawn, about the location for Santa day trips (Thomas Cook) The Santa season is normally highly lucrative for travel firms. Early December is the time of year when demand for package holidays is lowest; Thomas Cook is offering a week in the Canaries for 171, including flights, transfers and accommodation, departing Gatwick on 3 December. Yet the firm is also selling day trips from Birmingham to Lapland on 1 December at 503. On Tuesday, Thomas Cooks share price fell by about a quarter after the firm issued its second profits warning in two months. The Finnish city has published a guide to snow-free activities with the title: No Snow 10 Amazing Things to Do in Rovaniemi Without It. The advice says: We cannot tell when permanent snow comes, because we dont know. It comes sooner or later, normally at the end of November, but some years we have had to wait until December. With or without snow, theres plenty to do in Rovaniemi. Among the options is the chance to swim in water of 4 degrees, for a price of 3. To use the adjacent tent sauna costs an additional 5, cash only. Astha Sarmah, a 18-year-old girl from Jorhat, Assam, took on US President Donald Trump for his tweet on global warming. Astha Sarmah's tweet was retweeted 5.1 k times with many praising Astha as 'hope of the future'. (Photo: Twitter) Guwahati: 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, Donald Trump had tweeted "Brutal and Extended Cold Blast could shatter ALL RECORDS Whatever happened to Global Warming?" In her response to the tweet, 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." 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 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. The Lion Air jet that crashed last month killing 189 people was not fit to fly, according to Indonesian investigators. Indonesias transport safety committee (KNKT) said that the plane was not airworthy and had suffered similar technical issues on previous flights, in a preliminary report into the crash. This is the basis of our recommendation to Lion Air. In our view, the plane was not airworthy, Nurcahyo Utomo, head of Indonesias national transport safety committee, told a news conference in Jakarta. While the report did not give a cause for the fatal crash, it did show that the pilots struggled with an anti-stall system, which was pushing the planes nose down. The captain was using manual controls to bring the nose back up. The Boeing 737 Max plane crashed into the Java Sea just minutes after take-off from Jakarta on 29 October, with 189 people on board. Lion Air flight JT 610 was flying to the city of Pangkal Pinang, just north of Sumatra. At the start of November, the black box was recovered from the sea off the coast of Jakarta, which revealed that the jet had experienced airspeed indicator malfunctions on its four previous flights. The cockpit voice recorder has yet to be located by divers. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events The remains of 125 people have so far been identified, says Lion Air. Following the crash, Indonesian authorities will inspect all Boeing 737 Max planes that belong to the countrys commercial airlines. In a statement released today, aircraft manufacturer Boeing said that safety is a core value for everyone at the company, and the safety of our airplanes, our customers passengers and their crews is always our top priority. As our customers and their passengers continue to fly the 737 Max to hundreds of destinations around the world every day, they have our assurance that the 737 Max is as safe as any airplane that has ever flown the skies. A new aircraft painted to look like a shark is making waves in the aviation world. Plane manufacturer Embraer has nicknamed one of its new E190-E2 models the Profit Hunter as it takes it on a tour of air shows to drum up business for the jet. The distinctive paint job, complete with menacing, red-framed jaws, is not the only time the Brazilian company has used wildlife for inspiration. One of its larger E195-E2 aircraft has the face of an eagle emblazoned on it, while the E190-E2 has also been given a makeover as a tiger on some of the planes. However, its the shark thats stealing the show right now: the great white has been tagged multiple times on Instagram, far outstripping its avian and feline counterparts. The aircraft itself can carry 150 passengers and has Embraers signature two-two formation meaning no middle seat. Theres also a tiger in Embraers stable (Instagram/Embraer) Preserving passenger personal space is the goal, Rodrigo Silva e Souza, vice-president of marketing for Embraer Commercial Aviation, told CNN Travel. He added that the seat configuration, as well as larger windows and luggage bins, is designed to give the plane a wide-body cabin feel and create an impression of being on a larger aircraft. The model also features improved fuel efficiency and reduced emissions. Widere, a Norwegian airline, already has three of the jets in service and is soon to be followed by AerCap, an aircraft-leasing company, which has ordered 23; the first will be used by Kazakhstans Air Astana. Embraer is hoping its bold design will take some of the focus off its main rival, the recently unveiled Airbus A220. Unfortunately for animal lovers, the E190-E2 aircraft will be branded with airlines specific livery when they go into service. It makes a change from several recent stories of plane paintwork going awry. Thomas Cook unveiled its new aircraft in October, only to discover a rude word appeared when the middle doors were opened. Cathay Pacific, meanwhile, was left red-faced after a brand new plane was found to have the airlines name misspelled on the side (it was missing a crucial F). Now in its 30th year, World Aids Day aims to promote awareness and combat discrimination surrounding the disease. While huge strides have been made in treating HIV since it reached epidemic proportions in the early 1980s, attitudes to the condition vary around the globe. Here is a guide to the countries that currently restrict travel for those suffering from HIV. Recommended Everything you need to know about World Aids Day 2018 Bhutan Any visitor staying for 14 days is free to do so but those holidaying for longer will require an HIV test taken within the last six months. Denial of entry or deportation is possible without it. Brunei While there is no mandatory testing system in place, those known to carry HIV face expulsion. A test is required for anyone seeking a work or study visa. Equatorial Guinea Travellers are required to have verification they have received a yellow fever vaccine. An HIV negative test many also be required and a denial of entry or deportation is possible without one. Iran While Tehran does not place restrictions on those visiting for up to three months, travellers from South Africa specifically may be asked to take an HIV test and are advised to contact their embassy before departing. The country may deny visas to HIV positive travellers and those seeking a working or residential visa require an HIV negative test. Iraq Baghdad requires anyone staying for longer that 10 days to take a test in a state laboratory. It could refuse entry or deport anyone found to be, even diplomats. Jordan HIV positive people can be refused entry at the border. The presence of antiretroviral drugs among their possessions may be used as confirmation of carrier status. Krygystan People staying for longer than 30 days are required to provide documentation proving their HIV negative status. Papua New Guinea Medical documentation may be required, including an HIV test, for all travellers aged 16 or older. The same applies to those seeking residency. Qatar Travellers staying for more than a month are required to take an HIV test in a Qatari state laboratory. Those found to have the condition may be turned away or deported. Russia Moscow does not require any proof of HIV testing for those staying less than three months but those applying for work and student visas must have documentation of negative status. Singapore No HIV testing is required for tourists staying for 30 days. Foreign certificates proving HIV negative states are accepted but the import of antiretrovirals must be approved by the countrys Health Science Authority. Persons found to be HIV positive can be expelled but not in the event they are married to a Singapore citizen. A Chinese passenger receives a free HIV check at Beijing International Airport (Cancan Chu/Getty) Solomon Islands Visitors and residents are free to stay for 90 days without testing but are required to provide documentation of a clear HIV test for any longer. Sudan An HIV negative test may be required for proof of entry and will be required for those seeking to stay longer than 90 days. Suriname People from Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe require a health certificate stating they are clear of HIV and can import antiretrovirals for personal use if they have a doctors prescription proving the necessity. Those subsequently found to have HIV could face deportation. World Aids Day 2017: in pictures Show all 18 1 /18 World Aids Day 2017: in pictures World Aids Day 2017: in pictures World Aids Day - UK Prince Harry and Meghan Markle take part in a discussion with HIV consultant doctor Laura Waters during their visit to the Terrence Higgins Trust World AIDS Day charity fair Getty Images World Aids Day 2017: in pictures World Aids Day - Brazil Red balloons are released to mark the World AIDS Day in Sao Paulo REUTERS World Aids Day 2017: in pictures World Aids Day - France A nurse takes blood for a HIV test for French President Emmanuel Macron as he visits the Delafontaine Hospital Reuters World Aids Day 2017: in pictures World Aids Day - India A student displays his face and hand painted with messages in Chandigarh, India REUTERS World Aids Day 2017: in pictures World Aids Day - UK Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrive at the Nottingham Contemporary to attend a Terrence Higgins Trust World AIDS Day charity fair, on their first official engagement together. PA World Aids Day 2017: in pictures World Aids Day - South Africa Members of the 21 South African Infantry Battalion march to mark the World AIDS Day in Soweto AP World Aids Day 2017: in pictures World Aids Day - India A childhas their face painted to spread awareness about HIV/AIDS on World AIDS day in Jammu Rex Features World Aids Day 2017: in pictures World Aids Day - Kenya Free HIV testing booths are installed during the World AIDS Day event at University of Nairobi AFP/Getty Images World Aids Day 2017: in pictures World Aids Day - China Students use candles to form a large ribbon at a primary school in China REUTERS World Aids Day 2017: in pictures World Aids Day - India Commuters walk past a message on the World AIDS Day near Howrah Bridge, on the bank of river Ganges in Calcutta EPA World Aids Day 2017: in pictures World Aids Day - India An volunteer lights candles placed on the ground in the shape of a red ribbon during an awareness rally on the eve of World Aids Day in Agartala AFP/Getty Images World Aids Day 2017: in pictures World Aids Day - China Students of Yangzhou University Medical College standing in the shape of a red ribbon VCG via Getty Images World Aids Day 2017: in pictures World Aids Day - China Students hold red ribbons at a high school in Hefei, Anhui province, China REUTERS World Aids Day 2017: in pictures World Aids Day - Mexico The "Diana La Cazadora" monument is illuminated in red on the eve of World Aids Day in Mexico City AFP/Getty Images World Aids Day 2017: in pictures World Aids Day - India Sand art on the Bay of Bengal Sea's eastern coast beach at Puri. Sand artist Sudarshan Patnaik created the piece on the eve of World AIDs Day . Rex Features World Aids Day 2017: in pictures World Aids Day - India People hold candles around a ribbon during a ceremony to create awareness about HIV/AIDS in Ahmedabad, India REUTERS World Aids Day 2017: in pictures World Aids Day - Ukraine A woman has a HIV/AIDS blood test in a mobile laboratory in Ukraine AP World Aids Day 2017: in pictures World Aids Day - China The two towers of the Global Harbor shopping mall in Shaghai are illuminated with huge red ribbons Rex Features Taiwan Visitors are free to stay for three months without testing and to bring antiretrovirals for personal use. However, those known to have HIV could be denied entry and those with residency visas subsequently found to be carriers may be ordered to leave with three months notice. Tunisia People staying for longer than 30 days may be required to have an HIV taste after arrival. Antiretroviral drugs are allowed for personal use. A test is required for anyone seeking a working or study visa. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Turks and Caicos Islands People staying for longer than 30 days are required to have an HIV test after arrival. A test is also required for anyone seeking a working or study visa. UAE No HIV testing is required for tourists but those seeking a work or residency visa are required to be tested upon arrival. Foreign documentation is invalid and the import of antiretrovirals is not permitted. Another Icelandic-owned airline is facing a cash flow crisis after what it calls materially worse results. In October Primera Air went bust, stranding tens of thousands of passengers and leaving many more out of pocket. Now Wow Air, which flies from Gatwick, Stansted and Edinburgh to Reykjavik with onward connections to North America, has admitted that its results are materially worse than originally anticipated. Skuli Mogensen, the airlines chief executive, has written to bondholders saying a number of external and internal events have unfortunately worsened significantly since a bond issue in September. He blamed Primera Airs collapse for escalating negativity about Wow Airs financial position, which he said has further worsened an already challenged situation. A sale-and-leaseback deal that was expected to raise $25m (11.7m) has been cancelled. Mr Mogensen wrote: Due to the continuous negative events all our lessors, creditors and authorities have been monitoring the situation even closer and demanding stricter payment terms then before further putting pressure on our cash flow. As a result, our Q4 results are materially worse than originally anticipated. A planned takeover by Wows bigger rival, Icelandair, has stalled. The 18m (16m) deal was due to be approved at a shareholders meeting on 30 November. But Bogi Nils Bogason, Icelandair Groups chief executive, said: The share purchase agreement contains numerous conditions which will have to be fulfilled before the meeting. At this moment, Icelandair Group estimates that it is unlikely that all of the conditions will be fulfilled by that time. The company will continue to work on the transaction and the parties are continuing dialogue on next steps. The problems are believed to arise from conditions attached to Icelandair bonds worth about 160m. Four Wow Air aircraft have been returned to lessors. Two Airbus A330s, an A321 and an A320 have flown from Keflavik Airport to airports in Ireland, Italy and France. The pair of wide-bodied A330s landed in the early hours of Wednesday morning in Lourdes Airport, which is a graveyard for retired planes. The move reduces Wow Airs fleet size by one-fifth and the number of available seats by about one quarter, as it now has only one wide-bodied Airbus left. The Independent has sought a response from Wow Air. Until now the carrier has competed intensively with Icelandair, especially on UK-US trips. In 2017 Wow Air publicised London-New York flights for 99, but none was actually available at that price. With the passage of Theresa Mays unloved Brexit deal almost certain to be blocked by MPs next month, the destination signs now point to Norway. Government analysis of the Brexit options, published on Wednesday, shows the economy would take less of a hit under a Norway-style deal involving membership of the European Economic Area (EEA) than under Mays Chequers strategy, a Canada-style free trade agreement or a no-deal exit. Crucially, Mays deal has little chance of getting through the Commons, while backers of Norway believe it does, as it has cross-party appeal. Philip Hammond, the chancellor, nodded in this direction this morning when he told BBC Radio 4s Today programme that if Mays agreement were defeated, we would have to look at the parliamentary arithmetic. He added: If you look purely at the economics, remaining in the single market would give us an economic advantage. Chancellor Philip Hammond says Theresa May's Brexit deal 'is very close' to the economic benefits of being in the EU The government is going to need a Plan B. May is now fighting not just to avoid a crushing Commons defeat on 11 December, but for her very survival as prime minister. Some Brexiteer ministers want a Canada-EU-style free trade deal or a managed no deal based on mini-deals with the EU in areas such as aviation, medicines and security. But neither would likely win Commons approval or prevent a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland. So the option coming up fast on the rails is staying in the single market via the EEA and European Free Trade Association (Efta), and in a customs union with the EU. Norway-plus is being championed by Nick Boles, a former minister close to Michael Gove, who cant support it while Mays deal is still in play, but would probably push Norway once it is dead. So would Amber Rudd, an important player now she is back in the cabinet. Hammonds words suggest he would too. Norway-plus would deliver the frictionless trade that May failed to win. The UK would leave the common agricultural and fisheries policies and the remit of the European Court of Justice. The Efta court is less interfering. Budget contributions would be small compared with EU membership. The EEA option would almost certainly win the EUs backing, another pre-requisite. Under the Boles plan, it would take effect when the status quo transition period ends in December 2020. It would prevent a hard Irish border, while Northern Ireland would have the same rules as the rest of the UK removing the Democratic Unionist Partys main objection to Mays deal, which is shared by many Tories. The Scottish National Party and Liberal Democrats would likely buy it. The Labour leadership is cautious for now, as it wants to propose its own plan. But many Labour backbenchers would back EEA membership; 75 did so in a Commons vote in June. Norway-plus has downsides. The UK would have to retain free movement. Although the EEA allows members to apply an emergency brake in response to economic or social pressures, it is doubtful the UK would qualify. The UK would be a rule-taker, not a rule-maker, and a customs union would hinder trade deals with other countries. Both would be hard for Eurosceptics to swallow. But some might live with Norway as a staging post to a much looser Canada-style agreement, though Boles has stopped calling his plan Norway to Canada. As one minister who backs the Norway option told me: If you tell a club youre only joining for five minutes, it wont let you in. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Its unclear whether May could steer the UK in Norways direction. She would have to abandon her free movement red line. She might not even get the chance. With hindsight, it would have been much better for May to go down the Norway route when she became prime minister in 2016. Instead, she overcompensated for backing Remain, and was too anxious to pander to the Eurosceptics, making promises she could not keep without damaging the economy. She has now gone almost full circle; adopting Norway would complete the process. However, as the government analysis shows, we would be worse off than under our current EU membership terms. Surely, it would be right to consult the people about that first in a Final Say referendum. It is true that Norway-plus might appeal to MPs reluctant to vote for another referendum. But arguably, as May claimed in Prime Ministers Questions on Wednesday, it would not implement the 2016 referendum because the UK would have to follow the rules without shaping them. As Svein Roald Hansen, a Norwegian Labour MP, told the BBC: If I were British, I would prefer to stay in the EU and have a say on the decisions. Ministers are not merely putting pressure on MPs when they say they do not know what would happen next if Mays deal is shot down. No one knows. However, it seems to me that were heading for Norway. Power supply for electric car charging. Electric car charging station. Close up of the power supply plugged into an electric car being charged. DISTRICT heating systems for Dublin, hybrid trains, an electric car charging network and more efficient public lighting are among the flagship projects awarded 77m this morning in the first round of funding under the Climate Action Fund. Seven projects which will reduce emissions by 200,000 tonnes a year will benefit, with the Government saying the 77m in funding would leverage an additional 220m in private sector funding. The seven projects are: 10m for ESB eCars to develop a national vehicle charging network. 8.5m to Gas Networks Ireland to support a facility which allows renewable gas to be injected into the grid. Up to 20m to develop the Dublin District Heating System, utilising waste heat from the Poolbeg Incinerator to heat homes and businesses. Another 4.5m is being allocated to South Dublin County Council to develop a district heating system. 15m for Irish Rail to trial hybrid engines on its fleet. 17.5m to upgrade 326,000 public lights to high-efficiency LED. A further 1.4m to reduce fuel consumption across the freight industry. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the 22bn investment package planned in the National Development Plan demonstrated a commitment to tackle climate change. We know the challenge presented by climate change requires more than investment, he said. The transition to a low carbon world will require profound vhanges in how we live our lives. And that will only be possible with the buy-in of communities and individuals, so we want the climate action fund to empower communities, industry, researchers, the public sector and citizens to take ownership of climate action efforts. The proposals include development of six high speed charging hubs on motorways capable of charging eight vehicles simultaneously, and additional chargers at 34 other locations. The Poolbeg District Heating System has the capacity to power 50,000 homes, while investment in the public lighting network will lead to a dramatic reduction in emissions and costs. The carbon savings of 200,000 tonnes a year represent a cut of some 0.33pc of national emissions. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said that no-one pretended that one announcement would solve Irelands climate problem, adding that even if the State reduced emissions to zero it would be a drop in the ocean, and that other actions were required. Asked if all ministers should drive hybrid or electric cars, to demonstrate leadership, he said he had asked if hybrid cars could be provided to the Taoiseach, Tanaiste, President and Justice Minister, all of whom have garda drivers. Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe added that most ministers leased their cars, and he looked forward to examining the hybrid opportunity when renewing the lease on his vehicle. British Prime Minister Theresa May has said her party's confidence and supply agreement with the DUP continues for now. However, speaking in Belfast yesterday, she declined to clarify if the 1bn (1.127bn) promised for the North in the deal will still be paid if the arrangement collapses. The DUP is set to vote against Mrs May's Brexit deal on December 11, which would breach the agreement. Meanwhile, DUP leader Arlene Foster has described any suggestion that her party's support for the Brexit deal could be bought with further major investment pledges as "offensive". The two held talks at Stormont House yesterday as Mrs May paid a whistle-stop visit to the North. At a press conference following the meeting, Mrs Foster was asked whether another "bribe" would win her party round - a reference to the 1bn secured by the DUP as part of the confidence and supply agreement. "We didn't take a bribe in the first place - the confidence and supply agreement was for all of the people of Northern Ireland," she replied. "Some of that money has already been delivered. We look forward to the rest being delivered for all of the people of Northern Ireland." Mrs Foster added: "It is very offensive to raise this in terms of money. We are talking about the constitutional and economic long-term future of Northern Ireland - so the answer is no." She suggested opposition to Mrs May's deal at Westminster was "coalescing" around the Irish Border backstop proposal - the controversial measure that could see Northern Ireland operate under a different regulatory regime to the rest of the UK. "So if she ditches the backstop there is every reason to believe that this withdrawal agreement could go through," she added. All five of the main Stormont parties held talks with Mrs May yesterday. The prime minister also visited Queen's University where she met 60 people from the world of business, education, religion and wider civic society. It's understood that around 430m of the promised 1bn has already been delivered. Asked whether the remainder would still be coming to the North, Mrs May side-stepped the question and simply made a plea to all MPs intent on voting down the draft deal. "Every MP needs to think about the national interest, about delivering on the Brexit vote, but also on the impact their decision will have on jobs and their constituents' livelihoods," she said. While she confirmed the confidence and supply agreement continues for now, she was less clear on its future after December 11. Future "I will be talking to my DUP colleagues as I will be talking to colleagues across the House of Commons of the importance of this vote for the future of the UK. "I think it's incumbent on every member of parliament to think about the impact of that decision they will be taking on their constituents and on their constituents' futures." Meanwhile, asked whether she would support Sinn Fein MPs taking their seven Westminster seats to back her Brexit deal, she insisted it was a matter for Sinn Fein to decide upon. "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. The advocate general of the European Union's top court will give his opinion on December 4 as to whether Britain can unilaterally reverse Brexit, the court said on Wednesday. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) held an urgent hearing in a case about whether Britain can revoke its notice to withdraw from the EU under Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty without agreement of the other 27 states. The ECJ said Advocate General Manuel Campos Sanchez-Bordona, whose advice is usually followed by judges, would deliver his decision on December 4. That is the same day that the British parliament is due to begin a five-day debate on Prime Minister Theresa May's draft divorce bill before lawmakers vote on December 11. Britain is due to exit the EU on March 29, two years after London served notice in line with a June, 2016 vote to leave, but the fate of Brexit remains up in the air. Many in May's Conservative Party as well as opposition lawmakers have said they will vote her deal down, raising the prospect of Britain leaving the bloc without any agreement. Read More The Scottish politicians behind the ECJ case hope that if the court rules in their favour, it would pave the way for a potential second referendum, giving voters the option to remain in the EU. May has ruled out any second vote and the lawyer for the British government called on the ECJ not to get involved in domestic politics and to dismiss the case as hypothetical. Both the European Commission and the Council of the European Union accepted that Article 50 could be revoked, but they argued that it could only be done with the unanimous permission of the remaining EU states. No date has yet been given for the decision of the Luxembourg justices although the court said it would come quickly. While the advocate general's opinion is non-binding, his advice is usually followed in the majority of cases. AIB has confirmed plans to move to Heuston South Quarter. In a statement the bank said that employees would start to move into the building in Dublin 8 in the first half of next year. AIB has also agreed to complete the exit of its current primary location, Bankcentre in Ballsbridge, by the end of 2020. Meanwhile the bank said its corporate headquarters building in Molesworth Street is "progressing as planned", with expected occupancy in the first half of 2019. Earlier this month Facebook confirmed that it would move its EMEA headquarters to the site of the AIB Bank Centre in Ballsbridge. The move will see Facebook quadruple its current floorspace to 870,000 square foot across a number of buildings, with capacity for an additional 5,000 employees. 'Ms Madden explained that Veterinary Ireland is working on the issue of retaining vets and improving working conditions' A shortage of vets is leading to succession issues in rural practices and the problem needs to be addressed, it has been warned. Helena Madden, chair of the Recent Graduate Working Group (RGWG) of Veterinary Ireland, said the absence of young vets was a serious problem for the sector. The 2018 Veterinary Practice Survey Report published last week stated that almost half of survey respondents would consider selling their practice to an international corporation, but very few have started planning for it. While Ms Madden questioned the geographical spread of this report, she said it has shone a light on succession issues facing rural veterinary practices. She said many young vets were reluctant to take posts in rural practices because of longer working weeks and poor rostering, lower salaries and an absence of upskilling opportunities. She said many vets were considering selling to corporations because there was a shortage of young vets to take over the practice. "I was in work when I heard the survey referred to on the radio and although the findings were not positive, what is positive is that it brought the issues facing vets to public attention," she said. "For the succession of practices to succeed, there needs to be another vet to take over and that's not always there. The option to sell to a corporation is sometimes easier. And one can see how it is tempting, but independent vets are something to be proud of, and they provide a unique service which would be sad to lose," said Ms Madden, who works a mixed-animal practice in North Cork. Disillusion Ms Madden said that financing the purchase of a practice was also becoming more difficult for young vets due to the increased overhead costs of running the business. She said that young vets have become disillusioned with long working hours of mixed practice and are enticed abroad by better employment conditions and opportunities to upskill. The veterinary representative said the structure of practices in Ireland needed to change in order to tackle these challenges. Ms Madden explained that Veterinary Ireland is working on the issue of retaining vets and improving working conditions. "It's definitely an issue that Veterinary Ireland is aware of. We want to give a voice to young vets because it can be quite isolating in rural practices. There's lots of pressure and responsibility, and you can feel quite alone sometimes," she said. "Vets are entitled to further training and the same employment rights as everyone else. This has to be worked on. There's plenty of vets out there with a desire to work," Ms Madden maintained. "I'm not saying this can change in the morning, but efforts have to be made to ensure conditions improve for vets." The Leader of Opposition in the state Legislative Council demanded that Rs 50,000 per hectare be given to the drought-affected farmers. Mumbai: The state Council was adjourned for the day Tuesday over the issue of Maratha reservation. Dhananjay Munde, the Leader of Opposition in the state Legislative Council, alleged that the government had cheated farmers with respect to the loan waiver, crop insurance scheme and pink bollworm. As members of the opposition parties reached the well of the house, the proceedings of the house were adjourned twice and then for the entire day. While moving the adjournment notice in the Council Tuesday, Mr Munde said that until relief was provided to drought-affected farmers and reservation given to the Maratha, Dhangar and Muslim communities, they would not allow the upper house to function. He criticised the government over the loan waiver scheme, crop insurance scheme and pink bollworm. The Leader of Opposition in the state Legislative Council demanded that Rs 50,000 per hectare be given to the drought-affected farmers. A bill for the Maratha reservation and a report of the state backward classes commission and TISS be tabled. However, Council chairman Ramraje Nimbalkar rejected the adjournment notice. Revenue minister and leader of the upper house Chandrakant Dada Patil said that the Opposition felt that if the reservation was given to the Maratha community, the ruling party would be given credit and hence, it was creating hurdles in the functioning of the house. Amid this, members of the opposition parties as well as members of the treasury benches raised slogans in the house. Replying to the queries, Mr Patil said that till now, no report of the state backward classes commission had been tabled before the house. Over the farmers issue, he said that the government had given compensation to the farmers from time to time. He also said that the government had claimed that Rs 11 crore would be given to the farmers whose crops had been affected by pink bollworm. Benjamin Franklin once wrote But in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. Beef farmers can safely believe the certainty of having Liver Fluke in their stock come this time of the year. Every year, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) in collaboration with Met Eireann advises farmers of the predicted risk of disease caused by liver fluke infection in livestock. Last week they issued their forecast as follows Due to the dry weather conditions experienced in many parts of the country this summer, there is a moderate risk of liver fluke-related disease this winter for the north, west, south-west and midlands, with a lower disease risk expected for the east and parts of the south. However, farmers in these lower risk areas should still remain vigilant for signs of disease. This forecast is based on meteorological data gathered between May and October by Met Eireann. In the November 2018 edition of the Teagasc Beef Newsletter, Pearse Kelly, Head Of Drystock outlined how you might effectively control liver fluke and to be certain the product you use has worked. There are a huge number of products effective at killing them, farmers are aware of the parasites for decades and most treat their cattle at housing for them. However, every year we still see a high percentage of livers in meat processing factories from housed cattle that have live adult liver fluke in them. Why is this? There are a number of possible reasons, including: using a control product that only kills a proportion of the fluke in the animal; underestimating the weight of the animal and not giving enough product; incorrect treatment procedure; and, using a product that the fluke are resistant to. When purchasing a product to kill liver fluke, the most important question to ask is: When should I use this product so that it is most effective? Most of the flukicides that are for sale only control older immature liver flukes and/or adult fluke. This means that any fluke that have been picked up over the previous six to eight weeks or so will not be killed. A second treatment for fluke will then be necessary. Triclabendazole-based products will kill much younger fluke, but Animal Health Ireland reports that resistance to them appears quite widespread in Ireland. To be sure that a fluke control programme has actually worked, it is a good idea to send off dung samples for testing eight weeks after you have given the last treatment. Only then will you know for certain whether or not it has been effective. To quote Franklin once again If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail! Now is the time to implement a dosing plan, in partnership with your vet to effectively control fluke in your herd. Choose your product carefully, administer it correctly and check dung samples to know for certain if job is done. Sean Doorley is a Teagasc Beef & Sheep Adviser in Longford Advance payments of 15m of the Sheep Welfare Scheme are being paid to farmers this week. The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed, announced that advance payments under year 2 Sheep Welfare Scheme have commenced on time this week to all eligible farmers. The Minister confirmed the rate for the advance payment was again set at 85pc. The Scheme is co-funded by the European Union as part of Irelands Rural Development Programme, 2014-2020. Minister Creed indicated that a total of 15.1m is now issuing to some 18,600 farmers, providing a significant financial boost to the individual farmers and the sheep sector in general. Minister Creed urged any farmers with outstanding queries to respond to the Department immediately in order to facilitate payment. The Minister concluded that year three of the Scheme will be opening in the coming weeks and his Department will be in contact with farmers shortly to advise them of this. "At that stage, there will also be an opportunity for new entrants to the sector to join the scheme. I reckon you need a master's degree in marketing to understand what factory procurement officers are telling you about the retail sheep meat market. While all factories lifted their quotes yesterday morning on the back of reducing numbers, speaking with some of those tasked with passing on the message, you would think the whole job was going backwards. They've decided, at last, to give a bit more to the primary producer, but why make it sound as if it's the Irish farmers' fault that the retail market is "very difficult" abroad? All of that aside, it's a tale this week of good news overall with lamb prices up by 5-10c/kg and cull ewes better in some plants by 10c/kg. Trade at the marts last week also pushed on well, helped by reduced numbers and factory demand. The big movers this week are the two ICM plants who added 10c/kg to their official quote, bringing them onto 4.75+5c/kg QA. Both Kepak Athleague and Kildare Chilling added 5c/kg to their lamb price, bringing their quotes up to 4.80+5c/kg QA in the case of Kepak with Kildare on 4.80+10c/kg QA. Dawn Ballyhaunis were unable to offer a quote. On the cull ewe side, prices rose by 10c/kg with Kepak and the two ICMs yesterday, to 2.60/kg and 2.50/kg, respectively. Kildare Chilling were unchanged at 2.50+10c/kg QA. John Brooks of the ICSA was upbeat about the overall outlook in the run-up to Christmas when I spoke with him, ahead of his representations to the Green Party to push for proper marketing and returns to sheep farmers for wool. "5.00/kg for lamb was the line in the sand for producers this autumn; that line has been reached and may yet be breached this week," he said. IFA national sheep chairman Sean Dennehy reported 4.90-5.05/kg for lamb as having already having been paid. Returning to my difficulties with marketing speak, try this from the UK's Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board on possible British sheep market development from 2019 on into 2020. "How trade develops each year will largely depend upon global market conditions as well as any Brexit deal," it said "Should UK imports rise, which will largely depend upon changes in global demand and changes in production Down Under, then this could either increase supplies available for consumption or support an increase in exports. "Any rise in imports could also potentially be used to build UK frozen stocks back up as they continue to be reported as low." Marts 1 Roscrea As numbers continue to ease back, and with well-fleshed lambs not overly plentiful here, trade was described by manager Michael Harty as being "good overall". The best of the heavy lambs was a batch averaging 55kg that sold for 115/hd, with those from 51-52kg making in general 104-107/hd. The store trade saw a top call of 90/hd in the 39-40kg bracket. Michael commented: "The good weather has been a great help to sheep men." 2 New Ross Jim Bushe reported a cracking trade at his sale yesterday as strong demand combined with a shortage of factory and butcher types drove prices for heavy lambs to 115/hd, as in the case of a batch that weighed in at 52kg. On the store side, the top price of the day went to a batch of 31kg lambs who sold for 90/hd. Stores in general, however, sold for 75-85/hd. On the factory side prices ranged from 80-95/hd for 35-40kg lambs. 3 Ballinrobe Numbers and trade remained steady here. Farmer demand led the store trade to settle from 64-88/hd, while among the heavier butcher types, prices ranged from 64-92/hd. Ewe lambs sold from 85-92/hd. 4 Delvin The sale here also saw smaller numbers, with Thomas Potterton reporting the top of the factory lambs as being 36.5kg at 84/hd. Other prices included 12 at 38.5kg selling for 82.50/kg, and 11 at 36.5/kg who got the call at 72.50/hd. Thomas reckoned the good weather is worth money, concluding that with store men buying lambs to clean off grass "there could be a twist in the tale"in the New Year for those buying stores now. 5 Manorhamilton This was a smaller sale, with Ivan Moffitt commenting that the trade overall has "come on a lot in the last while". Among the fat lambs, prices ranged from 94-108/hd, with Ivan noting "it is a lot easier to get 100/hd than a few weeks ago". The store trade was also improved, with 70-80/hd the general run. While there weren't many cull ewes about, those that did show met with a strong trade and reached a top of 86/hd. 6 Carnew Lambs over 50kg sold from 106-115/hd, with those from 45-49kgs making 98-112/hd. Among the store types, lambs over 35kg made 80-93/hd and lighter types made 65-83/hd. Sugar production in the European Union could drop sharply in 2019/20 as farmers consider slashing plantings and switching to other crops amid depressed prices, industry participants said on Tuesday. European producers are not planting extra beet area and some are turning to other crops offering better returns, Martin Todd, managing director at LMC International, told the International Sugar Organizations annual seminar in London. Growers are finding beets are no longer the attractive crop it always was, Todd told attendees. The ISO has forecast the EU will produce 17.9 million tonnes of sugar in the 2018/19 season, down from 19.7 million in the previous season. The inter-governmental body has not yet issued a forecast for 2019/20. Expand Close A farmer operates a tractor and a seeder in his field to sow sugar beets in the village of Cramoisy, France, March 27, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A farmer operates a tractor and a seeder in his field to sow sugar beets in the village of Cramoisy, France, March 27, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo Historically, farmers typically planted extra area to ensure they are able to meet their contracts with processors if weather conditions dented their crop. Youve seen people tighten up on area to deliver as near to contract as possible, said Michael Sly, chairman of Britains National Farmers Union. Sugar beet used to be one of the best paying crops in the rotation. Thats unlikely to be the case going forward. German farmers have reduced plantings by 7 percent in 2018 and could cut back further next season if prices remain depressed, said Hans-Joerg Gebhard, chairman the countrys sugar industry association WVZ We have to bring down production, Gebhard said. We have to bring it down 20 percent at least - and hopefully then we will face better prices. A ban on neonicotinoids, a type of insecticide that has been restricted by the European Union to protect bees, could also dent output from the bloc. Expand Close A French farmer walks in his sugar beet field in Epinoy, France, August 13, 2018. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A French farmer walks in his sugar beet field in Epinoy, France, August 13, 2018. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol Eric Laine, president of French beet growers group CGB, said yields could be cut by up to 50 percent in the case of a severe outbreak of pests. We need these plant protection products to ensure the crop survives, Laine said. At the moment, thats the only solution we have. The European Union scrapped production quotas in October 2017, allowing producers to grow as much beet as they wanted for the first time since 2006 and leading to a surge in output. The bloc hoped the liberalisation of the market would help the EU regain its mantle as a net exporter to the world market. However, a global glut pushed world sugar prices to their lowest in more than a decade this year, throwing the European sector into crisis. The reform has been a disaster - for our balance sheet, for the growers, said Giovanni Tamburini, vice president of CoProB in Italy. Our aim should be to correct this situation. The Convention Centre, Dublin where Sunday's Euro 2020 qualifying draw will take place Ireland welcomed 13,600 business delegates in October, generating an additional 20.8m in economic revenue, according to Failte Ireland. Commenting on the latest travel figures from the Central Statistics Office, Failte Ireland CEO Paul Kelly said that business tourism "continues to be fundamental" in the countrys seasonal growth in tourism. This is because conference delegates tend to arrive outside of the summer months. Overall and trips to Ireland were up 7.1pc in the first ten months of 2018 compared to the same period in 2017, with total visits now at over 9.1 million for the year. Irish residents' trips overseas during the same period increased by 4pc. Looking specifically at October and the total number of trips to Ireland by overseas residents increased by 7.3pc to 933,500 - an overall increase of 63,200 compared to twelve months earlier. Trips by residents of Britain increased by 0.1pc to 322,700, while trips by residents of European countries other than Britain increased by 5.4pc to 328,600 during October. There was a big jump in trips by residents of US and Canada to Ireland during the month, which increased by 20.2pc to 228,900. Meanwhile, the total number of overseas trips made by Irish residents during October increased 6.2pc to 716,300. "We are coming to the end of what has been the best year ever for the Irish tourism industry," Mr Kelly said. "This year the sector has again made another significant increase in its contribution to the Irish economy, and Im delighted to see such stellar growth continuing into October." He added that feedback from the industry is that October has been a "particularly strong month" in terms of performance. The Obama Plaza and the Galway Plaza "contributed greatly" to the Supermac's group enjoying record profits and revenues last year. That is according to managing director Pat McDonagh who was commenting yesterday on new accounts showing that pre-tax profits at Supermac's (Holdings) Ltd last year increased by 37pc to 21.88m. Revenues surged by 15pc from 136.8m to 157.4m. Numbers directly employed by the group last year rose from 1,533 to 1,621. Staff costs rose from 32.12m to 34.7m. Mr McDonagh said that the group's two motorway plazas "contributed greatly to the increase in turnover and profits last year". He said: "The Obama plaza is going pretty well and the Galway plaza is performing strongly as well." Mr McDonagh has two further motorway plazas - at Ennis and Portaloise - in the planning process. Mr McDonagh said that he was "very happy" with how the business performed last year. The number of Supermac's outlets now totals 112 following new openings in Cork (three), Birr, Naas, Balbriggan and Donegal this year. He said that between franchised and owner-operated outlets, there are now 3,000 people employed at outlets. Mr McDonagh said revenues from outlets also increased substantially in 2017. Arising from the further expansion of the group this year, Mr McDonagh said that "I would be disappointed if revenues don't top 170m." But he said the business is facing into an uncertain 2019 as "there will be challenges right across the board." He said that this was due to the Vat increase along with the increase in the price of food, labour costs and utility costs. Mr McDonagh said that as a result of last summer's drought, the price of potato chips has increased by 25pc and he said that this will eat in to profits. Mr McDonagh said that Supermac's best selling products are Chicken Breast Sandwich and 5 Oz burger. Mr McDonagh said he is considering the business self-insuring itself. He said that the group's insurance premium pay out is 1m per annum. The group recorded post-tax profits of 18.47m after paying corporation tax of 3.4m. Shareholders funds last year totalled 103.2m and the cash pile rose from 10m to 15.9m. The profit takes account of non-cash depreciation costs of 4m. Staff costs last year rose from 32.12m to 34.7m. The accounts disclose that at the start of the year, the business owed Mr McDonagh 10.1m and 1.6m was repaid during the year leaving a balance of 8.5m owed to Mr McDonagh at year end. The business also paid 789,104 to Mr McDonagh concerning business premises leased from the Galway man. British software business Scisys has been admitted to trading in Dublin, making it the first Brexit refugee to list on the Irish Stock Exchange. Non-executive chairman Mike Love said the listing was "the final step in our Brexit contingency planning". The UKs exit from the EU has thrown doubt over British-listed firms access to European markets. Mr Love said Scisys wanted to "ensure that our business can continue our long-standing participation in both the UK and European markets." "By complementing our UK listing with a European one on Euronext we will also have continued access to sterling and euro pools of capital in a post Brexit environment." Firepower: UDG Healthcare CEO Brendan McAtamney says company has up to $500m to spend on acquisitions UDG Healthcare is hedged against Brexit and has the capacity to splurge between $400m and $500m (353m to 442m) on acquisitions across its European and US markets, according to CEO Brendan McAtamney. He said that there has been no impact on its activities in the UK as a result of the planned exit from the European Union next March, and despite the political upheaval that it has caused. UDG Healthcare operates two divisions, Ashfield, which focuses on the provision of communications, advisory and clinical services, and contract pharmaceutical packaging unit Sharp, which has facilities in Europe and the United States. "The comms business is going really well, both in the UK and in the US," Mr McAtamney told the Irish Independent. "In the UK, more than half of our clients are not actually in the UK - they're global clients," he said. "Our exposure to sterling from the UK is about 23pc of the group. And of that 23pc, about 50pc is from clients outside [the UK]. There's a big hedge there for whether it's a soft or a hard Brexit. We've got pretty good shelter to the upcoming Brexit." Mr McAtamney was speaking as UDG Healthcare released full-year results for its financial year that ended in September. It net revenue was 6pc higher at $1.1bn (971m) on a constant currency basis, while its operating profit was 12pc higher on the same basis, at $147.5m (130.2m). UDG said that its Ashfield business performed strongly in the year, with that unit's adjusted operating profit climbing 16pc to $98.4m (86.8m) on a constant currency basis as it was boosted by acquisitions. The communications and advisory part of Ashfield now accounts for 63pc of the unit's operating profit, compared to 20pc five years ago. Ashfield's commercial and clinical activities, where it provides contract sales and patient support services in 18 countries, fared less well, with net revenues declining 6pc to $448.2m (396m) and operating profit dropping 10pc to $36.3m (32m). The group's Sharp packaging business performed well, driven by the US. Revenue at the division rose 3pc to $311.1m (274.8m), while operating profit was up 11pc at $45.8m (40.4m). The European side of the business made a $1.1m operating loss. Is that it, now? Will the Government finally be able to get on with the business of rolling out broadband to more than one million people? Despite the green light afforded by the official audit report, there are still obstacles ahead. The Government hasn't actually yet signed off on the project. What happens now is that Richard Bruton's Department of Communications, via the Cabinet, has to declare the Granahan McCourt consortium a "preferred bidder". All things considered, this is likely to happen before Christmas. Then it's a relatively straight path to a formal contract binding the two parties, probably in January. It is only then that the building actually begins: sub-contractors start digging and laying fibre. But when will ordinary households and businesses benefit? The bidding consortium is understood to believe that at least some of those 540,000 households and rural businesses can be connected by the end of next year - it was pretty certain about this before the audit delay, but sources suggest it's still bullish on it. Officially, the Government will no longer give timelines, having been repeatedly burned by its own missed projections in the past. "It's only after a decision by Government that we'll be able to set out the timescales," said the Communications Minister. Cost might still be a factor. According to Peter Smyth's audit report, the Government has already turned Granahan McCourt down at least once on the overall subsidy proposal. The department "could not bring the potential subsidy likely to be sought on foot of the bidder's proposal to Government for approval" on one occasion, the report said, because the bidder was being "too conservative" on the number of households likely to initially use the service. However, that was at one point in time: the two sides are understood to have come closer on cost since then. Eir is arguably the biggest hurdle to a quick rollout. It owns most of the rural infrastructure. The NBP network has to be able to use some of it. But there's a standoff over it. Eir wants the going commercial rate, which has been in place since before the National Broadband Plan was a thing. Granahan McCourt, and some parts of the Government, say that we're in new circumstances and that demanding the usual commercial rate is ridiculous. The telecoms regulator, ComReg, might be the one to intervene, but it usually takes more than a year to come to any decision. Presuming there's no further hold-up politically, the main barrier to a 2019 rollout may now be a legal challenge from a rival operator, a go-slow from Eir or a contractual issue within the consortium. Emerging technologies that can remotely monitor the high seas will be crucial to enforcing a proposed deal to preserve the biological diversity of the world's oceans, researchers and campaigners said. Diplomats met in September at the United Nations in New York to begin negotiations on a legally binding treaty to protect ocean resources - with the aim of hashing out an agreement by 2020. Technologies like blockchain - the distributed ledger technology that underpins the bitcoin currency - could help enforce the new treaty by tracking fishing on the high seas and identifying illegal behaviour, said Dominic Waughray, head of the World Economic Forum's Centre for Global Public Goods. "If you take the law of the sea, you absolutely need that framework and negotiation, a set of principles, but how do you police and enforce it? Technology," he said, pointing to artificial intelligence as another way to monitor the oceans. The proposed treaty would cover the "high seas" - an area beyond the 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) that extends from each country's coastline into the ocean, as established by the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). On the high seas there are no universally recognised rules governing who can fish where and take how much - with illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing estimated to cost $23.5bn a year. A trial effort by conservation group WWF in the Pacific tuna industry sees fishermen tagging fish with a scannable code that is uploaded to a blockchain ledger, so businesses and customers can confirm the source of any given tuna for sale at a retailer. Such transparency will enable prospective buyers to avoid an ill-gotten catch, said Waughray. "Retailers recognise the need for clean, transparent supply chains," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. PATCHWORK STATUS QUO For Waughray, "oceans governance is the classic public good challenge." "We know we need it for a healthy ocean, but because nobody owns it ... we have a real problem," he said. Groups of countries have negotiated specific regulations for sections of international waters, like rules governing tuna fishing in the Pacific or fish stocks in the Atlantic between Greenland and Europe. But experts view that existing patchwork as inadequate to manage ecosystems in international waters. "A lot of these bodies have focused on resource extraction or how to divvy up what's there," said Liz Karan, senior manager for the high seas at the Pew Charitable Trusts, a non-profit organisation. "The hope of this new high seas treaty is to protect biodiversity beyond national boundaries and close these governance gaps," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Without a global deal, little has been accomplished by the piecemeal approach, Karan said. For example, nearly 10 years after north Atlantic island Bermuda spearheaded an effort to encourage collective management of the Sargasso Sea and protect its eel-rich seagrass, there are no binding measures in place, she added. Small Pacific island nations suffer the most from the existing system, Karan said, noting that the EEZs of countries like Kiribati, Nauru, and the Solomon Islands leave gaps for large-scale international fishing vessels to come in. "These areas are intensely fished by large, distant-water fishing fleets that have potential impacts on domestic fishing in those countries," Karan said. BLUE HELMETS AT SEA? It may take more than technology, though, to enforce any new rules, ocean experts said. "Either you extend the EEZs or you form this treaty and have security monitored by different countries, taking turns at which part of the sea they are going to regulate," said Daniela Fernandez, founder of the Sustainable Ocean Alliance, a network of youth advocates for ocean sustainability. "We have U.N. peacekeeping missions on the ground, why not have them on the ocean?" she said. For close observers of the negotiations like Karan, however, such a proposal seems far-fetched. "The resources (for ocean-based peacekeeping) would be immense and the countries that have been putting the most into the U.N. are walking backwards," Karan said. "In the current geopolitical climate that we're in, I don't see a pathway for countries to agree to blue helmets on the water." The NCP leader alleged that the government has no intention to give a reservation to the Maratha community. Mumbai: Opposition Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Tuesday alleged that the Devendra Fadnavis-led Maharashtra government was keeping senior ministers in the dark about the contents of the State Backward Class Commission (SBCC) report recommending quota for the Maratha community. Addressing a press conference at Press Room of the state Legislature on Tuesday, senior NCP leader and former deputy chief minister of Maharashtra Ajit Pawar, who was accompanied by leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil said that the government is hiding the reports from its ministers also. Mr Pawar said that it seems the ministers have also been kept in the dark. I have been briefed by various ministers including the senior ones, that they are also not aware of the reports, he claimed. Mr Vikhe-Patil asked, why is the government objecting for tabling the report of the Maratha community? The opposition has been demanding since the beginning of the winter session that the report of State Backward Class Committee should be tabled in the state Legislature. Earlier in the day, all party meeting had been called with the chief mi-nister Devendra Fadnavis. The NCP leader alleged that the government has no intention to give a reservation to the Maratha community. He also said that the chief minister or government does not give appropriate answers of the queries in the meeting. Mr Pawar also criticised Mr Fadnavis for his style of answering the questions. He said that the way the chief minister was replying in the House, seemed like it will lead to a fight bet-ween us (Opposition). Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange European markets slipped into the red yesterday as geopolitical events from Brexit to US President Trump's continuing trade war with China weighed on stocks. Shares in airlines including Ryanair and EasyJet declined as tour operator Thomas Cook plunged as much as 33pc after it issued a profit warning. A scorching summer in the UK proved disastrous for the operator after it beefed up its fleet and locked-in hotel rooms for demand that failed to materialise. The declines in airline stocks came even as oil continues a downward trend. It held firm yesterday, however, as traders await a G20 summit in Argentina this week before Opec meets next week. Analysts are hoping production will be cut. US stocks also declined yesterday after Mr Trump's threat to move ahead with additional tariffs on Chinese goods dampened hopes of resolving the trade spat at the upcoming summit. "The market remains in a fragile state and because of that anytime tariffs come into the picture you have worries," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York. "Investors are looking for some positive news out of the G20, but until there is a concrete announcement on tariffs, investors will remain jittery," he said. Ireland's Iseq Overall Index fell 1pc to 5,868. Ryanair declined almost 3pc to 11.88, while insurance group FBD lost 3.8pc to 9.50. Gainers included ferry operator Irish Continental, which added 4.5pc to 4.39. The UK's FTSE-100 was down 0.2pc. Germany's DAX declined 0.4pc and France's CAC-40 was 0.2pc lower. Brazil plans: Norwegian CEO Bjorn Kjos said the budget carrier may look to commence flights to Sao Paulo as well as Rio Budget carrier Norwegian Air plans to start flights between London and Rio de Janeiro in the spring to break what it said was a "monopoly" enjoyed by British Airways between the two cities. The route from London's Gatwick airport to Rio de Janeiro will start on March 31 and have four weekly flights, with fares starting at 1,200 reais (273) one way, Norwegian said on Tuesday. British Airways currently operates the Rio route without competition and shares the London to Sao Paulo route with LATAM Airlines Group. Norwegian chief executive Officer Bjorn Kjos said the airline might explore flights from Sao Paulo to London in the future. "That would be our next city," Mr Kjos said in a call with reporters. He added that the airline is not currently seeking to become a player in the domestic flight market within Brazil. Brazilian tourism minister Vinicius Lummertz said in September that Norwegian was interested in operating in the domestic market, which is dominated by just four airlines, Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes, Latam, Azul and Avianca Holdings. Brazilian law limits outside airlines from entering the domestic market because it bans foreign carriers from incorporating within the country and does not allow them to own more than 20pc of local airlines. Brazilian president Michel Temer, who is weeks away from leaving office, had vowed to do away with this rule but has not delivered on it. President-elect Jair Bolsonaro has not addressed the issue, though a bill allowing 100pc ownership of Brazilian airlines by foreign investors could pass Congress before the end of the year. British Airways is owned by International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG), which also owns about 4pc of Norwegian and has been courting the budget carrier for a possible takeover. IAG CEO Willie Walsh said earlier this month his company was still eyeing Norwegian but its interest was waning. (Reuters) Liz Nugent receives the Irish Independent Crime Fiction Book of the Year award from Rachel Dugan. Photo: Pat Bolger Women authors dominated the winners' list for the first time at the An Post Irish Book Awards. Among the list of winners last night were Liz Nugent, Sally Rooney, Emilie Pine and Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen. Expand Close Cecelia Ahern / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Cecelia Ahern Now in its 13th year, the ceremony took place at Dublin's Clayton Hotel and was attended by some of the country's top writers, publishers, booksellers and media personalities. Renowned Irish poet Thomas Kinsella received the Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award. Expand Close Happy Pear Brothers David and Stephen Flynn with Sabrina Van De Cotte. Picture: Frank McGrath / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Happy Pear Brothers David and Stephen Flynn with Sabrina Van De Cotte. Picture: Frank McGrath Liz Nugent won the Irish Independent Crime Fiction Book of the Year for 'Skin Deep', while Sally Rooney won the Eason Book Club Novel of the Year award for 'Normal People'. Authors of 'The Importance of Being Aisling', Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen took home the Specsavers Popular Fiction Book of the Year award. Meanwhile, Emilie Pine won the 'Sunday Independent' Newcomer of the Year for 'Notes to Self'. Commenting on this year's winners, chairperson of the awards Maria Dickenson said they demonstrate the breadth of quality writing in Ireland, right across the different genres. "It is also great to see so many female writers winning accolades this year. "Many of them, including Emilie Pine, Sarah Webb, Lynne Ruane, Cora Staunton and Sally Rooney, are all writing about what it means to be a modern woman in contemporary Ireland and it is striking that these authors used the art of writing to tell their stories in such a truthful and honest way," she added. Video of the Day RTE's Ryan Tubridy, who has recently published his new children's book, walked the red carpet at the awards and admitted to feeling like a "rookie" when it comes to writing. "I'm really only in the hallway of the house of writing. All the writers here are real writers." When Philip Roth died last May, a publisher friend of mine admitted a little sheepishly that she was sad because from now on, it would be impossible to publish books like his again. Portnoy's Complaint felt impolitic - even more so now than when it was banned in the first place. Her sadness wasn't an expression of nostalgia - people can still read Roth whenever they like. It was more: in the future, we'll never know how men think about sex because they won't be allowed to say. Readers will be quick to note that men have gone on record with their thoughts about sex for a couple of millennia, and that there is no shortage of material to consult. But the point is not the redress - a multiplicity of perspectives is incontrovertibly desirable; it's the vow of silence. It's worth pausing over the fact that when two very dissimilar titans of cinema died this week, they were linked because they were also the male authors of two of the most famous sex scenes in the movies. What are we to make, in the Time's Up era, of those much-discussed moments in Bernardo Bertolucci's Last Tango In Paris and in Nicholas Roeg's Don't Look Now? Though produced within a year of each other (in 1972 and 1973 respectively), they tell stories of human interactions so distinct from one another that it's hard to imagine natural grounds for comparison. Except that they are both built on grief. Don't Look Now is about a married couple (played by Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland) whose young daughter has drowned. The famous sex scene, which takes place in a hotel in Venice, is tender, melancholy and intercut with its immediate consoled aftermath, in which they dress, smiling to themselves, and leave for dinner. By absolute contrast, the sex in Last Tango In Paris begins brutally and anonymously and continues as advertised, until the man (Marlon Brando) wants to be known, and his renewed advances are violently rejected by the woman (Maria Schneider). The brutality of the sex - seen from the man's perspective - comes in the wake of his wife's suicide. Expand Close Bernardo Bertolucci regretted the butter scene in Last Tango / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Bernardo Bertolucci regretted the butter scene in Last Tango That's a key detail in any thinking about the depiction of sex after #MeToo. Because although Last Tango is famous for being a film about sex, it's actually a film about a damaged man, with sex in it. If its male gaze is undeniable, that's because it corresponds exactly to the story told and its intended point of view. About 15 years ago, a book was published called The Joy Of Writing Sex. It's a guide for fiction writers, and is designed to show how to write sex scenes - with examples, and advice, from novelists such as John Updike and Joyce Carol Oates. But it contains much less technical instruction than the book after which it's named because its main thesis is this: a sex scene has to show the reader something - something about character, or something that will move the plot forward. Sex in fiction isn't an end in itself; it's part of the language in which something is said. In life, that might be true or not. But in a book, if nothing is said, it has to be not-said for a reason. Well-written gratuitous sex is telling us something about the people engaged in it; gratuitous writing about sex is pointless. Exactly the same principle applies to film. Not everyone will be amused by the submissive sex in Secretary, or can bear to watch The Piano Teacher. But there's no denying that they are stories about self-harm told through sex. If Roeg and Bertolucci are known for their sex scenes, it's because they're known for their storytelling. The scenes exist in context - if they didn't, they'd be porn. And in these two particular films, the sex scenes are there to indicate the difficulty of the rest. Expand Close Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland in Dont Look Now / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland in Dont Look Now Video of the Day There are narratives in pornography too, of course, but they tend to be fairly restricted. Part of the purpose is to obviate the need for a wider story, and its attendant complication. Whereas in a good cinematic sex scene, the lives of the characters infect the detail. I have yet to investigate whether a porn video exists in which the characters have sex on top of a copy of The New York Review Of Books, but my hunch is that there isn't one. In Don't Look Now, only the soundtrack masks the rustle of the literary journal beneath their naked bodies. Equally distinct in these two films is the power dynamic between the protagonists. In Don't Look Now, there is an enormous equality of feeling. That's what is expressed in the scene - the couple's shared grief, their mutual need for consolation, the love for each other that was present before the pain arrived. In Last Tango In Paris, the power lies - for most of the film - with the man. After the death of Maria Schneider, an interview surfaced in which Bertolucci spoke about the methods he employed when filming the infamous 'butter scene'. In that scene, Brando forces himself on Schneider - she shouts "No! No!", emphatically - and has anal sex with her, using butter as a lubricant. There's no grey area: Schneider's character, who has turned up at the apartment for a tryst with him, is humiliated and angry and cries throughout. When it was made, the sex was simulated. But Schneider, who was 19 at the time, always said she felt manipulated by Bertolucci, and in the interview that came to light, he admitted that he hadn't told her what was about to take place because he wanted to film her immediate response. Clearly, it was not good; Bertolucci said it was not good. He said he had always felt guilty. Perhaps the most discomfiting detail in his account is not that he was a manipulative director, but that he and Brando saw the butter at breakfast, knew instinctively what they wanted and didn't tell Schneider. The ganging up, and the male fantasy understood wordlessly, are undeniably problematic. But what happens behind the scenes and what's depicted on screen are not to be conflated. Nasty stories can be told happily, and empowering tales can be produced with ill-treatment. The examples I've used here were all made by men. As more women are behind the lens, perspectives will proliferate, and it's important to change the numbers. In the meantime, we'd do well to keep an eye on our own inclination toward censorship; filling the world with things not-to-know, not-to-say, not-to-understand runs counter to the purpose of acts of imagination. (c Telegraph) Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021] Mortal Engines author Philip Reeve has said that stupidity on the march everywhere and that political calm is over. The writers work has now been turned into a film produced by Peter Jackson and the creators of The Lord Of The Rings, which Tolkien fan Reeve has relished. Reeve said his novel, which deals with an oppressive world shaped by war and ecological disaster, was not created as a piece of political pamphleteering, but that its themes are more relevant now than when it was written. The book was drafted in the 1990s, which have been described by the author as a sensible time before the current era of advancing stupidity This December, join the rebellion. #MortalEngines in theaters December 14. pic.twitter.com/LjJdkXvMym Mortal Engines (@mortal_engines) November 8, 2018 Speaking at the London premiere of Mortal Engines, the author said: I didnt set out to write a message or a sermon. Its interesting to see the things that people do project onto it. I was writing this back in the 90s which now seems a time of extraordinary calm and sensibleness, and now stupidity is on the march everywhere. It does feel more prescient now unfortunately. The writer was delighted to join the company of Tolkien in having his work adapted by the creators of the Lord Of The Rings films, and has shed light on why his book focuses on a a fictional London. He said: Its sort of ridiculous really, I guess what started me writing really was being eight or nine and having Lord Of The Rings read to me by my parents for the first time. Now you know, my book is getting the same treatment. Its ridiculous. I lived in Brighton when was growing up,I lived in Brighton when I started writing the story. Maybe its this sense of this massive thing at the end of the railway line waiting to swallow my home town that set me off. Florence + The Machine and Foo Fighters added to Sziget festival line-up (Ben Birchall/PA) Florence + The Machine and Foo Fighters have been added to the star-studded line-up for Hungarys Sziget festival, which has been described as Europes answer to Glastonbury. The British indie band and the US rockers will join previously announced headliner Ed Sheeran, as well as more than 100 other acts. Manchester-based pop-rock group The 1975, alternative duo Twenty One Pilots and DJ Martin Garrix have also been added to the festivals main headline line-up. Expand Close Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters (Yui Mok/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters (Yui Mok/PA) Other acts confirmed for the music event include The Verves Richard Ashcroft, punk rockers Frank Carter And The Rattlesnakes and pop act Chvrches. More than half a million people attended Sziget in 2018, making it the worlds fifth-biggest festival. It is held on the 108-hectare Obuda Island on the Danube in northern Budapest and more than 1,000 artists played the seven-day festival earlier this year, including US rapper Kendrick Lamar, Gorillaz and Arctic Monkeys. Sziget returns for another seven-day run from August 7-13 2019. Robbie Henshaw and Sharon Shannon with his sisters Kate, Alison and Emily (back row) and dad Tony Leinster and Ireland rugby star Robbie Henshaw has lined out for a team photo with a difference after joining his family for a special collaboration with traditional music star Sharon Shannon. The 25-year-old centre, from Athlone, comes from a family steeped in traditional Irish music heritage and they joined forces with Shannon to record an album, The Secret Sessions, in aid of South Westmeath Hospice. The hospice provides services and support to patients and families in the Westmeath and Roscommon areas. "Music has been a huge part of my life since a very young age," said Henshaw. Expand Close Robbie Henshaw (Brian Lawless/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Robbie Henshaw (Brian Lawless/PA) "Sharon Shannon was a musician I always looked up to and it is really special to have the chance to play tunes with her on this album." Sharon knew Ted Quinn, who had played in a band with Billy Henshaw, Robbie's granddad. When Ted's wife Ann passed away a few years back, he and the Henshaw family wanted to make a CD to raise funds for the hospice that cared for Ann during her illness. The album was recorded in a day at Bressie's Camden Studios in Dublin and will be available on iTunes and in record shops nationwide. Speaking about her involvement with the album, Shannon said: "Ted Quinn and his family have been friends of mine for many years. "Ted invited me to a session at a lovely country pub called The Three Jolly Pigeons outside Athlone early last year, and this was my first meeting with the Henshaw family. Video of the Day "It was a great music session and seeing the whole family involved reminded me of growing up with my own family in a similar musical environment. "I was delighted to be able to offer help. We rehearsed a few times in the summer during gaps in my touring and rest periods for Robbie between his Leinster and Ireland commitments. "We eventually recorded the whole album in one day at Bressie's studio in Dublin. The Henshaws are all great musicians and it's been a privilege to be involved in such a good, fun project for such a worthy cause." The Secret Sessions will be available from this Saturday. Dorian Cowland, who has written books for children, was in court for allegedly breaching a sex offenders order A CHILDRENS author who allegedly breached a sex offenders order has been refused bail after gardai argued that he posed a flight risk. Dorian Cowland (69) is also alleged to have used a fake Facebook profile to search the names of injured parties connected to a previous case. The kids book writer who uses a number of aliases, including his professional name PJ Cormack appeared before a sitting of Wexford District Court yesterday morning charged with contravening a sex offender order, which was put in place by the circuit court on July 17. His house was initially searched last month as part of a routine inspection before he was charged yesterday and brought to court. Objecting to bail, Garda John Cleary said that the defendant was a flight risk as he had recently acquired a new Irish passport on September 20 and had also been in contact with the Indian embassy about obtaining a passport. EXAMINED Gda Cleary told the court that on October 13, as part of a routine inspection at Mr Cowlands home, two computer devices were examined. A programme was allegedly discovered on the computer which updates every 24 hours and hides the previous days internet search. On November 1, a warrant was obtained for the two computers to be seized. A later search of the computer by a specialist garda found that a Facebook profile with the name Paddy Fitzgerald was being used to search the names of injured parties related to a previous case Mr Cowland was involved in, the court heard. This Facebook account had been active since September, according to gardai. Gda Cleary told the court that the defendant had previously received a 16-month prison term at Warwick Crown Court in the UK for distributing indecent images of children. The garda said the computer search history showed that Mr Cowland had also enquired about properties in France, where he had previously lived. I believe he is a flight risk, Gda Cleary told the court. It was also told that Mr Cowland has plenty of means. Gda Cleary said that he arrested the accused at 7.27am yesterday at his home in Knocknavey, The Ballagh, near Enniscorthy, under Section 22 of the Sex Offenders Act 2001. He was later charged at 9.06am but made no reply. Defence counsel for Mr Cowland argued that his client had no history of breaching bail conditions, and that he was offering to put up a substantial amount of money as a bond. After the judge queried how much was meant by substantial, the court heard that Mr Cowland was offering 5,000, and more if required. In cross-examination, gardai accepted that the blocker on the accuseds computer could have been there before the sex offenders order was in place. DELETING However, Gda Cleary said the Act outlines that Mr Cowland is not to have any device capable of deleting or containing history of use. Earlier in the hearing, part of the sex offenders order had been read out by gardai. It stated that Mr Cowland cannot have any unsupervised communication with a person under 17 and that he cannot have any device capable of storing digital images. Gardai also said that Dorian Cowland is prevented from using any name other than Patrick Joseph Cormack, Patrick Cormack, PJ Cormack and Paul Curran for purposes for work as an author or film-maker. Dressed is a brown suit jacket and dark trousers, the defendant did not address the court during the bail application hearing but spoke with his defence counsel on a number of occasions. Judge Gerard Naughton said he was refusing bail on the grounds that the defendant had inquired about an Indian passport, that he has a new Irish passport and that he was searching for property in France having previously resided there. 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 come 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 the outcome of the full hearing. The application opened before the High Court yesterday 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. In a sworn statement, Mr Gallagher, chief executive of Clyde Real Estate, disputes this claim and said the temperatures had been recorded by experts as being quite suitable and acceptable. Nokia says it had complained about excessively hot and cold temperatures at the premises since 2016. Clyde, in its defence, says it is in the process of replacing the former obsolete HVAC system at the premises which is due for delivery in early January and will be installed as part of ongoing works to the premises. The hearing continues. A woman has told a court she saw red and her 'maternal instincts' kicked in when three gardai tried to arrest her son. Mary Finnegan (63) tried to interfere with the arrest of her son and kicked out at one garda, hit another on the wrist and shin, and struck a third officer in the back of the head in the early hours of August 6. The mother of two claimed she had been taking prescribed sleeping tablets and went out for the evening and only had one drink - causing her to react the way she did. She worked all her life but retired three years ago, is "very embarrassed" and "couldn't believe" she behaved that way on the night, Balbriggan District Court heard. The defendant, of St Catherine's Park in Rush, North County Dublin, pleaded guilty to assaulting Garda Arron Shanahan, Garda Aidan O'Halloran and Garda Kevin Fitzpatrick on August 26 last at Upper Main Street in Rush. She has no previous convictions. Sergeant Eoin McDonnell gave evidence that gardai attended Main Street at approximately 2am in an attempt to arrest the defendant's son. "The defendant then interfered with the arrest of her son and assaulted three gardai," said Sgt McDonnell. "She kicked out at one garda, struck another on the wrist and shin and struck a third garda in the back of the head." He said the three gardai were "not seriously injured" and were able to resume their duties a short time later. Defence solicitor Fiona D'Arcy said her client, who has two sons aged 35 and 32, is "very embarrassed". "She has prepared three letters of apology for the gardai which have been handed over to the sergeant," she added. Ms D'Arcy said the defendant went out on the night to socialise but had been taking prescribed sleeping tablets and "only had one drink". "Because of the way her son was behaving he was arrested. She saw red and her maternal instincts kicked in," Ms D'Arcy said. The defendant has "worked all her life and retired at 60," she added. "She couldn't believe the way she behaved in the way she did. She is normally a peaceful citizen and her retirement has been destroyed by this for the past 15 months." Judge Paula Murphy warned the defendant that the offences "carry a headline sentence of 12 months" and ordered a pre-sentencing probation report before adjourning the case to next year. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 28) Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said there is a need to tighten coordination between the coast guards of the Philippines and China after a Filipino TV network crew was barred by the Chinese from filming at Scarborough Shoal. "Now it seems it is necessary for a tighter coordination between two coast guards because what they are patrolling, the Philippine and the Chinese coastguards, are not conflict areas but conflicted areas," Locsin said during his confirmation hearing Wednesday. The newly-confirmed foreign affairs chief said the coordination is necessary to avoid provocations from either side in the West Philippine Sea. A video posted November 22 showed the crew of GMA-7's Reporters Notebook being told off by Chinese Coast Guard personnel at the shoal, known locally as Panatag. Senators have called on the government to protest China's actions. The shoal is one of the features being claimed by China and the Philippines in the West Philippine Sea -- the portion of the South China Sea encompassing Manila's 200 nautical-mile exclusive economic zone. In the same hearing, Locsin reiterated the Philippines is not giving up its sovereign rights over areas it in the South China Sea. "It is not true that we will waive this right. We do not waive a single inch of what is given to us in the arbitral award in the international law," he said. In June, a video was published showing the Chinese coast guard taking the catch of Filipino fishermen. The oil refinery project proposed to come up at Nanar village in Ratnagiri district has been facing stringent opposition. Mumbai: In a decision that is likely to provide relief to anti-refinery activists in Nanar, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday stated that the state government has stayed the land acquisition process for the project. Speaking in the Legislative Assembly, Mr Fadnavis said that the decision to stay the land acquisition for the proposed plant was taken after consulting Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray. The state government has not issued any new notice for land acquisition. After talks with the Sena president, the entire process has been stayed, he said. The issue was raised by Opposition leader Radha-krishna Vikhe-Patil, who said that police at Azad Maidan manhandled a journalist from an Engli-sh daily on Tuesday night while covering an agitation of anti-Nanar protesters against the upcoming refinery project. Replying to this, Mr Fadnavis said he would seek information in this regard and take appropriate action. The Shiv Sena has been opposing the Nanar refinery project claiming that it is against the interest of the farmers and would destroy ecology in Ratnagiri district. The oil refinery project proposed to come up at Nanar village in Ratnagiri district has been facing stringent opposition. The anti-Nanar protesters created a flutter in the state Legislative Assembly as they raised slogans against the project after entering the visitors gallery. When the House proceedings were on, four protesters, including two women, suddenly shouted slogans like Ekach Jidd, Refinery Radd and Refinery Hatva, Konkan Vachva and demanded cancellation of land acquisition for the project. The protesters were detained by the Vidhan Bhavan security. Shiv Sena, whose stronghold is the Konkan region, has been opposing the project vehemently, saying that it is against the interest of farmers and would destroy Ratnagiri districts ecology. In April this year, senior Sena leader and industries minister Subhash Desai had announced in Ratnagiri that a government notification for acquiring land for the project in Nanar stood cancelled. However, Mr Fadnavis later refuted this. The anti-Nanar protesters, under the banner of the Konkan Refinery Virodhi Samiti, have also been holding an agitation at Azad Maidan for the few days. A Fine Gael TD will say he was "astonished" FG Senator Paudie Coffey is suing for defamation over a newspaper article, the High Court heard. Senator Coffey says the January 2016 article in the Kilkenny People was a major factor in the loss of his Waterford Dail seat. He also disputes that the story was "part of the rough and tumble of politics". He is suing Iconic Newspapers over comments it published from Deputy John Paul Phelan describing a proposal to bring part of the Kilkenny administrative area in Waterford city as "daylight robbery". Deputy Phelan said there was a "bloodthirsty" 18th century highwayman called "Crotty the Robber" and now "Coffey the Robber" was trying to do the same thing. Senator Coffey says that was defamatory. The publisher denies this. He was in his fourth day in the witness box and his third under cross examination. Counsel for the newspaper Rossa Fanning suggested to him this was "part of the rough and tumble of politics" and that when Deputy Phelan gives evidence, he will tell the jury he is "astonished we are here". Mr Fanning put it to Senator Coffey that he was not the first politician to be compared to fictional or historical characters. They included, he said, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar who 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". None of those politicians had sued, he said. Senator Coffey replied that none of those people had been called a robber. The case continues. A solicitor has been found not guilty of professional misconduct after a tribunal dismissed claims there was "no paper trail" for 246,000 in fees charged to a woman she represented in two medical negligence cases. Five allegations of misconduct against Maura Derivan arising from her actions in relation to the late Ann Waters were rejected by a Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal yesterday. The findings came after Ms Derivan produced a copy of a handwritten document signed by Ms Waters, in which she agreed to pay fees of 200,000 plus VAT. The solicitor, of Derivan Sexton & Co, in Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary, was also cleared of allegations that she deceived Ms Waters's two sons, took advantage of their mother's vulnerability, and seriously delayed the probate of her estate. The case against the solicitor was heard following a complaint by Ms Waters's son William, who represented himself at the tribunal. Ms Waters received a 2.2m payout in 2012 as settlement of two medical negligence cases in which she was represented by Ms Derivan, who was also the executor of her will. Ms Waters was in poor health and receiving dialysis at the time of the settlement. She died in 2014. Her family subsequently learned there was just 800,000 of the settlement monies remaining. Ms Derivan told the tribunal that after the settlement, Ms Waters asked her to hold the money for her. She said Ms Waters would come to her office and request cheques when she required money. In the period before her death she received 68 cheques totalling 578,000 from the solicitor. Mr Waters was shocked by this as he believed his mother lived a very frugal lifestyle, only shopping in Aldi and Penneys. A further 143,000 was paid by way of cheque to four unnamed individuals, at Ms Waters's request. Ms Derivan would not reveal the names of the recipients for reasons of solicitor-client confidentiality. Giving evidence yesterday, Ms Derivan said she believed the 246,000 fee was justified as it related to service provided for Ms Waters over a period of around 25 years. The solicitor said Ms Waters was "abandoned" by the health service after sustaining serious life-changing injuries while giving birth. She said she lobbied to get Ms Waters the medical attention she needed, helped arrange loans for her and provided her with financial assistance. Mr Waters said he was unaware of any agreement to pay fees and put it to Ms Derivan she had "scribbled" a solicitor and client agreement "in an effort to deceive the tribunal". This was strenuously denied by Ms Derivan. The solicitor also denied that she or anyone else had forged Ms Waters's signature on the agreement. Ms Derivan also said that at no stage did Ms Waters challenge the fee. She told the tribunal she had no right to ask her client what she was doing with the cheques, which ranged in size from 5,000 to 45,000. "It was your mother's money. She knew she didn't have a huge life expectancy. She said she was going to spend her money," said Ms Derivan. In reaching its findings, tribunal chairman Justin Condon accepted Ms Derivan's evidence. He said there was no evidence of deception on her part or that she took advantage of Ms Waters. Convicted: Patrick Nevin had boasted to gardai that he has thousands of matches on Tinder and had met up with hundreds of women A serial sex offender who sexually assaulted a Brazilian woman he met on Tinder has been jailed for five-and-a-half years. Patrick Nevin (37) has been ordered not to use the internet or any dating apps to meet anyone for two years after he is released. Nevin has also been registered as a sex offender. Imposing the sentence, Judge Cormac Quinn noted that "contact on Tinder" was not "consent in any way". Nevin did not react when the verdict was read out. Last November, Nevin was found guilty by a jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court of sexually assaulting a young Brazilian woman at UCD on July 23, 2014. He continues to proclaim his innocence, a court previously heard. In June 2018, Nevin admitted to raping a woman on July 12, 2014 and to sexually assaulting a second woman on July 16, 2014. He will be sentenced on those matters in December. The three attacks took place in the space of 11 days. All involved Nevin meeting the women on Tinder and then picking them up at their home in his BMW. The court previously heard that Nevin had boasted to gardai he had "thousands of matches" on Tinder and had met up with "hundreds of women". Sentencing Nevin for the UCD sexual assault yesterday, Judge Quinn said the evidence was that Nevin forcibly kissed the victim and in her words "turned into a monster". He pulled down her dress and exposed her breast. There was a struggle and the victim's elbow made contact with Nevin's face. He punched her. When imposing a sentence, Judge Quinn said the aggravating factors were that the victim was a vulnerable young lady who had very little English. Nevin took her to a secluded place at UCD where he sexually assaulted her and abandoned her. He had also used force, with the judge noting that Nevin was a "well built man" while the victim was of "petite build". Nevin had eight previous convictions, the court heard, and had received a seven-year sentence in 2001 for a serious assault on his then partner and for killing their two dogs. Judge Quinn said the mitigating factors were the defendant's age and personal circumstances, and he had previously used his time in custody to complete a degree. Judge Quinn noted Nevin was in the Midlands Prison, and a governor's report said he had enhanced privileges and worked in the computer shop. Judge Quinn imposed a five-and-a-half year sentence, backdated to when Nevin went into custody in September 2014. The judge also ordered two years post-release supervision, saying that Nevin was not to use the internet or any electronic device to make contact with persons unknown to him. The victim, now aged 36, told the court on Friday that it had been very hard for her to travel back to Dublin 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". Reading from her victim impact statement, she said: "Initially I blamed myself for everything that happened. "I'm afraid of people's 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 as it reminds her of the attack. A 39-year-old Co Meath woman, who was injured in a fall in Cappagh National Orthopaedic Hospital, was entitled to succeed in a personal injury claim against the Dublin hospital but also to have her name cleared of alleged fraud and dishonesty, a judge has stated. Circuit Court President Mr Justice Raymond Groarke said the hospital, the biggest orthopaedic treatment centre in Ireland, had put forward a defence in which it had accused Joanne Shelly, of Birch Close, Johnstown Wood, Navan, of fraud. Judge Groarke said the defence put forward by the Finglas hospital was that not only had she placed her foot on defective tiling in a corridor floor and tripped, but had done so on purpose so she could bring a fraudulent claim. "That is their defence and I am putting it as bluntly as the defendant would not put it," the judge said. He told barrister Darach MacNamara, counsel for Ms Shelly, that her mothers friend Derri Anne Morgan had been pictured on CCTV pointing out to Ms Shelly the defect in tiling in the corridor just seconds before she had fallen. As she gets to it the inference I am being asked to draw is that Ms Morgan was a party to this fraud by pointing it out and that Ms Shelly managed to get her toe into it and fell, Judge Groarke said. The judge told Mr MacNamara, who appeared with Dillon Geraghty Solicitors, it had never been put to Ms Shelly by the hospital defence team that she was a fraud or to her mother Margaret Poole or to Derri Anne Morgan that it was a set-up. I find the defence to be outrageous and not supported by the evidence, Judge Groarke said. This plaintiff is clearly demonstrably innocent and certainly innocent of any imputation upon her character that she was in any way motivated by fraud. I want to make that absolutely clear. Judge Groarke said the reality was that the tiles in question had historically caused trouble. Ms Morgan had slipped and fallen on the same defective tiles several years beforehand and had been astonished and flabbergasted on this day in January 2014 to find the defect had never been removed and was describing it to anybody who would listen. He said the second leg of the defence was that the CCTV had demonstrated that as Ms Shelly was walking down the corridor she had altered her step so as to make contact with the defect in the floor which would trip her and cause her to fall and be injured. It is a preposterous suggestion, Judge Groarke said. I cannot contemplate for one moment that this plaintiff is a fraud or dishonest and it is not supported by either of the two hypotheses put forward. Judge Groarke said not only was Ms Shelly entitled to succeed against the hospital, she was entitled to have her name cleared in the manner he had outlined in court. Shelly told the court she had been at home in Navan when her mother rang about an altercation she had with her boss at the Cappagh hospital where she worked. She and Ms Morgan had driven to the hospital to support her mother who was distressed after the incident. The three of them had been walking along the corridor when she tripped and fell. Derri Anne Morgan said the reason she had been seen pointing on CCTV to the defective tiles was because she had been shocked to see that the hospital still had not fixed the floor on which she had fallen in the exact same place seven years earlier. She had sued the hospital at the time and agreed she had won significant compensation. All she remembered was Joanne falling to the ground immediately after she had pointed out the defect. Ms Shelly said she had injured her left wrist, left shoulder and lower back in the fall. She denied a suggestion by the hospitals legal team that she had altered her gait and step after Ms Morgan had pointed to the imperfection on the tile. Forensic engineer David Brown said the vinyl tiles were attached to a two foot square shore cover on the corridor floor and a significant fracture on it should have been repaired. Mr MacNamara told Judge Groarke today that following his ruling on liability in the case the proceedings had been settled and could be struck out with an order for Ms Shellys legal costs. It is believed the settlement was in the upper regions of the maximum 60,000 jurisdiction of the court. Costs to be borne by the hospital are estimated to add another 35,000 to the bill. Jailed: Patrick Nevin aged 20 in 2001 when he was convicted of assaulting his girlfriend. Photo: Courtpix Convicted: Patrick Nevin had boasted to gardai that he has thousands of matches on Tinder and had met up with hundreds of women IT is feared there could be as many as a dozen other victims of serial sex offender Patrick Nevin, Independent.ie has learned. Nevin (37) was jailed for five-and-a-half years yesterday for sexually assaulting a Brazilian woman he met on the Tinder dating app. Nevin, who has been listed on the Sex Offenders Register, was also ordered to stay away from the internet for the purpose of meeting anyone unknown to him for two years after he is released. However, gardai believe there could up to 12 more victims out there who had interaction with Nevin. Some of these victims have previously come forward but would not make statements to gardai to enable their cases to go to the DPP, a source said. Separately, there is also a firm belief that there are other victims based on the amount of his activity on Tinder. Jailing Nevin at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, Judge Cormac Quinn told him that contact on Tinder did not give consent in any way to a sexual assault. Read More Wearing a long-sleeved white and blue checked shirt, the defendant did not react when he was sent down. In June, Nevin admitted raping a woman in Bellewstown, Co Meath, on July 12, 2014, as well as sexually assaulting a second woman at an unknown place in Co Meath on July 16, 2014. The defendant met all the women through Tinder and the three attacks all took place within 11 days. Expand Close Patrick Nevin Photo: Collins Courts / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Patrick Nevin Photo: Collins Courts During the June hearing, the court heard that Nevin boasted to gardai that he had thousands of matches on Tinder and had met up with hundreds of women. He is due to be sentenced on those matters in December. Last November, Nevin was also found guilty of sexually assaulting a Brazilian woman at University College Dublin (UCD) in July 2014. Sentencing him on that matter yesterday, Judge Quinn said the evidence was that Nevin forcibly kissed the victim and in her words turned into a monster. He pulled her dress down and exposed her breast. There was a struggle and the victims elbow made contact with Nevins face. He then punched her. SECLUDED Judge Quinn said the aggravating factors were that the victim was a vulnerable young woman who had very little English. Nevin took her to a secluded place at UCD, where he sexually assaulted and abandoned her. He had also used force, with the judge noting that Nevin was a well-built man while the victim was of petite build. Nevin had eight previous convictions and received a seven-year sentence in 2001 for a serious assault on his then partner and for killing their two dogs. Judge Quinn said the mitigating factors were the defendants age and personal circumstances, and that he had previously used his time in custody to complete a degree. He also noted that Nevin was in the Midlands Prison, and a governors report said he had enhanced privileges and worked in the computer shop. The judge backdated the five-and-a-half-year sentence to September 2014, when Nevin went into custody. He also ordered two years post-release supervision, saying Nevin was not to use the internet or any electronic device to make contact with persons unknown to him. MONSTER The victim, now 36, told the court last Friday that it had been very hard for her to travel back to Ireland 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. Reading from her victim impact statement, she said: Initially I blamed myself for everything. 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 as it reminds her of the attack. However, she said she still dreamt of returning to live here. She said Ireland taught her to say please, sorry and thank you for everything and she tells herself nowadays that most people are good. Nevin was identified as a suspect after gardai checked the records of the car caught on UCDs automatic number plate recognition system. Patrick McGrath SC, defending, said his client did not accept the jurys verdict. The Defence Forces have deployed a team of specialists to west Africa to help train troops from other countries in countering improvised explosive devices and mine awareness. The deployment is being made under a commitment given by the Government a year ago to support the United Nations mine action service, UNMAS. The Irish will train and educate other troop contributing countries based in Burkina Faso, which is in a region being destabilised by threats from extremist factions. In a bid to confront the dangers, the five main regional powers, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and Chad, requested support from the wider international community to establish a 55,000-strong force that will serve initially in strife-torn Mali and tackle the threats from their base there. An initial mobile training team of has been sent out by the Defence Forces and a review of its operation will determine the extent and size of further teams and training programmes. Prior to the team's deployment, an Army group was sent to Burkina Faso to assessment the area and the feasibility of sending troops there. Irish personnel have been regularly requested to take part in counter improvised explosive devices (IED) training because of their expertise, gained overseas while working overseas as peacekeepers in the world's danger zones and also in dealing with IEDS at home during the terrorist campaign waged by the Provisional IRA and breakaway groups. Officers said last night that the experience gained in training missions in Burkina Faso and elsewhere would enhance their capabilities and improve their skills and capabilities in a specialist area. UNMAS was established in 1997 to lead, co-ordinate and implement actions taken to mitigate the threats from mines and explosive remnants of war, including cluster munitions. Ireland's participation in Burkina Faso is part of the "Vancouver Pledges", signed last November by Minister with responsibility for defence, Paul Kehoe. EIGHTY alleged victims of abuse have contacted Scouting Ireland's helpline in less than a week. Children's minister Katherine Zappone revealed the number this evening after meeting with the representatives of the organisation. Scouting Ireland has been hit by controversy after a review of historical allegations of abuse found evidence of 71 suspected perpetrators and 108 victims. Fears have been raised that the number alleged abuse victims could grow substantially. Ms Zappone said she met with representatives of the organisation today to discuss her concerns about the revelations that emerged last Wednesday. She said: "Scouting Ireland has advised me that since last week there have been 80 phone calls to the confidential helpline from people identifying as victims." Ms Zappone added: "I will get a verified update on the number of alleged victims and alleged perpetrators in mid-December." She said that at the meeting she discussed the steps Scouting Ireland is taking to ensure that all alleged abuse victims who have already come forward are being properly supported and counselled. She said they also talked about making sure that the same level of support will be made available to any further victims that may come forward. Ms Zappone sought reassurance from the representatives that the historic review of abuse allegations is continuing and that all allegations found will be immediately referred to Tusla and the Gardai . The costs of maintaining the supports for victims was also discussed. Ms Zappone said: "I have been reassured that Scouting Ireland is taking these shocking revelations very seriously." Scouting Ireland set up the confidential freephone helpline for any other victims to make contact last Thursday. The number is 1800 221199. A team is answering calls between 9am to 8pm Monday to Friday and 10am to 6pm Saturday and Sunday. Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, has also put a confidential helpline in place, 1800 805665 and operates from 9am to 4pm. Ms Zappone said: "I would urge anybody who was abused while participating in Scouting activities or who wishes to name an alleged perpetrator of abuse to contact either of these helplines. Most of the 108 alleged abuse cases identified by a review of historical allegations date from the 1960s to 1980s. Scouting Ireland said none of the alleged abusers are still working with the organisation and most of them are deceased. Reports have been made to the Gardai and Tusla in relation to alleged abusers. A record 37,473 children are now in some health queue waiting for assessment for mental health, disability or speech and language problems, it emerged yesterday. The figures were compiled by Barnardos, the children's charity, which warned of the daily impact untreated health conditions are having on the lives of vulnerable young people. Mental health services in Cork and Kerry "remain the worst" with 29pc of children waiting more than a year for care. There has been a 50pc increase in the number of children on waiting lists for more than a year for speech and language therapy, or assessment, between March and August. Some 3,153 children have suffered delays of more than a year for an assessment of need for disability services, with Cork and Kerry again faring worst. June Tinsley, head of advocacy at Barnardos, said: "These children face extreme difficulties in their everyday lives because they can't 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 doesn't 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." One parent told Barnardos: "My seven-year-old son has no coping skills and is crying out with sensory issues, but here we are again on a waiting list. "He began his journey of waiting lists in 2015 and is still waiting for services he should have received years ago. "There is only so much I can help my child with, I am not a specialist. Without the proper tools I cannot help my son reach his potential that he is very capable of reaching with some guidance and support from the services." Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was tackled in the Dail about the figures by Sinn Fein's Pearse Doherty, who accused the Government of "failing in its responsibility to protect some of the most vulnerable citizens in our society". In response, the Taoiseach said he will ask for a report on resource and outcome comparisons for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in each region around the country. He agreed it was "not acceptable" that children were facing delays for mental health care. Mr Varadkar said there are 10,000 staff working in community mental health services for children and 1,500 new posts had been filled. But he conceded there are problems in recruiting and retaining staff. There are also variations in waiting times across the country, although each area gets proportionate funds. Towering ambition: Kennedy Wilson has just announced the completion of Capital Dock in Dublins South Docklands. The scheme includes Irelands tallest residential tower A LUXURY apartment complex where homes will cost up to 3,300 per month to rent has suffered water damage following an internal leak. Engineers are assessing the damage to flooring, ceilings and electrical systems at the 22-storey Capital Dock development in the Dublin Docklands which was damaged overnight. Most of the scheme is owned by US property firm Kennedy Wilson. State bad-bank Nama owns 15pc of the fund which owns the building. There was a leak from a valve which they think lasted for around 20 minutes, a spokesman for Kennedy Wilson said. Some 190 apartments are in the building, some of which were advertised for rent at 3,300 per month. The units are expected to be tenanted from early in the new year, and the building owner said there would be no delays. Sources said it appears the water flowed from the upper floors, cascading through the building. One said the owners would have to go through the building floor by floor to assess the damage, which could delay the letting of apartments. A spokesman for Kennedy Wilson said it did not expect any impact on the timelines of the building. The development includes and on-site concierge, a cinema, 24-hour security, gym, business suits and a games room. The scheme is one of the largest mixed-use developments ever created in Ireland, spanning 4.8 acres and featuring some 690,000 square feet of offices, retail and residential units, along with more than 1.5 acres of public parks. A spokesman for Capital Dock confirmed that video footage was of the building, but stressed the apartments were not damaged. There was a failure of a valve on the 22nd floor which ran down the building. The water was switched off. The water ran down an enclosed riser so no apartments were affected, he said. The water has been removed and common areas are drying out. Everything is on track in terms of the roll-out of the building, with move-in date on January 7. My understanding is the majority of the water ran down this enclosed riser and pooled in the basement car park lobby. US bank JP Morgan and a jobs website called Indeed have reportedly committed to occupying all of the available office space, with the 190 apartments due to be available for letting in January. A Nama spokesman confirmed it held a 15pc stake in the fund which owns the building. Kennedy Wilson is the asset manager and queries relating to the building should be directed to it, he added. Serious injuries: Ilabek Avetin was hit by an off-road bike Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan has pledged to deal with the blight of off-road scrambler bikes in parks as he offered his deepest sympathy to the wife of a man left with catastrophic injuries after he was hit by one. Anzhela Kotsinian, wife of Ilabek Avetin, wrote to the minister earlier this month seeking clear legal penalties for anyone caught riding off-road bikes in public parks. The couple were sunbathing in Darndale Park in Dublin on June 9 last when Mr Avetin was hit by a scrambler bike. He lost an eye and was left in a vegetative state. An official in Mr Flanagan's office has written to Ms Kotsinian saying the minister "conveyed deepest sympathy in relation to what happened to your husband in June this year". They said the minister was "keenly aware that this tragic incident is profoundly life-changing, not only for your husband but for you and your wider families. "The minister is fully committed to supporting any positive actions that can be pursued to counteract this serious public safety issue. "Over the past number of months, officials in the Department of Justice and Equality have been consulting with representatives from other Government departments to identify ways of combating this issue," they said. "Such consultations have included an analysis of current legislation, with assistance from the Attorney General's office, to determine whether any legislation amendments are necessary to assist in curbing such activity." The official said "detailed legal advice has recently been received" from the Attorney General's office and this is "now being carefully considered" by the Departments of Justice and Transport, "in so far as road traffic legislation is concerned". Gardai confirmed yesterday that their investigation into the incident in Darndale Park is continuing. Ms Kotsinian, who is originally from Armenia, said: "These bikes should not be allowed in parks where families are. "The law has to change to make people safe in parks across Ireland." The Road Safety Authority released figures this week showing that 39 people were killed or injured in incidents involving off-road bikes on public roads in a four-year period. Patil was replying to the Oppositions demand that the commissions report be tabled in the legislature. Munde also said that if the government didnt want to table the report, it should at least inform the people when the ATR would be tabled. Mumbai: The Winter Session might be extended to pass the Maratha reservation bill, said revenue minister and leader of the Upper House Chandrakant Patil on Wednesday in the Legislative Council. Mr Patil said that the government would first table the action-taken report (ATR) on the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commissions report, which concluded that the Maratha community is backward, before tabling the reservation bill. Sufficient time will be given to discuss the ATR and the (Maratha quota) bill as well, the minister said. He also claimed that when the bill is tabled, everyone including the Opposition would praise the government. I am assuring the House that adequate time will be given for discussion over the ATR and bill. If needed, the session may be extended, he said Mr Patil was replying to the Oppositions demand that the commissions report be tabled in the legislature. Leader of Opposition in Upper House Dhananjay Munde on Wednesday asked the government why it had not tabled the commissions report as well as a report of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) on the Dhangar community. Mr Munde also said that if the government didnt want to table the report, it should at least inform the people when the ATR would be tabled. Corus choir from Dublin got into the Christmas spirit in aid of homelessness yesterday at Heuston Station, Dublin. Irish choirs will perform in a number of train stations across the country this December in a bid to raise funds for homelessness before Christmas. Focus Ireland have teamed up with Irish Rail to launch their '#HomeForChristmas' campaign, aiming to raise money with the help of commuters as they make their way home after work. Dublin-based choir Corus launched the campaign in Heuston Station yesterday morning with a variety of Christmas carols, explaining that they wouldn't let Storm Diana "dampen spirits". A spokesperson for Irish Rail said that the campaign was inspired by commuters heading home to a house that they may often "take for granted", and asks people to think of those who don't have a home this Christmas. "As you head home on the train from a regular day at work or perhaps doing a bit of early Christmas shopping in town, you are making a journey you have made many times. The journey home," the statement said. "All of us can sometimes take our own home for granted. Not everyone has this security. Sadly, almost 10,000 people are homeless nationwide right now. Shockingly, nearly 4,000 are children." The charitys Life President Sister Stan described the terrible impact being homeless has on children, particularly at Christmas time. "It really breaks my heart to know that some of these children have been born into homelessness. Some of them will spend their first Christmas with their family forced to live in one little room together. "They are our children too and we have a duty as a society to provide a safe home for them. We have a duty to protect the childhoods of these children and to make sure they do not suffer from being homeless for long periods of time." According to Focus Ireland, the charity have helped some 13,000 people from January to the end of September this year and have worked with 350 families in escaping homelessness. Irish Rail have opened an option on their website for a small donation to be made while booking train tickets this month, or donations can be made directly to Focus Ireland. A SHOCKED mother has warned Irish cities are becoming increasingly racist places after her two children were attacked by a six-strong gang as they walked home from school. The two boys, aged 14 and 15 years, were set upon by the gang just off the Old Youghal Road in Cork yesterday evening. The mother, who only wants to be identified as 'Diane', insisted that the attack was racially motivated. It only ended when a number of adult pedestrians intervened and the attackers fled on foot. Locals comforted the two shocked youngsters who had apparently been targeted simply because of the colour of their skin. The 14-year-old was first viciously mocked because his hair was styled in an 'afro'. When the 15-year-old asked for his brother to be left alone, both boys were taunted and insulted. Both teens walked away from the scene to defuse the situation but were then set upon from behind by the six older youths. The youngsters suffered minor cuts and bruises to their scalps and lips before concerned adults were able to intervene and the gang ran away. However, they were deeply shocked by their ordeal and gardai are investigating the incident. The attackers were all aged in their teens. Diane told Cork's 96FM the incident was deeply worrying. "Absolutely - 100pc (Irish cities are becoming racist). It is manageable and I have to try to help my younger son to brush it off and not to let other people intimidate him because of his appearance," Diane said. "You don't want to believe that you should bring up your child to be able to fight." Diane said what was very concerning was the fact so much emphasis has already been placed on Ireland being a multicultural and cosmopolitan place. "I just do not accept that it is about education and ignorance any more," she warned. Locals admitted they were appalled that such an incident could happen in such a quiet area of Cork. Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald has insisted members of her party fully co-operated with the investigation into Mairia Cahill's sex abuse case despite a Police Ombudsman report saying otherwise. Ms McDonald went on the attack yesterday to say she has done everything possible to help Ms Cahill and described their meeting last week as "very cordial". However, this is disputed by Ms Cahill who has released her records of that meeting to the Irish Independent. The notes suggest the two women repeatedly clashed over whether the IRA carried out an investigation into Ms Cahill's claim she was sexually abused by an alleged IRA member as a 16 year old. Ms McDonald declined to accept the IRA was involved in a probe. The notes quote the Dublin Central TD as saying she has not asked any of those being linked to this alleged investigation about the situation. Asked directly whether "as a human being, not as a politician" she believed there was an IRA investigation, Ms McDonald replied that she didn't know. According to the notes, the TD claimed not to have been party to conversations about any probe and said only the courts could resolve such issues. Queries sent to Sinn Fein yesterday on this point went unanswered. On RTE's 'Today with Sean O'Rourke', Ms McDonald said she could only answer questions relating to Sinn Fein. "It is my duty and my responsibility to be accountable for Sinn Fein. I'm not accountable for the person who visited the abuse on Mairia," she said. She said members of her party, including Gerry Adams, had cooperated fully with a police investigation in 2010. However, a recently completed Police Ombudsman report stated Mr Adams's solicitor told officers that a written statement was all he would provide. It adds that a detective chief inspector "stated that none of the Sinn Fein members were going to cooperate with police and that he never expected them to provide statements confirming that the IRA had conducted an investigation". Elsewhere, the report states that a meeting with Sinn Fein members was "difficult and confrontational". On radio, Ms McDonald insisted: "They cooperated with the assistance and advice of their solicitors. "Gerry Adams's cooperation with the investigation was full and was mediated through legal representative." In response, Ms Cahill told the Irish Independent while legally witnesses were entitled to provide statements rather than take part in an interview, in her opinion that did not amount to "full and frank cooperation with police". Prior to their meeting last week, Ms Cahill said she had low expectations for what would be offered up by Ms McDonald. The Sinn Fein leader offered an apology for how members of the party first handled the situation when they became aware of the abuse claims. She accepted a direct complaint should have been referred to police. However, Ms Cahill said she couldn't go to the RUC because the IRA was involved. Towards the end of the conversation, Ms Cahill complained that she is being subjected to online abuse. Ms McDonald responded that such behaviour is unacceptable to her. The lead bidder for the National Broadband Plan (NBP) is preparing to 'fast-track' rural connections next year, the Irish Independent understands. The move would mean that the first of 540,000 rural homes and businesses under the State-sponsored scheme would get high-speed broadband in 2019, ahead of the expected 2020 rollout. A report cleared former communications minister Denis Naughten and David McCourt of improperly affecting the State tender process for the giant infrastructure project. However, the report by independent auditor Peter Smyth also found that Mr Naughten was correct to resign last month in order to insulate the process from "apparent bias". It now gives the Government the green light to conclude negotiations with the rural broadband consortium with a view to signing a contract in the next two months. The rollout across half-a-million rural homes is now set to begin, leading to the first connections late next year, according to several sources. A contract is expected to be signed in January, with the subsidy cost and other contractual terms to be finalised in the coming weeks. Mr Naughten urged politicians on all sides to push ahead with the plan. He noted that the rules underpinning the NBP do not "expressly prohibit engagements" between bidders and the department. But as the Government insisted the NBP has been given a clean bill of health, Fianna Fail was considering its next move. The party has already indicated the issue will form a major part of the ongoing confidence and supply negotiations. Its communications spokesman Timmy Dooley said the review has left "serious questions" unanswered. Mr Smyths report also said that while the project can go ahead, it is not possible to state unequivocally that the NBP was not discussed at private meetings. Due to the 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, the report states. However, he concluded: 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 Government maintains that it has been operating a parallel process of assessment on the Granahan McCourt bid while the audit review has been taking place. The core of the plan is for fibre broadband lines to be physically laid in areas of the country that have never received proper internet services. However, up to 50,000 homes in the most remote areas might be provided with the latest wireless technology instead. New 5G cellular networks are not expected to be a factor, despite currently being switched on in cities. However, the existing rollout plan faces a technical challenge from Eir, with the States biggest operator refusing to grant access to its network at less than the conventional commercial rate. This had previously led to a row involving Granahan McCourt, Eir and officials in the Department of Communication. The issue was parked earlier this year but is set to be reignited once the contract is signed. Opposition parties have questioned how the rollout of high-speed broadband can proceed under the current plan. Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin described the level of contacts between Mr Naughten and the head of the Granahan McCourt consortium as extraordinary by any yardstick. The minister had 18 formal meetings, nine telephone calls and five dinners with David McCourt. 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, Mr Martin told the Dail. Mr Dooley told the Irish Independent: Long before the meetings emerged I believed the process had been jeopardised. The fact that so many bidders pulled out proved that. Now we have a situation where the review says it hasnt been tainted but that it was right for the minister to resign. Mr Dooley indicated that he wants Mr Smyth to come before the Oireachtas Communications Committee to discuss gaps in the review. Labour Party leader Brendan Howlin claimed it would be reckless for the Government to proceed with the plan. However, Communications Minister Richard Bruton expressed a renewed confidence that the plan can be delivered. A spokesperson for the Taoiseach said he sees the report as a partial or qualified vindication of the position he took when details of the meetings first emerged. The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council warned there were echoes of policy mistakes of the past in Paschal Donohoes budgetary plans. Photo: Gerry Mooney Ireland risks heading into the next economic downturn without sufficient budget firepower, after continued overshooting on spending. The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (IFAC) warned there were "echoes of policy mistakes of the past" in Paschal Donohoe's budgetary plans. The council was set up to provide an independent assessment of Government forecasts as part of the EU and IMF bailout. It says in its latest report that the 2019 Budget was not "conducive to prudent economic and budgetary management". Council chair Seamus Coffey warned: "We don't think the risks at present are as high as they were in 2006-07 but there are echoes of it." Citing persistent spending overruns, particularly in healthcare, the report said plans for next year showed a Government spending increase of 4.5bn, well beyond a level of 3.5bn that the council had judged appropriate based on sustainable economic growth rates. The warning comes as it emerged health, housing and Garda overtime are to share in 862m in additional funding this year. Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe approved substantial additional funding for the Departments of Health, Housing and Justice. The extra funding for health will cost the Exchequer 655m - less than the expected 700m originally mooted. Meanwhile there will be an additional 60m for homelessness services, 60m for social housing and 10m to cover the cost of storm damage allocated to the department of housing. An extra 77m has been approved for the Department of Justice, the majority of which (around 59m) relates to pay and overtime for gardai. Mr Coffey stressed that the council was not calling for a return to austerity. However, it wants the budget process to be sustainable beyond the bumper tax receipts and strong economic growth seen this year. "Repeated failures to prevent unbudgeted spending increases have left the public finances more exposed to adverse shocks, with the budget balance in deficit rather than surplus," IFAC said. The Finance Minister characterised his 2019 Budget as prudent, managing both tax giveaways and spending while salting away 500bn in a "rainy day" fund. The coffers, however, were swelled by a 700m surge in corporate tax receipts, allowing Mr Donohoe to claim progress towards a budget surplus while spending more and delivering tax cuts. The council's assessment of Budget 2019 also shows that it is overly reliant on one-off company tax revenues. Over the past 15 years, apart from the crisis years of 2007-09 and the current period of 2017-18, Government revenues, excluding volatile company tax income, grew more quickly than spending. "The lack of improvement in the budget balance in the last three years partly reflects that Government expenditure growth has accelerated since 2016, while revenue growth (excluding corporation tax) has been relatively flat," the council said, The 4.6bn rise in primary spending is being driven in large part by a rise in the cost of the Government workforce, which is up 1.3bn. Mr Coffey declined to criticise plans outlined by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to raise the level at which the higher rate of tax kicked in to 50,000 over the next five years, which was announced at the Fine Gael Ard Fheis and widely seen as heralding an election. If implemented in full, the measure would cost 600m a year versus current levels. The council will present its report to the Government and to the Oireachtas in the coming weeks. Garda forensic officers at the scene of the fire at the Caiseal Mara Hotel in Moville where 100 immigrants are due to arrive to in the next few weeks. (North West Newspix) 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 targeted 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. Expand Close The scene of the fire at the Caiseal Mara Hotel in Moville where 100 immigrants are due to arrive to in the next few weeks. (North West Newspix) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The scene of the fire at the Caiseal Mara Hotel in Moville where 100 immigrants are due to arrive to in the next few weeks. (North West Newspix) 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. Before the hotel was confirmed as a direct provision centre, the family did try to seel the house twice but both sales fell through. The McKenna family moved to Donegal from the Cabra and Glasevein 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. Car-value expert Gillian Keogh teams up with Motoring Editor Eddie Cunningham to help you make the right choice with your next purchase. Gillian is Editor of a monthly guidebook on the values of used cars produced by the Motor Trade Publishers team. The team supplies a car-valuing service to the motor trade, insurance companies and finance houses We are a family of five in rural Donegal. We have a 2009 Ford Galaxy diesel and a 2009 Ford Focus diesel, which we only use from time to time. We want to do the right thing, and we'd like to go with a more eco-friendly option by trading in both diesels for an electric or a hybrid. The thing is, we drive on rural roads, so we're wondering if going green is even an option for us, in that we are never stuck in traffic. I'd say we'd do 10-12,000km a year on one car, with the second car doing very, very little. We're definitely offloading that in the new year whatever happens. Gillian: A rural Donegal family of five is not exactly screaming electric to me, but hybrid, yes. An electric can do the job, but there just isn't a lot of choice. There is a middle ground option with a PHEV (plug-in hybrid), which this might suit. Kia has the Niro SUV plug-in and Toyota has the Prius PHEV, both under 40k. I'm just concerned they might feel tight on space coming out of a Galaxy. If you are looking for a seven-seater, PHEV isn't an option, so you're left with hybrid. The best is the Toyota Prius+. They have been out since 2013, so you will be able to pick up a used model instead of having to go new (from 35,950). Eddie: Electric is out and space undermines your hybrid hopes, so I'd go for a petrol seven-seater on your mileage. I'd get a seven-seat Peugeot 5008 new (SUV) or used (people carrier). I'd also look at a petrol Skoda Kodiaq (SUV) new or used. Sell your Focus privately and trade your Galaxy against a seven-seater. You won't have as much space, but you don't need diesel for your mileage. I own a Skoda Rapid 1.6 diesel (100,000km). It's starting to give trouble - the water pump needs changed, the VW garage says the dash lamps need changed (930), it needs tyres and wipers and the mileage is high due to social driving with my son. I am looking at changing to a new four-seater in January with a price of no more than 25k before trade-in, for which I have been quoted around 8k. Among the cars I have looked at are the Ford Fiesta, Toyota Yaris and KIA models. I am getting different advice on whether to go for diesel or petrol. As I am almost 70, I would hope to keep this car for years. I expect the amount of mileage to be similar to what I have been doing up to now, a lot of which involves short journeys. Gillian: A new Yaris ranges from 15,950 to 23,700, and a Fiesta from 15,367 to 20,715. There is no need to go to 25,000. I don't know the year of your car to work out your average annual kms, so I will give you options for petrol, diesel and hybrid. The Yaris comes in petrol and hybrid, while the Fiesta is petrol or diesel. Both have excellent reputations on running costs, reliability and resale value. In fact, the supermini segment is one of the best for choice and residual values. If you don't need a diesel, your choice of hybrid is small. Some other petrol options include Honda Jazz, Kia Rio and Nissan Micra. Eddie: You have 30k of a budget including your trade-in and your driving profile is short, frequent journeys, so I'd advise waiting until the new year and buying a new hybrid Toyota Corolla hatchback. It will last for years and is ideal for you. If you don't want to go that much, take a look at the Skoda Fabia petrol. It is time to change my car. We have a budget of about 25k and my mileage is about 35,000km a year. My present car is a 2012 Toyota Avensis estate diesel with (240,000km), which my husband is going to use for school runs and short trips. He currently drives an 03 Toyota Avensis that has served us well. After driving such a large and long car for the past while, I am looking forward to driving something small in size but with power. Due to the high mileage, it would have to be a diesel. We have two pre-teens but will use this car mostly for my commute. Any advice? Gillian: There is a lot of choice for this budget if you look for a nearly-new motor in the new year. A 2017 would work well in a Audi A3 2.0 diesel, BMW 118d and Volvo V40 2.0 diesel. All have an impressive 150bhp and will be a pretty nice step up out of your Avensis. The pre-teens might just be a little impressed too. If you were hoping for a shiny new 191 car outside the house, fear not. While not as zippy as the others, pretty much all other family hatchbacks fall in around 115bhp. Take a test drive in the new Honda Civic 1.6-litre diesel for a start. The base Smart model starts at 25,550, and it's a good one. Ford has recently cut its prices, so a high-spec ST-Line Focus is now in budget for you and worth a look for sure. Eddie: I'd buy a Civic 1.6 diesel (hatch or saloon - I prefer the latter). The 120bhp feels peppier than it sounds and there is plenty of room. There is a 6spd manual and a 9spd auto which might suit you. It's got a touch of class and you don't need to go mad on power. This has plenty. My husband suggested I contact you. I drive a Skoda Octavia 1.9 diesel 2007. My annual mileage is around 24,000km. I live 14km from my workplace. I'm 59 years of age. I'm happy with my car but don't know how much longer it will last. Option 1: Would a hybrid or electric car be the best option? My husband is retired and I envisage retiring in a few years and would ideally not want to have to spend a lot on fuel at that stage. Option 2: Should I just go for another Skoda? Or whatever you could recommend. Maybe with a budget for a second-hand diesel of 15,000 and obviously a lot more for the other option. Gillian: Option 1: Yes, a hybrid would suit you but maybe not the electric while you are still covering 24,000km a year. After retirement, an electric will hugely cut your running costs, but by waiting until then, you are allowing more to enter the market. Hybrids are getting more plentiful, both new and used, so if you did go this route, I would recommend a Lexus CT200h or Toyota Auris hybrid. Spending under 15,000 will let you come up a good few years on reg plate. A 2013 in the Lexus will fit your budget, and perhaps in the new year a 141 might be an option too. With the Auris, you could come up another year again, going for a Luxury spec in a 2014 or 2015. Option 2: "Just going for another Skoda" doesn't sound like you are excited by this. The new-model Octavia launched in January 2017 is not 'just' a Skoda. You have the option to go for a 2017 or 2018 plate, so there's no need to buy new, and this might be a good interim option before deciding what to go for at retirement. A 171 will set you back around 21-22k for the Ambition, but maybe start your switch to driving hybrid/electric and opt for the DSG (Auto) model for around another 1,000. Eddie: Buy another Skoda. You can decide in a few years on your next step as you enter retirement. I drive a 2015 Skoda Octavia diesel. I do 30,000km/year on country roads mainly. I am thinking of buying a small/mid-size diesel SUV for comfort (higher seating). I am looking for a reliable, economical model. Budget with trade-in is 30,000. Gillian: How about going for the Skoda Karoq? It comes with a 1.6-litre diesel (115bhp) and the Ambition model would fit in budget at 29,100 for a new model. It has a high seat position and road tax is low. Maybe also look at the SEAT Ateca. The SE model is priced similar to the Karoq at 29,355 and has all the same comfort, reliability and low running costs. I'm also going to mention the smaller SEAT Arona. The SE model starts at just 22,755 and while the ride height won't be as high as the others I mentioned, it will be higher than your Octavia. As a small SUV, it might work for you and save you a lot of money. The top-spec Xcellence model is 25,575 - well within budget. Eddie: The first thing that came to mind was a Volkswagen T-Roc, but it may be too small for what you want. Take a look at it, though. It's a smart car. Going a bit bigger, I'd be steering you towards the Peugeot 3008SUV with an excellent diesel engine. There's lots of choice, but for you I think they are your best bets. Help us help you WE love getting your enquiries and try to reply to as many as possible here or via email. The ones dealt with here often represent a cross section of individual questions. You can help us help you with our free, independent, advice by including the following in your queries: * Budget (including trade-in). * Annual mileage (in kms). * Size of car required (number of seats). * Present car (make, model, year and mileage) if relevant. ecunningham@independent.ie The actions needed from the Government to resolve the insurance cost crisis could be reduced to one - implement all of the 67 recommendations made in 2002 by the Motor Insurance Advisory Board (MIAB). Only half of those measures were properly pursued. Despite that, premium cost decreased by 40pc over the following decade, according to the CSO index. Those savings exceeded the reductions promised by insurers of 36pc for success from the total package of reforms. First across the line after that MIAB report in April 2002 was the appointment of the interim Personal Injuries Assessment Board in October 2002. I had the honour of Chairing that start-up. Drafting the legislation was completed within seven months. The Bill was published in May 2003 and proceeded through all stages in the Oireachtas by December of that year. Meantime, staff were recruited and offices leased. Once sophisticated ICT systems were designed and installed, the PIAB could open its doors in July 2004. It was the political commitment to reform by the then Tanaiste, Mary Harney, that delivered such quick results. Policyholders were rescued from the cost consequences of every injury claim leading to litigation, at an average 46pc delivery overhead. Now 20pc of claims are finalised through PIAB, where there is no award of legal costs for or against any party. Their delivery overhead is 6pc. The volume of PIAB awards accepted by claimants has been stable, at around 60pc, since 2006. The Civil Liability & Courts Act 2004 introduced deterrents to exaggerated and misleading claims. The potential sanctions include a fine of up to 100,000 and 10 years in prison. That is in addition to having the claim dismissed with liability for the other side's costs. So where did it all go wrong? Let's not waste time here speculating why insurance costs suddenly shot up by 70pc over the three years to 2016. The danger is it could get 'wronger'. Reform has gone at a snail's pace since the Finance Joint Oireachtas Committee started investigating this crisis in early 2016. But maybe it is just as well it is going so slowly because a lot is going in the wrong direction. On November 8 the Dail debated the PIAB (Amendment) Bill 2018. There is very little of substance in it, aside from allowing for electronic and other modern means of serving documents, plus reflecting some clarifications on the original legislation arising from court precedents. The only bit that is likely to 'do what it says on the tin' is the section allowing The Exchequer to grab 19m from the PIAB accounts, despite their success at being entirely self-funding. Those reserves were built up by continuously re-engineering efficient processes and by fighting judicial reviews from vested interests. This money was collected for assessing injury claims, so it should go back to the policyholders who paid it in, either directly or through their insurance premium. This has already been happening to an extent. The fixed fee for an assessment has reduced from 1,500 in 2004 to 600 currently for respondents and their insurers - plus The Exchequer was repaid their 5m loan of set-up costs. There is an overdue to-do list on which that money could be better spent. The Personal Injuries Commission recently recommended that compensation for minor and moderate injuries should be recalibrated downwards. That would reflect decisions by the Court of Appeal since November 2015 where it halved the amounts previously awarded by the High Court. That project will require legal, medical, actuarial and other expertise. It is to be undertaken under the auspices of the Judicial Council when that is established by December 2018. If the Judicial Council have an inadequate budget (predictably), why not allocate funds by PIAB to get rid of the latest unwise Book of Quantum? The Legal Services Regulatory Authority Act 2015 was to end self-regulation by lawyers, and it could stop 'claims farmers'. It was also to introduce a new independent legal costs adjudicator and publish decisions on fees. That body was established with inadequate resources, so consumers have seen no benefits yet. PIAB funds could assist in making progress there. Collectively, insurers across the EU assert that 'fraud' accounts for 10pc of premium on average. Insurance Ireland offered 1m a year to establish a dedicated Garda Insurance Fraud Unit, like the one in the UK. There were a number of concerns in this country about private funding of policing, so the idea was rejected by the Government. PIAB could finance that unit for 19 years. Of course, it would not be needed that long. As soon as the chancers felt a real sanction, then this anti-social and amoral behaviour should wither and die. Apparently, there has only been one suspended sentence since 2004. As I wrote on November 7, the Government has dropped its proposed claim-by-claim register. Lots of people were in favour of it, subject to data protection compliance. It seems that the resistance of insurers held sway. They opposed the measure on grounds of cost and complexity, which they were afraid would increase prices for consumers. PIAB has the money and the means to set this up overnight. Every personal injury claim, bar medical negligence, must be registered with them before it can be pursued further so they already have all that data back to 2004. Although it pains me to say it, it could be argued that PIAB is not actually doing its job fully. Section 54(1)(d) of the legislation requires collation and analysis of litigation awards and of settlements. That project could be started today by Minister Humphreys. Many submissions in 2018 on what will be a fairly useless proposed database of anonymised and aggregated statistics on claims outlay reflected a preference for that task to also be undertaken by PIAB, rather than the Central Bank (CB) who may or may not publish the results at their discretion. The biggest gripe of policyholders is the lack of transparency in insurance pricing. The CB added to that opaqueness by abolishing the annual insurance statistics, known as the Blue Book, from 2016. We lost a helicopter view on what some big insurers are sending to their head offices in Europe as management expenses and reinsurance, funded by Irish consumers. Since the new Solvency 11 regime was meant to ensure closer working between the regulators in all the EU member states, why cannot Irish market data be collated to inform public policy and to appease the public? It might also alleviate any concerns about 'sweetheart deals' with multinationals. Let me float a tendentious idea. If you regard compulsory motor insurance as an essential facility, could the Controller and Auditor General undertake a value for money review? Given that this purchase is enforced on the public, it is public monies in that sense. Better still, leave PIAB with its money and require it to undertake the cost-benefit analysis provided for in section 54(1)(c) of their 2003 Act. Maybe the current car insurance arrangements are a woeful waste of money? That is another one Minister Humphreys could do today. But the biggest change that is urgently required is in the corporate culture of the financial services sector. The tracker mortgage scandal indicates that CB is not up to that job. Our only hope is for a separate Financial Conduct Authority, as in the UK, where they are now probing why renewing motorists pay considerably more than new customers. Until we know the outcome of the 2017 EU anti-trust investigation into the insurance industry here, it is impossible to find hard evidence to support that 70pc price hike over three years. Our own Competition & Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) seems to have gone to ground on their 2016 investigation into price signalling by insurers. Yes, our average whiplash compensation is five times that of the UK. That has long been known. Indeed, the 1997 McAuley report on a proposed injury tribunal found the average Irish injury settlement was 12 times the amount paid in England. That value margin had been narrowed by operating with the 2004 PIAB Book of Quantum until 2016. In volume terms, injury claims frequency in Ireland is half that of the UK - and they are in the midst of insurance cost crisis this year too. Curiouser and curiouser? 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 Russia's 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 country's 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 polarising element into an already divided society; perhaps this is an answer to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church's decision to break away from Russia; perhaps they want to provoke a postponement of the election. 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 on Monday to impose it. It's not clear yet what this means. It seems just to include military mobilisation - 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 Brexit; there isn't much political bandwidth in London to worry about Ukraine. US President Donald Trump's 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. 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 isn't 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 don't have a broader strategy for ending this war, that will be the pattern for years to come. ( Washington Post) The annual meeting is being attended by leaders of the top 20 economies of the world. Bolton said the Trump-Abe bilateral meeting would expand into a trilateral meeting with Prime Minister Modi. (Photo: PTI) Washington: US President Donald Trump will have a trilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi 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 Argentina. 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 Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. 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 Modi. "He is going to meet with President Macri, the host government of Argentina, he'll meet with President Moon of South Korea, he'll meet with President Erdogan of Turkey, Prime Minister Abe of Japan, that will transform at some point during that meeting a trilateral meeting with the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, Bolton said. "The president will meet with President Putin and have a working dinner with President Xi," he said. So, abstention is almost 100 years old, Mary Lou McDonald has reminded us. The Sinn Fein leader's comments cue even more dreary prospects of her party trying to hog the limelight in centenary celebrations of An Cead Dail on January 21 next year. Ms McDonald's comments came in a remarkable piece of radio yesterday as Sean O'Rourke on RTE deftly unpicked the party's sophistry justifying their having things every which way around Brexit. Worse again she reiterated the party's effective view that it hopes Mairia Cahill, and her story of shameful abuse, will simply go away with her unjust treatment by Sinn Fein still unresolved. The Sinn Fein leader invoked the memory of this State's founders who took the bold decision not to take their seats in Westminster in 1919. But she cannot be allowed to get away with that piece of simplistic history re-writing. Reality is Sinn Fein will not take their seven seats in Westminster as every vote will count on December 12 and the moment of truth dawns for Theresa May's Brexit deal. Ms McDonald agrees it is the "least worst outcome"; like most of the rest of us she would prefer no Brexit at all. The bigger point is Sinn Fein, for the bulk of its existence, boycotted all three parliaments in Dublin, Belfast and London. Gradually, it got over itself about the Dail and Stormont. But Westminster, and the necessary Oath of Loyalty to the British monarch, remains a parliament too far. Is she inferring people like John Hume and Seamus Mallon were any less Irish for taking that oath? What of the Scottish National Party members, dedicated to independence for their country, or the proud members of Wales's Plaid Cymru? They've all managed their way round that one. Surely the bigger failing is the lack of a parliament and power-sharing government in Belfast at this crucial time for a people still at risk of becoming the meat in the sandwich. Ms McDonald can say the Democratic Unionist Party has its share of culpability here - but that argument is not enough. She acknowledges that it falls to the Dublin Government to battle for nationalists in the North on Brexit. And with people like outgoing Sinn Fein MEP, Martina Anderson, it can just continue to make demands. Ms Anderson blithely glosses over the seven idle Westminster seats, and the Belfast government and parliament abandoned and shut for more than 22 months, to demand Dublin cede the two European Parliament seats gained from the 73 UK seats to compensate for the North's loss of three MEPs. It appears the party would continue to go to Brussels and Strasbourg. Meanwhile, the DUP will continue to use its leverage with the British Tories in a way that risks harming all Ireland. As audit reports go, Peter Smyth's review of the broadband process is very easy to read but difficult to interpret. It is littered with conflicting assessments - to the point where all of the main players get something out of it. Denis Naughten will be able to tell his constituents that he did not derail the National Broadband Plan. If anything, he was over eager to get it across the line. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar can claim to have made the right decision when he pushed the Roscommon TD under the bus in order to rescue the project from what the report calls "apparent bias". Businessman David McCourt survives as the sole bidder for the contract worth at least 500,000. New Communications Minister Richard Bruton is in a position to reassure people that the process has not been tainted. And the Opposition gets to argue that the Government has made a mess of the situation. The political focus will quickly shift towards the actual evaluation of the final pitch made by Granahan McCourt which is likely to come before the Cabinet in advance of the Dail's Christmas recess. That will be the make-or-break point for the National Broadband Plan that Fine Gael is so desperate to keep alive. But whatever happens next, Mr Naughten will remain out in the cold to ponder his political future. It is rare that the Dail is shocked into silence nowadays but that is what happened when the then-minister stood up two days after the Budget to reveal his "impossible, stark position". He had to make a decision to resign rather than to wait for the Taoiseach to sack him. "And what do I do against the backdrop of the Opposition not having sought my resignation? "If I was a cynic, which I'm not, I believe the outcome is more about opinion polls than telecoms poles. It's more about optics than fibre optics," he said in an emotional speech. The reality is that the only thing stopping some in the Opposition calling for his resignation was the potential for collapsing the confidence and supply arrangement. Mr Varadkar later told the Dail the Independent TD had left himself "open to allegations of a conflict of interest". Often when they are forced from office, ministers disappear for a sustained period. But Mr Naughten has dusted himself down and quickly returned to normal politics in Leinster House. He has always maintained that his relationship with Mr McCourt was innocent. You would be hard pressed to find a TD on any side of the debate who doesn't believe him - but they all struggle to understand what possessed him to go to dinner in the millionaire's home. Mr Smyth's report says the fact Mr Naughten and Mr McCourt met outside the normal process "is not in and of itself a basis for finding that the procurement process has been tainted". On one hand the auditor notes he cannot say for sure that they didn't discuss the NBP at some of those occasions. On the other hand he is "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". But then Mr Smyth concludes that the minister was right to resign, "thereby removing himself from the process, insulates the process from any apparent bias created by his engagements with Mr McCourt". So ultimately, Denis Naughten was spot on when he said it was all about optics. Politics often is, and it seems bizarre someone with his experience wouldn't have realised that. For that reason, there is no chance that he'll find his way back into this government - but watch this space. Fine Gael found its ex-party member to be a solid working partner. Leo Varadkar may well find himself asking Denis Naughten to dinner after the next election. Plainly the odds are stacked against Theresa May getting her deal through parliament, and you'd be amazed if it was approved first time round. Labour will vote fairly solidly against it and there will be enough disgruntled Tory MPs on either side of the debate plus the adamantine DUP to see the prime minister go down to what will inevitably be called a "humiliation". Still, she's well used to those and must view the prospect with equanimity. The snap election; Chequers; Salzburg; cabinet resignations; threats to topple her; that awful coughing conference speech - she's got the T-shirt all right. She will then be obliged to make a statement to parliament as to what she will do next. In the spirit of things, she should probably say that she has listened to the great sovereign parliament and will ask the Europeans if they fancy going through the whole thing all over again. That will waste about a day of her time as she flies to Brussels to be told, once again, that there is no other deal available for Britain. I'm no expert on parliamentary procedure, but then the Commons can have a vote on "no deal" which will be voted down. After that (or before, it doesn't matter that much), Jeremy Corbyn will table a vote of no confidence in the government. This will be defeated, because the DUP will probably abstain or vote with her. Alternatively and pre-emptively (or as well - it will get chaotic) she could table her own "hybrid" vote of confidence. That states the Commons has confidence in Her Majesty's government "in respect of its European policy". This was a device John Major used to get himself out of an unwinnable position when he was faced with getting his European legislation through the Commons in the 1990s, to ratify the Maastricht Treaty. This would present the Tory rebels who dislike Brexit with a sharp dilemma. If they vote down May's motion then they risk a general election or, more remotely, a minority Labour government. The rebels would be told that May might have to resign on matter of principle in her personal policy - meaning a protracted Tory leadership contest or the arrival of some possibly unwelcome compromise candidate in No 10. This would be hard for any rebel to defend. The fixed-term Parliaments Act makes the old procedure of losing the confidence of the Commons more complicated, and there would have to be a confidence vote on the pure form of words prescribed in the act, but still, the danger is that we'd end up with a January general election - freezing cold, dark and possibly snowbound in places. Not ideal campaigning or voting conditions. "General Winter" will rescue May from that possibility. Any single one of the Tory rebels on either side can be blamed - by their constituency associations and the voters - for inducing mayhem and heralding a Corbyn-led Marxist regime. The whips will make sure they realise that. And what if Labour officially abstained on this vote - because it was (deliberately and cynically) hybrid? Or if a phalanx of Labour rebels did so? Or some flaky Lib Dems or SNP members? If they have not already, May's whips should "reach out" and discover what the possibilities are. It is how Ted Heath got through his European legislation to go into the European Communities back in 1971-72. He was strongly advised by his whips to offer Tory MPs a free vote - an issue of conscience above party. This gave some moral cover to the band of Labour rebels to break from the official line and abstain or vote with the government; unofficial Labour rebel whips ensured only the minimum number of Labour rebels would act on each vote, and did so on a rota system to reduce the penalties Labour would impose on any individual pro-European MP. HEATH never lost a vote. A final say referendum would be much the best way out of the quagmire, and May, already prepping public opinion, could take her chances and try to sell it to the public against the Remain option. That would be the best way to proceed, to unite the country and act in the national interest. If not, then eventually May can return to a vote on her deal - the Commons having eliminated no deal, an early election, a second referendum and any other alternative. Then she can say "there is no alternative". This second time round MPs on all sides would know that it really is a question of her deal or no deal, because: 1. She says so; 2. Europe says so; and 3. Parliament can't offer an alternative. In such circumstances Labour and other opposition party rebel abstentions (ie pro-deal) should be enough to see her over the line, as her internal critics continue to melt under the realities of the situation. It might even be possible that Corbyn would order his troops to abstain, on the grounds that a future Labour government can clear it all up and start again. (Plus he's actually pro-Brexit anyway.) None of this will be easy, but the prospects may be brighter for May than seem possible now - just as turned out to be the case for her predecessors Heath and Major. ( Independent News Service) U.S. President Barack Obama (R) and first lady Michelle Obama (L) come out from the White House for the arrival of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie Grgoire Trudeau for a state dinner at the North Portico March 10, 2016 in Washington, DC First Lady Michelle Obama and daughter Malia step off Air Force One August 16, 2009 upon arrival at Grand Canyon National Park Airport in Grand Canyon, Arizona. Obama and his family will spend the day visiting the Grand Canyon. AFP PHOTO/Mandel NGAN (Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images) I like campaigning, energized by the connections I made with votes across America. And yet the pace could be gruelling. I stole moments of rest when I could. Copyright Callie Sell/Aurora Photos " Becoming", a book by former first lady Michelle Obama, is displayed at the 57th Street Books bookstore US First Lady Michelle Obama laughs as President Barack Obama tells jokes during the White House Correspondents Association Dinner on May 3, 2014 in Washington, DC. AFP PHOTO/Jewel Samad Former US first lady Michelle Obama has reflected on the strategy that informed her personal style during her eight years in the White House. Mrs Obama said she noticed early on in the campaign trail that much of the focus on her was around what she was wearing - rather than what she was doing - and sometimes, her perceived faux pas were used as ammunition for criticism . "Sometime during Baracks campaign, people began paying attention to my clothes. Or at least the media paid attention, which provoked all manner of commentary across the internet," she writes in her memoirs Becoming. "My pearls, my belts, my cardigans, my off-the-rack dresses from J. Crew, my apparently brave choice of white for an inaugural gown - all seemed to trigger a slew of opinions and instant feedback. "Late in the summer of 2009, we went on a family trip in the Grand Canyon, and I was lambasted for an apparent lack of dignity when I was photographed getting off Air Force One (in 106-degree heat, I might add) dressed in a pair of shorts. It seemed that my clothes mattered more to people than anything I had to say." Expand Close First Lady Michelle Obama and daughter Malia step off Air Force One August 16, 2009 upon arrival at Grand Canyon National Park Airport in Grand Canyon, Arizona. Obama and his family will spend the day visiting the Grand Canyon. AFP PHOTO/Mandel NGAN (Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp First Lady Michelle Obama and daughter Malia step off Air Force One August 16, 2009 upon arrival at Grand Canyon National Park Airport in Grand Canyon, Arizona. Obama and his family will spend the day visiting the Grand Canyon. AFP PHOTO/Mandel NGAN (Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images) Despite her frustrations at some outlets fixation exclusively on her fashion, she harnessed that power as a force of good, showcasing up-and-coming designers and highlighting American labels like J.Crew, which were more accessible than Oscar de la Renta, whom she says was "displeased" by the fact she rarely, if ever, wore his work. She covered the costs of her day-to-day wardrobe, whereas dramatic pieces for state dinners were loaned to her by the designers and later donated to the National Archives. "When it came to my choices, I tried to be somewhat unpredictable, to prevent anyone from ascribing any sort of message to what I wore. It was a thin line to walk. I was supposed to stand out without overshadowing others, to blend in but not fade away," she explained. "As a black woman, too, I knew Id be criticised if I was perceived as being showy and high-end, and Id also be criticized if I was too casual. So I mixed it up. Id match a Michael Kors skirt with a T-shirt from Gap. I wore something from Target one day and Diane von Furstenberg the next. I wanted to draw attention to and celebrate American designers, especially those who were less established, even if it sometimes frustrated the old guard, including Oscar de la Renta, who was reportedly displeased that I wasnt wearing his creations. "For me, my choices were simply a way to use my curious relationship with the public gaze to boost a diverse set of up-and-comers." A commercial pilot is under investigation after falling asleep in the cockpit of a freight plane and overflying his Australian island destination by 46km. 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 November 8 from Devonport on Tasmania 250km north west to King Island in Bass Strait, said his employer Vortex Air. The pilot "unintentionally fell asleep while in command of the aircraft", the Melbourne-based airline said. The pilot landed safely on King Island, the company said. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority are investigating the incident and the company's management of pilot fatigue. Vortex Air said the 6.20am flight had been the first on the pilot's first day back at work after taking leave. 'The Australian' newspaper said the pilot reported for duty despite having had little or no sleep due to a personal crisis. In the area the temperatures have increased by two degrees in the last 30 years. The visible damage in the Tannourine forest in the north of the country. Many skeletons of dead trees. The government has promoted a program of grafting, but proceeds slowly. Hopeful environmentalists: Cedars will be able to adapt. Beirut (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Climate change and rising temperatures on the planet put the symbol of Lebanon, the cedar tree, at risk. This tree is stamped on both the national currency and the flag; the French poet Alphonse de Lamartine paid homage to it in a famous composition. The extent of the devastation clearly emerges in the centuries-old Tannourine forest in the north; in the area there are now many skeletons of dead trees. They are not dying from fire, but climate change. The increase in temperatures [two degrees in the last 30 years] and the collapse in rain and snow levels since the late 1990s has led to the proliferation an insect that feeds on the needles of the "Gods cedars", as they are called in Lebanon. The Cephalcia tannourinensis has devastated the forests, located at 1800 meters in height, as well as in other forests of the north. Nabil Nemer, French entomologist and environmentalist responsible for the treatment of Tannourine, explains: "It is as if a fire had swept away the forest" and only last year "at least 170 trees have completely dried up". And the fault is not attributable to the insect, which lives in the area and in contact with the cedars for centuries. In this area, adds scientist Wolfgang Cramer, "climate change is more intense" than the world average. Usually the larva, which loves cold and humidity, sleeps up to three or four years under the ground in some "ravines". However, the dry climate has "disturbed" the micro-climate the insect was used to. To counter this, since 1999 the authorities have started to use insecticides scattered by helicopters. However, in the last four years the larvae have grown and this type of intervention is no longer used due to the heavy repercussions on the environment and pollution. In 2012, the Beirut government and the Ministry of Agriculture launched an ambitious reforestation program that involves the grafting of 40 million shrubs "all native of Lebanon", covering an area of 70 thousand hectares. To date, less than three million have been planted and the program is already lagging behind the deadline set for 2030, in a real battle against the clock. "The cedars have survived for millions of years - says Magda Bou Dagher Kharrat, co-founder of the Nong environmentalist Jouzour Lubnan - and will be able to overcome climate change, by adapting". Pope Francis has praised a mute child who climbed onstage at the Vatican on Wednesday to play during the pontiffs general audience. Swiss Guards and Vatican gendarmes stood by and gamely let six-year-old Wenzel Wirth run around Francis, who commended the freedom displayed by the little boy. When Wenzels Argentine-Italian mother went on stage to fetch him, she explained to Francis that the boy cannot speak. Francis responded Let him be, let him be, and the mother retreated and let Wenzel continue to play. When Francis took the microphone, he explained in Spanish to the crowd that the child was speech-impaired. But he knows how to communicate, to express himself. And he has something that made me think hes free. Undiciplined-ly free, but hes free, a chuckling Francis said to applause from the crowd. It made me think, am I so free before God? When Jesus says we have to be like children, it means we need to have the freedom that a child has before his father. I think this child preaches to all of us. And let us ask for the grace of speech (for him). The boys father, Ariel Wirth, told The Associated Press that Wenzel suffers from behavioural problems as well as his speech limitations, and that the family at home tries simply to let him express himself as he can. We try to let him be free. He has to express himself, and we live without hiding his problems, he said. The family lives in Verona and went to Rome just for Wednesdays general audience. Mr Wirth said Wenzel was tired after the long journey and long wait for the pope Wednesday morning, and clearly needed to run around. It was not planned, he said, though he added that the family had told Wenzel that they were going to see the pope and that he was clearly excited at the prospect. Hyped-up tension on TV cookery shows is leading to a nationwide chef shortage, industry figures have warned. Website caterer.com is currently advertising more than 10,000 vacancies. Its research found almost half of Britons say shows like 'MasterChef' and 'The Great British Bake Off' have put them off a career as a chef. Almost two-thirds of adults would not consider a role in the hospitality industry and a similar number did not feel they would be able to cope in a professional kitchen. Neil Pattison, from Caterer.com, said: "These shows are not an accurate reflection of the industry as a whole." Ukrainian sailors were filmed yesterday giving what Kiev said were forced confessions and brought to court after Russia seized their ships off the coast of Crimea in a major escalation of tensions. A court in Crimea ruled yesterday that 12 of the 24 sailors and security service agents who were captured would be kept in confinement for two months, with a decision on the rest expected today. Moscow has defied Western calls to release the men, who have been accused of violating Russia's borders and face up to six years in prison. At least three of the men are in hospital. State television has broadcast footage from the interrogation of three of the captives, including an officer who, while reading from a screen, said the ships had deliberately ignored Russian requests to stop. The head of the Ukrainian navy said the sailors had been forced to give false testimony, noting that several of the men had relatives in Crimea. Russian ships rammed a tugboat and opened fire on two gunboats that were trying to reach the Ukrainian port of Mariupol through the Kerch Strait on Sunday. Expand Close Vladimir Putin: The Russian president asked for Germanys help. Photo: Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Vladimir Putin: The Russian president asked for Germanys help. Photo: Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP The Ukrainian security service said yesterday that a Russian jet had also fired rockets during the incident, seriously injuring one officer. Special forces later boarded the vessels. Russia has claimed the incident was a planned "provocation", while Ukraine has called it an act of aggression. Although the Azov Sea is, by a 2003 treaty, supposed to be shared between Ukraine and Russia, the Kerch Strait connecting it to the Black Sea has been controlled by Moscow since it annexed Crimea in 2014. Russia has been demanding that ships receive permission to pass after it opened a bridge over the strait in May. In a phone call with Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, late on Monday, Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, accused Kiev of "creating yet another conflict situation" before next March's presidential election in Ukraine, according to a Kremlin statement. Yesterday, Russian state media footage showed anti-ship missiles moving from Sevastopol to the Kerch Strait. For more than four years, Russia has backed separatists in a conflict in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 10,000 people. Tensions have also been rising in the Azov Sea as both sides have detained each other's fishing vessels. But Sunday's incident marked the first time Russia has openly attacked Ukrainian forces. The UK has condemned Russia's "destabilising behaviour in the region and its ongoing violation of Ukrainian territorial integrity". At an emergency session of the United Nations in New York on Monday, Russia said the Ukrainian vessels deliberately did not wait for permission to pass through the strait, which was temporarily closed. However, Ukraine said its ships had waited for permission and began withdrawing from the area after they were buzzed by Russian helicopters. US President Donald Trump said that he did not like what was happening between Russia and Ukraine and was working with European leaders on the situation. Mike Pompeo, US secretary of state, called Russia's 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 Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity," he said. Ms Merkel spoke with Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko by telephone. Her office said the chancellor emphasised the need for de-escalation and dialogue and said she would work to help bring both about. Several other senior European politicians yesterday 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. ( Daily Telegraph London) Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021] Leading scientists have raised more questions after a Chinese scientist repeated his claim that he helped make the worlds first gene-edited babies. He Jiankui spoke at a meeting on gene editing in Hong Kong where the conference leader called his experiment irresponsible, and said it provided evidence that the scientific community had failed to regulate itself to prevent premature efforts to alter human DNA. The work is highly controversial because the changes can be inherited and could go on to harm other genes, and is banned in many countries. Expand Close Mr He addresses the Human Genome Editing Conference in Hong Kong (AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Mr He addresses the Human Genome Editing Conference in Hong Kong (AP) The scientist, Mr He, said twin girls born earlier this month had DNA altered to make them resistant to possible future infection with HIV. Mr He said: They need this protection since a vaccine is not available. Jennifer Doudna, a University of California-Berkeley scientist and one of the inventors of the CRISPR gene editing tool which Mr He claimed to have used, said: This is a truly unacceptable development. Im grateful that he appeared today, but I dont think that we heard answers. We still need to understand the motivation for this. David Liu of Harvard and MITs Broad Institute, the inventor of a variation of the gene editing tool, said: I feel more disturbed now. Its an appalling example of what not to do about a promising technology that has great potential to benefit society. I hope it never happens again. Expand Close Mr He has faced strong criticism over the controversial move (AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Mr He has faced strong criticism over the controversial move (AP) There is no independent confirmation of Mr Hes claim and he has not yet published in any scientific journal where his work would be vetted by experts. At the conference, Mr He failed or refused to answer many questions including: who funded him, how did he ensure that participants understood the potential risks and benefits, and why did he keep his work secret until after it was done? After Mr He spoke, David Baltimore, a Nobel laureate from the California Institute of Technology and a leader of the conference, said the scientists work would still be considered irresponsible because it did not meet criteria many scientists agreed on several years ago before gene editing could be considered. Mr Baltimore said: I personally dont think that it was medically necessary. Expand Close Scientists claimed the case showed that self-regulation had failed (AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Scientists claimed the case showed that self-regulation had failed (AP) The case shows there has been a failure of self-regulation by the scientific community and said the conference committee would meet and issue a statement on Thursday about the future of the field, Mr Baltimore added. Before Mr Hes talk, Dr George Daley, Harvard Medical Schools dean and one of the conference organisers, warned against a backlash to gene editing because of Mr Hes experiment. Dr Daley said that just because the first case may have been a mis-step, this should in no way, I think, lead us to stick our heads in the sand and not consider the very, very positive aspects that could come forth by a more responsible pathway. Scientists who go rogue it carries a deep, deep cost to the scientific community, Dr Daley added. Regulators have been swift to condemn the experiment as unethical and unscientific. Chinas National Health Commission has ordered local officials in Guangdong province to investigate Mr Hes actions, and his employer, Southern University of Science and Technology of China, is also investigating. The breakdown of a plea deal between US prosecutors and former Donald Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and a report about alleged contacts he may have had with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange have introduced a new element of uncertainty into the Trump-Russia investigation. On Tuesday, a day after prosecutors accused Mr Manafort of repeatedly lying to them, destroying his agreement to tell all in return for a lighter sentence, he denied a report in The Guardian that he had met secretly with Mr Assange around March 2016. That is the same month Mr Manafort joined the Trump campaign and Russian hackers began an effort to penetrate the email accounts of Hillary Clintons presidential campaign. The developments thrust Mr Manafort back into the investigation spotlight, raising new questions about what he knows and what prosecutors say he might be attempting to conceal as they probe Russian election interference and possible coordination with Mr Trumps associates in the 2016 US presidential campaign. Meanwhile, Mr Manaforts lawyers have been briefing the US presidents representatives on what their client has told investigators, an unusual arrangement that could give Mr Trump ammunition in his feud against special counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the investigation. Mr Trumps lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, said: They share with me the things that pertain to our part of the case. Mr Giuliani also said the US leader, who has recently stepped up his attacks on Mr Mueller, has been enraged by the treatment of Mr Manafort. BREAKING: @WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange has instructed his lawyers to sue the Guardian for libel over fabricated Manafort story and launched a legal fund to boost the action https://t.co/VaoMESN5RO WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) November 27, 2018 Other figures entangled in the investigation, including Mr Trump himself, have been scrambling to escalate attacks and allegations against prosecutors who have been working quietly behind the scenes. Besides denying he has ever met Mr Assange, Mr Manafort, who is currently in jail, said he had told Mr Muellers prosecutors the truth during questioning. WikiLeaks said Mr Manafort had never met with Mr Assange, and offered to bet The Guardian newspaper a million dollars and its editors head. The papers report suggested a direct connection between WikiLeaks and the Trump campaign. Mr Manafort called the story totally false and deliberately libellous, saying in a statement that he had never met Mr Assange or anyone close to him. Expand Close Mr Trump has stepped up his attacks on special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigation potential Russian collusion (AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Mr Trump has stepped up his attacks on special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigation potential Russian collusion (AP) The Guardian cited unidentified sources as saying Mr Manafort first met Mr Assange in 2013 at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. The newspaper said that Mr Manafort returned in 2015 and 2016 and that its sources had tentatively dated the final visit to March. There was no detail on what might have been discussed. Mr Assange, whose organisation published thousands of emails stolen by Russian spies from Mrs Clintons campaign in 2016, is claiming asylum at the embassy. It is unclear what US prosecutors contend Mr Manafort lied about, though they are expected to make a public filing that could offer answers. Expand Close Mr Assange and Mr Manafort have denied they ever met (AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Mr Assange and Mr Manafort have denied they ever met (AP) Dissolution of his plea deal could be a devastating outcome for a defendant who suddenly admitted guilt last September after months of maintaining his innocence, and who bet on gaining a lighter sentence in return for his cooperation. But it is also a potential setback for investigators, given that Mr Manafort steered the election campaign during a vital stretch of 2016, when prosecutors say Russian intelligence was working to sway the poll in Mr Trumps favour. The prosecutors filing underlined their exasperation not only with Manaforts alleged deception but also over the loss of an important witness present for key moments under scrutiny, including a Trump Tower meeting at which Mr Trumps eldest son Donald Trump Jr expected to receive dirt about Mrs Clinton from a Kremlin-connected lawyer. Mr Trump continues to rage against the investigation, tweeting on Tuesday that Mr Mueller was doing TREMENDOUS damage to our Criminal Justice system and calling the investigation a total disgrace. The Pentagon cautioned Russia yesterday not to tamper with the site of an alleged gas attack in Syria's Aleppo and allow investigators to inspect the site. The global chemical weapons agency, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), has said it will investigate the alleged gas attack in Aleppo on Saturday that reportedly sickened up to 100 people. The Syrian government and its ally, Russia, blamed the attack on insurgents. The Syrian government, which accused rebels of firing chlorine, asked the OPCW to send a fact-finding mission. "We caution Russia against tampering with another suspected chemical weapons attack site and urge Russia to secure the safety of the OPCW inspectors so these allegations can be investigated in a fair and transparent manner," Pentagon spokesman Commander Sean Robertson said. In April, US President Donnald Trump's administration accused Russia of blocking international inspectors from reaching the site of a suspected poison gas attack in Syria's Douma and said Russians or Syrians may have tampered with evidence on the ground. The OPCW will be able not only to determine whether a chemical weapons attack occurred but also to assign blame. That responsibility had fallen to a joint UN-OPCW mission until Russia blocked a UN Security Council resolution to extend its mandate. Past investigations by the joint mission found Syrian government forces had used chlorine and sarin several times in the civil war, while the Islamist militant group Islamic State was found to have used sulphur mustard gas once. A health official in Aleppo said victims had suffered breathing difficulties, eye inflammation and other symptoms that suggested the use of chlorine gas, which is banned. Minutes after touching down on Mars, Nasa's InSight spacecraft sent back a "nice and dirty" snapshot of its new digs. Yet the dust-speckled image looked like a work of art to scientists. The photo revealed a mostly smooth and sandy terrain around the spacecraft with only one sizeable rock visible. "I'm very happy that it looks like we have an incredibly safe and boring landing location," project manager Tom Hoffman said. "That's what we were going for." A better image came hours later and more are expected in the days ahead, after the dust covers come off the lander's cameras. Lead scientist Bruce Banerdt said he doesn't expect to start getting a stream of solid data until late next spring. A statement from the governors office in Helmand confirmed that 16 Taliban insurgents were killed (Rahmat Gul/AP) At least 30 civilians have been killed, along with 16 Taliban fighters, as government forces fought the insurgents in Helmand province overnight, an Afghan official said. Attahullah Afghan, who heads the provincial council, said most of the casualties, including men, women and children, were the victims of an airstrike that hit a house on Tuesday night during military operations there. A statement from the governors office in Helmand confirmed that 16 Taliban insurgents were killed and said an investigation was under way to determine civilian casualties. It said the militants had stockpiled ammunition in the area of the operation, which could have caused civilian casualties. There was also a car packed with explosives which ignited during the strike. Qari Yusouf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, claimed all the victims were civilians. by P. Pietro () Peter, who has undergone several years of imprisonment because of the faith, advises the Vatican to take also to heart the situation of the "brothers who are still suffering". The Sino-Vatican agreement produces confusion. Some doubts about the morality of the illegitimate bishops, who are now reconciled. Esteem for Pope Francis. Beijing (AsiaNews) - "The Holy See should concern itself with bishops who are still in prison", comforting "the brothers who are still suffering": says Fr. Peter, a priest from central China, who in the past also suffered prison. While appreciating the mission of Pope Francis, Fr. Peter confesses to being confused by the Sino-Vatican agreement. He believes it is unjust to place on the same level "the bishops who have always remained faithful and those who have been ordained illegitimately" and who have been forgiven by the pontiff, on the same level. Here is what Fr. Peter wrote, in a message entitled: "Conflicting thoughts in my heart". Almost without realizing it, I have been in the Church for three generations now. If I look back at the last 30 years, many conflicting feelings fill my heart, and I feel sad. During the pontificate of Pope John Paul II, although we were in a hostile environment, often risking prison too, clarity of faith and so many courageous witnesses helped me to face everything without fear. I studied theology in a very difficult context, often hidden here and there, eating polenta, radish pickles, chewing on old rice, singing hymns of praise to God and always preparing myself with a spirit of sacrifice. A joyful soul filled me with gratitude and I experienced profound happiness with God. Despite being detained twice, in the 1980s and 1990s, I did not retire because of these attacks, nor did I stop spreading the Gospel. After the death of Pope John Paul II, on 2 April 2005, Benedict XVI was elected on 19 April 2005 as the successor of Saint Peter. Although I initially thought that Benedict XVI was too conservative, this did not shake my loyalty to the Pope. The theological rigor of Benedict XVI and his profound spirituality helped me to admire the greatness of God. The Chinese Church in the era of Pope John Paul II received many privileges. On May 27, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI published a letter to Chinese Catholics, with the clear intention of clarifying the chaos that had been created. In any case, the trust and the will to witness for the Lord has never failed in me. On 28 February 2013, Pope Benedict XVI took the initiative to resign, leaving the world in a state of dismay. I too felt myself collapse. On March 13, 2013, the Argentine bishop Bergoglio was elected Pope, with the name of Francis. The election of Pope Francis immediately gave the impression of a new season for the Church. Both for the world and for China, his moves and strategies have often been unexpected. Perhaps this is because the indications of the ecclesiastical authorities of the past for the Chinese Church are still deeply impressed in me, perhaps it is because of my overly rooted and rigid understanding of the theology of the past, but the fact is that the secret agreement signed by the Holy See and China has caused me deep confusion and loss. I do not intend to dwell on the morality of legitimized bishops here, but I think it is unfair to subordinate bishops who have always remained faithful to those who have been illegally ordained. In particular, the Holy See should take care of the bishops who are still in prison, ensuring that these pastors, imprisoned for their faith, obtaining the freedom and rights they deserve. Otherwise, these brothers and all those who are still suffering will never know if their testimony still makes sense. Donald Trump has hinted he may cancel an upcoming meeting with Vladimir Putin (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) US president Donald Trump has suggested he may cancel his planned sit-down with Vladimir Putin over Russias seizure of three Ukrainian naval ships last weekend. In an interview with The Washington Post, Mr Trump said he would be receiving a full report from his national security team on Russias recent actions in eastern Ukraine and the Black Sea. He said he would decide on a course after that. Maybe I wont have the meeting, he said. Maybe I wont even have the meeting. He added: I dont like that aggression. I dont want that aggression at all. Expand Close Mr Trump is due to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin (Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Mr Trump is due to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin (Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) The comments were Mr Trumps strongest to date in condemnation of Russias recent actions in Ukraine, where tensions are flaring. But White House aides were still planning for the Putin meeting after Mr Trumps comments. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday that the meeting was on and that Russia has not received any other information from our US counterparts. The meeting between the two presidents is set to be just one of several high-profile foreign policy engagements for the US leader on a whirlwind two-day visit to Argentina. Mr Trump is also set meet with Chinese president Xi Jinping over dinner this weekend, in what may be a pivotal session in determining if and how the ongoing trade dispute between their two countries could be resolved. On Tuesday, the White House warned Mr Xi against trying to wait out Mr Trump in the ongoing talks, suggesting the Chinese economy was not as resilient to a trade war as would be the US. The warning from Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, came ahead of the two leaders high-stakes sit-down on Saturday evening. Expand Close Russia seized three Ukrainian naval ships over the weekend (AP Photo) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Russia seized three Ukrainian naval ships over the weekend (AP Photo) Over the last year, the two countries have levied a series of tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of imports from one another, with the latest round of US duties set to go into force in the new year. Mr Xi said on Wednesday the international community needs to build consensus to solve the conflict between free trade and protectionism. In a speech to politicians in Spain, where he is conducting a state visit before attending the Group of 20 leaders summit in Argentina, he said the world is facing instability, uncertainty and hot topics without precedents in our history. I think we are at a crossroads, Mr Xi said. In economic terms we need to decide if we are going to follow the economic globalisation and free market or if we are going to choose unilateralism and protectionism. National Security adviser John Bolton said Mr Trump will also be meeting with German chancellor Angela Merkel, Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, Argentine president Mauricio Macri, South Koreas Moon Jae-in, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders called the trip an opportunity for the president to cement relations with other world leaders and advance a global economic system based on free, fair and reciprocal trade. The Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians is withdrawing its representative from the Maine Legislature, a further sign of the erosion in tribal-state relations. The tribe was the lone holdout after other Indian nations withdrew their representatives more than three years ago. All were upset about the lack of action on their issues in the state capital. But now that the state's highest court has refused to rule on a gaming question referred by the Legislature, the Houlton Band is pulling out, The County reported. The tribe's representative, who had authored the referring question, told the paper that casino efforts will continue through other means. Going forward there is expected to still be tribal gaming efforts even without our presence in the Maine Legislature," outgoing State Rep. Henry John Bear told The County. According to the U.S. Supreme Court decision in California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians , tribes possess the inherent authority to legalize and regulate gaming on their own lands. A year after the decision, Congress passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act to provide a national framework for dealing with casinos in Indian Country. The provisions of any Federal law enacted after October 10, 1980, for the benefit of Indians, Indian nations, or tribes or bands of Indians, which would affect or preempt the application of the laws of the State of Maine, including application of the laws of the State to lands owned by or held in trust for Indians, or Indian nations, tribes, or bands of Indians, as provided in this subchapter and the Maine Implementing Act, shall not apply within the State of Maine, unless such provision of such subsequently enacted Federal law is specifically made applicable within the State of Maine. The Houlton Band, however, falls under a land claim settlement which appears to bar the tribe from following IGRA -- or any other federal Indian law -- unless Congress specifically says so. The long and complicated passage from the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act follows: Mindful of the hurdles, the Houlton Band and other tribes have repeatedly gone to state lawmakers to seek approval for gaming developments. All of those efforts have failed. Some tribes have even asked voters for help. Voters rejected those appeals while approving two non-Indian casinos in the state "Does the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, 480 U.S. 202 (1987) allow the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, a federally recognized Indian tribe, to conduct gambling on tribal trust land without permission to do so from the State?" Despite the history, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court declined to answer the question posed by House Order 72 . It read: The court's November 20 order said no "solemn occasion exists" to answer the question because the Maine House of Representatives didn't even bother submitting a brief as requested. "When the body propounding a question does not, upon our request for briefing of the issue, provide any response that asks us to determine the existence of a solemn occasion that would justify our consideration of a propounded question, we will determine that the question is not 'of a serious and immediate nature' and that the situation does not 'present an unusual exigency,'" the opinion stated. Read More on the Story Join the Conversation Related Stories We have seen a lot of celebrity relationships culminate into marriage but Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone are different and how. Their romance blossomed on the sets of Goliyon Ki Raasleela-Ramleela and within six months into their relationship, they both knew that this one was for keeps. Pinterest Free-flowing romance, long-trips to undisclosed destinations and going gaga over each other during interviews, DeepVeer (As fans call them) turned into everyone's favorite celebrity couple. There was nothing pretentious nor dramatic about their romance. Agencies After dating for over six years, the couple finally solemnized their marriage in the picturesque locals of Italy, at Lake Como. With only a few closed ones and friends around them, it was a wedding that you only see in films and read in romantic novels. Viral Bhayani With love, joy and the intention to last it forever, Mr. and Mrs. Ranveer Singh began their sweet forever in Italy. But what was their 'it' moment when both realized that it was meant to be? In a detailed interview with Filmfare, Ranveer bared his heart out on marriage with Padukone and how he aims to be a millennial husband. In a first, Ranveer revealed that he was just waiting for his lady-love Deepika to give a final nod. Instagram "Ive been ready for a while. I was just waiting for Deepika to be ready. It would happen whenever she had decided. I was fully ready and raring to go." Ranveer finally revealed why the couple zeroed down on Lake Como, Italy for the wedding. Instagram/Ranveer Singh "Whatever she wished, I wanted her to have it. Thats the first step in being the husband of the millennium. Whatever her vision of getting married, I wanted her to realize it. Whatever she wanted, it was done exactly in that manner. She deserves every bit of it. I too deserve happiness and my happiness comes from her happiness. Its that simple." Ranveer spilled the beans on the 'this is it' moment of their relationship. He added, Pinterest "Six months into the relationship, I knew she was the one. I nurtured the relationship accordingly. Its been six years now. Shes too good, too lovely. Shes a force of nature. I understood that almost immediately." When he was asked if she's lucky to have him, he had a very different take on it. He added, Instagram/Ranveer and Deepika "I dont think about these things. Im lucky to have her. I knew all too well that this is the woman Im going to marry. This is the woman who would become the mother of my children. Ive been thinking about marriage seriously for almost three years now. I was just waiting, I told her the minute you say so, well do it." A 24-year-old man from sector 27 in Noida started focusing more on its news anchors than the news itself as he stalked a female news anchor from a media company by making multiple accounts. The Times of India reported that a man who goes by the name, Gulshan Kashyap is a resident of Gurgaon and a third-year student of B.Sc at Maharishi Dayanand University in Rohtak, Haryana. The accused was arrested by police officials for stalking the anchor on social media and posting objectionable comments on her profile. He was identified from his social media account and IP addresses that were used by him. The anchor then filed a complaint alleging that the man had been sending her messages and harassing her since January, informed SHO of Sector 20 police station, Manoj Pant. Pant said that the complainant first noticed Kashyaps message on January 12, 2018, on Twitter following which they had some heated dispute and the anchor blocked him on social media. Later, the accused messaged her that he was in love with her and wanted to marry her. He was turned down by the complainant. Kashyap later reached her office and attempted to meet her several times but he was stopped by the security guards. Kashyap told TOI that he was blocked after the duo had an argument over the release of Padmaavat movie. He admitted that after being blocked her on Twitter, he messaged her on Twitter by creating 15 fake profiles on Facebook, 10 on Instagram and even used a friends profile to contact her. An FIR has been registered against Kashyap under sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 507 (criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication) of the IPC and under Section 66 of the IT Act. Young girls from Rautgara village in Pithoragarh tehsil are forced to skip school for at least five days every month when they are menstruating as a temple dedicated to a local deity falls along the way to the institution. Locals believe that the temple would be desecrated if women on their periods were to pass the area which has led parents to confine menstruating girls to their homes. In fact, the taboo has forced a few of the girls determined to get a good education to move to nearby cities and towns where they are staying with relatives. A team of the local administration will now be sent to counsel parents to allow girls to attend classes. Twitter/Representational Image The issue was brought to fore when a team from the NGO Uttarakhand Mahila Manch visited the area. Uma Bhatt who led the team told TOI that girls from the village who attend Sail Government Intercollege have been skipping school for up to five days during their period. "A temple dedicated to local deity Chamu Devta falls on the route to school. Teachers have been trying to encourage girls to attend classes but parents fear backlash from the community and thus don't allow the girls to go to school," Bhatt said. TOI A former teacher at the school requesting anonymity said, "People here are very conservative. We tried several times to create awareness among parents and persuade them to let their daughters attend school but most of them did not want to defy traditional norms." Usually people who have to lodge a complaint or a police officer are the only ones who would be seen visiting a police station. Criminals, journalists, complainants and maybe even lawyers are a usual site at the station. However, a group of children arent the ones you would expect to meet at a police station. On Monday morning their first gathering was a surprise for many. No no, they didnt go for any criminal complaint but to study. A 20 year old tutor, Sandeep Bohat is transforming lives of 40 slum students by offering them free education, Times of India reported. However, Bohat earlier used to give tuitions in a park in Rohini. Photo: India Today After watching Bohats kind gesture, inspector Jagminder Singh stepped in and offered him to take classes in a police station. Earlier parents were reluctant to send their children for these classes, especially girls due to safety reasons. But what could be safer than a police station? Besides offering educational lessons, Bohat even got two toilets constructed for slum women after he saw a girl defecating in the open. Bohat tells TOI that parents offer whatever fee they can afford but he refuses to take it. I think of my fees being paid in full the day my work enables these kids to help others in need. Bohat saved Rs 10 daily to make sure that a toilet gets build for these girls. He even inspired other colony residents to save money for welfare of their society. Hindus are split over relocating their temple because its land is the source of a legal dispute. Real estate company pays more than US$ 35,000 to Muslim men to seize the temple before the arrival of the police. Insults and violence follow with 18 cars and two motorcycles torched. Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews/Agencies) Clashes broke out among Hindus over the fate of the Seafield Sri Maha Mariamman Temple in Subang Jaya, Selangor. The row saw people beat and hurl insults at each other with cars torched. Tensions between the two factions were made worse by the intervention of 50 Malay Muslims sent to seize the temple. Following its intervention, police arrested 21 people, Malaysias Home Affairs Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said today. Built over a century ago, the temple is at the centre of a dispute over ownership. The case has pitted the temple administration and One City Development, a real estate company. In 2014, the Shah Alam High Court ruled that the real estate developer was the legal owner of the land. However, the eviction order that followed has not yet been carried out because one faction in the Hindu community reject the ruling, whilst another accepts it. After some failed negotiations, the company tried to take over the temple on 22 November, but had to give up due to presence of protesters at the site. One City Development then turned to police to evict protesters at 7 am Monday. When agents arrived, they found that the companys lawyers had paid 150,000 ringgits (US$ 35,500) to 50 Muslim men to seize the temple ahead of time. What is more, the latters arrival had led to a confrontation with Hindu devotees, which turned into clashes that saw 18 cars and two motorcycles torched. A police patrol car was also damaged by stones and windows were broken at a nearby shopping mall. Some 700 agents were deployed, including members of the Federal Reserve Unit (FRU), a riot control force and special response team. As a result of the incident, the authorities arrested of 19 people and two lawyers representing One City Development. For its part, the company has rejected the version of events presented by the minister. PTI After 70 years of mistrust, India and Pakistan have finally agreed to give Sikhs what they deserve and have been waiting for long- a passage to Kartarpur Sahab which is like a Mecca to Sikhs as the founder of Sikhism Guru Nanak Dev Ji had lived there for 18 long years. Read more Here's more top news of the day: 1) Chandramukhi, The First Transgender To Contest Election From Telangana Goes Missing AFP Chandramukhi Muvvala, who had recently become the first transgender to file nominations for the upcoming assembly election in Telangana has gone missing, and her family and friends have suspected foul play. Read more 2) Tired Of Holy Texts Subjugating Women, Feminist Theologists Have Published Womens Bible AFP Holy texts have played a pivotal role in justifying hegemonizing and oppressing women for ages. In the social context, women have remained second-class citizens. And thats context religions have shaped. Read more 3) LeT Terrorist Who Murdered Journalist Shujaat Bukhari Killed In Budgam Encounter In a big blow to Lashkar-e-Taiba in Kashmir, its top commander Naveed Jatt and another terrorist were gunned down by security forces on Wednesday during the Budgam encounter. Read more 4) Una Flogging Victim Writes To President Seeking Permission For Mercy Killing BCCL More than two years after four Scheduled Caste youths were assaulted by gau rakshaks in Gujarat's Una over alleged cattle slaughter, one of the victims has written to the President seeking mercy killing. Read more 5) Still Confused About Brahminical Patriarchy? This Simplified Post Will Help You Understand Twitter The day Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was photographed holding Smash Brahminical Patriarchy placard at a meeting with women journalists and activists on how to make Twitter a safer space for women, India was left divided. Read more The Railway Police in Bihar has stumbled upon what appears to be an international racket involved in smuggling human corps after they arrested a smuggler. The arrested man has been identified as Sanjay Prasad. He was arrested by the government rail police (GRP) Chhapra Junction in Saran district on Monday when he was travelling in Balia-Sealdah Express. Representational Image The cops also recovered 16 human skulls and 34 femurs from his possession. One cell phone, one Nepalese sim card, two ATM cards, one PAN card, voter identity cards of Siliguri and Paharpur were also seized from him. According to the cops, Prasad was travelling to Bhutan via Nepal. Prasad has reportedly admitted to the police that the skulls and femurs were bought from Balia in Uttar Pradesh. He claimed that the skulls were meant to be smuggled to Bhutan, where it would be used for black magic and occult rituals. BCCL/ Representational Image He also confessed that he had carried such consignments to Bhutan twice earlier. Police said they caught Prasad during a routine checking for liquor smuggling near the inquiry counter. This is the second time in two months GRP have recovered skeletal remains from a train. On October 12 the GRP in Muzaffarpur had recovered an abandoned bag inside a general compartment of Lichchhavi Express which originates from Anand Vihar Terminal and terminates at Sitamarhi with a human skull. "Had anyone ever thought that the Berlin Wall would fall. Maybe with the blessings of Guru Nanak Devji, this Kartarpur corridor will not just remain a corridor, but act as a bridge between the peoples of the two countries," this is what Prime Minister Narendra Modi had to say about the opening of the Kartarpur corridor. He was speaking at an event to mark Gurupurab at the residence of Shiromani Akali Dal President Sukhbir Singh Badal in Delhi. BCCL The corridor, which the Union cabinet approved on Thursday will be from Dera Baba Nanak to the International Border. On the other side, Pakistan will develop the corridor till Kartarpur Sahib, a Sikh Gurudwara in Pakistan which has a huge religious significance as Guru Nanak is believed to have spent the last 18 years of his life there. PTI There have been demands to build a corridor linking it with Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district of Punjab. Following India's announcement, Pakistan on Friday said that it has decided to open the Kartarpur corridor for the 550th birth anniversary of Baba Guru Nanak in 2019 for Indian Sikh pilgrims, a move that can be described as a positive development in mending its strained relations with India. BCCL Foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi briefed the National Assembly about the decision being taken by the Prime Minister Imran Khan-led government. "The Prime Minister will inaugurate the groundbreaking ceremony of the facilities at the crossing on the Pakistan side, on November 28, 2018," read a statement issued by the ministry of foreign affairs. "The Pakistani proposal to initiate the corridor has also been concurred by India," it stated. The Bank Of England has announced it will be redesigning the 50 UK Pound currency note, replacing it with a prominent name from the world of science. And surprisingly (or unsurprisingly?), the name of Indian scientist Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose has been featured in the nomination list. No kidding. indiatimes ALSO READ: Everything You Need To Know About Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose - The Forgotten Father Of Modern Wi-Fi UK's Bank of England -- similar to India's Reserve Bank of India -- is currently inviting suggestions from people to have a fresh new face on its 50 pound currency note. On their website, the bank had received close to 175,000 nominations by November 26, forcing them to publish a list of 114,000 nominations -- which also features Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose's name. Why is this such a big deal At first the subject of some dispute but it's now a scientific fact that Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose made indelible contributions towards the advancement of wireless communications leading to the development of modern day radio. Without the radio, there would be no wireless communications, and no -- GASP! -- Wi-Fi to latch onto on your smartphones and laptops. JC Bose Guglielmo Marconi is widely regarded as the inventor of modern day radio, since he successfully demonstrated transatlantic radio communications for the very first time in 1901, but Bose had demonstrated electromagnetic wave communications a few years earlier. Bose never really expressed any interest in commercial telegraphy, encouraging others to use his research work. In fact, in 1896, he met Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi, who had been developing a radio wave wireless telegraphy system for over a year and was trying to market it to the British post service. To his credit, Marconi has actually acknowledged the significance of Boses work in his writing. Despite his personal dislike of patents, Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose actually holds the patent for the first solid-state diode to receive electromagnetic waves, and created a number of now common microwave components. wikimedia Apart from being a physicist, Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose was also a polymath, biologist, biophysicist, botanist and archaeologist. He made some significant contributions to the world of plant biology and his invention, a crescograph, helped agricultural scientists devise better ways of effective crop cultivation. There's obviously no dearth of British scientists who contributed immensely to our understanding of the world, but we definitely hope Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose's name eventually makes the short list and his contribution is recognized for this great honour of getting featured on the new UK 50 pound currency note. Parents, who were there to provide you with food, shelter, clothes, were there at every school function and guided you through the toughest phases of life, don't deserve to be abandoned! Eight months ago, police at the Pazhavanthangal station, Chennai found a weeping old lady at their doorstep. Anushyas husband died a few years ago and her alcoholic son abandoned her. She told us she did not have anywhere to go. She also did not want to file a complaint against her son, G Venkatesan, inspector of the Pazhavanthangal station told TOI. Seeing her in this condition, the police decided to give her a job at the police station. We decided to provide her with breakfast, lunch, and dinner. She agreed to work at the station, and comes here every day at 7 am, said Venkatesan. Everyday Anushya cleans the premises and draws rangoli on the front porch, fills empty water bottles and keeps them at the police officers tables. After that, the police officers order her breakfast and coffee before she leaves for her house, which is nearby. She then returns to the police station in the afternoon and evening where she eats her food. But on the morning of November 27, 67-year-old Anushya experienced something for the first time in her life. It was her birthday and the people in Khaki celebrated with her. When I walked in, everyone gathered and said Happy Birthday. I didnt expect it, said Anushya, who cried when she saw the birthday cake police had bought for her to cut. "I have never celebrated my birthday. I cant believe the police took the effort to plan this for me. It doesn't take a big birthday bash to make someone happy, all it takes is a small gesture. Chak Ashmuji, a village in Kulgam where Lance Naik Nazir Ahmed Wani lived, went into mourning when the residents got to know that the braveheart had laid down his life for the nation. Wani was once a terrorist who surrendered in front of the army and became a counter-insurgent. General Bipin Rawat #COAS & all ranks salute supreme sacrifice of Lance Naik Nazir Ahmad Wani, SM* & offer sincere condolences to the family. #BraveSonsOfIndia @PIB_India @SpokespersonMoD @HQ_IDS_India pic.twitter.com/vYpYEwseOu ADG PI - INDIAN ARMY (@adgpi) November 26, 2018 He was martyred on November 26 while fighting six terrorists in South Kashmirs Shopian district. When he came back to his village wrapped in the tricolour, and was handed over to his family members, it was a heartbreaking moment for them. A heart-wrenching picture of Wanis father and an Indian army officer consoling him went viral on the internet and people were moved. Twitter 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 all the rituals were done, the body was taken for the burial to a nearby graveyard where 500 to 600 villagers were present. A 21- gun salute was given to the braveheart. A monk was arrested after he was allegedly caught smoking meth and having gay sex parties in his temple. Master Kai Hung, the secretary general of the Chinese Young Buddhist Association, was in the temple at the time when police raided the 29-year-old monks room at the Chongfo Temple, Taiwan. The police found 19 grams of amphetamine, smoking pipes, condoms, anal relaxants, erection medication, and a bottle of holy water filled with lube. They also discovered two USB drives that contained over 200 gigabytes of porn, including male-on-male sex videos that were made by and starring Kai himself, Liberty Times reports. Criminal Investigation Bureau The footage of Kai published by Mirror Media last week shows him smoking meth and literally rolling on the bed with other men. It is not clear when and where the video was shot. Warning: Vido is NSFW. Kai was expelled from the temple in September because of behavioural issues and religious discipline problems, according to the South China Morning Post. During the questioning, Kai admitted using drugs and filming sex acts but denied giving drugs to other people. He was charged with violating the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act. He also claims that the footage was released by his rival from Tongshan Temple so that the things get even spicier. According to the South China Morning Post, the video was leaked by one of Kais former lovers, who was also a monk at Tongshan Temple and sent three of the pornographic clips to the temple authorities and exposed Kais scandalous violation of the monastic vows. The police are investigating the issue. According to the Taiwan News, the monk converted his religion at the age of 14 and followed the late master Chihhai in the Tongshan Temple. It was after his death, the monk experienced his downfall and started spending time in drugs, porn, and Chemsex. Usha Patel (above) was fatally stabbed 24 times in 1991, in the garage of her San Dimas, Calif., home, by a man hired by her husband, Shanker Patel, who is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. (file photo courtesy of Manoj Patel) Three of the five most dangerous countries in the world are in the Middle East (Syria, Yemen and Iraq). Iran has focused on tourism to boost its economy. Despite US sanctions, the number of foreign visitors in Iran rose by 51 per cent in the first six months of the current fiscal year. Such growth is "unprecedented". Tehran (AsiaNews) Travelling in Iran is as safe as travelling in the United Kingdom and Canada. The risk of encountering violence, accidents or criminal acts is very low, this according to the 2019 Travel Risk Map, developed by International SOS in collaboration with the UK-based Control Risks, which specialise in security policies and risk strategies. The countries that constitute the highest security risk in the world are Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, three of them in the Mideast. The map shows the risk level in each country and territory based on the current threat posed to travellers by political violence (including terrorism, insurgency, politically motivated unrest and war), social unrest (including sectarian, communal and ethnic violence) and violent and petty crime. Factors such as the robustness of the transport infrastructure, the state of industrial relations, the effectiveness of the security and emergency services and the countrys susceptibility to natural disasters are also taken into consideration, the Independent advisory indicated. The 2019 Travel Risk Map has five categories of risk: insignificant, low, medium, high and extreme. The first category includes European countries like Luxembourg, Denmark, Switzerland, Norway, Finland, as well as the Seychelles and Cape Verde. Iran, Jordan, Oman, Qatar, Canada, United States, Australia and New Zealand are in the low risk category. For Iran this represents a success and encourages policies in favour of tourism, which the government has promoted in recent years. The number of foreign tourists coming to Iran jumped by 51 per cent during the first six months of the current fiscal year (21 March-22 September) despite the re-imposition of US sanctions designed to isolate the country. For Iranian officials, the growth has been "unprecedented, and should continue through the end of the current Iranian year in March 2019. To boost the tourism sector, Iran hosted the 40th Plenary Session of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) in Hamedan from 12 to 14 November. The event drew hundreds of representatives and industry experts from around the world, a sign of international support for Iran in spite of the policies promoted by the White House. UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili said We have travelled to Iran to promote Iran as a safe and calm tourism destination and through helping develop tourism in Iran, strengthen it in face of its problems. "Our presence in Iran, he added, means that we invite the people of the world to travel to this country and visit its many tourist attractions to add to the number of tourists visiting the country." According to the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), Iran ranks 20th out of 185 nations in the world for the growth potential of its tourism sector. Sunil Edla had been planning to travel to visit his family in India and was considering what to do during his impending retirement. (Facebook photo) The government of Sierra Leone has intervened to assist the resolution of a strike at Iluka's Sierra Rutile operation, the mineral sands producer said. Julius Maada Bio, the president of Sierra Leone, "has intervened to assist in the resolution of the dispute" after... Roquette reconfirms Barentz relationship Roquette has reconfirmed Barentz as its preferred distribution partner for the Roquette food product range in Europe. Roquette has reconfirmed Barentz as its preferred distribution partner for the Roquette food product range in Europe. The company says that this new partnership with Barentz is driven by Roquettes strategic plan to implement the best high-performance distribution network to support its position as a world leading provider of outstanding, reliable plant-based ingredients. Having worked together successfully in food and nutrition markets for many years, Roquette and Barentzs decision to take their partnership to the next level is a logical step, Roquette believes. Laurent Cousin, Head of Global Distribution Management at Roquette, said: Roquette is committed to providing its customers with high quality plant-based ingredients as well as an excellent level of service and we have strong growth ambitions to better serve our customers worldwide. Barentz has been a key partner for many years with added value in terms of their specialized expertise, research teams and local labs. We have always been growing together and we strongly believe in our cooperation in the market for high quality specialties. Geert Ingelbert, Vice President of the Food Division at Barentz, said: We know each others business very well and we have been growing together year after year. In addition to our proven joint capability to improve growth, profitability and productivity, we have also convinced our partner Roquette of our in-depth knowledge, strong technical support, and our drive for innovation. Our mutual interest and expertise in plant-based ingredients is the best example of this. Focus on strong and strategic markets in Europe Roquette and Barentz are reconfirming their collaboration across key strategic European markets: Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Luxembourg, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Slovakia and Turkey. Between now and the end of 2018, both companies will work together to ensure optimal alignment in all countries. This new phase of cooperation will officially start from 1 January 2019. The new partnership will take off from the distribution network that Barentz has built up over the years. It makes a huge difference when you know that you both have the same level of ambition and drive, Ingelbert said. One of our core values is loyalty. We walk our talk. And we never stop, we go all the way. For us, this renewed partnership means that our loyalty and dedication to growing our joint business have definitely paid off. The next steps in our relationship will be characterized by innovation and a proactive approach. We are really looking forward to this new, challenging era. Rodney Quin, Vice President, Food Global Business Unit at Roquette, said: Its encouraging that our long-lasting relationship, with its strong focus on a shared investment in better service for our customers, has also led to a unique cooperation in the business of plant-based specialties. We are looking forward to achieving further developments together with Barentz, and making the most of the new opportunities that lie ahead of us. By offering solutions increasingly tailored to the needs of Food, Nutrition and Health markets, this collaboration will contribute to better answer a growing customer and consumer demand. On December 45, Fraunhofer IAO is staging a global dialog on tomorrows world of work. Organized to mark the culmination of Science Year 2018, this inaugural virtual world tour will spend 24 hours visiting selected labor research institutes around the globe in order to showcase the latest research on future working environments. This will offer an overview of the current discourse in this field worldwide and reveal where research is still needed. On this basis, it will then be possible to draw up an international knowledge map. Start of an international dialog on the future of work The inaugural virtual world tour will accompany the 2018 Work Research Conference. From midday on December 4 to midday on December 5 (Central European Time), a total of 12 institutes around the world will be inviting interested viewers to learn more about their differing approaches in a range of markets and from a variety of scientific perspectives to future changes in the working environment. The virtual world tour will mirror the key topics of the workshop sessions at the 2018 Work Research Conference in Stuttgart. Twelve leading research organizations from Australia, Japan, Taiwan and countries in South America, the USA and Europe will present their view of how the world of work is set to change in the future as well as showcase their latest research. A key aim of the virtual world tour will be to help inaugurate a more intensive international dialog on the future of the world of work. In turn, this will reveal where more research is needed and thereby enable the creation of an international knowledge map. Global livestream of the virtual world tour The virtual world tour will be launched on December 4, just before midday, by Dr. Otto Fritz Bode from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). A live link to the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland will offer delegates of the 2018 Work Research Conference at the Haus der Wirtschaft in Stuttgart an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at the transmission studio, which is based in Frankfurt am Main. The livestream will start at midday with the first of 12 sessions, each of which is scheduled to last two hours. Sessions will feature a variety of formats designed to provide Internet viewers with a glimpse of the way in which researchers from around the world view the future of the world of work. The livestream is likely to attract viewers from right around the globe, since participating research institutes are to publicize it in their own country as well as provide links via their own digital channels and social networks. For those unable or unwilling to follow the livestream right around the clock, all of the sessions will also be available for viewing on demand. Closing session from the Future Work Lab in Stuttgart The last of the 12 sessions will take place in Stuttgart, from 10.00 am to 12.00 noon, on December 5, in the Future Work Lab of the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO. The Future Work Lab is an innovative space designed to provide companies, industrial associations and employees with an immersive experience of how the digitalized world of industrial work will look and feel in the future. It features concrete Industrie 4.0 applications together with information on skills development and the current state of labor research. In addition, it also offers application scenarios designed to inspire companies to innovate in their particular field of business. Participants of the Work Research Conference in Stuttgart will have an opportunity to visit the Future Work Lab on December 5. https://www.iao.fraunhofer.de/lang-en/press-and-media/latest-news/1407-inaugural USDCHF Elliott Wave Analysis: Looks For A Pullback EW-Forecast.com - Thu Nov 25, 2:04AM CST Swissy is coming sharply up, breaking even September highs, but we are still tracking a corrective rise within wave B) on a daily chart that can stop around April highs and 0.94 - 0.95 area ^USDCHF : 0.93357 (-0.03%) GBPAUD Weekly MACD Trying to Positively Cross Tradable Patterns - Wed Nov 24, 11:34PM CST 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 : 1.85320 (+0.15%) On the road again: Travelers emerge in time for Thanksgiving AP - Wed Nov 24, 8:55PM CST DALLAS (AP) Determined to reclaim Thanksgiving traditions that were put on pause last year by the pandemic, millions of Americans will be loading up their cars or piling onto planes to gather again... $SPX : 4,701.46 (+0.23%) $DOWI : 35,804.38 (-0.03%) $IUXX : 16,367.81 (+0.37%) 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%) A truck with hazardous materials waiting to enter the plant caught fire, spreading to 38 trucks and 12 cars. The cause of the explosion and the fire is unknown. Zhangjiakou (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Twenty-two people have died and 22 others were injured in an explosion near a chemical factory in Zhangjiakou (Hebei). The explosion occurred this night; the fire has been tamed and the injured were taken to hospitals. The precise cause of the explosion is not yet clear. The authorities say the explosion occurred near the Hebei Shenghua Chemical Co facilities in the Qiaodong district. The fire seems to have been caused by a truck carrying dangerous chemicals and waiting to enter the factory. The blast caused a fire that spread to the entire line of waiting trucks, hitting 38 trucks and 12 cars. Most of the dead are drivers, trapped in their vehicles wrapped in flames. The Beijing Youth Daily reports that Hebei Shenghua Chemical Co has suspended all production. An employee explained that the company produces hazardous chemicals and is afraid of restarting production not knowing the cause of the explosion. However, due to Beijings crackdown, mainland Chinese buyers have been driven away, a Reuters report said. Two insurers have already cancelled their planned Hong Kong acquisitions worth a combined US$1.4 billion. Sources have also said that Chinese buyers are struggling to move capital out of their home market. From a total value of US$5.1 billion in 2017, mergers and acquisitions targeted at Hong Kong financial firms have slumped to US$1.15 billion so far in 2018. This could prove to be the lowest level in 13 years, data from Dealogic shows. Furthermore, mainland Chinese buyers contributed less than one-fourth of the 2018 amount. Over the past six years, they have made up almost 60% of total M&A volume, or US$21 billion out of US$35.3 billion. Beijings capital controls have been in place since late 2015 to counter the depreciation of the yuan, and have also left sellers with fewer options. If you are looking for a buyside mandate, it would probably make a lot of sense to back a non-Chinese name for Hong Kong financial assets, a senior investment banker at a global investment bank told Reuters. In October, Hong Kong Life Insurance, owned by five Hong Kong firms, cancelled its US$907 million sale to a mainland Chinese consortium due to the buyer failing to meet closing conditions after over a year. MetLife also shelved the over US$500 million sale of its Hong Kong unit, after the Chinese would-be buyer was unable to raise the required amount. Nadia Farha, Suncorp spokesperson, said the insurance giant, whose network of brands include GIO, AAMI, Apia, Vero, Bingle, Resilium, and CIL, is ready to deploy its assessors to help residents. People who have been affected by the torrential rain and strong winds shouldnt wait to lodge their claim, Farha said. Letting us know now will mean we can start the claim process immediately to ensure the quickest possible path to recovery. Customers in need of emergency make-safe repairs to prevent further damage can also contact the insurer. Suncorp customers can lodge their claim by calling 13 25 24 or through the insurers website. AAMI customers can contact 13 22 44, while policyholders for GIO and APIA can contact 13 14 46 and 13 50 50, respectively. This is a great time for Sedgwick in Australia, having successfully brought together the Cunningham Lindsey expertise and building on their rich heritage, Muress said. With our strong leadership, an unparalleled portfolio of products and services, and an ambition to further expand in growing markets, Sedgwick can continue to thrive as the worlds largest claims administrator. Sedgwick is looking toward continued growth as we continue to leverage the strength of the wider Sedgwick organisation while providing exceptional services across all our unrivalled international businesses. Diego Ascani, who was appointed CEO of Sedgwicks Australian operations in August, said the support from Sedgwick Group can significantly boost the companys capabilities in the local market, using technology, innovation, and the brainpower of more than 20,000 colleagues. We are now able to extend our global capabilities to our local clients as well as extend existing service to international corporate clients based in Australia, Ascani said. Having recently joined the Sedgwick family, the enthusiasm to work together has been overwhelming. Sedgwick said its integration team continues to work toward consolidating the combined operations under the Sedgwick brand, to strengthen brand identity and reinforce the companys position as the global industry leader. Not only are we bigger, we are also better together, Muress said. The companys depth of talent, business knowledge, and market relationships are truly unmatched in the industry. Sedgwicks global network now covers more than 65 countries with the ability to service clients in over 100 territories. Sedgwicks acquisition of OSG in Ireland, the expansion of its Canadian operations, and Cunningham Lindsey and Vericlaims presence have brought Sedgwick firmly into the international arena. Over the next few years, Sedgwick will work together to leverage combined resources and extended relationships to expand its client base, the global company said. Recent joint business development efforts have already started yielding great results. The challenge of climate change for insurance was best summed up by the then chair and CEO of AXA, ICNZ chief executive Tim Grafton stated, addressing the Insurance Councils annual 2018 conference. He said in the lead-up to the 2015 COP Paris Agreement that a two-degree world may be insurable, but a four-degree world certainly is not. It was referring to the amount the earth has warmed relative to pre-industrial times - today, we are at 1.1 degrees. The most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released last month says that we could reach 1.5 degrees as early as the 2030s, he stated. The trajectory we are on is not good. Houston, we do have a problem. According to Rowan Douglas, CEO capital science and policy practice at Willis Towers Watson, insurance needs to become an institution rather than simply an industry sector, and New Zealand is best placed to demonstrate this in action to the rest of the globe. Globally, New Zealand is the poster child for how a society blends public policy, science and capital through the insurance sector to help a society become resilient, Douglas stated. The fact that this country has been able to maintain its resilience and has essentially mutualised the risk across its population along with the fact that youre able to export so much of that risk around the world that almost 20% of your GDP was brought in through international reinsurance is a story that is told again and again around the world. New Zealand is also beginning to feel the effects of the risk of climate change, but my contention is that it will probably be New Zealand that teaches the world how to use insurance and its related capabilities, with the support of a public policy agenda, to address this issue. The lessons that youve learnt in the last 40-50 years will be replayed and repeated. Douglas says that insurance is the new big idea in this space which may sound odd for an industry thats over 300 years old, but people often forget that it was insurance which helped society overcome massive structural challenges in the 19th century, from urbanisation and technical change to social protection. He says society is now facing many new challenges, and policymakers are looking for a mechanism that they can use to understand risks and develop rules for sustainable behaviour, and ultimately to share that risk on a global scale. Insurance is increasingly being seen as that institution of society, and nowhere can insurance as an institution of society be better exemplified than in New Zealand. Nonetheless, the sector is facing its own slew of challenges in response to the increasing risks. Affordability and sustainability have all been raised as issues following the rise of risk-based pricing, and the question of taxpayer subsidisation of the uninsured remains hotly debated. The question of whether taxpayers should subsidise people who dont insure has been absolutely key, Douglas said. Clearly from a community point of view, something like the Edgecombe approach was absolutely the right thing to do. But there is clearly a trade-off between the insured and the part of the population getting support, and the latter is to some degree freeriding on the wider community and those who have been paying their premiums loyally for years on end. This is why New Zealand is the ideal country to confront this head-on, he explained. Issues around affordability will be important, but there will also come a point where everybody will need to be insured as a moral duty. The issue of mutuality becomes a moral issue about citizenship that is beyond being a consumer, and thats why insurance is an institution, and not just an industry. According to Richard Harding, CEO of Tower Insurance, methods such as risk-based pricing are a way of ensuring that each individual pays their fair share in premiums, and also have the potential to drive important conversations around risk mitigation both on an individual and a community level. Through recent surveys, our consumers have actually found that risk-based pricing is a fairer overall approach, Harding said. The conversation weve been having around risk-based pricing for earthquakes, for example, is about incentivising people to undertake risk mitigation, to make changes and to drive a reduction in risk. If you then translate earthquakes into either floods or sea level rises, its the same outcome across the board. The important part of risk-based pricing is that it drives the conversation with clients about what risks they need to be managing, what they can manage themselves, and where they might need help, Harding continued. It also directs the conversation at government and council levels in terms of changing zoning practices, thinking about laws that drive construction standards, etc. Those things will all be really important as we start to grapple with all of these issues, which will be the front and centre of the discussion around the cost of insurance, remediation and individual risk profiles. Risk-based pricing is only one factor within all of that. Affordability is certainly an issue now, and were not just talking about comparing Auckland and Wellington, Allianz CEO Marc Guppy added. Were talking about potentially comparing different areas across Albany, for example. As insurers, we can actually look at the data that exists and price the risk accordingly. There is evidence that there are problems with councils zoning areas, and the issue of risk mitigation really lies with the government as well. Risk-based pricing is going to be the way of the future, but when an insurer reaches the point where they cant insure a particular area any more, we know that something else has to change. Mitigation and working with the government reflects those community needs. Read more: Where insurance companies have stumbled in bringing and keeping millennials on board Were losing a lot of people who are in the business with the depth of knowledge, said Gary Grose, group head of producer management at Argo Group. All underwriting is, is taking the experience and history that you have with the line youre supporting, and you bring that experience and history and the data behind it forward to make your decisions. With a lot of the people and the time and the education that got put into developing strong underwriting results and the knowledge behind it retiring, were forced to expedite the process with underwriters who are underwriting the market today to get them up to speed as fast as possible. Its not just an insurance industry issue low levels of unemployment in many developed countries are making Help Wanted signs and job postings ubiquitous across several sectors. However, insurance companies are also using data more efficiently than they have in the past and at Argo, thats being used to bring decisions to the market faster. If a company is utilizing their data efficiently, we think that can actually expedite the process with fewer resources behind it, said Grose. If the use of data doesnt change, then I think that a brokers going to have a learning curve with each new underwriter that they have to deal with coming into the market. Technologys biggest buzzwords are also affecting the work of brokers and SMEs, as revealed by the survey. Theres hope that technology solutions will makes lives easier while at the same time, concern that they might replace jobs. AI, for instance, is viewed with wariness by brokers since close to half of those surveyed believe it poses risks to the industry and two-thirds say it could supplant traditional broking and underwriting roles, even while 73% agree or strongly agree that AI will help them work smarter and provide more personalized solutions. Read more: Will State Farm's "no AI" words come back to haunt the company? If you look across the board, a broker really wants a defined, clear answer from the carrier, whether its yes or no. The most important thing that you can get our clients, being the broker, is a concise and a quick answer about willingness to cover the risk and the price behind it, explained Grose. The quicker we can turn things around and that includes AI and a lot of other technologies, whether its processing-based or whether its intelligence-based we are looking at those opportunities. He cautions, however, that as with many areas of risk that were touched on in the report, the learning curve is going to have to be fast. AI needs to be looked at as one piece in the underwriting process, and I think that the respondents point that out in the report that so many of these things are happening so quickly, the ability to slow the world down and look at the effect of them on what it means to the client and are they getting the right amount of insurance is very important, Grose told Insurance Business. Whether brokers see potential in a particular technology or not, sometimes being able to innovate is a matter of dollars and cents. Cost is a barrier to innovation, according to 45% of brokers surveyed. That hurdle is best tackled through partnership, said Grose. The industry for so long was very siloed between carrier and broker, and technology can be such an expensive proposition, he explained. I think that the insurance carriers and the brokers partnering together is the best way to address it because sometimes the carrier actually has a technology solution which can speed up the answer for the broker to give to their client. Other times, the broker has the process and the insurance carrier needs to be open to looking at the brokers system and integrating their data into that. The partnership follows Zurichs decision earlier this month to sign the Paris Call for Trust and Security in Cyberspace charter. According to a survey jointly conducted by the WEF and Zurich, cyberattacks are now the 5th highest global risk to doing business previously, it was in 8th place last year. Cyberattacks were also named the top risk in 19 countries; these countries altogether accounted for 50% of global GDP. As the internet evolves, cyberattacks are becoming increasingly frequent and sophisticated, and their cost to businesses is expected to be USD 8 trillion over the next five years, commented Zurich group chief operating officer Kristof Terryn. Every day we need to protect our customers and ourselves from cyber risks. Governments, the private sector and civil society must work closely together to strengthen trust in the digital world, and to safeguard the fragile integrity and reliability of cyberspace. Cybercriminals are wholeheartedly embracing globalization and the technological advances of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Their thinking and actions know no borders. At the same time, the global community is struggling to agree on a new architecture to govern and shape cyberspace. The Centre for Cybersecurity and its partners are dedicated to tackling the growing risks for cybersecurity, added Global Centre for Cybersecurity Troels Oerting Jorgensen. Students who attended a Massachusetts college that abruptly shut its doors filed a class-action lawsuit Monday against the school and former administrators and trustees, alleging they were victims of fraud, misrepresentation and invasion of privacy. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Boston, alleges that Mount Ida College officials deliberately misled students about the severity of its financial problems before it closed in May following the breakdown of merger talks with nearby Lasell College. Mount Idas physical campus in Newton was sold for $75 million to the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, which is using the site for career development programs for its students. Mount Ida students were forced to hastily find alternative institutions and some were left with credits or degree programs that could not be transferred while others lost out on scholarships or financial aid, according to three former students named as plaintiffs. They are seeking a jury trial and unspecified damages. The fallout was catastrophic, the lawsuit said, adding that steps could have been taken to avoid the situation. By abruptly closing, Mount Ida denied its students the opportunity to continue with their bargained for education, and their actions prevented some students from enrolling in other institutions of higher education or pursuing their intended degrees altogether, the students argued. The claims were challenged in a brief statement issued Monday by the college and its board of trustees. The allegations by three former students, which rely upon incorrect information published erroneously in old media stories and statements twisted out of context, are meritless and will be vigorously defended by the college, its former officers, and its trustees, all of whom worked compassionately and tirelessly to provide realistic transition opportunities for all students following the colleges closure, the statement read, adding the school was cooperating in an ongoing investigation by state Attorney General Maura Healey. The lawsuit cites public testimony from Carmen Reiss, the former chairwoman of the trustees, as evidence that officials concealed the true extent of the schools financial woes from accepted and incoming students. Did we go out and announce, Hello, interested students, were teetering on the brink of insolvency, but come on in? No, we didnt do that because we believed we had a plan that was going to mean the college was going to survive and continue into the future, Reiss said during a state Senate oversight hearing in May. Reiss and the schools former president, Barry Brown, are among ex-administrators named in the suit. Messages left with Reiss on Monday and with a lawyer who has represented Brown were not immediately returned. In an interview with The Boston Globe in July, Brown blamed Mount Idas shutdown on a last-minute change of terms in the proposed merger with Lasell. He said school administrators were so confident the merger would take place they accepted a new class of students. In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs also allege that Mount Ida illegally provided University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, which offered transfers to Mount Ida students who were in good standing at the time of the closure, with private academic information about the students. The suit accuses Mount Ida of using its students as an incentive in the land transaction with UMass. More than 200 of Mount Idas approximately 1,500 students transferred to UMass-Dartmouth, which was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit. A spokesman said Monday the university had no comment. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Lawsuits Massachusetts Education Universities Investigators say a broken rail caused a freight train derailment in Pittsburgh over the summer that disrupted service for weeks. Norfolk Southern issued the findings Wednesday in a report to the Federal Railroad Administration. The report says the Aug. 5 ordeal caused the railroad about $853,000 in damages to equipment and track. Norfolk Southern says the company doesnt know how the rail damage occurred. A railroad agency spokeswoman says the organization is still investigating. Seven freight cars loaded with household products and appliances tumbled off tracks above the Station Square stop in the derailment. Falling debris just missed the light rail station and the Port Authority credited a worker with quickly directing several passengers to evacuate. It took weeks for the Port Authority to replace the track and electric lines, rebuild a concrete retaining wall and reinstall a power line. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Pennsylvania The new community was inaugurated in the village of Dhairpara on 25 November, feast day of Christ the King. The area is home to Baptists and Catholics, all ethnic Garo. In the past, evangelisation was neglected because of the geographical distance. Mymensingh (AsiaNews) Bringing Christ "to a place of new evangelisation and engage in pastoral outreach for a group of Christians neglected in past years" in Bangladesh is the new challenge for the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate, who are linked to the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME). Last Sunday, feast day of Christ the King, the congregation inaugurated a new house in the Diocese of Mymensingh, home mostly to tribal people, said Sr Annamaria Panza, provincial councillor. "We opened a new community in Dhairpara, a village where the local clergy came on rare occasions because of the geographical distance and lack of time, said the nun, eager but tired by the last few days. A great challenge awaits us: become stronger in the faith and create a sense of Christian community, she added. The nuns accepted the proposal of the local bishop, Mgr Ponen Paul Kubi, who called for a new Christian presence. The choice fell on a section of St John parish, which has just over 3,000 members. The bishop set up temporary housing for the first three sisters of the congregation, who will be joined by another one in January. "We dont have any walls yet, but that's okay because we are not going to stay for a long time, Sr Annamaria explained. Within a year well decide whether to settle there or go even more among the people, among those who have greater needs. "Baptist and Catholic Mande, i.e. ethnic Garo, live in the area, she noted. Most residents are children, youth and seniors since most adults work in the capital Dhaka (about 100 kilometres away). "There were no permanent priests or religious, meanwhile there is a parish priest since last July. A few priests came on rare occasions to celebrate Mass. Unfortunately, the pastoral care of Christians has been neglected. This is why our first task will be pastoral outreach." After starting the spiritual service for Catholics in the sub-parish, we want to stimulate interfaith dialogue with Baptists and extend our work to the farthest villages, where priests have never had time to go, where local Christians have neglected the life of faith, prayer," the missionary explained. The sisters were convinced of the need to open a new mission by "the possibility of going to the remotest villages where no missionary had ever been in order to bring the message of Christ to a place of new evangelisation." This is not a simple task "because groups of tribal pagans live in the area. They do not enter the church because they believe it is reserved only for the Garo (Mande). This belief is reinforced by the fact that the priests in Mymensingh are all Garo." AXA announced it has entered into an agreement with the current domestic shareholders of AXA Tianping Property & Casualty Insurance Co. Ltd. to acquire the remaining 50 percent stake of the company. Total consideration for the acquisition of the 50 percent stake would amount to 4.6 billion renminbi (584 million euros or US$660.7 million). Subject to regulatory approvals, RMB1.5 billion (190 million euros or US$215 million) will be financed through a capital reduction of AXA Tianping to buy back shares from the current domestic shareholders, said AXA in a statement. 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 Thomas Buberl, Chief Executive Officer of AXA. This is a first of its kind transaction in the Chinese insurance market whereby a leading P/C insurer, with a nationwide footprint, will be fully owned by a foreign company, he added. 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. In 2017, AXA Tianping ranked 15th among Chinas P/C insurers with 1 billion euros (US$1.1 billion) of gross written premiums (GWP), and is the only foreign invested company in the top 20 P/C insurers in China, said AXA. It is the sixth largest company in direct motor insurance, said AXA, quoting figures from the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission. Motor insurance in China contributes 91 percent of AXAs GWP, of which 41 percent is distributed through direct channels. It also sells short-term health insurance products, the company continued. AXA Tianping has developed a national footprint with 25 branches and 93 sub-branches, covering 20 provinces which together generate over 85 percent of Chinas GDP, said AXA. The transaction marks another step towards consolidating our position as the #1 foreign insurer in China and strengthening of our leadership in the Asian region, said Gordon Watson, CEO of AXA Asia. 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, he added. Combining AXA Tianpings high-quality infrastructure with AXAs global expertise in health and digital, will enable us to target selectively our preferred customer segments to create more long term value in the motor business, while capturing the rapid expansion of the health market by developing a holistic wellbeing offer, Watson went on to say. Completion of the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including the receipt of regulatory approvals, most notably from the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission. On the completion of the transaction, AXA Tianping will be fully consolidated into the AXA Groups financial statements. Source: AXA Topics Mergers Legislation USA Property Casualty China AXA XL The upcoming trial over the Kansas derailment of an Amtrak passenger train has been cancelled after Cimarron Crossing Feeders admitted its runaway feed truck damaged the railroad track. Trial had been scheduled to start next week to determine who is responsible for the March 2016 derailment of Amtraks Southwest Chief City near Cimarron, about 20 miles west of Dodge. More than two dozen people were injured. A federal judge summarily found earlier this month that there was no legal fault on the part of Amtrak or BNSF, which owns the track. That left only Cimarron as potentially liable for damages at trial. Cimarron stipulated in a filing its employee was negligent in not setting the brake on an unattended truck, allowing it to roll downhill and strike the track. Topics Auto Kansas Governors have a wide range of priorities they want to tackle in the coming year, from tax reform to education. Yet its a topic that receives less attention on the campaign trail and in their speeches that could determine their success natural disasters. In the last two years alone, storms and natural disasters have killed scores of people, damaged or destroyed tens of thousands of homes and cost tens of billions of dollars. Wildfires in the West and hurricanes in the South have been especially destructive, and scientists say climate change is making this more common. As the severity escalates, governors are finding they have to make disaster planning a priority or risk the consequences of inaction defining their terms and enraging voters. Handling disasters and emergencies was a prime topic recently when the National Governors Association held a three-day seminar in Colorado that most of the nations 19 governors-elect attended. As Californias wildfires, a spate of hurricanes, and unfortunate acts of mass violence have demonstrated, such events can occur at any time, Scott Pattison, the nonpartisan associations chief executive, said in a statement, including a governors first day in office. For many Democratic governors especially, the main concern is how climate change appears to be worsening the effects of natural disasters. In California, half of the 10 most destructive wildfires in state history have occurred since 2017, and the costliest have been in each of the past three years, according to the state firefighting agency. The state has spent $500 million from its emergency firefighting fund just since July 1, putting this wildfire season on pace to be among the costliest yet. The state is dealing with its most destructive wildfire ever, a Northern California blaze that leveled a town of 27,000 this month, killed at least 80 people and left thousands homeless. That blaze, and another that roared through Malibu at the same time and left at least three dead, are the latest in a string of catastrophic wildfires that have put the state in what seems like a perpetual state of emergency. Outgoing Gov. Jerry Brown has called Californias mega fires the new abnormal as climate change turns the state warmer and drier. The escalating destruction prompted state lawmakers to pass a series of wildfire-related bills this year. Among other provisions, they provide millions of dollars to cut trees and brush, make it easier for property owners to clear their land and require the states utilities to step up their fire-prevention efforts. During his campaign, incoming Gov. Gavin Newsom said wildfire planning would be a priority for his administration and outlined a number of steps he wants to take. Among them is a more aggressive approach to clearing trees and brush, particularly the states millions of dead trees. Id rather see our National Guard working on those kinds of emergencies than being on the border, Newsom told the nonprofit news organization CALmatters over the summer. He also proposed deploying a network of infrared cameras to detect wildfires early, improving the emergency alert system and boosting funding for fire departments throughout the state. A spokesman, Nathan Click, said Newsom is putting together a comprehensive wildfire strategy as he prepares to take office in early January. But the governor-elect also has been clear that the long-term goal must be reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Californias fire season has been especially severe, yet other Western states also have experienced ever-intensifying wildland blazes in recent years. In Colorado, the two most destructive wildfires in state history erupted within the last six years, killed a total of four people and destroyed more than 850 homes combined. Both are believed to be caused by humans, leading Democrat Jared Polis, Colorados governor-elect, to call for a public education campaign to reduce the possibility of manmade wildfires. He also said the state should invest in programs to remove flammable debris and help communities and private landowners take steps to prevent the spread of wildfires. Nearly 1 million people in Colorado live in areas considered to have at least some risk of a devastating fire. Florida has been hit with two deadly and destructive hurricanes in roughly a years time. Hurricanes Irma last year and Michael in October caused tens of billions of dollars in damage. Even without hurricanes, many coastal communities are dealing with flooding from high tides and storm surges. Incoming Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, has already said he will work with local governments to address rising sea levels, but has been criticized by Democrats for avoiding any mention of climate change in his environmental plan. DeSantis has said he is neither a climate change denier nor a believer. That could be a problem for identifying long-term solutions to keep coastal communities safe, said Jen Hensley, the director of state lobbying and advocacy at the Sierra Club. She said one reason Hurricane Michael was so devastating was a lack of strong statewide coastal development standards. Were going to have to change zoning rules in coastal areas, Hensley said. The reality is that those areas are more flood prone than theyve ever been. A massive federal report released Friday warns that disasters such as wildfires and hurricanes are worsening in the United States because of global warming. Its similar in Texas, which has seen widespread destruction from hurricanes and where Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has been noncommittal about whether he thinks human activity is affecting the climate. Texas has sought $12 billion from the federal government for a 60-mile coastal spine of concrete seawalls, floating gates and steel levees as a defense against future hurricanes and higher tides expected from climate change. Thats just a fraction of the work the state estimates need to be done over the next decade to reduce the impact of flooding. In 2017, Hurricane Harvey left Houston underwater, killed dozens and left an estimated $125 billion in damage. Abbott named a recovery czar after the storm and wants to future-proof the Texas coast, but attention on the issue has faded. Governors in New York and New Jersey pushed for changes after Superstorm Sandy devastated the region in 2012. In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, signed a law requiring sea level rise projections to be used whenever the state considers approvals or funding for projects. Then-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, pushed policies to buy homes in some flood-prone areas, although environmentalists criticized him for not addressing climate change. Those groups cheered last year when Democrat Phil Murphy was elected to replace Christie, but they have been critical of him too since, saying hes not taking action to address global warming. Earlier this month, Murphy experienced the perils of falling short on the basics of emergency preparedness when an early season snowstorm hit without plows at the ready, bringing roads and the transit system to a standstill and stranding thousands of commuters. He was hit with waves of criticism, and his transportation commissioner was forced to apologize. Murphy said it was too simplistic to say his administration dropped the ball. But he added, The buck stops with me, period. Associated Press writers Dan Elliott in Denver; Tom Verdin in Sacramento, California; David Warren in Dallas; and Paul J. Weber in Austin, Texas, contributed to this article. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics California Catastrophe Natural Disasters Texas Flood Wildfire Talent Climate Change Hurricane Colorado Human Resources With the clock ticking on the National Flood Insurance Programs authorization that is set to run out this Friday, Nov. 30, Congress is expected to renew the program short-term by taking one of several routes: passing a bill to extend it for six months; including an extension in the continuing resolution for funding the government, which is required by Dec. 7; or passing legislation extending it until Dec. 7 and then including it in the continuing resolution. Earlier this month, insurance industry trades joined organizations from banking, real estate, construction and other industries along with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to urge the current lame duck 115th Congress controlled by Republicans to act and avoid any lapse. In a letter to House and Senate leaders, the groups warned that a lapse could hurt communities across the country as well as recovery efforts from recent storms. A lapse of the NFIP, will leave millions of Americans at risk and cause disruption in the over 20,000 communities across the country that depend on the program. Furthermore, a lapse in the NFIP may slow down recovery efforts related to Hurricanes Florence and Michael by making it harder for disaster assistance recipients to satisfy flood insurance requirements, the letter stated. Meanwhile, attention is turning to the prospects for long-term reauthorization and reforms of the program by the upcoming 116th Congress in which Democrats will control the House while Republicans will retain a slight edge in the Senate. I think there will be a short-term extension. It may not happen by November 30th which is when the program expires. December 7th is when the continuing resolution expires. I think theres a good chance that a short-term extension ends up hitching a ride on continuing resolution and we have a short-term lapse, 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, said in a recent online discussion of the new Congress with Wells Media. Lehmann was joined in the discussion by Charles Symington, senior vice president for external, industry and government affairs at the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America (Big I), 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. The remarks on flood insurance begin here at 15 minutes, 41 seconds into the video.] Sens. John Kennedy (R-La.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) have introduced legislation to reauthorize the NFIP until the end of next May. That reauthorization does not include any reforms to the program. Symington and Lehmann are interested in what will happen after a short-term extension. What, if anything, gets done will depend on the two committees that handle not only flood but also other key insurance legislation: the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee. In the new divided Congress, Rep. Maxine Waters, D.-Calif, will assume the chair of the House Financial Services Committee, replacing Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R.-Tex., who did not run for re-election, while Sen Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, will be the Senate Banking Committee chair. Rep. Patrick McHenry, R.- N.C., who is expected to be the ranking member on the financial services panel, and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D.- Ohio, who will continue as the ranking member on the Senate banking panel, will also have a lot to say about insurance issues including flood insurance, according to Symington. Symington notes that the key House committee is losing a fair amount of institutional knowledge because 13 Republicans and five Democrats now on the committee are not returning. Also, the Senate banking committee will lose Republicans Bob Corker of Tennessee and Dean Heller of Nevada along with Democrats Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Donnelly of Indiana. So there are a lot of new faces, he said. The House committee under Hensarling passed some flood reforms but they stalled in the House. Lehmann thinks Waters and the Senates Crapo could probably come to some agreement, although he doubts they would go as far as Right Street would like, especially on provisions for encouraging a more robust private flood insurance market. Most of the reforms I want in the program were things that Jeb Hensarling wanted and that we got through the House last year. I think what Maxine Waters wants is to forgive the debt, just outright erase it. Therere some other priorities that have come up regarding mitigation, they would love some money for mitigation, thats something that both sides can agree on. Mapping issues, [Sen.] Bob Menendez [D.-N.J.] has his issues with how you resolve claims disputes. Those things will be in there, he said. However, Lehmann added, any significant changes with rates are probably unlikely and its going to be a tough haul to get the private flood provisions that we want. Symington agrees with Lehmann that with Waters taking over the financial services helm, many of the proposals Hensarling pushed will go by the wayside. He disagrees with Lehmann, however, on whether all of Hensarlings proposals were good ideas but his association definitely supports increasing the private market to complement the NFIP. [I]n terms of legislative accomplishments thats probably where youll see Maxine [Waters] draw a line in the sand, Symington said. She certainly will not be looking at those issues through the same prism that Jeb [Hensarling] did. So I think that if youre a fan of the private market for flood insurance, the election probably wasnt so positive, but if youre a fan of the program itself, I think that Maxine is certainly more willing to support the program, extending it probably for a longer period of time than Jeb Hensarling would have done. In terms of what Congress can do to encourage more private flood insurance, Lehmann said the industry wants clarity on the requirements that particular private policies meet the federal lending requirements, although he acknowledged that this might be done by banking regulation rather than legislation. There is another piece that Right Street supports that is actually something Democrats also like. This concerns guaranteeing that policyholders with a subsidized policy who leave the NFIP and then later return to the NFIP get their original rate. There needs to be legislative language to do that. You cant do that just by regulation, said Lehmann. This so-called continuous coverage protection is something agents agree is critical because it gives customers the ability to test the waters of the private market, according to Symington. He added that the good news is that there is bipartisan support for this and his group is encouraged that it will be part of any flood bill in the next Congress. Crop Insurance Both experts believe there is the chance a bipartisan agreement will also be reached on crop insurance, which is part of the giant farm bill that is currently stalled in a conference committee to iron out differences over food stamps between the House and senate versions. This week differences over forestry provisions also emerged, according to the Capitol Hill publication Roll Call. Symington thinks the farm bill might be one of those issues where we see a breakthrough in the next couple of weeks, in a so-called lame duck Congress. I think one of the reasons for that is that now with House Republicans losing control, the food stamp fight might not be drawing that oxygen out of the negotiations the way it had been. You had Senate Republicans that were a little more open on that issue to work in a bipartisan fashion; House Republicans were a little more dogmatic on that. So you might not have to deal with that in such as partisan manner with House Democrats looming, taking control. R Street isnt a big fan of subsidies and backs cuts in crop insurance and caps on food stamps expenditures. But Lehmann is resigned to the new politics. I think on both angles, the Democrats taking the House makes certain that the food stamp fight is dead and farm-state Republicans and Democrats definitely will come together for more pork-barrel spending, he said. [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. Watch the remarks on flood insurance below: Topics Agencies Legislation Flood Agribusiness Market Floodwaters rose about 15 inches (40 centimeters) into Danielle Rees home in September when Hurricane Florence drenched this tidewater city on the Pamlico River and overwhelmed a local creek and marshland. The first floor was a sopping mess of gritty, swampy water in three bedrooms, a bathroom and a laundry. Its part of living close to the river, and Washington [North Carolina] is really low land, said Rees, a graphic designer who grew up in the city. But she anticipates her $2,000-a-year policy through the taxpayer-subsidized National Flood Insurance Program will help her rebuild the home about a quarter-mile from the river, just as it did in 2011 after Hurricane Irene and as it did, under previous ownership, after floods in 1996, 1998 and 1999, according to her property history provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The program has done something similar, over and over, for others. Records at FEMA, which operates the program, show that nearly 37,000 properties from the Carolinas to California have repeatedly flooded and been rebuilt some dozens of times with help from a federal insurance program that is, itself, financially underwater. About 18,000 of those are currently covered by policies, and 15,000 of those havent taken voluntary steps to reduce the risk of future damage to their property, FEMA said this week. The National Flood Insurance Program was $20 billion in the red before the start of the current hurricane season, even after Congress last year wrote off an additional $16 billion. The program must be reauthorized by Congress this month. The repeatedly flooded properties cost nearly $7.4 billion in claims before the start of the current hurricane season. Rees home isnt included on the official severe repetitive loss list because the 1996 and 1998 hurricanes didnt cause damage exceeding $5,000. It takes at least four of those $5,000-plus occurrences to put properties on the list. Last year was the 40-year-old flood programs second-worst, with more than $10 billion in claims, following hits from Hurricanes Harvey in Texas and Maria in Puerto Rico. Annual losses have risen and fallen with the weather since a record in 2005, when Hurricane Katrina swamped the Gulf Coast and triggered more than $16 billion in payouts. Some critics say the situation will only worsen as global climate change generates more extreme weather and raises ocean levels. The properties that have suffered severe and repetitive losses are the canary in the coal mine for the millions of properties in the U.S. that are going to be in the exact same situation in future decades, said Rob Moore, water and climate director at the Natural Resources Defense Council. The environmental group favors FEMA giving homeowners more financial help to move to higher ground rather than rebuilding flooded properties over and over. With more than 5 million policies, the nations main source of flood insurance generated $4.3 billion in annual premiums in 2016 and paid claims of at least $3.7 billion, the Congressional Budget Office reported last year. The median cost of a year of residential coverage was $520 that year. The federal coverage is available to homeowners, renters and business owners if their community adopts required flood-plain management measures, such as elevating buildings and preventing construction on land where water drains away. As of May, the 10 states with the most repeatedly flooded insured properties follow the Gulf and East Coasts as far north as New York, but also include Missouri along the Mississippi River, according to FEMA data provided to the Natural Resources Defense Council after the group said it sued the agency three years ago. The group gave the data to The Associated Press. Louisiana has had the most repeatedly flooded properties over the past 40 years, with 23 percent of the total, the FEMA records show. That includes two single-family homes in Slidell and New Orleans that have each been compensated for flood losses two dozen times. When Hurricane Florence poured up to 30 inches (75 centimeters) of rain onto eastern North Carolina in September, towns along rivers and sounds were swamped again. They included Belhaven and Washington, which lead the state in the number of severe, repeatedly flooded properties. Rees learned in late October that she can expect some extra help $30,000 through a flood mitigation plan for repetitively damaged, insured properties. She hopes her insurance payout and her own savings will help her pay to add a bedroom on stilts to her existing home and move her living spaces off the ground floor. Im trying to hurricane-proof my house, Rees said. Next time, I know Im going to have water in it. With more than 3.8 million households altogether, North Carolina has only about 134,000 flood insurance policies. The state has 1,132 structures from Carolina Beach to Charlotte on the severe repetitive loss list. Eighty-two percent of the flooded properties that have been bailed out repeatedly are single-family homes, said Moore. Those homes were worth an average of $115,000, but have incurred $150,000 in damage claims, he said. Many people that find themselves in a situation of living in a repeatedly flooded house would like nothing more than to never file another flood insurance damage claim ever again. But the only assistance thats readily available to them after a flood is to rebuild if they have flood insurance. So theyre kind of trapped, Moore said. The flood program and its ability to borrow money expire at the end of this month as hurricane season ends, unless Congress approves another extension. FEMA last year urged Congress to consider limiting payouts that far exceed a propertys total value. Efforts to reform the program, including how it treats repeatedly flooded properties, are again on the table. But partisanship and the opposition of Louisianas two Republican senators mean the likeliest result is a short-term renewal of the insurance program, said R.J. Lehmann, insurance policy director at the free-market think tank R Street in Washington. There wont be really any reforms at all this year, he said. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Catastrophe Flood Washington Hurricane North Carolina Homeowners FEMA Workers compensation carrier Texas Mutual Insurance Co. has awarded a $100,000 grant to the nonprofit Construction Career Collaborative (C3) to strengthen the skilled craft workforce in the Greater Houston region. C3 is a nonprofit alliance of owners, general contractors, specialty contractors, construction industry trade organizations and design professionals dedicated to the craft workforce in the Houston region. The grant will fund several C3 efforts, including the accredited employer scholarship program, which works to identify small businesses and Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) businesses in construction. It will also fund scholarships to new and existing C3 accredited employers for training classes that cover OSHA safety, craft skills, jobsite leadership, crew leadership and more. The grant will also help fund an annual C3 construction career fair with C3 accredited employers. Additionally, the nonprofit will work with local Career & Technical Education (CTE) programs to coordinate signing days, similar to college signing days, for students who commit to joining a commercial construction company before graduation Source: Texas Mutual Insurance Co. Topics Texas Training Development Construction Sebastian Sanchez joined RHSB (Roach Howard Smith & Barton) as assistant vice president in the Dallas-based agencys Employee Benefits division. Sanchez is a benefit consultant with an emphasis in small to mid-market employers. His bilingual proficiency and multi-cultural background position him as a strategic partner in an ever-changing healthcare system. Sanchez is fluent in English and Spanish. Prior to joining RHSB, Sanchez led a team of benefit coordinators for a national broker in the Dallas area. His customer support and benefit plan design experience enable him to effectively help employers navigate their various healthcare options. RHSB has offices in Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas. Source: RHSB Citing a troubling number of Hurricane Michael-related consumer complaints and claims denials, Floridas top financial regulator is urging insurers to respond more quickly and adequately to consumers recovering from the major storm that devastated the Florida Panhandle in October. Florida CFO Jimmy Patronis, who leads the Florida Department of Financial Services, called on the insurance industry to step it up in aiding consumers in their Hurricane Michael recovery in a conference call on Nov. 20 with more than 40 insurance company representatives and Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier. Before Hurricane Michael hit, I put Floridas insurance industry on notice that I expected they would move quickly to help residents recover. Unfortunately, this hasnt been the case all around, Patronis said. My office has noticed several alarming trends since the storm made landfall, including delays in processing claims. What is even more troubling is that 13 percent of complaints to my office were related to claim denials. Insurance consumer complaints are handled through the DFS Division of Consumer Services. If insurers dont step up, not only will recovery be delayed, but consumers will be even more vulnerable to fraud Patronis, who is originally from Panama City, Fla., compared the number of complaints related to Hurricane Michael at this point to that of Hurricane Irma, which touched almost every county in Florida when it hit in September of last year. He said approximately 30 days after Hurricane Irma, DFS had received approximately 200 consumer complaints. Hurricane Michael impacted a smaller area just 12 Florida counties yet DFS received more than 100 consumer complaints through the 30 days after the Cat 4 storm made landfall on Oct. 10. There is no reason that we should have this many complaints for an impacted area that is a small fraction of Irmas. Its completely unacceptable, Patronis said. Patronis added, I expect insurers will step it up so that families and businesses can get back to normal. If insurers dont step up, not only will recovery be delayed, but consumers will be even more vulnerable to fraud. As of Nov. 16, the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation reported a total of 125,356 claims for all lines of business, including residential and commercial properties. The total estimated insured losses had reached $3.4 billion with 55.3 percent of the total claims received closed. Florida Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier echoed Patronis statement to insurers saying, all insurance-related needs held by impacted consumers must be addressed swiftly and without delay. For their part, the insurance industry says they were there as soon as possible after the storm and are still working to resolve claims. Hurricane Michael brought a great deal of devastation, and insurers are working diligently to settle claims quickly and thoroughly, said Logan McFaddin, regional manager for insurer trade group PCI. As soon as it was safe to enter, adjusters were deployed across the impacted areas Insurers are actively working with policyholders on alternative housing needs and processing and paying claims for home, auto, and business[es]. In the days following Michaels wrath, the majority of affected policyholders reported being pleased with their insurance carriers response, according to a survey of insurance industry performance after Hurricanes Florence and Michael from J.D. Power, which found 87 percent of Florida policyholders said their insurer had met or exceeded expectations, in its response efforts. The J.D. Power Pulse Survey was conducted between Oct. 19 Nov. 2 and included 650 responses from individual home and policyholders affected by Hurricanes Florence and Michael across four states: North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida and/or Georgia. The survey found 89 percent of respondents reported that their claims had either been fully or partially covered, with 5 percent reporting their claim was unresolved. Just 4 percent had their claim denied and 2 percent were not sure. Trey Hutt, president of Hutt Insurance Agency, which has two locations in the Panhandle, said for the most part, he has been pleased with the industrys response to Hurricane Michael. However, he noted there is typically a lull in the recovery process about a month after the event where people have submitted their claim, had their initial visit from an adjuster and then have to wait to hear from a desk adjuster, which can take up to 10 business days in some cases. People are very nervous when there is silence at the other end of the phone, Hutt said. Altmaier said OIR continues to work alongside DFS to monitor the progress of the post-storm response to ensure residents impacted by Hurricane Michael are protected throughout their path to recovery. Insurance companies must fulfill the promises theyve made to their policyholders, Altmaier said. McFaddin said that will be the case. Insurers will continue to be there until properties are rebuilt and Florida communities return to normal, she said. Topics Carriers Catastrophe Natural Disasters Trends Florida Claims Hurricane Market A Kentucky woman who says a Texas Roadhouse employee told her to cover up while she was breastfeeding is suing the restaurant chain for emotional distress. Sadie Durbin is quoted by news outlets as saying the employee rushed over with a big napkin saying the restaurant was getting complaints. Durbin says she had been nursing her 7-week-old daughter while having dinner with her family Nov. 15 at the steakhouse in St. Matthews. Durbin filed the lawsuit Nov. 19 in Jefferson County Circuit Court. She is seeking financial compensation. Texas Roadhouse spokesman Travis Doster says the employee mishandled the situation and wasnt aware state law protects a womans right to breastfeed in public. He says the employee meant no ill will and has been placed on paid time off. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Lawsuits Texas Kentucky In the days before Californias deadliest wildfire erupted near a PG&E Corp. power line during a windstorm, the company kept a close eye on the weather, warned customers it might shut off electricity in the area, and finally decided conditions werent bad enough to warrant it, according to a report filed Tuesday with state regulators. The report from PG&E also shows that the giant utility company made its final decision not to cut electricity more than six hours after the Camp Fire began on Nov. 8 in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Butte County. Pushed by strong winds, the fire leveled the town of Paradise, killing at least 88 people. Residents who lost loved ones and homes have sued PG&E, blaming the companys equipment for starting the fire. The report will likely add ammunition to those suits. No cause has been determined in the deadly blaze. As wind-driven wildfires increase in the state, California utilities have resorted to shutting off certain power lines during periods of intense winds and low humidity. PG&E had resisted the idea for years but changed course after last years devastating wine country fires, which killed 44. State investigators have blamed 17 of those 2017 fires on the companys equipment. We know how much our customers rely on electric service and would only consider temporarily turning off power as a last resort, Matt Nauman, a spokesman for San Francisco-based PG&E, said in an emailed statement. By the afternoon of Nov. 8, weather conditions had improved, and PG&E no longer anticipated the need to proactively de-energize. Shares of PG&E have plunged 45 percent since the Camp Fire began. After losing more than half its value, the stock has stabilized on speculation state lawmakers may pass legislation to ease the companys liabilities. On Oct. 14, PG&E cut electricity to about 60,000 customers during heavy winds, the first time the company had taken that step, according to a separate report. The decision prompted angry complaints from customers, some of whom filed claims against the company for spoiled food and lost business. Before restoring service, however, PG&E found 18 instances of wind damage to its equipment, including tree branches lying on de-energized power lines. The new report shows that PG&E activated its Emergency Operations Center on Nov. 6 two days before the Camp Fire began as forecasts showed the possibility strong winds and very low humidity on Nov. 8. The region had experienced only one rain storm since May, leaving trees and brush dangerously dry. The forecast called for sustained winds of 20 to 30 miles per hour, with gusts up to 45 miles per hour, bringing with them a high likelihood of impacts to the companys equipment and facilities, according to the report. PG&E alerted several state agencies including Governor Jerry Browns office and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and then started warning customers that the power could be cut. When the windstorm arrived, on Nov. 7, weather conditions never quite reached levels that would warrant turning off electricity, the report shows. By 1 p.m. local time on Nov. 8, winds were starting to diminish, and the company decided that it would not need to deactivate any power lines. But the Camp Fire had already begun, in the hills east of Paradise. A report PG&E previously filed with the state showed that one of the companys high-voltage transmission lines malfunctioned 18 minutes before the fire started, with the malfunction happening in the same area where investigators say the flames began. Another, smaller PG&E line nearby malfunctioned 12 minutes after the ignition, according to another report. The threshold for a power shutoff needs to be lower than the actual level at which danger would occur, Michael Wara, director of the climate and energy policy program at Stanford University, said in an interview. One might imagine that the email exchange ahead of this will likely be subpoenaed, he said. The PG&E report doesnt mention the Camp Fire, instead focusing solely on the companys decision not to cut power. The California Public Utilities Commission requires utilities to file a report whenever they prepare to shut off electricity for public safety, even if they decide against it in the end. Even if PG&E had chosen to cut power in Butte County, the company wouldnt have switched off the transmission line now suspected of sparking the blaze. California regulators have allowed the states utility companies to set their own criteria governing which lines they will consider deactivating for safety. While Sempra Energys San Diego utility will shut down long-distance transmission lines during windstorms, PG&E and Edison Internationals Southern California Edison wont. Instead, they only de-energize distribution lines, which feed neighborhoods, rural communities or individual homes. All these choices which lines to turn off and what weather conditions warrant a blackout will likely be covered in the lawsuits arising from the fire. They obviously have a very difficult decision to make whenever the winds kick up, said Mike Gatto, a former assemblyman who led the utilities committee. Do they shut off power for hundreds of customers including medical customers, or do they face second-guessing? Gatto said he thought the state could have done everyone a favor by coming up with concrete rules regarding when a utility should shut off power due to increased fire risks. It would eliminate the need for lengthy litigation, he said. The Camp Fire also prompted a federal court judge in San Francisco on Tuesday to demand assurances from PG&E that its electrical grid hasnt endangered the public after the company was convicted of safety violations in the wake of a gas pipeline explosion that killed eight people in 2010. U.S. District Judge William Alsup directed the utility to explain whether its operation and maintenance of power lines could result in local, state or federal criminal charges. PG&E remains on probation after it was slapped in January 2017 with a maximum fine of $3 million by another San Francisco judge who said its crimes in the San Bruno explosion were very serious and pose great risk to the public safety. Related: Copyright 2021 Bloomberg. Topics California Catastrophe Natural Disasters Wildfire The islanders challenge Abe. Some 90,000 signatures were collected in favour of the vote. Japanese authorities want to relocate the base from Ginowan to Henoko. Residents oppose the move because of pollution, dangers, and relations with US military. Tokyo (AsiaNews/Agencies) Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki announced a referendum on the relocation of the US base at Futenma on 24 February, a move intended to reassert local opposition to central government plans to move it within the prefecture. Okinawa is part of the Ryukyu Islands. Tamaki was elected governor in late September by defeating a central government-backed pro-relocation candidate by a wide margin. He not only wants the Futenma facility closed and the land returned to Okinawan sovereignty, he also fiercely opposes its relocation to Henoko. Islanders have been opposed to the US Air Force base in Okinawa for quite some time. They complain of noise, pollution, the risk of accidents and collisions. In addition, relations with US military personnel have been tense as a result of violence by US servicemen. in 1995, three Americans raped a local girl who was only 12 years old. By virtue of an agreement with Washington, Japanese authorities are working to reclaim the coastal area of Henoko, near the city of Nago (northern sector of the island) to host the US Marine Air Base , which is now located in Ginowan (southern sector). Civic groups lobbied for a referendum by collecting more than 90,000 signatures to step up their objection to the move to Henoko. A proposed ordinance for a referendum on whether islanders support reclamation of Henoko was approved at a 26 October session of the Okinawa prefectural assembly. The central government resumed work to reclaim the coastal area of Henoko this month after it suspended the project in late August. The only other prefecture-wide referendum in Okinawa was held in 1996 to gauge the extent of opposition to the disproportionately high US military presence there and calls for a review of the 1960 Japan-US Status of Forces Agreement, which stipulates the jurisdiction and legal status of US military forces in Japan. Voter turnout on that occasion was 59.53 per cent. Voter support for scaling down US presence and a review was 89.09 per cent. At that time, Okinawa was home to about 75 per cent of all US military facilities in Japan. Now, its hosts about 70 percent. November 27, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Technical analyst Clive Maund charts Bitcoin and provides what he calls a "post mortem" after its most recent plunge. If this unfortunate character, who for a brief period became a BITCOIN BILLIONAIRE, had been a clivemaund.com subscriber, he would have known to get the hell out of Dodge and would not have ended up broke and pawning his underwear. As you may recall we had some fun at the expense of those caught up in this mania around the time it peaked less than a year ago, starting with a BITCOIN TOTAL WIPEOUT ALERT on 13th December, and then calling the final top on the Monday after it occurred in The Bitcoin Market would like to thank The Greatest Fool for joining us to celebrate the launch of Bitcoin Futures on the CME, following up with a BITCOIN CRASH UPDATE on 24th and then gloating in the satirical SELL BITCOIN BUY TULIP BULBS! posted in mid-January after the initial crash phase and finally rubbing it in with MUSIC FOR THE NEXT BITCOIN CONVENTION posted early in February. While all this may have seemed like cruelty towards those who got caught up in this scam, there was a serious purpose to it, which was to warn subscribers to steer well clear of it, and to expect it to fade into obscurity which is exactly what has happened. We haven't looked at it since last February because we have better things to do with our time than waste it on something that is finished. This article may therefore be regarded as a "post mortem" with the final "nail in the coffin" of Bitcoin being the sudden brutal plunge last week, which ended the illusion being put about by Bitcoin promoters in recent months that it was basing. The following 3-year chart shows the predictable carnage that ensued in Bitcoin following the spectacular parabolic blowoff top, which was a classic. Bitcoin ended up with the dubious distinction of being the biggest mania of all time, even eclipsing the Dutch tulip bulb frenzy of the 17th century, the South Sea Bubble, the stock runup of the roaring twenties, the Florida land boom and the dot-com bubble. One of the most tragi-comic signs of this bubble being at its terminal stage was the pitiful sight of investors of modest means buying percentages of a Bitcoin at a vending machine, because they couldn't afford a whole coin. On the 3-year chart we can see how the decline decelerated so that it looked like it might be basing in recent months, but last week's drop put paid to that hope. For the benefit of readers outside of the UK some explanation of the term "monster raving loony" used as part of the description of the extreme MACD indicator reading at Bitcoin's peak is in order. The Official Monster Raving Loony Party existed in Britain in the 1980s and it devoted its energies to lampooning the political establishment. Its leaders would campaign in outrageous outfits including top hats and gigantic rosettes, and it was the brainchild of His Excellency Screaming Lord Sutch. The 6-month chart shows more clearly that the drop of the past two weeks was substantial in percentage terms. Bitcoin should now continue to fade into oblivion and it is therefore of no interest to us we prefer things of real value, like gold and silver. Once you learn how to spot these parabolic blowoffs, you find you can do it again and again, as we did much more recently with Apple, which is why we shorted it with Puts... That BITCOIN BILLIONAIRE video is kind of catchy, isn't it? let's play it again!! Clive Maund has been president of www.clivemaund.com, a successful resource sector website, since its inception in 2003. He has 30 years' experience in technical analysis and has worked for banks, commodity brokers and stockbrokers in the City of London. He holds a Diploma in Technical Analysis from the UK Society of Technical Analysts. Disclosure: 1) Statements and opinions expressed are the opinions of Clive Maund and not of Streetwise Reports or its officers. Clive Maund is wholly responsible for the validity of the statements. Streetwise Reports was not involved in the content preparation. Clive Maund 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. 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. 3) 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. Charts provided by the author. CliveMaund.com Disclosure: The above represents the opinion and analysis of Mr Maund, based on data available to him, at the time of writing. Mr. Maund's opinions are his own, and are not a recommendation or an offer to buy or sell securities. Mr. Maund is an independent analyst who receives no compensation of any kind from any groups, individuals or corporations mentioned in his reports. As trading and investing in any financial markets may involve serious risk of loss, Mr. Maund recommends that you consult with a qualified investment advisor, one licensed by appropriate regulatory agencies in your legal jurisdiction and do your own due diligence and research when making any kind of a transaction with financial ramifications. Although a qualified and experienced stock market analyst, Clive Maund is not a Registered Securities Advisor. 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Please read Investorideas.com privacy policy: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Private_Policy.asp London & Lagos - November 28, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) The World Federation of Exchanges ("WFE"), the global industry group for exchanges and CCPs, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA), aimed at supporting the development of the wider African capital market. The MOU has two key goals: To support the development of market infrastructures in Africa and, through them, the development of the wider African capital market ecosystem; and To enable African market infrastructures to develop best practices based on global standards, while remaining appropriate to the needs of the region and nation in which they operate. The WFE and ASEA have pledged to collaborate in developing and implementing programmes and projects, including finding ways to increase the amount of data published by the region, that deliver these two overarching objectives. ASEA is an association of 28 securities exchanges in Africa; its exchanges are home to approximately 1,100 listed companies with a total equity market capitalisation of $1.5 trillion. ASEA's main objective is to unlock the potential of African capital markets, and enhance the development and global competitiveness of member exchanges. Established in 1961, the WFE is the global industry association for exchanges and clearing houses. Headquartered in London, it represents over 200 market infrastructure providers, including standalone CCPs that are not part of exchange groups. Of its members, 36.8% are in Asia-Pacific, 42.6% in EMEA and 20.6% in the Americas. WFE exchanges are home to nearly 45,000 listed companies, and the market capitalisation of these entities is over $82.5 trillion; around $81.8 trillion (EOB) in trading annually passes through the infrastructures WFE members safeguard (at end 2017). Seven African exchanges (out of a total of 70 WFE members) are full members of the WFE (Bourse de Casablanca, The Egyptian Exchange, Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Nairobi Securities Exchange, Nigerian Stock Exchange, Stock Exchange of Mauritius and Tunis Stock Exchange) and a further five African exchanges are affiliates. Overall, there are over 35 securities exchanges operating in Africa at different levels of maturity. Nandini Sukumar, Chief Executive Officer, WFE said: "The WFE is delighted to announce this ground-breaking MOU with ASEA. The WFE's market development mandate has always been a key pillar of the federation, but this agreement crystallises our vision to support members in specific regions with targeted activity. We believe that exchanges in Africa will benefit from this focused approach, be it through our technical expertise, capacity building programme, or broader market development assistance to help them meet international standards and best practice. We look forward to engaging more deeply on the topics that matter to African market infrastructures, and further growing our knowledge and relationships in this vibrant continent." Commenting on the MOU, the former President of ASEA and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Oscar N. Onyema said: "ASEA and the WFE will work in tandem to promote quality market standards, advocate for enabling policies, and support the growth of member exchanges. As such, this partnership will inspire and support African exchanges to unlock greater levels of competitiveness through information sharing and the adoption of best practices. At the same time, we also expect that the partnership will offer WFE members a unique perspective on capital market issues and provide stakeholders in the global capital market with new prospects in the world's next frontier of growth'. We welcome this opportunity to enhance our value proposition to ASEA members' and we encourage members of both associations to take advantage of emerging opportunities." NSE became a full member of the WFE in 2014. Speaking at the MOU signing ceremony, Karim Hajji, Chief Executive Officer of Bourse de Casablanca and incoming President of ASEA said: "Together with my fellow Executive Committee Members, we are very keen on implementing the agreed activities of our partnership with the WFE, and translating them into tangible results for the benefit of the two institutions." Bourse de Casablanca became a full member of the WFE in 2010. The WFE's priorities and work streams include ongoing work on SMEs, FinTech, cyber resilience, CCP resilience, financial literacy, and sustainability. The WFE has a dedicated Emerging Markets Working Group which has focused on finding solutions for issues such as liquidity, enhancing retail participation, and attracting international investors. About the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE): The WFE is the definitive source for exchange-traded statistics, and publishes over 350 market data indicators. Its free statistics database stretches back more than 40 years, and provides information and insight into developments on global exchanges. The WFE works with standard-setters, policy makers, regulators and government organisations around the world to support and promote the development of fair, transparent, stable and efficient markets. The WFE shares regulatory authorities' goals of ensuring the safety and soundness of the global financial system. With extensive experience of developing and enforcing high standards of conduct, the WFE and its members support an orderly, secure, fair and transparent environment for investors; for companies that raise capital; and for all who deal with financial risk. We seek outcomes that maximise the common good, consumer confidence and economic growth. And we engage with policy makers and regulators in an open, collaborative way, reflecting the central, public role that exchanges and CCPs play in a globally integrated financial system. About the African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA): The African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA) is the Premier Association of 28 Securities Exchanges in Africa that have come together with the aim of developing Member Exchanges and providing a platform for networking. The Association was established in 1993, and works closely with Member Exchanges to unlock the potential of the African Capital Markets and African economies. For more information, please contact: Anna Watson Head of Communications, The World Federation of Exchanges Email: awatson@world-exchanges.org Phone: +44 20 7151 4137 / 7850 287 685 Twitter: @TheWFE More Info: This news is published on the Investorideas.com Newswire - a global digital news source for investors and business leaders Disclaimer/Disclosure: Investorideas.com is a digital publisher of third party sourced news, articles and equity research as well as creates original content, including video, interviews and articles. Original content created by investorideas is protected by copyright laws other than syndication rights. Our site does not make recommendations for purchases or sale of stocks, services or products. Nothing on our sites should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell products or securities. All investing involves risk and possible losses. This site is currently compensated for news publication and distribution, social media and marketing, content creation and more. Disclosure is posted for each compensated news release, content published /created if required but otherwise the news was not compensated for and was published for the sole interest of our readers and followers. Contact management and IR of each company directly regarding specific questions. More disclaimer info: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Disclaimer.asp Learn more about publishing your news release and our other news services on the Investorideas.com newswire https://www.investorideas.com/News-Upload/ and tickertagstocknews.com Global investors must adhere to regulations of each country. Please read Investorideas.com privacy policy: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Private_Policy.asp AIB Bank has signed the lease on a new building in Heuston South Quarter in Dublin. The bank says is part of its property strategy "to have the right teams in the right place to deliver for its customers", and they expect to be in the building in the by the middle of next year. By Gordon Deegan Accumulated losses at the ethical clothing company controlled by Bono and Ali Hewson rose to $86.4m (76.5m) last year. New figures lodged with the Companies Office show that EDUN Apparel Ltd recorded a loss of $5.7m (5.1m) in the 12 months to the end of December last. The loss last year continued the trend of hefty annual losses recorded over recent years for the firm and the 2017 loss followed losses of $6.3m in 2016, $7.56m in 2015 and a $5.57m loss recorded in 2014. The firm recorded annual losses of $6.4m in 2013; $7.88m in 2012 and $8.5m in 2011 resulting in accumulated losses of $47m since 2011. Bono and his wife, Ali, established the global fashion brand in 2004 in an effort to bring about positive change through its trading relationship with Africa and its positioning as a creative force in contemporary fashion. The business sustained a hefty blow in June of this year when luxury brand giant, LVMH, decided to exit the business after the years of continuing losses. LVMH is the fashion industrys largest conglomerate and counts Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior among its brands. LVMH first invested in Edun back in 2009, taking a 49% stake in the business and a spokesman for LVMH in June confirmed that it would effectively return its stake in Edun for no financial consideration. In a statement at the time of LVMH exiting the business, Edun said: In light of a joint review of the business, Edun is restructuring its operations in preparation for its next chapter and LVMH will transfer its shares back to the founders. The founders remain committed to Eduns mission for sustainable fashion and thank LVMH for its support and dedication during this journey together. The announcement coincided with reports that Edun was ceasing its operations in the US and followed Eduns single storefront in New York City, on Lafayette Street in Manhattan, closing at the end of May 2018. Founded to affect positive change in Africa by promoting trade there and sourcing production throughout the continent, Edun is essentially funded by shareholder loans, the 2017 accounts show. A note said: The shareholders have confirmed that they will not seek repayment of the said loans for the foreseeable future and they will provide the company with sufficient finances to ensure the continued operation of the company. The figures show that EDUNs net liabilities increased from $57m to $62m during 2017. The firms cash pile during the year decreased from $4.2m to $3.8m. Directors pay at the firm last year reduced from $109,661 to $84,633. In the foreword to his departments key pre-budget economic forecasts in June, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said he was determined to follow a prudent path because pumping up spending in an economy at full employment entails risks. The Summer Economic Statement, which was published four months before the budget, uses the word prudent a further nine times. In its official assessment of Octobers budget, the Irish Fiscal Advisory Advisory Council watchdog has deemed that the budget was anything but prudent. The global airline industry is expected to generate nearly $93bn (82bn) in ancillary revenues this year, a new study claims. The total would represent a 312% rise in revenues from non-air fare sources in the past eight years. Nearly $93bn in revenue indicates that good merchandisers are selling products desired by a vast number of customers, said Aileen McCormack, chief commercial officer at car hire software firm CarTrawler, which compiled the study on behalf of aviation research group IdeaWorks. The International Air Transport Association] estimates that more than 4.3 billion travellers will depart on flights in 2018. Most of them now have the choice of paying a little extra for more comfort and convenience thus providing airlines with a golden opportunity to build and strengthen their customer experience in the long-term, she said. Ancillary revenues are generated from everything sold by an airline outside of the basic flight ticket and include any number of items from baggage fees and onboard food and beverages to priority seating and boarding, car hire and hotel bookings. In July, IdeaWorks and CarTrawler reported that the worlds 10 leading airlines pulled in a combined 25.4bn from ancillary revenues last year, up 6% on 2016, further underlining the importance of non-air fare income streams for the industry. In its last financial year, the 12-months to the end of March, Ryanairs total revenues increased 8% to 7.1bn. Of that total 28%, or 2bn, was generated from ancillaries. That 2bn was itself up 13% on the previous years total. According to CarTrawler, $64.8bn worth of ancillary revenues this year will come directly from so-called a la carte items, such as baggage charges. Ryanair makes all of its non-fare revenues from such items. The airline was one of only four European carriers to make the top 10 list of ancillary-generating airlines last year; along with Air France-KLM, Lufthansa and Easyjet. IdeaWorks said it anticipates ancillary revenue activity will also lift among smaller airlines in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America. Ancillary revenue keeps on growing and has become a mandatory component for the revenue mix of all airlines, said CarTrawlers senior vice president of distribution Michael Cunningham. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 28) After distributing land titles to the natives of Boracay, the President said he is considering doing the same for farmers in Negros island. In a media interview Tuesday, President Rodrigo Duterte said he is mulling land reform implementation in Negros. "I might declare the entire island as a land reform area. I'm studying," Duterte said after the inauguration of the Bohol-Panglao International Airport. The President cited rebels operating in the area and violence that can be linked to land conflict. "Negros because the recruitment is almost incessant and the agitation for trouble is always there because the issue is land," he added. Malacanang earlier issued an order to deploy more troops to several provinces including Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental, citing "sporadic acts of violence." In October, nine farmers were killed in a sugar plantation during a land cultivation area or 'bungkalan' activity in Negros Occidental. A 'bungkalan' refers to the practice of farmers to occupy land and collectively cultivate the land to make it productive. The Department of Agriculture says poor farmers use this practice often as a last resort to harvest food when they do not have available land, and in, many instances, it leads to land conflict, even violence. The President enforced land reform in the island of Boracay after it underwent a six-month closure for rehabilitation. In November, the government distributed land titles to the Atis tribe, Boracay's first settlers, to fulfill the President's land reform promise to the island. by Pierre Balanian Syrian opposition members will also be present, together with the UN special envoy on Syria and - for the first time - delegates from Jordan. The meeting is supported by Russia, Turkey and Iran. The most burning issue is the situation of Idlib. The Syrian Red Crescent delegation that recently presided over an exchange of prisoners, also invited. Istanbul (AsiaNews) - "The Syrian opposition delegation will be present and will participate in Astana" Ayman Al Asmi, press spokesman of Syrian armed opposition, told AsiaNews, saying that members of the opposition delegation represent some factions present in Idlib, as well as the areas of the "Euphrates Shield" and Afrin. For Al Asmi, the situation of Idlib is sensitive and weighs on the minds of all those taking part. Today marks a new round of two days of peace talks in the Kazakh capital the "Astana Platform", led by Russia, Turkey and Iran with the participation of the United Nations, as an observer. This time there is also Jordan. The United States as usual does not participate in these talks, while news released two days ago by the Kazakh Foreign Ministry confirmed the presence of the UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan De Mistura, the Syrian government delegation and the opposition delegation. The meeting comes in the immediate aftermath of yet another serious chemical weapon attack attacks in the Aleppo hinterland, under the control of Damascus, and the Russian response that bombed the Syrian armed opposition areas from where, according to Moscow, the missiles carrying chemical poisons were launched. In a statement received by AsiaNews, the Syrian armed opposition denied all responsibility for the use of chemical weapons, pointing the finger at Al Hader, an area controlled by pro-Iranian and pro-government Shiite militias. Both the opposition and the Syrian government have called for the establishment of an independent international commission of inquiry to shed light on this crime against humanity. There is little news about the agenda leaked by the Kazakh ministry of foreign affairs. According to many sources, there will not be the composition of the Commission for the drafting of the new Syrian Constitution, which concerns Staffan De Mistura, who will leave office at the end of this year. The crux of the problem is disagreement about whether or not a civil society list should be entered as the third neutral group, alongside a third of government members and a third of the opposition. Sources consulted by AsiaNews are primarily concerned about the situation in Idlib, where more than 4.5 million people are concentrated, which has become the last stronghold of myriads of armed groups and of opposition mercenaries and their family members, from around the world . The idea being rumored is to follow the cease-fire in progress, with demilitarized and demarcating zones, the withdrawal of the extremist and fundamentalist armed opposition, to finally leave space for civil opposition. The issue is delicate because it implies preventing Syrian army troops from going ahead with their project to use armed force to bring control of this area back to Damascus. The Syrian opposition in Turkey told AsiaNews that the opposition members intend insisting on continued prisoners exchanges between the opposition and the government. A first step in this direction occurred a few days ago when 20 prisoners from the Syrian opposition armed factions were released in exchange for 10 prisoners freed from the opposition detention camps in the Aleppo area, in the presence of the Syrian Red Crescent. According to Kazake press reports, a delegation from the Red Crescent will also be present in Astana. Norways influential oil and gas-focused sovereign wealth fund has lifted its investment boycott on two exploration companies, opening a potentially significant new investment stream for Irish offshore drilling in the process. One of the companies the fund is now free to invest in is Scottish explorer Cairn Energy which has significant assets in Irish waters. The worlds largest sovereign wealth fund, operated by Norways central bank, had excluded Kosmos Energy and Cairn Energy from its list of investment options in 2016 on ethical grounds. The funds ethics watchdog found what it called an unacceptable risk related to petroleum prospecting off the coast of Western Sahara. However, the boycott has been lifted since both companies said they had discontinued their business in the African region. It remains to be seen if Norway will invest in Cairn and if such a move would have an eventual knock-on benefit for offshore exploration in Ireland. However, Ronan MacNioclais, oil and gas partner at PwC Ireland, said it remains welcome news. Its positive in terms of showing the quality of players that Ireland is attracting if the Norwegian Wealth Fund is willing to invest [in one of those players], he said. Cairn has two significant investments in Irish waters, both in partnership with Irish explorer Providence Resources. Cairn is a 30% shareholder in the Diablo prospect off the south-west coast and holds a minority stake in the Spanish Point prospect, also off the west coast, about which discussions on the future licence status are pending. A recent study of the Irish offshore industry, by PwC, showed that nearly two-thirds of exploration companies, either already active here or interested in investing here, rate the outlook for Irelands oil and gas sector positively. It also said that investment in Irish exploration should top 500m over the next two years, but that nearly 40% of firms are experiencing difficulty in finding partner companies to help develop their Irish assets. Around 12% of companies still see access to funding as being a key hurdle to working in Irish waters. Norways wealth fund was created from the proceeds of the Scandinavian countrys oil industry and operates under ethical guidelines set by the countrys parliament. The fund owns shares in more than 9,000 companies, roughly equating to 1.4% of the worlds listed equity, so its decisions to drop or reinstate firms from its investments carry considerable weight among investors. Additional reporting Reuters People with Alzeimer's and their carers say they are being ignored by the Minister for Health. The Alzheimer Society of Ireland says that is why it is holding an emergency meeting in Dublin today to call for funding for those with the disease and those who look after them. Maureen O'Sullivan TD for Dublin Central is introducing a Private Members Bill aimed at restricting the movements of convicted sex offenders from travelling abroad and engaging in child sex tourism. Addressing the Oireachtas Justice Committee this morning on her Sex Offenders (Amendment) Bill 2018, Ms O'Sullivan said that a recent report by Ending Child Prostitution and Trafficking (ECPAT) International said that child sex tourism had drastically increased. The promotion of tourism in these poorer countries for economic growth is bringing more and more westerners to places in which there is little or no regulation or policing but more and more children available for sex, she said. The deputy said the abuse occurs in countries such as India and many in South-East Asia, Latin America, South America, the Caribbean and Africa. She said the impetus for her bill came from meetings with Irish priest, Fr. Shay Cullen, who is directly involved in rescuing children from the sex tourism industry in the Philippines and supporting children affected by it. Ms O'Sullivan said it was tricky to legislate in this area because of the constitutional right to travel in Ireland. The purpose of the Bill is to regulate and restrict, where appropriate, sex offenders from travelling abroad in the interests of the common good and to protect persons from serious harm outside the State, she said. It seeks to do that by increasing the powers of judges so it is not an outright ban on travelling. She said the bill relates to those convicted of child abuse - physical acts of abuse with children, using child pornography films, child abuse images/recordings on their phones. It recognises the constitutional right to travel but also the need to protect children abroad, she said. She said restriction provisions would be decided on a case by case basis by a judge who will weigh up the issues. There is a lot of constitutional protection; the convicted person is heard and represented, she said. The judge can also hear if the offender has been genuinely engaging with a recognised rehabilitation programme. It will be the judge who will strike the balance between the constitution and the protection of children outside Ireland from those convicted of child abuse in Ireland. She added: In conclusion: it is a small step but a clear signal that Ireland, and we would be the first country in Europe to do so, does not want its child offenders to be in a position to offend in other countries where child abuse is happening with impunity. Committee chair Caoimhghin O Caolain expressed the committee's appreciation for Ms O'Sullivan's efforts in producing the bill. The bill is being currently discussed at the committee, together with pre-legislative scrutiny of the general scheme of the Governments proposed Sex Offenders (Amendment) Bill. By Ann O'Loughlin A fund-appointed receiver is entitled to orders requiring a couple to surrender vacant possession of three floors of a property in Dublin city centre where they have lived for 20 years, the High Court has ruled. The orders were sought by Tom Kavanagh, a receiver appointed by Feniton Property Finance, against Eddie and Dorothy Kenny, with an address c/o Cobalt Cafe, 16 North Great Georges Street, Dublin. Today, Ms Justice Caroline Costello ruled Mr Kavanagh was entitled to orders for vacant possession of three floors of that property. The orders do not apply to the basement, owned and occupied by the couples son Jamie. The judge adjourned the making of formal orders, and any issue of a stay on those, until next month. The receivers application arose after Feniton acquired various loans and guarantees made by Bank of Scotland Ireland on dates from 2005. The loans included a 10-year 720,000 term loan to the couple in 2005 and other loans, made on dates from 2005 to 2008, to Mr Kenny and another man, Fergal Herbert, who also gave an address at 16, North Great Georges Street. The loans were guaranteed and secured on the property which the couple declared in 1994 was not a family home within the meaning of the Family Home Protection Act. In 1996, they moved into the first and second floors and have lived there since. The judge said it is unclear what title, if any, that Mr Herbert may have had in the property and, in this case, no one had asserted he had any interest at all in it. The couple and Mr Herbert fell into arrears and the couple accepted no repayment was made from October 2013 to date, she said. In February 2016, the fund demanded repayment of 700,612 from the couple and repayment of some 5.9m from Mr Kenny and Mr Herbert. When no repayment was made, the fund appointed Mr Kavanagh in March 2016 as receiver over the property and he took proceedings in January 2017 after attempts to reach an agreement with the couple failed. The fund rejected an open offer by the couple to purchase the property for 480,000, excluding the basement. In various arguments resisting possession, the couple asserted the first and second floors were their family home and the bank knew that at all times and had treated the matter as a home loan. Ms Justice Costello said, as a matter of law, the property cannot be regarded as a family home and she agreed with the fund the loans were commercial loans. The fund had made a strong case the loans and mortgage were assigned and transferred to it, the receiver was validly appointed and a total sum of more than 6m is due on foot of the loans, she said. The Cobalt Cafe business was operated from the ground floor by a member of the couples family and the couple are either getting rent, or profits, from that, she said. Another son apparently lived in an apartment on the third floor and, if he was paying any rent, that should be paid to the fund. While Ms Kenny argued she did not benefit from any of the loans and it would be unconscionable to rely on a guarantee provided by her, that mere assertion by her ignored the fact, under her joint borrowings with her husband, she owes some 700,000 to the fund, the judge added. Damages would not be an adequate remedy if injunctions were refused and the balance of convenience required the injunctions be granted, she also held. The couple had made no loan repayments since 2013, have effectively occupied the property rent-free for five years at Feniton's expense and the receiver has been unable to carry out his functions, she said. Ireland may not be ready in time to deal with the fallout from Brexit, a secret Cabinet memo has warned. Ministers were advised that difficulties with acquiring suitable sites, rental difficulties, and building new checkpoints at ports and airports mean Ireland may not be fully ready to deal with Brexit when the UK leaves the EU on March 29, 2019. Cabinet members approved the memo yesterday, which set out that a variety of challenges have arisen which could impact on the countrys ability to be Brexit ready. The memo, seen by the Irish Examiner, called on ministers to agree that the OPW progress the project urgently and in light of risks identified should expedite that process to ensure delivery deadlines are met. The memo from Tanaiste Simon Coveney says that risks associated with site acquisition, potential lease break rental options plus statutory planning procurement and construction issues exist at ports and airports, which will be most impacted by Brexit. Ministers were warned that the scale of the problem facing the State is exceptional. In the case of Brexit, the scale and likely cost of infrastructure required, and the short time frame required to gear up for Brexit are exceptional and fall well beyond the routine demands of the State, especially in the case of our ports, warned the memo. Ministers were told of detailed plans relating to the upgrading of Rosslare Harbour, Dublin Airport, and Dublin Port, and significant issues have been identified in relation to Rosslares potential ability to be ready in time for March 29. A site in the ownership of Rosslare Port is available for accommodating a 13 inspection bay Border Control Post [BCP] facility, a separate live animal facility, a seal check facility, parking for 35 HGVs and office accommodation for 90 staff working on a 24/7 basis, ministers were told. However, the site requires significant infrastructural improvement including a new road network suitable for HGVs, warned the memo. Four workable sites at Dublin Port, when combined, have the potential to provide a Central Case suite of facilities including a live animal BCP and vehicle parking for 270 HGVs. The main facility would provide circa 35 inspection bays plus office accommodation for approximately 144 staff on a 24/7 basis, said the memo. The live animal BCP would be provided on a second site, opposite the main facility. The third site will include a seal check facility for approximately 110 lorries. The fourth site will provide overflow parking facilities for a further 110 lorries which will be awaiting to enter the main facility. The memo also stated that Dublin Airport will need an upgraded Border Control Post in order to comply with EU rules which come into effect in December 2019. Ministers were warned that millions of euro in exchequer funding will be needed to meet the costs of the additional infrastructure requirements arising from the unique circumstances of the UK exiting the EU. However, the necessary additional funding requirements will have to be met within the agreed aggregate multi-annual NDP capital allocations, Mr Coveney told his colleagues. Meanwhile, the Irish Examiner understands that Mr Coveney was severely criticised at Cabinet by Independent members of Government over the weak response by him in the wake of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Mr Coveney sought to explain that he was waiting for more evidence to emerge before he made a comprehensive comment, but Independent Alliance ministers Finian McGrath and Shane Ross said Ireland must be much stronger in condemnation of the murder. Several ministers confirmed that Mr McGrath confronted Mr Coveney, asking: Just read what the CIA have said. He was mutilated. What more do you need? A former Lord Mayor of Cork will not contest next years local elections. Fine Gael Cllr John Buttimer cited the pressure of balancing work commitments with the increasingly full-time nature of local politics. A psychologist with the Cope Foundation, he has represented the south west ward since his co-option onto Cork City Council in 2007 to replace his brother, Senator Jerry Buttimer. He confirmed his decision in correspondence sent to party members earlier today. He is the third member of the city council - after Fianna Fail Cllr Tom ODriscoll and Solidarity Cllr Marion OSullivan - to confirm they will not contest next Mays local elections. More councillors are expected to make similar announcements over the coming weeks. In his letter to party members, Mr Buttimer said he had made the decision with a huge sense of regret. But he said the role of a local public representative is becoming more and more professional and fulltime. I have struggled to balance the requirements of work with the duties and expectations of a public representative, he said. The proposed boundary changes with an expanded local electoral area from 2019 will make that task even more challenging. I remain committed to Fine Gael and to supporting the party to deliver three seats in our electoral area in May 2019. I will continue to work closely with Senator Jerry Buttimer to ensure Fine Gael wins two seats at the next general election. Mr Buttimer was co-opted onto the council in 2007 and was subsequently re-elected in 2009 and 2014. During his term as Lord Mayor across 2012 and 2013, he was diagnosed with and treated for Hodgkin lymphoma. Despite undergoing an intense course of chemotherapy and radiation treatment, he continued to perform his mayoral duties. A 36-year-old man has appeared before Dublin District Court today charged in relation to an alleged seven-year-long campaign of online harassment against a number of women. His appearance follows an intensive 18-month long investigation conducted by the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureaus Cyber Investigations Unit. Explanations about meetings between former communications minister Denis Naughten and a lead bidder in the broadband plan do not stack up and more answers are needed on the stalled project, says Fianna Fail. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar insisted that the process to supply broadband to half a million homes was not tainted after a review which concluded that Mr Naughten and David McCourt, a businessman leading the consortium bidding for the project, did not influence the plan, despite them meeting several times. However, the Peter Smyth review also concluded that it cannot be unequivocally stated that State-led intervention in the plan was not discussed by the two. Mr Varadkar told the Dail that the review showed the process was not tainted. Furthermore, the final bid had been received from the McCourt-led consortium on September 18 last and this was being assessed by two independent consultant groups. Recommendations from these two assessments will be made to the Government on whether to go ahead with this bid. The Opposition dismissed the report, highlighting the number of meetings, dinners, and contacts between Mr Naughten and the businessman. Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin told the Dail: The extraordinary level of connectivity between Granahan McCourt and the former minister stands out. There were 18 meetings, nine telephone calls, and five dinners. The majority, especially the 12-minute phone call, clearly related to the broadband plan. It is a level of engagement that is without precedent in ministerial involvement with a lead bidder in a bidding process. It is extraordinary by any yardstick. Mr Martin has also demanded an explanation of how the make-up of the consortium has hey presto changed, as he put it, in one of the final stages of the bidding process. He said explanations of different meetings, including over the level of subsidy by the State for the plan, didnt make sense. It does not stack up, and the report does not deal with those fundamental issues. The level of subsidy is a crucial issue that can be to the benefit of a bidder, said Mr Martin. The Fianna Fail leader also pressed for answers on any breach of so-called canvassing rules during the meetings as well as what might be the final cost of the project. However, the Taoiseach said the report concluded that Mr Naughtens resignation had helped remove any doubts over the project and bidding process. Denis Naughten resigns as Minister for Communications | https://t.co/jdNnfMXUOt pic.twitter.com/cosNnTaZJ0 RTE News (@rtenews) October 11, 2018 He told TDs in the Dail: It indicates that by removing himself from the process by resigning, any concern relating to Deputy Naughtens involvement in this or his relationship with Mr McCourt no longer affects the process. Mr Varadkar was also criticised by the Opposition when he said the consortium has changed its composition during the process but it is not a new consortium. The Dail is due to debate the Smyth report in the coming days following requests from the Opposition. By Louise Roseingrave The parents of a baby boy paid tribute to their "wee fighter" who offered them "so much hope" during his short lifetime. Baby Cormac Lafferty was born prematurely with a congenital heart condition and his progress through life-saving surgery was described by doctors as "miraculous". Baby Cormac Lafferty Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane returned a narrative verdict at an inquest into the infants death. Speaking after the inquest at Dublin Coroners Court, parents Ann-Marie and Paul Lafferty said Cormac, who died aged three months, surprised them constantly during his short life. He beat every target. He was a real fighter. He came home to Donegal with us and he was thriving, Paul Lafferty said. Ann-Marie Lafferty was staying in parents accommodation adjacent to Our Ladys Hospital in Crumlin with Cormacs twin Callum when she was called to the ward. Her son was in critical condition and she said the call "came too late". She said: That hurts. I was close by. I should have been informed my child was sick. Cormac was only three months old when he died on September 10, 2016. He will be sorely missed by all of us, Mrs Lafferty said. The couple, from Castlefin outside Lifford in Co Donegal were commended for their "outstanding" care of baby Cormac by the infants consultant cardiologist Professor Colin McMahon. They did everything they could for him during his short life, Prof McMahon said. Baby Cormac and with twin, Callum Baby Cormac was born with a congenital heart defect weighing 1.6kgs at 36 weeks gestation on June 13, 2016. He defied expectations by gaining enough weight for life-saving surgery. Doctors placed a shunt to direct blood from his heart to his lungs. Pediatric Cardiologist Dr Damien Kenny described Cormacs survival as "miraculous". The infant was discharged home to Donegal and returned to hospital for a review on September 6. He was admitted due to concerns over oxygen saturation levels. Early on September 10 baby Cormac became unsettled after a feed. An emergency team trying to ventilate him suctioned milk from his airway. His mother was called to the ward at 6.40am. The baby was successfully ventilated on a third attempt at 6.54am but went into cardiac arrest at 7.07am. He was pronounced dead less than an hour later. The cause of death was acute cardio respiratory arrest due to pulmonary hemorrhage in a child with Tetralogy of Fallot. Bronchiolitis and terminal aspiration of feed were contributory factors. Barrister for the family Alan Keating instructed by Callan Tansey solicitors said the family were concerned about the loss of data from an oxygen saturation monitor following Cormacs death. Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane returned a narrative verdict and said she would contact the hospital in relation to the preservation of data. After the inquest, the Laffertys said they felt more could be done by hospitals to retain digital data. We do not feel we got all of the answers we were looking for. We feel more should be done to ensure digital records are retained and that statements are taken from witnesses before they leave the jurisdiction, especially where a coroners inquest may take place. Vancouver Police Deputy Chief Steve Rai will helm the BC Association of Municipal Chiefs of Police as its new president, making the veteran cop the first South Asian officer to hold the position. Rai has been a member of the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) since 1990. He was born in Punjab, India, and raised in Vancouver where he graduated from Kitsilano Secondary School. The association is the main voice for the police forces of Vancouver, Victoria, New Westminister, Abbotsford, West Vancouver, Port Moody, Delta, Nelson, Oak Bay, Saanich and Central Saanich as well as Metro Vancouver Transit Police and the First Nations Stlatlimx Tribal Police. I accept the role with respect and great purpose as there are many public safety demands our communities are grappling with, Rai told the South Asian Post. The BCAMCP police chiefs are responsible for policing some of our largest cities. Collectively, we'll continue to ensure our strategies and resources are focused on common solutions. And, when necessary, our Association will be strong advocates for legislative changes on behalf of our citizens, he said. Crime fighting has evolved in today's policing world, where tackling social issues is as much a part of law enforcement as chasing down criminals. The BCAMCP understands this and strives to meet the challenges on behalf of our communities. Prior to joining VPD, Rai was a Canadian Forces Reserve member and attended the University of British Columbia where he completed a bachelor of arts degree in Asian studies. He also completed a master of arts in criminal justice from the University of the Fraser Valley. In addition to his regular duties, Deputy Chief Constable Rai completed a number of concurrent assignments, including ten years as an Emergency Response Team Hostage Negotiator, six years with the VPDs Critical Incident Stress Management Team and three years with the Forensic Interview Team, utilizing his Punjabi second language skills. Cattle slurry is to be turned into enough gas to power 56,000 homes as part of multimillion euro project in Mitchelstown, Co Cork. Gas Networks Ireland (GNI) has confirmed it plans to harness renewable gas produced by cattle and pump it into the national grid near the north Cork town. Mitchelstown has been picked as the location for the project because of the high number of cattle in the area and its close proximity to the country's biggest gas line. Known as the GRAZE project, it will involve anaerobic digesters being placed at a number of farms in the area which will convert slurry, other farm waste and food waste into gas. The project will be a major step in achieving Gas Networks Irelands target to provide 20% of such gas to the national grid by 2030 and 50% by 2050. The move will play a key role in decarbonising Irelands energy, transport and agriculture sectors. GNI will build a Central Grid Injection (CGI) facility on the main pipeline near Mitchelstown, through which renewable gas will enter the grid. We are delighted to announce that a project to inject large volumes of renewable gas onto the natural gas network, has been shortlisted for up to 8.5m of funding under The Climate Action Fund - https://t.co/fiOV1eW3YF #climatechange #renewablegas #ProjectIreland2040 pic.twitter.com/Av6BFbpDMZ Gas Networks Ireland (@GasNetIrl) November 28, 2018 The gas from the anaerobic digesters will be transported by road, in special tankers, to the CGI facility. It is intended that the Mitchelstown facility will be the first of 17 transmission connected facilities, delivering renewable gas into the natural gas network. GNI managing director, Denis OSullivan said the company is helping to deliver a cleaner energy supply through innovation in key areas such as renewable gas. "Combining the strength of our existing network, with a commitment to innovation will deliver the most cost-effective and secure solution to our energy challenges, allowing our economy to prosper into the future. This announcement is another important step forward in our renewable gas strategy," Mr O'Sullivan said. Ireland has the highest potential for biogas production per capita within the EU by 2030, according to the European Commission. The first renewable gas will come onto the Irish gas network at the end of this year, from a facility in Cush, Co Kildare. It is estimated that the development of full renewable gas network will support the creation of 6,500 jobs. Irish winter tourists visiting Lapland face disappointment as little snow has fallen in the run-up to the festive season. Although many Irish families are expected to travel to the Finnish home of Santa Claus, it is understood snow is falling later than normal this year. Mary Daniels is one of those people who is due to spend a few days in what is usually a winter wonderland. Speaking to Joe Duffy on Liveline, Mary said she spent 6,500 for 36 hours in Lapland which included a sleigh and husky ride. She said: "There's no snow in Lapland. "I did go back to the travel agency and I did say would they give me an alternative date or reimburse me because...a company in Ireland have cancelled the first week in December in Lapland...and the answer was no." Mary is due to go on Monday, December 3 and said that when she booked the first week of the month she was guaranteed snow. "I said 'will there definitely be snow there' and they said there's snow always there. "I do understand that they can't control the weather...but that's what you book Lapland for, the snow. "They do have a snow machine but this is a once in a lifetime holiday it's a lot of money." She continued: "I know that they can't control the weather but if I was out in Lapland and the snow disappeared and all these things were put in place I'd understand that, but they're knowingly sending us out to no snow. "And that's not fair on kids." Mary said that she bought the trip for her grandkids as their Christmas present and they were "going off to see Santy." She feels she is being sold short and is going to go anyway as otherwise, she will lose her money regardless. She feels "the shine has gone off it". Listen to the full interview below. Mary and her fellow travellers could take a little solace in the fact that some people in Lapland are posting pictures of the area where snow has begun to fall. Woo Hoo!!! Winter has arrived in Lapland - Photos from the resort Saariselka. Ive never watched the weather forecast for anywhere as closely as I have this last week or so and Im not even going! pic.twitter.com/S5eyuoM7p6 Katrina Smith (@katrina_Travel) November 26, 2018 Sleigh ride in Lapland Finland pic.twitter.com/HugxWAslU6 Carlos Kent (@iamcarloskent) November 27, 2018 A group of nurses and midwives has joined GPs in declaring they do not want to participate in providing abortion services. The group, Nurses & Midwives4Life Ireland, says if a woman opts for a surgical termination, they will be asked to provide the pre-operative care, to which they object. Last month, hundreds of anti-abortion GPs voiced their concerns about the new laws and asked Health Minister Simon Harris not to rush legislation through. Under the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill, conscientious objectors must arrange for the transfer of care of a pregnant woman to enable her to terminate her pregnancy. However, Nurses & Midwives4Life Ireland says although the proposed legislation provides for freedom of conscience, it states that staff involved must refer the patient to another staff member, which the group sees as participation in the procedure. Over the past three weeks, 378 registered nurses and midwives have signed the Nurses & Midwives4Life Ireland petition. There are currently more than 65,000 nurses and midwives practising in Ireland. One of the organisers of the petition, Mary Fitzgibbon, a registered nurse and lecturer in nursing, said they did not want to participate in any way in providing abortion services. Participation includes any supervision, delegation, planning, or supporting of staff involved in the termination of pregnancy, she said. We do not want to be discriminated against by our employers or victimised as employees if we exercise our right to freedom of conscience. The groups petition calls on the Minister for Health to consult with nurses and midwives about the legislation. It also urges the minister to support amendments at the report stage of the bill to protect the right to freedom of conscience, and claims that they face being forced out of their professions if they do no comply. Fiona McHugh, a clinical paediatric nurse specialist, said they had met with representatives from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation and had written to the Nursing and Midwifery Board about their concerns. To date, there has been minimal consultation in relation to the impact this legislation will have, she said. She added that the group has been contacted by hundreds of concerned nurses and midwives. Meanwhile, the Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) has called for the abortion bill to be amended at report stage to remove criminal sanctions. IFPA chief executive Niall Behan said a prison sentence of up to 14 years would be hanging over doctors who made an error in dating a pregnancy or where a diagnosis of a fatal foetal abnormality was disputed. Doctors might be reluctant to proceed with a termination if they even have the smallest doubt about the gestation period or a diagnosis, he said. These criminal sanctions are already having a chilling effect on doctors, said Mr Behan. A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: Section 23 of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018 covers conscientious objection. It states that where he/she has a conscientious objection, a medical practitioner, nurse, or midwife shall not be obliged to carry out, or to participate in carrying out, a termination of pregnancy. Mr Harris has said abortion services should be in place by the new year. The Probation Service and Rape Crisis Network Ireland have backed draft laws regarding the disclosure of information, electronic tagging and restricting foreign travels of convicted sex offenders. But the head of the Probation Service Vivian Geiran cautioned that there was no silver bullet in terms of legislative or technical measures that will stop sex offenders from carrying out more crimes. He was addressing the Oireachtas Justice Committee, which is considering both the Government's General Scheme of the Sex Offenders Bill 2018 and a Private Member's Bill, the Sex Offenders (Amendment) Bill 2018. Senior officers from the PSNI, who attended the hearing, said legal powers in the North preventing a convicted sex offender from travelling abroad were rarely-used but an essential part or their armoury. But law lecturer Margaret Fitzgerald OReilly expressed concerns around proposed provisions regarding travel restrictions, tagging and disclosure and said any such powers should be based on evidence and be both necessary and proportionate. Included in the Government's bill is a provision allowing for a mid-ranking garda to disclose information to the public or a member of the public in the interests of their protection. This information could include the name, address and level of risk posed by a sex offender. The bill will also allow for the electronic tagging of an offender as part of a sex offender order. Separately, the Private Member's Bill, tabled by Maureen O'Sullivan TD for Dublin Central, provides for a court to restrict convicted sex offenders from travelling abroad and engage in child sex tourism. Ms O'Sullivan addressed the hearing and said the impetus for her bill came from meetings with Irish priest, Fr Shay Cullen, who is directly involved in rescuing children from the sex tourism industry in the Philippines. Fr Shay Cullen She said the bill recognises the constitutional right to travel, but balances that against the need to protect the rights of children abroad. Mr Geiran described both bills as providing very significant improvements in the legal area. The Probation Service Director said the issue in the Government's bill of disclosure was the provision where most caution was needed. He said it had huge potential for harm as well as good depending on how it was framed. He said he was concerned that uncontrolled disclosure of information regarding a sex offender could drive offenders underground, making their job of supervision more difficult and increasing the risk of reoffending. Probation Deputy Director Ita Burke said electronic tagging was most effective when part of a risk management strategy and that it had proved effective in other jurisdictions in such situations. She said the Probation Service saw value in what the legislation was proposing. Mr Geiran said he recognised Dr Fitzgerald OReilly's concerns regarding the provision on restricting travel, but added that he agreed with the PSNI view that this power would be quite useful. PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Barbara Gray said the provision was a useful piece of legislation, while PSNI Detective Superintendent Ryan Henderson said it was an essential part of the armoury, though it was rarely used. Caroline Counihan of the RCNI said the provisions in both bills were very welcome and represent significant increases in legal powers. She shared concerns regarding unregulated disclosure, saying the potential of driving offenders underground was a huge concern and said there needed to be penalties for misusing the information. She also said the travel provision would need to be framed properly to isolate any legal challenges. Dr Fitzgerald OReilly said empirical research did not show disclosure was effective. She said it should only be done where it was necessary and proportionate and that there should be express confidentiality on the information provided. She said research indicated electronic tagging was not effective in terms of preventing reoffending or deterrence but said it may have a role in monitoring adherence to registration requirements. She said it was also very costly. In relation to travel, she said there was no evidence to show it was effective. She said the wording left the provision very exposed to be challenged given its interference with constitutional rights to travel and liberty and would need to be reframed and tightened, perhaps as part of the Government's bill. Irelands tallest residential building Capital Dock has been hit with flooding overnight. Video has emerged on twitter of significant ground water on several floors of the apartment block. Dublin and other parts of the country were hit by the effects of Storm Diana overnight, including high winds and rain. However, a spokeswoman for developers Kennedy Wilson said the issue was caused by an internal leak, and was not caused by the storm. Kennedy Wilsons 22-storey scheme in Dublins south docklands was due to be available from January, and the spokeswoman said that will happen. The block includes 190 apartments, comprising one- two- and three-bed units. The spokeswoman said: "Pressurised water ran from the open pipe for a short period - approximately 20 minutes - before the water was switched off. The apartments and all amenities are unaffected as the water ran down the enclosed riser. The leak was addressed immediately and all water has already been removed with affected common areas drying out. "The apartments remain on track with all planned events over December and move-in dates, commencing from January 7. This was not a weather-related issue." The schemes two-bedroom units are being advertised at 3,300 a month. The apartment block has a gym, on-site concierge, a cinema, 24-hour security, business suites, a games room and a chefs kitchen. Its time to forget the fast fashion ethos weve become used to and take small steps to buying local or choosing brands with open policies, writes Paula Burns. It was while scrolling online for some holiday pieces that I was struck with the stark realisation of the vastness of the clothes available. This is fast fashion at its finest, or should I say bleakest. Do we really need so much choice? Buzzwords like ethical fashion, sustainability, and transparency have caught the sartorial zeitgeist. But what do they mean? For me, it means shopping with a conscience. Taking small steps towards buying investment pieces that will transcend the fashion seasons is a way to make slow fashion the norm. By buying local or brands that have open policies, you are making a difference. Its about bringing our buying habits back to basics. Luckily for us, there are a number of Irish brands committed to making beautiful ethical pieces that are sure to satisfy any fashion hungry appetite. The Ethical Silk Company Exactly as it says. Passionate about all things silk, Eva Power has brought a family tradition alive. Inspired by her mothers love of sleeping on silk scarfs (sent from family in India), Eva took a chance to explore the idea of making silk pillowcases, which soon evolved into loungewear. Varanasi Blue Eye Mask, 30, theethicalsilkco.com Finding an eco-friendly silk along with keeping the production ethical was something Eva wanted from the beginning. You need to do something you can stand over. Climate change and workers rights are so important and need to be considered. With this in mind, the sumptuous loungewear made, with the finest mulberry silk, is produced in a Fairtrade tailoring unit in Jaipur, India. Not only has India been the inspiration for Evas beautifully crafted silks, her trips there incited her to give back a portion of profits to charity.I saw first hand at the Jeevan Jyothi Aids Centre in Theni the tireless work done with limited funding and conditions. I wanted to help so I pledged to donate 5% of profits to the centre, says Eva. Another 5% goes to Focus Ireland because I fully believe in the work that they do. In a throwaway culture, Eva has created a company she hopes encourages people to be more selective when buying and to love what they choose to wear. Being ethically conscious in business gives her peace of mind. Theo + George An ethical label proving that sustainable doesnt have to mean ugly. From founder Katie ORiordans high quality, low volume ethos to her cashmere athleisure trackpants, beauty is prevalent here. Comfort and street fashion are at the core of her design inspiration. Wearing ethical has never looked so cool. Pink Cashmere Ella Sweater, 159, theoandgeorge.com When launching her label, US-born Katie was adamant that sustainability and transparency would sit at the forefront. In a world of fast fashion, Katie has succeeded in making trans-seasonal, wearable pieces. We dont overproduce so we arent disposing of clothes that we cant sell. Being small is sustainable in itself, says Katie. Its obvious that waste and the volume of textile production throughout the world and its effect on the environment are never far from her thoughts. Because of this, Katie believes a change in mindset is needed from consumer and fashion business. Fast fashion is hugely damaging to the environment, explains Katie. With a quarter of a million tonnes of clothes being thrown away in Ireland every year, I think it is something that is going to have to change. Her commitment to creating an ethical brand doesnt stop there. We dont work with sweatshops. It is important that all of our workers are paid a fair wage, explains Katie. The Tweed Project This company is bringing Irish fashion back to the future. Best friends and design duo Triona Lillis and Aoibheann McNamara have combined their love of Irish indigenous fabrics to create modern design. Local craftsmanship mixed with a remarkable contemporary approach to working with tweed and linens is the soul of this label. Red Scarf with Star Styling, 515, thetweedproject.com Through sourcing the tweed from Aoibheanns hometown of Ardara in Co Donegal to ensuring their linen is weaved in Ireland, the pair are making their stance in the world of ethical fashion. Each collection has a message bigger then the product. Their Fucking Made in Ireland range screams transparency. An advocate for sustainable and conscious shopping, Aoibheann believes in spiritual consumerism. I am very careful about what I purchase. I invest in pieces that will last and so when I buy something I know I will have that forever, she explains. Waste in fashion is another ethical aspect the pair are conscious of. Im still pulling left over fabrics from four years ago, thinking of things we can make from it. Nothing goes to waste. We make cushions and hot water bottles from the offcuts, says Aoibheann. Pushing the boundaries of where tweed can go is the basis of their designs. Adding textures through tassels and print gives a modern twist to the traditional fabric. And while inspiration is taken from travels to places such as Morocco and the Middle East, Ireland is at the heart of The Tweed Project. Grown When theyre not saving lives as fire-fighters for Dublin Fire Brigade, the design trio of Grown are doing what they can to save the environment. Stephen OReilly, Neil McCabe, and Damien Bligh brought their love of fashion together to set up an ethical clothing brand. Women of the Waves Sweatshirt, 65, grown.ie Their goal was simple: Create change. Sustainability is the core of this label. Winning the green product of the year and small green business award this year can only be a testament to their impact. Thanks to their Biodiversity Project, guilt-free shopping is a reality. Not only are you buying quality, 100% Fairtrade cotton, but the lads will plant a tree in the Burren too. We started Grown with a goal to create change, explains Stephen. At Grown, we believe that clothes shouldnt cost the Earth. We have an environmental backbone and a passion for simply doing it right. He continues: All our garments are traceable from seed to garment. Everything we make, every action we take, and every system we have goes through rigorous life cycle and sustainability auditing. A love of the ocean is evident with the surfer vibe collection of cotton tees and hoodies. This is a label for those who love to wrap up in a cosy hoodie after a day at the beach. Aidan Murphy beat James ODonovan in the last shot of the feature score in the Irish Wheelchair Association benefit series at Shannonvale. ODonovan had 100m odds after two to McSweeneys wall. Murphy made the new house with his next. ODonovan played his reply to the left, missing a chance to consolidate his lead, and beat the tip by just 20m. Murphy followed with a great bowl to the quarry bend. ODonovan played his to the right, it went into a pool and missed the tip by 100m. He only beat the tip by 40m with his next to fall almost a bowl behind. Murphy got a good fifth shot, which ODonovan missed to concede a bowl. ODonovans next was not great either. Murphy increased his odds with a good bowl past Buttimers pillars and got a great rub off the left with his seventh to edge close to a second bowl at Desmonds. ODonovan got a brilliant bowl from there against two poor shots from Murphy to bring the lead back to an even bowl. Murphy held the bowl in the next three towards Tobins. They both missed Tobins with their next shots. ODonovan then got a super shot past Hayes, which Murphy missed by just five metres to keep him close to a bowl in front. He played his next to the left, though, to give ODonovan a chance. ODonovan grasped the opening with a great bowl. Murphy denied him further hope, though, when he replied with an equally good one and beat the line. Among the other winners at Shannonvale were Cian Boyle over David Hubbard and Jordan OSullivan against Mark Sheahan, both in the last shot. Martin Coppinger beat Gary Daly in the last shot at Glanworth. Daly hat a great first shot to take the opening tip by 50m. Coppinger closed the gap with his second and they were level after three to Clontinty boreen. Coppinger was 30m fore at the top of the hill. Daly won a big lead with a brilliant bowl from Aherns. Coppinger levelled again and had 30m odds at OBriens. There was little between them to the line. Daly closed with a big shot from hind bowl, but Coppinger beat it by 20m. Denis Wilmot beat John Young by two bowls in the Mick McCarthy Cup at Bantry. They were level after three to the netting. Wilmot then played four super shots to turn the score. He raised a bowl after the first two to the Gospel Hall and he reached the novice line in two more to extend that to two bowls. He held that lead to the line. At Derrinasafa, Noel ORegan and Adrian Buttimer qualified to face off in the Dinny McCarthy Cup final. In the Teddy Kelly Cup, Michael Carroll beat David Cotter for the right to play Pat Daly in the final. Carroll was almost a bowl clear after three to the end of the wall. He held that in the next two over the bridge. He was a full bowl clear at Ross. Cotter bowled well to the Darkwood turn, but Carroll gained control again. Noel ORegan beat Paul Kingston by a bowl in his semi-final. They reached the bridge in four. Kingston then got two poor shots to fall a bowl behind at Ross. ORegan held that to the Darkwood turn. They both struggled to Walshs lane. ORegan got the better of things from there. Adrian Buttimer had a great joust with Niall Crowley in the other semi-final. It was all to play for facing the line. Crowleys last bowl was well played, but it veered right and missed the line. Buttimers reply looked in trouble, but it rubbed and just beat the line. Micheal OSullivan and Peter Murray were declared tied at the Marsh Road. Failing light prevented them playing the required decisive shots. Murray got an early advantage when one of OSullivans bowls was blocked. He was a bowl clear at Ballyhilty corner and held his lead past the avenue. OSullivan played a brilliant bowl around the last bend. Murray missed it well and only beat it by five metres with his next. OSullivan closed with another big shot. Murrays bowl followed, but drifted left and stopped on the tip. Michael Gould beat Derry Cooney by a bowl at Grenagh. He won the first two shots, but Cooney got a great third to the wall to take a 30m lead. He looked to be heading for a bowl of odds at the double bend, but Gould levelled with a great shot onto the straight. They were locked together until Gould got a brilliant bowl to Boula lane. That put him a bowl clear and he held that lead to the line. Denis Cooney and Sean Hegarty held off a strong finish by Mick Hurley and Donie OSullivan to win in the last shot at Ballincurrig. Pa Butler and Bert Randalls were over a bowl behind in third. They compensated though by beating Hurley and OSullivan by over a bowl in the return. Despite the Government spin, the report into the Denis Naughten broadband fiasco fails to provide answers needed to clarify what happened, writes political correspondent Fiachra O Cionnaith. One says nothing to see, the other nothing answered. Those are the contradictory responses from the Government and the Opposition to the publication of the report into the Denis Naughten broadband fiasco. The report, by independent auditor Peter Smyth, is 50 pages long and details the step-by-step facts surrounding the scandal that led to a Government minister resigning and has threatened the entire future of the vital National Broadband Plan itself. However, the Government and the Opposition have come to completely different conclusions as to the value of the report. And, for once at least, there is a genuine reason why. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Communications Minister Richard Bruton were at pains to stress the report has cleared Mr Naughten of anything untoward, removed concerns over the politically sensitive 3bn broadband plan, and ended any debate on the controversy. However, Opposition parties have already labelled the report a whitewash as it relied on Mr Naughten and broadband bidder David McCourt to clarify unexplained interactions, said Mr Naughten could never have influenced the process, and claimed the ex-ministers resignation itself insulates the project from further questioning. While the report is of value in detailing the available information surrounding the broadband lobbying claims, the stand-off has made it crystal clear that key questions remain unanswered and gaping holes still exist surrounding the controversy. And until they are answered, there will continue to be legitimate questions hanging over the broadband plans future. These questions include: Why did Denis Naughten and David McCourt meet so regularly? Despite the investigation, there is no clear answer to this in all cases. At the centre of the fiasco is the concerning number of meetings that Mr Naughten had with Granahan McCourt chairman David McCourt. The Peter Smyth report confirms that the minister and multi-billion euro businessman or his officials met 18 times and held nine phone calls in the months leading up to last months revelations, compared to seven, four, and 10 times with rival bidders. A number of these meetings with Mr McCourt relate to wider communications policy issues. However, others include dinners between September 2017 and April 2018, with no minutes taken in some discussions. The Smyth report says Mr Naughten did not seek to influence the tender process on the back of these meetings and was unable to anyway as he did not have sensitive information. However, the report has sparked fresh concerns over the fact it concludes on page 18 that due to the limitations of the review process I am reliant on statements of Mr Naughten, Mr McCourt and other parties for verification of the purpose and contents of those meetings. Hardly the clarity sought. Did Denis Naughten breach the rules or not? The existing rules on ministers meeting with people tendering for lucrative State contracts should be crystal clear, but perhaps they are not. Existing interaction protocols state only meetings which cannot necessarily be avoided should be allowed when a procurement process is taking place. However, dinners and coffee meetings are clearly avoidable. While acknowledging the meetings with Mr McCourt gave cause for concern as they suggest an ongoing engagement outside of any formal need for them to engage, the Smyth report says the protocol surrounding such meetings does not explicitly prohibit engagement between the bidders and the Department. Saying any prohibition would have been impractical as Mr McCourt was involved in other projects, the report finds the meetings are not in and of itself a process for finding the procurement process has been tainted. If Denis Naughten is cleared, why is he not back in office? This is a legitimate question, and one a certain Independent Roscommon TD, if not the Taoiseach himself, will be keen to have answered. However, there is no answer at this stage. Asked at the launch of the report which was published minutes before the press conference, where no copies were available Mr Bruton said Mr Naughten had been found to have done nothing wrong. However, he added that his decision to step down was because he wanted to remove any risk of the broadband plan being negatively impacted by the meetings controversy. A second senior minister, when asked yesterday by the Irish Examiner when Mr Naughten will return, joked: I think Ill keep a diplomatic silence on that. This prompts another question: If there is no problem with what happened, then why is Mr Naughten not being brought back to Cabinet? What does this mean for the broadband plan? Can it still go ahead? The Smyth report has concluded that the broadband plan is ultimately unaffected by the meetings scandal because Mr Naughtens decision to resign, therefore removing himself from the process, insulates the process from any apparent bias. However, leaving aside the fact that such a conclusion appears to contradict the separate conclusion that Mr Naughten did nothing wrong, it is far from clear if the view will be universally shared. Opposition parties have made it clear they believe unsuccessful broadband plan bidders may still take legal action over the meetings, and have asked if the tendering process needs to be re-examined. And while the Government may want to drive ahead with the plan as soon as possible, the push-back means little progress is likely to be made until all outstanding questions are answered. With its actions on the Azov Sea over the weekend, coming on the eve of a G20 meeting, Russia and Vladimir Putin is calling the wests bluff, writes Peter Apps. When Vladimir Putin opened a new bridge linking Crimea to Russia across the Azov Sea in May, Russian officials said it was intended to integrate the disputed peninsula seized by Moscow from Ukraine in 2014 into Russias transport infrastructure. By limiting ships transiting the Kerch Strait beneath the giant central span of the bridge, however, it also gave the Kremlin the ability to control maritime access to an area of water roughly the size of Switzerland. On Sunday, Moscow turned the key in that door by using a cargo ship to block entry to the Azov Sea. As warplanes and combat helicopters flew overhead, Russian border patrol boats seized three Ukrainian naval ships after opening fire on them and wounding several sailors. On Monday, Russias FSB security service said the confrontation came after the Ukrainian vessels illegally entered Russian waters; Ukraine denied its ships had done anything wrong. Russia has now reopened the strait, but the clash was another demonstration of Moscows ever-mounting appetite for using unorthodox, partially non-military, and sometimes non-lethal techniques to redraw the geopolitical map. Its a strategy Putins foes particularly Ukraine, still locked in an endless ground war elsewhere along its border, but also the Western states of Nato are struggling to counter. Ukraine and its Western allies must now decide how to respond. Not to do so, many argue, would strike Russia as weakness and invite yet more aggression. But no side wants a conflict they cannot control this is much more like a game of chess, albeit with live ammunition, ships, aircraft, and human beings in the balance. The most recent clash points to a growing trend in international relations, where military force, economic power, and major building and infrastructure programmes are used alongside cyber weapons, propaganda, and more. Such confrontations can be largely bloodless, as in the South China Sea, or brutally violent, as in Ukraines Donbass or the savage Middle Eastern proxy wars of Syria and Yemen. Such confrontations appear steadily on the rise, fuelled by growing tensions on a host of topics from trade to human rights. Disagreements between Washington and Beijing undermined the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in Papua New Guinea earlier this month. The mounting Azov Sea crisis will now feed into this weeks G20 summit in Argentina, which both Putin and US president Donald Trump are scheduled to attend. As in the South China Sea, where Beijing has also used giant engineering works to reclaim islands and build military bases in disputed waters, the Azov Sea conflict has been long building in plain sight. Work on the bridge began in 2015, the year after Ukraine lost control of Crimea to Moscow. Putin eventually acknowledged that Russian troops had taken part in the annexation, but continues to deny Moscows military involvement elsewhere in Ukraine, despite widespread evidence to the contrary. Moscow appears similarly disingenuous over events in the Azov Sea. Last week, a senior Russian diplomat accused Western states of deliberately stoking tensions to justify new sanctions. Like the annexation of Crimea, this maritime version of a land grab is illegal under international law the Azov Sea had been judged under joint Russian-Ukrainian jurisdiction. The reality, however, is that it is now under Russian domination. Its sole major port in Ukrainian territory, Mariupol, is now effectively blockaded; even before Sundays incident, Russian interference with shipping was causing serious harm to the local economy. Mariupols residents may now fear worse fighting came within a few kilometres of the city in 2014 and sporadic battles have continued further east around Donbass and Luhansk, killing more than 10,000. In the run-up to this weekends confrontation, Ukrainian commanders boasted they would open a naval base in the Azov Sea by Christmas, with the explicit aim of preventing the area from becoming a new Crimea. Its now evident that tactic would almost certainly invite massive Russian retaliation, which means Ukraine appears to be seeking other options. On Sunday night, Russian media reported heightened Ukrainian shelling on the battlefields of Donbass. Despite increased Western military aid since Crimea, Ukraine remains outside Nato meaning there is no treaty obligation for Western states to act. However, European nations and many in the US national security community would like to see further direct support, likely training and perhaps further weapons. US and other Nato warships may also step up their presence in the nearby Black Sea. Offshore confrontations there, too, are on the rise one British warship earlier this year was aggressively overflown by as many as 17 Russian jets. Such Western moves would enrage Russia further, but, like the additional sanctions that now seem inevitable, would also impose a penalty on Moscow for its actions. The incident will likely also bolster Natos efforts to shore up its Eastern European defences. Perhaps the most significant response to Sundays confrontation was Trumps tweet criticising Europe for not paying its fair share for military protection. All this will further darken the G20 mood. European leaders were already increasingly defining themselves in opposition to Trump; now they will be angrier. The US presidents face-to-face with Chinese president Xi Jinping had been considered the main event; now any meeting with Putin will be even more closely watched. The Azov confrontation may yet yield more bloodshed, but fallout can probably be controlled. The more countries choose to abandon diplomacy in favour of ever riskier military bets, however, the more likely a titanic global catastrophe becomes. Peter Apps is Reuters global affairs columnist, writing on international affairs, globalization, conflict and other issues. He is founder and executive director of the Project for Study of the 21st Century; PS21, a non-national, non-partisan, non-ideological think tank. 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 Experts say weve hit peak livestock, need to cut meat consumption to save the world THE global livestock population is at an all-time high of 28 billion animals, dominated by chickens which account for 82 per cent some 23 billion chooks. A US expert suggests a three-step strategy to gradually replace animal proteins with plant proteins, as part of the commitment to mitigate climate change. The livestock sector could use almost half of the 1.5C greenhouse gas emission budget allowed by 2030, so addressing this should be a key part of the strategy to hit climate targets, according to a new study published in Climate Policy. Dr Helen Harwatt, farmed animal law and policy fellow at Harvard Law School, advises that getting protein from plant sources instead of animal sources would drastically help in meeting climate targets and reduce the risk of overshooting temperature goals. Three-step strategy For the first time, Dr Harwatt proposes a three-step strategy to gradually replace animal proteins with plant-sourced proteins, as part of the commitment to mitigate climate change. These are: 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). Harwatt further elaborates 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. Also in Australian Food News Methane and nitrous oxide The article reports 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 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 the same time period over which strong and rapid reductions are needed. Given the livestock sectors 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 says. She adds, 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. Food service sector The article acknowledges establishments, such as businesses, can spearhead these efforts. As an example, Dr Harwatt is already putting her three-step animal to plant protein shift approach into practice in the food service sector in her role as Sustainable Food Policy Advisor to charity Humane Society International UK (HSI). HSI run the Forward Food programme providing free plant-based culinary training for public and private sector chefs. Here, Dr Harwatt can, and other experts could too, assess food-related greenhouse gas emissions at the institutional level and apply the three-step strategy to identify opportunities for emissions reductions through peaking purchase of animal products, tackling the worst first and replacing them with best available foods. She comments, The food sector is already making progress on these issues and demonstrating that its commercially viable to incorporate animal to plant protein shifts. 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. The Trump administration will be making a push in 2019 to overhaul legislation that today limits the rate at which technology research funded by the U.S. government is shared with private sector. Speaking today at a 2018 National Competitiveness Forum in Washington, D.C., Wilbur Ross, Secretary of Commerce for the U.S., told conference attendees that the U.S. needs to improve the return on investment in research funded by the Federal government by making it easier for the researchers that participate in those projects to launch startup companies or go to work for a company that will take those innovations to market. Ross says that compared to research and development initiatives led by universities, the Trump administration estimates the research and development projects funded by the Federal government are half as efficient in terms of delivering a return on investment (ROI) that benefits the U.S. economy. Legislation that will be put forward in 2019 seeks to close that gap by making it simpler to transfer research funded by the Federal government to the private sector. Overall, Ross says, the U.S. government spends $150 billion a year funding research and development across agencies such as the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy. Those investments are part of a larger national security strategy that focuses on strengthening the U.S. economy. Economic security defines national security, says Ross. Technology now defines economic security. Those efforts will not just be applied to driving IT innovations, but also new industries that will, for example, research and manufacture products in space, says Ross. The U.S. government estimates the space industry could become a $1 trillion industry on a current base of $350 billion, says Ross. Ross says the administration is also highly committed to protection for the intellectual property being created by universities, companies and the Federal government. Ross specifically called out China as a threat to the U.S. because China has made theft of intellectual property an institutionalized part of its economic strategy. Unlike China, Ross notes that the U.S. cannot dictate industrial policy. But Ross made it abundantly clear today that the administration views all the laboratories that the U.S. government funds as undervalued assets that need to be more aggressively exploited in the years ahead. An international team of researchers based at Australias Casey Station in Antarctica is drilling into the icecap and undertaking climate research in the hunt for an elusive molecule that helps cleanse the atmosphere of greenhouse gases and ozone-depleting chemicals. The molecule is the hydroxyl radical and it is often called "the detergent of the atmosphere". The expedition has departed from the Casey research station and travelled 125 km to Law Dome which rises to an elevation of 1400 metres on the Antarctic coast. The expedition is a US-Australian collaborative project titled Reconstructing Carbon-14 of Carbon Monoxide to Constrain Long-Term Atmospheric Hydroxyl Variability, led by CSIRO atmospheric scientist Dr David Etheridge and University of Rochester scientist, Dr Vas Petrenko. The expeditioners will be at the remote site, living in tents, for nearly three months, as they drill 250 metres into the ice. Ice cores from this depth contain air, trapped in bubbles, that dates from around 1850 AD. The hydroxyl radical is a naturally occurring, highly reactive molecule that plays an important role in the atmosphere as a natural air purifier by destroying greenhouse gases and ozone depleting chemicals. But, according to the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, there is no knowledge of hydroxyl levels beyond the last five decades, leaving a huge gap in understanding. ANSTOs Dr Andrew Smith is part of the 10-member expedition team and said the aim of the expedition is to determine the earlier atmospheric history of the hydroxyl radical, back to around 1850 AD. This is an exciting collaboration, which has been four years in the planning and will provide important knowledge to better understand our warming planet, he said. In order to study the hydroxyl radical beyond the instrumental record we must use naturally occurring radiocarbon. ANSTOs Centre for Accelerator Science is one of the few laboratories in the world that can make these very challenging measurements. The scientists are travelling to Law Dome because it provides the special conditions needed for their research, and the very high snowfall traps air quickly and preserves it as bubbles in the ice for millennia. After the ice cores are collected and melted, the liberated air will be shipped to the University of Rochester to separate the trace gases carbon monoxide and methane. Once separated, the gases are converted to carbon dioxide which is sealed in glass tubes and delivered to ANSTO, and converted into graphite and measured for radiocarbon in ANSTOs Centre for Accelerator Science. AWS has announced its Ground Station satellite ground station as a service, and Lockheed Martin Space's new Verge network of antennas is being integrated with Ground Station. AWS Ground Station is initially available in two of AWS's regions, with 12 to be available by mid-2019.. The ground stations are located at or near an AWS data centre for low latency, and "you can lease them and pay for them by the minute," said AWS chief executive Andy Jassy. This could reduce costs by up to 80%, he claimed. Downlink data is stored in AWS, and becomes immediately available for processing, possibly in conjunction with other AWS services. "Satellite data is incredibly useful for building a wide range of important applications, but it is super complex and expensive to build and operate the infrastructure needed to do so," said AWS senior vice-president Charlie Bell. "A few years ago our customers asked us if we could remove that cost and complexity, and the more we thought about it, the more we realised that AWS with its global footprint was uniquely positioned to solve this challenge. "Today we are giving satellite customers the ability to dynamically scale their ground station antenna use based on actual need. And they will be able to ingest data straight into AWS, where they can securely store, analyse, and transmit products to their customers without needing to worry about building all of the infrastructure themselves." Part of the problem is that relatively low-cost satellites are generally placed on low or medium Earth orbits, so they do not remain over the same point on the Earth's surface, so multiple ground stations may be needed for sufficiently frequent communication. Ground Station can be used on a regular schedule or on demand (eg, in the event of severe weather or a special event). DigitalGlobe chief technology officer Walter Scott agreed that building ground stations to talk to their satellites was hard, and said the company which provides high-resolution Earth imagery, data and analysis would to prefer to focus on satellites and the services it can deliver to customers. AWS Ground Station has allowed DigitalGlobe to expand its existing ground station network, and achieve a tenfold increase in uplink speeds. When the company launches its fleet of next-generation satellites in 2021, AWS Ground Station will double the number of daily contacts with each satellite, and will allow any point on the Earth's surface to be "seen" 15 times a day. AWS Ground Station can be used in conjunction with Lockheed Martin's new Verge antenna network (currently in private beta) thanks to a strategic collaboration between the companies. Lockheed Martin Space executive vice-president Rick Ambrose said Verge consists of multiple low-cost antennas - its name was derived from the phrase "virtual resilient ground". Antennas collect data as satellites pass overhead, and the streams of data are assembled in the AWS cloud. This means it is not necessary to wait for the satellite to pass over the operator's own ground station. A Verge antenna "Together, AWS and Lockheed Martin are providing satellite operators increased flexibility, resiliency and scale in a complete connectivity solution, ground architecture, and cloud environment for integrated satellite and data management operations," he said. Disclosure: The writer attended AWS re:Invent as a guest of the company. New Zealand has banned Chinese telecommunications manufacturer Huawei Telecommunications from playing any role in the country's 5G network, hardly a week after the company and local telco Spark demonstrated the technical implementation of access and core separation for 5G. Andrew Hampton, the director-general of New Zealand's General Communications Security Bureau, said in a statement that Spark had notified it of plans to use Huawei equipment in its 5G rollout and the agency had declined it permission to do so. GCSB is the country's main spy agency and regulates network security under the Telecommunications Interception Capability and Security Act. Spark said in a statement that it had notified Hampton of its proposed approach to implement 5G technology, using Huawei equipment in in its planned 5G radio access network. The telco said Hampton had said that Spark's proposal would raise significant national security risks. No details were provided as to the nature of the risk. Spark said it had not had an opportunity to review the reasoning behind Hampton's decision and would consider any further steps after a review. "While we are disappointed with this decision, we are confident that the decision will not affect our plans to launch Sparks 5G network by 1 July 2020, subject to the necessary spectrum being made available by the New Zealand Government," Spark said. Australia banned Huawei and fellow Chinese vendor ZTE from any role in its 5G networks back in August. In recent days, there have been reports that the US is stepping up its campaign to get Huawei banned from use in countries that it counts as allies. Contacted for comment, a Huawei spokesperson said: "Huawei is aware of Spark's statement, and we are looking into the situation. As the GCSB has noted, this is an ongoing process. We will actively address any concerns and work together to find a way forward. "As a leading global supplier of telecoms equipment, we remain committed to developing trusted and secure solutions for our customers. "Huawei's 5G equipment is already being deployed by major carriers around the world, with whom we have signed more than 20 commercial 5G contracts. This, alone, is a testament to our position as a leading global supplier of 5G technology. "Moving forward, we will continue to provide our customers with innovative and secure 5G solutions." Rather predictably, the Australian Labor Party has signalled to the Federal Government that it will not stand in the way of the encryption bill being passed by Christmas, with the party doing everything but ending the process of inquiry so that the government can have its way. All it took was that age-old trick, getting the Labor fold into the tent, for a few mystical moments with the spooks, so that the likes of Mark Dreyfus, Jenny McAllister, Penny Wong and Anthony Byrne could all feel like they were part of the elite, privy to the darkest secrets that only ASIO knows. Exactly what they were told will never be known to the public who have to suck up whatever the pollies decide on. It puzzles the mind no end as to why these Labor members of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security could not hire someone to explain to them, in plain English, the dangers that this bill poses to the average punter. Are all those who made submissions fools to vent at such length about shortcomings in the legislation, if they did not exist? By the questions they ask, it is plain that the Labor MPs are geared towards politics, and not technology. Yet this bill will hit people on the technology front. To call them an Opposition, when all one witnesses is bowing and scraping, would be intellectually dishonest. An additional hearing was organised, solely for the government and its spook agencies, plus Home Affairs, to ramp up the scaremongering and threaten that doomsday would arrive if the bill was not passed in the next couple of weeks. Yet, when asked, Duncan Lewis, the head of ASIO, the spy agency that has yet to nab a single spy, had to admit that there was no specific threat on the radar of his agency. All the wisdom he could offer was that Christmas is a time when the threat is generally high. Asked why the country's threat level could not be raised, he again was forced to admit that to do that, ASIO would have to have knowledge of a specific threat. Some of the talk that went on during Monday's hearing was laughable. You had Senator Jim Molan asserting that, despite the public and media calling the legislation an encryption bill, it actually had nothing to do with encryption! No, insisted the former army man, it was about "access" and "assistance". So when others like the AFP commissioner Andrew Colvin and Lewis used the term "going dark", what were they talking about? The sunset? Thankfully, Senator Molan will not be a part of any future parliaments to offer such pearls of wisdom. Colvin, too, tried a bit of spin, attempting to slip in the assertion that the bill did not confer any new powers on the security agencies. But this was too much for even the normally very proper Dreyfus who took Colvin to task and made him go through the bill's new powers line by line like a schoolboy being made to do dictation. On Tuesday, there was a little more reality about the hearing, with the Inspector-General of Security Margaret Stone, the Deputy Commonwealth Ombudsman Jaala Hinchcliffe and UN Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy, Professor Joseph Cannataci, appearing. The most forthright of the lot was Prof Cannataci, who pulled no punches, describing the bill as basically a waste of time. And when he was challenged by both the PJCIS chair Andrew Hastie and the old warhorse, Senator Eric Abetz, Prof Cannataci showed that he was enough of a wordsmith to beat back somewhat sarcastic queries with what could well be described as a flowing cover-drive. Dreyfus signalled to the government reps on the panel that he would be willing to split the bill and allow schedule one, the bit that gives all these new powers to the spooks, to be passed immediately, if it was only available to counter-terror agencies. With that, the remaining hearings have become non-events. The Coalition Government has already given the Australian public one great technological disaster: the national broadband network, which is better described as fraudband. Now it will slam another brake on any technological future the country has with its encryption bill. Oops, sorry, it's not about encryption at all, is it Jim? The American Civil Liberties Union is seeking the unsealing of records in a case where the US Government asked Facebook to break encryption on voice messages between users of its Messenger system, and was denied. The ACLU wants to know what arguments the government made to demand encryption be broken and why they were rejected. While a US District Court in California rejected the government request in September, no reasons were made public. The hearing of the case itself was closed to the public and was reported by Reuters, quoting sources. The case is of interest in Australia, because the Australian Government could make such a request to Facebook after its proposed encryption bill, currently before the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, is passed. Under the bill, Facebook would have no option but to agree. The public would know nothing about it, because under the draft law such matters are not meant to be made public, with big fines for anyone who makes mention of it. The Messenger voice data was sought by a joint task force of the US federal and state governments which is investigating the MS-13 international crime gang. Under American law, telecommunications companies have to give law enforcement authorities access to calls, but if the data is sent over Internet infrastructure by an app, then that app is not covered. The US Government was attempting to force Facebook to rewrite the Messenger software so that it could gain access to the suspect's voice conversation which is encrypted from end-to-end. MS-13 or Mara Salvatrucha is a gang that had its origins in Los Angeles in the 1980s and spread to other parts of the US, Canada, Mexico, and Central America. The ACLU motion said: "The documents sought through this motion arise from a reported government effort to wiretap private communications that are ordinarily inaccessible to anyone, but the individuals who participated in the conversation." And it added: "The government's request... is the latest in a years-long effort by the Department of Justice to undermine technology providers' use of various kinds of encryption to protect individual users' privacy." Arguing for the release of the court documents, the ACLU said there was a great deal of public interest in knowing which law had been interpreted and how it had interpreted. The rights body made reference to the Apple case of 2016, where the FBI sought to compel the company to create a new version of its iOS operating system so that the agency could gain access to the contents of an iPhone 5C owned by one of two terrorists who killed a number of people in San Bernardino, California, in December 2015. Apple refused and the case went to court, But the FBI called off proceedings, saying that it had gained access to the smartphone in question by using methods devised by a private software company. The documents sought by the ACLU are: any sealed docket sheets; any court orders on sealing requests; any judicial rulings associated with the proceedings mentioned; and any legal analysis presented in government submissions incorporated, adopted or rejected implicitly or explicitly in such judicial rulings. Thanks to Ars Technica for a link to the ACLU motion. This Week in Review A weekly review of the best and most popular stories published in the Imperial Valley Press. Also, featured upcoming events, new movies at local theaters, the week in photos and much more. Kwanzaa Dinner to Celebrate Holiday Season BLOOMINGTON, Ill. Illinois Wesleyan Universitys Black Student Union (BSU) will host its annual Kwanzaa dinner on Nov. 30 beginning at 7 p.m. in the Memorial Centers Turfler Room. The event is free and open to the public. A Registered Student Organization, BSU hosts the Kwanzaa dinner each year to educate attendees about the historic African American holiday. The event celebrates The Seven Principles of Kwanzaa, which are self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith. The principles of Kwanzaa can align with everyones views, regardless of if they celebrate it or not, said Kaylan Boyd-Harris 19, the president of BSU. The dinner will also feature multiple performances, including a singing performance by BSU, a poetry performance, and a performance from the BCAI School of Arts in Bloomington. Everyone can find something in Kwanzaa that they love, and its BSUs job to help people understand the principles and educate them on the importance of Kwanzaa, Boyd-Harris said. By Vi Kakares 20 Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 28) The President assured he will not declare martial law nationwide following criticisms of a recent order to deploy more soldiers to several provinces. In a media interview Tuesday, President Rodrigo Duterte denied that his recent order was a prelude to martial law, or the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, saying he has enough powers as the country's chief executive. "You're all interested to know if I'm going to declare martial law. No, I am not going to declare martial law. There's enough powers of the Presidency na magamit ko [that I use]," he said after the inauguration of the Bohol-Panglao International Airport. Duterte was addressing reactions to Memorandum Order No. 32, issued on November 22, which instructed the deployment of more police and military troops to the Bicol Region, Samar and Negros Provinces, to suppress "sporadic acts of violence." "I'm surprised why you are so interested by deployment when I'm supposed to take care of the security of the countryYou place troops where you think that you need an added force," he said. Communist Party of the Philippines founding chairman Jose Maria Sison lambasted the order and warned of an "expected declaration" of martial law in the entire country. READ: New Malacanang order a prelude to nationwide martial law - Sison Malacanang has also denied this accusation, saying should there be a nationwide martial law plan in store, it would have already been implemented. READ: Gov't: Deployment of more troops not a prelude to nationwide martial law The President added that he was also planning to create an entire division of soldiers to guard conflict-torn areas heading to the contested island of Sabah. "There will be a division size. Talagang isang division talaga ilagay ko [I will really place an entire division]. Not only a company, not only a battalion not a regiment, but I'm going to place an entire division for the islands there towards Sabah," he said. Sabah, which is part of Malaysia, is one of the islands that the government eyes to assert its sovereignty over in the proposed constitution. The Philippines claims that Sabah was once ruled by the Sultanate of Sulu, citing a January 18, 1878 lease agreement between it and the now defunct private firm British North Borneo Company, over a part of Sabah. But the Malaysian government says Sabah was recognized as part of its territory since it became part of the federation in 1963. Just before my birthday, I had met John Martin via local musician Fleming Moore at the Third Thursday in September. Fleming was just finishing LONDON, ENGLAND / ACCESSWIRE / November 27, 2018 / Summary Arbitration Developments Gabriel Resources Ltd. ("Gabriel" or "Company") remains focused on the progression of its arbitration case against Romania to be determined under the rules of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes ("ICSID"), part of the World Bank ("ICSID Arbitration"). On May 25, 2018, Romania supplemented its counter-memorial ("Counter-Memorial") filed on February 22, 2018 by filing a further preliminary objection to the jurisdiction of the Tribunal ("Jurisdictional Challenge") with ICSID. On July 11, 2018 and October 2, 2018, respectively, ICSID published, in redacted form, the Company's memorial on the merits and quantum of its claim which it had filed on June 30, 2017 ("Memorial") and the Counter-Memorial. On November 2, 2018, Gabriel filed with ICSID a comprehensive rebuttal of the legal and factual contentions raised in the Counter-Memorial and its response to the Jurisdictional Challenge ("Reply"). Other Material Events On July 10, 2018, the Company announced the resignation of its President and Chief Executive Officer and the retention of his services as a consultant in connection with the ICSID Arbitration. On August 8, 2018, Dragos Tanase was announced as President and Chief Executive Officer of Gabriel. The net loss for the third quarter of 2018 was $17.2 million (Q2 2018 $13.8 million). As at September 30, 2018, the Company held $11.6 million of cash and cash equivalents. The Company is in advanced discussions to secure additional, long-term funding and, while there can be no assurance of completion, Management is of the view that a further financing will be completed by the end of 2018. Dragos Tanase, Gabriel's President and Chief Executive Officer, stated: "Gabriel remains very confident in the merits of its ICSID Arbitration claim following the submission of its Reply to Romania's Counter-Memorial, and is fully focused on raising further funding to underpin financially the continuation of that claim through to the hearings in December 2019." Further information and commentary on the results in the third quarter of 2018 is given below. The Company has filed its Unaudited Condensed Interim Consolidated Financial Statements for Q3 2018 and related Management's Discussion & Analysis, together with the Annual Information Form of the Company for the year ended December 31, 2017 on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and each is available for review on the Company's website at www.gabrielresources.com. For information on this press release, please contact: Dragos Tanase President & CEO Phone: +4021 223 1351 Max Vaughan Chief Financial Officer Mobile: +44 7823 885503 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Richard Brown Chief Commercial Officer Mobile: +44 7748 760276 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Further Information Status of the ICSID Arbitration The ICSID Arbitration seeks compensation for all of the losses and damages suffered by the Company and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Gabriel Resources (Jersey) Ltd. (together "Claimants"), resulting from the Romanian State's wrongful conduct and its breaches of the protections afforded by certain treaties for the promotion and protection of foreign investment to which Romania is a party against expropriation, unfair and inequitable treatment and discrimination in respect the Rosia Montana gold and silver project (the "Rosia Montana Project") and the prospective gold, silver and porphyry copper deposits in the neighbouring Bucium concession area ("Projects") and related licenses. On November 2, 2018, the Claimants submitted their Reply which sets out a comprehensive rebuttal of the legal and factual contentions raised in the Counter-Memorial and includes Gabriel's response to the supplemental preliminary objections in the Jurisdictional Challenge. The Reply was filed in accordance with a schedule established by procedural orders of the Tribunal ("Procedural Orders"), including a recent revision to the calendar that prescribed the following key dates: Romania to file its response to the Reply ("Rejoinder") and its reply on the Jurisdictional Challenge by May 10, 2019. Gabriel to file its surrejoinder with regard to the Jurisdictional Challenge by June 14, 2019. The Tribunal will hold a hearing on the merits of the claim from December 2 to 13, 2019. Following a process prescribed by the Procedural Orders, redacted versions of the Memorial and the Counter-Memorial were published on the ICSID website on July 11, 2018 and October 2, 2018, respectively. A copy of the Jurisdictional Challenge submission is also available on the ICSID website. A redacted version of the Reply will be published on the ICSID website following completion of a process prescribed by the Procedural Orders. UNESCO World Heritage List At its meeting on July 2, 2018, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee accepted a late request of the Romanian Government to postpone its decision on the inclusion of the Rosia Montana Mining Cultural Landscape on the UNESCO World Heritage List due to the "ongoing international arbitration". In media reports, the Romanian Minister of Culture subsequently confirmed that the Romanian Government had requested the postponement of a decision on the file until such time as the ICSID Arbitration is settled in order to "to protect the national assets and financial interests of the Romanian state". VAT Assessment As previously reported, the RON 27m (approximately $8.6m) VAT assessment (the "VAT Assessment") levied against Rosia Montana Gold Corporation ("RMGC") (together with a further demand of RON 18.6 million (approximately $6.0 million) in respect of related interest and penalties) by the Romanian National Agency for Fiscal Administration ("ANAF") relates to VAT refunds previously claimed and received by RMGC from the Romanian tax authorities in respect of RMGC's purchase of goods and services from July 2011 to January 2016. On April 5, 2018, RMGC initiated an action before the Alba Iulia Court of Appeal (Division for Administrative and Tax Claims) seeking the annulment of the VAT Assessment. The next hearing date for such challenge has been set for January 16, 2019. RMGC also filed a request for a stay of enforcement of the VAT Assessment before the Alba Iulia Court of Appeal on August 10, 2017. On October 2, 2017, the Alba Iulia Court of Appeal admitted RMGC's request for a stay of enforcement of the VAT Assessment, pending the determination of RMGC's annulment challenge of the VAT Assessment. ANAF subsequently filed an appeal against this decision with the High Court of Cassation and Justice and RMGC has filed a statement of defence in response to ANAF's appeal. The High Court of Cassation and Justice has set a hearing date of January 17, 2019 for these proceedings. The Company intends to pursue all available legal avenues to challenge the VAT Assessment along with the interest and penalties and to fully protect its rights and assets. Management Changes On July 10, 2018 the Company announced that the former President and Chief Executive Officer, Jonathan Henry, resigned from his position. Mr. Henry continues to act as a consultant in connection with the ICSID Arbitration claim against Romania. On August 8, 2018, the Company appointed Dragos Tanase as President and Chief Executive Officer. Mr Tanase has been the managing director of RMGC for 10 years, a position in which he continues to serve. Liquidity and Capital Resources As at September 30, 2018, the Company held $11.6 million of cash and cash equivalents. The Company's average monthly cash usage during Q3 2018 was $4.3 million (Q2 2018: $2.4 million, excluding the receipt of proceeds of $3.9m from the sale of a ball mill). At the end of Q3 2018, accruals for costs in respect of the ICSID Arbitration amounted to $6.2 million (Q2 2018: $3.4 million). The increase in cash usage since the first half of 2018 is due principally to the significant legal and other advisory services required by the Company for the preparation and submission of the Reply. The Company believes that it has sufficient sources of funding to cover its planned activities through to the end of December 2018. The Group requires additional funding in the short-term to maintain its primary assets, as well as its License and associated rights and permits, and to continue to fund the material estimated costs associated with advancing the ICSID Arbitration. The Company is in advanced discussions with its principal securityholders to secure additional, long-term funding. As of the date of this press release, and while there can be no assurance of completion, Management is of the view that a further financing will be completed by the end of 2018. Financial Performance The net loss for the third quarter of 2018 was $17.2 million which was impacted by higher costs related to the submission of the Reply in the ongoing ICSID arbitration, amounting to $8.9 million in the current quarter versus $0.7 million in 2017 comparable quarter, and by contractual termination expenses. About Gabriel Gabriel is a Canadian resource company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange. The Company's principal focus has been the exploration and development of the Rosia Montana gold and silver project in Romania ("Rosia Montana Project"). The Rosia Montana Project, one of the largest undeveloped gold deposits in Europe, is situated in the South Apuseni Mountains of Transylvania, Romania, an historic and prolific mining district that since pre-Roman times has been mined intermittently for over 2,000 years. The exploitation license ("License") for the Rosia Montana Project is held by Rosia Montana Gold Corporation S.A., a Romanian company in which Gabriel owns an 80.69% equity interest, with the 19.31% balance held by Minvest Rosia Montana S.A., a Romanian state-owned mining company. It is anticipated that the Rosia Montana Project would bring over US$24 billion (at US$1,200/oz gold) to Romania as potential direct and indirect contribution to GDP and generate thousands of employment opportunities. Upon obtaining the License in June 1999, the Group (as defined below) focused substantially all of their management and financial resources on the exploration, feasibility and subsequent development of the Rosia Montana Project. Despite the Company's fulfilment of its legal obligations and its development of the Rosia Montana Project as a high-quality, sustainable and environmentally-responsible mining project, using best available techniques, Romania has blocked and prevented implementation of the Rosia Montana Project without due process and without compensation. Accordingly, the Company's current core focus is the ICSID Arbitration. For more information please visit the Company's website at www.gabrielresources.com. Forward-looking Statements This press release contains "forward-looking information" (also referred to as "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements are provided for the purpose of providing information about management's current expectations and plans and allowing investors and others to get a better understanding of the Company's operating environment. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. In this press release, forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by the Company at this time, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies that may cause the Company's actual financial results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied herein. Some of the material factors or assumptions used to develop forward-looking statements include, without limitation, the uncertainties associated with: the ICSID Arbitration, actions by the Romanian Government, conditions or events impacting the Company's ability to fund its operations (including but not limited to the completion of further funding noted above) or service its debt, exploration, development and operation of mining properties and the overall impact of misjudgments made in good faith in the course of preparing forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties, assumptions, and other factors including those set out below, that may never materialize, prove incorrect or materialize other than as currently contemplated which could cause the Company's results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, identified by words or phrases such as "expects", "is expected", "is of the view", "anticipates", "believes", "plans", "projects", "estimates", "assumes", "intends", "strategy", "goals", "objectives", "potential", "possible" or variations thereof or stating that certain actions, events, conditions or results "may", "could", "would", "should", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved, or the negative of any of these terms and similar expressions) are not statements of fact and may be forward-looking statements. Numerous factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements, including without limitation: delay or extension to the duration of the ICSID Arbitration; required disclosure, costs, process and outcome of the ICSID Arbitration against Romania; changes in the liquidity and capital resources of Gabriel, and the group of companies of which it is directly or indirectly parent ("Group"); access to funding to support the Group's continued ICSID Arbitration and/or operating activities in the future; equity dilution resulting from the conversion or exercise of new or existing securities in part or in whole to Common Shares; the ability of the Company to maintain a continued listing on the TSX Venture Exchange or any regulated public market for trading securities; the impact on business strategy and its implementation in Romania of: unforeseen historic acts of corruption, uncertain fiscal investigations; uncertain legal enforcement both for and against the Group and political and social instability; regulatory, political and economic risks associated with operating in a foreign jurisdiction including changes in laws, governments and legal regimes and interpretation of existing and future fiscal and other legislation; volatility of currency exchange rates, metal prices and metal production; the availability and continued participation in operational or other matters pertaining to the Group of certain key employees and consultants; and risks normally incident to the exploration, development and operation of mining properties. This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect any of the Company's forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements, and investors should not infer that there has been no change in the Company's affairs since the date of this press release that would warrant any modification of any forward-looking statement made in this document, other documents periodically filed with or furnished to the relevant securities regulators or documents presented on the Company's website. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by this notice. The Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly or otherwise revise any forward-looking statements or the foregoing list of assumptions or factors, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, subject to the Company's disclosure obligations under applicable Canadian securities regulations. Investors are urged to read the Company's filings with Canadian securities regulatory agencies which can be viewed online at www.sedar.com. NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO US NEWSWIRE SERVICES NOR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA DIDCOT, UK / ACCESSWIRE / November 28, 2018 / Altus Strategies Plc (AIM: ALS & TSX-V: ALTS), the Africa focused exploration project generator, announces the discovery of the Simret ("Simret") silver prospect at its 100% owned 412km2 Daro Cu-Au-Ag Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide ("VMS") project ("Daro" or the "Project"), located in the Tigray Regional State of northern Ethiopia. Highlights: Silver grades include 944 g/t Ag and 540 g/t Ag from rock chip sampling at newly discovered Simret prospect at the Daro Project, Ethiopia Gold and lead also present at Simret with grades including 3.55 g/t Au and 2.72% Pb Potential VMS corridor now extends for 4.9 km Geological mapping and trenching underway at Simret Numerous priority targets defined at Daro by Sentinel remote sensing study Steven Poulton, Chief Executive of Altus, commented: "We are delighted to announce the discovery of the Simret prospect. Our exploration has returned very high silver grades including 944 g/t Ag, 540 g/t Ag, 277 g/t Ag and 191 g/t Ag from rock chip sampling of quartz veins. These veins also returned gold grades of 3.55 g/t Au, 2.56 g/t Au and 2.11 g/t Au along with lead grades of 2.72% Pb and 2.73% Pb. Geological mapping and stream sampling indicate the potential strike length of the Simret prospect is approximately 2.8km and 0.5km in width. The prospect is located approximately 3km south of our existing Teklil prospect. At Teklil we have mapped copper oxide mineralisation and discontinuous gossanous outcrop for over 900m in strike length. Coincident with this field programme, we have engaged remote sensing consultancy Geosense (Netherlands) to complete a multi-spectral remote sensing analysis of the Daro licence using Sentinel satellite data. This work has generated numerous iron oxide occurrences across the Daro licence, which may represent key VMS markers. Our exploration team are already following up on these further targets." The Simret Prospect A programme of exploration at the Simret prospect included the collection of 31 rock chip samples. Of these, 8 assayed above 10 g/t Ag and 4 assayed above 100 g/t Ag with grades of 944 g/t Ag, 540 g/t Ag, 277 g/t Ag and 191 g/t Ag. The highest silver grades were found in quartz veins and these were also found to be coincident with the highest gold and lead grades, which included 3.55 g/t Au, 2.56 g/t Au, 2.11 g/t Au and 1.51 g/t Au as well as 2.72% Pb and 2.73% Pb respectively. These samples also contained anomalous zinc and copper with grades including 0.13% Zn and 0.33% Cu. Taken together these results suggest the potential for a VMS system. Following up on visible copper seen during prospecting the Company has excavated and sampled a 16.3m long reconnaissance trench. Visible copper oxide has been identified in the trench and assay results are currently pending. The Simret prospect was discovered following a licence wide stream sediment sampling programme covering 320km2 that was undertaken by the Company earlier this year. This survey defined an area of anomalous copper, lead and zinc, a geochemical signature which can be indicative of a VMS system. Follow-up stream sediment sampling on second and third order streams has refined the anomaly to a priority area of approximately 2.80km by 0.50km. Geological mapping at the Simret prospect has discovered a mafic volcanic pile and sheeted dyke complex, which together with the Au-Ag-Cu-Pb-Zn bearing quartz veins and gossanous float samples, further indicates to the Company that the observed mineralisation may be VMS derived. Sentinel remote sensing programme The Company has commissioned a licence wide remote sensing programme utilising data from the multi spectral Sentinel satellite. A number of VMS deposits in Eritrea were visited by the Company's technical team in October 2018. These deposits are hosted in the same mafic to ultamafic suite of rocks (the Nakfa Terrain) as found in the Daro project. The iron oxide signatures of their associated gossans have been used as analogues for the remote sensing algorithm, in order to detect similar mineralisation at Daro. Initial interpretation of the satellite data has identified a number of iron oxide features within the Teklil and Simret prospect corridor. These targets will be followed up by the Company during the current work programme. The following figures have been prepared and relate to the disclosures in this announcement and are visible in the version of this announcement on the Company's website (www.altus-strategies.com) or in PDF format by following this link: Click Here Location of the Daro licence on the Arabian-Nubian Shield is shown in Figure 1. Map showing Sentinel targets and recent results from the Daro licence is shown in Figure 2. A selection of project photos is shown in Figure 3. Daro Project: Location The Daro exploration licence is held by Altau Resources Ltd, the Company's 100% owned Ethiopia focused subsidiary. The licence is located in northern Ethiopia, 95km west of the Company's Tigray-Afar Cu-Ag project, 100km northwest of the Tigray state capital of Mekele and 570km north of Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa. Mekele has a regional airport and year-round access to the licence area is provided by a network of maintained surfaced and graded roads. Daro Project: Geological setting The Daro licence is situated within the Neo-Proterozoic Nakfa Terrane, at a junction between two major tectonic blocks and comprises a series of metasedimentary and metavolcanic rocks, affected by thrusting and intrusion of the Rama granite. A band of mafic to ultramafic rocks bisects the licence from southwest to northeast, interpreted to be an ophiolite complex of ancient oceanic crust and seafloor sediments. Historical data compilation of Daro, undertaken by the French governmental Bureau de Recherches Geologiques et Minieres ("BRGM"), has defined a number of marker lithologies and structures that are considered prospective for VMS deposits. These include the presence of bimodal volcanics and associated sediments, mafic and ultramafic lithologies which conform to an ophiolitic sequence, as well as the presence of extensive chert horizons. The Nakfa Terrane hosts a number of significant VMS base metal and gold deposits and mines. These include Bisha, a polymetallic mine operated by Nevsun Resources Ltd (TSX: NSU) 190km north west of Daro, the Harvest and Adyabo projects, being advanced by East Africa Metals Inc. (TSX-V:EAM) 35km west of Daro and the Asmara project being advanced by Sichuan Road & Bridge Mining Investment Corp Ltd 100km north of Daro. Sampling Methodology and analysis A total of 31 grab samples were collected as rock chips from outcrop or float from the programmes described in this release. Of the 31 samples: Silver: 10 of 31 samples assayed above 1 g/t Ag, ranging from less than 0.5 g/t to 944 g/t Ag Gold: 9 of 31 samples assayed above 0.2 g/t Au, ranging from less than 0.01 g/t to 3.55 g/t Au Lead: 2 of 31 samples assayed above 1% Pb, ranging from trace to 2.73 %Pb All sample preparation and assay was undertaken by ALS Global at their laboratories in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) and Loughrea (Republic of Ireland) respectively. Given the early stage nature of these programmes, no Quality Assurance and Quality Control ("QA-QC") samples have been sent for assay. Rock samples were crushed with 70% passing -2mm. The less than 2mm fraction was pulverized with 85% of the sample passing <75 microns. The fine fraction of each sample underwent a four-acid digestion with ICP-AES analysis for a suite of 33 elements. All samples were analysed for their Au content by 50g Fire Assay method. Samples with more than 1 g/t Au were resubmitted for Fire Assay with a gravimetric finish. Qualified Person The technical disclosure in this regulatory announcement has been read and approved by Steven Poulton, Chief Executive of Altus. A graduate of the University of Southampton in Geology (Hons), he also holds a Master's degree from the Camborne School of Mines (Exeter University) in Mining Geology. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining and has over 19 years of experience in mineral exploration and is a Qualified Person under the AIM rules and National Instrument 43-101 under the rules of the TSX. Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure Certain information contained in this announcement would have been deemed inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 until the release of this announcement. For further information you are invited to visit the Company's website www.altus-strategies.com or contact: Altus Strategies Plc Steven Poulton, Chief Executive Tel: +44 (0) 1235 511 767 E: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. SP Angel (Nominated Adviser) Richard Morrison / Soltan Tagiev Tel: +44 (0) 20 3470 0470 SP Angel (Broker) Richard Parlons / Jonathan Williams Tel: +44 (0) 20 3470 0471 Blytheweigh (Financial PR) Tim Blythe / Camilla Horsfall / James Husband Tel: +44 (0) 20 7138 3204 About Altus Strategies Plc Altus is a London (AIM: ALS) and Toronto (TSX-V: ALTS) listed, diversified and Africa focused mineral exploration project generator. Through our subsidiaries we discover new projects and attract third party capital to fund their growth, development and ultimately exit optionality. This strategy enables Altus to remain focused on the acquisition of new opportunities to be fed into the project generation cycle and aims to minimise shareholder dilution. Our business model is designed to create a growing portfolio of well managed and high growth potential projects and royalties, diversified by commodity and by country. Altus currently has eighteen projects in six commodities across six countries. We aim to position our shareholders at the vanguard of value creation, but with significantly reduced risks traditionally associated with investments in the mineral exploration sector. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements in this news release contain forward-looking information. These statements address future events and conditions and, as such, involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the statements. Such factors include without limitation the completion of planned expenditures, the ability to complete exploration programs on schedule and the success of exploration programs. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking information, which speak only as of the date of this news release. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - April 12, 2018) - Duran Ventures Inc. (TSXV: DRV) ("Duran" or the "Company") is pleased to announce drilling results from its 100-per cent-owned Panteria copper-gold project located 210 kilometres southeast of Lima in the Huancavelica department. Drilling was conducted by Minera Antares Peru SAC, a wholly owned subsidiary of First Quantum Minerals Ltd whereby First Quantum can earn up to an 80% interest in Panteria by completing certain milestones and payments outlined in the Company's news release dated March 15, 2016. First Quantum received all necessary permits in August, 2017 and drilled a total of 4160 metres in six holes finishing early 2018. The initial drill program focused on testing a conceptual buried-porphyry target over the main Panteria area. Results strongly re-inforce the property's potential that a large copper-gold porphyry system is present within the project area and the core of the system has yet to be located. Four of the six widely spaced holes intersected copper-gold mineralization associated with strong phyllic alteration (quartz-sericite-pyrite) often overprinting an earlier potassic alteration (secondary biotite). Copper-gold mineralization associated with the typical porphyry style alteration intersected shows that there is at least a 1300 metre horizontal extent of the mineralization and alteration in the sub-surface and over a 770 metre vertical extent. The last drill hole of the program, PANDD_006 located between holes PANDD_002 and PANDD_004 (see maps below), intersected tourmaline healed and hydrothermal breccias returning 31.30 metres of 0.497% Cu and 0.676 g/t Au or 0.94 % copper equivalent ("CuEq") within a broader interval of 125.80 metres of 0.252% Cu and 0.283 g/t Au or 0.44 % CuEq. This type of mineralization and alteration suggests close proximity to the core of the porphyry system. A strong quartz stockwork system (A veins) was intersected in PANDD_004 and later overprinted or altered to an intermediate argillic (SCC) type alteration. This mineralization and alteration in PANDD_004 is located 400 metres north of the mineralization in PANDD_006 and possibly shows a different mineralized porphyry event. The following table summarizes the drill results: From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Cu % Au g/t % CuEq PANDDH-002 194.90 322.00 127.10 0.150 0.143 0.24 413.50 630.00 216.50 0.132 0.127 0.21 includes 556.40 614.00 51.60 0.198 0.155 0.30 PANDDH-004 74.60 89.60 15.00 0.151 0.069 0.20 114.00 244.30 130.30 0.163 0.071 0.21 308.00 326.40 18.40 0.121 0.101 0.19 375.65 409.65 34.00 0.119 0.045 0.15 438.40 453.80 15.40 0.170 0.089 0.23 PANDDH-005 477.40 498.90 21.50 0.159 0.096 0.22 513.00 540.60 27.60 0.156 0.075 0.20 638.70 761.00 122.30 0.144 0.059 0.18 795.60 825.15 29.55 0.122 0.043 0.15 PANDDH-006 303.60 320.00 16.40 0.083 0.133 0.17 320.00 445.80 125.80 0.252 0.283 0.44 includes 330.00 361.30 31.30 0.497 0.676 0.94 498.80 550.00 51.20 0.165 0.120 0.24 Notes: Copper equivalent (Cu Eq.) values for by-product gold are calculated using a copper price of US$3.00/lb and a gold price of US$1,340/oz. No allowance is made for losses in a normal mining situation. The reported intercepts are not necessarily true widths, as there is insufficient data at this time to determine the orientation of the mineralized body. Discussion of Results First Quantum's geologists note that multiple porphyry phases were intersected and alteration and mineralization styles present strongly suggest that drilling intersected the pyritic shell. Mineralized tourmaline healed breccias abundant in PANDD_006 also suggest the core of the porphyry is within close proximity. These alteration and breccia types are always peripheral in a porphyry system and further exploration is warranted. Furthermore, further drilling is required to test the conductive zones located to the west and northwest of the current drilling. Typical copper-gold porphyry systems generally have high grade cores showing strong potassic alteration with well developed quartz stockworks systems. The hydrothermal system present at Panteria is very extensive and well developed over a wide area. The core of the system is generally much smaller and always higher grade and has yet to be located. The company is extremely encouraged that there are many intervals of peripheral copper-gold mineralization returning copper equivalent values above 0.20 % CuEq. Duran's technical team has reviewed the core and is very pleased with the quality of the data. Shareholders and potential investors are encouraged to visit Duran's website to review the maps and photos of the core showing alteration types and their relative locations. First Quantum is expected to continue the drilling once the weather improves. Duran is very pleased with the social programs being implemented by First Quantum and the Company encourages shareholders and potential investors to review the videos provided by First Quantum regarding the social and technical work on the Company's website in the Panteria project section of Duran's website (www.duranventuresinc.com). All diamond drilling has been performed using HQ-diameter drill rods, reducing to NQ diameter if required. All core was shipped to First Quantum's warehouse in Arequipa for logging and splitting. Samples were submitted for preparation at ALS Peru S.A's ("ALS") preparation centre in Arequipa and later analyzed at ALS's facilities in Lima, Peru. All samples were analyzed using multi-digestion with inductively coupled plasma finish and fire assay with atomic absorption finish for gold. Samples over 1 per cent copper were reanalyzed using four-acid digestion with an ore-grade ICP finish. Jeffrey Reeder, P.Geo., and a qualified person as defined in National Instrument 43-101, has prepared, supervised the preparation, or approved the scientific and technical disclosure contained in this news release. Maps Panteria Project: Topographic Map and Drill Hole Traces Panteria Copper - Gold CuEq% Cross-Section Looking NW About Duran Duran Ventures Inc. is a Canadian exploration company focused on mineral processing and the exploration and development of precious and base metal properties 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" For additional information, contact: Jeffrey Reeder Tel: (647) 302-3290 or Oscar Pezo at (011) 511 422-1467 Website: www.duranventuresinc.com Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. 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. TORONTO, Nov. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Galane Gold Ltd. (Galane Gold or the Company) (TSX-V: GG; OTCQB:GGGOF) is pleased to announce the release of its financial results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018. All amounts are in United States dollars. A copy of the unaudited condensed consolidated interim financial statements for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018 prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards and the corresponding Managements Discussion and Analysis will be available under the Companys profile on www.sedar.com. Third Quarter 2018 Highlights Produced 8,545 ounces of gold. Positive cash flows from operating activities of $302,329. All-in operating cash cost of $1,011 per ounce (excluding royalties).(1) Galane Gold CEO, Nick Brodie commented: Another quarter of positive production at Mupane with current expectations for a good last quarter and a forecasted annual production of approximately 35,000 ounces.(2) We expect to be in a position to give updates to the market soon on progress at our Galaxy Mine and the prospective Andy Well transaction as we look to continue our accretive growth strategy for Galane. About Galane Gold Galane Gold is an un-hedged gold producer and explorer with mining operations and exploration tenements in Botswana and South Africa. Galane Gold is a public company and its shares are quoted on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol GG and the OTCQB under the symbol GGGOF. Galane Golds management team is comprised of senior mining professionals with extensive experience in managing mining and processing operations and large-scale exploration programmes. Galane Gold is committed to operating at world-class standards and is focused on the safety of its employees, respecting the environment, and contributing to the communities in which it operates. Notes: (1) Total operating cash cost excluding royalties is a non-GAAP measure. Refer to Supplemental Information to Managements Discussion and Analysis in the Companys Managements Discussion and Analysis for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018 for reconciliation to measures reported in the Companys financial statements. (2) The deposits at the Mupane mine are supported by a technical report entitled Independent Technical Report on the Mupane Gold Mine dated May 10, 2011, a copy of which is available under the Companys profile on www.sedar.com. Cautionary Notes Certain statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact contained in this press release, including, without limitation, those regarding the Companys future financial position and results of operations, strategy, proposed acquisitions, plans, objectives, goals and targets, and any statements preceded by, followed by or that include the words believe, expect, aim, intend, plan, continue, will, may, would, anticipate, estimate, forecast, predict, project, seek, should or similar expressions or the negative thereof, are forward-looking statements. These statements are not historical facts but instead represent only the Companys expectations, estimates and projections regarding future events. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve assumptions, risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual results may differ materially from what is expressed, implied or forecasted in such forward-looking statements. Additional factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially include, but are not limited to: the Companys dependence on two mineral projects; gold price volatility; risks associated with the conduct of the Companys mining activities in Botswana and South Africa; regulatory, consent or permitting delays; risks relating to the Companys exploration, development and mining activities being situated in Botswana and South Africa; risks relating to reliance on the Companys management team and outside contractors; risks regarding mineral resources and reserves; the Companys inability to obtain insurance to cover all risks, on a commercially reasonable basis or at all; currency fluctuations; risks regarding the failure to generate sufficient cash flow from operations; risks relating to project financing and equity issuances; risks arising from the Companys fair value estimates with respect to the carrying amount of mineral interests; mining tax regimes; risks arising from holding derivative instruments; the Companys need to replace reserves depleted by production; risks and unknowns inherent in all mining projects, including the inaccuracy of reserves and resources, metallurgical recoveries and capital and operating costs of such projects; contests over title to properties, particularly title to undeveloped properties; laws and regulations governing the environment, health and safety; operating or technical difficulties in connection with mining or development activities; lack of infrastructure; employee relations, labour unrest or unavailability; health risks in Africa; the Companys interactions with surrounding communities and artisanal miners; the Companys ability to successfully integrate acquired assets; risks related to restarting production; the speculative nature of exploration and development, including the risks of diminishing quantities or grades of reserves; development of the Companys exploration properties into commercially viable mines; stock market volatility; conflicts of interest among certain directors and officers; lack of liquidity for shareholders of the Company; risks related to the market perception of junior gold companies; and litigation risk.Management provides forward-looking statements because it believes they provide useful information to investors when considering their investment objectives and cautions investors not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. 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 consequences to, or effects on, the Company. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release and the Company assumes no obligation to update or revise them to reflect subsequent information, events or circumstances or otherwise, except as required by law. Information of a technical and scientific nature that forms the basis of the disclosure in the press release has been approved by Charles Byron Pr. Sci. Nat., MAusIMM., MGSSA and Chief Geologist for Galane Gold, and a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. 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. For further information please contact: Nick Brodie CEO, Galane Gold Ltd. + 44 7905089878 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. www.GalaneGold.com Condor Continues to Demonstrate the Exceptional Regional Potential of the La India Land Package. Known targets have been extended and new epithermal vein systems discovered, along with several high grade grab samples, including 99.7 grams per tonne ("g/t") gold. LONDON, UK / ACCESSWIRE / November 28, 2018 / Condor Gold (AIM: CNR; TSX: COG; OTCQX: CNDGF), is pleased to provide an update on regional exploration activity at the La India Project in the last year. The Company's strategy is twofold: 1) to prove a major Gold District of 5 million ounces ("Moz") gold and 2) to expand the mineral resources within the core area (La India, America and Mestiza vein sets) and at the satellites (Cacao, Rio Luna, Tatascame and San Lucas). Condor has also applied to the Ministry of Energy and Mines for two adjacent concessions, which will expand the La India land package from 313 km2 to 588 km2. Highlights: New targets within La India and American vein sets. Re-log of 207 drill holes at La India and America was completed to help understand the shape of oreshoots and identify new ones. New wireframes have been created, and new drill targets generated. These are both down dip of known oreshoots and lateral. An exciting new target has been identified in the hanging wall of the America vein set. Cacao (about 6.0 km east of La India) is a top priority for drilling. It has the best potential to add ounces to the global resource. Mapping and drilling demonstrate it has a long strike length (> 3.0 km) and that the entire epithermal system is preserved. Drill intercepts reported in 2017 include 7.85 m @ 3.75 g/t gold, 7.85 m @ 2.95 g/t gold and 17.1 m @ 1.74 g/t gold. The vein becomes more like La India vein at depth and is as thick, or thicker. The Andrea East target (about 8.0 km north of La India) is now drill ready and shows excellent grades at surface. It is a high priority for drilling. Trenches along it demonstrate significant width and grades. Best intercepts are observed at LICT15 (4.0 m @ 1.79 g/t gold), LICT20 (5.6 m @ 1.65 g/t gold) and LICT21 (3.0 m @ 3.6 g/t gold). Grab samples give up to 9.7 g/t gold. Vein textures are very similar to La India and very encouraging. Grab samples with 24.6 g/t gold and 32 g/t gold at America (from 91 rock chip samples). Average grade of 13.4 g/t gold from 14 artisanal mines at America. One has 47.6 g/t gold. Average grade of 14.2 g/t gold from 27 artisanal mines at Mestiza. One has 99.7 g/t gold. Geological mapping and rock chip sampling have begun in the Tierra Blanca and La Cuchilla concessions. Little, or no, exploration has been done here in the past. Several silica sinters (hot spring deposits) have been discovered at Tierra Blanca. This indicates an active geothermal system and the potential for low sulphidation epithermal veins nearby. Mark Child, Executive Chairman & CEO, comments: "During the past year our geologists continued the effort to prove a 5 Moz gold district. Their work is reflected in the 10 new maps in this announcement and commentary. Firstly, the relog of 207 drill holes on La India and America veins has generated entirely new open pit and underground drill targets with excellent potential to add ounces to the global resource. Secondly, new mapping and sampling on Cacao, Andrea East and the La Cuchilla concessions resulted in new drill targets. An average grade of over 13.5 g/t gold from 41 artisanal mining sites sampled by Condor on the America and Mestiza vein sets is a timely reminder that the La India Project is a high-grade gold deposit. There are so many veins in the district that the Company is effectively drowning' in targets and a major issue is how to prioritise exploration. As the land package, mapping and sampling coverage grow, it allows us to understand the big picture. We can then focus on those targets with the best chance of adding ounces to the permitted mine schedule." Link to Figure 1. Map showing location of exploration areas: 1) La India, 2) America, 3) Mestiza, 4) Cacao, 5) Santa Barbara, 6) Andrea, 7) Andrea East, 8) El Derrumbado, 9) Tierra Blanca and 10) La Cuchilla. Veins shown in red. La India area (Mestiza, America and La India veins) Mapping at America (Figure 2) focused on vein characterisation (texture, width and composition) and structural measurements. Increased artisanal activity has produced numerous new vein exposures. A total of 91 new rock chip samples were collected from the Guapinol, America and Constancia veins. Guapinol samples tend to have the highest grades, up to 32 g/t gold. New artisanal workings in the footwall of the La India vein uncovered mineralisation. A total of 21 samples gave grades averaging 2.9 g/t gold. The Alfonso Vega vein (0.5-1 m wide) occurs a short distance into the footwall of the La India vein. It gave up to 27.2 g/t gold. Link to Figure 2. Map of America valley veins with location of new surface samples (yellow triangles) and results. After identifying an ore shoot within a bend in the Tatiana vein (Big Bend') during 2017 drilling, the geologic models of the America and La India veins were revised. In addition to mapping at America, core from 47 drill holes in America and 160 drill holes in La India were completely relogged. This improved the volcanic stratigraphy and identified faults that probably controlled vein mineralisation. Our knowledge of historic mine voids was also improved. The relog was used to create wireframes for stratigraphy, structures and principal veins. The work generated several entirely new drill targets which now need testing. As part of a monitoring programme, Condor collected 61 samples from 47 active artisanal mines (29 from Mestiza, 14 from America and four sites at La India) (Figure 3). These are all shallow workings (< 30 m depth). Average grades for samples at Mestiza is 14.2 g/t gold, with one sample from the Jicaro vein as high as 99.7 g /t gold. At America the average grade is 13.4 g/t gold; a sample of 47.6 g/t gold came from the Guapinol vein. Samples from the La India veins are not representative of the entire structure, as only four sites have been sampled to date. Link to Figure 3. Map of Mestiza and America veins with location of artisanal workings rock chip samples (yellow triangles) and results. Following successful drilling at Mestiza in 2017 (see RNS dated 6 November 2017), mapping and rock sampling continued to the northwest, along the Chorrera vein (Figure 1). Two new veins were discovered (see Figure 4). Trenching showed anomalous gold grades at surface but given strong elevation control on gold grade in epithermal veins, we still believe these merit drilling. Link to Figure 4. Map of Mestiza area with location of new trenches (yellow squares) and newly mapped veins. Cacao and Santa Barbara Following geological mapping and rock chip sampling in 2017 (see RNS dated 3 October 2017), a 5,000 m drill programme has been designed to increase the resource at Cacao and test its eastern extension. Scout drilling is planned at the Santa Barbara prospect, where surface samples are up to 5.9 g/t gold. One trench was cut into a 14 m wide exposure of sheeted narrow quartz veins (Figure 5). Results were disappointing but grab samples from the adjacent artisanal workings give 7.0 g/t gold. Link to Figure 5. Map of Cacao East and Santa Barbara drill targets with location of new trench (yellow squares) and historic rock chip samples. Andrea East vein (El Rodeo concession) Follow-up work focused on detailed mapping and sampling to find the eastward continuation of the Andrea vein. Short trenches in the easternmost exposures identified gold mineralisation (see RNS dated 3 October 2017). Rock chip sampling extended approximately 1.0 km to the southeast along a possible extension of the Andrea vein. Abundant low-grade quartz vein material in outcrops and float indicate possible extensive mineralisation at depth which will have to be followed up. Additional sampling was done in the El Derrumbado area along a series of semi-parallel narrow east-west trending structures with grades up to 24.3 g/t gold (Figure 6). Trench sampling at eight sites along the Andrea East vein (Figure 7) demonstrated significant width and mineralisation. Best intercepts are: LICT15 (4.0 m @ 1.79 g/t gold), LICT20 (5.6 m @ 1.65 g/t gold) and LICT21 (3.0 m @ 3.6 g/t gold). There is also considerable evidence of mineralisation in the hanging wall to the main vein, which may make it a more attractive open pittable target in the long run. Drill targets have been selected and the Company are in negotiations with the landowner. Link to Figure 6. Map of Andrea East and El Derrumbado prospects with location of new rock chip samples (yellow triangles) and results. Link to Figure 7. Map of Andrea East with location of new trenches (yellow squares) with results and historic rock chip samples. Tierra Blanca and La Cuchilla The soil geochemistry survey (reported in RNS dated 1 August 2017) identified anomalous areas in the Tierra Blanca and La Cuchilla concessions, west of La India. In La Cuchilla, elevated copper, molybdenum, arsenic (Figure 8), tellurium, titanium, silver soil anomalies were found in the northern part of the concession area along with linear radiogenic potassium anomalies along with magnetic lows. These areas were targeted for reconnaissance mapping and surface sampling. Rock chip samples taken during soil sampling in 2017 came back with anomalous gold values, including a 3.5 g/t gold sample found in the far northwest corner of the concession. Recent mapping and prospecting focused on these anomalies. Initial sampling of 47 rock chip samples from vein exposure and float mostly came back with < 0.1 g/t gold. However, four samples gave 0.1-1.0 g/t gold. This is still very early exploration, but these results and the amount of quartz vein material found on surface have begun to identify a north west-striking structure (Figure 9) that will be investigated further. Link to Figure 8. Map of the northern part of La Cuchilla concession with location of new samples (yellow triangles) with results and historic rock chip samples against a backdrop of Arsenic ("As") soil anomalies (reds are high As). Link to Figure 9. Location of rock chips with >0.1 g/t gold. Black arrow identifies new anomalous gold rock chips along a northwest striking trend in the northern part of La Cuchilla concession. The Tierra Blanca concession was granted by the government in 2015 (see RNS dated 26 June 2015). Condor geologists applied for the concession because it occupies a volcanic caldera that was probably intimately related to the La India epithermal veins. The caldera was occupied by a lake that eventually dried out, producing evaporites (gypsum) and freshwater limestones. Historical exploration in the area has been scarce to none. In the Tierra Blanca concession, anomalous copper, arsenic, titanium and local molybdenum in soil samples became the focus for mapping and prospecting (Figure 10). Exploration began in the southern part and quickly identified hot spring deposits ("sinters"). Close to San Pedro (Figure 11) there are several sinters interbedded with sub-horizontal pumice lapilli tuffs, basaltic andesite lavas and sandstones. These sinters include fossilised reeds, pisoliths and gastropods. The textures are identical to many other classic sinter deposits associated with precious metal mineralisation e.g. McLaughlin, California (c. 3.4 Moz gold) and Cerro Blanco, Guatemala. Sinters themselves generally have no valuable metal content, but they can indicate the proximity of epithermal veins. Link to Figure 10. Map of Tierra Blanca concession with location of new samples (yellow triangles) with gold ("Au") results and historic rock chip samples against a backdrop of arsenic ("As") soil anomalies (reds are high As). To date, results from surface samples of silica sinter, chalcedony and massive quartz float blocks have had grades of <0.1 g/t gold, but samples in the area just north of the San Pedro community have slightly elevated arsenic, compared to the surrounding samples. One sample obtained just outside of the concession boundary came back at 3.5 g/t gold. Work will continue to try and identify the source of the silica sinter. Link to Figure 11. Location map of the sinters in the Tierra Blanca concession, with location of new samples (yellow triangles) with results for arsenic (ppm) Competent Person's Declaration The information in this announcement that relates to the mineral potential, geology, exploration results and database are based on information compiled, and reviewed, by Dr Warren Pratt, Chartered Geologist (1994), Fellow of the Geological Society of London and Fellow of the Society of Economic Geologists. Dr Pratt is a geologist with over twenty years of experience in the exploration precious metal mineral resources. Dr Pratt consults to Condor Gold plc on an ad hoc basis and has considerable experience in epithermal mineralisation, the type of deposit under consideration, and enough experience in the type of activity that he is undertaking to qualify as a Competent Person' as defined in the June 2009 Edition of the AIM Note for Mining and Oil & Gas Companies. Dr Pratt consents to the inclusion in the announcement of the matters based on their information in the form and context in which it appears and confirms that this information is accurate and not false or misleading. Technical Glossary Caldera A ring-shaped depression caused by the collapse of an area of land at the centre of a volcanic complex caused by the emptying of the underlying magma chamber. Epithermal Hydrothermal deposits formed at shallow depths below a boiling hot spring system are commonly referred to as epithermal, a term retained from an old system of classifying hydrothermal deposits based on the presumed temperature and depth of deposition. Evaporites Evaporites are layered crystalline sedimentary rocks that form from brines generated in areas where the amount of water lost by evaporation exceeds the total amount of water from rainfall and influx via rivers and streams. Geophysics survey Systematic collection of geophysical data to determine characteristics of underlying rocks and structures. Hot springs A spring of naturally hot water, typically heated by subterranean volcanic activity. Hydrothermal Formation of minerals by hot solutions rising from a cooling magma Lapilli tuffs A pyroclastic rock where between 25% and 75% of the pyroclastic fragments are lapilli (2-64mm in size) Low sulfidation Hydrothermal deposits formed at shallow depths below a boiling hot spring system which are dominated by reduced, neutral-pH conditions. Pisolith A small (mm-cm) rounded accretionary mass, usually of calcium carbonate or silica. Pyroclastic Fragmental volcanic rocks composed solely or primarily of volcanic materials of different sizes. Sinter A sinter is a mineral deposit that presents a porous or vesicular texture; its structure shows small cavities. These may be siliceous deposits or calcareous deposits. Soil geochemistry The process of collecting and analysing unconsolidated soil sediments to locate geochemical anomalies in the underlying rock and to use these to find ore bodies. Vein A sheet-like body of crystallised minerals within a rock, generally forming in a discontinuity or crack between two rock masses. Economic concentrations of gold are often contained within vein minerals. For further information please visit www.condorgold.com or contact: Condor Gold plc Beaumont Cornish Limited Numis Securities Limited Blytheweigh Mark Child, Chairman and CEO +44 (0) 20 7493 2784 Roland Cornish and James Biddle +44 (0) 20 7628 3396 John Prior and James Black +44 (0) 20 7260 1000 Tim Blythe, Camilla Horsfall and Megan Ray +44 (0) 20 7138 3204 About Condor Gold plc: Condor Gold plc was admitted to AIM on 31 May 2006. The Company is a gold exploration and development company with a focus on Central America. In August 2018, the Company announced that the Ministry of the Environment had granted the Company the Environmental Permit ("EP") for the development, construction and operation of a processing plant with capacity to process up to 2,800 tonnes per day at its wholly-owned La India gold project in Nicaragua ("La India Project"). The EP is considered to be the master permit for mining operations in Nicaragua. Condor published a Pre-Feasibility Study ("PFS") on La India Project in December 2014, as summarised in the Technical Report (as defined below). The PFS details an open pit gold mineral reserve in the Probable category of 6.9 million tonnes ("Mt") at 3.0 g/t gold for 675,000 oz gold, producing 80,000 oz gold per annum for seven years. La India Project contains a mineral resource in the indicated category of 9.6 Mt at 3.5 g/t for 1.08 million oz gold and a total mineral resource in the inferred category of 8.5 Mt at 4.5 g/t for 1.23 million oz gold. The indicated mineral resource is inclusive of the mineral reserve. Disclaimer Neither the contents of the Company's website nor the contents of any website accessible from hyperlinks on the Company's website (or any other website) is incorporated into, or forms part of, this announcement. Technical Information Certain disclosure contained in this news release of a scientific or technical nature has been summarised or extracted from the technical report entitled "Technical Report on the La India Gold Project, Nicaragua, December 2014", dated November 13, 2017 with an effective date of December 21, 2014 (the "Technical Report"), prepared in accordance with NI 43-101. The Technical Report was prepared by or under the supervision of Tim Lucks, Principal Consultant (Geology & Project Management), Gabor Bacsfalusi, Principal Consultant (Mining), Benjamin Parsons, Principal Consultant (Resource Geology), each of SRK Consulting (UK) Limited, and Neil Lincoln of Lycopodium Minerals Canada Ltd., each of whom is an independent Qualified Person as such term is defined in NI 43-101. Dr. Warren Pratt (CGeol), Senior Geological Consultant to the Company and a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101, has approved the written disclosure in this press release. Forward Looking Statements All statements in this press release, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking information' with respect to the Company within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including statements with respect to: results of exploration activities, the mineral resources, mineral reserves and future production rates and plans at the La India Project. Forward-looking information is often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as: "seek", "anticipate", "plan", "continue", "strategies", "estimate", "expect", "project", "predict", "potential", "targeting", "intends", "believe", "potential", "could", "might", "will" and similar expressions. Forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and is based upon a number of estimates and assumptions of management at the date the statements are made including, among others, assumptions regarding: future commodity prices and royalty regimes; availability of skilled labour; timing and amount of capital expenditures; future currency exchange and interest rates; the impact of increasing competition; general conditions in economic and financial markets; availability of drilling and related equipment; effects of regulation by governmental agencies; the receipt of required permits; royalty rates; future tax rates; future operating costs; availability of future sources of funding; ability to obtain financing and assumptions underlying estimates related to adjusted funds from operations. Many assumptions are based on factors and events that are not within the control of the Company and there is no assurance they will prove to be correct. Such forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, which may cause the actual results to be materially different from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including, risks related to: mineral exploration, development and operating risks; estimation of mineralisation, resources and reserves; environmental, health and safety regulations of the resource industry; competitive conditions; operational risks; liquidity and financing risks; funding risk; exploration costs; uninsurable risks; conflicts of interest; risks of operating in Nicaragua; government policy changes; ownership risks; permitting and licencing risks; artisanal miners and community relations; difficulty in enforcement of judgments; market conditions; stress in the global economy; current global financial condition; exchange rate and currency risks; commodity prices; reliance on key personnel; dilution risk; payment of dividends; as well as those factors discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's annual information form for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2017 dated March 29, 2018, available under the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking information, 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 information will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. 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 unless required by law. Rights groups raised fears Wednesday after Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced plans to create a death squad targeting suspected communist rebels, saying it would worsen the calamity triggered by his deadly drug war. The Philippines 50-year fight against communist militants, one of Asias oldest insurgencies, long pre-dates his anti-narcotics crackdown that has killed thousands and drawn international censure. Duterte, like previous governments, initially held peace talks with the communists but shelved negotiations last year over deadly attacks against soldiers and police. In a speech Tuesday night, he took aim at the communist rebels hit squads known as sparrow units. What I lack is my own sparrow. That is where they (communists) have an edge So I will create my own sparrow, Duterte Death Squad against the sparrow, the president said. I will match their talent also for assassinating people, he added. Philippine Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said Wednesday his team would study the plan very closely. Who will compose it, who will supervise it, who will be the targets, adding there was great danger of abuse. Since negotiations with the rebels broke down, Duterte also formally designated the Communist Party of the Philippines and its 3,800-member armed wing the New Peoples Army (NPA) as terrorist organisations. The low-level, simmering insurgency has claimed 30,000 lives by the governments count. The founder of the Communist Party, Jose Maria Sison, said on Wednesday that sparrow units only existed in the 1970s and 1980s at the height of the insurgency. He is inventing so many sparrow units to justify his own death squads which are illegal, Sison told ABS-CBN television. The presidents announcement drew immediate concerns from campaigners, who said the death squad would worsen the already lethal environment encouraged by the drug war. Police say they have killed nearly 5,000 alleged users and pushers, while rights groups say the toll is at least triple that and could amount to crimes against humanity. His (Dutertes) statement is a declaration of open season against rebels, leftists, civilians, and critics of the government, Human Rights Watch said in a statement. This new policy will only worsen the ongoing drug war-fueled human rights calamity in the Philippines. Amnesty International also expressed alarm, citing the practice of labelling government critics as communist rebels or sympathisers. What is scary is that anyone can be a target, the groups human rights officer Wilnor Papa told AFP. Once feted on the world stage, Saudi Arabias powerful crown prince faces the cold shoulder abroad as he struggles to shrug off the lingering stigma of a critical journalists murder. Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been on an Arab tour before he attends the Group of 20 summit in Argentina on Friday, where he faces world leaders who have strongly condemned Jamal Khashoggis killing last month in the kingdoms Istanbul consulate. The countrys de facto ruler has brushed aside the international pressure, attempting to use the overseas visits followed by a whirlwind domestic tour to shore up his tarnished reputation and reinforce relationships with allies. The question is who among global leaders will agree to stand with him publicly, said H.A. Hellyer, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and the Royal United Services Institute in London. I suspect his appearances will be carefully staged to avoid embarrassment. The prince faces the grim prospect of being treated as an outcast by some leaders at the two-day G-20 summit, said Bessma Momani, a professor at Canadas University of Waterloo. Group photos may be unavoidable, but liberal democratic leaders from countries such as Germany and Canada will not want to be seen shaking his hand, Momani said. Former Spanish King Juan Carlos faced scathing domestic criticism over his handshake with the prince in Abu Dhabi, his first stop in a regional tour which also included close allies Bahrain and Egypt as well as Tunisia. An image of the laughter-filled encounter at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last Sunday was dubbed by a conservative Spanish daily as the photo of shame. But the 33-year-old prince, widely known as MBS, used the regional tour as something of a victory lap after US President Donald Trump who has praised Saudi Arabia as a truly spectacular ally threw his weight behind him. Trumps emphatic support came despite the Central Intelligence Agencys reported assessment that the prince who controls all major levers of power in the Saudi government was behind the killing. It should come as no surprise that allies like Trump, Chinas Xi (Jinping) and Russias (Vladimir) Putin will have no qualms in signalling that they are absolutely fine to continue doing business with MBS, said Momani. Frosty reception But some officials in the princes entourage are bracing for a frosty reception at the G-20 summit. Ahead of the princes visit, Human Rights Watch urged Argentine prosecutors to consider bringing criminal charges against Prince Mohammed over alleged war crimes in a brutal Saudi-led war in Yemen and his possible complicity in Khashoggis murder. It was unclear whether Argentine prosecutors would act on the request. Trump also faces growing pressure from US lawmakers, some of whom are demanding a probe into his financial ties to determine whether the president has any vested interest in backing the kingdom. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Pentagon chief Jim Mattis were to brief American senators Wednesday on Saudi Arabia amid mounting bipartisan concern about the kingdom. The princes supporters fear that world leaders could leverage his weakened international position to gain concessions from the kingdom, as it struggles with a slump in oil prices. The prince is expected to meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has kept international pressure mounting on the kingdom by saying the orders for Khashoggis killing came from the highest levels of the Saudi government. In the event Erdogan meets with MBS on the sidelines of G-20, it will be indicative that some sort of a deal has been reached, which could include Gulf reconciliation and concrete steps on how to wind down the war in Yemen, said Sigurd Neubauer, a Middle East analyst based in Washington. However, a potential Saudi-Turkish deal is unlikely to shield MBS from US Congressional investigations into the Khashoggi murder. Hes here to stay In a foretaste of expected acrimony at G-20, the prince faced hundreds of protesters Tuesday during a brief stopover in Tunisia, with many shouting Go away assassin! and some clutching red-stained chain saws a reference to Khashoggis gruesome murder. The hostility stands in stark contrast to the princes month-long tour of the United States earlier this year, where he received something of a rockstar reception and hobnobbed with business titans such as Disney chief Bob Iger and Apples Tim Cook. In PR-slicked campaigns, the crown prince had marketed himself as a liberaliser seeking to remake his conservative petro-state, while amassing power to a degree unseen by previous rulers. The global fallout over the killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist critical of the prince, appears to have torpedoed that effort. But it has not so far has threatened to unseat the prince amid his tightening grip on military and security agencies and a ruthless crackdown on political rivals. The princes supporters say the fact that he stepped out of the kingdom amid a crisis is an indication that he is firmly in control. The prince is trying to show his domestic and international audience that hes leaving the palace and confident hell return to control it, said Momani. He wants to show hes here to stay for decades as the next ruler of Saudi Arabia. ac/hc THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY APPLE INC. Serbian journalist groups Wednesday condemned an award to a biographer who has staunchly defended Ratko Madic, the Bosnian Serb commander serving time for the 1995 Srebrenica genocide and other war crimes. It is the latest in a string of controversies in Serbia over the glorification of war criminals and apologist accounts of their roles in the 1990s wars during the break-up of Yugoslavia. On Tuesday, Mladic biographer Ljiljana Bulatovic Medic was awarded the Golden Quill prize from the Journalists Association of Vojvodina for her contribution to the field. Independent journalists baulked at the celebration of a writer who has penned several books defending Mladic, including one titled: Srebrenica, a lie and hoax imposed on the Serbian people. Serb forces under Mladics command slaughtered some 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia, the worst atrocity on European soil since World War II. In a joint statement, the Independent Journalists Associations of Vojvodina (NDVD) and Serbia (NUNS) condemned the recognition of a denier of war crimes, ethnic cleansing and genocide. Serbia has never removed war propagandists who wrongly present themselves as journalists (and who) have never been prosecuted for their actions, the journalist groups said in a statement quoted by Beta news agency. Ljiljana Bulatovic Medic is certainly one of them and continues to spread hatred in the region today, the statement added. When asked for any response to the criticism, Medic told AFP I would only like those who condemn me to come and tell me what I wrote that was false, adding that she felt vindicated by the prize. Mladic, who is serving a life sentence in a Dutch prison, has never admitted his guilt and is still considered a hero by many Serbs in Bosnia and Serbia. Last month, Serbias defence ministry drew criticism from rights groups for publishing a book by a former army chief of staff who is currently in prison for war crimes in Kosovo. That same month a court fined eight activists for disrupting an event in which the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) invited an army officer convicted of war crimes in Croatia. The protesters had interrupted the event last January by unfurling a banner that said: Criminals should shut up so we can talk about victims. World's largest scientific society names two Kansas State University researchers as 2018 fellows Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018 MANHATTAN A Kansas State University infectious disease researcher and a late biology professor have been named 2018 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, or AAAS. The two Kansas State University fellows: Jurgen Richt, Regents distinguished professor and director of the university's Center of Excellence for Emerging and Zoonotic Animal Diseases, or CEEZAD, for distinguished research and advisory contributions to the field of zoonotic diseases, particularly for his pioneering role in the development of the One Health paradigm. James Guikema, late professor of biology and university administrator, for distinguished contributions to the fields of photosynthesis and gravitational biology, and in research administration at Kansas State University and the NASA Specialized Center of Research and Training, or NSCORT. Richt and Guikema are among 416 fellows chosen this year by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which is the world's largest scientific society. Election as a fellow is an honor bestowed upon association members by their peers. The association's fellowship program recognizes individuals whose efforts toward advancing science applications are deemed scientifically or socially distinguished. This year's fellows will be formally announced in the AAAS News and Notes section of the journal Science on Nov. 29. Richt and Guikema will be recognized at a certificate and pinning ceremony on Feb. 16, 2019, during the association's annual meeting in Washington, D.C. Richt and Guikema join 21 current and emeritus Kansas State University faculty members who are fellows of the association. "Our 2018 fellows are truly deserving of this recognition for their career accomplishments," said Peter Dorhout, the university's vice president for research. "Dr. Richt is a distinguished leader in zoonotic diseases whose work has improved animal and human health throughout the world. In a special way, this distinction by AAAS helps us remember and honor Dr. Guikema and his countless contributions to the field of biology during his service to Kansas State University." Richt is a veterinary microbiologist who has worked with multiple agents of zoonotic potential, including bovine spongiform encephalopathy or mad cow disease, chronic wasting disease, animal influenza viruses, Rift Valley Fever virus, Borna virus and other emerging pathogens. Richt's career, which includes a seven-year assignment as lead scientist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Animal Disease Center, has been spent developing novel vaccines and testing methods and remedies for a number of animal and zoonotic diseases. Richt joined Kansas State University in 2008 as Regents distinguished professor and Kansas Bioscience eminent scholar in the College of Veterinary Medicine's department of diagnostic medicine and pathobiology. Richt became the director of the Department of Homeland Security's Center of Excellence for Emerging and Zoonotic Animal Diseases at Kansas State University in 2010. As director, he leads an international network for scientific research involving multiple U.S. universities, foreign universities, and various industry and foreign partners. Richt has authored or co-authored more than 200 peer-reviewed articles. His work has been published extensively, including in such prestigious journals as Nature Biotechnology, Science, Journal of Experimental Medicine, PNAS, Cell Host Microbe and Journal of Virology. In 2011, Richt received the Pfizer Animal Health Award for Research Excellence and in 2014 the Kansas State University Iman Outstanding Faculty Award for Research. Guikema devoted decades to Kansas State University as an administrator and professor of biology. He died in April 2018. Guikema joined the Division of Biology in 1981 and spent 37 years of teaching, research, service and administration at the university. He rose through the ranks to be named associate director of the Division of Biology. His research program in plant sciences transitioned into gravitational and space biology, with multiple experiments on the space shuttle. In 1998, Guikema became the university's associate dean of the graduate school and associate vice president for research. After 17 years, he returned to the Division of Biology to serve again as associate director. During his dedicated service in the university's central administration, he mentored students and young faculty and supported novel research and scholarly pursuits. Guikema received a bachelor's degree from Calvin College in Michigan and a doctorate in photosynthesis from the University of Michigan. He served a two-year postdoctoral position at the University of Missouri, where he met his wife of 31 years, Sue Brown, a Kansas State University distinguished professor of biology. UPDATE 11/28/18--- GoFundMe responded to our request for more information. In an e-mail Katherine Cichy a member of the GoFundMe team says "GoFundMe has a team dedicated to monitoring campaigns created for those impacted by fires in California. We've created a centralized location for verified campaigns created for those impacted by the fires in California. This page is updated on a regular basis." This page is https://www.gofundme.com/cause/californiafires The e-mail also states, "Additionally, we deploy proprietary technical tools and have multiple processes in place to verify the identity of campaign organizers and the beneficiary of the campaign. Before money is transferred, an individuals information, including their banking information, must be verified by our payment processor." If you are ever unsure of a GoFundMe page, Katherine says to reach out to the team or report a campaign. That way GoFundMe can investigate if the page is a scam or not. ------- Today is giving Tuesday and if you are looking to donate money to Camp Fire victims this year make sure it's with a reputable source. In the newsroom we've gotten a few calls from viewers telling us about fake GoFundMe accounts. One women i spoke to Carolina Aiken knows about the Camp Fire damage first hand. She shared a video with me of her son's home in Paradise, California or what's left of it. When her son lost everything she turned to GoFundMe to see how her son could benefit from money being raised. Carolina Aitken says "I looked into the GoFundMe pages. I bet there was like nine of them. I wrote an e-mail to them asking them how they are going to distribute the money, how does a person sign up to get the funds. not one of them ever answered me back." I asked Carolina if she still had the links to the accounts she contacted. She looked and told me those pages were gone and no longer existed. Carolina says "So when they are saying they are collecting the money for the people of the fire victims whatever... are they really??" From looking at their website it looks like GoFundMe is checking pages to make sure they are all legit, but some do fall through the cracks. I sent a media request into GoFundMe to ask them more about the fake account scare. Their automatic response says we're going to try out best to respond back to you within the next two hours. Due to the high volume of press inquires that we receive, we may not respond to everyone. By the time this story had to air, we have not heard back from them. Carolina says "Well it actually makes me really upset. There are so many people out there that do need the help and when they do this they are taking funds away from them." I spoke to Dee Anne Everson today from United Way. She is the CEO. She told me the best way to help victims of a disaster like this one is win gift cards to grocery stores or gas stations. She said donating to United Way in Northern California or the North Valley Community Foundation are other great options. If you are ever unsure if you are donating to a reputable source do your research before you donate. Credit: Linda StrawberryLate night TV will be shinier and brighter next month with the Smashing Pumpkins stop by ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Tuesday, December 11. The '90s-alt legends will be supporting their new album, Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1/LP: No Past. No Future, which is the band's first to feature original members Billy Corgan, James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlin in nearly two decades. The record is out now. Prior to their TV appearance, the Pumpkins will launch a U.S. tour this Wednesday, November 28 in Madison, Wisconsin in celebration of their 30th anniversary. They'll launch a European trek in May 2019. Jimmy Kimmel Live! airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET on ABC. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 28) House Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has put a stop to congressional probes in the lower chamber which would not result in legislation, House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya told CNN Philippines' The Source on Wednesday. "She put a moratorium on all inquiries not unless there is a legislation to be had in that investigation," Andaya said. arroyo moratorium This follows Arroyo's statement that she dislikes House probes in aid of legislation as these become venues for "harassment." Arroyo's verbal order has prompted legislators to withdraw some resolutions calling for probes in aid of legislation, shelving these in the Rules committee. 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. Arroyo herself was the subject of a congressional probe when the Senate investigated in 2005 the alleged phone call between her and then Commission on Elections commissioner Virgilio Garciliano to rig the 2004 elections in her favor. During the course of the Senate probe on the "Hello Garci" scandal, Arroyo issued Executive Order No. 464 which required Cabinet members, military generals, senior national security officials and other government officers to seek clearance from the president before they testify in congressional hearings. This order stalled Senate hearings on the allegedly anomalous North Rail project, which Arroyo approved. Among the controversial House probes in the past two years include the investigations into the alleged affair of opposition Senator Leila de Lima with her driver and the billion-peso shabu shipments to the country. CORVALLIS, Ore. -- A former Oregon State University student accused of putting racist bumper stickers on cars is scheduled to begin his trial Wednesday morning. In a report from earlier this year, police said Andrew Oswalt and another suspect placed fliers about "white oppression" and "white pride" on 20 to 25 vehicles during a "Standing up for Racial Justice" meeting in Corvallis in June 2017. Police tried to contact Oswalt in December 2017 and finally met with him in January. They said when an officer asked if he was responsible, Oswalt shrugged his shoulders and said "ehhh." Oswalt was arrested in January, and last week he waived his right to a jury trial. This means a judge will most likely hear the case in a bench trial. The trial was scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- Gov. Kate Brown has unveiled her budget and policy proposals for the next biennium, saying she wants to boost education funding, push campaign finance reform, ensure continued access to health insurance coverage and fund legal counseling for immigrants facing deportation. Brown is also dedicating another $2 million in funding for legal action against the Trump administration to support what she called Oregon values and prevent retaliatory practices. Brown told reporters Wednesday that Oregon is involved in 15 lawsuits against the current administration. Increased education funding would pay for more teachers, improve high school graduation rates and increase the school year to 180 days. In the election this month, Democrats gained a three-fifths supermajority in the Legislature, giving them greater power to impose taxes. PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - A 34-year-old pharmacist has been indicted on numerous counts related to placing a hidden camera in a bathroom at a Portland Kaiser Permanente facility. Multnomah County District Attorney Rod Underhill says a 71-count indictment against Johnny Tuck Chee Chan was unsealed Tuesday. The indictment identifies 51 people, including a minor, who were recorded without permission on the camera between December 2016 and November 2017. It also says Chan produced a sexually explicit recording of a child and charges him with five counts of possessing child pornography. Chan pleaded not guilty to the charges Tuesday. Chan was arrested Nov. 26 by the United States Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force in Portland. According to a search warrant, Portland police were notified in November 2017 by Kaiser Permanente that an employee had discovered the camera. EUGENE, Ore. -- The Whiteaker community and other Eugene residents had a chance to break bread with Eugene police at New Day Bakery. Police Chief Chris Skinner and multiple police officers showed up to the bakery to meet with members of the community. Their goal was to have a conversation and listen to any concerns or questions they might have. "It helps me to remember how integrated we all really are," Officer Shawn Trotter said. That was exactly what police were hoping for from Tuesday's "Presence Kneaded" meeting: to connect and hear concerns from community members. "I've noticed there's less of a police presence, and I've noticed a little up-tick in crime," said one Whiteaker resident. "Just generally in visiting with friends here, the neighborhood has gone down a bit." The man does agree that the beauty of events like this is being able to talk directly to the police chief in a non-formal setting. "So I asked the chief if he could have more of a presence, maybe even some officers on foot here to get to know us and just be visible in the community in a way that they are not now," he said. Officers said they also benefit from being able to swing through and chat with anyone that has something to say. "We want them to see our true hearts, and we want to hear from them about some of their specific concerns -- ways that we can do better and ways that we can improve how we offer those professional police services," Trotter said. If you missed Tuesday's meeting, Eugene police said they have more events like this coming up in the future. You can follow their Facebook and Twitter pages to keep an eye out for those events. However, if you need to submit feedback to the police department soon, you can do so by going to their website. Early risers in Kilkenny will now be able to enjoy morning greyhound racing with new fixtures announced by the Irish Greyhound Board. The meetings, beginning at 8.18am, will be held in Kilkenny on Wednesday mornings, beginning in December. The same deal also sees racing begin on Thursday mornings in Kilcohan Park Greyhound Stadium in Waterford, beginning in January 2019. The new fixture will be available to UK and Irish betting shops, as well as online operators, as part of SISs exclusive streaming portfolio. SIS already own exclusive rights to broadcast several fixtures in Ireland, with current offerings from Limerick, Cork, Tralee, Mullingar and Youghal. Director of Tote Wagering and IT with the Irish Greyhound Board, Joe Lewins, commented: Irish Greyhound Racing is now broadcast to in excess of 4,000 betting shops in the UK. This gives the IGB, and the Irish greyhound industry as a whole, further opportunity to showcase our racing product to the SIS audience and to build on the success of the meetings currently being broadcast throughout Ireland and the UK. The IGB welcomes the extension of the SIS programme in both Kilkenny and Waterford. We will continue to promote the product so that Irish greyhound racing can benefit from those exposures and revenues. SIS greyhound offering currently includes 30,000 races a year, making it the most comprehensive in the market. Kilkenny has been battered by Storm Diana this morning - ESB Networks have declared Kilkenny one of the worst hit counties. Storm Diana hit Irelands Southern and Southwestern coasts early this morning and continues to track northwards, resulting in some damage to the electricity infrastructure. Approximately 19,000 homes, farms and businesses are without power nationwide this afternoon. Counties worst impacted include Cork, Kerry, Tipperary, Carlow and Kilkenny. With the storm abating ESB Networks crews are now deployed and working to restore supply in southern areas where it is safe to do so. The damage is mainly attributable to fallen trees on overhead lines as a result of the high winds associated with the arrival of the storm overnight. At around 11am this morning, a peak of approximately 40,000 homes, farms and businesses were without electricity. ESB expect that the vast majority of the 19,000 homes, farms and businesses without power at present will have their supply restored by tonight. ESB Networks apologises for any inconvenience caused. An Important Public Safety Message from ESB Networks There are approximately 200 individual locations where Storm Diana has damaged our networks meaning that there is extensive damage with low hanging and fallen lines nationwide. We are particularly appealing to farmers and landowners to be vigilant as fallen trees or branches may have fallen on or be leaning against electricity wires. Please do not approach or touch the wires, trees or branches, as they are extremely dangerous. Report immediately to 1850 372 999. Real time information on power outages and restoration times is available at: www. powercheck.ie with further information available here. If your fault is not logged please report it on the ESB Networks website. Customers should have their MPRN available to access recorded information specific to their location. You can also check @ESBNetworks on Twitter for updates. ESB Networks is reminding customers of the precautionary measures to take in the event of a power cut: Never approach broken lines or damaged poles, and keep children and animals away report damage to ESB Networks at 1850 372 999 and listen to recorded messages carefully Turn off electric cookers, ovens, irons, etc. if electricity supply is lost Leave a light switched on so you know when power has been restored Take extra care if using candles, oil lamps or other naked flames Test smoke alarms with fresh batteries Ensure adequate ventilation if using gas heaters. Despite their new-found independence, the Bhutanese conjoined twins who were separated by doctors in Australia last week still want to be close to each other, nurses have told reporters. 15-month-old sisters Dawa and Nima Pelden flew nearly 6,000 miles for the life-changing operation. They were born joined at the stomach. Demographic groups Families and children Family members and relatives Health and medical Medical treatments and procedures Population and demographics Society Surgery Twins and multiple births Nurse coordinator Kellie Smith, who works on the twins' ward at Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital, told reporters Thursday that the pair are never far from one another. "We try and have them a little bit apart," Smith said, according to CNN affiliate Channel 7. "But they manage to sort of bum shuffle back together and have their legs intertwined always." The nurse added that ward staff initially tried putting the twins in separate beds but "they didn't like that at all." "They're in the one bed together and just happy playing with one another, and it's actually beautiful to see," Smith added. "They like their mother close too. They're always looking for mum and she's never far away." Girls have followed 'the path that we set out for them' Lead pediatric surgeon Joe Crameri said the girls were doing well six days after the operation. "The girls have followed largely the path that we set out for them," he said, CNN affiliate Channel 7 reported. "Like any surgical pathway, there has been a few bumps in the road, and there are a few bumps we're still smoothing out -- but with all the resources we've got here at the Children's Hospital ... we're making good progress at the current time." Crameri added that the sisters were "getting back to a more normal life." "They're back to eating, and they're starting to move around and the areas that we've repaired on their tummy wall seems to be holding up with the strain quite nicely." The delicate procedure, carried out November 9, took more than six hours and involved about 25 surgeons, nurses and anesthetists, according to CNN affiliate 9 News. The twins were born via cesarean section last year and are believed to be Bhutan's first conjoined twins. As well as issues with mobility and comfort, the twins had recently been losing weight, which was a concern to doctors, Elizabeth Lodge, CEO of Melbourne-based nonprofit Children First Foundation, which funded the operation said last month. The girls' operation was estimated to cost about $180,000 (250,000 Australian dollars), according to 9 News. 'Delightful to look after' Nurse coordinator Smith said Nima and Dawa have been a delight to look after, and that their personalities were shining through. Megan Collins, another nurse on the ward, agreed that the pair were in good spirits. "They're loving interacting with the nursing staff," Collins said. "We're now blowing bubbles and doing high fives, they love it when we're watching the Wiggles -- they'll do little dance moves with their hands and what-not," Channel 7 reported Collins as saying during a press conference. "It's really nice to see them separated. But they're still really happy about wanting to be close to one another." Difficult surgery Conjoined twins occur once every 200,000 live births, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center. About 70% are female, and they are always identical twins. Scientists believe that conjoined twins develop from a single fertilized egg that fails to separate completely as it divides. "The success of surgery depends on where the twins are joined and how many and which organs are shared, as well as the experience and skill of the surgical team," according to the Mayo Clinic. They were previously commonly referred to as "Siamese twins," a name that originated with Eng and Chang Bunker, conjoined twins who were born in Siam (now Thailand) in 1811. Never separated, they lived to the age of 63 and appeared in traveling exhibitions. Chang and Eng both married and fathered a total of 21 children between them. While surgery to separate twins joined at the abdomen and other parts of their bodies can face complications, twins joined at the head are at a far greater risk. The case of two American boys joined at the top of their skulls attracted global attention in 2016 when doctors successfully separated them after 27 hours of surgery. Women and girls in Northern Ireland will receive access to abortion services in the Republic of Ireland as of next year, Irish Health Minister Simon Harris announced Thursday morning. Harris told Irish broadcaster RTE that it is a "matter of great regret" that women and girls in Northern Ireland are not currently able to access critical abortion services in the Republic of Ireland. Abortion Abortion rights Continents and regions Demographic groups Europe Females (demographic group) Health and medical Medical treatments and procedures Northern Europe Northern Ireland Population and demographics Sexual and reproductive health Societal issues Society United Kingdom Ireland He added that it was "appropriate and important" that these women should be able to access these services rather than being forced to travel to other parts of the UK. Women in Northern Ireland have previously been unable to travel to the Republic of Ireland for abortions, because the Republic's ban on the practice was only revoked in its landslide referendum in May, with legislation currently passing through parliament. Harris pledged to work toward passing the legislation ahead of parliament's Christmas vacation, with the intention of implementing services as early as January. His statements came ahead of his meeting with pro-choice activists in Northern Ireland Thursday afternoon, and were welcomed by abortion campaigners. "We welcome the Minister's commitment to ensure access to abortion services for women from Northern Ireland," Grainne Teggart, Amnesty UK's Northern Ireland campaigns manager, told CNN. "However, it serves to underscore the absurd situation we find ourselves in, where women from Northern Ireland will soon be able to travel by train to have an abortion, but still won't be able to access safe and legal abortions at home. "We call on the Northern Ireland secretary and UK government to prioritize women's health care, decriminalize abortion and ensure a framework for access is put in place." Abortion remains illegal in Northern Ireland in all cases except those where a woman's life or health are at serious risk. UK Department of Health figures revealed that more than 900 women traveled from Northern Ireland to England for an abortion in 2017, a 25% rise on the year before and the highest figure since 2011. Northern Ireland's abortion laws have nevertheless come under increasing scrutiny since Ireland voted overwhelmingly to support a constitutional amendment in May to remove the ban on the practice. The UK House of Commons also voted in favor of legalizing abortion in Northern Ireland in October after a number of Conservative politicians broke ranks and voted for a bill proposed by opposition Labour MP Diana Johnson. The bill is unlikely to become law, however, because the governing Conservative Party's parliamentary majority depends on the Democratic Unionist Party, which is fiercely opposed to abortion. The proposal nevertheless drew support from leading ministers, including International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt. A woman spoke of her 16-year-old daughter who died after being denied chemotherapy for leukemia because she was in the early weeks of pregnancy. A nurse described how a woman who was experiencing heavy bleeding after self-inducing an abortion was forced by medical providers to wait for treatment as "punishment" -- only to lose too much blood to be saved. An outreach worker remembered the mentally disabled 14-year-old girl who became pregnant at 12, probably by her father, and received no care. Stories like these are revealed in a new Human Rights Watch report, released Monday, that focuses on the effect of a total government ban on abortions in the Dominican Republic. Abortion Abortion rights Caribbean Continents and regions Dominican Republic Health and health care (by demographic group) Health and medical Human Rights Watch Latin America Maternal and child health Medical fields and specialties Medical treatments and procedures Obstetrics and gynecology Political advocacy groups Political organizations Pregnancy and childbirth Sexual and reproductive health Societal issues Society The Americas Women's health Diseases and disorders Miscarriages Pregnancy complications The Caribbean nation is one of just 26 countries around the globe that prohibit -- even criminalize -- the procedure with no exceptions, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy group focused on reproductive health and rights. And the Dominican Republic is one of six countries in the Caribbean and Latin America to maintain restrictions, no matter the circumstances. Article 37 in the country's Constitution, which also prohibits the death penalty in all circumstances, reads, "The right to life is inviolable from conception until death." But just because abortions are outlawed doesn't mean they don't happen. In fact, Guttmacher has reported that incidence of abortions are no less frequent -- but are less safe -- when they are restricted. And in Latin America and the Caribbean, where 97% of women and girls of reproductive age live in a place with restrictive abortion laws, the rate of abortion has increased, rising 9 percentage points between the early 1990s and 20 years later, Guttmacher found. In a nation where the Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance reports that nearly half of all pregnancies are unplanned or unwanted, the lack of safe and legal options for abortion has real consequences, the report shows. "Women and girls in the Dominican Republic have always defied the abortion ban, but they have been forced to put their health and lives on the line to end pregnancies clandestinely," said Margaret Wurth, senior women's rights researcher at Human Rights Watch and the report's author. They've tried home remedies, sipped special teas and denied themselves food or water. They've taken prescriptions that aren't supposed to be taken while pregnant, have ingested or inserted other pills to terminate their pregnancies and have tried to harm themselves. One woman reported using a concrete block to beat her belly. 'Fear that permeates everything' Human Rights Watch interviewed 167 people for this report. Included were 50 women and girls who'd experienced unplanned or unwanted pregnancies and dozens of others -- such as health providers, social service professionals and other officials. Women with resources who want to terminate their pregnancies may be able to travel outside the country or, with the help of their connections, arrange for abortions through safe clandestine providers. But those who are poor or living in rural parts of the country don't have these options, Wurth said. They are left with two choices: have babies they don't want or fend for themselves to end their pregnancies. Adolescent girls, who often lack access to contraception and information, she said, are especially vulnerable. Add to this Article 317 in the Dominican Republic's penal code, which threatens prison sentences when it comes to abortion. Women and girls who self-induce or consent to abortions, and medical providers who provide illegal abortions, face the risk of serving time behind bars. In practice, while abortions are against the law even to save the life of a woman or girl, the United Nations reports that "general principles of criminal legislation allow abortions to be performed for this reason on the grounds of necessity." But this exception doesn't help every woman or girl who feels she needs an abortion. Prosecutions and arrests are rare, but fear of both persists -- often preventing people from seeking or offering help, Wurth explained. Even women who have had miscarriages, she said, admit being afraid to enter hospitals because they might be falsely accused of having induced an abortion. "Criminal penalties create fear that permeates everything," the report's author said. It means women and girls believe that "Going to the hospital and saying I had an abortion means I'm going to jail." As a result, complications like heavy bleeding or pain go untended to and, in the worst cases, kill. A perforated uterus and tissue remaining in the uterus that leads to sepsis are two examples of what can go horribly wrong. Even with the fear of arrest, "there are an estimated 25,000 hospitalizations for abortion and miscarriage in the public health system every year, many of which are women needing care after a clandestine abortion," the report says. This information came from Dr. Jose Mordan, the head of the Department of Family Health at the Ministry of Public Health, in an email he sent this month to Human Rights Watch, the report states. He also said that at least 8% of maternal deaths in the Dominican Republic result from illegal abortions or miscarriages. Some of the girls and women who did seek medical help after experiencing complications talked to Human Rights Watch about being mistreated and abused by care providers. They reported name-calling, being denied pain medications and even undergoing surgical procedures without anesthesia. But mixed in too are those in the medical community who put their patients first, laws be damned, the report shows. "Sometimes you have your hands tied. You don't know what to do. You have the law telling you that you can't do it [perform an abortion]," one doctor told Human Rights Watch researchers. "But it doesn't work like that. ... My job is to preserve the woman's life. If I have to violate the law, I will." 'A starting point' A poll taken in the Dominican Republic by a research organization shows that 79% of those surveyed believe abortion should be decriminalized in certain cases. And protesters, demanding change, took to the streets in July. A coalition of groups, ob-gyns, the ministry of health and even President Danilo Medina support legalizing abortion in three circumstances, Wurth said: when the life of a woman or girl is endangered, when the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest, and when the pregnancy is unviable and the fetus won't survive outside the womb. Medina has objected to the penal code a number of times, encouraging decriminalization in these three circumstances. In a letter to the president of the Senate in 2016, obtained by Human Rights Watch, he called these exceptions "extreme circumstances, terrible, but that occur in daily life, and which we as legitimate representatives of the people, should give responses in accordance with the Constitution and with our values." So far, though, the laws remain the same. It's on the National Congress to enact this kind of reform -- and Wurth is hopeful that it will. Other countries, like Ireland this year and Chile last year, have eased abortion restrictions. And the Guttmacher Institute reports that 27 countries, between 2000 and 2017, reformed their laws to increase legal abortion access. Why not the Dominican Republic too, Wurth asked, even if it's limited to three circumstances? "It would be a starting point," she said. "There's no place in modern democracy for a ban on abortion." A chickenpox outbreak among students at Asheville Waldorf School in North Carolina has grown to 36 cases as of Monday, and exemptions from vaccination were a contributing factor, according to the Buncombe County Health Department, which has been monitoring the situation since the end of October. Asheville Waldorf School, which serves students from nursery through sixth grade, is part of an educational movement that subscribes to a philosophy focused on physical activity and learning through hands-on tasks, according to its website. There are more than 900 Waldorf schools in 83 countries, and the Asheville school, which was founded in 2009, is one of about 160 in the United States. Alternative schools Asheville Chicken pox Children Children's health Communicable disease control Continents and regions Demographic groups Diseases and disorders Education Education systems and institutions Families and children Family members and relatives Health and health care (by demographic group) Health and medical Infectious diseases Maternal and child health North America North Carolina Pediatric vaccinations Population and demographics Public health Society Southeastern United States The Americas United States Vaccination and immunization Belief, religion and spirituality Students and student life The school is closed for Thanksgiving break and could not be reached for comment. Chickenpox is a very contagious disease that causes a blister-like rash, itching, tiredness and fever, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The disease is caused by the varicella-zoster virus, and a vaccine was introduced in 1995. Two doses of the vaccine, given at ages 12 months through 15 months and then again at 4 through 6 years, are about 90% effective at preventing chickenpox. Though North Carolina requires vaccination for all children attending schools, the state permits both medical and religious exemptions. Still, vaccination rates in the state outperformed national figures in 2013 and 2014, according to publicly available information. Dr. Jennifer Mullendore, the Buncombe County medical director, said that last year, the Asheville Waldorf kindergarten class had the highest percentage of religious exemptions in the county and among the highest in the state. The state as a whole sees about 1.2% religious exemptions among children enrolled in kindergarten, she said. Mullendore said the figures from last year are the latest because data has not been gathered and analyzed for the current school year. Isolation and quarantine To monitor the situation at Asheville Waldorf, the health department has requested that the school continue to send it information about any new cases, she said. Meanwhile, the school is requiring anyone who has the disease to stay home, while classmates of someone contagious (though not yet sick) must remain at home for 21 days. "The reason for that is it can take 21 days for the time somebody is exposed to chickenpox for them to actually develop the signs and symptoms of chickenpox," Mullendore said. "We don't want to have to keep those kids at home. If the child gets one dose of the chickenpox vaccine, they can return to school immediately." Children whose parents provide evidence of immunity, such as blood work or a doctor's statement, can also return to school, she said. This 21-day quarantine is "our last resort in terms of containing and stopping the spread of the illness so that we don't see more cases and so nobody ends up with a complication," Mullendore said. No complications and no hospitalizations have been reported, she added. "We can't predict who is going to end up with complications," she said. "There are case reports of previously healthy children ending up in hospital because of chickenpox -- or dying because of chickenpox." Most parents do not hesitate to vaccinate "The vaccine for chickenpox and all vaccines out there are safe and effective," she said. A Pew survey that found Most Americans agree that vaccines are safe for healthy children. Another Pew Research Center survey in 2017 showed that a solid majority of Americans, 88%, believe that the benefits of vaccinating their children against measles, mumps and rubella outweigh the risks. By contrast, 10% believe that the risks of the MMR vaccine, specifically, outweigh the benefits. While the majority of all major religious groups say the MMR vaccine should be required for healthy schoolchildren, white evangelical Protestants tend to express less support for requiring the MMR vaccine. People who have no religious affiliation similarly express less support for the vaccine, according to Pew. Recently, an outbreak of measles was reported in New York among the orthodox Jewish community, with origins in Israel. Mullendore said that what's happening at Asheville Waldorf "demonstrates what happens when we have a population that is not immunized, that has not gotten the vaccine. It offers an opportunity for the infection to get into that community and spread easily. "I have vaccinated my child," she noted. Two lawsuits have been filed on behalf of residents of Denmark, South Carolina, where a CNN investigation revealed that a chemical was being added to the water supply for 10 years without EPA approval. The city of Denmark has been under scrutiny from residents suspicious of the rust-colored water coming from their taps, even though the local and state government assured them it was safe. Business and industry sectors Business, economy and trade Continents and regions Energy and utilities North America South Carolina Southeastern United States The Americas United States Utilities industry Water and wastewater management Companies Denmark Environment and natural resources Environmental Control Corporation Environmental Protection Agency Environmental regulation and policy Europe Government and public administration Government bodies and offices Government departments and authorities Government organizations - US Health departments Law and legal system Lawsuits and claims Natural resources management Northern Europe Trial and procedure US federal departments and agencies US government independent agencies Water quality Water resources management One of the lawsuits seeks to have water bills reimbursed for that time period and alleges that the local government had no right to make people pay for water that was not potable. Both suits are class-action complaints, meaning they potentially represent all of the nearly 3,000 residents of Denmark. The chemical, HaloSan, is typically used to treat pools or spas but is not approved by the EPA to disinfect drinking water. The EPA told CNN that "HaloSan has not undergone the necessary evaluations ... and therefore, EPA cannot confirm the safe use of this product for the disinfection of drinking water." Concerned residents asked Virginia Tech researcher Marc Edwards to test their water supply last year. He discovered that HaloSan was being used to treat the city's water when he read it in a May water quality study done by the state Department of Health and Environmental Control. "I've never once seen it used in a public water supply," he said. Edwards is known for his work helping to reveal high levels of lead in the water in Flint, Michigan. The residents say they'd been seeing rusty-colored water for years. Bakari Sellers is an attorney who filed one of the suits on behalf of residents. He is a former Denmark resident who represented the area in the state legislature and is now a CNN contributor. The suit filed on behalf of three named Denmark residents, representing the class, alleges that "Plaintiffs were damaged by Defendant's conduct as Plaintiffs purchased and consumed water that included a chemical that was not approved by the EPA and was not determined to be safe to people or the environment." CNN learned through a Freedom of Information Act request and a one-year investigation that a stop-use order was issued in July, halting HaloSan's usage in the water supply. The mayor of Denmark, Gerald Wright, told CNN that he did not have a statement at this time regarding the two lawsuits. "I haven't had a real opportunity to go through it," he said. But he previously told CNN that he deferred to the Department of Health and Environmental Control regarding the city's water. "It was our thinking that it was an approved chemical to be used," Wright said. "We rely totally on [the Department of Health and Environmental Control] because they have the responsibility and expertise to test, monitor and advise." The mayor told CNN that the city stopped using HaloSan when it received the stop order in July. A spokesman for the Department of Health and Environmental Control told CNN it would be inappropriate to comment on pending litigation but previously told CNN that it believed HaloSan was safe for drinking water based on the way its manufacturer "advertised" the chemical. "The Berry Systems HaloSan treatment unit had been advertised as an effective treatment in the control of iron bacteria and was certified," said Tommy Crosby, director of media relations for the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control. The manufacturer, Berry Systems, could not be reached for comment. The Department of Health and Environmental Control and Berry Systems are not named as defendants in either of the two lawsuits. The EPA confirmed that there is now an active investigation. Residents like Paula Brown and Eugene Smith have been collecting water samples for years, suspicious of the quality. Now they are taking legal action. "How can they say it's good to drink?" Smith asked CNN. "I'm not gonna drink it, and I know other people drink it, but a lot of people are drinking it because they have no other choice." Plaintiffs' attorney Sellers said he had no idea that HaloSan was being added to one of the town's wells. "I was a state rep, and I had no idea," Sellers said, echoing their concerns. "People are sick and tired of it. All they want is clean water. They've had brown water for a long time. "It's hard to bring in industry because of the water, and I understand the dilemma of the city," he said. "They don't have the resources to fix the problem." The second lawsuit, brought by attorney John Harrell, was filed against the City of Denmark, along with Denmark's Public Water System. It claims that they are overcharging residents for water, with bills sometimes amounting to more than their rents, "for the poisonous and often unused water." In the suit, residents believe they are entitled to refunds with interest. "Defendant relentlessly charged and continues to charge excessive rates," Harrell's lawsuit claims. "Access to water and sewer services is a fundamental necessity to human health, sanitation, and welfare as recognized by South Carolina law." Harrell told CNN that he has a list of more than 40 residents with health concerns ranging from rashes to more serious kidney and bladder problems, and he is investigating whether there is a link between the water and the health issues. He says he is also assessing whether another suit is possible. "I am confused by the similarities of the illnesses in the people of this small city," he told CNN. "I am perhaps more confused by the lack of more active pursuit by the local and state government in fixing the situation." But prior to the lawsuits, Wright told CNN that he's done everything possible. "I use water every day. Drink it. Washing in it. I would be extremely foolish if I didn't make certain it was safe. I care about myself as much as anybody cares about themselves. We have not been derelict or negligent with anything related to water. Those persons complaining, you will find out they are bogus complaints. We don't have any reason at all to provide anything less than quality water." April Pipkins, holding a picture of her slain son, had just started talking about the trauma of his shooting death by Alabama police when she paused Tuesday night during a town hall and prayer meeting for him. "I'm just at a loss of words. I'm trying to be strong during this time and hold up, you know," Pipkins told a gathering at Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church about Emantic Bradford Jr.'s shooting death last week at a mall. Alabama Business and industry sectors Business, economy and trade Continents and regions Crime, law enforcement and corrections Crimes against persons Criminal offenses Firearms Law enforcement North America Policing and police forces Retail and wholesale trade Shootings Shopping centers Southeastern United States The Americas United States Weapons and arms Benjamin Crump Funerals Law and legal system Misc people Belief, religion and spirituality Society Brian Wilson (Beach Boys musician) Celebrities She put her head in her hand and, after a few seconds, fell back into the arms of her attorney. Pipkins fainted, attorney Ben Crump said, and was sent to a hospital, where she was being evaluated. "The doctor said she's going to be OK," Crump said. Further details about her condition weren't immediately available. Pipkins and her family have demanded answers from police about the Thanksgiving night shooting at the Riverchase Galleria in nearby Hoover. Hoover police initially said Bradford, 21, shot a 12- and an 18-year-old in the mall after a fight, and that an officer killed him as he fled, brandishing a gun. But police later changed the story, saying witnesses and forensic tests indicated that while Bradford may have been involved in an altercation at the mall, he likely did not fire the rounds that injured the victims. The initial shooter, who has not been publicly identified, remains at large, and the officer who was working as mall security when he killed Bradford is on administrative leave pending an investigation, police say. Crump, a civil rights attorney representing Bradford's family, has leveled a series of allegations, including that Bradford actually was trying to help victims to safety when he was shot; that the officer who killed him didn't warn him before shooting; and that police didn't give him medical assistance as he lay dying. Pipkins was one of several speakers at Tuesday evening's church gathering. Jefferson County Commissioner Sheila Tyson gave a fiery speech about boycotting the mall, CNN affiliate WVTM reported. And Bradford's father emotionally shared memories of his son. "I can't hear him say 'Daddy' no more," Emantic Bradford Sr. said, according to WVTM. "You'll never walk through my door and call my name again." 'They want answers' Hoover Mayor Frank V. Brocato, Police Chief Nicholas Derzis and other city officials met with the Bradford family Tuesday night and apologized for initially identifying Bradford as the gunman, then saying he likely wasn't the gunman, according to Tyson, who also attended the meeting. CNN has not been able to independently verify what occurred in the meeting. Brocato could not be reached. Neither could Hoover police or Crump. "The family was open they want answers," Tyson said in an interview on Wednesday. "They don't just want to meet, they want answers." 'He's in a lot of pain' Brian Wilson, the 18-year-old victim, is recovering at a hospital after he was shot in the side and the abdomen, said his attorney, John C. Robbins. "He's in a lot of pain," Robbins told CNN Wednesday. "We anticipate a full recovery, but it's going to take some time." Wilson and Bradford were friends, according to Robbins. He said his client was upset about Bradford's death. Wilson, who is enrolled in a trade school to become a welder, went to the mall to do Christmas shopping last Thursday. The attorney declined to give additional details about the incident. In a statement, Robbins said Wilson's family offers condolences to the Bradfords and prayers for the 12-year-old victim, who also is recovering. "The Wilson Family hopes that this tragic event will lead to real, open and honest dialogue not only between the African-American community and the police, but also the entire community must be involved in this discussion," the statement said. "Reckless police shootings of young black man must stop. But they will not end until there is rational and productive communication between the entire community and the police force whose duty it is to protect that community." "So let it begin in Birmingham, and let it begin now," the statement said. MASON CITY, Iowa A man accused of melting locks to steal change is pleading not guilty. Tyler Brackey, 23 of Forest City, is charged with 3rd degree burglary and possession of burglars tools. Law enforcement says Brackey entered a Mason City apartment building on August 24, melted the locks on a dryer and took change out of the internal coin bin. His trial is set to begin on January 8, 2019. MASON CITY, Iowa A North Iowa man gets consecutive sentences for burglary, domestic assault, and drug possession. Troy Allen Burtis, 35 of Mason City, broke into a home in the 600 block of South Carolina Avenue in Mason City on June 21. Authorities say he repeated stabbed a man in the neck with a knife, leaving a one-inch cut, and pushed a woman a pulled her hair. Law enforcement then arrested Burtis for methamphetamine possession on June 28 in Mason City. He pleaded guilty to 3rd degree burglary, domestic abuse assault, and possession of methamphetamine 2nd offense. In September, Burtis was given two years in prison on the drug charge. Hes now been sentenced to five years in prison for the burglary and two years for the domestic assault. The sentences will be served one after the other for a total of nine years. MASON CITY, Iowa - Mercy Medical Center North Iowa is notifying around 1,900 individuals or their representatives that their protected health information may have been compromised due to a data breach. In a statement, Mercy says a recent investigation confirmed that an employee inappropriately accessed patient information, including birth dates, addresses, medication listings and insurance information, between July 2017 and July 2018. The hospital says it could not confirm that all patient records accessed were viewed for job-related purposes. The person in question is no longer employed nor has access to the hospital's information systems, Mercy adds. Notification letters to those affected were mailed out on Monday. Eric Merrill of Mason City was recently affected by two different data breaches, and says the news is concerning. "There's so much information that goes into a medical record that anybody can take a flash drive and download all that information and sell it on the black market." He is appreciative of the steps Mercy is taking to make sure this doesn't happen again, as well as offering free credit protection and identity theft services for those who may be at risk for one year, free of charge. "If you've been affected it's definitely worthwhile to take that type of protection and make sure that you're protected." In addition, Mercy's compliance team says it is reviewing privacy practices and reinforcing education for all staff members. Mercy is also working with law enforcement and the Department of Health and Human Services - Office for Civil Rights, and encourages anyone who has questions or concerns about the incident to contact a representative at 641-428-7000. The call center is strictly confidential and representatives are available Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. MASON CITY, Iowa A former employee of the Mason City Police Department is pleading not guilty to drug crimes. Melinda Sue Severs, 43 of Dumont, is charged with two counts of possession of a prescription drug without a prescription. Shes accused of taking unwanted medication that was dropped off at the police department for herself. Severs worked as an administrative assistant for Mason City police when the investigation into her began but is no longer employed there. Severs is scheduled to stand trial on February 12, 2019. ROCHESTER, Minn. - The Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry's PIPELINE Program met with Southeastern Minnesota employers to discuss challenges employers are facing and PIPELINE'S dual-training grants. The grants allow employers to develop instruction and on-the job training programs for their employees. "Individuals that participate in a program like this are less likely to leave. They see the investment that their employers are making within them. They're beginning to see their own career path so they're excited to stay and grow with that company," explains PIPELINE Program Manager Annie Welch. PIPELINE works mainly with companies in the advanced manufacturing, agriculture, healthcare services, and information technology industries. They're making three more stops around greater Minnesota through the end of the year. Kingstree, SC (29556) Today Plenty of sunshine. High around 65F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy this evening followed by some light rain after midnight. Low near 45F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%. Richard Cowan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trumps 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. Border security was expected to be high on the agenda. By Dec. 7, Congress must pass this spending bill, estimated at $312 billion, 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. Washingtons 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 traveling 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 Trumps proposed, $23 billion wall, with many Republicans in favor and most Democrats against, Senator Marco Rubio told reporters in a Capitol hallway. 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 Securitys budget were a total mess. House Republicans want $5 billion for Trumps wall, while the Senate wants $1.6 billion 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 of the wall. 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 programs to combat violence and promote the economies of El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Honduras has declined sharply. At the same time, despite Trumps efforts to make immigration more difficult, the number of illegal crossings has risen. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 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 its harder when youre stupid. A government shutdown would be stupid, said Republican Senator John Kennedy, also an Appropriations Committee member. But if we cant agree on the budget, we cant agree on the budget, he added. Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Grant McCool WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China is going to this weeks G-20 summit hoping for a deal to ease a damaging trade war with the United States, Beijings ambassador to Washington said on Tuesday while warning of dire consequences if U.S. hardliners try to separate the worlds two largest economies. Speaking to Reuters before heading to join Chinese President Xi Jinpings delegation at the Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires, Cui Tiankai said China and the United States had a shared responsibility to cooperate in the interests of the global economy. Asked whether he though hardliners in the White House were seeking to separate the closely linked U.S. and Chinese economies, Cui said he did not think it was possible or helpful to do so, adding I dont know if people really realize the possible consequences - the impact, the negative impact - if there is such a decoupling. The lessons of history are still there. In the last century, we had two world wars, And in between them, the Great Depression. I dont think anybody should really try to have a repetition of history. These things should never happen again, so people have to act in a responsible way. Asked whether he thought the current tensions, which have seen the two sides impose hundreds of billions of dollars of tit-for-tat tariffs on each other, could degenerate into all-out conflict, Cui called the outcome unimaginable and that the two countries should do everything to prevent it. Cui said China did not want to have a trade war and sought a negotiated solution to the current impasse stemming from President Donald Trumps demands for far-reaching Chinese concessions to correct a massive trade imbalance. But the key to this solution is a balanced approach to concerns of both sides, Cui said. We cannot accept that one side would put forward a number of demands and the other side just has to satisfy all these things. He said the two leaders had a very good working relationship and personal friendship formed in three previous face-to-face meetings, including two formal summits, and this had been shown by a long phone conversation in early November. White House insiders say there remain substantial differences within the Trump administration over how far to push China. This division groups on one side anti-China hardliner and trade adviser Peter Navarro, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and those who favor a complete reevaluation of the relationship. On the other side are pragmatists led by White House chief economist Larry Kudlow and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, concerned about the harm deepening friction could do to the U.S. economy and markets. Kudlow said on Tuesday that Trump is open to a trade deal with China but is prepared to hike tariffs on Chinese imports if there is no breakthrough on longstanding trade irritants during a planned dinner on Saturday in Buenos Aires with Xi. (Reuters) - United Technologies Corp (UTX.N) 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 (DWDP.N), Honeywell International Inc (HON.N) and General Electric Co (GE.N), 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 Loebs firm Third Point LLC and William Ackmans Pershing Square Capital Management LP, had called on United Technologies to pursue a split, and United Technologys chief executive, Gregory Hayes, had signaled 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 capitalization 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. Gold Fields, which employs about 3,600 people in South Africa, said in August it would restructure its South Deep operations and would cut about 1,100 jobs, nearly a third of the workforce, to save money. In response, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) went on strike at the mine on Nov.2. South Deep, the company's last South African asset, has lost money over the past five years and Goldfields has been working to mechanise operations in the face of challenging geology 3 kms (2 miles) below the surface. The company said its offer, which expires on Friday, included increasing severance payments by four weeks, or a total of as much as 45 million rand ($3 million), funding for skills training and preferential re-employment if positions become available. "If the offer is not accepted by Friday then it's difficult to predict how long the strike will continue for," Chief Executive Officer Nick Holland said. He also defended the plan to cut jobs after mining minister Gwede Mantashe on Monday criticised Gold Fields for not acting in good faith in talks with the government over the layoffs. "We have really come in here with what we believe is the absolute minimum to keep the operation sustainable into the future and even then its going to be a challenge for us to do so," Holland said. Sources at the NUM, which represents most the employees at the mine, said that the national leadership wanted to resolve the strike but the branch leaders were digging in. NUM branch leader Kanetso Matabane told Reuters this was not the case and Gold Fields was not entertaining any of their suggestions. Gold Fields earlier this month reported third-quarter production falling to 533,000 ounces from 552,000 in the same period last year, with South Deep producing just 50,000 ounces in that period, against 81,000 ounces a year earlier. ($1 = 13.9639 rand) (Reporting by Ed Stoddard and Tanisha Heiberg Editing by James Macharia and Jane Merriman) Image courtesy of Ritu Manoj Jethani / Shutterstock.com (Kitco News) - For the second year in a row, investors remain optimistic that gold will shine in 2019 as they search for stability in an environment of growing uncertainty and volatility, according to a survey conducted by international investment firm Legg Mason. According to the firms Global Investment Survey 2018, 23% of investors said that they see gold as one of the best investment opportunities next year, unchanged from 2017. The firm said that it contacted 16,810 investors for its survey. While golds potential has remained reasonably stable, holding in fourth place, investor sentiment has shifted slightly compared to last year. The latest results show that 32% of investors expect that real estate will see the best investment opportunities in the next 12 months, up from 30% reported last year. Tied with first place, but falling from last years standings, 32% of investors think equities will offer the best opportunities next year, down from 34% in 2017. Rounding out the top five, 31% of investors expect international equities to outshine next year and 21% see the best gains coming from alternative assets. Both asset classes saw sharp increases from 24% and 10%, respectively. It is perhaps understandable that, after such a prolonged bull market for equities, investors have once again looked to safe havens such as gold and cash, said Alex Barry, head of U.K. distribution at Legg Mason, commenting on the finding. However, they must consider the return profile of such assets. Taking gold as a case in point, the asset has failed to deliver for investors this calendar year, and it remains hard to see a catalyst for it currently. The firms report noted that golds safe-haven appeal is particularly strong in the United Kingdom. The survey indicated that among U.K. investors, 25% see the best opportunities in gold next year, third only to international equities at 19% and real estate at 27%. The report noted that U.K.s exit from the European Union remains the biggest threat to investors portfolios. Although gold has struggled to gain widespread attraction among international investors, Legg Mason said that affinity for the yellow metal is slowly growing. The report noted that golds allocation in a portfolio increased to 5% in 2018, up from 4% reported last year. * Gov't wants RBI to lift lending curbs on some banks By Suvashree Choudhury and Manoj Kumar MUMBAI/NEW DELHI, Nov 28 (Reuters) - For all the cordiality on show at the end of Reserve Bank of India's last board meeting, tensions could re-surface when it next gathers on Dec. 14 as the government aims to ramp up pressure for changes in the way the central bank operates. A majority of the 18-member board, now stacked with government nominees, intends to press for reduced curbs on lending and governance changes that would give the board more say, according to three sources with direct knowledge of what was said when the board last met on Nov. 19. Like the government, most board members feel that RBI should be "more transparent and accountable" for its decisions, said one source, who was also aware of discussions held subsequently within the government. Prior to the November meeting, senior officials in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration had cranked up pressure, publicly and privately, on policy matters, raising fears among former central bankers that the RBI was at risk of losing independence. With a general election due by May, and voters concerned about weak farm incomes and whether enough jobs are being created, Modi is keen to stimulate the economy and is looking for the RBI to allow easier lending policies. "The relationship between the RBI and the government is like a stretched rubber now," said a former top RBI official. "Once stretched the rubber will never return to its original size. The memory of this significant assault on the autonomy of the central bank will last for a long time." The worsening atmosphere between the government in New Delhi and the central bank in Mumbai fed media speculation earlier this month that RBI Governor Urjit Patel might consider resigning. In the past, the board has acted as little more than an advisory body, but under the 1934 law that established the central bank it has the ability to possess real teeth and force policy change. To speed along its transformation, the government has appointed experts from various fields, including accounting, technology and finance to the board. At its next meeting, it is likely to review how the central bank and the board engage, as well as the functioning of the sub-committees of the board, the sources said. "The next board will take up the agenda pending from the earlier two meetings," a second source said. "This mainly includes governance at the central bank, the relationship between the board and the RBI and other related issues." Those other issues could include providing more liquidity support to a weakened non-banking finance sector, functioning of the sub-committees of the central board and easing lending curbs on 11 state-run banks who are under a prompt corrective action plan (PCA) imposed by the RBI. "RBI governance, PCA and liquidity are our top priorities, said the first source, adding he expected the RBI to accept the that viewpoint sooner rather than later. Ex-RBI officials, including a governor and a deputy governor, said that never before has the board tried to interfere in the central bank's regulatory functions. The Finance Ministry and RBI spokesmen did not have a comment for this story. "HOSPITAL INFECTION" RISK Top government officials have pressed the RBI to ease capital rules for banks, provide more liquidity to the shadow banking sector, support lending to small businesses and let the government use more of the RBI's surplus reserves to boost the economy. At its meeting last week, the RBI's board had decided that a sub-committee will look into the matter of easing curbs for the 11 banks and make recommendations to the board. That decision had followed on from the October board meeting, which noted an improvement among some banks under the PCA, based on parameters including bad loan recovery, higher deposit growth. At that time, the RBI had wanted to wait a while longer to see if the improvement was sustained before lifting the curbs, a third source said. But the government believes waiting would invite more risks and expects the RBI to lift curbs on four of the lenders. "We can't leave a patient in the hospital for a longer period as it faces a risk of catching an infection or spreading infection among other patients," the second source said, adding that the PCA list could not be a static one. Unhappy about such pressure, late last month RBI Deputy Governor Viral Acharya warned that undermining central bank independence could be "catastrophic". That triggered a public spat between the two sides and tension in the run-up to the board meeting last month at which the RBI agreed to relax an international capital norm for banks. The board also entrusted the government and the RBI to set up a committee to decide on a specific method of transferring surplus reserves from the central bank to the government, a thorny matter for both sides. "The main issue that underlines the rift is that the government feels that there has been inadequate interactions and consultations between the government and the RBI on all these issues," said the third source. (Edited by Martin Howell & Simon Cameron-Moore) (Updates with official prices, Chile mine strike) By Peter Hobson LONDON, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Zinc prices fell for a fourth session on Wednesday as traders anticipated an increase in supply and weakening demand from steelmakers. Benchmark zinc on the London Metal Exchange (LME) traded down 0.3 percent at $2,428.50 a tonne in official rings, having touched a 10-week low of $2,393.50. Zinc, used to galvanise steel, has lost more than 6 percent since last Thursday's close despite hefty discounts for nearby metal and falling stockpiles. "There's near-term refined market tightness but at the same time a very clear path towards softer conditions in 2019 given the significant build in concentrates inventories in China, improving smelter margins and a likely ramp up in production," said Deutsche Bank analyst Nick Snowdon. "At the same time you see some softness in the galvanised steel sector," he said. Prices could fall to the low $2,000s and remain there until supply tightens again in the early 2020s, he added. ZINC POSITIONING: Speculative investors are beginning to ramp up bets on lower prices, with their net short expanding to 3 percent of open contracts, brokers Marex Spectron said. SPREAD: The cash zinc premium over three-month metal, at $86.50, was heading back towards 10-year highs after easing earlier in the week, suggesting a shortage of immediately available metal. STOCKS: Zinc inventories in LME-registered warehouses fell by 1,025 tonnes to a 10-year low of 120,250 tonnes. WARRANTS: Exacerbating the squeeze, one entity was holding 50-79 percent of zinc warrants. One entity was also holding 50-79 percent of lead warrants. TRADE DISPUTE: U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are due to meet at this weekend's G20 summit. Trump's economic adviser said the U.S. President was open to reaching a deal on trade but is ready to increase tariffs if there is no breakthrough. China's ambassador to Washington said Beijing hoped for a deal and warned of dire consequences if U.S. hardliners tried to separate the world's two largest economies. Fears that tariffs will damage the economy in China, the world's biggest metals consumer, have helped push industrial metals prices sharply lower. CHINA FACTORIES: Chinese factories are expected to have increased output for a second month running in November, a Reuters poll showed. CHILE STRIKE: The union at BHP's Spence mine in Chile, which produced 198,600 tonnes of copper last year, said workers had started a strike after layoffs. OTHER METALS: LME copper traded up 0.6 percent at $6,155 a tonne, aluminium traded 0.4 percent lower at $1,923.50, nickel rose 0.5 percent to $10,825 and lead gained 1.3 percent to $1,933. Tin did not trade but was bid up 0.4 percent at $18,350. <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Top Base and Precious Metals Analysis - GFMS ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Additional reporting by Mai Nguyen Editing by David Goodman and Edmund Blair) LME price overview COMEX copper futures Base metals news All metals news All commodities news Metals diary Foreign exchange rates SPEED GUIDES )) MOSCOW, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Russia's government is allocating up to 10 billion roubles ($149 million) to the state reserve to buy up to 50,000 tonnes of aluminium, a government decree dated Nov. 26 showed on Wednesday. Moscow-traded shares in Russian aluminium giant Rusal , which was hit by U.S. sanctions in April, rose 2 percent on the news. ($1 = 66.9250 roubles) (Reporting by Anastasia Lyrchikova; writing by Tom Balmforth; editing by Edmnd Blair) 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. Rachel Stewart wrote in the NZ Herald: Just a few short months ago, I had no idea what the term TERF meant. I knew it was chucked around as a pejorative with monotonous regularity, so it piqued my interest. What had these so-called TERFs done to warrant such naked hatred? Heres what Ive learned. TERF stands for trans-exclusionary radical feminist and is used as a way of denigrating any woman who questions the current craze of people overwhelmingly men who say they were born into the wrong body. Basically, its a derogatory and offensive label and is used to shut down debate on the fraught subject of transgender rights. Ironically the response to this column was people demanding it be retracted, complaining it was every published and a campaign of mass complaints against it. There was even reports that one NZME staffer was so upset they had to go home because the Herald had published this column. Stewart had a valid point that the term TERF is used to denigrate and silence. You never hear someone self identify as a TERF. Again there is an irony that people often advocate that you should respect a trans person by calling them with the pronoun they identify with. I agree that you should do that. But then they try and force a label on people against their will if they are deemed not supportive enough. Under the Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Bill, the proposed law will see adults (over 18) apply to the Register-General to have their nominated sex registered by specifying they want to be female, male, intersex (neither male nor female) or X. Daring to question this, Im now regularly referred to as a TERF. Boxed up, compartmentalised, and considered fair game by those who enjoy hunting in packs online. Its fatuous because Im neither trans-exclusionary or a radical feminist so, technically, its false. Except, the transactivists, most of whom are not trans, spit the word in your online face with such venom it causes one to reel at the mere sight of their dripping fangs. Twitter especially has been overflowing with venom. So, to hear Labour MP Louisa Wall use the word in a public (media excluded) meeting was enough to make me reach for my snake gators. She said, My whole thing is I dont want any f***ing TERFs at the Pride Parade. I can tell you, that as a lesbian who has never marched in a parade of any kind I loathe the sound of brass I now feel like turning up. Heh a great reason not to march. I mean, as Im the L in LGBTQIA+, I should be safe to do so, right? But what if Louisa Wall sees me? Will security turf me out? Will I be dragged down a dark alleyway and forced to watch endless reruns of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert? Again heh. But it touches on a serious point I already blogged on. You cant claim to be a parade and festival of inclusivity and them do the opposite. Under the proposed new law, a man can call himself a woman without ever medically transitioning (most never do) and insert himself in female-only spaces such as changing rooms, womens refuges, and prisons. Women would have absolutely no legal recourse to challenge such a move. I dont know about you, but I wouldnt want to be locked up alone in a cell all night with a hairy, muscly, sex-starved inmate of either gender but particularly one with his full kit and caboodle intact. Neither would I want my six-year-old niece to see a grown male stranger naked in the changing rooms at her local swimming centre. Why shouldnt she be able to have a male-free space? And me too? How about Laurel Hubbard competing straight-faced as a female in weightlifting? And all those other athletes around the world winning hands down against biological women? Is it fair to females, whove often trained their whole lives, only to come second to a biologically stronger athlete no matter how they identify? These are legitimate issues that should be able to be debated. They are more complex than issues such should homosexuality be decriminalised, should same sex couples be bale to marry. No one is negatively affected by that. But allowing people to simply choose a gender does have some negative impacts on others. We do need to be able to debate about whether someone born male should be able to compete as a women in the Olympic Games because it may make it impossible for biological women to win. I have great empathy for people whose gender identity does not match their biological sex (or whose biological sex is not clearly male or female). Absolutely we should support people to live their lives the way that makes them most happy. And weve seen from the case of Bruce Jenner, that this isnt something most people do lightly. It took him decades to decide to transition. We should treat any individual with dignity. But when it comes to legal recognition, it is far enough to question whether one should just be able to legally declare yourself a different gender with no criteria to meet. Sadly you can get abuse of such a situation. In the UK a trans woman who was a sex offender was put into a womens prison and raped other prisoners. The issue of sportswomen who were born male competing against biological women is an incredibly tough issue to resolve. But screaming that someone is a TERF because they think these issues should be debated is unhelpful. This issue doesnt impact me directly. But I do spend a bit of time researching it and I wonder if one solution might be formally separating out sex and gender. In other words people have both a sex and a gender. And for some people they wont be the same. Sex would be determined by your chromosomes. If you are XX you are female. If you are XY you are male and if you are anything else (intersexual etc) you are other. Gender would be the gender you identify as and wish to be recognised as. And in most situations it is your gender that would be important. However in a small number of situations such as health records, possibly professional sports, the biological sex would be what is important. It would be far from a perfect solution but basically getting people to regard sex and gender as two different things might be a way forward. Which brings me to the money trail. When movements gain full throttle as rapidly as the trans train has, it must be asked who stands to gain from it? Sure enough, American transgender lobby groups are being funded by the likes of billionaires Warren Buffett and George Soros. Why? Because investors want to help normalise the altering of basic human biology, and Big Pharma stands to make a fortune. Its already started. This is where the column jumps the shark. I dont think the trans train is motivated by money in any way. If Buffet and Soros donate to such groups, it is because they are liberals and support them, not because they will profit from their advocacy. In the meantime, I believe all human beings including trans people deserve human rights and respect. What I dont believe is why anyone questioning the obvious dangers lurking within the proposed new law, should equate to them not being afforded the same. Calling women TERFs is disrespectful, and Louisa Wall knows it. That is the key thing. The term TERF is used to close down debate and stigmatise people. The reaction to the column has shown haw vigorous that can be. Share this: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Reddit WhatsApp More Pinterest Print Tumblr By Jung Min-ho Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrongly called the Czech Republic "Czechoslovakia" on its official Twitter account, Thursday. On the day President Moon Jae-in arrived in the Czech Republic as part of his eight-day overseas trip, the ministry said: "President Moon @moonriver365 embarks today on visits to Czechoslovakia, Argentina (G20) and New Zealand, on a trip spanning across continents." Czechoslovakia, or Czecho-Slovakia, was a sovereign state formed in 1918 in Central Europe after the dissolution of Austria-Hungary at the end of the First World War. But due to various issues between Czechs and Slovaks, it split into the two sovereign states the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993. The ministry's posting immediately met with ridicule and criticism on social media. "I took it as a message that Moon is going to Czechoslovakia through the time machine," one person joked. "Minister Kan(g) Kyung-wha, it is Cxech (sic), not Czechoslovakia. It has been 26 years since it split into Czech Republic and Slovakia. It is a huge mistake for the ministry to use the wrong name. Excuse my spelling. You got it wrong first," another person said on Twitter. The ministry deleted the posting, but has not issued a statement about the error. The governments of South Korea and Uzbekistan are expanding cooperation to meet a growing demand for Korean language learning in the Central Asian country, officials in Seoul said Wednesday. The Ministry of Education said it plans to hold a workshop in Tashkent on Wednesday to improve the capabilities of Korean language teachers serving in Uzbekistan and explore ways to advance Korean language teaching methods. At the workshop, Korean teachers serving in Uzbek schools will give a class demonstration by utilizing Korean pop songs and television dramas, ministry officials said. At present, there are nine Korean teachers in Uzbekistan. The officials said the demand for Korean language learning has been rising in Uzbek cities, such as Samarkand, Bukhara and Urgench, as well as in Tashkent in recent years. South Korea's government and Uzbekistan's education ministry jointly published a Korean language textbook for Uzbek high schools during the 2015-2017 period. Thanks to such efforts, more than 11,000 Uzbeks, including 9,300 students from 34 elementary, middle and high schools, and 2,100 students from 13 universities, are now learning Korean as a regular subject. The growth rate is impressive, considering there were only 7,100 Korean learners at 19 Uzbek elementary and secondary schools as of 2014. In September this year, Tashkent State Oriental Studies University established a Korean studies college consisting of Korean language, Korean history and culture, and Korean economic and political science departments. Besides the regular schools and universities, approximately 7,100 Uzbeks are learning Korean at Korean language institutes sponsored by the South Korean government. "Uzbeks' interest in Korean language is developing into their interest in Korea," a ministry official said. "The Seoul government will expand support for the further development of Korean language learning in Uzbekistan." (Yonhap) Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 28) Amid an ongoing trade spat between the United States and China, House Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo sees no problem in the Philippines maintaining good relations with the two countries. Arroyo welcomed the investments of the United States in a speech before an audience that includes U.S. Ambassador Sung Kim and Hungarian Ambassador Dr. Jozsef Bencze at the inauguration of a new building of the Bases Development and Conversion Authority (BCDA) in Clark Global City in Pampanga. "We want Ambassador Sung to be here so that the American investment can be more high-profile so that the people will remember that America is a dear friend of the Philippines. We are friends with China, but being friends with China doesn't mean that we are not friends with the United States," the House Speaker said. "There's no conflict in friendship with these two important friends," she added. In an ambush interview after her speech, Arroyo explained the U.S.-China relationship is just as important as the Philippines' ties with each country. "They are both very important to the world and to the region, and our friendship with them is very important to us, and their friendship with each other is also very important to us," she said. Ties between Washington and Beijing are tense as U.S. President Donald Trump continues to impose tit-for-tat tariffs against Chinese goods. China has retaliated with tariffs of their own, and the spat is expected to come to a head at the upcoming G20 Summit in Argentina. Speaker Arroyo's statements come a week after the Philippines hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit. Arroyo and Senate President Tito Sotto met with Xi before he left on November 21. Manila signed 29 bilateral accords with Beijing, including a memorandum of understanding on joint oil and gas development and projects under China's Belt and Road Initiative. Geneva, Nov 28 (PTI) India on Wednesday said that for sustainable peace, prosperity and stability in Afghanistan it is important that the world community continues to support the Afghan government and its defence forces to combat terror and ensure that "verifiable actions" are taken to end safe havens and sanctuaries outside the war-torn country. Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh said here that India supports all efforts for a political settlement in Afghanistan which are inclusive, promote unity, security, democracy and build a self-reliant and prosperous country. He emphasised on the Afghan side having a greater responsibility in running and managing its own affairs. "For sustainable peace, prosperity and stability it is equally important that the international community continue to support the Afghan government, the people and the National Defence Forces of Afghanistan to combat terror and violence imposed on them and ensure that verifiable actions are taken to end safe havens and sanctuaries outside Afghanistan," Singh said in a veiled attack on Pakistan. He was participating in the Ministerial Conference on Afghanistan in Geneva to evaluate and strategise on developmental policy achievements during the "transformation decade" (2015-24) for the war-torn country. India, he said, has been engaged in a development partnership with Afghanistan and this was based on the objectives of building capacities for governance, training human resources, creating infrastructure, enhancing connectivity, and promoting trade and investment. A robust bilateral development cooperation dialogue is in place to ensure that these are in consonance with National Peace and Development Framework and National Priority Programmes of Afghanistan, he added. Condemning the "mindless terrorist violence" against the Afghan population, Singh said the people of Afghanistan yearn for peace, security and stability. "India supports all efforts for a political settlement in Afghanistan which are inclusive, promotes unity, peace, security, democracy and builds a self-reliant and prosperous Afghanistan. It is important that all such efforts for peace and reconciliation should be Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-controlled," he said. "The international community needs to continue to support the Afghan people and the government in their efforts so that there can be enduring peace, stability and end of terrorist violence," he said. Singh also reaffirmed India's commitment to the rebuilding and reconstruction of Afghanistan. He also reiterated India's development assistance commitment of over USD 3 billion to Afghanistan in keeping with Kabul's priorities under its National Peace and Development Framework. On the margins of the Geneva conference, Singh separately called on Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah. He also held bilateral meetings with foreign ministers of Norway and Hungary. India also participated in the side meeting on the 'Role of Regional Partners of Afghanistan' on Tuesday. Singh, on Tuesday, had participated in the high-level closed door dinner on 'Peace in Afghanistan' jointly organised by the Afghan government and the UN. "The MoS stated that for enduring peace and stability, terrorist safe havens and sanctuaries need to be eliminated and there is an imperative need for any political settlement to be free of external influence," an MEA statement said. A restricted breakfast meeting on Peace in Afghanistan was also jointly organised by the Afghan government and the UN on Wednesday. In the breakfast meeting, Singh conveyed India's support to efforts of the Afghan government in the peace and reconciliation process and the need for firm action by the international community against those who breed, support, sustain and sponsor terror and violence, the statement added. At the conclusion of the conference, the Geneva Communique entitled 'Securing Afghanistan's Future: Peace, Self-Reliance and Connectivity' along with the Geneva Mutual Accountability Framework document on deliverables was also adopted. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Bangui (Central African Republic), Nov 28 (BusinessWire India): Merck Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Merck Germany, underscored their commitment to build healthcare capacity in Central African Republic - C.A.R. during their high level meeting with President Faustin-Archange Touadera. The discussion, led by Dr Frank Stangenberg Haverkamp, Chairman of the Executive Board of E. Merck KG and the Chairman of Merck Foundation Board of Trustees, and Dr Rasha Kelej, CEO of Merck Foundation, to explain and discuss the programs which launched on the same day in partnership with The First Lady and ministry of Health of C.A.R. "Central African Republic needs the programs of Merck Foundation urgently. These training programs for specialized doctors are very critical for our people and their social and economic well-being. I wholeheartedly support Merck Foundation in our country, to enable the success of all their programs," said Faustin-Archange Touadera. "Through Merck Foundation, we commit to the long-term partnership with Ministry of Health and The first Lady foundation to build healthcare capacity in the country," Dr Frank Stangenberg-Haverkamp explained. "I am very happy and proud to organise this meeting. This partnership will help us train specialised doctors in the fields of Diabetes, Hypertension, Oncology and Infertility care. This will help to contribute significantly towards social and economic development in Central African Republic. We are committed to lead Africa to a better future through changing the landscape of healthcare in the continent with special focus on French-speaking countries in the next few years," added Dr Kelej. Merck Foundation, together with Madam Brigitte Touadera, The First Lady of Central African Republic and Merck more than a Mother Ambassador conducted a special meeting with more than 100 infertile women who have been enrolled in the "Empowering Berna" project to establish small businesses and train them to be able to generate steady monthly income. Dr Kelej has pledged to support more childless women through Merck more than a Mother campaign. In partnership with the First Lady and ministry of health, Merck foundation will provide clinical training on fertility specialty to improve access to quality and equitable fertility care in the country. Merck foundation has also approved a list of candidates to be enrolled in their one and two-year oncology fellowship program as a contribution to improve cancer care in the country. Moreover, they will also provide on-line diabetes diplomas in French for Doctors from C.A.R as well as cardiovascular preventive medicines fellowship in Asia. (BusinessWire India) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Patna, November 28: In a shocking case reported from Bihar, The Government Railway Police (GRP) officials arrested a suspected corpse smuggler and recovered 50 human skeletons from him at Saran district's Chapra railway station. GRP officials suspect that the skeletons were brought from Uttar Pradesh's Balia and were smuggled to China via Bhutan, reported Hindustan Times. The accused, Sanjay Prasad was arrested from Balia-Sealdah Express. Skeletons Found at 10th Century Rajasthan Excavation Site Sent for Dating. Prasad is being interrogated and his mobile contacts are being scanned. Meanwhile, Deputy superintendent of police (Sonepur), Mohammad Tanvir told Hindustan Times that the GRP officials have recovered Bhutan and Nepal currencies, two identity cards, many ATM cards and Sim cards with Nepal mobile number from his possession. One of the identity cards had an address of New Jalpaiguri in West Bengal while the other was from Paharpur in Bihar's West Champaran, said DSP. Meanwhile, another officer told HT that human skeletons are having a huge demand among medical students. Prasad is currently in police remand and will be produced in court on Wednesday. Currently, GRP officials are interrogating Prasad to find out other involved in the smuggling racket and whether he had links with people in Bhutan and Nepal. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 28, 2018 09:44 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Lahore, November 28: At the event marking the groundbreaking ceremony of Kartarpur corridor in Lahore, Khalistani terrorist Gopal Singh Chawla was seen standing next to Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa. The latter was seen interacting with Chawla at the sidelines of the event. According to reports, Chawla is the general secretary of the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee. In the recent terror attack at a Nirankari congregation in Amritsar, his name had propped up. MEA Responds to Imran Khan's 'Resolve Kashmir' Pitch, Condemns Pakistan PM For 'Politicising' Kartarpur Event. While India had not officially reacted to the visuals showing Chawla with Gen Bajwa, Indian Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat said the Kartarpur corridor needs to be viewed in isolation with everything else. "Everyone says give peace a chance, something should happen. What has our government said today. Our government has said this (the Kartarpur Sahib corridor) is to be seen in isolation," he said, further adding, "Do not link it to anybody else. This is a one-sided decision and it has no link to any other thing." Earlier in the day, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said in Hyderabad that there will be no dialogue with Pakistan unless it desists from terrorist activities against India. She also said the Kartarpur corridor initiative -- connecting Sikh faith's founder Guru Nanak Dev's final resting place in Kartarpur to the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India's Gurdaspur district -- was not linked to the dialogue process with Pakistan. At the event, however, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan pitched for revamping bilateral ties with India, stressing that the only issue which separates the two nations is the Kashmir dispute. "We should resolve it through dialogue," he added. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 28, 2018 10:21 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) More than 10,000 measles cases have been reported this year. The latest count by the World Health Organization (WHO) Philippines office is 17,298 measles cases as of November this year. This is 367 percent more than the 3,706 cases reported last year. "Unvaccinated young children are at highest risk of measles and its complications, including death. Have your children vaccinated at the nearest health center," the WHO Philippines said on Facebook. Measles is a highly-contagious airborne viral disease that used to be an epidemic until a vaccine was developed in 1963. Symptoms can appear around 10 days after the infection, which include high fever, cough, runny nose, bloodshot eyes or conjunctivitis, white spots inside the mouth, and rashes on the face, neck and whole body. Unvaccinated children and pregnant women have the highest risks of developing measles, which could lead to long term complications and even death. In October this year, the Department of Health (DOH) Bicol Office reported a 300 percent increase in measles cases in the region. DOH Bicol has monitored 239 measles cases from January to September, which included 6 deaths. Those who died were not vaccinated. The DOH regional office said that fears of vaccination following the Dengvaxia scandal is one of the reasons for the spike in measles cases. Zamboanga City has declared a measles outbreak in February. According to the City Health Office (CHO) of Zamboanga City, 495 measles cases were reported from January to September, six of them fatal. Bicol-based journalist Rosas Olarte and Zamboanga-based journalist Marlon Panares contributed to this report. Sky Messaging scoops 2018 Aviation Safety Award The Civil Aviation Industry Awards, which was hosted by the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA), has awarded Sky Messaging the 2018 Aviation Safety Award. Other than winning the 2018 Aviation Safety Award, Sky Messaging was also nominated as finalists in the categories Aviation Customer Service and Aviation Training. New Delhi, November 28: On the day when Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan preached peace to India, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Bipin Rawat accused the neighbouring country of using hybrid warfare against New Delhi since independence. General Rawat, delivering the 9th YB Chavan Memorial Lecture on Wednesday at the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses on 'Addressing the Challenges of Hybrid Conflict in the 21st Century', said India would respond to the hybrid warfare in Jammu and Kashmir with full force. He also alleged that Pakistan always used irregulars in its army during 1947-48, 1965 and the Kargil war of 1999. Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat Wants Illegal Immigrants 'Deported', Says Parties Supporting Them 'Undermining National Security' The army chief also accused Pakistan of cleverly changing the demographics in the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) to erode the Kashmiri identity. General Rawat also reiterated that India should not forget about the PoK, but first should resolve issues in its own part of Kashmir. While speaking on the Kartarpur Corridor, the army chief said that it should be should be seen in isolation, without being linked to anything else. Meanwhile, he stressed on the stand of the Indian government that terror and talks could not go together. Army Chief General Bipin Rawat Claims Nepal And Bhutan More Inclined Towards India Due To Geography Citing the surgical strike of 2016, the COAS said that the Indian Army has the capability to strike across the border, the escalation matrix needs to be prepared as these actions could lead to bigger conflict. At the same time he said that if India has to take such call, it would not hesitate. General Rawat added that that the Pakistani military enjoyed supremacy in the countrys internal affairs, therefore it could use all governmental agencies in coordination against India. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 29, 2018 12:10 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). New Delhi, November 28: The new currency notes, issued post demonetisation drive of 2016, are becoming "unusable" due to "low-quality paper" used, said a report in a leading Hindi daily. As per the banking definitions, a currency is deemed unusable if cannot be detected by ATM sensors. Normally, a note used for more than a decade turns unusable after being soiled or teared. Such legal tenders are subsequently sent to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) which destroys them after declaring it as "non-issuable". 50 Per Cent ATMs in India to be Shut: Demonetisation Period-Like Cash Crunch Likely by March 2019. According to a report in Amar Ujala, the notes of Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 are turning unusable due to the alleged inferior quality of paper used vis-a-vis the old currency notes. The matter has raised concern as these notes were issued barely two years ago, following the shock demonetisation order. Apart from the higher currency notes, the Rs 10 notes issued earlier this year are also being tagged as unusable by commercial banks. A senior Finance Ministry official, while speaking to Amar Ujala, denied the charge of low-quality paper used in the new notes. On the contrary, he claimed that the government made no compromise on the quality of currency. Pinning the blame on common populace, the official said some of the notes have been damaged due to their rough usage. "The new notes are becoming unusable because users in India keep the currency folded or tie it with saree or dhoti," he was quoted as saying. In wake of large number of currency notes being sent to the RBI by commercial banks after finding them "unusable," the central bank had barred the lenders from categorising new notes under the non-issuable category. The order was rescinded in July 2018, after backlash from the banks. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 28, 2018 06:05 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Hyderabad, November 28: A pilot of a trainee aircraft was injured after the plane crashed in Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district of Telangana on Wednesday. According to a tweet by ANI, the aircraft had taken off from Hakimpet Air Force station and crashed in Telangana's Bahupeta. Reports inform that the pilot, who sustained injuries, has been shifted to hospital. Indian Air Force PRO, Anupam Banerjee informed that the aircraft that crashed was a Kiran aircraft. It was on a routine training mission when the crash took place. The trainee pilot was ejected safely. Banerjee informed that a Court of Inquiry will investigate the cause of the accident. On November 21, a private trainee aircraft crashed near Mokila village in Telangana. According to a tweet by ANI, the plane crashed in Shankarpally Mandal in Ranga Reddy district of Telangana. The pilot of the aircraft was safe. There have been many incidents of plane crashes in the last few months. On October 29, the Indonesian low-cost carrier Lion Air flight JT 610 aircraft crashed, killing a total of 189 people. A trainee aircraft which took off from Hakimpet Air Force station crashed in Bahupeta in Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district, Telangana. The pilot sustained injuries and has been shifted to hospital. pic.twitter.com/mVvi7ucgJE ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 Earlier this month, a Karachi-bound Cessna aircraft made a priority landing in Jaipur after the pilot got "Indication of Open door". According to ANI, the aircraft had taken off from Lucknow for Karachi and there was only cockpit crew in the aircraft. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 28, 2018 01:45 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Hong Kongs very first sex doll brothel is now no more. It shut down within two months of opening for the public and its owner has been arrested. The action was taken after the place was raided as part of an anti-obscene objects operation. According to reports, a 30-year-old man Rex whos also the proprietor of the place, was arrested and items such as memory sticks, televisions and 18 indecent objects were recovered. Sex Doll Mistaken for Corpse Found Floating in Austrian River! Firefighters Unveil the Mystery. The brothel This Mary located on the fifth floor of an industrial building in Kwun Tong, charged customers HK$480 to use three silicon dolls meant for sex. They can also bring a woman along for HK$860. For a sum of HK$18,000, they can take home one of the silicon dolls. The dolls are prepped for use by soaking them in a disinfecting solution for half an hour. Customers are also instructed to use condoms. Each room is equipped with a television set where pornography is played. Sex Robots Will Clone Real Women Faces, Here's Why It's Not a Good Thing. Rex told Post that the police approached him on Saturday, offering an explanation, which he found nonsensical. The crackdown was ordered in line with the countrys Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance and playing pornography. The brazen display of sex toys which was kept on a sale without concealing was what got Rex and This Mary into trouble. The three sex dolls that Rex housed at the brothel wasnt confiscated during the raid because there were no laws that prevented him from displaying them. Barrister Albert Luk Wai-hung praised Rex for his entrepreneurial spirit but added that there were underlying issues in setting up a sex toy business. According to reports, Rex started the business only in September, utilising the flat to set up the brothel. He had earlier stated that the brothel was not only a place for people to play out their sexual fantasies, but also a venue for socially-inept people to have sexual experiences, which they couldnt explore in the real world. With his arrest, the fate of the business hangs by a hair. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 28, 2018 03:10 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Dating apps today are becoming a standard way to meet and connect with other single people. While some use the applications to find new relationships, many having an active profile to browse only when they are bored. The reasons could be many, but online dating definitely has its perks. Now when we say that, at recent, one individual took the advantage in the literal term by fooling five women and cheating them of almost 370,000 dollars (over Rs. 2.5 crores) in total. That is why they say; these online pools can relatively be shallow. Tinder Horror! Woman Tricks Around 100 Men On Dating App By Gathering Them For a Mass Dating Competition. He met these women on dating platforms, Match.com and Tinder. The accused Malaysian man identified as 46-year-old Peter Aw Boo Cheong, pleaded guilty to 14 cheating charges involving nearly 250,000 dollars (over Rs. 1.7 crores), reported The Straits Times. Besides, twenty other similar charged linked to the remaining amount will be added during the sentence. The Singapore permanent resident befriended all the five women who were between 39 to 48 years old. He will make them believe that he was interested in either a romantic relationship or a close friendship with them, the report added further. All four victims are Singaporeans, while the fifth woman is an Indonesian who lives there. Gay Dating App Leads to Man Having Sex With Minor Boy! POCSO Slapped on Mumbai Businessman After Mother Finds Details. After meeting the women in person, Aw would lie that he was an experienced trader in foreign currencies and commodities and have a fair knowledge of investments. Aw committed his offences between August 2016 and July, 2017. The Deputy Public Prosecutor, Tan Hsiao Tien, told the District Judge Chay Yuen Fatt as quoted in the same report, In the accused's dealings with the female victims, he led them to believe that he was a credible and trustworthy person who had valuable information about investment, and would help them to invest in silver or foreign currencies for their best interests. In fact, the accused was never a trader and has never invested in foreign currencies and commodities. Profiles of Sex Workers on Tinder Are Deleted Because of Their Profession? US Women Complains Against Dating App. All five women were cheated into handing him their money which he would not put in any investments. Aw told the women that he needed the money for various reasons, such as to pay for medical bills and car repairs. All these reasons turned out to be false. The resident of Singapore would rather use the money for his personal expense like settling his gambling debts. Soon, the women realised that they were duped, they alerted the police between December 2016 and September last year. Aw had made partial restitution of 500 dollars (above Rs. 35,000) to one of the women. However, he has not made any compensation to others. He was offered bail of 25,000 dollars (over Rs. 17.6 lakhs) and is expected to be sentenced on January 2. He can be jailed for at least up to 10 years and fined for each count of cheating. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 28, 2018 07:15 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Residents living near a beach in New Zealand was shocked to see a mystery animal washed ashore. The skeleton of the strange creature was found at a beach in Canterbury and locals thought it to be an alien. The creature had two legs, wings, teeth and tail. Hanna Mary a resident of Christchurch and her mother were baffled on the sight of the alien's skeleton. "My first thought was that it was something alien, but I was more fascinated than anything," Hanna told the NZ Herald. They have sent it to a taxidermist to find out about the creature, but the person was equally stunned at seeing the creature. The taxidermist then posted questions about it on Facebook. Many commented on it saying the mystery creature is a skate and indeed it is. Are These The Weirdest Sea Creatures Ever Seen? Russian Photographer Shares Underwater Pictures from Atlantic and They Are Creepy! The report said Dr Malcolm Francis at Niwa identified the creature as a male Dipturus nasutus, aka a New Zealand rough skate. Skates are a type of fish similar to rays. They have cartilage instead of bone and pectoral fins attached to their heads forming a disc-shaped body. Rotting skeleton of terrifying mystery sea creature found washed up on New Zealand beach https://t.co/iDBK64NnYl pic.twitter.com/01XvspHPvm The Amed Post (@theamedpost) November 28, 2018 Francis said, "They are called rough skate because they are very prickly ... it's quite common in Canterbury. It's like a flat shark, it has a skeleton made out of cartilage. They spend much of their time on the bottom." He added saying, "You might see them in the fish shops in the South Island. It might have been one that had been caught by a fisherman, thrown overboard and washed ashore." Francis further said that the claws on the wings are called alar spines, which are only on male skates; they use it for mating. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 28, 2018 04:36 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Geneva, November 28: Minister of State for External Affairs General Vijay Kumar Singh met Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani and the country's Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah here on Wednesday on the sidelines of the two-day Geneva ministerial Conference on Afghanistan which began on November 27. "Partnering in Afghanistan's efforts for peace & prosperity. MOS @Gen_VKSingh is representing India at the Geneva Conference on Afghanistan being held on 27-28 November. On the sidelines of the conference, MOS called on the President of Afghanistan," tweeted Raveesh Kumar, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). He also announced Singh's meeting with Abdullah Abdullah. "Prioritising progress and commitment. MOS @Gen_VKSingh met with the @afgexecutive Dr. Abdullah on the sidelines of the #GVAAfghanistan2018. Both emphasised the importance of development & reform and the need for a constructive contribution to peace and security," he tweeted. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani Concerned Over Growing IS Presence in Afghanistan. Prioritising progress and commitment MOS @Gen_VKSingh met with the @afgexecutive Dr. Abdullah on the sidelines of the #GVAAfghanistan2018. Both emphasised the importance of development & reform and the need for a constructive contribution to peace and security pic.twitter.com/u7OkmR3qMD Raveesh Kumar (@MEAIndia) November 28, 2018 Kumar also reinforced India's support for an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned approach towards peace in the country. He mentioned that the MoS is at the Geneva talks which aims to show the international community's solidarity for the people of Afghanistan and strengthening the government's efforts towards development, peace and security across the country. The European Union announced a comprehensive package of development assistance worth EUR 474 million for Afghanistan on the first day of the conference. This package supports state and resilience building, the reform of the justice sector, zero hunger and quality health, a democratic electoral process and the addressing of challenges of migration and forced displacement in the country. The conference is being held in Geneva at the Palais des Nations to demonstrate progress and commitment between the Afghanistan government and the international community, and maintain the momentum for elections and opportunities for peace in Afghanistan, according to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). The ongoing conference focuses on policy and strategy, rather than pledging activities like the Tokyo conference in 2012 or the 2016 Brussels conference. The conference will also play a crucial role in measuring results against the USD 15.2 billion committed by the international community for Afghanistan in 2016. The Tokyo Conference in 2012 introduced the Tokyo Mutual Accountability Framework (TMAF), under which high-level periodic reviews take place. The senior officials meetings are held in Kabul, while ministerial level meetings are held outside Afghanistan. Buenos Aires, November 28: 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. Jamal Khashoggi Killing: Denmark Suspends Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia Over Journalists Murder. 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. Lawyers, doctors, engineers, actors, make-up artists, these are only a few of the many professions that Nigerians are often found to take up as lifetime careers. However, in the great sea of professional possibilities open to Nigerians, the one career that is almost not taken into consideration is the work of being a scientist. In this regard, it is not often common to find Nigerians who are solely dedicated to studying science and being inventors of genius innovations. This can partly be attributed to the very low attention paid to science and technology in the country. But even more, the lack of awareness and seeming difficulty attached to the work of a scientist cannot be overlooked. Most often, Nigerians are prone to the assumption that inventing something happens coincidentally and that it is virtually nearly impossible to dedicate ones life to looking for an abstract ingenious thing that might never exist. This is not to talk of the fact that when settling for a profession, Nigerians take the money factor in consideration more than anything else. However, in spite of the near absence of scientists amongst the Nigerian populace, some indigenes of the country have channeled the ingenuity in them into being inventors of great astounding concepts and technological equipment that have gained international repute. READ ALSO: Nigeria will compete with best countries in science, technology by 2030 - Minister In no particular order, here are 6 Nigerian scientists who took the world by storm and who are still holding high the mantle of science and technology. 1. Mohammed Bah Abba Mohammed Bah Abba Source: Youtube Source: UGC The scientific works of Mohammed Bah Abba were born out of necessity, not curiosity. The said Northerner comes from a rural area where farmers are known to grow their own crops and rear their own animal for food in what is known as subsistence farming. Although these rural farmers grow enough crop to take care of themselves, most of their farm produce eventually perish due to lack of a proper storage facility. Due to this, our good man Mohammed thought of inventing something that could avert this problem. It was out of his works that the Pot-in-Pot Preservation system evolved in the 1990s. This machine solved the problem of the lack of refrigerators. For this accomplishment, he received the Rolex Award for Enterprise in 2001 and used his $75,000 award to make the invention to expand his reach across Nigeria. PAY ATTENTION: Save mobile data and get more Nigerian News with Legit.ng News App 2. Professor Gabriel Audu Oyib Professor Gabriel Audu Oyibo Source: Youtube Source: UGC Needless to say, there are awesome Nigerians who are excellent in Mathematics. But then, being a Maths expert is different from being a mathematician. Professor Gabriel Oyibo is a renowned mathematician whose works were both controversial and useful. He founded the popular theory called God Almighty Grand Unified Theorem (GAGUT). This theory has been massively criticised by some scholars. While some people see him as a man not thinking with his right faculty, others perceive him as a genius. Whatever the case, Professor Gabriel is known to have a full curriculum vitae. For one, the professor obtained his Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Mathematics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) Troy, New York where he worked for four (4) years on NASA/AFOSR sponsored research. He made a lot of contributions in aircraft design, aerodynamics, aeroelasticity, mathematics and taught several courses. This achievement made His Royal Highness, Attah of the Igala Kingdom bestow upon him the honour of Knighthood. PAY ATTENTION: Love, relationship, marriage on Africa Love Aid 3. Colonel Oviemo Ovadje Colonel Oviemo Ovadje Source: afrikanwatch.com.ng Source: UGC This Nigerian scientist made the country proud in many ways. This he did through his personal accomplishments and national contributions. One very astounding work which he is known to have done is a design called EATSET. EATSET was created for the purpose of solving the problem of blood salvage from body cavities. This was done by means of replacing and improving on the gauze filtration technique practiced in third world countries. Oviemo Ovadje who is from the Isoko in Delta State was awarded as the Best African Scientist in 1995 before African Heads of States due to his engagement with science. Also, he won the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and Organisation of African Unity (OAU) Gold Medal for his unique scientific work designed to save women who usually die from abnormal pregnancy called ectopic gestation. READ ALSO: Personal letter from the Editor-in-Chief of Legit.ng (former NAIJ.com) 4. Bart Nnaji Bart Nnaji Source: Vimeo.com Source: UGC Bart Nnaji was a researcher who invested his time in studying Computer Aided Design, Robotics and Computer Aided Engineering. He deployed his vast knowledge in aiding such invented concepts as Geometric reasoning which was centered on the idea that most things operated have geometric configurations. Furthermore, he is credited as one of the innovators of the E-design concept and he also is founder of the first indigenous owned power generating company in Nigeria and was also a former minister for Science and Technology in the country. This talented scientist studied in Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University based in the United States where he obtained a Doctorate in Industrial and Systems Engineering. Even more, the Enugu born man branched into the world of politics by contesting for the post of a president. Although, he did not win this position, he was appointed as the Minister of Power. READ ALSO: Who is the father of mathematics? - Meet 3 most prominent ancient scientists 5. Philip Emeagwali Philip Emeagwali Source: Feathers Project Source: UGC The world may not know it but in Nigeria and in the vast, technological space of computer science, it is known that Nigerian Philip Emeagwali might well be the greatest scientist ever to come out from these quarters. The chap who has been living in the United States of America for many years is recognized worldwide and has been voted Father of Super-computing. In fact, he is ranked #1 in computing just as he is ranked FIRST by Google for contribution to the development of the computer. Recently, the Time magazine wrote an article about him in which he is regarded as the Unsung Hero behind the internet. Within the piece written about him, it was unveiled that this awesome genious named Philip Emeagwali has a higher IQ than Albert Einstein. Unbelievable, right? 6. Jelani Aliyu 7 Nigerian scientists you have probably never heard of Source: Feather Project Source: UGC Now when we talk about technological chaps of the newer generations, Jelani Aliyu is at the forefront of the track field, or better put, the road. This Kaduna born Muslim is a car designer renowned for designing the revolutionary electric car called Chevrolet Volt. This car which has been predicted as the one that will change the history of all sweet rides in the world was given a structure and form by Aliyu himself. The genius man was born in 1966 as a fifth of seven children belonging to Aliya Haidara and Sharifiya Aliyu. After having a sterling education in Nigeria, Aliyu went on to Detroit, USA to study Transportation Design at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. He was able to further his education in Detroit on a Sokoto state government scholarship and he graduated in 1994. Once he graduated, he caught the eyes of an American multinational corporation called General Motors. He worked as part of the design staff and went on to design vehicles sold under various brands like uick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Holden and so on. For all these astounding feats, President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed him as the director-general of the Nigerian Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC). 7. Silas Adekunle Silas Adekunle Source: Forbes Source: UGC This young individual named Silas Adekunle is beginning to be one of the most beautiful miracles that have happened to Nigeria in a long time. He is a Nigerian technology entrepreneur and the co-founder of Reach Robotics, an augmented reality gaming company that creates robots for gaming and for STEM education. Due to his creation of a robot called MekaMon, Adekunle has partnered with Apple, signing an exclusive distribution deal to sell his product in both the United States and Britain. Legit.ng wrote an article that gave a lot of details about this arising world class genius. From the lives of these really exceptional people, it can be seen that Nigeria is really not all about wars, disasters, poverty, kwashiorkor, slums or diseases. There are good things everywhere we turn in this country. It only takes a perceptive to look deeper and see the lilies swimming atop the mire. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We have upgraded to serve you better 18-year-old teenager studying for Phd makes startling revelation | Faces of Nigeria | Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng News - An APC leader in Ebonyi state, Arthur Eze, has disclosed his support for Ebonyi governors re-election in 2019 - Eze cited the Governor David Umahis impressive performance as the reason why he endorsed him - He added that he stood for the governors emergence in 2015 because he believed he was the best candidate to succeed the former governor A chieftain of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Arthur Eze, has urged people in Ebonyi to re-elect the state governor, David Umahi, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), for his outstanding performance. He said that the achievements recorded by Umahis current administration indicated that he would do more if given another chance to rule the state, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports. According to Eze, who was a guest of the state government, Umahi has exhibited total commitment to the development of Ebonyi. READ ALSO: President Buhari cancels scheduled 5-day casual leave Umahi has been the state chairman of PDP; he has been the deputy governor and when it was time for him to succeed the former governor, Chief Martin Elechi, I met former president Goodluck Jonathan to allow Umahi to become the governor. I told the former president that I dont know the former minister for health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, who was Elechis preferred candidate. I am happy that Governor Umahi has shown deep commitment for the development of Ebonyi. Ebonyi has been transformed overnight and new things have started coming to the state. I want Ebonyi people to vote for David Umahi in 2019. He has performed well and we have to appreciate him by supporting his re-election. I am convinced that with his achievements in his first tenure, he will do more in his second term, he said. Eze said that the governor had not disappointed him in the provision of infrastructure and qualitative leadership since he assumed office. He said that he stood for Umahis emergence in 2015 because he believed that the governor was the best candidate to succeed the former governor, Elechi. During the visit, Eze had performed the ground-breaking ceremony for the construction of an overhead bridge at Abomege junction in Abakaliki and reconstruction and remodelling of Margaret Umahi International Market among others. In his remarks, Governor Umahi said that Eze had been instrumental to his achievements since he became the governor through his assistance and advice for the development of the state. PAY ATTENTION: Download our mobile app to enjoy the latest news updates The governor described the business mogul as a worthy son of Ndigbo, and said that he would remain eternally grateful to him because of his generosity to Nigerians. He prayed God to continue to keep him alive as the philanthropist celebrated his 70th birthday. Eze is the chancellor of Ebonyi State University and holds the traditional title of Dike Eji-eji Mba 1 conferred on him by Ebonyi state traditional rulers. Meanwhile, Governor Umahi has explained why he was absent at the turbaning ceremony of the PDP presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, as seventh Waziri Adamawa on Sunday, November 25. Umahi stated that he attended another event of the sub apex Igbo socio-political organisation known as Ndigbo Lagos foundation in Lagos. The governor, who spoke through his spokesman, Emmanuel Uzor, noted that he was in touch with the celebrant, and further commended the presidential candidate for the conferment of the title. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng upgrades to serve you better. Nigeria Latest News: Buhari vs Atiku - 2019 Elections | - on Legit TV Source: Legit - The Nigerian Army denies claims that the bodies of the slain soldiers in Borno state have not been evacuated days after the attack - The Army says it constituted a team led by a senior officer to carry out the evacuation of the killed soldiers - The security body says the team searched everywhere around the scene of the incident and ensured that every dead soldier was evacuated The Nigerian Army, late Tuesday, November 27, accused online news medium, Sahara Reporters, of carrying out a smear campaign against it in the heat of the attack on at least 100 soldiers by the Boko Haram insurgents. The Nigerian Army urged the members of the public to discredit the news from the medium that the bodies of the murdered soldiers had not been evacuated days after the incident at Melete in Borno state. In the statement, the Nigerian Army said it carried out a reinforcement to the location immediately after the attack and that a special search and rescue team led by a senior officer was constituted. READ ALSO: 2019: Southeast PDP governors' absence at Atiku's installation unsettles party The team, the statement said, searched the entire location and evacuated all those who were killed in the attack Read the full statement: 1. The attention of the Nigerian Army (NA) has once again been drawn to another false publication by an online newspaper (Sahara Reporters), alleging that the bodies of our gallant soldiers and members of Civilian Joint Task Force who lost their lives in the unfortunate Metele Attack are yet to be evacuated. 2. The general public is to please note that the information is despicably false and a calculated attempt to spread fake news aimed at discrediting and undermining the NA in the discharge of its constitutional roles. For the avoidance of doubt, immediately after the attack, reinforcement was sent to the location. Thereafter, a special search and rescue team led by a senior military officer was constituted and equally dispatched. The team worked tirelessly, searching all the nooks and crannies of the general area and have evacuated all the gallant troops that paid the supreme price in defence of their fatherland. PAY ATTENTION: Download our mobile app to enjoy the latest news updates 3. It is sad to note that in a bid to be seen as first to break news, some media houses have discarded the ethics of their noble profession through the hasty publication of unverified information. The NA would once again reiterate the need for correct and balanced reportage especially when reporting issues regarding military operations. Furthermore, all print and electronic (online) newspapers as well as social media forums and blogs are advised to double check their information before publishing. This is because publishing false, sensational news is inimical to national security and could also cause panic, bitterness and disunity among the citizenry. Legit.ng earlier reported that President Muhammadu Buhari 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. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng. We have upgraded to serve you better. Can Nigerian Soldiers really not deal with Boko Haram fighters?| Legit TV Source: Legit Nigeria - Yemi Osinbajo says President Buharis sole concern is that Nigeria's resources must be used for the common man - Osinbajo said this is the guiding principle of the Buhari's administrations entire economic policy - He explained that all the federal government is giving hope to the common Nigerian through various schemes President Muhammadu Buharis sole concern is that Nigeria's resources must be used for the man and woman who need it the most and this explains the focus of the administrations entire economic policy, according to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. The vice president stated this on Tuesday, November 27, while monitoring the ongoing disbursement on the N10,000 collateral & interest-free loans under the Trader Moni Scheme in Dutse, the Jigawa state capital. He explained that all the federal government had tried to do in the past few years was to give hope to the common Nigerian through the various schemes for women, men and youths, regardless of their backgrounds. According to him, Mr Presidents sole concern is that the resources of our country must be used for the man and woman who need it the most, the people in our society who are working hard, the farmers, the traders, and all of the young people who need jobs, that is the focus of Mr. Presidents entire economic policy. It is on giving the common man hope so that they can live decent lives, they can provide shelter for themselves, feed and live well. PAY ATTENTION: Read best news on Nigeria's #1 news app He said despite the challenges associated with the fall in oil prices, President Buhari is still committed to giving hope to the poorest Nigerians hence, the implementation of the various components of the Social Investment Programmes. His words: Under the Trader Moni Scheme, we are giving 2 million people across Nigeria, N10,000 collateral-free loans with the possibility of increasing the amount within six months. Here in Jigawa, we have given 30,000 petty traders and only today, we gave extra 2,000 to 5,000 traders, and all together, we have given about 35,000 people the loans in Jigawa alone. We also have the Market Moni scheme which is another initiative for traders that are bigger than the petty traders and we start from N50,000 to N350,000. Speaking further on the Conditional Cash Transfer scheme, the vice president said, Jigawa state has the highest number of beneficiaries nationwide. According to him, This is the state where we have given the largest number of people, we have given 37,000 beneficiaries in this state, and every month these people receive the transfers. The Conditional Cash Transfer is a N5,000 monthly provision for the poorest and most vulnerable Nigerians. Legit.ng gathered that after the courtesy call on the Emir of Dutse, on arrival in Dutse, the vice president proceeded to Kasuwan Tipa market to monitor the ongoing disbursement of loans under the Trader Moni scheme, and later also went to the Dutse Modern Market. PAY ATTENTION: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda Meanwhile, the presidency has clarified that no where in the House of Representative committee on emergency and disaster preparedness report that an allegation of corruption against Osinbajo was stated. Senator Babafemi Ojudu, the presidential political adviser, said the claims against Osinbajo from some quarters regarding the report are mere political contrivances intended to distract the vice president. It is evident that the opposition are in search of company for their acts of grand corruption which brought Nigeria to its knees as of May 2015. They cannot find that company in the vice president, he noted. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng. We have updated to serve you better. Legit Market Survey: Prices of goods are high, even the customers are scarce - traders| Legit TV Source: Legit - Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has paid a visit to the deputy president of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu - Atiku went on the visit to Ekweremadu alongside top chieftains of the PDP - There have been rumours that Ekweremadu is aggrieved over the choice of Peter Obi without his consent The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, on Monday, November 26, visited the deputy president of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, to seek his understanding over the choice of Peter Obi as his running mate. There have been rumours that Ekweremadu is aggrieved over the choice of Peter Obi without his consent as the highest ranking Igbo government official in the present administration. Sources close to Ekweremadu had also told Legit.ng that the Enugu-born politician was earlier promised the ticket by Atiku before the PDP presidential primary. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app Punch reports that on the entourage of Atiku were the director general of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council and president of the Senate, Bukola Saraki; national chairman of the party, Prince Uche Secondus; and the national organising secretary of the party, Colonel Austin Akobundu (rtd.). According to the report, the visit was meant to appease Ekweremadu, who had hoped that he would be the natural choice for the position. It was gathered that the visitors asked for Ekweremadus support and explained to him that Obi was picked in the interest of the zone in particular and the nation in general. A source quoted in the report said: He was told that Obi does not have any corruption case against him and that he does not belong to any faction of the party. He was also told that Obis emergence has further raised the acceptability level of the PDP across the country. PAY ATTENTION: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda Meanwhile, Ekweremadu is set to lead Igbo elites to the inauguration conference of Igbo Bu Igbo, a leading southeast socio-cultural association. The theme of the much expected inauguration conference is Ndigbo: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. This was disclosed via a press statement sent to Legit.ng on Tuesday, November 27, by Dr Law Mefor and Dr Mrs Bibiana Okereafor, chancellor of the group and chairperson of the planning committee, respectively. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng. We have upgraded to serve you better. Nigeria Street Gist - Ezekwesili to Become Nigerias First Female President. Yay or Nay? | Legit TV Source: Legit - The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) says it arrested two police officers over links with live ammunition - The NDLEA says both officers were arrested after they both laid claim to 1, 250 rounds of live ammunition that was intercepted - The agency reveals that both men have not been handed over to the Nigeria Police Force for prosecution The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has announced that its officials have arrested two officers of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) for their alleged involvement in the shipment of 1, 250 rounds of live ammunition. The spokesperson of the NDLEA, Jonah Achema, in a statement on Tuesday, November 27, said the live ammunition was intercepted by the agencys FCT command during a motorized patrol at the Gwagwalada end of Abuja-Lokoja expressway. READ ALSO: 2019: Southeast PDP governors' absence at Atiku's installation unsettles party According to the statement, the consignment was sent through a transport company from Lagos to be collected by the policemen. The two policemen, Jacob Jalwap, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) attached to police command headquarters, Jos, Plateau state and Nandul Seizing, a corporal attached to Angua Rogo, Jos, were arrested in Jos in a follow-up investigation of the live ammunition accompanied with a way bill containing the phone number and name of Nandul Seizing, Achema said in the statement. PAY ATTENTION: Download our mobile app to enjoy the latest news updates Achema said the two officers were arrested after they both turned up to claim ownership of the consignment. He said the suspects and the exhibits have been transferred to the police. In October, 2018, Legit.ng reported that how the police in Lagos arrested a 43-year-old man who posed as an official of the EFCC to dupe a company. Nigerian Tribune reports that another 42-year-old man, Sodiq Inusa, who had also in the past been impersonating a police officer has been arrested and his operational rifle recovered from him. Also, months ago, two police officers were arrested over the killing of an undergraduate in Osun state. According to ACP Yomi Shogunle, head of public complaints rapid response unit, the two men have been arrested. The police also assured Nigerians that the police force would ensure justice. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng. We have upgraded to serve you better. Nigeria Street Gist - Ezekwesili to Become Nigerias First Female President. Yay or Nay? | Legit TV Source: Legit Nigeria - Governor Godwin Obaseki sends away managing director of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC), Funke Osibodu, from his office over the pervading darkness in Edo - Obaseki accuses the BEDC of not being committed in the duty of ensuring adequate electricity in the state - The management of the BEDC gives its own side of the story and why the challenge has persisted An angry Edo state governor, Godwin Obaseki, on Tuesday, sent the managing director of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC), Funke Osibodu, away from his office for leaving residents and the state in darkness for many weeks. The Punch reports that it was a mild drama that happened while the governor was receiving members of the House of Representatives committee on power who were in the Government House on a courtesy visit. A statement from the Edo state government, said Obaseki was surprised to see Osibodu among the lawmakers as her name was not on the list of expected guests. READ ALSO: Nigerian Army replies online news medium over report on killing of soldiers in Borno The governor was not also happy that he and millions of the residents had been in darkness for weeks. He made sure Osibodu left the venue. The BEDC has been an obstacle all the way. They will not provide electricity and will not allow you to get alternative sources of power. The state will not allow it. As governor of Edo State, we have lost confidence in the BEDC. We dont want them here. We are in darkness. Let us remain in darkness until we find people who are capable of delivering electricity. This is our position, Obaseki said after chasing Osibodu away. The governor argued that the darkness is even despite the fact that the state generates about 600 to 700 megawatts of electricity. He said the BEDC was not committed in its supposed duties. To assist, we set up electricity committee across the local government areas chaired by the deputy governor of the state, Rt Hon Philip Shaibu, with the BEDC as a member, to understand the challenge. But the BEDC frustrated our resolve to finding a lasting solution to the issue of providing electricity to our people, the governor said. In its reaction, however, the BEDC said the visit by the lawmakers, officials of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and the Niger Delta Power Holding Company, was to give an update and help find solution to the lingering challenge. The BEDC continues to be a responsive and responsible distributor of electricity across the franchise states of Edo, Delta, Ondo and Ekiti and is committed to serving its customers better. In addition, it is on record that out of the nine percent allocation that the BEDC gets from the national grid, Edo State gets above 40 percent, while the other three states share the balance. We intend to continue to work towards ensuring that various bottlenecks across the power value chain are eliminated to the benefit of our customers in all our franchise states. PAY ATTENTION: Download our mobile app to enjoy the latest news updates As a host community, we shall also continue to support the good people of Edo State in ensuring that an enabling environment that will create jobs and improvement in the lives of the Edo citizens is sustained. It should be noted that Edo state has the highest number of prepaid meters all over the country and with the introduction of meter asset provider by the NERC, we shall further accelerate the metering of consumers with effect from the first quarter of 2019 when the scheme is expected to kick off in order to rapidly reduce estimated billing, the statement said. Legit.ng earlier reported how Nigeria's electricity generation dropped 2,684.20 megawatts as at Monday, August 13, Punch reports. The nation's power generation went low by 777.9 megawatts as outputs from various hydro-power plants and some gas-fired stations suffered declines. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng. We have upgraded to serve you better. Top 3 Worst Blunders In Africa | Legit TV Source: Legit Nigeria - The EFCC has disclosed that two witnesses in the ongoing fraud case against Murtala Nyako mysteriously died in custody - Nyako, a former governor of Adamawa state, is currently facing a N29 billion fraud case initiated by the anti-graft agency - The two people who made crucial statements during the investigation died after giving their statements The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has disclosed that two witnesses in the ongoing N29 billion fraud case against former governor of Adamawa state, Murtala Nyako mysteriously died in custody. A detective with the commission, Adekunle Odofin, on Tuesday, November 27, told Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja, that two people who made crucial statements during the investigation into a N29 billion fraud case died after giving their statements. Odofin told the court that the two people were very vital to the prosecution of the case, Leadership reports. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app Nyako, a retired navy admiral, is being prosecuted by the EFCC, alongside his son, Senator Abdul-Aziz Nyako, Abubakar Aliyu and Zulkifikk Abba, on a 37-count charge of criminal conspiracy, stealing, abuse of office and money laundering to the tune of N29 billion. Five companies that allegedly served as conduit pipes for the illegal diversion of the funds, were equally charged before the court as the 5th to 9th defendants. While testifying as the twentieth prosecution witness, Odofin, who had started his testimony in June 2018 and tendered documents which were admitted in evidence, told the court that one Mohammad Maj Iro, who was the General Manager, Zenith Bank Plc, the regional manager in charge of north-east, and the account officer of Adamawa state 200 accounts, domiciled in Zenith bank, died after making crucial statements, at the time of filing the case in the court. When led in evidence by the prosecution counsel, Rotimi Jacobs, the detective, told the court that the commission also extended invitations to one Dalhatu Abdulmalik, who was the cousin to Nyako and the director in three of the five indicted companies, and that after giving his own statement, during the point of filing the case in court, he also died. After hearing from both sides, the judge adjourned the matter to Thursday, November 29, for continuation of trial. READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda The acting chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, recently urged the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice, Adamu Abdul-Kafarati, to transfer all the lawsuits challenging his appointment from Justice Binta Nyako. Legit.ng gathered that the lawsuits are 11 in number and they have all been consolidated before Justice Nyako. However, Magu, in a letter dated Tuesday, July 31, by his lawyer, Wahab Shittu, said he would love the cases taken away from Justice Nyako for fear of conflict of interest. Magu said he was uncomfortable with Justice Nyako handling his cases at a time when the anti-graft agency was prosecuting the husband and stepson of the judge - Admiral Murtala Nyako (rtd) and Senator Abdulaziz Nyako, respectively. The EFCC stage a walk against corruption on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng When growing up, every child has a plan of how they want their life to look like. Everyone has always wanted to gain admission into the university immediately after secondary education but not all of them are that lucky. Some wait many years before passing their ordinary leaving school certificate or Joint Matriculation Board (JAMB) examination, which hinders them from gaining admission into the university. A young man identified as Emmanuel Oluwasayomi Ahmadu but popularly known as Mr Voiceover just shared a sad experience before he gained admission into the University of Benin (UNIBEN) where he studied mass communication. Emmanuel Oluwasayomi Ahmadu posing with his award Source: UGC READ ALSO: Lady becomes a lawyer years after dressing up as one for her primary schools career day He shared his experience during an award ceremony organized by West Africa Citizens Award for student brand of the year in West Africa. Born in Kogi state, Ahmadu is a voice over artiste, fast rising actor, writer and an entrepreneur. Narrating his success story, he revealed that he wrote Olevel exams 17 times before he got lucky. According to myschool.ng, Ahmadu said: For me to have been among the graduating students and to have also represented the University of Benin and represented Nigeria on international scene means that anyone can succeed irrespective of whatever militating challenges or setbacks. I wrote olevel exams seventeen (17) times until I finally passed it in 2014, although it was not easy to have gone to several schools, wearing secondary school uniforms after many years of graduation and seeing your former junior colleagues who have gone to the University, now your teacher in secondary school. It was so shameful and embarrassing to bear. UNIBEN graduating student Emmanuel Oluwasayomi Ahmadu reveals how he wrote Olevel exams 17 times Source: UGC PAY ATTENTION: Best love tips and relationship advice on Africa Love Aid group! The young man further urged everyone to await his soon-to-be-published book where he would share more of his success story. Legit.ng earlier reported that 14-year-old Oluwatunmise Idowu recently became an internet sensation after showing off how smart and brilliant he is. In 2016, the young girl solved 17 mathematical questions correctly in 60 seconds, on the Cowbellpedia TV quiz show. Her impressive feat earned her the nickname, Electric Brain. Congratulations! NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We have updated to serve you better Professional female barber reveals what it feels like cutting hair in Lagos. | Legit TV. Source: Legit - Some Nigerian UN peacekeepers who served in Mali have cried out over ill-treatment they allegedly experience from the hands of the police force - The policemen claimed that they were short changed and that their allowances were withheld by the force - They also alleged that their military counterparts who served alongside with them in Mali were paid their allowances in full The Nigerian Police Force (NPF) has been accused of holding on to the allowances of about 139 officers who recently returned from the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mission in Mali. The officers were part of the UN police unit which served in Timbuktu from October 2017, to September 2018. They also took part in police duties during the Malian presidential polls in July, 2018. The aggrieved policemen confirmed to newsmen that they were short changed, Punch reports. READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda Speaking with newsmen in Abuja on Monday, November 26, the officers claimed that they served in the mission for 13 months, but were only paid their allowances for seven months. The aggrieved policemen revealed that some Nigerian soldiers who took part in the mission were paid their allowances in full before they left Mali back in October, 2018. According to reports, each member of the police contingent was entitled to $1,600 monthly apart from $200 or CFA 20,000 for cigarettes. The policemen expressed fears that their allowances might not be paid by the police peacekeeping department following the delay in the release of the money by the force headquarters. An affected officer who is also a serving police inspector disclosed: Before we left Abuja for Mali, the department assured us that all our allowances had been paid by the UN. When we arrived in Timbuktu, we were paid $4,939.7 for October-December, 2017. In January, we were paid $1,406:30 and by the time we were leaving Bamako in October after concluding the mission, the military personnel among us had received their full 13 months allowances. When we arrived at the Force Headquarters, the Director of Peace-keeping Department, DCP Abubakar Sadiq informed us on October 12 that our allowances were being delayed because the UN said our equipment failed inspection. PAY ATTENTION: Get the Latest Nigerian News Anywhere 24/7. Spend less on the Internet! He assured us that we would be paid the six months allowances, but we received only $3,494.30 which was about $1,500 short of the allowances for three months. So far, the director of peacekeeping department, DCP Abubakar Sadiq and the force's public relations officer, DCP Moshood Jimoh, have not given any detailed report on the development. Meanwhile, Legit.ng reported that President Muhammadu Buhari had approved Enhanced Salary Structure for the NPF. The president made the declaration after meeting with members of the Police Service Commission (PSC) on Monday, November 26, at the State House, Abuja. President Buhari met with the board of PSC, led by the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Ibrahim Idris. In a series of tweets by Garba Shehu, the SSA on media and publicity, President Buhari said that his administration would continue to give attention to the welfare and operational needs of the NPF with a view to restoring its lost primacy in the internal security framework of the country. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We have upgraded to serve you better. Nigeria CEO Interview: Life Just Got Better For Police Officers With This Sweet Package | Legit TV Source: Legit - The 2018 WHO report has revealed that Nigeria still topped the list of country with highest cases of malaria with 25% - The health organisation revealed that apart from Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mozambique came second and third respectively with 11% and 5% - WHO report also claimed that India and Uganda had 4% each, adding that estimated 20 million malaria cases were recorded in 2017 The 2018 world malaria report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) has revealed that not less than 25% cases of malaria were recorded in Nigeria alone in 2017. The Punch reports that the report also added that 15 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and India bore 80% of the global malaria burden. Legit.ng gathers that apart from Nigeria, which took the first seat in the list with 25%, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mozambique came second and third respectively with 11 % and 5%, while India and Uganda had 4% each. READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda The report claimed: In 2017, an estimated 219 million cases of malaria occurred worldwide, compared with 239 million cases in 2010 and 217 million cases in 2016. "Although, there was an estimated 20 million fewer malaria cases in 2017 than in 2010, data for the period 2015-2017 highlight that no significant progress in reducing global malaria cases was made in this time frame. The 10 highest burden countries in Africa reported increases in cases of malaria in 2017 compared with 2016. Of these, Nigeria, Madagascar and the Democratic Republic of the Congo had the highest estimated increases, all greater than half a million cases. PAY ATTENTION: Download our mobile app to enjoy the latest news update Meanwhile, Legit.ng gathers that a recent shocking study by the United Nations (UN) had revealed that more than half of female murder victims in 2017 were killed by their partners or family members, thus making home the most dangerous place for women across the world. Time reports that the bewildering revelation was made by UN's office on drugs and crime on Sunday, November 25, to mark the international day for the elimination of violence against women. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We have updated to serve you better My prison experience James Brown (They didnt caught me) | Legit TV Source: Legit Newspaper The newspaper review of Wednesday, November 28, focuses on the alleged attack on the five sacked All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmakers at Akwa Ibom House of Assembly, which was reportedly masterminded and led by the governor of the state, Udom Emmanuel. In the report available in The Punch, Governor Udom Emmanuel was reported to have stormed the state House of Assembly complex with security convoy and legion of supporters following information that the sacked lawmakers were planning a plenary to impeach him and the speaker of the state, Onofiok Luke. The newspaper also reports that the arrival of the governor worsened the situation as there was a clash between loyalists to the governor and that of the sacked APC lawmakers led by a factional speaker. It adds that the cars belonging to APC supporters were burnt, leading to calls from both Governor Udom Emmanuel and other members of the House of Assembly for the redeployment of the police commissioner in the state. A front page snapshot of The Punch newspaper for Wednesday, November 28, 2018. Photo credit: Legit.ng Source: UGC READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda On the same Akwa Ibom House of Assembly invasion, This Day reports that there has been concern across the country over the role of police operatives in the invasion that earlier led to the entry of the five sacked lawmaker to the complex, thus generated into chaos. A front page snapshot of This Day newspaper for Wednesday, November 28, 2018. Photo credit: Legit.ng Source: UGC The paper also reports that while Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the presidency of using police to promote parliamentary impunity in the state, APC has also fired back, alleging that the the role of the police operatives in the alleged invasion was partisan on the side of PDP. Vanguard newspaper, going by the big front page title, reports that following the crisis that ensued at Akwa Ibom House of Assembly on Wednesday, November 26, Governor Udom has sought the intervention of the global community, accusing APC of masterminding the purported sitting to impeach him by five sacked APC lawmakers. A front page snapshot of Vanguard newspaper for Wednesday, November 28, 2018. Photo credit: Legit.ng Source: UGC The papers reports that Udom alleged impunity and dictatorship on the side of APC, adding that police, through its commissioner in the state, Musa Kimo, were working in cahoots to disrupt his government. Senator Godwin Akapio was not spared in the accusation by the governor. In the report available in The Guardian newspaper, the House of Representatives has vowed to probe how funds marked for fight against insurgency were spent. This came following the unfortunate Melete killing in which hundreds of Nigerian soldiers were killed by men suspected to be Boko Haram. The newspaper reports that the resolution to take the giant leap into the counter-insurgency funds followed the adoption of motions moved by Mohammed Sani Abdu, Isaac Gyang and Hassan Saleh during a fierce debate on the recent attack on men of Nigerian Army. The newspaper also reports that a socio-political group, Afenifere, has condemned the Melete killing, and called for the immediate removal of the service chiefs. A front page snapshot of The Guardian newspaper for Wednesday, November 28, 2018. Photo credit: Legit.ng Source: UGC In its report, The Nation's front page majorly focuses on the inauguration of Gboyega Oyetola as the new governor of Osun state. On Tuesday, November 27, Oyetola was installed the new executive governor, taking the mantle of leadership from Rauf Aregbesola. But of the newspaper's concern was the statement made by the national leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu giving Buhari the go ahead nods ahead of the 2019 presidential election. PAY ATTENTION: Download our mobile app to enjoy the latest news update The newspaper also adds that Tinubu insisted that Nigerians cannot accept to return to those he termed "scavengers who personalised government because of their greed." A front page snapshot of The Nation newspaper for Wednesday, November 28, 2018. Photo credit: Legit.ng Source: UGC NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We have updated to serve you better DSS invade National Assembly - on Legit TV Source: Legit - The Senate will be amending the EFCC Act to ensure better operations - The amendment will ensure that certain percentage of the commission's recoveries will be retained to improve on the quality of its assignments - EFCC boss, Ibrahim Magu, has been charged to redouble effort to save Nigeria from the stranglehold of corruption The chairman of Senate committee on anti-corruption, Senator Chukwuka Utazi, has said that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Act will be amended to ensure better operations. Daily Trust reports that Utazi stated this during the committee's oversight function to the commission at its new headquarters in Jabi, Abuja. Legit.ng gathers that the chairman also commended the efforts of the anti-graft agency in the fight against corruption. READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda Senator Utazi said: "We will amend the EFCC Act to ensure that certain percentage of your recoveries will be retained to improve on the quality of the commissions assignments." The acting chairman of the agency, Ibrahim Magu, was charged to redouble effort to save Nigeria from the stranglehold of corruption. Magu, who said the commission recorded unprecedented success over 240 convictions from January till date, gave the details of monetary final forfeiture for the last 11 months to include: N12.75bn, $175,077.81 and 597,353.65. According to him, out of the N12.7bn appropriated for the commissions personnel cost for the fiscal year, only N6.7bn (53.06%) has been released. Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the confirmation of Olanipekun Olukoyede as secretary of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was 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. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app The lawmaker complained that the endorsement page report was signed by only three out of eight members of the committee. 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 - Comrade Ayuba Wabba accuses the federal government of trying to politicise the minimum wage agreement reached for workers - Wabba, the president of NLC, notes that the organised labour does not have any issue with the private sector over the agreement - The labour leader accuses the federal government of not having any genuine interest in the agreement The president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba, on Tuesday, November 27, declared that the federal government was politicizing the agreements they reached over the proposed new national minimum wage. Wabba, who spoke in Bayelsa, reportedly said the government was denying the proposed new national minimum wage, while the private sector was cooperating on the issue. READ ALSO: Nigerian Army replies online news medium over report on killing of soldiers in Borno Daily Trust reports that Wabba spoke during the opening session of the 2018 meeting of the joint national public service negotiating council. According to the NLC president, the governments attitude was devoid of genuine interests. Private sectors have actually displaced the public sector in industrial relation and collective bargaining role model, our experiences during the negotiations for the new minimum wage showed that the employers in the private sectors are more forthcoming and forthright, moving negotiation forward to mutual acceptable figure, while government continues to live in denial and even stop the conclusion for the negotiation," he said. Legit.ng earlier reported that the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) recently told President Buhari to take urgent steps to address the issue of 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 said Nigerian workers were running out of patience with the government over the delay and were getting more and more agitated. A coalition of 400 civil rights organisations under the aegis of Transition Monitoring Group also recently advised Nigerian workers to use it as a bargaining tool for the 2019 general elections. Punch reports that the group expressed concern over the irregular payment of salaries by state governments, describing it as a recipe to vote-buying and threat to free and fair elections in 2019. Minimum Wage: Is N30,000 Too Much for FG to Pay Workers? - Nigeria Street Gist | Legit TV Source: Legit Nigeria - President Buhari is currently in Maidguri, the Borno state capital - The president arrived the Maiduguri International Airport on Wednesday, November 28, to declare open the COAS Annual Conference holding in the state - The conference was originally scheduled to hold in Benin City, the Edo state capital President Muhammadu Buhari has arrived Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, to declare open the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Annual Conference holding in the state. Legit.ng gathers that President Buhari's personal assistant on new media, Bashir Ahmad, took to his Twitter page to make the disclosure. The president's aide said the conference was originally scheduled to hold in Benin, the Edo state capital. READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda He tweeted: "President @MBuhari in Maiduguri for the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Annual Conference which was originally scheduled to hold in Benin, Edo State." See tweet below: Legit.ng previously reported that President Muhammadu Buharis visit to Edo on Tuesday, November 27, was cancelled as the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Annual Conference initially billed to hold in Benin City was shifted to Maiduguri, Borno state. Ahmad confirmed this development on his Twitter handle on Sunday, November 25. 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." PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, in a previous report by Legit.ng, Buhari received a third letter from illegally dismissed Nigerian Army officers after they were shown the way out of the institution in June 2016. Nine major generals, 11 brigadier generals, seven colonels and 11 lieutenant colonels, 38 officers in sum, were laid off by the Army in that mass sack. The latest petition was the third to the president apart from one to his deputy, Yemi Osinbajo, while running the nation in an acting capacity. According to report, the president did not acknowledge or reply to the previous petitions. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We have updated to serve you better Nigerian Air Force operations against Boko Haram - on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit The Senate on Wednesday, November 28, confirmed the appointment of Olanipekun Olukoyede as secretary of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), less than 24-hour after the confirmation was suspended. The confirmation was suspended on Tuesday, November 27, after a member of the Senate committee on anti-corruption and financial crimes, Isa Misau, accused the committee of preparing a report without the consent of others. Misau complained that the endorsement page report was signed by only three out of eight members of the committee. READ ALSO: Count me out - Akpabio denies alleged role in Akwa Ibom assembly crises President Muhammadu Buhari, in a letter dated September 10, 2018, nominated Olanipekun Olukoyede, the chief of staff to the chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, as the secretary of the commission. Meanwhile, Legit.ng earlier reported that the chairman of Senate committee on anti-corruption, Senator Chukwuka Utazi, said that the EFCC Act will be amended to ensure better operations. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app Utazi stated this during the committee's oversight function to the commission at its new headquarters in Jabi, Abuja. The chairman also commended the efforts of the anti-graft agency in the fight against corruption. 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 Nigeria - Rochas Okorocha has accused the people of the south south of selling out to the highest bidder - The Imo state governor said politicians outside Igboland who want to fight any particular Igbo politician must use fellow Igbos as tools Imo state governor, Rochas Okorocha, has said he is not fighting with Senator Hope Uzodinma, Senator Ifeanyi Araraume, Prince Eze Madumere and others but rather, some people are trying to pit them against each other. Okorocha, also lamented what he described as the 'sellout' attitude of Igbos especially when it comes to politics. He claimed Igbos are now being used as tool by highest bidder to terrorise other Igbos in politics. The governor made this statement when he met with senior media practitioners in the state at the Government House on Tuesday November 27, 2018. READ ALSO: EFCC laws to be amended by Senate for better operations He said: Hope Uzodinma is not fighting Rochas Okorocha. Neither is Ifeanyi Araraume nor Eze Madumere or Emeka Ihedioha. But they are been used as instruments to fight Rochas because of the 2023 ambition of some big shots in the Country. And that tells the story of the Igbos. We dont support our own, rather we destroy our own. What is happening in Igboland today cannot happen in any other place in Nigeria because Igbos have made themselves shopping centres where people can come and shop and buy people to destroy their own. It is not a good omen. I want to announce that I am still running for the Senate for Orlu zone and my party is APC. I am going to make the difference. We are also supporting President Muhammadu Buhari for second tenure because he has done well to deserve that. I am supporting Uche Nwosu too because he believes in the state and wont be going anywhere. Imo needs someone with vision and passion to carry on with the development plans of the state. The people of the state joined the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2015 inspite of the blackmail that trailed the party in this part of the country because of the confidence they have in me and not only as their governor, but as their son. Imo people never joined APC because of any other person in Nigeria, but they joined the party because of me and nothing has changed in the relationship because they are still all with me." PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app Okorocha also accused the national chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole, of causing crisis in the party. He added that what happened recently in Imo was a clear case of injustice which does not reflect the image of the party. What we have in Imo state is the worst imposition ever experienced in Nigeria politics, which characterizes most primaries in Imo state, be that of PDP, APGA or APC. The three people who never won their primaries became their candidates. So in Imo state, wrong candidates who never emerged with the wills of the people became the candidates and that is why you see anger, disappointment and frustrations on the faces of the followers both in APC, PDP and APGA. All those that emerged there, were not the choices of the people but were imposed by the various national parties." Legit.ng earlier reported that Okorocha reportedly hinted that his former chief of staff, Uche Nwosu, and all those aggrieved aspirants in the aftermath of the All Progressives Congress (APC) primary election, might join another party to realise their ambitions, saying that he wont stop them. Nwosu, Governor Okorochas son-in-law, contested the partys governorship ticket but lost to Senator Hope Uzodinma in a controversial circumstance. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng. We have upgraded to serve you better. 'Nigeria Needs a Leader That is Not Bigger Than the Country' - Nigeria Street Gist | Legit TV Source: Legit Nigeria - A Twitter user identified as Stevieblessed has shared a rather interesting story of how his friend got robbed - According to him, his friend had his laptop stolen but was surprised to get a message from the thief who had a conscience - The post has since gone viral with people reacting in different ways Often times, circumstances push people to do things they regret. A certain laptop thief has earned the reputation of a hero after he reached out to his victim and offered to send back important documents. When most people lose a gadget, what hurts most is the information they have stored on it and how difficult it will be to recover. However, if the world were to start breeding thieves with a conscience like the one described in a recent post by Twitter user, Stevieblessed, then maybe the world will be a better place. According to Steviblessed, a friend of his had his laptop stolen and got the shock of his life when the thief reached out to apologize for taking the computer. He also offered to send back his work after finding out that the victim was a university student. READ ALSO: The interesting story of white Osun priestess, Adunni Olorisa Read the text message sent to the victim below: Although the act is unlawful, it is clear that the 'honest' criminal was pushed due to his lack and for that reason, many social media users are empathizing with him. Here are some reactions below: Someone thought his move was nice but his act is still unlawful. Another made a sarcastic comment. Another user empathised with the thief. READ ALSO: Drama in Imo church as first wife pours red oil on her husbands new brides wedding gown One thought his actions are till completely unacceptable. Someone suggested that monetary help be offered to the rather honest thief. Just hilarious! Meanwhile, recently, a Twitter user identified as FreeTori_ narrated how his friends boutique was burgled by a thief in Osapa London, Lekki area of Lagos. According to the videos shared by the young man, it showed that the thief entered the shop around 12am on Tuesday, November 27. The operation reportedly lasted for two hours. He made away with bags, money, shoes, clothes and much more. Did you know? NAIJ.com (naija.ng) is now-> Legit.ng We have updated to serve you better. PAY ATTENTION: Read best news on Nigeria's #1 news app Lagos Police Commissioner Parades Suspected Criminals (Nigeria News) on Legit TV: Source: Legit Nigeria - A former inspector general of police, Sunday Ehindero, was re-arraigned by the ICPC - Ehindero was arraigned alongside a former commissioner of police, John Obaniyi, over alleged N16.4 million fraud - The duo were re-arraigned on a 10-count amended charge before a Federal Capital Territory High Court sitting at Apo, Abuja The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) on Wednesday, November 28, re-arraigned an ex-inspector general of police, Sunday Ehindero, and a former commissioner of police, John Obaniyi, over alleged N16.4 million fraud. The accused were again arraigned on a 10-count amended charge before a Federal Capital Territory High Court sitting at Apo, Abuja. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the charge borders on conspiracy, fraud and making false statement. Legit.ng gathers that the prosecutor, OG Iwuagwu, told the court that the accused committed the offences from May to November 2006. He said that the duo conspired and used their positions to place N500 million in two fixed deposit accounts. READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda Iwuagwu said that the money was part of N557,995,065.00 donated by the Bayelsa government to the Nigeria Police for purchase of arms and ammunition. The prosecutor said that the N500 million placed in fixed deposits yielded an interest of N16,412,315.06. The alleged offences contravene sections 26(1) and 22(5) of the ICPC Act, 2000. But the former police chiefs, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge. Counsel to the accused, Kenneth Onorun and Samuel Obairko, prayed the court to uphold the bail granted to them when they were first arraigned. They objected to the prosecutors application for the court to proceed with evidence by a prosecution witness who, the prosecutor said, was ready to testify. The defence counsel submitted that the statements of the accused were not served along with the amended charge. Justice Sylvanus Orji directed the prosecutor to serve the defence counsel with the statements. He adjourned the case till January 8 for hearing. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that Sunday Ehindero, a former inspector general of police (IGP), was on Thursday, May 10, re-arraigned alongside a former police commissioner, John Obaniyi, at an Apo district high court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja on a six-count charge for alleged fraud. The defendants were accused of misusing N578 million (N557,995,065) donated by the Bayelsa state government for the purchase of arms. The fund was diverted into separate accounts owned by the defendants, where it generated an interest of N16,412,315. The generated interest was allegedly used for the defendants personal objectives. Are Nigerian Policemen the worst in the world? on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit - Umar Muhammed, a prosecution witness, told an FCT high court, that he saw several wounds, bite marks on the body of Bilyaminu, the deceased son of former PDP Chairman - Muhammed was testifying in the culpable murder case against Maryam Sanda, accused of allegedly killing Bilyaminu - The witness also said he saw bite marks on Bilyaminus chest and on his right finger A prosecution witness, Umar Muhammed, told an FCT high court ,Maitama that he saw several wounds on the body of Bilyaminu, the deceased son of former PDP chairman, Alhaji Bello Halliru. Muhammed, who was testifying in the culpable murder case against Maryam Sanda, accused of allegedly killing Bilyaminu, said: I saw wounds on his lap and neck." He said that he also saw bite marks on Bilyaminus chest and on his right finger. I saw Maryam and her mother at the police station but I do not know who inflicted the injuries on Bilyaminu, he said. READ ALSO: Buhari, Atiku excluded from consultation meeting by Christian leaders Muhammed, said he got a call from Bilyaminus family member at 5 a.m. on November 19, 2017, informing him that Bilyaminu had died. He stated that he drove other family members to the Maitama police station and also to the Maitama General Hospital where the corpse of the deceased was retrieved from the morgue. After he was confirmed dead, We took the corpse to the Central Mosque where I helped in preparing the remains for burial, he said. When cross-examined by defendants counsel, Ms Regina Okotie- Eboh and Musa Hussein, Umar told the court that he was not aware that its only a relative or a professional that is allowed to prepare the remains for burial. Justice Yusuf Halilu after listening to his testimony adjourned the case until December 3 for continuation of hearing. NAN reports that Sanda was docked alongside her brother, Aliyu Sanda; her mother, Maimuna Aliyu and one Sadiya, who were accused of assisting her to conceal the evidence by cleaning the blood of the deceased from the scene of the crime. They pleaded not guilty to the charges. PAY ATTENTION: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda Legit.ng previously reported that the absence of prosecution witness on Monday, March 19, stalled the continuation of trial in the alleged murder case filed against Maryam Sanda, and three others before Justice Yusuf Halilu of the FCT High Court, Jabi. The other defendants are: Maimuna Aliyu, Maryams mother, Aliyu Sanda, the brother and Sadiya Aminu, the housemaid. They were accused of aiding Maryam in carrying out the alleged murder of Bilyaminu Bello, the son of a former PDP Chairman, Haliru Bello, on Nov. 19, 2017. At what point should a person walk out of an abusive relationship? - on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit Sunday Adefonou Anani, the 22-year-old Togolese cook, suspected to have murdered Opeyemi Badamosi, the chairman of Credit Switch Technology, has allegedly died in custody. Anani was charged with a one count of murder, which was committed on October 31, 2018, at Badamosis resident at 3b, Onikoyi Lane, Parkview Estate Ikoyi Lagos. Vanguard reports that the deceased was remanded in prison custody by an Igbosere magistrates court in Lagos, on November 12. READ ALSO: CUPP blames Buhari, Akpabio, IGP over crisis in Akwa-Ibom Assembly His case was adjourned till December 18, pending the issuance of legal advice from the Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP). Legit.ng gathers that Anani's counsel got a message on Wednesday morning, November 28, that the 22-year-old cook has passed away while in custody. Details of the circumstances surrounding his death has not been released yet. Meanwhile, Legit.ng earlier reported that a prosecution witness, Umar Muhammed, told an FCT high court ,Maitama that he saw several wounds on the body of Bilyaminu, the deceased son of former PDP chairman, Alhaji Bello Halliru. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app Muhammed, who was testifying in the culpable murder case against Maryam Sanda, accused of allegedly killing Bilyaminu, said: I saw wounds on his lap and neck." He said that he also saw bite marks on Bilyaminus chest and on his right finger. According to him, he got a call from Bilyaminus family member at 5 a.m. on November 19, 2017, informing him that Bilyaminu had died. He said that he drove other family members to the Maitama police station and also to the Maitama General Hospital where the corpse of the deceased was retrieved from the morgue. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng. We have upgraded to serve you better. Offa bank robbery: Why some residents were shot by armed robbers. Legit.ng TV Source: Legit President Muhammadu Buhari and five other presidents are reportedly scheduled to meet on Thursday, November 29, in NDjamena, the Chadian capital over the resurgence of Boko Haram insurgency. Presidential spokesperson, Femi Adesina, said the meeting was convened by President Buhari, in his capacity as chairman of the Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC), Daily Trust reports. He said the one-day meeting will review the security situation in the areas affected by Boko Haram insurgency and adopt measures to enhance the capacity of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) to meet the challenges of securing the areas. READ ALSO: PDP senator dumps party, joins APC Legit.ng gathers that the presidents of the LCBC member countries of Chad, Cameroon, Niger, and the Central African Republic have been invited to attend the meeting. The president of Benin Republic, a troop-contributing country, has also been invited to attend. The MNJTF and the national operations of the affected countries have appreciably degraded the capacity of the Boko Haram terrorists, although the insurgents still retain the capacity to attack isolated targets in desperate search for supplies. PAY ATTENTION: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda Meanwhile, President Buhari has reportedly assured the Nigerian Army that his administration will purchase modern fighting equipment for soldiers battling Boko Haram insurgents in the northeast. The president made the statement on Wednesday, November 28, when he condoled families of soldiers who were recently killed by insurgents in Borno state. President Buhari who was in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital to attend the chief of army staff (COAS) annual conference, said his administration would continue to give its maximum support to the military. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng. We have upgraded to serve you better. Can Nigerian Soldiers really not deal with Boko Haram fighters?| Legit TV Source: Legit.ng President Muhammadu Buhari has visited wounded soldiers in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital. The president visited the soldiers on Wednesday, November 28, after attending the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Annual Conference where he declared the event open. President Buhari disclosed this via his official Twitter handle, @MBuhari: "Today in Maiduguri I visited our wounded troops. Across the northeast we have officers and men fighting bravely and tirelessly to keep our country safe from terrorism and violence. I salute their sacrifice on our behalf. And may the souls of the fallen rest in peace," he tweeted. READ ALSO: PDP senator dumps party, joins APC PAY ATTENTION: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that President Buhari had also convened a consultation of heads of state and government of the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) for Thursday, November 29, in N-Djamena, Chad. The president said: "I have invited the presidents of the LCBC member countries: Chad, Cameroon, Niger, and the Central African Republic, to attend the meeting. Also invited is the President of the Republic of Benin, which also contributes troops to the MNJTF. The objective of the one-day meeting is to review the security situation in areas affected by the Boko Haram insurgency, as well as adopt measures to enhance the capacity of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) to secure the region." NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng. We have upgraded to serve you better. Can Nigerian Soldiers really not deal with Boko Haram fighters?| Legit TV Source: Legit.ng - Zambia is steadily advancing efforts at actualising its nuclear energy goals - Nigeria, on the other hand, continues to work out modalities for the construction of a nuclear research centre and power plant with Russia - South Africa is currently the only country in Africa with an operational nuclear power plant While Nigeria continues to work out modalities for the construction of a nuclear research centre and power plant with Russia, Zambia is steadily advancing efforts at actualising its nuclear energy goals with the European country. Shadreck Luwita, Zambia's ambassador to Russia, recently revealed that the construction of a nuclear research reactor in Zambia with Russia's assistance through ROSATOM - Russia's state owned nuclear energy provider, is expected to begin in 2019. In February 2017, Russia and Zambia signed an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation on the construction of a nuclear science and technology center in Zambian. That same year, in October, Nigeria and Russia also signed several agreements on the construction and operation of a nuclear power plant as well as a nuclear research centre housing a multi-purpose research reactor. READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda Luwita stressed a great deal of work had already been done, in particular, an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) agreement had been signed and the site for the construction of the nuclear reactor had been chosen. He further hinted, that the countries would most likely sign an agreement on the construction of a nuclear power plant in the African state during the 11th ATOMEXPO international forum, due to be organised by Russia's Rosatom state corporation next April. His words: The first thing is to commence the construction of the center for nuclear science and technology. Most likely, these agreements are signed when Rosatom is hosting the [ATOMEXPO] international nuclear forum. We are most likely to see the signing of the agreement for the construction of a nuclear power plant [at the next forum]. The ATOMEXPO international forum is a major event in the world's nuclear field, which has been held on an annual basis since 2009. The forum provides an occasion for the discussion of the current state of the nuclear field and sets the trends for the nuclear sphere further development. Lately, leading African nations including: Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda have been embracing prospects of adopting nuclear energy to bridge their energy deficit. South Africa is currently the only country in Africa with an operational nuclear power plant, which coincidentally produces the cheapest power in the nation. Recently, Egypt made a deal with Rosatom for the construction of its maiden nuclear power plant in El Dabaa and plans to inaugurate the first unit of the NPP in 2026. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app In a related development, Turkey formally kick started construction of its maiden nuclear power plant the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant. A ceremony marking the start of construction, took place in the Turkish province of Mersin, on Tuesday, April 3 with Russian President, Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Erdogan. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng. We have upgraded to serve you better. Female aerospace engineer from the Tsaigumi UAV team on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng - An official of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority has been shot dead - The LASTMA official was reportedly shot dead by a SARS officer after stopping him (the SARS officer) for violating traffic rules - The SARS officer has been arrested while the remains of the LASTMA officer deposited in a mortuary in Yaba, Lagos Mainland A suspected officer of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) has allegedly shot an official of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) dead. According to The Nation, the incident occurred on Wednesday, November 28, at Iyana-Ipaja roundabout around 6pm. The LASTMA official was said to have flagged him down for traffic issue. The officer got down and warned the traffic official never to stop him again, adding that he didnt have right to do so. READ ALSO: PDP senator dumps party, joins APC Legit.ng gathers that in the course of exchanging hot words, the angry officer reportedly returned to his car, brought out a gun and shot the traffic official. Many ran for safety after hearing the sound of the gun. The officer, whose identity is yet to be ascertained, was said to have been arrested. Eyewitnesses said the officer drove a Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV). The alleged killer was first taken Moshalashi Police Station along Ipaja road before being transferred to State Command in Ikeja GRA. The traffic official was rushed to Ifako-Ijaiye General Hospital, where he was reportedly confirmed dead. His remains have been deposited in a mortuary in Yaba, Lagos Mainland. LASTMA public relations officer, Mahmud Hassan, has confirmed the incident. He said investigation is ongoing and will get on the identity of both the dead traffic official and the officer that shot him. Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that Osinbajo disclosed that President Muhammadu Buhari had earlier ordered an immediate restructuring of SARS, in order to check the series of atrocities allegedly committed by the unit. He made the disclosure while responding to questions from young Nigerians at a town hall meeting to mark the launch of the National Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) Clinics in Ibadan, Oyo state. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng. We have upgraded to serve you better. Nigeria Latest News: Osinbajo Orders Overhaul Of The Dreaded SARS | Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng News On Thursday, the Bethlehem Zoning Hearing Board will continue its review of developer Abe Atiyehs controversial plan to build an 80-bed psychiatric hospital by Bethlehem Catholic High School. In July, city Zoning Officer Suzanne Borzak rejected a zoning permit application from Atiyehs Pennsylvania Venture Capital LLC for the hospital on a 5-acre lot at 1838 Center St., on the grounds that what Atiyeh wants to build is in fact a treatment center, not a hospital. Treatment centers are not legal uses in the citys institutional zoning district. After trying to submit new plans to the city, Atiyeh is reverting back to his plan for a hospital, which was approved in 2013 by the city planning commission with the caveat it could not be a treatment center. The decision also required the exact hospital use be approved by zoning, explained Darlene Heller, city planning director. In the filed appeal, Atiyehs company notes it applied for the permit to comply with the conditions of the 2013 approval. The appeal argues that Borzak erred in her decision and abused her discretion when she found the proposed hospital was in fact a treatment center. Atiyeh contends that the proposed private psychiatric hospital is not a residential treatment facility and therefore allowed under the use approved by the planning commission in 2013. The city administration, which is opposing the project, disagrees. In her July 20 denial letter, Borzak writes that her review of the project, including information sent to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, determined the hospital would be a treatment facility for people suffering from a mental illness. She notes that the proposed services include 21 adult-inpatient beds reserved for someone experiencing both a mental illness and substance abuse disorder. This service clearly shows you are proposing a treatment facility ready, willing, able, and likely to provide services for a current addiction to a controlled substances that was used in an illegal manner or alcohol (as defined in the citys definition of a treatment center in the zoning code), Borzak writes in the letter. Atiyehs morphing plans for the property at the corner of Dewberry Avenue and Center Street have long put him at odds with neighbors, Becahi officials and the city. The developer has proposed apartments, a drug and alcohol treatment center and various iterations of a hospital. In September, the zoning hearing board heard testimony on the appeal for more than four hours and opted to continue the hearing to a later date. The board meets at 6 p.m. Thursday in the City Hall rotunda, 10 E. Church St., and the project is the only thing on its agenda. Back in January of this year, the Bethlehem Planning Commission rejected Atiyehs plans for a psychiatric hospital on the site because they were incomplete. During the lengthy -- and at times heated -- meeting, Atiyeh unsuccessfully pushed for a third project extension and asked the board to grant the project conditional approval. At the time, Atiyeh said he was moving forward with his 2013 plans and he believes a psychiatric hospital is allowed. But resubmitting his plans would give him more options and another five years to deliver on them, he said in January. In 2016, the developer inked a deal with Arcadia Healthcare -- a for-profit mental health care provider -- to build a $25 million behavioral health facility on the site. But the plans were met with opposition from neighbors and abruptly pulled ahead of a planning commission meeting. Then in May of 2017, Atiyeh submitted a proposal almost identical to his 2013 approved plans where the hospital was now called a psychiatric hospital. The submission came just hours before city council took its first vote to restrict where such hospitals can be built in the city. Council later voted to change city zoning so that behavioral health facilities and psychiatric hospitals are categorized as treatment centers, meaning they would require special approvals by the zoning hearing board and only be allowed in certain areas. Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @sarasatullo and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. A few weeks ago, The Farmer and the Chickpea co-owner Ashley Stratton said that she heard God speak to her when she first saw the kitchen at 154 Northampton St. in Easton. But divine intervention, it seems, wasn't enough to bring the New Jersey foodie destination to the Lehigh Valley. The Farmer & the Chickpea, which appears at several farmers' markets and runs a cafe and shop in the Whitehouse Station area of Readington Township, is no longer planning to take over the downtown Easton storefront, mostly recently used as the shared commercial kitchen and restaurant incubator Common Space. Previously expected to open in Easton on Dec. 1, the Farmer & the Chickpea had said it would serve pot pies, hot chocolate, salads, sandwiches, desserts and more. But what initially seemed like a match made in heaven fell apart last week. The owner of Common Space, who still rents the space and had been arranging its next chapter, and the team behind The Farmer & the Chickpea each offered a different explanation for the collapse. Bernadette Fennimore, who co-owns Common Space with her husband Swain Fennimore, said she was surprised by what she called an unexpected decision Friday by The Farmer and The Chickpea to back out. But Farmer and the Chickpea owners Ashley Stratton and Jillian Kressley said they had been compelled to leave the space after complications among themselves, Fennimore and the building's owner over the lease and whether the space would be shared with other vendors. The announcement is the latest setback for 154 Northampton St. In October, the restaurant incubator FoodWorkz, which operated within Common Space, closed after just three months of operation. Common Space, first opened in May 2017, also saw frequent vendor turnover earlier this year. Fennimore, however, remained optimistic for the future of the space, saying she had been in talks with a new vendor that she's hopeful will pan out. And the Farmer & the Chickpea hasn't ruled out a future move into the Valley. "This has opened our eyes to city of Easton," Kressley said. Andrew Doerfler may be reached at adoerfler@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @adoerfler or on Facebook. A former Allentown city solicitor who helped rig a contract for the mayor will spend a day in federal prison, three months on house arrest and three years on probation, according to a U.S. Attorneys office spokeswoman. Dale Wiles sentence was handed down Wednesday in Philadelphia by U.S. District Court Judge Juan Sanchez, according to U.S. Attorneys spokeswoman Michele Mucellin. Court records say the 50-year-old ex-attorney rigged bid documents so that Northeast Revenue would win the contract to collect delinquent real estate taxes for the City of Allentown. Mayor Edwin Pawlowski secured a campaign contribution and Philadelphia Eagles tickets from Northeast in exchange for handing the company the contract, records say. In her sentencing memorandum, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michele Morgan calls the offense a serious crime. Selling contracts to a public officials most promising campaign contributor is exactly the type of nefarious conduct that the citys contracting process was designed to avoid, she wrote. But Wiles ran the risk of losing his job had he not followed the orders of the mayor and his staff, Morgan noted. This was the only scam of the many run by the mayor that Wiles participated in, she said. The judge ultimately decided one day in prison was enough for Wiles. Defense attorney Kathryn Roberts said Wiles was very happy with the sentence. I think it came down to the judge deciding that Dale was very contrite, sincerely remorseful, was a very tiny player in a large scheme and got no financial benefit out of this, Roberts said. Pawlowski was convicted at trial of 47 corruption offenses and sentenced to 15 years in federal prison. Wiles pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit fraud. Morgan said Wiles is unlikely to reoffend because he is suspended from practicing law, could eventually lose his law license and no longer works for the government. Hes now a granite cutter who is divorced with two children, ages 10 and 13, the sentencing memorandum said. The loss of his professional license long-term and the huge embarrassment in the legal community and the community in general has greatly affected him, not to mention he went through a nasty divorce, and recently declared bankruptcy, Roberts said. Morgan said his conduct criminal conduct appears to be an aberration. The judge ordered Wiles to report to prison Dec. 7, Mucellin said. He will spend the first three months of his probation term on house arrest with electronic monitoring, she said. He must perform 100 hours of community service and pay a $3,000 fine, she said. Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook. Earlier this year the United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley didnt renew funding for the Easton Area Community Center. That decision cost former executive director Brooke Mitman her job, Mitman said Wednesday. With the center in line to lose $73,000, the trustees had to make up the loss somehow, Mitman said. The board had to make a decision, she said Wednesday. Easton Area Community Center Board President Maurice S. Luker III said he couldnt talk about Mitmans June departure because its a confidential personnel matter. I understand she is pursuing other opportunities she is interested in, Luker said. Mitman said interim executive director Kathryn Presto is doing an excellent job and encouraged the community to volunteer and contribute funds to the community center at 901 Washington St. The community center needs the communitys financial support as well as leadership and volunteerism from every sector of our community, whether its church groups or the educational community or the business community, Mitman said. In June the United way boosted annual funding for Easton nonprofits by $170,000 for fiscal year 2018-19, according to Marc Rittle, the United Ways vice president of impact. But the United Way shifted funds away from the Easton Area Community Center to other nonprofits where the organization felt they would make a greater impact. Luker said the center maintains a relationship with the United Way despite the non-renewed funding. The community center got an unexpected $20,000 grant from Giant supermarkets this week and continues to solicit funds to make up for its loss. Were confident about the future, Luker said. He said the center is reviewing applications from candidates who want to become the new Easton Area Community Center executive director. Mitman said shes self-employed and has started a number of public service initiatives. She is working with a trauma awareness collaborative under the auspices of the United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley. Shes the co-founder of Conversations on the Culture, what she called a Web- and event-based forum for civil discourse headed for college campuses. She is also starting a company called Heavenly Hosts which offers educational tours. She said she doesnt regret the two-plus years she spent running the Easton center. I believe God closes certain doors and opens other ones. I knew it was his will, she said. Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook. A 53-year-old man is charged with attempted homicide, accused of firing at least one shot in a domestic disturbance Tuesday in Monroe County, authorities said. A fight that followed the initial gunfire led to several more shots fired, Stroud Area Regional police said in a news release. No one was reported injured in the incident in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains. Police said they responded about 9:11 a.m. for the report of a man, possibly armed, trying to break into a home and possible shots fired on Hill Top Circle in Blue Mountain Lake Estates in Stroud Township. Officers arrived to find two men, 53-year-old Musa Abdul Bey and a 32-year-old whose name was not released, involved in "an ongoing domestic disturbance" at the home, according to the release. The 32-year-old, identified as the victim, had "arrived at the residence to confront Bey about a recent ongoing family dispute," police say in the release. "The victim knocked on the front door of the residence without a response and returned to the driveway where he heard what he believed to be a gunshot. "The victim then observed Bey walking towards him while pointing a gun at him. Bey then fired at least one shot at him. The victim then engaged in a physical confrontation with Bey in an attempt to gain control of the gun. As a result of the confrontation the gun was discharged multiple times. The victim did not sustain any injuries as a result of the assault." Bey, of Mount Pocono, was arraigned Wednesday before District Judge C. Daniel Higgins Jr. on charges of attempted homicide, reckless endangerment and prohibited possession of a firearm, in addition to two counts of aggravated assault. Bey was sent to the Monroe County prison after Higgins denied him bail, due to the charge of attempted homicide by gun and continuing access to unidentified firearms, court records say. Records do not list an attorney for Bey. He faces a preliminary hearing tentatively scheduled Friday before District Judge Brian Germano. The incident occurred shortly after a shooting death at a municipal building Tuesday morning in another Monroe County township. In that incident, 72-year-old David Green, of Swiftwater, Pennsylvania, is accused of walking into the Paradise Township building and shooting 65-year-old township employee Michael Tripus in the face. Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. After a legal standoff, Lafayette College and College Hill neighbors settled their disagreement out of court, removing one of the last remaining obstacles to a dormitory expansion on the eastern edge of the campus. Lafayette agreed to relocate a historic home, rather than demolish it, and will provide a scholarship for an Easton Area High School graduate each year. The college also agreed to establish a citizens committee to address town-gown issues. College Hill resident Paul Felder said the neighborhood opponents didnt get everything they sought, but felt it was in the best interest of the community to compromise. Many residents objected to the encroachment of the college into the block bordered by McCartney, March, High and Marquis streets, along with an anticipated increase in parking pressure on College Hill streets. The Easton Planning Commission had recommended against approval of the expansion plan, but City Council changed the zoning code to make zoning relief unnecessary. The council is expected to approve the plan soon, removing the last roadblock. Was this a good deal for both sides? Did the neighbors win significant concessions? Should they have hung tough and insisted on a less intrusive plan? Have a say in our informal, unscientific poll, and feel free to elaborate in the comment section. Teachers at Warren Hills went into Monday nights contract talks frustrated after months of stalled negotiations. It seems both they and the school board emerged from the session with a more positive outlook. There was open discourse, and both parties displayed mutual respect for each other. Certainly the outlook now is brighter than it had been prior, said Ari Eisner, the teachers union president, in an email Wednesday. The board of education in a news release Wednesday also described a "positive first session" with a neutral mediator. "The parties discussed the open items and have a clear direction for preparing for our next scheduled session on Jan. 23, 2019," the board's statement said. Negotiations began in January, an impasse was declared in May and the most recent contract expired in June. Eisner previously said that stagnant salaries and rising health care costs mean Warren Hills' teachers are taking home "several thousand dollars ... less than they did seven years ago." The educators organized a rally ahead of Monday's meeting. The Warren Hills Regional School District is comprised of a middle school and high school serving the townships of Franklin, Mansfield, Oxford and Washington, and Washington Borough. There were 1,806 students enrolled in the 2016-17 school year, with 181 certified staff, according to state education department data. Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteveNovakLVL and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. The Supreme Court has ruled that a rapist jailed for 12 years who successfully challenged the constitutionality of a law stopping payment of the State's old age pension to prisoners is entitled to 10,000 in damages. The five-judge court unanimously concluded last July that the relevant law - Section 249.1 of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 - which disqualifies persons, otherwise qualified for various welfare benefits, from receiving "any" of those benefits, including the old age contributory pension, while imprisoned or detained in legal custody was unconstitutional. The State may not operate a disqualification regime that applies only to convicted persons because it constitutes an additional punishment not imposed by a court dealing with an offender, it held. Following its decision, the court adjourned the matter to consider further legal argument as to the precise form of order which should be made and to determine if the man, who cannot be identified o protect his victim, was entitled to substantial damages. The matter returned before the court today Wednesday for final orders when the court formally declared the relevant section of the 2005 Act to be invalid and in breach of the Constitution. In his judgement, Mr Justice Donal O'Donnell said he hoped the Oireachtas would address the question in a comprehensive and humane way and would produce an outcome consistent with the constitution. The judge also said the man would have had an entitlement to the old age pension had it not been for the existence of section 249.1.b. While the man's capacity to recover damages was significantly limited he was entitled to recovers arrears for unpaid pension and in total should receive 10,000 in compensation. The court noted that some 7,500 of that sum has already been paid on account. The Chief Justice, Mr Justice Liam McKechnie and Ms Justice Iseult O'Malley concurred with Judge O'Donnell's findings. Mr Justice John MacMenamin expressed a different view on that issue after holding that the man had no entitlement to damages on the basis that the section was invalid only from today's date. In addition, the judges were unanimous that the Supreme Court does have a jurisdiction to delay the making of a declaration of invalidity or to make a deferred order. The judgements all emphasise that this jurisdiction should be exercised sparingly. The case was brought by a 76-year-old prisoner jailed after he was convicted on 14 counts of rape and 60 counts of sexual assault against a family member. During his working life, he made PRSI contributions and, when he retired in 2005, got the State contributory pension. After his conviction in 2011, that payment stopped. He took High Court proceedings over that, seeking a declaration Section 249.1 is incompatible with the Constitution and European Convention on Human Rights and sought damages. After the High Court rejected his challenge, he was given permission to appeal to the Supreme Court. The core issue was whether a prisoner has a constitutional right to payment of the State contributory pension. The State opposed the challenge. The man's weekly prison allowance is 11.90, less than the normal weekly allowance of 18.90 due to his inability to engage in work activities in prison. He claimed he had insufficient funds to buy items in the prison tuck shop and relied on clothes provided by the prison service or St Vincent de Paul. He also argued some other prisoners had access to non-State pensions. In July Mr Justice MacMenamin, giving the unanimous judgment, said, while the State argued the law was intended to prevent "unjust enrichment" of prisoners, its true effect "can be described as punitive, retributive, indiscriminate and disproportionate". The measure is an additional punishment not imposed by a court and is therefore in breach of the separation of powers and Articles 34 and 38 of the Constitution, he said. Those provide justice shall be administered in courts and no person shall be tried on any criminal charge except in due course of law. In this case, the man is entitled to the pension and the reason for his disqualification from entitlement was the fact of imprisonment, the judge said. An inmate of the Midlands Prison has been given an additional two-month sentence for throwing a bottle of urine over a prison officer. Before last week's district court was Richard McCann (32), with an address at Cloverhill Road, Clondalkin, Dublin 22, charged with assault. Garda Erica Sweetman gave evidence that on December 27, 2017, at the Midlands Prison, a prison officer was on duty when the accused threw a bottle of what was suspected to be urine over him and said you English bastard. The accused then lay down with his hands behind his back. Defence, Mr Barry Fitzgerald said the accused is currently serving a sentence with a release date of 2019. Concerning the offence, Mr Fitzgerald said the accused had been involved in a disciplinary matter the day before the incident and was met with more resistance than he expected. The accused lost his privileges inside the prison for 56 days after this offence and was willing to pay compensation through his family. Defence also said the accused claimed the bottle contained MiWadi lemonade. However, Garda Sweetman restated that it was believed to have been urine. Judge Catherine Staines said that the job of a prison officer is very difficult and the only way it can work is if people respect the officers and do what theyre told, otherwise the system collapses. Judge Staines imposed a two-month sentence, to run consecutive to the sentence already being served. Recognisance was fixed in the event of an appeal. Met Eireann has extended its wind warning for Storm Diana as the country continues to be hit strong winds and heavy rain. While the storm will abate, the highest gusts exceeded 122 km/h in Cork. While the storm will abate, Met Eireann expects the unsettled weather is set to continue for the coming days. The Status Yellow wind warning for all of Ireland for gale force winds associated with Storm Diana is valid until 6pm Wednesday, November 28. A Status Orange severe wind warning for counties Wexford, Galway, Clare and Waterford is valid until 3pm. FORECAST BELOW TWEET Latest rainfall radar, 12pm to 1pm. Highest gusts so far today (km/h): 122 Sherkin Island (Cork) 115 Casement (Dublin) 113 Roches Point 104 Valentia 102 Mace Head (Galway) 98 Oak Park (Carlow) 91 Cork Airport 82 Athenry#StormDiana pic.twitter.com/wooR2R4CdK November 28, 2018 The end times of the orange warnings have been extended slightly. Cork & Kerry out to 1pm. Wexford, Waterford, Clare & Galway out to 3pm. Our national yellow wind warning expires at 6pm.https://t.co/ozrQHtGpc1 pic.twitter.com/mICM2n7ynz Met Eireann (@MetEireann) November 28, 2018 Met Eireann weather forecast as follows: TODAY - WEDNESDAY 28TH NOVEMBER Very windy today with some severe gusts associated with Storm Diana in coastal counties of the west and south as southerly winds veer southwesterly in direction. Rain will be heaviest and most persistent in parts of the west and north today, with the rain more scattered elsewhere with occasional bright intervals. Mild at first this afternoon with highs of 12 to 16 degrees, but temperatures falling back to between 9 and 12 degrees later. TONIGHT - WEDNESDAY 28TH NOVEMBER Still rather blustery at first this evening, especially across the north and east of the country with clear periods and scattered showers, with remaining rain in the north clearing. Becoming less windy in all areas overnight. However, soon after midnight a further spells of rain will feed up over the country from the south, becoming heavy with a risk of spot flooding part of the east and south. Minimum temperatures of 5 to 8 degrees. TOMORROW - THURSDAY 29TH NOVEMBER Overcast and wet in many places at first tomorrow, Thursday, with outbreaks of rain, heavy and persistent with the risk of spot flooding in parts of the south and east. The rain will clear into the Irish Sea during the morning to leave a bright and blustery day with sunny spells and showers, the showers frequent in the west, with the risk of hail and thunder. Highest temperatures of 8 to 12 degrees in fresh and gusty southwest winds. NATIONAL OUTLOOK Outlook: Staying unsettled with further spells of wet and windy weather. Thursday night: Fairly widespread showers at first on Thursday night but the showers will become largely confined to western and northern counties later in the night. Blustery overnight with strong southwest winds. Minimum temperatures 4 to 7 degrees. Friday: Friday will be a cool, bright and blustery day with sunny spells and scattered showers becoming more widespread in the afternoon. Some of the showers will be heavy and prolonged in the northwest. Some of hail with a risk of isolated thunderstorms. Afternoon temperatures will range from 6 degrees Celsius in northern counties to 9 or 10 degrees Celsius in parts of southwest and along the south coast. Windy at first in strong and gusty southwest to west winds but winds will ease off in the afternoon. A spell of persistent and heavy rain looks set to extend from the Atlantic later in the evening and overnight. Saturday: Overnight heavy rain clearing eastern and northern coastal areas in the early morning and the day will be bright with a mix of cloud and sunny breaks. There will be a good deal of dry weather, but some scattered showers. Afternoon highs of 7 to 10 degrees Celsius, highest near the south coast. Turning wet on Saturday night as persistent and at times heavy rain spreads northwards. Sunday: Current indications suggest cloudy conditions with rain at times on Sunday but some drier periods also. The rain will turn more persistent in western areas later Sunday and more widespread rain is expected overnight. Afternoon temperatures will range from 7 degrees Celsius in northern parts to 12 or 13 degrees Celsius in the south and winds light easterly early in the day in northern counties, will become moderate to fresh southwesterly in all areas later. Early next week: Unsettled weather expected through the early days of next week and colder over the northern half of the country especially with night frosts. The brief respite after Storm Diana is set to be followed by a 'swipe of heavy rain' is set to make for a difficult morning Thursday morning commute, Met Eireann has warned. In her nightly forecast after the RTE news, meteorologist Siobhan Ryan said a very wet morning is on the cards, especially for Leinster. She said a developing front to the north of Spain and Portugal is going to track towards Ireland overnight Wednesday into Thursday. "It is going to deliver a swipe of heavy thundery rain for the south and east of the country with spot flooding highly likely and not making for a pleasant commute for the early morning rush hour," she said. While it will pull away quickly towards Britain, heavy showers will be a feature of Thursday with some of hail and thunder. Weather as follows TOMORROW - THURSDAY 29TH NOVEMBER Rain will gradually clear the east coast tomorrow morning as brighter weather extends countrywide. Showers will become fairly widespread but will be more frequent over the western half of the country. A blustery day with southwest winds and highs of 8 to 12 degrees. NATIONAL OUTLOOK Outlook: Staying unsettled with further spells of wet and windy weather. Thursday night: Fairly widespread showers at first on Thursday night but the showers will become largely confined to western and northern counties later in the night. Blustery overnight with strong southwest winds. Minimum temperatures 4 to 7 degrees. Friday: Friday will be a cool, bright and blustery day with sunny spells and scattered showers becoming more widespread in the afternoon. Some of the showers will be heavy and prolonged in the northwest. Some of hail with a risk of isolated thunderstorms. Afternoon temperatures will range from 6 degrees Celsius in northern counties to 9 or 10 degrees Celsius in parts of southwest and along the south coast. Windy at first in strong and gusty southwest to west winds but winds will ease off in the afternoon. A spell of persistent and heavy rain looks set to extend from the Atlantic later in the evening and overnight. Saturday: Overnight heavy rain clearing eastern and northern coastal areas in the early morning and the day will be bright with a mix of cloud and sunny breaks. There will be a good deal of dry weather, but some scattered showers. Afternoon highs of 7 to 10 degrees Celsius, highest near the south coast. Turning wet on Saturday night as persistent and at times heavy rain spreads northwards. Sunday: Current indications suggest cloudy conditions with rain at times on Sunday but some drier periods also. The rain will turn more persistent in western areas later Sunday and more widespread rain is expected overnight. Afternoon temperatures will range from 7 degrees Celsius in northern parts to 12 or 13 degrees Celsius in the south and winds light easterly early in the day in northern counties, will become moderate to fresh southwesterly in all areas later. Early next week: Unsettled weather expected through the early days of next week and colder over the northern half of the country especially with night frosts. Laois people of Islamic faith are inviting local people to its Mosque open day this weekend in Portlaoise. The organisers say the local community is welcome to meet Irish Muslims who live in Portlaoise and surrounding areas. They say it will be an opportunity to share and experience their beliefs and culture. Apart from getting an insight into the Islamic faith and tour of the mosque, people will also be able to experience some other cultural aspects associated with the religion. These include calligraphy, face painting, henna and artefacts. Traditional food will also be served to visitors to give them a 'taste' of the lifestyle which is part of being Muslim. "This is also an opportunity for people to come and ask the questions that they may have regarding Islam and Muslims. The open day will be complete with information, history, artworks, artefacts and literature about Islam and Muslims. "There will also be short discussion forums where members of the public will be able to discuss and ask questions about Islam and Muslims," said the organisers. The open day takes place at Rehman House, Ashley House, Dublin Road, Portlaoise on Saturday, December 1. The Mosque will be open to visitors from 12 noon to 5 pm. The Mosque is located across the road from the Killeshin Hotel at the junction of the Grenville estate. For more details contact info@discoverislam.ie or www.discoverislam.ie A Laois girl is among six top science students in Ireland in the final of a prestigious international science competition. Asma Zulfiqar, 15, from Portlaoise, is a student at Scoil Chriost Ri. She is preparing to fly to Botswana on December 1, to compete in the International Junior Science Olympiad. She will undergo 10 days of intense science examinations in physics, chemistry and biology with students from over 50 other countries. Asma won a place after being one of 400 Irish students in the Irish competition in DCU, qualifying with her top grades in Junior Cert Science and Maths. Also qualifying was another Scoil Chriost Ri student, Angela He from Mountmellick. In an impressive first for the school, both students won medals, Asma a Silver qualifying her for the final, and Angela a Bronze, putting her in the reserves. Asma told the Leinster Express how she felt about winning a spot in the final in Africa. "I couldn't believe it, I didn't imagine anything like this, it goes to show if you believe in yourself you can do anything," she said, thanking her parents Tasleem and Zulfiqar Ashraf for their support. Principal Helen O'Donnell said the girls have brought huge honour to the school with their achievement. "They are both exceptional students, and both so modest and unassuming. When they came back they didn't even tell us at first that they had won medals. Both of them have bright futures. It is incredible to have two out of the nine finalists in this competition, and in particular to have two of the three female medalists," she said. More in next week's Leinster Express. Below: Angela and Asma with their Maths teacher Philip Falvey, Deputy Principal June O'Brien, Principal Helen O'Donnell, Deputy Principal Anne Dollard, Science teacher Dympna Nolan and Deputy Principal Bill Coolahan, at Scoil Chriost Ri. Laois Public Participation Networks (PPN) is set to get a dedicated Support Worker to help community groups as part of the development of the networks around Ireland. Included in the development is the establishment of new committees that will include members of the PPNs who will have a role in formulating county council policies. The Minister of State at the Department of Rural and Community Development, Mr Sean Canney TD, has announced the provision of additional funding of 800,000 to support the ongoing development of PPNs around Ireland in 2019. PPNs were established in all local authority areas following the enactment of the Local Government Reform Act 2014. Their main function is to facilitate and enable the local community to interact with local government and other relevant legislation for the good of their communities. I am very pleased to see that PPNs are going from strength to strength. The 2017 Annual Report showed a 21% increase in PPN members to 12,800 and this growth trend has continued in 2018. I am fully committed to supporting the ongoing development of PPNs. I am therefore very pleased to be in a position to announce this additional funding which is to be used for the engagement of Support Workers by each PPN in 2019 to assist the Resource Workers. This will provide the Resource Workers with an increased opportunity to focus on growing and developing the PPN and its members so that they achieve the full potential for the benefit of local communities and democracy, he said. Local authorities have also been requested to make an additional financial contribution to the cost of this PPN support worker. In 2018, all PPNs, including Laois PPN, received an allocation of up to 50,000 from the Department of Rural and Community Development, provided this was matched by a minimum of 30,000 from each local authority, resulting in a total national potential fund of 2,480,000. All PPNs have received an additional allocation of 25,700 from the Department to support the costs of engaging a PPN Support Worker in 2019 and all local authorities have been requested to provide an additional 5,000 for this purpose in 2019. Minister Canney's department said this partnership funding model, with the Department of Rural and Community Development and local authorities working together to support PPNs, will ensure that PPNs have the necessary resources to reach their full potential resulting in more effective engagement by citizens in the operation of local government. A statement said that 2019 will be an exciting year for PPNs with the forthcoming local elections in May, followed by the formation of new local authority committees which include PPN representatives. Laois PPN recently celebrated its annual Community & Voluntary Awards where people from around Laois were rewarded of community work in 2018. Kildare town local, John Duffy, has shared his story of returning to education as part of UCDs University for All Week, which takes place this week to 29 November. Mr Duffy (50) had a negative experience of school. After leaving school, he worked in a printing company but always hoped to return to education. Speaking about University for All Week, Mr Duffy said, I was concerned that I would have similar experiences to my school years but after attending on open lecture in the access centre, I was inspired to apply to UCD as an undergraduate. I got so much support from UCD Access and Lifelong Learning Centre. Since completing my degree, I volunteer for a month a year as an archaeologist on a dig in Serbia and Im in my first year of a Masters in Education to become a History and CSPE teacher. Im currently doing teaching practice in a secondary school in Newbridge. Dr Anna Kelly, Director, UCD Access and Lifelong Learning, added: We believe that students entering higher education should reflect the diversity of the population. Each year, our Access and Lifelong Learning Centre welcome students from every county in Ireland, including Kildare. For any Kildare people like John who may not have had a chance to enrol in college following school, for whatever reason, or for those returning to education, University for All week highlights the various paths available. SEE:Plans unveiled for canal green way The significant number of vacancies for psychiatrist appointments across the county has raised concern at Oireachtas level, where a similar problem exists nationwide. Local Kildare south TD Fiona OLoughlin pointing to the fact that Ireland has half the number of psychiatrists per head of population compared to the EU average. She says that Kildare currently has six vacancies, which is not surprising seeing as the countuy also has extremely high waiting times for CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services). And she believes that unless tackled, the government is walking the health service into a series of crises. This week I received information from the HSE which shows that 61 psychiatrist posts are vacant. These posts cover a number of specialities such as Child and Adolescent, Psychiatry of Learning Disability and Psychiatry of Old Age, as well as general psychiatry, said Deputy OLoughlin. Read also: Over 5,000 Kildare homes without power due to Storm Diana We should also bear in mind that Ireland has six Consultant Psychiatrists per 100,000 of population, just half the EU average, and yet we are struggling simply to maintain an already low base. We have been experiencing a high vacancy numbers for some years now. For example, of the 44 Consultant Psychiatrist posts advertised in 2015 and 2016, almost a quarter had no applicants, while 30% had only one applicant. We also need to look at training more psychiatrists. The College of Psychiatrists of Ireland sought a 10% increase in basic specialist training this year but only got half what was required. Furthermore the report of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Future of Mental Health Care says recruitment should be managed at local level rather than nationally as is currently the case. Unless the high vacancy rate is tackled, the government is walking the health service into a series of crises, worse than what is already being experienced. It is imperative that the Minister takes urgent action to address this issue, OLoughlin concluded. Eight employees are based at the new Maynooth business, which opened this morning, with 20 more jobs in the pipeline at the software development centre. County Kildare Chamber welcomed this mornings news. INIT, a world-leading supplier of intelligent transport systems, celebrated the opening in Maynooth today. Currently, a team of eight employees is working on the software for INITs ticketing systems as well as for field devices. Future plans include the provision of up to 20 additional high-skilled jobs in the areas of software development. The celebration marks the companys first operations centre outside Germany. Allan Shine, CEO of County Kildare Chamber said, This announcement is further confirmation that Kildares infrastructure, talent and business climate meet the needs of a diverse economic base, including companies large and small. I had the pleasure of meeting with Anthony Alexander, General Manager of INIT (INIT Innovations in Transportation) last week. This new addition to Maynooth Business Campus is very welcomed and they join a cluster of leading European software companies in Kildare. As a world-leading supplier of integrated planning, scheduling, telematics and ticketing systems for buses, trams and trains, INIT has already realized several successful projects in Ireland and now consolidated its presence in the region. This is a unique strategic initiative for INIT, as they plan to create a world-class software development centre in Ireland, the first one outside Germany, in order to tap into Irelands renowned software ecosystem and service their expanding English-speaking markets. Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys TD said I was delighted to see INIT choose to locate their first operation outside of Germany in Maynooth. Their plans to create a world-class software development centre in Kildare will result in the creation of an additional 20 highly skilled jobs. The Government has been making strenuous efforts to ensure that we have the right conditions in place to meet the needs of leading technology companies such as INIT, and Ireland is now well-established as a vibrant technology hub. This is a great vote of confidence in what we have to offer and I wish the company every success Ireland with its fast-growing economy is an ideal location for INIT. It excels with its good infrastructure and its qualified specialists. This also is an opportunity to improve the service for our existing customers in Ireland emphasizes Matthias Kuhn, Director of INIT Ireland. Welcoming todays announcement, Martin Shanahan, CEO, IDA Ireland The decision by INIT to locate their operations in Maynooth, Co. Kildare is a huge boost the local economy and points to IDA Irelands success in encouraging client companies to look at developing operations outside of Dublin. I wish INIT every success going forward." INIT has already completed several successful projects in Ireland. Among those was the delivery of an integrated ITS solution for Dublin Bus to optimize its operations and to manage its bus services across the entire city. The system also provides a real-time feed in the National Transport Authorities (NTA) passenger information infrastructure. Martial arts fighter Conor McGregor has been fined 1,000 and disqualified from driving for six months after he pleaded guilty to speeding on the N7 last October. Read also: MMA fighter Conor McGregor arrives at Kildare Court to face speeding charge Mr McGregor, of of 2 Laraghcon, Lucan, was charged with speeding on October 11 2017 at N7 Blackchurch, Kill. The speed limit at that location is 100kph. He was also charged with failure to produce a driving licence. The failure to produce charge was withdrawn, but he was convicted for travelling at 154 kph at Black Church Kill N7 at 10.57pm in a blue 172 Range Rover. Garda Sgt Michael Keevans said the weather conditions were good on the Wednesday night and the traffic was moderate to light. The Sergeant said Mr McGregor was polite and apologised and he spoke to him for five minutes. Sgt Keevans read out a list of previous traffic convictions of approximately ten, including four for speeding. It was noted that many of these were from some time back when Mr McGregor was in his early 20s. Two of these were in recent times. They included convictions for holding a mobile phone, entering a bus lane, driving unaccompanied with a provisional licence, failing to obey a traffic sign and driving through a red light. In a crowded courtroom, Mr McGregor spoke on oath in the witness box saying he apologised for the offence. I did not know I was going so fast, he said. Judge Zaidan said he was disappointed the matter had not been dealt with by the fixed penalty notice, and that a previous speeding offence conviction was for 158 kph. The judge said that speed kills and that more people died as a result of speed related accidents than from violence. His solicitor, Graham Kenny, said that on the occasion of this offence, October 11 2017, there was a mix up in the payment of the fines via a fixed penalty notice. That matter was due to be dealt with by somebody else, but was not, and it was overlooked because Mr McGregor was travelling lot. Among the previous speed offences was a conviction at Blanchardstown Court on November 30 2017 for an offence on March 31 2017. The fine was 400. Judge Desmond Zaidan noted that the speed offence could lead to a fine of up to 2,000 and five penalty points. He said Mr McGregor was very fortunate that he was not charged with careless or dangerous driving. He accepted Mr McGregors sincere apology Mr Kenny told the Court that his client took the matter very seriously. Mr Kenny asked the Court to take account of Mr McGregors high public profile and said that many previous offences took place at a different time in his life. He said his clients reputation would be reflected more negatively as a result of this case. Judge Zaidan said that Mr McGregor was not a role model when it came to driving. He said he would fine him 1,000 but had to mark the seriousness of the offence by disqualifying him from driving for six months. ALONE, the charity that supports older people to age at home, has launched their Christmas campaign which asks individuals to reach out to older people who may be experiencing loneliness or isolation and to Have a Laugh for Loneliness. Comedienne Katherine Lynch launched the charitys Christmas initiative in Powerscourt Townhouse Centre and urged members of the public to donate to ALONE and to offer friendship and support to those who are lonely or living alone. The campaign encourages families, friends, and communities to get together this winter to hold a bake sale, a coffee morning or another social event to raise funds for ALONE and combat loneliness in their community. The charity are also asking that the public make their Christmas donation to ALONE to help support the over 100,000 older people who are lonely in Ireland. Katherine Lynch commented at the launch in the Powerscourt Townhouse Centre, Im so excited to help ALONE launch their Christmas campaign this year. Ive long been an admirer of their work and delighted to be a part of such a positive message. Loneliness and isolation can be serious problems for older people and dropping in for a cup of tea or helping a neighbour with their shopping could make all the difference to their week. She continued, What we all need, no matter our age, is a good laugh. And theres really no better reason than Christmas to drop in to your older neighbour or relatives and catch up! Were all busier than ever and its important to take the time to check on the people around us, whether someone needs some help or just your company. ALONE provides direct, frontline services to people aged 60 years and over, through befriending, support coordination, housing and BConnect assistive technology. With the effects of loneliness on older people including increased risk of dementia, depression and cognitive decline, ALONE wants every older person to know that support is available to them. Sean Moynihan, CEO of ALONE, commented, Over the winter period, calls for support dramatically increase and loneliness is one of the most common issues facing older people. Many older people think that by asking for help and support they are bothering people. ALONE want them to know that they deserve the help they require and should not be afraid to ask for it. Moynihan continued, We are asking members of the public to support ALONE by making a donation to support our services, donating their time to older people experiencing loneliness, or referring an older person who might use our services. These small acts of kindness can have an immensely positive impact on an older persons well-being and can offer a real sense of security and comfort. Supporting the launch, Dr Diarmuid O'Shea, President of The Irish Gerontological Society, said that Loneliness is every bit as harmful to your health as smoking, drinking, lack of exercise, high blood pressure and obesity.We all have it in our power to help out with people who are lonely. We can beat loneliness one conversation at a time. Everyone needs a friend, so be that friend and befriend a neighbour this Christmas. ALONEs activities over Christmas will include Christmas dinner dances for older people and volunteers, the delivery of hampers and Christmas trees to older people in need and a special Christmas Day dinner delivery for a number of older people. For those who have concerns about their own wellbeing, or the wellbeing of an older person in their community, ALONE can be contacted on (01) 679 1032. To make a donation and help aid ALONEs work this Christmastime visit www.alone.ie Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed, has welcomed the industry wide agreement on introduction of the second phase of Johnes Disease control programme. The Minister said that his Department had already allocated financial support to the earlier Johnes Disease pilot programme which ran over the period 2014 16. Much important information was gleaned from the pilot programme in putting together the framework for the new Irish Johnes Disease Programme. The new programme will run for a period of four years and will be funded by farmers, processors and the State with registrations commencing in the coming week. The key elements of the programme include whole herd testing, veterinary risk assessments and ancillary testing where required. The Minister said my Department will contribute a total of 600,000 euro in 2019 towards the new programme on a cost sharing basis and this contribution will rise in the following years as the numbers of participants increase. The Minister added the agreement is further testament of the excellent work being done by Animal Health Ireland in underpinning Irelands expanding dairy industry. The Minister expressed his gratitude to the various industry stakeholders, including farmers, dairy processors, veterinarians and his own Department, that make up the Implementation group for their diligent work in finalising the new programme. AN internationally renowned firm of architects has been appointed to develop a masterplan for a massive tract of land on Limericks southside. Limerick City and County Council has appointed Allies and Morrison, to develop the plan for 75 hectares of land, primarily in public ownership, to the south of the city. The firm, based in London and Dublin, is working with the Councils Housing Development Directorate to create an overarching and holistic plan for the strategic landbank including Baggot Estate, Ballinacurra Creek, Toppins Field and the Rosbrien lands adjacent to the M20. The process will include thorough engagement and consultation with local community groups and interested stakeholders as well as understanding the existing physical and policy constraints, the council said. The objective of the masterplan is to make the most of the existing assets of the place and introduce uses, which improve safety so that the local community can enjoy it. A wide range of options for new recreation uses, nature conservation, homes, employment and community infrastructure will be explored. The design team assembled for the Southside Masterplan includes some of the worlds best architectural and urban design talent. We look forward to working with Allies and Morrison to complete the masterplanning process for this important strategic city landbank, said Seamus Hanrahan, Senior Architect with Limerick City and County Council. This work will be done in close consultation with the local community taking into account future needs with the objective of ensuring that the land uses proposed are maximised and that development takes place in a coordinated manner, he added. As part of the engagement with the public, a roundtable workshop is taking place on Thursday 29 November 2018 from 6pm until 8pm at the Limerick Strand Hotel. This will be an opportunity to find out more about the masterplanning process and provide feedback. Antony Rifkin, Partner at Allies and Morrison, said: Our approach is about working with the character of the place and listening to what local people tell us is important. Were delighted to be working in Limerick and we look forward to exploring the great potential of this part of the city. Following the event, feedback will be recorded and used to inform the development of the proposed masterplan, while there will be further community engagement events taking place as the masterplan project progresses. FIRST-year pupils from Colaiste Chiarain in County Limerick have battled it out for the title of Spelling Bee champion. The event, which took place at the school in Croom, was organised by Transition Year pupils and their English teacher Ms Mary-Kate Hanley. It was a very enjoyable day for all involved. The students really loved it, she said. The competition was fierce, and I think the students thrived off that. They were very determined and focused, said Ms Hanley. First-year students had been preparing for this competition for weeks by researching commonly misspelt words and practising in class. The competition saw 120 students from four classes take part in the competitions qualifying stages, which took place during their English classes a number of weeks ago. The top five from each class were then selected. A knockout stage then took place last Friday, with the 20 finalists each being asked to spell a six letter word. Each round saw the number of letters in the word go up by one. Eventually, it came down to two students being asked to spell a 10 letter word. Manchun Fan took home the trophy with the correct spelling of commission and was crowned Spelling Bee Champion 2018. He was over the moon. He took the cup home over the weekend to show his family, said Ms Hanley. A VICTIM of child sex abuse decided to go to gardai after her attacker contacted her on Instagram three years after the abuse came to an end. The Limerick man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, molested the child on numerous occasions in her family home over the course of three years. The victim was aged between six and nine at the time and the man, now aged 46, also forced her to watch pornographic films with him before abusing her. The abuse ended when the relationship between the man and the victims mother ended in 2012. It came to light in June 2013 when the girl wrote a note to her mother telling her Ive been so scared to tell you this, I hope you wont get cross. The girls parents, who are separated amicably, agreed with their daughter not to report the abusing to gardai at that time. In November 2015 the abuser contacted the victim online by liking a video she had uploaded to Instagram. The girl came into the family kitchen screaming hes back, hes back and the girls parents decided they had to notify gardai of the allegations. The man had pleaded not guilty to 19 counts of sexual assault of the child, all on dates between January 2009 and January 2012. After a trial at the Central Criminal Court in October a jury convicted him of six counts of sexual assault and two of sexual exploitation of a child. Ms Justice Tara Burns said the abuse by the man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was of extremely serious nature and involved an extreme breach of trust. She said the man gained the trust of the victims mother before she let him into her family home. He then gained the trust of the child by helping her with homework and teaching her how to ride a bicycle. She said the victim was a vulnerable person at the time as her parents marriage was breaking up. She imposed a prison sentence of seven years for the most serious of the sexual assaults. She also imposed concurrent sentences of six years and four years for other assaults and sentences of two years for the sexual exploitation. The judge commended the courage of the victim, who is now aged 16. The child gave evidence by video link in the trial with intimate and difficult evidence required to be given by her, the judge said. Ms Justice Burns said while the allegations were challenged the defence was conducted in a professional manner and was as non confrontational as possible. Ms Justice Burns said that the victim had dealt with the offending in a very brave manner and she was trying to put it behind her. She noted that in her victim impact statement, the teenager told the court that the abuse had taken her innocence away and she continues to have difficulty trusting people. She also had to travel a very difficult road in bringing the case to court and then waiting five-and-a-half years for it to come forward. In her statement the child paid tribute to her mother as a caring, loving and good mother. You have done no wrong in bringing this man into our house. He betrayed that trust, she said to her mother. Addressing her abuser she said you will take away no more years, no more tears. She finished by saying: 2019 is a new beginning for my family and hopefully the future will bring happiness back into our lives again. In her victim impact statement the child's mother said that she would always feel that she didn't protect her daughter. She said she invited the man into her home and he destroyed our lives. She described the feelings of guilt, anger and sadness and said it had harmed her relationship with her daughter. She praised her daughter's courage in writing the letter to her. She and her daughter both expressed gratitude to the investigating garda, Det Garda Gerry OSullivan, and the other lovely people who they met since going to gardai. The judge said she did not take into account defence submissions that had been made about the man helping the mother in the home and helping the girl with homework because this behaviour had led to trust being given to him. He then perpetrated the most vile sexual assault on the victim in the sanctity of her own home, the judge said. UNIVERSITY Hospital Limerick has already exceeded 2017 overcrowding figures by nearly 20%, according new statistics published by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation this Wednesday. In 2017, there were 8,869 patients treated on trolley in the emergency department and on additional trolleys or beds in the wards at UHL. As of November 28, there have been 10,554 patients on trolleys in UHL so far this year. According to the new figures, there were 6,332 patients being treated on a trolley in the emergency department and 4,222 in the wards. There have been 100,385 patients on trolleys so far this year nationwide, 10.5% of which was at UHL. The UL Hospitals Group has been contacted for a comment. There were 46 patients on trolleys at UHL this Wednesday morning, the second highest rate in the country, behind Cork University Hospital which had 52 patients on trolleys. Earlier this week, the UL Hospitals Group issued an urgent appeal to the public about attending the emergency department in Dooradoyle. A spokesperson said on Monday afternoon: The hospital is currently managing high volumes of patients including significant volumes of frail elderly patients with chronic conditions and complex care needs. The spokesperson said it apologises for any inconvenience caused to patients or their loved ones who have experienced long wait times in the ED at UHL, and we would like to reassure patients and their families that we are working to alleviate the situation. He said that members of the public are urged to consider all their care options at this time and not to attend the emergency department unless necessary. Injury Units in St Johns, Ennis and Nenagh hospitals are open for appropriate injuries. Injury Units are open in Ennis and Nenagh Hospitals from 8am to 8pm, Monday to Sunday and 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday at St John's Hospital. Others with a less serious illness can be treated by their GP or out of hours GP service where their GP can refer them to an Assessment Unit the following day if required. However, if you are seriously injured or ill or are worried your life is at risk the ED will assess and treat you as a priority. TRIBUTES have been paid to an exceptionally popular PhD student at Limericks Mary Immaculate College, who has passed away. David Loughnane, from Sixmilebridge in County Clare, was currently undertaking a PhD in History at MIC. Mary Immaculate College was deeply saddened to learn of the death of David Loughnane, a MIC spokesperson said. David was an exceptionally popular member of the MIC community having joined the College in 2006 as a student on the Liberal Arts programme. Mr Loughnane graduated with a BA in History and English in 2011, followed by an MA in History in 2013. He passed away earlier this week. His loss will be deeply felt by all who knew him and we would like to extend our deepest sympathies to his family and friends. Ar dheis De go raibh a anam, added the MIC spokesperson. Mr Loughnane is survived by loving parents Rita and Mike, brother Eoin, sister Lisa, brother-in-law Mark, nieces, nephews, aunts and uncles, relatives, neighbours and a large circle of friends. Reposing at McMahons Funeral Home, Sixmilebridge this Thursday evening from 7pm. Removal at 8.30pm to Sixmilebridge Parish Church. Funeral Mass Friday at 1.00pm followed by burial in Ballysheen Cemetery. A FILE is to be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in the case of a man who is accused of unlawful possession of a gun and ammunition on the outskirts of Limerick city. Gerard Duhig, aged 45, of Summerhill, Clonlara, County Clare faces two charges under the provisions of the Firearms Act in relation the seizure which was made early last week. He is accused of unlawful possession of a Baikal double-barrelled shotgun and five Eley manufactured cartridges near his home at Summerhill, Clonlara on the evening of November 20, last. The firearm and ammunition were seized at around 6pm during an intelligence-led garda operation targeting criminal activity in Limerick. During a procedural hearing, Detective Garda Niamh Brosnan told Limerick District Court the defendant replied: I know nothing about this shotgun or cartridges when he was formally charged in connection with the seizure the following day. Sergeant John Moloney said there was no garda objection to bail subject to the defendant entering into a substantial bond and abiding by a number of conditions. Mr Duhig, who was represented by solicitor Tom Kiely, was ordered to live at his home address in Clonlara, obey a nightly curfew and to sign on daily at Henry Street garda station. Another condition of bail is that the defendant stays out of the St Mary's Park area of the city pending the conclusion of the proceedings against him. Noting there was no garda objection, Judge Mary Cashin granted bail and adjourned the matter to February 22, 2019 to facilitate the securing of directions from the DPP. Investigations are continuing and both the firearm and the cartridges have been sent to Garda Headquarters in Dublin for technical and forensic examinations. If convicted on indictment before the circuit court, the defendant faces a mandatory sentence of five years imprisonment. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 28) President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday eyed the deportation of Chinese workers illegally working in the Philippines, but he warned of possible consequences if it's done harshly. He reminded the public that there are also many Filipinos working illegally in many countries, such as China, Korea, and Malaysia. He said this is the same problem that Filipinos have "exported" to other nations. "It is not okay, but there has to be an arrangement there. So if you think that you are at a loss, at a disadvantage because there are so many Chinese nationals working here, remember that we have the same equal amount of Filipinos working in China," he said during a speech at the inauguration of the Bohol-Panglao international airport. He suggested diplomatic ways to make illegal workers leave the country. "Maybe, you can just tell them to go home. Otherwise if you start to get rough on this issue, there is this distant possibility that this will also happen to you (OFWs)," he said. For the first three months of 2018, 21,320 Alien Employment Permits were issued to foreign workers, with the Labor Department noting an "upward trend" for the past three years. Senator Joel Villanueva during the Senate probe on the influx of foreign workers said the flood of Chinese workers is disproportionate to the number of permits issued by the government. "Glaring na ang record, ang konti ng inissue na AEPs, pero it's clear bumabaha ng illegal workers," he said on Monday. DOLE said most of the 1.6 million Chinese tourists that entered the country this year later applied for a work permit. Nearly 2,400 years ago, the philosopher Plato described Atlantis as a mighty state that possessed 10,000 chariots, advanced technologies, vast numbers of elephants and bulls, and a series of complex canals. And now, in a new documentary, a U.K.-based group claims to have discovered the ruins of this once-flourishing society on what is now the Atlantic coast of Spain. But one archaeologist said that the ruins likely belong to another ancient culture, and several researchers interviewed by Live Science could barely contain their exasperation when they heard the news of yet another Atlantis discovery. (People have made dozens of such claims over the years, locating the legendary society in Antarctica, Bolivia, Turkey, Germany, Malta, the Caribbean and elsewhere.) "Bless their hearts if they're correct about this, that would be awesome," said Ken Feder, a professor of anthropology at Central Connecticut State University. "But here's my problem: As an archaeologist, I know that I always need to be in the company of my bullshit detector. And these guys, they have done just about everything they possibly can to set off my bullshit detector." [Images: Lost Medieval City Discovered Near Angkor Wat] Seen from space It's debatable whether Atlantis even existed. Plato described the ancient society in about 360 B.C., writing that, in effect, a politician named Critias heard about the society through a game of historic telephone dating back to ancient Egypt. Atlantis served as the perfect example of a society that had become corrupted by its material wealth, advanced technology and military might. Then, the gods destroyed Atlantis about 9,000 years ago in a cataclysmic event, Plato wrote. For centuries, scholars viewed Plato's writings on Atlantis as allegory. But that perspective changed in 1882, when Minnesota's U.S. Rep. Ignatius Donnelly (1831-1901), an amateur scientist, published the book "Atlantis: The Antediluvian World" (Harper & Brothers), which claimed that Atlantis was a real place. Since then, people have searched for the sunken remains of the city. In the most recent example, employees at Merlin Burrows pinpointed, two years ago, what may be Atlantis in Spain, Bruce Blackburn, the CEO of Merlin Burrows, told Live Science. The company, based in North Yorkshire, England, uses historical records and satellite data to find archaeological sites. Blackburn's team used data taken from commercial satellites, such as Landsat 5 and Landsat 8 (which also supply data for Google Earth), to find the site, which is located in Spain's Donana National Park. "Obviously, it's a very bold thing to say," said Blackburn, who has a background in business and finance. "Everybody is going to have [one of] two opinions. One is that 'This is great. Let's have a look at it,' and one will be 'That's a load of rubbish.'" [The 25 Strangest Sites on Google Earth] A bird's-eye view of Donana National Park. (Image credit: Shutterstock) What they found The company's researchers chose to look for the site in Spain after reading Plato's two dialogues on Atlantis, Blackburn said. They also looked at another text, but Blackburn won't say which one. "We won't share that in a public forum at this stage," Blackburn said, adding, however, that he expects that the writing will be submitted for scrutiny "in the fullness of time." Text in these documents included Plato's descriptions that "in front of the mouth which you Greeks call, as you say, 'the pillars of Heracles,' there lay an island which was larger than Libya and Asia together." Such descriptions led Merlin Burrows to the Spanish coast, near the Strait of Gibraltar, Blackburn said. There, the team found several archaeological clues: large circles that were possibly the bases of ancient towers, the ruins of what the team claimed may be the Temple of Poseidon and a greenish-blue patina coating some of the ruins all details that Plato included in his dialogues, Blackburn said. [10 Biggest Historical Mysteries That Will Probably Never Be Solved] The team also found the remains of a long sea wall, as well as signs of a tsunami, which could be evidence of the cataclysmic event that drowned the society, Blackburn said. "The Atlantis cities, which are very detailed in Plato's writing, are really there for everyone to see," Blackburn said. Next, Merlin Burrows took samples of material which is likely human-made concrete, Blackburn said from the circle-shaped foundations and the possible temple ruins. The company gave these samples to a materials-analysis laboratory in Italy, which dated them to between 10,000 and 12,000 years ago, Blackburn said. However, by press time, Blackburn hadn't said which methods the laboratory used to date the concrete. Merlin Burrows and Ingenio Films have made a 2-hour documentary called "Atlantica" about the finding, and Blackburn said he expects the companies to make more documentaries. "What we really want to do is we want to franchise the find," Blackburn said. "We want to make an awful lot of money out of it. And with that money, we want to support the archaeological community." Ancient remains Merlin Burrows isn't the first group to claim that Atlantis is located in southern Spain. In "Atlantis Rising," National Geographic announced that the network had found evidence that Atlantis was located in Donana National Park, as did a 2004 study in the journal Antiquity. And Elena Maria Whishaw, director of the Anglo-Spanish-American School of Archaeology, published the 1929 book "Atlantis in Andalucia," (Rider & Company) which hypothesized that the region was a colony of Atlantis. It's no wonder southern Spain is a spot of interest, as people did live there long ago. In a new study in the December issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, researchers found that humans lived in what is now Donana National Park about 5,000 years ago, according to an analysis of pollens and microscopic remains in the area's sediment. That study revealed that the park was above sea level during certain periods, including the Neolithic and the Copper ages. Researchers also found that Donana National Park sits upon Holocene sediments that started to accumulate about 7,000 years ago. "Below these sediments are pre-Holocene sedimentary deposits and layers of fossilized sands that date from thousands of years earlier," said Juan Jose Villarias-Robles, study co-researcher and vice director of the Institute of Language Literature and Anthropology at the Center for Human and Social Sciences in Madrid. If the dating of the 10,000- to 12,000-year-old concrete specimens reported by Merlin Burrows is accurate, then those samples could be from the pre-Holocene formations, Villarias-Robles said. But, at least for this location, that date doesn't match up with an Atlantis-type society, he said. "However, assuming the material is man-made (which is a big assumption), the date takes us, from a culture-history perspective, down to Palaeolithic and post-Palaeolithic times," Villarias-Robles told Live Science in an email. "These are the times of hunters and gatherers, rather than those of the creators and rulers of an extensive agricultural, cattle-breeding, maritime polity [like Atlantis]." [In Images: An Ancient European Hunter Gatherer] Pick and choose Meanwhile, Feder (the anthropologist at Central Connecticut State University) questioned why Merlin Burrows hadn't submitted its findings to a peer-reviewed journal, which would give other scientists the chance to vet the research. "It immediately turns on my bullshit detector when somebody, instead of doing that, makes the announcement through a press release, a press conference, a web page or a documentary," Feder said. In his book "Encyclopedia of Dubious Archaeology: From Atlantis to the Walam Olum" (Greenwood, 2010), Feder found 53 specific descriptions of Atlantis in Plato's dialogues, including that the city had bridges connecting rings of land, as well as a central island surrounded by a stone wall on every side. Descriptions also said that Poseidon's temple in Atlantis had a roof of ivory, walls of silver and pinnacles of gold. It's common for amateur scientists to check off a few of these boxes but rare for anyone to go through the entire checklist, Feder said. [How Plausible Are These 20 Imaginary Worlds?] The area is "a very interesting spot," but that fact "quite obviously" isn't news, said Mark Adams, author of "Meet Me in Atlantis: My Quest to Find the 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City" (Dutton, 2015). Archaeologists have known for years that southern Spain was a maritime-trading hotspot in antiquity, Adams told Live Science. "Does that make it [this area] Atlantis? I can't say for sure, 'no,' but I'm not seeing any new evidence that sways me" toward yes, Adams said, after watching the new "Atlantica" trailer. Like Feder, Adams said that a few aspects of the site meet the Atlantis checklist, including that the region experienced cataclysmic earthquakes and floods, but that other aspects are missing. Adams said he would take an Atlantis proposal more seriously if it had key details from Plato's dialogues, including the city's unique layout of concentric circles (like a bull's eye) of sea and dry land. (These concentric circles are different than the polka dot-like circles that Merlin Burrows found on the landscape.) Or, perhaps, archaeologists will find an inscription about Atlantis in an Egyptian temple, where, according to Plato's writing, the original description was found, Adams said. "What a lot of people do is they'll take the parts of Plato's story and there's tons of information in there, which is why this is so fun to play with it really is like a treasure map and they take the parts that match with their hypothesis and they quietly leave out the parts that don't match with their hypothesis," Adams said. [Rumor or Reality: The Creatures of Cryptozoology] In reality, it's likely that Plato twisted together elements of different stories and myths he had heard, sculpting that source material into the likely fictional story of the society of Atlantis, the advanced, yet-corrupt society that the gods destroyed. "[Plato] was not writing this down as a land surveyor's report that people could follow 2,400 years later," Adams said. "He was using this to make a philosophical argument." Put another way, "People very often claim to have found Atlantis," a classical archaeologist in England, who declined to be named, told Live Science. "But if they'd read the text, they would realize that it was a legend, not a place." Editor's Note: This article has been updated to indicate that Plato's dialogues describing Atlantis were written sometime around 360 B.C., not 330 B.C. as was previously stated. Originally published on Live Science. In "The Favourite," a deliciously diabolical comedy of ill manners and outre palace intrigue, Olivia Colman plays Queen Anne, who in the 18th century ruled Great Britain while suffering through 17 ill-fated pregnancies, severe illness and not un-consequential wars with Spain and France. Those circumstances are alluded to but not center in this movie, which focuses on Anne's relationship with two of her closest female friends: Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, who became her most intimate confidante and adviser, and Abigail Hill, who supplanted Sarah in the queen's affections toward the end of her reign. In this lusty, wildly speculative jape, writers Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara take those real-world outlines and run with them, concocting a story bursting with schemes, subterfuges, sexual antics and sly social commentary worthy of the Restoration era they depict so lavishly. Funny, cynical, extravagant and rapturously vulgar, "The Favourite" puts the lie to such well-heeled dramas as "The Crown" (which Colman will star in soon) and Peter Morgan's carefully researched biopics. Here, period authenticity clashes happily with occasional creative anachronisms to present audiences with a portrait of power as sobering as it is scabrously conniving. As "The Favourite" opens, Abigail (Emma Stone) is just arriving at Kensington Palace, where she hopes to improve her fortunes with the help of her cousin, Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz). Unimpressed, Sarah relegates the bedraggled but comely young lady to the scullery, the quicker to return her attentions to the emotionally needy Queen Anne - who at this stage of her life is half-mad with gout and grief - and pressing issues of war and peace. Soon enough, though, the wide-eyed Abigail has insinuated herself into the queen's favor, deploying her native charms and wily intelligence with the tactical shrewdness of Captain-General Marlborough himself. Directed with relish by Yorgos Lanthimos, "The Favourite" makes the most of the director's attraction to transgressive, proudly perverse scenarios: In his previous films, "The Lobster" and "The Killing of a Sacred Deer," that propensity got the better of him in stories that wound up being strange for their own sake. But, working with Davis and McNamara's tart, tautly constructed screenplay, Lanthimos is in his element, leaning in to the visual and textural opulence of the setting, as well as the bizarre culture of an aristocracy steeped in phony patriotism, nationalistic swagger and decadent popular culture centered on food, animals and fussy artifice. (A running motif in the film is the queen's motherly attention to rabbits she keeps as surrogate children; she also races lobsters before consuming them with lemon and butter.) Much like the purview of a world leader closer to home, the world of Queen Anne is depicted as one in which the fates of men and nations could depend on a regal fit of pique or a passing word of flattery. One of the cleverest tricks "The Favourite" plays is misdirecting the audience regarding whom to root for. Clearly Anne is a poignant figure "stalked by tragedy," as Sarah observes at one point; in a performance sure to be remembered as one of the year's breakouts, Colman gets to the heart of her physical suffering and deep loneliness, playing her as peevish, vulnerable, sympathetic and deeply annoying all at the same time. For her part, Stone embraces her own persona as a perpetual ingenue to inhabit Abigail as someone driven less by greed and status than sheer survival. She masters the British accent - not to mention the film's generous helping of startlingly ribald asides - with admirable aplomb. But it's Weisz's Sarah who emerges as "The Favourite's" most fascinating figure, as a woman with a head for figures and an eye for the kill, whose ruthless candor makes her dangerous, to be sure, but also radically transparent. As diverting as it is to read all manner of historical and present-day allegory into the mischief and machinations of "The Favourite," Lady Sarah understands most clearly what drives the wordplay, foreplay and foul play swirling around the monarch she serves and is serviced by. "Sometimes," she notes coolly, "a lady likes to have fun." --- Three and one-half stars. Rated R. Contains strong sexual elements, nudity and coarse language. 121 minutes. Ratings Guide: Four stars masterpiece, three stars very good, two stars OK, one star poor, no stars waste of time. Parishioners at Christ the King Church say they are shocked and dismayed that the churchs priest has been asked to step down from his position. He was given a few weeks to pack and make living arrangements not easy for someone over 75 with limited income and financial resources, said parishioner Patricia L. Guerra in a letter to Laredo Morning Times. Guerra said Father Jose Luis Balderas, who turns 77 in December, was asked to step down due to staff-related issues that came to light. She said Balderas was not aware of these issues. It seems ironic that, in a time when vocations are few and men are leaving the priesthood in large numbers, a capable and committed priest would not be able to continue in his position if he is willing to do so, Guerra wrote. Surely, safeguards could be put into place that could prevent a recurrence of the event that caused this situation. However, it appears that the powers that be think differently; how unfortunate, because everybody loses, no one is a winner here. The Diocese of Laredo said in a statement Monday that there has been a lot of misinformation about Balderas. Father Anthony Mendoza, the vicar general of the Diocese of Laredo, said that in the past few years, he has spoken to Balderas several times about his plans for retirement. Each time, he told me that he wanted to retire at the priest retirement home in San Antonio, which he said he could do since he worked many years for the Archdiocese of San Antonio, Mendoza said in the statement. If he is not able to do so, or if he has changed his mind, then the Diocese of Laredo will help him to find a place to live. We currently have several retired priests living in Laredo, either in their own home or in a friends home or in a church rectory. We also have a priest who is very limited in where he can work because of poor health, so he is living in a house which is owned by the diocese. These are all possibilities for Fr. Balderas after he leaves Christ the King later this week. He will certainly not be left with no place to live. As with all retired priests, Fr. Balderas will be able to help at different parishes whenever he is needed, and those parishes will compensate him for his help. Mendoza said that since at least the time Balderas became a priest for the Diocese of Laredo, his parishes have been paying an allowance for his Social Security account. His parishes have also been paying into the Diocesan Priest Pension Fund (first in the Archdiocese of San Antonio, then in the Diocese of Laredo), Mendozas statement reads. I do not know when Fr. Balderas started receiving his Social Security checks, but he should have started receiving them at least by the age of 70. When he was 70 he also started receiving checks from the Priest Pension Fund of the Diocese of Laredo. He will continue to receive those monthly checks as long as he lives. All diocesan priests in full-time ministry are paid a monthly salary by their parishes. Mendoza said. Since most of a priests living expenses are paid by their church, priests are able to save money for their retirement, Mendoza added. By the law of the Catholic Church, all pastors are required to submit their retirement to the bishop at the age of 75. This is true even when a priest wants to continue working full-time administering a parish after the age of 75, Mendoza said. In the case of Fr. Balderas, Bishop Tamayo allowed him to continue working at Christ the King Church for very close to two full years after he turned 75. Laredo police need the communitys assistance to track down two suspected robbers. On Monday, police officers responded to a robbery report in the 10000 block of FM 1472 Road. A man stated to police that two men assaulted him and stole money from him after he had arrived at a residence in the India Sunset Subdivision to pick up a friend. LPDs crimes against persons unit has taken over the case. To provide information, call police at 795-2800 or Laredo Crime Stoppers at 727-TIPS (8477). Information provided through Crime Stoppers may be eligible for a cash reward. LPD said it needs the communitys assistance to identify a suspected thief. Laredo police said the theft occurred Nov. 12 in the 2400 block of Maida Lane. On Monday, police released images from surveillance video. One shows a Hispanic man wearing what appears to be a black hooded jacket and blue jeans. He appears to have a goatee too. LPD also released an image of the suspects vehicle. To provide information on the person or the car, call police at 795-2800 or Laredo Crime Stoppers at 727-TIPS (8477). Information provided through Crime Stoppers may be eligible for a cash reward. A woman suspected of transporting undocumented immigrants crashed into a vehicle near the intersection of Texas 359 and Boom Town Street. The Texas Department of Public Safety identified her as Dennise Cantu, 20. She was charged with evading arrest with a vehicle, reckless driving and smuggling of persons. Custody records showed that she remained behind bars as of Tuesday afternoon at the Webb County Jail. The incident unfolded Monday when U.S. Border Patrol agents saw several people entering a 2009 Kia sport utility vehicle that had stopped on Patricia Lane in the City of Rio Bravo, about 6 miles south of Laredo. As agents followed the Kia, a DPS trooper attempted to pull it over for a traffic violation near Cuatro Vientos and Sierra Vista boulevards. The Kia did not stop, and a pursuit ensued, authorities said. As the vehicle evaded, it stopped twice to allow passengers to exit the vehicle, federal authorities said. The trooper continued following the Kia until the Kia crashed into a 2011 Chevrolet Cruze by Texas 359 and Boom Town, just west of Bob Bullock Loop. DPS arrested the driver of the Kia, who was identified as Cantu. Authorities said that no injuries were reported as a result of the crash. Border Patrol agents searched the areas where the vehicle had stopped and apprehended three people who had crossed the border illegally. DPS continues to investigate the case. To report suspicious activity, download the USBP Laredo Sector App or contact the Laredo Sector Border Patrol toll free at 1-800-343-1994. OTTAWA - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government is planning a large infusion of tax breaks and cash into Canada's beleaguered news business, a move that it says is aimed at saving independent journalism. But critics say the money will do just the opposite and make journalists and media owners beholden to the state. The announcement, included in a fall budget statement last week, calls for providing $595 million (in Canadian dollars) over five years to support news outlets through measures such as tax breaks for hiring news personnel, the granting of tax-exempt status to nonprofit news organizations and a tax credit for subscribers to Canadian digital news services. "Canadians have a right to a wide range of independent news sources that they can trust and government has a responsibility to ensure that Canadians have access to these kinds of news sources," Finance Minister Bill Morneau said in the economic document. Newspaper owners and journalist groups welcomed the news, saying it will throw the struggling industry a lifeline amid the continued flow of ad revenue to the likes of Google and Facebook and give traditional media a chance to migrate to new digital platforms. But others accuse the government of a less noble motive. Conservative member of Parliament Pierre Poilievre alleged that the proposed subsidies are a giant "slush fund" aimed at buying the support of journalists and ensuring the reelection of Trudeau's Liberal government next year. Fellow Conservative lawmaker Peter Kent, a former broadcast journalist, added, "When the media . . . or individual journalist jobs are dependent on government subsidies, that is the antithesis of a free and independent press." The Canadian government has long provided indirect support to journalism through its backing of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., which has a large news operation, and the government uses tax incentives to encourage Canadian ownership of newspapers. But the latest measures would involve the government directly financing news operations at private and nonprofit media at an unprecedented level. Like the press in the United States, newspapers in Canada are in trouble. Both daily and weekly papers are closing, and those that remain operational have slashed the number of employees. Postmedia, the country's largest newspaper chain, recently reported another annual loss as revenue shrank by 10 percent, including a 17 percent decline in print ad sales. Postmedia, which owns publications like such as the Montreal Gazette and the Vancouver Sun, has been laying off employees, selling real estate and closing papers in a desperate effort to stay alive as its staff count has fallen to fewer than 3,000 from 5,400 just eight years ago. Paul Godfrey, Postmedia's president, welcomed the government's move, saying it will help the company's ongoing digital transformation. "The chances (of success) have improved dramatically on the announcement," he told Bloomberg News. Although details of the proposed measures are still to be worked out, the government said the intent is for the eligible media outlets to maintain an arm's length from government and focus on the creation of original news content. One measure would allow nonprofit journalism organizations to be viewed as charities, which would offer tax breaks to donors for contributions. La Presse, Canada's biggest French-language daily, recently transformed itself into a nonprofit in anticipation of the change after its long-term owner, Power Corp. of Canada, decided to get out of the media business after a costly digital transformation of the newspaper failed to stanch losses. The government also plans to introduce a tax credit for qualifying news organizations to support labor costs associated with producing original news content. The government said it will set up an independent panel of journalists to define eligibility for the tax credit. The government also plans to introduce a "temporary" 15 percent tax credit for subscribers to eligible digital news products, effectively a subsidy for readers. Andrew Coyne, a columnist at the National Post, said that the aid package will "irrevocably politicize" the news media and that journalists will no longer be able to lecture politicians who take money from corporations and special interests. "We will have to shut up about that now, as we will have to shut up about the bailouts of other industries and handouts to interest groups," Coyne wrote. "We simply will have no standing to object to any of it." But Edward Greenspon, president of the Public Policy Forum, a think tank that produced a report in 2017 calling for a similar aid package, said these concerns are overblown. "In some ways, I think there's a little bit of an overreaction to the concern about public money," Greenspon, a former editor of the Globe and Mail, told the Canadian Press. "The CBC has had public money for about 80 years and that hasn't tainted its ability to do journalism." UPPER THUMB Michigan soybean farmers have their checkoff interests represented at the state level by the Michigan Soybean Promotion Committee (MSPC) and by the United Soybean Board (USB) at the national level. A vacancy currently exists on USB from Michigan, and they are seeking qualified, interested applicants. Michigan soybean farmers are represented on USB with three board seats. Appointments are made by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Marketing Service (USDA-AMS) Agriculture Secretary, Sonny Perdue. Twin girls whose DNA was altered as part of a controversial effort in China to make them resistant to HIV infection could still contract the virus that causes AIDS. Certain relatively uncommon strains of HIV would be able to enter their cells if the girls were to come in contact with contaminated tissues or fluids, said Robin Shattock, chairman of mucosal infection and immunity at the U.K.'s Imperial College London. He Jiankui, the researcher who used a technique called Crispr to manipulate the twins' DNA when they were in the embryonic stage of development, is facing criticism for exposing the girls to potential lifetime risks that scientists are just beginning to understand. Other widely used prevention approaches would be more reliable and less risky than using the unproven technique to alter their genomes, Shattock said. "This is a totally ludicrous and unnecessary approach" to infection prevention, he said in a telephone interview. "That's the dodgy ethical aspect." Crispr allows scientists to remove or replace specific genes in living organisms. While it holds promise for addressing a number of DNA-related diseases, scientists are investigating whether it affects people's chances of cancer or other disorders. Many governments have restricted or banned its use in human embryos because the altered traits can be passed on to future generations with unknown consequences. He, based at the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China, announced his work in a YouTube video and spoke Wednesday at a conference in Hong Kong, where he said a second gene-altered pregnancy is under way. The university said in a statement that it's "shocked" at He's actions, China's National Health Commission asked for an investigation, and a group of 122 Chinese scientists issued a joint statement decrying the work as "madness." "I understand my work will be controversial, but I believe families need this technology, and I'm willing to take the criticism for them," the researcher said in the video. Almost 37 million people worldwide have HIV, according to the World Health Organization, though China's infection rate is among the lowest. He, who was trained in the U.S., said the girls' father was infected, and he wanted to protect them from HIV. Transmission from parent to child can be blocked with appropriate use of antiviral drugs, Shattock said. A regimen called PrEP can also keep people at high risk of contagion from becoming infected via other routes. Daily antiviral treatment presents its own risks, and HIV still kills about 1 million people annually, He said in a separate video. Gene editing, "while not applicable to the general public, may be valuable to help a few affected and very high-risk families protect their children from the same fate," he said in the video. Working with a small team, He altered a gene that makes a protein called the CCR5 receptor that HIV uses the protein to enter cells. People born with a mutated CCR5 receptor are far less likely to become HIV-infected than those with a normal version. However, HIV has an alternative way of getting into cells, via another receptor called CXCR4, Shattock said. While this version is rarer than those that use CCR5, CXCR4-dependent strains may be involved in as much as 5 percent of infections in some parts of the world, he said. A study of 148 infected women in Botswana in 2012 found that 15 percent had both varieties of HIV, while the rest carried only CCR5-dependent virus. "It's very unlikely but it can't be excluded" that someone would become infected via a strain using CXCR4 to enter cells, he said. Genes come in pairs -- one from each parent. In one of the twins, just one of the two copies was successfully changed, He told the Associated Press. That could mean that child isn't protected from HIV infection, said Ewan Birney, director of the European Bioinformatics Institute. Companies and laboratories have long looked at altering the CCR5 receptor as a way of preventing or slowing HIV. Drugs such as Pfizer Inc.'s Selzentry, cover up the receptor, blocking HIV's access, although effectiveness drops when HIV mutates to use the alternate receptor. Scientists continue to look for ways to safely alter the CCR5 gene in people at elevated risk of HIV, said Daniel Kuritzkes, a Harvard Medical School infectious disease specialist, but there's no reason to think that the twin girls faced such dangers. Making genetic changes -- even in adults -- poses dangers that require researchers to show that patients undergoing such experimental procedures stand to gain rewards, and it doesn't that the experiment offered any, he said. "I can't understand the justification for doing this," Kuritzkes said. "I can't imagine how this adds up in any way." Who does Hungary's strongman leader Viktor Orban turn to when he wants to show off his country's elite anti-terrorism training? Chuck Norris, that's who. That isn't a joke. The American martial artist and actor recently visited Budapest, where he was greeted by Orban. The Hungarian prime minister posted the interaction to Facebook on Tuesday. In the video, Orban gives Norris a warm welcome. "I've read so much about you that I feel like we've already met," Norris says. "Ninety percent of the comments on me [are] negative," Orban later tells the American. "The liberals hate me." "You're like (Donald) Trump?" Norris asks. "A little bit more than that!" the Hungarian responds, prompting Norris to laugh. Norris was visiting Hungary at the invitation of Hungarian Baptist Aid, a charity that runs an annual event at Christmastime. According to reports in the Hungarian media, it was his first time in the country, but he has something of a reputation there: In 2006, he became an early front-runner in an online poll to name a new bridge in Budapest. Besides his tough-guy meme status, Norris is also a political conservative who endorsed Trump in the 2016 U.S. election and who has voiced his support for foreign leaders such as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Orban, meanwhile, is one of the European Union's staunchest conservative figures. He's courted controversy with moves against Hungary's press and the European Union, and found allies in figures such as Russian President Vladimir Putin, former Trump strategist Stephen Bannon, and a number of far-right movements across Europe. "I'm a street fighter, basically," the Oxford-educated Orban tells Norris at one point in his video. In the past, U.S. administrations have kept the Hungarian leader at arm's length - neither presidents George W. Bush nor Barack Obama invited him to the White House - but the Trump administration has taken a more forgiving stance. David Cornstein, Trump's new ambassador to Budapest, has called for a new strategy of engagement with Orban. In his video with Norris, the Hungarian leader takes the American tough guy to see the "toughest guys" in Hungary's counterterrorism unit. Norris is impressed. "I've seen training all over the world, and this is the best demonstration - the best I've ever seen," he tells Orban. Washington A lawyer for Paul Manafort, the president's onetime campaign chairman, repeatedly briefed President Donald Trump's lawyers on his client's discussions with federal investigators after Manafort agreed to cooperate with the special counsel, according to one of Trump's lawyers and two other people familiar with the conversations. The arrangement inflamed tensions with Mueller's office when prosecutors discovered it after Manafort began cooperating two months ago, the people said. Some legal experts speculated that it was a bid by Manafort for a presidential pardon even as he worked with the special counsel, Robert Mueller, in hopes of a lighter sentence. Rudy Giuliani, one of the president's personal lawyers, acknowledged the arrangement Tuesday and defended it as a source of valuable insights into the special counsel's inquiry and where it was headed. For example, Giuliani said, Manafort's lawyer Kevin M. Downing told him that prosecutors hammered away at whether the president knew about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting where Russians promised to deliver damaging information on Hillary Clinton to his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. The president has long denied knowing about the meeting in advance. "He wants Manafort to incriminate Trump," Giuliani declared of Mueller. While Downing's discussions with the president's team violated no laws, they helped contribute to a deteriorating relationship between lawyers for Manafort and Mueller's prosecutors, who accused Manafort of holding out on them despite his pledge to assist them in any matter they deemed relevant, according to the people. That conflict spilled into public view Monday when the prosecutors took the rare step of declaring Manafort had breached his plea agreement by lying to them. Manafort's lawyers insisted that their client had been truthful but acknowledged that the two sides were at an impasse. Manafort will now face sentencing on two conspiracy charges and eight counts of financial fraud. Downing did not respond to a request for comment. Though it was unclear how frequently he spoke to Trump's lawyers or how much he revealed, his updates helped reassure Trump's legal team that Manafort had not implicated the president in any possible wrongdoing. Giuliani seized on Downing's information to unleash lines of attack onto the special counsel. In asserting that investigators were unnecessarily targeting Trump, Giuliani accused the prosecutor overseeing the Manafort investigation, Andrew Weissmann, of keeping Manafort in solitary confinement simply in the hopes of forcing him to give false testimony about the president. But detention officials decide whether inmates serve in solitary confinement, according to law enforcement officials, and allies of Manafort have said he is there for his own safety. A spokesman for Mueller's office declined to comment. Weissmann is a longtime senior Justice Department prosecutor who specializes in prosecuting financial crimes and turning defendants into cooperating witnesses. Manafort's legal team had long kept Trump's lawyers abreast of developments in his case under a joint defense agreement. Trump's team has pursued such pacts as a way to monitor the special counsel's inquiry. Giuliani said last month that the president's lawyers had agreements with lawyers for 32 witnesses or subjects of Mueller's 18-month-old investigation. Defense lawyers involved in investigations with multiple witnesses often form such alliances so they can share information without running afoul of attorney-client privilege rules. But when one defendant decides to cooperate with the government in a plea deal, that defense lawyer typically pulls out. Manafort's lawyers, on the other hand, maintained their joint defense agreement with the president's legal team even after Manafort pleaded guilty to two conspiracy counts and began answering questions in at least a dozen sessions with the special counsel. TOKYO - North Korea's appalling human rights record has become the latest barrier to a rapprochement between Pyongyang and Washington. The North Korean government accused the United States this week of "stoking confrontation" by calling a meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss human rights in the country, according to the Associated Press. And the regime's state media accused Washington of "inciting an atmosphere of hostility" toward North Korea at the U.N., in a bid to justify sanctions and as part of a plot to bring down the country's "social system." The twin tirade is an example of how relations between Pyongyang and Washington have soured in recent months, since the high point of President Donald Trump's summit with his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong Un. The United States wants North Korea to hand over a list of its nuclear weapons and missile facilities and wants to maintain sanctions until denuclearization is complete. North Korea does not want to hand over a list and is instead demanding sanctions relief before it makes other concessions. For the moment, no talks are taking place. Earlier this month, the U.N. General Assembly's human rights committee adopted an annual resolution expressing deep concern "at the grave human rights situation, the pervasive culture of impunity and the lack of accountability for human rights violations in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea." The resolution was co-sponsored by 61 countries, including South Korea, and is certain to be adopted by the 193-member General Assembly next month for the 14th year in a row. The U.N. Security Council has also discussed North Korean human rights in each of the past four years. But North Korea's U.N. Ambassador Kim Song accused the United States and other unnamed countries of "trying to employ all possible wicked and sinister methods" to hold a council meeting on Dec. 10 with an address by U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet. Kim sent letters to all council members except the United States urging them to vote against holding the meeting, according to the Associated Press which obtained a copy of the letter. There was an equally angry commentary in Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the Workers Party of Korea, on Monday accusing Washington of using human rights to secure more concessions in talks about the North's nuclear program. "The U.S. has been saying that our 'nuclear issue' is the obstacle to an improvement in DPRK-U.S. relations," the commentary said. "But even if the issue is resolved, the U.S. will compel us to change our system as it requires, by suggesting a series of new incidental conditions including adherence to 'human rights.'" The United States is trying to accomplish "a wicked anti-republic plot," the commentary by Ri Sung Gwon said. In a similar English-language commentary issued Tuesday, the same author accused the United States and "vassal forces" of fabricating the U.N. resolution. "This is, indeed, the height of shameless and coward acts," he wrote. Ri said the complaints about human rights had been cooked up by defectors, describing them as "human scum who ran away after committing unpardonable crimes, who had turned their back upon their parents and children, and who would do anything for small amounts of money." The commentary also took issue with a recent report by Human Rights Watch that accused North Korean officials of committing sexual violence against women with apparent impunity. Instead of the "groundless farce" of human rights accusations, the commentary concluded, Washington should understand North Korea's strategic position, "face up to the changed trend of the times and behave with decorum." In October, the U.N.'s independent investigator on human rights, Tomas Ojea Quintana, told the General Assembly that the human rights situation inside North Korea had not improved despite progress on peace and security this year. In 2014, a report by a U.N. panel found "systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations in North Korea without parallel in the world, which in many cases constituted crimes against humanity. and were the result of policies established "at the highest level" of the state. These crimes included murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence, persecution on political, religious, racial and gender grounds, the forcible transfer of populations, enforced disappearances and knowingly causing prolonged starvation. - - - The Washington Post's Min Joo Kim in Seoul contributed to this report. JACKSON, Miss. - Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R, was projected to win a racially charged runoff election here Tuesday night, overcoming a surprisingly strong challenge by Democratic opponent Mike Espy to become the state's first elected female U.S. senator. Hyde-Smith's victory, coming after her comments about being willing to join a supporter on the front row of a public hanging, bolsters the Republican majority in the Senate and illustrates President Donald Trump's ability to rally his supporters behind a struggling campaign. "We have bonded, we have persevered, we have gotten through things," Hyde-Smith told a room of supporters just after receiving a congratulatory call from Trump. "The reason we won is because Mississippians know me, and they know my heart." Espy, who would have become the state's first African-American senator since Reconstruction, ran the state's most competitive Democratic campaign for U.S. Senate in decades but fell short in his efforts to bring historic numbers of black voters to the polls. Throughout the campaign, he tried to walk a fine line on matters of race, attempting to galvanize black voters in a state with a greater proportion of them than any other, while not alienating white voters, who turn out in disproportionately high numbers. Espy, in a speech conceding the race, said he was proud of his campaign. "When this many people show up, when this many people stand up, when this many people speak up, it is not a loss. It is a moment," he told supporters at the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. "So we are not going to stop moving our state forward." Republicans were not fully confident heading into Tuesday, even in a state that Trump carried by 18 points in 2016 and where Democrats have not won a Senate race since 1982. But Hyde-Smith's win proved how solidly conservative the state is and how big the challenges still are for Democrats. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, she led with 54 percent of the vote to Espy's 46 percent. Espy's campaign executed its turnout strategy, running ahead of its Nov. 6 vote in nearly every county. He was on track to carry all 25 of the state's majority-black counties, most by bigger margins than he'd won in the first round. He also cut into traditional Republican margins in some suburban counties. In DeSoto County, on the outskirts of Memphis, he improved from 34 percent in the first round to 41 percent Tuesday. That was not nearly enough to push past Hyde-Smith, as she racked up landslide margins in reliably conservative counties. Unlike Alabama's Roy Moore, who struggled to get out regular Republican voters, Hyde-Smith appeared to turn out her base as well as thousands of conservatives who'd backed Chris McDaniel, the insurgent challenger who nearly won a 2014 primary for the seat and who had spent a nasty fall campaign comparing Hyde-Smith to Hillary Clinton. Despite the election coming days after Thanksgiving, turnout blew past the numbers from the last midterm and was on track to match or nearly match the numbers from Nov. 6. That essentially doomed Espy, whose path to victory depended on many conservatives staying home. With hundreds of precincts left to count in the Delta, which tends to vote Democratic, the race looked to be the closest for a Mississippi Senate seat since 2008, when Barack Obama's presence on the top of the ballot powered a surge in African-American voters. The eventual margin Tuesday looked to be trending toward a similar result: a Republican win, by around 10 points. The country's heaviest political hitters had weighed in on the final federal race of the 2018 midterms, with Trump hosting twin rallies here Monday and Obama sending out a robo-call to urge his supporters to vote. "My name may not be on the ballot," Obama said. "But our future is. And that's why I believe this is one of the most important elections in our lifetime." Trump himself also became far more engaged, calling Hyde-Smith last week to express concern about her flailing campaign. He urged her to apologize for her comment about a public hanging, according to a person briefed on the call. The next night, reading from notes, she offered a conditional apology to anyone who might have been offended. Her comments had also drawn attention to a photo of her in a Confederate uniform cap to promote tourism at Jefferson Davis' homestead and her attendance at a segregation academy. Hyde-Smith spoke briefly with reporters after her speech Tuesday night, expressing little interest in engaging on her comments during the campaign. "We have apologized for that," she said. "We're going to go on and - the people of Mississippi, they are really concerned about today's events, today's issues." During the campaign, she rode around in a bus dubbed the "MAGA Wagon" and touted how she voted with Trump "100 percent of the time." "I know one thing: If she loses, I'll be blamed, and if she wins, I'll be given no credit," Trump told Washington Post reporters in an interview Tuesday. "That's the only thing I know." In the first of his rallies with Hyde-Smith on Monday, Trump cast Espy - who hails from a prominent African-American family that has lived in Mississippi for generations - as an unknown quantity who is out of step with the state. "How does he fit in with Mississippi?" Trump asked. "How does he fit in?" Espy, after voting Tuesday morning, recounted how his grandfather spent a lifetime helping the state's black residents, including by founding a hospital so women would not give birth in the cotton fields. He was born in that hospital in 1953. "He said, 'Who is Mike Espy?' " Espy said. "Well, Mike Espy was a member of Congress from Mississippi - four times. . . . I was the first black congressman since the Civil War. Mike Espy was secretary of agriculture . . . first black in the nation to ever hold that post." Still, Espy often struggled to address accusations of ethical lapses. He resigned his position in President Bill Clinton's Cabinet amid an investigation into accusations that he improperly accepted gifts. He was acquitted on 30 corruption charges, but Republicans ran ads calling him "too corrupt for the Clintons." The outcome will not alter control of the Senate, but Hyde-Smith's win seals a 53-47 Republican majority in the chamber. She will fill the last two years of the term of longtime Republican senator Thad Cochran, whose seat she was appointed to after he resigned because of health problems, and will have to run again in 2020. On Tuesday morning, a steady stream of voters entered Pleasant Grove Baptist Church to cast their ballots in a Jackson suburb that has been a Republican stronghold. Most said they were unsatisfied with their choices. "The only reason I'm voting for her is because she's a Republican," said Jerry Gullette, a 58-year-old owner of several Napa auto body shops. "She's the best of the worst. I could do a better job than her, honestly." Nonetheless, he voted for Hyde-Smith. For Janice Sandefur, a 60-year-old clinical social worker, the election resurrected memories of the all-white school that her parents sent her to, just like Hyde-Smith, where the mascot was the Confederates. "We are so locked into the concept of tradition as in heritage; I'm sure I had relatives who fought in the Civil War. And I'm really sorry they bought into that," she said. "We still do have a very divided state. I'm hoping we're going to rise above this in my lifetime. I really do." Since 1972, the case of the woman with no name has haunted Prince George's County, Maryland, homicide investigators. With only skeletal remains as evidence, they didn't know where she was from, who she was and how she wound up dead in the woods unnoticed for months before a hunter strolling through the area discovered the bones. But a month ago, cold case detectives in the county located outside of Washington, D.C., caught a break in the case. A 78-year-old prisoner in Texas had begun confessing to dozens and dozens of killings committed between 1970 and 2005, stretching across the country. As Samuel Little described each of the 90 killings he said he committed, one matched the description of the slain Jane Doe found 46 years ago in Laurel, Maryland. Detectives from Maryland travelled to Texas this fall for an interview. They hoped that one of the most prolific serial killers in U.S. history would help them learn the name of Prince George's longest unidentified homicide victim. Five agencies were in line that day to talk to Little. And before the county team and an FBI agent who works with the cold case squad got their turn, other investigators gave them some advice. "We were told directly not to ask him, 'Let's do this for the family,' because he did not view his victims as deserving of any type of remorse," Prince George's Sgt. Greg McDonald said. "So if you went into a room and asked him, 'want to do this for the family?' he would shut down." Though decades had passed, it seemed Little had clung to details. County detectives said Little described the signs he saw, the dirt roads he drove and the U-turn he took before precisely pinpointing for them where he left the woman's body. The details all matched what police knew about the site. Detectives in Prince George's announced Wednesday that the case was closed in light of Little's confession. Since Little is serving three life sentences and is expected to die in custody, police said they will not charge him in the Maryland death but have the option to do so at any time. "Talking with him, you can hear he actually gets excited about describing his homicides and describing how he strangled his victims," Bernie Nelson, one of the county detectives, said. "He looked you right in your eye and said he couldn't help himself. He's a monster." With each detail Little unfurled during the two-hour interview, Prince George's cold case detectives became confident that they had closed Jane Doe's case. Now, they're hoping Little will help them learn who she was. The FBI announced this week that Little has been linked to as many as 90 killings. Little has been serving three-back-to-back life sentences in California for beating, strangling and killing three women. As local and federal investigators looked deeper into Little's background, they linked him to a homicide in Texas. A Texas Ranger went to California to interview Little in the spring of this year. During the interview, Little suggested he would talk if he could move prisons. Little was transferred to Texas and in the course of weeks, law enforcement officials said, he revealed details of the states he had been to and women he said he killed. FBI investigators said they have confirmed 34 killings that Little described with many more pending and some that remain uncorroborated. Prince George's police are in the process of getting a more specific description of the woman from Little and a possible forensic sketch from that. He has shown during interviews to have what appears to be a photographic memory, said McDonald. "It gives us great hope that she will be identified," said McDonald. "It gives us a direction to look. It develops more leads to look at." In the description he gave first to the Texas Ranger, Little described meeting a woman at the old Greyhound Bus Station off New York Avenue in the District of Columbia. Little and the woman had known each other for three days they when they drove up I-295 to a wooded area, according to law enforcement accounts of what Little said. The woman suggested they pull off at Maryland Route 197 onto a dirt road for consensual sex, officials said Little told the Ranger. That is where he claimed to kill and abandon her body, police said. Little, detectives said, told them about the final minutes: he strangled the woman in the back of his car but she regained consciousness. As she staggered and tried to flee, Little caught up to her, as Nelson recounted Little's statement, and when he caught her, he made sure she was dead. After being alerted in October to details Little gave to the Texas Ranger, the Prince George's cold case team looked through its files and found the slaying of the Jane Doe from 1972 that "fit perfectly what he described," McDonald said. Little's description of the woman matched a medical examiner's report. Detectives believe she was a white female in her 20s, about 5-foot-2 inches to 5-foot-6-inches tall with dirty blond hair to reddish hair. In Texas, Little offered Prince George's detectives descriptive details of the woman investigators had not confirmed previously: that she said she was from the Massachusetts area, had a child, and had recently celebrated getting a divorce from her husband. In the interview room of a sheriff's office in Texas, Little became excited talking about how he would strangle his victims for sexual gratification and showed no remorse, Nelson said. He reveled in reliving the details, Prince George's detectives said in explaining why he confessed to this and other murders after all these years. "He actually was upset she was not found sooner because he wanted to actually see a picture of her," Nelson said Little told them. Cold case detectives and investigators have worked on the woman's case regularly through the years, said county police Maj. Brian Reilly, head of the criminal investigations division. As recently as 2014, Prince George's County sent the unknown woman's bones to a university in North Texas that specializes in extracting DNA, he said. Now, that DNA, which has been sitting in a database, will be used to confirm possible matches with those who believe they are related to the unknown woman. With the new information from Little, detectives can narrow their search, look at divorce records and work with the cold case unit in Massachusetts in hopes of learning who she was. The woman's bones were found Dec. 1, 1972, by a hunter walking through woods, but police believe she was killed about six months before. District police said Little was arrested on a handgun charge in May of that year, which puts him in the Washington, D.C.-region at the time. Prince George's police said the case Little confessed to is one of only two unidentified homicide cases in the county. --- Video Embed Code Video: Samuel Little, who was convicted of three California murders in 2014, now claims he was involved in 90 killings across the country between 1970 and 2013. (Drea Cornejo/The Washington Post) Embed: --- Video Embed Code Video: Samuel Little, who was convicted of three California murders in 2014, now claims he was involved in 90 killings across the country between 1970 and 2013. Since his confession, investigators have linked Little to 30 unsolved crimes.(Drea Cornejo/The Washington Post) Embed code: Stephen Hillenburg, a onetime marine biology teacher who created the enduringly popular "SpongeBob SquarePants," an Emmy Award-winning animated Nickelodeon program about a goofy underwater world that was the defining cartoon show of its generation, died Nov. 26 at his home near Los Angeles. He was 57. He had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gerhrig's disease, said Susan Grode, a lawyer for the family. Long fascinated by art and cartoons, Hillenburg turned to animation and in 1999 launched "SpongeBob" on the Nickelodeon network. The series, set underwater at Bikini Bottom, was relentlessly, even absurdly upbeat. The title character was introduced in the show's theme song: "Absorbent and yellow and porous is he!" Resembling an ordinary kitchen sponge wearing shorts and a necktie, SpongeBob had big eyes, two teeth and oversized pair of shoes. He lived in a pineapple under the sea at a place called Bikini Bottom, with his pet snail, Gary, and was beamingly proud of his job making Krabbie Patties and the Krusty Krab eatery. SpongeBob, voiced by the actor Tom Kenny, was surrounded by a zany cast of anthropomorphic creatures, including a dim-witted pink starfish named Patrick; a squirrel named Sandy Cheeks who adapted to underwater life by living in a dome; Squidward Tentacles, a snobbish, clarinet-playing octopus; the cranky owner of the Krusty Krab, Mr. Krabs; and the diabolical Plankton, a villain constantly plotting to steal the recipe for Krabbie Patties for his rival restaurant, the Chum Bucket. By replaying endless variations on these characters and themes - including SpongeBob's futile attempts to obtain a boating license from Mrs. Puff, a puffer fish - the show became a whimsical cultural phenomenon watched by tens of millions of viewers each week. "It seems to be a refreshing breath from the pre-irony era," Syracuse University pop-culture scholar Robert Thompson told the New York Times in 2001. "There's no sense of the elbow-in-rib, tongue-in-cheek aesthetic that so permeates the rest of American culture . . . I think what's subversive about it is it's so incredibly naive - deliberately." The program attracted fans among celebrities - Ellen DeGeneres, Bruce Willis and Jerry Lewis all admired its absurdist humor - and among college students, who reveled in the adult overtones that occasionally floated to the surface from Bikini Bottom. In 2005, SpongeBob and other cartoon characters were featured in a promotional video promoting tolerance and diversity. Afterward, James Dobson, leader of the conservative activist group Focus on the Family, accused SponeBob and his cartoon pals of being a little fishy. "Their inclusion of the reference to 'sexual identity' within their 'tolerance pledge' is not only unnecessary," he said, "but it crosses a moral line." Hillenburg replied that tolerance was certainly a theme of the show, but the idea of sexuality had no connection to the innocent characters of "SpongeBob SquarePants." "I consider them to be almost asexual," he said. "We're just trying to be funny and this has got nothing to do with the show." Stephen McDannell Hillenburg was born Aug. 21, 1961, at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where his father was stationed with the Army. His father became a draftsman for aerospace companies, and his mother was a teacher of visually handicapped students. Hillenburg grew up mostly in Anaheim, Calif., where he often went surfing and snorkeling. He graduated in 1984 from Humboldt State University in Arcata, Calif., where he studied marine sciences. He taught at the Ocean Institute in Dana Point, California, for several years but was increasingly drawn to a childhood interest in art and storytelling. He began working on animated film projects in the 1980s, then received a master's degree in animation from the California Institute of the Arts in 1992. That year, he began working on a Nickelodeon cartoon series, "Rocko's Modern Life," whose central character was a wallaby. Hillenburg later became the show's creative director, while developing the idea for "SpongeBob," combining his interests in cartooning and marine life. "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 - wasn't funny until Hillenburg made him a household sponge with square pants, a white shirt and tie and an irrepressibly upbeat attitude. The show premiered in 1999 on Saturday mornings, then moved to an evening time slot, where it quickly drew huge audiences. It became the No. 1 cartoon show for young viewers but often attracted at least as many adult viewers, even though Hillenburg, as executive producer, expressly forbade any references to sex, drug use, pop culture or other grownup topics. "SpongeBob is really optimistic and changes the way people see things," he told the New York Post in 1999. "He's too naive to realize how special he is, in his odd way." Within three years, "SpongeBob" had more than 60 million viewers a month. It has won five Emmy Awards in various categories. "SpongeBob" anmated feature films were relased in 2004 and 2015, and the television show remains a popular mainstay of Nickelodeon. Hillenburg's survivors include his wife of 20 years, the former Karen Umland, and their son, Clay Hillenburg; his mother, Nancy Hillenburg; and a brother. Even though SpongeBob worked as a hamburger cook, Hillenburg refused to license his image to sell fast food and other products he considered harmful to children. Nonethless, by 2009 Advertising Age magazine estimated that Nickelodeon earned $8 billion a year in sales of SpongeBob merchandise. "How could you expect a show about a sponge to have mass appeal?" he told the Boston Globe in 2002. "It's just unbelievable. It's almost like having a picture of your mother appear on everything in the world." EDWARDSVILLE To give all residents an opportunity to visit her local office and voice their concerns, state Rep. Katie Stuart, D-Edwardsville, will be hosting her second annual Holiday Open House on Tuesday, Dec. 18 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at her constituent services office, located at 2105 Vandalia St., Unit 16 in Collinsville. I understand that with the holiday season quickly approaching many of my constituents are busy with events in their personal lives, but still have pressing questions about what is happening in Illinois, said Stuart. I am hosting this Holiday Open House to give everyone an opportunity to visit my local office and talk to me directly about any concerns they may have. Race is a biological fiction, a concept with no basis in anatomy. It is a myth, pseudoscience, a fraud, a social con job. Kwame Anthony Appiah, a professor of philosophy and law at New York University, has been hammering that fact for more than 40 years. It is, Appiah, says, "racial antirealism." Sounds like mental illness. Appiah grew up in Ghana and earned a doctorate from Cambridge. A cultural theorist, referred to by some as a "postmodern Socrates," he was presented with a National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama in 2012. Appiah was back in Washington recently to discuss his new book, "The Lies That Bind." The title pretty much sums up our national predicament on race - a society organized into conflicting groups. One of the most critical of those lies is fueled by a delusion based primarily on skin color. While much of "the scientific superstructure of race has been dismantled in the past century," Appiah writes in the book, "the world outside the sciences hasn't taken much notice. Too many of us remain captive to a perilous cartography of color." We've seen a resurgence of that racial peril in recent years, most recently in political campaigns marred with racial invective - in Mississippi, Georgia, Florida and even in the progressive District of Columbia. In the race for U.S. Senate in Mississippi, a black man and a white woman are competing. In a state with one of the highest numbers of recorded lynchings, the white candidate has joked about a "public hanging." In Georgia, a robocall labeled the black female candidate for governor "a poor man's Aunt Jemima," a reference to an image that has racist connotations. In Florida, a white candidate for governor told voters not to vote for the black candidate because they couldn't afford to "monkey this up." And in the liberal District, a white Jewish candidate for an at-large council seat was portrayed as an outsider in corners of the city where many blacks feel they're being left behind or pushed out. In an interview, I asked Appiah for his take on the emotional havoc that race is wreaking on us - specifically on white and black people, the two groups at the center of the friction. Both groups are paying a steep price for being bound by the lie. "There are a lot of anxieties around race," Appiah said. Fear and anger among white people who believe black people are less than and unequal. Fear and anger among black people for whom historic atrocities by white people make it impossible to trust fully. "I feel we are going through a low period," he said. "President Trump didn't start it," Appiah said, referring to Trump's appeal to and embrace of people and policies that have been at minimum inflammatory. But, Appiah said, Trump made it worse. Like his distorted use of the word "nationalism," which might have been the root of a shared American identity. Instead, Trump turned it into an appeal to racism. "What he is doing is dog-whistling to people who call themselves nationalist but who are really a racially identified people who want America to be a white nation. Responsible people don't do that, because in a society so divided, you get violence, and at the end of that road is ethnic cleansing and genocide. And once you set these things in motion, you can't control them." The shooting up of black churches and synagogues provides ample proof. "The fact that these people are clearly unbalanced doesn't mean that they are being affected by the trends in the culture," Appiah said. "When you encourage groups that are anti-Semitic and racist, you encourage crazy people to do bad things. Even people who are not clinically insane will sit in front of a [computer screen] sharing hateful language that can only lead to violence in the end." White people aren't the only ones to have bought into the fallacy of race. Far too many black people have internalized the legacies of the old racist structure, Appiah said. It affects how you respond to challenges, how you think about yourself, he said. "There is also a constant barrage of negativity about black people in the culture, and it's bound to affect you." Two weeks ago, I wrote a column questioning why more black men had not spoken up against the way Trump had mistreated black female elected officials and journalists. I asked Appiah what he thought about such an appeal to racial solidarity. He noted that historically, oppressed groups often band together to fight injustice. However, any notion that 40 million "black" people felt the same way because of their race was unrealistic. And unproductive. "There is a danger in making racial identities too central to our conceptions of ours," he says. But there's also no getting around it. With racial identity comes a set of norms to which members are expected to adhere, but these norms can be in conflict with personal ambition and freedom of expression. "I think it's important to know how incredibly diverse black people are," he said. "If I say, 'Imagine the face of a black man,' people will have a picture, but only a tiny proportion will fit that picture." Appiah's father, Joseph Emmanuel Appiah, was a lawyer, politician and Ghanaian anti-colonial activist. He was black. His mother, Peggy Appiah, was an English aristocrat. She was white. Asked about his own racial identification, he said, "People know I'm not white." That's how the construct of race plays out. You can't wish the race problem away, Appiah says. "A 'white' person might not want to build an identity around race, but even if you reject [seeing yourself] as white, your race still affects how you live because other people respond to it, whether you like it or not." For black people, the identity formed around race has an even greater impact - on education, jobs, housing, simply living. That's why those in power, those who have benefited from the construct of racial hierarchy, need to speak out. "When you see a situation that produces injustice, you can do something about it," Appiah said. Race, gender, political party - none of that should matter. Hundreds of years of laws implemented with the goal of keeping a group of people down on the basis of their skin color prove that it does matter. The fiction of race has become truth. BERLIN - When Melania Trump's White House Christmas wonderland was revealed this week, visitors couldn't escape a certain feeling that one color was being displayed more prominently than others: red. There were red ornaments and red drawings. And there were red Christmas trees, comprising thousands of berries. The first lady was not around to explain the motif, but her office had a ready explanation: "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." Abroad, however, it's also the color of sick Christmas trees. Ukraine renamed the area around the Chernobyl reactor disaster site "Red Forest" after lethal radioactivity turned the green pine trees there red-brownish in 1986. Footage from that forest still serves as a reminder of deadly nuclear risks, especially at a time when threatening nuclear strikes has become more common again. More recently, the color red has also been disastrous for pine trees in Denmark, which are usually sold across Europe. The country is renowned for its magnificent dark-green trees that are exported far beyond its borders, but red needles are posing a growing threat to the lucrative business. Nine million trees are sold every year. In some years since 2012, Denmark's vendors have had to dispose of as much as 10 percent of all Christmas trees that were supposed to go on sale after their needles lost their green shine. Selling trees with red needles, vendors argued in interviews with Nordic media outlets, would have damaged the industry's excellent reputation. Christmas tree producers remain stymied by what is causing the strange phenomenon. "Red needles occur every year, but in certain years it is particularly bad," the Danish Christmas Tree Growers Association concluded, specifying that the problem has already caused damage of up to $8 million. "It's a mystery why the trees get red needles. It's as if the trees get a stress reaction," Torben Ravn, a board member of the Christmas Tree Association, told the Danish Broadcasting Corp. two years ago. A research project has been tasked with investigating the source of the problem. One possible explanation is that diseases might be weakening the trees' ability to take in sufficient calcium to grow properly. In neighboring Germany, where vendors have faced a similar issue, researchers also observed that pine trees can "sunburn," provided that springs are unusually cold and summers disproportionately hot. Climate change will make those extreme temperatures occur far more frequently. Unless a solution is found, Europe might have to embrace Christmastime red more than it has done in the past. The White House - where President President Trump dismissed a dire climate change report by his own administration this week, saying: "I don't believe it" - may have some advice on how to do it. Five people, including three children, were injured in a crash when a woman had an apparent seizure as she was driving downtown Tuesday evening. San Antonio Police Department Sgt. Michael Tuma said the woman, 70, began having a seizure at about 7 p.m. in 900 block of South Alamo. I love downtown at Christmastime. I also love trying all of the new things San Antonio has to offer. But I have to admit Im a little scared of something Im wanting to try. Me da miedo darme un banquetazo, and I dont mean the kind that comes with rice and beans. Im afraid of scooters. They are called patines del diablo for a reason. Motorized scooters are all over downtown, and thats a good thing. There have been many, many times when I was walking in pain, of course down Houston Street wishing for a trolley, only to see one stop and go about half a block away, which might as well have been a mile. I have purchased chanclas at novelty shops because if I didnt, I wouldnt be able to take another step. I have been yelled at by cab drivers for asking them to take me five blocks. Scooters provide an answer to this sore-foot problem. Riding a scooter, one can hover past several blocks quicker than one could if one were just walking. It also seems that it would be a considerably less sweaty proposition. Pero le sacateo. It looks like fun. I imagine zipping from the mall at River Center to Market Square, the wind in my hair and a big smile on my face as I hover past young women wearing beautiful shoes and pained expressions. I imagine slowing to a stop in front of the Alameda or Mi Tierra, as my imaginary self decides, hmm I think I want to check out that shop I like at La Villita. Or me dan ganas de un sausage platter de Schilos. I decide its worth a little more scooter time, so I turn around and scoot back. But theres always another story, and that one has me waking up, patas parriba, on the sidewalk somewhere around Main Plaza, with a well-meaning metiche telling a small group of onlookers how I came out of nowhere y SAS! I imagine sitting up in humiliation while a kid tries to take the bubble gum that fell out of my purse and a viejito shakes his head and mumbles, Quien le manda. Fortunately, I was smart enough to get a helmet in this scenario, which prevents serious injury but leaves me con el copete aplastado. Still, downtown at Christmastime makes me very, very happy and maybe a little brave. Its a good thing they dont let you ride those things on the River Walk. mariaanglinwrites@gmail.com Former president Barack Obama on Tuesday gave himself a pat on the back for his indictment-free tenure in office, yet during a nearly hour-long interview at Rice University avoided directly mentioning the legal machinations that have swept up the first two years of President Trump's administration. Obama's comments came near the end of an hour-long conversational interview with former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, the namesake of the nonpartisan Baker Institute for Public Policy think tank that is celebrating its 25th anniversary. "Not only did I not get indicted, nobody in my administration got indicted," Obama said to a crowd of more than a thousand at a gala honoring the institute. "By the way, it was the only administration in modern history that that can be said about. In fact, nobody came close to being indicted, probably because the people who joined us were there for the right reasons." The interview, moderated by presidential historian Jon Meacham who at one point compared Trump to Voldemort, the fictional Harry Potter villain carried an anti-Trump tone without many direct mentions of the president. Obama's "indictment" comment came after Baker himself joked that he was proud not to have been indicted, a response to Meacham's closing question about what Baker, 88, was most proud of from his time serving presidents. Numerous Trump aides or associates have been indicted or pleaded guilty for various charges, and on Monday special counsel Robert Mueller's office said former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort had violated a plea agreement by lying to the FBI. Baker, a Houston native, served under Ronald Reagan and both Bush presidents, including for four years as Reagan's chief of staff. He and Obama devoted most of the conversation to what might have caused the heightened partisanship that developed between Baker's initial years in Washington and Obama's presidency decades later. They largely agreed that a changing media landscape and partisan redistricting had caused the parties to diverge, with Obama at one point calling Texas a "champion of gerrymandering." The former president got behind the idea of independent redistricting commissions, saying under the current process, "the elected official chooses the voters rather than the other way around." On the topic of the media's impact on increased partisanship, Obama recalled the older, more consolidated news landscape that Baker experienced under the Reagan administration when, with fewer publications, Obama said "there was a common set of facts, a baseline" to which both parties responded. "By the time I take office, what you increasingly have is a media environment in which if you are a Fox News viewer, you have an entirely different reality than if you are a New York Times reader," he said. Baker, who from the beginning insisted that the Baker Institute be nonpartisan, agreed, saying, "The responsible center in American politics has disappeared." Later, when the interview briefly turned to foreign policy matters, Baker indicated concern over the state of international institutions and the U.S.'s global standing since Trump became president. "American leadership in the world is absolutely imperative. No other country can do it," Baker said, later adding that America won the Cold War "because we had alliances." Obama's visit comes amid a fraught period for American foreign policy, including the death Tuesday of three American soldiers in a Taliban roadside bombing in Afghanistan and a highly partisan debate has ensued over an incident Sunday at a San Diego border crossing. The interview took a broader approach, however, and those current events went largely unmentioned. Meanwhile, Obama in recent months has grown politically active, stumping for Democrats in a handful of states in the final days of the midterm election campaign. In a post-election interview with David Axelrod, his former strategist, he also drew a parallel between his own presidential candidacy and the Senate bid of Democratic Rep. Beto O'Rourke, who fell about three points short in his challenge to Sen Ted Cruz, R-Texas. O'Rourke also went unmentioned Tuesday. Toyota Motor North America recently held its 29th Opportunity Exchange in suburban Detroit, continuing its long-term commitment to diversity and inclusion. Last year, Toyota spent $3.3 billion with diverse suppliers employing 137,000. We are members of Toyotas diverse supplier community. As the Presidents of Forma Automotive, Reyes Automotive, HERO Logistics, Avanzar Interior Technologies and Vutex, we employ approximately 3,000 team members assembling and conveying parts for the Tundra and Tacoma. Our team members are proud members of the San Antonio community. Toyota has 10 plants and employs 137,000 team members in the United States. Toyotas total investment in the U.S. tops $25 billion. These investments are being overshadowed by the governments threat to impose a 25 percent tariff on imported vehicles and component parts because they potentially pose a threat to national security. San Antonio-built trucks are among the vehicles Toyota exports to 31 countries. A 25 percent tariff on automotive imports, a tax on consumers, would increase the cost of every vehicle sold here, not just Toyotas. No vehicle in the U.S. is sourced exclusively in the U.S. These tariffs would raise the costs of the Tundra by $2800. Free and fair trade is the best way to create sustained growth for the auto industry, including its diverse supply base. Import tariffs on vehicles and components will increase product costs, leading to higher prices for consumers and a decline in sales, auto production, jobs and vehicle exports. Like others in the auto industry, we believe the current tariffs in effect and future tariffs being studied will ultimately hurt consumers. Senators Cornyn and Cruz, along with others of the Texas delegation, have given their full support on this issue and their actions are greatly appreciated. But, we cant sit around and wait for another announcement. We must continue to share the adverse impact of these actions with Congress and ask them to oppose further tariffs on the automotive industry. Rosa Santana is president of Forma Automotive. Jason Reyes is president of Reyes Automotive. Frank Herrera is president of HERO Logistics. Berto Guerra is president of Avanzar Interior Technologies and Max Navarro is president of Vutex. There is a deep sense of sadness across the entire community of Clondra following the sudden and unexpected death of local man David OBrien (37) in Australia last Thursday. Parish Priest, Fr Turlough Baxter said the south Longford community had been left very shaken by the young mans death. ALSO READ: BREAKING: Longford man dies suddenly in Australia Davids parents and family are very well known and respected in the area, and David too was well known here, added Fr Baxter. People in the Parish are very shaken by what has happened. The local priest, meanwhile, said neighbours and friends were rallying around the O'Brien family in an effort to support them at this very difficult time. People just want to help and support Davids parents Malachy and Bernie, his sisters and brother as much as they can, he added. Meanwhile, the Department of Foreign Affairs continues to provide consular assistance to the family as they prepare to repatriate Mr OBriens remains. The Longford man died suddenly at his home last Thursday in Perth. He had been living in Australia for a number of years and was planning a trip home to Longford for Christmas. As a child he attended the local national school in Clondra and is a past pupil of St Mels College, Longford. Former Principal of St Mels College, Denis Glennon said he remembered the late Mr O'Brien and his brother Ross very well. David was a lovely quiet boy, recalled Mr Glennon, before extending his sympathy to the OBrien family. I was shocked to learn of his death; there is such a sadness in the community. Colette McManus, Principal of Clondra NS said everyone was left shocked and saddened by the past pupils death. David attended Clondra NS for eight years and was a kind, considerate and friendly young lad with lots of friends, she told the Leader. He was an all round excellent student who participated in all aspects of school life. The local principal also added, This is a huge loss to Davids family and friends and indeed to the entire community here in Clondra; we are very shocked and saddened by what has happened. Local Councillor Seamus Butler also expressed his sympathy to Mr O'Brien's family. Cllr Butler also pointed out that the timing of the tragedy so soon to Christmas made it all the more agonising. "It's terrible news, it really is. To lose a son is unimaginable but when it happens the other side of the world, it just adds to the tragedy." Funeral arrangements yet to be announced. The sudden and tragic death of 21-year-old Drumlish man Danny McGee in New York last week has been described as the biggest tragedy to come to the county in a very long time. They were the emotions put forward by local councillor and family friend Martin Mulleady as he led tributes to his former Fr Manning Gaels clubmate at a Longford County Council budget meeting on Monday. Cllr Mulleady requested a 'suspension to standing orders' or the order of council business to address the topic. Its a massive tragedy to Drumlish, to Longford and to Ireland for that matter to see a young mans life taken and the circumstances in which it was taken, he said. Cllr Mulleady said it was Dannys warm and obliging temperament which had marked him out as a man of inimitable distinction. Danny was the nicest young lad I have ever met, he said, while revealing he had in the past frequented his company during previous visits to the Big Apple. In making reference to the equally tragic circumstances surrounding the passing of another Fr Manning Gaels player, Brian Collum in 2014, the former County Cathaoirleach said there was no denying the enormity of the past three to four days. The news that came to Drumlish on Thursday morning was absolutely shocking, he said. Its probably the biggest tragedy to come to Drumlish and Longford in a very long time. Cathaoirleach Cllr Luie McEntire empathised with those emotions as he told of how he lost a brother of his own at 24-years-old. Describing the McGee family as salt of the earth, lovely, hardworking people, Cllr McEntire said words were of cold comfort at times of such unspeakable tragedy. Fine Gael group leader Cllr Micheal Carrigy likewise passed on his condolences while Cllr Joe Flaherty asked for the minutes silence to also be observed in memory of another Longford ex-pat, David OBrien. The Clondra man passed away suddenly in Perth, Australia last week. Longford and Westmeath Harriers will host their annual Point to Point race meeting at Corbeagh House, Ballinalee on Sunday, December 2. An exciting day of racing starts at 12 noon and the venue will be signposted from Edgeworthstown and Ballinalee. The feature race is the JC Ferrall Memorial Open Race. This cup was purchased in 1949 by friends of the late Jack Ferrall, a renowned Longford Point to Point rider. Point to Point racing, which is run by The Irish National Hunt Steeplechase Committee, is often described as the lifeblood of the jump racing industry in Ireland. Many horses that start their racing life at Point to Points graduate to the highest echelons of National Hunt racing both in Ireland and the UK. Each race is run over three miles with 15 steeplechase jumps. The Corbeagh track is designed to run right handed, a perfect oval shape. It starts at the top of a gentle hill and heads down towards the back straight which is approximately three furlongs long. The home straight brings the horses up the Corbeagh hill to the finishing line. The site has a natural viewing area so that spectators are able to see the entire race from practically anywhere on the field. This is an opportunity to get up close to the action and see racing at its very best. Corbeagh House is only a 15 minute drive from Longford town. Ample parking and catering facilities will be available on the field. Live race commentary and on course bookies will add colour to the day. The local community are again supporting the event with sponsors from Longford, Ballinalee and Edgeworthstown. The committee would like to acknowledge all the local businesses that are sponsoring races and advertising in the race programme. Local News, Crime, Business & Finance, Press Releases By Long Island News & PR Published: November 28 2018 AG Alleges that Near-Daily Runs to Virginia and North Carolina Resulted in the Trafficking of Over 18 Million Untaxed Cigarettes into NYC Evading Over $3 Million in Taxes. New York, NY - November 28, 2018 - Attorney General Barbara D. Underwood announced the indictment of 17 individuals for their alleged involvement in an untaxed cigarette trafficking enterprise operating in Queens, Kings, Bronx, New York, Westchester, and Nassau Counties, as well as in New Jersey, Virginia, and North Carolina. The network allegedly illegally trafficked over 18 million cigarettes from low-tax states, such as North Carolina and Virginia, to various parts of New York City. It is alleged that the defendants evaded over $3 million in tax liability due to New York State and New York City. As we allege, the defendants ran a massive criminal enterprise that trafficked over 18 million untaxed cigarettes into New York, cheating New Yorkers out of over $3 million in taxes, said Attorney General Underwood. We have zero tolerance for those who try to game the system and cheat New Yorkers and we wont hesitate to hold them accountable. Criminals do not concern themselves with city or state lines, so it is critical that the justice system comes together to achieve our shared duty: keeping the people we serve safe, said New York City Police Commissioner James P. ONeill. Along with the NYPDs Intelligence Bureau, I thank and commend the New York State Attorney General's Organized Crime Task Force, Homeland Security Investigations, the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, and all of the NYPDs law-enforcement partners who took part in this case. Cooperatively, we are making the safest large city in the nation even safer. The investigation, which was led by the New York State Attorney General's Organized Crime Task Force (OCTF) and the New York City Police Departments Intelligence Bureau, utilized court-authorized wiretapping, GPS tracking, covert cameras, and undercover operations. The takedown was dubbed Operation Big Wheels after investigators identified numerous Ford F-350 and F-150 pickup trucks that had been after-market-modified, allegedly utilized by the defendants to transport the cartons of cigarettes across state lines. Wiretaps intercepted the defendants allegedly discussing their illegal transactions in a cryptic and coded manner in hopes of avoiding detection by law enforcement, referring to Virginia as the V and North Carolina as the North to indicate which state they preferred to source their cigarettes from. The 242-count indictment charged all 17 individuals with Enterprise Corruption, Criminal Tax Fraud in the First Degree, and Money Laundering in the Second Degreeall of which are class B Felonies, which each carry a sentencing range of 1 to 3 to 8 1/3 to 25 years in state prison. Additionally, all defendants were charged with counts of possession or transport for the purpose of sale of 30,000 or more unstamped cigarettes, and with conspiracy. The ringleader, Mohammed Alsaidi, is facing 165 separate charges, including enterprise corruption, criminal tax fraud, money laundering, and related tax crimes. The following defendants were charged: Mohammed Alsaidi, 36 years old Queens, New York Basam Hussain, 24 years old Brooklyn, New York Yaheya Ghaleb, 40 years old Queens, New York Wail Asseadi, 27 years old Queens, New York Talal Alsaedi, 24 years old Bronx, New York Yahia Mahases, 35 years old Richmond, Virginia Fattoh Ghaleb, 31 years old Richmond, Virginia Ali Fadel, 43 years old Winston-Salem, North Carolina Mujahid Shawter, 35 years old Winston-Salem, North Carolina Wail Al-Shaabi, 44 years old Bronx, New York Bakil Adlehelfri, 38 years old Queens, New York Ahmed Alsayedi, 43 years old Baldwin, New York Mohamed Elgazali, 50 years old Bronx, New York Naser Alsaidi, 41 years old Queens, New York Adnan Alsayedi, 41 years old Queens, New York Tawfiq Aziz, 43 years old Queens, New York Alaa Alsaidi, 24 years old Yonkers, New York 16 of the defendants have been arraigned in Queens County Supreme Court; Wail Asseadi is expected to be arraigned next month. The case is being presided over by the Honorable Stephen A. Knopf. The investigation was conducted by OAG OCTF Investigator Bradford Farrell, Supervising Investigator Brad Miller, and Deputy Chief Investigator Christopher Vasta, together with NYPD Detective Joseph Petrosino, Detective Jonathan Dubroff, Detective Brett Topping, Sergeant Robert Byrne, Sergeant Timothy Jaycox, and members of the NYPD Intelligence Bureau under the supervision of Lieutenant Joseph Sullivan. The Attorney Generals Investigations Bureau is led by Chief Investigator Dominick Zarrella. OCTF and NYPD were assisted by Homeland Security Investigations, the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, the Henrico County Police Department, the North Carolina ALE, and Eagle Services, LLC. The case is being prosecuted by OCTF Assistant Deputy Attorney General Caitlin Carroll, under the Supervision of Deputy Bureau Chief Diego Hernandez. Nicole Keary is the Deputy Attorney General in Charge of the Organized Crime Task Force. Margaret Garnett is the Executive Deputy Attorney General for Criminal Justice. Assemblywoman Kimberly Jean-Pierre recently attended a groundbreaking ceremony for a new September 11th Memorial Plaza which will be constructed next to the Amityville Fire Department Jean-Pierre helped secure a New York State capital grant in the amount of $260,000 for the department, which will help fund the construction of the memorial as well as the acquisition of several new emergency vehicles. The groundbreaking ceremony took place prior to the annual Peter 5K, a run held in honor of the late Peter ONeill, Jr., a former Local News, Community, Charity & Cause, Press Releases, Politics By Long Island News & PR Published: November 28 2018 The Town Board dedicated Calvert Avenue in Commack as FDNY Lieutenant Walter F. Malone Way. Commack, NY - November 28, 2018 - At its November 20 meeting, the At its November 20 meeting, the Huntington Town Board dedicated a street in Commack to honor a local 9/11 hero. The Town Board dedicated Calvert Avenue in Commack as FDNY Lieutenant Walter F. Malone Way. FDNY Lieutenant Walter F. Malone lost his long battle with 9/11-related respiratory illness on August 31st, 2017. Prior to joining the FDNY, Walter Malone served as a Corporal in the United States Army serving from 1952 to 1956 during the Korean War. Malone began his firefighting career in 1960 when he joined FDNY Rescue Company 2 in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn as a Firefighter. He was promoted to Lieutenant in 1978, with Engine Company 214, Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Malone served for 34 years with the Department, retiring at the age of 57 in 1991. On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, Lieutenant Malones longtime friend, FDNY Captain John Vigiano, Sr., lost 2 sons; one, a member of the FDNY and the other, a member of the NYPD. At the age of 67, Lt. Walter F. Malone returned to his fire department family. Every day for two months, he joined his friend in the pile, searching for his dear friends lost sons, fallen brethren and civilian casualties of the 9/11 World Trade Center Attacks. On September 11th of this year, Lt. Malones grandson, Sean Malone, requested a street to be renamed to honor his grandfather. Supervisor Chad A. Lupinacci received a letter in support of the resolution to rename Calvert Avenue in memory of Lt. Malone by the New York City Fire Museum. After his retirement, Lt. Malone traveled from his home in Commack every Wednesday to be a docent at the New York City Fire Museum in Manhattan from 2002 until his health took a turn for the worse. Wally Wednesdays" became legendary. People from all over the world kept in touch with Wally via the Museum. In September 2017, just weeks after Wally's passing, Scottish artist Alexander Millar offered to create a special New York fire-themed series of paintings to raise money for the Museum. The artists portrait of Lt. Malone hangs prominently at the Museum today, said Supervisor Lupinacci, prior to the unveiling of the dedicated street sign to Lt. Malones family. Local News, Crime, Press Releases By Long Island News & PR Published: November 28 2018 The data is collected from 24 law enforcement agencies that operate in the county. Mineola, NY - November 28, 2018 - Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas, County Executive Laura Curran and Commissioner of Police Patrick Ryder today announced that Nassau County has experienced a nearly 25% reduction in major crimes in the last five years, making Nassau New Yorks safest large county. According to newly released statistics from the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, there was an approximately 24.98% decrease in index crimes from 2013 to 2017 and an approximately 21.84% drop in violent crimes in that time period. Crimes against property decreased approximately 25.38% in the five-year reporting period. Index crimes as defined by the Federal Bureau of Investigation include violent crimes such as murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault; as well as crimes against property, such as burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft. The data is collected from 24 law enforcement agencies that operate in the county, including the Nassau County Police Department, New York State Police and municipal police departments. Nassau County experienced the biggest decline of violent crimes when compared to neighboring jurisdictions New York City, Suffolk and Westchester from 2013 to 2017. Thanks to the collaborative and strategic efforts of law enforcement and the outstanding work of our community partners, Nassau County has seen a dramatic drop in major crimes, and we are proudly the safest large county in New York, DA Singas said. Im grateful to County Executive Curran, Police Commissioner Ryder, our local police departments, and the strong partnerships at every level across Long Island as we continue our work to tackle the public safety challenges we face together. Nassau County Executive Laura Curran said, Today we are proud to announce that crime in Nassau County is the lowest it has been in years. With our continued public safety efforts, District Attorney Singas leadership and Commissioner Ryders data-driven policing, we share the same vision to ensure the safety and security of our residents and our communities. We owe a debt of gratitude to all of our law-enforcement personnel who continue to make history. Police Commissioner Ryder said, Decreases of major crime of these historic lows not only occur without the hard work of the men and women in law enforcement but also by focusing on intelligence gathering, predictive analysis and appropriate allocation of resources. We have been able to identify patterns before they become serious issues and give them proper attention. This, and our outreach to the community, such as the Police Youth Academy, the Commissioners Community Council and our Explorer Program, have had excellent results to not only educate our communities and young students but to create a cohesive atmosphere. We are investing in our communities, and we are seeing the beneficial returns. To view Nassau Countys statistics, click this link Local News, Crime, Press Releases By Long Island News & PR Published: November 28 2018 Daniel Abrego Davila, 33, used a knife to stab the victim approximately five times in the neck, torso, arm and back, Singas said. Mineola, NY - November 28, 2018 - Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas announced that a Bronx man was convicted of murder today for the stabbing death of a 39-year old landscaper outside a Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas announced that a Bronx man was convicted of murder today for the stabbing death of a 39-year old landscaper outside a Hempstead bar in April 2016. Daniel Abrego Davila, 33, was convicted by a jury of Murder in the Second Degree (an A-I felony) and Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Fourth Degree (an A misdemeanor). The trial, before Judge Helene Gugerty, lasted approximately a month and the jury deliberated for two hours. The defendant is due back for sentencing January 4 and faces a maximum of 25 years to life in prison. A 39-year-old mans life was cut drastically short when he was brutally stabbed to death by this defendant, DA Singas said. Todays conviction ensures this defendant will be off the streets and behind bars for many years to come. DA Singas said that on April 10, 2016, shortly after 1 a.m., victim Rolando Cruz, of Freeport , was leaving the Nuevo Arco Iris bar on Fulton Avenue in Hempstead. As the victim was exiting the establishment, defendant Davila and his two friends were attempting to get into the bar but were refused entry by a bouncer. After an exchange of words between the victim and the three men, Cruz was corralled and a physical confrontation ensued. Davila used a knife to stab the victim approximately five times in the neck, torso, arm and back. The victim collapsed on the sidewalk in front of the bar and he was taken by ambulance to Winthrop Hospital. He was pronounced dead at 1:35 a.m. that morning. The defendant then fled the scene and took the murder weapon. Davila was arrested on February 19, 2017 in Hempstead by members of the Hempstead Police Department and NCPD. On 8 November, the student council of the Free University of Brussels (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, VUB) refused to recognise a student Marxist society, set up by the IMT in Brussels (Vonk Marxistische jongeren), on the grounds that our organisation is anti-sexist, anti-racist and anti-fascist! We reiterate: this was a decision taken by the majority of the student council, not the university bosses. Their ridiculous justification was that, in their eyes, racism is just an opinion and every opinion should be heard. We say that racism and sexism are not merely opinions: they are material realities that physically threaten marginalised layers of society, and are used by the ruling class as weapons to divide the masses. Censorship The student council wants to silence revolutionary thought by bureaucratic means / Image: public domain The focal point of the debate was the fact that, as an organisation, we actively fight against racism, sexism and fascism. In our bylaws, we say we want to get rid of these vile ideas. In the eyes of 13 out of 19 Student Council members and Free Inquiry (the student association tasked with defending the ethics and values of the University), this is unacceptable because every opinion needs to be heard. These student bureaucrats are incapable of understanding the real struggle or oppression that affects many layers of the working class and youth. At first, we were surprised by these argumentations, as they seemed so absurd, but after a clear confirmation by several members of the council, we realised this was not a joke but their actual outlook. These arguments are just part of many attempts to silence revolutionary thought at the university through bureaucratic means. We were also accused of being violent (supporting the Committees for Defence of the Republic established by the Catalonian people during their referendum on independence last October), and using terms like revolution and militant, as well as references to self-organised security details at demos or activities and fighting the struggles. Denial of history This decision is even more disturbing if you look at the history of the VUB, starting with the armed struggle against the Nazi occupation in World War II, where both professors and students gave their lives to free the country from fascism. These martyrs, called Group G, are annually commemorated on 20 November by university officials, the mayor and a wide array of prominent alumni. VUB students & officials at the graves of 'Group G': anti-fascist martyrs disgraced by the actions of these student bureaucrats / Image: public domain Even after World War II, the fight continued with openly anti-fascist demonstrations whenever these thugs showed up on campus. This led to confrontations, which resulted in the VUB being the only Dutch-speaking university in Belgium without a right-wing extremist presence. The student association of the university, Free Inquiry, played an important role in this movement. The progressive struggle behind these demonstrations eventually died down by the late 90s and was slowly replaced by the current reactionary, relativist, postmodern thought that permeates Free Inquiry and many of the student council members. Solidarity Although this denial of our democratic rights will not succeed in shutting down our activity on campus, it reflects an alarming trend that is taking place. Students should fight against all forms of oppression such as racism, sexism and fascism. By not actively struggling against these so-called opinions, Free Inquiry and the student council are providing these cancerous ideas with an environment where they can spread to larger layers of society. The Socialist public services union at the University (ACOD), supports us and protested against these decisions. They will discuss the matter further at their members meeting on 4 December. We have also received support from former leaders of the Free Inquiry student association. Moreover, professors from the VUB and the Gent University have already joined our protest. Soon after the decision, we widely distributed flyers in Dutch and English and put up posters all over the campus. The general mood of the students is one of support for our recognition and shock at the stance taken by the council. We call on all comrades, sympathisers and those involved in the anti-racist and anti-sexist struggle to support our recognition through messages of solidarity and signing this petition. We will teach these McCarthyists that they cannot silence the struggle for socialism! SPRINGFIELD -- New Valley Bank & Trust Co., the first new bank to open in Springfield in 11 years, has preliminary OKs from state and federal regulators and plans to open offices in early 2019. Before opening, New Valley Bank & Trust must raise $25 million to $30 million in capital, money it will use to make loans as it begins business, said Jeff Sullivan, New Valley's proposed president and CEO. New Valley has contacted about 500 potential investors. "Now it is a matter of getting people to fill out forms and write checks," Sullivan said. He expects about 300 local investors to buy stock in the new bank. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation documents say the bank will sell between 25,000 and 30,000 shares of common stock priced at $1,000 a share. This process of raising the needed capital could be completed as early as Dec. 14. The bank could open as soon as January, Sullivan said, and he certainly expects New Valley to open in the January to March first quarter. New Valley received initial regulatory approval from both the FDIC on Nov. 2. It got a certificate of public convenience and advantage and from the Massachusetts Board of Bank Incorporation Nov. 8. FDIC is approval is contingent upon New Valley satisfying reporting and accounting requirements, hiring a bank secrecy officer, which it already did, and on raising at least $25 million. "We've said all along that this is a collaboration with the regulators," Sullivan said. A group of investors led by attorney Frank Fitzgerald, who founded Bank of Western Massachusetts here in 1986, and including Sullivan, Jim Garvey, president of St. James Check Cashing, and Dennis Murphy, of Ventry Associates, has been working on plans for years and publicly announced them in May. If successful, New Valley Bank & Trust Co. would be the first new bank in Massachusetts since First Commons Bank in Newton opened in 2009. First Commons Bank merged with Brookline Bank in 2017. In Springfield, investors opened Nuvo Bank & Trust in Tower Square in 2008. Nuvo has since been sold twice and is now part of Community Bank, which is headquartered in Syracuse, New York. New Valley Bank & Trust will focus on small and midsize business lending -- loans of $250,000 to $2.5 million -- and on bringing everyday consumer banking services to those shut out of getting bank accounts. Sullivan said Tuesday the long application process confirmed for him that there will be demand for business loans. Borrowers are frustrated by ongoing consolidation in the banking industry. Merger after merger has left Springfield with no banks headquartered within the city except for New Valley. "Folks are looking for alternatives, and rapid solutions form experienced people," he said. Mergers leave banks looking for bigger customers. "As we know, this market is full of people who run smaller firms and people who want to start businesses," Sullivan said. New Valley has nine employees now and plans to grow to about 12. There will be two offices. The headquarters, with a teller walk-up window, is on the ninth floor of the Monarch Place office tower downtown. Another office, a traditional branch with a drive-thru and Saturday hours, will be at a former United Bank location at 1930 Wilbraham Road in Springfield's Sixteen Acres neighborhood, across from Fresh Acres market. United Bank built a new building five years ago next door at 1946 Wilbraham Road. The name New Valley Bank & Trust Co. is a reference to a former bank in the market called Valley Bank and Trust Co. The original Valley Bank and Trust Co. was the product of a 1957 merger between Springfield National Bank and Union Trust Co. It became BayBank Valley Trust Co. in 1979 and BayBank in 1991. Security personnel at MGM Springfield voted Tuesday not to unionize, following an effort by labor organizers after some staff complained they were promised higher wages then they ended up receiving. Of the 172 workers who voted, 115 voted not to join the union. Fifty-six voted in favor and one vote was challenged. There are 195 security personnel at MGM Springfield who were eligible to participate in the union vote. Security officers who work at the casino include former police officers, former correctional officers and military veterans. The Law Enforcement Officers Security Union has affiliates in Washington, D.C. and across the East Coast. The union currently represents other security workers in Western Massachusetts, including officers at Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield. Kevin Frazier, a security officer at MGM Springfield who was involved in the unionizing effort, chalked up the vote results a successful anti-union campaign by management. "We lost two to one. What they said to officers worked," Frazier said. MGM Springfield President and CEO Michael Mathis urged officers to reject unionization in days leading up to the vote, describing labor organizers as "strangers" coming into the casino. "MGM Resorts as a company believes in the right of our employees to make the personal choice regarding joining a union," Mathis said in a statement released Wednesday. "We are proud of the partnerships we have forged with a variety of unions, and remain steadfast in our commitment to promote and assist with job placement and workforce development in the community." Organizers and pro-union security guards told MassLive that officers had been promised pay increases that never occurred. An MGM official told guards they would receive raises to $18 per hour after 90 days and that officers certified to train other security staff in CPR and defensive tactics would be paid an extra $1 per hour. Organizers also said security officers were dissatisfied with the lack of time-and-a-half pay on Sundays and holidays. "There were a lot of things told to us that MGM never fulfilled so we decided to exercise our rights," Kevin Frazier, a retired correctional officer who works full-time as a security officer at MGM, said in an interview last week. In a statement last week, Mathis said the company respects its employees right 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 internally, Mathis took a firm stance that the union would be bad for MGM Springfield and its workforce. In a letter to security staff, Mathis promised the company would listen more attentively to staff concerns and urged security officers to vote against unionization. "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 the letter. "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." MassLive reporter Michelle Williams contributed to this story. The shooting deaths in a Bickford Street apartment in Boston's Jamaica Plain last week were the result of a murder-suicide, police said Tuesday. At about 5:45 p.m. on Nov. 19 police received a call reporting gunshots near 60 Bickford Street, part of the Mildred C. Hailey Apartments complex. When officers arrived they found two people who had been shot. Jose Dos-Santos, 32 of Boston, was pronounced dead at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Lodimira Dos-Santos, 23 of Boston, also had gunshot wounds and was rushed to a nearby hospital where she died, police said. Her death is Boston's 49th homicide in 2018. "As for the cause and manner of death, the Medical Examiner's Office has ruled the female's death a homicide while the male's death has been ruled a suicide," police said in a news release. Another man in his 30s was found with a stab wound and taken to the hospital. His injury was described a non-life threatening. Police continue to investigate the incident. Anyone with information is asked to call Boston police homicide detectives at 617-343-4470. The 23-year-old woman killed in a murder-suicide in Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood last week was a victim of domestic violence, Suffolk County prosecutors said. Lodimira DosSantos was shot and killed in her Bickford Street apartment by a former "intimate partner," Suffolk County District Attorney John P. Pappas said in a statement Tuesday. "Domestic violence is about power and domination," Pappas said in the statement. "Lodimira's murder was committed by a man who could not or would not relinquish control over her, even in the very place she should have been safest - her own home." Prosecutors say Jose M. DosSantos, 32, traveled to the 23-year-old woman's home on Nov. 19 armed with a knife and a handgun and threatened to kill her and himself, prosecutors said. The victim and 32-year-old DosSantos had the same last name, but were not married, prosecutors said. When Jose DosSantos arrived at the 60 Bickford St. apartment he shot Lodimira DosSantos and then himself, witnesses told prosecutors. He also stabbed a 33-year-old man who tried to protect Lodimira DosSantos, prosecutors said. Another woman was present but was not injured, according to prosecutors. After police arrived after 5:45 p.m. and found Lodimira DosSantos she was rushed to the hospital, where she died. Jose DosSantos was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. Records show Jose DosSantos had an active license to carry a firearm issued in Randolph, prosecutors said. Lodimira DosSantos' family posted an obituary online, describing the young woman as a "loving mother" and "beloved daughter." She had two children -- Jeynilson Cardoza and Devyn DosSantos, according to the obituary. She was originally from Fogo, Cape Verde. A funeral service mass was held on Monday at the St. Patrick Church in Roxbury. Prosecutors encourage anyone who is experiencing domestic violence to call SafeLink, a statewide domestic violence hotline at 877-785-2020. "Domestic violence can take many forms," Pappas said. "It occurs in relationships of all types, across every demographic. If you or a loved one see the red flags of verbal abuse, controlling behavior, or physical violence, please don't hesitate to reach out for help." An audit of overtime patrols conducted in 2015 by Massachusetts State Police troopers shows more possible overtime abuse for that year, sources told MassLive. WCVB reports the 2015 audit of overtime patrols by members of the now-former Troop E had been completed. Sources also told MassLive the audit for 2015 is finished, but State Police officials continue to say the audit is not done. WCVB reports more than 30 troopers were flagged in the 2015 audit for possible overtime abuse. MassLive learned the troopers flagged in the 2015 audit are also among the group of troopers flagged for alleged overtime abuse after a 2016 audit of patrols along the Massachusetts Turnpike and Metropolitan tunnel system. In all, more than 40 troopers, some who were suspended or resigned, have been flagged in the overtime investigation. Federal and state authorities both conducted separate investigations. A total of nine troopers have been charged in either state or federal court in connection with the overtime scandal. Five troopers have entered into plea agreements in federal court. The audits were for patrols known as Accident Injury Reduction Effort patrols, and X-Team patrols. State Police audited the patrols for 2016 and discovered discrepancies between overtime pay and hours worked. The 2015 audit results will be turned over to state Attorney General Maura Healey's office and to federal investigators. In some of the federal cases, authorities used figures from patrols conducted in 2015 as part of the charges. The troopers facing charges in state and federal court are accused of skipping out on the specialized patrols completely or working partial shifts. SPRINGFIELD -- A businessman proposing to open a marijuana store in the South End, across from MGM Springfield, told residents on Tuesday night, in response to their questions and some concerns, that he is committed to a strong security plan. David Mech of Springfield is proposing a retail marijuana business at 1021 Main St., in the South End, in the same building as Raices Restaurant in an adjacent storefront. Approximately 20 people attended the community meeting. "You have my word," Mech said, regarding questions if he will provide a safe and secure business. "I live here. I have to see everyone every day. I'm here to protect and not exploit." He lives on Crescent Hill within the neighborhood, is a lawyer and owns the Potco store on Sumner Avenue at "The X." His security plan will include a multitude of cameras inside and outside the business, a security person posted outside during business hours for safety and to deter loitering, strict state-mandated delivery procedures, and a scanning system for identification cards. "No one gets in the store without a valid ID, scanned," Mech said. His responses came both before and after Yolanda Cancel, a neighborhood resident and activist, asked him about safety for residents and their children: "Why should we trust our neighborhood to you?" "I think that with all the hard questions, I think he held his own," Cancel said after the meeting. "I think he seems very humble and he seems like he would work well with the community." Mech said he does not believe there will be any significant increase in traffic after the initial opening influx, and believes parking will not be an issue. He will have parking at a nearby lot, and would anticipate having valet parking as needed. The City Council recently approved an ordinance that will allow up to 15 recreational marijuana stores in Springfield, that must be in business and industrial zones and only on 58 designated streets in those zones. In a six-page summary provided to residents, Mech provided an overview of his proposed business, his operating experience in this state and other states, details of site security, his management plan, community safety and employment. The project, if approved, would create between 8 and 10 full time jobs and 4 to 6 part-time workers, he said. The new corporate name for ownership is Cannaworld Inc. Mech is president and other officers and directors are Luiselis Hernandez of East Longmeadow, Lisa Santaniello of East Longmeadow, and John E. Maslar of Agawam. Mech has been involved in the medical marijuana industry in Arizona including that he co-founded what is now called Level Up Dispensary, in Scottsdale. In Massachusetts, he founded one of the original medical marijuana certification facilities, Community Health Clinics. Potco sells products including fertilizers, grow lamps, indoor growing tents and hydroponic and aquaponic setups. The business also sells cannabidiol, or CBD -- an extract of hemp that lacks marijuana's psychoactive properties. He is also proposing a marijuana store at Potco, at 522 Sumner Ave., with a community meeting not yet scheduled. Mech, in his summary and in comments Tuesday, repeatedly referred to his plans for the sale of "medical marijuana," although his business will not be licensed as such. He said his choice of the word "medical" is because of his knowledge about the medical benefits of marijuana. "We anticipate, given our commitment to being model community members and our world-class operating standards, our medical marijuana establishment will contribute positively to the safety and security of the area surrounding our facility," the summary stated. Mech said that studies have shown that marijuana businesses do not lead to an increase in crime. Massachusetts Rep. Richard Neal, the Springfield Democrat expected to take the reins of the House Ways and Means Committee, plans hearings on the college endowment tax included in the 2017 federal tax code rewrite. University administrators claim the tax on some large college endowments hurts opportunities to provide financial aid to students. Harvard University has the biggest endowment, pegged at $39.2 billion, which is just under the size of the entire Massachusetts state budget of $41.2 billion. The tax could cost $40 million to $50 million a year, according to The Harvard Crimson, the student newspaper. "I intend to hold hearings on the endowment tax, yes," Neal said during a breakfast with Boston business leaders, after a representative from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology asked about the tax. "I think part of the endowment tax was punitive," Neal said, adding that the Republican legislation rewriting the federal tax code was not vetted through hearings. "I think that in a measured, judicious way, we should seek testimony from a wide variety of views as to the tax bill itself and put some focus on it," Neal said. President Donald Trump signed the federal tax code overhaul into law December 2017. "I thought the justification for the endowment tax was punitive," Neal told reporters after speaking to the New England Council on Tuesday. "I thought it was sort of a made-up provision at the last minute." But its repeal does not appear to be a top priority. In his speech to the New England Council, Neal pointed to infrastructure spending bill and protection of health insurance for people with pre-existing conditions. Jay Gonzalez, a Democrat who unsuccessfully ran against Republican Gov. Charlie Baker this year, proposed a similar tax on college endowments. Gonzalez said if elected he would pursue a 1.6 percent tax affecting private colleges and universities with endowments of over $1 billion as a way to pay for increased spending on public transportation and education. Some Democrats panned the plan. Baker opposed the Gonzalez proposal as well as the one embedded in the federal tax code rewrite. AMHERST - Sean Spicer, who served as White House press secretary and director of communications under President Trump, is now promoting his new book is speaking Tuesday night to a full hall at the University of Massachusetts. Spicer, who is promoting his new book, "The Briefing: Politics, the Press and the President" has attracted more than 1,000 people who are filling the auditorium at the Fine Arts Center. While the majority are students, there are a number of area residents including some local politicians attending, , said Cameron Russell, public relations chairman for the university's Republican club. He was invited by the University of Massachusetts Amherst Republican Club and his $10,000 speaking fee is being paid from the activity fee that all students pay the university. The Republican Club has one of the largest membership this year with 60 to 80 active members and another 380 who receive the weekly newsletter. At the beginning of the school year members discussed who they would like to have speak on campus and Spicer and Ben Shapiro, a conservative political commentator, were the top selections, said Cameron Russell, public relations chairman for the club. "We had a list of people and I think a lot of people were influenced by the name recognition," he said. He is known for his antagonistic relationship with the press that started the day of the inauguration when Spicer inaccurately declared more people attended the ceremony than anyone past president. Spicer resigned in July after serving six months on the job. He was replaced briefly by Anthony Scaramucci. Sarah Huckabee Sanders now holds the job. The speech did prove popular with at least 1,300 people ordering the free tickets before the event. Others protested outside the Fine Arts Center but the demonstration ended more than an hour before Spicer took the stage. AMHERST -- Hampshire College will no longer have an endowed fund in the name of a founding professor after the college concluded he likely engaged in "inappropriate behavior" during his tenure. Lester Mazor became the Henry R. Luce Professor of Law at the college in 1970 and taught there until 2007. He died in 2011. The board of trustees also voted to remove Mazor's name from a room on campus, according to a letter to the college community by President Miriam Nelson and Eva Rueschmann, vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty. "Following a directive last spring by then President Jonathan Lash, Hampshire conducted an investigation and concluded that more likely than not the inappropriate behavior occurred," Nelson and Rueschmann wrote. "During the investigation the College heard other allegations of inappropriate behavior, suggesting that this was not an isolated incident," according to the letter on the college website. "We recognize how difficult it is to revisit painful occurrences, and we respect our alumna's courage in coming forward to share them." The board's executive committee reviewed the findings and issued a formal apology to the alumna involved, according to the letter. Nelson and Rueschmann wrote that some might question the college's actions since the inappropriate behavior occurred decades ago and Mazor cannot defend himself. But they wrote "this era has brought long-needed attention to issues of sexual harassment and we want there to be no confusion at Hampshire over what behaviors were and are inappropriate." "We take our roles as educators, mentors, and role models very seriously and apologize that a member of our faculty apparently did not do so, regardless of the era," they wrote. Hampshire has reviewed and is updating its policies on sexual harassment and faculty, student and staff engagement, the letter states. EASTHAMPTON -- Following months of deliberation, the Planning Board on Tuesday approved a ten-acre solar plant on 37 acres of wooded land off Park Street and Holly Circle. The 3-megawatt project will require clearing around 18 acres, and a long access road off Park Street will cross White Brook via a box culvert. The solar panels will not be visible from Park Street, said Michael Zimmer of the New Jersey-based Soltage. A public easement, offered to the city by land owner Bernard Gawle, will allow for hiking access. The trail will eventually link conservation land from Plain Street to White Brook Middle School, said City Planner Jeffrey Bagg. The solar project was approved with many conditions, including a $112,000 decommissioning bond and requirements to plant and maintain trees between the project and nearby homes on Holly Circle. The Conservation Commission on Monday issued an order of conditions and stormwater permit, clearing the way for the Planning Board to issue its special permit under the city's solar zoning bylaw. Gawle, through his Crown Meadow Corp., has executed a lease with Soltage, which is developing the site as Easthampton Park Solar I, LLC. Zimmer, director of New England operations for Soltage, appeared at the meeting with consulting engineer Andrew P. Vardakis of the former Amec Foster Wheeler. Following the unanimous vote, Zimmer thanked the Planning Board and neighbors on Holly Circle, sentiments that were echoed by Planning Board chairman Jesse Belcher-Timme. "People were oriented toward getting things done, rather than being obstructionist," said Belcher-Timme, while acknowledging the deep involvement of project neighbors throughout months of hearings and meetings. Zimmer said he will immediately submit the project to the state's brand-new SMART solar incentive program. Massachusetts has started accepting project applications for the flat-fee tariff program designed to incentivize 1,600 megawatts of new solar across the state. Zimmer said that time is of the essence, because the SMART application portal opened on Monday, and developers who apply before Dec. 1 will benefit from better numbers when it comes to participating in the Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target program. Soltage has soldiered through a series of fits and starts in Easthampton. In April, the company proposed two solar plants -- the Park Street project and another off South Street, near the Manhan Rail Trail. Soltage in May temporarily withdrew the Park Street project because Gawle, a local developer, had outstanding wetlands violations on other properties, causing problems with state environmental officials. After Gawle resolved those issues, Soltage resubmitted its application to the Planning Board. Also in May, Soltage withdrew its South Street project after landowners David and Marilyn Cernak illegally cut trees in a protected wetland area. Zimmer said Tuesday that Soltage plans to resubmit its application for that project. Project documents are posted on the city's website. NORTHAMPTON -- Two of eight people indicted in connection with the murder of Daniel Cruz pleaded not guilty to the charges against them Tuesday afternoon in Hampshire Superior Court. Matthew Ross, 24, of Northampton, and Kimberly Perez, 26, of Springfield, were arrested Tuesday morning and arraigned separately. A third defendant, Mercedes Diaz-Wright, denied charges at her arraignment earlier in the day. Arraignments have not yet been set for the other five defendants. Ross faces a charge of accessory after the fact, while Perez is charged with being an accessory, burning personal property, withholding evidence from a criminal proceeding, two counts of conspiracy and improper disposition of a human body. Both were released on their own personal recognizance with conditions including that they be subject to GPS-monitoring and that they have no contact with co-defendants, case witnesses or the family of the victim. Perez also has a daily curfew from midnight to 5 a.m. and must maintain employment. Ross and Perez were among eight people indicted Monday on 51 charges by a Hampshire County grand jury in connection with the death of Cruz. The victim was shot to death March 10 by another Northampton man, 22-year-old Nerkin Morales, prosecutors allege. Cruz's body was found burning in a field in Hatfield later that night. No details were shared as to how Ross and Perez specifically helped cover up the murder. The attorney for Ross, Donald Frank, asked that the fees for the GPS monitoring be waved, which Judge Richard Carey granted. Perez is being represented by attorney Henry Fasoldt. An out of court pretrial conference for Ross was set for Jan. 15 and a pretrial hearing was set for Feb. 12. Perez has a status hearing scheduled for Dec. 17. The others indicted Monday are Pedro J. Soto-Rodriguez, 21, of Northampton, Alondra E. Gil, 23, of Northampton, Chelsea T. Rodriguez, 22, of Northampton, all indicted on a charge of accessory after the fact to murder as well as several other charges, and Joshua T. Ealy, 20, of Northampton, who was indicted on a charge of perjury related to the grand jury investigation. Morales, Soto-Rodriguez and Ealy are in custody, while Gil and Rodriguez remain at large, the Northwestern district attorney's office said. AMHERST - On his first day as press secretary for President Donald Trump, Sean Spicer decided to follow his boss' practices of ignoring tradition and called on reporters of the local media, the Hispanic media and others who were rarely acknowledged during the daily White House press briefing. "I think my biggest contribution was to bring more voices and more people into the conversation," Spicer said Tuesday night in a speech at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. "I believe everyone has a right to ask a question." The former Republican National Committee communications director and chief strategist who served as Trump's press secretary for six months, spoke to a packed auditorium at the Fine Arts Center. Spicer, who is promoting his new book, "The Briefing: Politics, the Press and the President" was invited by the Republican Club at UMass.. While he talked about campaign strategies and working with the press, Spicer said little about day-to-day working with Trump, except to discuss how unusual he was as a candidate and as a president. "Trump doesn't care about tradition and protocol," he said, explaining after Trump became the front-runner in the primary elections, the Republican Committee sat down with him and asked what he needed. It turned out the business mogul and entertainer had a small staff and had done almost no fundraising. At that time, committee members offered a partnership to help him win the election. Spicer spoke about his background, dwelling on his experience attending an expensive prep school as a middle-class child and talking about attaining his first jobs in Washington D.C. He told students about a lesson he learned in his first political job working as field representative for a congressional campaign in Connecticut where the candidate lost by two votes. "You make sure when you are doing a task you do it until it is over," he said. He did, however, talk about his concerns about the divisiveness in politics. "I think the problem with this country right now is we are demonizing both sides," he said. "We all love this country." At the end of his lecture he took questions submitted in writing from the audience but after the first one was asked, he was interrupted by a group who started singing "Solidarity Forever." At times they were drowned out by members of the Republican Club sitting in the front of the hall who chanted "USA." The group of protesters declined to speak to reporters after the lecture. The Graduate Employee Organization also demonstrated outside before the lecture but finished more than an hour before Spicer took the stage. More than 1,000 people attended the event. Members of the Republican Club said 1,300 people reserved the free tickets before the speech. Spicer took the interruptions, including catcalls from people shouting "sexist, white nationalist, anti-gay fascist," mostly with humor. At one time he pretended to conduct the group while they were singing. When the interruptions and chanting continued he asked them to give him a chance to answer the questions. "When you are getting booed and I'm not and we are on a college campus that should tell you something," he said. During the question-and-answer period, students brought up Spicer's antagonistic relationship with the press and his well-known first-day gaff when he inaccurately declared more people attended the inauguration ceremony than had for any past president. "There is no question that was not my finest day," he said. "Could I have done things differently? Absolutely." While Spicer battled with reporters constantly before he resigned after six months on the job, he said he does not hate the media. However, he made a number of snide comments about different nationally-known reporters and journalists during his speech. "I do believe in a fair and free press...We have to protect the press," he said. "I think it is key to a democracy that we have a robust press." SPRINGFIELD -- Mayor Domenic J. Sarno said Tuesday he is negotiating an extended contract for Police Commissioner John Barbieri before his five-year agreement expires at the end of May. "Yes, that is my intention," Sarno said. "We are currently in negotiations." Sarno said he plans to veto a proposal by the City Council to resurrect a five-member citizen Police Commission to oversee the police department's hiring, promotions, firing and disciplinary action now handled by Barbieri. The council gave first-step approval this month to an ordinance that would bring back the Police Commission that existed for decades. Sarno announced his selection of Barbieri as police commissioner in March 2014 after closed-door interviews with him and two other deputy chiefs. Barbieri's five-year contract contained a clause allowing the mayor to extend the contract for up to five more years. Sarno praised Barbieri's leadership and role in crime-fighting efforts amid criticism raised by some councilors and community activists against the commissioner in response to multiple police misconduct cases, costly legal settlements and a federal civil rights investigation targeting police. If the mayor did not intend to extend Barbieri's contract, he had until this Friday, six months ahead of the expiration date, to give Barbieri official notice of non-renewal under terms of the contract. If notice was not received, Barbieri was entitled to an automatic six-month extension. Sarno had high praise of Barbieri in confirming the intent to keep him at the helm. "From a 45 percent drop in crime in the last five years to C3 Policing, a real-time crime analysis division, enhancing community relationships, numerous police academies, to negotiating with my administration to move to body-worn cameras, to name a few, Commissioner Barbieri's innovative and progressive leadership and our brave 'men and women in blue' have done a good job in a most difficult time in our country to be a police officer," Sarno said in a statement. City Councilor Timothy J. Ryan, the lead sponsor of the ordinance to resurrect the civilian Police Commission, said there is nothing stopping the mayor from negotiating a contract extension for Barbieri while the council continues efforts to bring back the Police Commission to take over some of the commissioner's duties. The proposal would have the five commission members appointed by the mayor, but it removes a 2016 clause that called for council confirmation of those members. In 2016, the council approved a Police Commission and overrode Sarno's veto, but Sarno took no action to appoint members, leaving the commission in limbo and all administrative functions, including discipline, with Barbieri. SPRINGFIELD -- Mayor Domenic J. Sarno on Tuesday scoffed at a city councilor's claim that he shows "constant contempt" toward diversity and immigrants, saying that just the opposite is true. "As a son of immigrants and since I've been a kid, my personal, professional and political record has always shown respect, an embrace and celebration of our city's diversity," Sarno said. His comments were a direct rebuttal to Council President Orlando Ramos, who sharply criticized the mayor's plan to veto a proposed "Welcoming Community" ordinance. The ordinance calls for Springfield officials and employees to be welcoming to all residents without questioning their immigration status. Sarno said he has "always been a supporter of legal immigration and a positive pathway towards citizenship." "What we really need here is for our federal government officials to stop the back and forth rhetoric and leaving this federal issue on the doorstep of cash-strapped municipalities and get something done for the good of all involved," Sarno said. As mayor, Sarno said he has a "responsibility to uphold the laws that provide for the public health and safety of all of our citizens and business community." Ramos said the intent of the local law is to ensure that everyone in Springfield is "treated like a human being regardless of where they come from." Sarno said the council is continually pushing for the city to become a "sanctuary city" for immigrants without legal status, a claim denied by the lead sponsor of the ordinance, Councilor Adam Gomez. The ordinance recently received first-step approval from the council and could get final approval at the next regular meeting Monday night. The 13-member council would need at least nine votes to override a veto. The ordinance states in part: The ordinance states, in part: A city official shall not inquire as to an individual's immigration status unless required by federal or state law. A city official shall not target with legal action or discriminate against a medical, educational or faith institution in their mission of providing refuge to immigrants and their families. A city official shall not initiate an investigation or take law enforcement action, including regulatory action, on the basis of actual or perceived immigration status. A city official shall honor judicial warrants, but shall not respond to an ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) request for notification about the incarceration status or pending release of a person in custody nor communicate with ICE about home and work addresses or phone number of the person. SPRINGFIELD -- The lead sponsor of a proposal to make Springfield a "welcoming community" to immigrants criticized Mayor Domenic J. Sarno on Tuesday for comparing the ordinance to making Springfield a sanctuary city, suggesting Sarno is "echoing President Trump's hysteria about immigrants." Councilor Adam Gomez, the lead sponsor of the "Welcoming Community Trust ordinance," said Sarno is wrong when he refers to the ordinance as the council's "continued efforts to make Springfield a sanctuary city." Sarno said he will veto the ordinance if the council approves it. "Mayor Sarno would do well to recognize the diversity of the city, and prioritize the safety of the residents of Springfield over continuing to divide our community with right wing Trump-like rhetoric and scare tactics," Gomez said in a statement. The ordinance, in part, states that a city official, including employees, "shall not inquire as to an individual's immigration unless required by federal or state law." It further states that a city official "shall not target with legal action or discriminate against a medical, educational or faith institution in their mission of providing refuge to immigrants and their families." Sarno, in announcing his veto plans, said his 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." Gomez said he would have hoped that the mayor "understood the basics about municipal law and the distinction between the local, state and federal branches of government - rather than echoing President Trump's hysteria about immigrants." Gomez said there "is no such thing as a 'sanctuary city.'" Rather, he believes the term is a "popular right-wing talking point" and that there is no reference in the proposed ordinance for a sanctuary city to exist here. "This ordinance does not inhibit ICE or any branch of the federal government from going anywhere in Springfield or doing any of their work," Gomez said. "We CAN'T stop ICE because as a federal entity, they pre-empt municipal laws. Any first semester law student knows this, and by now, so should the mayor." Sarno in March declared that Springfield is not a sanctuary city, referring to communities where police departments do not assist federal agencies in detaining and deporting some immigrants living in the country illegally. Some cities, including Northampton, have established themselves as sanctuary cities through mayoral executive orders. Gomez said that the Trump administration refers to sanctuary cities as those municipalities and states that are deemed in violation of federal legal code. Springfield's welcoming community ordinance does not violate federal law, he said. Gomez said the proposed city ordinance would not jeopardize federal funding to the city, which he described as a "Trump-like threat meant to rile the masses." "When it comes to public safety, it has been proven that measures like The Welcoming Community Trust ordinance actually increase the safety of residents, as well as encourage the flow of information between residents and city employees," Gomez said. "No longer should any resident be afraid of reporting crime or worried about sending their children to school. Unlike Mayor Sarno, we want to decrease the fear and division in this city, not increase it." This ordinance is designed to increase access to and between residents of Springfield and city departments, Gomez said. SPRINGFIELD -- Kimberly Garcia sobbed in court Wednesday as the man who supplied a fatal dose of heroin to her son admitted his guilt. Garcia said the day her son was taken from her was the worst day of her life. "There is a war going on with drugs and drug dealers and we need to put an end to it as too many families are losing their loved ones," she said in her victim impact statement to Hampden Superior Court John Ferrara as Christopher Cummings pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter. She said, "It is bad enough that we have to try to get help for our loved ones trying to regain control of their lives, especially when they are trying to get and remain drug-free, but we also have to deal with the drug dealers making it accessible just so they can get a buck at the risk of someone dying." Assistant District Attorney Matthew W. Green said the heroin Cummings sold to David Garcia contained fentanyl, a synthetic opioid responsible for many overdose deaths across the country. David Garcia, 27, of West Springfield, was found unresponsive on a bathroom floor at 5:45 a.m. on Dec. 20, 2017. Despite efforts to save his life, Garcia died from what a medical examiner ruled was an overdose involving cocaine, fentanyl and opiates, Green said. Cummings, 33, of Springfield, also pleaded guilty to distribution of heroin and possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. Ferrara sentenced Cummings to five to seven years in state prison, as recommended by Green and defense lawyer Dale E. Bass. The judge added two years probation to the sentence, saying he had a "great concern" about Cummings' ability to deal with his own addiction. Ferrara said the probation term -- during which Cummings must stay drug-free -- will be protection against him selling drugs to support his own habit. Bass said Cummings cooperated with police immediately upon his arrest, admitting selling heroin to Garcia the night before his death. When told by police that Garcia had died, Cummings burst into tears, Bass said. Kimberly Garcia said she wanted a longer sentence for Cummings, but Ferrara explained state sentencing guidelines, which aim to keep sentences consistent for all defendants. Garcia said, "My son was clean, but due to physical pain he chose the only way he knew how to make himself pain-free for a short period, and now my son is free from pain forever." "I am left with an emptiness and heartache that will never go away," she said. Ferrara asked if West Springfield police had tried to find out from Cummings where he got the drugs that proved fatal to Garcia. Green said Cummings told police he got them from local people, but it didn't appear police pressed him for additional details. Green said a family member noticed a contact on David Garcia's phone from the night before he died. She contacted the man and arranged a purchase of heroin. Then she told police that a drug delivery was arranged for 11 a.m. Police, who had tied the number to Cummings through Facebook records, arrested him when he came to deliver the drugs to Garcia's family member, Green said. Green said Cummings, in a police interview, said he knew Garcia and sold him a bundle (10 bags) of heroin for $60 the night before Garcia's death. Cummings said he made $10 on the sale. Cummings has a substantial criminal record but most of the entries are property crimes and misdemeanors, Green said. A Yarmouth woman died Tuesday night after becoming trapped between her SUV and a garage door. The Yarmouth Police Department said first responders were called to a home on Seminole Drive in Yarmouthport around 5:20 p.m. where they found the victim, Deborah Reade-Kochka, 52, gravely injured. Authorities said the victim's husband, Donald, arrived home from work to find his wife pinned between her 2017 Honda SUV and the garage door of their house. Reade-Kochka was transported to Cape Cod Hospital where she was pronounced dead. Yarmouth Police Department detectives, the Crash Reconstruction Unit and Massachusetts State Police are conducting a follow-up investigation. John Lewis, a Georgia congressman and civil rights leader, called on House Democrats Wednesday to support U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark's bid to join the chamber's leadership as the caucus meets behind closed doors this week. Lewis, who joined Clark in leading a 2016 sit-in protest over gun laws in the U.S. House chamber, sent a letter to colleagues Wednesday asking them to elect the Melrose Democrat as the caucus' next vice chair -- the fifth-highest leadership position. Pointing to Clark's efforts to highlight gun violence, the opioid epidemic and other issues, as well as her push to elect Democrats in 2018, Lewis said he has "no doubt that the qualities that Katherine has displayed since joining Congress are the same that she will bring to the position of vice chair." Lewis, for example, argued that while Republicans marked the mass shooting at an Orlando nightclub with a moment of silence, Clark approached him about taking action. "Rather than sit back and accept that we were helpless in the minority, Katherine approached me with her conviction that we had to act. I agreed that we must do something dramatic, and the idea of a sit-in was formed," he wrote in the letter Clark's office released Wednesday. "Katherine then approached several of our colleagues for their ideas and advice, we formulated a plan, and through our action, we ensured that the American people knew that they had representatives who would fight for them." The congressman added that he has also been impressed by Clark's leadership in recruiting and mentoring Democratic candidates ahead of the 2018 election. "Over the last two years she has worked tirelessly to ensure that talented candidates across the country were empowered to run, that our colleagues enthusiastically supported them and that, especially during the hard times, our new representatives-elect found a sympathetic ear, meaningful guidance, and the resources they needed to be successful," he said. Lewis argued that if named the Democratic caucus' vice chair, Clark "will meaningfully engage with each member of our caucus, listen to our concerns, seek opportunities for members to voice the unique needs of our districts, and ensure we have the resources to accomplish our goals on behalf of the American people." "She will be brave enough to cause a little good trouble along the way," he added. "I enthusiastically endorse Katherine Clark for caucus vice chair, and I hope you will join me." Clark, the House Democratic caucus' senior whip and a member of the Steering and Policy Committee, announced her candidacy for the leadership position in a July letter. The congresswoman, who is expected to go up against U.S. Rep. Pete Aguilar for the position, has pledged to focus on growing accessibility and inclusivity within the party, if elected. House Democrats began meeting Wednesday morning to elect the positions of caucus chair, speaker of the House nominee, Democratic leader, Democratic whip, assistant Democratic leader, caucus vice chair and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair. They are also expected to select three Democratic Policy and Communications Committee co-chairs, a caucus leadership representative and a freshman leadership representative in the deliberations, which could continue into Thursday. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, will lay out her vision for a foreign policy "that works for all Americans" Thursday, officials have announced. Warren, a member of the Senate Armed Service Committee and rumored 2020 presidential contender, will highlight her progressive foreign policy approach during an afternoon event at American University in Washington D.C. Billed as a "Conversation with Elizabeth Warren," the forum will be hosted by American University's School of Public Affairs, the Kennedy Political Union, and AU College Democrats. The senator, who has vocally criticized President Donald Trump's approach to foreign policy, is expected to discuss the work she believes is needed to strengthen American democracy and to align the country's actions abroad with policies that support domestic citizens at the hour-long event. Warren's foreign policy address adds to speculation that the Democrat is gearing up for a 2020 White House run. The senator, who won re-election earlier this month, said in late September that she'd take a "hard look" at a presidential bid after the 2018 midterms. Immediately after the November election, Warren told reporters that she was still looking at a possible presidential run, but did not have a firm timeline for when she'd announce her decision. "It's been less than 48 hours. I said I'd take a hard look, and I will," she said. Political observers, however, predict that the senator could unveil her 2020 plans shortly after the new year. At least three members of Massachusetts' congressional delegation could secure high-profile U.S. House positions in the coming weeks, as Democrats gather to decide the chamber's leadership and chairmen slates for the new Congress. Congresswoman Katherine Clark, of Melrose, is hoping to win the House Democratic caucus' vice chair post, the fifth-highest ranking position in leadership, when lawmakers meet behind closed doors Wednesday. Western Massachusetts Democrats, U.S. Reps. Richard Neal, of Springfield, and Jim McGovern, of Worcester, meanwhile, are expected to pick up powerful committee chairmanships after the caucus' leadership elections. Clark, the House Democratic caucus' senior whip and a member of the Steering and Policy Committee, is among the Democrats looking to serve as the party's next vice chair when the new Congress convenes in January. The Melrose Democrat, who announced her candidacy for the leadership position in a July letter, has said she would focus on growing accessibility and inclusivity within the party, if elected. She has argued that Democrats "need accessible, inclusive leadership to help build a collaborative agenda that inspires our constituents and produces results." Clark is expected to go up against U.S. Rep. Pete Aguilar, a California Democrat who is also running for caucus vice chair. Linda T. Sanchez, a California Democrat who currently serves in that position, planned to run for caucus chair, but dropped her bid citing an "unexpected family matter," according to reports. Although U.S. House Democrats will cast a series of secret ballots for all leadership positions, including House speaker, as they meet behind closed doors Wednesday, the caucus is not expected to vote on committee chairpersons then. Caucus votes on the next Ways and Means Committee chairman -- a position that is expected to go to Neal -- for example, are not predicted to take place until at least Dec. 5. Rules Committee officials, meanwhile, said House Democrats are not anticipated to vote on that panel's new chairman -- a post McGovern is expected to secure -- this week. That vote will occur before the end of the year after caucus leadership positions are decided, officials said. If named Ways and Means Committee chairman, Neal, the panel's current top Democrat, would be at the forefront of debate on tax, trade and other high-profile issues in Washington. The congressman reiterated Tuesday that he intends to focus on infrastructure spending and maintaining health insurance protections for pre-existing conditions, if named the new Ways and Means Committee chairman. He has also pledged to, among other things, convene hearings on tax policies and to press President Donald Trump to release his tax returns. McGovern, the House Rules Committee ranking member, meanwhile, will be responsible for determining when and what bills make it to the chamber's floor for full consideration, if named the panel's next chairman. The congressman, who has cast the current Congress as "the most closed" in history, is expected to pursue a series of rule changes that Democrats say "will take a strong first step in tackling many of the pressing issues facing our nation." McGovern further told The Republican that, if named chairman, he would not block marijuana amendments or legislation from floor consideration -- something he accused current Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions, R-Texas, of doing. House Democrats will meet Wednesday morning to elect the positions of caucus chair, speaker of the House nominee, Democratic leader, Democratic whip, assistant Democratic leader, caucus vice chair and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair. They are also expected to select three Democratic Policy and Communications Committee co-chairs, a caucus leadership representative and a freshman leadership representative. Such votes could also occur Thursday, if needed. The entire U.S. House, meanwhile, will vote on its next speaker on Jan. 3, 2019, when the new Congress convenes. BOSTON -- As legal sales of marijuana begin in Massachusetts, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said he continues to be worried about the "human toll" of marijuana addiction. "We talk about taxation like it's this great infusion of money that we're getting into the commonwealth because of selling marijuana, and I just, I hope the human toll of it is OK," Walsh told reporters after an unrelated event in Boston on Tuesday. Walsh opposed marijuana legalization on the 2016 ballot. Boston does not yet have any open marijuana stores, although some are in the planning stages. The only marijuana companies in Boston to have submitted complete applications to the Cannabis Control Commission are retailer JOF Enterprise and research and retail facility Leah, according to the commission. Walsh told the Boston Herald last week that he was worried about the "human toll" of marijuana sales. Asked to clarify his comments by reporters Tuesday at the Suffolk County House of Corrections, Walsh said he is worried about drug addiction. Walsh has frequently talked about his own past addiction to alcohol. "Some people can drink alcohol and not get addicted to alcohol. I can't," Walsh said. "Some people can smoke weed and not get addicted to drugs. Some people can't." According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, up to 30 percent of marijuana users have some degree of dependence on marijuana, which means they will experience withdrawal symptoms if they stop using. Studies cited by the institute suggest that 9 percent of marijuana users become addicted, meaning they cannot quit despite marijuana interfering with their daily life. Walsh also cited studies out of Denver showing an increased number of emergency room visits after marijuana legalization. He said Massachusetts has to figure out how to measure impaired driving and how to discourage people from smoking marijuana in parks, which is a violation punishable only by a fine. "There's going to be unintended consequences, whether smell or traffic," Walsh said. "There's going to be plenty of things that are going come up, and people are going to be looking for answers." Walsh said one thing Boston learned from the opening of the Cultivate marijuana store in Leicester is the need to address crowd control and traffic. Leicester called an emergency meeting Monday to address traffic problems stemming from the opening of the marijuana store, one of the first two legal stores in Massachusetts. Walsh said there may be some advantage to having a few stores opening at the same time "so not all the attention is focused on one area." Correction: This story has been updated to correct the status of the proposed Boston dispensaries. A national working group focused on the changing labor economy and co-chaired by state Sen. Eric Lesser released recommendations Wednesday aimed at boosting the U.S. workforce in light of technological advances and globalization. The report makes policy suggestions related to workforce training, the social safety net and entrepreneurship. Lesser, D-Longmeadow, and working group co-chairwoman Amanda Edwards, a Houston, Texas council member, wrote in an introduction that many of the policies have been implemented around the country. "The policies outlined in this document seek to move beyond one-off programs to a more comprehensive means of addressing the challenges presented by the evolving economy," Lesser and Edwards wrote. The report was distributed by the NewDEAL Forum, a progressive organization focused on economic growth. The group recognized Lesser as an "up and coming" state official, and named Lesser as co-chairman of a working group on the "future of work." Regarding skill development and training, the report notes that an increasing number of jobs require digital skills, more jobs are becoming automated, and many existing skills will be irrelevant in the future job market. The report recommends expanding apprenticeships, particularly those targeted at women and low-income workers. It recommends developing ways to connect colleges with employers and ensure that schools are teaching skills relevant to the workplace. It advocates making it easier for students to go to college -- for example, by offering free SAT tests to high schoolers and increasing community college financial aid. On social safety net issues, the report recommends making benefits more portable, so employees can move between jobs without losing their health insurance, worker's compensation or retirement plans. It proposes offering some form of unemployment benefits to workers ineligible for traditional benefits, and stresses the importance of paid family leave and access to affordable childcare. On the business front, the report discusses ways to make licensing easier and improve access to loans. It advocates steps to improve the rural business climate like providing access to broadband internet, and offering financial incentives for companies that move to rural areas. Lesser is presenting the recommendations at a NewDeal policy conference in Washington, D.C., which is being held Wednesday through Friday. State Sen. Eric Lesser, D-Longmeadow, is joining the board of a newly launched nonprofit aimed at protecting student loan borrowers. Seth Frotman, the former top student loan official at the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, on Wednesday announced the launch of the Student Borrower Protection Center. The center will advocate for more oversight of the student loan industry and more protections for student borrowers. "Tens of millions of American families are trapped in a broken student loan system, squeezed by rising debt and widespread abuses by a predatory industry," Frotman said in a statement. Frotman, who was appointed to the CFPB under President Barack Obama and quit with scathing criticism of President Donald Trump, said under Trump, "The federal government hasn't just walked away from the fight on behalf of borrowers, it is actually arming the other side." The center is also partnering with University of California, Irvine School of Law to launch a research foundation related to student loans. Other advisory board members include former U.S. Representative and Undersecretary of the U.S. Army Patrick Murphy, founder of the Center for American Progress John Podesta, former assistant director of the CFPB Holly Petraeus, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, former deputy treasury secretary Sarah Bloom Raskin, and leaders of various consumer and student rights groups. Part of the initiative involves working with states and cities to put in place their own laws to regulate student lenders. The center will also sponsor a class of fellows - attorneys, researchers and advocates - working on student loan issues. In Massachusetts, Lesser sponsored and advocated for a bill that would regulate and license student loan servicers on a state level. Today, companies that service student loans are only subject to federal regulations. Carl Clinton is serving time at the Suffolk County House of Corrections at South Bay in Boston. But he is not just biding his time. Clinton is part of a special unit for young adults ages 18 to 25 that opened earlier this year and provides intensive programming to help the men turn their lives around. "I received a number of coping mechanisms, opportunities for schooling and college credit," Clinton said. "I received a brotherhood with my fellow participants in this program. We developed mutual respect for each other. Above that, we develop respect for ourselves." The Suffolk County jail in February opened a dedicated unit for young adults, soon after a similar unit opened in Middlesex County. It is called the PEACE unit, an acronym for Positive Energy Always Creates Elevation. Middlesex County officials recently told The Republican that their unit was the first in the country in a county jail, although a similar unit exists in a state prison in Connecticut. Suffolk Sheriff Steven Tompkins said the Suffolk unit is modeled after the one in Connecticut and inspired by policies in Germany and Ireland. Tompkins said he believes more U.S. law enforcement officials are developing better ways to rehabilitate inmates, particularly young people, whose brains are not fully developed. "The European system is more rehabilitative, the American system is more punitive," Tompkins said. "The question becomes how do we interrupt the cycle of criminality and recidivism? We think catching these young men while their brains are still developing ... gives us a shot to redirect them." Tompkins held a "grand opening" for the unit Tuesday, although it has been operating for months. Tompkins said he wanted to iron out any problems before advertising it. The unit has around 25 young men and three or four older mentors living together. All programming is done together. There are programs related to life skills, like anti-violence programs, courses on brain development and decision-making, religious programs and educational programs. There is a focus on vocational classes and professional testing so inmates can get the skills they need to find a job after release. The men have tablets with educational programming. There are incentives for doing the right thing, like more time out of their cells, more recreation time and phone calls. "All our programs are geared toward self-enhancement, to get them to see themselves in a better light," Tompkins said. The men on the unit attended the opening. Several speakers told their personal stories, urging the men to improve their lives. District Attorney-elect Rachael Rollins said she has a sibling who is incarcerated at South Bay. She has had siblings incarcerated in state and federal custody and siblings struggling with opioid addiction. She is the guardian for two nieces under the oversight of the Department of Children and Families. "I understand the struggles many of you have faced or are facing right now," Rollins said. Rollins said as district attorney, she hopes to use the unit as a sentencing tool, to let a judge wipe a felony conviction from someone's record if they successfully complete programming on the young offender unit. "Because 95 percent of people come back to the community, we want you healthy, employable, we don't want you seared or branded with a felony that will not permit you to get housing or a job," Rollins said. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh talked about his experience with alcoholism, which led him to frequently black out for hours. "I ended up in detox, I probably could have ended up somewhere different," Walsh said. Walsh told the inmates that people care about them, and urged them to take advantage of the unit programming to get their lives on track. "This program is an opportunity somebody dropped in your lap to completely change the outcome of your life and your family's life for generations to come," the mayor said. Tompkins noted that for the first time, Boston has a black sheriff, police commissioner and elected district attorney, who will take office in January. Blacks and Latinos tend to have higher rates of incarceration than whites. "The thing I heard a lot is the white man won't let me do this," Tompkins said. "That's not the case now." Tompkins said he grew up in a single-parent household in the projects, and his mother abused alcohol. "I could so easily be sitting where you gentlemen are. I'm here," Tompkins told the inmates. "My job is to make sure you don't return, and your families don't come here." The Astros are showing "continued interest" in free-agent righty Nathan Eovaldi, according to a report from Jon Morosi of MLB.com. #Astros showing continued interest in free agent Nathan Eovaldi, sources say. He is the second best pitcher ever from Alvin, Texas. And if Eovaldi signs with Houston, No. 1 on that list will watch him pitch from a seat behind home plate . . . @MLBNetwork @MLB Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) November 28, 2018 Eovaldi, who has been linked to close to a dozen teams since hitting free agency, grew up in Alvin, Tex., which is located about 30 miles from Houston. He pitched brilliantly at Minute Maid Park during the ALCS in October, allowing two earned runs and striking out five over 7.1 innings in a Game 3 start and Game 5 relief appearance. The Red Sox remain engaged with Eovaldi's representatives but face stiff competition in their effort to re-sign him. The righty, who saw his stock rise significantly with an excellent postseason performance, has also been linked to the Yankees, Brewers, Phillies, Braves, Angels, White Sox, Padres, Blue Jays and Giants in recent weeks. The Astros should be considered one of Eovaldi's most serious suitors, considering they're his hometown team and a strong World Series contender heading into 2019. With Charlie Morton and Dallas Keuchel both potentially departing in free agency, Houston is expected to be aggressive in its pursuit of starting pitching help. Bone Wax Market Highlights Bone wax is a mechanical hemostat used in surgeries to stop bleeding. Bone wax does not involve any pharmacological action. It is basically a sterilized mixture of beeswax and it consists of isopropyl palmitate, which is a wax softening agent and is used to stop bleeding from the bone surface. It is used in surgical procedures like orthopedics, thoracic surgery, neurosurgery, dental, oral, traumatology, and jaw surgery. The rising number of surgical procedures is a major booster which drives the global bone wax market. Orthopedic surgeries are increasing due to the rising prevalence of orthopedic diseases, especially osteoporosis and accidental fractures. Also, the rising usage of absorbable bone wax products and the growing geriatric population is also fueling the market growth. According to the Population Reference Bureau in 2016, the number of Americans aged 65 and older is projected to reach 98 million by 2060. On the other hand, stringent government rules for the approval of bone wax and the availability of alternatives for bone wax may hinder the growth of the market during the forecast period. The global bone wax market is currently dominated by many market players. The prominent market players are engaged in new product launches and strategic partnerships to strengthen its market position. For instance, in February 2016, Wound Management Technologies announced the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance for its product HemaQuell, which is a resorbable bone wax. Request Sample copy at https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/6463 Companies Mentioned: Some of the key players in the global bone wax market are ABYRX Inc., Wound Management Technologies Inc., Aesculap Inc., Ethicon Inc., Medtronic plc, Baxter International, Medline Industries Inc., Futura Surgicare Pvt. Ltd., CP Medical Corp., Bentley Healthcare Pvt. Ltd., WNDM Medical Inc., GPC Medical Ltd., and others. By Geography: The market in the Americas is expected to dominate the global bone wax market during the forecast period owing to the increasing awareness among the people regarding bone wax and rising orthopedic surgeries. The European market is expected to be the second-largest due to government funding and support of the healthcare sector, increasing prevalence of bone diseases, and growing number of accident and injuries. According to the Arthritis Research UK in 2016, around 10 million people in the UK had a form of arthritis. Moreover, the market in Asia-Pacific region is anticipated to be the fastest-growing during the assessment period owing to the increasing awareness about surgical procedures requiring bone wax, increasing geriatric population, and rising healthcare expenditure. The market in the Middle East & Africa is likely to account for the smallest share of the global bone wax market due to the slowly growing healthcare infrastructure mainly in the African region. Bone Wax Market Segments: The global bone wax market has been segmented into product, material, application, and end user. The market, on the basis of product, has been segmented into absorbable bone wax and non-absorbable bone wax. The market, by material, has been segmented into natural bone wax and synthetic bone wax. The market, by applications, has been segmented into neurosurgery, orthopedic surgery, thoracic surgery, oral surgery, and others. The market, by end-users, has been segmented into hospitals, specialty clinics, ambulatory surgical centers, and others. Major TOC of Bone Wax Market Research Report Forecast to 2023: 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 TOC CONTINUED. Browse Complete 100 Pages Premium Research Report Enabled with 30+ Respective Tables and Figures at https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/bone-wax-market-6463 Key Questions Answered In This 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 Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com NEW DELHI (PTI): Senior officials of the naval forces of India and Myanmar held talks and discussed bilateral issues Tuesday, the Navy said. "#BridgesofFriendship VAdm P Ajit Kumar VCNS hosts a delegation led by RAdm Moe Aung, Chief of Staff, Myanmar Navy at New Delhi. Bilateral issues (Navy to Navy) were discussed at the meeting @SpokespersonMoD @DefenceMinIndia @nsitharaman @MEAIndia," the Navy's spokesperson said in a tweet. The naval forces of the two countries had participated in the Indo-Myanmar Coordinated Patrol Exercise in March. Cancer Diagnostics Market Highlights There are several methods of diagnosing cancer today such as biopsy based, endoscopy based, imaging procedure, tumor cancer diagnostics and many more. Population affected with cancer are showing a tremendous growth during last few years, which create the requirement of advanced technology for diagnosis cancer on early stage. According to the American Cancer Society, in 2017, it is estimate that around 161,360 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed and around 26,730 deaths occur owing to prostate cancer in the United States. GET FREE SAMPLE REPORT @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1962 Cancer Diagnostics Market Key Players Arquer Diagnostics Ltd (U.K) BioMark Diagnostics Inc. (Canada) Biotheranostics, Inc. (U.S.) Cancer Diagnostics, Inc. (U.S.) Agilent Technologies, Inc. (U.S.) Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. (U.S.) Illumina, Inc. (Denmark) Becton, Dickinson and Company (U.S.) And more Cancer Diagnostics Market Growth and Analysis Many companies are involve in collaboration in order to provide better technology for diagnosis the cancer. In this regards, in January, 2015, Roche and Qualcomm Incorporated entered into a strategic collaboration to improve remote monitoring and management of patients with chronic disease. Rising demand for better technology, increasing investment in biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries for R&D are driving the market for cancer diagnostics. Moreover, increasing government support for research & development, changing lifestyle, and rapidly developing technology are also expected to fuel the market during the forecast period. However, the high cost of the treatment may slow the market growth during the period 2017-2022. The Global Cancer Diagnostics Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.8% during the forecast period 2017-2022. Cancer Diagnostics Market Segmentation The global cancer diagnostics market is segmented on the basis of types, application, and end user. On the basis of the type, it is segmented into biopsy based, endoscopy based, imaging procedure, tumor cancer diagnostics, and others. On the basis of the application, it is segmented into lung cancer, breast cancer, colorectal cancer, cervical cancer, prostate cancer, skin cancer, blood cancer, kidney cancer, liver cancer, pancreatic cancer, and others. On the basis of the end user, it is segmented into diagnostic center, clinic, hospital, research institutes, and others. Cancer Diagnostics Market Regional Analysis The Americas dominate the global cancer diagnostics market owing to the presence of huge patient population with cancer, high healthcare spending, and increasing government support for research & development. According to a report published by the breast cancer information and awareness, in 2017, around 252,710 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in women, along with 63,410 new cases of non-invasive breast cancer. Europe holds the second largest share of the global cancer diagnostics market as result of increasing focus of various government agencies on the treatment of diseases. Moreover, the growing public awareness is also likely to boost the European market. GET REPORT DETAILS WITH TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/cancer-diagnostics-market-1962 Asia Pacific is the fastest growing market across the globe. Moreover, rapidly developing economy, increasing healthcare expenditure, and the government initiatives for research & development are projected to drive the market in China and India. The Middle East and Africa holds the least share of the global market due to limited availability of medical facilities. The UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait are expected to drive the Middle East & African market. Whereas, the African region is expected to witness a moderate growth. Major Points form TOC for Cancer Diagnostics Market Research Report Forecast to 2022 Chapter 1. Report Prologue Chapter 2. Market Introduction Chapter 3. Research Methodology Chapter 4. Market Dynamics Chapter 5. Market Factor Analysis Chapter 6. Global Cancer Diagnostics Market, By Type Chapter 7. Global Cancer Diagnostics Market, By Treatment Chapter 8 Global Cancer Diagnostics Market, By End User Chapter 9. Global Cancer Diagnostics Market, By Region Chapter 10 Company Landscape Chapter 11 Company Profiles Chapter 12 MRFR Conclusion Chapter 13 Appendix 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 Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC) is malignant form of cancer arising within the lungs. SCLC is characterized by high growth rate, shorter doubling time than the non-small cell lung tumors. SCLC is more responsive to chemotherapy than NSCLC. Small cell lung cancer is highly associated with tobacco, unhealthy food, alcohol, HIV infected, chronic infections or related family history, and physical inactivity. The decrease in smoking is reflected as the substantial decrease in the incidence of SCLC. The symptoms include dyspnea, blood in sputum, weight loss, cough, and debility. Request Sample PDF of the Report @ https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-sample/799 Global rise in number of cancer cases expected to support the growth of small cell lung cancer therapeutics market in the near future According to the American Cancer Society Statistics in 2016, maximum cases of SCLC occur in individuals aged 60-80 years with an estimated global death rate being 30,000 per year. Also, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), lung cancer is the second most prevailing cancer in men and women causing 1.59 million deaths in 2012. The rising prevalence of lung cancer, rise in unhealthy lifestyle, the launch of innovative radiation therapies, and premium priced drugs are the major factors driving the growth of lung cancer therapeutics market. Additionally, rising demand for targeted therapies and platinum-based chemotherapies is likely to have an optimistic impact on the small lung cancer therapeutics market in the forecast period. Also, increasing diagnostic facilities by the government, provision of guidelines to cancer patients by International Healthcare Organizations are the major factors contributing to the rising of small cell lung cancer market. However, expensive treatments, lack of awareness leading to late diagnosis are the major factors restraining the small cell lung cancer market growth. Ask for a Discount @ https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-discount/799 Platinum derivatives segment accounts for highest revenue share owing to the higher metastasis control rate The global small cell lung cancer therapeutics market is segmented on the basis of drug therapy, and distribution channel. On the basis of drug therapy, the global small cell lung cancer therapeutics market is segmented into: Targeted Therapy Drugs Immunotherapy Drugs Platinum Derivatives On the basis of distribution channel, the global small cell lung cancer therapeutics market is segmented into: Hospital Pharmacies Retail and Online Pharmacies Enhanced health care dynamics to boost the Asia Pacific small cell lung cancer market Regional segmentation of small cell lung cancer therapeutics market by Coherent Market Insights comprises of North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. According to the American Cancer Society Statistics in 2017, around 222,500 cases of lung cancer were diagnosed with 116,990 prevailing in men and 105,510 in women, where small cell lung cancer accounts for 15 percent of lung cancers in the U.S. North America is expected to dominate the market owing to the high developed regions, improved healthcare setup, and growing awareness about healthcare. Asia Pacific is expected to drive the growth of SCLC market in the forecast period owing to the growing awareness of health care, government funding, and the presence of medical requirements for cancer therapeutics in the emerging economies such as India and China. Read the article on the website @ https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/ongoing-insight/small-cell-lung-cancer-therapeutics-market-799 Key players in the Small Cell Lung Cancer Therapeutics Market Key players operating the small cell lung cancer therapeutics market include Bristol-Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline, Menarini, Sanofi, and ZIOPHARM Oncology. The rise in the demand for smart wearable devices has increased the demand for smart contact lenses as well of late. Market focused reports connected to the healthcare sector among others of late have been made accessible by Market Research Future which publishes reports on this industry. The market is projected to touch USD 7.2 billion in terms of revenue by 2023 while growing with a CAGR of approximately 10.4% in the forecast period. The need for continuous monitoring has been a significant factor in the expansion of the market. Moreover, improvement in the end product quality and features have led to the development of the market further. The smart contact lenses are also expected to be used extensively in the augmented reality market, which will be used extensively to stream content. Smart contact lenses also lessen the need for invasive procedures, which are otherwise complicated and painful. The application of smart lenses especially in response to treatment of diabetes is expected to boost the market favorably over the forecast period. Get PDF Sample Copy of Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1186 Smart Contact Lenses Market Segments The smart contact lenses market globally has been segmented on the basis of the applications of the smart contact lenses which comprises of intraocular pressure monitoring, continuous glucose monitoring, and other applications. The other applications are sodium detection, cholesterol detection, and alcohol detection. The smart contact lenses on the basis of end users market are segmented into hospitals, home care settings and clinics. The regions that are covered in the market include APAC, North America, Europe and Rest of the World. Smart Contact Lenses Industry Update: March 2018 Theraoptix recently took home the MIT Sloan Healthcare Innovation Prize at their annual competitions and also received a $25,000 grand prize which was sponsored by Optum, a health services firm. The contact lens is made from FDA-approved materials and delivers eye medication in a sustained and controlled release. The lens is sandwiched between contact lens material which is a drug-filled polymer film and shaped into a tiny circular strip that does not interfere with the wearers vision. The sandwiching structure allows the drugs to seep from the film into the eye gradually. Global Smart Contact Lenses Market Players Key players in Smart Contact Lenses Market are: Samsung (South Korea), Sony (Japan), Alcon (U.S), Google (U.S), Sensimed SA (Switzerland) Samsung is a multinational conglomerate company manufacturing wide range of products. In April 2016, the company received a patent for smart contact lenses with in-built camera in South Korea. Global Smart Contact Lenses Market Competitive Analysis Samsung is a multinational conglomerate company manufacturing wide range of products. In April 2016, the company received a patent for smart contact lenses with in-built camera in South Korea. According to Samsung Mobiles report, Samsung started developing smart contact lenses as a means to create a better augmented reality experience than the ones that exist through Google Glass-like wearables. Get Exclusive Discount on This Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/1186 Google is an American multinational technology company received a patent from the U.S FDA for smart contact lenses in November 2015. Increasing demand for self-monitoring devices, increasing aging population with eye disorders associated to diabetes and user friendliness of smart contact lenses drive this market in America. Development of innovative products for eye care and diabetes management their increasing popularity among people also contribute to the growth of this market. Google agreed for partnership with the pharmaceutical company Novartis to develop smart contact lenses that can track diabetes by measuring blood glucose levels in tears and fix farsightedness as well. Some Brief 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 4.1 Drivers 4.2 Restraints 4.3 Opportunities 4.4 Challenges TOC Continued Get Complete Access of Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/smart-contact-lenses-market-1186 About Market Research Future: At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Statistical Report, Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services. Contact Us: Market Research Future Hadapsar, Pune 411028 Maharashtra, India Phone: +1 646 845 9312 A solid tumor is an abnormal mass or lump of tissues without liquid or cysts. It is not necessary that tumor should always be cancerous. On the basis tumor nature, it can be classified as the malignant tumor (cancerous) and the benign tumor (non-cancerous). Based on the cell type, tumors can be classified as carcinomas, sarcomas, and lymphomas. The Solid tumors might occur in several places such as muscle, bone, and organs. Treatments for solid tumors include prevention of tumor and combination of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. However, new forms of treatment are emerging in the market. Emerging trend of Biosimilars therapy is expected to propel the growth of solid tumors treatment market According to data published in International Journal of Pharma Sciences and Research (IJPSR) in 2011, there were around 9 million deaths due to cancer. In 2015, 11.4 million people are expected to die in 2030, among this prevalence of cancer maximum is due to solid tumors. Growing prevalence of solid tumors is the major driving factor for the growth of solid tumors treatment market. Additionally, some other factors fuelling the growth of solid tumors treatment market include unmet demand for cancer treatment and rising investment in the research and development of cancer drugs. However, increase in the volume of generic therapeutic products, the high cost of cancer therapy, and growing drug patent cliff are some of the restraints that might hinder the growth of solid tumors treatment market. Request Sample PDF of the Report @ https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-sample/793 Moreover, the emerging trend of biosimilars is contributing to the growth of solid tumors treatment market due to their low cost and their similarity to originator compound. For instance, some of the biologics available for solid tumors treatment includes Herceptin, MabThera, Avastin, and Erbitux. The advantages of this biosimilars to overcome the limitations of generic drugs in the treatments is expected to propel the growth of solid tumors treatments market. Chemotherapy segment holds the maximum share in solid tumor treatment market due to its efficacy by combining with some other therapies to treat solid tumors. The global solid tumors treatment market is segmented by therapy, by application, by the end user, and by region. On the basis of therapy, solid tumors treatment market is segmented into Radiotherapy Chemotherapy Immunotherapy Hormone therapy Targeted therapy On the basis of application, solid tumors treatment market is segmented into Lung cancer Breast cancer Prostate cancer Cervical cancer Colorectal cancer others On the basis of end users, solid tumors treatment market is segmented into Hospitals Cancer treatment centers Ask for a Discount @ https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-discount/793 Rising incidences of solid tumor cases in North America is the factor contributing to the growth of solid tumor treatment market Regional segmentation of Solid Tumors Treatment market by Coherent Market Insights comprises of North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa, and the Middle East. North America dominates in the solid tumors treatment market due to the presence of well-established healthcare infrastructure, and rise in the number of solid tumor cases. For instance, According to the data provided by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2013 around 230,815 females and 2109 men in the U.S. were diagnosed with breast cancer. Asia Pacific is expected to grow in the solid tumors market due to the increase in healthcare expenditure, rising patient population, medical tourism, and increasing affordability of people in this region. Advanced drug therapy is expected to help the industry players to sustain in the solid tumors treatment market Key industry players operating solid tumors treatment market include Abbott Laboratories Inc., Biogen Idec Incorporated, AstraZeneca Plc., Johnson & Johnson Company, Amgen Inc., Bristol Myers Squibb Company, GlaxoSmithKline Plc., Sanofi, and Baxter International Incorporated. Advancements in the cancer therapy such as nanomedicines used for the treatment of cancer might help the industry players to provide effective patient care in the solid tumors treatment. Whereas, stringent regulatory policies for drug manufacturing may restrain the growth of the market. For instance, by regulations provided by the Indian government in late 2012, there are cap prices of 348 drugs on Essential Drug List (EDL), and drug manufacturers need to keep the cost of their drugs below the ceiling price. Read article on the website @ https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/ongoing-insight/solid-tumors-treatment-market-793 by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, November 28, 2018 Another day, another top executive is leaving Facebooks family of platforms. This time, its Neeraj Arora, Chief Business Officer at WhatsApp, who announced his plans to depart on Monday. Im going to be taking some time off to recharge and spend time with family, Arora writes in a new post. A key player at WhatsApp, Arora was the fourth employee to join the messaging service seven years ago -- well before Facebook bought the company for nearly $20 billion, in 2014. The loss adds to a growing perception that Facebook is no longer an enviable employer. Over the past year, this has been made worse by a number of public and private spats with disgruntled current and former employees. Earlier this year, for instance, tensions between Facebook and WhatsApps founders were on full display when Brian Acton encouraged the world to delete their Facebook accounts. It is time, Acton tweeted. advertisement advertisement More recently, Acton told Forbes that he regretted ever selling his startup to Facebook because the company places too high a value on monetizing its membership. Last month, Brendan Iribe, cofounder and former CEO of Oculus, announced his resignation four years after Facebook spent $2 billion to acquire the virtual-reality firm. Officially, Iribe had only nice things to say about Facebook management, but sources told TechCrunch he was frustrated with Facebook's decision to cancel the next generation Rift 2 PC-powered virtual reality headset. Iribe had been spearheading the project. This fall, meanwhile, upon the news that Instagram cofounders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger were leaving the company, sources told The New York Times that internal disagreements contributed to their decision. Likely adding to everyones frustrations, Facebooks network of platforms isn't growing fast enough to offset the declining popularity of its flagship property. As a result, Facebooks related properties -- including Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebooks flagship app -- fell by 7%, year-over-year, according to recent analysis of Nielsen data by Pivotal Research. In aggregate, core Facebook properties -- including Messenger -- fell by 13%, while time spent per user fell by a whopping 20%, year-over-year. The declines continued despite the increasing popularity of Instagram -- which saw usage increase by 41% -- and WhatsApp, which saw usage increase by 38%, year-over-year. by Ray Schultz , November 27, 2018 How embarrassing it is when one types in her when the person is a him, or vice versa? To combat that, Gmail is removing gender pronouns from its Smart Compose feature that completes emails for people. The move should prevent AI-driven gender-identity mistakes, according to reports. Gmail hopes to remove such bias from the email function. Gmail noticed the problem in January when a research scientist was talking about a meeting with an investor, and Smart Compose came up with, Do you want to meet him?, according to Paul Lambert, Gmail product manager, Reuters reports. Gender identity can be dicey when personalizing email marketing messages. If you dont know much about the person and cant place the first name or identity, AI could lead to politically incorrect gaffes. advertisement advertisement In Gmails case, it is seeking to remove such mistakes at the individual level, and perhaps move in sync with changing consumer sentiment. Not all screw ups are equal, Lambert said to Reuters. Gender is a a big, big thing to get wrong, it adds. Smart Compose is now used for 11% of messages worldwide, out of 1.5 billion Gmail users, Reuters continues. The solution for writers and others who dont want a machine to make decisions for them is to turn off Smart Compose. Adding to Facebooks mounting woes, a former employee is accusing the tech titan of not doing enough to support African Americans on its platform or among its ranks. Facebook has a black people problem, according to Mark Luckie, who served as a strategic partner manager for global influencers at Facebook before leaving the company, earlier this month. Racial discrimination at Facebook is real. Luckie -- who is himself black -- originally made the assertions in an internal memo released earlier this month, which was then posted online on Tuesday. advertisement advertisement Worse yet, Luckie suggests that Facebooks unaccommodating culture has negatively influenced the platforms support for black users and causes that are close to their heart. Disenfranchisement of black people on the platform mirrors the marginalization of its black employees, Luckie 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. Beyond being insensitive, Luckie said the lack of consideration for black users made bad business sense. Black people are far outpacing other groups on the platform in a slew of engagement metrics, Luckie said. For example, African Americans are more likely to use Facebook to communicate with family and friends daily, he said, citing recent research commissioned by Facebook. In response to Luckies nearly 2,500-word memo, Facebook said it aspires to create the most compassionate culture possible for its employees. We want to fully support all employees when there are issues reported and when there may be micro-behaviors that add up, a company spokesman said in a statement. Hiring more employees from diverse backgrounds will be key to achieving that goal, Facebook believes. 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 spokesman said. This summer, Facebook said its share of of black employees had increased in recent years -- but not in technical or leadership roles. At last count, Facebook said just 3.5% of its domestic workforce was black. by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, November 27, 2018 Political consultancy Cambridge Analytica wouldn't have been able to harvest data from tens of millions of Facebook users if the Federal Trade Commission had enforced its privacy agreement with company, Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) said Tuesday at an oversight hearing. Cambridge Analytica should never have happened, Blumenthal told the FTC commissioners. It would never have happened if the consent order reached by the FTC with Facebook had been vigorously and adequately enforced. Earlier this year, the FTC said it was investigating whether Facebook violated a 2012 consent decree by allowing data about its users to be transferred to Cambridge Analytica. advertisement advertisement Blumenthal said Tuesday that the FTC has fallen short when it comes to policing tech companies. I have been frustrated that there has been no cost to Facebook for catastrophic failure to protect consumers, the lawmaker said. Cambridge Analytica, now defunct, received the data for up to 87 million Facebook users from researcher Aleksandr Kogan, who obtained the information in 2014 through the personality quiz app "thisisyourdigitallife." Only 270,000 Facebook users downloaded Kogan's app, but he was able to gather data about many of those users' contacts. In April of 2015, Facebook stopped allowing developers to access data about users' friends. But in 2014, when Kogan's app scraped the data, Facebook allowed developers to glean information about users' friends, subject to their privacy settings. Facebook's terms of service prohibited developers from sharing that information. On Tuesday, Blumenthal also criticized Google for having waited more than seven months to notify people that Google+ exposed consumers' data to outside parties. If we let Facebook and Google police themselves, set their own goalposts, make their own rules, they will always come up short, he told the commissioners. We need a commitment from you to end the cycle of impunity. He also blasted big tech in general, and suggested that some Silicon Valley companies may be violating antitrust laws. Big tech, maybe, is no longer entitled to be as big as it is, he said. There may be nothing that prohibits the amassment of market power, but the misuse of that power can violate antitrust laws. by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, November 28, 2018 The U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday announced the indictment of two people from Kazakhstan and six Russian nationals for alleged involvement in a digital advertising fraud scheme worth millions. In one scheme that occurred between December 2015 and October 2018, defendants allegedly used malware-infected computers to run automated ad-fraud schemes without users knowledge or consent. The malware hit more than 1.7 million computers and resulted in $29 million in payments for fake digital ads. advertisement advertisement The 13-count indictment was unsealed Tuesday in a Brooklyn federal court as part of a multi-year investigation into two international cybercriminal rings partly focused on counterfeit ad inventory that led to charges of wire fraud, computer intrusion, aggravated identity theft and money laundering. The defendants created more than 250,000 web pages across more than 5,000 domains associated with online publishers, including the domains of thousands of businesses in the United States and multiple businesses in the Eastern District of New York. This case sends a powerful message that this Office, together with our law enforcement partners, will use all our available resources to target and dismantle these costly schemes and bring their perpetrators to justice, wherever they are, stated United States Attorney Richard Donoghue. The ad fraud operation included more than 3 billion daily bid requests, 1 million compromised IP addresses and 700,000 active infected devices. In early 2017, Google began seeing indications of a botnet -- nothing surprising or unusual, according to one source. Then it noticed another botnet, which was semi-connected to the first, so Google reached out to White Ops, a cybersecurity company, to help it sort through the details. Google turned the information over to law enforcement and involved the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) after noticing the scale of the operation. On Tuesday the indictment was announced, along with a published white paper detailing how Google worked with White Ops and the FBI to identify the ad-fraud program and how it worked to protect clients from being affected. Since identifying the schemes, Google began pushing the adoption of Ads.txt, which helped to curb the impact to some extent. In December 2017, Google also changed the way it handles refunds for invalid traffic with third-party exchanges in Display & Video 360. by Sarah Mahoney @mahoney_sarah, November 28, 2018 Teleflora, no stranger to weepy reality ads, is turning globetrotter this holiday season, using 4K projection technology to beam an Omaha Christmas to a military mom stationed in Japan. The spot surprised Jennifer Bromm, an Army captain based in Tokyo, by recreating her childhood Christmases 6,000 miles away. Her husband, a co-conspirator in the stealthy set-up, helped as a Teleflora crew transformed a studio into a replica of her home back in Nebraska. Family supplied many holiday artifacts, including her Christmas stocking and familiar china. And chefs prepared the clans traditional meal, right down to the turkey and cheesy potatoes. While the company vetted dozens of potential candidates in casting for the spot, baby Bailey pretty much sealed the deal, says Amber Justis, executive creative director at Wonderful Agency. Knowing that she wouldnt be with extended family for her very first Christmas made it so poignant, she tells Marketing Daily. The power of closing the distance was really the fundamental part of the narrative. advertisement advertisement And while the floor-to-ceiling screens connecting the intercontinental dinner tables are what makes the surprise so powerful, we were careful not to let the technology overwhelm the emotion, she says. The 90-second video is running online, including on YouTube and Facebook. And its the latest in Telefloras ongoing Love Out Loud campaign. Weve been telling iterations of this story for a while, Justis says, but feel like this hits the nail on the head, conveying the connection people feels when they get a bouquet from loved ones who are far away. Teleflora is owned by the Wonderful Company, which also owns Wonderful Pistachios, Wonderful Halos, and POM Wonderful, as well as several wine brands. Earlier this year, it announced that marketing investments in its brands had topped the $1 billion mark over the last decade. The privately owned company, based in Los Angeles, claims to be the fastest growing CPG brand in the U.S. This article looks at six simple, natural home remedies for sinus congestion, as well as when to see a doctor. A virus or cold is the most common cause of sinus congestion, but a bacterial infection can also occasionally cause it. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) , a person with sinus congestion may experience: Sinus congestion occurs when a condition causes fluid to become trapped in the sinuses, making them feel blocked and painful. Many natural home remedies can help a person feel better, including hydration, steam inhalation, and applying a warm, wet towel to the face. There are many home remedies that a person can try to help relieve sinus congestion. These include: 1. Staying hydrated The mucous membranes can become inflamed during sinus congestion. However, staying hydrated can help the membrane function correctly. Drinking plenty of water and other fluids may help relieve the symptoms of sinus congestion. A person may find that keeping a water bottle close to them throughout the day can encourage them to drink more. 2. Breathing in steam Share on Pinterest Inhaling steam can help with sinus congestion. Breathing in steam can help keep the mucous membranes moist. This is particularly important during winter or in colder climates. This may help relieve the symptoms of sinus congestion and encourage the sinuses to unblock. Running very hot water from a shower and breathing in the vapor may help unblock the sinuses and relieve symptoms. It is also possible to use a humidifier for the same purpose. 3. Raising the head during sleep To help encourage sinus blockages to clear, a person may consider raising their head during sleep. A person can use extra pillows to prop their head up. Conversely, keeping the head level may result in a greater buildup of congestion overnight. 4. Using eucalyptus oil Eucalyptus oil relieves the symptoms of sinus congestion. It may also help kill germs in and around the nasal passage that contribute to a sinus infection. A person can use eucalyptus oil by applying it to tissue paper and sleeping next to it, or by adding it to hot water and inhaling the steam. However, if a person applies the hot water and eucalyptus oil mixture directly to the skin, it may cause burns. Menthol-based oils are also popular, but they work by making a person feel as though they can breathe more easily. They do not unblock the congested sinuses. 5. Applying warm, wet towels A warm, wet towel held against the face may help relieve the swelling and inflammation of sinus congestion. It may also help keep the mucous membranes moist by breathing in moist air, which can help it function properly. People can also soak a towel in warm water, wring it out, and drape it over their face in a way that is still comfortable for them to breathe through their mouth. 6. Trying a neti pot Share on Pinterest A neti pot can help to relieve the symptoms of sinus congestion. Neti pots are small teapot-shaped devices that help a person pour a salt water solution into their nasal cavity. This may help relieve the symptoms of sinus congestion by keeping the mucous membranes moist and functioning properly. Neti pots may also help treat congestion by flushing out the sinuses and the buildup of any material causing a blockage. It is vital to follow instructions carefully. Karan Johar - better known as KJo in the Hindi film industry, is a director, producer, talk show host and author, besides many other diverse roles he can pull off in one lifetime alone. Known as the director-godfather for all the star kids in B-town, KJo's movies epitomise melodrama, dhinchak music and grooves, with a touch of sentimentality that can be rather overbearing, if left unchecked. Yet, regardless of the man's skewed sense of humour and an ever-charming sense of fashion that's right out there and vibrant, Karan Johar does a mighty fine job at being his unapologetic self when it comes to wearing his heart on his sleeves and tossing his opinions around like confetti. We picked out 5 such pearls of wisdom that KJo has shared with us over the time, and you have to believe us when we say that no matter what you would like to believe otherwise, these statements, which range across the hard realities of love, life and other better things in life, will leave you agreeing with this man like never before. MensXP We cannot have enough people telling us this, given the advent of a full-fledged online life that people have come to build and aspire for constantly. But even otherwise, that's something all of us can go back to remembering from time to time, instead of beating ourselves up over little things. MensXP This is more than true, for all of us. You would be lying to yourself if you say it's otherwise. Happiness is transient, we all know it, and yet when we have it we often forget to appreciate and enjoy the moment for longer than we do. MensXP As much as the reality might be difficult to digest, trust Karan to give it to you as it is. The world has learnt to hate and judge first, before accepting and celebrating the love that's so innate to mankind. MensXP Well, how many of us are going to challenge this? Not many we suppose. Because this is so true, that no challenges could ever stand in its way. MensXP Well, you have it. There isn't much we'd want to add to this piece of gem right here. When you see terror and violence around you at all times, do you get accustomed to it, do you become jaded or do you take a stance to change the situation around you altogether? I am posing this question outrightly your way, because India just lost another brave soldier who did take a stand against militancy, only to lose his life in a fierce battle called life. Twitter Tears rolled down the faces of the residents of Chak Ashmuji Village On Monday, the 26th Of November as they lost a brave heart amongst them. Lance Naik Nazir Ahmed Wani, a militant-turned soldier laid down his life in a gruesome encounter with terrorists and was buried with utmost honour and respect in his own village. The grief is real when you see someone lay down their life to serve and protect the others. Times Of India Wani, who was shot in a counter-terrorist operation in Shopian district on Sunday, in which 6 terrorists were killed was an Ikhwan. An Ikhwan is someone in the state of Jammu & Kashmir who gives up militancy and takes a solid stand against it, while becoming absolutely pro-government and is a part of the counter-insurgency operations. The world stems from the same Arabic word which actually means 'brotherhood'. A lot of militants give up militancy in early years and become Ikhwans to serve the army and do away with terrorism. General Bipin Rawat #COAS & all ranks salute supreme sacrifice of Lance Naik Nazir Ahmad Wani, SM* & offer sincere condolences to the family. #BraveSonsOfIndia @PIB_India @SpokespersonMoD @HQ_IDS_India pic.twitter.com/vYpYEwseOu ADG PI - INDIAN ARMY (@adgpi) 26 November 2018 Wani was once such a soldier who gave up militancy in 2004 and turned pro-Indian government. He was awarded the Sena medal in gallantry back in 2007 and a bar to the Sena medal in August this year and his death was a testimony of his bravado displayed in South Kashmir, where his battalion was attached with a unit of Rashtriya Rifles, which is a force especially put together to fight militancy in Jammu and Kashmir. Twitter "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" said a senior army official, who was accompanying his coffin. He also called him an 'epitome of bravery' and an active participatory in the anti-militancy operations over the years. The villagers and his parents gathered around his body which was wrapped in tricolour, to mourn the death of their son, who began his journey with the 162 battalion of the territorial army. A 21 gun salute was given when Wani's body was lowered to the ground, with all his near and dear ones standing right by him. Twitter Such acts of bravery definitely remind us that people can change for the better even if circumstances don't and Wani proved that to be true by adopting the Ikhwan way of living. Surrendering his life to protect the people and the nation he loved, while giving up something he grew up believing in. We aspire to find more such bravehearts amidst us, who lay down their lives in battle and their stories get lost in translation. Times Of India Lance Naik Nazir Ahmed Wani was just 38-years-old but he fought relentlessly till the end while we slept peacefully. Let that take a moment to sink in. Microsoft has overtaken Apple to become the most valuable company in the world and the two companies are still battling it out for the top spot. This has come after a gruelling week for tech companies, where the stock for major tech companies has been recovering. Microsoft reached a valuation of $814 billion as of Tuesday, while Apple's cap was slightly less at $805 billion. Reuters The two companies are still battling it out and Microsoft's rise could be credited to its continued traction with cloud computing. The last time Microsoft secured a lead over Apple was back in 2010 whereas Apple became the first company in the world to achieve a $1 trillion market cap earlier this year. Amazon shortly followed while Microsoft is yet to achieve that milestone. Microsoft Microsoft mainly caters to business which has attributed to the company's rising stock price, whereas investors have punished consumer-centric companies. Both Apple and Amazon are down 23 percent since the start of October. In the past, Microsoft fell behind Apple as computing needs moved from desktop computers to mobile devices such as the iPhone. This made Microsoft's dominance in the PC market null and resulted in a decline in stock price. Having said that, Microsoft now caters to businesses and even governments with its Azure cloud computing platform. According to Bloomberg the rise of cloud computing changed Microsoft's fortunes about five years ago. Under Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella, the company invested heavily in data centres and other infrastructure to run applications and store data for corporate customers. Microsoft is now second behind Amazon Web Services in the cloud computing business, which has resulted in making the company one of the most valuable companies in the world. Source: Bloomberg 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. A charity bike ride that saw just one team member left is coming to an end with a skydive to boost donations. At the end of July this year, Broke.Bike.Mountain set off on an 8,000 km journey across Europe with just their bikes. The team consisted of Louis Blaxill, George Jones and Calum Craig, all aged 23. They had just finished their studies and wanted to raise money for Mind, a charity close their hearts having seen the effects of mental illness in their friends at university. They headed off through France, Holland, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, Italy, Austria and Spain with decorating supplies merchant Kent Blaxill sponsoring their journey. The journey has not been an easy one. Jones was knocked off his bike in a car accident in Verona, and Craig suffered a knee injury, leaving Blaxill to continue alone until his father Simon Blaxill, Managing Director of Kent Blaxill, joined him to cross the finish line this weekend in Seville. Broke.Bike.Mountain has already raised 7,500, but to give funds a last-minute boost, Louis challenged his mother Jill Blaxill, who works in Kent Blaxills Colchester branch, to join him and his father in Spain and complete a sponsored skydive. She agreed and jumped out of a plane on Tuesday, raising more than 6,000 so far. She said: While I really cant say Im wasnt a little apprehensive, Im so proud of the boys and I wanted to help them raise as much as possible - this seemed like a good idea when my son Louis challenged me and I really enjoyed the whole experience! Simon Blaxill said: I am so proud of the boys - but I am equally proud of Jill for her bravery and I re-ally hope the jump helps push up the total figure raised for Mind I am sure many friends and col-leagues will support her. Pictured (L-R) George Jones, Jill Blaxill and Louis Blaxill. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 28) Two persons allegedly involved in the two multi-billion shabu shipments that allegedly entered the country surrendered and is now under the Senate's custody. Marina Signapan, the owner of SMYD Trading, surrendered to the Senate on Monday after the Blue Ribbon Committee cited her in contempt for not attending the committee's investigation on the shabu shipment on November 22. SMYD was the consignee hired to accept the P11-billion worth shabu shipment in Cavite, in August this year. The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency initially pegged the value of the shipment at 6.8 billion but revised the figure due to discrepancies in measuring the weight of the magnetic lifters believed to be containing the drugs. Meanwhile, Emily Luquingan, the ex-wife of Hsu Chun Chung, surrendered to the National Bureau of Investigation and was turned over to the Senate on Tuesday. The committee also cited her in contempt for failing to attend the hearing last week. Hsu Chun Chung, a Hong Kong national, was the reported liaison behind the 500-kilo shabu shipment that authorities found in the Manila International Container Port in August, hidden in two magnetic lifters. The shipment was valued at 4.3 billion. The two are currently detained at the Senate. The committee is expected to resume its probe on the shabu shipment on Tuesday, December 4. CNN Philippines' Correspondent Joyce Ilas contributed to this report. BAD AXE Proposal 1, the legalization of marijuana, will become a law next week and the state has projected some of its first related businesses opening within 18 to 24 months. However, Huron County Commissioners learned this week that in order to allow or prohibit such businesses in an area, local municipalities must create an ordinance stating so. During the commissioners public comment portion of the meeting, Jeff Smith, county building and zoning director, said hes received phone calls from township supervisors regarding the Michigan Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Act. The Act, which becomes effective Dec. 6, defines a municipality as a city, village or township. They (the state) did not grant authority to the county to have an ordinance for marijuana facilities, Smith explained. Therefore, the county zoning ordinance cannot address marijuana. It appears at this point, each township is going to have to address it at a local level, he added. Smith said with the states Medical Marijuana Act, if municipalities did nothing then the state excluded them from having those marijuana-related facilities. This new Act thats going to come into play states that in order to prohibit, you have to have an ordinance prohibiting it, he explained. You cant just do nothing. You have to decide either way which way youre going with it. Commissioner John A. Nugent asked Smith about the Right to Farm Act a policy for resolving disputes that can arise between farms and neighboring residents when neighbors or local governments allege practices on the farm constitute an actionable nuisance. Is there a conflict there? Nugent questioned. Ive had a few farmers call me on that, but I believe the states position has defined cannabis as not a farm commodity, Smith replied. Although a majority of Huron County voters turned down the proposal, 8,261 to 5,479 votes, it passed statewide by a large margin 56 to 44 percent. The city of Caseville was the only municipality in Huron County where a majority of voters approved the proposal 190 to 179 votes. The Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs still needs to develop the rules and regulations and has a two-year timeline to do so. Municipalities should adopt something soon. One way or another, Smith said. They need to get with their attorneys and get working on it. There is an option for each municipality to charge an annual licensing fee of not more than $5,000 for a facility, Smith said. If someone wants to get a license, that municipality may choose in their ordinance to charge that fee, which may help cover the cost to that municipality, he explained. Smith said he is encouraging all local jurisdictions to speak with their legal counsel and determine which decision is best for their community. We really need to have municipalities focus on this and address it, he said. Starting Dec. 6, those 21 years and older will be able to possess 2.5 ounces for personal use and grow up to 12 marijuana plants in their residences. The new law imposes a 10-ounce limit for marijuana kept at residences and requires amounts over 2.5 ounces to be locked in containers. It does not prohibit an employer from disciplining an employee for violating the workplace's drug policy or for working while under the influence of marijuana. Operating any sort of motor vehicle or heavy machinery under the influence of marijuana will remain illegal. | BY Martin Trevaskis | R/GA has has lured former TBWA Digital Arts Network digital and innovation head Tuomas Peltoniemi to join in the EVP, Managing Director, APAC role. Peltoniemi (pictured left) steps into the role on 3 January and will have charge of R/GAs five offices in the region Sydney, Shanghai, Singapore, Melbourne and Tokyo. Peltoniemi brings with him an incredible pedigree of industry innovation, having worked at the intersection of technology, strategy and creativity across three continents and for nearly two decades. Previously Peltoniemi had a seven-year tenure with TBWA Digital Arts Network, where he most recently served as President, Asia Digital and Innovation, growing their digital and technology capabilities and spearheading innovation across the region. Before this, he served as the Head of Digital Arts Network in Singapore, leading the agency to its acclaim as digital innovators in South East Asia, and Managing Director and Partner of !NOOB in Helsinki, guiding them from a startup business to Finlands Digital Agency of the Year. Tuomas is a transformation pioneer who understands how to implement change ahead of disruption, said Bob Greenberg, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of R/GA (pictured right). His career has evolved so similarly to R/GAs own evolution that it feels like working together was simply a matter of time. We could not be more excited that that time has come and I am confident that Tuomas will lead our APAC region to even greater success. R/GAs unique service offering and promise of Transformation at Speed are perfectly placed to respond to todays client needs, arguably nowhere more so than in Asia Pacific, said Peltoniemi. This is the fastest growing region in the network, with some of its most awarded offices and a roster of iconic global and local brands whose businesses R/GA has helped grow through change. Im really looking forward to building on this and taking on the challenge expanding our offering, relationships and footprint. CARO There will be a retirement party for veteran 31st District Sen. Mike Green this weekend. The party starts at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Brentwood, located at 178 Park Drive in Caro. Green has served state residents in one form or another for about 20 years during his career. According to Green, a Republican from Mayville, he became interested in politics at a Tuscola County Republican convention because of the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade ruling which forbid states to ban or regulate abortion during the first trimester of pregnancy. He was elected as a Tuscola County commissioner in 1984, and served for eight years. A key controversial issue during that time was giving female high school students access to birth control pills. He stood firm against that, but the issue was passed by the county board. After being a commissioner, Green turned his political interest to Lansing. He served in the House of Representatives for the 84th District from Jan. 1, 1995 to Dec. 31, 2000, serving Huron and Tuscola counties. Then, he was elected to the senate to serve the 31st District from Jan. 1, 2011, to the end of this year. The district covers Bay, Lapeer and Tuscola counties. Of all of the legislation Green has been a part of, he is best known for his support of the Second Amendment on gun rights with concealed weapons regulations, and open carry. Out of all of them, that is one that Im most proud of. People need to defend themselves rather than be at the mercy of others. That was my whole reason for working on that legislation said Green. We have to keep our rights. We have the right to defend ourselves so that was important to me. There are crooks and there will always be. Another law he was proud to have a hand in was getting autism medical and therapy covered by medical insurance. Greens most recent accomplishment was working to have the state build the new psychiatric hospital in Tuscola County. Saving the Caro Center was a huge issue for Ed (House Rep. Edward Canfield) and I, said Green. During my time in the house, the state closed most of the psychiatric facilities in the state. I was able to keep Caro open, and when the new center was proposed, to have it here. It would have been a killer for Tuscola to have lost that with all those jobs. Being able to keep it here, I think that was a great thing for the community. The center currently has 349 employees and there are 398 other jobs that indirectly benefit from the center, for a total economic impact of over $54 million. When the $115 million, 225,000-square foot new hospital project is completed in 2021, about 150 more employees are expected to be hired. Besides the laws Green was involved in, he was also instrumental in the development of the ethanol plant in Caro, and the milk plant in Cass City. It has been nice working for Tuscola County and the Thumb for over 20 years. It is kind of hard to walk away from it, he said. I feel kind of sad but it is time to let someone else take over. Its time for me to find my way in life without politics. Green was a tool and die maker at General Motors for about 30 years, farmed for about 18 years, and he also operated Green's Custom Log Homes, Mayville. Tickets to the retirement breakfast are $20 per person or $35 for a couple. For ticket information, call 989-671-7366 or visit tuscolacountygop@gmail.com. Wednesday, November 28, 2018 at 8:46AM Apple has revealed various resources designed to bring coding education through the Everyone Can Code program to even more students around the world. The focus on STEM education and teaching coding to kids gives them a path towards careers or professions in technology. 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. 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. 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. 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. Joseph V. Micallef is a best-selling military history and world affairs author, and keynote speaker. Follow him on Twitter @JosephVMicallef. It has been almost six months since U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met in Singapore. Since then, despite a flurry of diplomatic activity, there has been little tangible progress in denuclearizing the Korean peninsula. Indeed, it appears that North Korea has no intention of giving up its nuclear weapons. If so, the Trump administration's first major foreign policy initiative will become its biggest failure. The Singapore Declaration that accompanied the Trump-Kim Summit was thin on details. The 400-word document declared that the U.S. would "normalize" relations with North Korea in exchange for Pyongyang's "denuclearization of the Korean peninsula." The document did not provide a timeline nor what concrete steps would be implemented to achieve that objective. Subsequently, North Korea insisted that the process of normalization-denuclearization would have to take place in a series of reciprocal steps. US. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, however, reiterated the Trump administration's position that "complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization'' is a precondition for normalization of relations between the two countries and for the lifting of the U.N.-mandated economic sanctions. A Framework for Understanding U.S.-North Korea Negotiations Following the Singapore Summit, the Trump administration claimed that Pyongyang would give up its nuclear weapons in return for economic development and financial aid. Trump even mused about the prospect of building beach condos in North Korea and opening the country up to investment, trade and tourism development. There is no evidence, however, that economic development has ever been an overriding goal of the Pyongyang government. The North Korean government is a transnational criminal organization that maintains power by ruthlessly exploiting its citizens and by engaging in a wide range of criminal activities, from the export of slave labor, to smuggling, cybercrime, gun running, narcotics and counterfeiting. Western intelligence agencies estimate that these activities generate between $500 million and $1 billion in revenue for Pyongyang -- plenty of cash to keep the Kim family in the style that it has grown accustomed to. For the last 30 years, during both Democratic and Republican administrations, North Korea has consistently failed to honor the agreements it has signed to abandon or limit its nuclear weapons and missile development. Beyond perpetuating their power, the one consistent, overriding objective pursued by three generations of Kims has been the unification of the Korean peninsula under Pyongyang. A nuclear arsenal is considered fundamental to achieving that goal, to ejecting the U.S. troops in South Korea, and to neutralizing Washington's security guarantee to Seoul. Moreover, North Korea has demonstrated that it can use its military power to obtain economic assistance and financial concessions from Seoul. The threat that its nuclear capabilities would constrain the U.S. from honoring its security commitments to South Korea or lead to its disengagement from the Korean peninsula only enhances Pyongyang's leverage. It is the prospect of regime change, not constructing beachfront condos, that will induce Pyongyang to denuclearize. Such regime change can come from three possible sources: a military attack by the U.S. that results in the collapse of North Korea, Pyongyang's economic collapse from the imposition of economic sanctions, or a coup against Kim Jong-un and the Kim family. The likelihood of a military strike against North Korea's nuclear arsenal is low. First, it is not clear where the nuclear weapons are stored. Some of the intermediate- and short-range nuclear missiles are deployed on mobile launchers and presumably are moved around. Moreover, intelligence agencies believe there are several hundred facilities, some of which have hundreds of individual buildings, involved in North Korea's nuclear program. A military strike would cripple Pyongyang's nuclear program, but it would not destroy it or eliminate North Korea's counter-strike capability. Moreover, North Korea also has a formidable arsenal of biological and chemical weapons it could unleash on South Korea and possibly Japan. It also has conventional military forces, including massed artillery well in range of South Korea's capital Seoul, which it could deploy. Finally, it is inconceivable that the U.S. could launch a military strike against North Korea without the support and cooperation of South Korea. That prospect is very remote. The Moon government has all but declared that the military option is off the table. Seoul's policy toward Pyongyang is diverging from Washington's. If not quite at odds with the U.S. approach, South Korea is well ahead of Washington in engaging North Korea. Economic sanctions, what the Trump administration calls "a policy of maximum pressure," could impose a steep enough economic price on North Korea to induce Pyongyang to give up nuclear weapons. To date, however, "maximum pressure" is not working. First, Pyongyang has demonstrated repeatedly that it will accept enormous suffering by North Koreans rather than abandon its nuclear program. Economic pain is relevant to Pyongyang only if it can trigger a regime change, either by a coup or a popular uprising. The suffering of North Koreans simply doesn't enter into Kim's calculations. Secondly, the key to the success of sanctions is China, which is responsible for more than 85 percent of North Korea's trade. Without Beijing's supply of many critical items, including fuel oil and gasoline, the North Korean economy would implode. China is also the principal market for North Korea's exports, especially coal. In addition, Pyongyang relies on Beijing for a range of official and unofficial financial aid. Initially, Beijing appeared to be honoring the latest round of U.N.-mandated sanctions. Chinese-North Korean trade declined precipitously in the first half of 2018. Coal exports took a sharp dip, and Beijing blocked Chinese companies from engaging with North Korea. Since the Singapore Summit, however, Beijing has stepped back from rigorously enforcing economic sanctions against Pyongyang. Coal imports from North Korea have rebounded. China is continuing to supply critical petroleum distillates and is again allowing North Korean workers into China. In addition, Beijing has joined with Russia and North Korea in calling for a relaxation of the economic sanction imposed by the U.N. Security Council. Officially, China is still enforcing the sanctions, but unofficially it is allowing enough "leakage" to permit the North Korean regime to survive. Regime change in North Korea could produce a breakthrough in the current stalemate, but that is not a foregone conclusion. While Kim Jong-un's behavior in the past has been provocative, the advantage that possessing nuclear weapons gives Pyongyang is independent of who heads North Korea. Regime change could result in a less provocative North Korean leader without changing Pyongyang's desire to further develop its nuclear arsenal. An alternative to Kim might come either from the Kim family or from North Korea's military leadership. In either case, a coup would require the support, if not active participation, of China. It would result in more Chinese influence in North Korea and a firmer linkage of the North Korean nuclear program with the broader issues of U.S.-Chinese relations. In short, regime change may not necessarily result in Washington's preferred outcome. What is happening on the Korean Peninsula is a complicated minuet between China, North Korea, South Korea and the U.S. Each side is attempting to drive a wedge between their opponent and their superpower supporter in order to maximize their leverage in any negotiations. South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un have had three summit meetings in 2018. Officially, Seoul and Washington are still aligned in demanding North Korean denuclearization. Seoul, however, has been offering Pyongyang a broad range of financial support and investment in its quest to create a peaceful Korean peninsula. Implementing this financial support before a broader U.S.-North Korean agreement or Pyongyang's denuclearization, however, would precipitate a political crisis between Washington and Seoul. More troublesome for the U.S. is that South Korea is beginning to echo North Korean demands that its progress toward denuclearization be accompanied by "concrete steps" by the U.S. to normalize relations and, presumably, an easing of economic sanctions. Moreover, Seoul is pushing for a formal peace treaty with Pyongyang as part of the normalization process as opposed, as the U.S. wants, to rewarding North Korea with a peace treaty after it denuclearizes. The U.S. has attempted to drive a wedge between Beijing and Pyongyang. After the Singapore Summit, Washington appeared to be freezing Beijing out of the negotiations, preferring to deal directly with North Korea. This approach has not afforded the U.S. much leverage, however. Kim has made repeated visits to Beijing to confer with Chinese President Xi Jinping, and China continues to give Pyongyang diplomatic, and unofficially, economic support. The Trump administration's crackdown on "unfair Chinese trade practices" may reflect its view that it no longer needs China to resolve the North Korean crisis or it may indicate that the U.S. is explicitly tying the Korean issue to the broader issues of U.S.-China relations. That may stoke North Korean fears that China will throw Pyongyang under the bus in pursuit of its own foreign policy objectives with the U.S. From Beijing's perspective, a continuation of the present situation is ideal. It maintains the status quo while allowing Beijing additional leverage against Washington. As long as there is no imminent collapse of North Korea, Beijing has nothing to gain from resolving the crisis. As of November 2018, the U.S. and North Korea have announced a second summit between Trump and Kim in 2019. North Korea has made initial moves toward shutting down some of its nuclear facilities and to allow some inspections, but these gestures are token and do not seriously affect Pyongyang's nuclear capability. The U.S. has abandoned talk of "complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization" and accepted the North Korean goal of completing denuclearization by 2021. Major U.S.-South Korean military exercises continue to be suspended, although smaller scale training exercises are ongoing. The U.S. has continued economic sanctions, but has done little to stop China's de facto relaxation of those sanctions. North Korea continues, successfully, to play for time. Perhaps it hopes that regime change in Washington will change U.S. policy. Barring any improvement in Washington's leverage or a broader agreement with China that resolves the North Korean issue, the U.S. will find itself with no choice but to accept a nuclear-armed North Korea. That acceptance will be more palatable if Kim drops his provocative and bellicose behavior and if North Korea agrees to some sort of regular inspection of its nuclear facilities. There is no prospect of North Korean denuclearization until Pyongyang identifies all its nuclear facilities and the size and location of its nuclear and missile arsenal. To date, there is no indication that such a declaration is forthcoming. -- The opinions expressed in this op-ed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Military.com. If you would like to submit your own commentary, please send your article to opinions@military.com for consideration. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he may cancel a scheduled meeting with President Vladimir Putin this weekend in response to Russian "aggression" against Ukrainian ships in the Black Sea. In an interview with The Washington Post, Trump said he is awaiting a report from his national security team on the incident, but "maybe I won't have the meeting. Maybe I won't even have the meeting." "I don't like that aggression. I don't want that aggression at all," he said. Trump had been expected to meet with Putin on the sidelines of the G20 economic summit in Argentina this weekend. He made the comments as Russia released videos Tuesday of three captured Ukrainian sailors purportedly confessing to "provocative" acts that brought on the Russian attack and seizure of three Ukrainian Navy ships in a contested Black Sea strait on Sunday. Related: US, NATO Warn Russia of Potential Consequences for Attack on Ukrainian Navy Ukrainian officials immediately charged that the statements in the videos produced by the Russian federal security service, or FSB, and shown on Russian state TV were coerced and could be used by Moscow as a pretext for more attempts to bully and undermine the Kiev government. The three Ukrainian ships -- two gunboats and a tug -- were proceeding from the Ukrainian port of Odessa across the Black Sea and through the Kerch Strait to the Sea of Azov and the Ukrainian port of Mariupol when the attack began, according to Ukrainian officials. In a statement, Vasyl Hrytsak, head of Ukraine's security service, professed to "real amazement" at the scope of the attack. He said that six Russian security service vessels and four Navy warships converged on the three Ukrainian ships and opened fire with automatic weapons. One of the Russian ships rammed the tugboat, and six of the total of 24 Ukrainians aboard the three ships were wounded, Hrystak said. One of the more seriously wounded Ukrainians was the victim of a missile fired by a Sukhoi Su-30 fighter-bomber, he added. Russia made clear Tuesday that the captured Ukrainians will face criminal charges of violating Russian territorial waters in the Kerch Strait. Twelve of the Ukrainians were brought to a court in Simferopol, Crimea's capital, for a pre-trial hearing in which a judge ordered them held until Jan. 25, pending trial, Russian state news agencies reported. In the videos shown on Russian state TV, the three Ukrainians said they intentionally crossed into Russian waters and ignored repeated requests to stop. One of the three Ukrainians, identified as Volodymyr Lisovyi, said in the video, "I deliberately ignored requests via ultra-short-wave band" to leave the area. Ukrainian officials charged that the three appeared to be reading from statements prepared for them by the Russians. Late Monday, Ukraine's parliament agreed with the request of President Petro Poroshenko for a declaration of martial law for 30 days to defend against any additional actions by Russia. -- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com. China's Sub Force Is Growing More Powerful. This Is What the US Navy Needs to Do to Stay Ahead The Pentagon announced Wednesday that U.S. military agents from multiple criminal investigative organizations have issued arrest warrants and served summonses on a sextortion ring that extorted a half-million dollars from more than 400 service members. South Carolina inmates, aided by outside civilian associates, identified and targeted service members through social media forums and online dating websites, according to a Nov. 28 Naval Criminal Investigative Service press release. The prisoners, using fictitious online personas, preyed on service members to engage in online romantic relationships and then extort them for money. Military members would "pay, fearful they might lose their careers over possessing what they were being led to believe was child pornography," the release states. "This despicable targeting of our brave service members will never be tolerated," NCIS Director Andrew Traver said in the release. "We will not allow criminal networks to degrade the readiness of our military force." This is the first phase of Operation Surprise Party, an investigation launched in January 2017 by the NCIS that also included the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, Army Criminal Investigation Command and Air Force Office of Special Investigations, the release states. "We were able to complete this first phase because of the excellent work by all our law enforcement partners, who are dedicated to helping protect our military service members," Traver said. "This operation will continue until we break the back of these criminal networks." In total, the online money laundering, extortion and wire fraud schemes cost 442 service members of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps from across the United States more than $560,000, according to the release. There are more than 250 additional people who are being investigated and face potential future prosecution. "With nothing more than smart phones and a few keystrokes, South Carolina inmates, along with outside accomplices, victimized hundreds of people," said Daniel Andrews, director of the Computer Crime Investigative Unit of the Army Criminal Investigation Command. "This enforcement operation sends a clear message about our unwavering commitment to protect our nation's service members so they can focus on their mission of winning wars and defending the American way of life," he said. "Working with our fellow federal agencies and state partners, we will continue efforts to stamp out sexual extortion impacting our communities." Sexual extortion is a "global crime" that has evolved as quickly as social media, said Air Force Col. Kirk Stabler, commander of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. "In this case, our partnership with our fellow military law enforcement agencies, South Carolina state law enforcement officials, the U.S. Attorney's Office and other federal agencies brought together key capabilities, which led to this successful joint investigative operation," he added. Any service members who have identified suspicious activity or are being targeted by sextortion should contact a local NCIS, Army CID or Air Force OSI office, the release states. "Too many service members from throughout the armed services have fallen victim to this scam, and these actions detract from the readiness and well-being of our warfighters," said Special Agent in Charge Robert Craig Jr. of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service's Mid-Atlantic Field Office. "The Defense Criminal Investigative Service ... stands ready with our military and law enforcement partners to combat criminals who seek to extort or defraud our military service members, dependents, and DoD civilians." -- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Wednesday that Russia's attack upon and seizure of three Ukrainian ships violated international law and shows that Moscow can't be trusted. Mattis made his comments on Ukraine to reporters following remarks to a closed-door Senate session on a proposed resolution that would cut off U.S. support for Saudi Arabia in Yemen's civil war. "It was obviously a flagrant violation of international law," he said of the seizure Sunday of two Ukrainian gunboats and a tugboat and the 24 personnel aboard in the Kerch Strait of the Black Sea. "It was contempt, really, for the traditional ways of settling these types of concerns. It just shows that Russia cannot be counted on right now to keep its word," Mattis said. "It was, I think, a cavalier use of a force that injured Ukrainian sailors." Related: Trump May Cancel Putin Meeting over Russian Attack on Ukrainian Ships In his first comments on Sunday's incident, Russian President Vladimir Putin charged that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko instigated the confrontation to boost his standing in upcoming elections. Poroshenko has said that at least six of the 24 detained personnel from the three ships were wounded by Russian fire. At an investment forum in Moscow, Putin said the Kerch Strait incident was "without doubt a provocation" orchestrated by Poroshenko, Russian state media reported. "It was organized by the president [Poroshenko] ahead of the elections" scheduled for March, he said, adding that Poroshenko is "is in fifth place, ratings-wise, and therefore had to do something. It was used as a pretext to introduce martial law." Putin charged that the Ukrainian ships "intruded into Russian territorial waters and did not answer" repeated calls from the Russian coast guard to leave the area. "What were they supposed to do?" On Tuesday, judges in Crimea, which was annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014, said all 24 of the captured Ukrainians are being held on criminal charges, pending trial. On Wednesday, Poroshenko donned camouflage utilities to tour a military training center and warned that Russia is building up forces in the eastern Ukraine region controlled by Russian-backed separatists. "It's important to keep our powder dry and be ready at any moment to push back the aggressor," he said. -- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com. Wednesday, November 28, 2018 at 9:47AM Google Assistant which powers the Google Home speakers is introducing new, family-friendly experiences for Google Assistant, launching today in Canada, with a number of them from top Canadian brands. Designed specifically for families with kids, the new experiences help families learn, play and imagine together. Hit jump for all the new experiences coming to Google Assistant. The Wiggles - Choose your own adventure with Emma Follow Emma on a fun, Wiggly adventure as she travels through town to find friends to bring to her concert.Along the journey, kids can dance, play games and listen to fun songs with The Wiggles. CBC Kids News [Canadian] Listen to the latest news stories relevant to Canadian kids by the CBC Kids News team. Just say "Ok Google, Play CBC Kids News" for daily local, national, and international stories that are relevant to Canadian kids. Call Santa Perfect for the holidays, Google Assistantcan connect families to the North Pole, where Santa is busy rehearsing for a musical concert. Just say Ok Google, call Santa, to get in touch with St. Nick. Coming soon - Hatchimals Character Alarms[Canadian] Families can ask the Assistant on their Google Home to set a Hatchimals alarm to bring a dose of fun to their daily routines. Just say Hey Google, set a Hatchimals alarm. Boukili Audio [Canadian] Boukili Audio, from TFO, is an interactive activity that tests listening and comprehension of stories on animals, nutrition, music, travels and a ton of other captivating subjects, all in French. The first groups to experience the Air Force's new, expanded Basic Military Training curriculum say the changes pushed learning outside the classroom, forcing recruits into a greater focus on leadership, collaboration and fitness. The Air Force announced earlier this month it has expanded BMT from seven-and-a-half weeks to eight-and-a-half weeks in an effort to align more closely with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis' heightened focus on readiness and lethality, and to mentor the next generation of leaders. While the service in recent years has said it wants to better acknowledge how it selects airmen for particular career fields, BMT's primary focus "is to create 'Big-A' airmen," said Col. Jason Corrothers, 737th Training Group and BMT commander. "We need all of them to be stronger, to be fitter, to have those habits of mind, those habits of body that strengthen our Air Force regardless of whatever particular career field that they're called to serve in," he said during a Nov. 16 interview. It's an effort to mold the next generation of 21st-century troops, or what Air Education and Training Command calls the "Mach-21 airman." The BMT curriculum has been enhanced with additional physical fitness training, combat skills training and weapons courses to train airmen for real-world events during the earliest days of their service. "Whether or not that is a special warfare candidate, a defender ... or Security Forces candidate or whether or not that's a personnelist, every single person, every single graduate of Basic Military Training has to be afforded the same experience to include physical fitness ... so that they start to be ready for any fight that our nation needs of them," Corrothers said. The BMT changes include: An increase from 31 to 44 fitness sessions throughout training. Workouts have a "balanced mix of cardio, strength and interval training," AETC has said. The Basic Expeditionary Airman Skills Training, or BEAST, course occurs later in training. BEAST, which previously took place in week five, has been moved to the final training week "as the culminating event of BMT" before graduation, officials said. A new first-aid course replaces the Self-Aid/Buddy Care program. Instead, airmen receive a beefed-up "Tactical Combat Casualty Course," which mimics real-world situations for airmen to practice life-saving skills in battle scenarios. An increased focus on weapons handling and familiarization. Elements of "Airmen's Week" have been incorporated throughout the 8.5-week training regimen. Airmen's Week previously occurred the week following BMT to offer airmen perspective into the Air Force's honor code, leadership and character development, among other life lessons. An emphasis on Air Force heroes and warrior culture. Instructors have introduced the "warrior identity, as well as Air Force history and heroes, every week throughout training," said Master Sgt. Richard Bonsra, a military training instructor, in a release. "Those topics will then be reinforced during all training events, such as naming physical training sessions after a fallen airman to cement the experience." Corrothers said the service left room to fine-tune the course as needed. "What I appreciate what our Air Force has offered us is the opportunity to understand that we're 100 percent certain that we don't have this 100 percent right yet," he said. Operational Weapons Instructors have dedicated more time to weapons assembling, disassembling and proper handling, said Chief Master Sgt. Lee Hoover, superintendent of Basic Military Training. "Previously, we would teach a trainee how to sling a weapon around their shoulder and march with it in formation," he said in an interview. The new focus is to pinpoint how an airman may use a weapon in an operational setting, he added. Related content: "They would go out there and shoot a couple rounds and call it good," Hoover said. Airmen are now moving to an assessment-based shooting experience in which they may have to qualify by firing a certain number of rounds at a target. "And they have to troubleshoot whether that weapon were to jam on them and they would have to go through the process to unjam that weapon and fire downrange ... without someone necessarily doing all of that for them," he said. Corrothers said there are additional benefits to the new emphasis on weapons training. "They may not have ever handled a weapon before," he said. "So additional rounds fired will bring additional comfort with that weapon." Corrothers said one big change is a new emphasis on more realistic training, including switching to the M4 carbine at BMT over the M16 used now "because that is the operational platform the airman would use downrange." "We should train the way we fight, and we fight with M-4s," he said, but did not specify when the transition may occur. Better Fitness Routine Learning a skill and making it routine takes time and must be instilled early, Hoover said, adding that same mentality must be applied to fitness. "Fitness is a lifestyle and a lifetime commitment," he said. "The task here is not to pass a PT test; the task here is to become fit." Debate over physical training in the Air Force has ranged from whether the tape test should be overhauled to improving scoring. Hoover said an airman must look past that to keep healthy. BMT's lessons should persuade them to live with Air Force values in mind, on or off duty, he said. "The idea is, even when you leave here, you're still working. You need to understand you need to continue to exercise, continue to eat right, continue to take care of yourself so that you can be able to go fight if our nation asks us to," Hoover said. Pushed to His Max Unlike the common idea that most people join the Air Force to become pilots, Airman First Class Michael Tompkins joined the service because he loves dogs. "I just wanted to get through BMT because I want to become a dog handler," he said. "I love animals. I [used to] volunteer at the zoo all the time." So he put his faith in seeking out a similar job in the Air Force. "It was a challenge. I've never been through anything like that in my entire life before," said Tompkins, a native of the Philadelphia area. He described going into BMT with a child's mindset, but "anything less-than-average isn't worth it." He was part of the first class to go through the curriculum changes, which graduated Nov. 2. "BMT forced me into a leadership role early on," Tompkins said during the interview with Military.com. He is now in tech school with the 343rd Security Forces at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas. That's the attitude AETC officials hope to get out of all recruits through the updated training. "It's that responsibility that my military training instructor put upon me that made me [feel] like I needed to do it," Tompkins said. He became dorm chief of his flight class during the first week of training. He said setting an example enables other airmen to step up too. "I definitely saw a change in the individuals in my flight as the weeks went on," he said, crediting team-building exercises and other ways airmen are given the opportunity to engage with one another during BMT. "I needed to do more. Being a dog handler in the Security Forces world, we're one of the first ones ... to go into battle. It's that service before self. And I just want to be a leader at this point, because everyone in the Air Force should be a leader," Tompkins said. Empowered Airmen Technical Sgt. Martina Camacho, a military training instructor who had led flight classes before the change, saw airmen collaborating more during the new 8.5-week course. "Basic Military Training brings different age ranges, different cultures, people from all different types of walks of life and ... we're now giving them the tools so early in training that it's giving us more disciplined [airmen] and better, effective communication techniques with the trainees," she said. Camacho said the course changes that teach skill sets in the very first days of BMT mean she has to intervene less often, allowing airmen to figure out problem sets on their own because they get those tools earlier in training. It's not that airmen are less reliant on training instructors, "they're more empowered," she said. The revamped training puts an emphasis on character development and being able to apply it in conversations and team-building exercises, Camacho said. Previously, an airman would learn something in a classroom and that was that. Now, "there's time in their schedules to talk about what they learned" in a small-group setting, she said. "They're young adults, and when they go to the operational Air Force, they're going to be expected to work through real-life situations themselves." -- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214. This article by Jared Keller originally appeared on Task & Purpose, a digital news and culture publication dedicated to military and veterans issues. The commander of the Vermont Air National Guard was quietly forced out of his job after bogarting an F-16 Fighting Falcon in what amounted to an interstate booty call with an Army officer in Washington, D.C., according to a salacious new investigation by VTDigger. Just a year after taking command of the Burlington-based 158th Fighter Wing, Col. Thomas Jackman "took an F-16 flight to Washington, D.C., for a work trip that doubled as a romantic rendezvous with a female Army colonel who worked at the Pentagon," VTDigger's Jasper Craven reports. "Jackman was scheduled to attend a conference at Andrews Air Force Base, located just outside Washington, D.C," Craven reports. "While the Guard says pilots do not typically use their planes to attend conferences, Jackman as wing commander had ultimate authority." The report was based on emails between Jackman and the unnamed colonel that corroborate their romantic relationship, as well as interviews with several former Guard members "with knowledge of the incident." When the colonel's superiors found out about his alleged affair, "they were quick to take action, according to a former Guard member with knowledge of the investigation that followed," Craven reports. "Jackman was ordered to fly home on a commercial flight, three former members said. [Lt. Col. Terry Moultroup] then traveled from Burlington to Washington to pick up Jackman's F-16 and fly it home." When reached by Task & Purpose, Army 1st Lt. Mikel Arcovitch, a Vermont National Guard spokesman, declined to comment on the incident, noting that regulations prohibit him from discussing investigations or personnel matters. Still, Arcovitch did tell Task & Purpose that the normal length of a wing commander's tour was between two and four years. "Typically no less than two, and no more than four," he said. Jackman only spent about one year in command of the 158th Fighter Wing. He was replaced by Col. Patrick Guinee in early 2015, according to Arcovitch. More articles from Task & Purpose: US Military Says Remaining ISIS Fighters Are Hiding in Tunnels 6 Pieces Of Advice On Leadership From The UK Army Operation Molotov: Why NATO Just Flat Out Collapsed In The Summer Of 2024 Lawmakers on Tuesday pressed U.S. Navy officials to explain what the service is doing to fix its shortage of attack submarines. Navy officials testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee's subcommittee on Seapower that the service is on track to achieve a 355-ship fleet by 2034. Lawmakers, however, were concerned about the more immediate problem of the Navy's submarine shortfall. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota, said that retired Adm. Harry Harris, former head of U.S. Pacific command, had testified that "only half his requirement for attack submarines in the Pacific theater was being met." "This challenge will only grow worse in the 2020s as attack submarines retire at a faster rate," Rounds said. "How is the Navy planning to mitigate the attack submarine shortfall in the 2020s?" James Geurts, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, said the most "looming shortfall ahead of us in terms of capability is in attack subs." Geurts said the service is ramping up Virginia-class submarine production to two per year, with the potential of producing more than two down the road. The Navy is also looking at where it can do "service-life extensions on some of our existing submarines," he said. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, referring to a recent Government Accountability Office report on maintenance delays in the attack sub fleet, said that since "2008, 14 attack submarines have spent a combined 61 months -- 1,891 days -- idling while waiting to enter ship yards for maintenance." "We need action now to address the backlog that is bad for our national security and the harmful impact on our industrial base," he said. "We have been talking about this maintenance backlog for a year with no clear solution in sight." As part of a larger, 30-year ship repair/sustainment plan the Navy plans to release this year, Geurts said he intends to make submarines a high priority. "Going forward under the new role this committee provided me to oversee sustainment readiness, I am really focused on getting predictability and advanced planning in the readiness area for ship repair, with a particular focus on submarines," he said. Currently, the Navy has four submarines in "maintenance availabilities" and the service plans to award at least two more "into private yards" next year, Geurts said, adding that the requests for proposal for those efforts are scheduled to go out by next summer. "My strategic approach to this is balancing out that work and getting predictability into the maintenance plan, so that we have capacity to get those ships both in and out of those availabilities on time, to give the combatant commanders the capability they need," he said. -- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com. GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- You know all the songs, and you love them! "Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Rag Doll," "Oh What a Night" and "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" -- all which you will hear in the Tony award-winning, Broadway touring production "Jersey Boys." Performances are this weekend at DeVos Performance Hall as part of a special show series with Broadway Grand Rapids. The songs brings back a flood of memories for fans. "Whether it was dancing to 'My Eyes Adored You' at their high school prom or their first kiss to 'Sherry,' they all have these incredible memories tied to these songs," said actor Matthew Dailey, who played Tommy DeVito on the tour back in 2015. "It's always so interesting to hear people's stories....Everybody has a story tied to this music," he said. "Jersey Boys" tells the behind-the-scenes story of super hitmakers Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, the Jersey boys who went on to sell more than 175 million records. "Jersey Boys" the musical has been a worldwide hit with more than 25 million people seeing it since opening in 2005. It was also a hit movie in 2014. IF YOU GO "Jersey Boys" in Grand Rapids When: Nov. 30-Dec. 2, 2018 Where: DeVos Performance Hall, 303 Monroe Ave NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49503. Performance times: 8 p.m. Friday; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets: Starting at $42.50. More info: 1-800-745-3000, www.ticketmaster.com or broadwaygrandrapids.com. Learn more about the tour at www.JerseyBoysTour.com. ANN ARBOR, MI - The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has confirmed plans to do more testing for dioxane in Ann Arbor after finding increased levels of the chemical in a West Park storm drain. Gerald Tiernan, district supervisor with the DEQ's Remediation and Redevelopment Division, said the DEQ is working with the Washtenaw County Water Resources Commissioner's Office on development of a new sampling plan after recent readings at West Park showed dioxane levels up from 4.4 parts per billion to 19 ppb. Tiernan said more information will be provided once the plan is finalized, but generally the DEQ and the county intend to work together to conduct monthly sampling consisting of the collection of water from several locations in the storm drain system in the West Park/Allen Creek area over the next six months or so. The plan is to have the DEQ and county staff identify locations and collect water samples to be submitted to a state lab. 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 Gelman 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. Some local environmental watchdogs are concerned about the potential for a shallow plume of dioxane to leak into home basements and pose vapor-intrusion health risks for residents. The dioxane found at West Park shows "we still have a lot of work to do," Mayor Christopher Taylor wrote in a Facebook post. Taylor said there isn't any dioxane in Ann Arbor's drinking water, which mainly comes from Barton Pond on the Huron River, but he believes better monitoring and more cleanup are warranted. "After years of work, we successfully pushed DEQ to strengthen the drinking water standard to enable A2 to get back into court, suing the polluter with our partners, the Huron River Watershed Council, Washtenaw County, and Scio Township," Taylor wrote. "Next year, with the new administration in Lansing, I'm looking to accelerate progress." Dan Bicknell, an environmental remediation professional and former EPA Superfund enforcement officer who is credited with discovering the Gelman plume in the 1980s, estimates a network of additional monitoring wells to better track the shallow plume and warn residents of its movement 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. 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. 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. ANN ARBOR, MI - Ann Arbor Housing Commission has received $246,900 for new housing vouchers to assist youth in foster care. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded $30 million to public housing agencies across the country on Nov. 21 for "family unification program" vouchers. Ann Arbor Housing Commission and Michigan State Housing Development Authority were the only Michigan agencies to get a share of the special voucher funding. Ann Arbor's share will provide 32 vouchers for Washtenaw County families whose children are in foster care because they cannot provide adequate housing, as well as young adults aging out of foster care who are facing homelessness. "The two types of families that these vouchers are serving are some of the highest need," said Jennifer Hall, Ann Arbor Housing Commission executive director. Washtenaw County's Continuum of Care, which coordinates local efforts to end homelessness and applied for the family unification program vouchers, said 177 households are eligible for the vouchers, and at least 103 additional households become eligible every year. Ann Arbor Housing Commission; Ozone House, a nonprofit that provides support for at-risk and homeless youth; and Washtenaw County's Department of Health and Human Services partnered to apply for the vouchers. In June, Washtenaw County identified 130 families whose children were either entering foster care or could not return home from foster care because the family did not have adequate housing, and five former foster youth were facing homelessness at that time. Existing programs are not adequate to meet their needs, according to Washtenaw County's application for the family unification program vouchers. Due to lack of resources, in 2017, 55 percent of 563 at-risk families seeking assistance through Washtenaw County's Continuum of Care did not receive homelessness prevention funds and 50 percent of 590 homeless families could not get assistance finding permanent housing. Similarly, 51 percent of 299 at-risk young adults ages 18 to 24 did not receive homelessness prevention funds and 86 percent of 375 literally homeless youth could not get help finding permanent housing. "Youth tend to be resourceful and resilient in securing short temporary stays with family and friends, making it difficult to capture the extent of their housing instability or to place and keep them on the community's by-name-list for housing placements," states Washtenaw County's application for the housing vouchers. "In addition, simply being young makes it difficult to meet the length of time requirements for chronic homelessness, and 100 percent of (permanent supportive housing) beds are dedicated to the chronically homeless." MOUNT CLEMENS, MI -- Macomb County Sheriff Anthony Wickersham says his department has yet to receive a ballistics report that confirms who shot and killed Axe, a police K9 dog with the St. Clair Shores Police Department. However, Wickersham says the use of deadly force by officers in the Nov. 4 shooting of 29-year-old Theoddeus Gray was justified as Gray fired upon officers outside of the Lakeland Manor Banquet Hall. Wickersham announced his department's findings in the investigation during a press conference Wednesday. The investigation used video evidence recovered from security cameras outside the venue and independent witness statements to determine that Gray fired one round from his handgun at officers on the scene. In video shared by the department, Gray can be seen removing a gun from his waistband and turning to fire at officers who were chasing him, along with Axe. The single shot hit the ground, according to police. Moments later, Axe is seen running in the opposite direction of Gray. However, Wickersham would not say one way or another if Gray's shot is the one that struck the dog. He is awaiting the ballistics report, but does not have a timetable for when that information will be released to him. He also said it's possible that the ballistics report could come back inconclusive. St. Clair Shores Police Chief Todd Woodcox said that from what he has seen from the video evidence, Gray's shot struck Axe and led to the dog's death. He also said Axe was not wearing a vest made for the dog at the time because there wasn't enough time to put it on the dog once officers arrived on scene. Woodcox went on to say he doesn't think the vest would have saved the dog, as the ammunition in the FN five-seven handgun is armor piercing. Axe was struck by bullet fragments in the left leg and inside of the right shoulder, according to the sheriff's office. Wickersham provided several details about what happened at the venue, where people had gathered for a baby shower for Gray and his family. Police believe that Gray was at the venue expecting some sort of confrontation as he was armed with the handgun and a fully loaded AK-47 was also recovered on the scene. Other people in attendance at the shower were also armed. Wickersham said an FBI agent who used information from a confidential source provided the department with context as to why Gray may have expected a confrontation, but would not elaborate further. The St. Clair Shores Police Department received a call at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 4 made by venue staff for a man with a gun. He was described as an African-American man wearing a white shirt with red trim on the collar. When police arrived, they saw a man that matched that description, who was eventually determined to be Gray. Gray fled the venue on foot and officer pursued him. As he ran away, Gray fired his single shot at police. Officers took cover and fired back at Gray, striking him. Gray was able to continue running away however, before eventually stopping in a nearby parking lot. Wickersham says officer statements and independent witness accounts say officers ordered Gray to drop his weapon several times before firing on him. In total, Gray was shot six times. Five officers fired 48 shots during the incident. Gray was not bitten by the dog. Police say the gun Gray was using jammed and there were 20 round remaining in the clip that he did not fire. The gun Gray used actually belongs to a man in Columbus, Ohio who had not reported the gun missing until police contacted him following Gray's death. "Deadly forced used by the St. Clair Shores Police Department was justified and our investigation will be closed," Wickersham said. "The officers didn't react because the dog was shot. They were reacting because they were being shot at." Woodcox said officers with his department do not wear body cameras meaning, they do not have footage of Gray's shooting. Other investigations have splintered off from the incident, according to Wickersham. People at the venue who were carrying weapons have been questioned. Officers with the St. Clair Shores department have received threats following Gray's death and those are also being investigated by outside departments. The five officers involved in the shooting remain on leave, but are expected to return to work soon following psychiatric evaluations. Wickersham said his department has tried to reach out to Gray's family regarding the shooting and to the family's lawyers, however they are not responding to requests. Others who were at the venue the night of the incident are also not cooperating with police, according to Wickersham. Wickersham did say that his department will no longer be involved with the investigation into the shooting as his department was contacted simply to determine if the use of deadly force was justified. BAY CITY, MI -- A Saginaw financial adviser accused of embezzling six-figure sum from a deceased woman's trust fund has pleaded guilty as charged. David J. Homan, 68, on Nov. 21 appeared before Bay County Circuit Judge Harry P. Gill and pleaded guilty to the lone charged he faced, that of embezzlement between $50,000 and $100,000. The charge is a 15-year felony. Gill denied granting Homan a Cobbs hearing, in which he would have outlined the defendant's likely sentence. Police had begun investigating Homan in March 2015 after being contacted by attorney Joseph Weiler of Midland-based law firm of Chalgian & Tripp. Weiler told police that Homan, previously employed by Wells Fargo in Bay City as a financial adviser, had stolen more than $500,000 from a trust fund. The trust fund had been in the name of Elizabeth N. Stafford, a Saginaw resident who died in April 2009 at the age of 93. Her sister Frances I. Stafford was named as the beneficiary, but she died in October 2013 at 84, with sister Louise J. Larsen named as successor. Larsen too died in September 2014 at 92, leaving her three daughters as subsequent beneficiaries. After Larsen died, Weiler notified police as he was representing the trust's beneficiaries. Homan had been named co-trustee of the fund in September 2003 and became the fund's sole trustee after Elizabeth Stafford's death, at which time the fund reportedly contained about $516,000, court records state. During their investigation, police said they obtained a letter written by Homan on April 18, 2014, and sent to the fund's beneficiaries. "On occasion, I see things that help me to know how to do things better, and even at times, I learn things that help me to know that I may have done things in a way that others could perceive as inappropriate," Homan wrote in the letter, as noted in police reports contained in court files. Homan on April 28, 2014, resigned from Wells Fargo during an internal compliance review, court records state. Yeo & Yeo later conducted a forensic audit of the trust fund, which indicated money had been taken from it via electric fund transfers and checks written by Homan. The money was transferred to Homan's Chase Sapphire credit card, U.S. Bank credit card, and American Express account, court files state. One check was written Oct. 24, 2013, to a Bay City car dealership for $34,963.68 for a 2014 Chrysler Town & Country, which was then registered to Homan's wife, police reports state. An audit revealed a total of $513,211.57 had been misappropriated from the account between 2009 and 2014, the report states. Homan is free on bond pending sentencing on Jan. 14. BANGOR TOWNSHIP, MI - With Christmas music playing in the background, the Dispo marijuana dispensary on Wednesday, Nov. 28, sold the first state-regulated medical marijuana product in the mid-Michigan area. The business is located at 3843 N. Euclid in Bay County's Bangor Township. "I just wanted to take a moment to express our gratitude to the people of Bangor Township and Bay County," said Emmanuel Yousif, the manager at Dispo, a state-licensed dispensary. "Today, because of them and the forward-thinking, progressive citizens of our state and this county, it is my privilege and a great honor to be the first mid-Michigan licensed provision center to sell the first fully-licensed and tested legal medical cannabis in Bay County," he said. While many stores and dispensaries are selling medical marijuana, Dispo says it is the first to sell state-licensed marijuana in the mid-Michigan region. Vincent Pesce was the first to buy the product at Dispo. While he was there, he bought some of their old inventory, in addition to their new, state-licensed cannabis. "I bought an ounce of something they're finishing out on, it was really good looking," he joked. "What a day. I've had my card for over a year and a half I come here all the time. This place has always got a good price and selection." He added that he was happy that the statewide recreational marijuana measure passed in November as well. Open since March, Dispo got its state license roughly a month ago. Yousif said they are excited to start selling the new, state-regulated product. "Today is the first mid-Michigan licensed flower sale, we actually (also) have licensed edibles, cartridges from High Life Farms." he said. The company is getting product from VB Chesaning, which was granted a license in July of this year. Dispo is still strictly for medical sale for now. Despite the recreational marijuana ballot proposal in November, they won't be able to sell recreational marijuana for now. "They (Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs) actually told us shops that are medical right now that have their license will be grandfathered in," Yousif said. Yousif said their goal is to get rid of all their unlicensed marijuana product, which they have until the end of the month to get rid of. "With the new product coming from a new state-licensed vendor, that is the only product they want us to keep in shop," he said. Yousif said the product sold under state license will be a more limited supply, but that means it's tested and of a higher quality, unlike the unlicensed product which can have more uncertainty to its quality. He is excited for what market opportunities will bring with the new industry, like the fact that they could soon be able to home deliver marijuana to customers. He joked that they might even have Black Friday deals in the future. "We have come a long way, I think today proves that tomorrow will even be better," he said. FLINT, MI - The city won't agree to a more water system oversight by the state of Michigan without a fight. Mayor Karen Weaver has formally requested a public hearing rather than have the city comply with a consent order issued in October by the Department of Environmental Quality. "The (hearing) request is necessary to address the manifest errors in the order and the arbitrary and capricious nature of the order ...," the city's filing says. "The order fails to reflect that the quality of the city water is high, equaling or exceeding the quality of comparable water systems in the state of Michigan and that the system is stable." Weaver's hearing request outlines the city's general position of opposing further state control over actions that range from filling vacant positions by certain dates to upgrading reservoirs. After failing to reach an voluntary agreement on a schedule for achieving the same issues, DEQ Director Heidi Grether issued the order Oct. 22. While she praised Flint's current water quality, Grether said at the time that the state remained concerned by unresolved "long-term technical and managerial issues," the order says. In requesting the hearing, Weaver takes issue with that and several other contentions in the order, saying the DEQ has failed to acknowledge that Flint has already rectified "substantially all of the 'significant deficiencies' noted in" it. Chelsea Lewis, a DEQ spokeswoman, said in an email to MLive-The Flint Journal that the state is in the process of setting that date and venue for the public hearing. A written response to the mayor's request for a hearing is expected to be issued this week, Lewis said. The state's order includes a finding that the city is in violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act, noting that the DEQ previously issued a violation notice tied directly to water system deficiencies. That 2017 notice directed the city to either complete or be in compliance with a corrective action plan and schedule within 120 days, something the state maintains did not happen. WYOMING, MI - Three men robbed the T-Mobile store on 28th Street SW after one of them implied he had a weapon, police said. The robbery happened around 7:35 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 27 at the phone store at 705 28th Street SW. After the robbers entered the store, they began stealing merchandise. When a worker confronted them, one of the robbers threatened to shoot the worker and implied he had a weapon, police said. No weapon was seen. No one was hurt. The robbers were described as black males with slim builds. One of them, about 6-feet tall, wore a yellow-and-black hoodie or jacket, red pants and red shoes. The others were a couple of inches taller. One wore a green jacket, denims and tan boots while the other wore a black jacket with a gray hoodie with white stripes on the chest, dark pants and black-and-white shoes. Police asked anyone with information to call Wyoming Department of Public Safety 530-7366 or Silent Observer at 774-2345. OTTAWA COUNTY, MI -- A kennel fire that killed 13 puppies has been deemed accidental, according to the Allendale Township fire officials. Allendale Township Fire Chief Michael Keefe said the improper placement of heat lamps may have caused the deadly fire on Monday, Nov. 26. The puppies likely died from smoke inhalation, according to the chief. Keefe said the dogs were kept in a large unattached garage that had been converted into a kennel. The kennel is licensed and the owners were allowed up to 30 dogs. However, they did have more than that but the other dogs were under the four month old limit to get licensed, Keefe said. Firefighters found heavy flames and smoke upon arrival. The fire was reported at 1:44 a.m. at 9841 84th Ave., just north of Fillmore Street in Allendale Township. Homeowner Christine Winstrom and firefighters were able save 29 dogs after releasing them from the burning kennel. Firefighters provided oxygen while working to save dogs. Whispering Oaks Farm Kennel posted on their Facebook page regarding the deadly kennel fire. Hi, this is Chris, I just wanted to say Thank you to all the wonderful people who have offered their condolences and... Posted by Whispering Oaks Farm Kennel on Tuesday, November 27, 2018 Firefighters from five neighboring departments responded with Allendale firefighters. There are no hydrants near the fire scene so firefighters shuttled tankers between the scene and a hydrant at 84th Avenue and Fillmore Street. WYOMING, MI -- Four separate robberies and burglaries of Grand Rapids area stores that sell mobile phones are likely linked, police say. Wyoming Department of Public Safety officers on Wednesday, Nov. 28 said they believed the following incidents are related: -- A Nov. 12 robbery at Best Buy, 4830 Wilson Ave. SW in Wyoming -- A Nov. 27 burglary at Verizon, 5563 28th St. SE in Kent County -- A Nov. 27 robbery at T-Mobile, 705 28th St. SW in Wyoming -- A Nov. 28 robbery at T-Mobile, 5301 S. Division Ave. in Wyoming Wyoming police said they are working with Kent County sheriff's investigators on the cases. Police said that, in the robberies, 3-5 males appear to be involved and there is typically a threat of force and someone claiming to be armed with a gun. Anyone with information about the thefts can call Wyomiing police, the Kent County Sheriff's Department or Silent Observer at 616-774-2345. GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- In the more than four years since becoming chief of the Grand Rapids Police Department, David Rahinsky has been asking city officials to fund more officers. On Tuesday, Nov. 27, the city green-lighted a staffing levels and deployment analysis to determine if more officers are indeed needed, as well as if the department needs restructuring in how it deploys its ranks. The city's fiscal committee voted 2-0 in favor of spending $99,719 on a contract with the Chicago-based consulting firm, Hillard Heintze, LLC, to conduct the 12-week study. The full city commission approved the expenditure at Tuesday's evening meeting at City Hall with a consent agenda vote. "If we're going to spend what could be a large number to go out and make additional hires, it's only smart to invest a relatively small number in this study so we do so with a plan," Rahinsky said. "I think there is a recognition and a consensus that we don't have the capacity to do what we hear from the community that they want us to do." The study will include analysis of the department's operations for every service unit. It will evaluate dispatch data, officer workload, and where and when staff is allocated, as well as how the use of non-sworn employees could help free up officers and how future staffing needs can be addressed. The consultant's process will include data review, staff interviews, focus groups and ride-alongs with officers. After about 12 weeks, the team will report back to the city with its findings. Earlier this month, Rahinsky estimated that the staffing study would cost about $137,000. On Monday, he said the city was planning to contract with the same firm, just at a lower price than anticipated. Even with the lesser price tag, Third Ward Commissioner Senita Lenear said she was opposed to paying for a study that she said the city likely has the internal expertise to do on its own. "I really feel like there are best practices that exist and there's some place we can get this information," Lenear said. "We could ask those consultants who submitted (bids) for the cities they've done work with and then contacted them to see what they'd be willing to share. "I just want to move forward with something and in some ways it feels as though the studies are like a stall tactic." Rahinsky has repeatedly said publicly that his department is understaffed. Grand Rapids' less than 300 sworn officers is a 23-percent decline from the department's peak staffing level in 2002. Its ratio of officers per 1,000 residents is less than the 2016 national average and similarly-sized cities across the country. But the police chief said his department doesn't have the resources to do the analysis to the depth that Hillard Heintze is capable of doing. "We can tell you anecdotally but best practice is for them to take a look, see how much time is being used for what by officers, and to report on 60-40, with 60 percent (of an officer's time) to calls and 40 percent to what the community is asking for," Rahinsky said. Lenear said the community and police department alike are growing frustrated with the slow progress to which the city is allocating the $1 million set aside each year for five years beginning in FY2018 to improve community-police relations. The commissioner predicted that residents and community stakeholders who distrust the notion that the department needs more officers are not likely to change their opinions, even if a consultant suggests adding officers. The majority of commissioners, including Jon O'Connor, Ruth Kelly and Kurt Reppart, spoke in favor of the study during the Nov. 13 city commission meeting. Hillard Heintze is one of the leading law enforcement and public safety consulting firm in the U.S., with a track record of helping agencies improve community policing and community trust through organizational and service delivery configurations, according to city staff. The firm is led by former law enforcement officials and experts in the field. They have helped police departments in Denver, Cleveland, Evanston, Illinois, Schaumburg, Illinois, and Cedar Park, Texas with various services, and are under consideration to monitor Chicago police's consent decree. In 2017, Ann Arbor hired Hillard Heintze for $200,000 to review its police department for ways to improve community-police relations. In Grand Rapids, Hillard Heintze was selected from a pool of four firms that submitted bids to the city to conduct the staffing and deployment study. Rahinsky said it was the consensus top pick by the team tasked with selecting a consultant. Grand Rapids' fiscal committee, which approved the expenditure Tuesday, includes city commissioners Joe Jones, Kurt Reppart and Nathaniel Moody. Moody was absent for Tuesday's vote after being subpoenaed for a probable cause conference for a man charged with making a threat toward Moody's church. GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- A man with repeated drunken driving convictions has been sentenced to prison for going the wrong way on U.S. 131 and crashing into a Wyoming police cruiser. Scott Edwin Kloosterman, 60, was sentenced Tuesday, Nov. 27 to 15-60 months in prison by Kent County Circuit Court Judge Donald Johnston. He pleaded guilty earlier to third-offense drunken driving. Kloosterman was driving a pickup south in the northbound lanes of U.S. 131 just before 2 a.m. July 27. Scott Edwin Kloosterman Police began receiving calls about the wrong-way driver when the pickup was near Wealthy Street. Two Wyoming police officers in a cruiser then positioned their vehicle in the freeway lanes to stop the pickup. The truck slammed violently into the cruiser. The two officers were taken to a hospital for minor injuries and treated and released. Kloosterman also was taken for treatment. MANISTEE COUNTY, MI -- A street protester held by the throat during an arrest -- moments after he refused to identify himself to an officer -- is claiming excessive force and constitutional rights violations in a lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed Nov. 21 in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids against Manistee County and a Manistee County sheriff's deputy. However, a summons has not been issued to Manistee County or the deputy because a filing fee was not yet paid to the court as of Tuesday, Nov. 27. The interaction between the deputy and Shaun Carpenter, the man claiming the violations, was captured on the deputy's bodycam. Carpenter's attorney, Jonathan Marko, obtained a copy of the footage through the Freedom of Information Act and released it to MLive on Tuesday, Nov. 27. Marko said Carpenter had been standing on a public sidewalk Aug. 8 2017 in front of Manistee's Vogue Theater on River Street and was "protesting and picketing" anti-government sentiment. Someone from the theater complained to him, so he moved across the street to a sidewalk in front of a PNC Bank. A deputy then approached, told Carpenter there was a complaint against him and asked him to identify himself. Carpenter refused. The deputy told Carpenter that Michigan law requires him to identify himself "upon demand of a peace officer." The deputy's statement was not true, according to the lawsuit. Carpenter again refused to identify himself and the deputy responded "then you go to jail." Eventually, the deputy told Carpenter he was being disorderly and soon after told him that he was being arrested for failure to identify. The video shows the deputy than pushing Carpenter against the bank building and attempt to put handcuffs on him. At that point, Carpenter begins yelling "this guy has a gun. He's trying to steal my property." The deputy then takes a backpack off Carpenter and places one hand around Carpenter's throat for a few moments. According to the lawsuit, the deputy then kicked Carpenter's right leg and caused him to fall to the ground. He was then handcuffed. Carpenter suffered a fractured tibia in the incident and a medical staff at Munson Manistee Hospital put a cast on his leg. Carpenter was charged with disorderly conduct, resisting and obstructing and possession of marijuana, but the charges were dismissed three days later. Marko described the case as "an egregious and shocking abuse of police power." "The police are supposed to protect citizens, not arrest them and use violent and excessive force for exercising basic constitutional rights," he said. Manistee County Sheriff John O'Hagan, contacted Tuesday, said he had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment. The lawsuit alleges unreasonable arrest, excess force, and violation of First Amendment rights to peacefully protest. LANSING, MI - Local governments would lose the ability to regulate tree and foliage changes on industrial and commercial properties under a package of bills the Senate Natural Resources Committee considered on Tuesday. The legislation was prompted, said lead sponsor and committee chair Sen. Tom Casperson, R-Escanaba, by a situation in Canton Township where a pair of brothers cleared land to make way for a Christmas tree farm and ended up facing fines or fees of over $400,000. Casperson was struck by the issue because of its implications for private property rights. The bills would prevent local governments from adopting and enforcing ordinances that restrict or require mitigation for the trimming or removal of any vegetation other than a heritage tree on commercial and industrial properties. The provision keeping the ability to regulate heritage trees protects local ability to protect historic trees, Casperson said in an interview Monday. "Other than that, for the most part, trees are trees. And trying to turn them into some type of a local possession instead of a private possession on private land I think goes too far," Casperson said. But local government officials and organizations oppose the bills, saying they could negatively impact local development. Jennifer Rigterink, legislative associate with the Michigan Municipal League, which opposes the bills, said in an interview Monday that local governments often use vegetation requirements to address concerns from neighbors. A row of trees can help reduce noise or light pollution from a commercial parking lot, for instance, she said. But trees also play an important role in creating "green infrastructure" to help with things like storm water management, she said. Eliminating the ability to regulate that green infrastructure will mean the communities have to build out underground infrastructure, driving costs up. "This seems like a one-off, a single issue that's driving statewide policy change," Rigterink said. And it's part of a pattern for local communities that have seen their ability to govern pre-empted in recent years through things like the ban on plastic bag bans and the ban on soda taxes, she said. "This just seems to be another, again, tying the hands of locals to address issues when they pop up locally," Rigterink said. An attorney for Canton Township told MLive earlier this year the brothers were specifically told at least twice prior to their tree removal that they needed a permit to complete it and did not get one. Michael J. Pattwell, an attorney for brothers Gary and Matt Percy in the Canton Township situation that sparked the legilsation, testified at the Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday in support of it. "This is a very narrowly-tailored piece of legislation that addresses very unreasonable local ordinances that essentially take ownership of a private landowner's trees and either require replacement of a tree for it to be removed or payment into a tree fund," Pattwell said. He didn't get into specifics about what happened between his clients and Canton Township, other than to cite media reports about the incident. The Michigan Environmental Council opposes the legislation, said Deputy Policy Director Sean Hammond. He pointed to ways trees benefit the environment, including through helping control storm water, helping with chemical remediation, cooling water temperatures and absorbing carbon out of the atmosphere. He said that the bill was based off one incident that, if it needs to be addressed at all, needs a metaphorical scalpel. This bill, he said, is "a literal chainsaw." Grand Rapids Assistant Planning Director Kristin Turkelson said the legislation would have unintended consequences. The city uses vegetation requirements to address the concerns of neighbors when considering new developments, she said, and if the city is not able to address those concerns, some projects will be denied. "This will have adverse impacts on development," Turkelson said. The committee did not vote on whether to approve the bills Tuesday but could do so as soon as its next meeting on Wednesday afternoon. The legislation would need to pass the full Senate and House, then be signed by Gov. Rick Snyder, to become law. Drug use is on the rise in America. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 30.6 million Americans aged 12 or older have used an illicit drug since 2017. But which drugs? And does the type of drug vary by state? To find out, Detox.net, an information website associated with American Addiction Centers Inc. used 2017 federal sentencing statistics from the United States Sentencing Commission to examine drug offenses and possession charges by state. According to the study, 20.8 percent of all offenses in Michigan are drug related and the most common drug offense is related to heroin, a deadly drug that also plagues Ohio and Wisconsin. When it comes to time served for drug offenses, 77 months is the average time incarcerated in Michigan. The most common drug offense countrywide is related to methamphetamine, which leads the way in 29 states, according to the study. Marijuana is the least common drug featured in drug-related offenses throughout the country with only two states, Arizona and New Mexico, reporting marijuana as the most frequent drug involved in drug-related offenses. In Michigan, just 7 percent of drug offenses are from marijuana and that number is assured to go down with the legalization of the drug next week. According to the study, 95.3 percent of people charged with a drug-related offense in Michigan end up taking a plea deal. Conversely, 92.6 percent of drug charges end with the perpetrator getting prison time. You can read the entire study, here. Patients in Michigan can order medical marijuana online and have it delivered to their homes, under a new set of rules passed by a panel of legislators Tuesday in Lansing. The rule is a part of permanent regulations on medical marijuana businesses drafted by the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs and agreed to Tuesday by the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, a panel of legislators that oversees rules proposed by state agencies. Most of the permanent rules mirror the emergency rules put out by LARA for medical marijuana businesses -- with the exception of the new addition of the home delivery option. The new rules are effective immediately. Previously, patients could only get home delivery from caregivers. Now, patients will be able to order medical marijuana for home delivery from a participating state-licensed provisioning center, said David Harns, spokesman for LARA's Bureau of Medical Marihuana Regulation. Patients would be able to order and pay online -- in a process as simple as ordering a pizza. Provisioning centers would be responsible for verifying that patients hold medical marijuana cards issued by the state, and would be required to check a government-issued I.D. upon delivery. Patients can only receive the daily maximum limit -- 2.5 ounces of marijuana flower -- during home deliveries. There are 40 state-licensed provisioning centers in Michigan; though not all are operational yet. The supply chain of product from licensed growers to shops is not yet complete, as a total of 12 growers have been licensed and not all are up and running. Provisioning centers would have to both have a state license and file a plan with the state before beginning a home delivery plan, Harns said. Provisioning centers are allowed to staff one person to make home deliveries, who can only deliver to 10 patients at a time. The provisioning center has to be able to track the delivery's GPS location at all times during the delivery, and logs have to be kept. Deliveries are only allowed to the home address of the patient. The permanent rules for medical marijuana businesses are a part of state regulator's efforts to comply with a 2016 law. Regulators have been trying to hold temporarily operating dispensaries to a compliance deadline for licensing, but a Michigan Court of Claims judge has stopped that effort twice. The most recent ruling by Judge Stephen Borrello came at the end of October, one day before the state was poised to issue cease and desist letters to unlicensed medical marijuana dispensaries. An order from Borrello is preventing state officials from issuing any new deadlines for licensing compliance. -- Amy Biolchini is the marijuana beat reporter for MLive. Contact her with questions, tips or comments at abiolch1@mlive.com. Read more from MLive about medical marijuana. BATTLE CREEK, MI -- State incentives will support the renovation of Battle Creek's tallest building into a revitalized space for retail and housing. The Heritage Tower, one of two towers that anchor downtown Battle Creek, is expected to re-open next year after being vacant since 2012. Tuesday, the board of the Michigan Strategic Fund approved a $10 million loan and the capture of $2.42 million in local and school taxes to support the $32.3 million project. Heritage Tower BC LLC, an affiliate of MDH Development LLC, plans to rehabilitate the 115,00-square-foot, 19-story building into an active mixed-use development at 25 West Michigan Ave. The completed project will consist of 85 market-rate apartments, including penthouse units; and commercial, retail and office space. At a June presentation, MDH Development representative Mark Harmsen said the top floors will have luxury penthouse apartments marketed to Kellogg Company executives. Harmsen said these traveling employees often live out of suitcases in the McCamly Plaza Hotel. The project has required significant demolition and interior renovation to the building, according to Battle Creek brownfield documents. Flooring, drywall, electrical wiring, plumbing and elevators were replaced, as well as aesthetic features like fixtures, cabinetry, counter-tops and appliances. The ground floor will be available for retail businesses and a restaurant. The next four stories will offer 25,000-square-feet of office space in the former bank mezzanine. The project is expected to 15 full-time jobs. and will bring new residents and commercial business to the central core of the city, while acting as a catalyst for other investment in the downtown area. Through tax increment financing, developers are reimbursed for costs associated with contamination and blight using a portion of tax revenue captured by the brownfield authority. Developers pay for remediation up front, with reimbursements coming in over several years. Taxes will begin being captured in 2019, for a period of 25 years. Most of the funds will reimburse demolition, lead and asbestos abatement. The proposed brownfield incentives are needed to make the redevelopment economically viable, according to Battle Creek brownfield documents. Arsenic, mercury and silver were measured in the soil. State Sen. Mike Nofs, R-Battle Creek, applauded the incentives in a Tuesday statement. "This is fantastic news both for Heritage Tower and the city of Battle Creek," Nofs said. "The project will create jobs and help continue the positive momentum for new development downtown. I am excited to see the final product." The project has attracted support from other organizations in Battle Creek. The city of Battle Creek is contributing $5 million and approved tax abatements for valued at $3.1 million. Other local support includes a $3 million investment from Battle Creek Unlimited and a $450,000 contribution from the Battle Creek Community Foundation. Heritage Tower was built in 1931 to house the Old Merchants National Bank and Trust Company, then the largest financial institution between Detroit and Chicago. In addition to a complement of administrative and professional offices, several suites in the building were historically equipped for doctors and dentists. A social club also once took residence in the building. The building was bought by Comerica Bank in 1982, then sold in 1993 to Dore Industrial Development and renamed Heritage Tower. The building changed hands several more times before Heritage Tower BC acquired it. The Michigan Strategic Fund also approved a tax capture plan to reimburse $3.84 million in cleanup at a development in downtown Kalamazoo. KALAMAZOO, MI -- A disagreement between the Michigan Department of Transportation and Amtrak pushed back the reconstruction of bridges on U.S. 131 in Kalamazoo County five years. Replacement of two 55-year-old bridges crossing over rail lines and West KL Avenue on U.S. 131 in Oshtemo Township was scheduled for 2019. The project was postponed due to a disagreement with Amtrak about whether the passenger railroad company is reimbursed for costs associated with reviewing designs, said MDOT spokesperson Nick Schirripa. "MDOT is very willing to reimburse Amtrak for reasonable costs to review the plans and specifications," Schirripa said in an email. "We do that with the other railroads that operate in Michigan. But the way the draft agreement is written Amtrak could charge MDOT with any cost they deem valid." The project was delayed to 2023 to allow more time to work out an agreement with Amtrak. Amtrak spokesperson Marc Magliari said the company and MDOT are exchanging revisions for an agreement. He didn't comment on what was being negotiated, but said it's MDOT's decision to delay a project. Magliari said the entities are working together. Oshtemo Township Supervisor Libby Heiny-Cogswell said the bridges, one carrying northbound traffic and another carrying southbound traffic, have long-been in need of repair. The two bridges were built in 1963. According to a 2017 MDOT highway bridge report, both are structurally deficient and rated in fair condition. The surface of both bridges was rated "poor," an indication of advanced deterioration. The Kalamazoo Area Transportation Study, a regional planning organization, has listed the bridge reconstruction on its list of projects since at least 2016. Planning documents show the project is expected to cost $11.3 million. "It's unfortunate," Heiny-Cogswell said. "MDOT was well along the path to reconstructing the bridge and it definitely needs restoration. All of a sudden the parties were unable to come to a consensus on it." Schrippia said the bridges will not remain open if there are any safety concerns for motorists or the railroad. An average of 56,500 vehicles travel across the bridges each day, according to MDOT traffic figures. Around 16,700 vehicles travel under the bridges on KL Avenue, according to KATS figures. In the meantime, MDOT installed construction netting to catch falling concrete and made some temporary repairs to the bridges. MDOT is planning a 2019 project to repave the bridges and perform other minor repairs. "The concrete most certainly is deteriorating, which is why we've made some deck repairs and installed the netting," Schirripa said. Next year's maintenance is expected to last for five years. Heiny-Cogswell said Oshtemo Township has run into similar issues with Amtrak regarding a non-motorized path on Drake Road. The path crosses rail lines on the west side of the road, and a permit is needed from Amtrak. KALAMAZOO, MI -- A Democrat set to join the Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners in 2019 did not live within the district he was elected to represent during the campaign. Paul Haag ran unopposed during the Nov. 6 election, earning 7,625 votes to represent District 2. Haag moved outside the district before the August primary, though he did not change his address with the Secretary of State. State law requires county commissioners to reside within the district they are elected to represent. Haag said he moved back into District 2 on Nov. 5. Haag told MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette that he was "temporarily displaced" after losing his house to foreclosure. He said he intended to remain in District 2, but rented a house that sits a block outside the district boundary. He said being displaced due to foreclosure is "no different" than being displaced due to a fire. The new commissioner said he didn't think his housing status affected his eligibility to run, so he didn't tell the county clerk. Haag ran unopposed in the primary and general election. "I was temporarily displaced outside the district," Haag said. "I didn't see myself as being -- I didn't see a story there. It didn't occur to me that there (was) an issue." Fred Woodhams, spokesman for the Michigan Secretary of State office, said the opportunity to challenge a candidate's eligibility over residency is shortly after the spring filing deadline. "At this point, generally speaking, if someone believes an elected official is ineligible to serve, they are able to file a lawsuit in court," Woodhams said in an email. The Board of State Canvassers certified the November election results Monday, Nov. 27. Kalamazoo County Clerk Tim Snow is aware of the situation, but no complaints have been filed as of Nov. 26. "This is so strange, (I've) never had anything like this before," Snow said. The clerk referred all further questions to Kalamazoo County Corporate Counsel Elizabeth White, who said the court decides whether an elected official is legally eligible to serve. An action could be filed by the attorney general, the county prosecutor or a county resident. White said she is not aware of any investigations into Haag opened by the prosecutor. The Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners could initiate litigation, White said, but this has not been discussed. Before the Nov. 6 election, Kalamazoo GOP Chair Scott McGraw said he raised concerns about Haag's residency with the clerk. Tuesday, McGraw said he still has questions about whether Haag was a "legitimate candidate." "I want to make sure all the rules were followed," McGraw said. "Enough red flags have come up I think someone needs to look at it ... as long as the people are served, that's what it's all about." Board Chair Stephanie Moore said commissioners have not been kept in the loop about the situation. Moore said Republicans on the board would like more investigation, while some Democrats have suggested it's not worth pursuing. "All I've heard is a whole bunch of water cooler conversations about what's happening," Moore said. "Democrats have said it's not an issue but I'm not clear on what the timeline is. What was he saying to constituents on the campaign trail? I don't know." Moore said Haag should have told the clerk about his situation. "He absolutely had a duty to disclose," Moore said. "The fact that he didn't is what's raising so many eyebrows." Haag shared details of his housing transitions with MLive. Before the election, Haag lived in a house on West Maple Street. He lost the house to foreclosure and moved out on June 30, before the August primary. Kalamazoo County District Court records show Haag was in the process of being evicted before he organized his campaign committee on May 25. In the months leading up to the November election, Haag lived at a house on Den Adel Court. He listed the address under his campaign committee in September. Haag said on Nov. 5, a day before the general election, he moved into a home on Maple Court. The property is in the process of being renovated, Haag said, so his family still resides at the Den Adel Court house while the work is being finished. Haag said the housing transitions and his new role in the public eye have been hard on his family. He said he would have preferred to live in District 2 throughout the election, but said it's difficult to find affordable housing in Kalamazoo. Haag replaces Democrat Kevin Wordelman, who resigned in October after moving to a new house outside the district. Wordelman closed on a house in Kalamazoo Township's Westwood neighborhood on Sept. 24 and changed his voter registration two days later. Wordelman didn't immediately notify the county, waiting until Oct. 5. At the time, Wordelman said he didn't review a state law requiring county commissioners to reside within their district. His departure caused the board to be split evenly along partisan lines. Republicans blocked efforts to fill the vacancy left by Wordelman. On Oct. 16, Democrats introduced a motion to appoint Haag, and a motion to schedule a special meeting to interview candidates. Both motions failed 5-5, opposed by Republicans. KALAMAZOO, MI -- State incentives will help fund a $70.8 million, seven-story mixed-use development being built in downtown Kalamazoo. Tuesday, the board of the Michigan Strategic Fund approved capturing $3.84 million in local and school taxes to support the Catalyst Development Co. LLC project. The developer purchased a city-owned surface parking lot in July and expects to add 50 full-time jobs, 49 apartments and office space. William Johnston is chairman of Greenleaf Companies, which includes Catalyst Development Company. Johnston was one of two philanthropists who donated $70.3 million to the city of Kalamazoo in 2016, financing a property tax cut and community-building projects. The 275,000-square-foot building will sit on a 1.362-acres overlooking the Arcadia Creek Festival Place. Once finished, it will include 55,000 square feet of commercial office space and accommodate 310 parking spaces for tenants and the public. Housing will include studio, one and two bedroom units ranging 550 square feet to 1,300 square feet. Twenty-one of the units will be offered at below market rate. The Kalamazoo Promise, Communities in Schools, Southwest Michigan First and Warner Norcross and Judd, LLP, plan to relocate their local headquarters to the new building. Kalamazoo officials have given the project a thumbs up. Mayor Bobby Hopewell said the addition of housing, parking spaces and offices is an example of "thoughtful development" that should be a template for other projects. Construction at the site started in late July, though officials celebrated the project at a groundbreaking ceremony on Aug. 9. The project is expected to take two years to finish. Through tax increment financing, developers are reimbursed for costs associated with contamination and blight using a portion of tax revenue captured by the brownfield authority. Developers pay for remediation up front, with reimbursements coming in over several years. Taxes will be captured over a period of 25 years after the Catalyst project is completed. Catalyst will be reimbursed for work to alleviate brownfield conditions across the site, including the disposal of contaminated soil. The city's brownfield authority also received a $182,000 grant from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to mitigate contamination at the site. Assistant City Manager Jerome Kisscorni said the city has been "fortunate" to receive support from MDEQ on brownfield projects. Most of the Kalamazoo's downtown as a history of industrial use, much of the available land needs investigation into its past before development can start. "It's always a partnership between the local community, the state and the developer," Kisscorni said. Catalyst plans to add surrounding sidewalks to the city's snowmelt system. A 2014 analysis by Zimmerman/Volk Associates found the residential market could sustain 1,400 units through 2019. According to an economic development plan created by the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research for the city, the rate of new units being built is half of what's needed. Most of the new units are at market rate, according to the report, which excludes households with moderate and lower incomes. Around 150 units are being added each year, but the rate of new units will increase when several projects launched this year are completed. The Exchange Building, a PlazaCorp project on the corner of Rose Street and West Michigan Avenue, is adding 133 luxury studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom downtown apartments. The Hinman Company and AVB Inc. are building a $24.2 million, four-story mixed-use development at the corner of Rose and Lovell streets. That project will bring 135 apartment units. While more housing is planned for the immediate future, the study expressed a need for units of varying sizes. Mid-rise apartments are in the urban core, while single-family homes line the edge of downtown. The study shows a "missing middle" section of housing -- things like duplexes, courtyard apartments and townhouses. Progress on the Catalyst development started after the City Commission sold a portion of Lot 9 for $714,369. The city has made an effort to sell off surface parking lots to local developers for mixed-use projects this summer. Note: This story was updated on Nov. 29 to add William Johnston's connection to Catalyst Development Co. SAUGATUCK, MI -- A beloved historic ferry in Saugatuck could be offering rides again next year. Enjoyment of "Diane," the Saugatuck Chain Ferry is limited by the availability of its captains, who have to undergo a lengthy licensing process through the U.S. Coast Guard. Most of the vessel's captains are college students, which caused the city of Saugatuck to close the ferry during Labor Day weekend because the crew returned to school. U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, included a waiver in a 2018 U.S. Coast Guard authorization bill that would exempt the Saugatuck Chain Ferry from the licensing requirement. In a Tuesday statement, Upton said the current regulations are "woefully outdated" and shouldn't apply to the historic hand-cranked vessel. Saugatuck City Manager Kirk Harrier said requirements placed "significant burdens" on operating the chain ferry. The waiver passed in the House and Senate as part of the larger Coast Guard bill. The ferry has been in use since 1838 and is usually open from Memorial Day to Labor Day. It moves when the operator turns a crank which pulls the ferry 100 yards across the Kalamazoo River along a chain fixed to both banks of the river. Previous versions of the law required ferry operators to have 30 days of service on the ferry, be 18 years of age, complete a physical, submit to random drug testing, take a boater safety course and a Coast Guard multiple choice test and hold a transportation worker identification card. Obtaining the identification card requires an applicant must make two trips to Muskegon or Walker, pay $240, take the Coast Guard Oath and have no felonies. Upton called it "regulatory overkill" in a 2017 letter to leaders of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in 2017. "Come spring, the historic Saugatuck Chain Ferry will be moving again," Upton said. "Our bipartisan efforts will exempt the Chain Ferry from being operated by an individual licensed by the Coast Guard ... "We're hopeful we can get this modernization effort across the finish line as soon as possible, understanding the importance of the Chain Ferry to the entire Saugatuck community." It takes around 200 cranks to move the 5-ton vessel across the river. The ferry can carry up to 24 passengers at a time. "The safety of our passengers who ride the ferry is of utmost importance to us, but given the unique attributes of the vessel, no specialized machinery, and the measures we have in place, we are confident that we can ensure their safety without undertaking the significant burdens inherent in operating with an individual licensed by the Coast Guard," Harrier said. "We're excited to start back up on Memorial Day." MUSKEGON COUNTY, MI - More than three years after Darnell Byrd was shot in an alley by two of his associates, the man accused of ordering the homicide is going on trial. Jury selection in the murder trial of Jeremy Darnell Morton began Tuesday, Nov. 27, in the courtroom of Muskegon County Circuit Judge Timothy Hicks. Kierelle Burns, of Muskegon Heights, and Josiah Fousse, of Cincinnati, have already been convicted of murder in the shooting death of Byrd in a Muskegon Heights alley on Sept. 5, 2015. Both men testified earlier that they fatally shot Byrd from behind while acting on orders from Morton who suspected Byrd had "snitched" to authorities. He hadn't. Anticipated testimony by Fousse, who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for his cooperation with the prosecution, delayed Morton's trial. The issue was the topic of a Michigan Court of Appeals opinion in May. The complicated case also involves another murder in Muskegon Heights as well as one in Cincinnati. Byrd's shooting death occurred less than a week after a shootout Aug. 30, 2015, at East Park Manor in Muskegon Heights that left one man dead and two injured. Byrd, who was among those who were injured, is believed to have shot and killed Thedrick Bryant at East Park Manor. Fousse and Morton were charged with felonies related to the shootout. Less than a week later, Byrd was led to believe he, Fousse and Burns were going to commit an armed robbery. Instead, Fousse and Burns both testified earlier that they shot at the unarmed Byrd from behind as the trio walked down a dark Muskegon Heights alley on their way to the fake robbery. Fousse testified at an earlier hearing that Morton was a drug seller who had been robbed more than once and "hired" the three, whom he'd only recently met, to provide him protection. Both he and Burns testified that Morton ordered them to kill Byrd or face being killed themselves because they had brought Byrd around. Morton believed Byrd had snitched on him about the East Park Manor shootings, Fousse said. However, authorities said Byrd had actually implicated an innocent man, who was briefly jailed for the shootings. Burns initially cooperated with the prosecution, but then changed his mind. A jury convicted him in November 2017 of first-degree murder for Byrd's death. Fousse, who identified Byrd as his "best friend," agreed to cooperate but then indicated he would invoke the Fifth Amendment at Morton's trial, allowing him not to testify to avoid self-incrimination. That was last August, when Morton's trial was set to begin. Hicks, the judge, issued what he called "an extreme sanction," excusing Fousse from testifying. Hicks wrote in his order that Morton's defense likely was going to be that Fousse killed Byrd out of concern Byrd would testify against Fousse in a 2013 Cincinnati homicide. The prosecutor's office appealed Hicks' decision to the appeals court, which ordered the issue remanded to Hicks' court. The appeals judges said Hicks should have more thoroughly questioned Fousse about what he would and wouldn't testify to. The prosecution and defense in the Morton case have since hashed out the issue, and Fousse is expected to testify, said Matt Roberts, chief trial attorney for the Muskegon County Prosecutor's Office. The victim in the Cincinnati homicide, Porshia Brooks, was sitting in a car with her boyfriend when they were approached, robbed and shot in the head. The boyfriend survived. A man named Jaleel Smith-Riley pleaded guilty to aggravated murder and attempted murder. Both Fousse and Byrd were suspected of being involved, but neither was charged. Morton's trial is scheduled for 10 days. MUSKEGON COUNTY, MI - Bottled water is being delivered to four homes located near the Muskegon County Airport after high levels of toxic chemicals called PFAS were found in drinking water pulled from underground wells. Thus far, only four homes in Norton Shores to the north, west and southwest of the airport tested above the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's lifetime health advisory level of 70 parts per trillion. Maps of the testing area and test results were obtained from Muskegon County by MLive/Muskegon Chronicle through the Freedom of Information Act. Three of those homes are located in the 500 block of Porter Road, the 400 block of Wendover Boulevard and 100 block of West Byron Road. A map showing three of four locations where PFAS was found to be above the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lifetime health advisory limit of 70 parts per trillion. The location of the fourth home with PFAS levels above the lifetime health advisory was not noted in test results obtained by MLive. However, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality's Scott Dean said the fourth address was also located on West Byron Road. Now, county officials are supplying bottled water to each of the four homes while they work to install water filters in at least three of them. The county and the DEQ are also testing a wider area of land around the airport to see if other homes test positive for PFAS and two individual compounds known as PFOS and PFOA. The DEQ requested that the county expand their testing area to 25 additional properties after the first results came back positive for PFAS. Those second-round samples are still being processed. A third round of testing is scheduled to take place soon. Testing will be completed by a contractor hired by the county to sample well water and monitor throughout 2019. Requests for sampling were mailed to another 38 addresses on Tuesday, Nov. 27. The DEQ has a standing agreement with the county to pay for testing and monitoring of well water, Lake Michigan, public swimming pools, septic waste, area campgrounds and medical waste until Sept. 30, 2019. The agreement was renewed by the Muskegon County Board of Commissioners approved on Nov. 8. In addition, the county is currently seeking its own engineering contractor for PFAS monitoring and potential remediation. Those bids are due on Jan. 17. Test results are given in parts-per-trillion (ppt). The U.S. EPA health advisory level is 70-ppt. "Total PFAS" is the sum of all PFAS compounds detected. "PFOS+PFOA" is the sum of those two individual compounds detected. The home on Wendover showed levels of Total PFAS at 679-ppt and PFOS+PFOA levels of 563.7-ppt. The DEQ's Scott Dean said those were the highest levels of PFAS found in the first round of sampling at 23 homes near the airport. Samples collected from the home on Porter Road had a Total PFAS level of 161-ppt and a PFOS+PFOA level of 120-ppt. The home on West Byron had a Total PFAS level of 164-ppt and a PFOS+PFOA level of 71.8-ppt. At least 19 other homes in the testing area either had undetectable levels of PFAS or tested positive for some level of PFAS below the health advisory level. Each of the homes tested in Norton Shores get their drinking water from underground wells and are not connected to a municipal water source, said Kathy Moore, director of Muskegon County Public Health. Norton Shores purchases its drinking water from the city of Muskegon, which draws water from Lake Michigan. When tested in July, the city of Muskegon's water supply showed a Total PFAS level of 2-ppt and non-detect for PFOS+PFOA. Since only four of the homes near the airport were found to have higher than safe levels of PFAS in their drinking water, Moore said that is unlikely that PFAS is contaminating other homes in the area that use well water. There is some concern about the potential of finding PFAS chemicals north of the airport near Mona Lake, although there is no evidence of that yet, said Mike Eslick, operations manager with the Muskegon County Public Health Department. Muskegon County and the DEQ began sampling well water in August and have since collected samples from 48 homes near the Muskegon County Airport, located at 99 Sinclair Drive. Steve Fink, an engineer with Muskegon County Public Works, said the initial investigation was spurred by interviews with former Norton Shores firefighters who said they used a firefighting foam that contained per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, during training exercises at four points around the airport for several decades. One of those training sites was located near Porter Road. PFAS chemicals are now showing up in well water around the airport and other drinking water systems across the state. The list of systems with known PFAS levels include major systems that draw water from the Great Lakes like Saginaw, Grand Rapids and Wyoming, as well as groundwater systems like Kalamazoo and Ann Arbor, which draws primarily from the Huron River. Toxic PFAS chemicals have also been found in drinking water at a Grand Haven district elementary school at levels well above what's considered acceptable for human health. Eslick said the investigation around the airport was ordered by county officials in August and notified residents about the possibility of PFAS contamination soon afterward. The county sent sample requests to 30 addresses in the area, but only 23 of them agreed to have their water tested for PFAS. Officials contracted Pace Analytical to test samples and the first results were reported to the state Department of Health and Human Services in late September. Of 23 homes, only four had results that exceeded the lifetime advisory level, Moore said. Three of the homes are occupied year-round and another is occupied on a seasonal basis. The state notified Muskegon County about the first concerning PFAS finding on the evening of Sept. 24, and Moore said her department began delivering bottled water to those residents that evening. Results for the remaining three homes were relayed to Muskegon County on Sept. 28. Bottled water will be serviced to all four homes until the county can install water filters throughout three of the homes. One home will continue to receive bottled water and no filtration because it is only occupied part of the year, Moore said. A more permanent solution is being sought by public health officials, and Moore said that could mean connecting residents who use wells to the municipal water system. However, some residents have been reluctant to switch over, Moore added. Gov. Rick Snyder is requesting $43 million in supplemental appropriations from state lawmakers during his lame duck session to help the state respond to the emerging crisis of PFAS contamination. Gov.-elect Gretchen Whitmer also campaigned on finding a swift legislative solution to the emerging statewide PFAS crisis. Adam D. York-Hutson SAGINAW, MI -- A 22-year-old man is facing an arson charge after he was accused of torching his father's Saginaw home. About 6:50 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 25, Saginaw firefighters responded to a house fire at 715 S. Fourth St., said Battalion Chief Tom Raines. They arrived to find the two-story structure's front porch on fire. Saginaw County Central Dispatch also received a call that the fire was an arson, with the caller giving a description of the suspect. Michigan State Police troopers on patrol duty detained Adam D. York-Hutson near the scene. Fire crews quickly contained the blaze. The fire damage was limited to the front porch and just inside the front door, though there were smoke stains throughout, Raines said. He estimated the damage to total about $10,000. No injuries were suffered, either by civilians or firefighters. Raines said officials believe the arson is related to a family dispute. York-Hutson's father owns the house. Saginaw County District Judge Terry L. Clark on Wednesday, Nov. 28, arraigned York-Hutson on one count of second-degree arson. The charge is punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $20,000 or three times the value of the damage. Clark set York-Hutson's bond at $50,000 surety. York-Hutson is to appear for a preliminary examination on Dec. 13. After receiving a push from the Trump administration to seek out more commercial partnerships, NASA says it will announce new Moon partnerships with American companies on Thursday, Nov. 29. The U.S. space agency says in a news release that its administrator Jim Bridenstine will make the announcement at 2 p.m. Thursday on NASA TV and its website. Scroll to the bottom of this post for a live stream of NASA TV, which can be found on the space agency's YouTube channel, other social channels and its website. "Working with U.S. companies is the next step to achieving long-term scientific study and human exploration of the Moon and Mars," NASA says in the release. "Under Space Policy Directive-1, the agency will lead an innovative and sustainable exploration of the Moon together with commercial and international partners." Also scheduled to speak during the broadcast are Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator, Stan Love, NASA astronaut. Andrea Mosie, Apollo sample laboratory manager, Barbara Cohen, associate project scientist for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, and FIRST Robotics students from the Washington D.C. area. It's important to remember the second meeting of the National Space Council from way back in February of this year when breaking down this announcement. At this event, Vice President Mike Pence pointed to the then-timely launch of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch as for what can be accomplished when pairing commercialization with space exploration. BREAKING: We are announcing new Moon partnerships with American companies at 2pm ET this Thursday. The U.S. is returning to the surface of the Moon, and were doing it sooner than you think! https://t.co/1vC2NC6OzI Jim Bridenstine (@JimBridenstine) November 27, 2018 Pence, who also serves as chair for the Trump administration revived space council, said that the "convoluted maze of bureaucratic obstacles" and "outdated regulatory processes" are holding the space industry and our technological capabilities back. "And to make matters worse, launch licenses can't be transferred often from one site to another, as we learned at the last meeting of the National Space Council," Pence said, according to White House transcripts. "So if a company receives its licenses to launch a rocket from the Kennedy Space Center, but then wants to move their mission to California, or even just a few miles away from Cape Canaveral, that same company must complete the entire process all over again, from start to finish. "The government has figured out how to honor driver's licenses across state lines. There's no reason we can't do the same for rockets." NASA revealed its National Space Exploration Campaign back on Sept. 26, which details its five-step plan to return the space agency to Earth's moon and eventually onto Mars, and deeper. NASA's plan lays out the following steps, in numerical order: To transition U.S. human low-Earth orbit spaceflight activities to commercial operations that support NASA "and the needs of an emerging private sector market." Lead the implementation of functions that support operations on the surface of the moon, and to "facilitate missions" beyond just between the Earth and its moon. Foster new scientific discoveries and use of lunar resources through a series of future robotic missions. Return American astronauts to the surface of the Moon for a "sustained campaign of exploration and use. Demonstrate what is required to support manned missions to Mars and beyond. -- Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 28) The new chief justice laid any talk about his appointment as the country's top magistrate to rest. In a briefing Wednesday, Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin said, "I just stand on my own personal record. I think I have served longest in the judiciary." Bersamin also said he would not address comparisons between him and other aspirants for the position as far as experience was concerned. His appointment was confirmed on Wednesday. The Office of Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea released Bersamin's appointment papers and he was sworn in by Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio. President Rodrigo Duterte first revealed on Tuesday he had chosen the new chief justice in a briefing after the inauguration of an airport in Bohol. Although he did not give a name, he mentioned seniority was one of the issues he considered in making his decision. Besamin said, "I leave that to the President to make a decision what he meant by giving priority or preference to seniority. I cannot second guess the President. But let us trust in his wisdom. If he appointed me, that should be the end of it." He added it would not be fair to his colleagues to make a comparison. "I may lack more qualifications than they have, but it's still up to the appointing power to exercise the discretion to choose among us who were properly nominate," Bersamin said. In a statement, Malacanang said Bersamin is "the most senior Justice in terms of services rendered under the Judicial Branch in various capacities." View image on Twitter Representative image live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More UK-based private equity firm Actis LLP has reportedly agreed to buy solar power projects of Essel Infraprojects for Rs 5,500-6,000 crore, Mint reported. The deal may be formally announced by December-end, the report said. Earlier this year, Essel Infra, part of media mogul Subhash Chandras Essel Group, had put its solar assets on sale and since then it has been negotiating with potential buyers. Essel has a total portfolio of 23 projects, under various stages of development, with nearly 310 MW of operational solar power facilities, which it had bid for under the National Solar Mission and state government auctions, and another 375 MW capacity under construction. India's renewable energy industry is witnessing a wave of consolidation as smaller companies exit the industry due to low tariffs, stiff competition and drying access to cheap funds. In 2017, solar tariffs hit the lowest level of Rs 2.44 per unit from Rs 10.95-12.76 per kWh in 2010-11. Read Essel Infra in advanced stages of selling solar biz to Greenko "In order to compete in solar and wind business, one needs to have access to low-cost funds," Crisil Research Director Rahul Prithiani told the paper, adding investors look at operating assets where cash flows are more certain so that they can deploy relatively low-cost funding and ensure good returns. Media reports suggested Tata Power , Actis, Greenko and Hero Future Energies were in talks with Essel Infra to acquire its solar power plants. "Essel Infra has comparatively older assets, which were won when prevailing solar tariffs were higher," a person aware of the development told the paper. He added that Essel's assets have power purchase agreements (PPAs) with state governments for as high as Rs 8 per kilowatt hour (kWh) while the average PPA for the assets is at Rs 5.50 per kWh. Investors may be willing to pay a premium for these projects as the assets have PPAs with higher tariffs. "Developers and investors take an inordinate risk when investing in renewable projects because the technology in modules and solar panels becomes outdated very quickly. So, higher PPAs give us some comfort when making investments," an investment banker said. In October, Edelweiss Infrastructure fund- backed Sekura Energy signed an agreement to acquire two operating and two under-construction power transmission assets from Essel Infraprojects, for an enterprise valuation of Rs 6,000 crore. Essel Infra wants to expand its footprint in green energy across emerging sectors such as water, railways and municipal solid waste. In the long run, the group expects the asset sales in the renewable energy and transmission business to fund the growth of its new businesses, the report said. Yes Bank has clarified it has no business dealings with the two Rana Kapoor-promoted investment firms that have come under regulatory and investor lens. The bank is not involved in any way whatsoever with the funds management of two companies referred in media articles and the bank has no dealings with these two companies except to the extent that Yes Capital (India) Private Limited (YCPL) and Morgan Credits Private Limited (MCPL), being promoter group entities, Yes Bank said in a statement. Morgan Credits and Yes Capital are holding companies owned 100 percent by Radha K Khanna, Raakhe Tandon and Roshini Kapoor -- the three daughters of Rana Kapoor. The three woman entrepreneurs have a team working under the brand The Three Sisters: Institutional Office (TTS.IO) through which greenfield, start-up ventures have been established. Each start-up business is run by a professional CEO and management team. A report by the Economic Times on November 28 pointed out Yes Banks co-founder Rana Kapoor's investment companies may come under the regulator's lens for reportedly using borrowed money from mutual funds as equity in a finance company through a questionable transaction. Yes Capital is said to have borrowed funds from the market, a part of which was invested in ART Capital, which subsequently invested a portion of that in ART Housing Finance through subsidiaries. Yes Capitals balance sheet shows the investment of debt as equity in ART Capital. The ultimate beneficial ownership of both companies rests with Yes Capital, which also owns shares in Yes Bank. "TTS:IO, MCPL, YCPL or the start-up ventures have no involvement and/or commercial dealings with Yes Bank (except that MCPL and YCPL are amongst the promoter shareholders of Yes Bank holding 3.04 percent and 3.27 percent shares of the bank, respectively), and both institutions run completely independently," the investment firms said in a note clarifying on the matter. "Rana Kapoor is also not involved in any capacity including as a shareholder, director or management of MCPL, YCPL, TTS:IO, or the start-up ventures," the note pointed out. As per the note, MCPL and YCPL have raised some debt to address their growth objectives but it is well within their eligibility limits. "MCPL and YCPL have at all times complied with all covenants of such debt including servicing obligations and will continue to do so," the investment firm said in the note. Naresh Goyal has decided to sell his controlling stake in Jet Airways, CNBC-TV18 reported quoting sources. The channel said that Goyal has been in talks with three prospective buyers, Tata Group, its existing investor Etihad and a consortium of Air France, KLM and Delta. Sources said the prospective buyers are unwilling to move ahead without taking a controlling stake in the company. Goyal was previously said to have been reluctant to sell a majority stake. His agreement will now enable talks to move to the stage of due diligence, CNBC-TV18 said. When contacted by CNBC-TV18, Jet said it would not comment on speculation. Promoters led by Goyal hold 51 percent stake in Jet while Etihad holds 24 percent. The Jet stock surged 8 percent following the news. File Photo: A security guard stands outside a closed Yes Bank branch in New Delhi Trying to put an end to its boardroom crisis, Yes Bank said it will consider appointment of a new chairman and fill two Independent Director positions in the upcoming board meeting on December 13. "The Bank would like to reiterate that Nomination & Remuneration Committee ('N&RC') of the Board and the Board of the Directors of the Bank at their meetings, scheduled on December 13, 2018, would consider the proposals for appointment of Independent Directors and also recommend the name(s) of the new Chairman for the approval of RBI," Yes Bank said in a filing on the stock exchange. On November 27, Rana Kapoor, the bank's outgoing CEO and managing director and also the largest shareholder, initiated a settlement process with the second largest shareholder, Madhu Kapur, to arrive at a mutual agreement on the appointments of the board members. Appointment of two Independent Directors (replacement), as per the provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 and Banking Regulation Act, 1949, come after the resignation of three board members. In a spate of resignations this month, Ashok Chawla stepped down as the Board Chairman, and independent directors Vasant Gujarathi and R. Chandrashekhar also resigned from the board. The mid-sized private lender said it will also "evaluate new Chairman for approval by Reserve Bank of India". Foreign exchange earnings totaled USD 24 billion in January-October 2019, with a growth (year-on-year) of two percent. Bengaluru-based vehicle sharing marketplace, Drivezy on Wednesday said it has raised USD 20 million and has secured an additional USD 100 million in an asset financing deal. The USD 20 million funding round was led by existing investor, Das Capital. Other investors who participated in the series B round included Yamaha Motor Co Ltd, Axan Partners and IT-Farm. With this, Drivezy has accrued cumulative equity investments of USD 31 million. The funding will be used to expand its presence into new markets and integrate advanced services, Drivezy said in a statement. Detailing out the asset financing deal, the statement said, Drivezy plans to induct over 50,000 vehicles under the plan. The company said, Harbourfront Capital (a SPV), a subsidiary of Anypay Inc, will invest USD 100 million in purchasing cars, motorcycles and scooters over the next three years. Drivezy has a revenue-sharing deal with Harbourfront Capital under which these assets will be listed on Drivezy's platform. The sharing economy in India is thriving and has picked up real pace in the past five years, especially within the mobility sector, Drivezy CEO Ashwarya Singh said. "This fresh investment will allow us to cement our foothold as the market leader in a growing Indian vehicle sharing market," Singh added. The company is aggressively scaling its bike and scooter rental divisions which have added 3,000 scooters in Bengaluru and Hyderabad this year under a partnership with Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India. Drivezy (formerly JustRide) plans to deploy an additional 10,000 bikes and scooters in the two cities by December, the statement said. Co-founded in 2015 by Ashwarya Singh, Abhishek Mahajan, Hemant Sah, Vasant Verma and Amit Sahu, Drivezy operates peer-to-peer vehicle sharing network with over 2,000 owners as its partners. Fitch Ratings | On May 26, the rating agency forecasted a 5 percent contraction of Indian economy in the current fiscal. This is substantially lower than 0.8 percent growth for 2020-21 fiscal projected in April. (Image: PTI) The decision to restructure loans of up to Rs 25 crore for the MSME sector is a "step backwards" and the risks to the banking sector will manifest in the next 6-9 months, Fitch Ratings said on Wednesday. In an interview to PTI, Fitch Ratings Director (Financial Institutions) Saswata Guha said, given the past record, it is unlikely that banks would exercise prudence while restructuring loans of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME). The board of the Reserve Bank last week advised the RBI that it should consider a scheme for restructuring of stressed assets of MSME borrowers with aggregate credit facilities of up to Rs 25 crore, subject to conditions necessary for ensuring financial stability. "In one way, it is a step backwards given RBI's previous stance to do away with all restructuring. It clearly reflects stress in the MSME sector although we expect risk to manifest in the next 6-9 months," Guha said. Relaxation of lending norms to spur growth is "never a good strategy", he said, adding the legacy problem loans will continue to be a bigger drag on the MSME sector's asset quality until March 2019. "There is adequate evidence in the form of USD 140 billion of NPL (non-performing loan) stock that the sector is currently grappling with, which, in my opinion, is a direct result of the unbridled lending of the past," Guha said. On the RBI board's decision to defer the timeline for implementing capital adequacy norms (Basel III) by the banks, Guha said the move is "certainly credit negative" as it reflects the sector's poor capitalisation, particularly that of state-owned banks, and their inability to meet minimum regulatory requirements. There was a stand-off between the RBI and the Finance Ministry over several issues, including easier funding norms for the MSME sector, implementation of the capital adequacy norms and economic capital framework of the central bank. On November 19, the RBI Board directed the Reserve Bank to restructure loans for the MSME sector, extend the timeline for implementation of Basel III norms and also set up an expert committee to deliberate on economic capital framework. RBI board, which is headed by Governor Urjit Patel, has 18 members, which include 4 RBI Deputy Governors and two Government nominees. In the said meet, the RBI Board, while deciding to retain the capital adequacy requirement for banks at 9 per cent, agreed to extend the transition period by one year up to March 31, 2020. Guha further said that non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) continue to remain a risk as a result of their aggressive lending, especially to real estate and MSME, in the past. "We may see slippages from the latter sectors (real estate, SMEs) in the near-term if challenges in terms of liquidity continue. However, better rated non-banks with good track record and market reputation face much lower rollover risk as compared to ones where risks are elevated although funding costs have risen across the board," Guha added. Farmers who have complained of animal attacks destroying crops will now get insurance under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY). The agriculture ministry on November 28 in its revised operational guidelines on the crop insurance scheme sponsored by the government (PMFBY) said crop loss due to the attack of wild animals will be implemented on a pilot basis. It is estimated that 30-40 percent of crops are destroyed annually due to attacks by wild animals in India. Elephants, pigs, boars and deer are the most common perpetrators of the destruction. In some districts of Odisha and Kerala, elephants destroy up to 60 percent of crops the claims for which were not payable by insurance companies. This will be implemented from the Rabi 2018-19. The last date for insurance of Rabi crops is December 15. Rabi crops like wheat and mustard are sown in winter and harvested in the spring season. Perennial horticultural crops are included under PMFBY on a pilot basis. Any plant that lives more than two years is a perennial crop. Some of these include mango, rose, hibiscus, passion fruit and grapevine, among others. In the revised guidelines, hailstorm has been included in post-harvest losses, besides unseasonal and cyclonic rainfall. Further, cloudburst and natural fire have been included in the localised calamities in addition to hailstorm, landslide and inundation. The ministry of agriculture has said insurance companies must enrol 10 percent more non-loanee farmers than the previous season. They will also have to mandatorily spend 0.5 percent of their gross premium for publicity and awareness. PMFBY, launched in 2016, aims to provide insurance coverage and financial support to the farmers in the event of failure of any of the notified crop as a result of natural calamities, pests & diseases. The mission of the scheme is to not only stabilise the income of farmers but to encourage them to adopt modern agricultural practices. Unlike previous schemes, PMFBY is open for both loanee and non-loanee farmers. It covers food crops (cereals, millets and pulses), oilseeds as well as horticultural crops. It has a uniform premium of two percent to be paid by farmers for all Kharif crops and 1.5 percent for all Rabi crops. For commercial and horticultural crops, the farmers premium is five percent. The rest of the premium is paid equally by the centre and respective state governments. The prices of dollar-denominated bonds issued by the Lodha Group have fallen sharply, but Abhishek Lodha, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Mumbai-based company noted it has never delayed a payment, let alone default on the bonds in question. In an interview with CNBC-TV18 Lodha said, "This is a modest size $325 million bond issued in 2015 and maturing in 2020. This is not listed on any exchange. It's an over-the-counter (OTC) bond and has very small volumes." Lodha said the company has ample liquidity to service its dollar-denominated bonds and this is a situation of a very illiquid instrument. Further, he said Lodha Developers will exit the UK property market and is in the advanced stage to sell two of its residential projects in central London for about Rs 4,200 crore. The companys board is focused on ensuring a significant upgrade in its ratings in the next 12 months with the goal of being in the 'AA' category. On India business, Lodha said the company is expecting sales revenue of Rs 9,500 crore this year and the leasing business is growing robustly, "Our mid and affordable housing segments are doing very well." Source: CNBC-TV18 The Maharashtra government has stayed the land acquisition process for the controversial Nanar refinery project after consulting the Shiv Sena, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis told the Legislative Assembly Wednesday. The Sena, a ruling ally of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP)-led state government, has been opposing the project on the grounds that it is against the interest of the farmers and would destroy ecology in Ratnagiri district in the coastal Konkan region. "The government has not issued any new notice for land acquisition. After talks with Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, the entire process has been stayed," he said. The issue came up after Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patiltold the House thatjournalist Alok Deshpande of English daily The Hindu was manhandled by police at Azad Maidan in south Mumbai Tuesday night while covering a protest against the upcoming project. To this, Fadnavis said he would seek information about the incident and take appropriate action. Meanwhile, fourpersons, including two women seated in the visitors gallery of the House,were detained by the Vidhan Bhavan security for raising slogans demanding scrapping of the refinery project. Three Indian oil majors had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on April 11 this year with Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil company of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, to develop a refinery and petrochemicals complex in the coastal district. The Sena, rooted firmly in the Konkan region, has been opposing the project. In April this year, senior Sena leader and Industries Minister Subhash Desai had announced in Ratnagiri that a government notification for acquiring land for the project in Nanar stood cancelled. Desai's statement was negated by the chief minister who said that the order had not been cancelled. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More IT solutions firm Majesco on Wednesday said its US subsidiary has entered into a share purchase agreement to fully acquire Ireland's Exaxe Holdings for up to EUR 11.61 million (approx Rs 92.90 crore). Majesco USA said it has consummated the purchase of 90 percent of the securities. "Majesco USA has agreed to purchase, and the sellers have agreed to sell to Majesco USA, the remaining 10 percent of the securities on August 1, 2019," the company said in a regulatory filing. In consideration for purchase of the securities, Majesco USA paid the sellers EUR 6.39 million. In addition, Majesco USA agreed to make an additional payment to the sellers of EUR 0.72 million for the remainder of the securities on August 1, 2019. Majesco said a deferred consideration payment of up to EUR 4.50 million, based on achievement of adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) will be made for calendar years 2019, 2020 and 2021. "Accordingly, Exaxe has become a direct subsidiary of Majesco USA, and step-down subsidiary of the company," it added. Arvind Fashions' interest cost for FY20 was Rs 289 crore, while the operating profit for the same fiscal was Rs 231 crore. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Arvind shares fell as much as 71 percent in morning on Wednesday as it traded ex-demerger with effect from today. The stock hit fresh 52-week low of Rs 90.25, but it is the value of demerged entity which hived off from the main company. The scrip was quoting at Rs 98.45, down Rs 213, or 68.39 percent, at 10:15 hours IST. In same month last year, Arvind had announced the demerger of branded apparel and engineering businesses into separate entities which would be listed in 2019. After demerger, Arvind will have the textiles business (denim, fabric and garments), advanced material (AMD) and other businesses. Arvind Fashions, which will be holding company for all companies under brand & retail; and the engineering segment will be handled by Anup Engineering. In October 2018, the National Company Law Tribunal had sanctioned the Composite Scheme of Arrangement amongst Arvind Limited and Arvind Fashions Limited and Anveshan Heavy Engineering Limited and The Anup Engineering Limited and their respective shareholders and creditors. Arvind's shareholders will get five shares of Arvind Fashions and 27 shares of Anup Engineering for every share held in the parent firm. The main motive behind this demerger was to focus better on the core textiles business. While maintaining buy call on the stock with a new price target at Rs 114, Edelweiss said Arvind has been postponing investments in other segments in order to cater to the brand & retail (B&R) segment's capital requirements. This is now set to change, it believes. Post the demerger, the company has chalked out Rs 2,500 crore investments over FY18-23 in the garments (to enhance capacity 4x by FY23E) and AMD (around 3x revenue guidance by FY23) segments, and enhance their share from around 30 percent currently to around 50 percent by FY23E, incrementally driving majority of the growth. In garments, Arvind is planning to convert a major portion of its existing fabric business into garmenting orders driven by its one-stop integrated solutions and new capacity expansion, which will give it labour cost (Jharkhand & AP) and duty advantages (Ethiopia), Edelweiss said. Management is confident that the AMD segment will post robust growth aided by Arvinds tie-ups and certification & product approvals. Edelweiss said target prices for the demerged segments (expected to list in January 2019) - brand & retail (18x FY20E EV/EBITDA) at Rs 259 and engineering (7x FY20E EV/EBITDA) at Rs 21 remain unchanged, leading to revised target price of Rs 394 (Rs 474 earlier) for the combined entity. Axis Capital expects demerged Arvind's revenue CAGR at 12 percent and 20 percent EBIDTA CAGR over FY19-21. "The fair value of the textile business is Rs 157." Demerged company may post FY19 revenue/EBIDTA/PAT of Rs 7,400 crore/Rs 830 crore/Rs 320 crore, the research house said, adding demerged entity will now invest cash flows to grow textiles business. : The above report is compiled from information available on public platforms. Moneycontrol advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Majesco shares gained over a percent in morning on Wednesday after its US subsidiary acquired Ireland-based company that provides cloud software services. "This acquisition will strengthen and expand Majesco's software offerings in EMEA for the individual life, pensions and wealth management market while complementing Majescos software and Group focused customer base in the UK," the company said. Majesco, USA has entered into a Share Purchase Agreement for acquisition of all the issued share capital of Exaxe Holdings Limited, a private limited company incorporated in Ireland. Majesco said its subsidiary consummated the purchase of 90 percent of Exaxe's securities and agreed to purchase the remaining 10 percent of its securities on August 1, 2019. The US company made upfront payment of 6.39 million euro to sellers. In addition, Majesco, USA agreed to make an additional payment to the sellers of 0.72 million euro for the rest of 10 percent equity on August 1. "With this acquisition, we will focus on bringing continuous innovation to our customers, helping them take advantage of the market opportunities in insurance with cloud and digital transformation," Adam Elster, CEO of Majesco said. Accordingly, Exaxe has become a direct subsidiary of Majesco, USA and step-down subsidiary of the company, the cloud insurance technology services provider said. It said the subsidiary deferred consideration payment up to 4.50 million euro, which will be based on achievement of adjusted EBITDA for calendar years 2019, 2020 & 2021. Exaxe is a leading SaaS solutions provider with strong digital and robo-advice capabilities providing full lifecycle support for life, pension & wealth management products. It has presence in Ireland and United Kingdom (UK). At 09:45 hours IST, the stock was quoting at Rs 475.50, up Rs 4.10, or 0.87 percent on the BSE. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Orient Electric shares gained 4.7 percent intraday on Wednesday after signing strategic partnership with Italy-based company. "...has entered into a strategic partnership with De'Longhi Group, Italy," the company said in its filing. This partnership paves way for the entry of three international premium small appliances brands in India - De'Longhi, Kenwood and Braun, it added. The company said it would have exclusive rights to market and sell these brands in India after the partnership. Orient Electric is a manufacturer of ceiling fans, home appliances, lighting & switchgear. At 12:20 hours IST, the stock was trading at Rs 140.45, up Rs 3.10 or 2.26 percent on the BSE. Liquor manufacturers showed earnings momentum in the second half of last fiscal after revocation of the highway liquor ban by the Supreme Court in August last year. While demand has remained buoyant since, Q1 and Q2 earnings of companies operating in the alcohol beverage space appear mixed as the competitive intensity has picked up in recent months. The sectors prospects seem exciting as liquor consumption is on an uptrend. So, which midcap companies are worthy of investment from a long term view. The company delivered a stellar performance in Q2 FY19. Revenue jump of 15 percent year-on-year was aided by 11 percent volume growth. Benign raw material prices (molasses) and richer product mix (higher contribution from the premium segment) aided expansion in operating margin. Operating profit came in 39 percent higher at Rs 92 crore and profit after tax surged 73 percent to Rs 50 crore. Lower interest expenses, resulting from a reduction in debt, boosted bottomline. The balance sheet continues to strengthen as cash flow from operations and better working capital management resulted in repayment of debt of around Rs 200 crore in H1 FY19. The debt-to-equity ratio reduced to 0.3 times from 0.5 times over the same period. The company aims to repay all its long term borrowings by FY19-end and aims to be a zero debt company by FY21. SDBL had a disappointing September quarter as sales came in flat at Rs 70 crore. Topline remained stagnant despite the 5 percent price hike taken earlier this year, indicating that quarterly volumes contracted by mid-single digits. Operating profit slumped on account of a sharp contraction in operating margin. In Q2, the company commenced commercial production at its subsidiary -- Woodpecker Distilleries & Breweries Pvt -- located in Hassan, Karnataka. This plant has a manufacturing capacity of 34 lakh cases of beer and 27 lakh cases of IMFL (Indian-made foreign liquor). The management indicated that revenue from the Hassan unit will start accruing meaningfully from Q1 FY20. SDBL has also acquired a brewery (capacity 42 lakh cases) in Odisha for Rs 46 crore. It plans to incur an expenditure of around Rs 25-30 crore on upgradation of this manufacturing unit. The company had a strong FY18 on the back of a 39 percent growth in beer volumes. However, the base effect as well as competitive intensity seems to be catching up in FY19 as volumes de-grew in Q2 after a near 10 percent growth in Q1. Accordingly, the management has revised its yearly revenue guidance downwards to Rs 425 crore from Rs 500 crore at the end of FY18 and Rs 450 crore at the end of Q1 FY19. Incremental sales is being targeted through entry into newer markets: Karnataka, Kerala, West Bengal and Puducherry. For Globus Spirits, the growth in topline was driven by strong performance from the manufacturing segment. Revenue from the manufacturing space grew to Rs 127 crore in Q2 FY19 from Rs 97 crore in Q2 FY18. Accordingly, capacity utilisation of this segment improved to 91 percent from 88 percent. Around 45 percent of production is held for captive consumption, while the balance is leased out to market players. Globus restarted its Bihar-based manufacturing facility during October. The plant was shut last year due to restriction on manufacturing of extra neutral alcohol in the state. The consumer segment had a weak quarter. IMIL volumes declined 17 percent, which resulted in a revenue decline to Rs 98 crore in Q2 FY19 from Rs 105 crore YoY. On a regional basis, volumes in Rajasthan, Globus core operating market, continued to remain steady. While Haryana and Delhi reported significant volume contraction, West Bengal saw volume growth in excess of 20 percent. The company is also targeting entry into the premium IMFL segment through its subsidiary: Unibev. Its portfolio currently consists of Oakton (Scotch whisky), Governors Reserve (Scotch whisky) and LAffaire Napoleon (brandy). It aims to target southern markets through these brands in its first phase of expansion. Associated Alcohols & Breweries The Madhya Pradesh-based company posted a decent performance in the September quarter. Topline growth came in strong at 17 percent. Operating profit rose 9 percent as input costs inched up on a yearly basis. Lower interest expenses aided 37 percent growth in profit after tax. Performance during Q2 was robust considering that production at its Barwaha distillery plant (Khargone, Madhya Pradesh) underwent 30-day shutdown to expand capacity at its distillation plant to 140 kilo litres per day (KLPD) from 105 KLPD. The new unit is expected to start commercial operations from Q3 onwards. Liquor consumption presents an attractive opportunity as the country has a large young population and remains an underpenetrated market in the alcoholic beverage segment. The per capita consumption is India is far lower compared to western countries and provides huge growth opportunities. In our view, Radico Khaitan and Associated Alcohols remain well positioned to capitalise on market opportunities. Radico Khaitan commands 6 percent volume share in the IMFL segment. Its Magic Moments vodka brand is highly popular in the mid-market segment and commands a market share of more than 50 percent. The company has increased its advertising spends to enhance brand visibility and is also expanding its distribution channel to gain volumes across regions. Associated Alcohols enjoys a sticky business relationship with United Spirits and is a key manufacturing partner for its major brands such as Bagpiper, Directors Special, McDowells No. 1 and White Mischief. Earnings appear to be at inflection point as the company is nearing completion of its capacity expansion. Ramp-up of the facility is likely to be the key earnings catalyst and could result in a multiple re-rating. From a valuation standpoint, Radico Khaitan appears a bit expensive from a near term perspective. The stock should be kept on radar for accumulation in times of a correction. In contrast, around 12 times estimated FY19 earnings, Associated Alcohols appears fairly reasonable at current levels. Follow @Sach_Pal Experts, gathered in the city for an International smart cities workshop on sustainable urban development, on November 27 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. national green tribunal ngt The National Green Tribunal on November 27 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. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Shares of Dredging Corporation India gained 3 percent on Wednesday after company gets approval for disinvestment Government of India's shares in the company. Ministry of Shipping communicated in-principal approval of Cabinet for strategic disinvestment of 100 percent Government of India shares in company in favour of a consortium of four ports, namely Vishakhapatnam Port Trust (as the consortium leader), Paradip Port Trust, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust and Kandla Port Trust (now Deendayal Port Trust). Visakhapatnam Port Trust would lead the consortium. Government of India holds 73.47 percent of the paid up share capital of the company of Rs 28 crore. Shares of Dredging Corporation India ended 2.95 percent higher at Rs 368.10 on the BSE. The share touched its 52-week high Rs 920 and 52-week low Rs 286.60 on 08 January, 2018 and 09 October, 2018, respectively. Currently, it is trading 59.22 percent below its 52-week high and 30.91 percent above its 52-week low. Nitin Gadkari Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said the blue economy is a critical aspect of the India's economic development agenda and the country endorses its growth in a sustainable manner. Transport and Shipping Minister Gadkari, who is in Kenya to attend a conference on the blue economy, also said that Africa could be a good market for Indian electric vehicles and two-wheelers. "India 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)," Gadkari was quoted as said at the conference in Nairobi in a statement by the Ministry of Shipping. He said the blue economy remains a critical aspect of India's economic development agenda, and more than 95 percent of the country's trade is being carried on by sea. The minister was speaking at the 'Sustainable Blue Economy Conference' in Nairobi, hosted by Kenya with Canada and Japan as co-hosts. "Emphasising the importance that India lays on developing its maritime resources, Gadkari said that our National Vision in this regard is clearly articulated in the term SAGAR - Security and Growth for All in the Region - coined by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said that Prime Minister says that the 'blue chakra' of India's national flag represents the potential of the blue economy, and gave assurance that the Ministry of Shipping is committed to realising its full potential," the statement said. The minister talked about the government's ambitious Sagarmala Programme and how it is poised to revolutionise maritime logistics and port led developments in India. He said the programme has identified 600 plus projects entailing a huge investment of $120 billion (around Rs 8 lakh crore) by 2020. This in turn would save India $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 adding that Coastal Economic Zones (CEZs) are being developed with a proposed investment of $150 million per location under the programme. The minister said the programme is also focussing on the development of coastal communities and people through skill gap analysis, skill development centres to train coastal communities in the sustainable use of ocean resources, modern fishing techniques and coastal tourism. "An investment of $1.10 billion is planned across various coastal districts in India for this purpose. In addition to this, several green initiatives are also being taken in the coastal regions like 31 MW of captive solar power generation being planned at various ports, installation of oil spill response facilities and study to identify ways to re-use waste water at ports," the statement said. Talking about the important role of the private sector for sustainable growth, the minister said that industry body FICCI took lead in 2016-2017 by establishing a task force to develop a business model on India's engagement in the blue economy sector. Gadkari also held discussions with James Wainaina Macharia, the Kenyan Cabinet Secretary (Minister) Transport, Infrastructure, Housing and Urban Development, during which he offered India's cooperation to Kenya for ship-building, vessels for coast guard, fishing trawlers. He invited the Kenyan Minister to visit India and see the expertise of Cochin Shipyard Ltd in building ships, which would be required by the newly established Coast Guard of Kenya, and also fishing trawlers for deep sea fishing. "Gadkari further highlighted the development of electric cars and vehicles in India which could have market in Kenya. He also offered to encourage Indian car manufacturers to set up assembly plants in Kenya for the African market," the statement said. December 01, 2018 / 04:24 PM IST Re-polling will take place from 8 am to 5 pm at Mohri polling booth in Anuppur assembly segment of Madhya Pradesh today, an official said Friday. The Election Commission (EC) endorsed its observer's report which said there was a mismatch of 56 ballots at Mohri in Anuppur district during November 28 assembly polls, state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) V L Kantha Rao told PTI. The report prompted the EC to order re-polling in the booth. There was a difference of 56 in the number of voters' signatures in the register with the presiding officer and the number of votes recorded in the Electronic Voting Machine, he added. The state polls saw a voter turnout of 75.05 per cent in the elections, Rao had told the reporters Thursday. PTI Guy Carpenter: reinsurance sector proves resilience UK Reporter Rebecca Delaney Although a combination of tangible and intangible difficulties have created one of the most dynamic and volatile landscapes in recent market history, reinsurers still show resilience and adaptability 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. Navjot Singh Sidhu Violence must be stopped and peace should be restored between India and Pakistan, Punjab cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu said on Wednesday as he described the Kartarpur Corridor as a major opportunity to open the hearts of the people in the two neighbouring countries. Sidhu, who attended the groundbreaking ceremony of the Kartarpur Corridor on the Pakistani side, said both the government should realise that they have to move forward. Prime Minister Imran Khan Wednesday laid the foundation stone for the corridor linking Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan's Kartarpur - the final resting place of Sikh faith's founder Guru Nanak Dev - to Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India's Gurdaspur district. Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan is located across the river Ravi, about four kilometres from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine. 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. The Kartarpur Corridor, which will facilitate the visa-free travel of Sikh pilgrims on both sides, is expected to be completed within six months. Sidhu congratulated his 'friend' Khan for the initiative and hoped that their will be love and peace between both the nations. He said there had been enough bad blood and that the corridor would be a major opportunity to open the doors of the hearts of the people. "Violence must stop and peace should return to the region," he said. Sidhu said that both the nations should seek a path of brotherhood and live in harmony without any fear with the blessing of Guru Nanak Dev. Sidhu said that if the borders between both countries opened, it would be possible to transport goods to different parts of Pakistan and even others countries. "This is my hope, this is my dream ... While there is blood in my veins, I will continue to thank both governments," he said. "My father used to tell me that Punjab Mail went till Lahore, I believe that it can go further till Peshawar, till Afghanistan," he said. He said his "big hearted" friend Khan has kept his promise and ended 70 years of wait for the corridor. "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," he said ahead of the ceremony. There will be no dialogue with Pakistan unless it desists from terrorist activities against India, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj declared Wednesday, in a rebuff to Pakistan a day after Islamabad said it would invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the SAARC summit. She also said the Kartarpur corridor initiative was not linked to the dialogue process with Pakistan. "Unless and until Pakistan stops terrorist activities in India there will be no dialogue and we will not participate in SAARC," Swaraj told a press conference here. Swaraj's statement came hours before Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was to lay the foundation stone for the much-awaited corridor linking Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan's Kartarpur - the final resting place of Sikh faith's founder Guru Nanak Dev - to Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India's Gurdaspur district. India has been asking for a corridor, which will facilitate visa-free travel of Indian Sikh pilgrims to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, for many years and she said she was happy that Pakistan had for the first time responded positively. "But that does not mean that bilateral talks will start only on this," she said, adding terror and talks cannot go together. Pakistan Foreign Office Spokesman Mohammad Faisal had said on Tuesday that prime minister Modi will be invited to that country for the SAARC summit. India had pulled out of the 19th SAARC summit that was to be held in Islamabad after the deadly terrorist attack on an Indian Army camp in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir in September that year. The summit had to be called off after Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan also declined to attend. Maldives and Sri Lanka are the other two members of the regional grouping. No summit meeting of SAARC has happened ever since. Swaraj, who is campaigning here ahead of the Telangana elections on December 7, said, "The moment Pakistan stops terrorist activities in India, dialogue can start but the dialogue is not connected with only the Kartarpur corridor." live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Telecom operators' body COAI raised objections to trailers of Rajinikanth-Akshay Kumar-starrer '2.0' movie, which is set to hit the screens this week, saying that the promotional videos show mobile phones and towers in a bad light. Alleging that the content of the movie is "defamatory", the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said it has requested the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) to revoke the certification of the film. The COAI, whose members include Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea, has alleged that the promotional videos are based on the theme that electromagnetic field emissions from mobile phones and towers are harmful to living creatures and the environment, including birds and human beings. Such a depiction would create unfounded fear and mass paranoia by spreading misinformation about the adverse impact of mobile towers and mobile phones, the grouping said in a statement. The content of the movie is "defamatory to COAI and its members, endangers public order, presents anti-scientific attitudes, constitutes offences including under various sections of the IPC (Indian Penal Code) and is in violation of the provisions of the Cinematograph Act, 1952," it added. The big budget movie is to be released on November 29. "We have further requested the Censor Board to revoke the certification already granted including for the teaser, trailer and other promotional video and Tamil language version of the film with immediate effect until such time as CBFC makes a determination on our submission. "We have requested that the exhibition of the movie be suspended in the meantime," COAI Director General Rajan S Mathews said in the statement. The COAI has also alleged that the content of film is against the public interest, as it constitutes offences under Section 268 (public nuisance), Section 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) and Section 499 (defamation) of the Indian Penal Code and "stands to prejudice the ongoing proceedings before the Supreme Court over whether or not mobile towers have any harmful effects". adequately. Rajinikanth, who is preparing to enter politics, is expected to announce plans of launching a political party in the coming weeks, as per reports. Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik addresses the media in Jammu. (Image: PTI) Amid a ranging controversy over his remarks on dissolving the Jammu and Kashmir assembly, Governor Satya Pal Malik has said the threat of transfer remains as it is not in one's hands. At a function organised to pay tributes to Congress leader and former minister Girdhari Lal Dogra on his 31st death anniversary, he mentioned about the threat of transfer. "Girdhari Lal ji dedicated his life to the cause of the poor. As long as I am here, I will definitely come to pay my tributes to him... It (transfer) is not in one's hands. I will not lose my job but the threat of transfer remains, he said. The transfer remark by the governor drew chuckles from the audience. Malik said he was in Madhya Pradesh and was down with fever for the past two days. "But in politics, fever or injury is not taken note of and I returned to be part of this function which was very important for me, given the stature of the departed leader," he said. Malik at another event on November 24 had 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". Though there was no 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 People's Conference leader Lone to form the government, the chiefs of Peoples Democratic Party and National Conference --Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah-- complimented the governor for not taking "instructions" from Delhi thereby stopping the installation of a government of the "BJP and its proxies". However, Lone claimed misrepresentation of facts and gross distortion of "certain events" and said "We remain committed to offering an alternative to the traditional political system of exploitation, arrogance, entitlement and blackmail and will leave no stone unturned to rid the state of the tyranny of dynastic misrule and despotism". 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, he said, "Delhi ki taraf dekhta toh muje Lone ki sarkar banana padhti aur mein ithihas mein ek bayiman aadmi ke tor pe jana 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. Governor's rule was clamped in the state on June 19 for a six-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. Donald Trump and Narendra Modi US President Donald Trump will hold a trilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe this week on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Argentina, amidst China flexing its muscles in the strategic Indo-Pacific region. The trilateral, which would be an expansion of the bilateral meeting between Trump and Abe, is part of the series of meetings the US president would have on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires on November 30 and December 1, the White House said. 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 Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Briefing reporters ahead of the G-20 Summit, US National Security Advisor John Bolton said on Tuesday that Trump will meet with Abe, and then the two leaders will meet jointly with Modi. China is engaged in hotly contested territorial disputes in the South China Sea, and with Japan in the East China Sea. Both the areas are said to be rich in minerals, oil and other natural resources. China claims almost all of the South China Sea. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have overlapping claims in the waterway, which includes vital sea lanes through which about USD 3 trillion in global trade passes each year. The US has been conducting regular patrols in the South China Sea to assert freedom of navigation in the area where Beijing has built up and militarised many of the islands and reefs it controls in the region. Prime Minister Modi, in his keynote address at the Shangri La Dialogue in Singapore in June expounded India's stand on the strategic Indo-Pacific region. The Indo-Pacific is a natural region. It is also home to a vast array of global opportunities and challenges, he said. "India does not see the Indo-Pacific Region as a strategy or as a club of limited members. Nor as a grouping that seeks to dominate. And by no means do we consider it as directed against any country. A geographical definition, as such, cannot be," the prime minister explained. "India stands for open and stable international trade regime. We will also support rule-based, open, balanced and stable trade environment in the Indo-Pacific region, which lifts up all nations on the tide of trade and investment," he said. President 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. "The president will meet with President Putin and have a working dinner with President Xi," National Security Advisor Bolton said. Prime Minister Modi will also meet Chinese President Xi on the sidelines of the summit. It would be their fourth meeting in last seven months. Modi will also meet UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Mauricio Macri, the President of Argentina; Chilean President Sebastian Pinera, German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Security personnel stand guard as voters stand in a queue at a polling station during the state Assembly elections, at Kanhmun, Mizoram. The opposition BJP lacks knowledge of Mizo culture and there is a clash of tradition with the local people in its first serious attempt to enter the state Assembly, former Mizoram chief secretary and Mizo Peace Accord signatory Lalkhama said on November 28. After casting his vote at Zarkawt-II polling station here, the former bureaucrat expressed fears on the possibility of horse-trading post results as "too many" Independent candidates are contesting this time. The Mizo Peace Accord was signed on June 30, 1986 by Mizo National Front chief Laldenga, the then Union home secretary RD Pradhan and Lalkhama, who was the Mizoram chief secretary then, after 20 years of violence and disturbance in the state. "BJP lacks knowledge about the Mizo culture. When they talk about Indian nationhood, they talk about culture, tradition and customs. Mizo people think that they are not in that group of culture," Lalkhama told PTI in an interview here. The 87-year old, who was actively involved in the creation of the state of Mizoram, added that local people look at the BJP with apprehension due to a "clash of tradition" "People were also apprehensive of the possibility of use of money power by the BJP, but no such proof has been found yet. The BJP is contesting on a serious note for the first time. This fact makes the present election a bit different from the earlier ones," Lalkhama said. He also said the advent of the BJP into the picture and the possibility of money power coming into play have made it difficult to predict the outcome of this election. "There is an apprehension that money power will play its game after the results are out. This time too many Independent candidates are fighting the elections. It never happened earlier. If they win, that will create the possibility of horse-trading," the veteran citizen said. On February 20, 1987, Lalkhama had read out the proclamation of statehood at a public meeting organised at Aizawl's Parade Ground in the presence of the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. The ruling Congress and the MNF have fielded 40 candidates each this time, while the BJP is looking to open its account in the state for the first time by contesting in 39 seats. The ZPM and the Zoram Thar have put up 38 and 23 candidates respectively, but these two parties have not registered themselves with the Election Commission, thereby making their contestants Independents. Besides, two other Independents are in the fray, which takes the total number of Independent candidates contesting this year's Mizoram Assembly elections to 63. The Congress has been in power in Mizoram since 2008 and is eyeing a third consecutive term. In the 2013 Assembly elections, the Congress had won 34 seats, while the MNF had five and the Mizoram People's Conference bagged one. The Congress and the MNF left no stones unturned to woo voters, while the BJP launched a spirited campaign in this strategically important northeastern state, sandwiched between Myanmar and Bangladesh, with party national president Amit Shah declaring that Christmas will be celebrated in Mizoram under the BJP rule this December. Mizoram is being seen by the BJP leaders as the "final frontier" in its 'Congress-free North East' campaign as the party has already secured power in Assam, Tripura, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh, besides joining the ruling coalitions in Meghalaya and Nagaland. Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar The Goa Congress will launch a statewide agitation on November 30 to demand a "full-time" chief minister for the state in place of the ailing Manohar Parrikar, a senior party leader said on November 28. Goa is in the "ICU", state Congress committee chief Girish Chodankar said. Parrikar, 62, has been recuperating at his private residence near here since October 14, when he was discharged from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi. Last week, hundreds of people, including some Congress leaders, had marched to Parrikar's residence, demanding his resignation and a "full-time" chief minister for Goa. "We have now decided to go to people with the issue and launch a taluka (administrative division)-wise agitation," Chodankar told PTI. The Congress will begin its agitation from Bicholim on November 30, followed by Pernem on December 1. All the talukas will be covered subsequently in due course of time, he said. The party will hold "awareness campaigns" across the state, Chodankar said. "We will expose this (Bharatiya Janata Party-led) government...we will highlight how Goa has suffered due to the absence of a full-time chief minister. The last cabinet meeting was also not chaired by the chief minister. Goa is in the ICU (intensive care unit)," he said. The Congress leader said they are demanding restoration of governance in the state. "We want a full-time chief minister who will hold regular cabinet meetings and advice Goa governor. Right now, nobody knows what is happening. Who is running the government in the chief minister's name? We don't know who is signing the documents and who is taking the decisions," he said. It is clear from the photographs released recently by government that Parrikar is not in a position to take any decision, Chodankar claimed. He said the Congress' agitation on this issue started long back when they observed a "century" (100 days) without the chief minister. The state Congress leaders had also protested when BJP president Amit Shah was in Goa and met the governor four-five times, he noted. Women from the Gond tribe cast their votes during the Madhya Pradesh assembly election in the tribal village of Renghajhori, about 40 Kilometre (km) from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh. (Image: AP) Incumbent chief minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chouhan, his wife Sadhna Singh and two sons Kartikeya and Kunal show their marked fingers after casting their votes at Jait village in Bhopal. (Image: PTI) People belonging to the Gond tribe cast their votes in Chirapondi, about 50 km from Jabalpur. (Image: PTI) Madhya Pradesh Congress President Kamal Nath shows his ink-marked finger after casting vote for in Chhindwara. (Image: PTI) 26-year-old Arti Maravi, belonging to the Gond tribe, gets ready to cast her vote for the assembly election in Renghajhori village. (Image: AP) Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, along with her grand-daughter, shows her finger marked with indelible ink after casting her vote in Indore. (Image: PTI) Muslim women show their fingers marked with indelible ink after casting votes for Assembly elections, outside a polling station in Bhopal. (Image: PTI) People wait with their identity cards to cast their votes for the Assembly elections, in Jabalpur. (Image: PTI) First-time voters show their fingers marked with indelible ink after casting votes for the assembly elections, at a polling station in Bhopal. (Image: PTI) People wait with their identity cards in serpentine queues to cast their votes at a polling booth in Jabalpur. (Image: PTI) Around 27 percent voter turnout was recorded till 1 pm on Wednesday during elections to the 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly while two polling officials died on duty, officials said. There were also complaints of technical snags in the electronic voting machines at some places following which 70 EVMs were replaced at various polling booths, MP's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) V L Kantha Rao said. Two polling officials died due to health issues while performing their duties in Indore and Guna districts, another election official said. The families of these employees would be given an ex-gratia of Rs 10 lakh each, he said. According to a public relations officer of the Election Commission, around 27 percent voters exercised their franchise till 1 pm. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who is the Bharatiya Janata Party's candidate from Budhni seat, and his wife Sadhana Singh cast their votes at his native village Jait, which is part of his Assembly constituency. Earlier, Chouhan also offered prayers at a local temple. The Congress has fielded former Union minister Arun Yadav against Chouhan. Congress state president Kamal Nath cast his vote in Chhindwara district while the party's campaign committee chief Jyotiraditya Scindia exercised his franchise in Gwalior. Nath expressed concern over complaints of technical snags in EVMs. "Several reports are coming from across the state that EVMs are not working. This has been affecting the polling. Long queues are being witnessed in the city. EC should immediately take decision. The EVMs should be changed," he said in a tweet. Polling is being held from 8 am to 5 pm in 227 seats, while in three Assembly segments of Lanji, Paraswada and Baihar in the Naxal-affected Balaghat district, the voting time is between 7 am to 3 pm. Rao said polling was going on peacefully in all the Assembly constituencies and long queues were seen in the Naxal-affected seats and other places. 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. Over three lakh government employees, including nearly 45,000 women, are on poll duty across the state. Shekhar Iyer Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan won't deny that this year's electioneering was one of the hardest and most challenging campaigns when compared to previous assembly polls during his three terms in office. As voters make a beeline to the polling booths on Wednesday, one cannot but help recalling the mood in the BJP in 2013, which was in sharp contrast to the one today. Back then, Chouhan was the talisman for the BJP. There was virtually no one who thought he would not make it again. Much before Narendra Modi (who was then Gujarat Chief Minister) emerged as BJP's campaign face and was formally declared as the PM candidate, BJP patriarch LK Advani had almost projected Chouhan as one of his favourite picks. One recalls Advani speaking at the Madhya Pradesh state executive meet in Gwalior in June 2013, when he thought Chouhan had done better than Modi. "I always tell Narendra Modi that Gujarat was already prosperous, 'You have multiplied the development there'... But Madhya Pradhesh and Chhattisgarh were not so prosperous... After multiplying the rate of development in Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj-ji is still humble as a person." Advani even went to the extent of comparing Chouhan to the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. "Ataljis greatest quality was his politeness. Shivraj-ji also, even after all these years, is untouched by arrogance." Chouhan was the BJP's secular face, an OBC messiah, and a mass leader who understood the farmers because he was one of them. There were many then to suggest that he would have been a more acceptable face because he did not have any baggage if he were to shift to the Centre. Today, the times have changed for Chouhan and the BJP. As he crisscrossed the state this time, Chouhan could, perhaps, sense the diminishing returns of his 13 years in office though he has had more achievements than any other CM candidate in the race. Watch | Madhya Pradesh Polls Decoded in 3 Minutes Just as it was in 2013, this year too, the election in Madhya Pradesh is centred on him. Of course, Modi campaigned for him as a force multiplier, but, Chouhan is still the main poster boy. Unlike in 2013, Chouhan was certainly less of a challenger to Modi. Chouhan was defending his own fort, assisted by Modi and other central BJP leaders who could not find an alternative to Chouhan despite several anti-incumbency issues at work. It is clear that if Chouhan wins yet another mandate for the BJP, he will be setting a record for himself and staving off one of the fiercest challenges from the Congress in a decade. In doing so, however, Chouhan will come to the aid of Modi for whom a win in Madhya Pradesh is a much-needed shot in the arm ahead of next year's Lok Sabha polls. On the other hand, a defeat would be made to rest squarely on Chouhan's shoulders. Surely, Modi will not be able to escape the fallout but Chouhan would be paying the main political price. Modi and BJP President Amit Shah will have to move on to fight the mega battle for the Lok Sabha. It's a different matter that neither Modi nor Chouhan think that such a fate awaits them when the results become known on December 11. Chouhan is counting on the various schemes his government has rolled out for women the Ladli Laxmi Yojana, the distribution of cycles to girls, and the Kanya Vivah Scheme. He is also counting on various other programmes that have improved basic infrastructure such as electricity, roads and water supply. His deals for the farmers still appear lucrative, but the Congress' promise of a huge loan waiver has threatened the BJP's game in many parts of the state. There is a sense of "badlaav" or a desire for change among the voters. Though the Congress has shown the intent to tap the latent discontent and fatigue, it is yet to be seen if whether the party has the capacity to harness this mood for change. The farmer protest in Mandsaur in June 2017 demanding higher crop prices and debt relief is cited as the point where the tide turned against the state government. Similarly, some reports suggest that small traders are still upset with Modis demonetisation and the rollout of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). During the campaign both Modi and Chouhan focused on the achievements over the past 15 years and compared it to those of the preceding Congress governments. However, some BJP leaders have admitted that 15 years is a long time in politics and the promises made by the Congress could appear more appealing to the people. (Shekhar Iyer is former senior associate editor of Hindustan Times and political editor of Deccan Herald. The views expressed are personal) The Opposition Left Front and the Congress on November 28 staged a walkout from the Assembly after their demand for an adjournment motion over various issues was turned down by the Speaker. The Assembly witnessed unruly scenes as the Opposition MLAs came down to the well of the House after war of words erupted between them and the treasury benches. The Opposition had been demanding an adjournment motion over the issue of non formation of a panchayat board in Purulia despite the completion of rural poll process in May this year. The adjournment motion was rejected by the Speaker Biman Banerjee, following which the MLAs of the Left Front and Congress came down to the well of the House and shouted slogans against the government. The Speaker cautioned Congress Chief whip Manoj Chakraborty to mind his language. While speaking to reporters later on, Leader of Opposition Abdul Mannan of the Congress said the party was even ready to sweep the floor of the House clean but how can the ruling Trinamool Congress rid the scars it has put on the "face on parliamentary democracy" by trying to "scuttle" the voice of the opposition. State Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee condemned the activities of the Opposition MLAs and said they are trying to malign the dignity of the House. KT Rama Rao (Image: Facebook/@KTRTRS) As TRS makes a determined bid to retain power in Telangana, party leader K T Rama Rao expressed confidence people will cast "decisive votes" in its favour in the upcoming assembly polls, asserting his father and interim chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao is enough to neutralise any anti-incumbency sentiment against the party. Claiming that people in the country's newest state that took birth in 2014 are aware of the TRS government's developmental work, Rao said the party is banking on his father and his vision to come to power again, hoping to get 100 seats in the 119-member house. Popularly known as KTR, 42-year-old Rao is contesting for the third time from Sircilla constituency, 140 km from Hyderabad, in the December 7 assembly polls. He won with over 53,000 votes against a Congress candidate in the 2014 assembly elections. 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 "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 cast their vote. He said 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 do not 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 per cent that is lower than the country's average and than that of many other states, he added. Rao also rejected suggestions that there is a power tussle within the family and said his father will be the chief minister for the 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 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 the party has turned a power-deficit state into a power-surplus state, irrigation projects are near 90 per cent completion and the state government has brought 38 lakh hectares 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 1,500 or 1,600, subject to correction, farmers suicides have come down by 54 per cent 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 added. Congress President Rahul Gandhi The Congress will release its election manifesto for the December 7 Rajasthan polls on Thursday. PCC president Sachin Pilot, former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, chairman of the manifesto committee Harish Chaudhary and other senior leaders of the party will release the manifesto, a party spokesperson said. The party president Rahul Gandhi has already announced to waive farmers' loan within 10 days if the party forms government in the state. Supporters of Congress party are framed by the party's symbols installed at the venue where Rahul Gandhi is addressing a rally at Bardoli As the BJP and the Congress slug it out in the battle for Rajasthan, a third-front of seven parties is taking shape with its chief ministerial face and firebrand farmer leader Amra Ram asserting that it's time to end the state's two-party system of "divide, loot and rule". 'Comrade' Ram, as the CPM state secretary is called by his party colleagues, is confident that the mega alliance will put up a tough fight and said that it would not be surprising if they become a king-maker like the JDS in Karnataka. Talking to PTI on his campaign tour in Godiyawas village in Danta Ramgarh, the 63-year-old Left leader said there was a cycle in Rajasthan of the Congress and the BJP "looting" the state for alternate five years. This time the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will definitely lose but the Congress will not be able to win, he claimed. The seven-party alliance called the Loktantrik Morcha, whose chief ministerial face is Ram, has got Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), Marxist Communist Party of India (United), Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Lok Dal and Janata Dal (Secular). Asserting that the representation by Left parties in the Rajasthan Assembly will touch a record high in these elections, Ram said, "It will not be a surprise that like in Karnataka, the two main parties are left high and dry and a third force heads the government." Ram, who is also the vice president of All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), had led a massive farmers' agitation against the state government last year and was in jail for several days. "In the last five years, the BJP government has worked against everybody -- farmers, workers and backwards. It did not fulfil even a single poll promise, Ram said. When asked about the reason for being so upbeat even though his party drew a blank in the last election, he said the CPM has worked on making the government concede to the common man's demands in past five years -- be it the issue of electricity rates, waiving farmers loans, fixing prices for farmers' produce, crop insurance scheme or the irrigation related issues. Before the CPI got divided to form CPM, the party had a representation from five seats, he said, talking about the Left's past electoral performance in Rajasthan. In 2008, the CPM had won three seats. Slamming the Congress for "peddling soft-Hindutva", Ram accused the party of staying silent and not playing the role of the largest opposition party inside the assembly. He also took on the BJP saying it makes a fool of the people by talking about Hindutva and remembers Ram temple only during elections. The issue is neither of temple, nor the cow, the real issue is of people's lives, he added. "Rajasthan is also number-1 in killing of innocent people by lynch mobs and there are several instances of atrocities on dalits -- on all these issues the CPI(M) has played the role of the chief opposition party on the streets," Ram said. He asserted that earlier whoever won from Left parties did so on their own credentials, but this time there was support for the party as a whole. The CPM is fighting on 28 seats, while the CPI is fighting on 20 seats in the upcoming polls. The alliance assumes significance as the constituent parties have influence in some pocket boroughs. In 2008 elections, the Congress had stopped four short of majority, but later six legislators of Mayawati's BSP had defected to join the Ashok Gehlot government. Ram, who has won from here once and thrice from the nearby constituency of Dhod that was later reserved, exuded confidence that the non-BJP, non-Congress front of the Loktantrik Morcha will do well. "Our slogan will be takht badal do, taj badal do, beimanon ka raj badal do' (change the throne, change the crown, change the rule of the corrupt), he said with a smile on his face. Ram is pitted against Congress' Virendra Singh and the BJP's Harish Chandra Kumawat. Rajasthan will be voting for its 200-member assembly on December 7 and counting will take place on December 11. Congress President Rahul Gandhi Mounting a scathing attack on Telangana's ruling TRS, Congress president Rahul Gandhi called it the "B team" of the RSS and BJP. "TRS is not Telangana Rashtra Samiti, it's Telangana Rashtriya Sangh Parivar. It's a B team of the RSS and BJP," he told an election rally here. The Congress has cobbled together a coalition of opposition parties that includes N Chandrababu Naidu's TDP, CPI and the newly formed TJS to take on the TRS and the BJP in the state. The TRS and BJP are contesting the assembly polls separately. He also assailed the TRS of caretaker Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for his party's understanding with AIMIM of Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, and said the two parties wanted to ensure that the BJP was not defeated in next year's Lok Sabha polls. "The aim of TRS and AIMIM is to see to it that the Congress is not able to defeat BJP at the national level," he said. Polling began on Wednesday morning for the 40-member state Assembly amid tight security in Mizoram, 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 voting process started at 7am and will continue till 4 pm, election office sources said. A total of 7,70,395 electorates, which includes 3,94,897 female voters, would seal the fates of 209 candidates - 15 of them women, the sources said. Long queues of enthusiastic voters were seen outside many polling stations early in the day. Former chief minister and opposition Mizo National Front (MNF) chief Zoramthanga was among the first ones to exercise franchise at 7am. Zoramthanga cast his vote at Ramhlun polling booth in Aizawl North-II constituency. Meanwhile, Bru voters from six relief camps in North Tripura district arrived at Kanhmun village, along Mizoram-Tripura border, where 15 temporary polling stations were erected around 6am. The voters had to walk around 500 metres from the interstate border to reach the polling stations, where members of local civil societies welcomed them with pork curry. Altogether, 47 of 1,179 polling booths have been classified as 'critical' and as many as 'vulnerable' by the Election Commission. The election office sources said 40 companies of central armed police force in addition to the state police force have been deployed to ensure free and fair polls. Each constituency has one polling booth exclusively for women voters, manned by women polling and security personnel. These booths have been named after a flower called 'Dingdi'. While the ruling Congress and the main opposition Mizo National Front (MNF) are contesting all 40 seats, the BJP has fielded candidates in 39 constituencies. Zoram People's Movement (ZPM), a conglomerate of two political parties - the Zoram Nationalist Party (ZNP) and Mizoram People's Conference (MPC) - and five other groups, are in the fray for 35 seats. 'Zoramthar', an unregistered political party, has fielded candidates in 13 constituencies, while the National People's Party and the Nationalist Congress Party are contesting eight seats and five seats respectively. Six independents are also in the fray. Borders with neighbouring countries Myanmar and Bangladesh and states Tripura, Assam and Manipur have been sealed since Sunday in view of the polls. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Three months after Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) dragged Mahindra & Mahindra to court over violation of intellectual property rights (IPR), the investigative staff appointed by the US Trade Commission has barred FCA from pursuing the investigation further. If the US Trade Commission accepts the findings of the Commission Investigative Staff the Mumbai-based M&M will be allowed to import the Roxor off-road vehicle from India to market them locally in the US. This could prove to be a huge setback for FCA which had accused M&M of copying the Jeeps grille design for the Roxor. Jeep is an FCA brand. The Commission Investigative Staff believes that Mahindra & Mahindra and Mahindra Automotive North America, Inc. met their burden of establishing that FCA US LLC is contractually barred from enforcing its intellectual property rights against Mahindras importation of the accused vehicle," said a statement from the Staff. FCA is contractually barred from pursuing this investigation if Mahindras vehicles contain or use the approved grille design. The evidence shows that Mahindras Roxor uses the approved grille design. Thus, the record supports a finding that Mahindra met its burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that FCA is contractually barred from pursuing this Investigation," the statement further added. Though exact details are not made public more than 4,000 units of the Roxor are believed to have been retailed till now in the US. M&M exports kits of the Roxor in CKD form which is later assembled in the US. Fiat Chrysler has termed Roxor sale as unlawful and unauthorised. Speaking to analysts Pawan Goenka, Managing Director, M&M said, We are looking to sell 4,500-5,000 Roxors by end of this financial year." M&M launched the Roxor, an off-road but not street legal, SUV in March 2018 in the US. Priced at $15000 and powered by 2.5 litres, 4 cylinder diesel engine, the Roxor is based on the Thar with no doors and no hard top roof and without a windscreen. This is the second instance of M&M trying to enter the US market. In an earlier instance, M&M had planned to launch its SUVs in the US in 2009. But due to regulatory issues, the launch never happened forcing its dealer partners in the US to file a lawsuit against the company in mid-2012. M&M recently dropped plans of launching its Korean SUV-making subsidiary SsangYong in the US though entering the US market was one of the long-term strategies of the company. Mahindra has no right to use the Jeep IP. FCA owns and retains full rights in the Jeep IP and has not granted a license to Mahindra to use the Jeep IP in any country, including the United States. FCAs predecessors did have prior dealings with Mahindra India, granting Mahindra India limited contractual rights to manufacture and/or sell Jeep branded components and products in India beginning in the 1940s. And none of those contracts at any time granted Mahindra India (or any other Mahindra entity) ownership rights over Jeep brand-related intellectual property. Nor did any of these past agreements grant any rights to manufacture, sell, or advertise vehicles, such as the Accused Products, incorporating the Jeep IP in the United States, FCA had said. Correction: An earlier version of this report inadvertently concluded that M&M had won the case against Fiat Chrysler for selling the Roxor in the US. Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani on November 28 announced a 12-person team for prospective peace talks with the Taliban, as the UN renewed calls for direct negotiations between Kabul and the militants. The Afghan government, Western diplomats and United Nations officials have in recent weeks raised hopes of finally reaching a deal to end the Taliban's 17-year insurgency. At an international conference on Afghanistan in Geneva, Ghani said his government had "formed a 12-person negotiating team, comprised of both women and men, and led by presidential chief of staff (Abdul Salam) Rahimi". Rahimi, a former humanitarian worker and ex-deputy Afghan finance minister, is considered one of Ghani's closest aides. The president also laid out what he termed a "roadmap" for the talks and four principles that he said must form the backbone of any agreement. They include respecting Afghanistan's constitution and the total rejection of interference in domestic affairs by foreign "terrorist" and criminal groups. "We seek a peace agreement in which the Afghan Taliban would be included in a democratic and inclusive society," Ghani said. Civil society activists in Geneva for the conference voiced concern this week that in pursuing a deal the Kabul government may give ground on women's rights to the Taliban, a group notorious for its oppressive treatment of women. Ghani's government has won UN praise for trying to redress extreme gender gaps in Afghanistan and the president assured diplomats in Geneva that he would not compromise on women's rights as part of a peace deal. US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who held talks with the Taliban in Qatar earlier this month, had been pushing Ghani to announce a team for prospective talks. Kabul has offered to meet face-to-face with the Taliban without preconditions, but the insurgents have not yet committed to direct negotiations. In a message read to the conference from UN chief Antonio Guterres, deputy under-secretary general Rosemary A DiCarlo said: "We may have a rare opportunity to move to direct peace talks between the Afghan Government and the Taliban." "We must not miss it." The European Union foreign affairs chief, Federica Mogherini, told the conference that the bloc believes "it is time for concrete talks about peace to begin". The EU is prepared to act as the "guarantor" of the negotiations, she added. Ghani said earlier this month it was "not a question of if, but when" an agreement would be reached with the Taliban. Khalilzad has said he is "cautiously optimistic" for an end to the conflict. Imran Khan Speaking at the ground-breaking ceremony of the Kartarpur corridor, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said it was impossible for India and Pakistan to go to war because both have nuclear weapons. We want to have a civilised relationship with India, Khan said. Khan also said the two countries should forget the past and move forward. Past teaches us that we need to keep moving forward, Khan said. If France and Germany can be part of a union and move forward, why cant we? Khan said while addressing the gathering. We have just one issue Kashmir. Humans have reached the Moon. Why cant we solve this problem? There is no issue that cannot be resolved. You can imagine the potential. Both nations can benefit, Khan added. Khan said the civilian government and the Pakistani Army were on the same page on the Kashmir dispute. Talking about the flak Navjot Singh Sidhu faced in India, he said, "I heard there was a lot of criticism of Sidhu when he went back after my oath-taking ceremony. I don't know why was he criticised. He was just talking about peace and brotherhood. He can come and contest election here in Pakistan's Punjab, he'll win. I hope we don't have to wait for Sidhu to become Indian PM for everlasting friendship between our nations." Khan on November 28 laid the foundation stone for a corridor linking Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur the final resting place of Sikh faith's founder Guru Nanak Dev to Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district, India to facilitate visa-free movement of Indian Sikh pilgrims. Khan promised to upgrade facilities in Kartarpur. Union Ministers Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Singh Puri represented India at the event. Punjab Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu also attended the ceremony. I am grateful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who have been working relentlessly for the last seven months for this occasion, Badal said. Addressing the gathering, Punjab Cabinet Minister for tourism and cultural affairs Sidhu thanked Khan for beginning the construction of the corridor and said the corridor will promote connectivity. Kartarpur Sahib is located in Pakistan across the Ravi River, about 4 km from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine. 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. The development comes ahead of Guru Nanak's 550th birth anniversary in 2019. The corridor was first proposed by India around 20 years ago. Pakistan had last week announced that it would develop the corridor on their respective side of the border to help Indian pilgrims visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur. (With inputs from PTI) New Zealand's largest telecoms carrier Spark said on Wednesday that the country's intelligence agency had barred it from using equipment provided by China's Huawei in its 5G network as it posed "significant national security risks". The move follows reports the United States is urging its allies to exclude the Chinese telecoms giant from 5G rollouts over cybersecurity fears. Spark said in a statement that it was legally obliged to inform the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) about its 5G plans. It said GCSB chief Andrew Hampton had raised concerns about the use of Huawei Radio Access Network (RAN) in the new network and declined the proposed rollout. "The director-general has informed Spark today that he considers Spark's proposal to use Huawei 5G equipment in Spark's planned 5G RAN would, if implemented, raise significant national security risks," Spark said. The firm called the decision "disappointing" and said it would decide its next action after examining the detailed reasoning behind Hampton's conclusion. It still expected to complete its 5G network by July 2020. Hampton confirmed Spark's announcement in a brief statement. "The GCSB under its (legislative) responsibilities, has recently undertaken an assessment of a notification from Spark. I have informed Spark that a significant network security risk was identified," he said. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang expressed "deep concern" over the ban. "The Chinese government encourages Chinese enterprises to follow market principles and international regulations, and develop overseas economic partnerships on the basis of abiding by local laws," he said. "The economic and trade partnerships between China and New Zealand are mutually beneficial. We hope that New Zealand will offer a level playing field for Chinese enterprises operating in New Zealand, and do more to benefit mutual trust and partnerships." Huawei -- one of the world's largest telecommunications equipment and services providers -- has been under scrutiny in some countries, including the United States and Australia, over its alleged close links to Beijing authorities. China has long disputed accusations of security risks and the firm's links to state intelligence services. New Zealand is a member of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, which also includes the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia. China is one of its main trading partners but Wellington has become increasingly concerned about Beijing's influence in the Pacific recently. In response, New Zealand has boosted its Pacific aid programme to reinforce its presence in a region it considers its own sphere of influence. A tragic turn of events has put seven employees of IL&FS in Ethiopia in danger due to non-payment by the company. In a tweet put out by Neeraj Raghuwanshi, it has come to light that employees, including himself, are being kept hostage by the local labour and staff for the past four days as they are unhappy over non-payment of creditors and their salaries. #SOS We 7 employee from #ILFS are hostages by local labor/staff at in Ethiopia from last 4 days coz of nonpayment of creditors and local salaries. #ILFS denied to send fund from India. Kindly save us. Day2day situation worsening @narendramodi @sushmaswaraj @udaykotak @arunjaitley neeraj raghuwanshi (@chota86) November 27, 2018 As we know in the continuing saga of the IL&FS mess, in order to cauterise the relentless hemorrhaging, majority of their foreign subsidiaries are being shut down. Almost all international offices will essentially be shut down immediately as part of the new action plan which the Uday Kotak-helmed board will give to the court. It is to be expected that majority of the subsidiaries will be wound up while the rest are scaled down considerably. In 2016, IL&FS had won a Rs1,525 crore road contract in Ethiopia by submitting its winning bid to the Ethiopian Roads Authority. At that time, the Authority had awarded IL&FS a long-term contract for completing multiple road projects in Ethiopia for a period of eight years. We now know that IL&FS has run out of money to keep the project going and has been undergoing the process of shutting down its business in the country. Mr Raghuwanshis heartbreaking tweet now informs us that the companys woes have quite literally become a dangerous situation for these seven stranded employees. Mr Kotak, who now heads the new board, has been alerted about the plight of the employees and has asked the ITNL board to look into the issue. The Ethiopian company is one of the maze of foreign companies below ITNL, said a top level source in the new management. Apparently, this is also not the first time such a case has occurred with IL&FS Transportation. A few years back, there was a similar instance in Nagaland when employees lives were threatened by militants in the area. IL&FS Transportation was contracted for a mega project of constructing two-lane roads connecting various locations under the Special Accelerated Road Development Programme in the Northeast. This project was plagued by extortion from several different militant factions who successfully extorted several lakhs of rupees. There were instances when rebel groups took away the keys of all the excavators working in the area and demanded for huge sums of money for return of the keys. The project was delayed by several years and the company tried to lay the blame at the feet of the militant groups. Not having received a satisfactory response from the company, Mr Raghuwanshi has resorted to putting out this tweet and tagging prime minister Narendra Modi, and his Cabinet colleagues Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley and Mr Kotak, who is heading the debt-ridden group, to perhaps draw some attention to their misfortune. In a series of tweets, he has also posted a screenshot of an email that pleads for help, stating that the local administrations (will) put us behind the bars or may local staff will kill us because of the companys fault. His message reiterates that the employees are only to blame for being loyal to the company and sticking out with this project to the end. From his mail, it seems that these stranded employees have met with the Ethiopian Road Authority who have suggested that they should first pay any outstanding salaries of the local labours only after which would they be able to take any action. To their disappointment, even the Indian Embassy told them that this was only the fault of you employees (of IL&FS), you did not complain earlier to take action, in emergency you people are complaining. The Indian Embassy has apparently written to the management of the company and will take any action after receiving a response. It is sad to see that these employees are being caught in this mess in such a way that neither the Ethiopian Road Authority nor the Indian Embassy is able to provide any help. This dire turn of events has led Mr Raghuvanshi to send out such a cry for help. Update: Moneylife has learnt that ITNL (Infrastructure Transportation Network Ltd), the publicly listed IL&FS subsidiary, is already aware of the problem and is in discussions with the Ethiopian side. We have further learnt that the Ethiopian project has been given some guarantees by Indian institutions and the board, and the Ethiopian Road Authority is in talks to invoke those guarantees and release Indian employees. We had mentioned in Wednesdays closing report that Nifty, Sensex might try to rally. The major indices of the Indian stock markets suffered a further correction on Thursday and closed with losses over Wednesdays close. On the NSE, there were 671 advances, 1,042 declines and 350 unchanged. The trends of the major indices in the course of Thursdays trading are given in the table below: The key equity indices traded lower on Thursday after ceding initial gains owing to profit booking. Although the indices traded in the red, the overall market breadth was positive with 1,245 advances and 1,159 declines. Also, a decline in crude oil prices and a strengthening rupee capped further losses. The domestic currency rose to Rs71.13 from its previous close of 71.45 while the benchmark Brent Crude traded $63.37 a barrel. Selling pressure was witnessed in the metal and power stocks which fell over 1% whereas the index pivotals -- finance and banking -- were 0.27% and 0.66% lower from its previous close. Housing finance company DHFL reported a whopping 52% rise in net profit for the second quarter ending September at Rs439 crore on the back of improved operating performance. According to a DHFL statement, the company posted a profit after tax (PAT) of Rs288 crore in the same quarter last year. DHFL said its assets under management (AUM) as on the end of the quarter in consideration at Rs1,30,182 crore grew by 38% over Rs94,079 crore at the end of the same quarter last year. The company's total income during the July-September quarter at Rs3,468 crore was up 32% over Rs2,632 crore earned in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Loan book outstanding during the second quarter at Rs1,10,093 crore grew 35% over Rs81,380 crore on this count during the corresponding quarter of the previous year. The market perhaps does not believe in the data. DHFL shares closed at Rs232.40, down 1.06% on the BSE. Automobile major Maruti Suzuki India launched the next generation of its multi-utility vehicle 'next gen Ertiga'. According to the company, the new vehicle's petrol powered version is priced between Rs7.44 lakh and Rs9.95 lakh while the diesel fuelled variant costs between Rs8.84 lakh and Rs10.90 lakh. Maruti Suzuki shares closed at Rs7,409.95, down 0.08% on the BSE. Indoco Remedies reported that the US FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has conducted an inspection at the company's Sterile facility (Plant II) and Solid Dosages facility (Plant III) situated at Verna Industrial Estate, Goa and concluded with two minor observations. The companys shares closed at Rs206.40, up 20% on the BSE. Pennar Industries reported that the Pennar Group has bagged orders worth Rs317 crore across its various business verticals and the subsidiary, PEBS Pennar. The companys shares closed at Rs37.80, down 0.40% on the BSE. Glenmark Pharma has been granted final approval by the US FDA for Atovaquone Oral Suspension USP, a generic version of GSK's Mepron Oral Suspension. The companys shares closed at Rs638.95, down 0.35% on the BSE. GMR Infra reported that the Kakinada Gateway Port, a subsidiary of Kakinada SEZ, has signed the Concession Agreement with Government of Andhra Pradesh for the development of green-field commercial port on DBFOT basis on Kona Village, East Godavari with an investment of Rs2,100 crore. The companys shares closed at Rs16.10, down 1.83% on the BSE. The top gainers and top losers of the major indices are given in the table below: The closing values of the major Asian indices are given in the table below: A heart-breaking video on Twitter, of a tearful farmer destroying his crop of pomegranate as he failed to get even a price of Rs10/kg, has got people across the country wanting to do their bit to help the farmer in distress. Moneylife Foundation decided to take it forward by verifying facts and finding out what happened and how the farmer can be helped. It only led to more discoveries about the plight of our farmers, and that of Bandu Markad, or Vasudev Babasaheb Marked, of Nivdunge village in Pathardi taluka of Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra. A farmer from Maharashtra takes his anger out on unsold pomegranates. No buyer in mandis even for Rs 10 a kg. Ahmednagar. P. S. Please don't ask why he isn't selling it in a cart. In an area where every other farmer harvests the same crop, that's not an option pic.twitter.com/zUYEDtkZW3 Sayantan Bera (@sayantanbera) November 23, 2018 If you would like to help Bandu Markad after watching this video, please go to the end of this article for details. When we called Bandu Markad to understand the issues, he told us how he planted pomegranate on five acres of his farm and had tried hard to keep his 1,200 plants alive, despite acute water scarcity. The only way to do it is buy buying water through tankers. "Since June 2018, I have bought tanker water. One water tanker (around 6,000 litres) costs me about Rs500 and it would last for two days. But then there were no rains and the tanker owner refused to give me more water unless I clear his pending bill of about Rs70,000. Without water, pomegranates in my farm remained small in size and not up to the mark in quality." "Two days ago, I went to the market to sell my crop, traders were offering a fairly good rate for pomegranates. They bought pomegranate at about Rs800-900 per crate of 20kg. However, when I went on the third day, there were no buyers. Many other farmers had also come to sell their pomegranates. Due to excess supply and scarcity of traders, I failed to even get a rate of Rs10 per kilo. In frustration and out of desperation I threw pomegranates. While there was no income, I ended up paying the transportation charges from my own pocket to take the fruit to the market," he said. On Tuesday, Mr Markad and his brother decided to pluck out all the pomegranates remaining on the trees as they feel it will help the trees to survive. However, he still has to pay the water tanker supplier. Farmers in this area have their own arrangement with water suppliers which is fairly draconian. "If I do not pay to the water tanker supplier this year, then for the next one year, he will use my farmland to grow his own crops. However, I still have pomegranate trees there; it is important for me to pay his money. Otherwise, I will have no other option left but to take an extreme step." Apart from the urgent need to pay Rs70,000 or so to the water tanker supplier, Bandu Markad has a debt of Rs1.45 lakh from the credit society affiliated with Ahmednagar District Central Co-operative Bank. This loan, he says, needs to be repaid before March next year. "Only after repaying the loan, we may get a new loan for next year. Else, I will end up paying Rs10,000 to Rs12,000 only as interest," he says. He also needs funds to ensure a decent crop next year, or the distress continues. We also spoke to Sharad Markad, Pathardi taluka president of Swabhimani Shetkari Sangathana, the largest union of farmers in Maharashtra, to understand the situation in that region. He told us that several farmers in Pathardi taluka alone are facing acute distress due to water scarcity and very low rainfall. "However," he says, "Bandu incurred huge expenses as he bought water by tankers for his crop. He also has no pond in his farm. While the Maharashtra government gives a subsidy to a farmer for this pond, under the farm scheme, the process for this is not that simple. This means, simple people like Bandu cannot get any benefit of such schemes. "Bandu is a very simple and straightforward person and does not even know how to shift his position in order to survive. He planted pomegranate and continued to take its care hoping to get good outcome. Even when there were no rains, he bought water by tankers for his crop. Unfortunately, due to the water scarcity and dwindling funds, he could not continue for more time and ended up in this destressed condition. Today, his entire family is in a very bad shape," he says. Moneylife also spoke with Sayantan Bera, a journalist who reports from that region. He had verified and posted the video of Bandu Markad on social media. Here is what Mr Bera told us: The problem here is more structural in nature. Farmers often have no other place to sell their produce but at the nearest mandi where a cartel of traders decides the price without any relation to costs. Even if a group of farmers bring their produce to say, Mumbai they have to go to the mandi there to sell where prices will be decided on the basis of daily arrivals (supply). The problem is compounded by the fact that the government does not announce any support price for perishables like anar, so there is hardly any benchmarks and prices fluctuate wildly for crops like tomato, onions and cauliflower. The way out is better marketing avenues (easier said than done), setting up processing facilities close to the farm gate and some form of market intelligence services so that farmers do not overproduce. In this particular case, the farmers had to spend lakhs of rupees just to save their pomegranate crop by using hired water tankers due to lack of rains, which also shows the failure of much publicised programmes like Jalyukt Shivar. Earlier this year, I wrote about another Maharashtra farmer who destroyed his cauliflower crop in anger. I have been seeing these play out with a rising frequency, just this month I was in Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh where farmers were selling garlic at a huge loss at an average price of Rs7/kg while it retails in Delhi for Rs80/kg. I have seen the same happening with tomato growers in Haryana and potato farmers from Uttar Pradesh. Helping to build a pond and ensure some stability of income for farmers like Bandu is imperative, but that is in the futuretoday, the looking issue is to get at least Rs70,000 or ideally a little over Rs2 lakh just to keep going and look for other options. UPDATE: Bandu Markad, the farmer, has received sufficient funds in his bank account. Therefore we have removed his bank account details. May 31, 2018 The Purpose Of The Babchenko Hoax The Ukrainian secret service SBU claims it plotted the fake murder of the Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko in Kiev to uncover a real murder plot by the Russian state. That makes no sense at all. The hoax is one of several incidents which dangerously escalate the new cold war. As former British ambassador Craig Murray comments on the SBU's explanation: Craig Murray @CraigMurrayOrg - 19:24 UTC- 30 May 2018 If you believe that particular piece of Ukrainian propaganda you are even more stupid than I had already deduced. I wore a book on my head today to prevent Boris Johnson stealing my fridge. My fridge is so there, which is undoubted proof that my scheme worked and Johnson guilty. Here is how the BBC presents the Ukrainian fairytale: Ukrainian security chief Vasyl Hrytsak said a sting had been set up to catch hitmen paid by Russian forces. ... Babchenko said he had been informed a month ago about an alleged Russian plot to kill him. He said he had agreed to co-operate with a counter-operation and had been in constant contact with Ukrainian security services over the course of the past month. He added that he thought security services had been planning the operation for up to two months. Mr Hrytsak said the operation had begun after Ukrainian security services were informed about a Russian plot to kill the journalist. He alleged that Russian security forces had recruited a Ukrainian citizen to find hitmen within Ukraine. He said the citizen had approached several acquaintances, including war veterans, offering $30,000 (22,600) for the contract killing, one of whom revealed the plot to the security services. The story as the SBU tells it: the Russian secret service FSB hired a Ukrainian citizen to find someone to kill Babchenko the Ukrainian citizen hires a killer the hired killer tells the SBU about it and cooperates the SBU knew from him who the Ukrainian middleman of the plot was and has now arrested him If that is the story why would the SBU stage the murder hoax? They cooperated with the hired killer and had contact or access to the man who allegedly hired him. What else was there to know to prevent the alleged plot? What is the evidence they gained? The official reason for the murder hoax was: ... to detain those responsible and prove the direct involvement of the Russian special service in the preparation of attempted murder of Mr. Babchenko. That first part was achievable without the hoax. What about the second one? Was that achieved? Mascha Gessen writes in the New Yorker: Ukrainian security services claim to have proof that the middleman was hired by their Russian counterpart, the F.S.B. Babchenko offered one piece of evidence: the ostensible assassin, he said, had been shown a photograph of Babchenko taken twenty-five years ago, when he obtained his first internal passport (at the time, the document, a sort of universal domestic I.D., was issued three times in a Russian citizens life: at sixteen, twenty-five, and forty-five). Babchenko claims that the photo could be obtained only from security-service files. Babchenko is 41 years old. There were plenty of recent Babchenko pictures on Facebook and the Russian social network Vkontakte as well as in the media. Are we to believe that Russian security services would use a picture of the sixteen year Babchenko dug up from an old passport file when a three seconds search would have found them hundreds of more recent pictures? Even this 'Holy Babchenko' fake is more useful to identify him than a 25 year old passport picture. The claimed 'evidence' makes no sense. bigger - source Babchenko is by no means a holy man. There are reasons why he is despised in Russia: eporabe Russian @TeamTrumpRussia - 6:50 UTC - 31 May 2018 Russian opposition journalist who was "killed by Putin" Arcadiy #Babchenko mourning the death of 71 passengers of a small Russian airline domestic flight crash on February 11, 2018. bigger While Babchenko was "dead" a staged photo circulated that allegedly showed him killed. bigger Where did it come from? Is it another "White Helmets" production? The U.S. propaganda outlet RFL/RE, seemingly miffed about the Babchenko fake, points to a U.S. connection: The photo was first published on the Facebook page of a former Ukrainian reporter who says he now works for a shadowy consultancy organization based in the Washington, D.C., area. ... Yevhen Lauer, the reporter who published the photo along with a caption reading Damn It, Bitches, told RFE/RL late on May 29 that he received it from a law enforcement source, whom he declined to identify. Lauer, who has worked for various Ukrainian media outlets in the past, has more recently been affiliated with Trident Group LLC. Based in the Washington suburb of Arlington, the company says it specializes in law enforcement, investigations, intelligence gathering and analysis, conflict prevention and conflict resolution, international risk control, executive protection and special operations. The companys president, Yuri Koshkin, confirmed to RFE/RL that Lauer had done work for Trident but said he knew nothing of Lauers involvement with the SBU sting operation to nab Babchenkos would-be killers. Trident Group is a small company of Washington 'beltway bandits' which consults U.S. companies who want to operate in the former USSR. It is run by two former Russian military officers. Does that make it "shadowy"? It says it has offices in Arlington, Moscow and Kiev. Is it involved in the hoax or does it get framed? The story of the fake murder of Babchenko made a big wave in "western" media. In 2016 alone 14 journalists were killed in the Ukraine after their names were put on a public hit list maintained by some Ukrainian Nazi outlet. The series of murder received less attention than the recent hoax. What drives the extraordinary sensation? On the John Batchelor Show Professor Stephen F. Cohen points (@8:00+ min) to the accumulation of defaming anti-Russian stories just before the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. He sees a parallel to the recent stories and the upcoming soccer Worldcup in Russia. Russiagate, the deadly Skripal poisoning and their resurrection, the new sanctions against Russian oligarchs and functionaries, the reissuing of the old report accusing Russia for the downing of the MH17 flight over the Ukraine, the same false allegations of Russian hostility towards gays and now the Babchenko hoax all serve the same purpose. To "isolate" Russia in the global public opinion. This is all part of the new cold war launched in 2014 by then President Obama after his failed attempt to nab the whole Ukraine out of Russia's sphere. Another aspect of this cold war are the upcoming large NATO maneuvers near the Russian border just in time for the Worldcup start. I plan to detail those in a future post. Russia is, as Prof. Cohen argues, far from being isolated. Since the launch of the U.S. campaign against it Russia gained more international standing. Despite U.S. sanctions the recent St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) was attended by some 15,000 business people and politicians from over 120 countries. Japan's Prime Minister Abe, France's President Macron and many other high ranking personalities took part. A week before the Indian Prime Minister Modi and the German Chancellor Merkel visited Putin in Sochi. It is the Ukraine and the U.S. who are losing international support. Even the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and Reporters Without Borders condemned the Babchenko hoax. The new steel and aluminum tariffs against Europe will further split the U.S. from its core allies. The new cold war propaganda and its various hoaxes have a dangerous aspect. They make it more difficult for the parties to talk. President Trump would be harshly condemned in the cold-war media if he would hold a summit with President Putin. Small incidents, which under normal circumstances would be solved by a phone call and in a peaceful manner, can escalate when the parties don't know and trust each other and no longer talk. It is in everyone's interest to avoid that. Posted by b on May 31, 2018 at 9:20 UTC | Permalink Comments next page next page November 28, 2018 If The Saudi's Oil No Longer Matters Why Is Trump Still Supporting Them? Why are U.S. troops in the Middle East? In an interview with the Washington Post U.S. President Donald Trump gives an answer: Trump also floated the idea of removing U.S. troops from the Middle East, citing the lower price of oil as a reason to withdraw. Now, are we going to stay in that part of the world? One reason to is Israel, Trump said. Oil is becoming less and less of a reason because were producing more oil now than weve ever produced. So, you know, all of a sudden it gets to a point where you dont have to stay there. It is only Israel, it is no longer the oil, says Trump. But the nuclear armed Israel does not need U.S. troops for its protection. And if it is no longer the oil, why is the U.S. defending the Saudis? Trump's Secretary of State Mike Pompeo disagrees with his boss. In a Wall Street journal op-ed today he claims that The U.S.-Saudi Partnership Is Vital because it includes much more then oil: [D]egrading U.S.-Saudi ties would be a grave mistake for the national security of the U.S. and its allies. The kingdom is a powerful force for stability in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia is working to secure Iraqs fragile democracy and keep Baghdad tethered to the Wests interests, not Tehrans. Riyadh is helping manage the flood of refugees fleeing Syrias civil war by working with host countries, cooperating closely with Egypt, and establishing stronger ties with Israel. Saudi Arabia has also contributed millions of dollars to the U.S.-led effort to fight Islamic State and other terrorist organizations. Saudi oil production and economic stability are keys to regional prosperity and global energy security. Where and when please has Saudi Arabia "managed the flood of refugees fleeing Syrias civil war". Was that when it emptied its jails of violent criminals and sent them to wage jihad against the Syrian people? That indeed 'managed' to push millions to flee from their homes. Saudi Arabia might be many things but "a powerful force for stability" it is not. Just ask 18 million Yemenis who, after years of Saudi bombardment, are near to death for lack of food. Pompeo's work for the Saudi dictator continued today with a Senate briefing on Yemen. The Senators will soon vote on a resolution to end the U.S. support for the war. In his prepared remarks Pompeo wrote: The suffering in Yemen grieves me, but if the United States of America was not involved in Yemen, it would be a hell of a lot worse. What could be worse than a famine that threatens two third of the population? If the U.S. and Britain would not support the Saudis and Emirates the war would end within a day or two. The Saudi and UAE planes are maintained by U.S. and British specialists. The Saudis still seek 102 more U.S. military personal to take care of their planes. It would be easy for the U.S. to stop such recruiting of its veterans. It is the U.S. that holds up an already watered down UN Security Council resolution that calls for a ceasefire in Yemen: 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. We recently wrote that pandering to the Saudis and keeping Muhammad bin Salman in place will hurt Trump's Middle East policies. The piece noted that Trump asked the Saudis for many things, but found that: There is really nothing in Trump's list on which the Saudis consistently followed through. His alliance with MbS brought him no gain and a lot of trouble. Trump protected MbS from the consequences of murdering Jamal Khashoggi. He hoped to gain leverage with that. But that is not how MbS sees it. He now knows that Trump will not confront him no matter what he does. If MbS "threws a fit" over a UN Security Council resolution, the U.S. will drop it. When he launches his next 'adventure', the U.S. will again cover his back. Is this the way a super power is supposed to handle a client state? If Trump's instincts really tell him that U.S. troops should be removed from the Middle East and Afghanistan, something I doubt, he should follow them. Support for the Saudi war on Yemen will not help to achieve that. Pandering to MbS is not MAGA. Posted by b on November 28, 2018 at 20:12 UTC | Permalink Comments Netflix has just announced that they are turning most of our favourite Roald Dahl books into brand new animated series. The streaming giant revealed their plans to flood our feed with nostalgia after they struck a deal with the late author's family. They plan to to produce animated event series and specials based on a number of Dahls works including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The BFG, The Twits, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator and Georges Marvellous Medicine. Our mission, which is purposefully lofty, is for as many children as possible around the world to experience the unique magic and positive message of Roald Dahls stories, said Dahls widow, Felicity Dahl. This partnership with Netflix marks a significant move toward making that possible and is an incredibly exciting new chapter for the Roald Dahl Story Company. Roald would, I know, be thrilled. Netflix says it will remain faithful to the quintessential spirit and tone of Dahls work while also building an imaginative story universe that extends beyond the authors books. To help spread the spirit of Christmas, some parents have ditched the traditional chocolate advent calendars in favour of 'kindness' ones. Australian website Kidspot has shared a list of things kids could do each day during the countdown to Christmas to help spread a bit of Christmas cheer. Some of the things include... A woman has shared her terrifying experience on Tumblr after a conversation she had with her boyfriend while he was asleep. My boyfriend just woke up, mostly still asleep and told me dont worry, its getting better in a heavy, American accent, which is unusual for an Australian man. And while that could be classified as usual sleep-talking, the story then began to take a weird turn when the woman replied to her boyfriend asking "Why are you American?" After a few moments, the boyfriend's accent changed from American to a posh English accent and he said, "Sorry it is getting better." The woman started getting amused, who knew that someone could sleep-talk in different accents? She asked him why he had turned to an English accent. Then, the boyfriend replied: "What is he normally? Confused, and slighly frightened with his answer, the woman said, He? Youre not anyone else, youre you. Ugh, me was the last thing he said, back in his Aussie accent before he fell back into proper sleep. The internet has all agreed how creepy the man's sleep-talking was, with many suggested he may have been possesed by a demon or some kind of spirit. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 28) The Commission on Appointments (CA) on Wednesday confirmed the appointment of Teodoro "Teddyboy" Locsin Jr. as the new Foreign Affairs Secretary. Locsin breezed through the CA Committee on Foreign Affairs earlier, after fielding questions from senators and lawmakers. Locsin, the country's former ambassador to the United Nations, replaced Alan Peter Cayetano after the latter filed his candidacy for Taguig's next First District Representative in the 2019 polls. The new Foreign Affairs Chief took his oath before President Rodrigo Duterte on October 17. Soon after his appointment, Locsin hosted Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. The incumbent Foreign Affairs Secretary also helped in arrangements for the state visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping on November 20- 21, when a controversial memorandum of understanding on oil and gas development that Locsin drafted was signed by the Philippines and China. In the wake of completing the Rockwell Collins deal, United Technologies (UTX) has announced plans to split itself into three companies: aerospace, Otis (elevators), and Carrier (building systems). Per management, the separation of Carrier and Otis should be completed sometime in 2020. The aerospace business will retain the United Technologies name and current chairman and CEO Greg Hayes will lead the company. Management didn't identify the executive teams for Carrier or Otis. Our discounted cash flow model generates a fair value of $144 per share for United Technologies, but using a sum-of-the-parts method, we arrive at $168 per share. We think there is potentially more upside for Carrier and Otis, given the significant amount of attention paid to and investment in the aerospace business over the past several years. Using PitchBook's median 10-year enterprise value/EBIT multiples for United Technologies business unit peers and our projections for each unit's 2019 operating profit, we calculate an enterprise value of about $194 billion, which is nearly 50% above the current $131 billion enterprise value. Backing out debt, pensions, corporate costs, dissynergies, and other items, we arrive at a value of $168 per share. We believe United Technologies aerospace business has an enterprise value of $107 billion, which represents about 55% of our total enterprise value for the company. The Carrier business accounts for 27% of our sum-of-the-parts valuation ($52 billion enterprise value), and we put Otis enterprise value at roughly $36 billion based on peer multiples. In late October, two accused fraudsters began undergoing their trial in the Ontario Superior Court over multiple charges, including cheating Muslim home owners out of more than $2 million. Omar Kalair and Imam Yusuf Panchbhaya have also been accused of laundering the proceeds of the crime allegedly made through Kalairs company United Muslim Financial (UMF), which offered Shariah-compliant mortgages from 2004 to 2011. These loans adhere to Islamic precepts by not offering any interest. In lieu of this, UMF required home owners to pay extra fees deemed as profit, CBC News reported. As part of the National Housing Strategy, the Canadian government will be investing $31 million for the construction and maintenance of an affordable apartment high-rise in Calgarys city centre. The building, which will be developed by the Kanas Corporation, is slated to offer 121 rental housing units. Everyone deserves a safe and affordable place to call home, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addressed Calgary earlier this week. This new building will provide people with housing where kids can learn and grow, and where families have the stability and opportunities they need to thrive in their community. 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 in Houston 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, Sheriff's Office spokesman Jason Spencer said, 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. 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. Orano-Waste Control Specialists is offering a defense of its application to serve as an interim storage location for high level nuclear power plant waste at its facility in Andrews County. The company was joined in submitting applications by Holtec International, which also wants to construct an interim storage site at its facility in Lea and Eddy counties, New Mexico. The applications have drawn concerns about the safety of the waste, from the durability of the casks used to transport the waste to the risks to local communities as that waste travels by train to the storage facilities. COMING SOON: The response by Elicia Sanchez, senior vice president at Waste Control Specialists, will appear in its entirety in Sunday's edition. See More Collapse Those behind the Protect the Basin movement raising concerns about the applications say they want to make sure everyone knows just what would happen and what the risks could be. They also wonder just how interim those storage sites could be, noting it could be anywhere from 40 to 100 years. Opponents acknowledge the risks are small but said that the consequences would be significant. RELATED: Fasken executive: High level nuclear storage could threaten area's oil industry Elicia Sanchez, senior vice president at WCS, also wants a straightforward conversation on the topic, saying clarity and understanding of the nature of the material and the risks involved must be promoted. In the response, she addresses those concerns, first by detailing just exactly what the nuclear fuel is, how it is created and how it is packaged once it is spent and removed from the nuclear reactor. She also describes how that spent fuel is handled after its removal, the efforts to ensure the fuel doesnt degrade over time and the various materials used in building the transport casks once the decision has been made to move the fuel to a storage site. Sanchez defends the science, experience handling the spent nuclear fuel and the regulatory processes governing its movement. Of the material destined for an interim storage location, she says it is very stable and there can be no comparison to nuclear weapons, the Chernobyl plant in Russia that suffered a catastrophic accident in 1986, or even the materials stored at the Waste Isolation Pilot Project at Carlsbad, New Mexico. Those opposed to the applications have pointed out that, should the sites be constructed, trainloads of waste would be coming through Midland-Odessa weekly for at least the next 24 years. They cite recent train wrecks and say an accident could impact a 50-mile radius of the site. They worry a significant accident could negatively impact the Permian Basins oil and gas industry. Sanchez also addresses those concerns with a discussion of rail safety, complete with references to incidents in Europe involving casks that were knocked off the rails. She cites research and testing that shows there is no way the used nuclear fuel could spread and cause harm, even if both the transport cask and the canister containing the fuel were breached. She refutes opponents contention that the plans are poorly thought out, saying everything about transporting the nuclear fuel is carefully planned, considered and implemented, particularly the routes the trains would take to reach Andrews and southeastern New Mexico. She also stresses she is a stakeholder in the discussion, being a long-time member of the community and a parent. She writes she has full confidence transporting and storing high level nuclear waste in the region will not threaten local communities, water supplies or the Permian Basins oil and gas industry. The Permian Basin is officially in holiday mode. The proof can be found beyond the sales and decorations with a jam-packed calendar of events. Spend some quality time with family and friends throughout Midland, Odessa and even a little beyond. Here is our guide to the 2018 holidays. Nov. 30 | West Texas North Pole Village will feature Santas House, reindeer barn, Santas workshop, the North Pole Post Office, hayrides, live music and more. Through Dec. 23 at Ector County Coliseum, 4201 Andrews Highway, Odessa. $20. wtxnorthpolevillage.com. Nov. 30 | Starbright Village and Community Tree Lighting. View one of the largest displays in the area with more than 300,000 lights and holiday displays. 6-11 p.m. through Jan 1 at McKinney Park, 625 W. Pool Road, Odessa. Free. odessatxparks.org. Nov. 30-Dec. 2 | Christmas in Alpine 2018 includes a variety of festivities including A Tuna Christmas by Sul Ross State University Theatre, a winter concert, the Mountain Country Christmas Bazaar and the annual Parade of Lights with hayrides, tree lighting and Starlight Shopping. Visit website for full schedule. visitalpinetx.com Dec. 1 | Christmas at the Mansion : A White Christmas Gingerbread Workshop. Create an original, edible work of holiday art in the Brown Science Center classroom inside the Blakemore Planetarium. 1-3 p.m. at Museum of the Southwest, 1705 W. Missouri Ave. Free. museumsw.org. Dec. 1 | Santas Coming. First 100 children get a free treat from Santa. Photographer on site for free photos. 2-4 p.m. at Susies South Forty Confections, 401 S. Marienfeld St. Dec. 1 | Holiday Open House with Midland County Public Library and Casa de Amigos featuring the Festival of Trees lighting, mariachis and refreshments. 4-6 p.m. Dec. 1 at MCPL Centennial branch, 2503 W. Loop 250 N. Dec. 1 | Christmas in Boomtown tree lighting. 5:45 p.m. at Wadley Barron Park and duck pond, 1001 N. A St. midlandtexas.gov. Dec. 1 | Downtown Odessa Parade of Lights begins on Andrews Highway and 23rd Street to Medical Center Hospital. 6:30 p.m. downtownodessatx.com. Dec. 2 | The 22nd annual Comanche Trail Festival of Lights offers more than 1 million lights on display along with a gift shop and Santa Claus appearances. 6-10 p.m. nightly through Christmas Day at Comanche Trail Park in Big Spring. Free. visitbigspring.com. Dec. 2 | Christmas Tour of Homes 2018 hosted by Odessa Board of Realtors. Visit website for tour locations. 1-5 p.m. $10. odessarealtors.com. Dec. 2 | Pet Photos with Santa. 6:30-7:30 p.m. at Midland Park Mall. 4511 N. Midkiff Road. simon.com/petphoto. Dec. 2 and 16 | Miss Cayces Santa Experience includes a personal visit and picture with Santa and Mrs. Claus as well as crafts, cookies, story time and more. 1, 2:30 and 4 p.m. both days at Miss Cayces Christmas Store, 1012 Andrews Highway. $40. misscayceschristmas.com. Dec. 5 | Winter Art Exhibit featuring works by area art associations. Opening reception begins at 5:30 p.m. at The Gallery at Midland Shared Spaces, 3500 N. A St. Dec. 6 | Holiday Evening. The evening includes Frito Pie chili supper, MC student art show with complimentary refreshments, hayrides, special music concert performed by the MC Jazz Ensemble and visits with Santa. The public is invited. 5:30 p.m. at Midland College, 3600 N. Garfield St. Free. midland.edu. Dec. 7 | Plaid Tidings to You! Betenbough Homes annual Christmas event includes photos with Santa and Mrs. Claus, hot cocoa, gingerbread-cookie decorating and limo rides around Lone Star Trails. 6-8 p.m. at 6718 N. State Highway 349. Free. betenbough.com. Dec. 8 | Sixth annual Ugly Christmas Sweater 5K Fun Run and one-mile Reindeer Dash. Don your ugly apparel for a run through Midlands historic neighborhoods. The event includes photo opportunities, prizes and medals, treats and refreshments. 9:30 a.m. at Museum of the Southwest, 1705 W. Missouri Ave. $20-$35. museumsw.org. Dec. 8 | Christmas at the Mansion: A White Christmas open house. Listen to local musicians perform, participate in holiday-themed crafts, visit with Santa Clause and see the decorated campus. 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at Museum of the Southwest, 1705 W. Missouri Ave. Free. museumsw.org. Dec. 8 | Christmas in Boomtown lighted parade. 6:30 p.m. on A Street from Ventura Avenue to Illinois Ave. midlandtexas.gov. Dec. 11-13 | Christmas Carriage Rides by the Junior League of Odessa. The experience is about 30 minutes long. 6:30 p.m. at Emerald Forest Court, Odessa. $25-$200. Dec. 15 | Field Office Christmas Party. Guests are encouraged to take a wrapped white elephant gift and snacks. 7 p.m.-1 a.m. at The Field Office, 3205 W. Industrial Ave. Dec. 20 | Laura Bush Literacy Program Reading Event will feature the book A Letter to Santa with copies given to each child in attendance. Space is limited so reservations are encouraged. 4:30 p.m. at the George W. Bush Childhood Home, 1412 W. Ohio Ave. Free. bushchildhoodhome.org. Tim Fischer/Midland Reporter-TelegramA few days each year, a normally quiet downtown parking lot transforms into a space filled with vendors and shoppers. With the holiday season approaching, the co-founder of the Urban Market said the recurring event offers gift options in a city environment. Tim Fischer/Midland Reporter-TelegramA few days each year, a normally quiet downtown parking lot transforms into a space filled with vendors and shoppers. With the holiday season approaching, the co-founder of the Urban Market said the recurring event offers gift options in a city environment. A few days each year, a normally quiet downtown parking lot transforms into a space filled with vendors and shoppers. With the holiday season approaching, the co-founder of the Urban Market said the recurring event offers gift options in a city environment. Whats important to us as a family and as business owners is that we pull together to make downtown a place for shopping, said Monica Ramirez, who is part owner of So Fly Boutique. While the Urban Market draws traffic to her retail shop, the event also creates an economic impact for participating vendors. For the holidays, Ramirez said turning to the market or local brick-and-mortar businesses has advantages. I think the biggest benefit to shopping small is that you are truly supporting your local community, and youre keeping your money here, Ramirez said. Its our livelihood. Upcoming events Nov. 29 Holiday Pop-Up Shop 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Brew St. Bakery downtown 303 West Wall Street, lower level Open House 5 - 8 p.m. Circle Y Amish Furniture Co. 201 West Wall Street, Suite 107 Dec. 11 Christmas Party 6 - 9 p.m. Kelly D Kennedy Fine Art LLC 100 North Main Street, Suite 102 The Urban Market tries to host two events each month, weather permitting. For more information, visit the market's page on Facebook. See More Collapse Contributing to downtown growth One newcomer to downtown is Circle Y Amish Furniture Co. Co-owners Owen and Lori Yocham sell hand-built furnishings, which can be custom ordered or purchased from the showroom floor. Not only do we have it here for people to view, Owen Yocham said. If they absolutely love that piece and want it now, they can take it with them. While Yocham expects some larger pieces will be sold during the holiday season, the stores boutique section also offers clothing and accessories. The findings include Texas-made jewelry and pottery imprinted with Lone Star State license plates. The business also sells jellies and jams, which Yocham said are crafted by the Amish with the same attention to quality that is put into their furniture pieces. They do it right the first time, and it lasts for generations, Yocham said. To be able to bring that down and share it with folks is good for us. Before opening on West Wall Street, the Yochams had trouble finding a local space they wanted to lease. They also noticed demand for downtown offerings and found a fitting place in that part of the city. We think theres lots of things that can happen for the community and for the businesses down here, Yocham said. Were excited to see downtown Midland come back to life. This holiday season comes at a time of changes to the downtown landscape. A park is being planned for the space west of the soon-to-be completed Midland Convention Center. Renovations are underway at the Midland County Public Library branch and in other buildings. From their business on North Main Street, Kelly and Juliet Kennedy have a first-hand view of foot traffic coming through downtown. The couple wanted to start their art gallery in a city setting, and their space gives customers proximity to a public parking garage. I would certainly rather look at art in an urban environment, across the street from the convention center, than looking out at a sprawling parking lot, Kelly Kennedy said. To me, it just seems like the most fitting and appropriate place for a gallery of this magnitude. Kelly D Kennedy Fine Art LLC offers art education and historic and contemporary works. One artist, Yenny Cocq, creates customizable bronze figurines that depict families. Those sculptures and other pieces can constitute gifts, according to Juliet Kennedy. Its nice to have a painting that has a story behind it, she said. If someone wants to purchase something, well tell you about the artist and why that painting is important. Offering one-of-a-kind items Another nearby business welcoming its first holiday season is Brew St. Bakery downtown. As part of its holiday-themed fare, the coffee shop expects to offer molasses cookies and sugar cookies. Owner Julie Kent said there are plans to sell coffee by the pound. I obviously would go for holidays for the Ethiopian coffee, which is going to be a little more complex, Kent said. Its going to have a rich taste to it. Though Midlanders can find holiday gifts online or at larger retailers, she said local businesses provide offerings they may not be able to find elsewhere. We want to bring you unique items that maybe are local to our area, that reflect who we are as a community, Kent said. Among the gifts that can be purchased at Brew St. Bakery downtown are pieces from two local artists, Connie Glinsmann and Georgeann Herzog Walton. The artwork adorns the walls of the coffee shop, which is located in the Bank of America building. During the holiday season, Kent expects most customers to be workers from downtown office buildings. She said her business offers a meeting place on cold days. To me, its always been about bringing people together, Kent said. So hopefully down here, Christmas just brings a warmer feeling. Across downtown, So Fly Boutique offers retail items from its location at North Colorado Street and West Ohio Avenue. Though popular gifts change each holiday season, Ramirez said shoppers can find items that fit many tastes. What we try and have at So Fly are unique finds, Ramirez said. Theres something for everyone because theres a variety of home decor, home accessories, personal gifts. Ramirezs family decided to open a downtown boutique because it wanted to invest in the heart of the city. As time passed, she wished more retail would come to the area. Last fall, Ramirez and her business partner, Sonny Aguilar, launched the Urban Market to help local entities reach customers. The first event drew almost 40 vendors, and there has been a wait list ever since. One of the things that I think is a great gift option that you can find at the Urban Market are personalized gifts, Ramirez said. Because you are meeting the person who makes or creates, you can always customize gifts. Ramirez said shoppers at the Urban Market can find everything from pet treats to childrens items. She thinks the boutique vendors keep a pulse on current trends and said their hand-selected items can simplify gift giving. With the holiday season on the horizon, Ramirez wants Midlanders to consider downtown as a destination for retail shopping. Were hoping that with the Urban Market and with some of the other businesses that are investing in downtown, that that happens more and more, she said. After five years as a fugitive in a violent home invasion that left a Beaumont woman paralyzed, Brock McNeil was convicted by a jury Thursday on two aggravated robbery charges. McNeil, 36, faces a potential life sentence for the December 2009 Beaumont robbery which a mother was shot in the back and her husband was stabbed multiple times. Investigators believe at least three people were involved, but only McNeil left physical evidence at the crime scene. After skipping a court appearance in 2010, McNeil went on the run. Over the next five years, Jefferson County prosecutors heard periodically from Yei Daniels, the woman who was shot in the back after handing over money, asking about leads on McNeil. McNeil was linked to the scene by a damning piece of evidence - his fingerprint on the last piece of duct tape used to tie up the couple and their two children. Police finally caught him on Oct. 13, 2015, after a Crime Stoppers tip pointed them toward Washington County. Langston Adams, McNeil's attorney, said his client was not at the crime scene. The fingerprint on the duct tape, according to Adams, was not enough to prove McNeil was at the home when the robbery happened. For jurors, however, McNeil's link to the crime scene itself was overwhelming evidence. More for you Man wanted in violent Beaumont attack picked up after 5 years... His DNA was not only found at the home but on the last piece of tape that came off the roll. Luke Nichols, the lead prosecutor, said that's what led police to McNeil. Jurors heard testimony on Tuesday and Wednesday, then delivered the guilty verdict Thursday afternoon. "He left a fingerprint. That was it," Ernijay Lombard, one of the jurors, said. "And where he left it." On the night of the robbery, two men dressed in ski masks and gloves approached John Daniels as he was leaving his apartment on Dec. 30, 2009. They forced Daniels to knock on his own front door, where his wife and two small children were. The robbers somehow knew of a large amount of cash in the home. They tortured John Daniels until his wife finally revealed its location. Then Yei Daniels was shot in the back when she tried to escape through her kitchen. Yei Daniels testified Wednesday she thought she was dying. She said she could recall McNeil's facial features even after six years. Witnesses and investigators believe one accomplice was inside the home and another drove their getaway car. They said it was McNeil who stabbed John McDaniels multiple times and shot Yei. Descriptions of the other two suspects were "general" or vague, Nichols said. Of the three, only McNeil left physical evidence at the scene. "They know it was the last piece of tape that came off the roll because it had that cardboard strip at the end," Nichols said. "That's the print that led us to Mr. McNeil." John Daniels would only say of the two unknown home invaders that "karma" is bound to catch up with them. McNeil will be sentenced as early as next month, Nichols said. "We are fortunate this wasn't a murder case," Nichols said. "This should at least bring the family some peace at night." BScott@BeaumontEnterprise.com Twitter.com/BrandonKScott Nine local schools are participating in an effort to keep children healthy this flu season. The Ector County ISD campuses were selected for FLUency, a program that informs school nurses and parents about illnesses that are circulating in grade levels, according to information provided to the Reporter-Telegram. Families who chose to join this school year received free smart thermometers with ties to a mobile application. ALTON A Jerseyville man is being held in the Madison County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail, charged with drug-induced homicide and controlled substance trafficking. Darin L. Day, 32, of the 200 block of Sherman Street, is accused of delivering fentanyl to a 20-year-old victim on Feb. 18. She died at Alton Memorial Hospital on Feb. 20. Tickets for country music superstar Kenny Chesneys return to Illinois will go on sale Dec. 7 starting at 10 a.m. Chesney is performing at the State Farm Center in Champaign on April 5. It is one of the first stops on his Songs for the Saints 2019 Tour. BEARDSTOWN The Beardstown police chief appointed earlier this month has resigned after only two weeks on the job, citing issues with the City Council as the reason for his departure. Kevin Murray was sworn in as chief on Nov. 6 and filed a letter of resignation with the city on Nov. 21, citing a mis-informed council as his reason. Murrays resignation came a day after the Nov. 20 City Council meeting, during which several council members took issue with Murrays leadership and blamed low department morale on Murray not having scheduled a meeting with his officers, according to a Cass County Star-Gazette report. Council members claimed during that meeting that they had fielded many complaints about Murray and they berated him for acting unprofessionally. In his resignation letter, Murray dismisses the notion that low morale at Beardstown Police Department was because he had failed to schedule a meeting. Not having an immediate staff meeting is not the cause but an excuse, Murray wrote. I believe it was because I intended to bring new ideas and have accountability. A chance and the initial respect to myself wasnt given. The council also hadnt received accurate information about the department, Murray said. I truly looked forward to bringing something to the department and (to) assisting the officers who have been serving the community With the current practice of council members being misled, there may be a problem in the future if an officer were to receive some type of counseling or reprimand, Murray wrote. The position of any department leader requires the respect and confidence of the city council and, without this at the onset, the job cannot be fulfilled. The job of finding a new chief now falls to the citys Police and Fire Committee, Beardstown Mayor Leslie Harris said. The item was scheduled to be discussed Tuesday. Harris urged those with interest in the job to contact City Hall at 217-323-3110. Im looking to see if any of my present officers would like to be acting chief and Im waiting (for) them, Harris said. Nick Draper can be reached at 217-245-6121, ext. 1223, or on Twitter @nick_draper. Starting in 1900, the bird count is North America's longest-running citizen science project. The count focuses on the winter bird population, which is quite different from summer, as many birds leave the area for warmer climes and other species arrive from the far north. Thousands of volunteers participate in the count and collect information used daily by biologists to assess population trends and distribution of birds. The results of all counts are submitted to Bird Studies Canada and collated for all of North America. Each Christmas Bird Count is completed within an established 24-kilometre diameter area on a single day. The Vernon count, organized by the North Okanagan Naturalists Club, will be held this year on Sunday, Dec. 16. The community is invited to participate in this years count. If you are interested in joining in on the project, please contact the Christmas Bird Count Coordinator for North Okanagan, Rick Bonar at [email protected] Another way to participate is to observe and count the birds at your feeder. Please note that your location has to be within the count circle, 12-kilometre radius from the Vernon Performing Arts Centre. (CNN) China's ambassador to the U.S., Cui Tiankai, has threatened retaliation against the United States if the Trump administration goes ahead with with possible sanctions against Beijing over human rights abuses in Xinjiang. At least one million Muslim majority Uyghur have been imprisoned in enormous "re-education centers" in the far western Chinese province of Xinjiang, according to a report to the U.S. Congress. The Trump administration has been increasingly vocal on the plight of the Uyghurs and a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers has called for sanctions to be placed on Beijing over its treatment of the minority group. But speaking to Reuters Tuesday, Cui claimed the Chinese government was trying to "re-educate" terrorists and complained that Beijing was being held to a double standard. "Can you imagine (if) some American officials in charge of the fight against ISIS would be sanctioned?" Cui said. The ambassador compared the U.S. military fighting Islamist extremists in the Middle East with the Chinese response in Xinjiang, saying while Washington was killing terrorists, Beijing was trying to help them. "We are trying to re-educate most of them, trying to turn them into normal persons (who) can go back to normal life," he said. After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, the US imprisoned more than 20 Uyghur men without trial at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, following their capture in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The last three Uyghur detainees at Guantanamo were not freed until December 2013, almost 12 years after they were first detained. Cui said if any sanctions were placed on Chinese officials there would be a proportionate response from Beijing. "If such actions are taken, we have to retaliate," Cui was quoted as saying. The ambassador did not offer details on specific actions China might take. The Chinese government has repeatedly denied it is detaining Uyghurs in camps in Xinjiang, instead claiming they are voluntary "vocational education training" centers. But former Uyghur inmates tell a different story, saying they were forced to repeat Communist Party propaganda daily, thanking and praising Chinese President Xi Jinping, while others claimed they were tortured in the camps. On Monday a group of 270 concerned academics across the world released a statement fiercely condemning Beijing's actions in Xinjiang, saying detainees were forced to endure "malnourishment and severe psychological distress." "Those who do not fully participate in political reeducation are often subjected to beatings, solitary confinement, and forms of religious and psychological violation. There have been numerous reports of deaths in the centers, particularly among the elderly and infirm," the statement said. This story was first published on CNN.com, '"Chinese ambassador threatens retaliation over possible US Uyghur sanctions." Photo: Google Maps The Penticton RCMP is investigating a report of an attempted abduction earlier this afternoon. A female employee of the Husky at 1635 Main Street was at the rear of the building at 1:22 p.m. when a van with two occupants reversed up to her and grabbed her, trying to pull her into the van. Police say the victim described the men as East Indian and speaking with a corresponding accent. The victim was able to get away from the male who grabbed her arm and she ran into the store to call for help, said Cst. Ian Wolchok in a new release. The van was last seen westbound on Industrial Avenue from that location. The van was described as an older full-sized white panel van with a stack of rolled carpets in the back. There were no windows, but a sliding door on its passenger side. The two men are believed to be in their 30s with dark skin. At least one of them had a thick beard about one to two inches long. If anyone has any information about this incident that could assist the police to identify these suspects, contact the Penticton RCMP at 250-492-4300. Photo: The Canadian Press National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow Donald Trump tweeted a warning shot across GM's front bumper Tuesday, threatening to pull all U.S. subsidies for America's largest automaker if its plans to slash jobs and production at North American plants prove to be a precursor to building interconnected electric cars in China. The U.S. president's senior economic adviser was in the middle of a White House briefing when Trump delivered his latest broadside, a full 24 hours after General Motors announced plans to cut more than 14,000 jobs and end production at five plants, including one in Oshawa, Ont. "The U.S. saved General Motors, and this is the THANKS we get!" Trump tweeted, noting that GM facilities in both China and Mexico appeared to escape unscathed. "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!" The company said the cuts 2,500 jobs in Oshawa, GM's Canadian heartland, as well as 3,300 production workers in the U.S. and 8,000 salaried staff are part of a dramatic course correction aimed at better positioning GM for the dominance of electrified, interconnected and automated automobiles. But it was hard to miss the fact that the bulk of the U.S. cuts came in the Midwest Rust Belt, a region that was instrumental in elevating Trump and his jobs-promising, "America First" agenda to the White House in 2016. They also cast a pall over this week's signing of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the hard-won successor to NAFTA that Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council, acknowledged Tuesday was designed to foster the growth of the auto sector. "(Trump) believes as, frankly the prime minister of Canada, (Justin) Trudeau, believes that the USMCA deal was a great help to the automobile industry and to auto workers," Kudlow told a White House briefing. "There's disappointment that it seems that GM would rather build its electric cars in China than the United States, and we are going to be looking at certain subsidies regarding electric cars and others, whether they should apply or not." Across the country, home prices have slowed their growth for the sixth consecutive month, according to the latest data from the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Index, a leading measure of residential real estate prices. "That's not just a trend," said Ralph McLaughlin, deputy chief economist for CoreLogic. "We've seen the housing market writ large fall back for six consecutive months. ... I don't think there's any doubt that the market is coming back to earth." If masa maniacs aren't hosting their own tamaladas, they're probably gearing up to wait in long lines to stock up on tamales -- or pre-ordering to take the fuss out of the tradition -- in order to ensure their holiday tables are a buffet of bundled-up comfort food. Some the city's leading tamal headquarters shared their pre-order dates and other helpful information customers should know to avoid the long lines in the days leading up to Christmas Eve, when tamal eating peaks. San Antonians have a stack of events, in all shapes and sizes, to unwrap this holiday season. As November comes to a close, local organizers are fine tuning events and announcing the fun they've planned for anxious revelers. Whether San Antonians are hitting the town to amp up their holly jolly spirits or want to tap into the "ho ho horror" side of Christmas with Krampus, there is plenty to do. 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..." Photo: pixabay A long-established hunting guide outside Oliver could be fined upwards of $30,000 after admitting to baiting and hunting bears with fryer grease and dog food. James Wiens, 51, pleaded guilty to three Wildlife Act charges in Penticton court Tuesday stemming from an undercover sting orchestrated by the BC Conservation Officer Service on Vaseux Creek Outfitters. Court heard the BCCOS opened an investigation into Wiens in 2016 after a complaint from the public. Investigators enlisted the help of two conservation officers from Idaho and Washington State. The sting saw the American officers pose as prospective clients interested in a black bear hunt. Crown prosecutor John Blackman said Wiens told the undercover officers he had a 100 per cent success rate on black bear hunts. He added that they would sit and watch in the afternoons there were some clover patches and other areas he knows the bears will come into like clockwork every day, Blackman said. Instead, over the span of four days during a hunting trip in May 2016, the officers observed and in some cases, photographed, Wiens pouring fryer grease and dog food at various locations to bait bears. Court heard that Wiens disguised the fryer grease while out in the bush in gasoline jerry cans. On the morning of the second day of hunting, the men came across a bear feeding at one of the baited sites. Wiens instructed one of the undercover officers to shoot and kill the bear, which they did. At one point during the trip, Wiens also shot a rifle out of the drivers side of his truck while on private property. The Crown and defence squabbled over what exactly Wiens was shooting at. The Crown alleged it was a horse, something the defence disputed, only conceding it was a non-game animal. Wiens was previously charged with one criminal count of willfully killing, maiming, wounding or injuring a horse during the same trip, but that charge along with others related to the the hunting of wolves with poison over a seven-month period in 2015 and 2016 were dropped with the guilty plea. Blackman argued for a penalty in the $25,000 to $30,000 range, in addition to a separate penalty for the $6,300 the undercover officers paid for the trip. The Crown also sought a forfeiture order for the gun used to kill the bear and the $4,000 Polaris side-by-side that transported its carcass. Mr. Wiens, being a guide outfitter, was in a position of trust, Blackman said. His activities take place in the backwoods of the province, which is vast. It takes a person with character not to be tempted to break the rules. Defence lawyer Kevin Church told the court his client inherited his guide outfitter territory from his father at just 19 years old, and aimed to paint the offence as a strictly one-time occurrence. Church argued that Wiens only deployed the baiting tactics because the undercover officers said they needed a shortened trip because one of their grandmothers was ailing and Wiens had lost his own grandmother just months prior. Referring to 973-pages worth of disclosure from the Crown, Church noted that the undercover operation was intricately planned in every fashion. I have trouble believing the grandmother situation was a coincidence, Church said. The defence also argued that any financial penalties should take into consideration the possibility that the provincial government could review and terminate Wiens guide outfitting license, which is his primary source of income. Church asked Judge Michelle Daneliuk to impose a $10,000 fine, inclusive of the forfeiture of the firearm and repayment of the fees collected the hunting trip. The stark contrast between the defences explanation that it was a one-time offence and the Crowns version, that claims Wiens had used bait to hunt prior to getting charged ended up derailing the sentencing. Daneliuk pointed out that neither side had presented evidence on that point, something the Crown proclaimed it was willing to do. The judge directed the matter to be set for a date early next year for her to deliver the sentence, and in the meantime, urged the lawyers to attempt to reach an agreement on whether the offence was an isolated one. If that agreement cant be reached, Daneliuk said evidence will need to be called by both sides and she will decide for them. Wiens declined to comment when given the opportunity to do so in court. A Seguin man caught in an investigation of the worlds largest child pornography site unexpectedly pleaded guilty as his trial in San Antonio neared its end. Andrew Morgan Weathers, 35, had blamed his stepson for downloading child porn from Playpen, a site on the dark web. The FBI shut it down in 2015 as part of an international investigation and learned that at its peak, it had some 150,000 users worldwide. Prosecution evidence that included detailed testimony about images an FBI task force found on his computer that included child porn, bestiality and scat sex involving excrement were apparently too much to bear, and Weathers threw in the towel late Tuesday afternoon. On ExpressNews.com: Trial begins for area man caught in probe into worlds largest child porn site He pleaded guilty to receiving child porn and possessing it. U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez ordered Weathers taken into custody immediately. Sentencing was set for March 6. Weathers was one of a handful of defendants charged in the San Antonio area after they were identified as visitors or users of the Playpen site, which used layers of servers, some outside the country, to disguise the originating server and keep visitors anonymous. But a mistake by the administrators of the site gave agents the location of the originating server, and after obtaining a warrant, the FBI gained control of the site for two weeks and used computer technology to identify each users internet protocol site before shutting down Playpen. Agents testified that they were able to identify Weathers as a user, and in statements to agents, Weathers confessed, and even told them that he turned to child porn on Playpen and others to fend off urges to sexually assault children. He also told them where he had stored some of the child porn on his home computer, under a folder titled after a video game, Zelda, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracy Thompson and Bexar County Sheriffs Deputy Jeff Allovio, who retired from the FBI but still serves on an FBI task force that investigates child exploitation cases. READ ALSO: Coach resigns from San Antonio Catholic school amid accusations of sexual misconduct We didnt rely just on his statements, Thompson said. The forensic examination (of his computer) confirmed what he had said in the statements. During opening statements Monday, Weathers lead lawyer, David Sergi, told jurors that Weathers falsely confessed to protect a juvenile who downloaded the child porn. Its shameful to blame a child for your illegal behavior, Thompson said. 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 The Leon Valley Fire Department temporarily shut down the San Antonio Aquarium for code violations that caused "grave concern," said City Manager Kelly Kuentsler. During inspections, fire officials discovered unsecure propane tanks and heaters in unvented enclosures, which can result in carbon monoxide and flammable gas build-up. Authorities also cited blocked emergency exits, a hazardous gas main tap and hazardous electrical wiring, according to a news release from the city. RELATED: San Antonio Aquarium responds to petition calling for it to close "touch pool" shark was stolen from "It is the city's primary role to protect the health, safety and welfare of its citizens and those that visit the city," Kuenstler said in the news release. "(Fire chief Michael) Naughton's well documented concerns for any occupants were considered immediate life safety issues; therefore, the city acted." None of the animals are believed to be harmed by the violations, city officials said. The aquarium's attorney, Matthew Wymer, did not agree with the city's findings, and said that safety is the aquarium's top priority. "The aquarium unequivocally rejects any claim that there are dangerous conditions on the property whatsoever. That's full-stop," Wymer said. "The priority of the aquarium is the safety of the people who visit and the animals that are in it. the aquarium would never do anything to put any person or any animal in danger." Wymer also said city officials have been aware of the issues cited in the news release for weeks or in some cases, months. "The conditions have existed on the property and the fire chief was fully aware of them but previously didn't feel it warranted an immediate shutdown of the property," Wymer said. "So this was a surprise to the aquarium." The aquarium has been the subject of constant inspections, Wymer said, "far more often than any business of its kind would expect." Naughton said the owners would not be fined and the department was working with the owners through their fire prevention inspection program. "Our goal isn't to penalize them, our goal is to get them compliant," he said, "and get their business back open. We just need to make sure the building is safe for people and the animals." Wymer said the aquarium acted quickly and resolved all but one issue, though Kuentsler said those fixes haven't been verified yet by city officials. City officials anticipated the aquarium will be open again within the next few days. Fares Sabawi covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here. | fsabawi@mysa.com | Twitter: @FaresInSA Another California Satanic group found itself without many of its holiday ornaments this weekend, when the decorations were stolen from a public holiday event. Satanic Bay Area took part in the annual tree decorating at San Jose's Christmas in the Park event Friday morning, but by Monday, the group said a number of its decorations were missing enough so that a group member had to redistribute the ornaments to cover up the losses. The group is expecting to have to add more ornaments before the event concludes on Dec. 25. "Ornament theft is a thing that happens at Christmas in the Park, unfortunately, and we even anticipated that ahead of time," said Satanic Bay Area organizer Daniel Walker. "I don't want to say we don't mind, because it is annoying, but at the same time, [theft] is a fact of life. I was a little taken aback when I got the message today saying, 'Hey if this keeps up, we're going to have to make some new [ornaments] in about two weeks or so, it's gonna run out if the [theft] rate doesn't get down.' That I did not expect. READ ALSO: Best places to see Christmas lights in and around San Antonio in 2018 "It's really less a question of the act itself, it's more a question of the rate at which it appears to be happening," Walker added. The ornaments taken off the Satanic Bay Area tree include pentagrams, inverted crosses, 3-D printed ornaments of the group's logo, and decorations with images of Krampus, a mythological creature associated with Christmas and said to punish naughty children. Walker said members of their group came together to craft the items, totaling about 140 ornaments, most of them handmade, that decorated the tree on Friday. If this sounds familiar, last year, a different Satanic group that worked with Christmas in the Park had a similar issue. The San Jose chapter of the Satanic Temple decorated a tree in which its elaborate topper an intricate mask made to look like Baphomet, a goat-headed deity that is symbolic to the group was also taken from their tree. (The two groups are not affiliated with each other, Walker confirmed.) This is just the second year a Satanic group has worked with Christmas in the Park, said organizers, but groups do experience ornament theft from time to time. Participants are encouraged to use inexpensive ornaments in case of theft and use wire ties to secure them, said Jason Minsky, executive director for Christmas in the Park. Minsky confirmed Tuesday that he did hear the group suffered a loss of decorations to their tree. Groups new to the event sometimes use "really nice ornaments" to decorate their trees, said Minsky, which can be a problem. "These trees are literally a foot away from the fence and people can easily reach over and grab ornaments. We tell [participants], 'Don't use nice ornaments, people are really going to steal your handcrafted ornaments.' We definitely have had some incidents in the past where ornaments have been taken maybe because they're too nice." Staff, private security and police at Christmas in the Park try to prevent thefts, but with 550 trees to watch over this year (and over 600 trees in 2017), Minsky said it's impossible to police every tree. Still, Satanic Bay Area is taking the theft in stride. Other groups have offered to chip in with new ornaments, and members have said they would make more decorations to add to the tree. Walker called it "a good opportunity to rally together" in the face of the thefts. "People were a little bit disappointed [about the stolen ornaments] and a little bit put out; again, it's news that we expected and it's not the end of the world," Walker said. "I don't want to make it sound like we feel put upon or persecuted, but it is a little disappointing, especially for some folks who lost things they were particularly proud of. The fact that it happened after just a couple of days and already we have to think about doing replacements? That was discouraging." Despite the missing ornaments, according to Walker, the group doesn't feel the theft was necessarily directed at them, and said organizers and attendees were "mostly positive" when they were decorating their tree. Walker typified the response to the tree as anywhere from "hilarious to baffled to amused," with just one member reporting witnessing "one or two people who complained" about the tree. "Since nobody has attacked the tree or broken anything, I assume this is something people are doing because they like the ornaments and they want to take one," said Walker. "I don't want to make a thing about it, because this happens to everyone to one degree or another. If you want an ornament, just let us know it'll be much easier for everybody." Read Dianne de Guzman's latest stories and send her news tips at ddeguzman@sfchronicle.com. Start receiving breaking news emails on wildfires, civil emergencies, riots, national breaking news, Amber Alerts, weather emergencies, and other critical events with the SFGATE breaking news email. Click here to make sure you get the news. When West Side resident Jaime Argona realized he wouldnt be able to make his own traditional Thanksgiving dinner, he hopped on a Via bus with the idea of getting to the famous Raul Jimenez event across town. But the bus driver told the visually impaired San Antonian he didnt have to go that far; there was a luncheon with turkey and all the trimmings available much closer to home at St. Jude Catholic Church. I cant see that well and he told me Hey, they are doing it here, recalled Argona, 53, whose right eye is blind. And he read the sign for me: Everybody is welcome. Anybody and everybody. That luncheon, started by the family of the late Angie Martinez, may not be well known citywide, but its a popular neighborhood event that now attracts more than 700 people. Martinez grew up on the West Side and was an active parishioner at St. Jude, 130 S San Augustine Ave., near West Commerce and Gen. McMullen. She distributed 100 turkeys every Thanksgiving for 14 years, until she passed away in June 2010. One word is constantly used by family and friends to describe Martinez: giving. My Mom was giving. You could never say you like anything because she would give it to you, said her daughter, Michelle Rivera, 35. If someone we knew who was less fortunate would come up and say Im hungry, my Mom would say, Can I get you something to eat? Martinezs legacy still nourishes her community. Her five children Cynthia Ybarra, Rebecca Becky Salinas, Lisa and Art Martinez as well as Rivera honor her life with an annual Thanksgiving Day luncheon that feeds hundreds of people on the West Side. Last year they fed 700 people and this years numbers are still being tallied. My mother always told us, if you have a little more, you give a little more, Salinas said. We feel its our obligation as a family to help others. Obligation is a strong word to use, but we feel its our obligation. As hundreds of folks walked inside the St. Jude Community Center last Thursday, they were greeted by volunteers, Tejano music and a large picture of Martinez. The plates were filled with turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, stuffing, a roll, pie and tea. Guests had the option to take their food to go so they could eat it in the comfort in their own home or stay at the church hall for companionship. You dont have to be needy to enjoy the dinner, just hungry. As the sign said, everyone is welcome. Families, homeless individuals and senior citizens alike held lively conversations in Spanish, English and Spanglish at the tables covered in yellow tablecloths and decorated with fall leaves and other holiday decor. The Martinez children fund the luncheon out of their own pockets and spend two days prepping Tuesday for the turkeys and veggies; Wednesday for cutting the pies and setting up the hall. They credit the 60 or so volunteers who help every year for the luncheons success. With the luncheon reaching its 10-year mark, Rivera said, she and her siblings are focused on their mothers goals, including influencing young folks to serve their communities and have compassion for the people living around them. Richard Richey Gomez, 15, has been a volunteer for the luncheon since he was 7 years old. Richeys mother encouraged him to give back because she always believed he had a big heart. He volunteered for years without knowing the Martinez family story, but was inspired when his mother fully explained it. I was like, wow, this would be a great legacy to continue, we need more volunteers so it could resonate with the people and they will want to help, too, Richey said. Just hearing that story made me want give back hope in the community as a whole, so we can continue growing as one. Richey wasnt the only young face moved by the luncheon. Gabi, 11, and Alex, 8, were eating at Thursdays event with their grandparents Lucy, 56, and Freddy Ortiz, 60. Gabi and Alex knew some people at the luncheon were homeless and they shared their gratitude because we have a house and all of this food. Gabi and Alex said helping others is good and they intend to do it when they grow older. These people are giving people food for free. Its very nice of them to come over here and be with other people, Gabi said, and Alex added, everybody could come and enjoy food with their family. Rivera believes the luncheon can provide an extended family for people who might otherwise spend the holidays alone, even if its for just a couple of hours. Freddy Cerna, 52, was the first of 40 people in line before St. Jude opened its doors for the annual Thanksgiving event. It was Cernas fourth luncheon, but with his sisters recent passing, it was his first alone. Cerna plans to return for a fifth next year and said the welcoming environment helps him during the holidays. And looking at the families walk in together helps, too, Cerna said, smiling. Richey believes the luncheon will continue to grow and serve more but doesnt want it to leave the West Side. There is much culture here and so much love here, that if you put it anywhere else it wont have the same impact, Richey said. People know exactly where this place (St. Jude) is, even if you dont have the right transportation, you know where it is. You can always come here, you will be always welcome. Its all one big happy family here. A suspect accused of two recent robberies was arrested after police linked the same blue van to both cases, authorities said. Ein Isaac Rodriguez, 22, is charged with two counts of aggravated robbery, according to jail records. On Friday, police were called to a Circle K in the 7800 block of Culebra Road, according Rodriguez's arrest affidavit. RELATED: DPS: S.A. man had missing 5-month-old child, meth pipe in car during traffic stop An employee told police a man came in with a silver handgun and took cash from the register, the affidavit says. After reviewing surveillance footage, police realized the suspect matched the description as the assailant in another robbery reported the previous day. In both cases, the suspect vehicle was a blue van, according to the affidavit. On Saturday, police set up surveillance in a parking lot on Culebra near the scene of both robberies and made contact with Rodriguez after he parked the van near a gas station, officials said. Rodriguez allegedly confessed to both robberies and told police although his gun is real, it was not loaded when the crimes were committed. Rodriguez was arrested on a $90,000 bond, according to jail records. Fares Sabawi covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here. | fsabawi@mysa.com | Twitter: @FaresInSA Photo: The Canadian Press Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations Chief Bobby Cameron speaks to media in Battleford, Sask., Friday, February 9, 2018. The chief representing First Nations in Saskatchewan says new proposed trespass legislation leaves the door open for many altercations. Bobby Cameron says there was no consultation with the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations for the legislation. A First Nations leader says proposed Saskatchewan legislation that would require people to get permission before going on private land could lead to clashes and even deaths. Chief Bobby Cameron with the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations said a man was found hunting on Kawacatoose First Nation land on Tuesday. Cameron said the man was told he didn't have permission to hunt there and was escorted off. But it may not always be that simple, the chief said. "Had it been the other way around, I don't know if a farmer would have been that kind or that patient." The proposed changes to trespassing laws were introduced Tuesday, more than two years after Colten Boushie, a 22-year-old Indigenous man, was killed on a farm in rural Saskatchewan. Earlier this year, a jury acquitted farmer Gerald Stanley of second-degree murder after he testified his gun went off accidentally when he was trying to scare off some young people who drove onto his property. "We hope there are no more tragedies, we really hope," Cameron said. "But if they do, this provincial government should also say, we will be held liable if someone dies because of this trespassing legislation." Justice Minister Don Morgan said the proposed law balances the rights of rural landowners and the public. The legislation would provide legal protection for landowners against property damage caused by a trespasser. A recent survey released by the province showed 65 per cent of respondents said people should ask landowners for permission before they go onto private land. "Our goal ... is protecting landowners, not necessarily protecting the rights of somebody that wants to come onto the land," Morgan said in Regina. He said the legislation would put rural land on par with urban land where owners don't have to prove that a property was fenced or marked. Not being able to find somebody is no excuse to go on the land without permission, he added. "I would hope that landowners would adopt a reasonable position and make themselves available," Morgan said. Cameron said it's unfortunate the province didn't consult the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations and decided to base the proposed changes on the survey's results. He predicted the proposal, if passed, will create headaches because First Nation lands and roads are used by non-Indigenous people. "You mean to tell me that every farmer and rancher and agriculturalist needs to call chief and council every single time to come on to lands?" Cameron said. "That's cumbersome. There's a better way of doing business." Opposition NDP critic Trent Wotherspoon said the proposed legislation isn't practical and doesn't address rural crime. "To make changes that have an impact without engaging in good faith (with) Indigenous peoples, traditional land users on that front, is disgraceful," he said. President Trump rightly rebuked Chief Justice Roberts for criticizing his factual statements about Obama judges consistently ruling against the Trump Administration. Liberals are gaming the court system by running to activist judges in San Francisco, Hawaii and Maryland to obstruct the will of the People who elected Trump. John Roberts is not the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, or even the Chief Justice of all the federal courts. His office is the Chief Justice of the United States, which means he should be acting on behalf of all three branches of government, and not provincially defending lower court judges against justified criticism by the President. As pointed out by Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee who has been wonderful in confirming Trumps nominees, Chief Justice Roberts was completely silent after the unjustified tongue-lashing given by then-President Obama against Supreme Court Justices during the 2010 State of the Union address. The double-standard in denouncing Trump now is striking. President Trump was correct in saying that Obama-appointed judges have been unfair in issuing numerous sweeping rulings against the Trump agenda, which has necessitated quickly running those bad decisions up on appeal. Senseless delays and increased taxpayer expense have resulted from Roberts own failure to rein in the rampant judicial activism among certain lower courts, which he could curb. Sorry Chief Justice John Roberts, but you do indeed have Obama judges, and they have a much different point of view than the people who are charged with the safety of our country, Trump tweeted after Roberts chided him. Indeed, nearly all of the high-profile injunctions against Trump have been by Obama judges. San Francisco is nowhere near the southern border and there is no valid reason why liberal lawsuits against Trumps immigration policies are repeatedly filed there. The apparent motivation is this: 11 out of the 14 active judges in that federal district were appointed by Obama, and Trump properly criticized how that one-sided venue has resulted in national injunctions against the President. Chief Justice Roberts should check with his fellow Supreme Court Justices about how abusive these nationwide injunctions have been. Justice Clarence Thomas persuasively opposed these nationwide injunctions in an opinion that Roberts should have written or at least joined. San Francisco is a favorite venue of the Resistance to Trump because appeals go from there to the Ninth Circuit, which Obama packed with seven lifetime appointments. The liberal California senators have failed to allow Trump to fill six vacancies on that circuit, which has long been notorious for being reversed, often unanimously, by the Supreme Court. The Ninth Circuit even issued decisions by activist judge Stephen Reinhardt after he died on March 29th of this year, including a July 24th decision in which the other judges on the panel stated that Reinhardt had agreed with the court opinion even though he had died nearly four months earlier. Perhaps because a party complained, the Ninth Circuit later withdrew that decision. Trumps Solicitor General Noel Francisco is doing what he can to combat the judicial supremacy. He has taken the extraordinary step of asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear certain appeals without first awaiting decisions by the U.S. Circuit Courts that are packed with Obama nominees. Unlike the President, the Supreme Court decides for itself how much work to do, which controversies to take up, and when to adjourn for its three-month summer vacation. The Court takes far fewer cases than it did a generation ago, and it is shocking how it increasingly fills its docket with easy, non-controversial cases. A cursory glance at the cases the Court has decided to hear this Term reveals much that is insignificant, while Trump works overtime addressing crisis after crisis. Much of the Courts time seems to be spent dodging abortion and other hot-button issues; the Court has deferred again and again cases concerning the simple authority of states to defund Planned Parenthood. Chief Justice Roberts failed to join the dissent by two Justices, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, to the spectacle of putting the Trump Administration on trial in New York for including a question about citizenship in the census. One would think that the first and most important question in a census by any country, dating back to ancient Rome, would concern citizenship. But Chief Justice Roberts and a majority of the Court have allowed an Obama-appointed judge the brother of Obamas chief economist to put Trump officials on trial. No court would have put members of the Obama Administration on trial with respect to their policy decisions. Perhaps Chief Justice Roberts is still smarting from criticisms of him by candidate Trump in 2016. But as the Chief Justice of the United States, Roberts should be defending the President rather than taking cheap shots at him. John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016). Climate change is happening primarily as a result of human activities and its damaging impacts severe droughts, deadly wildfires, monster tropical storms, punishing heat waves are already being felt in the United States. Thats not me talking. Its the conclusion of the U.S. government, in an alarming new report the Trump administration doesnt want you to read. It can be no accident that the 1,656-page Impacts, Risks and Adaptation section of the latest blue-ribbon National Climate Assessment was released on the day after Thanksgiving, a graveyard of a news cycle when many Americans are focused on turkey sandwiches and Black Friday deals. The report provides stunning new evidence for what we already knew: President Trumps climate-change policy ignore, obfuscate, delay, deny amounts to environmental vandalism on a tragic scale. Surely aware of what was coming, the president used his Twitter feed on Wednesday to pose as a weatherman and launch a preemptive attack: Brutal and Extended Cold Blast could shatter ALL RECORDS Whatever happened to Global Warming? Answer: Its here, its all around us and its getting worse. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the report notes, global average temperature has increased by 1.8 degrees and global average sea level has risen by about 8 inches. These changes are accelerating. By the year 2100, if action is not taken to curb carbon emissions, the temperature rise could total 9 degrees and the sea level rise could exceed 4 feet. Trump and other deniers can no longer claim with a straight face that no warming is taking place, since nine of the hottest 10 years on record have come since 2005. Instead, they try to blame some as-yet unknown natural cycle. But the new climate assessment notes that observational evidence does not support any credible natural explanations. Instead, the evidence consistently points to human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse or heat-trapping gases, as the dominant cause, according to the report. The atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide has risen from around 280 parts per million at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution to more than 400 parts per million now. That is an astonishing 40 percent increase since humankind began burning fossil fuels on a massive scale. This is no coincidence and involves no guesswork. According to records maintained by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, ice cores show that over the past 800,000 years, levels of atmospheric carbon fluctuated between 170 and 300 parts per million until recently zooming off the charts. Resist any temptation to write all this off as scientific gobbledygook. Pay attention to the numbers, which are important and not very hard to follow. Denialist officials and commentators who throw up their hands and say Im not a scientist are being disingenuous. There is no real scientific debate about the existence of climate change or the fact that human activity is driving it. There is, however, a political debate about what to do. Trump is determined to accelerate climate change by boosting the production and use of coal the dirtiest widely used fuel, in terms of carbon emissions and keeping oil prices low. This is the dumbest, most short-sighted policy imaginable. Trump visited California to see first-hand the destruction of the horrific Camp Fire, which killed at least 85 people with the death toll expected to rise as more remains are found and destroyed more than 14,000 homes. According to the new climate assessment, the cumulative forest area burned in the western United States by wildfires since 1984 is fully double what it would have been if climate change had not occurred. They are getting worse because of climate change. So are tropical storms, flash floods and heat waves. Trump claims to be all about economic growth. But the new report predicts that climate change is expected to cause growing losses to American infrastructure and property and impede the rate of economic growth over this century. It adds that annual losses in some economic sectors are projected to reach hundreds of billions of dollars. The report sounds one more ominous note: Thus far, climate scientists dire predictions have proved to be conservative. The world is on fire. We have a president who plays with matches. eugenerobinson@washpost.com The East Central Independent School District board must be more transparent as it considers arming school staff with weapons to respond in case of an active shooter on campus. Most parents were caught unaware the district was even considering the policy until it suddenly appeared on the boards November meeting agenda. Fewer still were aware a committee of community members had been formed to research the hot button issue. No action was taken at the regularly scheduled meeting, but the matter is far from over and is expected to be on the school boards January agenda. Campus safety is a concern among parents of school-age children. We get that there are reasons why details of a school districts comprehensive safety plan must be kept secret, but we are talking about preliminary planning discussions here. Buy-in from the parents of the children enrolled in the district is not going to happen if they feel left out of the process. Some parents who appeared at the Nov. 13 school board meeting expressed concern about the mental state of staffers who might carry weapons. They have some valid concerns that deserve to be publicly addressed. While most parents can appreciate safety measures to protect their children, there is apprehension about arming civilians who have not had to undergo psychological evaluations or undergo extensive firearms training. More than 2,996 licensed certified peace officers are employed by school districts in Texas, according to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement. Many of the districts include assault weapons in their arsenal. Most public school district have their own police departments, and in recent years many have begun to add assault weapons in their arsenals. At least nine states, including Texas, allow the arming of school officials. Texas school districts have two options when allowing certain employees to carry guns on campus. One marshal plan allows school district to authorize specific employees to carry weapons and act as armed security officers on campus after undergoing required training from the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement. The other option is a guardian plan that is less restrictive and is the one East Central officials are considering. It does not require marshal training and allows school personnel to carry weapons as long as they undergo a training program designated by the school district and have a handgun license. There are no state-mandated limits on how many school employees can be authorized to carry weapons under the guardian plan. The marshal plan sets a limit of one marshal for every 400 students. East Central ISD has about 10,000 students enrolled. Approximately one-fifth of the 1,031 school districts in the state have adopted one of the two plans that allows them to arm their staffs. Many are in rural communities where response time by law enforcement agencies might be hampered by distance. Last school year, there were 170 gun-toting school staff members, administrators and teachers in school districts. By the beginning of the current school year, there were at least 227, according to the Texas Association of School Boards. Much of the increased interest was a result of the May shooting in Santa Fe, near Houston, that resulted in the deaths of eight students and two teachers. The issue of allowing guns on school campuses is highly emotional. Creating a consensus on policy to arm school staff will require a robust dialogue that addresses concerns on both sides. We urge East Central ISD board to be inclusive as it moves forward. Hear from everyone concerned before taking a vote. Donald Trump hates the judicial system and probably with good reasons. He has been sued and charged numerous times, generally loses, and his orders are generally revoked. Trumps recent row with Chief Justice John Roberts is an example of Trumps irrational behavior toward the judiciary. The American College of Trial Lawyers issued a statement in support of remarks by Chief Justice John Roberts, who said, We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges. The criticism of Trump by national judicial groups is needed. Trumps stand and criticisms of judicial groups are just examples of Trumps failure as a leader of the greatest nation in the world, and he needs to be out of this office. Edward V. Harris, Quitman No room for facts Re: Note to GOP: Politics around climate are changing, Another View, by Ryan Haygood, Monday: Thank you for publishing this by a young conservative student who seems to understand and accept science, facts, evidence and reality, and is unwilling to sacrifice them to the fantasy, fiction and ignorance based on wishful thinking that drives the Republican Party. Back at the White House, Trump claims omniscience, which may be a sure sign of the Dunning-Kruger effect (people having lower cognitive ability than they think). Trump does not need to study anything, he says, because his gut is always right. In Trumps case perhaps the gut is all he has to use since his head only has room for his ego. Theresa S. Doyle Crisis very real Re: Asylum crisis exists only in imagination, Editorial, Monday: This was sloppy analysis. Large numbers of migrants rushed the border at the San Ysidro port of entry this weekend and were repelled by tear gas as the port was closed. Not imaginary. President Donald Trumps executive order since halted by a federal judge would require that asylum-seekers present themselves at a legal port of entry to claim asylum and would deny them asylum if they cross the border illegally. There is little about immigration and asylum that is straightforward. There are a number of laws some contradictory in play. The Immigration and Nationality Act allows the president, whenever he finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, to suspend all forms of immigration for such period as he shall deem necessary. Further, the president could issue an executive order requiring those seeking asylum to do so at one of the 10 U.S. Consulates in Mexico as President Barack Obama did. As Mexico has offered asylum to these Central Americans, it is unclear that a valid case for asylum in the US exists since the credible fear requirement has been eliminated. Obviously, you have your opinions. But it would improve the quality of your advocacy if you had a better command of the facts and issues. Arguing that the asylum crisis is imaginary and a political stunt is an opinion but not a well-founded one. John Graham Photo: The Canadian Press This Sept. 24, 2014 photo shows World War II veteran and political activist Harry Leslie Smith speaking during the Labour Party annual conference, in Manchester. A prominent anti-poverty activist, who authored several books on the Great Depression, the Second World War and postwar austerity, has died in an eastern Ontario hospital. Harry Leslie Smith's son, who has been issuing regular medical updates to his father's 250,000 Twitter followers, said the 95-year-old died early Wednesday morning. "At 3:39 this morning, my dad Harry Leslie Smith died. I am an orphan," his son John wrote on Twitter. "I have spent the last 8 years with Harry on his beautiful odyssey to not make his past our future. It was honour to be his son and comrade." Smith, who lived through the Great Depression and fought in the British air force during the Second World War, had been a lifelong advocate for the poor. Online tributes had poured in for him as he received treatment in an intensive care unit in Belleville, Ont., after his family said he suffered a fall. Notables, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, actress Mia Farrow and British Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn, were among the supporters who extended their well wishes to the famed activist. Smith's son said on Twitter that his father had expressed his appreciation for the support he received. "I told Harry before he fell into a deep sleep about the concern rippling across Twitter for him and he said to me, 'Tell them, I love each of them so much,'" John wrote on Twitter last week. In response, Trudeau tweeted: "Harry's journey and courage have inspired so much love and kindness on this site, and in the real world too. Thank you for taking us along we're pulling for you." Smith, who split his time living between England and Canada, rose to online prominence as a nonagenarian for his progressive polemics rooted in personal strife. He was the son of a coal miner who described the 1920s in Britain as a "barbarous" and "bleak" time in part because of the lack of health care. His sister died of tuberculosis at three. He started work at age seven doing manual labour at a brewery. Smith's speech at the 2014 British Labour Party conference about the difficulties of life before the country's National Health Service moved many to tears. On Twitter, Corbyn called Smith "one of the giants whose shoulders we stand on." Corbyn led a tribute to Smith in the British parliament Wednesday. Former Labour Party leader Ed Miliband tweeted that Smith was "one of a kind who never wavered in his fight for equality and justice. We should all carry his passion, optimism and spirit forward." In several books and essays, Smith drew parallels between his own brushes with global crises of the past and current turmoil that affects the marginalized. He was particularly critical of the dismantling of social-welfare systems, the inequities of unchecked capitalism and the rising threat of nationalism. "I am the world's oldest rebel,'' Smith told UNHCR Magazine in October. "I think there are many things we can do if we put our minds to it, and we shouldn't be leaving anyone out.'' Former Minister of Home Affairs is a Central Intelligence Operative who was recruited by President Emmerson Mnangagwa to spy on ZAPU leaders, Professor Jonathan Moyo has alleged. Moyo was responding to Mpofus allegation that he phoned MDC Leader Nelson Chamisa and recorded the phone call because he does not trust the MDC Leader. Obert Mpofu, the now disobedient son recruited into the CIO by Mnangagwa in 1980 to spy on Zapu leaders, is lying under oath. He should be required to produce the recording he claims he did. Only blithering idiots will believe his lie that Nelson Chamisa admitted on 1 Aug he had lost! Said Professor Jonathan Moyo. There has been a long standing allegation that Obert Mpofu joined ZAPU Youth movement in 1966 and became an occasional messenger between ZAPU comrades in Rhodesia and Zambia. Mpofu was proved to be divisive and untrainable and dismissed from the role by ZIPRA Commander Alfred Nikita Mangena. Mpofu then sought the Academic road and studied journalism in India. When Zimbabwe attained Independence Mpofu betrayed ZAPU and opportunistically joined ZANU PF as a matter of survival. His betrayal should be read in context that Mpofu joined ZANU PF at a time when the party was maiming mercilessly 20 000 Matebeleland citizens. Some ZANU PF members says Mpofu worked as a manager of Customs in Harare and began smuggling televisions to Zimbabwe and Enos Nkala came to his aid and protected Mpofu under the wings of ZANU PF catapulting him to be ZANU PF non-constituency MP in 1987 and 1995. Robert Mugabe rewarded Mpofu by making him Governor of Matabeleland North and later Minister of Industry and Trade. Bulawayo24 Breaking News via Email Loading... Related Zimbabwe Latest News MDC Alliance youths received training in Zambia and South Africa to rise against the Government in the event that they lost the July 30 harmonised elections, the Commission of Inquiry into the violence that rocked Harare on August 1 heard yesterday. Six people died following the violent demonstration while property worth hundreds of thousands of dollars was destroyed. Presenting her evidence to the Commission, Ms Linda Masarira, the spokesperson of the MDC-T led by Ms Thokozani Khupe also accused the MDC Alliance leadership of inciting their supporters to engage in violence in the run up to the elections. It would be naive for anyone to think that the MDC Alliance do not have radical and militant youths who trained under the civil society banner which are stakeholders of the MDC Alliance, she said. I can speak with confidence and evidence that there are two groups who were trained to lead protest though it is said that they were trained to uprise in a non-violent manner which is contrary to the actions that prevailed on August 1. The MDC Alliance believes the Government can be persuaded to a government of national unity or to accede to certain demands from the illegal demonstrations that they did coupled with the ongoing demonisation of Zimbabwe. We have an opposition that believes in hate speech and insults, terrorising of women and the suffering of the masses to woo protest votes. Ms Masarira urged the Commission not to be hoodwinked by the eloquence of the partys leadership. MDC Alliance is a party full of highly intolerant people, who think they are the Alpha and Omega of Zimbabwe politics, Ms Masarira said. The eloquence of their leaders in preaching peace is not practised. It is hypocrisy. It is unfortunate that we live in an era where the name of God is taken in vain and there is no instant justice. People dare to lie under oath professionally misrepresenting themselves but the truth cannot be hidden. Earlier Zanu-PF secretary for Administration Cde Obert Mpofu who also appeared before the Commission said it was clear that the violent demonstration had been planned. I feel that from a well informed view that there were snipers that had been planted around Harare and some buildings. Somebody created a scene and directed that there be some firing to paint Government in bad light, Cde Mpofu said. He said he observed the protestors from his office at the Zanu-PF headquarters chanting MDC Alliance slogans with some wearing the partys regalia. The demonstration had its source, the way the people gathered points to logistical support. These people were not marching from nowhere they were coming from the partys (MDC Alliance) headquarters. Cde Mpofu, who was then the Home Affairs Minister said he had called Mr Chamisa urging him to contain his supporters to no avail. I have a recording of the phone conversation I had with him (Mr Chamisa). He said minister let me look into it and I will come back to you but he never came back, Cde Mpofu said. He added that the utterances by the MDC Alliance leaders before the elections were meant to incite their supporters to tarnish the countrys electoral processes. The Commission is being chaired by former South African President, Kgalema Motlanthe and its report will be made public. Chronicle Breaking News via Email Loading... Related Zimbabwe Latest News POLICE in Gweru on Monday evening fired teargas to disperse crowds in the citys central business district after violent clashes with vendors who were resisting confiscation of their wares. The skirmishes, which left scores of people injured in a stampede as onlookers scurried for cover to escape the tear smoke, happened along Robert Mugabe Avenue, near the Kudzanayi long distance bus terminus. When Southern Eye news crew arrived at the scene, an elderly woman was lying motionless amid reports she had collapsed after choking on tear smoke. Members of the public could be seen running along the streets with the combative police milling around the scene armed with rifles. Eyewitness said all hell broke loose when one of the vendors whose wares had been confiscated threw himself in front of a vehicle that was being used by the police officers in the operation and challenged the driver to run over him. Generally, there seemed to be tension between the vendors and the police. When one vendor threw himself in front of the vehicle that was being used by police in the operation, hordes of people mobbed the cops, demanding answers as to why they were being insensitive. People started whistling and shouting during the commotion. So police fired teargas to disperse the crowds, who were protesting against their actions, an eyewitness who declined to be named said. Another eyewitness, Job Ngirandi, who is a vendor, said the polices actions of confiscating vendors wares triggered their actions. Vendors last week petitioned Midlands Provincial Affairs minister Larry Mavima to recover their wares they say were valued more than $40 000, which were confiscated by police last week. Gweru Vendors Association chairperson Lovemore Reketayi Tingaka told Southern Eye that the latest incident was unfortunate and will be raised when they meet Mavhima on December 4. I was at my vending stall in the rank when the Monday incident happened. I just saw smoke all over the place and within a short space of time, I saw people running into the rank in huge numbers. We have raised concern over the use of excessive force and the unfair operation by the police with the minister and we will meet him on December 4 as per his request. People whose wares were confiscated last week are yet to get them back, he said. Midlands police spokesperson Inspector Joel Goko was said to be out of office when sought for comment. His mobile phone was unreachable. NewsDay Breaking News via Email Loading... Related Zimbabwe Latest News MDC president Nelson Chamisa and the party vice chairperson Tendai Biti turned the tables on President Emmerson Mnangagwa after putting up a polished show that many in the opposition say exposes Zanu PF as a violent party. Biti and Chamisa, who stand accused of inciting people to demonstrate after a delay in the announcement of poll results on August 1, painted Zanu PF as a bloodthirsty party and chronicled the use of violence by the State since pre-independence which persists today. According to the two opposition leaders, whose testimonies before the Kgalema Motlanthe commission was broadcast live on the sole national broadcaster albeit with glitches, Zanu PF is the one that triggered the violence on August 1 and there is also several precedents to that. Observers say Biti and Chamisa turned the tables on Mnangagwa and his government who have accused the opposition of being behind the August 1 violence when six civilians were killed during protests. Former Higher and Tertiary Education minister Jonathan Moyo who is now living in self-imposed exile said Motlanthe now has a tall order before him after the presentation of the two former student leaders. 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 & hope across the nation. Its now on Motlanthes shoulders, said Moyo. On Chamisa, Moyo said the former Cabinet minister spoke like a president exposing the shortcomings of the electoral laws and putting it on regional leaders to intervene and make sure, in future elections, results are announced expeditiously. It was a gripping account. Im not surprised that the national broadcaster decided to cut coverage. But its behaviour was a further indictment on the system. They just showed the Commission and the world thats watching how intolerant and repressive they are despite pretences to the contrary. Those who dont get it think the historical account was unnecessary. But it was a perfect strategy. Terms of reference require an inquiry into the circumstances leading to August 1 & to understand the events you have to learn the history of violence in Zimbabwe. That context is critical. Those around the world who watched this performance and may have forgotten the genesis of our problems will have found a great refresher. A lot has been said about the opposition movement. TBs account ticked many boxes & he represented the movement well. It was an awesome testimony presented in full knowledge of the fact that this was a stage for a bigger war of democracy, said Alex Magaisa. Political analyst Maxwell Saungweme said by tracing the genesis of violence in Zimbabwe, the two opposition leaders through historical contexts could help Zimbabwe deal with its past where wounds still fester. They put up a good show and competently explained the history of organised political violence. They did manage to expose how Mnangagwa and the military are and were involved in organised political violence and this is important for the world to know, though to anyone who follows Zimbabwe closely there was nothing new, said Saungweme. Appearing before the commission on Monday, Chamisa said his hands are clean and laid the blame on Zanu PF. For the record, my hands are clean. My conscience is very clear and my resolve is unbreakable. These hands that you see have not spilled blood, said Chamisa as he laid the blame on Zanu PFfor the August 1 killings. DailyNews Breaking News via Email Loading... Related Zimbabwe Latest News A pack of hyenas pounce on cheating married lovers as they bonk in the bush Buhera woman who sneaked off into a bush to have sex with her married lover was left disfigured after hyenas crashed their romantic date and viciously attacked the pair. According to reports, Jeserinda Mashatise (48) who resides near Nechava School had half of her face mauled by the canines. Mashatise left her home informing her husband that she was going to the borehole to fetch water. She had a rendezvous with her lover and neighbour Dickson Hamandishe (44) and the two sneaked off went into a bush for a quickie. While they were having sex a pack of hyenas pounced. Hamandishe fled naked and climbed up a tree for safety leaving the animals to feast on Mashatise. Herdsmen who heard Mashatises wails rushed to the scene to assist. They threw stones and used a bow and arrow to scare off the animals. One of the hyenas was killed. Mashatise is in intensive care at Murambinda Hospital. The attack comes few weeks after Buhera MP Cde Joseph Chinotimba implored Zimbabwe government to declare the hyena menace a state of emergency. The beasts have already killed people and are known to attack livestock and travellers at night. ZW Breaking News via Email Loading... Related Zimbabwe Latest News 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 200 000. 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. 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 on in 2015 to find Miss Garikayi in bed with another man(a doctor), 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. Following the ruling, she was ordered to pay 30,000 of Mr Penfolds legal costs within three weeks and was told lawyers will seek to ultimately double that bill. ES, Agencies Breaking News via Email Loading... Related Zimbabwe Latest News NATIONAL flag carrier Air Zimbabwe has released a press statement regarding yesterdays mid-air turn back of Dar es Salaam bound flight UM438. ZoomZimbabwe yesterday broke the story of the Air Zimbabwe plane that experienced a technical fault on flight and had to retun to Harare. Passengers who spoke to ZoomZimbabwe said it was a frightening experience as the plane took a sharp descent when it was about 50 minutes in flight. The plane had left Harare at 13.20 hrs. All the four different passengers interviewed by ZOOMZimbabwe were clear the pilot said: We are having a minor technical fault and will have to return to Harare. Air Zimbabwe has issued a press statement, saying the plane returned due to bad weather. After yesterdays incident, Air Zimbabwe officials told passengers to check in tomorrow (today) at 13:00 hrs for a replacement flight. However, at around 18.00 hrs yesterday, Air Zimbabwe started calling passengers asking them to return for a replacement flight at 22.00 hrs. Meanwhile, two of the passengers we had interviewed yesterday have indicated that they are now in Dar es Salaam after Air Zimbabwe replaced the problem aircraft with another one late night yesterday. The replacement flight landed in Dar es Salaam at around 3.30am Wednesday. Passengers waiting for the same flight in Tanzania were stranded and with no official communication from the airline. Some had resorted to Twitter to seek answers for the delay. We publish their full statement below. ZoomZimbabwe Breaking News via Email Loading... Related Zimbabwe Latest News By Jerri-Lynn Scofield, who has worked as a securities lawyer and a derivatives trader. She is currently writing a book about textile artisans. A couple of days after the midterms, Politico reported: Im going to say something controversial: We believe there isnt enough money in politics, said Geoff Ziebart, executive director of the [National Association of Business Political Action Committees (NABPAC), which lobbies on behalf of PACs.] Theres so much money outside the control of candidates and parties, and Congress has been unwilling to address that. Well, I guess thats one way of defining the American money and politics problem. Its certainly not how I would frame the issue nor I suspect would most readers of Naked Capitalism. But its a framing that accords with the mission of NABPAC, an organisation that describes itself as follows (from the About section of the NABPAC website): The National Association of Business Political Action Committees (NABPAC), a 501(c)(6) non-profit trade association, was founded in 1977 and is the sole national organization dedicated to promoting, defending and professionalizing PACs and political action professionals. NABPAC is not a PAC, and does not contribute to candidates it is a trade association for corporations and business associations. Our goal is to advance the interests of our membership and protect the rights of millions of Americans who participate in democracy though voluntary contributions to a PAC. NABPAC also provides comprehensive membership services to PAC and grassroots professionals through continuing educational workshops, annual conferences, informative publications and peer-to-peer advising. Membership consists of over 700 PAC and government affairs professionals from more than 215 corporations, associations and vendors throughout the country who represent some of the smallest and largest PACs. NABPAC members collectively accounted for PAC receipts in excess of $195 million during the 2016 election cycle. [Jerri-Lynn here: my emphasis.] I dont think Im especially naive, but I was a bit surprised to discover an association dedicated to advancing the agenda of PAC and government affairs professionals. And I suspect Im not alone: Id bet good money that even Richard Scarry was unaware of this profession when he wrote his childrens classic, What Do People Do all Day? But I digress. To summarize NABPAC in a nutshell (from the History section of the NABPAC website): From its founding, NABPAC has been dedicated to the premise that voluntary contributions to candidates, Parties and other political entities provide the critical resources necessary for pro-business candidates to carry their messages to voters. What Is to Be DONE; The NABPAC Agenda NABPAC convened a conference earlier in November in Palm Beach, on the subject of Challenging the Narrative and Opening Minds: PACs and the 116th Congress. Ive included a link to NABPACs Power Point presentation, and I encourage interested readers to look at that more carefully. I dont know whether to laugh or cry. So, to spare myself that choice, lets look more closely at that presentation. Page 23 summarizes the problem NABPAC faces: a political environment in which politicians have pledged not to take PAC money; in which corporate PACs are perceived as providing dark money; and where anti-PAC rhetoric is ubiquitous. Jerri-Lynn here. At least NABPAC acknowledges the obvious. Or,to put it another way, describes the campaign finance universe in much the same way that I and I imagine many readers do. Where we would certainly disagree is on the role that corporate money should play in financing elections and Im sure, on many other issues as well. Lets now move to I page 25 of the Power Point, which sets out the NABPAC plan: 1) Shift the public narrative that corporate PACs are bad/neutralize; 2) Educate Congress on the need to modernize campaign lawaka reform Goal: Create an 18th month strategic plan for NABPAC to implement. How are they going to do this? Via excellent [campaign finance reform] knowledge and history; relationships with key reporters and influencers; social media advocacy; and building a bi-partisan team (p. 24). Key reporters include (p. 43): Kate Ackley and Cat Camilia | Roll Call Michelle Lee and Paul Kane | Washington Post Alex Burns and Carl Hulse | New York Times Brody Mullins and Rebeccas Ballhaus | WSJ And NABPACs objectives? (from p. 26): Develop focused, modern initiative to change dialogue; Reintroduce traditional PACs to lawmakers; Hill staff; and media (while differentiating from Super PACs) Explain the need for wide-ranging reform on an antiquated but transparent hard-money system Provide membership with facts, talking points to defend Protect and promote their PACs internally Energize a bipartisan group of Hill champions to preserve Promote and preserve the roles of PACs in the [campaign finance] system through specific legislative initiatives. I thought readers might also be interested in the conduits through which NABPAC expects their views might become policy. On the Republican side, these include Senator Mitch McConnell and Representative Kevin McCarthy no surprises there and on the Democratic side, Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Steny Hoyer (p. 39). I should highlight two talking points under the heading Rebut the Attacks (p. 35): PAC contributions are the cleanest in politics PAC contributions are the most bipartisan in in politics And that, I suggest, is the problem in a nutshell.The third point under the same heading, offers some basis for optimism but not in the sense that NABPAC intended, and only if movements to dredge the campaign finance swamp, and move either to a system that collects small contributions from ordinary voters- along the lines of the Bernie Sanders model or some system of public financing of elections. PAC contributions inspire political involvement. The Times They Are A-Changin? Now, as Common Dreams reports: In its presentation, NABPAC sought to pit political action committees against unregulated Super PACS, which can accept unlimited donationsarguing that PAC money is the cleanest money in politics. The statement blatantly ignored the recent success of progressive candidates who have pledged to take no corporate PAC money for their campaignsincluding Reps.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.). Thirty-five new members of the House won their elections after refusing such donations, as well as 12 incumbent lawmakers.In the face of these pledges, what is the NABPAC response. Again, according to Politico: The National Association of Business PACs which lobbies for PACs is finalizing a plan to convince lawmakers, candidates and the press that the real villain in politics is unchecked spending by super PACs and mystery donors, not the more-regulated fundraising committees attached to businesses and trade groups.The group also will push lawmakers to raise the limits on how much corporate PACs can give to individual candidates from $5,000 to $10,000, caps that havent changed since 1974. Can you believe this? I cannot. So, I cede the floor, and turn it over to readers to discuss the subject further. Jerri-Lynn here. Blackstone is a major operator in the Spanish property market. This post discusses prospects for the Spanish governments plans to enact modest protections for tenants, by reforming rent laws. One proposed reform would extend the minimum length of rental contracts so as to slow the pace of rent increases, and stymie evictions. Which interests will prevail the needs of tenants, or the demands of private equity? Prospects for tenants look shaky, with investors hreatening to reduce investment. Will the Spanish government cave? By Don Quijones of Spain, the UK, and Mexico, and editor at Wolf Street. Originally published at Wolf Street Wall Street mega-landlord Blackstone is once again making its presence felt in Spain, which represents about one-fifth of its global property empire. During the Q&A session of a recent breakfast meeting organized by the American Chamber of Commerce, the senior advisor of the groups Spanish subsidiary, Claudio Boada, confronted Spains Minister of Economy and Business, Nadia Calvino, on the governments plans to reform Spains renting laws in an attempt to slow down the pace of rising rents. Of particular concern to the private equity colossus is the governments stated goal of extending the minimum duration of rental contracts from three to five years for private individuals and from three to seven years for businesses, in the hope of tempering the rate at which rents are rising in the country. But it will also hamper the ability of private-equity landlords like Blackstone to turf out the existing tenants of newly acquired properties as quickly as possible in order to jack up rental prices for new ones. We think that the measures being discussed could end up increasing the price of rents price and reducing investment, said Boada. Translation: if the government proceeds with its misguided plan to make life a little easier for the legions of struggling tenants, private equity landlords like Blackstone might be tempted to reduce its investment in Spanish real estate. Given that private equity firms are one of the biggest sources of demand for real estate in Spain as well as the main buyers of impaired real estate assets from Spanish banks and Spains bad bank, Sareb, its a pretty big threat and one the government will no doubt take very seriously. Blackstone alone has over 100,000 real estate assets in Spain that are controlled via dozens of companies. Those assets include a huge portfolio of impaired real estate assets, including defaulted mortgages and real estate-owned assets (REOs). The company is not only the biggest private real-estate manager in Spain; it is also the biggest hotel owner, after acquiring the countrys largest real estate investment trust (REIT), Hispania, for 1.9 billion, earlier this year. Following a string of smaller operations, the acquisition of Hispania cemented Blackstones position as top dog in one of the worlds biggest tourist markets, with a total stock of 17,000 beds, far ahead of Melia (almost 11,000), H10 (more than 10,000) and Hoteles Globales (just over 9,000). In the past year and a half, Blackstone has played a leading role in some of the largest real estate operations in Spain. In 2017 it paid 5.1 billion for the defaulted loans Banco Santander inherited from its shotgun-acquisition of Banco Popular. In the last few months it has splashed out a further 1.7 billion to purchase Spanish banks holdings in TESTA, another giant REIT with a portfolio of more than 10,000 rental properties. Blackstone also owns 1,800 social housing units, which it acquired from Madrid City Hall in a dodgy deal brokered by the son of former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar and former Madrid mayor Ana Botella. Blackstone paid 202 million for the apartments in 2013; they are now estimated to be worth 660 million a 227% return in just five year! Since its purchase of the properties, Blackstone has hiked rents on the flats by 49%. Those who cant pay have been evicted. The transformation of top private equity groups like Blackstone into global landlords with over three trillion dollars of real estate assets almost double what they had five years ago has occurred for a number of reasons. First, after the financial crisis they were one of the few large market participants with enough funds on hand to invest in foreclosed homes and failed property schemes, of which there was a massive glut all over the world. Central banks, financial regulators, and governments lent a big helping hand by driving the cost of borrowing, especially for well-connected Wall Street funds, to heretofore unimaginable depths, as well as by passing regulations that made it easier for the funds to issue rent-backed securities. With average rents in Spain soaring by 25% since 2014, and by over 50% in Barcelona and the Balearic Islands, those investments have paid off handsomely. As the Spanish Savings Banks Foundation (FUNCAS) warned in May, heavily invested private equity funds have begun to are fret that many Spanish families, scratching a living on poorly paid, zero-security jobs, are incapable of paying todays high rents. Many of those that cant pay have already been evicted from the fund-owned apartments. It is these people the government intends (or at least intended) to help by increasing the minimum duration of rental contracts. But doing that would clash head-on with the interests of Wall Streets largest landlord. As such, the chances of Spains government, which has already backslid on a number of popular measures, actually carrying through on its pledge are infinitely smaller today than they were before last weeks breakfast meeting. Who will purchase 275 billion of government debt Italy is to issue in 2019? Read QE Created Dangerous Financial Dependence, Italy Hooked, Withdrawal Next, ECB Warns Photo: CTV News A B.C. mom who was in limbo for months in Ghana trying to bring home her adopted son has returned to Canada without the boy. Kim Moran had been waiting for her son's immigration papers to be processed, but was forced to come home to Abbotsford when her MS flared up, putting her in hospital. She arrived at Vancouver International Airport on Tuesday without her two-year-old son, Ayo, CTV News reports. Probably the hardest part was they dropped me off at the airport and knowing I was saying goodbye and coming home by myself," Kim told CTV. Moran had been in Ghana since the summer after she and her husband, Clark, flew to Nigeria to finalize the adoption. Expecting it would only take a few weeks, Clark returned to Canada, leaving Kim and Ayo in Ghana. The paperwork still isn't complete after more than three months. "All were trying to do is give a little boy who didn't have a family, who doesnt have a home, a life and a home here in Canada and it just feels like weve had roadblock after roadblock, Kim said. Clark is now in Ghana with Ayo so Kim can get the medical attention she needs. Canadian immigration officials say the process can take up to two years, depending on the child's country of origin. The Morans' paperwork was received in February 2017. "The Mission in Accra is currently working to process this application expeditiously," the office of Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen said in a statement Tuesday. with files from CTV Vancouver How villages in Maharashtra learned to coexist peacefully with the growing crocodile population Scroll.in Returning looted artefacts will finally restore heritage to the brilliant cultures that made them The Conversation Justifying Diversity New York Review of Books Justice Announces He Suffered Mini-Stroke Over Citizens United Above the Law Why Ebola crisis in DRC is unlike anything before Al Jazeera Top fund managers sue top banks in global forex manipulation scandal Handelsblatt Lion Air jet should have been grounded before fatal flight, Indonesia says AFP California Burning California Wildfire Likely Spread Nuclear Contamination From Toxic Site TruthOut Countries must raise emissions targets fivefold to stop disastrous global warming, UN warns Independent Cutting emissions could prevent tens of thousands of extreme heat deaths annually MIT Technology Review India As Farmers March to Delhi, Climate Change Fuels Their Larger Crisis The Wir Waste Watch Syraqistan Brexit Class Warfare Democrats in Disarray New Cold War Fake News A New Paradigm: How Netflix and Apple Are Upending Hollywood Hierarchy With Studio Deals Hollywood Reporter Health Care China? Trump Transition The Bill and Hillary show! Power couple kick off 13-city paid speaking tour in CANADA where bank executive lobbed questions at them in half-empty arena, as they accuse Trump of being part of a Saudi cover-up Daily Mail. The pictures are priceless. Antidote du Jour: See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here. On Thursday, 29 November 2018, the NATO Deputy Secretary General, the Honourable Rose Gottemoeller, will meet the President of the National Security Bureau of the State of Kuwait, H.E. Sheikh Thamer Al-Ali Al-Sabah. There are no media opportunities. Still and video images of the meeting with the Deputy Secretary General will be available on the NATO website after the event. Follow the Deputy Secretary General (@Gottemoeller) and the Coordinator of the NATO-ICI Regional Center (@AmandaS_Webb) on Twitter. Also follow us at @NATOPress. On Thursday 29 November 2018 from 13:00 to 17:30, NATO will mark the 60th Anniversary of the Science for Peace Programme (SPS) with an award ceremony. On that occasion, the Deputy Secretary General, the Honourable Rose Gottemoeller, will deliver opening remarks. The text and video footage of the speech will be published on the NATO website after the event, together with still photos. This event is open to members of the media (Main Press Theatre). ACCREDITATION AND SECURITY CHECKS Media permanently accredited at NATO Media representatives in possession of a new 2018 NATO media pass can access to the NATO HQ directly by tapping their badge at the turnstiles (NATO HQ Guard House South - GHS, media entrance, NATO Headquarters, Boulevard Leopold III 1110). Media representatives not in possession of a new 2018 NATO media pass can replace their old 2018 permanent badge at the GHS. Ad-hoc accreditation (day-pass) Media representatives not permanently accredited and wishing to attend the event are invited to request ad-hoc accreditation directly at the main entrance of NATO HQ on 29 November , starting from 12:00 noon. They will have to present an ID and a valid press card (provided by a recognised national professional body of a NATO country i.e. Government, Professional association, Union of journalists). , starting They will have to present an ID and a press card (provided by a recognised national professional body of a NATO country i.e. Government, Professional association, Union of journalists). Media representatives not in possession of a valid press card are invited to send a signed letter from their editor to the NATO Accreditation Office, no later than 29 November 09:00 (Brussels time) to NATOaccreditations@hq.nato.int Media representatives should be aware that a security check will take place, and security personnel will examine equipment and personal effects carried onto the site. Follow the Deputy Secretary General on Twitter (@Gottemoeller). Also follow us at @NATOPress. (Natural News) Medical school is creepy enough as it is: Students get to test their surgical skills on dead human bodies and live animals. An article in The Daily Mail reported about the chilling way with which a Russian company has decided to up the creepiness factor. In Kazan, Russia, a factory is rolling out patient simulator dolls called ENSIM RAN that looked very much like living human beings. They are designed to act as realistic surgical training dummies for inexperienced medical students and providers. An ENSIM RAN doll is able to mimic an ill person in all the worst ways. It can make the appropriate noises, such as coughing and if a surgeon is careless at aiming his or her scalpel bloodcurdling screaming. It can also release fluids that look like real blood and urine from particular parts of its body. It will even convulse as if it were suffering a real seizure. Replacing human patients with robotic dolls The ENSIM RAN was designed by the Skolkovo Innovation Centre. The dolls are manufactured by Kazan-based company Eidos Medicine based on specifications provided by the Moscow-based Skolkovo science project. Eidos described its patient simulator dolls as highly complex healthcare simulators with the highest realism possible. The dolls will be sold to medical schools and hospitals. They will be used to train students on various medical practices, such as treating physical injuries to handling heart attacks. It is difficult to practice resuscitation and intensive medical care on an actual patient. Practitioners would have to look for an appropriate patient who has the right disease to be treated. Furthermore, mistakes made during the treatment could spiral out of control. They could cost serious complications or even death to any human participant who agreed to go under the knife. Russian patient simulator robot reacts like real human Each ENSIM RAN unit is designed to simulate the appearance and internals of a middle-aged human male who is six feet tall and weighs 140 pounds. It is loaded with features to fool the user into thinking it is a real person. Its eyes can blink and release fake tears. The rest of its body can release colored fluids to mimic bleeding and perspiration. Their joints are able to move in a natural manner. There are a dozen spots on its body that can produce the pulse of a heartbeat. Its lips and fingers can change color from healthy flesh to sickly blue. It is also programmed to imitate certain seizures. ENSIM RAN is also able to replicate respiratory ailments. It will issue coughing noises, make wheezing sounds, and go limp from a feigned feinting spell. The Russian-designed robot patient can be subjected to CPR, defibrillator, and intubation techniques. They can also be administered injections and subjected to urinary catheters without endangering a real-life human. If you think ENSIM RAN was creepy enough, meet its pediatric counterpart Its competitor in the creepy robot award is Pediatric Hal. Called the worlds most superior pediatric affected person simulator, it does a lot of the same things as ENSIM RAN. Unlike the fairly huge Russian robot, Hal is built to look and act like a five-year-old boy. It is designed to serve as a test dummy for future pediatricians to ply their trade. Hal looks and acts so realistic that students found it very distressing to work with the robot during tense situations. Its creator, Gaumard Scientific, admitted to deliberately designing it to inflict the maximum emotional stress on students. Find out what irresponsible experts on medicine are testing on their hapless victims at MedicalExtremism.com. Sources include: DailyMail.co.uk TheMaynePress.com (Natural News) On Tuesday reports published by the Left-wing mainstream media claimed that convicted former Trump campaign manager and longtime Republican political operative Paul Manafort had violated his plea agreement with special counsel Robert Mueller by lying to him. As The Associated Press reported: The special counsel in the Russia investigation is accusing former Trump campaign chairman Paul 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 AP and other mainstream news outlets claimed that Mueller made his accusations in a new court filing on Monday. For his part, Manafort, through lawyers, says Muellers allegations are bogus and that he believes he provided truthful information during a series of interview sessions with Muellers prosecutors and investigators. That should be the end of it, considering that fired FBI Director James Comey exonerated Hillary Clinton despite her very obvious felonious mishandling of classified information because he determined she didnt really mean to do it even though she went to the trouble of setting up a private email server in her Chappaqua, N.Y., home for the express purpose of hiding her email traffic from government record keepers. Beyond this obvious attempt to pile more charges onto a long-time associate of POTUS Donald Trump and remember, the entire Mueller probe is political there is much that, in a world where justice truly prevailed, Mueller himself would be a heap of legal trouble. (Related: Deep State tool Robert Mueller has a long history of targeting innocent people, which explains why he was picked to go after POTUS Trump.) All those times when Mueller violated the law As noted by The Gateway Pundit on Tuesday, there are at least 10 instances where Mueller and his Democrat-loving prosecutors have been operating outside of the actual law of the land, aided and abetted by Deep State figures in the DoJ, the FBI, and the intelligence community: The special order issued by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointing Mueller cites collusion (as in the Trump campaigns collusion with Russia to steal the election) is a criminal act, but as Gregg Jarrett, legal analyst at Fox News wrote a year ago, no such statue exists in the U.S. Code. If there is no crime of collusion, why was Mueller even appointed? Unethical Mueller, in his court filing, admits that Rosensteins order appointing him was intentionally vague. This violates the special counsel law that requires a specific statement of facts to be investigated. Rosenstein and Muller colluded to break the law and should resign Gregg Jarrett (@GreggJarrett) April 3, 2018 Rosensteins mandate to Mueller was overly (and intentionally) broad, which also exceeds the requirement in the statute that such investigations be narrow in scope and involve specific allegations of criminal activity. Mueller has known conflicts of interest (one of them being longtime friend and colleague Comey, who was up to his neck in Spygate the plot to spy on and then undermine the Trump campaign). That alone should have disqualified him from accepting the assignment. Even Rosenstein has a conflict of interested because he signed off on at least one of the FISA warrants used to spy on minor Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Nearly all of the prosecutors Mueller chose for his team have financial ties to Hillary Clintons failed 2016 campaign as donors. How can donors to a political campaign be unbiased in their investigation of Clintons rival? One member of Muellers team fired FBI counterterrorism official Peter Strzok was also involved in Spygate. He was eventually fired by Mueller once news broke of his anti-Trump texts to his lover, anti-Trump FBI lawyer Lisa Page, but that was only because of the bad PR. Mueller has also been accused of illegally obtaining evidence, such as the raid on former Trump lawyer Michael Cohens offices, where investigators seized documents and materials that are supposed to be protected by attorney-client privilege. All in all, whatever Manafort did or did not do in terms of breaching his agreement with Mueller, a deal with a liar and a criminal is no deal at all. If anyone ought to be singled out for prosecution, its Robert Mueller and his anti-Trump legal hit squad. Read more about the Deep State corruption Mueller is a part of at DeepState.news. Sources include: NewsTarget.com TheGatewayPundit.com TheNationalSentinel.com (Natural News) A bombshell story published by The Guardian on Tuesday claimed that one time 2016 Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort secretly met with Julian Assange of WikiLeaks before he took on his new role, but within hours of publication, the story began to disintegrate like so much fake news. The Guardian, quoting unnamed sources, of course, reported that Manafort met with Assange at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London in 2013, 2015, and 2016. The story further claimed: 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. 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. For Manaforts part, he said in a statement, 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. I have never reached out to Assange or WikiLeaks on any matter. And WikiLeaks responded with a rather unique, emphatic denial, tweeting: Remember this day when the Guardian permitted a serial fabricator to totally destroy the papers reputation. @WikiLeaks is willing to bet the Guardian a million dollars and its editors head that Manafort never met Assange. A million dollars and the decapitation of its editor, no less. Thats a pretty strong rebuttal. Nevertheless, the implications of the last alleged meeting are clear. Why did this information just leak now? Just as reports have surfaced in recent days that special counsel Muellers investigation is honing in on possible Trump campaign connections to WikiLeaks October 2016 release of damaging emails belonging to Hillary Clintons 2016 campaign manager John Podesta, we get this made-for-scandal story out of the blue that hey, Manafort a Trump guy went to see Assange just before the emails began to be released. (Related: Why is Paul Manafort in handcuffs but Hillary Clinton isnt?) Though its unclear why Manafort would have wanted to see Assange and what was discussed (dont you think those details are the real story, if there is one?), the reader is left with the assumption that it must have had something to do with the stolen/hacked emails: Did Manafort actually deliver them to Assange? Did he point the whistleblower to the trove of emails? Did he put him in contact with the Russian who really had them? A reasonable person would expect denials from the principle actors Manafort and Assange. But as The National Sentinel reported Tuesday, there are other reasons why this story doesnt add up and is likely bogus. For one, the site reported, citing Fortune magazine, Manafort was under surveillance by the FBI for all or a part of the timeframe mentioned in The Guardian article. Fortune noted: Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been under FBI surveillance since before the 2016 presidential election, CNN reported. The surveillance, which included wiretapping, searches, and other types of observation, reportedly began in 2014, when Manafort was the subject of an investigation into work done by a group of Washington consulting firms for the former ruling party of Ukraine. He was under surveillance because at the time he was lobbying for Ukraines then-president, Viktor Yanukovych, and the DoJ was concerned he might be acting as an unregistered foreign agent. He was never arrested nor charged with any such activity. But since he was under FBI surveillance, TNS reports given what we now know of Spygate and the involvement of the Deep State who believes if it was true these secret Russia-related meetings took place that information would not have leaked much sooner like more than two years ago as Trump looked to lock up the GOP presidential nomination, given all of the media leaks aimed at damaging his campaign and his presidency? This information would have been all over The New York Times, CNN, and The Washington Post and at the perfect time to derail Trumps presidency. But it wasnt. Its showing up now. At The Guardian. Sorry, were not buying this latest heaping of fake news. Read more about the corruption surrounding Muellers investigation at Corruption.news. Sources include: TheGuardian.com TheNationalSentinel.com Fortune.com Photo: Contributed A Chinese researcher who claims to have helped make the world's first genetically edited babies says a second pregnancy may be underway. The researcher, He Jiankui of Shenzhen, revealed the possible pregnancy Wednesday while making his first public comments about his controversial work at an international conference in Hong Kong. He claims to have altered the DNA of twin girls born earlier this month to try to make them resistant to infection with the AIDS virus. Mainstream scientists have condemned the experiment, and universities and government groups are investigating. The second potential pregnancy is in a very early stage and needs more time to be monitored to see if it will last, He said. Leading scientists said there are now even more reasons to worry, and more questions than answers, after He's talk. The leader of the conference called the experiment "irresponsible" and evidence that the scientific community had failed to regulate itself to prevent premature efforts to alter DNA. Altering DNA before or at the time of conception is highly controversial because the changes can be inherited and might harm other genes. It's banned in some countries including the United States except for lab research. Mandatory evacuations were underway and some officers were set to go door-to-door to warn residents in Riverside County of a pending storm approaching Southern California Wednesday evening. Authorities had already asked residents near the Holy Fire burn scar area to voluntarily evacuate Tuesday, before the threat of debris flow worsened. Storm Photos: Send Us Your Weather Images The brunt of the storm is expected to pack a wallop Thursday morning. "It's really going to pick up as we go to bed tonight and then into tomorrow," said NBC4 forecaster Shanna Mendiola. "You'll have a (Thursday) morning commute that's going to be soggy with a break in between, then another round of rain in the afternoon." Rain totals will range from .75 inch to 2 inches. Three inches are possible in some mountain communities. The following areas were under mandatory evacuation Wednesday at 3 p.m.: Amorose Alberhill Glen Ivy A Glen Eden Grace Horsethief A Laguna A Matri McVicker A Rice Withrow A "People in these zones MUST GO NOW," a news release read. Authorities also advised residents check the city's maps to see which zones were being evacuated. "Now is the time to grab your documents. Now is the time to get your spare medication, extra water, and make arrangements for wherever you're going to stay whether it's a local hotel or with a family that's outside of the area," said Riverside County Fire Capt. Fernando Herrera. A reception center was set up at Temescal Canyon High School, located at 28755 El Toro Rd. in Lake Elsinore. Debris flows were not expected in the areas near the Cranston Fire burn scar. Residents near the Woolsey, La Tuna Canyon, Creek and Skirball fire areas were advised to be on alert for potential evacuations, though none were in place Wednesday afternoon. The Los Angeles County Fire Department and The Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department have staffed additional resources in the area as well as a precaution. CalTrans was also warning drivers to be on alert in Los Angeles and Ventura counties as rocks, debris and mud may spill onto roadways. The city of Beverly Hills was providing sandbags to residents at 342 N Foothill during business hours. NBC4's Fritz Coleman said the heaviest rain will fall between 4 a.m. and 7 a.m. Thursday in Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties. Everyone can expect a soggy morning commute Thursday morning. Even moderate rainfall can produce flooding in burn areas because they lack the vegetation that would normally absorb water. Fire-scarred hillsides are left with a repellent layer that blocks water absorption. If it's not absorbed by the soil, rainwater simply washes down the hillside, sometimes with enough force to move boulders, tear out trees and damage buildings and bridges. The potential for destruction was illustrated in January when an early morning downpour in the Thomas Fire burn area triggered a mudflow that killed 21 people in the Santa Barbara County community of Montecito. NBC4's Jonathan Lloyd contributed to this report. The Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in Chico launched the Sierra Nevada Camp Fire Relief Fund to help those affected by Californias deadliest and most destructive wildfire. In a statement, the brewery said they were contributing $100,000 to the fund and put out a call to other breweries to participate in the collaborative brewing process on Tuesday. Today is a special day for our brewery, Sierra Nevada posted on its Facebook page. Today, we're brewing Resilience Butte County Proud IPA, and we are absolutely blown away to report that more than 1,000 breweries around the world are brewing it with us. 100% of the sales of this beer will be donated to the Camp Fire Relief Fund. Thank you to our employees, thank you to our community, and thank you to our incredible brewing industry. Humbled and grateful doesn't begin to describe it. Breweries from San Diego, Portland, Ontario, Canada and other countries responded and pledged their support to brew the beer. Find the full list here. The Russian River Brewing Company from Santa Rosa organized a similar fundraiser after the Tubbs Fire last year. A suspicious substance investigation prompted evacuations Tuesday afternoon at a Google facility in Mountain View, officials said. A hazardous materials crew also responded to the scene on the 2600 block of Casey Avenue after an employee found an envelope with white powder inside. Crews inspected the powder and determined it was not harmful. No injuries were reported and employees were able to return to the building. Photo: The Canadian Press Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rises during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Monday, Nov. 26, 2018. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will meet with his counterparts from the four other main federal parties today to talk about Canada's francophone population. Trudeau's daily itinerary says he will meet with Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, the NDP's Jagmeet Singh, Green party Leader Elizabeth May and interim Bloc Quebecois leader Mario Beaulieu to discuss "issues facing the Canadian Francophonie." The meeting comes in the wake of recent changes to francophone services announced by Ontario's Progressive Conservative government. In its fall economic update, Premier Doug Ford's government announced it was cancelling the planned construction of a French-language university. The province said it would also abolish the independent office of the French-language services commissioner. After widespread criticism, the French-language services commissioner's position was restored under the province's ombudsman. This morning, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities issued a statement, reaffirming its commitment to serving francophone members. Images of immigrants from Central America being tear gassed while trying to cross the U.S. border with Mexico are driving a national conversation about illegal immigration, but undocumented Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas says its just a small piece of the immigration puzzle. Journalist Jose Antonio Vargas said the undocumented immigrants are coming from countries around the world and the focus is unfair to the people of Mexico and Central America. "Were missing undocumented Filipinos, Koreans, Vietnamese, were missing entire groups of people," he said. Vargas added that addressing the issue isnt possible until everyone has a better picture of who all the undocumented people are and their value. Vargas' family brought him from the Philippines to Mountain View when he was 12. He didn't know he was not documented until he tried to get a drivers license. In conversation about his new book "Dear America" with NBC Bay Areas Raj Mathai, the former Washington Post reporter said Americans need to broaden the conversation. "With undocumented workers at restaurants and undocumented students at UCB and SF State and tech workers with H1-B visa put them in a room and said what do we do," Vargas said. He said the answer may help guide immigration reform. "We can't solve an issue we can't face," Vargas said. "Fully facing it means understanding all impacts." Faulty equipment and Indonesian carrier Lion Air's own safety failures had pilots fighting for control of their Boeing 737 MAX 8 as it plunged into the Java Sea on Oct. 28, killing all 189 people aboard, investigators said Wednesday. Briefing reporters on the aircraft's black box data, the investigators said they were still struggling to understand why the plane crashed but they cited multiple factors centered on faulty sensors and an automatic safety system that repeatedly forced the plane's nose down despite the pilots' efforts to correct the problem. The pilots simply may have been overwhelmed, said one of the crash investigators, Ony Suryo Wibowo. "The problem is if multiple malfunctions occur all at once, which one should be prioritized?" Wibowo said. The lack of the aircraft's cockpit voice recorder, which is still missing, is a dire obstacle to resolving that mystery, the investigators said. The report by Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Commission repeats earlier recommendations made just after the disaster that pilots be better versed in emergency procedures and aware of past aircraft problems. Shortly after the catastrophe, Lion Air issued a notice to pilots urging them to be more proactive in reporting problems. Nurcahyo Utomo, an investigator for Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Commission, told reporters in Jakarta on Wednesday that four of the crashed aircraft's previous flights had experienced technical problems, with two showing no such difficulties. He said investigators were trying to understand what maintenance workers had done to try to fix the problems and if there were other steps that should have been taken. The MAX aircraft that crashed is the latest version of Boeing's popular 737 jetliner. Its new automated system pushes the nose down if a sensor detects that the nose is pointed so high that the plane could go into an aerodynamic stall. The sensor, called an angle-of-attack vane, or AOA, malfunctioned in earlier flights. Pilots who flew the aircraft from Bali to Jakarta a day before the crash told investigators that the anti-stall system engaged due to erroneous airspeed and altitude indicators, but the flight crew managed to adjust the plane's pitch manually by shutting the automated system off. That enabled them to restore control and land safely. Utomo said it was unclear why the pilots on the flight from Jakarta to a regional airport the next day were unable to do the same. "Even if the pilot did not have time to meet with the engineer, he should be able to know what the problems experienced by the aircraft before," he said. "We need to find out what happened and why the pilots took different actions. That why we really want to have the cockpit voice recorder." In a statement following the release of the report, Boeing played up the possibility of pilot error. "As our customers and their passengers continue to fly the 737 MAX to hundreds of destinations around the world every day, they have our assurance that the 737 MAX is as safe as any airplane that has ever flown the skies," it said. The aircraft manufacturer noted that the investigators' report cited actions by the flight crew that led to the crash. It also pointed to maintenance work and procedures that had failed to fix the aircraft's repeated problems. Peter Lemme, an expert in aviation and satellite communications and a former Boeing engineer who wrote an analysis of the data on his blog, likened the problems to "a deadly game of tag" in which the plane pointed down, the pilots countered by manually aiming the nose higher, only for the sequence to repeat about five seconds later. That happened 26 times during the 11-minute flight, but pilots failed to recognize what was happening and follow the known procedure for countering incorrect activation of the automated safety system, Lemme told The Associated Press. Lemme said he was troubled that there weren't easy checks to see if sensor information was correct, that the crew of the fatal flight apparently wasn't warned about the problems on previous flights and that the Lion Air jet wasn't fully repaired after those flights. "Had they fixed the airplane, we would not have had the accident," he said. "Every accident is a combination of events, so there is disappointment all around here," he said. The Indonesian investigation is continuing with help from U.S. regulators and Boeing. More than 200 MAX jets have been delivered to airlines around the world. Pilots at American Airlines and Southwest Airlines complained this month that they had not been given all information about the new automated anti-stall safety system on the MAX. What to Know One of the three U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan earlier this week was Massachusetts native Army Sgt. 1st Class Eric Emond. Emond, 39, was a Fall River native who also lived in Dorchester from 2010 to 2013; he leaves behind a wife and three young daughters. Emond helped start the Massachusetts Fallen Heroes nonprofit, which helps Gold Star families and fellow veterans. One of the three U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan earlier this week was a Massachusetts native. Army Sgt. 1st Class Eric Emond, 39, was a Fall River native who went to Durfee High School. He also lived in Dorchester from 2010 to 2013, according to Congressman Seth Moulton's office. Emond, who most recently lived in North Carolina, leaves behind his wife and three young daughters. He was a soldiers soldier, a marines marine, said Dan Magoon, executive director of Massachusetts Fallen Heroes. He wore two different uniforms throughout his whole adult life serving this country and he cared more about other people than himself. Magoon says Emond helped start Massachusetts Fallen Heroes, a nonprofit that helps Gold Star families and fellow veterans, because he wanted to give back. He was the bedrock of the organization and building what we have today, Magoon said. While Emond was back in Massachusetts rehabbing years ago, he also helped with the design of the fallen hero memorial in Bostons Seaport district. He had already been injured, he had already been blown up, he had already had a chance with death that he came back from and he was supposed to get out of the military and went back, Magoon said. Another Gold Star brother says its painful to believe Emonds name will now be etched in the same memorial he helped create. I think when they built this family organization, monument I dont think he ever expected to be a part of it in this way, said Jay Farrar, who lost his brother Sgt. Andrew Farrar in 2005 on his 31st birthday in Iraq. Yarmouth Police Deputy Chief Steve Xiarhos, whose son Nicholas was killed while serving in the military, is a board member of the Massachusetts Fallen Heroes and shared this statement on Emond's death: "One of the fallen heroes is my friend. A tried and true young Patriot and Warrior who was very kind and supportive to us when we lost Nicholas. Now he is with Nick and his family is our family," Xiarhos' statement read in part. "As America's longest war continues in Afghanistan, we ask that you do not publicly question or criticize our leaders and role in this war. Both Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh issued statements Wednesday, expressing their condolences to Emonds family and honoring his service to our country. "Sergeant Emond was a highly decorated soldier and the Commonwealth will be forever grateful for his bravery and honorable service to the country throughout seven tours of duty overseas, Governor Baker said. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family. "I offer my deepest sympathies to the families of all three service members who gave the greatest sacrifice serving our country, including our own Army Sgt. 1st Class Eric Michael Emond," Mayor Walsh said. Emond was killed by a roadside bomb on Tuesday. Also killed were Army Capt. Andrew Patrick Ross, 29, of Lexington, Virginia, and Air Force Staff Sgt. Dylan J. Elchin, 25, of Hookstown, Pennsylvania. Three other service members and an American contractor were wounded. They were killed in the Ghazni province, an area where the Taliban is resurgent. The Taliban claimed the attack, saying a U.S. tank was completely destroyed. It was the deadliest attack against U.S. forces in Afghanistan this year. "Massachusetts lost a son and hero in Afghanistan," Moulton said on Twitter. "SFC Eric Emond served his country bravely and honorably both overseas and at home." Emond and Ross were assigned to 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group, based at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Emond had previously served in the Marines. Elchin was assigned to the 26th Special Tactics Squadron, based at Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico. 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. 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. A serial killer who may have committed at least 90 murders across the country has been linked to the killing of a woman who may have been from Massachusetts that occurred almost 50 years ago in Maryland. Prince George's County police announced Wednesday that Samuel Little, 78, has been linked to a 1972 cold case in the county. The victim may have been from the Massachusetts area and recently had gotten divorced, Little told investigators. Her height was between 5'2" and 5'6". She was Caucasian and was possibly in her early twenties. She also may have had a child. Little is already serving three life sentences for slayings in California. In July 2018, he was charged with the death of a woman in Texas, NBC News reported. Little gave investigators their information on the Maryland killing, as well as a "multitude" of others, authorities said. One of those cases involved a woman he said he met at the Greyhound bus station on New York Avenue in Washington, D.C., Prince George's County authorities said during a press conference Wednesday afternoon. Investigators are still trying to determine who the woman was but are hopeful that clues provided by Little may finally lead to her identification. Little and the woman are believed to have met in May or June 1972. Over a three-day period, Little and the still-unidentified woman had interactions and at one point, left the station in Little's car, Little told authorities. They drove on what investigators believe was the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, left the parkway in the area of Beltsville, Maryland, and had sex, Little told authorities. He then strangled the victim, he said. Detective Bernie Nelson said Little killed women "for sexual gratification." "I can truly say that Samuel Little is a true monster," Nelson said. "He's every woman's ultimate nightmare." Authorities in Massachusetts are reviewing missing persons reports from the time of the killing, as well as divorce records, said Prince George's County Sgt. Gregory McDonald. DNA evidence was extracted from the victim's remains in 2014 and has been uploaded into national databases. "The main thing is that we're trying to identify who our victim is and we were hoping that Mr. Little could shed some light on ways of us accomplishing that goal," Nelson said. The killing is believed to have happened in May or June in 1972. Her remains were found in December of that year by a hunter who was walking through a wooded area. A medical examiner concluded that the remains had been there for about six months. Little was in the D.C. area at the time of the killing and was arrested on a handgun charge in May 1972 at the same bus station where he and the victim met, Nelson said. When shown aerial photos, Little pointed out the area where the victim was found, Nelson said. "He actually pointed out the dirt roads that he went on and pointed out exactly where he left her body," Nelson said. Little, also known as Samuel McDowell, is serving three life sentences for strangling three women in the Los Angeles area from 1987 to 1989. He was convicted of those murders in 2014. In July 2018, he was charged with the death of a woman in Texas, NBC News reported. According to the Wise County Sheriff's Office in Decatur, Texas, Little also gave investigators details on a "multitude" of murders he says he committed from 1970 to 2005 in Texas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Illinois, Ohio, California, Indiana, Arizona, New Mexico and South Carolina. As Little conveyed information about homicides to Texas Rangers who interviewed him, they would contact local law enforcement agencies in those areas, McDonald said. If Little is found guilty of the murders he's provided information about, he "will be confirmed as one of, if not the most, prolific serial killers in U.S. history," according to a statement from Ector County District Attorney Bobby Bland. However, Little will not be charged in Prince George's County due to his existing sentence of three life terms in California, said Major Brian Reilly. "We will get something called a Decline to Prosecute where it says we could charge him if we wanted to, but there is no reason to put people through that," he said. Little told investigators that the Prince George's County victim was his only victim in the Washington, D.C., area, McDonald said. "He was an open book," McDonald said. "But he's not remorseful." Boston's Trillium Brewing is responding after coming under fire last week for some of its labor practices. According to the Boston Globe, the popular craft brewery received complaints online from current and former employees after forcing many of its workers to reapply for their jobs and then offering them reduced rates of pay. People are leaving. We had one member of the retail team at Fort Point for over three years, who, when presented with her offer, declined, one employee told the Globe. Were dissatisfied because the number that weve been getting in our checks has dropped, and not insignificantly. Most of the pay changes coincided with the opening of Trillium's new Fort Point location. In response to the growing criticism, Trillium posted a message on its website Monday night saying it would be restoring employees' hourly wages. "We opened Fort Point just one month ago and, in that process, some of our tenured retail staff were given a lower rate than they had previously been making," the statement reads. "We have since met with those team members and reinstated their original rate. We have also reached out to our entire staff to discuss the situation, address any questions regarding compensation and benefits, and ask for their feedback, as it is critical to our success." "We apologize that this has caused any of our employees, customers or friends to doubt, in any way, the integrity of Trillium or their ongoing support of us," the statement continues. "We are fortunate that we've assembled such a talented team and remain committed to brewing exceptional beer that we can share with our family, friends, and customers." Trillium said in its statement that it has already spoken with the Massachusetts Brewers' Guild to begin a discussion locally about the practice of tip-based wages. Governor-elect JB Pritzker has assembled a team to tackle education issues across the state, he announced Tuesday morning, dubbing it the Educational Success Transition Committee. The promise? Raising the educational standards for every student in Illinois from kindergarten through 12th grade up through college. Its time to change course in this state," Pritzker said. He announced his latest transition committee at Genevieve Melody STEM Elementary School Tuesday morning along with other committee members like co-chair and Chicago Public Schools CEo Janice Jackson. We must acknowledge the fact that not every single student in every community has access to the same education," Jackson said. "And we intend to fix that--not only in our city--but throughout the great state of Illinois. The 35-person working group is co-chaired by Jackson, Sen. Andy Manar, Rep. Chris Welch and Kathi Griffin of the Illinois Education Association. Were gonna take a deep dive and were gonna delve into the root issues and present possible solutions for this new administration," Welch said. Im excited to work with the leaders that are not just standing here today but have been recruited to work on this committee from throughout the state," Manar said. High on the agenda: investments in infrastructure, charter schools, a more equitable funding formula as well as a promise to have educators on the front line of the policy debate. Its the kind of agenda Illinois needs to get back on track for the sake of students and teachers," Griffin said. The big question is money. Pritzker says a capital bill would be forthcoming. You do have to turn the ship in the right direction and then propel it in that direction," he added. "And that takes a little bit of time. The committee will work on preparing a comprehensive education report which is expect on the governor-elects desk around inauguration day in mid-January. The solution to keeping your schools best and brightest teachers from fleeing the classroom: better working conditions, more administrative support and higher salaries. Thats according to education policy experts who are urging the nations school districts to invest in teachers now in order to reverse troubling turnover rates. Since 2000, the picture has been fairly consistent: Each year about 8% of public K-12 teachers leave the system and another 8% change schools, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Teacher turnover is really bad for children, said Linda Darling-Hammond of the Learning Policy Institute. Schools with high turnover actually see reduced student achievement even for the kids whose teachers werent the ones who left because it becomes unstable. She added it also costs a school district about $20,000 to replace a teacher who leaves. Its kind of pennywise and kind of foolish to allow that kind of churn rather than investing in the ways that would keep teachers in the classroom, particularly in the schools where kids need that continuous relationship, Darling-Hammond said. According to public records, Chicago Public Schools lost 1,062 teachers due to retirement or other reasons since 2016 and they have yet to be replaced. Census Bureau data also shows that from 2015 to 2016, about 2,400 teachers moved from Cook County (including Chicago) to somewhere else in Illinois. They may go to some other schools in Chicago, but most of them go to other districts outside of Chicago where the pay is often better, the working conditions are easier, said Linda Darling-Hammond of the Learning Policy Institute. A CPS spokesperson said between last school year and this school year, 86 percent of teachers returned to their school, 6 percent stayed in a teaching position within the district and 8 percent moved into non-teaching roles at CPS or left the district. "CPS is led by educators who understand that teachers are the backbone of every school community, the spokesperson said. More than 90 percent of CPS teachers stayed in district from last year to this school year, and we will continue to prioritize teacher development and retention to support high quality education across the district. Elizabeth Smith worked for twenty years as a public policy analyst before changing her career to education. She landed her first teaching job in 2007 in a Chicago Public Schools classroom in the citys Little Village neighborhood. I wanted to work in a place where I could use my language skills, so both Spanish and English, Smith said. I really felt like I could work in a community where there was perhaps more need. Smith said she had a decent overall experience at the CPS school, but she faced challenges such as dealing with missing classroom books. Smith lost her job due to CPS budget cuts after her second year as a teacher. She then taught in in Cicero before moving in 2010 to a classroom in Oak Park, where she teaches a Spanish immersion program to fifth graders. Oak Park at the time, fabulous reputation, and the program was so unique, Smith said. Finally, the money. Salary was higher here in Oak Park. I made the decision to come over here and never looked back. Chicago Public Schools said it is dedicated to increasing opportunities for teacher development and mentorship while continuing to provide teacher salaries that are higher than national and big-city averages. While some districts may be having an easier time holding on to veteran teachers, Darling-Hammond said there is a shortage of experienced math, science, special education and bilingual teachers. The Illinois Education Association calls the current teacher shortage a crisis. Studies show the key to attracting and retaining quality educators is through adequate wages and respect, said IEA president Kathi Griffin. We need to put our students first and we do that by supporting our teachers. But there are fewer and fewer new teachers in the pipeline. In 2011-2012, according to NCES, there were 403,000 first-year public school teachers; in 2015-16, there were just half as many: 191,500. Additionally, the supply of veteran teachers who return to classrooms is apparently slowing, according to a September 2016 report by the Learning Policy Institute. Still, the University of Illinois-Chicago is preparing the next generation of teachers who want to focus on improving urban schools and empowering children. Junior education major Julio Torres said he is eager to make a difference teaching in a Chicago classroom. I just feel like a lot of our schools are lacking individuals like me and the rest of my colleagues that we really know what its like to be part of an urban environment, Torres said. A Chinese researcher who claims to have helped make the world's first genetically edited babies says a second pregnancy may be underway. The researcher, He Jiankui of Shenzhen, revealed the possible pregnancy Wednesday while making his first public comments about his controversial work at an international conference in Hong Kong. He claims to have altered the DNA of twin girls born earlier this month to try to make them resistant to infection with the AIDS virus. Mainstream scientists have condemned the experiment, and universities and government groups are investigating. The second potential pregnancy is in a very early stage and needs more time to be monitored to see if it will last, He said. Leading scientists said there are now even more reasons to worry, and more questions than answers, after He's talk. The leader of the conference called the experiment "irresponsible" and evidence that the scientific community had failed to regulate itself to prevent premature efforts to alter DNA. Altering DNA before or at the time of conception is highly controversial because the changes can be inherited and might harm other genes. It's banned in some countries including the United States except for lab research. He defended his choice of HIV, rather than a fatal inherited disease, as a test case for gene editing, and insisted the girls could benefit from it. "They need this protection since a vaccine is not available," He said. Scientists weren't buying it. "This is a truly unacceptable development," said Jennifer Doudna, a University of California-Berkeley scientist and one of the inventors of the CRISPR gene-editing tool that He said he used. "I'm grateful that he appeared today, but I don't think that we heard answers. We still need to understand the motivation for this." Doudna is paid by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which also supports AP's Health & Science Department. "I feel more disturbed now," said David Liu of Harvard and MIT's Broad Institute, and inventor of a variation of the gene-editing tool. "It's an appalling example of what not to do about a promising technology that has great potential to benefit society. I hope it never happens again." There is no independent confirmation of He's claim and he has not yet published in any scientific journal where it would be vetted by experts. At the conference, He failed or refused to answer many questions including who paid for his work, how he ensured that participants understood potential risks and benefits, and why he kept his work secret until after it was done. After He spoke, David Baltimore, a Nobel laureate from the California Institute of Technology and a leader of the conference, said He's work "would still be considered irresponsible" because it did not meet criteria many scientists agreed on several years ago before gene editing could be considered. "I personally don't think that it was medically necessary. The choice of the diseases that we heard discussions about earlier today are much more pressing" than trying to prevent HIV infection this way, Baltimore said. The case shows "there has been a failure of self-regulation by the scientific community" and said the conference committee would meet and issue a statement on Thursday about the future of the field, Baltimore said. Before He's talk, Dr. George Daley, Harvard Medical School's dean and one of the conference organizers, warned against a backlash to gene editing because of He's experiment. Just because the first case may have been a misstep "should in no way, I think, lead us to stick our heads in the sand and not consider the very, very positive aspects that could come forth by a more responsible pathway," Daley said. "Scientists who go rogue ... it carries a deep, deep cost to the scientific community," Daley said. Regulators have been swift to condemn the experiment as unethical and unscientific. The National Health Commission has ordered local officials in Guangdong province to investigate He's actions, and his employer, Southern University of Science and Technology of China, is investigating as well. On Tuesday, Qui Renzong of the Chinese Academy of Social Science criticized the decision to let He speak at the conference, saying the claim "should not be on our agenda" until it has been reviewed by independent experts. Whether He violated reproductive medicine laws in China has been unclear; Qui contends that it did, but said, "the problem is, there's no penalty." He called on the United Nations to convene a meeting to discuss heritable gene editing to promote international agreement on when it might be OK. Meanwhile, more American scientists said they had contact with He and were aware of or suspected what he was doing. Dr. Matthew Porteus, a genetics researcher at Stanford University, where He did postdoctoral research, said He told him in February that he intended to try human gene editing. Porteus said he discouraged He and told him "that it was irresponsible, that he could risk the entire field of gene editing by doing this in a cavalier fashion." Dr. William Hurlbut, a Stanford ethicist, said he has "spent many hours" talking with He over the last two years about situations where gene editing might be appropriate. "I knew his early work. I knew where he was heading," Hurlbut said. When he saw He four or five weeks ago, He did not say he had tried or achieved pregnancy with edited embryos but "I strongly suspected" it, Hurlbut said. "I disagree with the notion of stepping out of the general consensus of the scientific community," Hurlbut said. If the science is not considered ready or safe enough, "it's going to create misunderstanding, discordance and distrust." Two people were taken to the hospital after a serious crash on Route 44 in Norfolk Tuesday night and state police said one of the drivers who was injured has died. Two cars, a Honda CR-V and a Hyundai Elantra, crashed on Route 44 at Route 182, near Georges Garage, at 10:11 p.m. State police said both drivers were transported to Charlotte Hungerford Hospital and the driver of the Hyundai, 65-year-old Susan Hancock, a resident of the village of Riverton in Barkhamsted, died. Officials warned that roads were slick and ice covered at the time of the crash. Police are investigating and ask anyone with information to call Troop B at 860-626-1820 A Hawaii man claims the false ballistic missile alert earlier this year caused him to suffer a heart attack, according to a lawsuit filed on Tuesday. The botched alert was sent to cellphones on Jan. 13, claiming a missile was headed toward Hawaii, causing mass panic, NBC News reported. James Sean Shields and Brenda Reichel, listed as plaintiffs in the complaint, were living in Honolulu at the time. They both "believed this message to be true and were extremely frightened and thought they were going to die," according to their complaint. Around 8:15 a.m. local time, as the couple was calling loved ones, Shields felt a "severe and painful burning in his chest area," the complaint says. It took the state 38 minutes to correct its mistake. But the couple had arrived around 9:30 a.m. to Straub Medical Center, where Shields went into cardiac arrest and received life-saving CPR, defibrillation and surgery. The couple was unaware a second alert had been sent to correct the false alarm. The suit names the state of Hawaii, the former administrator of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency and other unnamed defendants. Shields' and Reichel's attorney did not immediately return a request for comment made by NBC News. Photo: Contributed College Heights Secondary School senior girls' volleyball team Members of a high school volleyball team involved in a crash Tuesday have all been released from hospital and are on their way back home to Prince George. BC Air Ambulance and paramedics rushed to Highway 97 near Cache Creek after the school van went off the road just after noon. A team of 10 players and two staff from College Heights Secondary School were in the van. One person needed to be airlifted from the scene. A team member is thanking all those who sent best wishes. We are all going to be OK, said one of the Cougars. Thank you all for all the prayers and love. One player had been in critical condition, but was released form hospital Tuesday night. School District 57 Supt. Marilyn Marquis-Forster told Castanet that five of the students were being treated at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops before their release at 8:30 p.m. Our whole group with girls and adults were together in a hotel in Kamloops last evening, and planning their way home, said Marquis-Forster. Our understanding is they are currently en route, on the way home. We are absolutely relieved, she said. We had a scare but today we are happy and relieved that they are coming home. The cause of the collision is under investigation. Alanna Kelly The Thanksgiving murder of a Lewisville woman by her partner of more than 10 years is again shining a light on domestic violence. Lewisville Police say Kishana Jeffers was shot and killed by Daryl Stegall who then turned the gun on himself. Investigators say Stegall kicked in Jeffers front door and shot Jeffers in front of their three children. I was really in disbelief, I just couldnt imagine him hurting her, friend Sharitha Thompson said. Friends of Jeffers said she had previously mentioned the problems shed been having with Stegall including physical and verbal abuse. Thompson said in recent months Jeffers had been trying to free herself from Stegall but was still trying to completely break free. Lewisville Police said Jeffers called officers five times in recent months over incidents with Stegall but in most cases declined to file a police report. "When a victim ends a relationship, the three months that follow are the most dangerous time in that relationship," Katharyn Jacob, with Safe Haven said. At Jeffers' Grand Prairie Church, news of her death has both shocked and also provided a call to action. Often times we talk about domestic violence and situations like that and sometimes we dont take them as serious as we should, Word of Peace International Ministry Pastor Idora Jhagroo said. Jhagroo said she hopes the tragedy of Jeffers death can be used to raise awareness and perhaps save others going through something similar. For resources concerning domestic violence, click here. Or, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 18007997233. Click here to learn how you can help Jeffers' three children. The Kremlin said Wednesday it still expects a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump to go ahead as planned despite a suggestion from Trump that it could be canceled. Trump, in an interview with The Washington Post on Tuesday, said he may cancel the sit-down with Putin at the G-20 summit in Argentina this weekend following Russia's seizure of three Ukrainian naval ships last weekend. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday that the meeting is on and that Russia has not received "any other information from our U.S. counterparts." Putin's foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, noted that the meeting, which is set for Saturday, has been prepared through official channels and Moscow expects Washington to notify it of any changes in the same way. "This meeting is necessary for both sides," Ushakov said. "It's important in view of the developing situation in the world." The long-simmering conflict between Russia and Ukraine burst into the open on Sunday, when Russian border guards fired on three Ukrainian vessels and seized the ships and the crew. Trump said he would be receiving a "full report" from his national security team on Russia's recent actions in eastern Ukraine and the Black Sea. He said he would decide on a course afterward. "Maybe I won't have the meeting," he said. "Maybe I won't even have the meeting." Trump added: "I don't like that aggression. I don't want that aggression at all." The comments were Trump's strongest to date in condemnation of Russia's recent actions in Ukraine, where tensions are flaring. But White House aides were still planning for the Putin meeting after Trump's comments. Ushakov, Putin's aide, said that the naval encounter between Russia and Ukraine likely will be on the agenda of the planned meeting, which will start with the two presidents meeting privately before being joined by senior officials. He said that the Kremlin expects that the talks will touch on nuclear arms control, noting that it's particularly important to discuss them in view of the U.S. intention to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. "It's extremely important to prevent an uncontrollable and senseless arms race," he said. Ushakov said that the two presidents also are to discuss regional crises, including the situation in Syria, the Iranian nuclear deal and North Korea. The meeting between Trump and Putin is set to be just one of several high-profile foreign-policy engagements for the U.S. leader on the whirlwind two-day visit to Argentina. Trump also is set to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping over dinner this weekend, in what may be a pivotal session to determining if and how the ongoing trade dispute between their countries could be resolved. The White House on Tuesday warned Xi against trying to wait out Trump in the ongoing talks, suggesting the Chinese economy was not as resilient to a trade war as would be the U.S. economy. The warning from Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, came ahead of the two leaders' high-stakes sit-down on Saturday evening. Over the last year, the two countries have levied a series of tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of imports from one another, with the latest round of U.S. duties set to go into force in the new year. Xi said on Wednesday the international community needs to build consensus to solve the conflict between free trade and protectionism. In a speech to lawmakers in Spain, where he is conducting a state visit before attending the Group of 20 leaders' summit in Argentina, he said the world is facing "instability, uncertainty and hot topics without precedents in our history." "I think we are at a crossroads," Xi said. "In economic terms we need to decide if we are going to follow the economic globalization and free market or if we are going to choose unilateralism and protectionism." National Security adviser John Bolton said Trump will also be meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Argentine President Mauricio Macri, South Korea's Moon Jae-in, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders called the trip an opportunity for the president to cement relations with other world leaders and advance a global economic system based on "free, fair and reciprocal trade." The Trump-Xi meeting would be the first since the two countries began hitting each other with import taxes earlier this year. The United States targeted $250 billion in Chinese products, and Beijing lashed back by slapping tariffs on $110 billion worth of U.S. goods. The two sides have been in negotiations for months, but Kudlow described them as being stalemated until just a few weeks ago. Kudlow said the administration has been "extremely disappointed" by China's engagement in trade talks but the meeting between Trump and Xi on the sidelines of the G-20 summit could be a game-changer. "Perhaps we can break through in Buenos Aires or not," he said. Kudlow added that if the U.S. doesn't get "satisfactory" responses to its trade positions more tariffs will be imposed. He said Trump is "not going away." "I hope they understand that," he said. China's foreign ministry has said a recent phone conversation between Xi and Trump about trade and other issues was "extremely positive." Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov, Nataliya Vasilyeva and Aritz Parra contributed to this story. There has been an increase of illegal poaching in La Jolla, Bird Rock and Pacific Beach, experts said. Conservationists said Tuesday illegal poaching for crustaceans, like lobsters, and fish, like sea bass, has been occurring at alarming rates in the area. But people might not know that what they are doing is illegal. Many are not aware that there are only certain places off-shore where it is okay to fish and catch sea life in the state. "This area is one of 11 marine protected areas in San Diego County," said Zach Plopper, director of Wildcoast Conservation. Plopper said the protected area is from Diamond Street in Pacific Beach to Palomar Avenue in La Jolla and one mile out to sea. "In this reserve, any take of living or non-living marine resource is illegal," said Plopper. "Even sand and other resources like rocks. All that stuff is very important to the marine habitat. It's important we protect every aspect of that." Governor Jerry Brown passed legislation in August to crack down on illegal poaching. CA Fish and Wildlife, along with Wildcoast Conservation and other agencies are now implementing those rules. "This area is really the epicenter of this problem in California and poaching is increasing," said Plopper. Enforcers will be looking for anyone in the reserve area with spears, nets and other fishing gear. Boats in the reserve will also be monitored to make sure fishing is not happening off them. Any person caught with illegally poached animals could face up to a $1,000 fine per animal and possible jail time. Activists are trying to make it up to a $40,000 for a first time offense. Anyone who sees signs of potential illegal poaching is encouraged to call the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. A father's forgiveness may be the very thing that helps free his son's killer. Azim Khamisa's son Tariq was murdered by teenage gang member Tony Hicks, the youngest person ever sentenced for murder as an adult in California. His first parole hearing is Wednesday, and Azim will be one of the people speaking for him. Almost 24 years ago, Tariq came to a fictitious address on Louisiana Street in North Park to deliver a pizza. Little did he know that delivery order was a set-up. Then just 14-years-old, Tony Hicks and two other teen gang members shot and killed Tariq after he refused to hand over the pizza or his cash. Six years later was the beginning of a journey to reconciliation perhaps like no other. The death or Azims son at the hands of Ples Felix's grandson, Tony Hicks, brought Azim and Ples together in an uncommon bond. "There were victims at both ends of the gun. The enemy wasn't the 14-year-old that killed my son, rather the societal forces that force many young men," Azim said. The tragedy and the ensuing bond Azim and Ples developed led them to found the Tariq Khamisa Foundation, which has, over the last 23 years, taught thousands of kids to turn away from violence and instead embrace responsibility, education and leadership. "I can't bring my son back but what I can do is make sure other young people don't end up dead like my son or in prison like [Hicks]," Azim said. Tony Hicks was the youngest person in the state to be given 25 years to life in prison for murder. Now 38-years old, Hicks goes before the parole board for the first time on Wednesday. Over the phone, Hick's attorney Laura Sheppard said his chance of release is good. "He has a reason to succeed when he gets out. He has far more than the majority of lifers, Sheppard said. Sheppard shared with NBC 7 a recommendation for release letter from sentencing Judge Joan Weber. In another letter, former District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, Dumanis wrote that "Hicks has been punished enough. Azim will speak at the hearing, and Ples will be at his side by request. Having a defendant's relative present is highly unusual. "Mr. Felix has a very peaceful presence. He is a very spiritual man so I think he is really trusting in God," Sheppard said. Azim wants to assure the board that Hicks is rehabilitated and that there is a job at the Tariq Khamisa Foundation waiting for him. "He will be a lot more useful working with the Tariq Khamisa foundation than spending more years in a very negative environment," Azim said. Azim says there isn't a day that goes by that he doesn't miss his son, but he sees hope in forgiveness. While it won't bring back Tariq, Azim's message of peace may save someone else's son. The hearing will take place at the California Men's Colony at San Luis Obispo where Hicks has served for the past two years. It is expected to last some six hours, but the parole board will make its recommendation that day. Governor-elect Gavin Newsom will have 30 days to review the decision. Hick's Attorney says statewide, only 1 percent of prisoners sentenced to life terms and given release reoffend. The recidivism rate for paroled prisoners with lesser sentences is 60 percent. Elon Musk's plan to build a traffic-dodging tunnel under Sepulveda Boulevard on the Westside was derailed Tuesday under a legal settlement reached between the tech tycoon's Boring Co. and a pair of residents' groups that challenged the lack of an environmental review of the project. Under the settlement, The Boring Co. will drop plans for the Sepulveda tunnel, and instead focus on a three-plus-mile tunnel to Dodger Stadium. In a joint statement the Boring Co. and the residents' groups -- the Sunset Coalition and the Brentwood Residents Coalition -- announced what they called an amicable resolution to a petition the groups filed May 2 in Los Angeles Superior Court over the Sepulveda tunneling plan. "The Boring Co. is no longer seeking the development of the Sepulveda test tunnel and instead seeks to construct an operational tunnel at Dodger Stadium," according to the statement. The Boring Co. was named in the lawsuit as a "real party in interest," which refers to a person or entity whose rights are involved and stands to gain from a lawsuit or petition. The case was scheduled for trial April 5. Plaintiffs' attorney John Given did not immediately return a call for comment. He stated in his court papers that the settlement was reached Sept. 13. Amrit Kulkarni, an attorney for the city, stated in his pre-settlement court papers that the city's project approval "fully complied with all laws." The petition was filed shortly after the Los Angeles City Council's Public Works and Gang Reduction Committee approved the 2.7-mile "proof of concept" tunnel on the Westside. The committee determined the tunnel was not a public mass transit system but was only a proof of concept -- a distinction needed for the committee to find the project is exempt from the often-stringent requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act. The tunnel would have run beneath Sepulveda Boulevard, staring with an entry point at property owned by the Boring Co. at 2352 Sepulveda Blvd., north of West Pico Boulevard, and end underground near the corner of Washington Boulevard and Sepulveda in Culver City. Boring Co. officials pitched the tunnel plan to the Culver City Council in January and received a mixed reaction. Hawthorne leaders in August gave a green light to Musk's proposal to dig a two-mile test tunnel underneath the city, extending from the headquarters of his company SpaceX. Musk has said that tunnel will be unveiled in a public event on Dec. 10. In August, Musk announced plans to build an approximately 3.6-mile Dugout Loop underground tunnel that could run from Dodger Stadium to property owned by The Boring Co. near the Vermont/Sunset, Vermont/Santa Monica or Vermont/Beverly Metro Red Line stations. Dugout Loop will be entirely privately financed and will not require any tax money, the company said. Musk has touted his proposed system of tunnels as a novel way of avoiding Los Angeles' notorious traffic congestion. A YouTube video posted by the Boring Co. shows that the system would have electric mobile platforms that can carry either cars or pods for passengers capable of traveling up to 150 mph. Musk said he hopes to eventually build a system that stretches all around the county. What to Know A $5 donation will provide 20 meals to an individual and $10 will provide 40 meals to an individual One in eight Californians are struggling with hunger, and one in five are children You can help by shopping at your Ralphs or Food 4 Less supermarket and make a donation To support families in need of food, NBC4 teamed up with Ralphs and Food 4 Less supermarkets throughout Southern California to help feed the hungry with the Help 4 the Hungry donation drive from November 19 to December 24, which raised $400,000, the equivalent of over 1.5 million meals. Join NBC4 this holiday season to help feed the hungry with our Help 4 the Hungry campaign. Individuals helped families by shopping at Ralphs or Food 4 Less supermarkets and made a donation of $5 or $10 at check-out. One hundred percent of proceeds will go to Feeding America Riverside & San Bernardino, FOOD Share Ventura, Los Angeles Regional Food Bank and Second Harvest Orange County. For more information on participating food banks, visit here. The LA Regional Food Bank is helping those in need. Kim Baldonado reports for the NBC4 News at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2018. On November 20-21, November 26-30 and December 7, 14 and 21, NBC4 was live throughout the day starting with Today in LA at Ralphs and Food4Less stores. Click here for a list of store locations and times. This holiday, NBC4's Help 4 The Hungry is providing meals for people in need. NBC4's Fritz Coleman and Belen De Leon explain how you can help. Visit Ralphs.com and Food4Less.com to find a nearby store, and NBCLA.com/helpthehungry for details and ongoing updates. Be sure to also follow NBC4 at @NBCLA on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for live updates and use hashtag #helpthehungry when making a donation. On #GivingTuesday and throughout the month of December, learn how you can Help the Hungry at your local Ralphs or Food 4 Less grocery store. Michelle Valles reports for Today in LA on Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2018. Santa Monica City Council officials voted unanimously Tuesday night to pass an emergency ordinance that will ban fast food restaurants on the 3rd Street Promenade, but the ban would extend to any restaurant or cafe that has over 100 locations in the United States. Effectively, the vote banned all big chain restaurants from adding locations on Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade. Originally, the emergency ordinance was expected to focus on restaurants and cafes that have more than 150 locations, but the council opted to reduce that number to 100, which excludes more business than the original emergency ordinance. While the ban applies to restaurants like Chipotle, Cheesecake Factory and California Pizza Kitchen that easily have more than 100 locations in the U.S., existing restaurants on the promenade will not be asked to move. The emergency ordinance takes effect immediately for 60 days while the city develops a permanent ordinance. There had previously been a fast food ban on the promenade, but the ban was left out when a new community development plan was put in place a few years ago. A suspected member of a Southern California white nationalist group that incited brawls at political rallies last year was denied bail for a second time Tuesday after a judge found that the Anza resident is a danger to the community. Aaron Eason, 38, was among four men indicted in Los Angeles for allegedly inciting violence against counter-protesters, journalists and others at rallies throughout the state, including 2017 events in Huntington Beach, Berkeley and San Bernardino. Eason's lawyer, John McNicholas, denied that his client has ties to the so-called Rise Above Movement. The attorney told the court that although the Riverside County resident was captured on video fighting at the Berkeley rally, he had actually attended the April 2017 event to provide security for supporters of President Donald Trump and fought to protect himself from an unprovoked attack by a member of the Antifa movement. The government's contention that Eason should remain in custody pending trial because he is a member of a violent, racist organization is merely "a huge attempt to inflame the court," McNicholas said. Assistant U.S. Attorney David Ryan countered that emails sent by Eason show he was closely associated with RAM and that he participated in hand-to-hand combat training with the group at a park in San Clemente in preparation for the rallies. U.S. Magistrate Judge Rozella Oliver denied Eason bail earlier this month on grounds that he was a danger to the community and affirmed that ruling Tuesday, despite hearing from a friend of Eason's who testified that she knew the defendant as non-violent, responsible and hard-working. McNicholas indicated he would file motions to dismiss and to separate Eason's case from that of his co-defendants. One of the four Southern California 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 the "combat-training event" 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 four other suspected RAM members, including alleged RAM founder Ben Daley, 25, of Redondo Beach. He and three other men were charged for their suspected roles in last year's deadly far-right rally 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. President Donald Trump's administration on Tuesday said it would appeal a judge's order barring it from enforcing a ban on asylum for any immigrants who illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border, after the president's attack on the judge prompted an extraordinary rebuke from the nation's chief justice. The Justice Department filed a notice Tuesday saying it will appeal the order to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. It also asked the judge to stay his order pending the appeal. Trump criticized the 9th Circuit last week as biased and dismissed the judge who ruled against him an appointee of Trump's predecessor as an "Obama judge." Chief Justice John Roberts responded with a statement that the federal judiciary doesn't have "Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges." It was the first time Roberts has hinted at any criticism of the president, as judges ordinarily avoid making any public statements on politics. Roberts and the rest of the Supreme Court may end up deciding the asylum case. The 9th Circuit, seen as liberal leaning, has already ruled against Trump in several major immigration cases. U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar in San Francisco issued a temporary restraining order Nov. 19 against Trump's Nov. 9 proclamation that automatically barred anyone who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border between official ports of entry from seeking asylum . Trump issued the proclamation in response to the caravans of migrants approaching the border that he's claimed are a national security threat. But Tigar sided with legal groups who sued hours after the proclamation was issued. The groups argued that federal law unambiguously says immigrants in the United States can request asylum regardless of whether they entered the country lawfully. "Whatever the scope of the President's authority, he may not rewrite the immigration laws to impose a condition that Congress has expressly forbidden," the judge said in his order. In its request for a stay Tuesday, the Justice Department said Tigar's order "immediately harms the government and jeopardizes important national interests." Lee Gelernt, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement that the group would "vigorously oppose the stay request, so that people's lives are not put in danger." In issuing the proclamation, Trump invoked the same national security powers that he used to impose a travel ban on citizens of countries with overwhelmingly Muslim populations. The 9th Circuit ruled the administration couldn't withhold money from so-called "sanctuary cities," end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program for younger immigrants brought to the U.S. by their parents or impose the travel ban. In the case of the travel ban, the Supreme Court ultimately reversed the 9th Circuit's decision when it ruled that Trump had the authority to impose it. Asylum is intended for people who have fled their countries of origin because they have suffered persecution or fear that they will be persecuted if they are forced to return. Crossing the U.S.-Mexico border between ports of entry is a federal crime, but that does not typically preclude someone from requesting asylum. Tigar noted 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." By the estimates of the Department of Homeland Security, around 70,000 people a year claim asylum after crossing illegally. DHS alleges that many of those people make false claims and take advantage of loopholes in the system. Meanwhile, at least 3,000 people have arrived in Tijuana, Mexico, across the border from San Diego, California, with hopes of requesting asylum at a port of entry there. DHS has said it's prepared for as many as 10,000 or more people to arrive in various caravans. U.S. agents on Sunday fired tear gas at hundreds of migrants after some of them tried to get through the fence separating the two countries. Photo: Twitter Canada Post employees have been legislated back to work after more than five weeks of rotating strikes, but that isn't stopping their brethren from picking up picket signs to support them and once again slowing the mail in the process. Just after the federal government passed a law this week forcing an end to strikes by Canadian Union of Postal Workers members, the union warned that other unions could act out in response. And, today, they did just that. CUPW says several major unions in British Columbia set up picket lines at the Pacific Processing Centre in Richmond. The protesters said they would allow workers into the facility, which is the third-largest postal sorting plant in the country, but trucks with mail would not be allowed in or out. CUPW national president Mike Palecek says while his 50,000 members are prohibited from picketing, other union members face no similar restrictions. "What we're seeing in Vancouver today is that instead of resolving our dispute with Canada Post, the Trudeau government has picked a fight with labour," Palecek said in a statement. "'An injury to one is an injury to all' is much more than a slogan." The union has called the back-to-work legislation, Bill C-89, unconstitutional. The legislation became law late Monday, forcing postal workers back to work yesterday while an arbitration process is launched to try to settle the contract differences between Canada Post and its major union. The Crown corporation said it was doing what it could to get mail and parcels sorted in B.C. while the non-CUPW pickets disrupted delivery truck traffic. "Canada Post is making every effort to minimize service disruptions and resolve the situation." The agency has warned of significant delivery delays across the country through January as a result of the rotating strikes by CUPW members that began Oct. 22. The breakdown of a plea deal with former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and an explosive British news report about alleged contacts he may have had with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange threw a new element of uncertainty into the Trump-Russia investigation. On Tuesday, a day after prosecutors accused Manafort of repeatedly lying to them, trashing his agreement to tell all in return for a lighter sentence, he adamantly denied a report in the Guardian that he had met secretly with Assange around March 2016. That's the same month Manafort joined the Trump campaign and Russian hackers began an effort to penetrate the email accounts of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. The developments thrust Manafort back into the investigation spotlight, raising new questions about what he knows and what prosecutors say he might be attempting to conceal as they probe Russian election interference and possible coordination with Trump associates in the campaign that sent the celebrity businessman to the White House. All the while, Manafort's lawyers have been briefing Trump's attorneys on what their client has told investigators, an unusual arrangement that could give Trump ammunition in his feud against special counsel Robert Mueller. "They share with me the things that pertain to our part of the case," Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, told The Associated Press. Giuliani also said Trump, who has recently stepped up his attacks on Mueller, has been enraged by the treatment of Manafort. Other figures entangled in the investigation, including Trump himself, have been scrambling to escalate attacks and allegations against prosecutors who have been working quietly behind the scenes. Besides denying he'd ever met Assange, Manafort, who is currently in jail, said he'd told Mueller's prosecutors the truth during questioning. And WikiLeaks said Manafort had never met with Assange, offering to bet London's Guardian newspaper "a million dollars and its editor's head." Assange, whose organization published thousands of emails stolen by Russian spies from Clinton's campaign in 2016, is in Ecuador's embassy in London under a claim of asylum. It's unclear what prosecutors contend Manafort lied about, though they're expected to make a public filing that could offer answers. More details could emerge a hearing set for Friday where both sides will weigh in on next steps in the case, including the possible setting of Manafort's sentencing date. Dissolution of the plea deal could be a devastating outcome for a defendant who suddenly admitted guilt last September after months of maintaining his innocence and who bet on his cooperation getting him a shorter sentence. But it's also a potential setback for investigators, given that Manafort steered the campaign during a vital stretch of 2016, when prosecutors say Russian intelligence was working to sway the election in Trump's favor. The prosecutors' filing underscored their exasperation not only at Manafort's alleged deception but also at the loss of an important witness present for key moments under scrutiny, including a Trump Tower meeting at which Trump's eldest son expected to receive "dirt" about Clinton from a Kremlin-connected lawyer. "The fact is, they wanted his cooperation. They wanted him to truthfully reveal what he knew, so they're not getting what they wanted," said Washington defense lawyer Peter Zeidenberg. "This isn't like a good development where they're clapping their hands and saying, 'Now we get to crush this guy.'" Manafort's motivation, if indeed he lied to prosecutors, also was unclear. In an interview, Giuliani said Trump and his lawyers agree a presidential pardon should not be considered "now" but added, "The president could consider it at an appropriate time, as Manafort has the same rights as any American." Giuliani also accused Mueller's team of mistreating Manafort in hopes of getting him to give false testimony against the president. He said Trump "thinks it is outrageous and un-American and sounds like something that would happen under an oppressive dictatorship." Mueller's filing on Manafort came at a delicate time for investigators, who have gone months without new charges and continue to probe possible links between Trump associates and WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy website. As Trump continues raging against the investigation he tweeted Tuesday that Mueller was doing "TREMENDOUS damage to our Criminal Justice system" and called the investigation "a total disgrace" others in the crosshairs have filled the vacuum of Mueller's recent silence by publicly declaring their innocence, accusing prosecutors of coercing testimony or tempting fate by turning aside negotiations. One associate of Trump confidant Roger Stone is contesting a grand jury subpoena in court. Another, Jerome Corsi, said he was rejecting an offer to plead guilty to a false statements charge and has complained in news media interviews about his interrogations by prosecutors. Stone, under investigation himself for connections to WikiLeaks, has repeatedly disparaged Mueller's investigation and said his friend Corsi was at risk of prosecution "not for lying but for refusing to lie." A document drafted by Mueller's team as part of a plea offer says Corsi tipped off Stone in August 2016 that WikiLeaks planned to release damaging documents about Clinton. The tip accurately forecast that WikiLeaks would publicity post the material, including messages from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, in October. It is the first known reference by Mueller to Americans close to Trump appearing to have foreknowledge of WikiLeaks' plans. The draft document was first reported by NBC News, and a copy of it was posted online by The Washington Post. Stone has denied knowing about WikiLeaks' plans in advance. Manafort, meanwhile, had been quiet since pleading guilty to conspiracy to obstruct justice and conspiracy against the United States. He has met repeatedly since then with investigators. He remained in the spotlight Tuesday when the Guardian published a report saying he had secretly met Assange around March 2016, when he was brought aboard the Trump campaign. The report suggested a direct connection between WikiLeaks and the Trump campaign. Manafort called the story "totally false and deliberately libelous," saying in a statement that he had never met Assange or anyone close to him. The Guardian cited 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 newspaper said that Manafort returned in 2015 and 2016 and that its sources had "tentatively dated" the final visit to March. There was no detail on what might have been discussed. The Trump campaign announced Manafort's hiring 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 chairman that May. An AP investigation into Russian hacking showed that government-aligned cyberspies began an aggressive effort to penetrate the Clinton campaign's email accounts on March 10, 2016. Justice Department prosecutors in Virginia recently inadvertently disclosed the existence of sealed criminal charges against Assange, though it's unclear what that case entails. Prosecutors were in court Tuesday arguing against unsealing any charge. Meanwhile, a judge may soon set a sentencing date for Manafort now that his hopes for leniency appear dashed. "The cooperating defendant usually is very aware of what's at stake," said Shanlon Wu, who represented Manafort's onetime co-defendant Rick Gates. "What I always say to any client of mine who's contemplating that there is no going back. "It's like being a little bit pregnant," he added. "There's no such thing." Associated Press writers Raphael Satter, Franklin Briceno and Michael Balsamo contributed to this report. What to Know Gov. Cuomo said he and President Trump had a "productive" meeting Wednesday to discuss a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River While Trump made no assurances about federal funding for the project, Cuomo said the president was receptive A new tunnel, with an estimated price tag of $13 billion, would take several years to build Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he and President Donald Trump had a "productive" meeting Wednesday to discuss one of the Northeast's most pressing transportation needs: a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River. While Trump made no assurances about federal funding for the project, Cuomo said, the Republican president was receptive and said he wants to find a way forward. U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Trump Chief of Staff John Kelly also attending the lunch meeting. "The president got it," said Cuomo, a Democrat, noting Trump's background in construction and development in New York City. "I think in many ways this situation is bigger than politics." Local officials and transportation experts have warned for decades about the need for a new tunnel to carry Amtrak and commuter rail service between New York and New Jersey. The current century-old Amtrak tunnel now operates at capacity during rush hours and suffered extensive saltwater damage in 2012's Superstorm Sandy. Amtrak officials say either of the tunnel's two tubes could fail in the next 10 to 15 years, paralyzing train travel between Boston and Washington on what is known as the Northeast Corridor. A new tunnel, with an estimated price tag of $13 billion, would take several years to build. The two states had pledged to pay half the estimated $13 billion price tag under a deal worked out with the Obama administration. The Trump administration now says there was never any agreement. In March, Chao told a House committee that Trump was moving to block funding for the project because New York and New Jersey weren't putting up enough of their own money. Cuomo said Trump expressed concerns about the project turning into an expensive government boondoggle - worries Cuomo said he shares. The solution, Cuomo said, is to use a new legal corporation to direct the project on behalf of the two states and the federal government. The corporation could carefully manage bids from private construction companies to ensure the project is completed on time and on budget, he said. He cited his administration's work on other massive projects, including the new Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge over the Hudson and major renovations to LaGuardia and Kennedy airports. While they have disagreed on many of Trump's policies since he became president, the two men struck a friendlier tone Wednesday. In an interview with The New York Post on Wednesday, Trump said he has a "good relationship" with the governor of his home state. He mentioned video footage sent by Cuomo last month that shows the state of the existing tunnel's disrepair. "In New York, it's a very big deal and ... we're going to look at it," Trump said of the project. "It's a very expensive project, as you know. Probably the world's most expensive project." What to Know Police have arrested the armed robber and an accomplice in a series of drugstore robberies in Queens; a manager was shot in one of them Late Monday, police put out a new, clear video of the suspect they want to find in connection with the shooting The shooter is accused of robbing three other stores in the borough the same morning of the shooting Police have arrested the man they say shot a Duane Reade store manager during an armed robbery, along with his uncle, who allegedly acted as his getaway driver. NYPD Chief Dermot Shea tweeted, "Got him," alongside a photo of the suspect about midday. "The subject wanted for shooting a sales clerk while committing a series of armed commercial robberies in #Queens has been APPREHENDED," he said. The suspect has been identified as Elgin Brack. He appeared in federal court Tuesday to answer to robbery and weapons charges, along with his uncle Scott Brack. Both are being held without bail. The two are facing federal charges because often when a string of robberies involves a shooting, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives gets involved, an official said. Scott Brack has prior convictions of attempted murder, robbery and assault, records show. The victim, a 49-year-old overnight manager, was shot inside the Duane Reade near Roosevelt and Woodside avenues in Queens about 3:30 a.m., according to the NYPD. The man was taken to an area hospital; police said early Tuesday he remains in critical condition. In the next hour, the suspect went on to rob 7-Eleven in Woodside, and then went on to hold up a Rite-Aid in Astoria and a Rite-Aid in St. Albans, police said. NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea on Tuesday said a second person had also been taken into custody in connection with the robberies. "I really can't speak more glowingly about the work of our detectives in this case," he said Tuesday. "In such a short order to bring to this a conclusion and to get these two violent individuals off the streets." Woodside residents were relieved to hear of the arrests. "Hopefully nothing like this happens again," said one man who lives in the neighborhood. A law enforcement source told NBC 4 New York the person arrested was the uncle of the alleged shooter, and acted as his driver. "It's a shame," said Joseph Tramontana, who runs a small business on Roosevelt Avenue across the street from Duane Reade. "You go to work in the morning. The poor guy came to work, with a family, and look what happened." Four months ago, someone killed a man outside the same store, which remains closed until further notice. "We frequent these stores every day," said Woodside resident Pat Marsh. "To this in this area is horrifying." A Duane Reade spokesman said in a statement to News 4, "Our thoughts and prayers are with our team member who was critically injured earlier this morning. We are currently evaluating security measures at this location and will make enhancements to them as necessary when the store reopens." Anyone with information should call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS. What to Know In the last 5 years, NY paid more than $5M to settle suits against 70 state employees accused of sexual harassment or gender discrimination According to an I-Team analysis of state payroll records, half of the accused employees have been allowed to keep state jobs One employee's lawyer warned against assuming that the mere existence of a settlement means someone committed a bad act Over the last five years, New York has paid more than $5 million to settle lawsuits against 70 state employees accused of sexual harassment or gender discrimination. And according to an I-Team analysis of state payroll records, half of the accused employees have been allowed to keep state jobs - even though taxpayers shelled out big bucks to compensate their alleged victims. In one instance, Javier Figueroa, a former nursing administrator at the states Veterans Home in Montrose, was accused by two women in two separate sexual harassment lawsuits. The New York State Department of Health settled both of those suits for a total of $130,000. No one admitted wrongdoing. After the settlements, payroll records show Figueroa left his job at the Veterans Home and took a job as a nursing administrator in another state agency, the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities. Jonah Bruno, a spokesman for the Department of Health, said the cases against Figueroa included substantiated allegations of sexual harassment and the Department took action to discipline Figueroa appropriately. But Bruno declined to say if DOH notified OPWDD about the sexual harassment cases before he was hired there. The I-Team reached out to OPWDD, but that agency has yet to respond. Neither Javier Figueroa nor his attorney has responded to I-Team requests for comment. In another of the settled lawsuits, Jennifer Lastra, a former rehabilitation counselor with the states Office of Mental Health, accused a co-worker of trying to rape her in her office. According to a complaint filed in June of 2017, Paul Burke, a fellow rehab counselor, jumped on [the] Plaintiff as she sat in her office chair and began to rub his erect penis on her. . . in an attempt to rape [the] Plaintiff. Lastra says she initially complained to her managers and to the NYPD. When neither agency could substantiate her allegations, she sued. Twelve months later New York State paid $25,000 to settle the case. No one admitted wrongdoing and Burke remains employed as a state rehab counselor. He would have eventually attacked me again. I have no doubt about that, Lastra said in an interview with the I-Team. Lastras attorney, Kelly OConnell, said its troubling that the state saw fit to pay tax dollars in order to settle the case, but found no reason to discipline Burke. Based on what I have, and I believe my client, it makes me scared for other people working there. Or the patients that they have. Burkes attorney, Stephen Hans, said his client denies the charges against him and was ready to fight them in court, but after New York State agreed to the settlement, Lastra withdrew her complaint. Nothing was ever substantiated. He never received any proof, Hans said. When it was withdrawn against him, he was happy. Hans also warned against assuming that the mere existence of a settlement means someone committed a bad act. If you find the facts are unsubstantiated but it costs you a few dollars to get rid of the case, that doesnt mean the person did it. It just means youre spending the taxpayer money wisely. Don Kaplan, a spokesman for Governor Cuomo, echoed that analysis. He said all allegations of discrimination and harassment are thoroughly investigated, but relatively few are actually substantiated. In some instances, even when an investigation found all allegations to be without merit, some cases may have been settled for a variety of reasons, including a preference to avoid further protracted litigation and costs to the taxpayer, Kaplan said. Assembly member Amy Paulin (D-Scarsdale), a sex assault survivor herself, said it is important that the state compensate victims of alleged harassment and discrimination, but she said the I-Team findings suggest too many bad-actor employees are being allowed to skate when tax dollars are being used to settle cases involving their alleged behavior. "There is no settlement without some kind of acknowledgement that something must have gone on. I mean, if thats not the case then we are wasting taxpayer dollars completely," Paulin said. Last spring, Cuomo signed a package of sexual harassment legislation that included a provision making it easier for New York to seek monetary reimbursement from state employees found liable for sexually-harassing behavior. Paulin applauded that legislation, adding that there is another strategy that could help deter harassment and discrimination in state offices. We should see more people be fired, she said. What to Know A Bronx man who stabbed his brother to death for being too loud was sentenced to prison, prosecutors announced Tuesday Dennis Martinez, 53, received 10 year prison term, 5 years post-release supervision after jury found him guilty of 1st-degree manslaughter Prosecutors say Martinez was awakened by loud noise and started arguing with his brother, ultimately stabbing him and then lied to police A Bronx man who stabbed his brother to death for being too loud is heading to prison, prosecutors announced Tuesday. Dennis Martinez, 53, received a 10 year prison term and five years post-release supervision after a jury found him guilty of first-degree manslaughter Oct. 25. According to Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark, an investigation revealed that on March 4, 2016, inside the Castle Hill Houses in the Bronx, Martinez was awakened by noise and began to argue with his brother, Jorge, in the apartment they shared. Prosecutors say Martinez stabbed his brother multiple times in the chest, back and right leg. The 36-year-old died at Jacobi Medical Center from his wounds. Clark called the stabbing a "senseless crime." Subsequently, in an effort to deviate the investigation, according to prosecutors, Martinez lied and told police that a group of men was responsible for the attack and that he tried to help his brother, but was stabbed in the leg in the process. What to Know A man who allegedly raped a woman at knifepoint after attacking her has been arrested, police said Nickolos Samaroo, 21, of Queens, faces charges including rape, assault and sex abuse in connection with the alleged incident Samaroo allegedly held a knife to the woman's face and forced her to perform oral sex, at which point she bit his penis A man who allegedly raped a woman at knifepoint after attacking her has been arrested, police said. Nickolos Samaroo, 21, of Queens, was allegedly inside an apartment on 101st Avenue in Jamaica around 3 a.m. on Nov. 9 when he punched and kicked a 39-year-old woman until he knocked her out, the NYPD said. The woman allegedly woke up to Samaroo trying to remove her pants, police said. She managed to distract Samaroo and tried run into the bathroom to get away, but Samaroo allegedly dragged her into the bedroom and knocked her out again, according to police. When the woman woke up for the second time, Samaroo allegedly held a knife to her face and forced her to perform oral sex on him, at which point the woman bit his penis, the NYPD said. The woman managed to flee the apartment when Samaroo fell over, according to police. She received treatment for slashes to her face and right leg at a nearby hospital, the NYPD said. Samaroo faces charges including first-degree rape, second-degree assault, first-degree criminal sex act, sex abuse and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon, police said. His attorney information wasnt immediately available Wednesday. A serial killer who may have committed at least 90 murders across the country has been linked to a killing that occurred in Prince George's County, Maryland, almost 50 years ago. Prince George's County police announced Wednesday that Samuel Little, 78, has been linked to a 1972 cold case in the county. Little is already serving three life sentences for the slayings of three women in California. In July 2018, he was charged with the death of a woman in Texas, NBC News reported. Little gave investigators there information on the Maryland killing, as well as a "multitude" of others, authorities say. One of those cases involved a woman he said he met at the Greyhound bus station on New York Avenue in Washington, D.C., Prince George's County authorities said during a press conference Wednesday afternoon. Investigators are still trying to determine who the woman was but are hopeful that clues provided by Little may finally lead to her identification. Little and the woman are believed to have met in May or June 1972. Over a three-day period, Little and the still-unidentified woman had interactions and at one point, left the station in Little's car, Little told authorities. They drove on what investigators believe was the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, left the parkway in the area of Beltsville, Maryland, and had sex, Little told authorities. He then strangled the victim, he said. Detective Bernie Nelson said Little killed women "for sexual gratification." "I can truly say that Samuel Little is a true monster," Nelson said. "He's every woman's ultimate nightmare." The victim may have been from the Massachusetts area and recently had gotten divorced, Little told investigators. Her height was between 5'2" and 5'6". She was Caucasian and was possibly in her early twenties. She also may have had a child. Authorities in Massachusetts are reviewing missing persons reports from the time of the killing, as well as divorce records, said Prince George's County Sgt. Gregory McDonald. "We're trying to get some information, whether it be from Massachusetts, from this area, from anywhere. If anyone thinks that this may be their loved one who's been missing since 1972, we want to receive a phone call from those people so that we can make some DNA comparisons," Nelson said. DNA evidence was extracted from the victim's remains in 2014 and has been uploaded into national databases. "The main thing is that we're trying to identify who our victim is and we were hoping that Mr. Little could shed some light on ways of us accomplishing that goal," Nelson said. The killing is believed to have happened in May or June in 1972. Her remains were found in December of that year by a hunter who was walking through a wooded area. A medical examiner concluded that the remains had been there for about six months. Little was in the D.C. area at the time of the killing and was arrested on a handgun charge in May 1972 at the same bus station where he and the victim met, Nelson said. When shown aerial photos, Little pointed out the area where the victim was found, Nelson said. "He actually pointed out the dirt roads that he went on and pointed out exactly where he left her body," Nelson said. Little, also known as Samuel McDowell, is serving three life sentences for strangling three women in the Los Angeles area from 1987 to 1989. He was convicted of those murders in 2014. He was charged in the death of a woman in Texas in July. According to the Wise County Sheriff's Office in Decatur, Texas, Little also gave investigators details on a "multitude" of murders he says he committed from 1970 to 2005 in Texas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Illinois, Ohio, California, Indiana, Arizona, New Mexico and South Carolina. As Little conveyed information about homicides to Texas Rangers who interviewed him, they would contact local law enforcement agencies in those areas, McDonald said. If Little is found guilty of the murders he's provided information about, he "will be confirmed as one of, if not the most, prolific serial killers in U.S. history," according to a statement from Ector County District Attorney Bobby Bland. However, Little will not be charged in Prince George's County due to his existing sentence of three life terms in California, said Major Brian Reilly. "We will get something called a Decline to Prosecute where it says we could charge him if we wanted to, but there is no reason to put people through that," he said. Little told investigators that the Prince George's County victim was his only victim in the Washington, D.C., area, McDonald said. "He was an open book," McDonald said. "But he's not remorseful." Fox News Channel said Tuesday that it is disciplining employees involved in an email exchange with an aide to President Trump's former EPA administrator Scott Pruitt to craft a "Fox & Friends" interview with the environmental chief last year. The emails showed one of Pruitt's aides suggesting the interview, passing along "talking points" and given the chance by a Fox producer to approve a script written to introduce Pruitt. The messages were uncovered through a Freedom of Information Act request by the Sierra Club and first reported by The Daily Beast. It's another example of closeness between Fox News and the Trump administration, where the president's communications director is a former Fox executive. Fox's most popular personality, Sean Hannity, appeared onstage at a Trump rally shortly before the midterm election. Fox would not say who was being disciplined, noting that it was a personnel matter, and what that discipline involved. Earlier, the network had said that "this is not standard practice whatsoever and the matter is being addressed internally with those involved." In May 2017, former Environmental Protection Agency press representative Amy Graham wrote to Fox, saying Pruitt would be in New York and able to come to Fox's studio to talk about reforms Pruitt was making to help communities poorly served by President Barack Obama's administration. "Pruitt has been outspoken about the lack of environmental accomplishments under the Obama administration, calling President Obama 'no environmental savior' and he would like to expand on these comments," Graham wrote. "Fox & Friends" producer Andrew Murray agreed to the interview. When Graham wrote back that "we really need to stick with this as the topic" and needed confirmation that would be the case, Murray agreed. He assigned the segment to another producer, Diana Aloi. Pruitt resigned 14 months after the interview took place, following a flurry of stories about ethical lapses including excessive spending for travel and security, trying to get his wife a job and circumventing the White House to get raises for top aides. Aloi asked for "bullet points" on what Pruitt would like to discuss and Graham wrote back with several. Later, Aloi sent her a four-paragraph introductory script, asking "would this be OK as the setup to the segment?" The script talked about a new direction at the EPA "after the Obama administration left behind a huge toxic mess. More than 1,300 Superfund sites, which are heavily contaminated, still require clean-ups. So why was President Obama touted as an environmental savior if all these problems still exist?" Graham wrote back, "Yes perfect." It's not uncommon for journalists and representatives for newsmakers to talk in advance about topics that may be covered in an interview. Promises not to address certain subjects are considered off limits by most reporters, with script approval an even greater ethical lapse. When Pruitt appeared the next day, "Fox & Friends" host Brian Kilmeade said that "President Trump is doing his best to drain the swamp and much of that draining happened at the Environmental Protection Agency after the Obama administration left behind get this a huge toxic mess." Host Ainsley Earhardt continued, "more than 1,300 Superfund sites, which are heavily contaminated, still require cleanup." The third host, Steve Doocy, said to Pruitt, "the press made President Obama out to be the environmental savior and yet when you look at the number of toxic dumps left on your plate, it's a big number." "Absolutely," Pruitt said. During congressional testimony earlier this year, Pruitt said that Trump's EPA in 2017 had removed more polluted sites across the country than the previous administration had the previous year. The EPA had declared seven Superfund site cleanups to be complete in 2017, compared to two in 2016. Yet records showed that construction work at all seven of those sites were completed years before Pruitt became EPA chief in February 2017. At one point in the interview, Earhardt said that "we're talking about memos and what's happening in the White House. This is what the American public really needs to be focused on, right? Jobs, our personal safety, protecting our kids from cancer." It wasn't exactly clear what she was referring to, although on the day the interview was arranged a big story was about a memo former FBI director James Comey had written to himself about Trump asking him to stop an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Kilmeade did end the interview with a question that had not been discussed during the arrangements, about the Trump administration and its views about the Paris climate change accord. ___ Associated Press correspondents Michael Biesecker and Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington contributed to this report. Paul Manafort's plea deal went up in smoke this week. It didn't even last three months. The former Trump campaign chairman's cooperation agreement with special counsel Robert Mueller unraveled, prosecutors say, after he repeatedly lied to investigators, an allegation Manafort denies. The extraordinary dissolution of the deal means Mueller loses a witness in his Russia probe. But it's a potentially bigger loss for Manafort come sentencing time. And it raises important questions about the state of the Russia investigation. HOW DID WE GET HERE? Manafort cut a deal with prosecutors in September, agreeing to plead guilty to two felonies and cooperate with Mueller's team "fully, truthfully, completely, and forthrightly." In exchange, prosecutors agreed that if he provided "substantial assistance" they could help him get a lighter sentence. The deal headed off a second trial for Manafort related to his Ukrainian political consulting and unregistered foreign lobbying. He was previously convicted at trial of eight felony counts in a separate case. WHY DOES MANAFORT MATTER TO MUELLER? Manafort knows a lot about Donald Trump's presidential campaign and he is an eyewitness to at least one key meeting under investigation by the special counsel. While leading the Trump campaign in June 2016, he joined Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and a Russian attorney at Trump Tower for a meeting, which Trump Jr. had been told was part of a Russian government effort to help his father's campaign. Mueller has interviewed several participants in the meeting. Manafort also can offer his recollections of discussions with Donald Trump during the months he led the campaign. Manafort was at the helm when Trump made some public pronouncements that have caught Mueller's attention, including Trump's famous late July 2016 invitation for Russia to hack Democrat Hillary Clinton to find 30,000 missing emails. Manafort could also offer federal prosecutors in New York help with an investigation into Ukrainian political work he led and whether others were acting as unregistered foreign agents. That probe is examining the conduct of Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta, former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig and former Republican congressman and lobbyist Vin Weber. None of the three has been charged. WHAT DID MANAFORT LIE ABOUT, ACCORDING TO PROSECUTORS? We don't know yet but we will soon. Prosecutors were vague in court papers. They only wrote that Manafort lied to the FBI and the special counsel's office on "a variety of subject matters." But they promised U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson that they will lay out "the nature of the defendant's crimes and lies" in a later filing. For his part, Manafort disputes he lied. He said he truthfully answered investigators' questions on numerous occasions. WHAT'S THE IMPACT ON THE INVESTIGATION? It's hard to tell. Mueller's team hasn't revealed the substance of Manafort's interviews and neither have his lawyers. But the fact that Mueller's team believes they've caught Manafort in a lie suggests they already know a lot about the episodes he was questioned about. The value of Manafort's cooperation has also likely gone down since he held out for so long while Mueller's team vacuumed up millions of pages of documents, interviewed scores of people and gained other key cooperators, such as former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. And Mueller still has Manafort's right-hand man, Rick Gates, as a cooperator. Gates spent more time on the campaign and later served on the presidential inaugural committee, potentially giving him more insight than Manafort into the actions of the president and people around him. WHAT DO MUELLER CRITICS SAY? The episode could feed into criticisms that the president and other Trump allies have lobbed at Mueller. The disagreement between Mueller's team and Manafort over whether he lied echoes a criticism the president raised in a tweet earlier this month. In decrying the Mueller probe as a "total mess," he wrote that prosecutors are "screaming and shouting at people, horribly threatening them to come up with the answers they want." He did not specify where he received the information or whether it involved Manafort. But others involved in the case have similarly complained about the conduct of Mueller's prosecutors. Jerome Corsi, a conservative writer who has pushed numerous conspiracy theories, said earlier this week that he rejected a Mueller plea deal, telling news outlets that prosecutors wanted him to admit to lying when he believes he didn't. Trump associate Roger Stone, whose possible connection to WikiLeaks is being scrutinized by Mueller's team, has also made similar complaints about prosecutors' tactics with other witnesses. IS THIS POSSIBLY A PARDON PLAY? In the wake of Manafort's conviction in August, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani told The New York Times that he and the president discussed the political consequences of pardoning Manafort. But there have been few signs since that a pardon is still on the table. For their part, Manafort's attorneys aren't saying. And on Tuesday, Giuliani told The Associated Press that Trump is not considering a pardon at this time. "The president could consider it at an appropriate time as Manafort has the same rights as any American," Giuliani said. Associated Press writer Jonathan Lemire contributed to this report. (CNN) Authorities have discovered the bodies of six people, including a 7-year-old girl, at a house in the Japanese town of Takachiho, a popular destination for tourists visiting the Takachiho Gorge in southwestern Miyazaki province. Police found the remains at a house owned by 72-year-old Yasuo Iihoshi after a family member had reported that his calls had gone unanswered, according to Miyazaki prefectural police. One of the bodies, a female, was discovered outside the property, while three males and two more females were found inside the house. Japan, which ranks as one of the safest countries in the world to live, has a very low murder rate and mass killings are rare. Given Japan's strict gun laws, in the infrequent attacks that do occur, knives are more commonly used. In the Takachiho killings, at least some of the victims had been stabbed, local media reported. The murder weapon has not been recovered. Authorities have released the names of the victims, including Yasuo Iihoshi, his 66-year-old wife Mihoko, their 7-year-old granddaughter Yui, 41-year-old daughter-in-law Mikiko, and 21-year-old grandson Takumi. They are all members of the immediate family of Iihoshi's second son, Masahiro. The sixth victim was named as 44-year-old Fumiaki Matsuoka,who is unrelated to the family but a friend of Masahiro's. Masahiro Iihoshi has been missing since the discovery of the bodies. The police also discovered a seventh body under a bridge crossing the Gokase River. Famous tourist destination The Kyushu town is famous for the nearby, scenic Takachiho Gorge, and the area is an important site for Shinto myth and legend. The town is a "'power spot,' a place of profound religious importance and natural beauty, which radiates spiritual energy," according to one Japan tourism site. It is home to some 12,000 people. Japan's deadliest mass killing since World War II was recorded in 2016, when at least 19 people were killed and 26 injured in a stabbing spree at a facility for disabled people west of Tokyo. Satoshi Uematsu, the suspect in the case, had written a letter several months before the incident, in which he said he had "the ability to kill 470 disabled people." The death count from that attack eclipsed the infamous Aum Shinrikyo subway sarin gas attack of 1995, that killed 13 people and injured more than 6,000 others, which itself was part of a murder spree throughout the country that left 29 people dead. This story was first published on CNN.com, "Japan mass killing: Six bodies found at house in mountain town." Photo: Family photo A grizzly bear expert says fatal attacks such as the one on a woman and her baby in Yukon are unusual and it's important to have a thorough investigation into what happened. The Yukon Coroner's Service said Valerie Theoret, who was 37, and her 10-month-old baby Adele Roesholt died Monday in the Einarson Lake area near the Northwest Territories boundary. The service said a call came in about 3:45 p.m. from a trapper, Gjermund Roesholt, who said he was charged by a grizzly bear about 100 metres from a cabin Roesholt shared with his wife and infant daughter. He said he shot the bear dead before finding the bodies of his wife and baby just outside the cabin. Chris Servheen, who was the grizzly bear recovery co-ordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for 35 years, said it's unusual to see a fatal grizzly bear attack. "It's most unfortunate, particularly where a woman and child were involved," he said in an interview from Missoula, Mont. "It's a very sad state of affairs something that no one likes to see happen and that's why it's important to understand what it was that was going on here. "It would be valuable to try to understand why it happened, if that can be determined through a careful re-creation of the events." "It could be a surprise encounter where perhaps they were walking around the cabin and a bear was coming around a corner and they surprised a bear at close range," he said. "It could be a case where a bear was hungry and seeking food around the cabin and perhaps looking for something to eat. It could have tried to attack them and prey on them. There have been cases like that in the past." Servheen said the investigators should also look at the condition of the bear. "Was he in poor shape? Was he old? Did he have bad teeth?" he said. "Those types of things can give you information about the potential motivation of the bear." A bill that would have protected special counsel Robert Mueller was blocked by Senate Republicans Wednesday over the objections of one member of the party threatening to hold up judicial nominations, NBC News reported. The effort to safeguard Mueller and his probe into Russian election meddling gained new momentum this month after President Donald Trump fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions and replaced him with a loyalist who criticized the Russia probe before joining the administration. Retiring Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., threatened to withhold his key vote on the judiciary committee for Trump judges unless the bill got a vote, saying on the Senate floor, "To be so sanguine about the prospects of (Mueller) being fired is folly for us." But his fellow Republican, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, objected to a request for unanimous consent to proceed on that full vote, dashing hopes that the bill would progress. What to Know Former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane wants more time before reporting to jail to serve a sentence in a perjury case. A judge ordered her to report by 9 a.m. Thursday after the state Supreme Court declined to hear her appeal of the 2016 conviction. Kane was convicted of leaking secret grand jury information and lying about it. A county judge is rejecting former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane's 11th hour request to delay her deadline of Thursday morning to report to jail and begin serving a sentence for perjury. Montgomery County Judge Wendy Demchick-Alloy moved quickly Wednesday, denying Kane's request for a delay shortly after it was filed. Kane had asked for a "brief extension" so she could nail down arrangements for her two teenage sons. Kane's attorney, William Brennan, said the divorced 52-year-old has primary custody of her 16- and 17-year-old sons, who are both in high school. The motion asked for a hearing or conference and a "brief extension" for Kane to remain free before starting to serve the 10- to 23-month sentence. It said the additional time would allow her to "solidify" arrangements with her ex-husband and family. "Her ex-husband supports this motion and will provide information through proffer or testimony should the court deem necessary," Brennan wrote in the motion directed to Montgomery County Judge Wendy Demchick-Alloy. Kane, who lives in Scranton, has been out on $75,000 bail since being convicted two years ago of leaking grand jury information and lying about it. The state Supreme Court on Monday declined Kane's request to review her case, prompting the county district attorney's office on Tuesday to file a motion seeking to have her bail revoked. Demchick-Alloy granted it quickly, giving Kane less than two days to turn herself in at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility. In her Tuesday order, Demchick-Alloy said there was no longer any reason for Kane to remain free. Brennan wants that order put on hold while the judge considers whether to grant Kane more time. Brennan said in an interview Wednesday that Kane did not know when "the other shoe was going to drop." He said Kane could ask the high court to reconsider its decision but that was not likely. "This is a human problem more than a legal issue," Brennan said, adding "she's prepared to put this matter behind her and move on with her life." A spokeswoman for the Montgomery County district attorney's office declined comment. Two gunmen shot a woman 20 times, killing her in broad daylight on a Trenton, New Jersey, street Tuesday afternoon, police said. The shooting broke out around 2 p.m. in the 800 block of Stuyvesant Avenue, according to police. The victim, identified by the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office as 19-year-old Shaela Johnson, was hit by gunfire multiple times in the head, torso and other parts of her body. She was pronounced dead at 2:16 p.m., police said. Shell casings littered the scene. Surveillance video reviewed by police showed two men running and shooting Johnson outside of a corner store. Bystanders ducked inside looking for cover. Police believe it was a targeted killing by a rival gang, but that hasn't assuaged the fear of those who live in the neighborhood. "I'm scared. I'm nervous. I don't know if it could happen where I'm at," Trenton resident Shanice Gardner said. She walks her children to school every day near where the ambush occured. The idea that another shooting could happen when her boys are present terrifies her, she said. On Wednesday, Mayor Reed Gusciora asked residents to take a proactive approach to stopping violence. "If they want their own neighborhoods safe and secure, they need to step up to the plate and help us police ... as well," he said. In response to the brutal killing, Stop the Violence, a national organization that aims to build bridges between police and the communities they serve, will gather in Mercer County on Wednesday. Overall, homicides are down in Trenton and across New Jersey as a whole, according to state police crime data. From January 2018 to September 2018, homicides in Trenton were down more than 38 percent and 18 percent in the state. But the city is still recovering after an arts festival turned bloody more than four months ago. Gunfire erupted inside a Roebling Wire Works warehouse during the early morning hours of June 17, injuring at least 22 people attending the Art All Night event. To date, at least 18 victims have filed tort claim notices intending to sue for what happened at the event. Investigators, meanwhile, are still looking for the gunmen responsible for Johnson's death. They were seen fleeing the scene in a Nissan Maxima. Anyone with information is asked to contact Trenton police at 609-989-3663. Rapper Meek Mill spoke about his upbringing in South Philadelphia and his status as a symbol of criminal justice reform when he sat for an interview on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show." Mill described the area where he grew up as a "ruthless environment" where young people living in poverty can get caught up in drugs in violence. He said people don't realize probation violations can be for something as minor at "loitering at a Starbucks." Mill is currently out on unsupervised bail after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in April that he be released. The higher court ruling followed Judge Genece Brinkley sentencing the rapper to two to four years in prison in 2017 for violating his probation in a nearly decade-old gun and drug case. Mill served five months in state prison for his latest probation violation. Mill told DeGeneres that he was eating in his cell, watching her show, when the news came on and he learned about his release through the television set. "I'm watching the news and 'Meek Mill is up for bail.' I dropped my food, jumped up in the air and I was leaving 10 minutes later," the rapper said. Since his initial arrest in 2007, Mill's arresting officer, Reginald Graham, has been identified on a list of so-called dirty cops by the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office. Prosecutors have tried to keep officers on that list off the witness stand due to wrongdoing that includes lying, racial bias and brutality. The rapper's legal team has also since asked that Judge Brinkley be removed from the case, but that motion was denied. Mill has earned support from members of the public as well as high-profile public figures like Jay-Z and the Rev. Al Sharpton and has become a symbol for prison and criminal justice reform around the country. In a New York Times op-ed published Monday, Mill called for a change in the "broken" criminal justice system. '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," he said in the op-ed. 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. President Donald Trump cast into doubt a key component of his upcoming trip to an international summit in Argentina as he suggested Tuesday he may cancel his planned sit-down with Russian President Vladimir Putin over Russia's seizure of three Ukrainian naval ships last weekend. In an interview with The Washington Post, Trump said he would be receiving a "full report" from his national security team on Russia's recent actions in eastern Ukraine and the Black Sea. He said he would decide on a course afterward. "Maybe I won't have the meeting," he said. "Maybe I won't even have the meeting." Trump added: "I don't like that aggression. I don't want that aggression at all." The comments were Trump's strongest to date in condemnation of Russia's recent actions in Ukraine, where tensions are flaring. But White House aides were still planning for the Putin meeting after Trump's comments. The meeting between Trump and Putin is set to be just one of several high-profile foreign policy engagements for the U.S. leader on the whirlwind two-day visit to Argentina. Trump is also set to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping over dinner this weekend, in what may be a pivotal session to determining if and how the ongoing trade dispute between their two countries could be resolved. The White House on Tuesday warned Xi against trying to wait out Trump in the ongoing talks, suggesting the Chinese economy was not as resilient to a trade war as would be the U.S. The warning from Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, came ahead of the two leaders' high-stakes sit-down on Saturday evening. Over the last year, the two countries have levied a series of tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of imports from one another, with the latest round of U.S. duties set to go into force in the new year. National Security adviser John Bolton said Trump will also be meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Argentine President Mauricio Macri, South Korea's Moon Jae-in, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders called the trip an opportunity for the president to cement relations with other world leaders and advance a global economic system based on "free, fair and reciprocal trade." The Trump-Xi meeting would be the first since the two countries began hitting each other with import taxes earlier this year. The United States targeted $250 billion in Chinese products, and Beijing lashed back by slapping tariffs on $110 billion worth of U.S. goods. The two sides have been in negotiations for months, but Kudlow described them as being stalemated until just a few weeks ago. Kudlow said the administration has been "extremely disappointed" by China's engagement in trade talks but the meeting between Trump and Xi on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit could be a game-changer. "Perhaps we can break through in Buenos Aires or not," he said. Kudlow added that if the U.S. doesn't get "satisfactory" responses to its trade positions more tariffs will be imposed. He said Trump is "not going away." "I hope they understand that," he said. China's foreign ministry has said a recent phone conversation between Xi and Trump about trade and other issues was "extremely positive." This story has been corrected to show China's tariffs are on $110 billion, not $110 million, worth of goods. Dozens of mezcal bottles line the walls of a trendy new bar in the heart of Old Town, one of the first dedicated spots where San Diegans can sip on the Mexican liquor. Tahona Bar and Tasting Room, located next to the historic Campo Santo Cemetery in Old Town, opened in mid-November with the aura of a Mexican hacienda. The 2,000 square-foot bar features pieces of art and furniture created by local or Mexican crafters, like their rope seats and hand-painted tiles, but the highlight is Tahona's stock of more than 120 varieties of mezcal. Mezcal is an agave-based liquor similar to tequila with a more intense, earthy flavor. The spirit became popular in Oaxaca before spreading to other parts of Mexico and, more recently, the United States, according to Mexico tourism officials. Dalila Ercolani Tahonas founder, Amar Harrag, a French native and University of San Diego graduate who co-owns four local Mediterranean bistros, was inspired to bring a Mezcal tasting room to San Diego after visiting a similar establishment on one of his many trips to Mexico. "When I first became intrigued by the mezcal industry I decided to visit Oaxaca, which is the epicenter of the mezcal world," Harrag said. "I loved the experience and I decided to bring that same level of experience to the United States." He wants Tahona to be a hub for mezcal education as well as a place for visitors to revel in the agave-based drink. The bar plans to host spirit-based events, like mezcal meditations, and even plans to coordinate group trips to Baja California and Oaxaca so guests can learn about the liquor first-hand. Steven Sadri will lead mezcal tasting events at Tahona. "While there are many mezcal aficionados in town, they have not had a lot of places to experience and drink really good mezcals," Sadri said. For more modest experiences, the bars tasting room allows guests to explore the dozens of unique spirits through flights featuring four or five agave spirits each. Tasting flights range in price from $25 to $45 and individual samplings are also available. Haley Hill Photography There are more than 300 types of agave, according to Mexico tourism officials, meaning the possibilities for various types of mezcal liquor are virtually endless. Sadri said that mezcal's unique flavor takes some getting used to at first. "Our main advice is to give it more than one chance and try a few different kinds," he said. "The diversity in the flavor profiles is astonishing and once youve found your favorite agave you'll know what you like." While bars that carry mezcal are not hard to find in San Diego several local tequila bars have at least one bottle of the liquor Tahonas bar is stocked with more than 120 varieties. Like Old Town itself, Tahonas specialty cocktails are a fusion of both Mexican culture and San Diego lifestyle. For example, the Whaley House Punch, named after Old Towns very own haunted house, is a combination of mezcal, lime, pineapple, salted watermelon and other liquors. The cocktails were concocted by beverage directors Carlo Bracci Devoti and Blair Marano who bring international flair to their beverages. Tahona's menu also features Oaxacan-influenced cuisine with local flair. Pair mezcal cocktails with Pork Belly Quemado, a seared pork belly covered in mole negro and topped with habanero-pickled vegetables or with Chicken Tinga, a chipotle chicken with green onions, queso fresco and cilantro crema, just to name a few. Harrag said Tahona aims to be a socially-responsible business and will complete "social impact projects" along the way, the first of which will be to help open an art center at an orphanage in Mexico's Valla de Guadalupe. Tahona is located at 2414 San Diego Ave. and is open daily from 5 p.m. to midnight. To book a reservation for Tahonas tasting room, call (619)255-2090. For more information, visit here. What to Know The head of the National Transportation Safety Committee said search teams detected pings believed to be from the plane's flight recorders Boeing Co. experts are expected to arrive in Indonesia on Wednesday and Lion Air has said an "intense" internal investigation is underway The plane plunged into the Java Sea on Monday just minutes after takeoff from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board A massive search effort has identified the possible seabed location of the crashed Lion Air jet, Indonesia's military chief said Wednesday, as experts carried out the grim task of identifying dozens of body parts recovered from a 15-nautical-mile-wide search area, and chilling video of passengers boarding the fatal flight emerged. The 2-month-old Boeing plane plunged into the Java Sea on Monday just minutes after taking off from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board. "This morning I've been briefed by the head of Search and Rescue Agency about the strong possibility of the location coordinates" of Flight 610, said armed forces chief Hadi Tjahjanto. "Hopefully that is the main body of the plane that we've been looking for." But while aircraft debris and passenger belongings were seen on the seafloor, the object thought to be the fuselage is still eluding search crews, Indonesia Search and Rescue Agency Director Muhammad Syaugi said later. He said the signal from the flight recorder has been detected but the strength of ocean currents prevented the black box from being recovered. Separately, the head of the National Transportation Safety Committee, Soerjanto Tjahjono, told reporters that pings detected by search teams are definitely from the aircraft's flight recorder because of their regular interval. The disaster has reignited concerns about safety in Indonesia's fast-growing aviation industry, which was recently removed from European Union and U.S. blacklists, and also raised doubts about the safety of Boeing's new generation 737 MAX 8 plane. Boeing Co. experts are expected to arrive in Indonesia on Wednesday and Lion Air has said an "intense" internal investigation is underway in addition to the probe by safety regulators. Navy officer Haris Djoko Nugroho said the 22-meter (72-foot) -long object that could be part of the fuselage is at a depth of 32 meters (105 feet). He said divers will be deployed after side-scan sonar has produced more detailed images. He said it was first located on Tuesday evening. "There are some small objects that we found, but last night, thank God, we found a large enough object," he said. Data from flight-tracking sites show the plane had erratic speed and altitude in the early minutes of a flight on Sunday and on its fatal flight Monday. Safety experts caution, however, that the data must be checked for accuracy against the plane's black boxes, which officials are confident will be recovered. Several passengers on the Sunday flight from Bali to Jakarta have recounted problems that included a long-delayed takeoff for an engine check and terrifying descents in the first 10 minutes in the air. Two interviewed on Indonesian TV recalled details such as a strange engine sound, a smell of burnt cables, and panicked passengers crying out for God to save them as the plane rapidly lost altitude. Later in the flight, a man who was either the captain or first officer walked through the plane and returned to the cockpit with what looked like a large manual. Lion Air has said maintenance was carried out on the aircraft after the Sunday flight and a problem, which it didn't specify, was fixed. Officials said searchers have sent 48 body bags containing human remains to police identification experts. Anguished family members have been providing samples for DNA tests and police say results are expected within 4-8 days. Musyafak, the head of Said Sukanto Police Hospital, said nearly 150 samples for testing have been collected but more are still needed, especially from parents and children of victims. Indonesian TV broadcast a smartphone video of passengers boarding Flight 610, its mundane details transformed into unsettling moments by knowledge of the tragedy that would transpire. It showed passengers' boarding passes being checked and people walking along a concourse and then down stairs with bright red and white Lion Air jets visible on the tarmac. At one point, the passenger who shot the video, Paul Ferdinand Ayorbaba, zooms in on the flight number on his boarding pass. A part of the video shows passengers walking up the mobile boarding stairs attached to a Lion jet. "My husband sent that video to me via WhatsApp. It was his last contact with me, his last message to me," said Inchy Ayorbaba, interviewed at the Jakarta police hospital where she had taken her three children for DNA tests. The messaging app's timestamps showed the video was sent about 35 minutes before the plane took off, said Ayorbaba, who first saw the message at 6:30 a.m., some 10 minutes after the plane departed, and then went back to sleep. Indonesia's Transport Ministry has ordered all Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes operated by Lion Air and national carrier Garuda to be inspected. Lion has ordered 50 of the jets, worth an estimated $6.2 billion, and currently operates nine. Boeing declined to comment about potential inspections globally. The aircraft manufacturer told airlines in a bulletin, "Boeing has no recommended operator action at this time," according to two people familiar with the matter. Lion Air President Edward Sirait told The Associated Press that the timing of a meeting with Boeing experts is still uncertain. Daniel Putut, a Lion Air managing director, said Tuesday evening the airline hopes to meet with Boeing officials on Wednesday afternoon. "Of course there are lots of things we will ask them, we all have question marks here, 'Why? What's the matter with this new plane,'" Putut said. The crash is the worst airline disaster in Indonesia since an AirAsia flight from Surabaya to Singapore plunged into the sea in December 2014, killing all 162 on board. Indonesian airlines were barred in 2007 from flying to Europe because of safety concerns, though several were allowed to resume services in the following decade. The ban was completely lifted in June. The U.S. lifted a decadelong ban in 2016. Lion Air, a discount carrier, is one of Indonesia's youngest and biggest airlines, flying to dozens of domestic and international destinations. It has been expanding aggressively in Southeast Asia, a fast-growing region of more than 600 million people. Associated Press journalists Andi Jatmiko and David Koenig contributed to this report. 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. US National security adviser (NSA) John Bolton here on Tuesday said that President Donald Trump will have a trilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi at the G20 summit in Argentina. 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 two-day 13th G20 summit will be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina on November 30 and December 1. Bolton further asserted that President Trump will not meet Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as Trump's "bilateral schedule is full". "President Trump's bilateral schedule is full to overflowing at this point," Bolton said in a press briefing, reported Xinhua. However, he did not exclude the possibility of the two leaders' informal meeting. Trump will be holding over half a dozen bilateral meetings on the sidelines of this week's Group of 20 summit in Argentina, the White House said. -ANI What to Know University of Maryland freshman Olivia Paregol died November 18 of adenovirus complications. Health officials now say they are dealing with an outbreak of the virus, which has symptoms that can be confused with those of a cold. Paregol's father questioned whether mold in his daughter's dorm exacerbated her illness. Less than a week after an 18-year-old University of Maryland freshman died from complications related to a virus, several more cases have been reported at the school. Medical experts now say the university is dealing with an outbreak of adenovirus, which has symptoms similar to those of a cold, including a sore throat, fever or pink eye. UMD officials said Monday that an additional three cases of adenovirus were confirmed over Thanksgiving weekend, bringing the total number of cases to nine. This figure includes the death of Olivia Paregol, who died of adenovirus complications on Nov. 18. The latest students to be diagnosed did not require hospitalization, University Health Center Director David McBride said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the state and the county all are addressing the virus, said Prince George's County Deputy Health Officer Dr. Ernest Carter. "We're working with the University of Maryland, the CDC and the state to make sure that we identify the strains, understand how it is spreading and make sure we are getting the word out," he said. The first case of the virus was reported at UMD on November 1. That student was hospitalized. On November 5, a second student was hospitalized. On November 7, the university cleaned surface areas to try to prevent the spread of the virus. On November 19, UMD learned that six students had the virus. On November 18, Paregol died. And on November 20, the school notified the public of her death. Outside the dorm where Paregol lived, Elkton Hall, classmates remembered her on Tuesday. "She was just, like, the happiest, most amazing person ever. And then she got really sick," student Kate Backman said. Adenoviruses are common viruses that can cause a range of illnesses, according to the CDC. The virus can pose serious complications to people with weakened immune systems, respiratory issues or cardiac disease. Paregol was taking medication for Crohn's disease. Her father, Ian Paregol, said she went to the campus health center when she fell ill but was not tested for adenovirus. Her family learned on November 13 that she had adenovirus. Five days later, she died. The late 18-year-old's father said the university failed her. "Families send their children to the university with the expectation that, at the very least, the university is going to ensure their safety. I don't think they met that standard in Olivia's case," he said. Family, Classmates Question Whether Mold Played Role in Paregol's Death Ian Paregol questioned whether mold found in his daughter's dorm could have exacerbated her illness. But McBride, the head of the campus health center, said there's no "consistent connection" between mold and the virus. Student Matthew Landy, who lives in the same dorm, said Tuesday that he believes the mold has sickened him for the whole fall semester. "I've been sick the whole time I've been here, coughing. It's been really hard to live in the conditions in the rooms," he said. Students diagnosed with adenovirus live both on campus and off campus, the university said. Another Deadly Adenovirus Outbreak, and How It's Spread An adenovirus outbreak is what recently killed 11 "medically fragile" children at the Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation in Passaic County, New Jersey. Adenovirus is typically spread from an infected person to others through close personal contact such touching or shaking hands; through the air by coughing and sneezing; or by touching an object or surface with adenoviruses on it, then touching your mouth, nose, or eyes before washing your hands. UMD is advising students and staff members to be conscientious about hygiene. With a partial government shutdown possible in just 10 days, President Donald Trump met with Republican leaders to hash out a spending plan that includes funding for Trump's proposed border wall with Mexico. Trump is seeking $5 billion for the wall, a centerpiece of his 2016 campaign, and is ratcheting up pressure on Congress to provide it. Trump said this month that it could be a "good time" for a shutdown if he doesn't receive the wall funding he wants. House Republicans approved $5 billion for Trump's wall in a key committee, but a bipartisan bill in the Senate allocates just $1.6 billion for the border. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., called Tuesday's White House meeting "very productive'' and said Trump "is very solid with where he wants to go and what he needs to have a secure border.'' House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., took a hard line on the negotiations, saying Democrats will soon face a crucial question: "Are they going to shut down the government because they don't want to keep America safe?" Trump said Tuesday he is considering a backup plan if Congress rejects his demand for the $5 billion, possibly including the continued use of troops and razor wire to prevent migrants from entering the country. "We need Democrat votes to have a wall,'' Trump said in an interview with The Washington Post. "Now, if we don't 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, with the barbed wire and the fencing, and various other things.'' Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the Trump administration hasn't even spent the $1.6 billion Congress approved in the current budget for the wall. With Republicans in control of the presidency, the House and the Senate, "a shutdown is on their back,'' Schumer said Tuesday. "Stick to the $1.6 billion." Democrats and GOP leaders struck a deal earlier this year to fund nearly three-fourths of the government into next year. Left undone, however, is funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the border, and a few other agencies. They're now running on stopgap funds set to expire Dec. 7. Complicating border negotiations, Democrats also want to protect special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference and any possible coordination with Trump associates. "I didn't know Robert Mueller needed protection,'' McCarthy told reporters, adding that there's "nothing out there'' for Mueller or Democrats to fear from Trump or his administration. "But I do know the southern end of our country needs protection.'' McCarthy, whose party lost more than three dozen House seats in the midterm elections earlier this month, urged Democrats to work with Republicans on the wall and other legislation, including a long-stalled farm bill, a new tax cut package and criminal justice reform. "The election is over. Let's put people before politics,'' McCarthy said. "We've got a problem before us. Let's solve that problem.'' Schumer said Democrats support strong border security and believe that $1.6 billion for border security, including physical barriers and technology along the U.S. southern border, "is the right way to go.'' White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said Trump and GOP leaders discussed a range of legislative priorities, including the California wildfires, the farm bill and ``the great need for border security at this crucial time,'' as well as prison reform and the budget. The group also talked about Monday's announcement by General Motors that it will shutter five plants and slash 14,000 jobs in North America, Gidley said. Doug Andres, a spokesman for House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., offered a similar list, saying that talks included "responsible funding for border security." A former Virginia Tech student who helped dump the body of a slain 13-year-old girl has been sentenced to 40 years in prison. Natalie Keepers, of Laurel, Maryland, was convicted in September of being an accessory before the fact in the 2016 death of Nicole Lovell. Keepers' friend, David Eisenhauer, pleaded no contest to first-degree murder and is serving a 50-year sentence. Judge Robert Turk followed the jury's recommendation in sentencing Keepers on Tuesday. The Roanoke Times reports that Keepers declined to say anything when given the opportunity before she was sentenced. Keepers and Eisenhauer were freshmen engineering students at Virginia Tech, while Lovell was a Blacksburg middle school student. Prosecutors said Eisenhauer, of Columbia, Maryland, met Lovell online and later killed her because he feared she would expose their relationship. Maryland correctional officials have canceled scheduled work Wednesday for an inmate road crew, a day after a tractor-trailer struck four crew members, killing one. Officials will explore whether more safety measures should be added. They will meet Wednesday with the Maryland State Highway Administration. The tractor-trailer was traveling west on Interstate 70 near Route 17 in Myersville, in Frederick County, about 9:30 a.m. Tuesday when it swerved onto the shoulder. It struck a Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correction Services van before hitting the inmates, Maryland State Police said. "A correctional officer was sitting inside the van, but fortunately he was uninjured. The tractor-trailer continued on the shoulder of the road and struck four inmates," Maryland State Police spokesman Greg Shipley said. Milton Pajak, 34, died at the scene, police said. Wade Rickets, Robert Knight and Aaron Abrecht were taken to a hospital. Two other inmates who were part of the six-inmate crew were not injured and were secured in another corrections van. The driver of the tractor-trailer, 53-year-old Frenel Pierre of Columbia, stayed at the scene. He did not report any injuries. State police are investigating why he swerved onto the shoulder. Hazmat crews went to the scene to handle a fuel spill from the tractor-trailer's damaged fuel tanks. Traffic was diverted to alternate routes, causing backups and delays. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump flipped the switch to light the National Christmas Tree Wednesday evening. The 96th annual National Christmas Tree Lighting took place on the Ellipse at the White House. Tickets were available through a lottery. Heres everything you need to know about this years musical guests, road closures and more. Performances Antonio Sabato Jr. will host the event, with performances by Abby Anderson, the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Anthony Kearns, Gabby Barrett and the United States Army Band "Pershings Own." Last year, The Beach Boys, Wynonna and The Texas Tenors were among the list of performers. Road Closures Many roads will close before the events start time and continue throughout the night. Click here for a complete list of affected roads. Getting There The National Park Service recommends guests with tickets use public transit to get to Presidents Park. The Farragut North and Farragut West Metro stations are closest to the event. The entrance for ticketed guests will be located along 17th Street across from E Street NW, NPS says. Forbidden Items Pack light! While strollers, wheelchairs, rain jackets and ponchos are permitted, many items are not. Below are the things you cannot bring to the tree lighting. Aerosols Ammunition Backpacks and bags exceeding the size restrictions (18" by 13" by 7") Coolers Firearms Glass, thermal, or metal containers Laser pointers Packages Selfie Sticks Signs exceeding the size restrictions (20" x 3" x 1/4") Supports for signs and placards Toy guns Weapons of any kind If you weren't lucky enough to get a ticket, the ceremony will be aired on Ovation and REELZ on Dec. 2 at 10 p.m. What to Know A migrant caravan traveling toward the U.S. through Mexico has been denied requests for buses to carry them northward They are still roughly 900 miles away from U.S. soil The Pentagon has announced it is sending 5,200 troops to the Southwest border Thousands of Central American migrants resumed their slow trek through southern Mexico on Thursday, and activists aiding the group said they were shifting their route toward the Gulf coast, a path closer to the Texas border. The migrants set out before dawn after taking a day's break in the Oaxaca state city of Juchitan. The activists said they would try to reach the town of Matias Romero, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) ahead. They had tried to arrange bus transport from Juchitan, but failed, leaving them once again on foot, hitch-hiking and looking for rides where they can find them. The migrants have not said what route they intend to take northward or where on the U.S. border they planned to reach, and Juchitan, still about 900 miles from U.S. soil, was something of a crossroads. While Matias Romero would carry them toward the Gulf coast city of Veracruz and a route toward the Texas border, another large caravan early this year passed through Veracruz and then veered back toward Mexico City and eventually tried to head to Tijuana in the far northwest. Few made it. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Wednesday praised Mexico for stopping the migrants from getting rides. "Mexico has stepped up in an unprecedented way," Sanders told Fox News. "They have helped stop a lot of the transportation means of these individuals in these caravans, forcing them walking. They have helped us in new ways to slow this down, to break this up and keep it from moving as aggressively toward the United States." But U.S. President Donald Trump ramped up his pre-election focus on the caravan and others behind it, talking of creating a U.S. military force on the border that would outnumber the migrants, many of them women and children. "As far as the caravan is concerned, our military is out," Trump said. "We have about 5,800. We'll go up to anywhere between 10,000 and 15,000 military personnel on top of Border Patrol, ICE and everybody else at the border." Later Wednesday, Trump told ABC News, "We have to have a wall of people." He is expected to give remarks on immigration from the White House Thursday afternoon, two White House officials told NBC News. A second, smaller group of 1,000 or so migrants is more than 200 miles behind the first caravan. A third band of about 500 from El Salvador made it to Guatemala, and a fourth group of about 700 set out from the Salvadoran capital Wednesday. Altogether, the four caravans represent just a few days' worth of the average flow of migrants to the United States in recent years. Similar caravans have occurred regularly over the years and passed largely unnoticed, but Trump has focused on the latest marchers seeking to make border security a hot-button issue in next week's midterm elections. Worn down by days of long walks, many migrants have dropped out and returned home or applied for protected status in Mexico. The initial caravan has shrunk significantly from its estimated peak of more than 7,000 migrants. A caravan last the spring ultimately fizzled to just about 200 people who reached the U.S. border at San Diego. Mexican Interior Secretary Alfonso Navarrete Prida said about 2,300 migrants have applied to stay in Mexico under a government plan, and hundreds more have accepted assisted repatriation. Also Wednesday, a Guatemalan woman gave birth to the first known caravan baby at a hospital in Juchitan. Mexico's governmental National Human Rights Commission said it had arranged for medical attention for the woman, who was 28 weeks pregnant, and the girl was healthy. Associated Press writer Peter Orsi contributed to this report. What to Know Saudi Arabia has signed a letter of offer and acceptance with the United States for Lockheed Martins THAAD missile system Its a significant step forward in the $15 billion deal, a State Department spokesperson confirmed to CNBC Saudi officials, alongside their U.S. counterparts, signed the crucial government-to-government agreement earlier this week Saudi Arabia has signed a letter of offer and acceptance with the United States for Lockheed Martins THAAD missile system, a significant step forward in the $15 billion deal, a State Department spokesperson confirmed to CNBC. Saudi officials, alongside their U.S. counterparts, signed the crucial government-to-government agreement earlier this week, paving the way for the massive sale of 44 THAAD launchers, missiles and related equipment. Manufactured by Lockheed Martin, the Pentagons top weapons supplier, THAAD, or terminal high altitude area defense, is regarded as Americas crown jewel in missile defense systems. The Saudi Embassy did not respond immediately to CNBCs request for comment. The development comes as Saudi Arabia is under fire over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as well as its role in the war in Yemen. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has cited the importance of defense deals in defending his decision to stick with the kingdom in the aftermath of the slaying. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has denied knowledge of the attack, although the CIA reportedly concluded that he ordered Khashoggis death. Saudi Arabia and the U.S. entered formal discussions for THAAD in December 2016. After completing required congressional notifications in 2017, followed by many months of negotiation, signing letters of offer and acceptance marks a step toward protecting the United States and its regional partners from Iranian-origin missiles, said the State Department spokesperson, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The sale of the THAAD missile defense system benefits U.S. national security by supporting the long-term security of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region in the face of the growing ballistic missile threat from the Iranian regime and Iran-backed extremist groups, the spokesperson added. Thomas Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, echoed those notions. Its a big step forward to strengthening missile defense capabilities in the Gulf, in a couple of ways, he said. Besides probably being the largest missile defense sale to date, it also represents an important political commitment by both the U.S. and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to counter Iranian ballistic missiles by every means possible. Saudi Arabias oil-rich monarchy is one of Americas most crucial strategic partners and a significant patron of U.S. defense companies. The Saudis are the top buyers of U.S.-made arms, a title that has safeguarded the kingdom from retaliatory sanctions over the killing of Khashoggi and the war in Yemen. In an extraordinary statement last week, Trump affirmed that the U.S. would continue to stand with Saudi Arabia, linking the countries relationship to his America first platform. Trump has also commented on the potential impact to defense suppliers if the U.S. were to sanction the Saudis over the Khashoggi killing. I tell you what I dont want to do, Trump said to CBS 60 Minutes last month, when he was asked about possibly blocking arms sales to Riyadh. Boeing, Lockheed, Raytheon, all these [companies]. I dont want to hurt jobs. I dont want to lose an order like that. There are other ways of punishing, to use a word thats a pretty harsh word, but its true. This story first appeared on CNBC.com. More from CNBC: 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. Fire crews in Vermonts Chittenden County had a long, cold day fighting a massive industrial firewith chemical explosionsat a Colchester business. Flames tore through J&B Truck Center, a sales and maintenance facility for large commercial vehicles. The emergency Wednesday morning drew fire departments from across the county. Its just devastating, employee Mark Patch said. Fire investigators said a truck that runs on compressed natural gas was in the shop for work when something went wrong and a line ruptured. That truck is the focus of the ongoing fire investigation. The exact cause of the fire has not yet been pinpointed, Colchester Police said Wednesday afternoon, but the incident is not considered suspicious. The building and much of its contentsincluding six large vehicleswere heavily damaged or destroyed, police said. Patch made it out safely from J&B before the flames erupted, and was sad to see the family-owned business burn. Its very upsetting, Patch said. The important part is everyone got out safe and everyones okay, added Amanada German, Patchs wife, who rushed to the scene when she heard about the fire. Patch said the employees followed their training and immediately got out. Shortly thereafter, explosions started: of fuel and materials used in truck repair. Battalion Chief Erik Haversang of the Colchester Center Fire Dept. said an interior wall kept the blaze from spreading throughout the entire building, meaning some equipment and many records will be salvageable. It couldve been significantly worse, Haversang noted. More of the building couldve burned, and certainly someone couldve been hurt, or worse, died in this fireno doubt. Because of all the potentially blinding smoke, part of Interstate 89 North near the fire scene was shut for much of the morning, reopening before noon. A school just over the town line with Winooski also kept kids inside during the firefight. Colchester Police said they were considering closing down part of the industrial park or conducting evacuations of neighboring properties. The park is home to one of the regions busiest storesCostcobut the wind was blowing smoke and flames the opposite way, meaning evacuations were not deemed necessary. We may have had to close down Costco, some other businesses in the area, said Chief Doug Allen of the Colchester Police Dept. As it was, we were able to keep those businesses open. With all the solvents and fuels inside the truck maintenance bays, fire crews were scrubbed down with soap and water, to remove environmental hazards from their boots and pant legs. Vermonts state hazardous materials team was on-site, too, working to contain chemicals from the building, to reduce runoff into nearby wetlands. A specialized environmental clean-up crew was also brought in to assist the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources in assessing and removing potential contamination from the environment. Police in New Hampshire have accused an 18-year-old man of making a bomb threat through social media at a Manchester high school. Police said they arrested Benjamin Dumont at his Manchester home on a criminal threatening charge at about 1:45 a.m. Wednesday. He was released on bail and is scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 13. It wasn't immediately known if he had a lawyer and a phone number couldn't be found for him. Police said a school resource officer alerted investigators to the threat at West High School around 5 p.m. Tuesday. Several bomb detection dogs cleared the school to ensure it was safe. The city of Boston's plastic bag ordinance officially which goes into effect next month may create a hassle for shoppers. The ordinance, which was passed unanimously last December by the Boston City Council, bans plastic bags and requires businesses to charge no less than 5 cents for other checkout bags, including reusable bags, compostable plastic bags and paper bags with handles. Paper bags without handles would still be free. "For the people that don't have five cents and stuff or money to buy bags, that's where it's kind of unfair a little bit," said Elizabeth Rivera of Boston. Larger stores like Roche Bros. in Downtown Crossing will have to stop carrying plastic bags Dec. 14, while smaller stores will be phased in next year. "There's dollars attached to it obviously but I think it's going to be an easier thing for us going forward without the plastic bags, now we're just going to be dealing with one bag instead of two," said Roche Bros. Assistant Store Manager Ryan Gallagher. Once the ordinance goes into effect, Boston will become the biggest municipality in New England to begin a ban on single-use plastic bags. "There's a certain inconvenience factor to it but we'll see what the long-term is," said Doug Knox of Reading. The Retailers Association of Massachusetts says it's sending the wrong message to consumers who are trying to shop locally that they will have to pay a penalty for the convenience of getting a bag with their purchases. "We just want to make sure that our stores are on a level playing field with their online competition," said Retailers Association of Massachusetts President Jon Hurst. "Nobody's charging Amazon or these big online sellers for all the trash and packaging that's going to your front doorstep." Police are investigating a shooting in Somerville, Massachusetts on Tuesday night. The incident occurred at the corner of South and Harding streets. Police responded to the scene around 8:45 p.m., when witnesses heard as many as five shots ring through. The victim, an adult male, was transported to an area hospital. There is no word on his condition. There is a cell phone on the ground near where the crime scene occurred, and it's been ringing throughout the night. According to residents in the area, it's a normally quiet area. The investigation is open and remains ongoing. Legal Review with Coffin Mew Coffin Mew family solicitor Stuart Duncan This was the WhatsApp message from Catherine Oakley to her boyfriend after Theresa May announced that all couples in England and Wales will be able to choose to have a civil partnership rather than get married. The Government move came after a Supreme Court decision earlier this year in favour of an unmarried couple, Rebecca Steinfield and Charles Keidan, who wanted a civil partnership. The couple successfully argued that the Civil Partnership Act 2004 was incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights because civil partnerships were only available to same same-sex couples. The Civil Partnership Act 2004 was created to give same-sex couples who at the time couldnt marry broadly the same legal and financial protection as married couples. When the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 legalised same-sex marriage, this left same-sex couples with a choice between civil partnerships and marriage, which was not available to mixed-sex couples. Why does this matter? There are a number of reasons people give for not wanting to get married, but high on the list is the feeling that marriage is an institution that promotes traditional gender roles with historical and religious connotations. Civil partnerships are relatively new and so do not have many of the same connotations. There is no requirement to have a ceremony or exchange vows and yet it provides broadly similar legal and financial protection. It is now estimated that there are more than three million unmarried cohabiting couples in the UK. Many of those couples believe they have similar rights and protections to those enjoyed by married couples. That is not true, and it can cause enormous distress when a cohabiting partner finds out that they do not have the inheritance, property or pension rights they thought they had. Whether you have co-habited for two or for 20 years, your position does not improve, and it is not uncommon for one partner (often the woman) to leave the relationship with nothing. For example, an unmarried partner who stays at home and cares for the children cannot make any claims in their own right for property, maintenance or pension sharing. Becoming civil partners means couples will get these benefits without having to get married. At the end of a civil partnership the court has wide discretion to make whatever order is fair having regard to all of the available financial resources. If you require legal advice in relation to your living arrangements, divorce or separation, please contact Stuart Duncan, family solicitor at Coffin Mew. Jacinta George Thames Valley Berkshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has appointed Reading Scientific Services Ltd (RSSL) managing director Jacinta George to its executive board. RSSL is a contract laboratory and consultancy in Reading, with a team of 230 scientists in fields ranging from product developers, ingredient experts and analytical chemists serving the food, healthcare and pharmaceutical industry. Ms George studied chemistry and business, and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. She said: Government has charged LEPs with spearheading economic growth and job creation in their areas and we have a vital role delivering the UKs Industrial Strategy. I have always had the philosophy that connecting externally with partners is enriching for all, and strong collaboration opportunities lead to faster, more effective delivery of projects. I am delighted to be joining the LEP board and hope to use my experience to build on the success that the LEP has already achieved. Thames Valley Berkshire LEP chairman Peter Read said: Jacintas depth of business expertise and knowledge of the life sciences sector will be a tremendous asset to the LEP and we very much look forward to working with her. It is important that we continue to have strong private sector representation on the board, with the skills needed to respond to the challenges of sustaining the very impressive economy that Thames Valley Berkshire boasts. ANSONIA The stash of cement encrusted, weathered trolley tracks uncovered during the restoration of Wakelee Avenue is headed to JRD Restoration of Derby. There John DelGado is cleaning, cutting and baking them with an eye toward making a profit for the city. Its time-consuming, he said. I decided to leave the rough look. Anyone can buy a smooth piece of metal. We are giving them a piece of history. The tracks from which they came ran from Seymour to West Haven, according to John Tuohy, the citys historian. The service ran from 1888 to June 18, 1937, making it the second oldest line in the U.S. Each memento DelGado makes begins with track encrusted with decades of dirty, molded concrete. With an air chisel, hell clean the pieces and then cut the track into sections. Each cleaned section will go into an oven heated to 400 degrees for an hour, cooled for about 45 minutes, sprayed with a clear powder and baked again at 400 degrees for another 40 minutes. After an hour cooling time, each piece will have riveted to it a plaque reading Wakelee Ave Trolley Line 1888-1937 Ansonia, CT, excavated 2018. Each piece has a natural patina varnished finish in black and weighs six pounds. They stand five and a half inches high and four inches wide. Martin said each purchase is accompanied with an 8.5 by 11 sepia photo of the Wakelee Avenue trolley in operation. The design can be used as a bookend, doorstop, paperweight or mantel piece. Were selling them for $55 each or two for $99, said Greg Martin, Mayor David Cassettis director of constituent services. People can pick them up at City Hall or, for an additional $15, we will mail them. Even with trolley track being set aside for the three projects, DelGado said there is so much track he could make thousands of these. Martin said funds from the sales will be used to fund three beautification projects: a fire bell restoration, the framework for a pathway arch and to advertise the city itself. Well need about $2,900 to restore the old fire bell that sat atop the tower on the Farrel Foundry building downtown, Martin said. The bell was manufactured in 1877. Its dings would call employees to work and sound out the location of a fire. For instance 10 rings might mean a fire on Tremont Street. It was probably used until 1900, Martin said. The bell tower was taken down in 1964. Martins research determined the bell next rested in the park adjacent to Eagle Hose for about 50 years as a testament to the citys volunteers firefighters. It then disappeared until it was discovered dirty and rusty in the Derby Public Works facility. How or why it ended up there, we dont know, Martin said. That is the great unsolved mystery. His plan is to clean up the framework and bell before placing it in the Webster Hose Memorial Park on Center Street. Id like to see it there by spring, he said. Once thats done, Martin plans to use $1,500 to create the framework for the Cassetti-Della Volpe Passway on the Riverwalk section that empties onto Pershing Drive. The framework top will be about 25 feet with 15 feet for each side. Well need about 55 feet of trolley track for this, he said. The third project proposes spelling ANSONIA in five-foot high block letters that will be bolted onto a wall at 65 Main St., the site of the new police station. Above the metal letters will be a wooden sign that reads Welcome to Downtown with ANSONIA spelled out in trolley tracks underneath. Well need about 125 feet of track and maybe $10,000, Martin said. But whether all can get done depends on how successful the mementos sell. Id love to sell 1,000 of these, Martin said. But Im not carrying a lot of inventory. Well have John make 25 at a time. In addition to being available at City Hall, they can be purchased during the Dec. 1 Holiday Market featuring arts and crafts from area vendors in the Ansonia Armory, 5 State St., from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. 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. WILLIMANTIC An estimated 450 volunteers, members of the public, and lobbyists packed a room at Eastern Connecticut State University vying for a chance to influence the policies of Connecticuts 89th governor. You told Ned and I along the way that you wanted to help, Lt. Governor-elect Susan Bysiewicz told the room. Maybe youre a little surprised that we took you up on it. The 15 policy transition committees are responsible for coming up with a roadmap for the incoming administration on a variety of issues, but through the lens of creating jobs and growing the economy. I dont want this to be one of those things where you write a really great report and it ends up on some bookshelf somewhere because what a waste that would be, Governor-elect Ned Lamont said. Lamont said the budget group is separate and they will look at the budget impact of the various components of all 15 policy committees. Im going to look like a laser beam at what it looks like for economic growth, Lamont said. As Lamont wandered around the room to get a sense of what the groups were talking about he heard the transportation committee talking about how the Public-Private-Partnership legislation sunsets this year and was difficult to work with. He also heard about shortages in the nursing field from the health care committee and about food security from the agriculture committee. As far as arts and culture is concerned, Lamont told the group that its the 50th anniversary of Woodstock and Connecticut has some great tribute bands and a town named Woodstock. Maybe we should host our own Woodstock tribute anniversary special, Lamont said to laughs and applause. He said each of the 15 policy committees compliment each other and are all important to how Connecticut moves forward. He said after getting the feedback the proposals he will make wont be different than what he proposed on the campaign trail. Each of the members of the transition committees received the 72-page document of proposals Lamont made on the campaign trail, but were told they could think outside those parameters. Im gonna have a workplace that accommodates the 21st century family, Lamont said. I was serious when I talked about paid family medical leave. He also touted his support of an increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour. He asked everyone to stay involved and not to make it a one-day meeting. New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart, a Republican who ran for lieutenant governor, said shes happy to help with the transition. Governing is different than the campaign, Stewart said. She said the partisan bickering needs to go away in order to move the state forward. Stewart was one of more than a dozen Republicans in the room helping with the transition. Others included Republican Thad Gray and Greg Butler, executive vice president and general counsel for Eversource. Lamont said he needs to make sure all voices are heard in this process. The policy committees will not be involved with any personnel issues. Lamont has yet to hire a budget director or a chief of staff. Lamont said he was close to filling both positions and plans to make an announcement about his chief of staff within a week. Outgoing Gov. Dannel P. Malloy had a 22-member transition team. By the first week in December, Malloy had hired Tim Bannon as his chief of staff, Ben Barnes as his budget director, and retiring Supreme Court Justice Joette Katz as his Department of Children and Families commissioner. Bannon was the only one of the three who didnt serve all eight years. First Lady Cathy Malloy attended the meeting Tuesday and will be co-chairing Lamonts Criminal Justice committee. This story may have been modified from its original version. See the original at ctnewsjunkie.com. The use of Artificial intelligence (AI) is growing in popularity in healthcare and medicine settings. AI should be able by definition to arrive at the optimal solution given a problem, and can be fed information on which to base intelligent decisions about diagnoses and prognoses. Image Credit: Panchenko Vladimir / Shutterstock Artificial Intelligence AI encompasses systems that are not explicitly programmed by an algorithm, but rather learn from exposure to data. The system should arrive at the optimal solution given a problem, making it more than a human-created algorithm and instead a more independent computational intelligence. The layers of the AI analyze the data independently and extract some form of valuable information, which ultimately helps it to make an accurate decision about the problem it is faced with. There are two main types of AI, called machine learning and deep learning. Machine learning involves several layers of neural networks which process the data, whereas deep learning takes it a step further and allows the system to spot patterns in different layers. Healthcare When AI was first being applied to healthcare, the applications for imaging were found to outperform radiologists. Geoffrey Hinton, who has been called the father of deep learning, went so far as to state that training for radiologists should be discontinued, because this class would become obsolete with the advent of commercial AI in analyzing breast and heart images. He later rectified this statement, clarifying that the role of professionals such as radiologists will change because of AI, but not disappear. Research by Gartner, an advisory company, predicts that AI will create more job than it eliminates. However, the elimination will focus mainly on manufacture whereas healthcare industries face growth from AI. It is hoped that AI will be able to free up time for the busy healthcare industry by performing repetitive and mundane tasks. It is expected that human and AI processing will be merged to arrive at the optimal solutions. For example, large volumes of data can be overwhelming for humans to sift through but are fully manageable for an AI to extract useful results for interpretation by humans. Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare Its about Time | Casey Bennett | TEDxNashville Play In clinical settings, Deep Patient is a deep learning program that can predict diseases. The system was trained on a database of the records of 700,000 patients at a New York hospital. Deep Patient could find patterns indicating which patients were on the way to develop conditions such as liver cancer and schizophrenia. Some predict that such programs, once trained on a large enough set of people, can be used to replace physicians in geographically isolated areas or alleviate doctors workload. Drug Development Drug development is one area where companies are investing in AI to hopefully speed up and lessen the expense of drug development. One pharmaceutical giant is using IBM Watson, a machine learning system, to find immune oncology drugs. Several other companies are following suit. IBM Watson Most leaders in the medical field believe that jobs and required skills related to drug discovery will change because of this, but the manner of the change is disagreed upon. Some believe the training, undergraduate courses and graduate courses need to become more generalized to incorporate more computer science and machine learning. Others believe the current system should be adhered to, where one person can become an expert on one specific mutation, but that the basics of computer science need to be added on top of that. Some of these changes that are occurring as a result of AI are already visible. For example, some universities have been offering undergraduate degrees in biomedical computation since 2003. MIT Quest for Intelligence Launch: AI-Driven Drug Discovery Play The Future of AI in Medicine While AI is a priority for some, most large companies are not pushing for more AI at this moment. While the accuracy of AI has been improved to allow it to predict targets for drug development, there are larger problems when dealing with confidential patient information. According to a study on large US health systems, health systems place more importance on strong cyber security than AI development at this moment in time. Some organizations which are hoping to implement more AI are still facing slow growth. Here, the problem becomes the search for new professionals that can take on the new roles of AI computer experts. Since AIs need to be programmed with real data, this is also likely to open up large amounts of jobs at a pace which may exceed that of job loss. Further Reading Group of scientists at Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) Faculty of Chemical Technology created edible beads produced from natural components. Due to their altered structure the beads are suitable for people with swallowing disorders. Edible beads, the molecular gastronomy product created at KTU, are covered with colorful edible film, which locks all the smells inside and does not reveal the taste of the bead. Various fillings of beads are created using special technologies. "Our idea was to create a visually attractive product of altered structure, which could be used by people with swallowing disorders. The product can be designed according to the needs of the user, it can be of meat, fish, vegetable, grains or any other taste, and of various nutritional value", says Milda Kersiene, KTU researcher. Edible beads' composition is based on cheese, and the idea was conceived by Marius Uzupis, KTU food technologies student. Molecular gastronomy is a subdiscipline of food science, aiming to explore and explain the transformations of ingredients that occur during cooking. While preparing this kind of food unusual physical and chemical processes are taking place and unconventional combinations of taste and appearance are discovered, which can surprise even experienced gourmands. Popularity of molecular gastronomy is growing exponentially and its products and dishes are being served in best restaurants of the world. The impulse behind KTU's innovation was meeting and further cooperation with British multi award-winning international celebrity chef Alan Coxon. While delivering a talk in a conference FOODBALT2018 organized by KTU, Coxon challenged the audience to create a product, which would include alegar, beer vinegar created by him according to the ancient recipe. The celebrity chef not only rated the final KTU product as excellent, but also introduced it in Paris during the international food congress SIAL Paris 2018. At the moment, discussions with French cheese producers and specialists are taking place. It is expected to introduce the edible beads into the international market. "In the 21stcentury it is very difficult to create something that people haven't tasted yet. However, to use molecular gastronomy technologies in order to challenge familiar taste is a great way to acquire originality. People are always charmed by surprises, and molecular gastronomy products are akin to art; their full flavor is revealed only after tasting. Creating intrigue is very important nowadays as the choice of restaurants and eating places is immense", says Uzupis, the creator of the edible beads, KTU student. According to him, when offered to try unusually looking and tasting products, people are reacting differently - some of them are very eager to try at once and some need more convincing. KTU scientists agree that as the future of food science is personalized nutrition, the popularity of molecular gastronomy will grow further. KTU is the only university in Lithuania, which is offering molecular gastronomy course to its food technology students. During the course the students have an opportunity to create their own molecular gastronomy product, which, in addition to having exceptional sensual and textural qualities would also fulfill the personalized nutritional needs. 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. A new approach to diagnosing a respiratory condition that can affect children's voices is being investigated at the University of Strathclyde. The study is using analysis of voice recordings to help identify children with recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP), a rare condition in which wart-like growths occur in the airway. Although the condition is essentially benign, it can spread through the airway, causing local destruction to normal tissue. Very rarely, it may predispose to malignant change or respiratory failure. The effect of RRP on the airway can leave a child with breathing problems and a very hoarse voice, which in turn can have a socially isolating effect. Diagnosis also involves a procedure which children often find uncomfortable. Dr Gaetano Di Caterina, a Research Fellow in Strathclyde's Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, is leading the study, with Dr Wendy Cohen of the University's School of Psychological Sciences & Health, Prof John Soraghan, also of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, and David Wynne, an ear, nose and throat surgeon at the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow. Dr Cohen said: "Some children develop wart-like growths in their airway which need to be removed surgically. These children need support so that they can breathe and talk easily. "Children who have hoarseness or breathing problems are usually seen as outpatients by Ear, Nose and Throat specialists and their larynx is viewed using a nasendoscope, a camera placed in their nose. While some children can tolerate this, others need to be called back for a different procedure under general anesthetic. "They can present similar symptoms to children with other benign conditions, such as vocal fold nodules, but specialists' experience suggests that all cases of RRP show a markedly different voice quality to other voice problems. However, the acoustic analysis procedures currently available do not illustrate any features that distinguish cases of RRP from other conditions. "Our research will make a more detailed analysis of pediatric voice clinic recordings using the expertise offered by Dr Di Caterina, and his team from the Centre for Signal and Image Processing, to develop a new, non-invasive diagnostic tool for RRP." RRP affects around 1.4 people per 100000 - equivalent to around 930 in the UK. The Strathclyde researchers are working on the project with pediatric voice specialists from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. The project is being funded by Glasgow Children's Hospital Charity with funds raised by the Marc Atkins Fund. Kirsten Sinclair, Director of Fundraising at Glasgow Children's Hospital Charity, said: "We are so grateful to Marc's family for all of their support, which has left a very special legacy in Marc's name. Through research, we can ensure that children with rare conditions can receive the best possible care in the future". Source: https://www.strath.ac.uk/whystrathclyde/news/strathclyderesearchersseekdiagnostictoolforrespiratorycondition/ Experts will meet to discuss the latest discoveries in drugs and how best to use existing ones as effectively and safely as possible, at an international conference in Adelaide this week (27-30 November). The annual conference of the Australasian Society for Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists (ASCEPT) brings over 300 delegates from around Australia, New Zealand, the US, Europe and Asia. The University of Adelaide is a major sponsor of the conference. "Our conference will address the theme Innovation in therapeutics: Fundamental research to clinical impact, says Dr Ian Musgrave, Senior Lecturer in Pharmacology, Adelaide Medical School, the University of Adelaide and one of the local organisers of the conference. "ASCEPT members from Adelaide and around the world will discuss new research findings and how to translate these findings into best practise. "As well as an impressive line-up of innovative researchers from Adelaide and Australia, the conference will host several international speakers who will share their expertise with us," says Dr Musgrave. Professor Andrew Somogyi from the University of Adelaide will explain how ketamine - normally used as an anaesthetic - has the potential to be used in the treatment of severe depression. Professor Daria Mochly-Rosen, Stanford University, USA, will speak on the challenges of translating new discoveries in science and technology into novel treatments and therapeutics to address key health problems. Professor Steven Charlton, School of Life Sciences, University of Nottingham, UK, will outline recent efforts to measure drug concentrations within cells and how this influences the effectiveness of drugs. Dr John Thompson, National Poisons Information Service, UK, will speak about the increasing number of new recreational drugs appearing on the market over the last few years, the challenges of detecting these compounds and treating their adverse effects. Professor Andrew McLachlan, the University of Sydney's School of Pharmacy, will explain how pain is a multidimensional health condition that requires a multidisciplinary approach to find effective solutions. "For four days Adelaide will be the focus on the dissemination of the latest thinking in the uses, effects, and modes of action of drugs," says Dr Musgrave. A new study recently published in the Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology found that children experiencing stress who then interact with therapy dogs benefit from improved mood and reduced anxiety. Titled, The Inuence of Interactions with Dogs on Affect, Anxiety, and Arousal in Children, researchers from Yale University reported that unstructured interactions with a therapy dog boosted childrens positive emotions following a moderate stressor compared with children who received a soothing object (a soft blanket) or those who simply waited a short time without intervention. Children who interacted with a dog also had reduced anxiety compared with those who waited. What's exciting is that the study gets us closer to answering the question of whether there is something special about dogs in terms of their ability to help children recover from stress. They are doing something better than another common coping strategy tactile stimulation from a soothing object and that merits additional research so we can build effective and efficient interventions. Molly K. Crossman, lead study author, Ph.D. candidate from the Department of Psychology at Yale University The Good Dog Foundation helped to establish study protocols that elucidated the treatment effects of dogs while prioritizing both human and dog safety and welfare. The organization also provided certified therapy teams to participate in the study. We are grateful to The Good Dog Foundation for their role in helping to establish the dog selection and care protocols, and for connecting us with a number of exceptional therapy dog teams, who were essential to the projects success. Molly K. Crossman Human-dog therapy teams are widely available in healthcare and educational settings across the United States. The study states that interactions with animals represent a promising way to reduce the burden of childhood mental illness on a large scale, and, while more research is needed, their presence is increasingly supported by a growing body of science on the efficacy of animal-assisted interactions. The Human-Animal Bond Research Institute (HABRI) funded the study to better understand the emotional and physiological effects on children brought about by canine members of therapy dog teams. Studies have previously evaluated the effects of dogs and handlers together, while this study examined the impact that a dog alone might have. The Yale team effectively spotlighted two important findings: that dogs, all by themselves, can improve childrens mood and ability to cope with anxiety, and that they can do so as a therapeutic intervention for stress recovery, Steven Feldman, HABRI Executive Director The study included pre-teen children (ages 10-13) because they are particularly susceptible to barriers to treatment such as perceived stigma, discomfort talking about mental health problems and wanting to cope independently, plus therapy dogs are already in widespread use for children of this age group. The children were randomized into three groups: those who played with a dog, those placed in a tactile-stimulation control group with a soft blanket, and those in a waiting control group. Among the dogs (four male, four female) that contributed to data collection, all were certified as therapy dogs by The Good Dog Foundation or another therapy dog organization (e.g., Pet Partners), or had successfully completed an equivalent behavioral evaluation. In advance of exposure to children, all dogs were familiarized with the laboratory setting and screened for appropriateness for the study procedures. To protect the safety and well-being of the human and canine participants during the 15-minute interventions, an experimenter supervised all interactions from the corner of the room. The dogs own handlers additionally observed from behind a two-way mirror. Childrens physiological stress was tested via their salivary cortisol levels in all study arms. Good Dog Foundation Board Director, Heidi Greene, and her dog, Deuce, who participated in the Yale study, have been working together as a certified therapy team for over a decade. We mostly volunteer at psychiatric facilities and with kids in reading programs. Weve witnessed how a brief visit and cuddle from Deuce can bring needed comfort. But, working with the study group at Yale to help codify how dogs help humans heal was thrilling, a particular privilege. As an organization, The Good Dog Foundation is committed to initiating and participating in research with esteemed academic partners like Yale. Its part of our mission to broaden the evidence base for and our understanding of human animal interaction. Heidi Greene, Good Dog Foundation Board Director Participants in the three study arms did not differ in terms of age, race/ethnicity, sex, experience with dogs or other measures that explore childrens feelings and behavior toward companion animals. Following exposure to a stressful task, children who interacted with a dog showed significantly higher levels of positive affect than participants who received tactile stimulation without any interaction (a mean difference of 2.35 points, 95% CI [0.66, 4.03], p = .007, d = 0.79) or waited (a mean difference of 1.92 points, 95% CI [0.24, 3.60], p = .025, d = 0.65). In addition, children who played with a dog had significantly lower anxiety scores than participants in the waiting control condition (a mean difference of 3.63 points, 95% CI [1.25, 6.01], p = .003, d = 0.86). There was no statistical difference detected between those in the tactile-stimulation control condition (p = .065, 95% CI [0.14, 4.65], d = 0.53) and those who interacted with the dogs. Participants who interacted with the dogs did not differ significantly from other participants in salivary cortisol, an indicator of physiological stress. Source: http://thegooddogfoundation.org/ Researchers at CentraState Medical Center have shown that cryoablation, also known as cryotherapy, could be an effective treatment for low-risk breast cancer. Elena Pavlovich | Shutterstock The early indications of the techniques effectiveness will be presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America. Lead author Kenneth Tomkovich and colleagues say that over the four-year study period, the cancer has recurred in only one of 180 patients. If the positive preliminary findings are maintained as the patients enrolled in the study continue to be monitored, that will serve as a strong indication of the promise of cryotherapy as an alternative treatment for a specific group of breast cancer patients." Kenneth Tomkovich, Lead Author Previously, cryoablation has been used to treat cancer in organs such as the lungs and kidneys, but it has not yet been established as a treatment for breast cancer. Tomkovich began investigating cryoablation as a treatment for breast cancer more than ten years ago since advancements in techniques such as mammography, ultrasound, and tomosynthesis had enabled lower-risk cancers to be detected. Without treatment, these small, early-stage tumors can become invasive and life-threatening, but no treatments have yet been developed to target them at such early stages of detection. "We're finding smaller and smaller breast cancers, but we're still treating them the same way we did 30 years ago," says Tomkovich. Cryoablation involves a probe being introduced into a tumor via a small incision made in the skin. A combination of mammography and high-definition ultrasound is used to guide the probe into the correct position. Nitrogen is then introduced, and an initial freeze cycle forms a ball of ice around the tumor, which destroys the cancer. The ice ball is then thawed, and another freeze cycle is started to ensure that all cancerous cells are destroyed. Now, as part of the Ice3 Trial, Tomkovich and colleagues describe their use of the technique as a primary treatment for breast cancer that does require surgical lumpectomy. The trial, which was conducted across 18 centers in the U.S., started in 2014 and included women aged 60 or older who had been diagnosed with low-risk breast cancer. The team has now collected three-year follow-up data for about 20 patients and two-year follow-up data for more than 75 patients, all of which show very promising results. MRI post ablation shows white outline of ablation zone referred to as "cryohalo" with normal dark breast tissue centrally and no evidence of residual cancer (arrow). (Radiological Society of North America) The procedure was successfully completed for all patients, with no serious adverse effects being reported. Only one case of cancer recurrence has been reported so far, which translates as a 99.4% success rate. Lumpectomy is 90 to 95 percent effective at removing cancer. We were going for something close to that, but our preliminary results have been even better. We're getting the same results at 18 centers around the country. Kenneth Tomkovich, Lead Author The final results of the study will be available once five-year follow-up data has been obtained for all women who received the treatment during the trial. "If it's proven that cryoablation works, then some women might be more inclined to opt for it over surgery," suggests Tomkovich. Pediatricians all over the world face situations where children have ingested toys and parts of their toys. Lego bricks and heads are common objects tiny tots often put into their mouths and swallow. A team of six doctors decided to see how long it takes for a Lego head to be excreted from the body by actually swallowing them. The study results of this first hand experiment were published in the latest issue of the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health. The team headed by University of Melbourne researcher Andrew Tagg swallowed small yellow Lego heads and then monitored their bowel movements for the next few days to check the movement of the toy out of the body in faeces. The study authors with a sense of humor wrote, Preingestion bowel habit was standardized by the Stool Hardness and Transit (SHAT) score. Participants ingested a Lego head, and the time taken for the object to be found in the participants stool was recorded. The primary outcome was the Found and Retrieved Time (FART) score. Everything is awesome: Don't forget the Lego Play They noted that the Lego toy took a very short time to pass through the bowels. The average time taken for the toy to be excreted was 1.71 days, they wrote. There were no complications to any of the participants. The authors write that this means that the toy is harmless to the gut and does not affect the digestive tract. Only one of the male doctors failed to find the toy in his poop to which the authors of the study wrote, females may be more accomplished at searching through their stools than males, although this claim could not be statistically proven they added tongue in the cheek. The team adds a warning that most things that children swallow tend to leave the gut in a few days without causing harm. However not all toys can pass in such as manner and some may be dangerous. The study urges parents to remain vigilant about what their kids put in their mouths. 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. Using light-sensitive proteins, researchers study the brain's reward memory response 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. At every step of medical research or product development, there is a writing exercise involved. Whether it is a grant application or medical product description, all healthcare communications have to be aligned with regulatory, ethical and legal standards. Professional medical writers continue to be in demand in pharma companies, contract research organizations and healthcare agencies. According to Glassdoor, the national average salary of a medical writer in the USA per year is $93,018. In the last few years, the gig economy has taken over the medical communications industry in a big way. Medical writers are choosing to take the freelance route for the flexibility and freedom it offers. This works as a benefit for healthcare companies, especially small to medium-sized businesses, who can now afford to hire freelance writers, on demand. A frequent concern for businesses when considering a freelancer versus in-house is the resources required to get a freelancer up to speed. However platforms like Kolabtree host freelancers with in-depth specialist knowledge, many of whom have vast experience and are able to hit the ground running. Here are four areas in the healthcare industry which call for a medical writers expertise. 1. Regulatory documentation/applications for new drug approvals It can take 15-20 years for a new drug to enter the market. The regulatory documents prepared during the drug development process are crucial for the success of the drug. These documents play a key role in getting an approval or a license from a regulatory agency (such as the FDA in the US or the MHRA in the UK) that allows them to manufacture and sell a new drug. A medical writer can develop a comprehensive strategy for all the writing work involved, and can document clinical research with consistency, accuracy and precision. Formatting plays a key role here, as various reports might have been written by multiple scientists. It is the job of the writer to develop and apply a standard formatting/editing template. Clinical trial studies and protocols, animal studies, details of the drug composition all of these and more have to be documented and summarized for the drug application. The documentation has to be written according to a specific format and regulatory guidelines. The FDAs New Drug Application (NDA) follows the Common Technical Document format, which is divided into five modules that combine clinical studies, a non-clinical overview, and various study reports. Filling out the application can take several weeks to a few months, in which case outsourcing this task to a specialist helps save time. Once the drug is approved, all the content and marketing communications that is developed regarding its usage has to be within the prescribed guidelines. The American Medical Writers Association states that, Medical communicators should write, edit, or participate in the development of information that meets the highest professional standards, whether or not such materials come under the purview of any regulatory agency. They should attempt to prevent the perpetuation of incorrect information. 2. Grant writing/applications for funding Nonprofits, government organizations and NGOs depend on excellent writers for getting funds and grants. A medical writer can help a healthcare nonprofit in two ways: one, by putting together a grant proposal or an application for funding, and two, by consolidating all the information into a quarterly/annual report to record progress. Smaller agencies and nonprofits usually have limited funds to work with, and might not be able to afford a full-time in-house medical writer. Hiring a freelance medical writer helps them save their resources while also outsourcing their work to a specialist. Recently, a national health organization in the US hired a freelance contract writer on Kolabtree to develop a well-cited annual report that could be presented to the Congress and federal agencies to influence a change in health policy. The writer, a specialist in epidemiology and technical writing, was able to put together a comprehensive report from various sources at a fraction of what it might cost to hire an in-house medical writer. 3. Research paper publication Scientists, researchers and those involved in product development or R&D are constantly innovating and coming up with novel techniques, methods, devices and drugs. This research is published in academic journals and/or is presented at conferences. However, getting published in a high-quality journal is no easy task research has to be compiled, analyzed, reviewed and prepared according to the required format. The success rates are also low: Nature, for example, publishes only about 8% of the 200 papers submitted each week. Presenting research data correctly is something many researchers struggle with. Support from a medical writer improves their chances of being published in a reputed journal and accelerates the submission process. 4. Content writing Misinformation in medical communication can be highly detrimental not just to the manufacturer or organization but also to the various stakeholders involved, including patients. It is imperative to hire a medical writer with the right background and experience for your task. Medical writers also help with developing marketing, promotional, packaging and educational material. From content writing for prescription drugs to educational website content, every detail has to be absolutely correct. According to the FDA, All advertisements, such as product claims or reminder ads, cannot be false or misleading. They must contain truthful information about a drugs effectiveness, side effects, and prescribing information. Medical writers work either independently or as part of agencies, CROs and consultancies. Platforms like Kolabtree help healthcare organizations find certified freelance editors and medical writers with PhDs, who can develop a research paper, medical report or clinical study protocol. Outsourcing tasks to a freelance medical writer means that you not only have more hours a day to focus on things important to you, but you are also closer to getting your product approved, research paper published, and project funded. 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 GamesRadar+ is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more Sorry! This content is not available in your region 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. (CNN) U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pledged to Ukraine "full assistance, including military assistance," after Sunday's confrontation between Ukraine and Russia, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko told CNN on Tuesday. Poroshenko told CNN's Christiane Amanpour that during a recent phone call, Pompeo pledged "full coordination" on protecting Ukrainian sovereignty following the clash with Russia. He also said the Ukrainian government was considering limiting Russians' ability to enter Ukraine during the period of martial law. "One of the proposals to our chief of general staff and the chief of the border control is that (there) would be some limits for Russians to enter to Ukraine during this special period," Poroshenko said from Kiev, adding that a final decision would likely be made tomorrow. Poroshenko's comments come after a court in Russian-controlled Crimea ordered that 12 of the Ukrainian sailors captured during clashes with Russian forces on Sunday be detained for two months. It was a move likely to further inflame tensions between the two countries. A judge in the Crimean town of Simferopol said Tuesday that they have been detained pending trial, charged with trespassing the Russian border, Russian state media reported. The sailors, including the commander of a small Ukrainian gunboat, will be held under formal arrest in a detention center in Simferopol until January 25, the judge ruled. Court proceedings will resume on Wednesday for the remaining sailors. The decision comes after a confrontation between the two countries around a waterway linking the Azov Sea and the Black Sea, when Russia fired on and seized three Ukrainian navy ships and detained 24 Ukrainian sailors. Ukraine and Russia have offered conflicting accounts of the incident, each accusing the other of violating the laws of the sea. Ukraine said two of its small gunboats and one tugboat were attacked by Russian naval forces Sunday after entering the Kerch Strait en route to the city of Mariupol. Video of the incident released by Ukrainian officials appeared to show a Russian ship ramming the Ukrainian tugboat. The incident provoked fury in Kiev, while Russia accused Ukraine of acting as the aggressor and called the incident a "dangerous provocation" by Kiev. The Kerch Strait a shallow, narrow stretch of water just two to three miles wide at one point connects the Azov Sea with the Black Sea and runs between the Crimean Peninsula and Russia. It is an important economic lifeline for Ukraine, as it allows its ships to access the Black Sea. It's also the closest point of access for Russia to Crimea, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014. A Russian-built bridge over the Kerch Strait was opened in May. A 2003 agreement confirms the Azov Sea and the Kerch Strait as domestic waters of Russia and Ukraine. Ukraine to impose martial law On Monday, the Ukrainian parliament voted to introduce martial law from Wednesday in select regions for 30 days, said the Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform, endorsing an emergency proposal introduced by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. In a statement on Twitter, Poroshenko said martial law would be introduced only in regions bordering Russia, or adjacent to regions where Russian troops are posted. That includes regions bordering the Azov and Black Seas and a portion of the border with Moldova's Transnistria region, where Russian troops are stationed. On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Ukraine's decision to introduce martial law had a "barely camouflaged" political agenda, although he added that the move was an internal matter for Kiev. "This is Ukraine's internal business," Peskov said before adding, "Against the background of the electoral processes, of course, such decision to impose martial law has a very specific, barely camouflaged overtone." Ukraine is slated to have presidential elections in March, after the period of martial law expires. Russia and Ukraine have been locked in long-simmering conflict since the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014, and a war with Russian-backed separatists in the country's east has claimed more than 10,000 lives. West criticizes Russian aggression Sunday's incident has sparked international condemnation over Russia's use of force. During an emergency UN Security Council meeting to defuse rising tensions after the confrontation, US Ambassador Nikki Haley called the incident "yet another reckless Russian escalation" and demanded that the Kremlin release the sailors. "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 said Monday. European member states of the UN Security Council including France, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and the UK also issued a statement calling on Russia to restore freedom of passage at the Kerch Strait. This story was first published on CNN.com "Pompeo pledged military assistance to Ukraine, says President Poroshenko" Because of a massacre of villagers during the civil war in Guatemala, a Ex is a convicted soldier to more than 5000 years in prison. A court in Guatemala city, Guatemala, made Santos Lopez on Wednesday for the death of 171 out of the total of 201 people killed responsible. The court imposed for every fatality, there are 30 years in prison and added an additional 30 years in prison for other crimes. Purely calculated, thereby 5160 years in prison. The punishment is only symbolic, since prison is a upper limit of 50 years met in Guatemala. For US-market 2.5 tons of cocaine in Colombia and Guatemala seized DPA Worst massacre during Guatemala's civil war The carnage in the village of Dos Erres was one of the worst massacres during the decades-long civil Canl Bahis war in Guatemala. Soldiers, fighters, in search of Guerrillas captured rifles, killed in December 1982, almost all the inhabitants of the village in the North of the country. The massacre was during the reign of military rulers Efrain Rios Montt makes committed. Because of the massacre in 2011 and 2012, five Ex-soldiers to prison sentences of more than 6000 years sentenced. The now convicted Santos Lopez, a former member of the special unit Kaibil, was delivered in 2016 from the United States to Guatemala. In the civil war from 1960 to 1996 between the army and leftist guerrillas in the Central American country were killed, according to the report of a truth Commission, about 200,000 people, or disappeared. Updated Date: 28 November 2018, 08:00 New Delhi: The Special Task Force (STF) has arrested a Jammu-based couple from Ludhiana and seized 10 kilogram heroin from them. The STF has identified a Kashmir-based smuggler and another based in Pakistan who ran the operation. STF chief Mohammad Mustafa told reporters that the couple had confessed to supplying two consignments earlier in Amritsar. ALSO READ | Heroin worth over Rs 4 lakh seized, two women arrested in Mizoram Mohammad Arbi (48) and his wife Jamila Begum (36) of Bathindi Colony in Jammu were travelling in a Maruti Suzuki Swift bearing a police sticker. They had hidden the drugs in walnut boxes, according to reports. Heroin was smuggled from Pakistan and sent to Punjab via Jammu and Kashmir. The couple has been sent to six-day STF remand. Further investigation is underway, according to Snehdeep Sharma, AIG (STF). New Delhi: After Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh's big fat Indian wedding ceremonies at Lake Como in Italy, all eyes are on lovebirds Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas. And the day is almost here when Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas will get married and embark on their new journey of life as husband and wife. As the couple arrived in Mumbai ahead of their wedding, Priyankaas house was beautifully decorated for their welcome. Now, the much-in-love couple were spotted at PeeCeeas mom, Madhu Chopraas residence. Priyanka and Nick were seen getting out of the car along with brother Joe Jonas and his Lady love, Sophie Turner to kickstart wedding festivities with a pooja. The couples were seen dressed in their ethnic best but it was Game Of Thrones heartthrob, Sophie Turner that set our hearts racing! Sophie, dressed in a bright red ethnic outfit paired with some dangling gold earrings, was everything to look at as She accompanied her beau Joe Jonas inside the residence building. She pairedA the yellow embroidered kurtiA with an off-white palazzo pants and heavy embroidered yellow dupatta. Look at her walk with all elegance and poise! Priyanka was seen dressed in a powder blue embroidered suit while Nick looked suave in a pale pink Kurta with an embroidered neck.A Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas, who are all set to take their nuptial vows on December 2 at Umaid Bhavan Palace in Jodhpur, will reportedly be hosting two wedding receptions. Said to be a big fat Indian wedding happening at a palace, the budget of their Nuptials is going to be a king-sized affair. If the reports were to be believed, the cost of a single night stay at this expensive hotel is a whopping $60,000, which is about Rs 43 lakh in Indian currency! For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. The Dutch railway has announced to pay the Survivors of the persecution of Jews and their relatives compensation for the Transport to the Westerbork transit camp. The details should develop a proposal for a Commission, the company said. How many people can get compensation, is still unclear. In the Nazi camp in the North-East of the country, tens of thousands of Jews were interned, and then in the concentration and extermination camps in other countries. The Dutch railway had provided the costs for the Transport of 102,000 Jews to Westerbork, in the case of the German occupiers in the account and Deneme Bonusu several million guilders. The bill had been paid from the confiscated Jewish property. The train had apologized in 2005 for her role in the Nazi period in the Jewish community. The company donated money for memorial projects. Compensation to individuals have not yet been paid. In the current communication, it is said that it was a "dark Chapter in the history of our country and our company". The Amsterdam Salo Muller, whose parents had been deported to Westerbork and from there to Auschwitz, had threatened the railroad with a lawsuit. Company boss Roger van Boxtel upheld the claim now. Muller told the Dutch television, he was very grateful. It means a lot to him that the railway does not understand, "that the Suffering is over". aar/dpa/AFP Updated Date: 28 November 2018, 08:00 New Delhi: Top Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist Naveed Jatt, wanted for the assassination of Kashmiri journalist Shujaat Bukhari, was killed in an encounter with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Budgam district on Wednesday, news agency ANI reported. Earlier, exchange of fire was underway between terrorists and security forces in the Chattergam area of the district. Budgam Encounter #UPDATE: Naveed Jatt and another terrorist gunned down by security forces. Jatt was involved in the assassination of journalist Shujaat Bukhari #JammuAndKashmir pic.twitter.com/lWcLJwOCFp ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 "This week was great, those involved in killing of innocent people in Kulgam, Pulwama and Shopian belt were neutralized. As per ground verification, top Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Naveed Jatt was one of the two terrorists killed today," said J&K DGP Dilbagh Singh The authorities have snapped Internet services in Budgam as a precautionary measure while train services have been suspended across Kashmir. Journalist Shujaat Bukhari was shot dead outside his office at Press Enclave in Srinagar on June 14. The Jammu and Kashmir Police had later revealed that the plot to kill Bukhari was hatched in Pakistan and that the LeT carried out the crime. ALSO READ | Jammu-Kashmir: 3 terrorists, 1 soldier killed in two encounters Lashkar-e-Taiba militant Naveed Jatt was active in south Kashmir, the hotbed of militancy, and involved in multiple attacks between 2013-2014 before he escaped from Srinagar's SMHS hospital on February 6. Two policemen were killed in the hospital shootout. Jatt was last seen offering a gun salute to Waqar Ahmad Sheikh at his funeral in Shopian's Malikgund village. Earlier, another Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist accused of assassinating senior Kashmiri journalist Shujaat Bukhari - Azad Ahmad Malik - was shot down in Anantnag encounter. On Tuesday, an encounter between terrorists and security forces had broken out in the Redwani area of Kulgam district killing two terrorists. A soldier was also martyred in the fierce gunfight. 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. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi : External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday announced that India will not attend the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit which is scheduled to be held in Pakistan. Swaraj said that dialogue at any level with Pakistan will not be possible until and unless it stops terror activities in India. The announcement came hours after the minister's remarks that Pakistan's decision to open Kartarpur corridor doesn't mean the resumption of bilateral dialogue between the hostile neighbours. "We are not responding to it (Pakistan's invitation for SAARC summit) positively because as I said unless and until Pakistan stops terror activities in India, there will be no dialogue, so we will not participate in SAARC summit," ANI quoted the minister as saying. India's denial to Pakistan's invitation to attend SAARC summit came on a day when Prime Minister Imran Khan is scheduled to lay the foundation stone ceremony of Kuratarpur corridor that will Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan to Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district of Punjab. Also Read | Kartarpur Corridor Updates: Union ministers Hardeep Puri, Harsimrat Kaur leaves for Pakistan For many years the Indian Government has been asking for this (Kartarpur) corridor, only now Pakistan has responded positively. But it doesnt mean the bilateral dialogue will start because of this, Swaraj said, asserting that terror and talks cant go together. The 4-km long Kartarpur corridor is aimed at facilitating the visit of Sikh pilgrims to the historic shrine of Gurudwara Kartarpur Sahib - the final resting place of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak. Although Sushma Swaraj refused to accept the Pakistan governments invitation, two Union ministers Hardeep Puri and Harsimrat Kaur along with Punjab Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu will attend the historic event in Pakistan. Also Read | Kartarpur corridor will erase 'enmity' between India, Pakistan: Navjot Sidhu While Sidhu had already reached Pakistan, the two Union ministers left for the country via Attari-Wagah border to attend the Kartarpur corridor foundation stone laying ceremony later today. Before leaving for Pakistan, Puri expressed gratitude towards the Imran Khan government and said that he was extremely grateful and privileged to be able to make this pilgrimage. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Polling in the 40-member Legislative Assembly of Mizoram began at 7 am on Wednesday and will end at 4 pm and voters will decide the fate of 209 candidates. Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla is contesting from two seats Serchhip and Champhai South. A total of 209 candidates are in fray and the fate of the candidates would be decided by 7,70,395 voters, which include 3,94,897 women. This poll is expected to see voting by nearly 11,000 Bru voters, living in six relief camps in Tripura. Altogether, 47 of 1,179 polling booths have been classified as critical and as many as vulnerable by the Election Commission. The election office sources said 40 companies of the central armed police force in addition to the state police force have been deployed to ensure free and fair polls. Each constituency has one polling booth exclusively for women voters, manned by women polling and security personnel. These booths have been named after a flower called Dingdi. While the Congress and Mizo National Front are in a direct contest, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), National Peoples Party and Zoram Peoples Movement could play crucial roles in the next government formation. Here are the LIVE updates: 18:12 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Around 73% votes were cast in the Mizoram assembly polls on Wednesday but the figure is expected to rise as there were long queues of voters outside polling booths to exercise their franchise, Chief Electoral Officer Ashish Kundra said. 13:05 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Mizoram has one all-women polling booth in each of its 40 constituencies this time. 12:17 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In "Conducive situation and favourable weather helped the people to exercise their franchise smoothly," said CC Lalchhuangkina, deputy additional chief electoral officer. 09:47 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In My appeal to the voters of Mizoram: Your vote is not just your constitutional right, it is a blessing & a weapon. Use it wisely today! Vote for peace, prosperity and progress. My best wishes and warmest regards to all my brothers & sisters in #Mizoram pic.twitter.com/s7MgSGwPgW Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) November 28, 2018 09:46 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In As voting in Mizoram begins, I appeal all my sisters and brothers of state to turn out in record numbers and vote. Your one vote will lay the foundation of a prosperous and corruption free Mizoram: Amit Shah 09:41 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In 15% voting recorded in Mizoram till 9 am, according to ANI. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Polling in three Maoist-dominated seats --- Lanji, Paraswada and Baihar --- of the 230 Assembly constituencies in Madhya Pradesh began at 7 am and will end at 3 pm on Wednesday. Polling in the rest of the constituencies will start at 8 am and end at 5 pm. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, is seeking a fourth term in power. On the other hand, the Congress wants to make a comeback. As many as 5.04 crore voters will decide the fate of 2,899 candidates, including 1,094 independents. In the 2013 Assembly polls, the BJP had won 165 seats and the Congress had won 58. Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party had won four and independent candidates had won three seats, respectively. State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) VL Kantha Rao on Tuesday had 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. Rao said 78,870 EVMs will be used during the poll. The CEO said 17,000 of these polling booths have been declared sensitive and additional vigil will be maintained there. Here are the LIVE updates: 19:02 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Madhya Pradesh recorded a 74.6 per cent voter turnout till 6 pm today in the crucial elections for 230 Assembly seats. This is higher than the 72.7 per cent voting recorded in 2013 Assembly elections. 18:08 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Altogether 65.5 per cent voters exercised their franchise in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections on Wednesday, just over seven per cent less than the figure in the previous polls. 13:44 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Kamal Nath, Congress on showing his election symbol after casting his vote in Chhindwara: I had already cast my vote. When people asked me when those from media asked me whom I have voted for I showed this (palm). What else could have I done?Show a lotus? #MadhyaPradeshElections pic.twitter.com/A4nxfFrCOB ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 13:34 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In CEC O P Rawat on instances of EVMs malfunctioning in Madhya Pradesh: There were few complaints on malfunction of some EVMs & VVPAT machines, theyve been replaced. If it's observed that voters left due to malfunction, we can consider re-polling at that particular polling station. pic.twitter.com/TyHNaTVlcJ ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 13:34 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In CEC O P Rawat on Jyotiraditya Scindia's request to EC to extend polling time due to EVM malfunction: There are provisions for the extension of time, the local officers can take the call as they see fit. The matter does not need to be handled by the commission. pic.twitter.com/OznJsAKzcJ ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 12:16 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In There have been many complaints of EVMs malfunctioning, have written to Election Commission. Have requested that voting time in these polling booths should be extended to compensate for the delay: Jyotiraditya Scindia, Congress #MadhyaPradeshElections pic.twitter.com/EfJiIg7lW0 ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 11:36 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Election Commission announces Rs 10 lakh each compensation for the kin of the EC officials who passed away while on election duty. 11:11 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In I assure you that on 11th December Congress will form the government with the blessings of the people: Jyotiraditya Scindia after casting his vote at a polling booth in Gwalior #MadhyaPradeshElections pic.twitter.com/AeswowBZTU ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 09:50 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In The EVM at polling booth number 178 at Dabra in Gwalior district is now operational. 09:49 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Police seizes campaign material from BJP's polling agents from a polling booth in Saint Mary's, Bhopal as it was within 200 meters of a polling booth. One person taken to custody. #MadhyaPradeshElections2018 pic.twitter.com/EvqxqyW4bv ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 09:41 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Two faulty EVMs in Ujjain have been replaced, 11 VVPAT machines in Alirajpur, 5 VVPAT and 2 EVMs in Burhanpur also replaced. 09:40 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Were 100% certain that BJP will form government with an absolute majority. We have set a target of 200 seats and our lakhs of volunteers are working to make it a reality: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan after casting his vote in Budhni #MadhyaPradeshElections pic.twitter.com/RNQMYXBFQs ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018 08:35 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In EVM is not working at polling booth number 178 at Dabra in Gwalior district, reports ANI. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Bengaluru: Ambassador of France to India Alexandre Ziegler on Wednesday said there was no scandal associated with the Rafale deal. Pointing out at the cooperation and trust shared between both India and France, he asked people to look at the facts. What scandal? Just look at the facts, not at the tweets, thats my only recommendation. There is no scandal at all, Ziegler said in response to a question on whether the alleged Rafale scandal has made any dent in the partnership that France has with India. Speaking to reporters here on the sidelines of the launch of French Tech Community here, he said, ...look at the track record, look at the trust that has been built between our two countries in aeronautics. Also Read | Only issue between us is Kashmir, says Imran Khan at Kartarpur Corridor Look at their commitment for Make in India, which is impressive. Fifty per cent offset is very unique, look at the major procurement... To a question about political comments regarding HAL losing potential jobs because of the Rafale deal, Ziegler questioned whether HAL has made any comments about losing jobs. Did they tell you that they have lost jobs? I dont know what potential jobs are, he said, as he pointed out that there is a 50 per cent offset clause in the Rafale contract, which is about four billion Euros or about Rs 30,000 crore that is going to be invested in Make in India. Thats huge (amount) and there will be room for hundreds of companies, including HAL, which has had a very fruitful historical cooperation with French companies, he added. The Ambassador also noted that all major French companies would be participating in Aero India, scheduled for February 20-24 in Bengaluru. Our companies will be there...I cant tell you how many, but all our major companies will be there,Ziegler said. Stating that almost all major French players have been investing in India for years now, he said, we have had long cooperation with India. Companies like Airbus, Thales, Dassault have been sourcing in this country. Read More | India wont participate in SAARC, talks only if Pakistan stops terror: Sushma Swaraj Transfer of technology has been happening for decades. Its very very historical cooperation between India and France, he said, adding that we have not waited Make in India to be launched. Our companies have been making in India for decades now. Transfer of technology has been happening. he said. The Congress has accused the government of forcing Dassault Aviation to make Reliance Defence its offset partner for the Rs 58,000 crore deal to purchase 36 Rafale jets. The party has alleged that the government was helping the Anil Ambani group get a contract worth Rs 30,000 crore from the deal. However, the Reliance Group has said that Dassault Aviations investment in Reliance Airport Developers Limited has no link with the Rafale fighter jet deal, and has accused Congress of resorting to blatant lies for political gains. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Prices of fuel continued to fall on Wednesday because of the huge fall in global crude oil prices last week. Petrol was pegged at Rs 73.57 a litre with a fall in Rs 0.50 paise in Delhi, while diesel was being sold at Rs 68.49 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 79.12 per litre on Tuesday compared to Rs 79.62 on Tuesday. Diesel in Mumbai was sold at Rs 71.71 per litre as against 72.13 per litre the previous day. In Chennai, petrol was retailing at Rs 76.35 per litre as against Rs 76.88 on Tuesday. In Kolkata, petrol was sold at Rs 75.57 per litre as against Rs 76.06 per litre. Diesel in Chennai and Kolkata was sold at Rs 72.34 and Rs 70.34, respectively. Read More | Sebi orders release of bank, demat account of Sterlite Metal Rates have been on the decline since October 18 and on Tuesday, after the revision of prices, rates for the time in months fell below the Rs 80-mark. 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. Also Read | Trump, Modi, Shinzo Abe to hold trilateral meet at G20 Summit 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 : Tears came down rolling their faces when two Muslim sisters had an emotional reunion with their Sikh brother for the first time in seven decades at Gurdwara Janam Asthan, Nankana Sahib in Pakistan on Sunday. Ulfat Bibi and Mairaj Bibi had separated with their brother Beant Singh in the violence that broke out during the partition in 1947. Natives of Paracha village near Dera Baba Nanak, the family separated from its son and daughter while migrating to Pakistan during the partition. However, their mother, Allah Rakhhi, found about her son when she contacted one of her neighbours in Punjab. Since then, the family has been in touch with each other earlier through letters and then phone calls. But this was the first time they had seen each other in the last 70 years. Read More | Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib: Click here to know all about the holy Sikh site in 7 points Beant Singh had gone to Pakistan as part of a Sikh jattha (group) from India. During the visit, he contacted her sisters and met them at Gurdwara Janam Asthan, Nankana Sahib. Ulfat Bibi has now requested Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan to extend the visa of his brother. Speaking to a Pakistani English daily, she had also said that she should be allowed to visit India to meet the wife and children of his brother. Recently, India and Pakistan have agreed to open the Kartarpur border corridor between the two nations to facilitate the visit of Sikh pilgrims to the historic shrine of Gurudwara Kartarpur Sahib. The gurudwara is believed to be the final resting place of Guru Nanak and is visible from the Indian side. Every year, people of Sikh community gather at Dera Baba Nanak shrine for darshan from the Indian side. However, with a dedicated corridor, Sikh pilgrims would be allowed to visit the holy shrine by crossing the border and wont need any visa. Also Read | Kartarpur Corridor: Vice President Venkaiah Naidu lays foundation stone in Gurdaspur's Mann village For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Pakistan-born Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Naveed Jatt, was killed in an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir's Budgam district on Wednesday, was an associate of 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab, according to reports. Jatt, wanted in connection with the assassination of Rising Kashmir editor Shujaat Bukhari had escaped from custody in February. Three army personnel were injured in the encounter that claimed the life of "most wanted" Jatt. "As per ground verification, the chief commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba in the valley (Naveed Jatt) has been killed in the operation at Budgam which started last night and ended this morning," Director General of Police (DGP) Dilbagh Singh said Jatt, who was arrested in 2014, had told police that he had trained with Kasab, the lone gunman captured alive after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack. Kasab was hanged in 2012. Other than Bukharis killing, Jatt was also wanted for his complicity in a series of terror crimes, including attacks on security establishments and many other civilian atrocities, the police said. The militant had undergone intensive training and was good at handling equipment like compasses, GPS, wireless sets and mobile phones installed with the Skype software, an official told news agency PTI. Dilbagh Singh said Jatt's killing, along with one of his associates, was a big success for the security forces. "You have seen recently in south Kashmir, youths were picked up on various pretexts, branding them as informers, and shot dead or slaughtered," the DGP said. "There were bank robberies and police personnel were targeted. People must have heaved a sigh of relief at his killing," he said. Singh added that Jatt had also played an important role in motivating many people to join militancy. Singh said it was extremely difficult to track down Jatt as he had escaped from the security forces' clutches more than once in the past. "Even today, there were rumours that he has managed to escape but this time he was not lucky," he said. Asked about Jatt's involvement in Bukhari's killing in June this year, Singh said the LeT commander was one of the suspects in the case. "Such evidence about the involvement of the militant can be corroborated if you catch him alive. But it was difficult to catch him alive," he said. "If he had been caught alive, we would have perhaps got more leads to corroborate as to what kind of involvement he had. Now we can say that the prime suspect has been neutralised," he added. (With PTI inputs) For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: The Kartarpur Corridor linking Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistans Kartarpur to Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Indias Gurdaspur district to facilitate visa-free movement of Indian Sikh pilgrims has been hitting headlines for all the wrong reasons. Following is the chronology of events leading up to the foundation laying of the corridor. Read | Is Pakistans invitation to Modi for SAARC Summit merely a posturing? 1522: The first Gurdwara, Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib, was established by the first Sikh Guru, Guru Nanak Dev, where he is believed to have died. February 1999: The Kartarpur Sahib corridor was proposed by the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee when he took a bus ride to Lahore during a peace initiative with Pakistan. 2000: Pakistan agrees to allow Sikh pilgrims from India to visit the shrine visa-free (and without passport) by constructing a bridge from the India side of the border to the shrine. August 2018: Punjab minister Navjot Sidhu attends Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khans swearing-in ceremony. August 2018: Upon his return from Islamabad, Sidhu says that Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa informed him that the Pakistan government would open the Dera Baba Nanak (Kartarpur) corridor on Guru Nanaks 550th birth anniversary. November 22: Indian Cabinet approves the Kartarpur corridor from Dera Baba Nanak to the Pakistan border. November 26: Vice President Venkaiah Naidu lays the foundation stone of the Dera Baba Nanak - Kartarpur Sahib Corridor (up to the International Border) at an event at Mann village of Gurdaspur district of Punjab. November 28: Prime Minister Imran Khan lays the foundation stone of the 4-km corridor which is expected to be completed by next year. November 28: Khan assures Sikh community that facilities at Kartarpur will be better for 550th birth celebrations for Guru Nanak Dev. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi : United States National Security Adviser John Bolton on Wednesday said that President Donald Trump will hold a trilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in the Argentinian capital Buenos Aires. Addressing a press conference at the White House, Bolton said that the bilateral meeting between President Trump and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe will transform at some point into a trilateral meeting with Indian PM Narendra Modi." During the trilateral meeting meeting, the leaders of India, the US, and Japan are likely to discuss the possibility of a security architecture for the Indo-Pacific region to counter the aggressively rising China. The leaders of the worlds three powerful democracies may also discuss alternatives to Chinas ambitious Belt and Road Initiative aimed at connecting China to Southeast Asia, Pakistan and Central Asia, and beyond to the Middle East, Europe and Africa by land and sea. India and Japan are already in talks for the development of the Asia-Africa Growth Corridor to counter Chinas BRI and create quality infrastructure and institutional connectivity in Africa. The G20 Summit 2018 will be held between November 30 and December 1 in the Argentinian capital Buenos Aires. Founded in 1999, the G20 is a grouping of world's top 20 economies. The group aims to discuss issues beyond the responsibility of any one organisation and work towards the promotion of international financial stability. During the 15th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit last year, PM Modi had a brief and unofficial meeting with Trump, prime ministers of Japan and Australia. The meeting which was a first major move towards a quadrilateral security dialogue had sent tremors through the power corridors of China. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: A study has revealed that genes that act late in life could explain why women have poorer health than men in older age. Women are four times more likely to live to 100 years old than men, however, male who hits that milestone are healthier than female, according to a study. The paper, published in the journal Nature Communications Intralocus Sexual Conflict resolves a puzzle known as the male-female health survival paradox. The answer, according to scientists from the University of Exeter in the UK, is intralocus sexual conflictgenes that benefit one sex but harm the other. Also Read | Lack of sound sleep makes people more angry: Study Shared genes tether the sexes together in an evolutionary tug of war, said Professor David Hosken from the University of Exeter. The researchers used mathematical models and experimental data on flies to show that such genes can easily spread if they take effect after female reproduction stops. Selection is trying to push females and males in different directions, but the shared genome means each sex stops the other from reaching its optima, Hosken said. Basically, certain genes will make a good male but a bad female, and vice versa. The researchers also explained as to why the centenarian men are healthier than women. Men who hit the milestone are considered the fittest because a greater proportion of men are diagnosed with chronic illness and die before hitting 100. However, after females reach menopause, they no longer reproduce to pass on their genes which means selection (which is a reproduction) on females is greatly weakened, he said. Read More | Hikers rejoice! Chile just opened the longest 1700 miles hiking trail! So after that point, any genes that improve late-life male fitness will accumulate, even if they harm female fitness, said Hosken. He said it was important to note that survival and health are not the same thingand that the accumulation of late-life male benefit genes hinged upon males ability to continue reproducing after the age of female menopause. The experimental data on flies (Drosophila) supported the findings of the mathematical models on humans, as genes that were better at late-life male reproduction tended to be worse for females. (With PTI inputs) New Delhi: NASA's InSight spacecraft, the first robotic lander designed to study the deep interior of the Red Planet, touched down safely on the surface of Mars on Monday. The probe has now snapped the image of the deserted land as the dust thrown up by its arrival is still settling around the spacecraft. The photo was captured by InSights Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC), which is found on the landers robotic arm. In the background is Elysium Planitia, a large plain located at the planets equator. My first picture on #Mars! My lens cover isnt off yet, but I just had to show you a first look at my new home. More status updates:https://t.co/tYcLE3tkkS #MarsLanding pic.twitter.com/G15bJjMYxa NASAInSight (@NASAInSight) November 26, 2018 ALSO READ | NASA's InSight touches down on Mars, to study its deep interiors InSights first photo of Mars shows dust speckled on the transparent dust cover that was over the camera. The spacecraft is expected to take more photos of the landing site and send them back to Earth, where scientists will use them to decide where the probe should place its instruments. InSight, the first mission to study the deep interior of Mars, blasted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Central California on May 5, 2018. InSight contains key instruments that were contributed by several European space agencies. France's Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) made the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument, the key element for sensing quakes. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) provided a self-hammering mole that can burrow 16 feet (five meters) into the surface -- further than any instrument before -- to measure heat flow. Spain's Centro de Astrobiologia made the spacecraft's wind sensors. Together, these instruments will study geological processes, said Bruce Banerdt, InSight's principal investigator at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. ALSO READ | Will verify American moon landings, says Russia space agency chief Unlike the Curiosity rover, Insight wont be able to move about on Mars. But using a suite of instruments and a seven-foot-long robotic arm, it will drill up to 16 feet below the surface at its landing site, Elysium Planitia, a broad plain that has been called the biggest parking lot on Mars. For all the Latest Science News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. 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 Sam and Marias 4-year old daughter was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in May 2017. A year later, Maria was diagnosed with breast cancer. Marias cancer was caught in time and she is now recovering from surgery. In the meantime though, Sam has been driving an hour to the hospital to continue the chemotherapy treatments for their youngest daughter, as well as for any emergency and other medical appointments. Sam is also helping to keep life as normal as possible for their 7-year old daughter and complete chores. The wear and tear on the car from the long commute has added a financial burden. Sam has had to miss a significant amount of work as a driver for a transportation company and only gets paid for the hours he works. For the family, $1,500 would help them catch up on their rent and utilities. The News-Times partners each holiday season with United Way of Western Connecticut to help raise money for families like Sam and Marias through the The Giving Fund. The organization administers the fund free of charge, so 100 percent of donations go directly to those who need it. Since the partnership started, more than $500,000 has been raised for families in need. Donations are collected for each case until it is fully funded. Any donations received above the amount needed will benefit other, underfunded cases. Donations can be given at https://www.uwwesternct.org/thegivingfund. Checks can also be mailed to The Giving Fund, P.O. Box 1001, Danbury, CT 06813. This weeks six cases: Case #107: Tessa, a single mother of three children, has worked two jobs to provide for her family after leaving an abusive marriage. She was recently diagnosed with cancer and the chemotherapy has prevented her from working long hours. Although Tessas prognosis is good, her income has greatly dropped, making things financially difficult for her during the holiday season. A gift of $1,000 would help Tessa pay for utilities and groceries. Case #108: A fire from several months ago has left a family struggling to repair their house and continue making mortgage payments. Nancy and her husband Sam, live with their two young children. The couple, along with help from their adult children, worked hard and sacrificed to be able to buy the home. If they cant repair the water damage and roof, they may lose the house to the mortgaging bank and become homeless. A gift of $1,500 will help them cover these costs. Case #109: Nelly and her 4-year-old daughter have been living in a shelter for several months. Nelly has been working several jobs, including taking overnight shifts, and is looking for an apartment for her and her daughter. She is close to being able to leave the shelter but the landlords insist on a two-month security deposit. A gift of $1,500 will help them hit this target and allow them to leave the shelter. Case #1 10 : is Sam and Marias story. Case #111: Keri and her mother quickly fled an abusive household with nothing more than the clothes on their back and are now living in a shelter. While the clothing bank at the shelter has been able to provide some clothing for her mother, Keri has had a harder time finding clothes due to the plus sizes needed. A gift of $600 will help her buy some warm clothing, a coat and boots for the rapidly approaching colder weather. Case #112: Michael and Pennys savings have depleted as they tackle health issues. Penny is still in rehabilitation at a local nursing home following complications after her surgery and back and neck issues. Michael has been trying to work, but is dealing with a bad shoulder in need of surgery. This surgery was scheduled, but put on hold due to Pennys health issues. He also found out he has cancer. The tumor was removed last week. The procedures and rehab have left the couple unable to pay for groceries, basic life necessities and their utility bills, which are significantly overdue. A $1,500 gift would help cover these expenses. DANBURY Putnam County and Danbury officials will take a closer look at extending the citys sewer system across the state line over the next few months. The overall idea has floated about over the past two years as the city and its New York neighbor agreed to work together more often, but leaders from both sides are now prepared pin down more of the details that could make the deal a reality. Public Works Director Antonio Iadarola and Putnam County engineers have laid some of the groundwork, but now its time to advance the negotiations to the elected officials themselves, he told a City Council committee this week. Since those conversations, the mayor felt we should pull a committee together to further discuss this and really hash out the details of it, Iadarola said. Because if we decide to do this, theres an extensive amount of work that has to happen in putting together agreements, putting together fee structures, connection fees that would all have to be ironed out. The committee agreed to invite Putnam officials to a joint meeting in the next few months, yet to be scheduled, to hear their formal pitch for the project. The plan would be to extend Danburys sewer system along Mill Plain Road into Brewster to provide service to the 3.5-mile commercial corridor along Route 6 where growth is limited by New York City watershed rules. Danbury would then charge Putnam County for the service, as it does other surrounding municipalities hooked into the system, and Putnam would contribute to upgrades to the sewer lines under Mill Plain Road and the new regional wastewater treatment plant that voters just approved $102 million for earlier this month. The agreement would help spur redevelopment in Putnam and defray potentially tens of millions of dollars in costs Danbury would have to pay otherwise, officials have said. That in itself helps the ratepayers, the users, Odell said. That, to me, is a home run for the city of Danbury right off the bat. That they can save their taxpayers who are in the sewer district money is a plus. Were running out of land, we cant develop any big parcels here and yet the demand for services continues to increase, which costs money, City Councilman Warren said. So were looking at ways of partnering with surrounding communities. This is just one of those components were looking at long term that perhaps could help generate revenues or reduce costs, one or the other. Mayor Mark Boughton and Putnam County Executive Mary Ellen Odell have said the agreement could boost both areas economies with ripple effects across the region. But the devil is in the details and some Danbury City Council members are skeptical. Councilmen Duane Perkins and Fred Visconti worried the city might simply be subsidizing competition to its own businesses. If we make a major impact on that mall, were going to be in trouble, Perkins said. Conceptually, just to make this whole thing work, I just cant reconcile that ... I dont think our benefit is greater than their benefit. But council members Irving Fox and Colleen Stanley predict the redevelopment could lift the entire region, not just one side over the other. I think the population of this area is growing so rapidly that theres a case to be made that there is enough business to add several (of any business) on the other side, Fox said. But it opens up hundreds, if not more, job opportunities for people who live across the street on our side. As usual, though, money remains the biggest outstanding question for both sides of the would-be agreement. Putnam County completed an initial study of the project and already has received almost $2 million to help pay for construction, but the two sides have not detailed specifics about the fees and construction that either or both would have to bear. If we ever get to that point, it might be dead on arrival, Iadarola said. They might just say theres no way we can sustain this type of an investment. But at this point we cant do that until this committee meets and has some discussions about the potential costs of connecting. zach.murdock@hearstmediact.com The Lake Waramaug Task Force just stocked 1,300 brown trout in the lake. The task force has been stocking 1,000 to 2,000 trout annually for the past decade as a way to help the lakes ecology and prevent toxic blue-green algae blooms. The blooms are dangerous because the cyanobacteria can produce a toxin that is harmful to humans and pets. Zooplankton primarily eat cyanobateria and so the task force has been increasing its zooplankton population by releasing the trout and growing and releasing a million zooplankton weekly from the Arrow Point Zooplankton Farm. Visit https://www.lakewaramaug.org to learn more about this another programs the task force has implemented. NEW MILFORD A crucial piece of funding to modernize the library was secured this week with the awarding of a state $1 million grant. This comes three weeks after residents approved $6.5 million for the project, which will be the first time the building has been renovated since the late 1970s. The library Board of Trustees also committed $1 million for the work. We should have complete funding, said library director Sally Tornow. The entire project is expected to cost $8.5 million. Library officials suspected they had a good chance of receiving a Connecticut State Library Board grant because only one other library in the state was renovated since New Milfords last project. They were unsure though they would get the maximum $1 million amount. It was really wonderful to be awarded the full amount because its not guaranteed if you ask for it, Tornow said. New Milford was one of 10 libraries to receive construction grants from the Connecticut State Library Board, which totaled nearly $3.7 million. Danbury Library received a $100,000 grant that will help renovate its junior floor's rows of bookcases and build out a formal room for its Story Corner with new audio, visual and technology upgrades to support children's programs. The city will foot the rest of the $200,000 bill. The plan also will add a new sensory space -- one of the first in the state -- to provide a therapeutic area with certain objects and activities designed to stimulate children with special needs. Ridgefield Library also received $40,400 for remodeling. Tornow said the next step will be for the state bond commission to approve the grants. At that time, library officials will have to show they are able to cover the towns share of the projects, which New Milford did with approval at the Nov. 6 referendum. New Milford will also have to work with the states historic preservation office because two of the buildings are older than 50 years old. Tornow doesnt suspect there to be a problem though because they arent expanding the footprint and the bulk of the work will be done on the middle building, which was built less than 50 years ago. The work would expand the library from 15,000 to 22,000 square feet. It would add a new facade and entrance to the 1977 addition, to help it fit better into the downtown aesthetic. It also makes the library compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act and add meeting space. The remodel includes using existing space, as well as constructing new space, adding a second floor with an outdoor terrace to the existing 1977 addition. Under the plans, the childrens library would move to the 1977 section and the Goodwin House, freeing up the old library for an adult reading room. The childrens section would share a program room with the young adult section, which doesnt have its own space at the library now. kkoerting@newstimes.com; 203-731-3345 Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., are making an effort to lay out their priorities ahead of the 116th Congress. Given that Sanders is a top contender for the presidential nomination in 2020, and Ocasio-Cortez is the party's star for the 2018 election cycle, theoretically their words should be taken seriously. But Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez are offering nothing new. They try to mask everyday politician-speak as serious calls for action. Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez call for improved health care, higher wages and overall economic prosperity, and they act as though those aren't the very things every politician hopes to achieve. Last week, Sanders wrote in The Post that Democrats should "[pass] an agenda that reflects the needs of working Americans - centered on economic, political, social, racial and environmental justice." Yawn. Doesn't that sound exactly like Barack Obama circa 2008, or Hillary Clinton in 2016? That is nothing more than typical political jargon that almost anyone - certainly any Democrat - could use as a throwaway line. And for her part, in true millennial style, Ocasio-Cortez went to Twitter on Friday to profess, "All I want is for people to have healthcare. I want kids to go to college." In my 35-plus years working in politics, I have yet to meet a politician who opposes health care or kids going to college. WILTON It was an overcast mid-August morning as Jonathan Liao and seven others hiked the expansive grounds of the Woodcock Nature Center in search for the perfect fallen tree trunk. With more than 140 acres of land at their disposal, the group had figured it wouldnt be hard to find timber suitable for the benches they hoped to build. But, as two hours quickly passed and their shirts began to cling to their bodies under the thickness of the humid air, they began having second thoughts. There were points in the process that I started to second guess my decision to do this particular project, said Liao, who lives in Redding and is a junior at the Academy of Information Technology and Engineering in Stamford. The group was out that morning as a part of Liaos Eagle Scout service project for Norwalk-based Troop 19. The project is one of the last obstacles teens must overcome to attain Boy Scouts of Americas highest rank, Eagle, an achievement earned by only 2 percent of Scouts since 1912. In order to make Eagle, Liao needs to finish two merit badges and pass an Eagle board of review. When considering the options for his Eagle Project, all Liao knew was that he wanted to make a tangible difference in his surrounding community. Most kids just do cleanup projects, so I knew I wanted to do something different. Something, hopefully, that would still be there in five or 10 years, he said. As a nature lover, Liao ultimately decided to take fallen trees and convert them into benches to be placed around a fire pit, which he also would build, along the centers trails. His hope, he said, was that people hiking the trails would find enjoyment in the new addition. These fallen trees are just this unused resource, and I just thought that these are more valuable than youd think. Taking them and turning them into something that can be used by others is better than just letting them rot away on the ground, Liao said. Though Liao knew the project would be tough, he said he ran into more difficulties than originally anticipated. He said the group found and discarded numerous fallen trunks before landing on the right materials, and the troubles didnt end there. Liao said the efforts to cut the wood, which took nearly two days, were complicated by the chain on the chainsaw they were using, which kept getting dull and burning out. Later, as the team tried to assemble the benches and fire pit, hornets attacked and needed to be dealt with before the job could be finished. I definitely learned that hard labor is harder than I thought, Liao said. The hard worth was worth the effort, however, according to Lenore Eggleston Herbst, the executive director at the Woodcock Nature Center. Herbst heralded Liao and other enterprising Scouts for their dedication to making the communities around them a better place. Volunteers are essential to supporting the operations of Woodcock Nature Center but Eagle Scout projects are particularly wonderful because they are often projects we continue to utilize and enjoy. Eagle Scouts have conceptualized, designed and built everything from picnic tables, sheds and kiosks for our brand-new fitness trail, which was just completed this spring, she said. We are fortunate to have so many wonderful Scouts, like Jonathan who choose to support Woodcock Nature Center in this way. The benches and fire pit were unveiled just off the Woodcock Nature Centers blue trail in October. The new fixtures will be used by children, from kindergarten through eighth grade, as they participate in the centers Woodland Explorers, Woodland Navigators and other classroom-type programs. Q3 revenue of $17.7 million on 57% year-over-year growth Year-to-date revenue reaches $48.0 million with 34% Adjusted EBITDA BOULDER, CO, Nov. 27, 2018 /CNW/ - Charlotte's Web Holdings, Inc. ("Charlotte's Web" or the "Company") (CSE:CWEB, OTCQX:CWBHF), the market share leader in hemp-based CBD wellness products, today reported financial results for the third quarter and nine-months ended September 30, 2018. All amounts are expressed in United States dollars. Certain metrics, including those expressed on an adjusted basis, are non-IFRS measures. Highlights of Third Quarter 2018 Results versus Third Quarter 2017 Results Organic revenue growth of 57% to $17.7 million Gross profit (before biological asset adjustments) increased 54% to $13.8 million , or 78% of consolidated revenue , or 78% of consolidated revenue Adjusted EBITDA increased 23% to $5.4 million , or 31% of consolidated revenue , or 31% of consolidated revenue Significant marketing investment made in brand relaunch to be leveraged throughout 2019 Completed Initial Public Offering generating net proceeds of $71.5 million Highlights of Nine-Months 2018 Results versus Nine-Months 2017 Results Organic revenue growth of 75% to $48.0 million Gross profit (before biological asset adjustments) increased 80% to $37.1 million , or 77% of consolidated revenue , or 77% of consolidated revenue Adjusted EBITDA increased 71% to $16.2 million , or 34% of consolidated revenue "During the third quarter we completed a successful initial public offering and private placement that generated significant capital for the Company that is being deployed to accelerate our growth in the hemp-derived CBD sector," said Hess Moallem, President and Chief Executive Officer. "This capital is being used primarily to expand the Company's cultivation and production capacities to meet the increasing demand for our industry leading Charlotte's Web products, both domestically and internationally. Charlotte's Web is the market leader in the rapidly expanding hemp-derived CBD wellness markets, and we are committed to the highest quality products and efficacy. Our future product expansion plans will continue to support the stringent demands and expectations of our valuable customers." Mr. Moallem added, "a successful passing of the forthcoming 2018 Farm Bill by the US Congress will be a catalyst for the growth in our industry adding further momentum to the evolving market sector. We have contributed to and supported this important legislation from the beginning for the positive impact it will have on consumer access for both hemp-based CBD products and for our valuable farming communities throughout the country." "Product portfolio sales increased year-over-year during the quarter with human nutrition products and animal nutrition products growing by 42% and 153%, respectively, with the pet line growing from a smaller base as it was just launched in February of last year," said Mr. Moallem. "In general, broader consumer awareness of the benefits of cannabinoids, namely cannabidiol (CBD), and whole plant hemp extract is driving increased uptake in both our retail channels and within our e-commerce platform." Primarily available in natural health stores throughout the United States, the Company recently surpassed 3000 retail locations during the quarter after the first a major drug-store chain began carrying Charlotte's Web products in the northwest US. Consumer education is driving demand through ever larger retail chains illustrating the widening mainstream awareness and demand for Charlotte's Web products. The Company continues to expand its market leading product line, adding two new products in September; a Maximum Strength Hemp Extract Oil and a CBD Isolate Oil. The Maximum Strength Hemp Extract product is a 100% CO2-extracted formulation containing the highest level of CBD in the Company's product line to support overall health and wellness. The Company's new CBD Isolate product, a formulation that contains no more than 13 parts per million tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), gives Charlotte's Web users the ability to add more CBD to their existing full spectrum routine without increasing intake of other cannabinoids, if desired. These products are just the beginning of the Company's expanding product portfolio as new products will continue to be introduced demonstrating the Company's leadership in the market. Additional products are under development where CBD can be incorporated into lifestyle products such as beverages, animal nutrition and other wellness related products. Third Quarter and Year-to-Date 2018 Results The following table sets forth selected financial information for the periods indicated. Three months ended Nine months ended September 30, September 30, U.S. $ millions, except per share data 2018 2017 2018 2017 Revenue $ 17.7 $ 11.3 $ 48.0 $ 27.5 Gross profit before biological assets adjustment $ 13.8 $ 9.0 $ 37.1 $ 20.6 Net impact, fair value of biological assets $ 1.5 $ 0.7 $ 1.0 $ 0.6 IPO related costs expensed $ 0.5 $ - $ 1.3 $ - Income before taxes $ 2.8 $ 3.3 $ 11.9 $ 7.9 Net income $ 1.8 $ 2.0 $ 8.7 $ 5.1 EPS basic $ 0.02 $ 0.03 $ 0.11 $ 0.06 EPS diluted $ 0.02 $ 0.02 $ 0.10 $ 0.06 Adjusted EBITDA $ 5.4 $ 4.4 $ 16.2 $ 9.5 Assets: Sep 30, 2018 Jun 30, 2018 Mar 31, 2018 Dec 31, 2017 Cash and cash equivalents $ 79.4 $ 10.8 $ 10.4 $ 7.1 Total assets $ 110.4 $ 27.6 $ 24.3 $ 19.5 Liabilities: Long-term liabilities $ 2.9 $ 0.4 $ 0.4 $ 0.5 Total liabilities $ 14.2 $ 7.7 $ 8.3 $ 6.8 The following information sets forth selected quarterly revenue information for the Company's eight most recent fiscal quarters. Q3 Q2 Q1 Q4 Q3 Q2 Q1 Q4 U.S. $ millions 2018 2018 2018 2017 2017 2017 2017 2016 Total revenue $ 17.7 $ 17.2 $ 13.1 $ 12.5 $ 11.3 $ 9.1 $ 7.1 $ 5.0 Revenue for the quarter ended September 30, 2018 (Q3-2018) totaled $17.7 million, compared to $11.3 million for the same period in 2017, representing a 57% increase. On a year-over-year basis for Q3-2018, e-commerce revenue grew by 37% and wholesale, distributor and retail revenue grew by 118%. Revenue from human nutrition products and animal nutrition products grew by 42% and 153%, respectively (the Company's canine products were introduced in February of 2017). Revenue for the year-to-date period ended September 30, 2018 (YTD-2018) totaled $48.0 million, compared to $27.5 million for the same period in 2017, representing a 75% increase. On a year-over-year basis for YTD-2018, e-commerce revenue grew by 48% and WDR revenue grew by 156%. On a year-over-year basis for YTD-2018, revenue from human nutrition products and canine products grew by 76% and 199%, respectively. The Company's topical products accounted for approximately 2% of total revenue during YTD-2018. Gross profit totaled $12.3 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2018, compared to $8.2 million for the same period in 2017, a year-over-year increase of 50%. As a percent of total revenue, gross profit in Q3-2018 was 69%, compared to 73% for the same period in 2017. Gross profit prior to biological asset adjustments as a percentage of revenue for both the Q3-2018 and Q3-2017 periods was 78% and 79%, respectively. Gross profit totaled $36.0 million for the year-to-date period ended September 30, 2018, compared to $20.0 million for the same period in 2017, a year-over-year increase of 80%. As a percent of total revenue, gross profit for YTD-2018 was 75% compared to 73% for the same period in 2017. Gross profit prior to the biological asset adjustment as a percentage of revenue for YTD-2018 was 77%, compared to 75% for the same period in 2017. For the quarters ended September 30, 2018 and 2017, advertising, promotions and selling costs were $2.8 million and $0.6 million, respectively (year-to-date $4.7 million and $2.1 million, respectively). As a percent of revenue, advertising, promotions and selling costs for the quarters ending September 30, 2018 and 2017 were 15.8% and 5.3%, respectively. Certain marketing expenditures during Q3-2018 were higher than prior quarters due to a brand relaunch and associated media spend. Significant costs were incurred for production of marketing assets (video, photography and creative) that will be leveraged throughout 2019 within packaging, website, social, print, PR and additional brand awareness, customer acquisition and retention efforts. Additionally, onetime programming and development fees were incurred for the Company's website relaunch to further drive an improved user experience, product education, e-commerce sales and support, and improved customer conversion rates. Operating Income decreased slightly during Q3-2018 to $2.5 million (year-to-date $11.7 million) from $3.3 million (year-to-date $8.1 million) during the same period in 2017. Excluding IPO related costs of $0.5 million in Q3-2018 (year-to-date $1.3 million), operating income was $3.0 million (year-to-date $13.0 million) and reflects a significant investment in marketing related activities during the quarter and $1.5 million of adjustments for biological assets. Three months ended Nine months ended September 30, September 30, U.S. $ millions 2018 2017 2018 2017 Net income (loss) $ 1.8 $ 2.0 $ 8.7 $ 5.1 Depreciation of property and equipment 0.4 0.2 1.0 0.5 Financing costs 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.2 Income taxes 1.0 1.3 3.3 2.8 EBITDA 3.2 3.6 13.0 8.5 Share-based compensation 0.2 0.1 0.6 0.3 IPO related costs 0.5 - 1.3 - Impairment of assets 0.1 - 0.2 - Net impact, fair value of biological assets 1.5 0.7 1.0 0.6 Adjusted EBITDA $ 5.4 $ 4.4 $ 16.2 $ 9.5 Adjusted EBITDA1 as a percentage of consolidated revenue for the quarters ended September 30, 2018 and 2017 was 31% and 39%, respectively. For the year-to-date period ended September 30, 2018 and 2017, adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of consolidated revenue was 34% for both periods. Balance Sheet and Cash Flow The Company used $4.6 million of cash in operations during the third quarter 2018 compared to $2.5 million of cash provided from operations during the third quarter of 2017. The reduction in cash flows from operations primarily reflects the investment in inventory associated with the 2018 hemp crop and other raw materials used in the production process in anticipation of materially increasing revenue opportunities. The Company's cash at September 30, 2018 was $79.4 million compared to $7.1 million on September 30, 2017. Working capital at September 30, 2018 was $90.2 million. Three months ended September 30 2018 2017 $ Change % Change Cash beginning of period $ 10.8 $ 3.2 $ 7.6 237% Cash flows from (used in): Operating activities $ (4.6) $ 2.5 $ (7.1) -281% Investing activities $ (1.1) $ (0.8) $ (0.3) 35% Financing activities $ 74.2 $ - $ 74.3 n/a Cash, end of period $ 79.4 $ 4.9 $ 74.5 1518% Consolidated Financial Statements and Management's Discussion and Analysis The Company's unaudited condensed consolidated interim financial statements and accompanying notes as at and for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018 and related management's discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations ("MD&A") are available under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the Investor Relations section of the Company's website at https://investors.cwhemp.com. Conference Call Management will host a conference call to discuss the Company's third quarter 2018 results at 4:30 pm ET on Tuesday, November 27, 2018. To participate in the call, please dial 1-647-427-7450 or 1-888-231-8191 approximately 10 minutes before the conference call and provide conference ID 6842466. A recording of the call will be available through December 4, 2018. To listen to the rebroadcast please dial 1-416-849-0833 and provide the same conference ID. A webcast of the call can be accessed through the investor relations section of the Charlotte's Web website. About Charlotte's Web Holdings, Inc. Charlotte's Web Holdings, Inc. is the market leader in the production and distribution of innovative hemp-based cannabidiol ("CBD") wellness products. Founded by the Stanley Brothers, the Company's premium quality products start with proprietary hemp genetics that are responsibly manufactured into whole plant hemp extracts naturally containing a full spectrum of phytocannabinoids, including CBD, terpenes, flavonoids and other beneficial hemp compounds. Industrial hemp products are non-intoxicating. Charlotte's Web current product categories include tinctures (liquid products), capsules, topical, as well as pet products. Charlotte's Web hemp-based whole plant extracts are sold through select distributors, brick and mortar retailers, and online through the Company's website at www.charlottesweb.com. The rate the Company pays for agricultural products reflects a fair and sustainable rate driving higher quality yield, encouraging food farming practices, and supporting U.S. farming communities. Charlotte's Web is a socially conscious company and is committed to using business as a force for good and a catalyst for innovation. The Company weighs sound business decisions with consideration for how its efforts affect its employees, customers, the environment, and the communities where its employees live and where it does business, while maximizing profits and strengthening its brands. The Company's management believes that socially oriented actions have a positive impact on the Company, its employees and its shareholders. Charlotte's Web donates a portion of its pre-tax earnings to charitable organizations. Shares of Charlotte's Web trade on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the symbol "CWEB" and in the United States on the OTCQX under the symbol "CWBHF". Charlotte's Web has 17,247,246 Common Shares outstanding and 188,816.57 Proportionate Voting Shares convertible at 400:1, for an effective equivalent of 92,773,474 Common Shares outstanding. 1. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Adjusted EBITDA) is not a recognized performance measure under IFRS. The term EBITDA consists of net income (loss) and excludes interest (financing costs), taxes and depreciation. Adjusted EBITDA also excludes share-based compensation, IPO related costs, impairment of assets and adjustments for fair valuing of biological assets. Adjusted EBITDA is included as a supplemental disclosure because Management believes that such measurement provides a better assessment of the Company's operations on a continuing basis by eliminating certain non-cash charges and charges or gains that are nonrecurring. The most directly comparable measure to adjusted EBITDA calculated in accordance with IFRS is net income (loss). The following is a reconciliation of the Company's net income (loss) to Adjusted EBITDA. Forward-Looking Information This press release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. In the interest of providing the shareholders and potential investors of Charlotte's Web Holdings, Inc. with information about the Company and its subsidiaries, including management's assessment of the Company and its subsidiaries' future plans and operations, certain information provided in this press release constitutes forward-looking statements or information (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as "may", "will", "should", "could", "anticipate", "expect", "project", "estimate", "forecast", "plan", "intend", "target", "believe" and similar words suggesting future outcomes or statements regarding an outlook. Although these forward-looking statements are based on assumptions the Company considers to be reasonable based on the information available on the date such statements are made, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and readers are cautioned against placing undue reliance on forward-looking statements. By their nature, these statements involve a variety of assumptions, known and unknown risks and uncertainties, and other factors which may cause actual results, levels of activity, and achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. The forward-looking information contained in this press release is based on certain assumptions and analysis by management of the Company in light of its experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future development and other factors that it believes are appropriate. The Company's forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties pertaining to, among other things, revenue fluctuations, nature of government regulations, economic conditions, loss of key customers, retention and availability of executive talent, competing products, common share price volatility, loss of proprietary information, product acceptance, internet and system infrastructure functionality, information technology security, cash available to fund operations, availability of capital and, international and political considerations, including but not limited to those risks and uncertainties discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in the MD&A and the Company's other filings with securities regulators. The impact of any one risk, uncertainty, or factor on a particular forward-looking statement is not determinable with certainty as these are interdependent, and the Company's future course of action depends on Management's assessment of all information available at the relevant time. Except to the extent required by law, the Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements made in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. All subsequent forward-looking statements, whether written or oral, attributable to the Company or persons acting on the Company's behalf, are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. CHARLOTTE'S WEB HOLDINGS, INC. UNAUDITED INTERIM CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF FINANCIAL POSITION (In thousands of United States dollars) September 30, 2018 December 31, 2017 ASSETS Current assets: Cash $ 79,359 $ 7,056 Trade and other receivables 3,456 2,129 Inventories 14,396 4,808 Prepaid expenses and other current assets 4,299 436 101,510 14,429 Non-current assets: Property and equipment, net 4,915 3,373 Deferred tax assets 3,167 549 Loan due from related party 107 107 Other long-term assets 683 996 $ 110,382 $ 19,454 LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY Current liabilities: Accounts payable $ 3,675 $ 948 Accrued liabilities 6,838 3,343 Deferred revenue 438 490 Income taxes payable 53 157 Convertible note - 1,040 Current portion of notes payable 9 15 Current portion of finance lease obligations 282 299 11,295 6,292 Non-current liabilities: Long-term note payable 14 28 Long-term finance lease obligations 188 397 Deferred rent 76 98 Other long-term liabilities 2,643 - 14,216 6,815 Shareholders' equity: Share capital 79,222 5,835 Contributed surplus 2,271 787 Retained earnings 14,673 6,017 96,166 12,639 Commitments $ 110,382 $ 19,454 CHARLOTTE'S WEB HOLDINGS, INC. UNAUDITED INTERIM CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME AND OTHER COMPREHENSIVE INCOME (In thousands of United States dollars) Three months ended September 30, Nine months ended September 30, 2018 2017 2018 2017 Revenue $ 17,736 $ 11,274 $ 48,046 $ 27,454 Cost of sales 3,967 2,318 10,990 6,877 Gross profit before loss on fair value of biological assets 13,769 8,956 37,056 20,577 Realized fair value amounts included in inventory sold (147) (50) (600) (167) Unrealized fair value loss on growth of biological assets 1,622 789 1,622 789 Gross profit 12,294 8,217 36,034 19,955 Expenses: General and administrative 5,272 3,214 14,252 7,274 Sales and marketing 3,910 1,507 8,385 4,244 Research and development 132 157 386 380 Initial public offering related costs 473 - 1,332 - 9,787 4,878 24,355 11,898 Operating income 2,507 3,339 11,679 8,057 Financing costs (31) (69) (160) (180) Interest income 138 7 191 9 Other income 196 - 196 - Income before taxes 2,810 3,277 11,906 7,886 Income taxes (987) (1,250) (3,250) (2,769) Net income (loss) and comprehensive income (loss) $ 1,823 $ 2,027 $ 8,656 $ 5,117 Weighted average number of common shares - basic 83,472,950 79,439,113 80,792,665 79,144,336 Weighted average number of common shares - diluted 91,501,078 84,626,894 86,937,632 84,332,118 Earnings per share - basic $ 0.02 $ 0.03 $ 0.11 $ 0.06 Earnings per share - diluted $ 0.02 $ 0.02 $ 0.10 $ 0.06 CHARLOTTE'S WEB HOLDINGS, INC. UNAUDITED INTERIM CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CHANGES IN SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY (In thousands of United States dollars) Nine months ended September 30, 2017 Share capital Contributed surplus Retained earnings (deficit) Total Balance - December 31, 2016 $ 5,835 $ 327 $ (1,458) $ 4,704 Share-based compensation expense - 294 - 294 Net income - - 5,117 5,117 Balance - September 30, 2017 $ 5,835 $ 621 $ 3,659 $ 10,115 Nine months ended September 30, 2018 Share capital Contributed surplus Retained earnings (deficit) Total Balance - December 31, 2017 $ 5,835 $ 787 $ 6,017 $ 12,639 Initial public offering 71,958 - - 71,958 Private placement 4,256 - - 4,256 Exercise of stock options 42 - - 42 Issuance of broker stock warrants (845) 845 - - Exercise of broker stock warrants 1,782 - - 1,782 Share-based compensation expense - 639 - 639 Share issuance costs (3,806) - - (3,806) Net income - - 8,656 8,656 Balance - September 30, 2018 $ 79,222 $ 2,271 $ 14,673 $ 96,166 CHARLOTTE'S WEB HOLDINGS, INC. UNAUDITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (In thousands of United States dollars) Nine months ended September 30, 2018 2017 Cash flows from operating activities: Net income $ 8,656 $ 5,117 Items not involving cash: Depreciation 951 475 Loss from change in fair value of biological assets 1,622 621 Accretion on convertible note 71 105 Loss from change in fair value of convertible note (66) (63) Allowance for doubtful accounts 119 (13) Write down obsolete inventory 181 - Deferred rent (22) (28) Share-based compensation 639 294 Gain on sale of assets (28) - Deferred income taxes (2,617) (13) Changes in working capital: Trade and other receivables (1,446) (691) Inventories (11,391) (1,031) Prepaid expenses and other current assets (3,863) (307) Accounts payable 2,727 (142) Accrued liabilities 3,494 1,473 Income taxes (104) (819) Deferred revenue (52) (130) Other long-term liabilities 2,643 - 1,514 4,848 Cash flows from investing activities: Purchases of property and equipment (2,503) (1,404) Proceeds from sale of assets 38 - Other long-term assets 313 (496) (2,152) (1,900) Cash flows from financing activities: Proceeds from initial public offering 71,958 - Proceeds from private placement 4,256 - Proceeds from stock warrant exercise 1,782 - Payments on notes payable (20) (10) Payments on finance lease obligations (226) (159) Payments on convertible note (1,000) - Debt settlement (45) - Share issuance costs (3,806) - Proceeds from sale of common stock 42 - Proceeds from notes payable - 1,038 72,941 869 Increase in cash 72,303 3,817 Cash, beginning of year 7,056 1,090 Cash, end of period $ 79,359 $ 4,907 Supplemental disclosures of cash flow information: Cash paid for interest $ 31 $ 73 SOURCE Charlottes Web Holdings, Inc. For further information: subscribe to Charlotte's Web news, or contact: Investor Contact: Cory Pala, Investor Relations, (416) 594-3849, [email protected]; Media Contact: Adam Schiff, CultureSpeed Communications, (917) 701-7800, [email protected] Standup comedian Aziz Ansari is plotting his comeback after #MeToo allegations put his Netflix series "Master of None" on pause. Billboard reports Ansari announced a 2019 comedy tour, his first since being accused of sexual misconduct in January. The trek includes just one Upstate New York show at 7:30 p.m. on April 24 at the UB Center for the Arts at the University at Buffalo. Tickets go on sale Friday at noon ET on Ansari's website. Prices for the Buffalo show, on sale through Ticket Fly, range from $36 to $70. No cell phones or recording devices are allowed at the show. Before Ansari kicks off his tour, he's quietly performing at a handful of shows, including one this Friday, Nov. 30 at the Auditorium Theatre in Rochester. Tickets range from $42 to $68. Ansari, 35, got his start as a standup comedian, appearing in films like "Funny People" and "I Love You, Man." He also played Tom Haverford on NBC's "Parks and Recreation," created and starred on the MTV sketch comedy show "Human Giant," and created and starred on the Emmy-winning Netflix series "Master of None." In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal and more accusations of sexual assault and harassment, Ansari was accused by an anonymous woman of allegedly forcing himself on her at his apartment. He admitted to a sexual encounter with the woman, but said he thought it was "completely consensual." "The next day, I got a text from her saying that although 'it may have seemed okay,' upon further reflection, she felt uncomfortable," he said in a statement at the time. "It was true that everything did seem okay to me, so when I heard that it was not the case for her, I was surprised and concerned. I took her words to heart and responded privately after taking the time to process what she had said." Ansari stepped back from the spotlight and put "Master of None" on hold after two seasons, but Netflix said this summer that they're open to another season "when Aziz is ready." Aziz Ansari 2019 tour dates: 2/06 - Boston, MA @ Chevalier Theatre 2/07 - Boston, MA @ Chevalier Theatre 2/09 - Mashantucket, CT @ Foxwoods Resort and Casino 2/14 - Calgary, AB @ Grey Eagle Resort and Casino 2/15 - Vancouver, BC @ Queen Elizabeth Theatre 2/16 - Denver, CO @ The Buell Theatre 2/21 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Orpheum Theatre 2/24 - San Diego, CA @ Copley Symphony Hall 3/05 - Chicago, IL @ Chicago Theater 3/08 - Minneapolis, MN @ Cyrus Northrop Memorial Auditorium 3/09 - Pittsburgh, PA @ Heinz Hall 3/10 - Columbus, OH @ Palace Theatre 3/12 - Portland, OR @ Keller Auditorium 3/14 - Oakland, CA @ Paramount Theatre 3/16 - San Francisco, CA @ The Masonic 3/19 - Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theatre 3/20 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Kingsbury Hall 3/21 - Phoenix, AZ @ Comerica Theatre 3/22 - Reno, NV @ Silver Legacy Resort Casino 3/23 - Las Vegas, NV @ The Colosseum at Caesars Palace 4/17 - Memphis, TN @ Canon Center for the Performing Arts 4/18 - Atlanta, GA @ Fox Theatre 4/20 - Hollywood, FL @ Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino 4/24 - Buffalo, NY @ University at Buffalo 4/25 - Windsor, ON @ Caesars Windsor Hotel & Casino 4/26 - Grand Rapids, MI @ DeVos Place 4/27 - St. Louis, MO @ Stifel Theatre 4/28 - Kansas City, MO @ Arvest Bank Theatre 5/?? - New York, NY @ TBD Elon Musks tunneling company has dropped its plans to dig beneath Sepulveda Boulevard on the Westside because of an environmental lawsuit. Musk had wanted to dig a 2.7-mile tunnel planned along Sepulveda Boulevard on L.A.s Westside. The Boring Company has posted images online showing a possible network of tunnel routes across L.A., with proposed stations at the Getty Center, Dodger Stadium, Union Station and Los Angeles International Airport. Opponents say that the map is evidence that the proposed Westside tunnel is part of a much larger planned underground transportation network. California does not allow portions of construction projects to be approved separately. City Councilman Paul Koretz supports the tunnels. Koretz hopes Boring Company tunnels can be built more quickly and at a lower cost and at no government expense. He would like tunnels from LAX to Westwood to the Valley at a minimum by the 2028 Olympics. Hanukkah falls on December 22-30, 2019. Here in southern Connecticut, local Chabad centers host annual menorah lightnings, festivals, community dinners and family-friendly events to celebrate the winter holiday. Click through to see some ways to get into the spirit in southwestern Connecticut. 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. WALLINGFORD The Town Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to appropriate $528,217 to demolish three decaying building on land owned by the municipality and remodel the headquarters of the group Spanish Community of Wallingford . The bulk of the money, nearly $335,000, will go toward reconfiguring SCOWs headquarters, which is owned by the town and rented by the group for a nominal fee. The reconfiguration of space within the building on Washington Street will give more space for the towns STEM Academy, which is sponsored by Wallingfords Department of Youth and Social Services. WEST HAVEN Seventy-five years after the top-secret German bombing and sinking of the HMT Rohna claiming the lives of 1,138 U.S. servicemen West Haveners will gather Sunday to pay respects to three local young men who died that day. Veterans and others will gather at the West Haven Veterans Museum & Learning Center, 30 Hood Terrace, at 1:30 p.m. Theyll hold a memorial service for the three sons of West Haven, who grew up together and enlisted on the same day in January 1943: Pfc. John T. Cox, Pfc. Pasquale J. Logiodice and Pfc. Pacifico Migliore. All three died in the sinking of the Rohna, a 461-foot British transport vessel, off the coast of Algeria on Nov. 26, 1943. Now, all three will be enshrined together on the museums Wall of Honor. Those gathered, joined by members of the national Rohna Survivors Memorial Association, also will pay their respects to all who died on the Rohna. The ships sinking was second only to the the 1,177 sailors lost on the USS Arizona, who were among the 2,403 U.S. citizens killed in the bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Its all about honoring the three West Haven guys, is how it got started, but also honoring all of the ones who were lost, and the survivors, said John Dolan, who organized the event along with West Havener Joe Weber, a retired teacher. Were thinking that its going to be very nice, said Weber. Despite the huge loss of life, for reasons that include the fact that it was one of the first successful uses by the Nazis of radio-guided glide bombs during World War II, the Rohnas sinking was quickly classified by the British and U.S. governments. For years, many relatives of those lost on the Rhona werent even told how they died and generations of kids grew up knowing only their father or uncle or other relative was lost in the war. Weber and Dolan have been in touch with some of the three mens descendents, but dont expect any of them to attend, said Dolan. At least four members of the Rohna Survivors Memorial Association will be there, however, to do a Table of Remembrance in memory of those who died on the Rohna, he said. There also will be an honor guard. West Haven High School sophomore Nora Mullins will sing the national anthem and Weber will say a few words about what got him involved, Dolan said. Then four West Haven High Schools students will play the part of the three young men , plus a narrator, and follow their travels from enlisting in New Haven to going to Ft. Devens in Massachusetts to training in Tennessee and Alabama, then on to Virginia and overseas to North Africa, Dolan said. NEW HAVEN Growing up in the citys school system, Alder Hacibey Catalbasoglu, D-1, said one of the most joyful days in the Islamic calendar would sometimes lead to uncomfortable conversations and falling behind on school work. Eid al-Fitr, the day after the final day of Ramadan, is a celebration that is as cultural as it is religious, Catalbasoglu said, making it a day many Muslims take off from school or work. Doing so, however, meant missing an entire day of instructional learning and explaining to peers cultural differences that made him feel different. Many dont know much about Muslim culture, because our public institutions dont reflect the diversity that New Haven has, he said. Catalbasoglu brought a resolution to the Board of Educations governance committee over the summer to add Eid al-Fitr to the school districts list of 12 religious and federal holidays. New Haven is growing more and more diverse every day, so we should implement this resolution to more effectively represent our population, he said. Members of the school board committee have expressed support, although some have questioned the logistics of adding a holiday that follows a lunar schedule to the academic calendar. I believe a majority of Board of Education members support this, but we need to do research, said President Darnell Goldson at the latest committee meeting Monday. Deputy Superintendent of Schools Ivelise Velazquez, who said she was working in Windham Public Schools when it added Three Kings Day to its academic calendar, said this time of year before discussions for next years academic calendar have begun is the best time to get started. Additionally, the holiday will fall on a Sunday in May 2020, which Velazquez said would make next years calendar an optimal time to introduce the holiday onto the calendar without impacting instructional time. Goldson said he would like to see public hearings on the idea before the district moves forward with it. According to COO Will Clark, a group of central office employees will usually draft a few versions of the academic calendar; a stipulation in the teachers union contract gives them an opportunity to vote on the calendar. The school board has final approval authority. We usually figure out one (calendar) starting the day before Labor Day and one after Labor Day, Clark said. They always vote for before Labor Day. Velazquez said academic calendars are often tied to when teachers have professional development days. Catalbasoglu said he is unaware of any districts in Connecticut that recognize Eid al-Fitr with a day off, although New York Citys schools do. Patrice McCarthy, deputy director of the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education, said both she and a policy expert are also unaware of any Connecticut districts observing Eid al-Fitr. Although school districts in the state do not currently recognize every religious holiday with a day off, she said, districts are continually asked to increase their cultural awareness. More staff are being asked to be aware of dates so they dont schedule any field trips or tests on religious holidays, but theyre not closing schools, she said. The decision to close schools on religious holidays is more often around the difficulty of getting substitute teachers. Parent Sarah Miller said when she went through the citys public school system, the schools closed for two days for Rosh Hashanah because of the number of religiously observant Jewish teachers at the time. As long as teachers are aware of the need to be respectful and take into consderation those specific holidays, you can work through that in the classroom, McCarthy said. brian.zahn@hearstmediact.com Governor-elect Ned Lamont said something Tuesday I wish he hadnt when word came down that United Technologies would spin off its air-conditioning and elevator units. Lamont said, in effect, that hell do whatever he can, come January, to keep UTC in the State of Connecticut. Its not the spirit I mind. Its good to have a leader ready to face challenges. Its the pattern I worry about. Weve seen it before. A huge manufacturing firm makes a big change that potentially threatens the livelihoods of hundreds, or thousands, of people earning good wages. So the state, in essence, bribes the firm to stay put, using tax breaks, loans, grants and other sweeteners. Its questionably good, economically speaking. But its unquestionably bad, morally speaking. Its welfare for the rich. These are makers, to be sure. But they are takers, too. Im not without sympathy. For elected officials, the choice can be among bad and worse. Headlines about big firms leaving Connecticut and taking their jobs with them (remember GE?) contributed to Gov. Dan Malloys unpopularity. Thats partly why hes a two-term executive. He caught hell for giving away tax dollars to scads of big firms (including some $400 billion for UTC). But that was better than catching hell from workers (probably Democratic voters), whod lambaste him if he didnt do everything he could to save their hides. Malloy chose between getting blamed and getting blamed less. Even so, its questionable whether bribing huge manufacturing firms to stay in-state is good economics. While doing so probably saves existing jobs, and it might even entice them to hire more people down the line, the fact is big firms have a track record of eroding their workforces over time while putting downward pressure on wages, even good wages. Im not saying this is the case for UTC, but it is the case for corporations generally. And thats reason enough to wonder if the public is truly getting a return on its investment, or even breaking even. But even if the public breaks even, that money is not being spent in other ways. New Haven, for instance, is in the middle of a budget jam. It cant tax nonprofits, because they are tax-exempt. But nonprofits, including Yale, own about half the citys land. If the money isnt coming from the state, its got to come from private property owners (me, you, maybe). So while the state sends money to big firms, its sending less to cities that have to increase levies in order to maintain a civilized standard of urban life. At the same time, bribing firms to stay put is a short-term solution that fails to address long-term problems. If Lamont follows Malloys lead, hell take money away from public investments that could truly juice up the states economy like roads and bridges, wind and solar power, education and workforce development and spend on it what? More of the same? Meanwhile, the roads get older, the air gets dirtier and students graduate to diminishing opportunities. Those with jobs will be fine, for now. But what about everyone else? Thats not fair, is it? The thing about corporate welfare is that it masks whats really going on. It looks like the state is saving jobs, but whats really happening is that the state is increasing the political power of big firms while decreasing everyone elses power, including the power of entrepreneurs and small-businesses owners. A state government should expand opportunities for as many people as possible, but when it bribes firms to stay put, it actually contracts the states economic pie. All the above is theoretical. UTC hasnt said how spinning off Otis and Carrier will affect any of its Connecticut workers, and we probably wont know for some time. But as I said, theres a pattern here, a pattern that Lamont hinted at Tuesday. I hope Im just hearing things. John Stoehr is the publisher of the Editorial Board, a daily newsletter about politics. He lives in Westville. ANSONIA A nationally renowned civil rights attorney will serve as this years guest speaker at the NAACP Ansonia Branchs 26th annual Freedom Fund Dinner. Benjamin Crump, best known for representing the families of slain black teenagers Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, will speak at the event, scheduled for 5 p.m. Dec. 8 at Villa Bianca in Seymour. Martin, 16, was fatally shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer, and Brown, 18, was fatally shot by a Missouri police officer, which spurred riots and protests across the nation. NAACP President Greg Johnson said Crump is a personal friend, and fellow fraternity and Masonic brother. Attorney Crump has been a formidable advocate on the front lines fighting to level the playing field for the disenfranchised, Johnson said. I reached out to him and had a conversation about my concerns in the Valley, specifically the incident in Derby in July; where a group of teens were profiled and taunted by police. Attorney Crump jumped on the opportunity to come and be part of the solutions through open, honest dialogue. Johnson said having Crump speak at the event couldnt come at a better time. He can guide and direct the ongoing fight for justice with a justice tempered with mercy approach, Johnson said. People of color are not only disenfranchised, we are angry. Angry that our lives appear to be without value, angry that police and others can take black and brown lives without consequences, angry that our children are disregarded, unprotected and undereducated. That anger needs to be tempered with mercy and channeled into action that will bring about the changes we seek in the Valley. The Freedom Fund Dinner is an annual fundraiser for the NAACP, and honors members of the community who have demonstrated significant contributions in the areas of education, criminal justice, government and community service. It is also an evening to bolster community partnerships and to build awareness and membership, Johnson said. This years honorees include Shelton Police Chief Shawn Sequeira, state Sen. George Logan, Dr. Tamiko McArthur, Bridgeport Councilman Ernest Newton and Ansonia High School student Ekettee Weamie. Johnnson in an email said the honorees have made significant strides, with Logan working in a bipartisan manner to help bridge political gaps, Sequeira making history as the first minority administrator in the Shelton PD, Councilman Newton had a proven track record of fighting for justice prior to making some mistakes, Dr. Tamiko McArthur as a leading medical leader in the Valley and Ekettee Weamie, student of the year with a 3.44 GPA and ranked #28 in her class. The event is open to the public. Tickets are $60 for adults and $25 for children 10 and younger . For tickets or more information, call Ronja Goldson at 203-906-9456. According to Crumps his website, he has broken barriers in several legal organizations, serving as the first African-American President of the Federal Bar Association for the Northern District of Florida and the first African-American Chairman of the Florida State University College of Law Board of Directors. Crump has received recognition in his pursuit of civil rights and justice for minorities, including being named to The National Trial Lawyers Top 100 Lawyers and Ebony Magazines Power 100 Most Influential African Americans. He has received numerous awards including the National Urban Leagues Whitney Young Award and the NAACP Thurgood Marshall Award. A North Carolina native, Crump is the oldest of nine siblings and step-siblings, and received his undergraduate and law degrees from Florida State University. Crump was not available for comment Wednesday. jean.sos@snet.net A former Haddon Township commissioner pleaded guilty Monday to charges against him for the second time in as many months. Paul Dougherty was in an Atlantic County courtroom Monday facing charges that he left the scene of a car accident and was driving with an expired license. He pleaded guilty Monday to a lesser charge of failure to report an accident and failure to exhibit a license, a court administrator said. Last month, Dougherty, 48, pleaded guilty for accepting a $7,000 referral fee from a law firm after steering a disgruntled employee to a lawyer who successfully sued his own municipal government. In exchange for his guilty plea and resignation from his elected position -- a non-partisan three-person commission -- in Haddon Township, the state attorney general agreed to recommend probation instead of jail time. Paul Dougherty Dougherty is also an attorney and former municipal prosecutor in Cherry Hill, Clementon, Gloucester City, and Medford. The traffic violation, which occurred in Haddon Township, Camden County, was moved to Estell Manor, Atlantic County, a town of 1,700 residents in the Pine Barrens, to avoid potential conflict of interests in the counties in which Dougherty worked as a prosecutor. His jobs as a prosecutor, all of which ended over the last three months, would likely have included prosecuting traffic violations, such as the ones he pleaded guilty to Monday. Dougherty had served as a township commissioner since 2007, for which he was paid $21,000 annually. A Haddon Township police report said Dougherty left the scene of an accident on the evening of July 19. He is accused of rear-ending another car at an intersection. Dougherty placed a cellphone call to police Chief Mark Cavallo 20 minutes after the accident was reported, according to police records obtained through a public records request. The police document said Dougherty told the chief his wife was involved in an accident and fled the scene after becoming nervous. He also said he called him because he did not trust a sergeant he believed was on duty that night. The accident report was taken by a patrolwoman at Dougherty's house that evening. The officer Dougherty said he didn't trust was Sgt. Thomas Whalen. He was not working that night. Whalen is one of four senior police officers who sued the chief and township commissioners, including Dougherty, over alleged sexual harassment by Cavallo. All of the officers and Cavallo are men. The claim against Cavallo was dismissed in June after a judge ruled the it was filed after a statute of limitations had passed. Bill Duhart may be reached at bduhart@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @bduhart. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips Two hackers in Iran were behind an international wave of ransomware attacks that shut down Newark's computer systems until the city paid $30,000 last year, federal and local officials said Wednesday. An indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court in Newark accuses Faramarz Shahi Savandi and Mohammad Mehdi Shah Mansouri of running what Assistant U.S. Attorney General Brian Benczkowski called "an extreme form of 21st century digital blackmail," using the SamSam ransomware to target vulnerable institutions across the U.S. and Canada. Both men are still at large. Authorities were hopeful the two could be arrested while they traveled or through other means, Benczkowski told reporters in Washington. The ransomware, which encrypts the files of a target computer until the victim pays the hackers, was also used to attack the computer systems of the city of Atlanta, Georgia, the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, and numerous hospitals, among other victims. Craig Carpenito, the U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, told reporters at the Justice Department's Washington headquarters the hackers had looked for institutions "that could least afford to have downtime." Prosecutors said Savandi and Mansouri directed their victims to download the encrypted Tor internet browser and navigate to hidden web pages, where they were instructed to pay a designated ransom amount in Bitcoin, a so-called "cryptocurrency." The hackers used European-based servers to launch the attacks outside of their victims' regular business hours, scanning for vulnerabilities in the targeted computer systems, Carpenito said. The men allegedly targeted computers on Newark's city systems on April 25, 2017. "These attacks seriously compromised our networks and disrupted vital services that we provide to residents," Mayor Ras Baraka said in a statement. He said the city ultimately paid the hackers a bitcoin ransom worth about $30,000 as recommended by law enforcement "in order to prevent long term disruption." "Both the FBI and Department of Justice were extremely helpful in guiding us every step of the way and assisting in a situation we had never faced before," Baraka said. "The city of Newark has significantly strengthened its cyber defenses and learned a great deal from having gone through this experience." The ransom note displayed on Newark city computer systems hijacked in a 2017 attack using the SamSam ransomware. (U.S. Justice Department) The attacks ultimately cost the hackers' victims more than $6 million in ransom payments and more than $30 million in losses from lack of access to their data, according to the indictment. Savandi, 34, and Mansouri, 27, developed the ransomware in 2015 and first used it a year later against a business in Mercer County, according to the six-count indictment. The two men have been charged with conspiracy, intentionally damaging protected computers and demanding ransom in relation to the damage. The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday also announced sanctions against two Iranian nationals accused of processing the bitcoin payments of SamSam victims, accusing them of providing material support to cyber criminals. Ali Khorashadizadeh and Mohammad Ghorbaniyan used two digital addresses to process more than 7,000 bitcoin transactions worth millions of U.S. dollars, officials said in a statement. The sanctions mark the first time specific digital currency addresses have been attributed to foreign individuals sanctioned by the Treasury Department, officials said. Thomas Moriarty may be reached at tmoriarty@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ThomasDMoriarty. Find NJ.com on Facebook. JERSEY CITY Jersey City is proposing a new business district for the city's West Side, a plan that would levy a special tax on shops in the district the city says is needed to pay for extra litter removal, marketing and more. The proposal, known as a "special improvement district," would affect about 300 properties, largely those on West Side Avenue. It's a gritty area of the city that includes numerous delis, salons and liquor stores, plus a bevy of restaurants offering international cuisine, everything from Vietnamese to Moroccan to Guyanese. The plan, up for final council approval on Dec. 19, would bring in $238,640 annually from its members. The tax, based on the size of each building's storefront, ranges from $250 to $3,700 per property. Residential properties are not included. It would be the city's seventh SID. "In a city of about 300,000, sometimes there are districts that need a little extra support," Councilwoman Mira Prinz-Arey, who represents the area and supports the SID plan, told The Jersey Journal. "It's a bolstering of city services." The proposed SID, which comes at the same time as a new payroll tax on businesses that is intended to fund city schools and on the heels of a property revaluation that saw some tax bills in the city skyrocket, has some business owners grumbling. Brothers Eddie, left, and Ali Ayesh, co-owners of Fine Fare Supermarket on West Side Avenue in Jersey City, are opposed to the SID plan. Brothers Ali and Eddie Ayesh, co-owners of supermarket Fine Fare, would pay $1,135 annually for the new SID. They are opposed, noting that their property taxes just about doubled from $12,995 to $26,147 after the reval. "Who's benefiting from this except the city?" said Ali Ayesh, 30. Jeff Heir, 60, owner of longtime West Side Avenue apparel shop Heir's, would pay $913. He is also opposed. "What the hell do I want to pay more taxes for?" he said. "It'll still be a mess. It's West Side Avenue." Brian Becker, owner of the Dairy Queen and an adjacent lot, would pay $1,773. Becker, 68, echoed Heir's comments, saying the city can spend all the money it wants to clean up West Side Avenue and it won't help. City officials pushing for the SID are "out of their frigging minds," he said. "It's not about the money. It's about the people who live there," Becker said. "They clean those streets six days a week. It's the people that live in the city that just don't care." Michele Massey is executive director of the Jackson Hill Main Street Special Improvement District, which includes businesses on and near Martin Luther King Drive and Monticello Avenue. Massey said that in addition to extra services, SIDs provide business owners with advocates. Massey credited her SID with getting part of Martin Luther King Drive repaved recently and with getting a new traffic light at a dangerous corner in that district, among other things. "It's always good to have someone who is responsible. Minding the store if you will," she told The Jersey Journal." Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook. JERSEY CITY -- The two Jersey City men charged with gunning down a 17-year-old girl on Brinkerhoff Street in October will remain behind bars through the course of their prosecution, a judge ruled Wednesday. Alterik Ellis, 25, and Travis Defoe, 28, were ordered to be detained when they appeared before Hudson County Superior Court Judge Paul Depascale for a detention hearing Wednesday morning. Both are charged with the Oct. 26 murder of Lincoln High School senior Jade Saunders who was hanging out with friends in a building's vestibule when authorities say Ellis and Defoe opened fire from a vehicle. Investigators said Saunders died at the scene in front of her friends. Ellis and Defoe are also charged with wounding a 26-year-old Jersey City man two and two 19-year-olds when one of the men opened fire from a Toyota Camry registered to a Nutley resident and reported stolen Newark days earlier. Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Kevin Roe said Jersey City police were already on the lookout for the car because it was believed to have been involved in a another shooting. During the probable cause portion of Wednesday's hearing, Roe told the judge there is extensive security video evidence that detectives recovered from multiple locations in Jersey City and Newark. According to criminal complaints charging Ellis and Defoe, the footage revealed they had gotten into the car on Oak Street at 11:26 p.m. that night and turned onto Brinkerhoff from Monticello Avenue just prior to the 11:35 p.m. Security cameras later captured Ellis getting out of the vehicle and walking to an apartment on Lexington Avenue in Newark. Defoe was spotted walking from the vehicle to Penn Station in Newark and boarding a PATH train before arriving at Journal Square at 12:45 p.m., according to the complaints. Defoe's lawyer, Whitney Flanagan, and Ellis' attorney, Jason LeBoeuf, asked Depascale to release their clients with conditions for supervision pending trial. There is a presumption of detention in homicide cases because defendants face up to life in prison and are therefore flight risks. Depascale said the defense lawyers had not overcome that presumption. The two men will return to court on Dec. 6 for an early disposition hearing, where defendants typically receive their best plea offer from the prosecution. Ellis and Defoe are each charged with murder, conspiracy to commit murder, three counts of aggravated assault, firearm offenses and theft related to the vehicle used in the shooting. Ellis and Defoe stood beside their attorneys at the defense table Wednesday and said nothing during the hearing. The Hudson County Prosecutor's Office has not commented on a potential motive for the shooting. Saunders hoped to be a hair stylist after graduation. Her family members said she was in the wrong place at the wrong time when she was shot dead. Investigators said she did not know Ellis or Defoe. The Camry was recovered in Newark after the shooting on Brinkerhoff. There is no evidence Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez acted improperly regarding the sexual assault allegations facing a former aide to Gov. Phil Murphy, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal told state lawmakers in a letter on Tuesday. Suarez had no involvement in the investigation or in the decision not to bring charges against the former aide, Al Alvarez, according to Grewal's letter. Grewal also says he thinks his own probe into Suarez's actions removes the need for legislators to review the matter. Suarez's role in the episode was questioned after Grewal's office said in October that she had personal relationships with Alvarez and his accuser, Katie Brennan, who detailed the sex assault claim in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. Tuesday's letter, sent to state Senate President Stephen Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, comes after the attorney general's office of public integrity and accountability reviewed the Alvarez case file, read emails and other documents related to the investigation and interviewed Suarez and Hudson County Prosecutor's Office staff members, the letter says. The OPIA found the decision not to prosecute Alvarez was made "by career investigators and prosecutors who exercised their independent judgments, free from any interference by the prosecutor," Grewal's letter says. Through her spokesman, Suarez declined to comment. Brennan's spokeswoman could not be reached. Patricia Teffenhart, executive director of the New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault, said Grewal's letter leaves her with questions about the "broader handling" of the Alvarez case. "Katie Brennan's case had a police report, an immediate hospital examination, fresh complaint witnesses, and a victim who was ready to seek justice," Teffenhart said. "That's more than we see in a lot of these cases and justice was still denied." Grewal added that the OPIA review "obviates the need for further legislative inquiry on this matter." Assemblywoman Nancy Munoz, R-Union County, told The Jersey Journal she thinks lawmakers should still hear from Suarez. "That statement sort of says, well they did everything right," Munoz said. "But clearly Katie Brennan doesn't think that they did ... the system appeared to fail." Suarez, like Murphy a Democrat, become Hudson County's chief prosecutor in July 2015. Grewal's letter says Suarez asked his office to review her handling of the Alvarez case and make the findings public. Alvarez, who resigned as chief of staff of the New Jersey Schools Development Authority in October just before Brennan's allegations became public, has denied the sexual assault allegations through his attorney. The matter is now being reviewed by the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office. Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook. When choosing wines to complement various types of ethnic cuisine, Asia poses a particular challenge. And to my way of thinking and tasting, the biggest challenge of all is Indian food. Think about the defining characteristics of Indian cooking (by which I mean cuisine from the north, featured in most Indian restaurants): rich, thick sauces that are at once spicy and sweet; the exotic spices of cumin and coriander; unusual combinations, such as the tangy crunch of onion relish with the cool, creamy texture of raita, made of yogurt and cucumber. Now think about the most popular types of table wine (dry or off-dry wines made specifically to go with food): chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, pinot grigio, riesling, pinot noir, cabernet sauvignon, sangiovese. Each of these varieties is European to the core. The grapes were cultivated centuries ago in France, Germany and Italy. And the wines were crafted by farmers and monks to complement their local produce, poultry and meat. Those early vintners had never heard of curry and they knew as much about tandoor ovens as microwave ovens. The obvious choice with Indian food, of course, would be Indian wine. Though wine has been made on the subcontinent for thousands of years, the industry largely collapsed following India's independence from Great Britain in 1948, when many state and local governments banned alcohol consumption. A small number of modern Indian wineries are now making quality wines, but hardly any are available in the American market. And besides, the few I've tasted are European-style wines -- perhaps better suited for veal saltimbocca than lamb vindaloo. For years, I was happy to drink beer whenever I went out for Indian food. As for wine, I didn't know where to begin. Then, a press release landed in my email announcing the opening of Old Monk, an Indian restaurant in Manhattan whose owners had hired a well-known sommelier to consult on the wine list. This, I had to see -- and taste -- for myself. The first dish my wife and I ordered was tandoori chicken, prepared with mustard oil and served with a mint chutney. From a small but thoughtful list of wines by the glass, I selected a German riesling and a Vouvray sec, a dry chenin blanc from France's Loire Valley. The riesling, 2015 J.H. Selbach Kabinett, has a touch of sweetness that I thought would offset the spiciness of the chicken. It did, but the 2015 Domaine Francois Pinon Vouvray Sec worked even better. It had a pleasant tangy quality that perfectly complemented the tanginess of the mint chutney. It reminded me that in pairing wine with sophisticated dishes, it's more important to focus on the sauces and other accompaniments than on the main ingredient -- in this case, chicken. Just about any quality table wine -- white, red or rose -- will taste good with simple roast chicken. But it's a different story when the chicken is prepared with a bold marinade or complex sauce. "It's all about balance," says Navjot Arora, Old Monk's chef and co-owner. Everything can be okay, but if just one flavor is wrong, then it [the wine] doesn't work." For a main course, we ordered beef in a Tellicherry-pepper sauce, which was as spicy as it sounds. I usually avoid red wines with spicy food, because the heat can make the tannins in the wine taste harsh. But I was curious about a syrah on the list from northern Africa -- Morocco, to be exact. I was pleased to discover that the 2014 Syrocco Syrah was relatively low in tannins, while having plenty of acidity to balance the richness of the sauce and meat. Afterward, I reached out to the wine consultant, Kristie Petrullo Campbell, for additional tips about pairing wine with Indian food. She has an impressive resume, including head sommelier at Jean-Georges, a top-rated French restaurant in the city. But her assignment at Old Monk was the first time she'd ever worked with Indian cuisine. I asked her what lessons she learned in developing a wine list to complement the menu. Lesson No. 1: "Avoid higher-alcohol wines," she says. "The heat from the spices will only accentuate the alcohol and make it seem hot." A prime example of a lower-alcohol white would be German riesling -- many of which weigh in at just 7 to 8 percent alcohol, compared to 13 percent-plus for a California chardonnay. As for reds, she likes pinot noir and syrah from cooler climates. Cool temperatures mean the grapes don't ripen quite as much, so there's less sugar to be converted to alcohol. Conversely, she wouldn't recommend cabernet sauvignon, which tends to be high both in alcohol and tannin. Indian restaurants in New Jersey tend to be BYOB. But Shaun Mehtani, owner of Mehtani Restaurant Group, commands a fleet of Indian restaurants in Middlesex and Morris counties -- including some with sophisticated wine and cocktail menus. Mehtani, who owns Moghul in Edison and Mehndi in Morristown, among other restaurants, has devoted a great deal of thought to the subject of pairing wine with Indian food. "Traditionally, everyone says Indian food should be paired with off-dry rieslings or gewurztraminers, especially from Germany, like Mosel riesling," he says. "I don't agree with that approach. Indian food itself has a number of sweet components, such a chutney. I don't think a sweet wine is the best choice." His favorite wine accompaniments include dry sparkling wines, including prosecco from Italy and cava from Spain. "Stay away from a delicate French Champagne because Indian food is very robust and you'll be wasting the Champagne," he advises. He also likes unoaked chardonnays, which are usually crisper and cleaner than oak-aged versions. As for reds, he's particularly fond of Rhone-style wines, made from such grapes as syrah, grenache and mourvedre, and fruitier pinot noirs from California and Oregon. He'd discourage drinking the more delicate pinot noirs from France's Burgundy region because they're not strong enough to stand up to the powerful flavors of Indian food. Mehndi has a fantastic selection of wines by the glass. Among the whites: 2016 Saint M Riesling from Germany and 2015 Balletto Vineyards Chardonnay (unoaked) from the Russian River Valley, one of the cooler vineyard areas in California. The reds include 2016 Illahe Vineyards Estate Pinot Noir from Oregon and 2014 Wagner Vineyards Cabernet Franc from New York's Finger Lakes region. * COCKTAIL CORNER The Drink Sourland Mountain Punch The Source Sourland Mountain Spirits 130 Hopewell-Rocky Hill Road Hopewell sourlandspirits.com Why It Works "Sourland Mountain Spirits vodka offers craft-spirits lovers a blank canvas for sweet and spicy libations," says Craig Holcomb, a veteran mixologist who develops cocktail recipes for Sourland Mountain Spirits, a farm-based distillery. "The Sourland Mountain Punch is an easy-drinking cocktail with a kick of heat at the end. We love enjoying it on the porch when there's a mountain breeze in the air." The Recipe 1.5 ounces Sourland Mountain Spirits Vodka 4 ounces cranberry juice 1 ounce pineapple juice 0.5 ounce lime juice 3 jalapeno slices In a cocktail shaker, combine all ingredients and add ice. Shake well. Pour into a highball glass. Garnish with wedge of lime. * WINE OF THE MONTH 2014 Domaines Schlumberger Pinot Noir "Les Princes Abbes France ($26) Fans of pinot noir generally fall into one of two camps - those who prefer the rich, ripe "New World" style typified by California pinots, and "Old World" purists who treasure the lightness and delicacy of classic Burgundy. Count me in the latter camp. Pinot noir from Burgundy's Cote de Beaune district, in particular, is among the lightest of all red wines, both in color and body. But the bouquet and flavor can be magically alluring. The only catch: Good Burgundy is very expensive - $35 and up. Domaines Schlumberger is in Alsace, a vineyard area in eastern France better known for its white wines. But the region also produces some excellent pinots much in the style of Burgundy. And usually much less expensive. A black man who works as a painter for Jersey City public schools alleges in a new lawsuit that a white supervisor called his hair "nappy" during a work assignment. The plaintiff, Edward Dunbar, alleges the supervisor, custodian Donald Cicchetti, had previously harassed other school district employees and district officials did little to punish him. The allegations are contained in the two-count lawsuit filed Nov. 20 in Hudson County Superior Court. Cicchetti, the school district and the school board are named as defendants. The district's spokeswoman declined to comment. Cicchetti could not be reached to comment. The alleged incident between Dunbar and Cicchetti occurred in February 2017 at School 15, the lawsuit says. After that day, Dunbar "suffered embarrassment, humiliation, emotional distress, was demoralized and suffered the fear of another confrontation by the defendant," according to the lawsuit. According to a letter obtained by The Jersey Journal, the district in May 2017 found Cicchetti violated district policy after an investigation into a complaint by another of his subordinates who alleged he repeatedly harassed her. Dunbar is seeking unspecified damages. St. Marys Ukrainian Catholic Church in Carteret was deemed a total loos after a three-alarm fire ripped through the building Tuesday night, officials said. The fire broke out around 10 p.m. at the 64-year-old church on the 700 block of Roosevelt Avenue, a main road in the northern Middlesex County town. The fire started in the right rear corner of the building in a concealed spaced between floors before it spread to the attic and then the churchs roof, Carteret Fire Department Chief Mark Hruska said. Crews from several towns assisted Carteret firefighters in extinguishing the fire. The cause was under investigation Wednesday night, Hruska said. Opened in 1954, the church is affiliated with the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia. Anyone wishing to assist the churchs parishioners may make donations to the Carteret Business Partnership. All of the money collected will go to the church, Mayor Dan Reiman said. The cause A New Jersey man who ran a sex-trafficking ring out hotels in Pennsylvania has been sentenced to 18 to 36 years in prison. Dominic Roach, of Camden, forced two drug-addicted women into prostitution and took the money they collected in what Lancaster County Assistant District Attorney Karen Mansfield described as modern-day slavery at last weeks sentencing. Human trafficking is quite simply despicable and those who commit these acts are predators on so many levels, District Attorney Craig Stedman said in a news release. Roach brought the women to seven hotels along Route 30 in Lancaster County where they had sex with customers for money. In exchange, Roach provided the women with drugs and let them keep a small amount of money. He was convicted of 15 felonies and three misdemeanors in September. Authorities said Roach received half of the payments and made the women pay for the drugs he supplied them as well as half of the hotel charges, which totaled at least $26,000. He also used the money to rent a car to travel from New Jersey to collect money from the women each week. Roach, who was 37 at the time of his conviction, had $1,073 in cash and a credit card belonging to one of the victims when was taken into custody. Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook. A 21-year-old East Orange woman was arrested Tuesday and charged in the hit-and-run death of a New Jersey Institute of Technology student. Brianna Williams, of East Orange, was charged with knowingly leaving the scene of an accident involving death and failure to render aid, Essex County Prosecutors Office Spokeswoman Katherine Carter said. Naomi R. Segura, of Byram Township, was struck by a car on Nov. 13 at 9:20 p.m. near Central Avenue and Summit Street in Newark at Nov. 13, officials said. The prosecutors office said the car that struck Segura did not stop, but a second car at the scene stopped and called for help. She was rushed to University Hospital, but died about four hours later. Segura was a senior majoring in law, technology and culture and was very involved at the schools Murray Center for Women in Technology, NJIT Dean of Students Marybeth Boger said. Williams' detention hearing was scheduled for Thursday. Chris Sheldon may be reached at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrisrsheldon Find NJ.com on Facebook. In the wake of a federal court decision that sustained the political corruption convictions of two aides to former Gov. Chris Christie, attorneys for Bill Baroni and Bridget Anne Kelly plan to go higher with their appeals. Kelly's attorney, Michael Critchley of West Orange, said he intends 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 to 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, 46, faces 24 months in prison. Kelly, 45, was sentenced to a term of 18 months. They have both remained free on bail while their appeals were argued, but the trial judge in the case could move to revoke bail now that the Third Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the convictions of both. The two were found guilty in November 2016 in plan of political retribution 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 walked away from an expected endorsement during Christie's re-election campaign for governor. Baroni, the former deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and Kelly, who served as Christie's deputy chief of staff, were charged with misusing the resources of the Port Authority "to pursue a purely personal vendetta." Read Third Circuit ruling on Bridgegate appeal: Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL. Facebook: @TedSherman.reporter. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Authorities have charged two more contractors with ripping off at least 10 people whose homes were damaged during Hurricane Sandy more than six years ago. In separate cases, former Ocean County residents Paul Rueda, 46, of League City, Texas and John F. Bishop, 54, of Celebration, Florida are charged with second-degree theft, the Ocean County Prosecutors Office said Tuesday. Bishop, the owner of John Paul Builders, is being sought by authorities while Rueda was arrested by police in League City and is being held in the Galveston County jail to await extradition back to New Jersey. Each contractor was given more than $75,000 by homeowners for work that neither finished, authorities said. Bishop took money from six homeowners, while Rueda, the owner of PKR Construction, was paid by four. Bishop has not been taken into custody as of Wednesday morning, a spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutors Office said. Brick, Point Pleasant Borough, Little Egg Harbor and Middletown police assisted in the investigations. Anyone with information about Bishops whereabouts is asked to call Det. Lindsay Llauget of the prosecutors office at 732-929-2027 extension 3462. Tips can also be emailed to the U.S. Marshals at usms.wanted@usdoj.gov. By Marjorie A. Paloma Recently, more than 1 million New Jerseyans gained access to paid sick leave benefits, thanks to a new state law that requires most employers to provide earned sick days for full-time and part-time workers. Under the law, workers no longer must choose between going to work sick or losing a day's pay. Parents no longer have to scramble for child care when their kids come down with a bug. That's the law, anyway. Whether people feel supported to use their new benefit is another matter. That will depend on the culture and norms where they work, and whether they believe it's really OK -- in the minds of their bosses and colleagues -- to take a sick day. I'm fortunate to work at a place with a culture that puts employee health and well-being first. But not everyone is so lucky. I remember the day we learned of our son's allergy to peanut butter. My wife was dropping him off at pre-school, but when his faced swelled up and he began wheezing, she rushed him to the emergency room. As I arrived at the hospital, our son was being hooked up to an IV. I stayed with him, but my wife left because she had to get to the office. Although her company had paid sick leave, no one ever took it not for sickness, not for a family emergency, not even for the birth of a child. It was a benefit in name only. Related: Nearly all N.J. workers will be entitled to paid sick leave very soon. Heres what you need to know. At the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, where I work, we believe that everyone regardless of where they live, what kind of job they have, or how much money they make should have the basics for good health. We want to ensure that everyone can care for themselves and their families when they are ill, without losing pay, having to use vacation time, or worrying about retribution. New Jersey has a history of enacting strong laws to support the health of workers and their families. In addition to the new paid sick leave law, New Jersey is one of only four states with a paid family leave law providing longer-term leave for workers to care for newborns or sick family members. These are critical steps, but New Jersey can do even better. We need the full support of employers not only for health-promoting workplace policies like paid sick and family leave but also for workplace environments, cultures and norms that promote health for all employees and their families. Businesses are essential partners in ensuring that New Jersey is the healthiest it can be. It's not only the right thing to do, but, for business, it is also the smart thing to do. A healthier workforce lowers health care costs and increases productivity. And healthier communities help attract and retain the best talent. Paid sick leave benefits improve productivity by reducing transmission of contagious illness. For example, workplace flu rates are about 10 percent lower among employers that offer sick leave because fewer employees come to work sick. Having paid sick leave is also associated with increased use of preventive care services, including flu vaccinations and cancer screenings. In addition, paid sick leave means less stress for workers and their families. Research has found that workers without paid sick leave benefits report higher levels of mental stress than workers who have paid sick leave. RWJF is funding new research to uncover other potential benefits of paid sick leave too. Businesses of all sizes can help make their communities better, healthier places to live, in part through policies, such as paid sick and family leave, to promote good health for workers and their families. But equally important is a workplace culture where employees know that their health is valued and where everyone feels comfortable using the benefits and polices designed to help them maintain and improve their health without judgement and without repercussions. Laws can only go so far in creating opportunities for good health. All of uswhether were in business, education, public service, or other sectors must work together to embed support for good health as a shared value across our society. Thats how we will ensure that everyone in New Jersey and in America has a fair and just opportunity to achieve the best health possible. Marjorie A. Paloma is a senior director at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. More opinion and commentary at NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook. By Paul Waldman Over the course of the Russia scandal, there have been a few days when we've said, "This is a blockbuster development," the revelation of new information that will shape the course of the scandal. For instance, when we learned that President Donald Trump dictated Donald Trump Jr.'s statement falsifying the rationale for the 2016 Trump Tower meeting, everyone understood it was vitally important, because the president was a key actor in covering up what seemed like a pretty clear case of collusion. Today might turn out to be another of those blockbuster days, because we have not one but two new and potentially vital developments. Both of them involve former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and while it's always possible they'll turn out to be inconsequential, the fact that the president himself is highly distressed, shown through a series of Tuesday morning tweets, suggests otherwise: 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 The first development came when special counsel Robert Mueller asked a federal court to begin sentencing proceedings for Manafort, sentencing that was on hold while Manafort cooperated with Muellers team. According to the filing: 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. This is obviously bad news for Manafort, because without his plea agreement he could spend many more years in jail. But it could also be bad news for Trump. This is where, I must stress, things get speculative. But before we get to the speculation, there are some important pieces of context. First, it's unlikely that Mueller would be withdrawing Manafort's plea agreement unless he had specific evidence demonstrating that Manafort lied. He's going to lay that evidence out for the court as the judge considers what sentence to give Manafort, in what amounts to another indictment. Second, Trump's lawyers and Manafort's lawyers have a joint defense agreement that allows them to share information. And third, Trump recently completed a set of written answers to Mueller's questions. Marcy Wheeler explains what all that might mean: Muellers team appears to have no doubt that Manafort was lying to them. That means they didnt really need his testimony, at all. It also means they had no need to keep secrets - they could keep giving Manafort the impression that he was pulling a fast one over the prosecutors, all while reporting misleading information to Trump that he could use to fill out his open book test. Which increases the likelihood that Trump just submitted sworn answers to those questions full of lies. That Manafort would lie to prosecutors after signing an agreement with them is not exactly surprising. This is someone who spent a career somersaulting across every imaginable ethical and legal line; he even allegedly engaged in witness tampering while under house arrest as he awaited trial. But even if Mueller is right that Manafort has been lying to him, we don't yet know what about. It could have nothing to do with Trump. But if it does, and if Trump made the same assertions in his written answers that Manafort made, and if Mueller has evidence disproving those assertions, it would mean Trump committed perjury and perhaps obstruction of justice as well. Thats a lot of ifs, which is why were going to have to wait until Mueller lays all his cards on the table to see the true magnitude of this development. Which brings us to the second of the days potentially enormous stories, from the Guardian: "Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort held secret talks with Julian Assange inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and visited around the time he joined Trump's 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 Trump's push for the White House. "It is unclear why Manafort wanted to see Assange and what was discussed. But the last 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. 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. We have to be careful about this story, because the sourcing -- anonymous Ecuadoreans connected to the government -- is less than ironclad, even if the Guardian did its best to verify the claims. But if it is true that Manafort met with Assange in spring 2016, it would be almost ludicrous to think they didnt discuss the Democratic emails stolen by Russia that WikiLeaks was soon to release in order to damage Hillary Clintons candidacy. Did Trump's campaign chairman Paul Manafort have advance knowledge of the centerpiece of the Russian effort to manipulate the 2016 election? (Getty Images file photos used in Prisma illustration) And if that were true, it would mean the Trump campaign -- or at least the Trump campaign chairman -- had advance knowledge of the centerpiece of the Russian effort to manipulate the 2016 election. And - to add the final link in this chain of speculation on my part - if this meeting with Assange and whatever accompanied it is one of the things Mueller will say Manafort lied to him about, then that would mean Mueller has direct evidence of -- wait for it -- collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, at the very least indirectly through WikiLeaks. These questions will hopefully be answered when Mueller submits his document to the federal court laying out the case that Manafort lied to investigators after he entered a plea agreement promising to tell them the whole truth. If that document is made public, well learn what he said, what the truth is, and perhaps who hes covering up for. And then Trump might have even more reason to be angry. Paul Waldman is an opinion writer for the Washington Post's Plum Line blog. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook. WASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo is retiring after 24 years, and the U.S. House on Tuesday figured out a way to honor the South Jersey congressman. Legislation to fund and make changes to Coast Guard operations cleared the House Tuesday after the bill was named for LoBiondo. The Frank LoBiondo Coast Guard Authorization Act authorizes funding for Coast Guard operations and construction for this year and next. The House approved it by voice vote and sent the measure to President Donald Trump for his signature. The Senate had approved the legislation earlier this month, 94-6, with both U.S. Sens. Cory Booker and Robert Menendez, D-N.J., voting yes. "There have been very few issues which have been so bipartisan across the board," said LoBiondo, one of the more bipartisan members in the House. "In many respects, I wish we could have done more over the years." "I want to thank all of my colleagues who made this day possible," he said. LoBiondo, R-2nd Dist., did not seek re-election after serving for 24 years in the House. He formerly chaired the Coast Guard subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and currently serves as the aviation subcommittee chair. He served on the Coast Guard subcommittee for all but two years of his tenure in Washington. His district includes the Coast Guard's training center in Cape May and air station in Atlantic City. "His colleagues decided to name the bill after him as a testament to his service in the House, and as a strong supporter of the Coast Guard through the years," said Justin Harclerode, a spokesman for the Transportation Committee. The bill removes the requirement that commercial fishermen comply with separate rules issued by the Coast Guard and Environmental Protection Agency to discharge ballast water such as rain water and condensation from air conditioning. Now, the Coast Guard will develop and enforce regulations based on EPA standards for discharges. "This compromise ensures that the livelihoods of thousands of South Jersey fishermen are no longer threatened by duplicative federal bureaucracy and conflicting arbitrary standards," LoBiondo said. The measure also gives the Coast Guard new powers to fight drug smuggling, allows it buy national security cutters over a period of years, and requests a review of the steps needed to protect the safety of the Arctic. It takes steps to increase recreational boating safety. LoBiondo sat on the House floor as lawmakers of both parties praised him during the debate. "Congressman LoBiondo is and has been a tireless advocate for the men and women of the Coast Guard and there is no other name more fitting for this bill," said Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif. "It is fitting that this bill is named for him as he is a champion of all things transportation," said Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash. LoBiondo's South Jersey seat was one of four Republican-held New Jersey districts that flipped to the Democrats Nov. 6. State Sen. Jeff Van Drew, D-Cape May, defeated lawyer Seth Grossman to win the seat. The House also cleared legislation sponsored by Rep. Chris Smith to allow the administration to fund groups providing aid to religious and ethnic minorities who have been victims of genocide or other war crimes, and support those investigating the Islamic State's role in those atrocities. That bill also waits Trump's signature. "When genocide or other atrocity crimes are perpetrated, the United States should direct humanitarian, stabilization, and recovery aid to enable these people to survive-especially when they are minorities whose existence as a people is at-risk," said Smith, R-4th Dist. Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook WASHINGTON -- Senate Republicans on Wednesday struck down a new effort by U.S. Sen. Cory Booker and others to make it harder for President Donald Trump to fire special counsel Robert Mueller. Booker, D-N.J., joined U.S. Sens. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Chris Coons, D-Del., in seeking to advance legislation that would allow a special counsel to be fired only for good cause by a senior Justice Department official under reasons given in writing. The special counsel would have 10 days to appeal his dismissal to a federal judge. "This is a proactive bill, aimed at ensuring now and in the future we have appropriate checks and balances in place to prevent a constitutional crisis," Booker said on the Senate floor. U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, blocked the Senate from debating the measure, saying Congress, the legislative branch, did not have the power to put constraints on the Justice Department, which come under the purview of the executive branch. He cited the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in saying that protecting the special counsel would create a "de facto fourth branch of government, fundamentally undermining the separation of powers that is so core to our liberty." Coons and Booker are the Democratic co-sponsors of the bipartisan measure, which passed the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee in April. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., blocked a similar effort to bring the bill to the Senate floor Nov 14. Their concern was that Trump will take action to stymie Mueller's ongoing probe into whether the president's campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election. They and Flake all mentioned Trump's recent tweets criticizing the investigation, which the president has derided as a "witch hunt" even as Mueller has secured the indictments of at least 32 individuals, according to Vox. While the disgusting Fake News is doing everything within their power not to report it that way, at least 3 major players are intimating that the Angry Mueller Gang of Dems is viciously telling witnesses to lie about facts & they will get relief. This is our Joseph McCarthy Era! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 28, 2018 The Mueller Witch Hunt is a total disgrace. They are looking at supposedly stolen Crooked Hillary Clinton Emails (even though they dont want to look at the DNC Server), but have no interest in the Emails that Hillary DELETED & acid washed AFTER getting a Congressional Subpoena! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 28, 2018 They also cited Trump's decision to force Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign and appoint Matthew Whitaker to take over the Justice Department and the probe. Whitaker has been critical of the investigation. "No one, not even the president of the United States, is above the law," Booker said. "We must act quickly to protect and secure this fundamental democratic ideal. This is a sobered, measured, bipartisan bill that will achieve those ends." Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. Update: Massive N.J. house explosion rocks town. 'The scope is just incredible' An explosion late Tuesday obliterated a Sussex County home, damaged nearby Wallkill Valley Regional High School and could be felt by residents for miles, authorities said. The Hardyston home was a total loss, but no one was home at the time and no injuries were reported as a result of the blast, authorities said. The explosion and a fire occurred shortly after 11 p.m. on Grumm Road, across the street from Wallkill Valley Regional, according to the Hardyston Volunteer Fire Department. Wallkill High School will be closed Wednesday as a result of the damage. The blast could be heard for miles and shook surrounding towns. "(The) noise was like something falling out if the sky. Our house shook," Betsy Knicos Fallon wrote on Facebook. The Jefferson Chronicle reported the explosion could be felt from Sussex County to Totowa in Passaic County. The publication cited two 100-pound propane tanks that were leaking as the cause of the blast. BREAKING UPDATE: A house on Grumm Road in Hardyston exploded due to two leaking 100-pound propane tanks Tuesday night.... Posted by The Jefferson Chronicle on Tuesday, November 27, 2018 ABC7ny.com reported residents from neighboring towns called 911 to report there may have been an earthquake. The cause of the blast has not been disclosed by authorities. The fire department reported units from Hardyston and surrounding towns had finished working the scene by 2 a.m. Grumm Road will be closed indefinitely, authorities said. Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook. You knew it was just a matter of time before Yankees general manager Brian Cashman got an audience with free-agent left-hander Patrick Corbin. Per Joel Sherman of the New York Post, the meeting will come on Thursday: Patrick Corbin will be in New York meeting with #Yankees officials tmrw. As of now there is no plan to meet on this same visit with #Mets execs. Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) November 28, 2018 Corbin is continuing an East Coast tour which started Tuesday, when he visited the Philadelphia Phillies. MLB.coms Jon Morosi reports the Phillies will be aggressive in their pursuit of Corbin: The Phillies arent 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 its 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. Going into the offseason, Cashman insisted starting pitching is his top priority. Hes already added Mariners left-hander James Paxton in a deal which sent top pitching prospect Justus Sheffield to Seattle. The Yankees continue to be linked to the top pitchers on the free-agent market, including Corbin and J.A. Happ. If Cashman wants to pursue another trade for pitching, several aces are available, including the Cleveland Indians' Corey Kluber, Arizona Diamondbacks' Zack Greinke and San Francisco Giants' Madison Bumgarner. As far as free agents, they dont get much better this winter than Corbin. The 29-year-old Corbin went 11-7 with a 3.15 ERA in 2018 and finished fifth in voting for the National League Cy Young Award. Corbin could be one of several Diamondbacks with new addresses for 2019. The club is also shopping slugging first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, although the Yankees are not seen as an ideal fit, as they continue to be linked to the top sluggers on the market, Manny Machado and Bryce Harper. Learning kitchens, classrooms and an event space are taking shape at the five-story, $32 million New Orleans Culinary & Hospitality Institute, which will open in the old Louisiana ArtWorks building at Howard Avenue and Carondelet Street. The institute will welcome its first students in January. NOCHI President Carol Markowitz joined institute founders Ti Adelaide Martin, Dickie Brennan and George Brower on Tuesday (Nov. 27) to give supporters, including high-profile culinary leaders like Emeril Lagasse and Leah Chase, a first look at the new facility. Lagasse announced that his Emeril Lagasse Foundation would match all donations to the facility up to $250,000. Ti Martin, co-owner of Commanders Palace, said she and others on the team envision NOCHI as the culinary epicenter of New Orleans and, one day, the nation, bringing both professionals and enthusiasts together to learn, cook and taste. She called on industry leaders to share input and to consider donating money as the institute gets ready to open its doors. NOCHI is from, of and for our city and our industry, Martin said. Many, many, many people have had their fingerprints on NOCHI already and they did it because they believed, they believed that we could ignite careers. See video, recorded Tuesday on Facebook Live, from inside the NOCHI facility below. NOCHI, pronounced no-kee similar to the Italian potato dumpling, gnocchi, has been a years-long endeavor for Markowitz and the founding team. The building at 725 Howard Ave. was originally part of a furniture company warehouse and later designed to be a world-class art studio. That project, known as Louisiana ArtWorks, ultimately failed. Early this year, NOCHI signed a cooperative endeavor agreement with the Ernest N. Morial New Orleans Exhibition Hall Authority that allowed them to acquire the former ArtWorks building and move the project forward. The North American Association of Food Equipment Manufacturers also agreed to donated roughly $5 million worth of kitchen equipment, ranging from silverware to industrial ovens. The donation alongside gifts from a host of local foundations mark a critical investment in workforce development, Markowitz said. On Tuesday night, the freshly-painted walls of the 93,000-square-foot culinary facility were visible from the large, open ground-floor common area, though theres still work to be done. Attendees gathered in McIlhenny Hall, an event space on the facilitys fifth floor named after the Tabasco family, and bellied up to a large bar in a renovated neighboring room, which will host the institutes cocktail and wine classes, and other programming. 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 On the second floor, wood-top work tables, an industrial mixing machine and various stainless steel equipment awaited students in a pastry lab. The shape of an open kitchen and bar occupied the first floor corner facing Carondelet Street, where the institute is planning a cafe and bar that will be open to the public. When complete, the facility will have five dedicated teaching kitchens, the retail cafe and bar space on the first floor, the fifth-floor event center and rooftop terraces, and office space for NOCHI and Tulane University. Tulane plans to launch a new program in hospitality entrepreneurship from the institute. Training programs and courses offered at NOCHI will use curriculum vetted by the Culinary Institute of America. Tuition and fees for an entry-level, four-semester culinary arts and pastry program total $14,775, and financial aid and scholarships are available, according to the institutes website. Soon, local teens will be learning the fundamentals for a career as a chef in its classroom kitchens, and experienced professionals will earn credentials in wine, cocktails or business -- credentials that lead to leaps of the career and create career pathways that once seemed unattainable, Martin said. The building will open and classes will launch Jan. 2, 2019. Registration for its inaugural spring 2019 courses remains open, according to its website. Commander's Palace is restaurant of the year for 2018 Jennifer Larino covers residential real estate, retail and consumer news, travel and cruises, weather and other aspects of life in New Orleans for NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. Reach her at jlarino@nola.com or 504-239-1424. Follow her on Twitter @jenlarino. Two men, one in a dark-colored ski mask, robbed a man and woman at gunpoint Monday night (Nov. 26) in the French Quarter, according to New Orleans police. The robbery on Burgundy Street was one of four armed holdups reported within a 12-hour span Monday, the NOPD said in a daily report of major offenses. The other three occurred in the Fontainebleau area, Algiers and in New Orleans East, where two men in ski masks targeted a Pizza Hut on Crowder Boulevard. The French Quarter robbery took place about 9:10 p.m. in the 800 block of Burgundy Street. A 45-year-old man and a 28-year-old woman were walking home when they stopped on the street to look at furniture, police said in an initial report. One of the robbers then approached the pair from behind and, while pointing a gun, demanded the womans wallet. The second robber then appeared and demanded the 45-year-old mans wallet. The 45-year-old and the robbers exchanged words, with the robbers telling the victims to keep walking, according to the preliminary report. The duo made off with the victims belongings, the NOPD said. A half-hour earlier, two armed men, their faces covered by black cloths, held up a Pizza Hut in the West Lake Forest area of New Orleans East. The gunmen entered the eatery in the 5700 block of Crowder Boulevard about 8:40 p.m. One man went behind the counter and took cash from the register, while the other watched the door, police said. The men then ran from the restaurant. The NOPD was unable to provide information on the number of people in the Pizza Hut at the time of the robbery. Police also responded to a carjacking Monday evening near Fontainebleau Drive. Two women, ages 50 and 71, were carjacked at gunpoint about 6 p.m., after pulling into a driveway in the 8000 block of Belfast Street, the NOPD said in a preliminary report. Two armed men approached either side of the car in the driveway, demanded the womens belongings and then ordered them out of the car, police said. One of the men appeared to be in his late 20s or early 30s, while the other appeared between 17 and 23. The men drove off in the vehicle, a silver 2007 Honda Accord, heading east on Belfast Street towards Fern Street. 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 stolen Accord has four doors, a non-functioning headlight on the drivers side, a California license plate with an unknown number on the front and Oklahoma license plate ATS245 in the rear. Anyone with information on the stolen vehicle or the carjacking is asked to call NOPD 2nd District detectives at 504-658-6020. Police are searching for a teenager in connection with another armed carjacking reported Monday, this time in Algiers. A 66-year-old man was robbed of his vehicle, keys, cellphone and money after arriving to the 500 block of Park Boulevard to meet with a potential client, police said in a preliminary report. The robbery was reported about 1:40 p.m. The 66-year-old man was parked in front of the meeting spot when an unknown man got into the rear passenger side of the vehicle and demanded the victims property at gunpoint. The gunman, later identified as 17-year-old Joshua Simmons, is suspected of taking the victims belongings, including his car, according to the NOPD. Simmons is wanted on a charge of armed robbery with a firearm. According to Orleans Parish court records, Simmons appeared in magistrate court last week in connection with an open burglary charge. He was arrested Oct. 21 in the burglary and was released the following day on his own recognizance, court records show. A photo of Simmons was not available Tuesday night. Anyone with information on the Algiers robbery or Simmons whereabouts is asked to call NOPD 4th District detectives at 504-658-6040. Submit an anonymous tip on any of the robberies above by calling Crimestoppers at 504-822-1111 or toll-free at 1-877-903-STOP. Laura McKnight covers crime and breaking news for NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. Simeon Dickerson, in a runoff for the Jefferson Parish School Boards 5th District seat, sued opponent Cedric Floyd on Tuesday (Nov. 27), alleging the incumbent smeared his reputation with misleading and/or defamatory campaign statements. Dickerson asked Louisianas 24th Judicial District Court for a restraining order before the Dec. 8 runoff. Floyd did not immediately return a call for comment. He lead the Nov. 6 primary with 43 percent of the vote to Dickersons 37 percent. Dolores Dee Dunn, with 20 percent, was eliminated. Dickerson sued Floyd and the incumbents attorney, Ronald Wilson, putting into the court record two campaign flyers to which he objected. One suggests Dickerson lied to get a job and was arrested in 1997, and the other says Dickerson is not certified to teach public school. Jefferson Parish fills 4 School Board seats; 3 runoffs remain In reality, Dickerson says, he teaches seventh- and eighth-grade science at Robert Russa Moton Charter School in New Orleans. And he cites court records saying the criminal charges against him, auto theft and resisting an officer, were dropped because his fingerprints did not match those of the person who was arrested. 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 lawsuit, which has been allotted to Judge Nancy Miller, adds some spice to the runoff campaigns for three remaining seats on the nine-member School Board. Floyd is endorsed by the teachers union, Dickerson by a loose coalition of business activists who wrestled the union for control of the School Board in 2010 and 2014. Teachers union, business activists compete again for Jefferson Parish School Board control . . . . . . . Drew Broach covers Jefferson Parish politics and education, plus other odds and ends, for NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. Email: dbroach@nola.com. Facebook: Drew Broach TP. Twitter: drewbroach1. Google+: Drew Broach. A state appeals court has reversed a New Orleans judges ruling that would have prevented prosecutors from presenting facts of past crimes at the upcoming trial of a man charged with robbing a Dominos driver at gunpoint in 2014. Louisianas Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal said the state can introduce evidence of Richard Chris Yeagers homicide and a separate armed robbery that occurred 26 hours prior at Shane Hughes next trial. Appellate judges said prosecutors also can tell a jury about two armed robberies Hughes committed when he was a juvenile. Hughes, 20, and Rendell Brown were charged with beating and robbing a woman at gunpoint in her driveway on Newcomb Boulevard on Sept. 20, 2014. The next night, prosecutors said the two then-16-year-olds robbed Yeager, a 35-year-old French Quarter DJ, after he delivered a pizza in the 2800 block of St. Louis Street in Mid-City. They shot him 10 times and stole his car. Data from their electronic ankle monitors placed Hughes and Brown at the scenes of each crime. Brown pleaded guilty in March to two counts of armed robbery and one count of manslaughter, and was sentenced to 40 years in prison. Hughes was acquitted in May in Yeagers killing, and also in the Uptown armed robbery. Jurors could not reach a decision on Hughes involvement in Yeagers armed robbery, and prosecutors plan to retry him on that charge. At the first trial, defense attorneys John Fuller and Gregory Carter argued Hughes didnt play a role in either incident. Ankle monitor data showed Hughes was leaving the scenes as the crimes were happening, they said. A week after the verdict in Hughes case, Assistant District Attorney Sarah Dawkins filed a motion asking Judge Byron Williams to allow evidence of the crimes for which Hughes was acquitted be admitted at his next trial. She said the facts of those crimes were relevant to prove intent. 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 Carter argued in response the alleged evidence was irrelevant and prejudicial. Williams agreed with Dawkins, and said details about the Uptown robbery and Yeagers homicide could be presented to a jury. Dawkins later filed a motion saying she planned to introduce evidence of 2012 and 2013 armed robberies Hughes committed at his next trial. Williams later stepped down from the bench, and the case was handled by interim judges. At a hearing, Ad Hoc Judge Calvin Johnson said the evidence of those robberies couldnt be admitted. He also ruled the evidence Williams previously said could be admitted should be excluded. Prosecutors asked the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal to review Johnsons decision. In their ruling Wednesday, Fourth Circuit Judges Regina Bartholomew-Woods, Joy Cossich Lobrano and Tiffany G. Chase said Johnson abused his discretion in denying the states motions. An acquittal does not automatically bar evidence of a defendants prior act from being used by the state in a subsequent trial, the justices wrote. They said evidence of previous crimes Hughes allegedly committed are indeed relevant for admissible purposes and can be used to rebut the defenses claim that Hughes was an innocent bystander when the armed robbery of Yeager occurred. Hughes is scheduled to appear in court next week for a status hearing on his case. A 60-year-old man is accused of hitting a woman and then, after her teenaged children intervened, cutting her with a knife early Tuesday (Nov. 27) in New Orleans East, according to New Orleans police. Anthony Wade, 60, was booked into the Orleans Justice Center jail with aggravated battery, simple battery, simple assault and simple criminal damage to property, jail records show. The aggravated battery by cutting was reported about 12:30 a.m. Tuesday in the 1000 block of Chimney Wood Lane, just outside of the Pines Village area. According to an initial report by the NOPD, Wade and a 32-year-old woman were involved in an altercation and Wade struck the woman multiple times. When the womans 17-year-old and 14-year-old intervened, Wade took out a knife and cut the woman in her right hand, police said. The victim was transported to a local hospital by EMS. An Orleans Parish Magistrate Commissioner on Tuesday set Wades bond at $16,500 and issued a domestic stay-away order. According to Orleans Parish court records, Wade has been arrested at least twice before on suspicion of domestic abuse. 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 He was arrested on a charge of domestic-abuse battery in August 2017 and convicted three months later of an amended charge of disturbing the peace, court records show. He was sentenced in November 2017 to 90 days in jail, suspended, with 90 days of inactive probation. Wade also has open charges of aggravated assault with a firearm and domestic-abuse aggravated assault in connection with an incident reported in March of this year. His bond was set at $5,000. An Orleans Parish Magistrate judge also issued a domestic stay-away order in that case, court records show. Laura McKnight covers crime and breaking news for NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. 2 robbed at gunpoint in French Quarter in 1 of 4 armed holdups reported Monday in New Orleans Erik Beasley, 39, was caught on camera filling up a gasoline jug less than an hour before firefighters discovered his mother burned to death inside their New Orleans East home Friday night (Nov. 23), according to police records. Beasley arrived at a gas station a half mile from the residence around 10:05 p.m. and purchased two one-gallon jugs of water, according to a warrant for his arrest. Outside the station, Beasley emptied the jugs and filled one with gasoline from a nearby pump. He then hopped in a car and drove away. Thirty minutes later, firefighters discovered his mother charred and dead inside their shared home. An empty water jug lay nearby, police said. 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 official confirmation of the womans identity -- is still under investigation. Of the burns covering 90 percent of Sarah Beasleys body, those on her face, chest and belly were the most severe. She lay on a burned chaise, but the rest of the room appeared untouched by the flames. Soot filled her airway and lungs, suggesting that she had died as a result of smoke inhalation and was therefore alive at the time of the burning, according to information from the Orleans Parish Coroners Office cited in the warrant. The detectives did not find any signs of forced entry into the home in the 4700 block of Corinne Street in New Orleans Easts Read Boulevard East neighborhood. Sarah Beasley lived with her son Erik Beasley and husband inside the residence. Her husband provided an account of his movements prior to returning home and discovering the crime, police said. The detectives then turned their attention towards Erik Beasley, who was stopped early Saturday while driving his car, police said. Detective Jake Engle issued a warrant for Beasleys arrest after discovering the footage from the gas station Monday (Nov. 26). Beasley was booked at the Orleans Justice Center jail a day later around 1:05 p.m. on charges of second-degree murder and aggravated arson, jail records show. Man accused of killing his mother in Friday fire has been arrested: NOPD 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 Beasley 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. Beasley has a lengthy criminal record in Orleans and surrounding parishes with criminal damage to property and sexual battery convictions dating back to 2013. In one incident reported by Kenner Police, Beasley threatened his supervisor with a serrated knife when he was unable to pick up his paycheck on time from a Kenner moving company in February 2013. 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. Beasley appeared in magistrate court Tuesday night where Magistrate Court Commissioner Albert Thibodeaux set his bond at $900,000 for the two charges. Barksdale Hortenstine, the Orleans Public Defenders Office attorney who represented Beasley Tuesday night, is listed as the agencys senior attorney for mental health litigation. Hortenstine filed a motion to assert Beasleys fifth and sixth amendment rights in order to prohibit any person from speaking with Beasley about his history and crime without Hortenstines presence. Beasley will next appear in court Dec. 11 for a preliminary hearing. The body of a newborn was found in the back of a waste management truck in Tickfaw midday Wednesday (Nov. 28), according to the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriffs Office. A waste management worker discovered the body around 11:30 a.m. while he was performing his regular job duties, the sheriffs office said. The Tangipahoa Parish Coroners Office pronounced the infant dead at the scene. The Louisiana Safe Haven Law allows parents to anonymously relinquish a child who is up to 60-days-old without fear of prosecution. The infant can be given to employees at firehouses, hospitals, police stations or other public or quasi-public places. After being brought to the nearest medical facility, the baby will be placed in a familys care by the Department of Children and Family Services. A listing of designated Safe Haven locations can be found here. Anyone with information regarding the Tickfaw incident is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at 800.554.5245. 33 babies given up anonymously to state in last decade due to Safe Haven law A Ponchatoula turtle farmer was sentenced Tuesday (Nov. 26) to two years of probation and a $15,000 fine for illegally shipping 1,500 false map turtles to a buyer in the Netherlands, according to the local U.S. Attorneys office. Keith D. Boudreaux, 56, received the sentence from U.S. District Judge Jay C. Zainey after pleading guilty in August to submitting falsified export documents to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in connection with the shipment of turtles. The shipment had a market value of $2,550, court records show. According to court documents, Boudreaux owns and operates Tangi Turtle Farm and exports freshwater turtles that he raises on his farm. He held a permit allowing him to export his turtles around the world on an expedited basis. However, under such a permit, a farmer is not allowed to export turtles produced by another breeder or turtles captured in the wild. A federal inspector discovered that in August 2013, Boudreaux submitted paperwork falsely claiming that he shipped turtles bred and hatched from parental stock at Tangi Turtle Farm, court records show. However, other paperwork showed the turtles actually came from a farm in Monterey, La. After discovering the illegal shipment, the inspector conducted an audit of turtles shipped under Boudreauxs permit and found that from 2012 to 2014, Boudreaux made 29 illegal shipments of turtles. The shipments had a total market value of $61,950. 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 During a subsequent interview with agents, Boudreaux admitted to exporting turtles that were bed and raised by other farmers, which is illegal under his permit, court records show. The case was investigated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. NOLA.com | The Times-Picayunes Robert Rhoden contributed to this report. Laura McKnight covers crime and breaking news for NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. North Shore turtle farmer pleads guilty to illegal exporting Ochsner Health System is teaming up with a California-based health technology company in an effort to help New Orleans area schools stay one step ahead of the spread of illnesses this winter. Last month, Ochsner announced that its partnering with 23 schools in the region to provide a Kinsa Smart Thermometer to families and staff members this fall. The device, created by Kinsa Inc., is an app-enabled smart thermometer that tracks fever, symptoms and influenza-like-illness activity in real time. The device also provides guidance on next steps if fever or symptoms are cause for concern. Ochsner Health System spokeswoman Giselle Hecker said parents can download the app and join their childs school group to monitor trends within their school to enable earlier detection and response to any spreading illnesses. Hecker said app users can only see the personal health information they input for the members of their own household. The app doesnt share personal information with other users because the app follows federal laws restricting the release of medical information and student education records. Information shared in the school groups stays anonymous and aggregated to allow parents to only see the number, but not the identities, of the students in a specific grade who are sick with flu-like or cold symptoms, Hecker said. Ochsners debut of these smart devices come as flu season is underway. The Centers for Disease Control states flu viruses are most common during the fall and winter months. The months of October and November in particular experience increased flu activity, and the CDC states flu activity peaks between December and February. This January, emergency rooms in hospitals across New Orleans experienced an unprecedented volume of patients due in large part to the nations widespread flu outbreak. Flu overwhelming emergency rooms in New Orleans Dr. Amanda Jackson, a pediatrician at Ochsner Hospital for Children, said in a statement that she hopes Ochsners partnership with Kinsa will provide ease to parents by helping students avoid illnesses. If students experience a fever or any symptoms, the Kinsa app will enable parents to speak directly to an Ochsner nurse through Ochsner On Call, which is a free 24/7 service that provides health education and advisory services. 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 Hecker stated that all families and staff at participating schools are eligible to redeem a thermometer. The final number of devices sent to the school depends upon how many families and staff members elected to sign up for the program. Ochsner is providing the devices to schools for free through Kinsas philanthropic FLUency program, Hecker added. In a statement, Kinsa founder and CEO Inder Singh said they designed the smart thermometer to aid families because school sick days are disruptive to learning. He also called those days challenging for parents who must find childcare, and costly to schools that are already struggling with strapped resources. Most of the schools involved in this years program are private Catholic schools in the Greater New Orleans area. The only public schools involved are Harold Keller Elementary School in Metairie and Kenner Discovery Health Sciences Academy in Kenner. The table below displays the other schools involved in the program. RaeNell Houston, Superintendent of Catholic Schools for the Archdiocese of New Orleans, said in a statement she was pleased to offer this program at the Archdiocese schools interested in participating. She stressed that they want to use every tool at our disposal to stop the spread of illness in their schools to keep their students in class learning. Hecker said the 2018 program offering Kinsa devices closed at the end of October. Schools interested in participating next year can send their school name, address and enrollment size to fluency@kinsahealth.com to be added to the outreach list. These 12 public schools in the New Orleans area had lead in drinking water: report Wilborn P. Nobles III is an education reporter based in New Orleans. He can be reached at wnobles@nola.com or on Twitter at @WilNobles. An LSU police report states a milk chugging challenge is what led to the suspension of activities for the universitys Pi Beta Phi sorority chapter this month, according to a report by The Advocate. The Advocate reported the incident occurred on Oct. 4 between noon and 9 p.m. The sororitys national organization claimed an LSU sorority member gave a new member a gallon of milk and gave her instructions to finish the milk within a certain amount of time, the newspaper reported. The national organization reported this to LSU Police on Nov. 8, the newspaper reported. On Nov. 9, LSU officials told NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune the university launched its investigative process in relation to the sororitys actions. A spokesman for the national organization on Nov. 9 said the LSU chapters activities were halted to put their full attention into the investigation. The Pi Beta Phi investigation marks the third time this semester a Greek organization at LSU has been suspected of misconduct. LSU issued interim suspensions to the Pi Kappa Phi and Delta Chi fraternities this year after finding potential violations of LSUs Code of Student Conduct. LSU didnt provide specific details about the alleged violations, but LSU said the allegations against Pi Kappa Phi are very serious. LSU enacted stricter Greek Life rules to root out student misconduct after the Sept. 14, 2017 hazing death of freshman Phi Delta Theta pledge Maxwell Gruver, 18, of Roswell, Georgia. Gruvers death led the Louisiana Legislature this year to toughen anti-hazing laws. LSU banned Phi Delta Theta from campus until 2033. Read the original story at The Advocate. LSU Pi Beta Phi sororitys events suspended amid hazing investigation Wilborn P. Nobles III is an education reporter based in New Orleans. He can be reached at wnobles@nola.com or on Twitter at @WilNobles. No serious journalist would waste your time or sully his or her reputation by reporting on fanciful, completely unsubstantiated rumors concerning who will perform at the 50th anniversary New Orleans Jazz and Heritage festival. Luckily, youve got me. RUMOR 1 -- The Rolling Stones will headline in 2019 The most widely circulated rumor is, of course, that the Rolls Royce of rock bands will appear at the festival on May 2. Frontman extraordinaire Mick Jagger accelerated the speculation when he seems to have included New Orleans in a list of tour stops in a recent homemade music video. A Jazz Fest representative said we have to wait until December for the management to confirm or deny the Stones participation. Would you pay $499.50 to see the Rolling Stones? Or how about $49.50? RUMOR 2 -- Phish will jam at the 50th anniversary fest Phish co-founder and bass player Mike Gordon will play a gig at the Joy Theater on the evening of May 3. Gordons presence has spurred hopeful thinking that Phish will perform at the 2019 Jazz Fest, as they did in 2014. As Andrew OBrian wrote on the Live for Live Music website: While the addition of a Mike Gordon solo show in New Orleans during Jazz Fest is surely noteworthy on its own, it also adds a new layer to the widely floated rumors that Phish may be scheduled to return to the long-running Crescent City festival for its 50th year in 2019. Phish and Grateful Dead stars to play post-Jazz Fest gigs in New Orleans RUMOR 3 -- The Dave Matthews Band, Jimmy Buffet, Widespread Panic, Santana and Bob Seger An Omaha-based Twitter music pundit named Chad T. offered the list above under the heading Jazz Fest 2019 solid rumor. Chad T. did not reply to my request that he contact me to discuss the source of this solidity. However, a perusal of the websites of the aforementioned stars indicated that they all plan to perform in 2019 and are available on the Jazz Fest dates (April 25-28 and May 2-5). I have no earthly idea who Chad T. is, or whether his list can be taken seriously in the least. But the lineup seems possible and the Nebraskans Ive met seemed vert forthright, so thats good enough for me. https://twitter.com/soberturco41/status/1064722324568576000 Important: Please do not make plane reservations, cancel wedding plans or take out small loans to cover Jazz Fest 2019 ticket costs based on the above information. Doug MacCash has the best job in the world, covering art, music and culture in New Orleans. Contact him via email at dmaccash@nola.com. Follow him on Twitter at Doug MacCash and on Facebook at Douglas James MacCash. As always, please add your point of view to the comment stream. A fire at an Uptown duplex late Tuesday (Nov. 27) has left eight people homeless, according to the New Orleans Fire Department. No injuries were reported. The fire was reported at 11:26 p.m. in the 800 block of Lyons Street, between Constance and Magazine streets (map). When firefighters arrived six minutes later, large flames were coming through the roof of the camelback, wood-framed home. All the residents four on each side of the duplex escaped the fire without injury, NOFD said. Early Wednesday morning, soggy holiday decorations could be seen in the doorway to the duplex as firefighters continued to extinguish the blaze. Heavy smoke wafted all the way up to Jackson and South Claiborne avenues, more than two miles from the fire. The three-alarm fire was under control at 1:42 a.m, NOFD said. The cause of the fire remains under investigation. In all, 19 NOFD units supported by 55 NOFD personnel responded to the fire. The American Red Cross, the Louisiana State Fire Marshal, New Orleans Emergency Medical Services and Entergy also assisted. NOLA.com | The Times-Picayunes Michael DeMocker and Carlie Kollath Wells contributed to this report. Laura McKnight covers crime and breaking news for NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. Last week, I reached into the depths of a guest bedroom closet and retrieved a fancy white album containing photos of our wedding in 1984. Naturally, I was somewhat amazed by how young both my wife and I looked in the photos. But what really struck me was the marriage license that was affixed to the back page of the album, which included the signature of the priest who married us - Father Louis LeBourgeois. A few weeks earlier, I had interviewed a woman in California who reached out to me after reading stories Id written about clergy abuse in the Catholic Church. She wanted to share her story in hopes it would help other survivors. She claimed that it was LeBourgeois who had abused her in 1968, when she was just shy of five years old and living in River Ridge. After listening to LindaLee Stonebreakers story over the course of several telephone interviews, one thing became crystal clear in the mind of this lifelong Catholic - this was going to be one of the most difficult stories I would handle in my 40 years in journalism. Although she had never gone public with her story, Stonebreaker said the recent spate of clergy abuse news accounts prompted her to speak out. I spent weeks trying to verify the story, with at least part of me hoping that my research would prove that the claim was at least partially false. As it turned out, a preliminary investigation by the Archdiocese of New Orleans had resulted in the priest being confronted with the allegation shortly before his death in 2015. LeBourgeois vehemently denied it but died a short time later, both Stonebreaker and the archdiocese told me. The Stonebreaker story was put on hold as other elements of the clergy abuse crisis were reported, including the Archdiocese of New Orleans Nov. 2 release of clergy members credibly accused of abuse. LeBourgeois name was not on the list because he died before a review board could complete its investigation on the Stonebreaker allegation. Board approval is the final step in the archdioceses process to deem a complaint as credible. Recently, Stonebreaker posted a short version of her story on Facebook, naming LeBourgeois as the priest who abused her 50 years ago in River Ridge. After much consultation with editors, it was decided to go forward with the story in part because the priests name had been publicly disclosed and we felt the need to provide some context and balance. Survivor's story 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 LeBourgeois was assigned to St. Matthew the Apostle Church in River Ridge when the alleged incident occurred with Stonebreaker. My wifes family lived in River Ridge at the time and attended St. Matthew. When it came time for us to walk down the aisle, we decided to do so at St. Matthew and recruited LeBourgeois, who had since moved on to another church parish, to officiate. At the time, my wife remembered him as a popular priest with a good sense of humor. We thought it would be appropriate for him to marry us and he happily did so. I dont remember much about what LeBourgeois said during the homily at the wedding Mass. I do, however, recall that when the cantor went on a little too long with the communion hymn, LeBourgeois began running his index finger across his throat. It was a clear indication that he felt it was time to stop singing and get on to the reception. We kept track of LeBourgeois assignments over the years, learned that he had become a monsignor and were pleasantly surprised when he retired to the North Shore and began celebrating Masses at our parish church. Well into his 70s by this time, he was known for his brief, to-the-point homilies that were appreciated by many Mass-goers, especially those who didnt want to miss the Saints noon kickoffs. I was saddened by news of his death in 2015 and even more saddened by the account that Stonebreaker shared. The clergy abuse issue and the ensuing Catholic hierarchy coverup has cause immense pain for the victims. In reverberating through the Church, it has touched many other people who were not directly involved, leaving in its wake some indelible question marks. As it grapples with clergy abuse, the Church needs to be transparent for the sake of survivors and for justice. That transparency, however, comes with side effects. It carries with it disenchantment for many Catholics who have trusted priests embroiled in what New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond has called the churchs now-exposed family sin. I went looking for the album in hopes of finding a photo of LeBourgeois at our wedding. I found only the wedding license with his signature. I suppose what I was really looking for were answers, answers that will never be found. The Louisiana Ethics Board looked clueless and sexist in its Nov. 16 ruling forbidding a woman running for office to use campaign money for child care during election-related events. The 5-2 vote overturned a previous board ruling 18 years ago allowing child care expenses for a man. It also went against the federal rules for campaign spending and rules in other states, including Arkansas. And it went against its own staff. The boards attorney had drafted an opinion approving Baton Rouge attorney Morgan Lamandres request before the meeting. Louisiana: Where a man used campaign funds for childcare, but a woman running for office is denied Not only that, Ethics Board member Peppi Bruneau lectured Ms. Lamandre on parenting and family priorities. Mr. Bruneau, a retired state legislator from New Orleans, was known for being prickly as a lawmaker. But his behavior at the Ethics Board was especially offensive. You have children. Its your responsibility. Its your decision to make as to how to balance your priorities, Mr. Bruneau is heard telling Ms. Lamandre on an audio recording of the Ethics Board meeting provided to NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. Child care should be personal. That should come before public office or anything else, in my opinion," he says. Welcome to the 1950s, Louisiana. Mr. Bruneau seems to think that moms shouldnt run for office. Other board members implied that Ms. Lamandre wanted to use campaign money for child care, so she could have a dinner date with her husband. Why would someone bother to ask permission from the Ethics Board and then use it improperly? That makes no sense. Ms. Lamandre, an attorney for a sexual assault victim advocacy group, said she asked for the boards guidance because she didnt want to be fined later. If only more candidates were so responsible. Child care seems like a reasonable expense, and clearly the Ethics Board in 2000 thought it was. U.S. Sen. John Kennedy claimed child care as an expense during a trip to Los Angeles when he was state treasurer. The Ethics Board allows other expenses that seem highly questionable. Senate President John Alario spent more than $23,000 on a suite at Tiger Stadium between 2009 and 2012, according to a 2014 report by NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune and WVUE Fox 8 News. He also leased a BMW paid for by campaign money during those years. After the spending was reported, he gave up the suite and switched his lease to a Kia. The news investigation also found that Louisiana politicians spent $310,000 from their campaign coffers for Mardi Gras parades. But a woman candidate wanting to spend a little money on child care is over the line? She asked a very specific, reasonable question, and they tripped over themselves to say no, Sen. J.P. Morrell said after the vote. Sen. Morrell and Sen. Troy Carter, both New Orleans Democrats, quickly announced that they will co-sponsor legislation in the spring to allow child care as an expense. Sen. Morrell even tweeted a photo of his young child on his lap during a legislative meeting. His tweet said: Due to my wife being in Nursing School, my kids were underfoot EVERYWHERE during last session. Sen. Rick Ward, a Port Allen Republican, tweeted a photo of Sen. Morrell talking at the podium in the Senate chambers with a child on his shoulder and said: Probably my favorite picture of the session(s)!. The Ethics Board, particularly Mr. Bruneau, seems hopelessly out of touch. This allows more people to represent our state," Ms. Lemandre, who is seeking the House District 66 seat, told the board on the audio recording of the meeting. The state Senate only has five women out of 39 members. The House, which has 105 seats, has 25 women members. And it seems that the Ethics Board is fine with that. An ugly fight over an audit that found the city of Zachary paid two vendors $3.5 million without having contracts in place has died down some, but the city councilman most upset about the matter has made clear he is not giving up on his quest for 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%. Thank you for reading The Cascadia Advocate, the Northwest Progressive Institutes journal of world, national, and local politics. Founded in March of 2004, The Cascadia Advocate has been helping people throughout the Pacific Northwest and beyond make sense of current events with rigorous analysis and thought-provoking commentary for more than fifteen years. The Cascadia Advocate is funded by readers like you and trusted sponsors. We dont run ads or publish content in exchange for money. Help us keep The Cascadia Advocate editorially independent and freely available to all by becoming a member of the Northwest Progressive Institute today. Or make a donation to sustain our essential research and advocacy journalism. Your contribution will allow us to continue bringing you features like Last Week In Congress, live coverage of events like Netroots Nation or the Democratic National Convention, and reviews of books and documentary films. Become an NPI member Make a one-time donation Want climate news in your inbox? Sign up here for Climate Fwd:, our email newsletter. WASHINGTON A government watchdog agency has cleared Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke of wrongdoing following an inquiry into whether he redrew the boundaries of a national monument in Utah to avoid the nearby land holdings of a Republican state lawmaker and supporter of President Donald Trump. The Interior Departments inspector general, Mary Kendall, found no evidence that Mr. Zinke gave Utah State Representative Michael E. Noel preferential treatment when the agency last year shrank the size of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in a way that excluded a parcel of land owned by Mr. Noel. Investigators concluded there was also no evidence that Mr. Zinke or other Interior staff were aware of Mr. Noels financial interest in the revised boundaries, or that they gave Noel any preferential treatment in the resulting proposed boundaries, according to a November 21 letter Ms. Kendall wrote to David Bernhardt, the deputy secretary of the Interior. Mr. Zinke is the chief architect of a number of President Trumps environmental regulatory rollbacks. Several investigations into his behavior at the agency are still pending, and he also faces a possible Department of Justice inquiry into his involvement in a land deal in Whitefish, Mont., linked to the energy giant Halliburton. An early task was to organize the biggest summer school in city history for 300,000 failing students; they were required to attend the sessions under a new policy that ended automatic promotion to the next grade. Beyond anyones reckoning, his summer school largely succeeded, with U.F.T. help in recruiting 17,000 teachers for the task. The citys summer school is still the largest in the nation. In his first year, Mr. Levy created his signature program New York City Teaching Fellows, a local version of Teach for America. In its first two years, it recruited some 1,500 people from other professions, many of them African-American or Hispanic, to take crash courses and teach or mentor in city schools in exchange for tuition for a masters degree leading to teacher certification. With a businesslike approach that emphasized accountability, efficiency and organization, Mr. Levy instituted a series of reforms. He slashed a host of regulations and converted a number of failing schools to private management. He instituted the citys first K-12 student-information system. And he created programs offering college-level instruction. Mr. Levy also opened three new specialized schools: the High School of Mathematics, Science and Engineering at City College; the High School of American Studies at Lehman College in the Bronx, and the High School for Sciences at York College in Queens. The schools opened doors for thousands of minority students who might not have otherwise had access to specialized education. In 2002, the U.F.T. won a new city contract, which raised entry-level teachers salaries sharply, to $39,000 from $31,900, and created an alternative form of certification that required far less training. As a result, thousands who might never have considered teaching in New York City people just out of college or older people considering a career change applied for jobs. While Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the teachers union could claim credit for negotiating the contract, Mr. Levy said it was he who had insisted that we have $39,000 and not a penny less. After years struggling to recruit enough certified teachers to fill even half its classroom vacancies, the city hired a bounty of 8,300 applicants. Many accepted hard-to-fill positions in troubled schools. LONDON Lady Trumpington, who worked on the top-secret Bletchley Park code-breaking operation during World War II and later embarked on a political career that made her a celebrity in Britain in her 90s, died on Monday. She was 96. Her death was confirmed on Twitter by her son, Adam Barker. He did not say where she died. Lady Trumpington as Jean Alys Campbell-Harris worked as a cipher clerk, typing intercepted messages from the German Navy, at Bletchley Park, the wartime British decoding facility where Alan Turing helped crack Germanys Enigma code. Bletchley Parks achievements, kept secret for decades after the war, were made widely known by the films Enigma (2001) and The Imitation Game (2014), and, in 2017, by the posthumous pardon of Mr. Turing, who had been prosecuted after the war for homosexuality. Lady Trumpington was appointed to the House of Lords, the upper chamber of the British Parliament, in 1980. She held a series of government positions from 1985 to 1997, leaving her last ministerial post at age 75. InSight is not a first. Its the eighth successful landing on Mars since 1976, when Viking 1 became the first spacecraft to land and work on the planet, and the 45th exploratory mission of any kind since 1960. Currently, the NASA rover Curiosity is on Mars rolling around on its six aluminum wheels searching for evidence of once-upon-a-time life; another, Opportunity, went into hibernation during a dust storm in June and may never awaken. But each mission is different, facing different dangers and different challenges. InSights landing alone was an extraordinary feat, as the craft had to slow down from 12,300 miles per hour to about 5 m.p.h. at a precise 12 degree angle, all within what scientists and engineers have dubbed seven minutes of terror, to land on the Elysium Planitia. The landing was monitored by two mini-spacecraft, each about the size of a briefcase, whose flight was a cosmic first of its own. Unlike the mobile landers, InSight Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport is meant to stay in one spot and deploy instruments to measure marsquakes (yes, on Earth theyre earthquakes) in order to learn about whats going on in the innards of the planet. One gizmo will take Marss temperature by hammering itself 16 feet below the surface. Deploying the instruments alone is expected to take two months, and the entire mission is meant to last a Martian year, roughly two Earth years. What for? A random sampling of comments from the public suggests not everyone is convinced that digging on Mars is money well spent. But the basic answer is that whether its practical or not, humans will continue to explore the heavens so long as the moon, Mars and the myriad celestial bodies beyond fire our imagination and curiosity. What happened in the earliest days of the universe? How were Earth and its fellow planets formed? And the question of questions: Is there life out there? Mars may not have all the answers, but for now its the most accessible other planet for detailed studies. And unlike on Earth, on Mars surface evidence of how our solar system was formed has not been totally eroded away. And life! Earlier rovers found evidence of water; NASAs coming Mars 2020 mission will have even finer tools to search for ancient biology. And after that, an earthling may actually put a footprint into the red dust. From proud Republican harbinger to sad Republican castaway thats the story of Representative Mia Love, who finally conceded her extraordinarily close House race on Monday. Its the story of her party, really. Of what it once realized about the future and how it slouched backward into the past. Of trading the elixir of hope for the toxin of fear. It charts Republicans ugly drift under Donald Trump, who rooted for her defeat not only as the votes in Utahs Fourth Congressional District were still being counted (Mia Love gave me no love, the president pouted) but with all that he said on the campaign trail and has done in the White House. Tacitly and explicitly, he has sown disdain for the likes of Love, a daughter of Haitian immigrants who, in 2014, became the first black Republican woman ever elected to either chamber of Congress. She remains the only one. When she leaves at the end of this congressional session, there will be just two black Republican men one in the House and one in the Senate. Some of Ms. Abramss most prominent Democratic supporters across the country, including some potential presidential candidates, claimed that the election had been stolen because Mr. Kemps office had purged hundreds of thousands of voters from the rolls, had placed tens of thousands of registrations on hold, and had overseen a problem-plagued Election Day process that critics said amounted to voter suppression. Mr. Kemp is not named as a defendant in the suit; instead, it names his interim successor as secretary of state, Robyn A. Crittenden, and the members of the state election board. Even so, the suit repeatedly criticizes Mr. Kemp. In Georgia, the secretary of state is responsible for overseeing the election process, and Mr. Kemp, a fervent supporter of President Trump, has been denounced for years for pursuing policies that his critics describe as voter suppression tactics. He ignored repeated calls from Democrats for him to step down as secretary of state before the election, and not act as both a referee and a contestant in the race. The 66-page complaint filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia reiterates a familiar list of issues that Ms. Abramss team and others had raised before and after Election Day. It argues that the state had imposed discriminatory voting barriers reminiscent of the Jim Crow era in recent years, with Republicans in control of the state legislature and the governors office. Among the many specific requests made in the suit, the plaintiffs ask the court to force Georgia to stop purges of inactive voters from the rolls; to reinstate voters already removed by those purges; to ban the touchscreen voting machines the state uses, which leave no paper trail and which the plaintiffs say are not secure; and to ensure that voters can vote without unreasonable delay or hardship during any election, a reference to long lines seen at some polling places and the closing of others. Notably, the complaint also asks that Georgia once again be placed under a federal preclearance regime, in which any changes in Georgia voting rules would require approval from a federal judge, to ensure that they did not impinge on the voting rights of minority voters. What Was Said The reality is that a lot of these scientists are driven by the money that they receive. And, of course, they dont receive money from corporations and Exxon and the like. Rick Santorum, the former Republican senator from Pennsylvania, in remarks on CNN on Sunday The report is nothing more than a rehash of age-old 10- to 20-year assumptions made by scientists that get paid to further the politics of global warming. Tom DeLay, Republican of Texas who was the former House majority leader, in remarks on CNN on Monday The Facts This lacks evidence. The federal governments most recent climate change report, released last week, warned that global warming could cause substantial damage to the American economy, human health and the environment. The report has prompted some critics to dismiss climate scientists as corrupted by money, a common but baseless attack. We were paid zero dollars to produce the national assessment, Katharine Hayhoe, an author of the report, said in an interview. In fact, there was a reverse financial motive. Researchers working in climate change do not receive atypically large paychecks, nor do they strike it rich from grants. The claim also ignores that internal research from oil companies affirms the scientific consensus on climate change. Professors at public universities who teach earth sciences and environmental studies generally earn more than their peers in humanities and social sciences, but less than faculty in the economics, business and law departments, according to data from the Association of American Universities. WASHINGTON An associate of the former Trump campaign adviser Roger J. Stone Jr. released documents on Tuesday showing that as the presidential campaign heated up in the summer of 2016, Mr. Stone tried to dispatch him to find out what information WikiLeaks had that could prove damaging to Hillary Clintons campaign. The associate, Jerome Corsi, said in an interview that he might be indicted on a charge of lying to federal investigators because he told them that he refused Mr. Stones request when in fact he passed it on to an intermediary. He said he had refused a plea deal offered by the office of the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, because he did not intentionally lie, but merely forgot events of more than two years ago. Mr. Corsis dealings with Mr. Muellers prosecutors have caused alarm among the presidents legal team, who were informed of developments by Mr. Corsis lawyer. President Trumps lawyers were especially troubled by a draft statement of offense against Mr. Corsi that was passed on to them, according to people familiar with the situation. In it, prosecutors claimed that Mr. Corsi understood that Mr. Stone was in regular contact with senior members of the Trump campaign, including with then-candidate Donald J. Trump when he asked Mr. Corsi in late July 2016 to get to Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks. The reference to Mr. Trump coincided with other events that so disturbed the presidents lawyers that they delayed turning in his responses to written questions after negotiating over them with the special counsel for nearly a year. At roughly the same time, the Justice Department inadvertently released a secret criminal complaint against Mr. Assange and Mr. Trumps legal team learned that prosecutors were accusing Paul Manafort, Mr. Trumps campaign chairman, of lying. Only after Mr. Muellers team reassured Mr. Trumps lawyers that they were not trying to lure the president into a trap did they forward his answers on Nov. 20. Paul Manafort was once President Trumps campaign manager. By the fall of 2018, he was expected to face at least a decade in prison for 10 felony counts. Those counts included financial fraud and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Mr. Manafort is disappointed of not getting acquittals all the way through. He is evaluating all of his options at this point. In the hopes of getting a more lenient punishment, Manafort agreed to fully cooperate with the special counsel, Robert Mueller. Now, federal prosecutors are saying he violated his plea deal by repeatedly lying during their investigation. Manaforts lawyer also allegedly passed information to President Trumps legal team. But this isnt Manaforts first scandal. Controversy has trailed the veteran Republican adviser since his earliest work as an international lobbyist and consultant. In the 1980s, Manafort testified before Congress and admitted to using his political influence to win millions of dollars in contracts from federal low-income housing programs. The technical term for what we do and what law firms, associations and professional groups do is lobbying. For purposes of today, I will admit that in a narrow sense some people might term it influence peddling. That same decade, Manafort advised the Philippine dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, on improving his image in the U.S. Manafort allegedly received $10 million in cash from a Marcos confidante. It was apparently money intended for Ronald Reagans presidential campaign. But the campaign said it never received that money. Foreign contributions to U.S. presidential elections are illegal. Also in the 1980s, Manafort was linked to the prime minister of the Bahamas at a time when the island nation had alleged ties to drug traffickers. Manaforts company said that the goal of its work was to help the Bahamas obtain more U.S. aid to help curb the drug smuggling. Decades later, Manafort would run Trumps presidential campaign. We want America to understand who Donald Trump the man is. Not just Donald Trump the candidate. The composite of his career. Not just from a business standpoint or a political standpoint, from a human standpoint as well. But he resigned five months into the job in August 2016, in the wake of reports that he received more than $12 million from Viktor Yanukovich, the former Ukrainian president and pro-Russia politician. Yanukovich and his political party relied on advice from Manafort and his firm, which helped them win several elections. The Times uncovered that Manafort and others close to Trump met with the Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer in June 2016. That lawyer claimed to have damaging political information about Hillary Clinton. As for this latest brush with controversy, Manaforts lawyers insist that their client has been truthful. But they acknowledge that Manafort and Muellers team are at an impasse. JACKSON, Miss. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, a Mississippi Republican who had to apologize for a cavalier reference to a public hanging, won a special runoff election on Tuesday, defeating the Democratic candidate, Mike Espy, who was trying to become the states first black senator since Reconstruction. Ms. Hyde-Smiths victory, reported by The Associated Press, came in the final Senate race of the midterm elections and will set the Republican majority in the chamber at 53 to 47 once the new Congress is sworn in, a net pickup of two seats. The matchup between Mr. Espy and Ms. Hyde-Smith drew national scrutiny as a test of Mississippis past and present attitudes on race and its standing as a conservative bulwark, especially after the senators gaffe that she would be willing to attend a public hanging. Mr. Espy referred to the states history and its racial fault lines as he addressed supporters at the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum less than three hours after the polls closed. She has my prayers as she goes to Washington to unite a very divided Mississippi, he said. 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 said, according to one person present, adding, Make your fight, make your case, but not every fight is the last fight. Ms. Pelosi, however, is a skilled navigator of turbulent waters. During the campaign, she resisted calls from progressives to support the movement to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement and pushed back against efforts from the left to engage President Trump tit for tat on divisive issues like immigration. But after an election in which Democrats made considerable gains in districts won by Mr. Trump, the prospect of a crop of outspoken progressives having outsize power and influence in a newly realigned Washington is worrying some of the more pragmatic Democrats, especially those who flipped Republican seats this month. For me and for any of the others in these red-to-blue seats, were in a position that if we ever want to hold onto these seats and were the ones who delivered the majority then we have to be able to go back to our districts and show that weve accomplished something, said Katie Hill, an incoming freshman from California, who strongly backs Ms. Pelosi. If were going to be strong as a majority, we need to be cohesive as much as possible, Ms. Hill said. We cant be like the Republicans and the Tea Party. Negotiations have been further complicated by the presence of thousands of Central American migrants on the border between Mexico and the United States. After the migrants tried to evade a police blockade and rush across the border, Border Patrol agents fired tear gas on the group including women and children to force them to turn back. The altercation has hardened stances on both sides of the debate, fueling Democrats outrage over the use of force and solidifying Republicans argument that Mr. Trumps promise of a wall was vital to his pledge to protect the country and that Democrats are standing in the way. Our Democratic colleagues seem to come up with a lot of criticism, but have no answer when you ask the question, What are we supposed to do about people breaking through barricades, mobs of people coming into our country illegally and not following the rules? Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the majority whip, said during a weekly leadership conference. Still, it has been Mr. Trump who has been spoiling for a shutdown fight over the wall for more than a year, saying last year that a good shutdown might be needed to bring Congress to heel on the issue, and telling reporters this month that this would be a very good time to do a shutdown. As the impasse continued, lawmakers on both sides of the Capitol were also contemplating resurrecting the long-abandoned idea of a deal in which Democrats would agree to Mr. Trumps wall-funding demands in exchange for a pathway to legal status for a group of young immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally as children. I think theres easily a deal to be made there on the border wall and DACA, if people want to make it, Senator Roy Blunt, Republican of Missouri, said on Tuesday. The president sought to strike such a trade last year with Democratic congressional leaders after he rescinded Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, a program President Barack Obama created in 2012 to shield the young immigrants from deportation and grant them work permits. But it collapsed after months of haggling, with Republicans insisting it must be accompanied by stricter immigration measures and Democrats split on agreeing to any such compromise. WASHINGTON Three years into a brutal war in Yemen, the Senate is weighing whether to end American support for the conflict a decision that could roil the United States alliance with Saudi Arabia and threaten the heart of President Trumps Middle East strategy. A vote to limit presidential war powers in Yemen could happen as early as Wednesday, following a closed-door, classified briefing to senators by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. Several senators signaled they would use the briefing on Yemen to also ask about the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, the journalist and Saudi dissident, inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. The death sparked international outrage over the kingdoms heavy-handed tactics and renewed attention to the war in Yemen. It may now also serve as the catalyst for approval of the War Powers Resolution, which the Senate rejected as recently as in March. They took her and we would wait for her to come back every day, said Marbeli Bustillo, 23, a fellow asylum seeker who met Ms. Hernandez in the hielera, or ice boxes, where people crossing the border are held before they are processed by ICE, and who was held along with Ms. Hernandez at the Cibola County Correctional Center. We wondered every day where they might have put her, why we didnt see her anymore, Ms. Bustillo added in a phone interview from Boston, where she moved after gaining asylum. We never saw her again after the doctor took her. In the past, transgender women detained by ICE were held with male detainees. In 2015, the agency established new guidelines for detaining transgender women because of how vulnerable they are in detention centers. There has also been a spike in the number of openly L.G.B.T. people from Central American countries and Mexico seeking asylum in the United States because of the violence they often face in their home countries. Her death was entirely preventable, Lynly Egyes, the Transgender Law Centers director of litigation, said at a news conference. In the final days of her life, she was transferred from California to Washington to New Mexico, shackled for days on end. If she was lucky, she was given a bottle of water to drink. Her cause of death was dehydration and complications related to H.I.V. The independent autopsy was likely to face scrutiny over Dr. Sperrys credibility. He was the chief medical examiner for the state of Georgia until 2015, when he stepped down after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that he had taken on hundreds of private cases while working for the state. We decided to go with Dr. Sperry because hes good at his job, Andrew Free, an immigration and civil rights lawyer who is representing the Hernandez family, said in an interview. The Cibola County Correctional Center is operated by CoreCivic, one of the largest operators of private prisons in the country with revenue last year of $1.8 billion. Privately operated prisons have been under scrutiny for their handling of immigrant detainees, especially migrant children. MEXICO CITY The Trump administration imposed financial sanctions on Nicaraguas vice president, Rosario Murillo, and a top aide on Tuesday, ratcheting up pressure on the Sandinista government to end its brutal crackdown on a popular uprising. Nicaragua has been convulsed since April, when peaceful student protests developed into a broad-based movement demanding the resignation of President Daniel Ortega and Ms. Murillo, who is his wife. Washington has called on the Nicaraguan government to move up elections as a way out of the crisis, but Mr. Ortega has said that he will serve out his term, which ends in 2021. Early attempts at talks between the government and a coalition of opposition leaders foundered. Over the summer, masked paramilitaries, often accompanied by the police, attacked protesters at barricades and regained control of the streets. Since then the government has rounded up and jailed opponents, charging many of them with terrorism. The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights says that more than 320 people have been killed and more than 600 imprisoned since the unrest began. BEIJING An explosion in a factory zone in northern China late Tuesday killed at least 23 people and left 22 others injured, officials said, adding to the string of deadly accidents in the countrys vast industrial sector. The explosion erupted near the Hebei Shenghua Chemical Industry Company plant in Hebei Province and tore through roughly 50 vehicles, including 38 trucks that had lined up to deliver chemicals and other goods to factories in the zone, Chinese news reports said, citing investigators. But later on Wednesday there was still no firm answer on what caused the explosion, and whether there was any link to the big Shenghua plant or maybe a smaller factory nearby. The fiery explosion could be heard from over a mile away, news reports said, citing residents, and video and pictures from the scene showed that the blast sent a dark plume of smoke into the night sky. Daylight arrived to reveal charred, smoldering trucks, some with their tires burned away, that lay along the road. After decades of encouraging feverish industrial growth, the Chinese government has been trying to curb the large numbers of accidents in factories, mines and plants. Official statistics indicate that industrial accidents and deaths have fallen. MOSCOW Ukrainians were thrown into confusion this week over their countrys martial law emergency as the president pressed Parliament to enact the measure without a complete public version of what it contained, including the effective date. The president, Petro O. Poroshenko, said in his speech to Parliament on Monday that martial law would begin Wednesday, but his official website said it had taken effect Monday. In addition, the governments newspaper of record published an older, more stringent version of the law saying that it would last 60 days instead of 30 as approved by lawmakers. Mr. Poroshenko sought to reassure the public through a television interview and Facebook posts that the law, a response to what he called new Russian military threats this past weekend, would only be enforced in the event of an invasion and that it would not restrict civil liberties. But lawyers, diplomats and other experts said that the rollout shrouded the whole thing in fog. Nothing is known about the restrictions themselves, said Eugene Krapyvin, a lawyer who works on government reform. A street drain in the shape of a mans torso and face quite the manhole that reads Reclaimed Water. With it, carved into the metal at the bottom, a plaque of sorts, reading Christopher Columbus: This is a poster design by the artist Nicole Awai, titled Reclaimed-Water-CCd. The work is for a project called New Monuments for New Cities by the nonprofit Friends of the High Line. It is a public art exhibition in which artists were asked to imagine new monuments. Their designs, on posters or on renderings that will be projected, will travel to five cities in the United States and Canada next year, to be displayed in industrial reuse spaces, beginning in Buffalo Bayou in Houston in February, and ending on the High Line in New York in October. This was conceived of last year, during the removal of Confederate monuments, and after what happened here in New York with the commission that evaluated the monuments, said Cecilia Alemani, who is the director and chief curator of High Line Art. It really felt like there was something in the air worth capturing. What should a contemporary monument look like? Who deserves to go up on a pedestal? Should there be a pedestal at all? Five artists, or groups of artists, from each of the five cities involved in New Monuments for New Cities were invited to respond to the questions and to create a poster or projection of their ideal monument. The same 25 designs will travel to each location: Houston; Austin, Tex.; Chicago; Toronto; and New York. An opportunist who parlayed a sort of social-media telegenic glow into a music career, a curio who embraced a quixotic anti-style and became a regular fixture on the Billboard charts, 6ix9ine has become one of the emblematic rappers of the SoundCloud generation, even if rapping itself isnt of much interest to him. He is a snoozy lyricist, almost wholly uninterested in narrative, complexity or even the basic tenets of rhyme. Instead, he emphasizes texture and intensity typically, hes screaming in a static-y rasp, an approach that suggests abandon, and potential mayhem just around the corner. But as much as he is a musician, he is an actor, with a carefully cultivated online personality designed for maximum shock. And as much as he is an actor, he is facing real-world consequences for real-world actions: He pleaded guilty to a 2015 charge of use of a child in a sexual performance, for which he recently received four years probation. And earlier this month he was arrested on federal racketeering and weapons charges, among others. (6ix9ine, 22, pleaded not guilty on Monday.) His trial is scheduled to begin in September 2019; he remains in custody today. Amid this chaos, his second album, Dummy Boy, was officially released Tuesday. (It leaked online a couple of days prior.) It feels less like a blueprint for 6ix9ines future in music and more like a retrospective of an especially bizarre time in hip-hop. During the recent election season, pundit-friendly phrases like year of the woman and pink wave were understandably rejected by those who said female candidates should be treated not as a trend, but as contenders every bit as normal as their male counterparts. [Read a history of classical music the women-only version.] The world of opera isnt quite there yet; productions of works by female composers are so rare theyre still treated as major events. The latest case is Francesca Caccinis 1625 seldom-seen La Liberazione di Ruggiero DallIsola dAlcina (The Liberation of Ruggiero From the Island of Alcina), which received a humble but enlightening and lively staging this week by the Boston Early Music Festival at the Morgan Library & Museums Gilder Lehrman Hall. Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous nights highlights that lets you sleep and lets us get paid to watch comedy. If youre interested in hearing from The Times regularly about great TV, sign up for our Watching newsletter and get recommendations straight to your inbox. The Second Amendment Is Not Intended for Black People Trevor Noah on Tuesday had harsh words for the American criminal justice system. Hed heard the news that the Alabama authorities had shot and killed a black man, Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr., after wrongly assuming he was the gunman in a Thanksgiving mall shooting. Noah said that the death of Bradford, an Army veteran, was only the latest reminder of how hard it is for black people to rely on law enforcement or the law at all, for that matter. You start to realize that really, the Second Amendment is not intended for black people, he said. Its an uncomfortable thing to say, but its the truth. Dery briskly recounts the key points in Goreys coming-of-age. Drafted into the Army during World War II, Gorey served as a clerk in Utah before enrolling at Harvard, where the poet Frank OHara became a roommate and a close friend. Even though Gorey was securely closeted at Harvard, Dery writes, most of his college friends were gay and believed he was too. But aside from one source who says that Gorey made oblique mention of a sexual experience as a teenager, nobody could recall his having any romantic relationships that amounted to more than one of his unrequited infatuations. Image Mark Dery Credit... C. Taylor Crothers For the rest of his life, Dery says, Gorey would speak of sex with either Swiftian disdain or Victorian mortification. I am fortunate in that I am apparently reasonably undersexed or something, he told a reporter in 1980. Every now and then someone will say my books are seething with repressed sexuality, he said and that, according to Gorey, was that. As for those books, Dery is observant, appreciative and thorough in the extreme. The art criticism can drag, as Dery expends too many words of analysis. (Gorey loved to write nonsense, and Dery repeatedly dissects in minute detail the pointlessness of it all.) More illuminating are Derys descriptions of the dominant cultural context of the 1950s, when the young Gorey felt squeezed between a chipper consumerism on the one hand and the bullying masculinity of artists like Norman Mailer on the other. Gorey found inspiration in surrealism as he honed his sinister-slash-cozy aesthetic. He was fond of absurd juxtapositions, not just in his drawings but in his titles, too: The Haunted Tea-Cosy, The Deadly Blotter, The Galoshes of Remorse. Minimalist deadpan cant abide too much theorizing, and Derys portentous vow in his introduction to use the tools of psychobiography almost gave me the fantods (a favorite Gorey word). But Dery also knows that a stubborn enigma was essential to his subjects charm, and by the end of his book, he relents: For all his desire to parse every symbol and clarify every joke, he has to let Gorey be. Explaining something makes it go away, Gorey once said, and like the revenants in his pictures, he planned to stay a while. To catch and keep the publics gaze / One must have lots of little ways. The photos are spread over more than 300 pages in a hefty, glossy coffee-table production. Magnum refers, of course, to the photographic cooperative founded in Paris and New York in 1947 by Robert Capa and Henri Cartier-Bresson (with George Rodger and David Chim Seymour), and gradually expanded to embrace select artists around the world. The black-and-white images Capas of the Sino-Japanese War, and the post-1945 work of Cartier-Bresson remain the most startling in the collection, reminders of the pre-Communist era. Capa traveled to China in 1938 on the heels of his brilliant work during the Spanish Civil War. He captured the Japanese occupation, the haughty Madame Chiang Kai-shek and a Chinese boy soldier, in uniform, whose stern face appeared on the cover of Life magazine with the title: A Defender of China. He spent less than a year in China, a short stint for a photographer who liked to dig in. Capa wrote of the experience to a friend: Everybody suspects that you are a spy or that you want to make money at the expense of other peoples skins. These are sentiments sometimes felt by foreign correspondents today as they travel the country under intense surveillance. After the Communist takeover, the Frenchman Marc Riboud turned his camera onto everyday life. A 1957 image of a Chinese woman wearing a long black cape trimmed with white fur captures the remnants of the late-1950s bourgeoisie (Riboud himself describes the figure as one of the last aristocrats). Behind her, pedicabs and workers in drab proletarian gear make their way along Wang Fujing Street, now the center of a bustling business district. The plans were meant to serve as a stopgap for consumers between health insurance plans. But new federal rules allow them to be used for a year and be renewed for as long as three years. The Trump administration has said the rule change was meant to help more people get affordable coverage. THE WAITER By Matias Faldbakken 247 pp. Scout Press. $24.99. Every scrap of the action in Matias Faldbakkens The Waiter, not that theres a whole lot of it, happens at a restaurant called the Hills. Its located in Oslo, but its tradition-bound type is disappearing everywhere. A piano player works on a mezzanine, showering the dining room with arpeggios from Bach and other great composers. The customers below appreciate the chef but dont treat him as a deity. Nobody thinks twice about asking for substitutions, for dishes that arent on the menu or for extra nuts and seeds on the goat cheese salad with passion fruit vinaigrette. The Art Nouveau-style oak frames on the mirrors were installed in 1901. Most of the restaurants human fixtures appear to have been around nearly as long, including the waiter who narrates the novel. Stability is the product that the Hills sells. Its also the only thing keeping the waiter in one piece that and the row of 25-millimeter horn buttons on the front of his white-canvas jacket, made by an old-guard firm that also manufactures military shirts. The waiter is a bundle of nerves with a corkscrew in one pocket a neurotic, youd say, although he calls himself a sensitive. He doesnt handle coffee well, even when somebody else is drinking it. Other things we highly sensitives react to are noise and complex social contexts, he says. The mixing of roles. And hunger, or being given too many jobs to do at once. Each of these is an occupational hazard of waitering. And while the pianist at the Hills doesnt seem to know any Metallica, all the other triggers are present in spades. Theres a regular called the Pig, a suave operator in the world of finance, who one afternoon not only shows up 20 minutes late but then breaks years of protocol by trying to engage the waiters help in some business that seems to have nothing to do with lunch. Theres Edgar, the waiters best friend, who leaves his young daughter in the waiters care at the restaurant all afternoon while he goes off on some unspecified errand. Most of all, theres a new customer, a friend of the Pigs, a woman. Everything about her unnerves the waiter: her quadruple-espresso order, her refusal to read a newspaper while she waits, her indeterminate age and place in the social order and her appearance. Like debauchery dressed as asceticism, the waiter thinks. A generator for jealousy. SOPHISTICATED GIANT The Life and Legacy of Dexter Gordon By Maxine Gordon Illustrated. 279 pp. University of California Press. $29.95. Dexter Gordon, the lusty virtuoso of bebop saxophone probably best known now for his Oscar-nominated, starring performance in the movie Round Midnight, embodied no fewer than four jazz cliches. He made his reputation as the very image of the big, bold, tenor-sax man, blaring rattling solos from the depths of his 6-foot-5 frame. He seemed for years to be a stereotype of the jazz musician as self-destructive hedonist, arrested and imprisoned on narcotics charges and crimes related to drug use. He became a symbol of the black expat demimonde in mid-20th-century Europe, where musicians joined writers, painters and other African-American artists seeking refuge from maltreatment and underappreciation in their homeland. And he ended up an emblem of survival and redemption, weathered but still standing and still blowing, a veteran of a lifetime of battle with the world and himself. That Gordon embodied those cliches because he invented or crystallized them in the public imagination is largely forgotten today, nearly 30 years after his death, at 67, in 1990, from kidney failure following treatment for cancer of the larynx. In his final years, Gordon set out to tell his own story, hoping to correct some misconceptions and complicate some simplifications about his life and music. He wrote notes and drafts of biographical vignettes in longhand on yellow legal pads, and for a time tried to collaborate with the novelist Wesley Brown, before deciding to work largely on his own with help from his wife and former manager, Maxine Gordon. When his health began to fail precipitately, he asked her to promise to complete the book if he died before finishing it. Sophisticated Giant: The Life and Legacy of Dexter Gordon is the fulfillment of that promise. Although fairly short passages from Dexter Gordons notepads appear here and there, the book is mainly Maxine Gordons, and thats to its benefit. She learned about jazz from the inside herself, working in various back-room roles for the composer Gil Evans, the organist Shirley Scott and others before she met her future husband in France in 1975. She worked with him, overseeing his much ballyhooed return to America in 1976, with chief responsibility for the ballyhoo, and she was with him, living quietly (half the time in Mexico), during his late period of reflection, retired from music. It helps, too, that she went back to school after Dexter Gordons death, studied oral history for a summer at Columbia and got a masters degree in Africana studies at N.Y.U. Sophisticated Giant is a work of considerable sophistication, the first-person testimony of its subject employed with affectionate discipline, smartly contextualized and augmented by material from interviews Maxine Gordon conducted with the tenor saxophone masters Sonny Rollins and Jimmy Heath, the record producers Bruce Lundvall and Michael Cucsuna, and others. President Emmanuel Macron of France, above, gave a widely panned speech in which he tried to douse the fury of the Yellow Jackets, a movement that is promising more countrywide protests over the cost of living. [The New York Times] Three U.S. soldiers were killed in Afghanistan, where the Taliban now control more territory than at any time since they were ousted from power in 2001. [The New York Times] Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, a Mississippi Republican, held on to her seat in a special runoff election. With all the midterm Senate races now decided, Republicans in the new Senate will have a majority of 53 to 47. [The New York Times] An independent autopsy of a transgender asylum seeker from Honduras who died while in the custody of U.S. immigration officials found signs of abuse, raising questions about how she was treated while confined. [The New York Times] 1. House Democrats began to choose their leaders and rules for the next Congress, which begins in January. Representative Nancy Pelosi, above, easily won the Democratic nomination to be speaker of the House but 32 Democrats voted no. She will need to win over some of those defectors for the final floor vote on Jan. 3, and that could be enough time for a serious challenger to emerge. Ms. Pelosi, 78, who has led House Democrats for more than 15 years, was optimistic. We go forward with confidence and humility, she said after the vote. Get the DealBook newsletter to make sense of major business and policy headlines and the power-brokers who shape them. __________ Chinas too-big-to-fail banking rules are heading in the right direction. Chinese regulators published new guidelines on Tuesday for supervising the nations financial institutions. Of course, Beijing owns most big lenders, and failures are almost unheard-of. But the very act of indicating which ones should be saved in a disaster means that others may be allowed to fail: Thats a step toward liberalizing a nearly $40 trillion banking industry. The latest framework will label several more Chinese banks, securities firms and insurers as systemically important, meaning that they are so vital and connected that the collapse of just one could trigger a crisis. (The Financial Stability Board, an international regulatory body, already deems Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and some others as critical on a global level.) The blueprint unveiled this week will subject organizations in the enlarged group to tougher rules on capital requirements, leverage and so on. During a crisis, they may qualify for a bailout in exchange for meeting those requirements. At first blush, the rules seem to be an odd fit. The point is to identify the most important institutions, toughen scrutiny and so reduce the likelihood of failure, or speed up a wind-down if they do trip up. It was a solution primarily introduced to address the concerns of Western governments after the global financial crisis, when many were forced into expensive and unpopular bailouts of private sector firms. On Monday morning, Earl Ross, the owner of Ross Eatery & Pub, a social hub in Lordstown, was in a tree stand poised to hunt deer when he received a text message about the news. My reaction was a sick stomach, Mr. Ross said, and for the whole rest of the day, I just sat in the rain and thought about the future. There is also the likely effect on the housing market, as workers try to offload mortgages amid the prospect of unemployment. Jason Sickler, who has worked at the plant since 2000, said he would prepare his house for a possible sale as he contemplated whether to request a transfer to a General Motors operation in another city. I was literally nauseous yesterday when I walked out of there, said Mr. Sickler, who enjoys his job in the trim department and is loath to relocate with a son still in high school. Today Im trying to get a better game plan, accept it a little more. In some ways the story of Lordstown in recent decades sounds a lot like the story of industrial America writ large. The number of workers at the G.M. plant peaked around 13,000 in the mid-1980s, according to the union there. It had dropped below 5,000 by this decade, as foreign competition and automation took their toll. But in other respects G.M.s presence allowed the village of about 3,200 to defy the economic realities bearing down on the region. Factory workers have helped generate millions of dollars in village income-tax revenue over the years to pay for infrastructure and other expenses. Weve been blessed with the ability to have money to do that, said Arno Hill, who has served as mayor in two stints totaling nearly 20 years since the early 1990s. We have an existing agreement, William Duma, the state investment minister for the Pacific island nation, told reporters. Huawei has already completed 60 percent of the $200 million project, which is financed by the Export-Import Bank of China. Mr. Duma said that made the 11th-hour effort from the Western powers a bit patronizing. The competing offer comes as concerns have grown in Australia and allied nations about Chinas investments in the resource-rich island countries of the Pacific Ocean. This year, Australia agreed to fund an undersea communications cable linking Sydney with the Solomon Islands, following a similar deal with Papua New Guinea. Australian officials were worried that if the project went to Huawei, as the Solomon Islands had agreed in 2016, the Chinese company might gain access to Australias internet infrastructure. In 2012, Huawei was barred out of security concerns from bidding on projects for Australias national broadband network. The company has, however, sold equipment to Australian cellular operators. Like Australia, New Zealand has been grappling with a series of scandals related to Chinese influence. Last month, a New Zealand lawmaker was accused of trying to hide a campaign contribution from a businessman with ties to the Chinese Communist Party. Another lawmaker was revealed last year to have been a member of the Communist Party in China who taught English to spies there. More recently, agents of Beijing were blamed for a burglary targeting a New Zealand professor who studies the Chinese Communist Partys influence in Western countries. Despite those concerns, New Zealand has been relatively tactful in dealing with China, experts say. As a result, its two-way trade with China has more than tripled in the past decade, according to government statistics, and the bilateral relationship has become one of New Zealands most important. Last year, New Zealand became the first advanced economy to join Chinas Belt and Road Initiative, an ambitious infrastructure program stretching through much of Asia that is widely seen as an effort to extend Beijings political influence. Sinclair Broadcast Group, which has faced criticism for forcing its nearly 200 local television stations to air right-leaning must run segments, has distributed a new two-minute commentary defending the use of tear gas on migrants at the border. In the segment, Boris Epshteyn, the broadcasters chief political analyst and a former Trump White House official, argued that American authorities had to use tear gas on hundreds of migrants at a border crossing near San Diego on Sunday to guard against an attempted invasion of the United States. The fact of the matter is that this is an attempted invasion of our country, Mr. Epshteyn said, echoing language that President Trump has used repeatedly to describe the caravan of Central American migrants, many of whom are seeking asylum from countries plagued by violence. The right to apply for asylum is protected by federal law. Three months ago, one of the governments top student loan watchdogs, Seth Frotman, stepped down from his job at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau with a scathing resignation letter that criticized the Trump administration for undermining the agencys enforcement efforts. Then he took some people with him. Mr. Frotman and other former bureau employees plan to continue the work they did for the government at a new Washington-based nonprofit announced on Wednesday, the Student Borrower Protection Center. The new venture will focus on aiding borrowers by working with state and local officials, rather than the federal officials who Mr. Frotman said have sought to favor lenders and servicers. Mick Mulvaney, the acting head of the consumer bureau and Mr. Frotmans former boss, has complained about the moral consequences of students failing to repay their debts, and he removed a planned student loan collection overhaul from the agencys long-term regulatory agenda. At the same time, the Education Department has sought to curb state oversight of the federal loan servicers. The federal government hasnt just walked away from the fight on behalf of borrowers, Mr. Frotman said. It is actually arming the other side. Daniel Berezowsky and Jaime Chavez Alor were married Nov. 26 in New York. Diego Gomez Pickering, consul general of Mexico, officiated at his residence on the Upper East Side before about 25 family members and friends. The marriage is the first same-sex marriage outside Mexico under Mexican law, a milestone in marriage equality for L.G.B.T. Mexican immigrants living in New York and elsewhere, according to the Mayors Office for International Affairs. Mr. Berezowsky (left), 32, is a human rights specialist and communications strategist at Shift, an organization in New York that seeks to resolve business and human rights issues. He graduated from Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City and received a masters degree in international affairs from Columbia. You can take kids to the beach, or go mountain biking, or surfing, he said in a separate interview with the Times. Itll be priced like a Range Rover but sold to customers who wont mind getting muddy. If the analogy were clothing, this is more like a Patagonia jacket and less like an Armani suit. Its comfortable getting dirty. The interior design is rugged and cleanable. We have never been a race-blind country, frankly, Ms. Meister said. I wish that I could say that the response would have been the same if everyone had been aware that she was Cherokee, but I dont think that you can. Ms. Meister says she doesnt think that Ms. Lange knew the details of Ms. Thompsons background. Unlike with most of her other assignments, there are no known field notes from Ms. Lange about this shoot in Nipomo, Calif., and the captions in the Library of Congress are, Ms. Meister said, most likely inaccurate: Ms. Thompsons relatives have insisted, for example, that they did not sell their tent for food as the captions declared. With help from librarians at the San Francisco Public Library, Ms. Meister pieced together how the inaccurate caption information probably came about. After Ms. Lange filed her pictures to The San Francisco News, a reporter for United Press went to the migrant encampment in Nipomo. Although Ms. Lange and, apparently, the Thompson family had left days earlier, her photos were published with the United Presss reporters article. Details from it appear in the captions in the Library of Congress, Ms. Meister said. This edition of Ms. Meisters book is part of One on One, a series in which each volume delves into a single piece in MoMAs collection. The volume on Migrant Mother explores a print that was made for MoMAs 1949 exhibit Six Women Photographers. Which brings us to the case of the missing thumb. It is easy to tell whether a print of Migrant Mother was made before 1939, because that year Ms. Lange had an assistant retouch the negative and remove Ms. Thompsons thumb from the bottom right corner, much to the chagrin of Roy Stryker, her boss at the Farm Security Administration. While that was a fairly common practice at the time, Mr. Stryker thought it compromised the authenticity not just of the photo but also of his whole F.S.A. documentary project, Ms. Meister said. But Ms. Lange considered the thumb to be such a glaring defect that she apparently didnt have a second thought about removing it. In the print from the Library of Congress below, the thumb is still in the images lower right corner. By then, the census was a modern and professional operation, with career staff members who distanced the agency, as best they could, from politics. With requests for more data tabulations streaming in from businesses and academics, the bureau had upped its game, collecting more information through sampling and applying more sophisticated statistical methods. When the bureau stopped asking every household about citizenship status, as it had on and off for more than a century, it did so for related technical reasons. To save money and increase efficiency, mailed questionnaires replaced door-to-door census-takers as the initial means of gathering data, and to make it easier and faster for people to fill out the form themselves, the number of questions was cut from 20 to five. A smaller statistical sample of the population was given a longer survey that asked about citizenship and birthplace, among other things. Around the same time, in 1954, Congress sought to reassure the public about the security of census data by making it a crime, as opposed to a civil infraction, to disclose it without authorization, including to investigative agencies like the F.B.I. (and now ICE). The current acting Census Bureau director, Ron Jarmin a career civil servant rather than a political appointee has reaffirmed the bureaus absolute commitment to confidentiality. But in November, an email surfaced in which the chief of staff at the time to John Gore, then the acting head of the civil rights division of the Justice Department, wrote, I dont think we want to say too much about the legal protections for census data in case related issues come up later for renewed debate. In January, John Abowd, the Census Bureaus chief scientist, wrote to Wilbur Ross warning that reinserting the citizenship question would be very costly, harm the quality of the count and produce substantially less accurate citizenship status data than are available from administrative sources. The bureau had not had time to field-test the question for the census, but there were plenty of reasons to predict it would have a negative impact in the current political climate. In 2017, researchers at the bureau conducted focus groups on the coming census and found an unprecedented level of concern about giving the government identifying information. People of Hispanic origin and Middle Eastern and North African descent spontaneously said they wouldnt fill out the census for fear of registering relatives and other household members with the government. They spoke of ICE and the Muslim ban. They said they feared that filling out the census would result in people being arrested and deported. In a Census Bureau survey last spring of 17,500 people across the country, about one-quarter were very or extremely concerned that their answers would not be kept confidential and could be used against them. The rate of concern shot into the 40 percent range among people born outside the United States and low in English proficiency. Ross testified to Congress in March that he went ahead with the citizenship question solely because the Justice Department initiated the request for the purpose of enforcing the Voting Rights Act, which relies on survey data the Census Bureau collects. In the 53 years since the acts passage, the Justice Department had never previously made such a request, and the government could not identify any voting rights case it had been unable to bring for lack of adequate data. By law, a judge can block a decision by a federal official like Ross by finding, among other things, that it is arbitrary and capricious, which can mean that the decision is not supported by the stated rationale. If a government action that appears to be neutral has a greater impact on a particular group based on its race, ethnicity, religion or national origin, it may violate the Constitutions guarantee of equal protection but only if the government is found to have acted at least in part because of the adverse effects upon an identifiable group, in the words of the Supreme Court. Its hard to prove discriminatory intent, but the plaintiffs in the census case are trying. When Rosss emails related to the census were released last summer before the trial, they showed that Stephen K. Bannon, the anti-immigrant former White House strategist, asked Ross soon after he took office if Ross would talk to Kris Kobach, then the Kansas secretary of state (and later a failed candidate for governor), about adding a citizenship question to the census. In the spring of 2017, Ross directed his staff to ask the Justice Department to request citizenship data from the census. That May, he emailed his aides that he was mystified that nothing have [sic] been done. My father knew we were next. Theyre going to come for us, hed say, after Meles Zenawi, then the prime minister of Ethiopia, told the country on national television in July 1998 that Eritreans werent welcome. If the Ethiopian government says, We dont like the color of their eyes, and get out, Zenawi said, then they should get out. That year, my family and I were among the estimated 75,000 Eritreans who were deported from Ethiopia at the start of a two-year border war, followed by a protracted cold war that ended this year in a formal declaration of peace. Twenty years have passed since that conflict uprooted thousands of families like mine. But the costly antipathy between Eritrea and Ethiopia goes back much further. During World War II, both states became battlegrounds in the fight against Italian imperial rule. After the war, the United Nations passed a United States-backed resolution to form a federation between the two countries. In 1962, however, Ethiopia annexed Eritrea, stripping its language, culture and ability to self-govern. A decades-long armed struggle for independence followed, and tens of thousands of men and women, including my uncle, lost their lives as resistance fighters to win back Eritreas sovereignty. [Sign up for the weekly At War newsletter to receive stories about duty, conflict and consequence.] I would learn these things much later in life. Born and raised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, I attended a Catholic school and was sheltered from politics. I overheard bits and pieces about the war, but I was more concerned with the latest fashion trends and my first crush. Politics became unavoidable when Eritrea gained independence in 1993. Once, when I returned to Ethiopia from visiting my grandparents in Asmara, Eritreas capital, a classmate thrust a Nakfa bill, the new Eritrean currency, in my face and told me it was worthless. Another time, I saw a magazine cover with a painting of a woman wearing a traditional scarf in the shape of an old Ethiopian map. A noose around her neck suggested Eritreas independence had strangled Mother Ethiopia. Friends singled me out to explain political developments because I was Eritrean, but I didnt know how to answer. After the Ethiopian government announced plans to deport people of Eritrean origin, neighbors began eyeing our property and belongings as if they were creating an inventory before an auction. Some we had known for as long as I could remember; my parents, a surgeon and a nurse, had treated them when they needed care. We felt helpless and betrayed, suddenly isolated in a community we had considered home. I was a teenager when a loud knock at our door at 4 a.m. upended our lives. One of my brothers and I looked through our front doors thick glazed glass onto the dimly lit porch. Two men and a woman stood there holding AK-47s. We opened the door, and the armed agents asked for Dr. Solomon. My father, still in his pajamas, appeared. They gave him a few minutes to change. My mom handed him his coat and a gabi a traditional wrap to keep warm, but he wasnt allowed to collect other belongings. I asked the soldiers what was happening. Where are you guys taking him? Why are you here? They ignored my questions and took my father away. Sam Cobb was surprised to see so many people lined up for a hearing at the International Trade Commission in Washington on the morning of Monday, Aug. 20. The chief executive of Real Wood Floors, Cobb was a veteran of such proceedings, which were usually sleepy affairs, populated by white-shoe attorneys fighting over arcane legal definitions. For this hearing, though, the line stretched out the door and onto the sidewalk along E Street, where the people waiting to get in were surrounded by a scrum of television cameramen. In the preceding weeks, the Trump administration had floated a proposal to place punitive import tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods, and the politics of global trade had suddenly burst into the headlines. In the packed hearing room, Cobb listened as dozens of witnesses detailed how tariffs on Chinese-made bicycles and tires and fruit juice and the reciprocal taxes that would inevitably be imposed on American exports to China in response would lead to higher prices and lost jobs in the United States. This was part of a series of public hearings to address a proposed Section 301 tariff list, named after the provision of the Trade Act of 1974 that permits the United States to impose tariffs on other nations in response to unfair trade practices in this case, the administration claimed, the Chinese theft of intellectual property. The proposed tariffs would hit businesses from virtually every industry, including many that had little to do with intellectual property. For Cobb and the 247 employees of Real Woods affiliated companies, the stakes were high. Their business is exporting hardwood from the forests of southern Missouri to their partners in China, who mill it into veneer, laminate it to a plywood subsurface and finish it into designer flooring. The partners then ship the engineered hardwood back to Real Wood, which sells it to high-end builders from coast to coast an ocean-spanning supply chain that nevertheless keeps costs down. The simple possibility of tariffs had killed virtually all the companys orders for engineered hardwood from China. Real Wood was already paying an anti-dumping duty of as much as 25 percent on much of the flooring it imported from that country, a tariff that the International Trade Commission had levied on a number of Chinese flooring companies whose prices it deemed to be below market value. The Trump administrations proposal called for an additional 10 percent tariff, with the threat of a further 15 percent in 2019, which Cobb claimed would force Real Wood to make large price increases and would hamstring the whole industry. Cobb, 42, a genial, bearlike, bearded father of seven, stayed up late the night before the hearing, rehearsing his performance in the mirror of his hotel room, cutting it in half to make sure it stayed within the strict time limit. He was dressed sharp for the event, in a three-piece suit, with a pocket square and nonprescription eyeglasses to make him look smart, or so he hoped. He purchased the entire outfit in China while on one of his countless trips there. Mannered civility, in other words, can operate as a trap: order without justice, comity without commitment. It can pit you against an opponent who will happily fight dirty while insisting that you abide by Queensberry Rules. This is clearly a frustration that has bubbled up on the American left. Amid arguments about Sanderss being denied her dinner, the New Yorker columnist Jelani Cobb tweeted: Civility is the cowards favorite virtue. Hillary Clinton was lambasted by conservatives for declaring that you cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for. Former Attorney General Eric Holder even revised Michelle Obamas maxim: When they go low, we kick them, he said. I dont mean we do anything inappropriate. We dont do anything illegal. But weve got to be tough. What seems to go missing, when Americans talk past one another about the value of civility, is an appreciation of all the different things it may call us to do. In the case of Conservatives Being Ousted From Restaurants, multiple conceptions of civility were at work. Those on the right could scold about both good manners and liberal principles concerning equal access to public accommodations. Those on the left could scold those who deem all protest heckling and lay a claim to the groundwork of civic ethics, which, forsaken somewhere at the border, might render other parts of our contract null and void. The civility of manners is intent on lubricating our interactions, neutralizing our conflicts in a way that allows us to live peaceably together, but the civility of morals often does the opposite: It obligates us to interrogate what it means to keep the peace, and at what cost. It requires us to be vigilant, finding ways to keep our civic commitments even when our opponents abandon them, refuse to play fair and act in bad faith. What Americans currently register as a loss of civility is a loss not only of civilite but also of civilitas, the nervous system of our civic life, which synthesizes relations among us, our fellow citizens, our moral obligations and our commitments to fair governance. As of this fall, however, there was widespread agreement that vile breaches of civility could beget violent ones. In a single week, three murderous plots spiraled the nation into panic and grief: one to mail-bomb prominent Trump critics, another to murder Jewish congregants in Pittsburgh, another to murder black Kentuckians. Trump critics blamed him for creating an ecosystem in which hatred and violence could flourish. Trump, for his part, ignored even those from his own party who connected his revanchist rhetoric to the bloodshed, blaming the lack of a broader conversation about the tone and civility in politics on you guessed it the news media. It was easy to contrast Trumps reaction with that of former President Barack Obama, whose devotion to civility seemed nothing short of religious. But even Obama professed little patience for the rights new scolding about civil behavior: Im hoping you think its wrong, he said in a speech, to hear people spend years, months, vilifying people, questioning their patriotism, calling them enemies of the people and then suddenly youre worried about civility? Please. It takes a lot for the saint of civility to step out of retirement and enter the fray. But all of us in America have been clamoring for civility duking it out over civility, ironically enough. Deep down, we probably all know its not just civility were missing, but decency. The self-described radical filmmaker Alex Cox is best known for his mid-1980s cult films Repo Man and Sid and Nancy. Hes also made an imitation spaghetti western, adapted a Jorge Luis Borges short story and updated John Fords western The Searchers. His career is one of triumphs, crackups and sudden reversals, not unlike that of the idealistic rookie cop who is the protagonist of Coxs first foray into Spanish-language cinema, Highway Patrolman (El Patrullero). Indeed, Highway Patrolman (1993), showing for a week in a new 4K restoration at Film Forum in Manhattan, is the British-born Coxs most impressive comeback. He made it in Mexico with Japanese funding after his anti-imperialist flop, Walker, a 1987 satire of United States meddling in Central America, ostracized him in Hollywood. Inspired by the Mexican driver who helped scout locations for Walker and regaled Cox with stories of his life as a patrullero, the film is a cautionary tale of civic miseducation. Pedro Rojas (Roberto Sosa) graduates from the National Highway Patrol Academy, having been taught that every motorist is either a criminal or a source of income. First stop them then figure out what theyve done wrong, his instructor barks. Assigned to a town in deepest Durango, a barren terrain where even the buzzards are lonely, as his colleague Anibal (Bruno Bichir) puts it, the well-meaning Pedro is easily dissuaded by fast-talking drivers from enforcing minor infractions. Hes soon plucked by a local ranchers feisty daughter (Zaide Silvia Gutierrez) and finds himself saddled with an avaricious wife. Her demand that he make more money echoes the supervisor, who complains that the rookie is not fulfilling his quota of tickets. [What you need to know to start your day: Get New York Today in your inbox.] The City Council speaker is introducing a raft of bills on Wednesday aimed at stopping landlords from harassing rent-regulated tenants to force them out of their apartments. The speaker, Corey Johnson, said the package of 18 bills is intended to close loopholes and address abusive practices identified in The New York Timess recent series, Unsheltered, which showed how some large landlords exploit New Yorks fragmented regulatory system to push apartments out of regulation. It seems like landlords and developers come first, said Mr. Johnson, a Manhattan Democrat. For tenants, it doesnt seem even like they are an afterthought. They are not a thought at all. With Mr. Johnson behind them, the bills have a good chance of passage in the Democrat-controlled Council. Still, the legislation is likely to face stiff opposition from New Yorks real estate industry, and it was not immediately clear whether the bills would have the full support of Mayor Bill de Blasio. [What you need to know to start your day: Get New York Today in your inbox.] Representative Claudia Tenney, a first-term Republican who aligned her re-election campaign to President Trump, has lost her bid for a second term in New Yorks 22nd District in Central New York. After a drawn-out vote count, Ms. Tenney was unable to make up her Election Day deficit to Anthony Brindisi, a centrist Democratic state assemblyman, in a district that stretches from Lake Ontario to the Pennsylvania border. Leading by roughly 1,000 votes after the initial vote count, Mr. Brindisi, 40, had declared victory over Ms. Tenney. But Ms. Tenney, 57, refused to concede. The Associated Press called the race on Wednesday. With Mr. Brindisis victory, Democrats have now picked up 39 House seats in the midterm elections. Two House races remain to be called: one each in New York and California. [What you need to know to start your day: Get New York Today in your inbox.] TRENTON The debate in the New Jersey Legislature over whether to legalize recreational marijuana is unexpectedly turning into a wrenching discussion about fairness in the criminal justice system and the role of race in hundreds of thousands of drug convictions over the decades. As lawmakers edge closer to approving a marijuana legalization bill, they are also weighing a groundbreaking companion measure that would clear the criminal records of many people with drug offenses. Ten other states and Washington have decriminalized recreational marijuana, but none has gone so far in addressing historic inequities in drug sentencing in tandem with legalization measures. Supporters of the proposal in New Jersey to expunge criminal records say strict drug laws in the state have long unfairly targeted minorities: A black New Jersey resident is three times more likely to be arrested on marijuana-related offenses than a white resident, a recent study found. As Trenton begins to debate a marijuana bill approved on Monday by a joint legislative committee, creating an efficient process for tossing out past convictions has become central to gaining support from lawmakers who represent predominantly African-American communities. Shirley Figueroa, a retired public servant, grew up in Mott Haven in the Bronx with no trees on my block. But last year, Ms. Figueroa, 49, and her wife bought a home in Wallkill, N.Y., an hour and a half north of the city. The home came with a towering Norway spruce that a Rockefeller Center scout had already spotted. (Every year, the center gets its tree from a different place. Last years came from someones yard in State College, Pa.) And so Ms. Figueroas 72-foot tree will be lit tonight in a ceremony that starts at 7 oclock. Just the fact that I have a tree that I can donate when I came from somewhere that had no trees its so surreal, Ms. Figueroa said. Also noteworthy: This is the first tree in Rockefeller Centers history to be donated by a same-sex or Latina couple, a Rockefeller Center spokeswoman said. Ms. Figueroa and her wife are Puerto Rican. When I first read about the discovery of Crispr a cheap, easily deployed tool to modify DNA sequences I had a hunch. Although I am neither a scientist nor a clairvoyant, I thought it highly likely that the first Crispr baby would be Chinese. So it was with a sense of inevitability that I read this weeks claims by He Jiankui, a Chinese scientist based in Shenzhen, to have engineered the worlds first Crispr babies twins. China excels in most kinds of technology, but when it comes to gene editing and designer babies, it has an extra advantage: a population that has been conditioned to manipulating reproduction as a tool for progress. Im referring, of course, to the three decades of family-planning rules known as the one-child policy. Behind the science of whats doable is the mind-set of whats desirable. Chinas unprecedented reproductive experiment, officially ended in 2015 although many restrictions continue, has created a people accustomed in many cases, forcibly so to controlling the number and gender of their offspring. The one-child policy was established ostensibly to curb population growth, but Chinas leaders were not shy about exhorting the countrys people to reduce quantity to improve quality, shading the policy with eugenic undertones. For example, inmates often are isolated when they first arrive in prison and then are gradually reintegrated into the group. They are slowly coerced into obeying prison personnel, thug-like cell bosses and reformed prisoners. Various tactics are deployed to that end, both inducements (more food, sleep or human contact) and punishments (deprivation, torture, ostracization). The experience of shame, guilt, remorse and confession is supposed to bring about the prisoners conversion and renewal. This process is intentionally destructive: It is, the contemporary philosopher Tu Weiming has explained, a necessary journey of pain and suffering in the pursuit of human improvement. In theory, the harshness of the process was supposed to be tempered by the voluntary desire to improve oneself and by the expression of empathy toward people who fell short. But C.C.P. apparatchiks, in their pursuit of authoritarianism, have sidelined those mitigating factors. Their forging efforts have largely relied on coercion rather than moral persuasion, and their often ruthless methods have killed tens of millions of Chinese citizens over the years. Many of the people the C.C.P. has tried to reform were subjected to administrative sanction () rather than criminal proceedings and placed in camps where they underwent re-education through labor (laojiao, ). The laojiao system was formally abolished in 2013 after it was criticized for violating individual rights, yet re-education continues today and not only in Xinjiang under the guise of compulsory legal and moral training or tutelage. Both the ordinary and the famous can be subjected to it, often against their will and without legal recourse. In 2014, the actor Huang Haibo underwent six months of custody and education after he solicited a prostitute. The star actress Fan Bingbing disappeared for several months this year then publicly confessed that she had committed tax fraud and praised the C.C.P. Its a grass-roots effort, too. In the name of rural revitalization, C.C.P. officials in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang are calling for the standardization of peasant thought and behavior. The program is just one part of a national, three-year action plan by the partys Central Committee to raise the ideological and moral suzhi of Chinese peasants in order to refresh and revise their simple and honest character. When applied in Xinjiang, Tibet or other borderlands, ganhua seems to amount to a civilizing project, as the anthropologist Stevan Harrell has said, which aims to create a uniform populace under the banner of a single Chinese nation (). But it is more than that. In the 1960s, the psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton called Chinese-style thought control with its dogmatic belief in absolute truth and compulsion to mend the incorrigible ideological totalism. As Lifton noted, ideological totalism in China is not a continuous process, but a cyclical phenomenon. It elicits a mix of emotions. Some subjects comply, others withdraw; a few may even be enthusiastic at first. But over time the suffocating nature of repression also tends to breed resentment and resistance, and those in turn can bring about even more repressive methods of control. On Tuesday, Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith won a hard-fought runoff election over her Democratic opponent, Mike Espy. That Mississippi is sending a Republican back to Washington is hardly a surprise, but Ms. Hyde-Smith gave the opposition hope in the closing weeks of the campaign as she careened from one gaffe to the next each one emphasizing both that she was tone deaf and that she found humor in her states history of racial violence and voter suppression. On Nov. 11, a video surfaced of Ms. Hyde-Smith at a campaign stop at the home of a supporter. She drew both laughter and applause as she gushed about how highly she thought of him, saying, If he invited me to a public hanging, Id be on the front row. In a state that led the nation in the practice of lynching black people, often with whites in attendance as cheering spectators, Ms. Hyde-Smith claimed not to understand why so many found a racial meaning in what she claimed to believe was a joke about hanging. Barely a week later, the candidate again found herself facing a round of questioning when during a visit to Mississippi State University she remarked that laws that make it just a little more difficult for some college students to vote are great because they remind me that theres a lot of liberal folks in those other schools who maybe we dont want to vote. Maybe we want to make it just a little more difficult. And I think thats a great idea. That was a joke too, she said. But who exactly is laughing with her? Racist violence, segregation and voter suppression are not shared historical jokes. They are our present. Unless we change course, they will define our future. Ms. Hyde-Smith claims not to have realized there was anything wrong with what she said. She has steadfastly refused to apologize. Perhaps most important, since her comments came to light, she has yet to publicly engage in conversation with constituents of hers for whom hanging is not a joke and voting is a hard-fought, continually challenged right. During the campaign, she did not acknowledge there was even a dialogue worth having. Perhaps this is because for much of her life she has been hearing only one side of an argument and doesnt know or care that there is a larger conversation to be had. If this is the case, it may have something to do with where Ms. Hyde-Smith went to school and where she chose to send her daughter to school. To the Editor: Re Do You Have a Moral Duty to Leave Facebook?, by S. Matthew Liao (Sunday Review, Nov. 25): Like Mr. Liao, I teach ethics, and I believe he is quibbling. Theres no doubt in my mind that we should get off Facebook. My students and I often study utilitarianism, the moral theory that asks us to measure pleasures and pains in seeking to promote the greatest good for the greatest number. From this perspective, Facebook is a scourge. The pleasures normal Facebook use provides keeping up with friends, baby pictures are balanced out by the pains it engenders weakened in-person social ties, depression. Add to these the more catastrophic sufferings Facebook has enabled the genocide of the Rohingya, the spread of white nationalism, the slow dissolution of global democracy and the verdict is clear: We need to get off Facebook now. I did last year. Joshua Pederson Boston The writer is an associate professor of humanities at Boston University. To the Editor: Hispanics With Jewish Roots Have an Emergency Exit: Spain (news article, Nov. 8) explained the Hispanic descendants of Sephardic Jews complex history and their motivations to leave the American Southwest after many centuries to return t o Spain . For many, the rising climate of fear and hate directed against Hispanics, Jews, immigrants and all people of color makes them feel unwelcome and threatened. Although this may be good for those who leave, it is the outcome the haters want for the targets of their hate: to self-deport and disappear from the United States of America. I am sorry to see them go. Michael E. Mahler Los Angeles To the Editor: Re Manaforts Lies Broke Plea Deal, Prosecutors Say (front page, Nov. 27): I am a lifelong Republican, having stood with the Republicans through Watergate, Iran-contra and various other scandals. As president of my college Republican Club in 1979-80, I worked to put Ronald Reagan in office, went to his inauguration and cheered when we won the Cold War. In short, I felt myself so thoroughly Republican that I could never imagine myself making the following announcement. I am no longer a member of the Republican Party. Just as Reagan said, I didnt leave the Democratic Party, the party left me , so I must now conclude that the Republican Party, which is now the party of Donald Trump, has left me. The present government has done some wonderful things, such as lowering taxes, rebuilding our military, standing up for our European partners paying their fair share of our mutual defense, and particularly repudiating certain steps taken by the Obama administration against the interests of Israel. However, there is one thing that I cannot overlook: The Trump administration is contemptuous of democracy itself, and is being aided and abetted by the Republican members of the House and Senate. This article is part of the Opinion Today newsletter. You can sign up here to receive the newsletter each weekday. The Trump immigration crisis goes in and out of the headlines, but it has never ended. Heres a quick guide to understanding it: Many of the guards who implemented the policy continue to suffer from shame and guilt, writes Claudia Kolker , who volunteered in South Texas as an interpreter for separated children, in The Houston Chronicle. What I saw at the border was far worse than I imagined, not only because of what these families experienced, but because of what had happened to the American workers guarding them, she writes. The administrations policy of separating migrant children from their parents at the Mexican border officially ended in June. A recent 60 Minutes report concluded that the number of separated and detained children could top 5,000 twice the number the White House lists . An unknown number remain in custody. [Listen to The Argument podcast every Thursday morning, with Ross Douthat, Michelle Goldberg and David Leonhardt.] And the administration may have covertly revived the policy. ProPublicas Ginger Thompson reported on Tuesday that the federal government was separating children using vague or unsubstantiated allegations of wrongdoing or minor violations against the parents, including charges of illegally re-entering the country , as justification. In the meantime, another humanitarian crisis along the border has begun. Last weekend, immigration agents lobbed tear gas into Mexico to deter members of the migrant caravan from crossing the border or seeking asylum. Tear gas has a particularly harsh effect on children because of their weaker respiratory systems, explains HuffPosts Angelina Chapin. The Trump administration does not actually seem to be trying to discourage turmoil at the border. It is nearing a deal with Mexico to keep asylum seekers on the Mexican side of the border, which could add to the sense of chaos. Trumps border policy has squeezed asylum seekers at both ends, writes Voxs Dara Lind. Officials stress that migrants ought to present themselves legally at ports of entry, while asylum seekers at ports are forced to wait days or weeks for entry. All of which raises an obvious if disturbing question: Does the administration think it benefits politically from repeated crises along the border? Trump certainly seems to think so. Those pictures are very bad for the Democrats, he told The Post on Tuesday, referring to recent images of migrants. Trumps approach to the southern border is one of the great moral failings of his presidency. But there are no easy answers to this problem, either. The United States can't simply open its borders to anyone who wants to enter the country; doing so would spark a different kind of crisis, with thousands upon thousands of people streaming into this country. So what would be a better approach than Trumps or an open border? My colleague Tom Friedman argues that Democrats should both promote border security while also addressing the factors including climate change and insufficient economic aid that drive migrant flows. In The Washington Post, George P. Shultz, the former secretary of state, and Pedro Aspe, the former Mexico treasury secretary, suggest that international groups should do more to improve living standards in Central America. In The Atlantic, Reihan Salam argues for experimental charter city economic development zones in Central America that could provide the opportunity that many of the migrants seek. It took Donald Trump to make me associate Franklin Roosevelt with Pennywise the Dancing Clown. It was Roosevelt, of course, who, in his first inaugural address, said that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. That remarkable speech, delivered before Congress on March 4, 1933, is worth revisiting, and not least for the dignity of its rhetoric. The speech outlined the strategy with which Roosevelt would combat the Great Depression; its hope was to inspire, to bring people together and above all, to reassure the nation that we would revive and prosper. The primary obstacle to this restoration was not economics but fear: nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. A key strategy for conquering that fear, he went on, is speaking with candor: This is pre-eminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. If, 85 years later, you wanted to imagine the presidency of Mr. Trump in a nutshell, simply take all of the generousness and wisdom in Roosevelts first inaugural address and do the opposite. The only thing Mr. Trump has is fear itself. He wants us to be afraid, for it is fear that divides us, that sets us one against the other. If there is anything frank and bold about this presidency, it is Mr. Trumps ability to invent falsehoods out of fairy dust and marzipan, solely to make us afraid of immigrants, of transgender people, of one another. Venezuela is one of the richest countries in the world; it has the largest known oil reserves. Even though there was a crisis, it was still shocking to hear that people were starving to death. I spent five months going around the country to report the story with Isayen Herrera, a Venezuelan journalist. It was incredibly hard. We had to work with doctors to give us information and put us in contact with families whose babies were dying. We went to babies funerals. We photographed young boys who had left home and joined street gangs because they didnt have food. Our story comprehensively documented the malnutrition and how difficult it was for Venezuelans to access food. It was on the front page and went completely viral, changing how the world viewed the severity of the crisis. Have you faced repercussions in Venezuela for your work? Ive been detained more times than I can count. Ive received death threats. Ive been beaten by soldiers, punched in the face and shot with rubber bullets. When I was covering the massive street protests, soldiers shot me in my bulletproof helmet at close range and I got a concussion. State television has called me a C.I.A. operative who is trying to destabilize the revolution. Intelligence services have even falsely accused me of stealing babies and harvesting their organs to sell on the black market; they threatened to put me in prison for life for it. What keeps you in the country after everything youve experienced? The good thing about being in Venezuela for so long is that I have residency. The government has cracked down on the press since the crisis began, so Im one of the few foreign journalists left in the country. I feel a moral obligation to stay because I have the perfect trifecta: the legal ability to work here, the resources of The Times to do in-depth stories and a large platform for people to see our reporting. In August 2016, a month before their wedding, Sara and Greg Grant sold their condominium in Danbury, Conn., and began looking for a house. We wanted to start our life together as husband and wife in a home with a lot of land and privacy, Ms. Grant said. And they wanted that home to be in Sherman, a 23.4-square-mile town in the northernmost corner of Fairfield County. Ms. Grant, 28, works as an accountant in Shelton, Conn.; Mr. Grant, 31, is an IT manager in White Plains, N.Y. Both grew up in neighboring New Milford, so they knew the area, and they had spent time in Sherman visiting Ms. Grants sister and brother-in-law and their two young children. They were drawn to the town by the strong reputation of its school, its proximity to the Metro-North Railroad and its hometown feel. In May 2017, they found their house: a 3,066-square-foot, four-bedroom saltbox, built in 1983 on four acres, for which they paid $475,000. Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah is not an easy read. Thats not a comment on his literary output. Mr. Adjei-Brenyah, the author of Friday Black, a much-lauded collection of short stories exploring themes of violence, racism and the excesses of American consumer culture, arrived for an interview at The New York Times wearing an acid-washed jacket, a black hoodie and jeans, his outfit so standardized, so coolly underplayed, that it defied interpretation. Im on tour, and this is whats clean, he said. But of course there was more to it than that. Like some of his characters, Mr. Adjei-Brenyah, 27, spent a portion of in his teens and young adulthood selling lofty down parkas at a mall, in his case the Palisades Center in West Nyack, N.Y. Keenly aware as a salesman, and as a black man, that clothes can be decisive in the way one is perceived, he has mastered the arcana of racial coding sartorial profiling, that is a skill he exploits in his life and his fiction to comic and often unnerving effect. Sure, his turnout last week was a nod to practicality. I guess I could have imagined looking more business-y, but Im wearing what makes sense for where Im going to be doing today, said Mr. Adjei-Brenyah, who was bound that afternoon for Philadelphia. But it was also a statement. Image If he wore wing-tipped shoes, smiled constantly, used his indoor voice, and kept his hands strapped and calm at his side, he could get his Blackness as low as 4.0, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah writes in "Friday Black." Credit... Patricia Wall/The New York Times Im not anything less than I might have been because Im wearing a hoodie, he said. That phrase might have resonated with Emmanuel, the conflicted protagonist of The Finkelstein 5, the first story in the collection, the character playing up or tamping down his blackness at will. MUMBAI, India You know the messages. They pop up on your computer screen with ominous warnings like, Your computer has been infected with a virus. Call our toll-free number immediately for help. Often they look like alerts from Microsoft, Apple or Symantec. Sometimes the warning comes in a phone call. Most people ignore these entreaties, which are invariably scams. But one in five recipients actually talks to the fake tech-support centers, and 6 percent ultimately pay the operators to fix the nonexistent problem, according to recent consumer surveys by Microsoft. Law enforcement authorities, working with Microsoft, have now traced many of these boiler rooms to New Delhi, Indias capital and a hub of the global call-center industry. On Tuesday and Wednesday, police from two Delhi suburbs raided 16 fake tech-support centers and arrested about three dozen people. Last month, the Delhi authorities arrested 24 people in similar raids on 10 call centers. Jeremy O. Harris was standing in a TriBeCa loft full of black art and the promise of money. It was a party for donors and friends of New York Theater Workshop, where Slave Play, the 29-year-old playwrights professional debut, billed as an antebellum fever dream, opens Dec. 9. At 6-foot-5 in Gucci sneakers and a tasteful Gant sweater, he stooped to greet each attendee with a grin that seemed to begin behind his eyes before fanning out across his face. They turned to hear him speak. I dont want people to be able to walk away from a play about slavery and say, Oh, well, thats not about 2018, he said. He was joined by Robert OHara, the plays director and a personal idol. A Henry Taylor painting nearby showed a black boy seated at a kitchen table, his gaze stoic but searching. A steed outside the window behind the boy reared up on its hind legs. Being a black body in the world makes you feel kind of insane, Mr. Harris continued. You feel like you always want to laugh and you always dont. Thats not to say you shouldnt laugh when you see the play please laugh. But also, maybe dont. (On cue, they did.) The magnetism Mr. Harris brought into the room felt undeniable, almost carnal. That this charisma courses onto the pages of his plays is perhaps one reason hes having what is by any measure a breakout season. In addition to Slave Play, his play Daddy will debut Off Broadway in February, a coproduction of the New Group and Vineyard Theater, starring Alan Cumming and an onstage swimming pool. A week into a two-week river cruise along the Danube River in August, Erin Needham, her husband, Scott, and her mother-in-law, Linda, found themselves in an odd position: their trip, Ms. Needhams first to Europe, was being cut short because the water was too shallow for the ship to go on. Stuck in Vilshofen, Germany, and unable to make it to Passau, the next stop on the itinerary, Ms. Needham was disappointed, but her cruise company, Riviera Cruises, had warned guests that this could happen, so she felt she couldnt be upset. After a few days in Vilshofen some passengers opted to take a bus tour planned by Riviera while others decided to get on their flights home a week early. Ms. Needham and her family chose to continue their cruise on another ship, also run by Riviera, along the Rhine river. They transferred us to another cruise today with a fancier room AND we get to go to France! Now we are at the Chocolate Museum and our ship is docked in the background. Things are turning around, Ms. Needham tweeted. (Ms. Needham later told The Times that she couldnt have been more impressed with how the company handled the situation.) Tell me about the situation there now. People who live along the San Ysidro section of the border are always watching carefully. They monitor wait times, they read the news from Mexico, they pay attention to whatever the president is saying. Thousands commute for work and school. Those commuters are really concerned that the border is going to suddenly become a far less predictable place. Many of them say that San Diego and Tijuana are one region, codependent on each other. If they cant easily move, it will have a massive impact on the economy and the emotional feel of the place. There have been fights on this part of the border for decades in the height of Californias intense battles over illegal immigration, there were often images of people running through the fields in Tijuana at night to enter the U.S. And of course, there was the infamous freeway sign. The one depicting the shapes of running people crossing? Yep, I know that one. Who could forget it? Are folks worried that this kind of opening and closing of the border will be a new normal? A former police chief in Florida was sentenced on Tuesday to three years in prison for ordering officers to arrest black people for crimes they did not commit in order to give the impression that his department was solving crimes, court documents say. Judge K. Michael Moore of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida gave Raimundo Atesiano, who resigned from the Biscayne Park Police Department in 2014, until Dec. 10 to report to authorities to serve his sentence. The sentencing came just over a month after three officers who worked for Mr. Atesiano when he was the chief were sentenced to prison for their roles in the wrongful arrests. Mr. Atesiano told Judge Moore in court that he was not prepared when he took the job as chief of the department in the Miami-area village of about 3,000 people. I made some very, very bad decisions, he said, according to The Miami Herald. The United States government puts small children in jail to achieve a policy objective of ending unlawful immigration, and that has consequences, said R. Stanton Jones, a lawyer for Ms. Juarez, who declined to comment. A lot of people for a long time have believed one of the consequences of this family detention policy would be the death of a child, and that is what happened here. Mr. Jones said Ms. Juarez and her daughter were detained by Border Patrol agents almost immediately after they crossed the Rio Grande on a raft in March. They were held at a Customs and Border Protection processing center in McAllen, Tex., for three or four days, he said, where they slept on the floor of a locked cage with over two dozen other people, before being transferred to the facility in Dilley. According to the complaint, Ms. Juarez said her daughter was in good health when they left McAllen but fell ill soon after they arrived in Dilley, where they were held in a room with 10 other people, five women who each had a child. Several of the children were sick, and within a week, Mariee began to cough and develop upper-respiratory congestion, the complaint said. Over the next three weeks, her fever climbed to 104.2, she experienced extensive vomiting and diarrhea, and she lost nearly 8 percent of her body weight. During that time, the child received treatment from at least five medical workers, only one of whom was a physician, and was given at least four diagnoses, the complaint said. Ms. Juarez was told to give her daughter seven medications, including one Vicks VapoRub that is labeled inappropriate for children under the age of 2. Two Iranians were behind the ransomware attack that crippled Atlantas government for days this year, the Justice Department said in an indictment unsealed on Wednesday, detailing a sophisticated scheme of attacks on hospitals, government agencies and other organizations. The men, Faramarz Shahi Savandi and Mohammad Mehdi Shah Mansouri, chose targets with complex yet vulnerable systems organizations that could afford to pay ransoms and needed to urgently restore their systems back online, prosecutors said. In the case of Atlanta, one of the most sustained and consequential cyberattacks ever launched against a major American city, the pair broke into the citys computer systems and held their data hostage for about $51,000 worth of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, prosecutors said. They deliberately engaged in an extreme form of 21st-century digital blackmail, attacking and extorting vulnerable victims like hospitals and schools, victims they knew would be willing and able to pay, Brian Benczkowski, the head of the criminal division of the Justice Department, said in a news conference on Wednesday. The approval rate stems largely from the success of two companies. Mandel has won 400 aluminum exclusions nearly half of all the exemptions granted to companies seeking relief from the aluminum levies through early November. Those exclusions allow Mandel to import six times the amount of metal it sells every year, and company officials say they will not come close to using all of that allowance. Greenfield Industries, a South Carolina maker of saw blades and other cutting tools, has won 1,000 exclusions from the steel tariffs. Greenfield is owned by Chinas Top-Eastern Group. The exclusions stem from the Commerce Departments process for determining whether companies can win tariff relief for imported metals. The requests are generally granted as long as no American producer formally objects and says it can provide the metals. Both supporters and opponents of the tariffs have criticized the process as haphazard and ineffective. Aluminum trade groups including some that have criticized the tariffs say the fact that Mandel received approval to import more metal, including aluminum from China, than it can use highlights the programs flaws. Others have criticized the process for giving large domestic producers, like Nucor and Century Aluminum, outsize power to block exemptions by claiming they can provide the metals. Generally, it seems the department is not evaluating whether there is actually demand in the market for these large volumes and has granted the requests based simply on the absence of any objections, Heidi Brock, the president of the Aluminum Association, wrote in a letter to the Commerce Department this month. She cited Mandel and another set of exclusions, to Ta Chen International, for potentially one billion pounds of imports from China. WASHINGTON The presidents daughter and White House adviser, Ivanka Trump, said her use of a personal email account for government business was not the same as Hillary Clintons using a private email server, which the president and his supporters had long argued was illegal. There really is no equivalency, Ms. Trump told ABC News in an interview that aired Wednesday in a defense that echoed what her father said earlier this month. Ms. Trump was asked if she should be locked up in prison as her father and his supporters chant about Ms. Clinton. No, Ms. Trump replied. People who want to see it as the same, see it as the same, Ms. Trump said of the immediate comparisons drawn between the two women. A recent White House review found that Ms. Trump used a personal email account multiple times in 2017 to conduct government business, a disclosure that immediately energized Democrats still angry over the 2016 presidential election, when Mrs. Clinton lost to Mr. Trump. One of the dominant issues of that campaign was the investigation into Mrs. Clintons use of a private server while she was secretary of state. They arent always easy to identify either. Rebecca Hunter, an architectural researcher and author who lives in Elgin, offers a few tips on her website, including checking wood with part numbers stamped in dark ink usually with a capital letter followed by one or more numerals, (e.g. A159, L23, C2). The numbers are usually near the end of a board, on the wide side (for example, the 4-inch side of a 2-by-4). A model number or order number may be handwritten in grease pencil. Really? Good thing you made the right choice. Lawyers get to subpoena people, so its a little different. (Despite her early interests, she began her career as an academic in political science. But she was not happy and enrolled at Columbia Law School.) From the first day of law school, I loved it. From the first day, I had this sense of, this is what it feels like to be in the right spot for you. And that experience has been very helpful to me, particularly as I became a supervisor, to realize that sometimes when people are struggling, its because theyre not in the right spot for them. Thats been a very powerful lesson thats really stayed with me. Part of your task as an adult professionally is to try to get yourself in the right spot for you so that you can be successful. What makes D.O.I. commissioner the right spot for you? It is a great combination for me of two perennial interests that I would, I guess, shorthand as girl detective. On the one hand, I love investigating. One of the best parts of being a prosecutor is investigating cases. As a kid and as an adult, too, Ive always loved detective stories, mysteries, puzzles; its just how my mind works. So that piece, girl detective, makes the work of D.O.I. so interesting to me. And the other side is just a lifelong interest in government and how government works, and urban planning. Not from the landscape, architecture, design perspective, but how does a city work? How do you make a city work better? How does government interact with the people whom it serves? Those kinds of questions are also of endless interest and fascination to me. You spent many years putting people in prison, but you also had some cases in which you got people out. Were curious about what that meant to you as a prosecutor. Obviously, in the moment, when we became convinced that, in fact, we knew who had killed Baithe Diop and it was not any of the people who were currently in jail, we had this really single-minded focus of, Weve got to do whatever we can to get these people out of jail. HOUSTON If there ever really was a so-called Washington consensus, it was sitting on stage a former Democratic president and a former Republican secretary of state sharing laments about the days when the political system seemed to work better. Barack Obama and James A. Baker III on Tuesday night embodied what has become of that consensus, the decades-long accord between the two parties in favor of free trade, democratic values and an internationalist foreign policy built on alliances with like-minded countries. Where once the likes of Mr. Obama and Mr. Baker ran Washington and the world, now they are left to gather along with other formers at conferences and dinners and in the conversation held here at Rice University to discuss where it all went off track. In the age of President Trump, the great disrupter of the way things have always worked, the architects and preservers of the old approach are still struggling to come to terms with how it has frayed. A legitimate critique of that consensus, which I consider myself to be part of and still believe in, is that we did not adapt quickly enough to the fact that there were people being left behind and that frustrations were going to flare up and all these changes that were happening were happening really quick, Mr. Obama said. WASHINGTON Furious over being denied a C.I.A. briefing on the killing of a Saudi journalist, senators from both parties spurned the Trump administration on Wednesday with a stinging vote to consider ending American military support for the Saudi-backed war in Yemen. The Senate voted 63 to 37 to bring to the floor a measure to limit presidential war powers in Yemen. It was the strongest signal yet that Republican and Democratic senators alike remain vehemently skeptical of the administrations insistence that the Saudi crown prince cannot, with certainty, be blamed for the death of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. While the vote showed widespread disapproval of the administrations stance, it did not necessarily indicate that the measure would ultimately be approved. It took place hours after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis briefed senators about the Yemen conflict in a classified discussion, which the administration had hoped would persuade lawmakers that Saudi Arabia must remain a vital American ally. WASHINGTON The Pentagon is considering keeping active-duty American troops on the southwestern border into January, two Defense Department officials said on Wednesday, potentially extending a deployment to confront a caravan of migrants from Central America. The militarys border mission is currently slated to end Dec. 15, and no final decision has been made to extend it, said the two officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity. But talks about continuing it into next year come days after Border Patrol agents launched tear gas at a crowd of migrants attempting to illegally enter the United States from Tijuana, Mexico. The possible mission extension was first reported by NPR. The roughly 5,900 American troops on the border are spread between southwestern Texas and Southern California in a constellation of small bases where they have helped set up concertina wire and other security barriers. A Georgia woman spent more than three months in jail on drug charges after sheriffs deputies mistook congealed cotton candy they found in a car she was riding in for methamphetamine. A state crime lab eventually showed that they were wrong. Now, shes suing. In the lawsuit, filed this month, Dasha Fincher alleges that she was wrongfully arrested and incarcerated in December 2016, when she and her boyfriend were pulled over by Monroe County sheriffs deputies. The deputies found a blue, crystal-like substance in a bag on a floorboard in the car and evaluated it using a roadside test kit, which seemed to confirm that it was methamphetamine. Ms. Fincher said it was most likely two-day-old cotton candy discarded by the children of her friend, from whom she had borrowed the car. The next thing Ms. Fincher remembers, she was in handcuffs. I knew it was cotton candy, and for him to come back and say it was meth, I really didnt know what to say, she said in an interview on Wednesday. I kept thinking, This is crazy, Ill get out tomorrow. Then when I wasnt out by Sunday, I said, Its a holiday weekend, Ill be home Monday. Then every day turned into Ill be out tomorrow. Guy Edwards, a Latin America expert and co-director of the Climate and Development Lab at Brown University, said Brazils decision to back out of hosting the summit is unwise in economic terms, since it would mean the country would forgo any investment, business deals and cooperation agreements to advance low carbon growth at the time when Brazil needs an economic boost. The irony of the incoming Bolsonaro administrations decision to cancel the conference is that it will forgo the potentially hefty levels of investment and any number of business deals and cooperation agreements to advance low carbon growth just at the time that Brazil needs an economic boost, he said. Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, the former environment minister of Peru, called Brazils decision a bit sad, and added that it also creates a logistical hurdle for next years climate change discussions. Under the United Nations system, a country from Latin America is supposed to host the summit in 2019. Brazil was the only country in the region to volunteer for the task, which can cost a country as much as $100 million. Other countries in the region still have time to step in, but it is unclear which might do so. Argentina has held climate summits in the past, but it is hosting this weeks Group of 20 talks and may not want to incur another large expense. Mr. Pulgar-Vidal said it is unlikely that Peru, which spent $72 million to host a climate summit in 2014, would do it again. Jesus Silva-Herzog, a well-known political analyst, was similarly acerbic in his reaction. The Aztec Eagle to Kushner? Really? That is how the government of indignity bids farewell, he said on Twitter. A perfect crowning to its indecency. The debate spilled into morning television on Wednesday, when Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray spoke by phone to a popular news program to defend the decision. Without any doubt, we would not have a free trade treaty today with the United States and Canada without the participation of Jared Kushner, said Mr. Videgaray, who has formed a close working relationship with the presidents son-in-law. Mr. Kushner, he said, had managed to intervene in moments of great uncertainty to persuade Mr. Trump not to renounce the existing free-trade agreement among the three countries, as the American president had repeatedly threatened, and instead renegotiate it. In Washington, White House officials, frustrated by the criticism surrounding the award, tried to draw a line between the work Mr. Kushner had done to establish better trade relations and the disparaging words his father-in-law has used to describe the Mexican people. But officials did not initially respond to requests for a public comment about the honor. Instead, a White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said: Jared is very honored to receive this award. A lot of the work that he does is behind the scenes. He keeps his head down on trying to achieve the best outcome for the United States and its partners. KABUL, Afghanistan An operation by Afghan and American forces in the southern Afghan province of Helmand has left at least a dozen civilians dead, officials and residents said on Wednesday, illustrating the plight of noncombatants caught in the middle of the 17-year conflict. Afghan and Western officials said that Afghan special forces had come under heavy fire overnight during an operation against the Taliban in the Garmsir district and had requested American airstrikes against Taliban fighters. But on Wednesday, the officials acknowledged that civilians had also been struck. One Western official said that 13 civilians had been killed, in addition to 16 members of the Taliban. Residents of Garmsir put the number of civilians killed at 22. Ghafoor Ahmad Jawed, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense, said it had received reports of civilian casualties but could not elaborate on numbers. He said a delegation had been sent to Helmand to investigate. BANGKOK Cambodian and foreign investigating judges issued conflicting rulings on Wednesday on whether a United Nations-backed tribunal, which this month convicted two senior leaders of genocide, should move forward with prosecution of the next potential defendant. That defendant is Meas Muth, a former Khmer Rouge naval commander, whose potential prosecution has symbolized the tensions between the two parties to the tribunal, which combines Cambodian and international judges and prosecutors. Under the legal system in which the tribunal operates, investigating judges carry out pretrial investigations and make determinations as to whether cases should proceed against potential defendants. The Cambodian side has long insisted that prosecutions should end after the completion of the cases against the last two defendants, Nuon Chea, the chief Khmer Rouge ideologue, and Khieu Samphan, the nominal head of state, who were convicted of genocide on Nov. 16. HONG KONG A human rights lawyer who represented the former N.S.A. contractor Edward J. Snowden when he fled to Hong Kong says pressure from the local authorities, the bar association and legal aid groups have made it impossible for him to keep working in the semiautonomous Chinese city. The lawyer, Robert Tibbo, is a Canadian national who left Hong Kong last year and is currently living in France. He did not disclose his move for nearly a year, fearing it would harm the cases of his clients in Hong Kong, particularly asylum seekers who sheltered Mr. Snowden during his 2013 stay. Mr. Snowden, who leaked top-secret information on United States surveillance programs that had monitored the communications of hundreds of millions around the world, faces charges in the United States, including two counts under the Espionage Act. He now lives in exile in Russia. The revelation in September 2016 that Mr. Snowden had stayed with asylum seekers brought international attention to the status of such people in Hong Kong, where they are unable to work, are ineligible for permanent residency and face minuscule odds of being approved for resettlement in a third country. A: In my mind, it was her mom who went out and bought her that dress thinking: This is whats sexy to men. Showing her body, thats what is important because it will get her what she wants. Again, its gold so its got that flash. The dress is so impractical for everything when she walks in the warehouse theyre like, What are you wearing? She looks like walking sex, and thats what we were trying to portray in the beginning. She has no self-confidence whatsoever. And she uses her body or the way that she looks as a way to get money. And he insisted that the parents of the twins and seven other couples who had participated in his research were fully informed of the risks involved, and that they understood what was being done to their embryos. The parents were informed of the implication of this, Dr. He said. We reminded them of the option to leave the trial without implantation, or to choose the embryos. The couple elected to implant these embryos to start a two-embryo pregnancy. Showing a series of slides, he quickly described what he said was three years of work involving mice, monkeys and then human embryos. He used the editing technique, Crispr-Cas9, to disable a gene, called CCR, which creates a protein that makes it possible for H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, to infect peoples cells. Dr. He said that with the help of an H.I.V./AIDS organization in China, he recruited eight couples in which the man had H.I.V. and the woman did not. One couple dropped out and another achieved a chemical pregnancy, a pregnancy which fails soon after the embryo is implanted in the womb. After editing the CCR genes, he said he used in vitro fertilization to create embryos that were resistant to H.I.V. The goal, he said, was to engineer babies who would not be vulnerable to H.I.V. infection. Many scientists have noted that there are other, simpler ways to protect newborn babies of an infected parent, especially an infected father, from getting H.I.V. Embryo editing should be used only to prevent or treat dire medical conditions that cannot be addressed in any other way, they said. But Dr. He suggested that the parents of the twins, especially the H.I.V.-positive father, saw the procedure as a way to recapture their reason for living. SRINAGAR, Kashmir Indian security forces on Wednesday killed one of the most wanted Kashmiri militants, a young fighter who had escaped from police custody earlier this year and was accused of later assassinating a prominent newspaper editor. According to police officials, Naveed Jatt was cornered in a small house that was being used as a hide-out, and shot dead after a gun battle. Mr. Jatt, 21, was like a legend in the Kashmir Valley, a territory that both India and Pakistan claim. Born in Pakistan, he was pudgy and about five-and-a-half-feet tall his nickname was Shorty. He was known to be intelligent, charismatic and extremely brutal. SANT JOAN DE VILATORRADA, Spain Depending on whom you ask, Oriol Junqueras is either a rebel Catalan leader who sought Spains implosion or an elected politician who has unjustifiably spent the past year in prison, awaiting trial for organizing an independence referendum in defiance of the Spanish government and courts. Whichever answer prevails is not just central to the fate of Mr. Junqueras and 17 other indicted former leaders of Catalonia. It will most likely also influence the broader political conflict over the status of the region, which has its own culture and language, and a history at times defined by a struggle against the central power in Madrid. What is important is to know what you want, Mr. Junqueras, who was the deputy leader of Catalonia, said during a recent visit in prison. With whom you want to live and with whom you dont not exactly when the marriage will take place. Mr. Junqueras knows what he wants. But this month, Spains attorney general formally charged him and other secessionist leaders with rebellion and misuse of public funds, among other crimes, for their role in the referendum last year that had been declared unconstitutional, and in the declaration of independence that followed. MOSCOW President Vladimir V. Putin on Wednesday dismissed the maritime clash between Russia and Ukraine as a criminal incident rather than the opening of a new front in the long-running conflict between the two countries, while a Russian court on the disputed Crimean peninsula sent a second group of captured Ukrainian sailors to jail. This is a border incident, nothing more, Mr. Putin told an international business forum in Moscow when he was asked about the confrontation on Sunday when Russian ships fired on and seized three Ukrainian naval vessels in disputed coastal waters. It was his first public comment on the subject. In Ukraine, President Petro O. Poroshenko enacted martial law for 30 days in 10 regions, mainly those bordering areas with a Russian military presence. Mr. Poroshenko has said that the sweeping provisions of martial law which include the suppression of civil liberties would only be invoked in the case of a Russian invasion. We need to rebuff the aggressor at any moment, Mr. Poroshenko told troops at a Ukrainian training center, according to a statement on his website. Britains government on Wednesday abandoned any pretense that leaving the European Union would lift the economy, instead presenting its own plan to leave as the least destructive option. The governments switch in its argument followed publication of a bleak official economic analysis of life outside the European Union, which showed that under terms similar to those in Prime Minister Theresa Mays plan for the withdrawal, known as Brexit, Britains economy would be 3.9 percent smaller than it would have been if the country had stayed in. In the governments worst-case scenario of leaving the bloc with no deal, Britains economy would lose 9.3 percent of the gross domestic product it could otherwise have expected. And that seemed relatively tame compared with a report from the Bank of England also released on Wednesday. In the event of Britain crashing out of the European Union without a deal, the banks analysts said, the economy would shrink by 8 percent in a year, house prices would sink 30 percent and the pound would drop to $1.10 from the current $1.27. I've traveled to New York and to New Orleans to look at the rat issues and they have much more severe problems than Chicago, she said. Boston has an incredible degree of rat problems too. I know that New York does. I go out with night vision glasses on, and I do rat counts and rat safaris, and I've done them in both Chicago and New York, and New York seems twice as ratty as Chicago. The original was a landmark film for black representation in the horror genre. Alongside Night of the Living Dead, Candyman was a major inspiration for me as a filmmaker and to have a bold new talent like Nia at the helm of this project is truly exciting. We are honored to bring the next chapter in the Candyman canon to life and eager to provide new audiences with an entry point to Clive Barkers legend, Peele said in a statement. The skills of writing students are about the same as theyve always been. Dont just take my word for that; theres research to back that up. What has changed is their attitude toward writing. Writing is something done only for the purpose of proving competent at school, and the best way to do this is to follow rote prescriptions such as the five-paragraph essay, a structural template into which all content is poured. Over the last month, hundreds of pastors from all over the Netherlands have taken turns holding non-stop service at a Protestant church in the Hague, where a family of Armenian refugees scheduled for deportation has taken shelter. Dutch law prevents police from entering places of worship during prayers, and religious leaders are determined to continue the service for as long as it takes authorities to reconsider their decision. The Tamrazyan family fled their native Armenia in 2009, after receiving death threats due to the fathers political activism. They sought asylum in the Netherlands and after going through a seven-year application process, a judge granted the family asylum. However, the Dutch Government successfully appealed that decision in court, and in September, Sasun Tamrazyan, his wife Anousche and their three children were officially notified that their asylum status had been lifted. No longer feeling safe in the asylum center they had been assigned to, the Tamrazyan family sought shelter at the Gereformeerde Kerk (GKV) church, in Katwijk, of which they had become members three years ago. They were welcome with open arms. Photo: Hans/Pixabay But despite the church offering the Armenian family shelter, there was nothing keeping Dutch authorities from storming in and taking the refugees into custody. Thats when the Bethel Protestant Church in The Hague stepped in to offer them greater protection. They invited the Tamrazyans to take shelter there and offered to conduct non-stop service until their situation was resolved, making it impossible for police to remove them without breaking the law. According to Dutch law, authorities are not allowed to enter places of worship during prayers, so pastors from all over the country have been coming to Bethel to take part in a relay-style service that has been ongoing for over 700 hours. We hope the family gets a permit to stay in the Netherlands for two reasons, GKV Katwijk said in a statement to Euronews. The father of the family runs a great chance of being killed in Armenia. And the children have been living in the Netherlands for nine years and are rooted here. According to Dutch media, The Tamrazyans had also applied for Childrens Pardon, a program allows refugee families with children who have resided in the Netherlands for more than five years to obtain a residence permit, but their application was rejected. However, the religious leaders who took in the Armenian family on October 26 are determined to continue their ongoing relay-style service at Bethel Church until authorities reconsider their decision. Support for the Tamrazyan family and the churchs efforts to keep them safe has been overwhelming, with hundreds of people from both the Netherlands and abroad attending the non-stop service and pleading with the Government via the internet. The hashtag #KerkasielBethel has been widely used on social media, and theres even a petition active, which has already gathered well over 200,000 signatures. The non-stop service is currently in its fifth week, and Bethel Church is still looking for volunteer pastors to take part in the relay, particularly pastors willing to perform the service during the night. The relay service probably still has to run for a while, Theo Hettema, the chairman of the general council of the Protestant Ministers, wrote on Facebook, encouraging nightowls to get in touch. I think it is good that the churches make a statement in their own way for a fairer and also faster asylum procedure, Joost Schelling, one of the pastors who has been holding service at Bethel Church wrote on Facebook. A 21-year-old Indonesian man who used a custom-made fake police uniform and a realistic gun to pose as a police officer and get women to go out with him was recently arrested by real policemen. He still has a scheduled date, only this time it will be with a court judge. Ari Septian Pratama, a 21-year-old man from the South Sumatran city of Palembang, in Indonesia, reportedly pretended to be a cop for about a month, before his arrest by actual police officers. The young pretender confessed to adopting the alias Dr. Julian Saputra, and having a realistic police uniform custom tailored. To appear more believable, Pratama also wore a realistic toy gun and police badge, and even went around telling people that he was the son of Southeast Sulawesis regional police chief and that he was a doctor of police forensics. Apparently, he did it all to impress women and get them to go out with him. Photo: Facebook Believe it or not, his illegal pick-up tactics proved very effective, as he told investigators that he successfully convinced 10 women to go out with him, including civil servants, nurses, doctors, and, get this, even actual policewomen. He would rent expensive cars and tell the women that he wanted to marry them, in order to convince them to sleep with him. And it worked. I promised many (of the women I dated) that I would propose marriage to them. Honestly, I didnt get money from them, but I slept with most of them. Some are even already engaged, Ari confessed. The fake cop denies using his fake identity for monetary gains, but at least two of his victims have alleged that he used his authority to extort money from them at ATMs. Ari was forced to explain his crimes in front of the media, at the South Sumatra Regional Police Headquarters in Palembang, and he said that it all started as a challenge on popular livestreaming platform Big Live. he claims someone dared him to do it and even offered to pay IDR5 million (US$345) to pay for the uniform and all the other props he needed to impersonate a policeman. The 21-year-old was arrested on Monday at a hospital in Palembang, after one of the women he dated became suspicious and inquired with the real police to see if there was a Dr. Julian Saputra working there. After hearing the womans story, they immediately started looking for this fake forensics doctor and it didnt take them long to reach Ari. At the time of his arrest, the young man was actually wearing his fake uniform. If found guilty of impersonating a police officer and extorting money out of unsuspecting victims, Ari Septian Pratama risks spending time behind bars. Well, at least he got laid via Coconuts Jakarta Mark Weiner The Institute for Public Relations will hold its Annual Distinguished Lecture & Awards Dinner on Nov. 28 at New Yorks Roosevelt Hotel. Cheryl Boone Isaacs, immediate past president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, will be the featured speaker at the event. The IPR Pathfinder Award will be presented to Dr. Bey-Ling Sha of San Diego State University. Mark Weiner of PRIME Research is to receive the Jack Felton Medal for Lifetime Achievement. Roger Bolton, president of the Arthur W. Page Society, will get the Alexander Hamilton Medal for Lifetime Achievement. Yulan Qin of the University of Florida will receive the Makovsky Best Masters Thesis of the Year Award, and Jeyoung Oh of the University of Alabama will take home the Don Bartholomew Award for Excellence in Public Relations Research. There will also be a cocktail reception sponsored by the UF College of Journalism and Communications. For more information, contact Mary Beth Perry at Marybeth@instituteforpr.org. The Hugh M. Hefner Foundation is seeking nominations for it's 2019 Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Awards. The awards are given each year to a group of individuals whose work enhances First Amendment freedoms while also bringing attention to important issues where work is still needed. Christie Hefner, founder and chairman of the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Awards, established the Foundation in 1979 to honor her fathers work and commitment to free speech and Americans First Amendment freedoms. The deadline for submissions is January 14. The awards ceremony will be held at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. in late spring 2019. Details about the event will be provided when the winners are announced in February. Nomination materials can be found here. The Young Professionals Committee of New York Women in Communication will offer a glimpse at how the social media strategy process for a major brand works at a Nov. 29 event featuring Bustle Digital Group director of social media Hayley Saltzman. All About the Hustle & Bustle: An Evening with Hayley Saltzman takes place at The AinsworthEast Village (64 Third Ave., New York) and runs from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Attendees can use the hashtag #nywiciyopro to live post from the event and to submit their questions. Click here for more information or to register. Some 69 schools in Offaly will receive a Minor Works Grant payment over the coming days for small-scale works and improvements, according to Offaly Fine Gael Councillor and General Election Candidate, John Clendennen. Cllr. Clendennen stated that "the Department of Education is advising all school authorities to use the grant to prioritise fire safety prevention works, and 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," according to Cllr Clendennen. 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 Department will be developing guidance for all primary and post-primary schools on the key issues identified from the fire safety assessment programme and 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," Cllr. Clendennen explained. 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. Unfortunately, theres no one solution thats going to prevent these types of incidents, which is why we find its so important to routinely assess all of our locations and train all of our associates, she said. Violence in health care is something thats become incredibly common and something we deal with on an ongoing basis, which is why were trying so hard to make sure were putting all these measures in place to provide that safe environment. Now I cant think of any responsible person who likes the idea of children suffering. I dont think you like it either. Parents brought the little ones into that chaos on the border. I wouldnt have done it, and perhaps you wouldnt subject your children to that danger. Yet still, it tears at the heart to see it. Theres nothing that says the officer has to be in fear of anything, Snelling said. All the officer has to do is reasonably believe that an attack or something else of that nature is imminent Just because the officer is in a vehicle and has protection doesnt mean that he cant categorize the subject as an assailant. 1984 anti-Sikh riots: Delhi High Court upholds sentencing of convicts India oi-Madhuri Adnal New Delhi, Nov 28: The Delhi High court on Wednesday upheld the death sentence of all 88 accused in the decades-old 1984 anti-Sikh riots case that took place in East Delhi's Trilokpuri area and directed all the accused to surrender within four weeks. The high court dismissed the review petition filed by 88 people who had been convicted by a lower court. The convicts had challenged the August 27, 1996 judgment of a Sessions Court which had convicted 88 out of the 107 people arrested on November 2, 1984 for rioting, burning houses and curfew violation in Trilokpuri area of East Delhi. Following the assassination of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, over 3,000 Sikhs were killed across the country, with the most being killed in Delhi. The Delhi Patiala House Court had earlier awarded death sentence to Yashpal Singh and handed another convict Naresh Sherawat life imprisonment for their role in 1984 anti-Sikh riots. The verdict was pronounced in Tihar Jail due to security concerns. 1984 anti-Sikh riots: Convict Yashpal gets death sentence, Naresh given life imprisonment Singh and Sherawat were convicted on November 15 for killing two Sikh youths in Delhi's Mahipalpur area after the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The Delhi Police had closed the case in 1994 for want of evidence. However, a Special Investigation Team on the riots reopened it. Businessman in Kolkata shot at after his car was stopped by 18 men West Bengal Class 10, 12 exams to be held in offline mode in March, April 7 dead, 20 hospitalised after consuming illicit liquor in West Bengal's Nrisinghapur India oi-Chennabasaveshwar P Kolkata, Nov 28: At least seven persons were dead and more than 20 admitted to a local hospital after consuming illicit liquor in Nrisinghapur (West Bengal), on Tuesday night. "We suspect methanol poisoning," Dr Jayanta Biswas, superintendent of the hospital in Shantipur was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times. Methyl alcohol, or methanol, is toxic but it is mixed with hooch to increase the intoxicating power of the drink. Sexual abuse at Bihar shelter homes: SC orders CBI to take over State finance and excise minister Amit Mitra said, "CID will investigate the tragedy," said. The government has announced Rs 2 lakh as compensation to the families that have lost a member. Nadia District Magistrate Sumit Gupta put the number of people who fell ill at 44 and said they were admitted at Kalna and Shantipur hospitals. The condition of some of them are stated to be critical, hospital sources said. Gupta said he was monitoring the situation at the hospital along with the local sub-divisional officer, block development officer and district chief medical officer (health). (With PTI inputs) Ahead of Rajinikanth's 2.0 release, HC directs 37 ISPs to block 12,000 websites India pti-PTI Chennai, Nov 28: Ahead of Rajinikanth-starrer '2.0' release on Thursday, the Madras High Court has directed 37 internet service providers (ISPs) to block over 12,000 websites that exhibit pirated versions of Tamil movies. The list includes more than 2,000 websites operated by 'TamilRockers.' Justice M Sundar passed the order Wednesday while allowing a plea moved by Lyca Productions Private Limited, the movie's producer. When the plea came up, Lyca's counsel Vijayan Subramanian produced an extensive list of 12,564 illegal websites. The counsel contended that when 'TamilRockers' website is blocked, it immediately creates mirror websites by changing an insignificant part of the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or any other extension, and are therefore able to reinstate the infringing material with minimal effort. After Tirupati, Sri Ramanathaswamy temple, Mukesh Ambani offers Isha's wedding invite at Guruvayur Subramanian produced a probable list of extension of 'TamilRockers' and sought an injunction against all such websites. According to Lyca, its latest venture is '2.0', starring Rajinikanth, Akshay Kumar, Amy Jackson and others. The movie has been directed by S Shankar. The producer has invested substantial sums of money in the production of the film and it is scheduled to be released in more than 7,000 screens in India and worldwide. including Chennai, on November 29. The movie is releasing in more than five languages, including Mandarin in China. The trailer for the promotion of the film has been released. The official trailer, published on 'YouTube', has already garnered 13,089,498 views, the counsel said. Palaniswami asks PM Modi to rescind nod for DPR on Mekedatu dam While the company has acquired all exploitation and distribution rights including theatrical and music, besides other rights, including TV, internet, digital and home video exclusively, under the Copyright Act, it apprehended that such illegal websites might exhibit pirated versions of the film soon after its release. According to the counsel, the web pages and websites which provide such links are multifarious and are disbursed all over the globe. Such websites are allowed to be viewed in India through various internet service providers such as the 37 listed in the plea, the company contended. PTI Ayodhya row: RSS leader Indresh Kumar slams CJI-bench, claims govt is ready with a law India oi-Deepika S New Delhi, Nov 28: Criticising the Supreme Court for "delaying" the Babri masjid land dispute case, RSS leader Indresh Kumar said that the Centre is ready to bring a law to enable the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya. Indresh claimed that the BJP-led government has a plan ready to bring a law on the construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya but has been silent in view of the Model Code of Conduct due to the ongoing Assembly elections in 5 states. Referring to the Chief Justice of India-led bench's decision to defer hearing on the Ayodhya matter, Indresh at an event here said: "I haven't taken names because 125 crore Indians know their names. The three-judge bench. they delayed, they denied, they disrespected. They have disrespected the Constitution and fundamental rights." VHP says, lots of talks have been done on Ram Temple, now it is time to deliver He claimed that there was growing anguish against these "two-three" judges and went on to claim that they should "think if they want to remain judges or resign" if they are not ready to deliver "justice". 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. BJP doesn't have patent on Ram Mandir: Uma Bharti 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 11 December, 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. Maybe some people will go to the Supreme Court after that to challenge it and maybe 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. Top brass of Sangh Pariwar pitch for construction of Ram Temple from different places "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. 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. OneIndia News (with PTI inputs) For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 11:42 [IST] Bru community people turn up in large numbers to vote in Mizoram polls India oi-Shubham Ghosh Aizawl, Nov 28: As the northeastern state of Mizoram went to the Assembly elections on Wednesday, November 28, a large number of Bru refugees came out to cast their ballots at polling stations in Kanhmun in the state's Mamit district, something which was not seen much in the earlier elections in the state. Mizoram Assembly elections 2018 LIVE: 40 'Dingdis' setup to encourage women voters A polling official who was deputed by the Chief Electoral Officer to the Bru polling centres said on the condition of anonymity that the turnout from the Bru community is very high this time, Indian Express reported. "They started coming here since 6 AM in the morning. Till now there is around 10 percent turnout in the 15 polling booths set up for nine assembly constituencies at Kanhmun," the official was quoted as saying as Bru refugees waited for their turn to cast the ballot. Ethnic violence had broken out between Mizo and Bru tribes in 1997 as a result of which several Bru families were forces to leave the state and take shelter in neighbouring Tripura. This time, special arrangement has been made for the Brus, including for food and transport, to facilitate their participation in the carnival of democracy. Recalling Mizoram elections 2013: Will Congress beat anti-incumbency this time? Two hundred and nine candidates' fate will be decided in the polling on Wednesday. The state of Mizoram has been under the rule of the Congress - the final in the northeast and one of the remaining ones across India. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 12:32 [IST] Congress maintains safe distance, says Sidhu went to Pakistan in personal capacity India oi-Vikas SV New Delhi, Nov 28: The Congress has maintained a distance of sorts from Navjot Singh Sidhu who is in Pakistan on the invitation of Imran Khan to attend the Kartarpur corridor groundbreaking ceremony. The official guests representing the Indian Government for the function were Union Ministers Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Puri. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj was invited, but she turned down the invitation. Swaraj even said today that Kartarpur related developments were fine but talks with Pakistan on the official level were not possible till Islamabad stops exporting terrorism to India. Amid all this, Congress is in a fix. The grand old party would not want itself to be seen as backing Sidhu's Paksitan ethusiasm, neither can it stop him from hopping border every now and then. Sidhu's border hopping, new found love for Pakistan leaves Amarinder Singh in a fix "Navjot Singh Sidhu went there on personal invitation. He didn't go there in an official capacity as a Minister. This has also been clarified by the Punjab CM. The onus of whatever he says there in his personal capacity lies on him alone," Congress' Pratap Singh Bajwa told ANI. "Navjot Singh Sidhu went there (Pakistan) for the 2nd time in 3-4 months. Who issued him visa? MEA. First, you issue him a visa and then you talk about what he did he say after going there," he added. Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday (November 27) said he had asked Sidhu to reconsider his decision to visit Pakistan on Imran Khan's invite. "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," Singh said. Meanwhile, speaking at the Kartarpur corridor groundbreaking ceremony, Pakistan PM Imran Khan heaped praise on Navjot Singh Sidhu and said the Punjab Minister is a messenger of peace from India. Khan said the Sidhu would win election if he contests in Pakistan. Sidhu will win if he contests election in Pakistan: Imran Khan India had proposed the corridor to Pakistan around 20 years back. The issue recently came into focus after Sidhu visited Pakistan in August to attend the oath-taking ceremony of Imran Khan as the prime minister. Last week, Pakistan and India announced that they would develop the corridor on their respective side of the border to help Indian pilgrims visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 18:31 [IST] No one will be able to destroy Congress, leaders joining TMC 'drama', says Venugopal Congress, TRS and AIMIM deleted voters name on grounds of their community India oi-Chennabasaveshwar P New Delhi, Nov 28: Union Minister MA Naqvi alleged that Congress, TRS and AIMIM parties have deleted voters from voter list in poll bound Telangana on grounds of their community. The BJP leader told reports that genuine voters from a particular community and supporting a specific party have been deleted under planned conspiracy. BJP received 167.80 crore of total donations from electoral trusts: Report Speaking about several fake voters, he said "... 700-800 voters have same address. Names of Rohingyas have been included in list,they shouldn't be allowed to cast votes. We demanded EC to remove the loopholes before election and take action against officers involved." As many as 1,821 candidates are left in the fray for 119 constituencies in the December 7 Telangana Assembly polls, the state election commission said. The commission is coming out with the official figure on November 26 after withdrawal of nominations ended on November 22. According to an official release, 1,762 nominations were either rejected or withdrawn. BJP wants to retain Upendra Kushwaha in the NDA to maintain power balance in Bihar Election officials had on November 22 said the final number of candidates left in the fray would be known after receipt of information from the constituencies. (With PTI inputs) For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 17:59 [IST] Does opening of Kartarpur Corridor pose a security risk? Defence expert explains India oi-Vikas SV New Delhi, Nov 28: The recent developments over the Kartarpur Corridor have been positive. For once India and Pakistan have agreed on some issue and the best part is that it is about giving unhindered access to holy place where a nobel soul, Guru Nanak ji, spent last years of his life. Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan is located across the river Ravi, about four kilometres from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine, in India. Both countries have now agreed to give visa-free movement of Indian Sikh pilgrims. While the gesture by the administrations of both the countries is being appreciated, there also lurks security concerns. Kartarpur: Euphoria alright, but Pak has given space to Referendum 2020 campaigners Punjab has witnessed secessionist violence in the 70s and the 80s. The issue was somehow brought under control and there has been peace in the region in the past few decades. But, some reports now suggest that Pakistan has been trying to fuel unrest in Punjab. We spoke to Defence and strategy matters expert Colonel Jaibans Singh about this issue and he said that Pakistan would want to take advantage of anything that can cause trouble in India. But, he said, that Indian Sikhs cannot be indoctrinated as "people of Punjab are well aware of the evil machinations of Pakistan." "No it does not pose any security risk. There is no risk of India Sikhs being indoctrinated into the path of terrorism just becasue the corridor is open. They (Indian Sikhs) are not fools. There is no risk of them getting influence by referendum 2020 ideology," Col Singh told OneIndia. Some reports say that the secessionist movement is again gaining some traction. 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. When asked whether Pakistan wants insurgency in Punjab to rear its ugly head again, Col Singh said, "Yes ... Pakistan would definitely want to back anything that can cause trouble in india. Whether it is in Punjab or in north east or in Kashmir or in naxal areas. They willl try to tie up with anybody so that India stays on the boil somewhere or the other. So the thing of wanting insurgency to raise its head again (in Punjab) is very much on the Pakistani agenda. They would do anything in their power to ensure it." Yes, the next Referendum 2020 for Khalistan nation is in Pakistan "But it is not happening because people of Punjab are well aware of the evil machinations of Pakistan and they are not likely to fall prey to these kind of things," he added. 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: Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 9:32 [IST] German electronics firm Bosch eyes investing 100 million euros in India India oi-Shubham Ghosh New Delhi, Nov 28: Germany's Bosch Home Appliances on Wednesday, November 28, said it will invest 100 million euros (around INR 800 crore) over the next three-four years in India, PTI reported. Saying that it is expanding its product portfolio in India, the company added that it will do so by providing localised offerings to take advantage of the fast growing home appliances market. "Bosch Home Appliances will invest 100 million euros over the next 3-4 years towards personalising solutions, brand building, strengthening its technology centre, and setting up a robust refrigerator factory to bring its best-in-class German technology in India and magnifying India's role globally," the company said in a statement, as per the PTI. Automation level will increase over next decade: Bosch Bosch said India's household appliance market is likely to grow 14.5 per cent annually between 2018 and 2022, leading to a market volume of USD 2,028 million. "In the coming years, Bosch will take its offerings from conventional to digital and transform businesses beyond mobility, by focusing on connectivity and new digital business models for customer value, as well as extending new employment opportunities in the space," the statement said, the PTI added. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 17:50 [IST] Jyotiraditya Scindia, KTR launch first-of-its-kind 'Medicine from the Sky' project in Telangana Hyderabad rape case: The rapist will be caught and killed in encounter, Telangana minister IAF's trainee aircraft crashes in Telangana, pilot injured India oi-Vikas SV Hyderabad, Nov 28: Indian Air Force (IAF)'s trainee aircraft has crashed in Telangana's Bhuvanagiri district, saod reports. The pilot has sustained injuries and has been rushed to the hospital. The ill-fated plane had taken off from Hakimpet Air Force station and crashed in Bahupeta in Bhuvanagiri district's Yadadri area. Hakimpet Air Force Station (Hakimpet AFS) is an Indian Air Force (IAF) base under the Training Command. It is located 25 kilometres north of Hyderabad. Private trainee aircraft crashes in Telangana's Ranga Reddy On November 21, a trainee aircraft crashed in the fields of Shankarpalli block of Telangana's Rangareddy district. The 25-year-old pilot, Bhaskar Bhushan, had escaped unhurt. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 13:32 [IST] One thing I always tell my clients when I negotiate a plea agreement and offer the plea agreement and explain what the consequences are, I always say, listen, a year from now youre going to be the one who is admitting guilt in court, Grohman said. You may wake up in prison, might be a short sentence in prison, but at the end of the day if youre going to continue to lose sleep and feel as though you did nothing wrong, then you only have one option. Sachin Tendulkar among 50 most influential people on Twitter, according to brand research If you type Bitches near me on Google Search and the results will take you to womens hostels India oi-Madhuri Adnal Bengaluru, Nov 28: Yes you read it right, when you type 'Bitches near me' the giant search engine Google had suggested women's hostels, paying guest and even girls' schools and other female-centric results. The revelation started from Twitter with the first tweet appearing from an Twitter user who thought this might be an Easter Egg for users to find put into the code intentionally by the engineers at Google. Google, can you explain why this fuckin exists pic.twitter.com/w0eslFoVSz aesthetic potato (@AHappyChipmunk) November 25, 2018 These results were not only limited to the subcontinent apparently. Sorry for that guys, but it works in Jordan in the same way. Fix this please @googlemaps https://t.co/koooOehtdP Osama Jaber (@jbr_osama) November 26, 2018 Google shows results and suggestions based on their searches. This is how their algorithm works and thus that means that a lot of people might have substituted the word girls with 'bitches' in their previous searches. However, Google appears to have taken notice of the issue and corrected it now, since searching this term now yields no results. A lot of people were left wondering why this was the case in the first place. India in fix over opening of Kartarpur corridor as Pakistan once again deceives it India oi-Vinod Kumar Shukla New Delhi, Nov 28: Pakistan has been on the expected lines during the groundbreaking ceremony of Kartarpur corridor when Pakistan prime minister has not forgotten to mention Jammu and Kashmir in his speech. He also wished a change in regime in India in 2019 general elections but the most unfortunate part was the presence of a Khalistani radical during the ceremony. At the time of laying of foundation stone for Gurdwara Darbar Sahib corridor in Pakistan's Kartarpur, Khalistani terrorist Gopal Chawla was seen with Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan. His presence with Imran Khan raises several questions. Chawla was earlier seen with terrorist Hafiz Saeed, mastermind of 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. Indian government has not given any response on this issue so far but in response to the reference to 'Kashmir' by Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, the Official Spokesperson said: "It is deeply regrettable that the Prime Minister of Pakistan chose to politicise the pious occasion meant to realise the long pending demand of the Sikh community to develop a Kartarpur corridor by making unwarranted reference to Jammu and Kashmir which is an integral and inalienable part of India." Kartarpur Sahib: No PM Imran Khan, Pakistan's call for peace can't be trusted The spokesperson said that Pakistan is reminded that it must fulfil its international obligations and take effective and credible action to stop providing shelter and all kind of support to cross-border terrorism from territories under its control. But security experts have rejected the so-called Pakistan policy of the government when Sushant Sareen tweeted: "For whatever it's worth.. The deed is done, the country will pay a price. We will neither be able to swallow this bone nor spit it out. On the first day itself, the Paks have shown their hand by inviting a Khalistan. You don't have any policy on Pakistan." Kartarpur to be seen in isolation, shouldn't be linked to anything else: Army chief Sareen said that just for some political gains, the government must not compromise with the security of the nation and the government policy is also questioned that on what capacity Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is involved on Jammu and Kashmir issue. Political analysts say that such political posturing in the election year will continue as it is not only failure on part of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party but also on the Congress which is resorting to provocation as one of its minister in the Punjab government has reached Pakistan to attend the groundbreaking ceremony. The Pakistan PM is speaking his mind against India but Indian leader is not only justifying his decision but also praising the Pakistan Prime Minister. The government is being accused of taking the decision in haste on the issue as it needed lots of preparation when Pakistan is looking for an opportunity to incite Khalistani radicals in Punjab and one incidence had already happened which forced the Punjab chief minister to refuse to go to Pakistan. There are reports several ISI operatives active in the UK to fan the Khalistan movement in India and cause unrest in Punjab once again which was peaceful from long. Sources said that actually, Kartarpur Corridor has been a trap for the government of India that it could not have denied and Pakistan succeeded in their game plan and whatever was left was done by Punjab minister and former BJP leader Navjot Singh Sidhu. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 21:13 [IST] J&K Oppn questions former Norway PMs meetings with separatist leaders India oi-Shubham Ghosh Srinagar, Nov 28: At a time when the politics of Jammu and Kashmir is witnessing a churning, a visit by a former Norwegian prime minister to the state has upset the Opposition parties and they have questioned the government over the visit. National Conference leader Omar Abdullah, who is also a former chief minister of the state, wanted the BJP government at the Centre to explain what happened in meetings that the Norwegian leader had with separatist leader in Srinagar. NC backed PDP to save J-K from "current mess": Omar Abdullah "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. Kjell Mangne Bondevik, who served as the premier of the Scandinavian country between 1997-2000 and 2001-05, met separatist leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq last week. The former Nowegian prime minister's visit to the state was the first by a foreign dignitary since Narendra Modi took over as the prime minister in 2014. Omar Abdullah met Norway Ambassador to India last year in Srinagar Last year in May, Norway's Ambassador to India Nils Ragnar Lamsvag called on Abdullah in the state capital and spoke over the Kashmir issue with him. The two discussed in details the political and economic situation in the state during their hour-long meeting, the NC said later. It was said that Abdullah briefed the Norwegian envoy about the prevailing situation in the state and the NC's stand over the same. Khalistan-Pak link out in open again: Chawlas presence at Kartarpur says it all India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Nov 28: On the sidelines of ceremony to launch the Kartarpur Corridor, a pro-Khalistan leader was filmed standing besides the Pakistan Army chief. Gopal Singh Chawla, the pro-khalistan leader was seen standing beside General Qamar Bajwa, who also greeted him warmly. The event was also attended by Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Punjab Minister, Navjot Singh Sidhu. Chawla has been in the news of late, with Pakistan and the Khalistan groups trying to up the ante for a separate Punjab nation. The name of Chawla had also cropped up during a recent investigation. Kartarpur Sahib: No PM Imran Khan, Pakistan's call for peace can't be trusted The police said that Javed Khan Wazir, who is a Pakistan intelligence officer contacted one Shabnamdeep from Pakistan in July. He was also introduced to a Pakistani Sikh named Gopal Singh Chawla, former general secretary of the Pakistani Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee. Shabnamdeep was tasked with targeted killings and was also promised a sum of Rs 10 lakh per killing, investigations had revealed. The name of Chawla had cropped up again last week. This time it was due to a huge row between India and Pakistan over the former's diplomats being stopped from entering the religious places. It was found that the diplomats were not stopped by the Pakistan security officials, but Chawla, who is also said to be close to Lashkar-e-Tayiba boss, Hafiz Saeed. There has been a debate over the decision regarding Kartarpur. 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. Sidhu will win if he contests election in Pakistan: Imran Khan 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. 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: Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 17:36 [IST] Some clowns try to dishonour India, have support of Rahul, Sibal: Narottam Mishra Madhya Pradesh polls: The state has given decisive verdict since 1st election in 1957 India oi-Shubham Ghosh Bhopal, Nov 28: One of the largest states in India (was the largest before its bifurcation in 2000), Madhya Pradesh is a key political unit for the ruling BJP ahead of the next year's Lok Sabha election. The party is being ruled by the saffron party uninterruptedly since 2003 and in the 2014 general elections, the BJP won 27 out of 29 seats in the state while the Congress could win just two. Can Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan win his fourth consecutive term from MP in this election? Madhya Pradesh elections 2018 LIVE: Scindia demands time extension; 'Local officials to take call' MP is a state which has always given its verdict decisively and as a result, it has always got a stable government with a clear majority. 1957: Congress got 232 seats out of 288 The state had its first Assembly election in 1957 and it had 288 seats then. The Congress bagged 232 of them and got almost 50 per cent of the votes polled. The second place-holder was Praja Socialist Party (PSP) which got only 12 seats. 1962: Cong got 142 out of 288 In the 1962 election, the Congress saw a sharp decline in its seats to 142 which meant the Bharatiya Jana Sangh got 41 seats and the PSP improving it tally to over 30. The Congress still managed to form the government. Recalling 2013 Madhya Pradesh polls: Chouhan becomes CM for 3rd time, Congress puts up abysmal show 1967: Cong got 167 out of 320 In the 1967 Assembly elections, the Congress bagged 167 seats which was a clear majority while the Jana Sangh ended up as the main Opposition force with 78 seats. The number of seats this time was 320 and it continued till the state remained undivided. 1972: Cong got 220 out of 320; 1977: Janata Party won 230 out of 320 In 1972, the Congress had a great show as it won 220 out of 320 seats in the MP Assembly. However, in 1977, the Congress, like at the Centre, lost power in the central Indian state for the first time. It could manage just 84 seats while the Janata Party (which had the Jana Sangh in it) won 230 out of 320 seats with a vote share exceeding 47 per cent. 1980: Cong won 246 out of 320 In the 1980 Assembly election, the Congress was back with a bang, just as it was at the Centre, winning 246 out of 320 seats. The BJP, which was formed that year and succeeded the Sangh, got only 60 seats. 1985: Cong won 250 out of 320 In 1985, the Congress improved its tally even further, in the aftermath of the assassination of Indira Gandhi. It captured 250 seats out of 320 with 49 per cent vote share while the BJP won only 58. 1990: BJP won 220 out of 320 With the advent of the Ram Mandir politics, the BJP started gaining ground and the 1990 saw an exact opposite to the 1985 results with the BJP winning 220 seats and coming to power in MP for the first time. The Congress won only 56 seats. 1993: Cong won 174 out of 320; 172 out of 320 in 1998 The Congress was back in power in 1993 and continued till 2003 by winning the next election in 1998 as well but its seat tally went down on these two occasions - to 174 in 1993 and 172 in 1998. The BJP got 117 and 119 seats, respectively, in these two elections. 2003: BJP won 173 out of 320; 143 in 2008 and 165 in 2013 Then came the interrupted rule of the BJP. In 2003, the voters reversed their decision and gave the BJP 173 seats (out of 230) while the Congress got 38. In 2008, the BJP won again but with a reduced figure of 143 (the Congress won 71). In 2013, they won again by improving the tally to 165 (the Congress got 56). For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 13:57 [IST] Viral: Madhya Pradesh man claims buffalo refuses to be milked, goes to police Some clowns try to dishonour India, have support of Rahul, Sibal: Narottam Mishra Railways withdraws dress code for waiters on board Ramayan Express after objection from Ujjain seers MP liquor shops offer 10% discount for those taking second jab of COVID-19 Madhya Pradesh elections 2018 highlights: 75 per cent voter turnout recorded, polling ends India oi-Madhuri Adnal Bhopal, Nov 28: Around 75 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections Wednesday. In Madhya Pradesh, as many as 2,899 candidates, including 1,094 independents, are in the fray for the 230 seats. The state has 5.04 crore, eligible voters. Around 3,00,782 government employees, including 45,904 women, were on poll duty and 65,341 polling stations were set up. Chief Electoral Officer,VL Kantha Rao, said, "883 ballot units and 881 control units were replaced today. 2126 VVPATs were replaced during mock poll and during voting." Recalling 2013 Madhya Pradesh polls: Chouhan becomes CM for 3rd time, Congress puts up abysmal show The BJP has been power for the past 15 years. The Congress feels that this is its best chance to unseat the BJP, which is riding an anti-incumbency wave. Here are the highlights of Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections 2018: MEA regrets Imran Khan's 'unwarranted reference to J&K' India oi-Chennabasaveshwar P New Delhi, Nov 28: Ministry of External Affairs regretted Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's remarks on Jammu and Kashmir after laying foundation for Kartarpur Corridor on Wednesday. Responding to Pakistan PM's remarks, MEA stated " Deeply regrettable that Pakistan PM chose to politicise the pious occasion meant to realise the long pending demand of Sikh community to develop Kartarpur Corridor by making unwarranted reference to J&K which is integral and inalienable part of India." Kartarpur Sahib: No PM Imran Khan, Pakistan's call for peace can't be trusted "Pakistan is reminded that it must fulfill its international obligations and take effective and credible action to stop providing shelter and all kind of support to cross border terrorism from territories under its control, " MEA stated in it's statement. Speaking at the programme, Khan said nations like Germany and France in Europe fought several wars between them but they overcame all enmity over the years and today, they are so interconnected that they can't even think of fighting more wars. "If they can do, why can't India and Pakistan?" he asked, saying: "We haven't even killed so many people among ourselves. Why can't we then improve our relationship?" Khalistan-Pak link out in open again: Chawla's presence at Kartarpur says it all " The only issue between us is Kashmir, all it needs is just two capable leaderships to resolve this issue. Just imagine the potential we have if our relationships get strong," Pakistan PM said. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 18:10 [IST] Naveed Jatt shot dead: Why killing this Lashkar terrorist is such a big deal India oi-Vicky Nanjappa Srinagar, Nov 28: The killing of Naveed Jatt is a major success for the security forces. One of the most dreaded terrorists in the Valley was gunned down in an encounter at Badgam along with another terrorist. A massive manhunt had been launched for him after he had shot noted journalist Shujaat Bukhari dead. He was the one who opened fire on the journalist, investigations showed. He went by the alias Abu Hanzalla. He was part of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and hailed from Pakistan. He was graded Category A++. Lashkar's Naveed Jatt makes public appearance at terrorist's funeral in J&K Jatt, according to the police was the person who opened fire on Bukhari on June 14 2018. The plan to kill the journalist was hatched in Pakistan by the Lashkar-e-Tayiba. It may be recalled that in March, he had escaped from the SMHS hospital. Jutt it may be recalled had escaped after attacking a police escort party on February 6 2018, when he was being taken for medical examination at the Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital in Srinagar. Two police personnel were killed in the incident. The NIA found that it was a well planned criminal conspiracy. Investigation revealed that the accused conducted meetings in the Central Jail, Srinagar on different dates before the incident and a comprehensive plan was made to effect the escape Jatt. As per the plan, the accused conducted a detailed recce of the SMHS Hospital as well as routes to be followed before and after the action. They also arranged vehicles and weapons to be used in execution of the plan. During investigation, accused the four persons mentioned in chargesheet were arrested. Shujaat Bukhari's death avenged: Security forces kill wanted LeT terrorist Naveed Jatt in Budgam Intelligence Bureau officials tell OneIndia that this is a major hit. Jatt's escape and breathed life into the Lashkar-e-Tayiba. He was constantly recruiting and posed an immense threat. For several months now, the local police, Army and the Intelligence Bureau worked on the leads, following which they were able to zero down on his location. His death will be a major blow to the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, the officer also informed. His death adds to the list of over 200 terrorists that have been killed in J&K this year. The Army has had several successful hits this year, especially at a time when Pakistan has upped the ante in Kashmir. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 11:54 [IST] No Lashkar in Afghanistan, no Al-Qaeda in India: The result was Mumbai 26/11 India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Nov 28: A couple of years before the Mumbai 26/11 attack took place, Ilyas Kashmiri the head of the 313 Brigade of the Al-Qaeda was in talks with David Coleman Headley. The duo would discuss with each other the importance of increasing their reach in the sub-continent. It was here that a plan was hatched to target India's commercial capital Mumbai. As per the original plan, Kashmiri would train his men to carry out a terror strike in a city and Headley was the one who had conduct the reconnaissance. Alternatively the duo had also hatched a plan to strike in a big way in Kashmir. This was planned with an intention to make a big announcement about the entry of the Al-Qaeda into Kashmir. Words are not enough: Why Trump's warning to Pak means nothing to 26/11 case However, they went back to the attack on Mumbai, as they were well aware that the ISI would not allow any group other than the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Hizbul Mujahideen operate in Kashmir. The ISI knew about this Mumbai plan, but stayed away from it. It was during that time that the US action in Afghanistan was at its peak. The action by the US and the ISI staying mum about it did not go down too well with several groups. However Hafiz Saeed, the boss of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and the blue-eyed boy of the Pakistan establishment did not react. The real problem began when several cadres within the ranks of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba began getting restless. At first they spoke among each other and later on asked the leadership why they should join their brothers in Afghanistan in the fight against the US. The ISI would not allow this and the only way to control this was to create a huge distraction. It was decided that the plan hatched by Kashmiri would now be executed by Saeed. The ISI wanted to demarcate boundaries clearly and did not want the Lashkar-e-Tayiba in Afghanistan. Neither did it want the al-Qaeda in India. However, the bigger issue for the ISI was to keep the Lashkar-e-Tayiba together and ensure that Saeed had no issues with it. 26/11: India slams Pakistan for showing 'little sincerity' The ISI then called on the operations chief of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and discussed the plan to attack Mumbai. The meeting was also attended by Saeed and Kashmiri. Following the meeting, it was decided that the entire plan to attack Mumbai be carried out by the Lashkar-e-Tayiba. On 26/11 ten terrorists carried out the attack in Mumbai and the rest is history. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 16:20 [IST] Kumaraswamy to attend Ashok Gehlot's swearing-in on Dec 17: These are other leaders who would attend 'Not asking for votes for well being of my future generations': Modi's bitter jibe at Congress India oi-Vikas SV Jaipur, Nov 28: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday continued his attack on the Congress and the alleged dynasty politics practiced by the party. Modi, in a veiled attack on the Gandhi family, said he is seeking votes for developemnt and not for " well being of future generations". In a bid to connect with the voters, Modi said he was like them and not born "with a silver spoon" Modi tears into Rahul Gandhi, stops short of calling him ignorant "I have lived my life the way you have. Neither you nor I was born with a silver spoon. Your parents have never ruled nor have mine..I am asking you for votes based on my work, I'm asking you to vote for development. I am not seeking votes for my family or the well being of my future generations," Modi said in Nagaur, Rajasthan. Hitting out at the Congress, he said those whose four generations have had no connection with the public cannot understand the pain of the common people. "Our only mantra is 'sabka saath, sabka vikas', inspired by social reformist Jyotiba Phule and B R Ambedkar," the prime minister said. Modi yet again tried to highlight Congress president Rahul Gandhi's ignorance on matters peertaining to common man and said, "Kuch log aise hain jinko maloom nahi hai ki chane ka paudha hota hai ya ped, jo moong aur masoor mein farak nahi samajhte vo aaj desh ko kisaani sikhane ke liye ghoom rahe hain (Some people do not know whether Chana (brown chickpeas) grows on trees or plants. Such people give sermons on farming)". 'Congress can't take me on, so insulting my mother': Modi Modi on Monday said 'naamdaar' does not even know what an election manifesto is. PM Modi often refers Rahul Gandhi as 'naamdaar' which in Hindi means famous or rich. Modi on Sunday attacked the Congress and its party president Rahul Gandhi for dragging his mother and father into an election debate, and said that while Congress leaders are hurling abuses at him, the party's "naamdaar" (dynast) is supporting them. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 14:34 [IST] "You probably don't know who he was, but you might have met him because for 20 years he worked as a cab driver from dawn until dark driving the city of Chicago to their jobs, to their friends and their family," Omar Tungekar, 36, said during the downtown news conference. Now farmers reaching Delhi to protest NDA government's alleged anti-farmer policy India oi-Vinod Kumar Shukla New Delhi, Nov 28: United opposition is planning to attack the policies of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government along with the farmer's organisation from across the country in the elections year. All small and big farmers' organisations have started moving towards Delhi and reach Delhi to participate in a protest on November 29 and November 30, 2018. One of the leaders who is part of the organisation attacked the policies of the NDA government which he alleged to be anti-farmer. The farmer leaders have not only targeted the National Democratic Alliance government for its anti-farmer policies but also the Congress. Chairman of Akhil Bharatiya Kishan Sangharsh Samiti BM Singh said that over 200 farmers' organisation have already started moving towards Delhi to join the protest. Farmer leaders have discussed various problems of farmers. Why a farm loan waiver and not a temple at Ayodhya matters to farmers The leader of Narmada Bachao movement Medha Patkar who is supporting farmers said that around 21 political parties have come forward for the cause and issues of farmers. Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Khadge also signed a document supporting the cause of loan waiver of farmers. Still, why did the Congress only announce loan waiver up to Rs 2 lakh only in Madhya Pradesh? This shows the dual character of political parties. Farmers' march highlights: Representatives of 21 political parties come together for farmers Farmers leaders said that against the BJP government's call for Ayodhya Chalo, farmers have called Dilli Chalo on the issue of farmers and the note bandi (demonatisation) of the government will be answered by vote bandi. Farmers reaching Delhi will gather at Ramlila Maidan and they will show their strength on November 29 and November 30 in Delhi. Some entertainment programme for farmers Ek Sham Kishano Ke Naam will be organised at Ramlila Maidan in which renowned artists from across the country will participate. Kisan Sansad will be organised on November 30 in which bill related to complete freedom of loan of farmers and right price of seeds will be discussed. Farmers from across the country will hand over the bill prepared by them to the government. These bill have the approval of 21 political parties. Farmers from Tamil Nadu already demonstrated at Jantar Mantar. Farmers of Maharashtra have already organised a 150-kilometre long march. Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh and farmers in Rajasthan have already organised the protest in a different part of the state. Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sangharsh Samiti have united them all. PM Modi to open new campus of Ambedkar School of Economics University on Dec 6 Paks SAARC invite for PM aimed at earning brownie points say officials India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Nov 28: Terming the move as posturing, India has dismissed Pakistan's invitation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the SAARC summit. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be invited to Pakistan for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit, Foreign Office Spokesman Mohammad Faisal had said on Tuesday. India is an integral part of SAARC and not a special invitee that Pakistan has the discretion to send out an invitation, an official in Delhi told OneIndia. Pakistan to invite PM Modi for SAARC Summit: Report 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. This time around, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka are unlikely to take part in the summit. Sri Lanka is batting a political crisis, while Bangladesh is going to polls and hence both nations are unlikely to participate. India says that this invite by Pakistan is nothing but posturing and an attempt to capture brownie points. Before sending out invitations, Pakistan must instead act against terror and the violence it resorts to along the border, the official also added. Addressing a conference in Islamabad 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. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 7:03 [IST] Video: Dog comes out of nowhere to save a goal in a football match in Argentina PM Modi leaves for Argentina to attend G-20 summit India oi-Chennabasaveshwar P New Delhi, Nov 28: Prime Minister Narendra Modi left for Argentina to take part in the 13th G-20 summit. The theme of the summit is - Building Consensus for a Fair and Sustainable Development. Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said that Prime Minister will make a lead intervention in the first session of the summit titled - Putting People First. Issues pertaining to risks posed by oil price volatility, flagship programs including Skill India, Digital India and GST among others will be on focus during the intervention of the Prime Minister. During the summit, Prime minister will make the pitch for other countries which are not between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn to join the International Solar Alliance. The G-20 is also expected to discuss reforms of multilateral trading institutions particularly the WTO. Khalistan-Pak link out in open again: Chawla's presence at Kartarpur says it all On the sidelines of the summit, the Prime Minister will hold meetings with several world leaders including Chinese President, German Chancellor , Spanish Prime Minister, UN Secretary-General. The BRICS head of states and governments will also meet in Buenos Aires on the sidelines of the summit. Kartarpur corridor not connected to dialogue process with Pakistan: Sushma Swaraj In a pre-departure statement, Prime Minister Modi said that during the G20 summit, India will highlight the need for reformed multilateralism which reflects the contemporary realities and can effectively strengthen collective action for global good. He said that there is also a serious need to strengthen international cooperation and enhance coordinated action against fugitive economic offenders and the financing of terrorism. The Prime Minister said, emerging economies, which played a major role in revitalizing the growth in the global economy pursuant to the financial crisis are today facing unprecedented economic and technological challenges. Rahul writes a letter to people of Madhya Pradesh reiterating to fulfill promises made to them India oi-Vinod Kumar Shukla New Delhi, Nov 28: Congress president Rahul Gandhi has written an open letter addressing people of Madhya Pradesh just before the voting in the state. He reiterated to fulfill the promises made by the Congress to people of the state and take the developmental journey of the state to a next height. Rahul Gandhi has guaranteed loan waiver of farmers within 10 days of the formation of the Congress government in the state. He expressed his faith that only prosperity of farmers will bring the economy of the state on track. The letter is addressed to senior citizens, women and youths in which promises made by the Congress are discussed. He writes that Madhya Pradesh is not just a name of any state but willpower of farmers, confidence of daughters, hope of youths and victory of poor. Senior Congress leaders concerned about promises made by state Congress chief Kamal Nath As per the Congress chief, the image of the state received a severe beating from the past 15 years and farmers demanding right prices of crops were offered bullets from the police. He also talked about VYAPAM, sand mafia, e-tender scam, Bundelkhand Package scam and sexual assault against daughters in the state which had put lives of lakhs of youths in dark impacting the image of the state adversely. It is also said in the letter that Madhya Pradesh has maximum number of scheduled tribes but their right over forest land and employment has been taken away. Rahul claimed in his letter that amid all these hopelessness, promises like loan waiver of farmers, 24-hour power supply with half the price, justice to daughters, growth of industries, jobs for youths have given a new hope to people of the state. Recalling 2013 Madhya Pradesh polls: Chouhan becomes CM for 3rd time, Congress puts up abysmal show The Congress president has also claimed that it was due to the efforts of the Congress that attitude of the Congress towards farmers changed otherwise the National Democratic Alliance government had brought land acquisition bill on instructions of industrialists. Rahul has appealed to people of the state to step ahead for a good government in the state. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 11:12 [IST] SC refuses to postpone Tripura municipal elections: 'If we do it then it will set a wrong precedent' Sexual abuse at Bihar shelter homes: SC orders CBI to take over India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Nov 28: The Supreme Court has ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation to take over the probe into 17 shelter homes in Bihar. On Tuesday while making stinging observations the court had said that it would decide on whether or not to transfer all the cases to the CBI. Two inmates of Bihar's Aasra shelter home go missing The SC on Wednesday directed the CBI to investigate the "gamut of allegations" of abuse, torture in 17 Bihar shelter homes for children, destitutes, beggars and senior citizens. The order comes in the aftermath of sexual abuse against children being reported in a Muzzafarnagar shelter home. The Court had taken to task the Bihar government for not filing FIRs in cases of sodomy of children in shelter homes. The observation was made during the hearing on the Muzzafarpur shelter home case. The court also pulled up the Bihar government over its failure to correct the FIR and also gave it 24 hours time to add charges under Section 377 and also POCSO Act. If we find that there were offences committed under the above mentioned sections and you did not register an FIR, then we will pass orders against you, the court observed. What you are doing is shameful. If the child is sodomised you say it is nothing. How can you do this. We were told that the matter would be looked into with all seriousness. This is inhuman what you are doing the court orally observed. Sexual abuses in varying forms at almost all shelter homes in Bihar: Report Justice Deepak Gupta observed, ' every time I read this file, I am hit by the tragedy of the case. It is tragic. My hair stands on its ends.' Justice Madan Lokur said that the child wanted to talk to her parents, but was denied permission. She has lost her mental balance. A child has been sodomised and the Bihar government says that it will file an FIR after a week. Usually police registers an FIR under the most serious offences. Here it is otherwise. The truth is not coming out, the court further said. The attitude of the state is extremely unfortunate, tragic and shameless to say the least. Are these children lesser citizens of the country, the court further sought to know. Telangana Election: Transgender candidate Chandramukhi goes missing, feared abducted India oi-Deepika S Hyderabad, Nov 28: A transwoman activist contesting the Telangana assembly elections from the Goshamahal constituency in Old Hyderabad, went missing from her home on Tuesday. 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. She has reportedly been missing since 8:25 am on Tuesday, 27 November; based on the missing person's complaint, an FIR has been filed. 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. Telangana Assembly polls 2018: Vanteru Pratap Reddy, contesting against CM Rao attempts, suicide 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. Major political parties yet to launch manifesto for Telangana polls "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. Telangana elections: Congress leaders release manifesto, state unit denies favouring Muslims 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. Telangana elections: Karimnagar not impressed by Yogi Adityanath, BJP down to 1 from 5 Telangana Election: TRS 'B team' of RSS and BJP, says Rahul Gandhi India oi-Deepika S Hyderabad, Nov 28: Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday accused K Chandrashekar Rao's TRS of being the 'B team' of the BJP. Launching a scathing attack on the care tale chief minister, Rahul said that "TRS is not Telangana Rashtra Samiti, it's Telangana Rashtriya Sangh Parivar. It's a B team of the RSS and BJP." "KCR had promised 22 lakh houses but the reality is, only 5000 were built. He also failed to fulfill the promise of land made to SC/ST communities. Our alliance (Congress-TDP) will fulfill all these promises," he said adding every person in Telangana has Rs 60,000 debt on them, but KCR's son's income increased by 400%. Telangana Election: Transgender candidate Chandramukhi goes missing, feared abducted "Five years ago, people of Telangana had hoped for a new Telangana. You had dreamt of Neellu, Nidhulu, Niyamakaalu. People believed that CM KCR will fulfil their dreams and this trust was broken by KCR Government," he further said. The Congress President vowed to provide Rs 1 lakh grant to every Self Help Groups and to allocate Rs 500 crore to women entrepreneurs. Telangana Assembly polls 2018: Vanteru Pratap Reddy, contesting against CM Rao attempts, suicide "Our top priority is to create jobs. We will also provide Rs 3,000 unemployment allowance", he added. The Congress has cobbled together a coalition of opposition parties that includes N Chandrababu Naidu's TDP, CPI and the newly formed TJS to take on the TRS and the BJP in the state. The TRS and BJP are contesting the assembly polls separately. "TRS is not Telangana Rashtra Samiti, it's Telangana Rashtriya Sangh Parivar," he added. He also assailed the TRS of caretaker Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for his party's understanding with AIMIM of Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, and said the two parties wanted to ensure that the BJP was not defeated in next year's Lok Sabha polls. Telangana polls: KTR says 'Mahakutami' failed coalition of rivals; BJP 'non-existent' in state "The aim of TRS and AIMIM is to see to it that the Congress is not able to defeat BJP at the national level," he said. The Congress leader will later in the day join TDP supremo Chandrababu Naidu for election campaigning, the first time that leaders of the two parties will share the stage. Telangana will will go to polls on December 7. The results, billed as the semi-final to the big battle for Lok Sabha in 2019, will be declared on December 11. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 15:23 [IST] Kartarpur corridor not connected to dialogue process with Pakistan: Sushma Swaraj India oi-Deepika S New Delhi, Nov 28: Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday welcomed Pakistan's decision to build the Kartarpur corridor but made it clear that this was not connected with dialogue process between India and Pakistan. "For many years, the Indian government has been asking for this (Kartarpur) corridor, only now Pakistan responded positively. It doesn't mean the bilateral dialogue will start because of this, terror and talks can't go together," Swaraj said. The Foreign Minister's remarks came a day after Pakistan Foreign Office said PM Narendra Modi will be invited for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit. Pak's SAARC invite for PM aimed at earning brownie points say officials Swaraj said no dialogue can take place between India and Pakistan till the time the latter puts a curb on terrorist activities emanating from its soil. "PM Narendra Modi will not go to Pakistan to attend the SAARC Summit," she declared. Two central government ministers -- Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Singh Puri will be in attendance as Imran Khan lays the foundation stone at the groundbreaking of the Pak end of the corridor at Kartarpur. Pakistan to invite PM Modi for SAARC Summit: Report On Tuesday, Foreign Office spokesperson Mohammad Faisal had declared in Islamabad that Pakistan will invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the next SAARC summit in the country. 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. This time around, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka are unlikely to take part in the summit. Where is Peng Shuai? Missing Chinese tennis star safe, will appear in public soon: editor of Global Times China slams US for inviting Taiwan for its democracy summit China: 22 killed in blast near Chemical plant International oi-Madhuri Adnal Beijing, Nov 28: At least 22 people were killed near north China chemical plant, reports AFP quoting official. The incident near Hebei Shenghua Chemical Co. in Zhangjiakou, a city some 200 kilometres (124 miles) northwest of Beijing, also burned 50 large and small trucks, the local propaganda department said on its Weibo social media account. Afghanistan: Massive blast in a Mosque kills 27 The injured were taken to hospital for treatment following the blast, which occurred at 00:41 am, according to the statement. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 8:36 [IST] US President Donald Trump 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 Argentina. PM Modi 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 Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Japan PM Shinzo Abe 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. The White House Bolton said the Trump-Abe bilateral meeting would expand into a trilateral meeting with Prime Minister Modi. "He is going to meet with President Macri, the host government of Argentina, he'll meet with President Moon of South Korea, he'll meet with President Erdogan of Turkey, Prime Minister Abe of Japan, that will transform at some point during that meeting a trilateral meeting with the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi," Bolton said. Ukraine-Russia crisis: Trump refuses to hold Moscow responsible "The president will meet with President Putin and have a working dinner with President Xi," he said. OneIndia News with PTI inputs Were in a world now where its not OK to look the other way on any of this, Henning said. Were in a world now where if you see something that makes you uncomfortable, that you think is wrong, you absolutely have to report that. The culture is changing. Indian Deputy High Commissioner stopped from addressing UK gurdwara gathering International oi-Madhuri Adnal London, Nov 28: Indian Deputy High Commissioner Charanjeet Singh was on Wednesday stopped from addressing a meeting at the Shepherds Bush Gurdwara in London. Singh was stopped by Khalistanis following a call by the Sikh Federation to stop Indian officials from giving speeches at Gurdwaras. A video of the incident was uploaded online by the National Sikh Youth Federation UK, a proKhalistan group. Kartarpur Sahib: No PM Imran Khan, Pakistan's call for peace can't be trusted The deputy high commissioner, who is a Punjabi, had gone to the gurdwara on the occasion of the 549th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev and had made it clear that he was there in his official capacity and intended to address the congregation to congratulate them. Several gurdwaras in the US, Canada and Australia had banned Indian officials from addressing the congregations from their stages. In UK too, the Sikh Federation had mooted a ban on Indian officials from using gurdwara stage or carrying out any activity in official capacity. These gurdwaras had made it clear that the Indian officials would be allowed to visit the gurdwaras in personal capacity to pay obeisance. International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People International oi-Chennabasaveshwar P UN, Nov 29: The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People is observed by the United Nations on or around 29 November each year, in accordance with General Assembly mandates contained in resolutions 32/40 B of 2 December 1977, 34/65 D of 12 December 1979, and subsequent resolutions adopted under agenda item "Question of Palestine." Partition Resolution: On November 29 in 1947, the General Assembly adopted resolution 181 (II), which came to be known as the Partition Resolution. That resolution provided for the establishment in Palestine of a "Jewish State" and an "Arab State", with Jerusalem as a corpus separatum under a special international regime. Of the two States to be created under this resolution, only one, Israel, has so far come into being. The Palestinian people, who now number more than 8 million, live primarily in the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, including East Jerusalem; in Israel; in the neighbouring Arab States; and in refugee camps in the region. Did Karl Marx turn in his grave? Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma is a member of China's Communist Party! UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres's message: In his message, UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres urged Israel, Palestine and all others with influence to restore the promise and viability of the two-state solution premised on two states living side by side in peace, harmony and within secure and recognised borders, with Jerusalem as the capital of both. "This year's International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People takes place at a time of turmoil, trouble and torment. The decades-long Palestinian struggle for self-determination, independence and a life of dignity faces numerous obstacles, including continued military occupation of Palestinian territory; ongoing violence and incitement; continued settlement construction and expansion; deep uncertainties about the peace process; and deteriorating humanitarian and economic conditions, particularly in Gaza, " said Guterres. India's stand on Palestine: According to Prof PR Kumaraswamy, Middle-East expert from JNU, PM Narendra Modi is merely responding to the changing Middle Eastern situation. Since the NDA came to power in May 2014, during their visits to Israel, both President Pranab Mukherjee (October 2015) and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj (January 2016) visited Palestine and paid homage to Arafat. However, prime ministerial visit followed a different approach. During his visit to Palestine, Modi visited Ramallah for few hours. The visit indicated the perpetuation of 'continuity and change' - the phrase used when normalization took place in January 1992. Also, by hosting President Abbas in May 2017, Modi reiterated India's commitments to statehood for Palestinians. 'But by not visiting Ramallah, he is reminding Palestinians of the need to put their house in order...." according to Prof. Kumaraswamy. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, November 29, 2018, 0:50 [IST] After Pak allows access, India says yet to decide on opening Kartarpur Corridor Kartarpur corridor: Imran Khan lays foundation stone in Pakistan International oi-Madhuri Adnal Islamabad, Nov 28: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan laid the foundation stone of Kartarpur corridor on Wednesday. The corridor will link Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, the final resting place of Sikh faith's founder Guru Nanak, and the international border with India, facilitating Sikh pilgrims across the border. Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan is located across the river Ravi, about four kilometres from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine. 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. Pakistan Minister of Information Fawad Choudhary and Pakistani Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa attended the foundation stone laying ceremony. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj was also invited for the event by Pakistan. However, she expressed her inability to attend the same. The government of India sent Union ministers Harsimrat Kaur Badal and HS Puri for the ceremony. Besides, Punjab minister and Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu also attended the event. Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri, who represented the Indian government at the groundbreaking ceremony of the Kartarpur corridor in Pakistan, said Wednesday the corridor was anchored in hope and goodwill but there is need to be conscious of ground realities. Puri, along with Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, crossed over to the neighbouring country through Attari-Wagah land route in Amritsar to attend the ceremony. Puri, the Union minister of state (independent charge) of Housing and Urban Affairs, told reporters at Attari in Amritsar district before crossing to Pakistan that the long pending demand of the Sikh community has been met. Kartarpur: Euphoria alright, but Pak has given space to Referendum 2020 campaigners A huge stage - 20 feet in width and 60 feet in length - has been constructed for the ground-breaking ceremony. The construction work of the corridor is expected to begin shorty after the ground-breaking ceremony. The work on the Indian side began on Monday after a formal ceremony. Kartarpur corridor event: Will not tolerate conspiracies by Pak Army chief, says Amarinder Singh The Kartarpur Corridor, which will facilitate the visa-free travel of Indian Sikh pilgrims to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, is expected to be completed within six months, Pakistan Foreign Office Spokesman Mohammad Faisal said on Tuesday. What is Kartarpur corridor? Three kilometers from the Indian-Pakistan border, Gurdwara Darbar Sahib at Kartarpur is built at the resting place of Guru Nanak. He assembled a Sikh community and lived here for 18 years until his death in 1539. However, Indian are not allowed to visit the shrine and therefore, the corridor would allow devotees to walk to the shrine and return in a day without a passport or a visa. Kartarpur Sahib: No PM Imran Khan, Pakistans call for peace cant be trusted International oi-Shubham Ghosh New Delhi, Nov 28: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday, November 28, stressed on peace with India at the launching event of Kartarpur corridor project at the border with India. Speaking at the programme, Khan said nations like Germany and France in Europe fought several wars between them but they overcame all enmity over the years and today, they are so interconnected that they can't even think of fighting more wars. "If they can do, why can't India and Pakistan?" he asked, saying: "We haven't even killed so many people among ourselves. Why can't we then improve our relationship?" Nothing is impossible, strong will needed on both sides to improve ties: Imran Khan Khan, who took over as the prime minister of Pakistan in August, said he used to listen earlier during his visits to India that the military of his country never allowed a chance to peace to evolve between the two countries. He said that all quarters in Pakistan are on the same page to take the relationship ahead. He also praised Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu and said he could not understand why the latter was being criticised for his visit to Pakistan during his swearing-in ceremony in August. Khan, who reiterated that if India took one step ahead towards peace, Pakistan will take two. He said it is foolish to even think that two nuclear-armed states will go to war for nobody can win such wars. "That leaves peace as the only other route. Why can't we take that?" Nice to hear but not realistic Khan's script sounds nice. As former sportsmen, he and Sidhu might think about India-Pakistan peace in a lighter way. There is no problem in thinking in such way. But the problem is that the reality in India-Pakistan relations is not as simple and light. Modi took pro-peace measures after coming to power; didn't get worthy response Nobody will really believe Khan when he says that all quarters in Pakistan today - be it the military and civilian leadership - are on the same page. If such is the case, then why still the perpetrators of the 26/11 attacks are still not brought to justice by Pakistan? Khan would also need to answer the question as to why there is no end to backing terrorists who often enter India to carry out devastations? Till he answers these questions and puts into place a mechanism to deal with them, there is little chance that the two countries will start believing each other. Sidhu's border hopping, new found love for Pakistan leaves Amarinder Singh in a fix India and Pakistan are not France and Germany and there is also no point in criticising the Indian leadership for not taking enough initiative to give peace a chance with Pakistan. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had taken enough initiatives when he took over the office in 2014 but his surprise visit to Lahore in December 2015 was only reciprocated to by the terror attack in Pathankot, similar to what had happened in 1999 when Atal Behari Vajpayee took a bus ride to Lahore. Why was such a dastardly attack on Indian jawans in Uri in September 2016? Can Imran Khan explain why India's call for friendship was betrayed on those occasions? Only hearing him give a convincing answer that India could think afresh about a renewed peace initiative. Kerch crisis deepens: Russia prepares to bring charges against Ukraine sailors International oi-Shubham Ghosh Moscow, Nov 28: The latest crisis between Russia and Ukraine deepened with the former preparing to bring charges against the Ukrainian soldiers it held on Sunday, November 25, despite protests from Kiev that they should be handled as prisoners of war, the Guardian reported. On Tuesday, November 27, the Kremlin said the sailors' fate would be decided in the court, suggesting that it was planning to bring criminal charges. Media in Russia and Ukraine reported that the sailors would be accused at a court in Simferopol in Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, said the Guardian report. Russia space agency to 'verify' US moon landings on upcoming mission If Russia decides to prosecute the sailors on charges of making illegal crossing of the border, it is likely to deepen the crisis which has led to international condemnation and demand for fresh western sanctions against Moscow. Russian border forces were accused of firing on and seizing three Ukrainian ships last weekend. At least three sailors were injured. Ukraine gives nod to impose martial law over half of country Meanwhile, following the incident near the Kerch Strait, the Ukrainian Parliament gave nod to impose a martial law over nearly half of the country, Ukraine's Euromaidan Press reported. The martial law was imposed for a month with chances of prolongation. The martial law will come into force from November 28 and continue till December 27. A large majority of 276 MPs out of 330 who took part in the voting backed the bill, the Press report added. Navy chief Sunil Lanba to begin 4-day Russia visit on Monday On Monday, November 26, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said there was an "extremely serious" threat to a land invasion by Russia, the Guardian reported. According to Ukraine, its sailors were travelling in shared waters to the Sea of Azov, which they have a right to patrol under a bilateral treaty. They were intercepted in the Kerch Strait, which separates Crimea from Russian mainland. Long Live India, Pakistan and Imran, says Sidhu at Kartarpur event International oi-Deepika S Islamabad, Nov 28: Praising Imran Khan during his visit to Kaartarpur, Punjab Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu today thanked Pakistan Prime Minister for ending the 70-year old wait and said that whenever the history will be written about the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor, his name will be written on the first page. Sidhu showered praise on Khan saying history will remember him for bridging the gap between the two neighbours and for ending the 70-year wait of the Sikhs of India. "Long live India, long live Pakistan," said Sidhu. "Bloodshed must end, pain must end, peace must return...We have paid a big price, someone has to douse this fire. This corridor is full of promise, it will bring the two countries close," he said. Sidhu will win if he contests election in Pakistan: Imran Khan In an emotional speech, Sidhu said his parents used to see Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, which is just 4 km from the Gurdaspur border, from a distance and return with tears in their eyes as they could go no further . "My friend Imran Khan has wiped the tears of lakhs of Sikhs," he added. Speaking on the occasion, Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal said that "the mistrust between India and Pakistan can be removed through revisiting the message of peace and love." "If the Berlin Wall can fall, then the mistrust between two neighbourly countries, India and Pakistan, can also be removed through revisiting the message of peace and love spread by Guru Nanak," Harsimrat said. Guru Nanak spent his last years on the other side of the border, just four kilometres away, she said, adding that at times the chanting of devotees can be heard on the Indian side of the border. Khalistan-Pak link out in open again: Chawla's presence at Kartarpur says it all "Guru Nanak spent 18 years of his life at Kartarpur & spread his message of peace and love. Today is historic not just for the Sikh community, but for the people and the Governments of India and Pakistan," an emotional Harsimrat said. "We have been so close, but so far for 70 years," she said. "Scores of Sikhs are on this journey for the first time today. I have no friends, no relatives here (in Pakistan). I never thought I would be here," she added. Prime Minister Imran Khan laid the foundation stone for the corridor to facilitate visa-free movement of Indian Sikh pilgrims from both the sides. Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan is located across the river Ravi, about four kilometres from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine. 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. India was represented by Union ministers Harsimrat and Hardeep Singh Puri at the event. Punjab cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu also attended the ceremony. India proposed the construction of the corridor to Pakistan nearly 20 years back. Last week, Pakistan and India announced that they would develop the corridor on their respective side of the border to help Indian pilgrims visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur. Malaysia Hindu temple riots: Cops warn against provocation International oi-Shubham Ghosh Kuala Lumpur, Nov 28: The Malaysian police on Tuesday, November 27, warned of strict action against those who create more disturbance or resort to provocation following the second night of violence at Sri Maha Mariamman Temple in Subang Jaya, Kuala Lumpur. Twenty-one people were arrested over rioting that broke out over a dispute over the relocation of the Hindu temple located in the Malaysian capital, the police said on Tuesday, the Associated Press reported. British woman convicted for murdering her husband in Malaysia It all began on Monday (November 26) morning when a group of intruders attacked the Indian devotees praying at the temple and torched vehicles. Another group of people retaliated on Tuesday morning and vandalised the office of property developer MCT Berhad and torched more vehicles. A fire engine which went to the location was also damaged. While 700 anti-riot personnel were deployed in the area, temple members told local reporters that the mob consisted mainly of ethnic Malays who were armed with weapons like knives and asked the devotees to vacate the temple for the land is owned by One City Development. Malaysian Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said the incident was being probed and asked the people to avoid making statements that could jeopardise racial harmony. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 17:28 [IST] Ukraine-Russia crisis: Trump refuses to hold Moscow responsible International oi-Shubham Ghosh Washington, Nov 28: US President Donald Trump refused to identify any particular side to side with in the ongoing tussle between Ukraine and Russia and washed his hands off it saying Washington didn't approve of escalating violence "either way" between Kiev and Moscow. A shattering position for the West indeed. Kerch crisis deepens: Russia prepares to bring charges against Ukraine sailors The Republican president, who was speaking for the first time in public after the naval confrontation off the disputed Crimean Peninsula gave rise to a fresh tension between the two neighbours, did not specifically call out the Kremlin's behaviour. He was quoted by the Associated Press as saying: "We do not like what's happening, either way, we don't like what's happening and hopefully it will get straightened out." Trump's instincts are right again, says Russian media Russia Insider praised the American president over his stand, saying "His first instincts are again correct". Russia space agency to 'verify' US moon landings on upcoming mission Nikki Haley blasts Russia Trump's words came hours after outgoing US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley condemned Russia's act of firing at three Ukrainian ships and seizing the vessels and their crews as "outrageous" and that it amounted to "violation of sovereign Ukrainian territory". She asked Moscow to reduce tensions caused by its "arrogant" act, Reuters reported. Trump is set to speak to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the upcoming G20 summit in Argentina. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:07 [IST] In addition to Giuseppe Gazzano, the 44-year-old who was killed while on his way home from his job at a grocery store, the June crash resulted in injuries to several other motorists and passengers, authorities said. Cook County court records, however, indicate that Nelson pleaded guilty in March 2017 to misdemeanor criminal damage to property stemming from charges filed against him in 2016 that he knowingly caused more than $10,000 in damage to a Chicago restaurant. Nelson was fined $500 and placed on court supervision for two years; in exchange for his plea, a burglary charge stemming from the same incident was dropped, records show. All three of this seasons cold related death occurred this month, beginning with the Nov. 3 death of a 52-year-old man in the Rosemoor neighborhood. The man died as a result of clotting in his lungs with cold exposure as a contributing factor, the office said in a statement. The manner of death was determined to be accidental. I would like to make him a broth of Legionella and pump it into the water system of his loved one, so that they can be infected, they can be mistreated, they can sit and suffer by getting aspirin instead of being properly treated and ultimately die. And we are talking about our nations heroes, said Kifowit, a Marine veteran. I would like to make him a broth of Legionella and pump it into the water system of his loved one, so that they can be infected, they can be mistreated, they can sit and suffer by getting aspirin instead of being properly treated and ultimately die. And we are talking about our nation's heroes, said Kifowit, a Marine veteran. Burkes name came up as Solis reflected on the alliance hes forged with incoming U.S. Rep. Jesus Chuy Garcia, including a new political action committee aimed at getting Latinos elected. The two were once political enemies, but Solis praised Garcia for uniting the Latino vote enough to shake loose some of the citys longtime power bases, including that of Burke, whose 14th Ward stretches through the South and West sides and is majority Hispanic. Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said in the past he had "laid in the railroad tracks to keep us from doing things that I believe are against our national interest as it relates to Saudi Arabia." But he said he believes the Senate should "figure out some way for us to send the appropriate message to Saudi Arabia that appropriately displays American values and American national interests." Trump's remarks are the latest sign of his disdain for the Russia investigation, which has dogged him for two years and ensnared members of his inner circle. In recent weeks, the president, armed with inside information provided to his lawyers by Manafort's legal team, has sharpened his attacks, seizing on what he claims are dirty tactics employed by the special counsel and accusing investigators of pressuring witnesses to lie. We have tried ramping up to overwhelm the insurgents. Obama started in office intending to bring the war to an end, telling his aides, I dont want to be going to Walter Reed for another eight years. He increased our troop strength from about 30,000 to more than 100,000, with the goal of turning the tide of the war enough for us to go home. Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: London-based derivatives analytics company, OpenGamma is expanding into the US. The company says its expansion plans come as regulatory and macroeconomic pressures continue to hit hedge funds and asset managers with offices all over the world. OpenGamma's solution provides data to fund managers about transaction costs throughout the industry so that funds can find lower cost counterparties. Managers can also report their derivatives activity through the platform in order to generate best execution style pricing information for derivatives trading which is often opaque. OpenGamma has been primarily focused on European funds but sees the same regulatory trends emerging in the US. "2019 is going to be the first year where the full weight of the new margin requirements is going to be on funds in the US and the EU," said OpenGamma CEO Peter Rippon in an interview with Opalesque. "We think our platform is well positioned to give managers some options as they look for the most capital efficient ways to maintain their strategies." Rippon cites new rules governing derivatives trading as a key source of concern - fund managers can now be charged additional margin known as 'liquidity add-on' which can increase the cost of margin by 70%. This increase is hitting end investor returns as hedge funds continue to lock down more and more capital. Market participants in the US are also facing pressures from the uncertainty surroundin...................... To view our full article Click here Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia: Monroe Capital LLC has wrapped up its latest private credit fund after collecting $1.33 billion from limited partners, marking the largest fundraise in firm history. The Chicago-based specialty lender said in a release that the new fund will provide debt financing for midmarket companies. It also said that limited partner commitments with over 100 investors in eight countries, eclipsed the Fund target of $800m. When combined with target Fund leverage, the Fund will have more than $2.5bn of buying power or capital available for investment, it said. The release quoted Ted Koenig, President and CEO of Monroe as saying: "Private credit is an appealing area for institutional investors due to the ability to generate consistent absolute returns in a low yield environment. Investors have many choices in this space, many of which are recently created firms." "The institutional investor and limited partner community has come to appreciate the differentiated returns and consistent risk adjusted returns that Monroe has been able to generate every year over the last 14-year period, regardless of the business cycle or economic climate," he claimed. The Fund is Monroe's 17th investment vehicle since its founding in 2004. The Fund received commitments from over 50 new institutional investors. The Fund investors are located throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, South America, Asia and the Middle East, and include leading public and p...................... To view our full article Click here Global Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future Market Overview, Cost Structure Analysis, Growth Opportunities and Forecast to 2023 https://www.researchreportsinc.com/sample-request?id=226322 https://researchreportsinc.com/checkout/?add-to-cart=226322&&attribute_pa_choose-license=single-user&&quantity=1 Worldwide Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future Market report of 2018 provides a detailed Market overview as well as industry analysis for companies, manufacturers and distributors covering data on gross margin, cost structure, consumption value, sale price and more.Download Sample Report of Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future Market @The key countries in each region are taken into consideration as well, such as United States, China, Japan, India, Korea, ASEAN, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Spain, CIS, and Brazil etc.For end use/application segment, this report focuses on the status and outlook for key applications. End users also can be listed.For competitor segment, the report includes global key players of Commercial Robotics as well as some small players. The compnaies include:Northrop Grumman Corporation, KUKA AG, iRobot Corporation, Yaskawa Electric Corporation, Honda Motor Company Ltd., Omron Adept Technologies Inc., 3D Robotics Inc., Accuray Inc., Alphabet Inc., Amazon et al.The information for each competitor includes:*Company Profile*Main Business Information*SWOT Analysis*Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin*Market ShareWe Also Can Offer Customized Report To Fulfill Special Requirements Of Our Clients.Purchase this Premium Report (Flat 20% off Apply Coupon Code DISC20):-Table of Contents2018-2023 Global Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future Consumption Market Report1 Scope of the Report1.1 Market Introduction1.2 Research Objectives1.3 Years Considered1.4 Market Research Methodology1.5 Economic Indicators1.6 Currency Considered2 Executive Worldwide Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future Market report of 2018 provides a detailed Market overview as well as industry analysis for / of companies, manufacturers and distributors covering data on gross margin, cost structure, consumption value, sale price and more.2.1 World Market Overview2.1.1 Global Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future Consumption 2013-20232.1.2 Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future Consumption CAGR by Region2.2 Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future Segment by Type2.2.1 Electrical Polisher2.2.2 Pneumatic Polisher2.3 Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future Consumption by Type2.3.1 Global Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future Consumption Market Share by Type (2013-2018)2.3.2 Global Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future Revenue and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)2.3.3 Global Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future Sale Price by Type (2013-2018)2.4 Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future Segment by Application2.4.1 Automotive Repair Shop2.4.2 Automotive Care Shop2.4.3 Others2.5 Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future Consumption by Application2.5.1 Global Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future Consumption Market Share by Application (2013-2018)2.5.2 Global Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future Value and Market Share by Application (2013-2018)2.5.3 Global Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future Sale Price by Application (2013-2018)3 Global Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future by Players3.1 Global Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future Sales Market Share by Players3.1.1 Global Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future Sales by Players (2016-2018)3.1.2 Global Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future Sales Market Share by Players (2016-2018)3.2 Global Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future Revenue Market Share by Players3.2.1 Global Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future Revenue by Players (2016-2018)3.2.2 Global Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future Revenue Market Share by Players (2016-2018)3.3 Global Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future Sale Price by Players3.4 Global Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area, Product Types by Players3.4.1 Global Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future Manufacturing Base Distribution and Sales Area by Players3.4.2 Players Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future Products Offered3.5 Market Concentration Rate Analysis3.5.1 Competition Landscape Analysis3.5.2 Concentration Ratio (CR3, CR5 and CR10) (2016-2018)3.6 New Products and Potential Entrants3.7 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion4 Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future by Regions4.1 Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future by Regions4.1.1 Global Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future Consumption by Regions4.1.2 Global Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future Value by Regions4.2 Americas Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future Consumption Growth4.3 APAC Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future Consumption Growth4.4 Europe Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future Consumption Growth4.5 Middle East & Africa Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future Consumption Growth5 Americas5.1 Americas Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future Consumption by Countries5.1.1 Americas Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future Consumption by Countries (2013-2018)5.1.2 Americas Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future Value by Countries (2013-2018)5.2 Americas Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future Consumption by Type5.3 Americas Commercial Robotics Industry Report - History, Present and Future Consumption by Application5.4 United States5.5 Canada5.6 Mexico5.7 Key Economic Indicators of Few Americas CountriesAbout Us:Research Reports Inc. is one of the leading destinations for market research reports across all industries, companies, and technologies. Our repository features an exhaustive list of market research reports from thousands of publishers worldwideWith our expertise and research offerings, we ensure we deliver on all your requirements, whether youre looking for industry analysis or market trends or anything else, first time and every time!Email us sales@researchreportsinc.comCall: US / Canada Toll Free: +18554192424, UK : +4403308087757 Global Home Security Sensors Market Rockwell Automation, Honeywell, ABB, Schmersal, Baumer, Ifm Efector, Hytronik, DENSO, Omron, Pepperl+Fuchs, Leviton, Samsung, Oplink, Belkin https://www.researchreportsinc.com/sample-request?id=242579 https://researchreportsinc.com/enquiry?id=242579 https://researchreportsinc.com/checkout/?add-to-cart=242579&&attribute_pa_choose-license=single-user&&quantity=1 Security sensors are physical device or change/presence of any electronic signal/logic which causes trigger to electronic circuit to perform application specific operation. In electronic alarm systems the use of this trigger event done by such devices is to turn on the alarm or siren producing sound and/or perform a security calling through telephone lines.Increase in-home burglary rates, attractive insurance policies to residents for the installation of security sensors, and growing number of smartphone and tablet users are factors that can be attributed to this growth.Download Sample Report of Home Security Sensors Market @The report also presents the market competition landscape and a corresponding detailed analysis of the major vendor/manufacturers in the market.The key manufacturers covered in this report:Rockwell AutomationHoneywellABBSchmersalBaumerIfm EfectorHytronikDENSOOmronPepperl+FuchsLevitonSamsungOplinkBelkinThis report presents a comprehensive overview, market shares, and growth opportunities of Home Security Sensors market by product type, application, key manufacturers and key regions and countries.This study considers the Home Security Sensors value and volume generated from the sales of the following segments:Segmentation by product type:Glass Break DetectorsWindow And Door SensorsSmoke DetectorsHeat DetectorsOthersSegmentation by application:Home IntrusionHome Life SafetyOthersMake an Enquiry:This report also splits the market by region:AmericasUnited StatesCanadaMexicoBrazilAPACChinaJapanKoreaSoutheast AsiaIndiaAustraliaEuropeGermanyFranceUKItalyRussiaSpainMiddle East & AfricaEgyptSouth AfricaIsraelTurkeyGCC CountriesWe Also Can Offer Customized Report To Fulfill Special Requirements Of Our Clients.Purchase this Premium Report (Flat 20% off Apply Coupon Code DISC20):-Table of Contents2018-2023 Global Home Security Sensors Consumption Market Report1 Scope of the Report1.1 Market Introduction1.2 Research Objectives1.3 Years Considered1.4 Market Research Methodology1.5 Economic Indicators1.6 Currency Considered2 Executive Summary2.1 World Market Overview2.1.1 Global Home Security Sensors Consumption 2013-20232.1.2 Home Security Sensors Consumption CAGR by Region2.2 Home Security Sensors Segment by Type2.2.1 Glass Break Detectors2.2.2 Window And Door Sensors2.2.3 Smoke Detectors2.2.4 Heat Detectors2.2.5 Others2.3 Home Security Sensors Consumption by Type2.3.1 Global Home Security Sensors Consumption Market Share by Type (2013-2018)2.3.2 Global Home Security Sensors Revenue and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)2.3.3 Global Home Security Sensors Sale Price by Type (2013-2018)2.4 Home Security Sensors Segment by Application2.4.1 Home Intrusion2.4.2 Home Life Safety2.4.3 Others2.5 Home Security Sensors Consumption by Application2.5.1 Global Home Security Sensors Consumption Market Share by Application (2013-2018)2.5.2 Global Home Security Sensors Value and Market Share by Application (2013-2018)2.5.3 Global Home Security Sensors Sale Price by Application (2013-2018)3 Global Home Security Sensors by Players3.1 Global Home Security Sensors Sales Market Share by Players3.1.1 Global Home Security Sensors Sales by Players (2016-2018)3.1.2 Global Home Security Sensors Sales Market Share by Players (2016-2018)3.2 Global Home Security Sensors Revenue Market Share by Players3.2.1 Global Home Security Sensors Revenue by Players (2016-2018)3.2.2 Global Home Security Sensors Revenue Market Share by Players (2016-2018)3.3 Global Home Security Sensors Sale Price by Players3.4 Global Home Security Sensors Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area, Product Types by Players3.4.1 Global Home Security Sensors Manufacturing Base Distribution and Sales Area by Players3.4.2 Players Home Security Sensors Products Offered3.5 Market Concentration Rate Analysis3.5.1 Competition Landscape Analysis3.5.2 Concentration Ratio (CR3, CR5 and CR10) (2016-2018)3.6 New Products and Potential Entrants3.7 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion4 Home Security Sensors by Regions4.1 Home Security Sensors by Regions4.1.1 Global Home Security Sensors Consumption by Regions4.1.2 Global Home Security Sensors Value by Regions4.2 Americas Home Security Sensors Consumption Growth4.3 APAC Home Security Sensors Consumption Growth4.4 Europe Home Security Sensors Consumption Growth4.5 Middle East & Africa Home Security Sensors Consumption Growth5 Americas5.1 Americas Home Security Sensors Consumption by Countries5.1.1 Americas Home Security Sensors Consumption by Countries (2013-2018)5.1.2 Americas Home Security Sensors Value by Countries (2013-2018)5.2 Americas Home Security Sensors Consumption by Type5.3 Americas Home Security Sensors Consumption by Application5.4 United States5.5 Canada5.6 Mexico5.7 Key Economic Indicators of Few Americas Countries6 APAC6.1 APAC Home Security Sensors Consumption by Countries6.1.1 APAC Home Security Sensors Consumption by Countries (2013-2018)6.1.2 APAC Home Security Sensors Value by Countries (2013-2018)6.2 APAC Home Security Sensors Consumption by Type6.3 APAC Home Security Sensors Consumption by Application6.4 China6.5 Japan6.6 Korea6.7 Southeast Asia6.8 India6.9 Australia6.10 Key Economic Indicators of Few APAC Countries7 Europe7.1 Europe Home Security Sensors by Countries7.1.1 Europe Home Security Sensors Consumption by Countries (2013-2018)7.1.2 Europe Home Security Sensors Value by Countries (2013-2018)7.2 Europe Home Security Sensors Consumption by Type7.3 Europe Home Security Sensors Consumption by Application7.4 Germany7.5 France7.6 UK7.7 Italy7.8 Russia7.9 Spain7.10 Key Economic Indicators of Few Europe Countries8 Middle East & Africa8.1 Middle East & Africa Home Security Sensors by Countries8.1.1 Middle East & Africa Home Security Sensors Consumption by Countries (2013-2018)8.1.2 Middle East & Africa Home Security Sensors Value by Countries (2013-2018)8.2 Middle East & Africa Home Security Sensors Consumption by Type8.3 Middle East & Africa Home Security Sensors Consumption by Application8.4 Egypt8.5 South Africa8.6 Israel8.7 Turkey8.8 GCC Countries9 Market Drivers, Challenges and Trends9.1 Market Drivers and Impact9.1.1 Growing Demand from Key Regions9.1.2 Growing Demand from Key Applications and Potential Industries9.2 Market Challenges and Impact9.3 Market Trends10 Marketing, Distributors and Customer10.1 Sales Channel10.1.1 Direct Marketing10.1.2 Indirect Marketing10.2 Home Security Sensors Distributors10.3 Home Security Sensors CustomerAbout Us:Research Reports Inc. is one of the leading destinations for market research reports across all industries, companies, and technologies. Our repository features an exhaustive list of market research reports from thousands of publishers worldwideWith our expertise and research offerings, we ensure we deliver on all your requirements, whether youre looking for industry analysis or market trends or anything else, first time and every time!Email us sales@researchreportsinc.comCall: US / Canada Toll Free: +18554192424, UK : +4403308087757 Cigarette Market 2018 | Global Survey 2025 Market Size forecasts to 105600 million US$ in 2025 Cigarette Market 2018 www.upmarketresearch.com Cigarette Market research report delivers a close watch on leading competitors with strategic analysis, micro and macro market trend and scenarios, pricing analysis and a holistic overview of the market situations in the forecast period.Get Exclusive FREE Sample Copy Of this Report @ https://www.upmarketresearch.com/home/requested_sample/23650A cigarette is a small cylinder of finely cut tobacco leaves rolled in thin paper for smoking. 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These services can be deployed in public cloud, private cloud, and hybrid cloud.Download PDF Brochure:The report provides a detailed overview of the industry including both qualitative and quantitative information. It provides overview and forecast of the global Healthcare Cloud Computing Market based service, deployment mode, and application. It also provides market size and forecast till 2025 for overall Healthcare Cloud Computing Market with respect to five major regions, namely; North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and South America (SAM).The important players covered in this Healthcare Cloud Computing Market report- Global Net Access (GNAX), Carecloud Corporation, Dell Inc., Athenahealth, Inc., Carestream Health, Inc., VMWare, Inc., Iron Mountain, Inc., IBM Corporation, Cleardata Networks, Inc., and Merge Healthcare, Inc. among others.The "Global Healthcare Cloud Computing Market Analysis to 2025" is a specialized and in-depth study of the healthcare cloud computing industry with a focus on the global market trend. The report aims to provide an overview of global healthcare cloud computing market with detailed market segmentation by service, deployment mode, application, and geography. The global healthcare cloud computing market is expected to witness high growth during the forecast period. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the leading market players and offers key trends and opportunities in the market.Worldwide Healthcare Cloud Computing Market Research To 2025 Is A Specialized And In-Depth Study Of The Healthcare Cloud Computing With A Focus On The World Market Trend. The Report Aims To Provide A Summary Of Worldwide Healthcare Cloud Computing Market With Elaborate Market Segmentation By Product/Application And Geography. The Global Healthcare Cloud Computing Market Is Expected To Witness High Growth During The Forecast Period. New Analysis Report Provides Key Statistics On The Market Standing Of The Key Players And Offers Key Trends And Opportunities In The Market.The report provides a detailed overview on the industry including both qualitative and quantitative information. It provides overview and forecast of the global healthcare cloud computing market based on service, deployment mode, and application. It also provides market size and forecast till 2025 for overall healthcare cloud computing market with respect to five major regions, namely; North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and South & Central America. The market by each region is later sub-segmented by respective countries and segments. The report covers analysis and forecast of 13 countries globally along with current trend and opportunities prevailing in the region.Get Healthcare Cloud Computing Market Report Sample @Also, key Healthcare Cloud Computing Market players influencing the market are profiled in the study along with their SWOT analysis and market strategies. The report also focuses on leading industry players with information such as company profiles, products and services offered, financial information of last 3 years, key development in past five years.Table of Contents:1 Introduction1.1 Scope of Study1.2 The Insight Partners Research Report Guidance2 Key Takeaways3 Healthcare Cloud Computing Market Landscape3.1 Market Overview3.2 Market Segmentation3.2.1 Healthcare Cloud Computing Market - By Service3.2.2 Healthcare Cloud Computing Market - By Deployment Model3.2.3 Healthcare Cloud Computing Market - By Application3.2.4 Healthcare Cloud Computing Market - By Region3.2.4.1 By Countries3.3 PEST Analysis3.3.1 North America - PEST Analysis3.3.2 Europe - PEST Analysis3.3.3 Asia Pacific - PEST Analysis3.3.4 Middle East and Africa - PEST Analysis3.3.5 South and Central America - PEST Analysis4 Healthcare Cloud Computing Market - Key Industry Dynamics4.1 Key Market Drivers4.2 Key Market Restraints4.3 Key Market Opportunities4.4 Future Trends4.5 Impact Analysis5 Healthcare Cloud Computing Market Analysis- Global5.1 Global Healthcare Cloud Computing Market Overview5.2 Global Healthcare Cloud Computing Market Revenue Forecasts and Analysis (US$ Mn)5.3 Market Positioning/Market Share5.4 Performance of Key Players5.5 Expert OpinionsBuy the complete report with Comprehensive table of contents @About UsThe Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services.We are committed to providing highest quality research and consulting services to our customers. We help our clients understand key market trends, identify opportunities, and make informed decisions by providing market research solutions at an affordable cost.Contact usThe Insight partners,Phone: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@theinsightpartners.com Military Radar Market Key Trends Analysis- Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, BAE System, Northrop Grumman, Harris, Saab Sensis https://www.bigmarketresearch.com/request-sample/2459270/?utm_source=OPR-SL https://www.bigmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/2459270/?utm_source=OPR-SL https://www.bigmarketresearch.com/global-military-radar-professional-survey-report-2018-market https://www.bigmarketresearch.com/global-busbar-trunking-system-market-research-report-2018-market Worldwide Military Radar Market report of 2018 provides a detailed market overview as well as industry analysis for / of companies, manufacturers and distributors covering data on gross margin, cost structure, consumption value, sale price and more.This report studies Military Radar market, especially in North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan and India, with production, revenue, consumption, import and export in these regions, from 2012 to 2016, and forecast to 2022.The Competitive landscape of the Military Radar Market profiles the key players participating in the global Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, BAE System, Northrop Grumman, Harris, Saab Sensis, Thales Group, Terma, ASELSAN, DRS Technologies, Airbus Group, Finmeccanica, General Dynamics, Israel Aerospace Industries, JSC Phazotron-NIIR. The report also details the market positioning, strategies, and revenue procured by each of these manufacturers.Get sample copy of this report:On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoGround-Based Military RadarNaval Based Military RadarAirborne Military RadarSpace-Based Military RadarOn the basis of the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate for each application, includingWeapon Guidance SystemSurveillanceThis report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.The industry is analyzed in terms of products, applications, regions, and the key manufacturers holding a prominent share of the global revenue.The report further details the market share to be procured by each of these products over the coming years.A detailed analysis of the contribution of these application segments to the overall market revenue and volume has been included in the report.Enquire about this report @Table of Contents :Global Military Radar Market Research Report 20181 Military Radar Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Military Radar1.2 Military Radar Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Military Radar Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Military Radar Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Extra Virgin Military Radar1.2.3 Military RadarMilitary Radar1.3 Global Military Radar Segment by Application1.3.1 Military Radar Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Cooking1.3.3 Cosmetics1.3.4 Pharmaceuticals1.3.5 Other1.4 Global Military Radar Market by Region (2013-2025)1.4.1 Global Military Radar Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2013-2025)1.4.2 North America Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.4 China Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.5 Japan Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.7 India Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Military Radar (2013-2025)1.5.1 Global Military Radar Revenue Status and Outlook (2013-2025)1.5.2 Global Military Radar Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2013-2025)2 Global Military Radar Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Military Radar Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.1 Global Military Radar Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Military Radar Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Military Radar Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.3 Global Military Radar Average Price by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.4 Manufacturers Military Radar Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Military Radar Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Military Radar Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Military Radar Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion3 Global Military Radar Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2018)3.1 Global Military Radar Capacity and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.2 Global Military Radar Production and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.3 Global Military Radar Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.4 Global Military Radar Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.5 North America Military Radar Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.6 Europe Military Radar Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.7 China Military Radar Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.8 Japan Military Radar Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.9 Southeast Asia Military Radar Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.10 India Military Radar Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)4 Global Military Radar Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2013-2018)4.1 Global Military Radar Consumption by Region (2013-2018)4.2 North America Military Radar Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)4.3 Europe Military Radar Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)4.4 China Military Radar Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)4.5 Japan Military Radar Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)4.6 Southeast Asia Military Radar Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)4.7 India Military Radar Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)Access Full Summery @Related Reports: -Global Busbar Trunking System Market Research Report 2018This report studies the global Busbar Trunking System market status and forecast, categorizes the global Busbar Trunking System market size (value & volume) by manufacturers, type, application, and region. This report focuses on the top manufacturers in North America, Europe, Japan, China, and other regions (India, Southeast Asia). The major manufacturers ...About Us:Industry executives tend to keep a tab on their business competitors. This keeps them updated on strategic business activities and investment trends. Company profiles are crucial to participating players of interconnected verticals.Contact Us:5933 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 North America Dental Practice Management Software Market 2024: Carestream, Curve Dental, Henry Schein and Patterson Companies North America Dental Practice Management Software Market www.graphicalresearch.com/request/1077/sample www.graphicalresearch.com/industry-insights/1077/north-am www.graphicalresearch.com/request/1077/inquiry-before-buying www.graphicalresearch.com/industry-insights/1079/asia-pac www.graphicalresearch.com/industry-insights/1078/europe-d www.graphicalresearch.com/ North America Dental Practice Management Software Market estimated to exceed USD 1 billion by 2024.Growing geriatric population suffering from dental problems is set to drive the demand for dental procedures in forthcoming years. According to United Nations, in North America, geriatric population is forecasted to reach 104.8 million by 2030. Dentists are adopting advanced technologies that enable efficient treatment to cater to ever increasing burden of geriatric population in the region.Sample of this research report -Increasing government and venture capital funding is forecasted to positively impact North America DPMS industry growth in forthcoming years. Growing federal funding for workforce expansion and oral health services favors market expansion. This enhances quality of patient care along with experience. For instance, in June 2018, iDentalSoft announced about funding by FCA Venture Partners, that will help the firm in enhancing its financial performance. However, dearth of skilled IT professionals in Canada can hinder business growth in the upcoming years.Patient communication component segment will grow at remarkable rate of 11.3% CAGR throughout the projected period. Easy and efficient patient communication makes the component preferable. Furthermore, features enabling the dentist to send e-mails, messages, setting reminders and accessing patient responses escalates the demand for patient communication component, thereby augmenting segmental share over the forecast period.Cloud-based delivery mode segment will progress at 14.2% CAGR over the forecast period owing to lower cost associated with data management.Reduction in data theft risk makes it preferable for usage. Benefits including cost-effectiveness coupled with suitable accessibility at any location will impel segmental growth over the upcoming timeframe.U.S. will drive North America DPMS market with revenue share of 87.7% in 2017. Canada DPMS market will witness significant growth at CAGR over 10%. Canadians are largely found to be suffering from oral disorders.Browse key industry insights from this 2018 report North America DPMS Market in detail @...According to the Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS) conducted by Statistics Canada, nearly three quarters of Canadian population visits dental clinics every year. The Canadian Oral Health Roundtable (COHR) also works to offer dental services to immigrants and Canadian citizens contributing to increasing demand and awareness. Rising adoption of DPMS in Canada will further boost market growth during the forecast timeframe.Major market firms operating in North America dental practice management software include Carestream, Curve Dental, Henry Schein and Patterson Companies. Prominent players are concentrating efforts on strategic initiatives such as partnerships and collaborations for market expansion and for enhancing customer reach. For instance, in February 2016, Curve Dental collaborated with Lighthouse 360, an automated patient communication system. This partnership will enable the integration of its software with Lighthouse 360, to provide better solutions to its clients.Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @Segments We Cover:North America Dental Practice Management Software Market, By Componento Schedulingo Patient Communicationo Invoice/Billingo Payment Processingo Insurance Managemento Dental Chartingo OthersNorth America Dental Practice Management Software Market, By Delivery Modeo On-Premiseo Web-basedo Cloud-basedThe above information is provided for the following region and countries: U.S. CanadaRelated Reports:1. Asia Pacific Dental Practice Management Software Market Share By Component (Scheduling, Patient Communication, Invoicing/ Billing, Payment Processing, Insurance Management, Dental Charting), By Delivery Mode (On-premise, Web-based, Cloud-based), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (Japan, China, India, South Korea, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan, Philippines, Vietnam), Application Potential, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2018 - 2024Some significant industry participants include: Curve Dental, Carestream Dental and Henry Schein....2. Europe Dental Practice Management Software Market Size By Component (Scheduling, Patient Communication, Invoicing/ Billing, Payment Processing, Insurance Management, Dental Charting), By Delivery Mode (On-premise, Web-based, Cloud-based), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (Germany, UK, France, Spain, Italy, Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Sweden), Application Potential, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2018 2024Some significant industry participants include: Curve Dental, Carestream, Henry Schein and Patterson Companies...About Graphical Research:Graphical Research is a business research firm that provides industry insights, market forecast and strategic inputs through granular research reports and advisory services. We publish targeted research reports with an aim to address varied customer needs, from market penetration and entry strategies to portfolio management and strategic outlook. We understand that business requirements are unique: our syndicate reports are designed to ensure relevance for industry participants across the value chain. We also provide custom reports that are tailored to the exact needs of the customer, with dedicated analyst support across the purchase lifecycle.Contact Us:Parikhit B.Corporate sales,Graphical ResearchEmail: sales@graphicalresearh.comWeb: Global Fermentation Chemical Market Booming Worldwide With Key Players - Ajinomoto, BASF, Dow Chemical, AB Enzymes and Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) ResearchMoz https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1926440 https://www.researchmoz.us/global-fermentation-chemical-market-insights-forecast-to-2025-report.html/toc http://www.researchmoz.us/ http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG http://summaryofmarketresearchreports.blogspot.in/ Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Fermentation Chemical Market Booming Worldwide With Key Players - Ajinomoto, BASF, Dow Chemical, AB Enzymes and Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM)" to its huge collection of research reports.This report researches the worldwide Fermentation Chemical market size (value, capacity, production and consumption) in key regions like United States, Europe, China, Japan and other regions.This study categorizes the global Fermentation Chemical breakdown data by manufacturers, region, type and application, also analyzes the market status, market share, growth rate, future trends, market drivers, opportunities and challenges, risks and entry barriers, sales channels, distributors and Porter's Five Forces Analysis.Fermentation is a classic method of producing alcohols. Fermentation is usually used starch, cellulose, agricultural products, forest products, agricultural and sideline products and wild plants as raw materials. Due to the different resources of various countries, the raw materials of fermented alcohols also have their own characteristics. Such as sugar cane, corn, wheat, cassava, corn cob etc.The rapid development of food and beverage industry in Asia and Latin America and other emerging markets will have a positive role in promoting the development. Alcohol industry has become the dominant plate in the market, in 2013 accounted for 56.6% of market capacity. Production level of methanol and ethanol will continue to stimulate the growth of alcohol plate. Enzyme products are considered to be the fastest growing plate. In the next six years, the annual growth rate will reach 4.6%. Similarly, the global food and beverage industry is also optimistic that the next six years will continue to develop steadily.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Global Fermentation Chemical market size will increase to xx Million US$ by 2025, from xx Million US$ in 2017, at a CAGR of xx% 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 Fermentation Chemical.This report focuses on the top manufacturers' Fermentation Chemical capacity, production, value, price and market share of Fermentation Chemical in global market. The following manufacturers are covered in this report:AjinomotoBASFDow ChemicalAB EnzymesArcher Daniels Midland Company (ADM)CargillDuPont Nutrition & HealthNovozymesDSMEvonik IndustriesHansenAmano Enzyme IncFermentation Chemical Breakdown Data by TypeAlcoholsEnzymesOrganic AcidsBrowse TOC @Fermentation Chemical Breakdown Data by ApplicationIndustrialsFood & BeveragesPharmaceuticalsChemicalsFermentation Chemical Production Breakdown Data by RegionUnited StatesEuropeChinaJapanOther RegionsFermentation Chemical Consumption Breakdown Data by RegionNorth AmericaUnited StatesCanadaMexicoAsia-PacificChinaIndiaJapanSouth KoreaAustraliaIndonesiaMalaysiaPhilippinesThailandVietnamEuropeGermanyFranceUKItalyRussiaRest of EuropeCentral & South AmericaBrazilRest of South AmericaMiddle East & AfricaGCC CountriesTurkeyEgyptSouth AfricaRest of Middle East & AfricaThe study objectives are:To analyze and research the global Fermentation Chemical capacity, production, value, consumption, status and forecast;To focus on the key Fermentation Chemical manufacturers and study the capacity, production, value, market share and development plans in next few years.To focuses on the global key manufacturers, to define, describe and analyze the market competition landscape, SWOT analysis.To define, describe and forecast the market by type, application and region.To analyze the global and key regions market potential and advantage, opportunity and challenge, restraints and risks.To identify significant trends and factors driving or inhibiting the market growth.To analyze the opportunities in the market for stakeholders by identifying the high growth segments.To strategically analyze each submarket with respect to individual growth trend and their contribution to the market.To analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches, and acquisitions in the market.To strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their growth strategies.In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Fermentation Chemical :History Year: 2013-2017Base Year: 2017Estimated Year: 2018Forecast Year 2018 to 2025For the data information by region, company, type and application, 2017 is considered as the base year. Whenever data information was unavailable for the base year, the prior year has been considered.About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @Follow us on Blogger @ Frozen Fruits & Vegetable Market by 2025 - Ardo, Birds Eye UK & IE, Bonduelle, Lamb Weston, Gelagri, Findus Sverige, General Mills, Greenyard, Dole Food Company, Pinnacle Foods, Simplot Australia Pty Ltd Research For Markets https://www.researchformarkets.com/sample/global-frozen-fruits-vegetable-market-315400 https://www.researchformarkets.com/inquiry/global-frozen-fruits-vegetable-market-315400 https://www.researchformarkets.com/reports/global-frozen-fruits-vegetable-market-315400 Frozen Fruits & Vegetable market is also presented to the readers as a holistic snapshot of the competitive landscape within the given forecast period. The report also educates about the market strategies that are being adopted by your competitors and leading organizations. The report also focuses on all the recent industry trends. It presents a comparative detailed analysis of the all regional and player segments, offering readers a better knowledge of where areas in which they can place their existing resources and gauging the priority of a particular region in order to boost their standing in the market.Global Frozen Fruits & Vegetable Market valued approximately USD 449 million in 2017 is anticipated to grow with a healthy growth rate of more than 5.37% over the forecast period 2018-2025. The major driving factor of global Frozen Fruits & Vegetable market are rising popularity of convenience food, growing awareness among people and increasing disposable income. One of the major restraining factors of global frozen fruits & vegetables market is loss of nutrient during process. Frozen fruits and vegetables refers to that have had their temperature reduce and maintained to below their freezing point for the purpose of storage and transportation until they are ready to eaten. Fruits and vegetables that will be frozen are generally picked at peak ripeness, when they're the most nutritious. Once harvested, the vegetables are often washed, blanched, cut, frozen and packaged within a few hours. The foremost advantage of frozen fruits and vegetables is convenient to store at home and have them on hand at all times. It also helps in maintain your personal health. Another advantage is cost, you can easily afford it and get it on sale. Frozen foods and vegetable are versatile and use them in a variety of ways.Get Sample of Report atThe regional analysis of Global Frozen Fruits & Vegetable Market is considered for the key regions such as Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, Latin America and Rest of the World. Asia-Pacific has accounted and witnessing maximum share of total generating revenue across the globe followed by North America. Increasing disposable incomes in India and China along with growing demand for frozen and processed products will drive the market growth of frozen fruits & vegetables. Europe is also contributing major share in the global market of Frozen Fruits & Vegetable followed by Asia-Pacific. North America region is also anticipated to exhibit higher growth rate / CAGR over the forecast period 2018-2025.The major market player included in this report are: Ardo Group Birds Eye Foods, Inc. Bonduelle ConAgra Foods Inc. Lamb Weston Inc. Geest Limited Gelagri Bretagne H.J. Heinz Company Unifrost NV Findus Sverige AB General Mills Inc. Greenyard NV Dole Pinnacle Foods Inc. Simplot Food GroupThe objective of the study is to define market sizes of different segments & countries in recent years and to forecast the values to the coming eight years. The report is designed to incorporate both qualitative and quantitative aspects of the industry within each of the regions and countries involved in the study. Furthermore, the report also caters the detailed information about the crucial aspects such as driving factors & challenges which will define the future growth of the market. Additionally, the report shall also incorporate available opportunities in micro markets for stakeholders to invest along with the detailed analysis of competitive landscape and product offerings of key players. The detailed segments and sub-segment of the market are explained below:By Type: Dehydrated Fruit Freeze Dried Fruit Powder Dehydrated Vegetable Freeze Dried Vegetable Powder OthersBy Application: Company to Company Supermarket Convenience Store Specialty Store Online SalesBy Regions: North America Europe Asia Pacific Latin America Rest of the WorldInquiry Before Buying atFocusing points in the report Key trends in the market place Major players and brands Drivers and restrains of the market Strategies of key players and product offerings In-depth market segmentationGet More Information atNote: If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Contact Info:Name: Research For MarketsEmail: alan.naidu@researchformarkets.comPhone: +44 8000-4182-37Research For Markets indulge in detailed and diligent research on different markets, trends and emerging opportunities in the successive direction to cater to your business needs. We have established the pillars of our flourishing institute on the grounds of Credibility and Reliability. RFM delve into the markets across Asia Pacific, North America, South America, Europe, Middle East And Africa.Level 21, Dashwood House69 Old Broad StreetLondon EC2M 1QS, United Kingdom Digital Pen Market: Analyze the drivers & restraints that impact the growth of the industry Digital Pen Market https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/digital-pen-market?utm_source=openpr https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/4534?utm_source=openpr https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/checkout/867715?utm_source=openpr https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com Digital pen allows user to capture the handwritten notes or drawing digitally. The digital pen market is expected to reach $815.78 million by 2023, owing to rise in adoption of business process automation, growth in internet penetration, and increase in adoption of smart and connected devices. However, lack of technology readiness in various underdeveloped nations might limit the adoption of digital pen.Access Full Summary:Need for data integrity, easy traceability, and accuracy & data precision are the necessary requirements for various end users, which drive the demand for digital pen. This enables the end users to perform the tasks and maintain documentation at office space or remote location as per the requirement or based on the need to capture the data.Digital Pen Market was valued at $326.79 million in 2016, and is projected to reach at $815.78 million by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 14.5% from 2017 to 2023. Digital pen allows user to capture hand written data and drawing digitally in conjunction with the various devices such as smart phones, tablets, and digital paper. The main components include ink cartridge & force sensor, Bluetooth transceiver, and the image processor.Request Sample Report:In 2016, North America was the highest contributor, in terms of revenue, in the digital pen market. In addition, android platform type has contributed significant revenue to the market, majorly from the U.S. Furthermore, the BFSI segment is anticipated to witness the highest growth rate during the forecast period, due to heavy investment in financial inclusion and various financial products development by the end user.Digital Pen Market by Platform Type (Android, iOS, and Windows), Technology (Camera Digital Pen, Accelerometer Digital Pen, Trackball Digital Pen, and Others), and End User (BFSI, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Government, IT & Telecom, and Others) - Global Opportunities Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2017-2023Get Subscription:Key players profiled in the report include Apple Inc., Canon Inc., Hanvon Technology Co. Ltd, HP Enterprise Development, Livescribe Inc., Moleskine, NeoLab Convergence, Inc., Toshiba Corporation, Wacom, and Xcallibre.Key market players have adopted various strategies, such as new product launch, business expansion, and strategic alliances, to increase awareness about digital pen across various countries.Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions. AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.Shriram Dighe5933 NE Win Sivers Drive#205, Portland, OR 97220United StatesToll Free: +1-800-792-5285UK: +44-845-528-1300Hong Kong: +852-301-84916India (Pune): +91-20-66346060Fax: +1?855?550-5975help@alliedmarketresearch.comWeb: Prescriptive Analytics Market 2018 Global Leaders Overview: Angoss Software, Frontline, Profitect, FICO, Ayata, River Logic, TIBCO Software, NGData, Panoratio https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/2613 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/prescriptive-analytics-market-2613 Market Research Future published a research report on Prescriptive Analytics Market Research Report- Global Forecast 2022 Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2022.Market Scenario:Prescriptive Analytics is a form of advance analytics that is used for making an optimum decisions regarding the way to handle specific situations by considering all the situation and available resources. These analytics work along with predictive analytics that are used to determine the future performance based on the current and the historical data. Prescriptive Analytics are used for taking improved business decisions, despite of uncertainty and changing conditions, and it also help companies determine what action to take. For illustration: prescriptive analytics can be used to evaluate whether a local fire department should require residents to evacuate a particular area when a wildfire is burning in the area. By analyzing these data department can make the optimum decision.The study indicates that rising popularity of automated business decisions and massive investments done by various firms helps to expand the addressable market for prescriptive analytics. The increase in cyber-crime results in the huge data loss for an organization, influences the demand of prescriptive analytics. These loss of data in the organization is an increasing concerns due to the growing internet security breaches. Whereas, the emergence of Big Data and IoT and the increasing demand of accessing real time data acts as major driving factor for the growth of Prescriptive Analytics Market. Moreover, the growing demand of machine learning is also promoting the growth of the Prescriptive Analytics market.Get Sample of Report @The factors hindering the growth of the prescriptive analytics market are the complex analytics workflow and the lack of skilled manpower with advance analytics knowledge. The global market of prescriptive analytics will reach upto 2.47 Billion by the year 2022, and is expected to grow at a CAGR of ~22.7% by the end of the forecasted period.Key PlayersThe prominent players in the Prescriptive Analytics Market are FICO (U.S.), Ayata (U.S.), IBM Corporation (U.S.), River Logic, Inc. (U.S.), Angoss Software (U.S.), Frontline (U.S.), Profitect (U.S.), Panoratio (Germany), TIBCO Software (U.S.), NGData (Belgium) and among others.Segments:Prescriptive Analytics market is segmented on the basis of component, application, deployment, business sector, and vertical.Prescriptive Analytics by Components: Software ServicesPrescriptive Analytics by Application: Operation Management Revenue Management Network Management Supply Chain Management OthersPrescriptive Analytics by Deployment: On-Cloud On PremisePrescriptive Analytics by Organization Type: SME Large Business UnitsPrescriptive Analytics by Business Sector: HR Marketing Finance Operations SalesPrescriptive Analytics by Vertical: Manufacturing BFSI IT/ITES Healthcare Transportation GovernmentRegional AnalysisThe regional analysis of Prescriptive Analytics Market is being studied for region such as Asia pacific, North America, Europe and Rest of the World. The study indicates that North America region is dominating the Prescriptive Analytics Market owing to factors such as increased internet penetration and technological advancements. The study also indicates that cloud deployment is a driving factor for Asia-Pacific region to grow significantly in the prescriptive analytics market by the forecast period. Apart from it the rising adoption of IT services is also driving the prescriptive analytics market.Get complete Report @Intended Audience Government Organizations Business Analytics Software Providers Enterprise users Commercial users Cloud Service Providers IT Service Providers Application Design and Software Developers Software Vendors Industrial users Technology investors System Integrators Research/Consultancy firms IndependentAbout Us: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.Media Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Global VoIP Market Trend Analysis by 2025: NTT, Comcast, Orange, KT, Charter, Microsoft (Skype), Cablevision, Verizon, AT & T https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1925355 https://www.researchmoz.us/global-voip-market-size-status-and-forecast-2018-2025-report.html/toc https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=E&repid=1925355 http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG https://studyanalyst.blogspot.in ResearchMoz include new market research report "Global VoIP Market Size, Status and Forecast 2018-2025" to its huge collection of research reports.This report focuses on the global VoIP status, future forecast, growth opportunity, key market and key players. The study objectives are to present the VoIP development in United States, Europe and China.Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), is a technology that allows you to make voice calls using a broadband Internet connection instead of a regular (or analog) phone line. Some VoIP services may only allow you to call other people using the same service, but others may allow you to call anyone who has a telephone number - including local, long distance, mobile, and international numbers. Also, while some VoIP services only work over your computer or a special VoIP phone, other services allow you to use a traditional phone connected to a VoIP adapter.For more information on this report, fill the form @Business voice services are the driving force within the VoIP services market as the move to IP positively impacts cloud, trunking and managed services across all business segments. Larger enterprises in particular continue to actively evaluate cloud unified communications while also migrating to SIP trunking for premises-based deployments.On the residential side, subscribers continue to grow, but revenue has fallen off as VoIP services are included in triple-play packages for almost no cost in many parts of the world,In 2017, the global VoIP market size was 77400 million US$ and it is expected to reach 99000 million US$ by the end of 2025, with a CAGR of 3.1% during 2018-2025.The key players covered in this studyNTTComcastOrangeKTCharterMicrosoft (Skype)CablevisionVerizonAT & TVonageCoxTelmexTime Warner CableNumericable-SFRTo Browse a Complete Report with TOC Visit @Market segment by Application, split intoCorporate ConsumersApplication 2Market segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaCentral & South AmericaMake An Enquiry @The study objectives of this report are:To analyze global VoIP status, future forecast, growth opportunity, key market and key players.To present the VoIP development in United States, Europe and China.To strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their development plan and strategies.To define, describe and forecast the market by product type, market and key regions.About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.For More Information Kindly Contact:ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn @Blog: Laser Therapy Market Analysis to 2025 by Top Competitors Boston Scientific Corporation, BTL, BioFlex Laser Therapy, Danaher, Alma Lasers, Lumenis, Coherent, Inc Laser Therapy Market http://bit.ly/2RklW8q http://bit.ly/2RqulqQ http://bit.ly/2RihiIb This global Laser Therapy market report studies the industry based on one or more segments covering key players, types, applications, products, technology, end-users, and regions for historical data as well as provides forecasts for next few years.North America is expected to witness significant demand for the laser therapy market during the coming years. Factors such as changing lifestyle, growing geriatric population and increase in healthcare expenditure is expected to propel the market growth in North America. Asia Pacific is the fastest growing region in the global market due to increase in demand for laser therapy at a significant rate. In addition, increase in disposable income and advanced technologies in leading economies such as China and Japan are likely to grow the market.Some of the key players influencing the market are Hologic Inc., Boston Scientific Corporation, BTL, BioFlex Laser Therapy, Danaher, Alma Lasers, Lumenis, Coherent, Inc., biolitec AG, and IPG Photonics Corporation among others.Request a sample of this premium report at:Rise in the preference for advanced laser based treatment for various diseases is expected to drive the market growth in the coming years. Increasing disposable income and rise in the demand for laser treatments in developed economies are expected to provide significant growth opportunities during the forecast period.Laser therapy is a non-invasive medical procedure which uses light of a specific wavelength in order to treat various diseases. This procedure is used to remove tumors or abnormal growth, hair treatment, removal of kidney stones, and repair of a detached retina among others. Laser therapy is considered as an advanced aspect of medical therapeutics. In medicine, laser allows surgeons to work at high precision level by focusing on definite area. This process creates less damage as compared to the traditional methods of surgery. The process of laser therapy is however costly and may require repetitive visits to the surgeon.Request a discount on standard prices of this premium report at:Laser Therapy Market by Type:SolidLiquidGasDiodeLaser Therapy Market by Application:Dermatology & AestheticsDentalOphthalmologyCardiovascularLaser Therapy Market by End Users:ClinicsHospitalsAmbulatory ClinicsTable of Content:Chapter 1. MethodologyChapter 2. Executive SummaryChapter 3. Laser Therapy Industry InsightsChapter 4. Laser Therapy Market, By TechnologyChapter 5. Laser Therapy Market, By End-userChapter 6. Laser Therapy Market, By RegionChapter 7. Company ProfilesIf You want to Purchase the Report Directly:About Us:The Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We are a specialist in Technology, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Automotive and Defense.Contact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@theinsightpartners.com Thyristor Market Anticipated to Reach US$7,225.9 Mn by 2026 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=15725 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/thyristor-market.html www.transparencymarketresearch.com The global thyristor market was valued at US$ 4,035.0 Mn in 2017 and is projected to register compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 7.0% from 2018 to 2026, according to a new report published by Transparency Market Research (TMR) titled Thyristor Market Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 20182026. The report suggests that the rising population and urbanization is likely to spur the demand for thyristors in the coming years (2018 to 2026). Other factors such as replacement of aging infrastructure and government initiatives are also expected to help the market expand rapidly. As key players introduce new thyristors and features in developed markets such as North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific, these regions are likely to account for dominating share of the global thyristor market. Growing demand for thyristors from the consumer electronics sector in emerging markets such as China and India is likely to boost growth of the Asia Pacific thyristor market at a growth rate of around 8.4% from 2018 to 2026.Request a Sample -Replacing aging infrastructure to affect the expansion of the market worldwideThe replacement of aging infrastructure especially in the energy sector is likely to drive the thyristor market. Thyristors are much more efficient than their substitutes and replacement of older equipment is likely to spur the market growth.The increased efficiency of thyristors during transmission and distribution of power also provides considerable cost savings.Thyristors have a higher penetration in developed economies as compared to developing economies.Thyristors are adopted more in consumer electronics around the globeBased on application, the global thyristor market is segmented into industrial electronics, consumer electronics, communications, and automotive electronics. By 2026, the consumer electronics segment is expected to hold about one third of the total market and expand at a rapid rate throughout the forecast period.Thyristors not only improve efficiency, but also reduce maintenance cost compared to conventional solutions.In terms of power rating, the market is segmented into below 500MW, 500-999MW, and above 1000MW. Primarily driven by the demand from urban regions, the 500-999MW segment held the major share of the revenue in 2017. On the other hand, the below 500MW segment is anticipated to expand at a rapid pace due to the increasing demand from increasing population around the world.Obtain Report Details @Asia Pacific is the leading contributor to the thyristor marketIn terms of value, Asia Pacific was the leading contributor to the global thyristor market in 2017. The contribution is primarily due to the increased adoption of thyristors with the presence of well-established players across the region, especially in China and Japan. Asia Pacific is also expected to emerge as the region showcasing the highest CAGR. Furthermore, the region is witnessing high adoption of thyristors because of the increasing demand for energy to support local manufacturing units.Major players in the thyristor market include ABB Ltd, Siemens AG, Schneider Electric SE, Eaton Corporation Plc., Honeywell International Inc., Analog Devices, Inc., STMicroelectronics N.V.,Infineon Technologies AG, ON Semiconductor, and Fuji Electric Co., Ltd.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a next-generation provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendationsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: I offer my sincere apology to Representative Peter Breen, his family, and all of my House colleagues for my poor choice of words during a serious discussion on our Veterans health and safety. I would never wish any harm or mortality on anyones family, including the Breen family. As a Marine Corps Veteran, I feel very passionate about what happened in our Quincy Veterans home, which resulted in 13 Veterans and 1 spouses deaths, in addition to over 70 individuals being ill. The truth is this did happen to our heroes, and my attempt to illustrate empathy for the families that were affected by the loss of their loved ones was not conveyed properly. Virtual Data Rooms Market 2026 | BMC Group, Inc., Intralinks Holdings, Inc., Donnelley Financial Solutions, iDeals Solutions Group S.A., Brainloop AG, Ansarada Pty Limited, https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/sample/110115024/Virtual-Data-Rooms-Market https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/discount/110115024/Virtual-Data-Rooms-Market https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/rd/110115024/Virtual-Data-Rooms-Market https://www.researchreportinsights.com/ The global market for virtual data rooms was estimated at US$ 1,050.0 Million during 2017 and is likely to record a 12.3% CAGR over the forecast period 2026. The growing requirement for secure & easy ways for the critical data storage and the rising requirement for efficient & transparent data-sharing options are amid the prominent aspects fuelling the market for virtual data rooms.Request For Report Sample:Major companies are launching technologically sophisticated virtual data room solutions for secure and centralized data storage. Regions, for example, SEA & Others of APAC, are foreseeing a fast transformation in their economies in addition to a change from rural to urban areas. The SEA & others of APAC regional markets are anticipated to reflect comparatively higher growth in the worldwide market with a 16.8% CAGR during the assessment period. The market revenue share from the virtual data rooms in Europe and North America is likely to together account for more than 50% of the worldwide market revenue during 2018. Suppliers of virtual data room could concentrate on growing all over various nations in Latin America, MEA and China.The rising requirement for secure & easy ways for critical data storage as well as the rising requirement for efficient & transparent data sharing choices is amid the major aspects fuelling the market for virtual data rooms. Although, lack of knowledge & skills and danger of security breach are a few of the prominent challenges which will impede the expansion of the overall market.In terms of the components, the overall market is categorized into services and software. The software component category is likely to grow at a 12.9% CAGR throughout the assessment period. The services component category is likely to record an 11.2% CAGR throughout the period of forecast. In terms of the enterprise type, the overall market is categorized into small & medium enterprises and large enterprises. The large enterprises component category is likely to grow at an 11.9% CAGR for the duration of the forecast.Request Report Discount:In terms of the deployment, the market is categorized into on-premise and cloud. The cloud deployment category is likely to grow at a 12.3% CAGR throughout the assessment period. In terms of the end-user, the market is categorized into ITES, law firms, BFSI, healthcare & life science, real-estate companies, management consultants, mining & energy and others. Of these sectors, the revenue contribution in the market for virtual data rooms from the BFSI sector is likely to grow at an 11.5% CAGR all through the calculated period.The foremost companies active in the worldwide market are BMC Group, Inc., Intralinks Holdings, Inc., Donnelley Financial Solutions, iDeals Solutions Group S.A., Brainloop AG, Ansarada Pty Limited, Box, Inc., Firmex Inc., CapLinked, Inc., Merrill Corporation and others.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 Global Rat Model Market Trends, Analysis, Growth Forecast 2018 to 2025 Global Rat Model Market https://globalmarketforecasts.com/request-for-sample/101 https://globalmarketforecasts.com/inquire-before-buying/101 https://www.globalmarketforecasts.com/inquire-before-buying/101 https://www.globalmarketforecasts.com/selectedReport/101/Global-Rat-Model-Market-Analysis-and-Forecasts-to-2025 www.globalmarketforecasts.com https://www.linkedin.com/company/global-market-forecasts/ Global Rat Model Market Analysis by Type (Hybrid/Congenic Rats, Knockout/Genetically Engineered Rats, Conditioned/Surgically Modified Rats, Inbred Rats, Outbred Rats and Immunodeficient Rats), By Service (Genetic Testing, Quarantine, Breeding, Model In-Licensing, Crypto preservation, Re-derivation and Others ), By Technology (Embryonic Stem Cell Injection, CRISPR, Nuclear Transfer, Micro Injection, Other Technologies), By Therapeutic Area (Neurology, Oncology, Immunology & Inflammation, Diabetes, Toxicology and Others), By End User (Contract Research Organizations, Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology Companies and Academic & Research Institutions), By Care Product (Bedding, Cages, Feed and Others) and By Geography (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Middle East & Africa) to 2025Over the past century, rats are being extensively used to test human diseases and therapies in the laboratories. Rats are the ideal choices for laboratory studies as they show similar physiological and cognitive characteristics in immunology, neurobiology, toxicology, and cardio biology applications. Rat model market is immensely increasing in recent era due to the growing research in medical science including treatment for neurological diseases, cancer and rare diseases. Human and rats have the similar DNA structure, which makes the experiments more effective to test the drugs for human. In addition, regulations to test drugs on rats before the launch into the market can be responsible for increasing demand for rat models.The Rat Model Market has been witnessing significant growth over the past few years owing to, steady financial support from government & private companies for research, progress in gene editing tools, and rising R&D activities by pharmaceutical companies. Furthermore, increasing production of monoclonal antibodies and rising demand for rat models due to rising drug research activities are expected to offer significant growth opportunities during next few years. However, laws & policies related to animal protection are expected to restrain the market growth during the forecast period.Get Sample Copy @The report provides forecast and analysis of the global rat model market. It provides market overview of global rat model market of in terms of revenue (in USD Mn). Furthermore, the report includes drivers, restraints, trends and opportunity of the rat model market and their impact on each country during the forecast period.Segmentation:The global rat model market is segmented based on type, service, technology, therapeutic area, end user, care product.Based on type, the market is segmented into cosmogenic hybrid/congenic rats, knockout/genetically engineered rats, conditioned/surgically modified rats, inbred rats, outbred rats and Immunodeficient rats.Based on service, the market is sectioned as genetic testing, quarantine, breeding, model in-licensing, crypto preservation, rederivation and others- in vivo pharmacology services, surgical services & line rescue services.Based on technology, the rat model market is subdivided into embryonic stem cell injection, Crispr, nuclear transfer, microinjection and other technologies.Based on therapeutic area, the market is segmented as neurology, oncology, immunology & inflammation, diabetes, toxicology andBased on end user, the rat model market is classified as contract research organization, pharmaceutical & biotechnology companies and academic & research institutionsBased on care product, the market is segregated into bedding, cages, feed and others.Ask to Experts @Global Rat Model Market Major Players List: Taconic Biosciences, Inc. Envigo Horizon Discovery Group plc Charles River JANVIER LABS Biomere GenOway TransViragen, Inc. Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings Transposagen Biopharmaceuticals, Inc.Regional Overview:The rat model market based on the type, service, technology, therapeutic area, care products, and end user is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. The North American market is further segmented into US and Canada. The Europe market is categorized into UK, Germany, and France. The market for rat model in Asia Pacific is segmented into Japan, China, and India. The Latin American market is categorized as Mexico and Brazil. The Middle East & Africa region is classified as South Africa, Saudi Arabia, and UAE.North America held the largest share of rat model market owing to factors such as, involvement of Animal Care Organization in responsible use of rats, agreements between Contract Research Organization (CROs) & pharmaceutical companies, increasing support from government to develop protein drugs, and rise in stem cell research activities .However, Asia Pacific is anticipated to grow at the fastest rate in the coming years due to increasing investments by government & private companies in life science in China, rising interest on cancer related research & treatment in Japan, and growing pharmaceutical industry & government support for healthcare academic & commercial R&D India.Major TOC ContentsChapter 1: IntroductionChapter 2: Executive SummaryChapter 3: Global Rat Model Market Market Dynamics Drivers Restraints OpportunitiesChapter 4: Global Rat Model Market-By Type Hybrid/Congenic Rats Knockout/Genetically Engineered Rats Conditioned/Surgically Modified Rats Inbred Rats Outbred Rats Immunodeficient RatsChapter 5: Global Rat Model Market- By Service Genetic Testing Quarantine Breeding Model In-Licensing Cryptopreservation Rederivation OthersTOC to be continuedAsk for the Customization now:Browse complete report:About Us:Global Market Forecasts is a global business intelligence and consulting firm aimed at assisting our clients to make critical business decisions and achieve exponential growth in their business.We focus on emerging markets and technologies, and insights on niche markets. Our reports include information on recent trends and innovations. Our pool of more than 500+ off-shelf reports in each industry and customized reports based on the clients requirement aids our client in making faster business decisions.Contact Us:Tathagata MondalVice President Global Sales & Partner RelationsGlobal Market ForecastsPhone: USA: +1-201-564-4683 (ext-335958)UK: +44-330-606-0991(ext-335958)Email: sales@globalmarketforecasts.comWebsite:Follow Us on LinkedIn: Geocells Market 2025 | SABK International, Polyfabrics Australia Pty Ltd., Bonar, Armtec Infrastructure Inc., Maccaferri S.p.A, Wall Tag Pte Ltd. https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/sample/110114975/Geocells-Market https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/discount/110114975/Geocells-Market https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/rd/110114975/Geocells-Market https://www.researchreportinsights.com/ According to a report generated by Research Report Insights, the global geocells market is estimated to witness expansion at impressive CAGR over the forecast period by 2025. Geocells consumption is expected to reach nearly 430 Mn square meter by 2025-end, riding on steady 5.5% CAGR throughout the forecast period.Geocells are also called as cellular confinement systems. These are 3 dimensional mats featuring structure of honeycomb generally made of high density polyester, polyethylene, polypropylene or other polymeric alloys. These are utilized in construction sector, especially for earth reinforcement, load support, slop protection, tree root protection, and channel protection. These geocells are subdivision of geosynthetics market and are projected to exhibit approximately 5.6% market share in terms of volume consumption in the global geosynthetics market.Request For Report Sample:Drivers and Trends of the MarketInfrastructure improvement activities, urbanization trend, construction sector output are some major-economic drivers of the market. The developed countries have framed regulations related to sustainable infrastructure advancement and erosion control. These initiatives and regulations are recognized as fundamental factors of the market. However, low awareness of the geocells among infrastructure developers in developing countries as well as rivalry from substitute goods, such as geomembranes and geogrids are pinpointed as trivial restraints in the global geocells market.Geocells Market Growth in Developing Economies is higher than that in Developed EconomiesAsia Pacific and North America remained largest markets for geocells globally in 2014. Geocells market is projected to expand at higher CAGR in developing countries than that in developed countries in terms of value throughout the forecast period. In terms of value, Asia Pacific region is likely to remain the largest geocells market by 2025, followed by North America and Western Europe.High Density Polyethylene, Extensively Used Raw Material for Geocells ManufacturingFor manufacturing of geocells, high density polyethylene (HDPE) is widely used across the globe followed by polypropylene, polyester and other polymeric alloys. HDPE secured more than two-third share by value in 2014 and estimated to be the largest market segment with revenue share of approximately 64% throughout the forecast period. Due to rising crude oil prices, energy costs and complex manufacturing processes, costs for these raw materials are expected to increase throughout the forecast period.Request Report Discount:Market Segmentation based on Application TypeSlope protection, earth reinforcement, and channel protection are leading applications of geocells which secured approximately 86% of market value in 2014 and are collectively estimated to reflect value CAGR of single digit throughout the forecast period. Some other applications including tree root protection and load support are collectively estimated to ride on impressive value CAGR over the forecast period.Leading market player covered in this report that are operating in the global geocells market include CeTeau Group, Presto Geosystems, TMP Geosynthetics, MiakomGroup of Companies, SABK International, Polyfabrics Australia Pty Ltd., Bonar, Armtec Infrastructure Inc., Maccaferri S.p.A, Wall Tag Pte Ltd., ACE Geosynthetics, Tensar International Ltd., Tencate Geosynthetics, PRS Mediterranean Ltd., Admir Technologies, ABG Geosynthetics, Strata Systems Inc., Huifeng Geosynthetics, Wrekin Products, Ltd., Polymer Group Inc.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 Meropenem Market Report 2018 2023: Top Key Players - Shijiazhuang Pharma, Sumitomo Pharmaceuticals, Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co.,Ltd, Varika Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Ltd Meropenem Market https://www.marketgrowthinsight.com/sample/4895 https://www.marketgrowthinsight.com/inquiry/4895 https://www.marketgrowthinsight.com/checkout/4895 https://www.marketgrowthinsight.com/ The Study On key vendors in this Global Meropenem Market includes are Pfizer, Shenzhen Haibin Pharmaceutical, Novartis, Mylan, GE Healthcare, Spectrum Chemical Manufacturing Corp, Abbott, Takeda, Hisun-Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, Haikou Pharmaceutical Factory, Shijiazhuang Pharma, Sumitomo Pharmaceuticals, Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co.,Ltd, Varika Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Astra Zeneca Pharma India Limited, Crucell Switzerland AG.Get Free Access to Sample Copy [136 Pages] Meropenem Market@To help gain the business owner further gain business intelligence the study on the Meropenem market for the forecast period 2018 - 2023 brings to light data on production capability, consumption capacity, spending power, investment feasibility, and technology innovation. A thorough assessment of market performance across different regions is presented through self-explanatory graphic images, charts, and tables that add weight to corporate presentations and marketing materials.The latest market evaluation report on the Meropenem market explores how the Meropenem market will continue to expand for the forecast period 2018 - 2023. The study further serves as a unique research for stakeholders, product owners, and field marketing executives looking for actionable data and unique resource on market size, share, and growth.On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoInjectionFreeze-dried powderBy Application, the market can be split intoHospital useClinicOthersThe study dives deep into the profiles of top market players and their key financials. This comprehensive report is not only for business analysts and any existing and new entrant can use it when designing their business strategies. The research is one of its kind global analyses of aspects such as import and export status, supply chain management, profit and gross margin worldwide for the forecast period 2018 - 2023.Meropenem Market 136 pages, profiling 9 companies analysis, More Inquiry on this Research@Key point form Table of ContentChapter Three Analysis of Global Key Manufacturers3.1 Company A3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Product Information3.1.3 2013-2018 Production Information3.1.4 Contact Information3.2 Company B3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Product Information3.2.3 2013-2018 Production Information3.2.4 Contact Information3.3 Company C3.2.1 Company Profile3.3.2 Product Information3.3.3 2013-2018 Production InformationContinueThe research provides answers to the following key questions:What will be the growth rate and the market size of the Meropenem industry for the forecast period 2018-2023?What are the major driving forces expected to impact the development of the Meropenem market across different regions?Who are the major driving forces expected to decide the fate of the industry worldwide?Who are the prominent market players making a mark in the Meropenem market with their winning strategies?Which industry trends are likely to shape the future of the industry during the forecast period 2018-2023?What are the key barriers and threats believed to hinder the development of the industry?What are the future opportunities in the Meropenem market?Direct Order Meropenem Market Research Report@About Market Growth Insight:Market Growth Insight is a one stop solution for market research reports in various business categories. We are serving 100+ clients with 10000+ diverse industry reports and our reports are developed to simplify strategic decision making, on the basis of comprehensive and in-depth significant information, established through wide ranging analysis and latest industry trends.Contact Us-502, Sai Radhe, Kennedy Road,Behind Hotel Sheraton Grand,Near Pune Station, Pune 411001sales@marketgrowthinsight.com+ 91 8956 049 020Web Site -Follow Us- LinkedIn|Twitter|Google+| Facebook Europe IoT monetization Market Insights, strategic Industry Analysis and Future Trends by Major Vendors: PTC, Inc, IBM, Intel, Cisco Systems, Inc., General Electric Co., Oracle Corp., Google, Microsoft, SAP SE, Infosys Ltd. https://www.reportconsultant.com/request_sample.php?id=1253 https://www.reportconsultant.com/ask_for_discount.php?id=1253 www.reportconsultant.com The increase in the use of smart devices such as smartphones and tablets is driving the demand for IoT monetization. It is a trend that is becoming a serious commercial activity for many and opening doors for future development.The Europe IoT monetization market was valued at USD +22 Billion in 2015 and is expected to reach USD +442 Billion by 2021, at a CAGR of +51% during the forecast period.The report covers the market landscape and its development prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Get sample copy:Market Segmentation by Region North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Latin America. North America, Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy, Spain, Benelux.Market Segmentation by top players: PTC, Inc, IBM, Intel, Cisco Systems, Inc., General Electric Co., Oracle Corp., Google, Microsoft, SAP SE, Infosys Ltd., and Robert Bosch GmbH, Amdocs Ltd.Market Segmentation by product type: Device, Software, and Solution.Market Segmentation by application: Retail, Healthcare, Automotive & Transportation, Industrial, Building & Home Automation, Agriculture, Energy, Consumer Electronics, Others.Buyers Get up to 80 % discount to click hereAsk for Discount:Table of content:Chapter1: Europe IoT monetization market OverviewChapter2: Market Research MethodologyChapter3: Market Type and ApplicationChapter4: Market Manufacturers analysisChapter5: Market Drivers and ChallengesChapter6: Europe IoT monetization market (volume, value and sales price)Chapter8: Market by GeographyChapter9: Market Cost AnalysisChapter10: Market Development Trend AnalysisChapter11: New Project Investment, Feasibility, AnalysisChapter12: Market Competitive ScenarioChapter13: Market forecastAbout Us:Report consultant-A global leader in analytics, research and advisory that can helps you to renovate your business and modify your approach with us you will learn to take decision audaciously. We make sense of pitfalls, opportunities, circumstances, estimations and information using our experience skills and verified methodologies.Our research report will give you an exceptional experience of innovative solutions and outcomes. We have effectively steered businesses all over the world with our market research report and are outstandingly position to lead digital transformations. Thus we craft greater value for4 clients by presenting advance opportunity 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 Hormone Replacement Therapy Market Analysis By Product Type, By Application, Trends, Demand, Forecast & Key Players Info - Bayer AG, Pfizer, Merck & co., BioSante Pharmaceuticals and Amgen https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-3871 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-3871 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com Hormone Replacement Therapy is any form of hormone therapy where in the patient, in course of medical treatment, receives hormones, either to supplement a lack of naturally occurring hormones, or to substitute other hormones for naturally occurring hormones.Menopause, is the time in most women's lives when menstrual periods stop permanently, and the woman is no longer able to have children. Menopause typically occurs between 45 and 55 years of age. Medical professionals defined by a decrease in hormone production by the ovaries. In those who have had surgery to remove the uterus but still have ovaries, menopause generally occurs at the time of the surgery or when hormone levels fall. Following the removal of the uterus, symptoms typically occur earlier at the average of 45 years of age.Request Sample Report @Estrogen and progesterone are female hormones that play important roles in a womans body. Falling levels cause a range of physical and emotional symptoms, including hot flushes, mood swings and vaginal dryness. The aim of hormone replacement therapy is to restore female hormone levels, allowing the body to function normally again.Hormone Replacement TherapyMarket: Drivers and RestraintsThe prime drivers of hormone replacement therapy are increased demand from regenerative medicines such as anti-aging and reproductive-cycle boosting therapy such as menopausal hormone replacement. Rising demand in other therapeutic areas such as Growth Hormone Therapy and Thyroid Hormone Therapy due to comparatively safe profile, efficiency, and cost effectiveness of these drugs is expected to positively impact market growth. Moreover, new formulations such as transdermal drugs, gels and creams that offer benefits such as ease of drug administration and impact at location are expected to increase the growth of hormone replacement therapy market during the forecast period. Advantages associated with the hormone replacement therapy such as reduction in risk incidence of osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, and reduction of vasomotor symptoms are also expected to boost the growth of hormone replacement therapy market in the coming years.Hormone Replacement Therapy has side effects such as fluid retention, headache, indigestion, and depression. These are anticipated to hamper the popularity of the therapeutic area. Furthermore, UK-based NICE notes that hormone replacement therapy could be associated with breast cancer risk if the drugs oestrogen and progesterone are taken in combination. Prolonged consumption of HRT drugs could also lead to increased risk of blood clots. Studies have estimated that for every 1,000 women taking HRT tablets for 7.5 years, less than two will develop a blood clot. These restraints seem quite negligible when compared with the benefits of HRT.Hormone Replacement TherapyMarket: SegmentationHormone Replacement Therapy Market segmented based on product type, ApplicationBased on Therapy Type,Estrogen Replacement TherapyGrowth Hormone ReplacementDopamine AgonistSomatostatin AnaloguesThyroid Hormone ReplacementTabletsCapsulesInjectionsBased on ApplicationCancerMenopauseHypopituitarismHypothyroidismOthersBased on Distribution ChannelHospital PharmaciesRetail Pharmacies and DrugstoresCompounding PharmaciesE-commerceOthersHormone Replacement TherapyMarket: OverviewIncreasing use of HRT in menopause conditions due to safety, efficacy and cost effectiveness of the drugs are expected to boost the growth of the Global Hormone Replacement Therapy market. North America is contributing more income to the Global Hormone Replacement Therapy and Asia region is showing fastest growth rate because of having more population base in this region.Hormone Replacement TherapyMarket: Region wise OutlookDepending on geographic regions, Global Hormone Replacement Therapy market is segmented into seven key regions: North America, South America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific, Japan, and Middle East & Africa. North America is having more market for Hormone Replacement Therapy, In North America, U.S. represents the largest market because of increasing use of Hormone Replacement Therapy among patients aged 35 years and over. The availability of compounded drugs i.e. drugs in varied strengths, dosage forms, etc is a major factor, which tends to boost the revenue growth of this extremely popular treatment market. Early onset of aging coupled with rising disposable income levels are other important factors fuelling market revenue growth.Asia region is expected to have more growth rate in upcoming years because of increasing awareness about Hormone Replacement Therapy in this region. In Asia region India, China, Japan are expected to have more growth rate for Hormone Replacement Therapy.Request to View TOC @Hormone Replacement TherapyMarket: Key PlayersSome of the key market players in Global Hormone Replacement Therapy market are Bayer AG, Pfizer, Merck & co., BioSante Pharmaceuticals and Amgen, QuatRx Pharmaceuticals, Noven Pharmaceuticals.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 centers in the U.S. and India.FMIs research and consulting services help businesses around the globe navigate the challenges in a rapidly evolving marketplace with confidence and clarity. Our customized and syndicated market research reports deliver actionable insights that drive sustainable growth. We continuously track emerging trends and events in a broad range of end industries to ensure our clients prepare for the evolving needs of their consumers.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: Continuous Glucose Monitoring Systems Market supported by a CAGR of 44.9% during the forecast period By Top Leading Companies Like Abbott Laboratories, DexCom Inc., Echo Therapeutics Inc., Insulet Corporation and others Continuous Glucose Monitoring Systems Market https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/862?utm_source=sy-Openpr https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/862?utm_source=sy-Openpr https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/Europe-Continuous-Glucose-Monitoring-Systems-market?utm_source=sy-Openpr https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com Europe Continuous Glucose Monitoring Systems Market is expected to reach $792 million by 2022, supported by a CAGR of 44.9% during the forecast period 2016 - 2022. The sensors segment is anticipated to generate the highest revenue in this market during the forecast period.The European CGMS market is expected to witness dynamic growth, owing to rise in per capita healthcare expenditure, increase in disposable income of individuals, and growth in prevalence rates of diabetes. In addition, CGMS has various advantages over conventional glucose monitors such as greater sensitivity, higher precision, and periodic monitoring. CGMS can be used across all age groups and various healthcare settings.Moreover, the technology is applicable in artificial/bionic pancreas; hence, several CGMS and insulin pump manufacturers focus on the development of novel and advanced CGMS. However, unfavorable reimbursement policies for CGMS hinder the market growth.Download PDF Report Sample @Sensors market contributed for the highest share of revenue in the CGMS market. In addition, the market is expected to witness the highest growth during the analysis period, as CGM sensors are changed frequently as compared to transmitters & receivers. As the percentage of adult population is high, this segment is estimated to generate the largest market revenue. However, owing to the growth in demand for CGM devices for children, the children population segment may grow at a higher CAGR.Key players profiled in this report include Abbott Laboratories DexCom Inc. Echo Therapeutics Inc. Insulet Corporation Johnson & Johnson Medtronic plc Senseonics Holding Inc. F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.Other players (not profiled in this report) operating in this market include AgaMatrix, Inc., GlySure, OrSense, and Ypsomed.Based on end-user market analysis, diagnostics/clinics contributed the highest share to the market revenue. The network of health insurers with the physicians operating at the diagnostics/clinics level is expected to drive the CGMS market in European diagnostics/clinics. However, high growth of the home healthcare segment is expected, as this segment is economic as compared to treatment from healthcare institutions. In addition, home healthcare would be the suitable solution for geriatric and children population who cannot visit the clinics for diabetes treatment.For More Information @Key findings of Europe Continuous Glucose Monitoring Systems Market: UK is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Germany generated about one-fifth of the total market revenue in 2015, and is projected to be the maximum revenue-generating country by 2022. Sensors segment accounted for more than three-fifths of the market revenue in 2015 and is projected to exhibit prominent growth during the forecast period. Home healthcare and diagnostic/clinics contributed over half of the market share in 2015.Region wise, Germany leads the market, in terms of revenue, owing to favorable guidelines about pricing and fixed reimbursement budget allocation for CGM devices. In addition, the market is estimated to exhibit significant growth in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark owing to the availability of advanced diabetes care facilities, and robust clinical guidelines and standards for diabetes management.Renowned companies, such as Senseonics and Rubin Medical, have adopted collaboration as their key strategy to commercialize their CGMS products in Denmark and Sweden. An increasing number of diabetic patients, well-structured diabetes management regime, and proactive initiatives taken by the government have encouraged several CGMS companies to invest in Europe.Access Full Summery @About Us:Allied Market Research, a market research and advisory company of Allied Analytics LLP, provides business insights and market research reports to large as well as small & medium enterprises. The company assists its clients to strategize business policies and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.Contact:David Correa5933 NE Win Sivers Drive#205, Portland, OR 97220United StatesToll Free (USA/Canada):+1-800-792-5285, +1-503-894-6022, +1-503-446-1141UK: +44-845-528-1300Hong Kong: +852-301-84916India (Pune): +91-20-66346060Fax: +1855550-5975help@alliedmarketresearch.comWeb: Pharma-grade Synthetic Camphor Market Growth By 2028 | Rochem International, Inc., Spectrum Chemical Mfg. Corp., Aldon Corporation, Prinova Group LLC. and Fengchen Group Co. https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-7564 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/customization-available/rep-gb-7564 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/pharma-grade-synthetic-camphor-market https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/ According to the latest research by the company, the global pharma-grade synthetic camphor market size is anticipated to be valued at US$ 532.0 Mn, by 2028 end. The report on pharma-grade synthetic camphor market further projects significant growth potential with average year-on-year growth rate pegged at 4.1% through 2028.To know key findings Request Sample Report @:Growing demand for topical pain management products is expected to propel the growth of pharma-grade synthetic camphor market. Pharma-grade synthetic camphor is used in many topical analgesic products such as oils, ointments, chest rubs, and gel. These pharma-grade synthetic camphor pain management products are experiencing significant growth due to lesser side effect compare to oral analgesic and expanded retail channel access. Increasing self-medication rate and availability of cost-effective camphor contained OTC analgesic favors the growth of pharma-grade synthetic camphor market growth. Growing incidence of infectious diseases such as cold, flu augmented the use of cold sore remedies, nasal decongestants, topical expectorants etc. which in turn would drive the growth of pharma-grade synthetic camphor market.Increasing use of private labeled topical products containing camphor push the demand for pharma-grade synthetic camphor. Private label analgesic is gaining popularity in the U.S. market as they do not require FDA approval and strong promotion activities by retailers. Walgreens Ultra Strength Muscle Rub (4% camphor), Salonpas pain relieving patch (1.2% camphor) are the examples of private label analgesic which contain camphor. Surge in commodity export, economic growth and production capacity are expected to boost the growth of pharma-grade synthetic camphor market.However, regulatory restrictions on the use of camphor in the medicine of pharmaceutical products would considerably impact the growth of pharma-grade synthetic camphor market. Moreover, increasing raw material prices are expected to hamper the growth of pharma-grade synthetic camphor market. Thus, growing prices of raw materials i.e. alpha pinene or turpentine oil is a major challenge for the manufacturers of pharma-grade synthetic camphor.Request for Report customization @:Company has segmented the global pharma-grade synthetic camphor market into formulation, application, distribution, and regions. Based on the formulation, pharma-grade synthetic camphor market is segmented into topical and inhalation. The topical segment is expected to represent a highest revenue share in pharma-grade synthetic camphor market as high number of marketed products and vast applications. Applications of pharma-grade synthetic camphor included in the report are respiratory disorders applications, muscular rheumatism, counterirritant & antipruritic and others (topical analgesic, cold sores, minor burns, antifungal, hemorrhoids, topical antitussive & expectorant, astringent, rubefacient, etc.). Others segment expected to contributes highest market value in global pharma-grade synthetic camphor market. Based on the distribution channel, pharma-grade synthetic camphor market is segmented into conventional B2B and online B2B channel. In terms of revenue, conventional B2B segment would hold significant revenue share in pharma-grade synthetic camphor market over the forecast period.On the basis of region, the global pharma-grade synthetic camphor market has been segmented into North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, the Asia Pacific excluding China & Japan, China, Japan, and the Middle East & Africa. North America is expected to contribute highest revenue share in global pharma-grade synthetic camphor market. The demand of pharma-grade synthetic camphor has increased in North America, as increasing production of camphor contained private label and OTC products. China is expected to witness the highest growth rate in pharma-grade synthetic camphor market due to presence of the larger number of pharma-grade synthetic camphor manufactures. Pharma-grade synthetic camphor manufactures are mainly concentrated in China and India and they export their chemicals to the U.S. and Europe. Moreover, due to its growing contribution to the global industry, Asia Pacific is emerging as a focused destination for global manufacturers of camphor and related chemicals.Get access to full summary @:Report tracks some of the key companies operating in the global pharma-grade synthetic camphor market. Representative players included in the global pharma-grade synthetic camphor market report are Merck KGaA, Oriental Aromatics Limited, Saptagir Camphor Limited, Mangalam Organics Limited, Nippon Fine Chemical Co., Ltd., Rochem International, Inc., Spectrum Chemical Mfg. Corp., Aldon Corporation, Prinova Group LLC. and Fengchen Group Co., Ltd. Manufactures are focusing on improvement of the supply chain which expected to provide huge opportunities to them over the forecast period.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: Medical Nonwoven Disposables Market significant CAGR during 2017-2025 : Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget, Polymer Group, Inc., First Quality Enterprises https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=1361 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1361 https://www.tmrresearch.com/medical-nonwoven-disposables-market TMR Research has published a new report which is titled, Medical Nonwoven Disposables Market Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Trends, Analysis, Growth, and Forecast 2017 2025. Medical nonwoven disposables help in the prevention of hospital acquired infections as well as incontinence problems among adults. Increasing cases of surgical site infections will also create a need for non woven disposables. Thus, medical nonwoven disposables have become essential products in healthcare settings and this is driving the growth of the market. In recent times, the use of sterile surgical gowns and sterile disposable non woven drapes has increased in hospitals. The escalating incidences of preoperative and postoperative infections has led to the World Health Organization to mandate the use of medical non woven disposables so as to reduce the cases of cross contamination and prevent patients from picking up infections on the operation theatre (OT).The improving healthcare infrastructure across emerging economies as well as improvement in production technologies of nonwovens will also aid the growth of market. Market players are engineering fabrics that have antibacterial properties, can repel liquid, and flame retardant functionalities. This will help boost the global medical non woven disposables market. Some of the factors which are responsible for the high growth of this market include growing geriatric population and rise in the number of surgical procedures. Moreover, the rise in the uptake of disposable adult incontinence products in developed nations such as the US will also drive the growth prospects of this market.Request Sample Copy of the Report @The market will also receive an impetus from the increasing awareness among patients regarding the advantages of taking preventive measures so as to safeguard themselves from various infections. In addition to this, the growing healthcare expenditure is anticipated to bode well for the global medical nonwoven disposables. On the other hand, the availability of alternatives is anticipated to restrict the growth of the global medical nonwoven disposables market. The growing awareness regarding incontinence products and acceptance of these products will drive the growth of this market.Players within the global medical nonwoven disposables market are concentrating on developing safe, new, innovative, and value added products. New and premium quality non woven medical apparels and hospital clothing has been introduced thanks to the efforts by the leading players. Making use of the latest fabric technology so as to provide enhanced safety and higher level of comfort to patients, these players are making a mark for themselves within the medical non woven disposables market. All these efforts by the market players are expected to ensure a promising future for the medical nonwoven disposables market.Request TOC of the Report @On the basis of geography, the global medical nonwoven disposables market is segmented into Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, and the Rest of the World. Of these, it is expected that North America will lead in the market on account of the large population as well as increased use of disposable adult incontinence products in the US. Asia Pacific is also anticipated to witness healthy growth during the forecast period on account of the growing geriatric population especially in Japan and China. Additionally, the growing awareness among consumers coupled with increasing incidences of hospital acquired infections are expected to accelerate the growth of the medical non woven disposables market in Asia Pacific.According to report, the global market for medical nonwovens disposables is highly fragmented and thus the competition is also intense an account of the large number of players. To gain and expand their market presence leading players are focusing on new product development and innovations.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 Top Technologies in mHealth Solutions Market to 2022 Growth Projected at 33.7% Annual Rate and Projected to Reach USD 90.49 Billion http://www.reportsnreports.com/contacts/requestsample.aspx?name=439691 http://www.reportsnreports.com/contacts/discount.aspx?name=439691 https://www.reportsnreports.com/purchase.aspx?name=439691 Major players in mHealth solutions market are Medtronic plc (Ireland), Apple, Inc. (U.S.), AirStrip Technologies, Inc. (U.S.), AliveCor, Inc. (U.S.), Life Watch AG (Switzerland), Nike Inc. (U.S.), Koninklijke Philips N.V. (Netherlands), Jawbone (U.S.), OMRON Corporation (Japan), Withings (France), Bio Telemetry Inc. (U.S.), Athena health, Inc. (U.S.), AgaMatrix, Inc. (U.S.), iHealth Lab, Inc. (U.S.), AT&T (U.S.), Qualcomm (U.S.), Cerner Corporation (U.S.), and Cisco Systems, Inc. (U.S.), and Nokia Corporation (Finland).Global mHealth solutions market is projected to reach USD 90.49 billion by 2022 at a CAGR of 33.7% during forecast period. Factors expected to drive growing utilization of mHealth apps and connected health devices are rising penetration of smart gadgets & need to curtail soaring healthcare costs. Rapid growth in developing countries across APAC is also expected to provide an opportunity for revenue generation in market.Get Free Study Papers on mHealth Solutions Market Report Now Available atThe report analyzes the mHealth solutions market and aims at estimating the market size and future growth potential of this market based on various segments such as product & service and region. The report also includes an in-depth regulatory analysis for various regions across the globe and competitive analysis of the key players in this market along with their company profiles, product and service offerings, recent developments, and key market strategies.Key Target Audience as follows, Healthcare application developers, Medical device vendors, Mobile network providers, Connectivity providers, Mobile platform developers, Insurance providers (payers), Healthcare institutions (hospitals, medical schools, and outpatient clinics), Research and consulting firms, Research institutes, Contract research organizations (CROs), Contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs) and Venture capitalists.Click Here for 25% Discount on mHealth Solutions Market Report Now atNorth America accounted for the largest share of the mHealth solutions market, followed by Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East &Africa. The modernization and rising adoption of various healthcare IT solutions in the countrys healthcare system, the high penetration of health wearable devices and various government initiatives are some of the factors contributing to the large share of North America in the market.Key Objectives of the Study To define, describe, and forecast mHealth solutions market on basis of product & service and region To provide detailed information regarding major factors influencing growth of mHealth Solutions market (drivers, restraints, opportunities, challenges, and trends) To analyze micromarkets with respect to individual growth trends, prospects, and contributions to the overall mHealth Solutions market To analyze opportunities in market for stakeholders and provide details of competitive landscape for mHealth solutions market players To forecast size of mHealth solutions market, in five main regions, namely, North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and AfricaMore Information on mHealth Solutions Market by Connected Devices (Blood Pressure Monitor, Glucose Meter, Peak Flow Meter) Apps (Weight Loss, Woman Health, Personal Health Record, & Medication) Services (Diagnostic, Remote Monitoring, Consultation) - Global Forecasts to 2022 report atThe mHealth solutions market segment is expected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period. The growth of this market can be attributed to the rising digitalization across the health continuum, the increasing concerns for health, wellness, and self-health management among patients and high adoption of smart phones and tablets across the globe.Report analyzes the mHealth solutions market and aims at estimating the market size and future growth potential of this market based on various segments such as product & service and region. The report also includes an in-depth regulatory analysis for various regions across the globe and competitive analysis of the key players in this market along with their company profiles, product and service offerings, recent developments, and key market strategies.Contact:sales@reportsandreports.com / Call +1 888 391 5441ReportsnReports provides you the further information and more details with intelligence needs for your business. Access to in-depth market trends helps companies to assess the market effectiveness.Mr. HrishikeshTower B5, Office 101,Magarpatta City SEZ,Pune-411013, India Suburbanites must embrace diversified lawns that contain different types of plants but require less water, less mowing, and have less impact our environment. Plant trees or native perennials in every empty spot you see. Encourage your local schools and municipalities to do the same. These places have vast campuses that are covered in grass. As long as they are not being used as ball fields, plant trees to provide shade and food for animals and help clean the air. OBD Aftermarket to grow at 17% CAGR to 2024| Key players are Mojio, Vector Informatik, Verizon Communications, Xirgo Technologies, Azuga, Bosch, CalAmp, Continental, Danlaw, Inc., GEOTAB, Innova, Intel Corporation, Metromile https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/2839 https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/2839 https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/on-board-diagnostics-obd-aftermarket https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/by-2024-atm-market-to-reach-25-billion-2018-09-19 https://www.gminsights.com http://solutionrocket.com Companies operating in the On-board Diagnostics Aftermarket focus on offering new products along with strategic acquisitions to leverage their mutual technological capabilities and create innovative offerings. For instance, in April 2018, Quartix launched a new installation option; plug, and track. The new tracking device can be easily installed into the OBD port and it eases the installation and flexibility when moving the tracking function from one vehicle to another without disconnecting the hardwiring. In April 2017, SiriusXM acquired Automatic, the maker of the Automatic Pro and Automatic Lite connected car OBD II ports accessories for USD 10 million. The acquisition enabled the company to expand and improve its connected vehicles services.Request for a sample of this research report @OBD Aftermarket size is set to exceed USD 1.5 billion by 2024; according to a new research report by Global Market Insights, Inc. The increasing emphasis on developing connected vehicle solutions and the growing adoption of IoT technology in the automobile sector are driving the growth of the OBD aftermarket. The increase in vehicle production, particularly LCVs and HCVs, has generated the demand for more stringent emission control standards. The government agencies around the world have implemented stringent emission control regulations to combat the increasing impact of air pollution on the environment. The increasing complexities in vehicles have generated the need to have more robust remote diagnostics solutions. Remote diagnostics technology is also gaining more popularity as it provides the vehicle owners and technicians with the real-time information about the vehicles status and helps in the effective monitoring of vehicle components remotely.Company profiled in this report based on Business overview, Financial data, Product landscape, Strategic outlook & SWOT analysis: Autel Intelligent Technology Corp.,Ltd. Automatic Labs AVL Ditest Azuga Bosch Diagnostics CalAmp Continental AG Danlaw, Inc. ERM Electronic Systems LTD Geotab Inc. Innova Intel Corporation Magneti Marelli S.p.A. Metromile Mojio TomTom International BV. Vector Informatik Verizon Communications Xirgo Technologies, Inc.The passenger vehicles segment held a dominant share of over 40% in 2017 in the global OBD aftermarket. The increased production of passenger vehicles, particularly in the U.S. and China, is majorly contributing to the adoption of OBD telematics solutions in the segment. According to the American Auto Council, the U.S. auto production is expected to exceed 12 million vehicles per year through 2019 and reach 13 million by 2020. As it has been made mandatory by government institutions in various countries to have OBD compatibility for passenger vehicles, the segment is projected to grow consistently during the forecast timeline.The hardware segment held a majority share of over 40% in the OBD aftermarket in 2017 due to the large-scale adoption of traditional OBD scanners such as scan tools and code readers to access the vehicles OBD port. These scanners act as an interface to provide users with the vehicles engine-related parameters. However, with the emergence of OBD dongles, additional information, such as driver behavior analytics and remote diagnostics, can be effectively extracted from vehicles.The OBD apps segment is expected to exhibit the fastest growth by 2024 at a CAGR of over 25%. The increasing penetration of smartphones and the adoption of advanced telematics technologies have triggered the demand for mobile-based apps. As the OBD apps reduce the dependency on any hardware to gather information and make it possible for the user to convert the smartphone or tablet into a portable OBD scanner for gathering diagnostic information, the demand for apps is likely to grow during the forecast timeline. These apps handle all the information collected from the OBD systems and ease the task of monitoring the vehicle parameters in the real-time, allowing the continuous monitoring of the vehicles status.The fleet management segment dominated the OBD aftermarket in 2017 with a market share of over 45% and is expected to maintain the dominance throughout the forecast period. The use of OBD in the fleet management software offers effective management of fleet operations and provides access to the real-time data regarding the vehicles location. It also monitors the driving patterns and helps in early diagnosis and mitigation of any malfunction in the vehicle components. With the significant growth in the electric vehicle technology, the demand for OBD telematics systems for managing and controlling the vehicle components is expected to increase significantly. The fleet management software in electric vehicles helps in increasing the fleet efficiency and reducing the operational costs.Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @North America held a major share of the OBD aftermarket in 2017. The proliferation of OBD dongle-based solutions is estimated to grow at a faster pace in the region between 2018 and 2024. The automobile sector in this region continues to record a steady growth due to the high penetration of advanced technologies in the transportation systems and the increased momentum of autonomous vehicles. The presence of some major global automobile players and the increasing investments by foreign auto suppliers in their manufacturing facilities are driving the regions automobile market growth.For instance, in January 2018, Ford planned to invest USD 11 billion in electric vehicles to have 40 hybrid and fully electric vehicles in its model lineup by 2020. Similarly, in April 2016, Nissan made strategic investments in its U.S. operations to meet the growing need of the U.S. consumers. The company has invested around USD 10.8 billion in its U.S. operations since 1981.Browse Full Report @Some of the key players operating in the OBD aftermarket are Continental, Automatic Labs (SiriusXM), Magneti Marelli, Tom Tom, Geotab, Danlaw, CalAmp, Verizone, Mojio, Intel, Metromile, ERM Telematics, Azuga, Xirgo Technologies, AVL Ditest, Vector Informatik, Bosch Diagnostics, and Autel.Browse Related Report:ATM Market Size By Solution (Deployment [Onsite, Offsite, Worksite, Mobile], Managed Services), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Canada, Germany, UK, France, Italy, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, UAE, South Africa), Application Potential, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2017 2024About Global Market Insights:Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.Contact Us:Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone: 1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb:Blog: Global Automotive Fuel Rail Market 2026 | Industry Key Players -Cooper Standard, Magneti Marelli S.p.A., Roberts Bosch GmbH, Nikki Co., Ltd., Keihin Corporation, Landi Renzo S.p.A., Linamar Corporation MRRSE https://www.mrrse.com/sample/16477 https://www.mrrse.com/automotive-fuel-rail-market https://www.mrrse.com/enquiry/16477 https://www.mrrse.com/ A fresh report has been added to the wide database of Market Research Report Search Engine (MRRSE). The research study is titled Automotive Fuel Rail Market Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2018 2026which encloses important data about the production, consumption, revenue and market share, merged with information related to the market scope and product overview. The report anticipates that Automotive Fuel Rail Market would rise at a positive CAGR during the period 2017-2025.For More Information Request Free Sample on Automotive Fuel Rail Market Research Report @Demand for more efficient fuel delivery system is rising consistently in order to comply with the stringent emission norms and boost fuel efficiency. The common rail fuel injection system is proven to be a prominent system in enhancing engine fuel efficiency. Most advanced engines are equipped with common rail fuel injection system as the fuel pressure in the fuel delivery system can be maintained irrespective of the engine speed and engine load. This, in turn, offers better quantity of fuel to be injected, better control over injection timing, and it provides enhanced spray penetration and mixing. This results in smooth engine running and increased engine efficiency. The fuel pressure in a common rail fuel delivery system varies from 100 bar to 2500 bar. Each component of the fuel delivery system must be designed and manufactured with precision and accuracy in order to handle this tremendous fuel pressure. The fuel rail is a key component in the fuel delivery system, which handles high pressure fuel and supplies it to the injectors. The typical fuel rail pressure at engine idling ranges between 300 bar to 400 bar. A fuel rail is designed to handle fuel pressure up to 2500 bar, which is employed in extremely powerful engines.Consistently increasing demand for vehicles is a prime driver of the automotive fuel rail market. Demand for vehicles is consistently increasing, especially from rapidly developing nation, such as India, China, and other countries in Asia. Rise in demand for vehicles is fueling the automotive fuel rail market. Demand for electric vehicles such as hybrid electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles has been rising for the last few years owing to government subsidies, increasing concern about rising pollution, execution of new and more stringent norms, and consumer preference for high efficiency vehicles due to increased fuel prices. This increased demand for hybrid electric vehicles is also driving the demand for automotive fuel rails.In North America, there is one car for every two persons. This number is much higher in the countries in Europe. This high penetration of passenger cars per capita is gradually hampering the demand for it and also for fuel rails. This is a key restraint of the automotive fuel rail market. Moreover, increased demand for completely electric or all electric or battery electric vehicles is a key restraint for the automotive fuel rail market. A battery electric vehicle does not require an engine and consequently, a fuel rail systems. Governments of various nation, globally, are focusing on the introduction of battery electric vehicles in order to meet the agreement of Paris Climate Accord, signed in 2015. According to this agreement, countries have to keep the global temperature change well below 2C. Consequently, governing bodies are providing considerable subsidies for battery electric vehicles. Demand for battery electric vehicles is rising significantly across the globe. China and Norway has significant number of all electric vehicles, and the demand for them is increasing exponentially across other countries. This is likely to hamper the automotive fuel rail market.Fuel rails have to handle significantly high pressure. Therefore, they need to be designed and manufactured accurately. Furthermore, they need to possess properties such as corrosion resistance, thermal conductivity, and formability. Considering all the parameters mentioned above, steel is the most suitable material to manufacture fuel rails. Steel fuel rails possess longer lifespan. In some cases, aluminum is used as an optional material for fuel rails. When weight is of prime concern, aluminum provides superior advantage. It has density of about 2700 Kg per cubic meter, while steel has a density of about 8000 Kg per cubic meter. Aluminum is incapable of handling high pressure fuel and hence, aluminum is preferred for light duty applications only where fuel pressure is well below than that of the heavy duty application.Browse Complete Detail on Automotive Fuel Rail Market Research Report with TOC @Common rail fuel injection systems are being incorporated in engines since the development of diesel engine. Consistent research and development have prompted fuel rails to become an essential part of every internal combustion engine. Globally, petrol is the most widely utilized fuel for automobiles. Governing bodies and consumers prefer petrol-fueled vehicles, as petrol is less polluting and provides smoother engine running. Governing bodies are emphasizing on reducing vehicle emission owing to the increased global warming. Consequently, governments of various countries such as the U. S., Germany, France, and Brazil are promoting petrol vehicles, by imposing comparatively lower taxes and prices than diesel vehicles. Recently, Germany, France, and the U.K. announced a ban diesel vehicles, and other countries are also planning to do so. Therefore, the market share held by the diesel segment of the automotive fuel rail market is anticipated to decline significantly during the forecast period.Inline engines are a highly preferred type of engine that is utilized in vehicles. V-engines have more advantages, owing to their lower cost and simplicity; however, inline engines are widely used. V-engines require two cam shafts and two fuel rails, which makes it complicated and expensive. The inline segment of the automotive fuel rail market accounted for 88.16% share of the total market, in terms of revenue, in 2017. The segment is likely to expand at a CAGR of 2.43% between 2018 and 2026.Demand for electric vehicles is increasing due to the rise in global warming and emission and increased concern about it among governing bodies and consumers. Hybrid electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles are witnessing significant demand owing to considerable government support. North America, Europe, and various countries from Asia Pacific, such as China, Japan, and Australia have a significant number of electric vehicles. Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles require charging facilities. North America and Europe have well developed infrastructure for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles; however, countries in Asia Pacific and Middle East and Africa lack electric vehicle infrastructure. Consequently, these regions witness significant demand for hybrid electric vehicles.Fuel rail has a long lifespan, which equals to the life of the engine. Generally, a fuel rail does not malfunction or get damaged. Replacement of a fuel rail is necessary in very rare cases such as a vehicle crash, where the engine is significantly damaged. Therefore, the OEM segment of the automotive fuel rail market is a highly attractive segment, and accounted for a major share of the market, in terms of revenue, in 2017.North America is a significant market for commercial vehicles. More than 60% of total vehicles in North America are commercial vehicles. North America and Latin America witness a consistent demand for commercial vehicles owing to the large mining industry and the expansion of construction, agriculture, and manufacturing industries in these regions. China and India are pillars of the global automotive industry. These two countries are leading producers and consumers of automobiles. Dense population, scarcity of vehicles, and increased per capita income are boosting the demand for passenger vehicles in these countries. The passenger vehicle segment dominates the global automotive fuel rail market owing to huge number of passenger vehicles across countries in Europe and Asia Pacific. Asia Pacific accounts for about 50% of total vehicles globally. Therefore, Asia Pacific dominated the global automotive fuel rail market.The global automotive fuel rail market is dominated by the presence of several global players. A few them include Cooper Standard, Magneti Marelli S.p.A., Roberts Bosch GmbH, Nikki Co., Ltd., Keihin Corporation, Landi Renzo S.p.A., Linamar Corporation, Standard Motor Products, Inc., Continental AG, ASINI SEIKI Co., Ltd., Sanoh Industrial Co., Ltd., and TI Automotive. The automotive fuel rail market is witnessing several merger and acquisition activities, which are majorly focused on the development of lightweight and fuel efficient fuel delivery systems.Enquire about This Report @About (MRRSE)Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.Contact UsState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207(United States) Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite: Prebiotic Ingredients Market Study On Growth Factors For 2019-2025: Dupont, Cargill, Ingredion Incorporated, BENEO, Samyang Genex Corporation, Nexira, Royal Cosun, Yakult USA, Taiyo International, Prenexus Health, Novasep, Prebiotic Ingredients Market https://databridgemarketresearch.com/request-a-sample/?dbmr=global-prebiotic-ingredients-market https://databridgemarketresearch.com/speak-to-analyst/?dbmr=global-prebiotic-ingredients-market https://databridgemarketresearch.com/toc/?dbmr=global-prebiotic-ingredients-market https://databridgemarketresearch.com/inquire-before-buying/?dbmr=global-prebiotic-ingredients-market The Prebiotic Ingredients Market report is a comprehensive analysis on the study of Prebiotic Ingredients Industry. This report helps focus on the more important aspects of the market like what the market recent trends are. The base year for calculation in the report is taken as 2017 & 2018 the historic year is 2012 t0 2016 which will tell you how the market is going to perform in the forecast years by informing you what the market definition, classifications, applications, and engagements are. The Market Report also provides an analytical assessment of the prime challenges faced by the Market currently, and in the coming years, which helps Market participants in understanding the problems they may face while operating in this Market over a longer period of time.For In-Depth Review | Get Sample Copy@Prebiotic ingredients market is accounted to be USD 4.8 billion in 2017 and is growing at a CAGR of 10.8% during the forecast period of 2018 to 2025. The upcoming market report contains data for historic years 2017, the base year of calculation is 2017 and the forecast period is 2018 to 2025.Market Key Competitors: Cargill, Dupont, Frieslandcampina, Ingredion, Beneo, Samyang Genex, Nexira, Beghin Meiji, Royal Cosun, Yakult Pharmaceutical, Fonterra, Kerry Group, Taiyo International, Prenexus Health, Thera-Plantes Inc., AIDP, Jennewein Biotechnologie GmbH, Novasep, Tate & Lyle among others.Market Competitive Analysis:The prebiotic ingredients market is highly fragmented and is based on new product launches and clinical results of products. Hence, the major players have used various strategies such as new product launches, clinical trials, market initiatives, high expense on research and development, agreements, joint ventures, partnerships, acquisitions, and others to increase their footprints in this market. The report includes market shares of prebiotic ingredients market for global, Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and South America.Study On Features of Prebiotic Ingredients Market In 2019-2025: Comprehensive Prebiotic Ingredients study, with an assessment of the parent market. An exact valuation of the development of the Prebiotic Ingredients Report and assessment of latest Innovation In Prebiotic Ingredients Global Prebiotic Ingredients market by leading players, product type and end-client applications. Size of the overall industry and methods of Prebiotic Ingredients driving players. Important fluctuations in Prebiotic Ingredients market development. Emerging specialty Prebiotic Ingredients units and regional markets. Verified, and strategic market size of the market from the point by both esteem and volume. Proposals to Prebiotic Ingredients organizations to validate their solid footing in the marketSpeak To Industry Experts, Request For Details Report @This Market Research Report Will Be Beneficial for: New Entrants/Investors Venture Capitalists and Private Equity Firms Analysts and Strategic Business Planners Government Regulatory and Research Organizations Investment Research Firms / Associations Prebiotic Ingredients Manufacturers, Suppliers and Distributors End-Use Industries And OthersTable Of Contents:1 Introduction.2 Research Methodologies.3 Executive Summary.4 Premium Insights.5 Market Overview.6 Industry Trends.7 Compliance in Prebiotic Ingredients Market8 Prebiotic Ingredients Market, By Service9 Prebiotic Ingredients Market, By Deployment Type10 Prebiotic Ingredients Market, By Organization Size11 Prebiotic Ingredients Market Analyses, By Application12 Geographic Analyses North America Europe Asia-Pacific South America Middle East & Africa13 Competitive Landscapes14 Detailed Company Profiles15 Related ReportsToc continued!Get Full TOC @Market Drivers and Restraints: Rising demand of healthy products Functionality of prebiotic ingredients Wide range of applications High investments in R&D High cost of manufacturing processMarket Segments:By type the market for prebiotic ingredients market is segmented into: oligosaccharides, inulin, polydextrose, lactulose, pyrodextrins, others.By source the market for prebiotic ingredients is segmented into: roots, vegetables, grains, others.On the basis of application, the prebiotic ingredients market is segmented into: functional foods & beverages, dietary supplements, animal feed.The functional foods & beverage segment is sub-segmented into bakery & confectionery, dairy products, meat products, infant food, beverages, others.By functionality the prebiotic ingredients market is segmented into: gut health, cardiovascular health, bone health, immunity, weight management.By the basis of functionality, the prebiotic ingredients market is segmented into: bifidobacteria, lactic acid bacteria, others.By the basis of geography, prebiotics ingredients market report covers data points for countries across multiple geographies such as: North America & South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East & Africa.Note: If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Make an Inquiry for Discount On this Report@About Us:Data Bridge Market Research set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavors to provide appropriate solutions to the complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process.Contact:Data Bridge Market ResearchTel: +1-888-387-281Email: sopan.gedam@databridgemarketresearch.com Medical Imaging Equipment Services Market to Worth More than US$ 27.0 Bn by 2025 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/medical-imaging-equipment-services-market.html https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=14789 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=14789 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com The global medical imaging equipment services market was valued at approximately US$ 19.9 Bn in 2016 and is projected to register a cumulative annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 3.0% from 2017 to 2025, according to a new report titled, Medical Imaging Equipment Services Market Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 20172025, published by Transparency Market Research (TMR).View Report -The report projects that availability of multiplexed and integrated modalities with high throughput is likely to spur the demand for medical imaging equipment services in the upcoming years (2017 to 2025). Rise in the trend of budgeted healthcare systems with improved patient comfort and increase in the demand for higher uptime in the developed markets such a North America and Europe are likely to fuel the growth of the medical imaging equipment services market in these regions. Growing market penetration of refurbished systems to cater to the demand for affordable care and early diagnosis of diseases are expected to boost the growth of the medical imaging equipment services market in Asia Pacific, registering a CAGR of above 4.0% from 2017 to 2025.Request to View Sample of Report -According to investor presentation by Alliance HealthCare Services (Tahoe Investment Group Co., Ltd.), more than 98% of the hospitals across the globe outsourced one or more of their clinical services in 2016. Technological upgrades in service offerings are projected to fuel the growth of the medical imaging equipment services market during the forecast period. However, emergence of independent service providers with innovation in technology and solutions and competitive pricing has intensified the competition. By the end of 2017, GE Healthcare registered a nominal increase in its profits as compared to 2016. However, it was partially offset by the pricing pressure on healthcare systems, especially in imaging modalities. These factors are estimated to restrain the growth of the medical imaging equipment services market by the end of 2025.The report offers a detailed segmentation of the global medical imaging equipment services market based on service type, modality, service provider, and end-user. Growth of the original equipment manufacturers segment can be ascribed to the investment made by various OEMs toward expanding their service offerings and also to the increasing demand for higher uptime of imaging equipment.Request to View Brochure of Report -Types of service available in the medical imaging equipment services market are equipment removal and relocation, equipment repair & maintenance, refurbished systems, technical training, and software upgrades. Out of these, the equipment repair & maintenance segment accounted for the leading share of the market in 2016, and is anticipated to remain dominant throughout the forecast period. Equipment generally require timely repair and maintenance in order to avert patients from unnecessary radiation exposures. This is projected to fuel the growth of the segment during the forecast period.In terms of modality, the global medical imaging equipment services market has been segmented into magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography, ultrasound, x-ray, and others. The computed tomography segment held the dominant share of the market in 2016. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development Data, in Australia, the installed base of CT per 1,000,000 population increased from 43.07 in 2010 to 63.17 in 2016.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Global Smart Agriculture Market to reach 18 billion by 2025: Analysis by Trimble, Agco, Agjunction, Raven Industries, Delavai, AG Leader Technology., Teejet Technology Smart Agriculture https://www.researchreportsinc.com/sample-request?id=212444 https://researchreportsinc.com/enquiry?id=212444 https://researchreportsinc.com/checkout/?add-to-cart=212444&&attribute_pa_choose-license=single-user&&quantity=1 Worldwide Smart Agriculture Market is expected to grow +% of CAGR for during forecast period 2018 to 2023. Research Reports Inc. has recently announced the addition of a new research report to its data base titled as Global Smart Agriculture Market. It provides a clear understanding of the subject matter and has been accumulated by suing primary and secondary research techniques. These two methods are anticipated towards collaborating precise data relating to the market dynamics, historical events and the present scenario. Additionally, the report also has a SWOT that regulates the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that impact the different segments of the overall market.Get Smart Agriculture Sample Report atGlobal Smart Agriculture Market valued approximately USD 7 billion in 2017 is anticipated to grow with a healthy growth rate of more than 12.50% over the forecast period 2017-2025. The demand for smart technologies such as Big Data, cloud-based services, GPS, and the IoT is gaining pace in the agriculture industry. Driven by the rising need for high precision crop analysis, automated farming techniques, and collection of data from the field, the world is likely to witness the agriculture industry get smarter with the implementation of technologies in the coming years. Data thus derived from implementing smart technologies can help farmers yield high quality and larger quantity of crops. Besides rising population, which triggers demand for food, the global smart agriculture market is expected to gain from favorable government initiatives. However, the journey is likely to be more difficult in underdeveloped economy where the agriculture sector is reeling under lack of knowledge among farmers. The high cost of smart devices is making the matter worse. Nevertheless, in the coming years the market is likely to gain from the rising penetration of high-speed internet even in remote areas.Make an Inquiry atThe regional analysis of Global Smart Agriculture Market is considered for the key regions such as Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, Latin America and Rest of the World. the dominance was with the smart agriculture market in North America, which held over 44.14% of the overall market in 2016. Extensive researches funded by governments across the region to minimize human involvement and boost crop yield has fueled the demand for smart agriculture technologies in North America. Europe emerged as the second-leading and is expected to continue exhibiting lucrative market opportunities. In the U.K. especially the market is forecast to witness accelerated pace of gains as the government make huge investments in the research and development of robust technologies. Besides this, rate of growth in Italy is predicted to remain high through the forecast period. During the same time, the Asia Pacific smart agriculture market is forecast to rise at an influential rate. Countries such as Japan, China, and Australia will strong agriculture sector are expected to emerge at the fore of the regional market. China held the leading share in the Asia Pacific smart agriculture market. However, in the forthcoming years Japan is expected to showcase more attractive opportunities for the market.The objective of the study is to define market sizes of different segments & countries in recent years and to forecast the values to the coming eight years. The report is designed to incorporate both qualitative and quantitative aspects of the industry within each of the regions and countries involved in the study. Furthermore, the report also caters the detailed information about the crucial aspects such as driving factors & challenges which will define the future growth of the market. Additionally, the report shall also incorporate available opportunities in micro markets for stakeholders to invest along with the detailed analysis of competitive landscape and product offerings of key players.The report is titled, Global Smart Agriculture Market Size, Status and Forecast 2023. The report comprises of the market growth figures since last few years and the estimated growth trajectory for the coming future.Buy Now atTABLE OF CONTENTSChapter 1. Global Smart Agriculture Market Definition and Scope1.1. Research Objective1.2. Market Definition1.3. Scope of the Study1.4. Years Considered for the Study1.5. Currency Conversion Rates1.6. Report LimitationChapter 2. Research Methodology2.1. Research Process2.1.1. Data Mining2.1.2. Analysis2.1.3. Market Estimation2.1.4. Validation2.1.5. Publishing2.2. Research AssumptionChapter 3. Executive Summary3.1. Global & Segmental Market Estimates & Forecasts, 2015-2025 (USD Billion)3.2. Key TrendsChapter 4. Global Smart Agriculture Market Dynamics4.1. Growth Prospects4.1.1. Drivers4.1.2. Restraints4.1.3. Opportunities4.2. Industry Analysis4.2.1. Porters 5 Force Model4.2.2. PEST Analysis4.2.3. Value Chain Analysis4.3. Analyst Recommendation & ConclusionChapter 5. Global Smart Agriculture Market, By Offering5.1. Market Snapshot5.2. Market Performance Potential Model5.3. Global Smart Agriculture Market, Sub Segment Analysis5.3.1. Hardware5.3.1.1. Market estimates & forecasts, 2015-2025 (USD Billion)5.3.1.2. Regional breakdown estimates & forecasts, 2015-2025 (USD Billion)5.3.2. Software5.3.2.1. Market estimates & forecasts, 2015-2025 (USD Billion)5.3.2.2. Regional breakdown estimates & forecasts, 2015-2025 (USD Billion)5.3.3. Services5.3.3.1. Market estimates & forecasts, 2015-2025 (USD Billion)5.3.3.2. Regional breakdown estimates & forecasts, 2015-2025 (USD Billion)Research Reports Inc. is one of the leading destinations for market research reports across all industries, companies, and technologies. Our repository features an exhaustive list of market research reports from thousands of publishers worldwide.US / Canada Toll Free: +18554192424, UK :+4403308087757 | Email: info@researchreportsinc.com Contact Center Market by Top Manufacturers Teleperformance, Convergys (Stream), Sykes Enterprises Inc., Transcom, Atento, Arvato, West Corporation, Acticall (Sitel), TeleTech Holdings Inc. Contact Center Market https://www.bigmarketresearch.com/request-sample/2671911?utm_source=OPR&utm_medium=Anil https://www.bigmarketresearch.com/request-for-discount/2671911?utm_source=OPR&utm_medium=Anil https://www.bigmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/2671911?utm_source=OPR&utm_medium=Anil A contact center (also referred to as a customer interaction center or e-contact center) is a central point in an enterprise from which all customer contacts are managed. The contact center typically includes one or more online call centers but may include other types of customer contact as well, including e-mail newsletters, postal mail catalogs, Web site inquiries and chats, and the collection of information from customers during in-store purchasing. A contact center is generally part of an enterprise's overall customer relationship management (CRM).Scope of the Report:This report studies the Contact Center market status and outlook of Global and major regions, from angles of players, countries, product types and end industries; this report analyzes the top players in global market, and splits the Contact Center market by product type and applications/end industries.Get Sample Copy of this Report @The creation of the multi-media contact center reflects the confluence of exciting changes in technology and new developments in customer service thinking. The massive rise and appeal of the Internet have given birth to many new ways for customers to contact the companies they deal with. E-mail, text chat and a host of newer technologies give us more chances to engage in a dialogue with any company we choose in a matter of seconds.Despite the presence of competition problems, due to the EMEA recovery trend is clear, investors are still optimistic about this area, the future will still have more new investment enter the field. Even so, the market for Contact Center is intensely competitive .The study group recommends the new entrants just having money but without technical advantage and upstream and downstream support do not to enter into this field.The global Contact Center market is valued at xx million USD in 2017 and is expected to reach xx million USD by the end of 2023, growing at a CAGR of xx% between 2017 and 2023.The Asia-Pacific will occupy for more market share in following years, especially in China, also fast growing India and Southeast Asia regions.North America, especially The United States, will still play an important role which cannot be ignored. Any changes from United States might affect the development trend of Contact Center.Europe also play important roles in global market, with market size of xx million USD in 2017 and will be xx million USD in 2023, with a CAGR of xx%.Market Segment by Companies, this report covers Teleperformance, Convergys (Stream), Sykes Enterprises Inc., Transcom, Atento, Arvato, West Corporation, Acticall (Sitel), TeleTech Holdings Inc., Comdata Group, Serco, ConcentrixMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers North America (United States, Canada and Mexico) Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy) Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia) South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia) Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, covers 24 hours online severiceMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided into Telecommunication Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) Government and Public Sector Healthcare and Life Sciences Retail and Consumer Goods OthersGet a discount on this research report @Table of Contents1 Contact Center Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Contact Center1.2 Classification of Contact Center by Types1.2.1 Global Contact Center Revenue Comparison by Types (2017-2023)1.2.2 Global Contact Center Revenue Market Share by Types in 20171.2.3 24 hours1.2.4 online severice1.3 Global Contact Center Market by Application1.3.1 Global Contact Center Market Size and Market Share Comparison by Applications (2013-2023)1.3.2 Telecommunication1.3.3 Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI)1.3.4 Government and Public Sector1.3.5 Healthcare and Life Sciences1.3.6 Retail and Consumer Goods1.3.7 Others1.4 Global Contact Center Market by Regions1.4.1 Global Contact Center Market Size (Million USD) Comparison by Regions (2013-2023)1.4.1 North America (USA, Canada and Mexico) Contact Center Status and Prospect (2013-2023)1.4.2 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy) Contact Center Status and Prospect (2013-2023)1.4.3 Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia) Contact Center Status and Prospect (2013-2023)1.4.4 South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia) Contact Center Status and Prospect (2013-2023)1.4.5 Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa) Contact Center Status and Prospect (2013-2023)1.5 Global Market Size of Contact Center (2013-2023)2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 Teleperformance2.1.1 Business Overview2.1.2 Contact Center Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Product A2.1.2.2 Product B2.1.3 Teleperformance Contact Center Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2 Convergys (Stream)2.2.1 Business Overview2.2.2 Contact Center Type and Applications2.2.2.1 Product A2.2.2.2 Product B2.2.3 Convergys (Stream) Contact Center Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.3 Sykes Enterprises Inc.2.3.1 Business Overview2.3.2 Contact Center Type and Applications2.3.2.1 Product AInquiry before Buy @About Us:Industry executives tend to keep a tab on their business competitors. This keeps them updated on strategic business activities and investment trends. Company profiles are crucial to participating players of interconnected verticals.Contact Us:5933 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 B2B Fuel Cards Market Outlook to 2023: Top Key Players- Engen Petroleum, Puma Energy, SPC, BP, Total, China Petrochemical Corp, FNB Corporation, Shell, OiLibya, etc B2B Fuel Cards Market https://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW00012315246/sample https://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW00012315246/discount https://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW00012315246/buying B2B Fuel Cards Market report showcases the latest trends in the global and regional markets on all critical parameters which include Sales, Market Share, Revenue, Price, Gross Margin, Consumption, Production, Present Situation, Imports and Exports, Raw Materials Suppliers and Price Analysis, Industry Chain Analysis.Major Players in B2B Fuel Cards market are:Engen Petroleum, Puma Energy, SPC, BP, Total, China Petrochemical Corp, FNB Corporation, Shell, OiLibya, PetroChina, ExxonMobil, Allstar, ChevronTexaco, Caltex.Request a sample Brochure for this report @The research report focuses on the leading competitors of the B2B Fuel Cards Market and provides information such as the company overview, product portfolio, key developments, price, cost, value, volume, revenue, capacity, production, and contact information. Upstream raw materials and equipment and downstream demand analysis have also been carried out in this report. The report also analyses the current development trends and patterns, as well as the distribution and marketing channel.This report presents a comprehensive overview, market shares, and growth opportunities of B2B Fuel Cards market by product type, application, key manufacturers and key regions.Major Regions play vital role in B2B Fuel Cards market are: North America, Europe, China, Japan, Middle East & Africa, India, South America, Others.Most important types of B2B Fuel Cards products covered in this report are: Special Fuel Card, Credit Card.Most widely used downstream fields of B2B Fuel Cards market covered in this report are: Taxis, Buses, Goods Vehicles, Others.Get Discount on this Report:Table of Contents:1 B2B Fuel Cards Introduction and Market Overview2 Industry Chain Analysis3 Global B2B Fuel Cards Market, by Type4 B2B Fuel Cards Market, by Application5 Global B2B Fuel Cards Production, Value ($) by Region (2013-2018)6 Global B2B Fuel Cards Production, Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2013-2018)7 Global B2B Fuel Cards Market Status and SWOT Analysis by Regions8 Competitive Landscape8.1 Competitive Profile8.2 Engen Petroleum8.2.1 Company Profiles8.2.2 B2B Fuel Cards Product Introduction8.2.3 Engen Petroleum Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2013-2018E8.2.4 Engen Petroleum Market Share of B2B Fuel Cards Segmented by Region in 20178.3 Puma Energy8.3.1 Company Profiles8.3.2 B2B Fuel Cards Product Introduction8.3.3 Puma Energy Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2013-2018E8.3.4 Puma Energy Market Share of B2B Fuel Cards Segmented by Region in 20179 Global B2B Fuel Cards Market Analysis and Forecast by Type and Application10 B2B Fuel Cards Market Analysis and Forecast by Region13 AppendixKnow more about report:About UsReportsWeb 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.The market research industry has changed in last decade. As corporate focus has shifted to niche markets and emerging countries, a number of publishers have stepped in to fulfil these information needs. We have experienced and trained staff that helps you navigate different options and lets you choose best research solution at most effective cost.Contact UsPhone : +1-646-491-9876E-Mail : sales@reportsweb.com ePharmacy Market to Expand at a CAGR of 17.7% During 2015 - 2023 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/epharmacies-market.html https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=397 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=397 www.transparencymarketresearch.com ePharmacy or Internet pharmacy or online pharmacy is an online platform which acts an an intermediary between consumer and the seller for the sale of medicines via online retail platforms. ePharmacies are increasingly becoming popular owing to the benefits it offers such as lower price, access to comprehensive information on prescribed drug,View Report-round the clock delivery of medicines, and easy availability of drugs that are otherwise difficult to find. Patients do not have to physically visit the pharmacy store to procure medicines; rather, they can just upload the prescription from doctor on the ePharmacy portal and receive the necessary medicines at their doorsteps.The market for ePharmacies is yet to achieve full potential in with the development of ethical practices and government regulations supporting the growth of ePharmacy market. ePharmacies can address number of concerns such as easy availability of drugs even in remote locations, medical records of patients, and others. With the help of ePharmacies, consumers can procure drugs from the convenience of their homes via smartphone or a tablet. This can largely help patients those who are severely ill and are not in a condition to go to a brick-and-mortar pharmacy. Additionally, ePharmacies can store large amounts of consumer medical data that can be useful in planning public health policies. Ease in procuring the prescription drugs has boosted the market for ePharmacies; however, it also encouraged the illegal sale of controlled prescription drugs. The sale of drugs through ePharmacies may also result in incidents of self-medication and drug abuse, which can be prevented with the integration of most advanced technologies with drug delivery processes.Request A Sample-The global market for ePharmacies was valued at US$ 29.35 Bn in 2014 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 17.7% during the forecast period from 2015 to 2023. In 2014, North America was the largest contributor to the global ePharmacy market, in terms of revenue, followed by Europe. Europe is expected to be the fastest growing regional market for ePharmacies, and is estimated to surpass the market size reported by North America in 2023.The major factors driving the growth of ePharmacies market in Europe include increasing penetration of high speed Internet and consumer shift towards online purchase of medicines. Germany is leading the European ePharmacy market attributed by cross border trade which was pioneered by DocMorris. Asia Pacific is projected to display lucrative growth owing to the growing popularity of e-commerce industry, thereby resulting in the market growth of ePharmacies and increasing disposable incomes.Request Brochure-Some of the leading ePharmacies globally, include CanDrugstore.com, drugstore.com Inc., Lloyds Pharmacy Ltd., The SANICARE Group, Domzdrowia.pl SA, eDrugstore.MD, Walgreen Co., CanadaDrugs.com, Rowlands Pharmacy, MediSave, CVS Caremark, CanAmerica Drugs, Inc., and PlanetRx.com. These players are implementing various marketing strategies to increase their share in the market and gain more popularity and consumer acceptance. Marketing initiatives, technological advancements, and switching to different business models are some important strategies adopted by these players.With the potential opportunities displayed by ePharmacies in the untapped markets in Asia Pacific and Latin America, more number of new players are emerging in this segment. The product range offered by these players is expected to increase competition among the players since consumers will have options to choose from.About us:Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a U.S.-based provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Steel Rebar Market 2018-2024 Growth & Regional Revenue By Global Players ArcelorMittal, Essar, Gerdau, Tata Group, Jindal Steel & Power Ltd. Steel Rebar Market https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/2081 https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/2081 https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/steel-rebar-market https://www.gminsights.com/ Rapid construction of highways, bridges & buildings, and public utilities owing to shifting economic and demographic trends will drive Steel Rebar Market Increasing smart city projects financed by public-private partnership will propel product application scope. As per industry estimates, global infrastructural spending was over USD 4.5 trillion in 2016.Deformed steel rebar dominated the overall industry and expected to witness growth over 4.5% up to 2024. Key properties such as minimum slippage and improved mechanical anchoring supporting product penetration. Increasing demand for reinforced concrete cages, columns, slabs, prefabricated beams, will foster industry growth. Strong application outlook to refurbish old structures will propel steel rebar market.Request for a sample copy of this report @Global Steel Rebar Market share is competitive in nature. Key industry participants are Acerinox, ArcelorMittal, Gerdau, SAIL, Nippon & Sumitomo Metal Corporation, Tata, Hyundai, Essar, Jindal. Other prominent players are Daido, Kobe, NJR and Byer. Manufacturers are anticipated to upgrade existing production capacity and adopt new solution through extensive R&D to attain competitive advantage.Residential building application witnessed demand over 95 million tons in 2016. Surge in public-private partnership projects will provide lucrative business opportunities for manufactures. Increasing government spending on construction of smart cities will drive steel rebar market growth. Emerging economies such as India, China, Japan and South Korea expected to invest in smart city projects over the forecast period. For instance, Indian government is expected to invest USD 15 billion for development of 100 cities in coming years.Steel Rebars Market By Product Deformed MildSteel Rebar Market By Process Basic oxygen steelmaking Electric arc furnaceSteel Rebars Industry By Application Residential buildings Public infrastructure IndustrialMake an Inquiry for purchasing this Report @Public infrastructure estimated to witness CAGR over 4.5% up to 2024. Increasing necessity to build and upgrade bridges, roads, government institutions, airports, water treatment infrastructure and rail services fueling product demand. Changing consumer trends and rising disposable income will drive the construction of new commercial buildings, shopping malls, and sports complexes over the projected timeframe.Electric arc operations accounted for over 40% of the overall industry demand in 2016. Rising carbon and alloy steels production by recycling ferrous scrap fostering the segment growth. Factor such as quality control, reduced costs, low CO2 emission and better energy savings potential will support steel rebar market growth. Globally, increasing demand for finished structural products and falling scrap prices are expected to further influence segment growth.Asia Pacific will generate revenue over USD 110 billion by 2024. The region already accounts for 60% of the world population and increasing necessity to accommodate rising inhabitants will enhance regional construction spending. In addition, regional technology services sector expansion will also propel telecommunications infrastructure investments. Presence of key manufactures such as Tata, SAIL, Essar and Jindal will also play a key role in promoting regional industry growth.Browse Report Summery @Rising government budgets on renovation of structurally deficient buildings in the emerging economies has positively influenced steel rebar market share. For instance, China 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), for green building construction and renovation by 2020 will enhance product demand. Rapid urbanization and industrialization likely to augment construction of new manufacturing facilities and upgradation of existing structure.About Global Market Insights:Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.Contact Us:Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone:1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb: Global Waterproofing Admixture Market to Expand at a CAGR of 7.9% To Growth in Construction Sector https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/waterproofing-admixture-market.html https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=7436 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Waterproofing admixtures are permeability-reducing admixtures that resist water penetration and reduces absorption into concrete under hydrostatic pressure or non-hydrostatic pressure. Waterproofing admixtures improve the durability of structures and reduce maintenance cost over time. These reasons have spiked the demand for waterproofing admixtures in the renovation of old structures as well as new ones. The report states that the value of the global waterproofing admixtures market is expected to be worth US$4.9 bn by 2024 from US$2.5 bn in 2015, as the market surges at a CAGR of 7.9%.Crystalline Waterproofing Admixtures Show Steady Growth in Residential SectorBased on the product type, waterproofing admixture market is segmented into crystalline, pore-blocking, and others which include supplementary cementitious material. Crystalline waterproofing admixtures are hydrophilic in nature and are also known as the primary admixture. This type of admixture is produced using proprietary active chemicals and cementitious material. Crystalline admixtures have self-healing abilities and can thus repair a hairline crack that is up to 0.5mm. Thus, this product is categorized under permeability reducing admixture under hydrostatic pressure (PRAH).Read Report Overview @On the other hand, pore-blocking admixtures are manufactured by using water repellent chemicals such as long chain fatty acids derivatives, mineral oil, and stearates. Pore-blocks admixtures form an insoluble hydrophobic layer on concrete walls to block passage of water if they are used during the hydration process. They are popularly known as secondary admixtures and categorized under permeability reducing admixture under non-hydrostatic pressure (PRAN).In terms of application, waterproofing admixture market is segmented into residential, commercial, and infrastructure sectors. The residential sector is expected to lead the global market due to increasing ongoing urbanization that has created a pressing need for new residential projects. Demand for the crystalline product is projected to be dominated by consumption of the product in residential as well as in commercial applications. Crystalline products offer several advantages than the other admixtures due to its characteristic feature such as the ability to work under hydrostatic pressure.Request Report Brochure @Asia Pacific Leaps Ahead as Demand for New Constructions Continue to RiseIn terms of geography, the global waterproofing admixtures market is fragmented into North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa. Of these, Asia Pacific has been leading the global market and is expected to retain its dominance throughout the forecast period. The rapid growth of the construction sector across Asia Pacific, especially in countries such as India and China has boosted the demand for cement and concrete, which, in turn, is driving waterproofing admixture market. In the Middle East and Africa, development of new multifamily housing projects will contribute towards the global demand for waterproofing admixture. North America and Europe are mature markets and are less lucrative than Asia Pacific owing to the enactment of strict government regulations on CO2 and VOC emitting products and rise in consumer awareness about waterproofing admixtures in these regions.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.TMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.ContactMr.Rohit Bhisey90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email:sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: 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) Battery Case Market: A Detailed Growth Analysis 2018-2025 | Industry Players Profiled Such as Apple Inc., Samsung, ZAGG Inc., Otterbox, Incipio, EMTEC, ZeroLemon LLC, Alpatronix, Maxboost, Anker Innovations Ltd. www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/5031 www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/5031 www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-for-customization/5031 www.alliedmarketresearch.com The global battery case market was valued at $4,125.5 million in 2017, and is projected to reach $8,980.2 million by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 10.0% from 2018 to 2025. The battery case market possesses high growth potential, owing to the fact that several companies have adopted various strategies, such as product launch and collaboration, to expand their presence in the global market. In 2017, the medium price range segment dominated the global battery case market, in terms of revenue.Get Sample Report:Presently, North America dominates the global battery case market, followed by Europe. In 2017, the U.S. dominated the North America market, whereas the UK led the overall market in Asia-Pacific. However, China currently governs the in Asia- Pacific market.Comprehensive and Competetive Analysis of Dominating Market PlayersApple Inc.SamsungZAGG Inc.OtterboxIncipioEMTECZeroLemon LLCAlpatronixMaxboostAnker Innovations Ltd.For Purchase Inquiry:Higher internet dependency for personal & business activities and surge in demand of smartphones act as the major drivers of the global battery case market. In addition, exponential rise in demand for wireless accessories significantly contribute toward the growth of the market. However, compatibility issues of battery case restrain the market growth. Conversely, increase in need for convenience, in terms of mobility and ease of usage, is expected to create lucrative growth opportunities for the global battery case market.Request for Customization:About Us:Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions." AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.Contact:David Correa5933 NE Win Sivers Drive#205, Portland, OR 97220United StatesToll Free (USA/Canada):+1-800-792-5285, +1-503-894-6022, +1-503-446-1141UK: +44-845-528-1300Hong Kong: +852-301-84916India (Pune): +91-20-66346060Fax: +1-855-550-5975help@alliedmarketresearch.comWeb: Aequitas Capital Management was a $617 million Ponzi-like scheme that survived a protracted cash crisis only by employing accounting tricks and using new investor money to pay off older obligations. There is sufficient evidence of actual fraud and badges of fraud apparent that establish the Ponzi-like nature and fraudulent activity," writes Ronald Greenspan, the court-appointed receiver, in a scathing new report on Aequitas rise and dramatic fall in 2016. The Investigation uncovered instances of self-dealing and misstatement of financial statements and activities intended to perpetuate an investor fraud." The 174-page report, filed in U.S. District Court in Oregon, offers the most in-depth look yet at what may be the largest investment scandal in state history. Aequitas failed in March 2016, owing $617 million to its clients. The report may provide a blueprint for federal criminal investigators who have long been studying the case. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued the Lake Oswego operation in March 2016 and convinced a federal judge to install Greenspan as a receiver. Even as the companys cash shortage reached a critical stage after August 2015, the report says, Aequitas took care of its insiders. While panicky investors clamored in vain for Aequitas to return their money, Greenspan reports, the company paid $3.5 million to executives and members of its advisory board in its last eight months of existence. Behind the glitzy offices and the big talk, Aequitas had been flirting with financial disaster for years. The company suffered chronic cash shortages dating back to 2011, Greenspan said. That required a perpetual scramble for new capital even as the companys financial condition worsened, which exacted a toll on top management. Greenspan uncovered a remarkable email exchange between Aequitas co-founder Brian Oliver and Andrew MacRitchie, the firms one-time chief compliance officer, which seems to indicate they were fed up with the charade. The exchange came immediately after a meeting of the Aequitas advisory board, made up of several local business and political bigwigs. Bob Jesenik, Aequitas chief executive officer, managed to deliver disappointing financial results -- the company lost $29 million in the prior six months -- without the board asking substantive questions. This stubborn obliviousness came as a bitter disappointment to both Oliver and MacRitchie. Oliver: Bob was masterful in managing the AB (advisory board.) Maybe I am the only one that sees a different scenario than what was presented, and feel like we are believe (sic) our own BS at a very critical time. MacRitchie: I really thought (advisory board member) Will [Glasgow] was going to drill in but he backed off really disappointing since I think only the AB can challenge the strategy now. I am worried about (Aequitas Capitals) ability to continue to be viable for selling (private notes) the results are ugly. We desperately need to stop the bleeding. In addition to Glasgow, a prominent business executive and lawyer, the Aequitas advisory board included, among others, former television station manager Marty Brantley and author and Oregonian contributor Gerry Frank. The receiver recently entered into a negotiated settlement with Frank over an overdue debt he owed Aequitas totaling nearly $250,000. The debt was in connection with a failed rock and roll-themed restaurant launched back in 2007, documents show. Frank initially denied he owed anything in the matter but eventually agreed to repay the debt with $61,365 in cash and stock he owned in CarePayment Technologies, a company Aequitas bankrolled, a lawyer for the receiver confirmed. Aequitas was primarily a consumer finance operation. It attempted to build companies involved in student loans, medical debt financing, and auto and motorcycle loans. But it proved a difficult and time-consuming task. So, the receiver claims, Aequitas simply fudged the numbers to make the companies seem more successful than they were. Aequitas marked up the value of EdPlus, a chronically unprofitable student loan and college advisory service, from $5.3 million to $25 million in less than two years. It was even more aggressive with CarePayment, its medical debt finance operation, bumping up the valuation from $21 million to $140 million. These unrealized valuation gains were the sole source of profitability and masked repeated annual negative cash flows from operations, Greenspan said. They also allowed Aequitas to charge higher management fees. On more than once occasion, Jesenik seemed to use the company treasury as his personal piggy bank, according to the report. In 2010, Greenspan said, Jesenik had an Aequitas subsidiary loan $325,000 to his brother-in-law who was buying a hardware store. Three years later, The Hill Land LLC, a company funded by Aequitas, bought 7.44 acres in Tigard for $1.4 million and then leased the property to Westside Christian High School. On top of that, Aequitas then donated sufficient cash to cover Westside Christians monthly lease payments until 2016, the receiver said. Whether Jesenik did the deal as a demonstration of his Christian values or because his son and daughter had attended the school is unclear. The transaction had no legitimate business purpose, Greenspan wrote. The purchase by Aequitas and lease of property used by a church school previously attended by Jeseniks children appears to use investor money for the sole benefit of Jesenik and/or Jeseniks family. Investors have filed several civil suits against Aquitas executives and the companys accountants and lawyers claiming they were lied to. It remains to be seen whether Greenspan will follow suit and file a complaint of his own. Greenspan declined interview requests as he has since he took over the company in March 2016. -- Jeff Manning A Clackamas veterinarian is accused of displaying a gun to an employee at his practice in September and sending threatening texts to an ex-worker the next month, authorities say. Keith R. Bartholomew, who owns Companion Pet Clinic along Southeast 82nd Drive, was arrested Oct. 31, had several guns seized from his home by police and has since been released from jail custody after posting $12,500 bail, the Clackamas County Sheriffs Office announced Tuesday. The Clackamas clinic has since shut down. Bartholomew is accused of menacing and coercion. The guns in his home were a violation of an active restraining order against him in Multnomah County, the sheriffs office said. The agency hasnt said who filed the restraining order. Bartholomew is also under investigation by the sheriffs office and the Drug Enforcement Administration on allegations of drug records tampering, animal abuse and animal neglect, the sheriffs office said. No formal charges have been filed related to that investigation. Bartholomew has been a licensed veterinarian in the state since 1995, according to records from the Oregon Veterinary Medical Examining Board. He has no restrictions or sanctions on his license, which expires Dec. 31. The sheriff's office asks anyone with information on the case to contact the agencys tip line at 503-723-4949 or submit information online at http://web3.clackamas.us/contact/tip.jsp with a reference to case number 18-016138. -- Everton Bailey Jr. ebailey@oregonian.com | 503-221-8343 |@EvertonBailey Its not your imagination: Construction work on the ramps connecting Interstates 5 and 84 is taking longer than planned. After a weekend reprieve for the Thanksgiving holiday, crews this weekend and into mid-December will again close around the clock at least one of the four ramps at the major interchange. Commuters may recall the same ramps were closed one at a time -- for two-week intervals in July and August as the state worked to upgrade the bridge joints and make other structural repairs. According to an early July release, periodic closures were projected possibly for full weekends through November 2018. Other public alerts indicated work would wrap up by fall 2019, depending on weather and site conditions. The weather was good, but the states official construction project webpage now estimates work will continue through January 2019. Don Hamilton, an Oregon Department of Transportation spokesman, said the ramp project has required a lot of extra work. Sometimes you dont know what youre going to find until you start digging, he said. What crews found was more serious challenges and deteriorating concrete. The ramps were most recently paved about 15 years ago, and new concrete hadnt been installed since the late 1960s. The interchange sees about 147,000 vehicles every day. Hamilton said work is nearly finished on the westbound I-84 to I-5 southbound ramp, saying it should finish by Jan. 1. The other ramps, he said, should be finished by mid-December. The project is still expected to fall within the $6.75 million budget, Hamilton said. In the meantime, plan ahead and look for transportation detours. -- Andrew Theen atheen@oregonian.com 503-294-4026 @andrewtheen Tommy Klus never stopped collecting whiskey. He just stopped having a place to share it. Scotch Lodge, the first solo venture from Klus, a noted bartender and spirits expert who worked at Scottish distilleries and set up the impressive collection at Multnomah Whiskey Library, will open early next year in the former Biwa space, The Oregonian has learned. Intriguingly, the bar will pair its drinks with a modern French menu from St. Jack chef Aaron Barnett. "It's an expensive hobby," Klus said of whiskey collecting. "I've got the Pappy (Van Winkle)s and the Wellers and the Eagle Rares, the limited releases that come out, the Port Charlotte series from Bruichladdich, old Laphroiag, old Macallan and some old WWII bourbons that I can't sell legally, but I've got 'em. There's a really cool variety of stuff that I've just been waiting to share." Klus won't replicate the tufted leather decor or completist approach to the spirit taken at Multnomah Whiskey Library. His collection is more personal. Klus spent six weeks at Bruichladdich, makers of that heavily peated Port Charlotte series, working and living behind the distillery on the wind-swept isle of Islay. Alongside the whiskey, Scotch Lodge will also pour gins, rums, mezcals, brandies and other spirits. Working with Ben Hufford from design firm Design Department, Klus envisions a room with lots of dark wood and copper surrounding a marble bar top, the walls painted a peacock palette of dark blues and greens. You might not notice it in the finished product, but the Jules Verne adventure classic "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea" and Captain Nemo's submarine library was an inspiration -- "only not in a steampunk way," Klus says. The Scotch Lodge, the cocktail that gives the bar its name, was introduced at La Moule, the Southeast Portland mussel bar run by Barnett and Klus. The drink started as a riff on the Black Lodge, an earlier version named for the "Twin Peaks" dream space that Klus put on the original menu at downtown Portland's Kask. "I get really excited about basement bars," Klus says, "this idea of walking into a space that you don't really see from the street, places that make you feel that you're escaping the outside world. This is my whiskey version." The old Biwa. Klus hopes to give the subterranean space a different feel, one partially inspired by Captain Nemo's library from the adventure classic "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea." Barnett's involvement could prove just as interesting as the spirits list. The chef, who opened the original St. Jack in 2010 on Southeast Clinton Street (Klus was an early bartender), has traveled and eaten extensively in France over the past couple of years, coming away impressed with the modern approach to French food found at Paris' so-called neo-bistros. Barnett, Klus, their families and select staff visited several of those forward-thinking restaurants this summer, including Les Arlots, Carbon and Clamato. At Scotch Lodge, Barnett will translate those experiences into a loosely French menu of drinks-friendly small plates with an emphasis on seafood that draw influences from around the globe. Barnett is already at work on the menu, and teases some of the ideas they've been tossing around: a wagyu ribeye cap with button porcini, black garlic and lemon garnished with freshly shaved katsuoboshi; a local fried cod sandwich with sauce gribiche and pickles on Japanese milk bread; and a mushroom dish with grilled matsutakes, sauteed shimeji and shaved porcini topped with Peking duck broth and duck cracklings. "We're going to be as modern as we can without gimmicks or chemicals," Barnett says. "It will be a very natural style of cooking. More veg-forward than what people are used to from me. After all the years of doing St. Jack with the hooves and the snouts, it's going to be nice to get into something that's a little less dense, and prettier." Scotch Lodge isn't the only new food business coming to the former Biwa space. On Wednesday, Bar Casa Vale chef Jacob Harth announced plans to open Erizo, a new 20-seat, 15-course tasting menu restaurant in the old Japanese restaurant's former office space. The new supper club will focus on super-sustainable seafood, including line-caught fish, bycatch and invasive seafood species such as purple sea urchin, as well as dry-aged beef sourced from retired dairy cows, all cooked over an open wood fire. A portion of the Erizo's proceeds will be donated to two nonprofits, the Ocean Cleanup and Zero Foodprint. Look for Scotch Lodge to open in early January at the corner of Southeast Ninth Avenue and Ash Street. Tickets for Erizo's first dinners will go on sale around the same time. For more information, visit scotchlodge.com and erizo.com. -- Michael Russell Curiosity is power. It was a revelation that changed student Katie Kowal's life and it happened in a Lewis & Clark College physics class. A professor told Kowal she should pursue the questions she felt mattered, even if Kowal didn't feel like the smartest person in the room. So Kowal did. Her pursuits have paid off. Kowal double-majored in physics and political science and used those skills to land a job as a science policy fellow in Washington, D.C. An article on Lewis & Clark's website about Kowal includes a dean speculating that Kowal may be the "most decorated alumna we have ever graduated." This month, Kowal was named a Rhodes scholar, a prestigious designation that comes with funding to conduct research at the University of Oxford. Since 1902, Rhodes has supported brilliant minds and given them time and resources to chase big questions. Roughly 880 people applied to be Rhodes scholars this year. Only 32 made the cut. "Rhodes is huge," Kowal told The Oregonian/OregonLive. "It is just such an incredible opportunity." All of it, she said, goes back to her physics professor's encouragement. "That completely changed how I see myself as a student, how I see myself as a person," Kowal said. Professor Shannon O'Leary "completely instilled in me this confidence to be curious, and in my day-to-day job now, I use curiosity to disrupt power structures because I'm not afraid to be curious, even though the stakes are a lot higher." Kowal's professor didn't live to see her student's achievement. The day after Christmas in 2016, O'Leary and her husband were killed in a car wreck. Kowal said the tragedy, which happened in the middle of Kowal's senior year, devastated her and other students. Kowal said without her mentor she felt lost. It was a welcome surprise how many people at Lewis & Clark reached out and lifted her up at a time she felt unmoored and uncertain about her academic future. "So many people told me this was worth pursuing and it was so powerful to have the community come together, especially in the wake of losing Shannon," Kowal said. "I wouldn't have applied to Rhodes if Shannon hadn't taught me." Kowal has big plans for taking advantage of the honor. She is interested in climate change and, while she hasn't narrowed her exact area of pursuit, she's already bubbling with potential questions inspired by her background in both politics and science. Climate change interests her because of how it will destabilize so many countries. Political institutions rely on trust, and the mass movement of people and scarcity of resources that climate change will cause are going to test that trust, she said. For Kowal, that raises a question: How do you trust your government when it cannot provide water or protect you from flooding? Stay tuned for Kowal's next achievements to see what she uncovers. Bethany Barnes bbarnes@oregonian.com The Portland teachers union is pushing back against a proposed policy district officials have billed as necessary to safeguard students from sexual abuse after previous systemic failures. The school board's proposed professional conduct policy aims to give clear guidance on appropriate limits to interactions between school personnel and students. But leaders of the Portland Association of Teachers have expressed concern the policy is vague, hard to apply in a universal manner and would cast normal teacher behavior in a sinister light. So the union demanded last month that district leaders negotiate with union officials. That means the board must wait 90 days from when the union made that request to take a vote on the policy. The proposed policy was created in response to a 2017 investigation by The Oregonian/OregonLive that revealed that Portland Public Schools had helped educator Mitch Whitehurst evade allegations of sexual misconduct for years. School board members promised change and hired a team of outside investigators to look at the Whitehurst case and recommend solutions. The investigators' report was scathing. Investigators recommended several solutions, one of which was to adopt a policy that outlines how school personnel should act with students in school, out of school and via phones and computers. "Approval of this policy will provide an important component in remediating the failures identified in the report," a staff analysis of the proposed policy says. "Failure to approve this policy would leave the district without an important tool for self-regulation and enforcement." Read a draft of the proposed policy HERE. There's a delicate tension inherent in this district undertaking. How do officials craft a policy that gives administrators tools to act when they notice an employee's grooming behavior without throwing out the warmth and personalization that can make education life-changing? What rules would help fellow school employees notice signs of potentially worrisome behavior without making nearly everything teachers do appear suspect? The policy would require all employees to go through training on proper boundaries. It would forbid employees from having students over to their home without parent permission and bar them from communicating with a student through private messages without permission, sending a student to do personal errands or hanging out with students who are doing drugs or consuming alcohol. Staff would be allowed to use social media to connect with students but would have to set up professional accounts to do so and could not use applications such as Snapchat that erase the history of those interactions. The policy also states that staff should not touch a student without an educational purpose. "For example, staff should not initiate hugs, touch student's torso or hair, or pat buttocks," the policy says. "While connecting with students and building a rapport is an important component to the staff- student relationship, staff should take care not to demonstrate or express professionally inappropriate interest in a student's personal life," the policy says. "We recognize that forming a relationship with students is an important aspect of teaching; however, staff should not engage in these discussions with students when its purpose is to meet the staff's personal needs rather than the student's needs." Union leaders aren't convinced a new policy is necessary at all. Elizabeth Thiel, vice president of the Portland Association of Teachers, said she is concerned district officials are writing policies just to say they've written them. "I am concerned if the polices are not actually getting at the problematic behavior, if they are not clearly defined, then that gets us further away from solving the problem not closer," Thiel said. "I know the policy says it is not intended to get in the way of relationships outside of school, but if you have a policy,you need to be able to apply it evenly." As a mother of a Portland Public Schools student and a teacher, she said she is confused whether she would accidently violate the policy because students who are her children's friends are regularly at her house. The policy says to always self-report if you might have violated it, but she said if teachers were to take that seriously, administrators would be inundated with reports from teachers that they'd possibly overstepped. "We will be interested in hearing what questions they have, what concerns, if they have any recommendations for modifications in the policy," said school board member Julia Brim-Edwards, who has been a leader on the new policy. "We think it is a really strong foundational set of guidelines for our staff and any other adult who interacts with students. If they have additional feedback and questions and concerns we certainly want to hear that and take it under consideration." From union leaders' perspective, the policy doesn't begin to address what they have long called for: timely and thorough investigations. A reason Whitehurst was able to get away with his conduct, Thiel said, is that students who did come forward were not taken seriously by administrators. In Whitehurst's case, principals, human resources officials and the district's top lawyers all fielded reports from students that he had sought sexual contact or leered girls' bodies. But he was never disciplined and, under district policy, paperwork documenting such reports were removed from his file any time he switched schools or got a new principal. The outside investigation into Whitehurst also turned up concerns that supervisors and colleagues had not reacted appropriately when another teacher, Norm Scott, was overly friendly with particular female students, including giving them gifts and texting them. Scott was later convicted of sexually touching six Oregon City middle schoolers in a single day while substitute teaching. The union was reluctant to join the conversation about how schools can do more to protect students from abuse. Union president Suzanne Cohen initially refused to speak to The Oregonian/OregonLive about the Whitehurst matter and also rebuffed the outside investigators. Under public pressure from its own members, some of whom wrote op-eds in The Oregonian to ask the union be more proactive about the matter, the union released more detailed statements and agreed to talk about the potential of changing the teachers contract to alter the filing system that makes it hard to track misconduct allegations. In May, Cohen wrote a update on the union website about the matter called "A #MeToo Moment for PPS." "We need to recognize the pattern of dismissing the concerns of girls and women and reflect on our own roles in breaking this pattern and holding each other accountable to do the same. This is exactly what the #metoo movement is about, and we all can go even further," Cohen wrote. "I hope we can use this as an opportunity elevate the urgency around #metoo for everyone in Portland Public Schools. This is how we change the systems and cultures that increase the likelihood of sexual violence." How to craft a workable, effective set of rules to reduce the odds of sexual misconduct by educators is a matter of national concern. In 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice funded a study by Magnolia Consulting that looked at five unnamed districts that sought to change after a sexual misconduct incident. The results mirror the discussions happening in Portland Public Schools now. Researchers found employees in these districts were also concerned that policies would cause teachers to limit connections with students out of fear of being wrongfully labeled. "We have a lot of students who need attention or who need extra support, who want to come and give you a hug," on interviewee told researchers, noting "there was a 'grey area' between inappropriate behavior and just being cold to students." Still, the researchers found an appetite for clear guidelines that would help employees recognize inappropriate behavior and discern when they should report concerns. But researchers noted there aren't model policies for districts to turn to and school employees looking to implement change struggle to find resources to help them write policies. "Providing clear guidelines for teacher-student relationships and appropriate behaviors was highly recommended," the report said. "Participants acknowledged that the boundary between caring engagement and inappropriate behavior can be a 'blurry line.' Participants said that teachers and other staff may struggle with that boundary and said having guidelines would help." Researchers also found that all five districts, despite having had an occurrence of sexual abuse, struggled with families, teachers and other employees refusing to believe the incident happened or that it could happen again. "This kind of denial is detrimental to prevention efforts," the report said. "If staff and parents are in denial that school employee sexual misconduct can occur, they will likely be unwilling to take steps to prevent it." Bethany Barnes Got a tip about Portland Public Schools? Email Bethany: bbarnes@oregonian.com By Whitney Grubbs, Kali Thorne Ladd, Matt Morton and Vanessa Wilkins Oregon is at a critical moment when it comes to education. As such, the opportunity to share learnings from Oregon at an international summit in Helsinki, Finland, was an opportunity we couldnt miss. As public education leaders and advocates, we rarely get the opportunity to reflect on our work in the context of the global stage. Finlands school system is widely recognized as one of the best in the world, so we immersed ourselves in the region -- touring multiple schools, meeting with teachers, faculty and policy leaders and listening to students and community. We came home inspired, curious and with a renewed commitment to improving education for Oregons kids. Heres what we learned: Children are at the center. In the 1970s, Finland declared children to be a natural resource critical of investment. Students earned the legal right to learn and thrive, driving an overall culture of shared responsibility, care and success. Students -- from preschool through university -- own their learning and contribute meaningfully to decisions about everything from school design, to curriculum, to meals. In some municipalities, students even serve as voting members of the school board. The country widely celebrates multiple languages, providing each child instruction in the national languages of Finnish and Swedish as well as his or her home language (or mother tongue). And play inside and outside, through projects and games -- is widely accepted as critical to learning. Imagine what our schools could look like if we put children at the center. Teachers are trusted and respected. Teachers in Finland receive rigorous training and high levels of responsibility. In turn, they earn significant autonomy, respect and professional freedom. While the government has adopted a national curriculum, teachers have freedom to teach the content how, when and where they think it will be most effective for their students. They recognize a one size fits all approach is not tenable or successful. In fact, when asked about oversight, Helsinkis deputy mayor of education noted, Why would I get involved in what teachers do? Im a politician, not an educator. Perhaps it is this mindset that sets the foundation for the collegiality and anything is possible attitude in each school we observed. Health and well-being are tied to academic success. Finland understands that supporting children to learn means attending to their whole selves. The country benefits from a well-funded social safety net and progressive tax structure that translates into significantly less poverty, homelessness or hunger than in the U.S. Yet even with these national assets, all Finnish schools have a social welfare committee that meets regularly to address issues faced by students and their families. The committees, which include school psychologists, social workers and support specialists, ensure children have what they need to thrive. Through this experience, we served as teachers as well as students. As a largely homogenous country, Finland admits challenges in meeting the needs of its rapidly growing immigrant population. We proudly shared stories about Oregons rich diversity, our focus on data to identify and understand disparities, and the deep collaborations between public, private and civic sectors. We highlighted bright spots, such as KairosPDXs model for culturally responsive teaching for African-American children, Chalkboard Projects work to support and elevate teachers, and the Meyer Memorial Trusts transformation to more equitable and strategic grant-making. We celebrated U.S election night in Finland, and returned to hear our state policy leaders rallying behind the goal of investing in improving education outcomes for all Oregons students. As representatives from the nonprofit, philanthropy and business worlds -- our message is we are with you! Only with courage, shared responsibility and sacrifice can we transform our state into a place where all can meaningfully contribute and thrive, where disparities are eliminated and where children take their rightful place at the center. Whitney Grubbs is executive director of The Chalkboard Project; Kali Thorne Ladd is executive director of KairosPDX; Matt Morton is the equitable education portfolio director for the Meyer Memorial Trust; and Vanessa Wilkins is founder of the Future School Lab. A former Lincoln County School District teacher convicted in 2014 for possessing child pornography died on Thanksgiving while in hospice care at an Oregon prison, according to the state department of corrections. David L. Humphrey, 66, died while being held at the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in Pendleton. He was sentenced in March 2014 to seven years in prison for first- and second-degree encouraging child sexual abuse. The corrections department said the earliest release date for Humphrey, who was also a former Lincoln City Council member, was Dec. 9. The department of corrections hasnt said how Humphrey died or why he was in hospice care. He had retired from teaching at a Lincoln City elementary school by the time he was arrested in 2013. Court records show Humphrey had terminal lung cancer and the judge who sentenced him was in favor of him being released from prison to die out of state custody. It doesnt appear he was ever released. A relative of Humphreys wrote a letter in May 2017 to Lincoln County Circuit Judge Thomas Branford, who presided over the case, saying his family was petitioning the state parole board to grant him early medical release, according to court documents. Family members were asking to meet with Branford to explain why they believed Humphrey should be allowed to die at home. A medical transition case manager with the state corrections department wrote Branford that June, noting the early parole release request from Humphreys attorneys and asking the judge to help in the parole boards review of the case with any knowledge he had of the crimes and the possible effect Humphreys release would have to the community, court records show. The case manager said at the time that Humphrey was receiving care 24 hours a day while being held in the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institutions infirmary and had received two rounds of chemotherapy. Branford wrote back two weeks later saying Humphrey had an extensive collection of downloaded child porn on his computer, but there was no evidence he was a child sexual predator, according to court records. The judge wrote that the community would be safe if Humphrey were released and supported it, but recommended he have no access to a computer and not be allowed to interact with children without parents or legal guardians being present at all times. -- Everton Bailey Jr. ebailey@oregonian.com | 503-221-8343 |@EvertonBailey Reported hate crimes may be on the rise in Oregon, but rarely do they end in a courtroom verdict. An exception comes Wednesday in Corvallis as a trial begins for Andrew Oswalt, an Oregon State University graduate student whose white nationalist views inflamed the college town earlier this year and whose criminal accusations could send him to prison. In January, Oswalt, then serving as a student government representative, was arrested on suspicion of plastering racist bumper stickers on the cars of social justice activists parked outside an off-campus food co-op in summer 2017. The incident unfolded as Oswalt's now-documented associations with white nationalists became known and his pattern of covert racist activity materialized. It will be the first bias crime case in Benton County to be prosecuted in nearly a decade, records show. Should the judge find him guilty, Oswalt would be the eighth person convicted in Oregon of first-degree intimidation in the past five years. The challenge, legal experts say, is that achieving convictions in such cases is extremely difficult. Although many prosecutors believe bringing hate crime charges in an apparent bias case can send a powerful message to the public, they must grapple with an intent that's not easy to pin down. "You have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that hate or bias is the driving motivation in the case," said Christine Mascal, a former prosecutor in the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office. As a result, prosecutors sometimes determine probable cause is insufficient to attempt a bias crime case. In other instances, the bias charges are dismissed or reduced during plea negotiations. The difficulty in successfully building cases and prosecuting them is often at odds with the well-publicized uptick in hate crimes, both nationally and here in Oregon, as well as increased community concern about them, law enforcement officials and criminal justice experts say. "It's an uphill battle," said Randall Blazak, chairman of the Oregon Coalition Against Hate Crime and a former Portland State University sociology professor. A hate crime under Oregon state law occurs when a person or group damages property, threatens someone, or subjects another person to offensive or harmful physical contact "because of the person's perception of the other's race, color, religion, sexual orientation, disability or national origin." Most reported incidents fall under second-degree intimidation, a misdemeanor. The offense is upgraded to a first-degree felony only if it involves two or more perpetrators. Since 2014, there have been 227 arrests of people accused of first- or second-degree intimidation statewide, according to an analysis of court cases by the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission. Only 31 of those cases have ended in a conviction, the analysis shows, seven of them felonies. One case in Deschutes County in 2014 illustrates a more common path for such incidents. Police say three white men in Bend attacked a Hispanic couple who were pushing a child in a stroller on the street at night. Michael Shane Stell, Joshua Temple Garrett and Clarence William Wetherald Jr, faced multiple counts of first-degree intimidation along with other criminal charges. But ultimately the suspects each pleaded guilty only to the lesser charges, which included menacing, third-degree assault and possession of methamphetamine, court records show. Prosecutors seeking a hate crime conviction against Oswalt have remained steadfast in their case against him, however. The 28-year-old faces three counts of first-degree intimidation, which carries a maximum five-year sentence. Last week he waived his right to a jury trial, opting instead to go before Benton County Circuit Court Judge David Connell. According to Corvallis police, Oswalt and an accomplice plastered bumper stickers that contained a racist slur for African Americans on two cars at the First Alternative Natural Foods Co-Op in June 2017. The stickers were placed over other stickers that advocated for immigrants and refugees, said members of the Corvallis chapter of Showing Up For Racial Justice, which had held a meeting at the co-op that day. An employee also discovered someone had placed anti-Semitic leaflets on the windshields of every car in the staff parking lot at the same time, co-op general manager Cindee Lolik told The Oregonian/OregonLive in January. Police executed a search warrant at Oswalt's house and recovered bumper stickers and fliers matching those used in the incident, authorities said. Oswalt was identified in surveillance video captured by the food co-op, according to police, who never identified the second suspect. He was booked on suspicion of criminal mischief, a misdemeanor, only hours after OSU's student newspaper published an interview in which Oswalt self-identified as a member of the "alt-right" and outlined his inflammatory views on women and minorities. Over the next week, a firestorm erupted on campus as more details about Oswalt's politics and past behavior became public. First, photos surfaced of him marching with white power groups in Portland, delivering Nazi salutes from a freeway overpass and waving a swastika flag outside the home of Jimmy Marr, a Springfield man who advocates for the extermination of Jews. Oswalt was subsequently identified as the person who for months has kept a Confederate flag hanging in the window of a residence across the street from the university's black cultural center. Later, University of Oregon police revealed they had arrested Oswalt in July 2017 while he was on campus with three reputed white nationalists, including Marr. The men had fliers with Ku Klux Klan propaganda and others with slogans including, "Diversity means fewer white people," police reports show. On Jan. 30, eight days after Oswalt was jailed in the Corvallis incident, the Benton County District Attorney's office upgraded its charges against him to first-degree intimidation, and he was arrested again. "This is a hate crime inspired by ignorance, fueled by racism and aimed at people of color," Ryan Joslin, the prosecuting attorney for Benton County, told The Oregonian/OregonLive at the time. "It was his intent to terrorize both individuals and a group of people." Two weeks later, OSU students voted to recall Oswalt from his post on student government. He remains a Ph.D. candidate in chemistry, university spokesman Steve Clark said Tuesday. His trial is scheduled for three days. -- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh skavanaugh@oregonian.com 503-294-7632 || @shanedkavanaugh A neighborhood group has asked the Portland City Council to block a proposed affordable housing development in Northwest Portland, saying its too big for the surrounding historic district. Northwest Housing Alternatives proposed 148 rent-restricted apartments in two new structures at 1727 N.W. Hoyt St. The plan would incorporate and preserve the historic Buck-Prager Building, built in 1918 as a maternity hospital. The Historic Landmarks Commission approved the project 5-1 in September. But the Northwest District Association appealed the decision in October, sending it to the City Council. That body will hear arguments Thursday afternoon. The neighborhood association contends the new buildings, one that would be five stories tall, would overwhelm the Buck-Prager Building and dwarf nearby Victorian houses and brick rowhouses. The association also alleges that harassment of a landmarks commissioner during the proceedings had a chilling effect on public comment and commission discussions. The commissioner, Wendy Chung, lives across the street from the proposed development and argued that it should be smaller. She didnt participate in the commissions final vote, but her participation in early discussions was the subject of a news story by The Oregonian/OregonLive. Chungs husband, attorney Tony Schwartz, also filed an appeal opposing the development. Chung faced a complaint from a local attorney, Alan Kessler, who argued that she shouldnt have participated in the discussions. The Oregon Government Ethics Commission found that Chung met her legal obligation under state law when she declared a potential conflict of interest when she first criticized the project. Kessler also sought emails related to historic preservation sent to Chungs personal email addresses and sued for judicial review of the ethics commissions decision. The project went before the Historic Landmarks Commission both because of the Buck-Prager Building and because the site sits within the Alphabet Historic District. The Buck-Prager Building, named for earlier owners of the land, was built as the Women's Hospital of Portland, managed by Alta B.Y. Spaulding until her death in 1938. She was also the nursing superintendent at what would become the Oregon Health & Science University nursing school. It's also known as the Ballou & Wright building, after the owners of the property when the hospital was built. A sign on the building calls it the "Ballow & Wright" building. -- Elliot Njus enjus@oregonian.com; 503-294-5034; @enjus Portlands City Council is poised to water down its tax on big trucks, a step that would bow to industry pressure and buck elected leaders promise to voters to ensure truckers pay their share for road upkeep. As part of a successful campaign to win voter approval of a local gas tax, city leaders including then-mayoral candidate Ted Wheeler pledged to give truck drivers a share of the bill for roads. They settled on collecting $10 million over four years from operators of heavy trucks who use city streets, with the tax rate to be adjusted each year to ensure the full total was collected. But Portland Bureau of Transportation officials now say the tax, called the Heavy Vehicle Use Tax, will not meet that target, in part because so many truck drivers got out of paying it. At the current tax rate, the city would collect about $8 million, officials say. Rather than raise the tax rate for the final two years of the taxs four year lifespan, transportation staffers want city commissioners to delete the $10 million goal from city law. A City Council vote to do that is scheduled for Wednesday. The tax works by tacking a 2.5 percent city surcharge onto a state tax truckers pay. Money it generates funds road upgrades in Portland, with a focus on projects that improve safety and benefit truckers. For example, the tax paid to repave parts of North Columbia Boulevard, a road often used by freight trucks. The city council adopted the tax in 2016 as a way to level the playing field between trucks and cars just before voters approved a 10-cent city gas tax, which truckers generally do not pay because diesel fuel is exempt. At the time, the mayor, city commissioners and Wheeler signed a voters pamphlet statement promoting the gas tax. They highlighted that a yes vote would require the city to study how to get heavy trucks to pay their fair share. City council members also made clear their intention to raise $10 million via the heavy truck tax. The city law that created it says officials will adjust the tax rate every year to meet the $10 million goal. But they have not done that. Explaining the decision to not exercise that power, city revenue chief Thomas Lannom said the rate would have to be increased 60 percent to meet the target. Revenue collection fell far behind projections, he said, because officials worked with imperfect information and had to make assumptions. Far more truckers than anticipated got out of paying the tax by submitting paperwork to show that, although their business operates in Portland, their trucks rarely use city-owned streets, he said. The city also had only 682 eligible trucking businesses to tax rather than the more than 2,500 as projected, said Bureau of Transportation spokesman Dylan Rivera. The problem was only discovered this summer, Rivera said, because it took that long to finish collections for the 2016 tax year. City officials also faced industry pressure not to raise the tax rate to collect all $10 million. In September a city committee of freight industry representatives voted unanimously to do away with the $10 million goal. (Another city panel overseeing spending of the tax said it found the truckers arguments less than convincing but nevertheless agreed the city should keep the tax rate as is.) Truckers generally view the city tax as cumbersome and unfair, said Jana Jarvis, president of the Oregon Trucking Associations. She said its right for Portland to axe the revenue goal because the city will get additional money for transportation from the state owing to an infrastructure bill passed last year. Our perspective has been, Let this thing die its death and move on, Jarvis said of the city tax. The council had scheduled the same vote last month but did not go through with it after Commissioner Amanda Fritz criticized the idea. Fritz raised concerns about paring back the tax after a phone call from Steve Novick, a former Portland commissioner who headed the Bureau of Transportation. Novick, the architect of the truck tax, had been alerted to the vote by a reporter for The Oregonian/OregonLive who was seeking comment. Fritzs chief of staff, Tim Crail, said the vote to scale back the tax was sailing through prior to Novicks call alerting Fritz. Council members signed a letter saying the trucks would pay their fair share. That was basically a promise to the voters, Fritz said during that October meeting. I think this is something we need to be very careful about. Fritz told The Oregonian/OregonLive on Tuesday that the city should uphold its commitment to voters. What we should be doing is adjusting the rate to meet the $10 million goal, Fritz said, not doing away with the target. Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who until September was commissioner-in-charge for the Transportation Bureau, said Monday he believes bureau officials have solid reasons for doing what theyre doing. But he cautioned that gutting the truck tax could backfire when the city asks voters to renew the gas tax in 2020 because voters could perceive it as unfair. This could be an action that would come back to haunt us, he said. -- Gordon R. Friedman GFriedman@Oregonian.com Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated when the Heavy Vehicle Use Tax was adopted. It was adopted before voters approved a 10-cent gas tax. Right about the fifth time our guide, Hepna, promised that we would actually get there, I began to have my doubts. In between, our means of conveyance over Icelands second-largest glacier a converted missile launcher mounted on enormous tires slipped and crawled, slowly moving ahead. Hepna littered our meandering progress through the snowdrifts with ominous hints about canceled trips and the maintenance team having gotten stuck just that morning. In the end we reached our destination the worlds largest man-made ice cave, burrowed into the Langjokull Glacier. And I can testify that I have never seen anything like it, nor expect to again. We came here chasing the Northern Lights, one of those bucket-list things that had me researching the right camera lens and reading up on exposure times. But we ended up being exposed to something else: A snow-swept landscape of lonely roads, coastal contours, lava rocks, waterfalls, thermal pools and more. No doubt about it. Iceland in winter will surprise you. The Blue Lagoon in Iceland. (Alex Pulaski) The Blue Lagoon We arrived at the Blue Lagoon, a 20-minute drive from Keflavik Airport, in 8:30 a.m. January darkness, buffeted by an icy wind. The thought of slipping into a bathing suit and into an outdoor pool seemed more appealing in the comfort of my heated living room than it did in the bracing 28-degree walk from our car. But as the 100-degree water seeped into our bones and we sipped glasses of apple cider, the bigger question became whether we would ever want to get out. We passed the time talking and relaxing, slathering on masks of silica and algae, then rinsing them off. Slowly, as 10 a.m. approached, the darkness retreated and we began to see the pools overall outline and other visitors through the rising steam. Reluctantly we made our way to the showers and hit the road for the capital city of Reykjavik for a quick lunch, then north to Husafell and the glacier. Lunch revealed a harsh reality of Iceland: Its expensive. Tourism has grown exponentially over the last decade, and one result has been remarkably high prices for meals, lodging and excursions. For example, a burger or chicken sandwich at the modest Reykjavik cafe we picked ran the equivalent of $25 each. A 2 -hour drive brought us to the Hotel Husafell, an ultramodern complex of glass and flagstones with cozy considerations like heated bathroom floor tiles. As a cold wind whistled outside, we sat down to a pleasant dinner at the hotel that started with a beet salad and graduated to grilled salmon. Before hitting the sack we dialed 555 on our room phone to program a wake-up call in the event the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, decided to make a spectacular showing. Husafell, being far removed from the capital citys manmade lights, offers a likely viewing spot. But the Northern Lights are fickle, dependent on a clear, cold night and plenty of solar activity (the phenomenon results from the ionization of solar particles entering the Earths magnetic fields). No wake-up call, so the next morning we piled into the converted missile launcher and headed toward the glacier and a world of ice. An Into the Glacier tour in Iceland. (Alex Pulaski) Water, water everywhere As we walked into the tunnel bored into the glacier, our guide, Kevin Martin, stopped to show us dark strata in the ice vestiges of volcanic eruptions in 2010 and 2011. The tunnel, he said, is slowly moving along with the glacier and may be unusable in another 15 years or so. This glacier is melting at a rate of a half-meter to a meter per day, he said. In 150 years its going to be gone, completely melted. In blues, whites and dirty grays, the glacier revealed itself, including glimpses of crevasses, air pockets, ice walls slick and hard, trickles of water. There was even a small ice chapel where couples could marry. We are surrounded by water, Martin told our small group, each of us bundled in warm coveralls. If you drilled a half-meter into these walls, water would pour out. Later that day we took a leisurely drive southeast toward Fludir. The road along Icelands so-called Golden Circle leads past spectacular waterfalls, geysers and thermal pools. Just as our short trip began, we ended at a geothermal pool Fludirs is known as the Secret Lagoon. Its not terribly secret, but it is a remarkably pleasant and relaxing way to pass from evening to a cold night, drifting along with warm currents and keeping one eye peeled on the sky, wondering whether the Northern Lights would make an appearance. No such luck. But a crescent moon and a sky full of stars made for a brilliant show all the same. An Into the Glacier tour in Iceland. (Alex Pulaski) More information: inspiredbyiceland.com A state trooper shot 12 times by a murder suspect is suing Washington County's 911 system, the sheriff and others, contending dispatchers failed to alert officers that James Tylka was armed, suicidal and had just shot his wife when they radioed for police to find him on Dec. 25, 2016. Nic Cederberg, the only state trooper patrolling in Washington County, lacked critical information when he made tactical decisions to chase Tylka "that he would not otherwise have made, was exposed and subjected to an unanticipated lethal attack and suffered critical, life threatening and permanently disabling injuries,'' the federal suit says. Cederberg also contends that a Washington County sheriff's deputy should have arrested Tylka a month earlier after his estranged wife reported receiving harassing calls from Tylka threatening to kill her and harm her new boyfriend. The negligence suit also names Legacy Meridian Hospital as a defendant, alleging an emergency room doctor failed to hold Tylka there for mental health treatment when he attempted suicide by overdosing on insulin on Nov. 30, 2016. Cederberg is seeking $20.6 million in damages for past and future pain and loss of his quality of life. His wife, Portland police Officer Haley Shelton, who provided five months of around-the- clock care for her husband, is seeking $10 million in damages. Kelly Dutra, director of Washington County Consolidated Communications Agency, said Tuesday she couldn't comment about the pending litigation. Tylka shot and killed his wife, Katelynn Armand-Tylka, in front of his parents' home in King City about 10:15 p.m. on Christmas Day 2016. Armand-Tylka had just arrived to transfer care of their infant daughter to him. Twenty minutes later, Washington County Consolidated Communications Agency issued a countywide call for all law enforcement to find a white Mitsubishi driven by Tylka. Cederberg contends county dispatch supervisors and call-takers knew Tylka was armed and suicidal but didn't alert officers on at least two of the Sheriff's Office radio channels, which he monitored. Washington County dispatch supervisors entered information into the county's computer-aided dispatch - separate from its radio channels - that said Tylka was wanted as a homicide suspect and was suicidal, but Cederberg said he was unaware of those details, according to the suit. About the same time, Cederberg had alerted the county dispatch that he was on the call about 10:40 a.m., but no one made sure that he was aware of Tylka's potential threat as he chased after Tylka's car, the suit says. Cederberg spotted Tylka's car and chased it down a narrow, dark and largely isolated rural road. At the dead end, Tylka turned his car around and rammed the trooper's car and engaged in a furious shootout. Cederberg was shot a dozen times and Tylka shot himself in the head, killing himself as other officers arrived. According to the suit, Cederberg sustained severe and permanently disabling physical injuries, as well as emotional pain, suffering, fear, anxiety and distress. Cederberg filed the suit Monday afternoon. Washington County Sheriff Pat Garrett said his office couldn't comment on the lawsuit but issued a brief statement Tuesday: "Trooper Cederberg acted heroically on the evening of Dec. 25, 2016. We recognize the sacrifices he made to protect our community that night and the sacrificies he has made throughout his career. We continue to send our best wishes to Trooper Cederberg and his family.'' Cederberg remains a trooper with state police, working a modified assignment to accommodate his recovery, state police Capt. Timothy Fox said. Read the lawsuit here. Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Katelyn Armand-Tylka's name. -- Maxine Bernstein mbernstein@oregonian.com 503-221-8212 @maxoregonian We do an assessment to make sure this was only a one-time thing, Rhodes said. Kids do dumb things somethings, but we want to make sure this doesnt lead to something bigger. The following list includes recent reports from the Midland County Sheriff's Office and the Midland Police Department. Compiled by reporter John Kennett. Monday, Nov. 26 9:41 a.m. -- A 45-year-old man came to the LEC with questions regarding how to obtain a PPO for his 16-year-old son. 3:21 p.m. -- A deputy responded to an Ingersoll Township location for a report of a single vehicle traffic crash. The deputy arrested the driver, a 37-year-old man, for driving on a suspended license, and a warrant for fail to appear out of Midland County. 4:38 p.m. -- A deputy was dispatched to an Edenville Township residence when a 23-year-old woman stated that a 54-year-old woman was trespassing on her property. The 54-year-old woman was attempting to get her vehicle back, but the 23-year-old woman and her 31-year-old boyfriend kept telling her to leave. The 54-year-old woman was told to call a tow company and have them remove her vehicle from the complainant's property. The 23-year-old woman was told not to prevent the 54-year-old from getting her vehicle. 5:04 p.m. -- A 53-year-old man reported that someone struck his and his neighbor's mailboxes. A 16-year-old came to the scene and said that she struck the mailbox. She did not have any damage to her vehicle. The victims did not want a police report filed. The subjects worked out a plan for the 16-year-old to replace the mailbox. 7:26 p.m. -- A deputy was dispatched to a Lee Township residential area for a report of an unknown man and woman knocking on doors and telling residents they were from Consumer's Energy. The caller felt as though they were not actually from Consumer's, and wanted the area checked. The deputy did not locate any vehicles in the area, and no further incidents were reported. 7:33 p.m. -- A deputy was dispatched to a Lincoln Township residence for a complaint of a 50-year-old man playing his music very loudly. The 40-year-old complainant said she had to work early in the morning. The 50-year-old male turned his music down at the deputy's request. 9:01 p.m. -- A deputy was dispatched to a City of Coleman residence when a 73-year-old caller had her keys taken away by her family after mental health issues. The deputy completed a report with the Michigan Secretary of State to have her driving evaluated. 10:09 p.m. -- A deputy was dispatched to a Lee Township residence for a complaint of threats from an unknown person on Facebook. The deputy reviewed the threats and deemed them to be a scam, attempting to get the 16-year-old complainant to send money. The boy was told to block the person and to not reply to any further messages. Seventy-four votes. In the end, thats the margin that separated Democrat Tina Davis from Republican incumbent Robert M. Tommy Tomlinson in the hard-fought race for Bucks Countys 6th Senate District. On Tuesday, Davis, a Democratic state House member from Lower Bucks County, conceded her race, saying the fight is not over. I am still here, I am still fighting, and Im always going to be honest and true to our shared values. The announcement came the day after a county court judge tossed the lawsuit to order Bucks County officials to count more than than 200 absentee ballots that were received after the legal deadline of Nov. 2, The Associated Press reports. The judges one-page order did not say why he was dismissing the court challenge. In a statement, Davis said that, despite being on the "receiving end of an ugly campaign ... It is time to move on, which is why I am ending my campaign. But, with the narrow margin, Davis said she believes Tomlinson, a long-serving incumbent, has been put on notice by voters business as usual in Harrisburg is no longer acceptable. I hope he heeds their message. With Tomlinsons win, Senate Republicans have seen a veto-proof 34-16 majority in the 50-member chamber reduced to a 29-21 majority. Davis, who ran for re-election to her House seat, will return to Harrisburg in January to begin serving her fifth term, The AP reported. The rest of the days news starts now. Republican state Rep. Nick Miccarelli, R-Delaware, whos been accused of sexual assault by two women, will leave the House at years end with his benefits package and pension intact, our Capitol colleague, Jan Murphy, reports. Democrat Susan Wild was sworn into office Tuesday to represent the Lehigh Valleys soon-to-vanish 15th Congressional District (which also includes a chunk of the midstate), The Morning Call reports. Come January, shell represent the regions redrawn 7th Congressional District on Capitol Hill. A federal grand jury in Pittsburgh has handed down indictments in whats being described as a multi-million dollar Medicaid fraud scheme, The Post-Gazette reports. The Inquirer goes deep on what happens to gun violence survivors after the headlines fade. Meanwhile, Auditor General Eugene DePasquale has released his recommendations on how to reduce the carnage across the state, WESA-FM reports. BillyPenn has a few thoughts on how Michelle Obama should spend her time while she visits Philadelphia. The Incline explains how a pair of new start-ups in Pittsburgh are helping other new start-ups land employees. Former Attorney General Kathleen Kane will be jailed this week, PoliticsPA reports (via The Associated Press). Shes been ordered to serve 10 to 23 months for corruption charges. Police in western Pennsylvania say a man accused of shooting two women in an unprovoked attack suffered from mental illness, The Tribune-Review reports. Heres your #Harrisburg Instagram of the Day. Heres what happened when City Council and the new Philly School Board met for the first time (via WHYY-FM). Rent control is making a comeback - but that might not be such a good thing, Stateline.org reports. I dont do anything ... just for political gain,' President Donald Trump tells Politico in a new interview. Of course he doesnt. No politician does, right? Congratulations ... or something ... Mississippi. WolfWatch. Gov. Tom Wolf has no public schedule today. Its always a good day when theres new music by Johnny Marr in the world. Wednesdays Gratuitous Hockey Link. Carolina got past Montreal 2-1 on Tuesday, with the Canes Curtis McElhenney making 48 saves on the way to the win. And now youre up to date. A neighbor who police say was suffering from mental illness opened fire on a mom and her 16-year-old daughter Monday night, apparently believing the pair were spying on him. TribLive in Pittsburgh reports that doubled shooting left the mother in critical condition and her daughter in stable condition. Meanwhile, the gunman, identified as Eddie Layne, 48, of Harrison, Pa., later killed himself, authorities in Allegheny County told TribLive. The shooting took place outside an apartment building in Sheldon Park, where Layne, who police say was troubled by mental illness for 20 years, was temporarily staying with his ex-wife. The mom and her daughter also lived in the building. Police tell TribLive Layne became agitated and believed his neighbors were spying on him. Without warning he took a shotgun outside where he shot both females. Police said it was unclear how Layne came into possession of any firearms. In the end, Layne shot himself dead as Allegheny County SWAT team was setting up and evacuating neighbors, ending the threat. The highly-anticipated teaser trailer to Disney's remake of "The Lion King" is finally here, and the Internet is divided. While some fans are ecstatic about the remake, others argue the 2019 film is not actually live-action. The remake is mainly computer-generated imagery and, thus far, looks like a shot-for-shot remake of the 1994 animated classic. Others say while it relies heavily on computer animation, actors shot the movie on real sets and Disney used lots of real animals to nail the look. What do you think? PERSPECTIVES Below is the synopsis of "The Lion King" remake, per Rotten Tomatoes. Watch the teaser trailer below, and decide for yourself: is the remake really live-action? Disney fans are divided, but let's settle this civilly by voting! Check out the same bits from each film side-by-side. Here's a side-by-side of 'The Lion King' trailer with the same scenes from the 1994 original movie. #TheLionKing pic.twitter.com/nHpKHWDzPJ Lights, Camera, Pod (@LightsCameraPod) November 22, 2018 The shot-for-shot remake is almost entirely CGI, so how exactly is it live-action?! Animators just spent spent 22 months working on the completely unnecessary "Live Action" Lion King movie. If this movie doesn't cause horrific trauma in an entire generation of children. I'm going to release prides of LIVE ACTION lions into kindergartens all over America. pic.twitter.com/tQXID4XZic Church of Dave (@ChurchofDave) November 24, 2018 Others argue the remake is about the mastery of visual effects, and it's clearly not animated. I always think remakes are just big-wigs rubbing their hands together with dollar-bill eyes. But the atmosphere for this film, as I've experienced it, is different. For many people it's about the technical achievement, the acclaim and the chance for a Visual Effects Oscar. Conor Middleton (@ConorMiddleton) November 23, 2018 so many dumbasses on here are saying that the lion king remake is lazy because the story is the same while completely ignoring how hard the animators/visual effects team worked?? yall just love to undervalue and disrespect artists denim chicken (@mehrissuh) November 25, 2018 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. A man used fake documents to obtain a check of more than $43,000 from the Berks County Treasurers Office following a Sheriffs sale in 2017, according to the county district attorney. The Berks County District Attorneys Office said the money was the remaining balance of a property sale of a home on Hemlock Drive in District Township, which had been sold to pay delinquent taxes. The owner of the home was identified as George Butler Jr., according to the DAs office. A man, later identified as Tyrone McCray, 55 of Allen, Texas, is accused of posing as Butler in order to get the money, the DA said. McCray or an unknown co-conspirator submitted a fraudulent passport and accompanying documents to the Berks County Treasurers Office, claiming to be Butler, the DA said. His request was that the treasurers office release the remaining balance of funds from the sale of his property. The following is how the district attorneys office believed the money got to McCray: Berks County issued the check for $43,736.17 and mailed to a business address in Sanford, North Carolina. Investigators later learned the business was Traveling Mailbox, a commercial mail receiving agency which forwards mail for customers to another address. The check was forwarded to an address in Tampa, Florida, then to Allen, Texas where McCray lives. In July 2017, McCray deposited the check into his own Navy Federal Credit Union checking account, with the bank branch located in Garland, Texas. Allen Police interviewed McCray on May 29, where he admitted to cashing the check fraudulently, but said he got the check directly from Butler whom he knew through a business deal, the DA said. Investigators seized McCrays financial records and learned most of the money was spent within a short period of time after the check was deposited. Charges were filed against McCray on Nov. 7, and the Allen Police Department assisted in locating and apprehending McCray in Texas. On Nov. 26 McCray surrendered to the Berks County Detectives Office, according to the DA. McCray was immediately transported to the Berks County Sheriffs Processing Center. After an arraignment, McCrays bail was set at $50,000, and he was placed in Berks County Jail. McCray was charged with criminal conspiracy of theft by deception, criminal conspiracy of unlawful use of a computer, criminal conspiracy to commit identity theft, criminal conspiracy of false swearing, receiving stolen property and secure execution of documents by deception. Citing cases of guardians neglecting and robbing seniors in their care, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr. and other lawmakers are calling for states and courts to exercise more oversight. Casey and U.S. Sen. Susan Collins have introduced legislation dubbed the Guardianship Accountability Act. The legislation would require the collection of data on guardianship at the state level, boost funding to share information on background checks and improve sharing information between states. Far too often weve heard horror stories, and thats probably an understatement, of guardians who have abused, neglected or exploited persons subject to guardianship, Casey said at hearing on guardianship in Washington Wednesday. On Wednesday, the Senate Aging Committee released a report that concluded the guardianship system is woefully lacking in oversight. Casey, D-Pa., is the committees ranking Democrat and Collins, R-Maine, is the panels chairwoman. All guardians should be subject to criminal background checks, the Senate report recommended. The report also called for better scrutiny of how guardians manage money and the need for more uniform laws on guardianship nationwide. Cases of guardians exploiting those in their care have gained national attention in recent months. Earlier this month, four people in Nevada pleaded guilty to stealing from their clients. One of the four, April Parks, admitted in court that her business, A Private Professional Guardian, stole from hundreds of people. The Senate report cited another case where two people in North Carolina lost hundreds of thousands of dollars because a guardian took advantage of them. Courts can appoint individuals to serve as guardians in cases where people are aging and have difficulty managing their finances or for those with intellectual disabilities. In many cases, courts appoint a family member but they will also tap someone outside the family to fill that role in certain cases. Across the country, there are 1.3 million adults - and an estimated $50 billion in assets - under the oversight of guardians, according to the Senate panels report. Lawmakers need to take steps to ensure trust in the guardianship system, Casey said. It is abundantly clear that something has to be done, Casey said. A report released today by @SenateAging finds that the guardianship system often lacks basic protections & leaves vulnerable Americans at risk of exploitation. We must close the gaps in the system, which is why @SenBobCasey & I authored the Guardianship Accountability Act. Sen. Susan Collins (@SenatorCollins) November 28, 2018 Advocates say states and court systems need more information to make better decisions before appointing someone to serve as a guardian, including information about relevant convictions or a history of abuse as a guardian. Providing accurate information to courts making these decisions, which have such an extraordinary impact on individual lives and freedom, is essential, Karen Buck, executive director of the SeniorLAW Center in Philadelphia, wrote in prepared remarks to the Senate panel. The Senate panel issued other key recommendations: More monitoring: Courts should monitor guardianship arrangements more thoroughly and more frequently. Closer scrutiny of finances: Courts should work work with financial institutions to flag suspicious transactions. Banks should be trained to notify courts in cases involving guardians. Better training: Guardians, families and court staff should be trained to spot signs of elder abuse. More alternatives to guardianship: States should promote and encourage options such as limited guardianship. Creation of a national resource center: Such a center could publish and provide essential data for courts, policy makers, families and advocacy groups. Statewide data registries: Each state should have one place to collect and distribute data on guardianship. The Associated Press contributed to this report. READ MORE: On another issue of importance to seniors and their families, PennLive published a special report examining the state of nursing homes two years after state regulators promised improvements. Read the report: Still Failing The Frail. A judge says former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane must report to a suburban Philadelphia jail by Thursday morning to start serving a 10- to 23-month perjury sentence. Judge Wendy Demchick-Alloy said there is no longer any reason for Kane to remain free, one day after the state Supreme Court declined to take up her appeal. Kane, a Democrat, has been out on $75,000 bail since her October 2016 sentencing to 10 to 23 months for leaking grand jury information and lying about it. Given that the rationale for [the] defendant remaining at liberty pending appeal has expired, post-sentence bail is revoked, the judge wrote, imposing a 9 a.m. Thursday deadline for Kane to report to the Montgomery County Correctional Facility. Kane's lawyer, Joshua Lock, has not responded to multiple messages seeking comment. Demchick-Alloy directed the Lackawanna County sheriff to serve a copy of her order on Kane, who lives in Scranton. The Montgomery County district attorney's office formally requested the order earlier Tuesday, arguing the Supreme Court decision was the end of the legal road for the 52-year-old Kane. "Two different appellate courts have reviewed her case, yet her judgment of sentence remains," wrote District Attorney Kevin Steele. "She received a fair trial, her guilt was proven beyond a reasonable doubt and now it is time for her to serve her sentence." Steele's bail revocation motion to Demchick-Alloy anticipated that Kane may have argued the judge had discretion to keep Kane out on bail while she "seeks further state review." Steele said that was only possible under a motion for the high court to reconsider its decision turning down her appeal, which he said could not be done simply to delay the sentence. He said a reconsideration application could only have been for delay purposes. "The Pennsylvania Supreme Court's denial of discretionary review should be considered the conclusion of (Kane's) avenues for direct appeal in state court," Steele argued. Kane was convicted of two counts of felony perjury and seven misdemeanors, including obstruction and conspiracy. The first woman and first Democrat to be elected as Pennsylvania's attorney general, Kane resigned from office after her 20016 conviction. She had argued before Superior Court that she should have been allowed to use evidence of a pornographic email scandal that rocked the state's judicial community as well as evidence related to the Jerry Sandusky child molestation case that her former office prosecuted. The lower appeals court also rejected her argument that she should have been allowed to prevent all Montgomery County judges from handling her case, as well as her claims that evidence against her was illegally obtained and that she had been the victim of selective and vindictive prosecution. In July, Greg Hodnett and his wife, Sherry, were eating dinner at their favorite Italian restaurant when the conversation shifted to an uncomfortable topic death at the racetrack. Jason Johnson, a family friend and fellow sprint car star, had been killed weeks earlier at a Wisconsin speedway. Sherry asked Greg, 49, if he ever worried about dying in a crash. I dunno," he replied casually. You just always think, That will never happen to me. Two months later, tragically, it did. On Sept. 20, Hodnett reportedly lost control of his car and crashed at BAPS Motor Speedway in York County. He died on impact, the county coroner said. The deaths of Johnson and Hodnett, who had 30 World of Outlaws wins between them, have cast a spotlight on one of the riskiest forms of racing. Short-track drivers square off on half- and 3/8th-mile ovals, often dirt tracks, in vehicles that can hit 160 mph. The sport is unregulated in every state except New Jersey, one safety expert told PennLive. According to a recent New York Times report, two-thirds of all racing deaths occur on short tracks. An analysis by the Charlotte Observer found at least 171 drivers died between 1989 and 2014. In central Pennsylvania, at least four short-track drivers have been killed including two at BAPS since 2013. By comparison, a driver hasnt died in a NASCAR race since 2001, when Dale Earnhardt wrecked on the final lap of the Daytona 500. Fred Rahmer, a former Reading driver with more than 400 sprint car wins, said death statistics can be misleading. Hundreds of short-track races occur each weekend, compared to just 41 a year in NASCARs top division the Monster Energy series. Central Pennsylvanias tracks, Rahmer said, are particularly safe. "As far as I can tell, we have one of the best areas in the country to race, he said. Short-track promoters and drivers interviewed by PennLive said their sport has made major safety improvements in recent decades from personal equipment, to track infrastructure, to car manufacturers. Kolten Gouse, the general manager of BAPS, said his track is undergoing a six-figure" offseason overhaul. Several drivers, however, said many speedways have thin profit margins and cant afford major upgrades. Some added they accept the sport is inherently dangerous. Any fatality is tragic, they said, but in some cases unavoidable. Several safety experts and drivers disagreed. Randy LaJoie, a former NASCAR driver, who now sells safety equipment, said short-track racing has continued to lag behind the safety advances in other forms of racing. While safety upgrades can be expensive, he and other experts said, there were smaller, practical changes that can be made. LaJoie said short-track racing would likely always be the most dangerous form of motorsports due to the power of the vehicles. But, he added, making safety improvements could save lives. Its like playing Russian roulette, he said. But with every safety measure, youre taking bullets out of the chamber. ... Greg Hodnett was always an advocate for safety. There were few precautions he didnt take, Sherry Hodnett said. He always wore fireproof clothing and a head-and-neck device. He used arm restraints and a special cushion to protect his knees. At one point, he was even invited to write an article about safety. "He tried to do everything he could do, Sherry said. But even those measures couldnt save Gregs life. As he was coming into Turn 1 at BAPS, Sherry said something likely broke on Gregs car, and it suddenly veered right. His vehicle slammed into a blunt corner of an open area in the retaining wall, and Greg died instantly, the York County coroner said. Sherry said she didnt know how fast Gregs car was traveling but the impact broke his neck, tore his aorta and fractured his skull. Theres no one whos going to be able to survive that, she said. For some drivers, the crash was improbable. Rahmer wasnt at BAPS that night but said the opening Hodnett entered was about the size of a parking space. Rahmer said he was surprised Hodnetts car found its way into the opening under racing conditions. Its hard to do even at slow speed, he said. Hodnetts crash wasnt the first at that particular opening. Two other sprint car drivers told PennLive they lost control of their vehicles and wrecked in the same area. Blane Heimbach of Selinsgrove said he crashed into the opening around 2015. Heimbach said he tore his right rear tire while making the turn. His car, like Hodnetts, veered right and smacked the openings guard rail. Heimbach said the crash destroyed the front of his car, but he was largely unscathed because of the angle of impact. In 2016, Logan Wagner of Harrisonville said a part broke on his vehicle coming into the turn and he lost control. Wagner estimated he was traveling 120 to 130 mph. Unlike Hodnett and Heimbach, Wagner said his momentum carried him over the guard rail, and he flipped at least four times. Wagner said he had scratches and bruises but otherwise escaped major injury. Im just very fortunate to still be alive, he said. Wagner said he didnt blame BAPS Motor Speedway for the crash. The bigger problem, he said, is too many tracks still have openings, and all openings should have padded gates. You cant say, Shame on you, BAPS Motor Speedway, for having that opening, Wagner said, when there are a number of racetracks that have openings. Gouse, the BAPS general manager, told PennLive there are plans in place to install a gate across the Turn 1 entrance to the pit area before the start of the 2019 season. The track also placed plastic barrels of water in the opening to absorb impact for its season-ending race in October. For its season-ending race in October, BAPS Motor Speedway placed water barrels at the opening where Greg Hodnett crashed. The track's general manger told PennLive he expects his facility to have a gate at the opening for the first race of 2019. Mark Pynes | mpynes@pennlive.comMark Pynes One former driver, Donnie Krietz of Sinking Spring, told PennLive the managers of BAPS also called him to ask for advice on how they could make the track safer. A safety expert based in Florida said Hodnetts crash into to the opening should serve as a wake-up call. Stephen Olvey, an associate professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Miami, said other forms of racing, like NASCAR, had recognized the danger of pit openings and introduced the padded gates that Wagner mentioned. The gates were closed during racing, Olvey said. But Olvey suspected many short tracks still didnt have padded gates. Exposed openings like the one where Hodnett died were extremely dangerous, he said, because their blunt edges took the full force of impacts. You hit the opening of a wall thats going to be a very, very injury-producing accident, Olvey said. The kind of thing that can easily cause a fatality, depending on where a persons body is in relation to that piece of wall. ... Steve Inch, the promoter at Selinsgrove Speedway, said his track has attempted to vastly improve safety in recent years, including replacing guard rails and installing catch fences. About 20 years ago, Inch said, the track removed several pit openings and over the years attempted to slant its openings to avoid dangerous edges. "We angled everything back, he said. There's no blunt ends to our openings, there's no abutments that a car could hit directly." Inch added, his track like BAPS added water barrels in the wake of Hodnetts death as an extra precaution. Selinsgrove is also considering the addition of padded gates next year, he said. A major problem, Inch and several drivers told PennLive, is raceways often have thin margins and dont have the money to invest easily in the safety upgrades theyd like. A lot of dirt tracks across the country are what you would call 'mom and pop' businesses," Inch said. Donny Schatz, a North Dakota driver and 10-time World of Outlaws champ, is sympathetic to those concerns. Schatz formerly owned Red River Valley Speedway in North Dakota. He said its week-to-week margins were very tight. Even investing in smaller upgrades like gates and safer walls could be costly. "All those things add up, Schatz said. And if you put it on paper, you don't get your money back. For that reason, Schatz said he was wary of suggesting more tracks should have padded gates. The time it takes to lock and unlock them can also delay races and, because staff are needed to man them, they can be placed at risk. On the other hand, Schatz said, he also had seen them save lives. "I have seen guys hit those gates and it's kept them from hitting a blunt opening, Schatz said. So, yes, I definitely think gates are a good safety feature Some safety experts are less sympathetic to arguments that measures like padded gates are too expensive. "How much is a life worth?" said Olvey, the associate professor at the University of Miami. Olvey, who formerly inspected race tracks for safety problems as a consultant, said there are many small changes tracks can make to improve safety that arent cost prohibitive. "Sure, there's cost but it's not horrific, Olvey said. There's a whole gamut of processes to make it better but at least an effort should be made to improve it." ... The failure to address openings, safety experts and some drivers said, was indicative of larger safety issues in short-track racing. LaJoie, the former NASCAR driver who now promotes safety, said the major and ongoing problem in sprint car racing is the design of the cars. Since Earnhardts death in 2001, NASCAR has overhauled its vehicles. The average car today is a tour-de-force of safety measures compared to earlier counterparts: roll cages were redesigned, crushable materials were added to better absorb impacts, and driver's seats were moved farther away from the door to avoid side impacts like the one that killed Hodnett. Starting in 2019, NASCAR will cut the horsepower of its top cars from 850 to 550 at about half of its tracks. The move is designed to make the cars slower and safer. One of the major reasons sprint car racing is so dangerous is that the vehicles have powerful engines, light frames and a high center of gravity. A sprint car weighs about half that of a passenger vehicle but has approximately 850 horsepower. A typical sprint car (top) produces about the same amount of horsepower as a NASCAR Monster Energy car. A sprint car, however, weighs about 1,800 pounds less. Despite that, LaJoie said, manufacturers of short-track cars have not kept pace with NASCARs changes. "The car builders have been very slow to help the safety industry help the drivers, LaJoie said. I have been battling this for 20 years, and I will continue to battle." Meanwhile, Terry Trammell, a safety consultant for IndyCar and a leading expert in motorsport medicine, said there is a larger problem in short-track racing: awareness. Trammell said he isnt closely involved with sprint car racing, but he distinctly remembered a safety session he held with short-track teams about two years ago. Trammell was surprised by how little the drivers understood about the amount of force involved in crashes and, for instance, the difference between effective padding and ineffective. It was kind of, theyd scratch their heads and go Wow, he said. Trammell pointed to a different example: the 2016 death of Bryan Clauson, a well-known short-track driver. One of the findings of the crash investigation was that Clausons shoulder harness had been improperly anchored. The problem wasnt isolated. Trammell said many drivers were improperly using the straps. "That was a simple thing, he said. They thought they were doing everything right, and it was a lack of understanding about the forces that were applied. The problem, Trammell said, is today, more so than other forms of racing, those issues are more likely to be addressed after a driver dies than before. Last week, several central Pennsylvania tracks said they would take part in a national sprint car council that focused on safety initiatives, improving consistency in rules, and maintaining costs. LaJoie pointed to what he called a cultural issue: many drivers are more interested in spending their money on cosmetic or performance upgrades rather than safety. It simply amazes me somebody will balk at getting a $850 seat for their car but not a $2,000 paint job, LaJoie said. Thats not going to save your life if you hit a wall. ... Some safety experts said theres a clear solution for improving safety in short-track racing: regulation. New Jersey is the only state in the nation that regulates motorsports, Lajoie said. Requirement NJ PA Inspections of tracks Yes No Spot inspections of equipment before racing Yes No EMTs and ambulance on-site during racing Yes No Driver age limit Yes No Head-and-neck restraints for drivers Yes No Tracks must report injury and death stats to state Yes No Full containment seats for vehicles No No The state has had just five deaths in the past 10 years. Its one of the safest states to race in, LaJoie said. New Jerseys regulation is handled by the state police. The police license speedways, inspect them annually and may conduct spot inspections during races. Tracks are required to have emergency personnel on-site and abide by an array of other conditions. Drivers, meanwhile, are required to wear head-and-neck devices and other safety gear, like fireproof clothing. You name it, we regulate it, said Michael Kowalski, a detective sergeant with the states motor racing vehicle control squad. Kowalski said he couldnt comment on the circumstances surrounding Hodnetts death. However, he said pit openings were generally identified during inspections as potential hazards that required mitigation. Greg Hodnett during hot laps at Williams Grove Speedway in June 2017. James Robinson Kowalski said there was no "one size fits all" approach to mitigating that risk because each track was designed differently, but water barrels or some kind of attenuating barrier were a common solution. Several of the drivers PennLive spoke with rejected the idea of regulation. Rahmer described some of New Jerseys rules as absurd. He said many requirements, like wearing head-and-neck restraints, are steps that drivers already take. "All the stuff they do, I don't think it protects them anymore than what we do in Pennsylvania," he said. But other drivers struck a middle ground. Schatz said while he agreed that New Jersey had some rules he thought were nonsensical like a requirement to tape foil over a fuel line it was difficult to argue against annual inspections. I think any time that the state requires an inspection of a facility, I think its going to be good for all involved, Schatz said. Sherry Hodnett, who is advocating for greater safety awareness in the wake of her husbands death, agreed. Hodnett is a hairstylist and said her salon is inspected annually by the state. It made no sense to her, she said, that race tracks werent subject to any regulation. "And Im just doing hair, she said. Im not driving 140-mph-plus on a racetrack. So yes, I absolutely think there should be regulations like that on a race track. At the end of the day, however, most driver and safety experts told PennLive, while every measure should be taken to improve safety at short tracks, there was no way to prevent every death. Heimbach, the Selinsgrove racer, said that was a risk many racers were willing to accept. "Accidents are called accidents for a reason, he said. Sometimes, you cant explain them, sometimes it is what it is. A former DJ for a Lancaster County-based Christian radio station has pleaded guilty to charges that he raped a female victim numerous times between 2013 and 2017. LancasterOnline reports Philip Smith, 52, entered an open plea to eight of the 18 charges he faced, indicating he didnt doesnt have a sentencing agreement with prosecutors. Of those 18 charges, Smith pleaded guilty to seven, which include aggravated indecent assault, unlawful contact with a minor, and sexual assault, according to the report. He also pleaded no contest to one count of rape that allegedly occurred after the victim turned 18. The remaining charges were dismissed. Prosecutor Karen Lynn Mansfield told a reporter with Lancaster Online that the victim agreed with the plea. Smith will be sentenced by Lancaster County Judge Jeffery Wright at a later date. If sentenced to serve the maximum sentence for each charge consecutively, Smith could spend 96 years in state prison and have to pay a $185,000 fine, LancasterOnline reports. The victim approached police with the accusations in April, and Smith was arrested on the same day after police interviewed the victim and consulted with the Lancaster County District Attorneys Office. Smith had been DJ on WJTL-FM, a Christian music station in East Hempfield Township. Smith remains jailed at the Lancaster County Prison in lieu of $250,000 bail. A former Denver Borough tax collector faces criminal charges after authorities said he stole more than $21,000 in tax payments. Brian L. Weaver, 50, served as the boroughs elected tax collector from 2014 to 2016, when he resigned, according to a Wednesday announcement from the Lancaster County District Attorneys Office. Weaver stole the funds and deposited them into a personal account, authorities said, noting that they should have been credited to local property and business owners' tax bills in 2015 and 2016. Authorities said Weaver turned himself in Wednesday afternoon at Magisterial District Judge Nancy Hamills office. Online court documents show that Weaver faces felony charges of theft by deception and theft by failing to make required dispersement of funds, as well as a misdemeanor charge of obstructing administration of government functions. Weaver was arraigned on the charges Wednesday before Hamill. He is to appear for a preliminary hearing at 9 a.m. Dec. 12. Weaver is free from prison on $10,000 unsecured bail, according to online court documents. A Harrisburg police officer followed a stolen car for a couple of minutes through Bellevue Park before the driver blew a stop sign, kicking off a mostly slow-speed chase Sunday morning, Police Commissioner Thomas Carter told city council members Tuesday night. In all, the officer followed the stolen car for four to five minutes, exceeding the speed limit on several occasions, Carter said, without providing the top speeds. Carter appeared at the start of the 6 p.m. city council meeting with his two top-ranking officers to provide an update on the investigation into the Sunday pursuit, which started about 11:35 a.m. and ended about two city blocks before the driver lost control on a dip in the road that sent the car airborne. That dip in the road launched that vehicle and the young man behind the wheel, operating the vehicle lost control of the vehicle and hit and smashed into a tree, Carter said. The impact near 25th and Brookwood streets killed the driver, 15-year-old Kobe Santiago, and seriously injured two of his friends who were passengers, ages 16 and 17. Both teens remain in hospitals, Carter said. Carters comments before council were his first public comments about the fatal crash. He provided several new details that werent previously released, including the fact that the officer had been following the stolen vehicle for several minutes prior to trying to pull the car over. The officer turned on lights and sirens at 20th and Kensington Street after the driver ran a stop sign. The driver refused to stop, and the pursuit, which reached high speeds at times, continued for several more minutes. Carter noted the officer following the stolen car did not see the crash because the officer had stopped and parked. The officer stopped on Hatton Street at Brookwood, he said, while the stolen car continued on Brookwood at even higher speeds. The driver lost control about 519 feet down Brookwood and crashed about 100 feet or more later, according to measurements on Google maps. Its unfortunate Mr. Santiago passed away," Carter said. "My condolences to the family. I have reached out to all three families and have had conversations back and forth through a neutral party. Carter did not say what the departments vehicle pursuit policy is, or whether the officer complied with the departments written directives. But most agencies tell officers only to chase at higher speeds for forcible felonies, not lesser charges like vehicle theft because of the risks pursuits pose, especially in dense urban environments. Mayor Eric Papenfuse told PennLive after the council meeting that he watched the dash cam videos from two patrol cars, the original officer who was following the stolen car and a second trailing patrol car. In my opinion the police should have disengaged sooner and parts of the chase were too fast, he said. But the officers came to a full stop and did not turn down Brookwood. The driver seemed to accelerate after he was no longer being followed and thats when he lost control. The mayor said the incident was a tragic loss of so young a life. Pennsylvania State Police out of Huntingdon County are investigating an incident during which a hunter shot a relative while attempting to clear his gun. Police did not provide ages of the hunters, but said the two blood relatives were hunting in the Robertsdale area on Tuesday afternoon. While leaving the forest, one hunter attempted to clear his .270-gauge rifle and discharged one round, police said. The round struck the relative in the right calf area. The relative was taken to Broad Top Medical Center first, then transported to UPMC Altoona hospital for further treatment. Police said the investigation is pending, but listed the shooting as accidental. A Harrisburg police officer chased a stolen car for two-thirds of a mile through city streets before a supervisor called off the pursuit, Police Commissioner Thomas Carter said Tuesday. The officer stopped the patrol car at Hatton Street and Brookwood Street about 519 feet, or about a block and a half, before the driver of the stolen car lost control after hitting a dip in the road on Brookwood Street at 25th Street and going airborne. The car then crashed into a tree. The officer was far enough away that the officer did not see the crash, Carter said. The impact of the crash Sunday morning killed the driver, later identified as Kobe Santiago, 15, and wounded two of his friends, ages 16 and 17. Glad Im alive, one of the teens wrote on his Facebook page. Hurt, but Im trying my best. RIP Kobe. The other teen suffered more serious injuries that required several surgeries, according to updates posted by relatives on Facebook. Kobes mother , Waleska Santiago, wrote on that teenagers page: Change your life and do good because my son is gone. Santiago told PennLive she had conversations with her son about wanting him to do goodThis is not the way he was supposed to die. The crash has raised questions about whether police followed their policy on vehicle pursuits. The internal investigation into the pursuit is ongoing, Carter said. He would not say whether the pursuit complied with the departments policy. Those policies are confidential from the general public under Pennsylvania law, but many departments tell officers to only pursue vehicles for forcible felonies because of the risks associated with high-speed chases. Chasing stolen vehicles is typically frowned upon by police leaders, because the theft charge usually doesnt outweigh the risks of a prolonged chase to officers or innocent bystanders. The risks are heightened in dense, urban environments. That said, officers have a duty to try to pull over suspected criminals. If a driver refuses to pull over, officers typically relay information about the pursuit over the police radio, including locations and vehicle speeds, and supervisors monitor the information, calling off chases if they deem the risks are getting too high based on weather conditions, time of day, and other factors. What remains unclear from Sundays pursuit is whether the pursuit went on too long under the departments policy. Police have released the locations of where the officer first spotted the stolen car, where the officer stopped and the crash location. The distance between the starting location and crash site is about one mile, which under typical conditions would take about four minutes to drive. Tuesday night, Carter spoke to council members and confirmed the pursuit lasted about four minutes. He also classified the pursuit as mostly slow-speed, with the officer exceeding the 25 mph posted speed limit two times. But police have not released the exact route of the pursuit, the exact vehicle speeds or whether the driver of the stolen car was driving erratically and for how long. Carter would only say the driver started increasing his speeds later in the pursuit. The police car never made any contact with the stolen car, Carter said, debunking some online rumors. Police are still reviewing dispatch records and dash cam video as part of their internal investigation. Carter said he could release additional details later as he is able to confirm them. Police originally said the owner of the stolen car saw the vehicle on Sunday and tried to follow it. The car had been stolen on Thanksgiving Day. But the owner lost sight of the vehicle and called police at 11:35 a.m. The owner last saw the vehicle near 25th and Brookwood streets. The officer spotted the car at 20th and Kensington and tried to pull it over. The driver refused and fled. The pursuit was terminated after the driver of the stolen car was increasing speed, according to the police departments original news release. District Attorney Fran Chardo said Tuesday his office would be reviewing the pursuit. Among the things his intensive inquiry will examine, he said, include whether the pursuit was justified, what the initial offense was, and other surrounding circumstances. Mayor Eric Papenfuse said he was briefed on the pursuit and crash. He said the officer did not turn down Brookwood until after the crash. I did watch the videos and extend my condolences to the family for the tragic loss of so young a life, Papenfuse said. The Google map below shows the starting location, a white dot where the officer stopped and the crash location at 2500 Brookwood, but the map is not intended to reflect the exact route of the pursuit. The exact route has not yet been released but the final leg was along Brookwood Street. Middletown Borough police are seeking information about a series of tire slashings on local streets. Police said tires were slashed on six vehicles Nov. 11 on the 300 block of North Spring Street. Since then, slashing incidents also have been reported on the 400 block of South Wood Street, the 200 Block of Spruce Street and the 100 block of Hillside Road, police said. Police are asking anyone with information about the slashings to contact the Dauphin County Communications Center. By Megan McArdle In 1953, Charles Wilson, then the president of General Motors, famously told a congressional committee that what was good for our country was good for General Motors, and vice versa. A version of that soft industrial nationalism has been Donald Trumps core political philosophy. Though with a codicil: Whats good for both is also very good for one Donald J. Trump. The president has leaped to take the credit when even small numbers of auto jobs were added during his administration. In part that's because of the electoral map; auto manufacturing is heavily concentrated in the Midwestern states that sealed his 2016 victory. But Trump also clearly believes that the way to "Make America Great Again" is to bring back jobs from overseas. When he talks this way, he is looking back to the days of Wilson at GM, when the fortunes of America and its large manufacturers were so tightly linked that Wilson's formula was less a fine bit of self-delusion than a simple statement of fact. During the midcentury peak of U.S. manufacturing prowess, the country's industrial might was the envy of the world, and auto companies were its crowning glory. General Motors was America's largest company, and the state-of-the-art cars rolling off its assembly lines provided highly paid, secure jobs by the hundreds of thousands. When America prospered, so did GM - and when GM prospered, so did America. Wilsonianism has an undeniable appeal, and it's not just helpless nostalgia. The formula's underlying premise, of a common national economic interest, seems vastly preferable to our current politics, which offer little more than a battle to the death between the naked and incommensurable self-interests of various groups. But if a politics of that common national economic interest is possible, it wont come about by simply fetishizing the jobs of 1953. Trump learned that on Monday, when GM announced it was cutting up to 15,000 jobs and shutting several production facilities in the United States and Canada. Trump, predictably, was furious, telling the Wall Street Journal, "They better damn well open a new plant there very quickly." He seemed to be implicitly acknowledging that when he claimed the power to increase manufacturing in the United States, he would also be held responsible if it shrunk. Now that GM has announced a major restructuring, his grandiose claim looks, and was, politically foolish. The truth is that Trump didn't deserve much credit for the jobs added during his first two years in office; he also doesn't deserve much blame for the jobs GM is now shedding. Yes, the tariffs the Trump administration has slapped on foreign steel aren't helping an industry that consumes a whole lot of the stuff. GM's chief executive, Mary Barra, has listed tariffs as among the "headwinds" facing the company and aluminum levies have cost the company a billion dollars by themselves. But a modest increase in the cost of metal that is also borne by their competitors is unlikely to be the whole story. According to Mary Lovely, a trade economist, the tariffs "probably just added to the urgency of doing something to stem losses from unpopular models and production lines." What is spurring the losses? Americans just aren't interested in the smaller sedans many of the affected GM plants manufacture. Between better fuel efficiency and falling oil prices, Americans have greater freedom to indulge their long-standing preference for larger vehicles. As a result, SUVs and crossovers dominate U.S. auto purchases. In a Wilsonian America, GM might have hesitated to shut down production lines entirely, fearing what it would do to relationships with regulators, local communities and labor unions. But that America vanished decades ago, and GM can't afford to stage a historical reenactment of its past glories. That's how it got into so much trouble in 2008. It's a good sign for the company that Barra isn't acting like a traditional GM chief executive, letting things go along as before, hoping that nothing will ever change. Instead of waiting for disaster to force her hand, she is repositioning the company, while times are relatively good, for the market realities and technological changes shaking up the industry. But however good for GM Barras move ultimately proves to be, by Wilsons metric - and by Trumps - America is having a bad week. We no longer live in a country where whats good for big business is good for its workers or for its politicians. There may be no way back to such a place, but if there is, its pretty clear that Trump doesnt have the map. Megan McArdle is a columnist for The Washington Post, where this piece first appeared. Her work appears frequently on PennLive Opinion. By Salena Zito Every morning, students in the sprawling San Juan School District in Utah place their right hands over their hearts and recite a pledge. Despite two centuries of reasons not to honor the American flag, none of the students -- nearly all Native American -- have ever opted out. And they all recite the words in Navajo: To the Sacredness of Our Flag. From the land of the 50 United States of America. We pledge our allegiance to God and our flag. It stands for hope and compassion. We stand united as People of all cultures on our beloved land. We are preserved by the power of peace and harmony. It is a moment of patriotism, aspiration and deep respect for the land -- all spoken in a language that existed well before our country did."We translated (the Pledge of Allegiance), and now we say it for the United States flag, and also for the Navajo Nation flag," said Clayton Long, the bilingual education director for this sprawling school district, located partially within the Navajo Nation reservation. The daily recital is part of Longs efforts for over a quarter of a century to revive his Native American language. Amazingly, many Native American children grow up not knowing how to speak their tribal language. Now 65, Long was raised in a home that only spoke Navajo, which inspired him to make teaching the language his lifes calling. He said: My work has always been aimed at our young people. They are the ones who hold the key to the preservation of our language and other parts of our culture. The San Juan School District is made up of over 3,000 students, over half of whom are Navajo, while the rest of the students are Ute, Hispanic, white or other races. Interestingly, it was modern technology that allowed Long to double down on his efforts to teach an ancient language, not just to the kids in his school district but anyone beyond its limits. This summer, developers at the popular language app Duolingo spotted Longs YouTube channel on Navajo lessons. A representative from Duolingo contacted Long and asked if he could adapt his courses for their app. Long agreed and is now using the app to teach his own kids. Because the program prompts students to translate phrases from English into Navajo using familiar technology, it puts the language lessons in the hands of the students. At the same time, students are helping develop the lessons, which are now available to Duolingos 300 million users. "This collaboration is a dream come true because it reaches young people, it makes them the leaders, but it also exposes the world to our language and our stories in a way I could have never accomplished," Long said. Duolingo, which began seven years ago as a Spanish-English app, now has over 90 language courses, and Navajo is the first Native American tongue to be picked as part of their program, said app representative Mara Awodey. Guatemalan-born computer scientist Luis von Ahn launched the Pittsburgh-based Duolingo after he sold his second high-tech company to Google, which placed him in a pretty fortunate position. I basically wouldnt have to work anymore. What I wanted to do was something related to my passion, which has always been education and language, he said. Its a passion deeply appreciated by the educators in the San Juan School District. Those who spoke the language in the mid-19th century were forced into speaking English by the federal government, said Charlotta Lacey, who has taught Navajo under Long for three years. Now young people are the leaders in the movement to revitalize the language. Long is hoping to expand his program to more schools throughout the country. As far as he knows, just three other American schools -- all in Arizona -- teach Navajo to kids. We have started to talk to other school districts within the Navajo reservation to involve other teachers and students in the development of other Duolingo mini-lessons, said Long. Hopefully, Im around long enough to see ... some more ideas that flow from this. I can see new songs, new dances ..., he said, his voice trembling with emotion. All Americans are treasures, and when you treasure something, you want to preserve it. You want to make it last as long as possible. If the children can see that thats possible, well last for a long time. Salena Zito is a CNN political analyst, and a staff reporter and columnist for the Washington Examiner. Her work appears frequently on PennLive Opinion. COPYRIGHT 2018 CREATORS.COM Kathleen Kane arrived in Harrisburg in 2013 with a portfolio full of campaign promises and filled with promise herself. The newly elected attorney general had run a campaign vowing to clean up the state Capitol and its old-boys network, and she seemed like the person to do it. Shed scarcely settled in before her name was being floated for higher office, including U.S. Senate. By 2016, however, when she resigned as Pennsylvanias first elected female (and Democratic) attorney general, some of those promises had been kept, but she had profoundly betrayed her potential, brought down by a pettiness that was breathtaking in its scope. That journey from crusader to criminal is coming to its rightful conclusion, as Kane heads for prison two years after being convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice. The state Supreme Court this week refused to hear her appeal, and she will now serve her sentence of 10 to 23 months in Montgomery County prison. That should give her plenty of time to reflect on what shes done and how she let down the people of Pennsylvania after such a hopeful start. For Kane did get off to a good start. After the grand jury report on child sex abuse in the Altoona-Johnstown Roman Catholic diocese, she launched the statewide investigation that produced the detailed, shocking report that came out this past summer, which in turn has triggered similar investigations in other states and prompted serious examination in Pennsylvania of our statutes of limitations laws. She also filed the lawsuit against the Golden Living nursing home chain, which led to more attention on the care of nursing home residents. (That suit is still ongoing). Kane also kept her pledge to see whether former attorney general and Gov. Tom Corbett a Republican dragged his feet in the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse case. The investigation concluded that Corbett did not, but in the process, Kane whacked a hornets nest of unrelated political insiderism, uncovering what soon became known as Porngate. The salacious, sexist and racist emails being exchanged by judges, attorneys and others raised serious questions about cronyism and whether defendants could get fair trials when the people who happily exchanged the vile emails stood in judgment on them. Kane dug in. The emails were made public. Dozens in her office were disciplined. The careers of several deputy attorneys general were tarnished, and among the high-level figures tarred by the scandal were two supreme court justices who stepped down and a cabinet secretary who resigned. But Kane felt beleaguered rather than invigorated by the fight, and she soon turned down the path that resulted in her downfall and humiliation. She sought to secretly punish those she felt were against her. She leaked information about them that could only have come from grand jury proceedings, then lied about it. When it came to Machiavellian politics, though, Kathleen Kane was outmatched and outsmarted by the law and people who still cared about it (such as the executive secretary in her office who revealed that Kane had, indeed, signed an oath to preserve grand jury secrecy when Kane had forgotten about it). Unfortunately, there is no adequate penalty Kathleen Kane can pay for undermining public trust, and that is her greatest crime. Her jail time will be relatively short, but we hope she lives with that knowledge for a long time to come. The struggles facing fire and ambulance services across Pennsylvania has left them in critical condition. Between staffing, funding and training issues, these first responders are nearing or have approached the point where they can no longer can guarantee a timely or adequate response to a 9-1-1 call for a fire or ambulance. I have never been one to cry wolf, never in my life, but Im telling you we are in a crisis right now, said Sen. Randy Vulakovich, R-Allegheny County, at a Capitol news conference on Wednesday about the release of a report addressing the issue. A 95-page report not only sounds the alarm but offers 27 recommended actions developed following a nearly two-year study of issues affecting the delivery of emergency services by a commission comprising 39 representatives of fire and EMS organizations, many of whom were in attendance for the news conference. The bicameral, bipartisan commission was created by a Senate resolution Vulakovich sponsored last year. Among the reports recommendations was one calling for a cafeteria of enticements aimed at recruiting and retaining members such as offering tax credits on school and county taxes for volunteer service or college loan forgiveness or providing fire department attire. Others include bolstering funding for simplifying the process to regionalize fire and EMS services, provide state funding for basic first responder training, and develop a mental wellness and stress management protocol to deal with first responders psychological wounds. It also recommended establishing a state fire commission chaired by the state fire commissioner to serve as the lead agency for fire services that would set standards for fire departments and inspect fire companies compliance with them, collect fire data, and identify fire prevention tools and ways to improve service, among other duties. Two other recommendations include reinstating a sprinkler mandate for new one- and two-family homes and repealing or making changes to the fireworks law enacted last year that allowed Pennsylvanians to purchase consumer-grade fireworks but also increased the fire risk. Vulakovich, who co-chaired the commission with Rep. Steve Barrar, R-Chester County, said the recommendations that the commission unanimously approved wont solve all the problems fire and EMS organizations face but they can help to preserve these first responders that are there when we are at our most vulnerable. Barrar called the report a playbook for when the new legislative session begins in January. Our job now is to educate the other members in the House and the Senate to take it as serious as the work done by the commission, he said. Rep. Frank Farry, R-Bucks County, a fire chief and longtime fire service volunteer who served on the commission, added its important that the Legislature prioritize the recommendations and address them in quick fashion. Because quite frankly, the volunteer fire service and our EMS providers are slowly going the way of the dinosaur and we cannot continue to let that happen, he said. The state association of township supervisors last spring passed a resolution calling on the General Assembly and Gov. Tom Wolf to take urgent action to address this crisis in keeping their residents safe and protected. A survey done by a subcommittee of the commission confirmed that the number of active firefighters is on the decline. Considering that more than 90 percent of the states nearly 2,500 fire companies are volunteer organizations, failure to address this staffing crisis carries a steep price tag if they all were to become paid services. The report suggests it might be as high as $10 billion a year. If the legislators in the commonwealth are serious and truly want to help preserve the fire and EMS service, then the Legislature must step up to the plate and act upon all the recommendations of this report, said Charles McGarvey, a Montgomery County municipal fire marshal. He said that doesnt mean just the easy recommendations that come with no cost but those that have some political backlash and monetary support attached. McGarvey specifically cited the recommended sprinkler mandate which was repealed by former Gov. Tom Corbett in 2011 shortly after it took effect because of the opposition mounted by the builders community. A commission member noted sprinklers have proven to extinguish a fire before the first firetruck showed up. Either restore the requirement or give local governments the ability to pass the [sprinkler] ordinance without any kind of appeal by the builders or anyone else, said Ed Mann, a former state fire commissioner who served on the commission. He and others said its going to take a grassroots effort to get the attention of local officials and elected state leaders to focus on the solutions that the report recommends. The commission and members of the first responders are prepared to do just that. Mann said the staffing, funding and training problems that first responders are facing can no longer be ignored. Vulakovich said, We are in a crisis right now and its time we sit down and look at this thing and dont do what government has done in this area for a long time: Neglected it. After a tumultuous nine months of seeing his stellar reputation as a lawmaker and Iraq War veteran tarnished by sexual assault and domestic violence allegations, state Rep. Nick Miccarelli is about to leave his House seat with a generous benefits package intact. Miccarellis 10-year run as a member of the state House of Representatives representing a portion of Delaware County ends on Friday. By sticking around to complete his fifth term of office, Miccarelli becomes eligible for retirement benefits unheard of in the private sector. Miccarelli and 22 other departing House members this year who served 10 years or more will receive medical, dental, vision and prescription insurance for the rest of their lives. Their current or future children can receive them as well until they reach 26 years old. A 36-year-old Republican, Miccarelli dropped his re-election bid after a complaint was filed in February by fellow Republican, Rep. Tarah Toohil of Luzerne County, and a Harrisburg political consultant claiming he violated the Houses general and sexual harassment policy by sexually and physically assaulting them. From the outset of the complaint against him by the women he formerly dated, Miccarelli has strenuously denied any wrongdoing. He continued to maintain his innocence even after the House Republicans' internal investigation found the womens allegations to be credible and after Toohil obtained a three-year protection from abuse order against him. Miccarelli ignored calls from House GOP leaders, Gov. Tom Wolf and others to resign. He accepted having his security privileges revoked, parking space relocated, his seat assignment on the House floor changed, and committee assignments stripped. Even knowing that the findings of the House Republicans internal probe were turned over to the Dauphin County District Attorney Fran Chardos office, making him the subject of a criminal investigation that is still ongoing, didnt cause Miccarelli to step down. Miccarelli and the other retiring House members annual contribution for their insurance coverage is just 1 percent of their final years salary. That 1 percent for departing members this year amounts to $872. Taxpayers will pick up the rest of the yearly tab: $11,332 for single person coverage and $26,799 for a married couple, according to information obtained through a Right to Know request filed with the House. Departing members with dependent children cost even more. Additionally, retiring members and their spouses with 10 years of service also are eligible for long-term care insurance. The cost for that benefit is $842 a year, according to information provided by the House. Senators leaving after eight years of service get similar health and long-term care benefits. For Miccarelli, who got married in February, the annual cost to taxpayers will be $27,641 for his and his wifes health benefits. Additionally, Miccarelli is eligible for a state pension. Based on ballpark estimates calculated by PennLive, the maximum annual annuity he would receive is $32,311, assuming he doesnt retire before the age of 50. Miccarelli said it wasnt a good time for him to talk when reached on Tuesday for comment. Neither Toohil nor the political consultant, who declines to be publicly identified, offered a comment when contacted on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Dauphin County DAs office had nothing to report about its investigation into the womens claims at this point, Chardo said. He noted his office is moving at its own pace independent of the timeline for when Miccarellis House service ends. Miccarellis departure will free up a House security officer who has been assigned to accompany Toohil as she moves about the state Capitol. That was added protection provided to her following the Luzerne County Court issuing a protection order against Miccarelli. Toohil told the New York Times, I always felt, if he lost his political career because I outed him, he would kill me. It was similar fears of harm to their lives and careers that both she and the political consultant, who alleged Miccarelli had drugged her and raped her, kept them from going public with their claims until this year, they said. The women made a point of mentioning in the complaint they filed with the House that Miccarelli carried a firearm while in the Capitol Complex. Toohil noted in her petition for the protection order that Miccarelli once threatened her with a gun, which Miccarelli denied and his lawyers referred to her claims as the vengeful words of a former lover with an agenda." Rep. Leanne Krueger-Braneky, D-Delaware County, whose House district abuts Miccarellis, said in a statement on Wednesday that she considered the Houses kid-glove treatment of Miccarelli that forced Toohil to take extraordinary measures at taxpayer expense to protect herself and her family one of the low points of this past legislative session. She also disclosed for the first time that after she publicly called for Miccarellis resignation, I was forced to request police protection for my house on the advice of Capitol security, she said. Her local police provided that protection by routing extra patrols by her home, she said. The injustice and inequity of that entire situation is something that can never be allowed on our watch again, said Krueger-Braneky, who introduced legislation to reform the way the General Assembly handles harassment complaints involving lawmakers and their staffers. It died due to inaction, but she plans to re-introduce it in the next legislative session. The protection order that Toohil obtained limited Miccarellis access to weapons to his National Guard duties and his communications with Toohil to official legislative interactions. The two, however, made a point of steering clear of one another while at the Capitol. Attorneys for the two women said they were astounded that House members didnt expel Miccarelli as other states had done with their own lawmakers accused of harassment evolving out of the #MeToo movement. Nationally, the Associated Press found that since January 2017 at least 30 state lawmakers have resigned or been expelled from office following allegations of sexual misconduct or harassment, including 24 who left since early in October 2017 as the #MeToo movement gained momentum. But Miccarellis spokesman, Frank Keel, commended the House for not acquiescing to demands for the representatives expulsion. He said in an earlier statement that the womens claims were part of an orchestrated campaign to try an innocent man in the court of public opinion. And its disgraceful." The complaints along with the revelation that House Democrats settled a sexual harassment claim against Rep. Tom Caltagirone, D-Berks County, with a $248,000 taxpayer-funded payout in 2015, sparked interest in looking at how such allegations were handled by the General Assembly. In June, the House passed by a vote of 172-20 a resolution offered by Rep. Sheryl Delozier, R-Cumberland County, and two female Republican House leaders directing the Joint State Government Commission to review the workplace harassment and sexual misconduct complaints in state government agencies and compare their policies related to this behavior. That report is due by June 2019. But further efforts to strengthen policies for reporting and handling harassment complaints, sponsored mostly by Democratic members in addition to Krueger-Braneky, failed to garner enough support to get beyond a House committee hearing. Republican lawmakers said they preferred to await the findings of the commissions study. Delozier said that was a better route to take than to push something through so that we can say we did something. I dont think thats good public policy. Krueger-Braneky said on Tuesday, I wish my caucus had put up a bigger fight when the Republican majority tanked our bills to address sexual harassment and mistreatment of workers in state government -- including my #MeToo bill, HB1965. I wish caucus leaders had shown more leadership in dealing with our own members whove been credibly accused of mistreating women or worse." Still, she is not disheartened by the lack of action. Instead, she remains hopeful that the legislative session that starts in January will present a better opportunity to get something done on this issue. I am more than optimistic that real progress will be made in the coming term -- thanks to the record number of women who ran for the General Assembly this year and to the 11 new women in our caucus,' she said. "The pressure to pass the package of bills surrounding sexual harassment in the workplace, including my bill, which had the greatest number of bipartisan co-sponsors, will be intense -- not just among newly elected members but among the voters who sent them to Harrisburg. Harbor Springs to return to in-person tree lighting, kick off holiday season on Saturday The city of Harbor Springs will again be offering an in-person tree lighting this Saturday to help kick off the holiday season. David Peters Wins Same Rock N Roll Poker Open Two Years In a Row November 27, 2018 Chad Holloway David Peters winning a poker tournament isn't exactly groundbreaking news these days; after all, he has two dozen victories listed on Hendon Mob. Now, it seems the poker pro with nearly $30 million in lifetime earnings is finding new ways to make headlines by going back-to-back to win the same Seminole Hard Rock N Roll Poker Open (RRPO) tournament. Peters' Latest Victory On Monday, Peters was down in Florida firing the one-day Event #16: $5,000 NLH 8-Handed, which surpassed its $250K guarantee by drawing 95 runners and generating a $421,250 prize pool. One notable hand reported via RRPO updates involved William Givens, who raised under the gun and then bet both the flop and turn before jamming the river on an runout. Peters check-called each street with and doubled when Givens showed the . I guess sometimes maybe some guys might not be trying to play too many pots with me or might avoid marginal situations, Peters said after the win. So, I can sometimes take advantage of that. On the flip side, you have some guys that are ready to battle. I dont think any of these guys were scared or anything like that. Others to cash the tournament but fall short of the final table were Chad Eveslage (9th - $14,318), Mykel Comroe (10th - $13,086), Paul Fisher (11th - $12,184) and Joe McKeehen (12th - $11,290). Seminole Hard Rock RRPO $5K 8-Handed Final Table Results Position Player Country Prize 1 David Peters USA $143,159 2 Guillaume Diaz France $85,738 3 Alex Haber Jamaica $54,150 4 Joey Weissman USA $34,972 5 Jake Schwartz USA $27,075 6 Stanley Lee USA $21,434 7 Jeff Gross USA $18,050 8 William Givens USA $15,794 Back-to-Back Peters David Peters winning the same event at 2017 Rock N Roll Poker Open. It marked the second year in a row Peters took down the tournament. In November 2017, he bested a 61-entry field to win the title for $104,309. Not only did he go back-to-back, but he also did it wearing the same shirt! Isnt that the same shirt you wore last year?! Peters girlfriend asked after the final card was dealt, as reported by Seminole Hard Rock reporters. Yeah, it is. I bought you that shirt. Peters would add: Its kind of crazy. It was a fun tournament. Im wearing the same sweatshirt and everything. Things went pretty well at the final table early on. Then I lost a bunch of chips and I battled back and it worked out. Last year, Peters had to defeat Scott Wright in heads-up play to win the title. Heres a look at that final table: Position Player Country Prize 1 David Peters USA $104,309 2 Scott Wright USA $61,282 3 Gediminas Uselis Lithuania $38,392 4 Alexander Timman France $26,078 5 Nicholas Shwarmann USA $20,283 6 Paul Domb USA $15,936 7 Peter James USA $13,039 8 Ray Qartomy USA $10,431 Images courtesy of the Seminole Hard Rock 464 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard By Mark Hosenball WASHINGTON (Reuters) Three Senate Democrats complained on Wednesday that the CIA is refusing to make public important information about Gina Haspel, the senior undercover officer President Donald Trump has nominated to be the intelligence agencys next director. Senators Dianne Feinstein, Ron Wyden and Martin Heinrich, members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement that the Central Intelligence Agencys response to congressional requests for information on Haspels career at the agency has been wholly inadequate. The senators complaint raises new questions about whether Haspel will have enough support in the Intelligence Committee and the full Senate to win confirmation. Concealing her background when no sources and methods are at stake shows nothing but contempt for the Senate and public, the senators said. They said the public needs to know more about Haspels role as a senior manager for a program that has been shown to be deeply flawed, as well as a number of other disturbing facts about her record. Haspel served as chief of the CIA station in Thailand when the agency was operating a secret prison there. In 2002 suspected Islamic extremists captured before and after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and the Pentagon were questioned there using enhanced interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, that later were condemned as torture. A 2011 internal CIA review cleared Haspel of wrongdoing, according to a memorandum the agency declassified and released on April 20. [L1N1RX1YV] Late on Tuesday, the CIA sent Heinrich a letter saying all senators should be given an opportunity to review important materials about Haspel that remain secret in appropriate classified forums. The agency said it was actively working to declassify more information about her. During President Barack Obamas administration, the intelligence committee, then chaired by Feinstein, investigated the CIAs rendition, detention and interrogation program. The agency gave congressional investigators access to some of its top secret files, but the three Democratic senators said files with details of Haspels role in the program remain classified. In a December 2011 memo that the CIA recently made public, Michael Morell, then the agencys deputy director, reported that while serving at CIA headquarters in 2005, Haspel drafted a cable authorizing the destruction of videotapes of some of the harsh interrogations. Morell said Jose Rodriguez, then Haspels boss and head of CIA undercover operations, sent the cable overseas without notifying Haspel or obtaining then-CIA Director Porter Gosss approval. (Reporting By Mark Hosenball; Editing by John Walcott and Cynthia Osterman) 558 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Even after Donald Trump pushed irresponsible lies about climate change in the wake of the deadly California wildfires, a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives is coming together to propose a landmark piece of legislation that would tax fossil fuel corporations for polluting the air. According to The Hill, A bipartisan group of lawmakers is introducing a landmark bill that would charge fossil fuel companies a tax for their carbon dioxide emissions. If the legislation was signed into law, it could potentially reduce greenhouse emissions by 40 percent over the next decade. More from the report: The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act, announced by two Republicans and three Democratic members of the House on Tuesday, would charge $15 for each ton of carbon emitted into the air and would increase that fee by $10 every year afterward, in an effort to fight climate change. Other than administrative costs, all of the money would go back to taxpayers. Supporters say the bill would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent in 10 years, and 91 percent by 2050. Thats a bigger cut than former President Obamas Clean Power Plan or the United States commitment under the Paris climate agreement a pact Trump has promised to exit. Introduced weeks before Congress ends for the year, the legislation is unlikely to get serious House consideration in this session. But with Democrats ready to take control of the House in January, the bill is poised for potential future consideration and will likely be a major marker of where lawmakers from both parties can agree on tackling climate change. The bipartisan proposal comes after Trump blamed Californias wildfires on forest management, then said that raking the forest floors would prevent similar disasters in the future. In another tweet more recently, Trump responded to dropping temperatures by asking, Whatever happened to Global Warming? Brutal and Extended Cold Blast could shatter ALL RECORDS Whatever happened to Global Warming? Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2018 Even Republicans are feeling the heat on climate change Despite Trumps poor understanding of climate change, the fact that some Republicans are willing to support action to protect the environment suggests that the politics of this issue could be shifting. While The Hill points out that the legislation is unlikely to get out of the House especially not while Republicans are in control of it its very existence could signal that even the GOP is finding it difficult to avoid taking action on climate change. This is especially true as deadly storms become increasingly powerful and deadly all across the country, in both red and blue states. Whether or not this bipartisan legislation gets through Congress during its current session, it will likely give Democrats more momentum on this issue as they take control of the House next year. Follow Sean Colarossi on Facebook. 2.9k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski could do nothing but change the subject and stutter through his answer on Tuesday after Ari Melber decimated his lies about the economy under Donald Trump. During the interview on MSNBC, Melber nailed Lewandowski for trying to defend Trumps economic policies even as the deficit skyrockets and GM announces plant closures. Is it wrong to run on something and then do the opposite? Melber asked. You told people in these other parts of the country, Were going to help you, were going to shrink the deficit, and youre growing it. Video: The fiery exchange: MELBER: I want to hold you on the deficit because thats what he ran on. Thats what Paul Ryan and other Republicans take a look. Lets show the economic facts. Barack Obama leaves with a $587 billion deficit that was decreasing. Donald Trump and the Republicans come in, it jumps to $782 billion and now theyve lost control of the Congress. Is it wrong to run on something and then do the opposite? LEWANDOWSKI: Look, if thats the case, no politician would ever run for office. Because we see this from political party to political party, regardless. They say one thing, and they get into Washington, D.C., and they do something different. MELBER: Now you sound like them because youre blaming other people, blaming the swamp, blaming the politicians. Im asking you, you ran the 2016 campaign. You went around and you told people in these other parts of the country, were going to help you, and were going to shrink the deficit, and youre growing it. LEWANDOWSKI: We also said were going to create new jobs. Were going to bring back our manufacturing base. Were going to increase our GDP from what was 1.2% and 1.3% as the new normal to 3.5 to 4%, and thats where we are. The other thing this president did is he refunded the military to the levels that had been decimated in the previous eight years under Obama and he gave the men and women in uniform the first pay raise in a decade. MELBER: Do you think when you change the topic from the economy to the military that makes it look like the economy is weak? I see what youre doing, youre just changing the topic. MELBER: I just showed you the deficit going down under Obama and up under Trump. And what you want to talk about is the military and history. Were talking about your guy. Youre having a lot of trouble tonight defending your guy on the economy. Trumps economic doctrine is failing Throughout his presidency, Trump has tried to coast by on the economic successes of Barack Obama. That strategy seems to be wearing thin. Not only was the Trump-GOP tax overhaul a massive giveaway to the wealthiest individuals and corporations, but it has completely blown up the deficit. At the same time, Trumps trade war has been devastating for the very same people that voted heavily for the president. As PoliticusUSAs Jason Easley pointed out on Tuesday, Trumps trade war is going to slow down the economy and cost 2.75 million Americans their jobs over the next decade. All of this goes without mentioning the newly announced GM plant closures in some of the same communities Trump promises to revive. While Trump is still living off successes of the Obama administration in many ways, his economic doctrine is finally starting to rear its ugly head. Follow Sean Colarossi on Facebook. 8.2k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard According to a jaw-dropping new report from The New York Times, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was secretly feeding info to the president at the same time he agreed to cooperate with the special counsel investigation. The revelation indicates that Manafort was essentially playing for both sides, likely with the hope of getting a pardon from Trump. More from the Times: A lawyer for Paul Manafort, the presidents onetime campaign chairman, repeatedly briefed President Trumps lawyers on his clients discussions with federal investigators after Mr. Manafort agreed to cooperate with the special counsel, according to one of Mr. Trumps lawyers and two other people familiar with the conversations. The arrangement was highly unusual and inflamed tensions with Mr. Muellers office when prosecutors discovered it after Mr. Manafort began cooperating two months ago, the people said. Some legal experts speculated that it was a bid by Mr. Manafort for a presidential pardon even as he worked with the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, in hopes of a lighter sentence. Rachel Maddow pounced on the news Tuesday night, asking, Is that legal? Rachel Maddow reports on another bombshell: Paul Manafort was giving Trump info about Muellers investigation even after agreeing to cooperate with the special counsel. #ctl #p2 #Maddow pic.twitter.com/Px7NubIZ06 PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) November 28, 2018 Maddow said: We started yesterday with the news that prosecutors say Manafort broke their plea agreement. He lied to them so theyre rescinding the deal. Now we get the news that Paul Manafort, while he was supposedly cooperating with prosecutors, at the same time he was feeding information to the president about the investigation, including about his discussions with prosecutors and what prosecutors were asking him about when he was supposedly cooperating with them. First off, wow. Secondly, is that legal? Can you do that? Manafort is still holding out for a presidential pardon Clearly, in Manaforts mind, it was more important to stay on the good side of Trump rather than investigators, which further indicates that he hopes all of this ends in a presidential pardon. As the report pointed out, Even if the pact was mostly informal at that point, law enforcement experts said it was still highly unusual for Mr. Manaforts lawyers to keep up such contacts once their client had pledged to help the prosecutors in hope of a lighter punishment for his crimes. The Times added, citing former United States attorney Barbara McQuade, that Manafort must have wanted to keep a line open to the president in hope of a pardon. Im not able to think of another reason, she said, according to the report. Clearly, the special counsel wasnt about to be played by Manafort, which is why they tore the plea agreement to shreds after he was caught lying to them. Ultimately, Manaforts knows his only hope of being a free man is to get the president to wipe away his crimes with a pardon. Follow Sean Colarossi on Facebook. By John Whitesides (Reuters) 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, Id 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. Shes not the sure thing she was a few weeks ago, said Nathan Shrader, a political science professor at Millsaps College in Jackson, the states 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. Espy denied the charge and said we all know what came out of your mouth. He has said the comment perpetuated negative stereotypes about Mississippi and hurt investment. Hyde-Smith, 59, has touted her support for Trump and her endorsement by the president, who won Mississippi by 18 percentage points in 2016. Trump held two get-out-the-vote rallies in the state on the eve of the election. Got to get out and vote, dont take any chances, he told supporters in Tupelo. Your vote on Tuesday will decide whether we build on our extraordinary achievements or whether we empower the radical Democrats to obstruct our progress. The runoff to serve the last two years of former Republican Senator Thad Cochrans term was necessary because neither Espy nor Hyde-Smith gained more than 50 percent of the vote in a Nov. 6 special election with four candidates. Cochran, 80, resigned earlier this year, citing health concerns. The last contest of the midterm election cycle, Tuesdays election will not affect the balance of power in the new Congress that sits in January. Republicans will still hold a Senate majority even if Hyde-Smith loses, while Democrats will take control of the House of Representatives. A lack of public polling has contributed to uncertainty about the race. Mississippi Democrats hope to recreate the coalition that propelled Democrat Doug Jones to a Senate victory in neighboring Alabama last year by energizing black voters, particularly women, and winning support from white swing voters. Espy, 64, has campaigned as a moderate who would work with Trump and Republicans to benefit the state. Shrader said Espy had done a good job of walking the fine line of appealing to Republicans while still generating enthusiasm among Democrats. Hyde-Smith is relying on her Republican affiliation and her loyalty to Trump and that might be enough, he said. (Editing by Colleen Jenkins and; Sonya Hepinstall) 5k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Ivanka Trump called for an end to the Robert Mueller Russia investigation that has ensnared her father, husband, and brother. Transcript: Q: How concerned are you about the Mueller investigation? Ivanka Trump: Im not. Q: Youre not. Trump: I know the facts as they relate to me and my family. I have nothing to be concerned about. Q: Do you think it should continue? Trump: I think it should reach its conclusion. I think its been a long time. I want it to be done in way in which nobody could question it was hurried or rushed. After this long period of time were well beyond that point. I think it absolutely should reach its conclusion. Video: Ivanka Trump called for an end to the Robert Mueller Russia investigation that has ensnared her father, husband, and brother. https://t.co/YulbG9iuJs pic.twitter.com/gh5RvrzptF PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) November 28, 2018 The investigation should be doing the opposite of shutting down. A clear picture is emerging of a conspiracy between friends of Donald Trump, the Trump campaign, Wikileaks, and Russia to use criminally obtained emails to influence a presidential election. The standard White House line has been that they arent worried about the investigation, while Donald Trump loses his mind on Twitter every single day over the Mueller investigation. For example, as Ivanka Trump was saying that no one is worried, her father tweeted: While the disgusting Fake News is doing everything within their power not to report it that way, at least 3 major players are intimating that the Angry Mueller Gang of Dems is viciously telling witnesses to lie about facts & they will get relief. This is our Joseph McCarthy Era! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 28, 2018 Trump is claiming that Robert Mueller is Joe McCarthy while Ivanka is acting like things are great. Robert Mueller isnt going to stop investigation because of pressure from Ivanka Trump. The roof is about to cave in on the Trumps, and statements of leave my daddy and husband alone arent going move the needle as Mueller freight train of justice heads straight for the Trumps. For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group. Follow Jason Easley on Facebook. 599 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard The love fest between Beto ORourke and aides and allies of former President Barack Obama is growing. More and more of these Obama people are saying that they could support ORourke if he decides to run for president in 2020. The charismatic U.S. Representative from Texas has inspired millions of people because of the great campaign he ran against entrenched Republican Senator Ted Cruz. Although ORourke lost, Obama allies say there are many similarities between ORourke, 46, and Obama, who was just 47 when he was elected to the presidency. Some of the similarities seem a big tenuous. For example, they point out that both are political upstarts with unusual names who came out of nowhere to inspire millions of people to become part of a movement. In fact, say many Obama supporters, ORourke is a 2020 version of their former boss. That ability to make people feel invested in his campaign and his story does remind me of Obama 08, said David Litt, who was a speechwriter for Obama. You see the crowds and the enthusiasm, the kind of movement that isnt about me but about us. Litt is the the author of a book called Thanks, Obama: My Hopey Changey White House Years. He maintains that ORourke, like Obama, is the kind of candidate that would inspire his staff member to work hard and go the extra mile. They wanted to put in an extra shift or make a dozen phone calls on his behalf or talk to their neighbors because they really believe in him, Litt said. And even when he came up short, everyone felt like they had achieved something great. There are very few people who can inspire that kind of sentiment. Another former Obama staff member said ORourke, even after losing his Senate bid, has energized the party like no one since the former president. The party hasnt seen this kind of enthusiasm since Obama, the person said. There isnt one other potential candidate out there that has people buzzing. And thats exactly why people supported Obama and why theyll support Beto. Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior adviser to Obama, recently made the case for why ORourke should run. I have never seen a Senate candidate including Obama in 2004 inspire the sort of enthusiasm that Beto did in this race, Pfeiffer said. If ORourke runs he would be one of the strongest candidates in the field. Millions of people already believe in Beto ORourke and that moment for them and him, may be upon us, he added. Even Barack Obama himself has talked about ORourkes potential candidacy for the presidency. Impressive young man who ran a terrific race, Obama told David Axelrod, his chief strategist in the 2008 campaign. What I liked most about his race was that it didnt feel constantly poll-tested, Obama said. It felt as if he based his statements and his positions on what he believed. And that, youd like to think, is normally how things work. Sadly, its not. Obama is not endorsing anyone before the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries that might include his former Vice President Joe Biden. Weve got a number of other people who fall into that same category, Obama said. But still, Obamas supporters were impressed by his very positive comments about ORourke. The reason I was able to make a connection with a sizable portion of the country was because people had a sense that I said what I meant, Obama said. What I oftentimes am looking for first and foremost is, Do you seem to mean it? It is becoming more apparent each day that Obama people noticed ORourkes fast ascension from little-known politician to Democratic rock star. More of them are saying they see a strong resemblance to Obama, the last Democrat elected president who is still extremely admired within his party. Litt said he realized that ORourke was special when he was on a book tour in Italy in September. All these Italians kept asking me, Can Beto win in Texas? And I was like, How do you even know this person? Litt recalled. ORourke has one particular strength that may propel him to the presidency: fundraising. He broke a fundraising record when he raised more than $38 million from July through September earlier this year for his Senate campaign. Political experts say that what will weed out potential 2020 candidates is the ability to raise money. They also say that the best fundraisers will be the strongest candidates, and ORourke is one of the best fundraisers theyve ever seen. With charisma, money, and the support of Obama people, Beto ORourke could end up being one of the strongest contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020. 441 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard During an Oval Office interview with The Washington Post on Tuesday Donald Trump said he has a backup plan he may implement if Congress rejects his demand for $5 billion in funding for his border wall. Such a backup plan might include the ongoing deployment of U.S. Army troops at the border and more extensive use of razor wire to prevent undocumented immigrants from entering the United States. By talking about a Plan B Trump signalled that he might be changing his position on the border wall issue in advance of a December 7 funding deadline. The president had previously said that he would force a government shutdown if Congress didnt approve $5 billion for the wall project. Republicans are still in control of both the House and Senate until the new Congress convenes in January when Democrats take over House control. But, as always, Trump put the blame on Democratic members of Congress for holding up the funding he needs to build the border wall. We need Democrat votes to have a wall, he said. Then he added: 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. Trump has deployed nearly 6,000 troops to the U.S. border with Mexico so far. They have been used to put in place over 12 miles of razor wire. The wire has been set up at key border crossing points, including at the San Ysidro crossing. That crossing is where U.S. border agents fired tear gas at migrants attempting to cross into the country from Tijuana. Widely publicized photographs of mothers and children running away from tear gas have caused outrage throughout the country over the past three days. Trump said that videos and images of crowds of migrants rushing the border would sway public opinion against Democrats. Clearly he thinks that his approach is helping him politically. He told the Post: We desperately need a wall. I think thats been shown better than ever in the last short period of two weeks that we need a wall. I see the Democrats are going to want to do something, because they understand, too. Those pictures are very bad for the Democrats. The Department of Homeland Security and several other key federal agencies will shut down at the end of next week if Congress and the president do not act to pass a stopgap funding bill. Since Trumps presidency began almost all Democrats and a few Republicans have refused to spend billions of taxpayer dollars on a border wall. Since this was one of his primary campaign promises, the lack of progress on building a wall has, he believes, made him look bad. Of course Trump promised during the campaign and at the beginning of his presidency that the border wall would be paid for by Mexico. When it became clear that this would not happen he stopped mentioning it, and started blaming Congress especially Democrats for not giving him the money he needs to fulfill his campaign promise. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that negotiations with Democrats and the Trump administration were continuing. Were trying to get the president the money he would like for the wall, McConnell said. Senate Democrats had agreed to a bipartisan $1.6 billion wall funding deal earlier this year. We believe that is still the right way to go, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said. If theres any shutdown, its on President Trumps back. There may still be a government shutdown if the president believes he has to continue to talk (and look) tough for his base of anti-immigrant supporters. However, because he said he is considering a backup plan if wall funding is not provided, it is more likely that he will go with Plan B and try to save face while continuing the improper use of military troops to provide border security. 2.3k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard President Donald Trump will prevent CIA Director Gina Haspel or any other United States intelligence officer from speaking to the U.S. Senate concerning the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, an exiled Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist. According to a new report by The Guardian newspaper, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis, will jointly give a briefing on relations with Saudi Arabia to the entire Senate on Wednesday. This will be a closed door session, not open to the press. After the hearing will come a Senate vote that could cut off United States support for Saudi Arabias military campaign in Yemen. Haspel, the only person who has heard a recording of the murder of Khashoggi, will not be allowed to brief the senators on what she knows. Late last month she went to Istanbul to personally listen to the tapes of Khashoggis murder that are in possession of Turkish Intelligence. After returning to Washington Haspel briefed President Trump, but he refused to listen to the tapes himself. The CIA subsequently concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) ordered the murder of Khashoggi which took place on October 2 the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Senators had been expecting to hear on Wednesday from Haspel, but instead they will be briefed only by Pompeo and Mattis. Julian Borger of the Guardian wrote that it would be customary for a senior intelligence official to take part on such an important national security issue. Officials made it clear that the decision for Haspel not to appear in front of the committee came from the White House, Borger wrote. He then added: According to Senate staffers there is always an intel person there for a briefing like this. It is totally unprecedented and should be interpreted as nothing less than the Trump administration trying to silence the intelligence community. The CIA concluded with high level of confidence that Mohammed bin Salman ordered the murder of the dissident journalist. Trump has dismissed the CIA conclusion, offering continuing support of the Crown Prince. When asked if he agreed with the CIAs conclusion that MBS had ordered Khashoggi killed, Trump responded by saying maybe he did and maybe he didnt. They didnt conclude. Then he added, No no, they didnt conclude. Im sorry. No they didnt conclude. They did not come to a conclusion. They have feelings certain ways I dont know if anyones going to be able to conclude the crown prince did it. Trumps support of the crown prince is not shared by many senators. Several have decided to vote against continuing military support to Saudi Arabia for their war in Yemen which has killed more than 50,000 people. The Saudis use of economic blockades has caused widespread famine, and international relief agencies estimate that 85,000 children are dying of starvation. Because of this, Trump is nervous that the Senate will vote against continuing support for Riyadh and Prince Mohammed, which would cause him to lose face with someone who is one of his biggest business supporters. Trumps failure to let the CIA Director testify in front of the Senate on a matter of U.S. intelligence is just one more example of how he puts his personal business interests ahead of the interests of the country which he has sworn to serve. Charleston, SC (29403) Today Mainly sunny to start, then a few afternoon clouds. High around 65F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low 51F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. School officials will tell you the first thing on parents minds these days is safety. With good reason. Trouble is, no one can agree on the best way to stop deranged lunatics with military-grade assault weapons from slaughtering kids at will. Some parents want metal detectors in every school. Others demand a cop be stationed on every campus. A few want to arm teachers. Many ask for bulletproof doors in every classroom. Sometimes their requests are not feasible or are contradictory. They want their children to be safe but dont want them to feel like they go to school in a fortress. Or a prison. Its all understandable and impossible. As Paul Bowers reported, Lowcountry school districts are spending millions on security in the wake of the Parkland, Fla., massacre. They are hiring security guards, buying tourniquet kits and training school personnel in self-defense techniques. Theyre supposed to be teaching trigonometry. Instead, theyre learning triage. This is a problem on many levels, but the critics only say its simply too expensive to do all this. Sorry, but anyone who argues the Second Amendment precludes modest laws on background checks and bump stock bans doesnt get to complain. Consider it the price of freedom. Unfortunately, none of this stuff actually guarantees safety. This is what the world has come to: The Washington Post reports that places like Walmart and Home Depot are now selling bulletproof backpacks. When kids are wearing Kevlar-plated Dora the Explorer book bags, thats a sign society has lost its ever-loving mind. School security has become a $2.7 billion industry in recent years, and that doesnt even count the cost of personnel. Companies are selling bulletproof whiteboards, trauma kits and surveillance cameras. A local company loaned the Charleston County School District three of its bulletproof doors as a test. Sign up for our new opinion newsletter Get a weekly recap of South Carolina opinion and analysis from The Post and Courier in your inbox on Monday evenings. Email Sign Up! Installing one in every classroom in Charleston County would cost about $100 per resident or $800 per student. And it wouldnt stop them from getting shot through a window. Fact is, there are shootings at schools with metal detectors, security cameras and just about every other safety measure out there. That doesnt mean they dont help, but perhaps folks should listen to the people who actually work in schools. All this madness inspired Wando High English teacher Patrick Martin to start the Safe Schools Project, which has as its motto Ask a teacher. Teachers will tell what they dont want: to turn schools into prisons or militarize faculties. Schools dont pay enough to keep teachers on staff, much less ask them to take combat medical training or self-defense courses. And no, they dont want to carry guns. Which is a laughable proposal since most of them have to spend their own money to stock their classrooms with crayons and copier paper. Whos going to pay for all those Glocks? Charleston County School Board member Priscilla Jeffery used to teach at a large school in Denver. And they know a little something about school shootings in Colorado. Jeffery says the school had its own security team, one person per floor. But they werent in uniform and they doubled as counselors. They got to know their students, talked to them and learned which ones had problems. Thats not so different from the Safe Schools Projects idea. It promotes hiring guidance counselors who can help kids work out their issues. This is key because, in many cases, school shooters are troubled students. And its much better to stop shootings before they occur. Thats also a good idea because, as school board member Cindy Bohn Coats says, getting resource officers on every campus is as much a staffing issue as a cost problem. They cant hire enough people and train them fast enough. And, as The Post reported, 40 percent of the schools that suffered mass shootings had security on site, and it did no good. Madmen are forcing schools to chase the impossible, and its distracting from the actual job of schools: education. Perhaps a better idea is to help kids work out issues before they get disgruntled and get a gun. It may even be cheaper than armor and help even more students. Thats about the best solution there is, at least until politicians give school safety priority over NRA report cards. Reach Brian Hicks at bhicks@postandcourier.com. A former Mount Pleasant speech therapist who filed nearly $2 million worth of phony health care claims with the federal government over a five-year span was sentenced Wednesday to nine years in prison. Following a four-day trial argued by the S.C. Attorney General's Office and the U.S. Attorney's Office in July, Gena Randolph, 44, was convicted on one count each of health care fraud, aggravated identity theft and three counts of making false statements related to health care matters, prosecutors said. According to a federal indictment in 2017, Randolph was not permitted to submit Medicaid and Medicare claims in 2012 and 2013 as a result of pleading guilty to providing false statements to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. However, she did so anyway by using other provider names and companies, authorities said. Randolph submitted bogus claims for services she never provided. She also used the names of patients who were deceased to pose as beneficiaries, the indictment stated. Randolph's prison sentence will be followed by three years of court supervision, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office. She must also pay roughly $580,937 in restitution. Previously, she had also been sued in federal court by Illinois-based Select Rehabilitation Inc. for breach of contract and allegations stemming from her being barred from participating in federal health care programs. The case, though, was settled by both parties after reaching an agreement in 2016. This case should serve as a warning sign to health care providers tempted try to take advantage of the size of our health care system, hoping that false and fraudulent claims will go unnoticed among the thousands of claims processed every day, U.S. Attorney Sherri Lydon said in a statement. When providers like Ms. Randolph break the rules, American taxpayers are forced to bear the cost. Her sentence will help recover that cost and discourage fraudulent billing by other providers in the future," she added. Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero's administration is pursuing a plan which has been talked about in the government of Guam for years to somehow prov Read more Those women, ages 24 and 43, also allege they met Daigre through online dating sites and had consensual sexual encounters with him in early 2016 that he secretly filmed with a camera near the ceiling of his South Loop studio apartment, according to prosecutors. Daigre then allegedly sent sexually explicit still images of the women via text message to another person without the womens consent, prosecutors allege. The news is filled with images of migrants massing at the U.S-Mexico border in California. Why havent they been able to enter the United States? Because a physical barrier prevents them from doing so. It is just another example of a barrier a fence, a wall, whatever providing real border security. Of course, building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border was President Trumps premier campaign promise. So far, in nearly two years in office, he has made almost no progress toward making it happen. Trump has had opportunities to win wall funding in exchange for amnesty for recipients of President Obamas Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, policy. But the White House loaded its wall proposal with add-on demands, and it never happened. Building a wall would cost an estimated $25 billion. Trump often says that he has already gotten $1.6 billion to start work. But Congress has specifically dictated that most of that money not be used for the presidents wall. Some of it can be used to build new fencing not the wall designs that the administration has tested while other money is restricted to the replacement of existing fencing. There was talk that Trump might win $5 billion for wall funding during the lame-duck session as House Republican lawmakers finish their last few weeks in power. The chances of that happening are not good. So what now? Even as events on the border are showing the value of a wall, politics in Washington are making it impossible to construct one. What to do? First, understand the problem. In California, the migrants are targeting a part of the border where there is a barrier. But much of the borders 1,954 miles remains uncovered. According to the Border Patrol, 354 of those 1,954 miles are protected by what is called pedestrian primary fence, which is a single-layer fence. Another 37 miles are pedestrian secondary fence, that is, double-layer fencing. And 14 miles are pedestrian tertiary, or triple-layer fence. In addition, 300 miles are covered by vehicle fencing, which will stop a truck but allow anyone to walk through with no problem. That is a total of 705 miles 405 miles of some kind of pedestrian fencing and 300 miles of vehicle fencing. No one, or almost no one, says a fence should cover all 1,954 miles of the border. A significant part of the border is terrain so dangerous and imposing that it would be very difficult for migrants to cross. During the campaign, and during his presidency, Trump called for a wall along about 1,000 miles. But Democrats oppose even that. And since Republicans could not pass wall funding when they controlled all of Congress and the White House, how could they possibly do it with Nancy Pelosi in charge of the House? Unlikely. Still, there is one possible course for Republicans. It is Public Law 109-367, better known as the Secure Fence Act. The act was passed by big, bipartisan majorities in 2006, receiving 283 votes in the House and 80 in the Senate. It required the federal government to build reinforced fencing, at least two layers deep, along about 700 miles of the border. It specified areas in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas where fencing would be installed. If the law had been followed, many vulnerable parts of the border would now be secured. But the very next year, 2007, after Democrats won control of the House and Senate, Congress amended the Secure Fence Act. The amendment said that nothing in (the original legislation) shall require the installation of fencing if the government determines that a fence is not the most appropriate way to secure the border. That was that. No 700 miles of fence. The story of the Secure Fence Act is a perfect example of why so many Americans distrust their government. In 2006, an election year, there was a bipartisan consensus to pass a law requiring the construction of a border fence. In 2007, after the election, there was a bipartisan consensus not to enforce it. Still, Public Law 109-367 remains on the books. And it still calls for a border barrier. What the president needs is money, and that has to come from Congress. Of course, Democrats wont want to give it to him. But if Trump called for an appropriation to fund the fence, he would at least have a new argument: Democrats have already voted for it. And not just illustrious Democratic former senators like Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton. Democrats in power now, too. Sen. Charles Schumer, the minority leader, voted for the Secure Fence Act. Sen. Dianne Feinstein did, too. So did Sen. Ron Wyden and Sen. Debbie Stabenow and Sen. Sherrod Brown. (Brown voted for it when he was in the House.) In the House, Reps. Bishop, Brown, Cooper, DeFazio, Kind, Lipinski, Lynch, Maloney, Pascrell, Peterson, Ruppersberger, Ryan and Smith all voted for the Secure Fence Act. Obviously, the Democratic Party has moved far to the left on immigration in the last 12 years. Many, if not all, of those Democrats would now oppose what they once supported, especially if Donald Trump wanted it. So any fight on a border barrier would be uphill for the president. But masses of migrants are pushing toward the border. And even when the caravans are gone, illegal crossing of the border is still common. There is a law on the books that could strengthen border security. Why wouldnt the president try it? (Byron York is chief political correspondent for The Washington Examiner.) Bernardo Bertolucci, the renowned Italian film director, died in Rome earlier this week. By the time he was 30 years old, Bertolucci had directed at least two minor masterpieces: Before the Revolution (1964) and, especially, The Conformist (1970). In 1972, Bertolucci hit it big with Last Tango in Paris, an X-rated psycho-drama starring Marlon Brando and 19 year-old Maria Schneider in a breakout performance. Pauline Kael, the leading film critic of the day, called Last Tango the most powerfully erotic movie ever made and possibly the most liberating. Ill have more to say on this subject later in the post. Bertoluccis next big film was 1900, (1976) a four hour historical epic, cut at the studios insistence from five hours, starring Robert De Niro and Gerard Depardieu, and featuring Burt Lancaster. Bertolucci was a communist when he made this film and he bragged about bringing this big socialist story with lots of red flags to the United States. In the end, 1900 was far less shocking in the U.S. than Last Tango. Critics found the films politics cartoonish, but few seem to have been shocked or offended. Bertolucci went on to make The Last Emperor (1987). It was a huge commercial and critical success, grossing $44 million in the U.S. alone and winning nine Academy Awards including best picture and best director. After that Bertolucci returned to small-scale drama. I havent seen any of these movies, but will do so if, as I hope, the directors death results in a Bertolucci retrospective accessible to me. Last Tango in Paris remains Bertoluccis signature movie. At the time, as noted, it was viewed by liberals and feminists like Kael as liberating. Many traditionalists hated the film and it was banned in Spain and in the directors native Italy, where all copies were ordered burned and Bertolucci received a criminal sentence (suspended). But today, the quarrel with Last Tango comes from feminists, a far more puritanical lot than their 1970s counterparts. The movie includes a famous rape scene. Since rape, real and imagined, is at the heart of contemporary feminism, its not immediately obvious why feminists would object to its depiction in an art film. The feminist objection to Bertolucci seems to be two-fold. First, the late Maria Schneider complained that she felt a little raped by Bertolucci. In fact, she wasnt raped at all. The infamous scene was play acting. Its true that Bertolucci used butter as a prop in the rape scene without telling Schneider in advance. He did so in order to get a shocked reaction from the young actress. But thats not rape, not even close. If Schneider felt a little raped, thats a tribute to Bertoluccis skill as the director. Bertolucci was able to bring authenticity to the rape scene without having Brando and Schneider engage in sex. Brando, by the way, also considered himself a victim of Bertoluccis skill, albeit to a lesser extent. In the movie, he recounts a humiliating scene from his teenage years one that Brando says actually happened to him and which he had never revealed to anyone. Bertolucci coaxed it out of Brando, and the star wasnt happy about it. But the authenticity imperative was satisfied. The second, more basic feminist grievance with Last Tango is that it views sex with the male gaze. Apparently, the male gaze has become a feminist catch-phrase, sort of like toxic masculinity, which may be its ugly cousin. Ann Hornaday, a left-liberal film critic for the Washington Post, expresses this grievance. Hornaday admires Bertolucci, whom she spoke with more than once. Indeed, she writes so much of my informal film education was conducted by way of his films. However, Hornaday finds the directors male gaze in Last Tango and other films problematic. She complains that Bertoluccis own fantasies and impulses became part of films fundamental grammar, internalized by men and women as what counts as beautiful, desirable, and worth aestheticizing in the first place. But isnt this a legitimate function of art? Whose fantasies and impulses is the artist supposed to seek to impose on the viewer, if not his own? Moreover, Hornaday seems to assume that a film director can impose his vision on films fundamental grammar and have it internalized by men and women as what counts as beautiful etc. by the sheer force of his talent. This may be a convenient belief for a film critic, but is it plausible? If Bertolucci succeeded to the extent Hornaday claims (I think she overrates Last Tango), then yes, its a tribute to his skill as a director. But more fundamentally, I think its a tribute (if thats the right word) to his vision to his gaze. The film viewing public found beauty and desirability (if it did) in what that gaze presented, not so much because Bertolucci served it up masterfully, but because it struck a deep chord. To me this isnt just a legitimate function of art, but a central one. Talented directors with different visions, many of whom are now women and contemporary feminists, challenge Bertoluccis gaze through their work, as they should. But the preference of critics like Hornaday for these alternative visions should not stand as a rebuke to Bertolucci. President Trump came under the usual hyperbolic assaults a few weeks ago for defending the virtue of nationalism. As it happens, Yoram Hazony is the author, most recently, of a new book by that name (i.e., The Virtue of Nationalism). He is a conservative and, I think, one of Israels leading public intellectuals. If not the latter, he is certainly one of Israels leading lights. Taking up the theme of his new book, Hazony spoke to the Allan Bloom Forum at Yale on October 25. The video below gives his presentation. His presentation runs the first 40 minutes, followed by questions and answers. It is timely. It is penetrating. It is both thoughtful and thought-provoking. I found it of interest and thought many readers might as well. Hazonys site is here. I learned of the video by following his work through subscription to one of his email lists here. Mia Love, an African-American woman, represents Utahs fourth district in the U.S. House of Representatives. Having very narrowly lost her re-election bid, she will leave Congress at the end of the year. We proudly supported Love as a Power Line Pick in 2012 (when she ran unsuccessfully), 2014, and 2016. Given her solidly conservative voting record in the House, we probably would have supported her this year, if I had gotten my act together and submitted a slate to my colleagues for their approval. In her campaign, Love distanced herself from President Trump. This was a sensible move because, as Scott explained here, Trump is not popular in her district or, indeed, in her state. Utah was one of the few states whose primary Trump did not win. Utahans take morality seriously. Theres nothing unusual about member of Congress distancing herself from a president in situations like this. With any president whose approval rating hovers around 50 percent or lower, there will be jurisdictions in which that president is a significant drag on candidates from his party. Its normal in these cases for such candidates not to embrace the president. For example, there were candidates who distanced themselves from President Obama and rejected his offers to campaign for them. Obama, a world class narcissist, did not appear to take this personally at least his public pronouncements revealed no sign of displeasure. And Obama certainly did not gloat when such candidates lost their elections. Trump, by contrast, chose to taunt Love over her narrow defeat. At a press conference, he said that Love gave me no love, adding that she lost. Too bad. Sorry about that Mia. As Scott put it: Trump all but gloated over the. . .failure of [Loves] reelection bid. In doing so, Trump showed himself in this case to be a small man. Its not a good look and its not smart either. Mia Love concurs. In her concession speech, which you can view below, she stated: The Presidents behavior towards me made me wonder: What did he have to gain by saying such a thing about a fellow Republican. It was not really about asking him to do more [for her in the campaign], was it? Or was it something else? Well Mr. President, well have to chat about that. Love is right to wonder because, as discussed above, Trumps behavior was so unusual. His taunting of a defeated member of party, and a fellow conservative to boot, flies in the face of normal presidential behavior. I cant think of another president who has done it. But if Love is implying that Trumps pettiness is about her race, I think shes wrong. Contrary to her statement, I think it really was about Loves rejection of Trumps assistance. In other words, it was about his narcissism and smallness, both of which he routinely displays towards those who offend him, regardless of their race. Love stated: Im not going away, but now I am unleashed. I am untethered, and I am unshackled and I can say exactly whats on my mind. Thats a good thing. I just hope that she doesnt feed the false narrative that Trump is a racist. In reality, hes an equal opportunity jerk. Conservatives applaud President Trump for keeping his promises. And we are justified in doing so. Trump has indeed kept many of his non-hyperbolic promises. Unfortunately, Trump has violated one of his most important promises: getting tougher on drug dealers. Here is what Trump said just eight months ago: Every day, 116 Americans die from an opioid-related overdose. In New Hampshire, the overdose, really, death rate I mean, can you believe this? The death rate is double the national average. . . . Here in New Hampshire, I applaud all of the Drug Enforcement Agents and law enforcement officers who recently coordinated Operation Granite Shield, an 18-hour enforcement action targeting drug traffickers that resulted in the arrest of 151 people. These are terrible people, and we have to get tough on those people, because we can have all the Blue Ribbon committees we want, but if we dont get tough on the drug dealers, were wasting our time. Just remember that. Were wasting our time. And that toughness includes the death penalty. (Applause.) You know, its an amazing thing. Some of these drug dealers will kill thousands of people during their lifetime thousands of people and destroy many more lives than that. But they will kill thousands of people during their lifetime, and theyll get caught and theyll get 30 days in jail. Or theyll go away for a year, or theyll be fined. And yet, if you kill one person, you get the death penalty or you go to jail for life. So if were not going to get tough on the drug dealers who kills thousands of people and destroy so many peoples lives, we are just doing the wrong thing. We have got to get tough. This isnt about nice anymore. This isnt about committees. This isnt about lets get everybody and have dinners, and lets have everybody go to a Blue Ribbon committee and everybody gets a medal for, frankly, talking and doing nothing. This is about winning a very, very tough problem. And if we dont get very tough on these dealers, its not going to happen, folks. Its not going to happen. And I want to win this battle. (Emphasis added) But now, instead of getting tougher with drug dealers, Trump wants to be more lenient towards these terrible people. The FIRST STEP legislation he supports would slash the time served in prison by federal drug felons the worst of the drug dealers. Sen. Tom Cotton has shown how a 20 year sentence for a fentanyl trafficker convicted of trafficking 1lb (enough to kill more than 100K people) who has a prior serious drug felony could become a sentence of about ten years under FIRST STEP. Combined with leniency provisions that already exist under law, the sentence would be even less than ten years. Consistent with public pronouncements like the one in New Hampshire, Trump had promised privately that he would never back legislation that reduced sentences for fentanyl dealers. Why did he flip? Why does he now back legislation that will put these terrible people these killers and destroyers of lives back on the street much earlier than is allowed by current law? I dont know and Im not sure it matters. The key point is that Trump has broken his promise by backing legislation that would make America less safe and, in Trumps own words, make it less likely that well win the battle against the deadly opioid epidemic. PR-Inside.com: 2018-11-28 00:00:33 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 542 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 NORWELL, MA / ACCESSWIRE / November 27, 2018 / The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) concluded its annual plenary meeting on November 19 after a spectacular failure to arrive to a comprehensive agreement on badly needed management measures to address the present poor state of Atlantic bigeye tuna stock. Bigeye tuna is highly coveted by sashimi markets worldwide, similar to bluefin tuna.ICCAT's eight-day meeting, held this year in Dubrovnik, Croatia, was attended by over 700 people representing 52 countries.In October, the Standing Committee for Research and Statistics (SCRS), the scientific arm of ICCAT, issued a new stock assessment on Atlantic bigeye tuna which stated that the stock is significantly overfished, with overfishing taking place. An approximate 40% cut in overall Atlantic-wide allowed catch would be required to end overfishing. Discussion and ''heated'' negotiations regarding new management measures aimed at addressing the dire status of this important fish stock dominated the 8-day meeting. However, when the meeting drew to a close, the Commission had failed to agree upon any measures to address the numerous problems in the Atlantic bigeye tuna fishery.The U.S., Canada, South Africa and a handful of other nations strongly advocated for the adoption of measures that would end overfishing immediately and rebuild the stock within 10 years. However, a strategy aimed directly at achieving quantifiable reductions of catch of juvenile bigeye and yellowfin tuna in the West Africa purse seine skipjack fishery, although strongly urged by ICCAT scientists and considered key to the recovery of Atlantic bigeye stock, was notably absent from the various conservation measures proposed.Thus, the failure by ICCAT to come to an agreement on a conservation and management plan for Atlantic bigeye will result in the further erosion of the stock's status until ICCAT succeeds in taking decisive action on this critical issue. This will undoubtedly have a negative effect on the U.S. East Coast commercial handgear, pelagic longline and recreational fishermen that catch bigeye tuna. The next opportunity to achieve these goals will be at the annual ICCAT meeting in 2019.Numerous issues unrelated to bigeye tuna were taken up during this meeting with mixed results. A 47-page recommendation drafted by the European Union establishing a multi-annual management plan for East Atlantic-Mediterranean bluefin tuna, first tendered at the plenary meeting in 2017, was finally concluded at the current meeting.The U.S. succeeded in obtaining consensus on its proposal to address ICCAT's Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) protocols that will result in a badly-needed increase in VMS polling time for purse seine from four to a one-hour intervals. Also, under the same proposal, longline vessels are now required to transmit VMS data at two-hour intervals. The U.S., the EU, Norway and Senegal proposed new port state measures to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and this succeeded in obtaining support from the Commission.The U.S. attempted to establish conservation measures for overfished blue and white marlin stocks but failed to obtain the needed support from ICCAT countries. Similarly, the U.S., Panama, Cape Verde, Nicaragua and Guatemala proposed measures to reduce bycatch of sea turtles in longline fisheries, but this too did not obtain a consensus.PRESS CONTACT:David Schalit, PresidentAmerican Bluefin Tuna Associationdschalit@ gmail.com (617) 804-1473SOURCE: American Bluefin Tuna Association PR-Inside.com: 2018-11-28 15:05:47 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 693 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 MONTREAL, QC / ACCESSWIRE / November 28, 2018 / Argex Titanium Inc. (TSX: RGX) ("Argex") is thrilled to announce that significant events necessary to change the TiO2 industry have now formally started with the execution of a significant agreement which will contribute to its future success and provide substantial benefit to its shareholders.We are pleased to announce the signing of a long term off-take agreement for our TiO2 with a major international paint company. This contract provides a substantial base for product supply from our upcoming Technology Center and Commercial plant to be built in Becancour, Quebec.This contract follows substantial evaluations of our product by five separate independent paint producers, both domestic and foreign, and provides assurance that Argex technology will provide various grades of TiO2 pigment material for coating applications in the worldwide market."This agreement which is the culmination of years of work for Argex provides a sound basis 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. My conviction is that the opportunities for commercial benefit are being realized and our corporate strategy is proving to be sound and viable for a long-term future in the TiO2 markets" said Mazen Al Naimi, Chairman and CEO.About Argex TitaniumArgex 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 Forward-Looking StatementsThis 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 AlnaimiChairman and Chief Executive Officer | Argex Titanium Inc.info@ argex.ca SOURCE: Argex Titanium Inc. The park district police chief, who has been suspended without pay since being charged last month with secretly filming his sexual encounters with two women and sharing intimate photos of them without their consent, was arrested again last week after a third woman accused him of doing the same to her. PR-Inside.com: 2018-11-28 03:15:21 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 375 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 Chennai-based Laser Gastroenterology Clinic has Been Awarded the Health Care Excellence Award 2018 for its Premium Service in the Care and Treatment of Piles and Related ConditionsCHENNAI, INDIA / ACCESSWIRE / November 26, 2018 / The Laser Gastroenterology Clinic is pleased to announce that the Chennai laser gastro clinic is the recipient of the Chennai ICON Awards for 2018. The Award was given by Radio City 91.1 in recognition of the excellence in the treatment of piles. The awards ceremony occurred on October 4. The Icon Awards are designed to provide recognition in various different fields, and the Laser Clinic is pleased to be recognized for this prestigious award.Some of the factors which are addressed in determining the recipients of these awards, as well as others, include the level of services available. The Chennai City clinic has offered treatment to more than five thousand patients who are victims of haemorrhoids. The clinic's website features testimonials from many satisfied customers. The response of patients is a factor in determining which health facilities are to be considered for the award. Another positive feature which the clinic offers is its equipment. The city's first Ho-YAG laser treatment equipment was launched by the clinic.Laser treatment offered by the clinic is a technique which is recognized for its efficiency and fast recovery. Other benefits which are noted from the up-to-the-minute medical centre and German technology include scar-free results, 24/7 medical support, a 98 per cent success rate, painless procedure and quick recovery time. The treatment is conducted as a day procedure.A spokesperson for the clinic spoke about the award recently, "We are always pleased to have recognition for our healthcare efforts, including the recent Chennai ICON Awards. In addition to our techniques and treatments for the condition of piles, we also use laser therapy for other conditions and ailments. These include an appendectomy and gallstones. Other treatment methods are available for conditions such as hernias, upper and lower GI issues and liver, biliary tract and pancreas ailments." Contact Info:Name: The Laser Gastroenterology ClinicOrganization: The Laser Gastroenterology ClinicAddress: No 1, Crescent Park Street, T-Nagar, Chennai 17Phone: 090928 49786Video URL: https://youtu.be/yR_oK7Oa738 Source URL: https://marketersmedia.com/chennai-laser-gastro-specialist-laser-gastroenterology-clinic-bags-health-care-excellence-award-2018/447564 For more information, please visit https://www.chennailasergastro.com/ SOURCE: The Laser Gastroenterology Clinic PR-Inside.com: 2018-11-28 18:13:52 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 539 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 Koala Mother and Baby Grace the Exclusive Perth Mint PiedfortADDISON, TX / ACCESSWIRE / November 28, 2018 / Just in time for the holidays, Dillon Gage Metals - one of the world's largest precious metals wholesaler firms -is introducing a one-of-a-kind 10-ounce product from the Perth Mint: ''Mother & Baby - The Next Generation,'' a 99.99 percent pure silver, 10-ounce koala-themed bullion coin. Dillon Gage will offer the coins exclusively to its network of authorized coin dealers.This coin is the first ever 10-ounce piedfort offered by the Perth Mint. The design built into the double thickness coin typifies the bond between a mother and her baby, as demonstrated by the many distinctive species located in the seven Outback regions of Australia.''For collectors, a 10-ounce piedfort coin is a rare offering,'' said Terry Hanlon, president of Dillon Gage Metals. ''Its weight, thickness and silver purity really stand out, and we are sure it will attract widespread interest among our dealer network.'' Created by Perth Mint lead designer Aleysha Howarth, the 10-ounce silver bullion piedfort coin builds on the legacy of products and distinct quality for which the Perth Mint is known. The coin features a distinctly Australian image - a mother koala perched on a branch with her baby, known as a joey, clinging to her back. The obverse of the coin features the Ian Rank-Broadley effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Howarth has designed unique coin products for the Perth Mint since 2008 and her other notable contributions include a colorized ballet series in addition to the mint's famous Opal coin series.The Perth Mint's signature ''P'' mintmark graces the design and under the Currency Act 1965, this 10-ounce piedfort coin is issued as legal tender in Australia.This special release will be available Dec. 3, exclusively offered to authorized dealers direct from Dillon Gage Metals. For information and pricing, call 800-375-4653 or visit www.nextgenerationcoins.com or www.dillongage.com to purchase on the electronic trading platform, FizTrade.com About Dillon Gage MetalsDillon Gage Inc. of Dallas ( DillonGage.com) , founded in 1976, companies include: Dillon Gage Metals ( www.DillonGage.com) is one of the world's largest precious metals wholesale trading firms. The firm is an authorized purchaser for all major world mints and maintains inventory in over 20 countries around the world. Additionally, the company provides advanced tools and technologies that enable market participants to be more successful in their businesses, allowing electronic trading and offering cloud-based solutions for the physical precious metals marketplace. 800-375-4653 FizTrade Online Trading ( www.FizTrade.com) offers a real-time bid/ask trading platform for gold, silver, platinum and palladium. 800-375-4653 Dillon Gage Refining ( www.dillongage.com/refining/why-dg) , professional assayers and refiners of precious metal scrap, from low grade to karat scrap. Stone removal services and diamond experts on staff. 888-436-3489 International Depository Services Group with locations in Delaware, USA ( www.ids-delaware.com; 888-322-6150), Texas ( www.idsoftexas.com; 888-322-6150) and Ontario, Canada ( www.idsofcanada.com; 855-362-2431), offers secure, efficient and insured precious metals and certified coin depositories that focus on custom business logistics solutions including storage, fulfillment, inventory managements and many other value-added services.Contact:Jeffrey CheathamSenior Account SupervisorTrizCom PR(972) 247-1369jeffc@ trizcom.com SOURCE: Dillon Gage Metals PR-Inside.com: 2018-11-28 13:12:02 Expansion of Duco continues with a new technical and services hub in Wroclaw. Duco will tap into the city's rich talent base in response to strong demand for the firms self-service data quality and reconciliation solutions. Duco Announces New Offices in Wroclaw, Poland; Names Aleksandra Mlodecka as Country Manager Chris Peacock press@du.co +44 (0)20 3111 9294 Duco, the global provider of enterprise data quality and reconciliation services, today announced that it had officially opened new offices in Wroclaw, Poland. The new office, headed by Aleksandra Mlodecka, will support the rapidly growing demand for Ducos services, ensuring customers globally receive Ducos superior level of customer service. Wroclaw is the latest office to open amid rapid growth and adoption of Ducos self-service, data agnostic platform. Duco is used by financial institutions all over the world to accelerate data quality transformation programs, and to solve a range of data integrity and reconciliation challenges across multiple departments. The Wroclaw office will comprise IT development, technical operations, global services, customer success, as well as finance and administration resources. At Duco, our goal is to make managing data easy, said Christian Nentwich, Founder and CEO. We have seen significant demand for our services and solutions and needed a strong talent base to support our rapid growth. We are excited to have opened another office and to welcome Aleksandra as our Country Manager. She has an impressive track record and we look forward to benefiting from her expertise as we build out our new offices in Wroclaw. Phil Jeffery, Vice President of Engineering, commented, We are innovators and are focused on leveraging machine learning and artificial intelligence to solve long-standing data problems that have traditionally suffered from manual and legacy point solutions. Wroclaw has emerged as one of Europe's most important financial support centres. We were drawn to its strong base of technical and financial expertise as we continue to help clients improve data quality while automating operational processes. Julian Trostinsky, Vice President of Global Client Services, added, In response to the ever-growing data quality challenges and backlog of reconciliations continuously increasing within the financial industry, Wroclaw is the perfect location to set up a dedicated, talented global services team to provide world class service and support our growth trajectory. About Duco Ducos mission is to make managing data easy. Financial services firms rely on us to reduce costs and dramatically improve efficiency in reconciliation and other data quality controls. Our self-service, cloud-based tools empower users to aggregate, normalise and reconcile any type of data on demand. Customers are live in 24 hours, with results in 7 days and tangible business value in 30 days. Headquartered in London, with offices in New York, Luxembourg, Edinburgh, Wroclaw and Singapore, Ducos customers include global banks, brokers, asset managers, exchanges and middle and back office outsourcers. For more information go to www.du.co. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181128005 Wroclaw has emerged as one of Europe's most important financial support centres. We were drawn to its strong base of technical and financial expertise as we continue to help clients improve data quality while automating operational processes. PR-Inside.com: 2018-11-27 23:24:46 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 950 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 CALGARY, AB AND SAN ANTONIO, TX / November 27, 2018 / Emerald Bay Energy Inc. (TSX Venture: EBY, OTC: EMBYF) (the "Company" or "Emerald Bay") is pleased to announce that the Company, in partnership with HugoCellR Ltd. ("Hugo"), has secured a rig to re-enter and deepen the Isabella 2 well to the previously untested Eagle Ford and Buda formations between 8000' and 8200' deep.The Isabella prospect includes the Company's acquisition of several mineral leases, totaling approximately 86 acres, and the Isabella 2 wellbore.The Isabella 2 well produced from the Austin Chalk formation in past, but the previous operator did not drill to, or complete, the deeper Eagle Ford and Buda formations.The Company's technical team has identified the Isabella 2 wellbore as a prime target to explore for a high impact well on trend with Eagle Ford and Buda production in Gonzales County, Texas.With the rig secured, the wellbore will be deepened to the base of the Buda formation at 8200', and both the Eagle Ford and Buda formations will be tested in December.Commented Shelby D. Beattie, President and CEO, "The Eagle Ford and Buda formations at Isabella are more than a mile deeper than what we have explored for to date in the Kuhn wells at Wooden Horse.The production potential at these depths is very exciting for us.We are very fortunate to have secured a rig capable of servicing a well at this depth in such a short time frame and therefore we will move ahead immediately at Isabella, after which we will then drill the Wildcat well on the Bauer lease as previously announced.This is now the third project we have announced with Hugo in the past 90 days.Under the terms of the partnership, Hugo pays 100% of the costs of the Floyd, Bauer, and Isabella projects to earn a 75% interest.Emerald Bay earns a 25% interest in all three projects to at no cost to the Company as we continually look to expand our prospect base in Texas." About Emerald BayEmerald Bay Energy Inc. (EBY) is an energy company with oil producing properties in southwest Texas as well as non-operated oil and natural gas interests in Central Alberta, Canada.EBY is the operating partner of the Wooden Horse, Nash Creek, and Cottonwood Creek Projects in Guadalupe County, Texas, where the Company currently now owns a 50.00% working interest in those projects. Additionally, the Company owns various working interests in the MarPat and HugoCellR partnerships.The Company also owns 75% of Production Resources Inc., a South Texas oil company.To stay informed on Emerald Bay Energy, please join our Investor Group at https://www.8020connect.com/groups/emerald-bay-energy-inc for all upcoming news releases, articles, comments and questions.For further information, please contact:Emerald Bay President, Shelby D. Beattie, by telephone at (403) 262-6000Email: info@ ebyinc.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.Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release includes statements that may constitute "forward-looking" statements, usually containing the words "believe," "estimate," "project," "expect", "plan", "intend", "anticipates", "projects", "potential" or similar expressions.. Forward-looking statements inherently involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements.Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts.Information inferred from the interpretation of drilling results may also be deemed to be forward looking statements, as it constitutes a prediction of what might be found to be present when and if a well is actually developed. BOE's may be misleading, particularly if used in isolation. A BOE conversion ratio of 6 Mcf: 1 Bbl is based on energy equivalency conversion method primarily applicable at the burner tip and does not represent a value equivalency at the wellhead. The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of such information, which are considered reasonable by Emerald Bay at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect. Actual results achieved will vary from the information provided and the variations may be material. There is no representation by Emerald Bay that actual results achieved will be the same in whole or part as those indicated in the forward-looking statements.Forward-looking statements in this document include statements regarding the Company's exploration, drilling and development plans, the Company's expectations regarding the timing and success of such programs. In particular, forward-looking information in this news release includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to: pipeline acquisitions and leasing; pipeline permits, pipeline construction, production estimates, drilling operations, completion operations, funding and development goals.Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. We cannot guarantee future results, level of activity, performance or achievements. Consequently, there is no representation that the actual results achieved will be the same, in whole or in part, as those set out in the forward-looking information.Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, fluctuations in the prices of oil and gas, uncertainties inherent in estimating quantities of oil and gas reserves and projecting future rates of production and timing of development activities, competition, operating risks, acquisition risks, liquidity and capital requirements, the effects of governmental regulation, adverse changes in the market for the Company's oil and gas production, dependence upon third-party vendors, and other risks detailed in the Company's periodic report filings with the applicable securities regulators.SOURCE: Emerald Bay Energy Inc. PR-Inside.com: 2018-11-28 17:41:57 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 630 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 ASBURY PARK, NJ / ACCESSWIRE / November 28, 2018 / Legalized marijuana is creating a robust jobs market and this new industry is among the fastest growing employment niches. MarijuanaWerx, a leading cannabis industry business directory, now includes a section that profiles many of the leading cannabis industry jobs training organizations. Some traditional accredited colleges in the U.S. are offering cannabis business courses while a number of private companies are offering training and certification for jobs in the cannabis industry, see here https://marijuanawerx.com/green-cultured/ There are a variety of job opportunities in the legal marijuana business including growers, dispensary employees, budtenders, security personnel, production managers, licensing and regulation compliance, general compliance managers and more. A number of private companies are now offering training and certification for prospective cannabis industry workers as more states end prohibition of recreational marijuana and expand their medical marijuana programs. Private training firms offering course training online for these jobs include companies such as Green CulturED, The Grow School, The Cannabis Career Institute, OaksterdamUniversity, Cannabis Training University, THC University, Clover Leaf University, Cannabis Training Institute, Trichome Institute and others.Some fully accredited traditional colleges in the U.S. are beginning to offer courses relating to the legal marijuana industry. Rutgers University in New Jersey has a course allowing students to earn credit through work at a New Jersey dispensary in Woodbridge. The 2018 fall semester at Stockton University in New Jersey is now offering students course work for a minor in medical marijuana. Northern Michigan University offers a medicinal plant chemistry course. UC-Davis offers a course called the Physiology of Cannabis. The University of Washington has a class called Medicinal Cannabis and Chronic Pain. The Ohio State University Law School offers a Marijuana Law, Policy & Reform Seminar. And, there are likely others.There is a significant increase is marijuana industry jobs being created. In recent years, many of the job opportunities have been in metro areas such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Seattle, Portland and Las Vegas but the geographic areas presenting job opportunities in the cannabis industry are expanding rapidly. Just in the last few months, recreational pot became legal in the entire country of Canada, and the State of Massachusetts just went legal for recreational marijuana. This past week saw New Jersey make a big step forward to legalizing recreational marijuana as the NJ State Senate and Assembly voted to move marijuana legislation out of committee with a vote in the full NJ Legislature expected soon, fulfilling a campaign promise by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy. Some observers are speculating recreational marijuana could be legalized in New Jersey as early as December or January.The MarijuanaWerx business-to-business directory's includes many industry categories including a profile and review section on many of the best CBD oil brands such as CBDPure, Bluebird Botanicals, and Charlottes Web CBD. The hemp extract called CBD oil has been an area of enormous growth over the past few years.MarijuanaWerx also has a section called The Investors Corner where visitors can find profiles of many leading publicly traded marijuana related companies. Recently the company Charlotte's Web Holdings that owns one of the better-known CBD brands called Charlotte's Web CBD went public with an IPO on the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE). There are other publicly traded cannabis related businesses trading on stock exchanges in the US and Canada that are profiled on MarijuanaWerx including Choom Holdings, Leafbuyer Technologies, Rocky Mountain High Brands, Aurora Cannabis, PotNetwork Holding, MedReLeaf Corp, Aphria Inc., United Cannabis Corp, Abattis Bioceuticals, Canopy Growth Corp, GW Pharmaceuticals, Cannagrow Holdings and more.About MarijuanaWerxMarijuanaWerx is an A+ Rated Better Business Bureau Accredited organization based in Asbury Park, NJ that publishes an industry leading a business-to-business cannabis directory.Contact:Chaz Sandersonchazsanderson@ outlook.com 1-929-344-1364SOURCE: MarijuanaWerx.com MRRSE PR-Inside.com: 2018-11-28 11:33:27 Press Information MRRSE State Tower 90, State Street Suite 700 Albany, NY - 12207 (United States) Abhishek Budholiya Marketing Manager +1-518-730-0559 email https://www.mrrse.com/ # 537 Words State Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207(United States)Marketing Manager+1-518-730-0559 Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) has included a new study titled Global Market Study on Wireless Door Lock System: Increasing Adoption of IoT in Smart Locks and Demand for Wireless Security Solutions to Accelerate Revenue Growth Through 2026, to its broad database, which focuses on the overall market scenario for the present as well as future period. The main objective of the assessment is to analyze the wireless door lock system industry by understanding the major dynamics and associated segments.In order to deliver previse knowledge regarding the wireless door lock system market, this report includes a separate section which encloses drivers, trends and restraints impacting the global market. Geographically, the prime regions studied in the report are North America, Europe, SEA & Pacific, Latin America, Japan, China and MEA. The initial section of the report compiles prominent market factors such as Porters analysis, value chain analysis and forecast factors, so as to enlighten the readers about the exact status of the global wireless door lock system market.For More Information Request Free Sample on Wireless Door Lock System Market Research Report @ https://www.mrrse.com/sample/17320 As the report proceeds, a detailed market bifurcation is presented which segments the concerned market by component, connectivity and end use. Based on component, the global market for wireless door lock system is divided into scanners, locks, batteries, transceivers and others. Further, on the basis of connectivity the target market is split into keypads, Bluetooth & Wi-Fi, RFID, scanners & others. Each of these segments are studied in terms of market attractiveness analysis and market size (US$ Mn) & volume. It should be known that critical market data containing the base number and segment segregations, has been formulated through in-depth primary and secondary research. Late on, this particular data is triangulated keeping in mind different verticals. Readers can get to access information about both supply side and demand side drivers merged with dynamics concerning different regional markets.Finally, the report concludes with the competition landscape which educates about the sales footprint, product portfolio, competition benchmarking, and strategy aspect for all the major companies operating in the global wireless door lock system. ASSA ABLOY Group, Godrej Locking Solutions & Systems, Robert Bosch GmbH, Centurion Systems, Johnson Controls Plc, Salto Systems K.S, Honeywell International, Inc., Dormakaba Holding AG, Hanman International Pte Ltd. (Samsung), SentriLock, LLC etc., are few major players which are examined in this smart report. Overall, this study is a useful data source for new investors, as it delivers necessary insight and statistical figures to frame future plans.Browse Complete Detail on Wireless Door Lock System Market Research Report with TOC @ https://www.mrrse.com/wireless-door-lock-system-market About (MRRSE)Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords. MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting. PR-Inside.com: 2018-11-28 14:57:38 Press Information CheapPostcards.net Website Carlos Alonso deSantos Carlos Alonso deSantos (713) 300 0687 email https://www.cheappostcards.net/store/product-view.html/48-Every_Door_Direct_Mail # 433 Words WebsiteCarlos Alonso deSantos(713) 300 0687 Houston, Taxes, United States 28 November 2018 - CheapPostcards.net offers the innovative and high-quality marketing solutions to businesses of all kind and size. These solutions imply high quality printing services, which include printing of business cards, door hangers, EDGE cards, envelopes, event tickets, event tents, fabric banners, flags, flyers & brochures, greeting cards, indoor banners, letterhead, mounted canvas, mugs, postcards, tote bags and other things.Theres no question that printing materials present an effective method to advertise almost anything you need, allowing to involve a large number of potential consumers, while informing them about your brand name, products or services. In spite of the popularity of online promotion, printing materials, just like postcards and business cards, can be extremely effective, being addressed to every consumer, and so, perfectly matching your business goals and catching the required portion of attention on the part of target audience. Therefore, all the starting entrepreneurs, who want to increase their brand recognition, or perhaps, the owners of the reputed businesses, who strive to refresh the memory about their products or services, can take advantage of cheap postcards EDDM, offered at CheapPostcards.net Visualization is one of the most powerful methods to draw precious attention of people, who can become your customers. This is why, its crucial for every business owner, operating in Houston and looking for an effective method of promotion, to invest in EDDM postcard printing services. These cheap business cards in Houston, offered at CheapPostcards.net , present the best value for money, providing every entrepreneur with a perfect chance to inform thousands of potential customers at cost-effective price. CheapPostcards.net is the right destination to obtain any sort of printing materials that meet your business goals and budget. Whether you need flyers or business cards, youll be offered the most beneficial options, as the professional team of CheapPostcards.net is ready to provide you with the most advanced marketing solutions.About CheapPostcards.net: CheapPostcards.net is a reputed company that proudly serves its customers in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, Texas clients. This competent team comes with a huge portfolio of services, to meet all the marketing and printing needs of their clients. The large spectrum of services, delivered by CheapPostcards.net , includes graphic design, offset/digital print services, short run printing, on demand printing, direct mail services, Every Door Direct Mail and many more. The operation of this reliable company is based on the individualized approach to every single client.Contact:Company: CheapPostcards.net Contact Name: Carlos Alonso deSantosAddress: WebsitePhone: (713) 300 0687Website: https://www.cheappostcards.net/store/product-view.html/48-Every_Door_Direct_Mail PR-Inside.com: 2018-11-28 17:08:48 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 503 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / November 28, 2018 / Quanta Inc. (OTC PINK: QNTA), an applied bio-science company announced today that it will be presenting at the 11th Annual LD Micro Main Event. The conference is being held on December 4-6, 2018 at the Luxe Sunset Blvd Hotel in Los Angeles.Event: 11th Annual LD Micro Main EventLocation: Luxe Sunset Blvd Hotel, Los AngelesDate: December 5, 2018 -- 2:00 PM PSTMr. Eric Rice, CEO and Founder of Quanta will deliver the Company's corporate presentation and discuss recent business highlights. Mr. Rice will also be available to meet with investors one-on-one.About QuantaQuanta is an applied science company focused on increasing energy levels in plant matter (including cannabis) to increase performance within the human body. Our proprietary technology uses quantum mechanics to increases bio-activity of targeted molecules to enhance the desired effects. We specialize in potentiating naturally occurring elements to create impactful and sustainable healing solutions that are as powerful and predictable as pharmaceutical drugs.We offer our technology as a platform, making it accessible to existing high-quality product makers with existing distribution channels. Quanta works alongside high-quality cannabis, nutraceutical, phytoceutical and wellness brands to increase performance of product lines. Our mission is to power as many impactful, high performing wholly organic products as possible through a series of licensing and distribution partnerships.For more information, visit the company's website: http://www.quanta9.com Forward Looking StatementsStatements in this document contain certain 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, as amended. These statements are based on many assumptions and estimates and are not guarantees of future performance. These statements may 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 future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future. Our actual results may differ materially from the results anticipated in these forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors, including, without limitation those set forth as "Risk Factors" in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). There may be other factors not mentioned above or included in the Company's SEC filings that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statement. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or developments, except as required by securities laws.Follow Quanta:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/quantatechnology Twitter: https://twitter.com/Quanta_tech Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/quanta_technology Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/quantatechnology/pins Vimeo Video: https://vimeo.com/254024002 Contact:Investor Relations:(800) 813-1360IR@ quanta9.com SOURCE: Quanta Inc. PR-Inside.com: 2018-11-28 17:15:37 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 661 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 NEWPORT, RI / ACCESSWIRE / November 28, 2018 / At its fall meeting in Middletown, Rhode Island, the Industry Advisory Board of the Science Center for Marine Fisheries (SCeMFiS) awarded over $164,000 in grants for promising new marine science research.The projects cover the impact of climate change on shellfish populations; how to properly determine the age of one of the ocean's longest-lived species; and how offshore wind energy is likely to affect fisheries. All of the funded projects further the mission of the Center, which connects leading researchers and their partners in the industry to address critical marine science needs.As part of the National Science Foundation's Industry/University Cooperative Research Program, SCeMFiS used this meeting to set the shared priorities of our researchers from around the country and the industry advisors from the shellfish and finfish fisheries who approved the research."We see this as a great opportunity to partner with the scientific community, and we are looking forward to continue working with SCeMFiS on projects that affect our fisheries," said Meghan Lapp, the Fisheries Liaison for Seafreeze, one of SCeMFiS' Rhode Island members.A full description of the funded projects is included below:"The influence of global warming on the Atlantic surfclam and the ocean quahog" - Dr. Eric Powell (University of Southern Mississippi) and Dr. Roger Mann (Virginia Institute of Marine Science) will lead the study, which will examine the extent to which the populations of surf clams and ocean quahogs have shifted offshore in response to changing ocean temperatures. The study will sample and date ocean quahog and surfclam shells to identify the likelihood of a continued future shift in the species' range. ($56,197 in funding approved)"Ocean quahog population dynamics: validation of estimation procedures for an age-at-length key - supplement" - Dr. Powell and Dr. Mann will follow up on previous SCeMFiS research on how to properly age ocean quahogs in the northwest Atlantic. Ocean quahogs can live to over 200 years old, but their growth rates vary considerably over time. The study would continue efforts to develop a reliable way to estimate ocean quahog ages at particular lengths, known as an age-at-length key. ($29,037 in funding approved)"Oceanography special issue on the effects of wind energy development on fisheries and the ecology of the continental shelf" - Dr. Eileen Hofmann (Old Dominion University) and Dr. Powell will work to develop a special issue of the scientific journal Oceanography, that will include 10-12 peer-reviewed papers presenting an overview on the state of research related to offshore wind development. They will cover, among other topics, the challenges faced by offshore wind development and the effect it has on nearby fisheries, fish populations, and the broader ocean ecology. ($79,200 in funding approved)About SCeMFiSThe SCeMFiS mission utilizes academic and fisheries resources to address urgent scientific problems limiting sustainable fisheries. SCeMFiS develops methods, analytical and survey tools, datasets, and analytical approaches to improve sustainability of fisheries and reduce uncertainty in biomass estimates. SCeMFiS university partners, University of Southern Mississippi (lead institution), and Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary, are the academic sites. Collaborating scientists who provide specific expertise in finfish, shellfish, and marine mammal research, come from a wide range of academic institutions including Old Dominion University, Rutgers University, University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, University of Maryland, and University of Washington.The need for the diverse services that SCeMFiS can provide to industry continues to grow, which has prompted a steady increase in the number of fishing industry partners. These services include immediate access to science expertise for stock assessment issues, rapid response to research priorities, and representation on stock assessment working groups. Targeted research leading to improvements in data collection, survey design, analytical tools, assessment models, and other needs to reduce uncertainty in stock status and improve reference point goals.PRESS CONTACTDr. Eric PowellGulf Coast Research LaboratoryUniversity of Southern Mississippi609-432-0872SOURCE: Science Center for Marine Fisheries PR-Inside.com: 2018-11-28 14:31:58 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 728 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / November 28, 2018 / Strategic Metals Ltd. (TSX-V: SMD) ("Strategic") is pleased to announce it has granted West Pacific Ventures Inc. ("West Pacific") the optional right to purchase a 100% interest in Strategic's Lance and Lois projects, located in the Lansing area of central Yukon.Lance and Lois OptionThe Lance and Lois are promising intrusion related gold targets located adjacent to Goldstrike Resources Ltd.'s Plateau Property in central Yukon, where Newmont Mining Corp. has been funding exploration efforts since 2017.Under the terms of the option to purchase agreement, West Pacific can earn its 100% interest by paying Strategic $400,000 over 4 years, and issuing Strategic 100,000 common shares of West Pacific upon West Pacific becoming a publicly traded company.Upon earn-in, Strategic will retain a 2% net smelter return royalty in any commercial production, half of which (1% of the net smelter royalty interest) can be purchased by West Pacific for $1,000,000 any time prior to the commencement of commercial production. Strategic shall be entitled to receive a one-time cash payment of $2.00 for each ounce of gold (or equivalent in other metals) identified as a measured or indicated mineral resource, and an additional $2.00 for each ounce of gold (or equivalent in other metals) identified as a proven or probable mineral reserve.Normal Course Issuer BidStrategic is making a new Normal Course Issuer Bid (the "New Bid") pursuant to the provisions of TSX Venture Exchange Policy 5.6, to succeed its existing Normal Course Issuer Bid (the "Old Bid"), as accepted by the TSX Venture Exchange on November 30, 2017.Strategic has purchased no shares under the Old Bid, which will expire on November 30, 2018. The New Bid will consist of the acquisition by Strategic of up to 5,900,000 common shares of its capital stock, representing approximately 10% of the "public float" of 59,237,635 common shares upon the date of commencement of the New Bid. (There are currently 89,440,151 common shares of Strategic issued and outstanding.) The New Bid will commence on December 3, 2018, and will expire on December 2, 2019.Strategic is making the New Bid, to succeed the Old Bid (which was limited to an aggregate of 7,100,000 common shares), because it is of the opinion that fluctuating global market conditions periodically (and currently) may result in unwarranted reductions in Strategic's share price that do not reflect the underlying value of its assets. Strategic will utilize unallocated cash resources to effect purchases under the New Bid with a view to capitalizing on these potential price weaknesses. Shares purchased under the New Bid will be made at Management's discretion based on market conditions, and will be returned to Strategic's treasury for cancellation.The New Bid will be conducted on behalf of Strategic by PI Financial Corp., of Suite 1900 - 666 Burrard Street, Vancouver, B.C.About Strategic Metals Ltd.Strategic is a project generator with a portfolio of more than 130 projects that are the product of over 50 years of focussed exploration and research by a team with a track record of major discoveries. Current projects include 118 wholly-owned, 5 joint ventures, 4 under option and 8 royalty interests. Projects available for option, joint venture or sale include drill-confirmed prospects and drill-ready targets with high-grade surface showings, geochemical anomalies and geophysical features that resemble those at nearby deposits.Strategic has a strong cash position and large shareholdings in a number of active mineral exploration companies including 45.3% of GGL Resources Corp., 41.8% of Rockhaven Resources Ltd., 30.2% of Precipitate Gold Corp., 17.8% of Silver Range Resources Ltd., 9.1% Trifecta Gold Ltd., and 6.9% of ATAC Resources Ltd.ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD"W. Douglas Eaton"President and Chief Executive OfficerFor further information concerning Strategic or its various exploration projects please visit our website at www.strategicmetalsltd.com or contact:Corporate InformationW. Douglas EatonPresident and C.E.O.Tel: (604) 688-2568Investor InquiriesRichard DrechslerV.P. CommunicationsTel: (604) 687-2522NA Toll-Free: (888) 688-2522rdrechsler@ strategicmetalsltd.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.This news release may contain forward looking statements based on assumptions and judgments of management regarding future events or results that may prove to be inaccurate as a result of exploration and other risk factors beyond its control, and actual results may differ materially from the expected results.SOURCE: Strategic Metals Ltd. St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church: 2640 Park Drive An evening service to officially welcome St. Johns new rector, the Rev. Jeremy Froyen, will be at 7 p.m. Dec. 5. The Rev. Jeffrey D. Lee, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago, will be the celebrant. A reception will follow the service. A Holiday Cookie Walk will be from 9 to 11:30 Dec. 8. A wide variety of holiday and other homemade cookies will be offered. PR-Inside.com: 2018-11-28 14:41:41 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 430 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 Pasquale, who is a 7 Time Nominee, was Also Nominated for Outstanding Body of Work, Best Voiceover and 2 other Prestigious CategoriesNEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / November 28, 2018 / Tony Pasquale, a highly in-demand national voiceover talent, is pleased to announce that he was recently named the winner of the Outstanding Public Service Announcement - TV or Web, Best Voiceover award at the 5th Annual Voice Arts Awards 2018, presented by the Society of Voice Arts and Sciences.To learn more about Pasquale's projects that were submitted for the four nominations at the Voice Arts Awards show, please visit https://tonyvo.com/voice-arts-awards/ As a spokesperson for Tony Pasquale noted, the 5th Annual Voice Arts Awards was held on Sunday, November 18 at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. Sigourney Weaver, Rosario Dawson, and Van Jones received special honors at the event, which featured thousands of entries that were judged by over 140 industry professionals.Pasquale is a 7-time nominee, with 4 nominations from this year and 3 from last year's awards show. In addition to winning the Outstanding Public Service Announcement - TV or Web, Best Voiceover award, Pasquale was also nominated for Outstanding Body of Work, Best Voiceover; Outstanding Radio Commercial; Best Voiceover and Outstanding Consumer Sales Video, Best Voiceover.Tony Pasquale receiving such a prestigious award and being nominated for 3 more will not surprise the many clients who have worked with him over the years. Since he first launched his voiceover career over 16 years ago, Pasquale has earned a well-deserved reputation for his "real, clear, now" voice style as well as for being an amazingly talented voice actor who is easy to direct, gracious, and fun."As a former creative director, I think like a producer, but rooted in acting and improv," Pasquale said, adding that for people who are looking for a fresh, real, or even uniquely specific sound for their broadcast campaign, promo, e-learning or explainer video, he is always ready to collaborate.Pasquale's winning voiceover project was created by the ad agency Archer & Sound and produced by Windsong Productions. To check out the winning PSA, please visit https://youtu.be/qJMgiR1eyP4/ About Tony Pasquale:Tony Pasquale is an award-winning national voice talent whose thousands of clients include Subway, Hilton, Movado, Chase, Whole Foods, Verizon, and Volvo. As a former creative professional, Tony's unique ability to adapt and collaborate makes him one of the top in-demand voice actors and a favorite among casting directors, producers, studios, and ad agencies. For more information, please visit https://tonyvo.com/ Contact:Tony Pasqualetony@ tonyvo.com 1-877-738-6423SOURCE: Tony Pasquale PR-Inside.com: 2018-11-28 15:04:22 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 998 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / November 28, 2018 / Wi2Wi Corporation ("Wi2Wi" or the "Company"), a leading global developer and manufacturer of end to end Wireless Connectivity Solutions, high precision Frequency Control, Timing, and Microwave Filter devices announces that Mr. Francesco Ferlaino joining the board, election of Mr. Gary DuBroc as the chairman of the board and the resignation of Mr. Michael Pesner and Mr. Harry Bloomfield from the board of directors.Mr. Francesco (Frank) Ferlaino has been appointed to the Board of directors. Mr. Ferlaino is a retired executive from the cosmetic and personal care industry. Frank spent over 28 years with the L'Oreal group starting in 1977 and had various roles during that time. He began his L'Oreal career overseeing sales for the Consumer Products Division of L'Oreal Canada. In 1980, he was appointed as the General Manager of the Division then ultimately to CEO of L'Oreal Canada in 1996. During his tenure as CEO, he oversaw the acquisition and introduction of a number of new brands and restructured corporate manufacturing activities which along with increased sales and marketing efforts allowed L'Oreal Canada to become the leader in the Canadian cosmetic industry and one of the most profitable subsidiary of the L'Oreal Groupe. In late 2000, Frank accepted the role of President of L'Oreal Brazil with a clear mission to accelerate growth through internal and external activities. During his 4 years in Brazil, L'Oreal Brazil became a high profile subsidiary of the L'Oreal Group due to new brand launches, including La Roche, Vichy and Garnier and by further expanding its manufacturing activities. Prior to his time with the L'Oreal group, from 1975-1977 Frank was the Chief Financial Officer for Vanier UniverselleLtee., a private Canadian cosmetic company. Prior to his time at Vanier, he was a Corporate Credit officer for Scotia Bank. Frank holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Montreal and a MBA from the Bordeaux Ecole de Management. Currently, Frank is serving on the Board of Directors of Radient Technologies Inc. as the Chairman of the Board of Directors.''The Company welcomes Mr. Francesco Ferlaino to the board of directors. The Board expresses its profound appreciation to Mr. Michael Pesner and Mr. Harry Bloomfield for their vision and business expertise they brought to the board of directors over the past several years and their help in the growth of the company.'' said the Chairman of the Board Mr. Gary DuBroc.''The Company thanks Mr. Bloomfield and Mr. Pesner for their guidance in growing the Company. We will continue to seek their advice and guidance in the future.'' said Zachariah Mathews, the President and CEO of the Company.For further information, please contact:Dawn LeederChief Financial Officer608 203 0234dawn_l@ wi2wi.com About IoT and M2MEssentially, IoT and M2M describe the network of physical objects or "things" embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity, which enables these objects to collect and exchange data. Driven by several factors including the growth in the availability of Broadband Internet, which reduces the cost of connecting, and the related increase in Wi-Fi capabilities as well as sensors built into myriad technologies, this has been described as the ''perfect storm'' for the IoT. Almost any device with an on and off switch that can be connected to the Internet (and/or to each other) anything from cell phones, coffee makers, washing machines, headphones, lamps, wearable devices, cars, as well as machine components in the engine of a jet airplane or the drill of an oil rig. According to analyst firm Gartner, by 2020 there will be over 26 billion connected devices. Others think this figure could be too conservative by a factor of four.About Wi2Wi CorporationWi2Wi is a vertically-integrated technology company which designs, manufactures and markets high performance, low power wireless connectivity solutions, global navigation satellite system (GNSS) modules, and frequency control devices. The Company's products and services address numerous applications in the markets of Internet of Things (IoT), Machine to Machine (M2M), Avionics, Space, and Government Sponsored Projects. Wi2Wi's products and value-added services provide highly integrated, rugged, robust, and reliable multiprotocol wireless actuators with embedded software, along with customized timing and frequency control devices for customers, worldwide. The Company was founded in 2005 and is strategically headquartered in San Jose, California with satellite offices in Middleton, Wisconsin and Hyderabad, India. Wi2Wi's manufacturing operations, its laboratory for reliability and quality control, together with design and engineering for timing and frequency control devices are located in Middleton, WI. The branch office, located in Hyderabad, India, focuses on the development of wireless connectivity; both hardware and software. Wi2Wi's strategic objective is to service the unique needs of each customer by providing end to end wireless integration solutions and highly customizable timing and frequency control devices. Wi2Wi distinguishes itself from commodity grade products, with best in the market performance, highly reliable, low power wireless connectivity products with integrated software that supports broader temperature ranges and a longer product life cycle. Furthermore, Wi2Wi's end to end product solutions helps the customer substantially reduce their end product expense, certification cost, and overall R&D investment, in addition to substantially reducing the time to market. Wi2Wi has partnered with best in class global leaders in technology, manufacturing, and sales. The Company uses a wide network of manufacturer's representatives, worldwide, to promote its products and services, and has partnered with world class distributors for the fulfillment of orders along with direct sales.Forward-Looking Statements:This news release contains certain forward-looking statements, including management's assessment of future plans and operations, and the timing thereof, that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the Company's control. Such risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, risks associated with the ability to access sufficient capital, the impact of general economic conditions in Canada, the United States and overseas, industry conditions, stock market volatility. The Company's actual results, performance or achievements could differ materi Edet Akpan, the permanent secretary, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, says the Bank of Industry (BOI) has disbursed N277.89 billion to 219,515 enterprises across the country since the inception of the present administration. Mr Akpan said this in his opening remark at the commencement of the 10th National Council on Industry, Trade and Investment in Umuahia on Tuesday. He said that the money was federal governments intervention to ensure sustainable growth and development of the industrial sector. He said the intervention has resulted in the creation of an estimated one million direct and indirect jobs. He described the theme of the five-day meeting, Ease-of-Doing Business in Nigeria: the role of states and Local Governments, as apt, saying that the conference would help to create the right environment that would guarantee and sustain investment in Nigeria. The permanent secretary said that the ministry was coordinating the implementation of Executive Order 001 on Ease-of-Doing-Business Initiative. He said that Nigeria had made progress on the reforms and that the country had moved up to 24 places from190 countries in the Ease-of-Doing Business Ranking of the World Bank in its Report of 2018. He expressed delight that the government had implemented far-reaching projects and programmes within the content of its strategy, in line with its pivotal role in the actualisation of the goals of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan. Mr Akpan said that a five-year plan was launched to accelerate the nations capacity in the implementation of the Nigerian Industrial Revolution Plan. He said, The plan aims at increasing manufacturing contribution to the Gross Domestic Product by 10 per cent within the period 2018 to 2022. He said that the plan is now focusing on local content envelopment toward Nigerian made vehicles. He said that plans had been concluded to establish three auto industrial parks in the three auto corridors of Kaduna-Kano, Lagos-Ogun-Ibadan and Enugu state. He further said that the registration of 22 Automotive Assembly Plants in Nigeria, including Honda, Coscharis Auto, Leventis, Aston Motors and Century (Toyota) was in progress. Earlier in his address of welcome, the Commissioner for Trade and Investment in Abia, Charles Ognonnaya, said the state had improved on the Ease-of-Doing Business due to the support and encouragement from the Federal Government. We are not yet where we would want to be but we have moved up from where we used to be, Mr Ogbonnaya said. He said that with Aba, highly reputed for its industrial exploits, Abia remained home to Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in Nigeria and West Africa. The commissioner said that aside from other measures introduced toward the Ease-of-Doing Business initiative, Abia also keyed into the business registration discount window of the Federal Government by sponsoring the registration of 500 businesses free of charge. In a goodwill message, Reuben Bamidele of United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, reiterated the commitment of the agency toward more robust collaboration with Nigeria toward the realisation of its economic programme. (NAN) The Nigerian government on Tuesday said it has awarded a mining contract to ten exploration and consulting companies. Abubakar Bwari, Nigerias minister of mining and steel development, said the move is part of the countrys efforts to develop the mining sector. The minister spoke on the sidelines of the Mines and Money conference in London. Reuters reports that Mr Bwari did not say how much the contracts were worth. Recently we gave a contract to four exploration companies, with six consulting firms to explore our mineral resources focusing on gold, zinc, iron ore, rare earth metals, he told Reuters in London. Mr Bwari said Nigeria had offered mining companies a three to five year tax holiday, duty and tax-free importing of equipment, full ownership of their businesses and the ability to take profits out of the country. Apart from the normal budgetary allocation government has given intervention of $100 million and we are focusing on exploration, the minister said, adding that the funds would be used to help government to develop the sector. Earlier in July, the minister said eight firms would be awarded a government contract to the tune of N12.7 billion ($41.5 million). On Tuesday, the minister said the World Bank and Nigerian authorities recently discussed progress on spending the $150 million the bank agreed to lend the country in April to develop the mining industry, adding that he would like things to move more quickly. Nigeria slipped out of recession in the second quarter of 2017, after months of increase in prices of goods and services, occasioned largely by a slump in oil prices. As parts of its efforts to consolidate on growth, Africas top crude oil producer aims to diversify its economy by developing other industries such as agriculture, industry, and mining. Indications emerged Wednesday that the Nigerian government is yet to decide whether it would participate in any production cuts ahead of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meeting slated for December 6. Ibe Kachikwu, Nigerias oil minister, said on Wednesday that it was too early to say whether Nigeria would participate in any cuts; but there was absolute resolve within OPEC to stabilise the market. The minister spoke when Saudi Energy Minister, Khalid al-Falih, visited him in Abuja for a meeting. But Mr al-Falih on his part stated that Saudi would not cut oil output on its own to stabilise the market. OPEC and its allies led by Russia will meet in Vienna next week amid concerns over a slowing global economy and rising oil supplies from the United States, which is not involved in an existing agreement to restrain output. Oil prices have been pushed below $60 per barrel this week from as high as $85 in October, prompting Saudi Arabia, OPEC leader, to suggest significant production cuts. But the Kingdoms decision has been met with uncertainty as U.S. President Donald Trump has asked that Saudi refrain from output reductions and help lower oil prices further. The developments come against the backdrop of the crisis surrounding the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at Saudi Arabias consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, in October. The killing generated global condemnation even as Mr Trump backed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman despite calls from many U.S. politicians to impose stiff sanctions on the Kingdom. On Wednesday in Abuja, the Saudi minister said signals from OPEC members Iraq, Nigeria and Libya were positive ahead of the organisations meeting next week as all ministers wanted to restore stability to oil markets. Nigeria has been excluded from the previous round of cuts, which began in 2017, due to steep production declines caused by unrest in the Niger Delta region. We are going to do whatever is necessary, but only if we act together as a group of 25, Reuters quoted Mr Falih to have said, referring to OPEC and its allies led by Russia. As Saudi Arabia we cannot do it alone, we will not do it alone, he added, stressing that Everybody is longing (to) reach a decision that brings stability back to the market I think people know that leaving the market to its own devices with no clarity and no collective decision to balance the market is not helping. Earlier in November, the Saudi official had said that abundant supply of oil may require OPEC and its allies to reduce output in 2019. He said supply may exceed demand by as much as 1 million barrels per day, or 1 per cent of global demand. The move, analysts said, meant that OPEC and its allies may try to reduce production by that number. But when asked on Wednesday whether cuts could be deeper than 1.4 million bpd, Mr al-Falih declined to answer. By Wednesday afternoon, checks revealed that oil slipped, pressured by rising U.S. inventories and doubts over whether an OPEC-led output cut will be agreed next week. The outcome of next weeks OPEC meeting remains clouded by uncertainty, Stephen Brennock of oil broker PVM told CNBC Wednesday. Saudi Arabia has pledged 50 million dollars in support of the United Nations aid agency for Palestinian refugees, Saudi state media reported on Wednesday. In September, the U.S. said it would halt funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The U.S., which is the main donor to UNRWA, said at the time that the agency had become an irredeemably flawed operation. UNRWA, the main UN body responsible for Palestinians, has said it needed 200 million dollars, this year, to fill the budget gap. Al-Ekhbariya television said the $50 million would be provided by the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre, a state-run institution based in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. (Dpa/NAN) Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday called on the United States to stop imposing unilateral sanctions and seek common ground with its partners. It seems to me that we need to achieve a positive result for ourselves, not trying to harm the partners, but trying to find joint areas of activity in order to work together more effectively, Mr Putin said at the Russia Calling investment forum. When the Russian president was asked to comment on a possible advice Russia could offer to the U.S., he said that everyone will only lose from unilateral and politically motivated measures. His advice is to abandon this policy and to seek common ground. The relations between Russia and the U.S. have been on the rocks because the two countries do not see eye to eye on a slew of international affairs such as the Iran nuclear issue, Crimea as well as the suspicious poisoning of a retired Russia spy. The ongoing confrontation between Russia and Ukraine near the Kerch Strait that separates the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov has made the situation worse. Meanwhile, Mr Putin said he would advise his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump to stop unilateral actions during their planned meeting in Argentina on the sidelines of the G20 summit this week. Mr Trump threatened on Tuesday that he would consider cancelling the meeting because of Russias use of military force in the Kerch Strait. (Xinhua/NAN) Saudi Arabias Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman has landed in Buenos Aires on Wednesday for the G20 summit of industrialised nations, Argentine state media reports. The visit is fraught with controversy over the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Human Rights Watch asked Argentina on Monday to use a war crimes clause in its constitution to investigate any involvement by the crown prince in possible crimes against humanity in Yemen and Khashoggis murder. A representative of the federal prosecutors office that has been assigned the case told media by telephone on Wednesday that the prosecutor was still reviewing the request by HRW and that no decision had yet been made on whether to investigate it. The killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and a critic of the crown prince, at Riyadhs consulate in Istanbul six weeks ago, has strained Saudi Arabias ties with the West. This has battered Mr Mohammeds image abroad. Saudi Arabia has said the prince, the kingdoms de facto ruler, had no prior knowledge of the murder. Mr Mohammed arrived in Buenos Aires from Tunisia, where he was met by protesters who denounced him as a murderer for the killing of Khashoggi. He was greeted by Argentine foreign minister Jorge Faurie. Western nations are also calling for an end to the Saudi-led military campaign in neighboring Yemen, which was launched by Prince Mohammed, as a humanitarian crisis there worsens. The G20 leaders summit begins on Friday. (Reuters/NAN) (This is the second part in a series to reivew the National Health Act. Read the first part here. The failure by government to implement existing laws and policies is one of the major problems of the Nigerian health sector, Mike Ogirima, the immediate past president of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) stated in the last days of his leadership of the association. Mr Ogirima who stated this at the NMAs 58th Annual Delegates Meeting and Scientific Conference in April said Nigerias health and socio-demographic indices have kept declining because a series of laws, policies and conventions adopted are not being followed with the right implementation. He said such laws include the National Health Policy 2004 & 2016; and Healthcare Financing Policy & Strategy 2006. Mr Ogirima, a professor, was however particular about the National Health Act 2014. He said the Act addresses most of the issues bedevilling the sector and would have revolutionised healthcare delivery in Nigeria had they been diligently implemented. The signing of the National Health Act by former President Goodluck Jonathan on October 31, 2014 into law after 10 years of consideration birthed the argument over its implementation which has remained four years after. Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, earlier in January argued that all other provisions of the Act have been fully implemented except the Basic Health Care Fund (BHCPF), a major objective of the Act which provides for not less than one per cent of the Consolidated Revenue for health funding. But Mr Ogirima had then described the ministers position as far from the truth. Fortunately, when passing the 2018 budget in May, the National Assembly earmarked N57.15 billion for the BHCPF as stipulated by the Act and stakeholders in the health sector sighed in relief. The joy was, however, short-lived as the BHCPF 2018 is yet to be released barely a month to the end of the year. It again restored the argument over non-implementation of the Act to the front burner. Besides, the fact that certificates of standard, another major provision of the law are yet to be issued to any hospital across the country counters the health ministers position that the Act has been fully implemented (Inclusion of the BHCPF in 2018 budget means full implementation going by the ministers assessment). Former NMA President, Mike Ogirima, a professor of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery Part 2 subsection 2 of the Act clearly states that a health establishment, health agency or technology without obtaining a certificate of standards cannot operate 24 months after the date the Act took effect. This has been the crux of agitations over the non-implementation of the Act. Going by this provision, all hospitals and health establishments in the country are operating illegally because it is over 24 months (two years) since the Act was enacted and no hospital is yet to receive the certificate of standards. National Health Act: Implementation What the Law says In the details of the National Health Act which critically examined in the first part of this series, the federal ministry of health among other agencies under its supervision were vested with powers to execute, enforce, oversee, coordinate, delegate and regulate almost all the provisions of the Act. Part 1 of the Act details the powers of the ministry of health through its minister in that regard. It states that the federal health ministry shall develop the National Health Policy and issue guidelines for its implementation; and collaborate with states and local governments to ensure appropriate mechanisms are set up for implementation. It also stated that it shall prepare strategic, medium-term health and human resources plan annually and ensure the preparation and presentation of an annual report of the state of health of Nigerians and the National Health System to the President and National Assembly. It shall establish the National Council on Health, the highest policy-making body on health issues in Nigeria. It shall also establish and coordinate the National Tertiary Health Institutions Standard Committee which is almost like the National Universities Commission (NUC) in the Ministry of Education. This committee is supposed to issue the certificate of standards to tertiary health institutions across the country, according to the law. These are only but a few of the responsibilities of the health ministry as listed in Part 1 of the Act. Non-Implementation of the Act: Who is Responsible? Experts Some experts we spoke to on this issue gave different opinions but pushed the bulk of the blame over non-implementation of the Act to the Nigerian Government, particularly the Ministry of Health. Its obvious! those who should implement it is the government but they lack the political will to put the machinery in motion to see it implemented, Francis Faduyile, the present president of the NMA said. On the part of the NMA, we have been discussing with government and lobbying that the necessary dictates of the Act are implemented. We have called the government to set up a committee that will issue the certificates of standards. Sadly, the said one per cent Consolidated Fund which was added in the 2018 budget is not even up to what the Act mandated and yet for them to release the money and put it in different areas has not been done. So, I think its the government we should be asking why have they not followed the dictates of the law. It is largely in the hands of the government. Nzube Akunne, a Lagos-based lawyer, described non-implementation as the major challenge of most laws in Nigeria. There are so many laws signed but you find out that they are not yet implemented. Many laws of the country are like that. The problem is not with the legislators who made the laws but the executives who are supposed to enforce. In the case of the NHA, the executive is the health ministry so if its not implemented, then the lacuna is from the ministry, they are responsible to use their executive power to enforce the law. Victor Emeguiwe, a public health activist said the Act allocated specific roles and responsibilities to various government agencies to implement its provisions. In this issue of certificate of standards, it is the role of the ministry of health to grade all the health care providers and issue the certificate to them through certain institutions which were meant to be set up. The fact that it has not yet been done is a question that should be asked the ministry of health. Why have they abdicated that responsibility of not implementing that aspect of the Act? They say they are in the process of setting up a committee that is going to look into that (after four years?) yet they have not finalised the operationalisation of the Act. So questions should be redirected to the health ministry. Mr Emeguiwe, however, said the burning issue at the moment is non-release/disbursement of the basic health fund included in the 2018 budget. He accused the health ministry and the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) of delaying the process. Guidelines for disbursing the BHCPF has not been set up because of the bickering between the federal ministry of health and the NPHCDA, the agency that is supposed to manage the funds. There is supposed to be guidelines on how these funds can be disbursed but the guidelines have not been set up. The NPHCDA is supposed to set up the guidelines, according to the Act. NPHCDA Head office in Abuja. (Photo taken by Ebuka Onyeji) Henry Ewononu, a health expert and consultant, outlined some aspects of the law that is still ineffective. Section 11 E of the Act provides for emergency treatment but many Nigerians still complain because the fund set out for emergencies which is in the BCHPF is not released, disbursed and enforced. Up till now, we dont know the exact number of Nigerians captured under the NHIS because the National Council on Health which was mandated in the Act to capture Nigerians into the scheme seems ineffective. While there is a law that provides how Nigerians should get health services, yet up till now people are dying because of lack of access to health services, Mr Ewononu lamented. What about the issue of treatment of public officers outside the country? Its in the Act! Section 46 read: Without prejudice to the rights of any Nigerians to receive medical check-up or investigation of treatment anywhere within and outside the country, no public officer of any sort thereof shall be sponsored for medical check-up, investigation or treatment abroad at public expense except in exceptional cases on the recommendation and referral of the medical board and duly approved by the minister or the commissioner as the case may be. But there is still a lacuna here because this medical board has not been set up. This is arbitrariness. These are all infractions! We have started organ transplant, kidney transplant and all but there is nothing regulating them. Meanwhile, it is clearly stated in section 38. This issue of certificate of standards was to curb quackery in the health sector but nothing has been done. The Consumer Protection Board has provided a framework of implementing Part 3 of this Act, which is on the right and obligations of the users. An agency outside health is doing this? What then is the health ministry doing? For Dale Ogunbayo, a medical consultant, the main issue is that people are not aware of the Act and government is not enforcing the various sections of the Act. Money is something that is very attractive to us as Nigerians and so people only begin to pay attention to the Act when the money part of the Act is discussed. Basic health care provision funds is the part that seems more attractive to the few people that even know or take interest in the NHA. Repeated calls and text messages sent to the phones of both the health minister and ministrys spokesperson, Boade Akinola, for a response were not returned. In the next phase of this series, the Basic Health Provision Fund will be reviewed. The Senate on Wednesday finally confirmed the appointment of Olanipekun Olukoyede as Secretary of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The confirmation followed a report submitted by Chukwuka Utazi, Chairman, Senate Committee on Anti Corruption and Financial Crimes, which recommended the confirmation of Mr Olukoyedes appointment. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that efforts to confirm Mr Olukoyedes appointment on Tuesday failed following disagreement among the committee members on modus operandi of the screening. The Senate subsequently postponed submission of the report and asked the committee to resolve all contending issues among members. On Wednesday, shortly before the confirmation, another round of disagreement ensued between Mr Utazi and some members of the committee. The members had claimed their input was never sought by the chairman before reaching his conclusion on the recommendation. A member of the committee, Isah Misau (PDP-Bauchi), raised an objection alleging that he was not contacted for the meeting to screen Mr Olukoyede as directed by the Senate on Tuesday. Dino Melaye, also a committee member, corroborated Mr Misaus claim and accused the chairman of not complying with the resolution of the Senate. But Mr Utazi denied their claims, saying that he had sent letters of invitation to all the members while some refused to attend because they went for oversight functions of other committees where they were also members. He expressed concern that his colleagues were trying to hold the committee to ransom over alleged personal interest. Mr Utazi urged the Senate not to set a bad precedent by allowing few individuals to slow down the work of the apex chamber out of selfishness. In his remarks, the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, sought the confirmation of the committees recommendation of Mr Olukoyedes appointment via a voice vote. A majority of the lawmakers affirmed the adoption of the report for his confirmation. Mr Olukoyede, who hails from Ekiti State, until his new appointment, was the Chief of Staff to the Acting Chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu. President Muhammadu Buhari had in a letter of September 10, nominated Mr Olukoyede as Secretary to the Commission. Mr Utazi had, during Tuesdays plenary, told the Senate that the nominee demonstrated competence and had sufficient experience to occupy the office for which he was nominated. The Senate had on October 3, 2018, referred President Buharis letter of request for the confirmation of the nominee to the Senate Committee on Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes, to screen and report back to the chamber for adoption.(NAN) That would bring together pet adoption and rescue groups to work together to be more effective in helping animals who would be abused or euthanized, he said. Glasgows office also would develop legislation for the county, and make recommendations to municipalities on better ways to fight animal abuse. This would be a major undertaking, he said. The Akwa Ibom State Governor, Udom Emmanuel, has asked the police headquarters in Abuja to immediately withdraw the commissioner of police in the state, Musa Kimo. The officer has been accused of taking side with the All Progressives Congress (APC) over the House of Assembly crisis in the state. Mr Kimo, who is barely one week old in the state, was posted to Akwa Ibom to replace the former commissioner, John Abang, who was also accused by the APC of taking sides with the Akwa Ibom government and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against five lawmakers sacked from the assembly. The lawmakers were sacked for defecting from the PDP to the APC. The assembly has been thrown into violent crisis since the sacking of the lawmakers. The governor, Mr Emmanuel, was said to have called for the transfer of the new police chief at a press briefing in Government House, Uyo, after the Tuesday turmoil where the APC lawmakers invaded the assembly to hold 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 PDP, arrived with police officers, officials of the State Security Service (SSS), and some youth loyal to the state government and the PDP to chase them away. Photos posted on Facebook showed some of the lawmakers fleeing for safety. A car was reportedly set ablaze during the fracas. The governor later on Tuesday tweeted through his personal Twitter handle @MrUdomEmmanuel: For the Commissioner that @PoliceNG just posted last weekend, lets assume that he has finished his course. I call on @PoliceNG, the police commissioner & the head of the QRS must be withdrawn so that we can maintain peace in #AkwaIbom. This is the first time where the entire @PoliceNG structure belongs to a Political Party, but since we dont have the police, we dont have anything apart from God and Our People. AkwaIbom is the most peaceful state in our country, Nigeria. We maintain all oil installations so that money could be gotten out of here and be sent to Abuja for peace to be maintained. Just recently the Excess Crude Account that was kept by our own people has been used to acquire military weapons, so those weapons will be used to intimidate #AkwaIbom People. The Akwa Ibom government said thugs, dressed in military uniforms, were aided into the assembly premises by the police, on Tuesday. It is pertinent to note that 13 APC thugs dressed in military uniforms and armed with AK47 rifles were apprehended by law-abiding citizens of and handed over to the police. However, it defies logic that these hoodlums were set free without due process of investigations by the OC Quick Response in Akwa Ibom State, Superintendent Adulkareem Suleiman, the Commissioner for Information in the state, Charles Udoh, said in a statement. He said the driver of the vehicle that conveyed the thugs was dressed in military uniform. He said Innocent Udoh, the gang leader, and Nsikak Stephen, the youth leader of Nung Itak, are still in custody. He also said they had made useful confessional statements adding that the driver has confirmed to law enforcement agents that they were hired by Victor Udofia, the immediate former State House of Assembly member representing Ikono state constituency. The Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly has also passed a motion for the removal of the police commissioner. The police is yet to speak on their role in the assembly crisis. The spokesperson of the police in the state, Odiko MacDon, has not been responding to calls and text messages from reporters since the crisis began. Meanwhile, the APC National Vice Chairman, Ntufam Eta, has described Governor Emmanuels visit to the assembly premises as an invasion. Mr Eta, who said the governor went to the assembly with thugs, called on security agencies to urgently investigate, apprehend, and prosecute those involved in the brutalisation of APC lawmakers. He said the governors interference at the assembly was unconstitutional and against the provisions of the law of the country. He said, The governor should approach the court if he feels strongly about certain happenings in the state assembly. The party (APC) will not stand aloof to watch the intimidation and harassment of APC members in the state, he added. An investigation by PREMIUM TIMES has established reasons why the United Kingdoms Serious Fraud Office (SFO) did not prosecute oil and gas firm, Oriental Energy, after it was named in a UK criminal conviction. Oriental Energy is an indigenous firm owned by Nigerias billionaire oil magnate, Muhammadu Indimi. PREMIUM TIMES reported how the oil firm was named in a money laundering and fraud case involving Osman Shahenshah and Shahid Ullah, two former top executives of energy firm, Afren. The duo were in October convicted after they were found guilty of money laundering offences in the United Kingdom. Prosecutors said Messrs Shahenshah and Ullah illegally received more than $17 million in a case involving Oriental Energy and they committed the offences whilst serving as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Afren, respectively. The officials were said to have laundered more than $45 million from a $300 million deal they recommended to Afren, using their illicit proceeds to purchase luxury properties in the Caribbean, without the knowledge of Afrens Board. Background Prosecutors said Messrs Shahenshah and Ullah created a side deal with one of Afrens Nigerian oil partner, Oriental, that would allow them to benefit from payments Afren would make. The men recommended a transaction to the Afren Board, who then approved payments of hundreds of millions of dollars without knowing that Messrs Shahenshah and Ullah stood to personally benefit. The transaction was claimed to be necessary to maintain the business partnership, but the fact that both men stood to benefit personally remained hidden. Lisa Osofsky, Director of the Serious Fraud Office said: Greed motivated this crime. Osman Shahenshah and Shahid Ullah failed in their duties as company directors, abused their positions and lied to their board. United Kingdoms Serious Fraud Office (SFO). [PHOTO CREDIT: Sky News] Instead of acting in their companys best interests, they used Afren like a personal bank account to fund an illicit deal, with no regard for the consequences. Fraud corrodes confidence, undermines trust and damages the reputation of the UK at home and abroad. It is our mission to bring those committing this crime to justice. SFO said that Messrs Shahenshah and Ullah recommended that the Afren board agree to a $300 million payment to Oriental Energy Resources Ltd, the companys oil field partner in Nigeria. Unknown to the Afren board, both men struck a side deal with Oriental which led to 15 per cent of the $300 milion being paid out to a Caribbean shell company controlled by the defendants. The men then used the $45 million to purchase luxury properties in Mustique and the British Virgin Islands. A smaller portion of the $45 million laundered was split between Oriental employees and a close network of Afren staff dubbed The A Team. On October 29, at Southwark Crown Court, a judge, Gledhill QC, sentenced both officials of Afren to prison. Mr Shahenshah was sentenced to six years jail for one count of fraud, contrary to section 1 of the Fraud Act 2006; six years concurrent for one count of money laundering, contrary to section 329 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002; and four years concurrent for one count of money laundering, contrary to section 328 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. Mr Ullah, received five years jail for one count of fraud, contrary to section 1 of the Fraud Act 2006; five years concurrent for one count of money laundering, contrary to section 329 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002; and four years concurrent for one count of money laundering, contrary to section 328 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. The SFO in September said however that Mr Shahenshah had appealed against his conviction and sentence. While Afren Plc is an oil company in which a former Nigerian oil minister, Rilwanu Lukman, was a former chairman and founder, Oriental is owned by Mr Indimi, who is an in-law to President Muhammadu Buhari. In 2014 when the issue was first raised, Mr Indimis Oriental Energy denied any wrongdoing. Checks by PREMIUM TIMES also showed that the company is not under any probe in Nigeria. Further checks by this newspaper at the UK SFO however shows that prosecutors did not find sufficient evidence to suggest that individuals at Oriental were complicit in the fraud. PREMIUM TIMES learnt that it was the prosecutions case that Messrs Shahenshah and Ullah masterminded the crime, were the primary beneficiaries of the fraud and had abused their position as Afren Directors for personal gain. We have successfully prosecuted the individuals who planned, committed and primarily benefitted from this crime and brought them to justice, an SFO spokesperson told this newspaper. Prosecution decisions are made on the evidence available in accordance with the UK Code for Crown Prosecutors. Why Oriental Was Not Investigated With the help of its London partner, Finance Uncovered, PREMIUM TIMES learnt that the SFO decided not to pursue Oriental for a number of reasons. Details also emerged of why the anti-graft agency did not involve Nigerias anti-corruption agencies. This newspaper gathered that SFO officials maintained that since the criminal activity uncovered by the SFOs investigations were not committed in Nigeria but in the British Virgin Islands and the UK and witnesses from Afren and Oriental voluntarily cooperated with the SFO, prosecutors agreed there was no operational need to involve Nigerias law enforcement authorities. Our reporter also gathered that when called for interrogation, officials at Oriental Energy promptly cooperated with the UK SFO and honoured the invitation. The SFO opined that if the officials had been uncooperative, there would have been a reason to involve the Nigerian authorities. The agency also concluded that as the crime was not committed in Nigeria, and was not committed by Oriental, it was not necessary to involve Nigerias anti-corruption agencies. Oriental Energy Oriental Energy Resources Limited, according to details on its website, was founded by the chairman, Mr Indimi, in 1990. In September of that year, the company was awarded OPL 224 by the Federal Government of Nigeria under the then military ruler, Ibrahim Babangida, with a mandate requirement to acquire a minimum of up to 1000 km of seismic data and to drill at least three exploratory wells. Ibrahim Babangida, Former Nigerian head of state Work began on OPL 224 in 1991 as the company entered into a Technical Services Agreement with DuPont Nigeria Ltd, acquired the committed 2D seismic survey as well as drilled four wells including the Ufon discovery well. This continued until the Nigerian Department of Petroleum Resources gave an approval to convert OPL 224 to OML 115 on 20 May 1999, as a result of the successful work done on the block. In early 2000s, the growth of Oriental Energy proceeded quickly. Ebok marginal field (May 2007) and Okwok marginal field (2006) were awarded to Oriental Energy Resources Limited from ExxonMobils OML 67, through a Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) between the Nigerian government and ExxonMobil under the Marginal Fields Scheme, as a compensation for the loss of acreage to ExxonMobil Equatorial Guinea. The company said it has had strategic alliances with Addax Petroleum (Okwok), Nexen E&P Services Nigeria Ltd. (OML 115), and Energy Equity Resources Oil & Gas (OML 115). In 2008, Oriental Energy announced its Technical Services Agreement with Afren Energy Resources to appraise the Ebok Field and the partnership expanded with Afren signing a JVA with Oriental Energy and Addax for the development of Okwok (2009), as well as Afren signing a JVA with Oriental Energy and EER for the exploration and appraisal of OML 115 (2010). The company says it is currently producing an average of 19, 000 barrels of oil per day from 27 producer wells and has produced over 60 MMbbls from inception to date. President Muhammadu Buhari (2nd, L) and other dignitaries at the wedding between Ahmed Indimi and Zhara Buhari at the wedding ceremony of the Presidents daughter in Abuja on Friday (16/12/16). 91510/16/12/2016/BJO/NAN The companys chairman, Mr Indimi, is in-law to President Muhammadu Buhari. In 2016, Mr Buharis daughter, Zahra, got married to Mr Indimis son, Ahmed Indimi The Nigerian Army said its troops repelled Boko Haram insurgents attack in Kukawa Local Government Area of Borno. The army said in its Twitter handle that the troops repelled the insurgents attack while attempting to infiltrate Cross-Kauwa in Kukawa at about 8 p.m. on Tuesday. It added that it would provide details on the attack later. Troops of 157 Strike Force Battalion at about 8 p.m. today (Nov. 27) 2018; repelled some elements of Boko Haram terrorists who attempted to infiltrate Cross-Kauwa in Kukawa Local Government Area of Borno, details later, the army wrote. The Tuesday night incident occurs about two weeks after scores of soldiers were killed when Boko Haram attacked an army base in Metele. The army is yet to provide its official casualty from the Metele attack. Military sources have, however, told PREMIUM TIMES at least 114 soldiers including their commander were killed in the attack. President Muhammadu Buhari has since the attack met with security chiefs and cancelled a scheduled casual leave with a pledge to ensure the defeat of the terrorists. The attacks by the Boko Haram on both civilian and military targets have continued despite the efforts of the Nigerian military in partnership with those of neighbouring countries. About 100,000 people have been killed since 2009 when the Boko Haram insurgency began, according to the Borno State Government. The Senate on Wednesday confirmed Olanipekun Olukoyede as the Secretary of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Mr Olukoyede, who is the current Chief of Staff to the acting Chairman of EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, was nominated as secretary to the commission by President Muhammadu Buhari, in a letter dated September 10, 2018. The Senate had on Tuesday suspended Mr Olukoyedes confirmation. It resolved to stand down his confirmation after a member of the Senate Committee on Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes, Isa Misau (PDP, Bauchi Central) accused some committee members of preparing a report without the consent of others. The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, then directed the chairman and members of the committee to meet and deliberate on the issue and re-present the report today. Mr Misau had also complained that only three of eight members of the committee signed the Endorsement Page of the report. The lawmakers, however, confirmed the EFCC secretary amidst altercations between the chairman of the committee, Chukwuka Utazi, and some other members. Prior to the confirmation, Mr Misau raised a point of order accusing Mr Utazi of disobeying the resolution made by the Senate on Tuesday. He said he and other members were still not invited to any meeting. There was a resolution of the Senate yesterday on the committee to sit down and look at the report so it can be considered today. I am a member of the committee. Senators Dino, Matthew, Monsurat, Mustapha are members of this committee. All of us are waiting to be called to deliberate on this report and we know that there are so many petitions concerning this nominee and this nominee is going to hold a very sensitive office in the EFCC. I think it not right for us to just do a shortcut in screening this individual. The rights of the committee members should be considered. If there is any petition against this man, let us look at it. The normal procedure is for the clerk to send a letter of invitation. I dont know what the interest is. I was just sitting here and the chairman came with a document asking me and Dino to sign for him. I think what we are trying to do is not right. Let us step down this report, let the committee sit down and deliberate on it. Why are we avoiding the screening of this man? What is the interest? If the EFCC can do investigation on individuals, why cant we perform our own rights? he said. In his response, Mr Utazi reiterated that invitations were before Tuesday sent out to all members of the committee and Mr Misau was absent. Im not giving to making response to trivalities and frivolities in this Senate. It is right to inform the Senate that the quorum of our committees is three. We gave notice of meeting on 24th of October. I sent it to the member who is trying to mislead this chamber here. It was also on the Order Paper of that day. On the same day, we were going for this meeting, I also informed our colleagues and when we got there, only three people were there. And we did the business of this committee and concluded our activities and came up with a report which we have here. Yesterday, I brought it up, the member who was absent, stopped the meeting. He was never there. He only participated in ICPC screening. We have a report here. Let the Senate do the needful and consider what we have done here, he said. Dino Melaye (PDP, Kogi West) countered his argument and asked that the Senate suspend the confirmation for further deliberation. The resolution of this Senate yesterday, was for the committee to meet. This was not done. Utazi is an honourable Nigerian and on his honour, he knows that the committee did not meet yesterday. I will request that we carry out the resolution of the Senate which is that the committee should meet. Then we can now come back and make our presentation. If we are lawmakers, we cannot be lawbreakers. Mr Saraki, noticing the chaos emanating from the arguments, said based on the Senates procedure, the chairman and others present could form a quorum and also present the report It was out of respect for our colleague that said he had not seen the report that we said we should stand it down for a day so that there will be further consultations. It does not mean that they had to agree. The floor was thrown into a rowdy session following his comment. The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, thereafter called for calm as he said the debate was completely unnecessary. The procedure in this parliament since 1999 is that when a committee comes up with a report, the first thing to do is to lay it. At that point, if there is any problem, it comes up. Once it has been laid, it becomes the property of the Senate. What we need to do at this point is to discuss the report, then put the question and everybody votes the way he wants. Again, more noise ensued. In an attempt to calm the angry senators, the Senate Leader, Ahmed Lawan, urged those against the report to vote accordingly. First of all, the quorum was met, if some of the colleagues were not present, they can object to anything they dont want. And let me add that our colleagues who are against this are not completely against everything. Lets pass this. If those who dont want this report to pass, based on the recommendations, they can vote and carry the day, he said. Even though there was more noise and Mr Misau was heard asking the chairman of the committee what his interest was and why he was avoiding the meeting, Mr Saraki moved that the Senate resolve into committee of the whole and consider the nomination. The Senate, thereafter, considered and confirmed Mr Olukoyede as the EFCC secretary. Mr Magu continues to hold his position in an acting capacity after the Senate twice refused to confirm his appointment. President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday said he was aware of recent losses suffered by Nigerian soldiers fighting against Boko Haram, but urged the soldiers not to be distracted. The president spoke in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, where he met with military commanders leading the war against Boko Haram. Mr Buhari spoke at the start of the Chief of Army Staffs Annual Conference 2018. The event, initially planned to hold in Benin, the Edo State capital, was moved to Maiduguri following recent losses suffered by troops fighting Boko Haram. The most recent was the attack on an army battalion in Metele, Borno State, which left over 100 soldiers and their commanding officer dead. In his speech, Mr Buhari urged soldiers fighting against the terrorists not to be distracted by whatever speculations but to remain focused and committed to the task of eliminating Boko Haram from the face of the earth. He pledged his administrations committment to provide the soldiers with necessary equipment and resources to defeat the insurgents. Read the presidents full speech below. REMARKS BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI, AT THE CHIEF OF ARMY STAFF ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2018, HELD IN MAIDUGURI ON 28 NOVEMBER 2018 I am delighted to be here in Maiduguri for the opening ceremony of the Chief of Army Staffs Annual Conference 2018. I know that the venue of this Conference was moved from Benin to Maiduguri at very short notice. 2. However I can see that so many of the very senior officers in the Army, both serving and retired are here. In view of recent tragedies, I commend the decision of the leadership of the Nigerian Army in moving the venue of this conference to Maiduguri. 3. The officers and soldiers who are fighting against the curse of terrorism in the North East deserve all the attention our countrys leadership can demonstrate to them. 4. As President of the country, I am determined to ensure that every citizen feels safe and secure in all parts of the country. To achieve this, the security agencies must rise to the challenge and curb threats to security in our country. 5. The Armed Forces play a critical role in safeguarding the country, hence you must all ensure that your plans and programmes meet the challenges we face. 6. To this end, I am glad that this conference is holding at this time, because it serves as a platform to assess and evaluate your performance for the Year 2018. 7. One of the cardinal objectives of this government is security. In this regard, the Nigerian Armys efforts have led to the dislodgement of insurgents from areas hitherto viewed as their strongholds, rescue of abducted persons, return of Internally Displaced Persons and the gradual return to normalcy in the North East. 8. The effort of the military has also stabilised the security situation in the Niger Delta and other parts of the country and curtailed the clashes between herdsmen and farmers. 9. I must commend the selfless sacrifices of our Armed Forces, especially the heroic officers and soldiers of the Nigerian Army who by virtue of their commitment to operations all over the country have brought about the desired peace. 10. There has been a remarkable improvement in the security situation in the North East since 2015 when this administration came into government and you are a major part of the successes that have been achieved. 11. I am of course aware that in the recent months and in recent days, there have been some operational losses in the Northern part of Borno State, particularly in Jilli, Arege and Metele. 12. I know that you are doing your best to reverse this trend and I want to assure you that no effort will be spared in providing the necessary support you require to complete the task. We remain committed to ending the crisis in the North East and making the entire area safe for all. I urge you all to keep up the good work. 13. I am also painfully aware that some gallant officers and soldiers have paid the supreme price in the course of these anti-terrorist operations. While we remember them and mourn with their loved ones, I must also convey the deep gratitude of the Government and people of Nigeria to the late soldiers and their families for their heroic sacrifices. Our thoughts and prayers are also with all other victims of Boko Harams atrocities and their families. 14. I will be visiting some of our injured troops in hospitals and also talk to others at their bases to assure them of our continued support. It is a must win war. I want to encourage our troops not to be distracted by whatever speculations but to remain focused and committed to the task of eliminating Boko Haram from the face of the earth. 15. The Nigerian Armys commitment to upholding democracy is appropriately captured in the theme of the conference which is Optimizing the Operational Efficiency of the Nigerian Army Towards Safeguarding Democracy and National Security in Nigeria. 16. As we approach the 2019 General Elections, I want to urge all members of the Armed Forces to live up to their responsibilities and remain non-partisan. In addition, you must all remain vigilant throughout the electioneering period and alongside other security agencies, prevent every form of violence that could disrupt the process in line with your Rules of Engagement. 17. The Nigerian Army has enriched her corporate identity, organizational commitment and responsiveness. I also wish to acknowledge the drastic reduction in Human Rights allegations against the Nigerian Army. 18. I urge you to continue to ensure that all troops remain committed to the observance of all International Human Rights Laws and Laws of Armed Conflict. 19. Let me also commend you all for the professional manner with which the Nigerian Army in collaboration with other security agencies unravelled the perpetrators involved in the disappearance of late Major General Idris Alkali. This attests to the capabilities that exist in our security apparatus. I want to assure you that the perpetrators will be brought to book. May his gentle soul and the souls of our departed gallant troops rest in perfect peace (Amin). 20. I want to reassure you that as your Commander-In-Chief, I will do everything within my powers to continue empowering you by providing all the necessary equipment, force multipliers and enablers required for you to prevail on the field. I also want you to be aware that I am currently looking into measures to improve your entitlements and welfare generally. 21. Let me remind the audience that the cardinal objectives of this administration remain the entrenchment of security, restructuring the economy and the fight against corruption, to ensure a steady, sustainable and inclusive economic growth. 22. In addition, our commitment to entrenching purposeful and accountable leadership remains firm because it is the base on which peace, security and national development would be built. 23. I, therefore, wish to reiterate that leaders of all strata of society including our Armed Forces must embrace the wind of CHANGE that is blowing across the country for good. There must be cooperation at inter-Service and inter-agency levels. 24. To this end, the Chief of Defence Staff and Service Chiefs must work closely together as well as with other security agencies to improve on strategies that will defeat terrorism, militancy and other forms of criminal activities in our country. 25. As you appraise your activities for the Year 2018, concentrate on the contemporary security challenges facing our nation and proffer ways of surmounting the challenges. I am convinced that this conference will re-new the vigour and dedication for which the Nigerian Army is known. 26. I have gone through the Conference Programme and it is my belief that the conference will be worthwhile if your deliberations generate new strategies that would strengthen the stability of the country. On this note, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to formally declare the Chief of Army Staffs Annual Conference 2018 open. I thank you all and God bless our country. President Muhammadu Buhari has departed Abuja for Maiduguri, Borno State, to attend the Chief of Army Staff Annual Conference. The conference was earlier scheduled to take place from 26 -28 November 2018 in Benin, Edo state. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) learnt that the change in the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Annual Conference from Benin City to Maiduguri may not be unconnected to the killing of Nigerian soldiers at Metele, a remote village bordering Nigeria and Chad. While in Maiduguri, the president is also billed to pay a courtesy visit to the Shehu of Borno, Abubakar Ibn Garbai El-kanemi, and visit hospitals to sympathise with victims of the Boko Haram insurgency. NAN reports that Maiduguri metropolis and its environs have been placed under heavy security , as soldiers, police and other security personnel had been deployed to major roads and other strategic locations in the metropolis for a successful one-day official visit of the president to the state. Traders unions, according to NAN, have directed their members to close shops to enable them to welcome the president. NAN learnt that Mr Buhari would use the opportunity of the COAS conference to address the Nigerian soldiers at the battlefields to boost their morale. (NAN) A week after protests by youth in Abuja over epileptic power supply, the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) has assured its consumers in Edo, Ondo, Ekiti, and Delta states of its readiness to address power outages in the affected areas. Tayo Adekunle, its spokesperson, gave the assurance at a press briefing in Benin on Wednesday. Mr Adekunle said a contingency plan had been adopted to get the affected areas connected. He said the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) was assisting the BEDC to replace some faulty transformers. Many parts of states under the BEDC franchise area had been thrown into darkness for three weeks. This followed the breakdown of the 150MVA power transformer that supplies power to these areas. Mr Adekunles comments came days after the companys managing director, Funke Osibodu, claimed the protest against the organisation was due to the stoppage of power theft by some people. PREMIUM TIMES had earlier reported how groups of youth last week stormed the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing in Maitama, Abuja to protest against the renewal of the operational licence of the BEDC. The protest, organised by the BEDC Franchise States Peoples Alliance, had protesters comprising smaller groups from Edo, Delta, Ondo, and Ekiti states. The groups urged the ministry to avoid being compromised and demanded for the non-extension of the licence of Vigeo Holdings Limited, the firm in charge. A leader of the protesting groups from Edo said the DISCO has not added any value to what it met, adding that the region has been groaning under heavy estimated bills with deliberate non-supply of meters. The groups also said the BEDC has refused to provide transformers and electrical poles including ancillaries Since the takeover, the BEDC has not demonstrated any discernable improvement or added value to what they on the ground, a spokesman of the group, Leftist Agho, had said. Nigerians have been groaning under heavy estimated bills, a deliberate non-supply of meters, molestation of customers with military personnel, refusal to connect communities to the national grid, non-provision of transformers, poles and other ancillaries. The group also described the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) reported one-year extension of the companys licence as unacceptable. The groups also asked the minister to act by sacking Funke Osibudu, the BEDC helmsman over the challenges they were having with power. On Wednesday, Mr Adekunle said with the contingency plan in place, the company had started redistributing supply to the affected areas by taking from customers in existing functional lines. He also said that a large part of Benin such as Irhirhi, Oko, Evbuotubu, among others would be restored with the completion of the new line to Okada feeder within the next few weeks. The line will be test-run on Friday, and if successful, the areas mentioned above will be restored with supply. There are several other areas where power has been restored when this redistribution process started arising from the faulty transformer, he said. The BEDC spokesperson said everybody would be taken to their normal scheduling as soon as the faulty transformer was replaced. He said that the BEDC would continue to be a responsive and responsible distributor of electricity across the franchise states of Edo, Delta, Ondo, and Ekiti. Nigerian human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari and other leaders of the member states of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to comply with judgments and orders of municipal courts and regional tribunals in the interest of public accountability and political stability. The call was made by the lawyer on Wednesday at the ongoing ECOWAS Consultative Meeting on Access to Justice and Respect for the Rule of Law in Accra, Ghana. Mr. Falana traced the lack of respect for court orders to prolonged years of military rule and the belief of African leaders that they are as powerful as the emperors and kings who ruled many communities in Africa before colonialism. According to Mr Falana, The intervention of the President is a welcome development in view of the growing culture of impunity in Nigeria. But with respect to the President, it is not sufficient to recognise the court as a civilized forum for the amicable resolution of disputes in a democratic society. The aggrieved litigants require a firm assurance that the party leadership will not follow the bad example of the federal government by treating the judgments and orders of the court with contempt. Mr Falana said, Having now embraced the rule of law, President Buhari ought to direct the State Security Service to release Sheik Ibraheem Elzakzaky and his wife from custody in line with the orders of Federal High Court of December 2, 2016. In the same vein, the orders of the Nigerian courts and the ECOWAS Court for the release of Col Sambo Dasuki (rtd) on bail pending trial should be complied with without any further delay. Mr Falanas paper read in part: Other high-profile judgments that President Buhari must obey without further delay include at least four judgments obtained by Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP). The first is the judgment by Justice Hadiza Rabiu Shagari ordering the government to tell Nigerians about the stolen asset it allegedly recovered, with details of the amounts recovered. The second judgment, by Justice Mohammed Idris, ordered the government to publish details on the spending of stolen funds recovered by successive governments since the return of democracy in 1999, while the third judgment, also by Justice Idris, ordered President Buhari to act on reports of investigations into allegations of padding and stealing of some N481 billion from the 2016 budget by some principal officers of the National Assembly, and to ensure prosecution of indicted lawmakers. The fourth judgement by the ECOWAS Court of Justice in Abuja also obtained by SERAP ordered the Nigerian authorities to provide free and quality education to all Nigerian children without discrimination. Nigeria has a duty to show leadership by example in the region since President Mohammadu Buhari is the current Chairman of the Authority of Heads of State and Governments of the ECOWAS. Such leadership has just been demonstrated by the Nigerian leader who has been reported to have distanced himself from the decision of the ruling party in Nigeria, the All Progressive Congress (APC) to expel its aggrieved members who sued the party in court over their grievances against the outcome of the recently concluded primaries of the party. President Buhari should equally show leadership in the region by ensuring that all judgments of the ECOWAS Court against Nigeria are fully and unconditionally obeyed. The hostile disposition of African states to courts is essentially the same. African governments including Nigeria are yet to move away from the era of military and apartheid regimes when martial law was the order of the day. The rule of law is substituted for the rule of rulers. Not only are orders of courts disregarded, judges who rule against governments are harassed by security forces. The same attitude has been extended to regional and international courts. Even though majority of African States have ratified the Rome Statute, the African Union (AU) recently attempted to pull Africa out of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in order to prevent the Court from holding leaders accountable for gross human rights abuse, aggression, crimes against humanity and genocidal acts. The ICC has been accused of targeting African leaders notwithstanding that most cases of crimes against humanity were referred to the Prosecutor of the ICC by the governments of some African States. Although the AU has come up with the Malabo Declaration aimed at clothing the African Court on Human and Peoples Rights with criminal jurisdiction not a single member state has ratified the Declaration. African leaders are not prepared to respect human rights under the rule of law as only 9 out of the 54-member states of the African Union have made the Declaration accepting the competence of the African Court. The African people should not be deceived by the attempt of the AU to cover up the grave crimes against humanity and gross violations of the human rights committed by some African leaders. Nigeria and other African governments should emulate the governments of Benin, Cote Divoire, Ghana, Mali and The Gambia that have empowered their citizens to access the African Court on Human and Peoples Rights sitting in Arusha, Tanzania. Notwithstanding the commitment of the member states of the ECOWAS to fight impunity by protecting human rights under the rule of law, compliance with decisions of the court by some of the member states has not been encouraging. The Governments of Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone must without further delay comply with the judgments of the ECOWAS court and their domestic courts. The Nigerian government should emulate the government of The Gambia that has promoted accountability in all its ramifications. Apart from paying the damages awarded by the ECOWAS Court to two victims of human rights abuse, the government of The Gambia has returned to the ICC and instituted a Truth, Reconciliation and Reparation Commission to inquire into the gross human rights abuse that characterized the Yayah Jameh regime. A 28-year-old businesswoman, Lola Ologuntere, on Wednesday urged an Iyana-Ipaja Customary Court to dissolve her two-year-old marriage to Niyi, over alleged fetishism and incessant complaints on the part of her husband. The petitioner, who resides in Ishefun, Iyana-Ipaja, a Lagos suburb, told the court that her husband sprayed perfume into her nostrils while she was pregnant. My husband told me that his family complained about my not covering my hair whenever he wants to make love to me. Before we got married, my husband was homeless. He used to sleep in a mosque at Oshodi. After we got married, he rented an apartment with no other tenants and electricity. I was the only one staying in the whole compound. My husband used to spray perfume. I told him I hate perfume odour because of my condition, but he would not heed to my complaints. One day, I wanted to sleep in his room but he told me he was having a special prayer and that the spirits in the house were complaining that I did not cover my hair. I wanted him to make love to me the following day but he angrily sprayed perfume into my nostrils, pushed me out of the room pulling my hair. He always complained that I do not cover my hair. He is a Muslim, while I am a Christian. I am a make-up artist. How will I, advertise my business to my customers when my hair is covered, she said. The petitioner said that her husband is fetish. My husband is fetish. When I was in labour I needed to be operated on, my husband said I should leave the hospital and come back home so that he would do a special prayer that would enable me have a normal delivery. My sister saw a white thread, one black thread, a gourd and a key in one travel bag after I gave birth. I am sure it was my husband that put them there because no one else stays with us. Please separate us, let us go our different ways, she begged the court. Niyi, 40, a contractor, denied being fetish, but admitted that spirits complained to him about his wifes refusal to cover her hair. I am not fetish. My wife played music whenever I prayed. She disturbed my prayers. From what I was taught, the angelic spirits curse any woman who does not cover her hair. I use perfume which I bought from her. My wife is very dirty. She cannot sweep, wash plates or clothes. She would not sweep her room. She would bring dirty clothes to my room. I did the sweeping. I stayed in a separate room because I did not want her to litter my room with her dirty clothes. My wife is very rude to me and my parents. I do not want her in my life anymore, he said. The President of the court, Adegoke Adewale urged both parties to maintain peace and adjourned the case until December 4 for further hearing. (NAN) The Federal Government, states, FCT as well as the 774 local governments on Wednesday shared N788.1 billion for the month of October. The Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, disclosed this in a statement made available to journalists on Wednesday after the Federation Account Allocation Committee meeting in Kaduna. Mr Idris said the N682.1 billion gross statutory revenue for the month was N112.2 billion higher than the N569.2 billion shared in September. He added that the gross revenue available from Value Added Tax (VAT) for the month was N105.1 billion as against the N79.1 billion distributed in September, indicating an increase of N29 billion. Mr Idris said while the statutory revenue for the month was N682.1 billion, the total revenue distributable for the month of October, including VAT and Exchange Gain Difference, was N788.1 billion. Crude oil export sales increased by 0.82 million barrels resulting in increased revenue of $54.1 million dollars to the federation. Derivation of 13 percent mineral revenue amounted to N58.2 billion and cost of collection, transfer, and Federal Internal Revenue Service refund was N88.4 billion. This amounted to N788.1 billion available for distribution. However, the average unit price dropped further from 75.6 dollars to 73.9 dollars. Also, revenues from oil and gas royalties, petroleum profit tax and VAT increased significantly while company income tax, import and excise duties witnessed a marginal increase, he said. The summary of the distribution indicates that the Federal Government got N284.3 billion from statutory revenue, N15.1 billion from VAT and N0.37 billion from exchange gain, amounting to N299.9 billion. The state governments got N144.2 billion from statutory revenue, N50.4 billion from VAT and N0.18 billion from exchange gain, cumulating in N194.9 billion. The local governments got N111.2 billion from statutory revenue, N35.3 billion from VAT and N0.14 billion from exchange gain, amounting to N146.6 billion. (NAN) Kathleen Schultz, of Tinley Park, adopted her two children after they had been in her care for 19 months. Though she has adult children of her own, Schultz could not say no when she was asked to care for her two children, 15-month-old girl and 2 1/2 year old boy. Ethiopia has overtaken Dubai as a conduit for long-haul passengers to Africa, Travel consultancy ForwardKeys said on Wednesday. According to the agency, the record highlights the success of the state airlines expansion drive and the reforms of its new Prime Minister. ForwardKeys arrived at the conclusion after analysing data from travel booking systems that recorded 17 million flight bookings a day. It found out that the number of long-haul transfers to sub-Saharan Africa via Addis Ababa jumped by 85 per cent from 2013 to 2017. Transfers via Dubai over the same period rose by 31 per cent. So far this year, Addis Ababas growth is 18 per cent, versus three per cent for Dubai. ForwardKeys also attributed the recent jump in bookings via Addis Ababa in part to a positive international response to the broad reforms introduced by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. It cited two changes in particular: a move to allow visitors to apply for visas online, and Abiys pledge to open Ethiopias largely state-controlled economy to foreign investment. Mr Ahmed came to power in April and has upended politics in the Horn of Africa country of around 105 million people. Dubai has long been a major global air travel hub because it is the base of Gulf carrier, Emirates. Given the lack of an open skies deal smoothing flights across Africa, many passengers travelling between one part of the continent and another, or from Asia or Europe to Africa, must often transit through Dubai. Addis Ababa airport had increased the number of international transfer passengers to sub-Saharan Africa for five years in a row. In 2018, the airport surpassed Dubai, one of the worlds busiest airports, as the transfer hub for long-haul travel to the region. Ethiopian Airlines, the countrys most successful state company, is accelerating a 15-year strategy, it launched in 2010, to win back market share on routes to and from Africa. The route used to be dominated by Turkish Airlines and Emirates. It is also weaving a patchwork of new African routes to rapidly expanding and lucrative Asian markets. After the Ethiopian president made peace with Eritrea to end a two-decade state of war, Ethiopian resumed flights to its neighbour in July. This month, it re-launched flights to Somalias capital after four decades. (Reuters/NAN) The Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC) has enjoined Major Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) to regulate the volumes of petroleum products dispatched to their members stations close to Nigerias borders. A statement by Ndu Ughamadu, NNPCs spokesperson, said the move is designed to stem cross-border leakages and forestall attendant products price hikes. The statement said the Managing Director of the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), Umar Ajiya, made this known during an interactive session with MOMAN executives in Lagos. Mr Ajiya said price arbitrage, the differential between regulated price in Nigeria and the high products prices in neighbouring countries, encourages smuggling. The PPMC chief expressed confidence in MOMAN, saying its members remain most reliable in the Nigerian Downstream Petroleum Sector distribution network. He advised that members of the association endeavour to increase the respective storage in their depots and stations to avoid stock-out as the Yuletide approaches. Mr Ajiya gave the assurance that NNPC/PPMC has enough stock of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise called petrol, and other products. He added that the companys petrol stock alone would last about 45-days even in the absence of fresh supplies, and that the target is to get the sufficiency level to 50 days. We have 2.2 billion litres of Petrol, 1.1 on land and 1.1 on marine, 800 million litres in PPMC depots in addition to 27-day sufficiency of AGO, 98-day sufficiency of ATK and 48-day sufficiency of DPK, the MD stated. He implored MOMAN to take advantage of the NNPC/PPMC stock sufficiency and request for products to always wet their stations across the country. The statement said the NNPC/PPMC has stocked-in products in the nine inland depots, including Enugu and Aba and will commence selling by December 1 with a view to forestalling frequent shortages being experienced during Christmas and New Year in the eastern part of the country. MOMAN executive secretary, Clement Isong, said the association was committed to wetting their stations in state capitals and other locations across the country. We are ready to support NNPC/PPMC to flood the nation with products during the Yuletide season and beyond as we go into general elections next year, the statement quoted him to have said. In March, the NNPC said there are 2,201 petrol stations in Nigerias porous border towns and coastal frontiers, with a combined fuel tank capacity of 144.9 million litres. The corporation said that its investigations show that the 16 states, having amongst them 61 Local Government Areas with border communities, account for the 2,201 registered fuel stations. A Chief Magistrates Court in Abuja on Wednesday granted bail to Deji Adeyanju, a political activist, and two others, who were arraigned by the police after being arrested at a protest ground in Abuja. But Mr Adeyanju, Daniel Abobama and Boma Williams were reportedly unable to meet the conditions as of 7:40 p.m. Wednesday, and were consequently remanded in prison in Keffi, Nasarawa State, about 40 minutes drive from Abuja. Details of the bail were unclear, but they reportedly included providing a civil servant who must attain at least level-14 in career. They were arrested during a demonstration against police bias in the election process on Wednesday morning. They were subsequently arraigned before the court in Karshi, a low-income suburb of Abuja. The police accused the three of criminal defamation and disturbance of public peace, which they said constituted a threat to public safety and punishable under the penal code. The police relied heavily on Mr Adeyanjus social media post in accusing him of criminal defamation. Police spokesperson Jimoh Moshood said in a Wednesday night statement Messrs Adeyanju, Abobama and Williams had legal representation during their arraignment. The matter was adjourned to January 21, 2019, for hearing. Mr Adeyanju, a former operative of the Peoples Democratic Party who later renounced the opposition platform for full-time activism, has regularly clashed with the police. He had been detained at least three times this year alone, including when he led protests to demand President Muhammadu Buharis return to office when the Nigerian leader was staying months away in London treating undisclosed ailments. Mr Adeyanjus arrest has been widely condemned, and demand for his release sent him trending at number one on Nigerian Twitter Wednesday evening. Amongst those who have demanded his release include Shehu Sani, a senator, rights activist Charly Boy and other associates of Mr Adeyanju, who leads Concerned Nigerians, a citizen-action advocacy group. President Muhammadu Buhari has returned to Abuja from Maiduguri, Borno State, where he ordered the military to eliminate all threats of Boko Haram, declaring that the war against terrorism is a must win. Mr Buhari gave the order while declaring open the 2018 Chief of Army Staff Annual Conference. President Buhari said: It is a must win war. I want to encourage our troops not to be distracted by speculations but remain focused and committed to the task of eliminating Boko Haram from the surface of the earth. He assured the military that his administration would continue to address their needs in terms of manpower development and equipment supply, promising that their welfare and entitlements will also be improved. I want to reassure you that as your Commander-In-Chief, I will do everything within my power to continue empowering you by providing all the necessary equipment, force multipliers and enablers required for you to prevail on the field. I also want you to be aware that I am currently looking into measures to improve your entitlements and welfare generally, he added. The president commended the efforts and sacrifices of the military in safeguarding the peace, security and territorial integrity of the country. According to him, the officers and men who are fighting against the curse of terrorism in the North East deserve all the attention the countrys leadership can give them. As president of the country, I am determined to ensure that every citizen feels safe and secure in all parts of the country. To achieve this, the security agencies must rise to the challenge and curb threats to security in our country, he added. President Buhari called on the armed forces to embrace the wind of change that is blowing across the country, urging more cooperation at inter-service and inter-agency levels. To this end, the Chief of Defence Staff and Service Chiefs must work closely together as well as with other security agencies to improve on strategies that will defeat terrorism, militancy and other forms of criminal activities in our country. The president, who also addressed officers and men of the Nigerian Army at the Maimalari Barrack, headquarters of Operation Lafiya-Dole, said he shared in the agony of loss of gallant soldiers. I have come to pay homage to the gallant soldiers lost by the nation and to console the injured ones in recent terrorist attacks. I urge you to remain focused and win the war, the president said. He also commended the Nigerian Armys commitment to upholding democracy and urged them to remain committed to their profession. He said: As we approach the 2019 General Elections, I want to urge all members of the Armed Forces to live up to their responsibilities and remain non-partisan. In addition, you must all remain vigilant throughout the electioneering period and alongside other security agencies, prevent every form of violence that could disrupt the process in line with your Rules of Engagement. President Buhari urged the soldiers, who were on parade, to always show disciplined conduct. According to the president, no matter how equipped the military is, the military is of no use if it doesnt have discipline. He, therefore, urged them to uphold the tenets of the constitution and ensure tight security to protect lives and property. In his statement at the conference, the Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai said internal security had greatly improved from what it was in 2015 when President Buhari assumed office. Mr Buratai said a new proactive strategy would be put in place to counter the recent military losses. He said the army remains neutral and non-partisan and would carry out its constitutional duty of safeguarding the nations democracy. The Minister of Defence, Mansur Ali, assured the president that the military was putting in place new strategies to stabilize the country. President Buhari asked for a minutes silence in memory of the gallant soldiers and before his departure, he went round the wards to visit wounded soldiers in the hospital within the army barracks. He gave assurances that the soldiers would be taken care of. At the Palace of Shehu of Borno, Abubakar El-Kanemi, President Buhari said his administration would do everything to secure the country. He commiserated with all Nigerians who lost loved ones following recent setbacks in the fight against terrorists. We have to remind ourselves where we were and where we are now and what happened in between. The people of Borno State know what we did in the last three years. The situation would have been worse, he said. President Buhari also expressed his determination to change the unemployment situation of youths in the country. He pointed out that Jobs for the young persons, especially those who are 30 and below in Borno State and across the federation continue to engage our attention. We go to bed with it and wake up with it. In his remarks, the Shehu of Borno, who spoke on behalf of the States Council of Chiefs, thanked the President for bringing peace to the state and asked for intensive security patrols across the territories to save people from attacks on farms. (NAN) The presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party (ACPN), Oby Ezekwesili, has picked the chairman of the party, Abdul-Ganiyu Galadima, as her running mate. According to her campaign organisation, Hope 19, Mrs Ezekwesili announced Mr Galadima, a former presidential candidate of the party, while unveiling her manifesto on Wednesday in Ilorin. The presidential candidate said the selection of Mr Galadima, a businessman, would bring to the ACPN ticket an experience at grassroots politics at the local, state and national levels. She described her running mate as a man of integrity, saying his principles and selfless politics aligned with hers and her vision for the country. This experience compliments my incomparable competence and capacity when it comes to socio-economic and governance issues. Like me, Alhaji Galadima has shown a long-standing commitment to the fight to rescue our nation by standing with people of integrity. He refused to join questionable alliances and coalitions led and bankrolled by ruling parties in this election and in that of 2015, where he ultimately emerged as the fourth most popular candidate across the nation. Together, by the grace of God, we will work closely, selflessly and as a team to fight for every Nigerian person, family, community, ward or state, and rescue our country from the clutches of an irresponsible political class. Together we will lift 80+ million Nigerians out of poverty and unlock prosperity for every citizen, she said. In his acceptance speech, Mr Galadima assured Mrs Ezekwesili of his loyalty and promised to work with her towards getting peoples mandate in the 2019 general elections. Mr Galadima described himself as a grassroots politician, saying that he would join the presidential candidate to travel across the country to mobilise support. Mr Galadima, a community leader and former ACPN presidential candidate, was born on June 11, 1964. He studied Public Administration at the Kwara State Polytechnic, where he also later served as a member of the institutions Governing Council. He is a businessman who is chairman of major business boards. He has private sector and corporate governance experience with a market-focused enterprise, friendly government vision, the statement said. (NAN) The police on Wednesday said they have detained political activist, Deji Adeyanju, as well as two others who were part of a demonstration on Wednesday morning. Police spokesperson, Jimoh Moshood, said in a statement Wednesday afternoon that Mr Adeyanju, Daniel Abobama and Boma Williams were arrested in Abuja on allegations of criminal defamation and breach of public peace. They have been arraigned at a court in Abuja. Mr Moshood said the arrest of the three citizens did not violate either the Nigerian Constitution or the police establishment powers. And even though they have rights as citizens, these rights must be observed with decorum, in good faith and without violating the rights of other millions of Nigerians to free movement and access to safety and security across the country. The police accused Messrs Adeyanju, Abobama and Williams of contravening criminal statutes by their conduct both physically and online. They are already arraigned in court in Abuja for prosecution, police said. Mr Moshood attached some placards and screenshots of Mr Adeyanjus Facebook page which the police found to be criminally defamatory and capable of inciting public disturbance, threat to public security and safety, criminal defamatory and derogatory conduct against constituent authority and breach of law and order. Mr Adeyanju, who has led regular protests against injustice and other highhanded conducts of public institutions and individuals, has frequently clashed with security agencies. He had been arrested at least three times in 2018, all while leading or participating in protests. It was not immediately clear whether Mr Adeyanju and others have contacted their lawyers before being charged Wednesday afternoon. President Muhammadu Buhari has convened a meeting of Heads of State and Government of the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC). The meeting will hold on November 29 at NDjamena, the Chadian capital. Mr Buhari convened the consultative meeting in his capacity as Chairman of the Summit of Heads of State and Government of the LCBC. Femi Adesina, the presidents spokesperson, said in a statement Wednesday that the one-day meeting would review the security situation in the areas affected by Boko Haram insurgency and adopt measures to enhance the capacity of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) to meet the challenges of securing the areas. Mr Buhari convened the meeting after his visit to Maiduguri, Borno State, to declare open the annual Chief of Army Staff conference. The conference earlier billed for Benin, Edo State, on Tuesday, was moved to Maiduguri following a resurgence of attacks by the terror group, Boko Haram. The insurgents recently attacked military formations in Metele in Southern Borno leading to high casualty figures. Reports say Boko Haram are taking advantage of the withdrawal of Chadian troops along its border with Nigeria. Mr Buhari had earlier sent his Minister of Defence, Manir Dan-Ali, for consultations with the Chadian authorities. The presidents of the LCBC member countries of Chad, Cameroon, Niger, and the Central African Republic have been invited to attend the meeting, Mr Adesina said. He also said the president of Benin Republic, a troop-contributing country, has also been invited to attend. The MNJTF and the national operations of the affected countries have appreciably degraded the capacity of Boko Haram terrorists, although the insurgents still retain the capacity to attack isolated targets in desperate search for supplies, the statement said. The Nigerian Senate has given its committee on Marine Transport three days to determine if a N177 billion unremitted fund is still in the custody of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA). A member of the committee, Mohammed Hassan, called the attention of his colleagues to the issue while raising a point of order on Wednesday. Mr Hassan said the agency in 2017 made a gross revenue of N303 billion, out of which N125 was spent but the remaining N177 billion was not remitted to the federal government. It is assumed that Mr Hassan gave the figure based on approximation as N125 billion and N177 billion will amount to N302 billion. The lawmaker said the management of the agency has rebuffed every move by the Senate to ascertain the whereabouts of the fund. NPA recorded a gross revenue of N303 billion, Mr Hassan (PDP, Yobe South) said. Meanwhile, its expenditure for that year was N125 billion. Therefore, there was N177 billion operating surplus that was recorded. Not a single dime was reported to have been remitted either to the consolidated revenue fund or to the general reserve fund. We raised this with the management of NPA. Till today, seven months after, we have not heard from them. The question is, where is this N177 (billion)? It has not been reported, we have not heard from them seven months after. In his contribution, chairman of the committee, Ahmed Yerima, said Mr Hassan ought to have brought up the issue at the committee level and not plenary. His position was corroborated by Mao Ohabunwa. In granting Mr Hassans prayer, the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, ruled that the committee look into the issue and give a report within the next three days. About 10 days after scores of Nigerian soldiers were massacred by insurgents, President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday reiterated his commitment to improving the welfare of the Nigerian Army. Mr Buhari gave the assurance while addressing troops at Maimalari Cantonment, Maiduguri. He said the troops were always on his mind, adding that he had always woken up thinking about them and the conditions they operated. I will support you to play your constitutional role of defending the integrity of the country from both internal and external forces. This is the oath you have taken just as I took an oath as the President and Commander-In-Chief. I assure you that I go to bed and always wake up thinking about you and the conditions under which you operate. PREMIUM TIMES had 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 at the village of Metele, Borno State. The initial figures of casualty were put at 44 but as more details emerged, it was confirmed at least 118 soldiers and officers were killed with their commanding officer, Ibrahim Sakaba, while about 150 more soldiers and officers are still missing. However, Mr Buhari who has been flayed by critics over the carnage asked the troops to maintain their loyalty and defend the country. Whatever happens, a military no matter how equipped or how well led, without discipline is no use to the country, he said. While commending the troops over their gallantry and sacrifices, Mr Buhari urged them to increase their commitment in engaging Boko Haram insurgents. He said plans were on to adopt a new enhanced salary structure for the military in recognition of their contributions to security, social and economic development of the country. The president also visited injured troops on admission at the Military Medical Centre. Maimalari Barracks, Maiduguri. Mr Buhari had earlier inaugurated the 2018 Chief of Army Staff (COAS) conference and then paid a courtesy visit on the Shehu of Borno, Abubakar Ibn Garbai Elkanemi. One of the defendants in the trial of former Governor Ibrahim Shema of Katsina State Wednesday accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of forcing him to implicate the former governor. Ibrahim Dankaba, the fourth defendant in the trial, speaking through his counsel, Napoleon Idenale, told a state high court that the EFCC threatened and intimidated him to implicate Mr Shema while obtaining his statement. The trial judge, Maikaita Bako, had adjourned the case to Wednesday for a trial within trial, after his counsel alleged Mr Dankaba wrote his statements under duress. When the process began, the prosecution counsel, O.I Uket, presented two witnesses, Abubakar Buba and Habu Muhammad, who are staff of the EFCC. Both of them reaffirmed that the three statements written by Mr Dankaba were obtained voluntarily, in a calm environment, and without threat, coercion or intimidation. But while cross-examining the witnesses, Mr Idenale insisted that the two investigators told the defendant to implicate the former governor or he would remain in custody. On 16th November 2016, you Mr Buba coerced, threatened, and intimidated the fourth defendant (Ibrahim Dankaba) to implicate first defendant (Ibrahim Shema), so that he will go home and will not be charged to court like other local government chairmen, or remain in custody. But Mr Buba denied the allegation. He insisted the defendant wrote his statement voluntarily. He said he was part of the team that interviewed Mr Dankaba, adding that he was interviewed based on new discoveries in the allegations against him. In the statement, the defendant erroneously wrote January 25th, 2015 instead of January 25th, 2016, which I corrected before he signed and I counter-signed. It is not true that the statement was obtained under duress, Mr Buba said. Under cross-examination, Mr Buba consistently denied some questions put to him on the treatment meted out to the accused before his statements were obtained. Mr Idenala among other questions asked if Mr Buba was aware that his client was detained in a police station in Katsina State for two days when a search was conducted in his house. He also asked him if he was aware of the health condition of his client who he said was taken to a clinic while in detention; if he was aware that some operatives of the EFCC and well-armed police officers stormed his house in Katsina during a search operation; and if he was aware that his family and lawyers were denied access to him during his detention. Responding, Mr Buba said: Im not aware the fourth defendant (Mr Dankaba) was threatened and intimidated to implicate the first defendant (Mr Shema). I cant remember whether he fell ill in detention and was taken to a clinic. Though he admitted being in the team that searched Mr Dankabas house in Katsina, he denied that well-armed policemen were with them during the search. While cross-examining Mr Buba, counsel to Mr Shema, A. Adedeji, told the court the EFCC kept Mr Dankaba in custody for 20 days after obtaining his statement on January 25, 2016; contrary to Mr Bubas assertion that the defendant was never detained throughout the period of his statements. Similarly, Mr Muhammad, who was called to testify before the court, admitted holding a series of meetings with the defendant and some Katsina State government officials, including the state Attorney-General, El Marzuk, Special Adviser to Governor Aminu Masari, Rabe Nasir, and some others before the defendant was asked to write his statement. However, he said the meetings were to reconcile figures in payment vouchers. But Mr Muhammad contradicted the testimony of Mr Buba by saying both of them and the defendants lawyers were present when the defendant wrote his statements and confirmed that the defendant was detained after writing his first statement on January 25, 2016. During cross-examinations, he also told the court that no incriminating items were found in the defendants house during the search by EFCC operatives. The EFCC arraigned Mr Dankaba alongside Mr Shema, former Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Sani Makana; and former permanent secretary, Lawal Safana, before the court for alleged criminal breach of trust, abuse of office and conversion of public funds to the tune of over N11 billion during the governorship tenure of Mr Shema. Justice Maikaita Bako adjourned the case to January 23 and 24, 2019, for the continuation of hearing. At the last adjourned date, the EFCC, through its counsel, Mr Uket, had sought to tender the statement written by Mr Dankaba as evidence. But the defence counsel objected, saying it was obtained under duress and pleaded to the court to allow a trial within trial. Mr Bako had then fixed Wednesday, November 28 for the commencement of trial-within-trial. It is great that NASA's InSight safely landed on Mars. It was also great to have all our explorations on the moon. They both satisfy the curiosity of scientists. Neither though, can sustain life without a structure that sustains artificial atmosphere and a bulky space suit. So, what's the sense of spending billions of dollars for the sake of scientific curiosity? Neither place can be colonized. . . To me, it would make more sense to search for and explore habitable worlds. The way our Earth is going, we'll need that more than curiosity for a few scientists. A senator of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Barau Jibrin (Kano North), has said he is tired of the ongoing crisis in the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly. He said this on Wednesday while reacting to a point of order raised by Bassey Akpan (PDP, Akwa Ibom North East). Mr Akpan had stood up to update the Senate on the crisis in the state House of Assembly. Just yesterday, at about 6 a.m, a contingent of over a hundred mobile policemen led the five suspended members of the Akwa-Ibom State House Assembly into the chambers of the Assembly. It is on record that none of the 21 authentic members or staff of the Assembly were allowed into the premises, Mr Akpan said. I saw it myself, I was there with the Governor and I can authoritatively say that the recently posted Commissioner of Police to Akwa-Ibom led that operation. At this point, he was interrupted by Mr Jibrin who came under Order 53(5) of the Senate Standing Rule and stated that it was improper to bring the matter to the floor of the Senate. The rule states that Reference shall not be made to any matter on which the judicial decision is pending in such a way that as might, in the opinion of the Senate, prejudice the interest of parties. In Mr Jibrins words: This matter is before a court of law and I think it is quite improper to bring such matter to the floor of the Senate. And a committee has also been mandated to look at this matter. We are tired of this issue of Akwa Ibom. Yesterday its Akwa Ibom, last week is Akwa Ibom, today is Akwa Ibom. The chamber became noisy after his comment. We are all believers of true federalism. In fact, the PDP is planning to bring about restructuring which will bring about true federalism in this country. For us to be getting involved in matters that affect the state is improper, Mr Jibrin continued. He was, however, overruled by the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, who insisted that the Senate must speak against attacks on the parliament wherever it occurs. The most important aspect is to defend democracy. We were here when there was an invasion in the parliament. Wherever there is an invasion, irrespective of location, we must stand and say what is right, he said. He thereafter urged Mr Akpan to go ahead and update the Senate on the happenings in the state. Just yesterday, the Akwa-Ibom State House of Assembly moved a motion, a general consensus that the Commissioner of Police must vacate Akwa-Ibom in 24 hours. We do not need the Commissioner of Police, he is not there to maintain peace and order, he is there to cause chaos and mayhem in line with the plans and programmes of the APC in Akwa-Ibom state, Mr Akpan stated. He then raised pictures related to the incident after which the Senate mandated its Committee on Police Affairs to submit a report on the incident within 48 hours. The Akwa Ibom House of Assembly was again thrown into turmoil on Tuesday as a faction made up of five 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. A car was reportedly set ablaze during the fracas. The five lawmakers, last week, 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 shutting down 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. The police in Lagos State have arrested two teenage brothers allegedly in possession of a fresh human head along Ajah-Epe Expressway. The spokesman for the police in the state, CSP Chike Oti, said on Wednesday that the suspects were arrested on Tuesday about 8.30 p.m. by a team of anti-kidnapping operatives. Mr Oti said the operatives were on routine patrol between Ajah/Epe expressway when they met the brothers, aged 18 and 19 and resident at Tunde Balogun Street, Shapati, Ibeju-Lekki , a suburb of Lagos State. He said that on interrogation, the youth confessed that one Sodiq Abefe contracted them to provide him with human head at the cost of N200,000. They confessed that they lured the victim by sending him to buy Coca-Cola drink for them and when he brought the drinks to them they held him and cut of his head with a knife. The victim has been identified by his parents as Joseph Makinde, aged 10. The corpse was recovered from an uncompleted building located at Shapati. Effort is being made to arrest the said Sodiq Abefe who allegedly contracted the duo to commit the heinous crime, Mr Oti said. He said the Commissioner of Police, Imohimin Edgal, had directed that the case be handed over to the Homicide section of the State Criminal Investigation And Intelligence Department (SCIID), Panti, Yaba, for further investigations. Mr Oti said the CP reiterated his earlier warning to criminals to repent, relocate from the state or regret the consequences of their actions. (NAN) President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday said the situation in Borno State due to the Boko Haram insurgency would have been worse but for his adminstration. The president stated this when he visited the palace of the Shehu of Borno, Abubakar El-Kanemi, as part of his official trip to Borno State. The presidency had earlier this week announced that Mr Buhari had cancelled his scheduled casual leave to visit Borno, especially in view of recent losses suffered by soldiers fighting the Boko Haram insurgents. Borno is the state most affected by the Boko Haram insurgency, with the governor saying about 100,000 people have died due to he insurgency since 2009. Scores of soldiers and civilians were killed in recent attacks on military bases and civilian population in Borno by the insurgents. The worst of the attacks occured in Metele about a forthnight ago where the terrorists attacked an army base killing over 100 soldiers. At the palace of Shehu of Borno, Mr Buhari said his administration will do everything to secure the country. He commiserated with all Nigerians who lost loved ones following recent setbacks in the fight against terrorists. We have to remind ourselves where we were and where we are now and what happened in between, he said. The people of Borno State know what we did in the last three years. The situation would have been worse, he said. Mr Buhari also expressed his determination to change the unemployment situation of youth in the country, pointing out that jobs for the young persons, especially those who are 30 and below in Borno State and across the federation continue to engage our attention. We go to bed with it and wake up with it. In his remarks, the Shehu of Borno, who spoke on behalf of the States Council of Chiefs, thanked the president for bringing peace to the state and asked for intensive security patrols across the territories to save people from attacks on farms. Also on Wednesday, the president ordered the military to eliminate all threats of Boko Haram, declaring that the war against terrorism is a must win. It is a must win war. I want to encourage our troops not to be distracted by speculations but remain focused and committed to the task of eliminating Boko Haram from the surface of the earth, the president said while declaring open the 2018 Chief of Army Staff Annual Conference. President Buhari assured the military that his administration will continue to address their needs in terms of manpower development and equipment supply, promising that their welfare and entitlements will also be improved. I want to reassure you that as your Commander-In-Chief, I will do everything within my power to continue empowering you by providing all the necessary equipment, force multipliers and enablers required for you to prevail on the field. I also want you to be aware that I am currently looking into measures to improve your entitlements and welfare generally, he added. The president commended the efforts and sacrifices of the military in safeguarding the peace, security and territorial integrity of the country. According to him, the officers and men who are fighting against the curse of terrorism in the North East deserve all the attention our countrys leadership can give them. As President of the country, I am determined to ensure that every citizen feels safe and secure in all parts of the country. To achieve this, the security agencies must rise to the challenge and curb threats to security in our country. President Buhari called on the armed forces to embrace the wind of change that is blowing across the country, urging more cooperation at inter-service and inter-agency levels. To this end, the Chief of Defence Staff and Service Chiefs must work closely together as well as with other security agencies to improve on strategies that will defeat terrorism, militancy and other forms of criminal activities in our country, he said. President Buhari, who also addressed officers and men of the Nigerian Army at the Maimalari Barrack, headquarters of Operation Lafiya-Dole, said he shared in the agony of loss of gallant soldiers. I have come to pay homage to the gallant soldiers lost by the nation and to console the injured ones in recent terrorist attacks. I urge you to remain focused and win the war, the president said. Mr Buhari also commended Nigerian Armys commitment to upholding democracy and urged them to remain committed to their profession. As we approach the 2019 General Elections, I want to urge all members of the Armed Forces to live up to their responsibilities and remain non-partisan. In addition, you must all remain vigilant throughout the electioneering period and alongside other security agencies, prevent every form of violence that could disrupt the process in line with your Rules of Engagement, he said. President Buhari urged the soldiers, who were on parade, to always show disciplined conduct. No matter how equipped the military is, the military is of no use if it doesnt have discipline, he said, urging them to uphold the tenets of the constitution and ensure tight security to protect lives and property. In his statement at the conference, the Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, said internal security had greatly improved from what it was in 2015 when President Buhari assumed office. Mr Buratai, a lieutenant general, said a new proactive strategy would be put in place to counter the recent military losses. He said the army remains neutral and non-partisan and will carry out their constitutional duty of safeguarding the nations democracy. The Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan Ali, assured the president that the military was putting in place new strategies to stabilise the country. President Buhari asked for a minutes silence in memory of the gallant soldiers and before his departure, he went round the wards to visit wounded soldiers in the hospital within the army barracks. He gave assurances that the soldiers would be taken care of. The Police Command in Sokoto state says it has arrested one Ibrahim Dangaladima who claimed to be an Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG). The commands public relations officer, Cordelia Nwawe, made the disclosure at the state command in Sokoto on Wednesday. Ms Nwawe said Mr Dangaladima had been on the police wanted list for fraud and impersonation for the past four months. Luck ran out of him on Friday, November 23, when he claimed to be an AIG of Police and Force Secretary who has an office in the Police Force Headquarters Abuja. He offered to provide nine slots five cadet ASPs, and four cadet Inspectors to an unsuspecting businessman. He requested for N482, 500 for each of the cadet ASPs slot and N222,000 for each of cadet Inspectors slot. On interrogation, he confessed to have been in the business for about five years and had duped an unspecified number of unsuspecting law-abiding citizens, she said. The official also paraded another suspect, Surajo Muhammad, a native of Arkila area of the state, who reportedly specialises in car theft. She said Mr Muhammed was arrested in the act after prolonged, intensive and painstaking intelligence gathering. (NAN) No fewer than 1,035 secondary school students and undergraduates on Tuesday received scholarships to pursue their academic dreams in Nigeria and abroad. Osagie Okunbor, Managing Director and Country Chairman of Shell Petroleum, presented the scholarship letters to the beneficiaries during a ceremony organised by the company in Port Harcourt. Mr Okunbor said the scholarships were awarded to mark the companys 2018 Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) Joint Venture Education Day. According to him, SPDC has for many decades invested heavily in the nations education sector as part of support to human resources and capital development of the country. In continuation of our efforts in education, SPDC-JV is offering 532 regular secondary students scholarships to continue their various academic pursuits. Also, 60 scholarships will be given to students in our Cradle-to-Career Secondary school programme while 430 will receive their undergraduates scholarships. In addition, 10 students will be given scholarships to study abroad in our International Postgraduate scholarship programme, he said. Mr Okunbor said the company would also sponsor professional chairs in Geophysics at the Centre of Excellence in Marine and Offshore Engineering at the Rivers State University. He added that professional chairs would be endowed in Geosciences, Petroleum Engineering and Eco-Marathan while sabbaticals and research internship programmes would also get support. These initiatives are all aimed at enhancing collaboration with the academia to produce industry-ready graduates. SPDC is passionate about education, and this informed why for many decades, the company had been supporting education in Nigeria through scholarships and social investment initiatives. Education is often referred to as the soul of society and bedrock to growth and human capital development of any nation. SPDC believes in this statement, he said. The managing director gave assurance that the company would continue to support the Nigerian government towards actualizing the UNESCO Education For All programme in the country. Speaking, Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, commended SPDC for the scholarships and urged other multinational companies and organisations to emulate SPDC. Represented by Olagunju Latif, a senior official of the ministry, Mr Adamu said the federal government was concerned with high tuition charged by some schools in the country. To this end, we commend the effort of Shell companies and its partners in complimenting the efforts of government in such critical areas that is of paramount importance to nation building, he added. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the high point of the event was the presentation of cheques to respective awardees. (NAN) The Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Udom Emmanuel, has accused a senator, Godswill Akpabio, of being responsible for the crisis rocking the state House of Assembly. Mr Akpabio has, however, dismissed the accusation, saying the brazen act of lawlessness by the governor was responsible for the crisis. The Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly has been thrown into intractable crisis for days now since five lawmakers were sacked from the assembly for defecting from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC). The mastermind of this crisis include people that this state gave the opportunity to become what they never dreamt they could become. People that other people gave the opportunity to become a commissioner for 6 years & a Governor for 8 years, making it 14 years, Mr Emmanuel said Tuesday on Twitter, apparently referring to Mr Akpabio who was a commissioner and then a governor of the state, before he was elected senator. I want to let the world know that Nigerians fought & gave their lives in this country for us to enjoy the democracy we currently have today, but due to the ambition of selfish people, our democracy is being threatened in #AkwaIbom State, the governor added on his personal Twitter handle, @MrUdomEmmanuel. But Mr Akpabio quickly responded to the governors remark. In his desperation to shop for who to blame and pass the buck, Governor Udom Emmanuel has blamed the security agencies in the State, and Senator Akpabio has only become his latest victim, the senator said in a statement issued on Tuesday by his spokesperson, Anietie Ekong. How can a state Governor accuse Senator Akpabio of being the brain behind the crisis, and at the same time declared that the police should be held responsible for any breakdown of law and order in the state and not any other person? Does it add up? The senator said the governor was a major sponsor of the crisis. It is on record that the Governor personally led his security aides and thugs to the House of Assembly and supervised the manhandling of some members of the House of Assembly who were performing their constitutional duties. The brazen act of lawlessness by the Governor is responsible for the crisis. In justifying this meddlesomeness and interference in the functions of a separate arm of government, the Commissioner for Information of Akwa Ibom State, Mr Charles Udoh said he went to the House of Assembly as the Chief Security Officer of the State! the side said. It is instructive that Senator Akpabio was never at the scene of the fracas, neither has anyone any evidence of his involvement, except the oft-repeated strategy of blaming anything that is wrong in the State on Senator Akpabio. He said Akwa Ibom people have a right to determine who leads them and that the choice will be based on performance and not on sentiments. We advice Governor Emmanuel to brace up and face the challenges of his office, instead of looking for who to blame for his lacklustre performance in the last three and half years which have made Akwa Ibom people determined to democratically vote him and his party out in the election next year, the senator added. Mr Akpabio helped Mr Emmanuel became governor in 2015, despite the opposition within the PDP and beyond. The two fell apart due to political differences before the senator, in August, resigned his position as the senate minority leader and defected from the PDP to the APC. There have been uneasiness and political tension in the oil-rich state since the senators defection. The Anambra State Government has adopted the December 28 date set by major traditional rulers in the South-east to abolish the controversial Osu caste system. The Osu caste system is an ancient practice in Igboland that discourages social interaction and marriage with a group of persons called Osu outcast. The president of Celibacy International Initiative, Nollywood actor, Joseph Okechukwu, disclosed this in a statement made available to PREMIUM TIMES on Wednesday. The abolition campaign is being championed by Celibacy International Initiative. Mr Okechukwu noted that the abolition would take place at the Nri Palace in Anambra State on Wednesday. He said, In the Igbo tradition, the Osu are said to be dedicated to deities (Alusi) while the Ohu are said to be slaves by birth. The Osu caste system has stigmatised sections of communities in the Southeast, depriving them of access to social interaction and marriages with belief that any free born that marries an osu defiles the family. This obnoxious act, however leads to investigations by elders before any marriage is contracted between two families, especially when from different communities. The state commissioner for Diaspora Affairs, Indigenous Artwork, Culture and Tourism, Sally Mbanefo, reportedly wrote Celibacy International Initiative to intimate them of the Anambra State governments approval. The letter, according to the statement, read in part, 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. According to the statement, a bishop, Obi Onubuogu of The Rock Cathedral, Enugu, has also backed the December 28 abolition date and is leading a cross-section of high-profile South-East religious leaders to Agukwu Nri for the formal abolition. We will ensure that the exercise is a huge success. We are all in agreement that this is long overdue. We cant continue like this. One of the reasons God kept some of us alive is to see that things like these are abolished from our lands. And we will do this and save our generation and race from self-destruction and extinction, the bishop said. In the statement it was also noted that there would be far-reaching consequences for those wishing to continue the obnoxious practice after the symbolic exercise. A 59-year-old employee of the Ekiti State Civil Service, Bolarinwa Olaoye, has allegedly committed suicide within the premises of the state secretariat in Ado Ekiti, the state capital. It was gathered that the lifeless body of the civil servant was found hanging from the noose formed with a piece of cloth tied to the railing of the block of the Ekiti State Scholarship Board within the precinct of the Ministry of Education Building in the early hours of Wednesday. Sources said Mr Olaoye, a father of five, who was a night guard attached to the scholarship board, reported for duty on Tuesday at 6 p.m. Although the reasons behind the incident were yet to be unravelled by the police, his sister-in-law, Elizabeth Babalola, hinted that he visited her house shortly before the incident, lamenting his financial condition. It was gathered that the deceased, who hails from Igogo Ekiti, Moba Local Government Area of the state, was engaged in commercial motorcycle work and farming to augment his meagre salary. He came to me around 4.30 p.m. on Tuesday and started lamenting that his house rent was due and that he could not pay due to irregular salary payment, Ms Babalola explained. He said he was also indebted to the government through housing and car loans he obtained. He also complained about his inability to meet other financial commitments to his wifes family. He told me he could go ahead and do something nasty. He told me clearly that he was tired of life. I tried to persuade him not to resort to anything nasty. I told him life is full of ups and downs and that he should just endure, but I never knew he would end this way. The Executive Secretary of the Ekiti State Scholarship Board, Ayo Ajimati, confirmed that the deceased was a member of staff of the board. Yes, he was our staff. He was a very prayerful, jovial and amiable person. I dont understand what led to this. I dont know the kind of problem he had that could lead to this, said Mr Ajimati. There were initial arguments over the body as some persons argued that he would not be brought down until certain rituals were conducted. However, the body was later brought down by the police after members of his family were contacted. Police Public Relations Officer, Ekiti State Command, Caleb Ikechukwu, confirmed the incident and noted that the body had been deposited at the state mortuary after doctors confirmed he was dead. Yes, we received a distress call from citizens, and the police were immediately deployed to the scene where a 59-year old male, who was a guard at the state scholarship board was found hanging, said Mr Ikechukwu. He added that investigations had started to unravel the actual cause of death. Reacting to the development, the Ekiti State Government said it was touched by the death of Mr Olaoye, and vowed to ensure that workers welfare occupied a place of priority in the business of the administration. It is unfortunate that this happened, said Mr Olayinka Oyebode, Chief Press Secretary to the Ekiti State Governor. That is why the new administration is making all efforts to ensure that salaries of workers are paid as and when due. He said the government was making efforts to pay workers November salaries and gradually clear the backlogs of payments, adding that it would take some time before the entire arrears were cleared. We are trying to ensure that workers are never owed salaries again in Ekiti State, Mr Oyebode noted. We are returning to the days before the 2014 elections when workers earned their salaries regularly. He noted that the government would follow due process to ensure the family of the deceased was supported and comforted. 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. 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 GREENBELT, Md., Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- How much NASA technology is in your life? Through the NASA OPTIMUS PRIME Spinoff Promotion and Research Challenge (OPSPARC), OPTIMUS PRIME and the AUTOBOTS encourage students to embark on three missions, starting with a scavenger hunt for NASA "spinoffs," or technologies created for NASA missions now being used for other purposes. Hosted by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, OPSPARC 2019 rolls out Dec. 5, 2018, but teachers and students can get a head start by downloading design packets on the OPSPARC website. OPSPARC challenges young innovators to find creative uses for NASA technologies and to invent their own spinoff. Just like OPTIMUS PRIME, the leader of the AUTOBOTS who is "More than Meets the Eye," NASA spinoffs start out as one thing and can convert into something else. Technologies originally developed for one of NASA's many missions can be modified into something that may be used in a home, school or business. "Every year, I am amazed by the innovative ideas of our young entrepreneurs," said Darryl Mitchell, OPSPARC program manager and deputy chief of Goddard's Strategic Partnerships Office. "I'm so impressed by their ability to use NASA technology to 'Be the Spark' and help humankind, like our friends OPTIMUS PRIME and the AUTOBOTS call for in each mission." Mission 1 "Spinoff Scavenger Hunt2" has students of all ages explore their world in search of spinoffs and submit them to NASA using Adobe Spark, the newest member of the OPSPARC team. Winning entries will be selected each month through a drawing, and winners will receive a virtual visit from NASA. Mission 2 "Create Your Own Spinoff" asks students in grades 3-12 to solve a societal problem using redesigned NASA technology. With Adobe Spark, students will create digital multimedia poster boards to present their idea to a panel of NASA judges. Students can work as individuals or in teams of up to four people. This year, students can choose one of 20 NASA technologies from Goddard, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) mission, and NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Technologies include a Modulated X-Ray Source developed at Goddard, High Speed Optical Sensors from JWST and a Multilayered Fire Protection System from Langley. Mission 3 "InWorld Innovation" has students in grades 7-12 take their spinoff ideas to the next level. Working with engineering and marketing professionals and college students, selected teams will develop 3-D presentations and a marketing plan within a virtual world setting called InWorld OPSPARC. Students get to create computer-aided design models of their projects, and NASA collaborator HubSpot will provide opportunities for mentorship from business professionals, allowing teams to further develop their plans. The challenge is open to students from the United States, Canada (excluding Quebec) and, for the first time, citizens of the United Kingdom. Winning teams from Missions 2 and 3 will receive invitations to Goddard for a two-day Winner's Workshop in June 2019, with NASA collaborator Mad Science taking part in the activities. Other collaborators for this year's challenge include the Foundation for Technology and Privacy Outreach, PRIVO, the National Institute of Aerospace, Tor Teen, the International Technology and Engineering Educators Association and Ministry of Supply. TRANSFORMERS, AUTOBOTS, OPTIMUS PRIME and "MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE" are trademarks of Hasbro and used with permission (c) 2018 Hasbro. All Rights Reserved. For more information, and to register for the challenge, please visit the OPSPARC website: https://opsparc.gsfc.nasa.gov. SOURCE NASA Related Links http://www.nasa.gov AKRON, Ohio, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company (FENOC) today announced that the Company has reached a consensual agreement on the terms of proposed key employee retention arrangements that would make a significant number of employees eligible to receive payments for their work in supporting the safe decommissioning and shutting down of nuclear facilities, absent legislative relief. The consensual agreements are between FENOC and unions representing FENOC employees, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 245, AFL-CIO, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 29, AFL-CIO, and Utility Workers Union of America, Local 270, AFL-CIO. The unions will be withdrawing their previously filed objection to approval of the key employee retention plans. Under the terms of the agreements and the proposed key employee retention plans, if approved by the Court, employees would be eligible for retention payments over a period of two to three and a half years, including 437 union-represented employees. "We are pleased to have reached an agreement with our unions that will allow us to pursue Court approval of the key employee retention plans, which we believe are absolutely vital to ensure the key employees needed to support continued safe operation while preparing for decommissioning and shutdown of the facilities remain with the company during this highly important time," said Don Moul, president of FES Generation Companies and chief nuclear officer. A hearing to consider approval of the key employee retention plans is scheduled on November 30. SOURCE FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company (FENOC) He describes Leyden Family Service as being very cooperative in helping set up the food drives, and in 2012 when Boy Scout Troop 16 did not renew its charter, I just did not want to see this annual food drive go away, Bernacki said. In a way, it was a tradition with me and my family. LONDON, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Smart & Intelligent Pumps Market is Anticipated to Reach $2,741.8 Million by 2023, BIS Research Report Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5626725 Pumps are employed for numerous processes across different end users and play an integral part in a number of functionalities.Globalization has led to more opportunities for expanding the supply chain and has also reduced the manufacturing costs. Monitoring controls and digitization now provide more efficiency and energy-saving through intelligent pumping solutions, with the advent of variable frequency speed drives. Not only energy efficiency but also system efficiency is looked upon as an important criterion when selecting between standard systems and intelligent pump systems. Intelligent pumps have the potential to not only decrease the operating costs but also reduce the plant downtime. Centrifugal and positive displacement pumps are some of the smart & intelligent pumps widely used across various end-user applications.The global smart & intelligent pumps market in terms of application is segmented into oil & gas industry, water & wastewater industry, power industry, chemical industry, and general industry. Pumps in the oil & gas industry are used for chemical transfers, injection tasks, and stream stripping, among others.The need for intelligent pumping systems in the oil & gas industry arises due to strict regulations regarding environmental regulations for energy consumption and pollution. The oil & gas industry is the largest consumer of intelligent pumping systems. The global smart & intelligent pumps market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.68% 2018 and 2023 in terms of value. The report is a compilation of the different segments of the global smart & intelligent pumps market, including market breakdown by pump type, application, and geographical areas.Herein the revenue generated from the pump type (centrifugal pump and positive displacement pump), application (oil & gas industry, water & wastewater industry, power industry, chemical industry, and general industry),and geographies (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and South America) are tracked to calculate the overall market size in terms of value ($million). While highlighting the key driving and restraining forces for this market, the report also provides a detailed summary of the global smart & intelligent pumps market. The report also includes sections on the key participants involved in the industry. Key questions answered in the report: What was the size in terms of value ($million) of the smart & intelligent pumps market in 2017, and what will be the growth rate during the forecast period 2018-2023? What will be the market size of different types of pumps (by value) and their growth rate during the forecast period 2018-2023? What will be the market size of different applications of smart & intelligent pumps market (by value) and their growth rate during the forecast period 2018-2023? What will be the market size for different regions and countries in terms of value in the smart & intelligent pumps market and their growth rate in the forecast period 2018-2023? What are the major driving forces that tend to increase the demand for smart & intelligent pumps in various end-user industries during the forecast period? What are the major challenges inhibiting the growth of the global smart & intelligent pumps market? What are the competitive strengths of key players in the global smart & intelligent pumps based on the market share analysis? Who are the key players (along with their detailed analysis and profiles including their financials, company snapshots, key products & services, and SWOT analysis) in the market? The report further includes a thorough analysis of the impact of the Porter's Five Forces to understand the overall attractiveness of the industry.The most commonly-used strategy for developing a better hold on the market has been partnerships, collaborations, and joint ventures. Moreover, the company profile section highlights significant information about the key companies involved along with their financial positions, key strategies, and developmental activities of recent years. Further, the report includes an exhaustive analysis of the geographical split into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East & Africa, and South America.Each geography details the individual restraining and driving forces in addition to the key players from that region. This report is a meticulous compilation of research on more than 100 players in the global smart & intelligent pumps market and draws upon insights from in-depth interviews with the key opinion leaders of more than 50 leading companies, market participants, and vendors. The report also profiles approximately 16 companies with their financial analysis, SWOT, and product portfolio. The company profiles in the report include KSB Group, Colfax Corporation, Pentair plc, Spirax-Sparco Engineering plc, Grundfos Holding A/S, Kirloskar Group, Yaskawa Electric Corporation, SEEPEX GmbH, GRUNWL, Sulzer Ltd., Xylem, Inc., ITT, Inc., Flowserve Corporation, Wilo SE, and Regal Beloit Corporation. Executive Summary Pumps are employed for numerous processes across different end users and play an integral part in a number of functionalities.Globalization has led to more opportunities for expanding the supply chain and has also reduced the manufacturing costs. With the advent of variable frequency speed drives, monitoring controls and digitization now provide more efficiency and energy-saving through intelligent pumping solutions. Not only energy efficiency but also system efficiency is looked upon as an important criterion when selecting between standard systems and intelligent pump systems. Intelligent pumps have the potential to not only decrease the operating costs but also reduce the plant downtime. Although smart & intelligent pumps offer potential benefits, they have not garnered much wider adoption.The reason behind this is reluctance to shift from the conventional pumping systems to the new smart & intelligent pumps. The cultural change is the most challenging aspect for the adoption of smart & intelligent pumps.Industries such as the oil & gas are conservative in their approach. However, it is anticipated that the potential benefits of smart & intelligent pumps will bring about a change in the market. High costs of energy are forcing the end users to think of more innovative ways to control costs.In pumping frameworks, energy costs represent more than 33% of aggregate lifecycle costs. As a consequence of the high energy requirement by conventional pumps, the energy-efficient nature of smart & intelligent pumps will be a major factor for its market development. Assessment credits and government mandates focusing on energy-efficient projects are additionally anticipated to impact the development of smart & intelligent pumps positively. The global smart & intelligent pumps market in terms of value was estimated at $1,860.0 million in 2017 and is expected to reach $XX million by 2023, expanding at a CAGR of XX% from 2018 to 2023. The growth of the market can be attributed to an increasing need from various end users for energy efficiency. Some of the factors driving the growth of the global smart & intelligent pumps market are the strict government regulations for enforcing energy efficiency, operational flexibility offered by these pumps, and demand from various industries to reduce the operational costs. Strong emphasis from the government on saving energy costs has led to an increased pressure on companies on finding efficient ways for energy utilization.The reduction in energy consumption not only brings the input costs down but also helps in lowering carbon dioxide emissions. Energy efficiency is becoming an important matter of concern, leading to a growing need for introducing energy-efficient products in the market. Intelligent pumping systems contribute to 70% of the energy savings as compared to the energy saving contributed by conventional pumping systems. In 2017, centrifugal pumps segment dominated the global smart & intelligent pumps market with a market share of XX%, accounting for a market size of $XX million. The segment is expected to account for a market size of $2,605.4 million by the end of 2023, expanding at a CAGR of XX%. The growth of the centrifugal pumps segment can be attributed to the easy maintenance of these pumps, thus rendering an economical advantage. The positive displacement pumps segment accounted for a market size of $99.7 million in 2017 and is expected to account for a market size of $XX million by the end of 2023. Positive displacement pumps are used for very specific applications which make them less preferred as comparison to centrifugal pumps. Water & wastewater application is expected to show the fastest growth during the forecast period Global smart & intelligent pumps market in terms of application is segmented into oil & gas industry, water & wastewater industry, power industry, chemical industry, and general industry. The oil & gas industry segment accounted for a market value of $658.7 million in 2017 and is expected to reach $XX million by the end of 2023, growing at a CAGR of XX% during the forecast period. The oil & gas industry has a high demand for intelligent pumping solutions, as these pumps enable easy monitoring of remote locations, thus cutting down on costs. The water & wastewater industry contributed to XX% of the total intelligent pumps revenue in 2017. The key driving factor of intelligent pumps across the water and the wastewater industry is the demand for automated systems that can monitor the quality of water. The Asia-Pacific region accounted for the largest market revenue share of XX% in 2017.The growth of the intelligent pumps in the region can be attributed to a well-established industrial base. The smart & intelligent pumps market in the region is driven by huge investments in industries such as water, wastewater, and related processing. Increasing investments for water treatment and rapid development of the oil & gas industry are expected to propel the demand for intelligent pumps in the Asia-Pacific region. Apart from Asia-Pacific, the Europe region is witnessing a fuelling demand for intelligent pumps due to the changing legislation. With end users under strain to comply with the strict government policies, the emphasis is progressively on gaining more versatile and advanced pumps that can decrease vitality costs and in addition address the issues of cavitation and dead heading. The only challenge faced by the intelligent pumps manufacturers in the Europe region is to educate the end users about the potential benefits of intelligent pumps and their application that can bring about a change in their system process. Countries Covered Asia-Pacific China Japan India Australia & New Zealand (ANZ) South Korea Rest-of-Asia-Pacific Europe The U.K. Germany France Italy Russia Rest-of-Europe North America The U.S. Canada Mexico Middle East & Africa (MEA) The U.A.E. Saudi Arabia South Africa Iran Rest-of-Middle East & Africa (MEA) South America Brazil Colombia Argentina Rest-of-South-America Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5626725 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 SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP notifies investors in PG&E Corporation (NYSE: PCG) of the firm's investigation into possible breach of duties by the Company's Board of Directors. If you purchased or otherwise acquired and still hold PG&E securities before November 28, 2018 contact Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP. For more information visit: https://www.hbsslaw.com/cases/PCG or contact Reed Kathrein, who is leading the firm's investigation, by calling 510-725-3000 or emailing [email protected]. On November 8, 2018, California's deadliest wildfire (the "Camp Fire") erupted near a PG&E power line during a windstorm. The Camp Fire killed dozens of people, displaced thousands of people, and destroyed thousands of homes and other buildings. On November 28, 2018, the financial press reported that PG&E decided against shutting power off six hours after the Camp Fire began and that one of the Company's high-voltage transmission lines in the area malfunctioned 18 minutes before the fire started. Since November 8, 2018, the price of PG&E shares has plunged $20.97, or about 44% to close at $26.97 on November 27, 2018. "We're focused on whether certain PG&E directors and senior officers knew or should have known of problems with the Company's power delivery infrastructure and on substantial damages suffered by all PG&E stakeholders," said Hagens Berman partner Reed Kathrein. Whistleblowers: Persons with non-public information regarding PG&E should consider their options to help in the investigation or take advantage of the SEC Whistleblower program. Under the new program, whistleblowers who provide original information may receive rewards totaling up to 30 percent of any successful recovery made by the SEC. For more information, call Reed Kathrein at 510-725-3000 or email [email protected]. About Hagens Berman Hagens Berman is a national investor-rights law firm headquartered in Seattle, Washington with 80+ attorneys in 10 offices across the country. The Firm represents investors, whistleblowers, workers and consumers in complex litigation. More about the firm and its successes can be found at www.hbsslaw.com. For the latest news visit our newsroom or follow us on Twitter at @classactionlaw . Contact: Reed Kathrein, 510-725-3000 SOURCE Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP Related Links https://www.hbsslaw.com Upon ordering, HIV test kits are delivered directly to the requested address in a discreet package. The HIV test is a self-administered dry blood spot card with simple-to-follow instructions. These self-collected specimens are mailed back to MOLECULAR in a provided envelope for processing and reporting, and the testing results are accessible from a private account on any device. MOLECULAR partners with PWN Health to ensure proper physician oversight in the process, and to provide independent physician consults when needed. Together, kiWW and MOLECULAR are taking an active stance to spread the word that affordable, self-collect HIV testing is available, discreet testing is accessible, timely treatment is attainable and that there is hope for health and well-being. Kathy Ireland, a Brand Ambassador and a leading worldwide advocate for disease prevention, treatment, and whenever possible, cures, continues to expand consumer awareness of this modern access point for testing alongside MOLECULAR. Ms. Ireland explains, "There is no comfort in ignorance. Having experienced people facing terminal disease and death, when it could have been prevented, is heartbreaking. There is treatment. Please, for your sake, and the sake of those close to you Know your status. If you need treatment, please seek it. This isn't something that is said often enough. The repetition is deliberate. Too many people are needlessly dying from infections. Elizabeth Taylor often said 'No one should die of ignorance.'" The vital work of raising awareness about testing and prevention still stands despite significant progress in the fight against HIV/AIDS over the span of 30 years. Unfortunately, many individuals living with HIV are not aware of their status. More than 1.1 million people in the U.S. are living with HIV today. 1 in 7 of them don't know it. Approximately 40% of new HIV infections are transmitted by people who are living with undiagnosed HIV. Stigma and discrimination still deter people from requesting HIV testing. Almost 8 in 10 HIV patients in the United States report feeling an internalized HIV-related stigma, according to a CDC study. Access to confidential HIV testing is still an issue of concern. Many individuals still only get tested after becoming ill and symptomatic. For those who are sexually active, testing should be simple and routine in maintaining a healthy life and reducing the spread of HIV. HIV can affect anyone regardless of sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, gender or age. However, certain groups are at higher risk for HIV and merit special consideration because of particular risk factors. Gay and bisexual men have the largest number of new diagnoses in the United States. Blacks/African Americans and Hispanics/Latinos are disproportionately affected by HIV compared to other racial and ethnic groups. Also, transgender women who have sex with men are among the groups at highest risk for HIV infection, and injection drug users remain at significant risk for getting HIV. The only way to know for sure whether an individual has HIV is to get tested. CDC recommends that everyone between the ages of 13 and 64 gets tested for HIV as part of routine health care. Individuals knowing their HIV status are equipped to make informed decisions and take the necessary steps to keep themselves and their partner(s) healthy. About Molecular Testing Labs Molecular Testing Labs is a CLIA and CAP accredited, state-of-the-art, esoteric and reference laboratory. Specializing in high-complexity, Molecular testing with an extensive portfolio of services including infectious disease, toxicology, targeted sequencing, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping, Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS), and high-resolution immune profiling. Molecular Testing Labs offers a variety of clinical trial services comprising of assay development, trial site training, investigator support, and customized reporting. Molecular Testing Labs applies the maximum level of control to obtain the most consistent and highest quality results. Molecular Testing Labs is founded on three guiding principles Compliance, Innovation, and Partnership. For more information, please visit our corporate website: https://www.Moleculartestinglabs.com. For more information on products, please visit the brand website: https://myhometests.com . About kathy ireland Worldwide (kiWW) kiWW is listed as one of the most powerful brands in the world by License Global Magazine. Kathy Ireland is named one of the 19 most influential women in licensing by License Global magazine and according to Fairchild Publications, Kathy Ireland is one of the 50 most influential people in fashion. Furniture Today names Kathy one of the most influential leaders in the furniture industry. Kathy graces the cover of Forbes Magazine twice (2012, 2016). kiWW is responsible for billions of dollars in retail sales. kiWW is the recipient of multiple awards including several Good Housekeeping Seals. Kathy and kiWW support many non-profits including YWCA Greater Los Angeles for which she is an Ambassador, Dream Foundation, Providence Educational Foundation, 911 for Kids/AEF, and the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Kathy is named an Ambassador for the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation. SOURCE kathy ireland Worldwide HOUSTON, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- KBR, Inc. (NYSE: KBR) announced today that it has been awarded a contract to supply proprietary equipment to Southern Petrochemical Industries Corporation Ltd. India for its plant located in Thoothukudi in the State of Tamil Nadu. Under the contract, KBR will supply an ammonia converter basket as proprietary equipment for the project. In 2017, KBR supplied License and Basic Engineering Design (LBED) for revamp of the plant to reduce the energy consumption along with marginal capacity increase, including revamp of the furnace, ammonia converter and exchanger. "KBR is proud to work with Southern Petrochemical Industries Corporation to revamp its ammonia plant using our energy efficient ammonia technology," said John Derbyshire, KBR President, Technology. "Our proven ammonia technology has the lowest energy consumption in the industry making it the first choice for ammonia producers globally." KBR has a long track record of successfully revamping ammonia plants all over the world, including non-KBR technology plants. KBR is a global leader in ammonia technology and has been involved in the licensing, design, engineering, and/or construction of more than 230 grass roots ammonia plants and over 100 revamp ammonia projects globally. About KBR, Inc. KBR is a global provider of differentiated professional services and technologies across the asset and program 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. SOURCE KBR, Inc. Related Links http://www.kbr.com GLENDALE, Calif., Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Distracted driving is a national epidemic responsible for injuring thousands of Americans each year. Distracted driving accounts for 25% of all motor vehicle crash fatalities and 58% of all teen crashes. The steady rise in accidents related to driver distraction has led many to coin distracted driving the "new drunk driving." Break The Habit Distracted Driving Scholarship Megeredchian Law recognizes that driver habits need to change and they need to change fast. The first step to solving a problem is always admitting that there is one. That is precisely the reason why the first annual Break The Habit Distracted Driving Scholarship was founded this year. Afterall, self-admission and self-education are very powerful tools. The $1,000 scholarship is offered to students attending universities across the country who are willing to admit to distracted driving and take corrective action to ditch the habit. Students are asked to submit an essay detailing an account of a distracted driving incident along with an outline of concrete steps they will use to make sure they never drive distracted again. To learn more about the scholarship, click here. Alex Megeredchian, founding attorney at Megeredchian Law, hopes that the scholarship will inspire students to think critically about their behavior while behind the wheel. In this interconnected digital age, it is far too easy to fall victim to distraction. Everyone thinks they've mastered double tasking until an attempt at double tasking causes an accident. The worst part about distracted driving accidents is that they are completely preventable. While the scholarship is only available to college students, Megeredchian Law urges everyone to take a hard look in the mirror and examine their road habits. If all of us put down our phones while driving, 25% of all fatal motor vehicle crashes could be prevented. Megeredchian Law intends to continue offering the Break The Habit Distracted Driving Scholarship as a way to spread awareness and promote discussion around the dangers of phone use while driving. About Megeredchian Law: Megeredchian Law is a personal injury law firm based in Glendale, CA. The firm seeks to provide access to justice for all victims who have suffered injuries in an accident. The firm also advocates to reduce road accidents through safer driving habits. To learn more, click here. Alex Megeredchian Megeredchian Law 818-530-1300 [email protected] SOURCE Megeredchian Law Related Links https://megeredchianlaw.com LOS ANGELES, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On Saturday, December 1, 2018, the National Alliance for Hispanic Health and the Mexican American Opportunity Foundation will celebrate their 12th Annual Vive tu vida! Get Up! Get Moving! in Los Angeles with a very special guest Walkaround Elmo from Sesame Street! The event brings needed health services and a day of fun to promote physical activity and good nutrition in Hispanic communities for better health and wellness for all. "For twelve years, Vive tu vida! Get Up! Get Moving! has provided nutrition education, free health screenings and wellness activities to communities across the nation," said Dr. Jane L. Delgado, President and CEO of the National Alliance for Hispanic Health. "We are proud to welcome to Los Angeles for the first time our new partners Sesame Street in Communities and Walkaround Elmo who will be at the event greeting children," concluded Dr. Delgado. In addition, the event will feature a 5K Family Walk and Run at Clara Street Park. Families and individuals can pre-register for this fun walk and run at https://racewire.com/register.php?id=9952. "We are glad to provide ongoing support for Vive tu vida! Get Up! Get Moving! events across the country," Robert Forrester, President and CEO of Newman's Own Foundation, said. "These programs bring communities together, empower individuals to improve their health and address a broad range of needs at the local level." The event will also include featured partner, National Institutes of Health (NIH)'s All of Us Research Program. "Our partnership with the Alliance is fundamental to keep our communities healthier and it does not stop with this event. This year we are supporting efforts at the national level to increase the inclusion of Hispanics in clinical and biomedical research by bringing the All of Us Research Program to Los Angeles," said Martin Castro, President and CEO of The Concilio. "The participation of diverse communities in All of Us will help build the foundation for a new era of health care where medicine is tailored to each person," concludes Mr. Castro. The All of Us Research Program is an ambitious effort to advance individualized prevention, treatment and care for people of all backgrounds. People ages 18 and older, regardless of health status, will be able to enroll. What: A day of family fun, health screenings, fitness and nutrition Health Screenings: Cholesterol, Glucose, Blood Pressure, Flu Shots, Dental and more! Fitness: Zumba, Yoga, and Obstacle Courses Nutrition: Fresh Fruits and Healthy Snacks, and Educational Resources Family fun: Walkaround Elmo, Kid Zone, Music, Dancing, School Performances, and more! Where: Clara Street Park - 4835 Clara Street - Cudahy, CA 90201 When: Saturday, December 1, 2018 from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm Cost: FREE! / 2018 Sesame Workshop. All Rights Reserved. SOURCE National Alliance for Hispanic Health Related Links http://healthyamericas.org CHICAGO, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- United Benefit Advisors (UBA), the nation's leading independent employee benefits advisory organization, is pleased to welcome Sterling Thompson Company to our family of Partners. Founded as a sole proprietorship in 1937, Sterling Thompson Company has enjoyed a history of steady growth for the past 80 years. Located in Louisville, Kentucky, Sterling Thompson Company is consistently recognized as a "Best Practices Firm" which is awarded to the top 25 percent of all insurance agencies. "We look forward to expanding our industry knowledge and experience through collaboration with our new member peers," said Chapin Collins, Director of Benefits at Sterling Thompson Company. Sterling Thompson Company is comprised of professionals who hold themselves to a high standard of product knowledge, professionalism, and integrity. Through teamwork and acting as a reliable resource, Sterling Thompson Company delivers superior outcomes and builds lasting relationships which exceed client expectations. A shared belief in the critical importance of the insurance business and the role collaboration can play in our industry drew Sterling Thompson Company to UBA. Like UBA, Sterling Thompson Company puts trust as the cornerstone of their work. They value the trust that their clients place in them, and work to offer the most affordable, comprehensive coverage available. "As a long-standing organization that maintains high standards of integrity and professionalism, we are certain that Sterling Thompson Company will both be an asset to and benefit from UBA's exclusive community," said UBA President Peter Weber, M.S., CAE. "Particularly, we are impressed with their dedication to collaborating and sharing information within the industry, and their steady growth over the tenure of their business." "We are very excited to be a partner in the future development of UBA and its member agencies. More so, Sterling Thompson Company looks forward to expanding our industry knowledge and experience through collaboration with our new member peers," said Chapin Collins, Director of Benefits at Sterling Thompson Company. "We are certain our inclusion will be beneficial for our agency, but most importantly, our clients will be better served with the additional resources Sterling Thompson Company now brings to the table." Sterling Thompson Company joins a network of employee benefits advisory firms that serve employers of all sizes across the United States, Canada, England and Ireland. As a combined group, UBA's annual employee benefit revenues rank it among the top ten employee benefit advisory organizations globally. About Sterling Thompson Company Sterling Thompson Company is a dedicated insurance service organization with a long history providing Louisville, Kentucky, with affordable and comprehensive coverage. Sterling Thompson Company makes client trust a priority in their agency, and their professional and dedicated advisors strive to be the preeminent providers of insurance products and risk management services. Advisors at Sterling Thompson Company know the importance of teamwork and utilize their team to provide their clients with superior outcomes to create long term relationships. For more information, visit https://sterlingthompson.com. About United Benefit Advisors United Benefit Advisors (UBA) is the nation's leading independent employee benefits advisory organization with more than 200 offices throughout the United States, Canada, England and Ireland. UBA empowers more than 2,000 Partners to both maintain their individuality and pool their expertise, insight, and market presence to provide best-in-class services and solutions. Employers, advisors and industry-related organizations interested in obtaining powerful results from the shared wisdom of our Partners should visit www.UBAbenefits.com. Media Contact Bill Olson SVP Operations 312.416.3673 [email protected] SOURCE United Benefit Advisors Related Links http://www.ubabenefits.com HANGZHOU, China, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- NetEase Kaola, a leading Chinese cross-border e-commerce platform, recently discussed its growing role in the Black Friday e-commerce and larger cross-border online retail marketplace. "China's cross-border e-commerce market is experiencing a rare window of opportunity, with the perception of and preference for global brands by Chinese consumers going through a transformation. We noticed this important emerging trend, especially on the Black Friday of this year, November 23, 2018. While shopping promotions on Black Friday continue to be a popular convention for online and offline retail platforms in the U.S. and Europe, notably, we observed burgeoning interest among consumers in China's cross-border e-commerce market as well," commented Ms. Lily Zhang, CEO of NetEase Kaola. "Sales from this year's Black Friday demonstrated in no uncertain terms that there is tremendous enthusiasm among Chinese consumers for imported goods, with our orders beginning to reflect this change in consumer behavior. We continue to position ourselves to be the premiere partner for overseas brands in China to bring them closer to Chinese consumers." "In just a short time, the once infrequent consumption pattern has evolved into a daily habit. Further, data from our platform suggests that consumer shopping behavior in China has become more rational and more similar to habits in other parts of the world," Ms. Zhang continued. "We were also pleased to note that Black Friday purchases did not appear to be diminished by the recent Singles Day shopping festivities, given different product purchasing intentions associated with each day. We have observed that, typically, on Singles Day, shoppers stockpile large quantities of daily necessities such as baby and maternity products, cosmetics, health and personal care products, whereas on Black Friday, shoppers tend to have a preference for more fashionable goods, including affordable luxury items, fashion accessories and sportswear. We believe that there is tremendous potential in the assimilation patterns of these emerging Chinese consumer shopping dynamics, and given the recently announced governmental support of e-commerce, we believe these changes are favorable not only for Black Friday but also for the industry in general," Ms. Zhang concluded. In China, Black Friday, as a loanword, historically has not attracted widespread public attention. With the development of China's online cross-border retail market, the country's consumers are increasingly buying higher-quality imported goods as a way of enhancing the quality of their everyday living. Further, after the first China International Import Expo ("CIIE") earlier this month, China's state-run media agencies, including People's Daily, Xinhua News Agency and CCTV, widely reported on the momentum surrounding Black Friday and its impact on the country's shopping habits. The government has continued to indicate their supportive stance towards consumer e-commerce. On November 21, two days prior to Black Friday, at the Executive Meeting of the State Council chaired by Mr. Li Keqiang, Premier of the State Council of China, the decision was made to continue the implementation and enhancement of the country's retail import policy targeting cross-border e-commerce and expanding the scope of its applications, in order to further stimulate consumption. Specific benefits and favorable policies include expanding the number of pilot cities for cross-border preferential policies, adding new commodities that are eligible for preferential tax treatment and raising the upper limit for commodities eligible for the preferential treatment. NetEase Kaola, launched in early 2015, was established by NetEase, one of the largest internet companies in China. Through self-support direct purchasing, bonded imports and other endeavors, it has rapidly grown into one of China's largest cross-border e-commerce platforms. According to a report by iiMedia Research, a Chinese third-party data-mining and integrated-marketing firm, NetEase Kaola has been ranked first for its trustworthiness and its share in the cross-border e-commerce market in each of the past three years. About NetEase Kaola NetEase Kaola, is a comprehensive e-commerce platform under NetEase concerning itself with high-quality consumption and well-selected items. NetEase Kaola, launched in early 2015, is rapidly growing into China's largest cross-border import retail e-commerce platform, and has deep strategic partnership with thousands of world-class brand owners and suppliers. Based on a model of self-operation, bonded import model and business innovation, Netease Kaola provides Chinese consumers with high quality, cost-effective, convenient and efficient global channels for the purchase of high-quality goods. Forward Looking Statements This press release contains statements of a forward-looking nature. These statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You can identify these forward-looking statements by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates" and similar statements. The accuracy of these statements may be impacted by a number of business risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or anticipated, including the risk that China's online music market may not grow as rapidly as expected, the ability of NetEase Cloud Music to access desirable content at favorable terms or at all, competition in the online music market, and other risks outlined in NetEase's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. NetEase does not undertake any obligation to update this forward-looking information, except as required under applicable law. SOURCE NetEase Kaola Related Links http://ir.netease.com WANTAGH, N.Y., Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Pave the Way Foundation (PTWF) an international nonsectarian organization with representation in 22 countries, is making a unique gesture in support of peace, in the form of a significant gift to the Holy See Mission to the United Nations. A magnificent 300-pound acrylic cross has been created and dedicated to Saint John Paul II. The monument is being placed in the Mission to the United Nations for the Holy See in New York City on November 29, 2018. Acrylic Cross for Pope Saint John Paul II from Pave the Way Foundation and Meisner Galleries by Colby Grace 2018 The cross, which measures 34.5x27x8 inches (88x70x20cm), will be presented to His Excellency Archbishop Bernardito Auza Apostolic Nuncio and Permanent Observer to the Holy See. This extraordinary gesture is made possible through the generosity of a number of donors including the Meisner Galleries, who originated the project along with PTWF directors Stanley Browne and Jay Parker, and with additional support from Mr. Marvin Kaplan. This beautiful piece was crafted by Mitch Meisner along with artist Colby Grace, former World Trade Center anthropologist, who experienced the pain of hatred when he was stationed at the ground zero repository. The barbaric attack on the United States encouraged Mr. Grace to join the military. The dedication placard reads: H.E. Archbishop Bernardito Auza Apostolic Nuncio, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations Given with love and respect to the Holy See Mission to the United Nations The Saint John Paul Peace Cross is given with the prayerful wishes that it inspires the legacy of respect for human dignity as embodied by Saint John Paul II, on all those who gaze upon it. Crafted with love and admiration by Colby Grace and Mitchell Meisner. Through the generosity of: Mitchell and Hillary Meisner Stanley and Esther Browne Marvin and Kathy Kaplan Jacob and Rachel Parker The Boards of Directors and Advisors of Pave the Way Foundation Elliot M. Hershberg, Chairman Pave the Way Foundation Gary and Meredith Krupp, Founders Pave the Way Foundation About Pave the Way Foundation PTWF, known as "the most important organization in the world no one has ever heard of" operates in 22 countries quietly behind the scenes. PTWF is a nonsectarian public foundation whose mission is to identify and work to resolve obstacles between religions. We achieve our goals by establishing foundations of trust through cultural, educational and technological gestures between the faiths. Please visit our website www.ptwf.org Media Contact: Gary Krupp 516.432.7560 [email protected] SOURCE Pave the Way Foundation Related Links http://www.ptwf.org BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich., Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Time is of the essence when a newborn baby's brain is deprived of oxygen. To accelerate critical research in hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), a neonatal brain injury caused by oxygen deprivation and limited blood flow to a baby's brain, Reiter & Walsh ABC Law Centers has established the Reiter HIE Research Fund. The fund supports the University of Michigan's cutting-edge research in pediatric hypoxic-ischemic brain injuries, with the goal of mitigating and preventing the long-term health effects of HIE. A key to helping newborns with HIE is advancing clinical and laboratory research on essential treatments and therapies. The research of Dr. John Barks, Director of the Division of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, has been instrumental in developing what is now the standard treatment for HIE. Dr. Barks continues to direct his efforts toward discovering safer and more effective treatment protocols. "Under the leadership of Dr. Barks, Michigan Medicine is at the forefront of innovation and discovery in HIE research," remarked managing partner Jesse Reiter. "The Reiter HIE Research Fund will help Michigan Medicine continue to lead the way in treatment and care." The Reiter HIE Research Fund provides critical momentum to Dr. Barks' research in developing new and combination therapies for HIE. Investigations are underway to determine the safety and effectiveness of the different types of hypothermia therapy, the circumstances under which this therapy is most beneficial, how complications can best be managed, and whether combining treatments can improve outcomes for children with birth injuries. Charitable participation in the community is a core pillar of the practice at Reiter & Walsh ABC Law Centers, and the firm is thrilled to support the University of Michigan's commitment to providing best-in-class care to injured and sick newborn infants. To donate to the Reiter HIE Research Fund, please click here to make an online contribution. About Reiter and Walsh ABC Law Centers: Reiter & Walsh ABC Law Centers is a nationally recognized birth injury firm based out of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Outside of the courtroom, firm members work to promote safer medical practices and advancements in treatment for children with HIE and other birth injuries. Media Contact: Genevieve Kotasek Reiter & Walsh, P.C. 248-593-5100 [email protected] SOURCE Reiter & Walsh, P.C. "We sell pizzas, have meat shoots and hold bingo games to raise money to put fuel in the trucks and keep the heat and electricity on in the station," said Sharon Davis, 44, a volunteer assistant fire chief in Centreville Township, an economically struggling area that borders East St. Louis. "Yes, we're worried about cancer, but we just don't have the budget, so those things have to take a back seat." Leading developer of 'smart' cannabis devices makes entrance into Europe, Brazil, and Caribbean markets TORONTO, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Resolve Digital Health ("Resolve" or the "Company"), a Canada-based developer of cannabis formulations, brands and smart devices, is pleased to announce that it has entered into a strategic partnership with Jamaican Medical Cannabis Corporation Ltd. (JMCC), a Canadian-Jamaican medical cannabis exporter. Under the terms of the agreement, JMCC will supply both the high-quality medicinal cannabis, and processing, packaging and distribution services for Resolve's ecosystem of smart inhaler pods in its key markets outside of North America. The deal is expected to close by December 31, 2018. The global medical cannabis market is forecast to reach nearly USD 56 billion by 2024 and, with approximately 35 countries having legalized medical cannabis to date, the opportunities to expand Resolve's worldwide sales footprint are significant. The Company's strategic priorities include Germany, Europe's largest market with a population of more than 82 million; Brazil, the largest Latin American market by population at approximately 208 million; and the Caribbean region, which has a total population of approximately 42.5 million. "As more countries adopt the use of medical cannabis and as a growing body of research expands the number of conditions for which medical cannabis treatments are indicated, Resolve anticipates steadily increasing growth from international sales," said Rob Adelson, CEO and founder of Resolve. "In order to address this global opportunity, we are expanding our capacity to produce world-class products to GMP standards and deliver worldwide via sophisticated distribution and logistics. JMCC is a perfect partner to assist us in achieving our expansion goals via this unique outsourcing arrangement." The agreement also marks a natural extension of JMCC's current offering beyond cultivation and extraction, to provide custom processing, packaging and global distribution. The company is actively engaged with customers in Canada, Germany, Australia and other parts of the world. "Our mission and ambitions have grown quickly from being the best cultivator and quality-focused provider of Jamaica's unique medical cannabis to the world, to providing a fully integrated product outsourcing solution to visionary companies like Resolve," said Diane Scott, Chair and CEO of JMCC. "This agreement enables both companies to focus on what each does best: Resolve is perfecting new applications for its remarkable products for patients and JMCC is managing the exacting production and delivery of those products to Resolve's new markets worldwide. It also reaffirms JMCC's commitment to job creation and further investment in Jamaica." About Jamaican Medical Cannabis Corporation Ltd. (JMCC) JMCC is a Canadian-headquartered group of companies with rapidly expanding medical cannabis operations in Jamaica. Providing a range of cultivars sun-grown in specially designed greenhouses at various locations around the island, JMCC also offers an integrated and customizable outsourcing solution for the global medical cannabis industry, including processing/extraction, testing, global warehousing and distribution. Led by an international executive team with in-depth experience in highly regulated industries, JMCC provides premium medicinal cannabis and associated services to licensed producers and other industry participants to free them to focus on creating and delivering the best products for patients. For more information, please visit www.jamaicanmedicann.com. About Resolve Digital Health Resolve Digital Health is positioned to be the leading provider of a metered dosing ecosystem for cannabis devices for the health and wellness markets. The company's proprietary technology, apps and cloud-based health information platform address the numerous issues with currently available methods of cannabis delivery establishing a data-driven standard of care and cutting-edge vaporizers for the cannabis industry. With over three years of research and development, the complete product ecosystem will be initially available in late 2018. For more information, please visit www.resolvedigitalhealth.com. SOURCE Resolve Digital Health Related Links http://www.resolvedigitalhealth.com NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The California Democratic Party is investigating Chairman Eric Bauman for sexual misconduct, following one of his deputies calling for his removal. The vice-chair of the CA Democratic Party, Daraka Larimore-Hall, filed paperwork to initiate Bauman's removal. Larimore-Hall sent a letter to the party stating that he had heard of multiple incidents accusing Bauman of sexual harassment and in some cases sexual assault, during Party functions. Bauman was elected the state Democratic Party's Chairman in 2017. He went on leave on Monday, November 26th, after the accusations were made. Carney Shegerian, the founder of Shegerian & Associates, a Los Angeles-based employee rights firm, has weighed in on the investigation into Bauman. "It's critical that organizations take action to conduct internal investigations when allegations are made. This reinforces the notion that employees should not be afraid to speak up and bring awareness to sexual harassment and assault in the workplace," Shegerian says. Christine Pelosi, chairwoman of the California Democratic Party Women's Caucus, called Bauman's decision to take a leave of absence a "good first step." Now, it is up to the California Democratic Party to conduct a thorough investigation. About Shegerian & Associates: Shegerian & Associates has won clients over $200 million in employment-based disputes and maintains a 98% success rate. We have offices in Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside and New York. Media Contact: Pace Public Relations Caroline Kropke [email protected] SOURCE Shegerian & Associates Related Links www.shegerianlaw.com SANTA ANA, Calif., Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- By day, Palos Verdes Estates resident Don Davis is known by his clients and colleagues as a high-powered securities, business, and international commerce lawyer. But when he's not preparing legal cases or flying around the globe, he puts his mind to another pursuit. At night he becomes a mystery novel writer. Davis MacDonald Mystery Novelist Since passing the bar in 1969, Don has been serving clients throughout southern California, Asia and Europe. He has offices in Los Angeles and Newport Beach, where he exercises his passion to provide superior legal counsel to his clients. Of course, not all lawyers or professionals in any industry, for that matter, can claim two completely different talents. To keep Don's creative writing separate from his legal work, he authors his popular books under his pseudonym, Davis MacDonald. To date as Davis, Don has become a respected novelist with six books in his popular series featuring his protagonist, the Judge. Most of his novels are inspired by real cases and experiences. What makes this "author by night" different is that his writing is both exciting and informative, offering readers an insight into the local landmarks featured in the stories while bringing excitement and intrigue when the Judge continually becomes involved with murder cases. He tries to help the suspects and eventually reveals the true murderer. When reading Don's novels, you begin to feel as if you have met many of his characters before. He wrote his first mystery novel, The Hill, in 2012. Today, Davis MacDonald's novels are available in paperback, on Kindle, and audiobook formats on Amazon. His novels explore important economic, social and moral issues facing real people in the first quarter of the 21st Century that are wrapped inside suspenseful mystery novels that leave you on the edge of your seat. The murder mystery novels by MacDonald include The Hill, The Island, Silicon Beach, The Bay, Cabo, and soon to be released The Strand. Visit his website: http://davismacdonald-author.com If you would like to arrange for an interview with Don Davis, please contact George Carson, [email protected] About the author A native of Southern California, Davis MacDonald writes from intimate knowledge of people, places and events, fashioning tales by watching real people coping with life and its vicissitudes. He is a member of the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors (NAIWE). As an esteemed attorney, MacDonald currently provides legal representation to clients throughout the USA and abroad. Media Contact: George Carson 949.477.9400 [email protected] SOURCE Don Davis Related Links http://davismacdonald-author.com BOSTON, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Northeast Arc announced winners of the 2nd "The Arc Tank" competition created to positively disrupt conventional methods of providing services to persons with disabilities. Winners were selected by judges after hearing their pitches at an event held yesterday at John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, partner in the initiative. Winning proposals received awards from the Changing Lives Fund established through a $1 million donation from Steven P. Rosenthal, founder of West Shore, LLC. Winners: The Arc South of Norfolk's Autism Law Enforcement Education Coalition (ALEC), Westwood, Mass.; Stronger Communities through Open and Organized Transportation (SCOOT) by New Star, Chicago, Illinois; Virtual Reality Functional Communication Activities & Training Seminars by the Interactive Media Institute, San Diego, California. ALEC was awarded $40,000 for its project, SCOOT was awarded $70,000 for its proposal, and the Virtual Reality Functional Communication Activities & Training Seminars was awarded $90,000 for its initiative. "The second year of the Arc Tank has shown that there are great ideas among innovative, outside-the-box creators who have joined our quest to positively disrupt the conventional methods of providing services to persons with disabilities," said Jo Ann Simons, CEO of Northeast Arc. "With Steven Rosenthal's vision and philanthropy, and now with another three proposals to be funded, we are well on our way to shaking up the status quo and will be making change happen for individuals with intellectual disabilities and autism." Each of the 2018 Arc Tank 2.0 winners addresses a crucial challenge facing the disability community. ALEC is a program that offers specialized training to first responders so they can more effectively interact with the disability community. First responders can access critical training from their peers who have personal and professional experience with individuals with intellectual disabilities. The goal is to provide additional tools to use in assessing the risk of a situation to promote safety and reduce risk of injury. With its funding, SCOOT will develop a mobile app to provide ridesharing transportation for persons with disabilities. The project is unique because rideshare drivers will be Direct Support Professionals, allowing families to be comfortable that the driver transporting their loved ones understands the special needs of their riders. Virtual Reality Functional Communication Activities & Training Seminars introduces innovative virtual reality technology to increase access to services promoting social integration and self-advocacy in children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities. The virtual reality component allows parents or caregivers to better prepare an autistic child to cope with a trip through the airport, dinner at a restaurant, use of public transportation and other challenging first-time experiences. Panel of judges: Judges received support from David Chang, entrepreneur and active angel investor. SOURCE Northeast Arc Related Links https://ne-arc.org NEW YORK, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Clinical Trials Management System (CTMS) Market Share, Size & Trends Analysis Report By Type (Enterprise, Site), By Delivery Mode (Web-based, Cloud-based), By Component, By End User, And Segment Forecasts, 2018 - 2025 Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05628229 The global clinical trials management system (CTMS) market size is expected to reach USD 1.62 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. It is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 12.1% over the forecast period. Rapid growth of healthcare IT, high R&D expenditure by life science and clinical research organizations, and adoption of CTMS solutions is anticipated to drive the market growth. Increasing investment by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies coupled with government funding is promoting research activities. This factor is expected to boostgrowth of the market for clinical trial management systems.According to the estimates of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA), global research-based pharmaceutical industry has spent around USD 149.8 billion in 2015. The annual spending of pharmaceutical industry is 5.5 times greater than the aerospace industry, 1.8 times more than software and computer services andsoftware industry, and 5 times more than chemicals industry. Further key findings from the report suggest: Enterprise CTMS held the largest market share in 2016 due to the benefits such as real-time insight into operational activities and efficient tracking in tracking and managing the regulatory process Web-based systems held the largest market share in 2016 owing to the benefits such as remote access of data and minimal technical issues Cloud based system is anticipated to exhibit the fastest CAGRover the forecast period. Real-time data tracking, high security, easy accessibility from any device, and privacy are a few factors attributed to the growth Based onregion, North America is expected to continue holding the largest market share during the forecast period due to high adoption of advanced technology and improved healthcare infrastructure Asia Pacificis likely to witness significant growthover the next decade due toincreasing government incentives and low cost of clinical trials Some of the key players operating in the Clinical Trials Management System (CTMS) market are Surgery Partners;PARAXEL International Corporation; Oracle Corporation; Medidata Solutions Inc.; Forte Research Systems Inc.; Medpace Holdings Inc.; and Clinical Data Inc. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05628229 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 FORT MORGAN, Colo., Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Located along I-76, 80 miles east of Denver, Fort Morgan, Colorado, is a special place. Founded in the 1880s as a military outpost on the Overland Trail, it has recently become one of the State's most diverse communities. Its current residents, totaling approximately 11,300, love its size, safety, and economic opportunities. The key to sustaining this thriving rural community is to grow talented youth and a key to developing talented youth is ensuring that every child starts kindergarten fully prepared to learn. This begins at an early age. To ensure Fort Morgan's entire population of 250 four-year-olds have the best possible preparation for kindergarten and beyond, OneMorgan County, a local non-profit, is working with city officials, two of the town's largest employers Cargill and Leprino Foods and Colorado Health Foundation to deliver the gift of reading. The whole community will be invited during the holidays to participate in a crowdfunding effort to round out the funding of the project. The groundbreaking Fort Morgan Growing Readers program will ensure that every Fort Morgan four-year-old receives four books each week, from January into July 2019, resulting in personal home libraries of over 100 books. According to Fort Collins, Colorado-based Unite for Literacy, LLC, supplier of the books as well as associated reading programs for the children and their parents, Fort Morgan will become the first U.S. community in which the entire population of four-year-olds have personal libraries with 100+ books and community-based reading activities. "Children who enter school with early literacy skills are more likely than their peers to experience later academic success, attain higher levels of education and secure better employment," said Susana Guardado, Director of OneMorgan County. "The result is a stronger community for everyone, so the goal of the Fort Morgan Growing Readers program is to make sure every Fort Morgan child enters kindergarten motivated and ready to learn. We are also excited to share with our community the Unite for Literacy free online library that has over 400 books that are narrated in up to 40 languages to support families that are English language learners." The program's strength lies in the enthusiastic participation of key community stakeholders. "By providing this gift of reading, we're elevating Fort Morgan to model city status," explained Dr. Rena Frasco, Assistant Superintendent of Morgan Re-E School District. "Our Growing Readers program is a broad community effort lead by OneMorgan County, which will integrate resources from key stakeholders including the community's public, private, and civic sectors. The community's largest employer, Cargill Protein, took the lead as Fort Morgan Growing Readers' earliest sponsor. "We celebrate and embrace the diversity of our beef plant's 2,100 employees," said Tyler Luft, Cargill's Fort Morgan plant general manager. "The cultures of more than 20 nations, including the United States, are represented by our team members, yet they all share the common desire to contribute to society. Part of that focus is on ensuring their children have educational opportunities like the Growing Readers program. Supporting programs such as Growing Readers is one way Cargill helps people and communities thrive, which is why we are proud to be part of this initiative." "Our intention is to engage with the community where we live and work and make a positive lasting impact," stated Leprino Food Company's Fort Morgan Plant Manager David Merriam. "Leprino Foods has a sizable business footprint in Fort Morgan with 375 employees. With the support of the Leprino Foods Company Foundation, we are proud to be part of this worthwhile program and bring to fruition a lifetime love of reading through the gift of books." "The residents of Fort Morgan have been working tirelessly for nearly a decade to strengthen the bonds between its newcomer and receiving communities," said Eric Ishiwata of The Pulley System and Colorado State University. "Part of what makes Fort Morgan Growing Readers so exciting is that it builds upon the intercultural community building efforts initiated back in 2008 by a handful of rather unsung local heroes. This community-based reading program honors their hard work and represents a high-water mark for Fort Morgan in that it is truly inclusive in terms of its participants, partners, and sponsors." SOURCE Unite for Literacy, LLC SILICON SLOPES, Utah, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Up-and-coming business leaders are faced with unprecedented challenges along with the near infinite opportunities presented in the ongoing digital revolution. To help them lead and thrive in the modern workplace, Workfront President and CEO Alex Shootman has published Done Right, a guide for effective leadership in an era of rapid technological change. Done Right will be available on Amazon in early December. In partnership with the University of Utah, Done Right will be offered in new Work Leadership Bootcamp programs for students at the Eccles School of Business. Serving as a professional field map, Done Right lays out the path of modern work, from the early planning stages to completion. The book includes: Insight from more than 30 corporate leaders, along with proven leadership recommendations built on Workfront's experience with over 3,000 industry-leading companies. Tips for every step in modern work leadership, from motivating teams and keeping people engaged, to dealing with unexpected obstacles, setting goals, and measuring success and productivity. Worksheets at the conclusion of every chapter so readers can put Done Right approaches to work in their own organizations. Along with the publication of Done Right, Workfront is developing cutting edge Leadership learning experiences in partnership with the University of Utah's David Eccles School of Business. The new programming will help leaders develop the skills, capabilities, and behaviors to empower their teams and get stuff done in an era of modern work. While the multi-day bootcamp will initially be offered to select executive and professional MBA students, Workfront will be collaborating with the Goff Strategic Leadership Center and Eccles faculty to deploy the program more broadly. The Done Right Leadership program is expected to launch its first class early in 2019. Alex Shootman, president and CEO of Workfront, commented: "During my time at Workfront, I have seen firsthand the incredible successes of business leaders who use technology to embrace modern work, helping their people and their companies thrive. It is their insight and experience that informs this book, providing a guide for this new generation of leaders as they turn their ambitions into meaningful work." Ray "R" Wang, CEO of Constellation Research, said: "Done Right is an invaluable tool to those who strive to be leaders in the future of work. It goes well past the typical feel-good executive leadership mantras, providing a clear and actionable path for leaders ready to have a positive impact on their people, their companies, and their own careers." About Workfront Workfront is the first modern work management application platform that connects enterprise work, collaboration, and digital content into an Operational System of Record (OSR). Workfront has helped thousands of companies successfully transform their businesses into modern enterprises that increase revenue, improve customer experiences, and eliminate cost, including BT, Cisco Systems, Comcast, Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, Fossil Group, TSB, and Trek. To learn more about how Workfront makes work matter, visit www.workfront.com. Contact: Shelbi Gomez [email protected] 801-477-9813 SOURCE Workfront Related Links https://www.workfront.com 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 DUBAI, UAE, November 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The fully connected software platform will be deployed by AWR Properties AW Rostamani Group has selected the Yardi technology platform to assist in the operation of its commercial and residential real estate portfolio, managed by AW Rostamani Properties. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/737275/Yardi_Logo.jpg ) AW Rostamani Properties owns and manages more than 2.5M square feet of residential and commercial space in the UAE. Its portfolio ranges from luxury housing and affordable residential units to commercial office spaces. Yardi Voyager will be utilized for property management and financial accounting, and other connected Yardi solutions including Yardi Leasing Manager, Yardi Orion Business Intelligence, Yardi Procure to Pay, Yardi Advanced Budgeting & Forecasting, Yardi Advanced Maintenance, RENTCafe and COMMERCIALCafe. Dr. Amina Al Rostamani, CEO of AW Rostamani Properties, said: "At AW Rostamani, we enrich the lives of our customers, employees, partners and stakeholders, and add real value to the nation's ambitions for growth. Our collaboration with Yardi represents our dedication to providing best-in-class experiences to our customers through innovative solutions. With Yardi, we will be able to streamline processes across our entire properties operation through a single solution." "AW Rostamani's diverse real estate holdings call for a leading technology platform that incorporates role-based apps, leading cloud security practices and transparent reporting functionality, all from a single database," said Neal Gemassmer, vice president of international for Yardi. "Yardi continues to innovate and provide solutions that meet the complex needs of the managers of mixed-use portfolios in the Middle East." About AW Rostamani: AW Rostamani Group (AWR), founded in 1954 in Dubai, UAE, is one of the Middle East's leading and most reputable conglomerates, with 4,000 employees, a turnover of $2 billion, and a presence in the UAE, India and the United Kingdom. Its subsidiaries work across a diverse range of sectors including automotive, real estate, retail, lighting solutions, travel and logistics. Arabian Automobiles, an internationally renowned business of AWR, is the exclusive distributor of Nissan, Infiniti, and Renault across Dubai and the Northern Emirates. AWR continues to enrich customer's lives through the introduction of innovative products, services and solutions into the market place. About Yardi Yardi develops and supports industry-leading investment and property management software for all types and sizes of real estate companies. Established in 1984, Yardi is based in Santa Barbara, Calif., and serves clients worldwide from offices in Australia, Asia, the Middle East, Europe and North America. For more information, visit yardi.com/ae. SOURCE Yardi AUBURN, Ala., Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Chicken Salad Chick, the nation's only southern inspired, fast casual chicken salad restaurant concept, announced today it will be expanding in Tennessee with its newest restaurant in Franklin, marking the brand's 104th location. The new restaurant is company-owned and emphasizes the brand's commitment to expanding in the Nashville market, with five locations including Bellevue, Spring Hill, Hendersonville, Murfreesboro, and the newest in Franklin. Located at 5050 Carothers Pkwy, the Franklin Chicken Salad Chick opens on December 5th and will feature a variety of dining options including a drive-thru, takeout and catering. During grand opening week, guests will experience the southern hospitality that Chicken Salad Chick is known for, with giveaways and specials that include: Wednesday, December 5 Free Chicken Salad for a year The first guest will receive one large Quick Chick of chicken salad per week for an entire year; the next 99 guests receive a free large Quick Chick of chicken salad per month. * Any guest not part of the first 100 in line can purchase the Chick Special and enter to win free chicken salad for a year. ** Free Chicken Salad for a year The first guest will receive one large Quick Chick of chicken salad per week for an entire year; the next 99 guests receive a free large Quick Chick of chicken salad per month. * Any guest not part of the first 100 in line can purchase the Chick Special and enter to win free chicken salad for a year. ** Thursday, December 6 The first 50 guests at opening and the first 50 guests at 6p.m. to purchase a Chick Special will be automatically enrolled in the Free Chicken Salad of the Month Club. Each guest will receive one free scoop of chicken salad per month for a year.*** The first 50 guests at opening and the first 50 guests at to purchase a Chick Special will be automatically enrolled in the Free Chicken Salad of the Month Club. Each guest will receive one free scoop of chicken salad per month for a year.*** Friday, December 7 The first 50 guests at opening and the first 50 guests at 6p.m. to purchase a Chick Trio will receive a free 32oz. RTIC Chick tumbler. The first 50 guests at opening and the first 50 guests at to purchase a Chick Trio will receive a free 32oz. RTIC Chick tumbler. Saturday, December 8 The first 100 guests to purchase two large Quick Chicks will receive a free large Chick cooler. "By the end of the year, we will have opened five new Chicken Salad Chick restaurants in Tennessee, including two in the Nashville area," said Scott Deviney, CEO of Chicken Salad Chick. "Our growth in the state continues to skyrocket and its largely due in part to our loyal guests who aren't shy about showing their love for our unique concept, Southern charm and made-from-scratch recipes. We are thrilled to be opening a new restaurant in Franklin and look forward to bringing Chicken Salad Chick to more communicates throughout Tennessee." The Chicken Salad Chick concept, born in Auburn, was established in 2008 in the kitchen of founder, Stacy Brown. When Stacy discovered that the local county health department would not allow her to continue making and selling her delicious recipes out of her home kitchen, she overcame that obstacle by launching her first restaurant with the business expertise of her future husband and fellow founder, Kevin Brown. Together, they opened a small takeout restaurant, which quickly grew and began franchising in 2012. In 2015, Eagle Merchant Partners purchased a majority stake in Chicken Salad Chick, and under the leadership of CEO Scott Deviney and team, the company now has 104 restaurants across the Southeast. Chicken Salad Chick in Franklin will be open Monday Saturday from 10 a.m. 8 p.m. For more information, visit http://www.chickensaladchick.com or call (334) 275-4578. Follow Chicken Salad Chick on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for the latest news and trends. *Eligible winners must be over 16 years of age, purchase a Chick Special and are required to download the Craving Credits app. Redemption will start 12/10. ** Eligible winners must be over 16 years of age, purchase a Chick Special and are required to download the Craving Credits app. 10 winners will be drawn at the end of the day. *** Eligible winners must be over 16 years of age, purchase a Chick Special and are required to download the Craving Credits app. About Chicken Salad Chick Founded in Auburn, Alabama, in 2008, Chicken Salad Chick serves full-flavored, Southern-style chicken salad made from scratch and served from the heart. With more than a dozen original chicken salad flavors as well as fresh side salads, gourmet soups, signature sandwiches and delicious desserts, Chicken Salad Chick's robust menu is a perfect fit for any guest. Today, the brand has 104 restaurants in 12 states and is continuing its rapid expansion with both franchise and company locations. Chicken Salad Chick was recently named as one of FastCasual.com's top Movers and Shakers and one of Nation's Restaurant News 2017 Next 20 brands. The brand also ranked #37 on the 2016 Inc. list of the 500 fastest-growing companies in the U.S. See www.chickensaladchick.com for additional information. Contact: Nikki Rode Fish Consulting 954-893-9150 [email protected] SOURCE Chicken Salad Chick Related Links http://www.chickensaladchick.com FORT MYERS, Fla., Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Diane Ellis to Step Down as President of Chico's Brand Company Initiates Search for New President of Chico's Brand Chico's FAS, Inc. (NYSE: CHS) (the "Company") announced today the departure of Diane Ellis, President of the Chico's brand, effective November 30, 2018. The Company has initiated a search to identify a new Chico's brand President. In the interim, the Chico's brand will be led by Shelley Broader, the Company's CEO and President. "We are committed to improving the performance of our Chico's brand, and we believe this leadership transition and the merchandising and marketing changes underway, as separately announced today, are necessary to reinvigorate broad-based consumer excitement and growth for the brand," said Ms. Broader. "We appreciate Diane's dedicated service over the last two years and wish her the best." ABOUT CHICO'S FAS, INC. The Company, through its brands Chico's, White House Black Market and Soma is a leading omni-channel specialty retailer of women's private branded, sophisticated, casual-to-dressy clothing, intimates and complementary accessories. As of November 3, 2018, the Company operated 1,431 stores in the U.S. and Canada and sold merchandise through 83 international franchise locations in Mexico. The Company's merchandise is also available at www.chicos.com, www.chicosofftherack.com, www.whbm.com and www.soma.com as well as through third party channels. For more detailed information on the Company, please go to our corporate website at www.chicosfas.com. The information on our corporate website is not, and shall not be deemed to be, a part of this press release or incorporated into our federal securities law filings. SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT UNDER THE PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF 1995 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, which reflect our current views with respect to certain events that could have an effect on our future financial performance. These statements, including without limitation statements made in Ms. Broader's quotes relate to expectations concerning matters that are not historical fact and may include the words or phrases such as "will," "should," "expects," "believes," and similar expressions. Except for historical information, matters discussed in such statements are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based largely on information currently available to our management and on our current expectations, assumptions, plans, estimates, judgments and projections about our business and our industry, and are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from historical results or those currently anticipated. Although we believe our expectations are based on reasonable estimates and assumptions, we cannot guarantee their accuracy or our future performance, and there are a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties, contingencies, and other factors (many of which are outside our control) that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Accordingly, there is no assurance that our expectations will, in fact, occur or that our estimates or assumptions will be correct, and we caution investors and all others not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, changes in the general economic and business environment, including the expected impact of U.S. tax reform; changes in the general or specialty retail or apparel industries; the availability of quality store sites; the ability to successfully execute and achieve the expected results of our business strategies and particular strategic initiatives, sales initiatives and multi-channel strategies; customer traffic; our ability to appropriately manage our inventory and allocation processes; our ability to leverage inventory management and targeted promotions; the successful leadership transition for the Chico's brand and successful integration of the new members of our senior management team; changes in the political environment that create consumer uncertainty; significant changes to product import and distribution costs (such as unexpected consolidation in the freight carrier industry, and the ability to remain competitive with customer shipping terms and costs pertaining to product deliveries and returns); new or increased taxes or tariffs (particularly with respect to China) that could impact, among other things, our sourcing from foreign suppliers; significant shifts in consumer behavior; and those other factors described in Item 1A, "Risk Factors" and in the "Forward-Looking Statements" disclosure in Item 7. "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" of our latest annual report on Form 10-K and in Part II, Item 1A, "Risk Factors" and the "Forward-Looking Statements" disclosure in Part I, Item 2. "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operation" of our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and in other reports we file with or furnish to the Securities and Exchange Commission. There can be no assurance that the actual future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements will occur. All forward-looking statements that are made or attributable to us are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary notice. The Company does not undertake to publicly update or revise its forward-looking statements even if experience or future changes make it clear that projected results expressed or implied in such statements will not be realized. Executive Contact: Julie Lorigan Vice President Investor Relations, Public Relations and Corporate Communications Chico's FAS, Inc. (239) 346-4199 Chico's FAS, Inc. 11215 Metro Parkway Fort Myers, Florida 33966 (239) 277-6200 SOURCE Chico's FAS, Inc. Related Links http://www.chicos.com DENVER, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Clarity Media Group announced today that Chris Reen will become the president of The Gazette in Colorado Springs, beginning February 2019. Reen and publisher of The Gazette, Dan Steever, will manage the publication until May 2019 when Steever plans to return to the East Coast to be closer to his children and extended family. At that time, Reen will add the duties of publisher to his responsibilities. A 30-year veteran of the media industry, Reen most recently served as president of The Oklahoman Media Company and publisher of The Oklahoman, the largest daily newspaper in Oklahoma. He began his career at The Oklahoman in 2004 and has held media executive positions in New York, Pennsylvania and Florida. He is known for his strong business background with special interests in collaboration and teamwork. "Chris has an impressive breadth of industry experience and will be an outstanding leader of The Gazette. We're excited to have him on board," said Ryan McKibben, President and CEO of Clarity Media Group. "We thank Dan for his years of leadershipnot only at The Gazette, but in the Colorado Springs communityand wish him and his family the best moving forward." On Feb. 1, Reen will assume the business-side operations of The Gazette while Steever continues to serve as publisher. Under Steever's leadership since 2012, The Gazette has seen tremendous success. During that time, the newspaper was awarded a Pulitzer Prize, journalism's most prestigious honor. "It's an honor to join the team at The Gazette, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to get to know the people and issues around the Pikes Peak region while Dan is still here," said Reen. "I'm looking forward to working with Chris in the coming months, and am confident that The Gazette will be in good hands upon my departure," said Steever. ABOUT THE GAZETTE The Gazette is a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper in the heart of Colorado Springs. For over 143 years, The Gazette has played a vital role in the health and prosperity of the area, providing a full-service newspaper with local, state, national and international coverage. ABOUT CLARITY MEDIA GROUP Denver-based Clarity Media Group owns the Washington Examiner and The Weekly Standard magazines in Washington, D.C., as well as the Colorado Springs Gazette daily newspaper and weekly magazine Colorado Politics. Media Contact: Hannah Rimar 303-825-6100; [email protected] SOURCE Clarity Media Group CHICAGO, November 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the new market research report "Clinical Alarm Management Market by Component (Solutions, Services), Product (Nurse Call Systems, Physiological Monitors, EMR Integration Systems), End User (Hospitals, Long-term Care Centers, Ambulatory Care Centers)) - Global Forecasts to 2023", published by MarketsandMarkets, the global Clinical Alarm Management Market is expected to reach USD 1,724 million by 2023 from an estimated USD 457 million in 2018, at a CAGR of 30.4% during the forecast period (2018-2023). (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/660509/MarketsandMarkets_Logo.jpg ) Don't miss out on business opportunities in Clinical Alarm Management Market. Speak to Our Analyst and gain crucial industry insights that will help your business grow: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/speaktoanalystNew.asp?id=69939577 The key factors driving the growth of this market include increasing alarm fatigue, high prevalence of chronic diseases, growth in the geriatric population, need for cost-containment in healthcare delivery, and rising prominence and usage of big data and mHealth tools. The solutions segment is expected to account for the largest share of the market in 2018 On the basis of component, the global Clinical Alarm Management Market is segmented into two broad categories solutions and services. In 2018, the solutions segment is expected to account for the largest share of the Clinical Alarm Management Market owing to the frequent need for upgrades as well as improvements in software applications. Moreover, clinical alarm management vendors constantly introduce technologically advanced products with enhanced data security standards that can easily be understood and used by healthcare providers which are further expected to increase the adoption in the coming years. Browse in-depth TOC on "Clinical Alarm Management Market" 71 - Tables 32 - Figures 140 - Pages View more detailed TOC @ https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/clinical-alarm-management-market-69939577.html EMR integration systems segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period By product, the Clinical Alarm Management Market is segmented into nurse call systems, physiological monitors, EMR integration systems, bed alarms, ventilators, and others (infusion pumps and pulse oximeters). Among these products, the EMR integration systems segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast owing to the increased adoption of EHRs and other interoperability solutions in healthcare organizations, growing regulatory requirements & healthcare reforms, shift of point-of-care diagnostics from hospitals to home care settings, and the need for integrated healthcare systems to improve the quality and outcome of healthcare systems. North America is expected to dominate the global Clinical Alarm Management Market in 2018 North America is estimated to account for the largest share of the market in 2018. The large share of this region can be attributed to the increasing cases of alarm fatigue and initiatives by government bodies to curtail the effects of alarm fatigue and the increasing need for integrated healthcare IT systems to ensure reliability, efficient maintenance of data, data integrity, and timely availability of patient data to authorized healthcare professionals. Request for Free Sample Report @ https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestsampleNew.asp?id=69939577 The key players in the global Clinical Alarm Management Market are Koninklijke Philips (Netherlands), Vocera Communications (US), Ascom Holdings (Switzerland), Spok, Inc. (US), Bernoulli Enterprise (US), Connexall (Canada), Mobile Heartbeat (US), GE Healthcare (US), Capsule Technologie (US), and Masimo Corporation (US). Browse Adjacent Markets @ Healthcare IT 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: [email protected] Research Insight: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/clinical-alarm-management-market.asp Visit Our Website: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com SOURCE MarketsandMarkets DALLAS, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Marketing organizations today are not prepared to embrace digital changes and believe their workforces lack key technology and business skills needed to succeed. This was the key finding in a study released today by the Digital Marketing Institute (DMI), the global standard in digital marketing professional learning and certification. The report, 20/20 Vision: A Marketing Leader's View of Digital's Future , shares insights from a survey of more than 200 executive and senior marketing professionals worldwide about critical challenges and opportunities for marketing teams and businesses in the lead up to 2020. Marketing leaders revealed that as digital technologies continue to evolve, the knowledge and capabilities of employees lags behind, leaving many organizations playing catch up. To address this skill shortage, 82 percent of respondents indicate that their organization needs to invest more in staff training and development to upskill and reskill their marketing teams to remain competitive. This training needs to address not only gaps in technical skills, but also business skills including strategy and planning, analytics, research and leadership. "As digital technologies rapidly transform business, marketers are recognizing the need to invest more resources in training and close skills gaps. There is an urgency to cultivate a talent pool that possesses the skills necessary to help their organizations remain competitive and relevant in the digital economy," said Ken Fitzpatrick, CEO of the Digital Marketing Institute. "To be successful in 2020 and beyond, a culture that promotes professional development, upskilling, and reskilling is going to be just as important in digitization as emerging technologies, effective strategies and increased budgets." Technology Advancements Create Need for New Skills When marketing leaders look ahead to 2020, more than two thirds of respondents cite app technology and artificial intelligence as the most important emerging technology, followed closely by social customer service and emotional engagement. As organizations embrace these new technologies, there will be a dramatic change in the technical skills required by marketers. While today, leaders responded that the top three most important technical skills for marketers are content marketing, social media and website design and optimization, over the next few years only social media will remain a top priority. By 2020, mobile and marketing automation will take the top two spots as digital marketing priorities evolve. "It is imperative that we invest in and take action on hiring talent that will keep pace with technological change," said Ty Heath, LinkedIn global lead for market education and member of the DMI Global Industry Advisory Council (GIAC). "The incoming wave of marketers aren't fully prepared to find footing in the shifting digital landscape that now exists. We need to move thoughtfully and quickly to meet the transformation in marketing and sales." The full report, 20/20 Vision: A Marketing Leader's View of Digital's Future, is available for download here . DMI is hosting a webinar on Wednesday, Dec. 5, to review this global research and explore the main trends affecting the digital marketing profession now, and in the future. Click here to register, or to listen to a replay of the presentation following the event. DMI recently announced its U.S. expansion with a new office in Dallas to address the industry's education gap for imperative marketing skills. It also announced that HubSpot Academy selected DMI to provide exclusive sales and marketing training content. About Digital Marketing Institute (DMI) DMI is a global digital marketing professional learning and certification body with about 28,000 alumni members and partners in over 100 countries. Founded in Ireland with a U.S. office in Dallas, it is backed by Spectrum Equity, a leading U.S. based growth equity firm. Customers include IBM, Black & Decker, Microsoft, PwC, University of Utah and University of Vermont. DMI's Global Industry Advisory Council, consisting of marketers from Coca-Cola, Facebook, Google, HubSpot, LinkedIn, IBM, IAB, WPP and more, provides input into DMI's certification programs and industry trends. SOURCE Digital Marketing Institute LAS VEGAS, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- AWS re:Invent The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), which sustains open source technologies like Kubernetes and Prometheus, today announced that Envoy proxy is now the third project to graduate, following Kubernetes and Prometheus. To move from the maturity level of incubation to graduation , projects must demonstrate thriving adoption, a documented neutral governance process, multi-organization committership, and a strong commitment to community sustainability and inclusivity. "Since joining CNCF, Envoy proxy has been one of our fastest-growing projects and has undoubtedly contributed to the momentum we're seeing within the service and edge proxy space," said Chris Aniszczyk, COO of CNCF. "With users at many of today's largest scale organizations, and some incredibly bright developer minds behind it, we're excited to continue cultivating Envoy's community as a newly graduated project." Originally created at Lyft, Envoy is a high-performance open source edge, middle, and service proxy. The project helps ease the transition to, and operation of, cloud native architectures by managing the interactions among microservices in order to ensure application performance. Envoy's out-of-process architecture can be used with any application, in any language or runtime; supported protocols and features include HTTP/2, gRPC, MongoDB, Redis, Thrift, external authorization, global rate limiting, a rich configuration API, and much more. "The growth of Envoy over the last two years has been astounding, and beyond anything that I would have ever believed when I started the project," said Matt Klein, software engineer at Lyft and architect of Envoy. "From end users, to creators of higher level products, to the major cloud providers, the breadth of Envoy-based solutions continues to grow and amaze me. Graduating from the CNCF is a major milestone and an indication that Envoy's community is strong and the project is ready for wide-enterprise adoption." Thanks to features honed by its active maintainer base and nearly 250 contributors, Envoy was recognized by InfoWorld as one of 2018's Best of Open Source Softwares for Cloud Computing . The project's growing user community which includes Airbnb, Booking.com, eBay, F5, Google, IBM, Lyft, Medium, Microsoft, Netflix, Pinterest, Salesforce, Square, Stripe, Tencent, Twilio, Verizon, VSCO, and many more has submitted over 3,000 commits to date. "We're so excited to celebrate Envoy's graduation from the CNCF incubator," said Hirotaka Ichikawa, Actapio. "It demonstrates the maturity of Envoy for enterprise use cases like ours. For example, Actapio, a subsidiary of Yahoo Japan, partnered with Heptio to use the Envoy proxy in building an open source project, Heptio Gimbal, that can handle large-scale ingress across hundreds of Kubernetes and OpenStack clusters in the private cloud. With the help of Envoy, we've been able to dramatically accelerate our software development and release cycle." "Envoy Proxy has rapidly become the industry leading cloud native L7 proxy. Thousands of organizations have deployed Envoy on Kubernetes with the Ambassador API Gateway," said Richard Li, CEO of Datawire. "We love Envoy's feature set and industry-leading architecture and we are thrilled to be a part of Envoy's vibrant community. "Envoy is not only a critical building block for Istio, it's an essential component in several of our up and coming Cloud Networking services," said Harvey Tuch, software engineer, Google Cloud and top contributor to Envoy. "Envoy and Istio are deployed in production environments across the globe. As a strong contributor to and supporter of Envoy, we are excited to see Envoy graduate and get recognition for its technology, community growth, and applicability to a variety of use cases." "Envoy provides the application networking abstractions that power 100 percent of the edge and service-to-service traffic within Lyft's real-time microservice architecture. It has been a crucial and reliable component that has allowed Lyft to scale to hundreds of services, a thousand engineers, and millions of requests per second of traffic," said Peter Morelli, VP of engineering at Lyft. "I have no doubt that without Envoy it would have been a more difficult path to achieve our goals and scale." "At Pinterest, we use Envoy as an edge proxy to serve over 250 million monthly unique users. As both users and code contributors, we have enjoyed collaborating with the Envoy project, and we are excited for the project's graduation," said Brian Pane, engineering manager at Pinterest. "We look forward to applying Envoy to solve new scaling challenges in the future, as well as continuing to contribute features and optimizations to the Envoy project. "What makes Envoy such a successful and broadly useful project is its robust and extendable architecture," said Idit Levine, founder and CEO of Solo. "Envoy users can extend Envoy in any way that best compliments their own technology. This made it easy for us at Solo to develop our technology on top of Envoy, and accelerate our innovation. We were also proud to contribute to the upstream development efforts. We are extremely happy for our friends at Envoy for the much deserved graduation." "Before Envoy, there has never been a centralized piece of software that is open, performant, extensible, and provides programmability of network and security behavior as a first class concept," said Varun Talwar, CEO of Tetrate a stealth startup around Envoy and service mesh. To officially graduate from incubating status, the project also adopted the CNCF Code of Conduct . Envoy Background Envoy, performing the role of a service and edge proxy, helps ease the transition to, and operation of, cloud native architectures by managing the interactions among microservices in order to ensure application performance. Advanced features such as timeouts, rate limiting, circuit breaking, load balancing, retries, stats, logging, and distributed tracing are required to handle network failures in a fault tolerant and reliable way. The project's first hosted event, EnvoyCon co-located with Kubecon + CloudNativeCon North America sold-out weeks before its December 10 kick-off and is set to welcome 350+ community members to Seattle. For downloads, documentation, and background on getting involved with the project, visit https://github.com/envoyproxy/envoy . Additional Resources About Cloud Native Computing Foundation Cloud native computing uses an open source software stack to deploy applications as microservices, packaging each part into its own container, and dynamically orchestrating those containers to optimize resource utilization. The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) hosts critical components of cloud native software stacks, including Kubernetes and Prometheus. CNCF serves as the neutral home for collaboration and brings together the industry's top developers, end users and vendors including the world's largest public cloud and enterprise software companies as well as dozens of innovative startups. CNCF is part of The Linux Foundation, a nonprofit organization. For more information about CNCF, please visit www.cncf.io. The Linux Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of trademarks of The Linux Foundation, please see our trademark usage page: https://www.linuxfoundation.org/trademark-usage. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Media Contact Kristen Evans The Linux Foundation [email protected] SOURCE Cloud Native Computing Foundation Related Links http://www.cncf.io As Director of Sales, Molly will direct all sales and marketing activities at the Cincinnati Riverfront, Best Western Plus. "Molly comes most recently from the Courtyard and Residence Inn Cincinnati Airport properties where she successfully led the sales operations for both hotels," said Brian Fry, President of Commonwealth Hotels. Molly first joined Commonwealth Hotels as a Task Force Sales Manager in Portland, Maine, and in Gulfport, Mississippi, after managing sales efforts at the NKU Mets Center and holding various sales positions at Winegardner and Hammons. Molly is a seasoned and dedicated hospitality professional and a graduate of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. The Best Western Plus brand is a revitalized new hotel experience that's vibrant, affordable and guest focused. The hotel features complimentary full hot breakfast buffet, complimentary parking, complimentary WiFi, and a complimentary evening reception Monday Thursday evenings with Cincinnati craft beers and local food favorites. Its energetic presence is welcomed into the Covington, Kentucky, and Cincinnati riverfront area. Close to everything and second to none. Molly joins General Manager, Beth Wuestefeld, Kentucky's 2017 Hotelier of the Year, at the Cincinnati Riverfront, Best Western Plus, located at 200 Crescent Avenue in Covington, Kentucky. Commonwealth Hotels, LLC. was founded in 1986 and is a proven partner in providing hotel development and management services. The company has extensive experience managing premium branded full service and select service hotels. Additional corporate information may be found on Commonwealth Hotels' Internet site, which may be accessed at www.commonwealthhotels.com For more hotel information you can contact the sales office at 859.581.7800 or visit the Hotel's website at www.thecincinnatiriverfront.com or Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/BWPlusCincinnatiRiverfrontDowntownArea/. Contact: Jennifer Schneider 859-392-2245 [email protected] SOURCE Commonwealth Hotels PLANO, Texas, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Community Hospital Corporation (CHC) and the Gainesville Hospital District (GHD) Board of Directors recently agreed that, through a joint arrangement between GHD and CHC, North Texas Medical Center (NTMC) would be leased to and operated by a newly created CHC organization. The hospital has been under management by CHC Consulting, the management and consulting arm of CHC, since May of this year. The new lease arrangement will go into effect December 1, 2018. CHC President and CEO Jim Kendrick shared, "This is a tremendous opportunity to work together to strengthen the hospital and the community for the future. We are excited to leverage CHC's full expertise, resources and operational best practices to preserve and grow healthcare services locally." GHD Board President Andy Anderson commented, "Aligning with Community Hospital Corporation is the best option for NTMC. With CHC, we are on a path of renewal that allows us to advance on many levelsfrom operational and financial performance to quality of patient care. We are wholeheartedly committed to serving the healthcare needs of Cooke County and neighboring communities." NTMC is a 60-bed acute care hospital situated on 52 acres located within the city limits of Gainesville, a community approximately 60 miles north of Dallas-Fort Worth and five miles south of the Texas-Oklahoma border. Since NTMC's campus was rebuilt in 2004, it has continued to grow to better serve the medical needs of the North Texas area. CHC offers practical solutions to keep community hospitals vibrant and specializes in improving smaller, community-based hospitals across the country. About Community Hospital Corporation HELP WHERE HOSPITALS NEED IT Community Hospital Corporation owns, manages and consults with hospitals through three distinct organizations CHC Hospitals, CHC Consulting and CHC ContinueCARE, which share a common purpose to guide, support and enhance the mission of community hospitals and healthcare providers. Based in Plano, Texas, CHC provides the resources and experience community hospitals need to improve quality outcomes, patient satisfaction and financial performance. For more information about CHC, please visit www.communityhospitalcorp.com . SOURCE Community Hospital Corporation Related Links http://communityhospitalcorp.com Consulting magazine's Global Leaders in Consulting annual award recognizes consultants worldwide who display outstanding leadership qualities and capabilities and exert extraordinary influence in their firms, for clients and over the entire consulting profession. The award, launched last year, recognizes the global nature of the consulting business and highlights the impact that industry leaders have worldwide. Beatriz Sanz Saiz, EY Global Data Analytics Leader, Advisory, says: "I am delighted to receive the Global Leaders in Consulting award. I share this with the diverse group of people with whom I work global teams, clients, and EY people and of course all the people who have supported and inspired me throughout my career. With data and artificial intelligence (AI) at the core of this transformative age, it is enormously satisfying to see the positive impact of EY teams with EY clients across society." Norman Lonergan, EY Global Vice Chair Advisory, says: "We are thrilled that Consulting magazine named Beatriz as a Global Leader in Consulting. Beatriz and her team work with clients around the world to help them enhance their businesses through data and innovation, leveraging analytics to drive competitive differentiation. Through her leadership, Beatriz and her team are helping clients unlock the value of data and artificial intelligence. Their focus on helping clients navigate the challenges, opportunities and ethics behind AI, data analytics and other technologies is key to the growth of the EY Advisory service line." Beatriz has been a partner with Ernst & Young Global Limited for more than 15 years. She served in various roles within EMEIA and Asia-Pacific. In her current role as EY Global Data Analytics Leader, Advisory, she leads more than 9,000 professionals and is driving the strategy to infuse analytics and AI into EY services. Beatriz says: "Through the dynamic EY wavespace global growth and innovation centers with a number of centers across the globe that are focused on AI EY teams are helping clients reinvent and transform their business to stay at the edge of innovation, productivity and customer satisfaction, while building trust and ethics into AI. With the growth of emerging technologies such as AI, I feel a great responsibility to keep driving change and disruption for the good of society." During her career, Beatriz has held senior positions with leading companies in financial services, where she was responsible for establishing analytics and innovation as core competencies. When Beatriz joined Ernst & Young EMEIA Limited as the youngest partner in Spain, it launched her career in data analytics. Two years later, she was named EY Global Customer Leader for Advisory Services and became the youngest member of the Global Advisory leadership team. Following this role, she returned to the financial services industry, expanding her career in the area of disruptive innovation. She held senior positions with leading companies, establishing analytics and innovation as core competencies. She then rejoined as EY Oceania Customer Leader, Financial Services Organization, and was based in Australia. When she adopted her second child from Ethiopia she recently adopted a third child, from China -- Beatriz returned to the EMEIA area to drive data analytics in the EY Financial Services Organization and establish the first EY wavespace in Madrid, focusing in artificial intelligence. Two years later, she became the EY Global Data Analytics Leader for Advisory Services. Beatriz holds a master's degree in Mathematics and Statistics from Complutense de Madrid and serves as professor at IE Business School at the International Masters of Big Data & Analytics. She is regular speaker at international industry conferences and has been featured in Forbes and the Financial Times. Barbara Burgess Aparna Sankaran EY Global Media Relations EY Global Media Relations +1 212 773 1652 +44 748 024 5082 [email protected] [email protected] SOURCE EY Related Links http://www.ey.com PITTSBURGH, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) will host "The Captain" of Captain Morgan Rum at two Pittsburgh Fine Wine & Good Spirits Premium Collection locations this Friday and Saturday. The Captain will meet with fans and sign purchased bottles of Captain Morgan products. "The Captain" is based on 17th Century Welsh privateer Sir Henry Morgan. His character has since come to symbolize the fun spirit of Captain Morgan products. On Friday, Nov. 30, The Captain will be at Fine Wine & Good Spirits Premium Collection, 5956 Centre Ave., Pittsburgh, from 6:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. On Saturday, Dec. 1, The Captain will be at Fine Wine & Good Spirits Premium Collection, Robinson Plaza Town Centre, 1850 Park Manor Blvd., Pittsburgh, from 2:00 P.M. to 4:00 P.M. At both events, complimentary in-store tastings of select Captain Morgan products will be available for customers 21 years of age and older. Products available for purchase and autograph include the following: Captain Morgan Original Spiced Rum (750mL; Code 8865) $14.99 (save $3 ) (save ) Captain Morgan White Rum (750mL; Code 7422) $15.99 Captain Morgan White Rum (1.75L; Code 7426) $19.99 (save $2 ) The PLCB regulates the distribution of beverage alcohol in Pennsylvania, operates more than 600 wine and spirits stores statewide, and licenses 20,000 alcohol producers, retailers, and handlers. The PLCB also works to reduce and prevent dangerous and underage drinking through partnerships with schools, community groups, and licensees. Taxes and store profits totaling $16.5 billion since the agency's inception are returned to Pennsylvania's General Fund, which finances Pennsylvania's schools, health and human services programs, law enforcement, and public safety initiatives, among other important public services. The PLCB also provides financial support for the Pennsylvania State Police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement, the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, other state agencies, and local municipalities across the state. For more information about the PLCB, visit www.lcb.pa.gov. SOURCE Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board Related Links https://www.lcb.pa.gov NEW YORK, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Frommer's, the most trusted name in travel guidebooks, is proud to reveal its eagerly anticipated list. Determined by a team of award-winning editors and writers around the globe, the 2019 Frommer's honor roll celebrates destinations reaching major milestones, opening important new attractions, overcoming obstacles, or emerging as overlooked spots due for discovery. The article, featuring rich photography and expert commentary, is available at www.frommers.com/bestplaces2019. The 19 honorees for 2019 (in no particular order): Memphis, Tennessee : The birthplace of rock 'n' roll is throwing itself a 200 th birthday party The birthplace of rock 'n' roll is throwing itself a 200 birthday party Collioure, France : A less snooty, less crowded alternative to the French Riviera A less snooty, less crowded alternative to the French Riviera Zimbabwe : A new degree of political stability provides access to Victoria Falls and one of the largest herds of elephants left in Africa A new degree of political stability provides access to and one of the largest herds of elephants left in Parintins, Brazil : Set on an island in the middle of the Amazon River and home to a raucous three-day folk celebration Set on an island in the middle of the Amazon River and home to a raucous three-day folk celebration The Austral Islands of French Polynesia : New airlift makes this idyllic island chain finally affordable of : New airlift makes this idyllic island chain finally affordable Nagasaki, Japan : A rejuvenated city with new UNESCO World Heritage Sites of formerly secret Christian churches : A rejuvenated city with new UNESCO World Heritage Sites of formerly secret Christian churches The Mealy Mountains: A pristine wilderness area the size of Jamaica is part of Canada's newest national park A pristine wilderness area the size of is part of newest national park Bulgaria : Medieval architecture, Black Sea beaches, and in 2019 Plovdiv celebrates the arts as a European Capital of Culture Medieval architecture, Black Sea beaches, and in 2019 Plovdiv celebrates the arts as a European Capital of Culture Egypt : Coming back from years of political unrest Coming back from years of political unrest Uluru , Australia : Sandstone landmark sacred to Aboriginal peoples debuts authentic new tours and an official ban on climbing , : Sandstone landmark sacred to Aboriginal peoples debuts authentic new tours and an official ban on climbing Singapore : Celebrating bicentennial and stardom in Crazy Rich Asians Celebrating bicentennial and stardom in Hollywood , California : Finally getting an important movie museum , : Finally getting an important movie museum Normandy , France : Marking the 75 th anniversary of World War II's D- Day landings Marking the 75 anniversary of World War II's D- landings Virginia : An important anniversary and a yearlong cultural program examining the early colony's impact on today's America An important anniversary and a yearlong cultural program examining the early colony's impact on today's America Portugal's Estrada Nacional 2: Portugal's answer to Route 66 answer to Route 66 Washington State's Olympic National Park : A perennially overlooked patch of moss-grown coastal wilderness A perennially overlooked patch of moss-grown coastal wilderness Matera, Italy : An ancient city built of caves that will take center stage as a European Capital of Culture An ancient city built of caves that will take center stage as a European Capital of Culture New York State : Opening new attractions and commemorating a slew of important milestones Opening new attractions and commemorating a slew of important milestones Spaceno, travelers can't launch into orbit just yet, but Florida's Space Coast will look back on 50 years since the moon landing, and twin Star Wars lands will debut at Disney parks in California and Orlando Media opportunities: Frommer's editors are available for interviews in New York City, in Los Angeles, and by phone. About Frommer's: Frommer's has been in continuous publication since the 1957 debut of Arthur Frommer's revolutionary book Europe on $5 a Day, which changed the way the world traveled. The Frommer's collection of travel products has expanded to include over 100 award-winning guidebooks, a nationally syndicated radio show, mobile apps, and Frommers.com, which consistently ranks among the most popular sites in travel. Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter: @Frommers SOURCE Frommers Ty Hunter, American celebrity stylist best known for his work with Beyonce, Kim Kardashian and Serena Williams, and Korean star designer YounHee Park of GREEDILOUS created a unique collection of 20 looks inspired by the Palisade, incorporating the company's logo and other playful hints of the new SUV using unique prints and shapes. The collaboration was presented by fashion models through runway performance in midst of STYLE NITE. The new SUV will convey a bold exterior that commands attention and has strong inherent imagery of safety and security, especially important with parents with growing families and active lifestyles. Palisade styling will offer dignity with style in an understated theme that demonstrates clear differentiation worthy of a flagship SUV. "I felt really honored to have a global brand like Hyundai Motor supporting our creativity and working together to reach a new generation of customers with this product," says Ty Hunter, official host of STYLE NITE. "Through this event, we captured the youthful culture that Hyundai pursues." The event took place on Tuesday, November 27, at a private member's club in West Hollywood and featured other special guests such as the popular South-Korean DJ Raiden, who has performed worldwide at major EDM festivals including Ultra Music Festival and Tomorrowland, and during the closing ceremony of Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in Seoul. Other celebrity attendees were such as a fashion model Sofia Richie, a daughter of global pop star Lionel Richie, with 4M Instagram followers, Erika Jayne, a famous American pop star, and Suede Brooks, a fashion influencer with 77K followers on Instagram. Also global boyband BTS have been confirmed to be the global brand ambassadors of Hyundai Palisade. "Today's consumers tend to avoid traditional ways of advertising and marketing activities, it's all about the experience," says WonHong Cho, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Hyundai Motor Company. "There is no better way to build an authentic connection with customers than through culture; music and fashion in particular. We are planning to get closer with customers through interesting cultural events, starting with STYLE NITE." To celebrate the STYLE NITE launch, Hyundai Motor unveiled a brand new social media account, @Hyundai.Lifestyle, through Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/hyundai.lifestyle/) which is to be shortly followed by Facebook and YouTube accounts, so they can connect with customers who are interested in more than just cars but also music, fashion, and art. About Hyundai Motor Established in 1967, Hyundai Motor Company is committed to becoming a lifetime partner in automobiles and beyond with its range of world-class vehicles and mobility services offered available in more than 200 countries. Employing more than 110,000 employees worldwide, Hyundai sold more than 4.5 million vehicles globally. Hyundai Motor continues to enhance its product line-up with vehicles that are helping to build solutions for a more sustainable future, such as NEXO the world's first dedicated hydrogen-powered SUV. More information about Hyundai Motor and its products can be found at: http://worldwide.hyundai.com or http://globalpr.hyundai.com SOURCE Hyundai Motor Company NEW YORK and TORONTO, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - iAnthus Capital Holdings, Inc. ("iAnthus" or the "Company"), (CSE: IAN,OTCQB: ITHUF), which owns, operates, and partners with licensed cannabis operations throughout the United States, is pleased to announce its financial and operating results for the third quarter of 2018 ("Q3 2018"). All amounts expressed are in USD unless stated otherwise. Hadley Ford, CEO of iAnthus, provided the following statement on the company's Q3 2018 results: "iAnthus continues to execute. The Company has expanded its footprint and added to its industry leading-team while maintaining a prudent balance sheet throughout the process. We are now generating revenue in five of the six markets in which we operate, with a significant number of dispensaries expected to open within the next few months. Assets are up 344% year-over-year as we grow the iAnthus platform across the United States. This performance, combined with the outlook for our Massachusetts, New York and Florida operations and the pending acquisition of MPX, position us very well for 2019." Third Quarter 2018 Financial Highlights Assets increased to $137.3 million at September 30, 2018 , up from $45.8 million at December 31, 2017 , as a result of the acquisitions in Florida and New York as well as the continued build-out of cultivation facilities and dispensaries across the operating entitles. at , up from at , as a result of the acquisitions in and as well as the continued build-out of cultivation facilities and dispensaries across the operating entitles. With the full scale launch of the Company's Massachusetts operation, iAnthus is now fully operational and successfully generating revenue in five of its six markets. With the anticipated opening of its Brooklyn dispensary by year end 2018, all six of the Company's markets are expected to generate revenue. operation, iAnthus is now fully operational and successfully generating revenue in five of its six markets. With the anticipated opening of its dispensary by year end 2018, all six of the Company's markets are expected to generate revenue. The Company showed significant revenue growth during the quarter. Consolidated revenues for the Company increased 101% quarter-over-quarter, increasing to $1,074,398 in Q3 from $533,545 in Q2. System-wide revenues, including the revenues from iAnthus' investments in New Mexico and Colorado , were $5,139,769 in Q3, up 16% quarter-over-quarter from $4,415,368 in Q2. System-wide revenues from New Mexico and Colorado are unaudited and are not consolidated by the Company at present due to certain regulatory restrictions. in Q3 from in Q2. System-wide revenues, including the revenues from iAnthus' investments in and , were in Q3, up 16% quarter-over-quarter from in Q2. System-wide revenues from and are unaudited and are not consolidated by the Company at present due to certain regulatory restrictions. The net loss for the three months ended September 30, 2018 was approximately $10.0 million . After adjusting for non-cash expenses, our adjusted net loss was approximately $4.9 million for the quarter. These non-cash expenses include $1.7 million from share-based compensation, $2.1 million from accretion expenses, and $1.0 million from revaluations on the fair value of derivative instruments as a result of the significant increase in the Company's share price since the issuance of the instruments. was approximately . After adjusting for non-cash expenses, our adjusted net loss was approximately for the quarter. These non-cash expenses include from share-based compensation, from accretion expenses, and from revaluations on the fair value of derivative instruments as a result of the significant increase in the Company's share price since the issuance of the instruments. The Company has continued to strengthen its balance sheet. During the quarter, iAnthus elected the right to convert its outstanding convertible debentures early and issue shares for the repayment of its convertible promissory notes outstanding. As a result, the Company has one long-term debt instrument outstanding from the May 2018 Gotham Green Partners financing. Gotham Green Partners financing. On October 10, 2018 , the Company closed its bought deal offering of 5,188,800 common shares of the Company at CAD$6.65 per common share for aggregate gross proceeds of CAD$34,505,520 (equivalent to $26,558,900 ). , the Company closed its bought deal offering of 5,188,800 common shares of the Company at per common share for aggregate gross proceeds of (equivalent to ). The Company's cash balance is currently $24.3 million . As of November 26, 2018 , the Company had 20,933,995 warrants outstanding, all of which are currently in the money. The Company would receive approximately $54.5 million if all outstanding warrants were exercised. iAnthus and MPX Bioceutical Announce Transformational Combination On October 18, 2018 , the Company and MPX Bioceutical Corporation ("MPX") signed an arrangement agreement pursuant to which the Company will combine with MPX, excluding a new entity to be named MPX International, which will hold all of the non-U.S. businesses of MPX. , the Company and MPX Bioceutical Corporation ("MPX") signed an arrangement agreement pursuant to which the Company will combine with MPX, excluding a new entity to be named MPX International, which will hold all of the non-U.S. businesses of MPX. This transaction will position the Company as one of the largest U.S. regulated cannabis operators and expand the Company's footprint to 10 states. The 10 states combined are projected to generate approximately $16.2 billion in yearly cannabis sales by 2022, according to Arcview Market Research and BDS Analytics. iAnthus MPX Pro Forma Footprint 6 States 5 States 10 States1 Addressable Population 56 million 63 million 112 million Cultivation/Processing Facilities 8 6 14 Dispensaries 46 10 56 (1) The combined entity will be in 10 states because both the Company and MPX have operations in Massachusetts This transaction represents the first public to public merger transaction in U.S. cannabis history. The arrangement agreement provides that existing MPX shareholders will be entitled to receive 0.1673 common shares of iAnthus for each common share of MPX held, representing a consideration of approximately CAD$1.28 (equivalent $0.98 ) per MPX common share. In addition, each MPX shareholder will receive common shares of the newly formed MPX International. (equivalent ) per MPX common share. In addition, each MPX shareholder will receive common shares of the newly formed MPX International. It is anticipated that on or before December 13, 2018 , MPX will mail its information circular to MPX shareholders and pending shareholder approval (which is scheduled for January 15, 2018 ), the transaction is expected to close by the end of January 2019 . Annual General and Special Meeting of Shareholders The Company held its 2018 Annual General and Special Meeting of shareholders (the "Meeting") on November 26, 2018 . . 59.41% of the outstanding securities were represented, in person or by proxy, at the Meeting. All five director nominees listed in the Management Proxy Circular prepared for the Meeting were elected as directors of iAnthus and iAnthus increased the size of its board of directors from five seats to seven seats (such director positions to be filled upon, and subject to, closing the transaction with MPX). At the Meeting, all proposed motions as more particularly described in the Management Proxy Circular were approved by iAnthus shareholders. Business Highlights Massachusetts Mayflower Medicinals Highlights: Mayflower opened its flagship dispensary on July 19, 2018 in the Allston - Brighton neighborhood of Boston . The dispensary offers a full spectrum of cannabis products in the form of flower, tinctures, concentrates, oils, vaporizers, and edibles. Since opening, Mayflower reached its 1,000-unique patient mark on November 1, 2018 . In addition to the retail sales, Mayflower began selling wholesale products during the quarter. in the - neighborhood of . The dispensary offers a full spectrum of cannabis products in the form of flower, tinctures, concentrates, oils, vaporizers, and edibles. Since opening, Mayflower reached its 1,000-unique patient mark on . In addition to the retail sales, Mayflower began selling wholesale products during the quarter. Mayflower has partnered with Azuca founded by Ron Silver , chef of popular New York City restaurant Bubby's to introduce a fast-acting cannabis infused edibles line created in Mayflower's commercial kitchen. , chef of popular restaurant Bubby's to introduce a fast-acting cannabis infused edibles line created in Mayflower's commercial kitchen. At the close of Q3 2018, Mayflower was cultivating over 4,200 plants, consisting of 37 unique varieties and processing various CO2 oils and distillates. Mayflower has achieved annual production capacity of approximately 2,600kg plant material. Total harvested dry plant material increased from 91 kg in Q2 to 491 kg in Q3, reflecting a 440% increase. Our cultivation team anticipates that there will be a continued increase in yields in subsequent quarters. The Massachusetts adult-use cannabis program began on July 1, 2018 and the Commonwealth's first adult-use dispensaries opened on November 20, 2018 . Management estimates that the current statewide medical market size is already well over $100.0 million in annual revenue and, with a full adult-use program in place, the market size is estimated to grow to over $1.0 billion in annual revenues by 2020. adult-use cannabis program began on and the Commonwealth's first adult-use dispensaries opened on . Management estimates that the current statewide medical market size is already well over in annual revenue and, with a full adult-use program in place, the market size is estimated to grow to over in annual revenues by 2020. Mayflower has signed a Host Community Agreement ("HCA") with the Town of Holliston for an adult-use permit for its cultivation and processing facility and is currently awaiting approval for adult-use cultivation and processing licenses. Concurrently, Mayflower is also in the application process for an adult-use license for its medical dispensary location in Boston . for an adult-use permit for its cultivation and processing facility and is currently awaiting approval for adult-use cultivation and processing licenses. Concurrently, Mayflower is also in the application process for an adult-use license for its medical dispensary location in . With a provisional certificate of registration for a second dispensary, Mayflower has signed a lease for a location in Lowell, Massachusetts . Mayflower is currently negotiating an HCA for adult-use at the site. Lowell is the fourth-largest city in Massachusetts and the second-largest in the Boston metropolitan statistical area. Lowell is also home to two universities and receives 2 million visitors annually. . Mayflower is currently negotiating an HCA for adult-use at the site. is the fourth-largest city in and the second-largest in the metropolitan statistical area. is also home to two universities and receives 2 million visitors annually. For its third expected dispensary, Mayflower is in the Request for Proposal process with the municipality of Worcester , seeking an HCA for an adult-use cannabis dispensary. Multiple community meetings have been hosted in Worcester and Mayflower is awaiting the outcome of the selection process. Florida GrowHealthy Highlights: GrowHealthy continues the rapid expansion of its retail footprint and has signed 16 leases to-date, including major cities such as Miami , Oakland Park ( Fort Lauderdale ), West Palm Beach , Tampa , and Orlando , which have a combined population of 3.7 million residents. In addition, the Company's 14 additional locations are being aggressively pursued in strategically located cities and towns across the state. GrowHealthy anticipates opening its first two dispensaries in December 2018 . , ( ), , , and , which have a combined population of 3.7 million residents. In addition, the Company's 14 additional locations are being aggressively pursued in strategically located cities and towns across the state. GrowHealthy anticipates opening its first two dispensaries in . GrowHealthy's delivery program served 748 unique patients in Q3 2018, which represents a 361.7% increase from 162 unique patients in Q2. Success of the pilot program highlights the growing demand of medical marijuana in the state and interest in the quality products that GrowHealthy has to offer. On October 23, 2018 , GrowHealthy launched delivery from its new hub in Deerfield Beach , allowing patients residing throughout South Florida to place and receive orders within 24 hours, seven days a week. The addition of this second delivery hub, in conjunction with deliveries from its Lake Wales facility, contributes to the Company's goal of improving delivery routes and shortening wait times for its patients across Florida , GrowHealthy launched delivery from its new hub in , allowing patients residing throughout to place and receive orders within 24 hours, seven days a week. The addition of this second delivery hub, in conjunction with deliveries from its facility, contributes to the Company's goal of improving delivery routes and shortening wait times for its patients across As of September 30, 2018 , the cultivation facility housed over 2,600 plants consisting of 30 different strains. Upgrades to the cultivation facility are also underway and are expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2019. , the cultivation facility housed over 2,600 plants consisting of 30 different strains. Upgrades to the cultivation facility are also underway and are expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2019. Construction has begun on the build-out of a 15,000 sq. ft. processing and extraction lab, which includes a commercial kitchen and resulting in increased processing capabilities. This will allow for a wider array of products including edibles, metered flower, capsules, and topicals. Construction is expected to be completed in Q1 2019. GrowHealthy is currently in the design phase of an external shade house, adding 60,000 sq. ft. of cultivation capacity allowing the Company to bolster inventory levels to meet the demand at its dispensaries. Since the implementation of a medical cannabis program in June 2017 , the Florida market continues to show strong growth. As of November 16, 2018 , the program has registered 193,083 patients and 1,839 qualified physicians. The program is adding approximately 13,000 patients and 60 physicians per month. In terms of patients, Florida is now the fourth largest medical cannabis market in the U.S. New York Citiva Highlights: Site work at Citiva's Warwick cultivation and processing facility is now complete and Phase 1 of the facility is on target to be completed in the first half of 2019. This now includes 49,700 sq. ft. of modular design and will employ cutting-edge grow technology. Annual output will be approximately 2,400kg of plant material. The remaining acreage in Warwick can support future expansion of up to 125,000 sq. ft. of total cultivation and processing space, which supports annual output of 12,000kg of plant material. Development of further module phases will coincide with the expansion of market demand in New York State . cultivation and processing facility is now complete and Phase 1 of the facility is on target to be completed in the first half of 2019. This now includes 49,700 sq. ft. of modular design and will employ cutting-edge grow technology. Annual output will be approximately 2,400kg of plant material. The remaining acreage in can support future expansion of up to 125,000 sq. ft. of total cultivation and processing space, which supports annual output of 12,000kg of plant material. Development of further module phases will coincide with the expansion of market demand in . Construction is in the final stages of completion at Citiva's flagship 2,000 sq. ft. dispensary in Brooklyn and is expected to open in December 2018 . The dispensary is anticipated to be the first medical dispensary to open in New York City's most populous borough of 2.6 million residents. The dispensary is located directly across from Barclays Center and is expected to be one of only three dispensaries that will be medically licensed in Brooklyn . Citiva has entered into a wholesale agreement to supply the dispensary with a wide range of products ahead of production at the Warwick facility. and is expected to open in . The dispensary is anticipated to be the first medical dispensary to open in most populous borough of 2.6 million residents. The dispensary is located directly across from Barclays Center and is expected to be one of only three dispensaries that will be medically licensed in . Citiva has entered into a wholesale agreement to supply the dispensary with a wide range of products ahead of production at the facility. The Company executed a lease in Q3 for its dispensary in Wappingers Falls , one of only two dispensaries to be located in Dutchess County . Construction is underway with an expected opening date in early Q1 2019. Lease discussions for the remaining two New York dispensary locations in Staten Island and Chemung County are ongoing. , one of only two dispensaries to be located in . Construction is underway with an expected opening date in early Q1 2019. Lease discussions for the remaining two dispensary locations in and are ongoing. Citiva's medical outreach program continues to engage with the medical community in New York State . Over 150 office engagements have been initiated to develop relationships with physicians in order to explain the benefits of medical cannabis use, and to build brand awareness in advance of dispensary openings. . Over 150 office engagements have been initiated to develop relationships with physicians in order to explain the benefits of medical cannabis use, and to build brand awareness in advance of dispensary openings. Governor Cuomo has formed a task force to draft legislation for the legalization of adult-use marijuana in New York . The formation of this task force follows closely behind the release of a Department of Health report that recommended the full legalization of marijuana in New York , stating that "the positive effects of a regulated marijuana market in New York state outweigh the potential negative impacts." Vermont Grassroots Vermont Highlights: Following significant upgrades to its cultivation and processing facility in Brandon, VT , Grassroots Vermont has increased its plant count by 84.3% at the end of Q3 2018 from the end of Q2 2018, consisting of 29 different strains. The facility is now capable of producing up to 200kg grams of plant material annually. Grassroots Vermont plans to further expand the cultivation space at the existing facility in Brandon , which would double the current production capacity to 400kg. , Grassroots Vermont has increased its plant count by 84.3% at the end of Q3 2018 from the end of Q2 2018, consisting of 29 different strains. The facility is now capable of producing up to 200kg grams of plant material annually. Grassroots plans to further expand the cultivation space at the existing facility in , which would double the current production capacity to 400kg. Pending state approval of the location, Grassroots Vermont plans to begin construction on its second dispensary in Williston, VT , in Q1 2019. The expected 2,400 sq. ft. dispensary is located in Chittenden County , the state's most populous county with approximately one-third of the population of Vermont . It is also within a 5-mile radius of four of the five most populous municipalities in the state, including Burlington , South Burlington , Essex and Colchester . Colorado Organix Highlights: Revenues during Q3 2018 were $884,664 compared to $626,930 in Q3 2017, which represents an increase of 41.1%. compared to in Q3 2017, which represents an increase of 41.1%. The number of transactions in Q3 2018 increased by 77.4% compared to Q2 2018 and by 156.6% compared to Q1 2018. Overall revenues increased by 31.2% from $2,202,603 in the first nine months of 2017 to $2,889,135 in the same period in 2018. in the first nine months of 2017 to in the same period in 2018. The Company realizes certain revenues through rental and leasing arrangements with Organix, however current state regulatory restrictions prevent iAnthus from consolidating the financial results of Organix. However, there is substantial momentum behind certain proposed legislative changes in Colorado that may permit the Company to consolidate the financial results of Organix in the future. New Mexico Reynold Greenleaf & Associates (RGA) Highlights: Revenues from RGA's managed licenses were $3.1 million during Q3 2018, compared to $1.9 million in Q3 2017, which represents an increase of 166.5%. during Q3 2018, compared to in Q3 2017, which represents an increase of 166.5%. Overall revenues under its managed licenses were $9.7 million for the first nine months of 2018, compared to $5.8 million for the first nine months of 2017. This represents an increase of 67.4%. for the first nine months of 2018, compared to for the first nine months of 2017. This represents an increase of 67.4%. The Company has invested $2.3 million to-date and currently has an equity interest of 24.6% in RGA. As this does not represent a controlling interest in RGA, the financial results of RGA or its affiliates have not been consolidated into iAnthus' financial statements. Conference Call and Webcast Details The Company will hold a conference call for financial analysts and investors at 8:45am ET on Wednesday, November 28, 2018 to discuss The Company's second quarter financial results. The call will be archived and available on iAnthus' website for replay. Please visit http://ir.ianthuscapital.com/ to access the archived conference call. Dial-In Number: (888) 231-8191 or international: (647) 427-7450 Webcast: https://event.on24.com/wcc/r/1889512/1562D59327CD38BF301362408447E66F A replay of the call will be available for 7 days by dialing: (855) 859-2056 and entering password 9087447 Additional information about iAnthus may be accessed on the Company's website at www.ianthuscapital.com and under the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. About iAnthus Capital Holdings, Inc. iAnthus Capital Holdings, Inc. owns and operates best-in-class licensed cannabis cultivation, processing and dispensary facilities throughout the United States, providing investors diversified exposure to the U.S. regulated cannabis industry. Founded by entrepreneurs with decades of experience in operations, investment banking, corporate finance, law and health care services, iAnthus provides a unique combination of capital and hands-on operating and management expertise. The Company uses these skills to support operations across six states. For more information, visit www.iAnthusCapital.com. Forward Looking Statements Statements in this news release that are forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties concerning the specific factors disclosed here and elsewhere in iAnthus' periodic filings with Canadian securities regulators. When used in this news release, words such as "will, could, plan, estimate, expect, intend, may, potential, believe, should," and similar expressions, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements may include, without limitation, statements including dispensary locations and build-outs, expected revenue generation from all of the Company's dispensaries, harvest yields, the various milestone dates for the transaction with MPX, the number of license dispensaries in Brooklyn, NY, and other statements of fact. Although iAnthus has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements, there can be other factors that cause results, performance or achievements not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended, including, but not limited to: dependence on obtaining regulatory approvals; investing in target companies or projects which have limited or no operating history and are engaged in activities currently considered illegal under US Federal laws; change in laws; limited operating history; reliance on management; requirements for additional financing; competition; hindering market growth and state adoption due to inconsistent public opinion and perception of the medical-use and adult-use marijuana industry and; regulatory or political change. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate or that management's expectations or estimates of future developments, circumstances or results will materialize. As a result of these risks and uncertainties, the results or events predicted in these forward-looking statements may differ materially from actual results or events. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this news release are made as of the date of this release. iAnthus disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise such information, except as required by applicable law, and iAnthus does not assume any liability for disclosure relating to any other company mentioned herein. The Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed, approved or disapproved the content of this news release. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to sell any of the securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available. SOURCE iAnthus Capital Holdings, Inc. Related Links https://www.ianthuscapital.com/ Founder and President of Family Talk, Dr. James Dobson, spoke to this 'dilemma' in the following excerpt of his blog post titled "Can Santa and Jesus Coexist?": "So this is the dilemmaSanta is fun, but Santa could be confusing. What are Christian parents to do? This is a judgment call to be made by a given family. Shirley and I chose to play the 'Santa game' with our kids, and we had no difficulties teaching them who Jesus was and is.But if I had to do it over, I would still let my children thrill to the excitement of Santa's arrival down the chimney on Christmas Eve." Santa Believes! To help Christian parents adeptly navigate playing the traditional 'Santa game' without losing the message of Christ, PackageFromSanta.com is leveraging Santa's influence among children using three personalized tools; a call, a letter, and a Nice List Guide. Designed to support parents who are already teaching their kids about 'who Jesus was and is,' Santa uses these tools to share his heartfelt beliefs and affirm each child's faithful behavior. The personalized call from Santa (iPhone/Android/Landline compatible) features the child's name and photo on the incoming smartphone call screen and the fully customizable letter from Santa arrives in the U.S. mail from the North Pole. The Nice List Guide, arms parents with a customizable printable list to help shepherd the child's behavior toward honoring Christ amidst the busy holiday season. For the complete PackageFromSanta.com gift-experience (with the option of many more North Pole goodie add-ons), parents can order online choosing from three package price points starting at $14.95 -- the call, letter, Nice List Guide, plus a free video, are included with every package. To make sure no child goes without, PackageFromSanta.com also offers a free call from Santa, a free Santa letter and a free Nice List Guide so, despite budget constraints, all parents (with access to a phone and printer) can take advantage of these fully-personalized tools at no charge. "In addition to reading The Bible, praying and talking about Jesus as a family, these three clever tools can help parents preserve the true meaning and sanctity of Christmas, while still enjoying the excitement and anticipation of Santa," explains, Kimberlee Mitchell, family consultant, and Christian parent. PackageFromSanta.com is a family-owned Santa memory and gift-experience service that does it all, offering one-of-a-kind personalized phone calls, videos, letters, and packages from Santa Claus. Since 2006, the company has provided unmatched customer service and top-level quality to millions of customers across the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. Package From Santa is the only online Santa letter service registered with the Better Business Bureau with an A+ rating. Media Contact: Kimberlee Mitchell 310-339-4544 SOURCE Package From Santa PORTLAND, Ore., Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Consumers want to feel good about the food they eat, the clothes they wear and the items they furnish their homes with. They want to shop in a way that aligns with their values, but actually finding well designed, ethically made products is no easy task. Sustainably made home goods and ethical fashion available on Made Trade. Fair trade, sustainable, USA made, heritage and vegan goods, handcrafted in the US and around the world. Available on Made Trade. "Most brands are not transparent about their sourcing and labor practices," said Cayley Pater. Cayley ran two fair trade brands and recognizes how difficult it can be for consumers to discover ethical products online. "People have to do so much research and shop on multiple sites, which can be frustrating and discouraging." Cayley and her Co-Founder Andy Ives wanted to create a one-stop-shop for exceptionally designed, ethically made goods. The two first met in Fair Trade Club at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2005. They launched Made Trade to curate the best selection of ethically made goods, while helping small businesses and nonprofits grow. The online retailer provides a wide assortment of clothing, shoes, accessories, home goods, furniture and lighting. With a growing catalog of more than 1100 products, the platform provides an explanation of what makes each product ethical. This includes products like Chilote House Shoes. Each pair of Chilote's wool slippers is knitted by hand by women artisans in Patagonia, Chile. Chilote has no factory. Instead, each pair of slippers is slow-made in the homes of Patagonian women living in rural areas. Artisans use salmon skin, a by-product of the fishing industry, to create the vegetable tanned salmon leather that is used as the sole of their slippers. "On Made Trade, consumers can shop with a conscience, knowing that the materials used in the products were sustainably sourced and that makers were paid fair wages," said Andy Ives, Made Trade Co-Founder. Made Trade allows consumers to filter products according to what's important to them: Sustainable made with earth-friendly materials Fair Trade handmade by artisans who are paid fair wages Heritage crafted by hand using traditional, centuries-old techniques USA Made handmade sustainably in the US Made handmade sustainably in the US Vegan free of any animal products Made Trade is where consumers can support artisans and the environment, just by changing the way they shop. Media Contact: Cayley Pater Made Trade | www.madetrade.com 503-714-5119 [email protected] SOURCE Made Trade Related Links http://www.madetrade.com JERSEY CITY, N.J., Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma America, Inc. (MTPA) today announced presentations on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) at the 29th International Symposium on ALS/MND in Glasgow, Scotland, December 7-9. The data will provide deeper insight into ALS, the U.S. experience with RADICAVA (edaravone) since its launch in 2017 and the Company's plans for future research and development. "We look forward to sharing research updates that reinforce our ongoing dedication to the ALS community, including the design of a biomarker study that may advance our understanding of diagnosis and treatment of ALS," said Jean Hubble, M.D., Vice President of Medical Affairs, MTPA. "As part of our commitment to helping those affected by ALS, we continue to explore ways to improve the patient journey, from our research on the use of big data to findings on edaravone's use beyond clinical trials." ALS Patient Journey MTPA will present findings from an analysis of patient health claims data from more than 170 million individuals that identified features captured in the database, differentiating people with ALS from the general population up to five years prior to diagnosis. These findings may help to shed light on how to identify ALS sooner, an important goal given it can take 12 to 14 months for patients to be accurately diagnosed.1 Big Data Analytics for Early Diagnosis of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Abstract 21, Poster Session B, Saturday, December 8 from 6:00 PM 6:50 PM GMT Development Program MTPA will present details on two research initiatives. Through a biomarker study, MTPA aims to research the use of biomarkers as quantifiable, biological, non-clinical measures for disease progression and treatment effect in people with ALS. Representatives of Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma group companies also will provide an overview of the development program for a new formulation of edaravone, including Phase 1 pharmacokinetic (PK) results showing oral edaravone is expected to have similar PK parameters to the current intravenous infusion. Protocol and Design of the RADICAVA (edaravone) Biomarker Study for ALS Patients in the United States Abstract 15, Poster Session A, Friday, December 7 from 6:50 PM 7:40 PM GMT Edaravone for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: New formulation and its development plan Abstract 13, Poster Session A, Friday, December 7 from 6:00 PM 6:50 PM GMT RADICAVA Treatment Experience MTPA will share a summary of real-world safety data from RADICAVA use in the U.S. and provide an update on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) required post-marketing studies for the treatment. The company will present insights from a survey of RADICAVA utilization one year post-launch, including key learnings regarding logistics and support services. Summary of the U.S. Safety Data for RADICAVA (edaravone): Findings from the Postmarketing Pharmacovigilance Abstract 11, Poster Session B, Saturday, December 8 from 6:50 PM 7:40 PM GMT RADICAVA (edaravone) for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: Progress on Postmarketing Requirements and Commitments Abstract 14, Poster Session A, Friday, December 7 from 6:00 PM 6:50 PM GMT RADICAVA (edaravone) for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: U.S. Experience at 1 Year After Launch Abstract 17, Poster Session B, Saturday, December 8 from 6:50 PM 7:40 PM GMT Additionally, preliminary patient background and safety data from the SUNRISE Japan Registry will be presented by Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation. The study aims to assess long-term safety and efficacy of edaravone in the postmarketing surveillance of people with ALS in Japan, for up to five years. Surveillance of using free radical scavenger, edaravone to investigate survival effect for ALS patients in Japan (SUNRISE Japan ): Report for intermediate summary Abstract 14, Poster Session A, Friday, December 7 from 6:50 PM 7:40 PM GMT About RADICAVA (edaravone) The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved RADICAVA (edaravone) on May 5, 2017 as a treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).2 In a clinical trial, people given RADICAVA experienced a 33 percent slower rate of decline in the loss of physical function compared to placebo, as measured by the ALS Functional Rating Scale-Revised (ALSFRS-R), a validated rating instrument for monitoring the progression of disability in people with ALS.1,3,4 Edaravone was discovered and developed for ALS by Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation (MTPC) and commercialized in the U.S. by Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma America, Inc. MTP group companies began researching ALS in 2001 through an iterative clinical platform over a 13-year period. In 2015, edaravone was approved for use as a treatment for ALS in Japan and South Korea, and in 2018, the treatment was approved in Canada. IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION Before you receive RADICAVA, tell your healthcare provider about all of your medical conditions, including if you: have asthma. are allergic to other medicines. are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if RADICAVA will harm your unborn baby. are breastfeeding or plan to breastfeed. It is not known if RADICAVA passes into your breast milk. You and your healthcare provider should decide if you will receive RADICAVA or breastfeed. Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. What are the possible side effects of RADICAVA? RADICAVA may cause serious side effects including hypersensitivity (allergic) reactions and sulfite allergic reactions. Hypersensitivity reactions have happened in people receiving RADICAVA and can happen after your infusion is finished. RADICAVA contains sodium bisulfite, a sulfite that may cause a type of allergic reaction that can be serious and life-threatening. Sodium bisulfite can also cause less severe asthma episodes in certain people. Sulfite sensitivity can happen more often in people who have asthma than in people who do not have asthma. Tell your healthcare provider right away or go to the nearest emergency room if you have any of the following symptoms: hives; swelling of the lips, tongue, or face; fainting; breathing problems; wheezing; trouble swallowing; dizziness; itching; or an asthma attack (in people with asthma). Your healthcare provider will monitor you during treatment to watch for signs and symptoms of all the serious side effects. The most common side effects of RADICAVA include bruising (contusion), problems walking (gait disturbance), and headache. These are not all the possible side effects of RADICAVA. Call your healthcare provider for medical advice about side effects. You may report side effects to Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma America, Inc. at 1-888-292-0058 or FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088 or www.fda.gov/medwatch. For more information, including full Prescribing Information and Patient Information, please visit www.RADICAVA.com. About Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma America, Inc. Based in Jersey City, N.J., Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma America (MTPA) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation's (MTPC) 100 percent owned U.S. holding company, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Holdings America, Inc. MTPA is dedicated to delivering innovative products that address the unmet medical needs of patients in the U.S. It was established by MTPC to commercialize approved pharmaceutical products in the U.S. with plans to expand its product line through collaborations with partners. For more information, please visit www.mt-pharma-america.com or follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Overview of Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma, which was founded in 1678, has its headquarters in Doshomachi, Osaka, which is the birthplace of Japan's pharmaceutical industry. With business centered on ethical pharmaceuticals, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma is a well-established company and has the longest history of any listed company in Japan.5 In accordance with the corporate philosophy of "contributing to the healthier lives of people around the world through the creation of pharmaceuticals," the Company formulated the key concept of Open Up the Future under the Medium-Term Management Plan 2016-2020. Through the discovery of drugs that address unmet medical needs, centered on its priority disease areas autoimmune diseases, diabetes and kidney diseases, central nervous system diseases, and vaccines Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma will strive to contribute to the health of patients around the world. MTPC is the parent company of MTPA and the license holder of RADICAVA. For more information, go to http://www.mt-pharma.co.jp/ . Media inquiries: Debbie Etchison 908-340-8578 [email protected] 1 Brooks BR. (2000). Risk factors in the early diagnosis of ALS: North American epidemiological studies. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Other Motor Neuron Disorders, 1(1), S19-S26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14660820052415871. 2 RADICAVA U.S. Prescribing Information. August 2017. 3 Simon N, Turner, M, Vucic S, et al. (2014). Quantifying Disease Progression in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Annals of Neurology, 76(5), 643657. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ana.24273. 4 The Writing Group on behalf of the Edaravone (MCI-186) ALS 19 Study Group (2017). Safety and efficacy of edaravone in well defined patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Lancet Neurology. 16(7), 505-512. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1474-4422(17)30115-1. 5 Research by TOKYO SHOKO RESEARCH, LTD. SOURCE Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma America, Inc. KETTERING, Ohio, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- We are proud to announce that Naked Lime has completed all requirements to participate in the Digital Advertising Program under the GM Dealer Digital Solution. This allows Dealers the opportunity to leverage in-Market Retail (iMR) funds to reimburse themselves for the cost of their Digital Advertising services. Please refer to the iMR Dealer Program guidelines located at www.gmlam.com for further information. Providers who are participating in the Digital Advertising Program provide advertising solutions that include: Improved efficiency, coordinated spend and strategy across all tiers of advertising Participation commitment for: Streamlined packages each offering full service solutions for sales and fixed ops A single, managed monthly fee with cap Performance accountability Day 1 Go-to-Market readiness Strategic and tactical advertising coordination with brands and LMAs Dashboard for visibility into performance If you have any questions about the benefits of Digital Advertising Program, please do not hesitate to reach out to our Support Team at 855.NKD.LIME or via email at [email protected] for further details. About Naked Lime Marketing Naked Lime Marketing takes an all-in-one approach to delivering a full suite of marketing, advertising, and web services for automotive retailers. We offer strategies developed for the individual needs of dealers and focused on their long-term success. http://www.nakedlime.com | http://facebook.com/nkdlime | http://twitter.com/nkdlime SOURCE Naked Lime Marketing Related Links http://www.nakedlime.com WASHINGTON, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackboard today announced the launch of Blackboard SafetyList, a crisis management response platform that helps school district leaders coordinate the internal teams responsible for preparing for and managing safety and security incidents. Powered by Groupdolists, Blackboard SafetyList turns paper plans into action plans, rapidly mobilizes internal response teams, tracks tasks in real-time, reduces fragmented communications, and records all activity in a real-time audit trail, all to assist school districts with their efforts to ensure that school responders are tightly coordinated, in-sync and accountable. The tool includes a library of over 45 pre-built crisis response checklists to help coordinate team efforts in an emergency. It also provides a tap to join conference bridge for keeping open lines of communication across an entire campus crisis response team, as well as incident logging for simple, accurate post-incident analysis. SafetyList is one component of Blackboard's comprehensive School Safety solution, which also provides physical security and communication solutions to help districts prepare for and effectively manage crisis-based incidents. Easily managed through a web browser application, it offers many technologies designed for school campuses and to aid with quick communication with the broader education community, including: Camera Surveillance: Equipment districts can use to help them keep track of what's happening in their schools from one centralized camera monitoring location. Equipment districts can use to help them keep track of what's happening in their schools from one centralized camera monitoring location. Active Incident Website: School systems can convey the important information their communities need during a crisis through a single crisis website. School systems can convey the important information their communities need during a crisis through a single crisis website. Locks & Access Control: Facilitate access for buildings, classes, labs and more with a single click. Facilitate access for buildings, classes, labs and more with a single click. Communication Tools: Administrations can share relevant news and timely updates with families and community members through a native branded app and mass notifications. "To be such a critical component in the Blackboard SafetyList platform is a testament to our mission to help protect people, assets, and reputation during unexpected incidents," says Michael J. Sher, CEO of Groupdolists. "Our team is incredibly passionate about building tools that help organizations mobilize and coordinate response teams better, smarter and faster than ever before, and the fit with SafetyList makes so much sense." "Maintaining a safe and secure learning environment for students and staff is a top priority for school district leaders nationwide, but many of them are struggling with how to navigate the complex safety challenges in today's environment," said Marc Rubner, Vice President of Product Management and Marketing at Blackboard. "Blackboard is proud to offer robust tools that help school systems use the power of technology to meet these needs. We look forward to working with school districts nationwide to assist them with their safety and security efforts." For more information about Blackboard School Safety, visit https://www.blackboard.com/k12/school-safety.html. About Blackboard Inc. Our mission is to partner with the global education community to enable learner and institutional success, leveraging innovative technologies and services. With an unmatched understanding of the world of the learner, the most comprehensive student-success solutions, and the greatest capacity for innovation, Blackboard is education's partner in change. Contact D'Anthony White, Blackboard 202-413-1943, [email protected] SOURCE Blackboard Related Links http://www.blackboard.com GRAND TERRACE, Calif., Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Wilden, part of PSG and Dover (NYSE: DOV), and a worldwide leader in air-operated double-diaphragm (AODD) pump technology, has extended its line of specialty AODD pumps with the addition of the new V150 13 mm (1/2") Velocity Series pump. Specifically designed as the complete package for all small-dosing applications including chemical dosing, surface treatment, lube oil, additive injection, and more the Velocity Series pump combines complete configuration control with the reliability and performance customers have come to expect with Wilden. System and skid operators are often tasked with the challenge of finding versatile and reliable pumps that fit into tight spaces without compromising design. Featuring a unique detachable mounting foot, Velocity Series pumps can quickly be reoriented into a vertical or horizontal position with multiple inlet and discharge port options. This enhanced freedom of installation allows the pump to easily connect to any customer's system or piping configuration while perfectly fitting into restricted spaces. Another key feature of the Velocity Series is a bore-seal design that eliminates leaks that can result from torque decay. It also delivers improved dry suction lift for better priming while incorporating a proven and simple air distribution system (ADS) with only two moving parts that reduces the risk of downtime for long-term reliability. All of these features make the Velocity Series pump an instant and easy upgrade to install. For more information about Wilden, please visit wildenpump.com. Wilden is a product brand within PSG, a Dover company. For more information on PSG, please visit psgdover.com. About Wilden Pump and Engineering: Jim Wilden revolutionized the pumping industry when he invented the air-operated double-diaphragm (AODD) pump in 1955. Since then, Wilden AODD pumps have proven to be trustworthy solutions to pumping applications in a wide variety of industries. Wilden pumps are part of PSG, a Dover company, and manufactured in Grand Terrace, CA. About Dover: Dover is a diversified global manufacturer with annual revenues of approximately $7 billion. We deliver innovative equipment and components, specialty systems, consumable supplies, software and digital solutions, and support services through three operating segments: Engineered Systems, Fluids, and Refrigeration & Food Equipment. Dover combines global scale with operational agility to lead the markets we serve. Recognized for our entrepreneurial approach for over 60 years, our team of over 24,000 employees takes an ownership mindset, collaborating with customers to redefine what's possible. Headquartered in Downers Grove, Illinois, Dover trades on the New York Stock Exchange under "DOV." Additional information is available at dovercorporation.com. SOURCE Dover Related Links https://www.dovercorporation.com PHOENIX, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On Feb. 16 in Phoenix, FW de Klerk, the South African president who ended apartheid, will receive the O'Connor Justice Prize. Inspired by the legacy of retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor the prize recognizes world leaders whose achievements have advanced justice, human rights and rule of law. Shortly after assuming the office of President in 1989, FW de Klerk astounded his countrymen and the world by announcing his intention to establish equal rights for all South African citizens and release Nelson Mandela from his long imprisonment. Against all odds, President de Klerk succeeded in dismantling South Africa's long-standing apartheid system. Moreover, he applied his legal skills to transform his nation into a multi-racial democracy with a fully democratic constitution. The Nobel Peace Prize committee recognized the bold change of political course for South Africa by citing de Klerk's and Mandela's "work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa." As architect of what has been identified as "one of the most daring successful political revolutions of the twentieth century," de Klerk then applied his experience to innovative global diplomacy. After his presidency, de Klerk marshaled his worldwide convening power to found the Global Leadership Foundation, a cadre of former presidents, prime ministers and other top national officials. With teams of these former leaders, de Klerk provides free confidential advice when requested by current presidents who seek to promote peace, democracy and development. Today through the Global Leadership Foundation, de Klerk helps developing countries improve governance, bolster democratic institutions and resolve conflicts. From hostage negotiations to trade negotiations and from education to elections, de Klerk and his team design solutions to intractable national problems through the Global Leadership Foundation. Each round of advice is tailored to local realities. After 15 years, de Klerk continues to guide the organization as chairman. When informed of his selection, de Klerk said the O'Connor Justice Prize holds special meaning to him. "Justice O'Connor is one of the great people in the history of American justice. I have the highest admiration for what she achieved during her impressive career. It has been my privilege to meet Justice O'Connor during a previous visit to Phoenix. I cherish the memory of that meeting," he said. "I look forward to visiting Phoenix again to accept this prize," de Klerk said. President FW de Klerk will receive the O'Connor Justice Prize in recognition of his human rights transformation in South Africa and his exemplary innovation to advance democracy, human rights and justice around the world through his Global Leadership Foundation. Administered by the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, de Klerk will be the fifth recipient of the prize. Previous recipients were: Navanethem Pillay, former U.N. high commissioner for human rights. She was honored for her fight against apartheid, as well as her work championing international human rights. Ana Palacio , former foreign minister of Spain and high official in the European Union and World Bank. In the European Union Minister Palacio was instrumental in ensuring an independent judiciary and universal voting rights. She was also recognized for her continuing battle for international rule of law. , former foreign minister of and high official in the European Union and World Bank. In the European Union Minister Palacio was instrumental in ensuring an independent judiciary and universal voting rights. She was also recognized for her continuing battle for international rule of law. Jimmy Carter , the 39 th president of the United States , for his humanitarian work since leaving office. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his efforts to find peaceful solutions to conflicts, advance democracy and to promote economic and social development. , the 39 president of , for his humanitarian work since leaving office. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his efforts to find peaceful solutions to conflicts, advance democracy and to promote economic and social development. Anson Chan , former chief secretary of Hong Kong the top role held by a Hong Konger in the government under first British, then Chinese rule. Known as " Hong Kong's conscience" for her decades of tenacious defense and advocacy of democracy, human rights and rule of law. Chan fought for transparent and accountable government, gender equity in employment law, civic awareness and safeguards for the rights and freedoms sanctified in the Beijing agreement. About the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law The Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University is one of the country's preeminent law schools. Ranked a top 8 public law school and #27 nationally by U.S. News & World Report, ASU Law is a leading provider of comprehensive and personalized legal education. The law school ranks Top 20 in the nation for job placement and No. 1 in the state for student outcomes. Located in a new, state-of-the-art building in downtown Phoenix, ASU Law is steps away from the legal, political, and economic heart of Arizona. Media Contact Karen Sung [email protected] SOURCE Sandra Day OConnor College of Law at Arizona State University NEW YORK, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Norwegian, the World's Best Low-Cost Long-Haul Airline and Value Airline of the Year, will add two more European nonstop routes out of Boston's Logan International Airport next summer, as well as move its existing London service from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport to Miami International Airport and from Oakland International Airport to San Francisco International Airport. Norwegian offers the most nonstop routes from both California and Florida to Europe, and these moves will strengthen the airline's operations in both states. "We are continuously reinforcing Norwegian's commitment to the U.S. as this is one of our most important markets. Transatlantic low fares resonate very well with both American leisure and business travelers, especially when matched with our award-winning inflight experience. Our new routes and increased frequencies will make us even more competitive, while offering Americans more options and more ways to save and enjoy travel," said Bjrn Kjos, Founder and CEO of Norwegian. The new service from Boston to Rome will commence on March 31, 2019, and operate four times per week, with fares starting at $299.90 in Economy and $779.90 in Premium one way, inclusive of taxes. The new Madrid service will launch on May 2, 2019, and operate three times per week, with fares starting at $199.90 in Economy and $639.90 in Premium one way, inclusive of taxes. Both new routes will be summer seasonal only. Norwegian currently operates nonstop flights from Boston to London and Paris. Additionally, the airline will move two of its existing London nonstop routes starting March 31, 2019. Service to London currently operated from Fort Lauderdale will move to Miami and from Oakland to San Francisco. Miami to London will be a daily service, while San Francisco to London service will be five times weekly. Economy fares from San Francisco to London start as low as $159.90 and from Miami at $159.90, one-way, including taxes. Premium fares are available as low as $719.90 from both U.S. cities, one-way, including taxes. "We are honored by Norwegian's decision to launch its first-ever Miami service, which will soon provide our passengers with yet another nonstop travel option to the United Kingdom and Europe. We look forward to welcoming their award-winning service to MIA, where nearly one million passengers already travel to and from the UK annually," said Lester Sola, Miami-Dade Aviation Department Director and CEO. "We are thrilled to welcome Norwegian service between SFO and London in the spring of 2019. With this move, travelers can enjoy Norwegian's fantastic value together with SFO's award-winning, world-class airport experience," said San Francisco International Airport Director Ivar C. Satero. Norwegian is also increasing frequencies on some of its Madrid, Paris and Rome service from other U.S. gateways for the summer 2019 schedule: Denver to Paris will increase to three weekly flights, up from twice weekly. to will increase to three weekly flights, up from twice weekly. Fort Lauderdale to Paris will increase to three weekly flights, up from twice weekly. to will increase to three weekly flights, up from twice weekly. Los Angeles to Paris will increase to daily service, up from six weekly. to will increase to daily service, up from six weekly. Los Angeles to Madrid will increase to four weekly flights, up from three weekly. to will increase to four weekly flights, up from three weekly. Los Angeles to Rome will increase to four weekly flights, up from three weekly. to will increase to four weekly flights, up from three weekly. New York to Madrid will increase to daily service, up from four weekly. to will increase to daily service, up from four weekly. Oakland to Rome will increase to three weekly flights, up from twice weekly. to will increase to three weekly flights, up from twice weekly. Orlando to Paris will increase to twice weekly service, up from once weekly. Norwegian will now operate from 17 airports in the United States, and offers more than 50 nonstop routes to Europe, as well as four routes from the U.S. to Guadeloupe and Martinique in the French Caribbean, and three routes out of Canada. All flights are available at Norwegian.com/us, and to find the most affordable fares, go to the low fare calendar. Passengers on all of Norwegian's routes are eligible to join Norwegian Reward, the airline's award-winning loyalty program and can earn CashPoints every time they fly, book a hotel or rent a car. Earlier this year, Norwegian Reward was named Program of the Year Europe and Africa for the second consecutive year. Media Contact: Anders Lindstrom [email protected] 954 648 2989 To download high-res images, find all Norwegian's press release and other information, please visit media.us.norwegian.com. About Norwegian Norwegian is the world's fifth largest low-cost airline and carried 33 million passengers in 2017. The airline operates more than 500 routes to over 150 destinations in Europe, North Africa, Middle East, Thailand, Caribbean, North and South America. Norwegian has a fleet of more than 150 aircraft, with an average age of 3.7 years, making it one of the world's youngest and "greenest" fleets. Norwegian has been named the Most Fuel-Efficient Airline on Transatlantic Routes by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) twice. Norwegian has been voted 'Europe's Best Low-Cost Airline' by passengers for six consecutive years at the SkyTrax World Airline Awards 2013-2018, along with being named the 'World's Best Low-Cost Long-Haul' Airline' for the past four years. Norwegian employs more than 9,000 people worldwide. Follow @Fly_Norwegian on Twitter, join the discussion on Facebook and keep up with our adventures on Instagram. For more information on Norwegian and its network, visit norwegian.com. SOURCE Norwegian Air Related Links https://www.norwegian.com If these are not exactly desperate times that call for desperate measures, they are at least aggravating times that call for mitigating measures and one winter-survival tactic weve all deployed at one time or another is cranking our frozen vehicles engine and then retreating indoors to let it warm up. NEW YORK, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- MRM//McCann, a leading global customer relationship network, announced today that its e-commerce specialist agency, Optaros by MRM//McCann, was ranked in the Strong Performers category by the independent research firm Forrester Research in its report "The Forrester Wave: Commerce Specialist Service Providers, Q4 2018." The analysis, subtitled "The Eight Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up," evaluates top commerce specialist service providers in order to "help digital business strategy professionals make the right choice." Optaros by MRM//McCann was among the highest ranked firms evaluated in the strategy criteria of "vision," "market approach" and "partner ecosystem," as well as in the current offering sub-category of "ongoing support." "Customers were in unanimous agreement that the firm operates with integrity which is one of the biggest drivers of their satisfaction," the Forrester report said, addressing its conclusions based on surveying clients. "One customer said, 'It's always relationship first.' Optaros by MRM//McCann is an obvious choice for MRM//McCann customers but is also a good fit for firms, especially in CPG and manufacturing, that may have the complexities of a large firm but are early in their e-commerce journeys." Kate MacNevin, Global President, MRM//McCann, said, "I am incredibly proud of our e-commerce team for achieving this impressive recognition. Our e-commerce offering continues to expand our range of customer relationship and technology-based capabilities, and ensures we are making the moment of every transaction meaningful for our valued clients." This announcement comes on the heels of a year of remarkable expansion from the business and creative perspectives for Optaros by MRM//McCann. They added several major new clients to their roster to achieve significant growth in 2018. At the Imagine Excellence Awards, they won the Best B2B Innovations Award as well as the Spirit of Excellence Award, a recognition given to Magento partners who have demonstrated outstanding performance. Optaros by MRM//McCann are e-commerce experts who help clients solve complex problems through technology. They specialize in strategy, consulting and digital transformation, visual design and user experience, e-commerce platform implementation, 24-7 global support and maintenance, performance and optimization, and omnichannel architecture. They have offices in New York, Boston, Bucharest and London. Forrester Research employs a rigorous process to create a Forrester Wave, including a detailed taxonomy of product attributes, gathering and validating data, and creating the Forrester Wave graphic. You can access a complimentary copy of the full report here: https://reprints.forrester.com/#/assets/2/1532/RES141117/reports About MRM//McCann MRM//McCann, named Ad Age's 2018 Business-to-Business Agency of the Year, is a leading customer relationship agency that helps brands grow meaningful relationships with people. The agency leverages the power of creativity, the beauty of data and the magic of technology to nurture, encourage and sustain strong relationships between brands and their customers in turn, creating meaningful experiences for people, while driving business results. MRM//McCann is part of the Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG) and a lead agency in the McCann Worldgroup network, with 40-plus offices across North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. For more information, please visit www.mrm-mccann.com. SOURCE MRM//McCann Related Links http://www.mrm-mccann.com LOS ANGELES, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Continuing its torrid pace of transactions, Optimus Properties, LLC, through an affiliate, has completed yet another sale; this one of a 36-unit apartment building located in Koreatown. The building, located at 511 South Rampart Avenue, was originally purchased in May 2015. Optimus purchased the property while the property was in extremely dilapidated condition with many outstanding orders to comply from the housing department. Optimus spent three months and $750,000 to renovate the building and make it a livable building for its tenants. After Optimus purchased the property, it immediately tented the building to address pest control issues. It then installed a new roof, corrected structural defects, installed new LED lighting in the hallways, improved many of the units with new kitchens, bathrooms and fixtures and upgraded the security and landscaping. The property was sold to a private investor based in Los Angeles. Optimus Properties, LLC, located in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Kamyar Shabani and K. Joseph Shabani and employs a disciplined investment approach focused on value creation in office, retail, office and medical office properties throughout Los Angeles. SOURCE Optimus Properties, LLC Belmont is the second office that Porsche Consulting has opened in North America. 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 Board of Directors of Porsche Consulting, Inc. 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. In 2011 Porsche Consulting established its North American presence 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. 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. Images available in the Porsche Newsroom (newsroom.porsche.de) and in the Porsche media database (presse.porsche.de). A video is available at porsche-consulting.com SOURCE Porsche Consulting Inc. Related Links http://www.porsche-consulting.com TSX Venture: QPT EDMONTON, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Quest PharmaTech Inc. (TSX-V: QPT) ("Quest" or the "Company"), a biopharmaceutical company developing and commercializing products to improve the quality of life, today announced that it has entered into a license agreement with a U.S. company, OncoCare Therapeutics, to develop and commercialize the Company's Targeted Cancer Therapy Technology in the U.S. Quest's Targeted Cancer Therapy Technology includes two potential treatments, AR 9.6, an antibody licensed from the University of Nebraska Medical Center that binds to and blocks oncogenic activities of MUC16, and ACP-2127 which targets CDK/mTOR receptors. Both candidates are being developed for the treatment of pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest diseases with, currently, no significant long-term treatment options. In return for granting the license rights to the U.S., Quest will receive a 45% ownership interest in OncoCare Therapeutics, whose management includes Dr. Michael A. (Tony) Hollingsworth and Dr. Prakash Radhakrishnan, original inventors of the AR 9.6 technology, and Craig Tuttle, CEO, an executive with over 20 years' experience in the biotech industry. "OncoCare Therapeutics is committed to pursuing the research and development and applying the clinical efforts needed to bring these new pancreatic cancer drug candidates to market. We look forward to collaborating with Quest and working with investigators at the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center in Omaha, Nebraska to accomplish this goal," Tuttle said. "We are excited that OncoCare Therapeutics, supported by internationally known scientists, will take the lead in development of the technology in the U.S. Quest still retains rights for this technology in other territories," said Dr. Madi Madiyalakan, CEO of Quest. In other news, the Company announces that it will be holding its annual general meeting of shareholders on Monday, January 28, 2019 at 3:00 pm at the Company's corporate office in Edmonton (8123 Roper Road NW, Edmonton, AB, T6E 6S4). About Quest PharmaTech Inc. Quest PharmaTech Inc is a publicly traded, Canadian based biopharmaceutical company developing products to improve the quality of life. The Company through its subsidiary, OncoQuest and its Chinese joint venture, OncoVent, is developing antibody based immunotherapeutic products for cancer. Quest has an ownership interest in Bioceltran which is focused on SP Technology for transdermal delivery of drugs and photosensitizers for pharmaceutical and cosmetic purposes. Quest through its subsidiary, Madenco BioSciences, is focusing on the development of pharmaceutical products for dermatology and wound healing applications. Quest, through its ownership interest in OncoCare Therapeutics, is developing an antibody licensed from University of Nebraska Medical Center, AR 9.6 mAb against truncated O-glycan on MUC16, for targeted cancer therapy applications. About OncoCare Therapeutics Inc. OncoCare Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company located in Omaha, Nebraska, focused on the development and commercialization of technologies to detect, target and treat devastating cancers such as pancreatic and ovarian cancer. For further information, please contact Craig Tuttle, CEO, at [email protected]. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE Quest PharmaTech Inc. MALVERN, Pa., Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Ricoh USA, Inc. today unveiled RICOH Healthcare Direct Services, an interoperable, secured and reliable fax alternative for healthcare organizations that optimizes patient and staff satisfaction by automating and digitizing communications. The service helps reduce clerical errors, improve security and drive cost savings by eliminating the need for fax's paper steps. Leveraging Ricoh's proven technologies and consulting expertise, RICOH Healthcare Direct Services drives higher quality of care by intelligently routing information directly to the relevant electronic health record (EHR). At a time when information management and collaborative technologies are surging in other fields, patients can be left wondering why healthcare providers' communication can be unreliable, potentially resulting in rescheduled appointments, lost lab results and other costly or time-consuming errors. Additionally, medical error contributes to tens of thousands of deaths each year in America,1 bringing added calls for the reduction or elimination of manual processes that introduce opportunity for error, such as paper-based fax. Misplaced or misdelivered faxes can result in lost lab results, incomplete communication between referring physicians and specialists, and last-minute rescheduling, all of which can add up to increased work, higher costs and inferior patient experiences. Fax user error, paper jams and empty paper trays contribute to 25 percent of specialists not receiving test results and records for referred patients prior to their appointment.2 For integrated delivery networks (IDNs), which can send hundreds or even thousands of faxes a day to various partners and disparate systems, those inefficiencies can add up fast, potentially forcing frustrated patients to reschedule or even decline to return for necessary care. RICOH Healthcare Direct Services messages don't have such challenges because the information is sent directly into the patient's EHR, without fax's opportunities for lost or mishandled information. With more reliable workflows in place, patients can rest easy knowing their up-to-date health records will be on file when they arrive for treatment. Instead of waiting for workers to search for their information before ultimately being asked to reschedule, patients can experience streamlined, efficient appointments that are more likely to include medical advice and treatment based off a complete picture of their health. Today, healthcare remains one of fax's last strongholds in a world that has mostly moved on to faster, more interoperable technologies. Ricoh pioneered fax technology nearly a half century ago by introducing the first high-speed fax machine for offices, helping to revolutionize fast, reliable information sharing across distances. With RICOH Healthcare Direct Services, Ricoh is applying the same ingenuity and expertise to revolutionize collaboration again for an industry that needs it most. "One in 20 faxes never reach their final destination that's missed appointments; that's redoing lab tests; that's somebody's health," said Michael Campana, Senior Manager, Healthcare Marketing, Ricoh USA, Inc. "Those kinds of inefficiencies, and their real-world effects, are unacceptable in today's healthcare industry. Patients know they deserve better, and they know that in many cases their health currently depends on outdated, paper-based workflows. RICOH Healthcare Direct Services brings our expertise and technologies to bear to tackle this issue and provide the reliable, secured, immediate communication that facilitates the kinds of quality care experiences that patients have been demanding." Read more about how a large national healthcare system is leveraging RICOH Healthcare Direct Services here. Learn more about RICOH Healthcare Direct Services here: https://www.ricoh-usa.com/en/industries/healthcare/ricoh-healthcare-direct-services. For the latest updates and insights on Ricoh's healthcare solutions, visit https://www.ricoh-usa.com/en/industries/healthcare or follow @RICOHHealth on Twitter and Ricoh USA, Inc. on Facebook and LinkedIn. 1"Medical error---the third leading cause of death in the US." Martin A. Makary, Michael Daniel; The BMJ. May 3, 2016. https://www.bmj.com/content/353/bmj.i2139 2"Dropping the Baton: Specialty Referrals in the United States." Ateev Mehrotra, Christopher B. Forrest, Caroline Y. Lin; The Milbank Quarterly. March 2011. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3160594/ | About Ricoh | Ricoh is empowering digital workplaces using innovative technologies and services enabling individuals to work smarter. For more than 80 years, Ricoh has been driving innovation and is a leading provider of document management solutions, IT services, commercial and industrial printing, digital cameras, and industrial systems. Headquartered in Tokyo, Ricoh Group operates in approximately 200 countries and regions. In the financial year ended March 2018, Ricoh Group had worldwide sales of 2,063 billion yen (approx. 19.4 billion USD). For further information, please visit www.ricoh.com. 2018 Ricoh USA, Inc. All rights reserved. All referenced product names are the trademarks of their respective companies. Contact: John Greco Ricoh USA, Inc. (973) 882-2023 [email protected] Tracey Sheehy Breakaway Communications for Ricoh (212) 616-6003 [email protected] SOURCE Ricoh USA, Inc. Related Links http://www.ricoh-usa.com MENLO PARK, Calif., Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Kathleen Trimble, vice president of supplier inclusion for staffing firm Robert Half, has been selected by the American Institute of Diversity and Commerce for induction into the Women's Business Enterprise Hall of Fame. "Kathleen has played a significant role in the success of Robert Half's supplier inclusion practices," said Ken Gitlin, Robert Half senior vice president of Operational Support. "For more than 25 years, she has been an active supporter and champion for diverse businesses, partnering with numerous organizations nationwide. We congratulate her on this well-deserved recognition." Trimble joined Robert Half in 2004 as supplier diversity manager and assumed her current position in 2014. She serves as chair for the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) National Certification Committee, WBENC Executive Committee and WBENC board of directors. She is also on the board of directors for Women's Business Enterprise Council-West. Trimble was inducted into WBENC's Hall of Fame in 2010 and recognized as one of the First Ladies in Supplier Diversity. Recently, Trimble helped WBENC and Robert Half jointly create an Advanced Leadership Training program for female business owners, which includes WBENC Regional Partner Organization presidents and WBENC staff. This yearlong program provides mentoring and education for professional and personal development. Trimble was honored at an induction ceremony on Tuesday, November 27, at the Four Seasons Resort and Club Dallas at Las Colinas, Texas. About Robert Half Founded in 1948, Robert Half is the world's first and largest specialized staffing firm and a recognized leader in professional consulting and staffing services. The company's specialized staffing divisions include Accountemps, Robert Half Finance & Accounting and Robert Half Management Resources for temporary, full-time and senior-level project professionals, respectively, in the fields of accounting and finance; OfficeTeam for highly skilled administrative support professionals; Robert Half Technology for project and full-time technology professionals; Robert Half Legal for project and full-time staffing of lawyers, paralegals and legal support personnel; and The Creative Group for interactive, design, marketing, advertising and public relations professionals. Robert Half also is the parent company of Protiviti, a global consulting firm that provides clients with consulting solutions in finance, technology, operations, data, analytics, governance, risk and internal audit. Robert Half has staffing and consulting operations in more than 400 locations worldwide and offers job search services at roberthalf.com. For more information on our supplier inclusion program or to register in our supplier database, visit our supplier relations page. SOURCE Robert Half Related Links http://roberthalf.com NEW YORK, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Scott+Scott Attorneys at Law LLP ("Scott+Scott"), a national securities and consumer rights litigation firm, is investigating whether certain directors and officers of General Electric Company ("General Electric," "GE," or the "Company") (NYSE: GE) breached their fiduciary duties to the Company and its shareholders. If you are a General Electric shareholder, you are encouraged to contact Scott+Scott for additional information. Scott+Scott is investigating whether members of the GE Board allowed the Company to make false statements and/or fail to disclose material accounting information relating to: (1) the $22 billion charge the Company booked in the Third Quarter of 2017 tied to acquisitions in GE's power unit; and (2) the $6 billion charge that GE took in the First Quarter of 2018 for a shortfall in insurance reserves. The SEC and DOJ have both opened investigations into GE's accounting practices in the wake of these announcements. The SEC is also investigating GE's revenue recognition and its controls for long-term service agreements. What You Can Do If you are a General Electric shareholder, you may have legal claims against the Company's directors and officers. If you wish to discuss this investigation, or have questions about this notice or your legal rights, please contact attorney Joe Pettigrew toll-free at (844) 818-6982 or at [email protected]. About Scott+Scott Attorneys at Law LLP Scott+Scott has significant experience in prosecuting major securities, antitrust, and employee retirement plan actions throughout the United States. The firm represents pension funds, foundations, individuals, and other entities worldwide with offices in New York, London, Connecticut, California, and Ohio. Attorney Advertising CONTACT: Joe Pettigrew Scott+Scott Attorneys at Law LLP 230 Park Ave, 17th Fl, NY, NY 10169 (844) 818-6982 [email protected] SOURCE Scott+Scott Attorneys at Law LLP Related Links http://scott-scott.com LAS VEGAS, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Southwest Gas Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: SWX) (the "Company") today announced that it has priced an underwritten public offering of 3,100,000 shares of its common stock at a public offering price of $75.50 per share, for gross proceeds, before the underwriting discount and estimated expenses of the offering payable by the Company, of approximately $234.0 million. The offering is expected to close on November 30, 2018, subject to customary closing conditions. The Company has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 465,000 shares of common stock. The Company intends to finance, in part, its acquisition of Linetec Services, LLC ("Linetec"), including the payment of related fees and expenses. Pending the closing of the Linetec acquisition, the Company may use net proceeds from this offering to temporarily repay $22.5 million under its credit facility. If the acquisition of Linetec is not consummated for any reason, the Company intends to use all net proceeds from the offering for general corporate purposes. J.P. Morgan, BofA Merrill Lynch and Wells Fargo Securities are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering. The Williams Capital Group, L.P., BTIG and Ramirez & Co., Inc. are acting as co-managers. This offering may only be made by means of a prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus. Copies of the preliminary prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus related to the offering may be obtained, when available, by visiting EDGAR on the Securities and Exchange Commission's (the "SEC") website at www.sec.gov or from J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717, Toll-free: 1-866-803-9204; BofA Merrill Lynch, NC1-004-03-43, 200 North College Street, 3rd floor, Charlotte, NC 28255-0001, Attn: Prospectus Department, or email at [email protected]; and Wells Fargo Securities, Attention: Equity Syndicate Department, 375 Park Avenue, New York, New York, 10152, at (800) 326-5897 or email a request to [email protected]. The offering is being made pursuant to a shelf registration statement filed with the SEC on December 13, 2017. A final prospectus supplement relating to the offering will be filed with the SEC. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any of these securities, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or other jurisdiction. About Southwest Gas Holdings, Inc. Southwest Gas Holdings, Inc. has two business segments: Southwest Gas Corporation provides safe and reliable natural gas service to over two million customers in Arizona, Nevada, and California. Centuri Construction Group, Inc. is a comprehensive utility infrastructure services enterprise dedicated to meeting the growing demands of North American utility, energy, and industrial markets. Centuri derives revenue from installation, replacement, repair, and maintenance of energy distribution systems, and developing industrial infrastructure solutions. Forward-Looking Statements This press release may include "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The ultimate occurrence of events and results referenced in these forward-looking statements is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause the actual results or performance to differ from those projected in the forward-looking statement. These statements relate to the Company's offering of common stock, the anticipated use of the net proceeds and the anticipated acquisition of Linetec. No assurance can be given that the offering or the Linetec acquisition will be completed on the terms described, or at all, or that the net proceeds from the offering will be used as indicated. Completion of the offering on the terms described, the Linetec acquisition and the application of the net proceeds, are subject to numerous conditions, many of which are beyond the control of the Company, including market conditions, general economic conditions and other factors, including those set forth under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017, and those set forth in the Company's other reports and information filed with the SEC, which are accessible on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. SOURCE Southwest Gas Holdings, Inc. FELTON, California, November 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Spark Plug Market is estimated to grow significantly in the forecast period owing to the rising use of iridium material in new engine models. Spark plugs are the devices that deliver electric current from ignition system to combustion compartment in the car. Being a small electrical component, it is directly linked to the engine. They survive extreme pressure and heat within the car cylinders and efficiently burn off deposits from fuel additions to other pollutants. The factors driving the market are comprise a fleet of automobiles due to significant demand for automobiles worldwide and promising government policies. In addition, increasing demand for LPG/CNG and petrol automobiles is impelling the demand for spark plugs, thereby boosting the market growth. However, increasing consumers' inclination for electric vehicles is expected to hamper the growth of market in the years to come. The increased demand for spark plugs by OEMs in different regions of the world is on the rise. This trend is expected to grow in future as well. Browse research report with TOC on "Global Spark Plug Market" at: https://www.millioninsights.com/industry-reports/spark-plug-market The market is categorized on the basis of product type, sales channel, application, and geography. On the basis of product type, market is divided into cold spark plug and hot spark plug. Hot spark plug is expected to hold larger share of market owing to its extensive use. Cold spark plug is anticipated to grow at a comparatively steady rate in the years to come. Based on sales channel, market is divided into aftermarket and (OEM) original equipment manufacturer. Original equipment manufacturer is predicted to grow substantially as compared to aftermarket channel owing to cheaper rates offered by different enterprises. In terms of application, market is split into marine, automotive, and industrial among others. Automotive segment is predicted to lead the spark plug market due to wide application of spark plug in automobiles. Geographically, market is segmented as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and RoW. Asia Pacific is projected to dominate the market owing to increasing number of automobiles in emerging economies like Thailand, Singapore, China and India. Moreover, North India is predicted to generate rising demand for spark plugs in future due to the presence of leading manufacturers like BMW, Maruti Suzuki, Ford, Hero MotoCorp, Mitsubishi and TVS Motors. The key players in the spark plug market are General Motors (Acdelco Corporation), Federal-Mogul Corporation, NGK Spark Plug Co. Ltd, UCI-Fram Autobrands (Autolite), Borgwarner Inc., Denso Corporation, Delphi Automotive, Valeo, Weichai Power Co. Ltd., and Robert Bosch Gmbh. Browse reports of similar category available with Million Insights: Market Segment: Report contents include Analysis of the spark plug market including revenues, future growth, market outlook Historical data and forecast Regional analysis including growth estimates Analyzes the end user markets including growth estimates. Profiles on spark plug including products, sales/revenues, and market position Market structure, market drivers and restraints. Key regions North America Europe Asia Pacific Middle East and Africa South America Key Vendors NGK Spark Plugs Bosch Federal-Mogul Denso Autolite Zhuzhou Torch request free sample to get a complete list of companies About Million Insights: Million Insights, is a distributor of market research reports, published by premium publishers only. We have a comprehensive market place that will enable you to compare data points, before you make a purchase. Enabling informed buying is our motto and we strive hard to ensure that our clients get to browse through multiple samples, prior to an investment. Service flexibility & the fastest response time are two pillars, on which our business model is founded. Our market research report store, includes in-depth reports, from across various industry verticals, such as healthcare, technology, chemicals, food & beverages, consumer goods, material science & automotive. Contact: Ryan Manuel Research Support Specialist, USA Million Insights Phone: +1-408-610-2300 Toll Free: 1-866-831-4085 Email: [email protected] Web: https://www.millioninsights.com/ Blog: http://www.millioninsights.blogspot.com/ SOURCE Million Insights Located in the heart of The Hague, the hotel is situated opposite the world's oldest parliament building still in use, the Binnenhof, and sits alongside the stunning Court Pond the 'Hofvijver' and the famous Mauritshuis Museum, making it the perfect location to take pictures of The Hague's historic skyline. Bart van de Kamp, CEO and founder of Borealis Hotel Group said, "We are delighted to open the first Staybridge Suites in The Netherlands and to continuing our strong association with Interstate to provide high quality management services to a high-quality product offering. We look forward to continuing to open new internationally branded hotels in Europe as part of our business plan." Staybridge Suites The Hague Parliament is a two-minute walk from some of the city's most popular bars, shops and restaurants, including the iconic Bijenkorf department store. With The Hague Central Train Station just a 10-minute walk from the hotel, guests can easily explore nearby cultural venues and attractions, such as the Peace Palace, the miniature theme park Madurodam, Rotterdam, or the North Sea just five kilometres away. Aaron Greenman, Executive Vice President of Acquisitions & Development EMEA for Interstate Hotels & Resorts, said: "The opening of the Staybridge Suites represents a further accomplishment of the Borealis-Interstate relationship. We value and respect the Borealis vision and their ability to design, execute and deliver such superb hotels at every level of the hotel market." Designed to meet the needs of extended stay guests from business travellers to families, Staybridge Suites The Hague Parliament offers 101 contemporary designed suites that deliver the comforts of home with fully equipped kitchens, comfortable living areas, and flexible working spaces. The unique layout and interior design are inspired by the city's rich history and environment. The hotel itself is comprised of three buildings, two of which are located on the central Lange Vijverberg. The historical design influence can be seen in the hotel's use of panelling, brass finishing and a traditional colour palette of rich deep blue and warm ochre. Connecting all three buildings together is a stunning Parisian style courtyard, adding to the ambience of the hotel. From the moment visitors step into the hotel's bright and beautiful indoor courtyard lobby, guests will be made to feel completely at ease in the relaxing Livingroom. Those staying can take advantage of Staybridge Suites The Hague Parliament's free Wi-Fi, The Pantry which provides food essentials for guests to purchase 24 hours a day, complimentary breakfast, free laundry facilities and 24/7 fitness room. In addition, Staybridge Suites provides guests with a midweek 'Social' to give those staying a chance to relax with drinks and snacks and meet their neighbours. About Interstate Hotels & Resorts Interstate Hotels & Resorts is the leading U.S.-based global hotel management company, operating branded full- and select-service hotels, resorts, convention centers and independent hotels. Currently, Interstate's global portfolio represents 540 properties in 11 countries inclusive of a committed pipeline of signed hotels under construction or development around the world. The company's experienced operators, industry-leading platforms and extensive management capabilities produce exceptional guest experiences and optimal returns for hotel owners and investors. For more information, please visit www.interstatehotels.com , or follow Interstate on Facebook and LinkedIn . About Borealis Hotel Group: The Borealis Hotel Group was founded in 1997 by Mr. Bart van de Kamp. The group specializes in the development, investment, operations and management of its hotels in Europe with a focus on major capital cities as well as airport locations across the continent. Depending on the nature of the project, Borealis can act as both a real estate investor and as a long-term leasee. With its multidisciplinary expertise, the group is able to act swiftly and efficiently, thereby offering stakeholders creative solutions and a unique combination of skills. With a successful track record in owning companies and portfolios such as TVHG, the Radisson Airport Schiphol, the Novotel Amsterdam Schiphol Airport and a host of others, Borealis has been involved in more than 3 billion worth of transactions since inception, working with well-known brands such as Hilton, Accor, IHG and Marriott. For More Media Information: Natasha Wojcik/ Amanda Lewis The Zimmerman Agency 850.668.2222 [email protected] SOURCE Interstate Hotels & Resorts Related Links http://www.interstatehotels.com Unlike the U.S. bicentennial in 1976, when every community seemed to have a link to the past, the bicentennial of the Land of Lincoln has been a fairly low-key affair. Certainly there will be birthday cake and lots of candles in Springfield or Chicago on Dec. 3. Blue is the international color of diabetes. When these five buildings turn blue to #LightTheSkyforDRI , it will shine a spotlight on the DRI's singular mission to find a cure for this devastating disease that has become one of the biggest health concerns in the U.S. today. Supporters are encouraged to take photos and videos as one of the most recognizable symbols of New York, the Empire State Building, along with several other skyscrapers that make up the New York City skyline, go blue on Dec. 12 and share using #LightTheSkyforDRI when they post to social media outlets. Since its inception, the annual Empire Ball (DiabetesResearch.org/The-Empire-Ball) has raised more than $38 million for diabetes research and helped to bring awareness to the important work of the DRI. As the largest and most comprehensive research center dedicated to curing diabetes, the DRI is aggressively working to develop a biological cure by restoring natural insulin production and normalizing blood sugar levels without imposing other risks. This year's Empire Ball on Dec. 12 at the Grand Hyatt will honor three industry leaders: Glen J. Weiss of Vornado Realty Trust with the Leadership Award; Joel M. Brenner, AIA of WarnerMedia with the Camillo Ricordi Humanitarian Award; and Robert Cuzzi of VDA (Van Deusen & Associates) with the Peter L. DiCapua Distinguished Service Award. A team of Vice Chairs and Board of Governors, spearheaded by Stephen Rizzo of The Rizzo Group, James Halpin of Platinum Inc and Avi Itzikowitz of ATCO Properties & Management, Inc., are shaping this year's Empire Ball to be the must-attend, networking event of the year. "We are thrilled to have the greatest city, light up in blue to honor the Empire Ball and diabetes research. The real estate industry and this year's honorees are carrying the blue torch of support that is finding a cure. A cure is in sight, and this skyline represents real hope to the millions of people impacted by diabetes." Stephen Rizzo, Chairman of the Empire Ball To purchase tickets for the Empire Ball, which begins at 6 pm with a cocktail reception and networking followed by dinner and a night of dancing, please visit DiabetesResearch.org/The-Empire-Ball or call 212-888-2217. Sponsorship opportunities are still available. Follow us on social media using #EmpireBall on Instagram @theempireball, Facebook www.facebook.com/driempireball or Tweet @Diabetes_DRI. About the Diabetes Research Institute and Foundation The mission of the Diabetes Research Institute Foundation is to provide the Diabetes Research Institute with the funding necessary to cure diabetes now. The Diabetes Research Institute at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine leads the world in cure-focused research. As the largest and most comprehensive research center dedicated to curing diabetes, the DRI is aggressively working to develop a biological cure by restoring natural insulin production and normalizing blood sugar levels without imposing other risks. Researchers have already shown that transplanted islet cells allow patients to live without the need for insulin therapy. Some study participants have maintained insulin independence for more than 10 years. The DRI is now building upon these promising outcomes by developing a DRI BioHub, a bioengineered "mini organ" that mimics the native pancreas. While various BioHub platforms are being tested in preclinical and clinical studies, the DRI is also developing strategies to eliminate the need for anti-rejection drugs and reset the immune system to block autoimmunity. For more information, please visit DiabetesResearch.org, or call 212-888-2217. SOURCE Diabetes Research Institute Foundation Related Links http://www.diabetesresearch.org DAKAR, Senegal, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Last night, the Prix Galien International Committee heralded brilliant contributions to improving the health and wellbeing of those living in Africa. This year's winners represent advancement in Diabetology, Spinal Muscular Atrophy, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. The inaugural event was hosted by Senegal President Macky Sall. "Having this initiative in Africa is a massive milestone in the history of Prix Galien which began in 1970," said Bruno Cohen, Chairman of the Galien Foundation. "Our goal is to develop an 'African Davos for Lifesciences' For Africa by Africa! Under the leadership of President Macky Sall, Senegal is moving forward in embracing the foremost priorities of a just society: education, women, and health." 2018 Prix Galien International Award Winners "Best Pharmaceutical Product" Boehringer Ingelheim Jardiance "Best Biotechnology Product" BIOGEN Spinraza "Best Medical Technology" AAZ-LMB Autotest VIH "Women and their engagement and leadership in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics serve as a driving force for Africa as it progresses," said Professor Awa Marie Coll-Seck, Minister of State to the President of the Republic of Senegal and Prix Galien International scientific program Co-Chair. "We look forward to hosting an annual Prix Galien event in Dakar moving forward and welcome the participation of young people, the leaders of tomorrow, to this great meeting on ethics and innovation." "I am thrilled that the Prix Galien International Awards were presented for the first time in Africa, a continent undergoing a profound economic, demographic, and epidemiological transition, catalyzing a new era of science-led development," said Dr. Sue Desmond-Hellmann, Chief Executive Officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Chair of the Prix Galien USA and Chair of the Prix Galien International. "The pipeline of African innovation for health across the value chain has the potential to make an enormous impact on global health." About The Galien Foundation The Galien Foundation fosters, recognizes and rewards excellence in scientific innovation to improve the state of human health. Our vision is to be the catalyst for the development of the next generation of innovative treatment and technologies that will impact human health and save lives. The Foundation oversees and directs activities in the USA for the Prix Galien, an international award that recognizes outstanding achievements in improving the human condition through the development of innovative therapies. The Prix Galien was created in France in 1970 in honor of Galen, the father of medical science and modern pharmacology. Worldwide, the Prix Galien is regarded as the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in biopharmaceutical and medical technology research. For more information, visit www.galienfoundation.org Follow the Foundation on social media: https://www.facebook.com/GalienFoundation/ - https://twitter.com/GalienFdn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-galien-foundation/ Media Contact: Giana Gregga - Finn Partners - [email protected] - 312-329-3910 SOURCE The Galien Foundation Related Links http://www.galienfoundation.org NEW YORK, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Trusted Media Brands , a leader in consumer-driven multi-platform media content, in partnership with Kantar Consulting, today released additional findings of a multi-phase study on American families. "Cultural Exchange: A New Blend of Family and Tradition" is the second release of a three-part research series on "The Modern Family" that delves into the nuances of modern family life, makeup, and shifting behaviors. This comprehensive study is redefining common perceptions of quality time, the evolving meaning of home, desired experiences, and the role of diversity in the family. "Cultural Exchange: A New Blend of Family and Tradition" offers a counter-narrative to the rhetoric of cultural divisiveness that dominates today's discourse. The survey finds that the clear majority of today's modern familiesregardless of ethnic makeupare adapting to, accepting, and even embracing diversity in their homes and lifestyles. The full report is available here. Nearly three-fourths (71%) of modern family members agree, "I see the increasing diversity in the country as a positive thing for me and my family." This number rises to 83% among multi-cultural families. Modern families are increasingly open to other cultures: 73% of all families with kids in the household agree, "I try to educate myself and my family about traditions and celebrations that are different from ours." Modern families are redefining "family" and traditions: Seven in 10 (72%) agree, "My family creates its own unique celebrations." Among Millennials, born between 1979 and 1996, fully half (50%) include pets as being part of their family, and 39% of them consider friends as family members. "Trusted Media Brands, with category-leading brands such as Reader's Digest, Taste of Home, and Family Handyman, continues to lead the discussion on how brands should connect with the American family. In this new research, we've uncovered an overwhelming yet under-reported acceptance of difference and demand for inclusivity that is a common thread in today's modern and diversified families," said Bonnie Kintzer, president and CEO, Trusted Media Brands. Trusted Media Brands offers insights to guide the marketplace response to cultural exchange, highlighting the need to: Celebrate Unity and Community: Brands can play a vital role in facilitating connections and highlighting the ways that diversity and difference enhance American family life. Fuel New Tradition: Brands can and should seize this opportunity and provide modern families with more moments that matter in a highly personal manner. Go Beyond the Surface: A starting point for brands wanting to address this diversity gap is to develop a deeper, more sophisticated understanding of cultural nuances. But as the nation's demographics shift, brands will also need to reflect these changes in their boardrooms and decisions if they expect their efforts to resonate. Research for the Trusted Media Brands "Modern Family" series was led by the company's Insight Lab which is dedicated to producing breakthrough consumer and B2B insights in an era of accelerated change. The research data came from the following three sources: A custom, online survey of 3,500 American adults 18+ in families conducted from July 18 to July 27, 2018 (Note: "Family" was defined as two or more adults living in a household, with at least one being a family member or spouse); 250 qualitative interviews with 50 people through the Voxpopme platform; annual and quarterly surveys from Kantar Consulting's U.S. MONITOR, an ongoing source of insights about the changing attitudes, values, and lifestyle of the American consumer. The first "Modern Family" research, "Home-basing: Staying in is the New Going Out," is available here. The Trusted Media Brands Digital Network broke a new traffic record in October 2018, reaching 64 million UVs, according to comScore. This is a 16.7 percent increase from October 2017. About Trusted Media Brands, Inc. Trusted Media Brands, Inc. comprises a network of engaged, active readers who genuinely connect with its blend of uplifting and expertly-curated family, food, health, home improvement, finance and humor content digitally, via magazines and books, social media, and events and experiences. Founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace as Reader's Digest Association, one of the first user-generated content publishers, Trusted Media Brands, is headquartered in New York City. For more information, visit www.trustedmediabrands.com. Media Contact: Becky Wisdom [email protected] 646-518-4224 SOURCE Trusted Media Brands Related Links http://www.trustedmediabrands.com NEW YORK, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Website monitoring service Uptime.com (http://www.uptime.com) recently provided services to ProPublica's Electionland project to help journalists report on voter access, cybersecurity and election integrity in the 2018 midterm elections. Uptime.com's specialized website alert monitoring tool tracked official election-related websites to detect and document voting impediments and disruptions from website outages, hacking and other issues. ProPublica used the Uptime.com API to monitor the performance of more than 4,000 sites including voter information, online registration, polling and registration site lookup and election returns sites across the country every five minutes to provide accurate, real-time data during the elections. ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates and exposes abuses of power by the government, businesses, and other institutions. The organization created Electionland as a free, collaborative resource for journalists to share data and leads regarding election problems in their area. The goal: to help reporters shed light on troubling issues like harassment at the polls, ballot confusion, misleading information, and broken voting machines. "Just as a healthy infrastructure is an enterprise's most valuable asset, a healthy election infrastructure is the lifeblood of democracy," said Uptime Director, Daniel Gershuni. "It was gratifying to participate in the Electionland initiative and help ProPublica detect threats to voter information and access particularly at this crucial moment in our country's history." Uptime.com monitors enterprise & SMB customer websites' availability and performance at one-minute intervals from probe servers across six continents. Customers receive critical insights on their site infrastructure and make data-driven optimizations to improve end-user experience. Uptime.com offers 16 types of checks to monitor website and mobile app uptime. **About Uptime** Founded in 2013 & headquartered in Manhattan, Uptime.com (https://Uptime.com) is an industry leading website uptime & performance solution with customers including Kraft, BNP Paribas, SAGE Publishing & Autodesk. Co-founded by seasoned B2B software entrepreneurs, Uptime.com was ranked by TechRadar as a top 5 best website monitoring service. Media Contact: Jennifer Briston Email: [email protected] Related Links Uptime.com ProPublica's Electionland SOURCE Uptime.com Related Links http://www.uptime.com LITTLETON, Colo., Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Ur-Energy Inc. (NYSE American:URG) (TSX:URE), announces that it will be featured as a presenting company at the LD Micro Main Event being held December 4-6, 2018 at the Luxe Sunset Blvd Hotel in Los Angeles, California. Jeffrey Klenda, Chairman and CEO, will present at the conference, providing an overview of Ur-Energy's operations and business and an update on the uranium markets. He will be available to participate in one-on-one meetings with investors who are registered to attend the conference. Event: 11th Annual LD Micro Main Event Date: Wednesday, December 5, 2018 Presentation time: 2:30 p.m. Location: Track 4 at the Luxe Sunset Blvd Hotel 11461 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles CA 90049 Registration is required. For more information on the conference or to schedule a one-on-one meeting with Mr. Klenda, please contact David Scher at [email protected] Mr. Klenda's presentation will be webcast following the event and will be available on our website www.ur-energy.com. About Ur-Energy Ur-Energy is a uranium mining company operating the Lost Creek in-situ recovery uranium facility in south-central Wyoming. We have produced, packaged and shipped more than 2.4 million pounds from Lost Creek since the commencement of operations. Applications are under review by various agencies to incorporate our LC East project area into the Lost Creek permits, and to construct and operate at our Shirley Basin Project. Ur-Energy is engaged in uranium mining, recovery and processing activities, including the acquisition, exploration, development and operation of uranium mineral properties in the United States. Shares of Ur-Energy trade on NYSE American under the symbol "URG" and on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "URE." Ur-Energy's corporate office is in Littleton, Colorado; its registered office is in Ottawa, Ontario. UrEnergy's website is www.ur-energy.com. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT Jeffrey Klenda Chairman & CEO 866-981-4588 [email protected] SOURCE Ur-Energy Inc. Related Links http://www.ur-energy.com CLEVELAND, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- US demand for household furniture is forecast to rise 2.8% annually in nominal terms through 2022, according to Household Furniture: United States, a report recently released by Freedonia Focus Reports. Suppliers will benefit from continued gains in new housing completions and residential improvement expenditures. Increases in disposable personal income will support consumer purchases of premium furniture to outfit their living spaces. However, sales of used furniture, particularly via online marketplaces, will continue to impede faster gains. More information about the report is available at: https://www.freedoniafocusreports.com/Household-Furniture-United-States-FF20010/ Demand for upholstered indoor and outdoor furniture, the largest segment, is forecast to rise 3.3% annually through 2022. Increases in residential improvements will support sales, as consumers often purchase new upholstered furniture when renovating their homes. Ongoing expansion in residential floor space will create more opportunities for furniture placement. These and other key insights are featured in Household Furniture: United States. This report forecasts to 2022 US household furniture demand and shipments in nominal US dollars at the manufacturer level. Total demand and shipments are segmented by type in terms of: upholstered indoor and outdoor indoor wood indoor metal outdoor wood and metal plastic and other furniture types such as cane, rattan, and rubber To illustrate historical trends, total demand, total shipments, the various segments, and trade are provided in annual series from 2007 to 2017. Sales of mattresses and box springs are excluded from the scope of this report. Re-exports of household furniture are excluded from trade figures. About Freedonia Focus Reports Each month, The Freedonia Group a division of MarketResearch.com publishes over 20 new or updated Freedonia Focus Reports, providing fresh, unbiased analysis on a wide variety of markets and industries. Published in 20-30 pages, Focus Report coverage ranges from raw materials to finished manufactured goods and related services such as freight and construction. Additional Consumer Goods reports can be purchased at Freedonia Focus Reports or MarketResearch.com. Analysis is intended to guide the busy reader through pertinent topics in rapid succession, including: total historical market size and industry output segmentation by products and markets identification of market drivers, constraints, and key indicators segment-by-segment outlook in five-year forecasts a survey of the supply base suggested resources for further study Press Contact: Corinne Gangloff +1 440.684.9600 [email protected] SOURCE The Freedonia Group Related Links https://www.freedoniafocusreports.com CHICAGO, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Vibes , a mobile marketing leader, today announced that the latest Net Promoter Score (NPS) research conducted by an independent third-party shows the company achieved a rating of +75. This places Vibes above some of the largest, most respected brands in the world in terms of customer satisfaction and is more than double the software industry average of +31. The NPS is a highly regarded metric that measures customer experience and loyalty. It is calculated by asking customers if they would recommend a company's products or services to a friend or colleague. This standardized measure allows for comparisons within and across industries and is used by companies to evaluate measures of customer service and retention. "At Vibes, we are dedicated to delivering the best customer experience, providing features that address customers' needs and enabling them to make stronger connections in an industry that is rapidly evolving," said Alex Campbell, chief innovation officer at Vibes. "Today's consumers are busier than ever; our job is to help people genuinely engage with the companies they love." Vibes was launched in 1998 with the goal of creating an intersection between mobile and marketing. Twenty years later, Vibes is a recognized leader in the U.S. and has expanded throughout Europe and Asia. The NPS achievement comes on the heels of recent awards wins for the company and represents powerful feedback from customers across the world. In September the company won the ' Lighthouse ' award from the Illinois Technology Association's 2018 CityLights Awards. Vibes was also recognized as a Winner in the Annual 2018 Customer Sales and Service World Awards in July for its customer service team overall leadership and management. About Vibes Vibes enables marketers to deliver compelling and profitable mobile engagement conversations. The Vibes Mobile Engagement Platform lets marketers easily manage all mobile communication channels including text messaging, push notifications, Apple Wallet, Google Pay, messaging apps, and mobile web campaigns all through a single interface. With a world-class NPS score of +75, Vibes is a customer-first company, serving brands such as Chipotle, Discover, Lane Bryant, PetSmart and Allstate. To learn more about Vibes, visit www.vibes.com . SOURCE Vibes Related Links http://www.vibes.com SHANGHAI, Nov. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Westwin, a leading marketing and consulting firm that focuses on cross-border business, has participated in the panel event "Inside the Mind of Young China: A Young Professionals Panel Discussion", organized by Hutong School, a foreign-owned institute providing Chinese language courses and internships. Two representatives from Westwin, Larry You, Marketing Manager, and Lu Jin, Sales Manager, provided insights into the digital marketing industry and how international students can get involved in the industry. The event was held at Red Cactus, Shanghai. With the aim of helping young, international talents learn more about living and working in China, Hutong School regularly welcomes working professionals to share industry insights, educate students on the intricacies of the Chinese workplace, plan for their academic future, and eliminate any doubts they have when considering starting a career in the region. Hutong School's panel discussion brought together five professionals working in the digital marketing, financial technology, medicine and healthcare fields. Drawing on their experience gained in China and abroad, the panelists shared lessons they had learned while trying to break through cultural and professional barriers and eliminate misunderstandings about China and its corporate culture during their careers. "More than 80% of the 60 foreign students who participated in the event marked it as 'extraordinarily rewarding'. We hope that more international companies like Westwin will be able to offer advice about living and working in China to international students interested in the Chinese market," said Astrid Soetanto, Program Director of Hutong School. "I am glad to be here for the younger generation who are interested in working in China. They come here with questions, and I'm happy to get them answered," said Larry You, Marketing Manager of Westwin. "Having set up offices in China, the U.K., and the U.S., Westwin aims to serve as a bridge between the East and West in the field of digital marketing by understanding and observing both cultures and the way people think." "We can see from the event that more and more overseas youth are interested in the Chinese market. We look forward to having more international talent join us in China," said You. Westwin has a long history of conducting social outreach programs benefiting schools and students. Its predecessor, MSN China, launched a public service event "MSN Rainbow Hope Elementary School" in 2009, the same year as the devastating earthquake shook Sichuan. It was the first public service activity in China to collect donations online, raising RMB 1.24 million (about US$ 179,000) from enterprises. The funds raised were donated to a foundation established to rebuild local schools in Deyang City, Luojiang County, Sichuan Province. "We've been placing great emphasis on social welfare work, and we'll continue to do so," said You. About Hutong School Founded in 2005, Hutong School is the leading foreign-owned Chinese language school in China and provides full immersion programs in Beijing and Shanghai. Hutong School is committed to creating new opportunities for young, talented students by linking them with both Chinese and international companies in China. The school attaches great importance to the quality of its Chinese classes and internships, enabling students to acquire both linguistic and professional knowledge about China. About Westwin Westwin, formerly known as Microsoft Online (MSN China), is a leading marketing consulting firm that focuses on cross-border business. We provide branding strategies and digital marketing solutions to help clients achieve success in China and around the world. Westwin is a certified marketing & advertising partner of Baidu, Tencent WeChat, Sina Weibo and more major digital platforms in China. With years of experience in cross-border business and partnership growth, we are equipped with the knowledge and expertise to take your business to the next level in overseas markets. SOURCE Westwin Washington, Nov 28 : 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, Xinhua news agency reported. Manafort was accused of 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 signalled 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 US 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 fuelled 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. 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, 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. In a statement on Tuesday, Manafort, however, denied having met with Assange. "This story is totally false and deliberately libellous. I have never met Julian Assange or anyone connected to him," he said. Canberra, Nov 28 : The opposition Australian Labor Party (ALP) has launched a renewed push to have the country's Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton disqualified from Parliament. The ALP's power in the lower house of Australian Parliament, the House of Representatives, was bolstered on Tuesday when Julia Banks, MP for Chisholm in Melbourne's eastern suburbs, announced she was quitting the governing Liberal National Party (LNP) to become an independent, Xinhua news agency reported. Tony Burke, manager of ALP business, confirmed that the party would use its new position to try and refer the case of Dutton's eligibility to serve as an MP to the High Court. Dutton's eligibility to sit as a MP came under question in August when it was revealed that he was the beneficiary of a trust that received subsidies from the federal government via childcare centres. Under section 44(v) of the Australian Constitution, anyone with a "direct or indirect interest in an agreement" with the government is ineligible to serve as an MP due to a possible conflict of interest. Legal advice from the Solicitor-General in August found that Dutton was "not incapable" of serving as an MP but conceded there was "some risk" he could be disqualified by the High Court. "The government should refer Peter Dutton to the High Court. The Solicitor-General's advice made clear there is doubt that only the High Court can resolve," Burke told reporters on Wednesday. The ALP tried to refer Dutton's case to the High Court in August but was foiled by the LNP, which held 76 of 150 seats in the House of Representatives at the time. However, Banks' defection left the LNP with only 74 seats and Labor with 69, with seven independents. If the ALP was able to secure the support of all seven independent MPs it would be able to refer Dutton to the High Court. Aizawl, Nov 28 : Amid tight security, polling began at 7 am for the 40-member Mizoram assembly election on Wednesday, officials said. According to senior police officials, around 11,100 security personnel comprising central paramilitary and state security forces have been deployed to foil any attempt to create trouble during the polling. Voting will continue uninterrupted till 4 pm. In all 768,181 voters, including 393,685 women, would decide the electoral fate of the 209 candidates, of whom 15 are women. In 2013, only six women had contested and none were successful. Mizoram's Joint Chief Electoral Officer Zorammuana told IANS that no untoward incident has been reported so far from anywhere in the state. Besides the 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 the 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 be between the ruling Congress and the MNF. Both the parties have fielded 40 candidates each. The BJP has fielded candidates in 39 constituencies. Except for 10 years -- 1998-2003 and 2003-2008 -- the Congress has been in power in Mizoram since it became a full-fledged state in 1987. Votes will be counted on December 11 along with four other poll-bound states -- Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Chhattisgarh. Bhopal, Nov 28 : Polling is underway for the 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly on Wednesday. Several faulty EVMs and VVPAT machines have been replaced within the first hour, officials said. In Ujjain, two faulty electronic voting machines (EVMs) and 11 Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines were replaced by the Election Commission officials. In Bhuranpur constituency, five VVPATs and two faulty EVMs were replaced by 9 a.m. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan voted with his family in Jait village under Bhudni constituency. He is contesting against Congress' Arun Yadav. State Congress chief Kamal Nath also casted his vote, after a temple visit along with his family, at a polling booth in Chhindwara. Polling began at 7 a.m. for three Maoist-affected constituencies in Balaghat district, while votes were cast in the remaining 227 assembly seats starting 8 a.m. Polling would end in the three constituencies -- Baihar, Lanji and Paraswada -- at 3 p.m, while it would continue till 5 p.m. in all the other constituencies. The contest is mainly between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress, though the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) are also in the fray. Among the 2,907 candidates in Madhya Pradesh, the BJP has fielded candidates in all seats, while the Congress is contesting in 229 seats leaving one seat, Jatara in Tikamgarh district, for Sharad Yadav-led Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD). The BSP has fielded 227 candidates and the SP is contesting in 51 seats. There are 1,102 Independent candidates. In the last elections, the BJP won 165, Congress 58, BSP four and Independents three. Over five crore registered voters in the state -- 2,63,01,300 men, 2,41,30,390 women and 1,389 of the third gender -- would decide the fate of almost 3,000 candidates. New Delhi, Nov 28 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday appealed to the people of Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram to participate in large numbers as polling got underway in both states. "I urge all voters in the state to take part in democracy's biggest festival with full enthusiasm and to vote in huge numbers," Modi tweeted to Madhya Pradesh voters. "I request my sisters and brothers of Mizoram, particularly the dynamic youth of the state, to turnout in large numbers and vote," he said. Polling for the 230 seat Madhya Pradesh Assembly and 40-member Mizoram Assembly was underway amid tight security and would continue till 5 p.m. and 4 p.m., respectively. The Bharatiya Janata Party, which has been in power in Madhya Pradesh since 2003, is seeking a fourth consecutive term. Except for 10 years -- 1998-2003 and 2003-2008 -- the Congress has been in power in Mizoram since it became a full-fledged state in 1987. Votes will be counted on December 11 along with three other poll-bound states -- Rajasthan, Telangana and Chhattisgarh. New Delhi : India's public healthcare system is sick. In late September, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration launched Ayushman Bharat, meaning Long Life India, to address this illness. This initiative, which has been described as the "world's biggest healthcare programme" will insure more than 500 million Indian citizens who currently have no coverage. Will "Modicare", as the programme has been labeled, cure what ails India's public health care system? The answer is maybe. That answer must be equivocal because of the enormity of India's healthcare needs, concerns regarding the adequacy of funding to address those needs, and uncertainty regarding Modicare's implementation. Healthcare in India today is tale of two groups. The first group is the wealthy and upper middle-class who receive their healthcare primarily from private sector providers. Overall, that healthcare is of good quality and easily accessible but can be expensive. The second group is the lower middle-class and the poor who receive their healthcare primarily from public sector providers. Overall, that healthcare is of poor quality, difficult to access and the money spent on it is insubstantial. In 2015, India's public expenditure on public healthcare was approximately one per cent of its GDP. This compares quite unfavorably to other countries who provide some form of universal healthcare coverage. For example, Singapore expended 2.2 per cent of its GDP, South Korea expended 4.2 per cent and the United States expended 8.5 per cent. India's small expenditures are reflected in its healthcare performance. Some of the deficiencies of the current system are: The per capita insurance expenditure on healthcare is one of the lowest in the world. Over 75 per cent of Indians have no health insurance. Because the states carry the primary burden for healthcare coverage, there is a significant difference in the scope and nature of that coverage across the country. There is a huge rural-urban disparity in terms of the quantity and quality of coverage. Compared to the rest of the world, India has an average number of doctors but they attend to only one third of the Indian population. The lack of adequate insurance coverage and availability of public sector health care causes Indians to have to cover more than 60 per cent of their expenses personally. Ayushman Bharat is structured to address these conditions. It provides poor families insurance of up to $6,950 (nearly Rs 500,000) for hospitalisation, calls for the establishment of 150,000 health and wellness centres to provide primary care throughout India and emphasises holistic healthcare ideas such as yoga as part of this intervention. The programme will expand the public health network far beyond the existing governmental hospitals. It will pay public and private sector facilities a fixed rate for covered services. To date, 15,000 hospitals have applied to be certified providers. This appears to be a solid framework for launching this new initiative. The government has appropriated $1.5 billion for Modicare health insurance for 2018-19 and 2019-20. Of this, $300 million is allocated for the first year of the programme. This seems like a lot of money. But, $1.5 billion divided by 500 million covered lives means this is only $3,000 per individual -- a very modest amount. The total allocation also seems insufficient when unknowns are considered: What percentage of the-newly insured will take advantage of their coverage in year one? Who provides payment when an insured individual or family exceeds it coverage? To what extent will private sector providers deliver their services at fixed rates to public sector patients, if they can get full payment from more affluent clients? Another problem is the issue of implementation and roll-out. The new scheme looks good on paper. But establishing 150,000 health and wellness centres is much easier said than done. This is especially true given that doing this will require extensive collaboration and coordination with India's 29 states and seven Union Territories which have varying levels of capacity and competence. In sum, this is not a negative or pessimistic perspective on India's new healthcare programme, but a realistic one. Modicare represents a beginning and an initial step that must be taken to bring India's healthcare system into the 21st century. Some have criticised the introduction of this new programme as a political stunt designed to influence the results of the national elections to be held in 2019. Regardless of why it was done, this action was essential given the sad and sorry state of India's current public healthcare system. The challenge and opportunity is to continue to move the healthcare ball up the field. The goal for whomever becomes the next Prime Minister should be to make India's healthcare programme not only the "world's biggest" but also among its finest. Accomplishing this will help to move India from a developing to a developed nation and bring it closer to becoming a full-fledged world leader. (Frank F. Islam is an entrepreneur, civic and thought leader based in Washington, D.C. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at ffislam@verizon.net) New Delhi, Nov 28 : Hollywood star Will Smith is celebrating how far his once challenged relationship with his oldest son Trey has come. The "Aladdin" star, 50, shared an emotional Instagram video of himself on Tuesday from his Abu Dhabi hotel room, reports people.com. "So I'm in Abu Dhabi at the F1. I brought my son Trey. We been hanging and usually I take my kids separately on stuff just so they have their individual daddy time," Smith, wearing a white bathrobe, said. He continued, "So we been doing this, me and him hanging out at the F1. And he just hit me with, 'You know what dad? I just realized you're not just my dad.' He paused and he said, 'I'm pretty sure you're my best friend.'" The "Bright" actor got emotional as he pursed his lips and said, "I was like, 'Whoo. Yeah, man. Probably. Probably." In the caption, the father of three wrote, "It has not always been like this between Trey and I we struggled for years after my divorce from his Mother. He felt betrayed and abandoned." He added, "It is a wild blessing to recover and restore a loving relationship with 'My Beautiful Son!" Smith married 26-year-old Trey's mother, Sheree Zampino, in 1992 and they divorced in 1995. Despite the split, Smith has remained friendly with Zampino, as is his wife Jada Pinkett Smith. Hyderabad, Nov 28 : TDP founder N.T. Rama Rao's granddaughter N. Venkata Suhasini, who is contesting the Telangana Assembly election from Kukatpally constituency in Greater Hyderabad, is banking on her lineage. The presence of Suhasini in the electoral fray in Telangana is significant as the top leadership of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) moved to Andhra Pradesh following the bifurcation of the undivided state. TDP has fielded Suhasini, daughter of former Minister N. Harikrishna, who died in a road accident this year. Suhasini, 43, is a social activist and is banking on her lineage to win the election from this prestigious constituency, which has considerable a number of voters with their roots in Andhra Pradesh. However, the family of the late actor-turned-politician NTR stands divided in the campaigning. Suhasini's aunt and Union Minister N. Purandeswari hit the campaign trail in Kukatpally not for her niece but for M. Kantha Rao, the candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Purandeswari, daughter of NTR, was a Minister in the UPA government but she quit the Congress party and joined the BJP after the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. The TDP, which is part of opposition grand alliance led by the Congress, is contesting 13 seats in the December 7 election to the 119-member Telangana Assembly. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu is expected to campaign for Suhasini. Naidu is the son-in-law of NTR. Paritala Sunita, a Minister in Naidu's cabinet, was in the constituency to conduct road shows in support of Suhasini. NTR's actor son and TDP legislator N. Balakrishna has already announced that he will campaign for his niece. Suhasini's brothers and popular actors Junior NTR and Kalyan Ram are also likely to address meetings in her support. Suhasini's cousin Taraka Ratna, also an actor, is campaigning for her. Telangana's ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has fielded M. Krishna Rao, who won the 2014 elections from here on TDP ticket but later joined the ruling party. Interestingly, Krishna Rao's brother Kantha Rao is the BJP candidate. Kukatpally is like a mini-India with people belonging to various states and communities settled here. About 60 percent of the people have their roots in Andhra Pradesh. The YSR Congress Party, which is the main opposition party in Andhra Pradesh, is not contesting the polls in Telangana. However, the party has declared its support to the TRS in Kukatpally. As TDP is contesting the election in alliance with the Congress, the former hopes that the transfer of Congress votes will brighten Suhasini's prospects. In 2014, the TDP had bagged the seat with a margin of nearly over 43,000 votes. However, the equations have changed in the constituency with the deletion of 1.31 lakh voters after verification by the election authorities. The constituency now has 3.30 lakh voters. New Delhi, Nov 28 : Designer Samant Chauhan, who is known to create exceptional silhouettes with handwoven textile, opened his first store in Mumbai and says that his next plan includes expansion in the city with participation in fashion weeks and exhibitions. "I look at concentrating on expanding and exploring opportunities in Mumbai in the near future through participating in Mumbai exhibition and fashion shows," Chauhan told IANS when asked about his expansion plans in the city. Located opposite the Taj Mahal Hotel, the new store in Colaba reflects the architectural style and aesthetic sense that encapsulates the neighbourhood. Furthermore, the quaint 700 square feet store serves as an extension to his Delhi store, with a varied range to appeal to the Mumbai traveller and clientele. "When I decided to open a store in Mumbai, I knew this is the area I would look at opening. Though the market research points out that Kala Ghoda is the better option but I choose Colaba as I also wanted to target tourists and not the typical buyers. Colaba provided all of it. "My pieces are not loud and the colour palette that I use is also subtle which aligns with taste of the tourists as well as the buyers of the city. Mumbai clients know what they are looking for in terms of silhouettes and structure which makes it better for a designer to understand their choice," said the designer. The designer unveiled his latest collection - "Do Not Allow Me To Forget You" (BOMBAY) which is inspired by his memories of the city. The palette includes unexplored hues that the label has not played around with, so far. Silhouettes like open jackets and pants, gowns, organza silk kaftans, period dresses are few highlights. The semi-couture range is lightweight and apt for upcoming occasions. New Delhi, Nov 28 : After mesmerising followers with performances, legends of Indian classical and contemporary dance -- Birju Maharaj, Leela Samson and Astad Deboo -- will open up about their life and works in a conversational style for an upcoming festival here. Coming together for the second edition of the three-day Natya Ballet Dance Festival, to be held in association with Sangeet Natak Akademi, the living legends will engage their audiences in an open interaction. In conversation would be legendary Kathak dancer Birju Maharaj, who is also a musician, percussionist, composer, director, choreographer and a poet. Recipient of India's second highest civilian honour Padma Vibhushan, Maharaj comes from a family of dancers and has also dabbled into films. Another noted classical dancer, Leela Samson would also feature in the festival. Samson, a Bharatanatyam exponent who has served as the chairperson of the Central Board Of Film Certification and the Sangeet Natak Akademi, is a recipient of the Padma Shri. Veteran danseuse Astad Deboo, a pioneer of the Indian contemporary dance, has performed in over 30 countries and describes his style as "contemporary in vocabulary and traditional in restraints", the organisers said in a statement. All the three doyens, along with Mallika Sarabhai, an eminent choreographer, dancer, filmmaker, actor and writer, would speak in moderated sessions as part of the festival. Other key events of the festival include masterclasses, a puppet-based retelling of the epic Mahabharata, dialogues on dance and theatre, and dance and film, along with stagings of dance productions. As per the festival curators, the festival seeks to "go beyond just dance to showcase the various aspects of it inside and outside the proscenium space, and more importantly in the context of theatre and film". The dance festival is slated to take place from November 30 to December 2 at the Sangeet Natak Akademi here. Entry is free for the public. Mumbai, Nov 28 : Barely 72 hours after the Centre announced it was allotting a whopping 55,649 new petrol pumps in the country, the apex body of petrol-diesel retailers plan to challenge the decision in court, a senior office-bearer said on Wednesday. All India Petrol Dealers Association (AIPDA) President Ajay Bansal said the government's move of November 25 appeared contrary to its own policy and the dealers would question its legal validity. "On one hand, the Centre has announced the closure of petrol pumps replacing them with alternative fuels by 2025. But, now they are publishing advertisements for allotting a second string of new petrol pumps. So what exactly is this policy?" Bansal wondered. Presently, India has 56,000 retail petrol bunks of the three government-oil marketing companies (OMCs) -- Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL), Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) and Indian Oil Corp Ltd (IOCL), besides another 6,000 outlets owned by private companies. From these fuel stations, the average monthly sales for the OMCs comes to between 120-130 kilolitre with an average annual increase in demand on petrol-diesel of around 4 per cent. The AIPDA has expressed surprise that against 56,000 retail outlets opened in the past 70 years, the present government wants to start a whopping 55,649 new outlets at one shot, with just a meager 4 per cent growth in annual sales. The most disturbing fact is that around 80 percent of the total retail outlets are under severe stress due to low sales, adding to their financial losses and debt burdens, while employing over one million people. "A government committee has said in its report that a petrol pump is viable only if it notches sales of minimum 170,000 litres fuel each month," Bansal pointed out. In such a scenario, Bansal termed the government decision as "wrong, misleading the public for popularity and even the prospective investors who want to get into this business". AIPDA national spokesperson Ali Daruwalla rued that currently many want to get out of the business, but there was no exit route for dealers wanting to quit as the OMCs would not return the land on which the pump was set up as per prevailing rules. "When the government is introducing alternatives fuels like electricity, biofuels, CNG, on one side and doubling the number of petrol pumps, the decision smacks of ignorance or a compromise of the existing business," Daruwalla told IANS. Federation of All Maharashtra Petrol Dealers Association (FAMPEDA) President Uday Lodh said that with the proposed doubling of retail outlets, the average sales volumes of both existing and new dealers would fall. "In such dismal circumstances, petrol bunks may be compelled to explore alternative business streams or even open tea-pakora stalls to meet their expenses," Lodh said. Calling for transparency, the AIPDA reiterated that before opening any new outlet, the OMCs must publicise their economic viability report, specify the returns on investments especially with the daily price change mechanism now in force, and provide an exit route to ensure it is not "being deceitful to the new businessmen". Jhalrapatan (Rajasthan), Nov 28 : Pitted against Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bastion of Jhalrapatan, former Union Minister Jaswant Singh's son Manvendra Singh is banking on Rajput "anger" and his father's legacy to win the toughest electoral battle of his life. A former Lok Sabha member and now an MLA from Sheo constituency in Barmer, he was nominated within a month of joining the Congress to fight Raje, a decision that surprised many -- including the candidate himself. "I wanted to contest the (2019) Lok Sabha polls but have been fielded by the party to contest the assembly polls. It is indeed a tough battle for the fact that I am new to Jhalrapatan while Raje has been winning the seat since 2003," Singh, a colonel in the Territorial Army who saw action during the 1999 Kargil war, told IANS in an interview. A small town in Jhalawar district, Jhalrapatan is among the most keenly-watched seats where the contest is as much personal as political. Besides Muslims and Dalits, who form the bulk of voters in Jhalrapatan, the Congress by fielding Singh, is eyeing the sizable Rajput electorate which has traditionally voted for the BJP but has been increasingly growing disenchanted with the ruling party. The Rajput discontent against Raje stems from the denial in 2014 of a ticket to BJP stalwart Jaswant Singh -- a former foreign, finance and defence minister, party vice president and a close confidante of late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee -- to contest the Lok Sabha polls from Barmer, his home district. The BJP had then fielded Congress turncoat and Jat leader Sonaram Chaudhary, who won the seat. Jaswant Singh, 80, who lost contesting as an independent in the 2014, has virtually faded into political oblivion after a stroke after a fall. The Singh family holds Raje responsible for denying Jaswant Singh a ticket in 2014 and by defeating the Chief Minister, it is hoping to "avenge the insult and humiliation" of the Rajputs by the BJP. Even though he insists the "battle of Jhalrapatan" is a political fight between the Congress and the BJP, Singh, he, nonetheless, says it is "Rajput pride" -- which made him quit the BJP and embrace the Congress -- that is at stake. "We have been consistently targeted by Raje and the BJP. My joining the Congress was not a personal decision but of the people of not only of Jhalrapatan but entire Rajasthan who are angry over the nature and culture of governance, years of misrule and humiliation," he said. Singh had in September announced quitting the BJP during a "swabhiman" (self-respect) rally in Barmer, where he had said "Kamal Ka Phool, Hamaari Bhool" (choosing the BJP symbol lotus was our mistake). While conceding it was an "unequal contest", Singh said it was also a battle against "favouritism and vindictiveness" and his weapons were the people's anger against BJP, and his father's legacy. "No doubt it is an unequal battle, but sentiments of the people are equally important. It is a battle against years of vindictiveness, of humiliation. It is the anger against years of neglect and corruption -- also, my father's legacy -- which will bring Raje's downfall," said Singh, asserting that Congress coming to power in the state was a forgone conclusion. Over 600 km from his family turf Barmer, Singh, accompanied by his wife Chitra, has been actively campaigning in his constituency against Raje's "incompetent and corrupt" government. Going from door to door, he has been trying to convince the voters about his "honest politics" as against the all-pervasive corruption of the Raje government. The Congress campaign also revolves around stoking the anger of Rajputs who are deeply anguished at the Raje government over the killing of gangster Anandpal Singh in a police gunfight in 2017. Alleging it to be staged, Rajput bodies like the Rajput Karni Sena and Shri Rajput Sabha had staged multiple demonstrations demanding a CBI probe. The Rajputs are also miffed over Raje preventing Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat from becoming the Rajasthan BJP chief. Currently, Rajya Sabha member and OBC leader Madanlal Saini is the state party chief. Jhalrapatan, along with 199 other constituencies, goes to polls on December 7 to elect a new assembly. The results of the Rajasthan Assembly, along with that of Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana, will be declared on December 11. The current round of Assembly polls is being perceived a "semi-final" before the country plunges into the 2019 Lok Sabha battle. (Anurag Dey can be contacted at anurag.d@ians.in) In 2015, volunteers with the Holiday Lights Fund raised money to purchase and install white Christmas lights on trees in the citys Uptown and South Park business districts, as well as white, illuminated decorations that were strung across Prospect Avenue and placed on existing light poles. But the decorations had to be taken down shortly after they were put up in 2016 when structural problems with the light poles, due to a defect in the manufacturing, were discovered, Zingsheim said. San Francisco, Nov 28 : Renewing their public protests, hundreds of Google employees have demanded in an open letter withdrawal of "Project Dragonfly," Google's effort to create a censored search engine for the Chinese market. "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 Google employees wrote in an open letter published on Medium on Tuesday. "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," they wrote. Google had earlier launched a search engine in China in 2006 but pulled the plug in 2010, citing Chinese government efforts to limit free speech and block websites. But now the search giant is trying to have bigger presence in the Chinese market and information regarding Google's "Dragonfly" project began surfacing in August. Since then the company has faced severe backlash from its employees as well as the US government. In September, Google reportedly developed a prototype of "Dragonfly" that linked users' search history to their personal phone numbers allowing security agencies to easily track users seeking out information banned by the government. Google has confirmed the existence of the project at an "experimental" level, but said that it was not close to launch. In their new open letter, the Google employees said that providing the Chinese government with ready access to user data, as required by Chinese law, would make the company complicit in oppression and human rights abuses. Amnesty International also launched on Tuesday a global petition calling on Google CEO Sundar Pichai to drop project Dragonfly that would blacklist search terms like "human rights" and "Tiananmen Crackdown". "This is a watershed moment for Google. 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," said Joe Westby, Amnesty International's Researcher on Technology and Human Rights. Hyderabad, Nov 28 : India won't attend the proposed Saarc Summit in Pakistan and there will be no dialogue with Islamabad until it stops sponsoring terrorism, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj announced on Wednesday. Sushma Swaraj made it clear that New Delhi will not participate in the Saarc summit and it was not responding to an invite from Pakistan for Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the gathering of South Asian leaders. "As I said, unless and until Pakistan stops terrorist activities in India, there will be no dialogue and we will not participate in Saarc," she told the media here. Modi will be invited to Pakistan for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) Summit, Foreign Office spokesman Mohammed Faisal said on Tuesday. The Saarc Summit of 2016 which was to be held in Pakistan was cancelled after India boycotted the event, triggering a pullout by Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Bhutan. Sushma Swaraj said on Wednesday that talks and terror cannot go together. She said that although India welcomed the development of the Kartarpur corridor for Sikh pilgrims, it would not have any dialogue with Islamabad till it stopped sponsoring terrorism. "Bilateral dialogues and Kartarpur corridor are two different things. I am very happy that for the last 20 years, rather many years, the government of India has been asking for this Kartarpur corridor and for the first time Pakistan responded positively," she said. "But that doesn't mean that bilateral dialogue will start... We always say terror and talks can't go together. The moment Pakistan stops terrorist activities in India, the dialogue can start. The dialogue is not connected with only Kartarpur corridor," she added. Sushma Swaraj said she could not attend Kartarpur ceremony because she was tied up with a visit to Telangana. She refused to comment on Punjab Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu's participation in the ceremony related to the corridor opening and referred to his statement that he was going there in his personal capacity. The Minister said it was for the Punjab Chief Minister and Congress party to comment on Sidhu's participation. Union Ministers Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Puri are in Pakistan to attend the ceremony. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan will perform the ground breaking ceremony for the project near the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara, where Sikhism's founder, Guru Nanak Dev, spent the last 18 years of his life. Srinagar, Nov 28 : A top Pakistani commander of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) who was wanted for the murder of senior journalist Shujaat Bukhari was shot dead on Wednesday in a gun battle in Jammu and Kashmir's Badgam district, police said, calling it "good news". In what is seen as a major success for security forces, Naveed Jatt alias Abu Hanzullah was among the two militants killed in the gunfight that followed a cordon and search operation in Kuthpora village, Director General of Police Dilbagh Singh told the media. "Yes, we have ground confirmation that one of the two terrorists killed in Badgam was Naveed Jatt," the officer said. Naveed Jatt, who hailed from Multan in Pakistan, was the most wanted LeT commander in Kashmir. He was wanted for the June murder of "Rising Kashmir" Editor Bukhari in Srinagar. Bukhari was killed by militants along with two security guards. Police believe Naveed Jatt was among the three militants who carried out the crime. He had escaped from police custody on February 6 when he was taken from the Srinagar Central Jail to S.M.H.S. Hospital in the city. Two policemen were killed during the escape. The Pakistani was operating in south and central Kashmir. Intelligence agencies believe he was playing a major role in trying to woo youths towards militancy. Dilbag Singh told the media: "More than two dozen militants have been killed in the last one week. They would lift boys and force them to join militancy. They would also torture them. "Their elimination is good news for the peace-loving people. "For the last two months, no new youth has joined militancy in the Valley. That is a welcome development." The police chief said that security forces do their best to ensure that civilians were not harmed during anti-militancy operations. "Stone pelting incidents have come down. Lesser the number of militants, better for the people. Youths should desist from going to encounter sites. "The militant outfits are unable to recruit more youths. With fresh infiltration, sometimes the number of militants operating here goes up," he said. Hyderabad, Nov 28 : External Affairs Minister and senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday alleged that Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao was bothered about his own family and that he forgot the martyrs of Telangana. She said though Telangana state was formed because of the sacrifices of thousands of youth, power in the new state remained confined to the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief and his four family members. Sushma Swaraj was in Telangana to campaign for the BJP for next month's Assembly elections. "KCR forgot the martyrs whose sacrifices resulted in the formation of Telangana state," she told the media. "He remembered only his family. KCR is Chief Minister, his son and nephew are Ministers, his daughter is Lok Sabha member and his niece is Rajya Sabha member," she said. The BJP leader said that while 2,000 youth sacrificed their lives for the sake of Telangana, KCR recognized only 400 as martyrs and failed to fulfill even the promises made to them in the previous elections. She said that the BJP extended its support to the demand for Telangana when the chips were down. She found fault with the kind of language being used by KCR against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. She said that political parties should not treat their rivals as enemies and should exercise restraint while speaking. Sushma Swaraj denied that the BJP had a secret understanding with TRS. She said the rumours were being spread by those who want to damage the BJP's credibility. "Whatever we do, we do it openly." Aizawl, Nov 28 : Over 50 per cent of the 7.68 lakh Mizoram voters had their franchise in six hours to elect a new assembly on Wednesday, a poll official said. "Little over 50 per cent of the 7,68,181 voters cast their votes by 1 p.m.," Chief Electoral Officer Ashish Kundra told the media. Long queues of colourful motley crowd were seen outside many polling booths in all districts well before the voting began at 7 a.m. With the polling process in the state being peaceful, police and other official sources in fact put the voting percentage around 62 till 2 p.m. "Conducive situation and favourable climate helped the electorate to exercise their franchise smoothly," Kumdra said, adding that some EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines) and VVPAT (Voters Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) devices malfunctioned, but no untoward incident was reported so far. The CEO said that several voters aged above 100 cast their votes, with the help of their family members, at different polling stations. The nine-hour long polling would draw to a close at 4 p.m. Bordered with Myanmar (510 km) and Bangladesh (318 km), the mountainous Mizoram is the Congress' last bastion among the eight Northeastern states. The ruling Congress led by incumbent Chief Minister and state party chief Lal Thanhawla is determined for a third consecutive term despite a stiff challenge mounted by the main opposition Mizo National Front (MNF) headed by former Chief Minister Zoramthanga. Both the Congress and MNF have fielded candidates in all the 40 Assembly constituencies. The Congress has been in power, except for 10 years, since Mizoram became 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. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is also trying to make its presence felt as it has fielded 39 candidates, its highest ever. Many regional parties, including Meghalaya's ruling National People's Party (NPP), have fielded candidates for most of the 40 seats. Women voters have once again outnumbered the men in Mizoram. There are 3,93,685 women and 3,74,496 men and they will decide the fate of 209 candidates, 15 of whom are women. 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. "The BSF (Border Security Force) and Assam Rifles troopers have been asked to further tighten the security along Mizoram's borders with Bangladesh and Myanmar," a Mizoram Election Department official earlier said. Votes will be counted on December 11 along with four other poll-bound states -- Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Chhattisgarh. Ghazni (Afghanistan), Nov 28 : Up to 26 militants have been killed and more than 20 others injured as troops, backed by air force, targeted Taliban hideouts in Afghanistan's eastern province of Ghazni, the Army said on Wednesday. The government forces have been targeting Taliban hideouts in Andar, Gilan, Qarabagh districts as well as in villages outside the provincial capital of Ghazni city since Tuesday, Xinhua news agency reported. A large quantity of arms and ammunition of the militants have been destroyed, an Army statement added. Seoul, Nov 28 : Worry re-emerged in South Korea over a so-called demographic cliff amid the continued fall in childbirth that was mainly blamed on "money problem". The number of newborn babies was 26,100 in September, down 4,000, or 13.3 percent, from a year earlier, Statistics Korea data showed on Wednesday, reports Xinhua news agency. It was the lowest September figure since the statistical agency began compiling the data in 1981, marking the first double-digit decline this year. The number of newborns kept falling for 34 months in a row. For the past decade, concerns lasted about the low birthrate as one of the most serious social issues, but the worry deepened further amid the spreading social trend to delay or avoid marriage. According to social analytics on marriage which unveiled in the parliamentary policy forum on low birthrate, the younger generation delayed or shunned marriage due to financial burden for preparing marriage, purchasing residence and raising a child. The social trend was partly caused by the prolonged high unemployment rate among the younger generation. South Korea is reportedly required to keep the fertility rate at 2.1 to maintain the current population. According to the statistical agency's estimate, the South Korean population was forecast to begin sliding from 2028. Kosgi/Khammam, (Telangana), Nov 28 : Jointly campaigning with foe-turned-friend TDP leader and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu in Telangana, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday asserted the 'People's Front' will not just come to power in the southern state but will also defeat the Modi-led BJP in 2019. Sharing the dais With Naidu at their first public meeting at Khammam, Gandhi called the state's ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) the "B-team" of Prime Minister Modi and flayed the K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR)-led government for farmers' distress and rising unemployment in Telangana. Simultaneously attacking Modi and KCR, Gandhi alleged that both the BJP government at Centre and TRS government in the state were insensitive to the plight of farmers and workers. He promised to waive farm loans and providing minimum support price for 17 crops if the Congress was voted to power in the state. "This fight is not just for Telangana but for the future of India. In Delhi Modi is busy destroying democratic institutions one after the other -- be it the Supreme Court, or the Election Commission and the Reserve Bank of India. "While in Telangana on one side is KCR and his family and on the other are the masses -- farmers, workers, women and the youth. "First the Grand Alliance will defeat Modi's B team TRS in Telangana and then in Delhi we will defeat the A team, the BJP," said Gandhi. Exuding confidence of the alliance coming to power in the state, Gandhi said the Khammam public meeting was not just historic for the state but also for Indian politics. Besides the Congress and the TDP, the Communist Party of India (CPI) and Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) are constituents of the 'People's Front'. Among others to share the dais were CPI leader S. Sudhakar Reddy, TJS leader M. Kodandaram, revolutionary Telugu balladeer Gummadi Vittal Rao, popularly known as Gaddar and Madiga Reservation Porata Samithi (MRPS) leader Manda Krishna Madiga. Earlier addressing a rally in Kosgi of Mahbubnagar district, Gandhi accused the Telangana government of "failing" to keep its promises and attacked Modi for calling Congress "the B team of TRS." "When we were fighting over land acquisition Bill in Parliament, the TRS was helping BJP. TRS helped RSS and Modi in every Bill. TRS is not Telangana Rashtra Samithi, it is Telangana Rashtra Sanghpariwar. It is the 'B-team' of Sangh Pariwar. TRS' aim is that Congress should not oust the BJP at the national level," he said. Gandhi blamed the Rao-led government for giving employment to his family members while failing to give jobs to crores of unemployed youths. "KCR promised to provide 22 lakh double bedroom houses. But the reality is only 5,000 houses have been built. He promised land to SC/ST which has turned out to be a hollow promise." If the Congress came to power, Gandhi said people would get land and houses. "Our Chief Minister will give youths employment or Rs 3,000 allowance. In the first year, our government will give employment to 1 lakh youths in private and government sectors." Gandhi assured people free medical treatment up to Rs 5 lakh and said a 30-bed hospital would be set up in each 'Mandal'. Elections for 119-member Assembly are scheduled for December 7. The Congress has fielded candidates in 94 constituencies, leaving the rest for its allies. The TDP is contesting 13 seats. Latest updates on Howdy Modi Houston Sana'a, Nov 28 : Conflict-affected Yemenis on Wednesday gathered to receive free bread at a charity bakery amid a severe food shortage in the capital Sana'a after three years of devastating civil war. Fourteen million people are at risk of starvation in Yemen, but even with the European Union's pledge on Tuesday to send another 30 million euros ($33.8 million) in aid, many shipping companies are avoiding the key port of Hodeida because of fighting there, the UN World Food Programme warned. Epa-efe photos showed dozens of Yemeni men and women lined up in front of the sky-blue doors and windows of the charity bakery early on Wednesday morning as spiralling food prices have put even basic necessities out of reach for many. Yemen's civil war, in particular the Saudi Arabia-led bombing campaign supported by the US that began in 2015, has collapsed much of the country's already rudimentary infrastructure, isolated vulnerable communities and placed much of the country off-limits to international aid efforts. "Food today is already very, very expensive on the markets because there's not a lot of food _ If less boats arrive, that price will increase even more," WFP spokesperson Herve Verhoosel said at a press conference in Geneva. Verhoosel said around 70 percent of Yemeni imports come through Hodeida's port, currently under siege from Saudi-backed forces looking to wrest it from the Houthi rebel group, which controls the capital and much of the country's north. On Monday, five major humanitarian organizations warned that the man-made crisis in Yemen had reached breaking point, and laid the blame squarely on Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the US. "Countless Yemenis are unlikely to live through the winter unless the parties to the conflict immediately cease hostilities," the joint statement asserted. Rome, Nov 28 : NGO rescue boats will not dock at Italy's ports, hardline Interior Minister Matteo Salvini pledged after three charities announced they were resuming operations off Libya amid a spike in migrant deaths in the Mediterranean. "Our NGO friends can go where they like, but they won't be coming to Italy," Salvini said on Tuesday. He closed Italian ports to rescue ships in June. "When boats return which knowingly or unknowingly abet traffickers, they are doing them a favour," he said. Sea Watch, Proactiva Open Arms and Mediterranean announced on Friday that they were launching a joint rescue operation for migrants off Libya's coast. Supported by a reconnaissance aircraft, the fleet will carry out joint search and rescue in the central Mediterranean and document human rights violations, the charities said, accusing European Union countries of shirking their international legal obligations towards migrants. The last migrant rescue ship operating in the Mediterranean, the Acquarius, chartered by the Doctors without Borders (MSF) and SOS Mediterranee charities, has been stuck in Marseille's since Manama in September revoked the right to fly its flag, allegedly following a request from Italy's far-right government. Last week, MSF said Italy ordered the seizure of the Aquarius for allegedly dumping 24 tonnes of potentially toxic waste at its ports, passing it off as ordinary garbage. According to the park district, positions to be filled include lifeguards and swim instructors, preschool and early childhood teachers and assistants; before- and after-school counselors to supervise students at elementary schools; maintenance building attendants to set up and clean rooms for events; and front desk, fitness attendants and group fitness instructors at Centennial Fitness Center. New Delhi, Nov 28 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday handed over the investigation into all the 17 cases of sexual abuse and exploitation of children at shelter homes in Bihar to the CBI. The court said: "If the state government had done its job properly, the cases might not have gone to the CBI." A bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur, Justice S. Abdul Nazeer and Justice Deepak Gupta directed the Bihar government to provide all manpower, resources and logistical support to the Central Bureau of Investigation even as counsel for the state government made a last-ditch bid to keep the investigation with the state Police. Allowing CBI to expand its existing team of investigators already probing the Muzaffarpur shelter home horror, the court said none of the members of the investigating team would be withdrawn without the permission of the court. Initially the CBI counsel told the court that its earlier October 26 order directing the officiating Director M. Nageswara Rao to perform only the "routine tasks" was coming in the way of taking decision on its yesterday's suggestion to take over investigations in all the 17 cases of child abuse, including sexual abuse of children, at shelter homes in Bihar. The bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi had on October 26 directed Nageswara Rao "not to take any policy decision(s) or any major decision(s) and only perform routine tasks essential to keep the CBI functional." Noting that the October 26 order was no impediment in CBI taking over the investigations in all the 17 cases of child abuse in Bihar shelter homes, Justice Lokur said, "This (October 26 order) does not say that all investigations will stop." The court lambasted the Bihar government saying it has taken all the remedial steps and issued instructions to investigating officers to invoke and incorporate the stringent provisions of criminal law against the accused in Muzaffarpur shelter home horror case. "Can such a direction be issued to an investigating officer? Can Inspector General of Police say invoke certain provisions against an accused and ask the investigating officer to add these sections (of criminal law)?" said Justice Lokur wondering by that corollary, the supervising officer can ask the investigating officer not to invoke certain provisions against the accused. Justice Gupta said such directions to the investigating officer could be counter-productive at a later stage. On Tuesday, the court slammed the Bihar government for not invoking the stringent provision of penal code and that of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) against the accused. The court appeared unimpressed as senior counsel Gopal Singh patting the Bihar government said "The court gave us 24 hours, but we have made rectifications in 12 hours by invoking stringent provisions of the criminal law against the accused." Brushing aside the resistance by Bihar government, with State Chief Secretary present in the court, on handing over the investigation to CBI, Justice Lokur said, "We have seen what you have done." Gopal Singh had said, "This kind of order (transfeering investigation to CBI) will cast doubts" on the ability of the state police. Aizawl, Nov 28 : Over 73 per cent of the 7.68 lakh Mizoram voters on Wednesday exercised their franchise to elect a new Assembly, a top election official said. "Little over 73 per cent of the 7,68,181 voters cast their votes by the end of schedule balloting hour at 4 p.m. However, the percentage might go up to 77-78 per cent as a large number of voters are still in queues at many polling stations in different parts of the state," Chief Electoral Officer Ashish Kundra told the media. Long queues of colourful motley crowd were seen outside many polling booths across districts well before the voting began at 7 a.m. "Conducive situation and favourable climate helped the electorate exercise their franchise smoothly," Kundra said, adding that around 25 EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines) and VVPAT (Voters Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) devices malfunctioned, but no untoward incident has been reported so far. The CEO said that several voters aged above 100 cast their votes with the help of their family members at different polling stations. Sharing borders with Myanmar (510 km) and Bangladesh (318 km), mountainous Mizoram is the last Congress-ruled state of the eight northeastern states. Chief Minister and state Congress head Lal Thanhawla, and former Chief Minister and MNF President Zoramthanga cast their votes in Aizawl. The ruling Congress led by the incumbent Chief Minister and state party chief Lal Thanhawla is aiming for a third consecutive term despite a stiff challenge from the main opposition Mizo National Front (MNF) headed by Zoramthanga. Both Congress and MNF have fielded candidates in all the 40 Assembly constituencies. The Congress has been in power, except for 10 years, ever since Mizoram became 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. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is also trying to make its presence felt as it has fielded 39 candidates -- its highest ever. Many regional parties, including Meghalaya's ruling National People's Party (NPP), have fielded candidates for most of the 40 seats. Women voters have once again outnumbered the men in Mizoram. There are 3,93,685 women and 3,74,496 men and they will decide the fate of 209 candidates, 15 of whom are women. 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. "The BSF (Border Security Force) and Assam Rifles troopers have been asked to further tighten the security along Mizoram's borders with Bangladesh and Myanmar," a Mizoram Election Department official earlier said. Votes will be counted on December 11, along with four other poll-bound states -- Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Chhattisgarh. London, Nov 28 : A London-based popular massage-booking app left its online database containing 309,000 customer profiles unsecured, the media reported. Urban, previously known as Urban Massage, left its Google-hosted ElasticSearch database online without a password. Among the records were allegations of sexual assault, linked to identifiable individuals, the BBC reported on Wednesday. The problem was discovered by researcher Oliver Hough, who shared the discovery with news site TechCrunch. The database also contained more than 2,000 records on Urban massage therapists, including their names, email addresses and phone numbers, according to the TechCrunch report. But it did not leak any financial information -- such as credit cards or individual account passwords. Many records also included allegations of sexual misconduct by clients -- such as asking for "massage in genital area" and requesting "sexual services from therapist." "This data could literally have led to some serious blackmail," Hough wrote on Twitter. Urban said it took the database offline, and was investigating the issue. Bengaluru, Nov 28 : French Ambassador to India Alexandre Ziegler on Wednesday honoured global software major Wipro Chairman Azim Premji with the highest French civilian award Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour) here, in recognition of his contribution to the Indian IT industry and philanthropy. "The award has been bestowed on Premji for his contribution to developing the Information Technology (IT) industry in India, his economic outreach in France and his contribution to society as a philanthropist through the Azim Premji Foundation and Azim Premji University," Ziegler said here. The Legion of Honour, instituted in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte, is the highest civilian award given by the French Republic for outstanding service to France, regardless of the nationality of the recipients. The President of France is the Grand Master of the Order of the Legion of Honour. "I am honoured by the award bestowed on me. The vibrancy of the French democracy and its diversity is an inspiration to all across the world," said Premji on the occasion. 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. Wipro's association with France spans over 15 years, with several French firms and organisations as its clients. Around 65 per cent of the company's employees in France are locals. As France is a key market for Wipro, the company is committed to continued investments there. In a related development, Ziegler also met representatives of 30 French innovative firms in the city. 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. "Ziegler's two-day visit to India's tech hub will foster the partnership between the two countries in IT and innovation," said the statement. The French envoy, who is on a two-day visit to the city, will attend the "Bengaluru Tech Summit" on Thursday and attend a leadership meeting in the campus of software major Infosys in the city's southern outskirts. In June, Infosys opened a digital centre of excellence at Marseille, expanding its footprint in France. Agartala/Aizawl, Nov 28 : Amid prolonged uncertainty over return to their homes, Reang tribal refugees, sheltered in Tripura for 21 years, on Wednesday voted in large numbers in the Mizoram Assembly polls. North Tripura district officials said around 60 per cent of the 12,018 voters among over 35,000 tribal immigrants after travelling around 50-60 km cast their ballots at Kanhmun, a village along the Mizoram-Tripura border. The Election Commission (EC) had set up 15 special polling stations at Kanhmun to facilitate voting by Reang refugees, sheltered in seven camps in northern Tripura since October 1997. Some women voters carrying their children in their laps went to the Mizoram border village to exercise their democratic right. Over 105 Tripura government officials led by North Tripura district's Kanchanpur and Panisagar Sub-Divisional Magistrates (SDM) Abeda Nanda Baidya and N. Darlong supervised the entire process of refugees' transportation, security and other aspects involving balloting. Around 600 vehicles were arranged by the two sub-divisional administrations to ferry the refugees. "Following the direction from the Election Commission, we arranged the vehicles to ferry the tribal refugees from the relief camps in Tripura to Kanhmun village to cast their votes in Mizoram Assembly polls," Baidya told IANS over phone. Panisagar SDM Darlong said: "We have also arranged medical facilities and ambulances for the refugee voters in need." "There are aged men and women, lactating and pregnant women among the immigrants, but they did not shy away from performing their democratic duties," she told IANS from Panisagar, 150 km north of Agartala. According to the two SDMs, a large number of immigrants were very excited to cast their votes and became ready in the wee hours on Wednesday to go to Kanhmun village, under Mamit district of west Mizoram. During the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Mizoram Assembly polls in 2013 and in the previous polls since 1997, the tribal immigrants cast their votes in the refugee camps after the Election Commission established polling stations in the relief camps in northern Tripura. Hyderabad, Nov 28 : Transgender candidate M. Chandramukhi, contesting the Telangana Assembly elections from a constituency in Hyderabad, remained untraced on Wednesday even as the Hyderabad High Court directed the police to produce her in the court on Thursday. The court passed orders on a habeas corpus petitioned filed by Chandramukhi's mother. Chandramukhi, who is contesting the election from Goshamahal as a candidate of Bahujan Left Front, went missing on Tuesday. A missing case was registered at Banjara Hills police station on a complaint by her mother. Chandramukhi, the only transwoman in Telangana to contest the December 7 elections, went missing early on Tuesday from her house in Jawaharnagar here. According to her supporters, two persons had come to meet. Her mobile phone was switched off. They claimed she was abducted. However, police said on Wednesday after examining the CCTV footage that she left the house on her own and was seen walking alone. A police official said she had masked her face to hide the identity. Police have formed 10 teams to trace the missing candidate. Few teams were also deputed to Anantapur and other districts in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. Bahujan Left Front leaders and transgender activists have alleged that people who were opposed to a transgender contesting the election were behind her disappearance. Chandramukhi is contesting from Goshamahal against BJP legislator Raja Singh and Congress party's Mukesh Goud. Mumbai, Nov 28 : Actress Vidya Balan has urged children to indulge in physical activities. "In today's scenario, outdoor activities have become limited for children as most of the time they are busy on either a smartphone or other gadgets. Kids should participate in outdoor activities rather than sitting at home and playing games on gadgets," Vidya said in a statement. Vidya along with actor Tusshar Kapoor has associated with Juniorthon, a fitness carnival for children. Extending support to the initiative, Tusshar said: "Juniorthon is a well-thought concept. I am glad they are doing something for the kids. This initiative is a great measure to motivate all the kids for physical activities." The annual event aims to promote running as an active lifestyle for children and their families. Its fourth season will commence from December 23 here. Hyderabad, Nov 28 : Intensifying the BJP's campaign for next month's Telangana Assembly elections, its President Amit Shah conducted a road show in Hyderabad on Wednesday. Standing in an open top jeep, Amit Shah waved to people as a long convoy of vehicles passed through various areas in Musheerabad constituency in the heart of the city. BJP's Telangana unit President K. Laxman, who is seeking re-election from Musheerabad, Secunderabad MP Bandaru Dattatreya, scores of BJP leaders and activists accompanied Amit Shah. Police imposed restrictions on vehicular traffic for Shah's road show. Earlier, addressing an election rally in Adilabad town, the BJP chief said that during the 2014 elections, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president K. Chandrashekhar Rao had promised to make a Dalit as the Chief Minister but after TRS won the elections he himself occupied the chair. "Will you fulfill your promise at least now," Shah asked the TRS chief. The BJP leader said Telangana had surplus budget but TRS government plunged the state into Rs 2.5 lakh crore debts. Shah alleged that KCR was so scared of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) that he stopped celebrating Telangana Liberation Day. "If voted to power, BJP will celebrate the day on a grand scale." Elections to the 119-member Telangana Assembly are scheduled on December 7. Chennai, Nov 28 : India's heaviest communication satellite with high throughput GSAT-11 will be put into orbit by Ariane-5 rocket of Arianespace from French Guiana on December 5, 2018, the Indian space agency said. According to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the GSAT-11 weighing 5,854 kg is the heaviest satellite built by it. The satellite is scheduled for launch on board Ariane-5 launch vehicle from French Guiana. The satellite will be initially placed in the Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit and will subsequently be raised to geostationary orbit by firing the satellite's on-board motor. According to ISRO, GSAT-11 is the forerunner in a series of advanced communications satellites with multi-spot beam antenna coverage over Indian mainland and islands. The satellite with a mission life of 15 years will have 32 user beams (Ku band) and eight hub beams (Ka band) and the throughput data rate of 16 Gbps. GSAT-11 will play a vital role in providing broadband services across the country. It will also provide a platform to demonstrate new generation applications. The Indian space agency said the GSAT-11 will be used to meet the increased data demands with high data rates over regions using spot beams. The satellite will support BharathNet connecting gram panchayat for e-governance and digital platforms; VSAT terminals and for enterprise network and consumer broadband applications. In April 2018, ISRO had recalled GSAT-11 from Arianespace's rocket port in French Guiana for further tests, to be on the safe side. "We are bringing back the GSAT-11 satellite to carry out some tests to be doubly sure of its performance orbiting in the space. There is nothing more to it," K Sivan, Chairman ISRO had told IANS then. The GSAT-11 was planned to be launched mid-May. The satellite had reached Arianespace's rocket port in March 2018. The ISRO's move to call back GSAT-11 for further tests and be doubly sure of its performance may be due to the loss of the recently launched GSAT-6A satellite, soon after it was put into orbit on March 29. ISRO suspected the failure of the power system in the satellite for the loss of communication link. "The satellites are powered by solar panels that charge the onboard batteries. The batteries are fully charged when the satellite is loaded on to the rocket. "Even if there is a problem with the solar panel, then the battery power should have kicked in. Here the entire power system of the satellite seems to have failed," one space expert told had IANS earlier. According to experts, the power system could have failed due to some short circuiting or arcing resulting in what is known in the space terminology 'loss of lock' or loss of contact with the ground station. Satellites in space are locked to ground stations for tracking and other purposes. On March 29, Indian rocket Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) slung GSAT-6A in its intended orbit. From there the satellite was to be taken up further to its orbital slot by firing its onboard motors. The first orbit raising operation was successfully carried out by firing the onboard motors for around 36 minutes on March 30 morning. The second orbit raising operation of GSAT-6A satellite was also successful as its motors was fired for about 53 minutes on March 31. After that, the communication link got snapped. New Delhi, Nov 28 : The government on Wednesday released the much awaited back-series estimates for India's GDP which showed a lower rate of growth during the UPA years between 2005-06 and 2011-12 than what was estimated using the earlier methodology. As per the data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the maximum growth rate the economy achieved during the UPA years was 8.5 per cent in 2010-11, significantly lower than the 10.3 per cent estimated earlier. NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar said an extensive recalibration exercise using the latest data sources and methodological changes had led to a change in growth rates in the back series. He said the back series had been checked for its methodological soundness by leading statistical experts in the country during two round tables organised by the NITI Aayog in which domain experts participated to ensure the quality of coverage and methodology. In January 2015, the government had moved to a new base year of 2011-12 from the earlier base year of 2004-05 for national accounts. After introduction of the new series, back-series estimates are compiled and released for the years preceding the new base year for completeness and comparability with old base data sets. As per the data released by the CSO, growth rates for all years between 2005-06 and 2011-12 have been revised downwards -- to 7.9 per cent in 2005-06 from 9.3 per cent, 8.1 per cent in 2006-07 from 9.3 per cent, 7.7 per cent in 2007-08 from 9.8 per cent, 3.1 per cent in 2008-09 from 3.9 per cent, 7.9 per cent in 2009-10 from 8.5 per cent, 8.5 per cent in 2010-11 from 10.3 per cent, and 5.2 per cent in 2011-12 from 6.6 per cent. The growth rate for the years after the new base is estimated to be 5.5 per cent (2012-13), 6.4 per cent (2013-14), 7.4 per cent (2014-15), 8.2 per cent (2015-16), 7.1 per cent (2016-17) and 6.7 per cent (2017-18). "CSO today released the back series of GDP/GVA for period 2004-05 to 2011-12 with base 2011-12 prices. Used SNA 2008 (United Nations System of National Accounts) concepts, latest data sources and indices for the back series. Methodological changes include institutional approach, reference rate method for FISIM (Financial Intermediation Services Indirectly Measured)," the NITI Aayog Vice Chairman said. "Treatment of trade sector (has been done) using sales tax instead of Gross Trading Income (GTI). Share of primary, secondary sectors (has gone) up in the back series while tertiary sector (has) reduced. Recalibration exercise led to a change in growth rates in back series," he added. I am impressed by them. This being the holidays and everything, theres so little time to really devote to getting lines and your characters down and in the rehearsals weve had theyve gone above and beyond my expectations, said Puchkors, who lives in St. John. New Delhi, Nov 28 : The supreme court on Wednesday upheld the validity of the death sentence for murder under penal law while it commuted to life imprisonment the death sentence of one Channnu Lal Verma, a resident of Chhattisgarh. The bench of Justice Kurian Joseph, Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Hemant Gupta upheld the penal provision of the death sentence under Section 302 of the IPC by a majority of 2:1. Justice Joseph differed seeking a review of the capital punishment as it has failed to be deterrent to curb the heinous crime. Justice Joseph is retiring on Thursday. He cited a report of the Law Commission which says the death penalty has failed to be a deterrent to curb heinous crimes. However, Justice Deepak Gupta also speaking for Justice Hemant Gupta, defended the retention of the death penalty. The majority judgment referred to earlier judgments of the top court in Bachan Singh and Machhi Singh upholding the validity of the capital punishment. Justice Joseph in his minority judgment said that trial court proceedings at times get impacted by public opinion and even the investigating agencies mount pressure for the conviction of the accused. It is court's duty to be "constitutionally correct" even when its view is "counter-majoritarian," Justice Joseph said. "After all, the society's perspective is generally formed by emotionally charged narratives. Such narratives need not necessarily be legally correct, properly informed or procedurally proper." The top court had earlier, in Delhi gang rape case, upheld the validity of the death sentence, and in the Bachchan Singh's case in the 1980s, the top court had coined the doctrine of "the rarest of rare" case for the award of the death sentence. In the instant case, three judges while pronouncing the split verdict on the validity of death sentence as punishment, commuted the death sentence of one Channnu Lal Verma of Chhattisgarh who was convicted and awarded the death sentence by the trial court and the same was upheld by the High Court. Channnu Lal Verma was convicted for the murder of three people who had appeared as witness against him in an alleged rape case. Channnu Lal Verma was acquitted in the rape case. Channnu had murdered 25-year-old Ratna Bai, her father-in-law Ram Sahu and mother-in-law Firtin Bai. New Delhi, Nov 28 : The Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) on Wednesday said all the NDA partners in Bihar would have to compromise on seat allocation for 2019 elections even as it slammed Rashtriya Lok Samaj Party (RLSP) chief Upendra Kushwaha for going public on the issue and holding talks with opposition leaders. On the sidelines of LJP's 19th foundation day, party president and Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan told reporters that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had become stronger after the entry of Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal-United into the fold. "Everyone will have to make compromise," Paswan said, replying to a query on seat-sharing in Bihar. He said the party had given powers to his son and LJP Parliamentary Board chairman and MP Chirag Paswan to hold negotiations with other NDA constituents. The LJP would expect "respectable compromise" on the seat allocation, Chirag Paswan said. He expressed his displeasure over Kushwaha speaking his mind on the seat-sharing arrangements in Bihar on social media. He also slammed Kushwaha, who is a Union Minister, for holding talks with NDA leaders and opposition leaders simultaneously. "Seat-sharing talks should be kept as internal matter. Whenever you go public about it, attempts are made to make the alliance look weak. The opposition gets a chance to criticise it," he said. He said the LJP wanted to fight the 2019 elections together with the RLSP, but critisiced Kushwaha for holding discussions with opposition leaders. "When he discusses the issue with (BJP chief) Amit Shah, he also holds talks with Sharad Yadav (of Loktantrik Janata Dal). He holds discussions with NDA leaders and RJD leaders simultaneously. It is like rowing in two boats the same time," he said. Last month, the BJP and the JD-U had announced that they will contest an equal number of seats. While announcing the seat-sharing formula, Shah had said that when a new friend (JD-U) has joined the alliance, the number of seats for each will come down. With reports of two seats being offered to the RLSP, Kushwaha had last month announced names of his party candidates for the Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, a move seen as a pressure tactic to bargain for more seats in Bihar. Attari (Punjab), Nov 28 : Union Minister of State Hardeep Puri on Wednesday said though the Kartarpur Corridor was a welcome initiative between India and Pakistan, the relations between the countries could not change just because of this and India will have to deal with the "ground reality of terror". "We have to deal with ground reality of terror. Terror and talks don't make a happy companion. Relations between both countries cannot change because of the corridor," Puri told media immediately after returning to India on Wednesday evening after attending the ground breaking ceremony of the Kartarpur Corridor in Pakistan along with Union cabinet minister Harsimrat Badal. Puri made it clear that Pakistan will have to show intentions if it wanted relations with India to move forward. "Pakistan will have to do a lot of work on (controlling) terrorism and infiltration. If there is delivery on terrorism, and that is an essential pre-requisite, (we can move ahead)," he said. Refusing to get into the controversy over credit for the Kartarpur Corridor being approved by governments of India and Pakistan and Punjab cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu's role, Puri said: "Talks on the Kartarpur Corridor have been going on for seven months." Union Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Badal said she and Puri had gone to Pakistan to represent the country and also offer prayers to Guru Nanak Dev who spread the message of love and peace. "I have told the media there that Kashmir is part of India and will remain as such. There is no scope for negotiation on this," Harsimrat, who acknowledged that they were given a lot of warmth and respect in Pakistan, told media after her return. Both ministers represented India at the function where Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday performed the ground-breaking ceremony for the Kartarpur Corridor project near the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara, where Sikhism's founder, Guru Nanak Dev, spent the last 18 years of his life. Earlier, while heading for Pakistan, Puri said there was an "opportunity and goodwill" in the decision of the Indian and Pakistani governments to build the Kartarpur Corridor, but sounded a note of caution: "We have to be acutely conscious of the ground realities" in the two nations. "This is a historic day. This is a long standing demand of the Sikh community. At least, what I know, since 1994-95, we have been making this demand," said Puri, who walked across to Pakistan through the Attari-Wagah check post, around 30 km from Amritsar. "This decision is anchored in hope and goodwill. But we have to be acutely conscious of the ground realities. And the ground realities are that the two countries, on account of a lot of factors, house distrust," he said. "We have felt for very long that we have been at the receiving end of actions of a country which should not have allowed certain forces on its territory. I don't want to touch on those now," Puri said. The Minister made it clear that he was not going for any bilateral discussions with Pakistan. "I am not carrying any bilateral brief. But equally, if the ground-breaking ceremony and these atmospherics are done in a positive way and we are able to invoke the Guru Maharaj's blessings, I am sure that it will become a stepping stone to positive things happening in the future," he said. "This is a corridor that should have been operationalised many years ago. The cartographer who made the (boundary) line made a fundamental mistake. I think this (gurdwara) should have been on this (India) side (of the border). But let's accept the ground realities. We should take one step at a time without getting euphoric," he said. Puri said that both countries now need to operationalise the corridor project smoothly. "And making the corridor operational and taking this process further will require actions by all stakeholders. "Let's take these things one step at a time. I don't want to jump the gun, I think we must allow the goodwill of the Guru Maharaj that is the essence of his teaching," he said. "He was a person at least half a century ahead of his times. And the kind of teachings he has given, if those teachings can be invoked to resolve our problems, it would be a very proud day for me as a Sikh," he added. Asked to comment on the statements of Punjab Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, who is projecting himself as the person who was instrumental in getting the Kartarpur Corridor project cleared by both countries, Puri said: "I don't want to comment on my colleague (Sidhu) in any way. There is no scope for personalisation here. This is a demand of the Sikh community." It was at the Kartarpur gurdwara, located around 3km from the international border and is right opposite the border belt in Dera Baba Nanak in India's Gurdaspur district in Punjab, that Guru Nanak Dev spent his last days till he died in 1539. The gurdwara, which fell inside Pakistan's territory following the Partition of India in August 1947, has huge significance in Sikh religion and history. For the past over 71 years, ever since the Partition, Sikhs have been offering prayers near the border watching the gurdwara from a distance. New Delhi, Nov 28 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday enhanced to Rs 50 lakhs the compensation to 33 house owners in the Kant Enclave, a posh locality on the periphery of the national capital, whose houses have been declared unauthorized by the top court and face demolition. This is part of the compensation that Haryana government has to pay to the those having houses in Kant Enclave faced with demolition in pursuance to September 11 judgement of the top court. Almost doubling the compensation by the Haryana government, the bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur, Justice S. Abdul Nazeer and Justice Deepak Gupta said that the state government will pay the enhanced compensation by December 10. As the counsel for the state government told the court that as per its earlier order, the compensation to be paid by it comes to Rs 25 lakhs, Justice Lokur said that we have modified our order and directed the payment of Rs 50 lakh each to the 33 home owners. The court ordered enhancement in the compensation as senior counsel Dushyant Dave told the court that the affected people are retired defence personnel, bureaucrats, scientists and that their properties are being undervalued for the compensation. Urging the court to give more time to the effected people to find alternative dwellings, senior counsel Raju Ramachandran said a two-room DDA flat in the vicinity of Alaknanda, near Kant Enclave, costs something like Rs 2 crore. The top court by its September 11, 2018, judgment while directing the demolition of concrete structures raised in Kant Enclave after August 18, 1992, had directed the compensation of Rs 50 lakh each to those whose structures would get demolished. The court had ordered that The quantified amount will be paid, in equal proportion, by R. Kant & Co. and the Town & Country Planning Department of Haryana. New Delhi, Nov 28 : National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) would visit the Andaman & Nicobar Islands from December 4-6 to investigate the killing of American tourist John Allen Chau allegedly by an isolated Sentinelese tribe in the Andamans last week, Tribal Affairs Ministry said on Wednesday. NCST Chairperson Nand Kumar Sai said the vulnerability of Sentinelese tribes in North Sentinel Island had increased many fold, and any aggressive steps to recover the body would adversely disturb the peace and tranquillity in the island. The NCST on Wednesday reviewed the reports on the killing incident submitted by Union Home Ministry and the A&N Administration. Sai said all necessary steps must be taken by the government to maintain "Inviolability of North Sentinel Island". The Lieutenant Governor of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands has already constituted a committee to review the institutional mechanism to prevent the landing of any foreign national in the North Sentinel Island. The five-member committee under the chairmanship of Secretary (Tribal Welfare) of the A&N Administration would also suggest measures to prevent such incidents in future. Kolkata, Nov 28 : Noting that Pakistan is a mere strategic distraction for India's security while China possesses the real threat, retired Lieutenant General of Indian Army, Prakash Menon, on Wednesday said India must comprehend China's real political objective to deal with its threat. "Pakistan for us is a strategic distraction while the greater threat lies with the biggest emerging power in the world, China. We must monitor China's activity to figure out what would be a major deterrence for them," Menon said at the lunch of his book 'India & Pakistan under the nuclear shadow'. The former Army officer claimed despite China's constant pressure on India's northern borders, it is highly unlikely that they would conduct a full-fledged offensive overcoming the mountainous obstacle of the Himalayas, but would rather continue to nibble at Indian territories with small attacks. "We cannot look at China and Pakistan through the same prism. If China has to be dealt with properly, we must first understand what the Chinese political objectives are insofar as India is concerned. On the military side, it is not feasible for China to bring in about 30 divisions across the Himalayas," he said. He said China's actual motive is to stop India from becoming a strong maritime power in the Indian Ocean region as it would work against their interest. "China does not want India to become a strong maritime power. Our geographical position gives us the opportunity to become a dominant force in the Indian Ocean, but they don't want to do that. They are also apprehensive about India ganging up with the United States to become a maritime player. "It has now created the northern borders as a pressure point and it would try to nibble at India's territory on regular intervals. They are also using Pakistan against us," he said. Menon claimed China is becoming successful in its motive to an extent as India is spending a large section of its defence budget in protecting its northern borders while not having sufficient fund to build a robust maritime infrastructure. He also said India's attempt to create a strike corp against China will be difficult as India neither has the budget nor the logistics for it. New Delhi, Nov 28 : Terming hybrid warfare -- using non-state actors against an adversary nation -- as "not the best option", Army chief General Bipin Rawat on Wednesday said this tactic was causing more damage to Pakistan than to India. "Any nation that has attempted hybrid warfare against an adversary has finally been the sufferer. Today Pakistan is facing that brunt," Rawat said while delivering a lecture on "Challenges of hybrid conflict in 21st century". "They (Pakistan) supported something in Afghanistan but after the imbroglio was over, what happened to those people (the jihadis)? This hybrid warfare launched by them (Pakistan) has actually started affecting them more than it is affecting us," Rawat said. However, the General warned that the proxy war by Pakistan is there to stay despite all the things and despite India's effective tackling of it. Responding to a query as to why India, even after suffering for decades, does not launch offensive hybrid warfare against Pakistan, the General said it is not the best option for India, and emphasised that India is satisfactorily countering this warfare directed against it. "Paying the other fellow exactly in the same coin may not be the best option. A stone that is thrown in the air comes back to your head. "Before we launch the hybrid warfare in the offensive-defensive domain, we should be prepared to see what will happen to those people once the objective is achieved. What you do with those people?" he said. While he underlined that India does have the capability to launch an offensive hybrid warfare or even "strike across" at those perpetrating the hybrid offensive against it, the Army chief said for that the Indian leadership must be clear as to how far the country can go if an escalation happens. "India will have to carefully work on the escalation matrix as to how far it was willing to go if escalation happens," he added. He said to counter such operations by Pakistan, which include a propaganda on the social media, various Indian forces and agencies need to work together in close coordination. Rawat said India can utilise its soft power with friendly nations to isolate the terror-exporting nation and offered that the Indian Army can help the country expand its soft power in many ways. Speaking on the Kashmir situation, General Rawat said that sustained pressure is needed to tire out the militants instead of wrongly believing after a peaceful year in the Valley that lasting peace has returned. "When things become comfortable, we would go into this limbo thinking that peace has returned, not knowing that every time the peace returns, the nexus has utilised this period to rebuild their capacities and strength. And therefore sustained pressure is required," Rawat said. "What I am trying to highlight is that you get one successful year and you say let's give peace a chance. That is I think a fault that you have been committing. "If you think that just after having one successful year you should give peace a chance, that may not be the best option. You should have repeated successes and then think of giving peace a chance. And that is what we are doing now. Let us look at tiring the other side," he added. He also rued that the Army faces flak even for taking a tough action against those pelting stones at it. New Delhi, Nov 28 : In a setback for the Tamil Nadu Government, an NGT-appointed committee that looked into closure of Sterlite Copper plant in Tuticorin on Wednesday said that the order to close down the plant was unjustified and " against the principles of natural justice". Mining company Vedanta's Sterlite Copper Plant saw major protests in Tamil Nadu against pollution to the water caused by the plant with presence of heavy metals found in the underground water. In May 2018, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) ordered permanent shutdown of the plant following recommendations of Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974. The order to seal the premises was, however, reconsidered in August, after a three-member team headed by former Meghalaya High Court Chief Justice Tarun Agrawal was formed. On Wednesday, the committee informed the green panel that no notice or opportunity was given to Vedanta before the closure. "The impugned orders cannot be sustained as it is against the principles of natural justice. No notice or opportunity of hearing was given to the appellant. The grounds mentioned in the impugned orders are not that grievous to justify permanent closure of the factory," the committee told a bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel. The committee said the closure was wrong even if the appellant was found to be violating the conditions, norms or directions. The panel also said that in the event the tribunal is of the opinion that the factory should commence production, the committee is of the opinion that it should be directed to monitor groundwater quality in the presence of an official. The committee also recommended that the sampling of effluent/emission and solid waste should also be done by a monitoring group to be constituted by TNPCB comprising a representative of the District Collector, an official of TNPCB, NGOs and academicians. It added that the reports should be sent by TNPCB to CPCB for analysis. The matter is now listed on December 7. New Delhi, Nov 28 : The next round of negotiations on expanding the India-Korea Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), or free trade agreement (FTA), will be held on December 11-12 and both countries will try to conclude the negotiations in 2019, a senior official said on Wednesday. Addressing the India-Korea Business Partnership Forum 2018 here organised by Indian industry chamber CII and the Korea International Trade Association (KITA), Commerce Ministry Additional Secretary Sanjay Chaddha said that a committee will be constituted shortly under the recently formed India-Korea Future Strategy Group to specifically operationalise joint cooperation in research and development (R&D) projects. He said the India-Korea CEPA signed in 2010 was India's first FTA entered into outside the developed economies of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). "Both countries are also involved in negotiations for the RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) which involves a lot of sensitivities," he said. "At a time of growing trade imbalance between our two countries and global slump, when Indian industry is wary of opening new lines, it has also been decided to review the CEPA." Chaddha noted that while the bilateral trade has doubled in the nine years since the CEPA was signed, the trade deficit has widened in Korea's favour. South Korea's exports to India jumped from $10.47 billion in 2010-11 to $16.36 billion in 2017-18. India's exports to South Korea, however, grew more slowly from $3.72 billion in 2010-11 to $4.46 billion in 2017-18. Elaborating on the challenges to the CEPA, the official said that the utilisation rate of duty concessions on the merchandise trade is the lowest for both countries. "We have to understand that it is only when the utilisation rate increases will the industry be comfortable about further liberalisation of markets," he said. In his address, Korean Ambassador to India Shin BongKil noted that economic relations has not kept pace with the high-level friendship and trust established between the political leadership of the two countries. "India and Korea have a bilateral trade target of $50 billion which is still very small compared to Korea's trade with China which was $200 billion last year," he said. BongKil pointed out that despite the CEPA, South Korean investment into India has stayed low at around $0.5 billion annually and cumulatively amounted to only $4.6 billion for the period 1980-2017. Kolkata, Nov 28 : Seven people died and at least 16 were admitted in the hospitals after allegedly consuming spurious liquor in West Bengal's Nadia district, police said on Wednesday. "Seven people have been died and 16 hospitalised from the Nrishighapur village. Locals alleged they had consumed hooch, but it can be confirmed only after medical examination," said a police officer. The signs of mass illness were reported early on Wednesday after which a team of doctors was sent to the the spot, the officer said. The state government ordered a CID inquiry into the incident and announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh each to the kin of the deceased. "Eleven excise officials, including deputy excise collector of Ranaghat range and eight excise constables, have been suspended," Finance and Industry Minister Amit Mitra told the state Assembly. Mitra, who also holds charge of state Excise department, said the investigating agency would also probe whether the spurious liquor is being transited into rural Bengal from Bihar and Jharkhand. Krieg also admitted that he talked online with Victim 3, who was a Hammond resident, and he mailed a threat Sept. 29, 2017, to kill or injure Victim 3, according to the agreement. Prosecutors said Krieg mailed a bullet and message that, The next one will be in the back of your head. Hyderabad, Nov 28 : Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday alleged that the development of Hyderabad hit a roadblock during the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS)rule. Speaking at a road show of "People's Front" in the city on Wednesday night, along with Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N. Chandrababu Naidu, he said the pace at which the city should have developed in the last five years had not developed as the wealth of the entire state went into the hands of one family. Gandhi came down heavily on Chief Minister and TRS President K. Chandrashekhar Rao. He said Hyderabad had rapid growth and became famous across the world, thanks to the efforts of Naidu and Congress party. He recalled that after the defeat of TDP in 2004 elections, he had acknowledged the role played by Naidu in the development of Hyderabad as an information technology hub. Gandhi said Hyderabad was famous world over for the unity and brotherhood among its people. "The city doesn't belong to people of one community or one region. Its doors are open for all. People live here in peace and harmony." The Congress chief said the harmony and brotherhood among people was facing threat from Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he was busy in dividing people and pitting one community against other and one state against other. Naidu, who was Chief Minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh from 1995 to 2004, recalled his association with Hyderabad. He said even TRS chief K. Chandrashekhar Rao and his son and daughter admitted that the credit for building Hyderabad as IT hub goes to him. He wondered why they had now turned against him. The TDP chief pointed out how he worked to build Hyderabad as the IT destination by bringing Microsoft and other global players to the city and developed the infrastructure. Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) leader M. Kodandaram and leaders of the Communist Party of India (CPI) also addressed the road show. The Congress, which is leading the four-party People's Front, is contesting 94 seats in 119-member Assembly. TDP has fielded candidates in 13 constituencies. The TJS and the CPI are contesting the remaining seats. New Delhi, Nov 28 : Delhi Police arrested eight youths in the murder of two persons in north Delhi's Shalimar Bagh area on Tuesday. The accused were arrested from different hideouts, police said. The prime accused, Nikhil, along with the other accused, stabbed his neighbour Tanish Kwatra, 23, following a brawl with him earlier in the day over a petty issue, police said. "At the time of the incident, another person Pawan, 21, also suffered stab wounds. Later, both were declared dead in a hospital," Deputy Commissioner of Police Aslam Khan said. The fight started after Kwatra's scooty accidentally hit Nikhil, resulting in a heated argument. Kwatra called his friends and beat up Nikhil who in turn collected his friends to take revenge. Police said the accused will be produced before a city court on Thursday. New Delhi, Nov 29 : The aviation regulator has proposed to align the BMI (Body Mass Index) requirement for female air crew with that of other crew categories. The index is a mathematical tool which shows whether a person is underweight, normal weight or excess weight. The proposal assumes significance as there are stringent BMI requirements for the air hostess category compared to that of air steward or pilots. Currently, for a male cabin crew the BMI range of 18-25 is considered normal, the same for a female cabin crew has been kept at 18-22. According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), draft Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) posted on the regulator's website on November 27: "Standards for overweight or obese for cabin crew shall be dealt in conformity with 'AIC 09/2008' titled 'Obesity & Commercial Aircrew'." It further states: "Functional assessment of overweight or obese cabin crew shall be carried out by the 'Qualified Cabin Crew Instructor' at the time of making decision about fitness for duty to assess whether she or he is able to carry out various activities towards handling of aircraft emergencies and medical emergencies as effectively as is expected." Kabul, Nov 29 : At least 10 people were killed and another 19 injured when a car bomb struck a security compound in the Afghan capital, official sources told Efe news on Wednesday. The powerful explosion occurred around 6.30 pm local time in the Dispichari area where there are several bases and offices of the Afghan security forces. "Ten dead have been evacuated from the blast site and 19 injured were hospitalised," Afghan Public Health Ministry spokesman, Wahidullah Majroh, said. "The initial investigation shows that it was a car bomb attack in the police district number nine, in a camp called G4S," Police spokesperson Basir Mujahid said, adding the security forces are inspecting the scene to ascertain whether or not foreigners were at the blast site. G4S is a British security company. A policeman, who was deployed in the area and requested anonymity for security reasons, told Efe that the bombed site was a foreign training complex for Afghani security forces. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack which was near the highway connecting Kabul with the unstable eastern Afghanistan city of Jalalabad. The attack came hours after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in Geneva called for the formation of a 12-person negotiating team to create a framework for the upcoming peace talks with the Taliban. This year, Kabul has been the scene of multiple attacks, the most recent of which occurred last week when a suicide bomber killed 55 people at a wedding hall where believers had gathered to celebrate the birth of the Prophet Muhammad. The most serious recent attack was in January, when the Taliban blew up an ambulance near the former Ministry of Interior, causing more than a hundred deaths. Geneva, Nov 29 : A top Afghan security official said that a conference that ended here Wednesday has put a renewed focus on a peace process owned and led by those in the country, and now it is up to the Taliban to come forward and play a constructive role. "We see the stars lining up for peace at his point," said Hamdullah Mohib, national security adviser of Afghanistan, at a press conference here after the two-day Conference on Afghanistan in Geneva, adding that "the ball is in the Taliban's court", Xinhua news agency reported. The Geneva Conference on Afghanistan, co-hosted by Afghanistan and the UN, was attended by delegations from 61 countries and 35 international organisations, representatives of civil society, the private sector and the media. It issued a communique at the end saying, "Participants call on all concerned to seize this opportunity for an Afghan-owned and led peace process as the only viable path to satisfy the citizens' desire for an end to conflict, sustained and broad-based economic growth, and a more prosperous tomorrow." UN Secretary-General's special representative Tadamichi Yamamoto said the gathering was likely the first international meeting on Afghanistan when issues of "peace have been taken up with such weight". Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Wednesday called for a political settlement in Afghanistan as his Swiss counterpart Ignazio Cassis offered Switzerland to play a peace-broking role between warring factions. In a conference speech, Lavrov said, "We believe that the Afghan crisis can be settled only by political means," adding: "A broad intra-Afghan dialogue with the participation of the government, the Taliban movement, and the whole spectrum of political and social forces is needed." Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said in a speech his government has formed a negotiating team to work on a peace agreement with the Taliban. "We seek a peace agreement in which the Afghan Taliban would be included in a democratic and inclusive society," Ghani told the conference. Swiss Foreign Minister Cassis also spoke on the second day of the conference to assess progress since a pledging conference was held in Brussels in 2016 and to measure results against the $15.2 billion committed by the international community for Afghanistan in 2016. "After 17 years of war that produced only losers, the time has come for dialogue. The time has come for a political solution. Switzerland is ready to host any round of talks if requested," said Cassis. Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed and wounded in Afghanistan since the war started in 2001. Buenos Aires, Nov 29 : Organisers of a march planned to coincide with the November 30 start of the G20 summit in the Argentine capital on Wednesday called for the protest to proceed peacefully and "without provocations". "We ask all the people who will attend the march not to respond to any sort of provocations. We are going to march to repudiate and with our right to protest," Nora Cortinas, with the human rights group Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, told a press conference, Efe news reported. Another of the organisers, Beverly Keene, urged people not to respond to any provocations, especially after what she called the government's campaign of "intimidation." The two-day summit begins Friday, but some international delegations are already in Argentina. Among the leaders who have announced travelling to Argentina to participate in the meeting are Donald Trump of the United States, Xi Jinping of China, Russia's Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. President Mauricio Macri's conservative government plans to carry out a security operation that will include the deployment of 22,000 police in Buenos Aires, a drastic reduction in public services and banning access to parts of the city for vehicles and pedestrians. Argentine authorities say that the main objective is to prevent terrorist acts and violent street protests, like those that occurred during the 2017 summit in Hamburg, Germany. Apart from the rejection of the G20, composed of the world's 20 most important developed and developing economies, the demands at the national level will target economic policies that have led to growing poverty and an increase in the foreign debt. Washington, Nov 29 : The US Senate on Wednesday blocked an expedited vote on legislation intended to protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who's leading the Russia investigation, from being fired. Republican Senator Jeff Flake, along with two Democratic senators, tried to get a unanimous consent in the upper chamber of Congress to schedule the legislation for a vote, citing escalated attacks from President Donald Trump against the wide-ranging inquiry. "With the President tweeting on a regular basis, a daily basis, that the special counsel is conflicted, that he is leading so-called 12 angry Democrats and demeaning and ridiculing him in every way, to be so sanguine about the chances of him being fired is folly for us," Flake said. Republican Senator Mike Lee objected to the request, saying the bill, known as the Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act, was unconstitutional. If such as bill were passed it would "fundamentally undermine the principle of separation of powers" and create a "de facto fourth branch of government", Lee said. This was the second time the attempt to get a vote on the legislation failed. The bill has already been approved at the committee level with bipartisan support, but has been kept off the floor by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, who has said there is no need to vote on it. He called it a "solution in search of a problem" on Tuesday. Under the Senate rules, senators can go to the floor to request a vote or passage of any bill or nomination. But any one senator can block their requests. Flake pledged that they would come back to the Senate floor to try to set up the bill for a vote again. Trump continued his attacks against Mueller and his team on Wednesday by describing them as "angry Mueller gang of Dems" on Twitter, as new developments have put the probe under national spotlight. Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been accused of repeatedly lying to investigators after pleading guilty to federal charges related to his work as an unregistered lobbyist for Ukraine -- prior to his time with the Trump campaign. Prosecutors alleged Manafort had violated a plea agreement that he signed in September with Mueller, according to a court filing released on Monday. The allegation has fueled speculation Manafort might be angling for a pardon. Trump has not ruled out the possibility of pardoning Manafort. After the midterm election earlier this month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions was forced to step down and Trump named Matthew Whitaker, who once criticised the Mueller probe, as acting attorney general. Whitaker is now overseeing it in pace of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, another long-time target of Trump's criticism. The bill that passed the Senate Judiciary Committee would protect Mueller, or any other special counsel, in the event he is fired, by codifying Justice Department regulations that say only a senior department official could fire Mueller or another special counsel. It would also give a special counsel an "expedited review" of their firing. If a court determines that it wasn't for "good cause", the special counsel would be reinstated. 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" or "witch hunt" but has denied trying maneuvering to shut down the investigation. Crown Group has joined forces with Mitsubishi Estate Group for a new Sydney venture. Mastery by Crown Group will be a $500 million development in Waterloo has been designed by renowned Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, Japanese-born Sydney-based architect Koichi Takada and Sydneys Silvester Fuller. Located at 48 ODea Avenue, the development will consist of five buildings with a total of 374 apartments, including studio, one, two and three-bedroom apartments and penthouses. Facilities will include an infinity-edge rooftop pool, a gym, community room, and a retail precinct with a mix of restaurants, cafes and shops. Construction is already underway, with an expected completion date of 2020 for four low-rise buildings and 2021 for the high-rise building. Crown Group Chairman and Group CEO Iwan Sunito said the company was excited by the joint venture. It is such an honour and privilege to partner with Mitsubishi Estate Group, one of the worlds largest and most respected real estate investors and developers, Sunito said. This is about collaboration and also learning from such an amazing organisation. MJR Senior Managing Executive Officer Yutaro Yotsuzuka said: We are honoured that this reliable and award-winning developer Crown Group is working with us. We see great opportunities in Sydneys property market and we have a strong belief in this global high-growth market. Together, we can realise Crown Groups monumental vison of the revitalisation of this up-and-coming architectural precinct, Waterloo, in the heart of the Sydney. We envision a long-term and healthy business relationship with Crown Group and we both welcome creative ideas. The time is right for us to form this strategic partnership. Crown Groups latest development Mastery, located in Waterloo, achieved $40 million in sales of the first allocation within hours earlier this month when locals snapped up the majority of the sales. Building C with apartment interiors designed by Koichi Takada Architects sold the majority of its apartments that were released on sale. Two of the most sought-after apartments, both dual keys, worth $1.9 and $2.01 million respectively, were sold at the sales launch. In addition to residential apartments, Crown Group will create a "Japanese Eat Street." Mastery by Crown Groups Project Director of Sales Prisca Edwards said there was a mix of both investors and owner-occupiers from first home buyers and young professionals, to downsizing couples and young families, "with the latter now defining one quarter of Australias total apartment population." Apartments in Mastery by Crown Group are available for sale priced from $632,000. Construction is expected to be completed in 2021. Crown Groups CEO of Global Capital and Director of Sales, Prisca Edwards said: The success of the Mastery by Crown Group sales launch on 17 November shows the strong demand for high-quality apartments in the right location. The NSW Government is considering reforms to cap the number of boarding rooms allowed in a boarding house development in low-density residential zones. The cap with be a maximum of 12 per site. Anthony Roberts, The Minister for Planning, said the changes had been drafted in response to concerns from communities about local impacts of some boarding house developments. Tough rules already exist governing the development of boarding houses to ensure they are only approved where they are close to public transport, compatible with council rules on density and building height, and where theres adequate additional parking. We have listened to the community and councils and what weve heard is that they want more limits placed on these developments in low density areas. He said the limit on boarding house developments in the R2 zone would address community concerns about amenity impacts, such as overlooking, overshadowing and loss of on-street car parking. Labor introduced a boarding house State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP) in 2009, but never imposed a room limit. Establishing a maximum number of boarding rooms per site in low density zones will help to better manage any amenity impacts of boarding house developments on adjoining and nearby properties. Mr Roberts said the Affordable Rental Housing State Environmental Planning Policy (ARHSEPP) had already been amended earlier this year to address concerns about off street parking. The AHRSEPP was originally introduced in 2009 to increase the supply and diversity of affordable rental and social housing throughout NSW. However, its clear that the size, scale and proliferation of boarding house developments in the R2 zone is not in line with what was envisaged when the ARHSEPP was introduced. We already made changes in June this year, in response to community concerns, to increase car parking standards to 0.5 spaces per boarding room in all locations. The proposed changes we are releasing today support the Governments commitment to keep listening and to make sure communities are at the heart of planning policy, he said. The community is invited to comment on the proposed amendments which will be on exhibition from 28 November to 19 December 2018. For more information click here. It is an honor to be recognized by the Le Fonti community for our innovative multi-banking solutions and strengths as a company. Andreas Lutz, Fides CEO Fides Treasury Services Ltd., the global leader in multi-bank connectivity and communications, has been recognized with a global Le Fonti Award for Excellence in Innovation in the corporate sector. The Le Fonti awards ceremony was held on Oct. 26 at the London Stock Exchange, as part of a Gala Event that also included a special CEO Summit. Fides received the award for Best Multi-Banking Solutions Company of the Year / Global for its successful business model and leadership in the multi-bank connectivity industry. This is the fourth consecutive year that Le Fonti has honored Fides with this recognition for its best-in-class solutions. The Le Fonti award recipients are scrupulously selected through a rigorous nomination process across 50,000 readers. Fides was selected due to the companys pioneering multi-banking solutions that enable communication through any channel among clients and banks, along with its reputation as a trusted business partner. The Le Fonti awards committee also gave a nod to CEO Andreas Lutz for being a driving force behind Fides success. This is the second year that Fides has been recognized for its executive leadership. For more than thirty years, Fides has been committed to helping clients connect to any bank, in any location, through any channel, said Andreas Lutz, CEO of Fides. It is an honor to be recognized by the Le Fonti community for our innovative multi-banking solutions and strengths as a company. This is the latest in a string of awards that Fides and its customers have received for the companys multi-banking connectivity and communications solutions and corporate implementations. A complete list of recognition is available on the Fides Awards web page. ABOUT FIDES Fides is the global leader in multi-bank connectivity and transaction communications. With the industrys largest bank connectivity network, Fides helps over 3,000 active clients communicate with more than 10,000 banks globally. Our geographic reach spans 170 countries across the Americas, EMEA, and APAC regions. Committed to helping corporations optimally connect and interact with their banks for over a century, Fides solutions deliver critical multi-bank account statement, payment workflow and reporting capabilities that allow treasury and finance teams to easily, accurately and securely communicate with their banks through any possible channel such as SWIFT, EBICS, SFTP or any alternative network. Press Contact: Please email marketing(at)fides.ch for all press inquiries Redevelopment Commission Executive Director Joseph Van Dyk has been negotiating with Alliance officials, and he said the tentative deal calls for a tax abatement for the first six years the company operates in Gary. Its a front-ended deal, and it is one that is mutually beneficial to Alliance and to the city, he said. It gets the abatement over quickly. By Bethany Collins The Efroymson Family Fund, a donor-advised fund of the Central Indiana Community Foundation, announced the recipients of the 2018 Efroymson Contemporary Arts Fellowship today at a private reception in Chicago. Since 2004, the Efroymson Family Fund has awarded 55 Fellowships totaling more than $1,000,000 to contemporary visual artists in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Kentucky, Ohio and Wisconsin. The 2018 Efroymson Fellowship recipients listed below were each awarded $25,000 to help them continue their artistic development: Bethany Collins - Chicago Tirtza Even - Chicago Jose Carlos Teixeira - Madison, Wis. Alexa Horochowski - Minneapolis Andres Hernandez - Chicago The Efroymson Contemporary Arts Fellowship was established in 2004 to foster creativity and to encourage contemporary artists at all stages of their careers. This unrestricted award is intended to support the personal and professional development of the recipients and can be used for living expenses, equipment and supplies, studio rental, travel essential to artistic research, to develop new bodies of work, or to complete works in progress. Fellows are selected based on the quality, skill, creativity and uniqueness of their work; their commitment to developing their work; and the impact the award will have on their careers. This years Fellows were chosen by a five-member selection committee through a blind selection process. The selection committee included: Marcela Guerrero, assistant curator of Whitney Museum of American Art, New York Jamie DeSimone, associate curator of Contemporary Art Portland Museum of Art, Maine Francesca Altamura, curatorial assistant of New Museum, New York Mike Calway-Fagen, artist, curator and director of exhibitions at Stove Works, Chattanooga, Tenn. Amy Zion, independent curator and faculty member of Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, New York ABOUT THE EFROYMSON FAMILY FUND The Efroymson Family Fund, a fund of Central Indiana Community Foundation, continues a long legacy of charitable commitment by the Efroymson family in Central Indiana. The Efroymson Family Fund was established in 1998 by Dan and Lori Efroymson to promote the viability of communities and to date has awarded more than $100 million in grants in Central Indiana and beyond. For more information visit efroymsonfamilyfund.org. ABOUT CENTRAL INDIANA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: Central Indiana Community Foundation (CICF) is a $820 million public charitable foundation transforming the lives of Central Indiana residents in three ways: consulting donors, family foundations and their professional advisors on charitable giving; awarding grants to effective not-for-profit organizations; and providing leadership to seize opportunities and address community needs. CICF was established in 1997 as a partnership between The Indianapolis Foundation, established in 1916, and Hamilton County Community Foundation, established in 1991. For more information about CICF, visit cicf.org. ABOUT THE 2018 EFROYMSON CONTEMPORARY ART FELLOWS Bethany Collins, Chicago http://www.bethanyjoycollins.com Bethany is interested in the unnerving possibility of multiple meanings, dual perceptions, and limitlessness in the seemingly binary. Fueled by a critical exploration of how race and language interact, language is both the subject of her work and the primary material from dictionaries and encyclopedias to literary journals and newspaper archives. She has found that language is also a prism through which she can interrogate all other topics. Struggling with the consistent duality of languageits potential and inevitable failure - remains the basis for her making. Originally from Montgomery, Alabama, her work remains rooted in the history and memory of the American South. Through the dissolution of dichotomies and exploration of language, this work recalls moments in the formation of her racial identity as Black and Biracial. She has found that language is a prism through which she can interrogate topics of interest - from race and identity to history and memory. The fellowship will enable Bethany to develop new installations and performance-based works. Fellowship support will specifically be used for studio and living expenses, equipment and supplies and contracted labor. Tirtza Even, Chicago http://www.tirtzaeven.info Tirtza is a practicing video artist and documentary maker for the past twenty years. Tirtza has produced both linear and interactive video work representing the less overt manifestations of complex, and at times extreme, social/political dynamics in specific settings such as a refugee camp in Palestine, a prison in the U.S. and a migrant-workers town in Spain. The desire to truthfully depict an intimate exchange with and insight into - lives other than her own is the motivating force behind her work. Her work can also be described as an exploration of the inevitable, yet nuanced, failure of this very act of representation. Tirtzas work Her work has been shown in galleries, museums and festivals in the U.S., Israel and Europe. The fellowship will enable Tirtza to complete three video projects. Fellowship support will specifically be used for artistic travel, equipment rental, marketing, and contracted labor for video editing and video post-production work. Jose Carlos Teixeira, Madison, Wis. http://www.josecarlosteixeira.com Jose is a visual artist and researcher born in Porto, Portugal. His interdisciplinary and research-based work involves primarily video-essay, photography, installation, text, and performance. It explores and expands on notions of identity, otherness, language, boundary, exile and displacement. Through strategies of participation, his pieces address specific issues related to locational identity, global diaspora, and the limits (or overlapping) of personal/social, physical/mental, and political territories. Jose focuses mainly on participatory and collaborative events, therefore incorporating multiple voices and subjects into his audiovisual projects. The fellowship will enable Jose to complete a project in progress and to develop and expand his next body of video installation work that would continue to examine displacement and the refugee condition with a specific focus on movement, assimilation and integration. Fellowship support will specifically be used for artistic travel, translators, equipment rental and contracted labor for video editing and video post-production work. Alexa Horochowski - Minneapolis http://www.alexahorochowski.com Alexa is a dual citizen of Argentina and the United States. Her family left Argentina when she was almost ten years old - part of a ten-year exodus precipitated by a military coup. Building a life in the Midwest required that she remember and erase the past in equal measures. The landscapes she explores in her art, allows her to sustain a connection with her South American home while continuing to explore and understand her adopted home in Minnesota and the United States. Her work is unique in that it bridges national borders by considering the landscape and human condition from the perspective of the planet as a whole. Chance encounters with various materials, natural or man-made, often provide a starting point for her works in sculpture and video. Alexa is continually exploring new processes and materials that require careful research and trial and error in the studio and she manipulates materials as varied as seaweed, tar, clay adobe, organic fibers, wax, bronze, latex, plaster, steel, rope and wood. The fellowship will enable Alexa to complete two projects focused on the creation of sculptural and video based works. Fellowship support will specifically be used for artistic travel, equipment and supplies, marketing and contracted labor. Andres Hernandez - Chicago Andres is an interdisciplinary artist, designer, and educator who creatively explores the physical, social, and cultural environments we inhabit. Through collaborative work with artists, designers, and everyday citizens, as well as his independent, studio-based practice, Andres explores the potential of shared and public spaces for public dialogue, community building, and social action. He seeks to creatively connect citizens to learn about, envision, and create the spaces they truly desire for themselves, as well as advocate for the equitable planning, usage, and stewardship of public spaces for the benefit of all. His work often takes the form of archival research, writing, public programming, participatory workshops, creative placemaking, and ephemeral interventions and performances within vacant and abandoned spaces in urban contexts. The built environment informs his research interests and creative production, which results from his education and professional training in the field of architecture. The interpretation and (re)shaping of space is Central to his practice, which draws inspiration from the physical landscapes of urban contexts, as well as the cultural and social histories underlying these spaces. The fellowship will enable Andres to focus more time on his artistic practice and the creation of new work. Fellowship support will specifically be used for studio rental, equipment and supplies, marketing and contracted labor. Arcadia Data, provider of the first visual analytics software native to Apache Hadoop and the cloud, will host, with Dresner Advisory Services, a webinar: 3 Trends for Modernizing Analytics and Data Warehousing in 2019. The webinar tees up three types of modern analyticsdata warehouse optimization, log analytics, and search-based BI and analyticsthat businesses must adopt to build a competitive edge in 2019 and beyond. Did you know that in 2018, natural language analytics and streaming analytics climbed their way closer to the top of executives priority lists? Its no surprise, as those types of technologies help organizations make data truly accessible to everyone within an organization. 2019 is around the corner, and that means your data strategies should be in tip-top shape before the holidays arrive. At the heart of your holiday giving plans should be providing big data analytics access to everyone in your organization. What: Turning data into a strategic business asset is at the top of every executives to-do list. To elicit value from data and get the most from modern data technology, business leaders should look to three key analytics mechanisms. In a revealing webinar, attendees will enjoy a preview of exclusive Dresner Advisory Services research regarding trends in business intelligence technologies and strategies. Who: Howard Dresner, president, Dresner Advisory Services Priyank Patel, co-founder and chief product officer, Arcadia Data Anupam Singh, general manager - analytics, Cloudera When: December 5, 2018, 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. PST Where: Webinar registration information is available, here. See Arcadia Enterprise, the Arcadia Data flagship platform, in action by registering for a live demo. About Arcadia Data Arcadia Data provides the first visual analytics and BI platform native to big data that delivers the scale, performance, and agility business users need to discover and productionize real-time insights. Its flagship product, Arcadia Enterprise, was built from inception to run natively within big data platforms, in the cloud and/or on-premises, to streamline the self-service analytics process on data in Apache Hadoop, Apache Spark, Apache Kafka, and Apache Solr. It enables real-time, high-definition insights in use cases like data lakes, cybersecurity, connected IoT devices, and customer intelligence. Arcadia Enterprise is deployed by some of the worlds leading brands, including Procter & Gamble, Nokia, Royal Bank of Canada, Kaiser Permanente, HPE, and Neustar. To learn more, follow @ArcadiaData or visit http://www.arcadiadata.com. Says Slone Partners President Tara Kochis-Stach, Dr. Smythes expansive career in healthcare brings the rare, holistic experience, insight and thoughtfulness to SomaLogic that will support the long-term vision and growth of the company. Slone Partners, North Americas leading executive search firm for life sciences and diagnostics companies, announces the placement of Roy Smythe, M.D. at SomaLogic, Inc. as Chief Executive Officer. Now responsible for strategically developing, commercializing, scaling, and fund-raising for the company, Dr. Smythe will be based in Boulder, Colorado and report to SomaLogics board of directors, including founder Larry Gold, Ph.D. With 200 employees worldwide, SomaLogic is a leader in the nascent and cutting-edge world of proteomics, the study and measurement of proteins, to create a more impactful deployment of precision medicine and personalized medicine. Using advanced proprietary technological breakthroughs that leverage Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, SomaLogic currently measures some 5,000 human proteins out of the approximately 20,000 proteins in the human proteome, which SomaLogic believes has groundbreaking potential as early warning systems for disease. Understanding that proteins are unique diagnostics systems for each individual patient, SomaLogic translates proteomics into actionable insights, empowering both patients and caregivers to use each individual's highly-personalized protein information to manage patient health in real time. Prior to joining SomaLogic, Dr. Smythe served as Chief Medical Officer for Strategy, Partnerships and Informatics at global healthcare company Royal Philips. Prior to Royal Philips, he held Chief Medical Officer positions at Valence Health and AVIA, both in Chicago. He is a medical doctor, a trained surgeon, researcher, and a university professor, having earned his M.D. with highest honors from Texas A&M University College of Medicine, and his B.S. in Biology from Baylor University. Dr. Smythe also served as Professor of Surgery, Medicine and Molecular Medicine at University of Texas' M.D. Anderson Cancer Center; and chaired the Department of Surgery at Scott & White Healthcare at Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine, where he also served as Medical Director of Innovation. Says Roy Smythe, M.D. about Slone Partners, I have worked with all of the large search firms over the past twenty years either as a candidate or as a client. What stood out about working with Slone Partners was the incredible attention to consistent and timely communication during the process. When being evaluated for a leadership role at this level - meeting with executives, employees, board members, and others - having Slone Partners as air traffic control during the process was most appreciated. Says Slone Partners President Tara Kochis-Stach, SomaLogics pioneering technology in proteomics represents the future of diagnostics and the power of personalized approaches. Dr. Smythes expansive career in healthcare - from startups to hospital systems, from university research centers to innovation-driven multinationals - brings the rare, holistic experience, insight and thoughtfulness to SomaLogic that will support the long-term vision and growth of the company. ABOUT SLONE PARTNERS Slone Partners delivers the leaders who build amazing scientific healthcare organizations - People Are Our Science. Since 2000, Slone Partners specializes in delivering world-class C-suite leadership, executive, and upper management talent to the most promising and established life sciences, diagnostics, precision medicine, CRO, and laboratory services companies. With coast-to-coast presence in the most active healthcare industry hubs of Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Austin, Research Triangle Park NC, and Washington DC, Slone Partners uniquely and precisely provides an array of executive search and advisory services to innovative scientific healthcare companies. To learn more about Slone Partners value proposition and processes, visit slonepartners.com or call 888.784.3422. ABOUT SOMALOGIC SomaLogic seeks to empower a healthier world by delivering actionable health-management insights for every seeker and enabler of human health. These essential insights, which are provided through a global network of partners and users, are derived from SomaLogics unique ability to measure changes in thousands of individual human proteins over time with high precision, sensitivity and throughput. For more information, visit http://www.somalogic.com and follow @somalogic on Twitter. As ebilling adoption continues to increase, so will the need for law firms to manage billing compliance in order to maintain collection realization and retain profitable client relationships Bellefield Systems, the providers of the fastest path to revenue through its solutions, announced the launch of its new product, OCG Live. A full-service Outside Counsel Guidelines (OCG) solution, OCG Live allows firms to manage guidelines from inception, engage with attorneys and other parties responsible for OCG, enforce compliance at the point of time entry and measure how much money is at risk at any given point in time. Compliance with client billing guidelines is one of the most notable challenges in the legal industry today. As OCG continues to expand in scope, frequency and complexity, todays firms struggle to comply. Manual processes for identifying non-compliant invoices are inefficient and subject to human error, which leads to rejections, write-offs and payment delays, therefore affecting top-line revenue. OCG Live enables firms to improve collection realization, reduce rejections and appeals by managing client billing guidelines in real time, increasing compliance and enhancing communication. As ebilling adoption continues to increase, so will the need for law firms to manage billing compliance in order to maintain collection realization and retain profitable client relationships. Law firms that can adapt successfully to the ever-evolving client demands are the most likely to flourish, said Gabriela Isturiz, Co-Founder and President at Bellefield Systems. It is with great pride that we announce OCG Live, a game changing solution, which will transform the ability of firms to comply with OCG, giving them the visibility that they deserve into risk along with the tangible steps necessary to achieve compliance. For the first time in the history of the legal industry, true compliance with client guidelines is possible. Bellefield is the first vendor to provide a full-service solution to address compliance with client billing guidelines. OCG Live is now available to current and future Bellefield customers and can be used with or without Bellefields flagship application, iTimeKeep. For more information on OCG Live, visit bellefield.com/new. About Bellefield Systems Bellefield provides the fastest path to revenue by removing barriers to time entry for attorneys and law firms. Through the Bellefield Timelab, Bellefield helps firms improve revenue by increasing attorney timekeeping engagement, providing real-time compliance with outside counsel guidelines and enabling firms to manage their time entry policies. In an area that was long disregarded and accepted as a cost of doing business, Bellefields innovations are bringing about efficiencies that allow firms to achieve the best timecard inventory, leading to less rejections, increased compliance and maximum client satisfaction. Bellefield was founded with one simple (yet powerful) purpose: create better timekeepers. Bellefields flagship solution, iTimeKeep, has ranked as the #1 most adopted Mobile (and anywhere) Time Entry solution for attorneys for six consecutive years. Bellefields founding members include the former founders of eBillingHub (now Thomson Reuters), Gabriela Isturiz and Daniel Garcia and software veteran, John Kuntz. Bellefield Systems is an independent, privately held company headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. To learn more, visit http://www.bellefield.com. DuPont looks forward to working with Alon Refining on this exciting project. Adding an alkylation unit to the refinery enables Alon to increase its production volume of gasoline while producing multiple grades of summer fuel. DuPont Clean Technologies (DuPont), a business unit of DuPont Industrial Biosciences, has been awarded the contract to supply Alon Refining Krotz Springs (Alon), a part of Delek US, with a license and engineering services for the STRATCO alkylation technology at the refinery in Krotz Springs, Louisiana. The 6,500 bpsd STRATCO alkylation unit will enable Alon to generate low-sulfur, high-octane, low-Rvp alkylate with zero olefins, improving the quality and quantity of the refinerys gasoline pool to meet increasingly strict clean fuel standards. DuPont looks forward to working with Alon Refining on this exciting project. Adding an alkylation unit to the refinery enables Alon to increase its production volume of gasoline while producing multiple grades of summer fuel. As STRATCO Alkylation is the globally leading alkylation technology, DuPont is well-suited to provide the refinery with a commercially proven and reliable solution, said Kevin Bockwinkel, global licensing business manager, STRATCO Alkylation Technology. The STRATCO alkylation technology is the established global leader in the industry with over 90 units licensed worldwide and more than 850,000 BPSD (33,300 kmta) of installed capacity. STRATCO alkylation technology is a sulfuric acid catalyzed process that converts low-value olefins into high-value alkylate, a key desirable component for clean fuel. With units built over 80 years still in operation, the STRATCO Alkylation technology is a highly effective, reliable solution for producing cleaner-burning fuel with high octane, a low Rvp, low sulfur and zero olefins. About DuPont Clean Technologies The DuPont Clean Technologies division applies real-world experience, history of innovation, problem-solving success and strong brands to help organizations operate safely and with the highest level of performance, reliability, energy efficiency and environmental integrity. The Clean Technologies portfolio includes STRATCO alkylation technology for production of clean, high-octane gasoline; IsoTherming hydroprocessing technology for desulfurization of motor fuels; MECS sulfuric acid production and regeneration technologies; BELCO air quality control systems for FCC flue gas scrubbing and other refinery scrubbing applications; MECS DynaWave technology for additional scrubbing solutions; and a comprehensive suite of aftermarket service and solutions offerings. Learn more about DuPont Clean Technologies at http://www.cleantechnologies.dupont.com. About DuPont Industrial Biosciences DuPont Industrial Biosciences, a DowDuPont Specialty Products Division business, works with customers across a wide range of industries to make products and industrial processes more efficient and sustainable. Through a unique combination of biotechnology, chemistry and material science capabilities, we advance market-driven, bio-based solutions to meet the needs of a growing population, while protecting our environment for future generations. For updates about how DuPont Industrial Biosciences is helping customers deliver cost-effective products with superior performance and sustainability, follow @DuPontBiobased on Twitter, find us on LinkedIn or visit our website at http://biosciences.dupont.com. About DowDuPont Specialty Products Division DowDuPont Specialty Products, a division of DowDuPont (NYSE: DWDP), is a global innovation leader with technology-based materials, ingredients and solutions that help transform industries and everyday life. Our employees apply diverse science and expertise to help customers advance their best ideas and deliver essential innovations in key markets including electronics, transportation, building and construction, health and wellness, food and worker safety. DowDuPont intends to separate the Specialty Products Division, which will be called DuPont, into an independent, publicly traded company. More information can be found at http://www.dow-dupont.com. The DuPont Oval logo, DuPont and all products, unless otherwise noted, denoted with , or are trademarks or registered trademarks of E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company or its affiliates. For further information contact: DuPont Clean Technologies Richard Martinez Tel: +33-6-86497164 richard.martinez@dupont.com STRATCO Alkylation Technology Kevin Bockwinkel Tel: +1-913-327-3536 kevin.b.bockwinkel@dupont.com Impress3: Branding & Site Update The update in branding and site design illuminates the company's ability to craft captivating content at a fraction of the cost and at a significantly faster pace. Impress3 was founded in 2013 as the engine behind numerous online industry magazines. Those assets, assisted by software, produce content which has since reached millions of visitors throughout the world and was the cause of recognition for parent company Impressions Holdings which was named the #20 fastest growing software firm of 2017 (Inc. 5000). Impress3 Media recently announced a shift in the companys mission, acknowledging the need to revitalize the news industry through use of automation software assistance. To match this new goal, the Impress3 has also redesigned and re-oriented its branding, from its name to its website to its social media accounts. The new website seeks to better explain the proposition of Impress3. It describes how the company is able to craft captivating content at a fraction of the cost and at a significantly faster pace. Through Impress3s automation tools, writers, editors, and creative content producers can efficiently create media tailored not only to industry verticals, but also to specific locales through software-assisted tools. In fact, Impres3s software has been able to put out some notably stories even before major publications catch wind of the news by guiding reporters to breaking topics through an automated process. In one example, Impress3s Up To Boston reported on a bomb threat unraveling in downtown Boston roughly 12 hours before national news agencies put out the story. Impress3 has now tasked its staff and software with charting a fresh path for local news in America. The team plans to launch over 100 local news websites, written and edited by regionally-located contributors, but managed by automation software. Sweet Pea Necklace, an original design by Alyce n Maille. Alyce n Maille is definitely celebrating this 10th anniversary of seeing its jewelry designs on television. It's been an honor to adorn so many talented actresses over the last several years. Jennifer Nyiri of Alyce n Maille is pleased to announce that actress Emily Bett Rickards wore the designer's micro-maille stainless steel Sweet Pea Necklace on Episode 705 of CW TV's "Arrow." The episode aired November 12, 2018. This marks the 10th television placement for Alyce n Maille jewelry, which has previously appeared on "Bones," "Jane the Virgin," "The Originals," and "The Vampire Diaries." "Alyce n Maille is definitely celebrating this 10th anniversary of seeing its jewelry designs on television. It's been an honor to adorn so many talented actresses over the last several years," remarked Jennifer. This original Alyce n Maille design was selected for Ms. Rickards, who plays character Felicity Smoak, by the wardrobe stylist for "Arrow," in collaboration with California-based The Artisan Group. The necklace was handcrafted by Jennifer using high quality, saw cut stainless steel rings. The unique chainmaille weave, known as "Sweet Pea," is created by meticulously hand-weaving together each ring. "Stainless steel is an amazing alternative to sterling silver," says Jennifer. "It will never tarnish and cleans easily with soap and water. So if you're looking for something that is feminine and edgy, this unique necklace is perfect." The necklace retails for $40.00 and is available to purchase at alycenmaille.com. Alyce n Maille has become a popular jewelry resource for Hollywood stylists. Most recently Justina Machado ("Six Feet Under," "Queen of the South") wore a pair of Turquoise Crystal Chandelier Earrings on Episode 403 of Jane the Virgin. Also on Jane the Virgin, Golden Globe winner Gina Rodriguez wore a Crystal and Gold Bracelet on Episode 314 (air date March 20, 2017) and Carrie Madsen (playing fertility clinic director Diane) wore a Blue Twist Necklace on Episode 122. In December 2016, the company's Forever Gold Tassel Earrings were worn by actress Kristen Gutoskie (playing character Seline) on the mid-season finale of the CW Network's "The Vampire Diaries." This was the fourth appearance of Alyce n Maille jewelry on that show, with Candice King (as Caroline Forbes) wearing a pair of Keepsake Crystal and Pearl Earrings on Episode 521; Nina Dobrev (as Elena Gilbert) donning a Blue Frost Crystal Pendant on Episode 622, and Scarlett Byrne (as Nora Hildegarde) modeling a pair of Lilac Crystal and Gold Earring on Episode 706. Jennifer's jewelry has also been worn by actress Bridget Newton on Episode 1120 of "Bones" and by Rebecca Breeds on five episodes of "The Originals." Alyce n Maille jewelry has been showcased at GBK Luxury Celebrity Gift Lounges for the MTV Movie Awards, the Primetime Emmy Awards, and New York Fashion Week. Its Not About Me TV has described Jennifers designs as "beautiful," while the Los Angeles Informer has called then "stunning." Alyce n Maille was founded in 2012. Read more about Jennifer and her small business success at alycenmaille.com. In addition to being an accomplished jewelry designer, Jennifer is an animal lover. Supporting a cause that is close to her heart, Jennifer donates a portion of proceeds from the sale of Alyce n Maille jewelry to Dollys Foundation (dollysfoundation.org), during her annual November fundraiser. Dolly's foundation provides community support for pet owners in need in the central Florida area, including financial assistance for spaying/neutering, shots, and food. Follow Alyce n Maille on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest (@AlycenMaille). For more information about The Artisan Group, visit theartisangroup.org. ABOUT ALYCENAMAILLE Alyce n Maille (http://alycenmaille.com) is a collection of artisan-made chain maille jewelry and accessories with a hint of old world charm. Every piece of Alyce n Maille jewelry is carefully handcrafted by Jennifer using the highest quality materials. Her unique work is truly an art form in craftsmanship. When buying from Alyce n Maille, one not only gets an amazing quality piece of handcrafted jewelry but a unique one-on-one experience with the artist. Purchasing from Alyce n Maille directly helps the artist and her family and not a big box store. Listening to the needs of their customers, Softdocs offers multiple deployment options of Etrieve including cloud deployment, providing seamless integrations between Ellucian solutions and the Etrieve platform. Softdocs, a provider of education-focused enterprise content management software solutions, has been recognized as an Ellucian partner of the year. This award follows their recent announcement highlighting the official certification for their integration support through the Ellucian Ethos platform to Ellucian Colleague and Ellucian Banner. Softdocs was chosen as a partner of the year in the Customer First category for its representation of excellence and dedication to ensuring institutional success. Listening to the needs of their customers, Softdocs offers multiple deployment options of Etrieve including cloud deployment, providing seamless integrations between Ellucian solutions and the Etrieve platform, said Chris Westfall, Vice President, Partnerships at Ellucian. Etrieve by Softdocs has experienced record growth this year as more than 50 institutions of various types and sizes are implementing the next-generation platform. This growth was spearheaded by innovative research and development efforts including the Ellucian Ethos integration, as well as increased cloud-based deployment options. As the company celebrated a variety of milestones and achievements, including their 20th anniversary, Softdocs also introduced the Softdocs Technology Scholars Program. Headquartered in Columbia, South Carolina, Softdocs established the Softdocs Technology Scholars Program to provide scholarship funds to South Carolina students seeking degrees in technology related fields. To qualify for consideration, applicants must reside in South Carolina, be accepted for admission to a higher education institution with plans to pursue a degree in a technology related field and meet certain academic requirements. Our success for the last 20 years has been a result of educational institutions trusting us to help them achieve more. This scholarship program allows us to not only give back to both an industry and community that have been very generous to us, it also helps us promote the technology field to South Carolinas youth, said Softdocs CEO and founder, Mike Murphy. Online applications will be accepted beginning March 1st for the 2019-2020 academic year, and review will be limited to the first 1,000 applications received. Details, requirements and more information about the Softdocs Technology Scholars Program can be found at http://www.softdocs.com/scholars. Do the Right Thing: Stand for What You Believe In is a preview of the hottest trends and predictions that will shape the hospitality industry in 2019. af&co., one of the countrys leading boutique restaurant and hospitality consulting firms, is thrilled to debut this years trends report. Do the Right Thing: Stand for What You Believe In is a preview of the hottest trends and predictions that will shape the hospitality industry in 2019. This comprehensive annual report identifies key influences in restaurants, hotels, hospitality marketing, food, and beverage. Now in its eleventh edition, af&co.s trends report has become an industry standard in anticipating market demand and consumer feedback. Compiled from extensive year-long research, the report is intended to serve as a guide to help operators prepare for the coming year. The theme of the 2019 trends report is Do the Right Thing because restaurants and hotels have been heavily affected by the tumultuous state of the world, and its driving the hospitality industry, like many industries, to reflect on its actions, step up, and do the right thing. From focusing on health and sustainability to embracing global cultures and supporting meaningful causes and partners, there's a renewed energy and deeper sense of caring to do the right thing for yourself, others, and the world at large. The hospitality industry is leading the charge in creating the world we want to live in. Restaurants and hotels are gathering places for people to connect, creating the perfect grounds for people to come together, get personal, and embrace forward-thinking ideas, says Andrew Freeman, founder of af&co. The industry is speaking up about equal rights, food waste, health and wellness, and much more. Theres a lot to be hopeful about in 2019. It has been incredible to see the hospitality industry step up and do the right thing. In addition to delving to this years theme, the report highlights the hottest food trends, cuisines, food cities and more. Andrew will present the trends report in its entirety on a webinar on Friday, November 30 at 10:00 am PT/1:00 pm ET. A second webinar presentation will take place on Thursday, December 6 at 10:00 am PT/1:00 pm ET. Until then, here is a preview of ten trends you can expect to see in the report: Do the Right Thing! Whether its fighting for gender equality in the kitchen, representing immigrants, or embracing sustainability, restaurants are helping to create the accepting world we want to live in and are raising money for deserving groups through creative marketing initiatives. Examples: -Cocktail for a Cause at Curio (SF), which currently supports the Calfund Wildfire Relief Fund by donating $1 from the sale of every Sphinx cocktail to help support intermediate and long-term recovery efforts for major California wildfires, such as the Camp Fire, as well as preparedness efforts -Bake the World a Better Place bake sale at Bluestem Brasserie (SF) benefitting CUESA & The Ferry Plaza Farmers Market's Foodwise Kids, a free program for elementary school classes that uses the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market as a classroom for empowering the next generation of healthy eaters -Jose Andres nonprofit World Central Kitchen Meat the Future: Cell-based Meat & Vegan Meat Plant-based meat, including the Impossible Burger, is showing up on menus throughout the country. And this trend isnt slowing down were expecting to see vegan seafood on menus in the near future. Examples: -Restaurants are using the Impossible meat in creative ways, such as the meatballs at barbacco eno trattoria (SF) -Vegan seafood from Good Catch (National) -Impossible Burger at Gotts Roadside (Multiple Locations) Globally-Inspired Breakfast Get ready for breakfast around the world without leaving your town. Globally-inspired breakfast and brunch menus have taken off, including the modern Indian brunch at ROOH, Israeli breakfast at Orens Hummus, and Japanese breakfast at Cassava. Examples: -Israeli breakfast at Orens Hummus (SF) -Japanese breakfast at Okonomi (Brooklyn, NY) -Italian breakfast at Poggio (Sausalito, CA) -Mexican breakfast at Fonda (NYC) Dessert of the Year: Doughnuts Savor these treats literally. Artisanal doughnut shops are popping up throughout the country and unexpected savory flavors and fillings are showing up in traditionally sweet places. Examples: -Chicken liver doughnut with black honey glaze at Grand Cafe (Minneapolis, MN) -Everything spice doughnut at Doughnut Project (NYC) -Passionfruit cocoa nib donut at Blue Star (Portland, OR) -Potato doughnut tikki with spinach pakoda, yogurt mousse, and raspberry at ROOH (SF) Dish of the Year: Khachapuri Georgian cuisine is having a moment, and leading the way is the photogenic, Instagram favorite dish Khachapuri. Featuring a cheese-filled bread boat topped with a runny egg, the egg and cheese are mixed together tableside. To enjoy, guests tear off pieces of the crust to dip in the cheesy middle. Bread runny eggs cheese whats not to like? Examples: -Supra (DC) -Cheeseboat (Brooklyn) -Barbounia (NYC) Time for Tea Tea is a huge trend for 2019 but not but your traditional tea! Were anticipating a rise in moringa tea (a popular superfood), cheese tea (yes, cheese), and mushroom tea. Guests are expecting more from tea programs, prompting the rise of tea sommeliers and elaborate tea programs. Examples: -ROOH (SF) features an elaborate tea menu and tea sommelier -Mushroom tea from Four Sigmatic -Cheese tea at Little Fluffy Head Cafe (LA) -Sparkling matcha tea at Stonemill Matcha (SF) Robotic Restaurant Revolution Stay on the lookout for food-making robots! Silicon Valley-based food robotics company Chowbotics is rolling out Sally the Robot at airports, convenience stores, offices and more serving up vibrant, forward-thinking meals via touchscreen interface 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Popular robotic restaurants including Creator and Spyce are further proof that robots are here to stay. Examples: -Sally the Robot from Chowbotics -Creator (SF) -Spyce (Boston) Waste Not, Want Not The hospitality industry is increasingly passionate about reducing food waste and finding ways to increase their sustainable operations. Todays diners care that operators dont waste ingredients, they want to know how and where products are grown (locally, ideally!) Examples: -Amazing Pasta Straws, a company that creates sustainable straws out of (you guessed it!) pasta -James Beard Foundations Waste Not food waste initiative -Austin (TX) food waste ordinance preventing restaurants from disposing of food waste in landfills Digital Detox: Going off the [Hotel] Grid Hotels are offering digital detox packages, allowing guests to lock up their phones (literally) in exchange for discounts. Everyone wins - hotels benefit (guests often use more amenities when they arent on their phones) and guests revel in the relaxing experience. Examples: -The Mandarin Oriental Hotel (NYC) offers a digital wellness package that includes spa therapies to target back and neck strain from device use -The James Hotel (NYC) offers a portable safe to lock up your digital devices, with the combination and timer set by the front desk team. Guests that participate receive 10% off their room rate -Hotel chains including the Wyndham Grand have begun offering promotions to guests willing to give up their devices during their stay Seed to Table So long, farm to table. Seed to table is the new trend! What does it mean? Chefs are working directly with farmers to grow vegetables that put flavor (not yield, shelf life, or uniformity) first. Leading the charge is Row 7 Seed Company, launched by Chef Dan Barber and his seed-breeder partners. By working together in the field and kitchen, they test, taste and market delicious new plant varieties to make an impact in the soil and at the table. Examples: -Row 7 Seed Company -SPQR (SF) works closely with a local farmers to cultivate uncommon items About af&co.: af&co. is an innovative restaurant and hospitality consulting firm headquartered in San Francisco with clients across the country. The company has developed and launched concepts for more than 100 restaurants and hotels and provided ongoing marketing, public relations, and operations consulting for more than 200 others. af&co. has created unique culinary events of all sizes from intimate dinners to food and wine festivals drawing more than 10,000 people. The team does whatever it takes to help their clients achieve their goals and focus on what they are passionate about: hotels, restaurants, food, wine, spirits, and travel. Alicia Kali presents her Silver STEVIE Award for Woman of the Year. My intention in entering this space was to empower people with truths that will allow them to make better decisions supporting their long-term neurological and overall health. Alicia KaliFounder, CEO and Chief Scientific Officer of Panacea Biomedwas honored with a Silver award at the Stevie Awards for Women in Business in the category of Woman of the Year for the work she leads with her non-profit organization, Purpose DRVN. The Stevie Awards for Women in Business honor women executives, entrepreneurs, employees and the companies they run worldwide. The Stevie Awards have been hailed as the worlds premier business awards. As a response to the lack of knowledge surrounding concussion, post-concussion syndrome, Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (MTBI) and CTE, Alicia Kali, founded Purpose DRVNa non-profit organization dedicated to education, outreach and research to lend her scientific discoveries and vast experience to this often-misunderstood area of health. Kali's lifes work of over 30 years in the study of the biochemical center of health in humans, animals and plants; the sympathetic nervous system and brains shared biochemistry has produced patents that show regeneration of neurotransmitters, neurons and dissipation of tau proteins, all lost or damaged in concussion and related maladies. Kalis groundbreaking science and direct experience with PCS inspired her to share her work and expertise with those in need. Purpose DRVN also seeks to support and advocate for programs aimed to improve the welfare, education, and recovery of those suffering from or at risk of concussion. With hundreds of businesswomen and their guests in attendance, the awards were announced at a gala dinner at the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel in New York City on Friday, November 16, 2018. More than 1,500 entries were submitted this year for consideration, Kali was in the most contested category Woman of the Year. Winners were determined by the average scores of more than 200 business professionals around the world, working on five juries. Their scores determined the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award placements. The many who have followed my story on social media know the tenacity I have demonstrated in getting this answer to the worldjust seven years ago I was struggling with my own MTBI and other severe diagnoses, with nothing to my name except my research. Ive since had the opportunity to lean on the healing properties of my own work, healing myself and sharing my findings with the public at large, says Purpose DRVN Founder Alicia Kali. It is extremely rewarding to be embraced for my non-profit work, this along with overwhelming support of the scientific community is truly thrilling. My intention in entering this space was to empower people with truths that will allow them to make better decisions supporting their long-term neurological and overall health. Details about the Stevie Awards for Women in Business and the list of Finalists in all categories are available at http://www.StevieAwards.com/Women. About Alicia Kali Alicia Kali is the Founder of Purpose DRVN as well as Founder, CEO and Chief Scientific Officer of Panacea Biomedwhose focus is on neurogenesis via nutraceutical development. Kalis initial patent has been hailed as the most important discovery in the history of medicine, by her expertise in the sympathetic nervous system and brain and their role in overall health, a notion with far-reaching benefits for generations to come. Poised to disrupt multiple industries with its breakthrough findings, Panacea Biomeds patents aim to bridge the gap between the nutritional supplement and pharmaceutical industries. Fascinated by the concept of neuroregeneration and neurogenesis, Kali began her independent research at the age of 19 and has since been embraced by both the scientific and medical communities, as the premier global expert on the sympathetic nervous system and brains shared biochemical driversdopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin as well as having been called the best in the world on the matter of the biochemical nature and neuro recovery of concussion. For additional information on the science behind Panacea Biomeds product range and to learn more about Alicia, please visit http://www.panaceabiomed.com. About The Stevie Awards Stevie Awards are conferred in seven programs: the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the German Stevie Awards, The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Great Employers, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Stevie Awards competitions receive more than 10,000 entries each year from organizations in more than 70 nations. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at http://www.StevieAwards.com. Animals could not be tethered between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., and when they are tethered, would always have to have unrestricted access to food, water and shelter. The ordinance would not permit them to be tethered outside for more than three hours at a time. Big Tech Comedy Roast Im not here to put big tech, or any tech, down. I use Amazon and social media myself and I work in the field. All Im saying is, since the tech world has so much money and power, why not be transparent with all involved and use our influence for good? --- Vahid Razavi Ethics in Tech and Lack Thereof by Vahid Razavi intends to encourage tech firms to use their power and influence in society for good. The book shares Razavis experience working both domestically and abroad as the founder of cloud computing startup BizCloud, and then as a senior manager within Amazon Web Services. His cinematic journey brought him through a visit to a Serbian mental hospital, various foreign embassies, and courtrooms during months of tense trademark litigation. The book moves on to outline how tech firms can improve their ethical track record, especially concerning their treatment of workers, care for the environment, respect for civil liberties, and responsible stances on issues that surround emerging artificial intelligence technologies. The goal of this book is to raise public awareness of these topics in a fun, engaging way. Im not here to put big tech, or any tech, down. I use Amazon and social media myself and I work in the field. All Im saying is, since the tech world has so much money and power, why not be transparent with all involved and use our influence for good? --- Vahid Razavi Vahid Razavi will share parts of his story and freely distribute copies of his book during the upcoming comedy roast of the San Francisco Bay Areas biggest tech firms, which takes place December 14th at the Internet Archive. Weve invited major tech firms, including Facebook, Amazon, Google, Uber, Accenture, IBM, Palantir, Apple, Cisco, Microsoft, and Lyft, to send representatives, as well as the Freedom of the Press Foundation and other organizations advocating civil liberties and social justice in the tech sector. Comedians performing that night include: Nicole Spain Francesca Fiorentini Will Durst Jared Horning Chloe McGovern "Considering the daily revelations about privacy and security breaches and the ongoing surveillance and targeting of consumers, my hope is that the tech community has a sense of humility and humor. Comedy is a great way to break down barriers and educate the public at the same time. Therefore we have invited over 20 major tech firms to send representatives to the comedy night and we hope that they take this opportunity to laugh at the serious business of technology. -- Vahid Razavi Mr. Razavi was formerly the CEO of cloud software startup BizCloud, He has more than 20 years of sales, operations and customer service experience in the software and customer service industry. Mr. Razavi has been a lifelong peace activist. In addition to his pro-peace and pro-human rights activism, after Edward Snowdens revelations about the NSAs warrantless spying activities, he organized a set of NSA Comedy Nights to raise awareness of domestic and international surveillance in violation of our civil liberties. Hes traveled extensively abroad and become familiar with the impacts of technology and big business on some developing countries, and is the author of The Age of Nepotism, which deals with life and culture in the Balkans during the last recession. For more information about Big Tech Comedy Roast event, please visit Eventbrite. To download a free copy of the book please visit MyAWSStory.com. For additional information please contact our publicist Cristina Deptula at cedeptula(at)sbcglobal(dot)net Monica Best, M.D., joins Shady Grove Fertility's Atlanta Medical Team I am passionate about helping couples successfully through all aspects of their unique infertility journey. It gives me great satisfaction to share in the excitement couples experience as they build the family of their dreams. Shady Grove Fertility (SGF) Atlanta is proud to announce board certified reproductive endocrinologist Monica Best, M.D. has joined the practices award-winning Atlanta medical team. Dr. Best will join Atlanta physicians Drs. Mark Perloe, Desiree McCarthy-Keith, Anne Namnoum, and their most recent addition, Natalie Stentz. Dr. Best is currently accepting new patients at SGFs Atlanta-Northside location and will soon begin accepting new patients at SGFs Buckhead-Piedmont location. Monica Best earned her undergraduate Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from the University of Michigan where she graduated with honors and with multiple academic awards to her credit. She is a native of St. Louis and returned to Missouri for medical school where she was awarded a full academic scholarship to attend the University of Missouri School of Medicine. Dr. Best completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Chicago School of Medicine. During residency, Dr. Best realized her love of teaching residents and medical students. She was elected and served as the Chief Academic Resident of her residency class. Dr. Best completed her fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Best was awarded the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship where she researched and later published work on the novel rapid non-genomic actions of sex steroids at the University of Pisa in Pisa, Italy. She has published in peer reviewed journals, authored book chapters, and presented her research nationally. She is a member of numerous medical societies to include the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. I have experienced infertility personally therefore I understand first-hand the physical and psychological challenges faced by couples with infertility. I am passionate about helping couples successfully through all aspects of their unique infertility journey. It gives me great satisfaction to share in the excitement couples experience as they build the family of their dreams, says Best. SGF Atlanta, who was named 2018 Best Reproductive Endocrinology Practice by Kudzu and Top Doctors by Atlanta Magazine, currently has four locations in the greater Atlanta region, with their newest full-service location in Marietta, GA that recently opened in October 2018. Patients also have access to SGF Atlantas unique financial options that help make fertility treatment more affordable. We are honored to have Dr. Monica Best join the SGF Atlanta medical team. With now five reproductive endocrinologists in the Atlanta region, patients have even more convenient access than ever before to highly specialized fertility care from an esteemed team of physicians, says Mark Segal, Chief Executive Officer at Shady Grove Fertility. Patients may schedule an appointment with Dr. Best at SGFs Atlanta-Northside or Buckhead-Piedmont location, or any other SGF physician by calling the Shady Grove Fertility New Patient Center at 1-888-761-1967 or submitting this brief online form. About Shady Grove Fertility Atlanta SGF Atlanta, formerly Georgia Reproductive Specialists (GRS), is part of the Shady Grove Fertility (SGF) international network of state-of-the-art infertility care and IVF centers, offering patients individualized care, innovative financial options, and pregnancy rates among the highest in the United States. For more information about SGF Atlanta or to schedule an appointment with an SGF Atlanta physician, call 404-843-2229 or fill out this brief form. For more information about Shady Grove Fertility, call 1-888-761-1967 or visit ShadyGroveFertility.com. Basis 365 Logo Were excited to welcome AdvantEdge Accounting Solutions to Basis 365. AdvantEdge has done an excellent job at building deep relationships with its customers in the Oceanside and surrounding North San Diego County area, Irvine-based outsourced accounting and bookkeeping company, Basis 365, Inc., announced today that it is acquiring local accounting and bookkeeping company, AdvantEdge Accounting Solutions. The acquisition is part of Basis 365s strategic plan to strengthen its presence in across California and add QuickBooks to its preferred accounting platforms. Were excited to welcome AdvantEdge Accounting Solutions to Basis 365. AdvantEdge has done an excellent job at building deep relationships with its customers in the Oceanside and surrounding North San Diego County area, said Rhett Molitor, Co-founder, Basis 365. This acquisition and our combined capabilities will allow Basis 365 to better serve the needs of small and mid-size businesses in this market. The AdvantEdge brand will continue to exist and continue to focus on QuickBooks-based bookkeeping services for small businesses. Basis 365s strategic growth is anchored in its pursuit to expand its service lines to small and mid-size businesses who utilize QuickBooks as their accounting software of choice. The firm has recently been listed as a 2018 Top Accounting Firm by Clutch.co as well as a top B2B Company in California again by Clutch.co About Basis 365: Headquartered in Irvine, California but completely virtual, weve flipped the traditional accounting method on its head by partnering with our customers and focusing on real-time accounting to deliver timely results to help our customers make better business decisions. We provide a 100% cloud-based accounting department and specialize in e-commerce, service and software companies ranging from $1M to $20M in revenue. About AdvantEdge: Headquartered in Oceanside, California, AdvantEdge Accounting Solutions is a bookkeeping, accounting and accounting software consulting firm, specializing in small businesses who are having various challenges with their accounting and who are in need of assistance with QuickBooks software. Brian Coleman - 2019 School Counselor of the Year In back-to-back years, Chicago Public Schools counselors have earned the title of School Counselor of the Year for the incredible support they have provided Chicago's children, said Chicago Public School CEO Dr. Janice K. Jackson. Brian Coleman, a school counselor and counseling department chair at Jones College Prep in Chicago, Ill., has been named the 2019 School Counselor of the Year by the American School Counselor Association (ASCA). Coleman is a graduate of Northwestern University and DePaul University. He has served as a school counselor at Jones College Prep since 2014. The School Counselor of the Year award honors professionals who devote their careers to advocating for the nations students and addressing their academic and social/emotional development and college and career readiness needs. Coleman, a former actor, found his love for education and students while performing with About Face Theatre company and its youth talk-back program. These programs encouraged him to earn his masters degree in education and pivot into the school counseling field. Coleman recognized that serving as a school counselor would afford him with daily opportunities to support, validate and affirm the next generation of leaders and change agents. David Gilmer, English teacher at Jones College Prep (and co-advisor to the school mentorship program Coleman oversees), said Colemans dedication and diversity is exactly what sets him apart. Brian is a school counselor who not only currently represents the best the profession has to offer but also who will continue to set the bar high, even if it means moving in new directions, Gilmer said. Therese Plunkett, Jones College Prep vice principal, states that Coleman works diligently to differentiate the delivery of services to meet the needs of the schools diverse student population. As the faculty sponsor to JonesPride, the schools LGBTQA+ student organization, Coleman became aware of students frustration about the lack of resources, relationship support and inclusive language for gender and sexual minorities in the freshman sexual health curriculum. In response, Coleman collaborated with the Student Government Association to spearhead a revised sexual health education program for 377 sophomore students. With Mr. Colemans help, we were able to take the necessary actions that have allowed our school to include more hours of sex education into our health curriculum, said Sheryl Ordonez, senior at Jones College Prep. The programs success is leading to potential expansion opportunities to freshman, junior and senior students. Colemans holistic approach to school counseling at Jones College Prep includes advocating for expanded education and knowledge for students as well as school staff. According to vice principal Plunkett, in addition to postsecondary planning and academic planning, Coleman has a strong commitment to ensuring the school provides interdisciplinary social/emotional learning supports for all students. As a school with college in our name, there tends to be a great deal of focus and energy placed exclusively on students' college and postsecondary planning processes, Coleman said. However, we have worked to create a broader awareness that students holistic well-being is just as important to their current and future successes. Coleman, who earned his Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC) designation in 2017, collaborated with the school team to create extensive social/emotional programming at the freshman level as well as enhanced the school communitys awareness of social/emotional learning as an important facet of the high school experience. Brian is truly talented and deeply committed to building a more just society through education, said LaToya Hudson-Spells, former colleague and school counseling department co-chair at Jones College Prep. He has done so much for our school community in his short tenure as a school counselor. In back-to-back years, Chicago Public Schools counselors have earned the title of School Counselor of the Year for the incredible support they have provided Chicago's children, said Chicago Public School CEO Dr. Janice K. Jackson. On behalf of Chicago Public Schools, I want to congratulate Brian Coleman, who represents not only the best in the state but the best this nation has to offer when it comes to supporting our students and helping make their dreams become a reality. Six finalists were selected for School Counselor of the Year based on their ability to create systemic change within the profession through leadership, collaboration and advocacy. All six finalists achieved increased student success through their comprehensive school counseling programs. Coleman and the other School Counselor of the Year finalists, will be in Washington, D.C., Jan. 30Feb. 1, 2019 where they will be honored and formally recognized at a blacktie gala. ### About the American School Counselor Association The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) professional organization based in Alexandria, Va. ASCA promotes student success by expanding the image and influence of school counseling through leadership, advocacy, collaboration and systemic change. ASCA helps school counselors guide their students toward academic achievement, career planning and social/emotional development to help todays students become tomorrows productive, contributing members of society. Founded in 1952, ASCA has a network of 52 state and territory associations and a membership of more than 35,000 school counseling professionals. For additional information on the American School Counselor Association, visit http://www.schoolcounselor.org. Customers love sharing their branded photo experience. Its amazing to see my own customers creating thousands of impressions for my company. Social Flash Media, Inc. and The Rustic Brush a social crafting experience, announced they have reached an agreement to roll out Social Flash Medias MOBILE photo marketing solution at each of the Rustic Brush studio locations. Social Flash Media is thrilled to partner with this high-growth company, says Derick Alderman, President and Co-Founder of Social Flash Media. The Rustic Brush has aggressively gained attention in the paint and sip industry due to this customer-integrated marketing approach. Our sharing platform fits in with their long term Celebrate the Experience marketing strategy. They have been easy to work with and have a brilliant franchise model with full marketing support at the corporate level. Araceli Diaz, Crystal Crabb and Lora Morgan from Cypress, Texas shared a photo of their artwork on social media and had dozens of comments on their finished product. They said, We loved the fact we were able to have instant gratification by having our picture taken with our projects and were able to share instantly with our friends and family on social media. By the time we made it to the parking lot, people were already commenting on the photos and asking about The Rustic Brush. Sandi Flores, CEO and President of The Rustic Brush, notes Its amazing to see my own customers creating thousands of impressions for my company. We now have an organic approach that works with no gimmicks, and each photo takes a life of its own. Weve been looking for a way to visually connect our high-quality artwork experience and the system-wide adoption was effortless thanks to the SFM support team. Social Flash MOBILE subscription allows unlimited photo opportunities, via text or email and social sharing by customers to their social media accounts. Customer photos are branded with creative frames and tracked, leading to extensive and valuable analytic reporting. The patented platform offers businesses complete management of their content and drastically increases their visual engagement and social media marketing efficiency. The Social Flash Marketing platform provides a white-label experience for all customers to promote their brand. The Rustic Brush executives quickly implemented our platform at all of their franchises. They saw the priceless reactions of their customers being able to immediately share their artwork alongside Rustic Brush branding. We are extremely pleased that the franchises are excited to adopt our technology. The management of The Rustic Brush understands the value of earned media through a scalable platform. Bottom line, it captures the moment every business wants their customer to share, said Stephen Scherer, Co-Founder and Vice President of Business Development at Social Flash Media. About The Rustic Brush The Rustic Brush is a DIY workshop where you can share a social experience with family and friends while making a beautiful pallet picture made out of wood. From assembling to sanding to painting, customers create a beautiful work of art that they are proud to share with their friends. The process appeals to everyone from 8 to 80, and individuals are as welcomed as groups. They deliver a superior experience providing original designs as well as clients custom plans at a great price. For more information and franchise opportunities, visit their website at http://www.therusticbrush.com. About Social Flash Media Social Flash Media, Inc. is a leading provider of Advocate-based Marketing software to convert customers into brand ambassadors leveraging peer to peer through social circles. The companys technology is used to facilitate, propagate, track, manage and analyze Earned Social Media (ESM) through meaningful engagements. Providing four different modes, SFM can integrate with small businesses over months or entire stadiums in seconds. Social Flash Media is disruptive to traditional advertising metrics proving that Earned Social Media (ESM) achieves drastically increased social engagement rates when compared to paid social media alternatives. For more information, visit their website at http://www.socialflashmedia.com. Distributed on PRWeb Media Contact Stephen Scherer Social Flash Media, Inc. 13740 Research Blvd, Suite F3 Austin, TX 78750-1821 stephen@socialflashmedia.com +1 512.298.1680 X602 On Wednesday, December 12, Gianguan Auctions brings a wealth of traditional paintings, ceramics, and religious art to the podium. All of the properties are rich in the Chinese symbolism that offers wishes of happiness, longevity, prosperity and harmony. A highlight of this approach is Snow Mountain, an 11th century hanging scroll. Created by court painter Guo Xi (1023-1085), who utilized idiomatic brushstrokes, the work is a rare example of the perspective known as the angle of totality. In this work, the artist renders a view of a distant mountain that ascends from a stream through the scree of falling rock to treeless terrain and culminates in roiling clouds, reflecting the aspirations of humans to attain a higher state of being. Signed Guo Xi, the work has 8 Emperors seals and 17 collectors seals. It is Lot 99, valued at $1.2 million or higher. The tradition of seeking artistic truth through symbols has been carried through to the 20th century works of Xu Beihong (1895-1953) whose horses came to signify the indomitable spirit of the Chinese against invasions of the 1930s and 1940s. In Standing Tall a regal horse presents a three-quarter profile. Steady but alert, its mane aflutter and tail poised in excitement, the animal is charged to release its power if challenged. Dated 1942, the ink-and-color on paper scroll is inscribed and signed Beihong and has one artist seal. It is Lot 135, valued at upwards of $20,000 Eagle and Maple by Gao Jianfu (1879-1951) is another example of pictorial allegory, quite likely strength and honor. The painting of a preying eagle atop a colorful maple tree, known for its tolerance of most weather conditions, is typical of the artists Lingham School oeuvre. Gao Jianfu was among those who led the movement to adapt western, middle eastern, and Japanese techniques to traditional Chinese painting. Lot 34 has an opening bid of $6,000. Fu Baoshi (1904-1965), who brought Japanese techniques to Chinese ink painting and is generally recognized as the Father of the New Chinese Art Movement, is represented by a 1945 ink washed work entitled Hither My Companions. Monochromatic with pale pink and flesh tones, it interprets a day in the country that transcends the political exposition usually practiced by mid-century Chinese artists. The scroll is inscribed and signed Fu Baoshi, and bears 3 artist seals. Lot 151 is estimated to go off at more than $40,000. Wu Qingxia (1910-2008), a female modernist, often used symbolism to express longing. Geese, 1979, sets within a pond two that gaze upwards at birds while others dive and divert. The composition puts arcing boughs above the water fowl and the taunting birds at its pinnacle. Punctuating the chiaroscuro, blossoms pop in shades of gold and blue. Lot 37 will draw as much as $15,000. Offsetting these traditional works is a collection of contemporary art that includes Hsia Yans (b. 1932) masterpiece After George Seurats Sunday Afternoon. The 1999 work sets the famous work within the framework of Fuzzy Line style, creating a visual restlessness. Lot 204 is signed in Pinyin, dated and framed. The starting bid is $30,000. Walasse Ting (1929-2010) is represented with a portfolio of poems on retouched lithos from All In My Head. Housed in a plexiglass box, Lot 240 will go for upwards of $7,000. Several works from his 1971 Green Banana series are listed in the non-reserved portion of the sale, Lots 245-248. Taihang Mountain Home by Ma Le (Ma Jianguo) b. 1963 is a masterwork of black striations that evoke ruggedness. Lot 95, it is about $5,000. The paintings collection is peppered with entry level works ranging from $1,000 on up. Meanwhile, the catalog cover featuring a Guanyin cannot be overlooked. Crafted by celebrated 17th C potter He Chaozong, the statuette embodies the masters attributes: a sensitive face modeled with downcast eyes and a benevolent smile; graceful fingers and toes; a waist-knotted robe with detailed folds that indicate weight; and a hem that billows behind. The signature glaze is thick ivory. A He Chaozong seal mark is visible on the back along with a double gourd outline. A similar example resides in the Palace Museum. Lot 120 is valued at upwards of $20,000. Outstanding examples of religious art suited to home or church include a Yuan Dynasty standing Guanyin with crown, celestial scarf and beaded jewelry around the neck and on the forehead, all edged in a pale blue glaze. The unglazed, biscuit fired face is rounded and naturalistically carved. Lot 119 is a bargain at $8,000 or more. A grouping of several lots offer buyers a selection of religious figures of various media. Lot 116 is a carved Northern Qi Dynasty Buddhist Stele of a seated Guanyin, with a starting bid of $5,000. Lot 117 is an impressive Northern Wei carved jade of a standing Sakyamuni Maitreya, well positioned to go off at $8,000 or more. Lot 118 is a Song Dynasty stucco fresco of the god of Longevity offering a peach. Framed, the property should command at least $4,000. Among the decorative values are a massive Tang Dynasty jade ewer with cover and fowl spout, all decorated with gilt filigree vines, four cartouches and two high-relief musicians. At 3,840 grams (8 pounds), the 9 tall (25.1 cm) ewer is Lot 84, highly desirable at upwards of $4,000. A white jadeite carving of Hehe (togetherness) Erxian (two fairies), both symbols of harmony, is impressively pure in coloration. The figures, one tall and holding a lotus stalk, the other childlike, holding a box releasing a Lingzhi supporting a bat, are expressive and well crafted. At 19.1 cm, the 3 lb. (1406 grams) grouping is Lot 198, going off at $6,000 or more. Lovers of textile art and fashion wiwill take pleasure in a Qing Dynasty noblewomans waistcoat. The formal vestment is heavily embroidered in gilt thread on appliques of rank and auspicious signs. Framed in plexiglass that display both sides, Lot 171 starts at $2,000. (For background info, please visit the Peabody Essex Museum show Empresses of Chinas Forbidden City. ) Ceramic highlights include a Ming doucai bamboo plate with a red mythical beast resembling an antelope at the center surrounded by flowers and rockery. Lot 129 bears the Wanli six-character mark in double circles and is of the period and starts at $15,000. A unusual blue and white pouch-form vase of the Qing period is as remarkable in its resemblance to a soft sack tied at the neck as is the painting of a phoenix in that adorns it. With the Qinglong six-character mark, and of the period, is Lot 141, destined to soar about its $8,000 estimate. For full details on these and other properties, including jewelry, Chinese seals, and more, please visit the catalog at http://www.gianguanauctions.com. For the first time in its 15-year history, Gianguan is offering a section of properties with no-reserve. The gallery preview begins on Wednesday, December 5 and runs through Wednesday, December 12. The mid-week sale will be conducted live on Wednesday December 12 at 6:00 pm EDT. Bidding is now open on http://www.liveauctioneers.com. Cowboy Star Provisions Premium Wagyu Beef Jerky "When we saw the incredible response to our Wagyu Beef Jerky on Kickstarter, we were totally blown away, said Jon Weber, co-founder of Cowboy Star Restaurant and Butcher Shop. Cowboy Star Restaurant and Butcher Shop is thrilled to announce the completion of its successful crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter for its launch of Cowboy Star Provisions Premium Wagyu Beef Jerky. From August 13 through September 12, 2018, Cowboy Star raised more than $41,000, achieving 400% of their Kickstarter campaign goal, and sold more than 2,000 bags of the premium beef jerky to its backers. With pre-ordering still available, there is still time to be among the first to experience beef jerky unlike any other. Over the course of the Kickstarter campaign, nearly 700 backers from more than 10 different countries contributed to make the Cowboy Star Provisions Premium Wagyu Beef Jerky launch a huge success. Now, the team at Cowboy Star turns its attention to the next phase in the process, with the first wave of orders on track to be fulfilled in December, 2018. When we saw the incredible response to our Wagyu Beef Jerky on Kickstarter, we were totally blown away, said Jon Weber, co-founder of Cowboy Star Restaurant and Butcher Shop. We are so grateful to all of our backers. It is a great feeling to not only have reached our goal, but to have exceeded it and it really validates what weve believed all along, that this is a special product that has a place in this market category. In addition to its Premium Wagyu Beef Jerky, Cowboy Star Provisions says plans are already underway to add to its product offering, with new flavor combinations being developed and tested for release in 2019. The new line will be based on some of the favorite steakhouse flavors guests enjoy at Cowboy Star Restaurant and Butcher Shop. A partnership with an iconic San Diego-based craft brewery is also in the works for 2019, with plans to launch a beer flavored version of their premium jerky. About Cowboy Star Provisions Beef Jerky Known for its impeccable products and unwavering commitment to the highest quality ingredients available, Cowboy Star Restaurant and Butcher Shop, with locations in San Diego and Colorado Springs, launched a crowdfunding campaign in August 2018 on Kickstarter to fund its initial product offering, a Wagyu Beef Jerky line, inspired by one of the restaurants most beloved bar snacks. Leveraging only the finest select natural ingredients and beef available from one of the nations leading family of suppliers, AgriBeef, all of Cowboy Star Provisions Beef Jerky is hormone, antibiotic and gluten free, full of protein and contain no nitrates or artificial ingredients. About Cowboy Star Restaurant and Butcher Shop Celebrating its 10th Anniversary this year, Cowboy Star Restaurant and Butcher Shop remains the only restaurant in San Diegos thriving East Village to serve up a unique Neighborhood Fine Dining experience by combining contemporary American cuisine with a western flare. Cowboy Star Restaurant and Butcher Shop is dedicated to providing an attention to detail and an unmatched level of service. Here, you are the number one priority because guest satisfaction is the foundation that our entire concept is built upon. The Cowboy Star menu features only the finest in select natural products from the nations leading Certified Humane Angus herd along with the freshest seafood available under the Monterey Bay Aquariums stringent Seafood Watch Standards. Follow Cowboy Star Provisions on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/shopcstar/ # # # Dadeland stays dry: Due to high ground water levels at the Motion in Dadeland site, CEMEX, the ready-mix supplier, added PENETRON ADMIX to the concrete mix for the below-grade foundation slab. As an integral waterproofing solution, PENETRON ADMIX provides low permeability, low shrinkage and self-healing properties. Our admixture has been a highly effective solution for concrete structures in the high groundwater environments encountered in Dadeland and Miami, and across Southern Florida. The transit-oriented Motion at Dadeland tower in Dadeland, Florida, offers residents an urban lifestyle with easy access to Brickell and Downtown Miami (and other destinations) via the adjacent Metrorail station. Penetron crystalline technology was used to secure the 25-floor towers foundation slab. The real estate market in the greater Miami area continues to flourish, with average family home and condo prices consistently rising at a rate well above the national average (which actually fell in many regions) over the past year making 74 straight months of rising values. The $50 million Motion in Dadeland development joins a number of successful new apartment launches in the Dadeland area, including a Greystar project in downtown Dadeland and the newly completed Modera Dadeland, notes Christopher Chen, Director of The Penetron Group. Notably, all of these projects were also Penetron projects. Motion at Dadeland is a 25-story mixed-use tower located next to the Dadeland North Metrorail station. The project comprises 294 luxury rental units that feature a condo-quality finish with sweeping views of Biscayne Bay and Downtown Miami. Residential amenities include a showcase lobby, a fully-equipped fitness center with bay and skyline views, an expansive pool deck with cabanas, a party lounge, and a co-working center for tower residents. Finally, over 8,000 square-feet of retail space on the ground floor house a restaurant and numerous retail shops. Underground parking is also provided for residents and retail customers. The development is an ideal solution for residents looking to ditch their cars while still staying connected to Miamis urban core and other top destinations throughout the city," says Arnaud Karsenti, Managing Principal of 13th Floor Investments, one of the project owners. Moreover, the quality of the residences speaks directly to todays renters. Due to the proximity of the construction site to the nearby Snapper Creek Canal, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean, the high groundwater levels at the construction site required a durable waterproofing solution. CEMEX, the ready-mix supplier, added PENETRON ADMIX into the concrete mix during the batching phase, and it was used for the Motion in Dadeland towers below-grade foundation slab. As a crystalline admixture, PENETRON ADMIX results in a catalytic reaction with moisture in fresh concrete to generate a non-soluble crystalline formation throughout the pores and capillary tracts normally found in concrete. This formation permanently seals microcracks, pores and capillaries against the penetration of water or liquids from any direction, substantially reducing the permeability of usually porous concrete. As an integral waterproofing solution, PENETRON ADMIX provides low permeability, low shrinkage and self-healing properties, explains Mr. Chen. Our admixture has been a highly effective solution for concrete structures in the high groundwater environments encountered in Dadeland and Miami, and across Southern Florida. The Penetron Group is a leading manufacturer of specialty construction products for concrete waterproofing, concrete repairs and floor preparation systems. The Group operates through a global network, offering support to the design and construction community through its regional offices, representatives and distribution channels. For more information on Penetron waterproofing solutions, please visit penetron(dot)com or Facebook(dot)com/ThePenetronGroup, email CRDept(at)penetron(dot)com, or contact the Corporate Relations Department at 631-941-9700. MEA is proud to present Dan Ehlers, contractor of KS Energy Services, a Meritorious Service Award for assisting a teenage girl who had been thrown from her horse. Ehlers and Terry Thiel of WEC Energy Group Wisconsin Public Service provided the girl with coats to keep her warm, called 911, and stayed with her until the paramedics arrived. MEA presents the Meritorious Service Award annually to recognize individuals of MEA member companies who have performed actions in the service of another that are considered above and beyond. It is a privilege to present the Meritorious Service Awards, said John Gann, MEA Energy Association vice president. These awards serve to highlight the outstanding individuals in the energy industry who rise up when called and make a positive contribution to society. KS Energy Services, based out of New Berlin, Wisc., has been a member of MEA since 2005. Applicants for the Meritorious Service Award are approved by the Executive Committee of MEAs Board of Directors. Read about all MEA awards at https://www.meaenergy.org/outreach/awards/. For questions contact John Gann, johng (at) MEAenergy (dot) org, or (651) 289-9600 x105. About MEA: MEA serves the people that deliver electricity and natural gas to homes and businesses. We were founded as a trade association over 110 years ago by distribution utilities whose vision was to improve safety and efficiency. Today, we fulfill the same purpose through education, leadership development, and industry connections. Energy delivery companies, contractors, and suppliers around the country benefit from our 55 summits, roundtables, and webinars, 400+ online technical courses, safety assessments, evaluator training, operator qualification compliance tools, and leadership courses for field personnel. The way our customers supported the victims of the California wildfires was truly inspiring, said Travis Boersma, CEO of Dutch Bros. Were honored to bring people together to help our communities in need. Together, Dutch Bros and its customers have donated $401,530 to support wildfire relief efforts in California. Over the course of a week, Dutch Bros customers donated at stands throughout seven states, while Dutch Bros matched the donations up to $150,000. The way our customers supported the victims of the California wildfires was truly inspiring, said Travis Boersma, CEO of Dutch Bros. Were honored to bring people together to help our communities in need. The money donated will be distributed to local non-profit organizations directly serving fire victims with immediate needs. Those organizations include United Way of Northern California, the Salvation Army and North Valley Community Foundation. Thank you to the communities, customers and employees who rallied together to make a positive impact during trying times, said Kendra Lellis, managing director of Love Abounds Foundation. About Dutch Bros Dutch Bros Coffee is the countrys largest privately held drive-thru coffee company, with more than 325 locations and 9,000 employees in seven states. Dutch Bros is headquartered in Grants Pass, Oregon, where it was founded in 1992 by Dane and Travis Boersma, brothers of Dutch descent. Dutch Bros serves specialty coffee, smoothies, freezes, teas, a private-label Dutch Bros Blue Rebel energy drink and nitrogen-infused cold brew coffee. Its rich, proprietary coffee blend is handcrafted from start to finish: each ingredient is measured, every process timed and each cup perfected. With a mission to serve as a role model in the community and commitment to doing the right thing, Dutch Bros donates more than $2 million annually to nonprofit organizations and local causes selected by local owner-operators. To learn more about Dutch Bros, visit http://www.dutchbros.com, like Dutch Bros Coffee on Facebook or follow @DutchBros on Twitter. A witness testified that when he came home Nov. 14, 1980, at his apartment complex that he saw a male get out of a blue Chevrolet Impala, like the one from the robbery, and into another vehicle, the memorandum states. Two women said they saw Hill in Impala before the robbery. EC-Council has been the worlds leading information security certification body since the launch of their flagship program, Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH). In a digital world where everything is at risk of being compromised, it is critical that we produce world class cyber security talent to help curb the manifestation of "cyber insecurity in large organizations. EC-Council and RSA Security LLC (RSA) have partnered to offer information security skills-based training to professionals globally. The deal was constructed to allow RSA to offer EC-Council courses to the RSA clients and partners to address the widening gap between the skills required by corporations to fend off cyber-attacks and the labor pool. Companies of all sizes are struggling to hire qualified network defenders and security analysts who are integral to staffing their SOCs and to keeping their infrastructure and data secure. EC-Councils line up of certification programs are tailored to prepare the kind of professional that corporations need to reduce risk and ensure both security and compliance. RSA will be offering EC-Council training and certification programs including for example Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), Computer Hacking Forensics Investigator (CHFI), Certified Network Defender (CND), EC-Council Certified Security Analyst (ECSA), EC-Council Certified Incident Handler (ECIH), Certified CISO (CCISO). Students will be able to choose from a variety of modes of learning including live online (virtual) and live in-person. Along with the programs themselves, and the opportunity to earn a new certification with each, is the cloud-based cyber range where students develop their tactical cybersecurity skills. This hands-on tool provides students with an opportunity to apply the program concepts to real world scenarios. According to Lisa J. Zeena, Sr. Director, RSA University, With the growing cybersecurity skills gap, companies (in both public and private sectors) looking to recruit personnel with the required expertise to protect sensitive company information are extremely challenged. The partnership between EC-Council and RSA helps address this challenge by offering the necessary skills-based training using state-of-the-art solutions to manage digital risk. With the escalation in cyber threats globally, organizations now recognize that an investment in security is a must. Hundreds of thousands of cybersecurity positions are unfilled in the US alone due to a shortage of cybersecurity experts. The partnership between EC-Council and RSA addresses the need to provide the required training, skills, and experience to address the cybersecurity skills gap. In a digital world where everything is at risk of being compromised, it is critical that we produce world class cyber security talent to help curb the manifestation of "cyber insecurity in large organizations. EC-Council's partnership with RSA is a testament to the collective commitment of both organizations to bring high quality "hands-on" cyber security training into the heart of global institutions. This exciting alignment of RSA and EC-Council cyber training will result in a scalable approach in creating world class cybersecurity teams with the hands-on skills and ability to perform their job duties from day one. Jay Bavisi, CEO, EC-Council Group and Chairman of the Board, EC-Council University For more information on RSA University, the education services division of RSA and this partnership go to https://community.rsa.com/docs/DOC-97440. About EC-Council EC-Council has been the worlds leading information security certification body since the launch of their flagship program, Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), which created the ethical hacking industry in 2002. Since the launch of CEH, EC-Council has added industry-leading programs to their portfolio to cover all aspects of information security including EC-Council Certified Security Analyst (ECSA), Computer Hacking Forensics Investigator (CHFI), Certified Chief Information Security Officer (CCISO), among others. EC-Council Foundation, the non-profit branch of EC-Council, created Global CyberLympics, the worlds first global hacking competition. EC-Council Foundation also hosts a suite of conferences across the US and around the world including Hacker Halted, Global CISO Forum, TakeDownCon, and CISO Summit. For more information about EC-Council, please see http://www.eccouncil.org. Jehosophat the Cat: a lovely book that conveys the profoundness of the churchs existence through the dealings of a cuddly cat. Jehosophat the Cat is the creation of published author, Faith McClain Staneart, a dedicated writer and an ordained pastor. Staneart shares, The purpose for this book is for children to learn about the workings of a church through a cat named from a Bible character. Humor is used to make the point of the story understandable and fun to read. Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Faith McClain Stanearts new book reaches out to children with the hope of imparting virtues for them to keep at heart. Being named after a biblical person, Jehosophat the Cat takes readers on a journey that will transform lives and inspire wonder and awe on faith and belief in God. View a synopsis of Jehosophat the Cat on YouTube. Consumers can purchase Jehosophat the Cat at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or inquiries about Jehosophat the Cat, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919. Buying a pet online is often a scam. Buyer beware! The Internet is full of imitators and fraudsters offering cheap Siberian husky puppies, Yorkies, bulldogs, Capuchin monkeys, parrots and other boutique animals. Dont be fooled by pet scams! Its the gift-giving season, and many put a new pet on their holiday wish lists. We buy everything from clothing to furniture on the Internet, so perhaps its natural to search online for a pet. Sadly, its often the set-up for cybercrime. The Internet is full of imitators and fraudsters offering cheap Siberian husky puppies, Yorkies, bulldogs, Capuchin monkeys, parrots and other boutique animals. "Dont be fooled by pet scams!" urges said Walter Woolf, VMD, owner of Air Animal Pet Movers, one of the six founders of the International Pet and Animal Transportation Association. A quick online search for online puppy scams returns hundreds of warnings from the IPATA, the ASPCA, the Better Business Bureau and others. They warn online pet scams are increasing at an alarming rate. After you wire the money or send those Amazon gift cards to buy the fake doggies in the window, the scammer asks for more money for refundable insurance, special flight kennels, permits, veterinary testing. Caveat emptor. These cyber criminals steal the identities of reputable breeders and pet shippers to appeal to your soft side and steal your money, said Woolf. "To buy a pet, talk with the actual breeder. Get to know them. Visit the breeder. Ask questions. Ask for a minimum of three satisfied customer phone numbers and call them. A cyber pet seller will never share the name of the breeder or a telephone contact number," Woolf warned. Best bets to buy a pet: 1. Dont hurry. Thoroughly check their references and reviews. 2. Get complete details on the proposed shipping company moving your new pet and call them to confirm that they know and work with the breeder before sending money. 3. Analyze the pet sellers website. Scammers are known to illegally copy legitimate websites. 4. The U.S. Department of Agriculture requires licensing or registration for every breeder, dealer, pet transporter or carrier. Check their registration with the USDA. 5. The American Kennel Club hosts an online source for reputable AKC-registered breeders at marketplace.akc.org. Having AKC in the email address or website name does not guarantee the breeder is an AKC breeder. There are ways pet lovers can effectively fight back if they have been scammed. Contact any of the following agencies to identify and report pet fraud. There are no free puppies or free lunches. Front Porch Media Network Libsyn gives Front Porch the runway to grow its podcast production and great flexibility in how we engage with our rapidly growing audience. Front Porch Media Network (Front Porch), a Cleveland, OH-based podcast network, has selected Libsyn as their new podcast hosting platform to power their ever-growing stable of media channels: EvergreenPodcasts.com, TheFrontPorchPeople.com, and PitPassMoto.com One of the major benefits of this new partnership between Front Porch and Libsyn is the ability to listen to all Front Porch produced podcasts on Spotify, which recently made a big entry into the podcast space. Spotify is an industry innovator and pivotal in shifting the way people listen to content through streaming. With an already established listener base for music streaming, Spotify has quickly risen to the second largest platform for listening to podcasts accounting for 8.1% of all downloads in the month of October according to Libsyn. With only 31% of Libsyns shows hosted on Spotify, listener share is poised to rise even higher when more podcasts are added to the list. A presence on Spotify tremendously increases discoverability and puts Front Porch Media Networks content in a position to grow with the platform. Libsyn gives Front Porch the runway to grow its podcast production, noted Front Porch CEO - Michael C. DeAloia, and great flexibility in how we engage with our rapidly growing audience. About Front Porch Media The Front Porch Media Network, LLC (Front Porch) is a podcast production company and radio syndication network. Based in Cleveland, Ohio and led by a team of knowledgeable executives, supported by rock-star talent, and backed by experienced production and broadcasting professionals, Front Porch Media is committed to bringing premium content to people wherever they are. It's our passion to produce and distribute high-quality storytelling that entertains, inspires, and delights intellectually curious listeners across digital, mobile, and broadcast platforms. Recently, Front Porch launched its new contemporary based Evergreen Podcasts (http://www.evergreenpodcasts.com). Evergreen hosts a diverse and dynamically curated blend of creative shows, featuring a wide range of lifestyle and niche programming. The network features a myriad of entertaining shows, rooted in high creative values and production quality. Listen up. Listen in. Listen good. EvergreenPodcasts.com. Podcasts you can stream on Spotify: Riffs on Riffs http://bit.ly/RiffsOnRiffs_Spotify Big Audacious Idea http://bit.ly/BigAudaciousIdea_Spotify Design Everywhere http://bit.ly/DesignEverywhere_Spotify Wake Up Call http://bit.ly/WakeUpCall_Spotify Ive Heard That Song Before http://bit.ly/HeardThatSong_Spotify Novel Conversations http://bit.ly/NovelConversations_Spotify Sound of Movies http://bit.ly/SoundOfMovies_Spotify Where you can find us: Instagram: http://instagram.com/streamevergreen Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/streamevergreen Twitter: https://twitter.com/streamevergreen George and Eli Medina We are lifelong Chiefs fans and can feel something special in the air this season. We are excited about showing our love for the Chiefs in a way that gives back to the KC community. Kansas City natives George and Eli Medina are hosting a fundraising event on Sunday, December 2nd when the Kansas City Chiefs will be taking on the Oakland Raiders for a 3:05 p.m. kickoff. The watch party will be at the Red Door Grill in Brookside from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m. We are lifelong Chiefs fans and can feel something special in the air this season, said George Medina, founder of The George Medina Team, who has a Chiefs-inspired billboard on 72nd and Wornall Road. We are excited about showing our love for the Chiefs in a way that gives back to the KC community. All are welcome to come out and celebrate the Chiefs with us. There will be good friends, good food, and all for a good cause, added Eli Medina. Twenty-five percent of the proceeds will benefit Operation Breakthrough, a local organization that provides a safe, loving and educational environment for impoverished children and empowers their families through advocacy, emergency aid and education. Additionally, George and Eli have decided to match the donations raised from the party. To donate directly to Operation Breakthrough, please visit https://operationbreakthrough.org/how-you-can-help/financial-support.. About The George Medina Team, ReeceNichols Real Estate The George Medina Team is a father-daughter duo who specialize in the KC metro area. They are neighborhood experts and strong advocates of serving their community. George and Eli have been honored with Top 25 rankings in the Kansas City Business Journal 5 of the past 6 years. For more information, please call 816-838-5178 or visit MedinaSells.com. For media inquiries, please call the NALA at 805.650.6121, ext. 361. Streaming Media Readers Choice Awards recognized Haivisions Makito X Video Encoder Series as the Best Encoding Hardware and the Haivision Video Cloud as the Best Live Streaming Platform Haivision, a market leader in video networking and streaming solutions, today announced that the company won two Streaming Media Readers Choice Awards: Best Encoding Hardware and Best Live Streaming Platform. The announcement comes on the heels of receiving the 2018 Emmy Award for Technology and Engineering from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. The Streaming Media Readers Choice Awards winners are selected by end users who recognized Haivisions Makito X Video Encoder Series as the Best Encoding Hardware and the Haivision Video Cloud as the Best Live Streaming Platform in the industry. To learn more about Haivisions award-winning video streaming solutions, download the latest resource: The Definitive Guide to Haivision Video Encoder Technology & Hardware. About Haivision Haivision is the leader in live video streaming technologies, providing more than 25,000 customers globally with video solutions that help them stream broadcast-quality, low-latency video from anywhere. Founded in 2004, Haivision is a profitable, privately held company with headquarters in Montreal and Chicago, and regional offices located throughout North America, Europe and Asia. To help solve the worlds most difficult video streaming challenges, Haivision open sourced its award winning SRT low latency video streaming protocol in 2017 and founded the SRT Alliance, which now has more than 170 industry leading companies supporting this new standard. Awarded the Emmy for Technology and Engineering from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Haivision is also recognized as one of the most influential companies in video by Streaming Media and one of the fastest growing companies by Deloittes Technology Fast 500. Learn more at haivision.com. Ted Blanch, Chairman and CEO of COIN Re, discusses how the emergence and maturity of the ILS market is welcomed by industry leaders. The emergence and maturity of the ILS market, says E.W. Ted Blanch, Chairman and CEO of COIN Re, is a welcomed and important complement to the traditional reinsurance market. This is seen both in reinsurance and retrocession. According to a recent survey conducted by international insurance advisory firm Willis Towers Watson, the three groups of actors in insurance-linked securities (ILS)end investors, ILS fund vehicles, and buyers (ceding insurance companies)have predominantly weathered 2017 loss activity and come to accept products backed by alternative: capital as a mainstream component of the reinsurance industry. The survey found that 58% of cedants use some ILS capacity, with one in four deriving more than 30% of capacity from ILS.[1] The emergence and maturity of the ILS market, says E.W. Ted Blanch, Chairman and CEO of COIN Re, is a welcomed and important complement to the traditional reinsurance market. Blanch, whose company is a Florida-based specialist in catastrophe reinsurance, adds, This is seen both in reinsurance and retrocession. Insurance-linked securities, notes Blanch, are broadly defined as financial instruments whose values are driven by insurance loss events. ILS that are linked to property losses due to natural catastrophes represent a unique asset class. The ILS risks and returns are not correlated with those of more traditional investments such as stocks and bonds. As further indication of the mainstreaming of these securities, a publication from Willis Re reports that issuance of ILS reached a record $1.6 billion in the third quarter of 2018. This quarters activity put the years issuancealready at $8.7 billion by September 30on track to meet last years $9.7 billion full-year record.[2] Earlier in the year, a representative of reinsurance giant Guy Carpenter commented that going forward, reinsurance companies that want to be successful will need to utilize and embrace the ILS space.[3] This shift in attitude, notes Blanch, helps validate and reinforce his companys position as a source of positive disruption for the catastrophe reinsurance industry. COIN Res corporate strategy is partly based on its ability to reduce reinsurance costs to cedants and ultimately to consumerswhile remaining profitable in a market that has recently been tested by serial catastrophes and proven itself to be solid. A radical new ownership modelCOIN Re is designed to become majority-owned by its client primary insurershelps underpin both its cost management strategy and its financial soundness. Specifically addressing the mainstreaming of ILS, Blanch says, From the perspective of primary insurance providers, an excess of global capacity from all sources is a favorable control factor on price. The result is an environment that is conducive to COIN Res aggressive posture regarding cost reduction within the risk transference system. About COIN Re: COIN Re was founded in 2018 under the leadership of E.W. Ted Blanch. As an innovator spanning decades, after joining E.W. Blanch & Co. in 1958 he became CEO in 1977 and held the position until 2000. The company was sold in 2001. He then formed Ted Blanch & Associates, a consultancy to the reinsurance industry. COIN Re believes in changing the status quo. Catastrophe reinsurance market economics have been tipped in favor of reinsurers, and client/broker interests have been misaligned, ultimately hurting the end userthe consumer. As serial innovators in the market, COIN Res principals are aligning client/broker interests by giving insurance companies significant ownership in COIN Re, resulting in market economics tipping back to ceding companies with resultant improved reinsurance program pricing, lowered frictional costs and revenue distribution and equity value accumulation back to the insurance companiesand by doing so, potentially improve property insurance premiums for consumers. Joining him as senior officers of COIN Re are PresidentMarketing Michael W. Cashman, CFO Richard R. Allen, and Vice President Kevin A. Mora. The company is headquartered in Tampa, Florida. Visit http://www.coinreinsurance.com. 1. Lerner, Matthew, ILS market strong despite 2017 cat losses: Willis, Business Insurance, October 23, 2018. 2. Insurance Linked Securities Issuance Reaches Record $1.6B in Q3: Willis Re, Insurance Journal, November 2, 2018. 3. Reinsurers of the future will have to embrace ILS, Artemis blog, October 26, 2018. The wife of one of Brendans patients who passed away stated, he repeatedly went out of his way to see my husband on weekends and odd hours, keeping him from his own family. I have so much gratitude about the relationship he developed with my husband." Interim HealthCare Inc., a leading national franchisor of home care, hospice, and healthcare staffing, today announced Brendan Alex as its 2018 Therapist of the Year. Brendan works as a physical therapist at Interim HealthCare of Fort Collins, Colorado. The Interim HealthCare Therapist of the Year award is given to an individual who compassionately and skillfully provides exceptional patient care and consistently contributes to Interims mission of improving peoples lives. Offices recognized a variety of talent across the network that represent the very best of therapy. There are people who go to their job every day because they have to, and those who go to their job because they want to, said Paul Hutchings, rehab director in Fort Collins and Brendans supervisor. Brendan falls into the latter category, as evidenced not only by providing excellent patient care, but by taking the time to inspire others. He is a great educator both in the field, as well as in the office. Since joining Interim HealthCare of Fort Collins in 2015 as a physical therapist, Brendan has consistently delivered compassionate care and attention thats resulted in dramatically increasing the functional independence and in-home mobility of his patients. In fact, the wife of one of Brendans patients who passed away stated, he repeatedly went out of his way to see my husband on weekends and odd hours, keeping him from his own family. I have so much gratitude about the relationship he developed with my husband. It brought more to him than the physical therapy itself. 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. The owner felt that having a Christmas tree would help these families find comfort and togetherness after all that they had been through. In a heartwarming gesture that is fitting for this Holiday season http://www.KingOfChristmas.com, an online artificial Christmas tree company, donated 500 trees to the families affected by fires in Northern California. This heartfelt donation was a way for the company to give back to individuals and families who lost precious possessions, beloved pets, and even family members as a result of the tragic fires. The owner felt that having a Christmas tree would help these families find comfort and togetherness after all that they had been through. Kingofchristmas.com is a virtual Christmas tree store that was founded in November 2012. Since its early days as a newly minted store, it has grown to become one of the largest online retailers of Christmas trees nationwide. The company sells artificial Christmas trees of all sizes and types including artificial Christmas trees that are both lit and unlit, flocked Christmas trees, wreaths, and garlands. The companys exponential growth shows no indication of stopping and the company is ready to give back to communities most impacted by the recent natural disasters that have affected the nation. In addition to their large donation in Northern California, worth thousands of dollars in inventory, the Christmas tree online retailer plans to make another donation on December 5th in partnership with the Salvation Army. This time, the giveaway will go towards another group most impacted by the recent effects of Hurricane Florence in Wilmington, North Carolina. According to a rep from the company, theres nothing that can replace everything lost to the hurricane but the gesture of a donated Christmas tree is a sign of hope, upliftment, and encouragement. King Of Christmas has outlined their mission statement as offering the highest quality, premium artificial Christmas trees online at the most competitive prices. However, their donation of Christmas trees to the families affected by natural disasters is a clear demonstration of a far greater mission. It shows their unwavering commitment to unite families by offering a gift of the very symbol of everything that Christmas represents. Their donated trees will bring a bit more warmth and upliftment to over a thousand families this Holiday season. To learn more about http://www.kingofchristmas.com or to find out more information about the donations, contact them by email at seth@kingofchristmas.com or by telephone at 1(877) 224-0995. The Shadow of Death: an intense memoir about the Vietnam War. The Shadow of Death is the creation of published author Kurt A. Vomberg, a freelance writer who proudly served in the US Army on a one-year tour of duty in Vietnam and now resides in his ranch in Bristow, Oklahoma. Vomberg writes, I read The Red Badge of Courage as a boy. Stephen Cranes classic book gets its name from the bloody bandages of the Civil Wars wounded soldiers. The story follows a naive young man who goes off to fight. He fantasizes about finding glory, honor, and his manhood on the battlefield. In his first battle, he experiences the blood and gore of war, and he struggles with his own fear and cowardice. The main character, Henry Fleming, must dig deep within himself to find the courage and bravery to continue as a soldier. Ultimately, he prevails and comes to realize that war is brutal. The Red Badge of Courage comes to mind when I think about my time in Vietnam. More than forty years have passed since I went to war. Most of my combat experiences are as clear in my mind as they were the moment that they happened. Yet I buried them for thirty-plus years. I would not let myself talk about them. I wouldnt think about them. I believed that if I was ever to live a normal life, I had to clear my mind of Vietnam and all that happened there. Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Kurt A. Vombergs new book is a searing glimpse into the real world of warfare, cutting through the Hollywood glamour to properly pay tribute to the silenced Soldiers who gave their all for their country. Vomberg generously shares his defining moments with alacrity and depth of introspection, divulging the true and long-lasting cost of war on those called to fight it. View a synopsis of The Shadow of Death on YouTube. Consumers can purchaseThe Shadow of Death at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or inquiries about The Shadow of Death, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919. Porter Regional Hospital will present upcoming childbirth education classes. New Beginnings Tours of the labor, delivery, postpartum and nursery areas will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday and Dec. 8, and at 6 p.m. Dec. 18 at the hospital, 85 E. US-6, Valparaiso. Tours are free. Childbirth Education classes will take place from 6-8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 12, 19 and 26 in the Women and Childrens Pavilion classroom at the hospital. Register in the fourth or fifth month of pregnancy, and take the classes in the seventh or eighth month. A free Breastfeeding Class will run from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Dec. 6 or 11 in the Women and Childrens Pavilion classroom. Fast-Track Childbirth Education, an expedited version of the Childbirth Education class, will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dec. 8 in the Women and Childrens Pavilion classroom. eLearning Online Childbirth Education offers an alternative for those who cannot attend a conventional prepared childbirth class due to bed rest or scheduling conflicts. Register during the sixth or seventh month at 219-983-8692. CPR for Family and Friends will be from 6-8 p.m. Dec. 13 in the Women and Childrens Pavilion. A Baby Basics class will be held from 6-7:30 p.m. Dec. 20 in the Women and Childrens Pavilion classroom. Unless otherwise noted, registration for all classes is at porterhelath.com, Events. More information is at porterhealth.com. Chef Jodi with Chef Antonio Falcone Earlier this month, Lajollacooks4u's Founder and Chef Jodi Abel traveled to Italy to learn more about Italian cuisine, as well as experience the height of truffle season. Her first stop was Umbria, a region in Central Italy known for its delicious food and pristine countryside. Staying in the exclusive Black Truffle Lodge in the small mountain village of Pettino, Chef Jodi was introduced to her hosts during her stay, Francesca and Fabiola. Together, they went truffle hunting and later cooked a variety of meals incorporating the black truffles from their harvest. Next on her agenda was the Le Silve Lodge, which is beautifully situated in the hills above Assisi, also located in the Umbria region. During her stay, Chef Jodi had the privilege of cooking with the owner of Ristorante Armentum, Chef Antonio Falcone. Together they prepared a variety of items, including vegetable risotto with ricotta, and a baked egg with bacon, black truffles and eggplant cream, as well as zucchini caponata. Chef Jodi's Italian cooking adventure ended with a visit to the infamous NOPI restaurant in London, owned by Yotam Ottolenghi, which was every bit as delicious as the food in his cookbooks. "It was an unforgettable immersion experience in Italy, getting to experience the true flavors of Umbria," she said. "I cannot wait to incorporate my many new truffle products into new recipes for our Lajollacooks4u guests!" We understand how challenging it can be to pay for college. We want our students and their families to be able to focus more on education and less on making ends meet, and weve taken several steps to make that happen. Liberty University President Jerry Falwell In response to the growing financial strain that college costs are putting on todays graduates, Liberty University has announced that it is freezing its tuition rates. Residential students in the 2019-20 academic year will enjoy the same value in tuition and room and board costs as they did in 2018-19. The decision marks the first time in 10 years that Liberty has been able to freeze rates, a rare action for private colleges and universities. President Jerry Falwell said Liberty will continue to offer innovative financial solutions and packages to help students receive the education they want without the extra financial burden. The impact of freezing tuition, combined with the new Middle America Scholarship, is a major increase in financial support for our students, he said. We understand how challenging it can be to pay for college. We want our students and their families to be able to focus more on education and less on making ends meet, and weve taken several steps to make that happen. The new Middle America Scholarship is helping students from middle-income families who typically earn between $35,000 and $95,000 per year. Students with an expected family contribution from the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) that is 1-18,000 will receive the scholarship to bring them up to the equivalent of the full Federal Pell Grant amount each year, and when combined with the Liberty Champion scholarship, the value will be up to $5,095. For eligible students, if the federal government does not award them a full Pell Grant, Liberty is paying the difference, said Robert Ritz, executive vice president of finance. This program is designed for new resident undergraduate students beginning in the fall of 2019. Also starting next fall, Liberty will increase its investment in a scholarship program that will aid students from the local area. The Stay Close, Go Far Promise Scholarship program, sponsored and funded by the nonprofit Lynchburg Beacon of Hope, is the first local initiative of its kind in Virginia. The program pledges to invest up to $8,000 per local student (those who attended a Lynchburg City School from the ninth to 12th grades) over four years to go toward tuition at a partnering higher education institution. Liberty is one of the six colleges and universities to take part, but its going a step further by providing an additional $8,000 to help with the cost of meal plans. Through Liberty and Lynchburg Beacon of Hope, eligible high school graduates can receive up to $16,000 in scholarship aid over four years at Liberty. For more scholarships for Virginia residents, visit the h admissions website. Libertys online undergraduate students are also seeing more financial assistance. Liberty is providing digital textbooks and instructional materials to undergraduate students in its online program free of charge. This affects more than 700 courses, saving students up to $975 per year. Across the universitys online program, total savings could exceed $12.2 million. Additional discounts and scholarships are also being made available to members of the military and first responders. Visit the scholarships website for more information. About Liberty University: Liberty University, founded in 1971, is the worlds premier Christian university, the largest private, nonprofit university in the nation, and the largest university in Virginia. Located near the Blue Ridge Mountains on more than 7,000 acres in Lynchburg, Va., Liberty offers more than 600 unique programs of study from the certificate to the doctoral level. Over 300 programs are offered online. Utilizing its world-class infrastructure and Christian faculty, Libertys mission is to train Champions for Christ with the values, knowledge, and skills essential for impacting tomorrows world. We are glad to contribute to the logistics supply chain industry and excited for the opportunity to build and create even more advanced technological support on a global concept, Mr. Baquerizo said. During the 20th International Congress (XX Congreso Internacional) of FITAC, Magaya Corporation was presented with an award by FITAC and ALACAT to recognize its contribution of "technological leadership and innovation in logistics solutions for the foreign trade sector of the country and the region." Magaya began working with FITAC and ALACAT in 2016 to develop strong commercial business relationships and synergies and to understand how to better serve this market. The award was presented by leaders of the supply chain industry in Colombia. Also attending the event was the recently elected President of the Republic of Colombia, Ivan Duque and his entire cabinet. Daniel Baquerizo, Business Development Advisor, attended the event and received the award on behalf of the entire Magaya Corporation team. Mr. Baquerizo stated, Colombia is one of the most important trade partners on a global level, and we are proud to receive this magnificent recognition. Magaya has increased its commitment to Colombia by increasing the quality of service that we are providing to the local and regional markets of the Latin American community. CO-CEO Business and CO-Founder Jesus David Rodriguez said, It is a great honor to receive an award in Colombia, one of the leaders in the worldwide logistics industry, from key important host of the event such as Miguel Espinoza (FITAC President), Guillermo Gonzalez (FITAC Board of Directors President), and Galo Molina (ALACAT President). The plaque states, This award was given in recognition of Magaya Corporation's indisputable technological leadership and innovation in logistics solutions for the foreign trade sector of the country and the region." We are glad to contribute to the logistics supply chain industry and excited for the opportunity to build and create even more advanced technological support on a global concept, Mr. Baquerizo said. About Magaya Corporation Magaya Corporation develops software that automates and improves business operations. Our customers include leaders in the fields of logistics, warehousing, wholesaling and nearly every aspect of the supply chain. Our philosophy is to simplify complex and redundant processes to reduce or eliminate inefficiency. The growth of our customers is our growth, so we dedicate ourselves to helping them succeed. In addition to continuously improving our software offering, we provide a complete range of consulting and implementation services to help your business accomplish your goals. The ripple effect of us creating the best products, providing the best customer training and support is we fulfill our promise to always be ahead. We help you innovate, automate and be more efficient. FITAC is the Colombian Federation of Logistic Agents in International Trade. http://www.fitac.net ALACAT is the Federation of National Associations of Cargo Agencies and International Logistics Operators of Latin America (s la Federacion de Asociaciones Nacionales de Agentes de Carga y Operadores Logisticos Internacionales de America Latina y el Caribe) http://www.alacat.org Magaya contact person: Daniel Baquerizo Business Development Advisor Tel: (786)363-0396 email: dbaquerizo@magaya.com The Lexile and Quantile Growth Planner from MetaMetrics recently won an honorable mention from Tech & Learning Awards of Excellence 2018. The Growth Planner is an online tool that forecasts a students reading and math performance and compares it to the reading and math demands for college and careers. Students can plot their Lexile measures and Quantile measures (from state summative assessments) in the Growth Planner to check for college- and career-readiness. If a student is projected to fall short of goals, the Growth Planner identifies the recommended path to close the gap and includes free online resources to encourage and promote reading and math growth. In this years Tech & Learning contest that seeks out the best in education technology, nominated products were judged on two key factors: their uniqueness in the classroom, school or district, and whether or not the nominated product solved specific problems. The Growth Planner does both. As the developer of the widely adopted Lexile Framework for Reading and Quantile Framework for Mathematics, MetaMetrics provides the Growth Planner as a way to apply a universal metric to forecast and monitor growth toward key milestones. More than half of the students in the United States receive Lexile and Quantile measures from a variety of K-12 assessments. Lexile and Quantile measures are the only metrics available to determine the reading and math level required for specific occupations. The updated Growth Planners career planning feature is available in states reporting Lexile and Quantile measures on their statewide annual tests. This feature allows students, educators and parents to explore reading and math demands of hundreds of careers including educational requirements, salary ranges and job availability. According to twelfth-grade assessment results in recent years, including those from NAEP (National Assessment of Education Progress) tests, less than 40 percent of high school seniors have math and reading abilities that would make them academically prepared for college-level work. By connecting Lexile and Quantile measures directly to college and career requirements, the Growth Planner provides students beginning in third grade with a clear picture of where they need to be to achieve their goals as well as a way to map their progress along the way. School districts are using the Growth Planner to put students on the path for college and career success. Lexile and Quantile measures provide a common language for the academic and business communities to talk about student growth. Rather than talking about standardized test scores, we can look at Lexile and Quantile growth and, using the Growth Planner, talk about potential careers for our students, says Kevin OGorman, chief academic officer of the Berkeley County (SC) School District. For more information on how the Berkeley County School District is using the Growth Planner, please visit metametricsinc.com/berkeley-case-study. For more information on the Growth Planners, please visit lexile.com/growth-planner and quantiles.com/growth-planner. For a map to see if your state is one that reports Lexile and/or Quantile measures on statewide annual tests, please visit metametricsinc.com/state-doe-partnerships. About MetaMetrics MetaMetrics is focused on improving education for learners of all ages and ability levels. The organization develops scientific measures of academic achievement and complementary technologies that link assessment results with real-world instruction. MetaMetrics products and services for reading (The Lexile Framework for Reading, El Sistema Lexile para Leer) and mathematics (The Quantile Framework for Mathematics) provide unique insights about academic ability and the potential for growth, enabling individuals to achieve their goals at every stage of development. Connect with the organization at: metametricsinc.com/blog. ModusBox announced today that it has become a member of the Open Invention Network (OIN). As a leader in digital and organizational transformation, ModusBoxs membership strengthens their commitment to open code and standards that began with their participation in the Mojaloop project. With their membership, ModusBox joins both elite organizations such as Microsoft, IBM, and Google as well as smaller companies and even individual developers who have made a commitment to the OIN community. OIN, founded in 2008, brings together organizations to share in licensing of their extensive portfolio of intellectual property while creating a collaborative space for companies to share patents through a patent non-aggression community grounded in the fundamentals of the open source community including mutual engagement and sharing. As a member, ModusBox will be able to leverage shared patents as part of the pro-competitive platform to innovate faster, while also sharing their own innovations that can provide OIN members with advantages in their own projects. ModusBox is currently reviewing existing code and products for inclusion in the portfolio. This includes parts of their PortX platform, which provides accelerated B2B/EDI communications and low code enterprise integration solutions. The PortX platform makes extensive use of cutting-edge Linux and open source technologies such as CoreOS Container Linux and Kubernetes in its cloud-native SaaS offering. Those interested in learning more about ModusBox and its PortX products can reach the company through their Seattle headquarters at (888) 504-5045, or visit their websites at http://www.modusbox.com and http://www.portx.io. About ModusBox Founded in 2010, ModusBox powers the transformations that allow companies to realize real, meaningful organizational and even social change. A global company made up of talented technologists and subject experts, ModusBox has a presence on nearly every continent to better serve the evolution of our clients organizations, where ever they are located. ModusBox specialized in digital transformation initiatives, payments transformation, and accelerating EDI communications. Dual purpose saferooms protect against tornadoes and active shooters. With a saferoom in each classroom, students can now attend school with an unprecedented level of security that no other safety measure can equal. For school districts located in Tornado Alley, a new solution to school safety is beginning to turn heads. National Safety Shelters, authorized distributor for Hide-Away Safety Shelters has announced the availability of an American-made safe-room designed to fit right into school classrooms. These safe-rooms offer near-absolute protection from the destructive forces of EF5 tornadoes as well as handguns, shotguns and even armor piercing ammunition. Hide-Away Safety Shelters are a life-saving option that can be used in conjunction with other school security measures. With a saferoom in each classroom, students can now attend school with an unprecedented level of security that no other safety measure can equal. Due to the modular construction of these safety shelters, virtually any size or configuration can be produced. Standard sizes are available to protect from 10 to 35 students and more. Larger rooms such as cafeterias and gymnasiums can also be accommodated with a shelter to protect even hundreds of students and staff. The shelters are manufactured in Harrisonville, Missouri and constructed of thick American steel. Originally designed to protect against EF5 tornadoes, the shelters have been modified to provide NIJ Level IIIA protection against hand guns and shotguns. An upgrade to NIJ Level III military grade steel (used in combat vehicles) is available for enhanced protection from high caliber and armor piercing rounds. They are designed as a bolt together kit for easy assembly and require virtually no maintenance. The average cost is about $15,000-20,000 per classroom. With a near-unlimited useful lifespan and zero operating costs, the Hide-Away Safety Shelter offers an effective, economical solution to the current dilemma of school safety. For more information, please contact Sarah Corrado at 1-772-621-6141 or by email at sarah(at)nationalsafetyshelters.com. When it comes to exceptional vehicle deals and discounts, there is no automaker and its dealerships that offers as much as Toyota! When it comes to exceptional vehicle deals and discounts, there is no automaker and its dealerships that offers as much as Toyota! And Lexington Toyota is the perfect example of this, offering a ton of quality new vehicles at a low price! So, for drivers that are looking for a great deal this year are encouraged to look below to see some of the deals offered! One of the first deals offered by Lexington Toyota currently is on a 2018 Toyota RAV4 LE system, which features a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine and a shiftable automatic transmission, which delivers great power and performance! This vehicle is offered at Lexington Toyota for a final price of $27,609, or financeable for as low as $381 a month! Another great SUV deal offered by Lexington Toyota is on a brand new 2019 Toyota Highlander Limited Premium, one of the more luxurious and pricey trims of the new Toyota Highlander. This vehicle features a strong 3.6-liter V6 engine and automatic transmission and is listed at a final price of $48,324. However, Lexington Toyota also offers financing for as low as $696 per month for qualified drivers! A third deal offered by Lexington Toyota is a new 2019 Toyota 4Runner TRD Off-Road Premium SUV, which is a vehicle designed with adventure at its core! It features a very strong 4.0-liter V6 engine with shiftable automatic transmission, giving immense power and performance. This Toyota 4Runner is available at a final price of $41,317, or financeable from as low as $590 to qualified drivers! These are just three of many deals offered at Lexington Toyota, there are a ton more available! For more information on what the dealership has to offer in terms of deals and vehicles, or to learn whats available in the Toyota lineup, contact them at 781-861-7400! Interested drivers can also visit the dealership website at http://www.lexingtontoyota.com! Visit Oakland Oakland is one of the most diverse cities in the country, with over 125 languages spoken within the city. This diversity has created a vibrant culture and welcoming community in Oakland, and is reflected within the citys culinary scene, arts, nightlife and events. With the publication of its annual Best Trips issue, National Geographic Traveler magazine has revealed its 28 must-see destinations and travel experiences for 2019. Together, Traveler editors and National Geographic Explorers have selected their top places to travel across four categories: Cities, Nature, Culture, and Adventure and Oakland was selected in the Culture category. Oakland was one of only four U.S. destinations included in the list and the only city in California chosen. Oakland is one of the most diverse cities in the country, with over 125 languages spoken within the city. This diversity has created a vibrant culture and welcoming community in Oakland, and is reflected within the citys culinary scene, arts, nightlife and events. The Town has long been home to innovators, creatives, and artists and offers unique experiences to explore many types of art forms. Oaklands culinary scene welcomes visitors to experience its epicurean endeavors where chefs test out their creative culinary skills and deliver amazing cultural experiences. Another way visitors can indulge in Oaklands culture is through the citys major events, including Restaurant Week in January, Black Joy Parade in February, Art Month in May, Pride Parade and Festival in September and festivals throughout the summer. This years Best Trips list is relevant, surprising and inspiring, highlighting a globe-spanning mix of destinations from the Peruvian Amazon to Kansas City, Missouri. Our Best Trips issue features 28 destinations and experiences that can inspire us, change our perspectives and connect us with cultures, places and ideas that matter in the world, says George Stone, National Geographic Traveler editor in chief. The issue is packed with spectacular National Geographic photography and is driven by our mission to explore, conserve, respect and engage with our planet. Oaklands culture of diversity and inclusion is the hallmark of our civic identity, says Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf. Were honored to be recognized and we welcome all visitors to enjoy our city. Oakland is famous for a lot of things, and one of them is our communitys welcoming spirit no matter who you are or where you came from, Oakland welcomes you. We are thrilled that Oakland was chosen as one of National Geographics 28 Best Places to Visit in 2019, says Mark Everton, CEO of Visit Oakland. Oakland was selected for its vibrant and diverse culture, and we welcome visitors to experience our culture by immersing themselves into our community and exploring our many neighborhoods. National Geographics Best Trips destinations for 2019 are: CITIES Dakar, Senegal Salvador, Brazil Kansas City, Missouri Toronto, Canada Matera, Italy Perth, Australia Mexico City, Mexico NATURE Peruvian Amazon Montenegro Belize Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique South Walton County, Florida Fanjingshan, China Tahiti, French Polynesia CULTURE Cairo, Egypt Hoang Lien Son, Vietnam Galway, Ireland Bauhaus Trail, Germany Oakland, California Vervey, Switzerland Dordogne, France ADVENTURE Greenland Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness, New Mexico Isla de los Estados, Argentina Macedonia Canterbury Region, New Zealand Cano Cristales River, Colombia Oman The December/January 2019 issue of Traveler magazine is now available on newsstands and online at NatGeoTravel.com/BestTrips2019. The Best Trips digital experience includes highlights on each destination selected for the list as well as National Geographics iconic photography that transports audiences to the chosen locales. Visitors are able to dive even deeper into four of the Best Trips destinationsMexico City, Tahiti, Dordogne and Omanwith feature stories in the issue. National Geographic Traveler publishes six issues per year and is the worlds most widely read travel magazine, with 18 international editions. National Geographic Travel shares its inspiring and authoritative digital content, including trip inspiration, travel news, photo galleries and more with its @NatGeoTravel community of more than 50 million people. To learn more about each destination, visit: NatGeoTravel.com/BestTrips2019. National Geographic Partners LLC National Geographic Partners LLC (NGP), a joint venture between National Geographic and 21st Century Fox, is committed to bringing the world premium science, adventure and exploration content across an unrivaled portfolio of media assets. NGP combines the global National Geographic television channels (National Geographic Channel, Nat Geo WILD, Nat Geo MUNDO, Nat Geo PEOPLE) with National Geographics media and consumer-oriented assets, including National Geographic magazines; National Geographic studios; related digital and social media platforms; books; maps; childrens media; and ancillary activities that include travel, global experiences and events, archival sales, licensing and e-commerce businesses. Furthering knowledge and understanding of our world has been the core purpose of National Geographic for 129 years, and now we are committed to going deeper, pushing boundaries, going further for our consumers and reaching over 760 million people around the world in 172 countries and 43 languages every month as we do it. NGP returns 27 percent of our proceeds to the nonprofit National Geographic Society to fund work in the areas of science, exploration, conservation and education. For more information visit natgeotv.com or nationalgeographic.com, or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, YouTube, LinkedIn and Pinterest. ABOUT VISIT OAKLAND Visit Oakland is a non-profit organization marketing Oakland, California as a travel destination. Visit Oakland offers a wide variety of complimentary services and materials for travelers interested in visiting Oakland. For more information, check out http://www.visitoakland.com. Want to share the Oakland love with the world? Follow @visitoakland on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. CONTACT Allie Neal, PR Manager, Visit Oakland O: (510) 208-0529 C: (925) 286-5284 E: allie@visitoakland.com Iris Tsidon and Maya Gal, Founders of Okapi We are thrilled to support startups and especially female entrepreneurs to achieve their full potential. I am sure we are going to be hearing a lot about Okapi Les Innovateurs by FCCCO is a competition for startups designed to support both the ideas and the innovators working to solve complex problems in the world. The competition was being held as part of Toronto French Innovation Month, an initiative program coordinated by the Consulate General of France in Toronto, France Canada Chamber of Commerce, Ontario, and its partners. It was designed to reward and accelerate innovative solutions using emerging technologies in two main categories: Smart Ecosystems and Fintech. Okapi, founded by entrepreneurs Iris Tsidon and Maya Gal, provides an Artificial Intelligence product that boosts operational excellence utilizing data collected from existing legacy systems. Were seeing a real need for our solution," says Iris Tsidon, Okapis CEO. Today organizations experience a flood of data, and in reality, they use only 3% of the data they collect. Artificial intelligence can catch in real-time what human eyes cannot see. Our platform takes this endless stream of data and turns into actionable real-time notifications that truly impact bottom line. Riva Walia, Managing Director of the France Canada Chamber of Commerce, congratulated Okapi for its win. We are thrilled to support startups and especially female entrepreneurs to achieve their full potential. I am sure we are going to be hearing a lot about Okapi. About Okapi: Okapi provides an Artificial Intelligence SaaS platform that delivers actionable, personalized notifications to every user in the organization according to their unique roles, while perfectly aligned with the core business goals. The Okapi solution enables streamlined efficiency, proactive quality control, improved customer satisfaction, and granular transparency into every area of the organizations operations. Entrepreneurs Maya Gal and Iris Tsidon founded Okapi in 2012 and initiated the AI platform development in 2017. It has since gained customers in the real estate, manufacturing and logistics markets. For more information, visit http://www.okapivision.com I think the decision to take state control of Roosevelt was one of the things that initiated the rapid decline financially, Moore said. When they did that, they started taking tuition support for Roosevelt while requiring us to do maintenance for Roosevelt, and pay utility bills with no control. It was the beginning of the slide. Both of these agreements foster innovation between the two companies and allow OpenConnect to augment automation outcomes for a wider range of customers who are seeking more value in their RPA solution, says OpenConnect CEO, Mark Dailey. As part of a strategy to deliver Process Discovery and analytics solutions that work to enhance the value RPA solutions, OpenConnect is announcing a key new partnership with enterprise RPA leader, UiPath. The partnership will offer new benefits to customers of both companies in two ways: A Technology Alliance Agreement adds OpenConnect to the list of respected technology partners that can help UiPath customers expand their RPA projects. It allows OpenConnects engineering teams to explore how the companys WorkiQ and DiscoveriQ solutions will provide important process analytics to enhance the development and deployment of UiPaths RPA solution. A Reseller Agreement allows OpenConnect to sell, implement and support UiPaths RPA solution to its customers. This gives OpenConnect the ability to match the right RPA requirements with the right solutions, whether that means extending its customers already-in-place mainframe automation solutions to include desktop RPA, or engaging successfully with new customers just starting their RPA journey. Additionally, OpenConnects DiscoveriQ suite for process discovery will help any and all of those customers accelerate the necessary identification and documentation in order to speed time to value of UiPaths robots. Both of these agreements foster innovation between the two companies and allow OpenConnect to augment automation outcomes for a wider range of customers who are seeking more value in their RPA solution, says OpenConnect CEO, Mark Dailey. We are looking forward to developing integrated solutions that enrich the value of RPA for everyone involved. About OpenConnect OpenConnect is the leading provider of workforce and process analytics for automation solutions. Robust work, task and process analytics, documentation, and design is critical in determining what to automate and how the automation occurs. The OpenConnect process intelligence, desktop analytics and mainframe solutions objectively identify and illuminate workforce activity. Combining unparalleled experience and solution capabilities, OpenConnect enables its clients to more quickly address and adapt to todays operational and competitive challenges at lower costs. Learn more about OpenConnect and its products at openconnect.com. Michael Cupps OpenConnect 972.523.6690 cupps(at)openconnect.com About UiPath UiPath is leading the Automation First era championing one robot for every person, delivering free and open training and collaboration and enabling robots to learn new skills through AI and machine learning. Led by a commitment to bring digital-era skills to more than a million people through the UiPath Academic Alliance, the companys enterprise Robotic Process Automation (RPA) platform has already automated millions of repetitive, mind-numbing tasks for business and government organizations all over the world, improving productivity, customer experience and employee job satisfaction. Although email unsubscribe and security practices may not win any retail customers, it can certainly lose them, and retailers appear to be paying attention Today the Internet Societys Online Trust Alliance (OTA) released its fifth annual Email Marketing & Unsubscribe Audit. The Audit analyzes the newsletters and promotional emails of the 200 largest North American online retailers for authentication and end-to-end user experience from signup through unsubscribe. Although email unsubscribe and security practices may not win any retail customers, it can certainly lose them, and retailers appear to be paying attention, said the Technical Director of the Internet Societys Online Trust Alliance, Jeff Wilbur. Our research shows that retailers are working hard to eliminate email compromise and impersonation, while generally making it easier than ever for consumers to unsubscribe from marketing emails. Weve noted theres still plenty of room for improvement and one or two worrying trends, but overall this shows a serious commitment to improving the online shopping experience. Seventy-four percent of the retailers received a Best of Class designation, meaning they scored 80 percent or higher in OTAs analysis of their marketing email trustworthiness. Ten of those sites had perfect scores, which means they adopted all twelve of OTAs email best practices, did not send an unsubscribe confirmation email, and did not violate CAN-SPAM and Canadas Anti-Spam Law (CASL). Those retailers are Dicks Sporting Goods, Home Depot, Lands End, Musicians Friend, Office Depot, OpticsPlanet, Sierra Trading Post, Staples, Talbots and Walgreens. Last year 67 percent were Best in Class, and nine retailers received perfect scores. Unsubscribe Best Practices Reach Record Levels Eighty-nine percent of the audited retailers stopped sending marketing emails to consumers immediately after they placed an unsubscribe request, up from 88 percent in 2017. Conversely, companies not honoring unsubscribe requests by consumers dropped from six percent last year to two percent this year. OTAs research showed three percent of the retailers were in violation of U.S. and Canadian anti-spam laws either by not listing their physical address in an email or failing to honor unsubscribe requests. OTA also found retailers are doing a better job than ever of making unsubscribe easily discoverable, with best practice compliance increasing from 76 percent in 2017 to 84 percent in 2018. Discoverability deductions are due to a combination of factors, but primarily include placement (footer vs. sentence vs. paragraph), contrast of the unsubscribe link itself as well as with surrounding text (e.g., grey text on a light grey background), text size and alternate wording (i.e., not using unsubscribe). Worrying Trend The ease of opting out of marketing emails declined because pre-populating the unsubscribe page with the recipients email address dropped from 95 percent in 2017 to 90 percent this year. It is inconvenient and error-prone for consumers to manually enter an email address, especially if they own multiple email addresses. Email and Unsubscribe Security Increases Across the Board The top retailers showed an improvement in every type of email and unsubscribe security factor measured by OTA, doing an outstanding job of preventing their emails and unsubscribe web pages from being successfully spoofed, impersonated or intercepted. When retailer email is fully authenticated, Internet Service Providers and receiving business networks can make better decisions about the validity of incoming messages and consumers can better trust retailer messages in their inbox. Specifically, OTA found: Email Authentication: One-hundred percent used Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), up from 95 percent and 99 percent respectively in 2017. SPF and DKIM allow a receiver to verify that a message was sent by the purported sender. Impersonation: Adoption of DMARC, which allows senders to tell receivers how to handle messages that fail authentication, jumped substantially from 60 percent in 2017 to 71 percent in 2018. Yet those that are using DMARC to enforce policy with reject or quarantine designations grew much more slowly, from 33 percent in 2017 to 35 percent in 2018. Encryption: Once again the use of Transport Layer Security (TLS) saw a positive increase, jumping from 90 percent in 2017 to 96 percent in 2018. TLS for email adds message level encryption and helps maintain the privacy of emails in transit between mail servers. Use of HTTPs: OTA found that 69 percent of unsubscribe web pages were encrypted using HTTPs rising dramatically from 52 percent. If these pages are not encrypted, consumers email addresses and other sensitive information can be passed in the clear, risking exposure. Methodology In April 2018, OTA signed up to receive promotional emails from the top 200 North American retailers as defined by revenue in the Internet Retailer Magazine Top 500 Guide. It analyzed the user experience from those retailers from signup through reception of email through the unsubscribe process and whether/how the unsubscribe requests were honored, culminating in data analysis in mid-November. OTA assessed twelve best practice categories related to the unsubscribe process and noted the email authentication practices. OTAs 2018 Email Marketing & Unsubscribe Audit report reflects input from industry leaders and government agencies worldwide. This years complete report along with an infographic breaking down more report findings are at https://otalliance.org/2018-email-marketing-unsubscribe-audit and previous years reports are at https://otalliance.org/unsub. About OTA The Internet Societys Online Trust Alliance (OTA) identifies and promotes security and privacy best practices that build consumer confidence in the Internet. Leading public and private organizations, vendors, researchers, and policymakers contribute to and follow OTAs guidance to help make online transactions safer and better protect users data. The Internet Society is a global nonprofit dedicated to ensuring an open, globally connected, trustworthy, and secure Internet for everyone. November 2018 SimPOW Session Attendees These educators are preparing future healthcare professionals to save lives, said President and CEO of Pocket Nurse Anthony Battaglia, MS, BSN, RN. On Friday, Nov. 16, 2018 Pocket Nurse celebrated the one-year anniversary of the Simulation Alliance of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia (SimPOW) at their corporate headquarters in Monaca. Attendees celebrated SimPOWs anniversary during their three-hour November session. SimPOW founders Suzan Kardong-Edgren and Dana Bargerstock were recognized in the opening session. Attendees enjoyed a commemorative cake. Pocket Nurse raffled 14 products as free giveaways to attendees including a LIFEPAK 20 defibrillator valued at over $5,000. Kardong-Edgren and Bargerstock from Robert Morris University created SimPOW as a free forum for healthcare educators in nursing and allied health programs to network and learn industry trends and best practices. The groups first meeting had fewer than 10 attendees. The November 2018 session had over 50 RSVPs. These educators are preparing future healthcare professionals to save lives, said President and CEO of Pocket Nurse Anthony Battaglia, MS, BSN, RN. Simulation alliances help them develop curriculum and work with students to improve patient outcomes. The November session included three presentations from educators in nursing and career technical education (CTE). Attendees learned about recruitment and training for simulated participants, simulation in career technical education (CTE), and digital resources in simulation. Pocket Nurse was founded to help healthcare educators, said President and CEO Anthony Battaglia, MS, BSN, RN. We couldnt miss an opportunity to support SimPOW and make educators lives easier. SimPOWs growth over the last year includes a new planning committee to formalize decision-making. Members are empowered to join the committee and influence the direction of the group. About Pocket Nurse Pocket Nurse is nurse owned and operated and has been a trusted partner in simulation education for nursing, EMS, pharmacy technology, and allied health since 1992. We provide over 5,000 simulation solutions to healthcare educators nationwide. Were proud of our role in improving patient outcomes by enhancing suitable learning environments for future healthcare professionals. About SimPOW SimPOW is a loose alliance of healthcare simulation professionals in western Pennsylvania, northwestern West Virginia, and eastern Ohio. SimPOW provides a forum and network for healthcare educators to enhance the curricula through simulation. Membership is free, including attendance at four annual sessions and continuing education credits. Tenant Screening USA Landlords should take immediate notice and make sure tenant screening policies are equal and fair across all legal categories as the Department of Justice continues to bring legal actions. In Chicago, Illinois a recent legal action suggests that a landlord of a large rental community may have utilized potentially discriminatory tenant screening policies that allegedly prevented an African-American man the opportunity to rent an apartment. Situations such as this may be avoided through education and utilizing a quality tenant screening agency. Adam Almeida, President and CEO of TenantScreeningUSA.com opines: Landlords and property managers should take immediate notice and make sure tenant screening policies are equal and fair across all legal categories as the Department of Justice continues to bring legal actions. In Chicago an ex-offender allegedly was not allowed to rent an apartment due to policies denying rentals based on conviction history. From ChicagoBusiness.com (Oct 24, 18): An ex-offender was barred from renting an apartment in Washington Park because of a policy denying rentals to those with convictions in the past 25 years. A civil rights group says the policy disproportionately impacts African-Americans. A Chicago man sued a billion-dollar residential development firm based in Northbrook, claiming that the firm's policy of declining to rent to people with convictions in the past 25 years effectively discriminates against African-American applicants. (1) Almeida adds: The DOJ will bring suit utilizing the theory of disparate impact, an often complicated and challenging concept to comprehend. Essentially when a landlord or property manager creates a policy that disproportionally affects a protected class, the potential of bias and discrimination can be high. Subsequently, the DOJ may bring suit against such policies. From ChicagoBusiness.com (Oct 24, 18): The case, filed in U.S. District Court *, notes that the Fair Housing Act "prohibits housing policies that appear to be neutral on their face but have a disparate impact on the basis of race." It asks the court to award damages to Adams, in an amount determined by the jury. (2) This is not the first time the DOJ has brought action against a landlord or apartment development. From FinancialServicesPerspectives.com (Oct 24, 18): The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) recently filed a civil action in the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee against an apartment development and its property Management Company alleging violations of sections 3604(a) and 3604(b) of the Fair Housing Act (FHA). Specifically, the complaint challenges the management companys policy of rejecting applications for tenancy if any member of the household had a felony conviction within the past 10 years and instructed that in the event of such a conviction consideration shall be given to favorable changes in the households pattern of behavior, a lapse of years since occurrence of an offense [,] and to other extenuating circumstances. The complaint further asserts that the defendants improperly rejected the application of a black felon and issued a Letter of Banishment to the black felon, but either accepted the applications of white felons or did not issue Letters of Banishment to white felons. In the complaint, DOJ seeks injunctive relief and monetary damages. (3) Almeida concludes: Ultimately a landlord and/or property manager can stay ahead of any potential risk through education. TenantScreeningUSA.com a product that is FCRA complaint and can generate a non-discriminatory leasing recommendation is an ideal solution that avoids the potential of human bias. TenantScreeningUSA.com is a third-party tenant screening company with highly trained investigators well versed in the legal and lawful use of criminal history reports, and all public record reports, as part of a tenant background check. All reports are based on the most current information, accurate, and fully compliant. Notes: (1) chicagobusiness.com/residential-real-estate/big-landlords-policy-ex-offenders-discriminatory-lawsuit-says (2) ibid (3) financialservicesperspectives.com/2018/10/doj-continues-fair-housing-act-enforcement-actions/ *COURT CASE INDICATED ABOVE IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS VICTOR ADAMS JR., Plaintiff, v. PARKR, LLC,PARK MM, LLC,BRINSHORE DEVELOPMENT, LLC,BRINT DEVELOPMENT,INC., and LEASING AND MANAGEMENT COMPANY,INC., Defendants. Case: 1:18-CV-07095 Undergrid minigrids are an attractive opportunity for all stakeholders. We believe that piloting this electricity solution in the near term will enable future replication that supports the sectors financial health and drives local community development said Sachi Graber, senior associate at RMI. A new study by Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) and Energy Market and Regulatory Consultants (EMRC) uncovers the business case for undergrid minigridsan approach that could benefit hundreds of millions who are currently underserved. Throughout sub-Saharan Africa, hundreds of millions of people live under the grid. Such communities are within distribution company territory, but receive unreliable, inconsistent, and/or low-quality power that does not meet their needsor they receive no power at all. Minigrids can offer an affordable, reliable solution to supplement the grid in these undergrid communities. EMRC believes this report serves as a call for investors to explore the minigrid potentials in Nigeria using the undergrid model. It also presents a viable alternative which is beneficial to the investors, the electricity distribution companies and the electricity consumers, said Oladiran Adesua, analyst at EMRC. Undergrid minigrids are an attractive opportunity for all stakeholders. We believe that piloting this electricity solution in the near term will enable future replication that supports the sectors financial health and drives local community development, said Sachi Graber, senior associate at RMI. Key benefits for minigrid developers: An estimated 40 million rural residents are underserved by the main grid in Nigeria. Of these, close to 35% could be served by over 4,000 commercially viable undergrid minigrid systems. Nationwide, the revenue opportunity from these minigrids is approximately N400 billion ($1 billion) per year, offering minigrid developers an annual profit on the order of N75 billion ($200 million). Key benefits for distribution companies: For distribution companies, undergrid minigrids could reduce financial losses associated with serving remote rural communities by at least 60%. Transitioning just 400 communities to undergrid minigrids could reduce a single distribution companys (DisCos) annual financial losses by about N1 billion ($3 million). With a distribution usage fee from the minigrid developer, these savings could increase to over N2 billion ($6 million) annually for the DisCo. Key benefits for communities: For underserved communities and customers, compared to the status quo energy mix of grid and diesel, residential customers would save an average of N54 ($0.15) per kWh. Across Nigeria, transitioning residential undergrid customers to minigrid service could yield N60 billion ($170 million) in annual savings. Meanwhile, undergrid minigrid customers benefit from better, more-reliable, cost-effective electricity service. Stakeholders have an excellent opportunity to enable undergrid minigrids to become a successful part of an integrated approach to energy planning in Nigeria. Government and regulators, distribution companies and minigrid developers, andmost importantlycommunities can work together to mutual benefit to make this happen. However, perfect need not be the enemy of the goodexisting policy allows interested stakeholders to begin experimentation today. Media Inquiries please contact: Rocky Mountain Institute: Nick Steel, New York, Tel: +1 347-574-0887, Email: nsteel@rmi.org About Rocky Mountain Institute Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI)an independent nonprofit founded in 1982transforms global energy use to create a clean, prosperous, and secure low-carbon future. It engages businesses, communities, institutions, and entrepreneurs to accelerate the adoption of market-based solutions that cost-effectively shift from fossil fuels to efficiency and renewables. RMI has offices in Basalt and Boulder, Colorado; New York City; Washington, D.C.; and Beijing. About Energy Market and Regulatory Consultants Energy Market and Regulatory Consultants (EMRC) are consultants and advisers in energy markets, regulation, transactions and commercial issues. We were founded in 2011 as Mercados EMI, and changed our name to EMRC in 2015. We are part of the MRC Group of Companies, a family of nine sister companies, sharing a long and common history of working together. The MRC Group of Companies has a professional team of over 80 experts, with presence in 10 different cities. Reynaers Group, a worldwide leading provider of innovative and sustainable architectural window & door solutions, today, announced that Kees-Jan van t Westeinde has been named Vice President of Global Building Products overseeing strategic business development in the US and Canada. Lori Schock recently joined the company in September as the company's new Chief Executive Officer for North America. In addition to Reynaers North America, Kees-Jan van t Westeinde is responsible for several other companies in the Reynaers Group, such as Bloxer, Reynaers Ireland, RAN (Middle East), Roval and Somalu and will help manage mergers and acquisitions for the group worldwide. Mr. van t Westeinde comes to Reynaers with a strong understanding of the building products sector with over 20 years working for CRH Europe, most recently serving as Managing Director of Shutters and Awnings. Kees-Jan van t Westeinde also has nearly 15 years of experience working on over 30 merger and acquisition projects. Mr. van t Westeinde has degree in econometrics from Erasmus University Rotterdam with MBA studies at Michigan State University. Ms. Schock comes to Reynaers from Wausau Window and Wall Systems, an industry leading provider of custom window and curtain wall systems for commercial applications and large scale projects. As Vice President of Sales & Marketing, she deployed new sales processes and a customer centric business model which delivered consistent YOY growth during her tenure at the company. Schock past experience also includes working for Hilti North America, as a Division Leader and Vice President of Marketing. Schock earned her MBA from Harvard University, and has a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati. Schock brings a strong understanding of the US & Canadian window and door market to Reynaers. We are very pleased that a professional with her tenure and experience will take Reynaers North America to the next level. With Kees-Jan van t Westeindes global leadership and guidance, Schock is well positioned to help foster a network of architects, builders and fabricator partners to accelerate our growth within the multi-residential and commercial markets. These efforts supplement our current partnerships with qualified dealers in the US who sell Reynaers Aluminium fabricated products into the custom residential market, says Martine Reynaers ABOUT REYNAERS GROUP | Reynaers Aluminium is part of the Reynaers Group, which has designed cutting edge glazing solutions for some of the most iconic buildings in the world. Engineered without compromise, the range products are specified by some of the worlds leading architects and construction companies. Founded in 1965, Reynaers currently employs over 2,200 people in 40 different countries with exports to more than 70 countries on 5 continents. The company, with headquarters in Duffel, Belgium, achieved an annual turnover of over $450M in 2017. ABOUT REYNAERS ALUMINIUM NORTH AMERICA | Reynaers Aluminium began operations within the North American market in late 2014 with its US headquarters located in Phoenix, Arizona. The company has sales presence across the US & Canada, including the East & West Coast, South Region and Mountain States, working with a vast network of reputable dealers, fabricators, installers, architects and builders within North America. Reynaers US portfolio of products include: high insulated and innovative aluminum windows, swing doors, pivot doors, folding doors, sliding systems, window & curtain wall systems along with a wide range of complementary products. Presenting the Satin Fine Foods donation to HVHF. In the picture (from L to R): Jennifer DeFrancesco, Executive Director of HVHF Frank Kimler, Chairman of HVHF Kevin OReilly, Founder & CEO, Satin Fin Satin Fine Foods is honored to have contributed to such a special cause. This donation to HVHF gives 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 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 http://www.hvhonorflight.com. Sedona Yoga Fest 2019 Balance your body with nature to manifest a thriving life! Shamanic healer and soul guide, Anahata Ananda is offering two workshops at the upcoming Sedona Yoga Festival, a leading industry yoga conference amidst the red rocks and energy of Sedona, Arizona. Now in its 7th year, this event, open to the public, offers an entry point to authentic yoga for true seekers. Presenters locally, and from around the world, offer over 200 total classes, events, workshops, and performances for every level of yogi, from the absolute beginner to master teacher. This years yoga conference takes place at the Sedona Performing Arts Center on the grounds of the Sedona Red Rock High School. This year, Anahata will offer her Vortex Medicine Wheel Journey and a workshop on Quantum Manifestation during the event. Re-connecting to nature, appreciating the beauty of our surroundings, switching off from our fast-paced lives and disengaging from our gadgets, reminds us just how easy and important it is to drop into this state of being as often as we can, Anahata points out. She shares with her students and clients, various ways to achieve this in order to live a more proactive, and less reactive, life. Land journey participants will experience a beautiful spiritual energy vortex for deep healing and spiritual awakening and a Native American medicine wheel. Anahata will teach how to incorporate the Shamanic wisdom of the four elements, four directions, and four seasons at the Medicine Wheel. She will also share the symbolism of the consecrated Buddhist Stupa relative to world peace, meditation and the embodiment of Buddha. During her workshop on Quantum Manifestation, attendees learn, dance and dive into ways to create a thriving, radiant life they love. She shares scientific, proven strategies to manifest goals into reality. We will take an honest look at some of the habits steering us away from shining our talents brightly out into the world, says Anahata. People will leave with a roadmap and tools to apply and integrate into their lives. The Sedona Yoga Festivals convenient location and flexible conference structure allows participants to experience all that the Festival and surrounding Sedona has to offer. Sessions will range from quiet meditation to rockin vinyasa, performances, experiential journeys, conscious conversation land hikes, and deep classical yoga and Vedic studies. For tickets and the final session schedule visit, http://sedonayogafestival.com/ In addition to her workshops at the Sedona Yoga Festival, Anahata is available for private Shamangelic sessions during the three-day event. Her signature two-hour Shamangelic Healing Journey is tailored to meet the clients most pressing needs and can result in profound shifts in awareness and personal empowerment. Anahata uses a combination of Shamanic tools, energy healing techniques, guided visualizations, essential oils, and vibrational sound to facilitate transformational healing and energetic blockage removals. Clients seeking spiritual awakening, transformational healing services, conscious relationship counseling, sacred land journeys, specialized retreats, or training courses may choose from a wide variety of options to create a tailored, personal experience. Due to high demand, Festival attendees are encouraged to book their session well in advance either online or by calling (928) 963-4553. Anahata Ananda is a Shamanic Healer, Soul Guide and founder of Shamangelic Healing. She blends the compassion and tenderness of an Angel and the wisdom and strength of a Shaman to guide profound journeys of core healing and spiritual awakening. Anahata has guided thousands of individuals from all walks of life through core life shifts, helping them to turn their life around and create the life of their dreams. She masterfully creates a safe and loving space for inward transformational journeys that empower individuals to release their fears, open their hearts and reclaim their power. She has trained extensively with gifted Shamans, energy healers and spiritual teachers from North America, Peru, India and Asia in order to artfully integrate the fields of self-empowerment, Shamanic teachings, emotional release, energy healing, relationship counseling, spiritual studies, yoga, meditation and empowered living. For detailed descriptions and a calendar of all training courses, retreats and spiritual awakening services offered by Anahata at Shamangelic Healing visit http://shamangelichealing.com/. Were extremely honored that SIME has won Best in Biz for two years in a row, spotlighting how its drastically helped the industry, along with our subservicing clients. TMS, a fast-growing fintech company, is proud to announce that its industry-leading subservicing platform SIME (Servicing Intelligence Made Easy) won Bronze in the Best in Biz Awards 2018 for the Most Innovative Product of the Year with the latest introduction of its mobile app. This marks the second year that Best in Biz has recognized SIME for its bold new approach to servicing. Were extremely honored that SIME has won Best in Biz for two years in a row, spotlighting how its drastically helped the industry, along with our subservicing clients, said TMS President Ali Vafai. And especially proud that this technology is changing the customer service paradigm in the mortgage industry making real-time connections between lenders and borrowers and proactively driving toward customers for life. TMS disrupted the industry in early 2017 with the introduction of SIME by delivering a technology solution that provides on-demand customer data, real-time tracking of all borrower interactions and performance, end-to-end compliance, loan level detail and daily reporting to help reduce delinquent loans, and proactively service customers. In Spring 2018, TMS took SIME to the next level with the launch of TMS Happinest Mobile, a first-of-its-kind borrower facing app that puts the control in the customers hands, with the ability to upload and download documents, select preferred lines of communication and more. Were only getting started, said Vafai. Were looking forward to SIME 3.0 with artificial intelligence, as we integrate new features that dont exist in the servicing and mortgage world. The Best in Biz Awards is the only independent business awards program judged each year by prominent editors and reporters from top-tier publications in North America, with entrants spanning the spectrum, from some of the most recognizable global brands to the most innovative local start-ups. Last year, SIME won Gold in the Best in Biz awards 2017 for Enterprise Product of the Year. About SIME SIME Servicing Intelligence Made Easy, disrupted the servicing industry with its bold new approach to servicing. The award-winning loan servicing platform provides full transparency into a lenders loan portfolio, offering reliable, customizable, and unheard-of oversight tools. SIMEs self-service portal revolutionized the way lenders can manage, interact and engage their portfolio and is the only servicing platform to provide lenders in-depth and detailed borrower data in real time. SIME was named a HousingWire TECH100 winner and was recognized by the Stevie Awards as a New Product or Service of the Year. The cutting-edge technology is exclusively provided by TMS (The Money Source Inc.) NMLS# 6289. For more information, visit getSIME.com. Sola Salon Studios (Sola), the premier salon studio concept for established salon professionals, celebrates the one-year anniversary of Sola Brandywine, conveniently located in the Brandywine Town Center on Route 202 along with other upscale shops such as Bed, Bath & Beyond, Trader Joes and the Christmas Tree Shoppe. 10,000 hair stylists and salon professionals around the country have left commission-based jobs and moved into their own Sola studio. Local stylists from North Wilmington to West Chester are now thriving at Sola Brandywine where they can create a lifestyle that could never be achieved at a traditional salon. Sola Pros have the freedom to: Set their own schedule Personalize their space Create an intimate experience for their clients Use and sell the products they want Keep 100% of the profits Be in Business for Yourself, Not by Yourself is the motto at Sola. While it could be intimidating to open your own business, Sola offers the support and tools to make the startup simple and stress-free. Sola Genius, an app created especially for Sola Pros, creates a custom website, offers online booking for clients and processes credit cards. Sola studio owners are able to create a professional online presence that will impress their clients and attract new clients. While we opened Sola Brandywine to provide another career option for stylists and salon professionals, we have found that clients love the private studios as well. They value the personalized experience provided by Sola stylists over the noisy, open floor concept at most salons, said Jim McBride, owner of Sola Brandywine. Connect with Sola Brandywine Check out the Why Sola story on instagram @solabrandywine Follow us on Facebook @solasalonsbrandywine Check out the full Sola story at solasalons.com About Sola Salon Studios Sola Salon Studios was established in 2004 with the opening of the first-of-its-kind salon concept in Denver, Colorado. With over 400 locations today, Sola Salon Studios provides more than 10,000 salon professionals with upscale, fully equipped salon spaces to own and operate their individual boutique salons. The innovative salon concept empowers experienced hairdressers, skincare professionals, nail techs, massage therapists and other like-minded salon professionals to quickly and easily elevate their career. The FDA has taken two actions to curtail young customers appetites for the markets new tobacco products. It did not issue an outright ban on e-cigarettes that had been widely expected and that some anti-tobacco advocates hoped for. Instead, the agency said stores could continue to sell e-cigarettes but only from closed-off areas that would not be accessible to teenagers. Whether this will keep teens from getting their hands on the e-cigarettes is anyones guess. 23 Year-Old Michael Medina Brentwood-based attorney Abraham Sandoval will announce the filing of a lawsuit concerning the circumstances surrounding the death of 23-year old Michael Medina, who on October 4, 2018, was found strangled in a private bathroom at a Muse Treatment Rehabilitation Center in Culver City. Michael was later pronounced brain dead by doctors. Initial reports ruled Michael's death a suicide. The wrongful death action claims Muse was negligent. The family will be holding a press conference outside the offices of Sandoval Law, APC on Thursday, November 29, 2018 at 5:00 P.M. A wrongful death lawsuit has been lodged in the Los Angeles Superior Court, 18STCV06285. For further inquiry please email: asandoval(at)slawapc.com Were seeing more businesses look to the cloud for a simple and secure way to deliver virtual apps and desktops. NoTouch fulfills this need, while also providing them with the best and most intuitive OS and management solution for their endpoints. said Emanuel Pirker, CEO of Stratodesk. Stratodesk, a Nutanix alliance partner and a leader in end user computing, announced today that it will be hosting a booth at Nutanixs annual .NEXT Europe conference to give attendees an in-side look at NoTouch Desktop an endpoint OS and management solution for organizations using Nutanix Frame. Thanks to the recent partnership with Nutanix, Stratodesk is excited to announce that its flagship product, NoTouch, now supports Nutanix Frame to bring next-generation endpoint computing and automated management to cloud deployments. This partnership could not be more timely given the current cloud computing landscape, said Emanuel Pirker, CEO of Stratodesk. Stratodesk is a pioneer in delivering cutting-edge products that power and manage VDI endpoints. Were seeing more businesses look to the cloud for a simple and secure way to deliver virtual apps and desktops. NoTouch fulfills this need, while also providing them with the best and most intuitive OS and management solution for their endpoints. .NEXT Conference is the IT industrys leading datacenter and cloud conference where execu-tives, 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 years Europe conference will be held on November 27-29 at ExCeL in London, UK. About Stratodesk Stratodesk offers the worlds leading endpoint OS and management solution for X86 and Rasp-berry Pi. The hardware agnostic, Linux-based software suite is used by government and healthcare organizations, banks, SMBs and large enterprises to eliminate cost and scalability obstacles facing their complex network of devices. By delivering the only management software for mixed environments of x86, ARM and Raspberry Pi devices, Stratodesk is reinventing end-point computing for enterprise IoT, DaaS, and VDI. Tech Coast Angels Our relationship with SWS is one of many steps were taking to grow partnerships and develop a truly strong small and largeentrepreneurial and funding ecosystem for exceptional young companies. -- David Friedman, TCA Orange County Vice President and creator of the TCA Affiliate Member program. Tech Coast Angels (TCA) today announced that Pasadena-based VC firm SWS Venture Capital (SWS) recently became an affiliate member of Tech Coast Angels. General Partner and chairman of SWS, Steve Streit, is also founder of Green Dot, which received capital and mentorship from TCA when the company was in early stage development. The company, now a multi-billion-dollar NYSE company, went on to be one of TCAs most successful investments. TCA is one of the countrys largest and most influential angel networks. SWS is a firm focused on both active and passive investments in early stage companies within the consumer products and technology sectors. The affiliation of the two entities provides startups with an opportunity for introduction to more investors who support the entrepreneurial ecosystem at all funding and maturity levels, so that young companies can transition from angel-to-VC capital and organizational needs. This is truly a full-circle story, said Greg Jones, President & CEO of SWS. TCA provided support and backing to Green Dot, and now, 17 years later, we are able to partner with TCA again, albeit in a different role. Our relationship with SWS is one of many steps were taking to grow partnerships and develop a truly strong small and largeentrepreneurial and funding ecosystem for exceptional young companies, said David Friedman, TCA Orange County Vice President and creator of the TCA Affiliate Member program. Kirby Ryan, COO of SWS, agrees. TCA provides a great bellwether for the startup ecosystem, allowing us to see patterns early on in the maturation process. Its relationships with other angel networks and the UC System are second to none. Working with TCA helps us make connections with remarkable entrepreneurs earlier than we normally would. TCA members have such a broad spectrum of expertise there are medical professionals, engineers, scientists, CEOs of companies from all areas as members with so much diversity and different careers, said Mr. Jones. As professional investors, we would normally have to outsource to find this caliber of qualified people outside our field. Green Dot was one of our portfolio companies and went on to achieve huge success. It is our belief that cultivating companies and solidifying relationships with a flexible VC firm like SWS provides our region with a stronger, more unified, and robust investment community, with better deal flow -- and through these affiliations, grow an even more vibrant startup community so that there are more Green Dot-type successes, concluded Mr. Friedman. TCA affiliate membership is available to family offices, foundations, corporate venture, non-profits, and venture capital funds. Affiliate members are not required to be located in Southern California. Visit https://www.techcoastangels.com/angels/ for information about TCAs membership programs. About Tech Coast Angels: Tech Coast Angels (TCA) is one of the largest and most active angel investor networks in the nation, and a leading source of funding for seed-stage and early-stage companies across all innovation industries in Southern California. TCA members are accredited investors who individually invest in startup companies, and as a group, TCA has invested up to $6M in a single company. Companies in which TCA invest go through well-structured, transparent, and time efficient screening and due diligence. TCA members are themselves founders and executive-level business leaders who have extensive knowledge in the investment process and world-class business practices. TCA members thus provide companies with more than just capital; they also contribute counsel, mentoring and access to an extensive network of investors, customers, strategic partners and management. TCA is a catalyst in the growth of the thriving Southern California entrepreneurial ecosystem of innovation, funding mostly emerging technologies and life science companies. A recent Halo Report rated TCA as #2 nationally in a number of funded deals, and a recent analysis by CB Insights ranked TCA #1 out of 370 angel groups on Network Centrality and #5 overall in Investor Mosaic. Since its founding in 1997, TCA has invested over $200 million in more than 350 companies and has helped attract more than $1.6 billion in additional capital/follow-on rounds, mostly from venture capital firms. For more information, please visit http://www.techcoastangels.com. About SWS Venture Capital: SWS Venture Capital is a Pasadena, California-based venture capital firm founded by American entrepreneur and Green Dot Corporation Founder/CEO, Steve Streit. The firm is focused on both active and passive investments in early stage companies within the consumer products and technology sectors. SWS employs a two-pronged investment strategy; first, as an active investor, SWS seeks to partner with passionate entrepreneurs to provide the strategic, operational, and financial support needed to help incubate their business from a pre-revenue concept into a growing, profitable enterprise. Second, as a passive investor, SWS focuses on partnering with leading, established venture capital firms to provide fast-track funding for co-investments where our domain expertise and deep network provide a strategic advantage. Overall, 34 facilities had no OSHA recordables for the entire year. Even more remarkable are the nine facilities that have gone five or more consecutive years without an OSHA recordable incident. The Vinyl Institute (VI) announced recipients of its annual health, safety and environmental awards, which are given to companies in the vinyl industry for improving worker safety and protecting the environment at facilities throughout the United States and Canada. This year the VI recognized 37 facilities with 56 awards for outstanding performance. These awards are based on facility performance according to federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recordable incidents, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys (EPA) National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP), other regulatory permit performance, and the EPAs Toxic Release Inventory data for air and water during the 2017 calendar year. The awards signify the vinyl resin and monomer industrys unwavering commitment to worker safety and environmental performance, said VI President and CEO, Richard Doyle. Their focus on safety training, process improvements, and technological advancements have made the vinyl industry one of the safest manufacturing industries. Overall, 34 facilities had no OSHA recordables for the entire year. Even more remarkable are the nine facilities that have gone five or more consecutive years without an OSHA recordable incident. Each year the Vinyl Institute proudly recognizes facilities in the PVC, EDC/VCM, plasticizer production, additive production and chlorinated PVC compounding categories that have achieved outstanding performance in four categories: Safety Excellence, Safety Performance, Environmental Excellence and Environmental Honor. The Vinyl Institutes Safety Excellence Awards are based upon federal OSHA recordable incidents, which are defined as an occupational injury or illness resulting in medical treatment. The awards, which recognize plants with five or more consecutive years with no recordable incidents, were presented to (in alphabetical order): Eastman Chemical Plasticizer/Additive Manufacturing plant, Texas City, Texas (6 consecutive years of performance) Exxon Mobil Chemical Company Plasticizer/Additive Manufacturing plant, Baton Rouge, Louisiana (6 consecutive years of performance) Formosa Plastics Corporation PVC Compounding Plant, Point Comfort, Texas (7 consecutive years of performance) Oxy Vinyls VCM plant, Deerpark, Texas (5 consecutive years of performance) Occidental Chemical Corporation EDC plant, Geismar, Louisiana (7 consecutive years of performance) Oxy Vinyls Canada PVC plant, Niagara Falls, Ontario (10 consecutive years of performance) Shintech PVC plant, Addis, Louisiana (5 consecutive years of performance) Shintech PVC plant, Plaquemine, Louisiana (5 consecutive years of performance) Westlake Vinyls PVC plant, Geismar, Louisiana (8 consecutive years of performance) The VIs Safety Performance Awards recognize efforts to improve worker safety based upon OSHAs recordable incidence rate. This award, which recognizes plants with no recordable incidents for the reporting year, was presented to 10 companies representing 34 facilities. The recipients (in alphabetical order) of this award for performance during 2017 include: Eastman Chemical, Plasticizer/Additive Manufacturing plant, Kingsport, Tennessee Eastman Chemical, Plasticizer/Additive Manufacturing plant, Texas City, Texas ExxonMobil Chemical Company, Plasticizer/Additive Manufacturing plant, Baton Rouge, Louisiana Formosa Plastics Corporation, VCM plant, Baton Rouge, Louisiana Formosa Plastics Corporation, PVC plant, Baton Rouge, Louisiana Formosa Plastics Corporation, PVC plant, Point Comfort, Texas Formosa Plastics Corporation, VCM plant, Point Comfort, Texas Formosa Plastics Corporation, Specialty PVC plant, Point Comfort, Texas Formosa Plastics Corporation, PVC Compounding plant, Point Comfort, Texas K-Bin, PVC Compounding plant, Freeport, Texas Mexichem, PVC plant, Pedricktown, New Jersey Occidental Chemical Corporation, EDC plant, Convent, Louisiana Occidental Chemical Corporation, EDC plant, Geismar, Louisiana Occidental Chemical Corporation, EDC/VCM plant, Ingleside, Texas Oxy Vinyls, VCM plant, Deerpark, Texas Oxy Vinyls, PVC plant, Deerpark, Texas Oxy Vinyls, PVC plant, Pedricktown, New Jersey Oxy Vinyls Canada, PVC plant, Niagara Falls, Ontario Shintech, PVC plant, Addis, Louisiana Shintech, EDC/VCM plant, Plaquemine, Louisiana Shintech, PVC plant, Plaquemine, Louisiana Teknor Apex, PVC/CPVC Compounding plant, Jamestown, North Carolina Teknor Apex, Plasticizer/Additive Manufacturing plant, Brownsville, Tennessee Westlake Vinyls EDC/VCM plant, Calvert City, Kentucky Westlake Vinyls PVC plant, Geismar, Louisiana Westlake Chemical, PVC plant, Aberdeen, Mississippi Westlake Chemical, Plasticizer/Additive Manufacturing plant, Aberdeen, Mississippi Westlake Chemical, PVC Compounding plant, Aberdeen, Mississippi Westlake Chemical, Lake Charles North EDC/VCM plant, Westlake, Louisiana Westlake Chemical, Lake Charles South EDC plant, Westlake, Louisiana Westlake Chemical, PVC Compounding plant, Madison, Mississippi Westlake Chemical, PVC Compounding plant, Prairie, Mississippi Westlake Chemical, PVC Plant, Plaquemine, Louisiana Westlake Chemical, VCM Plant, Plaquemine, Louisiana The Vinyl Institutes Environmental Excellence Awards are based on outstanding track record of performance for five or more consecutive years under EPAs NESHAPs, and other environmental permit requirements. The following facilities (in alphabetical order) demonstrated continued outstanding performance in 2017: Formosa Plastics Corporation, EDC plant, Point Comfort, Texas (6 consecutive years of performance) Formosa Plastics Corporation, PVC Compounding plant, Point Comfort, TX (7 consecutive years of performance) Occidental Chemical Corporation, EDC plant, Convent, Louisiana (6 consecutive years of performance) Occidental Chemical Corporation, EDC plant, Geismar, Louisiana (7 consecutive years of performance) Westlake Vinyls, EDC/VCM plant, Calvert City, Kentucky (10 consecutive years of performance) Westlake Chemical, PVC plant, Aberdeen, Mississippi (5 consecutive years of performance) K-Bin, PVC Compounding plant, Freeport, TX (5 consecutive years of performance) Teknor Apex, PVC Compounding plant, Pawtucket, Rhode Island (6 consecutive years of performance) Teknor Apex, PVC Compounding plant, Brownsville, Tennessee (5 consecutive years of performance) Westlake Chemical, Plasticizer/Additive Manufacturing plant, Aberdeen, Mississippi (5 consecutive years of performance) Westlake Chemical, PVC Compounding plant, Aberdeen, MS (5 consecutive years of performance) The environmental criteria for the VIs Environmental Honor Award include emissions reduction under the NESHAP, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), and EPAs Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data for air and water. The Environmental Honor Award is presented to two plants, one in the PVC category and one in the EDC/VCM category. The facilities achieving this award for performance during 2017 were: EDC/VCM category: Westlake Vinyls, EDC/VCM plant, Calvert City, Kentucky PVC category: Mexichem, PVC plant, Henry, Illinois 2018 VI Gottesman Award and Partner of the Year Award Recognitions In addition to the Health, Safety and Environmental Awards, the VI bestowed the Roy T. Gottesman Leadership Award and the Partner of the Year Award to two individuals during the Vinyl360 conference earlier this month. The Roy T. Gottesman Leadership Award was established in honor of the Vinyl Institutes founding director, and recognizes outstanding service to the vinyl industry during a persons career. This years Roy T. Gottesman Leadership Award recipient was Dick Doyle, president and CEO of the Vinyl Institute for his continued dedication and service to the vinyl industry. And the VI recognized Jane Rohde, principal of JSR Associates, as Partner of the Year for her contributions to the vinyl industrys outreach and educational efforts. Ms. Rohde is known for championing the global cultural shift to deinstitutionalize senior living and healthcare facilities. She as been a fearless supporter and specifier of vinyl products because she understands the benefits of the material for our society, especially in the healthcare and senior living space. About the Vinyl Institute The Vinyl Institute (VI), founded in 1982, is a U.S. trade association representing the leading manufacturers of vinyl resins, vinyl chloride monomer, vinyl additives, and modifiers. The VI works on behalf of its members to promote the benefits of the worlds most versatile plastic, used to make everything from pipe for water infrastructure to building materials such as cladding, windows, flooring, roofing and wallcovering. The vinyl industry in the United States employs more than 350,000 highly skilled employees at nearly 3,000 facilities, and generates an economic value of $54.4 billion. Responsive Search Ads Rather than utilizing manual operations, such as A/B testing to determine the best combination of headlines or descriptions, it becomes an automated process that adapts and responds to users reactions. Lounge Lizard is globally recognized as a top website design company within the web design and development industry. Lounge Lizard's brandtenders are creative, tech-savvy, and passionate in developing innovative strategies that drive conversion for both startup and established clients of all industries, making them the "best of breed since 1998." Today NY based web design company, Lounge Lizard, shares why Responsive Search Ads are the most innovative change to search campaigns in 2018. In a nutshell, Responsive Search Ads are a more flexible format compared to traditional search ads where Google tests and then decides the best combination of headline and message to meet your advertising goals. Google has been pushing for this type of AI-automation over the past year to basically let Google drive the advertising car rather than keeping users behind the wheel. They started with Dynamic Search Ads and moved into Automated Ad Suggestions (aka Ads Added by Google) with Responsive Search Ads being the current evolution the platform is undertaking. Rather than utilizing manual operations, such as A/B testing to determine the best combination of headlines or descriptions, it becomes an automated process that adapts and responds to users reactions. They will look to provide the best message to search groups based on a variety of factors such as keyword search terms, past browsing history, type of device, and more. While still in Beta Mode and not available to all advertisers, this new shift is extremely innovative and exciting. As of right now Responsive Search Ads are easily the most revolutionary change to search campaigns in the past few years. Benefits of the new ad type: 1. More Space The responsive search ads will feature up to three headlines rather than the current maximum of two. For character descriptions you arent limited to one 80-character description but instead can show up to two 90-character ones. 2. Combination of Headlines and Descriptions You can set up 15 headlines and four different descriptions for each search ad. Initially this will take some work getting used to as you want all combinations of headlines and descriptions to make sense if combined, however the number of headlines you can use means more variety to cover distinctive features, products, benefits, etc. within a single ad. 3. Adaptive Ads Google will test combinations dynamically to find the combination most likely to meet your advertising goal. This will save time and energy on your end and almost undoubtedly will produce better results as Googles automated system has access to so much more information than the average business. With the maximum 15 headlines and 4 descriptions you can then combine them in 43,680 different ways. It will be much easier to rely on their AI rather than your own testing. 4. More Competitive By using multiple ad options, your ad groups will then compete in more auctions for your keywords that trigger your ads. This can increase your ROI for digital marketing. 5. Higher CTR This will be a bit subjective, but currently Google expects that Responsive Search Ads will have a 5-15% higher click-thru-rate compared to a standard ad. However, it is important to remember that those expectations only hold true when you vigorously follow Googles Best Practices. 6. Ability to Pin If there are specific headlines or messages you always want to display you can pin them so that they always show in an ad combination. Of course, doing this them limits the automated testing as there will be less combinations available to try therefore it could hurt your overall potential if your instincts on what needs to be pinned does not align with what resonates best with customers. Lounge Lizard Website Design Company is an award-winning, high-end design boutique specializing in website and mobile app development, UX/UI, branding, and marketing. Lounge Lizard excels in creating the ultimate brand strategy, fully loaded with expertly crafted visuals that work together to increase sales and effectively communicate a client's unique personality. Media Contact: Ken Braun, Lounge Lizard, 631-581-1000, ken(dot)braun(at)loungelizard(dot)com My goal is to show our members the advantages of looking beyond government contracts to the opportunities that working with corporations provide American Heroes Network host Gary Ray and his co-host, Lt. Col Bill Forbes, sat down with VAMBOAs Debbie Gregory to tap into the wealth of resources and information she has acquired over the years. As the daughter of a disabled veteran and the former CEO of one of the most comprehensive online directories for military and veterans, Ms. Gregory has always considered it an honor to serve those who have donned our nations uniform. Recognizing that veterans have the skills and drive to become successful entrepreneurs, Gregory founded VAMBOA, a 501(c)6 non-profit trade association, to connect veteran and military business owners with the corporations seeking to do business with them. My goal is to show our members the advantages of looking beyond government contracts to the opportunities that working with corporations provide, said Gregory. These corporations are looking to fulfill their supplier diversity requirements, and veterans are a diverse network of suppliers on many levels. VAMBOA does not charge members fees for membership and is supported through corporate sponsorships. Gregory is also proud of her continuing contributions as a board member and producer of America Salutes You - Guitar Legends II. The annual concert raises awareness for those who serve, including first responders , and raises funds for some of the excellent non-profits that support them. This years concert will take place December 2nd at the Novo Theater in Los Angeles. There is an incredible line up of talent. Those wishing to either purchase tickets or donate should go to the web site at http://www.americasalutesyou.org. Ms. Gregory also serves in the DoD volunteer position of Director of Employer Engagement for Californias Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR). The interview can be heard at: https://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/110372/vamboa# About VAMBOA With over 7,200 members and more than 300,000 fans and followers on social media, the Veterans and Military Business Owners Association (VAMBOA) is fast becoming the Go To association for veteran and military business owners. VAMBOA is a non-profit 501(c) 6 trade association that connects members with top corporations seeking a diverse network of suppliers. About American Heroes Network Radio American Heroes Network Radio provides support to our nations heroes by helping veterans and their families rebuild their lives. They assist veterans with employment, housing, and additional resources and information. American Heroes Network Radio also provides scholarships for families of our fallen heroes. American Heroes Network Radio airs every Tuesday at 11am EST on the VoiceAmerica Variety Channel. About America Salutes You America Salutes You is a 501c3 organization created to express our national gratitude to our service members, veterans and their families through an annual nationally broadcasted benefit concert that raises funds for a range of highly rated charities. One hundred percent of all money raised are granted to nonprofit organizations with programs that provide services to our troops, veterans and their families. Xpediant Digital Logo We are proud to be a Silver sponsor at the Veeva Europe Summit this year and have the opportunity to demonstrate this revolutionary integration platform that is the first to integrate with Veevas new CDN functionality, stated Qusai Mahesri, Founder & CEO, Xpediant Digital. Xpediant Digital, a digital experience consulting firm specializing in Adobe Experience Cloud systems integration, today announced their next release of XpConnect Platform, V3.3, the only connector between Veeva Vault PromoMats and Adobe Experience Manager. Xpediant Digital, a Silver Sponsor, will be demonstrating XpConnect Platform during the Veeva Commercial & Medical Summit, December 3-5, 2018 in Madrid Spain. XpConnect Platform provides a proven, tested, bi-directional integration allowing approved content, digital assets, metadata, and processes to be accessed from one document repository and published in the other. XpConnect Platform 3.3 for Veeva Vault PromoMats and Adobe AEM is the next generation integration between the two systems. We are proud to be a Silver sponsor at the Veeva Europe Summit this year and have the opportunity to demonstrate this revolutionary integration platform that is the first to integrate with Veevas new CDN functionality, stated Qusai Mahesri, Founder & CEO, Xpediant Digital. The costs for building, maintaining and managing assets in two different systems can add hundreds of thousands of dollars per site to marketing expenses and increased exposure to regulators for unlicensed materials use. XpConnect solves those problems by syncing assets and metadata seamlessly between Vault PromoMats and AEM. The Connector is easily installed and maintained, flexible and configurable and ensures a single source of truth throughout the asset lifecycle. XpConnects modular design and a predefined set of Veeva objects included as AEM components, makes it quick to install and easy to maintain, states Sayli Kulkarni, Chief Delivery Officer, Xpediant Digital. XpConnect is currently in use with several of the largest pharmaceutical and medical device companies globally, states Kulkarni. For demonstrations and more information on Xpediant Solutions bi-directional AEM and Veeva Vault PromoMats Connector. About Xpediant Digital: Xpediant Digital is a next-generation services company, committed to the pursuit of digital experience and digital ecosystem integration. For nearly 20 years, our team has crafted full lifecycle marketing solutions, with services ranging from strategy, consulting and creative, to development and managed services. Specializing in digital content and asset management for life science and pharmaceutical verticals, no project is too big and no problem too daunting. We offer onshore, offshore and nearshore delivery options to meet your requirements. Our exclusive XpConnect Platform and XpGenerator products, are the worlds only commercially available, bi-directional connector between Veeva Vault and Adobe Experience Manager, and website PDF generator. We leverage proven strategies and expertly employ world class tools such as Adobe Experience Cloud and Veeva Vault to help the leading brands perform at their best. For more information, please visit http://www.xpediantdigital.com and http://www.xpconnect.net for more information. Arwen Elys Dayton, author of the science fiction Seeker trilogy, invites readers to consider the future with Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful, a standalone SF novel told through six interconnected stories that successively look further into the future, where scientific and medical advancements blur the definition of humanity and right and wrong. Dayton spoke with PW about the role of research in writing science fiction, plotting interconnected stories, and the importance of young peoples awareness of the medical advances that will shape the future. Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful has been compared to Black Mirror and The Twilight Zone. From where did the idea for the novel come? Are you a fan of these shows? Yes, I grew up watching the old black-and-white episodes of The Twilight Zone. They were probably replaying for the millionth time, but I was still scared by them. I totally enjoy Black Mirror, too. But Ive been fascinated with whats happening with biotech, advances in medicine, and now DNA editing for many years. Ive always kept up with these things by reading articles and knew I wanted to write something focusing on these fields. I really wanted to do something different after writing the Seeker series and had the idea of writing interconnected short stories. I was excited when I realized I could do something with these topics in that format. Why did you decide to structure this book as six interconnected stories featuring different characters, set in different places, and in different times? I didnt know exactly how interconnected they would be. I knew, minimally, that the stories would share a theme: the new evolution of humanity going forward from now. The thing is, there are so many different aspects to genetic advances. Theres CRISPR [Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats], which is a buzzword everyone is talking about, with countless labs working on things like eradicating disease with CRISPR. There are scientists growing human organs in pigs to be transplanted into humans. People fighting the disease of aging. I wanted to go further and further into the future, which is harder to do with one story and one character. I loved the idea of viewing these advancements through the eyes of young people. How did you plot this story? Did you outline or plan with any type of structure? Plotting is an optimistic word. Usually I get the character first and the world comes up around them. This time, its a little bit harder to describe the process. For example, I knew I wanted to talk about chimaeras, these creatures that had genetic material from more than one entity. So, the Dolphin Boyas I call him, hes never called that in the storycame into my mind. I knew he was going to be in the story, so then I had to decide how far in the future his story would have to take place. It took a little while to determine the timeline. What type of research into medicine and science did you do? I read hundreds of articles over many, many years. During the writing process, I conducted numerous interviews with different researchers. One researcher was working to edit mosquitoes so they couldnt carry malaria. Theres a lab in New York testing the 98% of our DNA that doesnt build our body, but affects how that remaining 2% functions. The funny thing is, when Im writing science fiction, I fill myself up with research until Im saturated, then its in the background. The research isnt really the point, its the context for the personal, intimate stories. I didnt worry too much about how the reality blends into the story. I needed to understand what was theoretically possible. Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful explores the often contentious relationship between science and religion. Why did you choose to address this dichotomy? When I was young, I remember seeing a story on the news about a girl who was around my age, maybe 11, who refused medical treatment because of her and her parents religious beliefs. I have thought about that ever since. I agree that she has the right to refuse treatment, but its so hard to understand that choice. It fascinated me that someone could philosophically feel this way. So, since Ive been young, Ive had that question. How do you balance that? Do I have something I feel that strongly about that Id risk my health? What do you hope readers gain in reading these stories? Since Ive finished the book, the number of articles being published on these topics seems to be increasing exponentially. I just saw an article today about a scientist in China who claims to have edited two human embryos. It hasnt been verified, but its been claimed. No one is saying its not possible. So I hope that readers will enjoy the story and the experience of the book, but, since were on this frontier as a species, I want people to know that these possibilities exist and are happening. I want people to be part of making decisions about these advancements and the future. Do you have an opinion about how advancing technology and genetic modification affects humanity? Has writing this book shifted your perspective? I think Im very optimistic about all the ways we can make life better by curing diseases and alleviating suffering, but there are over seven billion people in the world and some of them will do stupid things. So I think Im optimistic and wary at the same time. Some people will behave rationally and ethically, but we need to figure out how to navigate what happens when people are not rational and ethical. Youve shared a playlist for Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful on your website; is music an important part of your writing process? Its not an important part in that I have to hear a certain song in order to write, but I do find that, while Im writing a book, songs will stick with me. [Ill assemble a playlist of songs I ended up listening to a lot that feel like they are of the world of the book or inspired it in some way. I dont have to have the music to write, but it does add another dimension that I enjoy. You began your career as a teenage staff writer at a foundation, then you began writing screenplays and novels. How does your background inform your storytelling approach? The foundation was the first job I had, as an 18-year-old; I had to research and write articles for a company that produced educational videos. It was hard work and a kind of journalism in a way. It taught me about outlines, deadlines, and succinct writing, which was good to have drilled into me. It was an extremely valuable experience for plotting something tightly. Ive never had a screenplay produced, but I have sold a few. Other than that, writing novels is its own beast. Why are you drawn to writing for young adults specifically? Im fascinated with that time of life. Its that time when you have infinite possibilities and infinite obstacles. I feel a strong kinship with that age group. I dont know that Ill always write for this audience, but its what seems to come out when Im writing. Which authors or books have inspired you? Reading Dune out loud at 10 or 11 with my parents was a seminal event in my life. Ray Bradburys work was extremely influential to me as a teen. The stuff that you read at that age is really important. Im a proponent of reading a lot and as much as possible. Have you read any books with a similar format to Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful, like Cloud Atlas? Of course. I think the biggest way Cloud Atlas impacted me was how seamlessly Mitchell went from one genre to the next. From historical fiction at the beginning to this crazy science fiction story later. The way he scoffed at genre really made me think about what you can do with a book. The stories in my book are more connected than that, but, by reading Cloud Atlas, I realized that I should just write what I want to write. What can you share about your next project? I may be writing a companion piece to Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful. I wasnt interested in doing that, but now I feel that I have a way that Im interested in. Im also finishing up another unrelated manuscript that Im not quite ready to talk about. Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful by Arwen Elys Dayton. Delacorte, $18.99 Dec. 4 ISBN 978-0-525-58095-9 Nonfiction Dec. 1 The No-Self Help Book: 40 Reasons to Get Over Your Self & Find Peace of Mind by Kate Gustin (New Harbinger, $16.95 paper, ISBN 978-1-68403-217-4). Clinical psychologist Gustin offers help to readers struggling with self-doubt, self-esteem questions, and self-defeating thoughts. An Ocean of Light: Contemplation, Transformation, and Liberation by Martin Laird (Oxford Univ., $18.95, ISBN 978-0-19-937994-1) guides readers through the challenges of contemplative life, such as dealing with old pain, transforming the isolation of loneliness, and confronting the danger of using a spiritual practice as a strategy to acquire and control. Dec. 3 God Is a Question, Not an Answer: Finding Common Ground in Our Uncertainty by William Irwin (Rowman & Littlefield, $24.95, ISBN 978-1-5381-1588-6) argues that since neither the existence of God nor the nonexistence of God can be proven, believers and nonbelievers can find common ground in uncertainty. Dec. 4 Seven Sundays by Alec Penix (Howard, $26, ISBN 978-1501189852) argues for the benefits of strength training for both our spiritual and physical selves and includes a six-week program for total transformation, according to the publisher. The Secret Ingredient by Gigi Butler (Howard, $24.99; ISBN 978-1-5011-7352-3). The founder of Nashvilles Gigis Cupcakes tells her life story, including abandoning one dream before pursuing another. 60,000-copy announced initial printing. The God of New Beginnings: How the Power of Relationship Brings Hope and Redeems Lives by Rob Cowles and Matt Roberts (Thomas Nelson, $16.99 paper, 978-1-9786-2055-1). The authors, both ministers, collect stories of redemption to make a case for how even the most broken people can find healing through faith. Revive Us Again: Vision and Action in Moral Organizing by William Barber (Beacon, $18 paper, ISBN 978-0-8070-2560-4). Reverend Barber, president of the nonprofit organization Repairers of the Breach which is working to build a better moral agenda, collects his sermons and speeches on issues such as Black Lives Matter, increasing the minimum wage, the protecting of voting rights, womens rights, and more. Dec. 15 Christian Ethics for a Digital Society by Kate Ott (Rowman & Littlefield, $30, ISBN 978-1-4422-6737-4) examines how technology has changed life today and offers tips for managing how its used for development as Christians. Dec. 18 Simon Peter: Flawed but Faithful Disciple by Adam Hamilton (Abingdon, $19.99, ISBN 978-1-5018-4598-7). The senior pastor of the Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kans., offers a six-week Lenten program, taking an in-depth dive into the life, faith, and character of Saint Peter. The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary, Vol. 3 by Robert Alter (Norton, $125, ISBN 978-0-393-29249-7) Completing his volumes on the Hebrew Bible, Alter lends his scholars attention and poetic ear to the ancient text. On Thomas Merton by Mary Gordon (Shambhala, $22.95, ISBN 978-1611803372). Memoirist and novelist Gordon examines the tension between Mertons roles of monk and writer in what PWs starred review calls an intelligent, moving book. The Compassionate Kitchen by Thubten Chodron (Shambhala, $14.95 paper, ISBN 978-1-6118-0634-2) makes a case for how the preparation, offering, and consumption of food can be a spiritual practice. Fiction Dec. 1 The Liberty Bride by Marylu Tyndall (Barbour, $12.99 paper, ISBN 978-1-6832-2617-8). The sixth installment to the Daughters of the Mayflower series is set on a British warship and follows an American woman who must choose between her protector and a love for her country. Searching for You by Judy Hedlund (Bethany, $25.99, ISBN 978-0-7642-3274-9). Sophie Neumann and her two young charges are in danger after witnessing a crime and must rely on the kindness of an old friend for safety. The Bride of Ivy Green by Julie Klassen (Bethany, $15.99 paper, ISBN 978-0-7642-1817-0). The conclusion to the Tales of Ivy Hill series reveals the fate of several residents of the idyllic village. The drinks were seized because they had no tax stamps affixed on them. The 2 hotels are Kempinski Gold Coast and Movenpick Hotels both located in the countrys capital. ___9147056___2018___11___28___16___WhatsApp-Image-2018-11-28-at-12.48.31-PM-696x522 ece-auto-gen The GRA started visiting retail outlets to inspect the stamps on their products. The Head of the Task Force for at the GRA, Kwabena Apau Anto, has indicated that hotels and restaurants in the country will also be monitored to ensure that they comply. About Tax Stamp The Tax Stamp Policy was introduced by the government to check smuggled goods and also rake in the needed revenue for the state. This is in accordance with the Provisions of the Excise Tax Stamp Act, 2013 (Act 873) specified excisable products which are imported or locally produced, are required to be affixed with Tax Stamps with specific features designed and supplied by the Ghana Revenue Authority before they are delivered ex-factory, cleared from any port of entry or presented for sale at any commercial level in Ghana. ___9147054___2018___11___28___16___WhatsApp-Image-2018-11-28-at-12.48.32-PM1-696x928 ece-auto-gen To ensure this is effective all importers and manufacturers of the affected products are required to register with the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA). However, key business associations have opposed the tax stamp. They argue that they are unable to bear the additional cost of fixing the stamps. She added that she changed 10, 000 Naira in Ghana and was only given GHC 120. In an Instagram post, she also praised Ghana for the newly built Kotoka International Airport, Terminal 3. Omotola who was in Ghana for the All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA) 2018 took to Instagram to share an experience she had in Ghana when she came for the awards. Another thing that surprised her was the hospitality of Ghanaians. She recounted how her two phones were given back to her even after she had forgotten to pick them up while filling her immigration details. But some social media users have disagreed with her. They commented on her Facebook post. Most of them said it was wrong to compare the two currencies because the economic indicators of the two countries are different. ___9146096___2018___11___28___11___omo5 ece-auto-gen ___9146093___2018___11___28___11___omo6 ece-auto-gen ___9146090___2018___11___28___11___omo3 ece-auto-gen ___9146087___2018___11___28___11___omo2 ece-auto-gen ___9146086___2018___11___28___11___omo1 ece-auto-gen ___9146085___2018___11___28___11___omo-4 ece-auto-gen Meanwhile, there were others who agreed with what she wrote. ___9146098___2018___11___28___11___for1 ece-auto-gen This is in fulfillment of the New Patriotic Partys 2016 campaign promise to increase the retirement age for servicemen by five years. However, the Minority in Parliament is against the governments intention. Contributing to the 2019 budget debate on the security sector, the Minoritys spokesperson on Defence and the Interior, James Agalga, said the law was flawed. He argued that this law would rather weaken the ability and strength of Ghanas armed forces. Mr Speaker, a fighting force which is aged cannot have the spirit and efficiency to defend our territorial integrity, he stated. He said that the maximum active period of engagement for service personnel in the United Kingdom and the United States of America is 22 and 18 years respectively for other ranks. He argued that Ghanas 25 years was even above the global and therefore there was no need for an extension. But Ghanas Defence Minister, Dominic Nitiwul, said he disagreed with Mr Agalga. In his opinion, he lacked a proper appreciation of the new law. [Mr Agalga] was part of the committee which looked at [the L.I.] and approved it. It has become law, so, I dont know what he is talking about and probably misleading the people of Ghana, he said. Ghanas Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Catherine Afeku, said in an interview that Government is supporting the event with $4.5 million for the three years but for this year, we are spending $ 700,000. 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. Here are other things the government could have used the money for. 1. Defray some of its debt The Bank of Ghana (BoG)s latest summary of economic figures indicates that the countrys total debt stock has reached GHc170.8 billion. The over $4 million can be used to pay off some of Ghanas debt. 2. Solve issues of dumsor The Energy Minister, John Peter Amewu has failed to admit that the times of erratic power supply which is popularly referred to as dumsor is back. Meanwhile, Ghanaians in recent times have been experiencing dumsor. The government could have used the money to help solve the power supply issues 3. Invest in Free SHS In the 2017/2018 academic year alone the government spent over $11 million on the Free SHS policy. It is estimated that the government will spend more in subsequent academic years as the number of students increases. Development of infrastructure is also needed to ensure the students have access to quality education. 4. Invest in the education sector The education sector has a lot of challenges. These include inadequate infrastructure, remuneration of teachers, schools under trees, among others. This money could have been used to help boost the education sector in general. 5. 1 constituency; 1 million dollars During the campaign ahead of the 2016 election, now President Nana Akufo-Addo as part of its campaign promises said the government will give each constituency a million dollars. The government is yet to start implementing the policy but $4.5 million will settle 4 constituencies. When we add $500,000 another constituency can benefit. 6. More ambulance for the country The average cost of a State-of-the-art ambulance is $102,000. This means the government of Ghana can purchase about 44 ambulances to help support the National Ambulance Service. 7. Affordable housing units The projection is made due to the cost the WTO realized the African continent make on the international trade. A statement the organisation made indicated that, the current trade costs for developing countries are equivalent to applying an overwhelming 219 per cent tariff on international trade, which the organisation discloses that it is hurting Africa. African countries seeking to reduce the cost, time and complexity of interregional and international trade in goods has gathered for the First African Forum for National Trade Facilitation Committees in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on November 27. The programme will end in November 29, 2018. The event, organized by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and seven partner organizations, aims at the continent as it (Africa) scales up its trades easing efforts after the WTOs Trade Facilitation Agreement entered into force in February 2017. The continent as well prepares to implement the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) signed in March 2018. According to the WTO, the rate of implemented commitments under the Agreement as of October 2018 stood at 60 per cent adding that, but broken down by level of development, a new picture emerges, with developed countries having achieved 100 per cent of commitments, developing countries having achieved 60 per cent of commitments and least developed countries just 22 per cent of commitments. The Secretary-General of UNCTAD, Mukhisa Kituyi, adding his voice said the organization has continuously supported Africas work on trade facilitation for decades hence calls on stakeholders to help boost international trade for developing countries. The study stated that more than 1,300 low-wage earners work in Wilmette; nearly 20 percent of those workers also live in the village, Kurzman said. He also said he was sorry some of those workers hadnt taken part in the study process. This is part of the government strategy to help solve some problems the GAF faces. The policy was among the 2019 budget presented by the countrys Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta to solve the challenges the GAF face. Hence the approval from government. The countrys Defence Minister, Dominic Nitiwul revealed the news at the GAF Inter-Services shooting competition dubbed Ex Fireblast. The programme was held at the Yahima Gallery Range in Sunyani a region in the country. He indicated that, government was committed to solving the challenges facing personnel of the Armed Forces, adding that the Ministry of Finance approved a $100 million housing policy by the Ministry of Defence into the 2019 budget. The minister, who was making a call on the GAF to work jointly with the Police to arrest the rising incidence of Land Guardism in the country stated that, the fear and panic created by these land guards, as well as the unjust and unlawful ways of depriving citizens of their property needs to be abolished. He stated that, I do not have to recount how innocent citizens have either been maimed or brutally murdered by some of these Land guards. I charge you to help rid our society of these miscreants so that law abiding citizens can live in peace. The competition which was aimed at mainly enabling the exchange of ideas, foster cooperation and promote healthy competition and esprit de corps within the ranks of the Armed Forces was held for three days. Participating teams were from the Army, Navy and Air Force who keenly competed in the M16 (Standard), M16 (Carbine), Pistol and Falling practices. Ghana Army emerged overall winners with a total of 2460 pts. Ghana Air Force came in second with 2434 pts and a total of 2093 pts was accumulated by Ghana Navy which came in third. She praised and congratulated Lil Win on his newly commissioned school, Great Minds International School located in Kumasi. With le boo @officiallilwin well done with the school sweetie God bless you, she said. But guess what? She cracked her fans up when she hilariously trolled him. On a lighter note, he is on his way to weed a huge farmland to make some money to come and marry mecould this be love? #BestCaption wins an early Christmas present from me, Joselyn Dumas added. This year, Joselyn Dumas launched a sickle cell campaign to create awareness about the disease in Ghana and across Africa. In October this year, she partnered Sickle Cell Awareness Initiative (SCAI) to embark on a health walk to create awareness for the disease. The walk, which is the brainchild of SCAI, sought to improve the health and well-being of persons living with sickle cell disease through education and advocacy. SCAI aims to significantly curb the mortality rate of sickle cell disease by developing an ongoing public education campaign that informs the public about the intricacies of the disease. She made this known while sharing her experience after a brief production tour of the headquarters of global media giant, BBC in London. The 2018 Ghana's best female newscaster award recipient described the tour as enlightening, detailing her observation of how news is produced, scripts are edited, through to the final stage of the broadcast to millions of viewers across the globe. She hoped the experience will also enhance her skills as an anchor. ece-auto-gen READ MORE:Sarkodie slammed for being a careless father (VIDEO)Sarkodie slammed for being a careless father (VIDEO) "I sat in their editorial meetings and went around the various departments and offices. I was basically part of the preproduction of the Focus on Africa program on the day I visited so I studied how stories are treated from the desk to being broadcast as final bulletin", she said. Reports say the polygamous manhad gone to the Apostolic church at Nkwo Orji in Owerri North area of the state to tie the knot with a second woman, but the pastor of the church declined to be a party to the event, let alone officiate it because the man was already married. Determined as he was, he proceeded to another church within the same area called the Altar of prayer Gospel ministries where its pastor accepted to officiate the marriage. However, hilariously, the grooms aggrieved first wife walked in with a bowl of red oil and poured it on the gorgeous looking bride, disfiguring her gown completely. A video circulating online shows the bribe making an attempt to retaliate, but was restrained by the groom. It is not clear yet if the marriage succeeded despite the disruption. 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! According to him, those who engaged in the protests have denigrated his name and brand. ece-auto-gen Menzgold has been in the news in recent times following the companys troubles with state regulatory bodies over its operations. Subsequently, there have been several protests by customers who have their monies locked up with the company. On Tuesday, there were fresh protests by aggrieved customers who marched through the principal street of Accra, starting from the Obra Spot and ending at the Accra Hearts of Oak Park. ece-auto-gen The demonstrators pleaded with the government to intervene to get Menzgold to refund their investments. Reacting to this, Nana Appiah Mensah said the protestors have fallen for misconceptions instead of remaining resolute. He further expressed disappointment at the actions of the customers, saying that have denigrated his name and brand. Instead of us being resolute, you've fallen for the misconceptions and further denigration of my name & the brand. We shall do the needful now. God knows we defended our collective cause. #Hail! Menzgold Global, the Menzgold CEO said in a Twitter post. 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. READ ALSO: Protesting Menzgold customers have denigrated my name and brand Nam 1Protesting Menzgold customers have denigrated my name and brand Nam 1 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. 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. He said processes are far advanced in achieving this key manifesto pledge of the New Patriotic Party. According to him, cabinet has already approved the commercial and financial agreement for the projects, which is now pending parliamentary approval. Oppong Nkrumah said this at the bi-weekly press briefing in Accra. The governments vision to transform Ghanas fishing industry is clearly stated in the NPPs 2016 manifesto, under Agriculture and Rural Development on pages 18 and 19. It includes a key pillar that says: Top of the agenda for fisheries will be the programme of building landing sites and storage facilities", he said. He also revealed that a total amount of $235 million has been earmarked for these projects situated in selected areas. He indicated that the fishing harbours and landing sites will be located in the following areas:READ ALSO: Oppong Nkrumah is confused - Okudzeto Ablakwa jabs ece-auto-gen Speaking to Metro TV's Paul Adom Otchere on 'Good Evening Ghana', the former First Lady said the failed coup on May 15, 1979, and the successful coup of June 4, 1979 were all planned by her husband and his military friends without her knowledge. She said, "He left home, came back with some of his military guys. They were doing something, I think fixing a table or something. I came home, it was one of those days I closed early and they wanted to eat so I fixed something for them and when they finished eating they said they will be back," Nana Konadu recalled. "My mum and his mum went and got some of these big-time lawyers and my position was it is not these big-time lawyers that can get them out of this trouble. It needs lawyers that had a conviction about what they are doing. The two mothers were angry with me because they said they had already got these two lawyers. I took my car and drove all the way to Legon." "I didn't find him so I waited at his door, sleeping inside my car till he came and I told him what I wanted. He said we need a senior person to lead us but he has no problem been part of it but we need a senior person who has the name and recognition." ece-auto-gen "So we drove all the way to Adabraka and then he said I should wait in the car he would go up and talk to the guy, all the time I didn't know who it was. He went up, spoke to him and came back and said the guy wants to see you. He is interested so let's go and when I went it was Adumua-Bossman," she added. According to him, the Akufo-Addo government must continue to stabilise the countrys electricity as it has done in the last two years. READ ALSO: The maverick legislator believes government must focus on fixing the problem, rather than laying blame on the erstwhile National Democratic Congress (NDC) government. To say it is a financial challenge, is no excuse. We have to solve the problem because it was part of our campaign promises, and weve been able to stabilize it for two years, so however we did it, we have to continue to sustain it. There is no excuse for us, Mr. Agyapong said on Adom TVs Badwam show. ece-auto-gen In recent weeks, residents in some parts of Accra and Kumasi have lamented the unannounced power outages in their areas. This has sparked concerns of a possible return to days of rationed power supply, popularly referred to as dumsor. Kennedy Agyapong said the NPP government must be sincere with Ghanaians and tell them the exact situation at hand. According to him, failure on the part of government to solve the power situation will be a big embarrassment for the NPP. READ ALSO: We have to be straightforward, honest and sincere to Ghanaians and tell them that this is the challenge, and we are going to solve it. My question is that, if you criticize NDC in 2016, as politicians and government, we have to line up all the failures of NDC and what we condemned, and take them one by one and solve them. That makes you a better government. But if you also come and the same problem you condemned to win election, you cant solve it, then even the technical people will even say politicians are not to be believed, the Assin Central MP added. Meanwhile the Energy Minister, John Peter Amewu has explained that the erratic supply of power is as a result of some financial challenges faced by the government. According to him, the government has been unable to reach an agreement with the West African Gas Pipeline Authority (WAGPA), concerning charges for the transfer of gas from the Western part of the country to the East. He said while the West African Gas Pipeline Company Limited (WAPCO) expected US$3.2 per MMBtu as tariff, the government was only willing to pay US$1 per MMBtu. Abubakar Bawa Bwari, Nigeria's minister of mining and steel development stated this at the 16th edition of the Mines and Money Conference in London on Tuesday, November 27, 2018. Bwari said the government had invested so many resources in the solid mineral sector in the last three and half years. In a statement seen by Business Insider Sub-Saharan Africa on the ministry's website, the senior official said the government has awarded N15 billion contract to five exploration companies for the exploration of priority minerals like gold, lead, zinc, iron ore and rare earth metals. The statement did not include the names of the mining companies. ece-auto-gen We have just awarded a N15 billion contract as part of our Integrated Exploration Programme to five exploration companies for the exploration of priority minerals like gold, lead, zinc, iron ore and rare earth metals. Delineated areas arising from these activities will be blocked and concessioned to interested mining investors, the statement reads. Meanwhile, in an interview with Reuters in London, Bwari said Nigeria had offered the mining companies a three to five year tax holiday, duty and tax-free importing of equipment, full ownership of their businesses and the ability to take profits out of the country. Two years ago, the government secured a $150 million in financing from the World Bank to support the development of the countrys mining sector as part of an economic diversification programme. While practices like the killing of twins in Nigeria are no longer as common as they used to be, certain rituals have refused to go away. Here are five crazy sexual traditions that are still practised in Africa: Sexual Cleansing This popular custom is practised in rural Malawi, Zambia, Kenya, and other African countries. Locally referred to as "Kusasa Fumbi," it involves a woman having unprotected sex with a man called a "hyena." This person could be a professional male sex worker, a selected future husband, a widow's brother-in-law or someone paid by the woman's family. It is carried out on three separate occasions - when a girl gets her first menstrual period when a married woman loses her husband, or after an abortion. The traditional custom is meant to help girls become good wives. ece-auto-gen Okujepisa Omukazendu treatment In an attempt to foster relationships and approval, a man gives his wife over to his guest for the night while he sleeps in another room or outside if there is no space. This practice is done by the Himba people, an indigenous, polygamous people who live in northern Namibia, the Kunene Region and the Kunene River in Angola. ALSO READ: Horrifying myths and legends from across Africa Virginity Testing Despite the several attempts by the South African government to outlaw this practice, virginity testing remains quite popular. Just as the name suggests, a young woman's virginity is tested by a qualified virginity tester who takes her into a secluded room where she lays down with her legs wide apart. ece-auto-gen The tester then proceeds to use her bare hands to open her private part in order to see if her hymen is intact. If everything checks out, the young woman gets a virginity certificate and only then is she allowed to participate in the Umhlanga or Reed Dance ceremony. It is an annual eight-day Zulu event that attracts loads of single ladies to participate in the event. The traditional attire worn includes beadwork, anklets, bracelets, necklaces, and colourful sashes. They dance bare-breasted for their king while carrying a long reed. ece-auto-gen Potency Test Carried out by the Banyankole tribe in Uganda is a practice similar to the virginity test. Unlike the latter carried out women, this is done before marriage on the groom. It requires an aunt of the bride to confirming the potency of the husband to be by actually having sex with him. The bride and groom are only allowed to consummate their marriage if he passes the test. ece-auto-gen The test might also include the aunts watching or listening as the newlyweds have sexual intercourse. Wife stealing This annual ritual is practised by the Wodaabe tribe of Niger. This ethnic group can be found in the northern parts of Nigeria, northeastern Cameroon, the western region of Central Africa Republic and southwestern Chad. Following the belief that women have the sexual power, they are allowed to have sexual activities with men other than her husband during a seven-day ceremony. During the duration of the event, the men disguise themselves with heavy makeup and peacock feathers as they strut their stuff in front of the women. They also put on a spectacular mating dance. ece-auto-gen Encomium reports that the Augustine University (AUI) in Epe, Lagos state is getting a new Engineering Faculty courtesy of the Forte Oil chairman, who is an indigene of the Local Government Area. The foundation for the building, worth N2 billion, was laid at a quiet ceremony on November 27, 2018. It was attended by the billionaire businessman, his mother, Lady Doja, and His Grace, Most Rev. Alfred Adewale Martins. Otedola took to his verified Twitter account to share pictures and a video of the event. Most Rev Martins is the Catholic archbishop of Lagos and the proprietor of the institution, which was approved on February 25, 2015. Aliko Dangote's humanitarian work While Otedola donated N2 billion to one institution, Africa's richest man has spent over the same amount on Nigeria's education system in 2018. According to the Managing Director and CEO of the Aliko Dangote Foundation, Zouera Youssoufou, education is a major priority for the continent's richest man. Through his philanthropy organisation, the businessman has contributed over N2.6 billion to various schools across the country. They include Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) hostel - N1 billion, University of Ibadan, School of Business - N300 million, and a N1.2 billion ultra-modern business school to Bayero University (BUK) in Kano. In spite of these contributions, the billionaire businessman has expressed his desire to do more, adding that he aspires to become the biggest philanthropist in Africa. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday slammed US its support for Saudi Arabia in the conflict in Yemen. The independent Vermont senator said it was time for the US to send a message to the world it will not "continue to support a catastrophic war led by a despotic regime that has a dangerous, destructive, and irresponsible" military policies. Related content Sanders, the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, is pushing for the Senate to adopt a resolution ending US support for Saudi Arabia in Yemen alongside Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy and Republican Sen. Mike Lee. Sanders in his remarks characterized the US's role in Yemen as "unconstitutional" given that Congress had not weighed in on the matter. He said Congress had long "abdicated" its responsibility regarding war powers as outlined in the US Constitution, saying it was time for this to change. Julian Assange reportedly gave away his beloved cat in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London so it wouldn't be trapped with him any more. Assange freed the feline known as "Embassy Cat" as its "isolation became unbearable," and to "allow it a healthier life," Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported on Tuesday. The WikiLeaks founder has been holed up in the embassy since August 2012 after being accused of rape in Sweden. He frequently posed with the cat and posted their photos to a dedicated Instagram page. In 2016 the cat played with American documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, who the account named "Meowchael Moore." The cat's freedom comes after the Ecuadorian embassy complained about Assange's living situation. It told him to clean up after the cat, called him unhygienic, and said that his skateboarding ruins their floors. It's not clear where the cat lives, or who it lives with now. The Ecuadorian embassy imposed new house rules on Assange in October, which included cat care, cleaning his own bathroom, and taking care of his personal hygiene. The WikiLeaks founder sued in response, saying that the new rules were "violating his fundamental rights and freedoms." A judges aid that Assange had to obey them. BusinessInsider In March, the embassy also temporarily cut off Assange's internet connection after breaching a commitment "not to issue messages that might interfere with other states." He had posted a tweet challenging the UK's accusation that Russia was responsible for the nerve agent poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal earlier that month, and the Ecuadorian embassy said the tweet risked damaging Ecuador's relationship with the UK and EU. The embassy reportedly restored the connection in October. The two-week long "Overseas Seminar on Chinese Language and Culture for Officials from Nepal" concluded in Nepal's capital Kathmandu on Tuesday. At least 127 participants including teachers and officials from different schools and colleges participated in the seminar sponsored by China's Ministry of Commerce. The seminar organized by Beijing International Chinese College was focused on sessions on China's history, Chinese language, culture and tradition, festivals, paper cutting and knot classes and Beijing opera among others. Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Yu Hong, Nepal's Speaker of Parliament Krishna Bahadur Mahara and representative from Ministry of Education attended the concluding ceremony. The Chinese ambassador said that such training will enable the people of two countries to share and transfer the knowledge and skills and it can help Nepali people to understand more about China. "Fifteen days is very short but it is a good start. I believe it has opened the window for everyone to know something about China, Chinese language and culture," the ambassador said. Addressing at the ceremony, Speaker Mahara appreciated the Chinese efforts and said that such seminar will highly contribute to the social transformation of the country. "Social transformation is the need of today, which can lead the country towards development. And education, in any form, is the major tool of transformation," Mahara said. He also took the occasion to mention that Belt and Road Initiative is very important for prosperity of Nepal and Nepali people. "The Belt and Road Initiative envisions economic growth along with social transformation, and we are very much determined for its implementation," Mahara added. "In this two-week long seminar, besides learning basic signs and language, we also got the knowledge about vast geography of China, vivid culture including intangible heritages and about Chinese advancement in modern technology. We enjoyed each session," Neera Pradhan, a participant teacher from Siddhartha Vanasthali Institute told Xinhua. According to the organizer, the seminar was first of its kind held at the local level in Nepal and it was a huge success. Provided with certificates, these participants thought each session was useful and helped them get closer with China. Shinsegae, a luxury department store, said air-fragrance sales increased 60% year-over-year in 2015, while ubiquitous cosmetics store Olive Young reported that sales of health products like candles and diffusers jumped 90% in the fall of 2017 compared with the previous autumn. That has hit South Korea's young adults particularly hard. It's also one of the best-educated groups of youngsters in the world. Nearly 70% of South Koreans aged 25 to 34 have a college degree or higher, compared with 40% of American adults. But that education hasn't helped their prospects. Youth unemployment recently hit a 19-year high. For the past five years, it's been around 10%, though the overall unemployment rate is 4.6%. College graduates spend an average of 10 months job seeking after graduation, according to a survey by South Korean HR firm Saramin. This group has been dubbed the "770,000 won generation" because of their low incomes. (The minimum monthly income for low-income workers is 880,000 won, or $800, but young South Koreans are making even less than that.) While most of the South Korean youth don't fear for shelter, food, or healthcare, there's a declining sense of hope among youngsters. Nearly half of young South Koreans said in a 2015 survey that they don't believe they'll do better than their parents, while only 29% expressed similar doubts in 2006. And eight out of 10 said they would like to emigrate out of South Korea. Unexpectedly, analysts say worsening economic prospects have fueled an interest in home fragrance. Youngsters are looking for affordable luxuries. Older South Korean millennials are driving the home-fragrance craze for a different reason The number of single-person households in South Korea increased from 23.9% in 2010 to 27.2% in 2015, Sim said. According to Statistics Korea, 38% of women aged 30 to 34 were single in 2015, compared to 29% five years ago. There's a unifying thought among these two sets of young South Koreans, despite their very different economic prospects: a shift from focusing on the future to thinking about the present. South Korean millennials have embraced YOLO, or "You Only Live Once" yes, the phrase first popularized in 2011 by the Canadian rapper Drake. According to Punch, the prosecuting counsel for the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, Kehinde Ayantoye alleged that the lecturer was caught on tape chanting incantations to derail the case. Ayantoye said this on Tuesday, November 26, 2018, when the Federal High Court in Osogbo turned down the bail application of the former lecturer. ece-auto-gen The court according to Punch rejected the application after the prosecuting counsel opposed the application. While opposing the application, the prosecutor reportedly told the court that Akindele might not attend the trial, adding that the professor refused to report to the ICPC office in Abuja, after he was granted an administrative bail to travel to America to attend to his health. He alleged that the sacked professor was caught on tape chanting incantations to derail the case. Justice Maureen Onyetenu in her ruling, however, said the allegations contained in the counter-affidavit were weighty and directed the prosecutor to produce in court on the next hearing date, the tape in which Akindele was caught allegedly chanting incantations, Punch Reports. Recall that the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) recently announced that it will arraign the former lecturer at the Federal High Court, Osogbo after he was accused of demanding sex from a post-graduate student, Monica Osagie in exchange for marks. The media personality made this known on her Instagram page on Tuesday, November 27, 2018, while celebrating the second year since the launch of her best selling book 'On Becoming.' "Its been 2 years since I launched my first book On Becoming by Toke Makinwa, 2 years since I put my pain to paper and shared my journey with the world. Its been such an incredible journey, it has sparked off so many conversations and ultimately there has been a lot of talk. Why did she air her dirt laundry? she tried to destroy her Ex, she monetized her pain, shes cold and deserved everything she went through. Ive been criticized by people who later went on the same journey and found out that this life is full of twists and turns. but theres also been victories won. "I have met so many women who found the courage to speak out because they read this book, I have heard of so many women who found their voice and found the brave in them to shame the culture of shame that we are faced with daily as women, I wont forget the email from a guy who was honest about how bad of a partner he had been and reading the book made him have a change of heart. I traveled the world, had an amazing tour and met so many people who I learnt from just by listening to them. Sometimes things happen not just for you but for the millions of lives that will learn from your struggle and your challenges and to those people I can tell you today I have no regrets, just blessings," she wrote. ece-auto-gen For the author, she has been able to build a brand for herself over the last few years and also declared that 2019 will be a better year for as she plans to tell another story bigger than her previous achievements. "I have gone on to become so much more, built a remarkable Bankable brand (still on it by his grace) and I have learnt to laugh at my self so much that what anyone has to say doesnt affect me. In 2019 youll read from me again. Theres another story waiting to be told, another journey to discover. I just really wish anyone who is holding themselves back from reaching their full potential wakes up today. I pray for clarity, I wish for strength for anyone on their journey to become and a light of hope that never fades in the face of adversity. Heres to becoming more, thank you for coming on this journey with me. TM. X," she concluded. ece-auto-gen Toke Makinwa, since the launch of her book two years ago, has received both positive and negative reactions. The truth is, the media personality has been able to handle such situations very well. "Oh Shut up" Toke Makinwa blast follower who slammed her over Michelle Obama's book comments ece-auto-gen Earlier in the year, Toke Makinwa shut down a follower on Instagram who tried to criticise her over her comments on Michelle Obama's book. Well, the gist is that Michele Obama, former first lady of the United States had announced on Twitter on Sunday, February 25, 2018, about the launch of her book "Becoming." A seemingly excited Toke Makinwa whose book "On Becoming" has a similar title was overjoyed about the news and went to praise Michelle Obama on her Instagram page for her book and the story she has to tell not forgetting to mention that their books both have similar titles. ece-auto-gen "Way to go MO!!!!! I wrote a book called On Becoming..., its the first of many as I am still on a journey to become! Shes written a book called Becoming. Everyone has a story to tell no matter who you are or where you are from. We are all traveling thru life and It is important to share your story. You never know who needs your strength to get thru their demons. "Everything thats happened to you, happened for you and the more you break the barriers of shame, accept the past and use it to shape who you become for the future; the more you rise. I cannot wait to read her own journey to becoming who she is now and I hope this further inspires anyone out there to live in their truth and shine thru each phase of their lives. #OnBecoming #Becoming #Powerofwords #tunnelvision #OnBecomingBold #Onbecomingmore," she wrote. ece-auto-gen Let's just say one of her followers on Instagram felt Toke Makinwa was making the news all about herself and sent her a not so friendly message "Girl this is not about you... Let make that clear... Lol," she wrote. Ok, guys, Toke Makinwa wasn't going to let this slide as she attacked the follower with really sharp words. "Oh shut up already! Her story is not mine but it's one of her journeys. What have you done with your life? Who's life have you made better with your own story?" she replied. ece-auto-gen Hillenburg died on Monday, November 26, 2018 but his death was announced by Nickelodeon television network on Tuesday, November 27, 2018. We are incredibly saddened by the news that Steve Hillenburg has passed away following a battle with ALS. He was a beloved friend and long-time creative partner to everyone at Nickelodeon, and our hearts go out to his entire family, the network said in a statement. ALSO READ: Spongebob on Netflix In 2017, Hillenburg opened up on his battle with neurodegenerative disease ALS, also known as Lou Gehrigs disease. Hillenburg, who was a marine biology teacher in Southern California, created sea creatures as teaching tools. ece-auto-gen His teaching tools were made into the zany cartoon marine underworld of Bikini Bottom which kicked off a new wave of cartoon series in television. The production has also been turned to a series of spin-off books, two Hollywood movies and a Broadway musical. SpongeBob SquarePants, features the cheerful yellow sea sponge, who lived in an underwater pineapple, and his friends Mr. Krabs, Larry the Lobster, Patrick, and their Krusty Krab restaurant hangout. Reports claim that Patience Oni had gone to the market situated around F. O. Filing Station in the Badagry area when she was hit by a stray bullet allegedly fired into the air by the officers who tried to scare people from preventing the evacuation of those bags of rice. According to Punch Metro, Patience was then taken to Badagry General Hospital where she battled for dear life. It was there she gave her phone to someone who called her husband, John Oni, 45, a police inspector. By the time he got there though, his wife had passed on. ALSO READ: Man shoots 15-feet long python that swallowed his dog John said, A good Samaritan, who was at the scene of the incident, called to inform me that my wife had been shot. When I rushed to the scene, I was told that she was still alive and that the Customs officers had rushed her to the Badagry General Hospital. I am yet to recover from the shock of not meeting her alive when I got to the hospital. I learned that the Customs officers were chasing after some smugglers carrying rice before they opened fire on some boys, who reportedly struggled with them. I was told that my wife was at the bus stop close to a filling station around the Badagry roundabout where she was hit by a stray bullet from the Customs officers guns. I want the government to help me fight for my right because my late wife was my helper. I have four children who are still in school, and I dont know how I will cope without her. My life is ruined. ece-auto-gen Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, CSP Chike Oti, confirmed the details of the event that, On Tuesday, November 20, 2018, around 1 pm, a team of Nigeria Customs Service officers attached to the Seme Border Command, led by DSC Abu Yusuf, while on Anti-Flying Operations at the Badagry roundabout by F.O. Filling Station along the Lagos/Badagry Expressway, allegedly fired indiscriminately in the area. Consequently, bullets hit two bystanders, identified as Patience Oni, 42, and Jimoh Aminu, 43. The injured victims were rushed to the Badagry General Hospital for treatment, where the former eventually died. The remains of the deceased were deposited in the hospitals morgue for autopsy. Meanwhile, the seven Customs officers have been arrested and handed over to homicide detectives at the State Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Department for a thorough investigation. Public Relations Officer, Seme Border Command, NCS, Saidu Abdullahi, said, The command regrets the accident; we pray that the soul of the deceased rest in peace and hopes that the family is granted fortitude to bear the loss. Based on the incident report, the officers were carrying out their statutory duty. They found out that there were over 120 bags of rice in a warehouse around F. O. Filling Station. So, the officers went there to evacuate the rice and in the process of moving the evacuated items back to the station, they were waylaid by a mob. In order to get out, they fired some shots in the air, which unfortunately resulted in the death of that woman. The officers were shooting in the air to scare the crowd so that they could move the items. The woman who died that day was just an unfortunate victim; we were later informed that the team took her to the hospital where she died. The deceaseds son, Liberty, said his mother was a pillar to the family and wants the Customs officers who killed his mother to be prosecuted. 38-year-old Ruth said Patiences death was untimely and wants justice to prevail in the matter. The trial ended before Justice Mohammed Idris, with Ladoja mounting the witness box to give evidence in his trial. He was re-arraigned along with Akanbi, his former Commissioner for Finance, on 11-count charge of money laundering and unlawful conversion of public funds. They had 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 had 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, Ladoja denied authorizing 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. 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, Mr 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 Jan. 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. 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. Ladoja was accused of removing 600,000 pounds from the state coffers in 2007 and sent 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 armoured Land Cruiser. The EFCC added that 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. This was contained in a statement issued by the Army headquarters on Facebook on Tuesday, November 27, 2018. Army slams SaharaReporters The Army authorities also reacted to a report published by online media platform, SaharaReporters. According to its statement the media platform had reported that the bodies of the men killed in the recent Boko Haram attack have not been evacuated. The Nigerian Army denied the report, describing it as fake news and a smear campaign. Read the complete statement below: The attention of the Nigerian Army (NA) has once again been drawn to another false publication by an online newspaper (Sahara Reporters), alleging that the bodies of our gallant soldiers and members of Civilian Joint Task Force who lost their lives in the unfortunate Metele Attack are yet to be evacuated. The general public is to please note that the information is despicably false and a calculated attempt to spread fake news aimed at discrediting and undermining the NA in the discharge of its constitutional roles. For the avoidance of doubt, immediately after the attack, reinforcement was sent to the location. Thereafter, a special search and rescue team led by a senior military officer was constituted and equally despatched. The team worked tirelessly, searching all the nooks and crannies of the general area and have evacuated all the gallant troops that paid the supreme price in defence of their fatherland. It is sad to note that in a bid to be seen as first to break news, some media houses have discarded the ethics of their noble profession through the hasty publication of unverified information. The NA would once again reiterate the need for correct and balanced reportage especially when reporting issues regarding military operations. Furthermore, all print and electronic (online) newspapers as well as social media forums and blogs are advised to double check their information before publishing. ALSO READ: This is because publishing false, sensational news is inimical to national security and could also cause panic, bitterness and disunity among the citizenry. You are please requested to note this and disseminate same using your various media channels. Thank you. According to Vanguard, Brigadier General Sani Kukasheka Usman said that the sect now has foreigners among its ranks. The Army also thanked Nigerians for their messages of solidarity and support. Read complete statement below: In continuation with our resolve to keep Nigerians well informed of the activities of the Nigerian Army, I will be briefing you on the recent happenings in the North East of Nigeria. In the recent weeks, Nigerian troops deployed in the North East of Nigeria under Operation Lafiya Dole have come under series of attacks by large numbers of Boko Haram Terrorists.Specifically, the Nigerian Army troops deployed at Kukawa, Ngoshe, Kareto and Gajiram came under attack at different times within a 2 week period from 2 17th November 2018. Each of these incidents were successfully repelled and several members of the terrorists were killed. Casualties of recent attacks However, a total of 16 personnel were killed in the course of these attacks while 12 soldiers were wounded in action and are receiving treatment at our military medical facilities. As you are all aware, Nigeria is contributing troops to the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) which has its headquarters in Ndjamena, in the Republic of Chad. One of the Nigerian battalions (157 TF Bn), deployed under the auspices of the MNJTF was attacked at their Base on the outskirts of a town called Metele on 18th November 2018. During the attack, the troops were forced to withdraw and several casualties were recorded. As at date 23 personnel were killed in action and 31 personnel were wounded in action and have been evacuated to several medical hospitals within Borno State. The Nigerian Army commiserates with the MNJTF at this difficult time and wishes to state that all necessary support will be rendered to the MNJTF to reverse this resurgence of the Boko Haram Terrorists. The Nigerian Army wishes to further commiserate with the families of the gallant officers and soldiers that paid the supreme price in the course of defending their fatherland. The sacrifices of these fallen heroes will not be in vain. We also wish all those wounded in action speedy recovery and assure them of our continued support and care. ece-auto-gen Chief of staff conference The incident of 18th November 2018, happened at a time when the Nigerian Army was planning to hold the Chief of Army Staff Annual Conference for 2018 in Benin City, Edo State. On account of this incident, the Conference had to be moved from Benin City to Maiduguri to enable the Nigerian Army leadership get closer to the troops on the ground and to better appraise our activities, assess our performance and identify our shortcomings as an Army. We are also sensitive to the fact that the nation is approaching an election year and thus we must be prepared to assist in providing security for the peaceful conduct of elections. Accordingly, the theme for this years annual conference is aptly titled, Optimizing the Operational Efficiency of the Nigerian Army Towards Safeguarding Democracy and National Security in Nigeria. Let me at this juncture assure all Nigerians and indeed the international community that the NA will work optimally, in conjunction with other security agencies to provide a secure environment for peace and unity in Nigeria. Review of operations Since 2015, the Nigerian Army in conjunction with sister services and other security agencies have systematically degraded the capabilities and capacity of Boko Haram terrorists and many successes were achieved. However, in the last 2 3 months, we have noticed daring moves by the terrorists, increased use of drones against our defensive positions and infusion of foreign fighters in their ranks. These potent threats require us to continually review our operations. At this point permit me to implore all of us to spare a thought for the brave men and women of the Nigerian Army who paid the supreme price for the security of Nigeria. The Nigerian Army will continue to support the families of these brave officers and soldiers and pray that their souls rest in perfect peace. Let us also not forget the men, women and children who have been killed or affected by the atrocities of the terrorists. It is for their sake that this war against terror must be won. Gratitude The Nigerian Army wishes to express its gratitude to the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari (GCFR) who has visited the troops including some of the wounded officers and soldiers in the hospitals. We also thank His Excellency the Executive Governor and good people of Borno State who have taken the brunt of the nefarious activities of the Boko Haram terrorists. Our gratitude also goes to the Honourable Minister of Defence, the Chief of Defence Staff and the Service Chiefs, who have all shown concern and visited the troops. The Nigerian Army also thanks all patriotic and concerned Nigerians who have sent in messages of goodwill and support for the Nigerian Army. Finally, the Nigerian Army, wishes to reiterate and pledge its total commitment to the defence of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. A new film about anti-corruption efforts in Hong Kong, "Integrity," which includes A-list actors Lau Ching-Wan and Nick Cheung, is soon due out in February. Director Alan Mak, promoting his new film in Beijing, explained to the media why he chose to tackle the subject of corruption. "In 2003, ICAC dealt with a case of illicit cigarette trade, which caused quite a stir in Hong Kong. From then on, I hoped I could shoot a film around smuggling. However, ICAC, the Independent Commission against Corruption, is a relatively closed-door department, so ordinary citizens don't understand how it operates. A chance came to me two years ago thanks to a cooperation program with them. This is when I began to learn more about it," said Mak. Chinese movie goers will be able to see co-stars Lau Ching-Wan and Nick Cheung in collaboration once again following their film "The White Storm" which came out five years ago. The insurgents made the threat following an attack they carried out on farmers in the region On Monday, November 26, 2018. According to a report by AFP, four people were killed while one was severely injured after Monday's attack. One of the survivors of the attack, Mala Umara, disclosed that the insurgents came in large numbers. He added that while sparing him, the insurgents instructed him to tell the Nigerian Army to prepare for another attack. "They asked me to deliver a message to the soldiers that they should be prepared for an attack soon. They told me the same message three times and emphasized I convey it to the soldiers," he told AFP The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Buhari is visiting the state to attend the 2018 Chief of Army Staff (COAS) annual conference in Maiduguri. Earlier reports also indicated that the president may use the opportunity of the visit to meet troops fighting the Boko Haram insurgents. Alhaji Muhammad Bulama, the Commissioner for Home Affairs, Information and Culture, asked the people to turn out in large number, in a statement issued in Maiduguri. Bulama said that the president would visit the Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Abubakar Garbai El-kanemi and also inaugurate the armys annual conference. On behalf of Gov. ; I have the pleasure to announce that President Muhammadu Buhari, is paying a one-day official visit to Borno State tomorrow, Bulama said. The president is specifically visiting Maiduguri to declare open the Chief of Army Staff Annual Conference which was originally slated for Benin, Edo State. On arrival; the president will proceed to the palace of Shehu of Borno to pay courtesy visit and thereafter proceed to the venue of the conference. Mr. President is expected to head back to the Maiduguri International Airport en route to Abuja. Bulama called on the people, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), clubs and associations, civil servants, labour unions, academics, students, traders, APC members and supporters of the president to troop out en masse and line up the streets to welcome the president. The president was received by Borno governor, Kashim Shettima, at the Maiduguri International Airport on Wednesday, November 28, 2018. The conference was initially scheduled to take place in Edo State on Monday, November 26, but was moved to Maiduguri. The move is believed to have been in reaction to the recent killing of over 100 soldiers when terrorists overran the 157 Task Force Battalion in Metele village in Guzamala local government area of Bornoduring an attack on November 18. Buhari gave the order while declaring open the 2018 Chief of Army Staff Annual Conference. President Buhari said: It is a must win war. I want to encourage our troops not to be distracted by speculations but remain focused and committed to the task of eliminating Boko Haram from the surface of the earth. He assured the military that his administration would continue to address their needs in terms of manpower development and equipment supply, promising that their welfare and entitlements will also be improved. I want to reassure you that as your Commander-In-Chief, I will do everything within my power to continue empowering you by providing all the necessary equipment, force multipliers and enablers required for you to prevail on the field. I also want you to be aware that I am currently looking into measures to improve your entitlements and welfare generally, he added. The President commended the efforts and sacrifices of the military in safeguarding the peace, security and territorial integrity of the country. According to him, the officers and men who are fighting against the curse of terrorism in the North East deserve all the attention the countrys leadership can give them. As President of the country, I am determined to ensure that every citizen feels safe and secure in all parts of the country. To achieve this, the security agencies must rise to the challenge and curb threats to security in our country, he added. President Buhari called on the armed forces to embrace the wind of change that is blowing across the country, urging more cooperation at inter-service and inter-agency levels. To this end, the Chief of Defence Staff and Service Chiefs must work closely together as well as with other security agencies to improve on strategies that will defeat terrorism, militancy and other forms of criminal activities in our country. The President, who also addressed officers and men of the Nigerian Army at the Maimalari Barrack, headquarters of Operation Lafiya-Dole, said he shared in the agony of loss of gallant soldiers. I have come to pay homage to the gallant soldiers lost by the nation and to console the injured ones in recent terrorist attacks. I urge you to remain focused and win the war, the President said. He also commended Nigerian Armys commitment to upholding democracy and urged them to remain committed to their profession. He said: As we approach the 2019 General Elections, I want to urge all members of the Armed Forces to live up to their responsibilities and remain non-partisan. In addition, you must all remain vigilant throughout the electioneering period and alongside other security agencies, prevent every form of violence that could disrupt the process in line with your Rules of Engagement. President Buhari urged the soldiers, who were on parade, to always show disciplined conduct. According to the president, no matter how equipped the military is, the military is of no use if it doesnt have discipline. He, therefore, urged them to uphold the tenets of the constitution and ensure tight security to protect lives and property. In his statement at the conference, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai said internal security had greatly improved from what it was in 2015 when President Buhari assumed office. Buratai said a new proactive strategy would be put in place to counter the recent military losses. He said the army remains neutral and non-partisan and would carry out its constitutional duty of safeguarding the nations democracy. The Minister of Defence, Brig. Gen. Mansur Dan Ali (rtd) assured the President that the military was putting in place new strategies to stabilize the country. President Buhari asked for a minutes silence in memory of the gallant soldiers and before his departure, he went round the wards to visit wounded soldiers in the hospital within the army barracks. He gave assurances that the soldiers would be taken care of. At the Palace of Shehu of Borno, Abubakar Ibn Umar Garbai El-Kanemi, President Buhari said his administration would do everything to secure the country. He commiserated with all Nigerians who lost loved ones following recent setbacks in the fight against terrorists. We have to remind ourselves where we were and where we are now and what happened in between. The people of Borno State know what we did in the last three years. The situation would have been worse, he said. President Buhari also expressed his determination to change the unemployment situation of youths in the country. He pointed out that Jobs for the young persons, especially those who are 30 and below in Borno State and across the federation continue to engage our attention. We go to bed with it and wake up with it. Mr Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, in a statement in Abuja, said the meeting of the Heads of State and Government of the LCBC would take place in NDjamena, Chad, on Thursday. The MNJTF and the national operations of the affected countries have appreciably degraded the capacity of Boko Haram terrorists, although the insurgents still retain the capacity to attack isolated targets in desperate search for supplies. According to the statement, the one-day meeting will review the security situation in the areas affected by Boko Haram insurgency. He said it would also adopt measures to enhance the capacity of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) to meet the challenges of securing the areas. The presidents of the LCBC member countries of Chad, Cameroon, Niger, and the Central African Republic have been invited to attend the meeting. The President of Benin Republic, a troops-contributing country, has also been invited to attend. The MNJTF and the national operations of the affected countries have appreciably degraded the capacity of Boko Haram terrorists, although the insurgents still retain the capacity to attack isolated targets in desperate search for supplies, the statement added. NAN reports that the UN says millions of people in Africas Lake Chad region (north-east Nigeria and parts of Niger, Chad and Cameroon) are facing a profound and protracted crisis driven by extreme poverty, climate change and violent conflict. The crisis, the world body added, has led to the internal displacement of 2.4 million people, the destruction of livelihoods, human rights abuses, and the disruption of health, education and other basic services. More than 10 million vulnerable people need life-saving assistance and protection today. Women and children are particularly hard hit. NAN reports that in February 2017, a conference on the Lake Chad region co-hosted by Germany, Nigeria, Norway, and the United Nations took place in Oslo. Donors pledged 672 million dollars to emergency assistance and support in 2017 and beyond. The humanitarian response was scaled up significantly: more than six million people were reached with assistance in 2017, and a famine was averted in north-east Nigeria. The president had earlier arrived in the Borno State capital to declare open the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Annual Conference. The conference had been moved from its initial location of Benin, Edo State, in light of the recent killing of over 100 soldiers when terrorists overran the 157 Task Force Battalion in Metele village in Guzamala local government area of Bornoduring an attack on November 18. The president visited the injured troops after addressing soldiers at the battlefields to further boost their morale in the fight against terrorist group, Boko Haram, in the northeast region. The president took to his Twitter account to commend troops fighting to keep the country safe. "Today in Maiduguri I visited our wounded troops. Across the Northeast we have officers and men fighting bravely and tirelessly to keep our country safe from terrorism and violence. I salute their sacrifice on our behalf. And may the souls of the fallen rest in peace," he posted. While speaking earlier at the conference, the president noted that the officers and soldiers who are 'fighting against the curse of terrorism in the northeast' deserve all the attention that the nation's leadership can demonstrate. He said security remains one of the cardinal objectives of his administration and promised that no effort will be spared to support troops, including reviewing their welfare package. "I want to assure you that, as your commander in chief, I will do everything within my powers to continue empowering you by providing all the necessary equipment for you to prevail on the field. "I also want you to be aware that I'm currently looking into measures to improve your entitlements and welfare generally," he said. While concluding his speech on Wednesday, the president urged troops to not be distracted by any speculations and focus on finishing off the terrorist group. While speaking at the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Annual Conference in Maiduguri, Borno State on Wednesday, November 28, 2018, the Army chief said no Army in the world can possibly have enough equipment to conduct its operations. Therefore, he said the military leaders must be dynamic in the prosecution of the war against terrorists and minimise casualties of troops. He said, "I must also add that no Army can ever have enough equipment to conduct its operations; hence, it is incumbent on all commanders and senior leaders of the Nigerian Army to recognise that we're involved in asymmetry warfare which calls for dynamism and flexibility if we're to succeed with minimal casualties. "Therefore, commanders are to ensure that they show leadership at all times and continuously adapt with changing situations in order to surmount adversity in the conduct of operations." Buratai's comment comes on the heel of the recent killing of over 100 soldiers which occured when terrorists overran the 157 Task Force Battalion in Metele village in Guzamala local government area of Bornoduring an attack on November 18. In the wake of the attack, several soldiers have complained about the lack of proper equipment to fight the terrorists who have made several attempts to overrun army bases. A soldier told Premium Times, "We are being killed on daily basis as if our lives don't matter. Of course as soldiers we signed to lay down our lives in defence of this country, but certainly not in the manner we are being presented for slaughter without dignity. A soldier should die fitting and not being chased or overpowered. "Our morale has been dampened so badly - not only because we are not given our due allowances; but for the fact that we have been outgunned by the Boko Haram. "The situation has gone so bad that it has gotten to a stage that soldiers would be rushing to pack up their camps and flee upon hearing the news that Boko Haram fighters are advancing. "We have suddenly lost our spirit of launching attacks because of lack of resources to prosecute the battle. Many of us are ready to do our best, but there has been no requisite support from those sending us out there." The attack has fueled speculations about the nation's defence spending as the opposition has accused the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali, of diverting the funds meant to arm the military to President Muhammadu Buhari's re-election campaign. Army changing strategies against Boko Haram ece-auto-gen During his address on Wednesday, Buratai also revealed that the Army is reorganising to align with some current realities in the war against the terrorist group. "It is my belief that the Nigerian Army must start to plan and strategise on how to end the operations in the northeast. "To this end, I have directed for a change from a wholly defensive posture to one where we defend in numbers and conduct offensive operations in smaller packets to simultaneously in different fronts," he said. He also revealed that in-theater training for troops in the frontlines has been expanded to help troops operate and conduct effective operations. Speaking in Asaba when he played host to participants of Course 41 of the Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Jaji, Okowa said the call has become necessary due to the environmental pollution caused by gas flaring. "If you go to where gas is flared, which is still very common, you will understand why we need to be more serious about taking decisions as to stop the flaring," the governor began. "Stopping gas flaring will be so much better for our people because the flared gas in itself has already destroyed the environment, not just the natural habitat in terms of farming, it has also polluted very badly the air that we breathe and only God knows the level of damage that it has caused. We believe that the laws must be implemented in such a manner that gas flaring will not just be tied to fines because, as long as fines exists, oil companies will begin to realise that it may be cheaper or easier to pay the fines than to stop the flare of gas, then, we obviously are not discouraging them. "I am aware that a lot has been done in the last few years but, there is a lot more that can be done because, the gas that we flare can generate a lot of income for the oil companies if only it can be properly utilized. We must stay on our laws and ensure that we do what is right and stop tying the issue of gas flaring to fines because, the continuing tying of gas flaring to fines is injurious to our people and our environment," he admonished. The governor decried the attitude of some of the oil companies to their nonchalant attitude to the effect of gas exploration activities on the environment Earlier, leader of the team, Felix Edafioghor, told the governor and members of the state executive council that they were in the state for an environmental study tour as part of the fulfilment of their training programme. Following the pandemonium that happened at the assembly complex on Tuesday, November 27, 2018, the governor stressed that democracy in the state is being threatened. 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 complexand stopped the lawmakers from sitting. Referring to Akpabio, who served as commissioner before becoming governor then senator, Gov Udom wrote on his Twitter handle , "The mastermind of this crisis include people that this state gave the opportunity to become what they never dreamt they could become. People that other people gave the opportunity to become a commissioner for 6 years & a Governor for 8 years, making it 14 years. "I want to let the world know that Nigerians fought & gave their lives in this country for us to enjoy the democracy we currently have today, but due to the ambition of selfish people, our democracy is being threatened in #AkwaIbom State." In response, Senator Akpabio has dismissed the accusation, stressing that the governor's "brazen act of lawlessness" was responsible for the crisis. The lawmaker, in a statement released by his spokesperson, Anietie Ekong, said the governor is the major sponsor of the crisis. The statement read, "In his desperation to shop for who to blame and pass the buck, Governor Udom Emmanuel has blamed the security agencies in the State, and Senator Akpabio has only become his latest victim; How can a state Governor accuse Senator Akpabio of being the brain behind the crisis, and at the same time declared that the police should be held responsible for any breakdown of law and order in the state and not any other person? Does it add up? It is on record that the Governor personally led his security aides and thugs to the House of Assembly and supervised the manhandling of some members of the House of Assembly who were performing their constitutional duties. The brazen act of lawlessness by the Governor is responsible for the crisis. In justifying this meddlesomeness and interference in the functions of a separate arm of government, the Commissioner for Information of Akwa Ibom State, Mr Charles Udoh said he went to the House of Assembly as the Chief Security Officer of the State! It is instructive that Senator Akpabio was never at the scene of the fracas, neither has anyone any evidence of his involvement, except the oft-repeated strategy of blaming anything that is wrong in the State on Senator Akpabio. This was disclosed by the Chief of Training and Operations of the Nigerian Army, Major-General Lamidi Adeosun, at the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Annual Conference in Maiduguri, Borno State on Wednesday, November 28, 2018. While speaking at the conference, with the theme "Optimising operational efficiency of the Army in Nigeria's democracy", Adeosun said the rehabilitation programme is part of the military's "Operation Safe Corridor" which was launched in 2016 to encourage terrorists to surrender. He said, "In the year 2016, about July, the Defence Headquarters launched Operation Safe Corridor to encourage repentant fighters to surrender for subsequent rehabilitation. "Over 2000 fighters have so far surrendered on this programme and out of which about 300 have undergone a comprehensive and complete rehabilitation. "They've all been equipped and returned to their respective communities through their respective state governments." Last week, Coordinator of Operation Safe Corridor, Maj.-Gen. Bamidele Shafa, disclosed that 155 ex-Boko Haram militants were set to be reintegrated into the society. He revealed that they were cleared after undergoing rehabilitation under the Deradicalisation, Rehabilitation and Reintegration (DRR) programme. The Gombe Camp Commandant, Colonel Beyidi Martins, revealed that the programme has been supported by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) using funding from the United States government and other European countries. 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. The governors directive is sequel to the killing of one Miss Elozino Ogege, a 300 level student of Mass Communication department, Delta State University, Abraka, who was brutally murdered by suspected ritualists "masquerading" as 'Yahoo boys'. In a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Charles Aniagwu, the Governor expressed his heartfelt condolences to the family, the Isoko nation and the University community over the unfortunate death of Miss Ogege. ece-auto-gen He commended the Police for its investigation into the matter while assuring the family that justice would be served. On behalf of the government and people of Delta State, it is with a heavy heart that I write to express our profound commiserations to the family of Miss Elozino Ogege, the Isoko nation, her friends, both within and outside the University community," the statement said. "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." Okowa noted with serious concern the increasing activities of suspected ritual killers and criminally minded individuals, "whose obtrusive and flamboyant escapades are becoming more conspicuous". "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 asistting 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 appreciated the solidarity exhibited by Deltans and Nigerians in condemning the bizarre act and urged security agencies in the state and country to commence a massive crackdown on these criminal elements veneering as Yahoo Boys'. Asinim Butswat, the spokesman for the Command, told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Yenagoa that the sergeant would soon be arraigned. NAN recalls that the incident happened during a police raid and detention of residents by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Command. The detained residents were later screened and freed by the police following intervention by their relatives. The Bayelsa State Police Command regrets the unfortunate incident involving a police officer and a resident of Tenacious Road, Edepie, Yenagoa. Sgt. Timadi Emmanuel attached to a patrol team of Akenfa Division, while on patrol at Tenacious Road, Edepie, under questionable circumstances shot one Tariela Nikade, male, aged 20. PROTOCOLS: 2. However I can see that so many of the very senior officers in the Army, both serving and retired are here. In view of recent tragedies, I commend the decision of the leadership of the Nigerian Army in moving the venue of this conference to Maiduguri. 3. The officers and soldiers who are fighting against the curse of terrorism in the North East deserve all the attention our countrys leadership can demonstrate to them. 4. As President of the country, I am determined to ensure that every citizen feels safe and secure in all parts of the country. To achieve this, the security agencies must rise to the challenge and curb threats to security in our country. 5. The Armed Forces play a critical role in safeguarding the country, hence you must all ensure that your plans and programmes meet the challenges we face. 6. To this end, I am glad that this conference is holding at this time, because it serves as a platform to assess and evaluate your performance for the Year 2018. 7. One of the cardinal objectives of this government is security. In this regard, the Nigerian Armys efforts have led to the dislodgement of insurgents from areas hitherto viewed as their strongholds, rescue of abducted persons, return of Internally Displaced Persons and the gradual return to normalcy in the North East. 8. The effort of the military has also stabilized the security situation in the Niger Delta and other parts of the country and curtailed the clashes between herdsmen and farmers. 9. I must commend the selfless sacrifices of our Armed Forces, especially the heroic officers and soldiers of the Nigerian Army who by virtue of their commitment to operations all over the country have brought about the desired peace. 10. There has been a remarkable improvement in the security situation in the North East since 2015 when this administration came into government and you are a major part of the successes that have been achieved. 11. I am of course aware that in the recent months and in recent days, there have been some operational losses in the Northern part of Borno State, particularly in Jilli, Arege and Metele. 12. I know that you are doing your best to reverse this trend and I want to assure you that no effort will be spared in providing the necessary support you require to complete the task. We remain committed to ending the crisis in the North East and making the entire area safe for all. I urge you all to keep up the good work. 13. I am also painfully aware that some gallant officers and soldiers have paid the supreme price in the course of these anti-terrorist operations. While we remember them and mourn with their loved ones, I must also convey the deep gratitude of the Government and people of Nigeria to the late soldiers and their families for their heroic sacrifices. Our thoughts and prayers are also with all other victims of Boko Harams atrocities and their families. 14. I will be visiting some of our injured troops in hospitals and also talk to others at their bases to assure them of our continued support. It is a must win war. I want to encourage our troops not to be distracted by whatever speculations but to remain focused and committed to the task of eliminating Boko Haram from the face of the earth. 15. The Nigerian Armys commitment to upholding democracy isappropriately captured in the theme of the conference which is Optimizing theOperational Efficiency of the Nigerian Army Towards Safeguarding Democracy and National Security in Nigeria. 16. As we approach the 2019 General Elections, I want to urge all members of the Armed Forces to live up to their responsibilities and remain non-partisan. In addition, you must all remain vigilant throughout the electioneering period and alongside other security agencies, prevent every form of violence that could disrupt the process in line with your Rules of Engagement. 17. The Nigerian Army has enriched her corporate identity, organizational commitment and responsiveness. I also wish to acknowledge the drastic reduction in Human Rights allegations against the Nigerian Army. 18. I urge you to continue to ensure that all troops remain committed to the observance of all International Human Rights Laws and Laws of Armed Conflict. 19. Let me also commend you all for the professional manner with which the Nigerian Army in collaboration with other security agencies unravelled the perpetrators involved in the disappearance of late Major General Idris Alkali. This attests to the capabilities that exist in our security apparatus. I want to assure you that the perpetrators will be brought to book. May his gentle soul and the souls of our departed gallant troops rest in perfect peace (Amin). 20. I want to reassure you that as your Commander-In-Chief, I will do everything within my powers to continue empowering you by providing all the necessary equipment, force multipliers and enablers required for you to prevail on the field. I also want you to be aware that I am currently looking into measures to improve your entitlements and welfare generally. 21. Let me remind the audience that the cardinal objectives of this administration remain the entrenchment of security, restructuring the economy and the fight against corruption, to ensure a steady, sustainable and inclusive economic growth. 22. In addition, our commitment to entrenching purposeful and accountable leadership remains firm because it is the base on which peace, security and national development would be built. 23. I, therefore, wish to reiterate that leaders of all strata of society including our Armed Forces must embrace the wind of CHANGE that is blowing across the country for good. There must be cooperation at inter-Service and inter-agency levels. 24. To this end, the Chief of Defence Staff and Service Chiefs must work closely together as well as with other security agencies to improve on strategies that will defeat terrorism, militancy and other forms of criminal activities in our country. 25. As you appraise your activities for the Year 2018, concentrate on the contemporary security challenges facing our nation and proffer ways of surmounting the challenges. I am convinced that this conference will re-new the vigour and dedication for which the Nigerian Army is known. 26. I have gone through the Conference Programme and it is my belief that the conference will be worthwhile if your deliberations generate new strategies that would strengthen the stability of the country. On this note, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to formally declare the Chief of Army Staffs Annual Conference 2018 open. The president made this charge while speaking at the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Annual Conference in Maiduguri, Borno State on Wednesday, November 28, 2018. The president noted that the officers and soldiers who are 'fighting against the curse of terrorism in the northeast' deserve all the attention that the nation's leadership can demonstrate. Noting that the Armed Forces play a critical role in safeguarding the country, he charged the military's leadership to ensure that their plans and programmes meet the nation's security challenges. "As president of the country, I'm determined to ensure that every citizen feels safe and secure in all parts of the country," he said. While acknowledging the Army's recent operational losses to Boko Haram with over 100 soldiers reported to be dead, the president said the Army must remain committed to defeating the terrorist group. He said, "In the recent months and recent days, there have been some operational losses in the northern part of Borno, particularly in Jilli, Arege and Metele. "I know that you're doing your best to reverse this trend and I want to assure you that no effort will be spared in providing the necessary support you require to complete the task. "We remain committed to ending the crisis in the northeast and making the area safe for all. I urge you all to keep up the good work. "I'm also painfully aware that some gallant officers and soldiers have paid the supreme price in the course of these anti-terrorist operations. "While we remember them, I must also convey the deep gratitude of the government and people of Nigeria to the late soldiers and their families for their heroic sacrifices. "Our thoughts and prayers are also with all other victims of Boko Haram's atrocities and their families." The president said security remains one of the cardinal objectives of his administration and promised that no effort will be spared to support troops, including reviewing their welfare package. Even though President Buhari declared in 2015 that Boko Haram had been technically defeated, the group has carried out several deadly attacks since then, with an increase in the number of attacks on troops happening in 2018. While concluding his speech on Wednesday, the president urged troops to not be distracted by any speculations and focus on finishing off the terrorist group. This followed a motion by Sen. Dino Melaye (PDP-Kogi) at plenary on Wednesday. Melaye alleged that the state was seeking the loan from East West Capital Corporation, based in United Arab Emirates as the company, owned by one Mahmood. Melaye, in the motion, alleged that approval for the 500 million dollar had already been given by the Ministry of Finance in contravention of the provisions of the law. Melaye further said that besides not seeking national assembly approval, he had it on good authority that the State Government was going for the loan for the 2019 elections and not for projects. The Kogi government has approached East West Capital Corporation, based in the UAE, to get a loan of 500 million dollars. That is about N186 billion. Already, the state government has borrowed about N40 billion since it came on board in 2016. The law clearly states that any foreign loan must be approved by the National Assembly. That was not done. I am aware that the Minister of Finance has already given the approval. The Senate cannot sit back and allow this illegality to stand. The Senate needs to stop this, he said. He asked the upper chamber to take steps to prevent the state from taking the loan in the interest of the people. He urged the Senate to set up an ad-hoc committee to investigate the planned loan to save the people of Kogi State.Supporting the motion, Sen. Atai Idoko(PDP-Kogi) decried alleged mismanagement of resources in the state. He further alleged that the Deputy Governor of the state, Mr. Simon Achuba, had not been paid salary in the last one year by the state government. He also said that electricity supply to the official residence of the deputy governor had been disconnected by the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), due to unpaid charges. The lawmaker further disclosed that the State House of Assembly had adjourned indefinitely for failure of the state government to pay salaries and allowances of state lawmakers. He noted that civil servants as well as judicial officers in the state had not been paid in the last one year. The lawmaker added that judicial officers were already planning to embark on a state-wide industrial action. Aidoko said approving such a loan would create more problem for the state and should not be allowed. I want to bring to the notice of the Senate of some things going wrong in Kogi State. As I speak, the Deputy Governor is broke. Again, the official residence of the Deputy Governor has been thrown into darkness as the State Government has refused to pay the electricity bill of the residence. On Tuesday, the State House of Assembly adjourned sine die. Members said they have not been paid their salaries and allowances in the last few months by the State Government. As I speak, only one arm of government is operating in Kogi State. This is the situation on ground. If the State Government has not been able to justify all the monies it has received in form of allocations, Paris Club refund, bailouts and loans, why will it go for another foreign loan of 500 million dollar. Let us save our state, he said. During his remark at the inauguration ceremony of Gboyega Oyetola as Osun state governor, the former Lagos governor stressed that the PDP has nothing to show for its 16 years in power. He said, "Nigeria must never be allowed to go back to the corruption, greed and selfishness that have held back our progress. No shaking and no going back to the old foxes, old scavengers and old greed of this country. Look back at their years in government and find out if they laid any good foundation. They didn't, except the personalisation theory of greed. "There is no going back in the resolve to return President Muhammadu Buhari for another term in office." He congratulated the former governor of Osun, Rauf Aregbesola, for handing over power to a progressive administration. Tinubu assured the new governor that his administration would be supported by progressives in all parts of the country. Most of Edo has seen little or no electricity in recent times. When Pulse visited Benin, the Edo State capital recently, residents complained of experiencing blackouts for months. The mild drama in Edo Government House BEDC boss Osibodu was visiting Governor Obaseki alongside members of the Federal House of Representatives Committee on Power recently, when the governor handed her the marching order. A statement from the Edo state government said Osibodu was asked to leave the governors office for failing to meet obligations to electricity consumers in Edo and throwing the state into darkness for weeks. The statement added that the governor was surprised to see the BEDC boss among the visiting lawmakers, as her name was not on the original list of expected guests. Once he knew she was in the building and part of the delegation, Obaseki simply lost it and asked her to walk out. Obaseki explains his action Addressing the delegation after Osibodu left the building, the governor said the BEDC has refused to cooperate with the state government to provide stable electricity to the people of Edo. Obaseki said, The BEDC has been an obstacle all the way. They will not provide electricity and will not allow you to get alternative sources of power. The state will not allow it. As Governor of Edo State, we have lost confidence in the BEDC. We dont want them here. We are in darkness. Let us remain in darkness until we find people who are capable of delivering electricity. This is our position. According to the governor, even though Edo generates about 600 to 700 megawatts of electricity, the people are still in darkness. Obaseki added that to assist the BEDC on power supply, his government set up the electricity committee across the local government areas chaired by the Deputy Governor of the state, Rt. Hon. Philip Shaibu, with the BEDC as a member, to understand the challenge. But the BEDC frustrated our resolve to finding a lasting solution to the issue of providing electricity to our people. BEDC reacts to Governor Obaseki's action Reacting to the development, the BEDC said Mrs. Osibodu had joined the House of Representatives Committee on Power, officials of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, BEDC, the Transmission Company of Nigeria and the Niger Delta Power Holding Company, to Edo Government House in order to update and assist the state as it seeks for solutions to the recent power-related challenges. The statement from the BEDC read in parts: The BEDC continues to be a responsive and responsible distributor of electricity across the franchise states of Edo, Delta, Ondo and Ekiti and is committed to serving its customers better. In addition, it is on record that out of the nine per cent allocation that the BEDC gets from the national grid, Edo State gets above 40 per cent, while the other three states share the balance. We intend to continue to work towards ensuring that various bottlenecks across the power value chain are eliminated to the benefit of our customers in all our franchise states. As a host community, we shall also continue to support the good people of Edo State in ensuring that an enabling environment that will create jobs and improvement in the lives of the Edo citizens is sustained. It should be noted that Edo State has the highest number of prepaid meters all over the country and with the introduction of Meter Asset Provider by the NERC, we shall further accelerate the metering of consumers with effect from the first quarter of 2019 when the scheme is expected to kick off in order to rapidly reduce estimated billing. The electricity challenge in Nigeria Successive Nigerian governments have been unable to fix the electricity challenge since the nations independence in 1960; with whole cities and communities often thrown into darkness and forced to resort to gas guzzling noisy generators for weeks and months on end. ece-auto-gen In 2013, the Goodluck Jonathan presidency unbundled the state run Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) by selling the generation, distribution and transmission components to private investors. The move has yielded little in terms of improved electricity to homes and businesses. On Tuesday, November 27, 2018, Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom had to stormthe State House of Assembly complex with suspected thugs and police personnel, in order to prevent his impeachment by a handful of APC lawmakers. What exactly is going on in that oil rich South-South State? This piece will answer some of the questions you have on the political crisis engulfing Akwa Ibom State at the moment. Governor Udoms rift with his predecessor Senator Godswill Akpabio is a huge factor Senator Godswill Akpabio, a politician with plenty of clout and following back home, and current Governor Emmanuel, are not on speaking terms over political differences. Even though Akpabio handpicked and campaigned for Emmanuel to succeed him in 2015 from the PDP platform, both men cant stand the sight of the other at the moment. When Akpabio eventually defectedto the governing APC on August 8, 2018, the battle line between both men was drawn. To prove how disgusted he was with Akpabio and his defection, Gov Emmanuel promptly sacked two commissioners from his cabinet for joining the welcome party that received Sen Akpabio at the Uyo Airport, a day before he formally announced that he was dumping the PDP for the APC. ece-auto-gen Akpabio continues to mock Emmanuel over the defection, which he often refers to as uncommon. The senator has also promised to ensure that the APC wins Akwa Ibom in the forthcoming 2019 electionsa move Emmanuel has vowed to resist with every fiber of his being. So, what led to the violence in Akwa Ibom this week? On Tuesday, November 27, 2018, five members of the Akwa Ibom House of Assembly who belong to the APC, converged with a mace to commence impeachment proceedings against the Speaker of the House and Governor Emmanuel. It is important to state here that 26 lawmakers make up the Akwa Ibom House of Assembly. On November 19, Speaker of the House, Onofiok Luke, declared the seats of these 5 APC lawmakers vacant and promptly suspended them from parliament. The 5 suspended lawmakers are: Nse Ntuen, Gabriel Toby, Victor Udofia, Idongesit Ituen and Otobong Ndem. Speaker Luke suspended the lawmakers following the November 14 judgment of a Federal High Court, Uyo Division. The court had thrown out the plea from Ntuen which sought to stop the Speaker from declaring his seat vacant for defecting to the PDP from the APC. Punch reports that these 5 lawmakers arrived the Assembly complex early on the day, with thugs, heavily armed policemen and an improvised mace to commence impeachment proceedings against the governor. They were also said to have chased out everyone around and manhandled the Press Secretary to the Speaker, Kufre Okon, as they headed into the complex for plenary. Trouble began at about 10.05am when the State Commissioner for Works, arrived the premises of the Assembly complex. He was harassed by the 5 APC lawmakers who swooped on him and repeatedly banged on his vehicle, asking him to leave the Assembly for them,Punch writes. Minutes later, Governor Emmanuels convoy powered its way into the complex to confront the lawmakers and their thugs. ece-auto-gen According to Punch, in the ensuing confusion, gunshots were fired by security personnel to scare away people. Journalists and Assembly workers who turned up early that morning and other visitors, scampered to safety, some jumped over the walls, while others took cover in the surrounding bush. Ntuens car was damaged as rampaging PDP youth made for the 5 lawmakers and chased them out of the complex. Speaker of the House, Luke, who was expelled and impeached by the group of 5 lawmakers said afterwards: let nobody, party think they can intimidate us in Akwa Ibom State. 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 the economic development of the state and for the betterment of the youth of the state. The Governor blamed Akpabio for the violence Governor Emmanuel blamed Akpabio for the crisis and implicated Akwa Ibom Commissioner of Police, Musa Kimo. Emmanuel said: Let the commissioner that they just posted last weekend, lets assume that he has finished his course, I want to call on the police and this evening, the police commissioner must be withdrawn; the head of the Quick Rapid Squad must be withdrawn so that we can maintain peace. I want to let the whole world know that Nigerians fought and gave their lives in this country so that we may enjoy democracy that we currently have today, but in Akwa Ibom State, due to the ambition of selfish people, democracy is being threatened. People that this state has given the opportunity to become what they never dreamt they could become. People that other people have given them the opportunity to become a commissioner for six years and a governor for eight years making it 14 years, want to destroy this state and our democracy. Akpabio denies involvement in crisis In a statement issued on his behalf by his Special Assistant on Media, Aniete Ekong, Sen Akpabio said he had no hand in the violence. He also told Governor Emmanuel to blame no one else but himself. Akpabios statement reads in parts: In his desperation to shop for who to blame and pass the buck, Governor Udom Emmanuel has blamed the security agencies in the State and Senator Akpabio has only become his latest victim. How can a state Governor accuse Senator Akpabio of being the brain behind the crisis, and at the same time declared that the police should be held responsible for any breakdown of law and order in the state and not any other person. Does it add up? It beats the imagination of right thinking individuals that a Governor could spew outright lies and falsehood in the face of the crisis in which he is a major sponsor. It is on record that the Governor personally led his security aides and thugs to the House of Assembly and supervised the manhandling of some members of the House of Assembly who were performing their constitutional duties. We advice Governor Emmanuel to brace up and face the challenges of his office, instead of looking for who to blame for his lacklustre performance in the last three and half years which have made Akwa Ibom people determined to democratically vote him and his party out in the election next year. Whats the situation in Akwa Ibom at the moment? Everything appears to have returned to normal at the Assembly complex, with beaten and rough handled lawmakers now left to nurse their injuries at home. However, you can be sure that the plots and battle for supremacy between the Emmanuel and Akpabio camps won't abate until after the elections are held in 2019. ece-auto-gen Governor Emmanuel, at a press conference on Tuesday, November 27, 2018, of working with some sacked lawmakers to take over the House of Assembly. According to reports, the five lawmakers who were sacked by the state House of Assembly when they defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), met to commence the Governors impeachment proceedings. False accusation Speaking to newsmen on Wednesday, November 28, 2018, Kimo described the Akwa-Ibom state Governors allegation as false and unfounded. According to Daily Post, the states police boss said It is unfortunate the way politics is being played and police under my watch will remain fair and apolitical. We are here to maintaine law and order. For now we have no right to deny anybody from assessing the house of Assembly except the competent court of law. Challenges Governor Emmanuel Kimo also challenged Governor Emmanuel to provide video clips showing where he escorted the sacked lawmakers into the House of Assembly. Like yesterday, all that we did was to restore peace. It was totally false that I aided the lawmakers to gain entrance into the House of Assembly. In fact I was in my office when all these things started. I was told that the governor wanted to see me. I had to move immediately to see the governor because he is the chief security officer of the state When I went to his office, unfortunately I was told he had gone to the house of Assembly and I had to reverse and meet him there, and we ensured that peace was restored. So, where did the video clips of my supervision emanate from? Was it my ghost or an ambivalence? Will I be in my office at the time the crisis was reported and be at the scene of the crisis at the same time? So I repeat, not at all, I am a responsible person and I man of integrity. I have a name to protect and I am pained because I am a human being and I dont expect anybody to wake up and start casting aspersions on me. We need to be encouraged but reverse was the case, however, we will not be deterred, we will continue to do our best, he added. Speaking on the call by the state Governor for his redeployment, Kimo said that he is not worried. Blames Akpabio Governor Udom Emmanuel also accused his former mentor, Senator Godswill Akpabio of masterminding the crisis currently rocking the state's House of Assembly. According to reports, the Akpabio moved to the ruling APC after things went sour between him and his protege. The former Governor recently begged the people of Akwa-Ibom to forgive him Ezekwesili declared her intention to run for President on the platform of the ACPN in October 2018. According to The Cable, her running mate, Galadima also contested for the 2015 election and came fourth, with 40,311 votes. Gentleman of character She also said I am very delighted that my vice-presidential candidate, my colleague, the one that will embark on this very important fight for Naija, are you ready to fight for Naija? That I have a rugged grassroot fighter as the person who will supplement the things that I know. He will teach me how to be a consummate politician. Alhaji Abdulganiyu Galadima is definitely known for the work he has done at the grassroot level. As someone who started a strong career in local government, he is the kind of person I need, for us to lift 80 million people out of poverty. If we need competence, we can buy it; if we need capacity, we can buy it, but there is one thing we cannot buy, and that is character. For me, this gentleman represents that character. 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. I have only seen Agbajes campaign posters clustered somewhere in the middle of the third mainland bridge. Right in the middle of the lagoon and nowhere else. Which tells you all you need to know about how Agbaje continues to make himself invisible just when he should be out there in everyones face. Hey, I get it. I totally get it, trust me. The nations Electoral Act forbids anyone from campaigning for elective position until 90 days before the vote. Agbaje has made this clear himself in statements and social media posts. Since the governorship election will hold on March 2, governorship candidates cant campaign until December 1. ece-auto-gen Lets be clear, the INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission) rules guiding this election unequivocally state that campaigning for the 2019 gubernatorial elections shall not begin until the 1st of December, 2018. In their words - not mine - and I quote: For the purpose of this Act, the period of campaigning in public by every political party (not just candidates) shall commence 90 days before polling day and end 24 hours prior to that day. Now if that is the rule, then we have no choice but to abide by it - even if it might sound unpopular to do so. And quite frankly, what precedence would we set if we are not keeping to the rules of competition? Agbaje asked in October. But theres a difference between campaigning for votes and rallying your base. Theres a difference between authorizing that your posters and banners be splashed everywhere and finding a loophole to get your banners and posters out there. What the APC and Sanwo-Olu have done is exploit the loophole in the electoral act by asking faceless groups and organisations to fund the banners and posters of the man and splash them everywhere. If you ask APC and Sanwo-Olu if they paid for the posters, of course they are going to deny that they did. ece-auto-gen What has turned Sanwo-Olu--relatively unknown before the APC governorship primary--into a household name just weeks before the vote, is that he has been quietly galvanizing and working up his base and now they are ready to help him get out the votes in their neighborhoods. Agbaje and the PDP have done no such thing. The PDP governorship candidate has been aloof; if insouciant. His team issues no press statements, the candidate doesnt consider visiting market associations, traditional rulers and stakeholder forums a priority, Agbaje has been silent on the issues that concern Lagosians, he hasnt held an interactive session with the media, he offers no alternative policy proposals worthy of note, and he doesnt look like the kind of person who cares about whether he wins or losesat least for the moment. For a man who is running for the office a third time, Agbaje's 'energy level' has been disappointing. ece-auto-gen In contrast, Sanwo-Olu, who has the governing party machinery and the godfathers structure behind him, has been going on like he's got no one behind him. He's been putting himself on the shop window and saying the right things. Hes met almost every stakeholder group out there and his media game has been on point. Sanwo-Olu's name recognition at this point has certainly dwarfed Agbaje's. Sanwo-Olu would tell you that he hasnt been campaigning. That hes only been consulting and engaging. And he would be right on the money. INEC doesnt say you shouldnt consult and engage. It just says don't put out the canopies out there just yet. Sadly, Agbaje still doesn't get it. According to Daily Post, the forum however said that the presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar and President Buhari, respectively, are not invited. This was made known in a statement issued to newsmen by the chairman of the forum, Solomon Asemota on Tuesday, November 27, 2018. Asemota said that the meeting is aimed at promoting new presidential candidates. The statement reads: This meeting is as a result of the calls from concerned Nigerians that the NCEF should engage the new presidential candidates. By this notice, the NCEF is inviting new presidential candidates to a consultation meeting. By new presidential candidates, the NCEF refers to candidates who have not been running for the office before as well as those not on the platform of the PDP and the APC. The concern of the NCEF is that both parties mismanaged the economy and the society in the past 20 years. Jointly, they devalued the Naira by over 1,600 per cent, while increasing the cost of fuel by 625 per cent. ALSO READ:Britain says it has no preferred candidates for 2019 election They permitted insecurity in the country and escalated religious and ethnic tensions all over the nation. The two parties looted the treasury empty and impoverished Nigerians. Members of the forum include: Solomon Asemota, former Minister of Defence Lt Gen Theophilus Danjuma, Prof. Joseph Otubu, Joshua Dogonyaro, Archbishop Magnus Atilade, Dr Kate Okpareke, Dr Ayo Abifarin, Major Gen Zamani Lekwot, Moses Ihonde, Nat Okoro and Matthew Owojaiye. Nwosu lost the governorship ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to Senator Hope Uzodinma in the primary election held in October. He contested the result of the primary election but eventually lost the case as INEC confirmed Uzodinma as APC flagbearer for next year's governorship election following a decision by a court to strike out a suit filed by Okorocha's faction. Speaking at a press briefing in Imo on Tuesday, November 27, Governor Okorocha insisted that he would support Nwosu's aspiration to contest elsewhere but insisted that he is still in APC and would contest Senatorial election under the party. He said, "As a father of Imo state, I still remain in the best position to select the best among Emeka Ihedioha, Hope Uzodimma, Ifeanyi Araraume and Uche Nwosu who is the best among all of them. Nwosu believes in Imo state, he has investment in the state. "Nwosu is my candidate. Any party that these young men want to go they are free and I want say it again that Nwosu is my candidate. "What will happen is that while they move to realise their ambition under any other platform, I remain in APC and support them. Such parties will have no presidential candidate but will adopt President Muhammadu Buhari as their candidate. "I have been trying to manage the situation but I have no moral justification to stop the aggrieved candidates who felt short-changed from realizing their ambitions in any other party but I have not left APC and do not intend to leave APC. But you must realize that in Imo we dont play party politics but politics of individuals. People did not join APC because of anybody but because of me." The governor reassured PresidentMuhammadu Buhari that his followers will deliver him in the presidential election and also vowed to punish any of them who disobey him. He described the emergence of Senator Hope Uzodinma as the APC governorship candidate as "the worst imposition in Nigerian political history". "What we saw in Imo APC was a clear case of injustice and the worst imposition in history. The party members are aggrieved and they will be moving to another party to pursue their ambitions and I am not going to stop them, but we are going to form alliance with whichever party they choose to deliver President Buhari. A decade on, that unity has vanished as US President Donald Trump shreds the consensus underpinning international trade. Other G20 countries such as Brazil, Italy and Mexico have turned to populist leaders, or, in Britain's case, are grappling with a fractious electorate's decision to file for divorce from the European Union. And this year's G20 host Argentina is enduring its own economic crisis, necessitating the deployment of more than 22,000 police against the threat of mass protests when the heads of government convene on Friday and Saturday. "I would say that the G20 has lost a lot of the steam that it once had in the global financial crisis in 2008, 2009," Matthew Goodman, senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said during a briefing previewing the summit. "The last summits have been somewhat disappointing and marked by contention, particularly over trade-related issues. And I would expect that to be the case again." Trump's "America First" stance has already upended other recent world summits such as the G7 and the Asia-Pacific bloc APEC. For the G20 as a whole, Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Faurie told AFP that the summit should stress the importance of trade itself. But given the dysfunction at those other summits, the G20 leaders are expected to stop short of repeating their vows to fight protectionism, which were a founding principle in 2008. Given US objections, analysts also dismiss any notion that the group can replicate its past consensus on the need to confront climate change, just ahead of a UN summit on the planetary threat in Poland. After imposing a raft of tariffs on Chinese goods and threatening more to come, the US president is due to meet with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping for a working dinner in Buenos Aires. His economic advisor Larry Kudlow told reporters on Tuesday that "the president said there is a good possibility that we can make a deal and he is open to it." But he warned that "if things don't work out in this US-China summit meeting, he will invoke another $267 some odd billion dollars in tariffs." Trump himself told The Wall Street Journal that it was "highly unlikely" that he would accept China's request to defer the next increase scheduled for January 1. The White House confirmed Trump will sit down with President Vladimir Putin for their first face-to-face meeting since a July summit in Finland, when he astonished observers by praising the Russian leader. That bilateral has taken on new urgency after Russian vessels seized three Ukrainian ships near Crimea at the weekend, igniting a storm of protest in Europe. Dangerous waters However, Trump told The Washington Post he was waiting for a report on the incident from his national security advisors before making up his mind over whether he would meet Putin. "That will be very determinative. Maybe I won't have the meeting," he said. On Monday, his UN ambassador Nikki Haley condemned such "outlaw actions" by Russia. The exact location of the Ukrainian ships when they were boarded is subject to dispute. Kiev, backed by allies in Western Europe, says they were in international waters in the Sea of Azov. In the G20 context, that parallels controversies pitting Beijing against other nations over the passage of ships through the South China Sea, a vital trading artery. "What's happening in the Sea of Azov is serious," said Francois Heisbourg, special adviser at the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris. "If you start transgressing on the principles of freedom of navigation, that could serve as a precedent around the world. Any country controlling a strait could be tempted to forbid passage." On the trade front, Heisbourg said the question at the G20 was whether Xi will "rear up" against Trump's combative stance, or try to find an accommodation between the world's two largest economies. Analysts are skeptical that Buenos Aires will witness a breakthrough big enough to forestall Trump's threat to toughen the China tariffs in January -- or even if there is, whether it will hold for long. Cui Lei, an expert at the Department for American Studies at Beijing's China Institute of International Studies, said the signs were not promising following the stormy APEC summit and new US accusations of Chinese sharp practice on fronts such as intellectual property rights and technology transfers. "There may be a statement of principles (in Buenos Aires), confirming they will maintain negotiation and communication, but I think it will be difficult to reach a comprehensive agreement, because to do that both sides need to make big concessions," he said. Markets will be watching the G20 for any steps by Saudi Arabia and Russia -- the world's two biggest exporters of crude -- to reverse a recent collapse in oil prices. Such petro-diplomacy would, however, run headlong into Trump's loudly stated desire to keep oil prices low. WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. Residents of Indianapolis and Fort Wayne ages 45 and older have until Dec. 15 to complete an online survey designed to provide information to improve the quality of life for older citizens. AARP Indiana is working with Purdue University's Center for Regional Development to assess the age-friendliness of Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, communities with an aging population that is expected to grow over the next two decades. The Livable Communities Survey will determine attitudes and opinions of respondents on a variety of topics, such as housing, outdoor spaces, transportation and streets, health and wellness, social participation, educational opportunities, volunteering and civic engagement, and job opportunities. "The survey only takes about 10 minutes to complete, but its findings have the potential to create a positive impact for older citizens for decades to come," said Michael Wilcox, the senior associate at Purdue's Center for Regional Development who is overseeing the survey. The survey is part of AARP's Network of Age-Friendly States and Communities initiative, which encourages areas to prepare for the rapid aging of the U.S. population through awareness of the environmental, economic and social factors that influence older adults' health and well-being. Indianapolis residents can complete the survey by going to https://purdue.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cvyP5XRKL408c6h. Fort Wayne residents can complete the survey online at https://purdue.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9zNP4IccaOxtmwR. All responses are completely anonymous, and no information will be collected that could identify any individual. Media contacts: Maureen Manier, Purdue Agricultural Communication, mmanier@purdue.edu Jason Tomcsi, AARP Indiana, jtomcsi@aarp.org Source: Michael Wilcox, 865-696-2267, wilcox16@purdue.edu Agricultural Communications: (765) 494-8415; Maureen Manier, Department Head, mmanier@purdue.edu Agriculture News Page By submitting your email address, you acknowledge that you have read the Privacy Statement and that you consent to our processing data in accordance with the Privacy Statement (including international transfers). If you change your mind at any time about wishing to receive the information from us, you can send us an email message using the Contact Us page. New Zealand's biggest inquiry into bullying at Parliament was ordered by a man accused of being New Zealand's biggest bully himself. Former Work and Income NZ chief executive Christine Rankin says she was subjected to a campaign of bullying from senior ministers who wanted her out - and that Speaker Trevor Mallard was among them. Ms Rankin was a senior public servant under the last Labour Government, and says she laughed out loud when Speaker Trevor Mallard announced the major review at Parliament. "Incidents have occurred over many years in these buildings which are unacceptable," said Mr Mallard when announcing the inquiry earlier this week. Ms Rankin says she was relentlessly bullied by senior Labour Party ministers after they took power in 1999, and that group included now-Speaker Mr Mallard. "He was a bully," she told Newshub. "They were all bullies and they revelled in it." She says ministers would whisper and laugh about her during meetings - with Mr Mallard using language that still makes her too uncomfortable to repeat. "He was crude and rude and it was directed at me." The ministers were trying to force Ms Rankin out of her job as chief executive of Work and Income, she says, because she didn't look right and wasn't educated in the right way. "They destroyed my reputation, they destroyed my career and they almost tipped me over the edge." Ms Rankin says things have changed for the better under the new coalition Government. Newshub put Ms Rankin's comments to Mr Mallard, but his office says he won't comment on specific allegations. On The AM Show on Wednesday morning, Mr Mallard discussed his regrets over his relationship breakdowns with staff, although he wasn't referring to Ms Rankin, who was not a staffer. "I don't think there are many people who have been in this building for some time who have been absolutely perfect in their relationships," said Mr Mallard. Parliament is often described as a robust and stressful workplace. The Francis Review is about changing the way people behave under that pressure, and everyone will have to be willing to look in the mirror. Listen to the full interview above. Drive with Ryan Bridge , 3pm - 6pm Weekdays and streaming live on 'rova' channel 9 - available on Android and iPhone. Newshub. China will soon release details of a new policy on allowing more cross-border e-commerce purchases, the Economic Information Daily has reported. Some 63 categories of products will be added to the list of duty-free goods via cross-border e-commerce platforms, covering more high-demand consumer goods such as electronics, small home appliances, food and healthcare products, according to the newspaper. Goods on the list have so far enjoyed zero tariffs within a set quota and had their import VAT and consumer tax collected at 70 percent of the statutory taxable amount. From Jan. 1, 2019, the annual quota on cross-border e-commerce purchases for individual buyers will rise to 26,000 yuan (about 3,741 U.S. dollars) from 20,000 yuan, according to a meeting of the State Council held earlier this month. The tax-free limits on single transactions will increase to 5,000 yuan from 2,000. The new policy will be applied to cross-border e-commerce pilot zones in another 22 cities including Beijing, Nanjing and Shenyang. "The new policy will boost confidence of cross-border e-commerce companies, since it enhances policy certainty," Zhang Li, a researcher with the research institute of the Ministry of Commerce (MOC), told the newspaper. "The expanded quota will win back consumers who are fond of shopping overseas and unleash more spending power." Liu Peng, general manager of Tmall Global, Alibaba's cross-border e-commerce platform, said the new policy brought stability and continuity. In the past four years, Tmall Global has introduced nearly 19,000 overseas brands from 75 countries to Chinese consumers. More than 80 percent of them were newcomers to the Chinese market. The move came after the Chinese leader promised to boost imports by lowering tariffs, improving customs clearance, reducing the cost of importing goods and accelerating cross-border e-commerce. Chinese consumers have become increasingly drawn to foreign brands via e-commerce platforms. Retail imports via those platforms reached 56.6 billion yuan in 2017, up 75.5 percent year on year. In the first 10 months this year, the import value rose 53.7 percent year-on-year to reach 67.2 billion yuan. In 2017, cross-border e-commerce consumers accounted for 10.2 percent of China's total e-commerce consumers, up from 1.6 percent in 2014, according to a research report on China's import market jointly released by China Chamber of International Commerce, global auditing and consultancy firm Deloitte, and Alibaba's Aliresearch. Since 2016, Chinese consumers have become increasingly prone to high quality products in addition to products for basic living. Sales of digital home appliances, cosmetics, clothing, healthcare products and food have rapidly increased online. "The new policies will not only make cross-border trade more convenient, but also meet consumers' upgraded needs and improve regulation and supervision of cross-border e-commerce imports," said Wang Jian, a professor with the University of International Business and Economics. Li Mingtao, president of a research institute affiliated to China E-commerce Research Center, said he expected more resources and opportunities would flow to the cross-border e-commerce industry, generating more business opportunities. "It shows China means business in opening up and reform," Li added. Immigration Minister Iain-Lees Galloway has taken a major U-turn in his decision to grant residency to a drug smuggler, announcing that Karel Sroubek is now liable for deportation upon his release from custody. Mr Lees-Galloway told the press on Wednesday that new information was found in review of the Immigration NZ case, which included that Sroubek was convicted in the Czech Republic. He says Immigration NZ didnt know this because Sroubek arrived in New Zealand under a different name. Im concerned that the file presented by Immigration NZ did not paint a complete picture, said Mr Lees-Galloway. He also said he has apologised to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern over the handling of the matter. Originally from the Czech Republic, Sroubek fled to New Zealand in 2003 on a false passport. In 2015 Sroubek was convicted of importing MDMA and jailed for almost six years. In 2009 he returned to the Czech Republic, despite implying there was a danger to his life in his home country. The Immigration Minister granted Sroubek permanent residency in 2018. Mr Lees-Galloway confirmed that Sroubek will be able to appeal saying that, "he has the option to appeal to the Immigration Tribunal on the grounds of facts and humanitarian grounds". RadioLIVE/Newshub. USA: New Yorks Metropolitan Transportation Authority has agreed to purchase Grand Central Terminal and sections of the Hudson and Harlem commuter rail lines, correcting what it terms a historical quirk of New York infrastructure ownership. Server-side ad insertion (SSAI) specialist Yospace says that it has successfully demonstrated how a reduction in ad load combined with addressable advertising offers a viable and future-proof model for broadcasters in the OTT space. The Non-Linear Startover (NLSO) technology has been developed in anticipation of a growing need among broadcasters to consider reducing ad load to improve viewer engagement, particularly among those viewers of the internet-first millennial generation, while also delivering ad revenues.Yospaces technology allows users of OTT streaming services to rewind live content mid-stream. Ad breaks are then intelligently reduced in length, allowing them to catch up with the live action. Even though the ads are shorter, Yospace claims that precise per-viewer decisioning means broadcasters are able to command a premium for advertising. Individual viewers are served only relevant ad content, thus says the company boosting their engagement with the advertising and driving up CPMs for broadcasters.The next generation of viewers are online and have grown up used to video with lighter ad loads, said Yospace CEO Tim Sewell. With the right ad-tech and data strategy in place, broadcasters can cater to that audience while increasing engagement with the advertising. Yospaces technology continues to successfully push the boundaries of what a 21century TV experience looks like.The company says that it already has a reference with Belgian broadcaster Medialaan, which focussed its attention on engaging a new generation of viewers. Launching with Yospaces SSAI technology with NLSO for its Stievie TV everywhere service in late 2017 , Medialaan has reported an increase in capacity for long-form views over a 12-month period, with greater ad revenues enabled through addressability.Providing a seamless viewing experience was more important than creating as many ad positions as possible and Yospace understood that, said Medialaans Stievie marketing director, Calogero Macaluso. Ultimately, we want to encourage the transformation from linear to digital by delivering a better customer experience. Find a great selection of commercial real estate, manufactured homes, timeshares and more for Sale Buy real estate. Find a great selection of commercial real estate, manufactured homes, timeshares and more for Sale in US and Canada. Search Real Estate By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 11/27/2018 ADVERTISEMENT Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade. star Steven Frend is apologizing to Olga Koshimbetova and fans everywhere for his highly-criticized behavior on the last couple of episodes of the show.On 's sixth season, Steven was shown getting very frustrated with Olga and barking demands at her following the birth of their son.Viewers slammed Steven for treating his fiancee poorly after she went through a difficult and emotional C-section, and he's definitely not justifying or defending his temper and impatience.In a Monday Instagram post, the TLC star expressed his seemingly sincere apologies and vowed to be a better partner to Olga."If you go back seven months ago on the day when everything started with Olga, I would certainly change some moments," Steven wrote alongside a picture of his little family."Yes, I realize that I was a bit rude and gave vent to my emotions to a girl who was going through a lot after giving birth. Like any person, I make mistakes, I learn. No one on earth is perfect. I know my cons and I'm working on it. I love this girl with all my heart and soul and thank her for our son."Following the birth of his son on 's November 18 episode, Steven grew bothered by how overprotective Olga was being of the baby in the hospital, but she insisted she was just trying to prevent the newborn from catching germs.Steven acknowledged he comes from a family with "anger problems." Not only did he yell at Olga to have better manners and not be "an assh-le" to him, but he was also shown yelling at her, "You're not going to tell me to not touch my son," during Sunday night's broadcast.Steven's lashing out resulted in Olga crying, and then he clearly felt terrible about his actions."For these two people, I am ready for anything, because they are my everything," Steven continued in his Monday Instagram post."I understand that I can not take and change the opinion of each person. It's impossible. But I will not make excuses either. As an honest person, I say that I made a mistake, and I apologized. For me, my family comes first."After the birth of his son aired on TV, Steven took to Instagram on November 19 to tell fans they only see a short snapshot of his life with Olga on and so they shouldn't be too quick to judge."These days were hard for us, arriving in Russia 1 full day before our son was born. Getting no sleep, adjusting to jet lag, learning how to be a dad," Steven explained at the time."Things were said but not all was shown, a 5 minute snippet doesn't show our relationship... We always end our day on a good note with an I love you and a goodnight kiss." By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 11/24/2021 ADVERTISEMENT FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON THE ALL-NEW GOOGLE NEWS! Reality TV World is now available on the all-new Google News app and website. Click here to visit our Google News page, and then click FOLLOW to add us as a news source! Which couples are still together and which MAFS couples have broken up and divorced? And where are they now? 's first twelve seasons featured 44 different couples getting married at first sight -- so which couples are still together, who has broken up and divorced, and where are they all now?Each season of -- which premiered in the United States seven years ago and is based on a Danish series -- features couples (previously three couples, but four couples on Seasons 8 and 9, and five couples beginning with Season 10) being matched together by relationship experts and agree to marry when they first meet.Complete strangers become husband and wife in a matter of minutes, and the couples' lives are then documented by TV cameras over the course of the next four to eight weeks (eight weeks, in the case of 's most recent seasons).The couples typically enjoy their first night together in a hotel after exchanging vows -- with some couples deciding to consummate their marriage immediately -- and then embark on a honeymoon, move in together, and simply attempt to deal with the struggles of daily life as man and wife.At the end of the extreme marriage experiment, each couple must decide whether they'd like to stay married or get a divorce on "Decision Day."has experienced very mixed results over the years. While a significant number of couples decide to stay together and continue their new marriage at the end of their season, the real world seems to hit them hard after the cameras leave, resulting in the couple splitting up only months later.Do cast members see a different side of their spouses once cameras are gone, or do the romances naturally fizzle over time?Some couples are still together to this day and are extremely happy. Jamie Otis and Doug Hehner from Season 1, for example, have had two children.Several other couples have also had children -- including Ashley Petta and Anthony D'Amico Shawniece Jackson and Jephte Pierre Danielle Bergman and Bobby Dodd Deonna McNeill and Greg Okotie , and Jessica Studer and Austin Hurd However, there are also relationships that ended badly. Jessica Castro from Season 2, for instance, accused Ryan De Nino of alleged death threats, and she went on to file a restraining order and lawsuit against him.Some couples have also never even made it to "Decision Day" and ended their marriage prematurely, including Season 4 couple Heather Seidel and Derek Schwartz as well as Season 6 couple Molly Duff and Jonathan Francetic Are the remaining couples now lovers, friends or enemies?! What about early season couples like Cortney Hendrix and Jason Carrion, Jaclyn Methuen and Ryan Ranellone, Vanessa Nelson and Tres Russell, Sonia Granados and Nick Pendergrast, and Lillian Vilchez and Tom Wilson?And how about more recent season couples like Danielle DeGroot and Cody Knapek Sheila Downs and Nate Duhon Jaclyn Schwartzberg and Ryan Buckley Dave Flaherty and Amber Martorana , and Tristan Thompson and Mia Bally Keith Dewar and Kristine Killingsworth , and AJ Vollmoeller and Stephanie Sersen Click thelink below to see photos of each couple and find out! BEGIN GALLERY >> Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade. By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 11/28/2018 ADVERTISEMENT FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON THE ALL-NEW GOOGLE NEWS! Reality TV World is now available on the all-new Google News app and website. Click here to visit our Google News page, and then click FOLLOW to add us as a news source! ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade. featured each couple exploring outside of their comfort zones and having an emotional breakthrough during Tuesday night's episode on Lifetime.chronicles a three-week process for the singles, guided by franchise experts Pastor Calvin Roberson and Dr. Jessica Griffin, in the romantic destination of St. Lucia.The show currently features four couples blossoming and deepening their connections. Eric Acosta , a 31-year-old entrepreneur and son of a diplomat from Denver, CO, is paired with Katie Muller , a 28-year-old in digital advertising from Denver, CO. Brandin Brosh , a 28-year-old clothing boutique owner from Biloxi, MS, has her eyes set on Jona Bienko , a 35-year-old auto broker from Como, CO. Shannon Raddler , a 33-year-old pharmaceutical sales representative from Atlanta, GA, is pursuing Kimber Gardner , a 28-year-old medical sales representative from Las Vegas, NV.And finally, Jada Rashawn , a 27-year-old professional nanny placement specialist and brand spokesperson from San Antonio, TX, is a couple with Chris Perry , a 29-year-old musician, personal trainer and youth counselor from Binghamton, NY.The Honeymoon Island broadcast kicked off on Day 14 of the process."Five couples matched themselves on chemistry, and we've been testing them on principles such as psychology, sociology, sexology and now, over the next two days, spirituality," Dr. Jessica explained.That morning, Jessica announced Isabella McKenzie and Tyler Moody had decided to pack their bags and leave Honeymoon Island.The other couples agreed the couple had gotten into an argument over something "so stupid," and they seemed please the dark cloud had moved out and away from their own blossoming relationships.The men thought Isabella needed to work on herself because she was "controlling" and wanted to have Tyler "on a leash."Pastor Cal then told the couples he wanted them to discuss spirituality, which was more than just religion, as the topic touches upon core values, fears, and what helps a person overcome challenges.Brandin revealed she was afraid of the unknown, Chris noted he fears heights, Katie announced she was afraid of failure, and Eric said he feared success."I like a lot of things about Eric. The fact Eric and I have opposite fears shows there's a large part of him I don't know about. We keep discovering more about each other, and the more I learn about him, the more excited I am, because I came to Honeymoon Island to get married," Katie said in a confessional.Over the next two days, the couples were encouraged to take themselves out of their comfort zones, let their guards down, and participate in activities they normally wouldn't try.Jona and Brandin went ziplining, which required Brandin to place her trust in her partner. Pastor Cal hoped this experience would bond them deeper than ever.Brandin was reserved in her conversation with Jona, which frustrated him a little bit. She explained she tends to avoid discussions about politics and religion because everyone has a different view of things."But I'd like to hear your thoughts," Jona said."Okay, that's over now," Brandin said as she walked away.Jada and Chris were then shown touring the rainforest on an aerial tramway, and Jada was surprised to learn how truly afraid Chris is of heights.However, Jada managed to keep Chris distracted with conversation, and he felt confident with her arms wrapped around him.As for Shannon and Kimber, they went horseback riding on the beach. Kimber was always very open about her feelings and beliefs, but Pastor Cal admitted Shannon often dodged tough subjects through using his humor.Kimber's fear was losing her parents, and then Shannon shared how his father had passed away four years prior and then his mother was diagnosed with cancer. Shannon really opened up and expressed how he remains optimistic."I'm really letting myself go here," Shannon said in a confessional, before telling Kimber about a club shooting that also hit close to home for him.Kimber felt closer to Shannon than ever before, and she said, "I am feeling really lucky to have found him."On Day 16, Chris and Eric talked about how they travel often for work and their careers could negatively influence their romantic relationships. Jada didn't know how she'd handle Chris' fans, social media followers and touring.During the conversation with the guys, Jona blushed when asked if Brandin was "The One." Jona felt the weight of his feelings, but he really needed Brandin to let go emotionally with him."I really think Brandin might be my forever," Jona told the cameras, before telling his friends, "I might be inviting you guys to the wedding."Eric then spoke to Pastor Cal about how previous women in his life were okay "in theory" about his need to travel back and forth from Colombia and Canada for work but then they'd realize they're really not okay with him being gone.From what Eric had learned of Katie so far, he thought they could be a great match but worried things might change once they're in the real world.Eric could genuinely see Katie as his future partner, but he had to really take a leap of faith and stop searching for a perfect unicorn. Eric acknowledged he needed to ask some hard questions, and Pastor Cal said his relationship couldn't be all about Eric and his needs.Brandin and Jona then sat down with Pastor Cal to discuss religion. Brandin was apparently raised Catholic but doesn't agree with all the aspects of Catholicism -- including going to church every Sunday -- and Jona revealed his father is a preacher who quotes scripture all the time.Jona insisted he wants a wife and children, not just another girlfriend, and Brandin said she realized in that moment she had the man whom she had dreamed about and prayed for.Brandin acknowledged she wanted to get married as well but she wasn't ready in that exact moment to take the plunge and commit long-term.On Day 17, Katie and Eric enjoyed a little picnic together, and Eric expressed his concern about his career having dismantled his previous relationships.The pair then dove into specifics, with Katie disclosing she would be fine with Eric traveling one week per month. Katie admitted it would be hard, but she'd really like to spend weekends together and talk on the phone when he's gone.Eric and Katie gained more clarity that day.The couples later gathered on the beach, where Pastor Cal awaited them to host a "New Beginnings Ceremony" in which each person had to let go of his or her past and baggage.Each person was asked to write down and then reveal to the group what had been holding him or her back in love and then release that problem to a fire pit.Eric threw out selfishness, Katie rid herself of insecurity, Kimber promised to start fresh and give her relationship a chance, and Shannon let go of his fear of letting someone into his world and losing control.Jona rid himself of feeling unworthy and undeserving of someone like Brandin, Brandin threw out her fear of losing Jona after the show and being closed off as a result.Jada then tossed out her fear of humiliation, and Chris attempted to shut down his fear of trusting another person and assuming someone he cares about has poor intentions.The episode ended on a cliffhanger, with Pastor Cal announcing he had a surprise for everyone.Interested in more Married at First Sight news? Join our Married at First Sight Facebook Group By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 11/28/2018 ADVERTISEMENT FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON THE ALL-NEW GOOGLE NEWS! Reality TV World is now available on the all-new Google News app and website. Click here to visit our Google News page, and then click FOLLOW to add us as a news source! ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade. : Happily Ever After featured Shawniece Jackson and Jephte Pierre welcoming their baby daughter Laura into the world and Danielle Bergman and Bobby Dodd getting into a disagreement over finances during Tuesday night's episode on Lifetime.The new spinoff stars Shawniece and Jephte from Season 6 of set in Boston, Danielle and Bobby from Season 7 taped in Dallas, and Ashley Petta and Anthony D'Amico from Season 5 filmed in Chicago.At the time filming commenced for Happily Ever After, all three couples were expecting their first child together.The episode began with Jephte saying Shawniece was 36 weeks pregnant and the baby was coming, which was a huge surprise to them both.Footage then flashed to doctors asking Shawniece to push, and she was moaning in pain."There she is!" Jephte said in the hospital room."Is she coming out?!" Shawniece asked from her hospital bed."Push!" Jephte said.With another big push, Jephte and Shawniece's daughter arrived, and Jephte started to cry immediately. Jephte joked the baby had his head."The love that I have for her, it's, like, infinity," Shawniece told the cameras."Baby Laura is the biggest blessing in my life. I get to just hold her and fall in love with her. Right now, I have my very own family, and to be honest, this is what I want," Jephte gushed in a confessional.A woman could be heard in the background saying Shawniece had "a beautiful delivery."Meanwhile, the other couples were also four weeks into the Happily Ever After process.Ashley received a text message from Shawniece about her baby's arrival."Guess who showed up a little early... 3 1/2 weeks to be exact! Laura Denise Pierre made her debut on 8/20 at 7:47AM. She is 5lbs 15oz of pure love!" Shawniece wrote to Ashley.Anthony anticipated he would feel an "overwhelming joy" once his own daughter is born.Danielle then got the same text, and Bobby was looking forward to being a good father. Danielle had a million questions for Shawniece, and Bobby expected eventually get to ask them.On Day 2 in the hospital for Shawniece and Jephte after Laura's welcoming, the couple said it didn't feel real that they were parents."I have everything that I've dreamed of," Shawniece said.The pair joked about how Laura has Jephte's "big forehead," Shawniece's lips and a combination of their two noses. The couple later changed Laura's first diaper together.Danielle and Bobby were then shown talking out a point of contention between them -- money spent or not spent on a teeth cleaning for Henry, which Danielle estimated to be $500.Since Henry was like Danielle's "first born," she was ready to spend as much money as needed to keep him healthy and happy.Danielle was prepared to spend up to $1,000 to have teeth pulled if necessary, but Bobby wasn't okay with this."Danielle and I see eye to eye on pretty much everything except for one, and that's spending," Bobby told the cameras, adding that starting a family and buying a new home were his priorities.Danielle acknowledged she and Bobby had to make decisions as a family and so she would probably just have to deal with Henry's "stinky breath."Meanwhile, Anthony and Ashley had her friend Erica over for lunch, and Erica brought her husband and young daughter along for the social gathering.Erica advised the couple to ask for help when necessary, and Ashley acknowledged she and Anthony might need more space at home for their little one.Afterward, Pastor Cal paid Danielle and Bobby a visit. Pastor Cal learned the couple had several disagreements, including Henry's teeth cleaning, but he seemed glad to learn Bobby had put his foot down and said, "No."Danielle was also still very focused on moving to a new house with more space, but Bobby appeared content with just staying put, calling himself "a frugal money freak."Bobby didn't like the idea of spending their nest egg on a new house and new furniture when they could have medical bills to worry about in the future or maybe even a car break down.Pastor Cal asked the couple to focus on their family and hold onto their savings. Danielle said if she decided to stay home when the baby comes, she didn't want to sit in a "chaotic" house that left her feeling frustrated.Jephte and Shawniece were then shown taking their baby home at five days old and introducing Laura to their dog Kiki. Shawniece knew Laura was going to have Jephte wrapped around her finger."Our relationship has been a roller coaster since the day we first met, but now, my daughter is the driving force behind pushing me to make sure that my marriage works," Jephte said in a confessional."I want to be around for my daughter and be a good dad -- but an even better husband."While looking at little Laura in his home, Jephte admitted to Shawniece he wanted to have more kids as soon as possible. Shawniece said Jephte had no idea what it's like to be pregnant.Jephte felt he was in a much better place with Shawniece at this point in their marriage.Meanwhile, Ashley and Anthony went shopping for baby items before setting up their registry online. Ashley admitted it was "overwhelming" and Anthony was surprised to see how much they were going to need and how much everything was going to cost.Shawniece and Jephte then celebrated their anniversary with a quiet dinner at home -- except Laura wasn't quiet. Shawniece got all dressed up in sexy lingerie, but she had to breast feed instead of eat her own meal.But Jephte was very impressed with his wife and appreciated how much effort she was putting into late-night feedings so he could get enough sleep for work.Shawniece gave Jephte a personalized cigar box, and then he asked for a kiss."I'm surprised he asked me for a kiss because I haven't kissed him in five months. Once we got back together, the physical -- touching and the sexual contact -- it's nonexistent because I don't feel confident in myself right now, but hey, I'm trying my best to work on intimacy and romance," Shawniece explained.Jephte, however, wasn't upset Shawniece pushed him away."I know she's scared I might hurt her again. I don't want her to be hurt, but this is the risk we take trying to learn to love each other again," Jephte said.Jephte told Shawniece he ordered her anniversary gift late but it was on its way.Dr. Jessica revealed Jephte had matured drastically in recent months and the experts were very pleased with and impressed by his attitude and persistence.Jephte and Shawniece weren't ready to wear their wedding rings again, but Jephte was hoping they were headed in that direction, and he was very optimistic about their relationship because he cared for her immensely and they wanted the same things.Afterward, Ashley revealed the lease on their apartment was up and she wanted to move into a home as soon as possible. Ashley waned to move before the baby arrives, and Anthony wasn't against the idea.Anthony was worried about the stress level, but he wanted what was best for their family.The couple therefore weighed the pros and cons of moving and seemed to agree on at least beginning the search for a house and discovering how much a small one might cost.The episode concluded with Bobby creating a fine-dining experience for Danielle in their own living room for their six-month anniversary.Bobby encouraged intimacy by requesting a kiss, for example, in exchange for an appetizer. Danielle, however, wanted to skip right to the entree -- a frozen pizza in exchange for her favorite memory.Danielle expressed her feelings in a card for Bobby, which meant a lot to him given he's so sentimental. Bobby called his wife "the sweetest thing" and he wouldn't trade her written words for anything.Bobby decided to give Danielle his pregnancy journal so she could look back on his memories of their life together so far. Danielle said she "lucked out" when she got matched with Bobby "for sure."Interested in more news? Join our Married at First Sight Facebook Group , We're sorry, this article is not currently available Videos Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos. The governing bodies of Sierra View Medical Center and Kaweah Delta Medical Center held a joint board meeting earlier this month to discuss the possibility of collaborating through the creation of a joint powers authority. At their own board meeting Tuesday, SVMC directors voted 4-0 to move forward in the process. Eight people convicted of child abuse at a Shanghai day care center owned by one of China's leading travel service companies, Ctrip, were sentenced to up to a year and a half in prison by the Changning District People's Court of Shanghai on Tuesday. Zheng Yan, who was in charge of the center, received the most severe sentence. The other seven received sentences of one year to one year and two months. Five of the accused were put on probation, during which time they are prohibited from providing care to others. Zheng Yan, along with Liang Shuo and Tang Ying, were barred from caregiving for five years after serving the full term. Testimony was given during the trial that the workers had applied spicy mustard to the children's mouths and hands as a means of punishment at the day care center in August 2017. Evidence also showed that they pushed and dragged the children, aged 18 months to 3 years old. Zheng, the center's head, did not stop such behavior. Instead, she instructed the staff to avoid the center's video monitoring system when they imposed such "discipline". The court said that children need special protection and care, and the workers were punished for their unprofessional and immoral conduct. Lighter punishments were given to two staff members who turned themselves in and to six others who confessed to the crimes. Ctrip established the center in 2016 to help employees solve baby-sitting problems for children under 3 years old, the minimum age for public kindergartens. It was not run by Ctrip directly but by a third-party organization. In early November last year, parents suspicious of child abuse demanded footage from surveillance cameras at the center. The videos soon went viral online as that showed staff members feeding mustard to children and pushing them around. The case provoked public anger and discussion, attracting more than 18.7 million netizens in an online discussion. All child care work at the center has been suspended. Thanksgiving break has come and gone, and UGA students are finishing up their last week of classes with finals right around the corner. Today is Giving Tuesday, a day of charitable giving for people in need. Through the American Red Cross, you can make a symbolic gift in honor of someone at redcross.org/gift and share free holiday cards to announce your gift to friends and family. Donations are tax-deductible contributions to the Red Cross. Here are some ways you can #GiveWithMeaning at redcross.org/gift: HELP DISASTER VICTIMS Every eight minutes, the Red Cross responds to a disaster in the U.S. This years large events included wildfires in California, Hurricane Dorian on the East Coast, tropical storm flooding in Texas, and tornadoes and floods in the Midwest. Across the country in 2019, the Red Cross also responded to tens of thousands of smaller disasters like home fires to help families with emergency needs, such as securing a safe place to sleep and planning their recovery. You can support our work to prepare for, respond to and help people recover from disasters big and small. A gift of $50 can deliver hot meals for five people or provide blankets for 10 people after a disaster, or a larger donation of $100 can provide a family of two with a full days worth of emergency shelter, including meals, snacks, blankets, cots and hygiene supplies. HELP MILITARY MEMBERS AND VETERANS You can also provide critical support for military members, veterans and their families. A donation of $50 can help connect veterans and their families to critical community services, such as food, housing, mental health support and rehabilitation. A larger gift of $145 can provide hospital kits, filled with toiletries and other essentials, for 20 service members. HELP SAVE LIVES INTERNATIONALLY In addition, you can support our work with the Measles & Rubella Initiative, which provides vaccinations for children and educates families about the dangers of measles and rubella. A gift of $100 can help provide lifesaving vaccinations for 100 children facing an increased risk of measles and rubella around the world. GIVE THE GIFT OF LIFE The holidays are a difficult time to collect blood because of busy schedules and inclement weather. Still, the need for blood is constant to help accident victims, cancer patients and others who rely on lifesaving blood products every day. Make an appointment to donate blood or platelets by visiting RedCrossBlood.org. A breakthrough will come from what we teach and how, says Ajit Balakrishnan. Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com Strolling down Madison Avenue in New York at midday the other day, I was struck by the number of vacant storefronts, their shelves empty and 'For Rent' banners prominently displayed. It was no different along the other previously booming retail corridors such as Fifth Avenue and Broadway. Some parts of New York like the erstwhile capital of hip culture, Bleecker Street, have started looking like ghost towns. A report from Douglas Elliman, a major real estate information source, the percentage of retail stores vacant in Manhattan is now 20 per cent compared to 6 per cent a couple of years ago. Will the jobs created by consumer e-commerce as delivery boys and in their warehouses make up for this is the ongoing debate in America. Also, if this impact is being felt when consumer online e-commerce is a mere 6 per cent of all retail sales in America, what will happen when it gets to, say, 50 per cent? Landing back home in Mumbai, the first newspaper I opened had this alarming headline: 'Over 28 million people apply for 90,000 railways jobs!' I silently thanked myself that I am not a politician having to fight to retain my seat in the upcoming election season: Jobs anxiety is on the prowl and political parties have started trading barbs on this most crucial issue. 'Youth still waiting for 20 million jobs promised,' says one party; 'Over 7 million jobs created in formal sector last year,' responds the other. If, once upon a time, India's main problem frame was, as Tilak, put it so eloquently, 'Swaraj mera janamsiddh adhikar hai', today it is probably this: 'The million Indians who reach employable age each month have a right to a job.' To be fair, India is not the only country struggling with the jobs problem. Mr Trump's key actions so far -- increasing import tariffs, tightening visa requirements, threatening to build a wall along the Mexican border -- are all aimed at solving a similar problem that America faces: Not enough jobs for Americans. Britain's almost suicidal push to exit the European Union, Brexit, is driven by concerns that being part of the EU will result in jobs, already in short supply, being taken by immigrants from other European countries. What's with the world that suddenly jobs are on everyone's minds? A major contributor to the jobs anxiety, no doubt, is the sudden discovery that economic growth as measured by gross domestic product growth no longer means growth in jobs. A World Bank survey (South Asia Economic Focus Spring 2018: Jobless Growth) of South Asian (including Indian) economists where the question asked was, 'If India's GDP grows by 1 per cent, by how much will jobs grow?' 35 per cent answered that jobs growth will be negligible, 32 per cent said that jobs growth will be 0.3 per cent, 25 per cent said jobs will grow 0.3 to 1.0 per cent and a mere 4 per cent said that jobs growth will be more than 1 per cent. And, worse, they expect practically all the job growth to come from 'Regular' employment -- most jobs are expected to be in the informal and casual sector. The sobering reality is that what jobs get created and of what types will affect the social structure of society as Peter Blau and Otis Duncan point out in their path breaking book: 'The occupation structure is the foundation of stratification system of contemporary society' and as feudal estates and hereditary castes fade away, class difference come to rest primarily on occupational positions and the economic advantages and powers associated with them. Ashok Thakur, a former education secretary, and S S Mantha, a former chair of AICTE -- two people who ought to know what they are talking about (writing in The Indian Express recently) -- point out that 'due to deep-rooted social prejudices against working with one's hands as it is considered lowly and demeaning', vocational education, which was supposed to an integral part of the 10+2 system introduced in the mid 1960s post the Kothari Commission, went for a toss'. Even a well-intentioned effort to speed up skill development by creating a new ministry of skill development can backfire. They believe that the way out is to stream students into general or vocational line from Class IX. This, they believe will result in 'de-stigmatising vocational education by making it part-and-parcel of the school and university system'. The other side to the jobs issue: Many businesses can't grow in India because people with those skills don't exist. This happens most acutely when the technological paradigm of a time is going through massive change as we are living through now as the Information Age gathers steam. Curricula fall behind and it is no easy task to bring curricula up to speed. For example, in today's critical skill Machine Learning, curricula in our top ranking engineering colleges and management schools are lagging times by five years. It lags in engineering college because statistics is not a core subject there and it lags in management schools because programming languages such as R and Python are not core subjects. The transition from a world of exactness to one of probabilities is not appreciated in engineering college and the transition of managers from those who supervise others to those who roll up their sleeves and do computations themselves is not appreciated in management schools. In other engineering and management colleges, the lag is probably 10 years and in polytechnics and ITIs by 25 years. If this is not corrected immediately, Indian companies will fall behind international competition, thereby leading to job contraction. And our election season may turn chaotic. Ajit Balakrishnan, founder and CEO of Rediff.com, is the author of The Wave Rider, A Chronicle of the Information Age. You can reach him at ajitb@rediffmail.com 'His revelation about what went on behind the scenes make it abundantly clear that the BJP must have indulged in similar tactics in Goa, Manipur and Meghalaya where it formed a government even though it did not have a majority at first,' says Amulya Ganguli. IMAGE: Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik addresses the media in Jammu, November 22, 2018. Photograph: PTI Photo Satyapal Malik has let the BJP down. 'If I had looked to Delhi, I would have had to call on Sajjad Lone to form a government (in Jammu and Kashmir) and would have been known as a dishonest person all my life,' the J&K governor has said. By choosing to stick to the straight and narrow path instead, he has, first, accused the BJP of not being averse to following a devious route to form a government -- obviously via defections -- in the state. Secondly, his revelation about what went on behind the scenes and his mental reservations about them make it abundantly clear that the BJP must have indulged in similar tactics in states like Goa, Manipur and Meghalaya where it formed a government even though it did not have a majority at first. True, these underhand tricks have never been a secret. It has long been known that parties like the Congress engaged in such manipulative tactics to come to power, including looking upon Raj Bhavans as party offices. However, Malik is the first governor who has let the cat out of the bag. In doing so, he has done a disservice to the party of which he was once the national vice-president. For, not only has he exposed the seamy side of the BJP's functioning, he has also scuttled the party's chances of returning to power in the state in the near future. By throwing light on the clandestine plans of Sajjad Lone of the People's Conference and the unknown would-be defectors from the Peoples Democratic Party and the National Conference, the governor has put these parties on guard vis-a-vis the BJP. It will be possible, therefore, for the PDP and the NC to approach the assembly election which are to be held within the next six months with the confidence of knowing that the disaffected in their parties will lie low and not undermine the two parties in any way. If the current closeness of the PDP and the NC holds, and if they are able to carry the Congress along with them, their success in the polls will be certain. The BJP will then have to rue, first, the failure of its strategy of replacing a bureaucrat like N N Vohra with a politician in Raj Bhavan to facilitate the party's political objectives and, secondly, of its own inability to break the PDP and NC in order to secure a foothold in the Kashmir valley, which it could not achieve when it was the PDP's ally in the government. The BJP will still retain much of its influence in Hindu-dominated Jammu, but the valley with its 96 per cent Muslim population -- the jewel in the crown -- will remain out of reach. The BJP will also be unable to energetically insist for quite some time on the revocation of Article 370 conferring a special status on Kashmir and Article 35A on special residential rights. Since the setback in Kashmir will coincide with the electoral setbacks which the BJP is expected to suffer in mainland India, the party may not be able to look forward to 2019 with great optimism. Amulya Ganguli is a writer on current affairs. 'If Narendra Modi and Amit Shah will campaign here, the BJP's defeat will be bigger.' IMAGE: Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje with Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi at a rally in Jaipur, October 6, 2018. Photograph: PTI "Eighty per cent of the people who are with me are actually BJP people. The BJP's political division is a reality in Rajasthan," Ghanshyam Tiwari, who resigned from the Bharatiya Janata Party, tells Shikha Shalini. You have been a six-term MLA, a minister twice. You have been associated with the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) for many years. How did a person of your seniority and standing suddenly decide to leave the BJP and form your own party? This is not sudden. I have been opposing Vasundhara Raje's government in the assembly and outside of it for the last four years. There were some issues such as the Criminal Laws (Rajasthan Amendment) Bill 2017 through which the Rajasthan government tried to impose censorship on the media, even the police. The chief minister tried to protect public servants in the state from being investigated. It also barred the media from reporting on accusations of such wrong doings till the government had sanctioned a probe. She brought the Special Investment Region Bill, that empowers 'designated authorities' to enter any land or building once the state government has declared 'any area of land to be a Special Investment Region'. This was totally against the interests of the farmers. The Rajasthan government passed the Land Pooling Schemes Bill which was actually an amended Land Acquisition Act passed by the Centre. In the same way, she passed the Rajasthan Ministers Salaries (Amendment) Bill, 2017 that paved way for the entitlement of a government bungalow, car and other facilities for life to former chief ministers of Rajasthan. I was fighting against all these things. I continuously fought in the assembly on the issue of unemployment, for farmers' debt waiver and electricity. I saw that the Centre was not stopping her from doing all this. I felt democracy was in danger and the state government was behaving like a dictatorship. There was an undeclared emergency. In the end, I thought I should just part company from them. IMAGE: Ghanshyam Tiwari resigned from the Bharatiya Janata Party and floated the Bharat Vahini Party in Rajasthan. Photograph: Kind courtesy Siddharthyit/wikimedia.org Are you talking about an undeclared Emergency only in Rajasthan or are you pointing towards the Centre? An undeclared Emergency is in force both in Rajasthan and the Centre. I will now work against undeclared Emergency in the country and state to ensure that no one tries to strangulate democratic institutions for power. Is your resentment more against the chief minister than the central leadership and the BJP? The party in Rajasthan has gone into the chief minister's pocket. And the party people who were associated with ideology and organisation have come with me. There is a secret agreement in place between the chief minister and BJP President Amit (Anilchandra) Shah. We have formed the Bharat Vahini Party and I am working with my party. Is your resentment mainly directed against Amit Shah? Or Narendra Modi too? Now I am not under any leadership. The central leadership is Vasundhara's central leadership. What is your objection to the Centre? I will make my objections to the Modi government public at the appropriate time. But right now I can say that there is nothing like a system of the Union Cabinet. All power has been concentrated in two people, Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. There is no internal democracy. The government's decision of demonetisation was not good for the economy. Implementation of GST has broken the backbone of businesses. Business centres in Rajasthan are angry with the Modi government. You voiced your disapproval last time too when Raje formed a government. Is this a policy conflict or personal disagreement? We have no differences on the personal level. My disagreements are policy-oriented. I do not like feudalism in democracy. I was associated with the JP (Jayaprakash Narayan) movement. That is why I am fighting to protect democracy. I fought the Emergency then and I am still fighting. Raje was involved in controversies like the Lalit Modi 'scam'. There must be a reason why she is still so valuable to the party. I had written a letter to Amit Shah regarding these allegations. I asked whether there is collusion or they have partnerships, but I have not received any reply yet. In your opinion, who is going to form the government after the assembly elections? In Rajasthan, the writing is on the wall: That under the leadership of Raje, the BJP will taste its worst defeat. Do you see the state heading for a coalition government? What will be your role in it? Will you be neutral or support someone? Only after election results can we talk about coalition and support. But it is clear that the BJP will not get a majority. If Narendra Modi and Amit Shah will campaign here, the BJP's defeat will be bigger. Who are in the Third Front? You will contest how many seats? For this, we are talking to many people. All non-Congress, non-BJP groups will come together. Together they will create a third front. Don't you think fighting separately will help the BJP? Eighty per cent of the people who are with me are actually BJP people. The BJP's political division is a reality in Rajasthan. When you talk about power and organisation, most of the people of the organisation are with us and the power-hungry people are with them. How do you rate the chances of the Congress in Rajasthan? In Rajasthan, the BJP and the Congress government have succeeded each other. In such a situation, the Congress is also hopeful that people who are dissatisfied with Raje will vote for them. The Delhi high court on Wednesday allowed Central Bureau of Investigation director Alok Kumar Verma and joint director A K Sharma to inspect in the Central Vigilance Commission's office the case file relating to FIR against the agency's special director Rakesh Asthana. Justice Najmi Waziri also extended till December 7 its order directing the CBI to maintain status quo regarding proceedings against Asthana, who has sought quashing of the FIR against him in a bribery case. The court permitted Verma to inspect the case file, stated to be in the custody of Central Vigilance Commission, on Thursday at 4:30 PM in the CVC's office where CBI's Superintendent of Police Satish Dagar will be present at the time of inspection. The case files and documents have been sent to the CVC for scrutiny following the Supreme Court's order directing the vigilance body to inquire against Verma. The high court's order came after the counsel for Verma and Sharma orally submitted that they be allowed to inspect the file to "refresh" their memories as there are allegations of mala fide against them in Asthana's petition. Sharma has been asked to go to CVC's office to inspect the case record on Friday. During the hearing, the court allowed the plea of Sharma's counsel that he be allowed to placed in a sealed cover certain incriminating material to maintain the sanctity of the institution. Advocate M A Niyazi, representing Sharma, said the documents are not personal and they are also with the CBI but he just wanted to point out the sensitive material which should be looked into by the court and the agency. The court directed that the documents given by Sharma be kept in sealed cover till further orders. Senior advocates Amrendra Sharan and Dayan Krishnan, appearing for Asthana and CBI Deputy SP Devender Kumar respectively, said Sharma should give the material to the CBI and if reliance is placed on the documents given by him in the court, they should also be allowed to go through the material. The court also granted a week's time to Verma to file his response to the petitions of Asthana and Kumar seeking quashing of FIR against them. Advocate Rahul Sharma, appearing for Verma, said there are allegations of mala fide against him in Asthana's petition and he needs to rebut the averments but did not having access to the case file. CBI's counsel Rajdipa Behura said the case file was not in the possession of the agency and they were with the CVC. Asthana's counsel submitted that the Supreme Court had given in sealed cover the CVC's findings of the probe against Verma on corruption allegations to the CBI chief. To this, Verma's counsel said he was not given the entire case file. The court was hearing separate pleas of Asthana, Kumar and middleman Manoj Prasad seeking quashing of the FIR against them. The high court on October 23 had ordered the CBI to maintain status quo on proceedings against Asthana which was further extended on October 29 till November 1. On November 1, the interim order was extended till November 14 and then to November 28. The October 23 order had made it clear that the agency would not take any coercive step against Asthana. On November 1, both CBI and Asthana had opposed the plea of Additional Superintendent of Police S S Gurm, who has been transferred from Delhi to Jabalpur in the wake of a feud between Verma and Asthana, to be heard in the matter. The CBI in its reply to the pleas of Asthana and DSP Devender Kumar had said allegations against them and others show cognisable offences. Kumar is out on bail at present. The CBI had filed the replies in response to the notice issued to it on the petitions filed by Asthana and Kumar, who was granted bail by the trial court, against the filing of the case. The agency had said it was "handicapped" in its probe against them as the case files and documents have been sent to the CVC for scrutiny following the Supreme Court's order directing the vigilance body to inquire against Verma. Kumar, earlier the investigating officer in a case involving meat exporter Moin Qureshi, was arrested on the allegations of forgery in recording the statement of businessman Sathish Babu Sana who had alleged to have paid bribe to get relief in the case. Amid a ranging controversy over his remarks on dissolving the Jammu and Kashmir assembly, Governor Satya Pal Malik has said the threat of transfer remains as it is not in one's hands. IMAGE: Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik addresses the media in Jammu. Photograph: PTI Photo At a function organised to pay tributes to Congress leader and former minister Girdhari Lal Dogra on his 31st death anniversary here on Tuesday, he mentioned about the threat of transfer. "Girdhari Lal ji dedicated his life to the cause of the poor. As long as I am here, I will definitely come to pay my tributes to him... It (transfer) is not in one's hands. I will not lose my job but the threat of transfer remains, he said. The transfer remark by the governor drew chuckles from the audience. Malik said he was in Madhya Pradesh and was down with fever for the past two days. "But in politics, fever or injury is not taken note of and I returned to be part of this function which was very important for me, given the stature of the departed leader," he said. Malik at another event on Saturday had 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". Though there was no 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 People's Conference leader Lone to form the government, the chiefs of Peoples Democratic Party and National Conference --Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah-- complimented the governor for not taking "instructions" from Delhi thereby stopping the installation of a government of the "BJP and its proxies". However, Lone claimed misrepresentation of facts and gross distortion of "certain events" and said "We remain committed to offering an alternative to the traditional political system of exploitation, arrogance, entitlement and blackmail and will leave no stone unturned to rid the state of the tyranny of dynastic misrule and despotism". 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, he said, "Delhi ki taraf dekhta toh muje Lone ki sarkar banana padhti aur mein ithihas mein ek bayiman aadmi ke tor pe jana 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. Governor's rule was clamped in the state on June 19 for a six-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. Photograph: Umar Ganie for Rediff.com IMAGE: Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorist Naveed Jatt, centre, who was gunned down in an encounter on Wednesday. Pakistan-born Lashkar-e-Tayiba commander Naveed Jhatt, who was wanted in connection with the assassination of journalist Shujaat Bukhari and escaped from custody in February, was gunned down in Jammu and Kashmir's Budgam district on Wednesday, police said. In a major success for the security forces, "most wanted" Jhatt, who was an associate of 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab, was killed along with an accomplice in an encounter in a village in central Kashmir's Budgam area, officials said. Three army personnel were injured in the encounter that claimed the life of the terrorist who had slipped away from the police dragnet at least six times and was involved in multiple attacks in the Valley over the years. The LeT terrorist was a Pakistani national and due process would be followed, Director General of Police Dilbagh Singh said. "We'll be writing to the ministry of home affairs to inform Pakistan to take the body," Singh said. The endgame for Jhatt, alias Hanzalla, started in the early hours of Wednesday when a special operations group of the Jammu and Kashmir police cordoned off a house at Kuthpora Chattergam area of Budgam following an intelligence input about the presence of militants, officials said. A gun battle broke out when those holed up inside the house fired at security forces, they said, detailing the events leading to Jhatt's killing. The forces retaliated and the firing intensified as the terrorists moved from one house to another. The operation was interrupted when locals cried for help from one of the houses and had to be evacuated. During this process, the terrorists fired at the police and army teams, leading to minor injuries to the armymen who were shifted to hospital, officials said. At daybreak, two terrorists were killed. They were identified when security forces started clearing and sanitising the area. One of them turned out to be Jhatt, who was known as a commander of the proscribed terror outfit LeT and staged a dramatic escape from a government hospital here in February this year. "It was swift operation carried out by security forces. We finally got the prize catch Naveed Jhatt, who was a Pakistani national," Singh said. "He has managed to give us the slip in six different encounters but today our boys managed to pin him down," the DGP added. Jhatt was wanted for his complicity in a series of terror crimes, including the killing of noted journalist Shujaat Bukhari in June, attacks on security establishments and many other civilian atrocities, police said. According to disclosures he made earlier, Jhatt, alias Jhutt alias Abu Hanzalla, was born in Multan in Pakistan and was part of Kasab's group at a madrassa in the neighbouring country where he had undergone arms training. The terrorist had undergone intensive training and was good in handling equipment like compasses, GPS, wireless sets and mobile phones installed with Skype software, an official said. Jhatt and his associates crossed over into Kashmir Valley in October 2012, state police records. He notched a long history of terror crime after that. The 22-year-old school dropout from Pakistan was involved in multiple terror strike, including an attack on the Army in Hyderpora in Srinagar, an attack on the Silver Star hotel along the national highway outside the city and three attacks on police and CRPF camps in south Kashmir. He was involved in the killing of an ASI in Pulwama on May 2013, a series of grenade attacks on security forces and the killing of CRPF personnel at Awneera Shopian in August 2013, officials said, giving details. Besides, he was also involved in conspiring and executing several bank robberies and terror attacks in south Kashmir. These include the attack on a court complex in Pulwama on March 2014 in which two policemen were killed and the strike against a polling party in Shopian the following month in which a presiding official, Zai-ul-Haq Wani, was killed and several civilians. He was also believed to be involved in an attack on a police team in Bongam Shopian on June 2014 in which several civilians and policemen were injured. Jhatt escaped from SMHS hospital on February 6 after he was caught in Kulgam in south Kashmir in 2014. He was moved to hospital with suspected scabies after complaining of itchiness to the medical staff at the Central Jail Srinagar. Jammu and Kashmir Police wanted to shift him along with five other prisoners from Srinagar jail to other high security jails outside the Valley but was disallowed from doing so by the sessions court on December 26, 2017. She also said the Kartarpur corridor initiative was not linked to the dialogue process with Pakistan. There will be no dialogue with Pakistan unless it desists from terrorist activities against India, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj declared on Wednesday, in a rebuff to Pakistan a day after Islamabad said it would invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit. She also said the Kartarpur corridor initiative was not linked to the dialogue process with Pakistan. "That invitation has already been given. But, we are not responding to it positively. Because, as I said, that unless and until Pakistan stops terrorist activities in India, there will be no dialogue and we will not participate in SAARC," Swaraj told a press conference. Swaraj's statement came hours before Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was to lay the foundation stone for the much-awaited corridor linking Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan's Kartarpur -- the final resting place of Sikh faith's founder Guru Nanak Dev -- to Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India's Gurdaspur district. Noting that Pakistan promoting terror activities in India came in the way of resumption of talks, the minister said, "I already visited Pakistan and this was me only who started the comprehensive bilateral dialogue. But what happened after that? Pathankot, after that Uri. So, we have to take a big picture." Maintaining she was happy that Pakistan had responded positively to the Kartarpur corridor for the first time, Swaraj said that did not mean the bilateral dialogue will start only on this". "Terror and talks cannot go together, she asserted. Pakistan Foreign Office Spokesman Mohammad Faisal had said on Tuesday that Prime Minister Modi will be invited to that country for the SAARC summit. India had pulled out of the 19th SAARC summit that was to be held in Islamabad after the deadly terrorist attack on an Indian Army camp in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir in September that year. The summit had to be called off after Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan also declined to attend. Maldives and Sri Lanka are the other two members of the regional grouping. No summit meeting of SAARC has happened ever since. Swaraj, who is campaigning in Hyderabad ahead of the Telangana elections on December 7, said, "The moment Pakistan stops terrorist activities in India, dialogue can start but the dialogue is not connected with only the Kartarpur corridor." She declined to comment on Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu visiting Pakistan for the event. On Sidhu giving credit to Imran Khan for the corridor initiative and the latter saying it happened due to efforts of the cricketer-turned-politician, Swaraj said the Government of India, whichever government was in power, sought Kartarpur corridor. "It happens G (government) to G (government). Any one individual can't take decision with any government. They were also telling to him that you write. You speak. Such decisions happen government to government. Not through any one individual," she said, calling attempts to claim credit for the corridor one upmanship. On reports about Sidhu going to Pakistan against the advice of Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh following the recent grenade attack in Amritsar that claimed three lives, Swaraj said the CM said he was told by the minister that it was a private visit. She said details related to Kartarpur corridor, including whether it would be visa-free, among others, are yet to be decided. 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. Archis Mohan reports. Sangram Singh, an electrician in his early-30s, returned home to Bikaner from Jaipur a year ago. 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. The youth complain of lack of jobs, even for those skilled, frequently in Rajasthan. In 2013, the Vasundhara Raje-led Bharatiya Janata Party 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. 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. 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 Modiji probably did several decades ago," 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. "Modiji loves the country. I also love my country. That is why I support Modiji," Meena, 21, said. He said he was keen to get out of his village, and work in the city. According to 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 3,00,000 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. Around 200,000 people from China now have a small piece of themselves on Mars. NASA's InSight spacecraft has safely touched down on Mars after six months travel from Earth. While designed for studying the interior of the planet, InSight also carries a silicon microchip which includes the names of 2 million people from Earth on it. 200,000 of those names are from China. The "Send Your Name to Mars" promotion was launched by NASA in 2015 as a way to generate more public interest in space exploration. With interest in the promotion exceeding expectations, NASA opened up its website again in 2017 to allow more people the opportunity to send their name to the "red planet." "Mars continues to excite space enthusiasts of all ages," said Bruce Banerdt, the InSight mission's principal investigator at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "This opportunity lets them become a part of the spacecraft that will study the inside of the Red Planet." The promotion also includes what NASA is calling "frequent flier" points, which calculates an individual's active involvement on its website as InSight does its work on Mars. Participants are able to see their "frequent flier" miles by downloading a "boarding pass" on NASA's website. United States President Donald Trump will hold a trilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe this week on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Argentina, amidst China flexing its muscles in the strategic Indo-Pacific region. The trilateral, which would be an expansion of the bilateral meeting between Trump and Abe, is part of the series of meetings the US president would have on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires on November 30 and December 1, the White House said. 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 Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Briefing reporters ahead of the G-20 Summit, US National Security Advisor John Bolton said on Tuesday that Trump will meet with Abe, and then the two leaders will meet jointly with Modi. China is engaged in hotly contested territorial disputes in the South China Sea, and with Japan in the East China Sea. Both the areas are said to be rich in minerals, oil and other natural resources. China claims almost all of the South China Sea. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have overlapping claims in the waterway, which includes vital sea lanes through which about $3 trillion in global trade passes each year. The US has been conducting regular patrols in the South China Sea to assert freedom of navigation in the area where Beijing has built up and militarised many of the islands and reefs it controls in the region. Prime Minister Modi, in his keynote address at the Shangri La Dialogue in Singapore in June expounded India's stand on the strategic Indo-Pacific region. The Indo-Pacific is a natural region. It is also home to a vast array of global opportunities and challenges, he said. "India does not see the Indo-Pacific Region as a strategy or as a club of limited members. Nor as a grouping that seeks to dominate. And by no means do we consider it as directed against any country. A geographical definition, as such, cannot be," the prime minister explained. "India stands for open and stable international trade regime. We will also support rule-based, open, balanced and stable trade environment in the Indo-Pacific region, which lifts up all nations on the tide of trade and investment," he said. President 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. "The president will meet with President Putin and have a working dinner with President Xi," National Security Advisor Bolton said. Prime Minister Modi will also meet Chinese President Xi on the sidelines of the summit. It would be their fourth meeting in last seven months. Modi will also meet UN 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 the European Union and European Council. Polling in Madhya Pradesh was marred by complaints of faulty EVMs and voter verifiable paper audit trail machines. IMAGE: People wait with their identity cards to cast their votes for the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections in Jabalpur. Photograph: PTI Photo The voter turnout in Madhya Pradesh went up whereas it saw a small dip in Mizoram on Wednesday, the Election Commission said. In Madhya Pradesh, a record 75 per cent voters turned up at polling stations to exercise their franchise. In 2013, the polling percentage was 72.13 per cent. Madhya Pradesh has 5.04 crore eligible voters. Mizoram recorded 80 per cent voter turnout which was 83.41 per cent in 2013. In the 2008 assembly polls, it was 82.35 per cent, it said. "The voter turnout (in Mizoram) has been 80 per cent but it may rise as the process to ascertain the final figure is still going on," Ashish Kundra, Chief Electoral Officer of Mizoram, said late Wednesday. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the turnout was 61.06 per cent. IMAGE: People wait in queues to cast their votes in Jabalpur. Photograph: PTI Photo In Madhya Pradesh, around 3,00,782 government employees, including 45,904 women, were on poll duty and 65,341 polling stations were set up. Voters turned out in large numbers in three constituencies in Naxal-affected Balaghat district with the tally being 75.05 per cent in Baihar, 79.07 per cent in Lanjhi and 80.05 per cent in Paraswada, officials said. Polling in the state was marred by complaints of faulty EVMs and voter verifiable paper audit trail machines. IMAGE: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan along with his family after casting his vote in Budhni on Wednesday morning. Photograph: Courtesy @ChouhanShivraj/Twitter The state Chief Electoral Officer V L Kantha Rao told reporters that 1,145 EVMs and 1,545 VVPATs were replaced after complaints of technical snags. About 2.5 per cent (polling) machines were replaced, Rao said, adding this percentage was around two per cent in other states where elections were held recently. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who is seeking a fourth term, and his wife Sadhana Singh cast their votes at his native village Jait, which is part of his Budhni assembly constituency. Polling was held between 8 am and 5 pm in 227 seats, while in naxal affected areas of Lanji, Paraswada and Baihar the voting time was between 7 am and 3 pm. IMAGE: Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan along with her grand-daughter shows her finger marked with indelible ink after casting her vote in Indore. Photograph: PTI Photo Those who were in the queue at the polling booths till 5 pm were allowed to vote, Rao said, adding polling there was underway at 2,200 polling stations. "There was no demand for re-polling. Poll officials received 386 complaints and all of them were resolved," he added. Three employees died due to "health reasons" while performing poll duty in Dhar, Indore and Guna districts, he said. At Gadhpura village in Bhind district, a person was injured in violence but it was not poll-related, he said. The incident happened "far from the booth" and was related to enmity between two groups, he added. IMAGE: Congress leader Kamal Nath after casting his vote in Chhindwara. Photograph: ANI On reports that some EVMs were found in a hotel, Rao said, "We got information that a sector officer in Shujalpur was staying in a hotel along with ballot machines. On getting information, a team of officers reached the hotel and seized the machine. The officer concerned was removed (from poll duty) and the polling team was sent along with a new sector officer." Leaders of Congress, which is in a straight fight with BJP to win the crucial election in the central Indian state, claimed that EVMs at many places malfunctioned. "There were several complaints that EVMs at many places malfunctioned. We had requested the Election Commission that voting time in these polling booths should be extended to compensate for the delay," Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia said. The Commission should compensate for time wasted in replacing EVMs by extending polling time, the Guna MP said. IMAGE: Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia shows his ink-marked finger after casting his in Gwalior. Photograph: PTI Photo State Congress president Kamal Nath said there were reports from across the state that EVMs did not work at many places. "This affected polling. Long queues were witnessed..." he said. Chief Election Commissioner O P Rawat said in Delhi there are provisions for the extension of time and local officers (in Madhya Pradesh) were empowered to take a call on the issue. Nath cast his vote in Chhindwara district while Scindia, the party's state campaign committee chief, exercised his franchise in Gwalior. As many as 2,899 candidates, including 1,094 independents, are in the fray for 230 seats, but the main contest is between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.. The state has 5.04 crore eligible voters. Altogether 3,00,782 government employees were on poll duty and 65,341 polling stations were set up for polling, which was peaceful, Rao said. IMAGE: Voters show their identity card as they stand in a queue at a polling station during the Mizoram assembly elections at Kanhmun. Photograph: PTI Photo Mizoram had an electorate of 7,70,395, which included 3,94,897 female voters. There were 209 candidates, 15 of them women, in the fray. Polling was held in all 40 assembly seats in the northeast state. IMAGE: Mizoram Ccief minister Lal Thanhawla and his wife Lal Riliani show their ink-marked fingers after casting their vote at Zarkawt-II polling station in Aizawl. Photograph: PTI Photo Of the 1,179 polling booths, 47 were classified 'critical' and as many as 'vulnerable' by the Election Commission. Chief Electoral Officer Ashish Kundra earlier told reporters that the highest turnout of 81 per cent was reported at Serchhip seat, where Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla is one of the contestants. IMAGE: A Riang tribal woman brings her child at a polling station to cast her vote at Kanhmun, Mizoram. Photograph: PTI Photo The polling in Kanhmun ended at 3 pm, while for the rest of the state the time was 4 pm. "I congratulate the Mizo people for free, fair and peaceful elections. My special gratitude to the Mizo civil society, particularly Young Mizo Association. They helped the election authority in every possible manner... ," said Kundra, who had replaced S B Shahshank less than a fortnight before the polls. Shahshank had been removed by the Election Commission following large-scale protests by civil societies after he complained against Mizoram's Principal Secretary (home) Lalninmawia Chuaungo for playing an active role in the revision of electoral roll of Bru refugees lodged in the Tripura camps since 1997. IMAGE: People queue-up to vote at a polling station in Kanhmun, Mizoram. Photograph: ANI In Mizoram, around 55 per cent of Bru voters in six relief camps in Tripura came to Aizawl and exercised their franchise at the 15 special polling booths created for them after public outrage over their place of voting. There was apprehension that the voter turnout of Bru refugees would be very less as some of their leaders were initially reluctant to come to Mizoram and demanded the earlier system of exercising their franchise at the relief camps itself. Zhong Zhong, the world's first cloned monkey, had its first birthday on Tuesday. The healthy primate is living with another cloned monkey named Hua Hua at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Neuroscience in the city of Suzhou, according to Shanghai Observer. Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua are clones created by scientists at the institute using somatic cell nuclear transfer, which was the same technique used to create the world's first cloned animal, Dolly the Sheep. "The purpose of cloning monkeys is to produce animal models that are helpful for medical research and human health", said Sun Qiang, the director of nonhuman primate research at the institute. One of the next major milestones in the research will come in three to four years time, when scientists will learn if the pair have the ability to reproduce. Authorities in China have said they have no plans to allow human cloning following the success of the monkey experiments. WOODBURY The Fine Line Art Gallerys Holiday Art Show Miniature Masterpieces features artwork perfect for gift-giving. The exhibit will include small works of art, such as miniature paintings, little prints and photographs of winter landscapes, ornaments created by award-winning Connecticut artists. These diminutive works of art will be available for purchase through Dec. 30. The artists of Fine Line Art Gallery have compiled a collection of 12 Holiday Cards, available only at the gallery. This unique assortment of cards depicts winter and holiday scenes. Traditional-sized fine art paintings in oil, acrylic, pastel, watercolor, prints, archival photographs, beaded jewelry, pottery, fused glass, hand-dyed silk and wool woven scarves will also be on exhibit. The Fine Line Art Gallery, a cooperative venture consisting of 15 artists, is committed to celebrating and encouraging the work of the many talented artists in the Connecticut area. Prices are reasonable, and during gallery business hours, there is always an artist on site, eager to discuss the artwork, the media, and the creative process. Fine Line Art Gallery is located at 319 Main Street South in Woodbury. For more information, please visit the Fine Line Art Gallerys website at www.finelineartgallery.com or phone the gallery 203-266-0110. (off hours call Mally DeSomma at 203-574-3954) Gallery hours are Thursday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free. Ample parking is available. Manny Santos, the former Meriden mayor and GOP candidate for Connecticuts 5th District who lost the Nov. 6 election to Democrat Jahana Hayes, has criticized Republican leaders for poor support during the campaign. There were some Republican leaders who did a pretty good job, but there were just not enough of them and it was not coordinated well enough, Santos said Tuesday during a telephone interview. LITCHFIELD - A motor-vehicle crash into a utility pole has closed part of Route 202 on Wednesday morning. The state Department of Transportation says the road is closed near Cathole Road. KENT Travel and history author Martin Marty Podskoch is hoping to give Connecticut residents a chance to explore every one of the 169 municipalities in the state of Connecticut with his new book, Connecticut 169 Club: Your Passport and Guide to Exploring Connecticut. The book is a collective effort. Podskoch recruited the best and the brightest Connecticut writers, historians and officials, and each contributing a passage about their towns histories, haunts; food fixes and landmarks. In Kents case, Kent historian, Marge Smith wrote the write-up on Kent. Podskoch and Smith will share stories about the book, followed by the opportunity to purchase and have one or both of them sign the book, at the Kent Memorial Librarys Reading Room on Wednesday, Dec. 12, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Podskoch,, a retired reading teacher from Delhi, NY who now lives in East Hampton, has compiled interesting information for his new Connecticut Travel Guide Book on the 169 towns, cities and villages in the State of Connecticut in the hopes of encouraging people to visit them all. Smith grew up at South Kent School, where her parents were both teachers. She graduated from Kent Center School, Kent School and Lafayette College with a BA in History. Coming back to Kent after college, temporarily she thought, she found work as warehouse manager for a small book distributor, and has been here ever since. She spent many years at the Kent Greenhouse and then the Litchfield County Times, before beginning her own landscape business. She volunteered for many years for the Kent Historical Society during that time, and was finally hired as its first paid Executive Director in 2000. The job as Assistant Director at Sharon Historical Society soon followed. The guidebook, The Connecticut 169 Club: Your Passport and Guide to Exploring Connecticut, navigates readers onto Connecticut back roads to meet and merge with fascinating neighbors and uncover cool curiosities tucked into the 169 towns and cities in the Nutmeg State. Visit them all; get your passport book signed or stamped in each of the burgs, make notes in the space provided and youre a member of an exclusive club, with an official Leatherman patch. The patch commemorates this legendary vagabond, who during the late 1800s - in head-to-toe leather - travelled a 365-mile circuit between the Hudson and Connecticut Rivers while camping out in caves. This is a redux of the authors highly praised first passport volume, Adirondack 102 Club, a guidebook on the 102 towns in the Adirondack region. It is inspired by Vermonts 251 Club - made famous by the 1954 writings of Professor Arthur W. Peach, who was all about seeking adventure on the back roads and it continues today. This event is free and open to the public. To register or for more information call 860-927-3761; email kmlinfo@biblio.org; stop by the library; or visit kentmemoriallibrary.org. Toy donations needed at Friendly Hands TORRINGTON Friendly Hands Food Bank is currently looking for donations of new and unwrapped toys for local children and families. Gift cards are also welcome The food bank is also in need of families, individuals and/or clubs/organizations to adopt a child or family for Christmas presents as well. Those who are interested in adoption are asked to call 860-482-3338 or stop by the food bank at 50 King Street, Torrington, Monday through Thursday between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. All items donated need to be dropped off at the food bank at 50 King Street, Torrington as soon as possible, no later than Thursday, Dec. 13. Any and all donations are welcome. TheatreWorks taking one-act play entries NEW MILFORD TheatreWorks New Milford, a 501(c)(3) non-profit theater in New Milford, is now accepting submissions for its first 10 Minute Play Festival, Tales from the Brookside. Submissions must be sent online at http://theatreworks.us/playfestival-event.php no later than Feb. 14, 2019. Only submissions sent this way will be accepted. Plays must be 10 miniutes in length, with a one-time submission fee of $5. TW Playwrights Workshop, held each Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the theatre, is available to help further development of a play. Both beginners and experienced playwrights are welcome. The festival/competition will be led by Jocelyn Beard and held at TheatreWorks New Milford June 4-8, 2019. A total of 20 10-minute plays will be selected by a panel of judges from among those submitted. The selected plays will be presented once on one of the first three performance dates, June 4, 5 or 6 at 8 p.m. Two plays from each night, voted on by the audience, will move into the semi-finals on Friday, June 7 at 8 p.m. Four plays will be chosen from the semi-final performances for the finals on Saturday, June 8 at 8 p.m. Cash prizes will be awarded to the winners in each category. Contact the theatre at info@theatreworks.us or 860-350-6863 if you have any questions. Torrington to hold Pearl Harbor Day Observance TORRINGTON The Torrington Veterans Memorial Committee and its member groups, invites the public, military personnel and veterans, to join them in the annual Pearl Harbor Day Observance program on Friday, Dec. 7. The program will be held, rain or shine, at Torringtons Coe Park and will begin approximately 12:30 p.m. If it rains or snows, the ceremony will be held inside the Coe Memorial Park Civic Center. The public is invited and encouraged to attend, to pay tribute to the men and women, those who survived, those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country on that day 77 years ago, and their families, committee members said. If anyone has an American flag that is torn, faded, or otherwise damaged they may bring it to the ceremony and a member of a veterans organization will take the flag and see that it is properly retired. If any organization would like to participate in the program by placing a wreath in observance of the day, contact the Veteran Service Office at 860 489-2531 by 3 p.m. on Monday Dec. 3. WINSTED As an attorney who represents clients who have been injured through negligence or other liability issues, John Barylick has a quick answer about why such incidents can occur. The theme throughout my career, what is common with the bad actors, is greed, he said. Barylick will share his experiences in the legal profession at the Leaders in Law series on Dec. 6 at The American Museum of Tort Law in Winsted. For instance, Barylick, who is from Providence, R.I., represented more than 50 families of victims who were killed or injured in the Station Nightclub fire in West Warwick, R.I., in 2003. It was a tragedy of unprecedented scale, Barylick said in an interview. He described the nightclub as a rundown roadhouse that was over the hill. Records show that so many fans of the 80s heavy metal band Great White were allowed by the owners to pack into the club that the crowd far exceeded the rooms capacity. The fire killed 100 members of the audience and injured 230 more after a display of pyrotechnics ignited the highly flammable soundproofing around the bandstand. The owners of the club, brothers Jeffrey and Michael Derderian, failed to install a sprinkler system in the building, according to an article by former Boston Globe reporter Stephen Kurkjian. The system was required by state law, Kurkjian said. The settlement from the civil suit filed by Barylick and seven other law firms totaled $176 million, according to a release from the tort museum. After the settlement, Barylick said he realized I probably knew more about (the event) than anyone else. He decided to write a book because if its not documented, the information would be lost. The book Killer Show, is required reading, Barylick said, for would-be firefighters who are studying code enforcement. In fact, the audience at Barylicks presentations about the nightclub fire is often made up of more fire service personnel, he said, than members of the general public. His presentation is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the tort museum, 654 Main St. A donation of $20 is requested. Those planning to attend are asked to reserve a seat by calling 860-379-0505, or emailing joan@tortmuseum.org The Chinese mainland welcomes exchanges and cooperation with Kaohsiung and other cities and counties in Taiwan, a mainland spokesperson said Wednesday. Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, made the remarks at a press conference in response to Kaohsiung mayor-elect Han Kuo-yu's comments about recognizing the 1992 Consensus. Noting that the 1992 Consensus is the political foundation of the peaceful growth of the cross-Strait relations, Ma said city-to-city exchanges and cooperation should be based on a correct understanding on the nature of the cross-Strait relations and the nature of such exchanges. Ma said people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait should further promote mutual visits, deepen business cooperation and strengthen exchanges in various fields. Responding to questions about a city forum between Shanghai and Taipei, which will be held in late December, Ma said the forum has been held annually since 2010 and serves as an important platform for exchanges between the two cities and people across the Strait. Ma said he hoped the forum will further deepen exchanges in various fields between the two cities and promote the interests and wellbeing of people across the Strait. NEW HAVEN David Hogg, a Parkland, Fla., teen who became a gun control activist after his high school was the scene of a mass shooting Feb. 14 and who helped mobilize a national movement of young people advocating for gun control, spoke at Southern Connecticut State Universitys John Lyman Center for the Performing Arts Tuesday night to talk about gun violence and policy goals he believes will change the future. Its been 10 months since 17 people were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, prompting yet another national debate about gun control and motivating Hogg and survivors of the mass shooting to take action. From mass shootings in Jonesboro in 1998 to Columbine in 1999 to Virginia Tech in 2007 to Aurora in 2012 to Las Vegas in 2014 to Thousand Oaks, Calif., earlier this month with others throughout and since policy debates seem to be revisited both in the political arena and social circles , often quieting down until the next deadly attack. But Hogg is trying to is keeping the conversation alive. He helped co-found March for Our Lives, a movement that organizes grassroots activism to push for sensible gun control. Some policies and initiatives the group supports include universal background checks, gun violence research, a ban on high-capacity magazines, mandatory safe storage, mandatory theft reporting, and more funding for intervention programs. Young people can change the world as long as they believe in themselves and never give up, Hogg said Tuesday. When asked about his vision for 2019, he said, I hope to be working with the new Congress in the fact that weve taken back over 40 seats from the NRA in this midterm, to fund gun violence research at the CDC, the NIH, the NIJ, and the National Science Foundation and just as Americans to work together to research an issue that kills over 40,000 Americans annually. Hoggs visit to New Haven hit close to home for Connecticut residents who remember the December 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, in which shooting in which 20-year-old Adam Lanza took firearms from an unlocked gun cabinet at home, killed his mother and then went to the nearby school in Newtown and killed 20 children and six educators before killing himself as police closed in. In 2013, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy called the tragedy a wake up call and called for more restrictive gun laws in the state. A round with 30 magazines is a deadly instrument. We need to address the gun show loophole, he said in an interview with CNN. Malloys concerns about the so-called gun show loop hole are reflected in Hoggs platform, as well. Federal law requires background checks for commercial gun sales, but the gun show loophole in some states waives those restrictions when guns are bought from a private party. In Connecticut, background checks are required at the point of sale, even at gun show. Following the Sandy Hook massacre, Connecticut implemented vast changes to state gun laws. Lawmakers banned certain firearms including the AR-15 rifle that Lanza used as well as magazines with a capacity higher than 10 rounds. The legislation also made it necessary to have a permit to purchase ammunition. When asked about the progress of Connecticuts gun laws, Hogg said, I look at these things and I hope people recognize that we shouldnt wait for a mass shooting to change gun laws. Today we need to take action so tomorrow someone doesnt die. You are here: China China's Hainan Province will increase its annual tax-free shopping quota for travelers, according to the Ministry of Finance (MOF) Wednesday. Effective on Saturday, the quota will be raised to 30,000 yuan (about 4,300 U.S. dollars) per year from the current 16,000 yuan, without limit on the number of purchases, said a joint statement from the MOF and China's customs and taxation authorities. Some home medical devices will be added to the duty-free list, including hearing aids and breathing machines. The duty-free shopping policy was implemented in April 2011 and has been improved since with broader coverage and fewer restrictions. Duty-free sales in Hainan jumped 24.1 percent year-on-year in the first half of the year, to 5.29 billion yuan. Authorities in Cambodia are preparing to expel 235 Chinese nationals detained in Takeo province this week for running internet scams, with China set to provide a special flight to bring them home within the next two weeks, sources in Cambodia say. All were picked up on Nov. 26 in raids coordinated with China, and are now being held at a detention center while waiting to be deported, Ouk Hay Seilahead of investigations at the General Department of Immigrationtold RFAs Khmer Service on Wednesday. We arrested those suspects at Chinas request, Ouk Kay Seila said. Those deported will have their names placed on a blacklist barring them from returning to Cambodia, he said. Mondays raid, which was launched in four separate locations, was the first to be carried out in southwestern Cambodias Takeo province, with raids conducted previously in the coastal city of Sihanoukville, Svay Rieng province in the countrys southeast, and the capital Phnom Penh. At least 373 Chinese nationals accused of internet scams and kidnapping were sent home from Sihanoukville from January to October, according to Cambodian sources. Stricter measures called for Also speaking to RFA, former CNRP opposition party lawmaker Ou Chanroth said that expelling Chinese lawbreakers without first trying them in Cambodian courts will not reduce the spread of crime in the Southeast Asian country. [Chinese] crime has recently spread from one province to another. The authorities must take stricter measures against them, he said. Meanwhile, a surge in Chinese investment and in the numbers of migrant workers in Sihanoukville has left local beaches polluted and Cambodian residents struggling to meet higher prices as the cost of living rises, Cambodian sources say. The presence in the city of more than 100,000 Chinese nationals, many of them workers brought in from China as Chinese firms set up casinos or operate power plants and offshore oil platforms in the area, has only made matters worse, sources said. On Nov. 27, Cambodias government issued a public statement dismissing public concerns over the growing Chinese presence in Sihanoukville, saying that local authorities are providing adequate security and stability in the area. In September, outgoing Chinese ambassador to Cambodia Xiong Bo acknowledged the climbing rates of crime among Chinese living in Cambodiaincluding drug and sex trafficking and online or telephone scamsand thanked Cambodian authorities for helping to crack down, according to a Sept. 28 report in the Khmer Times. Reported by RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Richard Finney. Authorities in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong have announced an investigation into the activities of a geneticist who claimed to have edited the genes of twin babies to confer immunity to HIV. Stanford University graduate He Jiankui said the twins' DNA was modified using CRISPR, a technique which allows scientists to remove and replace a strand of genetic material with pinpoint precision. He told a biomedical conference in Hong Kong on Wednesday that his clinical trial was currently on "pause," however, pending an official investigation. "The clinical trial was paused due to the current situation," He told delegates. "For this specific case [of the twins], I feel proud, actually, I feel proudest." He said the twin girls were born a few weeks ago after their DNA was altered to prevent them from contracting HIV. Eight volunteer couplesHIV-positive fathers and HIV-negative mothershad signed up to the trial, with one dropping out before it was paused, he said. "The volunteers were informed of the risk posed by the existence of one potential off-target and they decided to implant," He said, while appearing at the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing at the University of Hong Kong. China's National Health Commission has ordered an "immediate investigation" into He's activities, according to a statement on its website. "This committee is extremely concerned about media reports on Nov. 26 that 'gene-edited babies will be immune to AIDS'," the statement said. "We are ordering an immediate investigation and verification by the health authorities in Guangdong province." "This should focus on the principles of responsibility for the health of the people and ethical science," it said. "It should be carried out according to law and regulations, and the results should be made public as a matter of urgency." He's home institution, the Shenzhen-based Southern University of Science and Technology (SUST) condemned his actions and announced it would cooperate fully with the official investigation. "We are deeply saddened by this incident," the university's biology department said in a post to the school's official social media account. "We express our firm opposition and strong condemnation to the rash conduct of the genetic editing of human embryos in a clinical setting under any circumstance forbidden by law, or where ethical and safety standards haven't been fully tested," the statement said. "This is a serious breach of academic and moral standards." Meanwhile, a union of Chinese scientists issued a statement saying it "resolutely opposes so-called scientific research and biotech applications that violate the spirit of science and ethics," state news agency Xinhua reported. He said on Wednesday that he had funded much of the study himself, working with the Baihualin voluntary organization for people living with HIV and AIDS. "The results of this study were submitted to a scientific journal review, and I also thank Southern University of Science and Technology, even if they did not know about the research," he told the conference. When asked about the source of research funding, He said the study had started out with funding from SUST, but had later paid participants' medical expenses through his company. Criticism of study Zhang Feng, an MIT scientist who attended the conference, said He's study was risky and should be halted. "I think this technology needs more development and improvement," he said. "There are still many questions that need to be answered. Only then can you deeply consider how to develop this technology ... for use in embryos." Baihualin's founder Bai Hua told Hong Kong government broadcaster RTHK that he didn't fully understand the research, and regretted involving the participants. Conference co-organizer David Baltimore, a Nobel laureate from the California Institute of Technology Hes work didn't meet criteria many scientists agreed on several years ago before gene editing could be considered, and would therefore be considered "irresponsible." "I personally dont think that it was medically necessary," Baltimore told the conference, adding that the the study showed a "failure of self-regulation by the scientific community." Qiu Renzong, honorary director of the Center for Applied Ethics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said it was unacceptable that He's research had been published via the ruling Chinese Communist Party's online mouthpiece, the People's Daily website. "The People's Daily is a government operation, but the results of scientific research should be published in scientific journals, not in the media," Qiu told RFA. "It is appalling for scientific research to be published in the media, and it means it is probably fake, or unscientific, and won't stand up to scrutiny." Qiu said He has been suspended from SUST, and that his research plan hadn't been approved by its academic committee. Chinese media reported that He's office and laboratory has now been shut down and sealed off with warning notices as the official investigation, launched on Nov. 27, continues. Reported by Wen Yuqing for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Gao Feng for the Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. Yuan Weijing (L), wife of exiled human rights activist Chen Guangcheng, accepts the Edelstam Prize on behalf of Li Wenzu, wife of disappeared human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhuan, in Stockholm, Sweden, Nov. 27, 2018. Li Wenzu, wife of disappeared human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang, has been awarded Sweden's Edelstam Prize for "exceptional courage" in defending human rights, the organizers said. But the prize was presented to U.S.-based activist Yuan Weijing in her place, as Li was prevented from traveling to Stockholm to receive the award in person. "Actually, I was very unsettled when I found out I had won the award, because so many other relatives and lawyers affected by the July 2015 crackdown have done so much more than I did," Li told RFA on Wednesday. "But I was very moved [to see] photos and videos [of the ceremony]." "There have been so many people who have offered me their silent help over the past three years, and we wouldn't have made it through with their support," she said. "Some people told me that we are opposing an authoritarian power with love." The award ceremony featured a large Chinese character meaning "love," as well as the iconic red buckets used by Li and fellow activists to highlight the plight of detainees. "Everyone who attended the ceremony was given the character for love, as well as a little red bucket," Yuan Weijing told RFA after receiving the award on Li's behalf. "This award is intended as moral support for Li and for the other wives and family members, who, like her, have been fighting for their husbands' rights and freedom," she said. Yuan, who now lives in the United States with her husband, human rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng, said the award should also heighten awareness outside China of the plight of the country's lawyers. "The attention that Mrs. Li Wenzu and the other wives have brought, not only to their husbands plight, but also to the state of the crackdown, is a wonderful example of courageous human rights activism, fighting back with untraditional methods, using online appeals, and visits to jails, prosecutors and courts," Caroline Edelstam, jury chairwoman and co-founder of the Edelstam Foundation, said in a statement on the foundation's website. "China remains an authoritarian one-party state that systematically curtails a wide range of fundamental human rights, including the freedom of expression, association and assembly, and using a system of enforced disappearances," she said. 'Good humor and positive energy' The announcement said Li had been "instrumental in campaigning for the release of the hundreds of lawyers and activists" detained during a nationwide police operation that has targeted more than 300 lawyers, law firms, and related activists since it launched in July 2015. "They have actively looked for families of those affected by the [crackdown], trying to understand their needs and supporting them in every possible manner," it said. "They have traveled the length and breadth of the country, and have even been arrested at times for visiting 'sensitive' family members." It said Li holds together the group of affected families "with her good humor and positive energy," and has come under intense pressure from the ruling Chinese Communist Party for doing so. Wang, who has been held in police detention without trial for three years, has been forced to take medication while in the custody of the Tianjin No. 1 Detention Center, his attorney Liu Weiguo said after being allowed to visit his client for the first time in July. Edelstam said enforced disappearances are "criminal acts, without exception and regardless of circumstances, including state of war, emergency or national security." According to international law, family members of the disappeared are recognized as victims of enforced disappearance as well, she said. The Foundation called on Beijing to free Wang and other detained rights attorneys, and to end its "harassment, threats and retaliatory actions" against Li and the couple's young child. Reported by Shen Hua for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by Ng Yik-tung and Tam Siu-yin for the Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. Activists from western Myanmar's Rakhine state demand the right to control the region's natural resources during a protest in Kyaukphyu township, Nov. 27, 2018. More than 1,000 activists from 17 townships in western Myanmars Rakhine state demanded the right to control the impoverished regions natural resources most notably oil and gas during a protest in Kyaukphyu township on Tuesday, an event organizer said. The Arakan Natural Resources and Environmental Network (ANREN), an alliance of roughly 30 Rakhine civil society and environmental rights groups that has organized other demonstrations and marches over control of the regions natural resources, led protests on both Monday and Tuesday. ANREN leader Kyaw Zeya Kyaw, who is a member of the organizations Peoples Resource Network, told RFAs Myanmar Service that people staged the demonstration now a biennial event since 2016 calling for Rakhine state, and not the central government, to control its own resources. The participants chanted slogans in support of Rakhine states rights over its land and natural resources and over the right to decide which development projects should be pursued in the region. On Nov. 25, ANREN sent an open letter to President Win Myint calling for the halting of all development projects in Rakhine state, including the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project, until the countrys constitution can be amended. The charter, drafted in 2008 by a former military junta that ruled the country, gives the central government ownership of all natural resources The charters Article 37 specifies that the state owns all lands and natural resources above and below both ground and water, and states that the government can enact necessary laws to supervise the extraction and utilization of these state-owned resources. ANREN also asked the president to suspend the development of offshore reserves in two blocks of a gas well until the countrys leaders are able to sign a nationwide peace agreement in which all ethnic armies and Myanmar forces would agree to stop fighting. Excluded from benefits Rakhine residents have long complained about the alleged exploitation of their land and natural resources and the uneven division of spoils from large-scale projects that have yielded little or no benefit to poor communities in need of infrastructure, health care, and education. Kyaukphyu is home to a 4,000-acre SEZ that has a natural deep-sea harbor and abundant oil, natural gas, and marine resources as well as land for industrial development. Local residents have complained about the lack of benefits from the U.S. $2.5 billion Shwe pipeline project and deep-water port, which transports oil and natural gas from the countrys offshore reserves overland to China. Rakhine residents have also decried the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project, a transportation corridor for shipping cargo from India's eastern ports to Sittwe seaport in Rakhine state and then on to northeast India via river and highway routes through Myanmar. They say they have been kept in the dark about the project and excluded from its potential benefits, while activists have called attention to its negative impacts on the environment and on local livelihoods. The exploitation and control of land and other natural resources, such as copper, jade, and amber mines, in peripheral minority-inhabited areas of Myanmar has fueled some of the countrys internal conflicts between ethnic armed groups and the national military. ANREN staged the first protest in late November 2016, in which more than 100 activists marched from Rakhines capital Sittwe to Kyaukphyu, demanding that the central government give the state the right to decide and manage its own land and natural resources. In the run-up to the protest, the group collected roughly 300,000 signatures on a petition calling for Rakhine states full control of its land and natural resources. The organization then delivered it to State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyis office, the national parliament, and then-president Htin Kyaw. At a press conference about the petition in September 2016, Oo Hla Saw, a lawmaker from the Arakan National Party who represents Rakhine state's Mrauk-U township in Myanmars lower house of parliament, said that Myanmars civil war is a resource war, the Myanmar Times reported. The letter that ANREN sent to Win Myint on Tuesday noted that the central government has continued to ignore the demands of the Rakhine people. Reported by Min Thein Aung for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. Vehicles and motorbikes line up in Myanmar to pass through a border crossing to China in an undated photo. Chinese authorities have arrested more than 100 Myanmar nationals working illegally in Chinese border towns, as more young people head across the border to escape a dearth of job opportunities and fighting in war-torn Shan state, a Myanmar legal aid worker said Wednesday. About 40 are ethnic Taang youths from Namhsan and Hsipaw (also known as Thibaw) townships who were picked up in the Chinese towns of Ruili and Mengxiuxiang on Nov. 25 and 26, Mine Myo Aung from the Taang Legal Assistance Organization told RFAs Myanmar Service. The laborers must pay about 100 yuan (U.S. $14) for weekly Chinese permits to work as masons and on sugar cane plantations, he said. Authorities arrested the Myanmar nationals when they failed to renew their weekly permits, he said. The laborers were unable to leave their work sites in time to travel to towns to get new documents from the relevant immigration offices. Mine Myo Aung also said that his group will request that local government officials in Muse, a Myanmar border town that serves as a trade hub between the two countries, push for the release of the workers. As Myanmars largest ally and one of its top investors, China not only spends heavily on major infrastructure projects, but also serves as a mediator between ethnic armed groups and the powerful Myanmar military, which are engaged in hostilities in border areas of Shan and Kachin states. China, which provided support to Myanmar to hold a third round of peace talks in July under the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) government, says it firmly opposes any attempt to undermine peace and stability along the China-Myanmar border and any act deliberately obstructing Myanmars peace process. But China is also believed by security experts to be the direct or indirect source of weapons for many of the ethnic armies fighting the Myanmar government. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that fighting between ethnic armies and Myanmar forces, or armed conflict between different ethnic armed groups, in Kachin and Shan states has displaced about 107,000 people during the past seven years. The military blocks U.N. humanitarian aid from reaching civilians who live in ethnic areas not controlled by the Myanmar government. Reported by Kyaw Thu for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. The oldest of more than a dozen staff members arrested after their Uyghur-run publishing house in northwest Chinas Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) released problematic books has been sentenced to 11 years in prison, despite a serious health condition, 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, a 30-year veteran editor, and two former editors-in-chief, the source said that 80-year-old Haji Mirzahid Kerimi, a former editor for the company and celebrated poet, was sentenced to 11 years in prison because he wrote five books that were later blacklisted by the government and delivered a problematic speech during an award ceremony for his poetry. 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. An officer at Kashgars Naisheng district police department told RFA he was aware that Kerimi had been found guilty, but said his case doesnt come under our jurisdiction and was unsure of the length of his sentence. The officer, who did not provide his name, would not specify whether Kerimi was tried because of the books he published or the speech he made at a Gown Awards ceremony honoring his contribution to poetry in 2015. If you contact the officers in charge of his case from the Public Security Bureau (PSB), they can provide you with answers, said the officer. A staff member at the PSBs local Law Enforcement Department told RFA that Kerimis novels focused on the golden era of Uyghur history, putting them atop a list of suspicious books to be investigated by authorities in the XUAR, where members of the ethnic group have long complained of pervasive discrimination, religious repression, and cultural suppression under Chinese rule. There is a retired writer [among the 14 arrested] named Haji Mirzahid Kerimi and his case is the most serious one, the staff member said, adding that he had already been sentenced. I heard that what he said at his Gown Awards ceremony was deemed to be problematic, which led to his arrest. Also all the books he wrote were seen as problematic under the present guidelines. The staff member confirmed that Kerimi had been sentenced to 11 years in prison, but due to his ill health, he is recovering at home under supervision [by authorities]. He has been in poor health and confined to a wheelchair for some time, he said. According to sources, Kerimis poem entitled A Baby in a Box had a significant impact on Uyghur society in 1959, leading authorities to label him a separatist and imprison him for 13 years. Upon his release in 1972, he was subjected to constant surveillance for an additional seven years. Kerimi had worked as a teacher at the Kashgar Uyghur Middle School from 1981 to 1983, and as an editor at Kashgar Publishing House from 1983 until he retired in 2003. 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. Sources recently told RFA 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. 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. Nguyen Huu Quoc Duy (R), and his cousin, Nguyen Huu Thien An, appear in a Vietnamese court on charges of conducting propaganda against the state, Aug 22, 2016. A Vietnamese online activist was released from prison on Wednesday and returned to his home in Khanh Hoa province after serving a three-year sentence for conducting propaganda against the state. Nguyen Huu Quoc Duy had been arrested in 2015 along with his cousin Nguyen Huu Thien An after they were accused of using his Facebook page to incite others to oppose the government. They were subsequently convicted under Article 88 of Vietnams penal code. I called [Duys mother] and she told me he is expected home on the 27th when his sentence is up, Nguyen Lai, a friend of the family, told RFAs Vietnamese Service on Wednesday. Then she called this morning, but I was not able to answer the phone. I assume she wanted to tell me he made it home, he said. Nguyen Huu Quoc Duys mother confirmed Tuesday on Facebook that her son had returned home. Nguyen was arrested on Nov. 21, 2015 after he blacked out his Facebook page and wrote Forty years have passed, DMCS [a four-letter abbreviation for an obscenity attacking Vietnams ruling communists], according to earlier reports. The Aug. 23, 2016 trial for Nguyen and his cousin, who was given a two-year term, was closed to the public, with the defendants mothers barred from entry, sources said. No one could get in, one activist in Nha Trang told RFA. Police had blocked all access to the courthouse during the trial. Article 88 carries a maximum penalty of 20 years' imprisonment for the ill-defined offense of spreading "anti-state propaganda." Human rights groups say Article 88 is used to imprison peaceful activists in the one-party communist nation. Reported by RFAs Vietnamese Service. Translated by Viet Ha. Written in English by Eugene Whong. Afghan officials say at least 30 civilians have been killed in a U.S. air strike in the southern province of Helmand, a Taliban stronghold. The NATO-led Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan said Afghan forces and U.S. advisers came under fire from Taliban fighters in a compound in Garmsir district on November 27 and called in an air strike, but the ground forces were not aware of any civilians in or near the compound. Helmand Governor Mohammad Yasin Khan said Afghan troops had called in an air strike against Taliban fighters in Garmsir, causing both civilian and Taliban casualties. Khan said 16 Taliban insurgents were killed and that an investigation was under way to determine the number of civilian casualties. Attahullah Afghan, the head of the provincial council in Helmand, said the air strike killed at least 30 civilians, adding that it struck a house in the area. Abdul Wadod Popul, a lawmaker from Helmand, also said there had been at least 30 civilian casualties. The United Nations said last month that the number of civilian casualties from air strikes in the first nine months of the year was already higher than in any entire year since at least 2009. Based on reporting by Reuters and AP Belarus has executed two convicted murderers, the human rights group Vyasna (Spring) said, prompting the European Union to redouble its calls for President Alyaksandr Lukashenka's government to impose a moratorium on capital punishment. Vyasna cited the mother of Ihar Hershankou as saying on November 28 that she had been officially informed that the death penalty imposed on her son had been carried out. A day earlier, Vyasna cited relatives of Syamyon Berazhny as saying that they had been informed that the 31-year-old had been executed by shooting. Belarus is the only country in Europe and the former Soviet Union that executes prisoners, drawing persistent criticism from rights activists and EU nations. Berazhny, Hershankou, and two co-defendants were convicted of murder and kidnapping in July 2017, after investigators said they were members of a gang that killed elderly homeowners in order to acquire their apartments or houses. Berazhny and one of his co-defendants, Ihar Hershankou, were sentenced to death and the other two were sentenced to 22 and 24 years in prison. In June, the Supreme Court suspended the implementation of the death sentences against Berazhny and Hershankou amid calls by rights organizations not to execute the men. Amnesty International, which had earlier raised concerns about the planned executions, praised the Supreme Court decision at the time. The EU and rights groups have urged Belarus for years to join other countries in a moratorium on the death penalty. A spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said that "the European Union reaffirms its strong and unequivocal opposition to capital punishment in all circumstances." "The death penalty violates the inalienable right to life enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is a cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment," spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic said in a statement. She called on Minsk "to introduce a moratorium on the use of the death penalty as a first step towards its abolition." "Tangible steps taken by Belarus to respect universal human rights, including on the death penalty, will remain key for shaping the EU's future policy towards Belarus," Kocijancics statement said. According to rights organizations, more than 400 people have been sentenced to death in Belarus since it gained independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Two convicts were reportedly executed in May. Kocijancic's statement said that four executions have been carried out in Belarus in 2018 and two people remain on death row. With reporting by Rikard Jozwiak in Brussels Afghan officials say at least 10 people have been killed and 19 wounded in an attack that targeted a foreign security contractors' compound in the capital, Kabul. Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish said an unknown number of gunmen entered the compound after a car bomb exploded near the facility on November 28, triggering a gun battle with Afghan security forces. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Basir Mujahid, spokesman for the Kabul police chief, said security forces were conducting a clearing operation at the site in eastern Kabul. Mujahid said the target of the attack was the British security contractor group G4S, which is based near an industrial park on the main road leading out of Kabul. According to its website, G4S provides security for the UK Foreign Office in Kabul. Also in Kabul, gunmen attacked the residence of former intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh, who was hosting a meeting with another ex-spy chief, Rahmatullah Nabil. Nabil wrote on Twitter that the attack was "quickly repelled" by Saleh's guards and that both men were "fine." The incidents came only hours after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani told a UN-sponsored conference in Geneva of plans to seek a peace agreement with the Taliban. Efforts to open peace talks with the Taliban have picked up following the appointment of U.S. special peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, but there has been no reduction in the violence which kills thousands of people in Afghanistan every year. The assault on G4S is the second high-profile attack claimed by the Taliban on foreigners in as many days. On November 27, three U.S. soldiers were killed in a blast near Ghazni city in central Afghanistan that was also claimed by the militant group. With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and AP It was a school assignment that raised eyebrows and even caused outrage among parents in St. Petersburg. Fourth-grade students at an elementary school in the northern Russian city were recently tasked by their teacher with writing a "letter to their father on the front line." According to Olga Fedorchenko, whose daughter was among those given the homework assignment, there was no mention made of any specific conflict. But it comes amid rising tensions between the West and Russia, in part over Russian military adventures. Russian forces are deployed in Syria to prop up ally Bashar al-Assad, Russia supports separatists fighting government troops in Ukraine, and there are fears that Kyiv and Moscow are edging toward open war after a recent naval incident off Crimea. Writing in a blog post on November 26, Fedorchenko said that, at least for her child, writing the letter proved distressing, driving her to tears as she imagined him far away in danger. It may have merely been a creative writing assignment, but Russian children have been wooed for jingoistic purposes before. In 2016, President Vladimir Putin himself launched a military-patriotic movement known as the Youth Army. The Youth Army -- or Yunarmia in Russian -- has grown to include 190,000 children aged 8-18, and is spread throughout the country. For Fedorchenko, at least, the homework assignment had a potentially sinister motive. Assignment: WRITING A LETTER TO YOUR FATHER ON THE FRONT LINE!!! What kind of federal idiot thought up this theme for homework?! Does this mean we are preparing for war?! Fedorchenko wrote in a blog post. Her daughter wasnt too enthused about the writing exercise either, judging by her letter, also embedded in her mother's blog post. In it, she writes: Dad, why do you need this war? Come home to us. Everything is wonderful at home. Why do you need this? Elsewhere she writes, I hate the people who started the war!" There are indications the homework assignment may not have been limited to St. Petersburg. In her post, Fedorchenko includes an image of the cover of a fourth-grade literature schoolbook issued by the Education and Science Ministry in 2015. A page inside the book that includes the letter-writing exercise is also pictured. Critics have accused Putin of relying on nationalism and militarism to boost his popularity and unite Russia. His flagging popularity soared after Russia annexed Crimea. His numbers also rose when he first sent in troops to aid Assad in September 2015. To tap into the countrys youth, Putin formed the Youth Army. Some see in it echoes of the Young Pioneers, the official Soviet-era youth movement of the Communist Party. Children as young as 10 are recruited and taught weapons skills, political ideology, and Russian history. The movement is active on social media. Supporters claim it revives tradition and instills pride in history and homeland in the next generation of citizens. Tajikistan has asked Russia for an explanation after a Tajik man died while in the custody of Moscow police. The father of Ilkhomuddin Shoev, who died at a police station in the Russian capital on November 21, told RFE/RL that his son appeared to have been badly beaten. Tajik Interior Minister Ramazon Rahimzoda requested an explanation in a telegram to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Kolokoltsev, that was posted on the Tajik ministry's website on November 28. Rahimzoda also urged Kolokoltsev to personally oversee the investigation into Ilkhomuddin Shoev's death. Moscow police have said that Shoev, a 38-year-old who was working in Moscow while his wife and children remained at home in Tajikistan, died of heart failure. But his father, Sharofiddin Shoev, told RFE/RL that his son's body bore traces of a severe beating and violence. Ilkhomuddin Shoev's body was repatriated on November 27, and he was buried the same day in his native village of Bakhoriston. Moscow police spokesman Maksim Kolosvetov told RFE/RL earlier that an internal investigation had been launched into Shoev's death. Many Tajiks work in Russia abroad and send money to their relatives in Tajikistan, the poorest former Soviet republic. Relations with ethnic Russians and other natives of Russia are often tense, and there have been many allegations of police abuse of workers from Central Asia. TBILISI Georgian opposition candidate Grigol Vashadze has rejected the results of a presidential election won by the ruling party-backed candidate and called for protests. "We do not recognize the election results, we demand to hold snap parliamentary polls," Vashadze said in televised remarks after ex-diplomat Salome Zurabishvili was declared the winner of the November 28 runoff. He called for "a mass peaceful demonstration" in the capital Tbilisi on December 2 against the result. International observers say Georgias presidential runoff won by Salome Zurabishvili was competitive but that the ruling party-backed candidate enjoyed an undue advantage. In a preliminary statement released on November 29, the monitors said the runoff was marred by "harsh rhetoric and isolated incidents of violence," as well as by "an increase in the misuse of state resources, further blurring the separation of party and state." The negative character of the campaign on both sides undermined the [election] process," said the monitoring mission jointly undertaken by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, the OSCE's Parliamentary Assembly, the European Parliament, and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Earlier, the Central Election Commission said the French-born Zurabishvili, who has the backing of billionaire former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili's ruling Georgian Dream party, won 59.52 percent after all the ballots from the November 28 runoff election were counted. Vashadze, the candidate supported by opposition groups led by the United National Movement founded by ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili, received 40.48 percent, the election commission said on its website. Turnout was more than 56 percent, around 9 percent higher than the first round. Outgoing President Giorgi Margvelashvili, who did not seek a second term in the election, congratulated Zourabichvili for her victory but also expressed concern" about the sharp drop of the democratic standards during the runoff. Margareta Cederfelt, head of the international monitoring delegation from the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, said the Georgian people "once again expressed their commitment to democracy by actively participating in the electoral process." "Regrettably, the increased use of harsh rhetoric in the campaign between the two rounds contributed to a rise in tension in the electoral environment," she added. The election monitoring mission was jointly undertaken by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the European Parliament, and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Zurabishvili -- the first woman to be elected president of a post-Soviet republic outside of the Baltics -- claimed victory after exit polls suggested she had won the election, thanking voters for making the "right and principled choice." "We have finally and firmly rejected our past today, the past, which would most of all impede our society's strengthening, moving forward and salvation," she also said. "Our choice is peaceful Georgia, a free country, where citizens have equal rights." Vashadze refused to concede defeat, saying he would wait for full preliminary results. "Whatever the final results of the vote will be, we have reached the main goals, one of them is that united opposition was created, we will stay together and everything begins only now," he said. Meanwhile, Saakashvili claimed "mass electoral fraud" and urged Georgians to "defend our freedom, democracy, and the law." "I call on you to start mass peaceful rallies and demand snap parliamentary polls," he said in an address on the pro-opposition Rustavi-2 television channel. Opposition groups claimed there had been various voting irregularities. Transparency International Georgia said there were potential violations, including the presence of party members at polling stations and efforts to obstruct the work of election observers. Both Zurabishvili and Vashadze are former foreign ministers of the South Caucasus country, which has warm ties with the United States and European Union. Relations with neighboring Russia remain tense following a five-day war in 2008. Zurabishvili barely edged out Vashadze in an inconclusive first round in an election that international observers say was competitive but clouded by "an unlevel playing field" and private-media bias. During the two-week runoff campaign, Transparency International said it had information that fake identification cards were being produced by the Public Service Development Agency to allow Zurabishvili voters to cast several ballots. The Georgian Dream party has denied it had anything to do with the alleged wrongdoing. 'Grudge Match' An opinion poll by the U.S.-based company Edison Research gave Vashadze a 52 percent to 48 percent edge in the final days of a campaign marked by dirty tricks, mudslinging, and allegations of wrongdoing on both sides. "This was an election that continued the Georgian tradition of vicious negative campaigning and was more about 'voting against' than 'voting for'," says Thomas de Waal, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, calling the election "a grudge match" between Ivanishvili and Saakashvili. Saakashvili became president in January 2004 after leading a bloodless revolution that forced Eduard Shevardnadze to step down in November 2003. He served two five-year terms and gained a reputation as a pro-NATO and pro-Western leader. But he was also criticized for his strong-arm tactics and allegations of electoral fraud sullied his reputation. Ivanishvili, the country's richest man and the leader of the ruling Georgian Dream party, ousted Saakashvili's United National Movement from power in the 2012 parliamentary elections. Georgian Dream has ruled since, though Ivanishvili stepped down as prime minister after just over a year in power. In January, Saakashsvili was sentenced in absentia to three years in prison after being convicted of trying to cover up evidence about the 2006 killing of Georgian banker Sandro Girgvliani. The former president, who now lives in the Netherlands, has rejected all the charges, calling them politically motivated. Last Direct Vote Both Zurabishvili and Vashadze espouse a pro-European foreign policy looking to deepen ties with NATO and the European Union. But Vashadze has been critical of Ivanishvili and Georgian Dream's government, alleging it has meddled in the judiciary and has fostered corruption while failing to address poverty in the country. While the president ensures adherence to the constitution by state bodies, the position's crucial function lies in foreign policy as the head of state is the main negotiator of international treaties and accords. The president also appoints ambassadors and other diplomatic representatives. The election was the last direct presidential vote before a new system of indirect voting takes effect. In 2017, the constitution was amended so that future presidents would be elected by a 300-member College of Electors, comprising parliament deputies and local and regional political representatives. With reporting by Civil.ge, AFP, and Alan Crosby An opposition activist in Russia's North Caucasus region of Ingushetia has been sentenced to two years and 11 months in a colony-settlement, a penitentiary in which convicts live close to a facility where they work. In a November 27 ruling, a court in Ingushetia found Magomed Khazbiyev guilty of inciting hatred towards regional leader Yunus-Bek Yevkurov and other officials and law enforcement authorities, as well as illegal weapon possession. Khazbiyev's lawyer, Khedi Ibriyeva said her client's sentence would be appealed. Khazbiyev was detained in his native Ingushetia in January upon arrival from neighboring Chechnya, where he had been under the protection of the Chechen government since 2015. Khazbiyev, a fierce critic of Ingush officials and President Vladimir Putin, has maintained his innocence, saying the charges against him are politically motivated. Chechen authorities placed Khazbiyev under protection after unidentified gunmen opened fire on his car in February 2015 in Grozny. Khazbiyev, a former chairman of the opposition PARNAS party's branch in Ingushetia, has faced pressure from the authorities for years. Based on reporting by Caucasian Knot and Mediazona SEMEI, Kazakhstan -- The jailed former president of Kazakhstan's uranium giant Kazatomprom, Mukhtar Dzhakishev, has been denied early release. A court in the northeastern city of Semei refused to grant early release to Dzhakishev on November 28, his lawyer Nurlan Beisekeev told RFE/RL. According to Beisekeev, his client -- who rights groups say is a political prisoner -- served two-thirds of his 14-year term and deserves to be released on parole. Court officials told RFE/RL that Dzhakishev was denied early release because he did not pay compensation for unspecified costs caused by the crime for which he was convicted. Dzhakishev's supporters and international human rights organizations have urged Kazakh authorities to release him since his arrest in 2009. In March, the Helsinki Committee Norway and the France-based Association for Human Rights in Central Asia called on President Nursultan Nazarbaev to release Dzhakishev for humanitarian reasons, calling him a political prisoner who needs urgent medical assistance. In 2015, the UN Human Rights Committee asked the Kazakh authorities to cancel Dzhakishevs conviction and release him immediately. It said that his rights to a fair and public trial, to have contacts with his lawyers, and to be treated humanely had been violated. Human rights groups in Kazakhstan also called Dzhakishev a political prisoner. Some government critics believe that he was imprisoned because he was a close friend of Mukhtar Ablyazov, a vocal critic of Nazarbaev who has been living in the European Union since 2009. Ablyazov is wanted by Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine on suspicion of embezzling some $5 billion. On November 27, a Kazakh court sentenced him in absentia to life in prison on a murder charge, which he vehemently denies and calls politically motivated. Another Kazakh court earlier sentenced Ablyazov to 20 years in prison in absentia after convicting him of organizing and leading a criminal group, abuse of office, embezzlement, and financial mismanagement. Opponents and rights groups say that Nazarbaev, who has held power in the Central Asian nation since before the 1991 Soviet breakup, has taken systematic steps to suppress dissent and sideline potential opponents. SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine -- Martial law came into force across a large swath of Ukraine on November 28, following a clash at sea that Kyiv called an "act of aggression" by Moscow and Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed was a ploy to boost his Ukrainian counterpart's popularity ahead of an election in March. Ukraine introduced martial law in 10 of its 27 regions -- including all of those that border Russia or have coastlines -- after Russian coast-guard craft rammed and fired on three Ukrainian Navy vessels off the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea on November 25 before seizing the boats and detaining 24 crew members, six of whom were wounded. In two days of hearings, courts in Russian-controlled Crimea ordered all 24 to be held in custody for two months pending possible trial, defying calls from Kyiv and the West for their immediate release and also signaling that the Kremlin wants to cast the incident as a routine border violation rather than warfare at sea. The detention period can be extended, and the Ukranians face up to six years in prison if convicted on charges of illegal border crossing. In his first public comments on the incident that increased already high tensions between Kyiv and Moscow and sparked concerns of a widening of the simmering war between Ukrainian government forces and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, Putin reiterated Russia'a accusation that the Ukrainian boats trespassed in Russian waters -- a claim Kyiv has denied. "It was without doubt a provocation," Putin told a financial forum in Moscow. Following Putins remarks, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed that the detained Ukrainian sailors were on a secret mission. Lavrov said Russian border agents and interrogators turned up documents that "clearly show that these ships had been ordered to not inform the authorities of the Kerch Strait and to try and break into the Sea of Azov secretly." Kyiv has denied all the Russian allegations. Meanwhile, the White House said U.S. President Donald had expressed "deep concern" over Russia's actions. During a phone call on November 28 between Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, "the two leaders expressed deep concern about the incident in the Kerch Strait and the continued detainment of Ukraine's vessels and crew members," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said. Putin has claimed that the confrontation was orchestrated by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who opinion polls indicate faces an uphill battle in his expected bid for a second term in an election now officially scheduled for March 31. "It was organized by the president ahead of the elections," Putin said, adding that Poroshenko "is in fifth place, ratings-wise, and therefore had to do something. It was used as a pretext to introduce martial law." Putin claimed that the Ukrainian "military vessels intruded into Russian territorial waters and did not answer" the Russian coast guard. "What were they supposed to do?" "They would do the same in your country. This is absolutely obvious," he said, responding to a question from a foreign investor at the forum. While laying the blame squarely on Ukraine, Putin -- whose country could face fresh Western sanctions over the clash -- also sought to play it down, saying it was nothing more than a border incident and calling martial law an exaggerated response. Some Kremlin critics suspect that it was Putin who orchestrated the clash, in an attempt to bolster his own approval rating amid anger in Russia over plans to raise the retirement age. In earlier comments at the same conference, Putin said he hopes he will meet with Trump on the sidelines of a G20 summit later this week in Argentina, as planned. Trump cast doubt on the meeting on November 27, telling The Washington Post that he might not meet with Putin as a result of the confrontation between Russia and Ukraine, adding: "I don't like that aggression. I don't want that aggression at all." The Ukrainian parliament late on November 26 voted to impose martial law for 30 days in the provinces that Poroshenko said are the most vulnerable to aggression from Russia. The 10 provinces all border Russia or Moldovas breakaway Transdniester region, where Russian troops are stationed, or have coastlines on the Black Sea or the Sea of Azov close to Crimea. Among other things, martial law gives Ukrainian authorities the power to order a partial mobilization, strengthen air defenses, and take steps "to strengthen the counterintelligence, counterterrorism, and countersabotage regime and information security." It is the first time Ukraine has imposed martial law since Russia seized Crimea in March 2014 and backed separatists fighting Kyiv's forces in a war that erupted in the eastern provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk the following month. Those moves, which prompted the United States, the European Union, and others to impose sanctions on Russia, followed the downfall of a Moscow-friendly Ukrainian president who was pushed from power by a pro-European protest movement known as the Maidan. While Russian forces occupied Crimea before the takeover and are heavily involved in the war in eastern Ukraine, according to Kyiv and NATO, the clash in the Black Sea near Crimea was the first case in which Russia has acknowledged its military or law enforcement forces have fired on Ukrainians. Before Putin made his comments, the Kremlin called the introduction of martial law a reckless act that potentially could lead to the threat of an escalation of tension in the conflict region in the southeast" of Ukraine. Meanwhile, the Russian military said it will bolster the defenses of Russian-controlled Crimea by add one S-400 surface-to-air missile system to the three already deployed there. "The new air-defense missile system will soon be put on combat duty to guard Russian airspace," Colonel Vadim Astafyev said. State-run news agency RIA Novosti said the system will be operational by the end of the year. Moscow claims that Crimea is part of Russia, but the overwhelming majority of countries reject that and still consider it to be part of Ukraine. Poroshenko said that Russia's actions threatened to lead to a "full-scale war" and accused Moscow of mounting a major buildup of forces near Ukraine. "The number of [Russian] units that have been stationed along our entire border has increased dramatically," Poroshenko said in a television interview late on November 27, adding that the number of Russian tanks has tripled. Russia has not commented. The clash in waters near Crimea was by far the biggest confrontation at sea after more than four years of war between Kyiv and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, where more than 10,300 civilians and combatants have been killed. It followed months of growing tension over the waters in and around the Kerch Strait, where Russia opened a bridge leading to Crimea in May. The strait is the only route for ships traveling between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, where Ukraine has several ports. In comments to The Washington Post published on November 27, Trump said he was considering canceling his scheduled meeting with Putin on the sidelines of a Group of 20 (G20) summit in Buenos Aires on November 30-December 1. Trump told The Washington Post he was waiting for a "full report" from his national-security team about the incident. "That will be very determinative," Trump told The Washington Post. "Maybe I won't even have the meeting...I don't like that aggression. I don't want that aggression at all." Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said on November 28 that "preparations are continuing, the meeting was agreed." "We don't have any other information from [U.S. officials]," he said when asked about Trump's comments. Meanwhile, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert urged European states to do more to support Ukraine and said Washington wants to see tougher enforcement of sanctions against Russia. European Union leaders said they were considering ratcheting up sanctions on Russia for illegally blocking access to the Sea of Azov over the weekend and because of its defiance of calls to release the Ukrainian crew members. On November 27, Russian courts in the Crimean cities of Simferopol and Kerch ordered 15 of the Ukrainians to be held in custody for two months. Hearings for the other nine on November 28 produced the same result. The mother of detained sailor Andriy Eyder, Viktoria Eyder, told RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service in the Black Sea port city of Odesa that her son was "wounded and is hospitalized in Kerch." The court rulings put the sailors 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. With reporting by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, the Crimean Desk of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, AFP, AP, Reuters, dpa, BBC, Interfax, and RIA Migrants trying to sneak into Croatia, many with hopes of claiming asylum in an EU country, say they've instead gotten severe beatings from police before retreating to Bosnia-Herzegovina. Croatia strongly denies any violence against migrants at its borders. ST. PETERSBURG, Russia -- An activist with Russian human rights group Vesna (Spring), Valentin Khoroshenin, has been detained over a demonstration of support for Ingushetia residents in their tug-of-war with Chechnya regarding the delimitation of the border between the two Russian republics in the North Caucasus. Khoroshenin told OVD-Info, an independent group that monitors crackdowns on demonstrations, that police detained him early in the morning on November 28. On November 26, Khoroshenin and fellow-activists unfurled a large banner saying "Belongs to Ingushetia" and waved Ingushetias national flag on a bridge in St. Petersburg named after Akhmad Kadyrov, the late former president of Chechnya and the father of its current Kremlin-backed leader, Ramzan Kadyrov. The activists said the goal was to express support for the people of Ingushetia on the controversial deal, which mandated land swaps between Ingushetia and Chechnya. The border agreement was signed behind closed doors on September 26 by Kadyrov and Ingushetia leader Yunus-Bek Yevkurov. The deal sparked large, persistent protests in Ingushetia by opponents who say the deal unfairly hands parts of the region to Chechnya, its larger neighbor to the east. Kadyrov has publicly threatened the protesters in Ingushetia, and there was tension on October 26 when he brought a large entourage into Ingushetia to confront a protest leader, but the meeting ended peacefully. Ingushetia's Constitutional Court ruled on October 30 that the law drafted to support the controversial border agreement was illegal. Russia's Constitutional Court began examining the issue on November 27. But the chairman of Ingushetias Supreme Court, Ayub Gagiyev, refused to take part in the Russian Constitutional Courts hearing, saying that the issue of borders between regions of Russia must be regulated by those regions, not the central authorities in Moscow. Ingushetia and Chechnya were parts of a single administrative region in the Soviet era and split after the 1991 Soviet collapse. With reporting by OVD-Info Slovenia has become the only NATO country to appoint a woman as chief of its military. Major General Alenka Ermenc will officially take up her post as the chief of the General Staff at a ceremony in Ljubljana on November 28. The 55-year-old Ermenc previously served as the army's deputy head. President Borut Pahor, Slovenias commander-in-chief, welcomed her appointment on November 27, and expressed hope she will improve the militarys performance. "The global trend of a deteriorating security situation continues and even though Slovenia is not directly threatened military-wise, it must improve its military safety relatively quickly," Pahor said in a statement. Prime Minister Marjan Sarec said that Ermencs appointment demonstrated the maturity of Slovenian society. The British-educated Ermenc began her military career in 1991, the year Slovenia declared independence from the former Yugoslavia. Slovenia was the first ex-Yugoslav republic to join NATO and the European Union, both in 2004. The Alpine nation of some 2 million people has approximately 7,500 soldiers, including active and reserve forces. Based on reporting by AFP and AP A Tajik woman has spoken of being beaten and thrown out of her home after her husband accused her of not being a virgin when they married, despite a test to the contrary. Such accusations can have disastrous consequences for women in Tajikistan. U.S. President Donald Trump says he is considering canceling his scheduled meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Argentina this week over Russia's detention of Ukrainian sailors. His comments in an interview with The Washington Post published late on November 27 came as the Ukrainian president warned of a "threat of full-scale war" with Russia while European leaders said they were considering a new round of sanctions against Russia because of its capture of three Ukrainian naval ships and their crews following a confrontation at sea off Crimea on November 25. Trump told the Post he was awaiting a "full report" from his national security team about the incident before going through with a Putin meeting that had been expected to address a range of issues from arms control to the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine. "That will be very determinative," Trump told the Post. "Maybe I won't even have the meeting ... I don't like that aggression. I don't want that aggression at all," he said. Trump was due to meet Putin on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires on November 30 and December 1. His comments came after a Russian court on November 27 ordered 12 of the 24 Ukrainian sailors who were captured by Russian forces to be held in custody for two months. Russia has claimed that Ukraine provoked the naval clash in what it has called its "territorial waters" near Crimea, which Moscow forcibly annexed from Ukraine in March 2014 in a move not recognized by most nations. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko warned late on November 27 that the conflict threatens to turn into a "full-scale war," citing Russia's "dramatic" build-up of forces in the area. "I don't want anyone to think this is fun and games. Ukraine is under threat of full-scale war with Russia," the president said in an interview with Ukrainian national television. "The number of [Russian] units that have been stationed along our entire border has increased dramatically," he said, while the number of Russian tanks has tripled. Poroshenko a day earlier won the Ukrainian parliament's approval to put parts of Ukraine they deemed vulnerable to attack from Russia under martial law for 30 days. The clash between Russian and Ukrainian forces in waters near Crimea was the first in that arena after more than four years of war between Kyiv and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 10,300 people. Months Of Heightened Tension 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 strait is the only route for ships traveling between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, where Ukraine has several ports, including Mariupol. European Union leaders said they were considering ratcheting up sanctions on Russia for illegally blocking access to the Sea of Azov over the weekend and because of its defiance of calls to release the Ukrainian sailors. Karin Kneissl, the foreign minister of Austria, which holds the rotating EU presidency, said that the bloc will next month consider further sanctions against Moscow. "Everything depends on the accounts of events and the actions of both sides. But it will need to be reviewed," Kneissl told reporters. Norbert Roettgen, a close ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said the EU may need to toughen its sanctions against Russia, while Poland and Estonia called for more sanctions. 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." She urged the international community "to condemn the Russian aggression clearly, collectively and immediately and demand a stop to the aggression." U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said EU countries should do more to support Ukraine, suggesting they reconsider their support for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline between Russia and Germany, which she said "helps the Russian government." "The United States government has taken a very strong position in...support of Ukraine. We would like other countries to do more as well," Nauert said. "Many governments have imposed sanctions on Russia for its actions in Crimea, in Ukraine. Not all of those sanctions...have been fully enforced," she said. The Kremlin said Putin repeated Russia's position that Ukraine provoked the incident In a conversation with Merkel on November 27, and expressed "serious concern" over Ukraine's decision to impose martial law in regions that border Russia or Moldovas breakaway Transdniester area, where Russian troops are stationed, or have coastlines on the Black Sea or the Sea of Azov close to Crimea. Putin said he hoped "Berlin could influence the Ukrainian authorities to dissuade them from further reckless acts," the Kremlin said. With reporting by AFP, dpa, and Reuters The United States has indicted two Iranian nationals for hacking and using malware as part of a ransomware scheme known as Samsam that U.S. officials said caused millions of dollars in damages. The Justice Department said it had indicted Faramarz Shahi Savandi, 34, and Mohammad Mehdi Shah Mansouri, 27, in a 34-month-long international computer hacking and extortion scheme that affected more than 200 victims, including hospitals and government agencies. The Treasury Department said on November 27 it had sanctioned two other Iranian nationals, Ali Khorashadizadeh and Mohammad Ghorbaniyan, for exchanging digital ransomware payments into rials, the Iranian national currency. Treasury is targeting digital currency exchangers who have enabled Iranian cyberactors to profit from extorting digital ransom payments from their victims, Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Sigal Mandelker said in a statement. "As Iran becomes increasingly isolated and desperate for access to U.S. dollars, it is vital that virtual currency exchanges, peer-to-peer exchangers, and other providers of digital currency services harden their networks against these illicit schemes, Mandelker added. The Justice Department said it had indicted Savandi and Mansouri for infecting data networks in 10 U.S. states and Canada with SamSam. Victims included large U.S. cities such as Atlanta and other major public agencies, as well as health-care companies such as Laboratory Corporation of American Holdings, the Justice Department said. Authorities said that the SamSam infections caused $30 million in losses and damages and that the hackers were able to make about $6 million. Craig Carpenito, the U.S. attorney for New Jersey, said the scheme was a "dangerous escalation of cybercrime" because it targeted public institutions. According to the indictment, Savandi and Mansouri created SamSam in late 2015. The two men are believed to be in Iran. Earlier this year, the United States charged nine Iranians and an Iranian company for attempting to hack into dozens of universities in America, Europe, and East Asia, as well as government agencies. With reporting by Reuters, AP, The Washington Post, and TechCrunch U.S. prosecutors have indicted eight people, most of them Russian, for an alleged online fraud involving fake advertising that caused companies to lose tens of millions of dollars, the Justice Department announced late on November 27. In one alleged scheme that began in 2015, two of the accused operated a fake advertising network that used 1.7 million malware-infected computers to falsify billions of ad views, costing businesses more than $29 million in ad revenues, it said. Prosecutors say the ads were never actually viewed by human internet users under the scheme. Russian nationals Aleksandr Zhukov, Boris Timokhin, Mikhail Andreev, Denis Avdeev, Dmitry Novikov and Aleksandr Isaev, along with Sergei Ovsyannikov and Yevgeny Timchenko of Kazakhstan were named in the 13-count indictment unsealed in a U.S. district court in New York on November 27. They were indicted on charges that include wire fraud, computer intrusion, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering. Ovsyannikov, Zhukov, and Timchenko were arrested abroad in recent weeks, while the other accused are at large. "As alleged, these individuals built complex, fraudulent digital advertising infrastructure for the express purpose of misleading and defrauding companies who believed they were acting in good faith, and costing them millions of dollars," FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William Sweeney said in a statement. "This kind of exploitation undermines confidence in the system, on the part of both companies and their customers." Russia's Consulate in New York said on November 28 that it had been informed about the accusations against six Russian citizens and is monitoring the situation. In Kazakhstan, Foreign Ministry spokesman Aibek Smadyarov told reporters on November 28 that the ministry was checking whether Ovsyannikov and Timchenko were in fact Kazakh nationals. In June, the United States imposed sanctions on five Russian companies and three individuals accused of having conducted hacking operations on behalf of Russia. With reporting by AP and AFP U.S. national-security adviser John Bolton has called on Kosovo and Serbia to settle their longstanding disputes, amid heightened tensions between the two Balkan countries over Pristina's decision last week to impose a 100 percent tax on Serbian products. "The time is now for Kosovo and Serbia to reach an agreement," Bolton tweeted after meeting with Kosovo's President Hashim Thaci at the White House on November 27. He also wrote that the United States "stands ready to help both parties achieve this historic goal." "There's a historic chance in dialogue that should not be missed for both countries," Thaci tweeted, adding that this would help push forward Kosovo's efforts to join NATO, the EU, and the United Nations. Relations between Pristina and Belgrade have been tense since Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Although more than 110 countries recognize Kosovo, Serbia does not. Both countries have been told they must resolve their differences in order to make progress toward EU membership, but EU-sponsored normalization talks have been stop-and-go in recent months. On November 21, Pristina slapped a 100 percent tax on imports from Serbia -- and Bosnia-Herzegovina -- in retaliation for what it said were Belgrade's efforts to undermine the young republic on the international stage. The move drew angry reactions from Belgrade and Sarajevo and calls from the European Union and the United States to revoke the measure. It also prompted the mayors of four predominantly ethnic Serb municipalities in northern Kosovo to resign on November 27, while hundreds of demonstrators rallied in North Mitrovica against the tariff. The meeting between Bolton and Thaci came a day after the Kosovar president held talks with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington. During the meeting, Pompeo urged Kosovo to rescind the tariffs on Serbian products and to work with Belgrade to "avoid provocations and deescalate tensions," the State Department 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," it also said. Migrants have stormed the U.S. border from the Mexican side resulting in the American border patrol firing tear gas shells over the border in response. This comes after Mexico's incoming left-wing administration has apparently caved in and agreed to a deal with the United States, known as "Remain in Mexico" which will entail that migrants from central American countries will be in Mexico until their asylum status is judged in the United States. There are conflicting reports on this deal, but American newspapers reported that the Trump administration has agreed to this deal, and the Mexican government has acquiesced to Trump's demands. Previously the Trump administration threatened to close the American southern border, and sent over nine thousand troops to enforce a strong border patrol which is extremely porous and is commonly used for drug smuggling and human trafficking. In almost what could be a repeat of the Euro migration crisis, the American heartland is now facing the same issue, that changed the European political dynamic since 2015. At the peak of the Syrian civil war, Germany's Angela Merkel, in a feat of romanticism, said that Europe will accept all migrants landing on European soil. The decision led to millions of people from places as far as Sub-Saharan Africa, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh to flock to Europe. At its peak, over a million people migrated to Europe, and many thousands perished while trying to cross the Mediterranean. Since there were no way of measuring who are genuine war refugees and who are economic migrants and job hunters, it led to a massive backlash across the European continent. Italy and Greece were worst hit, with left and center left governments toppled in all central and east European countries, and the rise of the far right in Italy, Sweden, France and Germany. Now, the same scenario is hitting the U.S. Migrants from central American countries like Honduras and Nicaragua and El Salvador, aided by activists, are forming caravans and walking all across the continent to reach U.S. borders, knowing that once they cross over, the U.S. has to accept them. Despite not having stable institutions, none of these countries are war torn. The difference is that previously these migrants used to individually pay smugglers thousands of dollars per head. Now, they are aided by activists and NGOs, who are providing them with food and blankets on the way, just like in Europe. Previously the migrants used to go to Costa Rica and Colombia, now they only move north. This is unsustainable to say the least, and will boost the right wing in U.S., just as it did in Europe. Trump won because of his opposition to mass migration, which he argues is a plot by NGOs and activists against the very basic concept of sovereignty itself. According to Trump, mass migration is a non-violent invasion, and can be used by any country against their opponents, which would mean sending thousands of unarmed military age men across the border, thereby destroying the concept of borders and nations-states. He is not the only one, lately Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, also noted that Europe (and America) needs to stop taking in more migrants, the same two individuals who were responsible for the collapse of authority in the entire north African coastline, after the Libyan intervention which led to the migration crisis to start with. But it's too late, the tactic of unarmed masses mobbing and storming borders is here, and is here to stay. It happened in Europe, and it's happening in the U.S. now, and it might spread across the world soon. 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. China's reform and opening up has led to many achievements, and more is within reach as it works together with its neighbors. One partnership in particular could be crucial for the country's continued success: Singapore. Driven by its leaders' vision and commitment, China has gone from a low-income country to an upper-middle income one, with annual growth averaging 9.5 percent over the past 40 years, and the poverty rate dipping from 98 percent in 1978 to 3 percent today. A sharp rise in foreign direct investments (FDIs) and trade since China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001 enabled it to become a manufacturing powerhouse. The successful transformation of the economy from a centrally planned system to a market-based one unleashed the potential of China's factors of production. The result has been impressive. China's share of world GDP was 1.8 percent in 1978 and its share of global trade was almost zero. According to a recent study by the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO), these numbers would have risen to 15.5 percent and 14.2 percent respectively this year, and could reach 21 percent and 22 percent by the year 2035. Such unprecedented achievements are attributable to several key characteristics of the reform process. First, an experimental and result-based approach for new policies, which involves testing policies on smaller scales before nationwide adoption. Second, decentralized implementation by local governments who proved to be powerful agents of change. Third, strong political leadership decisively resolving problems that emerge, making necessary changes, and staying the course of reform. In its 40-year journey, China learned from the experience of other East Asian economies that industrialized and opened up earlier. Singapore is one country that contributed significantly to China's development, and is seen as a trustworthy strategic partner. Although Singapore is a small country, it successfully pursued a "manufacturing for export" growth strategy, built world-class infrastructure, established and managed competitive government-linked companies, and ran a clean and effective civil service. Many developing countries, including China, drew inspiration. Over the years, there have been many exchanges between the two countries. These included field trips to Singapore by senior Chinese officials at both the central and local government levels. China's enterprises invested in Singapore, and Singaporean firms have also ventured boldly into the Chinese market. Singapore's institutions of learning offered attractive scholarship programs for bright Chinese students to study in Singapore. As these exchanges broadened at all levels, interaction between government agencies also has become more frequent and institutionalized. All these activities deepened relationships and built trust. With this trust, Chinese and Singaporean leaders shared experience and exchanged views candidly, and found mutually beneficial ways of collaboration and cooperation. The key takeaways from the close partnership are anchored around a strategic and disciplined approach to policymaking, readiness to making policy adjustments in response to changing circumstances, embracing openness and the need to subject enterprises to the discipline of market competition, ensuring fiscal prudence, and deepening human capital and technology. The benefits over the past four decades are tangible. In 1979, just a year after Deng Xiaoping's historic visit to Singapore, Deng and then-Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew signed a trade agreement and, in 1981, trade offices were set up to strengthen economic linkages between the two countries. Fast forward to the early 2000s: A high-level Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC) was established in 2004 to oversee several tracks of economic collaboration focusing on trade and investment. Through these years, Singapore helped to develop special economic zones in China. These include the Suzhou Industrial Park, Tianjin Eco-City, and the Chongqing Connectivity Initiative. Private sector enterprises have been key drivers of economic collaboration. Singapore was among the pioneering foreign direct investors in China in the 1980s, and remains a major source of FDIs in China. It invested US$105 billion in China in 2016, ranking third among all foreign investors. Singapore has also become a hub for FDIs flowing from China to ASEAN, and hosts several Chinese firms' regional headquarters. In 2017, the stock of Chinese enterprises' investment in Singapore was US$25 billion, most of which was channeled to other ASEAN countries. Financial cooperation has broadened with regular meetings between prudential regulators to exchange views on developments in financial systems and thoughts on how to evolve policies to maintain financial soundness. The central banks also shared experience regularly, as China sought to adjust its framework for managing monetary conditions through the years to facilitate trade and capital flows, financial stability, and boost economic development. When China decided to internationalize the RMB, Singapore was China's first foreign partner in establishing RMB clearing houses. Looking ahead, the prospects for further cooperation are bright. Regional integration will continue to grow and deepen, as China and ASEAN are natural trade and investment partners. The current protectionist climate in the U.S. and Europe will catalyze this integration. Singapore will play a significant role as a financial center and a hub for trade and investment. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a major initiative by China to improve connectivity in the region, and Singapore is poised to play a key role. The Singaporean government this year established the Asia Infrastructure Risk Management Center to settle disputes related to infrastructure projects. This sets Singapore up to broaden its role in the BRI, intermediating cross-border financing as a major financial center. China and Singapore can also share their experience in addressing challenges related to population ageing. Both are grappling with issues related to labor productivity, future healthcare costs, and even adaptation of the elderly to digital technologies including those embedded in Smart City initiatives. Similarly, China and Singapore can learn from each other on how to ride on the Fourth Industrial Revolution to accelerate development, keep growth inclusive, and anchor resilience. There are clearly synergies to tap. China is transitioning to the "new economy," with digital technologies proliferating. Singapore is also transforming its economy to become more technology-driven and service-oriented. It is positioning itself as a node of technology, innovation and enterprise in the region. The China-Singapore relationship is a special one. Both overcame heavy odds to become economic miracles in their own ways. Placed together in one of the fastest-growing regions of the world, China and Singapore understand the immense potential of integrating more deeply with other neighbors in East Asia. Hoe Ee Khor is the chief economist of the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO). Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors only, not necessarily those of China.org.cn. Flash 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. We will use leading underground mining technology known as block caving to mine the ore body. Block caving is technically complex, but it is also one of the safest and most cost-effective methods of mining ore from deep below the ground as it uses the force of gravity. Put simply, a void is created under the ore body, which then collapses gradually under its own weight. The ore passes through funnels in the rock, known as draw points. A series of lateral tunnels over several levels are used to extract the ore and to haul it for crushing before it is transported to the surface via shaft or conveyor belt. We have continued to make progress on a number of key elements in the construction of the Oyu Tolgoi underground mine, despite COVID-19 controls and ongoing domestic and international travel restrictions. On 16 December 2020, we confirmed the definitive estimate of cost and schedule for Panel 0 with sustainable production expected to commence in October 2022 and development capital of $6.75 billion. These estimates include the known impacts of COVID-19. At Oyu Tolgoi, we are using technology to build a connected mine and keep our people safe. We are installing a wireless network to connect our people and equipment underground with the teams on the surface. All team members have a Personal Location Indicator, which allows us to track their whereabouts, providing critical information during an emergency. Similar sensors allow us to track the location and performance of all equipment and we have real time monitoring of atmospheric conditions. The team in Mongolia are supported by the Rio Tinto Underground Mining Centre, which connects our caving experts in the Brisbane hub with our operations team at Oyu Tolgoi. These groups work together to improve safety and productivity performance by using the vast amount of data being collected. Mexico deports another 105 caravan migrants for criminal involvement Mexico City, Mexico The government of Mexico says that 105 Central American migrants were returned to their country of origin after being found involved in crime. On Tuesday, 105 Central American migrants were taken by a Federal Police plane to Mexico City then onward to their country of origin after they were found in either administrative fault and/or involved in crime. Gerardo Garcia Benavente, commissioner of the National Institute of Migration explained that around noon, 105 migrants arrived at the facilities of the Air Force aboard two foreign buses from the city of Tijuana. Both buses of migrants were loaded onto the waiting federal police plane. Garcia Benavente says that in Mexico, there are around 8,400 migrants from different caravans of which 7,300 are in the state of Baja California. The rest are in transit to the city of Tijuana. We have around 8,400 in the country in closed numbers. We had 7,400 in Baja California but we have to subtract those who actually crossed into the United States and were arrested on Sunday. Those who were insured by various authorities and presented to the National Institute of Migration is around 100, said Garcia Benavente. About 3,280 Central Americans from the various caravans that have entered Mexico since October, have requested refuge status. Those who have requested refugee status in Tapachula are 3,230 then about 550 were abandoned and are now in processes before the Mexican Commission for Assistance to Refugees. Of the refugee applications, 2,650 have already been given permission to stay legally in our country and have already been provided with a temporary CURP to find a job, while others registered in the federal Estas en Tu Casa program were given a temporary job, explained Gerardo Garcia Benavente. Since the first caravan of Central Americans entered Mexico, more than 200 have been handed over to the National Migration Institute for deportation due to their involvement in crime or administrative fault. Flash 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. You are here: World Flash Wang Qimin, Chinese Charge d'Affaires in Libya, said Tuesday that the Chinese embassy is willing to reopen in Libya if the security situation allows. The Chinese envoy made the remarks while meeting with Khalid al-Meshri, head of Libya's Higher Council of State. Wang also stressed China's willingness to cooperate with the UN envoy to Libya, looking forward to resuming suspended projects, starting new projects, especially in infrastructure and investment sectors. The two officials also discussed the latest developments in Libya as well as mutual cooperation between the two countries. Al-Meshri stressed the importance of China's role in Libya, especially in investment, economy and technology, according to a statement issued by the Higher Council's information office. Most foreign embassies and companies in Libya have left the country in 2014 due to violent clashes that broke out in Tripoli between rival armed groups, which created the current political division in the country. Sarah Champion with Liz Ballard and Rob Miller of Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust. A TREE-planting campaign aimed a growing a greener Great Britain was backed by Rotherham MP Sarah Champion. Grabbing a shovel, the eco-friendly MP planted two silver birch, two rowan, and a hazel at Centenary Riverside nature Reserve. Ms Champion said: I am delighted to be involved in the Queens Commonwealth Canopy. I hope the residents of Rotherham will enjoy watching them grow and flourish as part of the Centenary Riverside reserve. Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trust chief executive Liz Ballard said: Centenary Riverside is a hidden gem in Rotherham which the trust is really proud to have transformed in recent years, so were delighted that it was selected by Sarah as her site of choice for these saplings. Im looking forward to seeing the trees mature and attract more butterflies, insects and birds to the reserve. The Queens Commonwealth Canopy is a Woodland Trust-backed network of forest conservation initiatives to mark Her Majestys lifetime of service to the Commonwealth by planting 50,000 saplings across the country. 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. It was followed by Belarus, with 26.1 cases per 100,000, Moldova with 20.6, and Latvia with 19. HIV damages the cells in the immune system and weakens the ability to fight infections and disease. HIV is virus spread through sexual contact, and also blood, that develops into AIDS with an average survival time of around nine years. 59% of the new cases are from heterosexual transmission according to data given by the patients. While efforts to prevent new HIV infections are gradually showing signs of progress, we are not on course to meet the 909090 targets by the 2020 deadline, Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO regional director for Europe, said. One reason for the persistent HIV epidemic in Europe is that late diagnosis remains a challenge across the whole Region. [] Every second person diagnosed with HIV has already reached an advanced stage in the infection, Dr Jakab added. A Sustainable Development Goal is to eliminate HIV in Europe and worldwide by 2030. An efficient vaccine it is a hope after a successful round of animal testing occurred. WHO chiefs urged governments to take more action over the virus. NHS chiefs warned HIV cases could explode due to dating apps such as Tinder leading to people having riskier sex. Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri Amritsar/Chandigarh, Nov 28 (PTI): Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri, who represented the Indian government at the groundbreaking ceremony of the Kartarpur corridor in Pakistan, said Wednesday the corridor was anchored in hope and goodwill but there is need to be conscious of ground realities. Puri, along with Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, crossed over to the neighbouring country through Attari-Wagah land route in Amritsar to attend the ceremony. Puri, the Union minister of state (independent charge) of Housing and Urban Affairs, told reporters at Attari in Amritsar district before crossing to Pakistan that the long pending demand of the Sikh community has been met. Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan is located across the river Ravi, about four kilometres from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine. 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. Advertisement The Kartarpur Corridor, which will facilitate the visa-free travel of Indian Sikh pilgrims to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, is expected to be completed within six months. "It is a historic day. Speaking on my own behalf, I regard myself as particularly privileged and blessed to be able to make this pilgrimage. Paying obeisance at the Gurdwara Sahib holds special significance in the life of every Sikh. Not only did the Guru Nanak spent 18 years of his life there, it is his resting place also," he told reporters. Puri, along with Harsimrat Kaur Badal crossed over to the neighbouring country Puri, a former diplomat, thanked the Pakistan government for its decision to build the corridor on its side. He said, "This decision is anchored in hope and goodwill, but we have to be acutely conscious of the ground realities. The ground realities are that the two countries, on account of a lot of factors and I don't want to enter into any political discussion here, because of several factors there is distrust, we have felt for very long that we have been at the receiving end of actions of a country, of a state, which should not have allowed certain forces on their territory. Advertisement But I don't want to touch upon those". Asked if the decision to develop the Kartarpur corridor would mean breaking of ice between the two nations, he said, "You have to be aware of the ground realities. You have to be aware of mistrust which exists. But as the prime minister said, now whether we are able to transform this into something meaningful in terms of people to people contact and breaking of the ice and taking it further, that is something we will have to work on". Expressing hope, he said there is an opportunity here that the demand of the Sikh community has been met, but "we need to operationalise the decision and operationalising the decision, making the corridor operative and to take this process further will require actions by all the stakeholders". He said, "Let us take one step at a time, I don't want to jump the gun. I think we must allow the goodwill, that is the essence of teachings of the guru. I think he was half a century ahead of his time. Union minister Nitin Gadkari Advertisement The kind of teachings he has given, if those teachings can be invoked to resolve our problems, it would be a very proud day for me as a Sikh". On with what hope he was going to Pakistan, Puri said, "I am going with full hope. I am not leading a bilateral discussion, but yes I have been nominated along with Harsimrat Kaur Ji to represent the Government of India in this". "We should welcome the fact that both the governments are committed to building the infrastructure on the respective sides of the border. In fact, when I was attending the function at Dera Baba Nanak (Gurdaspur, for foundation stone laying event of Kartarpur corridor on the Indian side), Union minister Nitin Gadkari said that he is hopeful that the corridor (on Indian side) would be completed in four months," Puri said. Puri refuted claims that the Government of India had set the date of November 26 as foundation stone laying function of the Kartarpur corridor only after the Pakistan dispensation announced the date of its groundbreaking ceremony. "Let me place on record that we were doing preparations several months earlier." Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, while talking to reporters at Attari, said it was an emotional moment for her and described as historic the decision to build the Kartarpur corridor. "Today, I am getting to go to a place where the guru spent 18 years of his life. For me, this is an emotional moment, which has come through because of the prayers, millions like me have been saying for 70 years way before I was even born," she said. She expressed hope that millions more like her could now pay obeisance to the Sikh guru, who was there to unite mankind. Flash 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. Flash The two-day Geneva Conference on Afghanistan to renew a process of development and reform began in Geneva 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. The most popular YouTube videos on prostate cancer often offer misleading or biased medical information that poses potential health risks to patients, an analysis of the social media platform shows. Led by researchers at NYU School of Medicine and its Perlmutter Cancer Center, the study of the 150 most-viewed YouTube videos on the disease found that 77 percent had factual errors or biased content in either the video or its comments section. Publishing in the journal European Urology online Nov. 27, the study also found that 75 percent of the videos fully described the benefits of various treatments while only 53 percent sufficiently captured potential harms and side effects. Another 19 percent recommended alternative or complementary therapies that are largely unproven, say the study authors. They cite one potentially harmful example in which a video promoted "injecting herbs" into the prostate to treat cancer, an assertion not backed by medical evidence. Researchers say the YouTube audience for these videos was large, with average total viewership at 45,000 but as high as 1.3 million. More than 600,000 prostate cancer videos are posted on the social media platform. "Our study shows that people really need to be wary of many YouTube videos on prostate cancer," says study senior investigator and urologist Stacy Loeb, MD, MSc, who chairs a panel of social media experts for the American Urological Association (AUA). "There is valuable information available in them, but people need to check the source to make sure it's credible and to beware of how quickly videos become outdated as care guidelines constantly evolve with the science." In addition, only 50 percent of the videos analyzed describe "shared decision-making," the current standard of care in prostate cancer screening and treatment, says Loeb, an assistant professor in the urology and population health departments at NYU School of Medicine. advertisement The latest American guidelines, revised last year, recommend that men between the ages of 55 and 69 should talk to their doctors about the risks and benefits of blood-test screening for prostate cancer. Loeb says many popular videos predate this change and also encourage more aggressive treatment than is now considered medically necessary for low-risk disease. Loeb says care providers should direct their patients to trusted sources for information on prostate cancer. She also encourages other physicians and providers to participate in social media platforms like YouTube to produce videos that offer evidence-based advice. Credible sources for online information about prostate cancer, Loeb says, are widely available and include the Prostate Cancer Foundation, which helped fund the current study; the Urology Care Foundation, the AUA's website for patients; and the National Cancer Institute, among others. Loeb says the volume of videos on YouTube makes it impractical for medical experts to continually review them all as part of any "policing" effort. But, she says, physicians and other viewers should use the YouTube reporting feature for alerting its officials to videos that promote misleading information. For the latest analysis, Loeb and her team, which included social media experts, evaluated each video's educational value based on more than a dozen features, including accuracy, level of misinformation, and commercial bias. Previous studies on prostate cancer videos, she notes, were smaller and did not use standardized techniques to evaluate their content. In addition to the Prostate Cancer Foundation, funding for the current study was provided by the Blank Family Foundation. Loeb also reports having received travel, speaking, consulting fees, and/or honorariums from manufacturers of, and service providers related to prostate cancer therapies, including Sanofi and Lilly. Her spouse also has a financial interest in Gilead. All relationships are being managed in accordance with the policies of NYU Langone. Her study co-investigators report relationships with Mundipharma Australia, Janssen Australia, Ipsen Australia, MSD Australia, Eastern Melbourne Primary Health Network, Teva, and ISMAR Healthcare. Besides Loeb, other NYU Langone investigators involved in the study are Rebecca Robbins, PhD; Scott Braithwaite, MD, MS; Lingshan Gao, MS: Nataliya Byrne, BA; Dawn Walter, MPH; and Aisha Langford, PhD, MPH. Additional study investigators include Shomik Sengupta, MD, at Monash University in Victoria, Australia; Mohit Butaney, MD, at Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland; Joseph Macaluso, MD, at Louisiana State University in New Orleans; and Stefan Czarniecki, MD, at the HIFU Clinic Prostate Cancer Center in Warsaw, Poland. 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." 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. The system was developed in collaboration with University of Cambridge Language Technology Lab, Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, and Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, and was funded by the Medical Research Council. 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 School's 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 Gazette newspaper 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 Earth's protective atmosphere only within the past few months. advertisement Based on these findings, the team has submitted a request to the international Meteoritical Society to officially name and register Africa's newest meteorite -- Benenitra -- on its database. Classifying Africa's 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 Man's 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 Man's 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. 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. 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. 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." Flash Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Spanish King Felipe VI in Madrid on Tuesday to cement friendship and strengthen cooperation between the two countries. This state visit is the first of its kind to Europe since his re-election as Chinese president in March and also the first leg of his Europe and Latin America trip, Xi said, expressing hope that the visit will consolidate friendship, uplift cooperation and ensure long-term stability of bilateral ties. Xi arrived in Madrid in the afternoon, which kicked off his three-day visit to Spain at the invitation of King Felipe VI. During his nine-day tour to Europe and Latin America, Xi will also pay state visits to Argentina, Panama and Portugal and attend the Group of 20 summit in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires. At the meeting held at Zarzuela Palace, Xi said since the two countries established a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2005, China and Spain have been improving the bilateral ties, strengthening political mutual trust, expanding cooperation and maintaining closer people-to-people exchanges. "The Sino-Spanish ties are at the best period in history. I am fully confident in the future of the bilateral relationship," Xi said. The Chinese president stressed that China stands ready to work with Spain to support each other on issues concerning each other's core interests and major concerns. "The two sides should intensify cooperation in such areas as economy, trade, tourism, and third-party markets within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, so as to bring the Sino-Spanish comprehensive strategic partnership to a new high in the new era and better benefit the two peoples," Xi said. China would like to see that Europe will continue to advance the integration process and hopes that Spain will keep playing a positive role in promoting the development of the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and the European Union (EU), Xi added. For his part, King Felipe VI said this year marks the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries and the 40th anniversary of the first visit to China by former King Juan Carlos I. Spain values the friendly exchanges and cooperation with China, he said. Since they forged diplomatic ties, the two countries have extended consistent respect and support for each other on issues concerning their core interests, he said. With joint efforts, the two sides have witnessed progress in the development of the comprehensive strategic partnership, King Felipe VI said. Spain is willing to maintain close contacts with China, enhance pragmatic cooperation, strengthen communication and coordination in multilateral affairs, and actively push for deeper EU-China relations, he added. 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 behaviors -- defined as socially unacceptable or not compliant with rules and regulations -- are 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. advertisement 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. advertisement "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. Researchers working to understand the biochemistry of cataract formation have made a surprising finding: A protein that was long believed to be inert actually has an important chemical function that protects the lens of the eye from cataract formation. The lens is made up of cells packed with structural proteins called crystallins. Crystallins within each lens cell form a protein-dense gel, and the gel's optical properties -- like its transparency and the way it refracts light -- help focus light onto the retina. But when crystallin proteins clump together, they are no longer so transparent. If enough of the proteins go from their usual water-soluble, densely packed organization to clumpy aggregates, they begin to scatter incoming light, forming cloudy deposits known as cataracts. According to Harvard postdoctoral fellow Eugene Serebryany, lead author on a recent study in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, for a long time researchers believed that crystallin proteins were chemically inert. That is, except for aggregating as an individual ages, the proteins were not believed to interact much with fellow proteins. Serebryany said, "This was the model: (crystallin's) real function is to remain monomeric and transparent and avoid aggregating for as long as possible." Back when he was a graduate student at MIT, Serebryany used a mutant form of the lens protein gamma-crystallin to mimic UV damage to the protein. While studying how that mutation leads crystallin to aggregate into clumps, Serebryany found something surprising: The mutant was more likely to aggregate if wild-type, or undamaged, protein was also present. Harvard professor Eugene Shakhnovich, who collaborated with Serebryany and his graduate adviser, Jonathan King, on the earlier studies, described the finding as "a fairly striking phenomenon" and explained: "If you had these damaged proteins in a test tube, they would not aggregate for a while. If you had the wild-type protein, it would not aggregate forever. But then, when you mix the two, you see rapid and precipitous aggregation." In other words, the healthy version of a protein everyone had thought was inert was somehow causing a slightly damaged version to get much worse -- and fast. advertisement When Serebryany graduated, Shakhnovich hired him to continue working to understand how a supposedly inactive protein could cause this effect. Serebryany said, "The first thing I had to do was basically try to get the experiments from my Ph.D. lab to work in this (new) lab." "They're just two stops apart on the subway!" Shakhnovich joked. But, for some reason, Serebryany had trouble replicating the results. "It's a different place, it's a different set of instruments, a slightly different set of procedures. You see where this is going," he said. "All of a sudden, experiments that were highly reproducible before were giving a lot of variability." Indeed, in the Harvard lab sometimes the wild-type crystallin caused mutant crystallin to aggregate, and sometimes it didn't. The scientists were mystified. Serebryany said, "Obviously, if there is suddenly variability, there is a hidden variable that we didn't see before." He set up a series of experiments trying to pinpoint that variable. advertisement A close comparison of the molecular weights of the wild-type protein that caused the mutant to clump and the protein that didn't revealed a difference equivalent to the weight of two hydrogen atoms. This gave the researchers a hint that the redox state -- whether two sulfur atoms within a protein molecule were bound to one another instead of to hydrogen atoms -- might make a difference. "By carrying out isotopically resolved mass spectrometry experiments, we got more than we bargained for," Serebryany explained. "Not only did the aggregation-prone mutant acquire one internal disulfide bond per molecule during the aggregation reaction, but the aggregation-promoting wild-type protein lost its disulfide at the same time." By mutating the sulfur-containing cysteine amino acid residues one by one to non-sulfur-containing residues, Serebryany found that two cysteine amino acids close together on the surface of gamma-d-crystallin acted as a kind of switch. When the two bound, making a structure called a disulfide bond, crystallin seemed to be able to push damaged fellow molecules toward aggregation. When the two cysteines were not bound, each instead took on a hydrogen atom, explaining the protein's tiny change in mass. Under that condition, wild-type crystallin was inert. But how could one bond between amino acids on the surface of this protein make it drive other proteins to aggregate? Using biophysical and biochemical techniques, the team found that although the disulfide bond forms easily, it also introduces strain into the protein's structure. This made each protein molecule likely to pass along the disulfide bond to a nearby molecule of the protein, receiving two protons in return. In this way the disulfide bond could be constantly passed around among crystallin protein molecules. The authors compared the process to passing a hot potato. Given a whole population of healthy, undamaged crystallin proteins, this process could go on indefinitely. But if one protein was already a little damaged, the authors showed, it caught the hot potato with a different set of cysteines, which were less able to pass it on. This drove the damaged protein to clump up. The authors' previous work revealed that mutations mimicking damage caused by UV changed the stability of the protein, making it more floppy, and therefore more likely to acquire the conformation that exposes new cysteines that could catch the hot potato. This helps us understand cataract formation. According to Shakhnovich, the team is working on peptide treatments that might keep the "hot potato" from reaching damaged proteins. Serebryany hopes such peptides "could actually soak up some of those disulfides and delay the time that it takes to form the more aggregation-prone species." That could lead to slower cataract formation for patients. This study was funded by the National institutes of Health. A new study from Stanford University suggests that the kind of hot, dry conditions that can shrink crop yields, destabilize food prices and lay the groundwork for devastating wildfires are increasingly striking multiple regions simultaneously as a result of a warming climate. According to the researchers, climate change has doubled the odds that a region will suffer a year that is both warm and dry compared to the average for that place during the middle of the 20th century. It's also becoming more likely that dry and severely warm conditions will hit key agricultural regions in the same year, potentially making it harder for surpluses in one location to make up for low yields in another. "When we look in the historical data at the key crop and pasture regions, we find that before anthropogenic climate change, there were very low odds that any two regions would experience those really severe conditions simultaneously," said climate scientist Noah Diffenbaugh, the Kara J. Foundation professor in Stanford's School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences (Stanford Earth) and senior author of the study published Nov. 28 in Science Advances. The study is titled "Multi-dimensional risk in a non-stationary climate: joint probability of increasingly severe warm and dry conditions." "The global marketplace provides a hedge against localized extremes, but we're already seeing an erosion of that climate buffer as extremes have increased in response to global warming," said Diffenbaugh, who is also the Kimmelman Family senior fellow in the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. The new study points to a future in which multiple regions are at risk of experiencing low crop yields simultaneously. That's because, while some crops can thrive in a warm growing season, others -- particularly grains -- grow and mature too quickly when temperatures rise, consecutive dry days pile up and warmth persists overnight. As a result, hot-dry conditions tend to produce smaller harvests of major commodities, including wheat, rice, corn and soybeans. The implications extend beyond agriculture. Those same hot, dry conditions can also exacerbate fire risk, drying out vegetation in the summer and autumn and fueling intense, fast-spreading wildfires like those that burned through more than 240,000 acres in California in November 2018. advertisement Moving targets The basic trend of global warming -- 1 degree Celsius or 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit since the late 19th century -- lends an intuitive logic to the study's core findings. "If it's getting warmer everywhere, then it's more likely to be hot in two places at once," Diffenbaugh explained, "and it's probably also more likely to be hot when it's also dry in two places at once." Yet despite that simple intuition, accounting for ongoing, interdependent changes in both precipitation and temperature in different locations through time presents a statistical challenge. As a result, many past analyses have looked at warm and dry events as independent phenomena, or at different regions as independent from one another. That approach may underestimate the added risk due to human-caused global warming, as well as the social, ecological and economic benefits of curbing emissions. "When these extremes occur simultaneously, it exacerbates the adverse impacts beyond what any of them would have caused separately," said Ali Sarhadi, the study's lead author and a postdoctoral scholar in Diffenbaugh's Climate and Earth System Dynamics Group at Stanford Earth. Extremes becoming normal The new study used historical data from the past century to quantify the odds that different regions experience hot and dry conditions in the same year. The analysis shows that before 1980, there was less than a 5 percent chance that two region pairs would experience extreme temperatures in a year that was also dry in both regions. However, in the past two decades, the odds have increased to as much as 20 percent for some region pairs. advertisement For example, the odds that China and India -- two of the world's largest agricultural producers and the two most populous nations -- both experience low precipitation and extremely warm temperatures in the same year have gone from less than 5 percent before 1980 to more than 15 percent today, Diffenbaugh said. "So, what used to be a rare occurrence can now be expected to occur with some regularity, and we have very strong evidence that global warming is the cause." In addition to their analyses of historical data, the authors also analyzed climate model projections of possible future global warming scenarios. They found that within a few decades, if the world continues on its current emissions trajectory, the odds that average temperatures will rise well beyond the range normally experienced in the middle of the 20th century could climb upward of 75 percent in many regions. But achieving the goals outlined in the United Nations' Paris climate agreement is likely to substantially reduce those risks, Sarhadi said. While the White House has announced its intention to withdraw the United States from the agreement, the study shows that achieving the emissions reduction targets in the 200-nation pact would allow the world to dramatically reduce the likelihood of compounding hot, dry conditions hitting multiple croplands across the world. "There are still options for mitigating these changes," he said. Planning for real risks The framework built for this study represents a vital step in pinning down the risk associated with multiple climate extremes coming together in one region, where they can often compound one another. What were the chances, for example, that high temperatures, high winds and low humidity combined to create mega fire conditions in the past, and how have those odds changed as a result of global warming? That's the sort of question the team's framework will be able to answer. It's a gravely urgent one for officials now reckoning with fires of historic scale and intensity in California. "A lot of the events that stress infrastructure, and our disaster prevention and response systems, occur when multiple ingredients come together in the same place at the same time," Diffenbaugh said. High storm surges and wind speeds with heavy rain can make the difference between a passing storm and a calamitous tropical cyclone; wind patterns and moisture levels in different parts of the atmosphere influence the severity of a rainstorm and associated flood risk. A key challenge for decision-makers is understanding what to expect in a changing climate. That means honing in on joint probabilities, which are at the core of calculations that engineers, policy-makers, humanitarian aid providers and insurers use to allocate resources, set building codes and design evacuation plans and other disaster responses. "People are making practical decisions based on the probabilities of different combinations of conditions," Diffenbaugh said. "The default is to use the historical probabilities, but our research shows that assuming that those historical probabilities will continue into the future doesn't accurately reflect the current or future risk." Flash U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to deprive automaker General Motors (GM) of "all subsidies," one day after the company announced plans to lay off workers and close factories in North America and beyond. "Very disappointed with General Motors and their CEO, Mary Barra, for closing plants in Ohio, Michigan and Maryland," Trump tweeted. "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." U.S. media assumed that the president was probably referring to the 7,500-U.S.-dollar tax breaks the U.S. federal government grants to consumers buying electric vehicles. CNN cited people familiar with the matter as saying the company was unaware of other federal incentives it is receiving beyond that. Ending the subsidy, however, will require the passage of a new law in Congress. GM announced on Monday that it would slash over 14,000 jobs and effectively close five assembly and propulsion plants in the United States and Canada in 2019, a reorganization plan Barra said would continue to make the company "highly agile, resilient and profitable." In addition to a previously announced factory closure in South Korea, GM said it would also cease operations of another two unspecified plants outside North America by the end of 2019. Combined, the company estimated that the measures will save as much as 6 billion U.S. dollars. If carried out, Trump's threat would deal a blow to one of the company's strategy priorities. "Resources allocated to electric and autonomous vehicle programs will double in the next two years," GM said in Monday's statement. GM, whose two models currently qualify for the federal tax subsidy for electric and hybrid cars, have joined other automakers in lobbying Congress to lift a 200,000-vehicle limit beyond which the tax break will gradually phase out. As of the third quarter of 2018, the company has less than 4,000 vehicles to produce to reach the threshold. GM issued a separate statement Tuesday defending its commitment to U.S. manufacturing sector. "GM is committed to maintaining a strong manufacturing presence in the U.S., as evidenced by our more than 22-billion-dollar investments in U.S. operations since 2009." "Yesterday's announcements support our ability to invest for future growth and position the company for long-term success and maintain and grow American jobs," it added. Top White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow talked with Barra in a pre-arranged meeting on Monday, but GM declined to comment on it. At a White House press briefing Tuesday, before Trump sent the tweet, Kudlow mentioned the electric vehicle credit. "We are going to be looking at certain subsidies regarding electric cars and others, whether they should apply or not. I can't say anything final about that, but we're looking into it," Kudlow said. Flash Participants at the Sustainable Blue Economy Conference in Nairobi have called for proper planning at sea to ensure the exploration of oil and gas at sea does not affect wildlife species. "We have come to an understanding on the need to work together," January Makamba, the Tanzanian minister of State for Environment at the Vice President's office, said on Tuesday evening during a special session to discuss marine spatial planning. Makamba said the proper planning and application of the right policies to allocate resources at the sea was crucial to protect the rich natural wealth at sea. "You cannot delink what happens at sea from what happens inland," Makamba said, explaining that his country, Tanzania was struggling with the challenge of balancing the use of space at sea and acquisitions of land for oil and gas. Makamba said natural resources obtained from the sea required space onshore to effectively exploit, which justified the need for synchronized planning of both. The Tanzanian minister said there was need for international rules and regulations on how to develop and utilize resources obtained from the sea and how onshore oil would be processed and exported. The marine planning specialists are examining how to effectively plan for the use of land onshore and offshore to balance human activity and biodiversity. Experts say a focus is required on how to stimulate sustainable blue economy strategies through national and regional case studies and methods. The focus should remain on balancing the use resources at sea and conservation. The ministers representing various countries from around the world are also exploring how to attract foreign funding for conservation of nature at sea. Wallace Cosgrow, the Seychelles Minister of Environment, Energy and Climate Change, said continuous consultations were required on how to protect fish at sea. He said consultation were required on how to conserve the marine ecology and how new technologies could be applied in the conservation of nature at sea. Seychelles, an island nation in the Indian Ocean, has largely built its economy around tourism and the fisheries industries. Currently, less than 7 percent of the world's oceans are under any form of protection which puts the lives of communities, the coral reefs and other marine fisheries species at risk. Hazardous waste dumping at sea, oil spills and other environmental threats also threaten large water bodies and communities. Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed raised concerns about the threats faced by local communities during the conference. President Mohamed, commonly known as Farmajo, called for protection from hazardous waste dumping and illegal fishing in a speech at the conference. The protection of marine fisheries and other environmental threats which limits the use of marine resources has been top agenda at the conference. You are here: World Flash Saudi Royal Court announced on Wednesday the arrival of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saudi in Argentina to attend the G20 summit, Saudi Press Agency reported. His arrival for the two-day summit comes after a tour to the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt and Tunisia to discuss regional cooperation and topics of common interest. Climate change, steel and migration have emerged as sticking points in the upcoming G20 summit scheduled to start on Nov. 30, an Argentine government official said. Flash At least 2,297 cases of rape and sexual violence against civilians were recorded in conflict-torn South Sudan in 2017 alone, a senior government official has said. Gender, Child and Social Welfare minister Awut Deng Achuil said many of the reported cases of gender-based violence (GBV) occurred in areas worst-hit by the country's five-year old civil war. "According to the gender-based violence information management system, in 2017 alone, 2,297 cases of GBV survivors were reported and 13 percent of the reported cases were rape and the rest sexual assaults," Achuil said Tuesday at a ceremony marking the launch of 16 days of activism against GBV. Achuil said the figures could be much higher because many sexual abuse victims across the country suffer in silence and perpetrators often escape unpunished. "These cases are just a tip of the iceberg. Let us all work together to end GBV against women and girls," she added. Civil society activist Chandiru Josephine said sexual violence against women remains a major problem in South Sudan and urged authorities to do more and end it. "Gender based violence is real issue, it is not a rumour, not a story, it is happening to both men and women. I urge the government to ensure that violence against women is ended," Chandiru said. South Sudan descended into civil war in late 2013, and the conflict has created one of the worst refugee crisis in Africa as some four million South Sudanese are displaced internally and externally, according to United Nations estimates. A latest report by the United Nations Commission of Human Rights accuses the warring parties in South Sudan of using sexual violence and maiming as a tool of war. Moustapha Soumare, deputy chief of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) urged the South Sudanese authorities to integrate protection of women's rights into the recently signed peace agreement and also tackle issues of impunity. "South Sudan has experienced various forms of violence against women and girls and many of these are perpetuated in full view of family and community members, therefore impacting on the ability of women and girls to a life free of violence," Soumare said. "Protection of women should be central to peace building. Let us stand together and end all forms of violence against women in the world and South Sudan." he added. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged four individuals for their roles in a scheme to profit from the manipulation and illegal sale of stock of two publicly traded companies, Environmental Packaging Technologies Holdings, Inc. and CURE Pharmaceutical Holding Corp. According to the SEC's complaint, Morrie Tobin, a California resident, worked with co-defendants Milan Patel, Matthew Ledvina, and Daniel Lacher to facilitate Tobin's scheme. Patel and Ledvina, attorneys at an international tax law firm, and Lacher, a resident of Switzerland, allegedly hid Tobin's ownership and control over the companies by using offshore entitites to hold his stock and by establishing accounts to sell that stock at Wintercap SA, a Swiss-based company run by U.K. citizen Roger Knox. On October 2, 2018, the SEC filed an emergency action and obtained an asset freeze against Knox and Wintercap, charging them with a scheme that generated more than $165 million of illegal sales of stock in at least 50 microcap companies. The SEC's complaint charges that to maximize profits from the alleged scheme, the defendants arranged to pay a stock promoter to tout the stock of Environmental Packaging while creating the impression that the recommendation came from a neutral third party. Environmental Packaging shares more than doubled, from approximately $1.05 per share to $2.21 per share, during the promotional campaign. Patel, Ledvina, and Lacher allegedly planned to collect a percentage of the proceeds from the unlawful sales. According to the complaint, after the SEC halted trading in the securities of Environmental Packaging on June 27, 2017, the defendants took steps to obstruct the SEC's investigation - and conceal their own involvement in the matter - by arranging to change the names listed on Wintercap account records. The SEC's complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court in the District of Massachusetts, charges Tobin, Patel, Ledvina, and Lacher with violating various federal securities laws, including the antifraud provisions of Sections 17(a)(1) and (3) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rules 10b-5(a) and (c) thereunder, and the securities registration provisions of Sections 5(a) and (c) of the Securities Act. The SEC seeks a permanent injunction against future violations, disgorgement of allegedly ill-gotten gains plus prejudgment interest, penny stock bars, and monetary penalties. The SEC's case is being handled by J. Lauchlan Wash, Trevor Donelan, Eric Forni, David Scheffler, Rebecca Israel, Jonathan Allen, Kathleen Shields, and Amy Gwiazda of the SEC's Boston Regional Office, in coordination with the Enforcement Division's Microcap Fraud Task Force. The SEC appreciates the assistance of the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the British Columbia Securities Commission, the Ontario Securities Commission, and the Malta Financial Services Authority. You are here: World Flash More than a dozen civilians were among over 30 killed in airstrikes against armed militants in Garmsir district of Afghanistan's southern Helmand province on Tuesday, an official said on the condition of anonymity on Wednesday. The official emphasized that the fighting aircrafts in the quest of Taliban militants targeted a house in Zanziri Darab area of Garmsir district late Tuesday night, killing 16 Taliban insurgents and more than a dozen civilians including women and children. Helmand's provincial governor Mohammad Yasin Khan, when approached by Xinhua, confirmed the airstrikes, saying all those killed were anti-government militants. However, the governor admitted that "civilians have also suffered" in the air raids in Garmsir district. The governor added that investigation had been initiated to determine the fact about the airstrikes. Neither the Afghan Defense Ministry nor the NATO-led Resolute Support mission has made comments on the alleged airstrikes on residential area in the troubled Helmand province. Free speech does not apply to Californias elected community college boards, a trustee in Oakland insisted as he explained his effort to censure a colleague who has alleged fiscal mismanagement and other problems in the Peralta Community College District. We dont have the right to the First Amendment, as it applies to the community colleges, said Bill Withrow on Tuesday. Hes one of seven trustees who manage the college district of 50,000 students. The Peralta trustees were to vote Tuesday night on whether to censure Trustee Nicky Gonzalez Yuen for publicly criticizing the chancellor and the institution in the media, with the obvious intent to diminish the public image of the institution. The resolution, brought forward by Withrow, labels Yuen a rogue trustee and criticizes him for being too bossy in his interactions with fellow trustees. Instead, the trustees voted 4-3 to table the measure and attend mediation. Yuen has been warning of widespread financial and managerial problems in the Peralta college district, and has said the trustees and Chancellor Jowell Laguerre are unable or unwilling to address them. We are on the edge of bankruptcy, Yuen said Tuesday. Peralta is in deep trouble in almost every aspect of administrative functioning, including how it has spent parcel tax money, implemented technology, managed staffing levels, maintained facilities and addressed morale problems that have contributed to high turnover. Yuen told The Chronicle in September that his fellow trustees have been asleep at the wheel by allowing millions of dollars in student fees to go uncollected and then reporting the bad debt as financial reserves. Laguerre has denied mismanaging the district and has defended spending decisions. In July, Moodys, the bond credit rating company, found weakened financial performance in the college district and noted that its reserves have steadily declined. As a result, Moodys revised the outlook for some of Peraltas lines of credit from stable to negative, indicating the possibility that its credit rating could be downgraded within two years, said David Jacobson, a company analyst. Peralta officials reported to the state that enrollment dropped by more than 2,100 students from 2012 to 2017, a 4 percent loss, while the number of administrators rocketed up by 45 percent, to 74 from 51. Similarly, a recent audit of a parcel tax approved by voters in 2012 for core academic programs showed that tax spending on books and supplies dropped by 25 percent in the year after the current chancellor arrived in 2015, and tax spending for faculty salaries plunged by nearly two-thirds. Meanwhile, the district hired a Sacramento law firm to look into allegations of legal violations and professional misconduct in the district, which were collected in a 2016 whistle-blower report brought by Jeff Heyman, who served 18 years as Peraltas spokesman. The firm, which was paid $150,000 by the district, cleared the chancellor and trustees of all allegations. Yuen has spoken out about all of these things and said, they should be publicly discussed. As college trustees, we have a special role to uphold freedom of speech, freedom of inquiry and academic freedom, he said before the censure vote. The role of dissent is critical to the healthy functioning of a democracy. Agreeing with Yuen were Loni Hancock a former state senator representing parts of Alameda and Contra Costa counties and her husband, Tom Bates. Both have served as mayor of Berkeley, and wrote to the Peralta trustees expressing surprise at the effort to censure Yuen and urging that it be tabled. Where would democracy be if members of the U.S. Congress were expected to keep quiet and support all decisions taken by the majority? they asked. Too often, the real problem is the exact opposite of this resolution: Elected people succumb to peer pressure, keep quiet and go along to get along. But Withrow said Hancock and Bates made a fundamental mistake: State laws that apply to the governing boards of community colleges dont give the freedoms that apply to congressional districts, he said, referring to the First Amendment guarantee of free speech. We just dont have that right. A Chronicle reporter asked Withrow which state law restricts college trustees free speech. 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. Education Code 70902, he said. When a reading of that law revealed no free-speech restrictions, Withrow directed a reporter to look instead at the trustee handbook on the Peralta college district site. None were there, either. So a reporter turned to a state community college spokesman and asked if members of Congress have a greater right to speak out than do college trustees, and if trustees are barred from speaking freely about their colleges outside of trustee meetings, as Withrow also said. No and no, said Paul Feist, spokesman for state Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley, who oversees Californias 114 community colleges. But Withrow said Yuen had crossed the line in his complaints about Peralta and needed to be censured. So a reporter asked Withrow to examine a recent Chronicle article in which Yuen described Peraltas problems, and to point out anything he shouldnt have said. Withrow said Yuen should not have said there was an atmosphere of fear in the district. Yuen had said that people in the district feared retaliation for speaking out. Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimov Dozens of people clutched burning candles, sheltered underneath umbrellas as steady rain glistened San Franciscos Harvey Milk Plaza on Tuesday night the 40th anniversary of the assassinations of city supervisor and civil rights icon Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone. They prepared to march to City Hall, with wet rainbow flags that hung heavy. Mayor London Breed welcomed the crowd and introduced friends of Milk and Moscone, who took turns grabbing the microphone and sharing memories. If you were vulnerable, under attack, he was there for you, said Cleve Jones of Milk. He was never a single-issue candidate. He understood the commonality of our struggle. Gay, straight. Young, old. Black, brown and white. Immigrant and native born. The crowd cheered. Fists pumped in the air. Phones were held high to capture Jones booming speech. There were hugs and head nods. Now Playing: Remembering Milk and Moscone Video: San Francisco Chronicle Debra Jones, a San Francisco State University student and an intern with Milk at City Hall in the 1970s, told the crowd that, while she worked under his guidance, He talked about coming out, but as a straight kid, I was already out but I thought about what that means in a different context. Its about being our real, authentic selves. Now Playing: Politicians are marking the 40th anniversary of Harvey Milk and George Moscone's assassinations on Tuesday with ceremonies in San Francisco and Oakland. Christien Kafton reports Video: KTVU Milk was known as the first openly gay elected leader in California. As a San Francisco supervisor, he represented the Haight-Ashbury and upper Market Street neighborhoods. He championed many causes, from affordable housing to public transportation. But he was perhaps best known for helping to usher in San Franciscos gay rights ordinance and defeat a California initiative that would have required the firing of gay teachers. On Nov. 27, 1978, former San Francisco supervisor Dan White fatally shot Milk and Moscone with a .38-caliber revolver. He was later convicted of voluntary manslaughter. On Tuesday night, officials with the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club hosted the march to reflect on the political assassinations. Anne Kronenberg, Milks campaign manager and legislative aide, remembered standing up at his funeral, throwing her fist in the air and telling mourners, We will overcome. Forty years later, standing in Harvey Milk Plaza, Kronenberg said, We have overcome. The bullet through his brain broke open all the closet doors and there are now millions of Harveys in the world and people speaking out for what Harvey believed in, she said. We will keep Harveys spirit alive. Earlier in the day, Breed led a solemn remembrance for the two slain leaders outside her office at City Hall, proclaiming that what came out of that tragedy was two amazing legacies. 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 vibrant evidence of those legacies, she noted, surrounded her as she stood at her mobile podium. On either side of the mayor were dozens of city and state officials who represented a veritable rainbow of different backgrounds. They (Moscone and Milk) paved the way for so many of the leaders standing here today, representing so many diverse backgrounds, Breed said. Also joining Breed were Jonathan Moscone, the late mayors son, and Stuart Milk, the late supervisors nephew. Moscone advised the crowd not to mourn the past, but to take stock of the future, which he hoped would be filled with a greater spirit of togetherness and help for the downtrodden. Thats the future I hope for San Francisco, and I believe my dad would have hoped for the same, he said. Chronicle Staff Writer Kurtis Alexander contributed to this report. Lauren Hernandez and Kevin Fagan are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: lauren.hernandez@sfchronicle.com; kfagan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @LaurenPorFavor @KevinChron Welcome back to Tech Chronicle. If you want some growth in your inbox, subscribe for a ripping good time. The economy is ripping The world seems aflame, and San Franciscos streets remain full of lost souls. But the outlook from Salesforce Tower is rosy. The company reported earnings Tuesday, in that quarterly ritual where public companies reveal their numbers and Wall Street analysts offer congratulations or, rarely, scoldings. It was all congratulations for Salesforce, which reported $105 million of net income on $3.17 billion in revenue. More importantly, it forecast revenue of $16 billion next year a gush of cash down from the cloud onto Mission Street. According to Marc Benioff, the companys co-founder and co-CEO, its a rising tide thats lifting his and his customers boats. He told analysts on a conference call that the economy has really been ripping, and he expects several years ahead of good, solid growth for the economy. Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle What insulates him from criticism as a billionaire celebrating his billions, I think, is how Benioff has been sharing the wealth most recently by pushing for the passage of Proposition C, San Franciscos tax on big businesses to fund homelessness prevention, which won voter approval this month. Hes said that Salesforces annual bill will come to about $10 million, or about what it makes in a day and a half. And he ended Tuesdays call by urging listeners to donate to the North Valley Community Foundation to help victims of the Camp Fire. (Salesforce employees have donated $300,000 to charities, and turned cafes into drop-off points for supplies.) John Phillips / Getty Images for TechCrunch 2015 What Benioff hasnt been successful at is persuading other moguls to follow his lead. Few signed on to his Prop. C push, and most arent following his model of reserving equity and employee time for charitable causes. (A notable, laudable exception: Jeff Lawson, CEO of Twilio, another San Francisco cloud software company, who recently pledged $1 million to support homeless programs.) In the two decades or so since the Netscape IPO kicked off the internet boom, technology has proven to be a highly effective tool for concentrating wealth. San Francisco and the Bay Area have felt the benefit and the strains. Were a region prone to quakes and fire, to boom and bust. Catastrophe is in our blood. But heres an intriguing thought: What if Benioffs right, and the forecast calls for more money raining down? How will we catch it and harness it to fix the problems tech is causing? Owen Thomas (othomas@sfchronicle.com) Quote of the week We object to technologies that aid the powerful in oppressing the vulnerable, wherever they may be. Almost 300 Google employees, in an open letter posted on Medium protesting the search engines plan to reintroduce censored products in China Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes Coming up Thursday, well see earnings for HP Inc. (PCs and printers) and VMware (cloud software) a good temperature-taking for the broader strength of the tech economy. What Im reading Adrienne Rose Bitar examines the post-meat future: a world free of slaughter but rich with protein. (Wired) WeWork started out as a place to get a desk and Wi-Fi. Now its providing entire offices. Roland Li looks at how the real estate company is transcending co-working. (San Francisco Chronicle) Jenny Odell dives deep into the strange links behind a blandly obscure e-commerce startup and the troubled parent of Newsweek. (New York Times) Kathleen Pender reports the good news: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are raising the conforming loan limit to $726,525 in most of the Bay Area. And the bad news: Thats below the regions median home price. (San Francisco Chronicle) Tech Chronicle is a thrice-weekly newsletter from Owen Thomas, The Chronicles business editor, and the rest of the tech team. Follow along on Twitter: @techchronicle and Instagram: @techchronicle City officials in Juuls hometown of San Francisco are concerned about the vaping companys expansion into city-owned property at Pier 70 adding to the chorus of regulatory scrutiny and public health worries over Juuls popular and addictive e-cigarettes. City Attorney Dennis Herrera, in a letter dated Tuesday, asked the developer of Pier 70, Orton Development, which is subleasing space to Juul, to provide documents showing Juul is complying with state, city and leasing requirements for handling hazardous materials like liquid nicotine and posting warnings about exposure to chemicals that may cause cancer. The letter, also sent to Juul, notes public outcry over Juuls lease of historic city property Pier 70 once housed ship building operations during World War II given the health hazards e-cigarettes pose to children. At a Port Commission meeting this month, residents and parents protested Juuls expansion into the pier property in the citys Dogpatch neighborhood, criticizing the companys role in popularizing highly addictive flavored nicotine among teens. These comments illustrate the potential adverse financial impacts that Juuls occupancy may have on the proprietary interests of the city, including its port, in its property, Herrera wrote in the letter. The backlash from Juuls tenancy could negatively affect the master tenants ability to maximize revenues from the historic Pier 70 premises and therefore reduce potential participation rent payments to the port under the master lease. The city has given Orton until Dec. 12 to provide the information. James Madsen of Orton declined to comment, saying the company does not comment on legal matters. Juul did not provide a response to requests for comment. Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes Juul signed a lease last year to occupy 60,000 square feet at the property, and over the summer expanded its footprint an additional 16,000 square feet in total, enough space for about 500 employees. The space is zoned for light manufacturing, though its unclear if any Juul products or parts are manufactured there. The company is rapidly expanding, despite a recent crackdown by federal regulators on the way e-cigarette companies market their products to teens. This month, under pressure from the FDA, Juul announced it would pull some flavored nicotine products off store shelves, though it would continue selling them online with age verification protocols. Catherine Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Cat_Ho A federal judge asked Pacific Gas and Electric Co. on Tuesday to account for any role the utility played in sparking Californias deadliest and most destructive wildfire. In a two-page court filing, U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco asked Californias largest utility for an accurate and complete statement of its connection to the cause and reporting of the Camp Fire, which destroyed nearly 14,000 homes and killed at least 88 people. Alsup oversees the ongoing probation imposed on PG&E following a jury verdict related to the 2010 San Bruno pipeline explosion that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes. In his filing Tuesday, he asked PG&E about the Camp Fire in particular as well as PG&Es role, if any, in the cause and reporting of all other wildfires in California since the utility was sentenced in January 2017. PG&E spokeswoman Erin Garvey said the utility is aware of the notice from Alsup and is reviewing the document. Nothing is more important than the safety of our customers, employees, contractors and the communities we serve, she said in an email. We continue to focus on assessing infrastructure, safely restoring power where possible, and helping our customers recover and rebuild. While the cause of the Camp Fire is still under investigation, PG&E told state regulators the day after the blaze started that a transmission line in the area of the fires origin had a problem shortly before the first flames were reported. About one week later, the utility reported another outage happened shortly after the fire started and said it was cooperating with state fire officials who collected some of the companys equipment. Investigators are examining a possible second starting point to the conflagration. Alsup asked PG&E what requirements of its San Bruno-related sentence might be implicated by any inaccurate, slow or failed reporting of information about any wildfire by the utility. He further inquired about the steps taken by an independent monitor to monitor and improve PG&E safety and reporting with respect to power lines and wildfires. Alsup also is seeking to know whether any requirements of PG&Es sentence from the San Bruno explosion might be implicated if the utilitys reckless operation or maintenance of its power lines caused a wildfire. The judge posed his questions to the parties in the San Bruno case PG&E and the U.S. attorneys office as well as the independent monitor appointed to oversee the safety of the utilitys gas pipeline operations. Alsup asked for written answers by Dec. 31. Alsup took over supervision of the case from his predecessor, District Judge Thelton Henderson, in August 2017. The questions from Alsup were of great interest to attorney Mike Danko, who is on a team of lawyers representing Camp Fire victims suing PG&E. Danko said if Alsup finds PG&E violated the terms of its probation, he could impose further constraints on the company including stricter government oversight. Fire Tracker Follow wildfires across the state Latest updates on wildfires burning across Northern and Southern California Its serious stuff, without question, Danko said. Basically, to the extent people were thinking ... that the criminal conviction is in the rearview mirror, no this felon is still on probation. The filing from Alsup is the latest in a series of obstacles for PG&E since the ignition of the Camp Fire. Lawsuits, including wrongful death claims, have been piling up in recent weeks against the utility, and the stock price of its parent company plummeted before experiencing a modest recovery. Separately, PG&E remains the subject of an investigation before the California Public Utilities Commission regarding its commitment to safety in its corporate culture. Commissioners on Thursday are set to consider advancing that investigation, taking up a proposed decision from an administrative law judge who questioned whether PG&E is truly changing its culture, or is just trying to check the boxes. The president of the utilities commission has said he wants to expand the PG&E safety culture investigation which was started because of the San Bruno blast to include recent wildfires. The Associated Press contributed to this report. J.D. Morris is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jd.morris@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @thejdmorris Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle The Hearst Corp. has donated $500,000 to the Red Cross California wildfire relief fund, and Hearst-owned KCRA-TV raised more than $1.2 million during a special telethon, the company announced this week. The money will benefit victims of California wildfires, including Butte Countys Camp Fire that killed at least 88 people and destroyed nearly 14,000 homes. It was thousands of feet shorter than Mount Hamilton. Its views were far less spectacular than Mount Diablos. No one hiked it like they did Mount Tamalpais. But the Leslie Salt Mountain was a Bay Area landmark nonetheless, even if it was made solely of sodium chloride. A recent trip to The Chronicles archive turned up images of the regions salt-harvesting industry that ringed San Francisco Bay, including the glistening Leslie Salt Mountain off Highway 101 in Redwood City. Many of the photos and one advertisement more than a century old havent been seen in decades. Dig deep into Chronicle Vault Like what you're reading? Subscribe to the Chronicle Vault newsletter and get classic archive stories in your inbox twice a week. Read hundreds of historical stories, see thousands of archive photos and sort through 153 years of classic Chronicle front pages at SFChronicle.com/vault. See More Collapse Salt mining in the Bay Area has been going on for longer than California has been a state. The Ohlone Indians pulled salt from the bay, and Gold Rush-era entrepreneurs built primitive dikes to create evaporation ponds and harvest the salt for the Comstock silver mines, which used it to process ore. Of the many salty photos shot by Chronicle photographers through the decades, the best were from the 1970s and 80s, when the industry was in its prime and the Leslie Salt Mountain on the Peninsula was at its highest. According to a Chronicle article by reporter Harre Demoro from Oct. 15, 1983, an insect-like machine crawled along the crusty ponds, scraping up the salt and loading it into rail cars, which carried it to the mounds next to the Leslie Salt refinery. More than 200 workers swarmed along the bay shoreline to harvest 1 million tons of the crystals. The harvest by the Cargill company which had bought Leslie Salt in 1978 started with about 100 workers, and that would build to more than 400 during the busiest time. In 1983, Alan Woodhill, the company president and a 25-year veteran of the business, explained, From September through the Christmas season, ponds around Newark will yield 700,000 tons of salt, and another 300,000 tons will be harvested from the ponds between Redwood City and Alviso. By the 2000s, the land used for salt harvesting had become so valuable that change was inevitable. Cargill maintained a harvesting facility in the East Bay but began to sell and donate large portions of its land and ponds along the bay. Large tracts would go to the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge while other areas were pegged for commercial or residential use. Cargill agreed to sell a 15-acre parcel in Redwood City to pharmaceutical company Abbott Laboratories in the early 2000s. While this site was only a small piece of the more than 19,000 acres that Cargill owned in the area at the time, it was home to the Leslie Salt Mountain, easily the most visible part of the operation. In 2006, Cargill ceased production at the Redwood City facility and removed the salt mountain, scoop by scoop, and the Bay Area lost a classic, glistening landmark. Gary Fong / The Chronicle 1983 More from Chronicle Vault Another from the Peninsula: These photos from the great Southern Pacific train derailment of 1953 hadnt been seen for decades until we pulled them from the depths of The Chronicles archive. Ka-boom: Do you remember when a heavily traveled Bay Area bridge was blown sky-high? Heres the story from 1982. More from the Archive The Vault Home of the San Francisco Chronicle's archive and more than 150 years of journalism covering the Bay Area and beyond. Oaklands jewel: This ode to Lake Merritt features dozens of photos from as far back as a century and it tells the story of a National Historic Landmark that many in the East Bay take for granted. Local history lesson: International secrecy. A Soviet submarine. Howard Hughes. The CIA. This Bay Area story wasnt short on intrigue. Beware the medfly: A minuscule bug caused an ecological nightmare across Northern California nearly 40 years ago, and the fallout spread from the fields of Silicon Valley into the halls of the Capitol in Sacramento. From the Archive is a weekly column by Bill Van Niekerken, the library director of The Chronicle, exploring the depths of the newspapers archive. Its part of Chronicle Vault, a twice-weekly newsletter highlighting more than 150 years of San Francisco stories. It is edited by Tim ORourke, The Chronicles assistant managing editor and executive producer of SFChronicle.com. Sign up for the newsletter here and follow Chronicle Vault on Instagram. Contact Bill at bvanniekerken@sfchronicle.com and Tim at torourke@sfchronicle.com. More than four months after 18-year-old Nia Wilson was stabbed to death on an Oakland BART station platform, the case against her alleged killer has stalled as prosecutors consider whether to pursue the death penalty. In a packed Alameda County court Tuesday morning, Judge James Cramer continued the plea hearing of John Lee Cowell, eliciting sighs from Wilsons family and supporters in the gallery. Tuesdays hearing was the fourth time Cowell was scheduled to enter a plea but failed to do so. I wish this process would move on, Wilsons father, Ansar El Muhammad, said after the hearing. My familys been through a lot of grief this year. Cowell had a solemn expression in court, handcuffed and wearing red jail clothing. He didnt enter a plea or address the court. His next plea hearing, which has been continued since August, is scheduled for Dec. 20. Judge Cramer approved the postponement, which had been agreed upon by prosecutors and the defense. Cowells attorney, Christina Moore, said the delay was needed because the district attorneys office hadnt decided whether to seek capital punishment for the defendant. Prosecutors did not address the court during the hearing, and a spokeswoman for the Alameda County district attorneys office declined comment. The Alameda County public defenders office, which is representing Cowell, has expressed concern about prosecutors seeking the death penalty, citing Cowells history of mental illness. Moore noted that Cowell had a stint in a state hospital for mentally ill inmates that ended 75 days before the alleged attack. In a court hearing in October, Moore asked for additional time to write a mitigation letter, which would include information about Cowells mental health, for the district attorneys consideration. Wilsons family members have said they would support the death penalty in this case. Weve already lived the death sentence, El Muhammad said. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. Last month, a grand jury indicted Cowell on charges of murder and attempted murder, which allowed the case to bypass preliminary hearings and move to trial. On the evening of July 22, prosecutors said, Cowell stabbed Nia Wilson and her 26-year-old sister, Letifah, in the neck as they exited a train at the MacArthur BART Station. Nia Wilson died on the platform while her sister was rushed to the hospital with serious but non-fatal injuries. Cowell was arrested the next day at the Pleasant Hill BART Station following a tip from another passenger. Nia Wilsons death garnered national attention because of accusations that the attack was a hate crime. Cowell is white and Nia Wilson was black. Cowell was not charged with a hate crime. In the days after the attack, hundreds of people took to Oakland streets for marches and vigils. Ashley McBride is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ashley.mcbride@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ashleynmcb A 19-year-old Texas college student faces multiple felony charges after authorities say he sent menacing Snapchat messages to students at Freedom High School in Oakley and threatened to murder the schools principal. Contra Costa County prosecutors have charged Tristan Amir Curl with six counts of making criminal threats, one count of stalking and one felony count of threatening a school official. Through a series of messages in September, an unknown person threatened to rape and kill several underage girls at the school, prosecutors said Wednesday. A person from that same account later expanded the reach to another group of students before then directing threats to the entire campus and school staff. Oakley Police Capt. Eric Christensen said messages caught fire after the victims shared them on their own social media, prompting hundreds of students to miss classes. The minute something gets out there, it gets out there really fast nowadays, Christensen said. Officials say the person behind those messages was Curl, an Oakley resident attending college at St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas. He was not a former student of Freedom High. Curl was arrested Nov. 20 in Austin. Hes in the custody of the Travis County, Texas, Sheriffs Office while awaiting extradition to Contra Costa County. Throughout the time of this investigation, members of our community were terrorized by this subject and the threats that he made to our community, police officials said. Police said the threats caused significant psychological trauma to many people who feared the person would follow through with the threats. 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. Oakley officers were assigned to provide additional security at the schools campus, and the department enlisted the assistance of the Contra Costa County District Attorneys Office and the FBI. The Austin Police Department additionally assisted Oakley investigators, Oakley Police Chief Chris Thorsen said after Curls arrest. There are still additional questions that we are trying to understand, including the motivation for the threats and if he intended to carry out any of his threats, Thorsen said. Megan Cassidy is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @meganrcassidy Amanda and I met when we both volunteered at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in the autumn of 1982. She has seen me through disastrous boyfriends, including the cowboy and the Mafia guy, and I have seen her through disastrous girlfriends, including the runaway circus clown. Weve patrolled the streets as Pink Panthers, taken the bus to D.C. to protest presidents we disagreed with, and set up ironing boards on Christopher Street to collect money for the first national AIDS hotline. Weve gone on vision quests to Rangeley Lakes and to Bette Davis films in the East Village. In 36 years, I have only seen her in a dress twice: once at my wedding and the other at Zanes baptism, where she became the first-ever Jewish/Wiccan/fairy godmother. In short, Amanda has seen me at my best and my worst. When we lost the triplets, we visited her in the Catskills and assembled jigsaw puzzles until we could make sense of the world again. And I called her the night Zane had to go over the mountain and across the desert. And so, her opinion very much matters, and I was delighted that I have finally impressed her. Last weekend, she woke up at 3 in the morning wondering what the online dictionary definition of the word grippe is. You know how in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary they give you the word, the meaning, and then use the word in a sentence? Well, she got the acute febrile contagious virus disease that she expected, but then, instead of the chorus from a song in Guys and Dolls, the example of the words use was: And even though Aidan suffers from the grippe every other Tuesday, Zane has never missed a day of school for medical reasons. Kevin Fisher-Paulson, San Francisco Chronicle: Having faith that everything will work out. 7 May 2018 First of all, Amanda is the only friend I have who looks up definitions of words at 3 in the morning. Thats because we are logophiles, or what Zane would call word nerds. Second of all, none of the other stuff the book, the award, the promotion, none of it ever got her attention quite so much as the fact that I am now included in a reference source. That night, as the Fisher-Paulsons sat down to our Hamburger Helper, I could hardly wait, racing through grace and the toast to the best boys in the world, and as I stuck my fork in the bowl, I asked Aidan, How was your day? knowing that he always answers me with one syllable or a shoulder shrug. But then Brian asked me how my day was, and I announced, We made it into the dictionary! And I read him the sentence. Aidan blinked. Blinked again. So Im famous for being sick? Brian smiled, tried to look enthusiastic, but really, Brian has danced on Broadway. He teaches at San Francisco Ballet. He stars in the Mark Foehringer production of The Nutcracker. Appearing in one of 476,000 definitions just wasnt that much of a thrill. Zane gets two 10-minute phone calls a week, and nine minutes into the call, I was bursting. Guess what? What? he asked. We made it into the dictionary! Is that a good thing? Here I am at the apogee of lexicography, part of an institution that dates back to 1806. You know who Webster was? Noah Webster was the guy who founded New Yorks first daily newspaper. He wrote the first dictionary of the American English language, as opposed to the language that they speak in the Jane Austen books. And because its American, it was the first dictionary ever to carry words like opossum and chowder. Webster got rid of that unnecessary u in color and honor. He spelled center as center, not centre. He did try to take the b out of thumb, but that proposal got a thums-down. Websters premise was that words belong to everyone, and I guess in a way, the word that now belongs to the Fisher-Paulsons is grippe. There are other word nerds. Emily Dickinson read the Webster like a Bible. Or as Steve Wright has said, I finally got around to reading the dictionary. Turns out the Zebra did it. Todays victory is that although I may not be famous to Aidan or Zane or even my husband, I am famous to Amanda Gulla. Its not Wikipedia, but its a start. We may even get the outer, outer, outer, outer Excelsior into the atlas. Kevin Fisher-Paulsons column appears Wednesdays in Datebook. Email: datebook@sfchronicle.com San Francisco restaurateur Michael Mina is days away from opening the doors to his latest blockbuster project, the Hawaii-inspired Trailblazer Tavern. The sprawling 7,000-square-foot restaurant, set in the Salesforce East building, is a collaboration among Mina and James Beard-nominated Hawaiian chefs Michelle Karr-Ueoka and Wade Ueoka of Honolulus MW Restaurant. Its slated to open on Monday, Dec. 3. Trailblazer Tavern is one of 2018s more ambitious restaurant projects in terms of scope, with more than 200 seats, divided across a 72-seat mezzanine, 24-seat bar and 47-seat dining room, plus private rooms and a patio area. While it represents Karr-Ueoka and Ueokas first foray into the San Francisco culinary world, its not their first project with Mina. The trio partnered together on Minas food hall in Honolulu, the Street. There, the pair of Hawaiian chefs created the menu for Burger Hale, one of the 10 food stalls in the hall. This whole process started about three years ago when Michael Mina was looking for a concept at the Street, Karr-Ueoka said. Then one day he asked us if we wanted to do something in San Francisco with him and (co-CEO of Salesforce) Marc Benioff. Everything just kind of went from there. We didnt have any plans to come to San Francisco before that, Ueoka added. Stylistically, the couple specialize in projects that slide comfortably into the category of casual yet upscale, similar to their celebrated MW Restaurant. Based on the early word from the Mina camp, Trailblazer Tavern will fall into a similar mold in the Salesforce East building. MW Honolulu Diners will be greeted at the entrance of the restaurant with the Hawaiian expression E komo mai, e noho mai, e ai a e, walaau meaning Come in, come sit, eat, and talk. Reservations will be available but the restaurant will also accommodate walk-ins. The main dining area of Trailblazer Tavern, designed by Los Angeles company Bishop Pass, is centered around the restaurants bar. Trailblazer Tavern might fall under the ever-expanding Mina Group umbrella, but overall, the partnership is more reminiscent of what Mina has done with International Smoke, the very popular barbecue spot he opened last year with Ayesha Curry (who at this point, with all of her other ventures outside of food, is more celebrity endorser than actual in-the-kitchen chef). The Mina Group provides the foundation and funding for the project, while the chefs shape nearly everything else. The same is happening at Trailblazer Tavern. Karr-Ueoka and Ueoka have spent the last few weeks navigating Bay Area farmers markets, finding produce and obtaining a general understanding of Bay Area seasonality, something they want to reflect in their menu. To be able to pick different types of squashes and gourds and apple and pears, said Karr-Ueoka. Were just looking forward to working all of these things into the menu. [Lunch Menu] [Dinner Menu] Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more. Heres a quick rundown of what they have in the works: shareable dishes and snacks like dim sum, ahi poke nachos and mochi-crusted spam musubi made with smoked-pork-arabiki-meatloaf. Among the more formal entrees is a miso honey-glazed butterfish with Chinese cabbage, Taegu salad and crispy shallots, as well as a stew made with oxtail, corned beef, pork belly and peanut risotto. The restaurant will debut with dinner service only before adding lunch at a later date. Nicola Parisi On the beverage side, local and Hawaiian beers made the cut, as did a handful of tropical cocktails, a private selection of bourbon, Japanese whiskey and a 100-bottle wine list. If this project takes the same path as International Smoke, meaning immediate popularity and rapid expansion, this could mark a new chapter for Karr-Ueoka and Ueoka. We just want to see how this goes first, Karr-Ueoka said with a laugh when asked about the possibility of opening more restaurants in San Francisco. We just want to make sure people like what were doing first. Then well see. Trailblazer Tavern: 350 Mission St. in Salesforce East. 415-625-5445 or www.michaelmina.net. Open Monday-Saturday 5-10 p.m. Justin Phillips is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jphillips@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JustMrPhillips Charles B. Johnson, the billionaire Giants principal owner embroiled in a controversy over two political donations, defended himself Wednesday against charges that he is racist and criticized U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi for her public hanging comment. I think she was stupid, Johnson told The Chronicle by phone from Palm Beach, Fla., in an extraordinarily rare interview. She said stupid things, particularly in Mississippi. I think the comments she made about the hanging was offensive. Johnson, 85, also said the racist radio ad in Arkansas created by an organization to which he donated $1,000 was unacceptable, that he has made contributions to many African American office-seekers, most recently Utah congresswoman Mia Love, who lost her re-election bid, and that he is a believer in racial harmony. Also, while Johnson understands why Giants fans were upset with his two oft-criticized donations, he defended his role as one of the nations most prolific Republican donors and said his spending has nothing to do with the team, from which he has no plans to divest. Im sorry that they feel that way, Johnson said in a relaxed tone. I try to do the best thing that I can. Some things are good and some things are mistakes and you live the best way you can with your own philosophy. Pointing toward the falling African American unemployment rate, which President Trump often touts, Johnson said, I do believe the Republican party has been better for blacks than the Democratic party has. Youll get a lot of argument about that, particularly from the NAACP, but if you look at the results, the opportunity to rise in life is much better under Republicans than under radical Democrats. He emphasized that he said radical to differentiate them from moderate Democrats, some of whom he supports. On the whole, he said, I dont like the idea of politics affecting anything that I do with the Giants. As Johnson was speaking to The Chronicle, Oakland civil-rights attorney John Burris issued a statement calling off a boycott of the Giants that he had advocated, alongside NAACP San Francisco chapter president the Rev. Amos Brown and sociologist Harry Edwards. That decision followed news Tuesday that Johnson, whose 26 percent stake makes him the largest Giants shareholder, had written to the Hyde-Smith campaign seeking a refund of the $5,400 that he and his wife, Ann, had donated to her campaign. Hyde-Smith won her election Tuesday night. Johnson already had sought and received a refund of the $1,000 he donated to the Black Americans for the Presidents Agenda, which produced the racist radio ad in Arkansas supporting Republican Rep. French Hill in his successful re-election bid. Burris said in his statement that after speaking with Edwards and Brown, I have decided that Mr. Johnsons statements condemning racism and requesting the returns of his contributions to Senator-elect Hyde-Smith are sufficient, positive steps and that the boycott is not further warranted at this time. Burris was cautious, however, saying, Mr. Johnson is free to make any and all contributions that he wants, but as a principal owner of the Giants, those contributions should not go to organizations or politicians perpetuating racist views or condoning systems that further the legacies of discrimination. As a longtime Giants supporter and civil-rights lawyer, I want the best for the team, Burris said. But I will be watching. Johnson explained both donations. He said he received a flier from the Black Americans PAC seeking his support for African American candidates. You get things in the mail, and that was an interesting flier, Johnson said. It said nothing about advertising. Johnson also said he initiated his contribution to Hyde-Smith on Nov. 10, one day before a video surfaced in which she expressed her regard for a campaign supporter by saying she would be in the front row of a public hanging if he invited her. The campaign did not report the donation until Nov. 20, nine days after the video emerged. The comment drew widespread criticism for its allusion to lynchings; more such killings happened in Mississippi than in any other state, according to the NAACP. Johnson said he made that contribution after receiving an email from a group that vets all kinds of things seeking money. He called it a very responsible group. While agreeing that the hanging comment was offensive, Johnson said he had no issue with Hyde-Smith being photographed in a Confederate hat, which he said was common in the South. That could be a topic for Thursday, when Johnson speaks by phone with Brown and Giants President and CEO Larry Baer, who organized the call. Henry Schulman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: hschulman@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hankschulman As turbulence continued at the Mexican border, the Trump administration on Tuesday challenged a San Francisco federal judges ruling thwarting the presidents effort to disqualify thousands of immigrants from seeking asylum in the United States. U.S. District Judge Jon Tigars temporary restraining order Nov. 19 was legally flawed, jeopardizes important national interests and interferes with the governments plan to address a major crisis at the border, Justice Department lawyers told Tigar in asking him to immediately suspend his ruling. After taking a week to file its promised appeal, the Justice Department gave Tigar a short deadline: Grant a stay by Wednesday, or the administration will file the same request with the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The next step from there would be the U.S. Supreme Court. In response, American Civil Liberties Union attorney Lee Gelernt said, We will vigorously oppose the stay request, so that peoples lives are not put in danger. The ACLU sued on behalf of asylum support groups on Nov. 9, hours after President Trump announced his order. Asylum allows immigrants to remain in the country, seek work permits and apply for citizenship if they can show a well-founded fear of persecution in their homeland for reasons such as race, religion political views, or, under recent rulings, sexual orientation. The Trump administration is seeking in separate proceedings to limit the grounds for asylum. Tigars restraining order is scheduled to be in effect until Dec. 19, when the judge plans a hearing on a preliminary injunction that would remain in place indefinitely. Restraining orders usually cannot be appealed, but the losing side can ask a court for a stay to prevent imminent serious harm. Trumps edict would bar undocumented immigrants at the Mexican border from seeking asylum if they enter the U.S. illegally, without presenting themselves at a designated port of entry. Those are a limited number of official sites where immigrants currently face waits of a month or more before applying for asylum. The Trump administration said the new rules would encourage immigrants to enter legally while the administration negotiates with Mexico on a haven for migrants from Central America. Trump has sent thousands of U.S. troops to the border to confront a caravan of immigrants heading northward. On Sunday, U.S. forces used tear gas and pepper spray against migrants who tried to cross the border into San Diego County. Tigars ruling said Trumps order ignored a federal law, passed in its current form in 1996, that allows any foreigner who is physically present in the United States (whether or not at a designated port of entry) to apply for asylum. He said the Justice Departments interpretation that the law covered only applications and did not limit the governments authority to deny asylum would make the congressional statute largely meaningless. The Justice Department did not mention that law in Tuesdays filing, but instead told Tigar that he had wrongly substituted (his) independent views on border security for those of the political branches of the U.S. government. The department said the judge should have followed the example set by the Supreme Court in June, when it upheld Trumps ban on U.S. entry of anyone from a group of mostly Muslim nations. The high court recognized, the lawyers said, that the governments national-security and foreign-policy interests outweighed the plaintiffs interests. Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko Jeff Chiu / AP Not since FDR was president and the nation was cresting the Depression have San Francisco voters behaved this way. The rest of the state pretty much followed suit, registering in record numbers in 2018 and flooding registrars with ballots still being tallied. This citys turnout was 74 percent, a level not reached since 1938. In the rest of the state, it was 62 percent. San Franciscos high-energy number compares with Marin County, which hit 81 percent, and the counties of San Mateo, 72, Santa Clara, 69, Alameda, 66, and Contra Costa, 62. Crabs are a big deal in California as one of our oldest and most valuable fisheries. They are often a treasured part of holiday feasts and they supply jobs to coastal communities. Whales are a big deal, literally, as the most majestic, largest animals swimming off our shore. What the California Department of Fish and Wildlife has done in the past several years with our partners to prevent whale entanglements in fishing gear is a big deal, too. Californias ocean waters are home to one of the most productive marine ecosystems in the world, hosting a diverse assemblage of migrating birds, marine mammals, sea turtles, and fish and invertebrate species. Protecting the ocean is a high priority for Californians. That is why our department is taking actions to protect the whales and our prized crab fishery. The department is working to create a conservation plan that will analyze the effects of crab fishing on whales, identify steps to minimize the risk of whale entanglements in the crab fishing gear, secure funding to implement the plan, and submit it to the federal government for needed approval. In 2015, there was a disturbing trend of rising rates of whale entanglements: The number of reported entanglements jumped in 2015 and 2016 but then dropped considerably (by some accounts as much as 80 percent between 2016 and 2017). The spike in 2015 and 2016 corresponded with unprecedented changes in ocean conditions as the warm water blob increased ocean temperatures and changed the abundance and location of whales prey (krill and small fish). The whales chased their prey, which brought them into traditional fishing grounds that had an unusual concentration of crabbing gear due to delays in the fishing season from high domoic acid levels, increasing the risk of whales becoming entangled. Out of concern, the state took action. Even one whale or turtle entanglement is too many. In 2015, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, in partnership with the California Ocean Protection Council and NOAA Fisheries (an office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration within the U.S. Department of Commerce), established the California Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group. Comprising commercial and recreational fishermen, environmental organizations, members of the disentanglement network, marine mammal experts and resource managers, the working group has supported a robust Dungeness crab fishery while working to reduce whale entanglements. The working groups major initiative is a program to assess the risk of entanglements before, during, and after the Dungeness crab season. Further, the Department of Fish and Wildlife is testing different monitoring strategies so we know where the whales are on a real-time basis in order to avoid conflicts with fishing gear in the same spot. Thanks to the recent passage of Senate Bill 1309, the department now has legal authority to close fishing areas, restrict gear density and require specialized equipment. SB1309 also formalizes the role of the working group and, for the first time, provides specific legal authority for the Department of Fish and Wildlife to take mandatory steps with the crab-fishing fleet to address entanglements. In addition, the department and our partners have taken these specific actions: Protecting crabbing and whales What:Public hearing on reducing whale entanglements and protecting the Dungeness crab fishery Who: Members of the Legislature's Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture. When: 1 to 5 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 28. Where: Aquarium of the Bay, Pier 39, San Francisco To watch online: Go tohttp://senate.ca.gov/ (see "Today's Events" tab). See More Collapse Informing all crabbers that they must check their gear every 96 hours, Creating a program to retrieve derelict fishing gear from the ocean, Developing best fishing practices and whale-friendly gear in collaboration with industry Adopting new rules that limit the number of crab trap buoys and the length of fishing line that can be used, and Clarifying that everyone must remove their fishing gear at the end of the crab season. Yet, we can do more. No one wants whales entangled. Not the Department of Fish and Wildlife, not Californias hardworking fleet of crabbers, not environmental organizations. Thats why the Department of Fish and Wildlife has notified the federal agency that it will develop and submit a plan under the federal Endangered Species Act. No state agency to our knowledge has taken its commitment to protecting marine mammals this far. We want to think through everything we must do to avoid whale entanglements to get protections in place as the climate changes. Doing so will allow us to formalize and build upon the actions that the Department of Fish and Wildlife and the working group have already taken. Moreover, Gov. Jerry Brown has allocated new dedicated staff for us and additional $7.5 million for the Ocean Protection Council to help address this issue. We see a future with crab still on our holiday menu, where coastal communities are thriving and resilient in the face of climate change and altered ocean conditions, where we can regularly look westward and see magnificent whales and sea turtles swimming in Californias marine environment free from the risk of entanglement. We ask for the support of all Californians as we take these steps toward this vision. Charlton H. Bonham is director of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. It shouldnt be a surprise that Charles Johnson, the Giants billionaire co-owner, donated to the controversial Mississippi campaign of GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith. After all, hes given money to dozens of other Republican candidates in California and across the nation. In the past two years alone, Federal Election Commission records show that Johnson and his wife, Ann, have given more than $4.58 million to national conservative and Republican causes and candidates, ranking him 31st among all the countrys political donors and 14th among GOP contributors. Johnson, who lives in Palm Beach, Fla., has been under fire from civil rights leaders ever since it was revealed last week that he and his wife gave a combined $5,700 to Hyde-Smith, just days after a video was released showing her saying of a supporter, If he invited me to a public hanging, Id be in the first row. She later called it an attempt at humor, but in a state where an estimated 581 blacks were lynched well into the 20th century, was anything but a joke to black leaders. They labeled it an example of racism and threatened a boycott of the Giants. On Tuesday, Johnson released a statement saying he had asked the Hyde-Smith campaign to return the $5,400, explaining, I was not aware of the controversy surrounding Hyde-Smith when I made the donation. That mollified the Rev. Amos Brown, leader of the San Francisco NAACP chapter, who withdrew his call for a boycott. Hyde-Smith, meanwhile, defeated Democrat Mike Espy in Tuesdays runoff election in Mississippi. Johnson and his wife have combined to give maximum contributions to 2018 GOP Senate candidates including Sen. Dean Heller in Nevada, Martha McSally in Arizona, Josh Hawley in Missouri and Rick Scott in Florida. He has also given money to political action committees supporting or opposing individual candidates, such as $100,000 to the New Republican PAC, which backed Scott; $10,000 to the Missouri Rising PAC supporting Hawley; and $75,000 to Integrity New Jersey, which fought unsuccessfully to oust Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez. Almost all the Senate and congressional races to which Johnson contributed were high-profile contests where the Republican candidates were desperately seeking campaign cash from donors across the country. They werent all winners. Heller lost his Senate seat and McSally was beaten by a Democrat. In California, Johnson and his wife gave money to Republican Reps. Mimi Walters, Steve Knight and Dana Rohrabacher, all of whom lost their seats in the House. Johnsons largest contributions went to GOP groups that supported candidates across the county. For example, he gave nearly $2 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund and $1.3 million to the Senate Leadership Fund, groups that typically produce and run TV ads for and against a variety of candidates. Once that money goes out to those groups, its difficult for a donor such as Johnson to know how its going to be spent. The contribution he gave to the Senate Leadership Committee, for example, was part of the $95 million the group spent to support GOP Senate candidates and tear down their Democratic rivals. That included $1.16 million to oppose Espy in his Mississippi Senate race against Hyde-Smith. He also gave money to the Stars and Stripes Forever PAC, which gave $27,651 to Hyde-Smiths campaign. Johnson has been a major GOP donor for years. In 2015-16, he gave more than $2 million to Republican causes, including $1.3 million to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bushs losing presidential campaign. In California, he gave the maximum $54,400 contribution to Neel Kashkari, the GOP candidate for governor in 2014, and $28,400 to Republican Meg Whitmans campaign for governor in 2010. Johnson, who previously lived in the Hillsborough, did give money to one Democrat this year. On May 16, he donated $2,700 to Rep. Jackie Speier of Hillsborough, who represents that area. John Wildermuth is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jfwildermuth Twenty-one days after the Nov. 6 election, the Department of Elections officially declared the winners in the Board of Supervisors races Tuesday. The new faces on the 11-member board will be Gordon Mar in District Four, Matt Haney in District Six and Shamann Walton in District 10. Incumbent Supervisors Catherine Stefani in District Two and Rafael Mandelman in District Eight will retain their seats. The turnout for the Nov. 6 election was slightly more than 74 percent the highest for a midterm election in San Francisco since 1938, when nearly 76 percent of the citys registered voters cast ballots, according to the Department of Elections. Each winner in the district races received more than 50 percent of the vote after the ranked-choice votes were tallied. In District Two, Stefani won 52 percent of the vote, beating BART Director Nick Josefowitz by 1,279 votes. Mar, a progressive and longtime labor activist, won 57 percent of the vote in the historically moderate-leaning District Four. He beat outgoing Supervisor Katy Tangs legislative aide, Jessica Ho, by 3,190 votes. In District Six, Haney, a school board member, lapped his second-place opponent, former planning commissioner Christine Johnson, by 6,456 votes. He received 63 percent of the vote. District Eight Supervisor Rafael Mandelman won more than 91 percent of the vote to retain his seat after facing no serious opposition. In District 10, Walton, former school board president and current school board member, received 63 percent of the vote. He trounced competitor Tony Kelly by 5,399 votes. The new supervisors will be inaugurated in January. Their first task: elect a new board president the person with the power to fast-track legislation and make committee assignments to take over for termed-out District 10 Supervisor Malia Cohen. With the addition of Haney and Mar, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors is likely to tilt a bit more to the left. But how much that shift will impact the boards approach to issues such as homelessness and the housing crisis remains to be seen in the new year. Trisha Thadani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tthadani@ sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TrishaThadani City Attorney Dennis Herrera is suing a former Department of Public Health employee, her supervisor, husband and a cybersecurity firm over a $1.2 million contract he said was riddled with conflicts of interest and rewarded the former city employee and company with taxpayer dollars. According to the lawsuit filed Tuesday in San Francisco Superior Court, Heather Zalatimo, a former information technology systems engineer at the health department, allegedly steered the agency toward a $1.2 million contract with Fidelis Cybersecurity, a software and services company where her husband, Maarek Zalatimo, was a regional sales manager. The city signed the contract in October 2016. Herrera said the contract violated San Franciscos conflict-of-interest laws for city employees: Maarek Zalatimos pay package included a base salary plus commissions based on sales meaning his wife could have benefited financially from the deal. Herreras office estimates that Maarek Zalatimo received a commission of about $65,000 from the contract. According to court documents, the couple filed for divorce in Contra Costa Superior Court in September 2016. Also included in the lawsuit is Jeff Jorgenson, Heather Zalatimos supervisor who signed off on the deal even though he allegedly knew her husband worked at Fidelis Cybersecurity, according to the lawsuit. Jorgenson is the former IT chief operating officer for the Department of Public Health. Heather Zalatimo, Maarek Zalatimo, Jorgenson and a representative for Fidelis Cybersecurity did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. The facts here are clear, Herrera said in a statement. You simply cannot steer a public contract to a company when you stand to benefit financially from that. Youre lining your own pocket with taxpayer money. We will not tolerate it. The city attorneys office wants Fidelis to return to the city the full $1.2 million paid under the contract. The lawsuit also seeks civil penalties against Heather Zalatimo for three times the value she received from the contract, and penalties ranging from $2,500 to $5,000 against Maarek Zalatimo and Jorgenson. The lawsuit comes several months after the departments director, Barbara Garcia, abruptly resigned after a months-long conflict-of-interest investigation into allegations that she failed to disclose her wifes income from an educational institution, which had been awarded a million-dollar, sole-source contract with the health department. Trisha Thadani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tthadani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TrishaThadani WASHINGTON The most competitive leadership race for congressional Democrats isnt at the top of the ticket its the campaign for the partys No. 5 spot, featuring Oakland Rep. Barbara Lee. The 11-term congresswoman is trying to become the first African American woman ever elected to either partys House hierarchy. Although its gotten less attention than San Francisco Rep. Nancy Pelosis quest for the speakership, the campaign for Democratic caucus chair has become the closest and most consequential intraparty contest up for a vote on Wednesday. The race between Lee and New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries has been civil, but it has also encapsulated many of the caucus larger internal debates. Lee is 72 and a 20-year veteran of the House, both of which could be disqualifying for Democrats who think the party needs younger leaders. Lee has pitched herself as a consensus builder who can help Democrats, especially a host of new ones, navigate the House. She has a connected caucus agenda connecting to constituents, resources and each other. And electing a black woman to a leadership spot for the first time, Lee says, would be a fitting move for the Democrats historically diverse incoming class. Jeffries is 48 and is wrapping up just his third term representing a district that covers part of Brooklyn. Its a diverse constituency that Jeffries says gives him credibility with progressives and moderates alike in contrast to Lee, who comes from one of the most liberal districts in the country. Jeffries argues that message discipline helped Democrats win the House majority by focusing on what lawmakers are doing to improve (voters) quality of life and that governing that way will be needed for the party to retain control. Like Lee, he is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus. Im running on ideas and my experience, but also on what I can do to strengthen the caucus, Lee said in an interview, pointing to her work on fighting poverty as an example. The race is going to go down to the wire, Jeffries said. I have nothing but the greatest degree of respect for Barbara Lee, and this has been a friendly contest of ideas. Once its over, well all come together. Democrats predict that the race will be close. Its actually going to be a very suspenseful election, said Rep. Judy Chu, D-Monterey Park (Los Angeles County), who supports Lee. She said the race has been very respectful. Lee cemented her progressive icon status when she cast the lone vote in Congress in 2001 against granting presidents broad authority to wage war against suspected terrorists. Presidents have since used that authorization to deploy the military in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and several other countries. Lees barrier-breaking candidacy could appeal to members who clamor for more representation in the partys top echelons. She has a suite of high-profile endorsements, including from prominent womens organizations, progressive groups and House colleagues, including civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis of Georgia. Jeffries, however, has something his supporters believe Lee lacks: the potential to become House speaker someday. His backers say he has the skills to pass major legislation, including negotiating a criminal justice reform bill that passed the House this year with only two Republican and 57 Democratic detractors. And serving as caucus chair would put him in a prime spot to ascend to the top when leadership changes over, they argue. With Pelosi and two other Democrats in their 70s already in leadership and with Pelosi also hailing from the Bay Area Jeffries supporters say hes the one who would bring diversity to the partys hierarchy. Because both he and Lee are members of the Congressional Black Caucus, neither can count on that powerful voting bloc. One source close to the caucus predicted it would be almost split evenly between the two. Both lawmakers are also close to Pelosi, who has not made an endorsement in the race. With the contest flying under the radar, the candidates have been quietly lobbying colleagues for their support. Each sent a welcome gift to members, a staple tactic of leadership campaigning. Jeffries distributed local Brooklyn coffee. Lee gave a package of Oakland products including chocolate, energy bars and tea, and added a copy of the book Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Womens Anger, for newly elected women. The two also demonstrated their prowess on the trail during the midterms campaign. Lee made appearances for more than two dozen candidates for House, Senate and governor in nine states; Jeffries made fundraising appearances with Pelosi and campaigned for winning candidates in Texas, Illinois, Massachusetts and New York. I feel very good about (my chances), but I am not taking anything for granted, said Lee. This is a campaign, and its a good campaign. Theres only two ways to run: either run unopposed or run scared, Jeffries said. Im not running unopposed, so Im running scared. An earlier version of this story incorrectly described the House Democratic caucus chair as the partys No. 4 job. Tal Kopan is The San Francisco Chronicles Washington correspondent. Email: tal.kopan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @talkopan If youre surprised that fashion brand Dolce & Gabbana managed to offend the global Chinese community before what was to be its largest fashion show ever in Shanghai last week, you havent been paying attention to the houses history of bad behavior. Now, prominent Chinese and Chinese American San Franciscans are expressing their dismay over the incidents, even if recent events are not exactly a surprise to fashion followers. This was all consistent with the designers past carelessness, says Charlie Gu, founder of international influencer marketing consultant firm Kollective Influence in San Francisco and a specialist in the Chinese designer and luxury markets. They not only offended a consumer that is a large part of their business and a country they want to foster a relationship with, they insulted a global consumer demographic. Gu and others point out that between the brands controversial ad campaigns and runway shows, and Stefano Gabbanas tendency to pop off on social media like a bigoted uncle at a family holiday, it was only a matter of time before they made such a major mistep. Between San Franciscos large Chinese American population and the Chinese tourist wealth that the citys role as gateway to the Pacific attracts to its department stores and designer boutiques, the brands actions could potentially cost it big in San Francisco. On Nov. 19, the company released a series of video ads meant to stir anticipation for the Great Show in Shanghai. The ads featured an Asian model trying to eat Italian foods such as pizza, spaghetti and a cannoli with chopsticks, struggling and giggling. The backlash on social media was swift, with many accusing the brand of insulting and stereotyping Chinese culture. It was made worse when an alleged Instagram conversation between Gabbana and model Michaela Tranova was leaked online that showed Gabbana making derogatory comments about China. The company released a statement that the company, along with Gabbana, had been hacked on Instagram, but the damage has been done. The show was canceled, and retailers in Asia, including Lane Crawford and major e-commerce players Yoox-Net-a-Porter Group, Alibaba, JD and Secoo, responded by dropping the brand. Monique Zhang, founder of San Franciscos Chinatown Fashion Week and Jade Week, says that if the videos were an outrageous marketing stunt meant to appeal to Chinese consumers, they missed the point. Consumers of any demographic dont want to be put down, says Zhang, especially not wealthy Chinese or Chinese American fashion clients. She also calls the videos emphasis on the mishandling of food especially disturbing to Chinese viewers, since it implies a lack of competency and sophistication in Chinese culture. Are Italians laughing at us? Zhang asks. If so, why should we buy Italian goods? Edward Gu / AFP / Getty Images Dr. Carolyn Chang, a San Francisco plastic surgeon and well-known presence in the citys philanthropy and fashion scenes, says her initial reaction to the videos and comments was one of shock, dismay and disbelief. In this world of perfectly curated Instagram photos, expertly crafted PR images, and deliberately crafted and placed news stories, how could this happen? asks Chang. She has been a client of the brand and hosted events with them in the past and says that although she has a good relationship with the San Francisco Dolce & Gabbana boutique, Certainly right now I do not feel comfortable wearing or buying Dolce. If videos of Chinese fashionistas across the world destroying their D&G pieces on social media are to be considered, Changs sentiments ring true for many. Dolce & Gabbana, one of the worlds most well-known, and copied, Italian fashion houses, has been especially popular in San Francisco since the opening of a multifloor boutique on Grant Avenue on Dec. 22, 2015. Domenico Dolce was a star guest at the Fine Arts Museums Mid-Winter Gala, which the brand also sponsored. Dolce & Gabbana apparel and accesssories have been ever-present at the citys major gala nights. But in light of the China controversy, will the brand remain popular in a city that not only has large and prosperous Chinese and Chinese American populations, but also prides itself on being on the right side of social issues? Following the shows cancellation, the designers released a video apology that fell somewhere between hostage video and the film The Room in believability. It did little to quell anger, coming on the heels of previous accusations of the brand stereotyping and fetishizing Asian cultures in past collections, and in a 2017 Dolce Loves China campaign. Catherine Bigelow / Special to The Chronicle Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more. For Chang, the videos might have been forgiven as accidentally insensitive due to a lack of understanding of cultural perspectives, but the leaked statements are just simply offensive in any culture, she says. There is no way to construe them as being accidentally offensive. But is there any redemption for the brand? From its outdated portrayals of sexuality to its embrace of first lady Melania Trump, controversy seems to be part of Dolce & Gabbanas DNA. Gu says that the next few months are critical for rehabilitating the brand, and that it starts with the company really showing that they care about making things right with the global Chinese demographic. Who knows what the future will hold? says Chang. The fashion attention span is short, and what is out always comes back in style eventually. Tony Bravo is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tbravo@sfchronicle.com U.K. Biobank, a huge collection of patients health and genetic information, is expected to attract as much as $320 million in investment as Britain tries to bolster its life-sciences sector with Brexit looming. The money is set to come from government, nonprofit and business sources, said John Bell, an Oxford University geneticist tapped by the government to oversee the industry strategy. That would give a boost to the U.K. Biobank as the organization seeks to harness data from half a million people to improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of a range of severe diseases. It follows a collaboration announced in January led by drugmaker Regeneron Pharmaceuticals of New York to speed up sequencing of Biobank data. Bell has been coordinating an effort with the British government to attract new funds to the field. GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co. and AstraZeneca were among more than two dozen global pharmaceutical companies that pledged to invest in the United Kingdom last year as part of a multibillion-dollar push to spur the industry. Companies are preparing to make hundreds of millions of dollars in additional commitments, Bell said in September. Bell didnt provide further details, and the U.K. Biobank declined to comment. U.K. Biobank recruited 500,000 people between 2006 and 2010 to provide blood, saliva and urine samples, as well as detailed information about themselves. The sequencing effort started last year, when Glaxo and Regeneron committed to analyzing data from the first 50,000 participants. The Regeneron collaboration this year, with companies including AbbVie and Pfizer, means the data will be available by 2019, three years earlier than initially expected, the companies said at the time. The biobank was set up by the Wellcome Trust, the British Department of Health, the Scottish government and other groups, and also has received funding from organizations including the British Heart Foundation and Cancer Research U.K., according to its website. James Paton is a Bloomberg writer. Email: jpaton4@bloomberg.net LONDON 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 Zuckerbergs refusal to explain to them why his company failed to protect users privacy. The rare international grand committee of lawmakers from nine countries gathered in London to get answers about Facebooks handling of personal data and made a point of leaving an empty seat with Zuckerbergs name tag. Richard Allan, the Menlo Park companys 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 hearing the first such cross-border event in London since 1933. They want to scrutinize Facebook over its handling of data privacy, most notably involving consultancy Cambridge Analyticas improper use of information from more than 87 million Facebook accounts to manipulate elections. British select committees are used to investigate major issues and have the powerful from CEOs to government officials explain their decisions in a public forum. They dont have the power to make laws but the government takes their recommendations into account when formulating new policies. Allan appeared after the committees 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 Facebooks privacy policies. 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 that the the engineers who had flagged these initial concerns subsequently looked into this further and found no evidence of specific Russian activity. 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. Kramers 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. Im not going to disagree with you that weve damaged public trust with some of the actions weve 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. Kelvin Chan is an Associated Press writer. More than a dozen California counties haven't registered with the federal government to send out cellphone alerts to warn residents of a fire or other disasters. The presidential cellphone alerts, similar to Amber Alerts, send warnings that go directly from cellphone towers to cellphone users in the immediate area of a disaster. Transatlantic low-fare carrier Norwegian Air will operate its first ever flights out of San Francisco International next year when it moves its London Gatwick service there from Oakland International starting March 31. The carrier said it will fly the SFO-Gatwick route five times a week, with economy fares starting at $159.90 one-way (plus fees) and premium seating priced from $719.90 one-way. To attract more business travelers, Norwegian will fly a two-class Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner for its SFO-London flights-- these jets have 56 premium seats, up from just 35 on its other 787s. Norwegian Air spokesperson Anders Lindstrom said that the carrier is moving its flights for three main reasons: First, Norwegian thinks it can attract more premium class passengers from SFO- primarily business travelers. Second, it believes that there's a better cargo market between SFO and London. It ships more Norwegian salmon to the US than any other product. Third, Norwegian believes it will get more online search traffic using SFO instead of OAK since not all search engines show Oakland when a traveler searches for San Francisco flights. Norwegian offers two classes of service on its Dreamliners: Regular economy (31-32 inches of pitch configured 3-3-3); and Premium Cabin, which is similar to other airlines with "real" premium economy, It includes larger seats configured 2-3-2, more legroom (46"), a leg rest, upgraded, complimentary food and drink, dedicated check-in, free checked bags, Fastrack at UK customs and lounge access. Lindstrom said that lounge access at SFO has not been determined yet, but he expects it to be in place by March when the flights commence. Read more about Norwegian's Premium Cabin here. From SFO, Norwegian will be the only airline serving London-Gatwick, which is about 30 minutes (by train) south of the city. British Airways, United and Virgin Atlantic fly to London Heathrow. From Oakland, you'll still be able to fly to London on Norwegian, but you'll have to make a stop in Europe first. (Might be easier to just drive across the Bay Bridge!) This is the second transatlantic route to move from Oakland to San Francisco International recently. British Airways' low-cost affiliate Level recently shifted its Oakland-Barcelona flights which it started to compete with Norwegian to SFO, keeping the airline close to sister company Iberia's new SFO-Madrid service. Norwegian started flying OAK-LGW in 2016. British Airways unloaded its London Gatwick flights from OAK earlier this year. But Norwegian will still rely on Oakland as its primary airport in the Bay Area. It offers year-round service from OAK to Paris CDG and to Barcelona as well as seasonal flights to Rome and Stockholm. The company said its Oakland-Rome schedule will add a third weekly flight for summer 2019. Which other routes might hop over the bay from Oakland to SFO? Time will tell. Lindstrom said that London won't be the only destination to get SFO flights, but would not divulge others under consideration. The SFO-London service is just one of the changes coming to Norwegian's U.S. schedules next summer. The carrier said it will increase frequencies out of Los Angeles International to Rome and Madrid, adding a fourth weekly departure on both routes. Norwegian will introduce new Boston-Rome service March 31, with four flights a week, followed by a new route from Boston to Madrid starting May 2, with three weekly roundtrips. Both Boston routes will be seasonal only. Also on March 31, Norwegian will shift its Ft. Lauderdale-London service to Miami, operating daily and also in hopes of attracting more business travelers, according to Lindstrom. Its summer schedule from New York JFK to Madrid will grow from four flights a week to seven. Will you fly Norwegian to London Gatwick? Why or why not? Please leave your thoughts in the comments. Read all recent TravelSkills posts here Get twice-per-week updates from TravelSkills via email! Sign up here Chris McGinnis is the founder of TravelSkills.com. The author is solely responsible for the content above, and it is used here by permission. You can reach Chris at chris@travelskills.com or on Twitter @cjmcginnis. This article, Pooping out a Lego piece takes less time than you might think, originally appeared on CNET.com. Much has been said about the hazards of stepping on Lego bricks with bare feet, but there's another potential danger lurking in plastic paradise: accidentally swallowing a piece. So exactly how long will it take to emerge on the other end? An international team of researchers associated with the pediatric medical blog Don't Forget the Bubbles engaged in an oddball experiment to answer that question. Six doctors each swallowed a Lego head and then searched through their own waste to determine how long it took to poop out the plastic. Each doctor logged a Found and Retrieved Time score -- yes, a FART score -- which averaged out to 1.71 days. "A toy object quickly passes through adult subjects with no complications," the team concluded in a study published online last week in the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health. The researchers hope this information might help reassure worried parents, though the study did come with caveats. The doctors were clear the study wasn't particularly rigorous, acknowledging it's "a bit of fun in the run up to Xmas." The group also cautioned that the data collected from adult subjects may not apply to children who ingest Lego pieces and that the sample size was too small to draw broad conclusions for "the entire population of Lego swallowers." The study wasn't without a squirm-inducing result: One of the swallowed Lego heads was still missing at the two-week mark. The doctors, however, weren't terribly worried about the disappearance. "Perhaps one day many years from now, a gastroenterologist performing a colonoscopy will find it staring back at him," they wrote. CNET's Holiday Gift Guide: The place to find the best tech gifts for 2018. CNET's complete guide to Cyber Monday 2018: The best discounts we've found so far. A woman getting off a Muni bus early Wednesday morning in San Franciscos Visitacion Valley was beaten with a metal pipe and robbed of her purse, authorities said. The incident happened at 1:54 a.m. near Britton and Visitacion avenues, where a suspect followed the 61-year-old woman off of public transit and grabbed her, according to San Francisco police. The suspect punched the victim before hitting her with a pipe and snatching her purse, police said. At this point, it's basically a truism that hordes of people are moving away from the Bay Area in search of sunnier, more affordable climes, yielding a U-Haul shortage and a whole mini-industry devoted to helping people relocate from the Bay Area. It's not just people, though (unless you count corporations as people, like the Supreme Court does). There's also an exodus of businesses, some say. ALSO: Google pays $1 billion for offices in Bay Area's biggest sale of the year From Chevron to the North Face to Jamba Juice, recent years have seen a number of high-profile relocations of headquarters and downsizing of Bay Area offices, with companies citing factors such as relatively high taxes, burdensome regulations, and labor costs that must keep pace with a sky-high cost of living. Some other states are actively targeting California companies. Arizona launched one such effort in 2013, after Californians approved a tax hike. Texas, too, has tried to seduce companies away from California. Click through the gallery above for a roundup of businesses that have left or announced plans to do so. The Bay Area Council, a business advocacy group, bristles at the implication that companies are fleeing. "The Bay Area regional economy became the world's 18th largest economy in just the past few months," council president Micah Weinberg told the San Francisco Business Times earlier this fall. "Just stop it with this," he added on Twitter. "Bay Area economy is still on fire. More companies coming than leaving." But some expect departures to pick up, as Trump's changes to the tax code cap deductions for state and local taxes. Sometimes the choice of new location seems designed to be salt in the wound, right down to the name. When Jamba Juice moved its headquarters from the Bay Area to Texas, they picked a city whose very name has a nails-on-chalkboard quality to many around these parts: Frisco. Filipa Ioannou is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at fioannou@sfchronicle.com and follow her on Twitter Kevin Alexander, a freelance writer from San Francisco, recently penned a heartfelt piece about his purported role in the closure of a popular Portland burger restaurant, claiming he "killed" the 69-year-old joint when crowds descended on the place following his rave review. It turns out there may be much, much more to the story. Alexander, a writer-at-large for Thrillist and a James Beard Award-winner, named the cheeseburger at Stanich's the best in America in a 2017 ranking of burgers. In January, Stanich's closed for what the owner called a "two week deep cleaning." Almost a year later, the hamburger joint has yet to reopen. In an interview with the Oregonian, the owner of Stanich's, Steve Stanich, called the Thrillist designation "the worst thing that's ever happened to us." He claimed his small restaurant and staff simply couldn't handle the crowds that had descended on the place since the glowing review. In his Nov. 16 Thrillist piece, Alexander described how the closure of Stanich's "haunted" him. "I put a target on their back by naming them number one, and that influx of people messed with the way they'd been running the business for decades, and all that could literally be blamed on me, if you were going to blame someone," Alexander wrote. Alexander also mentioned that "personal problems" contributed to the longterm closure of Stanich's, which the owner asked him not to reveal in his story. The writer characterized the issues as "the type of serious things that can happen with any family, and would've happened regardless of how crowded Stanich's was." The story went viral, and spurred a conversation from NPR to the Guardian about the responsibilities of food critics to the restaurants they write about. Only it doesn't seem Alexander's review was the reason Stanich's shuttered. The Willamette Week published an investigation Wednesday that claims Alexander "missed some important context" in his mea culpa. The publication pulled Steve Stanich's court records and discovered he was arrested in 2014 for choking his then-wife in front of their son. His wife had been a manager at Stanich's for 19 years before being diagnosed with stage-4 breast cancer, the report notes. Stanich, now 70, was sentenced to four years of probation for the incident, Willamette Week reports. He was prohibited from owning a gun, contacting his wife, consuming alcohol and setting foot in a bar (other than the one he owns). Stanich told the publication his legal troubles "had absolutely nothing to do" with the restaurant closure. He again cited the "pressure" of the increased volume of visitors. Willamette Week found more purported dirty laundry in Stanich's hamper. He and his wife divorced in 2016, and Stanich agreed to give her their family home in Arizona, a $400,000 lump sum payment and $8,000 a month in support payments. Stanich reportedly failed to make the payments, which led to a 2016 contempt-of-court charge in which he was ordered to pay $25,324. This was six months before Alexander named Stanich's the best burger in the nation. At the same time, Stanich ran into trouble with the law after failing to comply with his probation terms. The Willamette Week has more details here. Alexander and Thrillist editors could not be reached for comment on Wednesday. As for Stanich's, the restaurant is reportedly set to reopen in December with a largely new staff. 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. MEXICO CITY The outgoing president of Mexico had expected to end his troubled term on a positive note signing a new free-trade deal with the United States and Canada on Friday. Now even that moment has gone awry. An announcement that President Enrique Pena Nieto would bestow Mexicos highest honor for foreigners to Jared Kushner, son-in-law of President Trump, for his role in pushing through the trade pact has incited fury in Mexico. WASHINGTON The Supreme Court grappled Tuesday with whether an Indian tribe retains control over a vast swath of eastern Oklahoma in a case involving a Native American who was sentenced to death for murder. Some justices said they fear a ruling for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation could have big consequences for criminal cases, but also tax and other regulatory issues on more than 3 million acres of Creek Nation territory, including most of Tulsa, Oklahomas second-largest city. The issue is before the high court in the case of Patrick Murphy, who was convicted of killing a fellow tribe member in 1999. A federal appeals court threw out his conviction because it found the state lacked authority to prosecute Murphy. The appeals court ruled that the crime occurred on land assigned to the tribe before Oklahoma became a state and Congress never clearly eliminated the Creek Nation reservation it created in 1866. Lawyers for the state and Trump administration, supporting Oklahoma, told the justices that the practical effects of ruling for Murphy would be dramatic, after more than 100 years of state control over the area. Violent criminals could go free and the state would lose its ability to tax a chunk of the population, the lawyers said. Other Native American prisoners and defendants in Oklahoma have asked to have their convictions overturned or their cases thrown out as a result With so much potentially at stake, maybe the court should leave well enough alone here, and side with Oklahoma, said Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Justice Stephen Breyer noted that 1.8 million who live in the affected area have built their lives on a long-accepted understanding of local regulations and state law. What happens to all those people? he asked. Lawyers for Murphy and the Creek Nation said fears of chaos that would result from a ruling for Murphy are overstated. The Creek Nation already has agreements with 40 local governments that allow its police to work collaboratively with other law enforcement agencies, said Riyaz Kanji, representing the tribe. No one has a greater interest than the tribe in law enforcement and security within the Creek reservation, Kanji said. The courts liberal justices seemed generally more sympathetic to the tribe, while the conservatives appeared likely to side with the state. One potential wrinkle is that Justice Neil Gorsuch stepped aside from the case because he participated in it at an earlier stage when he was a judge on the federal appeals court in Denver. A 4-4 tie would affirm the appellate ruling in favor of Murphy, but leave the larger issue of tribal sovereignty unresolved. If he wins at the Supreme Court, Murphy could potentially be retried in federal court. But he would not face the death penalty for a crime in which prosecutors said he mutilated the victim and left him to bleed to death on the side of a country road about 80 miles southeast of Tulsa. A decision in Carpenter v. Murphy, 17-1107, is expected by late spring. Mark Sherman is an Associated Press writer. JACKSON, Miss. Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith won a divisive Mississippi runoff Tuesday, surviving a video-recorded remark decried as racist and defeating Mike Espy, a former federal official who hoped to become the states 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, Id 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 Mississippis 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 years 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 Trump made a strong effort on behalf of Hyde-Smith, holding last-minute rallies in Mississippi on Monday. 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, Miss. The fact that she toured Jefferson Davis 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 wasnt 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-Smiths victory, Republicans control 53 of the Senates 100 seats. The GOP lost control of the House, where Democrats will assume the majority in January. Emily Wagster Pettus is an Associated Press writer. SAN JOSE (BCN) A federal judge in San Jose issued an arrest warrant Tuesday for a man accused of wire fraud who did not appear for his trial this week. Christian Reimer Stukenbrock, a 62-year-old resident of Germany, allegedly committed nine counts of wire fraud through the illicit Silicon Valley Technology Group between 2005 and 2011. He received about $23 million from a successful local entrepreneur and promised to invest the money, but allegedly diverted the money to his own bank account, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Stukenbrock was indicted in January 2015 and a jury trial was scheduled to begin Tuesday but prosecutors received a letter forwarded from his defense lawyer on Monday. "Please contact the court and tell them that I will not be there tomorrow and cancel the proceedings. I already left the jurisdiction," Stukenbrock wrote, according to prosecutors. U.S. District Judge Edward Davila signed the bench warrant. Defense lawyers Erica Connolly, Adam Crider and Matthew Jacobs could not be reached for comment. Anyone with information about Stukenbrock's location is asked to call the FBI at (415) 553-7400. Copyright 2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. The Bay Area Toll Authority will hold a hearing Wednesday to receive public testimony on three voter-improved $1 toll increases in the seven state-owned toll bridges in the region. The hearing will take place at 9:30 a.m. during BATA's meeting at the Bay Area Metro Center at 375 Beale St. in San Francisco. Voters approved the toll increases in June as Regional Measure 3. The first increase is scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, 2019, with subsequent $1 hikes scheduled for Jan. 1, 2022 and Jan. 1, 2025. Tolls for two-axle vehicles at the Antioch, Benicia-Martinez, Carquinez, Dumbarton, Richmond-San Rafael and San Mateo-Hayward bridges are scheduled to increase to $6. At the Bay Bridge, tolls are scheduled to rise to $5 on weekdays from midnight to 5 a.m., from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and from 7 p.m. to midnight, to $7 on weekdays from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., and to $6 on Saturdays and Sundays. Tolls for multi-axle vehicles will increase to $16 for three axles, $21 for four-axles, $26 for five axles, $31 for six axles, and $36 for seven or more axles. The discounted toll for motorcycles, carpools and qualifying clean air vehicles is scheduled to increase to $3. After the public hearing, the BATA Oversight Committee will meet on Dec. 12 to discuss the toll hike. BATA will then take official action to approve the toll hikes on Dec. 19. Copyright 2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. SANTA ROSA (BCN) Homeless residents who had returned Sunday to a former camp on Sonoma County-owned land in Roseland were cleared from the site this afternoon. There were about 35 homeless people and 23 tents Sunday night in a parking lot by a Dollar Store on Sebastopol Road, homeless advocate Scott Wagner said. It was the same location where as many as 100 homeless people were evicted in April. With eviction expected, homeless people with outstanding warrants were advised to leave before police arrived today, Wagner said. About 25 people remained Monday evening and around 15 people were still there when police arrived at 11 a.m. today, Wagner said. Homeless advocate Kathleen Finigan said Santa Rosa police told the homeless people they were trespassing and had to leave the site or face arrest by 1:30 p.m. At least four people said they would go to the Sam L. Jones Hall shelter in Santa Rosa, but others said they would not because the shelter is unsafe, overcrowded and lacks privacy, Finigan said. Many of the homeless suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and other disabilities, and they can't handle staying in the shelter, Finigan said. Wagner said about 800 homeless people with mental health issues, addiction problems and other issues in the county are not in shelters. "The County says we are wrong and that everyone can be accommodated. It's a legal issue, and the process will last months or years," Wagner said. Margaret Van Vliet, executive director of the Sonoma County Community Development Commission, said there were no arrests and the homeless removed their tents and belongings. Van Vliet said there are about 100 additional beds at the temporary overnight shelter in the National Guard Armory in Santa Rosa run by St. Vincent de Paul and 300 new beds countywide, including 50 in Guerneville. Sonoma County is expected to receive $12 million in one-time funds from the California Department of Housing and Community Development. The money will be used for more shelter beds, coordinating homeless services and investing in property for permanent housing, Van Vliet 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. Police and firefighters in Mountain View are responding to a report of a suspicious package at a Google building this afternoon, according to police. Employees have been evacuated from the building in the 2600 block of Casey Avenue "out of an abundance of caution," police reported on Twitter at 3:58 p.m. A hazardous materials team from the fire department is at the scene. No further information is available. 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. MILL VALLEY (BCN) Mill Valley police are searching for the source of a bomb threat sent by phone to Mill Valley Middle School Tuesday morning. The caller left a voicemail saying a bomb had been placed on school grounds. Police responded at 9:05 a.m. to the school located at 425 Sycamore Ave. School officials locked down the school and students and staff were evacuated to Mill Valley Community Center at 180 Camino Alto where parents picked up their children. Police officers, Marin County sheriff's deputies and K9 units trained in explosive detection searched the school. An explosive was not found and an "all clear" was announced around 1 p.m. The Sausalito, Tiburon, and San Francisco police departments, Central Marin Police Authority and California Highway Patrol also responded to the school, police said. Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Sgt. Ryan Smith at (415) 389-4100. 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 JOSE (BCN) The Silicon Valley Pet Project's "Pup Plaza" opened its doors in San Jose Tuesday as a community center for dogs to raise money for homeless pets in the South Bay. The space in the Cambrian Park Plaza shopping center will offer adoptions, dog-centered arts and crafts, a party spot and a quiet place for shelter dogs with the "Shelter Dog Day Out" program. The space includes a retail boutique for pet items. "We believe that spaces like Pup Plaza will provide the community with resources about adoption and pet guardianship, while celebrating our love for pets in a fun, upbeat environment," president of the nonprofit, Melissa Lisbon, said in a news release. The center will also offer "Doga," or yoga with dogs, twice a month on Sundays beginning this week. Residents will able to visit the space during community open hours from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Tuesdays and access information about pet ownership, according to the nonprofit. More information on the center, located at 14408 Union Ave., can be found on Pup Plaza's website at pupplaza.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. SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) San Francisco police have arrested a suspect who attacked two homeless people with a machete as they slept in the Tenderloin neighborhood early Tuesday morning. Police said the attack occurred before 1 a.m. in the 400 block of Jones Street where the victims were sleeping on the sidewalk. According to police, officers worked throughout the day to identify the suspect, who was arrested by police on Tuesday night in the 300 block of Ellis Street and still had the alleged weapon used in the attack. The suspect's name wasn't released and police didn't say if the victims were seriously injured. 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. OAKLEY (BCN) A man attending college in Austin, Texas, has been charged with eight felonies in connection with online threats made against underage girls and school officials in Oakley, the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office announced today. Tristan Amir Curl, 19, is listed as a resident of Oakley, according to police. He was arrested Nov. 20 at the end of a two-month investigation involving Oakley police, the district attorney's office and the FBI. Police said Curl threatened to shoot students and murder the principal at Freedom High School. He also allegedly threatened to rape and kill girls. The charges against him include six felony counts of making criminal threats as well as one felony count each of stalking and also threatening a school official. Curl is currently in the custody of the Travis County Sheriff's Office in Texas, where he awaits extradition back to California, a spokesman for the district attorney's office said 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. SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) A federal judge who is overseeing PG&E Co.'s probation in a criminal pipeline safety case has ordered the utility to provide "an accurate and complete statement of the role, if any, of PG&E" in causing the Camp Fire in Butte County and other recent wildfires. U.S. District Judge William Alsup issued the order in San Francisco Tuesday and gave PG&E until Dec. 31 to respond. Alsup took over post-trial matters in PG&E's criminal case, including probation supervision, after the trial judge, U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson, retired last year. One aspect of the utility's five-year probation term is a requirement not to commit any state, federal or local crimes. In addition to directing PG&E to state whether it had a role in the recent wildfires, Alsup ordered the utility to say whether the no-crime requirement might be implicated if any wildfire was "started by reckless operation and maintenance of PG&E power lines." The order also instructs the utility to say whether any requirements of the pipeline case judgment "might be implicated by inaccurate, slow or failed reporting of information about any wildfire by PG&E." PG&E said in a statement, "We are aware of the court's notice and are currently reviewing it. We continue to focus on assessing infrastructure, safely restoring power where possible and helping our customers recover and rebuild. "Nothing is more important than the safety of our customers, employees, contractors and the communities we serve," the utility said. In the 2016 pipeline safety trial, a jury convicted PG&E of five counts of violating a federal pipeline safety law and one count of obstructing an investigation into the fatal explosion of a high-pressure natural gas transmission line in San Bruno in 2010. Henderson sentenced the company to a $3 million fine and the five years of probation. The San Bruno explosion killed eight people and injured 66 others. The National Transportation Safety Board determined the cause was the rupture of a defective seam weld in a pipe segment that was installed in 1956, incorrectly listed in PG&E records as seamless and not properly tested or repaired. PG&E's federal safety convictions were for violations of U.S. Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act requirements for record keeping, risk assessment and repair prioritization for several Peninsula and East Bay transmission lines, including line 132, the pipeline that exploded in San Bruno. 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. Police cleared the scene at a Google building late this afternoon after responding to a report of a suspicious package, according to police. The package was found to be safe at 4:18 p.m., but employees were evacuated out of a building in the 2600 block of Casey Avenue at 3:58 p.m. "out of an abundance of caution," police reported. A hazardous materials team from the fire department also responded to the scene. No one was injured and normal operations will resume at Google. The company thanked law enforcement and emergency responders in a Tweet for their quick response. 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 City Attorney Dennis Herrera sued a former Department of Public Health employee, her former husband, her former supervisor and a computer security company on Tuesday for allegedly violating conflict-of-interest laws in the awarding of a $1.2 million city contract. Heather Zalatimo was an information technology systems engineer at the department until May of this year. Her husband, Maarek Zalatimo, was the regional sales manager for Fidelis Cybersecurity Inc. at the time the city paid the company $1.2 million for security software and services in October 2016. Maarek Zalatimo stood to gain a $65,000 commission from the contract, although the amount he actually obtained will be determined at a trial, Herrera said. The lawsuit filed in San Francisco Superior Court alleges the Zalatimos, Fidelis and Heather Zalatimo's former supervisor, Jeff Jorgenson, "knowing participated in and aided and abetted" the contract award despite knowing of the couple's conflict of interest. It alleges that Jorgenson, who signed the purchase order, knew that Heather Zalatimo had a financial interest in the contract award because of her husband's job and that Fidelis either knew or should have known. The lawsuit asks for return of the $1.2 million as well as additional fines and penalties. A spokesperson for Fidelis, which is based Bethesda, Md., was not immediately available for comment. Heather and Maarek Zalatimo divorced in 2017, according to Contra Costa County Superior Court records. Jorgenson, who served as the Public Health Department's information technology chief operating officer, left the agency in July 2018. Herrera said in a statement, "You simply cannot steer a public contract to a company when you stand to benefit financially from that. You're lining your own pocket with taxpayer money." A driver who sped away from a traffic stop in San Pablo early Tuesday morning and then flipped his car and died has been identified as 29-year-old Narayan Sanwal, according to the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office. Just after midnight, a deputy attempted to stop a gold Lexus at the intersection of San Pablo Dam Road and Mifflin Avenue after the driver, Sanwal, ran a red light at roughly 50 mph. After that he led the deputy on a pursuit on city streets at speeds that reached 100 mph until the deputy stopped the chase for safety reasons and lost sight of Sanwal, sheriff's officials said. Roughly 12 seconds later, the deputy found the vehicle. It had rolled over several times, landing on the roof and trapping Sanwal inside. Despite the efforts of medical personnel, Sanwal died at the scene. Investigators are not yet certain why Sanwal fled from the initial traffic stop. Anyone with additional information about the case is asked to contact the sheriff's office at (925) 313-2600. The case is being investigated by the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office, the sheriff's office and the San Pablo Police Department. Antioch police said on Tuesday morning 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 on Tuesday morning. A 16-year-old girl who died in a residential structure fire earlier this month in Orinda has been identified as Luca Katalin Gero, according to the Contra Costa County coroner's office. The blaze that killed Gero and injured two others, including a firefighter, was reported in the 500 block of Moraga Way around 4 a.m. on Nov. 18. It took nine fire engines to bring the fire under control by 5:08 a.m. The roof of the building collapsed, and a "flash over," when gasses trapped inside the structure ignite, also occurred. A firefighter suffered second-degree burns, as did a man who was at the residence when it caught fire. Both individuals were transported to a hospital for medical attention. A GoFundMe fundraiser at https://www.gofundme.com/pigniczkygero-family set up to help Gero's family had raised more than $167,800 as of Tuesday afternoon -- more than $17,000 over its $150,000 goal. A defense lawyer for a transient man with seven prior felony convictions told jurors on Tuesday that he is innocent of the murder charge he faces for allegedly fatally stabbing another man during a dispute over a bicycle at a homeless camp in Oakland in late May. In her opening statement in the trial of Mario Castineda, 37, in connection with the death of 52-year-old John Bell, defense attorney Tiffany Danao said the description of his attacker that Bell provided to police before he died doesn't match Castineda. Danao said Bell, who was stabbed at the camp in the area of Fifth and Webster streets underneath Interstate Highway 880 on May 26 and died five days later, described his assailant as an Asian man in his early 20s who was about 5-foot-3 and weighs about 120 pounds. But the defense lawyer said Castineda is Mexican, is in his late 30s and is significantly larger than 5-foot-3 and 120 pounds. Jail records list Castineda as 5-foot-9 and 165 pounds. Danao also said Bell would have been able to identify Castineda as his attacker if Castineda really had been the culprit because the two men knew each other well, as they both lived at the homeless camp. Danao told jurors, "Mr. Castineda is innocent and the government has charged the wrong man." She said, "Mario Castineda did not stab John Bell." However, Alameda County prosecutor Tim Wagstaffe said multiple other witnesses identified Castineda as the man who stabbed Bell and told jurors that the evidence he will present at Castineda's trial in the coming days "will show beyond a reasonable doubt that he is guilty of murder." Oakland police Officer Hector Jimenez wrote in a probable cause statement that Castineda stabbed Bell at the homeless camp on May 26 and then rode off with Bell's bicycle, which was later recovered at a nearby Shell gas station. After he was attacked, Castineda was taken to a hospital, where he was treated and released. However, on May 31 Bell succumbed to his stabbing wounds and was pronounced dead after police found him at Fifth and Webster streets. Jimenez testified at Castineda's preliminary hearing in August that a witness at the homeless camp told police that Bell was getting the best of a fight over his bicycle and then Castineda pulled a knife out of his pocket and stabbed Bell. Jimenez said the witness told police that when he confronted Castineda after Bell died Castineda said he didn't mean to kill Bell and Bell's death was an accident. Jimenez said pathologist Dr. Thomas Rogers ruled that the two stabbing wounds that Bell suffered in his abdomen punctured his abdomen and ultimately caused his death. Castineda's prior convictions, which date back to 2000, include assault, possession of a controlled substance, receiving stolen property, unlawful driving or taking of a vehicle and possession of a firearm by a felon. A federal judge in San Francisco said late Tuesday that he will rule by Friday on whether to allow the administration of President Donald Trump to reinstate a partial ban on asylum seekers during its appeal of an order blocking the ban. On Nov. 19, U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar issued a temporary restraining order halting the ban, which would have barred asylum applications from immigrants who did not enter the United States at designated entry points. On Tuesday, the U.S. Justice Department asked Tigar to stay the temporary restraining order while it appeals to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The department argued Tigar's order "undermines the president's determination" that the restriction "is necessary to address the ongoing and increasing crisis facing our immigration system." The Justice Department also said in its filing that if Tigar didn't rule on whether to grant a stay by today, it would immediately appeal to the 9th Circuit. But by late afternoon on Tuesday, Tigar ordered the civil rights groups that challenged the ban to file a response by 5 p.m. on Thursday and said he will rule by the end of the day on Friday. The judge wrote that given that the government waited eight days to ask for a stay, "the court cannot reasonably conclude" that the request had to be decided in one day without an opportunity for the plaintiffs to respond. Trump issued the restriction in a proclamation on Nov. 9, citing the caravan of Central American migrants approaching the Mexican border and saying the measure was needed to prevent "overloading of our immigration and asylum system." The action was challenged in a lawsuit filed against Trump and other officials by the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant and three other refugee assistance groups represented by the American Civil Liberties Union. In the temporary restraining order, Tigar said the ban violated Congress's "clear command" in the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows asylum applications from people physically present or arriving in the United States "whether or not at a designated port of arrival." The refugee assistance groups say that some asylum seekers don't know there are legal entry points, don't know where they are located or have lengthy waits in dangerous conditions at those points. If the temporary restraining order is not stayed, it will remain in effect until Tigar decides whether to issue a longer-lasting preliminary injunction. He has set a Dec. 19 hearing on that question. A 23-year-old man was arrested Sunday night for allegedly stabbing three of his family members at their home near Carmel Valley, according to the Monterey County Sheriff's Office. Carmel police, the California Highway Patrol and sheriff's deputies responded to 5464 Quail Meadow Drive at about 8 p.m. Sunday on a report of a stabbing. They found three victims suffering from stab wounds, who were identified as the mother, father and grandmother of suspect Jacob Lee. All three were taken to a hospital and the suspect's mother is still there in critical condition, according to sheriff's spokesman Cmdr. John Thornburg. Lee was located about an hour later. He was arrested and booked into Monterey County Jail on suspicion of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, mayhem and resisting arrest. He is being held on bail of $5 million. Sheriff's deputies found a weapon associated with the assault and are trying to determine a possible motive, according to Thornburg. 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. Of the 100 most expensive zip codes in the nation, 43 are located in the Bay Area, a new report from PropertyShark finds. The real estate listing site compiled the median home sale prices of zip codes across the nation in 2018. The Bay Area and California at-large dominate the ranking. To determine the ranking, PropertyShark looked at all residential transactions closed in 2018, including condos, co-ops, and single- and two-family homes. Due to ties, their full top-100 ranking includes a total of 117 zip codes. The Bay Area is actually home to 47 of the top 117. If that's not startling enough, wrap your head around these numbers: Of the top 117 ranked zip codes, California contributed 82 Santa Clara County is home to 16 of the country's most expensive zip codes, 3 of which made the top-10 of the country's most expensive zip codes, of which made the top-10 San Francisco has 9 of the priciest zip codes, tying with New York City of the priciest zip codes, tying with New York City 11 of the 117 most expensive zip codes are located in San Mateo County To put this all in perspective, New York state boasts the second highest concentration of pricy zip codes behind California. It has 19. Massachusetts and Connecticut followed with six and four zip codes respectively. San Mateo and Santa Clara counties dominate the top of the list, with Atherton ranking first thanks to its outrageous median sale price of $6.7 million nearly $1 million more than the next zip code on the list in Sagponack, New York. Palo Alto, Los Altos, Portola Valley and Los Altos rounded out the top 10 by snagging spots #6 through #9. Home prices in these zip codes ranged between $3.25 and $3.75 million this year. San Francisco doesn't make an appearance on the list until #40, with the Marina District's median sale price in 2018 coming in at $2.1 million. The Presidio Heights zip area trailed four spots behind. The average home in the seaside community costs $1.97 million, the study found. The Bay Area has only gotten more expensive over the last year, according to PropertyShark's ranking. In 2017, California laid claim to 77 of the top-100 priciest zip codes, 25 of which were in Silicon Valley, which the real estate site define as Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties combined. The Bay Area added five new communities to the list this year. (Note: The 2017 ranking includes 100 zip codes, compared to this year's 117.) You can see the top 15 most expensive Bay Area zip codes in the above gallery. Read the full ranking here. Read Michelle Robertson's latest stories and send her news tips at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com. Start receiving breaking news emails on wildfires, civil emergencies, riots, national breaking news, Amber Alerts, weather emergencies, and other critical events with the SFGATE breaking news email. Click here to make sure you get the news. 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 reporters 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. 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. Nataliya Vasilyeva, Kate de Pury and Niko Price are Associated Press writers. SAO PAULO Scientists warn that Brazils president-elect could push the Amazon rain forest 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 Brazils rain forest 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 Brazils role in shaping the future of the Amazon rain forest after Bolsonaros 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 rain forest, and scientists are worried. Its nearly impossible to overstate the importance of the Amazon rain forest to the planets 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 planets oxygen, earning it the nickname the lungs of the planet. Its also a global weather-maker. Stretching 10 times the size of Texas, the Amazon is the worlds largest rain forest. 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 rain forest 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 Earths 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. Christina Larson and Mauricio Savarese are Associated Press writers. Looks like you typed in the wrong url. To visit the SiliconIndia Home page click here To view the SiliconIndia blogs page click here What is SiliconIndia? SiliconIndia is one of the largest content and community networks for Indian professionals, entrepreneurs and students worldwide. 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Mentors are invited from within the SiliconIndia network. The opportunity to contribute to our leading magazine, online news and events, to help enhance your professional profile in the growing SiliconIndia community. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Rosebank has a new restaurant -- Sofias Taqueria located at 977 Bay Street -- which plans for a soft opening Monday, Dec. 3. And if that address sounds familiar, its because it served as the former home to Franco-American Zest and Czech-inspired Korzo Klub. When longtime friends Peter Botros and Ignacio Garcia toured the three-story building, they knew the spot would be perfect for a Mexican restaurant concept theyd been bouncing around for years. Check out the video to see how their taco and tequila dreams have played out so far as Sofias builds up to lunch, dinner and weekend brunch. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Maggie Gyllenhaal is an honorary Staten Islander now. The A-list actress is spotted on the Staten Island Ferry in multiple scenes from her latest film, The Kindergarten Teacher," which was released last month on Netflix. And while the movie has received critical acclaim, including a 89 percent certified fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the cast and crew have been vocal about its financing -- or lack there of. The budget was so tight, Gyllenhaal, who also produced the film, said she had to do the unthinkable to change from outfit to outfit. You can imagine how difficult it was to finance this movie, Gyllenhaal said, according to From The Grapevine. I was changing my clothes in the bathroom of the Staten Island Ferry. Nobody should be naked in the bathroom of the Staten Island Ferry." The Kindergarten Teacher, based on the 2014 Israeli film of the same name, is about a teacher living on Staten Island who becomes obsessed with one of her 5-year-old students whom she believes is a poetry prodigy. I used to say this is a movie about the consequences of what can happen if you starve a vibrant womans mind, but its really about watching somebody falling apart, the Oscar-nominated actress said. We all could fall apart. We all do fall apart. Im interested in what that does to you. Its scary. Youre both with her and not with her from early on because she does things that are really problematic. The Kindergarten Teacher, which is rated R for some language and nudity, is now available on Netflix. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. Is there an unclaimed check out there with your name on it? New York State Comptroller Thomas P. Napolis office is currently holding $15.5 billion in unclaimed funds from uncashed checks, bank accounts, stocks and more. Banks, insurance companies, corporations and the courts are among the many organizations required by law to report dormant accounts to the state comptroller. These organizations must attempt to notify people by mail and publish the information in newspapers, according to Napolis office. Yet, many funds remain unclaimed and are turned over to the Office of the State Comptroller. TYPES OF UNCLAIMED FUNDS: Bank Accounts savings, checking and CDs Court funds Dividends Estate proceeds Insurance benefits/policies Stocks, bonds, mutual funds Telephone/utility/security deposits STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A father and son from Staten Island peddled illegal drugs over the dark web, but still couldnt escape authorities watchful eye. Now, Michael and Philip Luciano will spend the near-term future under full-time federal supervision after being sentenced Tuesday to five years behind bars. The defendants were busted in August of last year. Geoffrey S. Berman, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said the Lucianos conspired to distribute oxycodone, fentanyl and butyryl fentanyl, a fentanyl analogue, between January 2015 and July 2017. The pair sold those drugs both in person and from at least February 2016 through July 2017 - over the dark web. They used the website AlphaBay, an illegal marketplace later shut down by federal officials, according to court documents. The dark web is part of the World Wide Web which is only accessible through special software, allowing users and website operators to remain anonymous or untraceable. The Lucianos peddled the drugs despite selling fentanyl to a repeat customer who overdosed, but was saved, said Berman. During a search of the family's home, Michael Luciano, 59, told investigators he initially purchased fentanyl over the Internet at a low cost from China, said a criminal complaint. But, after two shipments were intercepted by law enforcement, he elicited help from his son who was able to access the dark web, the complaint said. During a search of Philip Luciano's cell phone, investigators found the following 2015 text exchanges with the overdose victim, who was in the hospital, said Berman: I got back home and shot some, the customer wrote after he had apparently seen Michael Luciano at the defendants residence. I thought it might have been too much I became unresponsive and my friend called an ambulance. They gave me Narcan and I'm at the hospital now. Can I settle up and get 60 tomorrow?" the man wrote. Philip Luciano, 30, replied, "Give me a call when you can." During a confession last year, Michael Luciano told federal Homeland Security investigators his son handled the technological aspects of their drug deals over the dark web, said authorities. The younger Luciano relayed the online drug orders to his father, who shipped the narcotics to customers in the mail, officials said. In August, the defendants each pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute oxycodone, fentanyl and butyryl fentanyl. In a sentencing submission to the court, James R. Froccaro Jr., Philip Lucianos lawyer, said his client became addicted to prescription drugs after suffering severe leg injuries in an accident when he was 25. The younger Lucianos opioid addiction clearly clouded his judgment, Froccaro wrote. The attorney said his client is very embarrassed by and remorseful for his conduct and has a genuine desire to redeem and rehabilitate himself. In a separate sentencing memo, Patrick V. Parrotta, Michael Lucianos lawyer, said his client became addicted to painkillers, which were initially prescribed to him in 2004 for a back injury. To obtain more powerful drugs, he began ordering black market fentanyl from China on the dark web, wrote Parrotta. It was at this point that Michaels mental judgment steadily declined, Parrotta wrote. Michael understands that his behavior was deplorable. During the course of his opioid addiction, he displayed terrible judgment for which he presently in his sober state understands was illegal. Both lawyers said their clients have undergone inpatient and outpatient drug treatment. Besides five years in prison the minimum sentence the Lucianos are subject to four years post-release supervision and mandatory outpatient drug treatment, said Parrotta. They were also sentenced to forfeiture money judgments of $15,953, Berman said. This is another tragic example of otherwise productive lives ruined by opioid addiction, Parrotta said in a phone interview after the sentencing. My client took responsibility for his wrongdoing and looks forward to completing his sentence and his substance-abuse treatment. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Some express bus riders can expect detours and delays during Wednesday evenings commute. The annual Christmas tree lighting at Rockefeller Center will take place Wednesday, Nov. 28, from 7 to 10 p.m., at Rockefeller Center Plaza, between West 48th & 51st streets and Fifth and Sixth avenues. The MTA has issued the following detours for Wednesday, from 6 to 10 p.m.: Staten Island-bound SIM1C, SIM3, SIM3C, SIM4C, SIM10: East on 57th Street to Lexington Avenue, right on Lexington Avenue to 42nd Street, right on 42nd Street, left on Fifth Avenue, then regular route. Staten Island-bound SIM30: East on 57th Street to Lexington Avenue, right on Lexington Avenue to 42nd Street, right on 42nd Street, then regular route. Staten Island-bound SIM31: West on 57th Street to Lexington Avenue, left on Lexington Avenue to 42nd Street, right on 42nd Street, left on Fifth Avenue, then regular route. Staten Island-bound SIM8, SIM8X, SIM25: West on 57th Street to Lexington Avenue, left on Lexington Avenue to 42nd Street, right on 42nd Street, then regular route. Manhattan-bound SIM1C, SIM3C: Via Sixth Avenue, right on 23rd Street, left on Madison Avenue, left on 57th Street, right on Sixth Avenue, then regular route. Additionally, the MTA announced the following temporary holiday bus stop change, in effect until Jan. 5: The northbound SIM1C, SIM3/SIM3c and SIM10 bus stop on Sixth Avenue at 50th Street has been moved to Sixth Avenue, between 51st and 52nd streets. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A hearing for the former Staten Island man accused of setting fire to his New Jersey home will be postponed, according to the Monmouth County Prosecutors office. Paul Caneiro, formerly of Tottenville, has been in custody since Wednesday for the arson that allegedly happened just a few hours before his brother Keith, 50, Keiths wife Jennifer, 45, and their two children were found dead in what is being investigated as a quadruple homicide. Caneiros lawyer Robert A. Honecker requested the postponement after prosecutors provided him with additional discovery, according to a report from NJ Advance Media. Honecker did not return a request for comment Tuesday evening. Caneiro, 51, was scheduled to appear Wednesday, but the hearing was pushed back to Friday, according to the prosecutors office. That hearing will determine whether Caneiro will remain in custody for his aggravated arson trial. Authorities allege Caneiro set fire to his Ocean Township home with his wife and two daughters inside early Tuesday morning. That fire, which officials said started around 5:01 a.m., was just hours before another fire at his brothers Colts Neck home brought fire personnel to the scene of the suspected quadruple homicide. Responders found Keith outside the burnt home with multiple gunshot wounds, and Jennifer inside with the couples son Jesse, 11, and daughter Sophia, 8. All three had severely burnt bodies, according to Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni. Authorities have only charged Caneiro with aggravated arson in relation to the fire at his home, but would not comment on any persons of interest in the suspected quadruple homicide. Gramiccioni said the general public is not in danger. We believe in some form or fashion that this family was targeted," Gramiccioni said at a press conference last week. The Caneiro brothers, and Jennifer, whose maiden name is Karidis, all have ties to Staten Island. Public records indicate they all have previous addresses in the borough, and family that still lives on the Island. Attempts to contact those family members have been unsuccessful. Keith Caniero served as the best man in his brothers wedding, according to Advance records. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A 32-year-old Stapleton man is accused of peddling crack cocaine to an undercover officer on several occasions in broad daylight on the North Shore. Philbert Barnes, of Beach Street, is scheduled to appear in Criminal Court on Tuesday. He is accused of illegal drug transactions in West Brighton at Broadway and Wayne Street on the afternoons of Oct. 2, 9 and 23, according to the criminal complaint. He allegedly also sold the narcotic on Harbor Loop in Mariners Harbor at about 3:10 p.m. on Nov. 8. He was apprehended on Nov. 21 at about 3:30 p.m., a short time after an alleged sale at Housman Avenue and Richmond Terrace in Elm Park. Barnes, who stands 511 and weighs about 155 pounds, allegedly tried to avoid being arrested by scaling fences and running through several properties, according to the complaint. Information about where he was arrested was not included in the complaint or immediately available from police. The suspect has been charged with criminal sale of a controlled substance, criminal possession of a controlled substance, obstructing governmental administration and resisting arrest, according to the criminal complaint. The suspect is being held at the Brooklyn Detention Complex in lieu of bond set at $150,000/$100,000 cash, according to public records. An emailed message to his lawyer seeking comment was not immediately returned. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. Two Island nonprofits will target childhood obesity, diabetes and asthma from the ground up with state-funded seed money they received through the Staten Island Performing Provider System (SI PPS). Both have immediately begun engaging in community outreach, seeing input at forums from local educators, physicians, parents and children. From there, programs will be planned from the ideas and suggestions received from area families. The South Shore YMCA in Eltingville and the Community Health Center of Richmond, Port Richmond, each was recently awarded $50,000 from SI PPS after a competitive grant process. Community Health Center of Richmond (CHCR), which provides health care and dental care through three North Shore family health centers, will use the funds to target childhood obesity in Stapleton and St. George, which have 12,000 children under the age of 17. The project team is comprised of a pediatrician, health center outreach workers and support staff. Led by Dr. Vladimir Barayev, a full-time pediatrician with CHCR, several community forums will be held to gather perceptions and learn about community behaviors and misconceptions about childhood obesity. This is the first time well actually have dedicated funding to solicit input from the community and then design the plan around it, said Henry Thompson, the chief executive officer of the CHCR. This is the beginning step. This has been a longstanding issue. It cant be resolved in the next couple of months, but it can provide us with a good foundation of whats really going on here. Thompson said childhood obesity puts children at risk of developing other chronic conditions and threatens productive living. If were able to address and really reinforce healthy behaviors, then everyone benefits, he said, noting that health complications caused by obesity put undue burdens on hospital emergency rooms. The North Shore forums are currently being scheduled. The public may call Jessica Yandun at 718-924-2254 with questions or suggestions, Thompson said. The South Shore YMCAs Healthy Eating, Physical Activity education model will aim to improve detection, reduce complications and delay the onset of diabetes in students and families on the South Shore. It will use the funds to provide interactive learning, diabetes prevention and nutrition education to students, families and community members based out of PS 57, PS 46, and PS 31. Drug abuse prevention and asthma will also be addressed. The plan is to foster partnerships with the community by reaching out to parents, teachers and physicians to seek their input and suggestions, while also continuing its focus on drug prevention counseling. Forums are planned for Nov. 29 at PS 46 at 2:30 p.m., PS 31 on Dec. 5 at 2:30 p.m. and PS 57 on Dec. 5 at 3 p.m. Well do whatever the community wants us to do, said Thomas Swanciger, executive director of the South Shore YMCA. Were reaching out, to find out what we should tackle first. The forums are open to the public. Additionally, anyone with suggestions is encouraged to call the YMCA at 718-227-3200 to share them. The funding received from SI PPS is enough to get programs started, but more funding will be needed if initiatives are to grow and be truly effective, said Joseph Conte, executive director of SI PPS, which is one of 25 groups funded by the New York State Department of Healths Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment program. Were really going to push them to attract more resources to make this work, Conte said. If it works in three schools, itll work in six or 12. You need to scale it. We have a half a million people here. We need to do more. The selection process used to distribute the funding was quite scientific, Conte said. Using the Centers for Disease Control CHANGE tool, a data-collection survey tool, community-level data was collected in Phase I by the College of Staten Island, Wagner College and St. Johns University. Phase I data identified areas where change is most needed to relieve the burden of health disparities specific to each neighborhood. SI PPS is co-led by Staten Island University Hospital and Richmond University Medical Center, and comprises skilled nursing facilities, behavioral health providers, home health care agencies and a wide range of community-based clinical facilities and medical practices. WASHINGTON -- The vote tally for Nancy Pelosis nomination to be House speaker shows the weakness of her opposition, but also the challenge ahead. House Democrats voted 203-32 in the closed-door session. That's not as many as have opposed her in the past, but she'll need more support to survive a full floor vote early next year. As Democrats met in private in the Capitol, they faced a simple yes or no choice on the ballots. To become speaker when Democrats take majority control, she'll need 218 votes if all Republicans vote against her, as is likely. She could win with fewer votes if some lawmakers are absent or vote present. Democrats will have a 233-vote majority, with some races still undecided from the midterm elections. For Wednesdays vote, Pelosi allies said three ballots were left blank and one supporter was absent because of illness. Congressman-elect Max Rose (D-Staten Island/Brooklyn) said via social media he did not vote in favor of Pelosi. Staten Islanders and South Brooklynites have been lied to enough, tweeted Rose. Thats not who I am or will ever be. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. In a bizarre incident in January of last year, cops shot and wounded a man who they said was wearing body armor and had displayed a gun in a wooded area of Charleston. Come the new year, that man, Patrick Allen, will finally go to trial. At a conference Tuesday, Justice Mario F. Mattei said he intends to start jury selection on Feb. 6, 2019, in state Supreme Court, St. George. The judge said the trial should take about three weeks, including jury selection. Allen, 26, is charged with criminal weapon and firearm possession, reckless endangerment, menacing a police officer and unlawful wearing of a body vest, stemming from the Jan. 5, 2017 episode. The defendant, who did not address the court Tuesday, has denied the charges. He faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted at trial of second-degree criminal weapon possession, the top charge against him. Allen and Jonathan Derbyshire, both 26, were busted after police responded to a 1:10 a.m. call of shots fired in the vicinity of Androvette Street and Arthur Kill Road. Authorities allege Allen displayed a gun as cops approached him. Officers shot and wounded Allen, who was wearing body armor at the time, said police. Derbyshire fled into the woods when police responded to the report of shots fired, said authorities. Officers recovered a Bushmaster semiautomatic rifle and a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol at the scene, said police. A law enforcement source said fingerprint results obtained as the case progressed connected Derbyshire to the rifle. He was not originally charged with possessing that weapon. According to a criminal complaint, Derbyshire and Allen were staying at a nearby Kreischer Street home. Afterward, police searched the residence and found a .45-caliber and a .38-caliber handgun, plus ammunition, according to a criminal complaint. The complaint says Derbyshire indicated he lived there. Derbyshire was charged with criminal weapon and firearm possession. In November 2017, Derbyshire pleaded guilty in state Supreme Court, St. George, to third-degree criminal weapon possession with respect to the Bushmaster rifle. He was sentenced in January to a year in jail and has served that term less time off for good behavior. Attorney Jay Goldberg represents Allen. Assistant District Attorneys Mark Palladino and Frank Prospero are prosecuting the case. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. Is the red borough turning blue? It would have been unthinkable not that long ago, but the Democratic tide is definitely rising on Staten Island. All you have to do is look at the recent congressional election, which saw virtually unknown Democrat Max Rose beat GOP Rep. Dan Donovan, who has been a good-guy mainstay in borough politics for two decades. The win means that the Democrats control three top boroughwide offices in Staten Island: The House seat; the Surrogates Court slot, won by Matthew Titone on the same night that Rose triumphed, as well as the district attorneys office, helmed by Michael McMahon. Its been a while since the Democrats held all of those coveted seats at the same time. Its quite a bounty for a party that had found itself eclipsed by the GOP here in recent decades. The Republicans still control the borough presidency, with James Oddo not term-limited until 2021. And GOP state Sen. Andrew Lanza, always a robust vote-getter, holds what is pretty much a boroughwide seat, so put that feather in the GOPs cap as well. Plus the two Supreme Court judgeships the party won this past November. So theres still plenty of high-octane red in the red borough. But the blue wave is definitely building here. Rose is the second Democrat to win the borough House seat in just the last 10 years; McMahon turned the trick in 2008. Before that, the GOP had held the seat unbroken since 1981. Even our presidential voting record has pronounced streaks of blue in it recently. The Island had pretty much been redder than red in presidential contests since the 1940s. We voted for Wendell Wilkie. And Tom Dewey twice. For Richard Nixon over John Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey and George McGovern. For Gerald Ford over Jimmy Carter. And, of course, for Donald Trump. But we voted for Bill Clinton over Bob Dole in 1996. For Al Gore over George W. Bush in 2000. For Barack Obama over Mitt Romney in 2012. Not a bad record when you consider that before Clinton, it had been 32 years since a Democrat (Lyndon Johnson) won Staten Island in a presidential race. Now the Dems have done it three times in 20 years. And theres no telling what 2020 could bring, especially if a New York Dem is on the ticket somewhere. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (two potential White House contenders) and Comptroller Tom DiNapoli all won the Island in their re-election bids this year. Thats more good news for Democrats, even if Attorney General-elect Letitia James lost the borough. And about that Island district attorneys seat: McMahons up for re-election next year. Do you see a viable GOP challenger out there? Me neither. When he was elected in 2015, McMahon vowed to take on the boroughs heroin and opioid crisis. He has fulfilled that campaign pledge and more, even if the scourge hasnt been subdued yet. Of course, all is not perfect in Dem world. There is deep dissatisfaction with party chair John Gulino after muffed paperwork cost two candidates a shot at Supreme Court seats. Gulino also oversaw the effort that denied Titone the party nod in the Surrogates race. Thats come back to bite the Dems. And the GOP is already gearing up to take back the House seat in 2020, when Trump is set to be at the top of the ticket. How will Rose fare against a candidate who puts up more of a fight than Donovan did? But even with all of that, Staten Island skies havent been quite this blue for Democrats in a long time. And party members are no doubt enjoying the view. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- So how on earth are ferry riders supposed to feel safe after seeing how a suspicious package at the St. George terminal was handled in early October? After a highly trained bomb-sniffing dog sat at least twice to indicate the bag was potentially dangerous, the steps that followed were extremely troubling. Without hesitation, the bags owner was allowed to open the bag and then, as a result, the Department of Transportation (DOT) claims security personnel were able to immediately determine that the bag posed no risk. This is just the first of many inexplicable security flubs revealed by the incident. What if there was a bomb in the bag? You let the man take it out himself? What if the lining or the bottom contained hidden layers of plastic explosives? You dont have experts check for that first? One law enforcement security expert called it laughable that DOT could determine so swiftly that the bag posed no threat. Following an initial story about the 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. The DOTs actions in response to the dogs alert are inept at best. Retired NYPD Lt. Lloyd Thompson, a former commander of the Staten Island Task Force, was highly critical of DOTs actions. And hes right. The terminal should have been evacuated and the bag isolated until explosives experts arrived at the scene. Thompson said, at a minimum, the New York City Police Departments Emergency Service Unit should have been the ones to make that call. 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 to 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? the detective said. Ryan Morris, a former bomb squad commander and the founder and CEO of Tripwire Operations, which provides explosive detection training to first responders and others, said the man never should have been allowed to open the bag himself. And if the DOT was, in fact, able to determine that bag was harmless so quickly, why wasnt it just given back to him and no further action taken? WHAT THE VIDEO SHOWS The video here is just a portion of 20 minutes of surveillance footage taken during a busy morning rush hour commute at the St. George terminal on Oct. 5 and obtained by the Advance. Despite warnings from the dog -- handled by the 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 as commuters and children passed by before they secured the area. At a minimum, Morris thinks officials should have used an X-ray detection device to further inspect the bag. Then theres another dangerous goof that security experts agree should never have happened: Shortly after the K-9 issued the warning, DOT officials and others on the scene used their cell phones. Security experts agree that this could have detonated a device programmed electronically. NYPD IS CALLED IN After letting the man open the bag, DOT officials called in the police and the man was moved away from it. In the interim, the bag remained unattended and no precautions were taken to protect anyone in the terminal. Commuters were permitted to just walk by on their way to the boat. Eventually, after the police arrived, the bag was roped off and a section of the terminal was cleared of passengers. Again, if the DOT was so sure the bag was not a danger, why take these additional steps? FERRY SECURITY SET-UP Four entities provide security at the Staten Island Ferry: Private security firms MSA and Allied Universal, which patrol the perimeter; the DOT, which operates the ferry, and the NYPD. The 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 the client that MSA is advising. DOT will then determine whether to involve the NYPD. That has to change and our public officials should be screaming from the rooftops for an overhaul of the protocol. Councilwoman Debi Rose (D-North Shore) was the first public official to express concern and a need for action. She plans to ask the head of the City Councils Transportation Committee to hold an oversight hearing on the Staten Island Ferrys counter-terrorism procedures. And Councilmen Steven Matteo and Joseph Borelli have sent a letter to NYPD Commission James ONeill requesting that the incident revealed by the Advance be reviewed. That, at least, is a beginning. In this case, the bag was not a danger. But what about next time? While the lawsuit discussed in today's column will strike many as raucously funny, the animal advocacy group that initiated it is deadly serious. Now that a New York Supreme Court justice has foolishly allowed it to go forward, the case is newsworthy for its abuse of the judicial process. At the center of the case is Happy, a 47-year-old female Asian elephant who has been living at the Bronx Zoo since 1977. For several years, the tusked titan palled around with an elephant named Grumpy. In 2002, the two were introduced to fellow pachyderms Patty and Maxine. It did not go well, as a fight ensued in which Grumpy was fatally injured. Happy's next zoo-mate, an elephant named Sammie, had to be euthanized in 2006 after contracting a liver disease. Happy has lived alone at the zoo ever since. Enter the Nonhuman Rights Project, an animal-rights advocacy group whose mission is "to change the common law status of great apes, elephants, dolphins and whales from mere 'things' to 'legal persons' who possess such fundamental rights as bodily liberty and integrity." Although zoo officials have repeatedly insisted that Happy is happy, the NRP vehemently insists that Happy is sad. Court proceeding Claiming Happy as its client -- presumably without a retainer agreement -- the NRP initiated a habeas corpus proceeding in state Supreme Court, Orleans County, against James J. Breheny, the director of the Bronx Zoo. The proceeding seeks the elephant's immediate release, asserting that the zoo's "imprisonment of Happy deprives her of her ability to exercise her autonomy in meaningful ways, including the freedom to choose where to go, what to do, and with whom to be." Which, to be fair, would be a problem if, say, Happy yearned to hop a subway, head to City Hall and have peanut pizza with Mayor Bill de Blasio. On the other hand, the NRP isn't exactly being straight with Happy either. For even if the court were to order the prodigious pachyderm's immediate release from the zoo, her purported benefactor intends to have her shipped to the Performing Animal Wildlife Sanctuary near Sacramento, Calif. That, of course, would make it even harder for her to hop a subway, head to City Hall and have peanut pizza with Bill de Blasio. None of this silliness would be newsworthy had Supreme Court Justice Tracey A. Bannister not foolishly indulged it by signing an order to show cause setting the matter down to be heard on Dec. 14. As a result, the whole deal could get even sillier since the command of the writ of habeas corpus is to produce the body of the person illegally detained before the court. Elephant in courthouse It's not yet clear whether Breheny plans on having Happy transported to Bannister's courtroom in Albion. Nor, as a practical matter, is there any guarantee that the animal could get into and traverse the building without doing major damage to its doors, walls, murals, etc. There's also the more fundamental question of whether Happy, herself, wants to make the 400-mile trip. Remember, according to NRP, this is all about her "freedom to choose where to go." So, since the organization thinks that Happy is a person, you'd expect it to ask her, right? Although the 50-page petition filed by NRP is well-written, it's 50 pages of sheer nonsense from a legal perspective. In fact, the organization has previously filed four similar proceedings, in four New York counties, on behalf of chimpanzees. In every case, the trial-level judge refused to sign an order to show cause, and in every case that refusal was affirmed on appeal. Doomed to defeat Rejecting the latest of the four, the Appellate Division, First Department, said: "No precedent exists under New York law, or English common law, for a finding that a chimpanzee could be considered a person and entitled to habeas relief. In fact, habeas relief has never been found applicable to any animal." On May 8, the New York Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, denied NRP's application for leave to appeal. Accordingly, there is no chance whatsoever that the organization's instant proceeding involving Happy will ultimately be successful. Bannister may have gotten publicity when she signed the order to show cause, but she also acted with blatant disregard for black-letter law. If NRP wants to advocate for the welfare of animals it believes to have exceptional cognitive capacities, it should be doing so in the state legislature. By, instead, returning to court over and over again with the same baseless arguments, it is grossly abusing the judicial process. While courts are reluctant to hit nonprofit organizations with court costs and financial sanctions, that may be the only way to get these people to stop. 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! ANZ Bank chief executive Shayne Elliott requested a pay cut from chairman David Gonski for the sake of "unity," "accountability" and "credibility," as the big four lender admitted it had failed to hold former executives to account. As the royal commission shakes up how frontline bankers are paid, Mr Elliott also conceded ANZ had been "too reliant" on bonuses to motivate staff, and it was testing models that removed incentives linked to individual performance. ANZ chief executive Shayne Elliott said he couldn't ask staff to wear a cut in their bonuses unless he took one too. Credit:Joe Armao It was revealed on Wednesday that Mr Elliott, the final big four bank boss to appear before the commission, last month emailed Mr Gonski asking that he "reassess" the CEO's pay. Mr Elliott would be cutting variable pay of senior executives to an average of 77 per cent of their target, he wrote, and variable pay across the entire bank's staff would be down by 22 per cent. Some of Australia's leading female entrepreneurs have delivered a scathing assessment of federal politics, calling out parliament for failing to empower women even as they launch successful companies in record numbers. Speaking at the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday, Red Balloon founder Naomi Simson, Business Chicks chief executive Olivia Ruello and Indigital founder Mikaela Jade said the country's political sphere had to change. Left to right: President of the National Press Club Sabra Lane, Red Balloon founder Naomi Simson, Business Chicks chief executive Olivia Ruello and CEO of Indigital Mikaela Jade. Credit:Karleen Minney Asked by panel host Sabra Lane to reflect on current conversations about the place of women in politics, Simson said discussions about how welcoming parliament is for women are shocking. "If I had my way, Id go up there and punch a few of them [politicians] in the nose," Simson said. Violet Crumbles are once again being exported to the United States after the beloved chocolate bar returned to Australian ownership earlier this year. Adelaide family business Robern Menz which bought Violet Crumble back off global giant Nestle is sending off its first shipment of 77,000 of the chocolate covered honeycomb bars to the United States. Richard Sims (left) and Phil Sims with the first shipment of 77,000 Violet Crumbles. Robern Menz chief executive Phil Sims told Fairfax Media there was already an appetite for Violet Crumbles in the United States. "We identified quite a significant number of Violet Crumbles going to the United States, it was going through the grey market, Nestle was not shipping directly it was going through US importers buying via Australian wholesalers," he says. "Once we saw what was going on we saw there was an opportunity and a market gap in the United States." Workforce management startup Deputy has raised $US81 million ($111 million) in funding in what is the biggest Series B raise in Australian history. Co-founder and chief executive Ashik Ahmed, 38, told Fairfax Media the raise is a "momentous occasion" for the startup which he started with his then-boss, Steve Shelley, 52, ten years ago. Deputy's software helps businesses with lots of contractors, casuals or shift workers manage their time, rostering and other critical workplace operations. It also integrates with many point-of-sale, payroll and accounting systems. Deputy co-founders Ashik Ahmed (left) and Steve Shelley. Credit:Michele Mossop "Great things happen outside of your comfort zone so we really like to aim high and shoot for it," says Ahmed. Electric vehicles makers are pushing into Australia despite a lack of government support, as cars begin hitting Australian shores at more accessible price points in order to boost EV uptake. The Hyundai 2019 Ioniq electric vehicle is one of the first mid-sized EVs selling for less than $50,000, overcoming the major stumbling blocks of the high cost of fully electrified cars. The Hyundai Ioniq is making electric vehicles more accessible for Australians due to its lower price entry point. These high EV prices have failed to fall over recent years due to a lack of government support for the industry through subsidies or financial incentives, typically seen in other countries throughout Europe and North America, which are designed to boost electric vehicle sales. Electric Vehicle Council chief executive Behyad Jafari said the price of the car had broken new ground for EVs in Australia. Australia needs more sophisticated thinking to solve its energy issues, the chief of Australias energy market operator has warned pointing to a mismatch between new generation assets and grid infrastructure. Australian Energy Market Operator's chief executive Audrey Zibelman said Australia was seeing massive growth in renewables but this needed to be managed. AEMO boss Audrey Zibelman says Australia needs to change its way of thinking to manage its energy transition. Credit:Wayne Taylor Business has bemoaned disruption to energy policy following the collapse of the National Energy Guarantee, although Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has proposed its revival. At the state level, most governments are seeking to implement renewable energy generation targets backed by new wind and solar farms. One of the things that is being a challenge right now [in the grid] is that were seeing a lot of solar and wind plants coming in on a grid scale in areas of the grid that really dont support it, she told a Committee for the Economic Development of Australia event on Wednesday. Labors plan to ramp up solar and battery installation would help battery companies 'Uberise' the market and provide enough power to rival the big generators, says the head of battery maker Sonnen. Earlier this month, opposition leader Bill Shorten announced a target of one million households with batteries by 2025, supported by a $2000 subsidy on new batteries for 100,000 households that have less than $180,000 in household income. State governments and battery makers plan to combine these new batteries together to act as more than just back up, but as potential power stations themselves. One million batteries could provide the equivalent of around 5000 megawatts of energy, or around one and a half times the largest coal-fired power station in Australia, Origin's Eraring power station in NSW. Independent economist Saul Eslake warns the business sector that slow wages growth could make its economic reform agenda more difficult to accomplish and lowering company taxes will not help that goal. In his contribution to a new book, The Wages Crisis in Australia: What it is and what to do about it, to be released on Thursday, Mr Eslake said company tax cuts, privatisation and deregulation no longer "cut it" in the wider community. He said deregulation and freer trade were harder to sell politically because slow wages growth meant it was "not at all obvious to a large number of people that these things have actually benefited them". Economist Saul Eslake. Credit:Arsineh Houspian The editors of the book, including Adelaide University professor of law, Andrew Stewart, also call for the Fair Work Act to be overhauled in favour of workers. They argue that businesses should be made liable for the conduct of labour hire companies they use and the legal definition of "employee" be extended to include anyone who supplies labour, under new recommendations to stimulate wages growth. Mr Eslake says one reason why persistently slow growth in wages and salaries should be of concern to the business community is that it has contributed to the emergence of "a more fractious political climate in Australia no less than in other Western democracies which has been much less amenable to economic and other reforms of the sort that the business community has typically favoured". Au pairs and the families who employ them are operating in a fast and loose business that largely escapes tax obligations and employment laws, the most detailed report on au pairs' working conditions has found. Au pair Erika Palsson looks after nine month old Jayden while his mother works from home. Credit:Louise Kennerley More than 10,000 young foreigners come to Australia each year to work as "au pairs", an arrangement modelled on the European tradition of staying with a family to learn their language and perform light childcare duties for pocket money, though it is one of the few western countries without an official au pair program. In practice, 60 per cent of au pairs in Australia work 36 hours a week and their tasks extend to housework, cooking and cleaning. UTS and Macquarie University researchers surveyed 1500 au pairs in all states and territories about their living and working conditions in Australia for their report "Cultural Exchange or Cheap Housekeeper?". More than 60 Australian women have been killed this year. Most of them by men they knew. Many of them by men who once claimed to love them. Five years ago, Our Watch chair, Natasha Stott Despoja, said gendered violence was a national emergency and this week she said it again. No one really noticed. Fair enough I guess, its been a big news week. The landslide Labor win in Victoria, Julia Banks searing resignation from the Liberal party and Meghans clothes making Kate cry. More than a woman a week has been killed, usually by an intimate partner or former partner, in Australia for a long time now, its not really news any more. Natasha Stott-Despoja released a statement this week calling the toll of murdered women in Australia in 2018 an emergency. Credit:Andrew Meares In the nearly five years since Luke Batty was killed, Rosie Batty has been travelling relentlessly, begging, demanding, pleading, persuading and excoriating state and federal governments to do more, do better, do something. Countless others, maybe less compelling but still determined voices, have been saying the same things. This is a national crisis. These are preventable deaths. This is intimate terrorism. This cannot be ignored. This requires a response proportionate to the extent of the problem. Respond. React. Care, at the very least. Police have concerns that a bill to legalise cannabis in the ACT does not adequately address existing laws relating to driving while on drugs. Australian Federal Police Association president Angela Smith said the bill, which was introduced in the ACT Legislative Assembly on Wednesday, did not explore issues of the health system, therapeutic controls and how to deal with those found driving under the influence of cannabis. ACT Labor backbencher Michael Pettersson has introduced a bill that would legalise small amounts of cannabis in the ACT. Credit:Dion Georgopoulos The bill, a major reform that would make it legal for adults in the ACT to possess up to 50 grams of cannabis or four cannabis plants, was introduced by Labor backbencher Michael Pettersson. The amendment would change the definition of an offence relating to the use of cannabis under the Drugs of Dependence Act 1989, and remove the drug from the definition of a prohibited substance. Organisers estimate more than 15,000 people - and perhaps as many as 20,000 people - attended the inaugural SouthFest event in Tuggeranong last weekend. Now the question on everyone's lips is: "Will it become an annual event?". The inaugural SouthFest in Tuggeranong was a huge success. Credit:Facebook If the chatter on social media is any indication, the community has spoken and shown their desire for SouthFest to return, according to coordinator Taryn Langdon. "There's a lot of enthusiasm for it to happen again next year," she said. Canberra is becoming increasingly unaffordable for baristas, waiters and bartenders, as rising rental prices push more people in the ACT into housing stress. The latest Rental Affordability Index showed Canberra sits behind Sydney as the nation's worst capital city for low income households needing to rent. Katie Laycock works four jobs but still struggles with the pressure of rent increases. Credit:Sitthixay Ditthavong Canberra has a median weekly rental price of $550 - the equal highest in the nation - according to Domain's State of the Market Rental Report for the September quarter. The latest index, published on Thursday, showed the ACT's relatively high income-earning workforce was pushing up rental prices, making housing unaffordable for low income households. Sydney's light rail line is set to blow its budget again after it was confirmed that the state's transport agency is preparing a final revised cost for the botched project. A day before an inquiry into the project resumes, a report by NSW Auditor-General Margaret Crawford into the state's transport agencies said "additional costs to the project" were expected after a $207 million contingency fund was exhausted and attempts made to resolve claims by the contractor. "[Transport for NSW] are in the process of preparing a revised forecasted final cost," her report said. The contingency fund was included in the $2.1 billion budget, Transport for NSW said. But the agency declined to say when it would release the revised final cost. The state government has vowed to crack down on an Opal card loophole that cuts the cost of travel to the airport train stations by allowing savvy passengers to tap off with a negative balance. Figures released on Wednesday show the cumulative amount of revenue lost has hit $7.8 million since Opal was introduced, with the total almost doubling in the past year alone. As long as a passenger has the minimum balance on an unregistered Opal card to tap on, they can complete the journey and tap off with a negative balance. Credit:Janie Barrett Since 2015, the NSW Audit Office has been reporting the total amount owed on unregistered Opal cards with a negative balance. In 2017-18, the number of Opal cards with negative balances spiked from more than 776,000 to 1.1 million, with $3.8 million in lost revenue, for a total of $7.8 million since Opal was introduced. Two experienced judges and a former police commissioner have adjourned to consider the fate of a NSW magistrate after complaints were made about her conduct. Dominique Burns, formerly the magistrate for the Port Macquarie circuit on the NSW mid-north coast, has faced a public hearing in Sydney after complaints were made to the Judicial Commission alleging she improperly detained defendants who appeared in court, denied procedural fairness, and encouraged police prosecutors to lay further charges. Magistrate Dominique Burns pictured leaving court in Sydney this month. Credit:AAP The magistrate does not deny that mistakes were made but says they were due to her "crushing workload", which impacted her mental health. During two days of cross-examination, Ms Burns faced questions about decisions she made, her understanding of certain laws, and the timing of when she began experiencing depression and anxiety attacks. The Anglican School Googong is temporarily suspending its Indonesian language course from 2019 while it reviews its languages program. It is the second school this month to consider dropping Indonesian, following a similar move by Canberra's Narrabundah College, which sparked a petition from students to save the language class. Indonesia is one of the most highly populated countries in the world, and it's sitting on Australia's doorstep. Credit:alamy.com A member of the school community, who asked to remain anonymous, said that students at the Anglican School Googong engaged very positively with the Indonesian language and they would be significantly disadvantaged without it. Were supposed to be preparing children for a globalised society. Its what parents signed up for when they took a chance with a new school that opened in 2015," the community member said. Weeping Madonna dry-eyed Members of the Sydney Russian Orthodox community packed the All Saints Church in Croydon to pay their respects to a Weeping Madonna icon. The icon was first seen weeping nine years ago in the home of a Greek couple from New York. The tears which well from the eyes of the Madonna have left waxy stains from the corners of the eyes to the bottom of the painting. No fresh tears were seen yesterday. Massacre abhorrent The White House described the alleged massacre [at My Lai] of South Vietnamese civilians as abhorrent to the conscience of all American people. After the massacre pictures were shown to Congressional subcommittees, Democrat Senator Stephen Young said the situation was an act of brutality that cannot have been exceeded in Hitlers time. The massacre is alleged to have happened in March 1968. Australian novels in demand A new email shows James Packer keeping abreast of Crown Resorts' lobbying of the NSW government to curtail a development potentially blocking harbour views from his $2 billion Barangaroo complex. The email from Mark Arbib, the former Labor power broker turned right-hand man to Mr Packer, reveals the extent to which the Barangaroo Delivery Authority attempted to accommodate Crown's concerns that buildings proposed for Central Barangaroo would impinge on privacy and views from its $2 billion waterfront tower. James Packer was briefed on Crown's negotiations with the state-run Barangaroo Development Authority over plans for Central Barangaroo. Credit:AAP Mr Arbib's update to Mr Packer on the negotiations was tendered in the NSW Supreme Court, where Crown and infrastructure giant Lendlease are locked in a costly battle with the state government in a bid to preserve "sight lines" from their developments to the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge. "Hi mate, this is where it is up to," Mr Arbib wrote to Mr Packer in the email, containing the BDA's latest proposal to Crown, in November 2017. Police have charged a 23-year-old man with the murder of a western Sydney father earlier this year. Erol Tokcan was allegedly stabbed to death on March 9 by three assailants while his terrified girlfriend watched on. Erol Tokcan, 38, was stabbed to death in a violent home invasion at his Dharruk home in March. Credit:NSW Police Media Police say the attackers approached the 38-year-old father, who had a brain injury, before threatening and stabbing him. Mr Tokcan was treated by paramedics at the scene before being taken to hospital, where he later died. It is understood Mr Roberts-Smith has not yet been interviewed by the AFP, although the agency would not comment on the details of its inquiry. Typically, people of interest in a police inquiry are not interviewed until its later stages. Loading Mr Roberts-Smith's supporters have repeatedly said that, despite reports he is a focus of the Brereton inquiry, he has not been interviewed by its investigators. However, legal sources who occasionally work alongside Mr Roberts-Smith's legal team said he had recently been liaising with his lawyers and barrister, Arthur Moses SC, in anticipation of being examined by the Brereton Inquiry. The developments are unprecedented. Never before has such a famous and decorated Australian soldier been the subject of dual inquiries: an alleged war crimes investigation by the nations police agency and an Inspector-General inquiry investigating similar allegations. Since Fairfax Media first detailed serious allegations about Mr Roberts-Smith, he has vehemently denied any wrongdoing in Afghanistan, insisted he has a spotless record and insisted those making claims about him are disgruntled or jealous liars. The AFP inquiry into alleged war crimes moved several months ago from assessment phase, which typically involves police assessing the credibility of allegations prior to assigning investigative resources, to a full-blown inquiry staffed with detectives. Loading Fairfax Media is not suggesting that Mr Roberts-Smith is guilty of war crimes, only that he is the subject of two inquiries into allegations raised by fellow soldiers. The federal police investigation is being conducted by the agencys offshore and sensitive investigation taskforce under the leadership of Deputy Commissioner Neil Gaughan. Because war crimes allegations are deemed politically sensitive matters by the AFP, the decision to progress any such allegation from assessment phase to inquiry phase involves a painstaking process and referral up the chain of command. In certain cases, the AFP also notifies the Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton. The AFP inquiry is being run out of the agencys Canberra headquarters, and, in addition, the federal polices Perth office is running a separate inquiry into threats sent to a serving Special Air Services Regiment sergeant. Fairfax Media is not suggesting that Mr Roberts-Smith has any involvement with those threats. However, evidence provided by defence sources suggests that the sergeant was threatened because he was rumoured to be assisting the Brereton Inquiry. Mr Roberts-Smith has vehemently denied any wrongdoing in Afghanistan, insisting he has a 'spotless record'. Senior military officials in Canberra were locked out of the federal police probe until recently, with Special Operations Command only briefed on the existence of the inquiry in the past month. Fairfax Media has confirmed through multiple military sources that both the AFP inquiry and the Brereton inquiry have gathered extensive information from decorated serving and former special forces veterans who served alongside Mr Roberts-Smith in Afghanistan. The Brereton inquiry has interviewed more than 200 witnesses on oath since 2016. It is unclear if Mr Dutton or Prime Minister Scott Morrison have been briefed on the AFP inquiry into Mr Roberts-Smith, who, over the past five years has been appointed to serve on several federal government Defence committees. Mr Roberts-Smith is the most highly decorated Afghanistan veteran in the Commonwealth, having received a Victoria Cross and Medal for Gallantry for his actions in Afghanistan in 2006 and 2010. He was appointed by former prime minister Tony Abbott to chair the Australia Day selection panel. The Director of the Australian War Memorial Brendan Nelson (right) hugs Ben Roberts-Smith. Credit:AAP Fairfax Media detailed allegations about Mr Roberts-Smith earlier this year, drawing on more than a dozen special forces insiders. Mr Roberts-Smith responded to the reporting by launching defamation proceedings and claiming no witnesses would back up what he described as malicious and unfounded claims about his behaviour. Since then, Mr Roberts-Smith has been publicly backed by the director of the Australian War Memorial, Brendan Nelson, and its chairman, media mogul Kerry Stokes. Mr Stokes handpicked Mr Roberts-Smith as a Channel Seven executive after he left defence. Dr Nelson, a former defence minister, has repeatedly attacked the media reporting and Inspector-Generals inquiry into Mr Roberts-Smith on the basis that it is taking too long and because, "We want to believe in our heroes". But Fairfax Media has confirmed from special forces insiders that over a dozen SAS soldiers are assisting the Brereton inquiry. Many believe that scrutiny of allegedly unlawful acts is needed to preserve the integrity of the regiment and are scathing of Dr Nelsons advocacy, believing it amounts to an attack on soldiers willing to raise concerns about alleged battlefield combat. Another high-profile supporter of the Brereton inquiry is former SAS officer and Afghanistan veteran Andrew Hastie, who is now a Coalition MP. Andrew Hastie. Credit:Trevor Collens Mr Roberts-Smith has claimed a series of articles published this year in The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times are defamatory because they portray him as a war criminal and also allege he punched a woman with whom he had an affair. Mr Roberts-Smith denies all the allegations. Fairfax does not concede that it made all the claims that are alleged by Mr Roberts-Smith. If the court decides otherwise, however, Fairfax says it can prove the claims are true. In support of its truth defence, Fairfax alleges Mr Roberts-Smith was involved in six unlawful killings in Afghanistan, including an alleged incident in 2012 in which he is said to have kicked Ali Jan, an unarmed and handcuffed Afghan man, off a cliff before directing a soldier under his command to shoot him. Mr Roberts-Smith has said the defence filed by Fairfax was "baseless" and "purports to imply" that a list of 17 people, whose names have been redacted in the document, "will be witnesses in support of the Fairfax claims against me". Mr Roberts-Smith said he was "confident that witnesses who will be called in this case will say that Fairfax Medias allegations are untrue". Last week, Mr Roberts-Smith issued a fresh statement denying all wrongdoing after the woman who alleges he punched her in the face in March outlined her claims in a sworn affidavit lodged in the Federal Court defamation proceeding launched by the ex-soldier. A man has been charged after he allegedly assaulted his pregnant girlfriend and a 10-month-old baby before fleeing the scene with the child in Melbourne's south-eastern suburbs. The 25-year-old man from Wodonga was charged on Wednesday night with offences including making threats to kill, reckless conduct causing injury, reckless driving and theft of a motor vehicle. Police chase a man on the Monash Freeway, after he allegedly assaulted his partner and took a 10-month-old baby. Credit:ABC He was arrested by members of the Special Operations Group at a petrol station on the Hume Highway near Donnybrook, north of Melbourne, about 6pm on Tuesday and was taken to hospital for treatment of minor injuries. He was remanded, and will appear in Moorabbin Magistrates Court on Thursday. It was supposed to be a safe place. The chain on the door of an alcove on the old Kinnears rope factory in Footscray meant the door could only be opened from the inside. For David Griffiths and Tanya Burmeister, who secured the chain nightly, the alcove meant they didnt have to spend nights in Melbournes CBD, where they begged during their days. David Griffiths, Tanya Burmeister and her teenage daughter, Zoe, all died in the 2017 fire. Credit: But Darren Patrick Clover also knew the chain meant the door couldnt be opened from outside, and driven by a jealous rage towards his former partner and new boyfriend and $2 of petrol in a plastic container, deliberately lit a fire outside about 11.25pm on March 1 last year. Mr Griffiths, 39, Ms Burmeister, 32, and her 15-year-old daughter Zoe were trapped by the fire and died despite the efforts of passers-by, who heard their calls for help. More than 200 Canberra children skipped class and another 100 parents and supporters rallied in the rain on Wednesday morning in front of Parliament House to call for government action on climate change. The strike was part of a nationwide protest on global warming this week. Thousands of students from more than 200 schools in towns and cities were expected to skip class to put pressure on politicians. The strike was organised by the School Strike 4 Action, a Victoria-based student activist group that's spread across Australia. The movement was inspired by a 15-year-old Swedish school girl Greta Thunberg who skipped school to camp outside Swedens parliament last month. Canberra students protesting outside Parliament House on Wednesday asking for climate change action. Credit:Karleen Minney During question time in Parliament on Monday Prime Minister Scott Morrison condemned the children who were planning to miss class and said there should be less activism in schools. A man who grabbed a 12-year-old girl on her way to school has been jailed for 20 months after a District Court judge ruled the attack on the youngster was sexually motivated. The girl was grabbed on her way to school. Credit:File image David Carlisle Beckwith, 53, grabbed the young girl on the hand as she walked to school in Perth's northern suburbs in June last year. Beckwith had first spotted the girl two days prior to grabbing her, the WA District Court heard on Wednesday. The girl was alone and dressed in her school uniform when Beckwith approached her and grabbed her hand with force. The ACT will launch a review into the way places are named in the capital that will single out Haig Park and William Slim Drive for immediate scrutiny, amid concerns past naming decisions have commemorated "villains as heroes". Labor MLA Bec Cody led the push in response to letters from Indigenous and Jewish community groups, and sexual abuse survivors, who spoke of their personal distress to see some places in Canberra still named after people who had committed criminal or abhorrent acts. Canberra Liberal Mark Parton argues against a proposed review into place names in the ACT on Wednesday. Credit: Dion Georgopoulos But her initial suggestion that all place names in Canberra should come under review sparked backlash - and derision - as Canberrans railed against the potential cost of such a move. Instead, after an equally fiery debate in the Assembly on Wednesday, the review passed under a watered-down remit to examine the ACT's place names committee, a volunteer advisory panel to the government, as well as the territory's current naming guidelines, last updated in 2014. It was a close and, at times, brutal race, but in the end only one could claim the honour of becoming the ACT's mammal emblem. On Thursday, the ACT government will move to establish the southern brush-tailed rock wallaby as the territory's newest emblem, despite calls for the spot to be shared with popular runner-up the eastern bettong, which lost the public vote by a whisker. The Final Two: The southern brush-tailed rock wallaby, left, and the eastern bettong, right, received the most votes for the honour. Credit:Rohan Thomson and Karleen Minney "There can only be one winner," a government spokeswoman said. The ACT will also begin exploring the creation of an official coat of arms for the territory, she revealed, signalling a likely change to Canberra's flag as well. The landslide victory by Daniel Andrews in Victoria reinforced bigger themes about politics as usual in Australia politics. These included disunity among Liberals, disillusionment in the bush, the continuation of Labor-Green antagonism in the inner city and the survival of micro-party politics. Premier Daniel Andrews' Labor Party was returned to power in Victoria with an increased majority. Credit:AAP Naturally the immediate focus following the demolition of the Victorian opposition Coalition in the decisive return of the Labor government was on what it tells us about the likely result of the next federal election. It was certainly yet another warning to the federal Coalition that the Morrison government's position is precarious. It will probably come to be viewed in hindsight as another milestone, following Longman and Wentworth, of the impending defeat of the government next year. Those who warn about jumping to easy conclusions by pointing to the fact that federal and state elections often return quite different outcomes and that voters like the insurance of different parties at federal and state level should not be dismissed. But there is also a history of opposition parties getting on a roll across Australia as an era in federal politics draws to a close. That happened before Bob Hawke and Kevin Rudd came to power. The NSW state poll next March will be a further marker. A big swing there against the NSW Coalition would be another indication of the likely outcome of the federal election. But it wouldn't be conclusive. Australia's first HIV home-testing kit has been approved by the regulator, in a move that has been welcomed by health advocates as a key weapon in the fight to eradicate the virus. Health Minister Greg Hunt will announce the approval of the kits by the Therapeutic Goods Administration on Thursday morning. It means anyone who is concerned that they may have been exposed to HIV, which has been found to cause AIDS if left untreated, will be able to test themselves at home rather than making a trip to the GP. Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt is set to announce the approval of HIV home-testing kits. Credit:Lukas Coch AIDS organisations have been lobbying for home testing, which is already in use overseas, as they regard stigma as the final frontier in prevention and treatment - particularly for Australians living in rural and regional areas. Scott Morrison's government appears weaker every day. Polls confirm the public's growing distaste for the Prime Minister's erratic approach, as he zips from one announcement to the next, at times reversing positions taken earlier. His most consistent message is inconstancy. Yet the Coalition has a deeper problem one that goes beyond mere tactics and will likely cost it more dearly. It is losing the trust of not only women in general but the minority of women who usually vote for conservative parties. This week, Liberal MP Julia Banks, hailed as a "star recruit" from the corporate world, quit the party in disgust at its changing political direction but also at its apparent indifference to women. Jobs Minister Kelly O'Dwyer reportedly warned colleagues that the community viewed the party as misogynist. Senator Lucy Gichuhi told fellow Liberals they must "stop beating up our women". Former deputy leader Julie Bishop rubbished many of Mr Morrison's policies and said the Coalition needed more female MPs. Treasurer John Frydenberg admitted the party had "a problem". And these were glimpses only of the chaos that played out in public; who knows what other incriminations are under way. New York: Right-wing provocateurs Gavin McInnes and Tommy Robinson have been forced to delay a planned tour of Australia because Robinson "cocked up" his diary by double-booking his visit with a Brexit protest in the UK. Tommy Robinson, former leader of the far-right English Defence League, has postponed a planned visit to Australia to attend a Brexit protest in London. Credit:AP McInnes and Robinson's speaking tour, which had been scheduled for early December, has now been postponed until February. The delay provides the Morrison government with a reprieve from a difficult decision about whether to allow the controversial figures to enter Australia. McInnes and Robinson have a history of making inflammatory statements about Muslims, women and members of the LGBT community. Liberal MP Craig Kelly plans to run as an independent at the next election and is being urged to quit the party immediately, in the latest blow to unity inside the Morrison government. Mr Kelly did not rule out leaving the Liberals before the election, but told Fairfax Media on Wednesday night he would not defect before Parliament rises for the year on December 6. Liberal MP Craig Kelly privately concedes he will not be preselected and is planning to run as an independent. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen The Coalition is braced for further upheaval following Julia Banks' bombshell resignation on Tuesday, and MPs are openly speculating about who could be next - with Mr Kelly top of the list. Deputy Liberal leader and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg - the most senior Victorian in the Coalition - cancelled his planned trip to the G20 economic forum in Argentina this weekend amid the fallout from the Liberals' state election loss and Ms Banks' defection. The federal government's review of the Medicare Benefits Schedule has come under fire after new item numbers for spinal surgery were "rushed out", leaving patients exposed to out-of-pocket costs up to 45 per cent higher than under the previous system. Private health insurers have slashed rebates for common spinal operations by up to $440, a cost patients must shoulder on top of any existing gap fee towards the procedure or hospital stay. Surgeons say they are not sending out invoices as they lobby insurers, workplace and transport accident authorities to recalculate their new rebates to ensure that patients are not left worse off. AMA President Tony Bartone says "rushed" changes to Medicare rebates have put informed financial consent at risk. Credit:Mick Tsikas Australian Medical Association president Tony Bartone blasted the government's handling of the review for its "lack of transparency", saying surgery funders had been left scrambling to "reverse engineer" the calculations behind the new item numbers. Parliamentary stunts like Pauline Hanson's controversial "It's OK to be white" motion will be reined in after the Senate rushed through urgent changes to stop the use of trivial and often deliberately divisive motions that have little chance of actually being passed. The Senate was gripped by another fiery dispute over sexism on Wednesday after a Coalition backbencher prompted outrage by earlier saying Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young "had a bit of Nick Xenophon in her". The Senate poses for a photograph during the final sitting fortnight of the year. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen The remarks set off an uproar that prompted the Senate to implement an immediate procedural change. "Unparliamentary, offensive epithets and abuse have no place in this chamber," Senate President Scott Ryan said in a rare plea for better behaviour. Crossbench senator Rex Patrick has called for federal parliament to use its power to combat interference in its work by investigating French arms manufacturer Thales over the company's bid to suppress parts of a national audit into a $1.3 billion defence spend. After MPs launched an inquiry into Attorney-General Christian Porter's order that parts of the audit report be blacked out, the Centre Alliance senator wants another probe focusing on allegations the company breached rules protecting the work of parliament. Senator Patrick alleges Thales acted unlawfully in its attempt to stop the report's release during legal action in the Federal Court when the company tendered documents covered by protections letting parliament conduct inquiries unhindered. Senator Rex Patrick says Thales breached parliamentary privilege in tendering documents to the Federal Court. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Thales has denied the allegation and said it was not acting in contempt of parliament when it tried to stop the national audit office from publishing findings about the federal government's deal with the company to purchase new light protected vehicles for the army. Washington: China will retaliate "in proportion" if the United States sanctions its top official in the restive region of Xinjiang over alleged human rights abuses, China's ambassador to the United States said on Tuesday, adding that Beijing's policies in the region are to "re-educate" terrorists. Security personnel on patrol in Xinjiang. Credit:AP Chinese Ambassador to Washington Cui Tiankai told Reuters in an interview that China's efforts to combat international terrorism are held to a double standard, comparing Chinese actions in Xinjiang to US troops battling Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. "Can you imagine [if] some American officials in charge of the fight against ISIS would be sanctioned?" Cui said, adding "if such actions are taken, we have to retaliate." Cui did not elaborate on specific actions China might take. Moreover, the report finds that the gap between countries' Paris promises and emissions levels that would be needed to stay consistent with the Paris agreement is even larger than previously believed. Loading Because of all of this, the report says, the stakes are now higher. "Concerns about the current level of both ambition and action," it says, are now amplified in comparison with previous years. Here's why. Current global emissions were 53.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalents in 2017; if all countries live up to all promises made in Paris, they would also be about 53 billion tons in 2030. (Emissions are projected to grow with the growth of populations and economies, so basically, under the current Paris promises, the world is running simply to stand still.) This sets the world on a path to about 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) of total warming by 2100. Hence the gap. Emissions can only be about 40 billion tonnes annually in the year 2030 to preserve good odds of holding warming to 2 degrees, the UNEP report finds. And for 1.5 degrees Celsius, they would have to fall to just 24 billion tonnes or so by that year - an extraordinarily steep plunge. Loading In a middling scenario that is also consistent with the Paris agreement's language but takes more risk with the planet - holding warming below 1.8 degrees C - emissions would have to fall to about 34 billion tons by 2030. The Earth has already warmed about 1 degree Celsius - 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit - above pre-industrial temperatures, as recorded in the latter part of the 19th century. And because that figure is a global average, some areas - especially the Arctic - are already considerably warmer than that. Current actions by major emitting countries - all of whom agreed in 2015 to be part of the Paris climate agreement, though the United States is now backtracking - aren't nearly enough to prevent another half degree or more of warming, the report finds. "We need three times more ambition to close the 2-degree gap, and five times more ambition to close the 1.5-degree gap," said Drost. Climate change is altering America's first national park so quickly that plants and animals may not be able to adapt. Credit:New York Times In calling for dramatically more action in a very short period of time, the new document matches the dire verdict reached last month by scientists who are part of the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Their report concluded that global emissions must be sharply cut, and that this must happen in just 12 years, by 2030 to preserve a chance of limiting temperatures to a rise of 1.5 degrees Celsius. But the new UNEP document presents considerably more direct policy analysis and perhaps even some finger-pointing. The document goes through G-20 member nations one by one, listing which ones are failing to live up to the promises they made in Paris three years ago (promises that, themselves, are far too little to keep the planet's warming in check). Together, the G-20 countries account for 78 percent of the globe's emissions. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hugs French President Emmanuel Macron, at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. The pair put forth a common front on the need to fight climate change. Credit:AP Seven of these countries - Argentina, Australia, Canada, the Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the United States - are off track to meet their Paris promises for the year 2030, the UNEP report finds. So is the entire European Union. Several other G20 countries - Russia, India and Turkey - are already on course to exceed their Paris promises by a good measure, but the report questions whether this may in part because they have aimed their ambitions too low. For two more G20 countries - Mexico and Indonesia - it just isn't clear where they are with respect to their goals. And even for those few countries that are on target - Brazil, China Japan - there's plenty to worry about. For example, Brazil has just elected a populist leader, Jair Bolsonaro, who some fear will enact policies that could lead to further deforestation of the vast Amazon rain forest and, therefore, far larger greenhouse gas emissions from Brazil. Brazil's President-elect Jair Bolsonaro has indicated he wanted to pull out of the Paris deal. Credit:AP In light of all this, it's little surprise that global emissions ticked upward again last year after three years - 2014 through 2016 - during which they appeared to flatten out. That brief hiatus for rising emissions now appears to have been a blip. Overall, the world continues to move in the wrong direction, and, as the G20 analysis shows, the blame can kind of be spread around. "Rich countries need faster reductions; the poorer countries need to slow down the growth," said Glen Peters, research director of the Centre for International Climate Research in Oslo and a report author. "No one is doing enough." The problem isn't only what countries are or aren't doing - it's our evolving understanding of what's necessary, and what is even possible to do. Loading The new UNEP report finds a larger gap between the world's promises and tolerable emissions levels in 2030, especially if we want to brake the Earth's warming to the most stringent limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius. Just last year, the report found that the emissions gap for 2 degrees Celsius of warming was 11 billion to 13.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalents in the year 2030, while the gap for 1.5 degrees Celsius was 16 billion to 19 billion tons. But this year, the report revises those figures. The gap for 2 degrees is now 13 billion to 15 billion tons in 2030, and for 1.5 degrees it is 29 billion to 32 billion tons. The latter figure in particular may seem a shocking change, but it is important to understand how it came about. Scientists have become increasingly critical of future temperature and emissions scenarios that contain a large volume of so-called negative emissions - a reliance on massive-scale technologies to remove carbon from the air. When programmed into computer models, such technologies gave the impression that the world could temporarily exceed a given temperature target, such as 1.5 degrees Celsius, by a good measure but then cool the Earth down again through carbon removal. But criticism has been mounting, as the required technologies do not yet exist at scale and would require massive amounts of land and energy inputs, or cause other perturbations that would make them unpopular and difficult to scale up. "A lot of the latest scientific literature tried to be more cautious about the reliance on really large-scale carbon removal," said Levin. That's one reason the emissions gap now appears larger: The fewer negative emissions there are later in the century, the larger emissions cuts would have to be in the present and near future. Another reason for the growing gap is more artificial; it turns on how the analysis is organised. The new report now analyses possible climate and emissions pathways in three buckets - those that limit warming to 2 degrees, 1.8 degrees and 1.5 degrees - rather than just two (1.8 degrees is new), as in previous years. The result is that only the most stringent scenarios are now included in the 1.5-degrees grouping, said Peters, while scenarios that are still compliant with the technical language of the Paris agreement - exceeding 1.5 degrees, but not 2 degrees - allow for somewhat more emissions. So ultimately, it's really about how much risk we want to take with the planet. Ljubljana: Slovenia's government has appointed a female officer as the head of armed forces, a first for the small country which is a member of NATO and the European Union. Major General Alenka Ermenc, 55, will formally take up her post as the Chief of the General Staff of the Slovenian Armed Forces at a ceremony on Wednesday, when she will also become the only woman to currently hold the top armed forces post among the NATO countries. Major General Alenka Ermenc. Credit:Handout/AP The British-educated Ermenc replaces Major General Alan Geder after serving as his deputy. Geder took over Slovenia's military earlier this year after his predecessor was sacked over poor results in a NATO test. Slovenian President Borut Pahor hoped Ermenc's appointment would help improve the performance of the military. In this courtroom sketch El Chapo, centre, sits next to his defence attorney Eduardo Balarezo, left, for opening statements on the first day of his trial. Credit:AP "He had houses at every single beach," said Martinez, formerly a close friend and top assistant. "He had ranches in every single state." Guzman's excesses were detailed at his US trial on Tuesday by former cartel crony-turned-government witness Miguel Angel Martinez, who told jurors that a "cocaine boom" in the early 1990s fuelled the lavish spending spree. New York: Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loeira was so rich, he had a private zoo where big cats roamed. So rich, he bought a $US10 million ($13.8 million) beach house. And so rich, he travelled to Switzerland for an anti-aging treatment. Martinez described how the Sinaloa cartel was smuggling tons of cocaine into the United States - through tunnels dug under the border, in tanker trucks with secret compartments, even in fake chili pepper cans. What came back in the other direction, he said, was tens of millions of dollars in cash. Much of it ended up in Tijuana, where Guzman, 61, would send his three private jets each month to pick it up, Martinez said. On average, each plane would carry up to $US10 million, he said. A diamond-encrusted pistol, monogrammed with the initials of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera. Credit:AP The cartel used stash houses to hide much of the cash, Martinez said. Samsonite suitcases stuffed with US currency also were taken to Mexican banks, where workers were bribed to exchange it for pesos, no questions asked, he said. Guzman also used his jets to fly around the Mexico with armed bodyguards to visit all his homes, including an Acapulco beach house featuring the zoo with a "little train" used to ride around and see lions, tigers and panthers, he said. There also was a yacht docked there called "Chapito", he said. Toronto: A Syrian man who spent nearly 10 months stranded in a Malaysian airport arrived in Canada this week, ending a months-long ordeal that highlighted asylum seekers' often bizarre quest for refuge. Canadian sponsor Laurie Cooper hugs Hassan al-Kontar after his arrival in Vancouver. Credit:The Canadian Press/AP Hassan al-Kontar got stuck in Kuala Lumpur International Airport in March after his Malaysian tourist visa expired and he was not allowed to board a flight to another country. Loading Kontar, 37, who left Syria before that country's civil war erupted in 2011, had worked in the United Arab Emirates for several years but had to leave after his visa ran out. He said he could not return to his homeland because he refused to serve in the military. PHILIPSBURG (DCOMM):--- The Minister Plenipotentiary of Sint Maarten, Drs. Jorien Wuite, represents the Government of Sint Maarten in the Netherlands. In order to effectively bring forward Sint Maartens interests in the Netherlands and, more specifically, in the Kingdom Council of Ministers, the Cabinet of the Minister Plenipotentiary works in close collaboration with the government departments on Sint Maarten. This became even more apparent over the last few weeks, when the Caribbean countries were informed of the fact that the dispute regulation proposal for the Kingdom would be placed on the agenda of the Kingdom Council of Ministers meeting of November 23rd, 2018. The Caribbean countries were only involved during the last few weeks. The Ministry of Interior Affairs and Kingdom Relations provided technical briefings to the governors, high officials of the Caribbean countries, including Prime Minister Leona Romeo-Marlin, and the Ministers Plenipotentiary in The Hague. Leading up to last Fridays Kingdom Council of Ministers meeting, the Ministry of General Affairs worked closely with the Cabinet of the Minister Plenipotentiary to formulate Sint Maartens stance on this issue. As the Minister Plenipotentiary receives her mandate from the office of the Prime Minister of Sint Maarten, consultations were held prior to the Kingdom Council of Ministers meeting. The Ministers Plenipotentiary of the three Caribbean countries kept each other updated on their countries viewpoints. The Cabinet and Legal Affairs and Legislation on Sint Maarten will maintain their focus on this very important issue, as Parliaments will now finally get the opportunity to acquaint themselves with the proposal. Both the Inter-Parliamentary Kingdom Consultation (IPKO) and the Parliaments of each overseas Kingdom country have been keeping this important issue high on their political agenda. They did so by achieving historic consensus on the topic by emphasizing the importance of a dispute regulation within the Kingdom as well as by formulating three starting points for a dispute regulation: disputes have to be resolved by an independent institution, dispute resolution must have a binding outcome, and the scope of the dispute regulation must be restricted to legal disputes regarding the Kingdom. The IPKO will most likely discuss whether the new proposal is in accordance with its proposed starting points in the period of January 8-11, 2019 when they meet on Sint Maarten. For further information: Mrs Kelly Busby, Senior policy officer Education, Culture, Protocol & Press: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. PHILIPSBURG:--- St. Maarten nursing student Latiesha Richardson has won honors for the Netherlands in the annual Shanghai International Nursing Skills Competition held on November 17. She won second-place honors, giving the Netherlands its first placing in 8 years at the competition. Living and studying in The Netherlands in her 3rd year of her nursing studies and former student of the Milton Peters College, Latiesha was accepted to take part in the 2018 nursing student exchange program in Shanghai. This student exchange program consisted of a total of 15 students of both the ROC Zadkine College as well as The Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences Nursing programs. Latiesha was given the opportunity to do her internship in the Zhoupu Hospital and follow classes based on Traditional Chinese Medicine given in the Shanghai University of Medicine and Health Sciences affiliated with the Zhoupu Hospital. The aim of these classes were to give the nursing students knowledge of a different variety of medicine that is very popular in the Chinese community. From the selected 15 students that took part in this international nursing student exchange program. Latiesha was one of the two selected to represent The Netherlands. On November 17, 2018 Latiesha won second place in the competition which consisted of 34 international teams. The theme for this years competition was Better Care, Better Life -Promoting Nursing Practice in Chronic Conditions. The preparations for this competition began in the Netherlands in October 2018. The participants got the opportunity to practice on what was to be expected from them and get acquainted with American protocols which vary for Dutch students in certain aspects. Latiesha said she felt humbled and was pleased to be a part of this wonderful and learning experience that not only made her and her team happy to place second, But this also created international possibilities for her future endeavors during her studies. One step in the right direction can change the trajectory of your entire life. Tip toe if you must but take that step. She extend a word of thanks to her school in Holland, the host country China and most of all her supporting parents Natasha Vanterpool and Leslie Richardson and her entire family and friends on St. Maarten, St. Eustatius and Holland. Every year teachers and students from all over the world come together under the guidance and leadership of the Chinese and American nursing faculties. Whereas the international nursing students get the opportunity to display their nursing knowledge and techniques on simulated patients in realistic situations, as well as their English language skills. The contest is basically intended to demonstrate and sharpen the nursing competition skills of the contestants. This annual event is to bring awareness of nursing care and to promote the improvement of nursing vocational education in China and abroad. Knorr-Bremse presents strong figures for the first nine months of 2018 Posted by Publisher Internet . ? Successful IPO: Shares placed on 12 October amidst challenging market backdrop ? Strong growth: Revenues grow by 9.5% to 4.994 mEUR during the first nine months of 2018 . Both segments contributing ? Improved profitability: EBITDA rises by 12.6% against previous year to 876 mEUR, margin expands by 40 basis points to 17.5% (previous year 17.1%) ? Strong order book: Order backlog grows by 11.9% against previous year to 4.449 mEUR, underscoring good medium-term prospects ? Guidance for fiscal year 2018: Revenues 6.6-6.7bn EUR, EBITDA margin of 17.5%- 18.5% Knorr-Bremse AG, the global market leader for braking systems and a leading supplier of safety-critical rail and commercial vehicle systems, today published its first nine-month results as a listed company. Klaus Deller, Knorr-Bremse AG?s CEO, said: ?Our company is performing exactly as we had expected. At the leading trade fares in September we demonstrated that we are driving the industry as innovation leader, and that Knorr-Bremse continues to be viewed as the benchmark in our industry. Our above-average R&D costs of 6.8% of revenues pay dividends and we intend to generate above-average growth, based on sector megatrends, also in the medium term.? Ralph Heuwing, CFO, adds: ?Our nine-month figures deliver on our promise and confirm the positive development of the full year. We are confident that Knorr-Bremse will be able to present strong results for the year of its debut on the stock exchange 2018.? Strong organic growth During the first nine months of fiscal year 2018, revenues increased by 9.5%, or 432 mEUR, to 4.994bn EUR. Currency adjusted the revenues would have increased by an additional ca. 2%. In the Rail Vehicle Systems (RVS) segment, the rise is primarily due to growth in the European brakes business, as well as positive developments in Asia/Australia. In China, a moderate decrease in the high-speed business was overcompensated by increases in Mass Transit, Regional/Commuter, Locomotives, and the Aftermarket business. Moreover, revenues in the Indian passenger as well as the North American freight businesses continue to show positive momentum. Growth in the Commercial Vehicle Systems (CVS) segment was the result of a higher truck production rate and resulting revenue increases in the OE business, first and foremost in North America. That said, all other markets also showed revenue growth. EBITDA and EBIT margins improved further During the first nine months of the year 2018, the group generated an EBITDA of 876 mEUR, an increase of 98 mEUR or 12.6% on the same period last year. As a result, EBITDA margin rose by 40 basis points to 17.5%, from 17.1%. Based on this increase and lower disposal-related write-downs, the group was able to lift its EBIT by 101 mEUR, or 16.5%, to 718 mEUR. Order backlog underscores medium-term outlook Knorr-Bremse?s order backlog reached a new high of 4.449bn EUR at the end of the third quarter, an increase of 11.9% against prior year. Both segments contributed: worldwide orders in RVS are robust; in CVS the truck production rate and content per vehicle continue to be on the rise. Segments Revenues in RVS were 9.1% higher than prior year at 2.633 mEUR. EBITDA came in at 499 mEUR during the same period, leading to an EBITDA margin of 19.0% (prior year 18.2%). EBIT margin grew by 140 basis points to 15.8%, primarily owing to positive margin contributions from Asia. The Aftermarket share of revenues during the period amounted to 40%. As a result of the strong revenue contribution of the OE business, this was slightly lower than the 42% of the prior year. Revenues in CVS were 9.8% over prior year, at 2.362 mEUR. EBITDA increased to 386 mEUR, leading to a slightly improved margin of 16.4% (16.3% for the same period 2017). EBIT margin came in at 13.7%, also higher than last year (13.4%). Hence, the segment delivered a solid result in spite of a slight decrease of the Aftermarket contribution of 26% of revenues (28% prior year), which was due to the North America business. Regions Regional revenue contributions were almost unchanged on last year: 49.4% Europe/Africa (prior year 50.0%), 21.3% North America (prior year 21.5%), 1.6% South America (prior year 1.6%), 27,7% Asia/Australia (prior year 26.9%). Investments and employment above last year During the first nine months of 2018, the company invested 230 mEUR in tangible and intangible assets (148 mEUR prior year). In particular, capex was focused on additional capacity, productivity improvements and replacements. The figure also includes the asset deal of Federal Mogul?s friction material business. R&D expenses rose slightly to 6.8% of revenues, from 6.7% during the same period last year. The average number of employees during the period rose by 2.491 to 29.028. Outlook for 2018 Assuming a stable economic backdrop, the company expects to generate 6.7-6.8bn EUR in revenues for the full year 2018 (2017: 6.154 mEUR), and an EBITDA margin within a range of 17.5% to 18.5% (2017: 18.1%). The medium-term outlook remains unchanged. The full quarterly statement is available on the website at www.knorr-bremse.com DISCLAIMER This publication has been independently prepared by Knorr-Bremse AG (?Knorr-Bremse?). It may contain forward-looking statements which address key issues such as strategy, future financial results, events, competitive positions and product developments. Such forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors, including, but not limited to, those described in Knorr-Bremse?s disclosures, in particular in the chapter ?Risks? in Knorr-Bremse?s annual report. Should one or more of these risks, uncertainties or other factors materialize, or should underlying expectations not occur or shall assumptions prove incorrect, the actual results, performances or achievements of Knorr-Bremse may vary materially from those described in the relevant forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements may be identified by words such as ?expect,? ?want,? ?anticipate,? ?intend,? ?plan,? ?believe,? ?seek,? ?estimate,? ?will,? ?project? or words of similar meaning. Knorr-Bremse does not intend, nor does it assume any obligation, to update or revise its forward-looking statements regularly in light of developments which differ from those anticipated. This publication may include ? in the applicable financial reporting framework not clearly defined ? supplemental financial measures that are or may be alternative performance measures (non-GAAP-measures). Knorr-Bremse?s net assets, financial position and results of operations should not be assessed solely on the basis of these alternative supplemental financial measures. Under no circumstances do they replace the performance indicators presented in the consolidated financial statements and calculated in accordance with the applicable financial reporting framework. The calculation by other companies that report or describe similarly titled alternative performance measures may vary despite the use of the same or similar terminology. IDATE Report Highlights The Challenges Ahead In Connecting Everyone Posted by Publisher Telecommunication 28 November 2018 (Sydney): The new Connecting Everyone report from French research company IDATE has revealed the real-world challenges in building universal Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) coverage, leaving a massive opportunity for ultra-fast Gfast and Fixed Wireless technology to deliver high-speed broadband. Released at the IDATE DigiWorld Summit in Paris overnight, Connecting Everyone revealed that in the total serviceable global Fibre-to-the-Building (FTTB) and FTTH market of about 670 million premises that 60% of these ? 402 million premises ? are being served with FTTB technology. ?Many operators we spoke to for this report concluded they could not see an investment case for upgrading networks from FTTB to FTTH,? said Jean-Luc Lemmens, Head of Telecom Practice at IDATE. ?This means that FTTB services will be part of the mix for a very long-time to come.? Director of Marketing and Communications at NetComm, Els Baert, welcomed the findings of the IDATE report. ?Although initial goals of universal FTTH are admirable, many operators with a FTTH strategy find it very hard to take fibre all the way to the home, especially in Multi-Dwelling Units (MDUs),? she said. ?By using Gfast, gigabit speeds are now possible in FTTB environments and by reverse powering the Gfast equipment, the installation and activation is much quicker.? NetComm is already working with Australian operator NBN Co to deploy its Gfast enabled 8-port and 16-port DPUs onto the NBN Co Fibre-to-the-Curb (FTTC) network in Multi-Dwelling Units (MDUs) and expects the first units to be delivered in the first half of 2019. The Fixed Wireless opportunity Connecting Everyone also found that many countries are still struggling to connect rural areas, which is forcing regulators to consider more flexible technology approaches. For example, in France, President Macron has called for a minimum 8 Mbps bandwidth to be provided to all citizens to avoid the creation of a new digital divide. He has therefore encouraged to explore the use of alternative technologies while waiting for the deployment of FTTH. Connecting Everyone found that of the 12 million premises currently passed by FTTH or FTTB in France, only one million were in rural areas. The French government is now considering using Fixed Wireless to accelerate the delivery of universal high-speed broadband. Speaking at the IDATE DigiWorld Summit in Paris ? where one of the key topics was delivering universal high-speed connectivity Baert welcomed this more flexible approach, pointing out that the topography of many European cities ? including in France make them ideally suited for Fixed Wireless delivery. ?European cities and villages are built around churches, which are typically located at the highest location. By installing a base station in the towers, rural areas could be covered in record time, and with minimal investment as a CPE only needs to be provided when the end-user requests the service,? she said. ?When using 3.5GHz and 4 carrier aggregation, speeds of up to 400Mbps can be provided in a range of up to 14km around the base station, which is well within the requirements of today?s end-users.\ Globally-renowned Pay on Foot parking systems manufacturer, DESIGNA, has worked with the White Rose shopping centre in Rhyl, North Wales, to update its car parking system to the companys advanced ABACUS software and equipment. Contactless card payment The installation included new state-of-the-art entrance and exit terminals accepting tap in/tap out contactless card payment technology After many successful installations abroad, the shopping centre is the first DESIGNA site in the UK to have installed its new tap in/tap out contactless credit card technology. The installation included new state-of-the-art entrance and exit terminals accepting tap in/tap out contactless card payment technology. There are also three full pay stations, a DBS server, manual pay station and intercom. All of this helps improve the efficiency and security of the car park, which is popular with shoppers due to its seafront location. As the first part of the shopping experience, the convenience and availability of a car park is crucial to the overall service and satisfaction of a customer. DESIGNA recognised this and developed ABACUS, an advanced car park access system that intelligently integrates various elements to create the ultimate system that is highly reliable and requires less maintenance. It can also cope with large volumes of traffic while providing the highest level of monitoring to ensure a secure parking environment. ABACUS car park access system The parking system is barrier controlled and makes use of DESIGNA barcode ticket technology. In addition to the standard ticket technology, the car park offers the facility to tap in/tap out using a contactless credit card. This operates with a unique identifier from the credit/debit card as a substitute for a ticket for the duration of the stay at the car park. When the customer presents a contactless card on entry, it recognises them and by tapping again at the exit it automatically calculates the tariff and allows payment to take place at the exit. The system has three pay on foot machines which accept coins, notes and credit cards. With more than 30 stores, White Rose shopping centre, Rhyls number one shopping destination, has a wide range of quality stores. Located in the centre of the town, White Rose is a short walk from Rhyls seafront, railway station and sea aquarium, and has direct access car parking for 300 vehicles. The centre previously had a chip coin solution installed on site. Advanced ticket machines The biggest advantage of having the DESIGNA system in place is the easy payment method" Sue Nash, Centre Manager at the White Rose commented, The biggest advantage of having the DESIGNA system in place is the easy payment method. The advanced ticket machines make it possible to pay using several means, therefore reducing the problem of queuing at the pay machines and having to pay with change. Another payment option we now have is the facility to pay through mobile devices and via contactless cards. She continued, The majority of people move around with credit cards rather than cash and having a versatile payment option in the car park makes for a painless process. The maintenance of the system at our local level was extremely important to avoid costly and timely engineer callouts. Simple things like ticket and coin jams, system resets are now extremely easy to resolve as is the exchange of entry tickets when required. I would certainly recommend the DESIGNA system to others and we are extremely pleased with the results. Car parking ease and convenience Specifier Andrew Bailey, of Parking Ideas, commented, Parking Ideas is a complete car parking and transportation consultancy that helps institutions, property owners, landlords and managing agents develop and optimise their assets. I have worked with the White Rose shopping centre for a number of years and following a competitive tender found that DESIGNAs systems best suited the clients requirements. He continued, The ABACUS system is good value, commercially viable and ticked all the right boxes for the White Rose. It is very important to have the facility to pay by card, so the payment terminals having this feature are vital to the centre and have made all the difference to the running of the car park. Parking Ideas has been in the parking industry for more than 15 years, so we have worked with DESIGNA before and are very happy with the end result. DESIGNA ticket terminals The car parks entrance and exit are installed with DESIGNA In+ and Out+ ticket terminals so that using the site is fast and easy The car parks entrance and exit are installed with DESIGNA In+ and Out+ ticket terminals so that using the site is fast and easy. The advanced terminals operate on the lowest energy consumption of their class with the ability to hold more tickets than before, with the bin adapting itself to the fill quantity. Customers are greeted with excellent user-friendliness due to the simplicity of the equipment and illuminated display with clear instructions. The four-way barcode readers also ensure visitors can insert their ticket any way round into any of the pay stations around the site. DESIGNA Pay on Foot machines For payment, three of DESIGNAs new Pay on Foot machines are in place in the car park. This allows customers to pay for their visit before returning to their car and exit the car park more quickly. The pay station is deliberately designed to allow disabled customers to pay freely without assistance. Each of the pay stations is installed with an interactive monitor that makes it easy to pay and offers several different languages. Shopping centre management has full control of the ABACUS system through the DBS server, with a manual pay station (MPS) to allow them to create or override payments. The control room also links with the ticket and payment terminals via a DESIGNA VoIP Intercom to assist customers if required. Global implementation DESIGNA has more than 15,000 systems installed globally across a wide range of car park situations DESIGNAs parking systems are used in a number of impressive shopping centres around the world. These include the Dundrum shopping centre in Dublin, the Mid Valley Megamall in Malaysia and the Mall of Emirates in Dubai. In the UK the Belfry shopping centre in Redhill, the Woolshops shopping centre in Halifax and the Wellgate centre in Dundee have also benefited from the ABACUS system. Recognised worldwide for its high quality and intelligent systems, DESIGNA has more than 15,000 systems installed globally across a wide range of car park situations, including shopping centres, airports and hospitals. ABACUS is one of the companys innovations and demonstrates the endless possibilities available to car park operators. The future-proof technology allows for expansions of premises or new property acquisitions by allowing additional systems to be added to the network. In its many global applications, ABACUS has proved to be an effortless system for both operators and users and is a great investment for companies looking to the future. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D.Md.) said he wants to maintain the funding profile for the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) despite other pressures on NASA's budget, including increased costs for the James Webb Space Telescope. WASHINGTON As Congress works to finalize a fiscal year 2019 spending bill for NASA, a senator is asking colleagues to secure the future of two of NASA's largest astrophysics missions. In a Nov. 19 letter to Sens. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the chair and ranking member respectively of the commerce, justice and science (CJS) appropriations subcommittee, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said he hoped the committee would continue its "strong support" of NASA's space science programs despite the problems some of those major missions have faced. In the case of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), that flagship program is facing cost overruns and schedule delays that have pushed back the mission's launch to 2021 and will breach an $8 billion cost cap previously established by Congress. "I share your concerns about the issues, including project and human errors that have delayed its completion," Van Hollen stated in the letter to subcommittee leadership. "But I continue to believe it is too important to abandon. It will have the capacity to study the history of our universe and provide a deeper view of space than we have ever seen." NASA requested $304.6 million for JWST in its fiscal year 2019 budget proposal. House and Senate versions of spending bills both provided that amount of funding for the program, and NASA said it does not need additional funding for the program in 2019 even with the delay. However, NASA estimates it will need approximately half a billion dollars of additional funding, spread over fiscal years 2020 and 2021, to accommodate the increased costs associated with the delay. "In '20 and '21 is when we need significant additional funding for Webb over what we had planned," Paul Hertz, director of NASA's astrophysics division, said at an Oct. 22 meeting of the agency's Astrophysics Advisory Committee, "because those are the years that we thought we would be in operations and so our budgets are small, but we'll still be in development so we need to keep our budget high." Van Hollen noted that no additional money is needed for JWST in the spending bill currently under consideration, but asked for support for additional funding for the program in the next two years. "I look forward to working with you to balance the needs of JWST with other critical NASA missions," he wrote. He specifically sought an increase in the cost cap in the near term, citing the upcoming start of the next astrophysics decadal survey that will prioritize future NASA missions. "Addressing the JWST cost cap issue now would settle a major variable ahead of that Decadal," he wrote, "which would greatly assist the community in understanding how to prioritize and recommend instruments and missions that will follow the launches of JWST and WFIRST in the next 3 to 7 years." The other troubled astrophysics flagship mission at NASA is the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), which the administration sought to cancel in the fiscal year 2019 budget request after NASA made changes to the mission to reduce its projected cost to $3.2 billion. However, the House CJS spending bill provided $150 million for the program, the same as it received in 2018, while the Senate offered $352 million, the amount needed to keep it on track for a 2025 launch. Van Hollen, in his letter, raised concerns about budget pressures on WFIRST that could arise from the need for additional JWST funding. "As you know, the overall cost of WFIRST is highly dependent on the phasing of the project, so to minimize costs, the project's current funding profile must be maintained so that technical risk can be resolved on long-lead items and major contracts executed to begin work on the bus and other major components," he wrote. Van Hollen does have some local interest in keeping JWST and WFIRST on track. The lead center for both missions is the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. JWST science operations will be handled by the Space Telescope Science Institute, also located in Maryland. Congress, on recess this week for the Thanksgiving holidays, will return Nov. 26 under pressure to complete the CJS and several other spending bills. Much of the federal government, including NASA, is operating under a continuing resolution that funds agencies at 2018 levels through Dec. 7. That includes, in the case of NASA, continued work on WFIRST despite it not being funded in the administration's original proposal. Budget pressures will likely only grow worse in fiscal year 2020, given the demands of JWST and WFIRST as well as likely increases sought in funding for various exploration activities as NASA constructs plans to return humans to the moon by the late 2020s. In addition, the Office of Management and Budget has requested federal agencies develop 2020 budget proposals with cuts of five percent, which in the case of NASA would be approximately $1 billion. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine warned at a Nov. 15 meeting of the National Space Council's Users' Advisory Group that such cuts could hurt the agency's exploration plans. "If that materializes, no, we're not going to have what we need to go to the moon," he said. Bridenstine added he would not seek to cut other parts of NASA, like science, to keep exploration programs funded. "If we start pitting one part of NASA against another part of NASA, we will in essence be pitting one part of Congress against another part of Congress," he warned, "and then we're not going to be able to accomplish most of what the president has assigned us to do in Space Policy Directive 1." This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry. NASA wants to use the moon to build commercial partnerships and develop technologies that could one day be applied to Mars exploration. NASA has its sights set on the moon, and the agency has selected the first batch of commercial project proposals it will include on its journey back to our nearest neighbor, and then on to Mars. The selected companies will be revealed Thursday (Nov. 29) during a news conference held at NASA's headquarters in Washington, D.C. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine will lead the news conference. The event will begin at 2 p.m. EST (1900 GMT); you can watch it live on Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV, or directly at 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," NASA officials wrote in a media alert. Bridenstine will be joined by representatives of the companies whose projects have been selected, as well as by Thomas Zurbuchen, who leads NASA's Science Mission Directorate; astronaut Stan Love; Andrea Mosie, Apollo sample-laboratory manager; and Barbara Cohen, a scientist who works with NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission. NASA's current plans aim to have humans orbiting the moon again by 2023 and landing later in the decade, but the agency has always expected to precede crewed flights with robotic lander missions. Incorporating U.S. companies is a key principle of NASA's plan to extend human space exploration first to the moon and then to Mars. Private partners will help keep costs as low as possible. (International partnerships are also in the forecast, for much the same reason.) Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her @meghanbartels. Follow us @Spacedotcom and Facebook. Original article on Space.com. NASA astronaut Don Pettit holds a ThinkPad at the International Space Station during Expedition 30. Before sending personal electronic devices to space, NASA tests them to make sure they can withstand the high levels of radiation out there. Michael D. Shaw is a biochemist and freelance writer. A graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles, and a protege of the late Willard Libby, winner of the 1960 Nobel Prize in chemistry, Shaw also did postgraduate work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Based in Virginia, he covers technology, health care and entrepreneurship, among other topics. Before the space-tourism industry takes flight and passengers start taking their electronic devices into orbit, there had better be a way for travelers to protect their digital data from the harsh environment of space. Between the radiation and the effects of microgravity, the typical smartphone, tablet or laptop may malfunction before you have the chance to tweet your amazing photos of Earth. Add NASA's worries about hackers intercepting communications and even commandeering control of satellites in space, and our electronic devices and the data they contain become even more vulnerable. [Photos: The First Space Tourists] If and when your personal electronic devices succumb to these vulnerabilities in space, whether it's during a suborbital flight on SpaceShipTwo or an extended stay at a luxury space hotel, there will likely be no resident IT expert aboard your spacecraft. And without a working mobile device, you'll have a hard time calling tech support back on Earth. How, then, do astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) send and safeguard their data? In a word: carefully. According to Backup4all, which services the laptops at the space station, data protection is essential not only to the research and science experiments astronauts perform at the orbiting lab, but also to the information they see and share on social media. As the ISS orbits Earth 16 times a day (or about once every 90 minutes), crewmembers back up their data to 13 destinations, including external hard drives and the same cloud-storage providers that many of us use on Earth. Those include Google Drive, Dropbox and Microsoft OneDrive. That data involves experiments concerning cancer research, "cool-flame extinction" and the use of a Robonaut in high-stress conditions, among other things. If backup policies were not in place, NASA and its international partners at the space station would risk losing "time-sensitive, mission-critical data, like information about the crew's health, the status of the station's systems, results from onboard science experiments, as well as every single social media post and interview," NASA officials said in a statement. It would be hard for NASA's public outreach to succeed without the breathtaking pictures of space the agency shares with its social media followers. Picture, too, the space station's Twitter feed without its 2.3 million followers. Now, picture yourself without access to your own data and pictures. A malfunctioning smartphone can be frustrating enough on Earth. But how would you feel if your smartphone stopped working while you were hundreds of miles away from the planet, making it impossible for you, as a space tourist, to beam pictures and messages down to Earth? You could avoid these future "first-world problems" by keeping data-backup tools at the ready. Here on Earth, 140,000 hard drives crash every week in the United States alone, according to the cybersecurity news website CSO.com. Recovering a crashed computer can cost upward of $7,500, with no guarantee of success. Even worse, every year about 70 million smartphones fall victim to theft, whether they're physically stolen or digitally hacked, according to a study from the Kensington Computer Products Group. The study found that the cost of losing a laptop or other mobile electronic device can greatly exceed the cost of the device itself "thanks to lost productivity, the loss of intellectual property, data breaches, and legal fees." The good news is that the ISS can be the ultimate symbol of data protection. It already is a symbol of the triumph of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Translating that symbol into a call to action should be a national priority. Creating a call to action "is a design challenge, to be sure," said Janil Jean, director of overseas operations for LogoDesign.net. "It is not, however, an insurmountable one. Not when it is easier at the moment to find a 'no smoking' sign than it is to find a sign that warns against not leaving data vulnerable to loss or theft." I agree with that statement, just as I believe in the value of the mission of the ISS. That value has many denominations, from the actual work that crewmembers do every day to the data that serves as a digital record of the research these men and women perform on behalf of humankind. We should emulate their example by doing the practical thing, which is also the smart thing: treating data as a personal commodity and a public good that is too precious to squander, too powerful to sacrifice and too potent to surrender and that is equally as vulnerable in space as it is on the ground, if not more vulnerable. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. Original article on Space.com. Optimism was written by Steve Yockey and was directed by Richard Speight Jr. The episode features popular guest star Felicia Day back as Charlie Bradbury thank God for alternate universes, am I right?The episode begins in the McCook, Nebraska library and the music and nerdy love triangle between Miles (Eanna ODowd), Winston (Amitai Marmorstein) and Harper (Maddie Phillips) makes it seem like were in for a more light-hearted episode to go with the title. Phillips puts in a solid performance, keeping us guessing. Winston thinks he and Harper are going on a date and Harper is clear its just dinner. I did really like this opening sequence, ending with a jaunty Staying Alive strut by Winston ending in Winstons very much not staying alive!Sam (Jared Padalecki) teams up with Charlie in Memphis. This does not seem like the Charlie we know at all shes definitely no conversationalist! Its a nice opportunity for Day to create a new character. However, shes gathered some clues and is reading through books to figure out what they are dealing with which Sam has to be on board with even if he is stuck on a boring stakeout.Back at the bunker, Jack (Alexander Calvert) fills in on the brotherly duty of checking up on Dean (Jensen Ackles). Jack is a little like a bull in a china shop ah, the innocence of youth. He simply blurts out that no one blames Dean for what happened with Michael but Dean blames himself. On the other brotherly end, Dean is concerned about Jacks cough which he hilariously attributes to sitting around doing nothing! What Jack wants to do is hunt. Dean knows that Jacks been hunting with Castiel (Misha Collins) but thats to keep Jack safe. I loved them cutting from Dean calling Sam a smart guy for teaming Cas with Jack to Sam playing with a fidget spinner!Jack has found the hunt in McCook there were human bites on Winstons body and he wants to check it out. Dean shuts him down, saying that Sam wont like it. Dean is ready to check it out himself, and Jack says that the new protocol is to always hunt in pairs! Finally! Jack wants to be Deans hunting buddy Dean, of course, doesnt like any of it.And of course, Jack confesses that he feels just as responsible for everything Michael has done as Dean does because Jack could have killed him when he was at full strength. Dean tries to dismiss Jacks culpability in the same way Jack tried to dismiss him and Jack throws that back at him. Its not helping to sit in the Bunker all day thinking about what he could have done he needs to hunt to try to do some good and its exactly the way Dean thinks too.Dean and Jack start their investigation at the diner Winston used to eat breakfast at every morning. We get some awkward moments with the waitress, a glass rooster, and Jacks superficial knowledge of the dating world but she does point them in Harpers direction. Everyone tells them Harper lead a charmed life until her boyfriend ran off and since then shes been bad luck losing all subsequent boyfriends.Charlie tries to reassure Sam about Dean, after all, he has to have other friends, right? Sam says she was Deans other confidant but Charlie quickly points out not her. This Charlie was also a programmer and Roman Enterprises but she lived with the love of her life. I really like how there are these little details that are different. Of course, theyd be like ripples in a pond the butterfly effect which should mean that at some point these universes would be drastically different like the apocalypse, of course but the logical flaw here actually runs pretty deep if you want to focus on that. Lets notCharlie tells Sam about her Cara who ran a cupcake bakery and smelled like peaches something out of a storybook. Yep. Thats our Charlie too, right? Then she goes on to tell Sam about the apocalypse how Michael and Lucifer set off an EMP or something over North America and fried all the technology. At first, they banded together, thinking someone would save them, but no one ever did. Things got violent when the food ran out and people like Cara died. People are always the same when things go wrong. Society falls apart. This Charlie seems to have lost her optimism. Sam tells her not here and she answers not yet.We get a classic pie scene in the diner with Dean and Jack. I loved Dean calling Jack Mighty Mouse and very Cas-like, Jack doesnt get the reference. Jack wants to know more about courting, but Dean puts of the talk until they get home. There are some nice touches by Ackles here including smelling the coffee before drinking it. Its bad, but not too bad to drink. I also liked the little throwaway to Gabriel (Richard Speight Jr) and Rowenas (Ruth Connell) little tryst in the Bunker. Meanwhile, Dean wants Jack to focus on the hunt and Harper Sayles thats just too much bad luck for one person.Dean goes into the library as FBI and Jack comes in to save Harper from him I loved Deans plan of using Harpers obsession with romance novels to get to her. Theres also a nice bit of comedy when Jack calls Dean old man and it clearly hits a real nerve with Dean. It works as Harper is clearly smitten with Jack.Harper takes Jack to her apartment to get her favorite book and Miles follows them out of the library to object. Miles tries to stop her she doesnt even know this guy! And he refuses to shake Jacks hand. Miles throws out the garbage and as Dean is following Jack to see where they went, he hears Miles scream and finds his bloody corpse.Charlie complains that she hates hunting. Sam remarks that shes awesome at it clearly admiring her ploughing through so many books! Just like our Charlie, she wonders who would want to be a hunter? Just a lot of tears and death. Charlie tells Sam that this is her last hunt her plan is basically to become a hermit on a mountain top as long as it has good wifi.Harper suddenly realizes its a bit weird that she asked Jack back to her place and assures him that shes not putting the moves on him which all goes completely over his head. I loved how he cleverly tested her with silver, holy water, and Christo. Dean calls and Jack ignores the call. He explains his wet hand as his being nervous, and Harper invites him to sit down.It was fun having someone point out lore to Sam instead of him doing all the leg-work for Dean. Charlie has determined that they are after a Musca. And of course, Sam has read all the books, so he knows about a Musca, but the clues all point to the giant human fly and the all black costume with a huge veil covered head isnt at all conspicuous I did love the two older ladies who immediately get off their bench to get away from him!Jack tells her that hes from Lebanon aw! Harper tells Jack that shes the last one of her family, whove lived in McCook for generations. Jack notices the picture of Vance (Sam Robert Muik) and Harper and asks if hes her boyfriend. She tells him that he was but after high school, Vance wanted to see the world. She told him that they could do it through books. But he left anyway Jack is surprised that he left without her. She confides that that was the beginning of her bad luck but she tries to stay positive. Jack says he tries to stay positive too but it can be hard.When Dean calls again, Harper asks if Jack believes in love at first sight and Jack excuses himself to go to the washroom to call Dean. Hes sure that Harper is in love with him and Dean assures him that shes not. I loved Jack telling Dean that he needed to know everything about sex Go! Oh, if only it were that easy! While Dean and Jack are brainstorming on the phone, Dean is attacked.Harper is worried that shes freaked Jack out, but shes freaked out when Dean bursts in and blockades the door. Jack and Dean assure her that its ok. Hes not FBI hes there to save her from whatever it is thats on the other side of the door Dean thought it was a ghost until it punched him in the face. Dean sees a picture of Vance and asks how he died. Harper says she thinks that he lives in Connecticut! Jack finally gets his zombie. But Dean sends Jack to take Harper away and fights the zombie himself.Sam tells Charlie that she cant just walk away. People need people and its not that easy to just stop hunting. And then the Musca shows up. I liked the way they intercut all three action scenes as Sam and Charlie run after the Musca, Jack keeps Harper moving, and Dean fights Vance except Vance isnt too interested in fighting!Sam and Charlie theoretically need a brass nail dipped in sugar water to kill the Musca. They dont have any of those things, so Sam says theyll just have to improvise as the Musca has dragged off a victim. Charlie finds the victim unconscious and is then grabbed by the Musca and ends up falling and hitting her head. Sam and Charlie get creative and end up slimed. But they do kill the Musca without having to resort to the lore solution. Speight does the classic lots of cuts fight scene to help disguise the rather lame looking fly head.Naturally, it turns out that Harper knows all about Vance and lets him in to the library. Hes still her boyfriend and this is just a little game they play. She knows that Jack is a hunter and she comes from a long line of necromancers! Dean arrives in the nick of time and explains how they have to kill Vance he needs to go back into his grave and have a silver stake driven through his heart weve seen this before! Remember Deans great slide into the grave in Children Shouldnt Play with Dead Things?Jack and Dean double team Vance into silver handcuffs. Meanwhile, Harper takes off. She stops to write a love letter to Jack. She thinks their love is real shell have to kill him and bring him back to life but shes ok with that. The fact that she gets away makes me think that we'll be seeing her again, and I'm ok with that as Phillips put in a solid performance here.Sam and Charlie head back the victim from the bus stop will be alright. Sam feels sorry for the Musca, who would have been alright if hed just stayed with his people. This Charlie is also too clever for metaphors she gets it she shouldnt go off on her own. But Sam asks her not to go. The guy they saved has a wife and kid if they help people, maybe those people will help others. For Sam, that makes it worth all the tears and death. Charlie agrees to think about staying. Its also a nice shout out to the charity work that the cast on the show does such as Collins Random Acts charity that is all about paying the kindness forward.Dean and Jack get the last scene back at the Bunker. Dean tells him he did good, so Jack wants to go out hunting. Dean wants Jack to be ready when he makes mistakes its how you handle the mistakes and learn from them but Jack is one step ahead of him. Dean acknowledges that Jack is smart. Hell talk to Sam about getting Jack out on more hunts, but hes still concerned about that cough. Jack tries to brush it off again, but he ends up unconscious and bleeding from the nose and mouth. This storyline has definitely gone on for long enough.This was a pretty solid episode. Neither hunt felt very rich the problem with splitting the hunts up but I did like how the stories were woven together. This was definitely Speights most solid outing as a director. Im betting that things ran more smoothly on set with Padalecki paired with Day and who did give him that fidget spinner? Im still going to harp on the fact that lore seems completely unimportant anymore. Why do the research when it seems that everything can just be solved by the seat of their pants? While most of the episode was lighthearted, their was an emotionally deeper core to this episode. Im interested to see where they take whats happening with Jack and how they will attempt to solve it. What did you think of the episode? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below! 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 NORWALK Alex Rosenfeld had his first show in Norwalk just after the Russian-born art collector and photographer immigrated to America. The exhibition, at a South Norwalk gallery that no longer exists, showcased some of the many Russian avant-garde paintings he owned and earned him a feature in the Norwalk Hour. That was 1988. Now, 30 years later, Rosenfeld is again part of a Norwalk exhibition, this time displaying his own photographs for the upcoming Body of Work, a show whose opening will be celebrated Thursday and which will hang in the Mayors Gallery through the New Year. And Rosenfeld is excited about the show, as well as the opportunity he had to work with Norwalk Poet Laureate Laurel Peterson and local choreographer Stephanie Kunkel on an exhibition that spans three mediums. These photographs were possible because of the collaboration with Laurel, because basically all this was inspired by the poetry, Rosenfeld said, standing with Mayors Gallery Curator Melissa Slattery in the space where seven of his photographs of dancers have been hung since last week. Steph was my connection between the photography and the girls. I explained what I want, and she explained in the technical terms of dancing what needed to get done. Rosenfelds photographs were inspired by an earlier collaboration between Peterson and Kunkel. The original event, performed in May at the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion, paired Petersons poems and Kunkels choreography for dancers from Step N Out Dance Studios, in Norwalk. The movements of the dancers came in response to the words of the poem, which were read, accompanied by music, during the performance. The poet and the choreographer came into contact with Rosenfeld only a few months ago, after Rosenfeld reached out to the Arts Commission about his large collection of artwork. In late October, with the help of Kunkel, a re-staging of the dance performance was performed so that Rosenfeld could capture the dancers on film. Rosenfeld, who was born in St. Petersburg to a painter father, said he first attempted to shoot the dancers in motion, but in order to better control the light in the studio, decided to switch to static poses. I started to work with each girl individually, each girl would show me two or three poses. And I was playing with different filters, Rosenfeld said. It looks that its very easy, but the truth is that this is one of the most difficult genres in photography, because not only do you have to stop the movement, you have to stop it at the right moment. And were talking about thousandths of a second. The result is a set of celestial images, showing dancers locked in poses that imply movement, set to dark backdrops with swirls of light that correspond to the dancers postures. The idea that goes through all the images, its like somethings flying and the girls are jumping toward the light, the Norwalk resident said. Those lines are specific, they indicate the movement. Hung near each of the photographs will be prints of the poems that influenced them. Each image has a whole poem that the girls were, not exactly acting out, but maybe inspired by, Slattery said. At the exhibit opening, at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, slides of more of Rosenfelds work with the dancers will be shown while Peterson reads the corresponding poems. Dance is very collaborative. The choreographer needs dancers in order to execute the moves, the gallery curator said. The poems that were used as inspiration also are meant to be spoken aloud, so theres all this energy and it sort of cross pollinates. justin.papp@scni.com; @justinjpapp1; 203-842-2586 Connecticut State Police K9 Texas became famous statewide when he got lost during a search in the woods off Sugar Hollow Road in Danbury last December. After a hunt for Texas that included multiple law enforcement agencies, Texas was found two days later with his leash stuck to a fence in Ridgefield. Contributed Photo / Department of Justice / Contributed Photo DARIEN A woman sentenced in federal court Wednesday used funds she embezzled from a Darien car dealership to travel to various places, remodel her home and buy a $50,000 Ford Mustang, the Department of Justice said. Vanessa Vence-Small, 50, of New Windsor, N.Y., was sentenced to serve 30 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. On Feb. 22, she pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud. STAMFORD The stages were set this week for the next big development spat in the city, centered on a parcel a half mile north of the site that prompted the prickliest fight between residents and a developer in recent history. But this time, instead of a drawn-out altercation over developer Building and Land Technologys South End boatyard demolition, the fight is away from the waterfront which is partially why some are up in arms. Instead of working within the Harbor Point district outlined a decade ago around old industrial brownfields near the water, BLTs newest proposal is for land across the street from a community center and blocks from historic homes nestled within the historic district. Some residents see it as BLTs slow march to the train station to the north. At first I thought it was wonderful. Oh boy, theyre building all these buildings. But now its a concrete jungle, longtime resident Marlene Rhome told members of the Planning Board Tuesday. Its atrocious, how many more buildings are going to go up? BLT contends the plan simply puts housing where a neighborhood eyesore a garbage transfer facility once stood. For three decades, the land housed B&S Carting. During B&Ss South End tenure, residents complained of the noxious smells and fluttering debris, said the builders attorney William Hennessey, More News FAQ: Harbor Point at 10 Then BLT bought Carting out. Hennessey chided residents for forgetting how much BLT had done for the neighborhood. His scolding came after a dozen residents told the board that the new South End is overwhelming the neighborhood with highfalutin restaurants and city-scale luxe apartments they cant afford. They look like projects, they dont look like a living space ... it doesnt feel like a home environment anymore, said resident Doris Ganues. I remember when there were two pharmacies, a meat market, a fish market, a whole lot of things, two or three restaurants that everybody could go into ... we dont have that no more. We just have buildings, she said. We want an environment that feels like its home, you know? We dont want the environment to feel like a corporate city where the houses are so big, but we cant live in them, the restaurants so expensive, we cant go in there. Hennessey took exception to the idea that the pre-Harbor Point South End was an ideal neighborhood that BLT seeks to destory. For people to pine about the prosaic old days when there were deer and turkey (in the neighborhood), well there was I saw the deer and turkey. They were on the old Helco site when it was an overgrown cyanide wasteland, Hennessey said. That stuff existed. This is the good part of redevelopment. They were hardly hardy deer and turkey. The Planning Board will now mull whether to change the citys master-plan map to allow for higher density housing on the B&S Carting parcel between Woodland Avenue and Walter Wheeler Drive. The board closed comment, and will next take up the matter Jan. 8. The map change is the first edit of land-use codes needed for BLT to erect several new buildings, including a complex with five-story street frontage along Pacific Street, 22-story tower on Walter Wheeler Drive and 15-story building on Woodland Avenue. The complex is comprised of some 670 proposed housing units. The Planning Board has jurisdiction over the master plan change, and will discuss that and a referral to the Zoning Board on accompanying zoning-code text changes at the January meeting. Zoning could take up the text changes at its next meeting on Dec. 3. barry.lytton@stamfordadvocate.com; 203-964-2263; @bglytton STAMFORD The woman whose untimely death Tuesday morning sparked a criminal investigation has been identified by police as Olga Iris Lopez, the wife of a man currently being held on cruelty charges because police say he did not get her medical help in time before she later died at Stamford Hospital. Lopez, 36, was diagnosed at Stamford Hospital with a massive brain bleed on Monday evening just two hours after medics picked her up lying unconscious on a floor of a Southwood Square apartment, according to a police report. Lopez also had dozens of bruises all over her body, police said. Hector Collazo-Lopez, 42, was arrested Tuesday in connection with Lopezs death, charged with withholding medical treatment. Police said he did not call an ambulance to his mothers single bedroom apartment on Pequot Drive where he and Lopez were were living with their three children, in time to save her life. An autopsy performed on Lopez Wednesday was unable to determine the cause and manner of death, so police cannot be sure whe Lopezs passing was a homicide or because of natural causes. Detective bureau Lt. Tom Scanlon said the Office of The Chief Medical Examiner said their determination is pending further study. A police report of the incident says Hector Lopez has an extensive history with the Stamford Police Department that includes numerous domestic violence arrests for charges including assault, breach of peace, criminal mischief, violation of judges protective orders, violation of probation, stalking, threatening, creating a public disturbance and interfering with police. He has served sentences in prison as long as a year and as short as 30 days, and in some cases received suspended sentences, his court record shows. He also has been arrested for interfering with police, violating probation, stalking and violating judges criminal protective orders. Lopez is also known to the SPD as someone with an extensive history as a domestic violence perpetrator, the arrest report from this week states. In a press release Scanlon said the three children are now being cared for by the state Department of Children and Families. An investigation into the death of Lopez is continuing, he said. This is an ongoing investigation and Major Crime Investigators would like to speak with anyone that has information of the events that led to the death of Olga Lopez. Investigators would also like to speak with anyone that has information regarding any previous reported or non-reported incidents of family violence involving Olga and Hector Lopez, Scanlon said in the release. Hector Lopezs mother told police that she had heard her daughter-in-law vomiting between 4 and 5 a.m. Monday, which she attributed to heavy drinking over the weekend. More News Stamford police investigate suspicious West Side death Mercedes Collazo Martinez, 60, told police that before she went to work on Monday, the woman was complaining about a headache and she gave her some medication. But when Martinez came home late Monday afternoon, she found the woman unconscious on the living room floor. At about 5:45 p.m. Monday, Martinez called for an ambulance, according to the report. Lopez was also charged with criminal trespass because he had been ordered to leave and not return to the Pequot Drive complex where his mother was living. Once she was at Stamford Hospital, police were told by medial staff that the woman was suffering from the massive brain bleed and doctors also found 30 to 40 new and old bruises on her body, the police report said. Shortly after 8 p.m., about two hours after arriving at the hospital, police were told that the woman was rapidly declining. The next morning she was dead. When the lead investigator in the case, Broems, talked to Martinez she said Lopez and her son had been drinking heavily over the past three months. Whenever Lopez got drunk, she had a habit of falling all over the place, she told police, according to the report. At about 9 a.m. Monday, Martinez said she heard Lopez vomiting again and falling in the bathroom. At that point she said Lopez was full of bruises and frothing at the mouth, and she was unable to wake her. Martinez said she suggested to her son that they should call an ambulance, but he refused, saying he was concerned he would be suspected of inflicting the bruises on his wife, the report states. Martinez said she last saw Lopez at 10:30 a.m. Monday and that she was breathing. She said she told her son to let her rest, believing she was only drunk. She said her son called her at 4:30 p.m. Monday and asked her to come home during her break and keep an eye on Lopez because she was not looking very good. When she retured home Martinez called for an ambulance. Police found Hector Lopez at his mothers apartment Monday night. When police examined him they found dark purple bruising under his left bicep, a minor cut on the side of his left wrist and the appearance of small rashes through out his stomach region, the police report states. At Hector Lopezs arraignment Wednesday, judge Bruce Hudock said that Lopez remained under criminal investigation and ruled that he would be held on $250,000 court appearance bond. Anyone with information on the case is asked to call Sgt. Broems at 203 977 4420. Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story, citing a police report, stated Hector Collazo Lopez was previously arrested for failing to register as a sex offender. Lopez has never been arrested on that charge. Police say that arrest belongs to another man with the same name and birth year. jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.com STAMFORD A West Side pharmaceutical medical writer has been accused of downloading and sharing pictures of children having sex with adults. Edward Parr, 57, of West North Street, has been charged with first-degree possession of child pornography and promotion of a minor in an obscene performance. State police arrested Parr on Tuesday and he was released after posting $100,000 bond. Parrs attorney, Hubert Santos, declined to comment following his clients arraignment at the Stamford courthouse. According to Parrs five-page arrest affidavit, a state police investigator working in the Computer Crimes and Electronic Evidence Laboratory discovered a computer downloaded three files of suspected child pornography in July and August 2017. The officer traced the IP address to Parr, the affidavit said. On Dec. 21, 2017, members of Connecticut State Police Computer Crimes Unit and Stamford police executed a search and seizure warrant at Parrs home and seized his computers. According to his arrest affidavit, Parr told a state trooper he used a peer-to-peer sharing device to find child pornography, but said he did not realize anyone could download the files he obtained. The investigating officer downloaded five image files and five videos from Parrs computer between July and November, the affidavit said. Four of the videos depicted children engaged in sexually explicit acts, the affidavit said. Parr, who has a PhD in neuroscience and a bachelors degree in cellular, molecular and microbial biology, said he erased the files after downloading them because he knew it was wrong to view them, the affidavit said. Parr said he never had any inappropriate contact with children and has never been accused of doing anything wrong with children, the affidavit said. I also download the child porn out of a disbelief that the child porn was available, that there was so much out there and that this was happening in the real world, he said, according to his statement in the affidavit. I have no intention of sharing the child porn I downloaded and I have no desire to have any inappropriate contact with a child, he said, according to the affidavit. jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.com 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. WASHINGTON - Facebook found itself in a familiar hot seat on Tuesday, under siege from lawmakers around the world who feel that "big tech" has become too big - and too lax in protecting consumers' private data and policing online platforms. But the takeaway from two major hearings - one in the United Kingdom convened by legislators from nine countries, another in the U.S. Senate - is that regulators increasingly seem ready to transform their rhetoric into action and rein in social media companies that many foreign governments view as responsible for the spread of misinformation, hate speech and other digital ills. Here are the some key areas to watch after Tuesday's hearing bonanza: 1. Facebook (and its tech friends) should prepare for more pressure. Tuesday began with a rare, joint hearing featuring nine countries, which grilled Facebook over its efforts to thwart the spread of falsehoods online. But the day-long affair, held in the United Kingdom, won't mark the end of heightened scrutiny for Facebook or its tech peers. Hours later, world legislators signed a "Principles of the Law Governing the Internet" - a sign of further hearings, and new regulations, perhaps to come outside the United States. Without mentioning companies, the document sought to adopt a tough tone on tech giants including Facebook, Google and Twitter. It stressed "it is an urgent and critical priority for legislatures and governments to ensure that the fundamental rights and safeguards of their citizens are not violated or undermined by the unchecked march of technology," listing ills they hope to address - from disinformation in civic discourse to online privacy. The new statement stipulated that social media companies "should be held liable" if they fail to comply with orders to take down "harmful or misleading content," and that they "should be regulated to ensure they comply with this requirement." And it said that tech giants should make "themselves fully answerable to national legislatures and other organs of representative democracy." The call follows a decision by Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg to decline to testify despite the international policymakers' repeated entreaties. Some experts, however, said they had more questions than answers after reading it. Daniel Castro, vice president of the tech-backed Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, sketched out a few: "What are they going to actually achieve with this? Most of these principles aren't objectionable overall, but how do you implement them? Are particular governments going to say what Facebook can and can't [allow people to post] on these platforms?" On top of that, Castro said there are broad implications for free speech and free trade. "It's not clear the cure is better than the disease in this case." 2. Facebook's no-good, very bad week could get worse. For the embattled social media company, the next few days could prove especially brutal. That's because U.K. legislators said Tuesday they plan to release a tranche of documents that could raise new questions about Facebook's privacy and security practices - including a potential, previously unreported 2014 incident involving Russia. The brewing controversy centers on a legal dispute between Facebook and a third-party app maker called Six4Three. The developer has sued Facebook on grounds that earlier changes to the social network's privacy practices - restricting the data that apps could tap in 2015 - essentially forced it to shut down its app that allowed users to surface photos of their friends wearing bikinis. Six4Three obtained key Facebook documents, including the tech giant's internal communications, but a California judge placed them under seal. U.K. lawmakers, however, seized them from Six4Three after its founder stepped foot in the country. Damian Collins, the leader of the U.K. parliamentary committee, said Tuesday that lawmakers planned to release the documents "within the next week or so." (H/T The Post's Karla Adam, who attended the news conference.) One tidbit is out: Collins teased an internal communication from 2014 in which a Facebook employee took note of suspicious activity seeming to emanate from Russia. Collins said the note showed that bad actors may have tried to use special code to pull billions of data points from Facebook. A spokesman for Collins did not elaborate on the matter. Facebook initially said the documents were misleading - and later stressed in a statement that it found "no evidence of specific Russian activity" at the time. By late Tuesday, the company shared with reporters some of the emails in question, which appear to reflect that bad actors with Russian ties had not been the culprit. "There's an enormous public interest in the disclosure of these documents," Collins said. 3. In the United States, meanwhile, there's a desire for a bigger, bolder watchdog. Facebook's chief U.S. regulator found itself in the congressional hot seat on Tuesday. And there emerged broad, bipartisan agreement among members of a key panel under the Senate Commerce Committee that the Federal Trade Commission simply lacks the tools it needs to keep watch over tech giants. The FTC is an approximately century-old agency with more than 1,100 employees, a far cry from the multibillion-dollar tech behemoths that it regulates, as I reported earlier this year. To some experts, that's a problem as the FTC proceeds with its still-incomplete investigation of Facebook for its recent privacy mishaps. On Tuesday, though, Senate Democrats and Republicans expressed similar sentiments. Outgoing Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., opened the hearing with a call to action: "It is my hope that Congress will finally step up to the plate and do the right thing by providing the FTC with increased funding and personnel to police the marketplace and protect American consumers from the myriad of scams, frauds and corporate practices that fleece them of their hard-earned money," he said. The subcommittee's chairman, Republican Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas, also expressed an openness to helping out the FTC. And leaders at the FTC said they'd welcome the help. "There is more and more data collection, and the largest firms in the economy are trying to monetize that data," said Democratic FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra. "If that is going to grow, then the FTC's resources have to grow commensurately." 4. Big tech hearings are not over for this year. Google chief executive Sundar Pichai is set to testify in a scheduled Dec. 5 before the House Judiciary Committee, as I reported late Tuesday night. From my story: The company will "[face] off against lawmakers for the first time at a hearing that could subject the search giant to the same harsh political spotlight that has faced its tech peers all year....Led by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), GOP lawmakers long have blasted Google for allegedly silencing right-leaning news, views and users, and President Trump similarly has claimed the company promotes negative stories about his administration. Neither has provided significant evidence that Google is biased, however, and Google has vehemently denied the accusations. 'There's a lot of interest in their algorithm, how those algorithms work, how those algorithms are supervised,' Goodlatte, the outgoing chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said during an interview at the time." To the editor, As practicing Ob-Gyns in Connecticut, we share many of the same concerns about the rate of maternal deaths in Connecticut outlined in Silence over mothers dying in childbirth (Susan Campbell column , Sept. 23). We join the author in feeling heartbreak over Maura Gallaghers death and agree we must do better by Connecticut women. There were eight pregnancy-related deaths in Connecticut between 2011-2014, the last year with data available. There must be deliberate and expedient effort to correct these outcomes. Fortunately, this effort is at least partly underway. This year, the Connecticut section of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecology (ACOG) partnered with the Connecticut State Medical Society to draft legislation to establish a legitimate Maternal Mortality Review Committee (MMRC) housed within the Department of Public Health. The bill was signed into law by Gov. Dannel Malloy in June, and went into effect Oct. 1. It expands the range of expertise on the committee to ensure data review can be done quickly, comprehensively, and with the input of multiple perspectives. The committee will include two representatives from ACOG, among other experts. Adequate funding remains critical to the effectiveness of this work. Proper funding helps to ensure that the MMRC can complete a robust review of Connecticuts maternal deaths data and implement informed solutions to improve maternal outcomes. This is especially for African American women, who in the United States are nearly four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women. One maternal death is too many maternal deaths. We must fully fund and empower every effort to advance solutions to support Connecticut mothers. Julia Cron, MD Abigail Cutler, MD Connecticut Section, American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology Vice President Mike Pence was not planning to meet with the leaders of Russia or China during his Asia trip last week, but they sought him out anyway. In several conversations with Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Pence delivered messages on election interference, North Korea and the trade dispute, and also set the stage for big showdowns next week when President Donald Trump meets the same leaders in Argentina. Pence stood in for Trump at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Singapore and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders meeting in Papua New Guinea. The trip was billed as a reassurance tour wherein the vice president would reinforce with allies the Indo-Pacific strategy Trump announced at these events last year. The meetings with Russian and Chinese leaders were impromptu encounters but had real substance. Pence and Putin had three short conversations in Singapore. First, they exchanged pleasantries at the ASEAN gala dinner. (Putin arrived late.) The following day, before the plenary, Putin tapped Pence on the shoulder as he walked to his seat. The press, still in the room, caught Pence looking sternly at Putin for the minute or so they talked. Putin offered Russian help to fight the California wildfires. Pence confirmed to Putin that Trump would meet him at the upcoming Group of 20 meeting in Argentina. When the plenary ended, the two men huddled in the corner for about 15 minutes as staff, security and translators swarmed around them. Pence decided to confront Putin about Russia's interference in U.S. democracy. "So I looked at him and I said, 'We know what happened in 2016,' " Pence told me in an interview. "And I said, 'As the president has told you, we're not having it.' " Putin denied that Russia had done anything wrong, but Pence stuck to his guns. "And I said, 'Mr. President, I'm very aware of what you've said about that, but I'm telling you we're not having it,' " Pence said. "I wanted to reiterate what the president has said. I thought it was important he hear that from the vice president, too." Pence then told Putin it was extremely important that Russia enforce U.N. sanctions on Pyongyang in the crucial period before the next U.S.-North Korea summit. Putin raised several issues he wants to discuss with Trump in Argentina, including Syria and the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which Trump has said the United States is withdrawing from. Later that day, Chinese Premier Li caught Pence while the two were walking off stage after taking the ASEAN "family photo." Li wanted to talk about the ongoing U.S.-China trade war. Li told Pence to remember that China is a "developing nation," meaning it should get special treatment on trade. "And we got down to the corner, and we just stopped for a minute, and I just looked at him and said, 'Things have got to change,' " Pence told me. Li was taken aback, with a look of surprise on his face. Pence then delivered the same message he had told me at the start of the trip: that the G-20 was China's best (if not last) chance to come to the table with a real offer to end its unfair trade and industrial practices. "You should encourage President Xi to take full advantage of the opportunity in Argentina," Pence said he told Li. Pence delivered a similar message directly to Xi on Saturday night in Papua New Guinea, when the two leaders were seated near each other at the APEC gala. "I said, 'The president asked me to tell you he hopes you can have a conversation about opening markets,' " Pence told me. Pence walked a fine line when dealing with the leaders of Russia and China. He had to deliver tough messages clearly, keep the door open for dialogue and progress, and not show any daylight between himself and his boss. Throughout the trip, whenever Trump spoke about China, Pence's staff quickly incorporated those remarks into Pence's speeches. "Pence did what President Donald Trump rarely does: stay on message, calm nervous security partners and clearly lay out a vision for American foreign policy," wrote Bloomberg's Toluse Olorunnipa. "While Asian leaders listened closely to Pence, many were waiting to see if Trump would do something to contradict him." Everybody talking to Pence understood that he represented only what Trump's position was that day and that Trump could change his mind the following day for any reason. There's a level of Trump's unpredictability that even Pence's Spartan-like discipline can never overcome. But don't believe reports that world leaders were upset Trump wasn't there. They were fine dealing with Pence, and Pence was in his element. Trump sees the boring work of diplomacy as a nuisance. Perhaps sending Pence in his place is a win-win arrangement for both of them - and the country as well. East Haven Police Officer Vincent Ferrara is going to show up for work on Thursday, but it could be his last day on the job. Armed with a letter from his neurosurgeon clearing him to return, Ferrara and his legal team are scheduled for a late-afternoon showdown with Police Chief Edward Lennon. Lennon may recommend firing him for a pending disciplinary incident that Ferrara alleges in a federal court is part of an orchestrated campaign thats an extension of the retaliation he saw after helping federal investigators uncover the departments human rights violations in 2012. Ferrara, 53, is suing the city, Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. and Police Department personnel including Lennon and the town Board of Police Commissioners for allegedly retaliating against him during and after the federal Department of Justice probe that sent four cops to prison for abusing Latino suspects. James S. Brewer, Ferraras attorney, this week forwarded a letter to Lennon from the physician at the Yale School of Medicines Department of Neurosurgery who has been treating Ferrara for brain cancer over the last year that stresses he has recovered from surgery and it ready to return to the department where hes worked for 10 years. Obviously, reasonable accommodation would be on an as-needed basis for medical appointments, or if he has a reaction to chemotherapy or radiation therapy, Brewer wrote in an accompanying email. In that case, Officer Ferrara would utilize his sick time as set forth in (the federal Family and Medical Leave Act). Ferrara has been on paid suspension since December 15, 2017, over the alleged improper use of an email server. Soon thereafter he was diagnosed with glioblastoma, the brain cancer that killed U.S. Sen. John McCain. The lawsuit also charges that he was fraudulently deprived of his sick and vacation days. Its another game theyre playing with someones life, Brewer said in a Wednesday interview. Theyre never had a consistent reason for not paying Officer Ferrara after September 1. We want to know whos paying him for coming in tomorrow? In December 2010, the FBI asked for Ferraras help in its investigation into the systemic persecution and abuse of Latinos. He met clandestinely with federal investigators numerous times, and testified before a grand jury. Police officers John Miller, David Cari, Dennis Spaulding and Jason Zullo went to prison. The towns settlement with the federal government over the issue of Latino harassment - and the protection of whistle blowers from retaliation - ended in December of last year. Ferraras lawsuit, reported earlier by Hearst Connecticut Media, charged that he was harassed and intimidated from the time he first got involved with the federal agents. More News East Haven cop alleges retaliation after he helped FBI probe department Requests for comment from the police chief were not returned Wednesday. Brewer said that the way he understands local regulations, Chief Lennon can only suspend officers for up to 10 days, and it would take the towns Board of Police Commissioners to terminate Ferrara. Last week, Maturo declined comment on the issue until the civil lawsuit, to be scheduled in U.S. District Court sometime in early 2019, is finished. kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT B ritains richest man Sir Jim Ratcliffe backed Theresa Mays Brexit divorce deal on Wednesday as his chemicals giant Ineos warned of a period of pain if the UK leaves without a deal. The billionaire industrialist, who supported Brexit, became the highest-profile business name so far to back the Prime Ministers much-maligned deal, saying it reflected his support for free trade across Europe. I have made no secret of the fact that while I have long supported the concept of a Common Market within Europe, I have never felt comfortable with the concept of ever closer union, he said. A Brexit deal that moves us closer to an open European market has my full support. Ratcliffe, who grew up in a Manchester council house, said the 585-page agreement was pragmatic and sensible and he backed the political elements of the deal. Parliament is due to vote on December 11, with the threat of leaving with no deal in March rising if May is defeated. Leaving without a deal in March would lead to a 6.5% tariff on Ineos chemicals shipped between the UK and Europe under World Trade Organisation rules. Ineoss director of corporate affairs Tom Crotty said the tariff could cost several tens of millions for the UK business, which employs 10,000 people and runs the Grangemouth refinery in Scotland. You would start to unravel certain supply chains, which would lead to closures of plants in the UK and potentially continental Europe as you try to keep your supply chain more simple, he said. You cant turn these taps off straight away. We would have to take a period of pain until we readjusted those supply chains. C asual dining firm The Restaurant Group on Wednesday scraped through a controversial 559 million takeover of Wagamama, despite a major shareholder rebellion. The company behind the Frankie & Bennys and Chiquito brands said it had secured enough support to buy noodle bars chain Wagamama. However, shareholders voting in advance only supported the deal by a margin of 60.5% to 39.5%. Investors voting in person were not expected to alter the margin drastically. Investor approval comes despite a number of shareholders coming out to oppose the deal for the Asian-themed business, founded by restaurateur Alan Yau in 1992, since it was unveiled last month. There have been concerns about The Restaurant Group taking on 202 million of net debt in Wagamama. The deal will be funded by a deeply discounted 315 million rights issue and will result in a dividend cut. City analysts pointed out that the result of the meeting at 200 Aldersgate near St Pauls Cathedral today was no landslide victory. The Restaurant Groups chief executive Andy McCue will now be under immense pressure to prove a purchase that will add more than 190 extra sites to its estate is viable during a casual dining crunch in the UK. Like rivals it is grappling with higher rents, business rates and weaker consumer confidence. Chains such as Prezzo and Jamies Italian have closed a number of stores. McCue has insisted the swoop from private equity firms Duke Street and Hutton Collins will help the business grow internationally. He has also pointed out that Wagamama has outperformed the casual dining market here. The shares fell 9.1%, or 21.5p, to 213.4p. Debbie Hewitt MBE, chairman of The Restaurant Group, today said: "We are confident that the deal will create significant long-term value." She added: "The acquisition of Wagamama creates a raft of new opportunities for us to capitalise on in the months and years ahead." Shareholders have been split. Top five investor JO Hambro is supportive, with fund manager Alex Savvides saying he was gobsmacked by the level of animosity surrounding the deal. Schroders, a top 10 holder, and Royal London also lined up to back the takeover. Opposition was led by Columbia Threadneedle, which owns nearly 8%, after it said the price threw up too many red flags. Grizzly Rock and Vivaldi Asset Management, which own about 2%, also urged The Restaurant Group to shelve the takeover. I magine a Chancellor opening a Budget with a statement: I today set out this governments plan to deliberately make this country poorer than it otherwise would be. That is in effect what Philip Hammond did this morning when he said there will be a cost to leaving the EU. The man who has often told us that people didnt vote to make themselves poorer has, with admirable candour, told the British people that is exactly what they have done. Mr Hammond went on to explain why: because leaving the EU makes trade less fluid and cuts us from an important export market. Brexit is, to summarise, an act of protectionism indeed, the greatest in our history. The cost of this act of national self-harm is spelt out in the Treasury forecasts published today forecasts which, remember, Parliament insisted on publishing against the wishes of Downing Street. The official Government estimates show that output of our economy will be smaller, and the incomes of the citizens who live in the country will be lower, than if we chose to remain in the economic alliance that has sustained us for close to 50 years. So there will be less resource available to pay for public services like the NHS, schools and the military; and families will have fewer pounds in their pockets. For those whose only response to such expert advice is to cry Project Fear, we point out that the Treasury forecasts are very similar to those produced by many private institutions, which have no political agenda, and which are investing their own money. The Government forecasts also reveal three further things. First, leaving the EU with no deal would be the most damaging option. Sensible people in the business community and civil service who are currently stockpiling supplies already knew that. Thankfully, it seems clear that Parliament would force a new election or referendum before allowing such pain to be inflicted on the country. Second, todays forecasts do not tell us much about the actual deal the Cabinet is putting before Parliament, except that it is less worse than no deal. Thats because the Treasury has modelled the financial cost of the so-called Chequers proposals. But Chequers has now been abandoned. Instead, Theresa May is now deliberately keeping vague the particular permanent future economic arrangement with the EU she favours. She is not strong enough politically to do otherwise. The political declaration she signed in Brussels this weekend holds open a range of options, including a Canada-style agreement that involves far greater barriers to trade than Chequers, and therefore would damage the economy even more. That makes it impossible to model the impact of what the Chancellor carefully, and repeatedly, described this morning as the Prime Ministers Deal for the simple reason that the Prime Minister herself doesnt know what that deal entails. But applying the basic economic logic of the forecasts does lead to a third conclusion: the closer Britain is in the future to the current arrangements we have with our major markets, the better off we will be. You do come to two inescapable conclusions: the best economic outcome for people in Britain would be to remain in the EU; the second best would be to seek an EEA/EFTA arrangement like Norway and Switzerland. Perhaps this is what the Chancellor meant when he talked of other ideas this morning. Of course, some Brexiteers say money doesnt matter. But they tend to be the ones rich enough to afford such views. The rest of the country is left picking up the costly bill of the ideological project they have foisted upon us. Today's cartoon by Christian Adams Diplomatic television Every few decades or so, the BBC treats us to a brilliant fly-on-the-wall documentary. There was the Eighties film about a Cambridge college; then the Nineties one about the Royal Opera House. Now were all enjoying Inside the Foreign Office. Judging by the clips already seen of the last Foreign Secretary mastering social media and prepping for complex negotiations with France, we are going to get an insight into the skills of both our civil servants and our current political leadership. Q uick question: whos currently on the back of a 50 note? No Googling. And for all you cash-flashing moneybagses, no getting out a note to check. Did you say the engineers and manufacturers Matthew Boulton and James Watt? No, of course you didnt. You didnt know. This isnt a cruel attack on you, by the way. You didnt know because practically no one knows. I did a quick, totally unscientific poll with many Evening Standard colleagues, and none of them knew either, so that proves it. The 50 note doesnt garner much love. Deservedly so. Few cash machines issue them and shopkeepers shoot you glares if you try to use one. No wonder every couple of years theres a new call to phase them out. In the rare times that I find myself holding one I find it oddly stressful. Cash is a faff. To lose a fiver or a tenner is annoying enough; the thought of losing 50 is too much for peace of mind. I do almost all of my day-to-day spending with contactless payments, as do most of my friends. So why people, including fellow cashless millennials, have been getting worked up this week over who will be the next figure on the reverse of the 50 note is a little beyond me. The outcry is over the news that Margaret Thatcher has been included alongside Stephen Hawking, Rosalind Franklin and Alan Turing on the Bank of Englands very long longlist (817 candidates) for the note, to be issued in 2020, which will feature a figure from the field of science. Thatcher is eligible because of her time as a chemist before her move into politics famously, her work on emulsifiers in ice-creams led to the dubious claim that Thatcher invented Mr Whippy. Thatcher? Franklin? Hawking? Shove Mr Blobby on there, if you like. Hardly anyone will notice anyway. Veg meets meat for peas summit Christmas should be a time for reconciling differences. It was seasonal, then, to see William Sitwell, the Waitrose Food magazine editor who lost his job last month after he emailed a stupid joke about killing vegans, share a meal on The One Show with the freelance journalist Selene Nelson, who made the offending email public. If only others could follow their example. Videos have emerged of vegan activists bothering customers at a Brighton steakhouse. In response, a stag party sang, shouted and chanted back at them, stand up if you love meat. Cant the lion lie down with the legume? Will Lins new Bert be proper cockernee? Fifty-four years is a long time to wait for a sequel. Yet in three weeks time, just before Christmas, Disney releases Mary Poppins Returns, starring Emily Blunt as the ageless magi-nanny. Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda is in the film too, playing a lamplighter called Jack, the protege of Dick Van Dykes chimneysweep Bert. Lin-Manuel Miranda (ES local feed ) / ES local feed Since Miranda, a New Yorker, was cast, he has been asked in almost every interview if he can pull off a cockney accent. Or, rather, whether he can pull it off better than Van Dyke, who gave us the most famous bad accent in film history. I intend to represent a corner of London with my accent that has not yet been invented, he joked. I am trying to manage expectations. But since then he has, apparently, worked hard on trying to nail it. He shouldnt bother. Van Dykes effort was so bad and he was so unaware of its badness that it became one of the original films chief charms. What a disappointment it would be if Mirandas accent is good. Lets hope not. A perfect acronym for modern times I have a new favourite word. Ibiwisi. Its an acronym for Ill believe it when I see it; perfect for the whirl of false alarms, hyperbolic headlines and wild speculations in these Brexity times. O ne of the resilient principles of Freudian analysis is the notion that the most enlightening and consequential disclosures are often to be found in the aside, the slip of the tongue, the remark made en passant. In the Times Literary Supplements list of books of the year, the historian and biographer Richard Davenport-Hines rightly praises Max Hastingss magisterial Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy 1945-1975. In the final sentence of his short review, Davenport-Hines observes that Brexit is Britains Vietnam. His point, of course, is not literal. No bullets are flying, no napalm is being dropped, no protesting students are being shot. Millions died in the decades-long conflict that tore through Indochina a far cry from the shouting matches and faction-fighting that have thus far characterised the Brexit saga. But mutatis mutandis the parallels are uncomfortably vivid. As with Vietnam, so with Brexit technology has played a central role in a story of division, dissent and disaggregation. In the Sixties it was the proliferation of television: towards the end of the conflict, the late Sir Robin Day wondered whether in future a democracy which has uninhibited television coverage in every home will be able to fight a war. To which the answer was: no, not like Vietnam. In the great drama of Brexit and the global rise of the populist Right of which it is a reflection social media has been absolutely pivotal. We now know beyond question that digital technology was used illegally in the 2016 referendum campaign, and that the abuses were partly driven by foreign intervention. Matthew d'Ancona Equally, social media has been the driving force behind the resistance to Brexit and the mobilisation of those who do not accept that a narrow victory in a single referendum mutilated by lies, unlawful tactics and foreign sabotage is a sufficient basis to transform the countrys constitutional, commercial and cultural arrangements. Then, as now, public opinion changes. In October 1965, Gallup found that 64 per cent of the American public approved of US involvement in Vietnam. By January 1969, the figure had fallen to 39 per cent. The turning point was probably the Tet Offensive launched in January 1968 and Walter Cronkites remarkable televised verdict in February that we have been too often disappointed by the optimism of the American leaders, both in Vietnam and Washington, to have faith any longer in the silver linings they find in the darkest clouds. Then, as now, trust plummeted as it became clear that the official narrative was very far from the truth. Oh, man, says Martin Sheens Captain Willard in Apocalypse Now, the bulls**t piled up so fast in Vietnam, you needed wings to stay above it. The same gift is required today by all sides in the Brexit controversy. Leavers have grasped that Theresa Mays deal with the EU is nothing like what they demanded. Remainers see no point in embracing an agreement that would explicitly and indefinitely make Britain a rule-taker but not a rule-maker. And, as in the US in the Sixties, the crisis has forced a perilous cantonisation of domestic debate. In particular I am struck by the angry generation gap that Britains scheduled departure from the European Union is nurturing. "Those who dismiss young protesters as snowflakes and privileged Remoaners are wide of the mark" When the movement for a Peoples Vote was launched it looked embarrassingly like the liberal elite demanding its job back. Now it more closely resembles a grassroots uprising of the young against their elders. If you have not yet watched Femi Oluwole, the 27-year-old co-founder of Our Future Our Choice (Ofoc), taking on Brexiteers, you are missing out. Ditto Will Dry, co-president of the same group, who voted for Brexit in 2016 but changed my mind, very simply, because much of what the Leave campaign said would happen has not happened. Go to YouTube and watch his rhetorical evisceration on Sky News of Robert Oulds, director of the Bruges Group an object lesson in the power of impassioned, evidence-based argument against presumption and magical thinking. In this debate it is not the younger generation that is entitled and lazy. With unexpected speed Brexit has become the ugly maypole around which the nations youth dances in fury just as Vietnam was for their American counterparts in the Sixties. In The Vietnam War, the book inspired by Ken Burnss astonishing PBS documentary series on the conflict, Todd Gitlin describes the anti-war uprising thus: It was not a network of celebrities. It was a movement a social force, a work in progress, an ensemble, confusing, contentious, irregular, raucous, immense. This is precisely what is happening albeit on a smaller scale in the rise of groups such as Ofoc and FFS (For our Futures Sake), campaigns that played such a significant role in the Peoples Vote march last month that drew 700,000 people to the streets of London. There may be no draft to be dodged in this national crisis and no draft papers to be burned. But there was an eerie resonance at the weekend in Ofoc activists destroying copies of Mays deal with blowtorches, spray paint and shears. None of those involved in the stunt will be forced to flee the country, as so many US draft-evaders did in the Vietnam era, but the contempt is the same and speaks across the decades. L ast night, many of the great and the good from the world of politics, journalism and academia gathered at Church House in Westminster for the annual Political Studies Awards. I was proud to have been part of the judging panel which saw many great women recognised, including the BBCs Europe Editor, Katya Adler, who was a worthy winner of Broadcaster of the Year because of her stoic ability to break down and explain the complexities of Brexit. At the drinks reception there was much chatter about the latest Brexit twist. Number 10 has decided that the way to avert looming defeat in the House of Commons is to hold a television debate. But only with the leader of the Opposition. On the same night as the final of Im a Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here . Many people would rather watch a celeb wolf down a kangaroos testicle than endure watching an hour of Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn yelling at each other about Brexit. After all, we have Prime Ministers Questions for that. There is much confusion about this sudden desire for a debate, especially since May refused to participate in one at the last election. The only person she debated was her husband on The One Show and all we learnt was who took out the bins at night gripping stuff. Im all for the campaign to establish proper televised leaders debates during general elections, which is being organised by Sky News, but the scenario we find ourselves in now is very different and this proposal could be a dogs dinner. In a general election, you watch a debate to see who you would want to be Prime Minister and which partys policies you would prefer. But thats not happening here. Brexit transcends traditional party lines and is about something much bigger than tribal politics. It also feels wrong to have just have the two main parties represented. What about Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland? What about the more ardent Leavers or the campaign for a Peoples Vote? If youre trying to engage the public, surely you have to include a range of voices and views? As a senior BBC executive told me last night, We like to have a minimum of 15 people on stage for these type of things and he was only half joking. And what would we really learn from an hours television show that would help move things on and get some sort of closure on Brexit? One of the reasons were in this mess is that we were all fed vacuous, meaningless soundbites which failed to educate us. "There is confusion about this desire for a debate, especially as May refused to participate in one at the last election" If the Prime Minister is genuine about wanting the public to give their full backing to her deal, of course she can have her television debate. But dont treat us like idiots. Do it properly, do the right thing and give us a final say on the deal at the ballot box. Otherwise Tez versus Jez will just be a megadull version of Britains Got Talent minus the talent and vote, of course. Sex and the City has really lost the plot Kim Cattrall played Samantha Jones in Sex and the City / Channel Four One of the great mysteries of modern times, apart from Shergar and Lord Lucan, is how could Sex and the City be so good on television and yet so pants as a movie? I loved SATC. The writing was razor-sharp, funny and refreshing about the loves, lives and larks of these four strong, single women. You didnt need a man. You needed fun drinks, mates and nice shoes. Yet as the series reached its climax (stop it) and made the leap onto the golden screen it all went a bit Pete Tong. Suddenly our plucky singletons were shacked up in tedious relationships apart from Samantha Jones, played by Kim Cattrall . Film number one was bearable. Film number two was a crime. The plot centred around how important it was to have a husband, and had cringe-inducing scenes about Arab culture. Its no surprise that Cattrall turned down SATC 3. Apart from rows with co-star Sarah Jessica Parker about money and star billing, the final straw seems to have been a sordid story line involving her character and a 14-year-old boy sexting. What a shame such an iconic show would let down single, older women with such a vile plotline. Kids ask all the tough questions As a stand-up comedian Ive performed in front of drunk people. Ive done BBC Question Time. Yet nothing is as terrifying as addressing 200 10-to 13-year-olds. I was recently invited to Edwinstree School in Hertfordshire to do an inspiring talk, although I felt less like Michelle Obama and more like EastEnders Michelle Fowler. E VERYONE should be increasingly concerned about the alarming expansionist and militarily bullying behaviour of Russia [Russian ship ordered to squash Ukraine vessel, November 26]. The past few days in Ukraine just illuminate the danger of Russia to the peace of Europe. Although no longer communist, a resurgent Russia is driven by an overtly nationalist agenda, with Vladimir Putin looking rather like a Tsar in a suit. Given the lack of a politburo that in Cold War times acted as a brake to the dictatorial excesses of previous leaders such as Stalin, Russia under the current management of Putin is arguably far more dangerous than at any time since the Stalin era. What makes this situation even more concerning is the complete indifference we seem to have over it all. No one really sees the danger that the West might well be sleepwalking into a possible World War III scenario. It just couldnt happen here again, could it? Could it? David Doe WHY are there British troops in Ukraine? Why have there ever been British troops in Ukraine? Bring them home. We should have no side in any conflict between Russia and Ukraine. We should actively prosecute and punish anyone who tried to use our soil as a financial or other base or asset for either side in that war. We should stay out of it, and we should insist most forcefully that, in any active sense, everyone living in this country do the same. David Lindsay EDITOR'S REPLY Dear David and David, vladimir Putin has chosen an obvious flashpoint to confront Ukraine by seizing their three ships off the Straits of Kerch at the mouth of the Sea of Azov. There is something thats both old-fashioned and new about this latest face-off. Russia has seen the Sea of Azov as a piece of unfinished business since it grabbed Crimea four years ago. It has tried to link the peninsula to the strategic port of Mariupol, and make Azov a Russian lake. Suggestions that Ukraine planned a military upgrade to Berdyansk on the Azov coast may have provoked the move. The rest, including the televised confessions of captured Ukrainian soldiers, are all of a piece with the Putin tactics of non-obvious war and provocation, the massaging of the media aided by fake news. But this time its too crude to wash. Hes not ready for all-out war, let alone World War Three. As for the British training and support missions to Ukraine, its all part of being a reasonable Nato ally. Its not the time to bring the Royal Marines home. Robert Fox, Defence Editor EU agreement is no good for the UK I reject the proposed agreement with the European Union as it leaves us in a worse position than we are now. All the cards will now lie with the EU, which will almost certainly meant that we have to adopt the Irish border backstop plan. I have no faith in a so-called arbitration process which, like everything to do with the EU, will be designed in its favour. I trust our elected representatives will vote against this agreement. Richard Robinson I have read lots recently about why we should feel sorry for Theresa May, and that she is doing her best in a very difficult situation. That is utter nonsense. Dealing with the big issues is what she chose to do by accepting the job of Prime Minister. The Kering HQ in Paris played host to an event to celebrate ten years of the Kering Foundation on Tuesday. Francois-Henri Pinault, the chairman and CEO of Kering S.A., which owns fashion brands including Gucci, Alexander McQueen and Balenciaga, started the foundation in 2008 to combat violence against women. It works with local NGOs and social entrepreneurs to launch campaigns all over the world, from Mexico to China; the United States to the United Kingdom. We will continue the fight, said Pinault in his opening address at the event, I want the Kering Foundation to explore new fields of action. It has campaigned tirelessly over the past decade to raise awareness and provide support for survivors of domestic violence, gender-based violence and cyberbullying, and plans to expand into prevention in the future by raising awareness among men about violence against women, continued Pinault. I also keep in mind the fate of the children who are often direct or indirect victims of this violence. The Foundations Executive Director, Celine Bonnaire, spoke to us about the foundation, and its plans for the future. Inna Modja, Francois-Henri Pinault / Olivier Borde What initially was the inspiration for setting up the the Kering Foundation? In 2008, Francois-Henri Pinault founded the Kering Foundation to end violence against women. At the time, Kering was becoming a global group, mostly composed of luxury brands. 60 percent of its employees were - and still are - women, and 80 percent of its customers as well. Francois-Henri Pinault wanted the group to get committed to a cause where it could make a real difference. Violence against women is a universal issue whatever the country, the culture or the social class. When he became aware of the scale one in three women will be a victim of violence during her lifetime - through his wife, Salma Hayek Pinault, he decided to use Kerings size and visibility to tackle this issue, which was still too taboo at the time. Tell us about the work you do with local communities. Since 2008, the Foundation favours an approach that focuses on co-construction of programs with a limited number of key partners. It supports survivor-centred local organizations that provide comprehensive services to women, such as La Maison des Femmes, a safe place for vulnerable women in France. This haven provides care as well as guidance, medical but also psychological, emotional, mental and physical for survivors of violence, and more specifically of female genital mutilation. I believe that the major changes happen at community level. Another model is the approach developed by the womens funds. Like HER Fund that we support in Hong Kong, womens funds give grants to grassroots womens organizations and movements as well as build their capacities to access to resources and expertise. The Foundation has always been about combating violence against women, but can you also explain more about men you work with, and why they are of equal importance? We will keep on supporting womens organisations, they are the ones providing support to survivors and their work is crucial. But to prevent the violence to happen, we also need to work with young men and boys. The root cause of violence against women is gender inequity. Men need to think in a different way about their role as men; as fathers. We need to allow them to think in a different way as well. This is why for the first time this year, we have started to partner with innovative programs working with men on "healthy masculinity". For example, GENDES, a social entrepreneur in Mexico that works with male perpetrators to deconstruct what Americans call toxic masculinity. We also support PROMUNDO and its program Manhood 2.0, a milestone curriculum tackling how gender norms harm young men and women: it engages young men in recognising and transforming the inequitable belief systems they have grown up with about what it means to be a man, and how these damaging ideas about manhood can have negative consequences on health, relationships, sexual violence, bullying, and mental health concerns. Sara Darcy, Francois-Henri Pinault, Kathryn / Olivier Borde Can you tell me a little about how the rise of social media in the last decade has changed what the Foundation does, for both men and women? For the seventh White Ribbon For Women campaign, the Kering Foundation focuses on the pervasive issue of gender-based cyberbullying. While making threats online is becoming a criminal offense and tech companies have made progress in facilitating hate speech reporting, internet anonymity and its inescapable nature means online bullying has become a pressing priority. Via #IDontSpeakHater, the Kering Foundation calls for this young generation to defend their peers from online harassment. When women and men see an insulting comment online, they support the person attacked by translating the hate into something empowering. Instead of staying silent, the campaign encourages bystander intervention among Generation Z to break the chain of abusive comments by reformulating them with a positive meaning. On the other hand, are there any other ways that digital is helpful The Foundation and the people it supports? Absolutely. Last June, we rewarded seven Social Entrepreneurs and two of them propose digital solutions for an increased impact and service: Hera Hussain, with Chayn, closes the critical information gap to help domestic abuse survivors, particularly young generations and immigrant populations, find safety with crowd-sourced and expert-informed online resources. Since its founding in 2013, 200,000 women in the UK have consulted Chayns life-saving platform. Jessica Ladd, with Callisto, launched an online reporting system for sexual assault survivors that can detect any serial sexual predator in the United States. With Callistos safe and secure platform, survivors are 5X more likely to report sexual assault and do so 3X times faster than the national average. Celine Bonnaire Where do you see The Foundation in another 10 years time? T here are many people in the world who would love to own a Van Gogh or a Leonardo, but few who could afford such rarities. With art historys masterpieces regularly ranking among the most expensive objects on the planet, its no wonder theyve been the subject of more than a few shocking heists. Thefts of famous artworks from some of the worlds most prominent art institutions have always grabbed headlines, with the mysteries that surround the expensive escapades often baffling authorities and experts for decades. From daring capers to unsolved mysteries, these are the Hollywood-worthy stories of art thefts that gripped the world. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 1990 A frame for a missing artwork at Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum / AFP/Getty Images This Boston Museum is the scene of the most expensive property theft in history, and one that still remains unsolved nearly 30 years later. In the early hours March 18 1990, two thieves broke into the museum and made off with 13 artworks, the value of which totalled a staggering 500 million. They included one of only 34 existing paintings by Johannes Vermeer, and The Storm on the Sea of Gaililee by Rembrandt. To this day, the museum still hangs empty frames in the places where the artworks were stolen from. Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci, 1911 The Mona Lisa at the Louvre, Paris / Getty Images Mona Lisa was actually a little-known artwork in 1911, but it was the audacious theft of the masterpiece in that year that made the Leonardo painting the most famous in the world. The Mona Lisa disappeared overnight from the Louvre in Paris on August 21. The painting became a media sensation, and it was believed by some at the time that modernist artists stole it in protest against traditional art Pablo Picasso was even a suspect in the case. The real culprit was Vincenzo Perugia, who had been hired by the gallery to fit protective glass cases for some of its artwork after which, Perugia hid in a closet, and stole the painting overnight. It was not recovered for another two years. The Just Judges of the Ghent Altarpiece, 1934 The Ghent Alterpiece in full / Rex Features This panelled painting by brothers Hubert and Jan Van Eyck is thought to be the most stolen artwork of all time largely because different bits of it have been stolen at different times over its 600-year history. The Just Judges panel disappeared from the St Bavo Cathedral one night in 1934. Shortly after, the Bishop of Ghent received a ransom note for one million Belgian francs. Although 11 letters were exchanged between authorities and the thieves, no ransom was paid and the painting was never recovered. A man called Arsene Goedertier purported to be the thief. Just months after the theft, he revealed on his deathbed that he was the only person to know the whereabouts of the painting and he took the secret to his grave. Whitworth Art Gallery, 2003 The public toilet near Whitworth Art Gallery where the artworks were found / PA Archive/PA Images This particularly peculiar theft occurred a little closer to home. Manchesters Whitworth Art Gallery saw three of its most famous works stolen in 2003. Paintings by Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso and Paul Gauguin were discovered missing on April 23, but were recovered just a couple of days later in a nearby public toilet instantly dubbed the Loo-vre in the media. The paintings were found rolled up in a cardboard tube alongside a note from the thieves reading: We did not intend to steal these paintings, just to highlight the woeful security. Kunsthal, 2012 The scene at the Kunsthal after the heist / AFP/Getty Images A theft from 2012 made headlines again in 2018, when it was claimed that one of the stolen paintings a Picasso had been found in Romania. The stunt turned out to be a hoax, another twist in the strange tale of seven of paintings that were stolen from the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, a heist which was completed in just three minutes. The mother of one of the thieves initially said she had burned the paintings. She later denied the confession, but forensic scientists found fragments of paint and nails in an oven at her house that they believed to be consistent with some of the paintings. The Scream by Edvard Munch, 1994 and 2004 One of Edvard Munch's four versions of The Scream / PA Archive/PA Images The Scream, a famously haunting artwork by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch has been the subject of two high profile thefts in the last 30 years. Munch made four versions of the work, one of which was stolen from the National Gallery in Oslo in 1994, and another that was stolen from the Munch museum 10 years later. The works were recovered both times: the first after a $1 million dollar ransom was demanded and the work was retrieved in a sting operation, and the second with some irreparable moisture damage in undisclosed circumstances. View of Auvers-sur-Oise by Paul Cezanne, 2000 View of Auvers-sur-Oise, a stolen Paul Cezanne which is yet to be recovered / PA While the city of Oxford was preparing to celebrate the turn of the millennium, two thieves were plotting to steal artwork from one of its most prestigious museums. During the New Year celebrations on January 1 2000, thieves cut a hole in a skylight at the Ashmolean Museum, shimmied down a rope into the galleries, dropped a smoke bomb to cover CCTV cameras and stole View of Auvers-sur-Oise, a 3 million painting by Post Impressionist artist Paul Cezanne. The painting has never been recovered. Van Gogh Museum, 1991 and 2002 The Potato Eaters, one of the paintings stolen from the Van Gogh Museum in 1991 / AFP/Getty Images The Van Gogh Museum has been the location of two very different heists, both of which saw paintings by the Dutch master removed from its wall. In 1991, 20 paintings were stolen from the gallery, worth almost 500 million but the paintings were found just half an hour later inside a nearby parked car. It did, however, take another three months to track down the thieves, who had abandoned the works after their second getaway car was scuppered by a flat tyre. In 2002, two other paintings were stolen, but were not found for 14 years. Henry Moore Foundation, 2005 A Reclining Figure, which was stolen from Henry Moore's estate in 2005 / PA / HERTFORDSHIRE CONSTBULARY / HENRY MOORE FOUNDATION This theft is among the most audacious in art history, largely because of the sheer mass of the stolen artwork. A Reclining Figure, an artwork which measured 11 feet in length and two tonnes in weight, was stolen from the grounds of the estate of the late Henry Moore in December 2005. The world was astonished at how thieves were able to move the colossal sculpture without being noticed, and it was never found. Sadly, it is now thought that the 3 million sculpture was most likely melted down and sold for scrap for just 1500. Poppy Flowers by Vincent Van Gogh, 1977 and 2010 The Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil Museum in Cairo, Egypt / AFP/Getty Images I s magic all in the mind? A major new exhibition at the Wellcome Collection will seek to find the answer by exploring its relationship with psychology. Smoke and Mirrors: The Psychology of Magic will be the first exhibition ever to focus on magic and the human mind, charting its history from 19th century seances to contemporary illusionists. One major theme of the show will be the mass appeal of seances, spiritualism and celebrity mediums, along with the scientific research around them and the psychology that makes them so powerful. It will also focus on the power of misdirection, with items used by Derren Brown and Tommy Cooper among those set to be on show. Visitors will be able to learn how distractions and cognitive flaws allow masters of the art to fool us into believing weve seen magic in action. The exhibitions final theme will be mentalism, exploring the role of magicians in decision-making and the idea that our minds can be read or controlled. Horoscopes, hypnotherapy and our sense of free choice will all come under the microscope to show how simple trickery can often have a major effect on our psychology. Objects on show will range from props, posters, films and photographs, with highlights including a ghost detection kit, spirit photographs and a sawing in half box used by Paul Daniels. Smoke and Mirrors: The Psychology of Magic will run from April 11 - September 15; wellcomecollection.org We all know Kim Kardashian West as the nude selfie queen, but older sister Kourtney Kardashian has shown she's not afraid to bare all either with a very naked photo shoot for the December/January issue of GQ Mexico. Shot by photographer Michael Schwartz, the magazine spread features the reality star completely pantless while wearing a chic black turtleneck. Elsewhere in the shoot Kourtney also poses nude on a countertop. This isnt the first time the Kardashian sister has stripped down for the camera. During a 2017 episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians, she showed off her birthday suit in a late-night skinny dipping shoot in Costa Rica. She isn't afraid to show her body on Instagram either, making headlines last year for a bikini post that appeared to receive an unfriendly comment from her ex-boyfriend Younes Bendjima. While the Kardashian clan is known for causing a stir on social media, Kourtney says she likes to be nude when she's at home too: I am very comfortable in my own skin, I like to be naked in my house and I think it is important to show positive images of our body, she told GQ. In the article, Kourtney also discussed motherhood, as well as her love for fitness, travel, and nutrition. A teenager has been arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences, police said. Officers from the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command arrested the 18-year-old at an address in south London on Wednesday. Following the arrest, police are searching two addresses in south and south east London in connection to their investigation. The location of the addresses have not been revealed. A woman who conned her wealthy lover out of 250,000 by claiming she could help him move to the UK has been jailed for two-and-a-half years. Kadi Al-Shamari, 29, fleeced UAE-based businessman Moeen Al-Hamiri after they met at a London cafe in 2015. She suggested they could marry and start a family if Mr Al-Hamiri moved to Britain, offering to help arrange his application for leave to remain. But Al-Shamari claimed the Home Office application would cost 250,000, asking for 100,000 in one day to finalise papers and convincing the businessman to send her two credit cards with 7,000-a-day limits. Isleworth crown court heard Mr Al-Hamiri lavished her with expensive clothes, paid her rent, and spent 10,000 on a week-long holiday in Dubai. It was a cynical, deceitful, heartless course of conduct He thought you were in love with him Al-Shamari denied two counts of fraud but was convicted after a trial, and broke down in tears yesterday as she was jailed. Judge Nicholas Wood said others were involved but Al-Shamari was the heart of the fraud and played a vital role. It was a cynical, deceitful, heartless course of conduct, he said. It was clear to you that he was falling for you and that he was generous and would be generous to you. "He thought you were in love with him and you played with that. You discussed starting a family. Mr Al-Hamiri told the court: I feel so hurt that she could take me for such a fool I did not see it coming. Tyrone Silcott, prosecuting, said the scam began when Mr Al-Hamiri was on holiday in the UK in 2015 and struck up a conversation with Al-Shamari. They exchanged phone numbers and began a relationship. Al-Shamari suggested that he apply for indefinite leave to remain in the UK so they could see more of each other, Mr Silcott said. She contacted the businessman in July 2015, claiming she needed 5,000 for a solicitors consultation on the application and he sent the money in a Western Union transfer. The defendant sent him photographs which appeared to show letters from the Home Office one such document requires the payment of 100,000, Mr Silcott said. Mr Al-Hamiri sent this money over two transfer services. Eventually they blocked her from receiving such large money transfers as they were concerned about money laundering, so he then sent his bank card allowing her to draw money directly from his bank account. The court heard Mr Al-Hamiri became suspicious when he had not received original paperwork, and the documents he had contained errors. Al-Shamari had claimed two legal firms were involved, but one did not exist and the other denied any knowledge of the case. When she was arrested at home in Acton in December 2015, Al-Shamari told officers Mr Al-Hamiri would buy me expensive things If I need anything he used to give me money. A London council has warned it could declare buildings a safety hazard to force developers to replace Grenfell-style combustible cladding. Tower Hamlets has 50 high-rise buildings with Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) panels which it believes to be among the highest number in the UK. The panels have been blamed for the spread of the tower block fire which killed 72 last year. The council has claimed private companies are not doing enough to remove the cladding. Housing bosses say they have had major problems getting some private house-builders to test and remove panels and have warned they will declare properties a safety hazard to enforce action. Under the 2004 Housing Act, councils can serve an improvement notice which requires the owner to fix issues that risk residents health and safety. It is an offence not to comply and councils have powers to do the work themselves if it is continually ignored. Local authorities can also impose fines of up to 30,000. Divisional director of housing Mark Baigent said there were 41 private towers and nine social housing buildings in the borough that had the ACM panels. Mr Baigent told Tower Hamlets housing scrutiny sub-committee last week: There is evidence that some of these building owners are not taking action and ultimately we may be forced to step in. He added that in one case the council had to test a buildings cladding because they knew it had not been done. ACM panels have to be removed from towers over 18 metres under government guidelines. There are about 465 high-rises across the country with cladding and about 290 are privately owned. Private building owners have been told they must pay for their own works. Bellway, one of the countrys largest housebuilders, has set aside 5.9 million to cover the cost of replacing the panels at the New Festival Quarter, Poplar, and another development in Cardiff. Attack for dropping eel skins outside a shop: Roger Styward of Hamptone, was attacked by Simon de Peckham on August 15, 1326 for throwing down eel skins in the Church of St Mary Le Bowe. De Peckham punched Mr Styward in the back of the head, till he fell to the ground and then gave him a kicking. Two men help woman batter man to death: On July 7 1326, John Marche, a potter, and Agnes de Wycoumbe, were arguing outside his house in St. Katherine Within Aldgate. She grabbed a staff from his hand and hit him over the back with it, before Geoffrey de Caxtone, Andrew de Wynton helped her to kill him. Madam stabbed in brothel scuffle: On February 12 1339, Geoffrey Perler, an apprentice loriner, visited the house in Newgate where Alice Warde of York was living in search of the prostitute Emma of Brackley. When he couldn't find her, he argued with Alice, before stabbing her with a carving-knife, leaving a five-inch deep wound in her side. Death among drunk wrestlers: On May 6 1301, Peter de Huntington visited Walter Vigerous' home in Dowgate, where he had a drunk wrestling match with Andrew Prille. The pair fought, Peter suffered from a fractured leg, and died from his injuries two weeks later. T he televised debate between Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May scheduled for December 9 has inflamed the intense rivalry of Brexit factions across the board. Jacob Rees-Mogg and members of the European Research Group which he chairs, are understood to be consulting lawyers to clarify whether the broadcasters can legally exclude them. If the debate is intended to be a serious discussion about Brexit rather than a propaganda exercise, Rees-Mogg argues, both the Leave and the Remain sides ought to be represented. He adds: The broadcasters are bound by impartiality regulations. In a similar vein, Peoples Vote campaign has written to Lord Hall, the BBCs director-general, saying that the head-to-head format suggested by Robbie Gibb, the No 10 communications director, merely conforms to Mays PR operation. Weve made it very clear that under Ofcom rules excluding the 54 per cent of people that every poll shows are in favour of staying in the EU would be ludicrous, says a representative, adding they will issue a formal complaint if they are left out. Still, the main argument about the format boils down to which TV station will host the Sunday night special. Gibb wants it aired on his alma mater, the BBC. Indeed his reliance on the channel has prompted accusations that he uses it as the state broadcaster. However, the BBC slot would put the debate in direct competition with Im a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here on ITV, which last week broke ratings records with a 13.7 million audience. Realists within Labour are therefore plumping for the ITV slot which is immediately before Im A Celebrity with no clash. Asked how they will get their way, a source points out that Gibb has called both the head-to-head and the date of the debate. They add, waspishly: Robbie doesnt decide everything. Amber Le Bon and co roll up for LoveShack Model behaviour: Amber Le Bon and Clara Paget (Photo: Dave Benett/Getty Images) / Dave Benett/Getty Images for Lov Model behaviour last night, as stars from the fashion world stepped out. Clara Paget and Amber Le Bon were at Annabels for a dinner thrown by Harrods celebrating New York brand LoveShacks residency at the Knightsbridge store, while in Clerkenwell, Kate Moss, Aweng and Lineisy Montero turned up for the launch of photographer Rankins book Unfashionable: 30 Years of Fashion Photography. They were joined by artist Akinola Davies, cosmetics queen Charlotte Tilbury and designer Christopher Kane, and enjoyed cocktails, DJ sets and mini shepherds pies. Designer Daniel Lismore, known for his flamboyant haute couture ensembles, tells us that fashion talent remains strong in the capital. It disappeared for a while. The fashion industry prosecuted London talent and it went abroad. Then all of a sudden its back. Creativity is really strong again. As the old adage goes, art flourishes in times of crisis. Poor show of Hands DExEu minister Kwasi Kwarteng raised his voice at a group of 100 eager young people from Our Future Our Choice yesterday, booming at them across the Westminster Lobby: I am NOT going to speak to YOU people. Jacob Rees-Mogg had more grace, spending 10 minutes with Peoples Vote campaigners, as did Green Party leader Caroline Lucas. Greg Hands also ignored us and fobbed us off, one OFOC member tells us, and skipped an event with 50 young constituents at Chelsea Academy. Hands did, however, recently find time to meet Hugo from Made in Chelsea. -- Caroline Wilson, Europe director at the Foreign Office, has become an overnight sensation after a clip of her gently filleting ex-Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson aired on BBC documentary Inside the Foreign Office. We dont know why the French arent playing ball with us over Europe, says Johnson. Well, we have a fair idea, Wilson replies, deadpan. Colleagues describe her as brilliant. -- The Londoner is saddened to hear that Met Commissioner Cressida Dick has delayed appearing on Desert Island Discs due to operational policing matters. Those keenly anticipating her choices may expect Stand and Deliver by Adam and the Ants and everything by The Police. Spiky review from city of dreaming spires The head of Oxford Universitys Harry Potter Society, Molly Chell, has blasted JK Rowling for her latest film a prequel to her magical series and said it may be time for Rowling to relinquish the scriptwriting quill and stick to novels. Given Oxfords relationship with the Harry Potter brand several film scenes were shot in the city of dreaming spires colleges and libraries such criticism is doubly wounding as it comes from the most ardent fans. Writing in the Cherwell newspaper, Chell adds that nostalgia cannot hide the films evident flaws. J. K. Rowling "should stick to novels", Oxford Potter fans say (Photo: Karwai Tang/WireImage) / WireImage SW1A Moped crime has Sajid Javid and Diane Abbott playing cops and robbers. Knocking people off bikes is potentially very dangerous, says Abbott discussing the Mets controversial new tactic. It shouldnt be legal for anyone. Police are not above the law. The Home Secretary himself hit back, tweeting Abbott crossly: Risk-assessed tactical contact is exactly what we need. Criminals are not above the law. We await Abbotts riposte. -- Prisons minister Rory Stewart, the Governments one-man Withdrawal Agreement champion, reached back in time for parallels to the Brexit crisis. We have to trust to realism, pragmatism, moderation and a suspicion of clean near solutions which is what in the end solved our crises at the Reformation and in the 17th century, he warbled. As one Tory MP told us: Stewart would make a great leader, if we still had an empire. Quote of the Day Im very touched by this. Its better than the death threats Dominic Grieve MP on winning big at last nights Political Studies Association Awards T he government has become embroiled in a fresh row over the publication of the full legal advice given on the Brexit deal. Downing Street has said it will only be releasing a "full, reasoned position statement" laying its out political and legal position on the Withdrawal Agreement. The move has infuriated Labour Party and Tory Brexiteer MPs, who have demanded that the full text be published. Conservative MP Peter Bone claimed not releasing details of Attorney General Geoffrey Cox's full legal advice was dangerous. MP Peter Bone leaving 10 Downing Street earlier this month / PA He told the Daily Telegraph: People will naturally think the legal advice doesn't support their case and that's why they don't want to publish it. It's a very dangerous precedent for the executive to defy parliament. Maybe they're trying to delay publishing it until after the vote but that would be an outrage. Shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer said the situation was completely unacceptable and added Labour would use every parliamentary mechanism available to challenge it. Labour's Keir Starmer has demanded the full legal advice be published / PA He is pressing ministers to comply with a binding Commons vote to publish the legal advice after ministers dropped their opposition to the motion to avoid a damaging defeat. He said: At this crucial stage parliament must be given the necessary information to know precisely what has been agreed to and what it is being asked to vote on. Labour and parliament will accept nothing short of the full legal advice presented to cabinet. A legal summary is clearly no sufficient and will not comply with the unanimous decision made by the House of Commons. And Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the ERG group of Conservative Brexiteers, told the Express: This is a very serious matter. If the government did not want to publish the advice it should have opposed the vote, not abstained. You cant allow a vote to pass unopposed and then say later yah, boo, sucks were ignoring it. The prime minister's official spokesman said the move was in line with an undertaking given to MPs by Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington in the House. The position is as set out by David Lidington in his statement to the House a couple of weeks ago, he told the Guardian. This is for a full reasoned position statement laying out the governments political and also legal position on the proposed withdrawal agreement and attached protocols. So the commitment remains as it was set out a couple of weeks ago. A cabinet source told the paper that the full legal advice to ministers includes a view of the Northern Ireland customs backstop which sees the joint UK-EU exit mechanism amounting to an effective EU veto on when the UK could leave. It comes with the government set to reveal its analysis of the economic impact of Brexit as Theresa May battles to save her deal for leaving the EU. Downing Street said the papers will cover a "range of scenarios" as the prime minister seeks to press her case that her agreement represents the only way to protect jobs and investment while avoiding the chaos of a no-deal break. She will then travel to Scotland for another day of campaigning as she appeals over the heads of MPs to ordinary voters to support her plan. The Treasury analysis is expected to conclude the UK will be far better off under the terms of Mrs May's controversial agreement with Brussels than if it faced a disorderly Brexit with a no-deal break. The proposed deal is looking more likely to be backed by the EU leaders, after a point of contention between Britain and Spain over Gibraltar was resolved yesterday. After this conclusion, the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, sent out formal invitation letters to EU leaders for the summit. He stated the Brexit deal reached by negotiators from the UK and Brussels "found the best possible compromise" and he would recommend they approve it. C haos at British ports is a "real prospect" if the UK crashes out of the European Union without a deal, a new report has warned. There is a real risk the Department for Transport (DfT) will not be ready for a no-deal scenario, a Commons committee said. In its report, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee said the risks are severe and that time is running out to plan. The committee accused DfT officials of having a complacent approach to Brexit preparations. A container terminal is seen at the port of Rotterdam, Netherlands / Reuters It said the department has failed to communicate properly with businesses so they can get ready for a possible no-deal outcome. A DfT spokesman contested the conclusions of the report. He pointed to measures in place such as a provision for issuing haulier permits for truckers to carry on driving in Europe. Brexit: What happens next for Theresa May's deal? The report said: "There is a real risk that the Department for Transport will not be ready in the event of the UK departing the EU without a negotiated deal, and this risk is increasing as time runs out to deliver what is needed." It criticised plans for projects such as the traffic management system on the M20 to ease problems at ports on the South Coast. This has been dubbed a "13-mile lorry park". The committee added: "The slow progress and poor communication around work to avoid this through schemes such as Project Brock concerns us. "The lack of detailed information provided to businesses to help them prepare and the secrecy surrounding discussions through the use of non-disclosure agreements is hampering businesses' ability to plan. TODO: define component type apester "With only months to go, it is extremely worrying that we are seeing these same concerns again and again with little progress being made "Even if a deal is agreed, the department faces a challenging workload during the proposed transition period. "We acknowledge the difficult situation for the department in having to prepare for all Brexit scenarios. "But it must be open about the challenges it faces and work with businesses and stakeholders to help them get ready for whatever the future brings." Ms Hillier added: "The secrecy around the department's preparations, and the shortcomings in assurance on its progress, are a potentially toxic combination. "We accept the continued uncertainty over the final shape of Brexit adds to the complexity of the challenge. But the department's Brexit work is simply too important to get wrong. "It must be more open about what needs to be achieved, and work with business and others to deliver it. "We urge it to respond meaningfully to our concerns in the weeks ahead." Quay cranes line the dock at Felixstowe port in Felixstowe, England / Getty Images The report said the Department for Transport has "little, if any, contingency left to cope with slippage amongst the 28 internal projects it has under way". It said there is also a danger the required legislation to cope with no deal will not be passed by the time the UK leaves the EU at the end of March. S ajid Javid has backed the Mets new controversial tactic of ramming fleeing moped gangs following criticism of Diane Abbott for declaring police are not above the law. The home secretary said "risk-assessed tactical contact" is "exactly what we need" after his opposite number Ms Abbott was blasted for calling the practice potentially very dangerous". Senior officers have defended the use of "tactical contact", saying it is needed to stop dangerous chases and has helped reduce moped-enabled crime in London by over a third. Sajid Javid said "risk-assessed tactical contact" is "exactly what we need" / EPA Ms Abbott had tweeted: "Knocking people off bikes is potentially very dangerous. It shouldn't be legal for anyone. Police are not above the law." Camden officers were among those to hit back, replying someone who's responsible for law-making should probably realise that using tactical contact to terminate dangerous pursuits is entirely within our lawful power... And our responsibility. Tactical contact: dashcam footage shows a thug sent tumbling over the bonnet of a police car Mr Javid, who revealed in June that his phone was taken in a moped mugging before he became home secretary, also disputed Ms Abbott's assessment. He wrote on Twitter: "Risk-assessed tactical contact is exactly what we need. Criminals are not above the law." Releasing the footage on Friday, the Met Police said it shows the tactics that specially trained drivers are able to use to reduce the need for pursuits and prevent injury occurring to offenders and members of the public. Force chiefs said there is no maximum speed for police cars to hit mopeds and that it is a common misconception among moped thieves that officers will end their pursuit if the suspect drives dangerously or removes their helmet. The disclosures also prompted questions over protection for police if a suspect is seriously injured in a stop. Ken Marsh, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, raised concerns that officers using the tactic could be risking their "livelihood and liberty". Efforts to tackle offenders riding motorcycles and mopeds have come under the spotlight following a spike in incidents in recent years, particularly in London. Scotland Yard said moped crime can happen "at any time of the day or night", with some criminals stealing up to 30 phones in an hour. Victims are often targeted as they come out of Tube stations or transport hubs. As part of the crackdown, the Met also uses DNA forensic tagging and automatic tyre deflation devices. Latest figures show 12,419 moped offences were recorded across the capital from January to October - a 36 per cent fall compared with the equivalent period of 2017. O utspoken human rights activist and World War Two veteran Harry Leslie Smith has died in Canada aged 95. His son John broke the news on Twitter, writing: "At 3.39 this morning, my dad Harry Leslie Smith died. I am an orphan. #istandwithharry". Mr Smith, self-described as the "world's oldest rebel", was an anti-austerity campaigner, passionate supporter of the NHS and advocate for refugees. The veteran had a huge following on Twitter and was the author of a number of books, and came to prominence in 2013 for his refusal to wear a poppy. His death was met with an outpouring of grief as people praised him for his "passion and optimism" and his "heart of a lion". Second World War veteran Harry Smith, 91, speaks during the Labour Party's annual conference at Manchester Central Convention Complex in 2014 / PA Who was Harry Leslie Smith, the "world's oldest rebel"? Mr Smith was born the son of a coal miner in Barnsley, Yorkshire, in 1923. He grew up in abject poverty after his father lost his job and suffered tragedy at a young age when his older sister Marion died of TB. The family moved around towns in Yorkshire frequently and at seven-years-old he got his first job as a barrow-boy in Bradford, supporting his entire family and sometimes sleeping in workhouses. He joined the RAF in 1941 as a pilot and met his late wife Friede while serving in Germany as part of the allied occupation force during the Second World War. They later emigrated to Canada in the 1950s, raising three children before she died in 1999. After her death he turned his attention to writing. He attracted attention in 2013 with an article he wrote which said he had stopped wearing a poppy because they were being used to "promote present-day conflicts". Mr Smith wrote a number of books about life in the UK during the Great Depression, WWI and postwar austerity and contributed to a number of different newspapers. He also made appearances at the 2014 Labour Party Conference and during the 2015 general election and the EU referendum in 2016. What did he stand for? Harry Leslie Smith left the stage to a standing ovation after delivering an impassioned speech about his life and the NHS to the Labour Party Conference in 2014. / Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Smith was an outspoken human rights activist with a Twitter following of more than 250,000 people. He was a staunch supporter of the NHS and junior doctors, and a prominent campaigner against austerity. He was also vocal in the need to protect refugees after he saw first hand the crisis when he visited camps across Europe at the end of WWII. Mr Smith stopped wearing a poppy in 2013, and argued that greed and globalism were stripping away the advances wrought by his generation which had survived the Great Depression and World War II. Spurred by the 2008 global economic crash, Smith took up writing and public speaking on political issues in his 80s and rose to fame in 2014 after giving a speech on social justice at a Labour Party conference In 2015, he launched a Stand up for Progress national tour. Smith survived Britain's pre-war economic depression in poverty and spent much of his later life campaigning to ensure others did not experience the same, his son said. In February, the blogger and podcaster announced he was going on a world tour of refugee hotspots "to document this preventable tragedy that may lead us to another war as gruesome as the one I helped fight against Hitler". Harry Leslie Smith's best quotes "I am one of the last few remaining voices left from a generation of men and women who built a better society for our children and grandchildren out of the horrors of the Second World War as well as the hunger of the Great Depression. Sadly, that world my generation helped build on a foundation of decency and fair play is being swept away by neo liberalism and the greed of the 1% which has brought discord around the globe." "At what point does what you give up while fighting a war mean winning it no longer matters? W orld War Two veteran and the self-described "world's oldest rebel" Harry Leslie Smith has died aged 95. The former RAF pilot, who became known for his political activism in his later years, had been seriously ill in hospital in Canada since last week. His son John, who had been running his father's Twitter account, said: "At 3:39 this morning, my dad Harry Leslie Smith died. I am an orphan. #istandwithharry" Mr Smith, from Barnsley in South Yorkshire, survived the Great Depression and Second World War. He became a passionate advocate for refugees after seeing the crisis after World War Two, visiting camps across Europe. Mr Smith delivered an impassioned speech about his life and the NHS at the Labour Party Conference in 2014. / Dan Kitwood/Getty Images He attracted attention in 2013 when he said had stopped wearing a poppy because they were being used to "promote present-day conflicts". Mr Smith was also a prominent campaigner against austerity and ardent supporter of the NHS, and wrote several books about Britain during the depression. Hours before he passed away, John had tweeted that Mr Smith "had a good night last night according to the nurse, less agitated, but looks very tired". Mr Smith met his late wife Friede while serving in Germany as part of the allied occupation force during the Second World War. They later emigrated to Canada, raising three children before she died in 1999. Emotional tributes to the veteran flooded Twitter, praising him for his "passion and optimism". Food writer and activist Jack Monroe wrote: "This is a dark and awful day. "Love to John, his son who kept us all posted on Harry's spirit and heart on his final days. "There was nothing frail or timid about Harry. "The heart of a lion, he fought tirelessly against austerity. Sleep tight, dear friend." TODO: define component type apester Sherlock actor Amanda Abbington tweeted: "Harry Leslie Smith. An incredible and inspiring and beautiful man. "I had the wonderful pleasure of knowing him and his loss will be felt immeasurably. T he British academic pardoned after being jailed for spying in the UAE plans to sue his captors, according to reports. Matthew Hedges, 31, was granted a presidential pardon from a life term for allegedly spying on security operations. He has since returned to Britain where he was reunited with his wife. The PhD students partner Daniela Tejada hired a lawyer while her husband was holed up, it was reported last night. Mr Hedges pictured with his wife / AFP/Getty Images Rodney Dixon QC, who was hired by Mrs Tejada, told the Telegraph possible legal action will be explored. He said: We will explore all legal options and remedies to clear [Mr Hedges] name of this false and unfounded conviction. Mr Dixon added: Legal actions in both the UAE, although very limited, and internationally including before the UN will be explored. In an emotional post on Twitter, Mrs Tejada thanked those who helped bring her husband back to the UK Mr Hedges had been accused of spying on security operations in the UAE / AFP/Getty Images She added: Weve been to hell and back. Mr Hedges was convicted for spying after a brief court hearing last week, sparking a diplomatic storm. He arrived at Heathrow airport on Tuesday morning, 24 hours after he was freed from prison. At a news conference in Abu Dhabi on Monday, officials showed a video of Mr Hedges apparently describing himself as a captain in MI6 during what appeared to be a court hearing. Spy-accused academic Matthew Hedges pardoned in UAE 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 the UAE. "His Highness has decided to include Mr Matthew Hedges among the 785 prisoners released," he said. A horrifying new video has emerged of a girl reportedly the younger sister of the Syrian refugee attacked in viral footage allegedly being assaulted in a school playground. The video shows a girl standing in a playground chatting to a friend. Another girl then approaches her from behind and appears to shove her. The stunned victim turns round, only to scream when a second girl comes at her and chases her down a grass slope. The second attacker then pushes her to the ground and jumps on top of her. As fellow pupils scream, the girl appears to hit the victim. A video still of the girl allegedly being attacked It is not clear when or where the attack happened. Mail Online reported she is the younger sister of the 15-year-old boy who was attacked at a school in Huddersfield. Syrian refugee teenager attacked by bully in Yorkshire school Footage of the assault went viral on social media, with thousands of people expressing disgust at the attack - which happened on October 25 - in which he is thrown to the ground by a boy and threatened with drowning. A 16-year-old suspect will appear at youth court in due course in connection with the attack after being interviewed by West Yorkshire Police. After footage of the girl's attack emerged on Wednesday, the paper reported family lawyer Mohammed Akunjee as saying: Last Friday she tried to self-harm. She has been abused for around a year-and-a-half and some of it has been racial referring to 'Arabs' and where she came from. This attack on her also took place yesterday and the family have been told that the girl who attacked her has been excluded from school. The family are very upset about the whole matter. T he controversial Chinese scientist who claims to have created the worlds first genetically edited babies today suggested that another woman in the experiment was pregnant. Today he said the girls were normal and healthy as he gave a presentation at a scientific conference in Hong Kong. Their health will be monitored until they reach 18. Asked whether other pregnancies had resulted from his trials, Mr He said: There is another one, another potential pregnancy. Chinese scientist He Jiankui takes questions after speaking at the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing in Hong Kong / AFP/Getty Images He was asked whether it was a chemical pregnancy and replied yes. Chemical pregnancy is the term given to a conception that is confirmed by a blood test but which is too early - prior to five weeks gestation - to be seen on an ultrasound scan. The term is also used to signify a very early miscarriage. Mr He said the twins parents were very well educated and had volunteered to take part in the experiment. The father has HIV, but suppressed by drugs to very low levels, while the mother is HIV negative. The sperm was washed to prevent HIV transmission. Mr He said the couple were told that the gene editing had only been partially successful with one of the embryos but they chose to have both implanted. The experiment had aimed to delete both copies of the CCR5 gene, which allows HIV to enter a cell. He believes this may offer lifelong protection against HIV infection. The process is illegal in most countries, including the UK. It was described by fertility expert Professor Robert Winston as scientific misconduct and deeply irresponsible. Professor Julian Savulescu, of Oxford University, said it was monstrous. Seven couples have enrolled in the trial but it is on hold in light of the furore. Mr Hes university in China said it was not told of his work and has launched an investigation. Asked whether he would have performed the experiment on a future child of his own, Mr He said: If it was my baby, with the same situation, yes I would try first. He said he was proud to have tried to help people with HIV. He said there was an unmet medical need for millions of children. HIV vaccine is not available, he said. I have personal experience of people with AIDS where 30 per cent of a village is infected. They even have to give their children to relatives and uncles to raise, just to prevent potential transmission. S cientists are receiving a huge backlash from dog lovers after their research found canines are not an exceptional member of the animal world. Authors of the study were hounded online after they published their findings, which suggested the cognition dogs display is in no way special compared to other animals. The study compared dogs with other animals including cats, pigeons, hyenas and dolphins. It concluded: dog cognition does not look exceptional. Owners all over the world attacked the survey, named In what sense are dogs special?, with many taking to social media to share their outrage. Some shared GIFs of expressive canines to emphasise their disbelief, while others jokingly suggested the report was probably written and commissioned by cats. One angry reader simply said: no one asked you, science. And another joked: These scientists are biased by all the money they receive from the cat scientist lobbyists. Responding to a headline on a report of the study that read: Your dog may not be a genius after all, Dictionary.com stepped in to reassure furious owners. The definition website wrote on Twitter: The word may is used to express possibility. E.g. Scientific American says a dog may not be a genius, which means the possibility exists that a dog may still be a genius. The study, first published in journal Learning and Behaviour, analysed the physical, spatial and social cognition of dogs. It concluded: Although the comparisons are incomplete, because of the limited range of studies of some of the other relevant species, we conclude that dog cognition is influenced by the membership of all three of these groups, and taking all three groups into account, dog cognition does not look exceptional. TODO: define component type apester T he Lion Air jet that plunged into the sea killing 189 people was not airworthy and should have been grounded, investigators have said. It suffered similar technical issues during a flight the day before, the head of Indonesias transport safety committee (KNKT) said. An investigation into the disaster found the pilots struggled to keep control as the aircrafts safety system pushed its nose down. Whether the faulty information from sensors led the planes system to force the nose dive is a focus of the ongoing investigation. National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) sub-committee head for air accidents, Nurcahyo Utomo, holds a model airplane while speaking during a news conference / REUTERS Expert investigators found that Lion Air must improve its safety culture and better document repair work on its planes. And they ruled that the plane was not air-worthy before the doomed flight took off from Jakarta. Nurcahyo Utomo, head of KNKT, confirmed the latest in the investigation on Tuesday. Forensic officers stand by a damaged tyre from last month's fatal Lion Air crash / Reuters He told a news conference: This is the basis of our recommendation to Lion Air. In our view, the plane was not airworthy. Peter Lemme, an aviation expert and a former Boeing engineer, wrote an analysis of the latest data in his blog. TODO: define component type apester Lemme described "a deadly game of tag" in which the plane pointed down which the pilots countered by manually aiming the nose higher. The sequence repeated about five seconds later, Lemme said. And this happened 26 times during the 11-minute flight, but pilots failed to recognise what was happening. Indonesia plane crash: Underwater footage shows divers recovering Lion Air jet The crew of the fatal flight were apparently not warned that similar problems occurred on previous journeys. "Had they fixed the airplane, we would not have had the accident," Lemme said. "Every accident is a combination of events, so there is disappointment all around here. Lion Air crash in Indonesia 1 /41 Lion Air crash in Indonesia Recovered personal items of passengers on board the ill-fated Lion Air flight JT 610 are laid out at the search and rescue operations centre AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images Indonesian Navy Seals dive during the recovery mission for the crashed Lion Air flight EPA EPA EPA Indonesia's President Joko Widodo holds a personal item from Lion Air flight Getty Images Indonesia's President Joko Widodo (C), inspects recovered debris and personal items from Lion Air flight Getty Images Getty Images Search and Rescue personnel examine recovered debris Getty Images EPA AP Indonesian search and rescue personnel prepare for a recovery mission after Lion Air flight JT610 crashed into the sea AFP/Getty Images Oil slick where Lion Air flight JT 610 reportedly crashed into the sea off the coast of Indonesia's Java island AFP/Getty Images Members of a rescue team prepare to search for survivors from the Lion Air flight JT 610 AFP/Getty Images Relatives of passengers arrive at Lion Air's crisis center at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang AP Nugroho from Indonesia's National Disaster Mitigation Agency shows personnel looking at items believed to be from the wreckage AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images Indonesian rescuers evacuating parts from a crashed Lion Air passenger plane in waters off Tanjung Karawang EPA A rescue team member points to the location where Indonesia's Lion Air flight JT 610 had crashed into the sea AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images EPA EPA Bangka Belitung province governor Erzaldi Rosman Djohan (seated C, holding microphone), addresses journalists AFP/Getty Images AP Members of a rescue team prepare to search for survivors AFP/Getty Images Airport authority head Bagus Sunjoyo (3rd R, holding microphone) addresses journalists after Lion Air flight JT 610 crashed into the sea AFP/Getty Images EPA An aerial view shows the site where it is believed the Lion Air flight JT610 crashed Reuters EPA AFP/Getty Images EPA A member of an Indonesian rescue team conducting a briefing on handling the evacuation process EPA EPA EPA Indonesian rescue team members collecting the remains of the crashed plane at Tanjung Priok Harbou EPA Indonesian rescue team members collecting the remains of the crashed plane at Tanjung Priok Harbou EPA AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images Boeing spokesman Charles Bickers said the company is "taking every measure to fully understand all aspects of this accident." The company said last week that it remains confident in the safety of the 737 MAX and had given airlines around the world two updates to "re-emphasise existing procedures for these situations." A black former Facebook employee has lashed out at the social network, accusing it of having a "black people problem" in a public memo about his time at the company. Mark Luckie published a note he circulated inside Facebook shortly before his last day at the company earlier this month, in which he claimed he had witnessed a range of discrimination issues. He said he had spoken to other black employees who shared similar experiences, making it clear there was a pattern of behaviour within the company. His wrote: 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. Facebook has said it is continuously working to be inclusive. He added: 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 added that he believed black people remained underrepresented at the company. "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," he said. In its most recent diversity report, published in July, Facebook said the proportion of black employees at the company had risen from 2 per cen to 4 per cent, but the number of black employees in technical roles remained at 1 per cent and the figure in leadership roles was 2 per cent. Mr Luckie said his experiences meant he had "lost the will and the desire to advocate on behalf of Facebook". In response, Facebook said it was continuously working to be inclusive. "Over the last few years, we've 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," a company spokeswoman said. "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. W orld leaders will convene later this week for the annual G20 summit in Argentina. Held once a year since the 2008 financial crisis, the G20 summit seeks to shape the global economic agenda. This year, from novichok poisonings, murder charges and the latest maritime clash between Russia and Ukraine, G20 members wont be short of talking points. But G20 summits are notorious for attracting protests from critics who routinely accuse the group of focusing too much on financial interests and globalisation. So how will this years meeting play out? Heres everything you need to know: What is G20? Theresa May and Angela Merkel pictured together in Hamburg last year / EPA The G20 was founded in 1999 as the G7 to give developing countries a more powerful voice in the global economy. When it first started, only finance ministers and central bank governors would meet. As we know it today, G20 includes the G7 countries, which include the UK and the US, plus developing nations. Russia was previously a member of the then G8 but was ejected over the annexation of Crimea. Since the fallout from the global recession of 2008, G20's primary mandate is to prevent future financial crises. The official G20 website says: "The Buenos Aires meeting is taking place 10 years after the first G20 Leaders' Summit in Washington DC, when heads of State and Government from around the world put together an action plan to address the 2008 financial crisis." The group represents about 75 per cent of the world's international trade and 85 per cent of its global economic output. Which countries are G20 members? The G20 is made up of 19 countries and the EU: Canada France Germany Italy Japan UK US Argentina Australia Brazil China India Indonesia Mexico Russia Saudi Arabia South Africa South Korea Turkey Every year, the host country can invite countries of their choice to attend. This year, Argentina has invited Chile and the Netherlands. When is it? The conference will take place on Friday November 30 and Saturday December 1. However, most of the action will happen on Thursday evening, as this is when the finance ministers meet. TODO: define component type brightcove What will be discussed at the G20 summit? Tension: Argentinian prosecutors are considering charging Saudi Arabia's crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, with war crimes and torture if he attends the G20 summit. / AP Against a backdrop of Brexit turmoil, Theresa May will be hoping to secure some international trading partners. There is also due to be a high-stakes meeting between President Donald Trump and China's president Xi Jinping to discuss the ongoing trade war. If the meeting doesn't go to plan, Mr Trump has said he is prepared to impose additional tariffs on imports from China. The US president has threatened to cancel his scheduled meeting with another world leader, Russia's Vladimir Putin, because of his country's clash with Ukraine over territorial waters. He commented: "Maybe I won't have the meeting. Maybe I won't have the meeting...I don't like that aggression. I don't want that aggression at all." It's still not certain whether Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will attend. If he does, his appearance is likely to be met with protests over the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Argentinian prosecutors have already said they are considering charging the Saudi Crown Prince with war crimes and torture if he attends. What happened in last year's meeting? Last year's meeting focused on climate change and global trade, a particularly contentious topic as Mr Trump had just pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement. Mr Trump met with Mr Putin for two hours during last year's summit. They agreed to a cease-fire in Syria. A young boy stole the limelight away from the Pope today when he climbed onto a stage at the Vatican before tinkering with the spear and glove of a Swiss Guard. The boy clambered onto the platform before running around and grabbing the guard. Vatican gendarmes stood and let the young boy run around as monsignors read out a catechism lesson in various languages. The young boy's mother ran on stage to retrieve him after he left the audience in the Vatican's Paul VI Hall. Pope Francis attends the closing Mass at the World Meeting of Families at Phoenix Park in Dublin, as part of his visit to Ireland (Danny Lawson/PA) / PA Pope Francis told the crowd that the boy was hearing and speech impaired, before adding: "But he knows how to communicate, to express himself." "And he has something that made me think: He's free. Undisciplined-ly free, but he's free. "It made me think, am I so free before God?" He then prayed for the boy. Pope Francis has been pontiff since Pope Benedict XVI's resignation in 2013. R ussia has said it plans to deploy new missiles to Crimea as tensions rise with Ukraine over Moscow's seizure of three navy ships and their crews. New military hardware has steadily been poured into Crimea by Russia since it annexed it from Ukraine in 2014. However, the long-simmering tensions between the two countries escalated on Sunday when Russia was accused of opening fire on Ukrainian ships, three of which were taken into Russian custody along with their crews. Moscow's announcement about a further deployment of advanced S-400 surface-to-air missile systems comes as it and Kiev try to pin the blame on each other for the confrontation. Ukrainian ships detained in Kerch Strait on Sunday / REUTERS A Reuters correspondent in Crimea on Wednesday also observed a Russian navy minesweeper ship, the Vice-Admiral Zakharin, heading for the Sea of Azov, which is used by both Ukraine and Russia and is an area of growing tensions, from the Black Sea. Russian news agencies cited Vadim Astafyev, a spokesman for Russia's southern military district, as saying that a new battalion of S-400 missiles would be delivered to Crimea soon and become operational by the end of the year. The missile deployment is likely to have been long-planned, but the timing of the announcement appeared designed to send a message to Ukraine and the West that Russia is serious about defending what it regards as its own territory and waters. Russia seizes Ukrainian Ships - In Pictures 1 /35 Russia seizes Ukrainian Ships - In Pictures Ukrainian Nationalists burn flares and smoke grenades during their rally in front of Parliament building in Kiev, Ukraine EPA In this image taken from video released by the Russia's Federal Security Service taken from a Russian Coast Guard vessel purporting to show an incident between the Russian coast guard and a Ukrainian tugboat, in the Kerch Strait on Sunday Nov. 25, 2018. AP Ukrainian border guard boats are docked in the Black Sea port of Odessa, Ukraine Reuters Ukrainian Nationalists attend a rally in front of Presidential office in Kiev, Ukraine EPA Regarding the incident where a Russian coast guard fired on three Ukrainian boats Sunday and then seized them along with the crews Lavrov said Monday that Ukraine has violated international law and provoked Russia by sending its navy vessels through the Kerch Strait without permission. AP Ukrainian navy vessels are docked in the Black Sea port of Odessa, Ukraine Reuters Ukrainian border guard boats are docked in the Black Sea port of Odessa, Ukraine Reuters 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, Ukraine AP Ukrainian Nationalists burn flares and smoke grenades during their rally in front of Parliament building in Kiev, Ukraine EPA Volunteers with the right-wing paramilitary Azov National Corps hold flares during a rally on the snowy streets in front of the Ukrainian parliament in Kiev, Ukraine AP Ukrainian Nationalists attend their rally in front of Parliament building in Kiev, Ukraine EPA An activist sets a Ukrainian flag to the fence of Russian consulate during a protest action in Black Sea Ukrainian city of Odessa AFP/Getty Images 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 AP 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 AP Ukrainian Nationalists sign a banner with a slogan reading like 'Not retreat and not surrendering!' during their rally in front of Parliament building in Kiev, Ukraine EPA Ukrainian Nationalists attend a rally in front of Presidential office in Kiev, Ukraine EPA People attend a rally to support the Ukrainian navy after Russia seized two Ukrainian armored artillery vessels and a tug boat in the Kerch Strait , in the Black Sea port of Odessa Reuters Policemen guard at Russian consulate during a protest action in the Black Sea Ukrainian city of Odessa AFP/Getty Images Activists glue Ukrainian flag on the fence of Russian consulate in the Black Sea Ukrainian city of Odessa AFP/Getty Images Seized Ukrainian ships, small armoured artillery ships and a tug boat, are seen anchored in a port of Kerch, Ukraine REUTERS Russian jet fighters fly over a bridge connecting the Russian mainland with the Crimean Peninsula after three Ukrainian navy vessels were stopped by Russia from entering the Sea of Azov via the Kerch Strait in the Black Sea, Crimea REUTERS Russian jet fighters fly over a bridge connecting the Russian mainland with the Crimean Peninsula after three Ukrainian navy vessels were stopped by Russia from entering the Sea of Azov via the Kerch Strait in the Black Sea, Crimea REUTERS President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko (C) leading a session of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine in Kiev AFP/Getty Images Birds fly past a road-and-rail bridge, which is constructed to connect the Russian mainland with the Crimean peninsula, at sunrise in the Kerch Strait, Crimea November 26, 2018. REUTERS Ukrainian forces navy ships are seen near Crimea. The Ukrainian navy says a Russian coast guard vessel rammed a Ukrainian navy tugboat near Crimea, damaging the ship's engines and hull. AP A protestor throws a smoke grenade at the building during their rally near the Russian embassy in Kiev, Ukraine EPA Firefighters extinguish a burning car of the embassy of Russia after a protest against the seizure by Russian special forces of three Ukrainian naval ships, REUTERS 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 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 Protestors set up paper ships on the tires during their rally near of Russian embassy building in Kiev, Ukraine EPA Russian jet fighters fly over a bridge connecting the Russian mainland with the Crimean Peninsula with a cargo ship beneath it after three Ukrainian navy vessels were stopped by Russia from entering the Sea of Azov via the Kerch Strait in the Black Sea, Crimea REUTERS Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko leads the National Security and Defence Council meeting in Kiev, Ukraine EPA Ukrainian policemen guard the Russian embassy building with smoke behind during Ukrainian activists rally in Kiev, Ukraine EPA A man extinguishes a burning car of the embassy of Russia after a protest against the seizure by Russian special forces of three Ukrainian naval ships REUTERS A protester throws a smoke grenade during a rally in front of the embassy of Russia in Kiev, Ukraine AP Crimea already hosts three battalions of the anti-aircraft missile systems which have a range of up to 400km, allowing Russia to control large swathes of the skies above the Black Sea. The announcement comes after a dramatic recording suggested a Russian military ship was ordered to squash a Ukrainian boat in a maritime clash. The footage appeared to show one of their ships deliberately ploughing into the much smaller Ukrainian vessel. In the video a man can be heard shouting: Squash him, well done, squeeze him from the right... According to Ukrainian sources, six of its naval crew were wounded and 24 were detained after the Russians opened fire on the boats and seized two armoured ships and a tug. Russia has alleged Ukraine orchestrated the incident to boost the poll ratings of president Poroshenko in coming elections. A Crimean court was due to order the detention of nine of the captured Ukrainian sailors - including senior Ukrainian naval officers and at least one member of Ukraine's SBU intelligence agency - later on Wednesday A court in Simferopol, the capital of Crimea, on Tuesday ordered the other 15 Ukrainian sailors to be detained for two months pending a possible trial. TODO: define component type apester All of the sailors face jail terms of up to six years if found guilty of what Moscow says was a plot to illegally cross the Russian border by trying to pass through the Russian-controlled Kerch Strait on Sunday without advance notice and ignoring calls to stop. Ukraine says its ships did nothing wrong and have every right to use the strait, the only gateway to the Sea of Azov from the Black Sea, without Russian permission. T housands of people have been evacuated from parts of north-east Australia which has been hit by catastrophic wildfires. Firefighters in Queensland are currently tackling 138 wildfires across the state forcing the evacuation of homes and around 34 schools to be closed. The conditions have been rated as catastrophic due to gusting winds, low humidity and extremely high temperatures. Families have been warned not to go out and to keep together. Queensland Fire and Emergency Services commissioner Katarina Carroll said homes had been destroyed since Saturday in areas where the fire danger remained too high for teams to enter and assess damage. Rhonda Anderson evacuates herself and her horse to safety near Mount Larcom, Queensland. / EPA She expected that fewer than 10 homes had been lost so far. High winds, dry air and severe heatwave conditions were combining to make the fire danger extreme, with 138 blazes raging by Wednesday, Ms Carroll said. "Thunderstorms are going through those areas as we speak. There will be no rain from thunderstorms, in fact, they are adding to the problem. "We have never, ever, in this state, been in this situation before. Not at a catastrophic level and this is uncharted waters," Ms Carroll added. A water bomber helicopter returns to fill its tank in the Blackwater creek of Deepwater National Park / AFP/Getty Images The Bureau of Meteorology was forecasting weather conditions will moderate after Wednesday. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said: Tonight we all stand with Queenslanders as bushfires burn across the state, threatening homes and communities. These catastrophic fire conditions are unprecedented for the state. I ask that Queenslanders to please heed the warnings and advice of local fire authorities. He confirmed that the Commonwealth Disaster Plan has been activated and the Australian Defence Force is already providing assistance. A firefighter is seen near the bushfires in Deepwater National Park area of Queensland / AFP/Getty Images I have spoken with Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and have offered further ADF assistance and support. These will be difficult hours and days for Queenslanders. They have our thoughts and prayers, along with the men and women fighting these fires, many of whom have travelled from other States and Territories to provide assistance. According to the Guardian, there are 100 firefighters from New South Wales and 100 from South Australia joining emergency services in Queensland to tackle the fires. While another 220 have been requested from other states. D onald Trump has threatened to cancel a meeting with Vladimir Putin at a G20 summit over Russias aggression towards Ukraine. The president said he was waiting for the full report from national security about Russias capture of three Ukranian naval ships. Ukranian boats were seized, along with their crews, by Russian ships that opened fire on them near Crimea on Sunday. I dont want that aggression at all, Mr Trump told the Washington Post on Tuesday. Maybe I won't even have the meeting. An image purporting to show a clash between the Russian coast guard and a Ukrainian tugboat / AP Moscow and Kiev have tried to pin the blame on each other for the incident near Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. The US leader is due to meet Mr Putin on the side lines of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, which begins on Friday. Ukrainian government releases footage purporting to show Russian boat ramming ship The meeting will cover security, arms control and issues in the Middle East and Ukraine, a White House official told reporters. Mr Trumps latest comments came after a video of crew from the Ukranian vessels confessing to violating the border was released. Birds fly past a road-and-rail bridge, which is constructed to connect the Russian mainland with the Crimean peninsula / REUTERS Footage was distributed by Russia's main intelligence agency, the FSB, and shows interviews with three seamen. In the footage, they all admit to having violated the Russian border, an act which prompted the military response. Russia releases footage of crew members from seized Ukrainian vessel It was not immediately clear if the men were talking under duress while one of them appeared to be reading from a teleprompter. Ukraine's president Petro Poroshenko had introduced martial law after the boats were seized. Russian President Vladimir Putin (R), talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel (C) and US President Donald Trump / AFP/Getty Images This involves a military government and the suspension of ordinary law. He stated that the 30-day measure, approved by parliament on Monday evening, was to strengthen Ukraines defence against a pretty unpredictable neighbour. It has never before been imposed in Ukraine. TODO: define component type apester R ussian president Vladimir Putin has suggested Ukraines president, Petro Poroshenko, orchestrated a naval confrontation off Crimea to boost his ratings ahead of next year's elections. In his first public comments on the incident, Mr Putin said that the Ukrainian vessels had clearly been in the wrong and dismissed the clash as a minor border issue. Speaking at a financial forum in Moscow of the incident, Mr Putin said: It was without doubt a provocation. It was organised by the president ahead of the elections. The president is in fifth place ratings-wise and therefore had to do something. It was used as a pretext to introduce martial law." Ukrainian ships detained in Kerch Strait on Sunday / REUTERS He also said he still hoped to meet US president Donald Trump at the G20 summit in Argentina despite threats from the US that they would cancel it over the Ukraine incident. Some of Ukraine's Western allies have also raised the possibility of imposing new sanctions on Russia over the episode, which could deliver a blow to the Russian economy. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he was saddened by what he asserted was Washington's willingness to encourage Ukraine's "provocation". Mr Putin said the West was willing to forgive Ukrainian politicians because it bought into their anti-Russian narrative. An image purporting to show a clash between the Russian coast guard and a Ukrainian tugboat / AP Kiev has introduced martial law in parts of the country, saying it fears a possible Russian invasion. Speaking in northern Ukraine, Mr Poroshenko, who has accused Moscow of naked military aggression, talked up his country's readiness to respond to any future Russian military action. "It's important to keep our powder dry and be ready at any moment to push back the aggressor," said Mr Poroshenko, adding that he had received offers from hundreds of Ukrainian war veterans who said they were ready to return and defend the country. On Wednesday, a court in Crimea's capital Simferopol ordered nine of the 24 captured Ukrainian sailors - including senior Ukrainian naval officers and at least one member of Ukraine's SBU intelligence agency - held for a period of two months. The same court ordered the other 15 sailors on Tuesday to be detained for two months pending a possible trial. All of the sailors face jail terms of up to six years if found guilty of what Moscow says was a plot to illegally cross the Russian border by trying to pass through the strait without advance notice and ignoring calls to stop. Ukraine says its ships did nothing wrong and have every right to use the strait without Russian permission. P ardoned academic to sue UAE The British academic pardoned after being jailed for spying in the UAE plans to sue his captors, according to reports last night. Matthew Hedges, 31, was granted a presidential pardon from a life term for allegedly spying on security operations. He has since returned to Britain where he was reunited with his wife, who hired a lawyer while he was in solitary confinement. Brexit Report: No deal will mean chaos at UK ports Chaos at British ports is a "real prospect" if the UK crashes out of the European Union without a deal, a new report has warned. There is a real risk the Department for Transport (DfT) will not be ready for a no-deal scenario, MPs said. In its report, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee said the risks are severe and that time is running out to plan. Trump considers cancelling Putin talks Donald Trump has threatened to cancel a meeting with Vladimir Putin over Russias aggression towards Ukraine. The president said he was waiting for the full report from national security about Russias capture of three Ukranian naval ships. Ukranian boats were seized, along with their crews, by Russian ships that opened fire on them near Crimea on Sunday. Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine's president, introduced martial law after the dispute. Mr Trump is due to meet the Russian leader on the side lines of a G20 summit in Argentina at the weekend. Police slam courts zombie knife ruling Police officers have slammed a judges decision to allow a teenager filmed trying to smash into a car with a large knife to walk free. Joshua Gardner, 18, was filmed brandishing a so-called zombie knife as he tried to break through a car window in south London. He walked free from court yesterday on the condition he stays at home for with his mother for the next nine months. A Met Police superintendent and officials from local units across the capital were among those to hit out at the ruling. Scotland Yard officer Roy Smith said the decision does not provide any form of deterrent for those who carry knives. Netflix snap up rights to Roald Dahl classics Netflix is to create a series of shows based on Roald Dahls classic stories including Matilda, The BFG and The Twits. The streaming giant announced it has secured the rights for several of the late authors books after striking a deal with his estate. Revealing its plans yesterday, the firm said the programmes would remain faithful to the quintessential spirit of Dahls work. Pawly received: Dog lovers unhappy with pet study Scientists are facing a backlash from dog lovers who are not happy with research that found canines are not exceptional. Authors of the study were hounded on social media after publishing the research, which explored the popular pets cognitive behaviour. The experts compared dogs with other animals including cats, pigeons, hyenas and dolphins. Their study concluded: dog cognition does not look exceptional. On this day 1905: The Irish political party Sinn Fein was founded in Dublin by Arthur Griffith. 1919: Viscountess (Nancy) Astor became Britain's first woman MP, holding a safe Plymouth seat for the Tories in a by-election caused by her husband's elevation of the peerage. 1934: Winston Churchill warned that weak defences could mean that Britain could be "tortured into absolute subjection" in any war with Germany. 1967: Horseracing was suspended in Britain after an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. 1983: The government announced an end to the monopoly by opticians on the sale of glasses. M ost of us enjoy watching television programmes, streaming films or playing video games on our TVs, but we also know how important the quality of the picture and sound is. Fuzzy audio, dull colouration and slow reload rates can turn a positive experience in front of the box into a much less enjoyable activity. 4K TVs are increasingly popular now thanks to their exceptional output quality. Weve scoured the shelves to find the best 4K TVs for all tastes. First, let's clear up some frequently asked questions about 4K TVs. What is 4K TV? 4K TV is the name given to televisions that have a resolution of approximately 3840x2160 pixels. Typically, 4K TVs have better visual and audio performance than televisions with lower resolutions. Is 4K better than 1080p? Yes. For 1080p televisions (also known as Full HD TVs), the resolution is 1920x1080 pixels. This is four times less than the number of pixels that a 4K TV has, so the resolution of a 4K TV is four times better than that of a 1080p TV. Is 4K and Ultra HD the same? They are, kind of. The 4K refers to the 4000 horizontal pixel resolution of a television. However, because 4K TVs dont quite reach that resolution, the pedantic laws of accurately naming things have led to some people referring to 4Ks as Ultra HD TVs. For the sake of buying a 4K TV, both terms refer to the same thing. Sometimes, both are used. Do I need a 4K TV? 4K TVs offer a much better viewing experience than their predecessors, so if youre looking for a new television its definitely worth considering an upgrade to 4K TV. What size 4K TV is best? This is largely a matter of personal preference, but it also comes down to how much room you have and how much money you want to spend. To get the full benefit of the 4K resolution, you should look at screens that are at least 43 in size. If you want an indoor cinema, you can get screens as big as your budget! Who makes the best 4K TVs? There are many companies producing good 4K TVs, but Sony, LG and Samsung are thought of as industry leaders in this area. How much are 4K TVs? 4K TVs tend to cost upwards of 350, and to a certain degree you get what you pay for. The more you spend, the bigger the screen and the better the features are. Some 4K TVs cost more than 10,000. What features should I look for? HDR (High Dynamic Range) improves the colouring of the display and is worth having. It makes the whites brighter, the blacks darker and improves the contrast between closely-matched tones and shades, all of which make for a noticeably better and more realistic picture. HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision are types of HDR. There are also some audio enhancements that transform your average soundtrack into a soundscape. Look out for Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Atmos and Acoustic Surface Audio+. What is the difference between OLED and QLED 4K TVs? QLED TVs are backlit LED TVs that use quantum dots to improve the picture quality and colour range. OLED TVs are not backlit, but instead they have one self-lighting OLED (a tiny individual light) for each pixel. This means OLED TVs have better colour contrasts and more realistic tones. OLED TVs are also thinner and can be flexible. Are all 4K TVs smart? No, but many are. Its worth getting a smart one if you can. Where can I get 4K content? While your average TV channel doesnt' broadcast in 4K, you can get 4K content on Netflix, Amazon Video, YouTube and other streaming sites. You can also get Ultra HD Blu-ray players and discs that will work with 4K TVs. Even if you arent watching 4K content, you will find that the quality of the imaging is still improved (known as 4K upscaling). Will my 4K TV go out of date soon? No. While there are 8K TVs on the horizon (which are four times better than 4K), 4K TVs will be around for a long time. Many people still use 1080p HDTVs, and most broadcasts are in 1080p, so itll take ages for everyone to move onto (and beyond) 4K TVs. Between 350-1500 Samsung NU7500 QLED, 65 Best for: an affordable curved TV The thought of buying a curved TV might seem a bit weird, but wait until you sit in front of one to pass judgement. The rounded plane of the screen makes for a more immersive viewing experience because it matches the curved nature of your eyes. The Samsung NU7500 pairs a 65" curved screen with rich 4K Ultra HD resolution that's powered by HDR10+. This dynamic colour optimisation (including over a billion hues), combined with the immersive screen, creates smooth, realistic and highly detailed pictures that glow and leap out from the frame. Other features include access to content via Samsung's Smart Hub, voice interaction controls, Dolby Digital Plus, One Remote Control (where one remote can be used to control all smart compatible devices), cloud gaming options, tailored viewing recommendations and hidden wires. 899 | Electrical Co Op | Buy it now *Deal of the week, normally 1,299 LG B8 OLED, 55 Best for: OLED TV at a snip of the price Despite being a fraction of the cost of LGs spectacular E8, this model delivers a heck of a lot. Like the E8, it has the 4K OLED tech and stunning HDR visuals that transform dull colours and sluggish motion into sharp, vibrant, realistic content. It supports Dolby Vision and enhances sounds with Dolby Atmos to immerse you in scenes, and while the Alpha 7 processor is less advanced than the Alpha 9, its still brilliant. Theres no shortage of steaming options here. Use LGs webOS smart platform to access streaming apps, watch Freeview Play, link up to Chromecast or interact via the voice-activated Thinq AI assistance if you get lost navigating. The Picture-on-Metal design consists of a thin, light OLED screen bonded to a metal sheet for a contemporary look without bulk. 1,194 | Amazon | Buy it now Price compare at Currys here. Cello Superfast Smart TV, 43 Best for: small spaces If you really want the 4K experience but dont have the room or cash for a full-on home cinema, the UK-based manufacturing company Cello has the ideal TV for you. At 43, it is certainly big enough to watch programmes and films or play video games on. The 4K Ultra HD resolution, aided by HDR, creates great clarity and dynamic colour especially at this price point. It runs Android 7 OS and has built-in Wi-Fi, so you can download streaming apps via the Google Play Store. There are four HDMI inputs and two USB inputs, so there is room to connect multiple games consoles and other tech devices. 365 | Amazon | Buy it now Mid-range (2,000-5,000) Sony Bravia AF9 OLED, 65 Best for: immersive, realistic sound At nearly 3.5k, youd expect this mid-range television to have something spectacularly different to the rest and it does. Sony has created Acoustic Surface Audio+ technology, an innovative way of combining sound and image by using the screen as the speaker. Alongside the in-built Dolby Digital + audio, it pushes sound experiences to new levels. For example, if youre watching a car chase on the TV and a police car comes into the right-hand edge of the screen, the sound of the sirens will come from there too. Hows that for realism? The 65 thin OLED screen has 4K Ultra HD resolution, handling millions of colours enhanced by the X1 Ultimate picture processor for blur-free vibrant viewing even when it comes to live sport and fast-paced games. It has a smart Android platform giving access to Netflix, Amazon Video, YouTube, Google Play, plus it has Youview and Chromecast built into it for additional streaming. Looks-wise, it is super neat thanks to its standless body and hidden cables. 3,299 | John Lewis | Buy it now Samsung The Frame QLED, 65 Best for: a TV you can hide in style As much as a big TV is an asset to any household, they do have a tendency to dominate the room theyre in. Samsung has come up with this genius way of solving this problem. Theyve created The Frame, a fantastic wall-mounted 4K HDR TV that displays artwork when its in standby mode. It may sound like a small detail, but its thin casing and extensive, expandable library of artworks means that your living room will always be welcoming whether youre having a movie night or a tech-free dinner party. Within the in-built Samsung Art Collection, there are 100 pieces of artwork and photography, but you can buy more in the Art Store or upload your own images. The Near Invisible Optical Cable keeps things classy and aids the illusion of the TV being picture frame. Dont overlook the TVs features, though the Ultra HD 4K resolution screen powered by HDR10+ upscales the content it plays, balancing the brightness, making colours realistic and turning up the crispness. It has the Samsung Smart Hub for endless streaming options, voice assist, motion sensors, music features and One Remote Control. A fantastically unique TV. 2,199 | John Lewis | Buy it now Price compare on Amazon here. LG E8 OLED, 65 Best for: a floating cinematic screen For distraction-free viewing, the E8 ticks the boxes. It consists of a super-thin OLED thats been bonded to a transparent glass pane, so theres no dark frame or chunky casing to draw your eyes away from the on-screen action. Paired with the front-firing Dolby Atmos speaker, which picks up the faintest sounds in shows, films and games, this TV effortlessly envelopes you with sound and visuals. The sharp 4K UHD resolution and HDR colour-scape tuned by Hollywoods Technicolour bring out the darkest blacks and the brightest whites with ease, creating true-to-life tones and blur-free scenes as a given. Its clever as well as beautiful; LGs Thinq AI technology and in-built Google Assistant allows the TV to listen, think and respond to questions you ask it. You can stream easily via the in-built Freeview Play or the webOS platform, which lets you access NOW TV, Netflix, Amazon, Google Play, TalkTalk TV, Spotify or YouTube. 2,799 | Amazon | Buy it now Samsung Q9FN QLED Best for: overall performance in price bracket Samsung's flagship Q9 range does the brand proud. The 65 QLED screen delivers premium picture quality with HDR 2000 powered by HDR 10+, emphasising colours without making them gaudy and sharpening every line so that everything is just right. The 360 design means it's easy to see wherever you are in the room, and the almost bezel-less edges enable you to see as much of the screen as possible. If you like things neat, you'll love the Near-Invisible Optical Cable (goodbye, trailing wires), the One Remote Control and the One Connect Box (which you can connect devices to). You can access online content via Samsung's Smart Hub, use voice interaction to perform actions and use ambient mode to help the TV blend in with its surroundings. Samsung offer a 10-Year Screen Burn Warranty with this model, so if the worst happens (i.e. your TV dies), you'll be covered. 2,399 | John Lewis | Buy it now Top-end (5,000 and up) LG W8 OLED, 77 Best for: wafer-thin wall-mounted viewing This so-called wallpaper rightly boasts about its incredibly thin OLED panel. At under 6mm thick, it barely juts out beyond the surface of the wall its mounted onto. All the slightly chunkier stuff the tech, the speakers, the connections are compactly stored in a separate LG OLED Hub, leaving the huge TV to take centre stage. Sure, its really pricey, but this is a cinema-standard television with crystal-clear audio and visual clout. The 4K UHD resolution and HDR colours tuned by Technicolour bring content to life on the 77 OLED screen, supported by the powerful Alpha 9 processor, Dolby Atmos immersive audio and Dolby Vision compatibility. You can use the in-built smart platform to stream shows from popular apps, watch Freeview Play, interact by voice through Thinq AI, navigate with the intuitive Magic Remote and connect to your Alexa devices. If you splurge on this masterpiece, make sure you keep a few quid back for popcorn. 11,999 | John Lewis | Buy it now Sony Bravia A1 OLED, 77 Best for: sumptuous colour and epic sound While this TV is the same price as a decent second-hand car, it will make up in cinematic awe what it lacks in driving ability. It consists of an astonishingly thin OLED screen with precision 4K UHD resolution, HDR colour-scape technology, Super Bit Mapping technology for up to 64 times more colour levels and Sony's TRILUMINOS boosted display. Like the smaller Bravia, it features Sony's Acoustic Surface technology, using the screen itself as a speaker so that the sounds and the images on screen correlate with each other. The 4K X-Reality PRO and the X1 Extreme 4K HDR processor produce hyper-realistic images by restoring visual noise and tightening any blurring, which makes the TV a real treat to play single-person shooter games on. Its One Slate design keeps it distraction-free, slick and superior, while the in-built Android system and Youview Catch-Up ensures you never go without great content. 9,499 | John Lewis | Buy it now Samsung Q900 8K QLED, 85" Best for: budget-blowing, exceptional TV Strictly speaking, this TV is capable of reaching 8K resolution, four times as detailed as 4K Ultra-HD. It will still play 4K content, but itll boost it so it looks even more spectacular and true-to-life. It has over a billion colours, HDR 4000 and Direct Full Array Elite technology (meaning theres little light reflection), so it can distinguish between even the closest of shades and make everything look real. Samsungs 8K processor is powered by AI to intelligently optimise picture quality and sound, as well as suggesting content you may like. This 85 behemoth has all the usual premium Samsung features too: a Near-Invisible Optical Cable, a One Connect box and a Premium One Remote, Samsung's Smart Hub, voice interaction, Ambient Mode and a 10-Year Screen Burn Warranty. It is so expensive, but so impressive. K atie Price will reportedly declare herself bankrupt in emotional scenes on her reality show My Crazy Life. The former model, who has been facing financial turmoil for months, will reportedly reveal that she has been declared bankrupt, although her hearing is slated for December 4. According to The Sun Online, Price told the cameras: "I will be out of bankruptcy in a year. Its not that bad. "Ive got nothing to be ashamed of anymore. Loads of people go through it like me. It's just a matter of going through the motions. This is what has to be. Emotional: Katie Price reportedly addresses her financial situation in her show (Tristan Fewings/Getty Images) / Getty Images The publication also claims Price, 40, blames her famous exes including Peter Andre, Alex Reid and Kieran Hayler for her financial hardship. Price was known for funding lavish lifestyles with cars, expensive holidays and luxurious homes. She also splashed the cash on presents, including for her most recent lover Kris Boyson. Blame game: Katie Price reportedly blames her exes for her situation / Ian West/PA Archive/PA Images The source added: It all went wrong when Peter and other people stopped paying her bills and giving Katie things for free. Katie was never one to pay anything on time either. She ended up with CCJs [county court judgements] coming out of her ears. Katie Price talks about checking into The Priory Standard Online has contacted representatives for Price for comment. Prices reality show, My Crazy Life, returned earlier this month with the mum-of-five speaking openly about her battle with addiction and admission to rehab. Katie Price - in pictures 1 /47 Katie Price - in pictures Getty Images @katieprice Instagram/katieprice Katie Price: Harvey & Me Glen Gratton Jeff Spicer/Getty Images SplashNews.com @zoejamesmua PA Wire/PA Images The Adventures of Katie and Carl Fluffy style Katie at a film premiere in London in February Dave Benett Crisis talks Katie Price and Derrick Pountney after crisis talks via Showbiz Bang Loved up Katie Price with husband Kieran Hayler, who had an affair with her best friend Katie Price Twitter Image Shining in silver The model pictured at a screening of a Lego film which she attended with her children (Picture: Sean Dempsey/PA) Sean Dempsey/PA Wire Extravagant Katie Price poses with a copy of her autobiography - Love, Lipstick And Lies - in one of her famously extravagant attires (Picture: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images) Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images Angel Katie Price at aphotocall to launch her new venture KP Rocks (Picture: Ben Pruchnie/Getty Images) Ben Pruchnie/Getty Images My Little Pony Katie Price wore a strange pink horse outfit for the fifth birthday of her equestrian school PA Riding in Katie riding a horse for a book launch in London Ferdaus Shamim/Getty Images Cooling off Katie Price poses in a bikini in the I'm A Celebrity shower ITV/Rex Features Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Bongarts/Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images K ylie Jenners daughter Stormi proved shes a daddys girl after dancing and screaming along to Travis Scotts concert. The nine-month-old couldnt stop jumping up and down after spotting her famous father on a TV screen. Stormi squealed in delight as she showed off her budding musical talents. Scott shared the adorable moment on Instagram, captioning the clips: MSG ALL RAGERS INCLUDED. Proud: Kylie Jenner with her daughter / Instagram/ Kylie Jenner Fans couldnt get enough of the clip with many hailing it the freaking cutest as they begged for more videos of the famous tot. One posted: This is the cutest thing ever! A second predicted: Gonna be a rapper soon. Another wrote: Stormi Webster. Queen of Ragers. Scott welcomed his first child with Jenner in February. The couple announced the news with an adorable homemade video documenting the pregnancy which Jenner had kept private. The trio last week enjoyed their first Thanksgiving together. Jenner marked the occasion by sharing a black and white snap of them on Instagram alongside the caption: Thankful. Jenners humble soul was praised by fans on the US public holiday after she revealed she had provided food for those in need. She posted: Cant wait to eat my body weight in Thanksgiving food tomorrow. But on that note I feel very thankful I was able to provide thanksgiving meals this year to people in need of one. Its important we spread the love. Thankful for you guys. She previously volunteered on the public holiday, serving food at Los Angeles Missions annual afternoon dinner for the homeless in 2014 with then-boyfriend Tyga. V ictoria Beckham was overcome with nostalgia as she showed fans around her talent wagon while on a shoot in New York. The fashion designer channelled her inner Spice Girl as she hopped aboard the luxury vehicle. Beckham, who is working on a collaboration with Reebok, joked she hasnt had a talent wagon since shooting Spice World in 1997. We are here shooting Reebok and I have what they call a talent wagon, she said in an Instagram video. Its been years. The last time I had one of these was when we were filming Spice World. Nostalgic: Victoria Beckham on her talent wagon / Instagram/ Victoria Beckham Look at this. The VB Reebok talent wagon. So Im just here relaxing on set chilling in my talent wagon like you do. Beckham left fans disappointed last month after she revealed she would not be taking part in the eagerly awaited Spice Girls reunion as her focus is now on her fashion empire. Spice Girls 'just presumed' Victoria would not join reunion tour Addressing her decision at the Peoples Choice Awards, Beckham told E!: It's always about empowering women, making women feel the best, most beautiful and strong version of herself. With the Spice Girls it started as girl power. And now it's about empowering women through fashion. I hung up my microphone some time ago. Spice Girls - In pictures 1 /48 Spice Girls - In pictures Spice Girls at Wembley in 2019 Andrew Timms Best looks Sporty, Baby, Scary, Ginger and Posh sing as The Spice Girls PA The Spice Girls reunite for tour rehearsals Spice Girls Instagram Spice Up Your Life The Spice Girls officially launch Channel Five at Marble Arch in 1997 Rex Viva Forever The Spice Girls - Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm, Geri Halliwell, Emma Bunton and Victoria Beckham AT 'Viva Forever!' Spice Girls musical launch in 2012 The Spice Girls reunite for the first time since 2012 Victoria Beckham/Instagram Prince Harry meets The Spice Girls PA Reuniting Victoria Beckham, Melanie Chisholm, Geri Halliwell, Emma Bunton and Melanie Brown pose for a photocall at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich ahead of their news conference on June 28, 2007 in London Getty Images Doppelgangers The Spice Girls with their wax doubles at The Rock Circus In The West End, London in 1999 Jeremy Selwyn Book launch The Spice Girls launch their book 'Forever Spice' PA Summer ball The Spice Girls at Capital Radio Summer Jam, Clapham Common in 1996 Rex Patriotic Geri Halliwell at The Brit Awards in 1997 wearing her famous Union Jack dress Rex Features Movie stars Spice Girls 'Spice World' Los Angeles Premiere in 1998 Rex Going for gold The Spice Girls performing at The 2012 London Olympic Games, Closing Ceremony Rex Charitable Spice Girls pose for Comic Relief Red Nose Day Launch in 1997 Alex Lentati Iconic Auction of outfits owned by Geri Halliwell. Her Spice Girls memorabilia auctioned at Sotheby's. All proceed's for The Sargent Cancer Care For Children in 1998 David Crump/Daily Mail Onset The girls filming Spice Girls: Spice World Spice Productions Undercover Ginger and Baby Spice star in Spice Girls: Spice World Spice Productions On tour British pop band, The Spice Girls, perform the first concert of the UK leg of their world tour at the O2 Arena, 15 December 2007 Carl de Souza/AFP/Getty Images Flying high The Spice Girls pose after naming a Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 plane "Spice One" in their honor at Los Angeles International Airport, 12 December 2007 AFP/Getty Images Jet setters The Spice Girls unveiling the new name, Spice One, of a Virgin Atlantic Jet at the Flight Path Museum at Los Angeles Airport PA Model looks The Spice Girls, Emma Burton, Melanie Chisholm, Melanie Brown, Geri Halliwell and Victoria Beckham (L to R) perform during the Victoria's Secret fashion show at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California, 15 November 2007 AFP/Getty Images West End debut Melanie Chisholm, Emma Bunton, Geri Halliwell and Melanie Brown attend the press night of 'Viva Forever', a musical based on the music of The Spice Girls at Piccadilly Theatre on December 11, 2012 in London Stuart Wilson/Getty Images Selfie stick The Spice Girls: Victoria Bekcham, Melanie Chisholm, Emman Bunton, Melanie Brown and Geri Halliwell Stage stars Spice Girls - Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm, Geri Halliwell, Emma Bunton and Victoria Beckham during 'Viva Forever!' musical press night at The Piccadilly Theatre, London, Britain MTV Europe Music Awards Spice Girls at the Globe Arena in Stockholm. PA Throwback The Spice Girls: Melanie Chisholm (Sporty Spice), Emma Bunton (Baby Spice) Victoria Adams (Posh Spice) Geri Halliwell (Ginger Spice) and Melanie Brown (Scary Spice) Girl power The Spice Girls in Spice World (1997) London calling Geri Halliwell of the Spice Girls performs during the first date of their 17-date residency, part of their reunion world tour Getty Images Raising money The Spice Girls raise money for Children in Need First reunion The Spice Girls reunited in 2007 Jeremy Selwyn Fashionable flare The Spice Girls at 12th Annual Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, Kodak Theatre, Los Angeles in 2007 Spice and Vinegar Gary Lineker with the Spice Girls promote Walkers Crisps with limited edition Spice Girls range Mini me's The Spice Girls Dolls hit the market in 1997 Rex Risque Victoria Beckham (Adams) and Geri Halliwell perform with The Spice Girls in Dublin in 1999 Rex One down British pop band The Spice Girls. Posh Spice (Victoria Beckham), Sporty Spice (Melanie Chisholm), Baby Spice (Emma Bunton) and Scary Spice (Melanie Brown) Virgin Records BRIT Awards The Spice Girls perform at The Brit Awards in 2000 and win an award for thier outstanding contribution to British music Back stage snaps The Spice Girls take a twitter snap at Olympic Games London 2012 Closing Ceremony. Charming the royals Geri Halliwell of the Spice Girls greets Prince Charles at the Prince's Trust Charity Concert Gala at the Manchester Opera House Rex The Spice Girls meet Prince Charles Prince of Wales with the Spice Girls at the Royal Gala celebrating the Princes Trust 21st Anniversary PA The Spice Girls World Tour Melanie Chisholm, Victoria Beckham, Geri Halliwell, Melanie Brown perform The Spice Girls World Tour in 2008 Rex The Spice Girls at The MTV Europe Awards The Spice Girls at The MTV Europe Awards in Sweden IN 2000 Rex Award winners The Spice Girls at The Brit Awards in 1998 Rex Collecting gongs The Spice Girls at The Brit Awards in 1997 Rex With her majesty Queen Elizabeth II meeting Emma Bunton, Victoria Adams, Mel C, Geri Halliwell, Mel B of The Spice Girls at The Royal Variety Performance in 1997 Rex Film debut The Spice Girls take center stage in their feature film debut, the Columbia Pictures Presentation of 'Spice World' in 1997 Getty Images Meeting Mandela Spice Girls Mel B and Geri Halliwell meet Nelson Mandela in 1997 as part of the British Royal tour in 1997 Rex Pepsi promotions The Spice Girls promote Pepsi in 1997 Rex Geri Horner, Emma Bunton, Mel C and Mel B have regrouped for a summer UK tour next year. Mel C joked that Beckham was never actually invited to join the reunion, telling Jonathan Ross: Do you know what is actually quite funny? I saw Victoria recently and obviously weve all been in contact. She is still very much a part of the Spice Girls, she really supports us and we really support her. X -ray cameras that can reveal hidden weapons under clothes and bike stands to deter ram raiders are among the next generation of public realm defence gadgets on show in London today. More than 20 features have been built into an urban park designed by the architects of the MI6 building at the International Security Expo. The Protecting Urban Spaces installation is the centrepiece of the two-day Olympia show, featuring concealed technology such as heat-seeking cameras. The parks designer Neil Bennett, a partner at Marylebone-based Farrells, said London developers were increasingly requesting hidden defensive features. He said subtle changes to public and semi-public spaces were being built in to add security. The Total Recall-style surveillance is among more than 20 features built into an urban park designed by the architects behind the MI6 building One of the devices on show is the Argon weapon scanner, which resembles a large upturned oil drum. It sweeps passers-by for electromagnetic waves so operators can see on-screen if guns or knives are beneath their clothes. Its creators say it is able to detect metallic and non-metallic concealed contraband as small as a matchbox. Other elements of the park include facial recognition cameras that scan vehicle occupants, even through tinted glass, to flag anyone not an employee or expected visitor. A protective bin and bike stand have been reinforced and are said to be capable of withstanding a 7.5-tonne vehicle at 50mph. Another scanner works by directing a low-powered radar beam and interpreting the signal reflected off the body to expose hard objects such as suicide vests. The firm was responsible for the masterplan of the new US embassy, which includes a moat and clear line of fire against attackers. It also designed Home Office headquarters at Marsham Street, which has fountains and planters meant to deter ram raiders. Mr Bennett said developers were increasingly asking for measures to counteract moped gangs. These include chicanes disguised as hedges that prevent alleyways being used as rat runs by riders trying to flee police. He said the installation was all you would expect from a park, but with subtle changes in how furniture such as benches are made and positioned. People are wanting us to make their buildings secure, without them appearing to be secure As urban designers, we like to make places very open to the surroundings. But police will tell you theyre concerned about mopeds the trick is making a kind of crooked route sufficiently difficult for a moped, but so a pram can get through. TODO: define component type apester As youve read in several of our recent articles and reports, and elsewhere on the internet, Star Wars: Episode IX recently filmed in Jordan. But exactly who took part in that location-based shoot? We have pieced together which actors/characters we think may have taken part in the filming there through several different outlets. We dont know what planet Jordan is being used for, but our best speculation would be Jakku. Regardless of where it is, the question we are looking to answer is who was there? We think most of the gang left on the Millennium Falcon at the end of The Last Jedi may have taken part in this shoot including: Rey, Finn, Poe, Chewbacca, and C-3PO. Lets break it all down. POE AND FINN First we have earlier posts from John Boyega and also Oscar Isaacs wife, placing both actors on location in Jordan. Here is one example: So we already knew Finn and Poe were a part of shooting on location in Jordan. Who else? REY Well Daisy Ridley was photographed reportedly a day or so after they were done on set, touring Petra, Jordan, which is about 70 miles north of where they were filming in Wadi Rum Village. Our next actor gave us more of a direct confirmation he was a part of the filming at Jordan. Anthony Daniels took to Twitter today to publicize his wishes to return to the friendlier climate of Jordan compared to the rainy weather at Pinewood in England. C-3PO STAR WARS EPISODE IX SPOLER ALERT NOW IT CAN BE TOLD LEAK. DATELINE PINEWOOD. Its cold & raining. Demands are made to return to the wonderful warm planet of Jordans, Wadi Rum where cast and crew spent a glorious time in a beautiful, spectacular, thrilling setting. Or two. Anthony Daniels (@ADaniels3PO) November 28, 2018 CHEWBACCA Finally, and I need to stress again this was from a publicly shared Instagram account, the wife of Chewbacca actor Joonas Suotamo posted a photo from a tourist spot also in Petra, where Ridley was spotted. Now this is of course an assumption, but I think we can safely assume this means Joonas (therefore Chewie) was involved in the filming in Jordan. WE HAVE EVERYTHING WE NEED Collectively that places the actors who portray Rey, Finn, Poe, Threepio, and Chewbacca in Jordan for filming at this currently unknown location in the movie. Our best speculation is that this is Jakku. We know that Abu Dhabi was the host for Jakku for The Force Awakens, which filmed in 2014. Its possible regional unrest and other elements factored into Disney and Lucasfilms decision to choose another spot to film for Jakku, if indeed this shoot is for a return to that planet in Episode IX. From our article yesterday, both director J.J. Abrams and Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy spoke about the choice to film in Jordan. 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. J.J. Abrams 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. Kathleen Kennedy While this is not confirmed, and is certainly us simply piecing things together, do you think the core of our heroes are heading back to Jakku for Episode IX? The images used sourced via public posts on: Facebook and Instagram, via Reddit 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 Xinhua | Nov. 27, 2018 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. Trade, technology and inter-human relations between the UK and Romania are additional guarantees for a peaceful coexistence, British Ambassador to Romania Andrew Noble said in the beginning of a conference called "The defence and security of Europe and the Black Sea region - the UK, Romania and BREXIT." He brought to mind the terrible war that took place 100 years ago and the new nations arising after it. In this part of Europe, as he pointed out, the people who spoke Romania reunited for the first time in the modern history, after being under the rule of three different empires. Romania also gained its spot in the family of nations. After one hundred years, security and defence of peoples and our nations remained one of the cardinal duties of our governments, the British official said. Fortunately, these governments, he said, have more and better instruments at their disposal than their predecessors in 1914, in order to be able to prevent conflicts. In Europe and on the other side of the Atlantic, the multilateral inter-dependence of the international institutions, including, but without limitation to the UN, NATO, OPCW and OSCE, means an approach where all disputes can be solved if there is political will and wish to find peace. Andrew Noble said that our trade, technology and inter-human relations are additional guarantees of our peaceful coexistence. The British Ambassador pointed out that threats to peace and security continue in the present. He also talked about the recent events at the Kerch Strait, which in their turn remind us that threats to peace and security are far from being left in the past. The entry into Romania's and UK's air space in 2018 also showed that we cannot be happy with just maintaining our status quo of peace. For there are hybrid threats, sometimes with shocking consequences as in Salisbury of the UK, sometimes in damages caused by the online attacks. This is the context, showed the British official, in which the UK and Romania updated their commitment in the defence and security fields. This is the context for the conference in which the British Ambassador took part, between the British and Romanian specialists in four key-fields of defence and mutual security. In their capacity as members of the NATO club, Romania and UK are showing together what it means to bring an European contribution to the real military and security capability of NATO, pointed out Noble. In the end of his speech, the British Ambassador in Bucharest told the participants in the conference to have as active discussions as possible. He also said he is sure that the discussions at the conference, which enjoyed an active participation of an well-informed and influential audience will help ensuring peace and security on the European continent - we don't have another continent, so we need to defend the values, territories and peoples of this one. He wished everybody a day with challenging discussions and he wished all Romanians a celebration of the centennial full of joy. In the opening of the conference also delivering a speech was Minister of Defence Gabriel Les. Romania will pay special attention to the social dimension and the principles that make it - gender equality, social inclusion, occupational safety, work-life balance - when holding the six-month rotating Presidency of the EU Council in the first half of 2019, Romania's Deputy Prime Minister Ana Birchall told the Women Leaders Global Forum (WPL). According to a government press statement, Birchall attended the Women Leaders Global Forum (WPL) in Reykjavik, Iceland, on Monday and Tuesday, that aimed to address the role and involvement of women in a digitised and interconnected society. In her speech, Birchall delivered a message from Romania's Prime Minister Viorica Dancila regarding the priorities in gender policies that Romania will pursue when assuming the rotating Presidency of the EU Council on January 1, 2019. "Romania will pay special attention to the social dimension while holding the Presidency of the EU Council and its principles: gender equality, social inclusion, occupational safety, and work-life balance. Gender equality is important to us as individuals, it is also essential to the well-being of our societies, and it is the powerful communities that promote and advocate that every citizen can make a difference. Balance between men and women is an essential feature of all stable and transparent democracies. As well as encouraging economic development, it promotes general well-being and leads to a more inclusive and fairer Europe for both women and men," said Birchall. She added that an important objective of the Romanian Presidency of the EU Council will be "to ensure equal opportunities for women and men on the labour market by reducing the gender pay gap and by implementing measures to ensure a balance between family life and work," stressing at the same time that "the principle of equal pay for work of equal value is a gender policy that must be applied with priority." The event was attended by more than 400 femalepoliticians from over 100 countries: heads of state or government, ministers, lawmakers, mayors, as well as numerous experts, representatives of international organisations and opinion leaders from academia, business and civil society. Birchall also attended an official dinner extended by Iceland's President Gudni Thorlacius Johannesson to the forum attendees, and had a meeting with Katrin Jakobsdottir, Prime Minister of Iceland, as well as with Gudlaugur Thor Thordarson, Iceland's Foreign Affairs Minister, to discuss items of interest on the European agenda, including the priorities of the Romanian Presidency of the EU Council. At the same time, issues related to NATO co-operation and various multilateral formats were discussed, as well as the very important role of a solid transatlantic relationship. On the side-lines of the forum, Birchall had a meeting with Deputy Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OCDE) Mari Kiviniemi, emphasising that joining the OECD is "one of the priority objectives of Romania's." Birchall also met Jewel Howard-Taylor, who is the Vice-President of the Republic of Liberia, the Senate President and Chairperson of the Senate Health and Social Welfare Committee on Gender, Women and Children to discuss the latest development in the bilateral relationship between Romania and Liberia. She voiced the Romanian government's desire to resume the traditional relations with the sub-Saharan African states, as well as to promote Romania's bid for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council. Moldovan officials intend to "cross the Prut" with the Unirii (Union) Motorway running from Targu Mures to Iasi in Romania and on to Ungheni in Moldova, which they want to further extend to reach Chisinau, Moldova's capital city. In this sense a bridge in Ungheni is to be built under a key joint project with Romania, Moldova's Minister of Economy and Infrastructure Chiril Gaburici told AGERPRES in a recent interview. He spoke about the bilateral projects established at a joint meeting of the governments of Romania and Moldova held in Bucharest last week, including the construction of a gauge for the Moldovan railways, cancelling phone roaming charges, which could take place in the first half of 2019, as well as tourism co-operation. The minister also said that by the end of 2019 the Iasi-Ungheni pipeline could become operational so that it could start pumping out gas from Romania. AGERPRES: Last week there was a joint meeting of the governments of Romania and the Republic of Moldova. What were the main projects and collaborative directions established at that meeting? Chiril Gaburici: First of all, I would like to mention the Joint Committee's meeting of November 14-15, 2018, where a lot of work was done, and colleagues from both sides prepared everything for this joint government meeting. There are a few large projects, I would call grandiose, that will reflect the co-operation and involvement of both countries, both Moldova and Romania. Firstly, we are talking about Moldova's railways and the missing European track gauge in the Republic of Moldova, and we initiated a project that would unite the Republic of Moldova with Romania or with Europe. So, building a track gauge would be one of the projects. We discussed several bridges that would unite the Republic of Moldova and Romania, and one of them is the bridge in the Ungheni region, which is to link together the Targu Mures-Neamt-Iasi-Ungheni motorway. This is a very, very large infrastructure project. There is also the continuation of repairs of kindergartens. Repair of several cultural facilities was also discussed. We had discussions about streamlining border crossing; we also discussed tourism. In Romania, there are very many tourist trails and we want to come with a few trails of our that we want to add to the package of tourist routes that are in Romania. And many, many other projects were discussed. AGERPRES: Coming back to the track gauge project. Where does funding come from? Will Romania also have a contribution to this? Chiril Gaburici: It is a very expensive project, a very big project, and we, both countries, will try to make use of grants and funding, which is going to happen in the period immediately ahead. Now we have work to do, we have to get all the necessary materials ready. This is an idea that has been backed up by both parties and it is important that we do it. We all know what happens when you go by train to Iasi or to Bucharest. You have to stay at the border for a good amount of time because there is a different gauge ahead of the train. We will work; we will prepare all the materials so we can apply for grants and funding. AGERPRES: In February, a national election will be held in Moldova. Can these projects no longer happen if there is a change? Chiril Gaburici: No. They are very important projects to every Moldovan citizen and such projects must have continuity. AGERPRES: At the joint government meeting you also discussed the cancellation of roaming charges. Since when might this happen? Chiril Gaburici: We also signed a declaration between both parties. I want to tell you that we thought we could apply local roaming charges as early as this year, except that there were some additional discussions between Romanian officials and communications operators and it took us some time to solve these additional questions and discussions, and reach a common denominator that could satisfy all the players and so we can implement it. I want to let you know that on December 1 we will have free calls between Moldova and Romania. This will be a first test with operators on this topic. All operators are available. Now the agencies are going to document all this initiative. But let me get back to your question about when this may happen ... We want in the first half of 2019 to have these preferential charges, or, as we call them in the ministry, local call charges for citizens of the Republic of Moldova in Romania and vice versa, and Romanians in the Republic of Moldova can make calls at their local charges. AGERPRES: As far as tourism is concerned, talks were been conducted at the Spring Travel Show in Chisinau regarding the 'Trail of Voivode Stefan cel Mare" (Stephen the Great) and "The Wine Road." Are there any other projects under consideration? Chiril Gaburici: First of all, these two projects, these two trails, are quite important routes. Little by little, we are developing such packages for tourists, because we did not have them in this form. We, both countries, will try to capitalise on our being neighbours and on the fact that there are some very good offers of us for those who are already buying tourist packages in Romania and vice versa. When tourists come to us, we will present and promote the tourist routes in Romania. There was another thing discussed: this summer I had a meeting with my Romanian colleagues from the Ministry of Tourism. They unveiled to us one of the projects to be conducted next year. It is a so called 'digital map of tourist attractions.' And we want our place on the Romanian digital tourist map. Let the tourist digital map of the Republic of Moldova be added to it, with our places, our tourist attractions, our description, etc. We want to do it together and we were promised that our sub-project will be included in the project of our colleagues in Romania, so that we will also have a digital map for all who visit us and for all tourists visiting Romania. AGERPRES: Romania and the Republic of Moldova have joint energy projects as well, such as the Iasi-Ungheni gas pipeline. When do you expect gas imports from Romania will start? Chiril Gaburici: We have the contract signed under an agreement and based on the promises and a time plan, the time frame for the works of our colleagues at Transgaz. By the end of 2019, the Iasi-Ungheni pipeline should become operational, functional, so that we may import gas from Romania. AGERPRES: You are importing gas from Russia. You said at some point that you want to give up on this dependence ... Chiril Gaburici: We are importing virtually everything. I have not said in any interview that we would refuse [gas from Russia]. I said we'd choose the best offer. And with new alternatives we will be able to stay at the table and negotiate a very good price and conditions for us, for the Republic of Moldova, so that the ultimate beneficiary will be the citizens of the Republic of Moldova who pay the bill every month. AGERPRES: In Romania, the construction of the Union Motorway (Targu Mures-Iasi-Ungheni) has been approved. Could this be extended to include Chisinau? Chiril Gaburici: We want this motorway to cross the Prut. And I mentioned this bridge, which is one of the key projects in the relationship with my colleagues and partners in Romania, and that bridge is to be connected with a motorway that will link Chisinau to Iasi and Targu Mures. AGERPRES: How many Romanian companies are there in Moldova? Chiril Gaburici: There are more than 1,700 Romanian companies registered in the Republic of Moldova and Romania is Moldova's second largest external investor. AGERPRES: What can you say about bilateral trade? Chiril Gaburici: Our business relationship is growing. We have discovered the Romanian market and we have a very big opening. A report coming from the Ministry of Economy shows that 69 percent of exports go to the European Union. Romania ranks 1st among the EU destinations. AGERPRES: At what stage is the consolidation of Moldova's banking system after the "theft of a billion" scandal? Chiril Gaburici: I can tell you in general terms that the banking system has recovered. A lot of work has been done. And proof is the involvement of foreign investors in the banking system. We have Banca Transilvania operating in the Republic of Moldova, we have the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development operating in the Republic of Moldova, we also have discussions with other players in the field, other international banks that show interest in the Moldovan banking system. No bank at this level will enter a rotten system that does not work. Now that they see that things are standing in their right place, that rules are very clear and respected, they show interest. AGERPRES: These days the Moldova Business Week forum is held in Chisinau. What are the priority areas where you want to attract investment? Chiril Gaburici: We are very open. We are ready to look at various possibilities and opportunities, but we have some priority segments. It is the agrarian segment, the processing of agricultural produce, and the IT field, the energy system and, why not, we see great potential in processing, or production if we are talking about industry, so that later on we can go to markets outside the Republic of Moldova. We, being a small country, have succeeded in concluding free trade agreements with many countries, which gives all those who produce something in the Republic of Moldova the opportunity to have access to an extraordinary high number of potential customers. And we are talking about the countries of the European Union, about the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States, we are talking about Turkey and we are now in negotiations with China. AGERPRES: What are your fortes to attract investors? Chiril Gaburici: The tax policy of the Republic of Moldova compared with other countries in the region, geographical location. We are very well placed and that serves us as an asset. Another argument is the free trade agreements and the presence of the countries where we could export products manufactured in the Republic of Moldova. AGERPRES special correspondent Nicoleta Gherasi reports: In the 10 years since Romania's EU accession, the Agency for Payments and Intervention in Agriculture (APIA) has handled over 23 billion euro worth of European and national funds, with the annual absorption rate of EU funds exceeding 96 pct, APIA General Manager Adrian Pintea told a debate organized on Wednesday as part of the Moldova Business Week. "Every year APIA receives on average 900,000 applications for a surface of more than 9.5 million hectares and these applications are all being processed by APIA staff. There is a high amount of funding and staffing matches these figures. APIA currently employs 4,800 people," Pintea said. He pointed out that back in 2007 APIA was running less than 10 instruments to support Romanian farmers, but with the implementation of the new common agricultural policy, there are over 100 payment schemes in place for farmers since 2015.Since 2007, after Romania's EU accession, APIA has been implementing schemes and support measures for farmers with funding from two European sources: the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF), which is implemented strictly by APIA, and which provides direct payments, market measures, measures for the promotion of agricultural products; and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), through which APIA manages the measures devolved under the National Rural Development Program. Apart from these two European funds, we also have a substantial amount from the national budget, from where the transitory aid and national state aid is disbursed. In the period 2007 - 2014, APIA has disbursed 7.38 bln euro of the allocation of 7.71 billion euro via EAFG, and the financial allocation for the 2015 - 2020 financing period was in excess of 11 billion euro; up until now payments performed stand at over 5 billion euro. As for the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, we had allocations worth 3 billion euro for devolved measures in the first financing period, and payments of 2.940 billion euro; for the new financing period we have 3.11 billion euro in allocations and payments so far exceed 1.350 billion euro, the APIA head explained.Adrian Pintea also spoke about co-work with the Republic of Moldova's Agency for Intervention and Payments for Agriculture under a cooperation protocol initialed in 2010 and renewed in spring 2018, aimed at the exchange of experience and best practices.The fifth edition of the Business Week is taking place in Chisinau November 27 - 29, organized by the Investment Agency, under the aegis of the Government of the Republic of Moldova; the event intends to establish new, long-lasting and transparent commercial relations with partners worldwide, with about 1,000 participants from 53 countries attending. Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dancila on Tuesday met with a delegation of Japanese businessmen, who are paying a visit to Romania as part of a tournament in the region of the Japanese External Trade Organization (JETRO), in which context she presented the advantages offered by the Romanian investment climate. According to a press release of the Government, the delegation includes representatives of 25 prestigious Japanese companies, specialized in various fields of activity, such as finances, trade, infrastructure, computer science and communications, food industry, tourism. "During the meeting, Prime Minister Viorica Dancila showed the advantages of the Romanian investment milieu, inviting the companies participating in the delegation to join the important Japanese community already present in Romania. She highlighted the fact that Japan is the main Asian investor in Romania and that the Japanese companies operating in our country contribute 10 per cent to the Romanian exports to the European Union," reads the abovementioned release. Trouble has been brewing in the Sea of Azov all year. It started with Ukraines seizing a Russian fishing boat and detaining its crew in March. The Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko canceled the Friendship Treaty with Russia. After that he has accepted surplus US naval vessels to prop up a navy that exists in name only. This is all in response to Russias completing the Kerch Strait bridge which Russia can use to block access through. The Kerch strait is Russian territory and, by international law, Russia can limit access to the Sea of Azov. So, this weekends incident in which a tug was rammed, ships fired upon and seized by Russia, ultimately was a proper and legal response to a clear provocation because the Ukrainian military ships refused to announce their intentions. Lets not beat around the bush here. This incident is meant to justify further antagonism between the West and Russia on the eve of the G-20 and the planned meeting between Presidents Trump and Putin. It also was meant to enflame Ukrainian nationalism and drum up support for Poroshenko who is trailing badly in the polls as we approach March elections. Declaring martial law so as to potentially suspend those election, the US satrap is raising the stakes on Russia to it finally responding to these repeated provocations. At the same time the Ukrainian Army unleashed the heaviest shelling of the Donbass contact line near Gorlovka in years. There are a number of different angles on this incident and how it will be used to increase tensions between the West and Russia. Russia is officially taking the position that Poroshenko is doing this to keep his Western backers happy who have dumped billions into him and his government to keep Ukraine a festering wound on Russias border. It is also a desperate attempt to prop up this failing government and potentially suspend Marchs elections. While I am certainly sympathetic to that position, it is also the least interesting part of it because it is so blatantly obvious. I think the deeper gambit here has to do with Poroshenko ending the Friendship Treaty. According to Rostislav Ishchenko ending the treaty works only in Russias favor as it removes the permanence of the boundary between Russia and Ukraine. In effect, it opens up the path to Russia to recognize the breakaway republics of Lugansk and Donetsk. But, its more than that because it also opens up the argument that the Sea of Azov is now International Waters since the border is in dispute. This allows for legal maneuvering by Europe and the US through the UN to find Russia in violation of Ukrainian vessels right of passage. Im not saying this is the case, being no legal scholar on this, but this looks the most likely tack to take to sell the world further on the evil, expansionist Russia narrative. And that argument can hold weight because no one recognizes Crimea as part of Russia, officially. The UN Security Councils usual suspects Europe and the US backing Ukraine on this issue was wholly predictable. And the question now will be whether the US got its casus belli to try and force NATO ships into the Sea of Azov under the pretext of keeping the peace in International Waters. Former British MP George Galloway, writing for RT, suspects this may simply be a Wag the Dog moment for not only May but French Poodle Emmanuel Macron and Trump with his Mueller troubles. Invoking Tennysons Charge of the Light Brigade Galloway muses. 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. I would go even further at least as it regards Theresa May. This provocation occurred in concert the announcement of British forces being sent to Ukraine next year. With the May government betraying the British people over Brexit with her awful deal, continuing the distraction of evil Russia is one way to keep support from failing further. Because, deal or no deal, May is finished once were past this and like her accomplishing her mission to betray Brexit, setting NATO on a collision course with Russia is more possible by having British forces on the ground. All manner of false flags can be ginned up to saddle any incoming Labour government with. Going back to the transition period between the outgoing Barack Obama and the incoming Trump everything imaginable was done to poison Trumps early days as President. The idea that Trump and Putin could establish normal relations was anathema. Hes been bogged down ever since. And who was behind that? British and American Intelligence along with the judiciary who today are slowly being pulled into the limelight of their corruption. This is all part of a carefully stage-managed plan. Those who cling to power do so out of desperation and will use every trick and point of leverage they have to remain where they are. In that respect Poroshenko is no different than anyone else. He knows if he loses power he will be expendable, to be thrown to the wolves while the US and Europe move to back the next quisling presiding over Kiev. There doesnt seem to be much on hope on the horizon regardless of the elections. The big question at this point is whether Ukraine as a neocon project to destroy Russia is still worth the trouble. Thats what Poroshenko and those behind him hope is the case. Im not convinced they have enough support to keep this up, given the tepid response from Europe. If no sanctions are added to Russia over this incident and NATO is not dispatched to calm things down in the Sea of Azov then this was nothing more than an attempt by Poroshenko to derail elections and rally Ukrainian nationals. The Verkovna Rada cut his martial law demand down to 3o days from 60 to ensure elections happen on time. But looking ahead to the G-20, Trump will be saddled with this incident precluding finding any common ground with Putin over anything important. The two need to work out a plan for Syria, Korea, Japan and Iran and now were talking about Ukraine. So, the days pass and nothing of substance changes. Putin knows time is on his side while those arrayed against Russia become increasingly desperate to justify its destruction to a tired and skeptical world. Caitlin JOHNSTONE A transcript of exchanges between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin has been leaked to National News Conglomerate by an anonymous source within the Kremlin. We here at NNC have confirmed the authenticity of this document using the same rigorous verification process weve been using to authenticate the evidence for all our other reporting on Russias involvement in the 2016 US elections over the last two years. These verification methods include hunches, gut intuitions, and an introspective assessment of the way our feelings feel. The following exchanges revealed in this transcript provide the clearest evidence yet that the President of the United States has been in collusion with the Russian government for years. This introduction has been authored by the editorial board of the National News Conglomerate. Obey. ~ 11/9/2016 Trump: I have done as you commanded, my dominant and all-powerful lord. I have conspired with your hackers to steal the election, and now Im going to be president! I want to thank you for not releasing that video footage of those Russian prostitutes I hired to urinate on a bed the Obamas once slept in. If that had come out it would have offended and alienated a lot of people, which is something I never normally do. Putin: Yes that is an old KGB tactic called kompromat, a word which only extremely intelligent people know about. Keep this line of communication open. As long as you do as I command, your pee pee tape will remain secret. Trump: One thing Im curious about though my lord, if you dont mind my asking. If you already had an army of hackers targeting Democratic Party emails, why did you need my help? Couldnt you just have hacked the emails and published them on your own? Why did you need me to interact with them at all? Putin: Moral support, mainly. We dont need to get into specifics. Trump: Oh okay. ~ 1/20/2017 Trump: Im in! Whew! I was really worried that leaked dossier would be the end of me! What are my instructions, my lord? Putin: Begin introducing racism and division to the United States. America has never experienced these things before, and it will shock and disorient them. With the US divided against itself, your nation will be far too weak to stand against my plans of total world domination. Trump: Thats a really tall order! America has always been a harmonious place where everyone gets along up until today. Ill try my best though. Anything else? Putin: Yes, make them distrust your nations large media outlets and convince them that the US intelligence community is often dishonest. Trump: That will be really hard because those institutions have always been trusted for their unparalleled integrity. But your wish is my command, oh lord. ~ 4/7/2017 Putin: Bomb a Syrian airbase. Trump: What? Really? Arent they, like, your allies? Putin: Exactly. This will throw inquisitive minds off the scent. We cant have them finding out about that pee tape. Trump: Are you sure? Some people are saying that chemical attack looks like it could have been perpetrated by the many terrorist factions in Syria and not the government. Putin: Who cares? Have you seen how relentless theyve been in exposing us?? Have you never watched Rachel Maddow? That woman is a psychic bloodhound, masterfully sniffing out the truth at every turn! We cant afford to take chances. Do as I say. Trump: Yes sir. Putin: And see if you can arrest that WikiLeaks guy. ~ 5/14/17 Trump: Hey do you want me to do anything about Montenegros addition to NATO? Putin: No. NATO expansion is good. Trump: Uhhh okay. ~ 6/28/17 Trump: Who do you want tapped for Ukraine envoy? Putin: Kurt Volker. Trump: Volker? He hates you! Hes like the biggest Russia hawk ever. Putin: We still need to throw the Russiagaters off the scent. Were playing 3-D chess here. This is high-level disinformation, or dezinformatsiya as very smart people call it. I want as many Russia hawks in your administration as possible. Trump: 3-D chess? Alright. I guess you know what youre doing. ~ 8/30/17 Putin: Shut down the Russian consulate in San Francisco and throw out a bunch of diplomats. That will confuse the hell out of them. ~ 11/21/17 Putin: Now approve the sale of arms to Ukraine. Not even Obama would do that. This will throw them off the trail for sure. ~ 1/1/18 Putin: Happy new year. Force RT and Sputnik to register as foreign agents. ~ 1/29/18 Putin: Make sure your Nuclear Posture Review greatly escalates its aggressive posture toward Russia. ~ 2/14/18 Putin: Happy Valentines Day. Dont worry about those Russians your guys killed in Syria. ~ 2/19/18 Putin: Send a fleet of war ships to the Black Sea. ~ 3/25/18 Putin: Better expel a few dozen diplomats over the Skripal thing. ~ 4/5/18 Putin: Sanction a bunch of Russian oligarchs. ~ 4/10/18 Putin: Bomb Syria. Trump: What?? Again? Putin: Yes. Trump: What the hell, man? Whyd you even recruit me if youre just going to have me do everything all the Russia hawks want? Putin: Well, you know how I told you we were playing 3-D chess against the Russiagate investigation? Trump: Yeah? Putin: Well that wasnt enough. Now were playing 4-D chess. Trump: Fine, whatever, I dont care. Just dont release my pee tape. ~ 7/17/18 Trump: Oh man. Theyre really making a major fuss about that summit. What should I do? Putin: Play it cool. Dont let them know about our secret diabolical plot. Trump: Right. Remind me what that was again? Putin: Make Jim Acosta feel really, really sad. ~ 9/2/18 Putin: Have you arrested Julian Assange yet? Trump: Working on it. ~ 10/20/18 Putin: I like John Boltons idea. Pull out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. ~ 11/25/18 Putin: Make sure your administration loudly and aggressively backs Ukraine in our Kerch Strait spat. Trump: OMFG this is getting too weird. Are you just trolling me? What the hell is this? Trump: Hello? Trump: Are you there? Trump: Answer me! Putin: 5-D chess. medium.com Donald Trump is attempting to do something that no previous recent president of the United States has attempted. Trump is trying to abrogate longstanding legal international treaties signed by some of his predecessors with sovereign Native American tribes. The Trump administration is using a requirement that Medicaid recipients work in return for health benefits to deny Native American tribes the right to govern themselves as sovereign entities. The Trump administration is denying an exemption for the work requirement for tribal nations by reclassifying Native Americans as a racial group subject to federal law, not as separate sovereign nations bound by distinct tribal laws. Trumps move against tribal sovereignty is part of the overall transformation of the Republican Party into a far-right Trump cult that advances racist policies. Trump has provided impetus to the marginalization of tribal sovereignty by repeatedly calling Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, who hails from Oklahoma, formerly known as the Indian Territory, by the racist pejorative, Pocahontas. The Republicans also engaged in voter suppression of Native American tribal members in North Dakota by requiring new anti-tribal identification cards in order to register to vote. The decision played a part in the defeat of Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp in her race for re-election in North Dakota. Treaties signed between the United States government and sovereign Native tribes are protected in the US Constitution, a document that the Trump administration has relegated to the waste bin. The Constitutions supremacy clause in Article VI states: This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding. It is the supremacy clause which establishes the US treaties with the tribal nations as sacrosanct and inviolable, even by a fascist-oriented demagogue like Trump. Mr. Trumps antipathy toward tribal sovereignty stems from his belief that it was the opening of casinos on sovereign tribal reservations throughout the United States that helped drive his casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey out of business. In fact, Trumps casinos were plagued by mismanagement at the top meaning Mr. Trump and his top executives and close ties to organized crime syndicates in Atlantic City and Philadelphia. These factors were as much responsible for Trumps casino failures as was the competition from Native American gaming complexes. Nevertheless, Trump railed against Indian gaming, telling radio host Don Imus in 1993, I might have more Indian blood than a lot of the so-called Indians that are trying to open up reservations. Its a joke. Two senators condemned Trumps remarks about Native Americans. One was Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii. The other was Senator John McCain, a man who would later clash with President Trump on several issues. However, Trump had no intention of competing with Indian casinos. He bought off a New Jersey Democratic Senator, Robert Torricelli, who introduced a bill in Congress that would forbid tribes from opening casinos in New Jersey unless they were in Atlantic City. Torricellis bill was nicknamed the Donald Trump Protection Act. Mr. Trump has long disparaged Native Americans. In 1993, when plans were afoot to build a Native American casino in Connecticut, Trump told the Imus program, I think if youve ever been up there [Connecticut], you would truly say that these are not Indians. One of them was telling me his name is Chief Running Water Sitting Bull, and I said, Thats a long name. He said, Well, just call me Ricky Sanders. So, this is one of the Indians. Trumps use of the pejorative Pocahontas in referring to Elizabeth Warren did not start with her. His racism has been on full display for decades. Mr. Trumps vindictiveness against Native Americans is on full display with his attempt to whittle away tribal sovereignty rights by refusing to grant the Medicaid work exemption. This is only a first step toward his final goal of trashing the tribal treaties, thus opening up sovereign territory to exploitation by oil companies, mining operations, and real estate developers. It is not coincidental that Trumps favorite president is Andrew Jackson, the man responsible for genocidal war crimes against Native Americans and the forced relocation of tribes to the Indian Territory of Oklahoma during the infamous Trail of Tears. Trump, trying to emulate Jackson, recently grabbed 85 percent of the Bears Ears and 50 percent of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in Utah, both sacred to Native American peoples. Trump hand over the seized land to uranium mining companies and natural gas fracking firms. Trumps approval of the Keystone XL pipeline ran counter to protests from Native American tribes in Montana and South Dakota that were impacted by the project. Trumps ethics-conflicted Interior Secretary, Ryan Zinke, wants to eliminate trust provisions for Native American lands. A hallmark of a fascist regime is the elimination of sub-national centers of sovereignty. The Trump administration, while paying lip service to states rights, especially when it comes to voter disenfranchisement, institutionalized racism, and gun rights, is less inclined to support the rights of states to legalize marijuana, abortion, and euthanasia. The Trump administration has also sharply curtailed self-government in American territories like Puerto Rico, Guam, the US Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Northern Marianas. This grab for unitary executive power is also being felt by tribal governments. Native Americans, many rejecting US citizenship, are being forced to assimilate into Trumps America First nationalist state. Rather than assimilate into the United States, and thus lose what remains of their cultural and linguistic identities, Native Americans have, over the past several decades, attempted to break from dictates from Washington and its proto-colonialist Bureau of Indian Affairs. Native Americans, refusing to accept American citizenship, have traveled abroad on tribal passports. The Onondaga Nation of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederation and the Hopi Nation have issued passports that have been recognized by the US State Department, the United Nations, and immigration authorities in Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, Russia, Australia, Libya, and Japan. The Kickapoo Nation, the Cherokee Nation, and the Tohono OOdham Nation have also implemented passport/international travel card systems. In addition, diplomatic passports used by native Hawaiians representing the Kingdom of Hawaii (and who reject American citizenship) have been recognized by Switzerland, other European countries, and Central American states. In 2009, the Lakota Sioux Nation declared its independence from Washington and its leader, Russell Means, was received at the embassies of Chile, Venezuela, Bolivia, and South Africa in Washington. The Lakota Sioux also requested diplomatic recognition and announced plans to issue passports. The Trump administration has run roughshod over the Tohono OOdham nation, which lies astride the US-Mexican border. Their nation now stands to have a Trump-initiated border wall bisect it, which will prevent the tribe unfettered access within the sovereign reservation. Trump and his cronies are treating the Tohono OOdham in the same ruthless fashion as Israels behavior toward the Palestinians, with the Israeli Separation Wall dividing Palestinian villages from one another. Mr. Trumps billionaire financial supporters like casino moguls Sheldon Adelson and Steve Wynn, have little time for Indian casinos eating into their profit shares. Floridas incoming racist governor, Ron DeSantis, a Trump supporter, may make a move against the Seminole Nations and other tribal casinos in the state. This showdown will not come without a fight. The Seminoles and allied tribes never signed peace treaties with the United States. The Miccosukee Nation, a Seminole sub-nation, continues to exist on a reservation bordering Everglades National Park in southern Florida. The unofficial capital is the Tamiami Trail Reservation. One thing that makes the Miccosukee Nation stand out from other tribal nations is the rightful absence of the US flag anywhere on the reservation. The Miccosukee flag of horizontal bands of white, black, red, and yellow is ubiquitous and a welcome sight in place of that "other flag" of red, white, and blue, the one that represents to Native Americans, the genocide of native peoples. Mr. Trumps days of making jokes about Native Americans and threatening their tribal sovereignty may be coming to an end. That is, if New Mexicos newly-elected Native American Democratic Representative Deb Haaland has anything to say about it. She is a member of the Pueblo of Laguna tribe and a 35th-generation New Mexican and has no time for Trumps racal stereotyping of Native Americans. She will be joined in Congress by newly-elected Democratic Representative Sharice Davids of Kansas, a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, and a third Native American, Xochitl Torres Small, another newly-elected Democrat from New Mexico. These Native American congresswomen will be in no mood for Mr. Trumps jokes or slurs. More than 100 people were injured as a result of a chemical attack in Aleppo on Nov. 24. The Syrian government asked the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to send a fact-finding mission to the city. Evidently the rebels were responsible. The Wests reaction has been surprising. Unlike in previous instances, the West has stayed mum instead of creating an uproar after the attacks and blaming Syria without any sort of thorough investigation to prove its guilt. When rebel-controlled areas came under chemical attacks, Western leaders raised a hue and cry, but they more or less shrugged it off when civilians living in Aleppos government-controlled areas became the targets shot by 120-mm mortars firing chlorine-filled rounds. The shelling came from Idlib the province where the remaining rebels are based. There is no way the Syrian government troops could have been the perpetrators. Nobody would believe a story claiming that they attacked their own forces so deep behind their own lines. Russia and Syria are proud of the fact they have established peace in Aleppo, and they have no interest in disturbing it. Neither the US nor its comrades-in-arms the UK and France is launching missile and air attacks to strike rebel-held positions in Idlib. And no one is rushing toward international podiums to do any finger-pointing. No statements have been issued from either Washington or Brussels as of Nov. 27. The silence is deafening. Only French President Macron has announced that his country is condemning the use of chemical weapons in general and in the Syrian city of Aleppo in particular. Some time ago, Paris was vigorously advocating for the Wests intervention in Syria. It joined the US military actions against Syrian government forces. French special forces operate side-by-side with their American counterparts there. The French president has always expressed his indignation and condemnation of the Syrian government for the things it has not done. This time he failed to castigate the radicals in Idlib for the crime they really did commit. It was Russian forces who attacked the terrorist positions from where mortars were firing chemical rounds, according to intelligence sources. The Russian Air Force prevented another chemical attack in order to protect civilians. Russian and Syrian medical personnel saved human lives by rapidly coming to their aid. Syria and Russia joined efforts in an investigation to produce proof that it was Hayat Tahrir al-Sham militants (the former Jabhat al-Nusra) who perpetrated this war crime. Russia had warned that the White Helmets were preparing to stage such an attack while freely operating in the terrorist-controlled areas. They had been painted in the West as human-rights defenders until their group was exposed as terrorist collaborators. Interestingly, the group had always operated in areas controlled by the extremists, never in zones held by the so-called moderate opposition. But the question is why were the Russian warnings ignored? Another question what will the OPCW do after it has acquired new powers to hand down verdicts about who is to blame? Russian experts are already there investigating and producing tangible results, while that global watchdog is not sure if it is safe enough for a team to be sent to Aleppo! Even if it goes in, itll have lost too much time to be able to conduct an effective investigation. The way to do it is to arrive on the scene quickly and gather evidence. It has not done this. Will it cooperate with the Russian military as it should? After all, Russia has hard evidence it can produce, otherwise it would not have attacked Idlib and breached the ceasefire accord. It protected the civilians in Aleppo knowing perfectly it would have to justify its actions. In any event, the chemical attack in Aleppo is an acid test that will demonstrate the OPCWs ability to beef up its credibility as an international body empowered with the authority to assign blame. The inspectors did not travel to Syrias Shayrat air base to conduct an inspection after the Khan Sheikhoun chemical attack last year, nor did they go to see with their own eyes what really happened in Douma, where a chemical attack took place in April. Itll have to behave more responsibly this time, even if its own safety is not guaranteed. The idea behind the attack was to provoke a clash between Turkey, which is responsible for the situation in Idlib, and the Russian-backed Syrian government that is defending Aleppo. But those plans fell apart when they were exposed by Russian intelligence. The attack was not unexpected. And there was one other thing that was exposed as a result the duplicity of the West. Photo: Twitter China recently revealed a new loitering missile, the CM-501XA that can stay in the air long enough (30 minutes or more) for the operator to spot targets for non-loitering CM-501 missiles to be fired at. Loitering missiles also carry a warhead and can also hit a target before they run out of airtime. The CM-501 system appeared after Israel revealed details of their Spike NLOS and Jumper missiles. The Chinese version fired 150 kg (330 pound) missiles carried nine (3x3) to a box used for storage and firing. One truck carried two of these boxes while the other Hummer like vehicle contained the missile operator. The original CM-501G missile had a range of 70 kilometers and has been replaced by the lighter CM-501GA with a range of 40 kilometers. The CM-501GX is more like a miniature cruise missile with pop-out wings and a small jet engine. The CM-501 was always offered in naval as well as land versions. The effectiveness of missiles like the CM-501 was demonstrated during the 2014 Israeli-Hamas War when it was revealed that a unique Israeli artillery unit, Meitar, fired over 250 Tamuz guided missiles. What made this special was the Tamuz, with a range of 25 kilometers, has a radio link and a camera in the nose that enables trained operators to drive the missile to a very specific target. This could be a moving vehicle, or a window into a room where there is something you want to destroy. It was not until 2011 that Israel revealed this special, and until then secret, version of their Spike missile. Tamuz is based on the Spike ER, with a range of 25 kilometers. Israel released videos of Tamuz in action, showing the missile being flown into the window of a distant building. Israel used a few Tamuz in 2006 during the war with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. During the 2008 war in Gaza only 26 Tamuz were used. Tamuz is part of the Israeli Spike family of anti-tank missiles. All the Spike missiles use a lot of common technology. At the low end, there is the Spike SR, with a range of 800 meters, followed by the Spike MR with a range of 2,500 meters, then the 4,000 meter Spike LR and the 8,000 meter Spike-ER. The larger missiles, like the Spike LR missile, are shipped in and fired from a sealed storage/launch canister. For example, the Spike LR container (with missile) weighs 13 kg (28.6 pounds). The canister is mounted on a 13 kg fire control system (10 kg/22 pounds without the tripod) for aiming and firing. The missile in its canister has a shelf life of twenty years. Spike uses a fiber-optic cable so that the operator can literally drive the missile to the target, although the missile can also be used in "fire and forget" mode. In 2009 Israel revealed the existence of a longer range version, called Spike NLOS (Non Line-Of-Sight). This one, apparently used for Tamuz, has a range of 25 kilometers and weighs 70kg (155 pounds), twice what the then current largest version of Spike weighed. Spike NLOS could be fired at a target the operator could not see (but someone else, with a laser designator, could see). Later in 2009, Israel introduced an even longer-range missile called Jumper. This one put eight missiles, and a control unit in a nine (3x3) cell box (cargo type container) measuring 1.4x1.4x2 meters tall (4.3x4.3x6.2 feet). Each 63 kg (129 pound), 150mm guided missile is 1.8 meters (nearly six feet) long and has a range of 50 kilometers. The missile uses GPS and laser seeker for guidance. While the Spike series of missiles is a popular export item, not many nations are eager to buy Tamuz. It is too expensive to buy and operate compared to other options. Israeli firms produce a number of loitering missiles similar to the CM-501GX but have found that combining them with Jumper is not a popular solution. Israel has plenty of UAVs, helicopters, fixed wing aircraft and troops on the ground who can locate targets to fire Jumper at. This pragmatic approach can be seen in how Israel used and developed the Tamuz missile. Their Meitar artillery unit was considered elite because the Tamuz missile requires skilled operators to make sure the final moments of flight take the missile to the target. Close does not count for much with this sort of thing. Aside from the time and effort to recruit and train the operators, Tamuz is also expensive ($200,000 each). In the Israeli military, there is an ongoing debate as to whether it is worth the additional cost to use Tamuz to avoid enemy civilian casualties when a 155mm artillery shell, costing $1,200 could be used. During the 2014 Hamas war 19,000 high-explosive 155mm shells were fired (plus another 15,000 dispensing smoke or flares). Tamuz missiles caused few, if any, civilian casualties while the 155mm shells caused a lot. The Palestinians regularly lie about their civilian casualties and encourage their civilians to act as human shields. Even if Tamuz replaced all 155mm shells, there would still be Palestinian backed stories of civilian casualties. But the Palestinians would have a lot less to work with. Israel is not going to replace all 155mm shells with Tamuz missiles because they cannot afford it. With the Israeli defense budget under constant pressure, why buy more Tamuz missiles when there are other items you need to save Israeli lives. After all the main job of the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) is to protect Israelis, not civilians enemy fighters are hiding amongst. Despite that, many critics of Israel consider 155mm shells a war crime and insist that only precise guided weapons should be used when the enemy is using civilians for human shields. Israel found other, less expensive, ways to limit civilian casualties when the enemy regularly uses civilians as human shields. For Hamas in Gaza, Israel used more laser guided missiles fired from helicopters and UAVs as well as an alert system based on maintaining a database of Gaza cell and landline phone users and spending up to 45 minutes calling and alerting nearby civilians about an imminent guided missile strike on a nearby Hamas target. This only works when the target is a building or other non-mobile item. Israel recently used this tactic when they destroyed the multistory Hamas TV broadcast center deliberately built in a dense residential neighborhood. Chinese firms produce a lot of these weapon systems based on successful Western designs. Often the Chinese military is not interested and does not buy, at least not initially. The manufacturer can offer it for export (with some restrictions on very advanced tech that the Chinese military does not want to share.) Many of these exportable weapons do not sell well but the Chinese weapons manufacturers make enough profit on those that do sell well to encourage following foreign weapons development activities and copying designs that seem to have a market. Bay of Plenty Have you just got your Class 2 license and are looking to get your foot in the door of a well renowned company? Read on!These... View or Apply on GoodWork.co.nz A Customs investigation has resulted in the seizure of around 1.8 million smuggled cigarettes and cash estimated to be over $2 million. As a result of this investigation, the NZ Police have also restrained multiple properties, luxury cars and bank accounts. An Auckland businessman was arrested by Customs investigators at Auckland Airport last Wednesday 21 November 2018, as he attempted to depart the country. The arrested man was charged with defrauding Customs revenue. Further charges and more arrests are likely. The tax evaded by smuggling the 1.8 million cigarettes is almost $1.8 million. The investigation named Operation Whitethorn was a six-month operation that began after Customs identified a company suspected of smuggling cigarettes inside sea containers. A recent container inspection located 340,000 cigarettes hidden inside 12 metal cabinets. Last week, Customs investigators carried out search warrants at multiple Auckland addresses, locating around 1.5 million cigarettes and five garbage bags filled with cash. Customs was assisted last week by the NZ Police Asset Recovery Unit, which restrained two properties worth several million dollars, two luxury cars, and several bank accounts. Customs Investigations Manager Bruce Berry says this investigation has detected what is believed to be the largest tax evasion case involving smuggled cigarettes. It's also the first time Customs has partnered with Polices Asset Recovery Unit to target those involved in revenue fraud. Customs has seen an increase in the commercial quantities of smuggled or misdeclared Chinese-branded cigarettes in recent years. This investigation has uncovered the largest scale tobacco fraud to date, with the tax evasion already estimated to be at least $1.8 million. While its okay to import cigarettes, smuggling or misdeclaring them to evade taxes is illegal. Customs will not hesitate to identify and take action against those who seek to financially benefit from such illegal activity, including restraining the assets of the worst offenders, says Mr Berry. Detective Senior Sergeant Chris Allan, officer in charge of the Northern Asset Recovery Unit, says these seizures are the result of an excellent working relationship between Police and its partner agencies. This case demonstrates Polices commitment to tackling proceeds of crime. Police will continue to work with our partners under the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act 2009 to remove unlawfully derived assets across the spectrum of illegal profit-motivated activity, says Detective Senior Sergeant Chris Allan. If you have suspicions about someone involved in illegal smuggling, call 0800 4 CUSTOMS (0800 428 786) in confidence, or Crime stoppers anonymously. Bay of Plenty Ever thought of joining the civil construction industry? if so then this is your chance to get a foot in the door. We are... View or Apply on GoodWork.co.nz Yesterday, RNZ revealed New Zealand Post was proposing to close its remaining 79 branches, and shift the services to supermarkets and pharmacy counters. In response, the government said it was considering funding regional hubs to provide banking and mail services. Unhappiness at the closure of Post Shops stretched from small town New Zealand, to the top of the Beehive. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says she is worried, and so the government has been brainstorming ways to fill the gaps left by the closures. One idea being investigated is so-called 'regional hubs', housing postal, banking and bill-payment services. The suggestion came as towns around the country fought to keep their banking and postal services Dale Snell and Karen Summerhays of the Te Puke Centre working group. Karen Summerhays, a resident in Te Puke, is part of a group trying to raise $50,000 to purchase the local postal service off New Zealand Post. "This is really the people buying their post office," she says. "I guess it's a little bit annoying that they most probably have paid for it before in their taxes and now they're buying it again. But we really believe that it's such a hub and it's such a neutral place in town where anybody can bump into anybody, that it's worth preserving." If they could crowd-fund the money for the franchise, they would keep Te Puke's Post Shop open - but would run it as a co-working space, and take on council contracts to help pay rent. Karen says in a perfect world the town wouldn't be seeking donations to keep itself running. So she liked the sound of government-owned "regional hubs." "Sounds great, I'll have to have a chat to Grant [Robertson]," she says. "That type of social infrastructure is the key." News that South Dunedin was losing its Post Shop and the attached Kiwibank rattled residents when it was announced in June. Like in Te Puke, locals had come up with a plan. They wanted the services put into a new 'hub' being developed by the City Council - but someone had to buy the postal contract. South Dunedin Business Association chairperson Craig Waterhouse said it would be good if the government paid for it. "I think that's a great idea." He says communities should not have to battle for their front-line services - especially taxpayer funded ones. "The idea of Jim Anderton setting up Kiwibank and New Zealand Post originally - I think he would be horrified at what they're doing with the two organisations now." The Union representing Post Shop workers was worried about what New Zealand Post's plans to shut its branches meant for staff. E Tu's postal and logistics organiser, Joe Gallagher, says it was hard to say if jobs were at risk - or if they were, how many. "Those numbers will have to be worked through. "New Zealand Post still has people in what we call the box lobby ... so there will be people in that, but we just need to work with New Zealand Post." "I expect that there will be a consultation process around that." New Zealand Post says closures will be handled on a case-by-case basis - and staff would be the first to hear. It says running postal services from supermarkets and pharmacies was a better deal for customers, and allowed it to keep running as mail volumes continued to plummet. The Christmas spirit has touched down early in Tauranga CBD, albeit with a unique twist. Passersby will have noticed contractors hard at work in Red Square, where a giant advent calendar is being built. The calendar is a community initiative led by Tauranga City Council, in collaboration with Mainstreet Downtown Tauranga and project partners Big Picture, Resene and Dobsons. It promises members of public a new treat each day, from this Saturday. A different window will be opened each day to display one of the 24 unique 3D hand crafted Christmas displays created by Mockingbird (in association with Acorn Foundation), Bethlehem Pottery Club, St John Youth, Inspire Education, Kai Aroha Charity Group, Tuskany Agency, Downtown Tauranga and the Christmas Heirloom Company. Downtown Tauranga spokesperson Millie Newitt says the Giant Advent calendar is part of a number of Christmas in the city initiatives this year. To create a truly unique experience in the city centre we have a range of initiatives that we know will delight children, families and those coming into the city to shop, dine, work or play. Its about creating unique and memorable experiences and about collaborating with a diverse number of community groups to create Christmas magic in the city centre. Millie says the advent calendar has been very much a community project. We couldnt have done it without Richard Parker from Black Chilli who constructed the massive calendar, along with Resenes and Big Picture and Dobsons our other sponsors. In collaboration with Tauranga City Council it has been Downtown Taurangas privilege to engage with a number of community groups and invite them to create a unique a dynamic 3D display to go in the windows. Each day we will open one of the windows, starting this Saturday, so that every day the public can come to Red Square, discover the new display and share in the magic of Christmas. Tauranga City Council Mayor Greg Brownless, says the heart of the city will be a captivating place to visit in the build up to the much-anticipated summer holiday period. This is an exciting time of year to come together as a community, celebrate our people and what makes us unique. In todays weather forecast we are expecting fine spells. A few afternoon showers, possibly heavy and thundery and light winds. Its a one-clothing layer day today with a high of 23 and an overnight low of 16 degrees. Humidity is 69 per cent. High tide is at 12 noon and low tide at 6.40pm (Tay St). Theres a sea swell of 0.3m and sea temperature is 18 degrees. Sunset tonight is at 8.14pm. If youre going fishing the next best fish bite time is tomorrow between 6.30 and 8.30pm. On this day in NZ history in 1877 the Education Act was passed into law. The introduction of the Education Act in 1877 established free, compulsory and secular education for all Pakeha New Zealand children. Maori children could attend the free schools if their parents wished them to. In 1893 the first woman mayor in the British Empire was elected. By becoming mayor of Onehunga, Auckland, Elizabeth Yates struck another blow for womens rights in local-body polls held the day after the first general election in which women could vote. In 1949 the first female Maori MP was elected. Iriaka Ratana was elected as New Zealands first Maori MP following the Western Maori election on November 29 1949. In world history on this day in 1903 an inquiry into the U.S. Postal Service demonstrated the government had lost millions in fraud. In 1929 Commander Richard Byrd made the first flight over the South Pole. In 1949 the United States announced it would conduct atomic tests at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific. In 1961 NASA launched a chimpanzee named Enos into Earth orbit. In 1972 Atari announced the release of Pong, the first commercially successful video game. Today is the birthday of Christian Doppler, best known for his explanation of perceived frequency variation of sound and light waves, known as the Doppler effect. He was born in 1803. It is also the birthday of writer C.S. Lewis. Born in 1898, he once said True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less. To get involved in activities around the Bay of Plenty, please check out our Whats on page. Have a great day! The vice president of the Manga Black Power chapter has been sentenced to 15 years in jail in relation to the deaths of two Bay of Plenty men. Richard Te Kani appeared in the High Court in Rotorua today, where he was sentenced after pleading guilty to two charges of manslaughter in relation to the deaths of Raymond and James Fleet in Mamaku Forest on August 7 last year. He was also sentenced on two counts of manufacturing methamphetamine, one count of accessory after the fact to murder and four charges of child neglect. Te Kani is the fourth person to be sentenced in connection to the Fleet double murders. Read more here. Police searches found the bodies of Raymond and James Fleet in the Mamaku bush on August 17 last year. Crown prosecutor Duncan McWilliam said that while Te Kani was not present at the actual murders, he would have been aware of the potential for fatal violence to take place. Te Kani's lawyer Andy Schulze accepted his client's involvement in taking Raymond and James into the bush, but said things were "relatively calm" until the arrival of Martin Hone. He also said Te Kani helped defuse the initial violence, was not present at the murders, and had shown remorse in the wake of the killings. Before sentencing Justice Paul Davison addressed the Fleet family in the gallery. "This sentencing today is to hold Mr Te Kani legally accountable for this role. . . but the pain and sadness you feel will endure long after this sentencing." -Additional reporting by Stuff.co.nz When a teacher sees a student "get it," it is a moment of excitement for the teacher and the student. It is a moment that often follows a series of failures in the process, failures that become teaching opportunities. When the teacher is recognized by his or her peers for insight in the profession, it is a stage moment uniting student and teacher success. Brett Avila, Sidney High School Spanish and Human Development teacher, was recognized in 2016 as Best of Nebraska at the Nebraska International Languages Association (NILA). In 2017, he was recognized as the New World Language Teacher.... The shingle is out. The vacancy sign is lit. The Cheyenne County Tourism Committee is looking for people interested in promoting the county. The committee is seeking two members and two alternates, according to Tourism Director Kevin Howard. The alternates have a place on the table. They just don't have a vote, he said. Each position four years. People interested in volunteering should have a love for Cheyenne County and its people and history. A committee member should also be interested in seeing the county and its communities prosper. Tourism is an increasingly important part of t... Skaneateles, N.Y. -- Andreas Frank, a senior vice president at Hill-Rom Holdings Inc., will succeed Alton Shader as head of Skaneateles-based medical equipment maker Welch Allyn. Andreas Frank Hill-Rom announced Tuesday that Frank, currently vice president for corporate development and strategy, has been appointed to replace Shader as head of Front Line Care, which includes the company's Welch Allyn, Vision Care and Respiratory Care businesses. The company announced in November that Shader would resign Dec. 1 to become CEO of another company in the healthcare field. He has served as president of the Front Line Care unit since Hill-Rom bought Welch Allyn from the Allyn family in September 2015 for $2.05 billion. His new employer has not yet been disclosed. Mary Kay Ladone, who has served as vice president for investor relations since joining Hill-Rom in 2011, has been appointed senior vice president for corporate development, strategy and investor relations. She will be responsible for mergers and acquisitions, business development and strategy in addition to leading the company's investor relations function. "Andreas and Mary Kay are seasoned professionals who know our business inside and out," said John Groetelaars, who succeeded John Greisch as president and CEO upon Greisch's retirement in May. "We're thrilled to tap into their talent and expertise for these roles." Frank joined Chicago-based Hill-Rom in 2011 as senior vice president, corporate development and strategy and most recently served in the additional role of chief transformation officer. Prior to joining Hill-Rom, he served as director of corporate development and vice president, business development, at Danaher Corp. Welch Allyn employs approximately 1,000 people in Skaneateles, where it has been making medical diagnostic devices for 103 years. Contact Rick Moriarty anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-470-3148 CENTRAL SQUARE, N.Y. -- A man shot and injured Monday night in Central Square was targeted by the assailant in a possible drug-related attack, according to New York State Police. The victim is expected to survive the shooting, which occurred around 8:30 p.m. Monday at a home on the 3200 block of Fulton Avenue in Central Square, police said. Police are looking for two men and one woman who fled the home, said State Police spokesman Jack Keller. Keller said the shooting was not random but that the shooter targeted the victim, possibly regarding drugs. Police are asking anyone with information to call (315) 366-6000. Syracuse, NY -- A DeWitt bodybuilder implicated in the largest cocaine bust in Onondaga County history will spend at least 18 years in prison after pleading guilty today. William "Breadman" Sullivan, 39, admitted to a high-level drug charge and to keeping his wife captive during a domestic incident in November 2017. It's that domestic incident that led authorities to seize more than $3 million worth of cocaine and hundreds of pounds of marijuana. The drugs were located at Sullivan's Cedar Lane residence in DeWitt and an Eastwood residence he rented. Sullivan's drug dealing led to the arrest of his landlord, who was later cleared of wrongdoing after spending several days in jail. Before this, Sullivan was best-known for his career as bodybuilder and protein pitch man. William Sullivan Today, Sullivan pleaded guilty in state court to the cocaine and for abusing his wife. But he still faces federal charges for the huge amount of marijuana seized. Those charges carry up to 40 years in prison, prosecutors have said. Under today's agreement, Sullivan will spend at least 18 years in prison, but could spend longer if convicted of a federal crime with a longer sentence. The two sentences would not be added up. Sullivan was initially arrested on suspicion that he'd bound his wife with duct-tape in a cardboard box, then threatened to stab her to death with a folding knife. After his arrest, Sullivan tried to convince authorities to let him go because a drug shipment was due at his residence in DeWitt. "There will be much more if you let me out," Sullivan promised, according to Onondaga County Sheriff's Detective Rudy Reed. Instead, sheriff's deputies simply staked out his residence. That led to the discovery of the huge cache of drugs. Federal authorities had already been eavesdropping on Sullivan and others as part of a marijuana smuggling operation across the Canadian border, according to court records. A co-defendant in that case bemoaned Sullivan's arrest in a wiretapped phone call. "It's so (expletive)...it's so (expletive) bad, bro..." accused drug dealer Alexander Elliott told an associate. Federal prosecutors kept Sullivan's marijuana case. Onondaga County prosecutors handled the cocaine and the domestic dispute. Sullivan's defense lawyer, also named William Sullivan, said the federal charges were still pending. But County Court Judge Matthew Doran today indicated that Sullivan, the defendant, appeared to be headed toward a guilty plea. The judge set sentencing on the state charges for after the expected plea in federal court. It's unclear how much longer Sullivan might spend in prison on the federal case. SYRACUSE, NY -- You may know the shops and stores, the restaurants and the movie theater, maybe even the mystery room and the indoor amusement park. But do you think of beer when you think of Destiny USA? The big mall in Syracuse is home to outlets for two of the biggest national chains in American beer: World of Beer and Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant. On Saturday, those two locations join with Destiny USA to co-host the mall's first Holiday Hops craft beer tasting. More than two dozen brewers, many of them local, will pour samples of more than 50 beers in two sessions Saturday (Dec. 1) in Destiny's "Canyon" area. (See full details below). "I've always thought we should do something like this, something like a pub crawl here at Destiny, because we have so much to offer," said Neil Patel, who owns the World of Beer franchise on Desiny's third level. "We do have some good beer here." Todd Ross, general manager at the Gordon Biersch brewpub on the first floor near the Hiawatha Street side, said the mall approached him about the fest. "I think it's great for us in terms of exposure," Ross said. "We'll have some people in here who like beer and we can show them what we have." Manager Cody Van Auken and franchise owner Neil Patel at the World of Beer bar and restaurant at Destiny USA in Syracuse. World of Beer is a Tampa, Fla.-based company with more than 50 locations across the country, some owned corporately and others operated by local franchisees. The Destiny location is operated by Patel with his "designated beer nerd" and manager, Cody Van Auken. Its dining menu includes burgers, sandwiches and other pub food. It has 50 beer taps and more than 300 bottles, and frequently stocks and supports local and New York state beers. This week's draft beer list featured 16 New York state beers, including breweries like Rare Form of Troy, Sloop of Poughkeepsie, Gun Hill of the Bronx and Rohrbach of Rochester. "We have a lot of freedom to support the brewers we want to support," said Patel, who will celebrate the bar's 5th anniversary at Destiny with a special event on Dec. 13. Head brewer Guy Hagner at the Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant at Destiny USA in Syracuse. Gordon Biersch is a brewpub (restaurant plus brewery) chain that started in 1987 in Palo Alto, Calif. Its 25 or so locations across the country specialize in German-style beers and a menu of pub food, some using the house-made beers as an ingredient. The Syracuse location has a 15-barrel brewhouse, in which head brewer Guy Hagner oversees production. In the past, the chain has exerted more control over the beers each brewpub must offer, but recently has offered the local brewers more creative freedom. That, for example, has allowed Hagner to put on a version of a juicy New England-style IPA, a decidedly non-German yet hot style. He also recently brewed something he called Double Autumn, which combines his Pumpkin Ale with fresh local cider. Even the "required" beers, like the Czech Pilsner, can be adjusted. "I love those (Czech) Saaz hops, so I made a pilsner with a little more than the basic recipe," Hagner said. "So we call it our 'Czechxtra' pilsner.' " Tonight (Nov. 28), ahead of the Holiday Hops fest at the mall, Hagner will tap this season's Winter Bock. It launches with the ceremonial tapping of a German-style wooden beer keg at the bar. DESTINY HOLIDAY HOPS FEST Nearly two dozen local breweries will set up shop inside the mall, where guests will be able to sample the 50 different brews and enjoy music, an ugly sweater competition and more. Where: Destiny USA, 1 Destiny USA Drive, Syracuse. When: Saturday, Dec. 1. Sessions from 1 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 9 p.m. VIP entry at 5 p.m. How much: Tickets are $35 for general admission, $45 for VIP and $10 for designated drivers. Brewers: They include Buried Acorn of Syracuse, IBU of North Syracuse, Anything But Beer of Syracuse, Empire of Syracuse and Cazenovia, SingleCut of Queens and Clifton Park, Long Island City Beer Project of Queens, Ithaca Beer Co., Thin Man of Buffalo, Critz Farms of Cazenovia, Industrial Arts of Garnerville, Fiddlehead of Vermont, Troegs of Pennsylvania, Barrier Brewing of Long Island, Southern Tier of Jamestown and Brewery Ommegang of Cooperstown, among others. See full list of brewers. Don Cazentre writes about craft beer, wine, spirits and beverages for NYup.com, syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Reach him at dcazentre@nyup.com, or follow him at NYup.com, on Twitter or Facebook. This year marks the 10th anniversary of Syracuse City Ballet's production of the "Nutcracker," a beloved celebration of childhood and imagination, with shows Nov. 30, Dec. 1 and Dec. 2 at the Crouse-Hinds Theater. Kathleen Rathbun, artistic director of the professional company, says this year viewers can expect expanded choreography, new costumes and lots of magic. "Newcomers and regulars alike will find this to be a memorable experience," Rathbun says. "The show is fast-paced, colorful and exciting. With 125 dancers, it's the largest production we have staged since we debuted the ballet in 2008." Rathbun says some members of the audience might arrive at the live production having already seen the new Disney movie, "The Nutcracker and the Four Realms." The movie closely follows E.T.A. Hoffman's 19th century dark story, "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King," in which Clara searches for a special key to unlock an enchanted egg left to her by her deceased mother. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's two-act ballet is a lighter, fairytale adaptation that follows Clara's Christmas Eve dreams. They carry her from a large party in her parent's elegant parlor through snowy forests to the Land of Sweets. The ballet will be danced to recorded music. The coveted role of Clara will be shared by two local dancers, Katie Klaczko and Lucy Nagraj. Lia Cirio takes the role of Sugar Plum Fairy, and Paul Craig will dance the Cavalier; both are principal dancers with the Boston Ballet. Kameron Triche, a SBC alumna and professional dancer, will be the Dew Drop Fairy in the "Waltz of the Flowers." Portraying the Snow Queen will be SCB junior company member Makayla Kanerviko. She is the first local corpse de ballet member to dance this important role. Rathbun says the entire company holds deep affinity for the "Nutcracker Ballet" because the members grow up dancing the roles that are most appropriate for their level, graduating to more demanding roles as they progress in skill and ability. She says the annual production is meaningful to the dancers as well as to Central New York families that make it a must-see part of their celebrations. "All holiday rituals are important," Rathbun says. "But when we introduce our children to traditions in the arts, we give them something important to last a lifetime." THE DETAILS: Who: Syracuse City Ballet Company What: 10th anniversary production of the "Nutcracker Ballet" Where: Crouse-Hinds Theater at the Civic Center When: Nov. 30 at 7 p.m.; Dec. 1 at 1 and 6 p.m., and Dec. 2 at 2 p.m. Sensory-friendly performance: Dec. 2 at 10 a.m. (lighting, sound, and other modifications in a judgment-free environment) Tickets: ticketmaster.com Price: Children 12 and under, $10; Adults $20 to $75 Length: 120 minutes with one 20-minute intermission A non-profit organization that began three years ago in a Panera Bread in Syracuse has received a $9 million grant to expand nationally from American Girl founder Pleasant T. Rowland. The Reading League started when a group of doctoral candidates at Syracuse University, local teachers and psychologists got together in 2016 to talk about how frustrated they were. "We cannot let kids not know how to read when we know how to teach it," said Dr. Maria Murray, the chief executive of The Reading League. "We know how to teach all kids how to read." Murray is referring to the large base of research and knowledge that proves scientifically-grounded methodology in teaching reading is more effective than the "whole language" approach most curriculum takes. "A lot of schools don't know that there's a scientific base for reading because a lot of research is done outside of schools of education," said Murray. "You will find a lot of this research coming out of cognitive psychology, out of linguistics, out of neuroscience." The group spreads the information about these methods with events every two months around Central New York. From its first event, it was "standing room only," said Dr. Heidi Beverine-Curry, Vice President for Professional Development. Each event focuses on an issue that teachers request. The group records its events and puts on its Youtube channel, making the content accessible to teachers worldwide. Today, the organization notes its worldwide membership at 4,500 with over 50,000 views on its videos. With rapid growth over the almost three years of its existence, there is a need for a bandwidth and manpower to match. The grant money, which comes from the Wisconsin-based Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation, will be used to create a brick-and-mortar facility here in Central New York as well as to scale the organization so it can exist in chapters nationwide. "We feel like the time is now to improve literacy and we feel that they have the infrastructure, support and membership growth to make it happen," said Katie Waller, executive director of the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation. "The Reading League now has the resources to take what they've done in Central New York and expand it nationally." Pleasant T. Rowland Pleasant T. Rowland, who created the American Girl brand, began as an elementary school teacher who created a curriculum herself using research available at the time and sold it. When the founders met with Rowland, she asked them to talk about their dream. "How often do you hear that question? Especially for a young organization," said Murray. "Her passion is in direct alignment with our mission, to advance the awareness, understanding and use of evidence-based practices when we teach reading." It is not a surprise that Rowland herself would be interested in investing in Central New York. An alumna of Wells College in Aurora, Rowland garnered notoriety in the region when she funded a large-scale refurbishing of the town. From bars to inns to the city streets and houses, the Rowland- and Wells College-created Aurora Foundation has updated 15 buildings in the town. The Rowland Foundation money, as well as money from other local organizations such as the Shineman Foundation and the Jim and Julie Boeheim Foundation, allows the league to get people on the ground in schools working with districts and educators on adopting these teaching practices. The Reading League has a 3 to 5 year agreement with the nine school districts in Oswego County as part of the county's Literacy Initiative to help expand educators' knowledge and to rethink their practices. "Not knowing how to read or not reading well, that has some massive far reaching social and emotional and financial consequences," Murray said. "Poor literacy is one of the most tragic public health issues we have in this country, costing us billions of dollars and incarceration and suicide, this is not any monkeying around." Megan McArdle is a Washington Post columnist and the author of "The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well Is the Key to Success." By Megan McArdle | The Washington Post In 1953, Charles E. Wilson, then the president of General Motors, famously told a congressional committee that "what was good for our country was good for General Motors, and vice versa." A version of that soft industrial nationalism has been Donald Trump's core political philosophy. Though with a codicil: "What's good for both is also very good for one Donald J. Trump." The president has leaped to take the credit when even small numbers of auto jobs were added during his administration. In part that's because of the electoral map; auto manufacturing is heavily concentrated in the Midwestern states that sealed his 2016 victory. But Trump also clearly believes that the way to "Make America Great Again" is to bring back jobs from overseas. When he talks this way, he is looking back to the days of Wilson at GM, when the fortunes of America and its large manufacturers were so tightly linked that Wilson's formula was less a fine bit of self-delusion than a simple statement of fact. During the midcentury peak of U.S. manufacturing prowess, the country's industrial might was the envy of the world, and auto companies were its crowning glory. General Motors was America's largest company , and the state-of-the-art cars rolling off its assembly lines provided highly paid, secure jobs by the hundreds of thousands. When America prospered, so did GM -- and when GM prospered, so did America. Wilsonianism has an undeniable appeal, and it's not just helpless nostalgia. The formula's underlying premise, of a common national economic interest, seems vastly preferable to our current politics, which offer little more than a battle to the death between the naked and incommensurable self-interests of various groups. But if a politics of that common national economic interest is possible, it won't come about by simply fetishizing the jobs of 1953. Trump learned that on Monday, when GM announced it was cutting up to 15,000 jobs and shutting several production facilities in the United States and Canada. Trump, predictably, was furious, telling the Wall Street Journal, "They better damn well open a new plant there very quickly." He seemed to be implicitly acknowledging that when he claimed the power to increase manufacturing in the United States, he would also be held responsible if it shrunk. Now that GM has announced a major restructuring, his grandiose claim looks, and was, politically foolish. The truth is that Trump didn't deserve much credit for the jobs added during his first two years in office; he also doesn't deserve much blame for the jobs GM is now shedding. Yes, the tariffs the Trump administration has slapped on foreign steel aren't helping an industry that consumes a whole lot of the stuff. GM's chief executive, Mary Barra, has listed tariffs as among the "headwinds" facing the company and aluminum levies have cost the company a billion dollars by themselves. But a modest increase in the cost of metal that is also borne by their competitors is unlikely to be the whole story. According to Mary Lovely, a trade economist, the tariffs "probably just added to the urgency of doing something to stem losses from unpopular models and production lines." What is spurring the losses? Americans just aren't interested in the smaller sedans many of the affected GM plants manufacture. Between better fuel efficiency and falling oil prices, Americans have greater freedom to indulge their long-standing preference for larger vehicles. As a result, SUVs and crossovers dominate U.S. auto purchases. In a Wilsonian America, GM might have hesitated to shut down production lines entirely, fearing what it would do to relationships with regulators, local communities and labor unions. But that America vanished decades ago, and GM can't afford to stage a historical reenactment of its past glories. That's how it got into so much trouble in 2008. It's a good sign for the company that Barra isn't acting like a traditional GM chief executive, letting things go along as before, hoping that nothing will ever change. Instead of waiting for disaster to force her hand, she is repositioning the company, while times are relatively good, for the market realities and technological changes shaking up the industry. But however good for GM Barra's move ultimately proves to be, by Wilson's metric -- and by Trump's -- America is having a bad week. We no longer live in a country where what's good for big business is good for its workers or for its politicians. There may be no way back to such a place, but if there is, it's pretty clear that Trump doesn't have the map. Trump threatens to cut off federal subsidies to GM over planned cutbacks WASHINGTON -- Some Syracuse groups that help the city's neediest people have been forced to take out loans to pay their bills because the federal government has held up almost $5 million in promised aid to the city. The money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is one of the single largest sources of federal aid to Syracuse. The annual grant typically arrives in late August or early September. A HUD spokeswoman acknowledged Wednesday that payment of $4.87 million owed to Syracuse through the Community Development Block Grant program has been delayed. Olga Alvarez, speaking for HUD's regional headquarters in New York City, said the money will be distributed to Syracuse soon, but she did not have any specific date for the payment or information about the reasons for the holdup. The money supports about 20 nonprofit groups in Syracuse that fight poverty through programs that provide affordable housing and job training, prevent homelessness and help low-to-moderate income residents in one of the nation's poorest cities. Syracuse, which has the nation's highest rate of extreme poverty concentrated among blacks and Hispanics, has received almost $60 million in CDBG aid from the federal government over the past 11 years. Among the nonprofit groups affected by the delay in this year's grant is Home HeadQuarters. The group is owed the largest share -- about $2.1 million -- to operate home improvement and home ownership programs for low-income residents in Syracuse. Kerry Quaglia, executive director of Home HeadQuarters, said his group has been forced to access a line of credit - and pay interest - on loans totaling between $500,000 and $750,000 while waiting for the federal aid. "We're accustomed to have to float funds for a period of time, but never this long," Quaglia said Wednesday. "I don't remember when it's been this late." Home HeadQuarters and the other nonprofits sign contracts for the federal aid that have a start date of May 1. The groups typically budget to cover the delay in funding through August. Quaglia said his organization is fortunate compared to smaller nonprofits in Syracuse. "We have lines of credit with lending institutions and that type of thing," he said. "It's a burden for us, no doubt about it. But it's an even bigger burden for smaller institutions. It makes for more commotion than we usually have." One of those smaller nonprofits, Jubilee Homes of Syracuse, had to access a $25,000 line of credit with Pathfinder Bank and a second line of credit through Home HeadQuarters. The group is using the borrowed money to keep running job training programs in some of the most distressed areas of the city until it receives $216,963 from the federal grant. "We're borrowing from Peter to pay Paul right now, and that's not healthy on a long-term basis," said Walt Dixie, executive director of Jubilee Homes. "Normally around August, the money comes in. This is the latest in my 10 years here that the money has come in." Dixie said Jubilee Homes has to pay interest on the money it borrows through the line of credit, an expense that will not be reimbursed by the federal government. Dixie said he called U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. John Katko to tell them about the problem and ask for help in obtaining the promised aid from HUD. Schumer and Gillibrand, D-N.Y., wrote a letter to HUD Secretary Ben Carson on Tuesday asking for the grant money to be sent to Syracuse immediately. The senators said the delay has affected other cities in New York and nationwide, but Syracuse was the only city mentioned in his letter. Schumer worked in Congress to boost spending for the grant program after President Donald Trump proposed eliminating it entirely to save $3 billion in his fiscal 2018 budget. Now Schumer says there's no excuse for delaying the payments. "The federal government would not wait around half the year for money it's owed, so neither should the city of Syracuse," Schumer said Wednesday. Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh signed an agreement with HUD on Oct. 10, usually the last step in the process before the grant is released, said Stephanie Pasquale, the city's commissioner of Neighborhood and Business Development. In the past, Pasquale said, the federal grant has been released within days after HUD receives the mayor's acceptance letter. But that didn't happen this year. Quaglia, of HomeHeadquarters, said the group has not allowed the problem to delay the delivery of services. The group's Urgent Care program helps low-to-moderate income homeowners in Syracuse pay for repairs to leaking roofs, sewage backups and broken furnaces -- problems that can't wait to be fixed. "We're not stopping," Quaglia said. "We have to make those improvements and fund those activities, and then we'll be reimbursed." Contact Mark Weiner: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751 By Jerry Zremski | The Buffalo News To hear federal prosecutors tell it, Louis P. Ciminelli's criminal conviction should earn him a "substantial term of imprisonment" -- not quite the nine years to 11 1/4 years the sentencing guidelines suggest, but substantial nevertheless. The Buffalo developer's top lawyer, however, says Ciminelli deserves a lesser sentence for three reasons: the weakness of the prosecutors' case, all the good Ciminelli has done in his hometown and the dire prognosis he faces as he battles a cancer that's expected to take his life in no more than eight years. The battle over Ciminelli's sentence is playing out in Manhattan in court filings before U.S. District Court Judge Valerie E. Caproni -- who, on Monday, delayed his sentencing eight days, from this Thursday to Dec. 7. Caproni did not explain why she delayed sentencing Ciminelli on the wire fraud and conspiracy charges he was convicted of in July, which stemmed from a bid-rigging scheme that steered state "Buffalo Billion" money to Ciminelli's company. In a court order issued late Tuesday, Caproni said she had not made any final decisions about the sentences in the case. "Those decisions ... will not be made until after the Court has heard from the government and the defendants at their respective sentencing proceedings," she said. Caproni's decision to delay Ciminelli's sentencing came shortly after lawyer Paul Shechtman's plea for leniency, a six-page treatise that focused mostly on what the lawyer saw as flaws in the government's case. Prosecutors spelled out their argument for a substantial prison sentence for Ciminelli in a court filing a week earlier. "This case represents an important opportunity to deter crimes committed by those in the private sector who believe that they can commit crimes of fraud and corruption with impunity," wrote Geoffrey S. Berman, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. Berman did not specify what sort of prison term he thought Ciminelli deserves, but the prosecutor indicated the developer wasn't as responsible for the conspiracy that benefited his company as Alain Kaloyeros, the former SUNY Polytechnic Institute leader who was convicted on the same charges. " The government views Ciminelli as less culpable than Kaloyeros," Berman wrote. "Kaloyeros, unlike Ciminelli, was a state employee granted enormous discretion and trust by the governor of New York. The evidence at trial also shows that Kaloyeros was more proactive than his co-defendants in perpetrating the fraud." But that doesn't mean Ciminelli should get off easy, Berman added. The defendant's conduct, and its impact on direct and indirect victims, mandates a substantial term of imprisonment," the U.S. attorney wrote. Prosecutors argued in the trial that Ciminelli and Kaloyeros rigged the bidding process on Buffalo's giant RiverBend industrial project so that Ciminelli's company got the business. Kaloyeros' sentencing is scheduled to take place in Manhattan on Dec. 11. The $750 million RiverBend deal allowed Ciminelli's company, LPCiminelli, to get a 3.5 percent management fee worth approximately $26.25 million. Prosecutors did not attempt to specify how much of LPCiminelli's gain was fraudulent, but they argued the company improperly benefited from the bid-rigging. "Conspiring to rig (a bid) to prevent other companies from fairly competing only makes sense if the goal is to ensure that a better or lower price competitor cannot win the bidding," Berman wrote. But Shechtman, Ciminelli's lawyer, wrote that the government's argument doesn't make sense. For one thing, for bids on every part of the Buffalo Billion project, "the winner was selected on qualifications, not price," Shechtman wrote. And while prosecutors called LPCiminelli's 3.5 percent management fee unreasonably high, Shechtman said the company deserved more money just because the RiverBend venture entailed more risk than many projects. In addition, Shechtman said government prosecutors undercut their own case for a stiff sentence by not specifying the kind of financial damages the scheme between Ciminelli and Kaloyeros caused. The government "has not made any effort to do so here," Shechtman wrote. Shechtman's letter to the judge on Monday was the latest attempt to sway her to go easy on Ciminelli. Dozens of people have written to the judge to plea for leniency on Ciminelli's case. Among them are former Buffalo Mayor Anthony M. Masiello, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra music director JoAnn Falletta and Alphonso O'Neil-White, former head of BlueCross, BlueShield of Western New York. Many people cited Ciminelli's good works in Buffalo, and so did Shechtman in his latest submission to the judge. " Years before his company earned a dollar from the RiverBend project, Mr. Ciminelli was donating millions to Buffalo's cultural and educational institutions," Ciminelli's lawyer wrote. "Just as importantly, he was giving his time and wise counsel to them. Would that all of us were as civic-minded as he has been." Shechtman also chided prosecutors for not even considering Ciminelli's health in their sentencing recommendations. Ciminelli suffers from a bone marrow cancer called multiple myeloma and, according to a leading doctor Shechtman cited, faces a life expectancy of eight years or less. "Surely, that is a relevant fact for a sentencing judge to consider," Shechtman wrote. WASHINGTON (AP) -- Ivanka Trump defended her use of a private email account as she was moving into an adviser's position in her father's administration, saying that it cannot be compared to the flap over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private email server and that "Lock her up!" doesn't apply to her. "All of my emails are stored and preserved. There were no deletions," President Donald Trump's elder daughter and adviser told ABC News in an interview broadcast Wednesday. The Washington Post reported this month that Ivanka Trump sent hundreds of emails about government business from a personal email account last year to White House aides, Cabinet members and her assistant, many in violation of public records rules. "There is no restriction of using personal email," she said. "In fact, we're instructed that if we receive an email to our personal account that could relate to government work, you simply just forward it to your government account so it can be archived." .@IvankaTrump to @DebRobertsABC on her use of personal email vs. Hillary Clinton's: "There just is no equivalency between the two things." https://t.co/yL3oLTXcqd pic.twitter.com/qBiTbw8BdB Good Morning America (@GMA) November 28, 2018 Clinton used a personal email account linked to a private server at her home in Chappaqua, a New York City suburb, during her time as the top U.S. diplomat under President Barack Obama. The FBI found classified information in some of the emails that were sent or received through her private server. Donald Trump harshly criticized Clinton, his 2016 Democratic presidential rival, for her use of the private email server. Trump dubbed her "Crooked Hillary" and repeatedly said, including to her face, that she belonged in jail. At his campaign rallies, chants of "Lock her up!" rang out. Ivanka Trump was asked by ABC News, "So the idea of 'Lock her up!' doesn't apply to you?" "No," she replied. Referencing her father's denunciations of Clinton's private email server, she said, "There's no equivalency to what my father's spoken about." Clinton deleted thousands of emails that she and her lawyers decided were personal or unrelated to her work as secretary of state before she turned over thousands of other emails to federal investigators. She said she had been unaware of rules against using private email to conduct the public's business and said she never knowingly emailed classified information. Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill plan to scrutinize Ivanka Trump's personal email use. The Republican chairmen of Senate and House oversight committees -- as well as a top House Democrat who will be wielding a gavel when his party takes power in January -- have called on the White House to provide more information about the email account and the nature of her messages. That would renew Republican-led congressional probes that had languished since last year when reports by Politico revealed that Ivanka Trump's husband, Jared Kushner, and other White House officials had been using private email for government purposes in possible violation of the Presidential Records Act and other federal record-keeping laws. On other issues, Ivanka Trump said she is not worried about legal exposure for herself, her father or anyone else in her family regarding special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 elections. "I know the facts as they relate to me and my family, and so I have nothing to be concerned about," she said. .@IvankaTrump on the crisis at the border: "It's devastating to see the images and seeing children put at riskit makes me angry that we haven't been able to come together as a nation and change our laws." https://t.co/vN9BjW67gR pic.twitter.com/GgyzBsUEHR Good Morning America (@GMA) November 28, 2018 .@IvankaTrump tells @DebRobertsABC shes not concerned about the Mueller investigation: "I think it's been a long time that this has been ongoing, but I want it to be done in a way in which nobody could question that it was hurried or rushed." https://t.co/vN9BjW67gR pic.twitter.com/mRk2fUMF6x Good Morning America (@GMA) November 28, 2018 .@IvankaTrump says she frequently disagrees with her father and says he knows where she stands on all issues: One of the reasons that I have such a good relationship with himis because Im incredibly candid with him. https://t.co/vN9BjW67gR pic.twitter.com/X8iWrE4jgC Good Morning America (@GMA) November 28, 2018 JAKARTA, Indonesia - A malfunctioning sensor and an automated response from the aircraft's software stymied pilots' efforts to control a doomed Indonesian flight that went careening into the sea, a preliminary report released by investigators found Wednesday. The report, which stops short of determining the cause of the crash or analyzing findings, chronicles the chaotic moments on the Lion Air flight before it crashed into the sea, killing all 189 on board. It details how sensors and other equipment were checked and fixed before the aircraft's final flight, but not the "angle of attack" sensor, which measures where the nose is pointing and was showing erroneous readings throughout the short time the plane was airborne. With the sensor insisting the nose was too high, an automatic feature kicked in sending the plane plunging downward as the pilots' wrestled to regain control. Unable to trust their readings, the pilots resorted to asking air traffic control what their speed and altitude were. Lion Air Flight 610 plunged into the Java Sea on Oct. 29 just after taking off from the Indonesian capital Jakarta, killing the eight crew members and 181 passengers on board, including a child and two infants. The crash appears to have been caused by a mix of brand-new technology and cockpit confusion as the pilots fought to gain altitude after an early-morning takeoff from Jakarta. The flight crew - at an altitude of just 5,000 feet - had very little time to resolve the issue before the plane crashed into the Java Sea at a reported 450 miles per hour. The aircraft's pilots asked to return to Jakarta just two minutes after takeoff, reporting a "flight-control problem" but didn't specify what it was. Black box data released by Indonesian investigators showed that the pilots were pulling back on the control column, attempting to raise the plane's nose, with almost 100 pounds of pressure before they crashed. The Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee, which produced the report, also noted that the Jakarta-based low-cost airline, Lion Air, should improve its "safety culture." The committee's report said the pilot should discontinue any flight where mechanical, electrical or structural problems occur. No engineer briefed the pilot of the crashed plane on the multiple problems the aircraft experienced on previous flights, and it had been up to him to review the maintenance logs on-flight. The report, however, contains no conclusion on who is at fault. "When it comes to faulting, I don't know, our job isn't to find faults," National Transportation Safety Committee investigator Nurcahyo Utomo said at a news conference Wednesday. The aircraft was the most recent incarnation of the venerable Boeing 737, a plane that first flew in 1967 and has gone through multiple iterations before it emerged as the 737 Max. The 737 Max was equipped with more powerful engines that are mounted farther forward on the wing, requiring additional software be added to the autopilot to provide more control. That software, which has been described as several lines of coding, was identified in the Boeing manual as the maneuvering characteristics augmentation system, or MCAS. When the sensors transmitted faulty data to the cockpit of Flight 610, the new MCAS system sensed a stall - that point at which a plane is so vertical that it is in danger of falling from the sky - and sought to correct for it by repeatedly pointing the nose of the aircraft down. A feature in previous 737 models that allowed pilots to manually override an "electric trimming" process - which automatically budges the nose downward to prevent a stall, does not work in Boeing's 737 MAX 8 planes, Boeing explained in a Nov. 7 bulletin. That same week, the Federal Aviation Administration issued an emergency notice to all airlines that fly the 737 Max, warning them that erroneous sensor inputs "could cause the flight crew to have difficulty controlling the airplane," leading to "possible impact with terrain." The deviation likely was caused by what's called a "runaway stabilizer." Stabilizers are, essentially, those small wings on either side at the tail end of the plane. They each have flaps - called elevators - that help to control the elevation the plane. In case of a runaway stabilizer, pilots are instructed in the cockpit check list to hold the control column firmly, disengaging the autopilot that, in this case, contained the MCAS program. Next, they are told, disengage the auto throttle and manually fly the plane. "This corner of the performance charts is called the 'coffin corner,'" said Mary Schiavo, an aviation lawyer and former inspector general of the U.S. Transportation Department, "and good pilot training teaches you how to get out of coffin corner, but did these pilots realize the plane itself was putting them in coffin corner? Apparently not." As the pilots struggle to raise the plane's nose, the co-pilot, the committee report said, asked an air traffic controller to "confirm the altitude of the aircraft and later also asked the speed as shown on the controller radar display." It is not clear if the pilots attempted the runaway stabilizer procedure. Unions representing pilots at Southwest and American airlines said they were not properly informed about the new system during training. "We did not know this was on the MAX models," Southwest Airlines Pilots Association president John Weaks told The Washington Post in a Nov. 13 interview, referring to a new automated flight control feature. The prospect that a runaway autopilot system could have contributed to the crash has already been the subject of at least one lawsuit implicating Boeing, with the father of a Lion Air Flight 610 crash victim filing suit recently. Soerjanto Tjahjono, who heads Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee, said last week that the plane's black box showed "the technical problem was the airspeed, or the speed of the plane." (The plane's cockpit voice recorder has not been recovered.) "There were four flights that experienced problems with the airspeed indicator," Tjahjono said. The "angle of attack" sensor contributes to the airspeed readings. In testimony before the Indonesian Parliment last week, Utomo the investigator, said that the anti-stall system had activated on the plane as it flew into Jakarta the night before the crash, but the pilots managed to shut it off. At the news conference Wednesday, Utomo said that the plane, in both the doomed flight and the previous flight from Bali to Jakarta, had experienced a stick shaker - "a warning that showed that the plane was going to stall," he said. The committee report said differing data between the sensors appeared rectified by cleaning an electrical plug the night before the crash, and a "test on the ground found the problem had been solved." But it had not, the report concludes, because when the plane took off shortly after 6 a.m. the following morning, the two flight speed sensors did not agree on the aircraft's speed. The Indonesian National Police ended their identification process last week, having identified 125 bodies culled from over 666 samples. On Nov. 6, family members strewed flowers into the Java Sea, where the twin-engine jet had nose-dived into, in commemoration. According to the official Ministry of Transportation's regulation, Lion Air is tasked to pay a total of $89,000 to the families of each fallen passenger. The 737 Max is the most popular plane in Boeing history, with 453 delivered so far and 4,671 on order. It is flown or is on order by close to 40 airlines, with Lion Air in the process of receiving more than 200 of jets. Boeing said Tuesday that it "continues to work closely with the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board as technical advisers to support the ongoing investigation" by the Indonesian authorities. The flights of Indonesia's airlines to U.S. destinations were banned in the decade before 2016 because their safety record was considered abysmal by U.S. standards. The crash of the Lion Air flight was the worst in Indonesia since 1997, when 234 people died on the national airline, Garuda, in Northern Sumatra. Share New Zealands international spy agency has stopped mobile company Spark from using Huawei equipment in its planned 5G upgrade, saying it posed a significant network security risk. The action follows a ban in Australia, where the Chinese telecommunications giant was blocked in August from rolling out a 5G network due to security concerns. Huawei has previously helped build mobile networks in New Zealand. In March, Spark and the Chinese firm showcased a 5G test site across the street from the countrys parliament, in a publicity move that was attended by then-broadcasting minister Clare Curran. The latest development could have diplomatic and economic implications for New Zealand, which relies on China as its largest trading partner but which is also part of the Five Eyes security alliance that includes the US, UK, Canada and Australia. New Zealand was the first developed nation to sign a free trade deal with China in 2008, and China buys billions of dollars worth of New Zealands dairy exports each year, which are often used in making infant formula milk. New Zealands Government Communications Security Bureau has just banned telco Spark from using Huawei for 5G. Director general Andrew Hampton: I have informed Spark that a significant network security risk was identified.https://t.co/fvndLsX727 pic.twitter.com/813wXC7W5k Fergus Ryan (@fryan) November 28, 2018 New Zealands previous conservative government had a close relationship with China. But over the past year under liberal prime minister Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand has pulled back somewhat, embracing a warmer relationship with Japan and putting resources into the Pacific, in part to counter Chinas growing influence there. Huawei suffered a setback in the US market in 2012 when a congressional report said it posed a security risk and warned phone companies not to buy its equipment. The private Chinese company was started by a former Peoples Liberation Army major in 1987. Spark is one of three main mobile network operators in New Zealand. The companies compete for customers over their own network of mobile towers, using radio spectrum licensed from the government. The company said it is disappointed with the decision by New Zealands Government Communications Security Bureau. But the company said in a statement it is confident it can still launch its 5G network by July 2020. Spark said it had wanted to use Huawei 5G equipment in its planned Radio Access Network, which involves technology associated with mobile tower infrastructure. The company said it has not yet had time to review the detailed reasoning behind the spy agencys decision, or whether it will take further steps. For latest tech stories go to TechDigest.tv Share this: Email Facebook Pinterest LinkedIn Print Reddit Twitter Tumblr Pocket Like this: Like Loading... A hot potato: After having an internal letter signed by 1,400 employees ignored, Google staff members took to the internet to publicly protest Project Dragonfly. The job is being carried out in cooperation with the Chinese government, which looks to censor internet searches and collect personally identifiable information. A new open letter demands the project's closure. Back in August, we reported on Googles Project Dragonfly a censored search engine it is building for the Chinese government. The algorithms will exclude any website the communist state deems a threat. Anything pertaining to democracy, religion, human rights, protests, and more will be banned. For example, Wikipedia and the BBCs website are already forbidden. The project has stirred internal conflict within the company. Five employees have already quit in protest over the plan despite not knowing all of the details. Another 1,400 signed an internal letter demanding more information on the project, which was ignored. On Tuesday, employees posted an open letter publicly on Medium demanding that the company cancel the project saying that it makes Google complicit in oppression and human rights abuses. "Dragonfly would establish a dangerous precedent that would make it harder for Google to deny other countries similar concessions" As of this writing, only about 250 staff members have signed on, but the letter claims that thousands of Google employees are against Project Dragonfly. We are among thousands of employees who have raised our voices for months. 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. In October, US Vice President Mike Pence blasted Google over the project. [Googles actions will] strengthen Communist Party censorship and compromise the privacy of Chinese customers, the VP said in a speech to the Hudson Institute. While Google has not had much to say on the project, it has been widely reported that the Chinese search engine would also be capable of capturing personal information such as phone numbers. One can only presume that the communist regime would use that data to identify and punish dissidents based on their search history. It may even be wishing to integrated the search engine into its plans for a social scoring system. Google has yet to respond to the new letter. Cutting corners: Online influencers including big YouTube personalities got in trouble with the FTC a few years ago for not making it clear when they were paid for reviews. Today, its a problem that continues in the world of cryptocurrencies, where, unbeknown to investors, positive coverage can be bought for the right price. The revelations come from a special report by Reuters, which talked to over two dozen people in the crypto industry. The publication cites Ukrainian startup Hacken as an example of a company paying for a good review. Earlier this year, it handed $7500 over to Christopher Greene, host of YouTubes Alternative Media Television, to promote its new coin. Greene gushed about the currency, boasting that it had potential 1,000x returns. Nowhere in the video does he mention he received a fee from Hacken. The only indication of any payment comes in the first minute when he directs viewers to a disclaimer on his website that states he may receive compensation for products and services that he recommends. Four days after the video, which has almost 100,000 views, Hackens coin was up to $1.54. Its now worth 36 cents. The companys CEO admitted to Reuters that paying Greene and other YouTube stars was unethical. So-called influencers promoting products without being clear they were being paid is nothing new. Warner Brothers settled with the FTC in 2016 after it paid YouTubers such as PewDiePie to review 2014s Shadow of Mordor positively. The agency later said it would start clamping down on similar posts, but the rules are stricter when it comes to promoting crypto. Failing to explicitly disclose that a reviewer was paid to promote a virtual token or coin may be classed as fraud, according to the SEC, which in 2017 warned that virtual coins or tokens may be securities and subject to the federal securities laws. Its not only influencers that are paid for positive crypto reviews; several crypto experts were discovered to have accepted cash or digital currency for giving out 5-star ratings. There are even cases of research reports on cryptocurrency projects being commissioned and funded by the projects themselves. The situation has led to ICO agencies, which offer crypto issuers active followers and posts on social media platforms for a fee. Theyve also been known to pay journalists and writers to publish stories portraying their clients in a good light. With Bitcoin hitting its lowest price in over a year this week, and the Justice Department investigating whether its December surge was the result of market manipulation, crypto is having a tough time right now. The thought that some 'expert' advice might be sponsored content is unlikely to help things. Why it matters: Remember when Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress last April? Next week, itll be the turn of Googles Sundar Pichai. The CEO is set to appear before the House Judiciary Committee on December 5th to answer questions over the companys alleged bias against conservatives. Update (12/11): You can watch/replay Google CEO Sundar Pichai testifying before the House Judiciary Committee on Alphabet Inc. unit's social media practices below: Back in August, Donald Trump accused Google of suppressing voices of Conservatives, calling its search results rigged, something the company vehemently denies. ....results on Trump News are from National Left-Wing Media, very dangerous. Google & others are suppressing voices of Conservatives and hiding information and news that is good. They are controlling what we can & cannot see. This is a very serious situation-will be addressed! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 28, 2018 While this will be Pichais first time before Congress, both he and Alphabet CEO Larry Page skipped a congressional hearing in September that was attended by Twitter boss Jack Dorsey and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. As a result, an empty chair was left on display with a Google nametag placed on it. Pichai will almost certainly face more than just accusations of political bias. The companys controversial Project Dragonflya custom, censored search engine for the Chinese market that also collects user datawill likely be one of the topics up for discussion. Vice President Mike Pence has already called for its cancelation, and its led to angry internal and open letters from employees, some of whom have quit over the project. Its even caught the attention of Amnesty International, which is planning to stage worldwide protests. Also on the agenda might be the recent walkouts by 20,000 Google workersa protest against the sexual harassment and discrimination at the company. The incident compelled a UK Google contractor to speak out about his own experiences of discrimination and how Google allegedly failed to protect him. Pichai may also have to answer questions about the massive Google+ bug that exposed hundreds of thousands of users information, and he can expect to be grilled over potential antitrust violations, something that's been a thorn in the companys side in Europe for many years. The big picture: YouTube tried for years to compete with heavyweights Netflix, Hulu and Amazon but seemingly wasn't able to loosen their collective grip on the original content industry. Now, it's shifting strategies to cater to a wider audience. YouTube is shifting strategies with regard to its approach to original programming. By 2020, YouTubes original content will be available for free to all users. The move, which comes three years after launching its paid subscription service, means YouTubes original content will be available to an even wider audience. YouTube is calling the strategy its Single Slate as itll combine ad-supported and subscription programming into a single initiative. Thats right, the paid Premium service (formerly YouTube Red) isnt going away. Initially, some original programming like season two of The Karate Kid spin-off Cobra Kai will remain behind the paywall. Free users may have staggered access to original programming while paying members will get binge-ready helpings. Premium members may also get access to extended cuts of films. In related news, The Hollywood Reporter also claims that YouTube will scale back its scripted output starting in 2020. One source called the pullback a serious budget reduction. A producer briefed on the matter said other platforms have had traction with scripted but YouTube doesnt feel like theres an opening for them. YouTube chief business officer Robert Kyncl, however, said its far too early to tell something that decisive. In brief: Is the US ready for European-style data protection regulations? Senators Blumenthal and Moran think so. The bipartisan legislators are reaching across the aisle to draft a bill modeled after Europe's GDPR, which took effect last May. They expect to have it drafted "early in the [2019] session." Ever since the European Union enacted the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), there have been murmurs of a possible United States version of the privacy rules. Just last month Apple CEO Tim Cook called for similar legislation in the US because he believes personal data is being weaponized. Reuters notes that Senators Richard Blumenthal (D) and Jerry Moran (R) are working on a bipartisan bill that would provide many of the same protections offered by the GDPR. The congressmen are hoping to have the bill drafted soon, and it may be voted on by early 2019. On Tuesday the Congressional subcommittee on Consumer protection, product safety, insurance, and data security met to discuss the specifics of the proposed legislation. They reportedly did not reach a consensus on the language of the bill but suggested that the FTC could provide oversight and enforce penalties against companies that misuse or fail to protect consumer data. Aside from Cooks advocacy for such regulation, the recent privacy debacles in the industry including the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the Equifax breech have undoubtedly contributed to the perceived need for regulatory reform. California already passed stricter regulations over personal data back in June. The proposed bill will bring similar data protections to the federal level. It will be interesting to see if companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter, and others, which rely heavily on data collection, rally lobbyists against the bill. Elon Musk is certainly a man with some interesting ideas, but not all his plans proceed uninhibited. That was made clear today, as Musk's Boring Company has officially canceled its plans to develop a high-speed track underneath Los Angeles' Westside region. This decision is a result of a legal battle between The Boring Company and two Westside community-interest groups. The groups filed a suit against the company, alleging that the planned tunnel shouldn't have been exempted from an in-depth environmental impact review. Rather than fight the suit to the bitter end, Musk and co. decided to "amicably" settle it, though the exact terms of the agreement are unknown due to the confidential nature of the talks. The Boring Company isn't completely out of luck, though. Los Angeles Times reports that Musk's company will shift its focus to another planned tunnel which is a mere 3.5 miles away. Said tunnel will stretch between Dodger Stadium and Metro station. It's unclear whether or not Musk will return to LA's Westside for future Boring Company plans, but for now, the company has plenty of other projects in the works. The company's first finished tunnel, for example, is set to launch for the public on December 10 - it will stretch from SpaceX's Hawthorne headquarters to an LA suburb. YouTube is finally shutting down annotations for good. Back in March 2017, the Google-owned company announced that it would be retiring them, better described as boxes that suddenly pop up while a video plays, sometimes appearing multiple times, or worse yet never disappearing at all. These boxes often contain extra information, and oftentimes they also provide links to other videos or websites. Annotations are most used in instructional or technical videos, such as those that require people to visit links to download something. The shutdown doesn't come as much of a surprise, really. YouTube had discontinued the annotations editor in May of the same year. But soon, all existing annotations will go away as well. YouTube Ends Annotations Forever YouTube announced the change by updating its help page, stating that it will "stop showing existing annotations to viewers starting January 15, 2019. All existing annotations will be removed." The company hasn't explicitly explained why it's doing away with annotations, but it's fair to assume that they never really worked that well on mobile, and most people watch YouTube videos through their phones and tablets these days, making these pesky boxes a bit out of place from YouTube's desired aesthetic. YouTube Cards And End Screens As a recourse, and in response to content creators seeking an annotation system that would work well on phones, YouTube introduced Cards instead, which the company likens to an evolution of annotations. Additionally, it also introduced End Screens, a way for viewers to watch more videos related to the one they just finished. When those two features became more popular, annotation use decreased by more than 70 percent, according to YouTube. Compared to annotations, Cards and End Screens are more engaging and easier to create, says the company. More importantly, they're highly functional on mobile. Given these factors, it makes perfect sense why YouTube would cut annotations for good, regardless if they're a staple of the old YouTube. It represents the end of an era for most people who got to experience the platform's older iterations. In any case, most people would probably see this as a good thing. For one, it'll make watching YouTube videos cleaner and more streamlined, especially for those who mainly visit YouTube using their desktop. On the other hand, those who mainly watch YouTube videos on their phone probably won't even notice the change. These folks have been taking advantage of Cards and End Screens, which are far more efficient than annotations can ever hope to be. Good riddance. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Google is apparently extending Project Fi support to the likes of Samsung, Apple, and OnePlus handsets very soon. Additionally, more devices from existing Project Fi partners, LG and Motorola, will be added as well. In particular, Project Fi support for iPhone is reportedly "in beta." It's not clear whether support rolls out simultaneously for the aforementioned handsets, although iPhone users should expect some bugs and performance hiccups if the report is true. iPhone Project Fi Support In Beta News of this Project Fi expansion was first reported by BGR, which apparently violated Google's embargo. The report has since been removed at the time of writing, as The Verge notes, but that didn't stop keen-eyed users from remembering the details, including the part about iPhone support being in beta initially. It's not clear exactly what beta entails for iPhone users, but it's fair to assume some Project Fi features might not be immediately available on rollout, perhaps in part because of Apple's tight control over iOS. Project Fi Currently, Project Fi only supports Pixel 2 and Pixel 3 handsets, alongside smartphones from LG and Motorola. For the uninitiated, Project Fi is a mobile virtual network operator that combines network coverage from T-Mobile, Sprint, and US Cellular. The service bears a number of appealing promises, most notably its straightforward pricing users just have to pay $20 a month for unlimited text and calls, and mobile data is $10 per gigabyte until users reach 6 GB. After that, data is free, but speeds get slower when they reach past 15 GB. Interestingly, although Google intends to extend Project Fi support to a lot more handsets, the company notes that the current crop of Fi-compatible smartphones will still offer the best overall user experience for subscribers. Those include the Pixel 2 and Pixel 3, LG G7, LG V35, Moto G6, and Moto X4 Android One edition. It's not exactly clear what that means. Will Project Fi on OnePlus, Samsung, and Apple devices perform worse than on the aforementioned phones? That doesn't sound ideal, and it's also hard to imagine Google purposefully making a service comparatively worse on some phones. Hopefully, the company provides an official announcement soon. In any case, Google extending Project Fi support should allow more types of consumers to give the service a shot. Thoughts on Project Fi arriving on more handsets? As always, feel free to sound off in the comments section below! 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. WCC Condemns Killing of Catholic Priests in South Sudan, Cameroon Contact: World Council of Churches Media Office , +41 79 507 6363 Jesuit priest Fr Victor Luke Odhiambo was attacked and killed by unknown people on the night of 15 November in Cueibet South Sudan. The late priest was known for his commitment to education and social transformation for the people of South Sudan. GENEVE, Nov. 27, 2018 / Christian Newswire / -- World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit condemned the killing of two Catholic priests, one in South Sudan and another, less than one week later, in Cameroon.Jesuit priest Fr Victor Luke Odhiambo was attacked and killed by unknown people on the night of 15 November in Cueibet South Sudan. The late priest was known for his commitment to education and social transformation for the people of South Sudan. Odhiambo, who was the first Kenyan Jesuit priest, was also the principal of Mazzolari Teachers College and acting superior of the Cuibet Community of the Jesuits in South Sudan since 30 January. In Cameroon, on 21 November, Kenyan priest Fr Cosmos Omboto was killed outside his office by crossfire between the military and separatists. His death came only months after he was ordained. He served at the Miller Hill Catholic Church in the Diocese of Mamfe, and was known for working with people displaced by conflict in Cameroon. "We condemn these attacks, and we hold the victims, their families, their communities and their church in prayer," said Tveit. "These attacks are even more abhorrent because we have lost two peacemakers who had dedicated their lives to bringing justice to their respective countries." Tveit further called for political and social action in the contexts in which these crimes are taking place. "We must redouble our efforts to counter the hate and intolerance, and promote respect for diversity, human dignity and rights, and for freedom of religion or belief for all." WCC member churches in South Sudan WCC member churches in Cameroon Purchases made via links on our site may earn us an affiliate commission SORRENTO Ascension Parish voters will be asked Dec. 8 to back a new 1-mill property tax to finance the parish animal shelter and animal control services and support construction of a new building to house both operations. The proposed 10-year tax is the outgrowth of a more-humanitarian vision for the shelter since a nonprofit group took over operations in late 2015 and, supporters say, a result of increasing demand for shelter space because of animal population growth. Volunteers with Companion Animal Rescue of Ascension, the nonprofit that has run the shelter under a 10-year parish contract, put together the tax proposal after Parish Council members urged them to seek permanent funding amid requests for additional money. With the population of our parish comes more cats and dogs, and our parish is steadily growing, meaning the number of cats and dogs (is) steadily growing, said Reagan Daniel, the volunteer president of CARA. The Sorrento-area shelter on Airline Highway is called CARA's House. Early voting for the Dec. 8 election is underway and ends Saturday. Turnout of 15 percent to 20 percent is expected, parish Registrar of Voters Robert Poche said. The Ascension ballot includes a handful of local elections, including one parish School Board runoff in the Prairieville area and a proposed Gonzales city hotel-motel tax that hoteliers are fighting. The shelter tax proposal has kept a lower profile, and has not generated a major, public opposition. Parish Councilman Daniel Doc Satterlee, a Prairieville-area official and usually a reliable opponent of new tax measures, has been a proponent of the proposed shelter tax and of CARAs overall efforts. Daniel, the CARA president, said the proposed tax revenues would be divided roughly into thirds, financing operations of the shelter, operations of the parish Animal Control Department and construction of a new shelter building. Animal Control, which the parish runs directly, handles nuisance and dangerous animals parishwide. The current Animal Control building in St. Amant has four cat cages and four dog cages, which house animals that have bitten humans, parish officials said. Daniel said the new shelter building, which early estimates put at $2.5 million, would bring shelter and animal control operations to one location, which parish government still needs to determine. Martin McConnell, parish government spokesman, said that if the tax passes, the parish also would begin talks with CARA to take over all animal services. So far in 2018, the parish has received 591 animal control complaints, picking up 43 animals in October, he said. Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Impassioned Facebook post leads Ascension Parish officials to ban animal rescue group from parish animal shelter An ongoing battle between an animal rescue group and the Ascension Parish Animal Control Center came to a head Monday after an impassioned Fac CARA took over the parish shelter in late 2015 under a deal with then-Parish President Tommy Martinez only months after its members had been banned over their accusations of improper treatment of animals. Since taking over, Daniel said, CARA has flipped the euthanization and live release rates: from about 78 percent euthanization and 22 percent live release to about 78 percent live release and 22 percent euthanization. Daniel said the shelter only euthanizes ill or aggressive animals. Though CARA has boosted local adoptions and transports 40 to 50 animals per month out of state, space at the nearly 20-year-old building remains at a premium, with about 350 cats and dogs in the facility currently. In 2017 and 2018, the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry found the shelter non-compliant, a spokeswoman said. Daniel said blamed the old shelters physical condition for those findings. Ascension Parish animal shelter to have limits on animals after flood disaster As floodwaters rose inside the Ascension Parish animal shelter on Aug. 14, employees and volunteers frantically reached out to rescue groups t The new shelter would also provide surgical space for a new full-time staff veterinarian to increase spay and neutering programs. The shelter currently uses outside veterinarians. Since CARA took over, the cost of shelter operations has increased. In 2015, CARA agreed to a $200,000 annual appropriation supplemented with volunteer support and donations. Despite a cadre of 40 to 50 volunteers, CARA now has 13 employees and a $350,000 parish appropriation, an increase granted last year that prompted the push for the tax. According to assessors data, a 1-mill parishwide property tax generates about $1.32 million annually. CARAs budget estimates for the proposed tax hew closer to about $1.1 million. Under that assumption, the animal shelter and animal control each would get $400,000 annually, increases from their current funding levels. The remainder would be set aside for debt on the proposed building. Parish officials have said that if voters approve the tax, a public board to oversee the revenue would be created. For a homeowner with a $250,000 house and homestead exemption, a 1-mill tax increase would cost an extra $17.50 annually. The owner of $500,000 commercial building would pay an extra $75 per year, according to assessors figures. Sears Holdings said it plans to auction off three Sears and Kmart stores in Metairie and Baton Rouge as part of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy effort to sell or auction 505 of its most profitable stores and keep them operating. The Sears stores at the Mall of Louisiana in Baton Rouge and Clearview Mall in Metairie, along with a Kmart at 2940 Veterans Memorial Blvd. in Metairie, were listed in a federal bankruptcy court filing last week. However, it's unclear whether the Clearview store may have been incorrectly included in the list of sale properties. In August, it was announced that the Richards family, which owns Clearview, had reached a deal to acquire the 13.9-acre Sears site. Sears agreed to take up a smaller footprint in the shopping center and the property will be a key part of a planned redevelopment of Clearview. Thomas Richards said Tuesday he owns the Sears property outright and his family acquired the property because of concerns over what could happen if the store went bankrupt and a new owner moved in. Sears hopes to find a new owner to continue operating the stores on its list. The company has until Dec. 15 to find an initial bidder for the locations it wants to keep open. Seeking Alpha has said that Eddie Lampert, the companys largest shareholder and former chief executive officer who has invested heavily in Sears, is expected to make a bid for the properties. 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 Other potential buyers for the stores have until Dec. 28 to submit bids. An auction will be held Jan. 14. Sears, which started as a mail order catalog in the 1880s, has been on a slow march toward extinction as it lagged far behind its peers and incurred huge losses over the years. +2 Sears files for Chapter 11 amid plunging sales, massive debt; Metairie Kmart among 142 store closures NEW YORK Sears filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday, buckling under its massive debt load and staggering losses and announcing The company has struggled with outdated stores and complaints about customer service even for its once crown jewels: major appliances like washers and dryers. That's in contrast with chains like Walmart, Target, Best Buy and Macy's, which have been enjoying stronger sales as they benefit from a robust economy and efforts to make the shopping experience more inviting by investing heavily in remodeling and decluttering their stores. Sears has just 17 Sears stores remaining in Louisiana. Most are smaller "hometown" stores, franchised locations that concentrate on selling appliance and hardware brands such as Kenmore, Craftsman and Die Hard. Locally, hometown stores are in Baker, Luling, Opelousas, Bogalusa and Bayou Vista. A new seafood restaurant is set to open in May at the Mall of Louisiana, in a building that had previously been occupied by Bar Louie. Old Captain Juicy Seafood and Bar will offer boiled seafood, including snow crab, shrimp, mussels, clam, blue crab and crawfish, said Bill Chen, a Realtor who is working with the owners. A Baton Rouge woman was sentenced to 28 months in federal prison Wednesday and ordered to pay $387,000 in restitution to a former employer that she defrauded, U.S. Attorney Brandon Fremin said. Katherine T. Cancienne, 41, previously pleaded guilty to wire fraud related to her embezzlement from Engineers & Constructors International Inc., a Baton Rouge consulting firm that provides engineering and managerial staffing to oil-and-gas companies. Woman accused of embezzling $380,000-plus from former Baton Rouge employer A 40-year-old woman accused of embezzling more than $387,000 from her former Baton Rouge employer has been indicted by a federal grand jury, U Cancienne, who formerly handled accounting matters at ECI, created a shell corporation and bank account under a name similar to an actual ECI vendor, her indictment alleged. Cancienne caused ECI to issue checks and make electronic wire payments to the shell company by creating and submitting false and fraudulent documents, Fremin stated. She was sentenced by U.S. District Judge John deGravelles. The son of convicted serial killer Derrick Todd Lee has been arrested in the fatal shooting of an East Feliciana High School student earlier this month. Authorities said he confessed to accidentally shooting his friend after first telling investigators it had been a suicide. East Feliciana Sheriff Jeff Travis was initially reluctant to call the shooting a homicide, leaving open the possibility that the gunshot was self inflicted. But Travis said Wednesday that Dedrick Lee, 19, later admitted to investigators that he was responsible for the death of Valentae' Brooks, 16, on the evening of Nov. 13. Lee was booked into the East Feliciana jail last week on one count of negligent homicide and has since been released on bond. East Feliciana High student dies after shooting in Jackson, sheriff says A 16-year-old was pronounced dead at the hospital after a shooting in Jackson around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to the East Feliciana Parish In his second interview with investigators, Lee said he "initially lied because he was scared of getting in trouble," according to his arrest warrant. Lee explained that he and Brooks were hanging out in his bedroom and intended to "create a rap song in his closet, which was his makeshift recording studio." Brooks pulled out a gun and said: "I told you I was going to get one." And the two decided to take photos and videos with the firearm. Lee said Brooks told him the gun wasn't loaded, but he didn't check to confirm that, according to the warrant. Lee said "he was just playing with the gun and that he must have accidentally pulled the trigger because it went off and struck Brooks." Lee then told his stepfather, David Green, what had happened and Green called 911. Green later backed up Lee's initial story that he found Brooks face down on the bed with a gun underneath his chest. Lee turned over the gun to authorities immediately after the shooting. Investigators noted in the warrant that he "appeared to be very upset about the incident and expressed remorse for causing the death of his friend." Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up The man believed to be Dedrick Lee's father Derrick Todd Lee was linked to a string of women's deaths in south Louisiana in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He was sentenced to death but died of heart disease in 2016 before he could be executed. "It doesn't matter whose son he is. He still would have arrested on the same charge because it's based on the evidence that we have," Travis said. "The fact is it's irrelevant to the case." People questioned on the scene initially told investigators that no one had witnessed the shooting because Brooks was alone in the room when it occurred. But Travis said Dedrick Lee later came voluntarily to authorities and confessed to the accidental shooting after his family encouraged him to tell the truth about what happened. "He confessed and we made an arrest based on (the evidence) we have at the moment," Travis said. "That doesn't mean the investigation is over. If anything changes, the charges can be enhanced." He said physical evidence, including information gathered during the autopsy, is consistent with the account Lee provided in his confession. Brooks was a student at East Feliciana High School and was pronounced dead at the hospital after being shot in the chest. Administrators posted on the school's Facebook page the day after his death. "The EFHS Tiger Family would like to extend our sincerest condolences to the Brooks family on the tragic loss of our student Valentae Brooks," the post reads. "His smile and spirit will truly be missed." Police have arrested two men authorities believe are responsible for a homicide in Baton Rouge earlier this month. Both appear to have fled the state following the death of Westley Pullins on Nov. 12. One was taken into custody in Texas and the other in Arizona, Baton Rouge police spokesman Sgt. L'Jean McKneely Jr. said in a news release Wednesday morning. +3 These two suspects wanted in Barber Street murder in Baton Rouge, police say Police are searching for two Baton Rouge men they believe were involved in a Nov. 11 fatal shooting. James Michael Johnson, 23, was arrested Tuesday in Chandler, Arizona, after police announced last week that he was wanted on first-degree murder. John Simpson, 24, was arrested last week in Houston and is accused of principal to first-degree murder. Both men are pending extradition back to Louisiana, McKneely said. Crime Stoppers tips led authorities to find the suspects. Pullins, 37, was found dead inside a vehicle on Barber Street just off College Drive earlier this month. +2 37-year-old truck driver, father fatally shot early Monday; November's homicide spike climbs A 37-year-old father and truck driver was shot and killed on Barber Street just off College Drive early Monday morning, marking Baton Rouge's Johnson, of 4631 Aldrich Drive, and Simpson, of 3953 Tyrone Drive, will be booked into Parish Prison upon their return to East Baton Rouge. The hazing allegation that led to the suspension of activities for LSU sorority Pi Beta Phi's in early November stemmed from a milk chugging challenge, according to an LSU Police report. The parent organization of Pi Beta Phi sorority suspended their LSU's chapter on Nov. 8 while officials investigated an allegation of hazing. The national Greek Life organization alleged that a member of their LSU chapter provided a new member "with a gallon of milk and gave her instructions to finish the milk within a certain amount of time," the initial report from LSU Police says. The report explains that LSU Police detectives were contacted about the incident from the national headquarters of Pi Beta Phi on Nov. 8. The incident occurred on Oct. 4 sometime between noon and 9 p.m., the report says. The names of both members involved in the milk incident were redacted out in the report. No further details were reported. LSU spokesman Ernie Ballard said the investigation into the incident remains ongoing. LSU sorority's events suspended during investigation of hazing allegations The parent organization of Pi Beta Phi confirmed Thursday that it has halted activities at their chapter house at LSU after receiving informat Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up The sorority's suspension was the third Greek Life organization at LSU restricted this fall. Pi Kappa Phi and Delta Chi fraternities received interim suspensions from both their national chapters and the university earlier in the academic year following reports of misconduct. Phi Kappa Phi's investigation came after "very serious" allegations, but officials would not confirm or deny if they involved hazing. However, the August suspension of Delta Chi did not initially appear to involve hazing. LSU has cracked down on Greek Life student conduct violations since the hazing-related death of LSU freshman Maxwell Gruver in 2017. The attorney for a man injured in a violent arrest in Baton Rouge is demanding the release of the Police Department's footage of the encounter. Attorney Ronald Haley Jr. said he is concerned police used excessive force after viewing multiple bystander videos of the Oct. 24 incident. Those videos show two Baton Rouge Police officers on top of Steven Young, at times throwing punches. But Police Department officials say the officers' actions were justified in their arrest of Young, who later required medical attention. "The videos themselves are very troubling," Haley said. "Every video, you hear at least three or four people all saying the same thing, This guy is defenseless, you keep on beating on him.' +3 'An atrocity': Parents of man fatally shot by BRPD upset officer awarded Medal of Valor In the year since Henry and Helen Frazier found out their 35-year-old son had been fatally shot by a Baton Rouge police officer, the couple ha On Monday, Haley asked the courts to order the Baton Rouge Police Department to release the body- and dash-camera footage from the incident, as well as the police reports. He said he filed a public records request for them earlier this month but received no response from the agency. The Advocate, in November, also requested body- and dash-camera footage from the incident. But it, too, was denied based on the fact that the criminal case against Young is ongoing. Baton Rouge Deputy Chief Jonny Dunnam said Tuesday that they can not release the footage before the criminal case is addressed. He said the incident does not fall under the department's new critical incident policy, which would allow for a quicker release of such footage, because Young was not checked into a hospital. However, Dunnam acknowledged that Young required medical attention before the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison would book him. Can't see video below? Click here. After the violent encounter, officers found a loaded gun in Young's pants, which he could not legally possess because he was a convicted felon. He was arrested on counts of illegally possessing and carrying the firearm, resisting arrest with force and possession of marijuana the latter of which began the police interaction. According to the police report on his arrest, officers approached Young because they noticed a marijuana cigarette in his mouth as he sat atop a motorcycle outside his apartment complex in the 11400 block of Bard Avenue. When officers approached Young, he tried to conceal the drug, the report says, and then tried to flee by pulling the motorcycle forward. The officers tried to restrain Young, who fell but then got up and tried to run again, the report says. Video: Salamoni's conduct probed in 4 incidents; ex-officer given summons for simple battery The Baton Rouge Police Department on Monday revealed that the agency recently investigated the conduct of Blane Salamoni during four incidents "Officers attempted to tase the defendant. This proved to be ineffective," the report says. "The defendant then physically fought with officers for several minutes while punching, biting and kicking. Numerous verbal commands were issued and ignored." Young disputed many of the details from the report. He said he never tried to flee and claimed he was tackled by the officers, then tried to stand up, but was tackled again. He insisted that he did not resist and claimed he was repeatedly hit in the head even after he was handcuffed. "Ive been in situations like that before where I could run away," Young said, comparing other fights with this altercation with the two officers. "That is the worst whooping because I cant run away from them. It was no fight because I couldnt fight them. 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 Young said the officers both tried to subdue him with a stun gun. He said they also used pepper spray on him, and choked and repeatedly punched him in the head. He said he moved in reaction to their aggression, not to fight back. Two weeks after the arrest and encounter, Young said, his head and neck were still tender, his right hand still in pain. +9 Special Report: For New Iberia, a community's lost faith in law enforcement Sheriff Louis Ackal was all smiles as he strode into the fading sunlight outside the federal courthouse in Shreveport. But Dunnam said officers were fighting for their lives as they struggled with Young for more than seven minutes before backup arrived to help. He said officers were able to handcuff Young in the front, but that is not the most secure way and it still allows a subject to hit and move his arms. They were only able to handcuff him behind his back after backup came to help get him under control. When a suspect is still resisting and attempting to bite the officers hands, the officer has every right to strike an individual," Dunnam said. "He was not cooperating at all." Can't see video below? Click here. Haley said that while the videos show Young moving at times under the officers, it appears to him that Young was reacting to the physical beating. "We will not rush to judgment; we will ask right now for transparency," Haley said. "If what we find is consistent with what's on these videos, as swiftly as were going to ask for transparency, we're going to swiftly ask for action. The videos were taken by neighbors on the street and in the apartments. In two that were shared with The Advocate, bystanders voice concern about the way the officers are treating Young. "He can't f****** move and y'all still hitting him?" one bystander said. "C'mon man." One neighbor, Randy Brown, said he could not believe what was happening when he saw the police encounter. When I came outside, they were beating the crap out of that man," Brown said. He said he had just spoken to his 15-year-old son about how police protect and serve and need to be respected but then incidents like this happen. Its wrong," Brown said. "I was disgusted." It takes a village to pass a tax, and Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome is at great pains to portray the backing of a coalition of supporters on behalf of her big increase for roads and bridges on the Dec. 8 ballot. Keeping her remarks at the Baton Rouge Press Club short, she asked a bevy of tax supporters to come to the mike and talk about the traffic problems that snarl up life and business in the capital city. Along the way, she and the tax backers hit some important political markers. Everybody is in the giant plan with projects in traditionally anti-tax areas like Central and Zachary. Every part of our parish is touched by this plan, Broome said. The plan is The Plan. It cant be tampered with, Broome said, because the projects on the long list to be funded by a half-cent sales tax increase is set by law and wont be changed. This, she said, addresses the trust factor, to ensure that voters will is reflected in the results. In a nod to the reality of doing almost $1 billion in projects over a dozen or 15 years, she said the projects will have to be managed by a construction planning firm to make sure the work is done efficiently. Finally, she and her backers appealed to chronic voters who are likely to turn out for a relatively unexciting election, older folks: EMS and first-responder vehicles get stuck in traffic, too, the mayor said. She was supported by prominent leaders in the medical community, Suzy Sonnier of the Health District around south Baton Rouges big hospitals and Edgardo Tenreiro of Baton Rouge General. The latter is a relative newcomer to Baton Rouge, and he learned right off that traffic problems are grist of daily conversation. As a CEO, he added, delaying the work wont make it cheaper. Time is of the essence, he said. We cant let perfection get in the way of improvement. That pragmatic approach was also mentioned by business leader Jim Bernhard: We cannot do a perfect plan because there is no such thing. But for Bernhard and Jennifer Dunphy of ExxonMobils chemical plant, investing in basic infrastructure including roads and bridges although they also noted education as another high priority is vital to the future of this city, as it is anywhere. Dunphy said that her company plans to invest $20 billion in Gulf Coast operations in the coming years and Baton Rouge competitiveness is vital to snagging more of those projects. One of the things they look at is infrastructure, she said. That is the theme that mayors long before Broome have tried to stress, often enough taking a bruising politically when they try to pass a tax plan. Remember the Horizon Plan from Tom Ed McHugh in the 1990s? The mayor said she sees her job as looking to the future. It is about governing 10, 20 or even 50 years down the road, she said, arguing that investing in transportation will set us up for long-term growth in the coming decades. Given the lack of investment so often in Baton Rouge, this is a difficult argument to oppose, but the Dec. 8 tax is also a significant new expense at the cash register. But Broome, who served many years in the Legislature, did not neglect to mention one of the constitutional changes in the Stelly Plan, the last big state tax reform of 2002: Sales taxes are not levied on groceries, prescription drugs and residential utilities. Email Lanny Keller at lkeller@theadvocate.com. Adam Knapp, president and CEO of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber (BRAC), speaks at the lectern during the Industrial Tax Exemption Program (ITEP) committee meeting concerning a tax exemption for the Exxon Plastics Plant on Monday, March 26, 2018, in Baton Rouge, La. A flood-damaged resident room is shown at St. Rita's Nursing Home in St.Bernard Parish, Sept. 16, 2005. Thirty-four people died at the nursing home while waiting to be rescued from floodwaters caused by Hurricane Katrina. When President Donald Trump started tweeting recently about rapidly dropping oil prices never mind all that ugliness with Saudi Arabia he hoped his supporters would start celebrating. But among those responsible for Louisianas budget, the news means its time to start worrying. At Tuesdays Revenue Estimating Conference meeting, economists shared generally good news of higher revenue forecasts for both the current fiscal year and the next. With the fiscal cliff finally behind them, Gov. John Bel Edwards and many other politicians, Democrat and Republican, hope this will help them pay for the teacher pay raise they want to pass during the spring legislative session. After tense meeting over possible rosier Louisiana financials, no update to revenue forecast Just when it seemed fights over Louisiana's state budget had become a thing of the past, tempers flared again at the State Capitol on Tuesday But the forecasts used data that predated the recent drop in oil prices, which means that better tax collections could be undermined by reduced income from industry activity in the state. That, along with some other less specific professed concerns, was enough to give House Appropriations Committee Chairman Cameron Henry an excuse to withhold his support for recognizing the money, which requires unanimous approval. Unless its reversed at a future meeting, the RECs non-decision will keep the administration from spending this years money as the Legislature already allocated it, and will prevent lawmakers from including it in next years budget. Henrys move drew well-earned cries of politics from the Edwards administration and Senate President John Alario, who are intimately familiar with his habit of grandstanding over taxing and spending issues. Grace Notes: New oil uncertainty and typical partisan politics send revenue forecast meeting off the rails There was one genuine concern hanging over Tuesday mornings meeting of the state Revenue Estimating Conference. It involved whether a recent "In an unprecedented political ploy, Chairman Henry objected to adopting the forecasts proposed by the economists," Edwards said in a harsh written statement. "Both the Legislatures economist and the states economist projected an improved revenue forecast for the state as a result of an improved economy. This is not new money or asking for additional money." And indeed, the REC routinely makes adjustments up or down based on changes in economic conditions. Still, this is an issue thats worth watching. Its too soon to say whether the price plunge is a blip or a long-term trend, but if the latter is true, it could cause trouble. It has in the past, most recently when lower prices combined with the national recession and the Legislatures short-sighted elimination of the Stelly tax increases to create the last fiscal mess. Politics aside, consider this a reminder that more economic diversification is in order. It's never good when the states fortunes depend so much on a single sector. Tales of the Cocktail was born at the bar, and the New Orleans-based organization has since held its events in drinking establishments around the world. Soon, Tales of the Cocktail have its own bar in downtown New Orleans. The Tales of the Cocktail Foundation, the nonprofit behind the multifaceted group, will take over the current home of Pigeon & Prince, an events hall at 129 Camp St. in the CBD. This new venue will be called Storyteller x Tales (say it aloud as Storyteller by Tales). Across its four floors, it will have room for private events, classes and other gatherings. On the ground floor, the group will develop a full service bar, called Tales of the Cocktail Bar. The foundation will begin leasing the property Jan. 1. The Tales of the Cocktail Bar is slated to open in the months to come. The news comes near the end of a year that has been transformational for the local organization, which is best known for the namesake drinks industry conference it holds in New Orleans each summer. Earlier in 2018, Tales of the Cocktail took on new leadership and was restructured as a nonprofit with a grants-making program and an aim to become a leader in issues running across the spirits business and hospitality world. In a statement, foundation co-chair Gary Solomon Jr. framed Storyteller x Tales as a physical manifestation of that calling. This initiative is going to significantly expand the footprint of Tales of the Cocktail Foundation, Solomon said. Historically, the organization was able to reach this audience of both industry and enthusiasts alike a few weeks a year, and now, well be able to further the Foundations efforts to educate, advance, and support the community 365 days a year, on a broader scale. Storyteller x Tales will serve as the headquarters for the Tales of the Cocktail organization, which since 2016 has been based in an office in Arabi. The property, at the corner of Camp and Common streets, is a historic building that was long out of commerce until it was redeveloped in 2009 as an ambitious restaurant called Le Foret. In 2016, the local company now called BRG Hospitality (then called Besh Restaurant Group) turned it into the Pigeon & Prince for private events. The restaurant company, which did not own the building, will no longer be involved with the property when the Tales of the Cocktail Foundation takes it over in January. Solomon, founder of the Solomon Group production company, partnered with local bar proprietor Neal Bodenheimer to take over Tales of the Cocktail from founders Ann and Paul Tuennerman earlier in 2018. Solomon's family, which is prominent in local civic and philanthropic circles, supported the move. 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 It affirmed Tales of the Cocktail's future in New Orleans after a shakeup led to the Tuennermans' departure last year. It also recast the event as a fundraiser to support causes within the hospitality industry. To begin, this year the foundation awarded $250,000 in community grants for programs around the country that take aim at issues like diversity, abuse and sustainability in the business. Early on in the change, Tales leaders said they wanted to find new ways to convene the professional spirits and hospitality community, and stretch the group's networking and career development potential beyond the summer conference. Storyteller x Tales will give these events a homebase, with the first in a planned series now slated for February. Focusing on year-round programming as a vehicle for creating opportunity is such a natural extension of the Tales of the Cocktail brand, foundation executive director Caroline Rosen said in a statement. One way we plan to approach this is by curating special events that attract national and international talent to New Orleans, bringing global perspective and insights into our community to engage, uplift, and inspire. When the Tales of the Cocktail Bar opens in 2019, it will be open daily for drinks and also serve as another showcase for local and visiting professionals in the spirits business. Bodenheimer, whose first bar Cure won the James Beard Award for outstanding bar program in 2018, described the forthcoming bar as both paying reverence to classic drinks and embracing evolution and progress. Tales of the Cocktail, by design, strives to connect people who are passionate about cocktails, Bodenheimer said in a statement. We wanted to take that a step further and create a space where the New Orleans community and visitors alike could convene over well-made drinks year-round. Tales of the Cocktail Bar will offer a platform for local, national and international bar talent and a home for all people who love cocktails. The groups main event, the Tales of the Cocktail conference, is scheduled for July 16-21 in New Orleans for 2019. Storyteller x Tales and Tales of the Cocktail Bar 129 Camp St., slated to open in 2019 (date TBD) The Slidell City Council adopted several high-profiles ordinances at its meeting on Tuesday, but it was a decidedly less-publicized item at the end of the agenda that seemed to excite the council and Mayor Greg Cromer the most. The council unanimously granted a conditional-use permit to ASMT Inc. for the renovation and operation of the former Textron site on Front Street near Cleveland Avenue. Not much was said about ASMT or the negotiations that brought the company to the Camellia City, but Slidell officials didnt temper their enthusiastic welcome. ASMT representative Drew Herrington briefly addressed the council. After the meeting, he said the company could be doing business in Slidell within days. That came as no surprise to Cromer, who indicated that plans to woo ASMT to Slidell from New Orleans had been ongoing for quite some time. Still, the mayor said he would have to remain a bit cryptic until final business dealings with the company were complete. Things have just happened a little bit quicker (than expected,) Cromer told the council, referring to arrangements that brought ASMT to Slidell. We greatly thank ASMT for being here in our community and we welcome you with open arms. ASMT, a company based in Turkey that most recently was doing business locally in New Orleans, mass manufactures small metal machine parts using a metallurgic process called sintering, which involves welding together small metal particles into various shapes. According to documents included in the meetings agenda, the sintering process at 2859 Front St. will be fueled by an ATMOS natural gas line entering the property from the intersection of Bayou Liberty Road and Cleveland Avenue. Manufacturing equipment will be enclosed on site, and there are no expected adverse impacts from noise, light or traffic. An oil/water waste discharge produced in the metallurgic process would be separated before the water is discharged into the citys sewer system (oil would be collected and either recycled or sold.) A cooling tower will be built on site to cool the heated gases exhausted in the process. The tower will have a closed loop so exhaust is contained and captured. In other business on Tuesday, the council voted 8-1 to allow mobile food trucks in commercial and industrial zones that already allow drive-through restaurants. Several officials with the Olde Towne Slidell Main Street organization spoke in favor of the decision, which they said would bring additional visitors to areas that need more visitor traffic. They said food trucks could help established restaurants, as well, by increasing the number of people in areas where they do business. St. Tammany top stories in your inbox A weekly guide to the biggest news in St. Tammany. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Food truck operators will be required to purchase a city permit and pay sales taxes. The trucks could open between the hours of 6 a.m. and 3 a.m. unless otherwise specified in a special-event permit. Councilman at Large Bill Borchert sponsored the food truck bill that was introduced by previous city councilman and Slidell Mayor Sam Caruso. District C Councilman Warren Crockett cast the lone dissenting vote. The council also amended the citys code of ordinances to require massage therapists to be licensed by the state and for establishments employing them to hold occupational licenses saying proper therapeutic massage services are offered on the premises. Slidell Police conducting an undercover sting in April arrested four women on prostitution charges at three massage parlors in the city. A month later, the council placed a moratorium on new massage businesses until Nov. 30. The change in city code is designed to protect the interests of professional massage therapists doing business in the city. Cromer said stiff penalties (fines, revocation of licenses, jail time) give teeth to the city should people try to pose as legitimate massage therapists. Also on Tuesday, the council voted 8-1 to officially name the Heritage Park amphitheater stage the Ronnie and Gardner Kole Stage." The Koles have supported Slidells cultural arts scene for decades, and through events such as the annual Jazz on the Bayou event at their home on Bayou Liberty, have raised more than $1.5 million for local nonprofits, including Easter Seals, STARC, Safe Harbor, the Tammany Trace Foundation and more. Ronnie Kole, a world-renowned pianist, is one of five people enshrined in the New Orleans Musical Legends Park and is a member of the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. He has performed for six U.S. Presidents and Pope John Paul II, and he helped organize both the first New Orleans Jazz Fest and French Quarter Festival. His wife, Gardner, founded the Slidell Arts Guild and owned the first ballet studio in Slidell, which allowed her to teach dance arts to countless area children in a time when such education was rare in the parish. Louisiana Revised Statute 42:267 allows for the naming of a portion of a public building after a living person. Borchert sponsored the ordinance to name the stage for the Koles. District D Councilman Val Vanney cast the only dissenting vote. The council also voted to condemn and demolish within 30 days two auxiliary buildings adjacent to a home at 609 Hailey Ave. A suspected drug smuggler who choked his girlfriend, allegedly killed a man, then squandered his chance to serve just a few years in prison by blowing off a series of plea deals, received a life sentence for his crimes Tuesday. Ad hoc Orleans Parish Criminal District Court Judge Dennis Waldron employed Louisiana's habitual-offender law to sentence Kyron Theophile to life in prison without the possibility of probation or parole, adding that after a review of Theophile's record, he saw no reason to show leniency. Im looking for anything thats redeeming in your life. Im looking for anything thats meaningful in your life. And Ive come up empty, Waldron said. Theophile, who turns 33 on Monday, had been given probation and light sentences for a series of violent actions in the past, but he kept returning to crime, Waldron said. He has sent a message to all of us as a community at large, that hes not willing to follow through on every opportunity he has been given, Waldron said in denying the request from Theophile's public defender for a rare reprieve from a mandatory minimum life term prescribed by law. By handing down the life sentence, Waldron may have spared the District Attorneys Office the trouble of trying Theophile on a second-degree murder charge. Theophile was accused of shooting to death Gerard Avant in December 2016. But his life sentence came in connection with his conviction for choking his girlfriend, who survived the attack. With two previous convictions, under Louisiana law, Theophile faced life in prison as a third-strike violent felon. His rap sheet goes back to June 2004 and a chase through New Orleans' 6th Ward. He ran from the police while carrying crack cocaine and heroin, according to authorities, and pointed a gun at a police officer. The officer held his fire, potentially sparing Theophile's life. During the arrest that followed, Theophile told the cop, I wont be in jail for long. He was right. He received probation the next month. 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 After three more felony arrests in the intervening years, he was accused of choking his girlfriend in January 2016. In July 2016, Theophile pleaded guilty to domestic abuse battery and other counts in exchange for a three-year sentence. He promised to return to court to receive the sentence after he attended the birth of a child, but he never appeared. He was booked in Avants killing later that year, in December 2016, and his failure to show up for his original sentencing exposed him once again to the possibility of a life sentence. Last month, prosecutors gave Theophile yet another chance with an offer to wrap up both cases with a 25-year sentence. But after pleading guilty to the domestic violence case in Waldron's court, Theophile blew up the plea deal by refusing to accept a manslaughter conviction in the Avant killing in front of another judge. Staff attorney Leon Roche of the Orleans Public Defenders challenged the states use of the habitual-offender law, arguing that it was a way of avoiding the need to try Theophile on the murder charge. Waldron had rejected that objection earlier, and on Tuesday he also dismissed Roches claim that Theophiles case presented one of the exceptional cases where a Louisiana judge can dip below a mandatory minimum. The judge said that Theophiles relatives, some of whom were in court, were also the victims of his broken promises. Each of you can leave this court and blame me, Waldron said. I will understand that, and I will not in any way be offended. But I think in your heart of hearts, youve got to examine this gentleman, and what he has done to all of you and all of us. Assistant District Attorney Jason Napoli prosecuted the case. According to him, Theophile has picked up even more charges since the start of his current jail stint. The Sheriffs Office is investigating whether he conspired to have documents laced with synthetic marijuana or roach spray smuggled into the New Orleans jail. The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday vacated a lower court's ruling that 1,500 acres of land in St. Tammany Parish can be designated as critical habitat for an endangered frog that hasn't lived in Louisiana for decades. The 8-0 ruling, in a case which was closely followed by environmental groups as well as advocates for private property rights, leaves in place protections for dusky gopher frogs in their current habitat in Mississippi. It also kept in place the federal government's right to designate privately owned land as "critical habitats" and to impose the land-use restrictions that designation often entails. But in what plaintiffs called a victory for property rights, the court ordered the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans to re-examine its definition of "habitat," a word that was at the core of the long-running suit as landowners argued that federal regulators went too far in restricting property rights in an area where the frogs don't even live. "Critical habitat," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the ruling, can't be designated as such "unless it is also habitat for the species." The 5th Circuit, he said, did not take up that question when it considered the case. "I'm ecstatic. This is a great decision for my family," said landowner Edward Poitevent, adding that he was surprised by the unanimous decision. Many observers had expected the court to divide along liberal-conservative lines. There are fewer than 100 dusky gopher frogs left in the wild, and all are in Mississippi. But the land in St. Tammany Parish does have seasonal ponds, a necessary feature for the frogs to breed. Partly because of those ponds, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2012 designated the land along La. 36 in St. Tammany as critical habitat, despite the fact that the frogs require a different type of forest than now exists on the land. The designation sparked a lawsuit from the landowners and the giant timber company Weyerhaeuser Co., who argued that it was an example of government overreach and could cost them millions of dollars in profits they could earn by developing the land. 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 Fish and Wildlife Service and environmental groups like the Center for Biological Diversity argued that the designation of such land was well within the mandates of the Endangered Species Act, and that the designation did not prevent the owners from developing the land. It just required that they present a conservation plan for the frog. Lower courts ruled that the decision was within the discretion of federal officials and therefore not subject to judicial review. Once the suit reached the Supreme Court, interested parties on both sides of the debate jumped in. Property-rights advocates, a coalition of 18 state attorneys general and places like San Juan County, Utah, which has a similar situation with a species of bird, sided with the plaintiffs. Environmental groups and some legal think tanks agreed with the government's position. Tuesday's ruling was trumpeted by the plaintiffs as a victory, but it wasn't quite the full-throated rejection of the government's power that some had hoped. Collette Adkins, of the Center for Biological Diversity, said she was disappointed but plans to continue fighting. The opinion is quite narrow and leaves all the work to be done by the lower court, Adkins said. The dusky gopher frogs habitat protections remain in place for now, and were hopeful the 5th Circuit will recognize the importance of protecting and restoring habitats for endangered wildlife to live. The Endangered Species Act allows for unoccupied land to be designated as habitat, and the St. Tammany tract is "ideal breeding habitat" for the dusky gopher frog, Atkins said. She said the Center for Biological Diversity will continue to fight to have the land designated as critical habitat for the frogs. Because the case was sent back to the 5th Circuit, both sides will likely have an opportunity to submit new briefs addressing the issues raised by the high court's ruling. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who had not been confirmed when the court heard oral arguments on the case, did not participate in the decision. President Donald Trump placed responsibility for recent stock market declines and this week's General Motors plant closures and layoffs on the Federal Reserve during an interview Tuesday, shirking any personal responsibility for cracks in the economy and declaring that he is "not even a little bit happy" with his hand-selected central bank chairman. President Trump is not happy with himself for choosing Fed chief Jerome Powell. Credit:AP In a wide-ranging and sometimes discordant 20-minute interview with The Washington Post, Trump complained at length about Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome "Jay" Powell, whom he nominated earlier this year. He argued that rising interest rates and other Fed policies were damaging the economy - as evidenced by GM's announcement this week that it was laying off 15 per cent of its workforce - though he insisted that he is not worried about a recession. "I'm doing deals, and I'm not being accommodated by the Fed," Trump said. "They're making a mistake because I have a gut, and my gut tells me more sometimes than anybody else's brain can ever tell me." He added: "So far, I'm not even a little bit happy with my selection of Jay. Not even a little bit. And I'm not blaming anybody, but I'm just telling you I think that the Fed is way off-base with what they're doing." Given that one in six couples are estimated to experience infertility, and incidents of single women using IVF to have a baby on their own are becoming increasingly common, it's no wonder those working behind the scenes in reproductive services are kept busy. One of the employees most IVF patients have contact with is a midwife. Experienced practitioners such as Libby Conn, also a registered nurse, can be involved in a number of stages during the IVF process. Libby Conn believes that when working in an IVF environment, a healthy dose of empathy is key to doing the job well. While Conn has previously worked at the Royal Women's Hospital with patients experiencing severe side effects from IVF treatments, today she works for Melbourne-based fertility specialist Dr Joseph Sgroi. "My role here is to help look after patients in the first part of their pregnancy, or with their IVF treatment," she says. "With IVF there are a lot of medications to help support pregnancy so I help them with that." A Canberra detainee poured scalding water over a fellow inmate's head and hit him with a can in a sock, later complaining the attack was because the unit was sick of the man "standing-over" them. But prison intelligence suggested the attacker had been asserting himself as the "leader" of the unit and attempting to bolster support from the other detainees. The assault happened on May 23 this year and was reviewed by the Inspector of Correctional Services in a report tabled in parliament this week, providing a rare insight into detainee disputes. Surveillance footage had showed the detainee waiting at the top of the stairs for the victim before fetching a kettle and the weapon from his cell. Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has accused the government of waging a "war on science" and has promised to defend the sector from such "aggressive" attacks should Labor win the next federal election. In a speech he is delivering to the Australian Academy of Science in Canberra on Wednesday night, Mr Shorten says the government has an "aggressive anti-scientific mindset that seems to revel in its lack of intellectual rigour and demands conspiracy theories are given the same weighting as facts". "If elected, I want to lead a government that makes its policy decisions on the basis of the best possible evidence. And science provides us with that evidence," Mr Shorten says in his speech. Bill Shorten inspecting renewable energy research at the University of NSW. Credit:Janie Barrett "It seems wrong that the purpose of science is something we have to defend, in 2018. But we do. And we must. Sydney Airport is experiencing significant delays and flight cancellations as winds and rain take hold of the city. Some passengers have been left stranded as about 100 flights have been cancelled or delayed. Erin Kubian, from Canada, has been stranded in Sydney due to the Sydney Airport delays. Credit:Laura Chung Erin Kubian, 18, is visiting Australia from Canada with her family and was at the airport on Wednesday morning to fly to Brisbane. Her flight was cancelled and rescheduled for 6am on Thursday. Former NSW police minister Matt Brown, who infamously resigned just three days into the job, says he was attempting to "satisfy a curiosity" when he was caught with the drug ice and a glass pipe at Townsville's Ville Casino this week. Mr Brown, the Labor member for Kiama from 1999 to 2011 who currently serves on Kiama council, said he "made a stupid decision" and is now seeking help for substance abuse and depression. Kiama councilor Matt Brown pleaded guilty to drug possession. Credit:Kiama Independent "I made a mistake. I have a problem. I am seeking help," Mr Brown told the Herald via text message on Wednesday. "I behaved with a selfish indulgence and a reckless disregard to everything that is important to me." Widespread heavy rain that caused peak-hour commuter chaos has soaked Sydney suburbs, with central and northern regions copping most of the downpour. Bureau of Meteorology data mapping the rainfall shows the heaviest falls to 3pm landed around the Sydney Basin and the city's north and north-west. Mosman (140mm), Chatswood (124mm), the Sydney CBD (123mm) and West Pennant Hills (113mm) all topped 100mm. But the worst could be still to come, with the bureau issuing a severe thunderstorm warning for large hailstones and heavy rainfall in Sydney and most of coastal NSW. Most parts of south-east Queensland are considered to be smart cities, but its not all about technology. The Cities of the Sunshine State report, authored by three members of the Queensland University of Technologys Institute for Future Environments, looked at the status of Queenslands 78 local government areas and evaluated their overall smartness. Brisbane is considered a high-performing smart city. Credit:Alamy Stock Photo Just 10 were considered high-performing, with a majority in south-east Queensland. The lead local government areas were identified as Brisbane, Sunshine Coast, Cairns, Logan, Ipswich, Townsville, Moreton Bay, Gold Coast, Noosa and Scenic Rim. Severe thunderstorms are bringing damaging winds and large hailstones to south-east Queensland with storms developing in Brisbane following the sweltering heat across the state. Storms have already begun to impact train lines with trains being suspended after a tree fell onto the overhead powerlines at Eagle Junction. South-east Queensland has been rocked by storms on Wednesday. Credit:Cameron Atfield Queensland Rail said trains were currently suspended in both directions between Bowen Hills and Northgate stations with major delays expected. The Hendra station's rail crossing gates have also closed down due to power loss and a fallen tree. Police have arrested 11 people in Melbourne's north-west, seizing about one kilogram of the drug ice, guns, swords and almost $200,000 cash. Arrests were made in Fawkner, Campbellfield, Brunswick West, Coburg, Pascoe Vale, Hadfield, Sunshine and Keilor on Wednesday morning. These came after investigations led by the Echo Taskforce and various police units. Almost $200,000 cash was found in an Audi. Credit:Victoria Police "Detectives have seized 11 firearms including handguns, approximately 1kg of methylamphetamine, two ballistic vests, tasers, swords, allegedly stolen property, more than $190,000 and an Audi R8," police said. If you live in Melbourne's inner city, the leafy eastern suburbs or the bayside, your child's school is far more likely to be scoring above the national average on NAPLAN. But if you live in the outer suburbs, like Dandenong, Broadmeadows and Brimbank, your child and their peers are more likely to be lagging behind in their reading skills. A new analysis by Macquarie University shows that where a primary school is located has more bearing on its year 5 NAPLAN reading results than whether it is public or private. The red dots show schools with below average NAPLAN reading scores, while the blue dots show schools with above average scores. Use the slider to see where the socioeconomic divide is. A damning report into the Greenough prison riot has found an increase in lockdowns, staff shortfalls, and a lack of engagement with Aboriginal prisoners were all factors which contributed to the massive disturbance and breakout of 10 inmates in July. The report into the Greenough jail riot has been handed down. Credit:Andrew Meares The 92-page critical incident review report says while there was no specific spark that triggered the riot or the escapes, there were a range of factors contributing to the unstable environment at the facility in the lead-up to it. The report, authored by former Victorian Corrections Commissioner Jan Shuard, says the events at the prison on July 24/25 involved three distinct critical incidents. "The riot (including fires), the escape and the breach into the womens unit by male prisoners. Each is a critical incident in its own right," the report says. "The winds even down to Bremer Bay and south of the [Stirling Ranges] were horrendous," he said. "Some fires went through earlier this year on windy days and now theres just sand. "We have de-stocked our paddocks, some blokes have just about run out of water." I had to speak out. This isnt just about me, its about 50 other people. It was just chewing me up. One bloke I spoke to today said he cant sleep at night. He just lies awake, worrying. Farmer Tony Griffiths Mr Griffiths said his neighbours dams were dry, but he had a few feet of water left after drought-proofing. "But its gonna be tight," he said. "Its the wind. We had eight windy days where the wind was over 80kph. Wed had no rain, it just blew all the topsoil away, and it killed the lambs. "Its one thing to have no rain, but that wind. It blew all day and all night." Mr Griffiths said the dust, sand and debris was sending his sheep blind and killing his lambs. "Some of our fences are buried in topsoil our boundary fences, the sheep can just walk right over them," he said. "One farmer described it as 'a moonscape'." The barley crop on the farm, which usually averages two tonnes per hectare, has been reduced to about 400 kilograms. "Last season was good, but then we got hit by frost and lost 50 per cent of our wheat and 25 per cent of our barley," Mr Griffiths said. "I've looked at our rainfall records, these are the worst on record and our records go back to 1966." "Talk about a dust bowl, this is the windiest year I have ever seen with eight major wind events where the wind was relentless and blew all day above 80 kilometres an hour, you could not see outside," he wrote in a letter published in Farm Weekly. Farmers say the dust and debris are sending their sheep blind. Mr Griffiths said unlike some areas on the east coast the region could not cope with extended periods of drought. "We couldnt do six or seven years, weve got salty ground water and no scheme," he said. He called on the state government to help farmers in the region by saying that declarations of drought or special circumstances mean that "people could access agistment, hay cartage subsidies and a household allowance". Some farmers have applied to a special fund set up by the CWA WA but are worried that because they are not drought-declared they may not qualify. But Belinda Lay from the CWA has been active on Twitter, encouraging farmers to apply, saying the special CWA grant of up to $5000 was for "any household affected by drought including farm contractors and workers". "We just want to make people aware that this is our worst year on record," Mr Griffiths said. "Not all WA is having a bumper year." Farmer Peter Nelson said a water rebate scheme that finished in May and assisted farmers to clear dams of silt and debris after the severe wind events needed to be reintroduced. "Ive got five dry dams, it's not pretty," he said. Local agricultural contractor Jeff Mactaggart said: "It was a $15,000 rebate scheme from the Department of Water, the Rural Farm Water Rebate Scheme, and it was a dollar-for-dollar on farm water improvement be it earthworks, drilling or pumps." "It was one of the few effective programmes where money hit the ground," he said. One agronomist (who declined to be named) told WAtoday he supported grants or subsidies to level paddocks and clean out dams "Get the country back into working order," he said. "It's been a prick of year, a real kick in the guts." A Mandurah grandmother who has had enough of bullying at her granddaughter's school has taken to the streets to protest, saying the crisis has to stop. Karen Connlley said her granddaughter had suffered harassment, intimidation and threats for two years at her local high school. Castielle Beckman, Jodi Connlley, Amber Beckman, Amy Beckman, Dayton Beckman and Karen Connlley protesting outside Halls Head College. Credit:Carla Hildebrandt We have had to take her out of school again the last two days, she said. Two years on and its still happening. It's a crisis. People are scared to speak up because they dont want their kids to get bullied even more. A police officer who punched one of the Greenough prison escapees in the head is appealing the suspended jail term he was sentenced to over the offence. Greenough prison escapee Bradley Silvester. Credit:WA Police Detective first class constable Callum Boult was given a seven-month suspended jail sentence in the Geraldton Magistrates Court last month after being charged with the common assault of Greenough prison escapee Bradley Silvester. Silvester was one of 10 prisoners who escaped from the prison near Geraldton in WA's Mid West on July 24. Boult was charged after a WA Police drone which was hovering above captured him punching Silvester as he was re-arrested. The ACT government will fund a support service for people living with hoarding, amid fears high summer temperatures might create a fire risk. The issue has come to the fore with the shifting of more than 1000 public housing tenants into new homes as the government clears Northbourne Avenue and other public housing blocks. The ACT government will fund a service to support people living with hoarding. Credit:Joe Armao The government rejects the suggestion that the public housing renewal program has sparked the need for a support service, but the Mental Health Community Coalition said public housing was a hot spot. Chief executive Simon Viereck said community groups helping people move from public housing in the inner north had come across a significant number of people living with hoarding but it was often a hidden problem. Matthew Guy has stood down as Liberal leader, four days after the Coalition's disastrous election loss. He will remain leader until a new leadership team is voted on at a scheduled meeting of the parliamentary party on Thursday next week. Mr Guy again congratuled Premier Daniel Andrews and Labor for their election win on Saturday. Matthew Guy announces defeat in the Victorian state election on Saturday. Credit:AAP "I would like to place on record my deep appreciation for the hard work of all my Liberal members in the last parliament," he said in a statement. Joe Garra delivered more than 3000 Werribee babies over his 25-year career as an obstetrician. Hes seen them grow up, and he's seen some return to get him to deliver their own babies. GP Joe Garra ran against state Treasurer Tim Pallas in the safe Labor seat of Werribee. Credit:Joe Armao So when Dr Garra put his hand up to run as an independent for the state seat of Werribee in Melbournes outer west, his pitch was clear: I can deliver. And its a pitch that seemed to resonate with voters. The well-known GP, and former obstetrician, received more than 20 per cent of first-preference votes at the last count. As the scale of the Coalition's humiliating defeat became clear on Saturday night, it was already obvious that wholesale change needed to start at the top. Despite serving a full term as Opposition Leader, Matthew Guy never really seemed to connect with the public. Former opposition leader Matthew Guy concedes defeat on Saturday night. Credit:David Crosling Sure, the Liberals tried to soften his image and wheel out Matthew the family man. But they left it way too late. Contrast that with the work Labor did to humanise Daniel Andrews before his first election victory in 2014. Corrections Minister Fran Logan looks set to survive a prison riot and break-out that would put most politicians' careers on a mortuary slab. Given the report into the Greenough incident comes on the back of a stack of damning Corruption and Crime Commission investigations into everything from drugs in prisons to inmates having sex in fast-food restaurant toilets, it seems astonishing he doesn't even seem to have lost any paint. Corrective Service Minister Fran Logan will survive the political fall-out of the Greenough Prison Riot. Credit:Fairfax Media Labor politicians who were around for the 2004 Supreme Court escape still wince when they recall the TV footage of nine prisoners bolting through Perth streets. It's the stuff of political nightmares, and no politician wants to be responsible for dangerous criminals on the loose. Jakarta: A Lion Air jet that crashed into the sea off Indonesia last month was not in an airworthy condition on its second-to-last flight, when pilots experienced similar problems to those on its doomed last journey, investigators said on Wednesday. Contact with the Boeing 737 MAX jet was lost 13 minutes after it took off on October 29 from the capital, Jakarta, heading north to the tin-mining town of Pangkal Pinang. In a preliminary report, Indonesia's transport safety committee (KNKT) focused on the airline's maintenance practices and pilot training and a Boeing anti-stall system but did not give a cause for the crash that killed all 189 people on board. The report unveiled fresh details of efforts by pilots to steady the jet as they reported a "flight control problem", including the captain's last words to air traffic control asking to be cleared to "five thou" or 5,000 feet. London: Facebook is facing 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. An activist wearing a Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg mask stands outside the meeting in Westminster. Credit:AP The series of rebukes - delivered at a rare joint hearing featuring policymakers around the world on Tuesday, London time - 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 criticised 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." Washington: A lawyer for Paul Manafort, the Donald Trump's one-time campaign chairman, repeatedly briefed the US President's lawyers on his client's discussions with federal investigators after Manafort agreed to cooperate with the special counsel, according to one of Trump's lawyers and two other people familiar with the conversations. The arrangement was highly unusual and inflamed tensions with Mueller's office when prosecutors discovered it after Manafort began cooperating two months ago, the people said. Some legal experts speculated that it was a bid by Manafort for a presidential pardon even as he worked with the special counsel, Robert Mueller, in hopes of a lighter sentence. Prosecutors from the special counsels office said Paul Manafort breached his plea agreement by lying to them after he agreed to cooperate with their inquiry. Credit:AP Rudy Giuliani, one of the President's personal lawyers, acknowledged the arrangement on Tuesday and defended it as a source of valuable insights into the special counsel's inquiry and where it was headed. Such information could help shape a legal defence strategy, and it also appeared to give Trump and his legal advisers ammunition in their public relations campaign against the special counsel's office. For example, Giuliani said, Manafort's lawyer Kevin M Downing told him that prosecutors hammered away at whether the president knew about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting where Russians promised to deliver damaging information on Hillary Clinton to his eldest son, Donald Trump jnr. The President has long denied knowing about the meeting in advance. "He wants Manafort to incriminate Trump," Giuliani declared of Mueller. Kuwait Fire and Safety Summit 2018 (KFSS 2018) The Kuwait Fire and Safety Summit (KFSS) brings together local, regional and international senior officials from major industry associations and government bodies, civil defence and industrial emergency response leaders experts to discuss key issues, share experiences and case studies, making it a definitive networking platform. Kuwait is committed to ensuring the highest standards of Fire, Health, Safety and Environment in all sectors of industry and it also forms a part of a GCC-wide initiative to examine and highlight the current standards of safety and security in high rise buildings in the region and to promote exchange of ideas between regional industry professionals and international experts. The summit is designed to update and equip key stakeholders with the current global standards and developments, regulations, specific requirements and best practices to check the level of preparedness. KFSS is the gateway to current and future market trends in the fire, safety and security sectors, for the industry professionals to communicate and share ideas to operate effectively and stay abreast with the latest global trends. It will offer unparalleled opportunities to network with peers and to explore new products, technologies and business opportunities. The Summit also aims to create synergy and strengthen the collaboration between the authorities and industries. Bassem Masri, center, confronting a St. Louis police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, on Wednesday, October 8, 2014. Photo: David Carson/MCT via Getty Images Bassem Masri, 31, a Palestinian-American activist who live-streamed throughout the protests against police brutality and the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, has died. Reports of his death circulated on social media on Tuesday, with other prominent activists and journalists offering condolences and memories about the man, who was known for his strong, outspoken beliefs, and his thoughtful conversation. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Masri was found unresponsive on a bus in Bridgeton, Missouri. He was declared dead at a hospital 11:09 a.m., after someone on the bus attempted to administer CPR. Sad news on Twitter about the passing of @bassem_masri, a live streamer who was frequently in Ferguson & other #STL protests. He could be very intense fighting for what he believed but he'd also spent time just talking calmly about life in general during quiet times at protests. pic.twitter.com/cPgp0LC2aG David Carson (@PDPJ) November 27, 2018 A man named Faizan Syed, who identified himself as a family member of Masris, posted about his death on Facebook. A gentle man who was fierce when he faced injustice, Syed wrote. In his short life he did as much if not more to unit the fight for black liberation and Palestinian liberation. We ask everyone to pray and make dua for Bassem and his family. May Allah accept his sacrifices for justice and overlook his flaws and mistakes. Our friend and brother @bassem_masri RIP. A fearless soldier. A humble man. A teacher. A student. A man of conviction. My favorite warrior in the fight for freedom and equity. No person could be a more stronger and loyal ally than Bassem, no one! pic.twitter.com/LDQz4X5VPe MariaChappelleNadal (@MariaChappelleN) November 27, 2018 RIP Bassem Masri. He was a one-of-a-kind presence in the protests & helped to tell the truth about what was happening every day and night. We all felt his spirit in the streets. deray (@deray) November 27, 2018 Masri is not the first person connected to the Ferguson protests to die in the years since the protests against the killing of Michael Brown. Danye Jones, and Darren Seals have both been found dead since 2014. Jones death was considered by police to be a suicide, but his mother Melissa McKinnies who is a prominent activist herself suspected foul play. Seals was found shot to death and set on fire, and his murder has not been solved. Wesley Lowery, a journalist who covered the Ferguson protests, remembered Masri defining character from those nights in Ferguson. Lowery wrote on Twitter that Masri was as committed an activist as Ive known. Brittany Packnett wrote that Masris investment in liberation was real, and his commitment was unwavering. A defining character from those nights in Ferguson. A prominent livestreamer, often with impassioned and...colorful...commentary. Got beat up a ton on cable news/conservative media, but always thoughtful in our convos. As committed an activist as I've known. RIP @bassem_masri https://t.co/NQppmJIiHt Wesley (@WesleyLowery) November 28, 2018 There are some folks who you wonder if theyre all the way in for liberation . You could never wonder that of @bassem_masri. His investment was real, and his commitment was unwavering. I dont even understand why we keep losing activist family so young. Rest in power. Brittany Packnett (@MsPackyetti) November 27, 2018 Funeral services for Bassem Masri will be held on Wednesday. This post will be updated as more information becomes available. Samsung high definition televisions are seen for sale at a Costco store in Washington, DC, September 27, 2018. - A universe of Chinese-made goods found in every American home is now subject to the sprawling tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump, with the brunt of costs to be borne by US consumers, key drivers of the American economy. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images) 5-Year-Old Girl in Hospital With Critical Injuries After Television Falls on Her A 5-year-old Arkansas girl is fighting for her life after a television and dresser toppled over and fell on her. Adryanna Nicole suffered several broken bones and other injuries and was rushed to the hospital after the incident in Marked Tree on the weekend before Thanksgiving. James Stone, her father, said that the girl was playing with other children and preparing to watch a movie on the television when the accident took place. She pulled the drawer out and was trying to climb up there and turn on the DVD player, and it just toppled over, he told WREG. The television, an older model, and dresser fell on her. She was unresponsive, had fractured bones in her face, and was bleeding excessively. Doctors told the family she would likely die but so far she has survived, Stone said. He said the family isnt sure whether shell make it through but shes started breathing on her own. Television Safety for Children Accidents like Nicoles happen every day. Between 2000 and 2016, more than 300 people were killed by a television tipping over. Most were children 5 years old or younger. At this age, children are at a developmental stage where they like to climb, jump, and are eager to exert their independence by dressing themselves or putting on their favorite shows, Catherine Kim, public affairs specialist at the Consumer Product Safety Commission, told Consumer Reports. Accidents involving televisions that tip over, and often pieces of furniture in addition to the TVs, also send thousands of people to emergency rooms. The commission figures one person is rushed to the ER every 52 minutes because of such accidents. Consumer Reports recommends mounting televisions on the wall as opposed to keeping them on furniture. If theyre high enough, young children cant reach them. If people cant or wont wall-mount a TV, they can secure the television to a wall using anti-tipping straps, while furniture holding the television can be anchored to the floor or wall. Avoid placing televisions on dressers. Other Recent Accidents Several recent accidents involving televisions have left children dead. In late September, an 80-pound television set fell on the head of a 2-year-old boy in Connecticut. The boy was rushed to the hospital and died the next day. Sgt. Joseph Kennedy said the TV was an old, tube-type television. An autopsy found the death to be accidental, reported the Connecticut Post. Kennedy said the boy may have been climbing up the set of drawers on which the television was set when the device fell on him. Earlier in September, a television fell on a 21-month-old boy in Canada, killing him. Mother Corina Cantin said on Sept. 8 that she woke up to a loud thump in her apartment. I ran into the bedroom and I opened the door and when I walked in I saw the TV and it was on his head and I threw it off of him, she told Global News. She said the big, older television was on top of a dresser, which her son had been climbing when it toppled onto him. I never in a million years thought that that TV would fall, she said. I weight-tested it myself and it didnt budge. He was a less-than-30-pound baby and he was able to knock it over. From NTD News Marilyn Joy Haight, 79, was struck and killed while she was walking home with groceries on the night before Thanksgiving. (LASD Norwalk Station/Facebook) 79-Year-Old Woman Fatally Struck by Hit-and-Run Driver Just Before Thanksgiving The Los Angeles Sheriffs Department (LASD) is seeking the publics help to identify a hit-and-run suspect who struck and killed an elderly woman during the Thanksgiving holiday. The incident happened on Nov. 21 around 5 p.m. The victim, who was later identified as 79-year-old Marilyn Joy Haight, had just left a local grocery store and was heading home with bags of food for her familys holiday meal. However, she never made it. According to a report from LASD Norwalk Station, Haight was struck while crossing Pioneer Boulevard near Lindale Street in Norwalk. At that time, she was walking east and the suspected vehicle was traveling northbound on Pioneer Boulevard. The driver did not stop to check on the woman, render aid, or call emergency services. On Wednesday, November 21, 2018, the Eve of Thanksgiving, a 79 year old resident of Norwalk left a local grocery store on Pioneer Boulevard carrying groceries. She never made it home after being fatally struck by a hit and run driver. We need your help https://t.co/xuMoQlLwHl pic.twitter.com/gLbUQ7dhBA LA County Sheriff's (@LASDHQ) November 27, 2018 Deputies from LASD Norwalk Station received multiple calls reporting the hit-and-run just after 5:00 p.m. and rushed to the scene. Haight was later hospitalized but died due to her injuries. Based on the time stamp on the store receipt, the collision happened within four minutes after she purchased the groceries. She had bought the food to prepare for her family, who was coming to her house the next day for Thanksgiving, according to the statement. No information about the suspect or the vehicle has been made available. Investigators from LASD Norwalk Station ask witnesses or people with information to help identify the suspect. Investigator Boyer is available for calls at (562) 863-8711. In another hit-and-run incident that happened this Thanksgiving, a Texas family was devastated when 28-year-old Amanda Ferguson Weyant from El Paso was struck and killed. The driver was a man who came to the U.S. illegally and was once arrested for assault in 2017, according to a report by The Epoch Times. The suspect, who was identified as 24-year-old Joel Velazquez by the local police department, allegedly ran a red light and struck Ferguson, who was crossing the street. Ferguson Weyant, a sixth-grade teacher, was later pronounced dead at the scene. Velazquez was arrested last Saturday after police found his vehicle abandoned in a nearby neighborhood. Velazquez is currently being held at a detention facility under a $150,000 bound. Hes destroyed my family. My daughter, Mandy, was the glue that held my family in place, she was my everything, said Dan Ferguson, her father, in a statement to WLOS. Everything was perfect in her life and to have it all taken and senselessly destroyed this is something no parent should go through, her father continued. She was my world, she was my wifes best friend but she was my baby girl. New Zealand Prime Minister speaks during a post cabinet press conference at Parliament in Wellington, New Zealand, on Oct. 31, 2017. Concerns over reduced academic freedom in universities has been sparked by threats against politics professor Anne-Marie Brady, for publishing a report critical of the Chinese Communist Party. (Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images) Academics Urge New Zealands Ardern to Stand Firm Against Chinese Regime Academics and civil-society groups have called on New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinta Ardern to send a clear warning to the Chinese Regimesilencing academic voices wont be tolerated. The request comes amid reports of intimidation and threats against Anne-Marie Brady, a China critic and Canterbury University politics professor, the ABC reported. In an open letter to Ardern published Nov. 26, 29 academics and groups such as Amnesty International banded together as signatories in support of Brady after she experienced months of harassment following the publication of her paper Magic Weapons (pdf) in 2017. Bradys paper was published by the Wilson Center, a highly recognized think tank based in Washington. China's network of influence in New Zealand. Professor Anne-Marie Brady was disturbed by her findings. https://t.co/l4JlMFydzj pic.twitter.com/SnJn3Xhy8S UniversityCanterbury (@UCNZ) September 20, 2017 Bradys paper examines how New Zealand is being targeted by the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) influence agenda, which according to the Wilson Center website, is a core task of Chinas United Front work: one of the CCPs famed magic weapons that helped bring it to power. Brady told ABC radio, After that happened in December last year, I had a break-in at my office. And then, in February, I received a warning letter talking about what the Chinese consulate was trying to do to suppress the natural concerns amongst the Chinese-New Zealander community, about the finding of my research. It warned me in the letter that I was next for attack, although not specifying what the attack would be. NZ is unique in having legislated for the "Critic and Conscience" role of the academic: The Education Act (1989) Sections 160 & 161 guarantee academic freedom for educational institutions, staff & students. The obligation applies to Ministers & agencies of the Crown. #nzpol Anne-Marie Brady (@Anne_MarieBrady) November 21, 2018 Suspected Involvement of CCP Brady contacted New Zealands Security Intelligence Service (SIS) after receiving the letter from the consulate. On the day she spoke to SIS, both her house and her office were burgled. My house was burgled and what was taken was the computer on which I wrote the Magic Weapons paper and, unfortunately, my childrens computers, Brady told ABC radio. In October, a smear campaign against Brady was published in a state-controlled Chinese language mediaa signature tactic of the CCP. There was an organized hostile media contained in the Chinese language media against myself and I asked the police for extra protection as I recognized it as an escalation, Brady said. Brady also had her car tampered with: Her two front tires were flattened to dangerous levels that could collapse at high speeds or during sudden braking. Someone tried to harm me and my family. I dont think that they are a coincidence. They are happening to me because of my research, Brady said. Response from New Zealands PM I absolutely defend the right of academics to utilize their academic freedom, and, of course, the rights that are granted to them through our legislation, Ardern said at a press conference (pdf) on Nov. 26. I absolutely support that and defend that. They should continue to be able to do their work and with freedom from repercussion from this government or any other government. Arderns statement was welcomed by academics at the University of Canterbury. We wish to clearly state our collegial support for Professor Brady and reiterate that academic freedom is central to the workings of our university as it is to all universities in New Zealand, the statement of support from the academics reads. We note that it is often easier not to speak out in the name of academic freedom even though the Education Act (1989) declares that Universities are legally obligated to act as the conscience and critic of society. Academics must be prepared to speak out publicly when attempts are made by any nation, group or individual, to see to limit or influence that obligation. Ardern was advised (pdf) that investigations into Bradys case havent been completed. Academic Freedom Under Attack in Australia Clive Hamilton, a public ethics professor at Charles Sturt University in Canberra, Australia, had his book Silent Invasion barred from publication because of pressure exterted by the Chinese regime against publisher Allen & Unwin. The cancellation occurred in Nov. 2017. Hamiltons book detailed the systematic attempt by the CCP to expand its espionage network and influence in Australia; it also outlined how Chinas United Front work was infiltrating all aspects of Australian society so as to break up the United States-Australia alliance. Another publisher, Hardie Grant, acquired the rights and published the book in February. In another incident, Victoria University canceled a Sept. 21 event to screen a documentary expose on Chinas Confucius Institutes. The university claimed that they accidentally double booked the lecture theater and that all other sites had been fully booked, despite video footage showing that the theaters were empty. Hamilton told The Epoch Times that CCP leaders acknowledge that Confucius Institutes are propaganda agencies. Hamilton added, Victoria Universitys cancellation demonstrates that keeping Beijing happy is more important to the universitys leaders than academic freedom. Watch Next: I Was a Communist Slave A story of tragedy, faith, and resistance in the face of brutal totalitarianism, Memoir of a Communist Slave is one mans journey to uncover what he believes has held him and his people hostage for too long. Antifa Member Charged in Assault of US Marines Near We the People Rally in Philly: Reports Police arrested and charged a man believed to be the leader of an Antifa group in Philadelphia after a group of U.S. Marine reservists were assaulted on Nov. 17. Tom Keenan, 33, of Mount Airy, turned himself into the police department several days ago after investigators released a video that appeared to show him and two others yelling at a group following a rally in Philadelphia, Fox News reported. U.S. Marine Corps reservists called the police after numerous males and females at around 3:20 p.m. after the We the People rally, Fox reported. The suspects then maced the complainants and then proceeded to punch and kick them, Philadelphia Police said in the video. During the assault, one of the complainants had his cellphone stolen by one of the male suspects. The suspects were allegedly captured on video, which was released by the police department. The group of suspects called the Marines Nazis and white supremacists before the assault, police said. The offenders then fled northbound on Front Street, toward Market. Some of the individuals involved were captured on video at an earlier protest in the area, police said. Its not clear if the Marines had participated in the rally or counter-protest. Keenan is believed to be part of a local Antifa group, and it said that hes been termed a leader of the group in Philly by various blogs, said Philadelphia Magazine. He was charged with two counts of criminal conspiracy, aggravated assault, terroristic threats, simple assault, and reckless endangerment, according to the magazine. Keenan has since been out on bail and is due back in court on Dec. 6. Portland Arrests On Nov. 19, six Antifa members in Portland were arrested during clashes with other protesters. Hannah McClintock, 19, one of the radicals, repeatedly spit at a man and hurled punches at him. I had witnessed her trying to fight people over and over, said journalist Andy Ngo, who recorded a video of the incident. She was later arrested on harassment charges. Ruben Delahuerga, 25; Betsy Toll, 68; Brittany Frost, 35; and Elizabeth Cheek, 33, were also arrested in the incident. Gary Fresquez, 52, was arrested on charges of second-degree disorderly conduct and two counts of interfering with a peace officer. A documentary released last year suggests that Antifa, a far-left extremist group, has ties to communist revolutionary groups in the United States. The 37-minute documentary, America Under Siege: Antifa, was released on Sept. 25 by the Capital Research Center and Cohesion Films, and according to film writer Trevor Loudon, We found that Antifa violence was most prevalent in cities controlled by Democratic city councils, in which the police were under the control of the councils. Body Found by FBI Believed to Be Hania Aguilar, Missing N. Carolina Teen, Says Superintendent After the FBI said investigators discovered a body in the search for missing 13-year-old North Carolina girl Hania Aguilar, a school district issued a statement, saying the body is believed to be Hania. At the time of discovery, officials were following leads related to the search for 13-year-old Hania Noelia Aguilar. The body is believed to be Hania, but the identity has not yet been confirmed. However, authorities have notified Hanias family and they are waiting for the body to be positively identified, Public Schools of Robeson County Superintendent Dr. Shanita Wooten said in a statement to WPDE-TV on Nov. 28. The FBI has yet to confirm if the body is of the missing teen, but it said the girls family was notified, according to a post on Twitter. Upon receiving full confirmation, the district will provide increased support staff that will be made available for all students and staff at Lumberton Junior High School. This is an unfortunate end to an extensive search and we are committed to supporting all students and staff as they cope with the heartbreaking tragedy, according to the superintendents statement. The girl went missing in early November after a person wearing black forced her into a stolen SUV on her familys property in Lumberton. The SUV was recovered a few days later, but neither Hania or the suspect were found. The school statement continues: On behalf of PSRC district leaders, administrators, staff and students, we extend our sincerest condolences to Hanias family, friends, and community. This is a difficult time for our entire district and we are mourning this loss and are still processing this terrible tragedy. We are keeping Hania in our thoughts and will continue to pray for her family and each other as the investigation continues. FBI Update The FBI said the body was found on Wire Grass Road in Robeson County at 4:45 p.m. local time on Nov. 27. The body has not been positively identified, but agents were following leads related to the search for 13-year-old Hania Aguilar. Please continue to pray for Hania, her family, & each other, the FBI office in Charlotte wrote on Twitter. Wire Grass Road is among several of the roads where the FBI had previously asked the public for surveillance footage, WLOS reported. The FBI hasnt released any more details about the new development. Officials are offering a $30,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest and conviction. Hania is described as a Hispanic girl who is around 5 feet tall and 125 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. She was seen wearing a blue shirt with flowers and blue jeans. The FBI, in a statement earlier this week, said that it and the local Lumberton Police Department have investigated 800 leads, reviewed surveillance footage, and interviewed about 400 people, said the FBI. The FBI also elaborated on the abduction and 911 call about the missing girl. A female caller speaking Spanish was on the line, and the Robeson County dispatcher quickly requested a Spanish translator to join the call. Initial reports during the 911 described the abductor as a black male, the agency said in a statement. Hania is a Hispanic female, 5 feet tall, weighing approximately 126 pounds. She has black hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a blue shirt with flowers and blue jeans. (FBI) Body Found While Searching for Missing North Carolina Teen Hania Noelia Aguilar, FBI Says The FBI said authorities have located a body while searching for missing 13-year-old girl Hania Noelia Aguilar, who went missing in early November. The remains were found near Wire Grass Road in Robeson County on Nov. 27, FBI Public Affairs Specialist Shelley Lynch told ABC News. FBI & Lumberton PD found a body in an area off Wire Grass Road in Robeson Co 4:45pm. The body has not been positively identified, but agents were following leads related to the search for 13-year-old Hania Aguilar. Please continue to pray for Hania, her family, & each other. FBI Charlotte (@FBICharlotte) November 27, 2018 FBI & Lumberton PD found a body in an area off Wire Grass Road in Robeson Co 4:45pm. The body has not been positively identified, but agents were following leads related to the search for 13-year-old Hania Aguilar. Please continue to pray for Hania, her family, & each other, the FBI office in Charlotte wrote on Twitter. The body has not been identified yet. Wire Grass Road is among several of the roads where the FBI had previously asked the public for surveillance footage, WLOS reported. New story: Authorities locate body during search for Hania Aguilar https://t.co/fshwU3scZn #wral WRAL NEWS in NC (@WRAL) November 27, 2018 Lynch said the body was found while following leads related to the girls case, adding her family was notified. The body has not been positively identified, but investigators with the FBI, Lumberton PD, the SBI, and the Robeson County Sheriffs Office were following leads related to the search for 13-year-old Hania Aguilar when the discovery was made, Lynch told ABC13. The FBI has not released any more details about the new development. On Nov. 5, Hania was forced into a stolen SUV while she was outside her house in Lumberton, say officials. Witnesses said a man wearing all black with a yellow bandana forced her into the vehicle before driving away. The SUV was located, but not the driver or Hania. Officials are offering a $30,000 reward has been offered for information that leads to the location of the girl or information that can lead to an arrest and conviction. Hania is described as a Hispanic girl who is around 5 feet tall and 125 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. She was seen wearing a blue shirt with flowers and blue jeans. Other Details The FBI said earlier this week that it and the local Lumberton Police Department have investigated 800 leads, reviewed surveillance footage, and interviewed about 400 people, said the FBI. Think through what youve seen since November 5th, have you seen a discarded pair of shoes, did someone try to sell you shoes, did they show up in a donation bin? We want to make sure we draw attention to the shoes because they are distinctive and the kidnapper could try and get rid of them for that reason, said FBI Supervisory Senior Resident Agent Andy de la Rocha in the FBI release. The FBI also released images of her shoes. The FBI also described the abduction and 911 call. A female caller speaking Spanish was on the line, and the Robeson County dispatcher quickly requested a Spanish translator to join the call. Initial reports during the 911 described the abductor as a black male, the agency wrote. During follow-up interviews, investigators determined the witness had not seen the race of the abductor because he was wearing all black, including long sleeves, and a yellow bandana over his face. The information was transferred to the Lumberton Police Department who received the call at 6:58 a.m. Broward Elections Supervisor Brenda Snipes to Receive Nearly $130,000 a Year Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes, who submitted a resignation letter shortly after the midterm elections and whose office violated state law, federal law, and Floridas Constitution, will get a pension of nearly $130,000 a year. That includes a state pension of $58,560 a year that Snipes was already receiving from her earlier career as an educator. Adding to that pension will be nearly $71,000 Snipes receives for her time in elected office, reported the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Snipes will get the money after state officials threatened to fire her. She appeared to pre-empt them by submitting her resignation before they could. Florida state Senate President Bill Galvano told Politico before she resigned that he planned to launch an investigation into Snipes. What shes demonstrated over the years is a series of mistakes that rise above the level of negligence and into incompetence, Galvano said. We cant continue to keep ignoring this and every option should be on the table. Big Problems During the recount of the Nov. 6 midterms in Florida, which included a U.S. Senate race and the governors race, Snipess office was rife with problems. Snipes violated a state law that requires counties to update vote tallies every 45 minutes, then suddenly uploaded tens of thousands of new ballots, most of which went for Democrat Bill Nelson, who was running to keep his U.S. Senate seat. Also, thousands of ballots went missing during the recount and her office missed the state deadline by two minutes, invalidating the recount. Snipes also illegally mixed in rejected ballots with good ballots. In the primary election earlier in the year, she illegally destroyed ballots, violating federal law and a court order. In 2012, almost 1,000 uncounted ballots in Broward were discovered in the county a week after the election and in 2004, her office said 58,000 absentee ballots were lost. Excessively Compensated It really raises the question, on top of everything else, why shes being excessively compensated for doing a poor job. Thats the added insult to injury, Dominic Calabro, president and CEO of Florida TaxWatch, a nonprofit, nonpartisan government watchdog group, told the Sun-Sentinel. It just leaves additional salt in the wound, he said. He noted that most private companies dont give such generous exit packages. Snipes, 75, was an educator for 35 years before being named supervisor in Broward County by former Gov. Jeb Bush in 2003. Broward election chief Brenda Snipes' resignation is official Jan. 4. Of course, I had to get this letter from the state and not Snipes' terrible office, which has contempt for public records, the press, the public and just doing a decent job and following the law pic.twitter.com/CniSzFvzhb Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) November 19, 2018 Resignation In her resignation letter, Snipes said that she initially planned to only serve out the remaining term of office after being appointed by Bush. Although I have enjoyed this work tremendously over these many election cycles I am ready to pass the torch, she said. The resignation will take effect on Jan. 4, 2019. President Donald Trump repeatedly slammed Florida for its recount issues, claiming that the elections there were being stolen. Republicans Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis ended up winning the elections for U.S. Senate and governor, respectively, by small margins. The Senate race went through two recounts and the governors race went through one. On Nov. 27, Trump took a jab at Snipes, saying on Twitter: Brenda Snipes, in charge of voting in Broward County, Florida, was just spotted wearing a beautiful dress with 300 I VOTED signs on it. Just kidding, she is a fine, very honorable and highly respected voting tactician! From NTD News Children in a remote community of Guatemala where internally displaced people are resettled. (Courtesy of Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre) Children Suffer in Long Term From Gang Violence in Central America Violence from organized crime displaces tens of thousands of people each year in the Northern Triangle of Central AmericaEl Salvador, Guatemala, and Hondurasand children are some of the biggest victims, suffering the effects long after being driven from their homes. Street gangs, drug runners, and Mexican drug cartels, are the prime drivers of internal displacementpeople forced to leave home but who remain in the country, according to a recent report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) (pdf). For example, the report found that in El Salvador criminal violence has caused trauma, depression, and anxiety in children growing up there. Children Targeted for Gang Recruitment Northern Triangle of Central America (NTCA) gangs recruit children and young peoplebecause they are easy targetsas a way to replace gang members lost to killings and state repression, IDMC senior monitoring coordinator, Adrian Calvo Valderrama said. There have been some cases of very early recruitment9, 10, 11 year olds, Valderrama said. Child involvement in gang activity can range from directly engaging in criminal acts, like killing and robbery, to working indirectly as scouts or messengers, he added. The criteria for entry to a gang may be to kill a certain number of peopleIve heard the figure of five. I dont know if thats an established rule, but thats the figure that keeps coming back. This is easily done in the NTCA, where guns are easy to come by, Valderrama said. [A] person as young as 11, 12, 13 years old [just has to] grab a gun, get on a bus, kill five people, and they have their badge of honor and then their entry into a gang. Socio-economically, gang involvement limits childrens school attendance, which lowers the skill levels of the workforces in their respective countries, he added. from direct [leads] to more poverty and [feeds] this cycle of having to resort to violence to generate an income. In addition, security forces in high-risk areas harass young people and carry out nighttime raids in which they suddenly take people away, according to the IDMC report. This can traumatize the children who witness this, causing ongoing fear and nightmares. From Internal Displacement to Cross-Border Flight In El Salvador, children will move repeatedly to evade gang activity. In some cases, they eventually leave the country to avoid being found within the vast networks that many gangs have, Valderrama said. The countrys law enforcement amplifies this situation by not tackling gang violence. In cases of extreme corruption, police have even exposed the identity of people trying to report crime committed by gangs, he added. The number of unaccompanied alien children entering the United States from the NTCA is directly linked to the level of violence in the region, according to a 2017 study by the Center for Global Development (pdf). In 2012, the number of unaccompanied alien children arriving from NTCA countries spiked11-year-oldsand the following year it surpassed the number arriving from Mexico for the first time. Drug Trafficking Routes Shift to Central America from Mexico The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime attributes (pdf) the high incidence of criminal violence in Central America to the increase in cocaine trafficking since 2006. Trafficking routes began to shift from Mexico to Central America after the Mexican governments crackdown on trafficking activity. Aside from violence, poverty also influences unaccompanied alien children migration, according to the Center for Global Development study: [Unaccompanied alien children] migration is much higher in municipalities with lower poverty rates, all else equal. While this may seem counterintuitive, the study explains that poorer residents are less likely to leave since they have less access to credit and smuggling networks to get out of the country. Government Responses According to Valderrama, the first step to addressing the issue is for NTCA governments to recognize the phenomenon of internal displacement due to criminal violence. El Salvador has shown some positive signs of action in this regard. Civil society organizations, including human rights advocate, Cristosal, have brought victims cases to the Constitutional Court of El Salvador. The court determined the state should protect people displaced by criminal violence and gave the government six months to come up with legislation to help victims. This makes visible the hundreds of thousands of victims of violence in El Salvador, Julio Magana, Strategic Litigation Coordinator at Cristosal, said in a statement. Conversely, there have also been examples of governments less concerned with the plight of citizens affected by criminal violence. Valderrama said that when he and the team of researchers were presenting their findings, they were repeatedly questioned about investments the Honduran government is making in weaponry and armament. The implication being that the government was not properly allocating resources where it mattered, such as to education and civil protection. As a result of it you would observe a higher likelihood of people either being recruited or targeted by the gangs, he added. A euro logo in front of the headquarters of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, Germany in this file photo. (Ralph Orlowski/Getty Images) EU Banks Cut Risks as Ministers Weigh Start of Europe-wide Deposit Insurance Scheme BRUSSELSEuropean Union banks have cut bad loans and raised provisions, the European Commission said on Nov. 28, before EU finance ministers decide next week when to introduce an EU deposit guarantee scheme that hinges on lower risk in banks. The European Deposit Insurance Scheme (EDIS) would guarantee that the holder of a deposit of up to 100,000 euros ($112,890) in any bank in a euro zone country would always get it back in case of a bank collapse. But while this would boost confidence in the banking sector and help prevent bank runs, Germany and some other northern European countries say it can only be introduced once banks in various countries become safer by reducing existing risks. Those concerns have been aggravated by fears Italys rising borrowing costs under an anti-austerity coalition government could trigger a new sovereign debt crisis. France, countries in southern Europe and some supervisory board members of the European Central Bank say risks have been reduced enough for the insurance scheme to start. But Germany wants banks to clean up their balance sheets first, to ensure German taxpayers will not have to pay for any past irresponsibility in other euro zone countries. German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said on Wednesday that the reality of a fully-fledged banking union that includes a Europe-wide deposit guarantee scheme remained a long way off. A common deposit insurance scheme is at the very end of the road toward an economic and currency union, Scholz said. And the road to that goal is long and full of conditions. European Union finance ministers are to decide on Monday on a roadmap for beginning political discussions on EDIS as well as other reforms to deepen economic integration between the 19 countries sharing the euro. Risk Reduction One of the key risks banks need to address is the number of non-performing loans, often a legacy of the financial and euro zone sovereign debt crises, and the size of provisions made for them. Working out the high stocks of non-performing loans is part of efforts to reduce risks in the European banking sector, Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said. He argued that enough had been done to tackle toxic loans to move ahead with Europe-wide deposit insurance. On the basis of the progress achieved on the risk-reduction side, I invite EU Finance Ministers and leaders to agree on concrete risk-sharing measures in December, he said, referring to EDIS. Bad Loans The Commission said in a report the ratio of bad loans in all EU banks fell to 3.4 percent of all loans in the second quarter from 4.6 percent a year earlier, and stood at 820 billion euros in absolute terms. According to World Bank data the global average for bad loans in 2017 was 3.7 percent of all loans. But the EU average masks large differences between countries in Greece 44.9 percent of all loans are bad, in Cyprus 28.1 percent, in Portugal 11.7 percent and in Italy 10.0 percent. The Commission said the provisioning ratio has also improved to 59 percent and that the longer term trend indicated that the bad loan ratio was approaching pre-crisis levels again. To help better deal with economic shocks and crises, the EU is also building what it calls a capital markets union (CMU), which would make it easier for investors, companies and individuals to borrow and invest across the EU. The Capital Markets Union is about broadening access to finance for small and medium size companies, and to increase investment opportunities in Europe, Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen said. This is why we count on the support of the European Parliament and the Council to agree swiftly on the outstanding measures we proposed under the Banking Union and Capital Markets Union agenda, he said. What is EDIS? In November 2015 the European Commission proposed to set up a European deposit insurance scheme for bank deposits in the euro area. This proposal was adopted as a part of a broader package of measures to deepen the economic and monetary union, and complete the banking union. The EDIS proposal builds on the system of national deposit guarantee schemes (DGS), which are known as deposit insurance in the United States. The goal of a Europe-wide deposit insurance scheme is to provide a stronger and more uniform degree of insurance cover in the euro area, and so reduce the vulnerability of national DGSs to large local shocks, lowering the risk of financial contagion, and boosting overall financial system stability. Rodrick Wright, a former state senator convicted of voter fraud, was pardoned by Governor Jerry Brown. Wright was seen in a Senate Governmental Organization Committee meeting on Jan. 10, 2012. (California State Senate Media Archive/Screenshot) Former California State Senator Convicted of Perjury, Voting Fraud Is Pardoned Governor Jerry Brown has granted 38 people pardons just before the Thanksgiving holiday, including a former California state senator convicted of voter fraud. Rodrick Wright, the former Democratic state senator and assembly member from Inglewood, embraced the pardon from the outgoing governor and told the Sacramento Bee that it truly is a day of Thanksgiving. Wright is one of the 107 people receiving pardons or commutations on Nov. 21, 2018. Among the recipients are many facing possible deportation with one man who lost his home in the recent Camp Fire disaster. Gov. Brown grants 38 pardons today, including one for former Sen. Rod Wright, who was convicted in 2014 of lying about his address when he ran for office, and in 1972 for stealing a car. See page 40 https://t.co/jjX5ziG5uY pic.twitter.com/ApDmxqJ5Yl Laurel Rosenhall (@LaurelRosenhall) November 21, 2018 Individuals who have been convicted of a crime in California may apply to the Governor for a pardon, the Office of Governor explained in a statement. Those granted pardons all completed their prison sentences years ago, and the majority were convicted of drug-related or other nonviolent crimes. In 1972, Roderick Wright was sentenced one year, six months probation for taking a vehicle without the owners consent. Wright was elected to represent the 48th Assembly District in California Assembly from 1996 to 2002. Later, he represented 25th Senate District from 2008 to 2012. In 2010, Wright was accused of living in Baldwin Hills, roughly five miles outside the Inglewood-area district, which he was elected to represent. Despite his argument that he had followed the law and established domicile at the Inglewood property, where his stepmother was renting a unit from him, Wright was still convicted of five counts of fraudulent voting, two counts of perjury by declaration, and one count of filing a false declaration of candidacy in 2014. Wright resigned from the State Legislature after being sentenced to 90 days in jail, three years probation, and 1,500 hours of community service. He surrendered to the Los Angeles County jail in November 2014 but released after about 90 minutes due to the crowded condition of the jails. In the wake of Wrights conviction, the State Legislature passed SB 1250 this year allowing lawmakers to effectively live outside of their districts, and protecting them from prosecution based on primary residences. The governors pardon came as a result of Wrights good moral character, and his law-abiding example after being released from custody, according to the pardon. First Amendment Coalition sues to unseal records related to former Sen. Rod Wright's pardon request. Gov. Jerry Brown has pardoned far more individuals than his predecessors, but documents that would shed light on the process are deemed confidential. https://t.co/8YDZkq6FHz Alexei Koseff (@CapitolAlert) November 21, 2018 According to the Sacramento Observer, Gov. Jerry Brwon has so far granted 1,593 pardons during his serving period, making him the governor issuing the highest number of pardons and commutations in state history. However, Gov. Browns pardons has also raised concern from a public interest organization. The First Amendment Coalition (FAC) announced on Nov. 20 that it had filed a motion in the California Supreme Court to unseal records regarding Wrights pardon. The Wright records are just one example of several dozen recent cases where the governor had sought to pardon people via a process that results in large numbers of documents being automatically filed under seal at the states High Court, the FAC wrote in a statement. Records currently hidden from public view would show the factual and legal basis for Governor Browns effort to essentially erase the conviction of a public figure. They would also shed light on an otherwise opaque processof particular interest for this governor, who has issued pardons and commuted sentences at a pace that vastly outstrips his recent predecessors. Compared to Gov. Brown from 1991 to 2010, former governors Pete Wilson and Gray Davis didnt grant any pardon while Arnold Schwarzenegger only issued 15. Visitors look at the Eurofighter Typhoon jet during the ILA Air Show in Berlin, Germany, on April 25, 2018. (Reuters/Fabrizio Bensch/File Photo) German Public Favors an Increase in Military Spending German public support for an increase in defense spending has risen sharply over the past year, according to a joint survey conducted by the U.S.-based Pew Research Center and Germanys Korber Foundation, a think tank. As Germany prepares for its non-permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council in 201920, the survey sought to determine public attitudes on their countrys readiness to take on more international responsibility and associated military spending. Eligible voters aged 18 and over in Germany were asked a range of questions in September about their foreign-policy attitudes, and the findings were published in The Berlin Pulse, a Korber Foundation publication. Germany will be asked to react quickly to international crises and deliver on the promises it made to take on more international responsibility, Julia Harrer, editor of The Berlin Pulse explained, adding that for German policy-makers, the balancing act between international expectations and explaining its decisions on the ever-cautious home front will be an even greater challenge. The survey found that 43 percent of Germans believed that the defense budget should be bolstered, up from 32 percent last year. The percentage of Germans who say military spending should stay the same fell significantly, to 40 percent this year from 52 percent a year ago. The number of people who believe defense spending should be reduced remained largely stable at 14 percent; last year, 13 percent were in favor of a decrease. The shift in public opinion might be the wind in the sails of German lawmakers, as they endeavor to turn increased military spending proposals into reality. Grand Modernization Concept German officials on Sept. 5 presented an ambitious plan for beefing up the countrys armed forces over the next 10-plus years. Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen described the plan, called the Capability Profile of the Bundeswehr, a grand, comprehensive modernization concept, according to Defense News. The strategy proposes an annual defense budget at 1.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), or about $69 billion, by the year 2023. The increased spending would be a significant boost to the German military budget, which currently hovers around $45 billion. Yet even if approved by German lawmakers, the increased spending would still fall short of the NATO-wide objective of spending 2 percent of GDP on defense. President Donald Trump has repeatedly admonished Germany for spending less than 1.3 percent of GDP on its armed forces. Thats well short of the 2 percent target for NATO member states. Von der Leyen told Defense News that the new strategy would lift the armed forces toward a set of capabilities substantial enough to defend the homeland and take part in out-of-area missions. The German military, known as the Bundeswehr, has been plagued by cutbacks, equipment shortages, and mechanical problems. A report by Handelsblatt, a German financial daily, pointed to a worrying lack of working tanks, spare parts, bulletproof vests, tents, and winter clothing. At one point last year, all six of Germanys submarines and all 14 of its transport aircraft were out of service. A leaked army report cited by The Washington Post revealed humiliating allegations that German soldiers taking part in a NATO exercise in Norway in 2014 were forced to paint broomsticks black and attach them to armored vehicles because they lacked proper gun barrels. Critics argue the new strategy is just wishful thinking because it assumes a far greater increase than the center-left Social Democrats, the junior partners in Chancellor Angela Merkels coalition, have been inclined to accept. The urgently needed funds must be made available, argued Henning Ott, defense policy spokesman for Merkels conservatives, according to Handelsblatt. Von der Leyen told the Berlin Foreign Policy Forum on Nov. 27 that while NATO is and will remain the absolute cornerstone of our national defense, Europe needs to be ready to act in its own right. It sounds simple, she added, according to The Times of London, but it is a huge logistical challenge that we have ahead of us to be fully operational one day. With public support for military spending rallying, that objective seems closer to target. Global Coalition of Scholars Demands Beijing End Mass Internment of Uyghurs WASHINGTONA global coalition of nearly 300 scholars from 26 countries has demanded Beijing abolish its mass internment camps in Xinjiang. The coalition calls for the international community to, in various ways, add more pressure on Beijing and to sanction Chinese leaders to cease this act of unprecedented repression. A statement signed by 278 scholars was released on Nov. 26 at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington. Sean Roberts, director of international development studies at George Washington University, said that although scholars usually dont hold press conferences, the situation in Xinjiang was so worrying that he and many of his fellow academics felt compelled to take this action. As concerned scholars who study China, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), Central Asia, and other related regions of the world, we issue this statement to highlight our concerns and to call the international community to action in relation to the mass human rights abuses and deliberate attacks on indigenous cultures presently taking place in Chinas XUAR. The signatories to this statement are united in viewing the present situation in this region of China as one of significant international concern, the statement says. The statement relates how over 1 million people are detained in the camps without trial and subjected to torture, psychological stress, and deeply invasive forms of surveillance to force them to abandon their native language, religious beliefs, and cultural practices. The coalition of scholars is calling on states and institutions to issue formal statements demanding that Chinese leader Xi Jinping and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Communist Party Secretary Chen Quanguo immediately abolish the transformation through education detention system and release all Uyghur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and other detainees. The coalition also calls for economic sanctions on Chinese authorities and technology companies in and outside of China that are benefiting from the campaign against Uyghurs and other minority groups in the region. In addition, the scholars call for the UN, countries presently engaged in negotiations regarding projects that are part of the Belt and Road Initiative, as well as academic institutions around the world, to take actions to end this atrocity. Economic sanctions are already under consideration by the U.S. Senate, in which a bipartisan bill, the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2018, was introduced this month. The bill commits the U.S. government to pursuing economic sanctions against a number of Chinese officials, including Chen, who is widely considered to be the driving force behind the crackdown on the regions Uygur, Kazakh, and other ethnic groups. A Victims Story Personal accounts at the press conference gave the scholars statement a human face. Mihrigul Tursun, a 29 year-old Uygur woman, gave a most compelling account of her experience being detained three times at a mass internment camp. Tursun was arrested for the first time when she arrived at Urumqi airport from Egypt with her 2-month-old triplets in 2015. Her babies were taken away from her. Months later, she was released on parole because her three babies were in critical condition in a hospital. The eldest one died the next day. During her second detention, in 2017, she was interrogated for four days and four nights without any sleep. During her third detention, in 2018, she witnessed nine deaths of fellow inmates within nine months. She was tortured so badly that she begged the guards to kill her. She was eventually released so that she could take her children to Egypt, but she was ordered to return to China. Tursun struggled very hard between a desire to speak out about her experiences, and a guilty feeling that if she didnt go back to China, her family there could be arrested and tortured. She eventually summoned up her courage to contact a reporter of Radio Free Asia, who later put her into contact with U.S. authorities. She was granted permission to come to the United States and settled in Virginia with her two remaining kids in September. She testified again at the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on Chinas hearing on The Communist Partys Crackdown on Religion in China on Nov. 28. At that hearing Tursun called for the U.S. Congress to pass a bill about Xinjiang and let the Chinese Communist Party realize that there is international pressure. She also expressed hope that the U.S. government can protect her family to China. Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google Inc., in New York City on Nov. 1, 2018. (Michael Cohen/Getty Images for The New York Times) Google CEO Pichai to Testify in Congress on Bias in Filtering Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Google, will testify to Congress on the companys practices of filtering data. The hearing will examine potential bias and the need for greater transparency regarding the filtering practices, the House Judiciary Committee stated in a Nov. 28 release, scheduling the hearing on Dec. 5. Americans put their trust in big tech companies to honor freedom of speech and champion open dialogue, and it is Congress responsibility to the American people to make sure these tech giants are transparent and accountable in their practices, Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) said in the release. The committee has held three hearings on social media filtering practices since April, probing tech giants such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter for ideological bias. This will be the first one, however, with only a single witness. Pichai can expect questions on two major concerns of the Republican-led committee: suppressing conservative voices and bowing to Chinese censorship. More than 90 percent of the worlds internet searches go through Google. Unfortunately, recent reports suggest Google might not be wielding its vast power impartially, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said in the release. Its business practices may have been affected by political bias. Additionally, reports claim the company is compromising its core principles by complying with repressive censorship mandates from China. Dragonfly Google has faced a bipartisan storm since details leaked about its secretly developing a censored search app for the Chinese market. Lawmakers, human rights advocates, and even some 1,400 of its own employees protested the project. Most recently, on Nov. 27, 11 Google engineers and managers published an open letter demanding that the company end the clandestine project, named Dragonfly. Google representatives stated that Dragonfly was not close to launching, but refused to provide any details regarding the project. The Chinese communist regime runs the worlds most sophisticated system of internet censorship, employing tens of thousands of people to manually delete or promote content according to the party line. The regime requires foreign companies to censor topics it deems sensitive, such as democracy, human rights, and the ongoing persecution in China of Falun Gong practitioners, underground Christians, human rights activists, and others. Companies are also forced to share with the regime any of their data stored in China. 97 Percent Left In recent years and especially since the 2016 presidential election, Google has faced criticism for favoring left-leaning sources in search results. President Donald Trump accused Google of shutting out Republican/Conservative and Fair Media from Google News searches in an Aug. 28 tweet. Very dangerous, he said, in a subsequent tweet. Google & others are suppressing voices of Conservatives and hiding information and news that is good. They are controlling what we can & cannot see. This is a very serious situation-will be addressed! Trumps tweets came after PJ Media reported that among the top 100 search results for Trump on Google News, 96 percent of them were from left-leaning media. The Epoch Times conducted a similar experiment on multiple dates, each time reaching a similar result. Most recently, in the afternoon of Nov. 28, some 97 percent of the 154 articles featured on the first 10 pages of search results for trump came from traditionally left-leaning media. After Trumps 2017 executive order on immigration, also known as the travel ban, some Google employees discussed methods to tweak Google search-related functions to counter the order, according to leaked emails reported by The Wall Street Journal. Google has denied political bias in search results, saying the employees were brainstorming, and that their ideas werent implemented. Former Google engineer James Damore pointed out in a 2017 internal memo (pdf) that the company had a culture of shaming and misrepresentation which was disrespectful and unaccepting of anyone outside its echo chamber. He said the company was so left-leaning that it was blind to at least some of its biases. Pichai called Damores views offensive and fired him after Damore suggested in the memo that Google had trouble hiring women to tech and leadership roles partly because the jobs catered more to the aptitudes and proclivities that are generally more prominent among men. Damore had proposed tweaking the jobs so they would be more inviting to women, rather than discriminating against men in hiring. A U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent looks toward the ocean from within the Border Infrastructure System, a no man's land area between the wall and fence separating California from Mexico on April 17, 2018 in San Diego, California. The way we talk about immigration affects public opinion and government policy. (FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images) How Political Correctness Impedes Immigration Reform Commentary Immigration reform requires a political and social environment in which well-meaning individuals can speak honestly about the nature of the problem and its implications for American society. Unfortunately, that is not our world right now. Consequently, we are no closer to solving what has become a perennial problem. America has not had a major immigration reform bill since 1986, when Congress passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act, which granted amnesty to an estimated 3 million people residing illegally in America. Estimates today range from 11 million to 22 million illegals, with the latter number provided by a 2018 Yale University mathematical modeling study. Euphemisms are being used to deceive, obscure, and control Americas immigration debate. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a euphemism as a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing. Tremendous advantages are afforded the side most skilled in using language and the one with the larger platform for messaging. Using Language The framing of the issue to affect public perception and response is central to the successful use of euphemisms in affecting public opinion. The Metaphor Project shows that the political left is adept at framing their issues in ways that connect with everyday Americans. Immigration advocates, to include the mainstream media, can shift public opinion by publishing front page, above-the-fold articles or airing news stories about hardworking undocumented immigrants cowering in fear behind locked doors. We are told the hardworking immigrants only want a pathway to citizenship. The current thinking: The longer the illegal alien has been in the country working, the more deserving the person is of being allowed to stay. Legal immigration and the plight of those waiting to renew their legal visas or enter the country legally gets far less media attention than warranted. On the political right, conservatives are more likely to use euphemisms such as law and order, protecting our national sovereignty, and build the wall to indicate support for controlling illegal migration. To win the public relations battle, illegal aliens are now known as unauthorized immigrants, undocumented workers, and unauthorized foreigners. Many people just call them immigrants. The average American is justifiably confused by the blurring of distinctions and the moral overtones of how the issue is framed. Alex Nowrasteh of the Cato Institute noted: [Few] political debates are as riddled with euphemisms as immigration. The accurate legal term illegal alien, which was once used without political bias was replaced with illegal immigrant, which was supplanted by undocumented immigrant and, in rarer cases, unauthorized immigrant. According to Nowrasteh, euphemisms can sometimes make language harsher and less palatable: Birthright citizenship becomes a debate about anchor babies. This can work against the goals of reformers wishing to engage in an intellectual debate. Often there is an effort to manipulate Christians by conflating the role of government with the biblical obligations individual Christians have when it comes to showing love for ones neighbor and compassion for the less fortunate. In the area of immigration, the political left, who otherwise disdain Christianity and biblical values, liberally and slyly quote cherry-picked scriptures as part of their means-to-an-end politics. It becomes irrelevant that America is not ancient Israel and that the governments role has always been different than what the Bible requires of individual Christian believers. The left regularly reminds us we are a nation of immigrants and a beacon of hope to the world. Indeed, we have the powerful symbolism of the Statue of Liberty with her well-known inscription: Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. What is overlooked, however, is that Ellis Island was a port of entry for legal immigrants. Once it started regulating immigration in 1924, the U.S. government exercised the right to establish criteria about who could enter the nation and the conditions governing their presence. Restrictions We have reached the point that euphemisms and enforced language restrictions impede our ability to make needed reforms, because they restrict our ability to debate an issue of vital national importance in an open, honest exchange. Conservative lawmakers are the ones most hampered by language restrictions enforced by organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC): These lawmakers fear finding their names listed in HateWatch. No one wants to be labeled as a nativist, a xenophobe, or a bigot. That is exactly what can happen to anyone who regularly draws attention to the problem. Just ask former CNN anchor Lou Dobbs about his experiences with the organization. Dobbs and numerous other conservatives were hounded relentlessly for drawing attention to the problem in the late 2000s. When Dobbs left CNN, the SPLC took credit for his departure. One of Dobbss alleged mean-spirited actions was to make references to illegal aliens. Yet, under U.S. law, the foreign-born are classified as aliens. U.S. law defines an illegal alien as a person who has entered the United States illegally and is deportable. Or it could be a legal entrant who has overstayed a visa. Green-card holders are the only lawful permanent residents. Nevertheless, many academics and watchdog agencies consider it mean-spirited to refer to persons in the country illegally as illegal aliens. The mainstream media contorts itself like a pretzel to ensure that its references to non-Christians and favored groups fit into the politically correct handbook filled with euphemisms and value-laden language that stand in the way of political reform. We the People have a stake in good governance. We should insist on honest dialogue among policymakers in an environment that honors our free speech traditions. Carol M. Swain is a former professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt University and a James Madison scholar at Princeton University. Her most recent book is Debating Immigration: Second Edition (2018). Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Indiana Fire Kills 4 Children and 2 Adults, Being Investigated as Possible Crime Six people were killed in a fire early on Nov. 28 in Indiana. The Cass County Sheriffs Department rushed to the two-story building in the 4300 block of Pottawatomie Road around 1:50 a.m. and were able to rescue two adults but six people, including four children, died in the flames. The children ranged in age from 2 months to 10 years. Firefighters tried to get inside and rescue the others but were unable to reach them. Its pretty numbing when initial dispatch is telling us people are entrapped in the structure and theyre saying multiple people, Cass County Fire Lt. Steve Crispen told Fox 59. Multiple fire departments responded to the blaze pic.twitter.com/ME8OsoZuE3 Mitchell Kirk (@PharosMAK) November 28, 2018 The house, on the east side of Logansport, is in a rural, non-hydrated area, so crews had to truck in water to battle the flames. They ran out of water within five minutes and had to stop fighting the fire until more water arrived. The freezing temperatures also made fighting the fire difficult. Video footage from the scene showed intense flames consuming the house as firefighters watched from the driveway and road. Sheriffs deputy first on scene said he and fellow officer climbed onto roof and broke windows in attempt to get inside, but smoke and flames were too intense, reported Mitchell Kirk of the Logansport Pharos-Tribune, who shared the footage. The active fire prevented firefighters from retrieving the bodies until it burned out. Were probably going to have to wait until daytime and stuff to get heavy equip [sic] in here and make sure the structure is safe enough for us to go in there and do recovery of the individuals that are in here, Fire Lt. Crispen said. Its very difficult what this community has gone through the last couple of months. Recent Fires Two other fires in recent months have claimed the lives of two young children and an elderly person. The children, a 5-year-old and a 1-year-old, died in the emergency room at the Logansport Memorial Hospital on Sept. 9 after being rescued from a burning home on Logansports south side, reported the Logansport Pharos-Tribune. The childrens mother, 25-year-old Marlem Sosa, survived along with her son Nayvien Whitelow, 4 months old. That fire was accidental, investigators said, possibly starting from electrical appliances. There were no working smoke detectors in the house. Two weeks later, an elderly woman died in a fire. On Nov. 27, firefighters pulled an elderly woman from a house on Miles Street in the early hours of the morning after the house filled with smoke. The woman was rushed to the hospital in critical condition, suffering light burns and likely smoke inhalation, officials told the Pharos-Tribune. A neighbor said that a couple and three boys had fled the home. One of the boys had rushed to his house and knocked on his front door for help at 2:45 a.m. Firefighters contained the fire, which was mostly in one room, in 10 to 15 minutes. Officials said the Nov. 28 fire is being investigated as a possible criminal case. Sheriffs deputies noted they didnt hear any smoke detectors when they arrived on the scene. From NTD News Jim Acosta of CNN Violates New White House Press Briefing Rules The first press briefing after Jim Acostas infamous behavior got his hard pass temporarily revoked, featured the CNN reporter ignoring the rules the White House recently put in place. The White House announced the rules on Nov. 19, after restoring Acostas hard pass. A judge ruled the White House had to restore the pass as a court case filed by CNN made its way through court. We have created these rules with a degree of regret. For years, members of the White House press corps have attended countless press events with the president and other officials without engaging in the behavior Mr. Acosta displayed, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said at the time. The rules included limiting reporters to one question each. They are allowed to ask one follow-up question but whatever official is speaking will have discretion on whether to answer; if they dont, the next reporter can ask a question, if they do, then the next reporter can ask another question after the officials second answer. A White House staff member steps in to try to take the microphone away from CNNs Jim Acosta as he questions President Donald Trump during a news conference at the White House on Nov. 7, 2018. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) Following his unruly behavior on Nov. 7, Acosta refused to abide by the new rules, asking three questions of Sanders and continuing to take stances that relied on unconfirmed reports. Sanders called on Acosta after he declined to ask a question regarding either National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow or National Security Adviser John Bolton. He asked her if President Donald Trump would recommend that Paul Manafort, a former adviser to the president, should cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller moving forward. Muellers team claimed this week Manafort violated his plea agreement. Muellers investigation has remained troubled, with conflicts of interest, and has produced no evidence linking Trump or his team to alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Sanders said she could only speak about Trumps cooperation with Mueller and said: There was no collusion and were ready for this to wrap up. Acosta then interjected his opinion, claiming Trump doesnt believe advisers on various issues. Thats not accurate. Thats not true, Sanders said. The president has a great deal of faith in the intelligence community, she said. Acosta then asked a third question, violating the new rules, although Sanders didnt reference the violation and answered his question. Acosta had asked about the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in Saudi Arabia, claiming Trump doesnt believe the CIA findings on the murder. The alleged confirmation that Acosta referenced was multiple stories relying on anonymous sources, which CNN and other publications have increasingly come to rely upon. We havent seen direct intelligence that ties Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to that, Sanders said, rebutting his claim. What we have seen is a number of individuals that we know are tied to that, and those individuals have been sanctioned, she added. Unlike on Nov. 7, Acosta did not insist on asking even more questions and ceded the floor to the next reporter. From NTD News President Donald Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin shake hands during a joint news conference after their meeting in Helsinki, Finland, on July 16, 2018. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) Kremlin Says Trump-Putin Meeting Still Being Prepared Despite Trumps Remark Kremlin officials said on Nov. 28 that they expect a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin to go ahead at the G20 summit in Argentina later this week, despite Trump saying he may cancel it over Russias seizure of three Ukrainian ships. Trump said on Nov. 27 that he might cancel the meeting after the Russian navys seizure of three Ukrainian vessels off the coast of Crimea and detention of Ukrainian crew members. Trump said, however, that he was still awaiting a full report from his national security team about the incident. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters during a conference call that the Kremlin was aware of the statement by Trump, but the meeting had been approved and was still being prepared. The preparations (for the meeting) are continuing. The meeting is agreed. We dont have any different information from our American colleagues, Peskov said during a daily briefing, according to AFP. Peskov said Moscow paid attention to a White House spokesmans briefing on Tuesday, and indications were that the meeting had not been formally called off. It was said that Trump is planning a range of meetings, including with Putin, Peskov said. National security adviser John Bolton gave no indication at the White House briefing that the meeting had been formally called off, with CNNs Jim Sciutto citing Bolton as saying I think it will be a continuation of their discussion in Helsinki. Ukraine Imposes Martial Law Ukraine 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 the Ukrainian ships and took their crew prisoner. 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 President 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. 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. Conflict At Sea 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 30 mm 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. 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. Russia began prosecuting the Ukrainian crew members Nov. 27. Ukraine demanded that Russia stop using psychological and physical pressure on the sailors, with Ukraines top diplomat calling the men prisoners of war, and telling The Associated Press that displaying them on TV was a crime. Reuters contributed to this report. Director of the National Economic Council Larry Kudlow speaks at a press briefing at the White House in Washington on Nov. 27, 2018. (NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images) Kudlow: Trump Positive Going Into Meeting With Chinese Leader Xi President remains firm on preconditions WASHINGTONPresident Donald Trump is positive about his upcoming meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and is even open to making a trade deal with Xi if certain conditions are met, according to National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow. Trump plans to sit down with Xi over dinner at the Group of 20 (G-20) meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where world leaders will convene for a two-day meeting this weekend. There is a good possibility that a deal can be made, and he is open to that, Kudlow told reporters on Nov. 27. But as Trump has made clear before, a deal will not come to fruition without China mending its trade violations, and that is where Kudlow said, well see. Theft of intellectual property, forced technology transfers, tariff and non-tariff barriers, and issues of ownership will all have to be resolved before the United States will enter a deal. If no deal is signed, Trump says hes OK with the status quo. The alternative is to put tariffs on another $267 billion in Chinese goods should a trade deal with China not succeed, which could hurt consumers with price hikes, but would also put billions of dollars into the U.S. Treasury. In any case, unless a deal is suddenly reached, the United States plans to increase tariffs from 10 percent to 25 percent on some $200 billion worth of Chinese goods starting Jan. 1. Asked whether he would delay the hike if Xi asked, Trump told The Wall Street Journal on Nov. 26 that it would be highly unlikely. Why shouldnt China rip off the United States if we have people allowing that to happen? he said. They did whatever they wanted, and people let them do that. Trump campaigned on reducing the trade imbalance with China, which totaled $335.4 billion last year. He also complained during the campaign about Chinas asymmetrical trade warfare that has been estimated to cost the United States between $180 billion and $540 billion annually. Kudlow characterizes progress with China on trade as moving very slowly. While Kudlow said that Trump was the one who reached out to Xi for a meeting at the G-20, he sees the United States as negotiating from a position of strength relative to China, whose economic growth has slowed substantially over the past several years. Official Chinese statistics are often inflated, but even those show a slowing of the economy. Economists from Beijings Renmin University predicted that the countrys growth will hit 6.6 percent this year and slow to 6.3 percent in 2019. Im not here to critique or second-guess the Chinese economy, but most observers believe China to be in a slump, whereas the United States is in a very strong, solid position going into this summit, Kudlow said. Asked whether the United States economy will be hurt by tariffs, Kudlow declined to make a prediction, but said the United States is in far better shape to weather this than China is. Trumps goal at the G-20, Kudlow said, was to promote fair economic competition and free, fair, and reciprocal trade. Trump also is scheduled to meet with the leaders of Japan, India, Turkey, Russia, and South Korea. Were gonna use this as an opportunity to talk about our measures of tax cuts and deregulations and reskilling and job training and so forth that have generated significant economic growth and prosperity [in the United States], Kudlow said. That includes womens economic empowerment. He added that there will also be discussion around the United States emerging as the dominant energy power in the world today. One notable leader Trump is not planning to meet with is Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Trump has faced calls to take a harder line on Saudi Arabia, and the prince in particular, after a Saudi journalist and U.S. resident Jamal Khashoggi was killed by Saudi nationals at a consulate in Turkey in October. Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trumps schedule for the summit is is pretty packed, but she wouldnt say that weve ruled out any interaction. A Dutch carpenter who built a replica of Noah's Ark said hes going to sail it to Israel (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license) Life-Sized Replica of Noahs Ark Will Sail to Israel, Says Carpenter Who Constructed It A Dutch carpenter built a replica of Noahs Ark said hes going to sail it to Israel. Johan Huibers Biblical boat features wooden animals and was constructed about six years ago for $1.6 million, and its currently an attraction in Dordrecht in the Netherlands. My preferred destination for the ark is Israel, he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. The wooden vessel is 390 feet in length and is 75 feet in height. The only live animals on the ship are in the petting zoo which lets visitors interact with dogs, ponies, and sheep, says Atlas Obscura. I love the land, I love the country, I love the people, Huibers said of Israel. They dont obey, they do what they want, they drive like mad, shove while waiting in line and dont listen to anyone. Just like me. The ark, he said, was built with seven people over four years. I wanted children to come here and feel the texture of the wood, see the nails and see that what is written in the book is true, he said. In the JTA interview, he explained that he got the idea to build the ark after reading an account of Noahs Ark to his children. In the Biblical story, Noah was called to create a vessel big enough to save all animals and humanity during the Great Flood. I wondered whether someone, Disney perhaps, had already built a replica of the ark, he said. And then I said out loud that if none had, I would. This Dutch Christian boatmaker wants to sail his life-size replica of Noahs Ark to Israel https://t.co/T12CqHjuXS pic.twitter.com/8bJb7sN2FB JTA | Jewish news (@JTAnews) November 23, 2018 His wife, a police officer, was incredulous that he could build it. She told the kids that after I finish building my ark, we can all go on vacation to the moon, he told JTA. About 13 years later, he built a smaller ark that Dutch media called Johans Ark, but it was only about 230 feet long and 33 feet wide. When everyone asked me: Why is it only half the size of the one in the Bible? So I sold the smaller one and built a life-size one, too, he said. Huibers said he had plans to sail the ark to Brazil, but they did not materialize. He said the cost of sailing the vessel 5,000 miles across the Atlantic would cost nearly $2 million, according to the Daily Mail. Preparing for the end? Plans to sail reconstructed NOAHS ARK to Israel https://t.co/pIgWebaD9M pic.twitter.com/Nddr91bLCe Daily Star (@Daily_Star) November 27, 2018 The ark, however, isnt designed to save the life of Huibers family, he said. Maybe it will, who knows, but my survival is not its purpose, Huibers added. Its meant to educate, a reminder that our world is changing. Huibers said that in case of catastrophe, he keeps another boat that can hold 100 people. The Ark of Noah replica was built by Johan Huibers from 2008 2013. The Ark is in the Netherlands and has attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors, according to the ArkofNoah.org website. The vessel itself is an immense life-sized exhibit with multiple floors. Visitors will experience Bible-based stories and exhibitions, attractions, a movie theater and more. The Ark of Noah Foundation will bring the Ark of Noah to Brazil with the help of worldwide supporters, it stated. Top photo credit: (Ceinturion/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license) Faruque Ahmed has been jailed for sexually abusing two young girls while tutoring them Arabic at their home in West Midlands, U.K. (West Midlands Police) Local Imam Sexually Abused 2 Young Schoolgirls for 2 Years as Their Tutor An Arabic tutor who is a local Imam sexually assaulted two young girls over the course of two years has been sentenced to 14 years in jail. Faruque Ahmed, 46, of Cobridge, Stoke-on-Trent, in Staffordshire, England, had sexually assaulted the two girls who are sisters during their Arabic tutoring lessons. Between 2009 and 2011, Ahmed was employed to teach the girls every Saturday and Sunday for two hours at a time at their family home in Warley, West Midlands. The girls were aged eight and 12 at the time. Police said that one of the girls had first told an NHS mental health nurse in Sept. 8, 2016, about the abuse. On the following day, police spoke to the younger girl about the incidences. The girl, now aged 18, has told police that Ahmed regularly touch her between her legs after he pulled her trousers around her knees. She also said that Ahmed would hit her with a bamboo cane if she resisted him. She said he would shuffle the girls chairs closer to get them within his reach. Police arrested Ahmed in February 2017. In a police interview, he admitted that he had tutored the girls between 2009 and 2011, but said he did not assault them. The sentencing took place at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Nov. 23. Ahmed was charged with sexually touching a child and sexual assault of a child by penetration. He was found guilty on 10 out of 13 counts against him. Ahmed was also dealt with a sexual harm prevention order, effectively banning him from working with children for life. He will also be registered as a sex offender for life. Ahmed was also an Imam. Local councillor Mohammed Pervez said that the sentencing was a surprise to the community. This has come as a shock in the community. He had been living in Cobridge and he was often seen walking along Waterloo Road. He was a very quiet person and kept himself to himself. Im not aware of him being active in the community here, he said, according to the Daily Mail. It was a shock to learn that a man as quiet and as gentle as him could be involved in something like this. Detective Constable Sarah West from the West Midlands Polices child abuse unit said that both victims are urging anyone in their community who has been abused to speak out. The girls have now got justice for the horrible abuse inflicted on them by Ahmed and are getting the support they need to move on with their lives, and they want other survivors of abuse to do the same, West said. They felt powerless to speak at the time. They were scared young girls, confused, and didnt really know what was happening. They had never had any sex education discussions either with their parents or at school. One of the girls described how it was surreal as he abused them under the table while continuing to teach them Arabic. He was very calm and natural so no-one would realise there was anything untoward going on. But with the passing of time, it became clear to them that they had been abused by a sexual predator and they have now found the courage to speak out to get justice and potentially spare other girls the trauma of suffering at his hands. West also praised the girls for their courage to speak out. Their brave actions may save other children from being abused and for that they can be rightly proud. she said. If you think a child is in danger or has suffered sexual abuse in the U.K., you can report the abuse to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children by calling 0808 800 5000. From NTD.com Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump depart from the White House in Washington to Camp David on June 1, 2018. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times) Mexico Announces Award for Trump Adviser Jared Kushner Mexico announced that it will award President Donald Trumps son-in-law, Jared Kushnerone of Trumps top advisersthe highest honor the country gives to foreigners. Mexicos Foreign Relations Department officials said in a statement that Kushner earned the Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle due to his significant contributions to the negotiation of the new U.S.MexicoCanada Agreement (USMCA). Kushner was part of the team that negotiated the USMCA, which replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The agreement has been praised as a win for all three countries. Kushner played a key role throughout the process, firmly supporting the trade talks between both countries as they unfolded and achieving satisfactory results in the new economic agreement for the three countries, the department stated. The formal award ceremony was slated for Nov. 29 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, during the G-20 Summit, sources told Mexican publication Reforma. The Order of the Aztec Eagle is the highest distinction granted to foreigners in Mexico for prominent services rendered to the nation or mankind, according to the Mexican government. A day before Kushners announced award, outgoing President Enrique Pena Nieto announced Stephen Allen Schwarzman, president and co-founder of The Blackstone Group, would receive the award in part for his help in renegotiating the trade agreement. Pena Nieto said Schwarzman took a proactive position and, along with other American businessmen, teamed up with Mexican businessmen to support the work of the negotiating teams. The award for Kushner comes just days before President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador takes office on Dec. 1. President Trump said on Nov. 27 that Vice President Mike Pence and daughter and advisor Ivanka Trump would be among the American delegation at the inauguration. It wasnt clear whether Kushner would travel to Mexico as well. Kushners Personal Touch Top officials said Kushners personal touch helped ensure the trade agreement went through. The presidents key advisor and my good friend Jared Kushner was my partner in leading the U.S. negotiating team, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said at a White House press conference on Oct. 1. Ive said before and Ill say again, this agreement would not have happened if it wasnt for Jared. So thank you very much. Sources told the Washington Examiner that Kushner played a central role in the agreement by involving Mexicos foreign minister, an official not typically a leader in trade issues, in the negotiations. He also used his personal relationship with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus chief of staff, Katie Telford, to help smooth over issues between Canada and the United States. He is able to take things out of the bureaucratic path to keep negotiations going, one source told the weekly magazine. Jared stays above the noise and when it looked like the sides were not going to get along, he soldiered on and now were reaping the benefits today. Kushner has also been involved in other Trump administration successes, such as moving the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. From NTD News Mississippi Republican Comfortably Wins US Senate Seat Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) has comfortably won the U.S. Senate seat of Mississippi at a special election runoff. Hyde-Smith, 59, secured more than 53 percent of the vote compared to her opponent, Democrat Mike Espy, at a ballot she described to be about conservative values. Hyde-Smith is the first woman elected to Congress from Mississippi. If Espy had won, he would have been the first black senator from Mississippi since the Civil War of 1861-65. Trump attended two get-out-the-vote rallies in Mississippi on Nov. 26, and extended his congratulations on Twitter, to Hyde-Smith after the race, saying that he was very proud of her. Congratulations to Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith on your big WIN in the Great State of Mississippi. We are all very proud of you! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 28, 2018 Mr. President, thank you so much for all of your help, Hyde-Smith said in a victory speech to supporters, reiterating her win was a triumph for conservative values. Mississippians know me and they know my heart. Hyde-Smiths victory will help the Republican Party hold onto a 53-47 majority in the reshuffled U.S. Senate that reconvenes in the New Year. Hyde-Smith won the election on a variety of promises 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 at a campaign rally in Biloxi on Nov. 26. After hearing the election result, Espy phoned Hyde-Smith to congratulate her. She has my prayers as she goes to Washington to unite a very divided Mississippi, he said. Espy, 64, had promised to work with Trump and the Republicans to help make America great again. Fellow Democrat Doug Jones used the same election promise to win his seat on the Senate in Alabama back in 2017. 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. Mike Espy (@espyforsenate) November 28, 2018 The runoff to serve the last two years of former Republican Sen. Thad Cochrans term was triggered after neither Espy nor Hyde-Smith secured more than half of the vote needed to settle the Nov. 6 special election. There were four candidates on the ballot on Nov. 6. Cochran, 80, had resigned earlier this year citing health concerns. 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 hotly contested election campaign created debate about the impact of illegal immigration on employment opportunities for African-American workers. U.S. President Donald Trump had said at the Biloxi rally that illegal immigrants, such as those participating in the caravans between Mexico and the United States, are unfairly disadvantaging American workers. Illegal immigration is also deeply unfair to American workers, including African-American workers, Trump said. The policy of open borders are a threat to every community. The Economic Policy Institute found that in the third-quarter of 2018, Asian worker unemployment was just 3 percent compared to 6.3 percent in the black community, which was the highest among the most populous ethnic groups. White worker unemployment was second after Asians at just 3.2 percent, according to the institute. The president also 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. Reuters contributed to this article. Watch Next: 5 Ways China is subverting the United States Gina and China Uncensored host Chris Chappell to count down the worst cases of Chinese subversion in America. U.S. President Donald Trump (L) and Chinese leader Xi Jinping leave a business leaders event at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on November 9, 2017. XiTrump Meeting at G-20 Will Be a Contest Between Irreconcilable Systems News Analysis The scheduled meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the upcoming Group of 20 (G-20) summit in Argentina might be the only chance for the two countries to resolve the current trade dispute. The tensions have escalated to the point of no return. Trump is intent on going through with his plan to impose duties on all Chinese imports if Beijing doesnt change its trade practices. The U.S. administration has recently turned to additional measures to punish Chinas intellectual property theft, such as imposing an export ban and prosecuting Chinese chipmaker Fujian Jinhua in federal court. Trump indicated that he wouldnt back down. Im very prepared [for the G-20 negotiations], Ive been preparing for it all my life, he told reporters last week. Chinese authorities have made some concessions in the run-up to the G-20 summit, seemingly willing to negotiatesuch as approving German-based insurer Allianz to set up the first wholly owned foreign subsidiary operating in China. But while the United States is seeking to negotiate an outcome that can benefit the American people and enable fair trade, the Chinese Communist Party is only interested in maintaining its power. The Chinese regime is in a crisis. Slowing internal growthexacerbated by U.S. trade tariffs that have caused stock markets to fall and manufacturers to move production out of Chinais squeezing the countrys economy. But with the regimes authoritarian rule placing stifling control on every aspect of citizens lives, the only way the Communist Party can quell public dissent and justify its reign is by allowing the economy to grow. The Party can then claim credit for the countrys prosperity and peoples wealth. Faced with mounting economic troubles that threaten its legitimacy, the Chinese regime may choose to concede; but that too would only be a tactic to continue advancing its own interests. Chinas domestic consumer market alone cant drive growth. A huge swathe of the population remains poor or is just making ends meet. The Chinese regime needs the global marketincluding foreign investment dollars and export demandto sustain its wealth. After joining the World Trade Organization, China opened its markets to foreign investment. It became a manufacturing giant, with the worlds largest export volumes. This has allowed living standards to improve and something of a middle class to develop. The Chinese Communist Party can claim that it has allowed the country to become a superpower. But Beijings communist DNA and its historical record of handling international negotiations indicate that China wont truly be open to embracing the Western economic model. History at WTO In the late 1990s, as negotiations were underway for Chinas accession to the WTO, the United States and other members made a list of commitments that China would have to follow to introduce market reforms, in hopes that liberalizing the economy would propel the country toward becoming a more open, free society. The Chinese regime had no intention of following through. But to secure Chinas entry, former Premier Zhu Rongji said, rules are fixed, but people are flexible. Beijing would study the rules in order to find loopholes. To this day, Beijing officials study Western economic models and laws not to actually conform to them, but to exploit them for the Partys advancement. The Made in China 2025 industrial plan, for example, is based on Germanys Industry 4.0, a bid to turn China into a high-technology manufacturing powerhouse capable of gaining market share from global competitors. Beijing has pushed an all-out agenda to acquire tech know-how through cyber attacks, buying up foreign companies, and poaching talented engineers and scientists from abroad. The Chinese regime flagrantly violated its WTO commitments by providing subsidies to domestic industries and propping up state-owned firms, while pushing policies that restrict foreign companiesfrom pressuring foreign firms to transfer their IP (intellectual property) to domestic joint ventures and caps on foreign ownership. China may now decide to open up with some measures in order to clutch onto the Partys only means of legitimacy. But the regime has proven time and again that it doesnt adhere to promises. Just take the cyber agreement signed by former U.S. President Barack Obama and Xi in 2015, promising not to conduct cyber commercial espionage against each other. A report released in September by the think tank Australian Strategic Policy Institute found that China didnt stop such attacks, but instead engaged in more targeted, sophisticated attacks that were harder to detect. Beijing never intended to stop commercial espionage. They just intended to stop getting caught, a security researcher said in the report. Chinese Citizens Support Following reports of a surge in state-owned companies buying up assets in private companies; mandates requiring that Party organizations be established in them; and executives at major conglomerates resigning and being jailed or investigated by Chinese authorities, many entrepreneurs and private-sector executives are nervous about the states increasing encroachment on the private sector. Many are hoping that Trumps hardline approach will force China to truly reform and abandon to policies that favor state-owned companies and hinder private ones. As China analyst and commentator Chen Pokong said in a recent online presentation, there are fans of Trump in mainland Chinafrom more liberal-minded Party officials to business ownerswho hope U.S. pressure will turn the tide against suffocating Party control. One Chinese blogger, who goes by the name A Sword Cutting Through Floating Dust, used an example from ancient Chinese history to implore Trump to strike the right stance in the G-20 negotiations. Xiang Yu, a powerful warlord, had plotted to assassinate his rival during a banquet, but decided to spare him at the last moment. The decision backfired, as the rival, Liu Bang, later invaded his territory and united China under the Han dynasty. Ashamed by the defeat, Xiang committed suicide during the final battle. Pressing the historical allegory, the blogger wrote: President Trump, in Argentina, please finish the job that Xiang Yu could not. In other words, dont go soft on the Chinese Communist Party. Two of the animals subject to animal cruelty from an unknown person or persons, authorities said. (FBI) New Hampshire Farm Family Terrorized as Part of Shakedown Plot: FBI A New Hampshire farm family was terrorized by a group who tried to force them to hand over hundreds of thousands of dollars, the FBI said. The family that owns Rickety Ranch in Hollis refused to hand over $250,000, after which the extortionists inflicted thousands of dollars worth of damage to the ranch, including to vehicles and a barn. Multiple acts of animal cruelty were also committed. The vicious shakedown of this family and the use of violence to intimidate them will not be tolerated. Were asking anyone with information about who is terrorizing them to come forward and share that information with us so we can put a stop to it and bring whoever is responsible to justice, reads a statement from Harold Shaw, special agent in charge of the FBI Boston Division, which covers all of New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Hes had some animals harmed viciously. Hes had a barn burned down, some severe property damagetens of thousands of dollars, FBI Agent Brian OHara added to WMUR. Theyre a good family. They work hard. They have a farm that they use to help kids take care of animals and produce product they can sell, and they dont know, but they live in fear. Theyre constantly watching over their shoulders. The FBI is offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to the identification and arrest of the person or persons behind the extortion attempts. The person or persons sent multiple letters to the family demanding the quarter of a million dollars. The sender said that if they paid, they would be safe from harm. In one letter released by the agency that is full of grammatical errors and formatted like a poem, the sender wrote: I saw your flag on your lawn. And time almost gone. I know your in. Just pay me know and you will win. It will be simple and fast. I left instructions under glass. On your grass. From here o keep 50k cash on your [expletive]. Disputes With Town In addition to sparing the family from harm, the sender claimed to be capable of settling the ranchs ongoing disputes with the town of Hollis. According to the Nashua Telegraph, owner Gary Bergeron and the town had a disagreement over land use and he objected to being cited for violating town ordinances. There were also problems regarding water runoff and a possible illegal driveway. Anyone with information on the extortion was urged to call the FBI Boston Field Office at 857-386-2000. The ranch has not commented on the extortion attempts, but neighbors remembered the barn being set on fire last year. Obviously, its scary to think about that somethings going on here, neighbor Dave Dwyer told WMUR. You want to lock your doors at night. Its pretty terrifying. Educational Farm According to its Facebook page, the ranch is an educational rescue farm for kids and run by kids. The working farm also has free range chickens, grass-fed beef, and other animals. On a blog, the ranch features photos of children enjoying time on the farm. The Rickety Ranch is an educational farm that teaches and encourages children from the ages of 9-19 to get involved in agriculture and learn how to care for animals. We offer a program in which children can come to the farm, adopt the animals, and be taught how to clean stalls, build enclosures, groom horses, train animals, and much more! Our barn offers a welcoming atmosphere where anyone is welcome and accepted into our family, it stated. As we say, not only are our fences rickety but the animals and children all have some rickety too. Most of our animals come from abusive backgrounds and have been rehabbed by many caring children who can turn the animals lives around. As for our children, most of them also come from bad situations, have disabilities, or just a troubled home life. From NTD News A woman stands at the booth of Huawei featuring 5G technology at the PT Expo in Beijing on Sept. 28, 2018. (Reuters) New Zealand Blocks Mobile Carrier From Using Huawei 5G Gear, Citing National Security Risk WELLINGTONNew Zealands intelligence agency has rejected a telecom companys request to use 5G mobile network equipment provided by Chinas Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., citing concerns about national security. Telecommunications services provider Spark New Zealand Ltd., which made the request, said Nov. 28 that it would review the reasoning before considering any further steps. The decision comes as Western nations become increasingly wary of what they say is possible involvement by the Chinese regime in fifth-generation (5G) mobile and other communications networks. With the companys aggressive development of 5G mobile technologybacked by Beijing, Huawei has sought to dominate the global market to become the primary provider of 5G network equipment and services. Earlier this year, neighboring Australia banned Huawei from supplying 5G equipment, also citing security risks. Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported the U.S. government was trying to persuade companies in allied countries to avoid Huawei. I have informed Spark that a significant network security risk was identified, New Zealands Government Communications Security Bureau Director-General Andrew Hampton said on Nov. 28. Intelligence services minister Andrew Little told Reuters that Sparkwhose request was part of the countrys first 5G applicationcould work with the agency to mitigate risk. He declined to specify the concerns, citing classified information. Huawei has been involved in other telecommunications systems in New Zealand such as its 4G mobile network, and is investing NZ$400 million ($271.9 million) into research and development. Little said each decision regarding telecom technology was made separately under telecom and security legislation. The difference between 5G networks and conventional 4G and 3G networks is the configuration of the technology, Little said. With 5G technology, every component of the 5G network means every part of the network can be accessed. That echoed Australian concerns that, with 5G, it was difficult to confine vendors considered high risk to a networks less sensitive parts. Spark rival 2degrees said it noted the decision, and was seeking clarity on it. Vodafone New Zealand Ltd. declined to comment about the matter. Roadblocks Huaweis 5G ambitions have encountered roadblocks in other countries. In October, Canadian officials and security experts called for the government to stop the company from getting involved in the countrys 5G rollout. In South Korea, SK Telecom, the countrys largest mobile carrier, announced that it would not use Huaweis equipment for its 5G network. In November, the UK government expressed security concerns about Huawei, even though early on, the UK had embraced the use of companys wireless, internet, and mobile services. Indias government department in charge of telecoms announced in September that it has excluded Huawei and ZTE, Chinas other major telecom giant and Huaweis chief competitor, from a list of partners for the countrys 5G development. The Epoch Times contributed to this report. A North Korean defector activist sits with bags of bottles containing rice, money, and USB sticks, on Ganghwa island, west of Seoul, on May 1, 2018. North Korean defectors send the supplies floating towards their homeland. (Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images) North Koreans Face Culture Shock Once in Free South SEOULDespite a shared history on the Korean Peninsula spanning 5,000 years, for North Koreans defecting to the South, life in the free and open world comes with its own surprises. I cant understand it when South Koreans say blah blah, Park Ja Yoo (a pseudonym), a defector from North Korea, said, referring to South Koreans frequent use of English words. This country uses many foreign languages. I cant even get a part-time job at restaurants, because I dont know English. Kim Ji Won, 34, another North Korean defector who also chose to use a fictitious name, faced a similar ordeal. I didnt even know what a supermarket was, she said. Since the Korean War, which lasted from 1950 to 1953 and ended with an armistice, the Korean Peninsula has been divided into the communist North and the democratic South. People in the North and South have been officially barred from visiting the neighboring country. However, more than a thousand North Koreans defect to the South each year in pursuit of freedom and a better life, often with the help of smugglers crossing the Chinese border. The Free World Life in the North was very restrictive, Kim said. When she came to the South, she saw how people her age can decide on a career path to follow and may pursue higher education. Pursuing my own dream was particularly difficult [in the North], she said. [There], ones career is decided by the government. People must live as the government plans. Whats more, Kim said, employees of the North Korean government, which account for the majority of jobs, often dont get any income from their employer, so they have to run side businesses to earn a living. Park said that with the exception of some sectors such as agriculture and mining, many North Koreans have to run some sort of business, if they have enough funds. People who have an idea that is not contradictory to the Norths ideology can run their own businesses, Park said. However, they are required to pay money to the government in the form of bribery, he added. Since the 1990s, North Koreans have resorted to using local markets, called jangmadang, to survive. According to a report by Radio Free Asia, there are almost 500 such private markets operating in North Korea, with products mainly imported from China. There are wholesale dealers and retail dealers in the North Korean markets, which provide daily necessities such as clothes, soaps, and medicines, Kim said. Yet, the market economy has not been systematized. It was a culture shock for Kim to experience South Koreas market economy. To earn money, she has to have a job for which she should study to be qualified, unless she runs her own business. That was difficult, Kim said. Kim, who came to South Korea when she was 19, also was shocked to learn women in the South smoke and drink in public. In the North, smoking a cigarette was unthinkable [for women]. Only old women in their 80s smoked pipe tobacco, she said. Crossing the Border North Koreans who defect to the South or other countries escape with the help of smugglers. In South Korea, there are many smugglers who bring North Koreans, said a smuggler, who asked to use an alias, Oh Jin-woo. Oh, 55, has been working as a smuggler for years. He told The Epoch Times hes been arrested by Chinese police a number of times for helping North Koreans defect. The smugglers bring defectors to China by paying bribes to North Korean security guards watching the border with China, Oh said. Then, the smugglers bring the defectors to Thailand via Laos. Once in Thailand, the South Korean embassy steers the defectors to the South, Oh said. The overall success rate of defection is 80 percent to 90 percent, he said. Kim Jong Un, the supreme leader of North Korea, commanded border guards to accept the bribes, but shoot the defectors, Oh said. Since Kim Jong Un came to power in 2011, the number of defectors has rapidly decreased, according to South Koreas Ministry of Unification. The decline is mainly due to increased border security. Officials Say Body Found in North Carolina Is of Missing Girl Hania Aguilar Police in North Carolina said the body that was found in Robeson County on Nov. 27, was positively identified as missing girl Hania Aguilar, the News-Observer reported. This is heart-wrenching; we are absolutely devastated, Lumberton Police Chief Michael McNeill told WMBF News. He added: I wish we had a different outcome for Hanias family, for the community that she lived in, and for the hundreds of law enforcement officers and searchers who put everything, everything they had in to finding her and bringing her back alive. We believe we have found the body of 13-year-old Hania Aguilar. The body was found in a body of water off Wire Grass Road in Robeson County about 4:45 p.m. yesterday afternoon. The FBI said the body was found during a search for the girl, saying her family was notified of the discovery. McNeil said preliminary tests came back, indicating the body found is Hanias. Dental records will now be needed to make a final determination. Please continue to pray for Hanias family and each other as the investigation continues, McNeil told the outlet. I want to ask the community and those on social media to please quit spreading the rumors that are being spread. This is the outcome that we all feared was going to happen; we did not want to hear this. This is not what we wanted to happen. We wanted to bring her back home alive to her family and our community. No suspect has been named in the case. Hania, 13, was kidnapped outside of her family home in Lumberton on Nov. 5. A man dressed in black pulled up in a stolen SUV and forced her into the vehicle, officials said. We are all heartbroken, FBI supervisor Andy Delarocha said. We believe we found Hania, but our work is far from over. We have to find out how she died, who did this to her and we have to bring the person or persons to justice. Delarocha urged the public to come forward with any information. Please call us if you have information to help. Dont post rumors to social media. Dont share speculations about this case. On Nov. 5, I stood right here before you and stated I could not imagine how I would feel if this was one of my daughters, he said. Last night I had to stand in front of Hanias mother and explain to her what we had found and you can all imagine what that has done to her. You can further imagine what is happening to her today as she hears things that are not based in fact and are rumors and falsehoods. McNeil, meanwhile, said their work is not over. We will not stop, not stop until we find the person or persons responsible and we bring them to justice. We will not stop until we do that, he added. The FBI, in a statement earlier this week, said that it and the local Lumberton Police Department have investigated 800 leads, reviewed surveillance footage, and interviewed about 400 people, said the FBI. The FBI also elaborated on the abduction and 911 call about the missing girl. A female caller speaking Spanish was on the line, and the Robeson County dispatcher quickly requested a Spanish translator to join the call. Initial reports during the 911 described the abductor as a black male, the agency said in a statement. Natural gas is flared off at a plant outside of the town of Cuero, Texas. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Oil Prices Fall More Than 1 Percent Ahead of G20, OPEC Meeting NEW YORKOil prices fell more than 1 percent on Nov. 27, in conjunction with sagging stock markets after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened more tariffs on Chinese imports ahead of the coming G20 summit. Prices fell to their lowest since October 2017 last weekBrent at $58.41 and WTI at $50.15. U.S. stock markets declined after President Donald Trumps threat to move ahead with additional tariffs on Chinese goods dampened hopes of resolving the trade fight at the upcoming G20 Summit. Earlier reports said Trump was also considering tariffs on most imported automobiles as well. Both crude benchmarks are down more than 30 percent since early October, depressed by an emerging supply overhang and widespread financial market weakness. Oil prices have come under pressure in tandem with weakness in equities, said Abhishek Kumar, senior energy analyst at Interfax Energy in London. The Brent crude front-month futures price falling below the $60 a barrel key technical support level has further exacerbated selling in the oil complex. Leaders of the Group of 20 nations (G20), the worlds biggest economies, will meet on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, with the trade war between Washington and Beijing atop the agenda. The top three crude producers, Russia, the United States, and Saudi Arabia, will all be at the summit, raising expectations that oil policy will be discussed. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will meet on Dec. 6 in Vienna to discuss output policy with some non-OPEC producers, including Russia. Saudi Arabia raised oil production to a record high in November, an industry source said on Nov. 26, pumping 11.1 million to 11.3 million barrels per day (bpd). But the kingdom has been pushing for a collective production cut and is discussing a proposal to curb output by OPEC and its allies as much as 1.4 million bpd, sources close to the discussions told Reuters this month. Trump has pressured Saudi Arabia, OPECs de-facto leader, not to cut production. We feel that the Saudis will attempt to try to tread a fine line between placating Trump and driving some production decisions capable of halting the dramatic price plunge of the past couple of months, Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch and Associates, said in a note. U.S. crude production also hit a record high this month of 11.7 million bpd, with stockpiles rising for nine straight weeks. By Stephanie Kelly An Oklahoma man said he shot and killed an intruder in his homethe second time in five years (Tulsa Police) Oklahoma Man Shoots and Kills Intruder 5 Years After Shooting Another Robber: Reports An Oklahoma man said he shot and killed an intruder in his homefor the second time in five years. I grabbed a pistol which is right there where I sleep, and it was only about another three or four seconds and he comes into view and blam boy that 9 millimeter is real loud inside the house, said Sweeney, Newson6 reported. When he clenched up his chest he says Im sorry Im sorry Im sorry he retreats back to the bathroom and he tried to get out the same window but he didnt make it, said Sweeney. Sweeney shot a man who was breaking into his home about five years ago, according to reports. Tulsa Man Speaks Out After Shooting, Killing Intruder https://t.co/TDB8zg8Oye News On 6 (@NewsOn6) November 27, 2018 The Tulsa Police Department said the incident happened at around 9 a.m. on Nov. 27. The intruder was found deceased on arrival and the homeowner is providing a statement to Detectives at this time, the office wrote on Facebook. Donald Stovall, the man who tried to break into the home, was found dead in Sweeneys home. Officers told Fox23 that Stovall tried to crawl through a bathroom window when Sweeney confronted him before shooting him. He brought this on himself, I have no sympathy, Sweeny said. Sweeney in October 2013 shot one of two intruders who broke into his house, reported the Tulsa World. The two suspects pled guilty in charges in that case and are serving time in prison. This is the second time Ive shot someone, and Ive escorted at gunpoint at least half a dozen people off the property, Sweeney said. He goes down I run for the phone he gets back up shoves my air conditioner out of the way and takes a high dive right out my second story window, explained Sweeney of the 2013 incident, according to Newson6. The Tulsa Police interviewed Sweeney before allowing him to go, saying people have the right to defend themselves in their homes. If you are in your home and you have an intruder come in and you feel that you are in fear of your life or the life of someone else who may be in your home, you are well within your rights to defend yourself, Captain Karen Tipler told the Fox affiliate. Sweeney, who is apparently no stranger to burglaries, issued a warning to potential intruders. I thought my life was in danger, I shot him, and Ill do it again, he said. Sgt. Brandon Watkins told the Tulsa World that Sweeney was waiting for police outside the home when they arrived. Watkins said the motive for the alleged burglary attempt is not clear. Each homicide investigation is like a snowflake: theyre all different. What happened in the past doesnt necessarily impact what happens this time, Watkins said. 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. Lu Guang poses for a photo in New York on July 2018. The wife of award-winning Chinese photographer Lu says he was taken away by state security agents more than three weeks ago during a trip to China's far western region. Lu's wife, Xu, says he was traveling in Xinjiang when she lost contact with him. (Xu Xiaoli via AP) Prominent Chinese Photographer Taken by Police, Wife Says BEIJINGLu Guangs photos exposed the everyday realities of people on the margins of Chinese society: coal miners, drug addicts, HIV patients. Now, the award-winning photographer is at the center of his own stark story. He was taken away by state security agents three weeks ago for unknown reasons, Lus wife, Xu Xiaoli, told The Associated Press late Nov. 27. Xu said Lu was traveling in Xinjiang on Nov. 3 when she lost contact with him. He had connected with photographers in Urumqi, the capital, one week before and was scheduled to meet a friend in Sichuan Province on Nov. 5, but he never showed up. A friend of Xu helped her inquire about her husbands whereabouts in his home province of Zhejiang, where authorities said Lu and a fellow photographer had been taken away by Xinjiang state security. They did not give any further details, the friend told Xu. I know that he wouldnt have done anything illegal, Xu, 45, said in a phone interview from New York, where she is studying art design and raising their child. Xinjiangs propaganda department did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment. When asked about Lu during a regular briefing Wednesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said he was not aware of the situation. Lu won first prize in the prestigious World Press Photo contest for a series on poor Chinese villagers who became infected with HIV after selling their own blood to make a living. His photos tackle gritty subjects like pollution and industrial environmental destructionissues traditionally avoided by the Chinese press because they risk punishment for exposing societal problems that the government may consider sensitive. But Lu never had problems with the police before, according to Xu, who added that she was not aware of any photo projects he had planned for his Xinjiang trip. He has a strong sense of social responsibility, she said. He believed, after confronting the faces of the destitute, that there were things that people should know. At the very least, he believed that (his photos) might motivate them to help others, to trigger change and make things better. Lus profile on the World Press Photo website says he is the recipient of numerous other photography honors including Germanys Henri Nannen Prize in Photography and a National Geographic Photography Grant. It says Lu was the first photographer from China to be invited by the U.S. State Department as a visiting scholar. Xu said she believes it was Lus first visit to Xinjiang. A stifling security apparatus has been imposed on the region. Over the years, Xinjiang has been transformed into a vast security state, packed with police stations, street cameras, and security checkpoints at which electronic identity cards are scanned. Beijing has faced an outcry from activists, academics, foreign governments and U.N. rights experts over mass detentions and strict surveillance of the mostly Muslim Uyghur minority and other Muslim groups who call Xinjiang home. 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. By Yanang Wang. The Epoch Times contributed to this report. A member of the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service stands guard at the Goptovka crossing point on the border between Russia and Ukraine in Kharkiv Region, Ukraine, on Nov. 28, 2018. (Reuters/Vyacheslav Madiyevsky) Putin Defiant on Ukraine Crisis, Brushes Off Trump Summit Talks Threat MOSCOW/KERCH, CrimeaPresident Vladimir Putin has shrugged off a threat from President Donald Trump to cancel a meeting with him because of Moscows seizure of three Ukrainian navy ships, and accused Ukraines president of orchestrating the crisis. Russia seized the Ukrainian vessels and their crews Nov. 25 near Crimea, the Ukrainian region annexed by Moscow in 2014, over what it said was the ships illegal entry into Russian waters, which Ukraine denies. The episode has raised fears in the West of a wider conflict between the two countries, and Trump said Nov. 27 that he might cancel a planned meeting with Putin at the G-20 summit in Argentina later this week as a response to aggression. Some of Ukraines Western allies have also raised the possibility of imposing new sanctions on Russia over the episode, which could deliver a blow to the Russian economy. But Putin, in his first public comments on the Black Sea incident, said that the Ukrainian vessels had clearly been in the wrong, dismissed the clash as a minor border issue, and accused Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko of having orchestrated the crisis in order to boost his dire ratings. Putin said he still hoped to meet Trump at the G-20, the Kremlin said the meeting was still being prepared and Washington hadnt informed Moscow it was off. It was without doubt a provocation, Putin told a financial forum in Moscow of the incident. It was organized by the president ahead of the elections. The president is in fifth place ratings-wise and therefore had to do something. It was used as a pretext to introduce martial law. Putin said the West was willing to forgive Ukrainian politicians because it bought into their anti-Russian narrative. Kiev has introduced martial law in parts of the country, saying it fears a possible Russian invasion. By Andrew Osborn & Anton Zverev In this picture taken on May 28, 2018, a banner that reads "98 percent of people have signed contracts in a pleasing way, 2 percent of peoples houses have been forced-collected according to law, its the trend of the time and coinciding with the popular will" is seen on a building in Chikan village in Kaiping. (NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images) Chinas Middle-Class Wealth Trapped in Real Estate, Study Says The wealth of Chinas middle and lower-middle class is locked up in the countrys increasingly risky real estate market, according a study published Nov. 24 by Renmin University of China. At a press conference held at the Analysis and Forecast of Macroeconomic Performance of China 20182019 conference, held in Beijing, the report by National Academy of Development and Strategy of Renmin University indicated that the debt rate of destocking in real estate for Chinese consumers rose sharply and that the consumption base has been severely weakened. At present, the wealth of residents is basically tied to property. According to the analysis, the phenomenon of having assets locked up in real estate was mostly limited to the upper-middle class prior to 2015. But a new round of property market destockingin particular, monetization and encouraging migrant workers to buy houseshas driven members of the class with less liquid savings to invest as much as possible in real estate. Today, the core drivers of consumption are not members of the high-income class, but Chinese of middle- and lower-middle class income. However, money available for consumption by this demographic has diminished greatly, which is important in accounting for the shift in Chinese consumer behavior. Another significant change was that residents net savings have continued to decline. According to financial data released by the Peoples Bank of China, as of September, the net savings of residents (deposits minus loans) amounted to about 24.7 trillion yuan ($3.56 trillion), falling 6.7 percent from 2017. From 2016 going into 2017, it dropped 6.3 percent. Data on GDP across Chinas 31 provinces and real-estate development investment data in the first three quarters of 2018 also was released on Nov. 24. The data shows that provincial economies depend on real estate. The data shows that in the first three quarters of 2018, fixed-asset investment (excluding farmers) was 48.34 trillion yuan (about $6.96 trillion), and real estate development investment was 8.87 trillion yuan ($1.28 trillion), accounting for 18 percent of fixed-asset investment nationwide. In the first three quarters of 2018, the top five provinces in real estate development investment accounted for about 42 percent of the countrys total investment. According to Chinese provincial data, real estate development investment in the southern province of Guangdong ranked first with 1.03 trillion yuan ($148.33 billion), followed by Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, and Henan provinces. The proportion of real estate development investment in GDP, as the report says, is regarded as an indicator of the dependence on real estate investment in a local economic growth. The higher the proportion, the more the local economy depends on real estate investment. In the first three quarters of 2018, in the ranking of 31 provinces real estate investment in proportion to GDP, Hainan Province ranked first at 34 percent, followed by Anhui Province at 22 percent, and the province-level Chongqing municipality, at 21 percent. Investment in most other provinces was about 10 to 15 percent. Jin Li, deputy dean of the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University, told the financial channel of NetEase on Nov. 22 that Chinese people rely on real estate and real-estate investment as a means of storing their wealth. Thats caused many problems in the real estate sector. The price of housing rises too fast, and secondly, with a large amount of wealth is concentrated in the real estate sector, sales and output in other sectors dwindle. Li said that by 2012, there was no shortage of housing in China, with an average of approximately 40 square meters (430.6 square feet) of living space available per person. In third- and fourth-tier cities, including many rural areas, a large number of houses are vacant. If people continue to buy houses as a means of storing wealth, within 30 years, we will have many houses waiting to be used, in exchange for food or other services. But the society will not produce that much food or service. There will be only houses, Li said. With widespread selling, real purchasing power will fall dramatically. Yi Xianrong, a professor at the School of Economics in Qingdao University, wrote in a Nov. 23 article that the market value of real estate in China was $65 trillion, but the market value of real estate in the United States, the European Union, and Japan combined was only $60 trillion. That, he said, doesnt indicate a rapid increase in wealth, but rather points to high risks in Chinas economy, financial system, and the banking industry. South Carolina Fugitive Found Hiding 35 Feet Up a Tree A man who allegedly hit a Georgia deputy with a stolen car was found hiding 35 feet up in a tree. Bacon County Sheriffs Office said it responded to reports of a suspected stolen vehicle in the parking lot of a convenience store in Alma on Nov. 26. After officers approached the vehicle, it sped off at a high rate of speed, according to the sheriffs office, hitting Deputy Nicole McElroy as it did so. McElroy was badly bruised by the car, the sheriffs office said, and appreciated peoples thoughts and prayers on her condition. Officers chased the car until its driver abandoned it and ran into some woods, WALB News 10 reported. The suspect, 39-year-old Joseph Allen Tuten, was ultimately found hiding 35 feet up a tree, shirtless. Why his shirt was missing hasnt been confirmed. Tuten, a fugitive from South Carolina, was arrested and charged with aggravated assault, theft by taking a motor vehicle, felony fleeing, and eluding law enforcement, as well as multiple traffic citations, WJCL 22 reported. In August, he was arrested for stealing a water truck from a construction site, according to the Lexington Police Department, The State reported. Bail was set at over $31,000 for Tuten, who was facing other charges at the time. Criminals in Trees Its not the first time a criminal has been found hiding in a tree, shirtless. In 2017 Curtis Cameron was pursued by Skagit County police in Washington state for over six hours. Cameron had an extensive criminal history that included attacking people at a party with Molotov cocktails, and stealing almost $50,000 in equipment from the U.S. Forest Service. Police had been looking for him for months, so after he was spotted more than 40 officers and a helicopter took up the chase. After jumping into a freezing river, Cameron took off most of his clothes, hid in a blackberry bush, and climbed a tree. It took tear gas from the police to remove him from the tree, and the promise of clothes. I think he was cold. I think he was embarrassed, said Skagit County Chief Deputy Chad Clark, according to K5 News. Toward the end of 2017, 22-year-old Joshua Blackwood hid up a tree in Kitsap County, Washington, after being chased in a stolen car. Multiple police officers located Blackwood hiding 30 feet up a tree, with deputies convincing him to come down. Blackwood had been wanted as a fugitive since August of that year, mainly over charges of theft and reckless driving, Q13 Fox reported. In 2016, Lane Scott Malouff, 30, was arrested for assault and attempted murder after a five-hour standoff in which Malouff scaled a tree in Colorado Springs. Police discovered that Malouff had assaulted the mother of his two children and fled on foot before police arrived, the Alamosa Valley Courier reported. Colorado Springs Police Department found Malouff around six weeks after the incident, and Malouff climbed the tree to avoid being arrested. Former President Barack Obama delivers remarks after viewing science projects at the White House Science Fair on March 23, 2015. During his remarks, President Obama announced more than $240 million in pledges to boost the study of STEM subjects. Not much of the money promoting STEM subjects has produced the desirable results. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) STEM Subjects Dogma Has Undermined Soft Skills Productive employees need integrity, not just credentials Federal officials struggle to categorize the programs to promote science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), but they sure know how to throw money at it. Their dogmatic more-is-better belief has spawned 162 STEM educational programs spanning 13 agencies, and it has obscured a sense for proportion and what makes a productive employee. Sobering new research from the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), STEM without Fruit, reveals overlooked problems in the U.S. labor market that cannot be cured with more credentials in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. On the contrary, in survey after survey employers complain most of all about how workers lack social or non-cognitive soft skills. Brent Orrell, an AEI resident fellow, writes that this non-cognitive skills deficit is in character, motivation, perseverance, integrity, self-control, professionalism, teamwork, communication, and dependability. STEM skills are valuable, as demonstrated by the salaries they command for graduates. There is no disagreement there. The challenge is how to promote these skills without wasting taxpayer funds and diverting attention from other crucial labor-market ingredients. What Promotes the STEM Mantra The inordinate STEM emphasis can be traced back to its origins in federal policy. It derives from the 1957 Sputnik crisis in the Cold War, when there was a widespread fear the Soviet Union would outcompete the United States in science and the space race. STEM became a mantra that continues to this day, with $3 billion spent on specific STEM federal educational programs in the 2016 fiscal year. The stated contemporary objectives are global competitiveness and broadened participation from historically underrepresented demographics in STEM fields: women, specific ethnicities, and individuals from rural areas. More than 60 years have passed, enough time for a reflection on the fruits of this endeavor. The Government Accountability Office reports that nearly all STEM education programs overlapped to some degree with at least one other program. The lack of debate and scrutiny in this arena has also contributed to lawlessness and a dearth of accountability. The Committee on STEM Education has not fully met its responsibilities to assess the federal STEM education portfolio, the report reads. The Committee has not reviewed programs performance assessments, as required by its authorizing charter, nor has it documented those assessments in its inventory, as required by law. Why STEM Initiatives Have Failed The federally backed incorporation of STEM goes right from pre-kindergarten education to funding for graduate students and teacher training, along with preferences in immigration opportunities. The National Science Foundation, for example, doles out 8,000 fellowships each year, worth up to $46,000 each. Those who complete a STEM-classified graduate degree in the United States are eligible for triple the practical-training stay after their studies, up to three years. Naturally, what is and is not eligible for funding has become contentious, and there is not one definition that guides federal policy. In fact, the NSF takes a broad view and even includes political science, while the Department of Homeland Security focuses on mathematics, chemistry, physics, computer and information sciences, and engineering. There is a strong case to be made that STEM plays a role in many fields, such as business administration and economics, and that relevant practices go beyond specific college majors. That nuance, however, does not fit well with a bureaucracy that needs clear criteria. Boris Granovskiy, an education policy analyst for the Congressional Research Service, laments that the lack of a clear definition has led to confusion and contradictory findings. It also opens the door to superficial relabeling and politicization that favors well-connected recipients. Despite all the funding and programs, a group of U.S. academics has documented that teaching practices to improve STEM learning outcomes are still not widely adopted. Their book, Transforming Institutions, contends static university cultures have impeded educational outcomes: There is little incentive for faculty to invest the time and effort required to teach effectively, because such investment is viewed as conflicting with research productivity. Pushing people into fields they are not interested in or qualified for has also contributed to high attrition rates, particularly from the targeted demographics. STEM students are more likely to switch majors than their non-STEM counterparts, as high as 52 percent in the case of mathematics. An analysis of students entering four-year and community-college STEM programs in 2003 found that 48 and 69 percent, respectively, had changed majors or abandoned college within six yearsalthough the authors note low graduation rates are a problem across the board: The two groups of students with high dropouts are female students and underrepresented minority students. The federal focus on STEM has, perhaps inadvertently, promoted duplication and undermined dynamism and innovation. A Heritage Foundation report asserts that the past 50 years suggest that such federal initiatives are unlikely to solve the fundamental problem of American underperformance in STEM education. Federal subsidies come with strings that promote uniformity and dependence, stifle healthy competition, and de facto federalize nominally private institutions. The top-down approach comes at the expense of meeting the diverse needs of students and parents. No Free Lunch in Education Orrells AEI research paper should be a wakeup calla devotion to STEM education is a complicated endeavor that comes with inherent costs. Even if we believe STEM to be a mainstay in American economic life, that does not infer top-down programs are the right way to achieve higher levels of participation, teaching quality, and international competitiveness. Employers do seek employees with STEM skills, acquired through higher education or other routes. However, such individuals are only useful if they also possess non-cognitive skills: the capacity to learn and adapt to changing labor market demands. Heavy investment in STEM education cannot and should not be expected to make up for non-cognitive deficits that result from trauma and broken families. Adverse childhood events leave victims at risk of reduced attention and self-regulation. STEM education has its merits, but it is not a panacea beyond reproach. Nor is it a substitute for stable families and healthy mentorship, which are pivotal yet declining ingredients for employment and socialization outcomes. Fergus Hodgson is the founder and executive editor of Latin American intelligence publication Antigua Report. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Attorney Mark Miller of the Pacific Legal Foundation and Edward Poitevent, plaintiff in Weyerhaeuser Co. v. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, stand outside the Supreme Court in Washington on Nov. 27, 2018. (Pacific Legal Foundation) Supreme Court Finds Limits to Endangered Species Act A unanimous Supreme Court overruled bureaucrats enforcing the Endangered Species Act (ESA), ruling that the federal government overreached by limiting the development of private land in Louisiana to help save a rare frog that doesnt actually live there. The ruling was also a blow to environmentalists who had been anxious about the case. They considered the fact that the Supreme Court agreed to review the matter ominous because the court rarely takes up cases involving the Endangered Species Act. In rendering the 8-to-0 decision in Weyerhaeuser Co. v. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Nov. 27, a united high court served notice on government officials that abusive land grabs under the Endangered Species Act will not stand. (Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who hadnt yet been confirmed when the court heard the case, didnt participate in it.) Justice Stephen Breyer telegraphed the courts decision during oral arguments Oct. 1, suggesting there had to be a limit to the governments power to force private landowners to participate in species-preservation efforts by declaring their land to be critical habitat essential for the frogs survival. Building on a comment by Chief Justice John Roberts, Breyer asked if, in addition to using ponds on private land in Louisiana to save the frogs, it would be reasonable to build special hothouses in Nome, Alaska to preserve a species. A decision resting on that strikes me as far-fetched, he said. Property Rights Property-rights advocates told The Epoch Times they were pleased with the ruling. Todays decision prevents the federal government from misusing the ESA to abusively regulate private property that cannot support endangered wildlife, said Tony Francois, a senior attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation, which represented a landowner in the case. The court decided that there must be some limits to what can be declared critical habitat, said Myron Ebell, director of the Competitive Enterprise Institutes Center for Energy and Environment. The fact that land that cannot support an endangered animal or plant without modification should not be designated as critical habitat is just common sense, but there is little common sense in the way the ESA has been enforced, Ebell said. The court also decided that critical habitat designations can be challenged in court. Its a step in the right direction, but theres a long way to go to limit the federal governments authority under the ESA to take the value of peoples land through regulation. That todays decision was unanimous is a good sign. Going further will probably divide the court sharply, but the new members give me hope that further progress in restoring property rights is possible in my lifetime. Donny Ferguson, president of Americans for a Better Economy, an Alexandria, Virginia-based nonprofit organization, welcomed the ruling but said more needed to be done to protect property owners. Todays ruling is welcome and an unusual, proper reading of the law. Most cases of property owners victimized by the Endangered Species Act do not end this well. Americans will continue to lose their rights to radical activists unless the outdated, unscientific Endangered Species Act is repealed. An Abuse of Discretion In the case, lawyers for Seattle-based Weyerhaeuser Co. challenged the governments critical-habitat designation for the dusky gopher frog, which is found only in Mississippi. The species was officially listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act on Dec. 4, 2001. There are reportedly fewer than 100 of the amphibians in existence. The problem arose in 2012 when the Interior Departments Fish and Wildlife Service designated 1,544 acres in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, a critical habitat under the ESA. The declaration followed the settlement of lawsuits filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of Mississippi Public Lands. Agency officials wanted to use existing ephemeral ponds and dig new ones throughout the Deep South to prevent the frogs extinction. An ephemeral or vernal pond is a seasonal pool of water that supports animal and plant life. The plan was to move some of the frogs to the new ponds and protect the land surrounding them. The landowners objected because they would not be able to use the lands set aside. The 1,544 acres are owned by Weyerhaeuser and businessman Edward Poitevent. In the 1990s, Weyerhaeuser took over Poitevents lease for its timber operations. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the agencys finding, determining its critical habitat decision was entitled to deference because of the Supreme Courts Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council decision in 1984. In that landmark administrative law ruling, the court held while courts must give effect to the unambiguously expressed intent of Congress, where courts find Congress has not directly addressed the precise question at issue and the statute is silent or ambiguous with respect to the specific issue, the question for the court is whether the agencys answer is based on a permissible construction of the statute. But the Fifth Circuit didnt apply the proper legal test to the critical habitat designation, instead treating it as unreviewable, Chief Justice Roberts wrote for the court. The circuit court did not consider whether the [Fish and Wildlife] Services assessment of the costs and benefits of designation was flawed in a way that rendered the resulting decision arbitrary, capricious, or an abuse of discretion. Landowner Edward Poitevent agreed. This was a grossly unfair and inappropriate taking of private land for no purpose, no benefit to the frog, and without any reason or common sense behind it, Poitevent said in a press release. But when youre in for the fight of your life, you dont give up. Its astounding to find out the highest court in the land has not only your back, but the backs of all American landowners. The Charterhouse of Bruges: Jan van Eyck, Petrus Christus, and Jan Vos exhibition in the Chamber Gallery of The Frick Collection is on view until Jan. 13, 2019. (The Frick Collection) The Splendor of The Charterhouse of Bruges: Jan van Eyck, Petrus Christus, and Jan Vos Exhibition at The Frick Collection NEW YORKWe are besieged by a myriad of images. Yet some pictures command our attentioneven in this age of distraction. Few pictures, however, can elicit tears of wonderment. And even fewer can claim to have a function like speeding up ones ascent to heaven, no less. If you visit the current exhibition in the small Cabinet Gallery of The Frick Collection, you might hear someone gasp in amazement. The Charterhouse of Bruges: Jan van Eyck, Petrus Christus, and Jan Vos is on view at The Frick Collection until Jan. 13, 2019. Beautifully curated by Emma Capron, the Fricks 201618 Anne L. Poulet Curatorial Fellow, this small exhibition has the power to command all of your attention. You may discover a small figure hidden in the bushes in the background of the central painting, or feel mesmerized by a vivid portrait of a bearded man who seems to be looking straight through you, or you may simply admire how the artists rendered textures so vividly. As you linger over the medieval works, with a magnifying glass in hand, losing track of time, you might hear yourself gasp as well. The exhibition centers around a painting from the Fricks permanent collection, The Virgin and Child with St. Barbara, St. Elizabeth, and Jan Vos (the Frick Virgin for short) by Jan van Eyck and Workshop. It has been a rather overlooked treasure of the collection because it usually hangs in the Ante Room behind a console, under less than ideal lighting conditions for such a richly detailed painting. It is an object that compels extreme close attention, Capron said during a tour of the exhibition on Oct. 29. The Virgin takes center stage in the painting, set within an elaborate portico opening to a panoramic cityscape. She holds the Christ child, who looks at a kneeling Carthusian monk, Jan Vos, the prior of the Charterhouse of Bruges who commissioned the painting. The Virgin is dressed in a crimson gown, lined with ermine fur, and covered by a blue mantle, hemmed with pearls and precious gems. You can see the artists incredible attention to texture, from rendering the opacity of the fabric, contrasted with the translucency of the gems. The brocade is wonderfully done with quite a swift handling of paint, Capron said. We see wet on wet [paint] effects here, in order to give texture to his [Voss] bald head, she added. Every detail in the painting lends itself to multiple interpretations. For example, on the left side of the panel, to the right of the Virgin, stands Saint Barbara, the patron saint of artillery (associated with lightning), whos depicted with a tower where she was imprisoned by her pagan father. The window of the tower behind St. Barbara is divided by pillars into three sections, referring to the Holy Trinity and to Barbaras secret conversion to Christianity. On the window ledge of the tower, you may catch a glimpse of a statuette of Mars, the Roman god of war. This alludes to the idols Barbara defaced in her miraculous baptism, Capron said. When Barbaras enraged father, upon discovering her refusal to recant her Christian beliefs, tried to cut her head off with a sword, he was struck by lightning. St. Barbara is usually depicted with a tower, which became her attribute, in reference to her imprisonment. She was particularly revered by the Carthusians, who highly value contemplation in seclusion. On the right side of the panel, to the Virgins left, stands Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, a noblewoman who renounced worldly goods to devote herself to the poor. For the Carthusians, she would have provided a potent model of renunciation of the world. Vos probably chose St. Barbara and St. Elizabeth to be included in the painting because they were both adopted as patron saints of the Teutonic Knights, of which Vos was a past member. That military religious order had origins in the Third Crusade with the aim to defend the Holy Land and to provide medical care for Christians. The longer you look at the painting, the more you find. Using a magnifying glass (provided by the Frick) helps you to see more: for instance, a mole in between Voss eyebrows, which distinguishes him. Moreover, the background that van Eyck and his workshop invented depicts a citys hustle and bustle through a multitude of minute details. The figures of people walking across a bridge look as if they were painted with a one-haired paintbrush (made out of either squirrel or fox hair). The painting shows such power of observation, Capron said. The attention to the physical world is emphasized to the fullest. One of Caprons first curatorial ambitions was to allow people to see the Frick Virgin in its full splendor. Viewers can experience the painting as closely as a museum setting allows, almost as intimately as the painting was initially intended to be contemplated. Aids in Salvation The Frick Virgin is joined, for only the second time in history, with a similar painting that was also commissioned by Vos: The Virgin and Child with St. Barbara and Jan Vos by Petrus Christus (also called the Exeter Virgin, after its first known owner). Incidentally, Petrus Christus also painted the distinguishing mole between Voss eyebrows. Both portray Vos kneeling and seeking intercession of the Virgin and Child, under the protection of female saints. While similar in subject matter, composition, and style, these two panels had different functions. The Frick Virgin perhaps served as an epitaph to memorialize Vos. The red cloth of honor behind the Virgin is brocaded with stylized white lilies, alluding to her purity. Each stem is entwined with a golden scroll inscribed with the abbreviated words Ave Maria, gratia plena (Hail Mary, full of grace). These were painted not merely as decoration but to engage and invite the viewer to pray. It was basically an attention-grabbing device, Capron said. In 1443, Vos secured an indulgence for his memorial, not only to help repose his soul and for his own salvation, but also to hasten the salvation of whomever would pray in front of it. Those who did would be granted 40 days of remission from time served in purgatory. It is a mutually beneficial offer, Capron said. In contrast to the Frick Virgin, which served its function after Voss death, Vos used the Exeter Virgin during his lifetime as a devotional aid, in the intimacy of his cell. He could also carry the small panel with him during his travels. Fourteenth-century treatises about meditation practices recommended relying on physical images to help conjure mental ones, Capron explained. That was the first step. Looking at his own likeness in the company of the Virgin, Christ, and St. Barbara would have helped Vos visualize this divine encounter in his minds eye. Eventually [the monks] wanted to reach imageless contemplation, when they reached a state of mystical ecstasy, Capron explained. These material objects, then, helped the Carthusians climb an immaterial, spiritual ladder to salvation through contemplation and prayer. The elaborate images also helped relieve the strain of the monks extreme solitude and isolation, as their eyes would journey through the myriad detailed images in the paintings. Splendor From Austerity It was a cleric who, seeking to embrace the life of early Christian desert hermits, founded The Carthusian Order in 1084. Bruno of Cologne built his first hermitage in the secluded Chartreuse Mountains (from which the order took its name) in the French Alps. Since then, the Carthusian Order has been extremely austere and, especially in the Middle Ages, highly respected for its purity. Carthusians believe that solitude and silence are the absolute conditions for spiritual elevation and eventual salvation. They avoid contact with the laity, even with each other as much as possible, and take a vow of silence. They had quite an ambivalent relationship to images, Capron said. They shunned some images as distracting luxuriesfor example, images that depicted women or images that had lay coat of arms in them, etc. It is quite fascinating then, as Capron pointed out, how such incredibly splendid images, such as the Frick and Exeter Virgins, emerged from such an austere place. Capron juxtaposed these two paintings of the Virgin along with a selection of objects that are just as mesmerizing: two more paintings, two small marble sculptures, a silverpoint drawing, a songbook, a boxwood prayer nut, and an intact pipe clay relief (which is a national treasure of the Netherlands). Together, they reflect and strengthen the context and meaning of the origins and functions of the two paintings commissioned by Vos. As the indulgence attached to the Frick Virgin stipulated that it was only effective in the confines of the charterhouse, it has lost its original function. Similarly, the Exeter Virgin is no longer used as it was originally intended, as it has been released to the secular world for all the laity to see. These two paintings are invaluable not only because they were commissioned by a Carthusian monk, which is very rare, but also because they survived the destruction of the two charterhouses that Vos led during his career. Today, they may be admired more for the artistic mastery of van Eyck, his workshop, and Petrus Christus than for the original spiritual intent Vos had invested in them. Yet within the Cabinet Gallery of the Frick, echoing the monastic context of the objects on display, the exhibition provides a portal to understanding a contemplative way of life. For a moment in time in the Frick, away from the bombardment of the superficial images that we are usually confronted with every day, The Charterhouse of Bruges: Jan van Eyck, Petrus Christus, and Jan Vos exhibition gives a welcome respite. Emma Capron: Jan van Eyck, Petrus Christus, and the Charterhouse of Bruges from The Frick Collection on Vimeo. Follow Milene Fernandez on Instagram @milenejf The casket with the body of Ventura County Sheriff Sgt. Ron Helus is carried out after a memorial service at Calvary Community Church in Westlake Village, Calif., on Nov. 15, 2018. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) Thousand Oaks Shooter Ambushed First Officers on Scene, Say Police Officials have revealed new details to the public into the investigation of the Nov. 7 shooting at the Borderline Bar and Grill in Thousand Oaks, California that left 13 people dead. 28-year-old Ian David Long was reportedly dressed entirely in black when he opened fire that night at the country dance bar, which was holding a weekly college night. Long then stopped shooting and waited for the first two officers who arrived on the scene, said Ventura County sheriff Bill Ayub, who spoke at a press conference on Nov. 27. After shooting the victims inside the bar, the suspect positioned himself in preparation for the law enforcement response, said Ayub. Sergeant Helus and a CHP (California Highway Patrol) officer both entered the bar within minutes and began searching with their rifles. The suspect ambushed the officers almost immediately from a position of tactical advantage. Both officers fired back at Long, but neither of them struck him. During the incident, Sgt. Ron Helus, 54, was hit multiple times and later died of his injuries. He had served the county sheriffs office for nearly three decades and was set to retire within a year. Ayub said Long had been armed with a Glock 45-caliber semi-automatic pistol, which he legally purchased in August 2016, as well as a folding knife. As soon as he walked into the building, he immediately started shooting. He also threw several smoke grenades while he was in the bar, causing further stress and confusion to the victims inside. Long fired more than 50 rounds in total, but he had enough ammunition to fire a lot more. He had seven high-capacity 30-round magazines in his possession. Five of those magazines were found still fully loaded after the suspect took his own life, Ayub said. These high-capacity magazines are illegal to buy or possess in California, however, police said they are easily obtained in neighboring states. Long also did not have a permit to carry a concealed weapon. During the shooting, police received conflicting information from the frightened witnesses, as well as different descriptions of the shooter, making it difficult to verify how many gunman were involved. However, Ayub said this was due to the chaos of the situation. As you can imagine, this was a terrifying experience for everyone who was there, said Ayub. When Sgt. Helus and the CHP officer approached the Borderline, more than 100 people were fleeing from the scene, some of them jumping through windows to escape. Among the 13 people that Long shot with his handgun (aside from himself), only one survived. As officers combed through the building afterward, they found more than a dozen people hiding in the attic and other locations. The FBI assisted local law enforcement in collecting evidence from the scene, however, it will take a considerable amount of time to come up with a detailed timeline of the incident, said Ayub. Authorities have still been unable to identify a motive in the shooting. Thus far, officers have conducted hundreds of interviews, gathered body camera and surveillance footage, and collected digital media and other evidence from the scene and Longs home, which has been sent to the FBIs crime lab in Quantico, Virginia for analysis. Full-body X-rays and autopsies have also been completed for all of the victims, said Christopher Young, Ventura Countys chief medical examiner. Questions have been raised about the severity of the injuries to the victims and if any victims could have survived if a rescue had occurred sooner, said Young at the conference. All of the victims died rapidly as a result of one or more gunshot wounds. The victims sustained injuries to vital areas. Many of the gunshot wounds were from close proximity, and there was no chance of survival. There was also no evidence that any of the victims were hit by shots fired from the law enforcement officers. Long died from a self-inflicted single gunshot wound to the head. Mental Health Concerns Officials at the press conference also said that in April 2018, law enforcement officers had visited Longs home after neighbors called about hearing loud noises. Long and his mother told officers that they had a dispute about finances, which caused Long to punch several holes in the walls of the house. At that time, deputies and a county mental health crisis team determined that Long did not meet the criteria for a mental health retainer. He was given resources for job placement and anger management. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks to the press after briefing members of the Senate on the current relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States on Capitol Hill on November 28, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Zach Gibson/Getty Images) Top Trump Administration Officials Defend Alliance With Saudi Arabia Two senior U.S. Cabinet members urged senators on Nov. 28 not to downgrade ties with Saudi Arabia over the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Gen. Jim Mattis said theres no hard evidence that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was behind the killing. We have no smoking gun the crown prince was involved, not the intelligence community or anyone else. There is no smoking gun, Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon. Mattis said he has read all the U.S. intelligence reports about the incident and a transcript of what is believed to be an audio recording of the killing. After repeated calls from some members of Congress for a strong U.S. response to Khashoggis death, both Mattis and Pompeo briefed the Senate behind closed doors about Saudi Arabia, the Oct. 2 murder of Khashoggi and the war in Yemen. Echoing similar comments from President Donald Trump, they said downgrading U.S. ties with ally Saudi Arabia would harm national security. Pompeo acknowledged to the lawmakers that the Yemen conflictin which Saudi Arabia is involvedhas taken a terrible toll on civilians, but argued that the Saudis provide an important counterweight to Iran in the region. More broadly, degrading ties with Saudi Arabia would be a grave mistake for U.S. national security, and that of our allies, Pompeo said in prepared remarks to the Senate. The kingdom is a powerful force for stability in an otherwise fraught Middle East. Pompeo told reporters after the briefing that theres no direct evidence connecting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to Khashoggis murder. However, Pompeo and Mattis didnt seem to sway leading Senate foreign-policy voices, including some of Trumps fellow Republicans, who said they believed taking no action would send a more dangerous message to the world. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) warned that Congress would act if the administration doesnt. I think 80 percent of the people left the hearing this morning not feeling like an appropriate response has been forthcoming, Corker said. The Senate was considering a resolution later on Nov. 28 that would stop U.S. refueling and other support for the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen. Trump vowed last week to remain a steadfast partner of Saudi Arabia and said it wasnt clear if the prince knew about the plan to kill Khashoggi. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has been one of Trumps closest congressional allies, said he wanted to know whether the CIA assessment supports his belief that the killing couldnt have happened without the princes knowledge. Graham said he would withhold his vote on any key issue, including must-pass spending bills, until the CIA briefs senators about Khashoggis killing. When asked if he had told Trump as much, Graham said, I just did. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab states have been battling in Yemen since 2015 to restore a government that was driven out by the Houthis, Shiite Muslim fighters that Yemens neighbors view as agents of Iran. The war has killed more than 10,000 people and created the worlds most-urgent humanitarian emergency. Pompeo said the United States would provide an additional $131 million for food aid in Yemen. Mattis said pulling back U.S. military support in Yemen and stopping weapons sales to important partners would be misguided. Our security interests cannot be dismissed, Mattis said, even as Washington seeks accountability for Khashoggis murder, a crime which our country does not condone. The crown prince arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Nov. 28 for a summit of G-20 nations. Reuters contributed to this report. Trump Lauds Announcement of New $1.7 Billion Steel Mill in Southwest President Donald Trump congratulated one of the largest steelmakers in the United States after the company announced plans to spend $1.7 billion to $1.8 billion to build a steel mill in the Southwest. Steel Dynamics announced on Nov. 26 that its board of directors approved the construction of a facility that would create 600 well-paying jobs. The plant, once operational, will produce up to 3 million tons of steel products for the energy, automotive, construction, and appliance industries. Steel Dynamics announced that it will build a brand new 3 million ton steel mill in the Southwest that will create 600 good-paying U.S. JOBS, Trump wrote on Twitter on Nov. 28. Steel JOBS are coming back to America, just like I predicted. Congratulations to Steel Dynamics! Steel Dynamics announced that it will build a brand new 3 million ton steel mill in the Southwest that will create 600 good-paying U.S. JOBS. Steel JOBS are coming back to America, just like I predicted. Congratulations to Steel Dynamics! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 28, 2018 Steel Dynamics expects to begin construction on the flat roll steel mill in 2020 after choosing a site and acquiring permits. The plant should be operational by the second half of 2021, according to a timeline provided by the company. We believe our unique operating culture, coupled with our considerable experience in successfully constructing and operating cost-effective and highly profitable steel mills, positions us well to execute this greenfield opportunity, and to deliver strong long-term value creation, Mark Millett, the CEO of Steel Dynamics, said in a statement. Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff on imported steel and a 10 percent tariff on imported aluminum in March, citing national security concerns. Shortly after, steel and aluminum makers began adding jobs and restarting idling plants. By late July, steel and aluminum producers fired up old mills or announced plans to open new plants in Illinois, Ohio, Florida, Montana, Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, and South Carolina. Chinese steel imports made up 33 percent of the U.S. steel market in 2017. Most steel makers have reported losses since 2009. Tens of thousands of American workers have lost their jobs and dozens of factories have shuttered since 2000 because of imports, according to the Alliance for American Manufacturing, a nonprofit formed by manufacturers and the United Steelworkers. Washington has accused Beijing of dumping steel on the U.S. market at rock-bottom prices. The majority of Chinese steelmakers are state-owned and subsidized, producing a massive amount of steel at a loss. The excess Chinese steel used to end up on the U.S. market, hurting domestic suppliers who couldnt compete with the artificially low prices. During the first 21 months of the Trump administration, the U.S. economy added 396,000 manufacturing jobs, ten times more than the amount created during the last 21 months of the Obama administration, according to the Texas Public Policy Foundation. The foundation attributes the manufacturing jobs boom to Trumps tax cuts and deregulation. Trumps praise for the Fort Wayne, Indiana-based company came on the heels of his criticism of General Motors Co., which announced plans on Nov. 26 to cut up to 15,000 jobs and close five North American plants. The president added that the White House is studying plans for a tariff on imported cars to boost domestic production. The President has great power on this issue, the president wrote on Twitter. Because of the G.M. event, it is being studied now! Emel Akan contributed to this report. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange speaks on the balcony of the Embassy of Ecuador in London, Britain, on May 19, 2017. (Neil Hall/Reuters) US Prosecutors Oppose Request for Unsealing Possible Assange Charges WASHINGTONFederal prosecutors have told a United States District Court judge that they oppose a request by a journalists group for the unsealing of any pending U.S. criminal indictment against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and declined to admit whether such charges exist. In a filing submitted on Nov. 26, to Judge Leonie Brinkema, prosecutors in Alexandria, Virginia said a recent disclosure in a court document filed in an unrelated criminal case that prosecutors had obtained a sealed indictment against Assange was an unintentional error. Prosecutors said the erroneous filing does not constitute a confirmation or denial by them as to whether sealed criminal charges against Assange exist, and argued that neither the U.S. constitution nor U.S. common law require that the government provide such a confirmation or denial. On Nov. 27, Judge Brinkema is scheduled to hear arguments in a case brought by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, which has applied for the unsealing of court records including the docket and any criminal complaint, indictment or other charging document related to any sealed U.S. charges against Assange. Prosecutors and a federal grand jury based in Alexandria for several years have been investigating Assange, WikiLeaks and other individuals associated with the website, though no public charges have been filed. The Administration of President Barack Obama decided not to file criminal charges against Assange or WikiLeaks on the grounds that the website was arguably as protected as more traditional media outlets by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Officials of President Donald Trumps administration have condemned WikiLeaks as a hostile intelligence service. China's ZTE Corp logo is seen at its offices in Caracas, Venezuela on Oct. 4, 2018. (Marco Bello/Reuters) US Senators Ask White House to Probe ZTE Work in Venezuela CARACASTwo U.S. senators on Nov. 28 will ask the Trump administration to investigate whether ZTE Corp, the Chinese telecommunications company, violated U.S. sanctions by helping Venezuela set up a database that monitors the behavior of its citizens. In a letter, Senators Chris Van Hollen and Marco Rubio will ask the U.S. secretaries of state, treasury and commerce to determine whether ZTE worked with individuals cited by U.S. sanctions, used U.S. components unlawfully or helped Venezuelas government flout democratic processes or human rights. The letter, following a Reuters investigation of the database and an associated Venezuelan identity card program published Nov. 14, will go to the cabinet officials on Wednesday, according to aides to the two senators. ZTE, which this year paid $1 billion to the U.S. government in relation to sanctioned business in Iran and North Korea, didnt respond to a request for comment for this story. Venezuelas Information Ministry didnt respond to a request for comment. Officials at the U.S. State, Commerce and Treasury departments didnt respond to requests for comment early Wednesday. Van Hollen, a Democrat, and Rubio, a Republican, have been vocal backers of previous U.S. measures against ZTE. The company, of which a Chinese state firm is the largest shareholder, is accused by many Western officials of helping China export surveillance tactics and equipment to authoritarian governments around the world. ZTE has increasingly worked with Venezuelas government in various projects there, mostly in ventures with Compania Anonima Nacional Telefonos de Venezuela, or Cantv, the state telecommunications company. Many senior Venezuelan officials, including President Nicolas Maduro and Cantv president Manuel Fernandez, have been sanctioned by Washington because of what successive U.S. administrations have deemed authoritative behavior and human rights violations by the government of the Andean country. Neither Fernandez nor a Cantv spokeswoman responded to requests for comment. In its investigation, Reuters found that ZTE helped Caracas build a database that can track citizens behavior through a national identity card. The ID, the fatherland card, can compile data including financial and medical histories, usage of social media, political affiliation and whether a person voted. One area of concern for the senators is whether ZTE installed components made by Dell Technologies Inc in the database. One document reviewed by Reuters indicated that ZTE used storage units built by the U.S-based company in equipment it installed for Cantv. In their letter Wednesday, the senators ask whether ZTE violated U.S. export controls with respect to the installation of data storage units built by Dell. A spokeswoman for Dell told Reuters it had no record of a sale for that purpose. The senators also ask the U.S. administration to determine whether ZTEs work in Venezuela breaks the terms of the $1 billion agreement it came to earlier this year with the Commerce Department related to previous sanctions violations. The Commerce Department said ZTE made false statements about disciplining 35 employees involved in the illegal shipping of U.S.-origin goods to Iran. The ban was lifted in July after ZTE reached a settlement with the Commerce Department. As part of that settlement, ZTE agreed to another monitor to who will report directly to the Commerce Department for 10 years. A U.S. judge on Oct. 3 issued an order finding that Chinas ZTE Corp violated probation imposed in March 2017 when the company pleaded guilty for conspiring to evade U.S. sanctions by illegally shipping U.S. goods and technology to Iran. In his order, U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade in Dallas extended until 2022 the term of a monitor he appointed to assess ZTEs compliance with U.S. export control laws. The monitorship originally was scheduled to end in 2020. The probation violation cited by the judge involves the same conduct the U.S. Department of Commerce penalized in April by imposing a ban on U.S. companies selling goods to ZTE. Vegan activists stormed into a steakhouse in the United Kingdom and played recordings of cows being slaughtered for meat, but diners rebuffed them, according to reports. (Google Street View) Vegan Activists Storm Steakhouse, Then Play Audio of Cows Being Slaughtered as People Eat Vegan activists stormed into a steakhouse in the United Kingdom and played recordings of cows being slaughtered for meat, but diners were seen making fun of them, according to reports. The mob is with the group Direct Action Everywhere based in Berkeley, California and who call for total animal liberation. The group has received heavy criticism for their tactics from other vegans and consumers alike, with the Director of Operations for Certified Humane, Mimi Stein, saying that the group is attempting to undermine consumer confidence in products which are in fact ethically produced and businesses working in good faith to reinvigorate a very desirable traditional business model, according to the Washington Post. In the latest stunt, the group flashed anti-meat signs that read, Its not food, its violence at the Touro Steakhouse in Brighton, England. One of the activists also stated: No good person could look into the eyes of an animal and think that a meal was more important than their suffering, according to the Brighton Argus. As one woman attempts to speak about the benefits of veganism, patrons begin mocking her with mooing noises while waiters argue with the protesters. Some of the bemused diners in the video are seen smiling, and some are seen filming the group and continuing to eat. Behind the camera, someone can be heard saying: Theyre letting us protest but theyre eating the flesh of animals in front of us, Fox News reported, which added the protesters stayed in the steakhouse for about 20 minutes. As the protesters exited the establishment, diners chanted, Youre not singing anymore. A police spokesperson in Sussex issued a statement: We received a report of a protest by a group of 20 people at the Touro steakhouse in West Street, Brighton, on Saturday at 7:10 p.m. They were said to be animal rights activists. Two police community support officers attended and found the group were protesting outside the restaurant, police said. They were not committing any offenses and were allowed the right to peaceful protest. Madsu Sudan Galtam, the manager of the restaurant, said the protest was a bit annoying. They came in and started shouting about animals and holding some signs, he explained, reported the Brighton Argus. They didnt do anything aggressive but it was a bit annoying because it disrupted everyone. One of the activists wrote on Twitter that it was their disruption last night in a Brighton Steakhouse, which drew a significant amount of jokes and jeers. I once loudly protested against a lion and lioness who were busily munching on a freshly killed gazelle. I yelled What youre doing is unnatural! They were not impressed, said one commenter. Asked another to the activist: Where did the leather in your boots and shoes come from? It is called FOOD! Tasty protein, delightful meat! We have an omnivorous digestive system, for both plants and animals. Everything nutritious had to be alive in order to give US life. Whether plant or animal, it is indeed the circle of life. Try science, it all makes sense, said another person. Venezuelan Ex-Treasurer Who Took $1 Billion in Bribes Sentenced in US Court to 10 Years in Prison A former Venezuelan national treasurer was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison by a U.S. court in South Florida for accepting bribes in excess of $1 billion and laundering the money through Florida real estate and personal luxury items. Alejandro Andrade, 54, who was once a bodyguard for socialist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, enjoyed the trappings of spectacular illicit wealth in one of Floridas most exclusive communities, while millions of fellow Venezuelans struggled to survive the countrys political instability and economic collapse brought about by Andrade and his compatriots. That appears to be over nowat least for Andrade. Once Venezuelas top financial official, Andrade pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering under a sealed agreement in December 2017. The charges were unsealed Nov. 20, and on Nov. 27, U.S. District Judge Robin L. Rosenberg of the Southern District of Florida sentenced him to the maximum allowable penalty. Andrade had been living in a 9,000-square-foot mansion in the exclusive equestrian community of Wellington in Palm Beach County, Florida. He remained at the estate over the past year while assisting federal agents in a massive international corruption investigation involving government officials and business leaders operating at the highest levels of Venezuelan society. Andrade posted a $1 million bond, and will continue to remain at his now-seized Wellington horse farm until he reports to prison in February. He reportedly will continue cooperating with federal authorities. As part of his guilty plea, Andrade admitted to receiving over $1 billion in bribes from a co-conspirator, Caracas-based media mogul Raul Gorrin, among others, to help secure the rights to conduct lucrative foreign currency-exchange transactions at favorable rates for the Venezuelan government. Gorrin, a billionaire Venezuelan national with a residence in Miami, was charged in a federal indictment filed in August of 2017 in the Southern District of Florida with one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, and nine counts of money laundering. He is currently a fugitive from justice. According to his indictment, Gorrin had been paying hundreds of millions in bribes to Andrade and another high-level government official, and was wiring them money from a bank in the Dominican Republic. The laundering scheme provides a window into how corruption unfolded at the highest levels of the once oil-rich South American socialist government. Gorrin created multiple shell companies to conceal the massive bribe payments, and allegedly partnered with a third indicted co-conspirator named Gabriel Jimenez, a Venezuelan banker living in Chicago. Together, Gorrin and Jimenez acquired Banco Peravia, a bank in the Dominican Republic, to deposit the proceeds of the currency transactions and then launder bribe payments back to the Venezuelan officials through the shell companies. In addition to cash payments through the scheme, Andrade acquired private jets, yachts, cars, homes, champion horses, and high-end watches. According to the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of Florida, Andrade ultimately agreed to a forfeiture judgment of $1 billion and to forfeit all involved assets. Jimenez also pleaded guilty and is scheduled for sentencing on Nov. 29. On Nov. 21, a day after Andrades indictment was unsealed, federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security raided his Wellington estate and seized 17 prize European show horses worth millions of dollars. The Miami Herald reported that a fleet of luxury cars and multiple U.S. and Swiss bank accounts also were seized. Andrade had served as Hugo Chavezs national treasurer from 2010 to 2013, andlike other wealthy and well-connected Venezuelans with the means to leave the shattered countryhe relocated with his family to South Florida in 2014. On Oct. 31, another high-profile Venezuelan official pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida for his role in a billion-dollar international laundering scheme involving embezzled funds from the Venezuelan state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA). Abraham Edgardo Ortega was PDVSAs executive director of financial planning, and according to his indictment, he admitted to accepting $5 million in bribes to give priority loan status to a French company and a Russian bank, which were both minority shareholders in joint ventures with PDVSA. Like Andrade, Ortega was paid from laundered proceeds of a currency exchange scheme through which $1.2 billion was embezzled from PDVSA through bribery and fraud, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of Florida. Ortega also admitted to receiving another $12 million in bribes for participating in a separate PDVSA embezzlement scheme involving a loan and foreign-exchange contract. He is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 9. On Oct. 29, Matthias Krull, a former Swiss bank executive, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in the same South Florida federal court for his role in a PDVSA embezzlement plot. Krull was the managing director and vice chairman of a Swiss bank and also pleaded guilty to laundering embezzled funds. According to the U.S. Attorneys Office, Krull and other participants of the Venezuelan oil conspiracy used Miami real estate and sophisticated false-investment schemes to conceal their ill-gotten gains. What Is Oenobeer? Meet the Worlds First Specialist in Wine-Beer Hybrids Alex Liberati may not be the first person in the world to brew beer with grapes. But as far as he knows (or I know), hes the first to launch a brewery solely dedicated to it. In 2007, the Italian native opened one of Romes first craft beer bars, Brasserie 4:20. In 2009, he began brewing under the award-winning label Revelation Cat to broaden the range of styles available in his homeland. But in 2014 as the bureaucratic and financial difficulties of doing business in Italy began to pile up, Liberati decided to relocateeventually settling on Denver, Colorado, for its entrepreneur-friendly environment and robust beer culture. Granted, both ensured the city was already home to breweries galore. But how to stand out in such a crowded field? The Spark Grape ales didnt initially occur to Liberati. Years prior, hed experimented with blending wine and beer to no avail. As he explained, It was never one plus one equals 2.1; it was always one plus one equals 1.9. In other words, the result amounted to less rather than more than the sum of its two parts, detracting from the character of both. But shortly before he left Rome for good, a home-brewing friend of his asked him to sample a beer hed made with 10 percent local grapesand it was mesmerizing, mind-blowing, he says. It was like Orval [a Trappist ale] on amphetamines. That was the spark. I started going around to beer events and bars, asking, Hey, do you have a grape ale? Very few did, of course; the style is highly uncommon, not least because its extremely difficult to make well. Grapes have an enormous amount of sugar, Liberati notes. Theyre volatile in character. Theyre aromatically charged. They have all these different acids, like malic acid, which we have to convert to lactic acid, a standard winemaking process called malolactic fermentation that doesnt really happen in the world of beer at all. Uncharted Territory Figuring out how to do it is just one of many challenges Liberati and his brewing team have faced since resolving to open Liberati Osteria & Oenobeers (oenobeer being his word for their creations, which may legally be defined as beer so long as they contain less than 50 percent of fermentables other than malt, in this case wine grapes). Take his experience in making a stout with a red varietal, which meant playing around with tannins, acids, hops, and roasted malts all at the same time. At first, we got a flavor of burnt, wet bread crust, Liberati admits. Its terrible, its acrid, you dont want to taste it ever againand unfortunately we had to taste it over and over, because we had to understand where it was coming from. Its a completely new flavor that doesnt exist in any winemaking or brewing book. So how do we solve it, how do we prevent it? Its a rhetorical question; the answer, of course, involves no small amount of chutzpah. Its so fun, because we get to be scientists in uncharted territory, he says with a grin. The stout they finally did make in time for the brewpubs late October debut, Dictum Factum, contains 25 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, which has the right amount of tannins to combine well with the roastiness of the malts. While the latter dominate on the tip of the tongue and on the finish, acid on the mid palate makes for a pleasantly startling, deliciously disorienting sensation. Liberati calls that the duck-rabbit effect, in reference to a famous optical illusion: If you look at it one way, its a beer; if you look at it another way, its a wine. His In Medio Stat Virtus, a clean, crisp golden ale made with 48 percent Chardonnay, is another great examplevinous up front, not the least bit fruity in back. Endless Possibilities Simply put, to taste through all his creations to date is a revelatory endeavor. If some indeed seem to oscillate on the palate between wine and beer, others seem to evolve from one to the other, while still others more closely resemble one or the otherbut not exactly. An instant favorite of mine is the Verba Volant, a Belgian-style dubbel featuring 49 percent Malbecwhich would be a dead ringer for what Liberati calls a New World fruit bomb, loaded with berries and spice, if not for the hints of caramel that sneak in here and there. Another is an as-yet-unnamed dessert style containing Nebbiolo and Barbera, luscious with daringly oxidative notes of dried figs and nuts. Though Liberatis inaugural lineup consisted of nine beers, its growing by the day. In fact, with 42 taps to play with as well as dozens of beer styles and thousands upon thousands of wine grapes to consider, were literally scratching the surface, says Liberati. Think of South African Pinotage in a coffee stout. Think about a Vermentino from Sardinia, the sea-saltiness of itthink about that in a gose. What were doing here is part art, part science, part guessing, but the possibilities are endless. Ruth Tobias is a longtime food-and-beverage writer based in Denver, Colorado. To learn more about her and her work, visit her website, RuthTobias.com, or follow her @denveater on Twitter and Instagram A grizzly bear roams through the Hayden Valley in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, on May 18, 2014. (Jim Urquhart/Reuters File Photo) Woman and Infant Daughter Mauled to Death by Grizzly Bear in Canada A woman and her infant daughter were killed by a bear in the Yukon territory of Canada. Valerie Theoret, 37, and her 10-month-old daughter, Adele Roesholt, were killed on Nov. 26 near their cabin in the Einarson Lake area, the Yukon Coroners Service said. The area is near the border with the Northwest Territories. Theorets husband Gjermund Roesholt activated an emergency SPOT alarm at 3:45 p.m. The trapper was returning from a trapline around 3 p.m. when he was charged by a grizzly bear about 100 yards from the cabin, the service said in a release obtained by the Yukon News. Roesholt was forced to shoot the bear dead. As he approached the cabin, he found the bodies of his wife and young daughter just outside of it. Authorities believe Theoret had taken her daughter for a walk in the late morning or early afternoon, during which time the bear attacked them. She was a Grade 6 late French immersion teacher at Whitehorse Elementary School. Department of education spokeswoman Michele Royle said that grief counselors were going to be present at the school on Wednesday. A mother and her 10-month-old daughter were mauled to death by a grizzly bear in the Yukon. A friend describes Valerie Theoret as being "so full of love and amazing," who was happy to be a new mom. More here: https://t.co/OjbwrPposb pic.twitter.com/XLsjebIGQJ Angela Jung (@AngelaJungCTV) November 28, 2018 Teacher, Mother, and Friend Colleagues and friends were mourning the deaths of Theoret and her daughter. It was devastating. I just, I just couldnt believe it at first, Verena Koenig, friend of Theoret, told CTV. She was so full of love and amazing, Koenig said. She was so happy to have a baby and being a mom. She described her friend and Roesholt as experienced bush people and said theyd been trapping in the area for the past three years. Authorities said theyd been there for about three months before the attack. One commenter on Yukon News said that her daughter and son were taught by Theoret. She was [a] very nice teacher, Goldy Brar wrote. According to the Weather Wool website, Gjermund Roesholt is a lifelong outdoorsman who often works as a guide. It lists his specialties as hunting, guiding, gear testing, wild foods, and cold-weather comfort. Gjermund has been a formal tester for several companies, beginning in his native Norway, and his feedback is remarkably precise and detailed. His clothes must handle a wide variety of weather conditions, including wet cold. And his gear must be absolutely silent and reliable. That Gjermund would purchase WeatherWool for his own professional use is a great compliment to us, the clothing website stated. Bear Attacks Encounters with bears can be frequent in the Yukon, with conservation officers trying to keep the animals and humans separate. Conservation Officer Ken Knutson told CKRW that officers typically kill about 38 bears, including eight grizzly bears, a year. Sometimes bears are attracted to peoples yards where there are sources of food such as chickens. In other cases, this is bears that are hungry, and theyre investigating anything that might offer them a potential source of food, and if thats a remote camp or your backyard they may check it out, he said. Fatal attacks are rare though. The last one in Yukon appears to be Jean-Francois Page, a 28-year-old who was mauled to death while staking mineral claims in 2006 after he walked past a bear den containing a mother and two cubs. From NTD News Hedda Martin and her family raised more than $30,000 because a hospital refused to add her to an heart transplant waiting list because she did not have enough money to pay for anti-rejection medicine. (Alex Britt/GoFundMe) Woman Denied Heart Transplant Due to Finances, Told to Fundraise A woman is hoping to get back onto the waiting list to have a heart transplant after being denied eligibility by the hospital currently treating her. Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids, Michigan reportedly told Hedda Martin, 60, that she did not have enough money to fund the necessary anti-rejection medications after the surgery and therefore was ineligible. Martin suffers from congestive heart failure due to a complication from chemotherapy, which was used to treat her aggressive breast cancer in 2005. On Nov. 16, Martin began taking blood pressure medication, delivered through an IV called Milrinone. This has helped her feel like she could walk 5,000 miles, according to a post she wrote on Facebook, the Daily Mail reported. However, this is only a very short term life saving drug, said her son, Alex Britt. Martin had been waiting for a decision from the transplant team as to whether she stays on the Milrinone or get a heart pump, called a left ventricular assistance device (LVAD), which would help her heart function better. However, the LVAD implant would mean that she would not be considered in dire need of a heart transplant, and therefore may not be added to the transplant waiting list. The pump is expected to help Martin live up to eight more years, compared to a new heart that would help Martin live about 15 to 20 more years, according to the Detroit Free Press. On Nov. 20, Martin received a letter from the transplant team at the hospital saying she was ineligible to be a candidate for a heart transplant due to needing a more secure financial plan for immunosuppressive medication coverage. The hospital urged Martin to start a fundraising campaign to raise $10,000, whereupon she would be reconsidered to be added to the waiting list. The next day, Martin posted the letter to her Facebook page to explain that the hospital wanted to make sure that she could cover her health insurances yearly deductible of $4,500 by saving $10,000. The Facebook post has since been deleted. That same day her son, Britt, opened a GoFundMe page for her and set an original goal of $10,000. The campaign surpassed the goal and has raised a total of $30,320 at the time of publication. The page currently shows a $20,000 goal. Martin had been scheduled for the LVAD surgery on Nov. 26, but cancelled the procedure due to the $10,000 being met. Martin wrote in a Facebook post on Nov. 26 that she has requested that her case be reviewed again, in hopes of getting back on the heart transplant waiting list, because she had met the funding goal. No surgery today. I requested for my case to be brought to the transplant board again tomorrow. Wish me luck. I have my $10,000 (funding) request fulfilled, she wrote, according to Detroit Free Press. There has been no updates to the boards response as of the time of writing. A general statement related to Martins case is posted on Spectrums website, which was updated on Nov. 27. It reads, in part: Spectrum Health cares deeply about every person and provides each of them with the highest quality of care possible. There are a limited number of organs available and the decision to donate an organ is often a profoundly personal decision by the donor and/or the family. We take seriously the gift of organ donation, and are fortunate to live in a community where people are willing to make this generous gift. It is important for patients to understand the long-term commitment they are making when accepting an organ donation. The ability to pay for post-transplant care and life-long immunosuppression medications is essential to increase the likelihood of a successful transplant and longevity of the transplant recipient. We help patients understand the long-term health implications of a transplant along with their total financial commitment, such as post-transplant medication expenses paid to pharmacies of their choice. From NTD News Watch Next: People Are Being Killed for Organs in Chinas Hospitals Before the year 2000, organ transplantation in China was a relatively niche medical treatment. NORWALK District E Democrat Thomas P. Livingston on Tuesday night listed redeveloping the Wall Street-West Avenue area, protecting Norwalk against Walk Bridge replacement disruptions, furthering senior tax relief and promoting a healthier and more sustainable city as his priorities as newly elected president of the Norwalk Common Council. This past year, the council approved a bike-share program, and Im hopeful that we will join Stamford, Greenwich, Westport and others in adopting a plastic-bag ban in the coming months, Livingston said. Livingston added, however, that 2019 will be a challenging year in terms of the budget. He identified the Board of Educations proposed 2019 budget request and the 2018 citywide property revaluation as concerns and said the council must balance spending with such concerns. On Tuesday, as part of their election of council leadership, council members voted unanimously to elect Livingston as president of the 15-member local legislative body for the remainder of the 2017-19 council term. An attorney and chairman of the councils Land Use and Building Management Committee, Livingston is serving in his second term. Ive come to respect him a lot, said Councilman John E. Igneri, a fellow District E Democrat. Hes a level-headed guy. Fortunately, hes a lawyer, but he does ask the right questions. He does cut to the chase, so to speak, and he gets the job done. And I think thats what we need as council president. Livingston replaces Councilman John Kydes, a District C Democrat serving in his third term, as president. Kydes was elected by his caucus to serve again as council majority leader. I know Tom will be the type of person that makes sure this council is a part of the process, from the beginning to the end, Kydes said. Councilman Douglas E. Hempstead, a District D Republican, described Livingston as very analytical and willing to listen to everybody. He thanked Kydes for having served as council president over the last year. Youve done a wonderful job, communicated well, said Hempstead, wholl retain his position as minority leader. Hempstead, a veteran councilman, was the only Republican elected to the legislative body in Norwalks 2017 municipal elections. Mayor Harry W. Rilling, a Democrat serving in his third term, described the work of the council president as a daunting task in having to deal with 15 individuals. John, youve done a great job, thank you, Rilling said. And I welcome Tom. I got to meet Tom on the campaign trail and find him, as Mr. Igneri said, level-headed, to be a person who thinks things through and who has the best interests of Norwalk in his heart, and I look forward to working with you. In other business, Darin Callahan was appointed assistant corporation council in the citys law department, filling the position held by Diane Beltz-Jacobson, who retired. Callahan had worked as associate corporation counsel in the department. Christie D. Jean was appointed associate corporation counsel, filling Callahans position. She comes with great references, recommendations, said Corporation Counsel Mario Coppola, head of the law department. She also has an impressive academic background, having graduated at the top of her class at UConn Law. NORWALK The city of Norwalk stands to recover most but likely not all of the money lost after its Comptrollers Office wire-transferred $894,464 to a fraudulent entity in October 2016. We anticipate that we will recover most of the money lost, Mayor Harry W. Rilling said Wednesday. We have looked into the matter, both internally and criminally, to determine how this could have happened. We are satisfied that no city employee was involved criminally, and we are also comfortable that we have taken steps necessary to prevent this from happening again. On Tuesday evening, the Norwalk Common Council authorized the citys law department to settle the lawsuit filed by the city against Hanover Insurance Co., which in November 2016 refused to honor the citys claim to recover the lost dollars. Neither Rilling nor Corporation Counsel Mario F. Coppola would disclose the amount of the settlement. The city holds a Government Crime Policy with the insurance company, effective from July 1, 2016, until July 1, 2019, covering $500,000 per loss for employee theft with a $10,000 deductible, according to the lawsuit. As such, the city could recover at most $490,000, or barely half of the lost money. A person close to the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said there are other possible sources of recovery. Coppola declined to disclose how much of the money had been recovered or its sources. He said the city would provide more information to the public at the appropriate time. This matter involves an ongoing criminal investigation by local, state and federal law enforcement officials, said Coppola, head of the citys law department. We have been instructed to not disclose any information pertaining to the matter at this time because the disclosure of such information could jeopardize the investigation. Since the incident happened, the city has been in the process of recovering funds from the loss, which has been the subject of ongoing litigation. Norwalk Police Department spokesman Lt. Terry Blake said Wednesday that he could not release any information regarding an ongoing investigation. An errant wire transfer, rather than employee theft, resulted in the nearly $900,000 loss, according to the lawsuit filed by the city against Hanover Insurance in state Superior Court at Stamford in July 2017. According to the lawsuit, the Comptrollers Office was obligated to make Automated Clearing House payments to C.H. Nickerson & Co., which performed construction work for the city. On Sept. 20, 2016, the city received email instructions to change the ACH account information for Nickerson and to send future ACH Payments to Nickersons new account. On or about Oct. 6, 2016, the city sent the next installment ACH payment to the new Nickerson account. On or about Nov. 4, 2016, the city learned that the payment was tendered to an unknown criminal third party, according to the lawsuit. In a letter dated Nov. 10, 2016, Norwalk Deputy Corporation Counsel M. Jeffry Spahr informed Hanover Insurance of the loss and filed a claim to recover the lost funds. Upon learning of the issue with this payment, the City immediately contacted the police, who contacted the FBI, Spahr wrote. In addition, the City contacted CIRMA, who, on behalf of the City of Norwalk, notified Hanover that it had become aware of an issue with the ACH payment made on October 6, 2016. The city, Spahr continued, notified the bank, which was able to stop a subsequent ACH payment that was scheduled to go out. Hanover Insurance rejected the citys claim in a Nov. 18, 2016, letter to Spahr that outlined what types of losses the policy covered. Under the policy, the company will pay for loss of money, securities or other property resulting directly from theft committed by an employee, whether identified or not, acting alone or in collusion with other persons. Based on the facts of loss presented to us, this loss does not appear to involve theft by an Employee therefore, coverage is not triggered, wrote Ginger Johnson, special claim consultant with Hanover Insurance. The incident did not qualify for coverage under the Funds Transfer Fraud Insuring Agreement because there was no Fraudulent Instruction, according to Johnson. The authorizations given by the city to process the ACH transfers were not fraudulently transmitted by any third party, nor is there any indication that they were forged or altered in any way, Johnson wrote. The fact that the account instructions may have been induced by the fraud of a person impersonating a City vendor is insufficient to place this matter within the scope of the Insuring Agreement, Johnson wrote. Accordingly, Hanover must respectfully decline coverage for this loss under the Funds Transfer Fraud Insuring Agreement. 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 Contributed / Norwalk Police Department / Contributed photo NORWALK A New Hampshire woman was charged after police said she crashed her Maserati into a pole and was rushed to Norwalk Hospital. On Sept. 12 at 6:55 p.m., officers responded to New Canaan Avenue where the car had rolled onto its side. As House Democrats prepare to vote to select the next speaker of the House, after a short-lived campaign from Rep. Marcia Fudge ended earlier this month, current Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi remains unopposed. However, she still faces resistance from some members of her party, several of whom are from New York. That criticism has not stemmed from the progressive left, as one might expect from such a blue state as New York, but rather from more moderate members of the House Democratic caucus. A total of five New York Democrats currently or previously opposed Pelosis election as speaker. Rep. Brian Higgins, from Western New York, is the only one so far to reverse course he pledged to back Pelosi after she agreed to prioritize legislation that he wants passed, including lowering the qualifying age for Medicare to 50. That leaves four Democrats who still have a bone to pick with the expected leader. One is Rep. Tom Suozzi of Long Island. He is one of nine Democratic members of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus that has threatened to vote against Pelosi if she does not agree to a set of rule changes the centrist caucus is advocating that it argues would ease bipartisan legislation getting a floor vote. Fifteen other Democrats in the caucus are not part of that ultimatum. Suozzi told City & State that he has been under pressure from Democratic insiders to abandon his efforts and get behind Pelosi. But he said he does not have a problem with Pelosi herself, and that he would want to rule changes regardless of who sought the position. Im not part of the Never Nancy brigade, Suozzi said. Ive always been kind of a reformer and trying to make change of what I see as a structural problem. According to the Queens Chronicle, Suozzi told constituents in a town hall in October that he would like to see new, young people in leadership positions in the party, and would not commit to supporting Pelosi. But added he would not vote for any speaker who does not support the rule changes the Problem Solvers Caucus is pushing Pelosi to adopt. The Problem Solvers Caucus is largely made up of moderates from both sides of the aisle, including Suozzi. Hofstra University Dean of Suburban Studies Larry Levy said that Suozzi has long had the reputation of being a moderate, even before his election to Congress in 2016. Suozzis current stance on Pelosi comes as no surprise to Levy, who noted that Suozzis suburban district tends to favor centrists. And that impels Suozzi to show independence from Pelosi because of her image as a liberal partisan. Pelosi has long been portrayed by conservatives as a left-wing boogeyman from San Francisco and has become a polarizing figure, unpopular among Republicans and many independents. Suozzi went to Congress and immediately planted his flag in what passes for the middle ground, Levy said. Thats what sells to the majority of suburban voters. Levy offered a similar assessment of Rep. Kathleen Rice, Long Islands other Democratic representative. Unlike Suozzi, Rice is not a member of the Problem Solvers Caucus and has a more personal opposition to Pelosi. She is one of 16 Democrats from across the country that signed a letter specifically opposing Pelosis speaker bid, even in the absence of a viable alternative. It stated that Democrats ran on a message of change that they want to deliver on. Since Pelosi has been her partys leader in the House of Representatives since 2003, some of her opponents argue that her return to the speakership would turn off anti-establishment swing voters. Although Rice has not been as vocal as some other members of Congress since she took office in 2015, Levy said she, like Suozzi, has long been a middle-of-the-road Democrat. Levy suggested that Rices open opposition to Pelosi represents a change in strategy, however, to more loudly challenging her party from the right. Either she is finding her old voice again, or shes maneuvering herself for the future or both, Levy said. Despite representing a suburban district, she has not yet faced a serious challenge and does not necessarily need to take a stand against Pelosi in order to appease moderate voters. However, she has also called for leadership change long before now, saying in 2017 that Democrats needed to replace Pelosi if the party wants to win elections. Rice was not available for comment. The two other New York Democrats who still oppose Pelosi are both newly-elected members who won hard-fought battles in traditionally conservative districts. Assemblyman Anthony Brindisi unseated Rep. Claudia Tenney in Central New York, while Max Rose defeated Rep. Dan Donovan on Staten Island and in southern Brooklyn. Both men also campaigned on the promise that they would not support Pelosis leadership. Tenney continually suggested that Brindisi would take office and become beholden to Pelosis agenda. Brindisi vigorously fought back against those accusations and now appears to making good on his promise to oppose Pelosi. Utica College professor Luke Perry said association with Pelosi could be a political liability to Brindisi. Where shes from and how she communicates and represents the Democratic Party for some raises concerns because the area she represents in San Francisco is not like the 22nd District or other part of the country, Perry explained. He added that he finds it very unlikely that Brindisi will flip and support Pelosi, like Higgins did. Brindisis campaign did not return a request for comment. Staten Island posed a similar problem for Rose, who ran in the last Republican stronghold in New York City. He tried to distance himself from party politics, focusing on hyper-local issues and presenting himself as independent. That included vowing not to support Pelosi. I made a promise to my constituents that I would not vote for Nancy Pelosi and I will not break that pledge, Rose said in a statement to City & State. College of Staten Island professor Richard Flanagan said that strategy plays well in the district, and that even Republicans who represented the district flaunted their independence. Roses decision to oppose his partys leadership makes sense in that context. And he is also not the first Democrat from Staten Island to take a stand against Pelosi. Then-Rep. Michael McMahon voted against Pelosi for speaker in 2010. Despite the wave of moderate opposition across the state, and across the country, Pelosi is still widely expected to be elected speaker, especially with the absence of a Democratic challenger to take her place. The anti-Pelosi movement has also lost momentum recently, with Rep. Seth Moulton, its leader, now negotiating with her. However, if Pelosi does in fact get enough votes (she needs 218), moderate lawmakers like Rice, Rose and Brindisi can still make their stand without fear of actually defeating her. Concurs de granturi adresat COMUNITATILOR (APL) pentru sporirea rezilientei lor la schimbarile climatice si FEMEILOR ANTREPRENOARE in vederea dezvoltarii unor afaceri prietenoase mediului Top Phuket frozen seafood factory shut down, managing director arrested PHUKET: The Phuket Union Food frozen seafood factory was raided and shut down, and its managing director was arrested, today (Nov 28) after the facility was found to be operating without a licence. tourismcrime By The Phuket News Wednesday 28 November 2018, 06:50PM The Phuket Union Food frozen seafood factory was raided and shut down, and its managing director was arrested, today (Nov 28) after the facility was found to be operating without a licence. Photo: PR Dept The Phuket Union Food frozen seafood factory was raided and shut down, and its managing director was arrested, today (Nov 28) after the facility was found to be operating without a licence. Photo: PR Dept The Phuket Union Food frozen seafood factory was raided and shut down, and its managing director was arrested, today (Nov 28) after the facility was found to be operating without a licence. Photo: PR Dept The Phuket Union Food frozen seafood factory was raided and shut down, and its managing director was arrested, today (Nov 28) after the facility was found to be operating without a licence. Photo: PR Dept The Phuket Union Food frozen seafood factory was raided and shut down, and its managing director was arrested, today (Nov 28) after the facility was found to be operating without a licence. Photo: PR Dept The Phuket Union Food frozen seafood factory was raided and shut down, and its managing director was arrested, today (Nov 28) after the facility was found to be operating without a licence. Photo: PR Dept Phuket Union Food is known to be one of Phukets leading suppliers of frozen foods to top Phuket restaurants, hotel and catering businesses. Phuket Provincial Police accompanied by Paisarn Sukpunwan, head of the Administration Department at the Phuket Provincial Fisheries Office, raided the frozen-food facility, in Moo 1, Rassada, at 10am. After arriving at the factory, Mr Paisarn requested from factory administrator Paprapun Woongtaveepitayakul, 27, permission inspect the facility and the appropriate registration documents. The facility was have no license to operate. Phuket Union Food now stands accused of failing to notify officials before operating a factory, Mr Paisarn explained. The violation of Section 123/1 of the Fisheries Act 2015 incurs a fine of B1,000 to B100,000, he said. Phuket Union Food Managing Director Anan Taebunyapaa, 47, was placed under arrest .for the violation. He has been charged as the factory operator failed to notify the competent officials in accordance with the rules and procedures prescribed by the Director-General (of the Fisheries Department), who had not granted the requisite factory operation permit under the factory law, he said. Anan was taken Phuket Provincial Police Station to have the charge read against him by police. Watertown stores are ready for Black Friday shoppers Here are the hours stores will be open in Watertown for Thanksgiving and Black Friday for shopping Springsteen fans, you're in for a real treat this December. Bruce Springsteen and Netflix just dropped the official trailer for Springsteen On Broadway, an original concert special of The Boss' Broadway show in New York City. Springsteen On Broadway is set for a December 16th release. Springsteen On Broadway is a concert residency held at the Walter Kerr Theatre in New York City. Springsteen performs five shows a week since its launch on 3rd Oct 2017. I wanted to do some shows that were as personal and as intimate as possible. Last year, Springsteen told NY Times, "I chose Broadway for this project because it has the beautiful old theatres which seemed like the right setting for what I have in mind. In fact, with one or two exceptions, the 960 seats of the Walter Kerr Theatre is probably the smallest venue Ive played in the last 40 years. My show is just me, the guitar, the piano and the words and music. Some of the show is spoken, some of it is sung. It loosely follows the arc of my life and my work. All of it together is in pursuit of my constant goal to provide an entertaining evening and to communicate something of value." OTTAWACanada Post says it recorded a loss of $71 million in its latest quarter, which it is directly blaming on costs related to a pay equity dispute with its largest union. The countrys postal service says the net loss compares with a loss of $44 million in the third quarter a year ago. In September, an arbitrator ordered Canada Post to give rural and suburban mail carriers pay increases of up to 25 per cent to settle a long-fought pay equity dispute. Not including added benefits that were part of the ruling, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers says the pay increase amounted to as much as $13,000 annually, retroactive to the beginning of 2016. Canada Post says the costs of the wage adjustments, increases in pension pay and other benefits will amount to $550 million by the end of the year, with $130 million already recorded by the end of 2017. It says it will continue to cost the Crown corporation $140 million going forward annually. When taking into account its other operations like Purolator, Canada Post says it had a net loss of $36 million in the 13-week period ended Sept. 29, compared with a loss of $13 million for the same period a year earlier. It says parcel revenue grew by 21 per cent in the third quarter to $106 million, as volumes climbed by 23 per cent or 14 million pieces, when compared with the same quarter in 2017. Canada Post attributed the increase to the continued growth in e-commerce. Meanwhile, it says transaction mail, which is categorized as letters, bills and statements, fell by 4.6 per cent, or 35 million pieces, in the third quarter. Revenue for transaction mail dropped 3.6 per cent, or $24 million, compared with a year ago. Canada Post blames the decrease to consumers choosing digital alternatives and acknowledged that declining mail volumes will remain a significant challenge for the corporation. The Crown agency says the impact of the pay equity and ongoing rotating strikes are major factors in it ending this year with a loss. On Monday, senators approved the Liberal governments decision to bring in back-to-work legislation by giving royal assent of Bill C-89 by a vote of 53-25, with four abstentions. CUPW says it is exploring all options to fight it. Its members have been on rotating strikes since Oct. 22 after nearly a year of labour negotiations. The walkouts have led to delays in mail and parcel deliveries from the Crown corporations sorting facilities in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, leading to concerns ahead of the busy holiday season. The union wants better pay and job security, guaranteed hours for its 8,000 rural and suburban carriers, and equality for those workers with the corporations 42,000 urban employees. CUPW also wants Canada Post to adopt rules that it says would cut down on workplace injuries an issue the union has said is now at a crisis level. Read more about: CALGARYPrecision Drilling Corp. says it is entitled to a $20-million break fee after Ensign Energy Services Inc. announced Tuesday that it will take control of Trinidad Drilling Ltd. by acquiring a majority of Trinidads shares. Calgary-based Precision, the largest driller in Canada, said the fee is owed as part of the Oct. 5 arrangement it had with Trinidad after terminating the friendly deal following Ensigns success. Ensign says 56.38 per cent of Trinidad shares have been tendered by its Tuesday deadline. The 154.1 million shares are in addition to the 26.9 million it also owns, raising its stake in Trinidad to 66.18 per cent. Each Trinidad shareholder will receive by Thursday $1.68 per share for a total of about $470 million, with the offer price representing a 17.2 per cent premium over the all-share Precision proposal. With all conditions of its offer satisfied or waived, Ensign has extended the deadline until Dec. 10 for Trinidad shareholders who have not done so to tender their shares. Ensign had given Trinidad shareholders less time to consider its hostile takeover bid by pushing its offer deadline ahead of a planned Dec. 11 meeting where Trinidad shareholders were scheduled to vote on the proposed merger with Precision. Activist investor Jonathan Litt is renewing his calls for change at Canadian retailer Hudsons Bay Co., saying he intends to talk to fellow investors about calling a special meeting to elect new board members. We believe Hudsons Bay could see its share price double or triple if the company takes the necessary steps to maximize long-term shareholder value, Litt said in a letter to shareholders Wednesday. A representative for Hudsons Bay didnt immediately respond to a request for comment. Litts Land & Buildings Investment Management has been advocating since June 2017 for changes at the Toronto-based retailer, including calling for it to sell off its Saks Fifth Avenue brand and to explore ways to unlock the value of its real estate. He reiterated his call for the company to sell Saks in the letter Wednesday. He also said it should sell its remaining interests in Galeria Kaufhof in Germany and the Lord & Taylor brand. The company should also pursue a real estate investment trust structure for its Canadian real estate and sublease its excess space, Litt said. Hudsons Bay has taken several steps to unlock the value of its real estate in recent months, including selling its flagship Lord & Taylor building in Manhattan, selling part of its European business, and modifying the lease on a store slated to be closed in Vancouver. Litt said the company trades at a discount to the value of its real estate, which he said is worth $31 a share based on Hudsons Bays estimates. Changes are needed at the board level, he said, adding that he is working with an unnamed former Hudsons Bay executive who would likely join a slate of directors he would put forth. Over the coming weeks, we intend to speak with shareholders about adding fresh perspectives to the board and calling a special meeting to effect immediate change on the board, he said. Sorry, Donald Trump: General Motors Co. isnt leaving China anytime soon. It cant and it wont. After the automaker announced plant closings across North America as part of a wide-ranging restructuring plan, the U.S. president lashed out on Twitter, threatening to strip GM of any U.S. government subsidies. He also pointed out that nothing was being closed in Mexico & China and that GMs bet on China wouldnt pay off. There may be some truth in that last point. Why, on the face of it, would GM walk away from the worlds largest car market? Despite falling volumes, the company still expects to book $2 billion (U.S.) of equity income in China this year. While its market share has plummeted, margins still remain close to 9 to 10 per cent there, higher than 6 per cent to 7 per cent for the company as a whole. GM has committed to going big in China: It launched the Cadillac XT4 luxury SUV earlier this year and had planned to roll out as many as 10 models by Dec. 31. The company sells more cars wholesale in that market than at home 835,934 of them, including joint ventures, in the third quarter, against 700,000 in the U.S. China isnt just large and lucrative, though, and CEO Mary Barra will have to steer carefully. American carmakers can no longer take success for granted. Overall, Chinese auto sales have fallen for four straight months, with only luxury holding up. That trend shows up in GMs results: Its sales there were down almost 15 per cent in the third quarter, and volumes fell for all brands except Cadillac which accounts for only 5.5 per cent of its retail business in China. While Beijings push into a future dominated by electric cars has been aggressive and well-subsidized, production issues abound. In August, GM postponed the launch of its Buick Velite 6, a local version of the Chevrolet Volt, because Chinese-made batteries didnt meet its standards. (The company killed the Volt, the Cruze and the Impala as part of the cost cuts announced earlier this week.) Barra, who said shed visited China twice in October, also said on an earnings call the company is watching the market there very closely. It wouldnt be surprising to see GM double down on luxury models, if it can afford to do so. In Shanghai last year, Barra said China is playing a key role in the companys strategy as she talked up electrification, autonomous vehicles and ride-sharing. The push to leverage Beijings generosity rather than Trumps threats may now be far more appealing to GM as it takes multibillion-dollar writedowns amid soaring costs. Not only is China its biggest market, GM has done a better job navigating the nations potholes than its peers Ford Motor Co. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV. Investors cheered GMs sweeping cost cuts and prudent position. Now they should pay careful attention to the companys spending for clues it may prove Trump wrong on China. The chief of Northern Irelands biggest manufacturer backed Theresa Mays Brexit plan, providing a boost for the embattled premier from a part of the U.K. where opposition to the deal with the European Union could derail the accord. Michael Ryan, the head of Bombardier Inc.s Belfast plane plant, said in an interview Wednesday that the so-called backstop laid out in the deal is a workable arrangement that he could live with if necessary, and infinitely preferable to a no-deal split. It would not be difficult at a Northern Ireland business level, the executive said in London. Thats not to understate the sovereignty concerns. But speaking as a businessman and someone who wants to continue to run a business here, its the least burdensome option. Ryan lent his backing a day after May visited Belfast to drum up support for the deal, which her Democratic Unionist Party allies say imperils Northern Irelands place in the U.K. by potentially tying the region to EU rules indefinitely, with checks that wouldnt apply elsewhere in the country. Ryan said those measures, which already apply in areas such as livestock transfers, would have no great impact. Given that there are already agricultural checks which happen invisibly and hardly anyone knew about, moving aircraft parts around should be relatively straightforward, he said. It would mean more admin and documentation, but it would be much less disruptive to our business than the alternative. Read more: Top EU court to rule on Brexit reversal as critics slam May deal Trump says Brexit deal could hurt plans for U.S. trade pact U.K.s May fights to sell Brexit deal to a skeptical country The Bombardier plant imports 25 percent of its components from the rest of the U.K. and 40 percent from the EU. The site employs almost 4,000 people and accounts for about 10 percent of Northern Irelands manufacturing exports. To help avoid the return of checkpoints on the Irish border, Mays deal suggests the entire U.K. will remain in a customs union with the EU until a better solution is found. But Northern Ireland will also keep many of the EUs rules and that means added checks on goods arriving from Britain. Both the U.K. and EU say they want to avoid the backstop ever being triggered. So far that hasnt been enough to reassure the DUP, which has said companies dont fully grasp the implications of the deal. Our one red line is that Northern Ireland shouldnt be treated differently from the rest of the U.K., DUP leader Arlene Foster said in an interview with the BBC on Thursday, adding the party is speaking to others about finding a better deal. May told a committee of senior members of parliament on Thursday that lawmakers voting down her Brexit deal on Dec. 11 isnt risk free. The timetable is such that some people would need to take some practical steps in relation to planning for no deal if the government loses the vote, she said. Read more about: KEMPTVILLE, ONT.A byelection candidate Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau stumped for in eastern Ontario Tuesday says she believes their party is gaining momentum in territory the Conservatives have owned for 14 years. On a quick afternoon outing, Trudeau and Mary Jean McFall first greeted supporters at a coffee shop in Kemptville, just south of Ottawa, where about 75 people in an overflow crowd waited outside in damp snow for selfies and handshakes. Standing on a chair and speaking to about 50 supporters inside the crammed Geronimo coffee house, Trudeau said this is a good time to talk about the community and the countrys futures. He said in Canadian and global politics alike, people are emphasizing how were different from each other, but politics should be about bringing people together. For her part, McFall thanked Trudeau for coming to the riding, calling him the Liberals fearless leader. But a win in Leeds-Grenville-Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes would take a big reversal of the Liberals recent fortunes there. The riding was previously held by Gord Brown, a Conservative MP who died suddenly of a heart attack earlier this year. Hed won the seat comfortably in every election since 2004; McFall gave him his closest race in the 2015 campaign but still lost by almost 4,000 votes. The Tories are running local councillor and party activist Michael Barrett in Browns place. Read more: Opinion | Thomas Walkom: Trump fights while Trudeau and Ford roll over on GM plant closure Opinion | Editorial: Trudeau and Ford should speak louder for GM workers Ontario Tories pile on against Justin Trudeau at party convention After less than half an hour in Kemptville, Trudeau and McFall moved on to Richards Coffeehouse down the highway in Brockville, a town on the St. Lawrence River where McFall was once a councillor herself. (More recently, since the Liberals won power but she didnt win a seat, she was chief of staff to Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay.) A few protesters awaited, demanding changes to foster care. There were also signs in a window across the street that showed a General Motors logo and expressed support for the automaker in Canada. We are so energized that Justin Trudeau came into our riding, McFall said in Brockville, adding that she believes the Liberals have gained momentum in the region. Richards Coffeehouse was crowded enough that not all the selfie-seekers could get one. One lamented she couldnt make her way to the front of the crowd to see Trudeau but she figured shed only make that kind of effort for Elvis Presley or Barack Obama. Within minutes, Trudeau was gone again, back to Ottawa for an evening reception. Read more about: CORNER BROOK, N.L.Police in western Newfoundland say one of their officers fatally shot a man during a response to a complaint. The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary in Corner Brook said on Twitter that they were at a home on Carriage Lane in the west coast community at about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday. They say an on-duty officer was responding to a criminal complaint and fatally shot a man. But they offered no details on the nature of the complaint, or the victim. They say they will provide more information later today. WATERLOO REGION, ONT.A Waterloo Regional Police sergeant has been charged with attempted murder by the Special Investigations Unit after a man was shot in Cambridge, Ont., in March. Its rare for the police watchdog to criminally charge an officer in a shooting and this is the first time in its 28-year history the SIU has laid a charge of attempted murder, spokesperson Monica Hudon said Wednesday. Sgt. Richard Dorling, 44, a former homicide detective, is also charged with aggravated assault, discharging a firearm with intent and discharging a firearm-reckless endangerment, the SIU said in a news release. SIU director Tony Loparco has reasonable grounds to believe Dorling committed criminal offences in the shooting, the SIU said. The man who was shot sustained injuries sufficient for the SIU to invoke their mandate, Waterloo police said in a news release. Dorling was arrested on Tuesday by members of the SIU, who then released him. The SIU ordered him to not communicate with the man who was shot and not possess a firearm. Dorling has not appeared in court. He is suspended with pay. On March 31, Hamilton police were investigating a break-in at a Flamborough property. A minivan was stolen. Hamilton police tracked it to Cambridge and notified Waterloo police, who responded. One of the officers located the man and there was an interaction, the SIU said. The officer discharged his firearm at the man several times. The man was struck one time and transported to hospital for treatment. The shooting happened in the late afternoon beside Hwy. 401 near Dickie Settlement Rd. in Cambridge. The man who was shot is 30 years old. He was not identified by the SIU. Police have never indicated whether the man was armed when he was shot. The Record previously reported on the events using statements by police and the SIU, and by drawing on recorded police communications. Show me your hands! an officer shouts. Dont move! Put your hands in the air now! Seconds later, an officer shoots a suspect after chasing him through the brush beside Hwy. 401. Shots fired! Hes down! Show me your f--king hands! Now! an officer shouts. Edited for length. Audio Provided by Broadcastify. The officer continues: Shots fired. Males down ... Get me an ambulance please. Hes been shot in the leg. Before the shooting, the minivan went off the road into a field. A man ran from the minivan into the bush, carrying a bag. Police checked the empty van and found two rifles inside. They also found open ammunition boxes with one round missing. Officers who ran after the suspect caught up to him four minutes later. They confronted him and he was shot. Police learned the mans name from a bank card found on his person. A Hamilton man by the same name and age was arrested twice by Niagara police in 2015, charged with fleeing police, theft, mischief, break-and-enter, possession of stolen property and drug offences. Waterloo police said on Wednesday that its professional standards branch will also be conducting a review of the circumstances following the completion of the court proceedings. The local police service directed media enquiries to the SIU, which said that in consideration of the fair trial interests of the accused, the SIU will make no further comment pertaining to this investigation. For years, Dorling was a rising star with the Waterloo polices homicide branch, leading the effort to form a new unit dedicated to solving long-term missing person cases. In late 2008, he reopened a handful of suspicious cases, work that led him to bring more than 20 cold cases of missing persons under the authority of the homicide branch. Dorling began re-investigating old leads and started a public awareness campaign, hoping the publicity could bring some answers to the unsolved cases. He was later taken off the cold case unit and put back on active patrol duty. He was quoted in the Record last year on a lower-profile case rescuing ducklings from an area freeway. In one of few other cases in which the SIU has charged an officer for an on-duty shooting, Toronto police officer Const. James Forcillos was convicted of attempted murder in the 2013 death of Sammy Yatim. The 18-year-olds death on a Toronto streetcar sparked heated protest about police use of force, in part because the shooting was captured on bystander video, then uploaded to YouTube. In the weeks after Yatims death, the SIU charged Forcillo with second-degree murder. Then, before the start of the trial, prosecutors not the SIU laid a second, vexing charge of attempted murder in the death. The charge was specifically associated with a second volley of shots Forcillo fired, as Yatim lay on the ground, already fatally struck by the first round. The attempted murder charge was the only one that stuck, after a jury acquitted Forcillo of second-degree murder for the first three shots. The 2016 conviction was upheld by Ontarios Court of Appeal earlier this year; his lawyers are now attempting to try the case at the Supreme Court of Canada. Toronto police Const. David Cavanagh was previously charged with manslaughter by the SIU, in the 2010 shooting death of Eric Osawe during a midnight search warrant. In 2012, Ontarios Attorney General and the SIU opted to upgrade the manslaughter charge to second-degree murder, but a judge later ruled the shooting had been accidental, a decision later upheld by Ontarios Court of Appeal. In 2009, Winnipeg police officer Darrel Keith Selley was charged with attempted murder, stemming from a 2007 shooting that left a man with minor injuries. He was acquitted by a jury in 2013. In May 1990, three months before the creation of the SIU, Toronto police Const. Brian Rapson was charged with attempted murder for shooting at 16-year-old Marlon Neal as he drove through a speed trap. Rapson was acquitted in 1991. Dorling is set to appear in Kitchener court on Dec. 19. 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. Gordon Paul is a reporter with the Waterloo Region Record. Email: gpaul@therecord.com With files from Wendy Gillis , Jeff Outhit, Greg Mercer, Liz Monteiro and the Star library Read more about: Gina Clarke was furious when her 8-year-old daughter came home from school in tears after doing a wellness day activity in her Grade 3 class. (My daughter) was very upset, recalls the Vaughan mother. She knew she did something she wasnt supposed to. That something was yoga. The Clarke family is Roman Catholic and doesnt do yoga because its rooted in Hinduism. Whether or not Catholics should do yoga is debatable. Some believe physical aspects, such as poses, are acceptable, but spiritual elements, such as mantras and meditations, are not. And some prefer to avoid yoga altogether. So when her daughter came home that day in May 2017, Clarke was upset because she says she had asked the principal for a religious accommodation that excused her from the activity. She says the accommodation was granted, so she was stunned when her daughter said she had done yoga. That set Clarke on a quest for answers up the ranks of the York Region District School Board, including speaking with the teacher, principal, superintendent, trustee and director of education. She also contacted Ontarios education minister. Read more: Parents file human rights complaint against York school board York school board trustee sworn in despite protests Yoga program teaches kids how to cope with stress at school and home My paper trail is a mile long, says Clarke, who keeps detailed notes and records. The system has been completely unaccountable to us. The matter is expected to come up at the boards Director of Education Performance Review Committee, which will meet in private on Wednesday. Recommendations made by the committee will be voted on by the board Dec. 11. Citing privacy reasons, board staff said they could not discuss specifics of this case. Clarke is hoping, in part, for a full apology, greater accountability, and more transparency when it comes to investigations that she would like to see include more parent voice throughout. According to documents Clarke gave the board, and in interviews with the Star, she says she requested a religious accommodation for her children in March 2017 at Mackenzie Glen Public School. It was triggered when her son came home and said his senior kindergarten class was doing Cosmic Kids Yoga. Clarke met with Principal Lorellie Munson. What do you think? I said, We dont do this in our religion, recalls Clarke, who followed up with an email suggesting yoga be replaced in her sons class with alternative exercises which do not have religious origins so that (he) might not feel singled out. Her verbal request for an accommodation was granted by the principal, and her son never again participated in yoga. Clarke says she never filled out an official request form, which she later learned is board policy. About two months later, she says her daughter came home crying, saying her class had participated in an activity and followed along to a video. At the end of the video, which credited The School Yoga Project, the girl realized she had unknowingly done yoga. Clarke later saw a photo on the teachers Twitter account that showed her daughter doing what appears to be the tree pose and a meditation practice, and reviewed the video. She spoke with the teacher, and the vice-principal to explain why yoga was incompatible with her faith. I really felt like I was viewed as having nine heads, regarding our beliefs, says Clarke, who took her concerns to the superintendent. She also requested an immediate transfer of her children to another school. A personnel investigation by Superintendent Paul Valle found there was no record of a request for religious accommodation on file. There was no intent to offend you in the matter of religious belief, explained Valle to Clarke in a June 2017 email she shared with the Star. In my communication and interviews with the school and staff, it was confirmed that the activities were focused on breathing, stretching and physical exercises and that the content presented had no spiritual or religious context. Clarke says she was upset because she felt like she was being told what is an acceptable belief for her and says faith accommodations dont require a spiritual or religious context. She also felt shut out from the investigation process and couldnt get answers on what steps were taken and what was asked during those interviews. The whole process was not transparent, she says. TOP STORIES. IN YOUR INBOX: For the days top news from the Stars award-winning journalists, sign up for our daily headlines newsletter. Cecil Roach, Co-ordinating Superintendent of Education, Indigenous Education and Equity for the board, says his recollection is that Clarkes wishes were accommodated and that the principal thought students had participated in a mindfulness activity and not yoga. Many schools in the province are doing mindfulness, he told the Star. This particular parent interpreted that as yoga. He says its hard to see how yoga would qualify as a faith accommodation, but says it was granted nonetheless to Clarkes children. According to the Ontario Human Rights Commission, schools must consider accommodation requests for religious beliefs or practices that are sincerely held, and must accommodate them, unless there are reasons of undue hardship (health, safety, cost), or it significantly interferes with education. In some cases, for example, children are accommodated and exempt from physical education, music and dance classes. Clarke says yoga can be a very grey area, which is why she wanted the accommodation for her kids, so they wouldnt have to make difficult judgments. Some schools in the United States have even banned yoga because of the religious element. At the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto, its not uncommon to receive inquiries about whether yoga is endorsed by the Catholic Church. Its more than a simple yes or no response, says Neil MacCarthy, spokesperson for Archdiocese of Toronto. Exercise and physical activity, including stretching, is healthy and encouraged. However, the original proponents of yoga, and many who enjoy yoga today, view the activity as a spiritual practice. While no one tends to think of swimming or jogging as spiritual activities, yoga is different in that perspective. The stretching elements involved in yoga are not at issue but using the practice as part of a holistic approach to ones spirituality would be of concern for many Catholics because of an incompatibility in what the two spiritualities aim to achieve. Clarkes concerns made it all the way up to the school boards new director, Louise Sirisko, who took over the role in January. She conducted her own review and in the summer shared her draft findings with Clarke, concluding that appropriate steps had been followed. Clarke provided extensive feedback, believing the board had failed to acknowledge mistakes, make anyone accountable and be transparent. In late October, she received a final response from Sirisko, who said the board responded to complaints in a thorough and fulsome manner and stuck with her original finding. Clarke now hopes the committee will make recommendations so other families dont go through what she did. She says if someone had apologized at the outset for a mistake or a misunderstanding, this matter would not have escalated. This started in the school and could easily have ended and been resolved in the school, she said. The whole system has failed us. 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. Torontos booming real estate market is vulnerable to money laundering because real estate agents arent notifying authorities of suspicious property transactions, leading the national anti-money laundering agency, FINTRAC, to step up its audits of the industry. Real estate agents are required by federal law to file suspicious transaction reports. From 2013 to 2017, there were more than 2.5 million real estate transactions in Canada, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association. In that same five year period, real estate agents and developers made only 197 suspicious transactions reports. These reports are critical to the centres analytical process and the financial intelligence it generates for police, law enforcement and national security agencies, writes FINTRAC in its latest annual report. Because suspicious transaction reports have a narrative component, these reports have the potential to provide tremendous intelligence value to the centre. The small number of reports shows that relying on real estate agents to catch money launderers isnt going to work, said John Pasalis, the founder of the real estate analytics website Realosophy. Its self-reporting, he said. People are not going to police themselves. Large commissions create a perverse financial incentive for agents, Pasalis says, deterring them from filing reports. In a lot of these cases, the agents know whats going on, he said. The expectation that the people doing it are actually also going to raise their hand and say: By the way Im helping someone launder money. I mean its a little bit silly, right? This month, the parliamentary finance committee recommended stricter anti-money laundering rules for the real estate sector, which it said is highly vulnerable to money laundering. We see it as a serious issue, Liberal MP Wayne Easter, chair of the committee, told the Star. We want to stop those using the real estate industry for ulterior motives. Read More: Canadas money laundering laws filled with gaps, report says Real estate investigation is next for author of B.C. casino money laundering report How the laundering of dirty money in B.C. casinos was exposed FINTRAC has stepped up its enforcement efforts, carrying out 152 compliance evaluations on real estate professionals in 2016-17, and the industry has responded. Suspicious transaction reports have more than tripled in the last three years, rising from 32 to 115. For 2018-2019, FINTRAC has planned a significant number of compliance examinations in the real estate sector. Subsequent to these examinations should it be warranted, FINTRAC will pursue additional actions to change non-compliant behaviour, including follow-up examinations, action plans, administrative monetary penalties, or disclosure of non-compliance to law enforcement, said FINTRAC spokesperson Dino Roberge in an email. The FINTRAC audits have focused on Vancouver, where organized crime groups have been using real estate to launder proceeds of drug imports. This has left the Toronto market open to abuse. International and domestic authorities have been sounding the alarm for years that lax real estate regulations and a lack of transparency are facilitating money laundering and tax evasion across Canada. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an international body that evaluates financial risk for corruption and crime, issued a critical report on Canada in 2016, saying this country is not compliant with international guidelines to prevent money laundering, terrorist financing and corruption especially in the real estate sector. It is suspected that criminally inclined real estate professionals, notably real estate lawyers, are used to facilitate money laundering, states the FATF report on Canada. Organized crime groups involved in mortgage fraud appear to launder funds through banks, money services businesses, legitimate businesses and trust accounts. The Canada Revenue Agency has also targeted the real estate sector for tax evasion. In the last three years, CRA audits have identified more than half-a-billion dollars in unpaid taxes from real estate deals. In 2016, FINTRAC published an operational brief on money laundering warning the real estate sector is highly susceptible for many reasons for example, easy price manipulation and a variety of complex options for selling/purchasing/financing with anonymity. The brief included a list of indicators of money laundering in real estate that include red flags common in the Toronto real estate market: Under and over-valuation, large cash transactions, rapid flipping, anonymous ownership, inflated mortgages, funds from countries with weak anti-money laundering laws, banking secrecy or high levels of political corruption, private sales, complex ownership structures and the use of P.O. boxes instead of real addresses. The OECD and FATF have published similar lists, which include two additional indicators of money laundering not uncommon in Toronto property transactions: buyers charged or convicted for financial crimes and deals that involve disregard for the loss of deposit. Though Canada is not widely recognized as a good place to launder money or evade taxes, the Panama Papers and Paradise Papers investigations have shown how dirty money is coming here, attracted by weak financial regulations and lax law enforcement. Criminals bring illicit funds into the Canadian financial system through methods and techniques that disguise them as legitimate financial transactions. This allows criminals to purchase assets and eventually sell them in order to enjoy the funds generated by what otherwise appear as honest activities, the FINTRAC brief states. Those who bring dirty money to Canada arent getting caught and the few that do, dont get convicted. Legal persons are hardly ever prosecuted for money laundering offenses, mainly because of a shortage of adequate resources and expertise, states the FATF report. Of the 3,222 money laundering charges laid from 2006-07 to 2015-16, only 343 or 11 per cent led to a conviction. Eighty-six percent, or 2,759 charges, were either withdrawn or stayed, according to data provided by Statistics Canada. FINTRAC says this illicit activity has systemic effects on anyone looking for a place to live in Toronto. In the real estate sector, the injection of illicit funds into the housing market can artificially inflate selling prices, thus making homes unaffordable. With files from Jessica Cheung, Michael DAlimonte, Ricardo Serrano and Joti Grewal. 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. KYIV, 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 neighbours 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 fuelled 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 Kyiv 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. Read more: Ukraine and Russia trade blame over naval incident as tensions rise in the Black Sea 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 Odesa 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 manoeuvring 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 Associated Press 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 Associated Press. 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. Read more about: BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINAArgentine legal authorities took initial action Wednesday to consider a request from Human Rights Watch to prosecute Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for alleged crimes against humanity. The rights groups move is apparently aimed at embarrassing the crown prince as he attends the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires this week. Federal Judge Ariel Lijo agreed to a request by prosecutor Ramiro Gonzalez to determine if other entities are investigating the prince for possible crimes against humanity before deciding whether to open an investigation in Argentina. Argentinas legal system allows cases to be brought against crimes against humanity allegedly committed elsewhere. But it is unlikely anything will happen soon, given the time it will take the judge to make a decision after the request for information from Yemen, Turkey and the International Criminal Court is filed by the Argentine foreign ministry. The judge has also asked rights groups to provide details supporting allegations against the prince. Human Rights Watch accuses the prince of war crimes in Yemen and responsibility for the gruesome slaying of newspaper columnist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last month. Read more: Opinion | Rashid Husain Syed: Opposition growing against Saudi crown prince Presence of Saudi crown prince complicates G20 for Canadian government Opinion | Gillian Steward: Why is Canada still importing Saudi Arabias dirty oil? The Argentine judiciary, by taking steps toward a formal investigation, is sending a clear message that even powerful officials like Mohammed bin Salman are not above the law and will be scrutinized if implicated in grave international crimes, the group said in a statement. A cloud of suspicion will loom over him as he tries to rebuild his shattered reputation at the G20, and world leaders would do well to think twice before posing for pictures next to someone who may come under investigation for war crimes and torture. The prince, who stopped in several Arab countries along the way, arrived in Buenos Aires early Wednesday and was taken to the Saudi Embassy, which is being guarded by dozens of police officers. Argentina has co-operation agreements with Saudi Arabia in tourism and other areas. Read more about: EL PASO, TEXASU.S. Border Patrol agents faced a choice as they looked out over the chaos at a crowd of migrants that included rock-throwing men as well as barefoot children: Do they respond with force and, if so, what kind? The circumstances at the San Isidro border crossing Sunday were exceptional, but the question facing the agents was not. Its a split-second choice more often made in the remote desert, far from cameras, where agents are likely working alone and encountering groups of people crossing illegally. The agents response firing tear gas into the crowd triggered widespread outrage and rekindled complaints that the Border Patrol, bolstered by President Donald Trumps tough talk, is too quick to use force, particularly when responding to people throwing rocks. But use of force by Customs and Border Protection officers and agents is declining from a high during the 2013 budget year, government statistics show. There are high-profile exceptions, like the shooting death by agents of a 19-year-old Guatemalan woman who crossed the border near Laredo in May. Still, experts say policies have improved following a major audit five years ago. There has been progress made especially in getting officers better training and better equipment, said Josiah Heyman, a professor with University of Texas at El Paso and director of the Center for inter-American and Border Studies. When I first started studying this, most agents had a gun and a baton. They didnt have the choice to use anything else. Firearms were used 45 times in budget year 2013 compared with 17 in 2017, according to data from Customs and Border Protection. For the first 11 months of the 2018 budget year, firearms were used 14 times. The data includes Border Patrol agents that patrol between the ports of entry, and officers who police border crossings. Over those 11 months, there were 743 cases of agents and officers using less-lethal force, like batons, stun guns, tear gas and pepper spray. These included 29 cases in which tear gas was used and 43 incidents of pepper spray. Read More: Photos show migrant children fleeing tear gas attacks at U.S. border U.S. agents fire tear gas as some migrants try to breach fence Deal with Mexico would make asylum seekers wait outside U.S. border Though the final numbers are unavailable, those figures represent a drop from 2013, during the Obama administration, when there were 1,168 incidents of less-lethal force, including 27 instances of tear gas and 151 of pepper spray, according to the data. Less-lethal force has increased over the past two years but is still lower than 2013. Complaints about excessive force prompted Customs and Border Protection to commission an investigation by the Police Executive Research Forum, a policing research and policy group. The 2013 audit highlighted problems that included foot-patrol agents without access to less-lethal options. It recommended law enforcement not be allowed to use deadly force when people throw rocks a suggestion that was rejected. Following those reviews, Customs and Border Protection revised policies and made major changes to training. Agents now undergo scenario-based drills at the academy and learn how to de-escalate tense situations. They get 64 hours of on-the-job training on use of force. Some sectors, like El Paso, have a virtual reality simulator. The octagonal giant screens mounted on a platform mimic a desert encounter where agents must decide whether to fire their weapons. The scenario is designed to cause stress, and agents are forced to think quickly or face being shot, run over or hit with rocks. After the simulation, they discuss reactions with training officers and work on how to better respond in the future. The desert is a very difficult, dangerous unstructured environment, said Aaron Hull, Border Patrol chief for the El Paso Sector. Were trying to keep our agents safe. Were trying to protect the safety of our communities, and all the people involved. Chuck Wexler, head of the police research forum, credited the agency with taking the recommendations seriously. Also when they do have an incident, they have a better review process, he said. Trump defended the use of tear gas on children claiming it was very safe, a very minor form of irritant. But Customs and Border Protection officials still plan to conduct a review to determine whether it was justified and what if anything could be done better, according Commissioner Kevin McAleenan. Agents are authorized to use deadly force when there is reasonable belief that there is an imminent danger of serious physical injury or death to the officer or another person. They have discretion on how to deploy less-than-lethal force: It must be both objectively reasonable and necessary in order to carry out law enforcement duties and used when other empty hand techniques are not sufficient to control disorderly or violent subjects. Officials say they deploy the lowest form of force necessary to take control of a situation but critics of the Sunday clash say gas never shouldve been used near small children. The chaos began after a peaceful protest by some of the thousands of migrants marooned in Mexico. It was unusual in part because of the large number trying to cross illegally officials said it was between 500 and 1,000. U.S. authorities shut down the nations busiest border crossing for several hours. San Diego Border Patrol Sector chief Rodney Scott said 42 people were arrested and some children inhaled the tear gas, but they were not intended targets. But images of crying children in diapers and bare feet running from plumes of gas struck a nerve again not unlike the images of weeping, frightened children who had been separated from their parents over the summer. Any border security and immigration policy that results in mothers and children being gassed is not only cruel and morally reprehensible, but also an abject failure, said Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the top Democrat on the House Committee on Homeland Security. The administration should be preparing itself to finally face real oversight of its failed border and immigration policies. A transgender woman who died in the custody of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency appeared to have been physically abused before her death in May from dehydration, along with complications from HIV, according to an independent autopsy released this week. The finding in the death of the woman, Roxsana Hernandez Rodriguez, 33, who was Honduran and had joined a migrant caravan seeking asylum in the United States, supported ICEs determination of her cause of death. Still, the conclusion that she was abused raised questions about her treatment during the 16 days she was held. ICE has maintained that she was not abused in its custody. Other detainees cited in the autopsy report recall Hernandez experiencing the symptoms of severe dehydration over multiple days with no medical evaluation or treatment, until she was gravely ill, the report says. Hernandez crossed the border at the San Isidro port of entry between San Diego and Tijuana on May 9, according to ICE. She died May 25 at a hospital in New Mexico. The independent autopsy was performed by Dr. Kris Sperry, a forensic pathologist hired by the Transgender Law Center, a non-profit civil rights group that is suing ICE on behalf of Hernandez. Sperry found that while there was no evidence of bruising on her skin, there was deep hemorrhaging of the soft tissues and muscles over her ribs. Read more: Mexicos new leader faces clash with Trump over migrants U.S. groups demand end to info-sharing on asylum-seeking children The first autopsy of Hernandez was conducted by the New Mexico medical examiners office on behalf of ICE and has not been released. ICE said that, about a week before her death, she had been taken to a hospital with symptoms of pneumonia, dehydration and complications associated with HIV. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement cannot speak to the validity of the private autopsy, Danielle Bennett, a spokeswoman for ICE, said in a statement. However, allegations that she was abused in ICE custody are false. Hernandez arrived May 16 at the Cibola County Correctional Center in Milan, New Mexico, where she was detained in the transgender unit, according to ICE. The next day, she was taken to Cibola General Hospital and then transferred by air ambulance to Lovelace Medical Center in Albuquerque, where she stayed in intensive care until she died. ICE recorded the preliminary cause of death as cardiac arrest. They took her and we would wait for her to come back every day, said Marbeli Bustillo, 23, a fellow asylum-seeker who met Hernandez in the hielera, or ice boxes, where people crossing the border are held before they are processed by ICE, and who was held along with Hernandez at the Cibola County Correctional Center. We wondered every day where they might have put her, why we didnt see her anymore, Bustillo added in a phone interview from Boston, where she moved after gaining asylum. We never saw her again after the doctor took her. In the past, transgender women detained by ICE were held with male detainees. In 2015, the agency established new guidelines for detaining transgender women because of how vulnerable they are in detention centres. There has also been a spike in the number of openly LGBT people from Central American countries and Mexico seeking asylum in the United States because of the violence they often face in their home countries. Her death was entirely preventable, Lynly Egyes, the Transgender Law Centers director of litigation, said at a news conference. In the final days of her life, she was transferred from California to Washington to New Mexico, shackled for days on end. If she was lucky, she was given a bottle of water to drink. Her cause of death was dehydration and complications related to HIV. The independent autopsy was likely to face scrutiny over Sperrys credibility. He was the chief medical examiner for the state of Georgia until 2015, when he stepped down after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that he had taken on hundreds of private cases while working for the state. We decided to go with Dr. Sperry because hes good at his job, said Andrew Free, an immigration and civil rights lawyer who is representing the Hernandez family. The Cibola County Correctional Center is operated by CoreCivic, one of the largest operators of private prisons in the country with revenues last year of $1.8 billion (U.S.). Privately operated prisons have been under scrutiny for their handling of immigrant detainees, especially migrant children. We take the health and well-being of those entrusted to our care very seriously, Rodney King, a spokesman for CoreCivic, said in a statement. Were also committed to providing a safe environment for transgender detainees. Hernandez sought asylum from persecution, discrimination and violence, according to Edgar Reyes, 19, who met Hernandez in Tijuana while they were in the caravan. You could see the suffering she was running from on her face, Reyes said. She would share her struggles with all of us. We were always united, we always supported each other, and I understood her because I am a gay man, and Honduran like she was. According to ICE, Hernandez illegally crossed the border into the United States twice between 2005 and 2009. In April 2006, she was convicted of theft in Dallas, the agency said. In May 2009, she was convicted of lewd, immoral, indecent conduct and prostitution, also in Dallas, according to ICE. Both times she was deported, Hernandez was allowed to voluntarily return to Mexico because she claimed Mexican nationality to immigration officials. In January 2014, she entered the United States a third time before being arrested and deported two months later. This time, Hernandez wanted to settle down, Bustillo said. She would tell me she wanted to get married, work a blue-collar job and be a different person this time, Bustillo said. This time around she had a dream. Hernandez spoke to friends about wanting to see her brother, who lived in Houston. She would talk about her brother every day, Bustillo said. It is a big deal to be trans and accepted by your family, and he didnt accept her, but he wasnt going to kick her out of his house. He tolerated her. Hernandez was known by her friends who travelled through Central America and Mexico with her as a humble, sincere person who loved to sing along to the Mexican bands Los Temerarios and Los Bukis, and as someone who had great taste in makeup. The independent autopsy hinted at that attention to personal care, detailing the remnants of glittery rose-coloured polish on Hernandezs toenails. When we travelled, she was always concerned about her coffee-colored makeup bag, Bustillo said. The last time I remember talking to her before we crossed the border, I asked her to let me borrow her eyeliner. She added: I gave her back the eyeliner. I never got to use it. WASHINGTONThe Kremlin said Wednesday it still expects a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump to go ahead as planned despite a suggestion from Trump that it could be cancelled. Trump, in an interview with The Washington Post on Tuesday, said he might cancel the sit-down with Putin in Argentina following Russia's seizure of three Ukrainian naval ships last weekend. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday that the meeting is on and that Russia has not received "any other information from our U.S. counterparts." Putin's foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, noted that the meeting, which is set for Saturday, has been prepared through official channels and Moscow expects Washington to notify it of any changes in the same way. "This meeting is necessary for both sides," Ushakov said. "It's important in view of the developing situation in the world." The long-simmering conflict between Russia and Ukraine burst into the open on Sunday, when Russian border guards fired on three Ukrainian vessels and seized the ships and the crew. Read more: World dysfunction is taking the group out of the G20 summit Trump should have stood up to Putin Trump sides with Putin over U.S. intelligence chiefs on Russian interference in U.S. election In a phone call Wednesday, Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed their concern about the incident, said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. She said the two will further discuss it later this week during the Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Trump said he would be receiving a "full report" from his national security team on Russia's recent actions in eastern Ukraine and the Black Sea. He said he would decide on a course afterward. "Maybe I won't have the meeting," he said. "Maybe I won't even have the meeting." Trump added: "I don't like that aggression. I don't want that aggression at all." The comments were Trump's strongest to date in condemnation of Russia's recent actions in Ukraine, where tensions are flaring. But White House aides were still planning for the Putin meeting after Trump's comments. Ushakov, Putin's aide, said the naval encounter between Russia and Ukraine likely will be on the agenda of the planned meeting, which will start with the two presidents meeting privately before being joined by senior officials. He said the Kremlin expects that the talks will touch on nuclear arms control, noting that it's particularly important to discuss them in view of the U.S. intention to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. "It's extremely important to prevent an uncontrollable and senseless arms race," he said. Ushakov said the two presidents also are to discuss regional crises, including the situation in Syria, the Iranian nuclear deal and North Korea. The meeting between Trump and Putin is set to be just one of several high-profile foreign-policy engagements for the U.S. leader on the whirlwind two-day visit to Argentina. Trump also is set to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping over dinner, in what may be a pivotal session to determining if and how the ongoing trade dispute between their countries could be resolved. The White House on Tuesday warned Xi against trying to wait out Trump in the ongoing talks, suggesting the Chinese economy was not as resilient to a trade war as the U.S. economy. The warning from Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, came ahead of the two leaders' high-stakes sit-down on Saturday evening. Over the last year, the two countries have levied a series of tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of imports from each other, with the latest round of U.S. duties set to go into force in the new year. Xi said on Wednesday the international community needs to build consensus to solve the conflict between free trade and protectionism. In a speech to lawmakers in Spain, where he is conducting a state visit before attending the summit in Argentina, he said the world is facing "instability, uncertainty and hot topics without precedents in our history." "I think we are at a crossroads," Xi said. "In economic terms we need to decide if we are going to follow the economic globalization and free market or if we are going to choose unilateralism and protectionism." National security adviser John Bolton said Trump will also be meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Argentine President Mauricio Macri, South Korea's Moon Jae-in and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Sanders called the trip an opportunity for the president to cement relations with other world leaders and advance a global economic system based on "free, fair and reciprocal trade." The Trump-Xi meeting would be the first since the two countries began hitting each other with import taxes earlier this year. The United States targeted $250 (U.S.) billion in Chinese products, and Beijing lashed back by slapping tariffs on $110 billion worth of U.S. goods. The two sides have been in negotiations for months, but Kudlow described them as being stalemated until just a few weeks ago. Kudlow said the administration has been "extremely disappointed" by China's engagement in trade talks but the meeting between Trump and Xi on the sidelines of the G-20 summit could be a game-changer. "Perhaps we can break through in Buenos Aires or not," he said. Kudlow added that if the U.S. doesn't get "satisfactory" responses to its trade positions more tariffs will be imposed. He said Trump is "not going away." "I hope they understand that," he said. China's foreign ministry has said a recent phone conversation between Xi and Trump about trade and other issues was "extremely positive." Read more about: WASHINGTONThe breakdown of a plea deal with former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and an explosive British news report about alleged contacts he may have had with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange threw a new element of uncertainty into the Trump-Russia investigation. On Tuesday, a day after prosecutors accused Manafort of repeatedly lying to them, trashing his agreement to tell all in return for a lighter sentence, he adamantly denied a report in the Guardian that he had met secretly with Assange around March 2016. Thats the same month Manafort joined the Trump campaign and Russian hackers began an effort to penetrate the email accounts of Hillary Clintons presidential campaign. The developments thrust Manafort back into the investigation spotlight, raising new questions about what he knows and what prosecutors say he might be attempting to conceal as they probe Russian election interference and possible co-ordination with Trump associates in the campaign that sent the celebrity businessman to the White House. All the while, Manaforts lawyers have been briefing Trumps attorneys on what their client has told investigators, an unusual arrangement that could give Trump ammunition in his feud against special counsel Robert Mueller. They share with me the things that pertain to our part of the case, Trumps lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, told The Associated Press. Giuliani also said Trump, who has recently stepped up his attacks on Mueller, has been enraged by the treatment of Manafort. Read more: Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort secretly met with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange months before 2016 election Manaforts lawyer said to brief Trump attorneys on what he told Mueller Ex-Trump campaign chair lied, broke plea agreement, says Mueller Other figures entangled in the investigation, including Trump himself, have been scrambling to escalate attacks and allegations against prosecutors who have been working quietly behind the scenes. Besides denying hed ever met Assange, Manafort, who is currently in jail, said hed told Muellers prosecutors the truth during questioning. And WikiLeaks said Manafort had never met with Assange, offering to bet Londons Guardian newspaper a million dollars and its editors head. Assange, whose organization published thousands of emails stolen by Russian spies from Clintons campaign in 2016, is in Ecuadors embassy in London under a claim of asylum. Its unclear what prosecutors contend Manafort lied about, though theyre expected to make a public filing that could offer answers. More details could emerge a hearing set for Friday where both sides will weigh in on next steps in the case, including the possible setting of Manaforts sentencing date. Dissolution of the plea deal could be a devastating outcome for a defendant who suddenly admitted guilt last September after months of maintaining his innocence and who bet on his co-operation getting him a shorter sentence. But its also a potential setback for investigators, given that Manafort steered the campaign during a vital stretch of 2016, when prosecutors say Russian intelligence was working to sway the election in Trumps favour. The prosecutors filing underscored their exasperation not only at Manaforts alleged deception but also at the loss of an important witness present for key moments under scrutiny, including a Trump Tower meeting at which Trumps eldest son expected to receive dirt about Clinton from a Kremlin-connected lawyer. The fact is, they wanted his co-operation. They wanted him to truthfully reveal what he knew, so theyre not getting what they wanted, said Washington defence lawyer Peter Zeidenberg. This isnt like a good development where theyre clapping their hands and saying, Now we get to crush this guy. Manaforts motivation, if indeed he lied to prosecutors, also was unclear. In an interview, Giuliani said Trump and his lawyers agree a presidential pardon should not be considered now but added, The president could consider it at an appropriate time, as Manafort has the same rights as any American. Giuliani also accused Muellers team of mistreating Manafort in hopes of getting him to give false testimony against the president. He said Trump thinks it is outrageous and un-American and sounds like something that would happen under an oppressive dictatorship. Muellers filing on Manafort came at a delicate time for investigators, who have gone months without new charges and continue to probe possible links between Trump associates and WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy website. As Trump continues raging against the investigation he tweeted Tuesday that Mueller was doing TREMENDOUS damage to our Criminal Justice system and called the investigation a total disgrace others in the crosshairs have filled the vacuum of Muellers recent silence by publicly declaring their innocence, accusing prosecutors of coercing testimony or tempting fate by turning aside negotiations. One associate of Trump confidant Roger Stone is contesting a grand jury subpoena in court. Another, Jerome Corsi, said he was rejecting an offer to plead guilty to a false statements charge and has complained in news media interviews about his interrogations by prosecutors. Stone, under investigation himself for connections to WikiLeaks, has repeatedly disparaged Muellers investigation and said his friend Corsi was at risk of prosecution not for lying but for refusing to lie. A document drafted by Muellers team as part of a plea offer says Corsi tipped off Stone in August 2016 that WikiLeaks planned to release damaging documents about Clinton. The tip accurately forecast that WikiLeaks would publicity post the material, including messages from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, in October. It is the first known reference by Mueller to Americans close to Trump appearing to have foreknowledge of WikiLeaks plans. The draft document was first reported by NBC News, and a copy of it was posted online by The Washington Post. Stone has denied knowing about WikiLeaks plans in advance. Manafort, meanwhile, had been quiet since pleading guilty to conspiracy to obstruct justice and conspiracy against the United States. He has met repeatedly since then with investigators. He remained in the spotlight Tuesday when the Guardian published a report saying he had secretly met Assange around March 2016, when he was brought aboard the Trump campaign. The report suggested a direct connection between WikiLeaks and the Trump campaign. Manafort called the story totally false and deliberately libelous, saying in a statement that he had never met Assange or anyone close to him. The Guardian cited 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 newspaper said that Manafort returned in 2015 and 2016 and that its sources had tentatively dated the final visit to March. There was no detail on what might have been discussed. The Trump campaign announced Manaforts hiring 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 chairman that May. An AP investigation into Russian hacking showed that government-aligned cyberspies began an aggressive effort to penetrate the Clinton campaigns email accounts on March 10, 2016. Justice Department prosecutors in Virginia recently inadvertently disclosed the existence of sealed criminal charges against Assange, though its unclear what that case entails. Prosecutors were in court Tuesday arguing against unsealing any charge. Meanwhile, a judge may soon set a sentencing date for Manafort now that his hopes for leniency appear dashed. The co-operating defendant usually is very aware of whats at stake, said Shanlon Wu, who represented Manaforts one-time co-defendant Rick Gates. What I always say to any client of mine whos contemplating that there is no going back. Its like being a little bit pregnant, he added. Theres no such thing. Read more about: LOS ANGELESWhen the Woolsey fire swept into the exclusive neighbourhood 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 co-ordinate with local crews and amount to one more worry as they try to evacuate residents and battle the blaze. Read more: Catastrophic Northern California fire is finally contained Rain helps douse California fire but slows search crews 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 labour 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 neighbourhoods 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 fire trucks, 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 per cent of the industry, Torgerson said. Kim Kardashian went on Instagram 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. 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 (U.S.), 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. Share your thoughts 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 co-ordinate 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. HONG KONGA Chinese researcher who claims to have helped make the worlds first genetically edited babies says a second pregnancy may be underway. The researcher, He Jiankui of Shenzhen, revealed the pregnancy Wednesday while making his first public comments about his controversial work at an international conference in Hong Kong. He claims to have altered the DNA of twin girls born earlier this month to try to make them resistant to infection with the AIDS virus. Mainstream scientists have condemned the experiment, and universities and government groups are investigating. The second pregnancy is in a very early stage and needs more time to be monitored to see if it will last, He said. Leading scientists said there are now even more reasons to worry, and more questions than answers, after Hes talk. The leader of the conference called the experiment irresponsible and evidence that the scientific community had failed to regulate itself to prevent premature efforts to alter DNA. Altering DNA before or at the time of conception is highly controversial because the changes can be inherited and might harm other genes. Its banned in some countries including the United States except for lab research. Read more: Chinese researcher claims he helped make worlds first genetically edited babies He defended his choice of HIV, rather than a fatal inherited disease, as a test case for gene editing, and insisted the girls could benefit from it. They need this protection since a vaccine is not available, He said. Scientists werent buying it. This is a truly unacceptable development, said Jennifer Doudna, a University of California-Berkeley scientist and one of the inventors of the CRISPR gene-editing tool that He said he used. Im grateful that he appeared today, but I dont think that we heard answers. We still need to understand the motivation for this. I feel more disturbed now, said David Liu of Harvard and MITs Broad Institute, and inventor of a variation of the gene-editing tool. Its an appalling example of what not to do about a promising technology that has great potential to benefit society. I hope it never happens again. There is no independent confirmation of Hes claim and he has not yet published in any scientific journal where it would be vetted by experts. At the conference, He failed or refused to answer many questions including who paid for his work, how he ensured that participants understood potential risks and benefits, and why he kept his work secret until after it was done. After He spoke, David Baltimore, a Nobel laureate from the California Institute of Technology and a leader of the conference, said Hes work would still be considered irresponsible because it did not meet criteria many scientists agreed on several years ago before gene editing could be considered. I personally dont think that it was medically necessary. The choice of the diseases that we heard discussions about earlier today are much more pressing than trying to prevent HIV infection this way, he said. If gene editing is ever allowed, many scientists have said it should be reserved to treat and prevent serious inherited disorders with no good alternatives, such as sickle cell anemia and Huntingtons disease. HIV is not an appropriate candidate because there are already safe ways to prevent transmission, and if contracted it can be kept under control with medications, researchers said. The case shows there has been a failure of self-regulation by the scientific community and said the conference committee would meet and issue a statement on Thursday about the future of the field, Baltimore said. Before Hes talk, Dr. George Daley, Harvard Medical Schools dean and one of the conference organizers, warned against a backlash to gene editing because of Hes experiment. Just because the first case may have been a misstep should in no way, I think, lead us to stick our heads in the sand and not consider the very, very positive aspects that could come forth by a more responsible pathway, Daley said. Scientists who go rogue ... it carries a deep, deep cost to the scientific community, Daley said. Shortly after his talk, He cancelled a planned appearance in a Thursday session on embryo gene editing, according to the Royal Society, one of the conference organizers. Regulators have been swift to condemn the experiment as unethical and unscientific. The National Health Commission has ordered local officials in Guangdong province to investigate Hes actions, and his employer, Southern University of Science and Technology of China, is investigating as well. On Tuesday, Qiu Renzong of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences criticized the decision to let He speak at the conference, saying the claim should not be on our agenda until it has been reviewed by independent experts. Whether He violated reproductive medicine laws in China has been unclear; Qui contends that it did, but said, the problem is, theres no penalty. The U.S. National Institutes of Health said Wednesday there should be international intervention. Without such limits, the world will face the serious risk of a deluge of similarly ill-considered and unethical projects, the agency said in a statement. Meanwhile, more American scientists said they had contact with He and were aware of or suspected what he was doing. Dr. Matthew Porteus, a genetics researcher at Stanford University, where He did post-doctoral research, said He told him in February that he intended to try human gene editing. Porteus said he discouraged He and told him that it was irresponsible, that he could risk the entire field of gene editing by doing this in a cavalier fashion. Dr. William Hurlbut, a Stanford ethicist, said he has spent many hours talking with He over the last two years about situations where gene editing might be appropriate. I knew his early work. I knew where he was heading, Hurlbut said. When he saw He four or five weeks ago, He did not say he had tried or achieved pregnancy with edited embryos but I strongly suspected it, Hurlbut said. I disagree with the notion of stepping out of the general consensus of the scientific community, Hurlbut said. If the science is not considered ready or safe enough, its going to create misunderstanding, discordance and distrust. Jennifer Doudna and David Liu are paid by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which also supports APs Health & Science Department. Read more about: The United Nations is close to creating conditions for the start of peace talks in Sweden between Yemens warring parties December but there is no agreement yet, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday. The UN chief told reporters this is a very crucial moment in relation to Yemen. UN envoy Martin Griffiths has been engaged in shuttle diplomacy, talking to Yemens internationally recognized government backed by a Saudi-led coalition and Houthi Shiite rebels who control the capital Sanaa, Guterres said. The current diplomatic initiative is being driven by the increasing threat of famine in Yemen, but also by international outrage over the murder of U.S.-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi on Oct. 2 in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul which has put a spotlight on Saudi Arabias role in the countrys war. Griffiths announced on Nov. 16 that the warring parties had agreed to attend talks. He initially tried to bring the government and Houthis together in early September, but the Houthis didnt show up in Geneva, saying they didnt have guarantees for their safe return. Guterres said Wednesday: I believe there is a chance to be able to start effective negotiations in Sweden early in December, but we are not yet there. Read more: Charities call for U.S. to halt support for Saudis in Yemen Pompeo, Mattis defend Saudis as lawmakers consider vote He said starting talks would be an extremely important objective, and stressed, If we are able to stop the Yemeni war, we will be stopping the most tragic humanitarian disaster we are facing in todays world. The conflict in Yemen began with the 2014 takeover of the capital of Sanaa by the Iranian-backed Houthis, which toppled the government of Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. The Saudi-led coalition has been fighting the Houthis since 2015. Saudi-led airstrikes have hit schools, hospitals and wedding parties, and the Houthis have fired long-range missiles into Saudi Arabia and targeted vessels in the Red Sea. Tens of thousands of people are believed to have been killed in the war and UN food agency chief David Beasley said last week that as many as 12 million of the 28 million Yemenis are just one step away from famine. Guterres is heading to the summit of the Group of 20 economic powers in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Friday and Saturday and he told reporters he is ready to discuss peace talks to end the Yemen conflict with Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and any other Saudi officials attending the meeting. Guterres has called for an independent and transparent investigation into Khashoggis murder and when asked whether he would also raise that issue with the crown prince, he said: I have never a problem in saying publicly and privately the same thing. Meanwhile, members of the UN Security Council are still holding consultations on a draft resolution urging Yemens warring parties to relaunch negotiations to end the conflict and take urgent steps to tackle the humanitarian crisis including by agreeing to a ceasefire around the key port of Hodeida, which is vital to delivering aid and commercial goods. No vote has been scheduled and council diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because talks have been private, said some members want to wait until after a meeting of the warring parties in Sweden. Read more about: FAIRFAX, VA.A Northern Virginia man pleaded guilty Wednesday to raping and killing a Muslim teenager last year in a case that drew national attention for its brutality on a young victim who had been walking with friends to early-morning religious services. The plea deal allows Darwin Martinez-Torres, 25, of Sterling to avoid a potential death penalty for the June 2017 murder of 17-year-old Nabra Hassanen of Reston. She had been out with a group of friends eating a pre-dawn meal at a fast-food restaurant ahead of Ramadan services. Martinez-Torres was driving by and got into an altercation with the group. Wednesdays plea deal will mean Martinez-Torres gets life without parole when he is formally sentenced in March. Nabras death attracted widespread attention, and thousands of mourners attended her funeral. There were concerns that her slaying was motivated by anti-Muslim sentiment, but police have said repeatedly they have no evidence of a hate crime. Instead, police called it an incident of road rage. Read more: Muslim community skeptical about road rage explanation for Virginia girls death near mosque Man charged after Muslim teenager assaulted, killed after leaving Virginia mosque, police say In court Wednesday, prosecutor Casey Lingan said the attack began when Martinez-Torres drove by and honked his horn at one of Nabras friends who had been riding his bicycle in the road as they walked back to their mosque. The friend yelled back at Martinez-Torres, who started chasing the group, first in his car and then on foot. Lingan said Nabra, who was wearing sandals, couldnt run as fast the others, and Martinez-Torres caught up with her, wielding a baseball bat. A friend of Nabras described hearing a thud and a metal ping when she looked back. Some friends started to go back to help Nabra, but Lingan said Martinez-Torres scared them off with his bat. Martinez-Torres, a native of El Salvador who federal immigration authorities have said is in the country illegally, was caught shortly after the attack. He initially denied attacking Nabra but quickly confessed under questioning from detectives. He told them that he got out of control and that after he first struck Nabra with the bat he just kept thinking ugly things. He raped her while she lay unconscious and dumped her body in a pond. Fairfax County Commonwealths Attorney Raymond Morrogh brought capital murder charges last year, and said he only agreed to take the death penalty off the table in Wednesdays plea after consulting with the family, which indicated it would be satisfied with a life sentence. Martinez-Torres lawyer, Joseph Flood, said his client has intellectual disabilities, and that his IQ is below 68. Morrogh acknowledged that if evidence of a severe intellectual disability were confirmed by an independent examiner, Martinez-Torres may well have been ineligible for a death sentence. The plea deal carries an unusual provision that requires Martinez-Torres to answer any questions posed of him by the victims family over the next year. Nabras father, Mahmoud Hassanen, has been outspoken about his concerns that Nabras death may have been a hate crime. Gadeir Abbas, a lawyer with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which provided legal assistance to the Hassanen family, said the provision is in place to allow the family to ask Martinez-Torres directly why he killed her. Morrogh said after the hearing that he has only rarely included such a provision in a plea agreement, and he did so in this case because he understood the Hassanen familys bewilderment at what could motivate such a crime. This is just such a random crime on such a loving, young person practicing her religion, Morrogh said. I hope something comes out of that part of the agreement. Nabras father fought back tears after the hearing and said he considers Nabra to be a martyr in the eyes of God. Ottawa promises to aid GM workers, Nov. 27 The Conservative response to the plant closing was as expected. Blame the provincial Liberals and ask the feds for help. The PCs neglected to comment on the fact that GM intends to introduce over 20 electric vehicles by 2023. By his actions, Ford has clearly indicated that he has no interest in electric vehicles or building electric-charging infrastructure across the province. This action turned Ontario from a potential big market for electric vehicles to an also-ran. Michael Yaffe, Toronto Read more about: After his egregious stint as MP in the Harper government, I never expected to find myself defending Paul Callandra, now an MPP in Doug Fords government. But here I am. When Callandra complained at a caucus meeting that MPPs werent receiving notice of changes to some government policies, Fords chief of staff, Dean French, reportedly dressed him down for not being a team player. Frenchs obtuse distortion of team player requires MPPs to put up and shut up. Whatever short-sighted decisions issue from this premiers office, MPPs are expected to clap and cheer mindlessly. What sort of brave new world is this? Teamwork, Mr. French, means (at the very least) considering your MPPs views before issuing government directives. If you had done so, from the time of taking office, your government might have avoided accruing one public relations disaster after another in a matter of months. Doug Ford whose collaborative skills have always been in short supply needs a chief of staff whose social and intellectual abilities compensate for his bosss failings, rather than amplifying them. Penny Gill, Dundas Read more about: And so dear friends You just have to carry on The dream is over. Those words by the Beatles John Lennon in his 1970 song God could easily apply these days to Caroline Mulroney. The dream harboured by the Ontario attorney general when she first entered elected politics in the summer of 2017 was that one day she would become premier of Ontario and eventually move on to become Canadas first elected woman prime minister. It was the same dream held by her father Brian Mulroney, the former Conservative prime minister who has worked so hard to make her dream come true. Read more: Opinion | Bob Hepburn: Where are you, Caroline Mulroney? Caroline Mulroney says Tories want to improve access to justice for francophones Federal minister blasts Ontario Tories over cuts to francophone services But that dream is over, shattered by a series of actions that have made her look weak, ineffective, indecisive, intimidated and humiliated. The latest blow to the dream came two weeks ago when Premier Doug Fords government announced it was eliminating the position of French Language Services Commissioner and scrapping the plan approved by the previous Liberal government to create a French-language university in 2020. As the minister responsible for francophone affairs, Mulroney was tasked with selling the cuts to outraged Franco-Ontarians as well as francophones in Quebec and other provinces. She did so with great gusto, despite widespread condemnation about the cutbacks from across the country, including from federal Conservatives who fear a backlash in Quebec and in Ontario ridings with a large French-speaking population. Without shame or hesitation, Mulroney insisted the moves were necessary as part of efforts to reduce government spending. She also tried to blame both the former Wynne government and the federal Liberals for the cuts. Finally acknowledging the outcry, Ford backtracked in recent days and announced his government would maintain the French language services commissioner but transfer the position to the ombudsmans office, return the office of francophone affairs to being a ministry and hire a senior adviser on francophone affairs for the premiers office. By then, though, the damage to Mulroneys reputation had already been done. This wasnt the first time Mulroney has looked bad since winning her seat in the June 7 provincial election. The first came in late June when in addition to her post as attorney general she accepted the downgraded role as minister responsible for francophone affairs, which no longer was a full cabinet position. She should have insisted Ford retain the post as a full ministry, as it was under the Liberals. The second came in July when Ford failed to include a single word of French in his initial throne speech, an insult to Franco-Ontarians. Either Mulroney didnt raise the point in advance of the speech or Ford simply ignored her. Regardless, she appeared unconcerned or ineffective. The third came in September when Ford said he would use the notwithstanding clause in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to override a judges ruling that Fords move to cut the size of Toronto city council in the midst of an election was unconstitutional. Mulroney defended Fords action, despite almost universal condemnation, including from her father. Importantly, theres a pattern here with Mulroney on all her major files shes either missing in action or acting as Fords subservient puppet. Indeed, she has failed to distinguish herself in any way. And while its true a cabinet minister must toe the party line or step down, Mulroney might want to study the example of her own parliamentary assistant for francophone affairs, Tory MPP Amanda Simard, who has been outspoken in her criticism of the cuts to Franco-Ontarian services. Now Mulroney is in full damage control, desperate to salvage a shred of credibility, especially among francophones. It will be hard given how she championed the cutbacks, in stark contrast to her father, who had a well-earned reputation for defending French minority rights. How is she ever going to win support from these voters? How is she ever going to win support from voters horrified by her backing of Fords shameless abuse of the notwithstanding clause? How is she going to win support from voters everywhere who despise Ford? Unless she can figure that out, John Lennons words will be forever true: The dream is over. Read more about: OTTAWAA defiant union leader is urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Donald Trump to work together on an aggressive strategy to force General Motors to reverse plans to cease production in Oshawa and four other plants in the United States. Jerry Dias, the national president of Unifor that represents some 2,500 workers at the Oshawa plant, called for punishing tariffs on General Motors vehicles produced in Mexico and labour action in both Canada and the U.S. to get the companys attention. Were playing with a corporation that plays by its own rules, Dias told reporters on Parliament Hill. If youre going to have a company thats going to show us their middle finger, then I think our governments should show them their middle finger as well, he said. Dias warned that the stakes are high. General Motors has already moved production of five vehicles out of Canada four of those to Mexico and closure of the Oshawa plant will only leave one GM vehicle produced in the country, he said. GM is on the cusp of complete disinvestment in Canada and will lead to a catastrophic end to Canadas most lucrative export industry, he said. Read more: Why impending closure of GMs Oshawa plant is a wake-up call for Canadians Editorial | Trudeau and Ford should speak louder for GM workers Opinion | Susan Delacourt: Jerry Dias channels his inner Donald Trump We are not going to let our plant close. Our plant in Oshawa is not closing and we will do whatever it takes to make sure our plant in Oshawa doesnt close, said Dias, who will be in the U.S. on Wednesday for meetings with his counterparts at the United Auto Workers. General Motors announced on Monday that it intended to halt production in Oshawa and four facilities in the U.S. by the end of 2019 as part of a transformation to refocus its lineup on crossovers, SUVs and trucks and zero emissions vehicles. News of the plant closures rippled in Washington and Ottawa on Tuesday. Trump took a hard line, saying he was very disappointed that plants were closing in Ohio, Michigan and Maryland and vowed possible reprisals. 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, Trump said on Twitter. 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! the president said. Trump and Trudeau spoke Tuesday about the plant closings, expressing disappointment at the decision and underscored their concerns for the workers, families, and communities affected, according to a readout of the conversation provided by the Prime Ministers Office. Have your say: The Prime Ministers Office gave no hint whether the federal government intended to work with the U.S. administration on the issue. But Dias emerged from a lengthy meeting with Trudeau on Tuesday expressing optimism that the prime minister doesnt see the Oshawa closure as a fait accompli. Hes certainly going to do whatever he can to get their attention. If that means that we have a joint strategy with the United States, I would welcome that, Dias said. Also present at that meeting were Katie Telford, Trudeaus chief of staff; Navdeep Bains, the minister of innovation, science and economic development; and Patty Hajdu, minister of employment, workforce development and labour. Dias said he told the prime minister if GM refuses to reverse course, Canada and the U.S. should look at significant tariffs on GM vehicles made in Mexico to get their attention. Its clear that General Motors would prefer to build cars in Mexico and ship them to the United States and Canada, Dias said. Dias said that Trudeau and Trump both share a similar concern. Job loss was announced in Canada and the United States and, of course, there was no impact on anybody in Mexico or any assembly plants, Dias said. A spokesperson for Trudeau would not say whether the prime minister supported Dias call for tariffs. United States, Canada and Mexico just completed negotiations for a new North American trade pact, due to be signed later this week. It includes provisions to stem the flow of auto jobs to Mexico but they wont take effect for several years. Dias said he spoke with GM executives on Monday and got no indication they would be open to government proposals to keep the plant operating. He said the Oshawa plant is one of GMs best with a top paint shop and known for its quality work. He said it could easily produce the vehicles now made in Mexican plants and any of the new designs that GM says it wants to focus on. We can build them all. We have a flexible platform in Oshawa that can build every vehicle that GM makes, he said. And he suggested that it would not take much government funding to keep the plant running. This isnt a situation where theyre going to have to pony up billions of dollars in order to get things rolling. The infrastructure is all there. All we need is the political will, he said. A General Motors spokesperson could not be reached for comment. However, representative David Paterson told The Canadian Press that the company does not intend to abandon its Canadian operations and indeed noted that its hiring 500 people for its technical centre in Markham. We sell in Canada, we manufacture in Canada, and were actually the biggest and fastest-growing new technology automotive company in Canada, said Paterson, the companys vice-president of corporate and environmental affairs. At Queens Park, Ontario Economic Development Minister Todd Smith accused opposition parties of giving GM workers a false sense of hope by pushing to keep assembly lines rolling in Oshawa. Theyre dug in on this, he said of General Motors, citing a conversation with the auto giants Detroit-based chief executive Mary Barra. Addressing concerns that rival automakers Ford, Chrysler, Honda and Toyota could pull vehicle production from Ontario in the coming years as the industry transitions to electric and autonomous vehicles, Smith said we want to work with those companies but noted the governments business support programs are under review to ensure taxpayers are getting bang for our buck. While we dont have buckets of money to be handing them (auto companies) to keep them in Ontario, we can make it easier for them to do business in Ontario. Were going to reduce regulation where we can, he added. They have their business plans, they have their vehicle allocations and so far, from the conversations that weve had, we feel confident that the other four are going to live up to those commitments that theyve made to Ontario. NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said Smiths comments about an uncertain future for business support programs sends the wrong message to the auto industry as it contemplates the best location for future production. We dont to be sending signals that were not interested, that were not prepared to invest, that we dont believe in technologies of the future. It makes no sense that GM, with engineering and high-tech research sites in Oshawa and Markham aimed at developing next-generation vehicles and beyond, does not have Ontario on its radar as a production site, said Green Leader Mike Schreiner, the MPP for Guelph. Ontario should be leading the electric vehicle revolution, not losing jobs to it. Thats whats happening as this government has no auto strategy. 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: OTTAWAPoliticians from nine nations have banded together to call on their countries to regulate social media giants like Facebook to curb the spread of disinformation campaigns and hate speech online. In a joint statement released Tuesday, politicians meeting in London for an International Grand Committee on disinformation and fake news countries should bring in rules requiring social media companies to take action on harmful and misleading content. Representative democracy is too important and too hard-won to be left undefended from online harms, in particular aggressive campaigns of disinformation launched from one country against citizens of another the statement read. Social media companies should be held liable if they fail to comply with (an) order to remove harmful and misleading content from their platforms, and should be regulated to ensure they comply with this requirement. The largely unprecedented statement was signed by politicians from nine countries including Canada and close allies like the United Kingdom and France, but also Belgium, Ireland, Brazil, Argentina, Latvia and Singapore. Together, the countries have been frustrated in their efforts to force Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify in the wake of the companys Cambridge Analytica scandal. Bob Zimmer, the Conservative MP whose ethics and privacy committee has been leading the Canadian investigation into that scandal and politics in the age of social media, more generally said preventing misinformation and hate campaigns online is crucial now that social media has become the public square. We want to deal with the bullies who influence that public square, Zimmer said in a phone interview from London. What we need Facebook to do is do a better job of policing those bullies Its not that we want to kill the platform in any way, we just want to make sure theyre dealing with the bullies and the fact of the matter is they havent dealt with the bullies adequately. But while MPs on both sides of the House of Commons are endorsing regulating platforms like Facebook and despite Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus warning the company could face regulations if it didnt curb the spread of disinformation Canadas Liberal government has taken no action in that direction. Nate Erskine-Smith, the Toronto Liberal MP who vice-chairs the ethics committee, said its evident that Facebook failed to protect its users privacy in the Cambridge Analytica affair, where millions of users had their personal data harvested to fuel election-influencing activities across the world. We are well beyond the point of trusting Facebook and other social media platforms to police themselves, said Erskine-Smith. (Facebook) agreed today that the company should have done more to prevent election interference, including in 2016, should have done more to stop hate speech in Myanmar We need both strong regulations for social media platforms like Facebook and strong regulators with effective tools to enforce those rules. The declaration is in no way binding on Canada. But a frequent refrain in the debate over regulating social media companies is that no one country can do it alone. Zimmer said he hopes Tuesdays meeting was a chance to build an international consensus on these issues. The same foreign influence concerns (for the 2019 election) I have are held by Ireland, are held by Brazil, are held by Latvia. And so once you see that youre not just an island that its more of a global concern tells me were on the right page, Zimmer said. Working together, this is how we can affect some really good change. Read more about: Canadians who have been looking for a Donald Trump of the north may want to cast their eyes left, not right. Union leader Jerry Dias is unabashedly channelling Trumps political brand to fight the General Motors shutdown in Oshawa, and urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to take some pages from the Trump playbook as well. If somebody has a better way to get General Motors attention, Im all ears, Dias, the head of Unifor, said as he floated the idea of punishing tariffs and joint, Canada-U. S. retaliation against GM and Mexico in the wake of the Oshawa closing. Asked whether he was urging Trudeau to be more like the U.S. president, Dias said, Im asking him to behave like Jerry Dias. Immodesty aside, Diass second day of rage provoked an intriguing question or two in the immediate aftermath of the GM announcement on Monday: Why was Dias the angriest public figure in Canada about this decision by General Motors? Why did the prime minister and Ontarios premier seem so resigned to the shutdown and the almost certain loss of thousands of jobs? It almost seemed like Trudeau, Doug Ford and Dias made a pact to divvy up the famous five stages of grief the politicians took depression and acceptance, while the union leader plunged into bargaining, denial and anger. Read more: Canada and United States urged to work together to fight General Motors Why impending closure of GMs Oshawa plant is a wake-up call for Canadians Editorial | Trudeau and Ford should speak louder for GM workers Plant shutdowns breed populist discontent, as weve learned with Trumps support in Rust Belt, U.S.A., and populism creates unexpected coalitions with unpredictable results. This is what is making the news about GM such a wild card in Canadian politics at the moment its whipping up many of the same sentiments that gave political heft to Trump, among some of the same demographics, notably men in the suburbs. Anger toward General Motors is coming from the left and the right of the political spectrum in Canada. Union members feel betrayal about the unionized job losses, while Conservatives are wondering whether Stephen Harpers bailout of 10 years ago to the big automakers bought any loyalty from GM. Repeated reports over the past few years, including one just about a month ago, have revealed that nearly one-third of the $13.7-billion bailout offered to the big automakers back in 2008 will never be recovered. Now, that is a story that the average taxpayer can understand, and certainly resent. It plays into the populist belief that the odds are stacked in favour of rich individuals and corporations who only turn around and, in Dias colourful turn of phrase on Tuesday, give the finger to everyone else. Populist anger doesnt like the mushy, complicated middle, and thats where Trudeaus Liberals might need to watch their own political backs amid the fallout over GMs announced Oshawa shutdown. For three years now, the Trudeau government has been trying to assure Canadians that there is a middle ground between the environment and the economy and that we dont have to choose between the two. That is not going to be an easy message to sell to laid-off GM workers or all those other middle-class autoworkers aspiring not to be laid off (to borrow a phrase) as carbon-heavy industries adopt to climate-change measures. GM, with its announced intentions to head into the electric and autonomous vehicle market, appears to confirm that saving the planet will come at a big personal cost to those in the old economy. This of course, isnt news to those in the resources industry, especially in Alberta, where currently record low oil prices are delivering a long, sustained blow to peoples hopes and livelihoods in the West. In short, the combined shocks in Oshawa and the West seem designed to sow disbelief that Canada is capable of transitioning to a greener economy without a huge price. Dias was heavily involved with the negotiations over a new Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade deal and, the union leader often sounded as suspicious as Trump about how Mexico was taking jobs away from the rest of North America. Dias was back on that soapbox on Tuesday, accusing General Motors of planning to relocate those lost Canadian jobs to Mexican plants. He wasnt saying that Canada should build a wall with Mexico at least not yet but if Trump was listening to the Canadian union leader slam GM on Tuesday, he would probably have sympathized. Dias says his fight against the GM plant closure is just beginning. So too may be the stirrings of Trump-style populism unleashed by this decision be only now starting to unfold in the Canadian political universe. Like Trump himself, the end result is unpredictable. Susan Delacourt is the Star's Ottawa bureau chief and a columnist covering national politics. Reach her via email: sdelacourt@thestar.ca or follow her on Twitter: @susandelacourt 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: Maverick Progressive Conservative MPP Amanda Simard is not backing down. Im asking the premier and the government to reverse their decisions, she said on her first day back at Queens Park after breaking ranks over cuts to French-language services. But Simard has not yet decided whether she will defect to another party or sit as an independent in protest. Right now, I am doing what I was elected to do which is representing my constituents, she told reporters outside the legislative dining room, as her PC colleagues attended a caucus meeting. So I had to say something on two measures that I did not agree with, she said, referring to the scrapping of an independent French-language watchdog and the cancellation of a new francophone university. Simard conceded that she pushed the limits in making her disagreement with Premier Doug Ford so public. Read more: Federal minister blasts Ontario Tories over cuts to francophone services Tory MPP Amanda Simard breaks ranks over French-language cuts Editorial | Ford has delivered a slap in the face to Ontarios francophones I feel that when decisions are being made about francophone issues and I have a riding that is 70 per cent francophone that I should be consulted because I am the only Franco-Ontarian in the caucus, she said. So, of course, Ive been pretty vocal that I didnt know about those two decisions before the fall economic statement. Simard said while she supports the governments plan in general its just those two measures I dont agree with. The rookie MPP for Glengarry-Prescott-Russell which stretches to the Quebec border initially posted her protest on Facebook, and on Sunday held a public meeting and appeared on a popular Quebec talk show. At the meeting with about 300 constituents, people were very upset and they were concerned, so I am very happy that I listened to them. And I am bringing their message to Queens Park this week and so were really going to try to get this done this week. Asked if she were worried about repercussions for speaking out, she said: Right now, I dont think that I should worry about that when Im just trying to do my job. Simard remains parliamentary assistant to Francophone Affairs Minister Caroline Mulroney. Mulroney, who has defended the governments changes, told reporters she has not discussed any of these matters with Simard. Im glad that shes back, she also said. We have a lot of work to do the more the merrier to do that. Government House Leader Todd Smith said he chatted with Simard after Tuesdays question period and she is absolutely welcome to remain in the Tory caucus. She seems like shes happy to be back, Smith said before she met with reporters. New Democrat Leader Andrea Horwath said she will be watching to see if Simard supports an NDP motion Wednesday on the reinstatement of plans to build the university as well as reinstate the commissioner. I give her a lot of respect for standing up for the francophone community. I invite her to vote with us, said Horwath. During an NDP question on the issue, Simard clapped. She also sat on her hands when other Tories were giving ministers ovations after answering questions. Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser said Simard has a big choice to make about her future. If people feel comfortable and we share the same values Im open to talking to anybody. These are really important decisions in peoples lives. Its a big change. Its a bit like leaving your family, he added. You just dont do these things overnight. Her defection to the seven-member Liberal caucus would be significant because the threshold for official party status in the legislature is eight MPPs. As disclosed by the Star on Friday, the Tories are raising that bar to 12 MPPs because they fear several of their members may bolt. Read more about: 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. NILWOOD Thanks to a strange theft, a piece of the history of both Route 66 and Macoupin County is missing, and law enforcement and tourism officials are concerned. A sign depicting a turkey that pointed visitors to an unusual section of the Mother Road southwest of Nilwood was found to be missing on Nov. 11. The colorful, lighthearted sign, erected by neighboring farmers, marked the spot of turkey tracks set in the pavement, a site that has become a part of local lore and a favorite of tourists along Route 66. Its sad that someone felt the need to take the sign, said Andrea Duncan, a member of the Carlinville Tourism Committee. It was very helpful for anyone looking for the tracks, which are unique to the area. The tracks were created in the 1920s as turkeys crossed cement that was drying on the pavement during construction of the highway, which was labeled Route 4 at the time. The road was part of the old alignment of Route 66 that rolled through central Macoupin County from 1926-30. The tracks are on Donaldson Road, just south of the current Illinois Route 4. Whether the tracks were created by wild turkeys or an escaped domestic turkey from a nearby farm is unclear. But the 34 tracks scattered across the pavement have become an indelible part of the legend of Route 66 in Illinois. The first time I heard of the turkey tracks, I went out in that direction to search for them, said Duncan, who includes the tracks in a presentation she delivers on county history. I kept looking until I saw the sign, and that showed me right where they were. Those tracks are what travelers along Route 66 are looking for today, she continued. Theyre looking for fun, quirky things, that not every town has. And turkey tracks on Route 66 is something thats pretty amazing. Macoupin County Sheriff Shawn Kahl says that no leads have been received on the theft. Hopefully, someone will come forward and tell us who actually took the sign, or bring it back, said Kahl. That sign means a lot to a certain group of people, and its an important part of county history that should be preserved. A reward is being offered for information leading to the theft. Anyone with information is asked to contact Macoupin / Montgomery County Crime Stoppers at 800-352-0136, at www.macmontcrimestoppers.com, or by texting TIP722 to CRIMES (274637). Tom Emery may be reached at 217-710-8392 or ilcivilwar@yahoo.com. Ask yourself: Do the ends justify the means? Donald Trumps alarming behavior as president springs from his belief that to achieve his goal in life self-deification any behavior is justified. Lying for instance. We should honor and do honor the office of the presidency, but the person now occupying the office is morally blind, upside-down emotionally and clumsy intellectually. His presence in the White House is a threat to the well-being of all Americans. One threat in particular is political, a menace which calls to mind the horror of the Nazi nightmare in German and the purges in Stalinist Russia in the 1930s. Trump is trying to corrupt the Fourth Estate, our freedom of the press and to thwart free elections. How can we fight back? Our best weapon is to understand this: Only purity of means can justify our ends. Ends and means are so entangled in our thinking that by changing one, you change the other. How evil means can poison a good goal is dramatized strikingly in an Arthur Koestler novel, Darkness at Noon, the title of which echoes a Biblical verse: And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall they light rise in obscurity and thy darkness be as the noonday. (Isaiah 58:10) Stalin poleaxed the primal idealism of the Marxist Revolution Arise ye wretched of the Earth. When the purges began in Russia, and the Nazis climbed to power in Germany, in the Communist World there was darkness at noon. Just as Stalin blighted Russia and Hitler cankered Germany. Trump has betrayed the primal idealism of the GOP, made flesh in Abraham Lincoln. Nicolas Salmanovitch Rubashov, the hero of Koestlers novel, as he is marched to his doom in the cellar of the Lubyanka Fortress in Moscow, realizes just moments before he takes a bullet in the back of the head, that the goals of the Community Party do not justify the starvation, terror, murder and mayhem it had inflicted on the Russian people. When will our president wake to see that only purity of means can justify our ends? Colin Campbell Elsah Start the fire I truly enjoy Alton and the many things going on there. I also truly enjoy the Alton Telegraph newspaper until your Editorial page happens to feature columnist and grumpy-looking, also superior-looking John Dunphy. I realize at that moment I need a fire in my fireplace and need paper to start the fire. Without his columns, you have the best newspaper around! Betty Homyer Granite City ChemonicsInternational Inc. is certified consulting company that has partnered withlocal and international organizations to promote social and economic changearound the world for over40 years. The Uganda RefineryHolding Company (URHC) is a Private Limited Liability Company incorporatedunder the Companies Act (2012). It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the UgandaNational Oil Company (UNOC) Ltd. The purpose of the URHC is to hold, on behalfof UNOC, interest in the refinery project planned to be developed in Kabaale,Hoima District and its associated infrastructure. URHC has also been given themandate to develop, operationalize and manage the 29.57 km2 Kabaale petro-basedIndustrial Park (KIP). Touched by the compassion of the nurses who tended to her... Narendra Modis first rally in the run-up to the assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, at Shahdol on November 16, was meant to be a game-changer. Having struggled to beat anti-incumbency, the ruling BJP was banking on the prime minister to turn things around by addressing ten rallies in five days. In the past six months, the Congress has not only kept up its ad campaign against the BJP, but also mobilised grassroots workers. The rally at Shahdol, however, witnessed a poor turnout, signalling that Modis ability to single-handedly win elections may be fading. The empty chairs at the venue forced the organisers to mobilise students at the nearby Pandit S.N. Shukla University. The students, who attended the rally in their uniforms, later revealed that they were told to skip classes. Modis earlier visits had seen the state government going all out to make his rallies succeed. Officials were deputed to help organise the events, and hundreds of buses were deployed at the governments expense to ferry people from remote areas. This time, though, things were not so smooth. The bus owners, for instance, have been complaining that the government was yet to settle their previous bill. In Gwalior, women started leaving the BJP rally when Modi began speaking. High LPG and petrol prices have affected all of us. The speeches of BJP leaders sound very hollow, said lawyer Sameer Singh of Gwalior. On November 18, Modi addressed a rally near Lav Kush Chouraha (junction) in Indore. Rajesh Johari of the NGO Utkarsh Foundation said it was the first time that a towering leader like Modi was addressing a rally at such a small place. People have started holding him responsible for everything in their lives, said Johari. Even if they do not understand the meaning of GST (Goods and Services Tax), they say that it is the mother of all problems. Former director general of police Subhash Chandra Tripathi said Modi had failed to meet expectations. We have seen how very powerful governments slipped over one issue or the other. Modi came riding high on the wave of expectations, but the general perception now is that he could not deliver what he promised, he said. Upper hand: Former state Congress president Arun Yadav campaigning near Bhopal | Sanjoy Ghosh The Congress has put out TV ads and radio jingles targeting Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. But, at least half the issues that the Congress has highlightedsuch as demonetisation and the implementation of GSTwere decisions made by the Union government. In Chhattisgarh, where the opposition has adopted a similar strategy, the BJP has been forced to make Modis presence less visible in posters and billboards. All publicity material are dominated by images of Chief Minister Raman Singh with pictures of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the backdrop. Modi being relegated to stamp-size photos on posters speaks volumes about the popularity of the prime minister, said Bhujit Doshi, Congress leader from Bastar. With Modi beginning to dominate the poll campaign in Madhya Pradesh, it seems Chouhan is having trouble asserting himself as Singh did in Chhattisgarh. All the good schemes of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan governmentbe it the housing scheme for the poor or the insurance scheme for farmersare propelled and guided by Narendra Modi, said BJP spokesperson Rajneesh Agarwal. He is our biggest source of energy and he has the ability to win elections. Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat are examples. Congress leader Durgesh Sharma, however, said Modis rallies in Madhya Pradesh were benefiting the opposition. He speaks so much about his failed decisions that have hurt people that the public itself reacts. Modi should make more visits to my state, said Sharma. The Congresss media campaign in the state has been effective, but the BJPs campaign managers are more worried about the party losing its dominance in social media. There is a sudden downturn in [the acceptability of] social media posts and forwards promoted by our IT team, said a BJP leader. Arun Yadav, former state Congress president who is contesting against Chouhan in Budhni, said the BJPs efforts to polarise the state had failed. Madhya Pradesh is a state where elections are not won on religious polarisation, he said. The minority population is just 7 per cent. The people want the BJPs national leaders to talk about different issues, but the leaders deliberately rake up Ayodhya and RSS-related issues so that they do not have to answer questions about price rise and unemployment. Shrewd strategy: Under Kamal Nath, the Congresss state unit has been exploiting the resentment against the ruling BJP | Sanjoy Ghosh BJP president Amit Shah and Union Minister Smriti Irani, who are perceived to be close to Modi, have been struggling to attract crowds to their rallies. Many BJP ministers and legislators have also had to deal with angry constituents. Revenue Minister Umashankar Gupta was heckled while campaigning in Arjun Nagar, a slum in Bhopal. Education Minister Deepak Joshi was not allowed to make a speech at an election meeting in Hatpipliya, his constituency. Rajesh Sonkar, BJP legislator representing Sanver, was attacked by villagers in Bisakhedi. Voters threw stones at Khilchipur MLA Hajarilal Dangi, while villagers in Jawad refused to meet Omprakash Saklecha, the legislator who represents Neemuch, which witnessed a huge farmers protest last year. Even the chief ministers wife, Sadhana Singh, was heckled while campaigning in Budhni. I have never witnessed so much resentment in any electionthat, too, against a chief minister of 13 years who won the previous election by a margin of more than 84,000 votes, said Arun Yadav. The Congress has smartly let the polls become a BJP vs the people battle. In the past six months, the party has not only kept up its ad campaign against the BJP, but also mobilised grassroots workers. The Congresss game plan, however, was borne out of compulsion: The infighting between its top leadersKamal Nath, Digvajaya Singh and Jyotiraditya Scindiahad prevented from naming the chief minister candidate. Senior Congress leaders are either keeping a low profile or are tactfully missing from the scene, said journalist Prashant Jain. Congress leaders are probably aware of their drawbacks. They know that their infighting and baggagefrom the time they were in the state and Union governmentsare highlighted by the media and the BJP. So, they want the public to focus only on the BJPs performance. According to poet Sudhir Saxena, the BJP has better spin doctors than the Congress. BJP leaders, in their speeches and press conferences, paint the state Congress leaders as demons, he said. They call Digvijaya Singh bantadhar (one who spoils everything), and give similar adjectives to others. Congress leaders are unable to counter that. Saxena said the Congress is exploiting a wave of anti-incumbency against the BJP government. With such strong undercurrent against the existing rule, the opposition does not want the issues against the BJP to get diluted in a Congress vs BJP fight. After the campaign started, state Congress leaders spent a fortnight in Delhi. They were told not to interact with the media. This was in sharp contrast to Chouhan and his relentless campaign over the past year. Chouhan has had a particularly turbulent year. Apart from farmer protests, he had to deal with the dalit agitation against the Union governments move to dilute the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Upper-caste and middle-class voters, considered to be the BJPs core support base, responded to the dalit protests by demanding an end to reservation in jobs and education. Angry at the BJP for taking a pro-reservation stand, they launched a political outfit called the Sapaks Party. Its supporters have been circulating old videos showing Chouhan declaring that no mai ka lal (mothers son) can end reservation. Dalit organisations, meanwhile, have accused the BJP government of turning a blind eye to their demands. Having found himself in a quandary, Chouhan has gone hammer and tongs against Congress leaders. The Congress is a party of rajas and maharajas; their leaders are like guests, he said at a rally. They will go back to Delhi as soon as the polls are over. They cannot understand the issues of the masses. They do not even know whether onion grows below the ground or on branches. Chouhans favourite target is Digvijaya, whom he calls a terrorist sympathiser. Digvijaya is a punching bag for the BJP, said journalist Manoj Sharma. It wants him to remain in the scene. The Congress, under state president Kamal Nath, has given Digvijaya back-room responsibilities. The former chief minister has been actively coordinating the campaign from his office in the party headquarters in Bhopal. As a strategy, we have kept all our leaders, except for Rahul Gandhi, behind the scenes to avoid any controversy, said Shobha Ojha, chairperson of the Congresss media department. Rahul Gandhi has performed rather well. By the time Kamal Nath and Scindia started addressing back-to-back rallies on November 14, the Congress president had made more than a dozen visits to the state. Surprisingly, Rahul is attracting more spontaneous crowds than Modi, said Saxena. For the BJP, this may be an alarming sign. Violence must stop and peace should return to the region:Punjab Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu at Kartarpur Corridor groundbreaking ceremony. PTI ZH AKJ ZH ZH Colombo, Nov 28 (PTI) Sri Lanka's highest-ranking military officer Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne on Wednesday surrendered before a local court which remanded him in custody for a week in a case of abduction of 11 youths during the last phase of the bloody civil war with the LTTE in 2009. Chief of Defence Staff Admiral Wijegunaratne appeared before the Fort magistrate court in full military uniform and his army commando security. The court was informed that Wijegunaratne shielded a naval intelligence officer accused of 11 murders in the final stages of the civil war with the Tamil rebels that ended in 2009. The court remanded him in custody until December 5. Admiral Wijeguneratne denies the allegations. Navy personnel had been arrested for abductions and disappearance of 11 youths in 2009 apparently for ransom. A special police team informed the court that Wijegunaratne had facilitated the main suspect Chandana Prasad Hettiarachchi, a lieutenant commander of the Navy, to flee the country to avoid legal proceedings. Wijegunaratne had concealed information to the court over Hettiarachchi's whereabouts, the police team said. The court wanted him to appear before it, but Wijegunaratne avoided. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which led the separatist war for a separate Tamil homeland for three decades in the island nation, was finally crushed by the Lankan military in 2009 with the death of its leader V Prabhakaran. The UN Human Rights Council has called for an international probe into the alleged war crimes during the military conflict with the LTTE. According to the government figures, around 20,000 people are missing due to various conflicts including the 30-year-long separatist war with Lankan Tamils in the north and east which claimed at least 100,000 lives. PTI CORR ZH AKJ ZH ZH Geneva, Nov 28 (PTI) India on Wednesday reaffirmed its commitment to the rebuilding and reconstruction of Afghanistan even as New Delhi reiterated its development assistance commitment of over USD 3 billion for the war-torn country. India's renewed commitment to Afghanistan was enunciated by Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh at the Ministerial Conference on Afghanistan in Geneva to evaluate and strategise on developmental policy achievements during the 'transformation decade' (2015-24) for the country, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement. Expressing India's support for an inclusive political settlement in Afghanistan, Singh also enunciated New Delhi's perspective on the development cooperation assistance to Afghanistan keeping the priorities of the people of Afghanistan at its centre. In his address at the conference, Singh asserted India's commitment to the rebuilding and reconstruction of Afghanistan and also reiterated New Delhi's development assistance commitment of over USD 3 billion to Afghanistan in consonance with Kabul's priorities under its National Peace and Development Framework. On the margins of the Geneva conference, Singh separately called on Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah. He also held bilateral meetings with foreign ministers of Norway and Hungary. India also participated in the side meeting on the 'Role of Regional Partners of Afghanistan' on Tuesday. Singh, on Tuesday, had participated in the high-level closed door dinner on 'Peace in Afghanistan' jointly organised by the Afghan government and the UN. He also expressed India's support in building a united, stable, secure, inclusive, democratic and prosperous Afghanistan and reiterated that peace and reconciliation efforts in Afghanistan have to be Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-controlled. "The MoS stated that for enduring peace and stability, terrorist safe havens and sanctuaries need to be eliminated and there is an imperative need for any political settlement to be free of external influence," the MEA statement said. A restricted breakfast meeting on Peace in Afghanistan was also jointly organised by the Afghan government of and the UN on Wednesday. In the breakfast meeting, Singh conveyed India's support to efforts of the Afghan government in the peace and reconciliation process and the need for firm action by the international community against those who breed, support, sustain and sponsor terror and violence, the statement added. At the conclusion of the Ministerial Conference, the Geneva Communique entitled 'Securing Afghanistan's Future: Peace, Self-Reliance and Connectivity' along with the Geneva Mutual Accountability Framework document on deliverables was also adopted. PTI PR KUN KUN Kabul, Nov 28 (AFP) At least 10 people were killed and 19 wounded in a Taliban-claimed attack at a private British security firm's compound in Kabul, officials said Wednesday, without confirming the victims' nationalities. "10 dead, 19 wounded have been evacuated from site," health ministry spokesman Wahid Majroh told AFP. An interior ministry spokesman confirmed the toll but warned it could still change. The interior ministry and police both said the blast had been a car bomb targeting a compound which houses G4S, a private British security company, in east Kabul. "We can confirm that there has been an incident at one of our locations in Kabul. The situation is ongoing and we are coordinating with the Afghan authorities to bring it to a conclusion," G4S tweeted from its official account. Afghan authorities also said they were conducting a clearing operation at the site. But the Taliban, who claimed the attack in a tweet, said the assault was ongoing. Interior Ministry deputy spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said at least seven wounded people had been evacuated from the area, but did not confirm their nationalities. A health ministry official put the wounded toll slightly higher, at 11. Earlier, sources had said the blast was followed by gunfire. Rahimi said no gunfire had been heard for some time, however. According to its website, G4S provides security for the UK Foreign Office in Kabul. The attack came just hours after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani announced the formation of a team for prospective peace talks with the Taliban, as the United Nations renewed calls for direct negotiations between Kabul and the militants. The Afghan government, Western diplomats and UN officials have in recent weeks raised hopes of finally reaching a deal to end the 17-year war. At an international conference on Afghanistan in Geneva, Ghani said the 12-person negotiating team includes both men and women and will be led by his chief of staff Abdul Salam Rahimi. Rahimi, a former humanitarian worker and ex-deputy Afghan finance minister, is considered one of Ghani's closest aides. Wednesday's assault on G4S is the second high-profile attack claimed by the Taliban on foreigners in as many days. On Tuesday, three US soldiers were killed in a blast near Ghazni city in central Afghanistan that was also claimed by the militant group. The attacks follow a wave of bloody violence across the war-torn country in recent weeks that has killed hundreds of people as militants step up their attacks. Earlier Wednesday, NATO said it was investigating an airstrike in southeastern Afghanistan that might have killed civilians, with unverified reports of women and children among the dead. On November 20, at least 55 people were killed when a bomber blew himself up in the middle of a banquet hall in one of the deadliest attacks in Afghanistan this year. The violence comes as the Taliban intensify pressure on Afghan security forces, even as the international community ramps up efforts towards talks. US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has expressed hopes that a peace deal to end the war could be struck before the Afghan presidential election, scheduled for April. His comments underscore an apparent increasing sense of urgency in the White House and among American diplomats for a peace deal to be done quickly. (AFP) KUN KUN Ex-C'garh CM Ajit Jogi admitted to hospital for check-up Mumbai, Nov 28 (PTI) Former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi has been admitted to Lilavati Hospital here for a routine medical check-up, an official said on Wednesday. Jogi, who contested the recently-held Chhattisgarh Assembly elections, is likely to be discharged on Thursday, the official said. "Jogi was admitted to Lilavati Hospital a couple of days back for routine medical check-up. He is doing fine," said Dr Ravishankar, CEO of Lilavati hospital. "He may be discharged tomorrow morning," he added. Assembly polls in Chhattisgarh were held in two phases earlier this month. Jogi, who had floated Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J), was in the fray from Marwahi seat in Bilaspur division of Chhattisgarh. PTI ND NP NP Balarampur (WB), Nov 28 (PTI) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Wednesday claimed saffronisation of all important offices in the country, "from the Raj Bhavan to the Prime Minister's office". The Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo raised the slogan "BJP Bharat chhodo," (BJP, leave India), claiming that the country would be "better off without the saffron party". "From the Raj Bhavan to the PM's office, the saffron party has put up its signboard at all important offices," she said at a public rally here. Stating that the TMC will play an "important" role in the next Lok Sabha elections, Banerjee said several opposition parties have confirmed their participation in her party's scheduled rally in January. "Leaders such as Chandrababu Naidu, Hardik Patel, Tejaswi Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav, M K Stalin, Farooq Abdullah and Arvind Kejriwal have confirmed their participation at Kolkata's Brigade Parade Ground rally in January," she said. The chief minister also resolved to open new fronts in her turf war with the saffron party by fielding candidates in neighbouring states. The TMC has decided to fight Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in the BJP-ruled states of Assam and Jharkhand, she said. "Assam has been witnessing anti-Bengali movements by some sections. I want my party men to start people-to-people contact in its districts neighbouring Bengal. The TMC will also field candidates in some constituencies of Odisha," she said. Iterating that her government has always doled out benefits for uplifting the marginalised sections, Banerjee said her party will always stand by the tribal people of Jharkhand if and when "atrocities were meted out to them". The TMC chief also asserted that the BJP, which won two seats in West Bengal in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, will fail to bag a single seat in the state in the next elections. Talking about the ongoing Madhya Pradesh elections, the second phase of which was being held Wednesday, the CM said complaints of EVM glitches have affected the poll process in the central state. "The Election Commission must take responsibility to ensure that these EVM machines function properly," Banerjee said. The CM also alleged that the saffron party was trying to make inroads into Bengal, with help from the CPI(M). "The CPI(M) cadre have changed their colours to work for the BJP. They are saffron outside and red inside," she added. PTI AMR RMS IND IND SDF scotches rumour of going with BJP, to go it alone in next polls Gangtok, Nov 28 (PTI) Scotching rumours that the ruling Sikkim Democratic Front would contest the next polls in alliance with the BJP, the SDF on Wednesday said it would go it alone in the assembly and Lok Sabha elections in 2019. Since the inception of the party 27 years ago, the SDF has contested all the elections on its own and the people of Sikkim have blessed the party in every polls, party spokespersons Bhim Dahal, KT Gyaltsen and TN Sharma said. "The SDF will contest the assembly and parliamentary elections in 2019 on its own under the able leadership of the party supremo and Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling," Dahal said. He alleged that opposition parties were spreading rumours to create seeds of doubt about the SDF among people. On the SDF being constituent of the BJP-led NDA and the North-East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), another spokesperson KT Gyaltsen said the party has always been a part of the coalition of the party ruling at the Centre. This is required to safeguard interests of the Himalayan state sharing borders with China, Nepal and Bhutan, Gyaltsen said. Spokesperson TN Sharma said the party's long standing demand to increase the strength of Sikkim assembly from the existing 32 to 40 has yet to be met. The demand for reservation of assembly seats for the Limboo and Tamang communities, accorded Scheduled Tribes (ST) status in 2002, also remained unfulfilled, he said. The SDF has decided to give five tickets to Limboo and Tamang communities in the next assembly polls from the 17 general seats, he said. Of the remaining 15 seats, 12 are reserved for Bhutia-Lepcha communities, two for Scheduled Castes and one for the 'Sangha'. The 'Sangha' seat is the one of its kind in India which was created under Article 371 (F) of the Constitution to give monks' representation in governance as was done during the rule of the erstwhile Chogyal kings. PTI KDK NN NN News Delhi, Nov 28 (PTI) These are the top stories from the northern region at 4.30 pm BHARATPUR ELX22 RJ-PM-BHARATPUR Bharatpur: Courtiers around the "naamdar" believe Naxals and Maoists are revolutionaries, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said here Wednesday in a sharp attack against Congress president Rahul Gandhi. NAGAUR ELX10 RJ-PM Nagaur: The "kamdar" is in a fight against the "naamdar" in Rajasthan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said here on Wednesday, making a distinction between the one who works and the dynast in a jibe against Congress president Rahul Gandhi. AMRITSAR DEL20 PB-KARTARPUR LD CORRIDOR Amritsar/Chandigarh: Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri, who represented the Indian government at the groundbreaking ceremony of the Kartarpur corridor in Pakistan, said Wednesday the corridor was anchored in hope and goodwill but there is need to be conscious of ground realities. SRINAGAR DEL16 JK-LET-2NDLD ENCOUNTER Srinagar: Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist Naveed Jhutt, who was wanted in connection with the assassination of journalist Shujaat Bukhari and had escaped from custody in February, was killed in an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir's Budgam district on Wednesday, officials said. DANTA RAMGARH ELX23 ELE-RJ-LEFT FRONT Danta Ramgarh: As the BJP and the Congress slug it out in the battle for Rajasthan, a third-front of seven parties is taking shape with its chief ministerial face and firebrand farmer leader Amra Ram asserting that it's time to end the state's two-party system of "divide, loot and rule". NEWDELHI LGD16 DL-HC-LD RIOTS New Delhi, Nov 28: The Delhi High Court Wednesday upheld the conviction of around 80 people and awarded them five year jail term for rioting, burning houses and violation of curfew during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. NEWDELHI DEL25 DL-FOOD COMMISSIONER-LD SUSPENSION New Delhi: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Wednesday ordered the suspension of Delhi's food and supplies commissioner over alleged irregularities in the ration system, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Imran Hussain said. NEWDELHI DES2 DL-AIR QUALITY New Delhi: Delhiites woke up to a thick haze hanging over the city as the air quality was recorded in the 'very poor' category. HISAR LGD1 HR-COURT-RAPE Hisar (Har): A court in Hisar has sentenced two men to 20 years in prison for raping a 17-year-old mentally challenged girl in a village here last year. PTI ASH ASH New Delhi, Nov 28 These are the top stories from the northern region at 9.30 pm JAIPUR ELX30 RJ-LD-PM RALLIES Bharatpur/Nagaur (R'than): Accusing the Congress leadership of losing touch with the ground reality, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Wednesday said those who cannot tell moong from masoor daal are now taking about farmers. JAIPUR ELX25 ELE-RJ-PILOT BJP Jaipur: Accusing the ruling BJP of communal polarisation to deflect attention from real issues in assembly polls, Rajasthan Congress chief Sachin Pilot has said raking up religious matters at the last minute is an "old, tried and tested trick" of the ruling party but it will not work now. DANTA RAMGARH ELX23 ELE-RJ-LEFT FRONT Danta Ramgarh: As the BJP and the Congress slug it out in the battle for Rajasthan, a third-front of seven parties is taking shape with its chief ministerial face and firebrand farmer leader Amra Ram asserting that it's time to end the state's two-party system of "divide, loot and rule". AMRITSAR DEL20 PB-KARTARPUR LD CORRIDOR Amritsar/Chandigarh: Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri, who represented the Indian government at the groundbreaking ceremony of the Kartarpur corridor in Pakistan, said Wednesday the corridor was anchored in hope and goodwill but there is need to be conscious of ground realities. CHANDIGARH DES9 PB-KARTARPUR-OPPOSITION Chandigarh: The Shiromani Akali Dal and the BJP Wednesday slammed Punjab cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu for "disobeying" Amarinder Singh on visiting Pakistan despite the chief minister telling him to reconsider his decision. NEWDELHI LGD16 DL-HC-LD RIOTS New Delhi, Nov 28: The Delhi High Court Wednesday upheld the conviction of around 80 people and awarded them five year jail term for rioting, burning houses and violation of curfew during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. NEWDELHI LGD38 DL-RIOTS-COURTS New Delhi: The long arm of the law is catching up with the culprits involved in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots that followed the assassination of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi, with two verdicts pronounced in last 10 days which included death penalty to a convict for killing of two men. SRINAGAR DEL27 JK-LET-3RDLD ENCOUNTER Srinagar: Pakistan-born Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Naveed Jhatt, who was wanted in connection with the assassination of journalist Shujaat Bukhari and escaped from custody in February, was gunned down in Jammu and Kashmir's Budgam district on Wednesday, police said. JAMMU DEL28 JK-GUV-TRANSFER Jammu: Amid a ranging controversy over his remarks on dissolving the Jammu and Kashmir assembly, Governor Satya Pal Malik has said the threat of transfer remains as it is not in one's hands. NEWDELHI DEL25 DL-FOOD COMMISSIONER-LD SUSPENSION New Delhi: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Wednesday ordered the suspension of Delhi's food and supplies commissioner over alleged irregularities in the ration system, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Imran Hussain said. NEWDELHI DES2 DL-AIR QUALITY New Delhi: Delhiites woke up to a thick haze hanging over the city as the air quality was recorded in the 'very poor' category. NEWDELHI DES10 DL-BOAT CLUB New Delhi: Permission to gather at the Boat Club area in the city will be given only to "peace loving" groups raising awareness on social, traffic and educational issues or programmes involving school children, according to the standing order of the Delhi Police. HISAR LGD1 HR-COURT-RAPE Hisar (Har): A court in Hisar has sentenced two men to 20 years in prison for raping a 17-year-old mentally challenged girl in a village here last year. NEWDELHI DES20 NHRC-UP-WORKERS New Delhi: The National Human Rights Commission has issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government over reported death of two workers at an site of an under-construction bridge in Saharanpur district. JAIPUR ELX38 ELE-RJ-YOGI-NOTICE Jaipur: A right-wing group in Rajasthan has sent a legal notice to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath asking him to apologise within three days for allegedly calling Lord Hanuman a Dalit. JAIPUR ELX31 RJ-POLL-ADITYANATH Jaipur: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath Wednesday alleged that the Congress was the mother of "anarchy" and development was not in its DNA. PTI ASH ASH New Delhi, Nov 28 (PTI) Arvind Saxena has been appointed as chairman of the Union Public Service Commission, which conducts examination to select bureaucrats, diplomats and police officers, according to an official statement issued Wednesday. Saxena will have a tenure till August 7, 2020, when he attains the age of 65 years, it said. He has been working as acting head of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) since June 20. President Ram Nath Kovind has cleared Saxena's appointment as the UPSC chairman, the statement issued by the Personnel Ministry said. Saxena joined the UPSC as a member on May 8, 2015. Prior to joining the UPSC, he was working as director of the Aviation Research Centre (ARC). A student of civil engineering from the Delhi College of Engineering and an M.Tech. in systems management from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, Saxena was selected for the civil services and joined the Indian Postal Service in 1978. In 1988, he started working at the Cabinet Secretariat, where he specialised in the study of strategic developments in neighbouring countries. Saxena has served in different countries and in the states of Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. A recipient of awards for meritorious services (2005) and distinguished services (2012), Saxena has travelled extensively in India and abroad, the statement said. The UPSC conducts civil services examination annually in three stages-- preliminary, main and interview-- to select officers of Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and Indian Police Service (IPS) among others. PTI AKV AKV ANB ANB Mandi (HP), Nov 28 (PTI) Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh Wednesday criticised Pakistan for sponsoring terrorism in India, saying the menace can be tackled if the leadership in that country works sincerely towards it. Addressing a 'panna pramukh sammelan', a meeting of BJP workers, in Himachal Pradesh's Mandi parliamentary constituency, Singh said Naxalism in the country has reduced from 90 districts to just nine. "Similarly, incidents of terrorism have also confined to only three-four districts in the country during the current BJP government at the Centre," he said. The country is rapidly developing under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Singh said. He said, "Former prime minister Indira Gandhi had nationalised the banks in the country saying it would bring banking services to the rural public, but desired results were not received". "The present government at the Centre has brought banking services to the doorstep of the people and 33 crore bank accounts of general public have been opened". Praising Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, Singh said he had brought many Centre-aided schemes to the state. The minister appealed to the BJP workers to work in a disciplined manner to again bring the party to power in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. BJP panna pramukhs from 17 assembly segments falling under Mandi parliamentary constituency attended the event. PTI CORR DJI DPB New Delhi, Nov 28 (PTI) If the number of protesters at Jantar Mantar goes beyond 1,000, they will be asked to go to Ramila Maidan, which can accommodate up to 50,000 persons, is among one of the guidelines of Delhi Police for people protesting there. Citing these guidelines, Delhi Police is holding talks with the All India Kisan Sangharsh Samiti Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), which will be marching towards Parliament on November 30. Police said they will stop the protesters at Ramlila Maidan since it is expected that the number of protesters will be close to 30,000. According to the order, protest at Jantar Mantar shall be organised between 10 am to 5 pm. Earlier, Jantar Mantar had become a hub to many groups protesting for various causes, the guidelines prohibit pitching tents or temporary structures at Jantar Mantar "even for a temporary period". "Multiples protests in a day may be allowed subject to availability of suitable timings and appropriate time gap but the limit of total 1,000 persons shall be adhered to," the order said. Any organiser bringing in protesters exceeding 1,000, despite submitting an undertaking, will be considered as a "deliberate attempt to violate the orders of the Supreme Court". "Such organisers and their protest will be video-graphed and their non-compliance as well as non-cooperation shall be considered not only for legal action as deemed appropriate but will also be kept on record to consider while giving permission to them for their future protests," the order added. According to the order, maximum 25 buses of the protesters will be permitted in the jurisdiction of New Delhi district and parking of these vehicles will be allowed at Jai Singh Road or any other alternative place in consultation with the Traffic Police. "No tractors, trolleys, bullock-carts, cycle-rickshaws, or hand-driven carts shall be allowed. No animals like horses, elephants , camels, cattle would be allowed in a rally or dharna," the order stated. No loudspeaker or public address system shall be used at the venue of the rally or dharna at Jantar Mantar without specific permission from the the Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi), it said. In case permission is granted by the concerned authority, loudspeakers shall be sued between 10 am to 5 pm and no vehicle mounted with public address system for addressing protesters will be permitted at the place of protest. The order bans carrying of lathis, firearms, spears, swords and other such weapons at these protest venues and also on burning effigies or documents, cooking and littering while also caution the participants from indulging in arson, or assaulting any government servant. "No participant shall make any provocative speech or use any language likely to inflame passions of the crowd or incite them or promote enmity between different groups on ground of religion, race, place or birth, residence language, etc," the order said. It has also listed out measures for concerned government agencies to undertake cleaning work and restore normalcy not later than 12 hours after the event. There is also a provision for compensation towards "damage to environment" from the organiser and in case any violation is found, legal action will be taken. On July 23, the Supreme Court today lifted a blanket ban on rallies, dharnas or sit-ins at the Jantar Mantar and Boat Club areas here, saying there could not be an "absolute" ban on protests in such localities. PTI SLB/AMP KJ Kolkata, Nov 28 (PTI) The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has slapped a Rs 5-crore fine on the West Bengal government for "failing to comply" with its two-year-old directive to improve air quality in Kolkata and Howrah. The NGT Eastern Zone principal bench comprising Judges S P Wangdi and non-judicial member Nagin Nanda on Tuesday said the fine should be paid within two weeks of the order to the Central Pollution Control Board, failing which, the government will have to pay an additional Rs 1-crore as fine for every month's delay to the CPCB. The order was given in the wake of West Bengal government not enforcing several measures recommended by the NGT in an earlier order in 2016 to check air pollution, the bench observed. In the order, the NGT had recommended measures like introducing alternative mechanism to put a lid on high number of polluting diesel vehicles in the twin cities of Kolkata and Howrah, introducing remote sensing device (RSD) to monitor smoke emission, increasing number of computerised air monitoring stations from the existing ones. The other measures include introducing the system of allowing private vehicles with odd and even registration numbers on specific days in the week, monitoring entry of non-BS 4 commercial vehicles to twin cities, stop burning of waste in dumping sites in different parts of state. The green body in subsequent sittings in the intervening period of two years had sought to know if the West Bengal government's Environment department and the West Bengal Pollution Control Board had taken any steps towards the direction. The NGT had passed the 2016 order on the basis of a report submitted by an expert committee but environmentalist Subhas Datta had moved a contempt petition recently which led to imposition of the fine by the tribunal. The NGT on Tuesday also directed the West Bengal chief secretary to file an affidavit by January 8, 2019 regarding the follow-up action plan and payment of fine. Environmentalist S M Ghosh said this was the culmination of a 20-year-old battle by environmentalists with a writ petition on health hazard caused by pollution first filed in 1999 at the Calcutta high court by him, another petition on the same issue filed by environmentalist Subhas Dutta in HC in 2006 and the case being transferred to NGT East bench in 2014. PTI SUS RG CK New Delhi, Nov 28 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the CBI to take over the probe into allegations of physical and sexual abuse of inmates at 16 shelter homes in Bihar. A bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur transferred the investigation, being conducted by Bihar police, to the CBI while dismissing the state government's request to not transfer the probe. The apex court said the report of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) raises grave concern about 17 shelter homes in Bihar and CBI must look into all of them. CBI told the bench, also comprising Justice S A Nazeer and Justice Deepak Gupta, that in principle, it was ready to take over the investigation. The agency is already investigating the Muzaffarpur shelter home case, in which it is expected to file a charge sheet by December 7, the court was told. The apex court also said CBI officers probing the shelter home cases in Bihar shall not be transferred without its prior permission. PTI ABA HMP LLP HMP DIV DIV Jammu, Nov 28 (PTI) The Labour department in Jammu and Kashmir has gone online with a host of services, including benefits under various welfare schemes for the workers, an official spokesperson said Wednesday. Advisor to Governor Khursheed Ahmed Ganai launched the departmental portal here Tuesday before taking a review of the performance of its different wings, he said. The portal will provide 31 services online, including benefits under various welfare schemes for the workers, payment of various kinds of fee and information about labour laws and rules, he said. While hailing the introduction of the IT-enabled services by the department, Ganai stressed on the need to have a trained workforce for effective operation of the system. The portal is jointly created by the Labour department and the Small Scale Industries Development Corporation (SICOP). PTI TAS AB AD KJ Muzaffarnagar, Nov 28 (PTI) A 65-year-old farmer allegedly committed by hanging himself from a tree in Uttar Pradesh's Shamli district, police said on Wednesday. Satpal had gone to his fields in Bhanwada village under Babri police station limits on Tuesday, police said. Later, his body was found hanging from a tree in the fields, they said. Police said a probe is underway to ascertain the reason behind Satpal's extreme step. PTI CORR DIV DIV Bhopal, Nov 28 (PTI) The BJP Wednesday petitioned the Election Commission and sought action against Congress leader Kamal Nath for "influencing" voters before casting his ballot during the Madhya Pradesh assembly polls. In its complaint to the poll body, the BJP said Nath, accompanied by his friends, before casting his ballot in a polling booth at Chhindwara, showed his palm, the election symbol of his party, and thus influenced the voters there. The act amounts to "influencing" voters and violates the model code of conduct, a release by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said here. Besides, the BJP lodged another complaint with the Election Commission (EC), stating polling personnel faced a lot of hardship in opening EVMs, delaying start of voting at several places. The Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) malfunctioned one after another in multiple booths and due to unavailability of their replacements, the polling process was affected by three to four hours, the ruling party said in the release. Due to this, many voters returned home without casting their ballots, it said. A BJP delegation met EC officials here and lodged the complaints. The saffron outfit demanded re-polling in booths where, according to the party, the voting was hampered for a long time due to EVM malfunctioning. State Chief Electoral Officer V L Kantha Rao said they have sought the Chhindwara district returning officer's report in connection with the BJP's complaint against Nath. "After getting the inquiry report, we will proceed accordingly," he said. Asked about the BJP demand for re-polling at booths hit by reported EVM malfunctioning, the CEO said observers will examine it and thereafter, forward their reports to the poll body. "According to our knowledge, the voting was not abandoned for more than two hours due to EVM malfunction in any part of Madhya Pradesh," he said. Nevertheless, the EC will rely on observers' reports in this connection, Rao added. PTI LAL RSY SRY Thomas Cook lost nearly a quarter of its value after it warned for the second time in two months that profits would be lower than expected. The travel firm admitted the past year had been 'disappointing' as holidaymakers delayed summer getaways or even opted to stay at home due to soaring temperatures across northern Europe. Under-pressure boss Peter Fankhauser axed the full-year dividend and slashed the full-year profits forecast by 30million to 250million ahead of annual results tomorrow a fall of 58million on a year ago. Thomas Cook admitted the past year had been 'disappointing' as holidaymakers delayed summer getaways or even opted to stay at home due to soaring temperatures It is the second time Thomas Cook has cut profit forecasts since September, when it lowered full-year guidance to 280million from 323million. Shares yesterday fell 22.6 per cent, or 10.98p, to 37.56p, taking losses in the past six months to 74 per cent. Chief executive Fankhauser said: '2018 was a disappointing year for Thomas Cook, despite achieving some important milestones in our strategy for transforming the business. 'I'm not happy with the financial result. This is not where we wanted to be.' The firm makes all of its profits during the summer when sun seekers in the UK, Germany and Scandinavia generally flock further south to destinations such as Spain, Turkey and Greece. Analysts warned that the latest update raised concerns about the firm's financial health. Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG, said: 'The suspension of the dividend was a nasty surprise and will raise fears that Thomas Cook has returned to the dire times of 2011 and 2012.' That was when the business closed hundreds of High Street travel agencies and axed thousands of jobs in the wake of the global recession, which it blamed for hitting sales. Michael Hewson, chief market Analyst at CMC Markets UK, added: 'The decision to cut the dividend can't have been taken lightly, however, the lack of dividend is likely to be the least of shareholders' problems given how badly the shares have performed this year. The woe continues in what has been an awful year for Thomas Cook.' The oldest travel company in the world, it has battled with many issues in recent years, including fears over terrorist attacks. Thomas Cook boss Peter Fankhauser axed the full-year dividend and slashed the full-year profits forecast by 30m to 250m ahead of annual results a fall of 58m on a year ago It has also struggled to compete with the soaring popularity of the so-called 'DIY holiday' which has seen travellers shun package holidays in favour of booking through stand-alone providers such as online accommodation service Airbnb. Shares are now at their lowest point since the global financial crisis when Thomas Cook's stock price slumped from 300p to 13p. The company's debt pile has also spiked to 389million 45 per cent higher than predicted by analysts and two thirds of Thomas Cook's 578million value. Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, added: 'To put that into some context, Thomas Cook once one of the biggest names in the travel industry and an iconic British brand is now worth less than Card Factory, a retailer which sells gift cards for 99p, and Dairy Crest, which makes blocks of cheese.' Thomas Cook wants to boost sales by luring new and younger customers through its own-brand hotels, which include the trendy Casa Cook concept. However, analysts warned that the hotels' higher price tag will put off cash-strapped families looking for a bargain. Mould said: 'That won't be an easy sell given the highly competitive nature of the market and the fact that the general public associates Thomas Cook with cheap holidays. 'If they are prepared to pay higher prices, the punters may simply go to a brand associated with higher quality offerings.' Apple fell after President Trump said he could hit iPhones made in China with 10% tariffs TRUMP THREAT Shares in Apple fell after President Trump said he could hit iPhones made in China with 10 per cent tariffs. NO BID Stockbroker Liberum has denied rumours that Australian bank Macquarie has made a 100million bid to buy it. SHALE QUEST Explorer IGas has started drilling the UKs third shale gas well, in north Nottinghamshire, hot on the heels of rival Cuadrilla. STEELY SALES Structural steel firm Severfield said revenue in the first half rose 9 per cent to 149million while profit before tax rose 2 per cent to 13million. TOUGH TIME Meat supplier Cranswick reported near-flat profit growth of 1 per cent against a tougher background for the market. MYSTERY MAN Yang Zhihui, chairman of Hong Kong casino builder Landing International Development, has reappeared after vanishing in August. He had allegedly been assisting Chinese authorities with an investigation. NEW BOSS Paul Stockton, investment firm Rathbones finance director, will become chief executive after Philip Howell retires in May. MONEY WORRIES The wealthy are worrying more about their financial future than a year ago, Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management said. GOOD YEAR Flooring firm Victoria posted a 44 per cent rise in revenues to 273.4million in the 26 weeks to September 29 compared with a year earlier. Profits almost halved to 4.6million. BABY LINK Retailer Next signed a concession deal with mother-and-baby firm Mamas & Papas at its Bristol Cribbs Causeway store. ASDA MOVE Budget retailer Wilko has appointed Asdas Andrew Moore as chief commercial officer. ON RISE Sales at product tester Intertek have risen 3.8 per cent to 968million in the four months to the end of October when compared to last year. MAGIC MALL Shopping centre owner Westfield welcomed a record 50m visitors to its Stratford City site in London in the past year. PARK ROW Casino operator Genting Malaysia is launching a legal challenge against 21st Century Fox and Disney for scrapping plans for a theme park in the country. PEDAL POWER San Francisco-based bike hire firm Lime has launched its services in the UK. Its electric-assisted bikes are available for rent in Milton Keynes. Brian Bickell said relief for retailers announced by Philip Hammond was welcome but did not go far enough A West End landlord has called for 'root-and-branch reform' of business rates that are piling pressure on High Street shops. Brian Bickell, boss of Shaftesbury, said relief for retailers announced by Chancellor Philip Hammond was welcome but did not go far enough. He said it would help barely any shops in London's West End, where Shaftesbury owns more than 560 buildings, including shops, cafes and offices. Bickell, 64, is the latest business leader to call for rates reform. Critics say the levy unfairly targets traditional shops over online rivals. The Mail's Save Our High Streets campaign, which calls for a level playing field on rates for bricks-and-mortar stores and their online rivals, is backed by the likes of Marks & Spencer, Debenhams and the John Lewis Partnership. Retailers have been hammered by soaring rates, unaffordable rents and plummeting footfall. Many firms also argue that town centre parking fees are putting off shoppers. Bickell said the future success of the High Street would partly rely on making shopping 'an interesting experience'. But he also warned retailers were under pressure because of business rates, and the relief announced by Hammond in his recent Budget would not be enough for his tenants. 'It helps a few of them but, I have to say, rateable values in the West End will probably put most people above the level that there is any support for,' he said. 'I think everybody is looking for some root-and-branch reform of business rates. 'They have been out of date probably for 50 years but it is one of those cans that is always being kicked down the road.' Shaftesbury, which owns some 15 acres of land in London, appeared to be avoiding the worst of the troubles to hit retail landlords. Both its earnings and the value of its property portfolio have risen, bucking a trend that has seen rivals such as British Land and Landsec report falls in recent weeks. Shaftesbury said its holdings had risen 3.8 per cent to nearly 4billion. Its income from properties rose 6.2 per cent to 93.8million. Last night a Government spokesman said: 'We want to support businesses, including High Street retailers struggling with high rents and changes in consumer habits, which is why we introduced reductions to business rates worth more than 13billion over the next five years. 'At the Budget, we introduced a further 1.6billion package of support, including 900million of rates relief for small shops and cafes where we think it is most needed.' Royal Mail looks likely to be shunted out of the FTSE 100 as its annus horribilis goes from bad to worse. The postal service, whose shares floated on the public market five years ago for 330p each, and hit 631p in May, sank to its lowest price ever this month of 308.7p. The stock has since refused to climb much higher. A relegation to the FTSE 250 when the data is collected next week would top off a terrible year for Royal Mail. In July, 70 per cent of shareholders voted against its fat-cat pay in one of the biggest revolts in British corporate history. Royal Mail, whose shares floated on the public market five years ago for 330p each, and hit 631p in May, sank to its lowest price ever this month of 308.7p The humiliation came after Royal Mail handed its new German chief executive Rico Back a pay package worth up to 2.7million a year on top of a 6million golden hello. Departing chief Moya Greene was given a 2.6million golden goodbye. In September, chairman Peter Long was forced to step down amid criticism over the way the company was run and his commitments elsewhere, including at troubled estate agent Countrywide (up 4.2 per cent, or 0.38p, to 9.49p). Last month, a shock profit warning wiped 1.2billion off Royal Mails market value in just two days. And this month, the company posted a 57 per cent fall in half-year profits to 33million. Shares were trading down 0.1 per cent, or 0.3p, at 332.6p yesterday, giving Royal Mail a market value of 3.3billion. Stock Watch - Optibiotix With obesity an increasingly serious issue, Optibiotix is hoping its newly approved slimming treatment will fly off the shelves. Its Slimbiome sachets, which are designed to make consumers feel fuller and so eat fewer unhealthy foods, received European approval as a medical device. It can now be marketed throughout the European Economic Area, and follow quicker medical product registration procedures in markets such as China. Shares climbed 17.1 per cent, or 12.5p, to 85.5p. Insurer Hiscox will probably take its place on the blue-chip index. Its shares were trading up 0.3 per cent, or 5p, at 1686p, giving it a value of 4.8billion. The FTSE 100 index is reviewed every quarter, and companies whose value has slipped too low are removed. The review is important for the firms themselves as it may mean that investors have to sell their shares, since many fund managers are forced to hold a certain percentage of blue-chip businesses. The FSTE 100 slid 0.3 per cent, or 19.15 points, to 7016.9 points as President Trump threatened to impose fresh tariffs on Chinese products. Reignited trade war fears weighed on London-listed mining companies, as China is a big buyer of metals and minerals. Copper miner Antofagasta dipped 3.4 per cent, or 27.2p, to 778.6p, Evraz dropped 3.3 per cent, or 15.5p, to 460.6p, and Fresnillo shed 2.6 per cent, or 20.2p, to end the day at 757.6p. On the FTSE 250, sausage roll favourite Greggs went some way to balancing out the huge slide at Thomas Cook (down 22.6 per cent, or 10.98p, at 37.56p). The pastry-maker said like-for-like sales were up 4.5 per cent for the eight weeks to November 24, and it lifted profit expectations from around 82million to at least 86million. Greggs has been moving beyond steak bakes and cheese pasties to pull in a new type of customer, launching its first vegan sandwich earlier this year. Investors have lapped up the changes, and shares climbed 11 per cent, or 136p, to 1373p. The bakery chain is now worth almost 1.4billion. Water company Pennon edged up too, even as increased regulation in the utilities sector has made some investors cautious. The scorching summer increased demand among its South West Water customers, helping group revenue climb 3.1 per cent to 745.7million in the first half and profits soar 8.7 per cent to 142.5million. Shares yeterday rose 1 per cent, or 7.8p, to 764.2p. Topps Tiles, on the other hand, was less of a hit in the City. Sales were flat for the year ending in September, the dividend remained constant at 3.4p and profits slid 25.3 per cent to 12.7million. Chief executive Matthew Williams assured investors the results were robust in what he called a challenging market, and that profit was lower because of investment in expansion. But shares still dipped by 1.5 per cent, or 1p, to 65p. De LA Rue has been warned it risks being snapped up by a foreign predator after losing the contract to make Britains post-Brexit blue passports. The London-listed banknote maker has seen its shares tumble over the past year making it look cheap to overseas suitors. Shares slipped again yesterday dropping 2.3 per cent, or 10.5p, to 451.5p after it reported a sharp fall in profits. It has lost 30 per cent of its value this year. DeLa Rue Shares slipped again yesterday dropping 2.3 per cent, or 10.5p, to 451.5p after it reported a sharp fall in profits. It has lost 30 per cent of its value this year Richard Bernstein, the boss of activist investor Crystal Amber which owns a 5 per cent stake in De La Rue, said: Unless management can quickly deliver, we expect an overseas predator to pounce on another great British company. City sources suggested US industrials group Crane Co could be plotting a takeover bid. Crane, which bought banknote producer Crane Currency last December for around 630million, has a track record of scooping up companies which it believes will build its business. Russ Mould, investment director at broker AJ Bell, said that he would not be surprised to see more foreign buyers showing interest in UK companies. Although uncertainty surrounding Brexit has put off some bidders, he added, the weak pound has made domestic companies even cheaper to outsiders, and some firms may feel it is worth biting the bullet. De La Rue has scrambled to invest in new technologies after Franco-Dutch competitor Gemalto won the 260million passport contract in April. It underbid De La Rue, which had held the contract since 2009. But De La Rues spending on research and development, focused on newer areas such as product authentication, combined with disappointing performance in its banknote division, have pushed first-half profit down by 59 per cent to 10.1million. The firm, which said it is looking to cut jobs, has come under fire from Crystal Amber and other investors for seemingly failing to have a clear strategy and doing little to halt its sliding share price. The company has now outlined its vision for the passports and identification part of its business, saying it would focus on selling security features which can be included in ID cards and passports rather than creating the whole products themselves. It may also still sell the whole division, adding that it was assessing all options. But it will also look to make acquisitions, and the Mail understands it is in talks with two potential targets. It is creating its own digital systems which allow governments to track taxable items such as cigarettes and remove illegal imports from the market. It has signed a contract with the United Arab Emirates in this area. It has also signed deals with Swedens central bank Sveriges Riksbank, , to produce the krona and renewed an agreement with the Central Bank of Kenya. Both De La Rue and Crane were unavailable to comment. Missing out: Over 900,000 low-paid women workers are not receiving tax relief on their pension contributions Hundreds of thousands of women are missing out on vital top-ups to their pension savings. Official figures show that more than 1.22 million low-paid workers are not receiving tax relief on their pension contributions and are collectively 78 million poorer as a result. It is estimated that women account for around three-quarters of those affected, according to the latest HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) figures. The extent of the problem was revealed when former pensions minister Ros Altmann asked Parliament to break down how many of the low-income workers losing out were women. Currently, anyone earning more than 10,000 is automatically enrolled into their company's pension scheme. Employees contribute 3 per cent of their earnings to the scheme, which will rise to 5 per cent in April next year. Employers make a 2 per cent contribution, increasing to 3 per cent next year. Workers are then entitled to tax relief on these pension contributions. Non-taxpayers or basic-rate taxpayers get relief at 20 per cent, while higher-rate earners can claim 40 per cent. So, for every 100 that goes into their pension pot, it only costs 80 and 60 respectively. However, a glitch in the way some workplace pensions are run means that many employees who do not earn enough to pay tax will not get this top-up. Experts say it is down to HMRC to fix the problem. There are two types of pension scheme. Under the first known as 'relief at source' pension contributions are deducted after tax is calculated. HMRC then sends tax relief back to the scheme at the basic rate of 20 per cent and this is added to all employees' savings. So, if someone who does not pay tax saved 80, they would actually get 100 paid into their pension pot. Higher-rate taxpayers must claim their extra 20 per cent tax relief back from HMRC in their tax return. Under the second scheme known as 'net pay' pension contributions are taken before tax. Individual savers then receive tax relief later, at whatever rate of tax they pay. This means that workers who do not pay tax miss out on the 20 per cent top-up they would have got if they had been part of the other type of pension scheme. Tax quirk: Glitch in the way some workplace schemes are run means many employees who do not earn enough to pay tax will not get pension top-up So, for example, they will not get the 20 top-up on their 80 contribution. And there is nothing they can do to claim this back. While some of the biggest workplace pensions, such as Nest and The People's Pension, run relief at source schemes, a fifth of workers who do not pay tax are enrolled in net pay schemes, according to HMRC's figures. Experts say that employers may choose net pay schemes as they have lower administration costs. At present, workers can earn up to 11,850 without paying any tax. And when the basic tax-free personal allowance rises to 12,500 next April, even more people will lose out because the number of workers who do not pay tax will increase. It is estimated that those affected will be left around 64 a year out of pocket 78 million in total. Steve Webb, the former pensions minister and director of policy at Royal London, has accused HMRC of exposing workers predominantly women to a 'lottery' and called on the taxman to fix the problem, so that people do not lose out. He says: 'HMRC must be proactive. It is the Government's job to develop a system that works for everyone.' Troy Clutterbuck, chief executive of Now: Pensions, a workplace pension provider, says: 'It is not right that some low earners are missing out on a government topup simply due to the type of pension scheme they are in. 'Ministers urgently need to take action to address this inequality.' Anne Fairpo, chair of the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group, says that non-taxpaying workers have been hit with a 'triple whammy'. Ministers are taking no action to correct the tax disadvantage; more people will be affected by it; and when employee auto-enrolment contributions increase from 3 per cent to 5 per cent next April, it will have a bigger impact, says Miss Fairpo. She adds: 'The Government is now saying that this is in the hands of employers to do something about. 'But we understand that most employers are choosing pension schemes blind to the net pay problem and there is no specific outreach or educational work being done by the authorities to counter this.' A spokesman for HMRC says: 'To date, it has not been possible to identify any straightforward or proportionate way to align the tax relief available under net pay and relief at source.' s.partington@dailymail.co.uk Vivint Solar, Inc. provides distributed solar energy primarily to residential customers in the United States. It owns and installs solar energy systems through long-term customer contracts. The company also sells photovoltaic installation products, as well as solar renewable energy certificates. As of December 31, 2019, it had an aggregate capacity of 1,294.0 megawatts covering approximately 188,300 homes. The company was formerly known as V Solar Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to Vivint Solar, Inc. in April 2014. Vivint Solar, Inc. was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Lehi, Utah. Read More John Hancock Investors Trust is a closed-ended fixed income mutual fund launched and managed by John Hancock Investment Management LLC. It is co-managed by John Hancock Asset Management. It invests in the fixed income markets across the globe. The fund primarily invests in a diversified portfolio of corporate and government bonds, debt securities. It benchmarks the performance of its portfolio against the Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Bond Index. John Hancock Investors Trust was formed on January 29, 1971 and is domiciled in the United States. Read More Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V., together with its subsidiaries, designs, engineers, manufactures, distributes, and sells vehicles, components, and production systems. The company operates through five segments: North America, LATAM, APAC, EMEA, and Maserati. It provides passenger cars, SUV vehicles, trucks, and light commercial vehicles under the Jeep, Ram, Dodge, Chrysler, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, and Abarth brands; and luxury vehicles under the Maserati brand, as well as related service parts and accessories, and service contracts under the Mopar brand. The company also provides cast iron components for engines, gearboxes, transmissions and suspension systems, aluminum cylinder heads, and engine blocks under the Teksid brand; and designs and produces industrial automation systems and related products for the automotive industry under the Comau brand name. In addition, it provides retail and dealer financings, and leasing and rental services; and factoring services. The company sells its products directly, or through distributors and dealers in approximately 130 countries. The company was formerly known as Fiat S.p.A. and changed its name to Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. in October 2014. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. was founded in 1899 and is based in London, the United Kingdom. Read More Great Lakes Graphite Inc., doing business as NovoCarbon Corporation, engages in the acquisition and exploration of mineral properties in Canada. It holds a 100% interest in the Lochaber graphite project, which includes 45 claims covering 2,649 hectares located in the Buckingham Graphite region in Outaouais/Gatineau, Quebec. The company was formerly known as Shield Gold Inc. and changed its name to Great Lakes Graphite Inc. in May 2014. Great Lakes Graphite Inc. is based in Toronto, Canada. Read More TCF Financial Corporation operates as the financial holding company for TCF National Bank that provides various financial products and services in the United States and Canada. It operates through Consumer Banking, Commercial Banking, and Enterprise Services segments. The company offers checking, savings, and money market accounts; certificates of deposit; individual retirement accounts; debit and credit cards; and check cashing and remittance services. It also provides investment management and custodial services, trust services, financial and estate planning, and retirement planning and employee benefit programs; residential, consumer, and small business lending products; and consumer real estate secured lending, consumer loans, loans secured by personal property, and unsecured personal loans. In addition, the company offers loans and lines of credit, deposits, cash management, capital market products, international trade finance, letters of credit, foreign exchange management services, and loan syndication services. Further, it provides commercial and industrial, commercial real estate banking, and lease financing; and treasury services comprising investment and borrowing portfolios, as well as manages capital, debt, and market risks. As of December 31, 2020, the company operated 478 branches, including 373 traditional branches, 102 supermarket branches, and three campus branches located in Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, Colorado, Ohio, Wisconsin, Arizona, and South Dakota; and 1,062 ATMs. TCF Financial Corporation was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Detroit, Michigan. Read More